#and this completes the trifecta of characters i was really really hoping people would ask. thank you so much lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rosesloveletters · 2 years

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i’ve sent you an ask before about frankie and johnny lol but i just wanted to say i love your side of tumblr!! your blog and the ones you interact with just genuinely feel like safe places to me. the f/o community just seems so sweet :,)

i love the concept of f/os but idk how to actually “do it” if that makes sense. there are too many characters i like! a lot of them are like bit parts too or really irrelevant🥲 idk, maybe it’s my own crippling self loathing that makes it impossible for me to imagine myself in a romantic situation? i mean i used to do them in my head all the time, i could maladaptive daydream scenarios with my favorite characters to fall asleep, but now it’s like i “lost” the ability :( i struggle to envision anything or think creatively now at all especially involving anything romantic or myself.

anyway idk what the point of this is but i hope you’re well, thank you for making your blog so warm and inviting. i check it every day!💌

and aaahhhh i still really wanna watch scarecrow. i have literally no idea what it’s about but if i watch it it would complete my pacino 70s trifecta lol — dog day afternoon, bobby deerfield, the panic in needle park. although scarface is one of my all time favorite movies he’s done, hard to beat. i only saw bobby deerfield in polish which i don’t speak which probably didn’t help💀

anyways i’ll shut up now and stop clogging your time. i feel like there’s a very weird cliquey toxic mean girl vibe to a lot of pacino/filmblr spaces and like been there, done that, so it’s very nice to just see someone who is lovely and kind and positive versus actively shitting on others.

you have earned … queen status💌

thank you for making a difference!

hi, darling!! sorry for letting this ask sit for a while. it's been a rather busy/hectic week for me and I wanted to wait on answering you so that I could give you my proper and full attention. I'm going to break it down into parts so that I can answer everything you've sent me.

I remember the ask you sent me about frankie and johnny! thank you so very much, darling, I try to curate my blog so that it is as comforting and safe as possible. I want my online experience to be as stress free and happy as it can be and I want others who visit my blog to have the same experience while they're viewing it. I love everyone I communicate/interact with on here; they're all amazing, beautiful people inside and out and I'm lucky to be a part of such a beautiful community. that being said, the chill side of the Pacino fanbase has welcomed me with open arms and I'm forever grateful to all of them for that because usually that doesn't happen for me as fluidly as it did when I discovered Al's work and decided to blog mostly for him.

self shipping is such a rewarding experience!

"i love the concept of f/os but idk how to actually “do it” if that makes sense. there are too many characters i like! a lot of them are like bit parts too or really irrelevant."

the beauty of self shipping is that there is no right or wrong way to do it! you can have as many f/os as you want and they can fulfill any dynamic you would like to have with them (romantic, platonic, familial, etc.) I have all three types, though I don't list the platonic ones on my blog. I also have what I call "switch" or "swing" f/os that do not have a set dynamic because they can/do fulfill more than one (i.e. they can either be platonic or romantic.) the majority of mine are very unknown/unpopular characters as well; the idea behind picking f/os is that they are important to you. I have f/os that no one else does or has ever heard of (probably) and that's okay. I find that I end up liking that better because it feels so much more personal to me.

characters like that tend to present themselves to us and for one reason or another, we feel drawn to or connected with them beyond just liking the character or finding comfort in their films. f/os have a much stronger "vibe" than that for me and maybe that's the case for you too!I'll try to share a bit about my experiences so that you can have a baseline to perhaps determine what it might mean for you, so that you can build your own ideas and experiences!

"idk, maybe it’s my own crippling self loathing that makes it impossible for me to imagine myself in a romantic situation? i mean i used to do them in my head all the time, i could maladaptive daydream scenarios with my favorite characters to fall asleep, but now it’s like i “lost” the ability :( i struggle to envision anything or think creatively now at all especially involving anything romantic or myself."

I am so sorry that you have felt this way about yourself, darling. No one deserves to feel such strong hatred for themselves; self shipping is actually a great way to develop a stronger self-love and improve those negative thoughts by replacing them with positive ones! It was difficult for me at first, but I've been self-shipping since I was very young and most of it was internalized until I discovered there was a public community for it a couple years ago. I went through this same experience you are describing here and it feels indescribably upsetting to feel like you've lost the ability to imagine or daydream scenarios of your favorites. there can be any number of reasons why you may be going through something like this. I lost mine for a long while after a bullying incident and stress/trauma from the situation. perhaps yours might be due to some kind of stress, environmental change, if there's something on your mind, etc. even getting too "in your head" about it can upset your ability to connect with your f/os or imagine scenarios like that; if you think to yourself "I can't do this" then it naturally becomes more difficult to do because of telling yourself that it isn't possible.

Even if you can't come up with scenarios, there are plenty of other great ways to connect with f/os or enjoy time with your favorite characters. here are some of the things I do that might help you:

write stories or make headcanons

watch their source material if your f/o is from a movie or tv series

if they're from a book, read the book

is there a film script available for your f/o's movie? if so, try reading the script!

make Pinterest boards full of pictures that remind you of them

make a playlist of songs that make you think of them or songs that somehow relate to the storyline they fulfill in your relationship dynamic

write poetry about them

make a YouTube playlist of scenes from their movie/film so you can have your favorite scenes at your fingertips

"anyway idk what the point of this is but i hope you’re well, thank you for making your blog so warm and inviting. i check it every day!"

I am doing well, dear, thank you so so much! I do the best that I can to make my blog a pleasant space for everyone. that is legit one of the sweetest things ever thank you for checking my blog so consistently omgggg I didn't realize very many people noticed me.

PLEASE PLEASE WATCH SCARECROW AAAAAA it's ✨amazing✨ and I recommend it to everyone because it is such a beautiful story with gorgeous imagery and stunning metaphors and symbolism and ugh it's so so beautiful I ugly cry over it all the time😭😭😭 It reminds me of a John Steinbeck novel, if you've ever read or heard of his work. oh my goodness his 70s films are incredible, aren't they? Dog day afternoon is one of my favorites and it's definitely a comfort film. did you like dog day afternoon? I have not seen bobby deerfield or the panic in needle park yet because I can't figure out how/where to watch them (I need to look into that some more) but how did you like them? I've heard good things about the panic in needle park but some people have said bobby deerfield is very boring, so I don't know... omg you saw it in polish? oh wow that is understandable though if you don't speak the language there's probably a lot that could be missed. scarface is such a brilliant film and I love that it is also one of your favorites! it is difficult to beat that one, although I would say I love scarecrow as much as scarface, but in different ways/for different reasons if that makes sense. I am happy to say that Tony is a f/o of mine and I love him very, very much!

"anyways i’ll shut up now and stop clogging your time. i feel like there’s a very weird cliquey toxic mean girl vibe to a lot of pacino/filmblr spaces and like been there, done that, so it’s very nice to just see someone who is lovely and kind and positive versus actively shitting on others.

you have earned … queen status💌

thank you for making a difference!"

oh no, darling, you are not clogging up my time at all! I am honored that you felt compelled to message me like this and wanted to speak so personally with me. Thank you for giving your time to me in this way. I have noticed the very same thing and there are certain pacino blogs I refuse to interact with because of that same feeling. I can assure you that I am just a simple girl with a laptop who is Viking in her own little circle and enjoying Pacino for all of the glorious characters he has given us over the years. I am so happy to be here and to be a part of what feels like a very loving, devoted community of people who feel the same ways as us. You are so very sweet and kind, thank you for being amazing and chatting with me about all of this! I'm sorry I gave you such a lengthy response, but I felt like your message deserved as much of my attention as I could give you and I genuinely had such a blast writing to you!!

thank YOU for being an incredible soul and a joy to chat with about f/os & our lovely Pacino guy💖💖

please take good care of yourself and have a great Pacino Saturday weekend! sending you good vibes and all my love💖

#💌 anon #💌#this was such a kind message I'm still reeling from it all😭#thank you for making my day you beautiful soul

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dreamcatcherfication · 4 years

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If I Say I’m Fine Enough Then I’ll Believe It

@nightingale6374 I’m back on my bullshit. (Okay but I named this fic a while ago, so does it really count???)

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Anne angst. You guys really love Anne angst, I’m starting to learn. This was a mix of two prompts that just went too well together for me to resist. You can check them both out here, but the basic summary was that Anne has a heart attack onstage and the queens and audience witness it. I did a little research on heart attacks, but I can’t promise this is completely accurate. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this one shot! Sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors, there are a thousand pigeons attacking me right now.

Writing Masterpost

If you want to send a request or a prompt, my inbox is always open! I publish a story at 8:00 AM PST everyday, so I’m always in need of new ideas. If you want to be tagged in my works, just let me know and I’ll be sure to tag you!

Prompts | More Prompts | The Trifecta of Prompts | Original Prompts

Trigger Warnings: Heart attacks, general anxiety, mentions of beheading

Anne was fine.

Perfectly, A-okay, stable, and healthy. Fine.

The tightness in her chest wasn’t enough to stop her from performing, Anne kept assuring herself. All day Anne had been off, her chest feeling like something was crushing down on it, making it almost impossible to breathe. But she was on for the show tonight, and Anne refused to be stopped by some chest ache that probably meant nothing.

Joining the other queens for places, Anne adjusted her in-ear and stood in her position. Soon enough the ladies would start playing Greensleeves and she would put on her show persona. Jane shot her a glance and smiled. “You ready?” she gently asked.

Shrugging, Anne showed her teeth in a semblance of a grin. “Yup, never better.” If Jane noticed Anne’s strange behavior, she didn’t comment.

Anxiously tapping her foot, Anne watched the ladies in waiting, begging for them to start the intro. Sure enough, the opening notes played and Anne sighed with relief. The tightness seemed to be fading as her body numbed slightly. She could make it through the show like this. It was only just over an hour, Anne could make it.

Entering the stage, Anne put up her mask. Her back was to the audience, thankfully, or they might have seen the grey ashiness that was taking over her face. Listening to the music start up was almost surreal for Anne. It felt like a faded melody in the back of her mind, and her body was only going through the motions of performing. She couldn’t even believe her body was keeping up with all the other queens as they moved around at what looked like the speed of light.

Her lines must have been lackluster, because the other queens started shooting her strange looks as they introduced the ladies. The audience wouldn’t be able to see it, but there was concern in Kat and Aragon’s eyes as they noticed the way Anne’s words seemed forced out. Cathy and Anna shared a look across the stage, but they kept silent. Jane furrowed her eyebrows at Joan, but the pianist could only mouth I don’t know lest Anne hear her through the in-ears.

No Way seemed to pass quickly, the dance moving by in a blur for Anne. She was starting to grow nauseous, the tightness of her chest spreading to her limbs and her jaw. It would be incredibly hard to sing, she noted, but still pressed on. Her whole little intro went off without a hitch, Anne throwing in an extra high giggle in order to convince the audience that she was better than ever. Standing up, Anne stumbled on her feet but quickly recovered.

Singing the opening lyrics to her song, Anne went over the top, probably appearing like an overexcited teenage girl to the audience. But Anne knew if she let even a little bit of her facade slip, she would go tumbling down.

Making her way over to the side of the stage, Anne turned to look at her fellow queens. She almost cut off her song in the middle of the second verse when she saw their concerned faces. Why were they looking at her like that? Was something wrong? Ignoring it, Anne moved to center stage, her body slow and barely keeping up with the tempo. Her voice was cracking between syllables, and clearly people were starting to notice. “Anne?” she heard Joan in her ear.

“Sorry not sorry -” Anne managed to get out before her body seized up and she collapsed, limp on the floor.

Immediately, Kat shrieked, dropping her character and rushing to her cousin’s side. The audience had gone completely silent, unsure of what was happening. Microphone discarded, Kat started to shake Anne. “Anne? Annie? What happened? Why aren’t you saying anything?” The poor girl was terrified, watching her cousin’s blank, empty face.

For a moment, there was stillness throughout the entire theatre as Kat leaned over her unconscious cousin, eyes filled with tears. Then everyone sprung into action, all reacting at once. The four other queens scrambled over to Anne’s body, trying to see if they could get a response. Anna put a hand on Kat’s shoulder and tried to pull her backwards softly, trying to offer support for the worried teen. Jane was instantly at Anne’s other side, examining her face. Aragon and Cathy were standing over Anne together, not wanting to get too close and invade the girl’s personal space.

The audience was reacting terribly, having not expected something so unbelievable to occur. Many of the guests towards the back were trying to get out of the theatre, not knowing what had happened other than a performer seemed dead. A handful of the audience has pulled their phones out and were recording, documenting the events as they unfolded. But the majority of the audience was talking frantically as they watched the queens for any sign of what to do.

The ladies in waiting were the real saviors. Maggie ripped off her guitar and scrambled towards one of the audience members, asking, “Can I use your phone?” Maria and Joan scrambled backstage to look for anything to help Anne while Bessie moved to join Maggie and crowd control. The person Maggie was talking to fumbled for their phone, getting it out and handing it over to the lady. Maggie quickly dialled 999 and waited for a responder to pick up.

Kat had fallen backwards into Anna, gripping her arm. The older queen was holding her friend tight against her chest, making sure she had someone to hold onto. Maria and Joan returned with a couch pillow that they slipped under Anne’s head to better support her. Kat mumbled something, but Anna couldn’t make it out over the cacophony of sound the audience was making. “Say that again,” she rubbed Kat’s shoulder, trying to make the girl feel safe.

“Is Anne going to be alright?” Kat mumbled, slightly louder this time.

Anna didn’t want to make a promise she couldn’t keep, so she told Kat the truth. “Honestly, I don’t know. But Anne’s a fighter, and whatever it is, she won’t go down easy.”

Kat nodded and sunk further into Anna’s arms. Her eyes never left Anne’s prone form, but her breathing slowed down, if only by a little bit.

On the other hand, Jane was very much still freaking out. Cathy had migrated over to her side and Aragon was talking with Maria and Joan by Anne’s head. “Why did we let her go on?” Jane’s face was turning white like Anne’s ashen one. “We should have noticed something -”

“But we didn’t,” Cathy cut her off. “What Anne needs right now isn’t regrets, okay? She needs you to be strong and ready to help her when she needs it.”

“I can do that,” Jane glanced at Cathy. “We can do that.”

“Yes we can,” Cathy agreed, taking Jane’s shaky hand in hers. It was only a small source of comfort, but it worked in the moment. “Things will be fine.”

Aragon couldn’t help but overhear Cathy and Jane. She sighed, itching at her big costume. It wasn’t the ideal clothes for a moment like this, but that wasn’t something she would complain about. None of this was ideal, but it was reality and Aragon had to wake up and face it. “Maggie’s already called an ambulance, they’ll be here any moment,” Maria told her friend.

Watching Anne out of the corner of her eye, Aragon prayed the ambulance was about to enter the theatre doors. “What if it’s already too late?” Fear was starting to creep into Aragon’s body, swallowing her with it’s black, unforgiving jaws.

“It’s not,” Bessie promised, “It can’t be too late.”

“But what if -”

“What if’s mean nothing Catherine,” Bessie explained. “The ambulance is almost here and that’s what you can rely on.”

As the words came out of Bessie’s mouth, the theatre doors slammed open, EMTs rushing down the aisle and up onto the stage. They shooed the queens away from Anne, picking her up with ease and setting her on a stretcher. In the blink of an eye they were gone, rushing back out of the theatre with Anne in tow.

Shooting out of Anna’s arms, Kat gasped, “We have to follow her, go to the hospital!”

“Kat, we’re in our costumes in a theatre full of confused people -” Aragon tried to say.

“We can handle the crowd,” Joan took Kat’s side. “You get changed and head to the hospital where Anne is.”

That was all Kat needed to bolt offstage and up to her dressing room. The queens thanked the ladies and stood up, following Kat to get out of their costumes. Once they were offstage, the ladies turned their attention to the clamoring audience. Maria picked up a discarded microphone and tapped it. “Everyone!” she called for attention. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I wish I could tell you that we know what happened, but the truth is we don’t. If you could please give us all some privacy while we deal with this, it would be greatly appreciated.” Before the audience could respond, the ladies turned off the microphones and prepared themselves for the onslaught of questions they were about to face.

Thankfully, Aragon had decided to drive the group to the theatre earlier instead of taking public transport. All the queens piled into the car and drove in silence on the way to see Anne. There was a clear tension among them, no one having the answers they all so desperately wanted. It felt like hours before they finally reached the hospital, but Aragon pulled into a parking spot and they were free to rush to the front doors.

Kat made it first, followed closely behind by Jane and then the other queens. They entered the hospital and beelined for the nurse’s desk. The woman sitting at the desk looked up and smiled kindly. “How can I help you?” she asked.

“Anne Boleyn,” Cathy informed her, “she has to be recently admitted.”

Scanning her papers, the woman nodded. “It looks like she’s in intensive care currently, but I can send over a doctor to talk to you.” At her words, Kat recoiled, her arms wrapping around her body. The girl’s breathing sped up and she stumbled into Anna, pulling her friend close.

Keeping her composure as best as possible, Cathy nodded. “If you could, please.” The nurse pulled out a phone, but Cathy had turned her attention back to the other queens. They were all in different states of shock. Kat was on the verge of tears in Anna’s arms as the German queen scrunched her face together in order to hide her emotions. Aragon was staring at the ground, her body unresponsive. Jane was holding a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide and unseeing. And Cathy herself was doing everything possible to hold herself together in order to keep some form of control over the situation.

A moment later, a doctor emerged from the hallway next to the nurse’s desk. “Family of Anne Boleyn?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. The five queens nodded frantically, their distress clear as day. “Well I hate to tell you this,” the queens inhaled sharply, “But Miss Boleyn had a heart attack.”

“Wh-what?” Jane stuttered.

“How is that even possible? She’s young and fit,” Cathy furrowed her eyebrows, not convinced by the doctor’s answer.

The man put his hands up in defense. “We really don’t know what caused it, probably something genetic. There’s a lot we don’t know about you bunch, so we can’t say for sure. But one of her main arteries was severely blocked, so much so that she could have died.”

“Could… have?” Kat asked.

“Could have,” the doctor confirmed. “Miss Boleyn will be fine, and hopefully soon too. But right now, she needs her rest. We’re lucky we were even able to help her so quickly. I suggest coming back another time.”

There was a universal sigh of relief among the queens at the doctor’s confirmation. Even if they couldn’t see Anne, even if she wasn’t with them, she would be soon. “Can we come back tomorrow?” Anna questioned, pulling Kat closer to her.

Clicking his tongue, the doctor shook his head. “You can come check in, but you won’t be able to see her for a couple days. But I’ll make sure you’re all told when she wakes up.”

“Thank you,” Aragon’s smile was small, but genuine.

“Of course,” the doctor nodded and disappeared once again.

It had taken a couple days, but finally the queens would get to see Anne. It had been chaotic, trying to deal with all the videos that had surfaced of the girl’s accident and all the rumors that had popped up. The media didn’t quite understand that the queens and ladies wanted privacy as they tried to deal with the fallout of Anne’s heart attack.

But none of that mattered, because Anne was awake and they were going to see her. “Do you think she’ll be sick?” Kat asked, playing with the edge of her coat.

“Why would you think that?” Cathy replied as she opened the doors to the hospital.

“Well some symptoms of a heart attack are nausea and vomiting, so I thought maybe she might be feeling sick,” Kat explained.

Aragon patted Kat on the back. “I don’t think they’d let us see her if she was still sick. But there’s only one way to find out.”

The nurse at the front desk acknowledged the queens, remembering them from previous visits. She pointed down the hall, a small reminder of where Anne’s room was. This would be the first time they would actually get to see her and not pace around outside her door. “Moment of truth,” Anna psyched herself and the others up, putting a hand on the doorknob. Slowly, she pushed it open so they could see Anne on the other side.

There were plenty of machines and tubes surrounding Anne, but her face was no longer grey and her eyes had regained a familiar light. “Queens!” she gasped when she saw them. “You came.”

Kat rushed over to Anne’s side, but restrained herself from hugging her cousin. Instead, Kat slapped Anne’s hand lightly. Kat then gave a hmph and crossed her arms. “What was that for?” Anne frowned.

“You scared us,” Kat dropped her arms and leaned over Anne.

“We thought you were going to die,” Jane spoke up from across the room.

Turning her attention to Jane, Anne attempted to shift herself in the bed. “Jane,” she huffed as her hand almost slipped, “I wouldn’t have died. I’m Anne Boleyn. It takes a sword to the head to get rid of me, not a stupid heart problem.”

“But,” Aragon spoke up, “What if it gets bad again?” She internally cursed herself for going back to the what if’s.

It was surprising how Anne was the most laid back of them all. “I won’t let it. We won’t let it. So what if I have heart problems, apparently. Not doing anything isn’t going to fix it either, so I’m still gonna dance and sing. Sound good to you?”

Anna chuckled and put a hand on Anne’s shoulder. “Sounds great to me.”

And together, all the queens shared a genuine smile, relief washing over them like a calm wave. Anne hadn’t sung her last performance, and she hadn’t taken her last breath. And that was the important thing, they realized. Maybe Anne wasn’t on stage, singing her heart out. But Anne was fine.

Anne was fine.

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Tag List:

@radcowboyalmondtree @boleynhowards @annabanana2401 @babeebobo @dont-lose-your-queerhead @everything-insanity @mindless-pidgeon @i-wanna-dance-and-sing-six @thedemidisaster @its-totes-gods-will @thatbolxyngirl @thenameisnoone @sixqueendom

#six the musical fanfiction #six the musical fanfic #six the musical fic #six fanfiction #six fanfic #sixfic #anne boleyn #request #i don't know if this is accurate at all #yes i once again took the title from a song #specifically move on from we are the tigers #because that song slaps #but that's not the point #tried some circular structure this time #turned out meh #i hope i could do this justice #it's kind of a mish mosh of everything #a garbage fire on wheels

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spnfanficpond · 4 years

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May 2020 Angel Fish Awards

(New Angel Fish design by @slytherkins!!)

Every month all of you fantastic writers work your asses off to post some truly incredible stories. Our Angel Fish Awards are the way for all of us, as a community of writers and readers, to lift each other up and give praise to those who have captured our attention and deserve a few kind words.

The monthly Angel Fish Awards are peer-nominated, meaning ANYONE IN THE POND CAN NOMINATE ANY POND MEMBER’S FIC. While the Pond was founded to support the Guppies, everyone in this community deserves to be showered with love and feedback, and we hope that by opening this up as a Pond wide system, we’ll be able to share the love as far as it can go.

NOTE: WE’VE BEEN HAVING OCCASIONAL PROBLEMS WITH ASKS GOING MISSING. Please use the Submit button when submitting your nominations and make sure you’re signed into Tumblr or your URL won’t show. (If the form asks for your name and email address, then you’re not signed in.) If you like, you can also send a message to Michelle @mrswhozeewhatsis or Mana @manawhaat to check and make sure we got your submission.

Be sure to read through this whole post as people who were nominated more than once only had one tag activated for tumblr tagging purposes!

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE ARE MAY’S ANGEL FISH AWARDS!

Nominated by @focusonspn

A Night on the Town (oneshot) by @supernatural-jackles

I completely love this fic!! Jensen is a total sweetheart, it’s really easy to read and all those words felt like only five minutes. This is everything a Jensen!girl could’ve asked for!!

Hunger (oneshot) by @impala-dreamer

HOLY. MOTHER. OF. HOTNESS. It was a fucking pleasure for my eyes to read every single word of this fic!! hot as hell, dark, Demon!Dean and in character as always.

Nominated by @mrswhozeewhatsis

Handkerchief (oneshot) by @babypieandwhiskey

I don’t usually read RPF, but this is an AU, so I dove in. Mechanic!Jensen with a magical supply of handkerchiefs, ready and willing to clean up whatever mess I find myself in? SOLD. Sweet, appeals to my love of Jensen’s back-pocket bandannas, and it activates my competence kink! Excuse me while I go wibble in the corner.

Nominated by @supernatural-jackles

Still The One (oneshot) by @luci-in-trenchcoats

I have a lot of respect for the way Michelle writes such difficult topics. She approaches them with such grace and accuracy, that makes it all the more realistic. This series is no exception. I deeply enjoy this series and the way things are playing out between Dean and the reader. It’s an extremely heartbreaking story that most of us don’t really think about until it’s put into this kind of perspective. This one is still ongoing, and I’m extremely excited to see how she handles the rest of the story. I highly recommend checking this one out. Just heed the warnings beforehand.

Nominated by @peridottea91

Healthy Competition (Series) by @kittenofdoomage

This! Omg this series! I love it so much!! It’s slower moving but keeps you itching for the next chapter and is oh so relatable. What woman hasn’t had body image issues? And what plus sized woman hasn’t had to deal with rude jerks and bullying? This fic is actually super realistic and hits all those relatable issues. Can’t wait to read the rest!!

Dangerous Signs (Series) by @kittenofdoomage

Ok, let me start by saying that I am a sucker for a good “character transported to alt. universe/world” fic. That said, I got soooooooooo addicted to this fic! It was so well written and you could just feel the reader’s hesitation and torn emotions. Should she stay? Should go? Ugh! Fantastic!! Also, kudos for the Norse mythology!! *chef’s kiss*

Nominated by @thegirlwhorunswithwinchesters

Cotton Candy (oneshot) by @ellewritesfix05

“It was always nice knowing [...] you could always find ways to bring light into Dean’s life.”

And he damn well deserves it! This was so sweet. No one can resist that “I didn’t do it” smile of his ;)

The Oath (Series) by @thecleverdame

This series is definitely dark, but it’s so so good. If you’re okay with reading about the heavy subjects covered in these chapters, you won’t regret giving this series a try. I can’t seem to stop diving into all of this author’s content. She’s just too good.

Choices (CYOE) by @talesmaniac89

I’ve been excited about this impressive project since I first saw the announcement post. Though I’m ashamed to say I haven’t gotten into reading the full thing yet, I plan on making time for reading ALL the different endings. I’m excited to see the different ways in which the story plays out, depending on the brothers’ personalities. For now, I’m recommending this first chapter, the starting point, which was already a beauty of its own. If you haven’t started yet yourself, prepare to be amazed.

Not Safe (Oneshot) by @torn-and-frayed

I love this. Spicy but sweet… Is that a cringy enough way for me to try and put my thoughts into words? I also just really miss Bobby, man.

nominated by @impala-dreamer

Safe Here (series) by @because-imma-lady-assface

This is one of the greatest Dean series. Ashley writes Dean amazingly well, too well sometimes, and this series gives him exactly what he needs; a place to feel safe and find comfort. I love this one so much!

Losing You (series) by @idreamofhazel

This is a superbly done Sam series that has stuck with me for a long time. I literally can’t go into Bed, Bath & Beyond without thinking about the ending <3

nominated by @kittenofdoomage

Blind Luck (oneshot) by @crispychrissy

A great Sam x reader that hits the holy trifecta of smut, fluff, and angst.

Blood And Water (series) by @crashdevlin

Pretty sure I’ve recc’d this before but it’s such a good series, so twisted and angsty, my dark little heart loves it. Heed the warnings!

Just Sam (oneshot) by @dontshootmespence

This might not be everyone’s cup of tea but for me, it’s perfection, because I am a kinky bitch and any other kinky bitches out there would definitely enjoy this XD

nominated by @deanwanddamons

Private Party With A Rockstar (oneshot) by @mummybear

@mummybear Has been working her butt off this month for her RolePlay May. She wrote this story for me and put me in it (my name is Sian). Rockstar!Jensen is one of my weakness’s, and she knows that, and clearly knows me very well too, as included everything I like 😉

She’s Not You by @winchest09

@winchest09 is one of my fave authors. This is a super cute, super fluffy fic which really cheered me up.

Dangerous Signs (Series) by @kittenofdoomage

I LOVED this series. it was so good and lots of fun with some very sexy going’s on. Rhi’s work is just fantastic 💕

Wedding Bells (oneshot) by @katehuntington

This one shot is super cute and fluffy! I love her writing so much and this is not exception 💕

Not Much Left (oneshot) by @impala-dreamer

Demon!Dean is another of my weakness’s and fic really hit the spot 🥵🔥

Dear Dean (series) by @smol-and-grumpy

This series made me laugh, made me cry, made me horny and made me gasp. One of the best series I have read 💕

nominated by @emilyshurley

Jensen’s Self Care Routine (oneshot) - @luci-in-trenchcoats

It is just adorable. People taking care of themselves for their loved ones. You can’t get more fluffy.

The Proposal (series) - @katymacsupernatural (Ongoing)

If you love fake dating fics, you’ll definitely love this one. Really like the character of “the reader”.

Private Party with a Rockstar (oneshot) - @mummybear

This one is both hot and adorable at the same time

You shook me (oneshot) @myinconnelly1

It’s Myin writing Demon!Dean what more do you want? No seriously that’s the perfect combination

Dancing the Spiral (oneshot) by @myinconnelly1

One of the only times I genuinely felt like a fic was creepy in a good way. And the passing of the whole thing is great. Am I little biased because its Myin, yes but that doesn’t make the fic any less good. sure it’s on the longer side but definitely worth it.

The only exception (series) - @ne-gans and @negans-lucille-tblr

I have only read the first part so far but I had to mention it. It is a serial killer AU so read the trigger warnings just in case.

Make it Big (series)- @negans-lucille-tblr

Again I’m still catching up It’s one of those fics I thought I won’t like reading but was really glad that I started.

Cast no Shadow (series) @kittenofdoomage

It’s Rhi, I can fangirl a lot about her fics. Really enjoyed (?) (that might not be the right word) the whole fitting a new relationship in existing ones. Felt to real in a weird way. It might seem like I don’t like the fic because of how I’m wording this but that’s really not the case.

Nominated by @deanwinchesterswitch

Sunshine (oneshot) by @talesmaniac89

If you like angst, this is the fic for you. It is utterly captivating and heart wrenching. It’s a cut your heart out with a dull centuries-old wooden spoon style hurt. The use of the song lines in this fic is well thought out and poetic. Make sure to have a box of tissues handy. If you don’t at least tear up while reading this, then you don’t have a heart to cut out, and your soul is already in hell.

Choices (CYOE) by @talesmaniac89

A clever interactive series where you get to choose your favorite Winchester, and the ending of the story. This is so detailed and intriguing. I loved the story I ended up with the first time, and excitedly went back in to pick the other options. Each story was unique and well written.

Babe I’m Gonna Leave You (oneshot) by @waywardbaby

This one shot is an absolutely stunning piece of smut. The lack of dialogue makes it that much better. All you’re left with is the option to feel the detailed emotions—sexual tension to the max.

No Words (oneshot) by @because-imma-lady-assface

Beautiful, detailed, and heartbreaking. Dean’s pain and need for comfort are palpable, and I cried while reading it. I can’t find the proper words to describe how this fic made me feel, but man did it ever make me feel.

Sky Full of Stars (oneshot) by @smol-and-grumpy

This is the sequel to Something Just Like This and is just as exciting as the first series. A roller coaster of suspense. The characters continue on their journey of love, dealing with the good and bad that comes with every relationship—the perfect combination of angst and fluff with a healthy dose of smut.

Something Just Like This (oneshot) by @smol-and-grumpy

A perfect combination of big badass Dean and soft, fluffy Dean, along with all the incredible smut your little heart could desire. I usually don’t like to read a series until it is complete, because I am impatient and don’t want to wait for the next chapter to post. However, this story was intriguing and sexy, and I couldn’t keep from reading each chapter as soon as it posted and then eagerly anticipating the next.

Nominated by anon

Request 42 (oneshot) by @thegirlwhorunswithwinchesters

This was super-duper cute!! I love frustrated soon to be parents especially when one of those parents is Dean! Great work, well worth the read!

Just A Daydream (onesho) by @maddiepants

This fic is refreshing with its canon-ness! I love Sam's little dream, and you get so wrapped up in it, you forget. Absolutely masterful and HOT AS HELL! Also, Tall People, WTF?

Thank you all for the awesome work and great feedback!

These are not actual awards! This system is set up so everyone in the pond has a chance to share the love and promote a fic/author that has grabbed your attention. The more people that participate, and the more everyone remembers to submit their own fics after posting, the better this will be :D

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN, KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK, AND AS ALWAYS, HAPPY WRITING!

#afa masterlist #afas #angel fish awards #spn fic rec #spn fanfic

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dragonnan · 4 years

Photo

Everyone is encouraged to join!

FYI - yeah I know it’s actually Saturday... Didn’t feel like changing it though, lol!

Share links to fic, artwork, WIPs, whatever you want!

My works:

Link to my AO3

Link to my portfolio (which includes some fanart)

The work I thought it would be fun to share is an in-progress unpublished work that will likely take a while to put together. I was incredibly inspired by the brilliant writing of both @hanuko and silentsaebyeok who both have stories about Wilson Fisk. Here is my take on that character in an Avengers fic!

Untitled Fic

Setting: near the end of Homecoming and just prior to Tony reconciling with Pepper

AU of Daredevil season 2-3 (Karen didn't murder Wesley as Fisk's mother didn't remember her visit. She only remembered Ben)

Late afternoon sunlight had turned every pane of glass into a pool of gold. The patio doors of the tall office building had been left open – allowing the haze of late day warmth to coil upwards; carried on drafts of air heated from the concrete below. Rubber soles squeaked softly against marble that knew mainly Italian leather and the rare alligator hide. Two-hundred dollar sneakers were incongruous to the wealth of the man sporting them, but then, Tony Stark had never been a fan of the expected.

“So what wrong side of the bed did I wake up on this morning to earn this clandestine meeting before my Kai Jiew has had time to settle?” One hip resting on the edge of the railing, Tony managed to shudder back a yawn before it became embarrassing. Behind him, the familiar snap of a briefcase lock barely drew a glance as “Dilbert” pushed up his glasses and withdrew a thick file from the depths.

Further in the shadows, the larger man, silent, stood with his head at an oddly subdued angle. Often reticent in the blessedly few interactions Tony had ever had with the man, it was little surprise that it was his assistant who spoke.

“Apologies, Mr. Stark. I assure you this won't take long.”

The unstated request, of course, was that Tony sit at the table positioned within the large room. Tony raised an eyebrow. “You didn't say please.”

A smooth, tight lipped smile, followed his quip. Meanwhile, the still silent other member of their trifecta finally stepped forward – grasping one of the stuffed leather office chairs and rolling it back before seating himself. Wilson Fisk wove his hands together above propped elbows. “I appreciate your willingness to meet me so early, Anthony. I felt it best to speak with you privately given the... delicacy... of the issue at hand.” He gestured towards the single remaining chair.

Well that wasn't at all circumspect.

Returning the tight lipped smile in kind, Tony grabbed the chair facing the head of the table and sat; leaning back and settling his arms on the padded rests. “You know, usually I let Pepper handle SI business. Not sure if you got the memo but I'm not actually CEO any longer. How was prison, by the way? I heard the kitchen got a new chef.”

Ignoring the comment, Fisk tapped his thumbs together and kept a close study of the polished inlay before him. “That is something we share in common,” he looked up, then, finally, “I, too, find that most business affairs tend to be... tedious.” Fisk grinned, a flash of small, even, teeth, before he nodded towards his assistant... Wilbur? Weston? “Mr. Wesley, if you would please?” He turned back to Tony – also leaning back and resting his thick hands over his thicker waist. “I can assure you, however, that what we're here to discuss is a matter that falls somewhat outside the purview of Stark Industries.”

While his employer spoke, Wesley neatly stacked the pages of the file before sliding the bundle across the polished tabletop to Tony. Eager to just get everything done with, Tony pressed his hand flat on the cover to slide it close, flipped it back... and froze.

Across from him, Fisk continued speaking. “I have found that I have an over-abundance of pressure on me as I attempt to rebuild was was lost during my incarceration. Aside from the judgement of the good people of this city I also have faced an ongoing assault from a number of vigilantes. This city, for all of its potential, has the unfortunate side effect of breeding these... vermin... faster than the rats that inhabit the sewers. As it is they are beneath the notice of those who claim to protect the people of this city.” His hands stilled – lying one on top of the other as Tony silently turned to the next page. “Too busy protecting the rest of the world, perhaps.”

Tony made himself turn to the next page; his eyes blinking rapidly.

“Of course it isn't in my nature to harm innocents. I find it distasteful to involve women and children in such matters. And, yet, I find that it is, in fact, a child at the center of my current dilemma. Of greater irony is that this child has both power and connections that would, under normal circumstances, place him outside the reach of those who would wish him harm.”

The forth page was a photo – clipped from a newspaper and a duplicate to the framed image that sat on the worktable in Tony's lab. In the grainy image he stood, one arm slung around a young man's shoulders, as the kid received his certification for completing the “Stark Internship”. Tony licked his tongue across his teeth before closing the file once more.

Fisk let out a soft hum. “As it is, prison has a way of creating strange bedfellows. I met someone – a man you may know. Adrian Toomes. After some persuasion he had something very interesting to share with me. Something that, I can only imagine, you would wish to keep out of the hands of certain individuals.”

Tony wanted to clench his hands – his fingertips twitching before he pushed them flat against the wood beneath them. “Just to clarify you're threatening my intern?”

Fisk leaned forward; hands folding tight before him on the table. “I was hoping we wouldn't have to play any games but given your refusal to read the rest of the documents Mr. Wesley provided, I will summarize them for you.” Here he stood; walking to the open doors facing the patio. “I know who Peter Parker really is. I know about his aunt. I know the names of his friends, where he goes to school, and where he buys his favorite sandwich every afternoon.” He rested his hands behind his back; squinting in the sunlight. “If he continues to disrupt my affairs in Hell's Kitchen, the consequences could be... unpleasant.” He glanced back at Tony; his face serene. “You realize I'm asking for very little. Keep your new pet leashed and allow me to conduct my business in peace. The child will never have to know my name. Other than what he may learn from news reports; of course.” Tugging his cuffs, Fisk turned to more fully face into the room. “I never wanted to involve you. This is the sort of attention I have spent a fortune to avoid. As it is I find myself in a position where reticence could cost me even more.”

Pushing to his feet, Tony could no longer stop his hands from fisting at his sides – though he managed to control the tremor as he joined Fisk. Side by side, the other man practically loomed over him.

“So you aren't just threatening a kid – you're threatening everyone he cares about. Little bit budget TV villain but you do you I guess.” Pulling off his tinted glasses, he stared up at the other man. “The thing is this little weekly drama you're playing?” he waggled his fingers back and forth, “way above your pay grade. Maybe stick to collecting on gambling debts and playing whack-a-mole with the other lowlifes in your contacts list.”

The smallest of smiles twitched at the corner of Fisk's lips. “I know you're someone who prefers visual aids,” his voice became guttural – losing the soft quality, “perhaps a demonstration would help to convince you.”

A glance to the side, the barest nod to Wesley, and the other man typed into his phone.

There was a moment – silence this far above the city.

And then an apartment complex, three blocks away, exploded into flame.

Horrified, Tony gave Fisk a single look, seeing the purpose in that cold gaze, before twisting the dial on his watch and backing up just enough to turn and take a running leap. One foot caught on the railing and with a surge of his muscles, he launched himself out into open space.

Terrifying free fall – the ground racing towards him at breakneck speed.

And then smooth metal wrapped his body and he shot towards the blaze.

:Cutting things a little bit tight, aren't we, Boss?:

“No time to chat, Fri. Emergency response status?” He twisted his body into an angle as the building grew large in his visor – too few residents stumbling free out onto the pavement.

:Fire and Rescue are three minutes away:

“Shit.” Aiming for a top floor window that had been blasted out with the explosion, Tony shot through the opening and made a quick scan of the room. He winced at the sudden burst of heat that briefly enveloped his suit. “Anyone on this level?”

He almost swore he could hear his AI sighing. :Apologies, Boss. I am unable to differentiate life signs from the ambient temperature. Also the heat is steadily rising and will soon be at levels exceeding this suit's tolerances.:

Ignoring the warning, Tony finished his check of the room and moved on to the next apartment. “Yeah, let's put a pin in that. Adjust audio input and scan for human voices.”

In the second apartment he found a single person – deceased. Same for the next two. In the forth apartment there were two dead but he also found a child – burned and terrified but alive – buried beneath the blankets in her parent's closet. Tony kept her wrapped to protect against the flames and rushed her to the sidewalk and into the arms of one of the firemen who had just arrived on scene.

“Explosion – multiple charges – there's still people...” He coughed at the black smoke boiling from the ruined building and dropped his visor back into place before returning inside.

Even with the protection of his suit the heat was breathtaking. There were no more survivors on the top floor so Tony proceeded to the next level down.

:I'm detecting instability in the surrounding structure.:

“We got three apartments left on this floor. Stop listening to the walls and keep listening for voices!”

The next sign of life he found, however wasn't a human but a howling dog still locked in its kennel. Tucking the kennel under one arm, Tony finished his search of that floor – finding three additional people and four more pets. With everyone holding their respective creatures he didn't risk another flight but, instead, soaked several blankets in a shower and guided them to a stairwell FRIDAY had located that was still relatively flame free. Then, turning back to his task he set out to locate more survivors.

Another five minutes in – fire and rescue now dousing the building as fireman began going door to door on the bottom two floors, Tony took the last one remaining.

It was then that disaster struck.

He'd just entered the first apartment – already racing towards the elderly man collapsed on the floor when there was a sudden burst of flames across the ceiling above – overlaid by a warning from FRIDAY.

:Boss, there is a weakening of the...:

“Shit!” His heartbeat was a drum in his ears as hooked a thick blanket from the ratty chair in the living room – slow motion tornados of smoke lifting up from the surrounding dry surfaces. Propulsion would actually take longer – factoring in the time to slow his speed before reaching the man. It was a fast paced eternity bolting across the ancient carpet. The blanket billowed out ahead of him and cloaked the man just moments before he wrapped arms around him – knowing that even inside the blanket he was burning the old man with the super heated surface of his suit.

He managed two steps to the window.

And then the world shattered in a concussive blast.

#fanfic #Self Promotion

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sicklyscribe · 4 years

Note

hey so if you wanna hit me with that sweet sweet elijah’s characterization meta anytime please feel free. or direct me to any previous posts because my dumb ass is using this time to re-obsess over vampire melodrama.....

It appears that most of my non-tag and non-petty-casual commentary is still in drafts... so instead of finishing the ‘What the hell is wrong with season 4: an itemized list’ meta and finishing answering the ‘What would you change if you could rewrite any of the show?’ ask from a while ago, I’ll just pick out the Elijah bits and add on to them for garnish. (Those posts might exist at some point. But honestly not soon enough for me to worry about people getting annoyed with copy/paste so PREVIEW TIME: ELIJAH FLAVOR)

This is way sloppier and un-cited than I usually meta, by the way, but what the hell, The Fandom is Dead and I Only Have Friends to Entertain Now, so if anyone gets angry and tries to step into my asks then it’ll just be nostalgic rather than annoying. Here’s the starter, which is from the F*CK YOU SEASON 4 meta and quite a few of these points will be repeated later because you asked for it technically so.

The cracks in the narrative began to show as early as season two, and believe me when I say I’m not saying this because I love him - it began with Elijah. I can make a lot of arguments to this effect, but the only one that I am certain is not propelled by my very strong bias concerns the presentation of the Red Door.

Initially, I was ecstatic at the opportunity to explore Elijah’s past, his perspective, his darkest moments. I was a bit wary in that it seemed as though the narrative wanted to Explain Everything about Elijah through this device, but he was finally getting some attention so I tried to hold back judgement.The result was pretty promising. One of the most gorgeous moments on the show occurs when Klaus enters Elijah’s mind and tells him how much he needs him. It showcases the main pillar of the show - the structural trifecta of Hope, Klaus, and Elijah. And afterwards, as usual, Elijah pushes the experience away.Until it’s convenient.

Elijah begins to be erratically vicious. At first, I felt as though it wasn’t handled poorly, I could explain away my worries easily, and that was all I needed. But it happens over, and over, and over again, with the same excuse - protecting the family, protecting Hope. Elijah’s triggers, once so crucial, begin to break down, but we don’t see why or how that process occurs. He begins to be the character that is level-headed when it is convenient, and a violent one-track-mind when it’s convenient. Eventually, in order to maintain balanced tension with a softening Klaus, Elijah became violent without nuance in every situation. His continued development is no longer possible, since his character no longer displays depth.

Which is annoying, as a fan. But as a person who loves to analyze narrative, it’s a huge red flag. Elijah is necessary for this story. His love for Klaus, and Klaus’ relationship with him, is one of the things that holds the narrative together as it goes forward. The two of them need each other in order to experience growth, but cannot grow from each other any longer - and that friction is what provides energy and substance that can help drive a multi-year melodrama. This is why I mentioned above that Elijah’s violence was likely intended to balance with Klaus’ changing heart - but there is no balance in the level of development the two brothers experience. It has been shoddy in many places, but attention has been given to Klaus’ journey towards peace and kindness, while Elijah has been given a single metaphor, a single psychosis, and is expected to carry half of the narrative weight. The story has no choice but to make a plot device out of him - he simply does not have the required depth to be anything else, which is made obvious by the attempt to do so in the ritual to bring Inadu to the material plane, which I will discuss later.

When his development is ignored, when he is used as a tool to get from point A to point B time and time again - that’s when the pillar starts to crumble.

Zooming back in on s1, this was actually my only major structural gripe with season 1, so it comprises the entirety of the ‘what would you change’ for that season:

The poison that rotted the whole dang show started very small — casting Elijah too strongly as a white hat, to offset the darkness of the rest of the main family. This was the right move, of course, but it was pushed a twinge too far and it was the tiny weight that set everything wobbling. As an offshoot of that, this was also done with Hayley to a degree. I would have had them bond very similarly to the way they do in the show, but I would have had them connect at least once over the skeletons in their closets. (Only once or twice, again, since their ship relied in this season on the fallacy of each other being saviors). In fact, this was one I felt so strongly about that I actually did rewrite their scene in 1x07 ‘Bloodletting’.

Then season two when it gets more pronounced:

The rift in the show widened with the swing-and-miss that was The Red Door arc. Elijah became a Problem when it was convenient for the plot and A Fixer/Sounding Board when it was not. They used probably the most INTERESTING and INTEGRAL part of his characterization -- which had been a mystery for YEARS counting The Vampire Diaries appearances -- and Elijah discovering that either from trauma or his mother’s magic, he has repressed the moments which forged him. This lack of knowledge, this lack of control, should have been something much more cataclysmic and its effects should be clear when comparing ‘Elijah Before’ to ‘Elijah After’. Instead, it kind of served to take off Elijah’s ‘White Hat’ that he’d been illy-fitted with in S1, and allow him to accessorize with it or whatever version of Elijah fits the episode at hand.

This tension, and this chaos should have been much stronger and much more messy than simply putting the Suit back on and being Pretty Much Okay (barring one plot-insignificant diner massacre) only a few episodes later. It would make the therapy scene later with Camille even more gorgeous than it already is and it would then place Elijah’s moment of catharsis, and the beginning of his attempts to move on, with Klaus’ monumental forgiveness in 2x11. I think this is what was intended, but it was not at all achieved, because Elijah is such a tricky character to write, and it is so very easy to use him for whatever the scene requires. Because of this, Elijah’s struggles got dropped just long enough for Klaus’ forgiveness to hit powerfully in viewers for Klaus, but not for Elijah. The writing began to lean on Elijah as a Drama Everyman more and more throughout the show, and it’s just tragic to me that The Red Door wasn’t utilized to its potential. (And that we didn’t have a Klaus/Tatia conversation, but hey, I have an unfinished fixit for that whole saga on Ao3, you’re welcome and I’m sorry).

In season three, we got a few good glimpses of the kind of complexity that Elijah should live in -- the way he kills Arianne, for example, I’ve linked what I called a ‘headcanon’ but in retrospect it was pretty explicitly canon -- and we see the youth and terror and involuntary power in him in the flashback where he discovers that Klaus killed their mother. But the relationship between Tristan and Elijah? The man that he made, and that made him? That was far too pedestrian to have produced either of them. If Elijah learned ‘nobility’ from Tristan, learned what ‘superiority’ looked like, and this was the time that he began to change... we should have had words between them, or a scene highlighting just them, at least once in the flashbacks.

If this season was supposed to be about the creation of the Trinity, the First Children (because Finn didn’t tell no one that Sage is actually the oldest ‘cuz he’s an ashamed little bitch) why did we see only TWO of the THREE transformations? Klaus turned Lucien accidentally, trying to heal him. Rebekah’s sympathy and love were used as Aurora’s tool to turn herself. When and how did Elijah turn Tristan? It is explained that Elijah turned him in order to create a third vampire for his plot to trick Mikael into chasing them instead -- it is explained that Tristan, Aurora, and Lucien were compelled to believe that they were in fact Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus in order to make their decoy impeccable. But when this compulsion was shattered -- when Lucien learned that he had been used and made monstrous as a tool for a monster who wasn’t even noble -- did he confront Elijah? Did they ever speak, or was their next meeting the day Elijah learned that Tristan had taken over Elijah’s coven? I would argue that Elijah needed equal weight in the France flashbacks even though he didn’t have a flashy romance (though if early press release rumors were true, he and Tristan could have had one and that would have been perfect)

Season four is really where you can pick an episode and Elijah will put on the stage makeup and play any part. It’s also -- BIG COINCIDENCE -- where the plot deteriorates completely. Here’s just one example from my Excuse You What the Hell? Season Four meta:

On to the next moment that showed major neglect (I know this has been Elijah-heavy so far, but again, this is where the problem started so I want to carry this thread through for a while before addressing other issues) - the ritual to bring Inadu to the mortal realm. The purpose of this ritual was to scare viewers with the risk of Hope’s safety and hype the Hollow’s “bad”ness, but also to make the first move in the ‘Letting Go’ thread between Hayley and Elijah. Elijah was supposed to be forced to choose between children's lives and letting the Hollow loose upon the world, and decide to kill the children. That was the dramatic point of placing this ritual in the narrative, but it isn’t mechanically sound.

It is stated outright that the ritual has to end with the death of the children linked to the spell. The children were linked via their totems found in 4x03 - placing Hope definitively in this group.

But we only ever see four of the five in one place. Maybe it was worth it to the Hollow to reach as far out as Hope was to bind her via her hairbrush, maybe it was worth it to the Hollow to drain her from afar, I’d buy that easily. But they made no attempt to kidnap her and place her with the other four children during the ritual. The ritual that required the deaths of five children. Unless it required Hope to be there only on standby, which is absolutely ridiculous. They had the kids on an alter, even if it was just for show. But why not all of them? If the real goal of the ritual was to lure Klaus and/or Marcel, wouldn’t kidnapping Klaus’ child be a more surefire way to accomplish that rather than just hoping the Mikaelsons would come to the right mystical diagnosis in time?

The reason why Hope wasn’t there was because the ritual was never thought through. The reason she wasn’t there is because it didn’t make sense for Elijah to want to kill Hope to stop the Hollow, which is what this ritual actually demanded if it actually worked the way Vincent claimed. In actuality, all that was desired was for Elijah to display a willingness to kill innocents in front of Hayley, and in doing so it demanded that Hope’s life both be at stake and not at stake at all. This failure to coherently execute a single-episode arc is plainly poor storytelling. It displays not only disrespect to the narrative structure, but a blatant flippancy towards one of their main characters and arguably the most complex one on the series. The sloppily contrived tension here between Hayley and Elijah does eventually contribute to the supposed theme, yes, but at what cost?

Elijah was neglected because he was hard to write, and even harder to write well as a ‘light’ foil to Klaus. Marcel should have fully owned that role, and not been similarly jerked around as a plot-serving every-man once the mystery of season 1 and the reasons behind Marcel’s ‘senseless’ cruelty were revealed.

Elijah was always the cornerstone of the family’s narrative, because he was complex enough to carry it. Camille provided an additional column of support to Klaus’ individual journey as a person/father, but she was bulldozed for Allmighty Plot as well. By the end of season three, both she and Elijah had effectively been thrown in the garbage one way or another, and the show tried to go on without them. It couldn’t.

I will say that Elijah’s conversation with Hope in that ludicrous backdoor pilot did make me feel things. I did also see the clip where Elijah and Klaus have a heart-to-heart in some sort of european flashback, which was touching, but felt incongruous for their relationship/dev at the time. Hope asking Elijah how old he was when he made his promises to Klaus, though? Elijah offering carte blanche to Hope for how to punish her friend’s bullies? TWO OF THE THREE SCENES INVOLVING ICE CREAM?

SOME of season 5 is valid but ONLY because it stole scripts from my headcanons.

#anamysis #preview of some metas in progress #hey guys does anyone here want to talk about ELIJAH?#*pepe silvia voice*#Anonymous #asks

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eriisaam · 4 years

Text

Ten for Ten for Ten

AFKL:jafklasfjj I have been summoned by @arlithenerd

(Just kidding thank you, now here’s hoping I did this right haha)

My responses will be posted under the cut (cuz I’m a wall of text monster and don’t know how to do read mores mid-post), but in the spirit of the meme, I’ll move my own 10 questions up first, and the tags at the bottom of it.

Now let’s see what to ask, UUUH...

1) Is there a character you really, really like? Could be waifu/husbando, could be just someone you really resonate with.

2) How about OCs? Is there an OC you’re really fond and/or proud of?

3) What’s your most favorite character trope, and what’s your least favorite? (Example tropes: Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Beware the Nice Ones, Amnesiac Hero, etc)

4) Now what’s your most and least favorite plot trope? (Examples: Rags to Riches, Hurt & Comfort, specific AUs, etc)

5) To complete the Trope Trifecta: What tropes do you most or least like in terms of character design (Examples: Capes, futuristic or fantasy style, how practical they are, how complex or simple they are, etc)

6) What are you the most proud of? (Like, something you made or an achievement)

7) Who/What has been your biggest inspiration? (Like an artist or celebrity, a fandom, maybe something you read or watched growing up, etc)

8) When you want to relax, what’s your go-to way to chill? What immediately calms you?

9) Any favorite myths, legends, folklore or themes you really like? Or what kind of theme or element would immediately draw you in to a new series if they have it?

10) How merciful or evil will you be with your 10 questions you’re giving? (Heheheheh)

And now to subject all of you to these questions, but especially you: @mdzs-tgcf-svsss-fanblog @miss-laney @moanderfe @abenignsmile @okamiryuu @flowerytrashpotato @milli-and-chika819 @littlemissdash @grimastiddies @avistella (kidding, join in if you want, tag or no. Or don’t, even when tagged. It’s all cool, no pressure~ I have no idea who to tag and/or who is chill about being tagged for something like this, I’m sorry orz)

1) a personality trait that most people wouldn’t know about you (if you feel comfortable with sharing of course!)?

I’m kinda self-defeating. I tend to think of the worst about what I do as default and have to ease eventually to the idea what I did turned out at least ok afterwards. It’s still a mindset I’m learning to work on, though it trickles in from time to time.

2) what are you most passionate about?

Creating.

|’Dc Broad answer, I know, but more specifically, I love a lot of creative hobbies, and it’s hard to narrow it down to any specific one since I love them in different moods and different reasons. Things like writing, drawing(/spriting), textile things like sewing or crocheting or origami... It’s easier to say I like the core theme of knowing you made something, and it exists because of you, and “you did this” kind of feeling.

3) what is your favorite flavor profile? (sweet, spicy, sour, umami, bitter, etc)

Sweet! Depending on the food and my mood, I also like sour and spicy things, but I tend to gravitate more to sweetness with less fussiness of how so.

4) favorite series/franchise (from any medium) and favorite character within that series/franchise?

Oh gerd, there’s a bit, but in a vague attempt to narrow it down that let’s face it, I know I’ll fail, UUUH...

Fire Emblem (particularly Fates and Heroes) - I love both of them for just how easy it is to generate ideas for. It’s funny because I realize it’s admittedly taking a lot of things that frustrate or disappoint or leave me hanging with either games that I end up liking the two most by virtue for how many ideas it paves way for in terms of headcanons or fanworks or the like. I do like things on their own merits as well, but I think the “I wish things could’ve been better/elaborated on, and therefore I will create things based on that!” side to it was what made me appreciate them more (probably not exactly for the best reasons, but! It’s a thing.) In terms of favorite characters, there’s a ton inside and out of just these two games, but I’ll give the honorable mention to Summer Takumi specifically, because the paralogue he (among others) was released in came at a critical point in my personal life that had some effects on me that, tl;dr, led to me commiting to making this blog, and making more art in public, and eventually writing fanfics in public too.

Pokemon - Was basically my childhood and went a long way into starting the first spark of a lot of the kind of hobbies I end up growing up and obsessing over/enjoying. Things like giving me a massive interest in coding and programming along with glitches and unused beta elements, or how it’s where I got my start in art back when I was little and trying to figure out how to do pokemon fusion sprite edits. I’d probably say my favorite character is a tie between Missingno and Celebi (in case the former doesn’t really count), the former for just how varied it is and being the main part of why I love how game coding works while being a gateway to beta content interests, and the latter for sentimental reasons spanning all throughout the entire time I followed the fandom game-wise.

Animal Crossing - It got me through ups and downs, it made up a chunk of nostalgia since the first game up to New Leaf (no switch, so now New Horizons, oh wellz), and I had a lot of memories both fond and low-key terrifying otherwise all throughout. I got a lot of favorites among villagers and NPCs otherwise, but if I had to narrow it down to one each:

I love Whitney for being the only snooty-type villager back when I played Wild World who was surprisingly kind to me (and I’m sad I no longer have the original cart and imagine she long since moved out anyways probably), and so she gave me an experience pretty similar to Ai’s own experience with Whitney in the movie.

NPC-wise, I’m going to go with Sable (it was a really tough choice!) for the fact that in every game, she was among the first instances you can get to know a villager so closely that she was willing to explain to you more and more of her character. Usually in many of the games, once her arch is finished, she no longer elaborates on her life and goes right back to talking generally, but if it wasn’t enough that it was among the first times you see how her demeanor changes from ignoring or staying quiet with you, to going out of her way to find things to chat with you, it was also the memories she explained once you start befriending her.

5) how have your closest family members and/or friend(s) impacted your life?

I consider friends more as family than my actual family (to put it vaguely and/or kindly, my actual family did few to no favors for me). My closest friends have picked me up when I fell (multiple, multiple times), and they were much of why I’m still here, doing what I can. I owe the world to them...

6) if you could be anything (any job, other person, type of animal or beast, literally anything aside from what you are now) what would it be?

A multi-billionaire Maybe someone who shapeshifts. The possibilities with that are endless.

7) favorite beverage?

Coffee. There’s quite a lot of drinks I really love, but coffee is the most easily accessible for me.

8) i know this is a generic one but favorite subject/class you’ve taken?

Arts & Crafts and Computers, give or take. Pity they’re usually the least important for grades and also the shortest class semesters of the year.

9) early bird or night owl?

I’m heavily inclined to be a night owl, which is unfortunate, because I’m in a place constantly forcing me to be an early bird.

10) favorite meme?

I’m completely in love with memes of cat pictures where cats have expressions that are beyond words, yet represents big moods all the same. If I had to narrow it to one specific meme, however...

My heart will always be with Anfisa. Aka Angry Cat No Banana.

#Tag and ye shall receive #but srsly thanks #Also if you get tagged and don't want to do this then again no worries sorry

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occult-castiel · 4 years

Text

Secret Santa gift for @fallenoriath! Hope you enjoy it, this was my first time trying to write these two, hope I did it some amount of justice! Title: Pillow Talk

Word count: 4842

Characters: Gabriel, Beelzebub, Aziraphale, Crowley, Micheal

Summary: Beelzebub and Gabriel disagree about when things started

Gabriel's fingers ghosted across Beezbub's exposed skin in the early morning light. It was warm, like always. Their heat seeped into him every time they went to bed together, every time their skin brushed. It was always almost like a shock, their flame-charged essence.

Maybe it had something to do with the fall.

Either way, it was something Gabriel found out slowly and quickly, and was reinforced every morning when he cracked his eyes open, staring at the room that shouldn’t be, in the apartment that shouldn’t be, all on the planet that definitely, completely shouldn’t be.

A trifecta was appropriate. But that was the only proper thing about having a Lord of Hell tucked under his arm, burning away and soundly asleep.

Cuddling. A corner of his mind provided, quite dryly.

"How the fuck did this happen."

It wasn't a question, he had a habit of not asking too many of those, unless it was on the backend of an accusation at someone clearly not doing their job. But Beelzebub groaned.

Beelzebub flipped themselves over, and more of their smooth, unnaturally warm skin pressed against Gabriel's.

He almost shuttered.

"Does it matter?"

He frowned and picked at their unruly black runaway hairs, and hummed in disapproval. "Probably the Fall. I was glad everyone else was gone."

He could remember that very clearly. One minute, he was in a conversation with what used to be Beelzebub, the next, half of Heaven was missing.

They had been beautiful, stunning as an Angel. Not much was different, except for a white robe a subtle heavenly glow, and hair that flowed down in perfect locks of a black that put creation to shame

And their eyes-- their eyes were like two shimmering blueberries. The Angel was up for a briefing, they were to be the patron of the moon, a new promotion that would put at almost equal levels of power. Almost.

"Asariel," Garbiel smiled as the Angel took their seat. "Good to see you."

He’d been on edge, most of the day. Still a hard monolith of a man, he stood straight and held his head high.

But a new scream echoing down the now baren Halls of Heaven was enough to leave a crack or two. Enough, after a few hundred, to all sound the same. Almost like it was one long, uninterrupted.

When the Angel walked in, crestfallen face on display, he figured they must feel the same.

But all the falling really was for the best, so he smiled. Business as usual. “I have good news for you!”

The pulled out a chair across from Gabrial at his always immaculate desk.

“Isn’t anything good about today.”

He ignored the tightness in his throat. “SIlver lining, then.”

A new scream sounded from behind the door. Asariel’s face tightened. They were glaring at their clenched hands.

His own shoulders slumped. “It’s for the best.”

Their gaze snapped up, and fire was shot at him in their deep blue eyes. “Lying doesn’t suit you, Gabriel.”

He scoffed, visibly taken aback. “I am not—”

All the color drained from the Angel’s face, their eyes froze to the icy, lifeless color it would stay for the rest of eternity as a scream was ripped out of them.

It didn’t take long for the fire to consume them.

Gabriel sat there in silence, staring at the soot-stained spot where the Angel once was.

Beezlebub laid still, their breathing all but stopped.

“That doesn’t count.”

“All I’m saying is— “

“It doesn’t count.” They eyed up at them, there was an edge to it, and pinched upon look. “If you want something that early, then it was when we met.”

“When I assigned— “

They let out an irritated huff of air. “No, Sodom if we’re going that far back.”

Sodom was a city of sand. It seeps, stuck, and whisked in every direction under the pale moonlight. The pillars were lined with it, homes drenched in it, and Beezlebubs shoes were full of it as they trailed two Angels across the dimly lit city— two they were all too familiar with from before.

Eventually, they parted ways, Sandolphone taking refuge in some humans house, and Gabriel ventured off to a nearby pub. Wine had recently been refined again, and the human wasted no time in sharing the fruits.

The little building was bursting with people, all chattering, drinking. Ripe for a bit of tempting, bit that never was Beelzebubs primary objective in any situation.

They beelined for Gabriel. An untouched cup of wine sat in front of him.

Quietly, over his shoulder, they whispered, "What's a little angel like you doing in a place like this?"

Every muscle in his body stiffened. "Asariel."

They yanked a fistful of his hair back, forcing his inhuman eyes on them.

"Do I look like that person?"

"Vaguely," Gabriel said, a weariness in his voice.

"I have half a mind to discorporate you." They released his hair.

"Well, it'd be pointless. What's done is done." He rubbed his scalp. "This place is all going to salt and sand soon."

A spark of rage shot threw them and they grit their teeth. "You Angel's are ruining my work again."

He shrugged. "Ineffable plan. Divine work. One day you'll get their souls."

He looked tired. Not necessarily sad, but like the humans do, when they've decided sleeping could be put off for a day or two.

It'd be easy, to make good on the threat. But he'd looked tired that day too.

So instead, they left. What was done is done, and they weren't interested in fighting two Archangels today.

“I was there for decades.”

“Tsk.” he rolled his eyes. “It was disgusting. The place was full of rapists.”

“Yeah, and your lot isn’t? If I recall right, the girls you spared raped their father that very night.”

“Look, that wasn’t my policy decision, okay?”

“This is the problem with you Angels. You all have superiority complexes.”

“Whatever. The point is, that wasn’t it.”

They glared, and shocked a finger into his chest. "If you're suggesting it was at that wenches implantation, I'll douse you in Hellfire myself."

The sky was black, a deep, unrelenting blackness that only came from the depths of nothing itself.

Which, honestly, should’ve been the first clue.

In the distance stood a small shack. A faint orange glow whispered through the shabby little windows.

The whole house looked run down and muddy, but everything on the planet did. But the son of God was meant to be born into humility, so Gabriel just shrugged it off and briskly walked towards it.

The place smelled. And the silly tunic itched horrendously. The heat of the Earth was nothing like the constant chill of Heaven, and it made the tunic, already uncomfortable, cling to his skin.

He had no idea why the Metatron was so insistent he couldn’t just have Aziraphale tell Mary about the child. It’d been ages since Eden.

A mass of black moved near the corner. Gabriel jerked to a stop.

He cleared his throat.

Nothing.

He lifted a hand. Golden streaks of yellow cracked over his skin. Heavenly light seeped from them. “Come out now, or be killed. Your choice, demon.”

There was a huff, and suddenly, a familiar voice behind him. “I’m not some demon, Archangel.”

He swiveled around, more of his corporal skin cracking to golden light as he sneered.

"Of course it's you." His hand dropped, and the light died down. A deep breath filled his chest. "Now, why are you here?”

They balled their fists. "Why am I here? Why do you think I'm here?!"

"There's nothing you can do about it."

"Oh?" A hoard of flies popped up around them, buzzing, flying erratically. "You're wrong. Your lot loves free will, yeah? Well if Shes going to come be one of them for a while, wants to experience it or whatever, then I have the free will to kill the mother here and now."

Gabriel threw his hands in the air. "And what? I'm supposed to let you? Not happening"

"Just give me a reason. How is this fair to the plan?"

"The humans are supposed to kill him. It's good for both sides."

"I don't care." Their hair raised, and floated as unnaturally as their tunic. A subtle black mist pooled at their feet "If She wants to come here, She should do it Herzzzelf."

"So you want Her to pay, yeah?"

"More."

"Okay," Gabriel started, "Deep breaths. If you want any kind of vengeance, this kid needs to be born, end of story. Then your," he winced, "corrupting will do something."

"You already destroyed the work I put into that," they snapped.

"Look, what if I tell you the next time something like this is happening? Keep the plan in motion and any, uh, spite aside."

They crossed their arms. "I'm listening."

"Had to have been that. Besides, you're the one who skipped over the Tower."

Beelzebub pressed themself impossibly closer, and they painted Gabriels exposed skin with small pecks, each warm press as skin-meltingly warm as they last. His hand tightened around their waste.

“The tower was a tragedy,” they breathed across the exposed skin of his neck. He shivered, just a bit.

“And attempted murder isn’t?”

“Perspective.”

Their lips pressed together, and, like every time, it felt like diving into a warm pool of water. Gabriel’s entire body relaxed into it, turned to mush.

A hand like fire trailed across their back, pulling them in. Gabriel’s hair was always sickeningly soft, Beelzebub took every chance possible to grab it, twist it, make it messy. Their fingers trailed up his side, over his chest, and grazed through ever perfectly placed strand, and pulled.

A thought occurred to them, and they pulled away.

“Did I ever tell you,” they said over Gabriel’s protesting, “That Michael came to Hell?”

He stilled, “after she was attacked?”

“Attacked,” they rolled their eyes, “Is an overstatement.”

Ligur, in his infinite stupidity, got into a tiff with an Angel, which Gabriel had called them into a meeting for not an hour earlier.

Gabriel’s hands were clasped tightly in front of him. He tilted on the back of his heels every few breaths, eyes shifting up and down the impossibly long staircase.

"So. Michael was attacked."

Beelzebub eyed him. Nervous fuck. "I don't care if an Angel gets hurt."

He glared. "It was one of your people that did it!"

"And we're at war," they said as they turned to leave.

Gabriel's hand snapped out to grab their wrist. The warmth of the steely grip burned. Beelzebub ripped their hand away and glared.

"Hey! You don't have to be defensive!"

A flash of anger dashed through their veins. It didn't show.

"Better defensive than nervous."

His face twisted into a picture of indignity. "I am not nervous." But his eyes still shifted.

As a rule, Angel's were liars, and not worth an ounce of loyalty. Not that their subordinates were any better, but no one was trying to lie about it. Lying, throwing things away, that was Heaven's business.

Loyalty was dead in Hell, it went down screaming in the Fall. That was the point of it all.

Of course, it was an Archangel Ligur pissed off. Of course, it was Michael.

"It's her fault for trusting a demon."

He rolled his eyes. "Michael doesn't trust demons. She was attacked. In cold blood."

"She set up a backchannel. The demon didn't like the deal."

"Don't be ridiculous. This," he motioned between them, "is a fluke."

Of course Gabriel thought he was the only one with backchannel.

Idiot.

They both left without resolving anything, but Beelzebub’s newfound frustration at the situation got him an unrelated punishment.

Seeing the affronted Archangel in question was a surprise, though.

Michael, in all her glorious, white, crispness, crossed her arms in front of Beelzebub. Her gaze was ice but her posture slouched.

"You aren't doing anything to him."

Beezlebub stared. It was sort of a sight, some creature of Heaven bothering to sully themselves by venturing into the basement. They'd been in contact with Gabriel for a few hundred years and neither of them ventured to the other side.

After a few beats of silence, Michael continued on in a puff. "You do realise he attacked me?"

They almost smiled. "I don't take orders from Angels."

Her hand balled into fists. "We had an agreement!"

"My fault you made a bad deal, then?"

She sneered and turned to leave, but hesitated at the hallway entrance. They raised an eyebrow.

“We could have an agreement instead. An exchange of information, little help if needed.”

They felt something at that. A creeping sense of nausea, but something.

Gabriel was an idiot, probably a liar. But he wasn’t slimy. “No.”

She huffed. “What? Do you already have one?”

“And why would I tell the enemy that?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Because, I hear everything first, and I probably have some troubling news about your best field agent.”

And that’s just it, isn’t it? Even if they said yes, the words already sounded like lies. Beelzebub knew everything they needed to, regardless of if Crowley, they assumed, had done anything he ought to have not. Heaven really overemphasized the apple bit.

Gabriel was a liar too, but not like the others he’d seen. He lied to protect an image or save his own ass

“Get out of my sight.”

And she did.

Gabriel pushed Beelzebub off of him, albeit softly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Just did, didn’t I?”

He huffed. “It would’ve been good to know my associates were— were—”

“Associating?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Either way, at least I actually chose something when that bloody Angel popped in, not just some circumstance.”

“Oh if mine aren’t good enough, do I need to remind you I came to Hell too?”

“Because you were out of options.”

“Because I wanted your help.”

Gabriel had been the most cross being in all of existence, after. Everyone had backchannels. His primary earthly agent was a traitor. Humanity, in all of its stupid bumbling, remained. As did the irritation.

Barely a week passed before Gabriel, for the first time ever, entered Hell, and very publicly requested Beelzebubs presence.

Each ding on the elevator down, each floor passed, was another memory ticking by. His hands clasped themselves in front of him like steel, very unsteady, almost fidgety, steel.

This was the best option. Beelzebub understood. Beelzebub had helped him on a few occasions, he knew them from before. Certainly, they must understand each other a bit by now. Maybe.

The doors opened. He took a deep breath and stepped into Hell, the corporate end, anyway.

Several demons coward, a few hissed, as he pushed his way past them to the short walk to the throne. No need for this little meeting to be a secret when everyone was doing it anyway, it seemed.

If they were phased, it didn’t show. A single eyebrow raised, their arms crossed, and a little frown was notched into place like it was sculpted there.

“What brings you to my domain, Archangel?” They said in a bored, uninterested tone.

And this was it, wasn’t it? All the Angels in Heaven, a whole Holy army at his disposal, and he crawls to Hell before saying a word, except for putting in a leave of absence.

“I want your help.”

A faint smirk twitched into, and just as quickly flickered out of existence. “I’m listening.”

“Tsk, you knew Angels would be useless here—”

“— You say that like we’ve done anything—”

“But this place,” they motioned around the room, “that’s… notable.”

It took about a week for both of them to decide that a base of operations was a good idea. So they took residence in a flat across the street from the demons. Somewhere to be while they kept watch. It was large and sleek, full of deep brown wood and dark walls and counters. Unassuming and empty, aside from what little furniture the place came with.

“Mn, no. This place was useful. But, we were tailing them on dates. So, maybe that?”

Gabriel glared at a plate of food.

The lightening of the place was dim. It was mostly grey, with little splashes of yellow and green in pieces of artwork hung sparsely about. Every plate was about ten times as expensive as it ought to be.

Gabriel’s plate had what appeared to be a pile of expensive goop on it. In the corner of Beezelbub's eye, they could see the traitorous little Angel devouring it.

“What is this atrocity?” The Archangel shuttered.

Beelzebub studied their own plate, a mirror of Gabriel’s own. They decidedly snatched a fork, stabbed the grey, slimy glob, and swallowed it whole.

Oysters, the menu called them. More like a mistake. They felt them crawl down their throat the whole way down. “Disgusting is what it is. Now eat it.”

He huffed. “I am not putting that in my body.”

“You wear clothes, don’t you?” They stabbed another. “It’s about fitting in. Not that you’d know much about that.”

“We’re watching them, not playing human.”

They shrugged. “Not much of a difference. Unless you have an early exit strategy. Eat up, Archangel.”

He plucked a fork up, and proceeded to swirl the atrocity around his plate. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. I can fit in just fine. Archangels are the epitome of perfection.”

Beelzebub huffed a laugh. Gabriel shot a glare. “We’re Her chosen Angels. Not that you’d know much about that.”

They took another bite, and washed the thin coating of slime down with a swig of wine. “Then prove it. Play human. Unless you can’t, Because,” they stabbed another piece, “I can.”

He shoved three on a fork. “Anything a demon can do, someone of my stature can do better.”

The oysters disappearing into his mouth, and he almost choked. Unfortunately, two coughs later and he was fine.

“I’m getting these reclassified as a deadly sin.”

They took a sip of wine. It was sweet, not nearly as bad. “Sins are liberating. Humans enjoy them if they’re the kind we get.”

“Well look at that shameless display!” He motioned wildly to their good for nothing underling and the angel, who was still thoroughly enjoying the meal. “If he likes it, it can’t be holy. Aziraphale is backwards.”

“Hell could take him. Maybe holy water would work then.”

He looked disgusted. “And what? We take the demon?” He laughed. “No.”

“Suit yourself.” They pushed his untouched glass of wine towards him. “Try the wine.”

Tentatively, he plucked the glass up and swirled it in the cup. The red liquid almost spilled over as he examined it, nose up.

Eventually, he took a sip. And then another.

“Hm.” He gave the cup another swirl. “Not bad.”

A few weeks of tailing the two from one restaurant to the next, and a wine rack appeared in the apartment’s living room. When Beelzebub looked at it in question, Gabriel just shrugged.

They even got a bit drunk, a few times.

Dust plastered every available surface. It wasn’t something they had to deal with in the etherial plane, so they didn’t deal with it. Little pitters of rain thumped against the windows, the sole reason they were in the apartment for more than roughly a half-hour. Gabriel couldn’t be bothered to get his hair wet.

Ridiculous.

It took Beelzebub almost no time at all to suggest actually drinking some of the wine that was also collecting dust, and that was all the convincing it took.

Three bottles later and Beelzebub sat in a lone chair, scrunched in on themself, wine glass in hand. Gabriel was slung about on the couch. By all means, the wine should’ve been in a puddle on the floor, or the coach, or on his suit.

But Beelzebub figured the liquid must know what was best for it, so it mostly stayed in place, decidedly not spilling. Though the thought of him being that frivolous with miracles was amusing.

“It’s— It’s holy, Beez—”

“Do not call me that.”

He rolled his eyes, and flung into a proper sitting position, however uncoordinated.

“Fine. But the wine, it’s holy. How aren’t you burning alive?” He sounded bewildered

They tsked and took a sip. Warmth radiated from their cheeks, had been for a while now, but it was a comfortable thing, nothing like what they’d seen of holy water. Certainly nothing like the fire of falling.

“People sin with it far more often.”

His face scrunched. “Not as often as they use it in communion.”

“You’re wrong. It’s one of the easier tickets to Hell.”

He hesitated, staring at the glass of liquid like it might burst into fire. They sighed.

"Good for blending in though, hm?"

He glanced at the cup, then at them, then at the cup again.

They tried a toast. "To blending in."

He drank, albeit wearily.

But not so much the time after that, or any subsequent.

Other outings happened too, they trailed them to museums, parks, a particularly messy child’s birthday party once.

“I did enjoy the tempting of it, never got out much after the Biblical days.”

“It was not a temptation.”

They snickered. “Just like the whole scarf thing wasn’t flirting, hm?”

Gabriel blushed. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Sure.”

“I hate this… whatever it is.”

Gabriel pipped up, almost bounced in place. “Hey! I know this one! The humans call it Fall.”

They clicked their tongue. “Falling was scorching. Not,” they motioned to Gabriel’s scarf, annoyed that they even needed such a silly, frilly thing. It was bulky and white and only drew attention. “whatever the Heaven that is.”

“It’s fashionable. And if you think food is the only way to fit in, you’re wrong. You don’t even have a jacket.”

“I’ll just be noticed, then.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re unbelievable.” And, before Beezelbub had a word in protest wise, his silly, stupid scarf wrapped around their neck in a swift motion.

Its warmth radiated down their neck and yanked a slew of goosebumps to their skin. An odd sensation, one you would never get in the depths of Hell.

Gabriel sneered. “Better?”

They didn’t answer.

Gabriel chuckled. “You looked so embarrassed then.”

Beelzebub was on top of him in an instant, and whispered into his ear, “Need I remind you who started this?” They motioned vaguely to the bed.

“That was only because you’d said how amazing sleeping was—”

“— So I tempted you— “

“No, I chose you, consciously, after we saw those two dimwits sucking face. No temptation.”

December came, and the traitors were still going out for a nice little walks in the snow-dusted paths of Saint James Park. It was dark and cold, and the human’s inefficient lights barely glowed orange enough to properly light anything, but it was enough.

Enough to see how Aziraphale clung to the creature. To see the way he clung back with an arm over his shoulder.

They weren't often close enough to make out words, but tonight they were lucky when the two stopped under the bandstand.

"You look cold," the demon said.

"Well, tis the season, my dear."

And then, very carefully, Aziraphale let the demon kiss him.

"Better?" He sounded so smug. Aziraphale yanked him back down.

And they didn't explode. Like they should’ve.

Beelzebub shivered.

When they got back to the apartment, Gabriel saw it with frightening clarity. The records were strewn about, the bottle of nail polish on the dresser. Tailor-made clothes were thrown neatly in a hamper.

They had shampoo. There was food in stock.

Beezlebub pushed past him and grumbled they were going to sleep and to keep it the fuck down. Since they watched movies humans made on a tv humans enjoyed.

A wave of dizziness struck him. He barely heard the slamming of the bedroom door. It all looked big and empty, but still too small, too full of something intangible.

They were native. Both of them. They'd gone native.

Just like their two uncooperative field agents.

For the first time, Gabriel really imagined.

God, he was stupid

“You did this.”

They paused at the door. “Did what?”

“You,” he huffed out a breath in disbelief. “You tempted me.”

Beelzebub’s face scrunched. “What the Heaven are you on about?”

He motioned wildly. “This is all an indulgence!”

“You,” they snapped, “Invited me here. Your idea.”

Anger churned in his blood, a white-hot fury. “To punish them! Not play human!”

They crossed their arms. “And have you figured out a way to do that yet?”

“No, that’s not the point—” he groaned, and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m leaving” he called over his shoulder, the door already shut before Beelzebub would say a word.

The dinners, the music, the clothes, and the rituals. It wasn’t bad, and the traitors did it all together. Seemed to like it so much more together.

For the first time, Gabriel imagined. Really imagined.

What if he’d done this alone? If Beezelbub had laughed in his face when he asked them to go to earth? What if Aziraphale got the Mary assignment after all?

He saw Aziraphale and Crowley under the bandstand again in his head, but instead, Beezelbub was under his arm, clung to his side, and after seeing them kiss, he'd turn to the side, look down at the little hellspawn and—

Aziraphale’s bookshop stared him in the face. How long had his… fraternizing been going on? Why had it been going on?

Months later and he still didn’t get it.

He only had to pound three times before the stuffy little Angel answered the door.The door rushed out the tantalizing heat from within, the shop reeked of sugar and dust. And brimstone. But he was mostly nose blind to that. Mostly.

“I’m sorry but we’re very closed— Oh, Gabriel.”

His eyes bulged like little saucers, any haughtiness from the failed execution wiped out.

“Aziraphale.”

“I, ah,” his eyes shifted towards the cave of books, a dark and yellow cavern full of dust Gabriel had never been the keenest on being inside of. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon”

He smelled the demon before he saw him saunter around a corner, inspecting a wine bottle. “Hey, angel, when did you get— What the Heaven are you doing here, Archangel?”

The demon was next to Aziraphale in an instant, his open hand clutching the doorframe, the other behind the Angel. His yellow slits were blown wide.

He sneered, “I didn’t come here to talk to you— “

“Well then, best get to leaving then.”

He ignored him, and focused his attention on Aziraphale, “You’ve got him trained so well.”

His face pinched, a look of disgust crossed his face. “Trained?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Now, if we can get on with it, all I have is one question."

"Very well," Aziraphale patted his clothes.

"No, Aziraphale, this psycho has been tailing us for weeks, you don’t owe him anything!"

A bout of annoyance flared inside of him. "See?" He motioned towards him, "this is why I don't consort with demons."

The demon sniffed the air. "Yeah. Sure smells like you don't."

"Crowley that's quite enough, if he’s here for a question it's best to answer it and move on." The demon honest to God pouted.

Gabriel sneered at him.

"But not if you're going to be rude as well, Gabriel. What is it you need?"

"How did this," he motioned vaguely between the two of them, "Happen?"

"I don't believe that's any of your business."

"If you cooperate, I'll," he heaves a sigh and shook his head, "personally insure Heaven and Hell leave you both alone."

Aziraphale bit his lip and glanced at his disgusting demon boyfriend, who, after a moment sighed and said, "Sure, go for it. Whatever."

"Oh, well that's quite a long story. Unless you'd like it abridged? Or just the bit about Armageddon?"

His insides coiled, but this was for the best.

"The beginning."

He hummed, "Well, that starts at The Beginning, so you may want to come inside."

Several hours later, he left with a bit of bike in his throat and a bottle of wine from the early 19th century, apparently, an important part of the process was alcohol. "Extraordinary amount of alcohol."

Beelzebub laughed. "I was wondering where you got that."

"So you see, no temptation."

"Mm," they pressed themselves into his side, skin warm and flush. "Should fix that. Tempt you to some breakfast around the corner? Need to pay my old subordinate a visit."

"You do?"

"Yeah. Someone's got to let him know that wine tasted like shit."

He snorted and agreed. It was on okay breakfast, and miraculously enough their old employees were indeed there, and weren't the happiest to see them, but, as with most things, a bit of misery thrown in that wasn't exactly his, made things a bit more fun.

#good omens #ineffable bureaucracy #GoodOmensSecretSanta

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 5 years

Text

Animal Instinct + Dead Disco | Writing Update

Hey People of Earth!

We’re back with another Moth Work update because ya girl has finished two chapters and is here to spill all the tea! If you missed update one, and two, be sure to check them out before reading this one! I’ve been having a bit of cabin fever with this project lately which has made it difficult to really immerse myself into the project. But we’re almost at the 20k mark of this project which is wILD! I never imagined writing so much of this story (which was initially just a guilty pleasure) and I’m happy with how much I’ve learned about my characters just through this small detour in the series.

The first chapter I’ll be updating on is chapter four, ANIMAL INSTINCT.

This chapter was a giant pain to finish! It had about 5000 revisions mid-draft, and I definitely feel like I had blinkers on when writing it. Because of that, I lost sight of the big picture and really got stuck on the little things, like the writing and overall quality of the project. This was not actually the purpose of Moth Work--it was supposed to be a dumping ground for whatever. However, in this chapter, I became really hyperfocused on all the small details I disliked which made drafting it a month-long process. I’ve now come to a slightly healthier place with quality in this draft, and found a middle ground between trash-dumping and nitpicking.

What’s it about?

Animal Instinct is a major point of tension for Lonan and Harrison as their goals deviate. This chapter focuses heavily on the volatility of their relationship and highlights Lonan’s current irrational mental state. The title stems from this idea of calculated action for the sake of a single person’s benefit.

The writing bit:

I struggled to write this chapter quite a bit. It took me the majority of July to complete because of a major logic problem I kept running into. After struggling for a few days, I finally realized by fleshing out what I’d written initially, I could overwrite the logic problem. The solution took a lot of work/test scenes to figure out, but eventually I got it!

Excerpts:

I shared this excerpt before because it’s one of the only paragraphs I don’t mind in this chapter! I think the flow is a lil funky but I dig the concept! This outlines the last bits of the cabin, specifically Harrison’s final check around the perimeter.

Around the corner, the back patio is static—like Anna and her son never stopped sitting there. Her bowl of avocado and Greek yogurt—the holistic remedy Emily said would make her glow like an angel—sits gummy and pestered with flies. One of Milo’s toys is wedged under the cheap lawn chair. It haunts him, seeing them while not seeing them, but he leaves everything like it is. Anna and her son will always remain on the patio, Anna with her cheekbones splayed for the moon, Milo babbling mildly about his father like he hasn’t made the connection. They’ve gone invisible.

After this first scene, Harrison does some driving in the dark which gives me major book three vibes lol, and eventually pulls into a motel somewhere in Nevada. This route from Oregon to Boston makes no sense but I conveniently needed Lonan to end up in Vegas, so!! do it for Vegas!!

In the motel, Harrison meets Jeremiah, his potential new man lol. Harrison is focused on getting in and out of there as quickly as possible, but he’s like dang mans teeth are the straightest I ever did see (me too tho). Because he gets distracted, he fails to notice his car turn off, and only makes the connection after passing it a few times in the parking lot. He minorly paniques as he looks for Lonan, but eventually finds him around the building.

The scene that follows gets volatile as heck, and really showcases how similar Lonan and Reeve are? Like dang that whole family tho? (Can I join?)

I’m not going to share much of this scene because she gets dramatic, but this is the wildest dialogue I’ve written in a while and I think I’m going to steal it and make Reeve say it because something like this would come out of her mouth:

“Do you feel that, Harrison? I could burn you with a cigarette and call it a wolf bite and nobody would know the difference.”

sounds normal at first then NOPE

The next chapter (chapter 5) is called Dead Disco:

This chapter came together very quickly because I’d had it basically planned out, however, it veered into an emotional direction I wasn’t expecting. This chapter was supposed to be fun and lighthearted, and it ended up being... not that??

What’s it about?

After the tragic drama that occurs in the previous chapter, Harrison wakes up the next morning to notice that Lonan has #left and #taken the car. This is v/ not good, but instead of getting super worked up he chooses to chill out at Jeremiah’s place and chill ft. some disco. I meant for it to be cute but Harrison ends up in a mental place I wasn’t expecting, so the chapter feels a bit “derealized” to me. After both Lonan and Harrison head out on their solo endeavors, they meet back up and this encounter ends *badly*.

Playlist:

July 31st Rachel was feeling very enthusiastic about the playlist for this chapter (I was writing while listening to music) and wrote down a list of songs that describe the progression of this chapter (in order + all Nothing But Thieves because predictable!):

Holding Out For A Hero

Crazy

Afterlife

Hanging

Excuse Me

Forever & Ever More

You Know Me Too Well

I’m Not Made By Design

Amsterdam

Number 13

Itch

Hostage

BUT SHOUTOUT TO: Disco by Surf Curse

Probably the most accurate vibe here lol

Excerpts:

This first excerpt is Harrison angsting hard about missing his friends. I don’t *love* her but I don’t *hate* her! I tried revising it but it... flopped, so here’s the failed revision:

Lonan could say those words and it haunts him, how easily he taints him like a bad omen. There are so many things Emily would tell him to do to cleanse the bad magic, but Harrison recalls none of them properly. He remembers words like moon, and black walnut, and quartz crystal, and cardamom, but can’t think of what to do with any. He wishes he were like Foster, curious enough to carry around a pocket dictionary, or like his mother, clever enough to make something up on a whim. All Harrison can do is bury his face in his palms outside the restaurant and hope no one watches him. The main road bustles by and he wishes to be invisible, like Anna and her son. He wants his friends back. Foster could lull him to consciousness with a quiz on the different kinds of plants, which are edible, which are poisonous. Reeve would split a cigarette with him and scare him back to life with her driving. Emily will never speak to him but at least she’d cast a curse on him, and even that’s better than his nullified state of living. It’s disorienting, to feel asleep while awake. Harrison blinks hard, but everything feels the same—the buildings all shimmering, the people staring barely even people, everything derealized like it’s all been coated in REM.

(tag urself i’m foster’s pocket dictionary)

This next excerpt outlines Harrison getting turnt with his new man and then getting philosophical? drunk Harrison be Aristotle and Madonna smushed together idk

Harrison knows he shouldn’t drink around a stranger but Jeremiah’s got a handmade bracelet and scribbly tattoos on his forearm so it’s hard not to trust him. Photo prints of hostels in Japan, statues in Europe, cathedrals in Paraguay decorate the walls in perfectly cut rectangles. Each is plumed with a dried flower and it reminds Harrison so much of Emily, he has to look away, back to the Lonan-coloured drink. He studies the shot glass like it isn’t transparent, the grooves around the perimeter, the engraving that reads Cancun 1987. He loses Jeremiah’s absent swish around him, and gets lost in the blue. The trifecta amazes him, how a colour as unnatural as this has manifested in Lonan’s eyes, his earring, this drink. He tips the glass back and finishes it in one go, and even though it’s strong and should taste like artificial blueberries, his mouth is tasteless and numb.

“You live here alone?” Harrison asks, raking his fingers through his hair. The apartment overlooks the strip across the street and Harrison gets lost in it, the artificial signs like bad advertising, the neons ill like influenza. When he looks toward Jeremiah again, his glass is refilled and he has to think hard to remember if he emptied it in the first place.

This is where Harrison manages to make disco big sad + some lowkey salt at Lonan which is always! a! win!:

Together, they move in a trance, limber and manic. The glass in Harrison’s hand isn’t a weight—it’s a lifeline. The apartment blurs, and waves in slow motion. Harrison doesn’t hear the music or taste the drink; he feels nothing in the ground, and everything in his tongue. His hair swims in his face like Lonan’s, moving like he did in the water, careless in his forehead, his eyes. The pictures on the wall become the pictures in his bedroom, and the blinking doesn’t get rid of them. In his sidesteps with Jeremiah he sees him, in the glass, across the street, under a streetlamp. Taking his cigarettes, his light, his car, his mouth like a cannibal.

To end this update, here’s some dialogue ft. savagery:

“You’re patronizing me.”

“You’re patronizing yourself.”

A meme to accompany this lol:

So that’s it for this update! At the time of drafting most of this post (which was a few weeks ago), I wasn’t really feeling this project, however, after writing chapter 6 and switching POVs into Lonan’s head (where there’s lots of messy stuff to work with), I’ve been having a lot of fun!

I’m sorry updates have been slow on this blog--I’m in the process of moving so I’m getting busy, however, I hope to post at least one more update before I go off to school! Thanks for reading. :)

--Rachel

#writing #writeblr #amwriting #writerblr #fostered #writingupdates #mothwork

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seenashwrite · 5 years

Text

14.04 Round-Up

Here, have a Nash-Is-Running-On-Fumes round-up.

Disagree on Salem Ohio. Shoulda gone Indiana. Why would you choose Salem, anyway? Given that this has nothing to do with witchy anything? Wait, does it? [Post-show pseudo-addendum: Nope.]

Shocker. Like, THE Shocker, or... 😳 *ahem*

What is the fixation with giving characters the same/similar names?

[Post-show pseudo-addendum: I get the shtick for the purposes of this episode, not entirely the point, keep reading]

And I'm also not talking about super-duper-common names (Jane, Mary, etc.), I get how those would naturally come up over the course of 13/14 years. I mean they’re fixated on the same names for women that have more than a just-passing-through role.

This chick is Sam, short for Samantha. So why not just call her Samantha? Especially given the tone of their conversation, we don’t typically revert to nicknames when we’re pissed, we typically dial it up to full first names (and for parents, to full first-and-middle). Nope, gotta be "Sam". And he said it three times. Three times in a conversation that maybe lasted a minute, to make sure we got it.

WE GOT IT

Welcome, Sam-Specifically-Not-Samantha! Meet Anna, Hannah, Anael, Jessica, Jo, Josie, Jody, Jessica, and Jo. Hope you don't die! PS: your hair is phenomenal.

I was about to say - I'd be in my room with all those people running around, too, archangel farts still bouncing around, or no.

So I take it Thundercats is DC property. Learn sumpin’ new every day (I will never need this knowledge)

You know, they *just* had a dinosaur toy come to life in Scooby. Writing wise, wish they'd have just said characters in general coming to life, would've covered the movie/comic spread and all the swag that comes with. Who wrote this? [checks] Oh fuck us, it's Perez.

Fortnite *vomit*

These outfits are fantastic, well-played, wardrobe.

"I don't know who Riley is. But cool." ---> Same, Dean-Who-May-Be-Michael-Faking. Same.

The gif of them ducking down in the car is gonna be precious.

[Post-show pseudo-addendum: Yup]

Why does Sam suddenly not know how to whip his jacket off and put pressure on a wound?

Goddamnit my food got here in time for me to miss the Dean-confronts-thing scene. Thank goodness for giffers and clippers. Though I still haven't gotten my Fluids gif from the Scooby ep. I want that gif.

Stewie is not breathing 27 times per minute. Just hire me. Let me deal with your medical shit. I ain't cheap, but I can be had.

"I like to watch movies where I know the bad guy's gonna lose" ----> gooooood, Perez, you can doooo eeeeeeet (unless that was a script editor’s call, in which case ::sigh::)

See there now, Sam's calling her Samantha. Stewie could’ve just called her "Sam" once, that plus seeing her name come up on his phone is plenty, didn’t need three farging times in less than a minute at the top of the ep. No, I'm not letting this go.

Blood transfusers don't hang out in rando hospital rooms. It just ain't a hang-out, what-if, ya-never-can-tell type of jam.

This ep's pretty much squelched my Michael impersonating Dean option, might have to be in the Michael's hiding in his back molar camp. I say that because this is the most "Dean" he's acted thus far. I mean, I *guess* he could be accessing Dean's memories about the movies, but why lay it on so thick since Sam's not around to witness it? Doesn't matter, I don't know why I'm even going down this road, I don't trust this writer's room in the least to have a carefully crafted plan that they've shared with Jensen. Well, it's beyond trust - Jensen all but said it in that interview (go find it yourselves, I'm sleepy, and this sammich ain't gonna eat itself, but I love you)

I really want Samantha's hair, and now her flannel shirt. I like her and her personality about a million times more than Maggie, why couldn't she be Maggie? OH SHIT. Samantha - I forgot to introduce you to two more members of the name game club, here's Magda and Maggie. [Post-show pseudo-addendum thanks to astute Nashooligan] We would also like to introduce you to Amelia and Amelia and also the Name Game Sorority’s den mother, Millie, who we aren’t quite sure should be included but are hedging our bets. Could be Millicent or Melissa, sure, but why not complete an Amelia trifecta? ---> I’m about to digress with a side note that has nothing to do with this ep, I just want to further cement how much you should trust my judgment: in my big story, this name shit infuriates me so much, it was a factor I considered when constructing Millie’s background. I made Millie come from a slightly posh background on her British mother’s side, and a military family life courtesy of her high-ranking American father. I searched for names that the nickname “Millie” could evolve from that I thought would sound appropriate with this somewhat upper-crust lifestyle, so I made her real name be Emeline (Em-ah-lynn for me, though I’ve heard the last part with a long “i”, too) which is a sweet and classy oldie-goldie jam I wish would come back. It’s Brit-y for her mom, allows for her dad to be the only one who calls her Millie til Henry comes along. Her brothers call her “Em”, which annoys her mom. My psychiatrist’s front office girl has this name (except double-M) but insists on going by “Em”. Not “Emma”, not “Emme”. Em. (As in Auntie Em, I just had a fever dream about little people who give out candy, and grown men dressed in costumes who like skipping down roads with young girls, and trees that throw apples, and flying monkeys, which are cool, but still.) I have found her to be idiotic in several respects over the years, and this decision was not a point in her favor. There, I’m done.

Stewie's respirations are not 115 per minute.

(I'm looking at the bottom feed, btw, in case you're wondering. His heart rate and rhythm is up near the top, BP would be bottom left and would be 2 numbers, and O2 sats max at 100. Also not art line nor ICP. I'll get a better look in gifs but pretty sure it's supposed to be his resps. Or else it is the sats and somebody's gotten their butterfingers on the training module. I mean regardless of their intent, 29 to 115′s a helluva spread for any vital sign unless it’s your heart rate whilst I’m doing CPR because straight up, I do happen to get after it pretty fierce when the occasion has arisen. Anyway, they are ass at this. All they have to do is ask. When Nashville the show was still in production, they asked us shit all the time. I’m revealing too much of my secret identity. Moving on.)

This is great, the cutting between movie and real life, high-five to editing.

Sam and Samantha are legit adorable in that scene.

HAHAHAHA hesitation elbow.

Nice cut to the movie commercial. I don't care for the reusing of all the same clips we just saw, I can't imagine there weren't extra little pieces of discarded scenes for editing to choose from, so... but otherwise, I dig it.

Thankfully, the M.E.’s stainless steel vegetable chopping knife was there in the morgue.🤨

I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally wish for a moment there, not even five seconds, when ol' boy was standing above him, we saw some Mikey flash across Dean's face with a touch - and I mean a *touch*, CG department, don't blow your whole wad per usual - of blue. That nobody sees, only the audience and the monster, have monster kinda pause, maybe look confused and hit his little button but this time it comes out with the tiniest lilt of a questioning upspeak on the last syllable, and nothing ultimately happens since Sam arrives, Dean shakes his drowsiness off, then proceed to choke hold, etc. It would fall in line with whatever route they're going (Mikey actively impersonating Dean/Mikey residuals left in Dean/Mikey passively hiding out in Dean), also be a nice audience tease.

I didn't think I needed to specify that I wanted mushrooms on this cheesesteak hoagie. On god, the world is completely falling apart.

That whole car convo was.... weird. The party memory story went on too long and was stupid as shit, sure, but the costume discussion is what I mean. And then the one it ended on was especially weird. Why not just end with a shot of the Impala and their conversation continuing with their voices fading away with the engine? End on a better duo than Thelma and Louise who, Perez, killed themselves by driving their car into a canyon. Hell, end on Scooby. I mean, you had the lunchbox which the camera held on for forever to make damn sure we all saw it, may as well double-down.

The doll's eyes should've flicked closed at the end. Missed opportunity.

Okay, cute little ep. Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that this Perez kid can't have an original idea to save his life, though. Kinda taints it.

Heh. Check it, yo - I brought things full damn circle.

You know.

Shocker. Taint.

HEY THERE YOU GO DEAN - duo Halloween costume!

My work here is done, see y'all next week.

#SPN Season 14 #SPN S14 #SPN Spoilers #14.04 #Nash Watches Live #SPN XIV #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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bi-lullaby · 5 years

Note

I already sent you the list of male characters, so here's a list of our amazing GA women to try to rank from your favorite to least favorite, no ties allowed! :) Meredith, Cristina, Bailey, Izzie, Callie, Lexie, April, Jo, Arizona, Maggie, Amelia, Teddy, Addison, Erica. Good luck, and as always, feel free to include your reasons why because I love your answers! I realized while typing this that overall I love the way GA writes its female characters a lot more than its male ones, btw

Oh honey, same! Here’s my list, whoch has some Solid Reasons but the main one is who makes me recreate this gif:

More enthusiastically, which is very personal, otherwise by level of awesomeness it’d be, like, a 10-way tie!

1 - Meredith. I feel in love with her in the first ep and that has only grow exponentially over the last 15 seasons. Is she perfect? As far for it as possible. She can be harsh and inconsiderate of other people’s feelings, she can be arrogant and agressive. I know that. But I also feel she’s the character who’s the most aware of her own flaws and who actively tries to overcome them. Her whole relationship with Derek was a six season long of her working over her issues until she felt ready to be more intimate and close to someone and marry him. I feel like everyone is a little too harsh on her (main character curse). Every other person on the show is allowed to have bad days, to lash out and mourn and be sefish whrn they’re going through a lot (i mean, Amy has a whole speech to Mer about how “she’s never lost the love of her life” and “she doesn’t know how that messes a person up, and yet I see so many people agreeing with that and hating Mer when she was the one in Amy’s position and also took some less than stellar, hurtful decisions) but Mer, who has quantitatively gone through the most (not a competition because I feel she, Jo and Amy are on equal footing, just by sheer number of bad things), is called whinny, bitchy, cold, uncaring, when she is anything but! She cares so freaking much she’s willingb to go to any distance! Donating her liver to her stranded father because of her loved little sister? Risking her job and career for someone she loves? Risking her life/career/license for patients? Welcomig people in her home with open arms? Operating through a miscarriage while her husband lies dying on the next OR? Being a great friend who defends, sticks by, forgives, comforts and protects who she loves from abusive exes, jail, judgment or tests? She has done all that and more. Also, she’s so empathetic/compassionate! She refused to bet on George’s failure on season one, she was the only one to try and shield that “tumor pregnancy” patient from judgment, she was the only one (not her best and oldest friend or hes husband, Mer) to get Jo to talk after she became depressed, she defended Cristina’s choice to Owen even if that was not what she’d personally do (she had tried so hard for a baby! She went out of her way to adopt Zola!) not just because she had empathy for the fetus that would grow to mimic her own situation, but for the woman who would mimic her mother’s (also, low-key one of the best speeches, damn)! She feels everyone’s pains and tries her best to help! She’s dorky and fun and smiles so often, no matter how bad her life has been! She pushes people to be their best (Alex, Cristina, Jo). She’s a great teacher! Also, one of the things that make me the softest is how she recognizes the flaws in her upbringing and tries her best to correct them and not continue that bad cycle with her own children! When she’s mad and needs to be alone, she tells Zola “you’re perfect, and mommy needs a minute”. When she’s dating, she puts her kid’s feelings first and foremost! When she’s away from them, she misses them like crazy! She talks about them with a brilliant, vivid smile! All of her relationships are fantastic (she’s such a people-person, as much as she tries to cover it up and doesn’t know how to truly express it) and some criminally underrated. She’s a kind, brilliant, loving, still flawed, beautiful woman who deserves the world and more, and I’m on Meredith Grey’s defense squad from now till forever!

2 - Arizona. As a bubbly blonde wlw who’s interested in being a pediatric surgeon, has authority+parental issues and an older sibling she loves, Arizona is one of those “I see myself in them” characters that just make me so happy! I felt both represented and inspired to try my best, to be at the top of my game but jot let go of my humanity and compassion and happiness. It’s weird because I didn’t quite like her in the first few eps she appeared, as she was rude and biphobic and kinda crass. Then she grew on me enormously. I think her relationships are all so criminally underrated, and that she should come back with Callie and Sophia and April in tow and make my day. I suffered when she suffered, and when she smiles, I feel lighter and happier, truly! She showcases some important messages! I have said this in a previous post, but I love that she... Came into the show and left pretty much the same. Her arc wasn’t as much about change as it was about finding herself again, glueing her pieces back together again. She entered a bubbly, hardcore, brilliant peds surgeon who had a very strong, clear set of values, was able-bodied, enamorated with Callie Torres and didn’t want to have children, out and proud and beautiful. She left a bubbly, hardcore peds+fetal surgeon, a mother, with a very strong, clear set of values, woman with a disability, enamorated with Callie Torres, out and proud and beautiful. Some things changed and she grew, like any healthy, normal human being, but seeing her get lost in such a dark place where so litte of the true Arizona showed through and then have her come back to who she truly was, stronger and wiser and more determined, really puts out a hopeful message that I adore.

3 - Amelia. Has she been inconsistent? Did they apparently slap the tumor storyline on her already suffering character just to make up for it? Yeah. But overall I completely adore Amy. She has been through so much, so repeatedly, and I’m amazed at how she’s still... Such a deeply good person. She smiles and laughs and cares and helps and works and saves and emphatisazes and worries and loves. She’s adorable with children and so loving with Mer’s. She’s kind to the point of almost being a pushover, but knows when to stand up for herself. I adore her and Mer’s relationsjip and wish it was a lot more developed! I love those two strong, tragedy-plaged women having each other as a support system! I love how soft she is with Maggie, how she’s so considerate of her! I love how she fughts to be in Leo’s life! I love how she worries about what’s best for everyone! And I hope she has a lot of good coming her way those next seasons. She deserves the world.

4 - Maggie. She’s such a breathe of fresh air! She’s bubbly and awkward and stuttering and idealistic and worry-prone! She is learning! She feel so real, so relatable! Can she be annoying? Sure! A lot of the times! I have been annoyed with her a lot! But there are so many characters who have that flaw and worse and are so loved, why is she so scorned? Being brilliant, young, still figuring things out, hard-worker, sensitive, those are not flaws or bad things. Maggie deserves a world of happiness and some kids of her own to smother with that gentle love of hers, and to have more developed relationship with everyone in that show. Also, the lady-chief trifecta gives me life! She’s a good balance to all thsoe tragedy-stricken, life-weary people at GSMH and I stand by that.

5 - Bailey is fantastic and badass and one part of a powercouple that owns my heart and a goddamn talented surgeon and an adorable mother and probably gives the best hugs and the actress is SO DAMN TALENTED like that eye acting? A MASTERPIECE. She’s also one of the hearts of the show and it’d not be the same without her. She reminds me a lot of Peggy Carter - golden hearted badassess who’ve been put through the ringer by people who ask her to measure up to her male (and, in bailey’s case, white) colleagues - and who not only does it but is usually better than then. Not gonna lie, when she got chief, I felt like it had been my own flesh and blood being promoted to her dream job! But I don’t feel like it did her too well (neither does the narrative, apparently, since they had her get a heartattack and a sabatical and relationship problems because of it). I know it wont happen but I wish she’d, like, take a nice trip, maybe write a book, vacay, breath, work on her mental health and come back feeling good and ready to take on the world! One of the scenes that makes her be so awesome to me is her talk with Cristina when they’re both pregnant: Bailey, cuddling her stomach and loving her unborn baby, telling Cristina (wary and tired and absolutely not wanting to be carrying a fetus) that no one can judge her for her choice and that she is able to make that choice! Talk about supporting women on different paths than you! What pushes her “ranking” a bit lower on my list than what it’d have been in the first seasons is that the fandom put her on such a pedestal that she cannot be or do no wrong, ever, and that quickly makes me sick of a character. Bailey commits insurance fraud (changing the hour on a surgery so it’d be covered) to help a patient? Have never seen anyone even comment on it. Mer/Alex do the same? Oh nooooo, go off on them, Bailey! Bailey’s such a hardass she’s nicknamed “the Nazi”? BADASS (and she was). Any other character is hard on their interns/residents? Monsters, bitches, poor things. It’s more an issue with the fandom, ofc, but well, that has made me hate characters I previously loved, so I’m really sad it happed to her (not that I hate her, I love her, I’ve just became annoyed with the character), and with characters that become “mouthpieces” to the narrative (wanna show the character is wrong? Have Bailey yell at them, even if Bailey might be on their side/not care/have done the same or similar/isn’t that close to them) and thus, loose a bit of their authenticity. Plus, there’s this one thing that’s core to her personality and makes me annoyed (probs irrationally): any doctor: screws up bailey: I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS. Like, you... Didn’t? They were grown-ass adults when they came to know her, were her interns for... Under a year? (it felt like a long time to us but the first three seasons were a year and they had vacation and she went on maternity leave). And then went their merry ways with her being a resident and them too (not to count the ones that weren’t even her interns, like April and Jackson. Plus, have you considered that with all their screw-ups (and there have been maaaaany), she should either realize that she isn’t responsible for their actions and stop pulling that tired, over-used, untrue card, or that she might not have “raised” them so well, if she insists that’s what she did? I get the feeling and it’s sweet, just... not True and kinda overused.

6 - Lexie. Death I cried the hardest. She was such a baby, trying her goddamn best! So smart, so kind, so passionate! I also really identified wither her “dorky, clumsy younger sibling who most people would (wrongly) name “the smart one”, the overeating and the romanticism and the passionate arguing over facorite characters). She’s just not quite as far up on my list because A) It’s been so long and I’m not yet on my rewatch where she shows up, so I feel like I might be glorifying/glossing over her flaws, B) Her immaturity in the relationship with Mark is annoying, C) The fandom glosses over all her flaws and always, always, always places her as 100% the only, sole, victim, which turns me off a lot, D) She was kind of a Mary Sue. I mean, photographic memory that allows her borderline superpowers and being so sweet it was almost nauseating and never being wrong and being irresistible and and and...and E) SHE HAD THE AUDACITY TO DIE LIKE THAT AND BREAK MY GODDAMN HEART.

7 -Callie! My sweet angel Callie! She’s just... I don’t even have words! Her relationships are all funny and amazing and I loved her from when she first appeared, as much as she’s changed throughout the seasons! I love that she is selfless and brave and wild and fun and quitky. It breaks my heart to see her sad, and I’ll never forgive her mother for the treatment of her! She definetly deserves better. I am so sad she’s not on the show anymore, just hope that she’s happy with Ari and their kid (s? Now? Maybe? Wouldn’t that be great?).

8 - Cristina. He character is refreshing, because she is allowed. To continue not being a people person. To have moments and realizations and weakness without taking a 180° turn and going from a type A to B in a second with no explanation (like in every Holidays movie in which a successful business woman who’s dedicated herself to her career all her life moves to a small city and suddenly, after meeting one “soft”guy, is a farm girl at heart who wants to have ten children and a traditional wedding and quit her job to stay-at-home because reasons). To have an abortion. To continue not wanting children. To marry and divorce and still be a whole person. To have her years of sacrifice and hard work pay off with the biggest career glow-up. Sandra’s acting knocks it out of the park, too, there’s no contest. Also, for a “robot”, she has some of the most emotional, deep, telling scenes in the show! Taking care of Mer before the boards even if it might mean she’d get sick too? Her scene with George’s dad? Crying to Webber because she “lost her edge?” The “i’m free” scene? Talking about her father? Ugh, my heart! I placed her “low” (Still top ten female characters and top ten Grey’s characters tho) because, as amazing as she is, she also reminds me a lot of people that ruined my life or made it miserable. That sass and arrogance and and self-centered tendencies might be endearing in-character but irl, I’d suffer if I had to be around her. Also, because I’m too much a Mer stan (and I admit that this point is a total bias), I kinda still can’t let go of their fight in season 9 (when Mer had Bailey and Cristina felt left out and just... Was not nice about it). Humans make mistakes! She wasn’t 100% in the wrong! Mer said some crap too! But as I said, this is based on feelings more than fact and that one fight left me so uncomfortable and I felt Cristina crossed some really personally-important-to-me lines. Plus, there’s this glorification some things of her that just... Make me angry. This is coming from someone from a family with lots of doctors, who’s studying to be a doctor, who’s had all her teachers stop in class to beg us to ask for help and work on our mental health, whose choice in profession was the reason the university kick-started one of the country’s first mental health support system for students (that now includes all curses but was created for Med students): The profession is sick. Doctors are suicidal and overworked and unhealthy and tired and dropping dead like freaking flies, and that’s even worse in surgeons. My uncle (also a cardiologist, funnily enough) died at fifty from a heart attack because he worked himself to death. My aunt died from a manageable condition in a minor procedure because she let it go on to long before treating (working). My other aunt has lost many close doctor friends to heart problems. My cousin and another uncle are depressed. My sister almost developed a tachycardia from trying to stay awake using energetics during her residency. My class is all physically sick (I’m writting this from bed) because we’re so overwhelmed with a course that’s not only integral but demands so much, and we’re just students. A doctor in my city died with his son in a car crash that left his daughter severely injured and on the brink of death coming back from the beach in the middle of the night because he was going to be on-call!

(Had to split it in paragraphs bc tumblr) Two doctors under forty-five died from sudden heart failures from being over-worked this year! And that’s just in my city (which is not a big city! At all) ! And being like Cristina (obsessed, power-hungry, sleeping at the hospital, eating basically crap to save time, havingonly one really close friend to the point that when they fought, living at the hospital, feeling like surgery is the only thing that completed her) is a recipe to disaster. You know what the profession also is? Divided. From the society that some consider they are “a gift to” to other health professions that they put themselves on a pedestal away from and everyone else is inferior, and from themselves, students that sabotage each other or refuse to colaborate and thus create teams that don’t work together, doctors that don’t communicate, don’t appreciate each other’s specialties and knowledge and help. Cristina doesn’t meet all that criteria, but some really remind me of her. So it kills me when I hear people say she was the best doctor, because she reminds me of so much that’s just... Wrong, that I see everyday, and it frustrates me. That is incredibly personal, and applying too much of the optics of reality to the show, but it’s my truth, and no matter how iconic the character is, I can’t shake it off.

9 - Jo. Baby girl is so ready to take on the world! I said this in my “Meredith x People” post, but Jo reminds me a lot of Mer! Same fierceness, stubborness, same rough edges, talented, caring, protective. Love her and Camilla’s acting makes her one of the deepest, most fascinating characters, and her storylines tell so many important messages! I just... Don’t have a lot to say about her, now that I’ve come to think about it, I feel like she’s pretty self-explanatory. Loved her-centric eps!

10 - Erica. I didn’t understand then and don’t understand now why the fuck is there so much hatred for her! She stood up for her rights! She didn’t take Cristina’s crap like everyone else (Cristina has her quirks and was bound to meet someone with whom they clashed who wouldn’t stand for it! That happened to be Erica!) She was ethical! She was so sweet with Callie! She was a great doctor! She wanted the hospital to be great and was willing to work for it! I feel like the main factors in it are that back then we were told, through the narrative, that we should and we were all young so we accepted that, and because the actress isn’t one of those bombshell model-likr beauties. Had it been, like, Jessica playing her in a more recent season, I doubt she would be that hated! Anyhow, I miss her.

11 - Addison. She was so great! Maybe not my favorite, but she had great moments and was criminally underrated! Maybe one day her coming back won’t be a delusion and I’ll have more to say here. What I do have to say is that she can be another example of the “show’s mouthpiece”, at least in regards to Derek. Like, we have her come back to Seattle and promptly scream at Mer for “letting Derek go” like he was the best thing in the world (lmao) without even knowing what had happened when... In reality... She literally cheated because she felt neglected and forgotten in their marriage, had a talk to Mer where she learned Derek had hurt her too... It feels cheap and unauthentic and gets in the way of my immersion.

12 - April. I can feel the confusion at why she’s ranking so low, but... April never really spoke to me. She had good moments, she was sweet, a good doctor, had great relationships and went through bad things, but in none of those moments was I standing up on my seat like I was with others. She went through a journey like Arizona’s, to find herself after something terrible instead of to change who she was, but still she’s called “the biggest evolution” by some fans and I just... Don’t see that (maybe it’s because Sarah Drew got even prettier with time so it was a visual evolution). I like her well enough. Lets put it that way: I’d not be at all opposed if she came back into the show, but I’d be also disappointed it wasn’t some other character I love more. I widh he had gotten more of her, actually! I’d probably like her more! I wanted more developed relationships, like with Mer (we could have had it aaaaaaaalllll x3) or Owen (they were in a war zone together and we barely see the aftermath besides a couple scenes with her telling hima bt the baby and at her first wedding), maybe with Riggs and Alex and even more fleshing out of Japril instead of more drama! She’d feel more real and appealing. Plus her whole storyline with taking the position of head of surgery and switching sides after she’d been one of the main advocators for Webber, then refusing to acknowledge she might not have been the nicest for it, kinda threw me off a bit (not a lot, it just felt random? Like, didn’t feel like something she’d do, but I didn’t think I knew enough about her to say it wasn’t, for sure?).

13 - Izzie. Again, she never appealed to me personally. She had amazing moments, but they were just moments. Opening a multi-million dollar beneficiary clinic? Top shelf-good. But she also had bad moments and, more importantly, bad patterns. She judged and judged Mer’s inappropriate relationship, almost got to the point of talking about it around the hospital to get her in trouble, called her a slut basically to her face, and whined about George’s “too fast, not based on anything” relationship... But would not accept to be judged on her own, even more inappropriate (and illegal) and equally rushed relationship. She did not approve when someone made a decision that she would not have made. She berated Meredith’s and Cristina’s close friendship like she was entitled to the same treatment and like she also didn’t have a best friend. I was bored by her most of the times, angry others, and only rarely pleased/happy/empathetic with.

As you can see, I only dislike the very last place, and hate none, so go girls! Hope you liked this!

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blackcomicschat · 7 years

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Kickstarter Highlight: Fight of the Century

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We recently had the opportunity to interview Troy-Jeffery Allen and Nick Allen, two of the creators of Fight Of the Century, an exciting new project which is currently featured on Kickstarter. You can view their trailer above and support the campaign HERE. Enjoy the interview.

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Welcome to BlackComicsChat. Please introduce yourself and tell us where are you from?

Troy: We’re from the DC-Maryland-Virginia trifecta. I hesitate to say “DMV”, but that’s a thing. I’ll quickly represent DC despite no longer living there. Nick will always strongly rep Baltimore.

Nick: Always.

Tell us about your earliest memory of comic books, and the moment when you first decided that you wanted to be involved in the creation of comics.

Nick: It was a late uncle’s comic collection. Lots of old school Marvel.

Troy: Yeah, I definitely remember randomly finding that Spider-Man, Power Man, Storm anti-smoking issue. At that age, I don’t think it really connected to me that these were comic characters until later. It also failed at teaching me not to smoke.

Nick: I think we were both hard-headed children.

Troy: Oh, for sure.

Nick: The one I grabbed was X-Factor #4 with Frenzy on the cover.

Troy: Look at that. Both comics had black people on the cover. I just realized that. Nick: Right?

Troy: As far as deciding to create comics, that came in the late 2000s. Nick was in video game school and I was the questionable one still working at a comic book store letting my film schooling collect dust. I think we both realized that comics – this thing that seemed impossible to do before digital – might be attainable. That’s all it took: Ease of access and stupid assumptions.

Let’s discuss the comic that you are Kickstarting. What is your story about? A cyberpunk, underdog sports tale about Performance Enhancing Drugs in the future is a premise that I haven't seen before in comics. How did you come up with the concept, and what made you want to tell this particular story?

Troy: Well, it’s called FIGHT OF THE CENTURY. It takes place in Brazil in the not-so distant future where everyone is linked to a pharmaceutical company. Our focus is in the Mixed Martial Arts world, where everyone undergoes a Dr. Frankenstein-like experiment to compete. We’re talking full metamorphoses.

Our afro-Brazilian main character, Rex Punga, gets in the octagon while totally juiced up and he has a “hulk out” moment that causes an in-ring incident. The company behind the drugs – BrawnPharm – buries him with a public smear campaign and ends his career. But this is a sports story. So, Rex has to make a comeback and he’s going to do it by going all-natural. It’s very David and Goliath that way.

Nick: I'm a huge sports fan, and a few years back I noticed how athletes were being busted for doping. However, I thought for every athlete that's being busted, there are probably ten that aren't. And what does it mean for sports in general when we pick and choose losers that way. So, I asked well what if I could tell a story about a society where athletes got to openly use these drugs. What would happen? I approached Troy, because he's a really good writer, and thought he would be great to work with. From there we started hammering out some plausibility details (who, what, where); and what social commentary could we add.

Troy: I was already doing a wrestling comic over in my corner somewhere. FIGHT OF THE CENTURY kind of seemed like the obvious thing to do. I agreed to it so quickly. We just found so many ideas based on that nugget of a concept.

Also, Nick hit me up about this right around the time that I’d watched Food, Inc.--that documentary about Monsanto. My mind was already in a place where I was thinking a lot about genetic modification and how a lot of what we consume is unnatural. That led to us talking about multinational corporations that essentially have no borders. That’s when we knew who the real bad guy of our story was. We started down this track of looking at a future where everyone is chained to a pharmaceutical company. Then we came back to the present and went, “Shit…this is happening now!”

Nick: Troy and I also have experience in combat sports (myself with martial arts and Troy with wrestling), so we thought MMA could be a great vehicle for telling this type of story. And life has imitated art as more and more MMA guys are being busted for P.E.D.s. Also, who doesn't love watching a good bloody fight?

Troy: That’s kind of the crazy thing. Life kept supplying material for us to riff off of. From Ray Lewis’ deer antler spray to students using Ritalin to pass – the story just kept writing itself.

Tell us about the creative team behind this project.

Troy: We wanted an international squad. Like, one of the biggest hooks for MMA are these cultural connections: Conor McGregor is proud to be an Irish fighter, the Gracies gave us the designation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instead of judo -- styles of fighting and fighters are very much tied to culture. We wanted that baked into the story.

Nick: Shawn Alleyne reps Barbados and he started the artwork by providing many of the original character designs. I don't think Shawn needs much introducing to your audience. I knew him from attending shows and seeing his artwork online. He's a phenomenal designer and brought a lot of the initial style ideas.

Troy: If I had to credit anyone with injecting cyberpunk into our initial concept it would be Shawn. I don’t think it was intentional, but his concepts just screamed “cyberpunk”. We just kept thinking of it in those terms from there on.

Artist Mervyn McKoy also added a lot of style and a pinch of dystopia to some of the early concepts. Especially to Karla Punga, Rex’s wife and manager. He’s been a frequent collaborator of Nick’s.

Nick: From there, we scoured the internet in order to find some amazing talent. Julius Abrera was the first guy we found thanks to Instagram. He lives in the Philippines, so we had to cold contact him, but, fortunately, he was an MMA fan and loved the idea. He was all on board.

Then, we wanted to add some homegrown talent from Brazil, so we looked for a Brazilian based inker and once again Instagram showed us Thiago De Costa. We thought they would make an amazing pairing for the line art team.

Troy: Thiago has been indispensable. He got Thiago Ribeiro on board and Netho Diaz. All from Brazil. He’s also been our Portuguese voice on Facebook.

Nick: Absolutely. Also, Bryan, our colorist, was a referral from Julius. So we got the Filipino connect too. And that only left lettering which I take responsibility for.

What was the creative process like on this book?

Nick: Amazing. Everyone adds something different and special to the book. We've been fortunate to work across 3 continents with ease -- that's to the internet. Dropbox and Facebook are our primary tools for collaboration.

We’ve also found a new graffiti artist that we hope to incorporate into the mix. Troy: And Dana Brand, who has become our story editor recently. Her passion for story is great motivation to work through the sometimes rough terrain of plot. She also loves baseball, so I think the PED angle made sense to her pretty quickly.

Nick: Yeah, the core team is always batting around ideas and helping each other when challenges arise.

What made you choose Kickstarter as a funding method?

Nick: Well, we've completed an entire issue and thought it would be worth pursuing to fund a graphic novel. Troy and I are fully committed to the book, but totally self-funding would be much slower. Also, Kickstarter is an amazing place to find like-minded individuals that might love a book like this.

Troy: I was all sorts of skeptical. I’ll admit that that’s why this project took a couple of years. Nick had been funding his book, C-LISTERS out of pocket and I’d been doing the same for my comic BAMN, but Nick had done some Kickstarter campaigning for Visionary Studios before. He saw the value in crowd-funding a lot quicker than I did.

What are some of the incentives that backers can receive when they support your campaign?

Nick: Well, we're offering digital and physical copies of the books; a special thank you page with your name and MMA handle; cameos; original artwork… Troy: We really wanted to give people incentives that enhanced the story instead of just loading them up with junk. That was important to us. That’s why we worked with Drive Radio to lace certain incentives with a soundtrack. We want you to feel the story at every possible level. We make sure to do our part in the action and drama department, but then you can be IN the story as well as hear how dangerous the future is.

What are your future plans for the series?

Nick: Well, it's a limited series, but I think it's an extremely fertile universe to tell other stories in. Maybe some one-shots with the characters would be fun. Or explore another sport in our cyberpunk paradise.

Troy: This really is the maiden launch of our imprint Rex Co., so we’re going to set up shop here and unleash a lot of other ideas. Nick is working on a YA title for Rex Co. that I’m actually really excited about. I’m still doing BamnComics.com, and the plan is to start printing that story through Rex Co. A nap would be nice too.

We’re looking forward to seeing the finished product. Anything else you’d like to share?

I will correct one mistake we made early on: We’ve been calling FIGHT OF THE CENTURY “cyberpunk”, but I discovered that there is a subgenre that fits more specifically for what we are doing. It’s called “biopunk”. There is cyberpunk in the story too, but the larger part of it is definitely biopunk.

Sorry, but nerds can be particular. That would have bugged me forever.

Where can people find you and your work on the internet?

Nick: Currently, the best place to shift blame is Facebook.com/FotcComic. We’ll be there throughout all this. And, of course, our Kickstarter Page.

Thanks for joining us. Everyone, be sure to check out this campaign!

#Fight of the Century #Fight of the Century comic #mma #sci fi #cyberpunk #martial arts #Troy Jeffery Allen #Nick Allen #comics #black comics #blackcomicschat #brazil #afro brazilian #biopunk #kickstarter #crowdfunding

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placetobenation · 4 years

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SmackDown on Fox Episode #21 SmackDown Episode # 1,070 Glendale, AZ – Gila River Arena 2/21/20 We open the show with a video hyping up Goldberg being on the show tonight and then we go to our intro video and pyro. The announcers then hype up everything happening tonight including a “Symphony of Destruction” match. The Usos come to the ring and talk about how they hated missing last week especially since Miz & Morrison couldn’t keep their names out of their mouth. The Usos say they are here tonight and there is going to be a superkick party and everybody is invited. The New Day comes out and both teams trade compliments. The Usos hope The New Day is keeping the titles warm because after Super Showdown they want to challenge for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. The Miz & John Morrison come out and talk about how perhaps they could become popular if they had a catchy chant like The New Day and The Usos have. Miz talks about how they will be the greatest tag team champions of the 21st century. Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode make their way to the ring and then all of the heels surround the ring as the babyfaces are back to back when the heels start to step in the ring the babyfaces move toward them sending the heels back down to the floor as we go to commercial. Match #1: The Usos & The New Day vs The Miz/John Morrison & Bobby Roode/Dolph Ziggler We come back with the match already in progress as Jimmy and Ziggler as the legal men. We get a couple of quick tags by the babyfaces and then all four babyfaces hit running strikes on Ziggler in the corner. Big E becomes the legal man and he sends Ziggler into the corner and then hits a big backdrop on Roode. Big E whips both of the Usos into the corner so they can hit Ziggler with the running hip attack and then The Usos whip Kingston into the corner where he connects with a running dropkick to a seated Ziggler. The Miz & John Morrison run in but are met with uppercuts from The Usos. The babyfaces are in complete control as Kingston signals for the Trouble in Paradise, but Roode distracts the referee which allows Morrison to grab a hold of Kingston and body scissors him over the top and to the floor and then The Miz delivers a big boot to Kingston on the outside. The Miz sends Kingston into the barricade which brings all the babyfaces over so the referee has to try and keep them back while at the same time the heels are putting the boots to Kingston. Miz rolls Kingston back into the ring and goes for a cover but only gets a 2 count. Miz & Morrison hit their catapult backbreaker and slingshot elbow combo move but Kingston still kicks out in time. Morrison tags in Roode who put a boot to the ribs of Kingston and then grounds Kingston with a reverse chin lock. Kingston tries to escape the grasp of Roode so he can make a tag, but Roode rakes the eyes to regain control over Kingston. Roode tags in Ziggler who chokes Kingston with his boot and then distracts the referee so the rest of the heels can get their cheap shots in. Kingston gets a brief hope spot and it looks like he is going to make a tag, but Morrison catches him and sends him back into the heel corner. Morrison sets Kingston on the top and attempts a superplex, but Kingston knocks him down and then attempts to take care of the rest of the heels which allows Morrison to get back to his feet and kick Kingston off the top rope and to the floor as we go to commercial.

We come back from commercial to see Kingston is still getting worked over as he is immediately hit with a dropkick from Ziggler that gets a 2 count. Ziggler sends Kingston hard into the corner before tagging Roode back in and they attempt to double team Kingston only for it to backfire as Kingston backdrops Ziggler to the outside and then hits the mushroom stomp on Roode. Both men are able to make tags which brings in Big E who hits his belly to belly trifecta on The Miz and then he hits him with the big splash only to get a 2 count. Big E sets Miz up for the Big Ending, but Miz slips out only to be thrown over the top rope, but as he is in mid-air Morrison is able to make a tag to become the legal man. Big E attempts to hit the suicide spear, but Morrison connects with a knee that stops Big E in his tracks. Morrison charges at Big E in the corner, but gets caught and slammed to the mat with a uranage that gets a 2 count and then we get the first of a couple of mysterious static cut-ins. Big E looks to make a tag but Roode yanks one of The Usos off the apron and sends him into the steps. Morrison hits a chuck kick on Big E and follows up with a knee to the face and to cap things off he hits a standing shooting star press, but he isn’t able to get a 3 count as Kingston breaks the pin. The Miz comes in and looks to hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Kingston but gets thrown off and then Kingston clotheslines him over the top rope. Kingston looks to go for a dive onto Miz, but as he runs to the ropes Morrison flies in with a springboard tornillo taking down Kingston. We get another tag on both ends as Jey tags himself in and Morrison tags in Roode, Jey backdrops Morrison to the floor and then Roode attempts an O’Connor roll only for Jey to counter into a pinfall attempt of his own that gets a 2 count. Roode and Ziggler hit their Spinebuster and Zig-Zag combo move which gets another 2 count as Jimmy breaks up the pin this time. Jimmy hits superkicks on Ziggler and Miz and then turns around into a Glorious DDT by Roode. Jey attempts the enziguri on Roode but he ducks and then tries for another Glorious DDT, but Jey counters and hits Roode with a superkick and that is enough to get the job done. Winners: The Usos & The New Day via Pinfall Match Rating: **¾ This was a fun match that I feel could be a preview of what we are going to see at WrestleMania as I wouldn’t be surprised if at least three of these teams are in the SmackDown tag title match on the show. I am curious what the static cut-ins are leading to, the most logical explanation would be the debut of Killer Kross if that is indeed what it turns out to be then they really see a lot in him as he would be the first big indy name since AJ Styles to not spend time in NXT. It will also be interesting to see if they pair him up with his wife Scarlett Bordeaux or leave them as separate acts. We cut to the back where Daniel Bryan runs into Drew Gulak who wants to let Bryan know that he has some flaws in his game and wants to help him out. Heath Slater walks up and wants a rematch with Bryan because he wasn’t ready last time. Bryan accepts Slater’s challenge and invites Gulak to join Slater since he has seen all these so-called holes in his game. I am all here for a Drew Gulak and Heath Slater comedy team if they aren’t going to do anything meaningful with Gulak as both men are great at providing non cringe-worthy comedy in wrestling. I would love to see a team where Gulak becomes Slater’s coach and his sole purpose is to teach Slater strategy via PowerPoint presentations so that Slater can finally get back to winning matches so he can provide for his kids. As we come back from break we get a recap of what happened last week with Otis and Mandy. We then cut to the back where Tucker walks up on Mandy and Sonya talking, Tucker is upset by the fact that Mandy hurt Otis and when Mandy tries to explain Tucker cuts her off. Tucker says Otis was so upset that he wouldn’t even leave the hotel tonight. Mandy says that she didn’t invite Ziggler and she didn’t send Otis the text saying she was running late, Tucker isn’t buying what Mandy is saying and tells her that he was a fool to think she ever had good intentions. As Tucker walks off Sonya tells Mandy that Ziggler is more her type anyway. Later in the night, Mandy is waiting for her ride when Dolph Ziggler walks up and says he has a car and she can ride with him, Mandy agrees and leaves with Ziggler. As the camera pans over we see that Otis was standing there the entire time and once again his heart has been broken. These segments did a good job of furthering the story as I like Tucker sticking up for his buddy by confronting Mandy. I think they are wanting the fans to think that Ziggler was the one that sent the text, but I feel like they are setting up a swerve of having it be Sonya that sent the text as this entire time she has been jealous of Otis taking Mandy’s attention away from her. I am starting to wonder if they will finish this story at Elimination Chamber or will they have enough material to extend it out until WrestleMania. We go to Renee Young who will be interviewing Lacey Evans. Lacey says the loss to Bayley at Royal Rumble was a tough loss and what made it even worse was the fact that she lost to a bully like Bayley. Renee then calls Lacey out for calling Bayley and Sasha bullies when she herself was a bully not that long ago and was calling people nasties. Lacey tries to defend the term nasties by saying it could have multiple meanings and sometimes it is used as a term of endearment. Lacey then says Renee is right and admits that she was a bully, but it took her coming to SmackDown and seeing Bayley and Sasha bully the rest of the women’s division and tormenting her daughter before she was able to realize that she had been a bully herself. Lacey says that going forward she is all about change and progress in order to be a better person and this is a new chapter for her. Renee asks her what’s next and Lacey says her sights are set on the Elimination Chamber and getting back to the point where she can challenge for the Women’s Championship at WrestleMania. Renee thanks Lacey for taking the time for the interview. The first thing I have to say about this interview is that when Lacey talks in her normal voice as opposed to the character voice of the “Sassy Southern Belle” she is way more engaging and relatable for me personally as I find the southern belle voice to be an over the top caricature of what a woman from the south sounds like. I liked how Renee called Lacey out on her hypocrisy as most of the time when someone turns from heel to babyface their past actions are never brought up or questioned in the way Renee did in this segment, while I thought her defense of using the term “nasties” wasn’t that great I did like her reason as to why she changed her ways as it took someone bullying her and her family before she realized how much of a bully she had been herself. According to what Lacey said in this interview It appears that we for the first time ever we are having three Elimination Chamber matches on the Elimination Chamber card as both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s #1 Contender spots are on the line as is the #1 Contender spot for the Universal Title. Match #2: Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura w/ Sami Zayn vs Elias & Braun Strowman (Symphony of Destruction Match) Elias and Nakamura start out the match and Nakamura wants a test of strength, but when Elias goes to lock up Nakamura takes a cheap shot and then delivers a flurry of forearms. Nakamura runs off the ropes but is met with a back elbow from Elias. Elias takes Nakamura down with a hip toss and then Zayn hands Nakamura a tambourine, but before Nakamura can use it Elias kicks him in the gut and then slams Nakamura’s head on the top turnbuckle while the tambourine was around Nakamura’s neck. Elias starts hitting Nakamura with the tambourine and then hits him with a jumping knee that sends Nakamura out to the floor. Elias goes out and grabs a giant drum but before he can do anything with it Cesaro runs over and grabs it from him, Cesaro then looks to hit Elias with the drum but he gets it taken from him by Strowman who smashes the drum over Cesaro’s head and then knocks him silly with a big right hand. Zayn tries to interfere by hitting Strowman in the back with his ukulele but Strowman doesn’t even flinch. Strowman chases after Zayn and runs right into a guitar shot from Nakamura that takes the big man down as we go to commercial. As we come back from commercial Cesaro has a guitar case in the ring but when he opens it up he pulls out the good ol’ cowbell, Cesaro attempts to hit Elias with it but Elias blocks it and ends up hitting Cesaro with the cowbell. Elias wants to suplex Cesaro from inside the ring to the outside and through a table, but Zayn grabs the leg of Elias and this distraction allows for Cesaro to move out of the way so that Nakamura can hit a running kick that sends Elias off the apron and through the table. Cesaro goes out to grab Elias, but before he can he is run over by a freight train named Braun Strowman. Strowman is in full control as he is throwing both Cesaro and Nakamura all over the place. Strowman is in full control of the match as he chokeslams Cesaro onto the ring apron. Strowman teases picking up a guitar but he looks over and sees the double bass that he brought to the ring with him so he goes over to grab that instead, but once again Zayn gets involved as he smashes a keyboard over Strowman’s back. Zayn grabs the bass and lays it down on the floor and then Cesaro and Nakamura suplex Strowman through it, but somehow Strowman is able to kick out when Cesaro pins him on the floor as falls count anywhere in this match. Elias is now back in the match as he grabs Nakamura and throws him into the barricade and then attempts to hit Nakamura with a tuba, but instead Nakamura nails Elias with the gong mallets that he has turned into nunchucks, Nakamura goes for a second shot with the nunchucks, but Elias ducks only to get blasted with a spinning heel kick and at this point, we see that Elias’s back is bleeding. Nakamura measures Elias as he looks to hit him with the Kinshasa but Elias is able to move out of the way sending Nakamura crashing into the gong knee first. Elias clotheslines Nakamura into the timekeeper area and then blocks a guitar shot attempt from Cesaro before sending him into the ring post and then Elias smashes the guitar over Cesaro’s back. Elias lays Cesaro on one of the tables at ringside and goes up top looking for the elbow drop, but Nakamura grabs his leg momentarily until Strowman comes over and tosses Nakamura over the announce table. Elias sends Cesaro through the table with the elbow drop and immediately after Strowman hits Nakamura with a Powerslam off the announce table and onto the piano at ringside. Strowman pushes Nakamura’s lifeless body off the piano and pins him to pick up the win. Winners: Elias & Braun Strowman via Pinfall Match Rating: *** This was a really fun match. It’s nice and refreshing anytime WWE has a match that doesn’t involve the typical WWE weapons that we see in every no DQ match like the Singapore cane and steel chair. I thought there were some really creative spots with the instruments like using the gong beaters as nunchucks and then having Nakamura crash into the gong with the missed Kinshasa. The powerslam that Strowman hit on Nakamura onto the piano couldn’t have felt great as there was no give in that piano. It’s pretty ironic that Strowman and Elias were teaming up in this match considering they were facing each other in the first Symphony of Destruction match. I think the feud between Strowman and Nakamura is coming to an end as I fully expect him to start feuding with Sheamus as that will most likely be the Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania.

I really don’t see the John Cena vs Elias match rumor being true (even though it would make sense for them to actually have a match against each other given what has happened the last two years at WrestleMania with John Cena interrupting Elias) because it makes zero sense to turn Elias back heel this soon as he is over as a babyface. If John Cena is going to have an actual match at WrestleMania they are going to want him to face someone higher up on the card, I see Cena’s most likely opponents being either Daniel Bryan seeing as Bryan feels like he is in limbo right now with no clear direction as to what he will be doing at WrestleMania or perhaps they want Cena to finally beat Flair’s record so they put him against The Fiend. We go to a video package highlighting the feud between Roman Reigns and King Corbin. We then go backstage where Kayla Braxton interviews King Corbin about his match against Roman Reigns next week. Corbin says he is going to end the whole facade that Roman Reigns is a locker room leader and then says Reigns has never beat him one-on-one and he will beat Roman in Saudi Arabia. Next… We come back from break and it’s time for A Moment of Bliss. Alexa talks about the 2020 Hall of Fame inductees that have been announced so far and then she introduces The Bella Twins as the next inductees into this year’s class. The Bellas talk about how happy and excited they are to be inducted and they thank their Bella Army for getting them there. The Bellas then put over Alexa Bliss, but she turns the attention right back onto them. The Bellas talk about being pregnant only a week apart from each other. Daniel Bryan makes his way to the ring and he is carrying his daughter Birdie before he hands her off to Brie. This was quick and simple just like it needed to be because if you keep The Bellas out there for too long talking about their accomplishments then you run the risk of people in the crowd turning on the segment and booing it, especially since a major part of the WWE audience already don’t care for The Bellas and think it’s a shame that they are going into the Hall of Fame. I am completely fine with The Bellas going into the HOF as they were a major part of the bridge years between Trish and Lita leaving and the Four Horsewomen arriving in NXT. Unlike some of the other women around that time they did work hard to improve despite having no prior wrestling experience before coming into WWE. They should also be credited for bringing in new female fans thanks to their work on Total Divas and Total Bellas as their fans are right up there with the Sasha Stans when it comes to loyal fan bases. Also, fans who have a problem with The Bellas going in should probably just realize that eventually, every woman who made even the least bit of an impact in WWE will end up getting inducted as the pool of eligible women is significantly smaller than that of the men. I thought it was a nice bow on the announcement segment to have Bryan come out right after for his match carrying Birdie as it was a sweet genuine little moment. Match #3: Daniel Bryan vs Heath Slater Slater starts out by talking some trash and then he pushes Bryan a couple of times and then on the third attempt Bryan grabs Slater’s arm and tries to lock in the Yes Lock, but Slater gets to the ropes. Slater gets in control of the match somehow but we miss it as the camera was focussed on the announce table where Drew Gulak is sitting on commentary. Slater goes to work on the leg of Bryan as he slams it down on the apron and then follows up with a chop block. Bryan finally gets enough as he fires back with punches and then he goes for the backflip off the top turnbuckle, but when he lands he tweaks his knee which allows Slater to take advantage and hit a big DDT for a 2 count. Slater goes up top and this causes Gulak to freak out as he yells at Slater to get down, Slater dives off but Bryan moves out of the way. Bryan successfully connects with the Yes Kicks. Bryan goes to hit the running knee, but Slater catches him out of nowhere with a schoolboy roll-up that gets a 2 count. Slater and Bryan both get back to their feet and this time Bryan connects with the running knee to get the win. Winner: Daniel Bryan via Pinfall Match Rating: ** After the match, Bryan keeps looking over at Gulak while he celebrates his win. This match actually went longer than I expected it to as I expected a complete squash, but they actually let Slater get in some offense including that nice schoolboy rollup when Bryan was going for the knee that was completely unexpected. In the end, Bryan comes out with another win over Slater and judging by the post-match we can assume Bryan will face Gulak next week and while I expect it to be a short match like this one it would be nice to see a non-squash match between Gulak and Bryan as I’m sure they could put on one hell of a wrestling clinic. Naomi makes her entrance as we go to commercial. We come back to a Sheamus video where he announces he has entered the Elimination Chamber match. Apollo Crews and Shorty G are in the back talking about Sheamus, Shorty talks about how he is not backing down and neither should Apollo, Apollo tells Shorty he doesn’t need a pep talk and he will handle the Sheamus situation in his own way. Next Match #4: Naomi vs Carmella The women shake hands to start the match, but Naomi uses the handshake to pull Carmella into a side headlock takeover which she hangs onto as she keeps Carmella on the mat. Carmella scissors the head of Naomi only for Naomi to nip up to get out the headscissors and both women are back on their feet. Naomi takes Carmella right back down with another headlock takeover, but Carmella quickly gets to her feet and is able to lock in a side headlock of her own, but Naomi fights out and sends Carmella into the ropes where Carmella comes back with a shoulder block. We get a drop-down and leapfrog spot that ends with Naomi hitting a flying back elbow. Naomi tries for a sliding kick, but Carmella is able to avoid it. It looks like we are going to get a lockup, but there is some miscommunication as Carmella goes low for a single leg takedown, but Naomi doesn’t go down and looks a bit confused so she grabs a front facelock, Naomi tries for a pin out of a backslide but Carmella kicks out.

Carmella sends Naomi into the corner, but Naomi jumps up and mule kicks Carmella across the ring and then hits a clothesline. Naomi hits Carmella with a full nelson bomb and tries to turn her over for a pinfall, but Carmella keeps kicking out. Carmella finally gets back to her feet and even lands a knee to the gut which Naomi no-sells as she sends Carmella into the ropes where Carmella comes back with the Mella-Go-Round flying headscissors. Carmella throws Naomi to the outside and looks for a dive, but is caught with a kick to the head from Naomi instead and this gets a smile from Bayley who is sitting at ringside watching the match as the winner will be facing her at Super Showdown next Thursday. Naomi springboards back into the ring with a crossbody that takes Carmella down long enough for Naomi to get a 2 count. Naomi jumps up to the middle rope, but Bayley jumps up on the apron to distract Naomi long enough for Carmella to get back to her feet and hit a Stratusphere out of the corner for a 2 count. Naomi rolls to the outside to catch a breather and this leads to Bayley coming over to trash talk her which is enough for referee Jessika Carr to throw Bayley out and send her to the back even though Bayley never touched anyone. Carmella dives through the bottom rope with a tope suicida that takes out Naomi as we go to commercial. We come back to Naomi working her way up to her feet and then she hits Carmella with a backbreaker. Naomi hits several kicks to the back of Carmella’s leg and then Naomi hits the rapid-fire kicks until Carmella catches one of them and shoves Naomi down to the mat for a 2 count. Both women start trading forearm strikes and then Naomi tries to slam Carmella, but she counters and takes Naomi down with an Edge O Matic for another 2 count. Naomi pushes Carmella away from her so she can create distance to hit the running sitout jawbreaker and she follows that up by hitting the chuck kick, but she is unable to take advantage as Carmella crawls out of the ring. Naomi dives out onto Carmella with a tornillo. Naomi rolls Carmella back into the ring where she gets a 2 count on a pinfall attempt. Carmella tries to get her whereabouts as she walks over to the corner where she is able to avoid a stinger splash attempt by Naomi. Carmella goes up top and hits a nice crossbody that gets a 2 count. Naomi rolls out to the apron and Carmella tries to suplex her back into the ring, but after seeing that wasn’t going to happen she hangs Naomi’s throat across the top rope, but this fires Naomi up as she lands a kick to the head of Carmella. Naomi hits a sunset flip pin for a 2 count and then Naomi attempts her Slay-O-Mission submission hold but Carmella easily avoids it being locked on. Naomi puts Carmella into position for the split-legged moonsault, but Carmella doesn’t give her a chance as she rolls her up in a schoolgirl pin for a 2 count and this leads to both women trading pinfall combinations until Carmella rolls out of a jackknife pin and locks in the Code of Silence. Naomi struggles for a bit in the hold before she finally gets to the ropes. We get both women dodging kicks until Naomi connects with one of hers to the face of Carmella and then she catches Carmella with the Rear View for a 2 count. Naomi once again goes for the split-legged moonsault, but just like last time Carmella stops her as she pulls Naomi’s leg off the rope and then hits her with a basement superkick for yet another 2 count and at this point, Carmella is questioning what she has to do in order to finish off Naomi. Carmella charges at Naomi in the corner but Naomi gets her feet up and when Carmella pushes them out of the way Naomi nails her with a kick. Naomi goes up top and hits a blockbuster and then she finally hits the split-legged moonsault to get a hard-fought win. Winner: Naomi via Pinfall Match Rating: **½ This match started out really rough as there was some sloppiness but it got better the longer the match went and while I won’t say it was on the same level as last week’s match between Carmella and Bayley it was still a good match. As much as a raved about Carmella last week I felt she was off a bit this week and was the reason for the sloppiness in the beginning stages of the match, however, I will say she made up for not being at the same quality as last week by providing plenty of sideboob during this match lol. I look forward to seeing what Bayley and Naomi can pull off at Super Showdown or at least I look forward to it as much as one can look forward to a match on one of these Saudi shows. I am pretty sure Bayley will retain and then Naomi can be one of the entrants in the SmackDown women Elimination Chamber matches which she may or may not come out on the winning side of depending on Sasha’s condition. After the match, we go to the back outside of Goldberg’s locker room as he will be coming out after the commercial. Goldberg comes to the ring and says it’s good to be back on SmackDown and since he hasn’t been on SmackDown in a while he is going to take his time, but then he immediately calls out The Fiend. Firefly Funhouse pops up and Goldberg says he isn’t here to play games, he is here to take The Fiend’s title. Wyatt introduces Goldberg to his Firefly Funhouse puppets and then threatens Ramblin’ Rabbit with his mallet. Wyatt then says he knows someone who is dying to meet Goldberg. The lights go out and The Fiend shows up behind Goldberg who is expecting him, we get a staredown for a minute and then Goldberg hits The Fiend with a Spear. The Fiend looks like he is going to get back up, but as he gets to his knees the lights go back out and The Fiend has vanished. SmackDown ends with Goldberg in the ring posing for the fans.

This was an OK final build for their match at Super Showdown, but nothing too spectacular. At this point anytime Goldberg comes to the ring without being knocked loopy because of him headbutting a door is a good night for him. Why was Wyatt acting like he didn’t know who Goldberg was when he clearly knew who Goldberg was during their first promo a few weeks ago when Goldberg was via satellite. I really hope this match at Super Showdown is a Goldberg style match that is quick because if this match goes longer than five minutes it has the potential to become the worst match of the year. This week’s episode was better than most mainly because we didn’t spend a big chunk of time devoted to the Reigns vs Corbin feud which is very refreshing. I thought it was as good of a go-home show as you could expect for a Saudi show. That’s it for this week but I’ll be back next week where we get the fall out of Super Showdown and the two-week build for Elimination Chamber begins. We also get the big return of John Cena where I’m sure his WrestleMania feud will begin so I expect that to be a big part of my review next week. Until next week see ya later loyal readers.

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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samanthasroberts · 7 years

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The Fat Jewâ€™s ‘Money Pizza Respect’ is the worst book Iâ€™ve ever read

I wish I liked the Fat Jews new book. It would make a far more interesting piece if he exceeded our expectations. No one I talked to expected it to be good. I bet he didnt even write it, said one friend. I bet he had his interns write it.

To contextualize this for people who arent on the Internet all the time, Josh The Fat Jew Ostrovsky became the center of controversy when he was accused of stealing memes and jokes from comedians this summer. Ostrovsky had been doing this for years, and amassed millions of Instagram followers with his admittedly excellent meme aggregating skills. But comedians took a stand when he signed with the talent agency CAA in August.

Upon reading Money Pizza Respect, there is no doubt in my mind that the unfortunately titled book is penned by the Fat Jew himself; I confidently assert that MoneyPizza Respect is singlehandedly the worst book I have ever read.

His actual sense of humorand Im talking about humor, not the memes he aggregatesis painfully abject. He relies on a Tucker Max-esque style of storytelling, glorifying cocaine and alcohol abuse and fucking his groupies, who all embody a different type of crazy girl stereotype.

In a chapter ironically titled The Eleven Commandments of Not Being the Worst Person Ever, he warns readers that if you aggressively and frequently talk about your sex life, people will think youre gay. When you tell me that you tackled a slam pig and stuffed her axe wound, he writes, I assume that your actual goal is having anal sex with men. Ostrovsky makes sure to note that the only exception to this rule is Dan Bilzerian, who has literally thrown a woman off his roof, breaking her foot, and been accused of kicking another woman in the face.

Money Pizza Respect is laced with homophobic comments. He writes a note to P. Diddy: Sorry for outing you as a homosexual. Im pretty sure you are, but Im sorry. Theres also a healthy dose of sexism, describing his female groupies as a bunch of fours and fives who have giant lady hands hate their dads. To complete the trifecta, he also manages to be transphobic, referring to transgender women as trannies in a chapter chronicling his brothers bachelor party. (When his brother and friends found out the strippers who were giving them lap dances were trans, they left the club immediately.)

Before I met Ostrovsky, I was confused about how he was so successful, especially after reading his book, where he brags about his selfish and generally gross behavior at every possible moment, proudly displays pictures of him wearing a thong made out of beef jerky, and writes things like, Cocaine is the greatest gift the world has ever seen.

When I sat down with him at a press junket, located at an arcade in Chinatown, I immediately understood why hes garnered so much success. He is unfortunately charming and is actually a naturally funny person. Hes like the cool, mean boy in 8th grade, the type who introduced pot to all your friends and made fun of girls for being ugly or not having boobs yet. The type who definitely bullied me, and yet I tirelessly tried to gain his affection.

During our interview, Ostrovsky remained on the defensive, masterful at answering my questions with non-answers. He is somebody who has never taken life seriously, which is perhaps not too difficult for a straight, white, affluent male. He is fundamentally interested in his conception of fun, and hopes youll join him for the ride. If not, fuck off.

Its not that I began to like Ostrovsky or his book any more after meeting him, but I went from hating him to feeling an iota of pity for him. His flamboyant and unapologetic immaturity, his bratty affect: This is what has brought him success, and what I imagine will be his inevitable downfall.

So my approach for this interview, because I know a lot of people have been shitting on you, is to not shit on you.

No ones been shitting on me.

I was curious about how that affected you emotionally, and how you felt about getting blasted by the media.

It was definitely a shitty situation. Im of the Internet, so its like a lot of people screaming about things. I respect trolling. I respect people screaming at one another, which is why the Internet is so fucking great. I definitely didnt take it personally. It was also something that needed to get talked about. People were not on the same page. Like a 38-year-old comedy writer and a 16-year-old Filipino millennial were not seeing the issue the same way.

I try to look at it like I was the face of the whole thing. I mean the Internet is a giant, lawless fuckin thing. Sometimes we need some rules But not too many. Because that would be weird. No parents. But you know, sometimes people get pissed. I obviously see it from the 16-year-old Filipino millennial side. I dont look for credit on my stuff and I dont ever watermark or anything like that, but I also get the other side too. Im old enough to understand both sides. I just want everyone to be happy so were fuckin partying.

Instagram for fucking photos of dogs playing volleyball in sunglasses and iguanas surfing. I just want to have everyone get heard, fix the problem, and then get back to surfing iguanas. It didnt rock me emotionally because I just saw it as something that needed to be discussed. It definitely got dangerous and exciting at some points. People just get so crazy, theres a portion of people who dont even know what theyre screaming about. I got chased by TMZ. Some guy followed me around a Duane Reade recording my phone call. That was tight.

You liked that?

I kinda felt like Leo , for like a second. It was also scary. No one wants that life. I was trying to look at it like this is a conversation that needed to be had. I didnt look at it as being shit on. The Internet is more important to me than my family or anything. I would love to be with the Internet, have sex with the Internet, I love the Internet. Now its a better place.

Why was it important for you to celebrate drugs, specifically cocaine, in your book?

Its a mixed bag. I refer to it as the best and worst thing ever. Part of the ethos of this book is that its a how-to guide in that its like I dont know what you should be doing but I know what you shouldnt be doing. Ive seen every horrible thing. I basically think you read this book and you dont do coke. Because youre like, its gonna make me unbearable. Like my breath is gonna smell like a diaper and get into a super intense conversation about stuff I dont even care about.

I think it depends on how old the reader is. For me, Ive done coke so I understood more where you were coming from in that it can be great and terrible at the same time. From a teenagers standpoint, it might just look really cool.

It depends. Im pretty explicit that its been responsible for the greatest things that ever happened, but also some of the most horrendous things, too. I think its more self-reflective than it is encouraging.

Your book is provocative is many ways. People are going to interpret some of the content as transphobic and homophobic. I was thinking of the chapter where you refer to trans women as trannies.

I dont know what youre specifically referring to.

You wrote about tranny strippers. Thats a contentious word. Many trans people have spoken out about how hurtful they find that term to be. I was curious about how you would respond to those critics.

is a factual account of what happened. Youre talking about an actual pejorative word?

Yeah. Its a slur. There were a bunch of moments in the book where I read something and immediately thought about how angry it would make social justice activists on the Internet.

Social justice people are angry at everything.

I was wondering if you included some things specifically to be provocative.

No, definitely not. First of all, any social justice person can come at me at any time. I literally have more transgender friends who will vouch for me than anyone. They self-identify as trannies. Ask a transgender who is not a nerd from the Internet how they identify, and I bet you will find hundreds who identify as trannies.

I know transgender folks who identify that way. Its like the N-word. If they call themselves that, its OK. But having a cis person is a different story.

Any person who would find offense in that kind of minutia is not someone who should be reading this book.

Its not your audience, thats probably true.

That shouldnt be anyones audience, as far Im concerned.

As I was reading your book, I was thinking about your crazy drug and sex stories as they relate to Tucker Maxs stories from I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Was he somebody who influenced you?

No, thats like bro culture stuff. This is completely different.

Tonally, there were similarities.

Ive never read it, but I also think that in terms of this book, like Ive been living performance art long enough to write a book full of debaucherous stories, but I wanted to go with more pathos, truth. From what I understand from Tucker Maxs stuff, he doesnt really go into too much stuff like that. Not all the stories here are particularly turnt up, as far as Im concerned. There are some that are honest family stories, not every story is about partying.

But a lot of them are.

We can go through it When I was writing it, putting in some emotion and truth, and some real feeling on it, like talking about my mom having sex with Shel Silverstein and being a 9-year-old child actor diva. Shit like that, to me, that is not the same as walking around a bar with a breathalyzer . I dont not relate to it, but Ive never read any of his stuff.

Ostrovsky as a child actor Josh Ostrovsky

Do you differentiate between the Fat Jew as your performative character and yourself as Josh?

No. I dont go home at night and unscrew the hairection , sit down, and listen to This American Life and be like, Oh, what a hard day at work! Being the Fat Jew! No, its all one in the same. To me, that would be disingenuous. I was doing this stuff long before there was anywhere to share it, long before anyone knew about it. Ten years ago, people in New York would be like, Oh thats the Fat Jew, the guy who does crazy stuff. It wasnt something I created and cultivated in order to share on social media for the masses.

But this is your career, this is your passion, but a lot of artists and actors differentiate between their performative self, which is still their self, and who they are when theyre not performing.

Im not an artist or an actor. Im neither.

How do you identify?

Im the only one whos really just going for it. Im genuinely making it up as I go along. I could start a ros company and that could become a real thing. Im about to do the worlds first EDM cologne.

What is that gonna smell like?

I dont know. Thats a good question. Like I dont even know what that means but Im gonna do it. Its 2015. Anything is possible. The world is so ridiculous at this point. I might open a yoga ashram in Toronto. Who knows? Im one of the only people who doesnt consider anything on or off limits. I dont think that it can be defined. We have this human need to compartmentalize, to be like, What are you? But I dont know.

I guess its my job to say, as a writer trying to make sense of what you do.

I dont think theres anything to make sense of. I dont know. What do you think I do?

I think youre a content creator and performer.

Thats vague. But yeah. Im not not. But thats what Im saying. I like to keep people guessing, keep people off kilter. If people think Im a comedian, I will move in a totally different direction and start making cologne. I wanna make people go, What the fuck? Keeping people guessing, keeping genuine conversation going about me, whether its, I dont want to say the word negative, but whatever its gonna be, thats what I am. A conversation starter? I dont know.

Tastemaker?

Conversation piece? Idiot? All of the above?

Whats your goal with your book? Why do you do what you do? Aside from the fact that you just want to do it.

The end goal with the book is that I think I can get some turnt-up 18-year-old to read. Thats the challenge, like, can you get fuckin some kids to read and think its really fuckin chill? Is that doable? Ill literally do it just for that.

Were doing reading raves to promote the book. IRL is what the programs called. Its just like huge DJs and books. Like, can you make them read? I think its doable. I dont think publishing knows how to do it. I dont think parents know how to do it.

So you want to make reading cool?

Kind of. What if Im somehow the guy to do it?

What are your favorite books?

I love Shel Silverstein, and not only because my mom fucked him. Mostly, Im the type to read 100 listicles. Like, what kind of bagel is Rihanna? You know what I mean? One-hundred times Rihanna ate fruit. Im not reading enough books.

No ones reading enough books.

Maybe now? That would fucking weird. To get a fucking 17-year-old whos over it to sit down and read an entire book? I mean I put in some stuff to break up the chapters, like you can color in a picture of Tyrese. I mean, I dont want you to have to read too much.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

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Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/19/the-fat-jewaes-money-pizza-respect-is-the-worst-book-iaeve-ever-read/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/09/19/the-fat-jewaes-money-pizza-respect-is-the-worst-book-iaeve-ever-read/

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adambstingus · 7 years

Text

The Fat Jewâ€™s ‘Money Pizza Respect’ is the worst book Iâ€™ve ever read

So my approach for this interview, because I know a lot of people have been shitting on you, is to not shit on you.

No ones been shitting on me.

I was curious about how that affected you emotionally, and how you felt about getting blasted by the media.

You liked that?

Why was it important for you to celebrate drugs, specifically cocaine, in your book?

Your book is provocative is many ways. People are going to interpret some of the content as transphobic and homophobic. I was thinking of the chapter where you refer to trans women as trannies.

I dont know what youre specifically referring to.

You wrote about tranny strippers. Thats a contentious word. Many trans people have spoken out about how hurtful they find that term to be. I was curious about how you would respond to those critics.

is a factual account of what happened. Youre talking about an actual pejorative word?

Yeah. Its a slur. There were a bunch of moments in the book where I read something and immediately thought about how angry it would make social justice activists on the Internet.

Social justice people are angry at everything.

I was wondering if you included some things specifically to be provocative.

I know transgender folks who identify that way. Its like the N-word. If they call themselves that, its OK. But having a cis person is a different story.

Any person who would find offense in that kind of minutia is not someone who should be reading this book.

Its not your audience, thats probably true.

That shouldnt be anyones audience, as far Im concerned.

As I was reading your book, I was thinking about your crazy drug and sex stories as they relate to Tucker Maxs stories from I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Was he somebody who influenced you?

No, thats like bro culture stuff. This is completely different.

Tonally, there were similarities.

But a lot of them are.

Ostrovsky as a child actor Josh Ostrovsky

Do you differentiate between the Fat Jew as your performative character and yourself as Josh?

But this is your career, this is your passion, but a lot of artists and actors differentiate between their performative self, which is still their self, and who they are when theyre not performing.

Im not an artist or an actor. Im neither.

How do you identify?

Im the only one whos really just going for it. Im genuinely making it up as I go along. I could start a ros company and that could become a real thing. Im about to do the worlds first EDM cologne.

What is that gonna smell like?

I guess its my job to say, as a writer trying to make sense of what you do.

I dont think theres anything to make sense of. I dont know. What do you think I do?

I think youre a content creator and performer.

Tastemaker?

Conversation piece? Idiot? All of the above?

Whats your goal with your book? Why do you do what you do? Aside from the fact that you just want to do it.

So you want to make reading cool?

Kind of. What if Im somehow the guy to do it?

What are your favorite books?

No ones reading enough books.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Popular on The Daily Dot

I went to the Rentboy liquidation sale, and all I got was this amazing escort swag

After a massive federal raid, Rentboy had to sell its entire office on Craigslist to pay its lawyers.

By Mary Emily O'Hara — November 02, 2015

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/19/the-fat-jewaes-money-pizza-respect-is-the-worst-book-iaeve-ever-read/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/165493432272

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