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chasingpj · 1 year

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🍄 hiiiiii congrats on 1k!!! i started reading ur child of hecate fic since the 1st chapter& i loveeeee what ur doing for the rewrite!!! any ways i want to ask what ur wips r rn ??? cause u havent updated in a while & i wanted to know if u have smthng planned

hi hi! first, i want to say thank you so much for sticking by my fic for so long like?? I'm the worst post-er in the world and i truly applaud you for your patience and am so so thankful for your support!!!

now to answer your question... i indeed have plenty for you guys and i'm really hoping i get to execute this! I'll give you some sneak peaks of the writing too :)))

Here With Me: it's a nico one-shot with a platonic older sister reader and the relationship is kind of inspired by Wednesday and Pugsley's dynamic.

“Okay, listen here…” You move a little closer, eyeing the name tag on the frightened guard. “Atrius. Have you seen a girl named Bianca? She looks like this kid.” Pointing at Nico, the ghost peers over your shoulder.

“No, I haven’t seen her.” As definitive as that statement was, he didn’t sound so definitive. His bones clinked together as he shivered in your presence.

“I don’t like when people lie to me.” You stare into his empty eye sockets. One moment passes and then two and then three and still he hasn’t budged. Irritation buzzed at the back of your skull. You had the time but none of the patience to play hide and seek.

Nico stands a short way behind you, partially concerned for your victim. He wasn’t sure what you were going to do if you didn’t get what you wanted. The skeleton flashed him a look and even with no skin on his face, he could tell it was pleading.

“Help me!” He was saying without a word. The boy doesn’t move from his spot though, instead looking away sheepishly. Pleading or not, he looked scary. That and Nico really wants to find his sister.

“I’m not lying!” He insists and it annoys you even more. Quickly, in one movement, you grab his leg and tug so hard it comes straight out the socket. Tossing it to the side, your eyes don’t leave him as he yelps, falling straight to the ground.

“Tell me where she is, or I’m tossing both of your legs into Tartarus. Last chance.”

2. Discovered: it's a percy one shot where you're jason's little sister and you've trying to keep your relationship a secret

“Perce, we should get out there.” Your eyes focus on the door as he slowly lowers your hand off his face. “I came here to wake you up, not to cuddle.” The suggestion flew into one ear and out the other, Percy only nuzzling his face further into your neck. “Hmm.” The vibration of his hum tickles your skin, distracting the rational thoughts that urge you to take your own advice. “Let’s just stay here and sleep a little longer.”

When did you become so weak? You’re not sure how it came about with Percy. His husky, fatigue-laced voice was enough for you to persuade you. It wasn’t even the warmth of his body splayed over yours or the inviting bed sheets graced with his sweet scent that could sway your persistence. As much as you wished to stay here, playing with Percy’s dark locks until the two of you drift to sleep, you know you couldn’t.

Your brother, Jason, was big on routines and he didn’t waste any time to work out a schedule for himself and the whole Argo II crew. Curfew was set to wake up at the crack of dawn and the times varied person to person under the consideration of who was scheduled for the night watch. 7 am was pretty early, considering you’re all stuck on a boat all day. The hours would just drag and you’ve tried to compromise with him about it but the former praetor was set on his plans.

3. Holidate: it's short series that i'm working on inspired by the netflix movie Holidate! It takes place after college, percy and y/n are adults and just got out of long term relationships! it's a fake dating au. I want to get this fic out for the holidays at the end of the year!

“What?” Silena doesn’t falter her stare and you shift on your feet, suddenly, aware of Ellie tugging on your arm, eager to show you all the Christmas presents she got this year. “You're acting like I showed up in sweats!” Silena purses her lips. “I did my hair, and my makeup! First time in 3 months.” You hoped she'd give you some credit but her expression doesn’t change. “You know what? I don’t need to explain myself to you. I’m going to attend your daughter's Christmas Haul now.”

Silena scoffs and turns on her heels, the red bottoms of her heels clashing perfectly with the green of her dress. Content with that being the end of your conversation, you make your way to the grand stairs with your 4-year-old tour guide.

“You look like shit.” Your vision follows the direction of the voice. Drew smirks, glamorous in her choice of outfit today. To any other dinner party, you wouldn’t be underdressed but Cabin 10 took any event like the met gala.

“Thank you.” you smile as if you just got a compliment. Ignoring her look of obvious disgust, you run up the stairs behind the crowd of children.

__________

“Percy?” Estelle pats her older brother’s shoulder. She waits for a moment, the older boy staring at his cup of eggnog with nothing particular in mind. “PERCY?”

As if snapping out of a trance, Percy blinks, meeting the six-year-olds gaze. “Yes, Guppy?”

The sweet tone in his voice was hard to manage but the last thing he wanted was to ruin his little sister's Christmas with his crabby attitude. He wishes he stayed home at his apartment, waiting out this holiday by pretending it was just a regular Friday. Sally didn’t allow it though, waking him up by calling his landline and demanding he showed up to Christmas dinner. He only came for Estelle. He knew his little sister would miss him.

“Where’s Annie?” She asks, teddy in her arms. Percy shifts, about to answer before his mother chimes in.

“Estelle, can you help dad set the table?” The task was somehow exciting to her child mind, the girl ditching the teddy bear on Percy’s lap. Saved by mom, Percy releases the breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “Sorry,” Sally sheepishly sits beside her son. “I told her what happened and to not bring it up. I guess she wants to hear the news straight from you.”

“It’s fine,” Percy says, green orbs returning to the eggnog in his hand.

#xeni's ask box #percy jackson x reader #nico di angelo fanfic #nico di angelo x reader #xeni's 1k celebration

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sofiahahaaa · 5 years

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Demigod Delinquents | Pt. 3 | Jason Being $$weak$$

| MASTERLIST |

Summary: Jason bean is too rule-following to allow himself to be such a badboy... he needs to COOL dOwN... our babies are being sent off so baiii

Rating: Bruh honestly if you can handle a bit of kissing and Jason being upset for (0) reasons ayyyy

A/N: I cannot believe I am this cool, posting in such rAPID SUCCESSION... i mean if you don’t love me then leave. (jk i need all the love i can get. stay and fall in love?) i’m ready for this story to be fully out.

~~~

Jason’s POV –

My stomach was full of warm food reminiscent of the bakery I loved in New Rome. I missed those strolls I had taken with Reyna, back then. But that was different. I don’t still have feelings or anything. It’s just… Camp Half-Blood doesn’t have that sort of place. To be alone with your loved ones.

I tried to purge the thoughts from my head.

This happened a lot recently. I would be thinking normal thoughts, and then all of a sudden, I was comparing Camp Half-Blood to Camp Jupiter. It wasn’t fair, because I loved both places, but sometimes I found that I didn’t fit into either, and that taking some aspects of each camp would help me make a better camp. I found that I had to swallow my pride, too. I knew that nothing could be perfect, but still, I kept wondering…

I kissed Piper on my way out of the Mess Hall, reminding her I would be away for the quest. She nodded, her braid fluttering in the wind. She looked beautiful. So beautiful I… um... I just wanted to stay with her forever.

I set for Cabin 1.

The walls were pristine as always, and the entire room was tidy, too. I sighed. This cabin really needed a refresher. Big Hippie Zeus was always a sight. His glory reflected upon the place where I slept, and let’s just say… nope. I wasn’t digging it. Not in the slightest.

Maybe I could drag Annabeth in here, have her cut down Zeus, redo the entire place, and bam! Awesome.

That probably wouldn’t happen.

But... I still dreamed as I picked up the orange jumpsuit, changing into the bright costume. I’d seen Leo at the dining hall. He seemed to be rocking it, which most likely meant I would hate it. I slipped it on over the white t-shirt and shorts I had on and studied myself in the polished white marble.

I didn’t like it.

The material was itchy, and it bagged out in odd places. But that wasn’t the biggest part. It wasn’t me. I was a rule follower. Typically. All though I chafed against the rules in Camp Jupiter, I was a goody-two-shoes at Camp Half-Blood. I had been trained that way. It was now my nature. But even as I adjusted the jumper– zipped the zipper up and down, shifted, changed out, straightened it, and put it back on, it just didn’t work.

I had to settle for the collar up, zipped, and my hair pushed back.

Chiron had said that we would have to get into character for this quest, but character– ugh. Maybe this would not be my sort of quest.

Leo and Percy– they didn’t have this struggle. They were always unruly and wild. But for me? I couldn’t do something like this.

I took a breath. In and out. I tried to create a character. Jason the bad boy. No. Jason, the kid who doesn’t care. Hard no. Jason, the kid who has family problems and hates life. Hmm. Maybe. It had some truth to it.

I tried making faces to match my character. Scrunch up the nose, slouch. Nope. Maybe a tough guy look. Yeah, no. Then I tried a better idea. I crossed my arms, tried the brooding look Percy always wore and stuck a piece of gum in my mouth.

I blew bubbles, hoping to look rebellious or something. It worked a little. I did the thing Leo always does, brushing his hands together as if brushing off dust. It heightened my game. I looked like a semi-delinquent. A little flexing of the muscles, some menacing glares. Yeah. It was alright.

(It was not. It was bad.)

I had thirty minutes or so left before Argus was to drive us to the prison. I decided on climbing up to the secret loft in my cabin. I got behind stupid Hippie Zeus and climbed the rungs.

I had always loved this view. Usually, I came up here at night, maybe with Piper, but now, during the day, I saw the entire camp in motion. The cleaning harpies were hopping through the mess hall, making campers run. I saw that the Apollo cabin was in the arena and that Ares cabin was hanging around the climbing wall. Lava poured in clumps, and campers climbed quickly, with that motivation.

Annabeth was calling her cabin to the Armory, while Aphrodite cabin was busy grooming the pegasi. I didn’t see Piper, but that was fine. She probably had found something more interesting to do. Holly and Laurel Victor were bickering over a game of exploding-volleyball (Something the Victor twins made up. Don’t play it unless you’re okay with volleyballs exploding in your face.) and Lou Ellen was trying desperately to save a bust she had attempted of Cerberus. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the summer day.

Something that I couldn’t help loving about Camp Half-Blood was how happy everyone was. It wasn’t strained, like Camp Jupiter. Everyone was very excited to be there. This wasn’t an army. It was a community.

I tried to push the thoughts from my head, but they were there again. Compare, they said. Fix, they kept insisting, and I was almost compelled to do it. I clenched my jaw and forcefully thought of other things. Better things.

I slipped down to the main floor of the cabin. I supposed I would go to Thalia’s Tree to wait for Argus, even though I was early.

When I finally got the tree, I had narrowly escaped a nearly fatal incident involving clay and Lou Ellen and had singed off my leg-hair after passing by the Victor twins. It made me think that Holly had deliberately spiked the volleyball so I would get exploded on.

As it turned out, I wasn’t the first one there. Percy and Annabeth were talking under the tree– possibly saying goodbye, possibly arguing. Hard to tell.

“Hey, guys…" I said as I approached them, hoping I wasn’t offending them by interrupting.

“Oh, hi, Jason,” Annabeth said. She bit her lip. Her hair was combed into a ponytail, and her eyes flashed mini-storms. It was hard to know if Annabeth was mad or not, because her steely calm was too unnerving to decipher. Percy waved and crossed his arms. He was leaning against the trunk, despite Peleus’ protest. Already getting in character, I suppose.

“Annabeth." I nodded in her direction, then turned to Percy. “What’s up, man? You haven’t talked to me in ages." I noticed Percy had bags under his eyes. " I heard about a little sister… Stella?”

“Estelle,” Annabeth replied simply. “Yeah, I have babysitting duty while you guys are gone.” She picked at her nails. “Percy’s just tired. He’s been doing late-night babysitting with me for the last few weeks of summer while Sally and Paul are out on their vacation in, uh, Florida. He was also training my cousin for the weeks before that– he has to stop the end of the world. But that’s about it." I tried to keep my mouth from gaping. Annabeth had a cousin? And… what?

“Oh. Oh, right.” Now I felt a pang of guilt. If Percy was out on baby-duty because of this quest– “Hey, bro, if you don’t wanna go– that– that’s alright, okay? ‘Cause it sounds like you’ve got a lot going on, and I don’t think this quest should, uh, get in the way of that or anything–" I gushed. Percy sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“You know, Annabeth is right. I am tired. But I think this quest will help to some degree. So I’ll go with it, but just because Annabeth has agreed to it. If there’s any change, shift in mood– I’ll opt-out. For now, we’re good. Right, Wise Girl?” Annabeth blinked.

“Yeah. I’m fine with this. It’s okay." I thought that maybe Annabeth was trying to convince herself more than Percy, but I stayed silent. I stared at the looming statue of Athena– the Athena Parthenos that looked down on the camp. I took a deep breath.

“So we’re waiting for sleepyhead Leo now… doubt he’ll wake up any time soon. Nyssa told me he was asleep until noon, and that he was down for a nap after lunch too…I don't understand how much he can sleep. What’s draining him? His ADHD?” Percy commented, sounding gruff. He flipped a golden drachma over his knuckles. "I’ll give him this drachma if he shows up within ten seconds." I looked at Percy warily. The guy was scary, I had to admit.

And now, in this state, he looked like the living dead. His humor and stupidity were replaced by the brooding look he resented. I wondered how he’d react if I told him.

Leo staggered to the top of the hill and collapsed in a heap. “So… tired… Why is that hill so… steep? Can’t even… right… now.” He raised his hand. “Give me the drachma, Perseus.” Percy looked at him as if he couldn’t believe the guy had actually gotten out of bed. He flicked the drachma into Leo’s hand. “Thanks, man.” Leo sat up, spitting out dirt.

“You… got out of bed.” Percy said musingly.

“Nyssa had Harley jumped on me. My ribs hurt still, but I’m good now.”

“Oh. That explains it.”

“You took a nap in this jumpsuit? It’s uncomfortable as Hades’ Gym Shorts." I added. Leo giggled at this comment like a little kid.

“Dude. You’re so, like, uptight. Loosen up.” Leo joked. Percy had a pained look in his eyes, but when he saw me watching, he masked it. Annabeth stood in the middle.

"I’d leave you boys to it, but that’s a bad idea,” Annabeth emphasized. Percy hollered. She glared at him. "I’ll stay here until Argus get here. I don't want another bathroom incident." I stared at Annabeth in mock shock.

“She said it!” Leo shrieked. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Back on the Argo II, when Percy had been given a tour of the whole ship, we had stopped at the bathroom for a while, making Annabeth wonder. We stopped partly because Leo was in dire need of a bathroom, and because Percy was in love.

Back when Leo was designing the ship, of all the things that he would have made perfect, he chose the bathrooms. I had shared the same enthusiasm Percy had when he saw them. They were equipped with everything. From toilets (duh!) to bidets and even bubble baths.

Percy had insisted we try out the bubble bath, seen as there were over 20 different types of bubbles. He practically begged that we put every single one into the jacuzzi tub. He had excitedly jumped in (Clothes and all, minus the shirt) and started playing with all the fancy settings Leo had installed into the tub. Long story short, he got so excited, he lost control of his powers and exploded all the plumbing. Annabeth had rushed in, gotten soaked– it was a mess. And it took weeks for Leo and Percy to collectively restore the plumbing. And– not to mention– Leo’s room was soaked for a while afterward as well, it being next to the bathrooms and all. Not that that mattered, since Leo scarcely slept in his room– but that isn’t relevant.

“Nothing like that can happen in that short of time, Wise Girl.”

“Um, that mess did.” Annabeth retorted. Percy stared in shock. He couldn’t get out a comeback.

“Annabeth: One… billion. Percy: Zero.” Leo chimed half-heartedly.

Argus showed up, three handcuffs in hand. Annabeth checked her watch. “Right on time, as always.” Argus nodded, and a few of his eyes swiveled to each of us. He has a hundred, so it’s uncomfortable to get stared at by him. He was a man of few words, (partly because he is rumored to have an eye on his tongue– and that makes it a bit awkward to speak.) and thus said nothing, but gestured towards the handcuffs. I gulped.

“Ah,” My tongue darted to the back of my throat. “Those are for us?" I managed to croak. He nodded. I had spent years scared of being in one of these. And here I was… doing it voluntarily. My eyes dropped as I became queasy.

Leo, in turn, jumped up, brushed off the dirt on his jumpsuit, and held out his hands for Argus to chain. “Dude, it’s been years since I’ve gotten the cuffs around my wrists.”

“Wait, you’ve been arrested before?”

"I guess… I ran away from my abusive foster mother and the handcuffed me to make sure I would pull anything. I had hijacked a car door and rolled out only weeks ago.” Leo grinned mischievously. “Actually, I had the cuffs loose by the time they got me back to the nasty woman… but I stayed put." I stared at Leo in amazement.

“Bye Annabeth. I promise I won't do anything stupid.” Percy told Annabeth quietly. He sounded a little wistful, and I wanted to assure him that we wouldn’t be against him staying at camp.

“Alright, Seaweed Brain. Stay safe.” Annabeth planted a real, nice kiss on Percy’s lips, and he kissed her back, happily. I kind of wished Pipes was here, but I didn't express it. I watched, partially in jealousy, as Percy picks Annabeth up by the waist, lifting her off the ground, still kissing. Annabeth pulled away to look Percy in the eye. “Percy…” He grinned and pulled her head closer to his, kissing her again. Then, he spun her around, lips still locked, and set her on the ground. “Percy…” She said again in between kisses.

"I love you, Annabeth.”

"I love you too.” Annabeth rested her head on Percy’s chest, and Percy stroked her hair. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

“No problem.”

“Or I’ll have to kill you.”

“Love you too,” Percy replied with gusto. Annabeth pulled him into a hug, and Percy gave in.

“Alright, I mean it. Go have fun.” Annabeth insisted as she put her hands on his shoulders. Percy nodded but snuck in one more kiss, which held for longer than I expected. When he finally pulled away, I had to look elsewhere. A little awkward, knowing I was staring, but I had to admit, Percy and Annabeth were always cuter than Piper and I, and I could never be as romantic as Percy. Leo let out a gasp.

“ohlordtheyaresocuteitslikethetitanicbuttheywontsinktheylljustbeeternalandOHMYGODSitssooooocuteandhowdotheyhavesuchalastingrelationshipaphroditesendhelp–” Leo hyperventilated, unable to wring his hands enough, seen as they were locked up. I felt similar, though I wasn't bold enough to state it like Leo. Percy held Annabeth’s waist firmly, and her hand was at his shoulder. This would be practically the first time they had been apart since… Tartarus. Quite abrupt.

Argus cleared his throat and held out the cuffs for me. I sighed and held out my hands, trying to get into character. Trying to channel my anger towards the messed-up family that had landed me in so many fatal situations– trying to channel my anger towards my divine stepmother, the heifer she is, who wiped my memory. I scrunched my brow and tried the brooding look again as Argus snapped the cuffs around my wrists. “You ready?" I asked Percy. He huffed.

“Yeah.”

“No second thoughts?” Leo added.

“Well, some. But I’m ready.” Percy sighed. Annabeth nodded, and let go of Percy, running down Half-Blood Hill. Percy looked after her, like a lost puppy, but he turned to Argus. “Okay.” And Argus clasped the cuffs around his wrists. I studied mine and felt the weight of the cold cuffs against my wrists. I looked at Argus in the eye– or rather, in one eye. He nodded. I guess this was it. Time for the quest.

A/N: Sad moment, seeing as that’s the last Percabeth moment for a while, but we’ll see Annabeth again, I promise. I apologize about the ‘I’s– I was trying to fix something but now you’ll see that there are ‘I’s without spaces… that was definitely not intentional and I am completely aware. I am trying to get rid of that certain problem. And, unfortunately, this story is heavily Percy and Jason, rather than Leo. Which is horrible because we love Leo, but I’ll try to make it up to you guys and add more Leo, cuz all da ladies luv Leo, amiright? And, as a heads-up JERCY BROMANCE IS FULL FLAME IN THIS FIC. Thanks for reading :)

#pjo #hoo #percabeth #jercy #jiper #caleo #all the ladies love leo #pjo fanfiction #fanfiction #hoo fanfiction #fanfic #percy jackson #leo valdez #jason grace #annabeth chase #bedeludedwithme #i love you #so much #thank you

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Superman & Lois Episode 2 DC Comics and Movie Easter Eggs and References

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Superman & Lois spoilers.

There’s no question that Superman & Lois really knows its stuff. The first episode was a genuine love letter to Superman history, and proved once and for all that you can do a faithful, reverent take on the Man of Steel legend without just retreading stuff people have seen a thousand times.

Superman & Lois episode 2 digs a little bit deeper for its lore, but once again pulls tons of terrific deep cuts from both DC Comics and the character’s history in movies and on TV.

Here’s everything we found…

Captain Luthor

Captain Luthor is from a world that was ravaged by an evil Superman (one wearing the black suit that we saw him wear on Elseworlds). Could this mean that this Luthor is from a world similar to Earth-3 in DC Comics, where the people we know as heroes are in fact evil and vice versa? If so, Captain Luthor could be Alexander Luthor, the power-suited and heroic champion of Earth-3 who fought against an evil Justice League known as the Crime Syndicate.

We have much more about Captain Luthor right here.

Human Defense Corps

One of the soldiers working with General Sam Lane is referred to as “Rosetti.” Could this be Colonel Reno Rosetti of DC’s Human Defense Corps? I think so, especially since it leads into…

7734

The mysterious 7734 is more than just “HELL” in numeric and backwards form. Its existence dates back to the Superman: New Krypton special, which kicked of a massive saga in the comics that eventually culminated in War of the Supermen.

There, 7734 was indeed the brainchild of Sam Lane, and it was meant to keep the planet safe from Superman-style extraterrestrial enemies. It blended military expertise with Lex Luthor-esque super science, so you can see how/why Captain Luthor might have been involved on his world.

Morgan Edge

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It’s not often that we get an Arrowverse character created solely by the legendary Jack Kirby, but that’s Morgan Edge! Edge first appeared in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 in 1970. This isn’t Edge’s first turn in the Arrowverse, having been played by Adrian Pasdar on Supergirl already. This appears to be a different Morgan Edge than the one Pasdar played (who ended his Supergirl run as a known criminal rather than the shady vulture capitalist we see here), which is certainly a result of changes made to reality in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths (like the recasting of Sam Lane and his warmer relationship with Clark and the very existence of Jordan Kent and the aging up of the boys to teenagers).

Chrissy Beppo

The character of Chrissy Beppo is a new creation for the show, but her name harkens back both to the classic Superman comics and to the trailblazing CW superhero series Smallville, albeit by way of the comics. The Smallville Legends web series expanded the universe of the show and featured a Smallville Ledger columnist named Christopher James Beppo.

The Beppo name comes from Superman comics of the 1960s, where it turned out that Jor-El had used a Kryptonian monkey as a test subject for the rocket that sent Kal-El to Earth. Beppo the Super-Monkey (look, the Silver Age of Comics was a weird time, ok?) eventually made his way to Earth, gained powers, and served alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Legion of Super Pets. No, I am not making this up. This wasn’t even the 12th weirdest thing in Superman comics between roughly 1950 and 1969, so don’t @ me (or do!)

There’s another big Smallville connection, too…

Mayor George Dean

The sharp-eyed folks at the ever-reliable Kryptonsite pointed out that Mayor George Dean is played by Eric Keenleyside. And while Mayor “Dean” could possibly reference former TV Superman Dean Cain of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman fame, he has a more direct connection to the Superman mythos, however minor.

Keenleyside played Chloe Sullivan’s father in a deleted scene from the Smallville pilot. He later turned up as “Mike the Bartender” in a single episode of Smallville season 2, “Suspect.”

Man of Steel

The music all through this show evokes the mood of Hans Zimmer’s excellent Man of Steel score, but it’s particularly noticeable in the Fortress of Solitude scenes. Additionally, the idea that it was a depletion of natural resources that started Krypton’s eventual spiral into destruction is something from the comics, but that was really spotlighted well in Man of Steel.

But speaking of that Fortress…

The Fortress of Solitude

The Fortress of Solitude looks slightly more claustrophobic than the way we’ve seen it portrayed on Supergirl in the past (where it featured the statues of Jor-El and Lara, a whole bunch of visible Kryptonian tech, and even a Legion flight ring) but hopefully we get to see more of it in the future. That being said, the color is consistent with the way we’ve seen it elsewhere in the Arrowverse and it’s still appropriately cold and icy looking.

The notion of using a sunstone crystal to operate a control panel that produces a hologram of Jor-El (more on him in a minute) who functions as the AI of the Fortress of Solitude as well as Kryptonian history teacher originated with 1978’s Superman: The Movie, which is not only incredibly influential on this show, but has seen elements of it increasingly adopted by the comics as well.

That holographic map of Kryptonopolis looks pretty cool, too. I can’t attest to whether or not this is the first mention of Kryptonopolis in the Arrowverse (we’ve had plenty of talk of Kandor and Argo City, of course).

Also, in the Son of Superman story by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason which helped introduce Jon Kent in the comics, Clark does indeed take his son to the Fortress for evaluation after he first starts to display his powers. Only there it’s a much younger Jonathan (since Jordan has yet to be introduced in the pages of DC Comics).

Jor-El

That’s Angus McFayden (Braveheart) as Jor-El and he looks pretty cool in the role. It’s only recent portrayals of the character that have given him facial hair, which has also become the standard in the comics, too (in the past, Jor-El often looked pretty much indistinguishable from his son). Even though Clark said in the previous episode that his mom made him the costume (at least that cool early version we saw), it’s important to note that the “S” is still very much intended as the family crest of the House of El, just as it has been established on Supergirl.

There’s one other neat touch on Jor-El’s costume that feels like another nod to Superman: The Movie, though. The black and white color scheme is very similar to how Marlon Brando’s Jor-El dressed in that film, and in particular, the white sections of the costume reflect light in a way that’s very reminiscent of those costumes. It’s really cool.

New Carthage

Lois makes reference to some failed investments that Morgan Edge made in New Carthage. New Carthage is a fictional town in the DC Universe, roughly located around upstate New York like Poughkeepsie or New Paltz or somewhere. And like that latter college town, it’s the home of Hudson University, where Dick Grayson went to college. Folks, if this show is gonna keep dropping Batman deep cuts, I’m just gonna have to keep pointing ’em out!

Batman? Is that you?

On that note…Moldova is a real country, albeit one that was parodied/fictionalized as “Moldavia” in the very first episode of the 1966 Batman TV series, “Hi Diddle Riddle.” If you want to include the “Rory’s First Kiss” joke on the movie marquee from episode 1, this is the second Batman Easter egg on the show. No? Too much?

Friday Night Lights

The Smallville High football team is coached by “Coach Gaines.” Gary Gaines was the Permian Panthers football coach who was played by Billy Bob Thornton in Friday Night Lights. Helbing has also pointed out the Friday Night Lights vibes they want to evoke on this show with its football sequences, and how Lois and Clark handle small town parenting.

Conduit

The Sequoia movie theater has some graffiti that seems to be the initials BK or KB. Could this be Kenny Braverman, the supervillain known as Conduit who knew Clark had powers back in Smallville? OK, fine, I’m probably reaching here.

Miscellaneous Stuff…

The moving company that the Kents use to move from Metropolis to Smallville is called “Change of Pace” with the slogan “Go anywhere, anytime.” This may or may not be an echo of a sentiment Superman & Lois showrunner Todd Helbing expressed to me in a recent interview about the decision to move Superman’s base of operations. “The way we approached it was, if Flash is the guardian of Central City and Supergirl is the guardian of National City, Superman is the guardian of the world,” Helbing says. “So it really doesn’t matter where Superman’s based. He can fly anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. Once you understand that, it really doesn’t matter where his home turf is… it could be anywhere.”

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terriblyspecificreviews-blog · 5 years

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Poppy’s Am I A Girl raises more questions than it answers

6 out of 10 stars

Poppy's sophomore October 31st Halloween album release Am I a Girl has been described as "The Most Bewildering Album of Year", "Cold, technical and eerie.", "Spooky Robo-Bubblegum pop", and "a celebration of all that is capitalist alienation, commodity fetishization, and environmental destruction". This is typical of what you would expect from the "Robot, Satanist, Illuminati Prom Queen" who become a internet meme sensation in 2015 when her disturbing David Lynch inspired Youtube videos went viral, receiving hundreds of millions of views (404,054,129 total views at the time of writing) and thousands of comments providing theories, and conspiracy theories as to what does it all mean.

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Context

The first of these videos have seemingly innocuous, mundane and meaningless subject matters; eating candy floss, boredom, having her nails painted, spinning around while holding an umbrella, and a cover of Mac Demarco's My Kind of Woman. There's always an empty pastel coloured background to remove any sense of environmental context with Poppy being the centre focus in the style of Andy Warhol’s screen tests. There's a soft spoken ASMR style quality to the sound production which creates a sense of intimacy with the viewer, as if you the viewer were privy to personal intimate moment; one of the many subtle jarring unsettling aspects to the videos, together with the dissonant ambient soundtracks and Poppy's increasingly robot like delivery as the project developed over time. In this now infamous video Poppy repeats “I'm Poppy” for ten minutes. Poppy and her creative partner Titanic Sinclair (also a pseudonym) have stated there is a storyline to all of these videos, although I'm unsure as to whether this is a put on or sincere, because if there is a story its unclear and ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation, so I'll leave it to the reader to make your mind up as to what that might be. Over time there seems to have been story development however, with recurring characters appearing such as jealous robot plastic doll Charlotte, who released cover album of Poppy track takes, and Plant, who wishes you would stop killing plants; a subtle reference to the issue of climate change juxtaposed with the mundane sentiments of the video subject matters.

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In a video review for the Poppy project as a whole, New York Magazines’ Jerry Saltz describes Poppy as “Very derivative art, it looks like a lot of very recent contemporary art about art about art that makes fun of art.” He goes on to link her to contemporary artist Jeff Koons, who through for example his metallic shiny balloon like sculptures reflects the viewer back at themselves. Interestingly Koons has being criticised for producing empty vacuous and meaningless art produced cynically for profit, yet this is one possible interpretation of his work; that he is reflecting the empty vacuous profit driven contemporary art world back at itself in a form of a self referential parody. You can also see this at play in Poppy's work. The video topics on her channel and on producer's Titanic Sinclairs channel are mirroring aspects of popular internet culture back at the viewers, but in a way that seems off and satirical, and yet things are kept ambiguous enough to be indistinguishable from what one might perceive as the “real” thing. It could be that this is a cynical attempt at making money, but this could be seen as a reflection of internet clickbait culture in simply producing content that reach the biggest and most general market possible, which is a pertinent point to make; how many of our present political predicaments are the result of online media outlets sensationalising news for clicks? There are also comparisons to be made with London based electronic music genre PC MUSIC in terms of the themes of Hyperreality and the visual aesthetics, and for example in this video and this video Poppy advertises fictional products, perhaps a nod too PC Music's QT and her energy drink. Poppy perhaps takes this all a step further in starting a new religion for profit with her Poppy.Church and The Gospel of Poppy. Again the lines between satire and reality have been blurred here, but this again could be a satirical commentary on the cult echo chamber like nature of online communities.

Poppy's forray into the music industry was likely always the intention given Titanic Sinclair's history with Mars Argo as a music based project. Her ambient album 3:36 (Music to Sleep to) is a reference to the cryptic video of the same name, and perhaps a reflection of Youtube's countless “ambient music for sleep” playlists. Her music is an extension of the narrative presented in the videos. Her song Adored typifies her bubblegum Electro J-pop inspired sound.

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The message of the video and the lyrics go together. For the whole duration of the video Poppy is just staring down her phone; Looking for “This life I keep hearing about... I wanna be adored I want nothing more”. Is this a cynical reference to people who look to social media for validation and live vicariously through their online personas, or is it a literal reflection of the viewer who also found and watched the video through their phone or laptop screen? Poppy's 2017 debut album Poppy.Computer also explored the hyperreality themes of the blurring lines between “online” “technology” and “real life”. The song Computer Boy is a surrealist love song written about her boyfriend, who also happens to be her laptop computer. In I'm Poppy she asks the listener to “Let me be your queen... Please electrify me, Power my Battery” building on the cult and technology themes, and on INTERWEB she has caught us in her internet.

Album Review

This is an album review, however as Poppy is an internet focused visual art project as well as musical artist the visual experience is as part of the intended delivery as the music itself, so I will include synopsis of the music videos on the necessary tracks. The first single and album opener on Am I A Girl is In A minute. A thumping electro chant similar to the Poppy.Computer opener 'I'm Poppy' presenting a smooth transition in the production aesthetic between the releases, however there is already a darker, melancholic tone to the music suggesting a departure from the happy go lucky parodic sentiment of the previous release and an evolution occurring in this offering into more overtly serious and mature subject matters. “I'll make up my face in a minute.. I'll reform this state in a minute.. Cash my check, got paid, yeah, I did it..I haven't done my nails in a minute" is the repeated mantra, on one level a nod to her previous success and rise to star-dome, on another level she is as always offering a cynical reflection of the values of 'American' or 'Western' (arguably global at this point, but for simplicities sake) Society; she has had time to cash her cheque and congratulate herself, but she relegates 'reforming the state' (please remember the cult forming, I'll be your queen, and 'fake it till you make it' sentiments expressed throughout her work) to the same importance as doing her nails or make-up. The video is a black white and red lyric video with a distorted image of Poppy singing,minimalist like Poppy's earlier videos but seemingly a move to a darker aesthetic compared to the typical bright and pastel music videos of previous years. This is also reflected in recent black and white photographs, and her collaborations and hanging out with the likes of Marilyn Manson and Korn's Jonathan Davis.

Second album track and third single Fashion After All is another stompy pop track, less in the vain of her staple J-pop / K-pop sound but on a production note similar to the works of Lady Gaga and Jeffrey Star. Lyrically Poppy is just bragging, something very prevalent in today's top 40 pop appropriated from the braggadocio of hip hop, so this is likely a take on that, although the line “I'm revolutionary, relatable and scary, I'm making plans to save the world and I don't need your help” does make me wonder how much of it is a genuinely honest sentiment and we're seeing some hint of intention or climax to the Poppy project.

The next track Iconic is about self confidence, and how easy it is to be 'iconic'. I hear more Lady Gaga style influence here. “You don't have to be flawless, put on a little polish, run the bedroom to the office, you gotta be iconic, in school, they never taught it, don't worry, babe, I got you, and if you really, really want it, you gotta be iconic”. There's a serious point here that the only thing that makes 'celebrities' different from 'non celebrities' is a veneer of confidence and their crafted public perception. This is a genuinely important message when it has been revealed social media is deliberately engineered to fuel insecurity and anxiety, with some social media companies running non consensual psychological experiments on their customers to make them depressed in an age of record teenage suicides and mental health problems. The key words here are “if you really, really want it” there's not much to it, it's just an image; a presentation. This is also a very interesting message when you consider the Poppy starting a religion/cult aspect.This could be taken as a positive message in the sea of apparent cynicism that is the Poppy project, and likewise the song's tone has a very upbeat and positive feel in the context of a slightly darker and more mature album.

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The albums second single is Time Is Up, and this certainly takes it to this darker place, musically and with it's apocalyptic subject matter. Probably the catchiest track on the album and probably the most important. Poppy sings from the point of view of an AI robot waking up in a factory, there is a link here to the theme of blurring lines between reality and the internet as Poppy is seen in her videos to become more robot like over time. There's some humour in this opening, which offsets the rest of the songs lyrics in which Poppy's AI character informs us all that while she won't need “air to breathe when you kill the bees And every river bed is dry as a bone.. when the plants have died and the atmosphere is just a big hole”, our time is up; meaning our (humans) self made extinction. She proceeds to inform us we are like cockroaches and extermination is our only hope. The humour here makes it such a hard hitting point. As Contrapoints brilliantly explains and dissects in this video far more succinctly then I have space for here, a lot of Americans have a problem accepting man made climate change despite the overwhelming evidence of it's reality and the absolute necessity of action against it at this point in time. The President is a climate change denier as is his elected head of the Environmental Protection Agency is too, and arguably this is the most pressing issue of our time, so it's perhaps unsurprising Poppy and co chose to deviate from their usual ambiguity and be so overt here. Purely from a pragmatic point of view humour can make things easier for people to accept and so I commend Poppy and her team for pulling this off so well.

The title track Am I A Girl treads the waters of ambiguity once again however. Taken literally at face value the lyrics are about moving beyond the gender binary, “Am I a girl? Am I a boy? What does that even mean? I'm somewhere in between”. The lyrics seem overly simplistic and lacking in depth and nuance however. As this Vulture article points out, this is an artist who has used lyrics like “Boys aren't even boys anymore” and “You are never in the mood / So come on baby, tell me, are you gay?” in the past. Poppy when asked when she took interest in questioning societies gender constructs replies “When other celebrities started exploring it”, while this could be interpreted at simple sarcasm it does not translate well, and so I think the Vulture writer has good reason to take offence here, this can be interpreted as making light of a very serious issue for the sake of a joke that doesn't even clearly make sense. While I would also like to give the benefit of the doubt here, it's hard to find a practical way in which celebrities drawing attention to LGBTQ+ issues could be taken as something that should be attacked. This is disappointing as it undermines a positive and liberating message for the sake of a cheap shot at celebrity culture. That said, in Time Is Up Poppy said we all deserved to be exterminated, so maybe I'm missing something.

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Play Destroy drew some significant hype for the album owing to it's featuring and co-production with electronic artist Grimes, though the process did not go smoothly. There's a significant shift in the sound aesthetic here, continuing on from the track Hard Feeling's introduction of metal guitar riffs, juxtaposed with the J-pop inspired bubblegum pop aesthetic. As catchy as the song is, I can't shake the feeling that their call to “Burn down the local Wal-Mart Monsanto, Raytheon” isn't entirely a sincere anti-corporation sentiment given the once again one dimensional approach to the lyrics and the fact Grimes's partner at the time was Elon Musk. Still musically this is an album highlight for me with it's blurring of genre's and particularly glossy vocal production.

The album finale X takes this genre blurring to an extreme with it's sugary reverb soaked calls to save the world and “empty every bullet out of every gun”, and the screaming metal sections and ridiculous chorus of “Please get me bloody”. The choice to release this as a video with equally juxtaposing imagery to match the music and the overall album theme of a darkening of imagery from the previous album/photos/imagery to this one, and the choice to end the album on this note offers a suggestion of where the Poppy project is going next. I will be keeping track of it as it unfolds, because the deeper I search for meaning here the more unsure I become as to what the intention behind it all really is, and perhaps as New York Magazines’ Jerry Saltz suggested they don't really know what it means or what the purpose is. What happens next will set the context for this one, given the attempts to construct a narrative on this album and in recent Poppy videos, we still don't know what this is and the celebrity LGBTQ+ comment sets a worrying precedent even if it was an ill informed attempt at sarcasm.

I believe that some clarity is needed at some point in the near future, you can only be so vague and tell the same cryptic joke repeatedly before it becomes meaningless nonsense. For the time being I give the album a 6 out of 10 score for it’s well written, glossy, genre bending and frankly fun pop, but I think time will tell how well the album and the project to which it belongs ages.

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