#i was going to name the dog bullet or killer or something dumb like that but idk😭😭😭

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 7, The Two Live Crew Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Dean: Hi, I’m Dean Devlin, Executive Producer and Director of this episode of Leverage.

Amy: Hi, I’m Amy Berg, Supervising Producer and Writer of this episode.

John: John Rogers, Executive Producer and Co-Writer of this episode. Hold on. [Opens bee.] There we go.

[Laughter]

Dean: The beer has been opened.

John: The Guiness has been opened. Amy Berg where did this episode come from?

Amy: Well, I mean, when you have a show about a team of con men sort of- one of the first episodes that you think of is- 

John: Yeah, it was like one of the first ones we broke- we talked about last season-

Amy: What happens when they go up against another team of con men? And obviously that's not something you really wanna, sort of, pull the trigger on during season one, so we sort of sat on it for a bit.

Dean: But we talked about it a lot in season one.

Amy: We did talk about it.

John: Yeah. But really you have to have your- part of the fun is having your characters and opposition- of people that make a difference, having the opposition of you need to know the characters really well.

Amy: You need to learn who our people are before we can bring in a new set of people.

John: Yeah, so it was a lot of fun putting together the different combinations and different variations on this- the evil team of evil Leverage.

Amy: Loves it.

John: Why the Gustav Klimt?

Amy: The Gustav Klimpt, now you're testing me and it's been a while, I believe this painting was called Higeia and it was technically destroyed by the Nazis in 1945. And it was sort of a choice to pick a painting that wasn't actually in existence, so we weren’t stepping on anybody's toes, saying that this was a stolen painting.

John: The likeless- the equivalent of likeness rights on paintings is an enormous pain in the ass so as a matter of fact, there's a statue of Lincoln in the park that's in the sequence later that we shot and then we had to get the rights to using that statute, even in the background.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Now that's very tricky stuff. Dean tell us about the fun of shooting this.

Dean: Well we wanted to try and keep perpetual motion and show two different attempts. Our team, which tries to do a low tech break in through basically just cutting through a wall through this cheapo office behind the high tech office, and then the daring team that actually chases the bullet head on.

John: Yeah. And there is our villain, Griffin.

Amy: Griffin Dunne.

John: Exactly.

Dean: I've wanted to work with Griffin my whole life. I remember seeing him in An American Werewolf Through London and just falling madly in love with this guy; I just thought he was amazing. And then when we went to do this episode, it was actually Tim Hutton who said, ‘What do you think about my pal Griffin Dunne playing this part?’ And it was just like a gift from heaven.

John: Oh yeah, we are all over that. And this is a lot of fun and we built a fake wall- And that is Tim's assistant, correct?

Amy: That’s that’s Elle, yeah.

John: That's Elle, Tim’s assistant, in her big screen debut with us tormenting her.

Amy: Indeed. And they're playing detectives Marlow and Archer who, as you know, is an homage to both Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald.

John: That's right.

Dean: And there's fun outtakes from that which will be in the gag reel.

Amy: Excellent. This should have a lot of gag reel footage.

John: It's also- to tell you what's weird is, Archer actually- 

Amy: Was the name of Tim Spades partner in [mumbles]?

John: That's right. That's what the original reference was. That’s also Ross Mcdonald.

Amy: But Ross Mcdonald was inspired by that character in order.

John: Really?

Amy: Yeah.

John: I didn't know that. There you go.

Dean: Fans of the show In Treatment should know that this actress, Noa Tishby, is actually the Executive Producer of In Treatment on HBO.

John: That's right Noa is an Israli actress, she was in Israel, she saw the original show, she dug in, got the rights herself, brought it to America, and wound up executive producing the American version.

Amy: By the way, that's Wil Wheaton.

[Laughter]

Amy: Which is so awesome. And who cast Will Wheaton in this episode, John Rogers?

John: Well I technically cast him, but I believe you had the idea of hiring Wil Wheaton because I'm the one who actually signed the papers.

Amy: Thank you, I appreciate the credit on that.

John: Yes.

Dean: And I was so happy because Wil Wheaton and I actually used to play on the same hockey team together.

Amy: That's right.

Dean: And this was back when he was on Star Trek. And I was dumb enough to allow him to play goalie at the time and-

[Laughter]

Dean: And [Unintelligible]’s son took a slapshot that cracked his helmet open and gave him 17 stitches across the forehead.

Amy: You helped break Wil Wheaton's face.

Dean: And the producers of Star Trek called me screaming at me and forbidding me to ever allowing him to play on the team again.

Amy: Nice. Dogs Playing Poker, by the way, totally public domain. That’s why we chose that one.

John: There you go, there's a lot of variations of that, too, that’s right. And this is actually our little slam is not a part of the subtle on a lot of the CBS crime shows; just the sort of horrible-

Amy: Yeah, the over the top-

John: When we created Leverage, one of the reasons we did it was because so many shows were chasing serial killers. I think it was Chris Downey who said, ‘You know what? Serial killers are covered. Let’s chase rich white dudes in suits.’

Amy: I think they're done.

John: There's only ever been 10 and they've been caught 100 times. And that was Apollo Robbins. This is a great- this is one of Dean's signature roundy-rounds. And I was saying the other day-

Dean: An amazing steadicam shot.

John: I was saying the other day, we've actually learned in the writers room how to assign dialogue to make this easier.

Amy: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: So rather than rewriting on the fly-

Amy: -we write towards the circle track.

John: Cause you can actually see. It goes- it's like triple play: it goes to Beth to Aldis to Chris to Tim and then back around again.

Amy: I love Parker; there’s always- always something secret going on, whether its secret nazis or- 

John: Yeah well, we kind of establish it in The Day of the Hunter Job, Parker’s realm of knowledge outside of stealing is not good.

[Laughter]

John: Like, anything that doesn't involve stealing, she will believe it if the other team members tell her. Oh this is great. I remember we shot this day. Dean, tell us about this bit.

Dean: Well this was one where we actually went full circle because we came in, we rehearsed it one way and it felt really good, but then we started to feel like, ‘Gosh we're not doing enough.’ And so then we reblocked the entire scene so we could all do more and have more happen, and then we all paused and went, ‘You know, the first one was much better.’

[Laughter]

Dean: And that's what we went with.

John: Yup. What I think was part of what was driving that was because I was on set that day, ‘Do not touch the motion sensitive bomb.’

Amy: Thank you.

John: Was the fact that this was gonna be Gina's last episode, full day with the cast- And also, she really dug in on the fact that the character was going to die and it genuinely upset the cast. Like the cast was a little freaked out here; they got way- cause this is a very claustrophobic set, very claustrophobic scene. The way we usually shoot is we shoot longer takes. So we do the whole thing, like we’ve shot entire acts in one take at some point.

Dean: That's true.

Amy: Yeah. By the way, this bit with the pudding, I've known John for two years and this is the only time I've ever turned him on.

[Laughter]

Amy: I wrote this bit, and he read the act and he came in and he burst into my office and was like ’hahaha’.

John: Remember you didn’t use it you; had talked about it and-

Amy: That’s true. That’s true. I brought it up in dialogue, but I didn't actually employ it. They didn’t- Parker didn't actually use it.

John: I actually kicked in the door- the only time I’ve yelled at you- 

Amy: Yeah, he yelled at me.

John: I kicked in the door and said, ‘How do you come up with instant pudding in a motion sensitive bomb and not actually use it?’ And so we had- and Parker, we had Parker do it. There's a lot of great acting in here, there's a lot of Gina digging in on, sort of, Sophie's past catching up with her. Hardison-

Amy: But this is a scene where it’s really easy to overwrite it, because your instinct is sort of to write to the emotion of this scene like Sophie could die. But the point is to underwrite and let your actors find the emotion between the lines.

John: That beat right there with Chris and Gina.

Amy: Yes.

John: There's a very nice recurring thing we try to do, which is, whenever it becomes something about killing someone, they go to Eliot because Eliot- because Eliot used to do that. And there's a nice moment there. I was actually there- oh look at that look. I love that look. Where-

Amy: Emotion between the lines.

John: Where basically Eliot signs off on the fact that she's probably gonna die and Gina and Eliot worked that out and it's just a lovely moment. Ahhh this is great, now how did we do this?

Amy: Gina just knocks this out of the park.

Dean: So Gina was very pregnant at the time, so we had to do a double for the wide shots, for the running, and Gina for the closeups.

John: Yeah, and then this is a miniature.

Dean: That's right. Well, the building is the actual building we shot at, but the explosion is a miniature that we shot at our parking lot that we digitally composited on top of it. Now at the time, people didn't know what we were gonna do with Gina's character because Gina was pregnant. So when we did this scene and we aired this episode a lot of people were really upset at this point because they actually thought we had killed her off of the show. 

Amy and John: Yeah.

Dean: And early Twitters were very upset.

Amy: Were not favorable.

John: Were very angry.

[Laughter]

Dean: How could you kill her off the show? But then-

Amy: This was originally intended to be the midseason finale, which in that case, the fans would definitely think for sure she was gonna be gone for a while or forever. 

John: Yep.

Amy: But we ended up adding two episodes to the end of the midseason run, so we did get to see her again.

Dean: I don't know what it is exactly, but for me, Parker’s performance- or Beth’s performance as Parker in this section here is reminiscent of some of the great comedians. 

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: Because it's so subtle what she's doing. And a lot of this came out of Beth herself who said -

Amy: I rewrote this scene based on Beth's notes that you were so kind to give me, and it sort of- it made the scene like 10 times better. I don't even remember what it was originally, but-

John: She's trying to remember what her lines are to say as Parker and her eyes roll up like ‘what am I supposed to say’ and then she gets freaked out at seeing Gina dead and loses it.

John: And then she totally spirals out.

Amy: There's a lot going on in, like, 20 seconds; it's pretty funny.

John: And then Hardison having to go up and bail her out. And again, there's a lot of- there's a lot of stuff going on in the structure this year with Gina leaving, and just for that tempering and having us to accelerate that storyline- There's a lot of Hardison/Parker relationship stuff between the lines on all the shows, we just never made it an A plot, but you can actually see the relationship evolve over the course of the season, when you watch the entire season particularly, the second half. And of course Chris is wearing a bandana under his hat because that's when he had slammed his head onto the set.

Dean: In the previous episode.

John: Exactly.

Amy: Yeah, he’s got a giant scar on his forehead right now.

John: Beautiful cemetery up on a big hill in Portland, nice enough to let us shoot there. Beautiful, gorgeous location. And that's a nice bit of acting, too.

Dean: Yeah, just the little moment of him seeing her and then getting that shock of losing someone that he cares about.

John: Yeah, and just processing.

Amy: So far you've pointed out that your favorite moments are the ones where there's no dialogue, so I'm glad I could contribute to that.

[Laughter]

John: Well you wrote- no no, that’s right, I usually go back and write the stage directions, but you do a lot of the-

Amy: This- and so it begins, when John makes fun of me throughout the commentary.

John: I don't make fun of you, just when you take too much credit.

[Laughter]

Dean: This is the controversy.

Amy: I was taking no credit!

Dean: In this scene, the gravestone says Cathrine Klive, her actor name, and at the end Sophie Deveraux and a lot of people thought that was actually a mistake, but why don't you address that?

John: Well we were really- it comes up in the end. We really wanted- and this is sort of a meta structural thing - she wants to kill Sophie Deaveraux. She realizes Sophie Deveraux as an identity, as a life, is a dead end, and so she changes the tombstone so that she can eventually give up that identity. And it's interesting because what Sophie is- realized is that she's going down a dead end, and in theory she’s the current criminal and Nate is the honest man. Nate is also going down a dead end, but he's way too obsessive and blind to realize it.

Amy: Yeah.

John: And so by the end of the season, you’ll see Sophie is a lot more emotionally evolved than Nate is.

Amy: It's true. This is sort of the beginning of Nate’s spiral where-

John: Yeah, maybe the end of Sophie’s thing.

Amy: His priority shifts and, like, winning becomes more important than servicing the clients.

John: We just sort of tease in 206. Great scene between Griffin and- really that was kind of fun. Once we knew we had Griffin Dunne, a lot of these scenes became, ‘Alright, it's really just gonna be head to head.’

Amy: Yeah, yeah.

John: Yeah. It's just- we’re just gonna have the two of them- And the fact that they're friends was really helpful.

Amy: And this the promise of the premise when you do a crew vs crew episode. What you are promising to the audience is you're gonna have one-on-one faceoffs between the characters and their counterparts.

John: And this is part of the evolution of writing an episode, is when we were breaking this, we had a really hard time getting that up as fast as possible, and that's what you wound up- doing the inner cut break in at the opening. Because even though they weren't facing off at each other, we gave the audience the promise of the premise.

Amy: Yes.

John: And the beautiful Hyundai Genesis. A fine automobile.

Amy: A fine, fine vehicle.

Dean: Beautiful peel out.

John: It was nice. In a cemetery!

[Laughter]

John: There was a moment where I was talking to one of the actors, I looked down and realized I was standing on a civil war veteran’s grave. That was a little disturbing.

Amy: That’s classy Rogers.

Dean: I absolutely love the little makeup and hair choices of Gina in this scene, it's so 40’s noir.

John: Yes.

Amy: Yeah, yeah the hair.

John: The whole episode she's playing 40’s noir. And it was a really interesting look, and not one we can do a lot because of the characters she's played, but this was interesting; she's not playing a character ever in this episode except in the opening.

Dean: Right.

John: I kind of liked her in the cop outfit.

Amy: It's one of my favorite running gags in the entire series of the show. Parker just not entirely buying that Gina’s actually alive.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

Amy: ‘I'm not dead!’

John: Some part of her brain understands it, but the emotional center is so screwed up.

Amy: ‘I saw her in a coffin, ergo, she must be, in fact, dead.’

John: This is also great, is digging in on the fact that the whole ex-boyfriend/crew/guy who runs the crew she used to be with. And for a while, for like a minute and a half in the room, remember that character was Sophie's boyfriend for the whole first half of the season and this was gonna be the payoff, but we just never knew if we were gonna get the availability for that actor and we just couldn't risk it. And it also seemed a little dishonest she would hide that, so.

Dean: I love the Hardison line, ‘You saw other teams before us?’

[Laughter]

Amy: ‘No, just another Nate.’

John: ‘Just another Nate.’ That's- yes, this is a big family beat of looks back and forth. 

Amy: Lots of looks.

John: Now how did you- I remember you were very, Dean, very big into designing the other team’s headquarters.

Dean: Yeah, well I really wanted to feel like a mirror of our headquarters. But in a believable way in that they don't have permanent space so they’re in a small space. But I was trying to mirror even screen direction-wise that one team is looking left-right the other team is looking right-left so that we can really feel like these are absolute mirror images of each other.

John: Yeah even the looks left-right and right-left match.

Dean: That’s right.

John: Yeah, no it's interesting. And there's Apollo Robbins, who we haven't mentioned yet.

Amy: Apollo Robbins! Yes, he's our technical consultant on the show. He is a master thief. But not anymore, he's a good guy now. I feel like I should point that out.

John: Yes we should. You can't hire him to do crimes.

Amy: When I say consultant, I mean he's not actually a thief anymore.

John: This is also great; this is also the Mona Lisa scam. Why don’t you explain the Mona Lisa scam since you’re a research freak?

Amy: Oh great, now I’m-

John: 1911.

Amy: Yes, 1911 there was a con man, I don't remember his name, but someone says it I think in this scene, where he created six forgeries of the Mona Lisa, stole the original, and then sold the six fakes on the black market to individual buyers as though they were the original and got six times the profit.

John: Some con and heist shows will just do that plot and act like they came up with it. [Coughs] Asshole! [Cough]. 

[Laughter]

John: Rather than mention the fact that this is something that really happened, that you should honor. 

Amy: This is something that really happened, that I actually read about.

John: Also used the Doctor Who's: The City Of Death written by Douglas Adams.

Amy: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

John: There you go. This is something else we did a lot of, which was the process of elimination bit with the screens. Remember we did it in Hunter too? And it's just kind of fun because it’s kind of something from my physics background which is all about probability. And the fact that a series of educated guesses- it's kind of like our version of detective work.

Amy: Yeah.

John: You know, it's like crime detection, it's a lot of fun. And yeah, and now we're really seeing Nate start to spin out of control.

Amy: But this is what I would call dueling competence porn.

John: Yes it is.

Amy: This, and the third act where the teams are doing their jobs and doing them well.

John: Competence porn, by the way, is a term- I forget how it came about, but it's basically-

Amy: It's just a room bit.

John: It’s a room bit. It’s like, you know what? I just like watching people who are good at their jobs doing it, especially if they're entertaining. A lot of it was from 208 was watching Beth Riesgraf- in 208 there was an entire act that's a break in-

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: That’s Beth breaking into a vault. And when you're writing it, you're like, ‘Gosh, that feels thin,’ and then you're watching it and you're like, ‘I'm watching Parker break into a vault for 15 minutes and this is amazing!’

Amy: I could watch it for 40 minutes.

Dean: This is one of my favorite bullet time shots that we’ve done.

John: Yes, now this is- now remember this is all done not digitally- well we do it really. We freeze everyone in the background and the cameraman walks through it and we digitally speed it up. What is this space? This is the- 

Dean: This is an actual museum in Portland that we turned into our space.

John: Yup.

Amy: Wasn't there a naked sculpture that you guys put a leaf on?

John: Yes, up in the upper level.

Amy: That's my favorite story.

John: Yeah. And then- yes, this is 4-way; this is not as insane as the one in the season opener.

Amy: But it’s still insane.

John: But this is a 4-way through about 100 extras.

Amy: I don't think Dean understands that we’re making television.

[Laughter]

Dean: Well, you know, honestly you don't even attempt a shot like this without a steadicam operator like Gary Camp.

Amy: Gary Camp is amazing.

Dean: He's a serious feature film guy. I mean, that was all one shot.

John: Yeah. That's stunning. And then you bring it back to Parker- and this is also fun, is the fact that we make fun in the show. And this was- even when we did tap out and some people were like, ‘Oh, you're making fun of Lincoln, Nebraska,’ when we had Sophie make fun of the food. We’re not making fun of the locations, we’re making fun of the fact that Sophie’s a little princess.

Amy: Yeah.

John: She's not someone who does well with things that- and the van, the van, actually, over the course of the second season becomes a character.

Dean: I love that she's says about how it smells a little whiffy.

[Laughter]

Amy: Which is a callback in The Future Job as well.

John: Yes, this is hard work, it smells like hard work. Yeah, Hardison's affection for the van.

Amy: Respect the van!

John: Respect the van, yeah.

Dean: Now this is actually the first scene where we’ll see the teams start to go head to head.

John: Yeah. Split up, call out your jobs.

Amy: This is the promise of the premise act, as we call it. And it's the Van Gogh that they're after, the Cafe Terrace At Night, I believe it’s called.

Dean: And this is a very important moment because it really established who Nate and Sophie were to the rest of the team. Nate being the one that makes the plans, but Sophie being the one who keeps them safe. And that had never been exposited before, and by doing that, it really set it up.

John: Boom! And then the parallel structure over to Hardison's opposite number, Chaos, played by Wil Wheaton, just four vans down. 

Amy: Nice.

John: That was really inspired. They’re the most twin of the bunch. Oh, and this is amazing. This is amazing because that's all real time. That wallet never came off. This was this whole section we just gave to Apollo.

Amy: Yeah. He's like, what can you do? And he just basically-

John: And he took Beth aside and they came up with a bunch of- it’s like, you know what? We're just gonna run camera, you just do a bunch of you do you, man.

Amy: By the way, there was no one else we had in mind for Apollo. Even when I was like- when I came up with the concept, and then I also did the outline, I also called the character Apollo, hoping at some point we would actually cast him.

John: But was the Wil Wheaton character originally a girl?

Amy: In fact, she was.

John: Yes, that’s right.

[Laughter]

Amy: Yeah, it was- I believe it was a hot Latina- 

John: Yes.

Amy: -that he was going up against, and then at some point, you know, in the casting process I turned to you and I was like, ‘You know, we've been talking about Wil Wheaton for something. Is this not the prefect role or not?’

John: And Noa Tishby rocking the dress. Noa was actually in the Israeli army. So that was kinda cool as we were looking at a lot of different actresses and Dean had seen her tape.

Dean: Yeah.

John: And it was like, you know, I wanna try a different ethnicity. I wanna try a different look, and brought her in. And what's great is she looks like she can take a punch, you know, that's a tough chick. And she really did great in the fight scenes and was a really- we got really lucky in this episode.

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: You know, we usually have to cast one big role; we cast five. 

Dean: Right.

John: And they were all great.

Dean: Now this fight scene was-

John: Ok I'm gonna take credit for this one because nobody else is-

Amy: I wasn't gonna take credit for it.

John: No shadow on this, I had to explain this 9 times.

[Laughter]

Amy: Oh yeah, that’s right.

Dean: And this sequence was actually getting directed by Marc Roskin and you, John.

John: Yes, at two o’clock in the morning. But I will give Mark Franco big props for throwing the old 1970’s film look.

Amy: The film reel stuff.

Dean: I love it.

John: That is so great. The Shaw brothers look is that and this is the whole-

Dean: That's how they see- in their minds that's how they see fights, like the karate movies they grew up watching. 

John: Yes. And this is based on two things. 1) a great story about samurais- I love that look that Chris did. Great story about two samurai who faced each other, knew each other’s skills so well they fought the entire fight in their head and walked away. And Warren Ellis’ character the Midnighter from The Authority comic book who has sort of the same thing. He does fights backwards in his head. Ah look at that, oh he's a great physical actor, too, it was really- it was nice, cause we cast Apollo, he's never done acting before, he'd never done TV before. And it's the one gamble on the whole show and he was fantastic.

Dean: And he totally pulled it off.

Amy: But he's just so damn charming, it’s like you, sort of, just believed from the beginning that he could do it.

John: Yeah, he's very dangerous. 

[Laughter]

John: It's really- if he ever turned evil, we'd be in a lot of trouble.

Amy: Oh my gosh.

Dean: This next sequence, outside, while I had done the storyboards for it, Marc Roskin shot the hell out of it. And what we wanted to do was an homage to the great Western movies, you know, the Spaghetti Western.

John: Well this was the challenge, and we talked about this when we were writing it. It’s like, nobody does hacking in an interesting way. There's no way to do hacking in an interesting way.

Amy: Visually it’s- filming it is not effective.

John: So abandon trying to do it with the computers and just do the metaphor, which is two guys pitting each other’s intellects against each other, and make it text.

Amy: And it's much more interesting, look at each other than looking at screens.

John: Oh and that timing is great, look at this, it’s just fantastic.

Amy: This is so nerdgasmic.

[Laughter]

Dean: He even had that Spaghetti Western whistle.

Amy: Yeah. I remember the first cut it was only in there subtly and you were like, ‘Hey turn that up, man.’

Dean: Listen, I’m-

John: And look at the little holster move, too. 

Dean: I'm all for subtly, I just want a lot more of it.

[Laughter]

John: Oh no, Wil knocked it out of the park in this. Did you know that he had been doing a bunch of shows and people have come up and asked him to sign his autograph as this character?

Amy: As Chaos.

Dean: That's great.

John: Somebody came up with the anarchists cookbook and asked him to sign it as Chaos.

Dean: And I love that Sophie can’t use a computer.

[Laughter]

John: Utterly useless.

Dean: She just closes it.

John: Well Hardison’s taught Eliot- and the look to the swords. We had so much fun coming up with different props in the scenes. And this was at 2 o’clock in the morning fight fight fight, you win. Fight fight fight, you win. And just- cause they had to learn the routines and we were banging it out in three sizes at a time, it was great. Then we shot the bird. 

Amy: So many looks.

John: And this- you could run the entire Parker/Apollo scene without dialogue and you'd know exactly what's going on.

Amy and Dean: Yeah.

John: Actually-

Dean: She's a little bit the Harpo. You know what I mean.

Amy: She's the Harpo.

John: She's the Harpo, he's Groucho in that scene, it's very subtle.

Amy: Is that Chase? Was that Chase walking towards the camera? It looked a little like Chase.

John: No, no. And this is, again, one of the rules, one of the hard rules of doing these shows. These shows are very hard, is that it can't be a random obstacle. Whatever is your obstacle heading into the third or fourth act must either be a product of the villains plan which you've already set in motion, or something that the team has screwed up or succeeded too well. And not screwed up too often cause that means they suck. So-

Amy: You make it sound like we did something good on purpose. That’s awesome.

John: Yeah, every now and then. And this is just- I want-

Dean: We almost didn’t do this.

John: We almost didn't do, but this is the punchline to the bit, that they're so locked into each other-

Dean: I'm so glad we did it.

John: Yeah. I actually was ready to bail on it, you were like, ‘Yeah, you know what? Let's make time.’ And the little look, and he gives them a bunch-

Dean: A bunch of crazy idiots.

John: Yeah, exactly. Now this is great, Nate’s totally lost in the need to win at this point.

Amy: Oh yeah.

Dean: I love Parker saying that, ‘The people in this line of work are unstable; we can use that.’

John: Yes.

Dean: Completely not realizing that she's in that line of work.

John: Tapping the pad look at that and look at the look Chris- that's another thing. 

Amy: ‘I'm totally helping.’ That's it.

John: Gina gives a little smile which I missed the first time I saw this show.

Amy: There's a lot of little subtleties.

John: And again, second season, you start pairing up things differently. Chris and Gina found a nice rhythm for Sophie and Eliot this year that wasn't there first year, just in the pairings. And we wound up working; it was nice. And this is- yeah, she killed a guy with a mop.

Dean: I love Hardison's jealousy about Chaos, the whole ‘ugh.’

Amy: ‘Chaos.’

[Laughter]

John: Cause, you know, and it's a great thing of acting on Aldis’ part, you know he's beat him. You know that Chaos has beaten him a couple times. He's really- he’s not a pleasant loser, Hardison. And the nice little fist tap for the Kobayashi Maru.

Amy: Nice little knuckle bump, Parker. 

John: Yup. Well that was another one of the little subtle things, that Parker has plainly sat down and watched like all nine Star Trek movies with Hardison because it was just something he did on a Saturday, you know?

[Laughter]

Amy: Well she wants to see, you know, what normal people do.

John: Yeah, Hardison's probably a bad example of that.

Amy: I don't think that's right- the right choice.

John: There's not- you know-

Amy: I gotta say, I love Tim in this scene.

John: Yeah. He’s really mad.

Dean: This one, out of all the cutting back and forth, this was the trickiest because it had to match rhythm, intensity-

Amy: And dialogue.

Dean: -and dialogue.

John: That's right. 

Dean: This was really tricky.

John: Line by line. And that was the tricky bit, too. We had to give both of them the entire script for each one so they could know what they were doing to each other. I think- did Griffin come down the first day and watch Tim?

Dean: I actually think this was Griffin’s either first or second day on the show.

John: That's right. Tim came down to watch- yeah, so he would know what he had done physically. There's a parallel structure even with the team. This was a lot of fun. But this is one of those things that looks really elegant, but scripting, it's a little chimpy. It’s like, once you know what you're going to do, this wrote pretty easy.

Amy: Ok, yes, but I'm gonna go on record in saying that this is the best third act we've ever done in the history of Leverage. I just love it so much.

John: Well, you know what? Again, this is something you sorta learn. We- you know what? You learn how to write the show while you write the show. This is when we really where we realize you only need to do one thing an act. We so tried to buff all the people and, ‘Oh look, at the incredible plot twist’ like, you know what? They're fun characters, they're good characters, let them do one thing.

Dean: Yeah, it's fun to watch them do their thing.

John: One thing every act.

Dean: And I love how they all started to get pumped up for it. On both sides, they are gearing up for game day.

John: This is a great act break.

Amy: Nothing about that act I dont like. And I had very little to do with it.

John: This is easily- this is one of my favorite shows of the season. Of both seasons.

Amy: Mine too.

Dean: And beautifully photographed by our great cinematographer, Dave Connell.

John: That's right, because we were shooting parallel; we were shooting inside the museum and outside. You were outside running back and forth.

Dean: Very intense.

John: And this is a lot of fun. All the security guys were great. Portland once again gave us a great, great acting pool. 

Amy: Go Portland!

John: And then this was a lot of fun, was setting up the snarky dialogue and Aldis and Wil basically sat and sweated in their vans-

Amy: Yeah.

John: -for 6 hours. Cause Aldis is always going, ‘Nobody knows what it's like to work in the van’. That van is hot. So he was very glad to have a playmate.

Amy: Aldis had like one full day of shooting in the van and nowhere else.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Dean: I love the character Tim came up with here, that was great.

John: And Emily is actually the girl I went to prom with. That's where the name comes from.

Dean: Nice.

John: Yep.

Dean: Poor Emily.

John: Yeah I’m- hey!

[Laughter]

Amy: I said nothing. If you noticed, I stayed quiet and said nothing. I'm learning.

John: And Tim plays drunk, distracting guy an awful lot this season. This- and by the way, the security guard that talks him down is great, he's got a really great comedic beat. This, by the way, is a stunning sequence.

Dean and John: 10 millimeter lens.

Amy: 10 millimeter lens? 

John: Down in the basement.

Dean: And look at this steadicam move - down the stairs!

Amy: Running down the stairs.

John: This is a guy walking!

Dean: And then whipping around, that is-

Amy: This is inhuman.

John: It really is.

Dean: For steadicam artists, they will understand how difficult that shot is.

John: By the way, I like the fact that we just locked Beth into the air conditioning system.

[Laughter]

John: ‘Are we gonna build one? No, there's one downstairs! Should we put Beth Riesgraf in moving machinery? If she's up for it.’

Amy: Not sure why we had to put the lock it, but that's ok.

John: It's a good look. And oh yes, it-

Dean: I think this is my favorite of all the air duct scenes, this is my favorite air duct scene.

Amy: This is actually-

John: Well like Two Horse- all of Two Horse where she was bitching while having to do it.

Amy: Oh yeah.

John: This is also- we built the most complicated duct system on earth for this.

Dean: Talk about the bird, because you were there for this.

John: Oh yeah, I- we thought the bird would be CG, much like, we thought we’d be on a CG roof the series premiere, instead we wound up in Chicago 40 stories up. Dean went and found a bird- 

[Laughter]

John: -a North American Kestrel. He said it would be easier to shoot a real bird that was trained, and so if you go on my blog you see pictures of the bird, but that's the last thing we did that night, so at 2 am we had this bird in a box, which was really beautiful.

Dean: Yeah.

John: And- 

Amy: No birds were harmed in the making of this episode.

John: No birds were harmed. It was a really beautiful bird. But yeah, the trainer was hiding right off screen to summon the bird to get it to fly across.

Dean: This was actually one of the most difficult fight scenes we've ever shot, mainly because of the small space they were in.

John: How did you get the camera up there?

Dean: We literally locked it onto the ceiling and just let it run for the whole day. And then hoped we had good material.

John: Oh cool. That everybody would hit their marks.

Amy: She's so intense, I love it.

John: And the- him switching back over to Hebrew, this was a lot of fun. Oh and ‘now I’ve got the lasers.’

Amy: ‘No, now I’ve got the lasers!’

Dean: His arrogance was just awesome.

John: The two of them were fantastic.

Amy: He’s almost too good at it.

John: Big thanks to Derek, yet again, for building a great interface that lets the audience know exactly what’s going on.

Amy: Derek’s our graphics guy, he's amazing.

John: Does all our computer stuff. And our security guards, you know, somewhat oblivious, but good guys.

Dean: That's just the oldest gag in the world that I love.

Amy: It flickers only when they're not looking at it.

John: You know what it is, it’s the Abbott and Costello, it’s the candle on Dracula’s coffin.

[Laughter]

Dean: And I love that.

John: I love that reveal.

Dean: And he comes in dressed as, and named as, Nate Ford. I mean, that is just fabulous.

Amy: He's with the insurance company, what?

John: It is a great little, ‘Fuck you,’ from that character. 

Dean: And Tim’s look at him for doing it, it’s just awesome.

John: But this was the fun of the fourth- and this was really hard when we were plotting. It's like ok, in the fourth act they have to be good, but they have to look like they’re losing. And they have to look like they're losing so bad you come into the fifth act not knowing if they won, and then we have to somehow pull it out.

Amy: Yeah. This, by the way, the scene with the two of them talking with the bird cage, was one of the first images that popped into my head when we were breaking this episode. I just love this.

John: But this duct tape- cause here's the thing, we have to shoot this direction and you have to shoot them crawling off these directions. This thing was huge, a human sized hamster trail. Took up an entire ball room for that one shot. Great fight scene, and we had talked about this, and this is a lot steamier and sexier than originally pitched.

Amy: It's literally steamy.

John: Dean was all over- like ‘I'm going to fight. I'm gonna shoot the steamiest fight scene that we've ever had.’

Dean: I thought it would be interesting to do a fight scene as a love scene.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And so the fight is actually foreplay.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: And a dance. It’s really like a dance sequence. We used to always say fights are like dances because of the movement and everything, but you know, you took that very literally and everything, which was great.

Dean: Now, by the way, we've done lasers in several episodes before. 

Amy: Yeah.

Dean: These are the best lasers we ever did by far.

Amy: It's pretty cool.

John: Yeah, and having them move, that was the key. It's yet another example of something that you think will be really hard, actually turns out to be a little easier and way cooler.

Dean: And way cooler.

John: Yeah.

Dean: And again, kudos to the effects artists. If you look carefully, you can see the lasers reflecting in her pupils.

John: Reflecting in her eyes. I know, that’s sick. 

Amy: That's really hot.

John: That was really great. This is a big ‘they are screwed’ act out.

Amy: Oh my god, look at that!

Dean: That is so cool.

Amy: Why did I not notice that before?

John: And wet people fighting.

[Laughter]

John: You know what? We give you everything on Leverage.

Dean: Little sex, little violence. 

John: And it’s good.

Dean: And now we were able to take the hat off cause we were able to use the real scar on his forehead finally in the episode!

John: Also kinda cool, Kevin, our stunt coordinator, had them fighting in Israeli military style. That they were both- they had both sort of picked up- we always had Eliot kind of fight in that style, but the fact that that would be her training-

Dean: And I love that these two are standing next to Honest Abe.

[Laughter]

John: And that's a great entrance. She's really got-

Amy: ‘Oohhh.’

John: She's got 3 great entrances this year. 

Amy: Yeah, she does.

John: One I'm not gonna talk about. 

Amy: Cause you haven't seen it yet.

John: You haven’t seen it yet. But the Annie Croy entrance in the season opener was one of my favorite Gina bits, and then that.

Dean: Fabulous. Gina absolutely brought her A game this season.

John: And yup, this is our double just whipping through this.

Amy: That was me.

John: That was you? I forgot about that.

[Laughter]

Amy: It's a secret skill. I don’t like to talk about it.

John: And that's the thing, that was footage of the gymnast whipping through those maneuvers with Beth popping up. The special effects people had to put the lasers through those moves to coordinate with- you know, ordinarily, you build these shots incredibly carefully. It was like, ‘No, here's the footage. Make it work.’

Dean: I love this old school crank.

John: ‘Can't hack a classic.’

[Laughter]

Amy: More competence porn.

John: More competence porn. Hardison- the staff will tell you the first year we had Christmas together, I got them all wind up radios and flashlights. 

Amy: Yes.

John: I'm a big believer in emergency preparedness for the apocalypse.

Amy: He cares! He cares about us. 

John: You mock.

Amy: Wants us to live through the world ending.

John: Well, you know. I play a lot of Left 4 Dead. I want to make sure my crew’s ready.

Amy: Alright, cool.

Dean: I love that - Parker not quite good at acting yet.

John: No. This is key, Parker can't do a long con. She can maintain it for maybe 4-5 minutes before her inability to mimic humans breaks down. And there we go.

Amy: By the way, this episode totally screwed my- the way I do story telling now, because I'm thinking as the criminal all the time.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

Amy: Like, it's terrible. ‘How would I break into an auction house? Well to control the motion sensors-’

Dean: I love this beat right here.

John: Yeah.

Dean: Like, ‘Ahh, screw the fight.’

[Laughter]

John: Well he knows he's won by this point, so it's just really- 

Dean: And she's so turned on by the fact that he did, cause no one else has ever beaten her.

John: Yeah, that was a lot of fun, was the idea that people- it's, again, you respect someone who’s competent. And the hand- yeah the little look after the handcuff-

Amy: Wow.

John: He actually looks a little scared there.

Amy: I know, I know.

John: He's like, ‘I got you! Oh wait, what did I get?’

Amy: ‘Is it over?’

John: This is nice.

Dean: In the original longer version, they originally kissed and then fell out of frame.

John: I missed that! I missed the fact that they banged out a quickie during the middle of the con.

Amy: Uh, no.

John: Alright, fine. By the way, Christian loves the badge on the chain. Anytime he can have the badge on a chain, he’s the happiest man alive. And Hardison-

Dean: A little bit of improv-ing by Aldis Hodge here.

Amy: Indeed.

John: Aldis- and again, this pops up in the next episode, Hardison always goes a little too far. He's never able to quite control the- he’s never able to get out without pushing it too far.

Amy: Are you saying that's going to catch up to him at some point?

John: That will catch up to him. The very next episode matter of fact. And yeah, this was a lot of fun driving police cars around Portland at six o’clock in the morning.

Amy: I'm sure no one was alarmed.

Dean: Now young filmmakers, that little move there is to get on the other side of the line.

Amy: Oh yes.

John: What was that?

Dean: So we- after we established them coming out of the building the camera slowly tracks over to the other shoulder on both sides, so now we're on the opposite side of the line and all of their looks have now reversed from the previous scene.

John: You and your looks.

[Laughter]

Dean: But this allowed us to now do our car gag, because we couldn’t really blow up a car in this location.

John: At two o’clock in the morning.

Dean: So we had to whip-pan off of a look to a parked car, then later we blew up a model car and replaced it.

Amy: We did two miniature explosions.

John: I love this reveal. I love this look. It’s like, ahhh, it's like Christmas.

Dean: Bingo.

John: Yeah.

Amy: Always knew you were evil, Wil Wheaton.

Dean: And now the evil speech of evil.

Amy: The evil speech of evil!

John: The evil speech of evil! A crucial part of the- well, this isn't really an evil speech of evil. The evil speech of evil is usually when they are-

Amy: Yeah, it’s the evil griping of evil.

John: The evil speech of evil is just: define your behavior. He's straight up monologuing here.

Dean: This is a little bit more of the, ‘I would’ve gotten away if it weren’t for you meddling kids.’

John: Yes, exactly.

Amy: Are you saying this is a Scooby Doo?

John: In the original version of this, he pulls off the Wil Wheaton mask only to reveal he's still Wil Wheaton.

[Laughter]

John: But he wears a Wil Wheaton mask. You know what? We should've called Wil for this.

Amy: Oh my god, why didn’t we do that? Now we gotta record it again.

John: I know. Maybe- You know what? We’ll do one on iTunes with him.

Amy: We'll do a special one.

John: And we may be playing Dungeons and Dragons while we actually do the commentary. This is great now. This is tough. And talk about- we had a couple different endings for this episode in this particular scene.

Amy: Yes.

John: Go ahead.

Amy: I don't remember them, I just remember there were multiple endings. [Laughs]

John: We actually, for a couple different versions of the outline, had him lose. Had Nate and the guys lose.

Amy: Oh, that’s right.

John: And then our team conned them about the painting. And the moral was basically our team kinda sitting around, pissed off they lost, but they were still a family while the other team broke up. And it just didn't feel-

Dean: Wasn't satisfying.

John: It was one of those good writer beats- and that's why Dean’s actually a very valuable producing partner, because he's all heart. 

[Laughter]

John: Seriously man, he’s- and he’s, ‘I don't feel it.’

Amy: And we have none.

John: And we have none, because we’re writers and our blackened little hearts are shriveled away.

Amy: And our dark souls.

John: It's very easy when you're writing a con and heist show to get a little too clever for your own good.

Amy: It’s true.

John: And Dean’s a very good barometer on, ‘You know, do I really-? Am I gonna be happy with this?’ And you know, he’s right.

Dean: I like a little fromage.

Amy: Well what were the reasons-?

John: No, not fromage, but just, you know-

Amy: I think one of the reasons we were gonna have them losing was that this was gonna be episode three or four, and then we had the wild thought that we would bring the evil team back for episode seven.

John: Yes.

Amy: And sort of do, you know, ‘We lost the first one, but we won the second one.’

Dean: There's the recall of your Emily story.

John: Yes, that's right, the little go to the dance with. No it's- oh and that's great.

Dean: Again, that was Apollo who came up with that idea. 

John: Yeah, that they're picking-

Dean: A lockpicking race.

John: And also Beth tossing the lockpick into the air and catching it? After a week with Apollo, she’d really gotten disgustingly good. I think they're actually picking there.

Amy: Well Apollo has gone on record as saying Beth can actually be a professional pickpocket if she wanted to.

John: She's got soft hands.

Dean: And this is, again, one of those scenes where Christian shows you how good he is at comedy. How subtle he is when he realizes she may be the person who actually shot him.

Amy: Look at that look!

[Laughter]

John: Yeah. 

Amy: His eyes widen just like a millimeter, but-

John: Yeah. And that was an improv, I think. ‘Y’all nasty’. He's supposed to just look at it. 

Amy: That’s awesome.

John: And Griffin doing the Nate Ford, ‘I'm an honest man’ speech here, incredibly uncomfortably!

Dean: Well, we always want the villain to suffer and this is how he suffers.

John: He’s just sweating it out.

Amy: He's getting more satisfaction out of watching Griffin Dunne lose than he is from getting the painting back to the clients.

John: Which is something wrong.

Amy: Yes, that's not right.

John: Sophie's actually the moral center of this scene.

Amy: This is the episode where they, in a way, sort of switch roles. She becomes the honest thief, and he becomes-

John: They were a lovely couple. God, these actors were nice.

Dean: Just amazing local actors.

John: No, this was a lot of fun. And then, again, giving him just enough rope to hang himself with. And making sure that he's pissed off enough to come back in season three.

Dean: The other part of this scene I like is, it really shows how far Sophie has come, that she’s actually not just doing this, she’s actually, really- she’s drank the kool aid by now. She really believes in what they're doing. 

John: To a little bit more than Nate at this point.

Amy: Yeah.

John: Yeah. Which, you know, and that- we really took the, ‘You killed Sophie Deaveraux.’ And the funeral was a late addition; that wasn't in the first outline.

Dean: Yeah.

Amy: No, it wasn't. That was something that we added later. 

John: Yeah it was. 

Amy: But that was an element of knowing we were gonna lose Gina and trying to set up an awesome departure.

John: Yup. And that bomb thing wound up being really- Because originally- it was originally a sort of investigatory clue path and then when we lose Gina it's like, alright let's scare the audience a little here.

Dean: How did you come up with this bit of how they tracked-?

John: I think that was some geek bullshit I had in the notebook, I’m fairly sure. Whenever it’s some tiny minutiae of how phones work, it’s you know-

Amy: Good old GPS.

John: Yeah well, you know what? I think at the time there were some protests about the fact that you couldn't turn off the GPS tracking in your phone, and it was- they were talking about a lot in England you being able to do that, so that just kinda stuck.

Amy: Well I imagine all this would-

Dean: There's Chase!

Amy: See, yeah, there's Chase. I knew I saw him at some point.

John:  Is this-? Yeah, here we go. All these great local actors.

Dean: And I love the security guard; this woman is fabulous.

Amy: So much personality, only a few lines.

John: And again, this is one of those things where you are trying to come up with a really clever way to screw him and then you suddenly realize, no, it’s just a box full of paintings; there's nothing really subtle about this. You’re just going to jail forever.

Dean: But in a way, this is what makes it work. ‘This is the real one.’

John: We had a couple of different notes, too.

Amy: He lost by winning. Cause what he wanted was the paintings, and we gave him the paintings, but that’s what did him over in the end.

John: Another rule: the villain must be brought down by their own sin. 

Dean: Now this, for me, is my favorite scene for a number of reasons. 

John: It’s a good scene.

Dean: First of all, just the lighting. We got this at the perfect time of day.

John: Yeah, how'd we get the lighting Dean?

[Laughter]

Dean: We accidentally went over that day and somehow went into-

Amy: Oh accidentally?

John: Oh did the director somehow go over in the morning, so we just happened to be shooting at the magic hour?

Dean: It was odd how that worked out.

Amy: Oh interesting.

Dean: That we just happened to be in magic hour to shoot the romantic scene.

Amy: That is so funny.

John: What I love is the fact that you’d never work again as a director for boning your producer that bad, except you’re the producer?

[Laughter]

John: No, this scene is stunning.

Dean: They both knocked it out of the park on this day. And for me, it's weird to say it because I directed the episode, but this is the best almost-kiss I’d ever seen before. And it's really the way they did it.

John: Yeah. This was another one where it was like, set up the cameras, let the actors work.

Dean: This was also a callback to what happened in the episode at the school, because-

Amy: Fairy Godparents.

John: Yeah.

Dean: Cause in the Fairy Godparents that she had never really been honest. 

John: Exactly.

Dean: And here she realizes she doesn't know who she is anymore because she's been so many other people for so long.

Amy: She got dumped because she wasn't being truthful with her boyfriend, and she actually recited all the names of her aliases, and this is sort of the callback to her having to bury them in order to move on.

John: Yeah, she's more attached to fake people than real people and it’s caught up with her. And this is the moment where Sophie Deaveraux becomes a better human being than Nate Ford.

Dean: And that red coat was totally Gina.

John: That was Gina. That's right, she came in with that she and Nadine went hunting for that. This is a great almost kiss.

Dean: Ow! Ow!

John: This was an Italian over. This is- what's that terminology?

Dean: It’s a French over. Rather than being in the front of them, you're over their backs and then this walk away.

Amy: The Italian over is you're drinking wine while you’re doing it.

John: And this walkaway was fantastic with that light right there!

Amy: Through the trees! It's so pretty.

John: You knew what scene was good when we were shooting it because I was watching it on the monitor and I turned around and all the local PA’s were standing behind us watching the scene and two of the girls were crying.

Dean: Yeah. It was awesome.

John: You just really nailed it. And that was going to be the summer season ender, 207, and wound up being still a great send off for that character. And really one of the best episodes of the two years I gotta say.

Amy: Yup, it's one of my favorites for sure.

Dean: For me it's almost like the two part season finale of one, season one, done in one episode.

Amy: Yeah, exactly.

Dean: So thank you for watching.

John: Thank you for watching.

Amy: Thanks everybody!

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Eliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Deveraux #Season 2 #Episode 7 #Season 2 Episode 7 #The Two Live Crew Job

[aneekapaneeka]

big fic rec masterlist here!

📝 - ongoing series ✔ - finished series 🎯 - bulleted 🎀 - one shot

Anonymous Love by @mortaljin - Pairing: ??? x reader - Genre: fluff, high school au - 🎀  - Summary: One sticky note turns into two, two into four and then four into dozens. Who in their right mind would confess their love for you, anonymously, via sticky-note? Why do your seven best friends have shit-eating grins on their faces?

Anonymous - by @bloomsuga - Genre: smut, fluff, angst, social media au - ✔ - Summary:  Searching for inspiration, a chart-topping rapper who keeps his identity hidden from the public, going by the stage name RM, stumbles upon you singing in a coffee shop and finds his new muse in your voice. He makes you an offer to collab with one catch: you can’t see his face.

The Rich Man’s Cortchet Club - by @kpopfanfictrash - Genre: smut, humor, college au - 🎀 - Summary:  When they were freshmen in college, Namjoon began a club with his six closest friends. The one thing they all had in common? V i r g i n s as fuck. Obviously, they couldn’t call the club the Virgins Club and so, the Rich Man’s Crochet Club was born. Until time passes and Namjoon is the only one left. Now, the Club has one, final mission: to get Namjoon laid.

Reasons Wretched and Divine - by @hollyhomburg - Genre: fluff, hybrid au, angst, poly - 📝 - Summary: You live on an isolated but sprawling farm with your abusive husband, but things start to change for the better when your husband adopts a retired police dog hybrid named Namjoon

Beauty & The Bookworm - by @jungshookz - Genre: librarian namjoon🤩, bratty reader, reader is rlly dumb in this one, fluff, smUT, angst - 🎀 - Summary: You discover that there are more things to check out at the library besides books. 

far far away - by @lilac-park-jimin - Genre: fluff, college au - ✔ - Summary:  when an accidental text from someone that apparently breaks everything, who’s name is namjoon ends up turning into something bigger than the both of you expected.

live & love - @lysjeon - Genre: fluff, angst, social media au - ✔ - Summary:  namjoon always liked you but for some reason he never thought you would be interested in him. and you are too scared to tell him you like him too.

Life Is A Whisk - by @readyplayerhobi (you’ll be seeing this gal a lot here) - Genre: fluff, humor - 🎀 - Summary:  You have no problem with Kim Seokjin most of the time, in fact you even consider him to be handsome and funny and he feels the same about you. Until you are both placed into a kitchen, and then it becomes the battlegrounds for World War Three, the Bake-off edition.

forever boy - by @lysjeon - Genre: fluff, angst, social media au - ✔ - Summary:  how annoying can the handsome popular guy get? the answer is: really annoying, specially when you tell him he isn’t that handsome to you.

Ghosted - by @bloomsuga - Genre: social media au, angst, ghosts, smut, fluff, crack - ✔ - Summary: Your new roommate is everything you could ask for: quiet, never makes messes, a killer dry sense of humor… and oh yeah—he’s dead.

my kind. - by @hobios - Genre: soulmate au, fluff, angst, humor - 🎀 - Summary: “i promise i won’t get enough, think you’re one of my kind.” or, when you make a connection with the handsome guy at the laundromat late one night, you start to wonder if Fate ever makes a mistake when it comes to soulmates.

A Boy Like You - by @cinnaminsvga - Genre: FLUFF, coworker au - 🎀 - Summary: for whenever you are feeling low, always remember that there is a boy you know who would lift the sky for you. {or alternatively: Min Yoongi loves you, though he never says it. He’s always been a firm believer in that actions speak louder than any words ever could.}

Of Fire and Love - by @hollyhomburg - Genre: fantasy au, dragon yoongi, fluff, angst - 📝 - Summary:  When Dragon Yoongi finds baby Jungkook in the wreckage of a house he burned down, he can’t bring himself to kill the child. Months after someone drops a baby at your door, you start to notice something- or someone, lurking at the edge of your farm. Why does the man you catch glimpses of have horns?

Reasons Wretched and Divine - by @hollyhomburg - Genre: fluff, hybrid au, angst, poly - 📝 - Summary: You live on an isolated but sprawling farm with your abusive husband, but things start to change for the better when your husband adopts a retired police dog hybrid named Namjoon 

  The Sugar Wars - by @hollyhomburg - Genre: soulmate au, idol au, fluff - 🎀 - Summary:  Maybe tasting everything his soulmate eats wouldn’t be so bad if Yoongi’s soulmate didn’t have the largest sweet tooth Ever. Maybe you wouldn’t need to sweeten everything if he didn’t drink his coffee so bitter.

basketball captian!yoongi - by @jungshookz - Genre: fluff, smut - 🎀 - Summary: min yoongi - captain of the basketball team. y/n y/l/n - water girl.

chromatic - by @jintobean - Genre: fluff, comedy - 🎀 - Summary: “Fuck, he looks like a sparkly anime boy.”

never judge a cover - by @dulcaet - Genre: fluff, angst, humor - 🎀 - Summary:  never had you thought you would find comfort in the character of min yoongi, resident bad boy.

slytherin to my heart  - by @bangtan-insfired - Genre: fluff, enemies to lovers, hogwarts au - 🎀 - Summary: You hated Min Yoongi. He hated you. But the both of you were about to find out that hate was just a way to mask another passionate emotion.

Peppermint - @readyplayerhobi

- Genre: fluff, coworker au, angst - ✔ - Summary:  Achieving your dream job is something that very people manage to do, which is why you’re all the more happier when you land a job on the film team at Poppin’ Culture; the biggest pop culture website, blog and YouTube channel around. What you don’t expect however, is to fall for the exceptionally shy and awkward colleague who is not even remotely your type. Or is he?

Night Stalker - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: action, angst, smut, fluff, vampire hunter hobi is the hottest hobi, violence - 🎀 - Summary:  Vampires are a thing of legend, and yet you find yourself being saved by a self-proclaimed vampire hunter. Only your saviour is half-vampire himself, and struggles with his base instincts. What happens when you get to know him more and feel an attraction you can’t help?

A Universe To You - @readyplayerhobi - Genre: fluff, angst, smut - 🎀   - Summary:  Life for you has always been dull and grey; not only because you grew up on the most over-populated and polluted planet in the galaxy but because you’re colourblind. You’re convinced it’s because you have a soulmate out there, but soulmates are a forgotten concept now that humanity has spread across the stars. What happens then, when you finally escape Earth and discover colour with the touch of a man on a planet in which soulmates are just a tale of myth?

Wonder - by @smaubts

- Genre: crack, fluff - ✔ - Summary:  In which jimin has a crush on y/n and decides to make it his task to make her fall in love with him, two crackhead personalities unite and make the funniest duo.

Reasons Wretched and Divine - by @hollyhomburg - Genre: fluff, hybrid au, angst, poly - 📝 - Summary: You live on an isolated but sprawling farm with your abusive husband, but things start to change for the better when your husband adopts a retired police dog hybrid named Namjoon

Part Of Your Own World - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: fluff, angst, merman jiminie - ✔ - Summary:  Jimin has always longed for the wide-open skies of the Above Sea. After saving the life of a beautiful human woman, he seeks to find her and finally live in his dream world. But young mermen should be careful what they wish for.

Insert Quippy Title Here!! - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: CRACK, deadpool jimin, smut - 🎀 - Summary: There is no synopsis. It’s just you…me…and a real good time sweet cheeks.

Star Light, Star Bright - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: fluff, angst, single dad jimin, tattoo artist reader, smut - 🎀 - Summary: Life has not gone exactly how Park Jimin imagined, and yet he can’t possibly imagine his life any different to what it is now. After six hard and stressful years, he’s now the happy owner of a degree along with being the proud dad of his little girl. But what happens when he meets you and his life is tipped upside down once more?

The Evolution Of You And I - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: fluff, angst -  🎀 - Summary: For 15 years, Park Jimin has been in your life in some form. From childhood penpal’s to the closest of friends now, you can’t imagine your life without him even if you’ve never actually met him in person. It doesn’t help that you’ve fallen for him, even across the distance that separates you. But what happens when you finally meet up and you discover he’s been keeping something secret?

Beneath the Water - by @jungshookz (this one is so good, it’s funny asf!) - Genre: fluff, humor, merman jiminie - 🎀 - Summary: Moving to an apartment by the beach just got a whole lot more interesting

Under the Sea - by @bloomsuga - Genre: smut, fluff, humor, merman jimin  - 🎀

sorting hat - by @bangtan-insfired - Genre: fluff, hogwarts au - 🎀 - Summary: You were nervous to delve into the unknown Wizard world, but luckily for you, Jimin was there to help.

expecto patronum - by @bangtan-insfired - Genre: fluff, hogwarts au - 🎀 - Summary: You were the first of your class to perfect the patronus charm & Jimin is curious about the memory you used.  

the howler - by @bangtan-insfired - Genre: fluff, hogwarts au - 🎀 - Summary:  Not being able to take any more of Jimin’s passionate rants about you, the boys decide to take matters in their own hands and send their dear friend a howler.

Papillion - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: angst, fluff, pregnant reader, childhood friends - 🎀 - Summary: Kim Taehyung has been a constant presence in your life for the last 25 years. The bestest friend a girl could ever want; he’s been there for you through all the good times and the bad. What happens though when you find yourself pregnant and abandoned? What happens when your best friend steps up in ways you never imagined?

Seven Seas - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: fluff, smut, atlantis au, angst - 🎀 - Summary: Atlantis is a myth; a hidden city, a sunken island, a missing continent. Only…it’s not a myth. Just hidden out of choice. As the daughter of an Atlantean and a human, you are a halfling that is unwanted by the underwater continent and misunderstood by the surface. But what happens when you finally go to Atlantis and meet an Atlantean who is oddly kind to you?

Sehebon - by @httpjeon - Genre: smut, fluff, angst - 🎀 - Summary: You find yourself on izo huen, home to the sehebon. luckily for you, you’ve arrived at an interesting time.

Apartment 512 - @moononthejoon - Genre: fluff, smut, humor - 🎀 - Summary: After finally finding a decent place to live, you couldn’t believe that you landed next to the loudest neighbour in existance.

Fish Are Friends - by @httpjeon - Genre: fluff, smut, hybrid tae - 🎀 - Summary: After moving to the seaside, there is a dreadful storm. when all is clear, a man washes up on shore…only he isn’t quite human.

Falling in Crayolove - by @jungshookz - Genre: fluff, tiny bit of angst, kindergarten teacher tae - 🎀🎯 - Summary:  Y/n is a very single mom and taehyung is a very single kindergarten teacher. emma knows exactly what she needs to do.  

Stuck With You - by @jungshookz (have you ever heard of the song stuck in love with ryan ross?) - Genre: fluff, smut, ENEMIES  to LOVERS MATE, university au, fratboii tae - 🎀🎯 - Summary: Kim Taehyung becoming your new roommate is definitely up there on the list of the worst things that have ever happened to you. 

Crinkle - by @worldwidebt7 - Genre: webtoon, hybrid au, fluff! - ✔ - Summary:  You find yourself adopting a lonesome-looking bunny after hearing about him from a friend who recently adopted her own hybrid. The minute you looked at his big doe eyes, it was all over… - Beautifully done artwork, I definitely recommend checking all @worldwidebt7‘s work out!

Crush -by @jungxk - Genre: fluff, smut, amnesia au, husbang guk, comedy, angst - 🎀

Hopping Mad For You - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: smut, fluff, flatmate jk, hybrid jk - 🎀 - Summary: For two years you’ve lived with your rabbit hybrid roommate, Jungkook. He’s been a model roommate and you’ve found yourself with little complaints. But his behaviour lately has been a little…unusual.

So You Wanna Be The Best - by @readyplayerhobi - Genre: crack, fluff - 🎀 - Summary: Every Pokemon trainer has a rival, and it’s just your luck that you got stuck with your hometown nemesis Jeon Jungkook. As any good rival, he’s determined to beat you to the title of Pokemon Master and he might have a chance at both that and you…if he wasn’t so dang inept.

neighbour!jungkook - by @jungshookz - Genre: fluff, smut - 🎀🎯 - Summary: Cute new apartment and cuter new neighbour.

gymrat!jungkook - by @jungshookz - Genre: fluff, smut - 🎀🎯 - Summary: The gym isn’t half-bad, you suppose.

badboy!jungkook -by @jungshookz - Genre: smut, fluff - 🎀 🎯 - Summary: It’s like he stepped straight out of a fanfiction.

drummer! jungkook - by @jungshookz - Genre: smut, fluff - 🎀 - Summary: ba dum tss

caramel macchiato - by @jungshookz - Genre: FLUFF, barista jk, smut - 🎀 - Summary: one caramel macchiato. one shot of espresso. six ice cubes. ¾ skim milk. ¼ whole milk. no whipped cream. a drizzle of caramel. a squirt of vanilla. and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Love Letters - by  @jennieluvclub - Genre: fluff, angst - 🎀 - Summary:  You get a crush on a certain poet named Jungkook, while secret messages start appearing in your locker… you’d think that poetry and romance and mystery would go well together, think again…

felix felicis - by @bangtan-insfired - Genre: fluff, hogwarts au - 🎀 - Summary:  Jungkook has a huge crush on you, but is too shy to confess. Luckily for him, his friends make him drink some liquid luck potion that may have been that extra push he needed.

#fic rec #fic recommendation #fanfiction #bts #masterlist #fic rec masterlist #min yoongi #suga #jung hoseok #jeon jungkook #recommendation #recommended #kim taehyung #park jimin #kim namjoon #kim seokjin

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

Nicole’s rambling: The Watch Dogs Problem

Hey, welcome to my TedX talk about one of the most ambitious games Ubisoft had ever released... And which, for most of the parts, flopped majestically - yet still has players who love it. One such player am I as well. (And I’m not coming back to the game because Raymond Kenney is my first VG crush, shut the hell up.)

I won't be dipping into the side activities (digital trips) and online mode, because I never clicked with it and I don't know much about these parts. And I don't wanna throw shit at the game because of something I don't know a single thing about. Here are my three biggest negatives in the game and the three biggest positives you should play it for.

Also: remember, this is my opinion and my opinion only. It's sure biased, non-professional, but I've played WD more than five times. FIVE. So it's not just blatant nitpicking, because, in its core, WD Is a game I love dearly.

@march-moon​, here you go! :)

Let’s sort out the negatives first so we can later praise the game for what it did well:

1. Predictable and dull AI of enemies (aka going John Wick mode).

Sure, the variety of said enemies is impressive, but... When you get a grenade launcher and some good shotgun, which you can do in the first hour of gameplay if you already know your way with the ctOS bank account system (LOOP IS WHERE THE MONEY'S AT), you're more or less untouchable for the rest of the game. Most conveniently, you're starting with a silenced gun and when you know around your way with the stealth system and focus, which slows time big time for those who might not know, you can clear out Rossi Fremont under two minutes. Why? Because the AI is just dumb and stupid most of the time.

Like, sure, the big-armed guys can be a pain in the ass for the first few encounters, but when you realize all you have to do is throw two grenades at them and fire as many bullets as you have at your disposal, they are dead immediately. And the same goes for the car chases. Until you unlock the almighty power of raising the bridges and blowing up the steampipes, these are just pain in the ass.

The first few ctOS scans and police chases, as well as the enemy chases, are fun. But when ctOS finds you after ten minutes of driving around like a mad man to dodge the shit, sending you off on a ten-minutes lasting chase which simply repeats itself. Let alone that you kill half of the city's population because you fuck up to turn your car.  

To close this point, it gets repetitive, especially with the gang hideouts fuckery.

2. Ubisoft lying not only about the game features, but also about the overall graphics.

This point kinda explains itself, doesn't it? It's a known fact that studios have tendencies to change their games/movies for marketing purposes - for example, Disney and Infinity War or Naughty Dog's 'The Last of Us (Part 2)'. But this being a usual marketing tactic doesn't mean that the consumer should keep their mouth shut when they don't agree with it.

Most noticeable Watch Dogs' fuck-up was an overall graphic downgrade, which, sure, is completely understandable when you have such a huge open-world game, but... Ubisoft showed you a potato mash and all you got was the potato (The biggest point that is made fun of are the trees - those who played the games know what I'm talking about.). 

Also, the enhanced graphics ARE coded in the game, but are not used due to something signed off as ‘playable compatibility’ as far as I can understand, so??

But... They did lie about the in-game features too. They promised a lot more than they delivered, like the bounty hunts and stuff... Where did that go, Ubisoft?

3. The side missions and the story.

Don't take it as such... In my opinion, some of the side missions are fun - at the start. We've talked about gang hideouts, but you have fixer-car-related gigs as well and the first ten of them is very immersive since you don't already know which type of the mission you're up to. Will you be pressured by the time limit? Will you have to race through the city in a car that you can't destroy too much, otherwise it can't be sold on the black market? Will you be a decoy for some other bad people doing bad things? But when you get through this phase... It's the same game system again and again, for 46 times, I think? And the villain convoys... Well. These are fun and refreshing each time, I have to say.

Every time, you can choose a different tactic to toy around with - will you catch up with the baddies sooner, turning this mission into an intense, tight chase experience? Or will you wait for them further on the road, toying around with explosives and guns? Sometimes, they slip past you, which leads to a chase around the city, sometimes you blow up all of the cars perfectly on time, A+. But... You mastered 1/3 types of side mission content.

As for the story, it's not the worst, but it isn't something super-memorable, lifechanging. I am not talking about the idea behind the story (the utopia of having the whole city lead by a system, which enables the corporation to control people's lives without them even knowing), I am talking about the Damien-Aiden-Lena revenge story. It's your daily revenge plot based on Aiden's niece dying in a car crashed after the car being shot at because of a failed job.

The first story mission is mind-blowing. You're thrown into the game and the first thing you have to do is to infiltrate a whole-ass stadium, which feels good, not gonna lie. And the 'prison-break sequence' is also memorable as well. But other than that, it gets real repetitive real fast. 'Follow this person', 'hack this thingy', 'kill this guy', 'tilly that person' and so on is present in every act of the story, which makes things kinda come across as boring after some time. It is what it is.

There are exciting in-game moments, like when Defalt is introduced to the bunch and hacks into the Bunker base, stealing all of your data. But sadly, these story masterpieces tend to be overlooked and not acted on, which takes off some of the immersion potentials. (I know that Defalt's story was saved for the DLC, so it's not the best proof.)

! BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE STORY DOESN'T HAVE GOOD BEATS !

Now, the well-made things for which you should DEFINITELY play this game:

1. Chicago being a videogame city that is alive and the 'collectibles' are extra fun.

Okay, okay, let me explain. Sure, Watch Dogs' Chicago isn't the best area ever constructed in an open-world game. But... The city feels alive, it is changing around you, it never stops. You can find people making out, talking bad about their friend who is not there, you can look into their day-to-day life via something called 'privacy invasion', where you just hack into a camera and... You hear mommy calming down her kid who is crying, you can watch two girls playing Wii, presumably, and many other every day encounters.

NPCs are answering to you being into the city - asking questions on the range from 'Is that the guy from the news?' to straightaway call the cops because you are a mass murderer probably. When you stand in the middle of a road, they honk at you; when you accidentally bump into them, they call you names. It's amazing... And profiling them is even more fun. You can find profiles ranging from 'author of poetry' to 'clinically confirmed pyromaniac' and 'searches for 'feet' on the internet'. This shit is just ridiculous.

But... It's the smallest details you'll fall in love with. You can get on the "L" and it takes you on a ride. You can ride in it for the whole day, or you can get off on the next stop. When you're in the Wards or near Rossi Fremont, you can find dudes just listening to rap, chatting. Some guys force flyers into other people's hands. You can have coffee. The rain somehow feels real, and the nighttime just steals your breath away - and so do the sunsets. There's a part of the city called 'Hobotown', where the local hobos live, there are secret poker tournaments.

Chicago in Watch Dogs is a city with so many minor details that you cant find each of them in one gameplay. In each gameplay, you'll find something new, something that just makes you chuckle - but it's so thoughtful of the developers to even put it in their game. These small details are the ones that make you feel as if you were inside the game, convincing you that the Chicago you're looking at is, indeed, alive.

Then, there are the 'collectibles'. I didn't know how to call it other than that, so bear with me for a minute. There are minor 'side-missions' - for example, you're going after a killer, who is leaving you audios on the places he left one of his victims. There are QR coded which unlock audios that talk about the DedSec hacktivists. In the small 'hack 5 routers in a time limit' quests, you are unlocking one of the Blume's employees audios (Angela Balik's), talking about the files Raymond Kenney had hidden in the code back in the day, talking about the uprising of the Bellwether 'crime' prediction system.

The collectibles aren't everyone's thing, of course, and it won't take any of the Chicago experience when you don't listen to the voicemails or if you simply don't collect them. But, they can immerse you in the game world even more. And to be honest, this is one of the few games that had my ass shook about collecting the additional thingies.

2. The character cast.

Let's be honest, Aiden Pearce on his own isn't the best protagonist in the world. Don't get me bad, I like this game a lot, but he can come across as boring at times. And that's exactly when the character cast comes in to balance Aiden's character. Most of the cast has some sort of an attribute which compels to Aiden's personality very well, completes him in some way.

You have Raymond Kenney, who is a paranoid, rowdy, alcoholic genius who helped with creating ctOS - but has remorse about his history, because he caused the Northeast blackout 2003, killing eleven people. Which can show Aiden how bad can the power over the ctOS system be.

There's Jordi Chin, a prestigious assassin/fixer, who uses the game's darkest humor. Every fucking second Jordi is on screen, it's captivating, immersive and you'll find yourself chuckling at Jordi's jokes, which are definitely out of place. But he still keeps reminding you that he's in for the money, which, in the end, turns against Aiden in a way.

Clara Lille, otherwise known as BadBoy17, is a hacktivist working for the rebellious DedSec who are rebelling against Blume, the company behind ctOS. She seems to be innocent of the violence of getting revenge, but later in the game, Aiden discovers how deeply she was invested in the whole story about Lena.

Each of the characters has a personal connection to Aiden, widening his personality in various ways. Which is funny to watch throughout the story - and there's a ton of other characters I didn't even get into, like Lucky Quinn, Nicky, Jackson, Bed Bug... The characters are simply terrific.

3. The overall soundtrack.

Hear me out, this point is kinda tricky, yeah? I am not talking about the official soundtrack. The radio has some blasts I fell in love throughout playing the game - whether it introduced me to song 'Ms. Crumby' by the Audition, or made me fall in love with the Vampire Weekend, Kid Cudi, or The Vindictives. Yet, in the case of the radio, I tend to sort out a playlist consisting of 4-6 songs (YES? YOU CAN MAKE PLAYLIST INSIDE THE GAME???) which I play on repeat throughout the game.

There's also this masterful thing about the soundtrack sometimes 'forcing' itself into your gameplay, maybe more like 'self-inserting' into the game if you will. The two most memorable encounters of this are when: a) when you're helping Ray Kenney leave the junkyard and Pawnee behind and the 'ring ding piety pow' hardcore metal song plays throughout the final encounter (Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry) and b) when you enter Rossi Fremont, the whole time you're going through the building, the rap/hip-hop is playing, making you feel gangsta. (I think it's a song by Wu-Tang Clan, not sure tho).

But... Then it hits you. The in-game hidden soundtrack that sadly wasn't released. At least not officially. It has a reason, worry not - this in-game soundtrack reacts to the player's progress throughout the missions, so it basically plays on a loop. Which is understandable.

The most standing out instance I can talk about is when you enter the small island where the old Blume secret place is hidden on. You and Clara are on a mission searching for legendary sacred place (at least for the hackers) called 'The Bunker'. And my friends... This is when it hits you. The soundtrack feels familiar even when you're playing the game for the first time. This piece just hits differently than any other soundtrack I've heard. Not even Time by Hanz Zimmer has this effect on me, and I LOVE the Inception.

And there's more - the piece of the soundtrack which plays when you're going after Jackson is probably another great example.

BONUS ROUND: 4. The Bad Blood (DLC)

Okay, this had a lot to do with my love for Raymond Kenney and I am not worried to say it out loud. But this DLC is truly a DLC. It only uses the WD world, which was set up in the OG game, as its base - but it isn't its main focus at all. This DLC introduces us to new characters as well as to some we knew already we knew.

In the OG game, Tobias is the mad hobo who sells us cool thingies to play with - and in they managed to show Tobias' full potential, showing us how smart and hilarious, as well as paranoid, this guy is in reality. It deepened Ray's character, revealed Defalt's motivations and the history that tied both of them to the Northeast blackout.

There are also new areas to explore, new things to play with and even if the DLC doesn't do anything too revolutionary with the game's world, it's the best DLC I've played. And I may have enjoyed it more than Aiden's story. But again, I'm pro-Kenney biased, so that's kinda expected of me, ain't it?

PS: I hate Sitara or whatever her name is.

#watch dogs #watch dogs rant #ubisoft #ubisoft watch dogs #raymond kenney #raymond Kenney watch dogs #aiden pearce #aiden pearce watch dogs #clara lille #clara lille watch dogs #jordi chin watch dogs #jordi chin #here you go #it is biased #but hey #you don't have to listen to me #right #this is a personal opinon #so #have fun

[dominicvail]

in another world, ncis:la feeds us with actual Au episodes every now and again, but our world is imperfect and we just have to imagine this stuff here, but like, if this did happen i would Require these au’s;

A Bowling Au. Everything is played with exactly the same tone as the actual show, so it’s usually laughable but Sometimes super dramatic except instead of like, a terrorist attack, a rival team bowled a strike. Sam used to be on a super militant and well respected team and hasn’t gotten over that half the time people don’t know the name of this new one. He believes bowling balls should be polished before repacking, Every time, that Deeks just shoves his in the same reusable plastic bag he’s had for 8 years Pains him. G’s back story is Identical to the show except this isn’t a spy genre anymore so ppl just think he’s like, the super above it all edge lord because of it all. 

Teacher AU. Sam teaches all kinds of advanced math, G is a gym teacher who acts really stupid all the time to stop people giving him responsibilities he doesn’t want. Despite this, he is often dragged in to cover for language classes because somebody figured out he’s a language like, genius or something. He covered a drama class one time, too, and was scarily good at it. Deeks actually Is the drama teacher, the kids all Love him. Kensi teaches all kinds of physical design classes, like, anything to do with engines, she does woodwork, things like that, she’s not As liked among the student body (i mean, the boys and gays love her, but her jokes are Weird) but she isn’t classed as one of the asshole teachers. Eric teaches IT or whatever u call computing, he’s friendly, won’t put up with crap, but like, next to nobody understands him because he’s not good at dumbing things down. Nell doesn’t teach at first, was just an administrator dealing with all the complicated things, but sometimes substitutes, she’s tiny and Scary and is not a substitute u can walk all over, the ones who tried can’t figure out How she got them to behave??? but it happened. Mr Deeks and Ms Blye are the ‘will they or won’t they’ teacher couple of the school only for deeks to accidentally let slip that his wife is better at long distance running than he is and they all work it out that they’ve been married the whole time. Mr Beale and Miss Jones become the next will they won’t they couple except it embarrasses them so much all they do is blush at each other now. Hetty is the principal/head teacher. She is rarely seen, to be feared, but always watching. 

Star Trek AU; Hetty is the captain of the ship they’re on, but the show is more about the main away team. Is the team’s reputation as bad as section 31 (the shady(tm) part of starfleet), No! Is their reputation necessarily good? No. In fact, they frequently butt heads with section 31 (we’re calling them the equivalent of the cia in the show, they can be friends but... yeah), however their results are rarely questionable and they save many, many lives. It is highly unlikely anyone will ever be promoted. Sam is a Vulcan, calm waters... except if you make him snap, Vulcans have deep running emotions. Deeks is just. The Most Obnoxious Human to him Ever. G is half betazed, it’s why he’s so good at reading people.  Eric is a member of a species that is super social but have few social graces similar to humans so is always super awkward. Kensi has a tragic backstory where she thinks the borg got her dad when she was a kid but it was a Cover Up. I would make Nell non human also, but i will be honest, i am running out of trek aliens i can make her (klingon nell is a Hilarious concept tho). Hetty is Bajoran. 

James Bond AU. Everything is the same except they all use bad english accents the whole way through the episode. 

I am a massive fan of alternate takes on soulmate au’s, i don’t like romantic soulmate au’s, but unusual takes on them are my Jam. In this one, people have soul marks from people who will have the most profound effects on them in their lives on their bodies. This doesn’t necessarily mean the effects will be good, just profound and altering. The team realise they all have marks from each other on their bodies, and are elated to find out all those marks are Positive effects. 

Though i will admit the ‘see in colour when you meet your soulmate’ one would be hilarious with legitimately Any of the partners on the show. Kensi: See’s deeks, learns what blue is. Kensi: spirals into deep denial and yells at him a lot. 

Queer Eye AU where the Fab 5 are called in when Hetty nominates her team for a makeover! Bobby redecorates the boat shed, is asked by hetty to keep what is already bulletproof, bulletproof. And to keep the trap door. And not to worry about any bloodstains and how they got there. Tan’s discovers how hard it is to style around Sam’s muscles. Tries very hard to stop Nell from mixing prints. Experiences horror at Eric’s wardrobe, Nell is shown in BG laughing. Every single man exhibits true, actual horror at the idea of JVN changing their hair and pack into Sam’s car and run away to hide in the woods. Nell and Kensi enjoy the salon appointment in their absence. Karamo manages to negotiate getting paid literally twice his previous rate by just having to try to fix these idiots’ lives and deserves every penny. Antoni trying to teach them to make fun and not disgusting food doesn’t end well. Deeks can cook but likes to Experiment and 97% of his food is awful. Sam can cook, but it’s all bland muscle building/health food. The rest of them are incompetent, set the kitchen on fire, are caught ordering chinese on the sly, ruin 5 pots and pans with burn marks. They open the new boatshed design by interrogating a criminal they just picked up on a case, he points out how fabulous the decor is as he’s led to the interrogation room. Everybody cheers. The team provided snacks in said interrogation Could be considered a torture technique, tho. 

The team go on jeopardy. I have never seen this game show and have no idea how it works, but i bet it would be funny so it is a bullet point. 

Buffy the vampire slayer au, Kensi is a vampire slayer who Happens to just be an ncis agent. She does her normal job but also tries to keep the vampire world a secret from her team mates. Callen: uh, kensi... why do you spend so much of your free time hanging around cemeteries? Kensi: uh... Bat watching???

Superhero AU but they all have really dumb powers. Sam can raise the temperature of any body of water from a lake to a puddle by ten degrees in temperature whenever he wants. G can spontaneously grow and un-grow his hair, if he gets drunk and makes it super long he has ringlets. Deeks can hover exactly one foot in the air, no higher, is designated ‘grab that off the high shelf’ guy. Kensi can sense sugar. This helps in no ways but essentially makes her a human version of one of the medical alert dogs for diabetics. Eric can make anybody around him mildly sleepy if he wants to. He never wants this. It doesn’t even send them to sleep, they just yawn more often and that makes Him yawn more. Nell can speak to cows, since she lives in the middle of Los Angeles, this is not helpful. Plus, cows mostly just talk about grass and are really very boring. Granger could create rainbows out of thin air which was obviously in perfect sync with his personality. Hetty can detach her toes at will. This is only useful in the case of uncomfortable shoes, but can be awkward if somebody routinely searches your bag and finds them in there and arrests you for being a creepy toe cutting off serial killer. 

i would watch it, s’all i’m saying.

#text #la team #la cast #this is the most epic feat of procrastination i've managed for a while ngl

[shirtlesssammy]

10x22: The Prisoner

Hey Guys! We’re finally done with recapping all of Andrew Dabb’s episodes this week. For the rest of hiatus we’re doing a mix of favorites and not-so-favorites (*cough* finally addressing some of the Buckleming episodes *cough*) Six weeks until the final season. Agh!

Shreveport, Louisiana

Nerd Boy Styne leaves school only to be harassed by local burnouts. They want to know how much of a virgin he is (um, is there a gradient on that?) (Natasha: Virginity. Is. A. Construct.) Nerd Boy bites back HARD which does not sit well with Alpha burnout.

He’s pushed to the ground but is “saved” by his older brother. I get the feeling that he’d rather take his chances with the burnouts.

Later, Alpha Burnout is enjoying his Slushy and stayin’ alive when he notices a car following him. He takes off but runs into Older Brother Styne. Styne #2 creeps up and puts a plastic bag over his head and bye bye burnout.

*FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK ALERT*

Sam and Dean are building Charlie’s pyre. We get flashbacks as they burn her body. Sam tries to say some words but Dean is full of rage and doesn’t want to hear it.

He even goes so far to tell Sam that he should be on that pyre instead of her. Oh boy. He tells Sam to stop what they’re doing to help him. The Mark isn’t going to kill him. Meanwhile, he WILL find who killed Charlie and end them all.

Nerd Boy Styne is busy playing video games and chatting with a friend. He has plans on moving to LA, but can’t tell his family because they’re scary and will kill him. His older brother lets him know their father wants to see him.

Cut to the elder Styne (listen, I HATE this storyline, I HATE that they killed Charlie, I HATE it all. I am not putting any effort into finding out any of their names. They’re all just Styne #1-4 to me.) He’s berating Styne with no arm about not getting the book and losing his arm. He tells his father about the bunker’s lore.

First, he’s got to get a new arm, so they bring in Nerd Boy (Fine, Nerd Boy can have a name-- it’s Cyrus) and show him Alpha Burnout and tell him to carve him up. He doesn’t want to. Jesus, his dear old dad says he’s going to do this or his dad will do it and then he’ll tie up Cyrus and do the same to him. W o W.

Dean calls another hunter, Rudy, about a lead on the Stynes.

Cas and Rowena continue to work on the Book of the Damned.

For Too Much Beauty in One Shot Science:

Sam comes back and wordlessly tells Cas that Charlie is gone. Sam then says that Dean knows and that he promised Dean that he would shut down their little plan. Rowena, still the delightful antagonist here, wants to know what’s going on. They opt not to fill her in. Cas asks the only important question: “What about Dean?” Sam looks at the GPS on his phone pointing to where the Impala is when he gets an email from Charlie. It’s the codex. Rowena can now read the Book of the Damned.

Sam tasks Cas with finding Dean. Sam’s going to keep with their plan. He’s going to save his brother.

He then demands that Rowena read the Book. She’s not so inclined right now. She wants Crowley dead first.

Back at Casa Styne, the burnout is dead and brother Styne has a new arm. Cyrus is devastated.

Dean’s made it to Louisiana and gets pulled over by the cops. They dare to knock out Baby’s rear lights and Dean goes for one of the cops and gets arrested for his effort. I mean, I’m really surprised at the restraint Dean shows here? He doesn’t fight really. He could have busted up both the cops with little effort.

At Phil’s Diner, Crowley enjoys the best cup of coffee he’s ever had (and I’m enjoying the midcentury set design!).

Seth, the server, tells him that he learned how to make a good cup in Ecuador. Next, he’d like to head to Asia. It’s just a dream though. Crowley is in the business of making dreams come true. He gets a call from Dean before he can seal any dream making deals though. Then he gets a text with where to meet Dean --in Kansas, not Louisiana.

Dean’s at the sheriff’s station having his entire rock alias collection uncovered (not to mention the secret arsenal of weapons in the Impala). The officer wants to know who Dean is. “I’m the guy who’s going to get out of here in about 30 seconds.” He then proceeds to knock a mug of pens over. The guy comes over to Dean and Dean promptly gets him in a headlock, demands the handcuff’s keys and knocks the guy out cold. I’d say that took maybe 15 seconds.

Dean finds the sheriff talking to someone on the phone.

He butts him with a gun once for lying and once again for hurting his car. He then demands the sheriff tell him who he was talking to --one of the Stynes, but they own this town and there’s no way Dean can take on this family. Challenge Accepted! (Also: let’s just temporarily think about Dean saying: “Yeah, well I kill gods” as we head into the final season.)

Crowley makes a fabulous entrance into a nasty warehouse, looking for Dean. <Insert 8,000 booty call jokes here> Sam shoots him with a devil’s trap bullet. Sam reveals that he lured Crowley there with a faked phone call from Dean. He flourishes the demon-killing knife and a hex bag, before stuffing the bag into Crowley’s pocket. Oh, and he has a final message from Rowena: “She should’ve taken the three pigs.” Sam x Rowena: murder couple extraordinaire!

Dean casually kills his way into the Styne compound and it’s half James Bond ease and half YIKES OH NO KILLER DEAN BEAN.

Inside, several people point guns at Dean surprise-party-style, while another Styne sneaks a plastic bag onto his face, smothering him. (Query: why are there no women in this family except the single hot nurse? Lame.)

Sam continues to listen to Crowley monologue as he slowly crumples under Rowena’s curse. Crowley insists that he’s been creating a friendlier Hell. “I thought if I did better, I might actually feel something again. That it might matter.” Sam reminds Crowley - and us - that he’s killed a lot of people we care about. Crowley admits to being monstrous and he looks up at Sam. His eyes glow red as he rises, tosses out the bullet, and thanks Sam for jolting him back into his true King-of-Hell give-’em-hell mindset.

Sam started Crowley on his human journey, so I guess it’s fitting that he’s ended it as well.

Dean wakes up on the Styne operating slab. They tell him they’ll kill him and harvest him. (So, like, just do it and quit the smirky speeches?) Dean points out the Mark - he can’t die but he CAN come back as a demon so...don’t say he didn’t warn you. In very little time, Dean dispatches the entire operating theater, killing Elder Styne riiiight in the middle of his evil villain monologue. (For that, we applaud you, Crazed Killer Dean.)

The other Stynes break into the bunker, which is currently unoccupied. They plan to loot and then burn it which, yep, seems pretty much on par with what we’ve seen of these yahoos.

Sam calls Rowena and tells her about the failed hex bag. Rowena’s entirely unimpressed at Sam’s killing prowess and snaps at him to finish the job he started. Mmmhmmm yesss gurl!

Cas calls Sam from the Styne estate. It’s a bloody mess; Dean took out the whole dumb Styne storyline - I mean, family. Now, Dean’s headed back to the bunker.

In the bunker, Cyrus digs through books while Formerly-One-Arm makes dick commentary like, “So this is what I know about Dean Winchester. He's got crappy taste in music, got a hot mom, and he loves flannel.” Man, what I wouldn’t give for a late-season Mary Winchester to show these Stynes what’s what! They finish piling stuff in the middle of the library and pour fuel over everything. A single match gets dramatically lit when the other Styne Stooge stumbles in, stabbed.

Dean Winchester appears, covered in blood and looking so pissed that he’s practically on the other side of the emotion by now.

Formerly-One-Arm Styne disrespects Charlie and, despite Dean’s dead-eyed stare, we’re really ready for Dean to let go and beat this jerk down. Without further preamble, Dean shoots him in the head. Dean then threatens Cyrus, who begs for mercy. He doesn’t have monstrous stitches and he hates his family! (Though it’s strongly implied that Cyrus is complicit in his bully’s death and de-arming.) “There's bad in you,” Dean tells him in response. “It's in your blood. Now you can deny it and you can run from it all you want, but that bad will always win.” Oh, Dean Bean. The Mark’s got you well and truly hooked now. Dean kills Baby Styne.

Cas walks in, horrified by what Dean’s done.

….And then they hug it out and go for milkshakes!

Right?

Ugh, okay. Fine. Cas confronts Dean about his faulty moral compass.

Dean flares up about Sam and Cas’s secret project to cure Dean. Cas insists that Dean needs help. “Maybe you could fight the Mark for years. Maybe centuries, like Cain did. But you cannot fight it forever. And when you finally turn, and you will turn. Sam, and everyone you know, everyone you love...they could be long dead. Everyone except me. I'm the one who will have to watch you murder the world. So if there's even a small chance that we can save you, I won't let you walk out of this room.”

Dean continues to glare at Cas.

……..And then they hug it out and go for milkshakes!

(Boris and I will take just a moment to picture Cas staying by Dean’s side for centuries. Please do not mind the sound of quiet weeping.)

Instead of milkshakes and hugs, there’s a terrible fight where Cas only defends and doesn’t attack. He begs Dean to stop his march into darkness and in response Dean beats him bloody. He pulls out Cas’s angel blade and raises it to strike. As Dean hovers above his bloodied friend, Cas simply says, “Please…”

Dean stabs a nearby book instead, and stalks out of the bunker leaving nothing but terrible feelings in all of us - and a clear threat of future murderous intent.

______________________________

The Mark of Quotes is Changing You!

An angel that rejected Heaven. That's like a fish that wants to fly, or a dog that thinks he's people. I’d be happy to kill her, she just called me a fish.

You got seventeen fake I.D.'s, and a trunk full of guns, knives, freakin' ninja stars... I mean, who are you, man?

Aren’t you a clever kitty?

You can save me the speech on the three hearts, the two spleens, the seven nipples, for the ladies... or the fellas, I don't judge.

______________________________

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 10x22 #the prisoner #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #cas #crowley #rowena #supernatural season 10

[surejo]

( victoria pedretti, cis woman ) hey ! have you seen JOSEPHINE “JO” CORMAC around ? SHE works at the HOT COCOA STAND at big bear resort, but they must be off their shift by now. well, if you do see them can you let me know ? they’re 24 years old & they’ve been working here for TWO YEARS. they tend to be +OPTIMISTIC & +EMPATHETIC, but can also be -IMPRACTICAL & -PASSIVE. the other employees have labeled them THE IDEALIST. thanks a lot ! ( the few nights the stars can be seen, books worn down by dog-ears and marks left throughout the years, the first crisp breeze of autumn, the duality… of t.s. eliot ) 

OK. a few notes before i get started:

1) i hope everyone loves how i literally j copied my ivan stuff. url format? ‘sure jan’ lives on. theme? too lazy to find a different one that’s easy to work with. luv that for me. 2) speaking of this theme i forget if i addressed this on ivan’s blog but tabbed bullets don’t appear tabbed.... so if anything seems like it doesn’t make total sense.... it is supposed to be tabbed™. 3) get ready for drama!!!!! you may ask yourself “but the app looks so tame! there will be no drama!” but you are wrong........ because she loves cats. the t.s. eliot book......... the musical........ even the movie.

ok jo,, is also a resurrected character,,, hence how i already kno,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, that she loves cats. anyway ! let’s begin ! (listen,,,, the intro format will at least be a little different from ivan’s ok im evolving)

QUICK FACTS:

full name: josephine “jo” rose cormac

date of birth: march 6, 1995

*does not perfectly reflect the below big three zodiac chart because that’s too much math

zodiac big three: pisces sun, gemini moon, cancer rising

gender & pronouns: cis woman & she/her

sexual orientation: bisexual ( preference for women bc we luv that for her but we also luv leaving things open to chemistry )

education: bachelor in english - literature that she is doing nothing with

enneagram: 2w1

mbti: infp

various inspirations: eleanor crain ( the haunting of hill house ), dolores price *as a child and towards the end of the book ( she’s come undone ), fox 8 ( fox 8: a story ), “why try to change me now?” - fiona apple (cover), “be still” - the killers

BACKGROUND INFO:

triggers: verbal/mental/emotional abuse/gaslighting, very slight implication of spousal abuse, brief mention of car accident/death & drowning

( ivan and jo’s breakout pop-punk single: “fuck happy backstories!” stream it on spotify ! )

jo......... was born into the wrong family, let’s get that out of the way.

it was pretty clear she was a ploy to save the marriage of her parents ( who have names: lucy and benjamin, luv that for them ). it didn’t seem like they’d ever picked up a parenting book, gone to a parenting class, rly prepped for being a parent at all...... in their entire lives.

that being said, her mom was actually decent at parenting. her major flaw, though? ok, so you know how kids usually have that one bedtime story that they love and want it to be read to them over and over? well lucy complied ! but y’all wanna know what that book was ?

t.s. eliot’s “old possum’s book of practical cats” whfeiuldjkn

anyway ! when jo was seven, after many failed attempts and simple threats, her mom was finally divorcing benjamin for realz. due to his volatile nature, it was becoming very clear that she was the more fit parent and she almost got sole custody ( the only reason benjamin was motivated for it in the first place was the power so?? )! how exciting!

but the keyword is ‘almost’!

alexa, play ‘my heart will go on’ but the off-tune flute version

just as the proceedings were going through, jo’s mother was hit by a drunk driver on new year’s eve. the car skidded onto some ice, minimal damage done... then the ice broke.

jo and benjamin both devolved after that. jo withdrew more into herself and pretty much coped by..... just reading old possum’s a LOT (hate that for her). all mopey, benjamin became much less outwardly violent. the keyword is ‘outwardly.’

ya, instead of j bein like “i will just chill” he was like “i will just make my rage more subtle because in this house, we love intimidation, manipulation, hostility, the blame game, and gaslighting! uwu” managed to convince jo that her mother’s death was somehow her fault, that he was the only person she could trust, that she will never be able to live without someone else, etc., etc.

a few years in and a cycle of many impromptu sleepovers began. luv that for her. hate that for her, but luv that for her. 

there is a lot i cld talk abt here, but it all seems like it cld j be tl;dr’d as: “basically became the surrogate daughter of a bunch of other people”

as for things that r not tragique™, jo was v much a drifter when it came to friends. managed to make a fair amount bc she does not seem like she will put a tadpole in ur hand like ivan. also j a people-pleaser but that’s starting to get into her personality which is another section.

did go to college. luv that for her. has NO CLUE what she’s going to do with her degree, but she can make some really sick niche william faulkner jokes. 

began seasonally working at big bear during the winter break of her last year in college because bitch needed some money!! wound up loving it and was like “i think,,,, i will continue to do this,,,, the people here,,,, r cul,,,,”

still visits benjamin every once in a while. not a way to say that uwu you should forgive ur abusive parent(s) uwu rather that jo.... still has slight belief in him. just to end on something emo.

THE REST IS HISTORY!!!!

TL;DR:

started life out as a saddie, not a baddie. still not a baddie, but no longer as much of a saddie. loves “cats” and there is no irony to that statement. can make good niche literary jokes, but that’s about it.

PERSONALITY/MISCELLANEOUS INFO:

a child. a literal child. a child to the point that she should have supervision when she goes on grocery trips because she falls for marketing ploys so easily. can’t believe she hasn’t fallen into a pyramid scheme yet.

an absolute dumbass. again, can make some great niche william faulkner jokes, but ask her the order of the planets? “...well mars is somewhere in there.”

unironically LOVES cats - both the musical and movie. thinks jennifer hudson’s grizabella is the best. will start sharing random facts about it or old possum’s book of practical cats if she runs out of things to talk about but feels pressured to keep talking. was broken when she first read a different t.s. eliot poem and realized he was actually super dark. the only thing that got her through it was a comparison to batman :\ bruce wayne is old possum’s, batman is everything else.

to take a brief break from fun personality facts, v down on herself bc benjamin’s words rly!! stuck with her!! convinced she is an absolute idiot and does not trust her own memory. v indecisive bc of this and always longs for someone to help her figure things out. tries to distance herself from memories of her mother because, again, benjamin got to her. her love of cats doesn’t help that, but... can you believe that’s her coping mechanism? makes up for it by giving all of her love 2 everyone else!! we love tragedy!! and needing to go to therapy!!

secretly knows her love of cats is weird and dumb. a part of her knows why it’s considered one of the worst musicals ever. but LISTEN. we luv rly weird coping mechanisms!

big dreamer. will develop the most impractical goals. she usually knows they are impractical, but still..... uwu

has decided everyone is good until proven bad! except for,,,, like,,, murderers and rapists,,,,

is #StraightEdge for the most part,,,, literally has a drink maybe three times per year

says “like” a whole lot for someone who majored in english with a concentration in literature and should therefore be more eloquent.

i am not great at these sections!! feel free 2 j refer to her zodiac, personality tests, and character influences!!

literally fox 8. i put the others there bc she’s similar but wow,,,, if u read fox 8 (it’s a short story i recommend it i luv george saunders u can find a pdf online),,,, she is fox 8. 

here u go here is a sample that doesnt need context: "Fox 4 woslike: No ofense, Fox 8? Your ideas are not super praktikal. Dreem, dreem, dreem, said Fox 11. Fox 41 woslike: Fox 8, does this honestly never get old for you?"

OH ALSO. she has a slet. a cat,,,,, named asparagus,,,, whom she calls “gus”,,,,, and y’all know WHY.

recent development: has downloaded tor so she can get on the dark web. why? because she thinks there will be more funny animal videos on there. is shockingly good at navigating it.

CONNECTION IDEAS:

close friends bc we luv that –– roman (nuanced), aylie (nuanced), hazel (nuanced), cleo (nuanced), vic (nuanced), marco (nuanced)

childhood friends whom she possibly had impromptu sleepovers with bc that is v soft and,,,,, y’all i left the city blank for a reason. –– hazel, marco, 

on that note, the person who was like “wait,,,,,,, u know that book was turned into a musical right,,,,,, like,,,,, a musical literally everyone knows” and shook jo’s world

good influence / bad influence –– cleo, vic, 

~*confidant*~

roommate

exes –– ian,

reciprocated pining

unreciprocated pining

someone..... who has accepted..... that she likes cats.... in a way that is not ironic. will see the movie with her. –– aylie, 

an enemy,,,,,, aka this person was like “cats is literally the worst thing in the entire world” and now they r on jo’s very short hit list –– riley

idk!!! im also obvs up for brainstorming!!! luv that!!!

** descriptive connections page is here ( only people who i’m messaging are on it, but i ?? would love to plot w everyone ?? so don’t make the short list make u think i’m trying 2 limit it 2 these ppl auhfoeidla )

LIKE THIS OR HMU TO PLOT !

#bigbearintro #y'all my intro style evolved! #there's a tl;dr beneath the bg info bc i!! rambled!! #i feel like i went back and forth b/t proper grammar/punctuation and.... not.... caring. #also i am. dumb 2night. it j took me a hot while to figure out how to spell punctuation and it still doesnt look right the english language #is so weird???? #we post this before we have many followers we die like men.

[closetofanxiety]

50 Wrestling Questions: Why Not

Remember this? It’s been a while. Let’s do this again. Let’s twist again like we did last summer. Or the summer of 2017 in this case.

1. What got you into wrestling?

People ask me this all the time, and I don’t really have a good answer. I’ve liked it on and off since I was very young, and who knows why you like the stuff you like when you’re a little kid? 

2. What is your favorite wrestling promotion?

Of all time: ECW, even though I would probably think of it very differently if it were happening today. Currently: Beyond Wrestling. 

3. Favorite male wrestler of all time?

Gorgeous George, but if we’re talking about people who were alive when I was alive, Dusty Rhodes. I want to say Bruiser Brody, but in my heart I would know I was just saying that to look cool. 

4. Favorite female wrestler of all time?

Gail Kim. For the longest time, she was the only woman in a major global wrestling company who got over based on her wrestling ability. She was doing stuff in TNA that was years ahead of its time, and could adapt her style to get great matches with a variety of opponents with very different backgrounds. And she can still go, as she showed in the match against Tessa Blanchard the other night. I know it would be cooler to say Bull Nakano or Chigusa Nagayo or something, but I don’t know enough of their stuff to make that claim credible. I am who I am, a person who goes to the mall to buy shoes. 

5. Favorite current male wrestler?

Nick Gage

6. Favorite current female wrestler?

Momo Watanabe 

7. Favorite theme song?

Joey Janela’s music captures his vibe perfectly, and sounds great being blasted out of PA speakers inside a small bar or VFW hall. Of all time, probably, I don’t know, Honky Tonk Man? In an ironic way that slowly becomes sincere?

8. Least favorite theme song?

Ricochet’s WWE theme music is pretty dreadful. 

9. Favorite gimmick?

Currently: Orange Cassidy. All time: Road Warriors maybe? They were almost 100 percent gimmick, and they were the biggest tag team in the world at a great time for tag team wrestling. 

10. Least favorite gimmick?

All the racist and gay-hating gimmicks that have been used throughout the years are more or less equally horrible. If we’re talking about a terrible gimmick that was non-malignant, I’d say it was taking giant indestructible ass-kicker Mike Awesome and making him “That 70s Guy.” 

11. Best entrance (either their usual entrance or a special one, like a Wrestlemania entrance)?

Gorgeous George had the best entrance of all time, and it’s been copied ever since (Ric Flair’s entrance is basically Gorgeous George’s, scored with a different piece of classical music). The Sandman also had a great entrance. He was kind of all-entrance, now that I think of it. I also love those old shows in Japan where Brody would come out to “Immigrant Song” running through the crowd, swinging a fucking chain over his head like a lunatic. An entrance that makes you fear for your life: mission accomplished. 

12. Best Undertaker Wrestlemania match?

I am not the right person to ask for Undertaker superlatives, but the Lesnar match had a legitimately shocking conclusion that I still appreciate 

13. Most overrated?

I’m tempted to incur the wrath of the online by making a contrarian hot take selection like Ken Omega, but in reality it’s probably the Undertaker. 

14. Most underrated?

There are a million choices from before the 1980s, the Before Time of contemporary pro wrestling. Edouard Carpentier, say; he was having matches in 1970 that would not look out of place in 2019. Since the 1980s, I’d say Jerry Lynn is a very strong contender for most underrated. The popular choice would be Sid or Lex Luger, but I think they’re pretty much rated exactly as they should be. 

15. Have you ever been to an event? If so, which one?

I certainly have been to many pro wrestling events. I go to one or two a month. Like a lot of things, wrestling is pretty much always fun in person. It helps that the Northeast has a ton of good companies within easy driving distance. My favorite show of all time might be Americanrana 2016. 

16. Who has the best merch?

We’re in a weird period where people on Instagram are making better shirt designs (in insanely limited editions) than the vast majority of wrestlers or wrestling companies. I will say that Kris Wolf has yet to make an ugly or boring piece of merchandise, which is a huge complication in this day and age. 

17. Do you own any merch?

Nope! Wait, I mean, “yes, entirely too much.” Shirts, 8 x 10s, DVDs, magazines, random pieces like fancy enamel badges and a stack of Okada bucks. The one thing I’ve never gotten into is action figures, and that’s probably good for the ol’ bank balance. 

18. Best nickname?

"The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes is an all-time classic. 

19. Worst nickname?

"The Game” is a dumb nickname. “The Cerebral Assassin” is also a dumb nickname. Are assassins supposed to be stupid? I bet they’re typically very smart, although of low moral character. “Triple H” is his only good nickname, and even that sounds like the nickname of a guy who owns a car dealership out by the highway.

20. Best mic skills?

Nobody was ever better than Bobby Heenan, who had incredible range and versatility. He could do comedy and he could do menace. He could do calm and he could do spitting rage. He had an uncanny sense of timing and was quicker on his feet than almost anyone. No one really comes close at matching his astonishing depth, but Dusty Rhodes was an all-time great promo. He really made you care about wrestling matches, which is not an easy thing to do.

21. Most annoying?

I mean, it has to be Vince McMahon. 

22. Most attractive male?

Is Tanahashi too obvious a choice? Best hair in wrestling. It’s incredible and luxurious, like an untamed mountain stream. Andrade “Cien” Almas or whatever they’ve shortened his name to (”And”) is a handsome man. Killer Kross: very handsome. We live in a golden age of attractive wrestlers. Just look back at the gassed-up Zubaz mastodons of the 1980s, or the territories-era guys who all looked like they were 48 years old and had pot bellies. You almost have to try to find unattractive wrestlers. Nick Gage, for instance. But I’m sure even he has his swooning admirers. 

23. Most attractive female?

Again, what a time for attractive wrestlers. It may be shallow, but wrestling is a business that’s at least partially cosmetic. Attractive people sell tickets. I would, and have, bought a ticket to see Hana Kimura. 

24. Favorite faction?

Of all time? Probably the Barry Windham-era Four Horsemen. More recently, Team Pazuzu. 

25. Worst faction?

BULLET CLUB. No, it’s not the Bullet Club, as exhausted as they’ve become. It’s probably the nWo after early 1998 or so, when they had like 60 members and dragged down every storyline. 

26. Best ring gear?

Su Yung and Pentagon Jr. 

27. Who do you think would be the nicest in real life?

I bet Jerry Lynn is a good guy to know. People in wrestling universally praise Little Guido, which is very rare. The Young Bucks seem like they might be decent dudes. Willow Nightingale told a story on a podcast about Nick Gage excitedly playing with Solo Darling’s dog backstage, so you never know. 

28. Who would be the rudest in real life?

On the indie level, it’s probably someone who doesn’t work very much. Above the indie level, I bet some of those British guys are secretly horrible, like Jimmy Havoc. 

29. Favorite heel?

Currently it’s a tie between MJF and Alisha Edwards, two of the only people who can regularly get indie crowds to boo them. Of all time, heel Flair was hard to beat. 

30. Most hardcore?

It’s definitely either a guy in Japan or a guy in Mexico, and he’s definitely been burned by explosive charges multiple times. Onita? It’s probably Onita. Or Jun Kasai? I think Onita has probably been exploded more times than Jun Kasai. 

31. A wrestler you could beat?

At wrestling? Not a single one of them. Nicholas, the small boy who won the WWE tag team championship with Braun Strowman, would wipe the floor with me. Even the most callow bodybuilder-turned-wrestler would not break a sweat beating me senseless. But writing talking points for senior administration officials in preparation for legislative testimony? Now you’re on my turf. Not so tough now, huh, Nicholas? 

32. Best story line?

Freebirds vs. Von Erichs or Stone Cold vs. Vince. My heart says the former, my head says the latter. 

33. Biggest missed opportunity for a story line?

The WWE blowing the invasion angle after purchasing WCW is the obvious one. More recently, they blew it by not turning Reigns heel. 

34. Worst story line?

Ha, so many of them. Impossible to choose just one. At least most of the dumb embarrassing Russo ones in WCW and TNA were basically harmless, like the time Samoa Joe got kidnapped by ninjas. The Chuck and Billy wedding thing was far worse. A low point even by Vince’s impressively cretinous standards.

35. Which wrestler should turn heel?

I’d like to see a Jordynne Grace heel run in Impact. Heel Finn Balor would also be good. 

36. Which wrestler should turn face?

Samoa Joe has a good fiery babyface, “I’m tired of doing your dirty work, McMahon!” run in him. 

37. Who would be the worst to room with?

Can you imagine sharing a living space with Enzo Amore? Or the thicket of twee Disney merchandise you’d have to negotiate every day if you lived with Johnny Gargano?

38. Who would be the best to room with?

I bet Eddie Edwards would be a surprisingly thoughtful roommate, like he’d always do the dishes “because I love doing them!,” that kind of thing. I have nothing to base this suspicion on, he just seems like my old roommate, Shane, who was like that. 

39. Who would be your best friend if you were a wrestler?

I’d like to say Jushin Thunder Liger, and posit that we would go on exciting adventures, but the answer is probably something like “Comp Time” Terry Dandridge, who wrestles monthly for 2Xtreme All-Pro Wrestling Alliance out of Euphoria, Kansas and has a 9 to 5 as a hardware store manager. 

40. What would your job be in a wrestling promotion?

I’d normally make a self-effacing joke here, but I do social media training at my real job, and so many wrestlers are badly in need of help in this area. 

41. Favorite wrestling podcast/Youtube channel?

I like AIW’s “The Card is Going to Change” podcast a lot, and there’s one by the owners of RevPro that’s pretty good. It’s hard to find a well-produced wrestling podcast that talks about independent wrestling. My favorite wrestling YouTube channel is OSW Review. 

42. Favorite finisher?

BURNING HAMMER

43. Least favorite finisher?

The Bayley-to-belly suplex. HOW IS THIS A FINISHING MOVE

44. Favorite match?

Kerry Von Erich vs. Jerry Lawler at Superclash III. It was a bloody, weird, engrossing spectacle, and it was the symbolic end of the territories era. 

45. Favorite PPV?

Royal Rumble is the last PPV my casual fan friends reliably want to see, and with good reason: it’s engrossing.

46. Guilty pleasure wrestler?

Big Banter Baron Corbin, but I feel no guilt here. He rules. 

47. Favorite submission?

THE KATA HA JIME, otherwise known as the Tazmission.

48. Most entertaining to watch?

All time? Randy Savage. Currently? Io Shirai. 

49. Best spot?

Anyone spitting mist into the unsuspecting eyes of their foes

50. Who do you most respect?

I respect you, booker man.

#50 questions #lists

[theanimefreak12345-blog]

The soundtrack of my life so far

Sweet Child Of Mine-Guns N Roses

Take on me- A-ha

Don't stop believin'- Journey

More than a feeling-Boston

Enter Sandman-Metallica

Dumb-Nirvana

Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen

I wanna know what love is- Foreigner

Dark side of the moon-Pink Floyd

Far away-Nickelback

Janie's got a gun-Aerosmith

Simple man- Shinedown

Snuff-slipknot

Voodoo- Godsmack

Fuck Authority- Pennywise

Be Tommorow- Madlife

Hey Jude-The Beatles

Hotel California-The Eagles

Satisfaction-The Rolling Stones

Stayin' Alive-The Bee Gees

Stairway to Heaven -Led Zeppelin

Free Bird- Lynyrd Skynyrd

Pour some sugar on me- Def Leppard

Money for Nothing- Dire Straits

You shook me all night long-AC/DC

War-Guess who

Wake me up when September ends-Green Day

Scars-Papa Roach

Unwell-Matchbox 20

Learn to fly-Foo Fighters

Fat lip-Sum 41

Bored to Death- Blink-182

You sexy thing-Hot chocolate

Africa-Toto

Hash pipe- Weezer

Lick it up-KISS

Shout-The Isley Brothers

Let it be me-The Everly Brothers

Can't you see-Marshall Tucker Band

Paranoid-Black Sabbath

I wanna rock-Twisted sister

Please stay-The Drifters

Yakety Yak- The Coasters

The house of the rising sun-The Animals

I'm a believer-The Monkees

Turn!Turn!Turn!-The Byrds

Zombie-The Cranberries

Rock around the clock-Bill Haley and the Comets

Maybe Baby- Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Free Fallin'- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Monday Monday-The mamas and the papas

Dust in the wind-Kansas

Never been to Spain-Three Dog night

Nights in White Satin- The Moody Blues

Accidentally in love- Counting Crows

Crying Lightning-Arctic Monkeys

People are strange-The Doors

I know it's over-The Smiths

Full time Cutie-Summertime Dropouts

Odds Are-Barenaked Ladies

Addicted-Saving Abel

Puzzle Pieces-Framing Hanley

I can see for miles-The who

Should I stay or should I go-The Clash

Don't fear the reaper-Blue Oyster Cult

Roxanne-The Police

Sugar, we're going down-Fall Out boy

Demons-Imagine Dragons

Migraine-Twenty One Pilots

I'm not okay-My chemical Romance

The Strays-Sleeping with Sirens

My Girl-The Temptations

Blue-The Birthday Massacre

Bounce-System Of A Down

The Greatest show Unearthed-Creature Feature

Bodies-Drowning Pool

I don't wanna die-Hollywood Undead

Weightless-All time Low

Animal I have become-Three Days Grace

Take it out on me-Thousand foot Krutch

Amnesia-5 Seconds of Summer

You don't know you're beautiful-One direction

Secrets-One Republic

She will be loved-Maroon 5

Animal-Neon Trees

Chasing Cars-Snow Patrol

Battle Scars-Paradise Fears

Hey there Delilah-Plain white T's

Why don't you love me-Hot Chelle Rae

Pumped up Kicks-Foster the people

Stereo Hearts-Gym class Heroes

First-Cold war Kids

Bones exposed-Of mice and men

I of the storm-Of monsters and men

Take it all back-Judah and the lion

Little lion man-Mumford and sons

Use somebody-Kings of Leon

Miserable at Best-Mayday Parade

Nice guys finish last-Cobra starship

Stutter-Marianas Trench

Shadows-Breathe Carolina

Welcome to my Life-Simple Plan

Crawl-Breaking Benjamin

Alone in a Room-Asking Alexandria

Sad song-We the kings

Voices-Motionless in white

For the likes of you-Woe is me

Forgive and Forget-Miss may I

Machines-Crown the Empire

Broken Heart-Escape the Fate

Iris-The Goo Goo Dolls

Shut me Up-Mindless self Indulgence

Immortal Love-Vampires Everywhere

Bewitched-Blood on the Dance Floor

Can you feel my heart-Bring me the Horizon

Wake me up before you go-go: Wham!

How to save a life-The Fray

Break even-The Script

Mr. Brightside-The Killers

Dead Hearts-The Stars

Born for this-The Score

Sweater Weather-The Neighborhood

Unsteady-XAmbassadors

Ho hey-The Lumineers

Say Something-A great Big World

Why-Rascal Flatts

Stay-Florida Georgia Line

If I die young-The Band Perry

Monster-Skillet

Carnivore-Starset

Broken-Seether

Faceless-Red

The scientist-Coldplay

Hated-Beartooth

Madness-Muse

We are young-fun

Pompeii-Bastille

50 ways to say goodbye-Train

Let her go-Passenger

Scream-Get scared

Good left Undone-Rise Against

Frozen-Within Temptation

Zombie-Bad wolves

Unstable-Chaotica

I don't care-Apocalyptica

Starstrukk- 3oh!3

Thank you-MKTO

I can't breathe-Dead By April

I will follow you into the dark-Death Cab For Cutie

Cute without the E-Taking back Sunday

No way Out-Bullet for my Valentine

Jekyll and Hyde-Five finger death punch

Hospitality-Funeral for a Friend

La la Lainey-Forever the sickest kids

Rescue me-Hawthorne Heights

It hurts-Angels and Airwaves

Do not Resuscitate-Icarus the Owl

Don't threaten me with a good time-Panic!at the disco

Fashionably Late-Falling In Reverse

The kill-30 seconds to Mars

Hero/Heroine-Boys like Girls

Lithium-Evanescence

Cool kids-Echosmith

still into you-Paramore

Love bites(so do I)-Halestorm

Kill everybody-Skrillex

Technologic-Daftpunk

It's my life-Bon Jovi

I, Dementia-Whitechapel

This is now-Hatebreed

I ran-A flock of seagulls

Darling-Eyes set to kill

Alive and kicking-Simple minds

Laid so low-Tears for fears

Castle of glass-Linkin Park

Behind blue eyes-Limp bizkit

with or without you-U2

Hostage-Chelsea Grin

The Anthem-Good Charlotte

Do better-Say anything

Bite to break skin-Senses Fail

Alive-P.O.D.

Snow Cats-AFI

Cheatercheaterbestfriendeater-Nevershoutnever

The taste of ink-The Used

Outside-Staind

Headstrong-Trapt

Door to Door Cannibals-Chevelle

Wolf-First Aid kit

Monster-Meg and Dia

All Star-Smash Mouth

The Middle-Jimmy Eat World

Blurry-Puddle of Mudd

Stacy's mom-Fountains of Wayne

The bitch song-Bowling for Soup

Flavor of the weak-American Hi-fi

The Sky Under The Sea- Pierce the Veil

In the end-Black veil brides

I'm already gone-A day to remember

Fuck away the pain-Divide the day

Bruises and bite marks-Good with Grenades

Shake it-Metro Station

Feel good Inc.-Gorillaz

Just a girl-No doubt

Heroes-The Wallflowers

Intergalactic-Beastie boys

Get down-Backstreet boys

Psycho killer-Talking Heads

Butterfly-Screaming Trees

Useless-Panic Era

Juicebox-The strokes

creep-Radiohead

Wake up-Rage against the machine

Can't stop-Red hot chili peppers

Nutshell-Alice in chains

Loser- 3 doors down

Hurt- Nine Inch nails

End of the world as we know it-REM

Arms wide open-Creed

Sorry-Buckcherry

Halfway Gone-Lifehouse

Ocean Avenue-Yellowcard

Bug Bytes-Alien Ant Farm

Adorable-Artist Vs. Poet

Survivor-Destiny's child

Hey ya-OutKast

Angel with a shotgun-The cab

You're gonna go far, kid-The offspring

Too many words-sick puppies

Kickstart my heart-Motley crue

Wide awake-Audioslave

Love hurts-Incubus

Prison sex-Tool

Take me-Korn

Don't go away-Oasis

Bartender-Rehab

Paralyzer-Finger 11

Inhale-Stone sour

Bloodclot- Rancid

Click click Boom-Saliva

Just because-Jane's Addiction

Sick Fiction-Jamie's Elsewhere

Bruised-Jack's Mannequin

Down-Stone Temple Pilots

We exist- Arcade Fire

Feathers-A perfect Circle

Trailer Trash-Modest Mouse

The Lovecats-The cure

Amber-311

Dear God-Avenged sevenfold

We're going to be friends-7 nation army

Hold me down-Motion city soundtrack

Steady as she goes-The raconteurs

Bad Decisions-2 Door cinema Club

Zero-yeah yeah yeahs

Lips Of An Angel-Hinder

In my head-Queens of the Stone Age

welcome home-coheed and cambria

Limelight-Rush

That's all-Genesis

Stormy clouds-The verve

Pom poms-Jonas brothers

Muzzle-Smashing Pumpkins

Holiday-Vampire weekend

Out of time-Blur

Toy Box-Insane clown posse

Dead skin mask-Slayer

Tornado of souls-Megadeth

To bid you farewell-Opeth

God of Emptiness-Morbid Angel

Little secrets-Passion pit

You enjoy myself-Phish

Mutilated lips-Ween

Sick of you-cake

Doll parts-Hole

White room-Cream

Trouble-Cage the Elephant

Eventually-Tame Impala

I've given up on you-Real Friends

Wonder-Honey water

Cherry-Moose Blood

Communist daughter-Neutral milk hotel

I am a nightmare-Brand new

Howlin' for you-The black keys

Meadowlarks-fleet foxes

Spiders-Wilco

Shut up and dance-Walk the Moon

Face down-red jumpsuit apparatus

Chainsaw-Family Force 5

Knife party-The Deftones

No hope-The vaccines

Get out-CHVRCHES

Colors bleed-Pop evil

Make me wanna die-The pretty reckless

I'll be ok-Nothing More

Legs-ZZ Top

Big Bad wolf-In this moment

Lights out-Royal blood

Sex-The 1975

God's not dead-The Newsboys

Don't stop-Fleetwood mac

Lie to me-Depeche Mode

You're the one-Greta van fleet

broken-lovelytheband

Please come in-Black stone Cherry

Daddy-Badflower

Are you bored yet-Wallows

Picture this-Blondie

Hallowed be thy name-Iron maiden

Rock you like a hurricane-Scorpions

Killed by death-Motorhead

Walk-Pantera

Every rose has its thorn-Poison

I wanna be sedated-The ramones

Bye bye beautiful-Nightwish

Liar- Sex pistols

Infectious- Imminence

Signs-Captives

[caramell0w]

Ready to Comply

Parings: Bucky x Reader

Summary: You are taken captive by Hydra and Bucky becomes your protector

Warnings: Language, Angst, Torture (both Bucky and reader)

A/N: This is an ask I got about doing a Beauty and the Beast with Bucky. I don’t like doing rewrites of movies, so I made it unique and added elements of the movie to it. Hope you enjoy!

A/N 2: So this is the 2nd time I’m posting this because I’m a dumb ass and deleted the original. So sorry about that everyone! This one should be good now. Also a big shout out to @blog-lady-vi (who Tumblr won’t let me tag) for the correct translations! I’m not retagging people in this one. Thank you all to those of you that like, commented and reblogged my original. Sorry I deleted it!

Translations: You don’t have the balls - У тебя яиц не хватит Fuck you too - Ты тоже иди нахуй

Word Count: 3581

If you like my fanfic, check out my books

Masterlist

I’m running as fast through the trees as my legs will take me. The distant sound of dogs barking reminds me I’m not safe yet. I pump my arms and legs, willing my body to push me forward out of danger. Faster, move faster damn it! The barking gets louder and the shouts of men increases. I can’t be caught. Hydra will never let me live if I’m caught. My future holds torture and ultimately, death.

I see a clearing up ahead of me and push harder and faster, hoping to get out into the open where someone might see me and rescue me. Coms went dead over five minutes ago, I’m not even sure if my team has survived the mission. I turn to look behind me and see the dogs are closing in. My legs feel like jello and my chest hurts so bad from the exertion I feel as if I will pass out.

Just a little more, almost there! I thought about turning around and aiming my gun at the soldiers and dogs chasing after me; but what would that actually do? There are many more of them than of me and I would just run out of bullets. The opening is so close I can taste freedom and then I see him, the Asset. The Winter Soldier, waiting for me at my only exit to this God forsaken forest. He has his gun trained on me, and I know he never misses his target.

I skid to a stop a few feet in front of him and turn so I’m running parallel to the opening. His eyes, while hidden underneath dark glasses are trained on my every movement. I’m his mission and unless I die; there is no chance of escape. I’m not going down without a fight though, screw that! I stop running and turn my gun on myself.

“Stop, or I shoot,” I say, cocking my gun.

“У тебя яиц не хватит,” he replies, his voice muffled by his muzzle.  

“Ты тоже иди нахуй,” I respond and smile.

The sound of the dogs barking is deafening now as they are nipping at my heels.

“Soldat, take her down now,” a soldier commands. The Winter Soldier takes a step forward and I take one back, followed by another. My back brushes a tree and this is it. This is how it all ends, cornered like a broken dog. My finger itches to pull the trigger. In an instant he has his gun in his hand and he shoots at my leg. I look down expecting pain and blood; but I see a small dart instead. Fuck. I drop to my knees, the world above me spinning, and everything goes black.   

I wake up some time later, could be hours, could be days; I’m really not sure. I’ve been stripped down to just my stealth suit pants and my tank top. No guns, no communication system, no watch. I look around at my small cell and at my deathbed. It could be worse, I could die on the cold cement floor curled up. Now it’s the waiting game.

I stand and walk to the bars that are holding me in my tiny prison and look into the cell next to me. He’s there, caged like an animal as well. How fitting for a killer.

“Soldat.” I command his attention. He turns his head in my direction but makes no move to answer me.

“Where am I?” He stares at me, eyes glued to mine and shoulder length chestnut hair hanging in his face. “I asked you a question Soldat. Where am I?”

“He won’t talk to you. He doesn’t report to you.” A booming voice says as he walks down the hall to my cell. “If you want to talk to him so bad I can make sure he breaks you for the answers we need.”

“I should have shot myself when I had the chance.”

“We’ll see about that, Y/F/N. In the meantime, I believe you might just be our next Asset. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we have a lot of work to break you.” I back away from him, I’m terrified and he knows it. I see the glint of amusement in his eye and the smug smile on his face.  “Oh yes, you are going to be fun to break. Better try to get some sleep, you won’t be getting any for awhile.” He turns on his heel and leaves us alone.

I feel the tears form and wipe them away before they have a chance to fall. I will not show weakness, I will not cry here. Think Y/N! I look around me for anything that could be used as a weapon or any means of escape. I’m frantic and I’m spiraling out of control with fear.

“Stop,” he says quietly, his voice sounding raw.

“Not in a million years. I’m not going to become an assassin like you. I’m not going to kill innocent people for these sick freaks, like you! Do you even know how much of a monster you are?” I place my hands on my hips and glare out at him.

“Yes.” He turns his back to me and drops his head. He sounds so defeated, so broken that I want to reach out to him.

“What happened to you?” It’s the only thing I can think to ask. Does he even know? Did he choose this? No, who would choose a life like this.

“I don’t remember.”

“Does it hurt?” I already know the answer, I’m positive it does.

He turns and his blue eyes lock with mine. “Yes.”

I’m strapped down to a chair, beaten and bruised; but still in one piece. I am alert enough to know I’m surrounded by at least ten men, all watching with amusement written on their faces. This is sick, they are getting joy of out of this. In the corner I see the asset watching me intently, his eyes never leaving me. I look over at him and plead for help with my eyes. I won’t say the words, I refuse to give them the satisfaction.

I am hooked up to some kind of IV and they are pumping me full of something. I struggle at first; but it is futile and I give up quickly. It’s easier to let the drugs run through me. It’s almost like anesthesia. I know I have a fat lip and bruised ribs; but I don’t seem to care.

“Are you willing to tell us now?” A man asks as he pinches my chin hard between his thumb and index finger, making me look at him. My eyes are glassed over and I gather as much spit as I can and get him right in the eye. He backhands me. My head snaps to the side, my eyes water and my ears are ringing. I open and close my jaw trying to get the ringing under control. “Turn it on.”

Someone forces a mouth guard into my mouth and I feel an electric shock jolt through my body, over and over again. I hear someone screaming in the distance and realize it’s me. I feel like I’m having an out of body experience, watching everything from afar. Finally the pain stops. My head is buzzing and my breathing is labored.

“How about now little girl?” I whimper. I can’t get the words to form from my mouth. I’m screaming at him in my head; but my lips haven’t gotten the memo. “One more time for good measure. Turn it back on.”

“Sir,” another man starts but he cuts him off.

“Now!”

The pain is back and it’s worse, I scream as loud as I can, my body shakes and my throat and eyes are burning. This is so much worse than torture, so much worse than I imagined. I focus my vision and it lands on The Winter Soldier. He has moved forward into my line of vision and I center myself with his face. This is how he is helping me. He is trying to keep my grounded. The machine stops again and I pass out.

I’m vaguely aware of someone carrying me back to my cell and gently placing me on the hard mattress. “No, stop.” I keep repeating the words quietly to myself over and over again. I feel something cold against my forehead and I jerk away from it. I open my eyes and see the soldier sitting at the edge of my bed, his hand tracing a pattern on my face.

“Get the fuck away from me,” I tell him, scrambling for the wall behind me.

“Please.” It’s all he says. It’s a simple word; but the meaning is much deeper, I know it is.

“Why?”

“I want to.” He pats the bed next to him and I move a little closer. “Lay down.” I do as he asks and he lays down behind me. My muscles tense as I feel his warm body behind mine and his cool metal arm draped over my waist. “Sleep.” My body understands his command; but my brain is having a hard time with it. It’s going a mile a minute and I can’t shut it down.

“How long?” I whisper, hoping he understands my question.

“I don’t know.” He pulls me a little closer and sleep finally pulls me under.

I wake up screaming only a few hours later and sit straight up. The soldier is kneeling over me and holds my face in his hands, locking my eyes with his. He helps ground me and I nod my head, letting him know I’m done screaming. The adrenaline finally kicks in and I’m sick as a dog. I empty what little I have in my stomach into the toilet and stand on shaky legs. He watches me; but makes no move to help for comfort me.

“Sleep.” He says, motioning for me to come back to the bed.

“No. Answers. I want answers, not sleep.” I’m not sure he will comply; but it’s worth a shot. “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are there others like you?”

“No.”

“Have they tried before?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your name?”

“I can’t remember.”

Those three little words were like a gut punch. I can’t remember. How horrible for this man. He has no memories of his life before Hydra, nothing happy to think back on and remember. No friends, or family.

“Will you keep me safe?”

“The best I can.”

That was the best I could hope for. I know if they give him a new mission that involves taking me out I’m done for. I just hope he can remember who I am long enough to get out of here; or until I get rescued. They have to be looking for me right?

The few weeks go by agonizingly slow. I spend most of my day hooked up to an IV being tortured and then thrown back into my cell with him. He holds me through my screams of pain, and he helps drive away the nightmares that plague my mind. He is no longer the monster I met, he is someone in just as much pain as I; and I think he needs this comfort just as much as I need it. We have formed a bond; and I know he won’t hurt me. This is the closest to love I think he has experienced that he can remember, and the thought makes my heart ache.

They’ve started torturing me with the sanme trigger words they use on the soldier and he has been locked in his cell the past few days because of it. They don’t want to reset him in the process of breaking me.    

“Longing.” I feel my heart rate accelerate; my body is anticipating what is coming next. The man saying the words smiles when he sees the change in my demeanor.

“Rusted.” I’m fighting the feeling of losing control over my body. I struggle in the chair and huff, the mouth guard muffling the noises.

“Furnace.” My eyes roll to the back of my head and I begin convulsing. This is the furthest they’ve gotten with me and my body seems to want to listen to them. Noises become faded and I’m hardly aware of what is going on around me. Fight this! Don’t let them win!

“Daybreak.” I pop open my eyes and look around the room. My body refuses to move, but I’m fully alert; I’m fighting the effects of the words.

“Seventeen.”

I scream and pull at the restraints. “Let me go!” The machine turns on and I am trapped in the daze of the pain. My body convulses under the pressure of the machine and the blood curdling scream that leaves my lips makes my throat hurt.

“We’re getting closer, we just need a little more time.” I hear the men talking like I’m not even in the room. I’m drenched in sweat and I just want to die.

Where is my team? Why haven’t they found me yet. I’m lifted by familiar arms and carried back to my cell. My soldier is there protecting me. I turn my face into his chest and nuzzle down into the comfort he brings.

“Soldat, stop.” He stops walking but does not turn to face the men. Please, don’t let them figure it out. I don’t want them using the soldier against me. “Drop her off and come back.” I look up at him and he nods. He resumes walking towards my cell and deposits me on the bed.

“Please don’t go to them. They are going to use you against me.” I go to touch his face and he pulls back.

“I have to.” He slams the door behind him and I curl up on my bed to wait. Are they going to send him back to break me himself, or are they going to torture him to get to me. The thought of either makes me sick. I let my exhausted body and mind fall into nothingness and sleep like the dead.

I wake up a while later and the soldier is leaning against the door, arms crossed over his chest and his foot bent at the knee, resting on the bars behind him.

“Who’s Steve Rogers?” He asks. It’s a simple question; but I can see the gears turning in his head.

“Why?”

“Who is he?” He asks, pushing from the wall and striding towards me.

Realization dawn on me. “You’re Sargent Barnes aren’t you?” He stops moving and stands still as if he is frozen. “Steve calls you Bucky. He’s told us all about you, what a good man you are.”

I growl rips from his throat and he is on me in an instant. His hand wrapped around my throat and he pins be against the cement wall. I wrap my fingers delicately over his metal wrist; but I know he won’t hurt me. I can see the war raging behind his eyes. “Who the hell is Bucky?” His face is inches from mine and his eyes are feral. “Answer me.” He commands.

‘You are. I was on a mission, working for Steve, when you captured me. I work with the Avengers, and Steve is one of us.” He relaxes his grip on my throat and I reach out to touch his face. My fingers dance along his cheek bone and he nuzzles his face into my touch. “Bucky, we need to get out of here. How do we escape.”

“We can’t.” He furrows his brows, deep in thought. I can tell he is trying to remember something and the look is gone in an instant.

“What’s your mission Bucky?”

He growls again, something snapping inside him. “I’m not Bucky. Stop calling me that.” He tightens his grip around my throat and my breathing becomes labored.

“Don’t do this Bucky.” I gasp, trying to get more oxygen. “Let me help you remember.” The world around me goes fuzzy and then black. I’m not dead, I can feel movement around me; but I’m not able to move either. I regain consciousness a small while later and I’m alone. The door to my cell has been left open.

I carefully get up and open it, the creak of the metal ringing off the silent walls. I look up and down the corridor and when I see it’s empty, I begin my ascent to leave this hell hole. I hear screaming and I freeze. It’s a blood curdling scream that I’ve become accustomed to over the past few weeks, expect it isn’t mine. I turn to look at the cell across from mine and it’s empty. Bucky!

All the hairs on my neck and arms are standing at attention and I know I can’t leave him. He doesn’t deserve this any more than I do. I run down the hall to the room of torture and I look in through the small window. Bucky is strapped down and is being wiped. The stream of electricity running through his body making him jerk in his restraints. I know he left the cell door open for me to escape, it’s his way of letting me go. They know what he did and he is paying for it.

I take a deep breath, knowing even if I run that I’m not getting out of here alive; and I push open the door. “Stop!” I yell as loud as I can. Someone powers down the machine and everyone stares at me. I don’t look at any of them; my eyes are locked on Bucky’s, my protector. “Let him go.” My request is met with a few laughs and some eye rolls; but I ignore them; taking a few steps closer to the Soldier.

Someone points a gun to my head and I continue my walk, closer to him. “Bucky? Can you hear me?” His eyes don’t leave mine; but he doesn’t answer me either. “Soldat?”

Recognition flashes and he nods his head. My protector isn’t here right now, he’s been replaced with the killer; the beast. He is released from his restraints and he stands, looming over me. This is it, he’s going to break me here in front of all these people. A small sob works its way past my lips and I bite my lip to keep from showing my fear.

“I love you Bucky. I’m so sorry.” I wrap my arms around his waist and press my face into his chest. I keep repeating the words over and over; trying to pull him from his trance.

Something happens then that surprises me and the men around us; he wraps his arms around me and bends down to whisper in my ear. “I’m getting us out of here.”

I look up into his eyes and I see the fire behind them. He’s enraged and he’s on a mission; his own mission. One by one the men in the room are slaughtered. He grabs a scalpel from the table and slices someone’s jugular, blood spurting out everywhere. He grabs my hand and we make our way out of the room, towards the stair to freedom.

Men drop as we swiftly pass them, making our way further into the compound. We get to the last landing before the main floor and I can see daylight streaming in through the windows. I haven’t seen light in a few weeks and it’s a welcome sight. We pick up our speed, taking the steps two at a time, his hand never leaving mine. I hear a loud crack and Bucky goes down, pulling me with him. No! I look behind me and see someone in full tactical gear racing towards us. I look down at Bucky and he’s been shot in the leg. Make him immobile; but don’t kill him. That’s what they are doing.

“Bucky, please I need you to get up. You can’t stay here.”

A loud shattering noise comes from above us and a few people drop down. I recognize Steve and I want to cry I’m so happy. He is going to get us out of here. The other men with Steve take care of the on coming Hydra agents and Steve points his gun down at Bucky. I jump up in front of the barrel, shielding Bucky from him.

“No Steve, he’s not a threat to me. It’s Bucky.” I place my hand on the barrel on the gun and lower it.

“Bucky?” He asks looking over my shoulder at him. I kneel down and help him stand. He leans his weight on me and I wince in slight pain. “Let me take him.” Steve offers his arm but Bucky holds me tighter.

“It’s fine, I’ve got him.” The last thing I want is for Bucky to go back into Soldier mode to keep me safe. “Bucky,” I turn my attention to him, “Steve’s not going to hurt you or me. He’s one of us, one of the good guys. He’s going to get us out of here; we’re safe.”

He nods in understanding and we slowly walk out the front doors to the waiting quinjet. I help strap him in and he takes my hand in his, rubbing his thumb on the back on my hand. I close my eyes, knowing I’m safe; that we’re safe.

#bucky barnes #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky x reader #winter soldier #winter solder drabble #winter soldier imagine #bucky barnes imagine #marvel fanfic #marvel #avengers fanfiction

[50funny]

Mage- Chapter 4: Battle At The Ball

Written by 50funny:

Part 1- The Gate Crashers

Alex stood in the empty kitchen, furiously scrubbing dishes sending water and foam flying across the bench.

“Stupid Liz, making me scrub up dishes. What did I ever do to her? All I wanted was to come to this dumb party,” Alex ranted under his breath.

“Alex, please just let me out! It stinks in here,” Bip begged trying to get Alex’s attention.

“Huh what? Oh yeah right,” Alex said realizing Bip was still stuck in his cloths.

Alex grabbed his shirt and untucked it from his trousers. He held the base of his shirt open allowing Bip to fall out onto the bench top below. Bip took in a series of sharp deep breaths and scratched at his tongue trying to get rid of the taste.

“Yuk, it smelt disgusting in there. I’m never gonna forgive you for that,” Bip spat.

“Yeah sorry, guess I forgot you were in there,” Alex said unapologetically.

“You jerk,” hissed Bip.

Bip looked around the abandoned kitchen.

“Uhhh Alex, where is everybody?” Bip asked.

Alex looked around the kitchen surprised, having not noticed how empty the room had become.

“Huh? Oh yeah, where did everyone go?” Alex said.

“Were you really so worked up about Liz that you didn’t notice an entire room full of people leaving?” Bip questioned.

“Hey, don’t blame me, she was a real jerk. We’re supposed to be friends!” yelled Alex.

“You can’t be serious,” Bip sighed. “Get your head in the game Alex; have you forgotten why we came here?”

As Bip’s words echoed through Alex’s head his mood shifted becoming much more serious.

“Yeah, you're right. Sorry, come on let’s get going,” Alex said.

Alex began walking towards the door followed shortly behind by Bip. He swung open the kitchen doors and walked into the main ball room. What had previously been the scene of a loud and busy party had now been completely deserted save for a lone old man sweeping in the middle of the room. Alex and Bip looked around the hall confused as to what had happened. The old man sweeping noticed the pair out of the corner of his eye and looked over to them.

“What are you two doing here?” asked the man.

“What are we doing here? Where’s everybody else gone?” Bip retorted.

“Didn’t you two hear? The party was called off early and all the staff sent home. Well all the staff except for old sweepy,” the janitor complained.

“Called off? Why would it have been called off?” Alex asked as he and Bip approached the man.

“Well from what I heard Mr. Lance was feeling a bit under the weather. But if you ask me I think he just wanted some quiet time with that nice looking gal I saw him with, haha” said the man letting out a cheeky laugh as he returned to his chores.

Alex and Bip looked at each other.

“So, what’s the plan now then?” asked Bip.

“Well we should probably start by finding Liz,” stated Alex.

Alex took in a swift gasp as he had a moment of shocked realization. He ran over to the janitor and forcefully grabbed him by the collar.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?” the man gurgled.

“The girl you saw Lance with, where were they and what were they doing,” Alex demanded.

“I don’t know, they were just walking and talking, they went into the main study down that hall, the tenth door on your left you can’t miss it,” said the man pointing his hand out towards the nearby hallway.

Alex dropped the man to the ground before running off down the hall followed shortly behind by Bip.

“Crap, we should have never left her alone” Alex said, coming to a stop as he reached his destination.

From behind the large wooden door the pair could hear Liz and Lance’s mumbled conversation. Alex walked up to the door placing his eye to the key hole.  His eyes darted around the study before finally landing on the two. Liz laid on the floor limply as Lance knelt above her, his hand around her head, emanating a red glow.

“Damn it, looks like she’s in trouble, stand back I’m gonna break the door down,” Alex stated.

“Damn it, she’s in trouble! Stand back” Alex stated pulling back his fist.

“Wait hold on a second, think this through first,” Bip pleaded to no avail.

Alex launched his fist  full force at the door sending it violently swinging open with a loud thud catching Lance off guard as he looked over to face the door.  Alex stood in the doorway staring at Lance with an icy glare.

“My oh my that was quite the entrance. You’re the boy from this morning aren’t you,” asked lance.

Alex remained stone faced as he slowly walked into the room.

“I take it you’re here to try and help your friend, would that be correct?” Lance continued grinning menacingly at Alex.

“Spose, something like that,” replied Alex taking up a fighting stance.

“How noble of you, but foolish all the same” Lance said standing. “But I don’t recall inviting you to this event, so I suppose I am obliged to remove you from the premises,” he continued taking up a similar fighting stance.

Part 2- Battle At The Ball

Alex and Lance began slowly circling each other waiting for an opening to strike the other.

“You can’t really expect to beat me can you?” Lance taunted confidently. “Come on then let’s make this fair. I’ll let you throw the first blow”

Lance put his arms out and gestured for Alex to attack him.  In an instant Alex sprung forward at an incredible speed, seeming to almost teleport in front of Lance. He pulled his fist back and prepared to launch it at Lance. Time seemed to slow down for Lance as he tried to comprehend what had happened. He began to pull back away from Alex’s fist causing it to fall short of its target by mere millimeters. Alex made a quick U-turn returning to his original position in an instant. Liz looked on from the ground shocked by Alex’s feat of athleticism.

“What the?” Liz exclaimed.

“Liz over here,” came Bip’s voice.

Liz looked over towards the door to see Bip flying swiftly over to her.

“Liz get up we need to get out of here! Now!,” Bip said urgently.

“I would if I could, Lance put some sort of poison in my drink, I can’t move at all,” Liz said looking over to her broken glass on the floor.

Bip flew over to the glass, knelt over and began to smell the remains of Liz’s drink.

“Red fang,” Bip stated.

“Red fang? What’s that?” asked Liz.

“It’s a an extremely potent paralyzing poison, it also goes by the name mage killer,” said Bip.

“Mage killer! Holy crap am I gonna die?” Liz panicked.

“No don’t worry; it just immobilizes the victim making it impossible for them to use magic” Bip said calming Liz as he flew back over to her. “The effects only last max 10 minutes, hopefully this we’ll keep us safe for that long.”

Bip landed in front of Liz and clapped his hands firmly together and began to tense every muscle in his body. Suddenly a shimmering translucent blue sphere started emerging from the ground, encapsulating the pair with in it. Bip continued to focus all his effort into maintain the field as he started to sweat.

“Let’s hope this holds,” Bip said.

Lance looked at Alex still surprised by his lightning fast attack.

“My my, you’re a speedy one aren’t you. Maybe I underestimated your ability’s somewhat… or maybe you just got lucky, either way I assure you that won’t work a second time,” said Lance.

As quickly as the first time, Alex launched himself towards Lance pulling his fist back preparing to strike him.  As Alex grew closer Lance prepared himself, learning from Alex’s previous attack. Lance sent his own fist flying toward Alex at full speed landing in the centre of his stomach just before Alex’s own blow landed.  Alex was sent flying across the room landing with loud crash, throwing a plume of dust bellowing into the air.

“Alex!!” Liz and Bip yelled in unison.

Lance turned around and began slowly walking towards the pair.

“Ha, well that was easy, now just to deal with the pair of you,” Lance said menacingly.

Lance’s attention was suddenly drawn back to the dust cloud. As the cloud settled Alex appeared standing completely unaffected by Lance’s attack.  Alex dusted himself off nonchalantly.

“Well, this is a surprise, that blow should have killed you, or at least put you in the hospital for a long while,” Lanced said. “There’s only one explanation for it… you used magic to protect yourself.”

“What, that’s not possible” Liz said in shock as she listened on.

“You… are a magic user,” Lance said as he raised his finger accusatory towards Alex. “But why didn’t I detect it sooner, I’m usually pretty on the ball when it comes to that,” Lance continued as he began to stroke his chin in thought.

“Maybe you’re just not as good as you think you are” Alex taunted as he returned to a fighting stance.

“Well maybe, or maybe you’re just such a weak magic user that I didn’t even sense it. Yes that must be it,” said Lance.

“Wanna try that theory out,” Alex retorted.

“Haha, I like your spirit! But unfortunately for you now I know you can use magic, I don’t have to go easy on you anymore,” Lance said. An evil smile formed on his face as he held his fingers out towards Alex in a gun shape. “Finger guns activate!”

Suddenly a loud bang filled the air as a small silver orb shot out from Lances fingertip at the speed of a bullet, sending his hand flicking back from the recoil. The bullet went flying inches away from Alex’s head and landed in the bookshelf behind him. They exploded on impact leaving a large hole wall. He turned to run away from the crater but was stopped quickly by a second bullet passing close by his face. Alex turned around to face Lance as another shot came speeding straight towards his head. He flicked his hand out in front of him causing a blue barrier to form in the air. The bullet hit the barrier causing it to shattering it like glass.

“Crap, that’s not good,” Liz panicked.

“Don’t worry Liz,” Bip said confidently. “Alex knows what he’s doing.”

Lance laughed maniacally as he continued fire his barrage at Alex who narrowly dogged in-between each speeding bullet by mere inches.

“Haha, you can’t keep this up forever, sooner or later you’ll slip up,” taunted Lance as drop of sweat fell from his brow. “You’ll tire yourself out at this rate.”

Alex jumped up high off the ground passing between two bullets. He grabbed onto the top of the bookshelf and with a strong kick launched himself off towards Lance causing the shelf to fall down shaking the room as it hit the floor. Alex passed narrowly by Lance landing kneeling down on the other side of the room.

“Damn it, missed,” Alex said nonchalantly as he stood back up.

Lance turned around to face Alex shocked and horrified as he noticed the short silver dagger he now held. Alex shook the blade off, sending a splatter of blood to the floor as a small cut opened up under Lance’s eye.

“What the hell was that? how did he see through my attacks, that shouldn’t have even been possible? And where did that blade come from, was he hiding it somewhere?” Lance panicked as he tried to wrap his mind around what had happened. “No I can sense it, that blade is of magical origin. But for a novice to conjure something of that strength?”

Lance raised his finger to point at Alex.

“Ju… just who the hell are you?” Lance yelled his voice quivering with fear.

Alex slowly walked towards Lance.

“What am I gonna do, I still can’t sense any magic coming from him. I have no clue how powerful he really is. Whatever the case, I can’t let him get close to me. One good strike from that blade and I’m done for. I just have to keep him far away until I figure out what to do” Lance thought, panicked as he raised his hand up pointing his finger guns once again.

“Machine gun modes activate!” Lance yelled.

Lance’s finger guns began to fire again much faster than before. Alex began dodging between the shots once again. moving so fast that he became a blur.

“Haha, you can’t keep that pace up forever. you’ll tire yourself out soon enough haha, then I’ll make you into Swiss cheese,” Lance yelled.

The wall behind Alex began to fall apart as it became more hole than wall, sending dust and debris flying into the air. Lance began to sweat profusely as he continued his barrage.

“Just give it up all ready, you can’t possibly defeat me” Lance panted in exhaustion.

The pace of Lances shots began to slow down as he became more and more exhausted giving Alex plenty of opportunity to counter attack. Alex once again launched himself forward pointing the butt of his dagger out. The dagger made contact with Lance’s knee sending a loud crack echoing through the air. Lance let out an ear piercing scream as his knees buckled beneath him dropping him face first onto the ground. He rolled himself onto his back to face Alex.

“You bastard!” Lance yelled pointing his fingers out once more.

Another small bullet went flying towards Alex, harmlessly bouncing off his shoulder blade and onto the floor.

“What the hell, that was a direct hit, why aren’t you dead?” Lance said in frustration.

“I’m surprised you don’t know, you’re a pro mage after all,” Alex sighed sarcastically as he turned to face Lance. “In its most basic form magic is just energy, an energy produced by all living things. Normal people use that energy up every day and replenish it at night by sleeping.” Alex began to explain “For magic users though, we harness that energy to preform our craft, that’s why we need to know how to conserve it, in case we run out and collapse from sheer exhaustion,”

Alex began walking over to Lance until he stood looming above him as he pointed his hand towards the destroyed wall.

“See, those little bullets you were using where strong… too strong. You poured way too much magic into each one than you realistically needed to in order to kill me. It was only a matter of time till you ran out of magic completely and passed out. All I needed was for you to drain yourself enough to start slipping up, and with how much magic you were wasting with that machine gun mode, your fate was sealed,” Alex said “You should really work on conserving your magic more. Take that as advice from a real pro.”

Lance listened on. Shocked by how knowledgeable Alex was.

“This boy is insane. To be able to come up with a plan like that, in the middle of a battle, takes years of training. But how? I still sense no magical presence about him, and yet he’s clearly a pro. How?” Lance thought as his eyes focused on Alex’s blade. “Wait, that dagger, I’ve seen it before.”

Lance’s eyes widened as he began to realize Alex’s true identity.

“You’re…” Lance yelled before being cut off as Alex stomped on his face.

“Shut your filthy mouth,” Alex said as a dark aura began filling the air.

Bip looked over to his friend knowing what was about to happen.

“Oh crap, Liz can you move, we’ve gotta get out of here right now” Bip panicked as he dropped the barrier around the two.

“I.. I think I can,” Liz said as she struggled to stand up.

“Here, I’ll help” said Bip, placing himself under Liz’s arm to support her weight as she began to shuffle towards the door.

The pair walked out into the hallway as Bip closed the door behind them with his tail, leaving Lance to an unknown fate at Alex’s hands.

_______________________________________________________________

To Be Continued

Thank you for reading chapter 4 of mage. if you like what you’ve seen please consider following my tumblr for a new chapter every Friday. Until next week, have a good day.

#Mage #Chapter 4 #Magic #Story #Original Story #50funny

[sashank-kanchustambam]

Cliché Love 3

EPISODE 3: Vibe-Killer March

 

                              RAVNEET

"I don't want labels" is the dumbest thing to say. Imagine your mom saying that she doesn't want the label of 'mom'. Or your dog barking that he doesn't want the label of 'dog'. Isn't it dumb? Then why isn't it considered dumb when it comes in the context of a romantic relationship. When we're doing everything that boyfriend-girlfriends do, why can't she call me her boyfriend? It's fine though. I'm happy with what we have...I guess. 

            I love Tuesdays. Just one 9 AM class and I'm done for the day. I sit at RINGELS, my favorite dining hall,  hoping that no one I know shows up. “Ravneet...Neet... Ravneet ” I heard a familiar voice scream unusually loud. I felt like a broken dream. I lifted my head up to see who it was. Rebecca it was. Arya's roommate Becca. She's hella fun. My broken dream got joint again. “What's up boii” she screamed. I stuck my hand out for a shake hand. She somehow turned my normal, cliche, formal shake hand into a cool one. She let my hand stay there and did some cool shit around it. Such a cool human.  

“Oof!! That's crazy” I said. “I am crazy”. After talking for a few minutes she asked "Want to smoke a joint?" . I never did drugs before that. It felt like a good time to debut; so, I went with the flow. We sneaked out.

                                    ARYA

  Commitment can be a bitch. Once you have the tag of ‛relationship’ or ‛girlfriend’, you can't see that person normally again. You start having expectations. They start having expectations. And your life starts revolving around them. I mean ,sure, they're very important and what we feel for them is very fucking special. But what about my family, my close friends, my TV shows and my whole ass career? That shit is very important too. In fact, if we group all this against that one person... this group weighs much fucking more , and my life has never revolved around only any of these. Then why the fuck should it go around that one mother fucker? 

    

              I was walking back from an audition for a play. Hope I get the part. I hear a 'dug dug dug dug' sound of a skateboard follow me. It was Pourush. He's a fun guy; all of Ravneet's roommates are fun .  "stop stop stop stop" I said while spreading my hands wide. He braked and smiled. "Oh shitt!! Aryaa!! what's up, dude?"

"nothing much I was here for the audition... Oh wait you're a theatre major right"

"Yeah. I was here for the audition too. I read the play last night. It's dope. You're minoring in theatre right?"

Oh god these theatre people! How do they read whole ass plays in a night?

                               

                           RAVNEET        

I thought that weed probably doesn't work on me cause I felt nothing. It made me cough so much, though . "See you later Ravneet! I have class" I offered to walk along. There was this silence when we were walking; it wasn't awkward exactly, but it was there. She chose the worst question to break that silence. 

"So" She gave a gap after that, waiting for me to look at her. "How are things with Arya?" She asked shamelessly. Is it cool? Is it cool to ask people about their romantic relationships? It was too late to think about that. "It's great dude. Like I've never had something like this before you know. It feels really good, And Arya is such a... I don't know I love spending time with her"

"Awwwww!! That's so cute. OOOOOOOO. You're blushing"

I can't control it. Every time I think about her I turn into an apple.

"So you're happy with her then"

"yeah!! but..."

"But what??"

I think I should have kept that 'but' to myself. Becca doesn't take ‛no’ as an answer and I don't know how to say ‛no’. So I blurted my opinion about labels out. After saying the same thing in 4 different ways, I realized that the weed probably was working.

"Don't give me all your bullcrap mom and dog examples...You're just insecure Ravneet"

Her honesty kills me; It took me time to process it. "Huh?" I replied after a very long gap.

"listen! The last time she was in a relationship...like in 11th grade. Everything went downhill for her. She didn't talk to her parents. Her grades fell like crazy. The only thing she cared about was her boyfriend. She didn't like that version of herself. She's scared. She's scared that you'll become her everything. She doesn't want that. And that tart thinks it'll help if you don't name the relationship. She’s not doing this to fuck around"

Okay, first of all. I don't know if the weed was making her do this or if this is how she is. This woman, Rebecca, doesn't understand boundaries. She tells her best friend's personal stuff to someone who didn't even ask about it. She asks a guy she hardly knows about his love life. All that said, I'm glad she said all this. It's weird how seeing stuff from the other person's perspective solves half of the problems.

 

                               ARYA

   We were walking without a destination in mind. I don't know how our conversation moved from the auditions to my 11th-grade boyfriend; I guess that's how conversations work most of the time. "Is that why you decided not to date-date Ravneet yet". I nodded my head with honesty and a tinge of embarrassment. "Okay, so I know what I say doesn't matter, but listen" I hate it when people say that. Why the fuck would you say it if it didn't matter. "I don't think it was you. I think it was him". What the fuck did he just say? "I think the reason your life was revolving around him was probably because of how she treated you. I know Ravneet really well cause we basically live inside each other. He wouldn't want that for you" This Pourush guy should major in psychology for sure. Things made so much more sense. My ex was clingy even before we liked each other. I was probably attracted to the cling back then.

                                                                               

                             POURUSH

     Someone has rightly said that the guy with the greatest relationship advice remains single all his life. 

     We walked right into Ravneet and Becca. Coincidence? I think not. Even before anyone could say anything, Arya pulled out the Bandanna from my head (without asking me by the way) and went down to her knees. "Give me your hand Garlic". Eww, wtf is Garlic. Anyways, her Garlic was lost in his thoughts. I've never seen him that lost...he's usually attentive. People tend to go off character sometimes I guess. "Garlic!!" she yelled.

                                                                       

                          REBECCA

Probably shouldn't have let him smoke that much for his first time. "huh??" he responded. "give me your hand" she said. After he stuck his hand out she tied Pourush's bandanna on his hand and said, "Will you be the boyfriend to my girlfriend Ravneet?" I have no idea why she phrased it like that, but it was kinda cute. "What? Who's your girlfriend Arya?" he responded. "I'm asking you to be my boyfriend you dumb bitch". His face froze for a few seconds. After he recovered from that shock he said "yes baby!!" and broke into laughter. Their hands were moving towards each other. "Rockabye baby Rockabye" rang Ravneet's phone, changing the direction of Ravneet’s hand towards his phone instead. Damn it! I was so excited to see them hold hands. "hello" he said. I could see nervous excitement on his face. He ran away like a bullet train that's going reverse, without saying anything. "hug me at least you dumb bitch!!" Arya screamed. He turned around and gave a hand gesture suggesting ‛TOMORROW’ and gave a flying kiss. "such a cutie" she said while blushing.

                              RAVNEET

There's this international FIFA tournament that I and my gamer friend, messi_69.94, have been winning since 2 years. Literally, none of my other friends know about this. I rushed to his house for it. I can not afford to miss it cause it happens only once a year. It was FIFA time. While beating people all over the world at FIFA, I put my hand in my pocket to get my phone, but it wasn't there. I thought that I dropped it somewhere. I would freak out otherwise. But I was so engrossed in FIFA that I couldn't give a feces. And my mind was moving too slow to care anyways.

                              ARYA

 "HOLY FUCK!!" Rebecca exclaimed. 

"what?" I asked

"All classes and Exam are moving online because of the virus dude"

"Corona?"

I seriously didn't know that it was that big an issue. My phone rang all of a sudden. It didn't seem right. Guess what? It wasn't. My mom got the email and freaked out. She booked my flight back to the UK on the same day. "Mom I'll stay here". "what is wrong with you Arya? All countries will go into lockdowns. And the US is in a pretty bad position. Don't be stupid and start packing". I understood my mom's concern and said ‘okay’. I thought to myself that I still have a few hours to spend with Ravneet. I rung him up. 94 calls. 80 text messages. 56 Instagram DMs. 3 E-mails. 0 REPLIES.His roommates didn't know where he was either. He never does this. He usually replies in 2 seconds. This broke my heart. I can never forgive him for this. I got so broken up. I wanted to see him and hug him once before leaving. I deserved that hug. Fuck you Ravneet. Fuck you.

                                                       

                             RAVNEET

I woke up and looked at the wall clock. It was 2 PM of the next day. Jesus Christ! I slept for 16 hours. I opened up my laptop to check my Emails. 'Garlic, I'm going back to Manchester today because of the corona thing...Please meet me before I leave'.

            “FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK”

I swore after two whole years. It's difficult to make yourself cry. But, once you start it's difficult to stop. Very difficult. Should have said “NO” to the weed.

THE END

                                                          

#young adult #teenagers #i love him #i love her

[vaguely-concerned]

RANDOM OVERWATCH/MCHANZO HEADCANONS

My headcanons are usually global, so to say, so once established they mainly hold true for anything I write in that fandom until canon actively overwrites it (and sometimes even after that if I think the real answer is dumb ha ha). Most of what I’ve already done is the ‘Scoundrels and Thieves’ AU series. 

- Shimadamom died during the omnic crisis, since I feel like she would come up a lot more if she was actually around when her sons literally tried to murder each other. (It would also explain why Hanzo shoots the omnic in ‘Dragons’ even as he goes to some lengths to only incapacitate the other guards and why he thinks Numbani sucks, as well as adding a layer of ouch to Genji’s... robo-dysphoria.) Hanzo remembers her better than Genji does, since Genji would have been pretty young at that point.

- Hanzo is a dog person (oh hello there entire alternate wardrobe made up of wolf imagery) and Jesse is a cat person. (Both because of That Scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with the kitten and the hat (!!!!!) and because really he himself is kind of a very affable yet still half-feral tomcat kind of a man)

- In ‘Scoundrels and Thieves’, at least, Jesse started out smoking cigarettes and graduated to cigars as he got older/had more cash, for that Authentic Man With No Name Look. He still goes for cigarettes sometimes when he’s on edge because he finds the little rituals of rolling them comforting. (Hanzo also has a very private Pavlovian reaction to the smell of a certain brand Jesse smoked around the time they started sleeping together. I’ll let you fill in the embarrassing details in your own time.)

- Hanzo usually cuts his own hair - just chops a bit off with a knife or something when it gets too annoying. The first time it was the dramatic symbolic gesture of dishonor ™, but these days it’s just because he can’t be bothered with anything fancier, in the same vein as ‘why even put my shirt on all the way btw did I mention I KILLED MY BROTHER’. (Yes, I know it’s a real traditional archery technique thing, just… let me have this.) Probably also why he wears it up most of the time so you can’t really tell it’s a bit of a catastrophe.

- Jesse taught himself how to play the guitar as a kid and has a wonderful voice for everyday life - it doesn’t belong on a stage but it is perfect for crooning in the background while making dinner or doing chores, stuff like that.  

- Jesse is quite ticklish, a fact Hanzo ‘Innate Talent for Strategy and Tactics’ Shimada uses without compunctions when it suits his goals. (His goals usually being a Jesse pink-faced and loose-limbed with laughter)

- Hanzo looks A LOT like his dad but takes after his mum personality-wise - more cynical and closed off except for with their loved ones - while Genji looks more like their mum.

- Jesse’s parents died during the war, quite early on. (tbh this is mostly b/c it breaks my heart to imagine his family would be okay with him having become a notorious killer by the age of seventeen. Like. Bro. I’d rather have someone love and protect him unflinchingly and then having no choice in leaving him. Though if the Deadlock gang had some element of a family business that would mean ANOTHER parallel between them, so if that’s how canon eventually lands I can work with that too ha ha)

- Do you ever think about Jesse at fourteen, coming back from a fight victorious but with new constellations of scars and bruises, curling up somewhere no one’ll find him to watch that scene in For A Fistful of Dollars where the man with no name gets beat up to hell and back and still gets out of it through sheer tenacity and being a tricksy fuck

Because I think about that every day and that’s why I’m constantly on the verge of tears

Anyway not so much a headcanon there as a window into the dark aching corners of my soul let’s carry on

- Jesse is demisexual, Hanzo is gay.

- At first I had settled for Hanzo being bi (what better orientation for a ninja than one that makes you invisible, after all? Who’s bitter you’re bitter) but then there were the White Day lines between Hanzo and Genji and now I’m 100% convinced that he’s gay, if only because it’s so much funnier to me. Let me show my work a bit here:

So as far as I understand, on Valentine’s day in Japan it’s women who give the ~*special men*~ in their life chocolates/gifts. (There’s also an uh ‘tier’ of chocolate that’s completely platonic and is given to friends and coworkers, but from the tone of Genji’s voice I doubt that’s what he’s talking about lol) White day is a month later, and it’s when the men reciprocate the gifts they were given. So essentially what Genji is doing with that line is going “SO… any special GIRLS in your life bro?? *I know you can’t see my face through the visor but you can feel the wink wink nudge nudge through the air*” and Hanzo’s answer is a sort of long-suffering reference to young Genji’s playboy lifestyle as well as a callback to a previous voice line between them, not a slight aimed at any cocoa beans.

Now I like to imagine bb!Genji as a bit of a hilarious dick - like basically sweet and well-meaning, but also hugely spoiled, self-absorbed and easily distracted. It would lend Hanzo’s annoyance so many levels of hilarity if his little brother just… hadn’t realized that the reason he wasn’t dating girls wasn’t just a) he’s been riding a wave of shame, guilt, grief, depression & light alcoholism these last ten years and it’s hard to date with a tight schedule like that, b) he is kind of weird and socially awkward at the best of times, c) his eventual anachronistic weirdo soulmate was running around on the other side of the world doing crazy shit for Overwatch

The reason he’s never dated any girls is that he’s FUCKING GAY

Like it was not as though it was secret, Genji, all you’d have to do was fucking pay attention or hey, ask at any point in the last closing-in-on-forty-years and it would have been EASILY AVAILABLE INFORMATION

FATHER KNEW AND HE NEVER NEEDED TO ASK,GENJI

Anyway I thrive on Hanzo Shimada’s annoyance and consternation because he takes everything so damn seriously and I love him very much

(Obviously in the ‘Scoundrels and Thieves’ ‘verse Genji does know. He’s not THAT massively oblivious.)

- Jesse is mostly ambidextrous but prefers to shoot with his right hand. I think there was some kerfuffle about his holster being put on both sides in official art that prompted this one? I’m not above going ‘*shrug* why have continuity errors when you can have headcanon’

- Shimadadad, intent on his sons not turning into Useless Rich Ninja Kids, made sure they were taught some essential life skills, like cooking and laundry and shit - meaning Hanzo knows how to make a handful of dishes to, like, double Michelin Star levels. He doesn’t actually enjoy it very much, though, so mostly he won’t. Meanwhile Jesse has no outside training whatsoever beyond at one point being shown how to turn on a microwave but figured things out on his own and has pretty good instincts. Hanzo prefers Jesse’s cooking and will happily just do chopping duty (which he’s still proficient at to the point that Jesse’s not sure whether to be unsettled or turned on).

- Jesse learned about horses from an older lady who semi-adopted him after finding him feverish and bleeding in her back garden when he was in his early teens. He stayed on her ranch for a couple of years and then left because he was worried some of the people he’d pissed off would be able to track him down there and burn it all down.

- Hanzo doesn’t like - or really get - giving and receiving gifts as a way to express affection. I’m pretty sure his line of association would go something like gifts ----> money ------> business -----> bribe -----> obligation -------> duty -------> faMILY OH GOD EVERYTHING JUST GOT REAL MESSED UP AND COMPLICATED IN MY HEAD I NEED A DRINK

- Another one where I’ll accept either outcome: I can’t decide from the in-game dialogue if Genji and McCree’s relationship is more bro-like ribbing or if they’re actually a little uh. Adversarial. (“You’re not quicker than a bullet”: a Schröedinger’s playful banter/death threat lol) If they’re mostly friendly that’s great! They can form a harmonious ‘Save Hanzo From Himself’ support group. If they’re more antagonistic? Pure. Fucking. Hilarity. Can you imagine Genji being SO FUCKING MAD because as it turns out the one thing in this world that has ever made his sadsack brother happy is that cocky jingle-jangle bizarro Western cosplay jackass. Like naturally I would prefer it if they were bros but I never turn down comedic potential like that.

- Jesse’s greatest fear has to do with being seen and with leaving. He’s very clearly set up a theatrical, elaborate part of his identity between himself and the world - I don’t think any psychologically unscarred person goes ‘well I’ll just wrap myself in this loner/vigilante archetype until it works for me’ lol. It’s a very smart ‘people are going to look at me so let’s make sure they can’t actually see me’ move. Also it makes me sad that me must have, like, reverse abandonment issues: every time he belongs to something - to the Deadlock gang, to Overwatch, to Hanzo in ‘Scoundrels and Thieves’ - he’s inevitably forced to leave it behind. (I guess this is part of why I love the pairing so much; they’re both wanderers now, they can go together ;____;)

Hanzo’s greatest fear is to really hurt someone he loves again. (Remember that time in Junkenstein’s Revenge where Jack looks at Reaper and goes ‘what could turn a man into this’ and Hanzo immediately answers “To be tested, and to fail”? Because I remember that all the time.)

#overwatch #mchanzo #hanzo #mccree #Perhaps there is still a future for anachronisms #meta #idk it was the only way I managed to do some writing so here we go I guess ha ha #I'm just like... filled to the brim with feels that have nowhere to go #My writing

[zora-moyashi]

First

<---Prev    Next--->

Core

The atmosphere here was heavy, making one feel on edge like they had to flee

ZM

chara's back tingles as if someone's watching her. the temperature here is also much colder than where she just was so she hugs her arms heading to the castle.

ZM

it's a pretty barren area so she doesn't feel exactly unsafe knowing she'd see any threat before it could get to her. the castle stands in front of her. she taps her foot wondering if she should knock or something.

Core

She could hear footsteps behind her, the castle was abandoned, falling apart even

ZM

she looks behind her

Core

She sees someone who looks a bit like Shatter, though her hair is cut shorter and is white and her eyes pitch black and were dripping.

ZM

(EEYY KILLER IS BEST SANS ) she turns to face her. " hello there, you live here?"

Core

"Hell no. are you kidding?" She hissed, grabbing a blade from her pocket, "And you won't be either." (Well, this is the Star version.)

ZM

(yee i know ) "pff grouchy aren't we?" she has no intention of fighting at the moment and only plans on dodging. "whyyyy shouldn't i live here? hobo's gotta squat somewhere."

Core

"Well, even if you tried, Either Night or her sister would eat ya." She said, shooting forward, to try and slash.

ZM

chara dodges it easily knowing what was coming hopping onto and quickly off of killer putting distance between them.

"okay cool. not a problem for me~ but why do YOU dislike them so much? they going to eat you too?"

Core

Killer kept up her attack, though she did keep up the conversation as well. "I don't dislike them per-say, And no, I am not on the menu."

ZM

" not that i don't like a good fight, but can't you chill for a second!" the knife was getting rather close and with the speed of the slashes chara was getting jumpy.

Core

"Sorry, but no." Killer said, her actions were coordinated, showing she had a lot of practice

ZM

"where do you live then?" she concentrates indego magic in her feet and jump over killer landing roughly in the sand a few yards away

Core

Killer turned sharply, attacking again and again. "Roughly 2 clicks south of here. Ain't too bad really." By her tone she seemed bored

ZM

she summons her knife for defense knowing a real shield wouldn't help her much with killer. "cool whatever. do you want me to kill you or are you just doing this for fun because it's getting less amusing every second." she glares blocking a few blows with the knife.

Core

"Honestly, this is rather boring to me, but someone has to, Night hates strangers in this area." Killer said, using sharp nails to try and get a grasp on Chara.

ZM

"uhgg so you're a pawn? great." she grabs killer's arm and twists it backwards. "but i'm sick of this." she jabs for her stomach with her knife glowing bright red.

Core

Killer flipped, dislocating her own arm to kick Chara to the ground. "I prefer the term proxy, Icubex and Cresent are pawns."

ZM

she slid on the dusty ground on her back from the kick. she mumbles to herself "this damn body is much too light" she get's right back up. "so how good are with your knife on you're other arm there hon? by the way what's your name?" she coughs from the dust in her lungs.

Core

"I'm ambidextrous, and Killer." She said, using her left hand, with the same amount of skill

ZM

"luckyyy" "and killer's a dumb name."

Core

"Yes, it is, honestly I prefer, Yuma." she said, before actually putting her blade away.

ZM

chara slowly goes out of her fighting position and folds her arms, knife still in hand. "well? are you done yuma? or are ya gonna stab me in the back?"

Core

"You seem skilled enough, perhaps Night may find you, acceptable." Yuma said

ZM

"pff alright. it was a test. i was assuming nightmare or someone was doing something important in there so you were the guard dog." she shrugs "but hey i'll take it." she puts out her arm towards the castle. "lead the way madam~"

Core

"Actually Nightmare is asleep and is south." Yuma pointed in the opposite direction.

ZM

she makes a grumpy face and accepts it going that way.

Core

Yuma then teleported away

ZM

she wanders and wanders not thrilled with the scenery. 'i swear if she's lying to me.' she thinks to herself. "okay let's speed this up." she puts another coat of indigo on her feet and she hops her way in the direction with ease and speed.

Core

She did notice that the atmosphere drew drearier, similar to when she had met Vantablack and Blood.

ZM

'cool, maybe i am actually going the right way' she hums happily. she came upon some dead trees and then it practically turned into a forest. next to it there's a craggy area so the dust area she was in ended and she starts to walk again.

"trees or rocks." she ponders rocking her head back and forth.

Core

(i have been drawing so much lately lol) "Why not both? Or did I spike a curiosity growth?" a sing-sang voice snickered

ZM

(yess~ ink would be proud. ) she glances around. "yo, you another proxi?" she asks in no direction in particular.

Core

"Oh no I'm not~ But that would be a pleasant thought." the voice giggled.

ZM

it's irritating chara she can't pin point where the voice is coming from. "oh yeah? seems like it's a little demeaning. killer doesn't seem so thrilled about it." chara slowly looks around once again.

Core

"Killer isn't proud of her role. And is finding me your goal?"

ZM

"i mean depends on who you are. haha~"

Core

"My name is LJ! And that is all I have to say!"

ZM

"well LJ, nice to meet you? or something of the sort." she decides to start moving. still keeping as alert as she can going through the dead trees.

Core

She soon saw what she was after, in a large dead tree, a star covered in a black coating was sleeping,

ZM

she stands a good distance away "nightmare, i've been looking for you."

she says it loud enough she assumed it would wake her.

Core

The star raised her head, showing she was missing her left eye. "And why would a human want an audience with me?" She asked, Chara say Killer as well as two other stars appear from behind the trees.

"She's the one I told you about." Killer said

ZM

chara keeps in a laugh that she didn't know why it was forming. "ah, well there are multiple reasons. the main one being I want to join your group. i have a goal to collect star shards." she considers that to be enough information for them.

Core

One of the stars laughed, She had stringing black hair and red eyes. Killer elbowed the laughing star. Nightmare looked at Chara, glaring slightly.

ZM

chara stares down nightmare. "did i say something funny?"

Core

"How about this, the blood moon is suspected in about 6 days, you can stay until then, during the blood moon, you have to prove yourself." Nightmare said

ZM

"oh cool~" she chirps smiling contently. "what do i do at that time?"

Core

"Fight other Genocide stars who want the same role." Killer said

ZM

she hums not particularly liking those requirements remembering blood and shatter whooping her. "fair enough."

she looks over to the star with red eyes questioningly about the laugh still.

Core

"Then welcome to the club, for now at least." Nightmare said, before yawning

ZM

(she's so thrilled)

Core

The one with the red eyes was actually also missing her left eye, she seemed somewhat close to Killer.

(She's sleepy, Nightmare is nocturnal)

ZM

(makes sense. she's a little owl awww so cute.) "thank you~ glad to join." she says. chara looks to the last star that she hasn't paid attention to.

Core

She had white hair with red tips and a large scar on her face that looked kinda like an 'x' her scarf ended in something similar to claws, she was messing with her rifle.

ZM

Chara hasn't seen a rifle or any gun for that matter besides the empty revolver in the underground ever sense she was a part of asreil and shot over and over. She instantly shivers at the sight of it.

Core

Killer noticed this. "What? She's a sniper." She said

ZM

She waves dismissively, "it's nothin Yuma, just bad memories." She walks over to her and her friend

Core

Her friend, the one with the red eye, Looked at Chara with a grin, "You look like a bloody runt." She hissed

ZM

chara glares at her. "something against little people? it's not even my body so how mad can i get." she's clearly not happy about it though.

Core

The star laughed. Killer face palmed.

ZM

chara folds her arms

Core

"Come on Horror, this is why no one likes you." Killer growled.

ZM

chara hops up and down in front of horror. "i cant tell if you're just weird or if you don't want me here. I'll assume it's the former." she looks back at killer completely out of her element and is wondering what all of them are going to do. seems killer is the one that she's going to cling to. that means she'll have to deal with horror.

Core

Horror watched Chara jump. "Nah, I'm just weird." She snickered.

"You’re a bloody zombie is what you are." Killer growled at horror

ZM

"we have that common i suppose~" she glances back at the star with the gun before turning back and asking "so what do you guys do on a daily basis?" she rocks on her heels

Core

"Simple, kill anything that enters the area," She said, aiming her rifle to the east before firing.

ZM

"how many things really come here? i mean look at this place" she waves her arms.

Core

"More than one would think." Killer said.

ZM

chara hums out a sound of acknowledgement. "are there more of you guys?"

"OH OH OH"

she waves around "who's LJ?"

Core

"Oh, you must have met her, well she's kinda like you, an insane human." The star with the gun said

"Says the disgusting fusion." Horror sneered, before getting shot in the head by the other star.

ZM

>:OOOOOOOO

she goes over to horror confused "you living?:

Core

Horror sat up and growled pulling the bullet out. "You know that hurts like hell!" She hissed.

ZM

"yikes." "if this is what you guys do for fun...."

Core

"No, it's what I do when someone pisses me off." The star with the gun said

ZM

" you mean ... all of you can take a hit like that and live??" "or do you only hate horror?"

Core

"No, only Horror can live that kind of hit and not retreat to her stone."

(the one with the gun isn't in that pic)

ZM

(crap i wanted to see her, but also that poth in the corner tho) she nods. "a'ight" she puts her hands behind her head relaxing. "any of you want to give me a tour or the run down or should i go fend for my self? don't want to bug you guys."

Core

"Okay, so kill anything that wanders into our turf, and do what ever Night says." Horror said. "And I guess it would be best to leave Moku alone."

ZM

"who's moku

Core

"I am." The star with the gun said

ZM

"fair." she solutes to the and heads off to find a place to hangout until told to do something else.

Core

There were creeks here and there, just well, normal stuff

ZM

she really liked the dilapidated castle but she didn't take yuma's warning lightly so she thinks it better to not.

ZM

instead she slides over to the rocky area kicking any pebbles she sees to entertain herself of the journey

Core

She soon came across ruins of a small town, mostly everything was intact, besides some axe marks and bullet holes. Though in one of the buildings, there was a stash of supplies, to make puzzles and gadgets

ZM

she digs around and finds a metal pole that she took a liking to. it's like 2 times her size but she starts to carry it around anyway. "wonder who lived here before those guys ransacked the place."

she looks around for any kinds of books or documents, her top priority still being finding a star nest

Core

"Just humans, like me. And is that a new weapon i see?" LJ snicked

ZM

she turns to LJ. "ah you're back~ welcome." she pulls the rod up above her swinging it a little. "i'd say it's too big but i like a chalange." she smiles.

Core

"Is that so? But why didn't you go?"

ZM

"go where...?" she squints

Core

"away."

ZM

"away where?"

she slides the pipe back to the ground.

Core

"Back to where you belong. Under the ground for so very long."

ZM

she didn't like that

her face grows a little red before turning away and walking.

Core

She saw LJ come out of the shadows, she had one blind eye and one black eye, her arms covered in bandages and a smile curved in her face.

ZM

chara gives a short sigh before looking at her. more like a glare really. "is it so wrong to want to live?"

Core

"When you are here. It is a crime dear." LJ sang. Killer teleported in between them, "Janet, the runt is staying with us til the blood moon, got it?"

ZM

she pushes past killer eyes blazing the red of her stolen soul and swipes the pipe towards LJ's head

Core

LJ jumps in the air, flipping and landing on a rooftop, laughing.

ZM

"F*CK YOU AND YOUR STUPID VOICE." her eyes are chilling out a bit. "i don't deserve to live huh? well I THINK YOU DON"T EITHER"

Core

"Chill out," Killer said, "You can't speak sense to LJ, so don't try."

ZM

she slams the pole against the rocky ground below creating a small crater from the impact. her hand is covered in orange magic making her stronger. She makes a frustrated yell/groan. she drags the pipe away from them and away from the little town. 'there wouldn't be anything useful there anyway' she thinks to herself.

Core

Killer sighed, "why are you humans so confusing." She mumbled, before going back to Nightmare

ZM

chara's fuming and wants to take LJ by surprise and take her down. she didn't mind her before. she didn’t really care but her soul is just burning with her words. so she circles on back towards the city being as careful not to be seen as she could.

Core

LJ was sitting atop of the clock tower sing. "blood still stains when the sheets are washed, sex don't sleep when the lights are off, kids are still depressed when you dress them up, and syrup is still syrup in a sippy cup~"

ZM

she peeks over crates and goes back to the area where she is. she drops the pipe as it wouldn't help. the whole town if full of holes making it easy for her to know where LJ is. peeking through a bullet hole and her soul starts pounding again. she couldn't tell why. perhaps frisk liked this song? she's right below the clock tower and is thinking how to make this work.

Core

"He's still dead when you're done with the bottle, of course it’s a corpse that you keep in the cradle, kids are still depressed when you dress them up, and syrup is still syrup in a sippy cup." LJ sang the clock tower had tons of gears and ropes in it like a maze

ZM

chara grinds her teeth together willing herself to calm down. she grabs a rope that looks like it's not moving anywhere. and starts climbing. she slowly lands on a ledge that was stable and continues up the stairs carefully.

Core

LJ sang as she got up, breaking a beam of wood, before throwing it down the clock tower, hitting gears and making other parts fall.

ZM

she grabs the wall as debris fall all around her a wood plank breaking another beam "lord" she mumbles. the clock tower creeks and chara'a breathing quickens. when it calmed down she started climbing again.

she grabs another rope and can see the the opening at the top light spilling in.

Core

LJ, jumped down from the outside, climbing down, using beams of wood and metal that were astray.

ZM

chara holds in a frustrated groan as she hits her head against the wall to stop her from screaming. she slides back down a rope and hits the ground floor gently. she spots LJ nearly at the bottom. she creates an ax for more coverage than her knife and waits for her to walk her way.

Core

LJ was waiting for her. "You could have asked for me to come down. Since this is my home town."

ZM

her jaw pops she was grinding her teeth so hard. her rage took over her strategy. she throws the ax at her and creates a knife following it and attacking at the other side.

Core

LJ jumped and would flip. "All around the town square, the monkey chased the weasel. the monkey thought it was all fun and games, pop goes the weasel~"

ZM

(is she an indigo soul?)

ZM

"SHUT UP" she whines like she's reverted to when asreil wouldn't go along with her plans as a kid. she chases her and when getting close she makes another one of those sticky bombs that she used on gaster.

Core

(LJ? Well she has the integrity trait, but is corrupted after years and years of physical/sexual abuse from her father, she is however a skilled gymnast, )

Core

LJ snickered as she grabbed some gasoline she had stashed, pouring it on her arms.

ZM

(okie yeah good stuff! does her corrupted soul have a different color or trait?)

Core

(a corrupted soul will turn black, dull, so not really.)

ZM

(okie) she grabs LJ by the arm just barely and glows orange through her body gripping down as hard as she could trying to snap her bones and kicks at her stomach trying to get her on the ground.

Core

SHe did grab LJ, who had grabbed a match. She them set her own arm ablaze burning Chara's hands. The sun was setting as night began to fall

ZM

the light of the fire just made it easier for her as her hand burned she keeps it in her hand and pulls on it abruptly going back in and headbutting her in the gut with as much force as she could.

Core

As soon as Chara let go LJ jumped, she was about to attack Chara when both were grabbed by black tentacles. "What do you think you are doing?!" Nightmare hissed.

"Hi night-night!" LJ laughed, getting a sigh from Nightmare.

(so, through those years of LJ getting abused, Nightmare would always help her sleep and even give her nice dreams, Night does care a lot about LJ 

ZM

"she squirms around all her brain can process is 'nononononono' she holds in her screams as she knows it's not a good idea nightmare's much stronger than her.

she gives up and barriers her face in the tentacle below her.

Core

Nightmare set them down and put out the flames on LJ's arm. "I told you not to do this, where did you hid it this time." Nightmare said. LJ pouted childishly before giving Nightmare the matches.

ZM

chara stays silent.

Core

Nightmare destroyed the matches, before getting some new bandages. "I have told you so many times, just because you can't feel it, it doesn't mean it isn't hurting you." She growled softly, removing the bandages that were on LJ's arms, showing serious 3rd degree burns. Nightmare then dressed the wounds.

ZM

chara looks away from all of this and stuffs her hands in her pockets going to find her pipe again.

Core

Horror tossed it to her. "Kills told me you liked this stick." Horror snickered.

ZM

she nods. "thanks horror." she says kinda quiet. she taps it against the ground and looks back at the other two.

Core

"I honestly think it's stupid." A new star said, (it's cross), one of her eyes were purple the other red.

ZM

she goes over there to hear what's up

Core

"What? The fact that Moku is still alive? I have heard you complain so much already about that." Killer sighed.

"I mean how Night is still a suck up to LJ, she has other responsibilities, yet she still cares for that childhood friend." Cross growled

"Well, you still act like her d*mn mother, you already finished your promise, yet you come back." Killer reminded

ZM

"ah. great." she mumbles to herself. 'they're together. kill her and i'll be on night's list.'

Core

"Old habits are hard to break, you know that." Cross hissed.

Core

"Right, like you would leave your own kits, alone, just because of habit. I'm blind, not dumb, Cross. You still care about Night." Killer answered

ZM

she goes up to cross and tugs on her sleave.

Core

Cross looked over, "What do you want?"

ZM

she looks up at her

Core

"What?" Cross asked more sternly

ZM

that took her a little off guard. she puts a index finger up like she's going to explain something. "how many kits do you have?" she thinks to herself that's a normal question right??? she doesn't know how to get info out of someone she barely knows.

Core

"Oh, two." Cross answered.

ZM

she nods "cool, could i play with them sometime?"

Core

"I mean, I guess it would be nice to have an extra pair of hands to help," Cross said to herself, before looking at Killer.

ZM

chara looks at killer too

Core

Killer gave a thumbs up. Cross sighed, "okay, follow me."

ZM

'this is too easy' she thinks smiling "alright~" she follows.

Next--->

#coreink002 #rp #friend's stuff #cp star gang #chara #LJ #third arc

[susebron]

ohhhh. maybe... i don't know... all the numbers. yes let's go with all 100 of them

i sincerely hate you and these took forever to answer so you better read ‘em all!!!!!!!! but also thx bc some of these were v nice and fun to answer

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? more cereal than milk bc i came for the cereal, not the milk

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? if i’m in a good mood,  yes. if i’m in a bad mood…. not at all

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? reciepts usually but i very much prefer actual bookmarks; specifically those with a magnet

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? with honey or sugar and lots of milk

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? i sincerely feel confused about how to smile properly??? so i guess a bit. like i can’t smile on order. i did as a kid but if i did it that way now, ppl would Wonder

6: do you keep plants? i had a cactus a while ago called robert plant but he died. my mum is currently keeping some plants in my room tho and i decorated one with some plastic dinosaurs but they are definitely not my responsiblity. i mean, robert plant died

7: do you name your plants? if you read the sixth answer, you would know that yes i do

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? writing i guess. idk it’s usually Metaphorically my feelings but i do make attempts to keep a diary sometimes. it doesn’t go well for long

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? not really

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? i really really really like sleeping on my side. i’m currently forced to sleep on my back and i do not like it

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? if one shouts sir yes sir then the other one has to shout I CAN’T HEAR YOU PUSSY #tbt @13000ants

12: what’s your favorite planet? tatooine which makes no sense

13: what’s something that made you smile today? leif gw persson was on tv

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? there would be books everywhere

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! neutron stars can spin at a rate of 600 rotations per second

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? um. macaroni and cheese or pasta salad. NO WAIT milk-stewed macaroni

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? tbh i’m content with my hair colour

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. that one time i thought sydney was in asia #tbt @weeplittlelannister

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? i do! idk i have one more diary-like, one with lists and drawings and shit… but also a calendar with is also somewhat a bullet journal

20: what’s your favorite eye color? what kind of q….. lmao oscar isaac’s

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. my mum gave me aleather messenger box, like a post office bag or whatever and I Love It. it’s tbh never big enough to fit everything but it tries

22: are you a morning person? no 

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? read

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? i was gonna say my grandfather but then i realised there is no way he wwon’t end up telling my grandmother ausifsafa. idk. my stuffed elephant

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? me and william once broke into this storage room where we live. he stole one of those long light bulbs and hit me in the head with it. it hurt

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? just normal chuck taylors. off-brand tho of course lmao

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? mint or y’know…. bubblegum

28: sunrise or sunset? both

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? i know this says friends but listen. when @sneutrinos talks about physics or physicists he admires… his eyes are like Glittering and it’s endearing as fuck. makes me want to listen (or watch lmao) him talk about it for hours 

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? yes

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. the best way to describe my socks and usage of them is that my nurse the other week when i was getting dressed to go home was like “oh! you’re wearing mismatched for rock the socks day (a day to uplift/celebrate down’s syndrome) and i was like “i guess….. but this is also just how i wear my socks” i very rarely end up having matching socks?? it just??? never happens even if i try

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. lmao idk if this was after 3am but i remember that one time me and @kkruel were ranting about his dorm neighbour showering at like midnight but literally just shrugged it off when the ceiling caved in saihfoasp

33: what’s your fave pastry? pastry is such a loose term though??? there is so much to choose from??? but i’m like really feeling muffins lately

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? i had a bunch but let’s talk about the one stuffed dog i got when i was like six and is still like brand-new because i was terrified of ruining it so i just…. occasionally gave it a pet. nothing more

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? i do, i do. i prefer certain pens, even if the ink’s only black, and i tend to use them more than pencils. 

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? nirvana unplugged would fit so much i had to go listen to it

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? i mean i like when it’s clean but i don’t mind if it’s messy… as long as it isn’t Messy

38: tell us about your pet peeves! flour

39: what color do you wear the most? um probably blue or black

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? i honestly don’t really own any jewelry. i do have a watch that i use sometimes but it doesn’t really have a meaning other than that my mum bought it for me during one of our trips to uppsala. so i guess it does mean something after all lmao

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? i really loved nimona. it was hilarious and amazing

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! idk i really like espresso house because they have really good chocolate muffins but it’s always crowded and overpriced. wayne’s also has good muffins and are usually a bit cheaper, a bit less crowded

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? i guess micah and his dad lmao

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? um probably last tuesday

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? i mean i guess?

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. my mind is BLANK

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? ticks. oh this said FOOD. um. mustard

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? i can only think of my trauma-based fears and they were usually about water and losing my parents??? i’m not sure i’d say either is the biggest fear now, but i still feel really uncomfortable in muddy water

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? p sure the last i bought was highlights from the original french production of les misérables

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? as a kid i used to collect popcorn boxes from the movies? i think i only have lotr ones left 

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? i associate @conradsricamora with conrad’s cover of ain’t no sunshine

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? i like the meme about ted cruz as the zodiac killer but it’s not from this year. uh. i can’t think of a 2017 meme

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? i’ve seen beetlejuice and pulp fiction and i love them both. one’s the perfect funny rainy october night movie and the other’s just… wow

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? idk someone on grey’s anatomy. mum’s been watching it a lot lately

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? gosh idk. i hope nothing too Dramatic

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? their love for their hobbies. like when someone is really intensively into something and it’s so Obvious. i love that

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? it always makes me feel so good. and i mean… yeah…. who doesn’t… 

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? um @itsjustaheartache is the wine mum and @caesarsbuddy is the vodka aunt because…. they just are

59: what’s your favorite myth? um anything to do with swedish trolls tbh

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? tbh i love poetry but i’m a bit picky with it. but i’ll read anything by richard siken

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? um my aunt once gave me a cp3o pen for christmas. like that was it. i think it was in the 1 dollar bin

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? no i don’t but if i have to, i prefer orange juice

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? i really like them organized but i have so many books that i just.. give up a lot

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? it’s late so probably dark, dark blue. perhaps even black

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? all my friends at this point lmao

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? idk… flowery

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? like it’s time to travel to middle earth

68: what’s winter like where you live? it’s either really cold and snowy or no snow and probably really rainy

69: what are your favorite board games? dnd or monopoly

70: have you ever used a ouija board? no and i fucking never will

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? rn it’s my pokémon tea that my dad’s gf got me

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? lmao i definitely need to write everything down which i’ve failed to do lately and i hate it

73: what are some of your worst habits? procrastination

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. gay

75: tell us about your pets! one is satan but also the sweetest??? v interesting mix. she is honestly so good. and the other one is chunk in cat form. also p good

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? i’m trying to finish my assigned math tasks for today but ashfpsao god damn ebba made me answer all these 100 q’s

77: pink or yellow lemonade? neither? i’m not a big fan of lemonade

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? i haven’t seen the movies so i was neutral… and at this point i’m neutral evil about it. stop it

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? john boyega exists so that was a cute thing of his parents to do

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? blue at dad’s and like white/cream-ish at mum’s…. bc blue felt most neutral and the other one was already there, so

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. sea with a touch of caramel

82: are/were you good in school? lmao

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? um. tbh anything by led zeppelin

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? i’d want some, sure, but i’m uncertain of what. probably something relating to ryan dunn at least

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? it’s been a while since i had time to but i really love captain america, sweet tooth and…. tbh i’m not picky???

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? i love them. esp if it’s by king diamond. if i have to choose one of his, it’s got to be them or abigail tbh

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? the lord of the rings trilogy and the star wars original trilogy. also artifical intelligence

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? resistance

89: are you close to your parents? i mean yeah? in different ways but i’m close to both of them which is v nice

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. it is really neat with beautiful old buildings and lots of book shops. or at least a bunch of good book shops. also actual shops dedicated to comics or gaming. also a v nice tea shop

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? i’m hoping to move to a new city this autumn, so there’s that

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? i don’t get cheese on pasta unless it’s mac and cheese

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? a luke skywalker inspired ‘do

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? um some family friend on facebook

95: what are your plans for this weekend? um. study, probably

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? i procrastinate. def

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? infp, leo, hufflepuff

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? i don’t remember when it was but i know that i did not enjoy it

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. anything by led zeppelin or stromae. a specific song though is the freshman by the verve pipe

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? no. no. you do not mess with time ok

#philipsunshea #tag: asks