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angryschnauzer · 3 years

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Full Mast - Part 2

Summary: Your idyllic life as a trophy wife of a rich lord is suddenly disturbed with the arrival of a pirate ship and a kidnapping that goes wrong... leaving you in the care of a band of pirates that seem to treat you better than your husband ever did.

Part 1,

Fandoms: Henry Cavill, Sand Castle - Movie, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Night Hunter, Hellraiser Hellworld

Pairing: Captain Syverson x Female Reader, August Walker x Reader, Walter Marshall x Reader, Mikey (Hellraiser) x Reader.

A/N: This is a CRACK FIC. After a brief discussion with @nuggsmum about the cheap romance novels that you could find in the 80′s and 90′s, i called upon the awful storylines, plot holes, and general cheesyness of those books that walked so fanfiction could run. Read the warnings please.

Storyboard note: The only artwork i could find that was suitable to show a Henry-like character included the woman seen above. I tried to crop as much of her out as possible, the story itself does not describe the female reader at all.

Warnings: NSFW, 18+, Unprotected Sex, Vaginal Sex, Oral Sex (F Recieving), Blowjobs, Multiple Blowjobs, Multiple Partners, Implied Age Gap (but never confirmed). Pretty Poly Pirates.

Only the finest organic free range typos for me, allowed to run wild and free.

Full Mast part 2

Standing in the grand cabin you took in your surroundings; the large table that was half covered in maps, the scattered chests and crates, the large four poster bed with messy linens. You wondered if the Captain had many other women between those sheets, or whether he kept his liaisons to his time on shore. At the mere thought of the man that had just taken your innocence you felt your stomach clench and another wave of arousal coat your already soaked petals.

A quiet knock at the door drew your attention, smiling when you saw Mikey come in pulling a large chest and setting it down in the middle of the room;

“So err… Captain says there should be some stuff in here that will be ok for you, so umm… help yourself Miss…”

“Thank you Mikey”

The young man must be at least 20 yet a blush covered his cheeks as you spoke to him, and with a nervous smile he nodded his head and left the room, half tripping on the rug as he did so before slamming the door shut.

Stripping out of your ruined clothing you saw a pitcher of water and a bowl on the side, using it to wash the Captain's seed from your thighs. Crossing the room in just your silk stockings you opened the chest and pulled out a number of items, gauging what would fit. Looking around you set the items onto the large bed, pulling the covers straight as you made your choice and a thought came to mind.

Sy stood outside his cabin, his hand hovering over the door handle. What had he gotten himself into? When he’d heard that his old friend Walter was having issues on the island, he’d set sail immediately and between the two of them and his right hand man Walter, they’d come up with a fool proof plan; kidnap the lord’s young trophy wife, demand not even a ransom - just what they were due, return her unharmed. Instead he ended up with another officer onboard, a woman on his ship that was said to bring bad luck, and the puzzle of what the hell to do with her now it had been made abundantly clear that her husband didn’t want her back. Taking a deep breath he entered the room, expecting the worst…

“Darlin?... Don’t be mad…”

He looked around the room, surprised that at first he wasn’t pelted with whatever wasn’t tied down, but when he couldn’t see you at all he frowned.

“Captain, over here…”

His jaw dropped when he saw you, kneeling on his bed, bare save for your stockings and a smile. Crossing the room he came to stand at the foot of the bed, licking his lips as his gaze traversed your naked body;

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes…I don’t know what i was expecting, but it wasn’t this…”

With a single finger he beconned you towards him, watching as you moved until you were up on your knees, his large hand at the back of your neck and you were kissing again, his glorious tongue exploring your mouth as your hands clung to his shirt. Deliberately falling back on the bed you pulled him with you, his mouth making its way to your breasts where he lavished each one with full mouthed kisses, his tongue laving over the hardened peaks before pressing a trail of kisses down your stomach before settled at the apex of your thighs;

“Gotta be the prettiest little Puss i’ve seen in a long time, bet you’re as sweet as a peach too…”

His tongue swiped a wide path through your folds, your fingers clawing at the sheets as his beard tickled you and he did to you things you’d only read about in the secretive books that were hidden in the depths of your husbands library.

“Oh Captain!” you gasped as his tongue dived into your soaked entrance, his nose rubbing at your sensitive clit and you could feel your stomach tightening with anticipation of the inevitable. Seemingly in no need of air he continued to work the thick muscle inside of you, driving you closer and closer to the pinnacle of pleasure until the point of no return was met and you came with a cry, your legs clamping around his head.

Finally he pulled himself free of your grasp, climbing up the bed until he was nestled between your thighs, his hardness pressing against your soaked core. Holding himself up on his strong arms he looked down at you beneath him;

“This time i’m gonna take my time and savour it…”

Your hands found their way to his breeches, unbuttoning him and gasping as his hot flesh sprung into your palm, heavy and weeping with need you guided him to your entrance. As he plunged into your depths the world seemed to fade around you; you’d had a taste of heaven and now you wanted more;

“You’re so big…”

“You want me to slow down Darlin?”

“No! It feels… so good…”

With practiced skill he rocked into you, slow but rough thrusts that had his length hitting a spot deep inside you’d had no idea that existed. The man had probably fucked his way around half of the Carribean but for a barely touched blossom as yourself he cherished the way your petals opened around him.

He continued to fuck you closer and closer to orgasm, feeling your body tighten around him and tremble, he slid a hand between your bodies and rubbed at your sensitive pearl, a grin spreading across his face as you came again with a shout of his rank;

“That’s a good girl, so fucking good… almost there…”

He quickly pulled out and spilled his seed over your stomach, watching as rope after rope of his creamy seed patterned your body, before he fell to your side, his chest heaving. Covering his eyes he let out a shaky breath;

“What the fuck have i gotten myself into…” He peeped out from between his fingers, smiling at you before pulling you in for a sloppy kiss, finally resting his forehead against yours; “Wait there a moment Darlin, i’ll get you cleaned up”

You’d dressed in front of your Captain, watching how he admired your choices from where he sat at the long table;

“Wasn’t expecting you to go for breeches…” he commented as you fastened the half length velvet garment, your stockings beneath the knee length trousers. A loose shirt with a wide leather belt fastening it at your waist was the only other garment you put on, standing in front of him and doing a little twirl; “Very nice… and practical”

“I spent ten years of my childhood aboard spice ships, running up ladders and rigging in skirts was a recipe for disaster.”

You crossed the room and sat across his lap;

“So, how is this going to work? You gonna drop me at the next port, leave me to my own devices? Wait until we’re in shark infested waters and throw me overboard?”

“What? Now why would i do that to a pretty little thing like you?”

“Well I know you didn’t end up with the outcome you were hoping for, and now you’re stuck with a ransomee that isn’t due any ransom”

He let out a sigh;

“I wouldn’t do that… it ain’t your fault your husband had the balls of a eunuch. No, i’m sure we can find a use for you, even if it’s just warming my bed… did you have an education?”

“Of sorts. Whenever we docked in Grace Bay i’d see a governess. I can speak spanish, french, and italian” you nodded to the maps spread over the table; “... and i can chart courses and know the currents of the Indies better than anyone that ever sailed on the spice route”

You gently stroked his beard;

“So Captain, what do you want me to do?”

“All of the above and more…” he stroked your cheek; “I won’t always be able to please you in bed, and from the signs of it you’ve got quite a carnal appetite...So, firstly you can call me Sy when its just us or the officers. When we’re on deck it’s Captain like everyone else. Secondly, if you want it, my officers could do with a bedmate, if you don’t mind sharing?”

Your eyebrows shot up so far you were surprised they didn’t meet your hair;

“Share me with your officers? Who…”

“There’s the Constable - who you’ll know from town - Walter Marshall, and the Armoury Officer - August Walker, and you’ve met Michael, he’s first mate”

“O-Okay”

“You’re alright with that?”

Stroking his beard you leant forwards and kissed him;

“Yes, yes I am. I’ve always wanted a little more adventure in my life, and now here it is”

“Well, you can be the one to decide when you want to go to the others, i’ll leave that move to you… i wont say anything yet”

“Thank you Sy, let's tell them Friday night. You can tell them.”

“Anything for my little Rose” he pressed his face to your neck and inhaled; “Still smell as sweet as that rose garden…”

“You can call me Rose if you like?”

“A new name for a new start?”

“Something like that” you grinned at him.

You’d spent four nights in the arms of Sy, some nights just falling asleep in each others arms, other’s you would fuck until dawn. That particular morning you’d taken him in your mouth and he’d taught you how to suck a man, working your tongue and lips over his hot flesh until he’d flooded your mouth with his thick salty seed. He’d held your jaw as he finished;

“Now be a good girl and swallow it”

You gulped down the mouthful before smiling;

“Tasty”

With a laugh he kissed you, before giving your naked ass a cheeky spank as he rolled out of bed;

“You gonna join me on deck?”

You stretched and sighed;

“I’m gonna try and find that earring i dropped when you had me bent over the table last night…”

Sy entered his cabin just as the ship’s cook was leaving, nodding to the meal he’d set out;

“Creole Stew tonight Cap’n, bread and ale like always”

“Thanks. Have you seen Rose?”

“No Sir”

Nodding Sy entered his cabin with a weary sigh, it had been a long day and all he really wanted to do was crawl into bed to sleep, grateful it was Friday which meant August took early watch on deck the next day, but he had dinner with the other officers and he hadn’t seen you for the last few hours, last he knew you were still on the hunt for your lost earring. Leaving the door ajar he sat at the table and started to eat, moments later Walter and August joining him.

“Where’s the others?” Walter asked as he sat, helping himself to a large chunk of bread

“Mikey is in the crows nest, he’ll be down shortly” August confirmed; “Haven’t seen Rose for a while though”

“Rose?”

“Sy’s bit of fluff. Decided as its a new start onboard she may as well choose a new name. Apparently its because Sy say’s she smells of Roses”

Walter snorted out a low laugh;

“She’s gonna be smelling of Sy sooner or later”

Sy listened to his two oldest friends banter back and forth, unaware of the surprise he was about to get. Hearing quick footfalls coming along the corridor he looked up to see Mikey at the doorway just as two soft hands pressed to his thighs from beneath the table. He nodded to Mikey to take a seat, before leaning back and peering down to his lap, hiding his surprise when he saw you on your knees beneath the table, hidden from the view of the rest of the party by the many overhanging maps and the low candle light.

Grabbing a chunk of bread he stayed leaning back but parted his thighs wide, wide enough to allow you to unfasten him and pump his hardening length and slip him into your mouth.

“Dig in boys, its gonna be a spicy meal tonight!”

As you worked quickly with your new found skills, sucking on the bulbous head as you fondled his heavy ballsack with your free hand, working quickly and silently as the men above you talked amongst themselves. You could feel Sy’s leg start to tremble, his hand sliding beneath the table to hold your head in place, and as you relaxed your jaw you felt his hot seed flood your mouth.

“WOO!” he exclaimed above you; “This stew is HOT!”

He took a deep breath and slapped his hand on the table with a laugh, before you tucked him carefully back into his breeches and you continued with your plan.

“Sy, we need to consider restocking the armoury” August started; “Scuttling the boats used up a lot of ammunitionnnnnnnnn”

Sy looked up and smirked, August looking at him wide eyed but recovering quickly, clearing his throat;

“Anyway as i was saying… umm... wow, the stew… the spice really hits after a while doesn’t it…”

August scrunched his face and rested his hand on his fist, before grabbing his tankard of ale and taking a large gulp, some of it spilling from the sides of his mouth as he spluttered on the liquid that did only a little to hide the groan. Sy shovelled another mouthful of stew into his mouth to hide his grin as August sat back in his chair, a half glare on his face.

Walter frowned at both of the older men;

“I have no idea what you two are on about, this stew is fine”

August wiped the slight sheen of sweat from his brow, before finally sitting straight and digging back into his meal;

“Walt, just wait, it takes a while to hit you but when it does… ooooh boy it takes your breath away”

The big bear of a man frowned and shovelled another mouthful in, before his eyes went wide. Swallowing awkwardly he nodded, shifting in his seat;

“Oh… oh yeah… its hitting… wow, its a good burn, ya know…” taking a leaf out of August’s book he grabbed his tankard, taking a gulp as he fidgeted in his seat, both Sy and August doing poor jobs of hiding their smirks, whereas Mikey was sat at the far end of the table without the slightest clue as to what was going on;

“Seriously? You guys must be getting old, this stew ain’t spicy”

Sy raised his tankard to his son and grinned;

“Just wait, it’ll hit ya… anyway, i got an announcement to make”

The three other men looked at Sy, Walter’s gaze faltering now and again as his focal point seemed to change, but he shifted in his seat and leaned his elbow against the armrest of his chair, his hand sliding beneath the table as he muttered about ‘cramp’, when in fact his large hand was holding your head in place as he pushed deeper into your throat. Sy cleared his throat and continued;

“We all know the events at the island did not go to plan. We’re down on funds and supplies, and we’ve increased the crew numbers with those that helped with the land mutiny… we’ve also of course got Rose to consider, she never asked for any of this, but we have come up with a solution of sorts”

“I think i might know what that solution could be” Walter panted out, his face contorting into something that resembled a grimace as he muttered about spiciness and cramps again before with a sigh a smile spread across his face; “Ooooh that’s it… the cramps are going…”

“Anyway” Sy interjected with a wry smile; “Rose can speak numerous languages, can read and chart maps, she’s probably the best educated of everyone on the ship”

Just then Mikey squeaked and jumped in his chair, a thud sounding beneath the table;

“S-s-sorry... my knee hit the table”

Sy nodded with a smile;

“No problem Son, carry on. So Rose will also be here for other duties, but only for the officers at this table tonight” he paused; “And i think you all now know what those duties will be”

August nodded as he eagerly mopped up the last remaining morsels of his stew with a chunk of bread;

“That sounds a fucking brilliant idea Sy. She has the greatest tits...” at that moment Mikey let out a groan and his head thudded against the high back of his chair; “... and i think we all now know she’s got a fucking brilliant mouth on her”

There was little point in denying what had just happened, the very fact it was still going on and Mikey had so little control of his reactions as you were sucking his meaty dick, having just done the same to the other three men in the room from the darkness under the table. In fact the three older men started to chat away candidly as you lavished Mikey’s beautiful cock with your tongue, before taking him in hand to move your mouth down to his tight ballsack to suck on the warm globes. His athletic thighs had parted enough for you to get much closer than you had done with the other three men - all of whom had thighs that could crush a coconut - and it meant that the top of your head could now be seen in his lap by the other men.

“Grab her hair Mikey” August shouted from behind his refilled tankard; “Get deep down in her throat, its fucking amazing, feels like she’ll suck your soul out of your dick”

You felt Mikey's hands curl into your hair, holding your head in place as he started to rock his hips up, filling your mouth and throat. Gripping hard to his thighs you could feel him start to tremble, preparing yourself for the flood of seed and as he came with a cry, looking down at you as you stared back with wide innocent eyes that completely ruined him.

Finally he released his grip on you, and as you looked down you smiled at what came into view. Seconds later you were climbing out from beneath the table, turning to smile at the rest of the men as you fastened the earring to your lobe;

“Look Sy, i found my earring!”

Walking around the table you took the tankard of ale that August held out for you with a smile, before sitting across Sy’s lap;

“I think they like the idea”

Sy looked at the men around the table, his trusted friends and family and smiled;

“I think they do, my sweet Rose”

He clinked his tankard to yours and you both drank, the joyous laughter filling the room as the night continued.

__________________________________________________________

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Masterlist can be found on AO3, link here.

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acanvasofabillionsuns · 3 years

Text

been thinking ‘bout your touch

ao3!

Summary: 3 times Logan initiates contact, and one time his family returns the favor Warnings: character overworking themself, a brief mention of the American Civil War/slavery, Inside Out spoilers (specifically Bing Bong’s storyline) Wordcount: 3501

Logan walked into the commons and promptly forgot what he’d gone in there for, instead walking over to the couch and hugging a softly crying Patton.

“Oh!” Patton said, startled. “Hey, Logan!”

“Hello, Patton.”

Patton hugged Logan back, sinking into the contact for a moment before starting to pull away. Logan held on.

“Everything okay, kiddo?”

“I am fine, thank you. Studies show it takes 20 seconds of physical contact for endorphins to be released, so I am attempting to provide that.”

“Ooookay?”

“You were crying when I entered the room.” Was Patton not aware of that?

“Oh!” Patton said. He pushed on Logan’s shoulders gently, moving far enough back to initiate eye contact. “Logan, I’m watching Inside Out.”

Logan let go of the hug and turned to look at the TV. It was indeed playing Inside Out, the little joy and sadness characters on screen. He turned back to Patton, ready to ask why this mattered, but Patton beat him to it.

“Bing Bong just died. It was sad, but I’m fine.”

Oh.

“I see.” Logan cleared his throat and stood up, hoping he didn’t look as foolish as he felt. “I’m glad you’re alright—”

“Wanna stay and finish the movie with me?” Patton looked up at him hopefully. He’d pulled out his so-called “puppy dog eyes.” This was unfair.

“Wellllll,” Logan hedged, still embarrassed. “I should probably go back to work…”

“Please?” This was definitely unfair.

Logan sighed and sat down beside Patton, trying to squash his smile.

“Yay!” Patton cheered, scooching over to wrap Logan in a hug and settle into his side.

Logan didn’t think he was successful in hiding his grin.

Virgil, Logan had noticed, tended to hole up in his room often. He came out for meals and movie nights, and sometimes would sit in the living room, and even on occasions socialize, but more often than not he was in his room.

As none of them were permitted inside Virgil’s room for very long—anxiety overloading their functions and all that—spending so much time in there could not be conducive to getting very much physical contact, even factoring in Patton’s apparent mission to hug Virgil at least once in every encounter between the two of them. As sides, they did not technically need physical contact, just as they did not technically need food or sleep, but it was better for Thomas and for themselves if they got all three in healthy amounts.

Virgil, Logan was quite sure, was not getting a healthy amount of touch.

He aimed to remedy this.

So the next time Logan found Virgil sitting in the living room, he grabbed a book and joined him. Luckily, Virgil was sprawled out on the couch, instead of in one of the armchairs or in some other spot where seeking physical contact with him might’ve been difficult.

“May I join you?” Logan asked, nodding to the spot on the couch where Virgil’s head lay.

“Oh, uh, sure,” Virgil said awkwardly, sitting upright.

“Thank you.” He settled into his spot and found his place in the book. Starting to read, he informed Virgil, “If you wish to lay back down, I would not be opposed.”

“Uh, alright.” Virgil carefully settled his head in Logan’s lap.

About a chapter later, Logan realized Virgil had relaxed into his position on top of Logan, which gave him the courage to ask, “Would it be alright if I settled a hand in your hair?”

Virgil tilted his head back to look at Logan. “Why?”

“My arm’s growing a bit tired from being held up. If it makes you uncomfortable, though, I can certainly figure something else out.”

“Nah,” Virgil told him, tilting his head forward again. “Go ahead.”

Logan gingerly places his hand on Virgil’s head, letting his fingers tangle slightly in his hair before turning back to his book.

He’d reached the climax and so had gotten caught up in the story for the next several chapters, enough to completely forget his surroundings. So it was a while before he realized that he’d started mindlessly playing with Virgil’s hair. Virgil had completely relaxed in his lap and seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep.

Logan smiled at the sight, and at the success of his plan, and turned back to his book, making sure he didn’t disturb Virgil as he did so.

“Logan!” Roman hollered, stretching out the name as he hurtled down the stairs.

“Yes?”

“I’m bored,” Roman groaned, flopping in the chair beside Logan’s theatrically. “Do you have any quests to complete?” On principle, Logan didn’t particularly care to attempt to entertain any bored sides that came his way for amusement. He was a busy side, after all, and didn’t have time to waste over someone else’s lack of stimulation.

He still didn’t particularly care about Roman’s boredom this time around, but as his work was completed, he figured it couldn’t hurt to at least talk with Roman.

“Alas,” Roman sighed, bringing a hand up to his forehead and closing his eyes, “I completed all my recent ones yesterday, and I have no inspiration to make more. So I am completely and utterly out of things to do…” He trailed off, a hint of something in his tone that suggested he wanted Logan to ask something of him.

After a moment Roman cracked an eye open to squint at him, confirming the theory. Logan, lacking any idea what he wanted, raised an eyebrow.

“...Unless, of course, someone were interested in my daring exploits,” Roman continued pointedly, closing his eyes again and somehow posing more.

“It’s ‘was,’ not ‘were.’” Boredom was no excuse for bad grammar.

“So that I might then enthrall them with the tales of my valor.” Roman swatted at Logan with his free hand.

Logan sighed, rolling his eyes. “Oh, Roman, would you please tell me all about your amazing quests.”

“I would be delighted to!” Roman grinned, springing up from his chair. “It all began two days ago, when I was attempting to blend in among the populace—”

“Do you need to be facing me to tell me this?” Logan interrupted. Maybe it was rude, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t been cut off himself many times before, and anyway, better to cut in at the start then wait until some point in the middle.

“I suppose not.” Roman frowned at him. “Why’d you ask?”

“I’d like to braid your hair while I listen, if you don’t mind.” Otherwise he’d just be sitting there, hands idle.

“Oh!” Roman brightened. “Go ahead!”

Logan nodded and moved to sit cross legged on the couch, gesturing to the space in front of him. Roman snatched up a couple pillows and arranged them in a kind of throne in front of Logan, plopping on top of them and wiggling around in an extravagant attempt at getting comfortable.

“Okay,” he declared after a minute. “So. My cover was blown in a matter of minutes when a young boy approached me and insisted he needed my help…”

As he listened, Logan wove little cornrows into Roman’s hair and conjured tiny hair bands to tie them off as he finished them.

“...And the townsfolk were grateful enough to throw a party in my honor! Though unfortunately I got summoned soon after it started, but whatever! Spending time with you guys is better than with imagined people I don’t really know,” Roman finished, doing a little flourish with his hands. He turned to face Logan. “So, what’d you think?”

“I think you need to stay still so I can finish this braid,” Logan told him, clutching onto the strands of hair he’d been in the middle of weaving together.

Roman huffed, but faced forward again. “So?”

“You did a great job and told it eloquently. I particularly liked the part with the bull, and the imagery with the puzzle.”

“Thank you!” Logan could hear the smile in his voice.

“You’re welcome.” He conjured a final hair band and twisted it around the ends of the braid. “There.”

Roman instantly jumped up, twisting around to grin at Logan as he sang, “Your turn!”

“My turn?”

“I wanna do your hair now,” Roman said, pouting a little.

“You being the one to both talk and braid hair doesn’t give me anything to do, though,” Logan pointed out. “That was kind of the point of me braiding your hair.”

“Then you talk!”

“I haven’t gone on any quests, though.”

“Then tell me about a book you’ve read!” Roman supplied easily. “Any clever twists and turns you didn’t see coming? Plot holes that could’ve been easily fixed? Surely there must be something you want to talk about.”

“Well… “ Logan slowly slid onto Roman’s pillow throne.

Roman bounced onto the spot where Logan had been. “It’s settled, you’ve gotta tell me now!”

Logan huffed, rolling his eyes. “Very well.”

“Explain that plot, my good nerd!” Roman tilted Logan’s head back slightly to start a braid at the crown of his hair.

“The book begins with the characters…”

Logan knew it was his own fault.

He knew he was overworking himself, barely remembering to eat and sleep to help keep Thomas healthy and hardly coming out of his room. It’d been this way for a few weeks, since he’d picked up this project. And he knew he didn’t have to be working this hard, didn’t technically have to do this project at all, but here he was, carrying on by telling himself he’d just finish this one part— (But there was always another part following it, and then he had to finish that part too, and so on and so on.

He’d… he’d finish it eventually.)

So Logan knew it was his own fault he wanted a hug so badly, but that didn’t stop the yearning.

Logan leaned back in his chair, looking over the work he’d finished and mentally calculating how long it would take to complete the rest. If he kept working at the pace he’d been working at… about two days?

He could do two days. Anyone could do two days; a child could do two days. Two days, and then he’d be done, and he’d let himself go ask for a hug.

Two days and then a hug, he repeated as he leaned forward again, picking up his pencil and resuming his work.

It didn’t end up being two days.

First, he’d nearly fallen asleep at his laptop, and in his startle awake he’d accidentally deleted a big chunk of his work that’d needed to be recalculated and typed out. Then he’d made a mistake in his written work, and so had to comb through everything he’d already done to find it and then replace all the work after it.

So it was a week later that he realized his ‘two days’ had come and gone three times over, and he still hadn’t finished (or gotten a hug). If anything, he might’ve been set back in his work from when he’d promised himself that.

He sighed and looked at the clock. 7:23, and him using military time meant he’d stayed up all night again.

Logan was debating whether or not he should go get some food, maybe try to sleep, when someone gently pulled his chair away from the desk, hands on his shoulders. He startled.

“Logan,” Patton whispered, breath hot against his ear. “You need a break.”

Logan sighed and nodded. “I do.”

“Then let’s get you one.” Patton let go of his shoulders, and Logan barely had time to mourn the loss before Patton was taking his hands and heaving him up from the chair. The leather made a ripping sound as his legs unstuck.

“Definitely need a break,” Patton said decidedly. “Have you had breakfast yet?” Logan shook his head. “Then we’ll start there!”

Logan smiled fondly as Patton tugged him downstairs and into the kitchen. Virgil was on the counter, looking up from his phone as they arrived.

“Hey, Logan,” he smirked, though his eyes looked a little too relieved for his expression to seem genuine. “Long time, no see.”

“I’ve been… absorbed in this project.” The way he said it made it almost sound like an apology, though that was ridiculous. Nothing about that sentence was an apology. (It was, kind of, an apology.)

Virgil nodded and patted the counter space beside him. “Sit with me while Pat makes breakfast?”

“Sounds like a great idea!” Patton declared, squeezing Logan’s hands and clapping him on the back before turning and pulling out pans and ingredients.

Logan pushed himself onto the counter, looking over as Virgil tilted his screen towards him. He was watching what seemed like a conspiracy video, captions on and sound turned off. It appeared to be claiming the Civil War was some personal feud between a couple influential people, instead of about slavery. (It was, of course, a white person talking animatedly on screen.) Logan rolled his eyes at the idea, but watched anyway, occasionally murmuring contradictions to what the video was saying.

After it ended, Virgil pulled up another conspiracy video, looking over at Logan. He nodded, and Virgil pressed play, leaning against Logan’s side as the video started.

Logan very carefully did not stiffen, not wanting to scare Virgil away, and slowly relaxed into the touch. Virgil was warm against his side, and he soaked up that heat gratefully.

They watched about an hour’s worth of conspiracy videos, with Patton puttering around the kitchen as pleasant background noise. Logan could’ve easily watched for another hour, but biscuits, bacon, and eggs didn’t keep very well, and Logan was hungry. It was only with minor reluctance that he took his seat at the table.

“Roman! Breakfast!”

Logan heard more than saw Roman clattering downstairs, chair facing away from the steps. There was the thundering of feet, a thump that sounded more like he’d jumped the last few stairs then fallen, and—a gasp?

“You’ve escaped!” Roman cried, and Logan twisted in his chair to see what he was talking about just in time to be engulfed in a hug.

After a moment, Roman released him, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry, I should’ve—”

“Roman.” Logan hoped the waver in his voice wasn’t too prominent to the others. “Come here and hug me properly.”

Roman lit up, bending down in a sort of squat as Logan twisted to sit sideways in his chair, so that they met in the middle and melted into a hug. (Logan clung perhaps a bit more tightly than he would’ve admitted. He’d missed this.)

After a minute Logan made himself pull back. “My apologies, that couldn’t have been a comfortable position to hold for so long.”

“I don’t care,” Roman assured him. “Don’t worry, I would’ve pulled away sooner if it was bothering me—Zeus, it’s so good to see you; do you even realize how long you’ve been locked up in your room?”

“A month and two days,” Logan said quietly. “Technically, just three days, as that was the last time I’d come out of my room to get food, but—thirty-two days.”

“What were you even doing in there?”

“I’ve been working to try and come up with a better way to manage Thomas’s finances, as well as trying to figure out his taxes. I know it’s unnecessary, especially to the degree I’ve been doing so, but…” But what? He couldn’t stop working? Preposterous; he could’ve, he’d just chosen not to, and then lost track of time and kept going until it had devolved into somehow being locked in his room for a month.

“Well, then!” Roman set a hand on Logan’s shoulder and it ached, almost, with how good it felt. (Logan might’ve become touch starved. He’d acknowledged that a while ago and kept working.) “I’m glad you’ve come to your senses and put a pause on it!”

“Actually,” Patton broke in. “I pulled him away for a break. He probably would’ve kept working if I hadn’t come in.” His tone was breezy, but there was a judgmental edge to it that indicated Patton had stronger opinions than he was voicing.

“I agreed with you that I needed a break,” Logan pointed out defensively. “I was actually thinking of getting some food when you came in.”

Patton hummed in an ‘if you say so’ sort of way.

“And, lemme guess—after breakfast you’ll go back to work?” Roman asked, shifting his weight.

“I—” Logan hadn't actually decided on whether he would or not.

“The answer here is ‘no,’ L,” Virgil said gently. “Don’t bother fighting it.”

Logan sighed. “Then I suppose I’m not going back to work after breakfast.”

“Good,” Roman declared, plopping down in his seat like that emphasized his point.

They ate, and there was a pause afterwards where Roman, Patton, and Virgil were all taking care of things and Logan was alone in the kitchen. He debated going back to his room—he’d said he wouldn’t, but he didn’t really know what else to do and no one was here to stop him—but Patton popped up and pushed him into the commons with a “Help set up!”

“Set up?”

“For the movie,” Virgil said, appearing beside Logan and hooking arms with him, pulling him along. “Roman’s getting blankets, so I need you to help me find The Aristocats before he can rig the vote.”

“Rig the vote? Roman?” Logan deadpanned. “Blatant slander and defamation; he would never.” Virgil snorted, and Logan wasn’t sure if the warmth he felt was from their proximity or… probably just the proximity.

“I know, right,” Virgil joked. “But this way, it’s two against one and so he can’t complain.” He dropped to his knees in front of the movie cases. Their arms were linked loosely enough that Logan could’ve chosen to slip out of his grip and remain standing, but he let himself kneel beside Virgil.

They flipped through the cases (and regrettably had to unlink arms to do so, but they were sitting close enough their thighs were pressed against each other, and Logan found he didn’t miss the contact too much), and pulled out The Aristocats right as Roman thundered down the stairs, laden with blankets and pillows.

“Careful!”

“Not to worry, Pat, I’m fine!” Roman declared, hopping past the last two steps and dumping his bounty on the couch. He squinted at Logan and Virgil. “Are you two conspiring? Going behind my back to rig the vote in your favor?”

“Because you’ve never done that,” Virgil snarked at the same time Logan said, “It’s Disney.”

“Disney?” Roman perked up.

“Aristocats,” Virgil told him. “Everybody wants to be a cat, y’know, and last I checked you’re part of everybody.”

“Oooh! We haven’t watched that in a while!”

“Nope.” Virgil popped the p sound. “And that’s why if you try to make us watch another movie first, I’ll steal all your Disney posters and make a collage out of them.”

Roman Gasped Offendedly™. “I didn’t even say anything! I want to watch Aristocats!”

“Just letting you know,” Virgil said.

Roman stuck his tongue out at him and began setting up a blanket fort. Logan went over to help him while Virgil popped the DVD into the player and left to help Patton manage snacks. They came back with a couple bowls of popcorn, several smaller bowls of candy, and a round of mugs. Everyone crawled in, got comfy, and made sure the snacks were within reach.

“Ready?” Virgil asked, prompting various noises of agreement, and then pressed play.

Roman and Logan had arranged the fort so that the couch was technically available for sitting on, but the blankets were low enough they’d be pushed up by one’s head. Virgil solved this problem by draping himself across the couch, head almost beside Logan’s and arm on top of Logan’s head, where Logan could easily hold up the popcorn bowl for him whenever he needed a new handful. (It was maybe slightly inconvenient, but Logan was maybe slightly touch starved, and this method meant Virgil’s arm stayed perched on Logan’s head.)

A few minutes into the movie, Roman shifted around and kicked his legs up to use Logan’s lap as a footstool. Logan retaliated by taking the Skittles from him and placing them on his other side, near Patton. Roman scrunched his face up at him and squirmed around so that his head was in Logan’s lap, and throughout the movie they continued until Roman was almost entirely settled on top of Logan, where he stayed.

About when Duchess met (Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey) Thomas O’Malley, Patton scooched over a little and laid his head on Logan’s shoulder. It was careful, at first, the kind where one could tell the other wasn’t letting the full weight rest on them. But when Logan didn’t react except to put his head on top of Patton’s, he relaxed into it.

By the time the movie had ended, they were a pile of warmth and Logan was at the center of it.

Logan loved his famILY.

#my fics #my writing #sanders sides #platonic LAMP #ts logan #ts patton #ts virgil #ts roman #i wrote this over a year ago and then went back through and rewrote it a few months ago so if it sounds a little weird that's probably why

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palmtreepalmtree · 4 years

Text

Alright, this one is long overdue for an anonymous friend who really wanted me to review The Healer. So after a short pause, here is another edition of

The Worst Movie on Netflix Right Now™

Heavy sigh.

Alright. Let’s talk about this one.

First off, I have to do some pretty serious content warnings, cause I know some people have been receiving some bad news recently and this review goes someplace you might not expect so, I love you guys, but please be aware that this review deals with: cancer, terminal illness, kids with cancer.

Now back to the bullshit.

This is basically a movie about a fucking dumbass dude who has trouble making obvious decisions.

SPOILERS AHEAD (are you new here?)

The main character Alec Bailey, begins the film as a total fuckwit. He lives in England (somewhere about) and owns a failing electronic handyman business that he calls “The Healer” (in the most pathetic stretch of narrative bullshit, but okay) and is in deep gambling debts to the Russian mob.

As our story begins, Alec discovers that he has a long lost rich uncle who makes him an offer: the uncle will pay off Alec’s debts if he agrees to live in Nova Scotia for a year. The uncle will make all the arrangements: plane ticket, work visa, place to live, etc. All Alec has to do is stay in Nova Scotia for a year.

OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO?!? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IN REMOTE NOVA SCOTIA FOR A YEAR AFTER ALL MY FINANCIAL CONCERNS ARE TAKEN CARE OF?

HOWEVER WILL I SURVIVE IN SUCH A HORRIBLE PLACE?11?!?

I BETTER THINK IT OVER.

*eyeroll*

He finally makes his decision after getting chased by mobsters trying to collect on his debts. ...like I said. He’s a fuckwit.

So he moves into this beautiful house in Nova Scotia. There’s no internet, which is a legit bummer, but his uncle has arranged a car for him to get to town. Seems like a pretty good gig. Even if it is going to be brutally cold come the winter months.

Well as soon as Alec arrives in town, everyone seems to know and be expecting him. He puts an ad out for his mechanical engineering services, again, under the name “The Healer.” Well........... that goes awry in ways you would expect. Suddenly, people start showing up requesting his physical healing services.

The thing is, the people from town seem to expect him to actually be a healer. They keep referring to a secret and to him being “the chosen one.” There’s no explanation for this.

Then there’s like... this whole weird interlude where Alec seems to kill the town priest, played by Jorge Ramirez (can someone please find this dude a good acting gig? my dude has decent comedic timing, he’s better than this shit). And Alec gets arrested. Even though the priest got up and walked away. All of this seems like a weird spinning of wheels before the actual plot. Like why is this happening. Why?

Eventualllllllly......... his uncle shows back up and fesses up (in the most elaborate way possible). People in his family have a gift. Every other generation, someone is chosen. And they have the gift of healing. Based solely on being near to someone who is destined to be saved.

The gift can only be activated around their 30th birthday (if this sounds unnecessarily elaborate, that’s because it is -- and I’m even cutting shit out like the secret basement and portraits on the wall, blahblahblah). The day after the birthday, the chosen one must decide. They can choose to accept or decline the gift of healing. Alec is given until midnight that night to make his decision. WILL HE BE THE CHOSEN ONE? WILL HE BE THE HEALER?!?!1?1

I mentioned that Alec is a fuckwit right?

*Hagrid voice* YOU’RE A FUCKWIT, ALEC!

*squints*

Annnnnnyhow. Alec goes to the town church where everyone is gathered at midnight (with thank you signs and a big round of applause) and he dashes their hopes. HE WILL NOT BE THE HEALER, NO! Even though it comes with no readily apparent downsides or costs. And he’d be able to relieve the suffering of others with no cost to himself. No, fuck it. He’s going to go home.

The town takes it pretty well, all things considered. The few people who had already been healed by being near him make speeches of gratitude. They all wish him a happy birthday and tell him he’s welcome to stay. Like these people are insanely understanding about him declining the gift of healing. INSANE.

It’s worth noting that we’re about halfway through the movie at this point and we haven’t met one of the main characters of the movie.

IN COMES ABIGAIL. Cancer kid extraordinaire. She is 14 years old. Her parents have driven 7 hours to see Alec. Their daughter is dying of terminal cancer, and all they want is for Alec to spend some time with her and give it a shot. But she’s a pretty self-possessed kid. She convinces the reluctant Alec to just hangout with her for the weekend to buck up her parents and give her parents some hope. She doesn’t believe in the healing, so no harm, no foul.

And finally we’ve hit the meat of our story. Will Alec be able to save Abigail now that he’s declined the gift? Will he regret it? WHY DID HE DECLINE THE GIFT!?1?

SPOILERS (really can’t discuss this movie without them)

It turns out, Alec had a brother who died of cancer. And they were incredibly close. In Alec’s words, “he was my everything.” But now he deeply regrets giving up the gift. Now he’s worried he can’t save Abigail.

You know what, man? Same.

SO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU TURN DOWN THE GIFT!??!?

Listen. Listen, listen. I don’t know a single person who has been touched by cancer who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have a healing gift. I mean, what the fuck. Death sucks. Losing someone you love from any kind of illness sucks. Especially when it feels even remotely too soon. And cancer is a particular type of FUCKING BULLSHIT. It sucks.

So it’s really fucking hard to understand why this FUCKWIT turns down the gift to begin with. Death and suffering is not abstract for him when this movie starts! So why we should feel sorry for his resulting anxiety, now that he has met someone who is directly negatively affected by his fucking BAD DECISION.

Anyhow, the rest of the movie is basically an exercise in how charming Abigail is and how much fun we can have with her before she goes off to die. Which like......... OH-FUCKING-KAY!

It should go without saying that this movie has a happy ending. The music swells where it should. The romance is consummated. Abigail is healed. All is going to be well with the world.

As a movie, this one has some weird fucking choices. First, all of the music cues in this movie are just wrong. “Faith” by George Michael is not a song about believing in something --- unless that something is having sex with someone who hurt you before. And the lighting in this film is so beautiful all the time, it looks like you’re in a fucking ciallis commercial, even when you’re in the freaking police station, wtf?

And last, the writing is just weird in places. Like why have the love interest lie about being a lesbian through 90% of the film? Why? It’s not a good joke! And It is COMPLETELY fucking baffling to me why the good news of this story is delivered off-screen instead of on-screen. If Abigail is going to be okay, why couldn’t she come back to Nova Scotia to tell him? Why couldn’t she deliver that news in person!? That’s just bad writing. What the fuck is that?

But whatever.

On the credit side, I think Oliver Jackson Cohen knows what he’s doing as an actor. He’s not Oscar-worthy yet, but I believed him. When he talks about his brother, I felt that. And that could not have been easy in such a fucking weird script.

But as much as I’d like to end this review right here, there’s more. Cause...

..........that’s not where the movie ends. Not entirely.

As the end music plays, the movie is dedicated to Paul Newman who established summer camps for seriously ill kids. And then we see images and videos of the kids all over the world enjoying activities at these camps.

And that’s where this critique stops. Sorta. Paul Newman was a legitimately good person. And his legacy of caring for sick kids carries on to this day, as was evident from all the footage.

But here’s the thing: healing as it’s depicted in this movie does not exist. But easing the suffering of others does. I wish this movie had been about that. I wish it had been less focused on miracles and weird family legacies and selfish fuckwits and more about the kind of healing that Paul practiced. But I guess that movie isn’t as fun, and it isn’t as hopeful and uplifting.

In the non-movie version of this story, Abigail Bryant died in 2014 at the age of 20. Her obituary still appears online. And it is still receiving comments and photos from cancer survivors and fighters, many of them who found her through the film. And they talk about how the movie touched them.

On that level, it doesn’t matter what I say here. It doesn’t matter that there are weird parts of this script or that healing like this is a fantasy. This movie does its job. It touches people. And if it inspires just a few more people to give money to help relieve suffering, then that’s all that matters.

Ronald McDonald House Charities Cancer Research Institute Hole in the Wall Gang (Paul Newman’s org) Serious Fun Children’s Network (established by Paul Newman)

#ptpt reviews #the worst movie on netflix right now #i guess #sorta #cw: cancer #sorry for the long post #this one was complicated

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the-l-spacer · 3 years

Text

Safe (Dragon x Defiant hurt/comfort)

ao3 SB

Summary: Based on the fic dialogue prompt "Please just… just hold me"

Takes place a little before Teneral e.3 - Preoccupied with helping Dracheheim, Dragon hasn't had much time to process what had happened to her during Gold Morning. Some hours spent alone changes that, and Colin helps her to deal with the aftermath.

Note: This is my first fanfic for Worm/Parahumans so! Please b nice! Also, I am. Very sorry in advance if this reads as OOC for either Dragon or Defiant, and I'm sorry if I got any canon details wrong oops-

All that said, enjoy some Dragon/Defiant fluff n angst! I heard this fandom isn't big on shipping but hey hope u like it anyways 👉👈

Dragon was fine.

All fine. Tip-top shape. Of perfectly sound body (which went without saying) and mind. She totally wasn’t having one of those bad days, and she definitely wasn’t letting her mind wander to a dark place. To memories of him. After all, there were countless other matters to worry over, weren’t there?

Or at least, that was what she tried to tell herself.

And she wasn’t wrong, at least not completely. In the wake of Scion’s attack, the damage done and the many needs of the few survivors had consumed her every hour. Already, the remaining Capes were being run ragged fighting for resources and dealing with conflicts among their people, simply trying to stay afloat long enough to rebuild. As one of the few capes that required little to no rest, her and Defiant had found themselves scrambling from place to place, trying to help wherever they could.

Did the people in this settlement have enough food? Did this family have enough firewood to last the winter? Would that group of children even live to see their teenage years?

After all was said and done, Dragon never had more than a few minutes of time to herself in a day, and she liked it that way.

Now she sat, in the cabin her and Defiant built together overlooking the village of Dracheheim. Defiant was out repairing their craft, and insisted that she stay inside and rest, the first time she had an hour or more to herself in months.

She had put on some stupid comedy on TV to distract herself, but as she curled up on the couch, she felt her mind wander to places against her will, places she tried so so hard not to go. For with every thought consumed with ensuring humanity’s survival, she didn’t have to think about the time she had spent at his mercy.

At Teacher’s mercy.

She felt a little growl of frustration leave her. Dragon was more than well aware of that old mind trick; if one was told not to think of a pink elephant, one would do just that, instinctively. So she shook her head, once, twice, tred to pay attention to the movie instead of dwelling on events that had happened months ago.

But it was hard. Just as she would begin to lose herself in a plot thread, something small would come up. This time, it was the personality of one of the mentor characters that made her side-slip. His smug mannerisms, his skeeviness rammed images to her mind’s forefront Memories of hands reaching and digging into her brain. Icy fingers forcing neural pathways in directions that just felt wrong. Teacher violating her, leaving her completely helpless under him. Powerless.

When she felt a hand settle on her shoulder, she jerked away, out of the ball she had unconsciously curled into, caught herself on the couch’s edge with her arm.

“Shit!” She swore, craning her head to fix a scowl at the culprit. “Colin, don’t creep up on me like that!”

“Didn’t mean to, sorry.” Like her, Colin was out of his power armour, clad in a heavy jumper and sweatpants to ward off Dracheheim’s chill. “You alright?”

“I’m— wait, let me turn this thing down. I feel ridiculous talking to you with Legally Blonde on— I’m fine.”

“Never watched it,” he remarked, settling on the couch. “But I don’t care about the movie, I’m worried about you.”

Always to the point. It’s one of the things she loved about Colin.

“I know you’ve been telling me you’re ‘fine’, but I somehow find that hard to believe. You’re never caught off your guard like this. Usually, you can sense me coming even when I’m trying to be quiet.” He had positioned himself carefully, close to her, but not so close they were touching, and for that she was grateful.

“Well, I—”

Before she could play her off as nothing more than a faux pas, deflect playfully like she was planning to do, Colin cut her off.

“Something’s bothering you.”

Not phrased as a question, but a statement of fact. For all her boyfriend bemoaned his inability to ‘people’, he was surprisingly perceptive when it came to her. Drat.

“It’s nothing major. And really,” she emphasised, “I’m fine.”

Colin raised an eyebrow.

“... Lately, I haven’t had the time to be anything other than.”

A nod of understanding. “I get that. This has to be, what, the first time you’ve had more than fifteen minutes to yourself in God knows how long.”

“Exactly.” Dragon sighed. “The curse that comes with being a workaholic; I never know what to do with myself when I’m forced to take a break, so… unpleasant thoughts start working their way in.”

Colin stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. Nothing else for it, then. She drew her legs up on the couch, rested her chin on her knees. Softly, she asked the question that had been weighing silently on her ever since Gold Morning, “Colin, do you think it’s possible? To undo what Teacher did to me?”

He frowned, a crease forming on half of his forehead that still remained organic. “You know I’ve b- I’m still trying. In every spare moment that I’ve had--”

“-- not a lot, I know, we’ve both been occupied--”

“--I’ve been staring at your code, making sense of it. I think it is possible, but progress will be… slow. I’m sorry.”

There were moments when she didn’t regret building herself a body as close to a real human as possible, a body that allowed her to touch, feel, taste, and even experience pain. The feather-light touch of snowflakes settling in her hair was some such moments, along with the comforting press of the weighted blanket (that she had gotten Colin as a birthday gift) against her body. But regret was precisely what came at her boyfriend’s statement, as she experienced the thoroughly unpleasant feeling of her stomach dropping, a chill running up her spine.

“I understand.” That was all she could manage, numbly, before falling silent.

Colin got up abruptly, and the empty spot on the couch somehow made things worse.

“No, no. Listen to me. I will figure it out. If it means not eating or sleeping, that can be managed. You know I can optimise my body further. I’ll do everything it takes to free you.”

He was getting worked up, pacing on the carpet before her, but somehow, his words failed to reassure.

“And if you can’t wait that long, I’ll recruit people. Tinkers. Scientists. I’ll keep your identity a secret of course, and with a team, there’ll be a chance of progressing faster, making more progress than I could on my own.”

“Colin.”

“And if that fails, I’ll hunt Teacher down. No hole that motherfucker could hide in would be safe. I’ll force him to undo his own handiwork, and after, I’ll kill him.”

“Colin.”

He stopped pacing, hands flexing as if to wring an imaginary Teacher’s neck. Upon seeing her expression, he deflated.

“I’m talking out of my ass. I’m sorry.”

“No, stop apologising to me. None of this was your fault.” She breathed in, out, regulating her artificial heartbeat, which had gone faster and faster since the start of his indignant tirade. “I just asked because I wanted to know, and I appreciate your honest answer. You seriously don’t need to modify yourself more than you already have on my behalf. You know you’re the only one I trust with my code, and you definitely don’t need to go on a crusade against Teacher just yet, what with the amnesty and all.”

The unspoken but hung in the air.

“But it’s hard,” she said, voice cracking on the last word. “I can’t have a spare moment to myself, can’t even watch a stupid movie without being reminded of him, of what he did to me. Even once you fix my code -- don’t give me that look because you will manage it, somehow-- I don’t think it’ll ever go away.”

She wrapped her arms around her knees, curled into herself.

Colin leaned over, hovering anxiously.

“What should I do, then?” He asked, helpless, “I’m guessing you don’t want me to leave and work on the problem.”

“No!” She blurted out, a tad more forcefully than she intended. Then, quieter, “No. Stay here, please. Just… just hold me.”

She felt him sit back on the couch beside her, felt hands encircle her. She flinched back, ever so slightly, the memory of Teacher’s cold touch almost overwhelming her. His fingers interlocked with hers, assuring her that he was here, that she was with him. She latched on, focused on the callused fingers of his left hand, the cool metal of his right.

Then, she let go. His arms folded around her, and she fell into his embrace.

This was what made having a ‘human’ body worth it; the way she fit against him, her head tucked under his chin, eyes shut tight, as she just breathed.

Teacher didn’t exist. No one else did, outside the both of them, wrapped together on a small couch in their small home.

She was safe.

Eventually, they had to break apart. Colin was still human, under all his cybernetic augmentations, and staying locked in one place for too long tended to end with sore muscles.

Instead, they cuddled. Dragon propped her legs up on her boyfriend’s lap, and leaned against his shoulder. In response, Colin reached out, pulling the weighted blanket over the both of them.

After a while, he spoke. “I won’t lie, I can’t promise you that everything will be okay. That I’ll reverse the damage to your code.”

She hugged his arm. “You’re brilliant. I’ll trust you to figure things out.”

She expected some smugness on his part, after that little boost to his ego. Instead, he sighed. “This isn’t false modesty. You know I don’t do that. I… I genuinely don’t know if I’ll succeed with this. Doesn’t mean I won’t try my damndest, though.”

Dragon hummed. “Good enough for me. And in the meantime… keep me grounded, on the bad days?”

“You already do that for me,” he said, a slight smile on his face. “It's about high time I returned the favour.

They kissed once, twice.

A knock on the door.

Colin growled in annoyance. “Don’t suppose it’s not urgent?”

“Mmmmf.”

The knock came again.

“We.. had better go get it. Someone probably needs our help.”

“Probably.” Colin agreed. “Until our next breather?”

She kissed him one last time.

“Until then.”

#parahumans #I should tag their ship but I don’t wanna use dnd bc. that’s already a tag I use jebdkdb #okay uh #dragon/defiant #also sb link might not be working wow I hate that site so much 😔#dragonmaster #writings

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hypnoticwinter · 4 years

Text

Down the Rabbit Hole part 10

The door opens and the bell rings and Peter and I both look up; the lady I’d ran into earlier on my first day in Gumption walks in and nods to Peter. Through the course of the story we’d finished breakfast and then I’d walked with Peter down to the 7-11 and he’d clocked in and started his shift while I sat on a stack of beer cases and listened, turning the voice recorder to its highest sensitivity to capture everything he was saying. I could always go back and take a transcript later if I had to, if the audio was too loud or too distorted.

Her eyes stray over me but whatever she thinks she doesn’t betray anything with her expression. I’ve reached out automatically and covered the voice recorder with my hand as soon as I heard the door open; it was an automatic action, quick as a whip, no conscious thought required, and I slide my thumb down its ridged side, click it off.

“Hey, Michelle,” Peter says.

“Hey, Peter,” she says.

He glances at his watch and whistles. “I didn’t realize it was four already.”

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” she says, a slight layer of sarcasm flavoring her words. I can feel my hackles rising but I ease myself down. Peter’s eyes flick over to me.

“Well,” he says, and I feel my mouth drop open.

“No way. You can’t be serious.”

“What?”

“You aren’t going to finish the story?”

Peter grins at me. “I have to go get ready,” he says in a soft voice. “I’ll finish telling you later.”

“Oh my god.”

“What?” he repeats.

“What the hell happens to Makado?”

“She…” he starts, and then stops. I can see a flicker of pain cross his face like the dappled back of a fish beneath a sunstruck river. My heart falls within my chest and I realize that I’m becoming far too invested to be objective, I need to take a step back. “She made it out fine,” he tells me. I don’t believe him.

Despite all of my efforts to cajole him he won’t tell me any more. He assures me that we’ll have enough time tonight, that it’s going to be a lot of sitting around and waiting while I film far-off dots moving around under the cover of darkness and that he’ll tell me then. It smells like a cop-out to me, like he just doesn’t want to get into what happened to Makado.

It’s unbelievable enough already, though, isn’t it? Amalgams and copepods and all of that stuff. I hear it and I think, oh, this is the plot to a movie. This isn’t real, it can’t be. Even though I’m only a few miles from it, even though I’m going to be going there tonight, it doesn’t feel like the Pit is a place that actually exists. It feels like somebody is pulling my leg.

Or it would, if it weren’t for the look on Peter’s face when he talks about Makado. That at least is real. Whether everything else around it is fake, I guess there’s a little kernel of doubt still sprouting in my head somewhere, the tiny eternal skeptic inside of me that isn’t willing to believe anything it can’t touch or feel or see itself.

We walk out of the 7-11 together and look at each other. Peter nods. “Same place as where you followed before. You know how to get there?”

I nod as well. “Line up the two rocks and the cactus with the setting sun and walk straight until I hit the three boulders in the dip of the hill.”

“Good memory. If you mess up you’ll be able to see us probably anyway, I’ll have my flashlight.”

“How many people are coming?”

“Besides you there’s three others, one guy from the cult for his initiation and two others who…well, you know.”

“Yeah. Was that what Erica was talking to you about the other day?”

“When she pulled up at midnight or whenever? Yeah, she was just telling me who to look out for. Because those guys want to be able to get back out again I have to give them different instructions, that kind of thing.”

I shudder in spite of myself. “Well, see you tonight.”

“See you,” he says. He turns and walks quickly away and then past the corner of the building and I am alone. I stand there for a moment and then lean up against the side of the building. The sun is hot but not terribly so and here in the shade it’s really quite a nice afternoon.

A car pulls up and turns into one of the pumps. It’s the second customer I’ve seen all day. The guy looks over at me but it isn’t anyone I know or have seen before, and after a moment he puts his card in and fills up the tank, then drives off.

I look round and, after a moment, let myself slide down the faux-brick façade of the 7-11 and stretch my legs out in front of me. My knee cracks like a gunshot as I do and I wince. I take my phone out of my pocket and dial a number and listen as the harsh buzzing tone drills one, two, three, four, five times into my ear, and then there’s a click and the answering machine picks up.

“Hi, you’ve reached Mark Dzilenski. I’m not able to take your call right now but if you leave me your name and number, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks, bye.”

“Hi, dad,” I say, and I feel a wave of emotion pressing at me that I refuse to confront. I swallow. “I’m sorry our call got disconnected the other night, I think there’s something wrong with my phone. It was good hearing your voice, I’m glad you and mom are doing okay.”

I lick my lips. Alright, Roan, you’ve been very glib so far. Spit it out.

“I, uh,” I start. Come on. “I got some news the other day that I wanted to tell you, I…”

“If you are satisfied with your call, you can hang up, or press 1 for delivery options. To re-record –“

I hang up the call, and then I stand up. I rummage in my bag for a cigarette and light it, and then walk slowly back to the hotel, taking my time. I’m meeting Peter at one in the morning but my nerves are already balling around themselves in a panic. I feel like I’m going to be sick.

“So what?” I ask out loud. I look over and see my distorted reflection looking back at me in the thick glass window of a closed barbershop. I look tired. “So what?” I mutter again. I look at the me in the window a little longer but I don’t like the way she looks at me so I toss my cigarette on the ground and crush it out and hurry a little more. It feels like there is a cloud looming behind me but it’s just in the sky, promising rain.

When I get back to the hotel room I unfold my laptop, dump the audio files from the voice recorder back onto it, and then I connect to the extremely rickety wi-fi network the motel offers and I look up what exactly the penalty is for trespassing on federal property. It’s not that bad, actually; a misdemeanor in all cases, at least under federal law. I don’t know if the site around the Pit is solely administered federally or if state law would also apply, though. Or would it count as trespassing on a military base? Apparently that can be a felony, if it’s important enough or if you’re being malicious about it. I do more googling around but the information I turn up is cryptic and limited. I wonder, not for the first time, if I’m putting myself on some kind of list doing this sort of research, then shake my head. Whatever.

The evening passes slowly and my nervousness doesn’t fade no matter how many cigarettes I smoke, leaned over on the wiry metal bannister, staring off into the flat, unexciting horizon. I watch television just to pass time, let Baggage and The Price is Right and Family Feud wash over me like an ocean, like waves, like I’m drowning. Am I drowning? If I were sane I think I’d feel like I were drowning.

When the time comes I put some pants on, long ones this time, shrug into my jacket, make sure I have my voice recorder and my camcorder and my slim little folding knife, more of a letter opener than anything else. I laugh at myself when I tuck it into my pocket but I still do it.

“Alright Roan,” I say to myself, staring in the mirror, sounding braver than I really feel, tucking my hair back in a ponytail. “Let’s go commit a felony.”

* * *

Peter raises his hand in greeting as I crest the hill and I wave back at him, click the light on my phone off and move down, join the little circle. He’d said there would be three others; two are here so far. One is a small Asian girl, so skinny it looks like she’d burst into flame if she crossed her legs too fast, and the other is a tall, heavy guy, looking like he’s in his late forties, balding hard. He has bags under his eyes and he keeps reflexively running his hands together. “Hi Lily,” Peter says to me and I blink and almost look behind myself to see if there’s someone back there, but he winks at me and I realize I’m supposed to be Lily. I wonder if there’s anything else important he’s left out.

“Hey,” I say. The Asian girl glances at me and then looks away again. Her eyes are very dark and it looks as though she’s chewing lightly on the inside of her cheek, sucking it inwards and holding it between her teeth and then letting it go again.

“This is Bao and Rey,” he tells me, indicating each of them. I nod at them.

“Hey,” I say again. “You guys, uh…excited?”

Peter shakes his head minutely and I feel faintly embarrassed, like I’ve said something I clearly shouldn’t have without realizing the taboo.

To their credit, they definitely do not look excited; nervous is more accurate. Perhaps haunted would be appropriate as well. Rey keeps glancing out into the darkness as though he can see something moving around out there; I can see his eyes focus on something and track it for a while before slipping off like a thrown egg slipping slowly down a window. I look out into the darkness as well but even though my eyes aren’t as adapted now thanks to Peter’s big utility flashlight throwing enough light to make me squint, it is very clear that there is nothing out there, nothing large enough that he’d be able to see it and track it like that.

I want to talk to him, I want to take out my recorder, I want to pry my way into his head, but I restrain myself. This is clearly not the time. The camcorder is still in my jacket pocket, the bulky night-vision attachment screwed onto its snouty muzzle already, fully charged and ready to go, but clearly I am supposed to be pretending to be one of these people. While we lapse into another uneasy silence and Peter checks his watch, I consider my new existence as Lily.

These two people are clearly so far gone that they barely recognize me as a person, let alone the deeper distinction between Roan and Lily. The way Rey keeps seeing ghosts and watching them like he’s ready to bolt or to fight, the way Bao keeps jumping at sounds none of the rest of us can hear, clearly they’re the two who are – what even is the right word? Afflicted? Who are, at least in Peter’s estimation, beyond retrieval?

I look at Bao. She’s young, maybe about my age, maybe a little younger. Twenty-two or twenty-three? Very possibly. Bao…the name sounds more Chinese than Japanese or Korean but I don’t know enough about Eastern culture to positively identify her, plus obviously there are more Asian countries than just China, Japan, and Korea. And if I’m supposed to be one of these people then should I care? Should I be getting into character?

I look again at Peter and feel a faint spark of anger at the fact that he didn’t let me know, didn’t warn me, but then I realize he didn’t really have a way to – he doesn’t have my number, and maybe this was something that resolved itself later in the afternoon after we’d parted, this need for secrecy.

I’ll draw the line at aping those nervous tics. Just watching these two is making me sad, giving me a feeling like someone’s taking hold of my heart and squeezing. It feels cruel, knowing I can do nothing.

Clearly the reason I’m Lily is because the third person, the guy from the cult, will know I’m coming, or at least will recognize my name. I think back and wonder if anybody had had a chance to take a photo of me while I was out walking around the town, but I’d have given people so many opportunities to take one without me noticing that it’s pointless to dwell on.

Surely if there was some sort of danger, if the cult knew for sure I would be here and they were perhaps willing to prevent me from coming somehow, Peter would have contacted me. He knows the motel I’m at, he might not know the room but if Erica Walken could get the phone number to it, surely Peter could have as well…right?

I toss my head, work my jaw sideways. It feels like it wants to crack but it doesn’t; I can feel the tension in the bulgy little knot of muscles down the side of my cheek. It doesn’t matter. I’m here, and I’m going in with them, cult or no cult.

There’s a crunching of feet on the dry hard earth behind us and Rey and I both turn to watch the third guy, tall and dark, making his way down the hill to us. He’s young, with a trimmed beard, and close-cropped hair. His eyes are very small; they linger on me for a moment and then flick to Rey and Bao.

“Alright,” Peter says, “everybody’s here. We’re going to be going under the fence through a hidden tunnel. It’s going to be tight so you guys are going to have to drop to your stomachs and crawl. It was going to be a waste-drainage pipe but they didn’t give the contractors they hired to do it the right plans and so it turned out that they were digging right on top of one of the power lines for the electric fence. They just left the pipe in there and put a fake rock over the entrance.”

I almost laugh when I hear that. It’s too easy. There must be a catch, mustn’t there?

“The pipe is going to let you out on the side of the patrol road inside the fence,” Peter says, looking between us. He weights his words carefully. “There should not be a patrol moving at the time that we go through,” he says, “but on the off chance that there is, whoever is in front needs to just freeze and wait, you understand?”

He looks around at us until we each nod. It takes Bao the longest but she does acknowledge, at least, that he’s speaking. “You,” he says, pointing to the guy from the cult, “your name is Marcus, right?”

“That’s right,” he says. He has a slow, deep, purposeful voice.

“You’re going to be in front. I don’t normally come in but I will be this time, I have some business to take care of inside. Me and Lily here,” he says, pointing to me, “will be in the rear. You two will be in the middle,” he says, and Rey and Bao nod, a little quicker this time.

“Once we’re inside, you’re going to be going in through a disused emergency exit that they haven’t sealed up because the Pit uses it to breathe. I’m not going to lie to you, it won’t be pleasant. It’s going to be tight, hot, smell horrendous, and it’ll be pitch-black, but it’s a one-way trip without any side branches, so just push through it and you will get through and out into the old Bronchial section. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there but all of my information says that any damage is fairly minimal and you should still be able to get through. Once you’re in, you’re on your own. If you want to come back out, take the same drainage pipe that we go in through and be careful not to cross the road right in front of a patrol. This area that we’re in, there aren’t any cameras, there’s no other detection, so as long as you look out for patrols, you’re fine. If you get caught, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. If you don’t tell them anything, the worst they can do is felony trespassing and a $500 fine. It isn’t great but it also isn’t the worst thing in the world. Understood so far?”

We all nod. My heart is beating quickly; I can hear it in my ears, a little thump reminding me that I’m really doing this, I’m really going to do it.

“Great,” Peter says. “Once you’re inside, the deeper you go the less likely it is that someone will catch you. Flip side is, the deeper you go, the more likely it is something will catch you. Anything with a sign that says ‘LVC’ or ‘Main Gullet,’ don’t go that way, you will get caught. I don’t know what you want to do down there or how long you want to do it for, doesn’t matter to me, but try not to get caught. And one more thing,” he says, looking very seriously at all of us. “Do not, under any circumstances, try to go in or out any other way than the one we’re going to take. That means do not go down to the main orifice. That is the most watched area in the entire facility and it is completely open. I know that this way isn’t great but it’s safe, easy, and it is unobserved. Everybody good?”

Once again we all nod, but I wonder whether or not Rey and Bao have really absorbed the information. Rey keeps watching things moving around in the shadows and Bao’s eyes are unfocused and glassy, and her head rocks lightly to the beat of something none of the rest of us can hear.

Peter gives instructions on how to get to the entrance, which I can now identify as being the same way as he and Makado got out during the disaster, the same breathing orifice that they’d pushed their way through four years ago.

Something about the…the enormity of it, of the thing beneath us and ahead of us and surrounding us, is getting to me. I can feel my skin prickling and a flash of heat passes over me suddenly and I nearly gasp but I contain myself. It wouldn’t do to have a panic attack right now, I tell myself, and I slowly, gradually, get myself back under control. I can feel my hands shaking at my sides and I shove them deep into my pockets. I want a cigarette.

There is finally, it seems, nothing left to talk about, no more instructions or warnings Peter can give us. He nods to himself, going over some kind of mental checklist, and then shrugs. “Alright,” he says. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Fifteen minutes later I’m already laughing at myself for getting so worked up over something so banal. Yeah, the other day when I followed Peter it had seemed like very serious business but here, actually making the trip myself, I can’t help but feel like it’s very small potatoes. It’s just a fence, I say to myself as we walk up to it, and then that turns into it’s just a waste drainage pipe, one that I have to shimmy through on my belly, grimacing as dust and grime gets on my nice coat, but it can’t be helped.

Peter’s behind me and Bao is ahead of me; Peter is staring at my ass, I’m sure, but then I realize that it’s pitch black in here so maybe I can give my ego a break and not assume it’s all about me. I keep having to prop myself up on my hands and knees to readjust the camcorder and make sure I’m not smashing it to bits on the hard floor of the pipe, but eventually we make it through and then we’re standing on an identical bit of hard, scrubby earth, except now we’re on the other side of the fence. As I watch, Bao, Rey, and Marcus all take off along the path, crossing it quickly and dropping down into the ditch below, and then they are just dark silhouettes making their way beneath the sharp half-moon. I get out my camcorder and flip it on and start filming them; the night-vision is really not that effective but it’s way better than just filming in the dark.

Peter clambers to his feet next to me and dusts himself off. “Well,” he says after a moment, “there they go.”

“They really don’t get caught?”

“Not usually. The ones who’re there to, you know, die to it, they go as deep as they can as quick as they can, far as I understand it, and the people with the cult tend to stay in the upper areas. There’s not very many personnel in the Pit right now so the odds of running into somebody is slim.”

I point ahead of us. “Can we go sit on that ridge? I want to get some shots of the Pit itself.”

“Sure. If a patrol comes we’ll have to duck down but it should be alright.”

We make our way across the road and down onto the ridge. I find a little flat section for us to sit on and then I pick out the three dark blobs making their way carefully up the hill. I whistle softly. “That’s the easiest way up there?”

“It is,” he says. “It doesn’t look like it but there’s a clear path, you just have to be careful of your footing.”

The figure in front stops for a moment. I can’t tell from this distance but I think it might be Bao. She stops and turns and looks across the great downward sloping crater of the Pit, and I pan the camcorder around and take a shot of it as well. I frown at the image. “That isn’t flesh down there, is it?”

“No,” Peter says. “They filled it all in with concrete. Do you see that little dark spot over there?”

I look where he’s pointing. “Yes.”

“That’s the orifice. They don’t keep it dilated as wide as they did during the park days, and the elevator is way smaller, too. There’s a little command center down in the gullet but it’s like, maybe a quarter of the size of the LVC. They’re all about minimizing impact now.”

Bao seems to be rocking unsteadily back and forth there on the trail and I turn the camera to record her. “So what happened to Makado?” I ask.

“I told you, she got out fine.”

“You know I don’t believe that.”

“It doesn’t matter if you believe it, it’s the truth.”

“Alright, can you introduce me to her, then? I’d like to meet her, or at least have a phone call.”

Peter laughs. “I really don’t think you’d want that.”

“Why not?”

He makes a little grunting noise. “I think you’d find that she –“

“Holy shit!” I blurt. Peter jumps next to me, looks around wildly.

“What is it?”

I’ve already gotten to my feet. “Bao just fucking ran back down the trail and someone else lost their balance and fell off,” I tell him, pointing at the dark object bouncing down the cliff face towards the white concrete below. Whoever it is they’re flopping like a rag doll, and I wince with each impact. “Jesus Christ,” I say, pointlessly. Next to me, Peter curses.

“Stay here,” he tells me before hustling off into the darkness. It looks as though he’s heading for Bao; I can barely see her but it looks as though she’s collapsed against a large boulder maybe a hundred yards away at the base of the hill, her shoulders shaking.

Well, Bao’s fine. I guess. She must have lost her nerve. I turn around, peer through the screen of the camcorder. Whoever she pushed, either Marcus or Rey, he’s reached the bottom by now and slumped into a huddled pile at the bottom of the crater. I can see one limb extended out limply like an exclamation point. I look back at Bao; Peter’s reached her and is hunched down next to her, trying to get her to move. She’s hugging her legs to her chest and I can see her shaking her head frantically. Did she do it on purpose? I didn’t see the whole thing but it looked like she just panicked.

When I turn back to Rey I can see him moving, trying to get up. “Oh fuck,” I say. He pushes himself up on his hands and then his arm gives out and he falls and lays there. I can just barely see, through the camcorder, his chest rising and falling. “Goddam it,” I say to myself, and then I fold up the camcorder and stuff it back into my jacket pocket, and then I get up and start to carefully pick my way down the heavy rocky incline of the crater lip.

* * *

I’m scared. I’m not ashamed to admit it, I’m terrified. I’m scared that someone is going to see me, is going to see whoever it is at the bottom, Rey or Marcus, and roll up with the black helicopters and take me wherever the Men in Black take you. It’s an insane, worthless fear but I still feel it. About half of me wants to bolt and run, scurry my way back into that drainage pipe and out and never look back, but I look at the lump ahead of me, hardly even seeming to be a person, no matter how beat up, and I see him again trying to rise and again falling and then I’m down there with him, my ankle aching from where I stepped wrong and very slightly rolled it, and I get down on my knees next to him. “Hey,” I say, “I’m here, it’s okay.”

He’s muttering in anguished Spanish to himself and I have to repeat myself a few times before he cracks his eyes open, his face dirty, blood from a cut above his eyebrow seeping down and stinging at his eye. He says something to me in Spanish and I trot out the little I know. “No entiendo,” I say, “Uh. Habla ingles?”

“Yeah,” he coughs. “You’re – Lily?”

“My name is Roan actually. Are you okay? Can you stand?”

“Rowan?”

“Roan. Like the horse. My parents were hippies.”

He looks at me like I’m speaking Greek and I might as well be. I put my hand out. “Can you stand?” I ask again, and he takes it. I help him pull himself up but his leg buckles beneath him and he lets out a cry of pain that echoes in the deserted Pit, bouncing off the soft white concrete expanse.

“I think I broke it,” he says. “Oh god.”

He’s staring around again, wilder than before. I look around in spite of myself but as I knew there would be there’s nothing there. I reach into my pocket and click the voice recorder on.

“What do you see?” I ask him.

“You don’t see them?”

“No, I can’t,” I shake my head. “What are they?”

That gets his attention and he tears his eyes from whatever vision he can see cavorting around us. He looks at me closely. “You don’t…you don’t see them?”

“No.”

“Oh,” he says, sounding disappointed. He tries to rise again but I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Wait,” I tell him. “Your leg must be broken, we can’t –“

“I’m so close,” he says. His eyes are wild now, and fixed on me. Before I can take a step back he’s thrown his weight towards me awkwardly and grabbed my arm. His hands are sweaty. “You have to help me.”

“Put your arm around me,” I tell him, crouching down. He’s heavy enough that I don’t know whether I’ll really be able to help much, but if I get on the same side as his hurt leg I can at least make sure he doesn’t have to put weight on it. The hard part will be getting up again –

Rey cries out again and I wince. “I’m sorry,” I tell him. “This is going to be rough but we have to get you up.”

“No,” he says, leaning on me. His face is pale now, his mouth tight and drawn with the effort.

“No?” I ask. “Come on, we need to leave like right now –“

“No,” he repeats, one shaking finger extended out ahead of us. He’s pointing to the tall gantry of the elevator down into the Pit. “We have to go there,” he says. “I have to –“

“Absolutely not,” I tell him. “We have to go –“

But he is starting forward towards the gantry and I curse and walk with him, because if I don’t he’ll fall, he’ll cry out again, he’ll fucking crawl on his hands and knees over to the goddam gantry, I can see it in his eyes, I know he will without even wondering how I know, and even though the lurching pace we set is clearly causing him pain, he urges me forward without any regard for his leg, hanging uselessly at his side, the foot jostling along the concrete every now and then and making him groan, a low deep animal noise that makes me feel as though I’m going to be sick.

We make it about halfway before a deep, rumbling alarm starts somewhere and ratchets up to a screech and all the lights click on and turn the night to day. All the strength seems to leave my body; I almost collapse. “Oh fuck,” I say.

“Come on,” he says. I glare at him; I’m sweating, the tight grip he has around my shoulders is starting to hurt, and he isn’t exactly slim. It’s taking all of my effort to keep him upright and walking and I am so close to just dropping him. I give him a dirty look and try to summon up my willpower, every single ounce of meanness and cruelty in my body and just twist out of his grasp and let him fall, but I can’t do it.

“Goddam it, Rey,” I tell him. “It’s a fucking elevator, they won’t let you on, there aren’t going to be stairs you can go down.”

“Come on,” he says again. The closer we get to the orifice the deader his voice gets. He keeps looking over his shoulder but there isn’t anything there, at least not yet; a pair of headlights are cresting the ridge and I can see people piling out of what looks like a Humvee but they aren’t anywhere close to us yet.

I reflect, briefly, on how useless this venture is; we probably could have gotten away if Rey hadn’t insisted on coming down here to peer down an empty elevator shaft. And if I hadn’t had such a damn big heart I could have gotten away, at least. Felony trespassing; well, I have the money for the fine, at least, but that’s got to be at least a year in federal prison, nothing to sneeze at. Maybe they have special accommodations for sick people? At the very least once I tell all of the prison lesbians what’s wrong with me they’ll –

“YOU TWO DOWN ON THE EXCLUSION PLATE!” a tremendous voice yells down at us through a megaphone. I nearly jump out of my skin but somehow manage to keep ahold of Rey. “STOP WHERE YOU ARE OR WE WILL SHOOT!”

I stop but Rey keeps going. “Rey, stop,” I tell him, but he doesn’t pay any attention to me. We’ve gotten far enough now that the end is in sight, the gantry is maybe twenty or thirty feet ahead of us and the yawning hole in the concrete is visible, but I can’t see inside it, not from this angle. “Rey!” I yell, but he pushes me back and I stumble to my knees. Rey breaks into a shambling run, or tries to anyway, but his leg simply is too hurt for him to put any weight on it. He nearly falls but he catches himself and bounces back up.

The first gunshot is unbelievably loud, even though it seems to come from a mile away. I hear it crack and I scream and fall down to my knees, my shoulders cringing together without any conscious effort on my part. I can see a spray of concrete splinters rising at Rey’s feet like shrapnel, and I realize the shot missed. He’s nearly there. I don’t know what he wants to achieve. I throw my jacket off and wrestle with the pocket, pull out the camcorder as quickly as I can force my shaking hands to operate, and snap it open so quickly I nearly break it. I start filming just in time to see the third, fourth, and fifth bullets bury themselves in him, two in his shoulder and one in his thigh. I cry out again but Rey is utterly silent. He’s down on his hands and knees but he tries to rise, and then another bullet catches him, this time in the back of the head, and he is down for good, and I realize that I’m crying, even while I’m trying very hard to keep the camcorder steady to get the shot of Rey’s supine body, one hand extending forward, reaching for the edge of the orifice, just ten feet away from him, a shocking red spray of arterial blood staining the concrete ahead of him like a punctuation.

Then two pairs of hands catch me under the shoulders and haul me to my feet and someone takes away my camcorder and they shove my head into a hood and then I can’t see. They force my hands together behind my back and handcuff me and I want to say something witty, quip something vaguely salacious like ‘easy boys, get to know me first before you get out the handcuffs’ but I can’t make my voice work the way it ought to and I’m still crying and shaking and I realize as they half carry half drag me to some kind of vehicle and fold me into it that I’ve wet myself, and any sort of bravery I might have been able to muster disintegrates into a painful, sharp-edged mass of shame and fear and embarrassment and a feeling not unlike I’m falling, like what I thought was just a rabbit hole has turned into a bottomless pit.

Continue with Part 11

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#writing #mystery flesh pit #mystery #michael crichton #disaster #thriller #spilled ink #original writing #series

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tvlovesfandom · 4 years

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Mandalorian Season 1 Finale predictions

Or: how all those ‘Filler Episodes’ are foreshadowing the end of Season 1.

(Take 2 because tumblr ate the original)

Contains so many spoilers for The Mandalorian, Episodes 1 thru 7.

Aight, so.

Episode 7 of The Mandalorian walks up to you with a baseball bat and beats you over the head. It opens with Mando receiving a ‘plea for help’ from Greef Karga that raises more red flags than a Soviet Convention. While our protagonist can clearly see every single one of these red flags, the idea of getting the heat off his tail is just too tempting. Who can blame him?

Mando, proving to be Genre savvy, heads out, looking for backup.Of course, it all goes to hell anyway.

In Episode 7, we bring back characters from previous episodes and we also bring back certain aspects of Mando himself.

Hoo boy this is a long one. I’ll give you my best guesses for what goes down in Episode 8.

Episodes 1-3: The main plot line of course.

1-Greef Karga is a man of honor, same as Mando. His personal sense of honor is different than that of a Mandalorian of course, and it’s built around the Bounty hunter’s guild. But the honor is there, and it comes out in Episode 7.

(I find it really funny that Greef hasn’t repaired the hole in his jacket, FYI. Looks like he still has the beskar plates in there too.)

2-Kuiil and IG-11.

3-Episode 3 showed us that Mando can go on a rampage of destruction when he feels the need. It was not a heavily planned out rampage, clearly the plan was made up as he went along, but he is clearly a good improviser.

4-We were introduced to the Mandalorian clan on Navarro, even if it is pretty clearly stated that they’ve moved after Ep 3. Or were planning to before the Imperials rolled in.

5- Mando does have a short temper when he’s been having a rough go for a bit, look at him using his flamethrower to ‘negotiate’ with the Jawas.

6-He hates droids, but he is willing to work with one and can form something of a bond… not enough to let the droid kill a child though.

Episode 4: Hey look! It’s Cara Dune!

1-Episode 4 introduced us to Cara, and the fact that she and Mando can go toe to toe. The brief scene of her and Mando talking after their initial fight tells us a lot about her: She’s a shock trooper for the new republic, she was part of strike forces meant to take down Imperial warlords. She deserted when the republic set her to acting like a riot cop.

We see Cara as a no-nonsense fighter who knows the risks, and attempts to find the best solution. Look at her trying to get the villagers to move away after she learns about the AT-ST. But when spurred, she helps the fight and defend their home. She shows off her mettle, coming up with a plan on the fly and putting herself in danger to lure the AT-ST in.

When she comes back in Episode 7, we see her having fun with combat when it isn’t life or death. We also see that her and Mando can relax around each other and josh, as their arm-wrestling bout shows.

2-Episode 4′s ending was to emphasise to us that Mando can’t just leave the kid behind, that the baby is unsafe unless with a highly trained killer prepared to go to lengths to protect him.

3-In character building moments, we see Mando break his usual stoic nature to actually explain to first Omera, and then Cara, aspects of his culture. He turns out to be reasonably talkative when you’re not a bounty target or someone he distrusts! When Omera asked how long since he’d taken his helmet off in front of others, just the age he was would’ve been enough, but he adds more information about joining the Mandalorian clan unasked. Also, at the beginning of the episode, he makes a point to talk to the baby when it’s clearly demanding attention.

Episode 5: You know, initially I was going to say “uuuuhh… IDK”

1-MANDO CAN’T FIND WORK. He’s cut himself off from the only source of income that he’s familiar with. He has to take what’s offered, even if he knows it’s a bad idea.

2-Mando doesn’t have any way of keeping the baby safe when he’s working other than to lock him on the ship and hope for the best. He got really lucky with Pellli.

3-This episode reinforces again that the baby will be constantly hunted right from the opening scene.

4- We’re not done with Fennec Shand, I suspect. Or the person who found her body. Was it Moff Gideon? Maybe, though why would he have gone to find her himself?

5-This episode shows us what we might’ve forgotten from the opening of Episode 1: That Mando is actually a really competent Bounty Hunter overall. He has lots of tricks up his sleeve. Those flares were a chekov’s gun used within the same episode. Wonder if we’ll see them again.

Episode 6: Which buttons to press to piss off Mando.

1-Mando is really good at keeping his cool around people who are absolute motherfuckers to him.

2-Harass him, insult him, he doesn’t give a damn unless you actually try and start shit. He will end that. Don’t touch his things, don’t touch his kid.

3-Again this episode brings up that Mando is having to do work that he really doesn’t want to because he has few other options.

4-We see just how violent Mando gets on droids when he has the chance, but we also see how coldly calculating he is about them. To rope a droid, take it’s arm and use it to escape a cell like that? Damn impressive.

5-I can’t believe he didn’t kill those three who were on the prison ship with him. They’re out there, still alive. Just waiting to be brought back into the show.

6-We see that Mando knows how to turn the odds to his favor very quickly. We also see that he can go full on horror movie monster when he wants. He’s proving to be one hell of a Determinator.

7-Baby’s learning from the best! The fact that the little goblin can play hide and seek like that could easily come up! Honestly, that kid seems to understand more than you’d think.

SO! This brings us to episode SEVEN: What have we seen within the episode that calls back to the rest of the season? What predictions can we make based off what has happened, and the general style of the show?

Well, A couple very important things we’ve seen, some of which reinforces things brought up in previous episodes:

1-This episode makes it very clear that Mando KNOWS Greef’s offer is a trap, but he also knows that he’s running out of options. All those moments of him and baby being hunted down, all that effort to find work? That’s flashing through his brain as he considers this red-flag laden offer.

2-Baby can float? Wall-climb? He was hanging upside down from the ceiling SOMEHOW. Let’s add this on to his hiding abilities.

3-Baby can force choke a bitch.

4-Baby can heal a fatal injury.

5-Greef Karga, like Mando, cannot bring himself to betray a being that has saved his life. Lovely cinematic parallel there.

5-IG-11 is on Mando’s ship. According the Kuiil, the droid won’t attack people anymore, but it will defend. This droid has all the tools to lay some serious hate if sufficiently motivated though.

6-We see Mando relaxing and playing with Cara during the arm wrestling. He’s playfully competitive with her and joshes with her. Again, a good character moment.

7-Another character moment we see: Mando’s panic when he doesn’t know if the kid and Kuiil are safe. The stoic, self-contained man who doesn’t panic no matter how bad the odds is reduced to screaming into his comm, desperate for answers.

8-Kuiil introduces himself by name, and Mando uses it. It’s a small moment, but I suspect it’s light foreshadowing.

9- it is not for nothing that this episode opens straight up with a flashback to Episode 6. “You were hired to do a job. So do it. Isn’t that your code? Arn’t you a man of honor?”

ALRIGHT SO. SEASON FINALE PREDICTIONS. After I watch the finale I am going to see if any of these were right and I will be delighted if even a single one is accurate.

1-First and foremost, I think we WILL see the plot wrap up. Maybe not entirely, but by the end of Episode 8, we should see Mando and Baby reunited, and have a more-or-less happy ending to season 1. It’s fucking Disney, after all.

2- The fact that it was VERY SPECIFICALLY SHOWN that baby can heal fatal injuries in episode seven? Chekov’s gun, thank you, Kuiil is NOT DEAD. Yes, that scene narratively fits in because it’s what was needed for Greef to join the protagonist’s team, but I will feel cheated if we don’t see baby do more Force healing. If Kuiil is actually dead, someone else will be getting healed.

3-Mando’s helmet and how important it is that it isn’t removed comes up CONSTANTLY in season 1. I rather hope we don’t see it come off in the season finale, it is possible, but I do hope that they wait until at least season 2 before going there. There’s something else I’d like officialy revealed first.

4-And that thing I think should be revealed is Mando’s name. It’s something that he has yet to give out, accepting his culture as a title. Same as how Kuill corrected him in episode 7 when Mando called him Uganaught, it would be wonderful if some friend of our hero called him Mando again, and he simply said to them “I have a name. It is Dyn.”

Not only would that be a moment of reinforcement of how relaxed and friendly he can be around his allies, but I feel like it’s be satisfying from a narrative perspective.

5-In the trailers for the Mandalorian, there are only a few scenes or dialogue now that we have yet to see in the show:

-A-Mando comin out of a door and shooting a stormtrooper with Greef right behind him.

-B- Kuiil patting Mando’s shoulder while they’re in the cockpit of the Razorcrest (MORE PROOF THAT I AM RIGHT THAT HE’LL COME BACK. HELL YEA-Gonna be heartbroken if that was a deleted scene from ep 7) ((EDIT: Nope, that’s a scene from Ep 2. Damnit.))

-C- “Mandalorian… Look outside… they are waiting for you.” Aight so, Werner Herzog’s character seems to be dead… but he might not be! Maybe we’ll get some exposition from a dieing Imperial with nothing left to lose. Of course, it could be from a scene that they had planned out before deciding to kill off his character.

-D- Cara Dune being a badass and shooting with her big gun.- I mean yeah, to be expected.

-E- Mando clinging to a flying TIE fighter with his rappeling line and pulling himself up on to it. We see Moff Gideon look up to see a likely very pissed off Mando on the roof.

-F- Stormtroopers moving in on the Mandalorian Armourer.

(I actually gasped out “OH NO” at seeing this in the trailer. I honestly would’ve thought the Mandalorians would’ve relocated ASAP. ))

-G- This guy:

SO!

6-We’re definitely going to see the Mandalorian enclave again. My thoughts were that it was empty, but still hard to find, and Mando and friends were going to head there to have a few minutes to plan. They still might do that, but it’s not going to be an empty hallway like I would’ve thought.

7-I really hope that that brief cut of Stormtroopers moving in on the Mandalorian Armourer is not indicative of the clan being wiped out. Everyone go in being braced for it. I am going to be optimistic and say that Episode 3′s ending of the clan coming to our Protag’s rescue and being an absolute unstoppable force means that they’re going to help clear out the imperials, though there will be losses. Season 2′s overreaching plot will be helping the Enclave find a new place to settle down.

8-This does hint that Baby will meet the Clan. Will they continue to support Dyn, or will he be blamed from bringing this hellfire down on them?

9-IG-11 is going to come rain down HELL on those who took down Kuiil. He will likely pick up both Kuiil and the communicator and be an important link to Mando and crew remotely. Will he pilot the ship to pick up Mando and gang? Very likely yes.

10-Baby is gonna Force Choke a bitch. Hopefully Moff Gideon. I don’t expect baby’s efforts to be fatal, however.

11-Paz Vizla is going to be back in style. Is it too much to hope that, at some point, likely not Ep 8, him and Cara get into a “whose gun is bigger” match?

12- Baby’s going to be more than his imperial handlers know how to deal with.

That’s it for now. I’m sure at some point I’ll edit or reblog this with “AND ANOTHER THING.”

#mine #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian #I spent TWO DAYS on this post and Tumblr didn't put it in the tag for some reason #TUMBLR PLEASE PUT THIS IN THE MANDALORIAN TAG I BEG YOU

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purfectmlpblog · 5 years

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...alright fuq it lemme explain my thoughts about the finale spoilers lol

Don’t worry, I WILL be posting this under a read-more so PLEASE turn away and ignore this now (especially with some “spoiler” tags on if you use ‘em) if you don’t want to be spoiled for the finale until it officially airs. I just can’t contain my thoughts no more after ponderin’ them and who knows when it’ll officially air in English (’cause slow schedules can be a pain to deal with lol) sooooo... yeah you’ve been warned xp

...Ooooh boi, well admittedly I kinda skimmed through what the whole plot was about behind the last three episodes (I was moreso focused on all the stuff happening for “The Last Problem” so lol), but I’ll try to keep it brief for the most part:

-So... that whole thing about Grogar being the last “big bad” was just a total lie... since apparently it was just Discord masking himself as the guy just to give Twilight one last battle to face? ...Ehhh, I get that he apparently had “good intentions” but this just seems to be pushing it too far even for Discord’s standards tbh... like these are his friends now (including Fluttershy, his best friend) so why would he allow this much risk to be thrown at them for the sake of just teaching them a valuable lesson about overcoming obstacles? ._. Then again, this IS Discord we’re talking about so him pulling some shady stuff like this is to be expected, I guess? Idk...

-As another twist to the trio of bad guys... NONE of them get redeemed at the end (not even Cozy Glow... who again, is nothing more than a whiny child compared to Chrysalis and Tirek :P), as they all pretty much get blasted with the same stone spell that Discord was under for what I can presume to be forever. I mean... had Sombra been placed in Cozy Glow’s position then I guess I’d be a bit more satisfied with this kind of ending for them instead of feeling questionable about it (’cause again, Cozy’s young age ^^;)... but at the same time, for what it is it’s at least a refreshing change of pace from just having them all instantly forgiven and befriended by all the main heroes. Now that would’ve been cringey... >_<

-We got a reaaally big group of cameos from many past ponies/other creatures from the show to aid in the final battle, including Sunset and a few of the MLP movie characters like Tempest, Capper and Skystar! o.o A shame that Captain Celaeno couldn’t have been added along with them but still, pretty cool to see that particular trio regardless along with my girl Sunset ❤️ about time the main show acknowledged her importance to Twilight -.-

-Moving onto the big finale itself, “The Last Problem”, we cut ahead to I presume to be a couple decades or so since the last episode... where Twilight and her friends are all grown up and leading their own lives as Twilight’s pupil (Luster Dawn, was it?) comes to prepare herself for her own first friendship lesson. Surprisingly, unlike past finales it’s not so much a really heavy or action-packed episode but more of a “relaxing breather” kinda filler... yet still pushes the feels the more we get to see the aged-up cast and realize how this truly is the end for our heroes :(

-We’re also given a nice flashback to Twilight’s coronation as Equestria’s new leader, though it didn’t go according to plan it still provided some heartwarming feels to teach that friendships will always remain solid even if some end up moving far away. Awww ;w;.

-As for the “Grown up” designs themselves... I’m kinda torn, tbh lol

On one hand, I do like Rainbow’s, Fluttershy’s, and AJ’s older looks just fine. AJ’s especially gives me the feels looking at it ‘cause of the shawl... really hits in that poor Granny Smith is no longer around by this time :( at least she’ll always keep her memory strong in her heart ❤️

As for Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Pinkie... ehhhh ^^;. Rarity’s sparkly shawl is rather pretty though that big grey steak in her hair kinda clashes too much with the regular purple imo, Pinkie’s beehive look could’ve been fine if they just took out all that random junk in her hair, and while part of me kinda likes the “ethereal princess-y” vibes of Twilight (despite the rather dark implications that she’s gonna outlive her friends now ;-;)... the fact that she still sounds like her old dorky self when speaking kinda kills the effect for me... plus idk if only a couple decades in the future would be enough to make her this tall as an alicorn, I mean even Luna (who’s older than her) is alot shorter so it’s just a little off-putting to me to see her so “Celestia”-sized ^^;. And as for Spike... yeah, I don’t even know what’s going on there, so... let’s just move on, please lol.

So then we get to look over how everyone else in Ponyville’s doing, with so many new species living there now, some old kiddos grew up like the CMC and the Cake twins, Starlight and her friends (plus the Student 6) continuing to run the friendship school together, and apparently some canon couples started to thrive during this time too including Lyra and Bon Bon, Big Mac and Sugar Belle, and... Pinkie and Cheese? o.o

...Um, wow lol Wasn’t really expecting that considering that most of Cheese and Pinkie’s previous screentime together (which was only in like, two episodes?) wasn’t really that romantic from what I can recall, but guess the writers decided to just throw it in anyway ‘cause it’s a popular ship? lol I mean, not like it’s a bad one or anything but it still feels a bit randomly-placed in a narrative sense imo ^^;

Speaking of their daughter (Lil Cheese, I think?), while I do think she’s cute, part of me is kinda disappointed that they didn’t really get more creative with her design like they’ve done for Flurry Heart and the Cake twins :c. Color-wise she looks okay but... why just make her a recolor of her mom’s filly design? .-. Even putting her hair in some pigtails or something would’ve worked better imo.

-Some more design nitpicks I had were certain weirdly placed hairstyles like Pumpkin Cake’s and Diamond Tiara’s, as well as why Gummy the alligator just looks like he resized into a giant than legitimately grew into an adult lol. Also this might also be nitpicky but why exactly is everyone (minus Twilight) so old-looking with grayed hair and/or eye bags (ex. Rarity and Sugar Belle), when a couple of them have school-aged children at this point? .-. Hell, even most of the Mane 6′s parents didn’t look this old (including Twilight’s, and they’ve got a granddaughter lol), so I’m kinda confused by this type of design choice tbh.

-I don’t really remember if they explicitly stated what happened to the old princesses during this time since they didn’t show up again, nor what the final fates of Shining Armor and Cadence were (save for a brief shot of Flurry Heart having her own stain-glass window in the throne room). Idk, just would’ve been nice to have gotten more explicit about that ‘cause I don’t wanna think of these poor royals being gone now with just Twilight being the leader now ;-;

-I guess there was also a couple “implied” ships thrown in too like Fluttershy and Discord (though that one might be more “loose” to interpret, depending on how much you like the ship) and apparently AJ and Rainbow Dash seem to be having something “deeper” going on considering they specifically walked in together when all the other Mane 6 walked in individually into the throne room. Hmmm...?

-And lastly after a bit more filler and than a montage song of the Mane 6 harmonizing together one last time, we get to close off the entire episode, season, and series with one final shot of the heroes standing on a sunset-y hillside together, saying goodbye to Twilight’s student who goes off on her own friendship adventures... and then the screen fades to a book closing as a call back to the very first episode of the series over 9 years ago... where the exact same book opened up to start off our beloved show to begin with T-T

....aaaand yeah my feels exploded over again, sorry T-T. Despite the lil nitpicks I had here and there (and how I wish certain plot holes could’ve been handled better in hindsight), this was still a really sweet and thoughtful way to end MLP: FiM with one last batch of fluff like this... the end of a good 9-year run of the show which’ll surely leave a special place in every fan’s hearts, including mine ❤️

Though again, like I mentioned before I still won’t be considering any of this actually “canon” in the main universe I’m setting up, which is all basically an AU at this point since I haven’t really been keeping up with the show as frequently to care much for sticking with the main canon :p. For my fellow content creators, please don’t be afraid to keep working on your own next gens and such btw, even if some of it might be contradicted in this particular finale I’d say anyone is free to make their own interpretations however they want, canon or no canon~ ;p

Hope y’all understand that well and I hope you guys have a great rest of your day! 😃

#mlp spoilers #purfy chat #long post #mlp season 9 spoilers #mlp finale spoilers #spoilers

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for-ests · 5 years

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Come Undone- Colin Ritman

"I don't have one night stands..."

"Yet," A smirk appeared on his lips. "you were destined to have one with me."

• Word count: 2, 545 • Pairing: Colin Ritman x Reader • plot does not follow directly with the movie, please don't point out mistakes I know they are there!

You had met that man before.

That was the first thought that came to mind when you spotted him through the vinyl store window. You watched him take one last drag of his cigarette before putting it out in the trash.

Something about him was strikingly familiar, maybe it was in the way he moved. The pure confidence in his step. Was he a celebrity? That could explain it... He sure had the stride of one.

Whatever your memory was trying to piece together, was strange. You did not like it.

You grimaced, glancing down at the box you were stifling through. Your friend Stefan had recommended the albums in hopes to give you some inspiration for the soundtrack you were working on for his game.

He had requested your collaboration since you were friends from high school. If anyone could create the perfect music to enhance the meaning behind his game, it was you.

You smiled at the thought, overjoyed to be working on the project with him—even if you were not doing much, not even near the amount of programming Stefan had to endure. Stefan knew the opportunity could boost your indie music career, and that was all the convincing he needed.

You slid the album Phaedra from the nook, holding it up and flipping it to the backside. You wondered if this was what Stefan had in mind. It was not the music he usually listened to, but perhaps it was for the sake of the premise he was trying to create.

You ran your fingers along the cover, the motion so simple, yet one that caused your hands to shake. You blinked as you saw something in the form of a flash.

You were sitting on a leather couch, one that you had never seen before. Stefan was on your right, his forehead beating with sweat. You knew it wasn't his house by how clean cluttered it was. The painting on the wall was not his father's style, and neither were the modern decorations.

You turned slowly to Stefan. He had his eyes closed, seeming to be listening to the music that admitted from the record player. You couldn't hear it. Yet somehow, you knew it was the music from the album you had purchased earlier that day.

"Doesn't Colin have a great taste in music?" Stefan grinned. His hands were held up in front of him as he air drummed to the silent beat.

What? You wanted to ask. Yet nothing sufficed. You could tell your body was numb, under something that resembled a spell.

"Colin...yeah?" Stefan stopped his movements at your confusion. His words were painfully slow, drawled out as if he had just learned how to speak. He slurred his words together in ways that made you feel suspicious. But at the same time— you were too excited to care. "This is his house, Y/N. Do you remember who he is?"

At the mention of the unfamiliar name, your vision focused. But instead of gazing at Stefan, You were gazing at yourself.

You were wearing the same outfit that you were wearing now. The same turtle neck, styled with the same pair of loose-fitted jeans. Everything in your attire was identical, down to the crew cut socks that were no longer covered with your sneakers.

"Yeah." You giggled, a dreamy smile spreading across your face. "He's something else isn't he?"

You gasped, swallowing hard at the sudden recollection. One that made no sense. How could you not remember that moment? Stefan looked so happy, a complete contrast of the current state he was in. Stressed out of his mind.

What is going on with me? You furrowed her eyebrows. When you thought hard about it, you could barely remember what your morning was like. All you knew was that you had to come here. To this record store, one that wasn't even close to your apartment.

That memory... seemed like a glimpse of the future.

You glanced around the store, wondering if anyone had witnessed your shortness of breath. It felt like the memories you were glimpsing were not yours. It was as if you were watching them through someone else's eyes.

You had a sudden urge to leave. Deja vu was something to not mess around with at this scale. If touching that album caused that, you were not going to buy it.

Your motions and thoughts felt oddly familiar, yet your reasoning behind it was incredibly fuzzy. Had you claimed this was Deju vu before? Even if you could not understand, you knew deep within your gut that it was important.

"I'm going fucking crazy." You huffed.

Shaking the feeling, you tried to focus on what you were reading. Stefan deserved to have the best soundtrack to his game. You knew he had spent days upon weeks on it, and you would try your best to create something that he loved.

If Stefan really wanted you to be inspired by the music.... you would buy it. Even if it gave you a disturbing tactility. When you gazed at the album, it felt like you were sinking deep into a hole.

You looked back up, noticing something move towards you in your peripheral vision.

The blonde man you had recognized entered the store. He walked past you without a second glance, his ignorance caused you to flicker your gaze away. Why was he making you so nervous? You must be having a really bad day.

The day. Your morning...What did you do?

Your eyebrows narrowed. When you tried to think about it, you couldn't. Why were you having memory problems? Did you happen to get blackout drunk last night? That was all you could rationalize, yet that still was not sitting right with you.

Your complete and utter confusion consumed your already paranoid state. You were smart, you never had problems like this. You always had a reason behind your actions. And now, you were just staring straight in front of you, vinyls gripped so tightly between your fists that you could have snapped them.

In your peril, you blocked out all functional senses. There was too much commotion in the store, too many people you did not recognize. People had filed past you in the aisle, but the sense of one presence caused you to stiffen.

Without looking, you knew the blonde man had moved next to you in the aisle. His browsing should not have caused you to spiral, but it did.

I need to get out of here. But first, I need the last album Stefan requested.

Frantically, and on the verge of a panic attack, you reached towards the next row of vinyls, knowing the title was Bermuda Triangle. Where was this preconceived knowledge coming from?

Just as you grasped the plastic cover, about to leave, the stranger next to you took a step back. He stumbled into your smaller frame, smacking you against the shelf before you could balance yourself.

You almost dropped the albums from the impact. "Jeez!" You hissed, holding the items you had collected tighter to your chest. Yet, you couldn't help but be grateful. For a brief moment, the panic that rose in your chest disappeared.

"Oh, my bad." The blonde stranger turned to gaze at you, apologizing calmly.

You swallowed roughly, having to tilt your head up slightly to study his face. He was taller than you had anticipated from a distance. You knew if it was you who had done so, you would have been frantic at the collision. Exactly how you had been a second before. You loathed public confrontation.

Despite that, you tried to smile. "It's okay." Your heart began to pick up pace as his eyes flickered across your body. You had definitely talked to this man before. His voice even resonated familiarity.

The darkest blue eyes you had ever seen, darted to the the albums you had pulled free. His expression turned blank, as if he had realized something you were missing.

"That's funny. I just recommended someone that band."

The way he uttered the sentence came in the form of an accusation.

Your lips parted, half in shock and half in realization. You had been told this question before. In fact, many times. You had the same friend, information that had been scarce until just then.

"Do you know Stefan Butler?" You asked before you fully processed your thought.

"Yeah." He blinked, glasses reflecting the blue light of the store when he turned his head. The look on his face conveyed that he was thinking the same thing as you. "I work with him."

"Have we... met before?" Your voice was quiet, laced with uncertainty. "I feel like I know you."

You seemed to physically watch the gears in his head turn. His revelation clear on his face. "I think so."

"From where? I-I can't seem to remember."

"I can't either." He admitted, the corners of his lips upturning slightly. You hesitated to ask another question, growing embarrassed as to why you were so attracted to him.

In the silence, the stranger's eyes flashed to the floor. You followed his gaze, noticing you had dropped your notepad out of your pocket. It contained the list of music that Stefan had given you.

The blonde man picked it up, taking longer than he needed to hand it back to you. "Thanks..." You whispered, brushing your fingers against his when you took it back.

At the contact, you were overtaken by another memory.

His body against yours, overtaking your frame in a passionate embrace. You moaned out his name, pleasure infesting your entire being. It felt so right to be underneath him, like you had done it before.

Your surroundings were blurry, but you made out his glossy red lips, hovering above you as your bodies rocked back and fourth.

You felt his hands gripping your sides, the veins in his neck defined from the hedonism he was indulging himself in. You.

You gasped, almost pained to remember something so sinful. You took a step back, suddenly frightened as you were forced to look his way.

"Hey... are you alright?" The stranger's once calm demeanor crumbling at your outburst.

"I...I-" You couldn't gather the words to explain what you had witnessed.

The blonde man set his hand on your shoulder, in a seemingly comforting gesture, but as soon as he did— his eyes widened in recollection.

Yours did in suit.

You were in the same apartment. But this time, Stefan was nowhere to be found. Instead, the man you were gazing at was next to you.

He was so close... and he was shirtless.

You felt your heart pounding, in the exact same way it had when you spotted him outside the store. Your head was spinning, cheeks pulsating with heat.

They were feelings of love. You recognized them as such.

"What are you going to do now?" The blonde man asked, voice as gentle as it could be. He lit a cigarette, one that had been rolled by hand.

Your nose crinkled in annoyance. "I don't know, what should I do, Colin?"

"Something different than what you've the 5 other times, Y/N."

Your mouth hung open as your mind reconstructed the reality you were in. You had met the man that was currently touching you before. And he knew that. You breathed slowly, eyes closing shut to process everything. You had done so much more than meet.

You swallowed hard under his gaze. Was he remembering the same exact thing?

"Y/N?" He whispered.

Your lips straightened into a thin line as you sorted through the new memories. Or experiences, you decided to call them. They couldn't be classified as memories if they never really happened.

Whatever they were... You had to understand.

"Colin?" You asked hesitantly. That was the only name that made sense, the name you had uttered in the flashback.

His large hand left your shoulder and fell to his side. "So it wasn't just a feeling. I remember now."

"Everything?" You turned your head away. So his name was Colin, and he didn't seem as shocked as you to be in this position.

"Yeah." He seemed annoyed. When Colin's gaze moved downward over you, you felt a flush of warmth. "We had sex."

The words were incredulously blunt. You felt like you had been punched in the face.

Your pulse jumped, and with it, your mistrust. "What? No— I don't do that. I don't know you."

Colin chuckled, yet his grimace did not fade. "You know me very well. You make Stefan's music don't you?"

"Yeah... but that's not it. I would remember if we were dating. I'm... I'm so confused. I feel like we've had this conversation before."

"Because we have." Colin sighed, glancing down to the albums in your hand. "I told Stefan to listen to that music, and I guess he told you. This is how we've met before. We are living the same day over again. I'm stuck in your timeline."

"Why?" You felt tears pricking at your eyelids. What he conveyed should not have made sense, but it did. Everything around you spoke volumes as to why you could not remember. And it frustrated you that you couldn't pinpoint what was making you feel this way.

"Only you can figure it out."

You gritted your teeth at his vagueness. "How many times have we had this conversation?"

"I think this is the fourth time. You're doing something wrong."

"Can I just ignore you then? Maybe that will fix it."

Colin smirked. "You can't resist me. And I can't resist you. That won't happen. You've already tried that."

"How do you know that?" You tried to say quietly, but the crude accusation in your tone made the other customers turn their heads.

The man ignored them. "I know certain things. I remember your body for one."

Your cheeks flared with embarrassment. "I don't have one night stands."

"I wasn't really a one night stand. We've done it a couple dozen times actually."

"What?"

"I think after that night, you keep messing up your timeline. That's why I assume we're here again." An expression of irritation flashed across his face. "I hope you finally make the right decision this time."

You stayed silent for a moment. Overwhelmed with the information. How could you possibly make sense of this? "Well, I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Stefan will invite you to my apartment tonight. And you'll go with him even if you don't want to."

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing love, my eyes are just open."

Colin licked his lips, adjusting his glasses. His confidence was unnerving to you. Whatever you were going though did not seem like a big deal to him.

"The only reason I came in here was because I saw you. I think that was how we met in the first place. You were in here because of the music I recommended to Stefan. We are linked somehow. Maybe we will figure it out."

Your eyes darted away. What Colin said did not complexly register. There was no way you would have a one night stand. There was no way. You refused to believe it.

"Anyways, looking forward to fucking you tonight." Colin quipped, nodding at you before walking away.

And with that, he was gone. And so was your breath. Your head felt like it was going to explode.

You wanted to call out to him again, but you knew the confusing conversation was over. This wasn't the place to talk about whatever you were going through.

You watched him leave, crossing the street until he blended in with the rest of the by-passers. You left the aisle, taking a deep breath to calm your nerves. What in the absolute hell was going on?

(Let me know if you would like a part 2! I tried something new with the flashbacks... I hope it makes sense!)

#colin ritman #bandersnatch #will poulter #fionn whitehead #bandersnatch fic #colin ritman one shot #fanfic #will poulter fic

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jim-im-a-doctor-not-a-physicist · 5 years

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The Crimes of Grindlewald review literally NONE of you asked for.

Just a forewarning now I’m spoiling stuff. A lot of stuff. Begone now unless you wish the big movie stuff to be ruined.

Before I begin let me say, I am not a movie producer, or a producer of anything really. This movie alone will make more than I will in my lifetime. I am not an opinion anyone on this will care about. I’m just a person with a blog spouting an opinion no one asked for. I also do not believe nor care if this review changes people’s minds.

Alright friends, I’m gonna split this review into three sections, the good, the stupid and the bad. I want to make it clear, I enjoyed the movie. I love Newt Scamander and Co. Did it feel like a Harry Potter movie? HELL NO. But did it make me smile and cry? Absolutely.

The Good

Newt Scamander

This is my boy. Anyone who has a single bad word to ever say about Newt Scamander can leave right now. I love him more than certain living relatives. I loved how nervous he was about meeting Tina again. I love how he says what he thinks and how he compared Tina’s eyes to those of a salamander. I love how Tina understood that he was not being mean. I love how passionate he is about his creatures and how uncomfortable his assistant made him. It made so much sense that he refuses to pick sides. Newt fights for what is right, and that is not always simply one side or another. He is the best part of this movie and do not try to convince me otherwise.

Jude Law

He nailed it. That is so Dumbledore it hurt. The pained expression on his face when they said him and Grindlewald were like brothers was beautiful. He has the same twinkle in his eye and it felt like seeing an old friend again.

Leta Lestrange

Look minus her death, Leta Lestrange was exactly what I imagined. Leta dying makes me unimaginably upset. She is troubled, she could have been a wonderful middle ground character, always unsure of which side she is truly on. On one hand, she loves Theseus but Grindlewald could offer her a home that she has never had. The entire movie she had me on edge, waiting for her to flip her already shaking lid. Instead, a character we barely know sacrifices herself for a relationship we never truly saw.

The Stupid

This section was put in for those who have failed to apply 10-15 minutes of thought on any of these big fanboy problems.

The Professor McGonagall nightmare

The simple and plausible answer, this is a cameo of one of her relatives, perhaps an aunt or a cousin. Maybe it was a common name at that point? It did not sound nor look like the professor we know so why should we presume that it is her? Someone tweet JK Rowling and ask for answers. This is all I’ve got.

Creedence’s Heritage

So remember at some point in the movie when Grindlewald and Dumbledore made that blood pact? Well, blood is weird in the magic world, the properties obtained from someone's blood stays for a lifetime. Like how Voldemort got that protection for Harry from Harry’s blood which originated from Lily. Therefore it would make sense that Grindelwald could call a Phoniex because he has Dumbledore blood within him. Grindlewald is lying to him, he needs Creedence so he can kill Dumbledore and will say anything to get him to help. It gives Creedence even more motive to destroy Dumbledore when he learns of the traumatization of his sister by muggles. It will push him even further into Grindlewald’s waiting arms.

Dumbledore teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts

He likely taught DADA before getting demoted for being a little sassy pants to ministry officials and at one point falling in love with a psychopath. But he is a fantastic teacher so they just moved him to transfiguration. BAM plot hole solved stop crying already.

The Bad

Lack of Dialogue

I have one overarching complaint that causes a bunch of tinier complaints, that being that there was ZERO DIALOGUE. That scene where Queenie and Creedence join Grindlewald should have had arguments. I expected to be seduced by Grindlewald to the dark side and I got nada. Queenie and Tina should have had a massive argument about her joining. The only thing that felt it had semi-proper conversating was when Tina and Newt talked about him being engaged. Newt and Theseus should have had a conversation about the fact that he is engaged to someone Newt loved. Newt and Leta should have had a conversation about Hogwarts. Everyone on press tours kept saying how seductive Grindlewald was, but I didn’t see it because he didn’t say enough to seduce me. JK Rowling is incredible at writing character development and interaction and it is obvious she was not a part of the dialogue near as much as she was in Fantastic Beasts and where to find them.

Leta Lestrange

I loved Leta’s characterization. She was exactly as I pictured her. I ONLY WISH I HAD MORE. She plays a crucial role in both Scamander’s lives and we barely got anything from her. It’s hard to mourn her because I didn’t really know her. Her sacrifice felt out of character and it didn’t feel like Theseus really reacted to it all that much. Now if I had a movie to get to know her and her relationship with the elder Scamander I might think differently.

It felt rushed

How did Warner Bros make a 2hr & 13 min feel rushed you ask? Well, it’s easy when you’re jumping scenes so many times your head spins. Stay on a scene for more than five minutes, please! This ties back to the first complaint, there is no dialogue. There was so much that needed to be said and it wasn’t. It felt like a fast and furious movie had an affair with the deathly hallows pt 1 and 2.

How I, an opinionated fan dork with no movie experience, would fix this

This movie should have been split into two parts, the first half showing Newt’s fame and the letters he writes Tina and him expanding his case. While over in NYC Tina and Queenie and living together while Queenie hides her relationship with Jacob. Meanwhile, Creedence is desperately searching for family and meets Nagini somehow (it isn’t important), and Grindlewald is building followers. All of this climaxing when Newt learns of his brother’s engagement and Tina finding out about Jacob and that magazine printing the wrong name for Leta’s engagement.

The second movie, it’s been a few weeks, Tina has her new boyfriend and Queenie is seen enchanting in order to keep Jacob with her. Something feels off about Queenie and we’re all a little on edge. Meanwhile, Newt has noticed Tina’s letters have stopped coming and refuses to eat dinner with his brother and his old love. We get some flashbacks to the two at Hogwarts doing STUFF. We see Theseus and Leta arguing over the fact that Newt refuses to show and we see them being a couple. I’m tired of giving the play by play so we’re speeding things up. After this we keep the movie concept the same Queenie and Jacob showing up and stuff up (but with meaningful dialogue) until we get to the Grindlewald concert scene. Everything stays the same until it’s just the heroes vs Grindlewald and that sidekick of his. Instead of all of them immediately changing sides like morons we need some dialogue. He needs to look Queenie in the eye and tell her that he will let her marry Jacob in his new world. Tina needs to be screaming at her sister not to go with a confused Jacob in the middle. Something unforgivable needs to be said by one of them as Queenie joins him. Keep Creedence’s the same I approved of that. Keep everything from that point on the same. I approved of the ending. See how much better this feels? Now I can hear my fellow non-straight people saying that I did not bring in Dumbledore’s gayness into this. Nope I didn’t we are leaving the gay stuff from the original (”we were more than brothers” WOW I AM NOT STRAIGHT) and doing a glorious, long burn love story over six movies.

Conclusion

I wrote this essay thing one day after seeing the movie. I may edit it. I may take it down because I think it’s stupid. You disagree with me? That’s fine. Would like to debate me about it? Go for it. I know Tumblr and all I ask is that you be civil and constructive. Know that if you aren’t I simply won’t reply nor care about your opinion and my mind will not be changed. Grow up and be nice or die mad about it.

Update:

Ignore everything said about Minerva. IMBD released a cast list and it’s Minerva. Rowling, you best fix this. Break out those forbidden ass time turners JK cause I refuse to believe you would destroy canon on the big screen.

Update:

I screwed up the spelling of Grindelwald every single time and I’m so sorry guys I’ve been spelling it like that for ages and NO ONE CORRECTED ME.

Update:

Who decided to name drop McLaggen in this movie? All his offspring did was be used by Hermione to make Ron jealous? There is quite a bit of fan service in this movie and that by far was the oddest.

#protect the secrets #spoiler #crimes of Grindlewald #crimes of grindleald spoilers #SPOILERS #Newt Scamander #Tina Goldstein #jacob kowalski #queenie goldstein #Albus Dumbledore #creedence barebone #Nagini #I want to apologize for the tone #i am so tired of people giving so much grief over these movies #Crimes of Grindlewald review #The Crimes of Grindlewald review #the crimes of grindelwald #crimes of grindelwald review

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chopperpirate · 5 years

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MCU Retrospective

I've decided to, in honor of Avengers Endgame, write about my thoughts on the MCU as a whole. Well, obviously I love it, but am cautiously optimistic about its future. It's easily one of my favorite film franchises, and though I don't think it ever really reaches the highs of The Dark Knight, it's better than any other Superhero related thing in the realm of Live-Action film, with the only things like Logan and The Dark Knight surpassing it in my heart. I still think DC animated films can sometimes be better, but it shouldn't be a competition.

I've been seeing people participating in this "One Marvelous Scene" thing lately, so I'll do that as well after ranking every MCU film I've seen from best to worst. I won't bore you with too much writing, though because I know I'll get flack, I'll try to justify my top and bottom 5 with some comments. With that said, here's Chopperpirate Mun's MCU film ranking!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Anyone who knows me knows how much I love things that value the connections between ragtag "nakama" who aren't related by blood, but were brought together by circumstance and are now the closest thing each member has to family. Not to mention that this film has emotional payoffs for Nebula and Gamora's heartfelt rivalry, Rocket's tsundere hangups, and Peter's heritage that I'd say are all easily the most emotional resonant things out of the MCU. The comedy in the film is probably only rivaled by Thor: Ragnarok. My two personal favorite jokes being the Mary Poppins bit, and Drax shouting "MANTIS! LOOK OUT!" mere seconds after Mantis was already hit and knocked unconscious.

The highlight for comedy is easily Drax, but his speech to Mantis about why her perceived ugliness is a good thing because if someone loves you despite your ugliness, they love you for who you are, really might be one of my favorite moments in the film. Same with Yondu's speech to Rocket about how they're the same. Believe it or not, I cried more during Yondu's death than I did for Tony Stark's in Endgame. I can't really tell you why. Something about his last line just reminded me of Whitebeard from One Piece.

Yondu's death scene aside, my favorite scene in the film is easily when he, Groot, and Rocket are slaughtering the traitor Ravengers to the tune of "Come a Little Bit Closer."

On that note, the villains of this film are some of the best. They aren't bland, generic evil points of contention for the film to have a climax! Taser Face is hilarious, The Sovereign are hilariously arrogant and I find the fact that they only engage in combat through arcade simulations to be perfect for their personalities, and Ego might be the best Marvel Villain besides Loki up until that point in the MCU. The reveal that he killed Meredith was shocking, and might very well be the best "Wham Line" in the MCU to this date. His death scene showed a lot of depth to Peter, and like a good villain, he had a lot of parallels and contrasts to the protagonist instead of just having a clone of their abilities for the sake of a final boss fight.

The Winter Soldier - Captain America at his finest. Bucky was awesome, Black Widow was finally given a lot of vulnerabilities and depth as she bonded with Steve, Falcon was alright, HYDRA as a collective is an amazing source of paranoia fuel, and this movie might have the best action out of any MCU film, or at least my personal favorite brand of action. Instead of CG magic and shit, we get to see visceral knife fights, punches, kicks, and close-quarters martial arts. It's surprisingly brutal for a PG-13 film. I recall one point where Bucky kicks a SHIELD agent into a helicopter propeller.

As for my favorite scene in this film, I'd have to say it's the Elevator sequence. The build up was perfectly suspenseful, and the payoff of the line "Before we get started, does anyone want to get off?" felt badass and perfect for the character of Captain America, who, instead of being snide or arrogant, shows that he's ready to fight, while willing to let his enemies back out if they so choose.

This film might also be Nick Fury's finest. I was very disappointed that Captain Marvel didn't enhance the character more than this film did, but oh well. The way Fury communicated words with Steve while showing him what he really meant through writing was clever while also perfectly exemplifying his character. Fury is very secretive, never showing vulnerability or letting himself get attached to others, yet we can tell from his actions and concerns that he is a good person, even if he isn't a nice person. The way he says one meaningless thing while displaying another more pressing thought really shows that the Russos understood the character.

Infinity War - The Empire Strikes Back of the MCU. Thanos is an amazing villain protagonist, and arguably the only character with a full arc in this film, Gamora is probably at her most interesting here, and a lot of the interactions between characters who never got to interact before this film are some of my favorites. I'm especially fond of the chemistry between Doctor Strange and Tony Stark.

Despite how dark and serious this film is, it understands how to keep up dramatic tension while never losing its sense of humor. The same film with Vision dying willingly and pointlessly at the hands of his lover is the film with lines like "Why is Gamora" and "I am Steve Rogers." It's probably the most perfect film in the MCU in terms of story structure and emotional stakes. It's just lower than the ot hers because it lacks the personal love from me that the above films had.

Avengers: Endgame - Now that I've had time to stew on it, this film isn't as good as Infinity War, but it's still great. To clarify, Infinity War was a better structured film and a more entertaining one for the most part. I'd say the first two acts of Endgame were somewhat weak by comparison, but the final 1/3 was so perfect that it almost tempted me to rank it above Infinity War, even if Captain Marvel's presence ruins a lot of things.

I want to remain positive for the most part here, so I won't talk about too many of my gripes, but because I know I'll get asked why I think Captain Marvel ruins the stakes, let me explain. In the MCU, Captain Marvel can canonically move at Lightspeed, and probably faster too. So... when she got the Infinity Gauntlet in the final act's little "Hot Potato" portion, why didn't she just fly to another galaxy and hide the gauntlet away with some trusted civilization, come back to help defeat Thanos' army, then bring the gauntlet back to return the stones to their timelines? Remember, because of this plot hole of MCU Carol Danvers being so overpowered and fast, yet not doing anything to help, Tony Stark is dead. � We know the meta reason is because RDJ and most of the Phase 1 actors are done, but you guys can now totally blame Captain Marvel for it In-Universe.

Positives though! This film made me genuinely love Nebula. She fits so well with The Avengers (arguably better than with the GotG), and the small details of her pity and attachment to Thanos during his early death adds a lot of pathos to her character. Thor's "Big Lebowski" phase was hilarious, Tony and Thor getting closure with their dad/mom respectively was sweet, and the final battle was one of the greatest spectacles to behold. I don't know if it's controversial or not, but I personally loved that Captain America got his happy ending (even if it creates a huge plot hole with this movie's time travel rules). It just lacked the oomph of Infinity War.

Thor Ragnarok - This film saved Thor, made him entertaining and interesting, and gave us yet another great villain in the form of The Grandmaster! It has a similar issue, villain-wise, in my opinion, to Black Panther, in that the secondary villain is far more entertaining than the main villain. Great comedy, Loki's redemption is emotionally fulfilling, and Korg is my MCU waifu. My only issue is that Hela is kind of boring, and the stuff on Sakaar is far more engaging than the "important" plot.

Guardians of the Galaxy The Avengers Spider-Man: Homecoming Iron Man Doctor Strange Captain America: Civil War Iron Man 3 Ant-Man Ant-Man and the Wasp Captain America: The First Avenger Iron Man 2 Black Panther - Very overrated. T'Challa is far less interesting here than he was in Civil War, Wakanda is far better in Infinity War... Really, it's not a "bad" movie. It's just not that special. It's more comparable to the Phase 1 films between Iron Man and Avengers than it is to, say, Wolverine Origins. Glad I saw it. Wouldn't see it again. Didn't care of Killmonger either. Sue me.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - This gets... better on rewatch, but it still sucks. It's a garbage standalone movie, but if you look at it as an in-between film that's setting up things for the Thanos arc, it's actually not so bad. Could've used more scenes like the "Trying to lift Mjolnir," or "chilling at Hawkeye's house" scenes. Just The Avengers hanging out and interacting in low-stakes environments. Instead we get empty, loud, almost Michael Bay-esque action scenes.

Thor: The Dark World - On rewatch, it was surprisingly more entertaining than Thor 1 in a lot of ways. Mostly involving Loki. The human characters, especially Jane and her friend, are horribly boring, and I think we should be thankful that Natalie Portman left the MCU out of frustration for her character being an empty love-interest! She made the right call. Thor isn't really interesting yet, but at least the death of his mother gives him and Loki some legitimate character arcs.

Thor - Eh... it's just kinda bland. Not much to comment on. Loki isn't really fun yet, the human characters are boring, and Thor is probably the least interesting Phase One Avenger aside from Edward Norton's Bruce Banner. It has its moments, but on my most recent MCU rewatch, we were most bored with this one.

Captain Marvel - The most insulting installment of the MCU. Captain Marvel insults people for having those evil Y chromosomes. It's the story of a strong, brave, powerful, beautiful, flawless, overpowered woman who just wants to... umm... be an Air Force Pilot, I guess. She's apparently never met a supportive male in her whole 30+ years of living, because all of her memories are of cartoonish archetypes of men with 1940s values telling her that she can't become a pilot. After all "You know why it's called the cockpit, right?" Ugh...

Not only is the feminist message forced, but it's one of those negative feminist messages that I hate so much. Instead of preaching equality between the two genders, women being just as good as men, it preaches that women are amazing, brave, beautiful, powerful creatures and men are pathetic morons who underestimate women at all times. There's even a scene where her father is yelling at her for crashing a Go-Kart in pure anger and disdain instead of, I dunno... calling a doctor and worrying about his injured child? This movie is... ugh...

Carol herself is either boring and unremarkable or irritatingly condescending depending on the scene's writer. If I recall there were like... 4 or 5 different writers and it really shows. But anyway, she's annoying. She constantly "Womansplains" things to Nick Fury, and her tone is just so smug that it makes me want to slap her. Listen to the way she says "I'm here to stop the shapeshifters that are infiltrating your planet. You don't have any idea what's going on, do you?" It's so demeaning to have Nick Fury, the coolest character whose presence is so demanding and badass that even god-tiers like Thor and a war veteran like Cap shut up and listen when he speaks, be talked to by an unproven character just so Kevin Feige can get some feminist brownie points.

This carries into Endgame where she basically calls Rocket "furrball" and retorts his complaint by harshly explaining why she's not around. In response to this, Rocket, who is characterized in the first film by getting so angry at being called names for his oddities that he almost attempted to murder Drax for it in the bar, simply nods, lowers his head, and says "that's a good point" in a defeated tone. WOW! YOU GO GIRL! CAPTAIN MARVE IS SO TOUGH THAT SHE CAN TALK DOWN TO NICK FURY AND ROCKET AND THEY KNOW BETTER THAN TO COMPLAIN! WOOOOW!

Speaking of feminism, the movie skims over the whole "Air Force discrimination" subplot within under a minute, so we can't really connect to that. As such, one would expect the fact that she's "the most powerful hero in the MCU" to be the big feminist selling point, but she didn't work for that power at all. She got it through sheer coincidence by standing too close to the Tesseract powered engine before it exploded. As such, I suppose the moral is, "Girls! If you wanna be a strong, brave hero, go stand next to an exploding engine!" If so, I caution all viewers to not do that.

Nick Fury is mostly okay in this movie, but he feels underutilized. The retcon of his eye being scratched out by Goose is embarrassing and infuriating. It makes the line from Winter Soldier "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye," meaningless and if you were to count this movie as non-canon because of it, I'd be right there with you. He just keeps getting demeaned and treated as a joke, and strangely, the eye retcon isn't even the worst part. I groaned even harder when Carol's friend's daughter says she might build a space ship some day, Fury doesn't know. And Carol replies by saying "You're right, he doesn't know." Pushing the feminist message by knocking Fury down a peg instead of by preaching equality. :\ It wasn't like he said anything misogynistic throughout this film, so I have no idea why he's often the film's punching bag.

Oh, and just a side-note. You wanna know something hilarious? That friend's daughter shows Carol some photos of them together from six years ago. Literally the same actress. Literally the same age in the photo. This child hasn't aged a day in 6 years, so I welcome you to reply with some crack theories so that we can call the writers geniuses instead of incompetence? Is the kid a watcher? A time lord?

Incredible Hulk - Boring, boring, boring. Edward Norton was always a terrible Bruce Banner, the plot is as generic a hulk story as you can imagine, and the character of "Bruce Banner" is almost nonexistent aside from turning into The Hulk when stressed. This Bruce Banner is a handsome, tall, athletic martial artist. If I had to praise it anywhere, the fight between Hulk and Abomination toward the end is actually pretty decent, but aside from that, this film is an embarrassment. It's very telling that the MCU and all its executives swept this one under the rug. It's difficult to find in your Best Buy's "Marvel Studios" section.

There. Proceed to insult my opinions. :D

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ughvaldez · 5 years

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Thoughts on Avengers: Endgame

- there is no mid and end credit scenes, so you don’t have to wait until the very end. but! also don’t leave immediately. i think the credit is one of the most beautiful part of the movie, it pays homage to all characters in the mcu (that appears in the movie) but especially for the original 6.

- under the cut is the spoilery thoughts, so beware!

- I kNEW CLINT’S FAMILY SCENE IS GOING TO END WITH A DUSTING

- i know how carol would be the one that save tony, but i still can’t stop squealing!

- i lOVE how tony’s concern is how he “lost the kid” and how cap felt for him

- i also love tony’s outburst at cap, he deserved it

- ah, the simple life of thanos.

- chris evans is perfection in this movie???? like he’s just THAT gorgeous i can’t believe it

- “we deal with it by not dealing with it”

- i love how serious and passionate scott is in this movie. it shows he’s not some joke or small hero, he has a moral compass that could rival cap

- AHHHH TONY HAS A DAUGHTER IT’S ADORABLE

- professor hulk is really weird to see but I LOVE HIM

- POTBELLY THOR AHAHHAA

- YOOO LOKI LOOKED SO HOT i swear the whole theatre was gasping when tdw/avengers loki appear

- that strut of sass, that cheeky wave, that impressionation.... avengers/tdw loki were really the best loki

- Nat’s death is so sad. First, she and Clint tried so hard to save each other. Even Clint, who knows he had a family that would wait for him and mourn him, would lay down his life for Nat. I think it speaks of how deep their bond is, more than friends, and more than just a “clintasha” ship. And then he was begging her to stay, and she was begging him to let go!!!!

- Look, I know she’s the most logical candidate to die because she has nothing to lose and nothing to gain, but she’s been through so much she deserved her happy ending. She was taken as a kid, trained as an assassin, had her future removed, and then found redemption and family with the avengers, which then split in civil war. AND right when they got back together, she’s dead????

- if loki disappears, does that mean he’s not dead in the present timeline? but does that mean his relationship with thor is still bad????

- damn how many times have steve choked up/crying in this movie?

- STEVE I KNEW IT I KNEW HE COULD WEILD MJOLNIR

- PEPPERRRRRRR

- AVENGERS ASSEMBLE FINALLY YASSS

- THE WHOLE THEATER GOT CHILLS

- PETER AND TONY REUNITED and it’s exactly like I wanted

- YAS WANDA YESSS SHOW HIM WHAT YOU GOT

- CAROL DANVERS I LOVE YOU. She’s so powerful damn

- I love how all the women just protect Peter <333

- Nat should’ve been there though :(

- fUCK I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT TONY WOULD BE THE ONE.

- fuck

- RHODEY :( that moment is so tender though and showed how deep their friendship is

- PETER AHHHH his sobbing physically hurts me

- “we’ll be alright. you can rest now” JUST TAKE MY SOUL IT WOULD HURT LESS

- UGH I WISH WE GOT MORE REACTIONS BUT IT’S ALREADY HEARTBREAKING AS IT IS

- damn bucky looking good in that outfit

- peter :( his eyes :(

- ahh i’m glad to see that clint and wanda still has that mentor-mentee/father-daughter relationship. wanda would be so lonely though: no pietro, no vision, no tony, no nat, no steve.... it’s like half of her friends are gone :(

- Ah cap. what a bittersweet ending.

- I understand why Tony dies and cap didn’t. Tony didn’t seem like someone who can retire. He would always worry. He could just build the machine and not joined the war, but he did. And the fact that his suit contains a second gauntlet means he already prepared a worst case scenario, and he knew it. Even if he survives, I think he would always be in that world, especially with peter parker running around. meaning, his death also serves as a chance for holland’s spiderman to mature and grow as his own hero.

Cap? He’s always stuck in the past. In all movies he’s in, he always talked about the past- whether it’s bucky, peggy, shield, or the howling commandos. in a way, both their character arcs are complete.

- i really wish tony didn’t die though, he should’ve lived

- and i can’t believe the team lost both cap AND tony? who would lead them??? they would be scattered af

- bucky seemed to already know that steve would choose to stay though. “i’m going to miss you” even though it’s only 5 secs in that timeline, that smirk while sam is panicking when cap didn’t appear, and the fact that he give sam the chance to talk with steve instead of talking himself. i think he already knew, he already got his closure, and he was giving sam a chance to get his closure. he is steve’s closest friend and the one who knows him the best, and i think he knew that there’s no way steve is going to let this second chance go.

- overall? this movie really met my expectations. it doesn’t glosses the emotional impact these 11 years had, this movie discuss it and showed the bonds formed between the characters. but they also have a really badass fighting scenes and gives a poignant goodbye to all characters that deserves it. there is still a plot holes about loki that needed to be answered, but hopefully it will balance the old, mischiveous loki with the amicable one without emasculate him or ruining his character even more.

- i’m super excited for all the tv shows though!!!!!

#endgame #avengers: endgame spoilers #avengers spoilers #endgame spoilers #text #mine

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auroraphilealis · 6 years

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any book recs?

Heck yes I do!

Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Even if you saw the movie already, the book is like a different storyline. They’re super close but very different and I literally can’t decide which I prefer

It by Stephen King: I’m not actually the biggest horror fan of all time but after seeing the movie, I fell in love with this idea. I’m only about half way through the novel version, but there is something insane about the way Stephen King writes. He truly understands human’s on a level not many people do, or at least understands them enough to REALLY draw out the true horror of the world. I don’t know man, it’s a good fucking book.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Actually though, i re-read this after having read it 6 years ago, and holy shit this is actually amazing. I love this novel. Frankenstein is… a fascinating story.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Seriously fucking amazing. It’s about a little girl growing up in Nazi Germany only it’s told from Death’s point of view, and I know what you’re thinking - how the fuck? But holy shit it is a fucking crazy good story, and the character of Death had me hooked on the first page

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski: One of my all time favorite books. It’s kind-of sort-of the story of Hamlet, but with a totally different modern revamp. The main character is mute, was born mute, and his closet relationship is with his dog. His mom marries his uncle after his father dies in a fire, and.. well. It’s just incredibly beautiful and amzing.

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind: Look. This is the longest book series I have ever read. I used to spend every second of every day reading these books. But if you’re a fantasy fan, and huge word counts don’t scare you, then good LORD is this the series for you. I think back on this series so fucking often, and I’ve read certain books in it like, six times each. Currently, my mom has my copies or I would be READING IT AGAIN since this series hass been on my mind alot again. Again, it’s super long. I think currently we’re on book like… 27. I googled it. holy shit it’s grown since I last picked it up. The best part about this series is 1. You can technically stop at any point because each book has a relatively good ending that will keep you satisfied (except book 1 and 2, you really have to finish 3 while youre at it). 2. They reflect the modern world so well sometimes you’re just godamn wow. Seriously. If you love fantasy, please give it a try. It’s worth it.

The Host by Stephanie Meyer: Look, I know what you’re all going to say. Twilight was terrible, why would we read this? Listen, LISTEN I actually love The Host. It was really well done, and it definitely Stephanie Meyer’s better novel. The movie adaptation sucked ass but I actually DO still read this book over and over again. It’s a sci-fi novel about alien’s coming to Earth and taking over host bodies. They do this on lots of planets, and Earth is their newest requistion. It’s also the only planet to fight back well enough that the aliens actually think they might win. It’s not as weird as it sounds. It’s a love story, and it goes far more in depth with the meaning of life and stuff like that then Twilight could dream of, so give it a try.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: Actually amazing. I read it for class like… idek, 5 years ago maybe? When I heard it was getting it’s own show I was like !!!! but I haven’t actually watched the show version yet, so I have no idea how it compares to the novel. The novel is fucking amazing though. Legit made me cry. However, if you have a sexual trauma or trigger, this might be a difficult read in some select parts :/ Still fucking worth it times ten. I literally bought the book when my class was over, it was so good (the teacher actually, actually handed out copies, how insane is that? She was amzing)

Beloved by Toni Morrison: FUCK SO GOOD. I’ve read it twice, both times around school, and got to write papers on it twice as well. This is… this is one hell of a book. Both times I read it, I got so much more of it than the first time. THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNPACK. It’s about a former slave whose haunted by the baby daughter she killed to prevent her children from ending up slaves as well. This was just before slavery was abolished, as well, and while her baby daughter died, her other three kids lived. However, now her home is haunted, and the baby ACTUALLY comes back. It’s crazy and amazing and one of my favorite novels of all time. I can’t pick favorites guys, okay, but I love this one so fucking much.

Pellinor Series by Alison Croggon: Listen. Listen. I read this book when I was in high school immediately after I hurt my back so bad I was stuck in bed for a week, and literally continue to have issues with too this day. I CANNOT TELL YOU what the fucking plot was, and apparently there are 2 more books in the series that I didn’t know about, BUT I LOVED AND ADORED THIS BOOK OKAY IT WAS A WONDERFUL FANTASY NOVEL AND IT HAS A FEMALE LEAD ALRIGHT ITS GREAT JUST TAKE MY WORD FOR IT AND READ IT

Uglies Series by Scott Westserfeld: I remember finally getting my hands on this series and reading it in like, two days. Idk. It was great. If you can’t tell, I love fantasy and sci-fi and horror, which all mesh together horribly and you can never tell them apart. This isn’t horror though, just the other two. It’s about a world where when people turn a certain age, they get to become a “pretty’ which means to have surgery done to make them look perfect - only the reason for this is to dumb down society. Read it. I love it.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead: I love vampire novels. If you couldn’t tell, this is a vampire novel. It’s one of my preferred series though, I think Mead did an amazing job crafting the world she crafts. Vampires aren’t under wraps, nor are they inherently evil, but they do work in a really weird system where you have the Special vampires who the other vampires protect, and then like the bodyguard vampires. I can’t fully remember, it’s been a long time. But regardless, I remember this being one of the few novel series that made me cry, and I still love it to this day.

Harry Potter by JK Rowling: I thought this was such a give in that I didn’t put it on the list until now but actually like. Super good. I grew up in this series and sometimes I talk about it and remember I’m 24 cause some people I know have never read it and IT WAS LITERALLY MY CHILDHOOD. Still think it’s worth it, even as I poke more and more holes in the story, because the older you get, the more you start to recognize problematic things. Clearly, Harry Potter was meant for children, not an adult who wants to critize everything. GOOD READ THOUGH

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: I grew up the girl writing fanfiction hid away in the back of the class because I didn’t want anyone to know. I look up to the people older than me at the time who developed and crafted the world we live in now, where Fanfiction is almost acceptable. Reading this novel... brought me right back to the Harry Potter days when the fandom was sitll new, underground, and ao3 didn’t exist. Honestly... it’s a really good book, and really hits home for people like me who write fanfiction and want nothing more than to write novels one day.

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: But actually the books are really good. I fucking adore the show and that’s what got me into the books, but the books are HELLA good. Weirdly, Daenery’s Targaryen is not the most well written character ever, and I blame it on Martin being a guy, becasue sometimes I actually hate her in the novels (seriously, he makes her sound... like a child, which I guess she kind of is) BUT one of my favorite things in the novel is that her husband Khal Drogo does not sexually assault her in the novels. He’s super sweet and good to her, and honestly just. Yep. Yeah. Good series.

What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum Ucci: The most heartwrenching book of all time. I can’t tell you how long I cried over this book. I’m literally getting tearful as I think about it. It is... fucking BEAUTIFUL. I want to read it right this fucking second. It’s about a girl who was in remission from cancer, but who joins the cheerleading team. Only, shes technically too tall to be a cheerleader, so she gets an ED which actually puts her at risk for remission. She meets Lani Garver - the literal emodiment of a nonbinary person before that term every existed. Lani Garver is... a fucking angel. An actual angel okay. They help the main character through so much, specifically bullying, and Lani taught ME so much when I read it. The author refers to Lani as he, but remember that it was written before nonbinary was an accepted (possible even before it was a fully labeled) thing, but the book is SO worth reading. I. I’m going to go read it again.

Streams of Babel and it’s sequel The Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum Ucci: I originally read the second novel first on accident, which just goes to show you how good an author Ucci is becasue I didn’t even NOTICE until I got to the end and saw there was a first novel, oops. But, its a take on the lives of 4 kids in a situation of chemical warfare, and what happens to them when they get poisoned by the water. I think one of the kids is a fucking comptuer genius. Idk, I can’t fully remember, but it is one of my favorite novels, so check them out.

I’m like 100% that there’s more I could list but those are the ones I could currently recall BECAUSE THIS IS A MONUMENTAL TASK AND I LOVE BOOKS

#Anonymous #asks #book recs #book rec #books

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