#nads finally wrote something

[saintslewis]

❝ 𝐂𝐎𝐙𝐘 ❞

𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 — 𝐋𝐇𝟒𝟒

˖ ࣪⭑ - pairing: lewis hamilton x fem!oc

˖ ࣪⭑ - summary: imagine you go for dinner at your neighbours house and you’re told you’re getting married? you better get cozy for this one!

˖ ࣪⭑ - warnings for this chapter: none

˖ ࣪⭑ - saint’s team radio: hey y’all…. i told you guys i don’t have a planned schedule for this series and i’m really starting to think i should 😭. i hope you guys enjoy this and lemme know if you wanna be tagged 🤭

masterlist

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"Renaissance yachtin' in capri!" Nadia sang as she entered the driveway of the Hamiltons only a week after the first dinner. Knowing her mother's dramatics, Thembi had once again requested her presence at the home except she had to drive straight to the Hamiltons house. Finding the situation weird but not giving it a second thought, she parked next to the all black G63, one of her many dream cars and one she hadn't seen the last time she was here. Thinking it was just a simple visit (and Thembi hadn't given her a chance to dress up after the phone call), Nadia fixed the Nike tee and adjusted the biker shorts she had worn throughout her chill Saturday morning.

Knocking on the wooden door felt weird, given that she was welcomed into the house before but she felt like something quite suspicious was going on but she couldn't even figure it out. Rubbing her eye whilst waiting for someone to answer the door, she wrote a few reminders on her phone to not forget to complete the work she had to take home from the previous day.

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine?" Nadia had recognised the voice to be Nicola, adding a little laugh after her sentence. "I woke up late so this is valid." Nadia replied, giving a smile as she entered the house with Nicola making room for her to walk in. After the first dinner, the two women had kept in touch because of the growing friendship and Willow, who would send a voice message every day to say hi. But this time, Nadia couldn't hear the kids laughing or playing around the house.

Oh, this was serious.

"Is that Nadia, darling?" Linda's voice chimed through the entrance hallway leading to the living room. "Hello Mrs Hamilton." The young woman greeted, giving Linda a side eye as she held a glass of water in her hand. "Please Nadia, rather call me Linda. Do come through, my dear!"

"We're out by the patio, need the bathroom before we start?" Nicola asked, making Nadia way more confused the more footsteps she took. "Start with what?" She trailed off, seeing Nicola just smile and head into the direction of the patio with her following. This was officially starting to get weird but Nadia chose to push her thoughts aside for this lunch.

"Oh she's here! How was the drive, Nads?" Her mom spoke up as soon as Nadia's foot hit the wooden floor of the large patio. Different types of charcuterie boards were placed with juices and waters to accommodate everyone but the atmosphere seemed so different from the dinner last week, it rather felt like a meeting.

"Helloooo." Nadia dragged out the greeting as she eventually found an empty seat, once again, next to Lewis. The man was genuinely a sight to see as the sun shined on him as he sat comfortably on the patio bench chair. Wearing a black NY cap, a graphic tee once again with a pair of jeans this time and his jewellery on display, Lewis smiled up at her with a toothy grin.

After personally greeting everyone around the table and answering their fast questions, she plopped down onto the chair with a few of her bracelets clanging together. The familiar scents of each other from the last time they met fused together as they both studied each other once again.

Nadia's tattoos were finally on display, each dainty artwork fluttered around her skin with a few being inked in red. The most noticeable thing being her hair as she changed the colour to black and it reached past her back. The makeup was very simple and she only carried her phone and lipgloss in her hand as she placed the overly cracked device onto the table right next to Lewis'. When she smiled, he noticed a small gem on one of her front teeth and he definitely admired her style, not one he would regularly picture on a high school teacher.

"You know Nadia, we were just talking about how odd it would be to suddenly become famous within a matter of hours." Linda started, grabbing the large jug of grape juice to give the girl a glass. Helping the older woman, Nadia lifted herself off the chair and gave Lewis a look, non verbally asking if it was true and his eyebrows furrowed whilst pursing his lip upwards, making Nadia smile a little.

"Really? In what aspects?" She sat back down, lifting the glass to her gloss covered lips and only taking little sips. "Oh just how you'd maybe have to close off social media for a while and suddenly having people around you to help with everything." Linda said, taking her glass of water and eyeing Nadia's mom after her sentence. Tilting her head in confusion, she made sure to sit comfortably as this was definitely an interesting conversation.

"I never really thought about it like that actually. The way teams assemble within a matter of hours is something else but I always hear my students say that they're one hundred percent ready for fame." Nadia watched the two older women constantly look at each other with the older men being suspiciously quiet. "Oh and don't even get me started on the scandals you're put through." Nicola submerged from the house, holding a fresh pizza on a wooden board with an extra plate.

"Lewis, you'd know a thing or two about these things right?" Nicola smirked as she placed the plate on the opposite side of the table. Snapping her head towards Lewis, he sighed then nodded before straightening up his posture as it was before. Now Nadia was incredibly confused. Although she spent at least two hours in conversation with Lewis, she never really found out what exactly he does for a living even though he knew what she did as she went on a whole rant about her day with the teenagers. The way he had carried himself whilst speaking with everyone and just how he listened made it seem like he could be a businessman of some sort that clearly made his money and he made it well as he wore jewellery pieces that she could only dream of seeing.

A beat of silence passed and a knock on the door was heard. "Oh, that must be Gerald." Anthony got up in quite a hurry, with the table falling into conversation to detour the previous topic. After the man was welcomed onto the patio, he placed his small briefcase next to him on the chair with Nadia's suspicions growing more and more.

But what if he was really just there for lunch?

The word 'deactivate' kept being thrown around between Nicola, Thembi and Linda for several minutes, snapping Nadia and Lewis out of their conversation on her tattoos. "Nads, come here really quickly and bring your phone." Her mom ordered as the young girl walked to their side of the table. Standing over all three women, she held her phone in front of her mom's face. "How do you deactivate your Instagram? Nicola here made one for me but i don't want it anymore." Thembi asked, once again eyeing Linda.

Showing the directions on her own phone, Nadia then became distracted by her stepdad's question. "Nads, do you know when Rea's flight lands? Will you be okay to go?" He asked, slightly jumping at something. "Yes, I'll be fine. Her flight lands at like two in the morning so after here I'll just finish up some work then go to the airport early." Nadia responded, feeling her hand move a little as she spoke to James.

Thembi tapped her daughter's hand as Nadia focused back on her phone. Seeing her instagram page now logged out, she groaned at the thought of her completely forgetting her password to it. Plopping back into her seat defeated, Lewis eyed her then her phone that she placed on the table. "You good?" He asked, turning his body to look at her. "I think I  accidentally logged myself out of insta and i forgot where i wrote down the password." Nadia frowned a little as she clasped her hands together. Even though he didn't want to seem like he was smiling at her misery but the little pout she had on her face was adorable and obviously he wasn't going to admit that anytime soon.

"Okay, I cannot do this anymore." Anthony announced out as he sighed which caught everyone's attention. "Dad, what's going on?" Lewis asked worried, he had noticed his father was quiet most of the time but he brushed it off knowing that his father was usually like this.

"Son, listen. I know what I'm about to say will sound insane but I need you to listen very carefully. Along with you too, Nadia." Anthony stated. Linda then stood next to her husband in terror. "Wait, Anthony. Are you sure you want to do this right now?" She muttered.

And now the uneasy feeling came right back.

"Lewis, you know I care for you deeply however these past few weeks have been tough for you... and pr." His dad started off, earning a sigh from Lewis and a pinch on the bridge of his nose. Seeing Lewis stress like this was weird for Nadia and what exactly did his father mean by PR? Anyone could tell that he wanted to say something but chose to keep quiet.

Now sitting up properly, Nadia was intrigued with the entire situation and wondered how famous Lewis actually was.

"Linda and I, along with Nadia's parents and Nicola have decided that we wanted to help you to clean up your image a little more even though you are a private person. And for that, we've come up with the concept of a fake marriage between you and Nadia." Anthony concluded and took his seat.

It was as if the blood from Nadia completely left her face after that very last sentence however her face stayed extremely neutral. Her face rather snapped towards her parents who were avoiding eye contact with her.

The silence was so loud, the birds chirping ever so slightly as if they were part of the plan as well. Looking at everyone's face, anyone could tell that this had probably been discussed many times before. "What?" Nadia being the first one to say something, spoke in a monotone voice.

"Look we wanted to see how you two would get along when you first met and it had seemed to work very well. We're only really looking out for you, Lewis. These rumours have kinda taken a toll on you." Nicola voiced, seeing that their faces were stoic yet burning daggers into everyone's skulls.

Finally looking at each other, Lewis and Nadia's eyes met with no source of attraction to each other in that present moment. "This is crazy." Lewis muttered to himself as he shook his head whilst looking down at his shoes.

"Okay." Nadia said, crossing her arms and looked at her mom directly. "Okay?" Lewis grumbled with slightly narrowed eyes to the girl. "Yeah. Clearly this is important and stuff so I'll do it." Nadia responded with a calm facade but she was truly screaming on the inside, her leg shaking underneath the table. Shocked as he was at her nonchalant response to the situation, he slumped back and chose to not speak up in front of guests. Lewis wasn't frustrated in the slightest but he was just extremely confused.

"What about the details?" Lewis sighed, feeling through his beard and accepting his fate.

"Wait, you're actually doing this?" Thembi expressed. If anything, Thembi felt embarrassed to even coming up with this suggestion thinking that it was going to help the driver and his many social problems. "Ma, please tell us the details before we rethink doing this for you guys." Nadia deadpanned, grabbing a grape from one of the charcuterie boards displayed.

"Well. You would have to tell the world that you've been married for at least a year or two and I've already told your PR team, Lewis, to get everything ready before you announce. For now, you're only allowed to tell your closest friends and coworkers about this so that it doesn't seem suspicious that your friends didn't know of your marriage." Nicola started.

"Nadia, because you're now affiliated with Lewis, security and a team will have to assembled to be at your beck and call. Marie from Lewis' team will come over to help you choose potential candidates for your everyday team. Now the difficult part. You two have to be married legally because you know how people get, Lewis. They'll want evidence. And that's Gerald is here for." She concluded, gesturing to the guest to open his briefcase but god, did he feel awkward.

"Uh, hello. Here's the marriage certificate you two are meant to sign for the court to recognise it as an actual marriage." The poor man was red in the face as he shakily placed the certificate between Nadia and Lewis with a pen. With her freshly manicured hand, the girl picked the pen and signed underneath her name officially as a Mrs. She took a quick glance at Lewis' name and it seemed so familiar but the thing that intrigued her the most was the 'Sir' before anything.

Lewis had a good look at Nadia's side profile as he watched her sign the official papers. She didn't seem bothered with anything that was said, it was as if everything just defeated her and she just accepted it. If there's one thing he noticed was that it looked like she didn't have a clue about who he was at all and that was so fascinating to him.

She handed the pen to him, their hands touching a little with the warmest touch as they made eye contact. They both couldn't read each other's eyes, only dark brown pupils staring into each other's souls. Lewis then also signed with a bit of hesitation, the reality falling on him as he dragged the pen to the very last of his signature.

"Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Hamilton." Gerald broke the silence as he uttered his words. He quickly packed his briefcase and walked away from the table with a small wave to everyone to escape from the awkwardness of the lunch table.

"You only have to do this for a year or so then you can either divorce publicly or privately. And the living situation has to be changed. Nadia, you will have to be almost everywhere with Lewis now that you've signed that certificate so I am not sure how you will handle this at your workplace. Do you have an active passport?" Anthony ended with his question to which the quiet girl just nodded.

"Wait, where am I going to live?" Nadia asked, eventually snapping out of the quiet demeanour she had. "Well you'll have to speak to your husband about that." Linda smiled at the two, the smile slowly falling when seeing their deadpanned faces.

Sighing out for the final time, Lewis sighed and lightly tapped Nadia on the arm signaling for her attention. He held his car keys in his hand and she knew that she had to go because being there any longer would've suffocated her. The newly married couple simultaneously stood up and gathered their belongings, making everyone's faces grow into confusion.

"Where are you guys going?" Thembi asked, standing up as well with a worried expression. All Lewis did was shrug as he fixed his shirt and move out of the way so that Nadia could walk before him. "Bye everyone! Your charcuterie boards looked amazing by the way, Linda." It was as if someone completely different had greeted the group goodbye because her mood changed in a matter of seconds as if nothing happened.

"What the hell did we just do?" Nicola asked, rubbing her forehead as she watched the two walk away and out of the house.

-

"You've arrived at your destination." The automated voice rang through the large car as it approached a large black gate behind an elegant building.

The drive to the unknown destination was not as quiet as they thought it would be. When entering the car, all Nadia could do was to laugh as soon as Lewis entered the car so much so that a few tears of laughter came out. It was a sound that he appreciated to hear and he joined her in her laughter. They couldn't believe that they even went through that, mainly laughing at the fact they went into the house for lunch and left as a married couple.

It was quite the lengthy drive but it seemed much quicker as they spent the time speaking about what happened at lunch yet they never got to the topic of his job and also because they decided to play music to get rid of the negative mood they both had.

“I thought you were going to kidnap for a second. I still do.” Nadia joked as he playfully rolled his eyes at her. “Where are we even?” She looked out of the window to see the back of the large building, eventually spotting a small yet visible sign on the wall reading ‘Harrods VIP parking’.

Letting the smallest gasp escape her mouth, she gazed at Lewis once again who was typing on his phone and wondered what he did for a living for him to be able to decide to park his car here. The rumours from this department store were unbelievable so to see them bloom in real life felt surreal to Nadia.

Lewis definitely saw Nadia to be a good friend to him and could keep her around his circle and vice versa. It was a sign that a friendship was brewing between each other and they’re somewhat grateful for that although it happened so quickly.

“Seriously bruv, where are you taking me? I have to get home to watch catfish.” She asked, flicking her hair back and he laughed once more. “Bruv?” He said in between his giggles. “Okay my pookie wookie buddy bear, where are you taking me?” She said, fluttering her eyelashes at him which made him burst into so much more laughter.

“Since you want to know so badly, we’re going to Cartier to get our wedding rings.” He smiled a toothy grin, turning off the ignition of the car while looking at her stunned expression.

“…what?”

taglist: @non-stop-imagines @folkloresthings @tispys-blog @userlando @lorarri @thisismeracing @thatsdemko @myescapefromthislife @slytherinjimin3nthusiast @jamie2305 @like-fire-love-blog @sugardontbesweet @simpfortoomanymen @mauvecherie-writes @queenshikongo3 @eugene-emt-roe @deepgothfiremuffin @18754389 @cherry2stems @anubisnoir @goldsainz

dividers by: @cafekitsune

faceclaim for nadia: @/unclewaffles_ on ig!

all pictures from pinterest and ig!

#☆ ‧₊˚ saint’s media pen #lewis hamilton #formula one x black reader #x black fem reader #f1 x reader #x black reader #formula one x reader #f1 x you #lewis hamilton x black reader #lewis hamilton fanfic #lewis hamilton fic #lewis hamilton x reader #lewis hamilton x oc #f1 x black!reader #x black oc #lewis hamilton imagine

[terrainofheartfelt]

It's not seasonally appropriate, but do you have any winter dair headcannons? I'm yearning for snow right now.

Nothing makes me yearn for wintry things like the dead of July, just like nothing makes me yearn for summery things like the dead of February. Ah, the duality of man….

Ok here goes:

Dan has a Lorelai Gilmore level obsession with snow, the first one of the year will make him wake Blair up in the middle of the night so she’ll at least come to the window and bask in the awesomeness. Those nights when it’s just about to snow Dan always stays up late working to keep vigil. 

Blair swipes Dan’s clothes literally all the time but especially in winter. If she’s not at work, or going out, or seeing people, then she’s at home in his sweaters and socks, because they are always warmer than her own lounge wear. 

Blair is a very good skater and Dan has no skill to speak of whatsoever. As Nads astutely pointed out in her dairis xmas fic, Dan saw the ice capades when he was five and freaked out, so he refused to try in those formative years. Which is just to say, on the ice he has all the grace of a baby deer. When Harold and Roman are around (either them visiting NY or dair in France) he will try for 15 minutes, and then he and Roman will hang out and chat on the bleachers while the Waldorfs do their thing. 

Dan definitely gets injured once and Blair Freaks (bc hospitals creep her tf out), but once the pain meds hit Dan is extremely entertaining. You’re pretty. No like, you’re so pretty. He proposes at least three times and twice she reminds him they’re already married and the third she just says Sorry, I’m taken and he gets so SAD

The Humphreys have a super secret cocoa recipe that they share with NO ONE and though Blair would almost always prefer tea, she loves it when Dan gets in a Mood and makes it. 

Snow days don’t get called much in New York but there’s a storm one year that shuts the city down. Blair goes stir crazy on day one without being able to work and then proceeds to jump from task to task and project to project to keep herself busy while Dan just watches from his chair like it’s a tennis match. 

They keep up a Scrabble marathon for two days, just keeping game after game going while they do other things. They even play an Italian round and a French round (guess who wins which)

When they finally venture out there’s an absolutely brutal snowball fight because they’re both competitive to a fault. Dan claims injury again but Blair says he had it coming. 

Blair always has an office or a thing to go to, but Dan works from home, which means if the weather is gross he doesn’t really need to leave the house, which is all just to say Dan is very susceptible to seasonal depression. So Blair pays especial attention like in February when it’s gray and the sun hasn’t been out for weeks and Dan starts to get more and more lethargic she’ll put on her queen B game face and insist that she needs him to go run this errand, or there’s something she needs him to bring up to her office in the middle of the work day, or that they need to go see this exhibit, or to that party, pleading and pestering and poking until he goes “ugh FINE” and gets out of the house. She’s diabolical [affectionate]

Somebody kinda already wrote this fic, but once every five years Dan gets smacked with seasonal laryngitis. It makes both of them a teensy bit crazy. 

Blair likes the beach better in the off season so they always take a wintertime trip to the Hamptons. Dan calls it weird but he does think it’s kind of nice. No crowds, no hordes of day drunk, guiltless rich to interrupt their walks on the shoreline—Blair love bundling up and going to the beach, Dan calls it her BBC miniseries impulse (bc those guys are always staring at the waves in the wintertime in their lil parkas tryin to solve a murder). Blair also opens Dan to the magical experience of Sex By The Fireplace in their Hamptons lodgings. 

#this was so fun ty for sending!!!! #i just *clenches fist* LOVE hc asks :) #gg hcs #dair #asks #insistonyourcupofstars

[malka-lisitsa]

PSA

Adding this to my rules bc I've finally figured out if I do that then ppl will just... idk see it instead of me having to explain over and over, but!!

My ass is VERY dyslexic and I proof read my posts and stuff but sometimes I can literally read the same thing 40 times and only see it was wrong the 41st time. I tend to switch letters around and youll see

"teh" "nad" "Motehr" and variations of several other words quite often- I apologize I literally just do not comprehend theyre wrong till way later. I some how managed to type "it'2" on my OC blog and I LITERALLY DIDNT NOTICE so like. LMFAO what the hell me?

Im sorry, if it bothers you like super bad plz just message me and be like "Hey you fucked up some words lol." and Ill be like "bleh sounds like me."

As long as youre not a dick about it I promise Im always going to be super cool if you come to me asking about something I wrote. No biggie.

I give myself a headache a lot with the dumb shit I do.

#The one and only... Sort of: OOC

[weatheredleatherhat]

Hi! How’ve you been doing? Noticed you haven’t been active in a bit. How’s your health, have you been drinking enough water?

Well hi there!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you all, but thank you so much for taking the time to ask me. I really do appreciate it, and I have been checking in on this blog once in a while, just not posting.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to let y'all know what's happening, so I don't leave you in the dark. Basically, life has decided to kick me fair and square in the nads. My maternal grandparents (who I'm extremely close to) have both been ill, with my grandfather being very seriously ill and is still in the hospital. We don't know what'll happen there yet, but hopefully things change on that front.

Then my health took a bit of a nosedive. Basically, I have numerous health conditions that mean they cause me extreme pain and fatigue on any given day. Now my heart has decided it wants in on the action, and causes some real funky symptoms. Luckily I now have a new mobility aid; a powered wheelchair that I mentioned ages ago. And it's really helping! But basically, this blog is run by a chronically ill and disabled person, so please be aware that sometimes I just... Can't do things.

My mental health is still a bit fucky. I'm in this psychiatric unit which I go to three days a week for it, and it leaves me so drained when paired with the physical disabilities that it means my ass has made a nice divot in my bed for the past couple of years. It also means that my creativity just doesn't work, on account of my brain being like "holy shit! We need this person to survive, so send all the energy to the main bits that facilitates that! What's that, creativity? You need some resources too? Well TOO BAD." But yeah, long and short of it, I barely have enough brain power to make it through the day, let alone being able to sit down and write.

I've been thinking about it a while, and I might just let y'all know that I will be hopefully updating, but please bear with me that it'll come out slow as shit. I still have all your lovely requests, safe and sound in my inbox, but it might be that I start on my own projects first, just to get back into it. So if you sent me a request fuckin' ages ago, I'm so sorry! I will get around to it, I swear. But I need to get back into the swing of things before I do that. So I might start with some drabbles/headcanons/short pieces that really tickle my fancy first. I also have quite a few chapters of my own long ass fanfic that I wrote months ago focusing on Heisenberg with a freedom fighter, so if you wanna see that lemme know and I can get that on here to tide you over!! Also, I wanna write something for an s/o with mobility aids and how Heisenberg fuckin' adores them anyway, so that might be the first piece when I finally get the bottle for it and navigate my own internalised ableism. So yeah. Look out for that one!

Lastly, I just wanna thank my followers for being so kind, patient and gracious with me through it all. I still get notes on my pieces, and lemme tell you, that really perks me up. So yeah, you're all fuckin' awesome, and I love you. I'd smooch you all gently on the forehead if I could. I honestly couldn't do it without you.

So yeah. That's the current state of affairs. tl;dr: Hopefully content will slowly churn out, but health and life has been absolute shite. But I love you, and please be kind to yourself and one another.

All my love and adoration, Rusty~

p.s. I am really shit for drinking water, but I'm on a steady plan of diet coke, Pacific Punch Monster and golden tobacco juul pods. But I'll try, specifically for you <3

#personal #thank you all so much seriously #my brain is basically a clown show but y'all make it so much better

[nafeary]

“Past The Surface Level”

⚬ Pairing: Arthur Conan Doyle/MC

⚬ Characters: Arthur, MC

⚬ Word Count: ca. 800

⚬ Genre: mostly angst, a lot of angst, there’s also angst...hurt and comfort, I suppose? Nothing too fluffy

⚬ Warnings: Panic attacks, anxiety, mentions of battlefields/guns/blood

⚬ Event: 500 Follower Milestone Celebration [Requests Closed]

✧✎ Prompt/s: Requested by @expectroyalpurple

15. “Stay.”

✧✎ A/N: Once again, sorry for the wait. Same old “school’s a bitch”. We’ve got another failed attempt at flash fiction, but I’ll get there... someday. Now, this is mostly based on my experience with panic attacks, but I also talked to a friend of mine about her experiences (to broaden my perception of it I suppose). Also, I wrote this in 3rd person POV as it felt a lot more appropriate. I’ve talked enough now brrr pls take care everyone!

“Stay...please—”

His voice cracked like splintered wood, uneven fragments obscuring his vision as the suffocating darkness poured down from the night sky outside his window. Raindrops hit the glass panels, his chest heaving in synchronisation. An arm came around his torso, as though it was attempting to guard him from the influxes of water, threatening to pull him beneath its surface.

Arthur couldn’t fathom how vulnerable he was being.

In fact, he hadn’t planned to ask—no, beg—her to stay, yet his body seemed to act on its own, pushing the plea past his lips before he could swallow it.

Shivering ever so slightly, he cast his gaze away from the floor and towards the form occupying the portal of his door. She’d just come to his room to ask him whether he’d like a cup of coffee, but he’d already sunken to the bottom of the ocean—he was unable to act like nothing was happening. He couldn’t even remember what caused him to descend this spiral of fear and dread—it was all so sudden.

Abruptly, abyssal flecks where starting to spot his vision. It was as if she was being swallowed by darkness, the shadows creeping their taw-like claws around her form with every wave of trepidation shocking his core.

“Ar...”

Arthur was certain he’d heard her voice, but the waves crashing against his ears obliterated any sound trying to pass through. His nails dug into the flesh of his arms, but before he could draw blood, someone tucked his fingers away from his skin with just enough force to halt that. He would have shoved the person, hurt the person, if it weren’t for the irregular beating against the palm of his hand.

“Ar...Arth...”

The swirling water was interrupted by a booming echo, followed by the unmistakable scent of sulphur and metal. Tears created ugly blots on his shirt, his chest growing tight as bile rose in his throat. Anything but these memories—

“Arthur!”

He jumped when the set of hands squeezed his own, causing his leg to his something hard. And now, with fear welling like a wadded lump in his throat, he was just about to reach for his gun—which strangely wasn’t there—when her voice came through. His hands, still enveloped by her own, came to rest against a soft surface, an irregular rhythm beating against his palm. Primal fear willed him to shove her off, but she kept a tight grip on him.

“Arthur, it’s me. Can you hear me?” Her?... Yes, the woman he’d recently befriended. He nodded, his tears still continuously dripping on his heaving chest.

“Good, I’m here, with you, in Comte’s mansion.”

...the mansion? Right. The mansion. He was here. Not in Pretoria.

Once he could finally focus his sight onto you, he saw her forehead dropping against his, her cool skin a pleasant sensation contrasting the heat and sweat he was bedaubed with.

“Try to follow my breathing, okay?” He willed himself to synchronise with her, every intake of air harsh and shallow. Ever so slowly, the air scraping against his throat became more pleasant, and the tears eventually stopped flowing. He didn’t know how long they’d been sitting there, waiting for his breathing to return to normal. Yet, all energy had left his body; thus, he couldn’t help but collapse into the chair he was sitting on. He was utterly drenched in sweat, his knee pounding unpleasantly (he must have hit it against his tabletop earlier).

While he was assaying to get his composure back, she rambled on about various and miscellaneous topics, as though she was assuring him that he was truly and without doubt within his room, in Comte’s mansion. ‘Mozart must be in a good mood, the song he’s playing is such a sanguine melody’, ‘I hope the rain stops soon, I still have laundry to finish’... her babbling was a welcome distraction.

Arthur absentmindedly noticed that she was holding his hands against her chest, her heart, as if to anchor him to reality, to pull him out of his ocean of terror.

“I’m sorry you had to see this,” he uttered, his lids falling closed.

Her soothing voice rang out again, “Don’t be. I’m glad I was able to help you.” She still didn’t let go of his hands, instead deciding to commence her talking, “Perhaps you should change, Arthur. You might catch a cold if you don’t take off your wet clothes.”

Heat rushed to his cheeks, but unlike before, it was a delightful feeling, enveloping him with downy feathers. He was still shaken up, but it distracted him from the unpleasant state of his body—she never failed to calm him beyond compare, after all.

“Are you hoping to catch a glimpse of me, perhaps?” A cocky smirk hang from his lips, although it must have looked rather pathetic, considering just how drained he was.

“N—no. In fact, I was going to bring you a glass of water... why do you always have to act like this.” With a small sigh, she turned around to leave.

Arthur called out to her before she could exit the room. “Luv?”

“Yes?”

He flashed her the most genuine smile he could manage at that moment. “Thank you.”

Tag list of the most wonderful sweethearts: @juminly @kisara-16 @sweetlittlemouse @thesirenwashere @nad-zeta @delicateikemenmemes

#ikemen vampire #ikemen series #ikevamp #ikemen fanfiction #ikevamp fanfiction #ikemen scenario #ikevamp scenarios #ikevamp arthur #ikemen arthur #ikevam arthur #tw: mental health #ikemen comte #ikevamp comte #ikevam comte #ikemen mozart #ikevam mozart #ikevamp mozart #dialogue prompt

[iotona]

Love

Hey again, I wrote something! And don’t ask why I keep coming up with ideas that include pets bc idk either. It’s Arthur x reader, 1500+ words, and fluff/romance? You won’t cry that’s all I know, I think? Thanks for giving it a look!

Love; a word that Arthur had almost forgotten. A one syllable sound that warmed the hearts of many and for others, indescribable pain. Long were the nights Arthur spent at the pub, downing as much alcohol as his body would allow, and entertaining any pretty skirt that so much as flashed him a darling smile. If he wasn’t out on the streets, then he would recluse to his room at the mansion living off of only bitter coffee and the sting in his back that reminded him of all the guilt and shame he carried over the years.

Recently, Arthur tossed in bed for entirely different reasons, obsessing over the tingling in his belly every time he thought of you. When you walked through the door, love came with. It certainly didn’t make itself prevalent right away, oh no. He didn’t feel it when he had the privilege of meeting you, and he surely didn’t see it when he tried to scare you off. But a slow burning feeling that first took his heart by surprise when you had flashed him a smile. It was a small grin like any other pretty lady he took to bed, why would this be any different? Maybe it was the context of his joke, maybe it was the dim lighting of the mansion at night, or the smell of the food you made just for him after his days of writing in solitude. Arthur couldn’t put his finger on why his chest suddenly felt lukewarm and his stomach tingled, nor did he really try, but soon found himself finding love everywhere he went. 

Affection oozed out of every cup of coffee you brought him, seeped into the smell of his clothes that you left folded on his bed, and blinded him with every outburst of laughter you blessed him after each cheeky jest. Time spent in his room became less with each day, the dark demons of his past quickly suppressing under the weight of his newfound feelings. Chasing this high, Arthur spent endless nights awake in bed rethinking every interaction between you two. He often planned his days to conveniently intercept yours and you gladly obliged to have his company. And when you agreed to be his little assistant in your free time, ohh did his heart do a million flips. 

Arthur’s interest in you soon became adoration. Reverence ruled his thoughts when he watched you work. Your intelligence to solve puzzles, your empathy to communicate and relate, your drive, persistence, your intuition to know what was fishy and what was not impressed him. With all his playfulness, some days Arthur wasn’t sure he’d get through a case without your point of view, but he’d never tell you that. In fact, the one instance you made a small comment about the look of frustration on his brow, he fixed himself with a handsome smile and teased about something or another to deter your focus.

Eventually, your own fondness began to show. Small blushes at Arthur’s praises and nicknames. The way you leaned into even the smallest of touches. How you went out of your way to ensure Arthur had hot coffee and a fresh snack while he wrote. Lending an ear to his stories and giving ample feedback. 

Arthur was positive this couldn’t last forever, nothing good and pure ever does. So when the darkness latched onto his legs and held him there, he was sure you wouldn’t come calling, even as it enveloped him once again. He no longer made an effort to leave his room, to eat, to drink, to socialize, or to find you, the precious woman from the future. He was confident that was it, you’d return to through the door soon and he would continue the torturous life he was meant to endure. 

Little did the sad man sitting on his overly worn writing chair realize how stubborn you actually were. He had underestimated you, entirely, until the day you came knocking his door down. It was sudden, he didn’t have an ounce of mental energy to understand the earful you were giving him over his astonishment. Something about how cold his coffee must be, and how he couldn’t possibly feel any better in a room so dark. You threw open his curtains and glared at him with a look that had him ashamed and shaking in his Oxford’s simultaneously. And very much like a lost puppy, Arthur agreed to accompany you to the town for bread, something so simple yet so domestic. You swore his wide bewildered eyes never left you that day and ever since then you constantly use that ammunition to your own device.

Then you did something so beyond his comprehension that even now, as he sits in the parlor of the mansion playing a game of chess with Theo, his mind keeps wandering to the night before instead of the bet that lay before him. Like many times before you had accompanied Arthur and Theo to the pub. The night was full of laughs and jokes, drinks to go around, as was per usual. You thought your heart would explode when Arthur suggested a dance and without waiting for your response, tugging on your hand. The music was upbeat, jovial and one too many spins mixed with liquor had you melting into his form when he pulled you close for a slow careen back and forth. You thought, in your inebriated state, how your legs would have probably given out if it wasn’t for Arthur’s hold on your waist and the other holding your hand close to his heart. Buzzing with not only drink but by how captivated you were with the man standing in front of you, you giggled and babbled about how his nose tickled you from brushing so close to your ear. You were so tipsy that when Arthur looked at you with a faint blush and the intent to apologize that you rose to your tip toes and pulled on the lapels of his jacket into a sweet kiss. A kiss that didn’t last long, but enough to deepen the red on his cheeks when you finally pulled away. The rest of the night muddled together, and you hadn’t seen each other since retiring to bed for the night. 

Arthur wasn’t afraid of what lay before him now, but his anxiety was evident by the way he bounced his leg up and down during the match, eyebrows furrowed in thought, and eyes boring into the table. Theo thought maybe it was due to the way he was severely losing this game, but when did Arthur ever lose? That itself was incredibly strange, but Theo being the man to not pry did not ask. And thus they continued moving the pieces until Arthur’s inevitable loss. 

Again the tiny statues were placed on small white and black squares, to their start. A pawn here, a knight there, Arthur’s gaze was caught by the flash of a bright green skirt out the nearby window. Abruptly standing up, he was completely enamored by the sight before him. Fresh, white, sparkling snow lazily fluttered through the air, remnants of this morning’s storm, adorning every surface outside. The serene and peaceful scene contrasted the way you were running through the mansion’s lower cut bushes and abruptly crouching behind one. If it wasn’t for the spirited look in your face as you peaked around the corner he would’ve thought you were in danger. But who exactly were you running from? Arthur received his answer when two furry four legged dogs came barreling around one side of the building and stopping to smell the air. 

Vic was the first to get a scent, and most importantly following your footsteps in the snow. You realized your failure in not being able to cover your tracks and slowly crouched behind another layer of bushes in hopes to throw off the pooch. The crunch of your boots over the fresh snow alerted the bi-colored dog, his small legs immediately running in the direction of the noise, tongue out and ears flapping in joy of the game, just like a certain owner. In an attempt to flee you stood to try and run back, only to find a yellow haired lab blocking your path, foiling your plans. Accepting defeat as both animals ran towards you in glee, you dropped to your knees to deliver many pets and kisses. Little did you know the amount of force King accumulated running towards you, he tried to stop but slipping across the fresh snow until his body collided with yours. If you had learned anything from Isaac’s Laws of Physics it was that a large dog using you as a cement block was not going to end well. You both tumbled into the white fluff, each dog wasting no time in pressing their little wet noses onto your face and neck. The sniffling and small licks had you elated, tickling your sensitive skin, and filling the air with your loud shrieks and giggles. 

“Oi, are you going to take your turn?” A particularly annoyed voice sounded from behind Arthur, to which he could only hum in response, give a smooth smile, and hustle out the door to you. 

Arthur knew then that any trace of doubt slowly dissolved. He was utterly, completely, and wholly infatuated with you. Every fiber, every bone, every time his heart beat, it was all vibrating with yearning for you. He finally knew and understood the meaning of love. All from you.

If you made it this far, thank you! Feedback is always welcome. :)

tagging: @kisara-16 (thank you for proof reading <3), @nad-zeta

#arthur x reader #ikevamp #ikemen vampire #ikevamp arthur #ikemen arthur

[izabellaramirez]

Full Name: Izabella Taylor Ramirez

Nicknames: Iz, Izzy, Ramirez 

Age: Thirty-Eight

Date Of Birth: November 17th, 1983

Gender Identification: Cis Female/ She & Her

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual 

Relationship Status: Separated/It's Complicated

Residential Area: Kitsilano

Home Town: United States Of America (Wilmington, North Carolina)

Places Lived: New York City, New York (Brooklyn, Williamsburg) & Atlanta, Georgia 

Occupation: Content Creator of all things Beauty, Fashion, Wellness, Fitness & LifeStyle along with being a Freelance Photographer 

Positive Traits: Outgoing & Creative

Negative Traits: Emotional & Lonely

Length Of time In Vancouver: Two Years

tw: child death, tw: lukemia mention, tw: depression mention 

On November 17th back in 1983 the Ramirez family was completed. Amanda nad Joseph Ramirez had welcomed their third and final child into this World at 6:30 in the morning, with two older siblings named Joseph and Viviane impatiently waiting for their new sibling. Another beautiful baby girl was born and everyone wasn’t surprised one bit. They decided to name her Izabella Taylor Ramirez, and that was a name you were going to want to remember. The moment she opened up those beautiful brown eyes and starred up at her mother and father, they were hooked and in love and knew that she was going to be something special. They knew that somehow she was going to change the World a little bit and impact a lot of people.

Izabella’s childhood was pretty much perfect. She had two older siblings whom she loved, parents who were her best friends and a dog that she took care of. Living right smack on the the beach in Wilmington, North Carolina it helped that the girl was a fan of salty air and sea hair. She would spend hours when she wasn’t in school in the ocean, swimming until the sun went down. Her parents had taught her however that education was the most important thing, and even though Izabella was labeled as the Wallflower early on throughout her school years, she studied hard and always got straight A’s. She made a good group of friends and never really felt alone while growing up. Izabella was really overall a happy kid. Aside from surfing, her hobbies included volleyball as she was placed on the varsity volleyball team in high school, she was also a fan of reading and writing. Even if Izabella was considered as a wallflower, the girl was a big part of her school and wrote for her schools newspaper and was on the yearbook committee. It probably wasn’t the best clubs to be apart of, but Izzy didn’t care. In her Junior year of high school when you’re supposed to know what you want to do in life, Izzy figured out she really loved writing. Being editor in chief for her high school newspaper really helped with finding that passion. Getting along with her older siblings, it did help that they were supportive when she had told them she wanted to get into photography and create a blog. On her free days when she wasn’t so busy, that’s what the brunette was doing, she was blogging and becoming obsessed with the World within it.

She soon got into fashion, and watched her blog soar with the content she was posting. When Izabella graduated from high school with honor roll and other achievements, she decided to move out of her small town of Wilmington to New York City. She got accepted into FIT, and majored in Fashion Design, and minored in Film and Media. In college, Izzy pretty much kept to herself but again made a good group of friends and kept to her studies. She didn’t party much, but whenever she did people around Campus knew who she was due to her blog.

Never really getting used to the popularity, Izabella realized she was more than just a blogger. She was a content creator, and had decided during her Senior year of college that she wanted to take this job seriously. After researching more about the job she’s found a passion for, Izabella’s followers grew and grew and grew. She would have never expected it to grow this much. Though Izzy was proud of it. Her blog and YouTube channel was a huge success.

When graduating from FIT again with honor roll and those other achievements, Izabella realized she still loved photography. During the time she’d come home, she decided to take it up upon herself to find a job that included photography. It was the summer time throughout her teenage years, where worked at her local Aquarium. Taking up the job again, this time she became a photographer for them. However, after a few years of living back home, Izabella figured it was time to move again but this time she moved to some place she’s never been before to get a fresh start, Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia was somewhere she always saw herself settling down in.

It was a new city, with a new home and new people. She was twenty-five at the time, twenty-five and trying to figure out the rest of her life. Trying to figure out other little side gigs she could take on. Izabella was always a busy bee, she liked that about herself. She liked the hustle. Atlanta was good for that kind of mindset. Still going strong with her blog and youtube channel, it wasn’t until she met the love of her life and that’s when everything changed. At twenty-eight, being successful and loving Atlanta, she was set up on a blind date by her best friend who also happened to be her assistant. Izabella wasn’t looking for love. She never even dated. Sure, she’s dated while she was in high school and college here and there but nothing serious. Though meeting Nicholas Sanchez had changed her life. He was tall, dark and handsome, just her type and Izabella fell in love with him. She fell in love with him the moment she met him. The two dated for a few years, and at thirty-three they got married. It was late in the game but they didn’t care. At thirty-four, they started trying for a baby, but the two were having trouble. Finally after a couple of failed attempts at IVF, they welcomed their miracle baby at thirty-six and named her Violet Grace Sanchez. Things were perfect for them. Izabella, Nicholas and Violet were perfect, happy and healthy. That wasn’t until at nine months that things took a turn. At nine months old, that was when Violet was diagnosed with Leukemia and the doctors had told Nicholas and Izabella that she only had a little bit left to live.

It had devastated & destroyed them. The news about Violet, their miracle baby had devastated Nicholas and Izabella and the two were on thin ice with one another. They fought about it constantly. As time went on when Violet got sick, she just got worse and worse. The doctors tried everything, but unfortunately just right after her first birthday, Violet had sadly passed away. It destroyed Izabella. The loss of her baby girl had destroyed everything in her. It ruined her marriage to the love of her life, Nicholas and the two had decided to separate. They weren’t divorced. They separated. It was time that the two needed. Time apart to figure things out. They were both lost without their daughter. Their beautiful baby girl.

Izabella always loved to travel and always dreamed about starting over in another town, and that’s exactly what she did. Still being a content creator, and now a freelance photographer, it has been a couple of years since Violet’s passing and Izabella made the decision to move to a different Country. Living in Vancouver, Canada for two years now, she’s been working at another Aquarium and continues with her blog. She continued with her Youtube Channel and is active on instagram and twitter, she has gained a lot more followers and is still passionate about what she does.

#(about.) #(intro.) #vcintro #tw child death #tw lukemia #tw cancer #tw depression

[julie-and-the-himbo-ghosts]

*They* Are My *Crocs*

I’ve written another fic!! This one was loosely inspired by this post from @willex-n-waffles bc I told her I would write smth based off of it and then I Didn’t. And then I wanted to post it on her birthday bc I can and that also didn’t go well so uh happy late birthday Lizzie!! Sorry this is so off the post that you originally made agsjdjdkm

Fun fact: I wrote like,,, 3/4 of this this weekend when I should’ve been writing my NAD+ theory speech so uh. hopefully y’all like it and it was worth it lmaoooo

Warnings: none except my bad jokes and quite a bit of mild swearing

Read it on ao3!!

Julie dragged her hand over her face, internally screaming. She loved her boys, she really did. But sometimes, their collective chaos and obvious lack of a braincell was just a lot. She could think of a dozen different situations like that in just the past two weeks, but today was just something else.

At the moment, she was trying to do her calculus work in class - emphasis on trying. Her idiot ghost kinda-boyfriend - some might call him a himbo, and she fully agreed - was sitting on the edge of her classmate’s desk, harassing her nonstop. Usually, she ignored him and that only provided a few awkward situations, but calculus required focus. Detangling all the numbers and letters - and really, that amount of letters had no right to be in math - was hard, himbo ghost kinda-boyfriend to ignore or no.

“So then,” Luke continued his rambling, and he was either oblivious to her pain or just didn't care, “Alex literally looked at me straight in the eyes - hah, a word no one’s ever used to describe him—” She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. That would just encourage him. “—and said, ‘Being a jerk is so 90’s, Luke. Get woke, Luke.’”

That one got her a bit, she admitted, and she had to catch her laugh in a little scoff. Alex is really onto something, she thought.

“And then he turned to Reggie and said, ‘My ghost friend taught me that,’ like he had actually moved at all and I couldn’t hear him.”

She kept working on her problem, doing her best to keep ignoring him. It wasn’t like she needed to look at Luke to know that he had one of his patented pouts on his face.

Suddenly, he pushed himself off the desk he was sitting on, swinging his legs up and through her desk, until half his feet poked through her desk before swinging back down. The instinct to jerk backwards was strong, but the fear of being noticed by any of the other (living) people in the room was stronger. Plus, she knew that Luke would never hurt her on purpose. She cared about him enough to know that.

“ Julieeee,” He whined in that voice that made her forget that he was actually 17 and not five, “why don’t you talk to meee?”

“Because I am in class, Lucas.” She ground out, no real bite in her tone. Hopefully.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him hop off her poor classmate’s desk and bend over hers, looking at her calculus. “What are those ?”

Without thinking, she responded with: “They are my crocs.” Oh, God. Just like her ghost bandmates, Vine might be dead, but the references definitely were not. Just that once, she regretted watching so many Vines with Flynn when they were in middle school. Random laughter could just be explained as “oh, just Weirdo Julie,” but a random Vine reference in the middle of class - and the second half, no less - that was a little harder to explain.

Thankfully, a quick glance around told her that no one had heard her.

“Hey, Jules, what the hell?”

Well, nobody except Luke.

She realized several things at once. One; her Vine references were definitely incomprehensible to Luke, a ghost from the 90’s. Second; Luke was looking at her with the same fondness and amusement that he always had, but at the moment it was mostly overshadowed with complete and utter confusion. Third; (and arguably the most important one) there was a gold mine of trolling to be found with the boys and gen z humour. She filed that one away for later convenience.

“Julieeee,” He drawled, and she knew he wouldn’t leave her alone without an answer.

“It’s just a Vine,” she muttered. Man, was she pushing her luck with this whole “talking to a ghost no one else can see in a crowded classroom” thing.

And even then, she’d realize later, her teacher was definitely catching on to the fact that someone kept talking in his class, but he didn’t exactly know who yet.

“Oh, like those jokes that Willie’s always teaching Alex!” He sounded so proud of himself, and she would’ve found it endearing literally any other time.

Like she said, she loved her boys, but sometimes they were just too damn much, and she might’ve snapped. “Lucas whatever-the-hell-your-middle-name-is Patterson, if you don’t leave me the fuck alone I will exorcise your ass this time.” Did she really know how to do an exorcism? No. Would she ever really try if she did know how? No, of course not. But she wasn’t above making empty threats to try to get Luke to leave her alone. She wasn’t really mad-mad at him, but she sure as hell was frustrated.

Unfortunately, Plan Get Rid of Luke failed, and he gave her one of his signature charming grins, which eased some of the frustration building in her chest - not that she’d ever let him know that. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, and she shuddered to think of what Luke could get away with, armed with that power.

“You’d never exorcise me.” She refused to look away from her worksheet and at Luke, but she knew he was grinning cheekily. “You could never. I have it on good authority that you think I’m a bop.”

A laugh bubbled up in her chest, and she desperately covered it up with a cough. But a quick, covert cough to cover up her laugh turned long and drawn out, until she sounded like she was about to hack up a lung. A sheepish glance around told her that not only were Luke and her teacher staring at her with a lot of concern, but so were half of her classmates. Great. Just perfect.

“Are you all right over there, Ms. Molina?” Her teacher, Mr. Wolf, asked.

She managed what she hoped was a reassuring smile and directed it at him. “Oh, I’m fine, thanks. I just, uh, had a little something in my throat.”

He just looked at her, unconvinced. “Alright then.”

Luke himself was just laughing at her, not even trying to disguise it. “Shut up.”

Little shit had the nerve to look innocent. “I didn’t say anything.”

Mr. Wolf was giving her another Look again, and she cleared her throat.

“You know, I think I will get a drink of water.” She smiled, hoping he’d ignore her weirdness today. He just nodded.

The chair made a loud, scraping noise as she pushed it out, and it made her wince internally when even more kids looked up at her from their worksheets. She walked out the door with her cheeks warm and Luke following close behind her.

Thankfully, mercifully, the hallways were empty, so she could finally talk to him without having to worry about looking batshit insane.

When they finally got a safe distance from any classroom doors, she stopped and punched Luke’s arm.

“Wh—Hey! What was that for?” He complained, his voice an octave higher than usual. Good.

She smiled sweetly at him, her smile that usually made him melt. “That was for harassing me while I’m trying to do my classwork, you ass.”

Luke just gave her his Puppy Eyes™, and she rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Jules. It’s so boring without you.”

“Why don’t you hang out with Alex and Reggie? They’re, y’know, not in class.”

Luke groaned. “Alex is ‘hanging out’ with Willie, which is code for they’re on a date. Reggie was watching sitcoms with Ray, last time I checked. You know I can’t do boredom, Julie!”

Yeah, okay. That was fair. “Ugh, okay, fine. Just don’t bug me in class. I’m trying to study for my next calculus test, and having my himbo ghost boyfriend trying to make me look crazy in front of my entire class does not help, contrary to popular belief.”

“Is that one of your fancy 2020 words again?” Luke whined, his face screwed up in confusion.

“Yeah,” She laughed.

“Okay, you have to tell me what it means now.” His face was set, like he was determined to get the definition out of her, but he also had his pleading Puppy Dog Eyes™ again.

“You know the word ‘bimbo’?” Luke nodded. “So, that, but—” She waved her hand vaguely around Luke, hoping he’d get it.

Realization dawned on his face. “Hey!” His voice had gone up an octave again. “I resent that!”

She couldn’t help it, she burst out into laughter. “It’s affectionate, Luke. Also, you’re a jock, pure of heart, and dumb of ass. I mean, if the shoe fits…”

Luke’s face screwed up into a pout and he cried in protest again. She couldn’t help but giggle.

“Listen, I’ve got to get back to class,” She said reluctantly. “But once I get home, we can do some songwriting together, if you want.”

It was like a switch flipped in him; his face brightened immediately. “Okay.”

She laughed softly again and left a soft kiss on Luke’s cheek before she turned around to head back to calculus. “See you later, Luke,” She said, with a gentle emphasis on the ‘later’.

“Bye, Jules,” Luke responded, and she didn’t need to look behind her to know that her pure of heart, dumb of ass, ghost definitely-boyfriend had a soft, dopey smile on his face.

#kates writing again #lizzie tag <3 #another fun fact I named her math teacher after my 6th grade math teacher bc I HATED her lmaooo #julie and the phantoms #julie molina #jatp #luke patterson #julie and the himbos #juke #jukebox #jatp fic #juke fic #jatp crack

[mst3kproject]

The Phantom from 10 000 Leagues

I found this movie online while looking for From Hell It Came (which I haven’t yet found – someday I will and then you’ll all be sorry) and it looked bad, so I checked out the details.  Turns out it stars Kent Taylor from The Crawling Hand, Cathy Downs from The Amazing Colossal Man, and was written by Lou Rusoff, who was behind It Conquered the World, The She-Creature, and… oh god, he also wrote Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow.  This is gonna suck goat nads.  I must watch it right away.

You shouldn’t picture me groaning when I write stuff like that, by the way.  You should picture me giggling like a maniac and rubbing my hands together with glee.

A monster is killing people at sea near an incredibly bleak and depressing California college town, and the bodies and wrecked boats it leaves in its wake are scorched by radioactivity! Washington sends Agent Grant to find out what’s going on, and he soon discovers that the Pacific College of Oceanography is positively overflowing with suspicious characters.  There’s the reclusive and paranoid Professor King, who is working on weird experiments in his locked laboratory.  There’s King’s assistant George, who follows him around and hides in the bushes to watch what he’s doing.  King’s secretary Ethel blames the professor for the death of her son and wants revenge, and George’s girlfriend Wanda is a foreign agent.  Not to mention the visiting Dr. Stevens, a radiation expert with an unsettling habit of turning up just in time to discover the bodies.  Someone among this motley crew has created a sea monster… and someone else is planning to sell it to the highest bidder!

You know how some movies save their monsters until the last minute, in order to build suspense?  Or because what we imagine is always scarier than what we actually see?  Or because the monster sucks and they’re ashamed of it?  Or some combination of the above?

Phantom from 10 000 Leagues is not one of those movies.  Before we’re even a full minute into it, the monster has appeared on screen in all its ridiculous glory.  Stevens calls it a hideous beast that defies description but I think I can make an attempt.  It looks sort of like the lovechild of a saber-toothed tiger and the Horror of Party Beach.  There’s a ridge down its head and back like an iguana and a poorly-camouflaged window in its neck so the dude inside can see what he’s doing.  The whole costume is also rather buoyant, and the actor is having to work hard to stay underwater.  Sadly, this beast remains lurking in the depths and never shambles out onto the beach to menace sunbathers, which is the only thing it would have needed to make it a perfect bad movie monster.

The creature is not the only nuclear threat in this movie… or even the silliest one!  During an investigatory dive, Stevens discovers a glowing patch on the seafloor which he says represents an ‘activated’ uranium deposit with the potential to form a naturally-occurring death ray!  We finally get to see this in action when stock footage of a ship passes over it – and turns into a different ship that immediately blows up! I’m just sad this only happens once. The glowing stone itself is represented by a mirror with a light shining on it in underwater shots, and by the reflection of the sun when seen from the surface.

So the effects are not special and make an already silly threat even more hilarious.  What about the story?  Like all cheap monster movies, the focus of The Phantom from 10 000 Leagues is not the creature killing people but the investigation into it.  There’s a large number of potential monster-makers here, which could have made the movie a bit messy – but by the time the words The End appear, we know who all these people are, how they’re involved, and what they hope to accomplish.  Even the women are given distinct motivations and personalities, although those fall neatly into the ‘maiden, mother and whore’ tropes I’ve discussed in the past. The dialogue is not exactly subtle, but it seems like I can’t wholly blame Lou Rousoff for Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow.

It’s also nice that, despite the preponderance of White Men In Suits (Stevens and Grant both walk along the beach in suits and ties at all hours of the day and night), the characters all look different enough that I can tell them apart!  None of the cast are great actors, with a lot of stilted or awkward line deliveries, but then, a lot of the things they’re saying are completely ridiculous, so I probably can’t lay that entirely at their feet.

Unfortunately, the plot of Phantom From 10 000 Leagues is rather unfocused, and like so many of these films it’s not sure who its main character is.  It seems like either Agent Grant or Dr. Stevens, who are each conducting some kind of investigation into the goings-on, ought to be the protagonist… but both are introduced in contexts that make them seem potentially suspicious.  Dr. Stevens is actually significantly more suspicious than Grant, because when he first turns up he gives a fake name, and later proves to have actually performed experiments with mutating sea life in the past.  Yet for much of the movie, it’s Stevens we’re watching, as he cozies up to Professor King and flirts with King’s daughter Lois.  He actually gets far more screen time than Grant, with the latter sometimes being out of the movie for long enough that the audience kind of forgets he’s there.

Stevens and Lois’ love story is, as is probably inevitable for a movie of this kind, completely bland.  Kent Taylor and Cathy Downs have no appreciable spark between them, and one gets the uncomfortable impression that he’s about twice her age. The movie never offers even an approximate age for either character, but Lois is still unmarried and living with her father, which in the 1950s suggests she’s in her early twenties.  King describes Stevens as a ‘young man’ but between his appearance and his impressive academic credentials he’s obviously not, and when I looked up the actors I learned that Taylor was forty-eight when The Phantom from 10 000 Leagues was made, while Downs was twenty-nine.  That’s… well, they’re both adults, but he’s still old enough to be her father, and the younger we assume they both are, the worse the two decade gap gets.

Once we actually get to know the characters, the solution to the mysteries is fairly obvious, but this lets us spend some actual time with these men and find out what they think about the situation.  Stevens, who’s been down this road before, wants these terrible experiments to stop before any more people get hurt.  King, hearing about it for the first time, is more excited about what he might be able to learn by building on Stevens’ work. This represents an interesting inversion because if you’ll recall, King is supposed to be significantly older than Stevens (though actor Michael Whelan was actually born only five years before Taylor).

Usually knowledge and wisdom are both associated with age.  This is a very old trope and has some fairly sound logic behind it: the elderly have had longer to learn and to experience.  In Phantom from 10 000 Leagues, however, we have the older Professor King excited by the ground-breaking discoveries made by a younger scientist and wanting to learn more about them, even when the (supposedly) younger Stevens warns him about Tampering in God’s Domain.  Each assumes the role their ages might make us expect of the other.

This is reflected in their respective fields: depending on how you define it, oceanography is as old as mankind.  Humanity has been mapping the seas for as long as we’ve known how to sail across them, and marveling at the monsters we pull from its depths for as long as we’ve been catching fish.  That is the Professor King’s domain. Stevens, on the other hand, is a specifically nuclear scientist. Nuclear physics technically begins with the discovery of radioactivity in the 1890’s, but it seemed like a new and scary field in the 1950s, as the development of atomic weapons forced scientists to take a closer look at the phenomenon’s effect on living tissues. To King, who is an expert in another field, the possibilities of this relatively new work outweigh the potential consequences.

As sloppy and poorly-made as Phantom from 10 000 Leagues can be, this contrast between Stevens and King does make it a movie with something to say.  It of course has the standard moral for a fifties atomic monster piece, about paths science is not meant to tread, but it also wants us to think about that connection between age and wisdom.  On the one hand, King’s interest in Stevens’ work tells us that you’re never too old to learn something new.  On the other, just because somebody is young doesn’t mean they have nothing to teach. If King had taken in Stevens’ wisdom along with his knowledge, a lot of suffering need not have happened.

Even if you’re not into that, the crappy monster, the bad acting, the ridiculous science, and all the sneaking around and backstabbing that goes on makes Phantom from 10 000 Leagues plenty of fun watch.  It’s much like Beginning of the End in that it ticks all the MST3K boxes, while remaining coherent enough that you can enjoy the actual story along with the badness.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #phantom from 10000 leagues #it's beginning to look a lot like fishmen #50s

[wayward-mikaelson]

Winter’s Doll-Chapter Nine

Word Count: 1887

About: Nadia regrets her one night stand with Thor. Steve and Nadia talk about Nikola’s belongings. Bucky somewhat flirts with Nadia.

Characters: Nadia, Bucky, Wanda, Steve, Thor (Mentioned) and Natasha (Mentioned), Timothy Ketch (OC) 

Warnings/Trigger Warnings: Language, mention of death, and mention of corrupt government

A/N: Sorry this took for-freaking-ever to get out. It’s going to be that weird, odd short part...sort of a filler. 

*This work contains content made for the 18 and up crowd. Please read at your own discretion.

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Nadia woke up the next morning not remembering how she even got to her room. Hell, she barely remembered a majority of the night. She recalled skipping out on the debriefing and drinking an entire bottle of vodka while talking to Thor. Bits and pieces sort of pieced together like a dream. There was some kissing and touching but, Nadia couldn’t remember anything else. 

“Oh shit,” she hissed as she rolled over and felt a twinge of soreness between her legs. Then she remembered what Thor and her did. It was more than touching and kissing--It was one hundred percent pure filth. “Oh God,” she whispered and ran her hand along her face. 

Nadia got out of bed and noticed a folded piece of paper on her nightstand. She didn’t want to open it but, her curiosity got the best of her and she grabbed the paper and opened it. In really fine print the short note read:

Lady Alekiev, I’m sorry to have to leave before the sunrise. I received word that my brother, Loki, is what you mortals say up to no good. I hope to make it up to you whenever I am on Earth next.

“Oh, Thor,” Naida whispered as she closed the note. Nadia wasn’t going to lie, the note was sweet, but Nadia knew that she couldn’t. Yes, she thought that the God of Thunder was attractive, but she wanted nothing more. “I’m sorry.” 

Nadia showered and got ready for the day. She knew that she would need to meet with Steve about last night's mission. Part of her still didn’t want to, she knew that Steve would want her to open that crate. All her thoughts about it the night before, flooded her head once again. She popped some Advil and chugged a few glasses of water before heading out. 

Nadia stared at herself in the mirror and saw a faint, dark circle at the base of her neck. Getting a closer look, she realized it was a hickey. “Damn it,” she groaned as she reached into her drawer to find a hair band and did her best to cover it up. Now Nadia hoped that she didn’t have anyone to spare with. 

Nadia finally made her way out of the room.

“Hey,” Bucky called from behind her. She turned around to see his eyes bright and a smile on his lips. “I went to see how you were last night but you weren’t in your room. Steve told me not to worry about it because you were with Thor.”

Nadia slightly jumped at the name Thor. Did he know? Oh God, she hoped not. She didn’t want to admit it out loud, but she wished it was Bucky last night and not Thor. Nadia’s little crush had turned into huge, blown feelings. 

“Yeah,” Nadia rang her hands together. “We drank a lot. He helped me to bed I guess, cause I have no memory of going to bed.” Nadia took notice of how his eyes furrowed when she said Thor helped her to bed. It disappeared just as fast too. “I’m fine, Bucky.” Nadia smiled.

“Good,” Bucky smiled back. “I worry about my best girl sometimes.”

Nadia scrunched up her face. “Just sometimes, Barnes?” she teased. She didn’t let it slip past her that he called her his best girl. Maybe another timeless term like when he calls her doll? Nadia didn’t care.

“The other times I know that you have your ass covered and would beat a mother fucker down,” Bucky chuckled. 

“Without hesitation,” Nadia began to walk towards the kitchen and Bucky followed.

“Without hesitation and no help needed.” Bucky had leaned down, Nadia could feel the closeness and heat of his breath by her ear. Then just like that, it was gone and he was gone. Nadia felt a shiver run down her spine.

She watched as he walked away and metally kicked herself that it wasn’t Bucky with her last night. Nadia has had a few one night stands before. She’s had her few where she’s regretted it. But it didn’t come close to what she was feeling right now. 

Wanda had been right.

“What was I right about?” Wanda asked when Nadia entered the kitchen. She was making toast and by the look on her face, Naida knew that it was meant for her. “I made you something small.” She slid the toast to Nadia who willingly took it.

“I’ll tell you later,” Nadia took a bite and eyes Bucky in the corner of the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee. She knew that he would be listening. She didn’t forget that little face he made when she said Thor’s name. “I have to meet with Steve about last night.”

“Okay,” Wanda chirped but you could see the curious look in her eyes. Then her head snapped towards Bucky. “Dude, calm your thoughts, I do not need to picture what you’re picturing right now.” 

Before Nadia could ask, Steve came into the kitchen. He was still in his gear and it looked like he didn’t catch any sleep at all. He poured some coffee and turned to Nadia. “You ready?” Nadia could hear the tiredness in his voice.

“Did you sleep at all?” Nadia asked standing up. She had finished her toast and went to pour a cup of coffee only to have Bucky hand her a cup. “Thank you,” Bucky smiled and winked at her. The action surprised Nadia and she felt her cheeks get a bit warm that she quickly turned away from him back towards Steve.

“Not really, there was a lot to take apart from last night,” Steve sipped on his coffee. “There was a beeping sound in your brother's crate and we had no choice but to open it.”

Nadia nodded. “I see,” she said calmly, taking a sip of her own drink. “I’m guessing you guys went through it?” Nadia wasn’t mad. How could she be? She was just glad it was open.

“I’m sorry, Nadia,” Steve started to say. “When we got that beeping sound to stop, we saw a journal of his opened and it talked a lot about what you said before. Nat and I got so caught up in going through things…”

“It’s okay,” Nadia reassured Steve and mindlessly placed her hand on his arm. She also didn’t miss the look from Bucky in the corner of her eyes. His eyes zeroed in on the action that Nadia quickly dropped her hand. “Should we get this over with so you can sleep?”

For the next two hours, Steve and Nadia went over all the notes he and Natasha made last night. There names of soldiers that Nadia served with. There names of officers, like Timothy Ketch, were a part of this group. Nadia’s name was linked with a group of soldiers that were ready for the next phase. A phase that Nadia never saw. Among those, there were charts Nikola drew. There were random little notes. 

This was worse and much more dark than Nikola had made it out to be that night. He wanted to protect his sister and it brought tears to Nadia’s eyes. There were letters to the president that were obviously intercepted along with letters to home. There were letters to Nadia that were never addressed. Each letter was opened and Nadia read each and every one of them.

Including the one for Fury.

“We didn’t touch that one,” Steve had said as he held back a yawn. “If it’s anything like the others your brother wrote to the government, then…”

Nadia snapped her head up from the paper in her hands. “That’s it,” Nadia pulled all the letters written to government officials. She looked at all the names and they were all top officials. Then she read the one that Nikola wrote to Fury. She saw that the date was posted two days before his death. 

While Naida read it, she couldn’t contain the expressions on face. What Nikola wrote, it was horrifying and made her sick to her stomach. When she finished reading it, Nadia slammed the letter down and covered her face. 

“He was scared,” Naida finally said after a few minutes. “He thought someone was following him and that someone could be watching him and his computer. He discovered his letters being intercepted. He took a chance with this one thinking if he dropped it off at a random letter drop, you guys would step in and help. He even gave information on how to get into his computer remotely.”

Steve took a seat and pulled the letter towards him and read it over. “Do you think that there are top officials that know about this? Maybe they gave the order to kill your brother?” 

“It’s possible, did you try his computer?”

Steve’s blue eyes looked deep into Naida’s. “It was blank. We got into it but it looked like whoever this group is, they wiped it clean.”

Nadia laughed a little too hard that had Steve’s head tilting sideways. “Nik was clever at hiding things. So was I. Let me see it.”

For the next hour, Nadia worked at getting into Nikola’s computer. When she finally got in, she just about cheered. “Nik, you son of a bitch, that was tough.” Nadia looked up and saw that Steve was drifting off. “Steve,” Nadia’s voice startled him awake. “We can do this later tonight, but I got in. I emailed files to myself just in case this thing crashes. It’s pretty slow.” 

Before Steve could say anything, from the corner of Naida’s eye, she saw the entire computer start to spark and smoke. Steve jumped up and pulled the computer away from Nadia and chucked it out the open window. 

Nadia was horrified. Not by Steve throwing the computer, but the computer itself just catching fire. She didn’t know what to say while she stared at Steve. Nadia knew that Steve was asking those same questions as she was in her own head. What could she have done to make Nikola’s computer start to fry itself?

Then her phone rang.

“Agent Alekiev?” She answered not recognizing the number on the screen.

“Ah, Nadie,” Timothy Ketch’s voice rang in her ears once more. Her stomach dropped and looked at Steve. He nodded his head and Nadia switched the phone to speaker. 

“What do you want, Timothy?” Nadia asked more harshly than she anticipated. “How did you even get this number?”

Timothy chuckled and it made Nadia even more heated. “Nadie, I have my ways. Now,” Naida could picture that cocky smile she hated. “Why don’t you listen to me for once and back away from this. Or we would be forced to kill you as well.”

Steve took the phone from Nadia’s hand. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Well, in that case, you and that team of your have made the list.” Then he hung up. 

“I’m sorry,” Nadia whispered. “I feel like this is my fault.”

“Don’t ever be sorry,” Steve handed Nadia her phone back. “Your brother died doing what he knew was right. He’s a hero. Now,” Steve held back a big yawn but failed. “I’m going to get some shut eye. We can get at this tomorrow.”

#Winter's Doll Story #Shy's Marvel Masterlist #Bucky Barnes x OC #Bucky Barnes #Bucky Barnes Imagine #Bucky Barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #Bucky Barnes Daily #Bucky Barnes story #Marvel #Marvel story #Marvel Imagine #Marvel daily #Marvel fanfiction #MCU #MCU story #MCU imagine #MCU daily #MCU Fanfiction #The Winter Soldier #White Wolf

[theowriteswhatever]

Zuko Story That Has No Title Part 2

So I already wrote most of this story, because my friend asked me to. But I’m just going to release it in chunks so I don’t overload your dash.

-Your pal, Bubbles

I told no one that I had saved Zuko all those months ago. I knew they’d probably be pissed at me for saving the life of someone who repeatedly tried to kill us. 

But I couldn’t just watch him die. He was still human.

Now we were in Ba Sing Se and everyone was bored of waiting to talk to the prince and was still trying to figure out the mysteries of this weird town. 

Katara had taken Toph, a new member of our group, to a makeover day. Aang was helping with some kind of zoo. And Sokka was wandering around probably thinking about Suki. 

I had heard of this nice tea shop in the poorer area of Ba Sing Se, but I wasn’t really allowed near there. So I devised a plan.

I put my (Y/H/C) hair in a braid and then into a bun, which I had never done before. I did my make up differently too. I then found a knee length green dress with flowers in my closet and put it on with a black cardigan. I looked completely different and knew Joo Dee wouldn’t be able to stop me. 

I poked my head into the hallway and made sure no one was there. Everyone was gone. Even Momo. I made my way out of the house and onto the monorail system. 

Once I had arrived at the immigrant slums of Ba Sing Se, I made my way to where the supposed tea shop was. When I arrived at the opening to the tea shop, I practically gasped. I ran to hide outside the shop.

Zuko, with no ponytail, was working with his uncle around the tea shop. He seemed angry to be helping, which wasn’t out of character. 

I wasn’t recognizable, so I knew I could go in. But I wasn’t sure I should. But I took another look and the tea looked so good. And Zuko didn’t look as focused on regaining his honor, but more focused on helping his uncle and forcing himself to be upset about it. 

I came out of my hiding spot and walked into the building to sit in the front corner so I could make a quick escape if need be. Zuko approached me and I could tell he was forcing a smile. It took all my effort to not laugh.

“Hi, welcome to our tea shop. What can I get you?” He said in the most bored voice imaginable.

“2 chamomiles please.” I responded with a smile.

“2?” He asked, “But you’re alone.” 

“I thought maybe you could sit with me for a second. Unless you don’t like chamomile. Then I’ll take 2 of whatever you like.” I said as if it was no big deal.

He obviously thought it was a big deal. He practically stumbled backwards at the offer and his face went red. Even though half of it already permanently was. My face grew a little red too, but I stayed calm. He was still kinda in shock and it was a little adorable. Just a little bit.

“You don’t have to.” I said through chuckles.

“N-no it’s ok. I w-will. And um. . .chamomile is fine.” He said while stumbling over his words. He then rushed off to the back and started to make our tea. 

I could tell from where I was sitting that his uncle was laughing at his awkwardness and nudging him teasingly. I laughed a little bit, because not only was it sweet, it was unexpected. We had always seen them as ruthless people that were practically evil, but I had to remember they were still humans with emotions. All humans could love, except Azula. 

He headed back and set the tea in front of me and the chair opposite mine. He sat down and almost fell in the process. I giggled at it, but covered it with my nad. He smiled awkwardly and looked down at the table in what looked like shame.

I took a sip of the chamomile to hide the continuous laughter and my eyes went wide. “Is it bad?” He said in a panicked voice.

“No! No no no. It’s delicious. It’s probably the best tea I’ve ever had.” I said quickly so he wouldn’t worry. Lord knows this boy doesn’t need more worry in his life.

He cracked a near invisible smile. I had never seen him even come close to curling his lip, but right now I could tell that he was actually. . .happy. Which was weird. But nice.

“What’s your name?” He asked while scratching the back of his neck nervously. I had almost forgotten that I didn’t look like (Y/N) anymore. I hadn’t thought of what I would say my name is.

“Leeane.” I stammered out. He chuckled a little bit and I got scared for a second. What if he knew it was actually me? What if he knew and was about to give me a burn identical to his? “Wh-what’s funny?” I whispered in fear as I looked down at the table like Zuko had done just seconds ago.

“I just thought that was funny, because my name’s Lee.” He said with a smile. I completely forgot that he would be in disguise too. Although it was hard to not recognize his scar. Not that I would mention that. I let out an unintentional sigh of relief, but turned it into a laugh to play along. I looked up and became more confident. He smiled more when he saw me look up.

“I thought you were going to make fun of my name for a second there.” I lied. He chuckled a little bit and I did too. 

“No. It’s a um. . .it’s a beautiful name.” He said nervously before clearing his throat. I smiled and put my hand on his while I leaned forward.

“Why are you so nervous?” I asked with concern in my voice. 

He was honestly worrying me with how awkward he was. The group had always seen him as heartless and evil, but evil people can’t be like this. He can’t be so worried about messing up without caring a little bit. He had to care about me just a bit if he’s so shy and awkward. That or he doesn’t care and we just never realized how quiet he is. I guess when he isn’t talking about honor, he doesn’t have much else to say. 

“I’m not a people person.” He stated quietly and in an ashamed voice. I felt bad for him. Which while it’s normal for me to care for people, I doubt he was used to being cared for. Except Iroh always treated him like a son. But Zuko needed someone to treat him as something else. A friend.

*   *   *

Zuko and I sat for what felt like hours and talked, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for not telling him who I really was. But he wasn’t honest with me either, so I guess we were equal.

I eventually had to leave before the group got worried about me and had two missing group members to look for. I politely excused myself and promised to come back soon. Zuko stood at the door frame and waved goodbye before his uncle wrapped his arm around him and led him inside. 

Once I made it onto the monorail, I let my hair down and brushed through it to look remotely normal. I would probably look weird to them in green compared to my usual blue and my makeup was still a little different, but I doubt they would care. Katara might, but that wouldn’t be unusual. She always found something or someone to worry about.

I got back to the house quickly in an effort to avoid Joo Dee and any Dai Li. I finally made it without anyone stopping me and saw everyone gathered in the living room. They all looked exhausted and sad. Whether it was Appa, the impending war, or whatever happened today, I couldn’t guess. Katara looked up and smiled before running towards me to engulf me in a bearhug. “(Y/N), where have you been? I was worried sick!”

“We were worried sick.” Toph corrected in a sassy tone. Katara rolled her eyes and let go. 

“Why were you worried? I was fine.” I reassured all of them. But I could tell Katara wasn’t buying it. My change in clothes and make up also hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“We didn’t know that. Now where were you?” Katara demanded. 

“I just explored town a little bit, like all of you did.” I said in my “as-a-matter-of-fact” voice. But Katara still didn’t seem convinced. She raised one eyebrow and took another look at my personally unique outfit.

“Then why are you dressed like that?” She pressed.

“I wanted to explore the slums and didn’t want Joo Dee stopping me. So I disguised myself as someone else.” I admitted sheepishly. I knew she’d be mad that I went where I wasn’t supposed to go, especially in such a mysterious city. But I wouldn’t regret what I did. 

“You can’t do that! The Dai Li could find you and we would have no idea. They could’ve captured you or hurt you or. . .killed you! You have no idea how dangerous that was.” She screeched with her hands placed firmly on her hips.

I wanted to run off in an effort to not upset her. The last thing I wanted to do was make it worse. I wanted to maybe stay silent and not make her more mad. Everyone was watching and waiting for what I would do and I didn’t want to let them down.

But I couldn’t this time. I love Katara. I do. But she was being ridiculous. She was acting as if this was the worst thing in the world. And she was looking at me like I was the scum of the Earth. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to say something and this time I would not just apologize.

“Really? I go across town to go and explore a town we have nothing better to do in and then I’m in danger! We’ve been traveling the world going from one life-threatening situation to the next and the one day I can do something fun or nice or even remotely enjoyable, I come back to be told that I was in danger? I’ve been in danger from the second this all started and now’s the point where you decide to mention it? I had my first day in months today where I didn’t have to worry about getting burned, or crushed, or drowned, or being hurt by some kind of crazy freak and you decide to tell me I was in danger!” Katara was taken aback by my anger and looked like she felt bad. I took a deep breath and continued with more of a calm tone. “I appreciate that you care about me Katara and I know you mean well, but I finally had one day that I legitimately enjoyed. Please don’t ruin it for me.” 

Katara looked down and kicked some kind of rock around on the floor to distract herself. I sighed and made my way to my room. 

I shut my door and locked it and then began to wipe my makeup off on my sleeve. I took off my dress and looked at my old southern water tribe gear. I didn’t want it right now. It didn’t feel right. I crawled into my bed into just my undershirt and shorts and sat there staring at the ceiling. 

Soon enough I heard Katara knocking on my door, but instead of answering the door like I know I should have, I rolled over and forced myself to sleep.

#zuko x reader #zuko imagine #zuko #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla x reader #katara

[popculturebuffet]

Wonder Woman 1984 Review “The Monkey’s Paw Wish of Superhero Movies”

Before we dig in,  I just want to properly frame how much of a fucking disapointment this film was to me. It was thanks to the first film that I became the massive Wonder Woman fan I am today. Thanks to that movie and it’s accompanying sale, as Comixology likes to put sales on to tie into things as you’d expect, I tried Greg Rucka’s run on the title.. and quickly bought the second volume and will buy the third which didn’t exist yet at some point, as it’s easily one of my faviorite comics of all time, one i’ll undoubtly cover, and one that throughly sold me on the amazon princess, and throughly defined what she is to me: a compasionate warrior. Someone who WILL fight, who will take on the bad guys without hesitation, and who WILL kill if she has to.. but also someone whose compationate. Who will genuinely try to reform foes, who only kills as a last resort and not as a first option like some adaptations and the new 52 seem to think. She’s someone who in said run went out of her way to help her old friend and currently brainwashed foe Vanessa Kapetlis get cured of being the silver swan. She’s someone whose wholhe purpose for writing a book wasn’t money but simply to spread her people and her gods teachings. Someone whose , kind, noble, badass, smart and easily every bit the pure soul superman is. The run sold me on the character throughly and made me a fan to this day, one currently pouring thorugh both Rucka’s second run, and George Perez’ equally good run and one who hopes the upcoming dc relaunch means she’ll stop swapping writers every few months and get the run she deserves.  I just wanted to sell how much I treasured the character now thanks to the first movie and thus how hyped beyond hype I was for this movie. It had a great cast, a great setting, cool trailers.. sure they didn’t show off the plot but it had to be good right? This couldn’t be say.. a giant, overly long mess of tangled plots, padding, terrible pacing, unfortunate implications and pedro pascal devouring the scenery in a manner galactus would be proud of right? 

Well that’s what we got. After a year of hoping it’d come out some way this year, after having it delayed and after a year where MANY projects I loved were necessarily delayed due to covid... I got what I wanted. I got the movie i’d been hoping to see for months and months and months... and just like the wishes in the movie itself... it went horribly, horribly wrong. What I expected was something great as the other recent DC Movies.. what I got was a huge disapointing mess capping off a huge disapointing mess of a year. So while i’m a bit late due to contracting Covid and all the “FUN” that comes with that, I still felt like tearing into this film to figure out why I didn’t like it, what good parts it did have, and what the hell went wrong here. Spoilers and full review after the cut. 

The Plot:  Unlike my usual summaries I do, i’m keeping this one short and susicnt for those who haven’t seen the film: After a cold open flashback to diana’s childhood that was an omen of the boring padding to come, we get our main plot: It’s 1984 and Diana is acting in semi secret and helping out where she can. After some artifact thefts she takes a job at a museum and meets meek nerdy nerdy and office punching bag Barbra Minerva. The two strike up a kind of friendship, with Barbra wishing she could be as cool as diana especially after Diana saves her from being assaulted by a creepy random asshole. 

Diana hasn’t moved on from Steve Trevor’s death in the previous film, and thus when encountering a mysterious stone wishes for him to come back. Barbra likewise wishes fto be just like diana. Meanwhile Maxwell Lord, a conman who has sold a bunch of bogus oil plots, plots to steal the stone himself and does so by seducing Barbra, and instead of wishing for more wishes, wishes to GRANT THEM instead, thus overnight making his buisness a sucess and using the inevitible monkey’s paw consequences of said wishes to benifit himself.  Meanwhile Diana is reunited with Steve who for some reason has hyjacked someone elses body, and even has sex with Diana in it which is all kinds of creepy and wrong that we’ll get into soon enough. Meanwhile everyone now notices Barbara.. and she’s also gaining Diana’s powers but slowly loosing her empathy.  Diana eventually finds out with Barba’s help that the stone is dangerous and it’s wishes backfire horribly, while Max continues to gain power with his as Diana chases after him, slowly loosing her own power as her consequence for the wish. You know instead of the fact her lover took someone elses body and life and they have to live with that. Eventually Max gets the power of a soverign nation and the satilte codes off the president, and plans to broadcast himslef the the world to offset his own wish consequence, his body slowly failing, by taking other people’s health.  Steve urges Diana to renounce her wish and give him up to get her power back, she reluctnantly and painfully does so, and then goes after Max. Barbra however has sided with max and has him give her even more power turning her into a cat person as you’d expect. Wonder woman and the now fully cat Cheetah battle, it’s really cool looking, but Diana barely wins. We do get a decent climax with Diana not fighting max, not that she can with how powerful she’s become, but using the lasso of truth to get him to see the damage he’s done, give up and go back to his son. The world is saved Diana is moving on and also Linda Carter is there for some reason. 

So now you have  general idea of what happens, I can dig into the films faults, and it’s one or two strengths, one at a time, ONE AT A TIME. First off the film’s biggest issue by far and one that wouldn’t come through in the recap Padding and Pacing: THIS FILM DID NOT NEED TO BE 2 hrs 41 min

I said it once before but it bears repeating now:

THIS FILM DID NOT NEED TO BE 2 HOURS AND 41 MINUTES LONG

I am a firm belivier a film should be as long or short as it needs to be. If it’s under the standard 90 minutes, that’s cool, if it’s say three hours like avengers endgame that’s cool too. After the theater it’s easy enough to watch it in chunks, and sometimes a film just NEEDS that space and scope. 

This film.. did not need that. This is not the cumilation of 10 years of storytelling, as slapdashidly planned as it was till phase 3, this is a film that feels painfully long to watch due to how padded it is. You could’ve cut those 40 mintues from this film EASILY and while you wouldn’t of had a good film, sadly, you would’ve had a way more enjoyable cheesy superhero movie. I”m tackling this one first because it just.. oozes all over the film. For every great and memorable bit in the movie and every questionable one we’ll get to, for every gloriously so bad it’s good moment... there’s about 10 minutes of scene that did not need to be there. It slows down the film to a crawl and given the original had pitch perfect pacing I do not get how Patty Jenkins screwed this up. 

I do think Patty Jenkins is a good director. I did like the first movie, I do think a lions share of the credit goes to her writing and direction for that one. And a LOT of the sequences in this film are utterly goregously shot and fun to watch. I also, even if I don’t like this film, am extastic she forced the stuido to pay her more money to work on the film, as she deserves as much as any male director, it’s bullshit they tried to short change her, and again she was the reason the first film was so good. She deserved equal fucking pay for making Warner money hand over fist. 

But I also say this because i’m disapointed in HER. She CAN do better, she already did the first time and the only real down spot, the spotty cgi climax, was not her fault. And hell here she did get the climax she wanted, and wrote one hell of one. I”ll go into it more later but the finale of this movie from the pitch perfect fight with cheetah, dodgy face work nonwithstanding, to the final speech to the world is just gorgeous to watch. Even in this mess of a film there are some really good really tightly shot sequences that i’ll get to.. but their broken up by padding and padding nad more padding. This film is bloated, it needed to be edited down but she clearly REFUSED TO, gunshy after the whole Ares thing last time... and thus shot herself in the foot repeadtly. I sitll have some hope for the next movie and Rogue Squadron, but Jenkins rightfully lost any blind faith I had in her this film would be good just as the directors of it chapter 2 lost it by.. making a terrible sequel to a great movie. Given this happened in the span of a year you’d THINK i’d of prepared myself for that.. but no. Sadly.. no. 

But back to the point of this section: the film is just really padded. A lot of it is just scenes going on longer than they need to but there are some specific bits, some recurring others all in one go, that just really get tedious and pad things out. Let’s rattle em off shall we? The Opening: Now the opening is gorgeously shot, and it is nice to see Thymesicra again.. but the sequence is twiece as long as it needed to be, often just devolves into frantic shots of running.. and really dosen’t need to be here. I love Thymesicra, I love Hipolita, I love this damn beautiful island.. but we did not need it for this one. I THOUGHT it was there because the climax would be Max and Barbra invading the island or something.. but no. It has nothing to do with the main plot other than selling the film’s message “Nothing good comes from lies and shortcuts” which is a good message.. but the film already conveys that well. For all it’s flaws it well conveys the fact that the easy way to get what you want ALWAYS comes with a cost. That you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need. So we didn’t need 10 minutes of amazons running around just to make a point that the film already makes and it wreaks of Warner wanting to put the amazons in the film because “that’s what people expect.” 

Steve Trevor Dinking Around for 20 Minutes: I will admit as dumb as it was.. I really loved the Steve Trevor 80′s fashion show. Oh it was dumb.. beyond belieif.. but it’s REALLY hard to hate a good 5 minutes of chris pine putting on stupid 80′s outfits. I do think like a lot of this film it was longer than it needed to be and it defintely needed a good catchy 80′s tune alongside it, just go full bollocks if your doing this, but otherwise it’s just hard not to joy, even if in a so bad it’s good kind of way, this kind of lunacy in a major stuido film

That goodwill died quckily as the next 15 goddamn minutes, 5 for the fashion show which while i liked it did not need to be in the film as long as it was, were just steve getting used to the new world of the 80′s. While I like the idea of Steve now in Diana’s roll as stranger in a strange land, instead of using it cleverly or having him ruminate over all his friends being dead Captain America style or .. a billion other things we could’ve used this time for if you really needed it, we instead just get Steve and Diana farting around for 20 minutes and Chris Pine making stupid faces. Chris Pine deserved better than this. He seems to be a steerling person in his personal life and I seriously doubt he’s done any movie bad enough to have earned this.. I mean he did do Star Trek: Into Darkness but NONE of those films problems were his fault. It’s just really, REALLY terrible, and even more boring in padded in places than this film but without the good bits or the haminess of pedro pascal to make it even remotely watchable. Point is i’m doing a blind look, and this is blind I just came up with tihs bit while I was writing and have not looked at chris pine’s filmography before, to see if there’s anything really bad enough to justify him being put through this buffonery. 

Turns out .. yeah yeah he did. Two films in fact are just bad enough that he did in fact sign on to something bad enough to justify this. There were one or two other contenders but Princess Diaries 2 was earlier in his career, Into The Woods much like Into Darkness was not his fault and honestly if I were offered a part in a glitzy hollywood adaptation of a beloved musical i’d sign on too without heistation, and while Wrinke in Time is kind of a mess, Chris Pine is easily one of the best parts of it.  No the two films that make him DESERVE the goofy terrible fish out of water stuff are this means war, a film I saw throughly savaged by Matthew “Film Brain” Buck, which is about two douchey cia agents competing over a woman without thinking that MAYBE the choice is hers, and also setting up CONSTNAT SURVILENCE over her and basically stalking her to sabatoge each others dates. And while I did mention that review, because it did give context.. even from the trailer I could tell this was sexist, bro douchey, and stupid and wanted no part of it. So yeah signing on this this, post star trek’s success where he had his pick of projects and was at the hight of his fame.. is inexcusable.  The other is just... the kind of embarassing dtv film a person does before they get famous but is so horrendously premised that I still can’t give it to him. Like I get needing work, I do comissions 10 for movies now and 5 for tv show episodes and issues of comics if you were curious, so I understand that.. but even at his most desperate... why would you possibly take... this?

.. wait is that Stephen Tobowsky in the credits? Good god his career is depressing some time.. but at least unlike chris I GET him being in this as he needs money and despite his long and storied career, has to take what he can get. Wheras Chris was a promsing young star who while needing a break, CAN’T of thought this would be remotely sucessful and can’t of paid that well. But since the poster might not convey the premise.. the premise is Chris is a Blind Man looking for love set up on BLIND DATES. 

It sounds like a fucking Adam Sandler film premise. I’m honestly suprised he hasn’t remade this film with himself, david spade, or rob schinder, whose apparently on good terms with him again, god help us all. And DON’T. TELL. HIM. He still hasn’t made that worst film imaginable he promised for getting Snubbed for Uncut Gems. Yes I know, Hubie Halloween came out but that was in production long before the promise and not that bad. Not great, pretty average, but not terrible. Point is do not tempt Adam Sandler to remake this film. He still owes us the worst film he can muster INTENTIONALLY, as Pixels, Rediculous Six, That’s My Boy? That was all him trying to make  GOOD movie. Be afraid be VERY afraid. The other point is this premise is just really bad, REALLY offensive to blind people to make being blind into a stupid punchline, and I.. will probably watch this at some point because i’m bafflingly curious about this terrible terrible thing Chris Pine probably wanted us all to forget about, but will now never have that luxury as long as I live. The Fireworks Scene: This one is just..really dumb. Like really dumb. Every bit of this scene was dumb and we could’ve just.. had them get on a plane to egypt like normal people or steal a jet off screen. So to get to Egypt, Diana and Steve steal a jet which Steve can somehow fly despite decades of progress in how planes work at this point and him not knowing what radar is. He also gets shot ot at because Diana FORGOT, somehow, that radar exists and didn’t tell him. They also steal a jet instead of just taking an airliner or her calling in a favor since while it’s been a good few decades and Etta is sadly long dead, the candy family probably knows and loves her well enough and probably still has some military personal who could pull some strings and bring a jet over from london. It’s a stretch.. but not much more than “let’s steal a plane and hope we don’t die. “

Why this is in the padding section is because we then get a way too long bit of the two flying through a field of fireworks.. which also apparently existed LONG before steve was even born, so I donn’t quite get why he’s so shocked. And while i’ts not a bad CONCEPT for a scene the fact the two are being persued by the military for stealing a jet AND have to get to egypt so urgently they had to steal the jet in the first place lest Max do something horrible, which he ends up doing anyway... to take 10 minutes to gaze at the pretty fireworks. It’s just.. a waste of time in a movie that wasted already too much time. 

Some of the barbra scenes: We’ll dive more into Barbra in a bit, and this is easily the least offesnive on this list, but a lot of the scnees of her discovering her new power could’ve been compressed. There are seperate scenes of her discovering she dosen’t need glasses anymore and picking up a ton of weight at the gym, while in 80′s workout clothes because of course she is. Both of those could’ve been one, either having her pick up something heavy like nothing casually or just having her glasses fall and break at the gym, have some cute guy help her up to help sell the wish making her feel noticed, and realize she don’t need em. It’s minor in comparison, but a good chunk of her plot badly needed to be streamlined. 

And those are just the main offenders. The film’s pacing in general is just attrocious. It takes half an hour for the plot to move along most of the time.. there’ ssome good character stufff but they could’ve better weaved it into the plot and in some Barbra scenes and most of Max’s they DID. It’s just for the most part there’s a lot of repttition of stuff we already knew and figured out and it takes forever for the plot to move to the next phase until the last half hour. And by then my niece was already in the kitchen playing with her new slime having enitrely checked out, my mom was asleep and my brother just wanted this film over already and both of us were only hanging in out of obligation. This film blows most of what little potetial it has taking too damn long to get to the point. As I said it’s fine for a film to be long.. but while Endgame had laggy sections and some of it’s own problems.. it USED the huge runtime effectivey, using the first hour to both show our heroes had truly lost, then to set up the post-time skip world and just what had become of our heroes and their arcs for the movies. The second hour is mostly the time heist, a fun tour through the mcu’s history that also helps progress arcs and the final act is basically one MASSIVE glorious battle featuring every single hero who hadn’t suffered a non-snap related death in one of the best big action scnenes i’ve ever seen. It was well crafted and it’s slower moments were for character stuff and not because they felt the film needed to feel as long as the rest of the year had felt.  But while it was the film’s main flaw and the main reason i’ts bad instead of mediocre..there’s one other massive flaw that utterly sinks the damn film and robs of it of a lot of it’s emotional weight The Character Assassination of Diana Prince:

Now we get to the part that really pisses me off one that was already kinda bad while watching but just got worse the more I thought about it: Diana’s Charcterization here. Despite being flawless in the first film.. here it’s just bad. It’s bad and it should feel bad. I can’t fathom how Jenkins lost touch so badly with the character, and I don’t think the Co-Writer Remotley helped.  The Co-Writer for this film was Geoff Johns, a dc wunderkind whose reinvented the flash, green lantern, the justice society of america and aquaman, all brilliantly. The last one was even largely the basis for his damn fun movie. I have a lot of respect for the man... but like a lot of creators he’s not immune to screwing up and has made a LOT of mistakes, the biggest being forcing Cyborg away from the titans and into the justice league not for diversity’s sake like he probably claims.. but really because he didn’t want to use John Stewart instead of Hal Jordan, who he has an odd obession with i’ve never gotten, something the incoming writer of Green Lantern, Geoffry Throne, turns out to have complained about for years, as well as apparnetly giving out about Jordan SO MANY TIMES, that an entire artcle was made revealing this... and I’m perfectly fine with that as it should be clear I don’t like Hal Jordan all that much and while he’s been in some good runs, the other earth lanterns are FAR more intersting than him and far more unique. Thankfully the new series seems to be focusing on multiple of them and while hal seems to be getting some focus, Simon and Jessica are the main stars of modern day. So hell yeah to that. Let’s get back to the actual point. 

The point being that one of his weaknesses as a writer.. is he really dosen’t get Wonder Woman. He just dosen’t. During Justice League he wrote her as a violent warrior and during Infinite Crisis, as expertly pointed out by LInkara during his review of it a few years back, he had her “not understand what being human is” .. despite this being at the SAME TIME as that Greg Rucka run I mentioned, meaning at the time of Inifnite Crisis, she had her own embassy for her people set up, had written a book, and had just spent a good chunk of that run trying to free an old friend who’d been brainwashed into a psychotic killing machine from her mechanical inhancments killing her and driving her insane. She willingly blinded herself with fucking snake venom to save the world from Medusa’s gaze and avenge a child THEN went on a long and arduous quest for the gods simiply to ressurect said child, with no intent of getting her sight back and only getting it back because Athena willingly gave hers up for being so noble. She is someone who is compatsionate, empathetic and noble. Not a kill happy warrior who loves fighting and blood. She fights because she has to, she does not hesitate and she does kill when needed.. but she is not some weird enigma to humanity. She’s throughly human despite being made of clay and not raised among regular humans. She’s a person, and Geoff just dosen’t get that. He get Superman, the flash, batman, other heroes just fine. He redefined aquaman well like I said. But for some damn reason he just dosen’t get Diana and can’t get a good grasp on her and while a good choice of co writer for practically any other dc movie and a good choice to right the ship for the dceu, he was the second possible worst choice to handle this character and likely is at least partially responsible for her character taking such a nosedive. By the way just in case you think better of him for only being second worst.. this is the worst. 

Yes that actually happened.. thankfully not in the main canon and likely because Frank Miller really REALLY needs to get some help. 

Point is he was a bad choice and while I still give Patty Jenkins some discredit for helping with this, I do feel Geoff easily could’ve agreed with or came up with some of the worse ideas here without really thinking them through because this simply isn’t a character he cares about what happens to her or knows that well.  Things START fine: in present day we get a pretty fun action sequence in a mall with what my brother called Dollar Store Micheal Keaton.. but because Max was already perfectly cast, there wasn’t room for this screen legend. Plus he was probably busy shooting Morbius for.. whatever his role is there. I hope it’s the vulture. My point is DSMK is delightfully hammy and weird and helps kick up an already fun mall sequence.. while I was apparnetly the ONLY one who enjoyed this cheesy but awesome sequence in my family aside from my niece, she hadn’t rightfully checked out at this point, I still love it. It does bring up the slight problem of Diana being active years before... but given The Suicide Squad with it’s vast colorful cast of supervillians and the fact the freaking Justice Society are getting introdcued and given their gimmick even if WWII isn’t involed this time they had to have been active for some time before they presumibly vanished. My point is the whole Zack Snyder thing of “Metahumans are new and you should fear them” has been quitely retconned out and this will all likely be explained with the whole flashpoint thing... (Shudders).. not the retcon the DCEU needs a good coat of paint and unlike the XCU I dont think their going to waste a second chance, I just want a flash film that’s actually about barry and not another adaptation of a storyline few people liked ot start with. Point is that’s not really a huge issue and I prefer DIana being active than the implication she did nothing and her doing small bits of heroisim, like saving a woman from getting hit by a car or resucing pets and bigger ones like the mall just .. fell like Diana. It’s all downhill from there though. For starters there’s Barbra. It starts well: Diana is the only person to not only notice Barbra but treat her nice, and the two strike up a friendship.. which I honeslty wish was more as there was a lot of potetial there and both have great chemistry, not to mention showing Diana’s bisexuality on screen would be a really damn good move forward for representation, but that’s more on me and given how homophobic big companies can be, i’m unsuprised Warner wouldn’t let Patty take that route. 

Point is it starts well enough.. but instead of the two actually having a deep freindship and possible relationship that is heartbreaking when it’s broken.. Diana just sort of forgets about her except when she needs her for the plot, and thus what should’ve been an emotionally breaking subplot leading to an utterly heartbreaking fight at the climax.. was just Diana being a dick, taking advantage of someone, and then getting a bit self righteous when the person you basically abandoned and didn’t notice made a wish till it was too late wants to keep the one thing that’s ever made her feel special. 

It dosen’t help the comics did this whole thing better and is likely where Jenkins got the inspiration: During Rebirth Barbara Minvera was converted from a vicious ruthless bitch and a half, if still a brilliant character, to a tragic figure: one who while a bit cold and standofish, was genuinely diana’s friend, tricked into thinking she was abandoned, then became the bride of a horrifying god who punsiheed her for the “crime”.. of not being a virgin. While removing the whole cat god thing is understandable.. they removed pretty much everything that made that intresting and Rucka worked hard to make for a cliche “Nerd becomes evil” plot that’s been done a milion times nad makes dsiana look horrible.  But while this is bad.. it PALES in comparisoin to the elephant in the room here. 

No no elephant sweetie not wild pig. No.. it’s once Diana makes her wish on the magical wishing stone form the trickster god.. and brings steve back. See her bringing him back only for her to have to give him up to save the world.. that’s not bad. It’s a great way to bring chris pine back, ratchet up tension and ultimately give her proper closure for steve so she can move on.  The problem.. is HOW steve comes back and how the movie handles that. Steve comes back.. by possesing some random guy. That itself is not a bad idea, as while it’s weird, A) I’m a weirdo and proud of it so i’mf ine with weird and B) it gives us a price to the wish like the other wishes: steve comes back.. but he has to take someone else’s life to do so. Diana has to sacrifice an innocent man she dosen’t know anything about in order to get her happy ending. That could’ve lead to some great drama, with Diana realizing how wrong this is and forcing herself to give him up with Steve’s blessing, as Steve would likewise not feel right about this. He could’ve had family or a girlfriend or something that were jeaporadzied if Diana kept Steve.  The problem.. is they handled it horribly. really horribly. Diana and Steve.. almost NEVER mention the fact that he’s basically taken a life. They don’t ask if the guy is dead, they don’t ask who he was and they don’t try to find a way to get him a new body or a dying one or some other ghost can’t do it style shenanigan. And the fact i’m comparing this subplot to ghost can’t do it should tell you this is very bad. And it gets worse as the two have sex.. and whiel I dind’t think about it while watching the movie... afterwords? Yeah.. that’s.. that’s rape. The guy didn’t consent to letting them use his body. Now granted if Steve could leave the body at willand the guy was like “Sure why not” then that’d be fine.. but he has no way of consenting. Sure STEVE did.. but this ain’t his property. This isn’t his body to decide who he fucks. It’s random guy whose body he stole. Hell they didn’t even stop to consider if this guy might be gay which given Diana is bisexual makes no goddamn sense. So that’s another possible layer of wrong on this sundae of what the actual hell. I mean.. how do you bungle writing so bad your main character ends up as a rapist? That’s a special kind of incompetence in 2020 I tell you. 

It just turns Diana from a kind noble woman who looks out for everyone.. into a creepy asshole who willingly sacrifices some guy she dosen’t know, something a well written Diana would NEVER do, to get what she wants. This is not diana prince. This is “out of the way sperm bank” levels of charactera assasination” and the fact steve has to talk her into letting him go just makes it worst. Diana here is selifhs, unsympathetic and terrible and it brings the whole film down despite Gal Godot’s best efforts to try and make this work. She fails.. but it’s not on her as an actress, she’s terrific, but on the writing for Diana being so bad. She just comes off as selfish and irredemible and i’ts horrifying to see. As one last note Steve is reduced to more of a cutout this time, so any possible emotinal weight not already destroyed by the rape is entirley missing. Just good god they did Diana dirty for this one. And it dosen’t help her villians.. are done much better. Speaking of..

Barbra: A Mixed Cat Out of a Mixed Bag As the title should make clear Barbra is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand.. Kristin Wiig is fantastic. Like holy crap I had some small doubts about her being cast in the role but she nailed both the sweet put upon nerd at the start and the ruthless individual desperate to stay special at the end really well and the reason her scenes aren’t as draggy despite a lot being padding are Wiig just really sells the transformation, going from being giddy at a sudden influx of attention to feeling powerful.. to feeling dangerous and being deseprate to do whatever it takes to hold onto her power and being furious when she looses it.  The problem is.. it’s all in the acting. Writing wise the story is horribly cliche. It’s why her having feelings for Diana was a suggestion that popped into my head: that’s actually intresting. A put upon nerd who envy’s a hero but ends up instead resenting them and wanting to kill them isn’t new. Amazing Spider-Man 2, which I thankfully haven’t seen but has that plot, Incredibles, and the one that the movie steals from the most.. Batman Returns. While wanting to kill the hero wasn’t part of that one, the whole “blonde whose still attractive even before the makeover has some supernatural thing happen to her and turns into an extrovert with a cat motif who is determined to take what she wants despite the cost.” While i’ts not 1 for 1, mostly becasue Catwoman actually had a romantic relationship with the hero, it’s REALLY hard to ignore just how much it seems to curb from Returns. And I haven’t even seen the movie the whole way through, just about half, really need to, not the point. Point is, it just feels like a rehash of a better done version of the plot.  And the sad part is the comics GAVE Patty and Geoff two much better versions that could’ve followed the same path. Pre-Rebirth/Flashpoint, she was a ruthless woman from the getgo and simply could’ve been that, being friends with Diana.. but being too selfish and envious to truly let her in and thus relishing in her new power and showing off who she really was. The other, and better option for the narrative is the previously mentioned rebirth one: A sarcastic and hard but likeable woman who has had to scrape and claw to do what she loves, which is archelogy, despite her father being vastly against it because he’s a dick. Someone who through tragic misunderstanding becomes a tragic monster. That latter version would’ve fit in perfectly, having her like diana and just want to be her.. but a combination of her own inseucrites and the stone strip away her empathy and increase her jealousy and Diana neglecting her could’ve been a concious choice: Diana being too busy with steve and stopping max to see what was happening and thus be heartbroken to fight her true friend. Instead we just get.. catwoman but less good. Wiig tries her best and often succeeds but even she can’t really fix this.  It also dosen’t help that selfishness aside.. Barbra is far more sympathetic. She’s contantly put upon and ignored by her cowowkres nad even her boss, who oftne forgets she works there, and finally meets someone who seems to care.. onlyf or that person to ignore her and go off and have adventures and really horribly implicated sex. So she wishes to be like this person, to be confident and loved and able to walk in heels and strong and gets it and slowly looses who she was to it. Hell the moment where she apparently CROSSES THE LINE by possibly killing some guy.. is entirely ruined by picking the wrong target. Instead of it being her boss or one of her co workers who mockeda nd humilated her.. i’ts the same guy who tried to assault her out for revenge. She’s beating up.. a bad person. She’s doing what Diana would do in a good way..

Sure she does take a turn for the evil, after hearing about the wishing stone destroying civilizations.. she sides with max.. but she’s still more sympathetic. Her resintment of Diana which should just be the meta commentary Jenkins intended on relationships between women where it becomes competitive due to societal bullshit, instead comes off justifed. Diana abandoned her, Diana is also being selfish with her wish, diana raped a man, Diana wants Max to stop.. but has to be TALKED into letting her wish go. While Diana is trying to save the world you can’t fault Barbra for not trusting her. For someone who preaches honesty, all Diana is to Barbra is a liar. While she does side with Max who earlier manipualted her by seducing her and stealing the stone... she KNOWS he’s not a great person, and this time instead of being the used, she’s the user. She knows he can make her even STRONGER, knows he can let her keep being who she wants to be if not BETTER, and knows he needs someone on his side.. and knows he won’t screw her over with her wish since he needs Diana off his back to become powerful enough to face her. Barbra comes off as cunning, manipulative and way more likeable than the hero, instead of the tragic villian she was inteded as. If nothing else, if she shows up in the sequel I will watch it even after this one was pretty damn bad and hopefully sh’ell be better written next time to match Wiig’s hard work. Now.. i’ve saved the best for last as while i’ve compalined a lot.. there is ONE aspect of the film that is genuinely good and while I get not everyone liked it.. Is urea s hell did

Maxwell Lord: Perdo Pascal Saves this film by eating the set whole like galactus. 

Maxwell Lord.. is the best part of this movie. Easily. Unlike the other main characters, he’s written well, acted well if hammy as all hell, and is true to the comics. Part of this I freely admit is that when I heard Max was a villian here I expected none of his JLI version to survivie. I should explain.. in the comics Max is defined by two diffrent phases of how he was written; The first was in Giffen and Demattis run on justice league, which was more of an action comedy with emphasis on the comedy> There was still serious stuff and villians to face, it’s just our heroes were a bunch of likeable misfits and b-list heroes doing their best while cracking jokes and disfunctionally clashing with one another. It’s good stuff.  Max was the heart of that: a selfish manipulative buisness man who grew to like the league and rebelled against the robot intellegence that got him that far, earning him a fair spot on the team. Sure he was a sleazy, shady 80′s buisness man, but he has a good heart underneath the opprotunsitic nature. 

Come the run up to infinite crisis despite being a metahuman, he started irationally hating metahumans, claimed to have always hated them, and set up a vast conspriacty to kill em all. He also hyjacked superman, which lead to Wonder Woman being forced to snap his neck and being booed for it by superman despite the fact you know.. she was trying to stop him from killing batman and had no other cohice. The rest of the world got the clip out of context.. but even then she’d already killed months ago for the medusa thing I mentioned before, and despite Medusa only speeking ancient greek, the world, which tihs was broadcast too hence the danger of medusa killing trillions of viewers watching at home, they got the context that Wonder Woman was the good guy and was killing for good reason. It was just.. kind of stupid even if Rucka did his best with it is what i’m saying. 

Point is there were two maxes: the sleazy and manipulative but well meaning buisness man and semi-con man and the manipulative but well intentioned master mind. So the movie.. combined both beautifully. He’s a manipulator as always, having set up a ponzi scheme and getitng called out on it by what turned out to be Simon Stagg.. who for some reason is the virtious if assholish buisness man here despite in the comcis being an utterly corrupt asshole constnatly ttrying to prevent his daughter from marrying this guy

This is Metamorpho, the element man, archelogist Rex Mason who thanks to the orb of Ra turned into this guy, an embodiment of the elments who can transmute his body into anything on the perodic table. Why HE hasn’t been in a movie yet his nemisis now has been is beyond me and there are better dc businessmen to have used. 

Point is this Max is shady, ambitious and sleazy.. and badly failing his scheme falling around him. But his reason for wanting to be a rich, powerful man after growing up a poor immigrant.. is utterly symapthetic. He has a son in this adaptation and wants to make him proud. I’ts CLEARLY not his only motivation, he also just wants to be proud and the finale reveals hsi father was abusive, and his classmmates alienated him for being an immigrant. He has a chip on his shoulder due to having a rough life and just wanting his moment in the sun. It makes Max relatable: His actions are NOT okay but we get why he merges with the wishing stone: because this is his shot. And most of the people he fucks over with his wishes.. are bad people. he cons some good people sure but Stagg is an asshole and the prince he cons wants to kick foreigners out of his homeland. Max, like Barbra, while not a GOOD person still is more likeable than diana.  He just.. feels like Max. He’s what Max could’ve been if he gave into the power instead of fighting against it. If he'd teamed up with the alien robot thing to take over the world instead of resiting it. So while he’s a bad guy like he’s been sadly turned into in the comics.. he feels like a CONVINCING version of Max as a bad guy. Like he genuinely turned evil of his own will and his own ambition. 

It also helps he’s written compitently. Unlike Diana, whose entirely miswritten to a point NO amount of good acting and no amount of Gal Godot’s talents could save, and Barbra, whose great but only because her character had too little to be great but just enough to give Kristin Wiig room to work with Gal simply did not have. Seriously I feel terrible for Gal Godot, she’s a genuinely talented actress and a genuinely kind and great person whose a LOT like Diana herself when written properly.  But Pedro Pascal? Since his character isn’t too badly written, and he has room to work.. he’s allowed to just be awesome. Since I haven’t watched the Mandolorian yet, I know, I KNOW, trust me.. I KNOWWW. But since I hadn’t this was my first proper exposure to Pedro Pascal..and his talent speaks for himself. In a weak movie, he is the shining star.  He’s also hammy as shit, but it WORKS because the film is redicouls. The Wishin Rock plot line and Max merging with it.. it’s bonkers. But he has just the right mix of bonkers hammy acting that’s fun to watch, and actual character work in the ham. He’s eating the scenery hand over fist, utterly devouring it.. but it fits the character as while Max was more of a subtle ham, a guy who just radiated smug and who more got into histornics when things went tits up like the time Blue Beetle and Booster Gold took the JLU’s funds to build an island resort on an island that turned out to be sentient and didn’t like that much and yes, all of that happened and it was as funny as it sounds. Point is being a showman whose always on, always talking and always got a plan.. that’s Maxwell Fucking Lord, and Pascal’s over the top acting fits that kind of character like a glove. 

It also fits the film well: the film comes off more like a 2000′s superhero film, one that takes itself super seriously.. but is really, REALLY goofy in places. It honest to god feels like one of the Sam rami spider-man films, ones I REALLY need to revisit and the results of that you’ll likely see, but without the self awarness rami had.. for the first two I mean by the third with the whole saturday night fever sequence, he’d really lost it. Love the guy though, still need to watch Army of Darkness and yes you may boo me.  Point is the film is bonkers and cheesy and dosne’t realize it but Pascal does so he just.. has fun with it. His haminess when asking someone for a wish, his great ways of reversing those wishes so he benifits from the consequences, taking them off the board while furthring his own goals. Max is just.. awesome, and so is pascal. He got a life long fan in me from this performance. And of all people he took his inspriation from Nick Cage which is a perfect fit as Cage is fucking great at acting absolutely batshit while still acting his ass off. Pascal really deserves full credit for this film for more than just being lovingly over the top. He’s genuinely good.

And that shines through greatly in the climax. First off the final fight between Cheetah and Wonder Woman is awesome.. just one of the best superhero fights i’ve seen on film and i’ve seen some whoppers. Great back and forth, great coreography and brutal intensitiy the whole way through with Diana being forced to possibly kill Barbra despite not wanting to hurt her. Just a hell of one. But the real centerpice is the wish vortex. Pascal just drops all pretense and goes ultra instinct ham, just letting it all hang out as he ascneds to god hood... but how he’s beaten.. is easily the most brilliant part of the film and one of the few times Gal Godot genuinely gets to show off her talent in this one: Wonder Woman defeats the bad guy not with brute force, not that she can, or some cool fight.. though we did get the cool fight too so that’s nice.. she simply uses her head and her heart. She uses her head by taking advantage of the fact max is broadcasting to the world, as villians tend to, and giving his bogus offers to whoevers listneting. So Diana counters this.. by simply speakking from the heart, enrouging those watching not to give in and to renounce the wish.. so the consequences can be renounced too. Even if it’s hard, even if it costs you.. what your doing will cost others so much more. And she finsihses this by using the Lasso of Truth on max, making him tear down his delusions about himself and see that his actions, which have caused world war III by the way as he maniupated the president.. who for some reason was not Regan. While Regan was a bastard.. that’s exactly the reason I wanted hi mthere as this film would’ve been better had one of the parts of the climax been Diana fighting a 50 foot tall rouge ronald regan. Admit it you’d see that in theaters if it was safe to go. 

POint is max sees he’s only HURTING his son, that this is for HIM not for his boy.. and that if he dosen’t let this power go, if he dosen’t just accept a peaceful life and let the world spin the way it’s supposed to and not emplode jus tso he can be a god... his son will be gone. So he gives it up and goes back to his boy in a touching moment. Though for some reason his son somehow got from Max’s office to the middle of a fucking highway. How is he not dead? I dunno we’re almost done here. Point is max is easily the highlight of the film and the reason it’s not ALL horrible along with Barbra.  Final Thoughts: Wonder Woman 1984.. is a disapointment. What I thought would be an easy film of the year contender.. instead ended up being an ungodly mess with unfortunate implications, a messy slapped together plot and WAYYYYY too much filler. As I said it had it’ sbright spots especially max and barbra.. but hte ultimate product is WAYYYY less than Patty Jenkins is capable of and since a third film is apparently inevitible, I can only hope next time she learns from this and does better. Also get Pedro Pascal his own Justice League international series as Max’s grandson or something YESTERDAY. Seriously even people who didn’t like this film would love it and it’s not like he can’t do this between seasons of Mando. He did We Can Be Heroes for god’s sake.. which was somehow a better film than this one. I guess 2020 had to disapoint me one last time huh? Well we’re in a new year now... and hopefully the Suicide Squad won’t also be a huge diapointment. If you enjoyed this lnog rant on a movie from a week or two ago, follow me for more. I’m currently doing retrospectives on the life and times of scrooge mcduck, scott pilgrim, grant morrisons new x-men, and i’m soon going to finish up a Darkwing Duck one focusing on Just us Justice ducks. And once they come back this year I plan on reguarlly covering Ducktales, Loud House, Owl House, Amphibia, and Final Space. So keep an eye out for that and until then, Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye. 

#wonder woman #wonder woman 1984 #pedro pascal #gal godot #kristin wiig #chris pine #diana prince #cheetah #barbra minerva #maxwell lord #justice league international #dc comics #dc extended universe #hbo max #patty jenkins #steve trevor

[lorei-writes]

In Sickness & In Health

Edgar Bright x Alice Fluff Warnings: none

I’m straying a bit from my usual fandom, this time reaching into IkeRev. As per request of my dear @cheese-ception , some Edgar fluff. ^^ I never really wrote anything for this fandom, but I tried to do my best! ^^”

His body ached, unfamiliar kind of semi-numbness seemingly having found its residence deep within his muscles. Dull pain taking his joints and spreading up his bones, Edgar trembled, shivers gliding their sleek fingers through the fabric of his body. He opened his eyes slowly, soft morning light appearing to blur the edges of all objects, presenting the reality as somewhat hazy. Blinking fast, he attempted to push away any confusion that desperately clung to his mind, his hands pushing the duvet off of him. Edgar stood up, walls seemingly beginning to bend. Perhaps he just needed some fresh air…

His body ached, unfamiliar kind of semi-numbness seemingly having found its residence deep within his muscles. Dull pain taking his joints and spreading up his bones, Edgar trembled, shivers gliding their sleek fingers through the fabric of his body. He opened his eyes slowly, soft morning light appearing to blur the edges of all objects, presenting the reality as somewhat hazy. Blinking fast, he attempted to push away any confusion that desperately clung to his mind, his hands pushing the duvet off of him. Edgar stood up, walls seemingly beginning to bend. Perhaps he just needed some fresh air…

The door to his room opened, a tray with a teapot entering through it, followed by a familiar silhouette. “ Edgar? Don’t you feel unwell?” Alice asked, her voice vibrating through his temples – and although it was the sweetest torture he could imagine, it hurt him nonetheless, his head lighting up in throbbing pain. “ Unwell? What brought such worry to your mind, dearest Alice?” he answered, although only questions were spoken out. It seemed his smile didn’t convince her, his lover rushing towards him and setting the tray at the bedside table. “ It’s worse than I thought, you didn’t realise a thing,” she murmured, resting her hands on her hips.   “ Edgar Bright, do return to your bed kindly. Before I make you.” She pouted, determination burning brightly in her eyes, her fingers impatiently tapping against her skirt. Still being somewhat drowsy after his sleep – or so he assumed was the cause – Edgar pondered over the matter for a moment, finally giving in to her requests. Having sat down, he gazed at her expectantly, a silly idea coming to his mind. “ ‘Make me’? We should save that for the evening, shouldn’t we?” Against everything he expected, Alice turned away from him, instead leaning down and picking something from the tray she brought. She straightened her back abruptly, a thermometer being waved in front of his face, much to his surprise. However, he accepted it without a single word of complaint. “ I was worried when you slept in in the morning, so I came to check on you,” she explained, taking  a spot next to him.

They waited for a moment, although it was more to check how bad it was rather than to confirm a worry. Seeing his temperature, Alice frowned, her hand pushing lightly onto his shoulder. “ Under the covers you go, love,” she stated firmly. “ I’ll bring you some proper food for the tea in a minute too.” “ Alice –” “ Oh, no, no, I’m not listening to any excuses, all you are to do today is rest – and rest that is, no paperwork while in bed,” she cut him off, already standing up and rushing towards the exit. “ I can take care of that myself, you will…” “ Hush!” she exclaimed from over her shoulder, her skirt already disappearing through the door frame.

Hot tea ran down his throat, another bite of sandwich following it in its descent. Sitting by his desk, Edgar followed her with his eyes, his beloved having decided to change his sheets while he ate. A knot tied in his throat – she shouldn’t have to do that, she… “ It’s ready!” she cheered, her voice being sweeter than honey, contentment written over her face distracting him for a moment. Finishing his meal, he stood up and walked over to the bed, another wave of shivers washing down his spine. Feeling somewhat awkward, unknowing of what he should tell her, Edgar lowered his gaze – or perhaps his fever did so for him, his vision becoming hazy again. “ Thank you,” he pushed out of himself, although those mere words didn’t seem to be enough.

Cool cotton soothing his skin, Edgar let his head rest over the pillow, her hands – the very gentle and most beloved hands in the world – pulling the duvet up to his chin. Her hair tickling his cheek, Alice leaned down to tuck him in, some whispers leaving her lips, although he couldn’t quite detangle words anymore. She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “ Sleep well, sweetheart,” she hummed.

***

Alice opened her eyes, dim light of the evening dyeing the entire room in a blue-ish tinge. Somewhat confused, she blinked before reaching across to the bedside table and lighting up a candle, the flame illuminating the figure sleeping by her side. Her lips curling up in a smile, she brushed aside his bangs, then wet from sweat. Yet his cheeks were paler, his breathing was deep – and he looked so peaceful… His eyebrows twitched. “ Alice..?” Edgar called after her through his dreams. “ Here, love, right next to you,” she answered him, putting the flame off.

Her arms snuck around him, Edgar snuggling into her… And she was glad she could be there for him, both in sickness and in health.

Tag list: @datenoriko​, @nad-zeta​, @tsubaki3192, @jiyuu-chan, @missjudge-me, @ikemencrossedmyth​, @plumpblueberry , @nimeryaa, @nuttytani, @thesirenwashere, @milas-imaginarium, @kisara-16, @yukas-clover, @alerialumina , @cheese-ception If you want to be tagged under my future works, let me know (any way works)! ^^ Also, if you have some preferences (for example: you’d rather not be tagged under some series, etc.), please, tell me.  If you don’t want to be tagged anymore - please, do not feel bad about it, just say so :)

#edgar bright #ikerev edgar #ikemen revolution edgar #ikerev #ikemen revolution #ikemen series #my ff #my writing

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 10: Rocky II

(previous notes: Rocky)

When this movie came out I was a little kid living in Northern California, and we used to go to huge drive-in movie complexes that had like six screens. No matter what movie you were watching, you could see other movies from your lot. I don't remember which movie we were watching at the time, but I remember being distracted by a nearby screen showing Rocky II. I totally watched the ending in suspense. It was eventually on cable a lot so I was able to see it for real, but still like 40 years ago.

Anyway, I wonder if this movie will have the effect of dulling the charm of how the first movie ended, so climactically and with appealing suddenness.

Also, is this the only one of the first four movies that doesn't have a rollicking hit song emerging from its soundtrack?

Stallone famously wrote each of these movies all by himself, and starting with this one he is the director of a bunch of them as well.

Same kind of intro with the fanfare, except the music sounds very clearly, to me at least, to not be playing on real horns. I think it's synths. "Modern".

We're now just watching the end of the first movie. We get to relive the intense experience of seeing Adrian's face in closeup closing her eyes for one and a half seconds. The drama.

The whole first five minutes is the whole last five minutes of the first movie. That's weak. Cheap.

Then the whole opening credits follows, and it's following the ambulance that's taking Rocky to the hospital because of all the punchplay. Not a good use of this time. But more importantly: are they going to address the eyelid situation.

Rocky and Apollo confront each other in wheelchairs in front of the press at the hospital. They're still fired up.

After Rocky gets out of the hospital he rambles a lot and it's like an amateur improv scene where he's figuring out on the spot some things to say about where they are. He gets the idea to have Rocky propose to Adrian, then when she accepts he does a Tarzan wail. What a cheeky clown that Rocky is.

His eye seems fine now.

0:18:20 - the a cappela street musicians are still at it, still not very complex with the harmonies. Isn't Sylvester Stallone's brother a singer named Frank, and does he look like the guy in this scene? I bet it's him.

I'm pretty bored of this movie so far. It's like the people were clamoring for an answer to the question, "what happened after the fight", and Stallone's enthusiastic answer was "just regular stuff like you'd guess!!!!!"

Oh my. It's their wedding night and they talk like dumb, uninspired newlyweds and then kiss, and it's like the director, who remember is Stallone, directed the two of them, one of whom is also Stallone, to perform slow, exotic lip dancing and no one told him that's a thing called kissing which is normal and common.

Rocky has some money now so he and Adrian are looking at buying a house. The realtor is all "this whole place is supported by solid steel" and Rocky is all "yo Adrian that would be a great spot for a radio". It's like porn stars that have been told to ad lib for a few minutes in the beginning of the scene. Except that we aren't about to be rewarded with porno.

0:28:05 - Adrian is pregnant! They talk about it. They talk about it in small talk. "What if it's a girl" "Oh a girl I didn't think about that can you imagine".

So one of the adventures of post-the-first-movie Rocky is that he gets to do a commercial. They show the filming of that and that it doesn't go well because of his Rocky personality. And the next scene he has realized that he needs a white collar job so he's at an employment agency office and asks for a job where he gets to sit. But he's not a good fit there. So he goes and gets a job at a butcher place. He promised Adrian he was done with boxing so now we have this boring part of the movie which isn't short enough.

Okay it's definitely going in a direction of not-boxing-is-sucky-for-Rocky, because he lost the butcher job and had to sell his car to Paulie. He said "it's a great car, buckle up for safety!" Do you think Stallone actually scripted that line or did he improvise it and the director, who you may recall is also Mr. Stallone, thought it was really good and kept it in

0:46:30 - He goes to visit Burgess Meredith at the gym. BM is not helping Rocky's morale, tells him he's washed up POI-manently. He begs for a job doing menial tasks at the gym and BM tells him everyone will think he's a loser but okay. Stallone does okay looking humble about that.

When he comes in to the gym everyone is laughing at a very stupid editorial cartoon in the local news publication, it shows Apollo doing harm upon Rocky-as-a-chicken with the ingenious caption "APOLLO CREED VS THE STALLION CHICKEN". It was clearly "STALLION CHICKEN". That does not make any sense.

BM was easily persuaded by Apollo's cockiness and so he then shows up at Rocky's nad easily persuades him to accept the rematch deal. Feels like movie formula but at least it's about to be less boring.

I like BM's voice.

They're doing a thing going back and forth between Rocky training and Apollo training. Apollo's is going better, partially because his facility is kind of luxuriously spacious. Then they stuck a scene in the middle of that of Adrian working at the pet store all preggo, but having trouble lugging a weighty thing and listen my friends, I think Talia Shire acting is not good acting.

We're in a long sequence that's about how Adrian had the baby prematurely and she slipped into a coma or something, and it's made clear that she had health problems because she was stressed out and overworked because of the heavy things at the pet shop and the husband who went back to boxing. Big old guilt trip taking up a lot of the middle of the movie. Adrian is in a coma. They don't show the baby. It's all just sadness about comatosity of Adrian.

But! She eventually wakes up! And after the first ever conversation they've ever had about what to name their newborn son, Adrian inexplicably changes her tune and tells Rocky she wants him to win. "Win!" That's what she tells him. Then she says it again. Stallone writing, Shire acting, what more could you want.

Now an upbeat training montage that's more hopeful and he's obviously high energy. He must be hitting the punching bags better because just look at how confident he looks.

1:29:35 - It is the sequel to the famous running montage from the first movie. The inspired updates include a new recording of that same song but with children singing "flying strong now" or whatever, and also children following him on his majestic dash to the steps of that municipal facility. Someone probably said "do the running scene again just exactly like in the first movie", but no. Stallone was not satisfied. "We will change it a little," he proclaimed. And lo.

Oh I hope there will be a sequel to the shot of Adrian closing her eyes for considerably longer than a blink. Do you think when people stop her on the street they're like "do the eye close thing do the eye close thing! My friends will all ask if you did the eye close thing and I need to tell them yes she did I saw it and it was even better in person"

We're at the fight now. It's about to start. It's all going as expected. I truly believe that everything will be okay.

Before it starts, Apollo tells Rocky, "you're going DOWN". So maybe it will NOT be okay after all…

Seems like the shots of this fight are not as varied or interesting this time, and they're relying more on the announcer commentary telling us what to think compared to the first movie.

Now the obligatory montage to show us the rounds moving forward and them still going at it. Not the same style as the first movie, but whatever it's working fine. I'd maybe watch a boxing match if it were shot and edited like this so that it's just ten minutes.

I swear I remember seeing this imagery from across the drive-in way back in the 70s, I don't care if you believe me or not it's the truth.

Look, I know I don't know nothin' 'bout boxin' but it seems like you're supposed to use your forearms as shields kind of, and Rocky doesn't do that like at all.

The dialogue is telling us that Rocky is maybe losing going into the final round. I wouldn't have thought so… thanks dialogue!

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN" repeats Creed. Such writing I tell you. Rocky II - A Film By Sylvester Stallone.

I will never forget the carefully choreographed climax of the movie. They both crumble onto the floor and the one-to-ten countdown all slow-like as they maybe try to get back up and Apollo doesn't and Rocky barely does so he is the new world champion. Then the last couple minutes of the movie is the same basic energy as the first movie. It's like the first movie's ending was a template and they just replaced a couple of things.

They kept making more of these movies! I'm going to keep watching them! I'm going to do this notes-about-them thing!

(next: Rocky III)

#rocky 2

[conchstellations]

watching the 1990 LOTF movie!! my reactions:

hello all!!!! i was bored at midnight again so here it is: me watchin the 1990 movie, for the first time, hell yeah!!!!! here we go!!! its got the other movie to live up to, so im excited for a comedy lmao!! tl;dr at end if u want!!! its kinda long btw lmao

- castle rock entertainment??? piggy u better watch out bro

- fuck is that the pilot???

- k this isnt a big thing but why are they in water? the plane left a scar in the earth, they were on land.

- okay, again, me nitpicking. but idk, to me, they dont look 12?? maybe its just cause theyre all dressed up n that but they dont look like 12 yr olds to me like the last movie

- why tf does ralph (?) have a glowstick lmaooooo

- why are they all together. where is my conch. wher are my stupid ass choir outfits. maybe im not there yet and they have them, but i want my stupid cloaks!!! jack would not stand for this!!!

- why TF is the pilot alive???

- am i supposed to know whos who by now?? did i just miss that?? which ones ralph? which ones jack?? wheres simon???

- conch??? the conchs main job is to bring them together, and here theyre already together so???

- piggy already makin me love him gosh piggy is child

- okay so im guessing brown hair kid is ralph

- piggy protecting conch rights

- i do like piggys sass... very iconic

- okay whAT??? is that blonde kid supposed to be jack?? first off, jack has red hair. second off, there is no way in hELL THAT MY basTARD child jack merridew would let ralph win the election just like that??? wheres my choir??? wheres my c sharp???

- okay jack would for sure call piggy shitbrain nvm

- mY CHOIR WOULD NOT ACCEPT THAT SINGING. 

- wheres simon????

- r they fuckin cookin lizards??? nvm look away simon pls dont be in this

- is thAT BITCH supposed to be Simon?? hes got a lot to look up to. also why the FUCK is the adult alive. taht ruins the whole purpose of the entire book

- was that a dream??? sorry im dumb af lmao

- alrght simon is kind of an adorable hild and he likes lizard maybe hes valid?

- idk.. for some reason this ralph isnt like, giving me ralph vibes?? hes just not bring like ralphish u know??

- now im getting a little bit more of our beloved lil bitch ralph..

- okay wtf is going on lmao

- “SHOVE THEIR DICK IN THE CONCH” had me laughing for a solid fucking 30 minutes. william golding who??? whoever wrote that line is the new icon

- ‘EAT SHIT AND DIE”  okay wtffff im so confused but also vv entertained

- for some reason jack’s character is like 100% off, but also somehow 100% on point “thats exactly what i meant” like holy shit. like idk hes not jack but just sometimes he radiates “jack if he was allowed to swear and was less of a lil bitch” energy

- ok simon and lizard?? valid

- i swear to FUCKING GOD i will kill that child!!!

- im gonna cry. wtf. why would you kill his lizard. even this movie’s jack seems like he thinks thats fucked up and hes a psychopath. also, lemme say, at this point, i think most of the book characters would beat the shit out of someone if they were mean to simon like that, bc the choir were his friends, and ralphs tribe respected him, sooooo

- why tf is it simons job to take care of the adult that shouldnt even be there? liek wtf hes grieving asshole

- no fucking duh hes scared of everyone but simon i would be too 

- honestly kinda glad they let ralph say fuck he deserved it

- “back off man im sick of ur shit and sos my gang” fuckin got em

- let me guess pilot dude is the new beast???

- honestly wtf is goin on lmao

- okay piggys actor actually made me sd when he was crying about his glasses so good job

- simon comin through with the glowstick. also, good job simon

- well at least the lord of the flies looks terrifying as always

- are samneric putting on warpaint this early?? bc i WILL NOT stand for that shit. i am a samneric STAN Ok??? they were two of the tHREE left when simon died who didnt become cowards and go savage. they wree LOYAL to ralph until they were LITERALLY tied up and FORCED to join jack, and even then they helped ralph!!!! so fuck u. samneric are better than that.

- oh simon :(

- im glad they actually kind of (?) shwed simon like with the pig head bc last movei it was just ike them flipping the camera from pig to si so idkk

- ok that was a pretty ralph move to bring up the fire 24/7 lmao

- piggytits?? tf

- simon with hus fuckin glowstick lmao

- awe, simon

- okay HOLY SHIT. the sounds of what i assume to be them fucking stabbing simon are horrific. and then that cut to simon’s fucking mutiliated corpse?? holy SHIT. like as much as im complaining, thats the gruesome shit i expect from this book. i was expecting them to shy away from it bc its so awful, but im SO glad they didnt, bc that gave me fuckin chills. finally, something i can praise them on. thats the lord of the flies i expect. 

- i feel bad for ralph.. good job

- ok good. samneric came back. good job again.

- ok. nvm. the disrespect to my loyal children. alright.

- okay that child screaming as hes being whipped?? wtf.

- ok that line of piggy being scared that the russians will take them nad make them go into the olympics? gold. 

- piggys laugh is so pure

- why the fuCK are they finding instruments lmao

- poor piggy

- did roger just wolf whistle at ralph what the fuck is going on

- holy SHIt this movie does not hold back on the blood. but, wheres my conch explosion?? if ur gonna show him getting hit u gotta show the conch exploding. although, the conch means like nothing in this movie lmao

- okay wow piggys dead body cool cool cool

- ralph fucking YEETED that kid to the ground lmao

- okay, ralph crying?? good acting

tl;dr/conclusion/my thoughts: hooooo boy so i see why everyone likes 1960 one better. 

first, lets start with the obvious: why this isnt lord of the flies. because its not. if this wasnt telling me that its lord of the flies, i would think of it as that, really. first off, the conch. the conch represents civility, it brings them together. its important. when piggy dies, it dies, representing how all civility is now gone. i maybe saw the conch three times this movie. didnt do anything.

second, the pilot, captain whatever. the point of the beast to me is that they made it up. sure, the corpse was real, but it didnt pose a threat, it was simply a corpse. they made it into what it was, therefore proving that they are the beast. sure, the pilot here was harmless, but he grbbed a boy’s foot and was therefore making himself a possible threat. maybe its not a big deal i guess.

third, the characters. the point of lord of the flies is that they are rich kids who havent gone through anything. theyre the perfect, spoiled kids who havent done anything wrong. half of them are in choir. chOIR. in this movie, lets take jack for example. they said he stole  a car and got sent to military school. no. the point of jack is that he was a perfect kid. leader of choir. he was manipulitive and got even ADULTS to trust him. its part of hs character, showing that this perfect choir leader kid went fucking insane to prove how literally everyone can be evil. also samneric???? the direspect!! they were loyal to ralph until they were tied up and FORCED to join jack, and even then, after roger like beat the shit out of them, they were STILL loyal. fuck you.

so those are the MAIN reasons why it wasnt lotf. 

now, what i liked i guess.

the swearing was NOT lotf, and it didnt fit with the story, but ill admit that i laughed, so i guess thats a plus.

second, i liked how they showed the gore, i guess? sounds weird, hear me out. lord of the flies is a gruesome, violent, awful book. theres descriptions of death in detail, and im so glad they showed it. when simon’s body was there, literally torn to shreds? the shock of it, the true savagery you see that these boys murdered him SO violently, is amazing, because thats the essence of lotf. simons death shows how theyve lost all their civility, and showing such a gruesome corpse really brings that through. so good job.

and now, of course, the obvious: thats not the characters i pictured when i read the story. simon doesnt look like that, ralph doesnt look like that, jack doesnt look like that.

 where did the choir go, too? forgot to mention that, and i think that also adds into the whole, theyre supposed to be perfect kids and then become savage thing. also, the choir was a group. they voted for jack and went with him for a reason. 

so yea, thats that. dont know why people would read this lmao but thats my thoughts!!!! i just need to keep myself busy when i watch movies and to make sure i focused, i figured id just write down my thoughts as i went. if u wanna watch for free, look up lord of the flies 1990 google drive. 

;)))) and yea im posting this at 230 am lmao why not

#lord of the flies #lotf #lotf 1990

[lighterandpaper]

The Cure To Aging

Photo by @nci

“I did it!” shouts a woman. She has a microscope and an open laptop in front of her. She tries in vain to shake the lab table in a child-like fit of excitement. “Joel, I did it!” 

Down the table, a young man is asleep on the counter. “Huh?” he says, slurping as he jolts up. He wipes his fresh face and sleepy brown eyes.

“Best of the best...” she says, re-tieing her ponytail of hair that was once blonde, but now more pale brown. 

“Sorry, I was out late last night,” he says, stretching, eyes secretly watching her. “What did you do, get some highlights?” 

She runs her hand down her ponytail so that it lies on her shoulder. “No, I altered my DNA with the CRISPR profile that we’ve been talking about. Look...” she shows him the image on the laptop. She watches him inspect it. “What, were you out drinking?” 

When Joel turns his gaze back to Laurie, she softens, and on some level, Joel knows. He smiles. “What am I looking at?” 

She rolls her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be trying a little harder to impress me? Look at my telomeres. If you remember what I taught you last semester, you’ll see that mine are back to looking like someone in their early twenties. If we looked at your DNA under here, our telomeres would look the same.” 

“So, that means...?” he says. 

She sighs and laughs, “That means, if I’m correct, that I am no longer aging. At least not genetically. With therapy to remove my senescent cells, and with a NAD--” 

“Are you seriously downplaying the fact that you just cured aging?” 

She smiles with her eyes, so dark that they might as well be black, and looks away. “A lot of human trials still need to be done. Years away from anything real...” 

“Wait, isn’t it dangerous to be experimenting on yourself like that or something?”

“Well, maybe if you were paying attention to what I was doing, you would know to try to stop me...” 

He fiddles with a glass tube. “Are you going to publish the findings at least?” 

“I need you to clean up what I wrote and publish it for me,” she says, taking off her gloves. “I need to go home and check on McGregor. And shower.” 

“Oh, God, Laurie,” he says, rubbing his eyes. 

“Can you at least call me ‘professor’ or something?” 

“Oh, God, Professor,” he says. 

“Alright, that’s worse. Just do it, OK? Or I’ll fail you.” 

“You wouldn’t,” he says, going to the computer.

“Try me!” she says as she leaves. 

She smiles to herself her entire car ride home. 

Opening her door, she says, “I cured aging today, McGregor!” 

She puts her bag down. “There you are,” she says. McGregor surveys down from the top of the fridge, and is also a cat. 

She fixes him some food, pulling the tab on one of his cans. “I just changed the whole world today,” she says.

“Meow,” McGregor says knowingly. He hops down, rubbing his jet-black body along her let. His yellow eyes follow her hand all the way to the bowl.

She opens the fridge to grab the bottle of champagne she keeps in her crisper drawer for special occasions. The large windows of her studio overlook the city. She takes a sip, straight from the bottle, and basks. She checks her phone, which has a text from mom, reading, “Safe?” 

Laurie types back, “Yes! Great day. I can’t wait to tell you about it. Are you sticking to the diet I gave you? Is the shaking getting any worse?” After a pause, she deletes the last two sentences and sends. 

She opens Joel’s texts. The last exchange was just planning. She types, “Does this mean that there isn’t an age difference now?” And then deletes it, shaking her head. She takes a big gulp of champagne and sighs. 

After sitting awake in the dark for hours, she finally falls asleep. 

She wakes to a call. 

“We need to meet with you, now,” says the voice. 

“I have classes,” Laurie says, sleep in her voice. 

“They have already been covered. A car will be waiting for you outside your apartment.” 

When she hangs up, she sees a text from Joel, which makes her more alert, pulling the hair from her eyes. It’s the article that he finished, along with his text, “People are freaking out!”

She dresses and goes outside. A black car is waiting for her. 

The men inside don’t speak except to say, “Good morning, Professor Blaum.” 

They take her to a high rise in downtown New York. “Suit 4100,” they say. “They’re waiting on you.” 

The front desk clerk checks her ID very carefully and then swipes his key card to allow her to reach floor 41. The ride up makes her ears pop. 

Doors open to one, beautiful office with floor to ceiling windows, zen feng shui, and the sound of running water. 

“Professor Blaum, please, right this way,” says the receptionist. She’s led to a conference room where two men await her. 

A statue of Atlas holds the world in the center of the huge table. One man is slender and the other is more round, both wear perfect suits. 

“Good morning, Professor Blaum. My name is Mr. Hand,” says the slender man, whose posture and expression scream, “Lizard.” “This is Mr. Davidson,” he gestures to the more round man, who wears tortoiseshell glasses. “We are putting together a manned mission to a new planet, and you have just made a key innovation to the human body. We need you to be a part of the first team to land on the surface of this planet.” 

Laurie blinks. “Huh?” 

Mr. Davidson smiles warmly. “I apologize for the abruptness of my business partner. We have a proposition for you and would love it if you would consider it.” 

“Why do you need me to be an astronaut? Wouldn’t it be enough to just use my DNA sequences?” 

“We need you to make your crew ageless, like yourself, and we did consider just paying you to make immortal astronauts, but we also trust the mind that achieved it. Astronautics isn’t the athletic event that it used to be. We need the most intelligent and creative people who are most familiar with the technologies that will make it possible to go. That’s you.” 

Laurie laughs. Her phone buzzes from her bag touching her leg. Her hand flinches. “How long?” 

Mr. Davidson stops Mr. Hand from speaking. “It is something to take time to consider.” 

She nods. “Never coming back, right?” 

“Not exactly, but you would be settling on another planet for the long-haul, yes. But you should take some time to think everything over. Talk to your friends and family. Take this packet.” He hands her a thick, laminated folder full of colorful papers. 

“I’ll do it,” she says. 

#science fiction #aging #space travel #stem cells #astronaut #scientist #writing #keepwriting #writblr #writeblr #flash fiction #microfiction #flashfiction #fiction #short fiction #story #short story #storytelling #shortstory #novel #book