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blackasteriia · 4 years

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🔥 story structure bih

Feed the Fires of my Salt

I jumped into Kingdom Hearts right after KH3 came out. I had the privilege of watching the series’ cutscenes from beginning-to-end, starting with the KHUX back cover and ending in KH3. This is a very confusing way to enter Kingdom Hearts. The start of the story is in KHUX and the beginning is in KH1. It’s KH1 that introduces the core mechanics, themes, and principles of the story. Yet, the story starts in KHuX, which is a mobile game. The KHuX itself is a baffling mess with too many twists for me to even bother tracking it. For the purpose of this essay I’ll focus on Sora’s story, he’s the protagonist after all.

Kingdom Hearts 1 begins medias res, ‘into the middle of things.’ It doesn’t know that. It thinks it’s a straightforward story and probably the best told one in all of Kingdom Hearts. Sora and his friends live a normal life. He has a call to action when his island falls into darkness and he losses his friends. To find his friends he must travel through several worlds. On the course of this journey he learns of Kingdom Hearts. He then meets Ansem, the antagonist who believes that all people and things belong to the darkness. Sora takes all that he has learned to confront Ansem. Ansem is defeated and Sora’s journey comes to a close. It’s a simple story but it is effective, charming, and fun.

Then, Sora loses all his memories in a random castle through an event that he does not remember, he wakes-up after sleeping a full year, and we go into Kingdom Hearts 2.

Kingdom Hearts 2, is another hero’s journey. Sora seeks guidance from the wise Yen Sid, a mentor archetype we most often find in stories of this type. Yen Sid informs Sora that he must defeat Organization 13, an insidious group seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts. This bunch isn’t as straightforward as Ansem was. They’re manipulative, and also, very human, with their own quirks and personalities, some even befriending Sora. The series delves into a more mature grey than the pure black and white of KH1. Sora learns that light and dark aren’t clear-cut concepts, but to accept the complexity of himself, and others. Sora defeats Xemnas and returns to Destiny Island with his friends, concluding his journey.

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku undergo training by Yen Sid to become keyblade masters, which is very important. Sora must unlock the power of waking by *shuffles notes* freeing seven sleeping keyholes, in the realm of sleep. Okay, yeah, anyway he does that. Then this Xehanort guy --who the hell is this guy? He was in Birth by Sleep. Wait, what?-- kidnaps him and tries to possess him so he can fill out the ranks of Organization 13-- Didn’t we kill all of them in the last game? No, they came back. Then why bother killing them off?-- But he’s saved by Axel --who died in the last game-- and Riku. Anyway, this is apparently grounds for failure and Sora does not become a keyblade master.

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora embarks on an adventure to unlock the power of waking by traveling through the worlds and training to become stronger. Didn’t he already beat like, three series antagonists by now why does he need to grow stronger??? Sora is confronted by the members of the Real Organization 13, who taunt him as he travels. Sora gathers the Seven Guardians of Lights and defeats Xehanort and the Real Organization 13. He returns to Destiny Island with his friends and concludes his story by vanishing into a burst of light.

And that, from beginning to end, is Sora’s journey through the Kingdom Hearts series. I skipped a lot of details. I didn’t include side games. I told it as Sora experienced it. Here’s a few things I noticed:

1). There’s a lot of start and stops. The series has three endings. The end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3, are all satisfying stop-points for the series. This makes sense, as Nomura, for the most part, intended them to be endings. Of course, he leaves some running threads to intrigue and hint at another game. It means that Sora has his powers reset twice and he begins another hero journey three times. The goals never change: train, grow stronger, beat-up bad guy, go home. Sora never grows past the dumb kid that picked-up a giant key in KH1 and started swinging, or any growth he does develop is reset.

2). The side games are useless. I can tell Sora’s story without Birth by Sleep. I can do it without 358/2 Days, Chain of Memories, Re:Coded, and I bet I could kick-out Dream Drop Distance too. Xehanort is the sole character that you need. He is by far the worst antagonist. He shows-up without fanfare and is defeated with little trouble. Ansem and Xemnas both had something to contrast to Sora, some sort’ve dynamic, a personal stake. Xehanort is just a jerk and he needs to be beaten-up.

3). Xehanort is a terrible antagonist. An antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. It is the antagonist who the protagonist must overcome in order to complete their journey. Ansem and Sora jostle over the very nature of humans, idealism vs cynicism. Xemnas forced Sora to recognize the complexity of the human condition. Xehanort-- bullies Sora until Sora kicks his ass. Never mind untangling how unbelievably complicated the relationship between Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas are. You’d believe that Xehanort would be some culmination of Sora’s journey-- but I’d argue that it’d complete the Sea Salt Trio’s story more to defeat Xehanort, than it does for Sora to do it.

4). Final Fantasy and Disney are window dressing. This game series is supposed to be a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. If you read my synopsis, you would not know this. Maleficent in KH1 is the sole character I feel I could’ve added. None of the Final Fantasy characters are on the list or come close to deserving mention. Why do we have the fiftieth Xehanort clone, and not Sephiroth, or anyone else, as a main antagonist? When I watched this series for the first time I did not watch a single Disney World, and I lost nothing for it. About 60-70% of this entire game series is useless, poorly written filler. This becomes worse as it drags on too. There’s some neat character study in KH1 but by KH3, it’s all crap. Instead of using the Disney World’s for character exploration and building plot, they’re usually charmless retellings of the original movie.

5). There are so many useless characters. We don’t need Roxas. Get rid of Xion. Namine, who? Xehanort just needs to go. You can remove Kairi after KH1. Maybe we keep the BBS-trio because we have to have someone fill-out the Guardians of Light in KH3, but I think Terra is expendable. All of the Union Cross cast, gone. After KH2, all of the Organization members are wasted screen time. These characters do not contribute to the main plot and they have no satisfactory, useful, or good character arcs. They’re just here, repeating what we already heard. Axel finished his story in KH2, why is he still here? The entirety of Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and Re:coded can be removed, and you would lose absolutely nothing. If I was Nomura’s editor, I’d be making judicious use of a red pen on his scripts. Characters that die don’t stay dead, characters that finish their arcs just hang around taking-up space, and characters that shouldn’t be added, are added. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, trim this down to like, 2-3 games, tops, and you’d have a powerful story. Not a long overwritten piece of absurdity that’s wheezing like a pneumonic horse on its last legs.

6). Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the worst. Sora sets out to complete one task: become a keyblade master, and, he fails. He doesn’t even finish his secondary task, master the power of waking. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no tension, it’s so cut-and-dry, you need about... an hour of the game to know what happened in it. Sora defeated Xehanort, the all important villain, introduced in DDD. It then ends on a stupid cliff hanger. Also, goes to show that Re:Mind was stupid and didn’t help anything or anyone. KH3 had one job, complete all the character arcs introduced in the series in a satisfying way, and it failed on every single account.

How this series tells story is terrible. It’s done through long-winded exposition that is boring and confusing. Somehow, after watching hours of cutscenes and reading all of the additional side material, I still do not know what Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be. Sometimes, it’s the ‘heart of worlds,’ other times it’s a ‘source of wisdom,’ or it’s a ‘source of power,’ or it can just grant Xemnas’ wish like a star, and it looks like Scala Ad Caelum inside, or its the door to the Realm of Darkness. How can it be the name sake of the series and be so poorly defined? The Metal Gear series is just as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is, but at least I know what a metal gear is.

Nomura can structure a plot. He understands the basics of hero’s journey. Every single game is based on that structure, individually. When tied together, however, they make this weird mass of starts and stops, retcons, wasted time, and poor story telling. I like Sora and I like his story. I would not be here if that was not the case. It’s the same way with Xion. I really like Xion and her story, but she shouldn’t be here. That, or it needs to be written in a way that it matters. This plot stuff isn’t just about the events. It’s about the characters. What happens to them. What do they do. How do they behave. How do they change? Plot happens when characters act. What a bad plot indicates is bad character motivation and action. These characters don’t matter because Nomura didn’t give them backstories, nuanced motivations, real flaws, or meaningful action. So he crams as most information into the dialogue and pretends that counts as a plot.

And it’s not like plot is complicated, shit happens, that’s it. To add in some RP salt? It bothers me when muns says they’re ‘bad at plotting.’ What do you mean you’re bad at plot? Plot happens when our two muses meet and shit happens. Your muse has encountered a wild Xion, what do you do? > Run > Attack > Talk to > Feed. I’m not writing a passive brick here, ya’ll. I want shit to happen. And when I’m slogging through 13 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 I want shit to happen, and not watch Sora faff about in a Disney world for forty minutes. Why is that so much to ask for?

#hclianthi #✰*✦ This is the idiot speaking ⎧OOC⎫#✰*✦Enjoy your days off! ⎧Memes⎫#salt tw #this series has a stupid amount of dumb charm and i hate it

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jessecrust · 2 years

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Oh no, they’ve woked the Batman!

Back in college, my friends and I used to love watching a handful of fringe, grifty YouTubers whom I will not name here. They were a lot more common back then and it took several years for most of them to get kicked off of whatever platforms or payment processors they were on. This was long before your aunts and uncles heard the word “incel” or “4chan” on cable TV.

The reason these people were so interesting to us was because they always had such insane things to say about movies and culture. They had the same basic political philosophy and belief system of a crusty neocon, but without the veil of respectability. All of their resentment, racism, and general bad vibes were out in the open in a way that was novel to people who had never been exposed to their corners of the internet. Years later, most people would recognize them as the “alt right”.

The things they said were despicable and terrible. Many would openly use racial slurs multiple times in each video. They sometimes analyzed media in a pseudo-Freudian manner, suggesting that, for example, Rey’s companion BB-8 droid in “The Force Awakens” represented a cuckolded white man (you know, because the male lead was black and the droid was white, duh!) It was bizarre, stupid, and wrong, but it was kind of entertaining in a dark way to see these people grapple with the growing diversity of Hollywood mega films and capital’s attempts to appeal to younger, more socially conscious consumers. At the end of the day, almost none of these movies, songs, shows, etc. were doing anything truly subversive. For all the talk of movies where “the villain was right”, I can’t recall a single one that isn’t arrested or killed at the end by the trademark copyright hero person.

I must admit I feel a little nostalgia for this sort of insane rambling. It was like every week you got to stare into this little pocket of the world’s worst people openly talking about how fighting mad they were that the successful critically acclaimed action RPG game they just bought had the audacity to include a trans character. This was long before “woke Hollywood” or “woke video games” or “woke anything” was a massive industry that directly supported the sale of hundreds of thousands of T-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, etc.

So I guess four paragraphs in, it’s time to talk about “The Batman”.

The first thing I found out about “The Batman” after I got home from seeing it was that it was just the latest victim of wokeness. I actually predicted it on the car ride home when I was trying to decide how much of it I loved and how much of it I hated. I knew there was gonna be articles and videos galore of how DC’s Warner’s AT&T’s “The Batman” had gone woke. In doing research for this blog, I decided to not read any of those articles or read more than a single Ben Shapiro tweet because I don’t really care about arguing with these people.

Conservative “critics,” if you can even call them that, are so incredibly poor at media analysis that they think a single line of dialogue that Catwoman says somehow invalidates the core themes of the movie. “The Batman” is a thoroughly pro-cop movie (because pretty much all Batman movies are). It’s a movie that tells you explicitly that the best society is one with strong institutions that people trust. Literally. A character literally says that in the movie right after another character says, paraphrasing, “not all cops are bad”. It is a movie that, in a very conscious way, draws a distinction between the “good” rich people, cops, politicians, etc. and the “corrupt” ones. Without a doubt, legions of Republicans and Trump voters will love this movie and just role their eyes a little at Selina Kyle’s ham-fisted line about white privileged billionaires. After all, who do you know that is pro-corruption?

“Backlash” at this point feels so manufactured and fake. Maybe that’s why I feel some weird sense of nostalgia for the insanity of those early 2010s YouTube losers and their amazingly terrible takes on massive corporate products. The conspiratorial part of my brain thinks it’s just factored into the marketing of every single giant media product now. It’s just so tired and routine and boring. Yeah, man, I’m sure you think “The Batman” is bad because of how woke it is and not because Selina Kyle is black and something about that doesn’t feel right to you. No, I won’t say it’s racism, but we all know what’s going on here, don’t we? This approach to marketing and art as a series of political signifiers and values leads to a world where we genuinely can’t discuss the positives and negatives of a film because if you didn’t like Marvel’s Disney’s pretty bad US Airforce propaganda film Captain Marvel you’re just sexist dudebro. Alternatively, if you enjoyed Marvel’s Disney’s pretty bad Star Wars fan fiction film “The Last Jedi” you’re a beta cuck soy boy.

One reason this ecosystem of takes exists on the right is because conservatism has never been an ideology brimming with new, fresh ideas. If you need any further evidence of this, one of the two Ben Shapiro tweets I read before writing this was a link to his video review of “The Batman,” which was nothing more than a Trojan Horse advertisement for Ring Alarm Security:

Come for the hot take, stay for the 20% discount on bullshit home security you don’t need. Wokeness is the greatest gift Grift Conservatism has ever received.

Oh, and I guess “The Batman” was an okay movie. Loved Pattinson!

#the batman #film #conservatism #woke #grift

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rinskiroo · 6 years

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Nowhere is Somewhere

[AO3] [Part 2] [Masterlist]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Just a small ficlet I wrote after watching The Last Jedi a second time. Rey and Poe have a conversation about Jakku. It wasn’t supposed to be shippy... but then it kind of happened. Force-sensitive Poe, if you squint, too.

“You’re lucky,” she tells him out of the blue one day. They’re standing—well, squatting—under a piece of the Falcon trying to adjust bent stabilizers.

“I’m sorry?” Poe looks over, confused. And nervous. He’s so cool, like she always imagined hot shot X-Wing pilots to be—at least, around everyone else. Around her, he’s fidgety and carefully chooses his words.

“You know exactly where you come from. Your parents. Grandparents. All their friends.” Her eyes cut across the field, where they’ve parked the old freighter, to the huts of this village that has offered them refuge. Maz was the only one to answer their call. Helped them find a place to regroup. Lick their wounds. Leia’s in one of those huts, trying to find someone—anyone—who will help.

It shouldn’t have bothered her, the words that Kylo Ren had implanted in her brain. That she was no one, came from nowhere. Was barely worth a flagon. But it did. It ate at her insides and tore a hole that never seemed to fill back up.

“I know where you come from, Rey,” he says. The words spill honestly from him.

Her eyes cut back towards him. She wants to be harsh, laugh, be sarcastic—anything but as honest as he’s being now. “Do you?”

“Yeah,” he grins. His eyes crinkle with his smile, hints of white teeth behind his lips. “You’re from Jakku.”

Of course he knows. She realizes how foolish the words were leaving her lips. He had taken the map from Jakku. Left BB-8 on Jakku. Fallen from the sky with Finn and crashed into Jakku. Been thought dead on Jakku.

Junkyard. Nowhere.

Buried in a pauper’s grave.

“Jakku’s nowhere,” she says.

“Well…” Poe shrugs his shoulders as his fingers tighten on the spanner and he goes back to over-tightening the same bolt. He’s nervous again, like he shouldn’t have said anything and just let the conversation hang. He’s probably wondering if he should do that now, or chance to continue talking. “It’s Inner Rim. So it’s not nowhere.”

“You know what I mean.”

There’s a sigh she doesn’t catch the meaning behind and he drops the spanner back into the toolbox. “That’s the last one. Should be good to go now.” He puts his hand up so as not to hit his head as he stands and maneuvers out from under the Falcon. There’s a pang of guilt as she feels as if she’s just shot him down. Clipped his wing with a blaster charge and sent him spinning into the dirt. Well, didn’t he have more important things to do anyway than fiddle around with this old ship? Surely, the honeymoon period with the ship of legend should have worn off by now.

Meals are always a communal thing. They make a large pot of something; Rey doesn’t care what it is, just enjoys that it’s warm and there’s enough to fill her belly. They sit around on these flat stone tablets and have pleasant conversations, tell jokes, old stories, count the stars. The inhabitants of this village—short, large eared creatures who speak little Basic mostly translated by Threepio. They are friendly enough and freely offer what’s left of what they have to the Resistance. They have their own stories about the stars and moons and the ancient civilizations.

Rey is fascinated. She wishes she had a great story to tell. But she scavenged junk, fought off thieves. She scraped at parts until her fingers bled in order to have barely enough food to not die. She has one story—well, two. The one about how she rescued a droid and a former storm trooper and escaped on the Millennium Falcon. And the one where she met Luke Skywalker. She doesn’t tell the story about Kylo Ren, Ben Solo, and Snoke. She told Leia. She told Finn. Everyone else only know that Snoke is dead, not the details. They’ve seen the split saber, but no one asks. Rey doesn’t mind telling her stories, but she’d rather hear everyone else’s.

“We’re talking the last great stand. The battle to end all the battles. Every. Ship. On both sides.” Poe’s standing on one of the stone tablets they use as a table. He’s got his bowl in one hand with thick stew sloshing about and a spoon in the other as he weaves the tale. “The Republic—a string of victories, a new government. The Empire—in its death throes.”

The light from the fire flicks over Dameron’s features. He’s a natural leader, ace pilot, and, in that moment, a magician with words. Rey finds herself captivated by the drama he’s reliving. She can see it clearly, as if she’s watching some holo-novella.

“We have legends: Ackbar, Rieekan, Ranz—“ There’s a dramatic pause. “Wedge karking Antilles.”

Someone whoops in the crowd. Another whistles. They love the stories of the Rebellion and Poe knows them all. He’s like his own HoloNet archive.

“We’ve even got Imperial defectors: Stramm, Kyrell, and Versio.”

Rey looks at Finn at this point in Poe’s telling of the story. He’s grinning wide at his friend. In forty years, will they tell the story of Finn the defector? She hopes people will remember him. Remember his bravery and selflessness.

“We’ve got Starhawks, Home One, the Liberty, and more X-Wings, A-Wings, and Y-Wings than I could count. Stop me if I’m lying, Snap.” Poe points with his spoon to his friend and fellow pilot.

Snap Wexley lets out an almost embarrassed chuckle as he waves the other pilot off. “Stop reminding people I was at that battle. My joints ache enough.” A woman with short blonde hair sitting next to him throws her head back and laughs loudly and punches him in the shoulder none too gently. Rey grins at their antics, their camaraderie, their love.

Poe continues listing off the names of ships, squadrons, and Generals like the damn encyclopedia he is. But it doesn’t sound like a history lesson. He’s excited; he makes his audience excited. He tells the story with gusto, passion, and with reverence.

It takes Rey a moment of listening to the enchanting tenor of his voice before she realizes she knows exactly what he’s detailing.

“An Executor, twenty Star Destroyers—“

“Twenty-five.”

Poe pauses in the middle of his recount, spoon still held aloft. Several heads turn from him to her and her small voice that cut through his rousing story.

“There were twenty-five Star Destroyers at the Battle of Jakku. Twenty-three Imperial-class and two Interdictor-class.”

The hand holding the spoon drops slightly and he grins—a cheeky sort of smile she’d only seen him give other people before. “Well, it looks like I’m not the only war history nerd here.”

“No.” She shakes her head as she takes one step at a time towards him. She doesn’t know why she has to correct him, but he’s wrong and she knows he’s wrong. People should have the facts, even if they’re dumb facts like how many dead star cruisers litter her nothing planet. “I’ve just seen them. Counted them.”

“Beebee-ate, make sure you record that.” He points his spoon like the ringleader of a circus at the droid. Like her correcting him was part of his performance. “Twenty-five Star Destroyers.”

The evening wears on and they drift off to their borrowed huts and tents and scattered sleeping rolls. Rey stares into the fire and slurps the last of the leftovers out of her bowl. Not a drop wasted.

“You knew how many Star Destroyers were at Jakku,” she says to the man fidgeting with the laces on his boot. It’s an amused sort of accusation as she recognizes he was trying to get her attention, to draw her into the spectacle.

“I was rounding.” He shrugs as he stands up, nonchalantly walks over to where she’s sitting. His hands wipe on his trousers, then rest on his hips, then dig into his pockets.

“You don’t round, General.” Rey smirks at his new title. It’s not derisive, but proud. He saved what was left of the Resistance. Led them out of the tomb to fight another day. And he doesn’t round. He’s detailed. Precise. She scoots over slightly on her stone bench next to the fire and it takes him a few shuffles of his feet before he finally takes the offered seat. Somehow, though he’s still inches from her, he’s warmer than the fire. Like he’s his own star.

She sees him. Not in a way she expected.

“The Empire fell that day,” Poe says after a moment. His elbows rest on his knees. His fingers twist together. “Fell right into the sands of Jakku.”

“Junkyard.”

“Yeah.” He can’t disagree on the point. It’s too obvious. Her whole life was sifting through garbage. The Republic left all its mess in the Jakku sands and went home to celebrate. “But it’s still an important place. Something very significant happened on Jakku.

“When I was a kid, I went on this tour of historical battle sites. We saw all the big ones: Yavin, Hoth, Endor, Naboo... and Jakku.”

“Kids?” Rey raises her brows at him, nearly to her hairline. “Tourists? On Jakku?”

“Well, not on. We just saw it from space. My point is—“ His hands reach out, nearly cover hers, but he stops himself. His eyes drift from his hands to her eyes. And he’s so honest, again. “The place you come from—I mean, not that it even really matters now—but it’s not nowhere.”

It bothers her more than it should—the shame of coming from nothing, of parents who sold her. But this man, son of heroes, of a privileged upbringing, telling her she should be proud of where she came from. She sees the kindness in his attempt and she offers him a small smile. “Do you think when they tell stories about us, they’ll call me ‘Rey from Jakku’?”

Poe’s quiet for a second, like he’s turning over the thought in his head, thinking about his words far too carefully. He looks at her again, a sincerity in his dark brown eyes. Different from the looks she’s gotten from other people. It’s wholly unnerving but at the same time ensnaring. “I think they’ll call you whatever you want them to. Whether it’s Rey from Jakku, or Jedi, or Porg Herder.”

“Oh, please, no.” She laughs, a bit harder than she intended. Her hand covers her mouth and nose as an unattractive snort exits her nostril. Poe laughs then, too, and whatever odd moment that had caused the air to still dissipates with the smoke.

“If I had not been on Jakku,” Rey says slowly as she wipes a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye. She plays into this conversation that Jakku isn’t entirely worthless, even if she still doesn’t believe it. “I would not have learned how to survive.”

“A very important skill.”

Rey laughs again at his obvious quip. “Or all about ships and how they work and how to speak to droids.”

“Sometimes I like talking to droids more than people.”

“Are you just going to interrupt me through this entire admission that, while my upbringing was cruel and horrible, it did seem to serve a purpose?”

Poe holds up his hands in defeat and doesn’t say another word.

“And I never would have found Beebee-ate, or Finn. Or you.” She gives him a look that she hopes matches the one he gave her. Something that’s open and honest and tells him that she appreciates what he did for her today.

Poe’s hand hovers over hers again and she wonders why he hesitates. She makes the decision for him and presses the top of her hand into his palm. It’s as warm as she imagined; calloused, and yet, with a softness.

“I wish you could have had a better start, Rey,” he says before he swallows thickly, the words rumbling around in his chest. “But you’re here, now, with us.”

She understands his meaning, though he seems to have a hard time putting it into so many words. They’re all family here. Not just Poe and Leia because she knew him when he was a boy, was friends with his parents. Or Snap and Karé because they’re married. But every one of them. She may have fallen into this rebellion accidentally, or maybe the Force pushed her a bit, but she’ll keep them. They’re hers now.

When they get to their feet to finally turn in for the night, Rey wraps her arms around Poe. She feels him stiffen against her touch, unsure. She plants her cheek on his shoulder and squeezes him close. It takes a second, but he seems to remember what to do in this sort of situation and embraces her back. His warm hand is in her hair and there’s a long, slow breath from both of them.

“Thank you, Poe.”

#star wars #the last jedi #poe dameron #rey #damerey #jedipilot #what even is this ship tag #fanfiction #tlj spoilers

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noc-tua · 6 years

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Thoughts on The Last Jedi

SPOILERS YOU FOOLS!!!

Positives:

Funny. Porgs!

BB-8 is a highlight.

Lightspeed ram was breathtaking.

Good fights.

Attempt at thematic complexity in a Star Wars movie was refreshing.

I liked seeing Finn and Rey and Poe and BB-8 again.

I liked seeing Leia have things to do and Mark Hamil killed it as Luke.

Finn + Rey hug was wonderful.

Constant dunking on Hux was genius, especially due to the use of Nazi iconography with the First Order. The film takes a very clear stance on these guys: they are selfish, privileged, murderous clowns who have superior numbers and firepower and nothing else and they don’t deserve anything less than to be made fun of and eliminated for the good of innocent lives.

Negatives:

Attempt at thematic complexity at the expense of the story, rather than skillfully tying them together. Rian Johnson’s preoccupation with subverting expectations meant that he pulled the rug out on entire plot lines. The film attempts to make a statement about the nature of heroism (how they don’t always make the right choice but are still necessary) by sacrificing narrative weight. The entire light speed tracking plot ends on a wet fart for literally no reason other than subversion.

I get it, Poe and the rest of the resistance are acting in desperation. Perhaps don’t make a dude established as a brave, selfless hero act like an arrogant asshole so that a new character (in this case Vice Admiral Holdo) can have something to do.

Vice Admiral Holdo. Everything she did and said should have just been done by Leia. Totally pointless.

How many times does Kylo need to establish himself as an irredeemable monster before people stop trying to bring him back to the light?

Maybe don’t sideline all of your PoC characters in favor of a bunch of white british people. Kind of....an issue.

Pacing was shockingly off. Scenes just pause while another scene happens, then picks up where the previous scene left off. There’s no flow in the editing, which stems from major issues with the screenplay.

“Good and bad are just words” no they the fuck aren’t, other pointless character.

Rose was a waste of a great actress. She had nothing to do. Kiss between her and Finn was borderline embarrassing. Would have been a good idea to establish some kind of chemistry between the two during their entire B plot, which Johnson seemed to have forgotten to do.

Overall:

The Force Awakens was a better overall film that was a fine tuned, laser focused and satisfying experience.

The Last Jedi has incredible individual scenes connected by thin, weak narrative tissue that can’t seem to hold the weight of its themes. It’s not bad, but it’s not as great as it’s said to be, not even close.

Alternative Title:

The Assassination of Luke Skywalker by the Coward Rian Johnson

#star wars #star wars the last jedi #the last jedi #the last jedi spoilers #tlj spoilers

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inhumansforever · 7 years

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Black Bolt #2 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

It's the second installment of the wild, haunting and beautifully rendered adventures of the midnight king. From the creative team of writer, Saladin Ahmed and illustrator, Christian Ward. Full recap and review following the jump.

By way of the malicious mischief of Maximus the Mad, Black Bolt has found himself incarcerated in a bizarre cosmic prison. Confused and alone, Black Bolt discovered that this strange realm defied the regular confines of space and time. Its warden, a mighty creature known only as The Jailer seems to be omniscient and all powerful... complete with the ability to nullify Black Bolt;s Inhuman powers and kill and resurrect him with a whim.

As the issue begins, Black Bolt is awakened from his latest 'death' by his fellow inmate, a young alien girl with multiple eyes. Her name is impossible to pronounce by human language, so everyone just calls her 'Blinky.' Blinky informs Black Bolt that he has been killed by the Jailer and brought back to life more times than any she has seen beforehand, suggesting something especially vigorous about BB's constitution or (more likely) a particular animus on the part of The Jailer to torture (and possibly 'break') BB's will.

Blinky is eager to show the others that Black Bolt had revived. These others being Crusher Creel an earthly super villain known as The Absorbing Man who has tangled on many occasions with Thor as well as The Avengers, and Molyb, an extraterrestrial foe who battled The Hulk under the moniker of The Metal Master.

Black Bolt recalls that his destructive voice has been in some fashion turned off, but it still reluctant to speak. When he finally does, he expresses confusion as to how his fellow inmates had come to be here. BB had learned of the existence of this strange prison by way of the Terrigen Codex… and it seems he had believed it a penitentiary reserved only for Inhuman criminals. Yet Creel states that he was sent here by human law enforcement agents; Molyb was sentenced here by some alien court.

And Blinky was ushered to the prison by a sinister-sounding creep who punished her for merely stealing a few scraps to eat.

There are no answers for Black Bolt in terms of what this prison actually is, how or what enables its confines to constantly shift and reshape; nor how its warden can kill and resurrect inmates on a whim... Creel seems to believe the Jailer does all this, kills and revives, makes people suffer and fight all merely for kicks, just as a means of scratching some sadistic itch.

Their conversation is interrupted by The Spyder. The Spyder is an intergalactic trader and criminal who first appeared in an issue of The New Mutants. Although an inmate himself, The Spyder has come to an accord with the Jailer, informing for him and doing his bidding in exchange for favors and privileges.

Not taking kindly to Creel's jeering, the Spyder fires off some form of liquid filament that covers Creel's face and begins to suffocate him. Black Bolt intercedes, putting The Spyder into a hold and forcing him to release Creel. The Spyder possesses some degree of control over the constantly shifting architecture of the prison, he teleports himself and Black Bolt to a kind of gladiatorial theater where BB is forced into combat with the Skrull pirate known as Raava.

A terrific battle ensues, showing off Christian Ward's particular knack for relaying action sequences. Black Bolt ultimately prevails, besting the Skrull in combat, but he refuses to kill her.

The Spyder is irate, insisting that BB take Raava’s life to appease the audience (which as it turns out are a series of wooden figures seated in the pews). Again BB refuses and attacks The Spyder instead. That same liquid filament fires forth, adhering to BB’s face, hardening and suffocates him.

Black Bolt revives some time later, Raava and Cteel standing over him. Both have been impressed with the skill and resolve that the one time Inhuman king has shown. They state that each had merely allowed BB to best them in combat so to test his metal and the degree he can be trusted. He’s been found worthy and a suitable component to their plan to escape. BB doesn't know if he can trust these cads, but their lot seems just as bad as his own and he decides to aid them in their effort to escape. Which is good in that the jailbreak appears to be occurring just in that moment as the walls rip open (possibly a result of The Metal Master having somehow re-obtained his magnetic powers). And it is here that the issue ends, to be continued in the next installment.

Another truly fantastic issue! Whereas the first issue offered artist, Christian Ward, the opportunity to flex his illustrative muscles in establishing the wild and impossible architecture of the prison, this second issue provides writer, Saladin Ahmed, the chance to quickly and very effectively build the characters of the extended cast. Creel and Raava, the Metal Master, Blinky, even the Spyder each have their tale to tell and Ahmed gives them each such a distinctive voice, juggling the different dialects in their dialogue with deft precision.

In Ahmed's novel, The Throne of The Crescent Moon, the protagonist, Dr. Adoulla, is very much the main character... yet it is the vibrancy of the extended cast that greatly helps to propel the narrative forward. And it would appear Mr. Ahmed is looking to do something similar in Black Bolt, cobbling together a wild collection of colorful rogues to act as the supporting players in BB’s adventures. And I really dig that each has been picked from some rather random corners of the Marvel Universe.

The Metal Master first appeared in an early issue of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's run on the Incredible Hulk; he hasn't been seen from in years.... whereas The Spyder is from Louise Simonson and Brent Blevins' terrific time on New Mutants, a fun but otherwise forgettable space gangster who runs afoul of The New Mutants.

And preview pages from next issues shows that The Marvel UK mainstay bounty hunter, Deaths Head will be joining the fold. It's a veritable whose who of esoteric and previously forgotten characters and I love it.

Raava I believe is a brand new character, but she is so quickly offered depth and intrigue she may as well be a long since pre-established figure. Her tale of turning her back in the Skrull Empire, losing her children and becoming a feared pirate is quite well done. The authenticity of her dialogue allows the tale to be told quickly without losing its emotional weight.

Creel is offered the same treatment and it is made clear he is a character Mr. Ahmed especially enjoys writing. Despite all the rotten things he has done Creel still maintains something of a noble soul. Hints of this have been shown in the past, such as an issue of John Byrne's run on Avengers when Creel released his hostage, Sandy Hercawitz, before engaging the heroes because he didn't want to get hurt.

He’s a bad guy, but has something of a good heart. Perhaps Creel's best feature is his longtime relationship with his sweetheart and fellow super villain, Titania. The two have been the Ralph and Alice Kramden of the super powered villain sect. Creel desperately needs to escape so to return to his woman... the idea of her not knowing where he is something he cannot stand for. He also gets the best laughs, both in relaying a story where he used his absorbing powers to transform himself into a ginormous pile of cocaine and his hysterical reaction to learning Black Bolt's given name…

It leaves me very much looking forward to learning more of the backstory behind the Metal Master and the adorable Blinky.

As for Black Bolt himself, it would seem that he is not entirely convinced that he does not belong incarcerated with these pirates and criminals. He has show great valor in his time but there is also much that he regrets. He is not really at a place to delve into his feelings on the matter, but it is likely that Creel and Raava are going to press him on the matter. BB is no standard-issue white-hat hero, he has plenty of blood on his hands, and Creel can sense it. What exactly BB may be feeling so guilty over remains thus far unexamined... it could be the deaths of the Mutants that led to the war wit the X-Men, the alternate realities he was forced to cull as a part of the Illuminati, his failures as a father and a husband, the deaths of his parents…

There's a profound sadness in his eyes and heaviness on his brow. Yet it is not the stoic heaviness of being a king that BB has so frequently shown in the past, but rather a heaviness of genuine sorrow and regret.

Once again the art by Ward is just jaw dropping. I especially like how the more static scenes are rich with fine details while the action scenes are more sparse and fluid, adding to the dynamic sense of motion.

Just loved getting to see BB engaged in an old school sword fight!

Ward plays some neat tricks with perspective, blurring objects and bringing them into focus as BB revives from one of his latest 'deaths.' It's a very neat trick that highlights the overall dreamlike nature of the prison. Such coolness!

Never did I even think to hope that such a favorite character would get his very own book; and it would be done with such skill and ingenuity and originality. I'm over the moon with this series and cannot recommend it highly enough. Once more, five out of five Lockjaws.

#Inhumans #Black Bolt #Saladin Ahmed #Christian Ward #spoilers #review

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ponyregrets · 7 years

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alt pov request for 'mutual' , if you so desire

Original fic here, alt-POV here!

Not to brag, but Bellamy's pretty good with celebrities.

He grew up in Los Angeles and started working shitty retail jobs basically as soon as he was legally able to do so, which means that he started encountering beautiful, famous people pretty early on. He's not immune to the occasional bout of hero-worship--one time Harrison Ford came into a restaurant he was working out and he had to go out back to have a private freak-out--but for the most part, it doesn't faze him. At best, he gets a kind of fun story, and at worst, he finds a person whose work he enjoyed is actually a dick. But mostly, it's just another thing. He's used to it. Not a big deal at all.

But, seriously, he likes Clarke Griffin. Not on any deep personal level, but she's gorgeous, and currently starring in his favorite show, and she talks a lot about bisexuality and representation and seems generally pretty cool, whenever he encounters her in interviews or gifsets. As a person, she seems more serious than her character in Goredd, always self-conscious about how she comes across, but--it's kind of endearing, honestly.

And, again. She's really gorgeous.

He's sad. It's fine. He's leaning into it.

All of which means that Clarke Griffin wandering into his store one rainy afternoon is kind of a crisis, but not nearly as much of one as it could be. Because, again, he's good with celebrities. Even his current celebrity crush. Even his current celebrity crush who is wet and kind of scowling and--wow, she's cute in person. In addition to beautiful and--yeah.

Stay on track, Blake.

When her gaze hits him, he cocks his head and gives her a wry smile. It's hard to be completely professional when she looks grumpy and half-drowned. Celebrities: they're just like us.

"Hi," he says. "Can I help you?"

"Umbrellas?" she asks, sounding hopeful.

"Stand in the back." She looks around, like she's not sure what he means by the back, and it's not like he's doing anything else. "Right this way," he says, slipping out from behind the counter and leading her to the small rack of umbrellas. It's not the kind of thing that requires additional interaction, but--it's Clarke Griffin. She's a few inches shorter than he is, and her hair's pulled back in a neat braid. She's dressed well without seeming particularly stylish, just a grayish henley and jeans, and she looks older than twenty-four, and tired.

He's never going to see her again; he might as well make conversation.

"I'm resisting the urge to ask if it's really coming down out there, but that really feels like what I should be saying," he says, because he never claimed to be good at conversation. "Social conditioning."

She lets out a small huff of a laugh, almost reluctant. "I can confirm it's really coming down out there."

"I knew it." He stops by the umbrellas and waves at them vaguely. "All the umbrellas you can eat."

"How many umbrellas do people usually eat?"

She's looking more amused by the second, so he figures he can lean into it. "You know, that's the kind of thing I don't ask, as a professional. What my customers do with their umbrellas in the privacy of their own home is their business."

This time, her smile is real and bright, with a flash of white teeth, and his stupid stomach flips. It's not like he's bad with people, but his sense of humor is kind of--well, his sister tells him it's terrible and embarrassing. And he knows a lot of the time he just scrapes by on his looks, in term of charm, and his looks definitely aren't going to impress Clarke Griffin, so he's amusing her on his own merits. Which is awesome. He's the best.

"I'm glad this isn't the kind of establishment that judges people's umbrella habits," she teases.

"Safe space. Anything else?"

"Do you have hot drinks?"

He thinks it over. "Not very good ones, but if you're desperate we have shitty coffee and Lipton tea."

"You're not a very good salesman," she says, still smiling.

He shrugs. "It's really cheap, so at least there's that. You get what you pay for." He'd like her to stick around, but honesty and recognition of just how shitty their coffee is compels him to add, "You can also take your new umbrella to the coffee shop down the street."

"Which do you recommend?"

"How hard is it raining?" he asks, after an appropriate pause.

She actually laughs, looks about as surprised by the sound as he is. "I'll risk it," she says, and he assumes she means the coffee shop, but then she adds, "I think shitty coffee is better. I assume if I put enough milk and sugar in it, it'll taste like milk and sugar."

"You would think that, but I'm not convinced." He wets his lips, not sure where to go from here. He has no reason to talk to Clarke Griffin. He's done his part in this. More than his part, even. It's a nice celebrity encounter. "Uh, coffee's right over here," he says. "Feel free to do whatever you can to make it drinkable."

He goes back to the register and pulls out his phone, mostly so he won't try to talk to her or anything stupid like that.

Me: Clarke Griffin is hereJust so teenage you can be jealous

Octavia: yeah, pretend this is about teenage mehow embarrassing are you being?scale from 1-10

Me: I'm being coolShut up

Octavia: what part of your body did u ask her to signwas it just onehow much of your body is signedis there any clean skin left

Me: I'm at workI'm a professionalI'll just save her receipt

Clarke comes over to the register and slides him her coffee and the umbrella. He rings her up and she pays with cash, so no credit-card receipt, but it's not like he really minds. She hangs out checking her phone and sipping her coffee, and she gives him a smile before she leaves, so--yeah.

He's awesome with celebrities.

He's not planning to mention the encounter to Marie, largely because he doesn't know what he'd say about it to Marie. Marie is a generally confusing and difficult part of his life, because, well, he likes Marie, in a way he wasn't really prepared for. He got on tumblr back when O went off to college and decided that was going to be her social media platform, and he'd only ever planned to interact with her there. Which wasn't even a good plan, because basically all Octavia does on tumblr is reblog weird aesthetic stuff and memes from Denny's, at least on the tumblr she's telling him about, so it wasn't like he really learned much about her life. He just kind of started blogging about TV shows he likes and complaining about things and stumbled into tumblr culture, basically entirely by accident. But for all he's kind of involved in fandom on bb-hate, and has a surprising number of followers and fans on hollywood-histories, he doesn't really have a lot of friends on tumblr.

Marie was unexpected, and he still feels like he doesn't know what to do with her. He talks to her more than he talks to anyone he knows, aside from possibly Miller and his sister, and he feels like he knows her pretty well.

More than that, he feels like he'd like to know her better, and he's still not sure how to do that. But telling her he's still buzzing from seeing a cute celebrity definitely feels like the wrong way to handle it.

So, of course, that's one of the days she asks.

touched-the-sky: Any celebrities today?

He thinks about lying, but--that would be a dick move, right? And what's the point of lying? People have celebrity crushes. They definitely have talked about all kinds of both celebrities and hot people before, so there's no reason he can't mention this one. She probably thinks Clarke Griffin is hot too. She generally has good taste.

bb-hate: Clarke Griffin

touched-the-sky: From the dragon show, right?

bb-hate: yeahshe got caught in the rain and needed an umbrellaI was incredibly cool about itI'm pretty sure she has no idea I've got a huge thing for her

It feels a little stupid to add, but Miller and Octavia don't like women and don't want to gossip with him, or would just mock him, so Marie is definitely his best option.

And maybe she'll get jealous. He wouldn't mind if she did. It would probably help him deal with his stupid feelings.

touched-the-sky: Definitely notI'm sure you were very subtle

bb-hate: your sarcasm is not appreciatedI'm great with celebritiesshe stuck around to drink her coffee so I couldn't have been that baddo you watch that show?

touched-the-sky: Not religiously

bb-hate: I'm just saying, she's even hotter in personand she laughed at my shitty self-deprecating humor, so we're probably getting married

touched-the-sky: I'm happy for you

There's a lull in the conversation, and he's hoping, a little bit, that she is jealous, because if she was it would make him feel a lot better about his life if she was.

touched-the-sky: You know, usually you don't objectify the celebritiesIs Clarke Griffin really hotter than a Jonas Brother?

bb-hate: have you ever seen a picture of Clarke Griffin?or a Jonas Brother?seriously, no comparison

He hesitates for a second, but--he met Clarke Griffin, and she's cool and pretty and he made her laugh, and someone should definitely appreciate how great that is. Marie remains his best bet.

bb-hate: but, yeahshe seems coolmy sister was really into her when she was trying to have a musical careerand I saw all these interviews where she turned from, likeprivileged white girl who thought her bisexuality meant she was oppressedto actually informed feminist who cares about intersectionalityand she's cuteuh yeah anywaythat was your Clarke Griffin asidehow was your day?

touched-the-sky: Surprisingly goodGot kind of soaked, but yeahReally good

bb-hate: yeah?what happened?

touched-the-sky: Had an important work meetingWent wellI dunno, just kind of a good feelingI think stuff is going my way

bb-hate: coolI hope so

touched-the-sky: YeahMe too

Bellamy has a few regulars at the store. There are the people who make him feel guilty, the ones who come in every day after work to buy lottery tickets and cigarettes, and make him want to take them aside and explain how much of a scam these things are. There are the ones who come in for frozen meals, the lady who is hung over ever Saturday morning and comes in for shitty coffee and one of their awful breakfast burritos, the guy who says they're the only place who carries his favorite candy bar.

And then, suddenly, there's Clarke Griffin.

She comes in for the second time four days after the first. It's the same time of day, so maybe she knows someone in the area. There are some agents around, some gyms, some places that definitely could be destinations, even for someone like her.

She picks up an Arizona green tea, a bag of popcorn, and one of their sudoku books.

"You know a sudoku app is actually cheaper, right?" he asks. Most of his conversation starters are about money, which is unfortunate, because Clarke Griffin can afford to buy whatever she feels like. She doesn't need to worry about budgets.

"I like having to keep track of the numbers myself," she says. "The phone feels like cheating."

"Yeah, okay, I can see that, I guess," he says, and she thanks him and takes off.

A week after that, she gets a peanut butter Twix, and five days after that, she asks if they have batteries.

"Yeah, next to the umbrellas," he tells her, and wonders if she actually remembers he's the same guy who helped her before.

She remembers where the umbrellas are, at least. But she probably doesn't know exactly how many times she's been in the store while he's working. She's the celebrity, he's just the help. Even non-famous people tend to see employees as part of the decoration.

Three days later she buys another pack of batteries, another tea, and another sudoku book.

"Already done with the first one?" he asks.

"I have a lot of downtime at my job," she says. "I assume you can relate."

It's nice that she doesn't act like he should know who she is, and kind of cute that she's comparing time off between takes to working at a convenience store. He's pretty confident their jobs have nothing in common, but he appreciates her pretending.

"Yeah, but I cheat and use my phone," he says, and she smiles.

"So, I'm definitely better at sudoku than you are."

"No question." He gives her her change. "Have a good day."

"Thanks, you too."

The next time she comes in, he isn't expecting her at all. It's 10:47 on a Friday night, and he's so bored that time feels like it's going backward. He just wants to close up, go home, and hear about whatever shitty movie Marie's decided to watch. It's just what he needs. He's had a long week, and it's not even over yet. The distraction sounds perfect.

When the bell chimes, he almost groans, but then he sees it's Clarke, and he manages a smile, even through his confusion. It's almost eleven; she's never been in so late. He has no idea what she'd be doing in this neighborhood at this time of night.

It would be weird if he offered to walk her to her car, right? But--she might get mugged. He'd feel bad.

Only one way to find out. He gives her a smile when she gets to the counter and says, "Hi, need help finding anything?"

Weirdly, she looks anxious. He can see her swallow, close her eyes, and take a breath. "No," she says. Her eyes lock on his. "I just--I don't really like watching movies alone."

Maybe she's drunk. She seems pretty coherent, but--he has no idea what she's talking about, so something must be up. Maybe she's on one of those drugs he's not famous enough to have access to. That's probably a thing. "Uh, okay. Sorry about that?" he offers.

Clarke nods, like she's making up her mind about something. "And it's not really the same doing it online, like--I like talking to you on tumblr, but I think it would be a lot more fun in person, you know?"

Bellamy's brain basically just--stops. For a second. He doesn't talk to many people on tumblr, especially not about watching movies. There's only one person like that, in fact.

She's smiling at him, fond and shy all at once. "I bet you get really annoyed and yell at the TV and everything," she continues, and he tries to figure out a response, but the words aren't coming. He just swallows, and Clarke's smile grows. "I don't really know what the protocol is for revealing your secret internet identity, but--hi? I'm touched-the-sky on tumblr. I'm a big fan of yours."

He finally gets his voice working enough to croak, "Marie?"

She blushes a little, and some separate part of Bellamy's brain feels kind of smug that he's making Clarke Griffin blush. Clarke Griffin is totally self-conscious. Because of him.

"My middle name," she explains, like that was his question. "Clarke Marie Griffin. It was easy to remember."

"I--" he starts, but he doesn't actually know what to say yet. Clarke Griffin is his internet friend. Clarke Griffin is the girl he's been kind of developing a thing for, and she's somehow been coming into his store just to see him, probably.

Which at least gives him something to say. "How?"

She bites her lip, expression caught between pride and embarrassment. "Luck? I don't know, I liked your blog, I wanted to talk to you. Real life, I found you totally by accident. I was kind of looking, though," she adds. "Just, you know. Paying a lot of attention to guys who worked at convenience stores."

Clarke Griffin likes his blog, cares about his opinions, thinks his dorky sense of humor is funny, and was looking for him in convenience stores. Maybe every time she asked him if he'd seen any celebrities, it was because she'd seen someone who could be him and wanted to check. That could actually be a thing.

He shakes his head, bringing his brain back to the task at hand. "Okay, so--what are you doing here?"

"Making friends?" she says, but immediately rethinks it. "No, scratch that. I really like you, so--"

Making friends was already a way better answer than he thought he'd get, because--Clarke Griffin wants to be his friend. But apparently she-- "Wait, are you asking me out?" he asks, flabbergasted.

Would she notice if he pinched himself? She'd probably get it. She has to understand how fucking surreal this is.

"Yeah, that would probably would have been a better way to do this," she says, flushing. "Sorry if that's weird."

He barks out a laugh, and he can see her relax. "Uh, yeah," he teases. "It's incredibly weird. This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me." Which still feels like an understatement. Marie's here, and she's asking him out, and she's a gorgeous, famous celebrity who wants to hang out and watch bad movies on Netflix with him. Nothing is ever going to be this weird again in his entire life, he's pretty sure. Half of him is still expecting this to be some elaborate prank. "I didn't want to be an asshole about asking you where in California you lived or--anything," he finally admits. "But I really wanted to know." She grins, and it's just--way too much. "Fuck. I really wasn't expecting this."

"Sorry I didn't tell you earlier," she offers, sounding like she really means it. "It wasn't supposed to be a thing. I just wanted--something for myself, I guess. Somewhere no one knew who I was and I could just--have fun."

He laughs. "You know, when I think about Hollywood stars trying to live normal lives, tumblr's never been involved."

"Don't blame me for your lack of imagination," she shoots back, and it's just--it's her. It's just like talking to Marie, just live and in person.

And a celebrity.

"Jesus," he breathes. "It really is you."

"That's why I came down. I was pretty sure you weren't going to believe me if I just told you online that I was Clarke Griffin."

"I barely believe you now," he says, dry. She smiles, and he'd say he has no idea what to do, but he knows exactly what he wants. Clarke is right here, and is Marie, and she wants to go out with him. It's so obvious what he should be doing.

Except he's at work. He checks his phone, finds it's only 10:56, not even closing time yet. His entire life has been upended, and it's only been ten fucking minutes. "It's, uh--I'm pretty sure no one's going to know if I close up four minutes early, so--" He slides out from behind the counter so he can lock the door and flip the sign, but he still needs another second before he can just--go over there. She's a few inches shorter than he is, and she's smiling up at him, leaning in because she somehow, for some reason, wants to kiss him. "Clarke," he breathes, and then cracks the moment open when he laughs. "Shit, you're Clarke Griffin," he adds, like she doesn't know.

She rolls her eyes, but looks amused. "Yeah, and we could be making out if you just got over it. I'm Clarke Griffin. You're Bellamy--whatever your last name is. Nice to meet you in person."

"Blake. Bellamy Blake," he tells her.

And then he kisses Clarke Griffin, and she doesn't seem to mind at all.

"So, did you seriously ask me if I'd seen a celebrity every time you went into a convenience store?"

"Not every time," Clarke protests. She sitting on her couch with her legs tucked under her, wearing a nightshirt and nothing else, and it still doesn't feel real, whatever's happening. He's fucked Clarke Griffin, and woken up with her in his arms, and now he's in her apartment, drinking her coffee, thinking about calling into work for once in his life. He's earned it, right? He's got a new celebrity girlfriend, he's so justified.

He sits down next to her, and she snuggles into him. There's no way he's going into work. Not at all.

"How many times?" he asks.

"Like three? Just when I went somewhere with a male employee around your age who looked like he might be biracial," she says. She worries her lip. "I was really hoping it was you, though. The time that it was. Not to be shallow, but--you were hot, so I wanted you to be--you." She makes a face. "This is really confusing to talk about."

He grins. "You think I'm hot, huh?"

"I figured the way I dragged you home to fuck you within an hour of meeting you was a tip-off."

"You knew it was me for weeks," he points out. "And you weren't fucking me then."

"No, but--I wanted to be. Once I found out it was you."

"Romantic," he says, and leans down to kiss her again. It's supposed to be quick, but she sets her coffee aside and slides into his lap, so it's hard to care about stopping.

"Seriously, you're really hot," she murmurs, trailing her fingers up his sides. "I can't believe I got this lucky."

"You can't believe you got this lucky?" he teases. "Which one of us is dating the actual movie star?" He freezes, realizing. "Uh, assuming we're dating."

Clarke laughs and nuzzles his jaw. "I'm more of a TV star, but, yeah. We're definitely dating." She pauses. "But dating a celebrity isn't really that great, honestly. It sounds cool, but you have to go to events and the press will want to talk to you, and--"

"And I get to date you," he points out. "So--I'll live."

"I'm just saying, I'm pretty sure dating Clarke Griffin isn't as great as some of my fans think it is."

"Maybe not. But dating Clarke Marie Griffin is going to be fucking awesome."

"That does sound pretty awesome," she agrees. She slides off his lap, picking up her coffee and finding the remote. "You know, we never actually watched that shitty movie last night. You in?"

One sick day. He can afford one sick day. It's worth it. "I'm in," he says. "Do your worst."

#millipop

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