#+ marcus' change of heart in the comic

[noxianwilled]

i was thinking if kat was 14 at the time of her first mission, she hasn't seen her mother since she was a teenager - or her sister, for that matter. which means she likely doesn't know anything about cass' shenanigans in shurima and eventual transformation. considering she says her mother never really had any interest in her, i doubt they stayed in touch in any way (and although i can see her trying to reach out to cass, her sister's closeness to their mother and the diverging paths could easily have led to them simply not talking to each other over the years).

she'd also have kept no contact of any sort with her father, until his eventual "death" and later reapearance. which in turn would have made talon the only family she had left, until he too betrayed her (it's a loss that would hit her so hard, in no small part due to that).

going by that, it'd also be fair to assume kat has been living on her own since she was a teenager. i think that's easily believable, considering she would be a damn good assassin already, and would have been capable of keeping herself safe and using her skills to make a living. while talon's story suggests remaining guildless is a risk when you're a really good assassin, i don't? really see her as part of any assassin guild (would they even want to give her a place anywhere after her public fall from grace? idk).

personally i do like to think swain had an important role in giving her a chance to prove herself serving noxus (but that would likely only happen a few years after her failure, considering his own at the placidium and the years of planning to take over). still, she'd have been eager to serve the empire, and she obviously did well, for him to continue trusting her with more and more tasks as said at the beginning of the comic.

[mercless]

MINI CHARACTER PLAYLIST

Share at least five songs that remind you of your muse, or that you associate with your muse's character arc. Including lyrics is optional.

1. alien blues - vundabar

"I only talk to dogs because they don't understand me my teeth are yellow, hello, world would you like me a little better if they were white like yours?"

Relating to Talon's difficulties with life and their social standing, especially when they were brought up from the slums to rubbing elbows with the aristocratic life of Noxus. Even now their life is an isolated one, with convoluted rituals and daily tasks to keep themself preoccupied, busy, and not needing human connection, so the assassin tells themself.

2. family happiness - the mountain goats

"Look at the person I've turned into Tell me how do you like him now? No standards of any kind to break, no creeds to disavow."

Initially this one was added to the playlist for the bitterness and held for the other passenger in the car, relating it as Talon's complex feelings for Marcus and everything he's done to them. Molding them into a weapon but doing very little to help them be a person. But now with the comic out, and reading more interview questions relating to the song, it aligns far more to Talon and Katarina's relationship, with Marcus' ghost still deciding both of their actions, and how this has lead to Talon's difficult relation with Kat.

One of the comments John Darnielle (the artist behind tmg) had for the song included this bit; This song, this song is about people who have chosen whatever the opposite of victory is. Talon is someone who's chosen the opposite of victory.

3. my town - frank carter & the rattlesnakes

"My town, it looks like yours We hide those tears behind closed doors Never talk about our fear Don't know why we're living here, my town."

Talon's difficult relation with Noxus Prime, and Noxus in general. It's the heart of the empire, and just as power hungry as it's history. When Talon grew up under Darkwill's rule, Noxus promised the best of life for the strongest, and that meant proving yourself in every way possible, and climbing over anyone to do it. Watching a demonic monster take the leading role for himself hasn't helped Talon's view of Noxus as a system, but there is a least now understanding that many are just like them; born into this. Although that understanding is without sympathy. Talon hates Noxus, and the rest of the world hates Noxus, and hates them.

4. get out the way - mother mother

"there's spit on my face the hot breath of the human race and I know, I know I'm suppose to integrate but hows about instead I inch away?"

Talon has a habit of keeping people at arms length at best, and becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy by not trusting anyone, and not being trusted in return. Even if they wanted a normal life, they can't bring themself to build the foundations of a normal one without making it an awful, painstaking event. It's just easier if people get out of their way.

5. fleabag - yungblud

"I wanna turn back time I wanna fix the way I was designed Crawl behind my eyes And kill my stale state of mind."

No matter what they do, Talon can never do the right thing. Looking out for themself, following the orders of their teacher, it all leads to death, betrayal, and blood spilt because of them. Talon was a useful weapon to Marcus, until they failed him. Betraying Katarina's trust further proves relations with them are no good. But the most damning part is the lack of trying to improve this, instead letting this fester into part of their character instead of an issue to work at. Even in the hypothetical situation of getting to change their life around, Talon wouldn't know where to begin. They feel like it's easier to stay as an unlovable fleabag because it's all they've ever known.

tagged by: @dolls-runeterran-dollhouse unsure of who hasn't been tagged yet; consider yourself & tag me in your post!

[hatingwithfears]

BOOKS READ IN 2022

Here’s the complete list of books I managed to read in 2022.

168 books. 54,494 pages.

Renata Adler- Speedboat

Kendra Allen- The Collection Plate

Jonathan Alter- His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life

Kenneth Anger- Hollywood Babylon

Jason Bailey- Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies That Made It

Peter Baker, Susan Glasser- The Divider: Trump in The White House 2017-2021

JG Ballard- The Atrocity Exhibition

Julien Barnes- Elizabeth Finch

Brit Bennett- The Vanishing Half

Charles M. Blow- The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto

Anthony Bourdain- Medium Raw

Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever- World Travel: An Irreverent Guide

Box Brown- Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America

Mariah Carey, Michaela Angela Davis- The Meaning of Mariah Carey

Nick Cave & Sean O’Hagan- Faith, Hope, and Carnage

David Chang- Eat a Peach

Dan Charnas- Dilla Time

Leonard Cohen- A Ballet of Lepers

Lee Cole- Groundskeeping

Teju Cole- Black Paper

Ray Connolly- Being Elvis: A Lonely Life

Brian Contoir- Practical Alchemy

Antoine Cosse- Metax

Charles R. Cross- Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain

Daniele Cybulskie- How To Live Like a Monk

Travis Dandro- King of King Court

John Darnelle- Devil House

Michael Deforge- Heaven No Hell

Rita Dove- Playlist for the Apocalypse

David Duchovny- The Reservoir

Jennifer Egan- The Candy House

Robert Evans- The Kid Stays in The Picture

Scott Eyman- Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise

Nicolas Ferraro- Cruz

Mark Fisher- Ghosts of My Life

Mark Fisher- Capitalist Realism

Johnathan Franzen- Crossroads

Harry Freedman- Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius

Matti Friedman- Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai

James Gavin- George Michael: A Life

Lizzy Goodman- Meet Me in The Bathroom

Andrew Sean Greer- Less

Dave Grohl- The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

Joseph Hansen- Troublemaker

Joy Harjo- Poet Warrior

Robert Harris- The Ghost Writer

Noah Hawley- Anthem

Wil Haygood- Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Film in a White World

Clinton Heylin- The Double Life of Bob Dylan

Andrew Holleran- The Kingdom of Sand

Michel Houellebecq- Serotonin

Sean Howe- Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

Dorthy B Hughes- In a Lonely Place

John Irving- The Fourth Hand

Walter Isaacson- Leonardo Da Vinci

Kazuo Ishiguro- Klara and The Sun

Junji Ito- No Longer Human

Robert Jones Jr- The Prophets

Saeed Jones- Alive at The End of the World

Stephen Graham Jones- My Heart is a Chainsaw

Rax King- Tacky

Stephen King- Billy Summers

Katie Kitamura- Intimacies

Chuck Klosterman- The Nineties

TJ Klune- Under The Whispering Door

Karl Ove Knausgaard- The Morning Star

Hideo Kojima- The Creative Dream

Milan Kundera- Slowness

Wally Lamb- I Know This Much is True

Yiyun Li- Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life

Thomas Ligotti- The Conspiracy Against The Human Race

Roger Lipsey- Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down

Patricia Lockwood- No One is Talking About This

Ling Ma- Bliss Montage

Stuart B MacBride- Halfhead

Michael Mann & Meg Gardiner- Heat 2

Greil Marcus- Dead Elvis

Mike McCormack- Solar Bones

Jennette McCurdy- I’m Glad My Mom Died

Janelle Monae- The Memory Librarian

Ottessa Moshfegh- Lapvona

Leila Mottley- Nightcrawling

Alan Moore, Melinda Gebbie- Lost Girls

Grant Morrison- The Invisibles

Mannie Murphy- I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Sequoia Nagamatsu- How High We Go in The Dark

Joyce Carol Oates- Blonde

Joyce Carol Oates- American Melancholy

John O’Connell- Bowie’s Bookshelf

Ryan O’Connell- Just By Looking at Him

Jenny Offill- Weather

Paul Ortiz- An African American and Latinx History of The United States

Hiroko Oyamada- The Factory

Hiroko Oyamada- The Hole

Helen Oyeymi- What is Not Yours is Not Yours

James Patterson- Hear No Evil

Larissa Pham- Pop Song

Brian Phillips- Impossible Owls

Stephanie Phillips- Why Solange Matters

Keith Phipps- Age of Cage

Michael Pollan- This Is Your Mind on Plants

Richard Powers- Bewilderment

Questlove- Music is History

Kristen Radtke- Seek You

Sue Rainsford- Follow Me to Ground

Claudia Rankine- Just Us: An American Conversation

George A Romero, Daniel Kraus- The Living Dead

Karen Russell- Orange World

George Saunders- A Swim in a Pond in The Rain

George Saunders- Liberation Day

Samantha Schweblin— Fever Dream

Leonardo Sciascia- Equal Danger

Mark Seal- Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli

Seth- Clyde Fans

Alan Sepinwall- Breaking Bad 101

Zadie Smith- Feel Free

Won-Pyung Sohn- Almond

Bob Spitz- Led Zeppelin: The Biography

Elizabeth Strout- Oh William!

J Randy Taraborrelli- The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

Herve Le Tellier- The Anomaly

Manjit Thapp- Feelings

Olga Tokarczuk- The Books of Jacob

Jia Tolentino- Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion

Leo Trezenick- The Confession of a Mad Man

Stanley Tucci- Taste

Una- Becoming Unbecoming

Ocean Vuong- Time is a Mother

Chris Ware- Rusty Brown

WC Ware- Jimmy Corrigan

John Waters- Liarmouth

Peter Weiss- The Shadow of The Coachman’s Body

Missouri Williams- The Doloriad

Antoine Wilson- Mouth to Mouth

Sarah Winman- Still Life

Laurie Wollever- Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography

Kenneth Womack- Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and The End of The Beatles

Hanya Yanagihara- To Paradise

Ed. Jelani Cobb & David Remnick- The Matter of Black Lives

Ed. Sinead Gleeson & Kim Gordon- This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music

[andronicmusicblog]

Making a game trailer is like making music: you have to decide what kind of piece you want to write. Is it a ballad? A punk track? How will you play with tempo? What emotions do you want to evoke?

This all depends on the game, of course. Some trailers are so good they stick in your brain forever. They create the feeling of the game itself.

Take the cinematic trailer for the original Assassin’s Creed: what makes it so memorable 18 years later? Immediately the protagonist reveals to us what the game is about with how he hides in plain sight, his hooded, stealthy appearance, the gruesome reveal of his now-iconic hidden blade, and how he times his escape by camouflaging with white-robed priests. We the audience don’t need to be told anything, nor have we seen any gameplay; we know what the game is about, and we want to play it now.

Or consider the ‘Mad World’ Gears of War trailer, directed by Joseph Kosinski, who went on to direct Top Gun: Maverick. Widely regarded as an all-time-great game trailer, it captures the desolation of Sera post-Emergence Day, when underground ‘Locust’ sprang to the surface and stomped humanity to near-extinction. It doesn’t show the events of E-Day—it doesn’t need to. It tells you everything you need to know, without speaking a word, through the journey of Marcus Fenix, who is alone in a dark world, chainsaw-rifle in hand, fighting tooth and nail to survive the creatures he encounters, all to the backdrop of Gary Jules’ heart-wrenching Tears for Fears cover.

Both examples—Assassin’s Creed and Gears of War—were inaugural games of franchises that went on to have huge cultural impact. On the flipside, when you work with IP that has already made such an impact in a previous life—say, a popular film or comic book—the rules of the game change.

In many ways it gets simpler: you can give long-time fans what they want to see, whether that’s a scene, a line of dialogue, or even just a shot. But in such cases, you’re working with fragile china. One oversight, and BANG!, catastrophe. You’ve just shown your pig-headed ignorance to the die-hards. Good luck getting them back onside after that.

At Heroic by Room 8 Group, we had the pleasure—and the responsibility—of making the launch trailer for RoboCop: Rogue City. We knew all along we’d hit certain notes: RoboCop’s metal boot meeting the tarmac as he steps out of his police car; the shot of his car climbing the station-house ramp; and of course that line: ”Dead or alive, you are coming with me!”

A new game based on an old franchise is an extension of a cultural institution loved by millions. It has to be handled with care. It’s important to give those millions of fans what they want, and truthfully, we didn’t try to hide our fan-service. But it’s important not to go too far, or to get bogged down in it. The trailer should excite newcomers, too.

It isn’t just iconic movie IP that can do this kind of fan-service. Remember when Battlefield 2042 put this in its reveal trailer? Almost 10 years prior, a Battlefield content creator invented a move called the RendeZook, where the player, mid-dogfight, ejects from their jet, fires a handheld rocket launcher, downs an enemy plane, lands back in their jet and returns to flight. This immortalized the creator, and in so doing, sent the Battlefield community into a (positive) frenzy.

When working with cult-favorite franchises like RoboCop, a trailer is more than a way to build hype for a game: it’s an important part of a franchise and its community, because it is the first touchpoint of a new chapter. Delicate subject matter? Yes—but so rewarding when you get it right.

Bringing RoboCop to life

So how did we do it for RoboCop: Rogue City?

All visual elements, down to the way light reflected off of RoboCop’s armor, are dictated by the films’ aesthetic:

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And to reiterate, the best trailers feel like the games they preview. We had to make our cinematic feel like RoboCop on a technical level.

The cyborg himself is mechanical, calculated. Because he’s the protagonist of the game, we felt the trailer—which, importantly, was 85% gameplay and 15% CG cinematic—had to recreate this feeling.

We did this with camera movement. The artists who shot the gameplay footage for the trailer recorded movement as if they, too, were RoboCops: jerky yet deliberate, like a bot scanning for lifeforms. A good example: 1:12 of the trailer. Pay attention to the camerawork as RoboCop enters the shot with the news anchor. Catch the subtle zoom-in when he speaks?

On narrative: We used Mediabreak anchor Casey Wong, who featured in the original movie in 1987, and his colleague Cindy as a narrative device to introduce RoboCop. We see thugs smash a shop window—a reference to another movie scene—where a TV is showing Wong’s live broadcast. This allows RoboCop to arrive at the scene and get out of his car in the manner that fans recognized right away. Later in the trailer we gave another nod to the original film with the line: “It seems there will be … trouble.”

If you’re a RoboCop fan, there are several moments in the trailer that will catch your eye. The most graphic of these is the “groin” shot (at 1:02). We understood that we had to fully convey the brutality with which RoboCop deals with the enemies, but the trailer still needed to be acceptable for most age groups. It took some time and effort, but after recording 47 versions of the shot, we got the perfect one.

Trailers as storytelling

But a fantasy world isn’t essential to make a good trailer.

Take chess—hundreds of years old and very simple in premise. Neither its age nor its simplicity  prevent the chess match in Harry Potter, or the one in Star Wars (albeit Holochess), or Sherlock Holmes, from engaging us as viewers. It’s always about the people playing the game.

If you have a strong narrative and compelling characters, you can make a great trailer, because trailers are stories. An even simpler, even older game than chess is The Royal Game of Ur. And what better advert for a 4,500-year-old game than a part-match, part-history-lesson between YouTuber Tom Scott and British Museum curator Irving Finkel, the man who reconstructed the game’s rules?

As storytellers, it’s our job to find the hook. For RoboCop, the touchpoints are kind of obvious. Iconic characters, set-pieces, dialogue—it was all oven-ready; we just had to orchestrate. We felt fortunate to work with a cult favorite, and we had a great game to work with, which helps! But ultimately, trailers are stories—and stories are how you get people excited. Reposted from gamedeveloper.com Whether you're a game developer seeking immersive sound effects and interactive music or a TV producer looking to refine your show's audio, don't underestimate the power of post-production. For professional services in music, sound design, audio restoration, and mixing, Andronic Music can take your project to the next level.

[sameheart-sameblood]

Missed Connection

Missed Connection Ch. 2

pairing: carmy berzatto x f!reader

summary: after being best friends since culinary school, you and carmy have had somewhat of a falling out. while opening up a restaurant in chicago, you try to make amends and get your friend back

words: 2k

warnings: 18+ eventually but nothing of real note in this chapter, some angst, eventual friends to lovers, dummies who can't just say how they're feeling, slow burn, me not knowing how restaurants or chef things work

a/n: sooooo this was meant to be self-indulgent porn. but i should know by now i can't write porn without plot. it's my curse. also i just love carmy so much that i wanted to spend some more time with him. this might only be two chapters, but i have a feeling it'll be more than that. only time will tell!

read on ao3!

“Well well well, if it isn’t Food & Wine’s Best New Chef.”

Carmy’s head snaps up, almost comically, ready to fight whoever is bringing up that damn accolade yet again. It’s been almost ten years, for christ’s sake. 

You smirk playfully as his eyes find you. His soften and you see the hint of a smile tugging at his lips. But Carmen Berzatto doesn’t show his emotions easily. Thankfully, you’ve known him long enough to be able to read the ghosts of expressions that play at his face. You didn’t just learn how to cook at culinary school. You learned how to decipher your enigmatic friend. That’s what years of cooking together side by side will do. 

Carmy comes around the counter, ignoring the obvious stares from his co-workers. He pauses in front of you, then pulls you into a tentative hug. Your smirk disappears, replaced by a comical look of surprise. Chefs aren’t known for being touchy-feely people, Carmy least of all. But you haven’t seen him in almost a year, people change. 

You awkwardly return the hug, which ends all too quickly. Carmy studies you, like you’re an old recipe he hasn’t attempted in years but once knew by heart. “Long time, no see, Rosy.”

Smiling at the nickname he gave you in school, you answer back with his pet name. “Right back at you, Bear.”

*******

Carmy introduces you to his staff. Everyone greets you with different levels of enthusiasm. Marcus, the pâtissier, grins at you as he shakes your hand, instantly offering you a piece of his cake to give your thoughts on. 

Before you can enthusiastically oblige him, Carmy is pulling you away to continue the introductions you know he’s feeling awkward about. Syd, the sous chef, offers you a half smile but seems much too busy for you. As a chef yourself, you take no insult to this. The food comes first. 

Tina also has no time for you, giving you a quick once over before yelling at whoever stole her stock pot. Richie smiles knowingly at Carmy as he greets you, calling “sweetheart” and offering to show you how the kitchen works. 

“She’s Chef de Cuisine at a three Michelin star restaurant, cousin. I think she knows how a kitchen works.”

Richie holds up his hands “I don’t even know what the fuck that means. Was just being friendly.” 

Last is Ebra, who gives you his name then asks you point blank if you and Carmy are dating. Carmy sighs a Jesus fucking Christ as he pulls you into his office and slams the door shut. 

Once safe from prying eyes, Carmy quickly clears off a pile of papers from a chair and offers the seat to you. He takes one opposite you and lets out a sigh. Running his hands through his wild hair, he smiles ruefully. “Sorry. They’re a great staff but they can be…a lot.”

After the kitchens you had been in through the years and the jerks you had worked with, the crew at The Original Beef of Chicagoland seemed like goddamn angels. “Nah, they seem nice. If just a bit nosey.”

Carmy nods, huffing out a small chuckle. You study his face, the familiarity of it making memories rush back from your shared past. With those memories comes a funny feeling in your stomach. For years, you had mistaken that feeling for anxiety. It was the only feeling that was always a constant in your life as a chef. 

Carmy was always there alongside you, so you just assumed the environment caused that tingle in your gut. But slowly, you had realized the difference between your anxiety and your feelings for your friend. 

The anxiety felt cold and empty, like a bottomless pit you might never claw your way out of. The feeling Carmy gave you was the polar opposite. His presence left you feeling warm and surrounded, completely taken care of. You had missed that this past year…

You could dwell on your crush later. Right now, your main focus was getting your friend back in your life. He stares at you and you realize you’ve been gawking at him for entirely too long. “Not that I’m not happy to see you but…” He glances to the clock. 

“Lunch rush, huh?” it’s less of a question from you and more of a commiseration. No matter how long you’ve been in a kitchen, the lunch rush is always the most dreaded. Carmy nods, fidgeting in his seat. 

“I know you’re busy but I’m gonna be in town for a bit and just wanted to say ‘hey’” it sounds lame. Saying ‘hey’ after not speaking for a year is pretty weird. 

Carmy’s eyebrows knit together in worry. “Work ok?”

You hurriedly nod, sorry you caused him anxiety when he already looks so run down. “No, no. It’s good. Great, actually. We’re opening up a location here and I’m taking point on it.”

His worry doesn’t fall away like you expect it to but he nods “That’s great, Rose. Happy for you.” You choose to believe his words rather than his expression. 

“Thanks…” you look into his eyes and search them for permission for the next subject you want to broach. You want to talk about why you’ve both been so silent this past year when you’d been best friends for the last decade. 

But his eyes dart back to that fucking clock and you decide against it. This conversation deserves all the time it needs. 

You get up, understanding Carmy’s time is precious and you’ve already eaten up enough of it. He jumps up, more worry etched into his face. “You’re leaving already?”

You look between him and the clock. “I just…lunch rush, right?”

Carmy nods dejectedly. “Yeah, those sandwiches won’t make themselves.” As if on cue, you hear a pot fall in the kitchen and the sounds of muffled yells. Carmy once again runs his hand through his hair, seemingly as a way to self-soothe.

You’ve seen your friend stressed beyond belief before. But this is something different. He looks like his tether to sanity is fraying and fast. It breaks your heart and so before you know what you’re doing, you’re blurting out an offer that you’re sure he’ll refuse. 

“I can help with prep if you want? Many hands and all that.” You see him thinking it over, certain he’ll rebuff your offer. He was never one to ask for assistance. But he surprises you with a gentle nod. 

“That would be great, Chef. Thank you.”

******

The lunch rush is…insane. You’re not sure what you had been expecting but it wasn’t this. How much business could one little hole in the wall sandwich shop do you had thought before service started. 

The answer is a whole fucking lot. 

Regulars crowd the tiny shop as tourists meekly try to edge their way in as well. 

You help with prepping the vegetables, knowing it’s one of the most hated jobs in the kitchen. It’s also the perfect job for staying out of the way but being helpful. 

The rest of the staff instantly love you for this except for Tina, who studies you as if trying to figure out what your angle is. You’d love to explain to her the only angle you have is spending time with your best friend whom you’ve missed dearly. But before you can open your mouth, Carmy is yelling out for more orders and it’s back to business. 

At the end of the rush, the kitchen is in shambles. Your face is flaming hot and flushed, like a tomato come to life. It’s how you earned your nickname in culinary school. You hated it at first but then learned to love it, realizing you looking like this meant you’d put in the work, got the job done and made the customers happy. 

Everyone else in the kitchen looks completely exhausted. But the strange thing is they’re happy. You’re not used to these vibes. Exhaustion is always a given. Maybe you’ve worked in mostly toxic environments but usually by now, everyone would be at each other’s throats. 

It’s not to say the chefs here don’t give each other shit. An outsider listening in on them during the rush would have thought the day would end in murder. But to an insider, that’s kind of just how kitchens sound. But the chefs at Original Beef are able to weather the insanity of lunch and still crack jokes and thank each other for their hard work at the end of it. 

You watch them happily as you all clean up, feeling like one of the crew already. Watching Carmy leading them makes you long for the days where you two worked together. But you know that’s probably never going to happen again and you push aside the brief sadness and revel in the joy that you got to work side by side with him again, if just for the day. 

“Thank you for your help, Chef,” Carmy leans against the counter next to you, smiling tiredly. 

You take off your blue apron and fold it neatly, handing it back to him. “Anytime, Chef.”

You’re due back at your hotel to change before you meet up with the investors. Once again, the tension is back between you two. God you miss the days where there was never an awkward moment between you and Carmy. 

He accepts the apron, looking small as he clutches it to his chest. “Duty calls?”

You sigh soullessly. Cooking is what you excel at, not business. You were flattered when your boss asked you to take responsibility for the opening of your Chicago location. You just didn’t realize how much handshaking and negotiating you’d have to do. “Time to wine and dine the investors. Really important, world peace negotiating level type stuff.”

Carmy smiles at you. It’s tiny and doesn’t quite reach his eyes but it’s a start towards what you two used to have. “You’re putting the work in. Gotta get through all that bullshit to get to the stuff that really matters.” The food.

He’s right and you nod, accepting that fact. You don’t want to leave him yet but it’s your turn to be distracted by the clock. “It was great cooking with you again, Chef.” 

Carmy smiles again but this time the sadness under the surface is evident. “Just like old times, huh?”

“Yeah. Well, I’m in town for the next few weeks at least so…”

“Dinner sometime? Or, you know, any meal that works best for you.” 

You think on the offer and counter your return. “Hey why don’t we do get brunch tomorrow? Mimosas are on me.” 

You let out at laugh at Carmy’s look of horror that quickly morphs into a relieved grin as he realizes you’re taunting him. “Fuck you.”

Grabbing your jacket, you throw a “dinner sometime would be great” over your shoulder. 

Your chest feels full in the best way as you realize you and your best friend are back together again. All might not be right with the world but it’s as close to perfection as it’ll ever be. You stop and turn to the tired chef. 

“Hey, Bear?”

He watches you, blue eyes sparkling. “Yes, Rose”

“Fuck you, too.” 

It’s as close as I love you and I missed you that you’ll get. Carmy grins as you laugh and turn reluctantly towards the exit. Neither of you have ever been good at conveying your emotions. But you know he can read between the lines and decipher what you really meant. He just hopes you know it’s what he feels too. 

******

[sibsteria]

Fog and Clouds

Prologue One

Jake Peralta & Marcus White x fem!Reader

Masterlist

‘‘He’s here. He’s here! Jake’s here!’‘

I tug my lips up at the remark. He couldn’t contain his excitement.

‘‘Okay, let’s do the prank, where we don’t even acknowledge him when he comes in. Okay? Sh sh sh. Everyone, shhh!’‘

Charles stood facing me, a constipated look on his face.

I notice the leather clad comic behind him. My heart jumps.

‘‘Back in the nine-nine-’‘

‘‘Whoooooo! Jake, jake, jake, jake!’’  He just couldn’t help himself.

Gina stands, a unamused face on her, ‘’Played to perfection, Charles.’’

‘‘God, I missed this place, let me just soak it in.’‘ Jake wafts his hands to his face, inhaling the air.

‘‘Oh yeah, stale coffee, fingerprinting ink, whatever Charles is fermenting in his desk-’‘

‘‘Beans.’‘

‘‘Beans.’‘ Charles and I say in consensus.

Jake points a finger at Charles.

‘‘Beans? It’s like I never left. All right, fill me in, tell me everything I missed.’‘

He pulls me in for a tight hug, I can smell his familiar aftershave as it floods my senses.

‘‘Won’t take long, only four things happened-’‘ We pull away to hear Rosa’s recollection.

‘‘Terry chipped his tooth and had a lisp for a week.’‘ 

‘‘Yeah, I could not take him seriously.’‘ Charles giggled.

‘‘Number two, Santiago and Boyle wore the same outfit to work one day.’’

‘‘It really did look better on Charles.’‘ I shrug.

‘‘Captain banned headphones from the office, due to the Gina Incident.’’ 

‘‘To be fair, she was absolutely jamming.’‘ I point finger guns at Gina.

‘‘What can I say, I have more fun then any of you.’’

‘‘And Y/n got fired for assaulting Hitchcock-’‘

‘‘Wait, what?’’ Jake looks over to me, I look at the floor.

‘‘He grabbed my ass, what was I supposed to do?’‘ I murmur.

‘‘So...that’s it? You won’t be working with me-us anymore?’’ 

‘‘I guess so, Holt pushed for me to stay but unfortunately...I’m gone after today.’‘

‘‘Y/n-’‘ He looked deflated

‘‘It’s okay, I’m gonna move in with one of my friends, back in St. Louis. Besides, I only filed paperwork and Gina can do that without my help.’‘ I hold in my tears as I try to not look at his face.

‘‘Can she?’‘ Rosa retorts.

‘‘Great recap.’‘ Jake says, solemnly.

‘‘Welcome back, Peralta, I’m sure you have heard about Y/n by now-’‘

‘‘Captain.’‘ They shake hands.

‘‘Every one has a lot of work, so you have exactly two minutes to share personal anecdotes and those two minutes began when you entered. You now have...’‘ he checks his watch, ‘’12 seconds left.’’

‘‘Challenge accepted.’‘ Jake turns back around to us but I blank out, I’m gonna miss this place so much, miss everyone.

‘‘-everyone back to work!’‘ His tone change tore me from my trance.

‘‘All right, Jake-’‘ Terry pulls him in for a bro hug.

‘‘Hey, so, figured we should have a chance to catch up, after having that bomb dropped on me?’‘

‘‘Yeah?’’

‘‘Yeah.’‘

‘‘Can we talk in private for a sec?’‘

I agree, following him to the evidence room.

‘‘Okay, so, you are...fired.’‘

‘‘I mean, technically speaking, yes. But he deserved it-’‘ He laughs at me, shaking his head. He bit his lip, his smile turning into a frown.

‘‘I really am going to miss you, Jake.’‘

‘‘Did you mean what you said? About moving to St. Louis?’‘ His large eyes bore into mine.

‘‘I did- don’t give me those puppy dog eyes, Peralta!’‘ I whine, stomping my feet in annoyance.

‘‘I’m not doing anything! And it’s Peralta now?’‘ I shrug.

‘‘You didn’t really give an explanation as to where we stood.’‘

My mind thinks back to his last night before going undercover, when he was in fact, under my covers.

‘‘Well, that’s new.’‘

‘‘Yup.’’

‘‘I...liked it, though.’‘

‘‘Me too.’‘

‘‘We should do it again, you know, when you’re back- o-or not...’‘

‘‘I’d like that, Y/n/n.’‘

‘‘This complicates things doesn’t it?’‘

‘‘I don’t have to go-’‘

‘‘Don’t stop yourself for me, it’s not like we’re...like in love or something.’‘ He shrugs at me.

‘‘Yeah.’‘ My heart drops. I am.

‘‘I guess it was a mistake, I don’t know, I was nervous about going under cover and I think I just kind of freaked out and you were nearby. So...’‘

‘‘A mistake, okay.’‘

‘‘N-no, I don’t mean a mistake- I just-’‘

I smile at him.

‘‘It’s okay, Jake, I get it. Your head was all over the place. it was just one night. And we don’t work together anymore. We won’t even be in the same city by tonight-’‘

‘‘You’re leaving tonight?’‘

‘‘Yeah.’‘

‘‘Oh, okay.’‘

‘‘Like you said, it was a mistake, we can forget about it.’‘ I give him another smile, fighting to keep it genuine.

‘‘Of course.’‘ He nods towards the exit door.

I follow after him, he stumbles over his feet slightly.

‘‘You okay?’‘

‘‘I’m good.’‘

[like-rain-or-confetti]

Request: Disappear (Marcus Volturi x Reader)

The love story between yourself and Marcus wasn't special but the conditions around it made it remarkable. You had grown up incredibly shy, you didn't speak much and hated being noticed. Marcus didn't give his full attention to much of anything anymore. Yet when you came around, he couldn't help but notice you. You captured his heart and you hadn't said a word. 

When you were changed these anxieties you had turned into a peculiar gift that was almost identical to Afton's. You could make yourself invisible. However, Afton's control of his gift was much stronger. Yours was almost comical. You could be startled into invisibility at any given moment. 

Your life with Marcus had been nothing short of perfection, accepted by him and his brothers and sisters. So much so you that you had been working on speaking and breaking out of your comfort zone just for your new family. The wives were more than keen to have you with them in the tower, the very same room they resided in most of their time. You rejected this at first. They respected your wishes, waiting for you to become more comfortable to spend time with them regularly. After some time, you now thought nothing of it. 

The three leaders returned and as always they wasted no time going to their respective mates before greeting their siblings in law. Aro was the first to greet his mate, Sulpicia, kissing her gently on the mouth before moving to Athenodora. Doting on his sister in law almost as much as he had his wife. "Ah, dear Athenodora, you are a blessing to us as always!" Aro said, bending down to her before she could stand to greet him. He shook his head as though he wasn't worthy of her efforts and kissed her cheek. Athenodora greeted him in return with a warm smile. Caius had followed suit, bending to kiss Sulpicia's cheek with his own greeting that was much more upfront and to the point before moving to his wife as Aro turned, moving towards you. Marcus kissed Sulpicia's cheek, as the two curtly nodded with a simple greeting. Sulpicia said something that had Marcus nodding as he took her hands in his. "My dear, (Y/N). Oh how delightful it is to see you." Aro said as he cupped your cheek with a hand. You smiled up at him. Aro always very good with you. His gift allowed him to check how much contact you were willing to have. The greetings you were growing accustomed to but sometimes you didn't have as much tolerance for it. He seemed to notice you were more than happy with the contact and he leaned down to kiss your cheek. "How wonderful! I am pleased you're feeling well today." With you, it was like Aro had conversations with himself but to your relief. He didn't seem to mind that. 

Aro moved back to his wife, taking his place by her side. Marcus moved to Athenodora, giving her a small smile and kissing her cheek, greeting her quietly. Athenodora welcomed him just as warmly as the others. Caius moved to you with a soft smirk. "Hello, little sibling of mine." Caius softly kissed your cheek, squeezing your hand slightly in his own before stepping away. 

You recalled how worried Marcus was about you meeting his blonde brother officially. Caius wasn't known for being pleasant or patient. Whilst it still stood that he didn't have as much patience ad his brothers when it came to you, he still exceeded all expectations. Even going as far as to feel protective of you like an older brother would. Sometimes it was a little excessive, when you were around you and Athenodora became his two priorities. His senses heightened prepared for the worst to protect both of you. Sulpicia often made remarks about it and that often became bickering about her jealousy.  Caius moved back to his wife as finally your mate moved towards you. Marcus gently kissed your lips, twice. "Hello, my love." He said quietly to you with a warm smile. You grinned at him and he moved to sit beside you. 

That night the previous interactions had taken its toll. Your gift took its toll, a sensation within your body that told you you were invisible. It was like a small ball in the pit of your stomach that grew out within your body, ultimately covering you from sight. It was heavy, much like the anxiety you sometimes felt even as a vampire. You stood in the middle of the floor, gazing through the windowed balcony doors at the night outside. The more minutes passed the more you tensed and rolled against the shivers upon your spine. You were so distracted you hadn't noticed Marcus enter the room. Marcus' hands took yours as he wrapped your arms and his own around you, hugging you and making you hug yourself. He always knew when you were struggling, when you were anxious. "It's difficult to stay." You whispered as Marcus slowly rocked the pair of you. "I know, cara mia. Just be here in this moment with me and breathe." Marcus said softly before his kissed the side of your head. "I don't want to do it." You said quietly. Marcus knew what you were referring to. He had grown accustomed to your limited speech when you were as anxious as this. He knew you were worried your gift would take over. "It's alright. You won't. You're in control." He said softly, squeezing your interlocked fingers within his own. After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "Do you think that you need some time alone tomorrow? Hm? Some time from my sisters. You've been doing very well, my love." You slowly nodded. "Yes? That's alright darling, thank you for telling me and making that decision and taking care of yourself. There's nothing wrong with that." Marcus paused. "Would you like to lie down, my love?" Slowly you nodded again as let Marcus pull you to bed. 

The next day, you were undisturbed. Marcus had left to attend to his duties. Afton and Santiago were guarding his room. "Why would they post guards on an empty room?" Corin whispered to Renata. "Corin," Renata sighed. "breathe in." Corin did so and suddenly looked very embarrassed as she breathed in your scent. The two dropped off the books without another word.

"Were they alright when you left?" Aro asked Marcus as he turned the page. Caius moving another heavy book to the table. Marcus hummed. "Yes. A little shaken but nothing of too much concern. Their gift occurred a couple of times but I left once they appeared a little more settled. All of their efforts have taken a toll. They were more concerned for you." "Why would that be?" Caius turned to Marcus. "They worry it would hurt your feelings." Marcus replied. "Nonsense." Caius said sharply. "They shouldn't think such things. We only want what's best for them.

A benefit of being a vampire means recovery is very quick. Therefore you were much more able to be in someone else's company the next day. Marcus asked if you were certain. You were. When Marcus took you to the living room in the tower, you were met with the wives, Aro and Caius. Athenodora lit up immediately quickly moving towards you. "You're here!" She sang before kissing your cheek and pulling you towards the group. All noticed how you didn't shy away from Athenodora's touch. Therefore they took that as their signal that you were alright once more. Caius was the first to greet you, taking your hands in his. "It's wonderful to see you with us once again, dear." He lightly kissed your cheek. "Although, I do have one thing to inform you." You tilted your head slightly in questioning. "I don't want you worrying about us when you can't be here. No more, understand?" You broke into a smile and nodded slightly. Caius returned the smile with a small one of his own.

[thosewickedlovelies]

we could be Dreamers - Prologue

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x GN!Reader

Rating: T

Summary: How this world came to be

Word count: 1,671

A/N: Hiii friends 🤗 soo there’s not really a lot of plot or Marcus Moreno :( here, but consider this a prologue/worldbuilding for a Marcus Moreno x reader fic I may eventually write lol. I’m really interested in how this universe got from The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl to We Can Be Heroes, because like. Sharkboy and Lavagirl were literally just some kid’s imaginary friends that somehow magically became real, so what does that mean for the other Heroics? Where did they come from?? So I kinda wanted to write something that would make you Think :) and explore the ramifications of such a transformed universe.

Consider my previous Marcus Moreno fic a prelude to this prologue 💗

--

It was a little unnerving sometimes, being in a room with so much power. No matter that this particular training arena at Heroics Headquarters was at least the size of an American football field- when all of the Heroics are gathered in the same confined space, focused on a single purpose, you can feel it. Like their power prances tauntingly in the corner of your eye, slipping away when you try to look directly at it. Like it winds through the air, worming its way into your veins, so your very blood breathes at you to run, run, run.

Not all of the individual Heroics gave off such uncanny vibes; some were simply ordinary people with extraordinary abilities. Techo-No, for instance, and his gift for creating fantastical gadgets. The implications of his works relevant to the world at large could be worrying, but he had limits. He was just a man. Determined, and creative (even more so with his son throwing ideas at him), but ultimately human.

Not like those with powers who’d been Dreamed.

Take Sharkboy. The temper for which he’d been infamous in his youth had cooled, but when he snapped, he did so literally- blade-sharp teeth an audible clash when he bared them in a ringing snarl. Any water in the room would roil and froth- but the most hair-raising sight was his eyes, tinged with the unreadable, abyssal blackness of his namesake. Focused with a predator’s calculation on the object of his fury. (It made you think that, ironically, his temper had cooled too much- concentrated into something as icy and merciless as the depths of the sea. Just as well his wife was a lava goddess).

It was well-documented that Sharkboy could influence his oceanic kin, seeing as he was half-shark himself. Some marine biologists postulated- in low voices- that fluctuation in his emotions could unknowingly influence shark activity no matter how far from the sea he was. But nobody at Heroics Headquarters had ever dared suggest attempting a study.

That you knew of, anyway. You wouldn’t be surprised if there was a classified government branch somewhere which dealt solely with more insidious studies of the Heroics. Their weaknesses. Ways to defeat them.

Just in case.

Sharkboy and his emotions had stabilized as his Dreamer matured, but not all Dreamers were so invested in the well-being of their creations, or of the world they inhabited and could inadvertently affect. It was suspected that not all Dreamers knew that they had Dreamed at all, that they unintentionally brought Dreams into being far from where they were located and simply never became aware. This resulted in some Dreamed individuals being...unstable. Incomplete, really. Brought forth from a child’s mind, a young person who didn’t yet fully grasp the complexities of existing in this world, or indeed, the intricacies of what made one human at all.

Dreamers were children, more often than not. Their imaginative abilities generally far outstripped those of adults, worn down as they were with the grind of building a real life. The younger the person, the more time and creativity they maintained. The fewer methods they possessed to process their struggles which were grounded in reality, and not their imaginations.

--

Despite the years that have passed, nobody quite knows what happened to lead up to the Incident. How a single young boy had imagined so powerfully that it had warped reality; how his imaginings had given him the ability to design the universe at will.

The Daydreamer.

Max, as he later insisted on being called. An almost disturbingly innocuous name for a boy who had changed the world. Who had all but envisioned himself into having terrific powers- and enabled others to do the same.

In the years following the Incident, Sharkboy and Lavagirl continued to visit him in secret (Later, scientists realized that this why they recorded occasional, inexplicable disturbances in seismic and marine activity). But it wasn’t long before a larger threat to the entire Earth appeared- and so did they. To defend the place which they declared to be their new home. Though they had been willed into existence to protect Planet Drool, as Max determined to relinquish his daydreaming abilities and by extension, his dreamworld, so did the planet and its life diminish. Their presence there was no longer required, they’d explained. But earth could still benefit from their protection- especially after the reality of the threat came to light.

Someone else had Dreamed.

It wasn’t clear who, or how, or what their intentions had been. But once it had been said, everyone was forced to acknowledge the truth of it- or at least, admit that there was no other explanation. The villain’s origins were not terrestrial in any previously established sense.

Anyone who had ever met a child could have a predicted it. Too many young people ended up feeling outcast, overlooked, by both their peers and adults in their lives. It should have been obvious from the way they whispered his name. Not Max- a moniker far too average and relatable- but what they reverently regarded as his true title. The Daydreamer. A near-holy figure who had changed the game for youths everywhere. Now they had a way to combat those who plagued them. A way to create or become the superheroes who previously only existed in comic books and TV shows.

Or some did, anyway. Individuals with the strength of will and heart to Dream weren’t rare, but they weren’t quite common, either.

The only truly neutral positive of the Dreamer evolution was that governments everywhere suddenly accepted the need for increased mental health resources. Designed to increase healthy socialization for all ages and give young people ways to process and communicate their emotional needs, such programs were approved seemingly overnight in schools from elementary to university aged. “Small town life” flourished, and many city quarters and apartment buildings took to implementing “community builders” or, less charmingly, “social facilitators”- positions designed to create cohesive areas of living and minimize the kind of isolation and negative feelings that could leave someone to Dream of improving their life.

--

Nowadays, not all super-powered individuals were Dreamed. The second generation of Heroics was a testament to that. As if the universe itself had reckoned with the self-inception of the Dreamers, and seen fit to provide reality-warping countermeasures of its own.

Less than a year after the Incident, babies with...unique qualities began to be born. Few and far between, it seemed at first. Whispered reports swept from far corners of the globe, a phone tree branching from frantic parents to anyone who could provide even the slightest bit of reassurance. It seemed like doctors everywhere were swapping glances, no one willing to admit what was happening- until a second Villain appeared.

Every incident report said the same thing: a baby started crying, and then the hostages were saved by a power outage. A wash of sparks that darkened half the city.

Webbed with red lightning.

You sneak a look at the fully grown Heroic now, the long braids of her ponytail slipping over the shoulder of her characteristic red training outfit. Red Lightning Fury flexes her fingers as she listens to the head trainer explain today’s exercise- the usual sort of ‘heroes versus villains’ battles, with you and your fellow specialists assisting as villains- but judging by the lack of the smell of ozone, she isn’t yet using her powers. Blinding Fast, on the other hand, appears to fritz in place every few seconds, and you guess he’s running invisible laps to pass the time. It’s hard to tell if that’s what’s causing Lavagirl’s hair to tendril like neon pink smoke even though she’s standing still; usually the hypnotic heat shimmer of her lava flow causes the effect naturally.

You stretch in place while team arrangements are announced. As the majority of the Heroics filter into the stands to wait for their match, the buzzing, writhing presence of their power fades, and you can breathe more easily.

A figure flickers into being beside you, and you jump. “Jeez, Visi! How many times have I told you not to do that?”

Having anticipated your reaction from the countless previous times she’s snuck up on you anyway, Invisigirl laughs. “You think you’d be used to it by now.” Your closest Heroic friend grins at you, all pearly teeth against smooth brown skin.

And she’s right, which is why you were so disgruntled. Having been caught unawares too many times by the invisible hero’s silent movements, you had once asked her to give you lessons. Her instruction had improved your own stealth immensely, and now that you knew what kind of signs to listen for, her attempts at startling you didn’t work nearly as often as they had. But- “It’s hard to focus on anything with all of your powers clogging up the air,” you grumble. The birthed heroes understood what you meant- they felt it too, the nagging hiss of something other in the Dreamed heroes’ energy.

Across the arena, it looks like Miracle Guy and Marcus Moreno are waiting to be your opponents. Interesting. Miracle Guy, with his Dreamed up Superman-like abilities, was the only one who had a way of seeing Invisigirl. What it was precisely, you couldn’t recall. You make a mental note to ask Visi later.

Marcus, however, telekinesis aside, is clearly meant to be the counter to your strengths. The two men are discussing intently, but as if feeling your assessing stare, Marcus glances over. He lifts his eyebrows at you in playful challenge, a hint of a smile quirking his shapely lips before he’s pursing them at his duel-mate again.

Suppressing the pleased flutter down your spine, you turn your attention to the task ahead as Invisigirl dips her head toward you. Planning something clever, you realize, intrigued by the glint in her eye. “Let’s talk strategy.”

When the starting bell rings, your partner vanishes, and your smile curves as sharp and gleaming as the blade in your hand.

[popculturebuffet]

Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “ 

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III.                                                        Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe. 

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big  companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers. 

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point. 

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while  in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing.  This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome. 

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast. 

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list. 

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend. 

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome. 

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows. 

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again. 

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up. 

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4. 

So with our major players out of the way,  let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming  story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands.  Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off.  Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain. 

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a  kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more.  The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself  this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have.  This show is just great  at costume design. 

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback. 

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious. 

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working.  Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant.  Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time. 

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up.  F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly. 

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly.  At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in. 

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do. 

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense. 

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room. 

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda. 

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian. 

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go. 

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it. 

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior. 

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances. 

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included. 

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her.  It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag. 

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you. 

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him.  Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t.  It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to.  So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight. 

However at home Virgil points out it was  Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow. 

[carriagelamp]

The tops books I read over the 2020 – you know, what I could fit in between the entire world collectively losing its mind and a literal plague being unleashed on us.

This is ridiculously late, but my new year was just too busy to get this done and fight with tumblr over uploading x.x so here it finally is. I won’t go into detail about them, because I did that in my various monthly reviews, but (with the exception of Crave which was unspeakably bad but made the list because it was strangely iconic for my summer this year) this assortment of novels, novellas, comics, and manga were all fantastic reads that I would recommend people check out!

The list in a not-picture form:

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood by Fred Rogers – a collection of illustrated poems from Mister Rogers

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller – most recent queer novel by one of my favourite authors, about magic and science and war and medicine

Behind The Scenes by Bisco Hatori – a manga series by the creator of Ouran Highschool Host Club, a great coming-of-age story about a students in the theatre prop department

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor – a scifi novella about the first of the Himba people to leave for space after being accepted into the most prestige university in the galaxy

The Bromelaid Trilogy by Terry Pratchett – a series about a dying race of nomes who discover there’s more of them than they thought and more to the world than they imagined

Crave by Tracy Wolff – worst paranormal romance book I’ve ever read, derivative of, somehow, everything, do not fucking bother

The Deep by Rivers Solomon – a novella about a race of deep sea mermaids and how they cope with the traumatic history of their people

Doll Bones by Holly Black – a story about a group of kids as they struggle with growing beyond playing make believe and a ghost that may or may not be haunting them

Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed – a story about dogs and how they survive in against the human standards of perfection and beauty, both hilarious and traumatically brutal

FRNCK by Olivier Bocquet & Brice Cossu – a French graphic novel series about a boy who accidentally falls back into prehistory and is adopted, somewhat reluctantly or at least with great confusion, by a family of cavemen

Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grand Chateau by Dr Cecil H. H. Mills – a Hardy Boys satire written by the Game Grumps which was probably the funniest book I read all year, I would highly recommend it even as someone with zero interest in the Game Grumps.

Gregor the Overland by Suzanne Collins – Gregor discovers a hidden world under New York populated by giant animals and strange humans that are determined to draw him into their political turmoil

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – I feel like I read this ten years ago. The novel that the Netflix series was loosely based on, a very cool horror with fascinating themes built into the subtext

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju – a Canadian slice-of-life novel about a young queer teen falling into the LGBT scene for the first time and figuring out friendship, love, and who she is

The Last Book On The Left by Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, and Ben Kissel. True crime stories with a comedic twist, adapted from their podcast The Last Podcast On The Left.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3 by Monkey Punch – anyone on this blog knows I fell hard for Lupin this year. A goofy series about a world class thief and his team.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline – probably the best book of the year for me. A post-apocolypse story based around the horror of residential schools, climate change, and illness

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyers – look I loved the Twilight series too much as a teen when it was first coming out not to have gone head over heels for this. Unabashedly loved it.

No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen – a Canadian novel about child poverty and homelessness, more light-hearted and hopeful than it sounds

The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate – a gorilla that’s spent his entire life placidly living in a tiny mall exhibit meets a new friend and suddenly has something bigger to live for and protect

Our Dreams At Dusk by Shimanami Tasogare – one of the best queer manga series I’ve ever read, super artsy and focuses on the different complicated experiences by a number of different characters

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey – alternative history novella about a gay gunslinger and his team of hippo-cowboys in Louisana as they go on the biggest heist of their careers - so worth the read, this was tons of queer fun

Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks – a graphic novel about the hijinks two young children (and aspiring mad scientists) can get up to on their space station home

The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski – can you believe The Witcher came out this year? Anyway, the novels were fucking amazing, some of the best high fantasy I’ve read in years

[bonesofapoet]

From Dusk ‘Til Dawn

[marcus lopez arguello x you]

author’s note: i dunno about you guys, but i miss this show So Much, and i wont disappear from this fandom again!! you know, probably. (used to write for deadly class under ladyofstadvst) also, this prompt is like ten years old but im still a sucker for it so here! we! are!

word count: 1148

ao3: @ ladyofstardvst (apparently tumblr doesnt like links anymore??)

two times Marcus wanted to kiss you, and the one time he did.

I.

Marcus Lopez Arguello couldn’t remember the last time he paid attention to the world around him.

He noticed thunderstorms and sunshine, knew when it was cold enough to snow. Saw the leaves begin to change from bright, leafy greens to honey gold and russet red. Of course he saw these things. He simply stopped caring about little happenings when Reagan killed his parents.

The last memory he had of a sunset . . . he couldn’t remember.

And he still couldn’t, even with the one painting the sky right before his eyes. Because when it was transforming into a radiant Monet as the sun descended down, down, down below the skyline, then the harbor -

The only place that held his attention was you.

You, with a smile that tugged the corners of your lips up towards your eyes. Eyes that reflected the deep violets melting into vibrant magentas and swirling with heavenly golden clouds. You, standing next to him in awe at the raw beauty this world had to offer for no cost but your time.

The air had become tinted with that specific shade of pastel pink, and Marcus had to catch his breath. His chest tightened, hands began to shake just enough to be noticed. He shoved them in his pockets so you wouldn’t see.

He would trade all the sunsets in the world just to feel your lips against his own. He would do it in a heartbeat.

II.

This time, it’s different.

Power outages darkened the city, torrential rain threatened to flood the streets, shutting down trains and buses, and no, don’t even think about walking. Wind came alive to uproot small trees and gift certain people with wings. It rattled the glass of Lost Innocence Comics right inside of its frames.

You and Marcus were soaked to the bone after stepping outside to just get a look down the street.

Great, he groaned, slamming his head against the locked door. The C L O S E D sign rattled against the glass. We’re fucking stuck here.

In front of him, the clouds changed from heather gray to deep navy and, within minutes, they were almost midnight black. It began to look like night had come to call early.

“Think we can find some candles around here?”

“Uh,” Marcus scrambled to collect himself, turned to face you in the fading light. “Who knows, there’s all kinds of shit in back.”

An eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Lead the way, then.”

Thunder rumbled low and followed you into the small storeroom. It was all damp concrete and chaos and muted rainfall past the small window lodged into the far wall.  Bright, violent flashes of lightning accompanied scavenged flashlight beams as you scored a box of matches. Marcus balanced the half-burned pillars he found on a stack of inventory crates to breathe the treasured warmth of fire into the darkness.

Your chilled bones didn’t complain, either.

Flickers of flame danced across you both, the silence slowly growing thick with that special sort of tension. The kind that was only present when something big was about to happen, or when no one had anything left to lose. It would have become overwhelming, but then – then. You were closer to each other than you had been before. Closer than the moment that had just passed. Maybe it was the sharp crack of thunder that made your heart beat faster when his lips were drawing so close to yours -

A bright, harsh light filled the room and you both jerked apart.

The power kicked back on, and the worst of the storm had passed.

III.

Things were different after Vegas.

Distant, secretive, hushed.

A fog followed them around like a phantom that thrived on fear, and fear alone. The friends who came back were not the same people who left the day before, not really. Those mere hours seemed to age them years, decades, eons.

Maybe it was smart that you bailed on them with Willie. You wondered if the abandonment of their two friends led to their downfall.

That was the thing about King’s Dominion - death clung to it’s students like a cloak one could never shed. You didn’t always want to rush off to meet danger at it’s doorstep when you didn’t have to. There was value in a quiet, comfortable weekend spent in your room, thank you very much. So you turned them down.

But that was the thing.

There was no such thing as comfort in a place like King’s, in a life that trained the next generation of assassins. It felt detached somehow, the reality that there were no safety nets, no promise of a life growing old, no promise of even growing at all. Comfort, ease, dreams – those ceased to exist the day anyone walked through those monstrous front doors.

Marcus forgot that too, sometimes.

Vegas reminded him that life was so impossibly fleeting, invincibility certainly did not exist, and there was no fucking time to live safely when there was nothing safe about life in the first place. When all you really had were ghosts that didn’t yet exist, and nightmares of the ghosts already born from your own making.

When San Francisco greeted them in the early morning sunlight, Marcus Lopez Arguello found himself heading straight to your dorm.

I almost died, he greeted you with tired eyes and a rough voice. Like. Five fucking times.

He watched as your eyes drifted over his silhouette propped against the door frame, all bruised and bloody boy. You expected nothing less at this point.

“But you didn’t.” came your reply.

“No,” he said. You were so close that it had gotten difficult to breathe – and, no, it wasn’t because of his bruised ribs. Probably. “I didn’t die.”

The unspoken ‘yet’ hung in the air, the elephant in your room.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t with-”

The dam inside Marcus cracked, hitched, broke.

There wasn’t a universe where he would allow you to apologize for something he had no right to ask for in the first place. No universe where he would allow death to take him home before he did the small things. The important things.

The kind of things that almost dying in an alleyway dumpster in Las Vegas made him realize mattered.

He kissed you, and you kissed him back.

It was hesitant, at first. All soft lips and warm breath questioning if this was real, if this was happening, if maybe Marcus really was dead after all. Then passion crept in, the comfort of his arms wrapped around you, your hands threaded through his hair, his own pulled you closer and closer and closer.

He was so very much alive, with a pounding heartbeat to prove it. With your skin grazing his, with your breath in his lungs. For the first time in a long time, he was so very grateful to be alive.

[bailwhoreganaxoxo]

what the character you have a crush on says about you: mayans mc men pt 1

angel reyes: your favorite dogs are big dumb sweet dogs and you may also like that in your men. when you go on dates you need them to be exciting you can’t just do coffee you have to go bowling or a carnival. you would love a guy to win you one of those comically huge stuffed bears at a carnival.

miguel galindo: you lowkey have a daddy kink but you aren’t admitting it to your friends and family. you are also a slytherclaw or just one of those two houses with a dash of the other.

michael “riz” ariza: family is big to you if your family doesn’t like your boyfriend then he isn’t sticking around. you love a cheesy pickup line and general playful banter with a partner. if you can’t have fun it isn’t worth your time.

neron “creeper” vargas: you don’t take shit from anyone especially not the people you date you are in charge. you come of as pretty bitchy or standoffish but really you just have a bad case of rbf. deep down you’ve got that lovely heart of gold.

hank “tranq” loza: you really like protective guys ones who make you feel safe even if they’re just calling you on the phone when you’re home alone and you feel nervous. your biggest goal in dating is to bring home a guy to thanksgiving that even your standoffish father will love.

marcus alvarez: all you have ever wanted from a man is someone that will take care of you in every way someone can take care of you. you’re always the friend who takes care of everyone else so you want someone that will make you take care of yourself for a change.

[like-rain-or-confetti]

Been and Gone (Felix Volturi x Reader)

You entered Felix's life as you did everyone else's in a very bizarre way. You had the ability to time travel. Being human, it was difficult to keep up. Sometimes you had travelled only minutes, other times, years. There was nowhere off limits. You had literally fallen into their time before their very eyes. That's how almost every vampire met you or knew about you. You and Felix had fell for one another quite quickly. There had been discussions of your change approach. However, what had made the Volturi hesitate was your gift. If you had no control now as a human then would this be the same as a newborn, only you'd also be out of control and bloodthirsty? The thought made them not want to risk it. Recently, people had begun to notice you weren't quite the same. You were a little dazed at odd times of the day. However they seemed to piece together what was coming when before Alec's very eyes, you disappeared. The plate you had in your hand falling to the ground and smashing. Alec was so taken aback he had simply let the plate fall. He'd never seen such a thing. 

The Volturi thought it would have been minutes, hours even but Felix began to grow more on edge when hours turned into days, days turned to weeks. Two months passed before you returned, in Marcus' study of all places to end up. It was comical for you, seeing Marcus' look of surprise before you but suddenly it wasn't so funny when a very distraught Felix explained you hadn't been gone for the three days, you had thought. It had been two months and you weren't even on Demetri's radar so you couldn't be tracked. You quickly explained that made sense. You were in 1764. 

Suddenly your ability wasn't so much an amazing phenomenon but more of a curse upon Felix. He couldn't stop worrying. Although things changed when you realised the last time you were gone for so long, the next one had you gone for years. You hadn't returned yet to the time it had last happened. 

Felix was adamant at that point, he wanted to you do everything in your power to stay and sometimes you could hold it off, but it was getting more difficult. That everyone could see and the Volturi were realising your departure was inevitable. Felix denied this, refused to even entertain the idea. That led to now. 

You and the Volturi had been visiting the Cullen's when you seemed very distracted, dazed even. You seemed to hear bits and pieces of what was being said to you and it was only getting worse with every second. Felix grabbed your wrists tightly, so tight it had to hurt, yet you didn’t seem to feel it.  “(Y/N)!” He yelled. You didn't respond. Marcus slowly moved to step in, the only one who knew what to do. The only one who understood. “Let them go.” Marcus whispered. If anyone knew this pain. The pain of letting go, it was Marcus. 

Felix shook his head, his grip on your wrists still tight. His eyes pleaded to everyone, including you, hoping you’d stay. However you’re attention was taken from him.  “Is that light over there for me?” You asked quietly.  “You’re the only one who can see it.” Marcus responded gently.  “Please...Please, (Y/N).” Felix quietly pleaded, tears would have fallen if the could. Marcus crouched down, placing a hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Felix, you know they cant control this.”  “If they go, I might not get them back.”  “They’ll take that risk, so you should do the same for them.” Marcus pressed. Felix squeezed his eyes shut. 

Felix cradled your head, pressing a kiss to your forehead.  “My (Y/N)...” Felix trailed off. For a second, a brief painful second, your eyes fixed onto him, noticing his distress. Just as you opened your mouth to speak, you were gone. That very moment, Felix’s heart shattered. 

Hours passed, Felix could only stare at the spot you once stood, unable to bring himself back to reality, one you were no longer in. Slowly Carlisle moved towards him, something in his hand but Felix didn’t care for it.  “You know, some humans believe that some people just fall out of the world sometimes.” Carlisle smiled sadly towards Felix. “They always leave traces. The most miniscule of things that people wouldn’t think twice about. Perhaps a lipstick stain on a coffee mug left at a diner or a hand print on a window and...” Carlisle moved forward pulling out a photograph. If Felix had to take a guess it was from the 1800′s “Faces in photographs who you may not even have noticed were there.” The photograph was aged significantly, although Carlisle kept it in good condition. 

Sure enough, in the foreground was Carlisle along with another doctor but in that background, in the very back corner surrounded by nurses was your familiar face. You were looking away, seemingly unaware the picture had been taken. Carlisle continued. "I used to say that if something was remembered then it could always come back. The optimist in me I suppose." Carlisle smiled. "Although Esme said it better." He cast a glance to his wife with a loving smile. "She said if it was remembered, then was it every really gone? I don’t think you have to worry about where they go, Felix. I think you’ll see one another again.” Felix gasped when it hit him what the photograph was proof of. Maybe in another time and another place just as confused as when you first met, once again you were out there and could come back. You hadn’t faded out of existence. Carlisle smiled slightly. “You’d think i’d remember them but i don’t seem to recall seeing them. It could be down to looking at someone but not really focusing on them. The many faces you pass everyday but never actually look at.”  “At least they’re consistent with one thing.” Felix finally began.  “What’s that?” Carlisle asked.  “even in the 1800′s they’re still so tiny.” Demetri chuckled and Felix cracked a small smile. Even Carlisle couldn’t help but smile too.

[whatiwillsay]

DA1

DA1: me, sir

boston

detroit

allergic

paris

swiftly falling

happy birthday

#dateme, #fuckme (#youfuckedmeover)

red lips

the oil lamp

a very merry unbirthday

—

The title of this album (me, sir) is based on the name of Dianna’s secret tumblr and Instagram (whosirmesir). It is a lyric of “swiftly falling.”

“boston” is a song reminiscing about the good days of Achele. Sonically, it is reminiscent of “gold rush” and “Green Light” by Lorde. (Fun fact! Both of those songs actually change into the mixolydian mode during the chorus, tricking us into thinking it’s a key change. “boston” does the same thing for its bride, which is more specifically about how Dianna felt like Lea was slipping through her fingers like sand when it came to Monchele.) The title is based off the trip Achele took to Boston together.

“detroit” is a “Wonderland”-esq and “I Know Places”-esq song about Shirtgate. It’s an angry pop song about Dianna’s frustrations with closeting. The title is based off the fact that Dianna had to skip the Detroit show of the Glee Tour after Shirtgate.

“allergic” is the song that I originally titled “allergic (to cats, and girls).” I changed the title to make it sound more mature and Dianna-y. The song is kind of jazzy, like that one live performance that you said is your favorite Dianna performance ever (I forget what it was though). The song opens with a jazzy piano riff that is largely the descending chromatic scale. The hook of the song is “I’m allergic to cats, and girls” and it sounds obviously playful and almost a bit mocking. This is a very queer coded song, as the entire time it sounds like Dianna is allergic to girls because they’re so beautiful that she falls hard and they end up breaking her heart. I chose this as a song title because they claimed that Dianna moved out of Lea’s apartment because she was allergic to the cat.

“paris” is a Rivergron song; the title is based on their trip to Paris together. It is slow and melancholic because it reflects on how much she loved Naya (primarily platonically) and how much she treasured her friendship with Naya. The song includes a lot of humming. Sonically, it sounds like if “The Best Day” was zero country and more so very emotionally mature jazzy/indie piece.

“swiftly falling” is what I previously titled “swiftly falling (down the rabbit hole).” The song is sonically reminiscent of “Style” and “Haunted.” In it, she addresses Taylor as a pronoun-less lover. It’s sort of like “Cruel Summer” in that it sounds like a happy song on the surface, but it’s actually secretly sad. The song has many references to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In the bridge of this song, Dianna she sings “Who, sir? Me, sir!” in a cynically comical way. The context for that line is that it’s about Haylor: she’s sort of posing the rhetorical question “Who loves you, Taylor? I love you, Taylor; it’s not Harry who loves you!” Even though she knows that Taylor loves her and not Harry, that bridge conveys her insecurity because Taylor is spending so much time with him, and everybody on earth thinks that she loves him more than Dianna. (It’s sort of how Shawn said on that one episode that there’s a lot of polyamory in Hollywood because even if the relationship is just bearding, it still feels real because you spend so much time with that person.” The title also kind of mocks Haylor—since Taylor named a Dianna song “Style” (close to Harry’s last name), Dianna is including the word “swiftly” in the title of this song (close to Taylor’s last name).

“happy birthday” is the track I originally titled “shirley maclaine.” This song feels very cottagecore and sappy, like if “Love Story” met “seven.” The song is about the Shirley MacLaine’s Birthday event in which Dianna, Taylor, and a few of their friends at one point held up signs saying “Happy Birthday Shirley MacLaine.” I personally headcanon that this event was some sort of promise ceremony between them, so this song reflects on how in love they were back then. The lyrics at times are reminiscent of “New Year’s Day” because they talk about the strength of their love and how it offered them a sort of serenity. Unlike “swiftly falling,” this song is not secretly sad—maybe a little, but mostly it’s just a reflection on how in love she was back then. She’s sort of admiring how her past self let itself get lost in that youthful utopia of queer love. I chose to make the title “happy birthday” so as to play off of the title of the final track, and go along better with the cover art.

“#dateme, #fuckme (#youfuckedmeover)” is sonically reminiscent of “Better Than Revenge.” It’s petty, angry, and feels like something that Punk!Quinn with her pink hair (I think this happened in season 3 of Glee?) would’ve sung. It’s a fun song, the type that the audience loves to scream and jam out to at live concerts. Lyrically, it’s a bit similar to that unreleased Liz Huett song (I forget the title, but it’s the one you said you inquired about purchasing the rights to on that podcast ep about Tayliz). It’s about Taylor, but it does have traces of Lea. The title is based off the #DATEME tweet.

“red lips” is the track I originally titled “red lips (i miss).” It’s lyrically similar to “Style” in that it’s reflecting on how this relationship was almost like a movie pairing—it was that iconic. It’s about Taylor. The song is from a post-breakup perspective, where she’s gotten over the initial heartbreak but still has some lingering thoughts of What if… (similar to how Taylor said the person she wrote “Style” about could crash her wedding one day).  

“the oil lamp” is the “cowboy like me” response track. The title is based off the Moroccan oil lamp in the CLM lyric video. In it, Dianna sort of acknowledges that she’s a bit of a gold digger, but then she comes right back out at Taylor. Like hey, you’re out here calling me out for marrying rich men like Winston, but you’re out there profiting off songs like YNTCD while still closeted. It’s more respectful than “#dateme, #fuckme (#youfuckedmeover)” because the heartbreak is not raw, but the song’s tone is very frank. There are a few lyrics about how their love used to be like Eden (which is a parallel to the “gardens of Babylon” lyric). Sonically, the song has the vibe of a more acoustic and more casual “Talk” by Hozier. In order to get back at Taylor for using background vocals from Marcus Mumford, this song uses background vocals from Aaron Dresner.

“a very merry unbirthday” is the track I initially called “a happy unbirthday” (I changed the title so it is more consistent with the real lines of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). The song is sonically and tonally reminiscent of “London Boy”—it’s a fluff piece for Filippo. What’s interesting is that the album is released on Filippo’s birthday. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, your unbirthday is any date that is not your birthday. So, Dianna should have released this album on literally any other day of the year if she wanted to give this song to Filippo as an unbirthday gift. So of course her lesbian fan base begins to speculate that the song is about a secret girlfriend, and within a week of the album’s release, we’ve narrowed down the list of possibilities to ummm……every woman not born on the album’s release day! :)

submission⬆️⬆️⬆️

these are all up on the bonus pod! now!

amazing job you won the contest!

[mantra4ia]

Hello Bad Guys: Top tier Lucifer ‘villains’ s.1-4

August 5, 2020

One of Lucifer’s main weaknesses as a show is the episodic “cop procedural” not giving us a very long time to stew with the antagonists and really appreciate their villainy enough whether we love to hate them outright, or we really torn by their evil doing because the characters are layered. That being said, there are a few rare exceptions that add just the right amount of darkness to balance the devilish shenanigans of the show, to give depth to the stakes. I very much hope that we get more antagonist complexity in season 5. Villains are interesting in comic narratives and should be treated with care.

Lucifer: Tom Ellis delivers a masterful performance whether he’s being Saint Lucifer, or going on a truly vengeful bender. Although Lucifer is the central protagonist, when the show explores Lucifer at his darkest or most desperate, we get to see him at his most antagonistic. Two of the most recent examples are his against the Tiernan family in “Devil is as Devil does” when he breaks McCaffrey’s back and against his own brother Amenadiel when he lashes out at him trying to start fights. His one monologue against Amenadiel where he compares him to a masochist soul in hell - his “pointless existence...reminds me of you”- is still one of the most painful parts of the show to watch, like powerlessly watching a car wreck. That’s one of the reasons I am looking forward to him portraying Michael in s5, because not only will we get to see Mike brewing and developing hopefully long term over the whole season to get to know him, but Tom is so gifted at those chaotic nuances.

Malcolm played by Kevin Rankin: Celestials and supernaturals haven’t been the biggest baddies on Lucifer, which is good. I think Malcolm is so great as an antagonist because his character is 100% human, a corrupt cop (making Chloe vigilant about more corruption in the department), which grounds the show in reality despite other fantastical elements and shows how the scariest evil isn’t cosmic as much as the depth of depravity when people are consumed by greed. And when he comes back to life hell hungry / crazy as a fox, it’s legitimately scary because he’s unpredictable.

Maze played by Leslie Ann-Brandt: Again, although she is technically a protagonist, when Mazikeen is hellbent she is ferocious. Case and point when she teams up with Marcus, tortures Lucifer, and hurts Trixie. It’s hard to watch her spiral, but she does it spectacularly.

the decoy Sinnerman, Marcus’ associate played by Kevin Carroll. I believed he was menacing and committed to a life of crime, dude stabbed his own eye’s out with a  pencil. I wish I got that intensity from Cain.

Mum / the Goddess played by Tricia Helfer: this character illustrates well, even as a larger than life cosmic entity, that you don’t have too be malicious or overtly intimidating to be an entertaining bad guy, just have a very clear motivation of what you want, misguided intentions, and a ruthless kind of tenacity to let nothing and no one stand in your way.

Perry Smith the prison warden played by Alex Fernandez: great bio (again, corruption in the prison system is both insidious and relevant) just not a very long arc.

Jacob Tiernan played by Jere Burns: I just love Jere Burns and I think that every actor from Justified should make an appearance on the show. Can you imagine? In all seriousness though, that human trafficking plot was hella grim. I wish we could have had a few more multi-ep arcs like that. 

Oscar Rivas, the zealot from Los Xs played by Joseph Melendez: Jason Ning knows how write all the dark episodes! Season 4 “O, Ye of Little Faith ” sees Rivas go out by impaling himself on a stake. As far as murderous bad guy goes, literally nailed the dismount with insidious gore. The only disappointment was that this guy was a pawn of Father Kinley.

Honorable mention:

Nick Hoffman the paparazzo played be Jeremy Davies: I know he’s not a true villain as much as a painful antagonist from Chloe’s past, but I love his reckoning in her backstory. Did I mention how everyone on Justified should be on this show? Walton Goggins, pleeeasse be next.

Underwhelming baddies:

Amenadiel played by DB Woodside: before he became part of the Heavenly bros protagonists, I had really high hoping in season 1 that we would get more of Amenadiel as an enemy. We get great brotherly conflict from him to be sure, but apart from his first confrontation with Luci where he literally goes for the throat and the wing burning beach scene, there’s never a defining moment where we just get to hate him or say “Woah, that’s scary.” He’s just too charming to be worthy of that pilot line “I look forward to eating your heart one day” which was a stellar set up by the way. Which is why I love Amenadiel as a character, not as a baddie.  

Uriel played by Michael Imperioli: I love Uriel, his power, his cleverness. I don’t think he was ever meant to be a conventional a bad guy. That’s not my disappointment. The underwhelming piece was that he was a 2-part setpiece for Lucifer’s character development (once in the flesh, once in the hellscape) rather than fully formed character

Father Kinley / Dromos the demon played by Graham McTavish: same problem I have with Cain (below). Father Kinley and Dromos are treated more as obstacles than threats. Granted, Dromos possessing Kinley is creepy, but not threatening although he’s meant to be ‘evil.’ Now Walton Goggins, he would have been a very scary vatican priest.

Lt. Marcus Pierce / Cain played by Tom Welling: Cain is an underwhelming big bad for me, specifically because we don’t get into the gritty of his past, just a lot of exposition that says but doesn’t show which makes it hard to connect the dots between tormented eternal, crime lord, and occasional straight arrow. It would be nice to get a sense of what triggers him to reinvent himself and what drives him to toe one side of the moral line or the other. We do get a flashback of him with the LAPD, but that’s when he’s on the right side of the law. I believe the motive that he wants to die, but the torture and mental instability of age that would lead into something menacing doesn’t translate on screen, just sad and bored Cain - therefore I don’t really believe him as an underground crime boss. Which is a shame, because I like Tom Welling, I enjoyed Marcus’ relationships with both Lucifer and Chloe, even the dynamic where he tries to use Chloe as a means to an end and has a change of heart. However, I never got the sense that the season arc knew where it was going with his villainy, and his descent back into crime near the end felt very unearned.

*21 Days of Lucifer Countdown: Here’s looking forward to the season 5 villains/antagonists. I cannot wait to meet Michael.*

[silentfallnight]

🖋 Ryan?

The edgy bastard

-  Despite his distant cold/ mean attitude if you manage to break through his nearly impenetrable outer shell. You’ll find that on the inside he can be a very soft hearted dork. It a very slow process and could take years to do. But once you do you get to see a side very rarely seen by others. Sid was the first outsider to ever break through his outer shell the fastest. Something about the green bean just made him want to change and open up. Which is why he’s deeply attached to those he’s close too, and would to anything for them and to protect them. ( even Kain )

 

-  Another dark secret of his. He doesn’t know how to tie his shoes. Yep! That’s right the big bad right hand doesn’t know how to tie his shoes. He’s always worn boots and a trick he was taught was to wrap the laces around and loop them through so they don’t come untied. So he’s just always thought that’s how you do it, which it why he mainly wears boots rather than regular shoes.

 

-          Ry still misses the TC that originally brought him in as a child. Although TC never once took it easy on him, holding him to the standards of an adult and training him since the day he joined to become his right hand. Ry never once argued or quit, although it took both a physical and emotional toll on him, the consent one on one training cut him from any social group or friends he might have made, but it allowed him to become the youngest right hand in the history of the base.

-   His TC was the one who originally got him into star wars. During the rare moments they weren’t training or sparring TC sat him down and they watched the movies together. During the movies they would talk about the lore and story of the series, his TC even gave him some comic books. ( which he still has to this day ) His TC was also the one to suggest dying his hair, and even helped him do it, even into his older years. Which is why his black hair holds so much sentimental value to him. Though he would never tell anyone this he does still like his pink hair though, he would wear it more often if it wasn’t for the fact it would change peeps opinions about him, and the never ending shit he would hear from it.

 

-   He has never once had the curiosity to find out where he came from or his past. Although he has the clearance and access to Able’s extremely restricted files. He’s never once looked or cared too. He doesn’t care what the reason was or why he joined just that he did. His past has just never interested him, he’s here now and that’s all that matters.

 

-    Last but not least! He hates Marcus! No matter the universe and not matter or many resets he goes through he will always hate Marcus!