#.... i am enjoying a cartoon for kids too much again. THE WATER IS ANKLE DEEP. BUT IM SPLASHING AND HAVING FUN

[popppyfur]

cloudback whale.....

[mirkwoodshewolf]

I can help protect you; Scott Lang x child reader

*Author’s note*

Hey all wow it’s been awhile since I posted a fic that wasn’t BoRhap/Queen related but now here I am with a request that has literally been sitting in my phone for almost a year now. For @randomfandoms-k8​ I wanna say thank you for being soooooooooo patient with me. But finally I came down to write your Scott Lang request. I hope you like it and enjoy it :)

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things​

@waddles03​

@psychosupernatural​

@ixchel-9275​

@platawnic​

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels​

@randomfandoms-k8​

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Day 143. Sunday afternoon, well technically it’s 11:55am but time seems to go by slowly when you’re under house arrest, in fact time is an irrelevant mesh isn’t it? Wow didn’t know I could go that deep into philosophy.  But anyways it’s been 143 days since I was sentenced to my 2yr house arrest after I sided with Cap back in Germany against Stark.

Honestly, this beats having to deal with prison again, this time it would’ve been in an ocean of solitary confinement.  I would’ve gone mad had I screwed up my chances of seeing Cassie again. She’s helped make this house arrest more bearable and honestly a lot more fun.  But currently her and her mom along with Paxton went North to visit Maggie’s parents who hadn’t seen Cassie in a while.

Which left me here. Alone. With no one to really entertain.  I mean sure Luis and the guys come over every once in awhile but they’re business forming up their own business.  Apparently they’re next bright idea was selling security equipment. Not that I’m complaining at all, they’re good guys to have around every now and then but—they can be a bit much at times.

I know not really making much sense am I? Well that kinda happens whenever you’re stuck in your house all day and night.

Right now it was trash day so I gathered up all the trash and proceeded to head outside to put my trashcan out (as best I could without triggering my ankle bracelet). Now I’m thinking this is gonna be just a simple in and out type situation, as it always is, but as I went out towards the trashcans that I kept in the backyard there was a sudden bang.

At first I thought it was a gunshot but it sounded way to close.  Plus as I looked towards my trashcans, I thought I saw something move behind them.

“Hello?” I called out.  There was another loud bang from behind the trashcans and I continued saying, “Look I’m unarmed. If you want money you won’t find much. But if you just want food, I can give it to you.” yeah I know that was probably stupid of me to say but most of the time you will see some homeless person going through the trash in this part of the city.

Soon coming out from behind the trashcan wasn’t an adult, but a small child.  She appeared to be a couple years younger than Cassie, her (h/c) hair was long and madded like a rat’s nest, and she looked pretty dirty like she hadn’t bathed in weeks, maybe months.  But what shocked me the most was how skinny she looked.  She wore clothes that were twice her size, it was like she was just drowning in them.

“Hey, hey sweetheart.” She backed away fearfully and tried to hide behind the trashcans once more. “No, no, no hey. It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you. See?” he sat down on the ground so that he wouldn’t intimidate her.  Then using one of his new hobbies that he had to learn while in house arrest, he made a fake bouquet of flowers come out from his back.

It peeked her interest as she slowly came out from behind the trashcan.  A soft smile spread across her face.

“Here you know, I think I got something better than what you’ll find in there.” I quickly raced inside and got out the leftover pizza box I had from last night. I took out a single slice of the pepperoni and quickly placed it in the microwave for about 15 seconds before coming back outside.

I sat back down and said to the small girl.

“You like pizza?” she looked at me before nodding softly. “Then have a bite of this. At least here it smells fresh and not mixed in with some other stuff and god knows what else.” The little girl slowly walked towards me, staring at the pizza. She would every now and then look up between me and the pizza. “It’s okay sweetheart, it’s not poisoned or anything.”

I broke off the tip of it and ate it to show her that it wasn’t poisoned or tampered with in anyway.

“See? Just a little hot but it’s all good.” Finally she raised her hands and took the pizza from the plate.  She sniffed it before taking a small bite.  Slowly her eyes widened with pure joy as she continued to devour the pizza. “Whoa hey slow down there kiddo, you’re gonna choke if you just inhale it like that.” I warned her.

She quickly looked up at me before looking down shamefully down, a slight glint of tears forming at the corner of her eyes.

“It’s okay. I’m not mad. I just didn’t want you to choke on it. You can keep eating.” She looked down at her pizza and went back to eating it.

Once she finished it, I took the plate back from her and asked her.

“Was that good?” she nodded. “You know if you’d like, I’ve got some juice or something for you in case you’re thirsty.” She looked up at me with those big (e/c) eyes of hers as she tilted her head to the side.  Oh wow that sounds a little creepy doesn’t it? “I promise I’m not gonna hurt you. I’ve got a daughter just a little over your age and I don’t know maybe you both might like the same stuff. Cause I—can’t really leave the house.”

I showed her my ankle bracelet and she looked down at it before looking back up at me. I held out my hand to her and she looked down at it.

“I promise, I’m not going to hurt you. Do you trust me?” she was silent but I soon saw her reach out her hand and she placed her tiny hand into mine.  I gently closed my hand over hers as I then led her on inside.

Once we were inside, I poured her a glass of apple juice (Cassie loves apple juice) so hopefully this kid loves it too.  As she began to drink the juice, so many questions kept running through my mind. Where did she come from? Who was she? How did she get like this? Where were her parents? Things like that.

Should I call someone? Child services maybe? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll sleep on that for tonight.  Maybe I can get some answers out of her.

“Hey sweetie,” she turned to face me. “Do you have a name? I mean I can’t just keep calling you sweetie, sweetheart or munchkin can I?” at that point she looked down sadly.  Her hands fiddling with the oversized shirt, oh no. Is—is she an orphan? Or, and I pray to God this isn’t the case, did her parents abandon her. “Can you speak sweetheart?”

She shook her head no.  Okay so she wasn’t deaf cause she’s actually responding to me. So was she mute? Or was she choosing not to speak.

“Well, think I should tell you me name first so that way we’re not strangers anymore. I’m Scott. Scott Lang.” I came up to her and held out my hand for a handshake now.  She softly smiled and shook my hand.  

Okay good progress we’re getting there.

“Hey, since uhh—since you can’t talk. How bout I give you a name? Is that okay with you?” she nodded and that’s when I grabbed my phone and went through some websites for the top 100 baby names for girls.  “Okay let’s see, how about…….Belle?” she shook her head no. “Ariel?” again she shook her head. “Don’t make me choose Cinderella.” She then gave me a stank face as her tongue stuck out and I softly laughed. “I’m just playing yah kiddo. Here let’s see what this list has.”

I scrolled through the website trying to find the perfect name for her.  Soon a name that felt like it belonged to her came on the list and I said to her.

“Okay, how do you feel about (Y/n)?” her eyes widened and a smile came across her face as she nodded happily. “Alright, (Y/n) it is then.”

After we settled on her name, I took her up to the bathroom to get her cleaned up (couldn’t let her remain dirty forever right?).  By some miracle I managed to get her once madded rat’s nest of hair under control, and now that she was all clean I got a better look at this little cutie.

She had a little button-like nose, her eyes now sparkled with new life now that she no longer looked like she had a raccoon mask of dirt on her eyelids.

Her chubby cheeks that showed two little dimples whenever she smiled.  She looked like a brand new girl.  Once she was all dried up, I put her into some of Cassie’s old clothes (thank god I managed to convince Maggie to let me do the Good will run. That I may have forgotten to do before I was picked to join Cap’s team in Germany).

By late afternoon, we were now currently watching some cartoons together when I decided that maybe I could make her laugh at something.  Of course she smiled every now and then but there was something in her eyes that really showed me that she was still sad about something.

Being the dad that I am I know I hate it whenever my Peanut is upset, so I make it my life’s mission to always make Cassie laugh at least once a day (once I got out of prison that was).  I got up from the couch acting like I was gonna grab a drink of water but what I was really gonna grab was my magic cards, the eye-popping glasses, and clown wig.

I put the clown wig on as well as the glasses and suddenly jumped in front of her holding out the deck of cards.

“Pick a card, any card!” I proclaimed.  She looked at me oddly but looked down at the deck and picked a single card from the deck. “Memorize the card. Okay now put it back, face down don’t let me see it.” She did as she was told.

I then shuffled the deck behind my back trying to mix the cards up till I thought it was good enough.  I brought the deck back out in front of us and I said.

“Okay (n/n), now I’m gonna brush through the cards and you tap the cushion twice when you want me to stop, K?” she nodded and that’s when I began dealing through the cards.  I heard her pat the cushion and I stopped at the 14th card.  I took it out from the deck and held it in my hand. “Alright, now was this your card?” I turned it over to her.

She shook her head no.  I turned it towards me and saw that it was the Jack of clubs.

“Wait what? Now where did that…..oh man I must really be losing my eyes if I misplaced it.” I then pressed the button on the glasses and soon the eyes on the glasses popped out.

At that point I heard her starting to laugh.  Not giggle, but a real laugh.  Her laughter slowly grew in volume but what was surprising was that I began to see the lights starting to flicker on and off.  As she then let out this one shriek of laughter, the lights suddenly exploded and the entire house went dark.

When the power went off throughout the entire house, to say I was freaked out a bit would be a bit of an understatement.  Now whether I can confirm or deny that I may have shrieked like a girl, I’ll just say I got a little spooked by it.

I looked back down at (Y/n) who was now covering her mouth and trying to sink further into the couch.  Wow, so—she’s like a real life Boo (you know that little toddler from Monster’s Inc.)  (Y/n) has powers.  Oh my god I just took in a child that has powers. Wow never thought this is how my house arrest would turn out.

“That—that was you wasn’t it?” I wanted to confirm it with her.  Cause maybe this could be a hallucination or something. Maybe the power did go off on its owe—oh who am I kidding, it was (Y/n) that did this.  When I saw her nod sadly she got off the couch and solemnly walked towards the backdoor.  “Whoa, whoa, whoa hey. Where do you think you’re going?” I said as I stopped her and knelt down beside her.

Her sad, teary eyes stared right at me and that’s when I asked her.

“Did—did you think I would get mad and kick you out if I found out about this?” she nodded, her eyes refusing to meet mine.  “(Y/n), sweetie I’m not mad. So what if you have powers, it’s cool. That means now I get to nickname you Boo. You ever seen Monster’s Inc?” she shook her head no. “Okay we’ll fix that up. It was one of Cassie’s favorite movies growing up, I think you’ll like it.”

I stroked some of the hair out of her face.  I knew at this rate with her having powers, there was no way I can get Child services involved.  Now that the Accords (still don’t really know the entirety of them all I know is that they’re bad for super heroes) had been finalized, they could take her away to that Raft prison that’s out in the middle of the ocean and lock her up.  But she’s only a kid, she doesn’t deserve that fate.

“Kiddo I’m not mad. In fact can I tell you a secret?” she nodded.  I quickly looked around to make sure we were alone (which made her quietly giggle) I gestured with my finger for her to lean closer as I whispered to her, “I’m a super hero.” Her eyes widened in shock. “Yep. My alter ego, is Ant-Man.” At this point she looked at me confused, “What you’ve never heard of Ant-Man?” she shook her head no. “Alright, well we’ll fix that too.”

I guided her back towards the living room and sat her down on the couch and I sat down beside her.  I gently stroked down her hair and assured her again.

“You’ll be safe here (Y/n). Whatever it was that you had to deal with before, or being rejected or whatever, you won’t have it here. I can protect you. And maybe once my 2 years are up, maybe just maybe……I can introduce you to some people who could help you control those powers of yours.”

Her eyes lit up as her face almost screamed out ‘for real?’

“Yeah kiddo. I promise, no one is gonna hurt you ever again.” At that point she hugged me.  I smiled softly down at her and gently embraced her back.

Call me crazy I know but I can’t kick her back out into the streets. Besides I’ve been experienced to enough craziness already from when I first met Hank and Hope, to fighting alongside Team Cap against Stark, so why not? And like I said, I don’t know what the CS would do if they found out she had powers, either lock or up or just kill her (now that’s messed up but I’m told it happens).

But hey, on the bright side at least Cassie will get to be the older sister she always wished she could be.

[smokeybrand]

Smokey Brand Movie Reviews: Shoot Your Shot

A while back, i remember seeing still of Chloe Moretz in a jumpsuit, wading through ankle deep water. I was curious about what the f*ck i was looking at but not so curious that i would look it up. I enjoy Moretz as an actress. She’s f*cking excellent at her craft and as been since she started working way back when. The problem is, as prolific as her career has become, she picks f*cking terrible roles, man. There are some gems, some really great performances like Hick, Let Me In, and Hugo, but there are a ton of duds, man. Whatever it is she was filming in that jumpsuit, i was a little sus about it. Fast forward to now, the movie apparently dropped in Amazon Prime! It’s a World War II movie called Shadow in the Cloud. Since we’re all still under quarantine and the cinemas aren’t open out here, i said to myself, “F*ck it.” Let’s see what’s up with this thing. My hopes aren't high for it, to be honest. Even in a recovery year following the worst thing to ever happen to Hollywood in the modern era, this thing still got the January dump. Like, wat.

The Good

The first thing you notice about this movie is that dark synth soundtrack. If you know me, if you pay attention to this blog, you know I'm all about that sh*t. Tangerine Dream, Brad Fiedel, and John Carpenter made some of favorite soundtracks for some of my favorite films and Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper might have added to that list of favorite scores, not favorite films. As a film, his one ain’t all that favorable.

I like the editing in this. It has the same energy as the soundtrack which is absolutely necessary for a film like this. Horror movies, similar to animation, live and die by audios cues but without the accompanying cuts, that music is for not. Tom Eagles did an exceptional job putting this film together. There were a decent amount of aesthetic all over this film and i kind of adored it a little it.

The cast is an interesting one. I enjoyed their performances but the actual character writing is a little sus. Most of the males in this film were sacrificed to drive home the prejudice they have for women. Still, these dude’s do a great job with what they have. Taylor John Smith, Beulah Koale, Nick Robinson, Callan Mulvey, Benedict Wall, Joe Witkowski, and Byron Coll, aren’t realistic in any real way but they serve their purpose.

This is definitely a Chloe Moretz vehicle. It’s her movie and she turns in a decent performance as Maude Garrett. it’s wild seeing Moretz in such a heavy action role. She’s been in action movies, of course, but it’s up to her to do the heavy lifting. we spend most of this movie with her in that bubble. She does a fantastic job drawing the viewer in, making them care about the her character. I’d be lying if i said thought I'd be this interested in this movie as much as i am now. Chloe chose well with this one.

This film is mad intense. I was a little surprised by how adept this flick was able to install such rich dread at times, considering the sheer focus on Moretz’s performance, but it pulled it off with gusto. I was white-knuckling at times and, taking into account this one was a January dump, that was a real surprise.

I have to say, from an aesthetic standpoint, this flick is kind of a beauty. I touched on this before but, considering the bulk of this thing takes place in a gunner cockpit, the thing works wonders with the looks of this film. Objective, there is a lot of absolute nothing going on but the way it’s framed, the colors chosen, those cuts to the images in Maude’s head - They all come together to bring a rather interesting and lovely visual.

I rather liked the writing displayed, too. It’s difficult articulating what effectively is a One Woman show but Max Landis does a serviceable job in that respect. I’m not a fan of Landis, himself, he’s quite the scumbag, but i an see the brilliance behind his words onscreen with Moretz’s performance. That might have something to do with his writing partner, though. Roseanne Liang ha a credit on this but i don’t know how much of it as really her word. There are some very Landis-y lines delivered in this but it’s hard for me to think that anything Moretz dropped were all up to him. As far as  i can tell, dude hates women so...

The Bad

I don’t care for war movies. When i was a kid, y uncle would preempt all of my cartoons on Saturday to watch either war flicks or football. I hate both now. In order for a war movie to actually overtake my seething bias, it has to bamboozle me with performance, spectacle, or plot. Shadow did not do this. I wasn’t as engaged as i should have been and, in all honesty, I'll probably never watch this thing ever again but the time I did spend with it was quite engaging. Who knows? Maybe in time I might revisit it. There is a lot to like therein.

Whoo, boy, the messaging in this is not subtle. At all. Sh*t is mad heavy-handed and i kind of resent it. Look, i get it. This film has something to say and it is, one hundred percent, valid to say it but subtlety goes a long way. We were immediately hit over the head with these cartoonish caricatures of asshole men and it’s kind of ridiculous. I mean, there are ways to make this happen without f*cking making the male characters overly obtuse but, goddamn, if this sh*t doesn’t just throw that out the window. Sacrificing the realism of one character to bolster the reality of another makes for lousy character writing. There was too much sacrificed to give this thing that raucous Grrrrl power energy and i think that takes away from the film overall. It’ll definitely alienate those with weaker masculinity, for sure.

Not one hundred percent on board with the gremlin design. It looks a little wonky. I imagine it’s some sort of bat derivative because of reasons but i don’t particularly like it. I don’t know if it’s because I'm coloring this thing with my bias for the old timey Gremlins films gremlins, it’ hard to beat Stripe and Mohawk, but this thing feels like a good punch to the face will do it in. As hard as they try to make it a threat, this motherf*cker did no damage on it’s own. Like, Moretz, who is kind of a tiny chick, kept beating this thing’s ass.

This thing is kind of uneasy in terms of tone. I’ve read that other reviews had said it’s three or four films in one and i an totally see that. I don’t think that’s a detriment to what the filmmakers were trying to do but i can see how others might be turned of by the tonal whiplash.

Verdict

I rather liked this movie. It gave me a ton of Overlord vibes and i ended up liking that movie way more than i expected. I can’t say i like Shadow in the Cloud enough to watch it repeatedly but, as time goes on, maybe? What i know for sure is that this thing didn’t deserve the January dump. It’s much, much, better than that, kind of like how Underwater is much better than it had any right to be for a January wasteland sacrifice. 2020 threw everything off and this flick might have been a casualty of that because, i think, if it was released in theaters, Shadow would have done fine. Chloe Moretz is pretty bad ass as Maude and carries this sometimes uneven film but she, herself, is more than enough to keep the audience engaged. Her supporting cast is a little over-the-top but they mean well and they perform amiably, great foils to Moretz’s obvious vehicle. There is a great deal here to like, from the dope ass synth soundtrack t the interesting visual cues and the hilariously cliche chauvinist banter. It can definitely be mad heavy handed with it’s politics but, if you can separate that from the actual film presented, i think you’ll have a decent time. Shadow in the Cloud isn’t the best film ever but it is a strong start to 2021.

That score is so good, dude. I can’t get it out of my head.