#ALSO I WAS MEANT TO SHOW THE JOSH FIGURE AGES AGO BUT I NEVER GOT THE OPPORTUNITY TI | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

imaginejamesandsirius · 4 years ago

Note

Hey. I love these fics, they are some of my favourites. You’re the only thing doing this ship justice. Do you think you could do a Clueless au. With Sirius as Cher and James as Josh. Tysm

"Sirius, James will be coming over tonight, so be sure that you're prepared for a family dinner," Orion said, and Sirius just barely managed to keep himself from gaping at his father.

"What? Why is he coming here? You divorced Euphemia, like, three years ago." And his current outfit was far too good for someone like James. He didn't want James to think that he'd gotten dressed up for him or summat. Sirius just always looked this good.

"Yes, well, you can divorce a wife, but not your children," Orion said distractedly.

Sirius scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Isn't he busy in uni?"

"It hasn't started yet."

"Figures," Sirius muttered.

Orion glanced at him. "Why are you so against this? He's your brother."

"He's not my brother; he's your ex-wife's son. Our connection to him is long over."

"Can't divorce your child," Orion repeated, turning back to the papers in front of him.

Sirius rolled his eyes again and left the room. The term hadn't started yet, so what? It's not like James lived here. He had an actual home of his own that he could stay at, where he had a parent that actually had responsibility to him.

James showed up way before dinner, like he lived here or something. It's not like Sirius hated him, but he always acted like Sirius was an idiot. Like just because he didn't talk like a bloody professor all the time, that meant he didn't know anything. What a tosser. "Hey Sirius," he said, then took a swig of orange juice straight from the bottle. Who did that? Honestly, every time he came around, it was like living with a pig. If Sirius wanted to live with a pig, he'd buy from from the animal shelter or wherever it is people bought pigs from (how would he know? He's not a farmer, and a pig wouldn't fit in very well at their house-- pigs and this many stairs don't mix.).

Sirius made a face at him and reluctantly said, "Hi. Is this what you're learning at uni? How to mess up someone else's kitchen?" Because in addition to his bottle-drinking ways, he'd opened a loaf of bread and left the peanut butter with the knife still in it-- and still sticky with jelly.

"Relax, it's not like you're the one that has to clean it up."

"I can't believe Professor Binns gave me this bad a grade," Sirius said, frowning at his report card.

"Ugh, I know right?" Lily said, easily falling into step beside him. "I got the same grade. My dad's totally going to choke when he sees it. You look pretty calm considering I know your dad's going to flip too."

"It's not set in stone yet," Sirius said, thinking about all the other report cards that he'd been able to fix.

"You going to get it fixed?"

"Yep."

"Binns is notoriously hard to please. I don't think he'll change it for you."

"I've done the impossible before," Sirius said, tucking the paper in his bag.

"Like that time you convinced Severus to cut his hair short?"

Sirius gave a decisive nod. "Exactly. This is just a little grade; Binns won't even remember it by the end of the year."

"Good luck," she said, voice light enough that Sirius knew she doubted his ability to get it done.

But really, what did she know? Sirius had been taking care of his grades like this for years, and Orion was never the wiser that Sirius failed to turn in so much of his homework. He didn't have the time to do homework though, not after the designer stores started opening so close to their house. Great outfits didn't just put themselves together. Lily knew that.

"Hey kiddo," Orion said, looking up from his dinner as if suddenly struck with a memory, "where's your report card?"

Sirius had to swallow thickly around food he hadn't quite finished chewing. "I don't have it yet."

"You don't have it? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, Sirius," James said, looking far too smarmy for his own good. "Didn't everyone else get their's today?"

Sirius glared at him, but he had to think up a response because Orion was still looking at him expectantly. "Dad, you always say that you should never accept a first offer. I'm negotiating."

James snorted, but Orion nodded approvingly.

"Do you think you'll be able to do it?" Orion asked.

"Totally."

"How?" James said derisively. "Going to give your professors a makeover?"

"Don't get mad at me just because you look like you went picking through a poor American writer's closet." Open plaid shirt? Really? James could at least try. And the graphic tee under it that said something about animal rights certainly wasn't helping-- also, faux fur exists for a reason, duh.

"-and I was like, er hello? Gideon's Welsh, and if we go on a date or something, people are going to expect me to know how to speak Welsh. It's like, a super hard language to learn, and I'd totally butcher it," Lily said.

"Welsh is hard. It's like, almost impossible to learn even if you are Welsh," Sirius agreed. "Total downer."

"It's almost impossible to learn Welsh because the British government is still trying to make it a dead language and is actively working to make that happen," James interrupted, and Sirius and Lily turned around to glare at him. He was eating cereal from the box. Again. "If either of you paid attention to your history class instead of talking about your nails, you'd know that." And then he stormed away. Like he thought he was some sort of storm god that came down to interrupt perfectly nice conversations. They'd barely been talking about Welsh and British colonialism in the first place.

"What's his damage?" Lily said.

"God, who even knows. Maybe you could ask Gideon on a not-date first. See if it's worth the trouble first," Sirius suggested. Then he shrugged and added, "Or you could go my route and not date because everyone our age is kind of a bonehead anyways."

"Are you including yourself in that?" Lily asked pointedly, and Sirius just rolled his eyes. As if.

"Hey Sirius, have you seen my cellphone?" Regulus asked.

"No, and I'm not going to help you look," Sirius said, flipping a page of the fashion magazine he was reading. Well, looking at. They never had good articles in these, he was sure. "Maybe next time you'll carry it in a bag like me."

"I'd look like a ponce," Regulus said, then poked his head up and looked at him. "Like you." He ducked back down before Sirius could decide to throw the magazine at him.

"Well there are worse things in life than looking like a ponce, Reggie."

"Don't call me Reggie," Regulus muttered, and Sirius summarily ignored him-- summarily, his big vocab word of the day; he was trying to get better about those so he wouldn't sound so clueless all the time.

"For one, you could be crawling around on your hands and knees looking for something that you could have so easily kept in your bag. For another, you wouldn't fail to find it and have to ask Dad for a new one. You know he's not going to give it to you, right? Not after he just bought you that new desktop computer."

"I'll find it," Regulus growled, all prepubescent certainty.

"Sure you will," Sirius said. "And while we're on the subject, I didn't say you have to carry a purse, I said a bag. Get a bag to match your school bag or something so that you can avoid being bullied like you imagine your dear old brother was."

"You weren't bullied," James said, choosing that moment to enter the room, looking a little more angry at the world than he usually did before talking to Sirius.

"Exactly my point! So, dear sweet Regulus, get yourself a bag. Or a purse, if you are so bold. Hi James."

"Er, hi. You lose something Reg?" James asked, bending over a little as if the changed angle would help him find the answer to his question. He was a total prick and all, but at least he had a nice backside. God only knows how he got it though, sitting around reading boring books.

"My cellphone. Matty said he would call me tonight, so I need my cellphone."

"Would that be the same cellphone I saw sitting on the balcony upstairs?" James asked. He had that answer all prepped and ready to go before Regulus had said a word. Weird.

Regulus shot up, eyes wide. "Really?" He went running off up the stairs before James could answer.

"You okay?" James asked, and Sirius frowned up at him.

"Yeah? What, are we having heart to hearts now? Because if there's something you want to talk about, there are therapists for that." Aka, please don't talk to Sirius about that sort of thing. It's not like he was against James talking to him, but if James was in a talking sort of mood, he'd probably want to talk about, like, world hunger or something and then James would get mad at him for not doing more to help-- just like he always did.

"No, I- I meant with Regulus?"

"What about my dear sweet brother? I was being honest before; Dad won't give him a new cellphone if he doesn't manage to hold onto that one for another month. At least."

"Not that. He called you..."

Ah, so James had been listening the whole time. "You can't say that surprises you," Sirius said. "The makeup is usually a dead giveaway for people when I'm not wearing a skirt." Although, he did usually wear a skirt because if he could look that good in something, why wouldn't he?

"Yeah, I didn't mean that." He was still giving Sirius a too-severe look. Normally at this point in a conversation, they'd be poking and needling at each other. "...Whatever." He walked around and joined Sirius on the couch, landing heavily specifically to displace Sirius's comfortable position. "Bloody hell, you're reading a fashion magazine. And here I thought you were reading something intellectual for once."

That was more like it. Sirius hit him on the head with the magazine and got tickled in the side for it. Besides, it totally wasn't fair for James to say that. Sirius had watched the news some to that he knew what a little of what was going on. And he actually listened when Professor McGonagall talked about the various disasters happening around the world.

"We should be friends with him," Sirius said, and Lily looked at him like he was crazy.

"Um, excuse me? Sirius, look at him."

Sirius looked. His nose wrinkled, but he shook it off. "Yeah, I know. God, I know, he looks like a total burn out." He had baggy clothes, and the lip ring wasn't doing him any favours. He'd dyed his hair green, which served to make his skin look pale and sallow. "But, you know Lily, we've been trying to do more good things for the world, and that starts where we live."

"That means planting flowers that don't grow on bushes; not bringing down our credibility by being seen with... someone like that."

"You'll survive," Sirius said before raising his voice and calling, "Remus!" while waving a hand at him. "Hi, I'm Sirius, and this is Lily."

Lily gave a terse little smile. "Hi." She sounded way too snooty for what they were trying to do.

Sirius gave her a warning glare for it, then turned back to Remus with a bright smile.

"Oh. Erm, I'm Remus. Just moved down here," he murmured. He had a Northern Irish accent. God, who even lived there anymore? At least it explained why he was more pale than he should've been. Honestly, the porcelain look had been a mistake for everyone.

"Yeah, that's great honey. Listen, if we're going to be mates, you need to not mumble everything. You're proud of yourself-- or at least you're going to be-- and people who are proud of themselves don't let their mouths muss up their speech so much. Okay?"

"Erm. Okay?"

Sirius beamed. "Great! You free tonight? No offense, but I was thinking you could come over and we could get started on a makeover for you. Maybe buy some new clothes this weekend if this is representative of your entire wardrobe."

Remus tugged on his shirt self-consciously. "I'm here on scholarship," he muttered, face getting a bit of colour as he blushed.

"Oh, don't even worry about that. I've totally got you covered."

"Why? I mean, why would you do that for me? We've just met."

"Because he's totally lost his marbles and decided that he needed a male best friend," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"I've done nothing of the sort, Lily. I'm simply... expanding the group."

"Group? There's no 'group'. It's you and me."

"Well, now it's you and me and Remus, so we're a group. Right?" Sirius said, looking at Remus.

"I guess?" Remus agreed tremulously.

The good news-- the really really excellent news-- was that Remus was pretty cute once the weekend was over. His natural hair was loads better than what he'd done to it before, and with the lip ring gone, he had the face of an angel. Well, an angel with freckles, but some people liked that.

Lily had missed most of the transformation because she'd had a date with Gideon-- apparently, the Welsh thing wasn't an issue so long as they were still in the city because everyone around them pretending that Gideon wasn't Welsh-- but she was suitably impressed when they showed up to school on Monday.

"Okay, lesson number two, Remus, is making sure that if you're going to date, you're dating the right sort of person. Your new look, new diet, and new workout regime won't mean anything if you spoil it by dating the wrong sort of person. Benjy, for example, is a burn out. You don't want to join that crowd. They're all going to end up flunking out before they can decide what they want to do with their lives, and you're going to be just like them if you date him." Sirius wasn't used to being so harsh with people-- other than Regulus and James because duh, they both needed the help big time-- but Remus had given Benjy a shy smile and friendly wave when he'd seen him a few moments ago. Remus could always decide not to date like Sirius had, but Remus had seemed gobsmacked at the idea that Sirius wasn't having sex. Aiming him in the right direction had a better chance of success than convincing him that guys their age weren't worth his time. "Look, for example, at Peter." Peter was a friend, and they got on pretty well considering they hardly hung out because Peter lived in the exact opposite direction of Lily. "He's popular, very nicely groomed, and most importantly, doesn't smell like weed because he doesn't smoke it. Tell you what, I'll help you get his attention, and we'll see where it goes from there." As if he stood a chance of failure. He'd gotten two of his professors together just to help boost his grade; getting Remus and Peter together was going to be a piece of cake.

But Remus agreed, and that's all that was important. Even if dating Peter didn't last, it would get his mind off Benjy and on the right track.

"I bet you've never done anything selfless in your entire life," James said, and Sirius glared at him.

Partly for the (very unfair) comment, partly because there was no reason for James to be here right now when there wasn't a break in uni, but mostly because he was sporting facial hair that looked more like razor burn than anything else. "What is that thing on your face?"

"My glasses? I've had them since before we ever met."

"No, that disgusting peach fuzz on your chin. You look fourteen; it's despicable. Shave it off or you'll risk looking like an even bigger berk than you already do. There, I did something selfless."

James rolled his eyes. "It doesn't count as selfless if you're telling me to help your own senses."

"So you admit that that thing is an abomination to my eyesight?"

James snorted and muttered something about he was right about Sirius being selfish, but the light dusting of hair along his jaw was gone. He looked much better this way, but it's not like Sirius could say that to his face; that would be too much like getting along.

Still, James thinking that Sirius was selfish stuck with him. "Lily? Would you say that I'm selfish?"

"Not to your face."

Sirius pouted. "I do good things."

"Sure you do. You're better than me, anyways. I'm still not sure about your whole mentoring-Remus kick, but whatever."

This was probably the worst night of Sirius's life. Really. Worse than Dad's last wedding, when the priest showed up drunk, and Regulus puked all over the cake because he'd been sneaking ice cream all day and Sirius had had to run around fixing everything-- why Sirius had taken care of it instead of James's mum, he'd had no idea, but it had been very stressful. Wedding cakes took ages to make, and priests were surprisingly hard to pin down even though they were supposed to serve the people or whatever.

But anyways, this was worse. Because not only had Peter stolen a kiss and pretty much ignored Remus the whole party and come onto him in the car and then driven away when Sirius got out of the car because he wouldn't stop touching him, leaving Sirius stranded in the middle of nowhere, but someone had mugged him! Mugged! Like it was the bloody dark ages! he had no phone, no cash, and he'd gotten mud on his Jimmy Choo's. Mud. That wasn't going to come out. He'd just gotten these heels, and now they were ruined. Ruined! Why did he try to have anything good in this life? It was just going to end up splattered with mud.

Since he didn't know how to use the tube much less where it was and Dad would totally be mad at him if he had to leave the house to come pick Sirius up from a party he wasn't supposed to be at, that left Sirius with only one real option: James. James would come get him, if only because it would make Sirius owe him a favour.

Getting his hands on a phone he could use was a little bit more difficult than it should have been, and he was glad that he'd taken the time to memorise the number for James's dorm room.

"Hello?"

"Hi James, it's Sirius, and I need for you to come pick me up."

"Pick you up? Where the hell are you?"

"I was at this party that Dad doesn't know about, so I couldn't call him!" Sirius didn't really mean to shout, but he was tired and-- quite frankly-- on the verge of crying. "It's been like, the worst night ever. Someone stole my phone so I can't call a cab."

"Okay," James said slowly. "Weren't you at a party with your friends? Why didn't one of them drive you home?"

"Peter started to, but then he like, practically assaulted me for some reason, and he wouldn't stop touching me, so I had to get out of the car, and when I wouldn't get back in, he left. Can you believe that? He just left me out here all by myself, and then someone stole my phone and stuff, so I couldn't call a stupid cab for myself, and I just ruined my new pair of Jimmy Choo's, so I need you to come get me!"

"Jesus, I'm coming. Just- don't cry, I'll be there soon."

Sirius was already crying. He sniffled a little and went outside to wait since he'd already ruined these shoes and a little more harsh pavement wasn't going to do anything worse to them. Sirius thought that he couldn't feel any worse about himself, except he got in the car when James showed up, and some little fuck buddy of his was there, took one look at Sirius and said, "God, is he your step-brother or a rent-boy?"

Sirius ripped one of his shoes off and shoved it in their face. "These are Jimmy Choo's. Rent-boys that have to stand on the side of the road in the middle of the bloody night can't afford those, and I'm sixteen. If you want to be a piece of shite, maybe you could just say so." He put his shoe back on and sneered at him now that he was looking. "And if you want to say I'm pretty, you could just fucking say that too."

James pressed his lips together to keep from laughing, which kept Sirius from feeling even worse about himself. Of course, then James's little friend started talking about Shakespeare-- probably to make him feel inferior-- and he had to butt in partway through.

"That's Twelfth Night, not Taming of the Shrew."

"I think I know more Shakespeare than you do," he said, all condescension.

"Congrats, I know my American high school movies. Channing Tatum was the one that gave the greatness speech in She's the Man, not Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You. She's the Man was based on Twelfth Night, so that's what it's from."

This time, James couldn't completely hold back his laughter.

"Hi Dad."

"Hi pumpkin," Dad said distractedly, not looking up from the paper in front of him.

"What are you working on?"

"Just a case."

"Ah." Sirius rocked back on his heels. He didn't feel like being alone, but he also didn't want to leave the house or... do anything, really. He just wanted to hang out with Dad a little. "Anything I can do to help?"

Dad looked up at him, over the rim of his glasses. Then he smiled. "Sure. Here," he said picking up a stack to the left and handing it to Sirius along with a highlighter, "highlight every call that was made on March third."

"Okay." Sirius sat down next to him and started working. It was pretty quiet, just the sound of them breathing, the squeak of highlighters, and the occasional paper being flipped.

"Are you watching the news?" James asked. He sounded a little surprised, but not incredulous.

"Yeah. Trying to stay up to date with the world like you suggested."

"Huh." James threw himself on the couch next to him and stole his snack.

People who stole his snacks should not be allowed to look so cute, especially since James said it tasted weird and then kept eating it instead of giving it back. And really, who looked cute in denim anyways? This was totally not on.

Sirius didn't think anything about the fact that he'd called James cute in his mind until a few minutes later, when James pulled a blanket over their legs. This was... soft. Comfortable, even. Snack stealing aside, it made Sirius's chest feel all warm to be snuggled up like this with James.

Realising that he fancied James was kind of like that time he was a kid and realised that he was stuck with Regulus for life, unlike Dad's wives that had a habit of coming and going before Sirius had to really accept them. Only this was worse because unlike then, there was no guarantee that everything would turn out okay. Sirius and Regulus had had to get used to each other; James was under no such commitment to fancy Sirius back, especially since James's type seemed to be arseholes that thought they knew Shakespeare and had no idea how to dress themselves.

Sirius hadn't decided what he was going to do about it, which made it so much worse when Remus turned to him one day and said, "Hey, would you help me get James?"

"What?" Sirius said, blinking at him. Surely that had been an auditory hallucination. Since when did Remus want to date James?

"James," Remus said, as if there had been any doubt. He might as well have elaborated to explain who James was for all that had made sense. Of course they were still talking about James. If they were talking about someone else, Sirius wouldn't care. More power to Remus for finally getting his legs under him. But James? Really? The last guy that Remus had been interested in of his own volition was Benjy. "Will you help me? I mean, you know him so much better than I do."

"Why would you want to date James? He's not exactly your type."

"You've been saying that I should get a new type," Remus reminded him.

Aw shite, he had said that. Of course, at the time that he'd been saying it, he meant Peter. He didn't mean that anymore, but he really did not meant James. "Well yeah," Sirius hedged, "but I don't think you're his type either. I mean, he likes, like, brainy people."

"Are you saying I'm stupid?" Remus asked, and he wasn't hurt by it, he was belligerent.

"What? No, I just mean that-"

"If you're going to be an arse about this, I won't bother sticking around," Remus said. Before Sirius could collect himself enough to protest or correct him, Remus had gathered his things and left.

"What the...?" Sirius shook his head. Whatever. If Remus wanted to act like he was better than him, then fine. Sirius didn't need him, and obviously Remus didn't need him anymore.

Sirius didn't know how big of a mistake he'd made with Remus until they were at school, and Remus didn't just brush off Benjy when he dropped by their table; he made fun of him. Listen, Sirius wasn't responsible for a change of mind, and he knew that. But there was something about the way he did it, like it was a performance he was doing to please everyone around him. The amused look he shot Lily afterwards only cemented that idea.

Sirius went to find Benjy after last class, because he figured someone owed him an apology and Remus sure wasn't going to do it himself. "Hi," Sirius said.

Benjy looked up at him, looking less stoned than usual. "Hey. Erm, sorry about your shoes."

"What shoes?"

"The er, red ones that I spilled a drink on. Like, a few months ago, remember?"

"Oh, those are so last season, it's fine. Listen, I wanted to apologise for Remus being... well, a total arse. I told him that he should take more pride in his appearance and like, apparently he took that to mean he should be rude to people that like him if they aren't popular." There were a few details that he was leaving out, but they weren't important to the situation. It didn't really matter that Sirius had given Remus a makeover and told him straight out that dating Benjy would bring him down, because Remus hadn't even listened to him. It was only once Remus had turned confident that he started acting like an arse, and Sirius didn't think he could be credited with that. "Did you want to-" god this pained him "-like come over for pizza or something?"

"Huh?"

"Just to make you feel better," Sirius said quickly. He didn't want Benjy to think they were suddenly friends. "You looked like a kicked puppy after Remus blew you off. And I need an excuse to order pizza," he added. Lily was going gluten free, and as the best friend, Sirius wasn't supposed to order any food that would mess up her diet. Of course, Sirius also wasn't supposed to be eating that much cheese and bringing Benjy around would give a good excuse for both of them.

Sirius had sort of been having not good luck lately, so it was a surprise when Benjy said yes, but not a surprise when Benjy, Lily, and Sirius showed up to find that James and Remus were already there. Personally, Sirius wanted to know why Remus thought he could invite himself over when they were in the middle of a fight, but whatever.

"James, do you want pizza?" Sirius yelled. He wasn't going to make the effort to go over to him and ask like a civilised person because he didn't want for James to think of him as put together all the time. Looking as good as Sirius did on a daily basis took time.

"Pineapple!"

Sirius only had to stare at him incredulously for a moment before he cracked up. He found it endearing. It was a stupid joke-- a barely there joke, even-- and James was guffawing, something that Sirius usually did not find pleasant in the slightest. Somehow though, all Sirius could think was that James looked super adorable and he wanted to squish his cheeks. Or maybe kiss him. Or maybe hug him. Feelings were confusing.

"Cheese is fine," James said.

Sirius stuck his tongue out then went to make a call, nodding when Lily said they should do thick crust. He had no idea what happened when he was gone, but Benjy and Remus had both vanished. Together, according to Lily. "Well where did they go?"

"Based on the moon eyes they were giving each other, I told them to get a room, and I think they listened to me," Lily said. "I'd give them some time alone before going looking for them. I don't think it's something either of us want to see."

"What, are they getting along again?"

"Guess so," James said. "Isn't that why you brought that guy here? What did you say his name was? Ben?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't know that Remus was here." Sirius narrowed his eyes at James. "What were you even talking about? And why are you here? Don't you ever go to school?"

"You're just now realising this?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sirius's crush on James was out of hand. Normally, Sirius only helped with Dad's work when Dad was around. The whole point was to spend time with him. Right now though, Dad was still at the office, and Sirius was helping with the work to spend time with James. He wasn't sure when James had decided to work with Dad, but it meant that Sirius was poring over papers in the study with James and Lucius instead of going shopping with Lily and Remus like he wanted to; he'd even gotten all dressed up for it, and it felt kind of ridiculous to be wearing a skirt this short if he was staying in but whatever.

If this was a different situation, Sirius might think that James was interested in him. Sirius was playing with his hair because he categorically refused to pull it back unless he was doing something physical, and he was trying to keep from getting too bored. It wasn't all that strange, but he'd be messing with his hair, and James would glance at him before tearing his eyes away. Then, a minute later, it would happen again. Sirius would poke James with the non-ink point of his pen, and James would give him a little shove in return. It was playful, almost like flirting. If it were anyone else, Sirius would think it was flirting, but this was James, and since when was James interested in someone like him?

Lucius shuffled some of the stacks around, looking confused. "Where are the call records?"

"What call records?" James asked.

"The ones our client made. It was over a hundred pages, where did it go?"

"You mean the March calls?" Sirius said, and they both looked at him. "I highlighted the calls from March and then put them in two piles since there was..." he slowed a little at the angry twist to Lucius's face, "so much. Was that not right?"

"No, you absolute idiot, it wasn't right. The March calls are nothing; we don't need them. It's going to take hours to find all of them again, and it's your fault."

"Hey," James protested, and Sirius shrunk back a little.

"We have to have this case ready by tomorrow, and now we won't be able to." Lucius shook his head.

"I didn't mean to," Sirius said quietly.

"Congratulations, you didn't mean to bugger up," Lucius said flatly. "You still did. Why are you here, again?"

Sirius wasn't in the mood to get yelled at, so he slid out of his chair and left the room.

"That was uncalled for," James said. "He's not getting paid for this, and he had no idea that he shouldn't split them up."

"Leave it to you to defend him."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That maybe if you weren't busy making puppy eyes at him, you would've noticed that there was an issue sooner and we would actually have the time to fix this. But you were busy thinking with your prick, and now we're buggered. Besides, isn't he supposed to be your brother?"

"Step-brother, and we weren't bloody raised together," James defended automatically.

"Do whatever the hell you want," Lucius said, getting to his feet, "I'm calling in sick tomorrow so I don't have to explain to the boss why his stupid son messed it all up."

"He's not stupid; he's just not trained for this. He didn't have to be there at all, and-"

Lucius cut him off with a groan as they walked to the front door. "For god's sake, if you want to moon over him, do it with someone that cares. I'll talk to you when you have half a brain again."

"I doubt I'll ever see you again if you're ducking out of this now, Lucius, but go on and get a good night's rest, I'm sure you'll need it for job hunting." James sort of slammed the door as soon as Lucius was out of the house. He rubbed at his forehead tiredly as he turned, catching sight of Sirius sitting on the middle landing of the stairs. It was obvious that he'd been there the whole time. He looked sad. James had seen him upset a few times, but never so dejected. He had his knees pulled up a little, arms resting on top of them. The way Sirius dressed was so innocent. He wore a short skirt because he liked knee-high socks and the way his legs looked, not because he was trying to seduce anyone. That being said, James felt thoroughly seduced.

"Did I really mess it all up?" Sirius asked, sounding as depressed as he looked.

"Nah." James walked up the stairs and sat down next to him. "Lucius is just blowing off steam. I mean, yeah, it'll take some time to sort out, but it's not going to ruin the case or summat."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Sirius turned and hugged him, hiding his face in James's neck. "Thanks." Then, a moment later, he added, "Thanks for sticking up for me. I know you think I'm kind of vapid."

"You're not vapid; you're just not a bloody professor. That's not a bad thing."

Sirius leaned back a little. "Were you really making puppy eyes at me?"

"What?" James asked, a blush rising in his cheeks far too fast for it to be innocent.

Sirius kissed him. It was a little clumsy, but the important part was that James kissed him back. James's hand was warm on his knee, and Sirius wondered if it would be wildly inappropriate to climb into his lap.

#prongsfoot #marauders #fanfic #james potter #sirius black #lily evans #regulus black #remus lupin #filled #getting together #fusion #no magic au #hogwarts time #siriuslystarbucks #Anonymous

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walkwithheroes84 · 4 years ago

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The New Mutants Film: Thoughts

I haven’t seen this film, and I do not plan to pay to see it. I’ll stream it when it appears online. I have a long history with this film, and I feel the need to discuss it - even if it is just me pouring my thoughts into a soon to be forgotten Tumblr post.

I spent my childhood being in love with Marvel comics. They were one of the ways I learned how to read. The 90s X-Men cartoon? It will always be a favorite. The New Mutants hold a special place in my heart, as my dad had a couple of their comics. I remember thinking they were really cool characters. When I got into reading comics on my own (around 2000), I ended up reading The New Mutants, volume 2 and searching for the original run.

Now,here are my thoughts on the film (and what went wrong). Broken up into parts.

A History of a Troubled Production:

When The New Mutants film was announced - I think in 2016 - I was excited. I remember reading about the casting and being disappointed that Blu Hunt (who is a descendant of the Lakota tribe) and Henry Zaga (who is a Brazilian actor) were not to the liking of hardcore fans. Many fans believed the characters were whitewashed as Hunt and Zaga were deemed too light skinned for the roles. (Zaga’s character is meant to be of Afro-Brazilian descent and some considered Hunt to be “white passing” when Dani is darker in the comics.) But, I was encouraged by the casting of Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, and even Charlie Heaton - as I thought they could fit their roles. (Though I understand the whole cast caused backlash in one way or another)

I also remembering reading about the filming. The original idea seemed to be focused on a “horror” feel. Josh Boone, the director, wanted an “80s horror vibe meets coming of age story”. However, he was restricted by FOX, who were looking for a more a Breakfast Club meets Cuckoo's Nest vibe - "a haunted-house movie with a bunch of hormonal teenagers. We haven't seen a superhero movie whose genre is more like The Shining than 'we're teenagers let's save the world.'"

I remember reading about the first test screenings, which took place in late 2017/early 2018. And they were positive. People liked the film. The studio liked the film. It was compared to Deadpool. It was described as a “dark YA horror film” and reshoots were scheduled. Then the film's release date got pushed back from May of 2018 to February 22, 2019,to avoid Deadpool 2. This also allowed time for things to be reshot (again) and visuals to be added. They were adding post-credit scenes - first with Jon Hamm as Mister Sinister. And later with a post-credits scene introducing Antonio Banderas as Sunspot's father Emmanuel da Costa. The studio and Boone wanted a trilogy, with each film having its own horror feel and each being based on a classic New Mutants comic arc.

Then Disney bought them. Disney was unimpressed with the film, believing it had “limited” potential and that it would fall into a weird section of comic film lovers/horror film lovers/YA lovers. They weren’t sure how to market it. Did they market it to adult comic fans? Horror fans? Teenagers? They just didn’t know what to do - they just knew they didn’t like it and they were worried that the film could confuse fans of the MCU, who might think The New Mutants was apart of the universe.

So, the original cut of the film had to be edited down and fixed. In March of 2020, Boone was brought back again to finish/rework the film. He stated that no reshoots ever took place and that even standard pickups had never been done. Only 75% of the film was edited and most of the visuals were not complete. Boone also stated he couldn’t do reshoots, as the cast were now all too old (having last filmed nearly four years ago) and people were spread out around the world during a pandemic. He had to work with what he had and edit out what wasn’t going to work - especially now that mentions of X-Men films had to be taken out/edited down, and any hints of a second film had to be removed.

Critics and Cast Thoughts:

When the film was screened in New York, the cast stated they loved it and they were all excited. They have been promoting it on their social medias and Josh Boone has stated he is happy with the film. But, Bob McLeod (co-creator of the original comic) has voiced his distaste for the film. He feels his characters have been ruined and he does not care for the casting and story. The movie currently has low reviews on most review sites. It’s being called “cliched” “shallow” and “generic”. It has been praised for having its three female leads take on the more “male” roles within the group and for being “pretty coherent”, despite a lot of meddling and reworking.

Viewer Thoughts:

I haven’t seen this movie. I wanted to see it back in 2017/2018. I was excited. Now...I’ll stream it. I still honestly think that Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams were solid casting choices based on small clips and gifs. But, I can’t give any solid opinions. I can just list what people who have viewed the final cut, which clocks in at 98 minutes, have to say:

- There is a love story between Dani and Rahne. It’s not a “blink and miss it” or “queer baiting”. They are WLW. However, some fans are angry because Rahne is the comics is a canonically straight and homophobic woman. Some have stated that would have liked to have seen Rahne deal with her own homophobic feelings as she deals with her newfound feelings for Dani.

- People are still disappointed in the white-washing of Dani, Roberto, and Cecilia Reyes. Many are refusing to watch the film based on the casting.

- People are disappointed/angry with some lines that throw around casual racism. Notable seems to be Illyana Rasputin calling Dani Moonstar names regarding Dani’s heritage.

- People are reporting that the visual effects are, at times, fairly poor or cheesy.

- People have also said they do like the connections that some of the characters make throughout the film.

Overall Thoughts:

- It sounds like people are really upset with the white-washing and racism. Which is all understandable.

- I have to say that I feel bad for the cast. When this was filmed, Blu Hunt and Henry Zaga were newcomers - they were probably hoping this would be a big break for them. (Henry Zaga will be in the upcoming The Stand mini series and Blu Hunt is a main cast member on Netflix’s Another Life.) Anya Taylor-Joy was also fairly new when this was first filmed, but she’s gone on to a lot of good roles. She’s fine. Maisie Williams may have been hoping this would release her from her Game of Thrones fame and allow her to branch out. Charlie Heaton probably felt the same, only regarding his Stranger Things fame. They are both talented young people, they’ll break away from the shows that made them famous. Honestly, the whole “younger” cast will be fine, even if this bombs (which it is likely to). They all seem to get on, so I do hope they stay friendly.

- From what I’ve been able to figure out, Disney has NO plans to use these (or really any mutant characters) in any future MCU film or television series. But, they should consider it. The New Mutants - with some major reworks - could make a really good and dark-ish teen-horror series on Disney+. They’d have to rework a lot and recast a few roles, but I think it would work much better as a series. Even Boone’s original pitches read more like a Netflix series than a film.

- In the end, The New Mutants was a great idea to bring to screen, but due to A LOT of meddling, bad script writing, edits, etc - it just didn’t work out. It’s honestly really sad, especially for long time fans of the team/characters.

#the new mutants

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mondoholic · 5 years ago

Link

Josh Homme spoke to Kyuss World Radio about the 25th anniversary of KYUSS's final album, "…And The Circus Leaves Town". The Californian four-piece split three months following the LP's release, resulting in it being less critically and commercially successful when compared to the two KYUSS albums which helped birth the stoner rock movement — 1992's "Blues For The Red Sun" and 1994's "Welcome To Sky Valley".

"I'm not good at keeping memorabilia and I'm not too nostalgic because I guess it makes me feel a little sad sometimes," Josh said. "And I feel like there's such a huge pile of things to do. And sometimes I feel like when I look at a picture or something, I go, 'Man, it'll never be that. That's only where it was.' So I tend to focus forward.

"Hearing that [the album] is 25 years old, that makes me happy. It makes me a little bit proud that I got to do something that long ago, and I'm not dead yet. [Laughs]"

Asked if he had an inkling that "…And The Circus Leaves Town" would turn out to be KYUSS's swansong when he chose the LP title, Homme said: "I think the way Brant [Bjork, drums] left [after] 'Sky Valley' was a real shock, and it was very much like the rug being pulled out from under you. Because I didn't really understand [why he was leaving], and he was never able to make it really clear. Because I think it's difficult, too — when you're young like that, it's difficult to say, 'I need to go this direction.' When he left, he had our manager tell us that he was leaving, so we didn't really get to speak to Brant. And one of the things that he had said was, 'I think the band should be over.' And I really loved Brant. And I think that was a difficult moment to hear your friend was gone and he wasn't explaining why and that he thought it should be over.

"One aspect that I always agreed with is that bands, especially at that time, I was adamant that bands shouldn't go on too long," he continued. "At the time, I really felt like you do your best work, and when you realize you've done your best work, that's when you should explode the band — to preserve it is to destroy it; that you end [the band] at the absolute apex of your creativity as a group of people. And for me, personally, and I probably should have shared this, but in my gut, I was, like, 'We'll do one more record, and it'll be everything we have.' And so when I suggested that title, I think I knew that that was it, or I felt that it was coming to a close. It just felt very sort of Edgar Allan Poe, or it felt like 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', which is one of the [most] beautiful I've ever seen for a book. It's just got this beautiful ominous darkness to it. And so '…And The Circus Leaves Town' just felt timeless, and it's over, and you watch the exit on the horizon."

In March 2012, Homme and ex-KYUSS bassist Scott Reeder filed a federal lawsuit against Bjork and ex-KYUSS singer John Garcia over their involvement in the band KYUSS LIVES!, alleging "trademark infringement and consumer fraud." Five months later, a judge ruled that Garcia and Bjork could not release any recordings under the name KYUSS LIVES! and warned them that future concerts under the KYUSS LIVES! mark "might continue to subject them to liability for trademark infringement."

Asked if there is any scenario under which he would consider taking part in a KYUSS reunion of some kind, Homme told Kyuss World Radio: "My philosophy has always been, never do a reunion, never do a sequel. It's not what it was; it's what it is. And that's kind of how I've felt. A legacy that involves having been at the epicenter of a scene that got created, it's so fragile; it's like an ice sculpture. And I don't wanna be a blow dryer on that thing. That being said, I was in full support of KYUSS LIVES! and I would go to the shows and I told them as much, until what Brant and, unfortunately, what John tried to do. And that was terrible."

Elaborating on the breakdown of his relationship with Bjork and Garcia, Homme said: "All you have to do is show each other respect and say, 'Hey, we wanna do this, and we wanna talk about it.' Once Scott Reeder told me they were wanting to put out an album, I said, 'Let's sit down and talk.' So Scott and I went and talked to John and Brant. Sorry, it wasn't Brant — it was just John, because the band as it is, Brant had quit, so he wasn't part of that, what it was when it stopped, [which was] me and Scott and John. So I said, 'This is a discussion for me and you and John.' So I went and talked. And I said, 'We should find out a way for you guys to continue that's respectful.' You don't trample on what the legacy is and that you kind of let everyone understand what's going on moving forward. And the name they chose was a little unfortunate, 'cause it's actually literally saying KYUSS is alive again, which wasn't my favorite thing, but I was, like, 'Who cares?' But unbeknownst to me and Scott during that meeting, they'd already applied for a trademark to steal the name away. So I'm sitting there talking to these guys in good faith, and their managers, and they'd already applied, and you have, like, 20 days to object to the application. So the notion that I'm sitting there talking in good faith about how they could continue, and meanwhile, at that exact moment, in another room somewhere, they're applying to take the trademark for the name KYUSS so we wouldn't own it anymore, so John and Brant would own it. And so John had felt like he was robbing himself for something, and that's just not right — I don't play that way. And it also meant that they couldn't be trusted to be honest. 'Cause I'm sitting in a room, and instead of telling you that, it's like being stabbed in the back, essentially. There was no choice but to actually take action, because you can't sit down and say, 'Let's talk about this,' because now you told me that I may say something to you with my right hand, but my left hand might be stabbing you in the back. It's made it impossible to trust what was going on. And Scott and I both were, like, 'Jesus.' And it was only three people — me and John and Scott. It was, like, 'John, what are you doing? You are allowing you and Brant to take the name from you and me and Scott.'"

Homme continued: "I suppose at the end of the day, they didn't need a blessing [to play KYUSS music], but I was giving it to 'em. I want those guys to do well. And they were playing KYUSS music for a generation that had only heard of it and never heard it. I didn't see the harm in that. But trying to usurp it and take it away was just like dirty pool. The problem with all that stuff is that in a lawsuit or something like that, everyone loses; everyone looks bad. People that have loved KYUSS for so long go, 'Fuck these guys.' And that's terrible. That's why I say it's so fragile. That's why I say I've always wanted to err on the side of don't finger bang the ice sculpture; it's gonna break. If you don't touch it, it's just classic. But you don't punctuate the end of a band with a lawsuit. Those things are tragic, and they're awful. And then they lost, because, of course, you lose when you do things like that. But that damage is awful.

"But to be honest with you, and to answer your question, there have been times I thought it cannot end that way, and the only real way to end it correctly now would be to play," he explained. "And because they sort of perverted the punctuation and they knocked the wing off this beautiful dragon that's an ice sculpture, and the only way to put the motherfucking wing back on would be to [play again].

"I have thought about this, especially in the last few years, to do something special, and even to make up for that mistake of Brant and, unfortunately, John, to make up for it. [I thought we should] play and give all the money away. Like, play for the fans — cover your costs and make it five bucks. Figure out a way to be, like, this is how the punctuation will end the sentence of this band. Because it was never about money — it never was about money. It never was about fame, and when it felt like that was the move they were making, I was so sad."

After KYUSS split in 1995, Homme went on to form QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE.

In a May 2012 interview with RolllingStone.com, Bjork stated about Homme and Reeder's lawsuit, "They don't want to mention that they trademarked the name KYUSS after I left the band, assuring that I had no rights in KYUSS's future. They're both accusing John and I of doing something that they actually did themselves. Their inner conflict is this: both Josh and Scott want control and money from KYUSS LIVES!, but they don't want to participate and they ultimately don't want us to exist. The double standard is unbelievable."

He added, "Josh and I were the creative force within the band and after the completion of our second record, 'Blues For The Red Sun', we developed an opposing view on how the band should exist and operate. In 1992, Josh discovered publishing, which is the financial revenue stream for songwriting. After that, he wanted to write all the songs. As a drummer, I couldn't make him play my songs. I wasn't going to compromise my heart and soul and play drums for Josh to make money in a band I started. So I left the band. I was a confused, angry and sad 19-year-old idealist who sacrificed my love of my band for what I believed in. Two and a half years later, Josh would break up the band after John confronted him about the same thing; his need to control the band for personal gain."

#Josh Homme #Kyuss #QOTSA #Queens Of The Stone Age

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shadowsndaisies · 6 years ago

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Perfect [s.s]

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Pairing: x Stiles Stilinski

WC: 3559

Synopsis: A songfic, based off of Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”.

Warning: it’s cute, very cute and very fluffy.

I found a love for me

Darling just dive right in

And follow my lead

She was five when she moved to Beacon Hills. She moved in across the street from a home with a car that read "Sheriff" parked in the driveway. The people who lived in that home came out later to greet her and her family. She met the Sheriff, Noah, his wife, Claudia, and their son, a boy who preferred to go by Stiles. He seemed quirky even to another five year old, but he had this air of excitement that enticed the young girl like nothing before ever had.

Well I found a girl beautiful and sweet

Stiles Stilinski had limited experiences at the age of 5, yet he knew that the girl who moved in across the street was someone who was meant to be there. Stiles and the girl quickly became inseparable, the most mischievous duo in town, let alone their block. Nobody would know from first glance though, they would see a shy, anxious boy and the most caring little girl that they ever met. She was kind to each person she met, and that was something that stayed with her as she grew up. It was also something that carried the pair, strengthening their bond, and it was a special bond.

I never knew you were the someone waiting for me

When they were nine Stiles told her about his crush on their pretty strawberry blonde classmate, Lydia Martin, and she seemed happy for him. He'd been going through a tough time after losing his mom, but she was always there for him. It was strange because though he had a crush, the person who was in his mind the most was the girl from across the street. And while she may have smiled for him, her insides churned with an unknown feeling. What she did know, was that Stiles was important.

When she turned eleven she entered middle school, with Stiles and Scott, her best friends, by her side. She stuck with them, stuck with Stiles. Countless nights were spent in their households, in their yards. They would sit and watch the stars. Words weren’t always necessary despite how talkative the two could be. They would sit with the other and it was the most comfortable that the two had ever been.

When the girl turned twelve she began to understand why Stiles' crush on Lydia Martin bothered her. That unknown feeling was because she had a crush of her own, on the boy she had befriended years ago, the one who lived across the street.

'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love

Not knowing what it was

There's no real way to tell when they fell in love, though they realized it many years after the day they met. When they look back the only answer they can provide is that they were kids.

Their parents always knew they would end up together, that was clear. The small jokes they made, the looks they gave, and the comments that were said. It was in their parent's hearts as it was in their own that they were meant to be together in the end.

I will not give you up this time

They were fifteen when Josh, a boy from their class, asked (y/n) out. And much to her best friends surprise, she agreed. That Friday night she went bowling with Josh, and Stiles couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned but couldn't figure out why. His mind wandered to his best friend and whether or not she was enjoying herself, his hand reaching out to call her multiple times, but retracting at the last second. He found himself looking out his window often, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, it was only when the light went on in the room that belonged to his best friend did he finally fall asleep. After that night his views of the girl began to change because she was all he could think about.

But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own

And in your eyes, you're holding mine

Time seemed to stop as a few months after her first date, (y/n) found herself at a party. She along with many of her classmates sat around in a circle. Her best friend had been different lately, distant and extra fidgity. When things with Josh didn’t work out she had planned on having him around to distract her and he was, just not in the way she had hoped.

Her eyes, like everyone sitting with her, were glued to the spinning glass bottle located in the middle of their circle. It had landed on her first and now she waiting to see who she would have to kiss. Her breath hitched as the bottle slowed to a stop in front of him. The one person she wanted to kiss and yet was afraid to.

Stiles shared a similar look of nervousness as she leaned towards him. His heart raced as he watched the girl who meant the world to him, approach. His palms were sweating and his fingers tapping at the tiled floor, nerves skyrocketing. But, as her lips touched his, all of his problems seemed to dissipate. His heart seemed to slow and synchronize with hers. In the few seconds that their lips had been connected, their hearts had opened and were visible to the other, more than they ever had before.

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song

It was the summer before sophomore year when they went camping with a bunch of other kids from school. As it got later and later, more and more kids were turning in. Soon it was just the two of them. They were staring up at the stars the way they always had, together. There were no labels for what they were. All they knew was how they felt, and god did they feel. It was a full moon and the stars twinkled brightly above them, a small fire blazing off to their right.

They sat there stealing glances at each other, listening to the music coming from the speaker connected to Stiles' phone. As the song changed a smile came to her face as her favorite song began to play. Stiles shot up, nearly tripping over their previously discarded shoes before turning to stand in front of her, his cheeks pink.

"Dance with me," he breathed, holding out his hand.

He knew it was her favorite song, and well, she was his. She was the song he never wanted to forget, the only one he wanted to be stuck in his head. She was full of lyrics that belonged in sonnets, ballads and poems alike. She was beautiful and she was perfect.

The soft smile that graced her lips had Stiles swooning. She grabbed the hand he had offered as he pulled her to stand with him on the slightly damp grass.

When she looked up at him, she smiled again. His hands were a bit clammy and she could feel how fast his heart was racing but she felt like this was where she was meant to be.

When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath

But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight

"You're beautiful, you know that right?" he asked, his voice tight as he made his nervous confession, eyes darting down to her for just a second.

"I'm dancing in sweats and a flannel, Stiles. I have no makeup on and my hair is in the messiest bun," she sighed looking down towards their feet.

His grip tightened, both around her waist and against her hand, forcing her to look into his eyes just to find them staring straight back at her.

"You look perfect," he whispered, barely audible, but she heard him. His words came out so true as if they were the most honest words he had ever spoken.

As she stared into his eyes she saw the very thing she dreamed of, she saw nothing but love. She offered a shy smile as a blush spread up her neck, over her cheeks and to the tips of her ears. No one had ever stared at her the way Stiles did. She decided to rest her head against his chest, bringing them closer than before.

Well I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know

When they were sixteen, they were both pulled into the supernatural world, and they depended on the other to keep each other sane. She was also sixteen when her parents got a divorce. Placing more strain on the girl then she'd ever known, more then she knew how to handle. Often times at night these supernatural horrors haunted her dreams, spilling out in the form of tears and frustrated sleepless nights, during the day nobody would know, nobody could. She was human, but they never saw her as fragile, and she didn’t want them to. So, she’d smile, even if it wasn't real, she’d laugh but it was always forced. The only thing she had, was him. Stiles was the most real thing she had. Their love was the only thing holding her together. He was the only one picking up the pieces because he noticed every time another fell. He was the one who put her back together because he needed her just as much as she needed him.

She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I'll share her home

It was rare that she slept peacefully. Dreaming dreams, instead of nightmares and terrible memories, but when she did, it was because of him. He'd hold her as exhaustion overtook her body. Play with her hair, rub her hands or draw patterns on any showing skin. He'd just have to be there and she'd be okay. She’d be okay because he had her, and there was no one who made her feel safe, who made her feel at home the way Stiles is. How does the saying go? Home is where the heart is. Stiles was her home, and he was her heart. She had found a place to relax with someone who would protect her with everything he had, someone who she would protect with just as much.

I found a love, to carry more than just my secrets

To carry love, to carry children of our own

Living in Beacon Hills was dangerous, that was obvious. The older they got and the more they saw… it all seemed to pull at each shred of humanity and sanity within them. They had found the only solution; they stuck together, through everything. The losses of people they loved, the attacks, the pain, even the loss of each other. Yet, somehow they always managed to find each other again. They were half of the other’s heart, a lifeline that they needed at all times, a connection so strong, so full of love that it was the only stable thing in their messed up lives.

He shared everything with her, his hopes of going into law enforcement, to be just like his dad. His dreams of the future, the pain of the past, and fears of today. He knew that it all was tentative to change, just like he knew he had her, that he always wanted to have her. The girl he met when he was five. She had been wearing a pretty dress when she moved in across the street with her parents. She had twirled around, running up and down the lawn, a gleeful smile on her lips. He saw her then as he sees her now, the most amazing woman in the world, the strongest one he knew. The girl he knew he wanted to be able to settle down with, to have kids with, and she wanted it too.

We are still kids, but we're so in love

Fighting against all odds

When they were eighteen, Theo Raeken came back into their lives with his terrible plan to rip them all apart. He pulled the pack apart piece by piece, her family, leaving a devastating emptiness. His attempts were fruitful in every aspect except for them. He failed in every attempt when it came to Stiles and (y/n). The love they held for each other was too strong, even for him. Nothing could pull the two of them apart. They were stronger together, and they would win together, just like they always had.

I know we'll be alright this time

Darling, just hold my hand

He held her hand one night as they watched Star Wars at his house for the millionth time, thoughts racing through his mind. He watched as she would mouth the words to her favorite lines and react to each and every scene. He watched her and he knew that no matter what, they'd be okay because they had each other.

"You know I love you right?" he whispered in her ear, suddenly.

She turned her head to look up at him with a look so full of love, "never doubted it," she smiled softly before pressing her lips to his her hand gripping his and their fingers intangling together.

Be my girl, I'll be your man

I see my future in your eyes

They had just graduated when he asked her, they were with the pack, a small get together before everyone left. Of course, the two of them would both be attending schools in Washington, a mere hour away from the other.

He watched as she hugged Liam and Mason when they gave her graduation gifts and he realized that this was it. His hand dug into his pocket where he grabbed ahold of a velvet box, inside was the ring that had once been on his mother's hand. It seemed so heavy in his pocket, so heavy in his hand, but a look at her and suddenly he had all the strength he needed.

It was a promise, he remembered his mother’s words from that day in the hospital. The day she had slipped it off her hand and into his palm.

"The girl for you will be perfect, and you never know, maybe she's right in front of you," She had said softly as his father stood watching from the door frame of the hospital room. She was right, the girl from him grew up across the street. That girl grew up to be his best friend and the only person in the world who could both take his breath away and give it back.

He opened the box and grabbed the ring before walking over to her. He tapped her shoulder and sunk down on one knee, the ring visible in his hands. Everyone quieted, staring at the couple. Eyes watered, gasps were heard but not from her.

"Yes," she said instantly, there was no hesitation, no fear, just love.

“I didn’t even ask,” he gave an awkward chuckle as he stared into her eyes.

“You don’t have to,” she promised, the most contagious smile breaking out across her face. Her eyes were misty as she stared at him because this was what she wanted. This was all she had ever wanted, he was, and he always would be.

Everyone knew she was right, that he didn’t have to ask. Because they all knew that her answer would always be yes. Whether it was today, tomorrow or four years from now, her answer would always be yes.

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark, with you between my arms

Cheers erupted from everyone watching, hoots, and hollers all full of love and glee. Scott and Lydia the loudest, there were tears in their eyes as they watched their best friends. The two had suffered so much, lost so much but had each other. The alpha and the banshee knew it was coming, Stiles needed her, and she needed him. This was the couple that everyone had been rooting for from the very beginning. The pair that met when they were kids, that grew up together, that grew up in love. She was his girl, and he was her man, now and forever.

(Y/n) pulled Stiles up and he instantly enveloped her in his arms. The music started and her song played, her favorite. He began swaying the two of them as she held onto him because they had each other.

"You know I love you right?" she asked the smile still on her face.

"Never doubted it," he smiled back looking at the ring that seemed to fit perfectly on her hand, before kissing the top of her head.

Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song

When I saw you in that dress, looking so beautiful

They danced as their friends watched on, filming the emotional moment. He glanced down at her, taking in how absolutely stunning she was, the dress she was wearing seemed to highlight everything about her, a magnifying glass to show just how perfect she was. Her heels were off to the side, she had ditched them as soon as they had arrived and he had laughed because she was perfect. She was a vision of beauty, of heart, of love, and she was perfect.

I don't deserve this, darling, you look perfect tonight

"Darling, you look perfect tonight," Stiles whispered in her ear as they swayed.

They were still in Scott's backyard as the thoughts raced through his mind. He was still reeling from asking her, his heart still beating incredibly fast. She had said yes, it shouldn’t have been shocking but it still surprised him. She was incredible and he wasn’t sure that he deserved her or her love. She deserved the universe on a silver platter, so much more than what he thought of himself, but she chose him, and he knew that he could never love someone the way he loves her.

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark, with you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song

He was fiddling anxiously with his tie while his mind took him back to that first night when the two of them had danced under the stars. That night when they were sixteen and camping in the middle of the woods. Where she had been barefoot, wearing sweats and a flannel. Where he looked at her and saw the most beautiful creature in the world when he saw his world.

"C' mon man, breathe. This is (y/n), the girl you've been in love with since you were like five," Scott laughed fixing Stiles' tie for the fifth time in the past ten minutes.

Stiles was going to say something, probably something sarcastic, but his mouth went dry as the wedding march began to play. His body froze when the doors opened. Everyone stood up and Scott went back to his spot. Stiles’ eyes, like everyone else's, were trained on her and in an instant, all his nerves were gone. Just looking at her as she walked down the aisle, following her nieces who were throwing flower petals, he only felt his heart swell knowing that this was it, he was marrying her. He was marrying his best friend, his personal tether to the world, he was marrying the love of his life. And that was all he needed, she was.

I have faith in what I see

His breath hitched when she stopped in front of him. And she winked at him, a smiled of absolute adoration formed when he caught it. She always seemed to know exactly what to say or do to calm his nerves. When the Wedding Officiant began to speak the two of them couldn't hide their smiles or their absolute happiness as the ceremony officially began, because they did it, they had gotten the love of their lives.

Now I know I have met an angel in person

And she looks perfect

He would swear to anybody at any time that at that moment she never looked more like an angel. A stunningly gorgeous angel. Her dress was stunning and only seemed to compliment her beauty in the most amazing way. She had picked it with her bridesmaids; Lydia, Kira, and Malia, it fit her perfectly. The white gave a heavenly appeal causing her to look more angelic than ever and it was perfect.

I don't deserve this

As she gazed at the man standing in front of her, the love of her life. She tried to memorize each detail as he shared his vows. The only thing she could think about was how absolutely amazing he was, and how anybody who had him in their lives was incredibly lucky. That she was so incredibly lucky. Because she had gotten the guy, the one who loved her, even when she wasn’t sure what love was, the guy who had her back, always. She had gotten him and she was never going to let him go. What she didn't know is that he was thinking the same exact thing because she was the love of his life, his messed up, scary, werewolf filled life and she was all he wanted.

You look perfect tonight

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goodoldfashionedqueen · 6 years ago

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You’ll be the Lonely One: Chapter 6

Roger Taylor x Reader x Sam Kiszka

A/N: Sorry for the wait! I meant to post it last weekend but I got sick and wasn’t able to. Hope you enjoy!

Masterlist

Warnings: Some swearing

The days that followed your first date with Sam were like a dream. They consisted of going to Smith’s as often as possible, as it had become your favourite restaurant (and not just because of the food). You went to watch Greta Van Fleet perform one night, cheering Sam on from backstage. You loved their music and decided that Edge of Darkness and Age of Man were your favourite songs.

Josh, Danny, and Jake had grown rather fond of you, mostly because they loved the fact that they could tease Sam about you. But your relationship with them was very similar to the way you were with Brian, Freddie, and Deaky. Playful and fun at times, but sometimes you would have to assist Danny in breaking up the brothers from a fight.

…

“What do know about vocals anyways JAKE.” Josh said holding his tambourine on his hip, making clinking noises whenever he moved.

“I’m just saying, when you change the lyrics when we perform live, it messes me up. Especially during-” Jake paused. “and I cannot stress this enough, during the bridge.” He was fumbling with the strings of his guitar not looking at Josh while he spoke.

Sam and you were sitting on the couch in the back of the studio, watching all of the drama unfold. His arm was draped across your shoulder, and your hand was rested on his thigh.

Josh gawked his mouth open looking back and forth from you to Sam.

“Sam!” He whined as he walked over towards the two of you. “Please tell Jake he is being way too dramatic.”

“Well-” Sam began to say.

“MY GOD.” Josh yelled. “Y/N?” He looked at you with intense eyes.

“Josh, maybe you should-“ He cut you off.

“GAHH” He exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air. “If I’m on my own here then fine, but I don’t see a problem. He turned on his heels and began to walk out of the room.

“I could share my opinion if you want.” Danny said quietly from his drum kit.

“No, but thank you Daniel, I already know what your going to say.” Josh said storming out the door.

“Well, that was amusing.” You gave out a small laugh.

“Josh is not one to go down easy.” Jake spoke getting up and setting his guitar down. “I’m going after him.”

“Not without me, you’re not.” Danny said almost tripping over his drums.

The two of them followed Josh leaving you and Sam alone in the studio.

Sam began to tap his fingers on the side of your shoulder his arm still around you.

“So, what should we do now.” He innocently said.

Rolling your eyes you began to move closer to him.

“I.”

Moving closer.

“Think you.”

Closer.

“Should.”

You were inches away from his face.

“Teach me how to play bass!” You said abruptly standing up, then running over to where Sam’s Bass Guitar was standing.

Picking up the guitar by it’s neck you pulled the strap up and around your head, so it was resting on one of your shoulders. Placing your fingers on the strings you looked up at Sam with a smile on your face.

“So how do I do this?” You asked moving your fingers up the strings.

Sam laughed at you. “It’s not that easy you know.”

“It can’t be that difficult, you can do it.” You teased.

��Wow. So that’s how it is then.” He said placing a hand over his heart.

“Come on!” You said skipping towards him with the guitar.

He didn’t say anything for a moment and just looked you up and down.

You saw him doing it.

“What?” You asked.

“Nothing.” He gave you a smile. “Come here.” He gestured with his hands for you to sit between his legs on the couch.

You squinted your eyes at him, confused as to why he wanted you to sit between his legs.

“It’s so I can help you with your fingers. Makes it much easier if I can get behind you.” He gestured again.

“That’s what she said.” You laughed at your own joke.

“Jesus Christ Y/N. Just get over here.” He said patting the seat.

You walked in front of him and turned around, slowly sitting down on the small space of the couch he had made for you. When you were seated, he leaned forward sticking one of his arms between your waist and your arm so he could grab the neck of the guitar. The touch of his arm on your waist made the hairs on the back of your arm stand up. His other arm was around your other arm as he placed his fingers on the strings. He tucked his head in-between the crook of your shoulder, and he leaned forward so his chest was now touching your back. You could feel the quick pace of his heartbeat.

“Is it hard?” You asked him.

“What?!” He leaned back away from you misunderstanding your question.

You looked at him with confused eyes.

“The guitar.” You stated.

“Oh shit, right. Uh yeah sort of.” He leaned back in to you this time placing his left hand over yours showing you what strings to push down on.

“This one goes here.” He said pushing down on your pointer finger. “And this one here.”

You looked up at him. He was biting his lip in concentration.

“You certainly can’t play guitar if you’re looking at me.” He said noticing you.

You didn’t stop looking at him, but he began to move your fingers again.

“Ok great. Now don’t move, your fingers are in the perfect spot.” He moved his head so it was on your other shoulder, grabbing your other hand to start to strum.

“All you have to do now is this.” He started moving your hand down to pluck the strings. “Yes! That’s perfect!”

He looked so excited about the fact that you were playing the bass (even if it was really him doing all the work)

His stupid little smile made your heart flutter.

“Sam.” You said under your breath.

“Yeah.” He looked up from the guitar at you.

You leaned back and kissed him, grabbing the side of his face with one hand.

Pulling away he looked a little stunned, as if he hadn’t expected you to do that in the moment.

“What was that for?” He asked.

“Do I need a reason?”

“No, I guess not.” He laughed.

You went to kiss him again, but he pulled back.

“What about your guitar lesson?”

“Don’t think I’m very good, so I’ve changed my mind.” You took the guitar strap off and set the bass down on the floor.

“Well you really did try.” He said sarcastically.

“Shut up.” You kissed him again and this time he didn’t pull away.

…

Things were great. You had never been this happy in your whole life.

You had yet to introduce the boys (of Greta Van Fleet) to your other boys (of Queen). You knew Brian and Deaky would get along with Danny, as they could have some very intelligent conversations together. Jake reminded you of Roger, but you felt as if their personalities would clash . Josh and Freddie would be a real dynamic duo together, and you were desperate for them to meet. However, at the same time you weren’t sure if you were ready to mix those two sides of your life together. At least not just yet. You weren’t even sure how much longer you and Queen would be in town for. You also had to consider your circumstance with Roger.

Roger.

You hadn’t spoken to him too much to be honest. He had kept his distance from you at Queen’s show a few days ago, finding a girl as quickly as possible at every after party.

You missed him. Even if things with Roger were complicated, you felt as if a piece was missing from your life, due to his absence.

You weren’t sure how to have both Roger and Sam in your life, because they most certainly couldn’t be in the same room together. Well at least Roger couldn’t.

You and Sam haven’t made anything official. After all it had you had only known him for a week, that was one of your many doubts. You’d yet to discuss the fact that Queen could be packing up to leave to another city at any moment.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want to be with Sam, you just felt like you need to figure some things out before moving forward.

All of this had been eating away at you. You found yourself constantly daydreaming about what decisions you needed to make. Freddie had begun to notice a change in you attitude, deciding he needed to take you out for breakfast so you could catch up.

“Freddie, I need to ask you something.” You said taking a bite of the toast you were eating.

“Alright. Ask away.” He said sipping his tea.

“How has Roger been?”

He paused and set his tea down on the table.

“Do you want to know the truth?” He sat back in his chair.

“Of course.” You nodded you head.

“Right.” He looked at you pausing again for a moment. “He’s been a bit weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Well, he’s been drinking way more than usual, and he has loads of women over all the time.” Freddie

“That sounds pretty normal to me Fred.” You said taking another bite of your toast, annoyed by the fact that Roger was sleeping with a ton of women.

Freddie shook his head and hands at the same time. “ No, No. This is a lot Y/N, even for Roger.” Freddie changed the tone in his voice. “Something has seriously fucked him up.”

You looked away from Freddie and down at the floor.

Was it you who had caused Roger to feel this way? Maybe it was something else?

“Fuck me.” You breathed out.

“No thanks.” Freddie remarked.

“Fred.” You said looking at him with stern eyes.

You had to go see him.

You had to go figure out what his problem was.

Maybe it would help you figure some things out.

Grabbing your coat you scooted out of your chair.

“Where are you going?” Freddie asked almost spilling his tea.

“To see Roger.” You put your coat on.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea my dear?”

“No.” You said unsurely. “But I have to. I’ll see you later ok Fred?”

“Yes you’ll tell me all about your rendezvous with Roger. Oh and I have some news about the tour.” He said raising his teacup at you.

“ Alright just tell me later. Bye Freddie.” You walked out of the restaurant back to your Hotel.

You turned around several times, doubting your decision to go find Roger at the hotel. But eventually you found yourself in front of his room.

For a good 5 minutes you just stood with your hand raised against the door ready to knock.

Just as you built up the courage to knock. The door burst open.

A woman in stilettos with long blonde hair, came stumbling out the door, almost knocking you over.

“Fuck!” She yelled not expected to run into someone.

“What’s the matter?” Roger walked over to the door looking first at the woman, then at you.

“Y/N! What are you doing here?” He said nervously running his hands through his hair.

“I’m-I-I just wanted to.” You found yourself lost for words.

“100 bucks.” The woman in stilettos stated clicking her tongue as she raised her hand out to Roger.

“For one night?!” Roger said looking stunned at the woman.

She didn’t say anything, just gestured her fingers at Roger to give her the money.

“Fine.” He gave her two 50 dollar bills, giving her a forced smile while he was doing it.

“Thanks hun, I had a great time.” The woman said before giving him a kiss on the cheek, and walking towards the elevator.

Roger looked back at you, his eyes wide with embarrassment.

“Classy.” Was all you said, making an O.K. sign with your fingers.

He laughed. The smile quickly fading from his face.

“So? How can I help.” He asked leaning one arm on the door frame.

“I just wanted to check up.”

“On what?”

“You.” You said biting the inside of your mouth.

“Right.” Roger nodded his head.

“Can I come in? I think we need to talk.” You pointed at the door.

He looked in his room, then back at you.

“Course.” He moved his arm to let you through the door, not moving the rest of his body, so you had to squeeze past him to get through.

He had a smirk on his face the whole time, shutting the door once you had gotten past him.

His room was a mess. Beer bottles were scattered across the floor and his bed, which was unmade with the sheets thrown onto the floor. Which made it quite obvious what he was doing before you had gotten there. The curtains were drawn shut, and the only light was coming from a bedside table lamp.

You turned around to say something to Roger. Bumping into him, as he was standing much closer than you thought.

“So love, what’d you want to ask me?”

Taglist: @richiethotzierz @wazzockbra @grapesarepurple @zcars777 @smile-nine @allons-ytomyworld @fruityfreddie @cherrrywitch @jennyggggrrr @blueandsunny-morn @sydthekid41002 @yeehawcalum @reallooney @littlegeekwonder @cosmoeticss @spngvf @sweetdayme4427 @diggrycedric @rhyeseas @gwilsbri @lesbianfairiesweardocs @highwaytvne @bloominess @hargreevesgrace @reddiefreddieee

Some tags aren’t working and I’m not sure why.

#you'll be the lonely one #roger taylor #roger taylor x reader #sam kiszka #sam kiszka x reader #Queen #queen fanfiction #Greta Van Fleet #greta van fleet fanfic

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nightowley · 6 years ago

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Discussing Larry’s departure from the Durrells house, actor Josh O’Connor commented: “From the beginning, it’s been clear that it was Larry’s idea to come to Corfu. In my opinion, that’s him desperately trying to reach out and move away from family life.

“In this series, we find him again in that situation of feeling conflicted between a responsibility to be the father figure of the family and also wanting to go out and experience life. He comes to the conclusion that he needs to pursue his writing and can’t just stay in the house anymore. He’s in a bit of a torn position.”

The Durrells writer Simon Nye has revealed that there was another reason for Larry to feature less in Season 4 – Josh O’Connor was off filming the new season of The Crown!

Nye said: “Larry was becoming too old to be living at home, indeed he only stayed intermittently at the Durrells’ home in Corfu, a fact which we have reflected in this last series – and not just because Josh O’Connor was concurrently busy being The Crown’s Prince Charles at various locations around Britain.”

Well, I thought the first episode sucked, and Larry suddenly deciding to leave, without any warning, didn’t make it better. Especially since he’d done it before. Probably not the writer’s fault, maybe he learnt late that Josh would be otherwise occupied. (They certainly forgot to mention Josh being busy before the episode aired. And what is he saying about Larry being the father figure? Needs to watch his own show sometime.) But that wasn’t the only weak point in the episode either.

The whole Louisa/Spiro thing doesn’t interest me in the least and continuing with it is so depressing. Don’t they get that he’s married? What’s with Louisa never running into the wife/kids when Leslie can randomly spot Daphne in what must be a pretty small place? Does Spiro keep them locked up? Let me guess, Louisa will finally see Spiro with them and realise what she already should’ve known ages ago. It’s not like I’ve got anything against divorces etc. but does it even remotely look like Spiro would do it? And joking about the wife having to die? Well, it’s a show with humour, so maybe some fans laughed. (How many would if we could see things from Spiro’s wife’s pov?)

Anyhow, humour is tricky, and combining it with serious stuff even trickier. I thought they failed in the episode where Sven (won’t we see him at all?) was arrested and this time the story of the trigger-happy lover-boy was kind of weird, as was Louisa’s changing attitude. Bad writing there. And haven’t they had fugitives before? The Italian family. Lol, and of course Theo knew some people who knew people this time too... Me thinks the writer has simply ran out of ideas.

Why is cousin Basil suddenly obnoxious? I remember him as a slightly awkward but well-meaning man. And why does it say that he will propose to Louisa in episode two!? The superintendent has had a personality change too. Probably meant to make Spiro look better, which it doesn’t. I wish they’d given Louisa a new love interest instead of old boring ones. Also, what she said to Mr Fugitive about her being able to talk to Spiro in a way she can’t even with Larry is horseshit. Of course the writer must know it, having written all those lovely lines for Louisa and Larry, but now that there’s going to be less of him, maybe Spiro will become the replacement.

What else? Gerry has turned into a Harry Potter what with the owl. Milo’s voice even reminds me a bit of Daniel Radcliffe’s. It’s kind of hard to get interested in his zoo dreams knowing that they’ll be leaving Corfu. Margo’s beauty thing was clumsy, making it look like she’s regressing instead of moving towards something new. Nothing wrong with being a beautician or whatever but could she actually be so stupid that she thought she could cut hair just like that? And dying that sheep, well, I don’t think even the actors thought it was particularly cute or funny. Leslie’s worst moment came when they were trying to help Mr Fugitive down (putting him in a room with no easy way out was such a clever idea). Surely someone like him could’ve arranged the whole thing much better or been able to throw a rope properly at least?

Those two ladies of Larry’s, or I had thought they'd be with him, were there to wear not much anything, and judging by that one clip, will wear even less in future. By all means, but I trust there’s a story for them other than “this show needs pretty young women wearing very little” to look forward to. Maybe it’s a good thing Larry won’t be there, seems like the only thing for him was to yell about writing and be OTT about politics. Add two more ladies, and it’s a hattrick of his most common activities in the show. Though I will miss his and Louisa’s conversations.

#Josh O'Connor #The Durrells

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loghainmactir · 6 years ago

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hewwo! i was wondering if u could pls give me some advice on starting my transition? ive been so scared to start bc of family and costs but ive decided to just. do it. yknow? like if i don't ill probably die lol. u look amazing and rly confident in yourself in all ur selfies and one day i wanna be Like That ✌️❤️

hi! ok, so first of all: yeah, i absolutely can give u advice, and second of all: i remember feeling exactly like you did. it literally wasn’t that long ago, either, it was like. 2013/14/15 (i can’t remember, time is fake, whatever lmao!). third of all: bless u yr so sweet. i still have a lotta issues with confidence (i doubt myself, my talent and what i can do literally hourly), but honestly? i love my body right now. it’s a good, genderless body, goddamnit.

long, long post ahead bc i’m trying to think of things i did and good god please take it with a grain of salt because a lot of this is just me ranting about things i wish I’D done in my own position. i’m also coming from a place where HRT and surgeries AREN’T free, so that’s also A Thing. everyone’s experience is different.

transitioning (particularly medically) really super fuckin varies country by country (and honestly probably even state by state, age by age and fuckin gender by gender because cis people won’t let us fucking BE goddamn): i don’t know where you are, so my only tips there r: find a trans friendly doctor/endo (i was kinda forced to go through a hospital bc That Was How It Was here in good ol’ Australia), and one people wholeheartedly recommend, if you wanna go that route.

my first point is make sure you find safe spaces in every goddamn aspect of your transition. medically, socially, physically. if you think your doctor is refusing you treatment or is discriminating against you, you NEED to ditch that doctor. if your friends and family are really verbally or physically violent against LGBT folks, you NEED to leave that space if you can (or not come out and wait until you can leave. seriously. i’m kinda lucky– my grandma was verbally violent against LGBT folks, and initially my mum was skepitcal, but i convinced them both to go to a group for LGBT+ parents and friends and they slowly turned around). get yourself friends, get yourself allies.

i cannot stress that enough. my first doctor refused to send my referral letter to the royal children’s hospital gender clinic because even tho he presented as a “nice” guy, he believed that because this was “”””out of the blue”””” for me, he figured he’d just Not Send It (and tried to tell me that a lotta kids there didn’t actually helpo, lol). so there i was, a young 15-16 year old alister, waiting like 2-3 months for something that didn’t even get fucking sent.

join trans groups on facebook and in real life. seriously, they’re a godsend; there’s buy-and-sells, advice posts, encouragement posts. ESPECIALLY local ones. most of them on facebook are private, meaning no one can see if you’re posting/in the group, and it’s easy to check if they’re not. these fb pages + local groups are good ways to find trans friendly spaces and doctors. i found my current doctor, who’s actually one of the very few doctors who knows what the fuck he’s on about re: trans people, through a real life trans group. they were like “oh, you should see x”, and even though he’s about 30-40 minutes away from me, he’s brilliant and honestly saved my life.

along those lines: figure out what you want from your transition, and then realize & accept that this may change (and it also may not change!). very early on, i was super insistent that i wanted phalloplasty and to wear packers, and now i couldn’t care less. at first, i identified as agender, and then as a trans guy/ftm, and now i identify as a Black Hole (i’m kidding, don’t @ me). like, a lotta people DON’T change their minds. but i did, some people do, and it shouldn’t be anyone’s business but your own what you want to do with your body

(sidenote: this also goes for detransitioning or stopping medical transition but continuing to socially transition/present differently. literally, it’s fine. it’s your body. fuck anyone who says otherwise.)

again: FUCK ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE.

your body is literally your body. do NOT let anyone tell you what to do with it or who you are. i had people very early on scream at me (legitimately scream and throw me out of home, thanks grandma), tell me i wasn’t actually trans, and harrass me for this shit: but frankly, if i’d put myself back in the closet, i wouldn’t be alive right now. i would’ve killed myself years ago, and i wish i wasn’t kidding. if it’s safe, you need to stand up for your own body and your rights and put yourself somewhere that will allow you to follow through. you need to keep going and keep living.

my only other two pieces of advice are “patience, baby”– like, for real, every single part of transition takes time. this varies from where you are and who’s supporting you, but it’s generally true. it takes time for people to accept new names and pronouns

(lotta people get furious about this, and i used to be one of those people, but hindsight’s a bitch and you gotta realize that… like, it’s hard for some cis people. you gotta give them a little bit of wiggle room, especially if they’ve never ever met a trans person before. it’s about reminders, reminders, reminders: which is SO hard if you’re not safe/don’t have the confidence. there IS a flip side to this though: if chad and stacey have known your new pronouns for months, now, and they keep “””slipping””” up, they’re not slipping up, honey. they’re doing it on purpose. kick their teeth in i’m kidding please don’t do this you know what i mean.)

it takes time for HRT to kick in. it takes time to gather a Look™ of your own you like, it takes time to build confidence to even tell people, it takes time to save up money for surgeries and it just… takes time. sometimes because it’s a naturally slow process, sometimes because cis people are Cis People and like to gatekeep. i remember being very young in my transition, sitting in the car after one of my appointments with the afformentioned shithead doctor bawling my eyes out because he’d told me i wouldn’t be able to access t for x amount of time and it was bullshit. this year i’ll be 2 years on t. wild, huh? there’s a lot of us and not equal amounts of resources (ESPECIALLY in public systems) depending on where you are, so you gotta be prepared to WAIT.

i’ll tell you what super helped me through those years: hyping myself up for other things! i still have the ticket from my first twenty one pilots show. that show meant SO much to me. i cried all through it, because waiting for that show kept my mind off of the wait for my royal children’s appointments (and even waiting to go up to melbourne bc my mum and i would go and get kebabs was a good thing to focus on!). keep things that aren’t trans related on hand (seriously i struggled with this because dysphoria and shit is fucking hard!! it’s easy to say but really fucking hard to put into practice).

(one day i’m gonna tell tyler and josh just how much they saved my goddamn life. i know they hear it weekly, but i will.)

my other thing is that uh. it won’t solve all your problems especially if you’ve got mental illnesses. this is a really fuckin depressing thing i had to drill into my brain, but it really helped. transitioning solved SO many of my issues. i no longer have back issues (thanks, like, literal kilo titties, lmao), i no longer have sore ribs and i can breathe and wear shirts. i lost so much weight (and am kinda gaining it back, but whatever). i no longer have anxiety about whether people can tell i’m binding– which is WILD because i used to stress the fuck out about it to the point where i never went out anywhere. i used to sit on the bus wondering if the person next to me could tell i had titties. now it literally doesn’t even register.

my issues now stem from PTSD, depression, BPD and ADHD. how do you fix this? you don’t. but what HAS helped is finding a therapist who won’t pressure you into talking about trans shit. lemme tell you: this shit gets exhausting after the fifth time of “oh i googled ‘can you become a boy’ when i was, like, nine” (this is my go to story because this memory is so vivid). of course, there’s gonna be moments where you HAVE to: my therapist recently actively asked me to briefly run through it for my PTSD report. but otherwise we literally haven’t talked about it and that is a GODSEND (because i don’t need it. if you need it, that’s good, too!). having a therapist that you can just wordvomit at wrt anything is literally the best thing and can be super helpful– seriously, there were a few trans-related sessions where i just snarled about the bullshit gatekeeping and the bastard i had to see for my therapist letter (oooh, every time i think abt the fact that it was something like $400-500 for two fucking sessions i get so mad lol), but outta 14 it’s really only like 2-3 of them.

but yeah. that’s it. i dunno, these are things that i’ve learnt and sorta… like to think as helpful for myself. of course, this could be different for you: you’re not me, you’re entirely different, in no doubt an entirely different country, social, financial, mental state. i was FUCKED UP when i first came out. i didn’t know that then, but i do now. i spent a lotta time by myself and that’s not healthy, so i really encourage you to reach out to our community, local and worldly, because oh my god, we’re here for you. we are SO here for you.

#long post #sorry if you need this formatted for ease of reading please shout at me. i really word vomited all over this #my transition #trans #anon #asks #iodk what else to tag this as

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osterfeelinit-blog · 6 years ago

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Tainted Vision - 1

Mob!Boss Tom x Y/N

Part one.

Sitting behind the dark cherry desk was surreal, you remembered sitting behind it as a child coloring princess coloring books as your dad talked to people on the phone. At the time you never understood what your dad did, you thought he was just a big important business man. A child’s mere hopes honestly, you figured it out on your own as you went. Your mother running off because it was too much, always getting cards near your birthday and christmas. You knew your dad supported her and still loved her but you also knew you were the only child. Making your father show you everything he could about the empire he had helped build to its current capacity.

Taking a deep breath you focused your attention to the man in front of you. He wanted a deal, for you to marry his son who would be taking over his mob soon. The acrylic nails finding the pattern to the beat you had in your head, the man gulped and continued. You noticed the attitude change in him as he realized you weren’t listening. You felt your fathers eyes on you, he would still be here for another month to make sure you had everything you needed before he officially went off the grid.

“Listen, Mark… as much as it sounds like a fool proof plan. Theres just so many flaws, like the fact that you tried to kill me last year. Or two weeks ago when I bloodied up your right hand man… His name was Josh right? Ratted you right out, should get a new man honestly.” You licked your teeth and sat back in the chair. The man before you stared at you with dead eyes, you could easily see he had no idea you knew anything. “So, are we going to have a problem soon Mark? I hope not, you can leave and I won’t be marrying your shit ass son either.” You smirked and waved good-bye as he clambered up and looked at your father.

“You’re making a lot of enemies already y/n” Your father warned getting up from his seat near the window and pouring himself a drink.

“We discussed this dad, I’m waiting for Holland to reach out. He’s the only one worth the time right now.” You said standing up. Your black heels clicking as you make your way to him and grabbing his drink before he could take a sip making him scowl at you. “Listen, if he doesn’t reach out by tonight I’ll look into Robert or Nathan okay?”

He reached back out for his drink from your hand and took his seat again, “Listen we’ve been feuding with the Hollands for years. They’re the enemy, what makes you think Tom would wanna align with you? He grew up in this the same as you, knows the stories of you and of me. Theres bad blood between us families. A shitty arrangement of assisting each other isn’t worth his time.”

You fixed your skirt and kept your eyes on your father as he spoke, being his only heir meant it was up to you now. You were burning some bridges he had tried to fix, but you couldn’t help it. Some of these men deserved the pain and anguish they were getting. “Dad, if Tom even thinks about it we win. I saved his life by telling him to leave remember? He owes me a talk at the most.” You had a point, you never had to tell Tom about the shooting that was about to happen. Your father sighed knowing that was true, but he also knew his relationship with Tom’s father was horrible and it had only gotten worse from prior generations.

“Listen, I know you’re doing all of this to get back for the death of Jack but is it worth it?” Your dad put his drink down and grabbed your hands in his.

Jack was a long forgotten name by now. Dying at the young age of 18 he never got the chance to prove his worth to anyone. A former mob boss son that you were arranged to marry once you turned 18, you were three months from that day when the tragedy happened. He was dumb and reckless, never getting back-up, always showing off. You had told him better than that, but he never listened.

“Listen to me Jack, you need back up. Bring your fathers brigade. He has it for a reason.” You mumbled to him as he was leaving for meeting. You grew up living in fear, always having your fathers men for you in times when you seemed dumb but you never regretted it.

“I’ll be fine, stop worrying. No one is going to hurt me, I’m untouchable.” He said with a smug smirk and poked you in the cheek. “Trust me babe. I’ll be back tonight and you can tell me everything you did.”

It was later that day when you were out with your dad, open fire took over the road. Your dad hid you in the back on the car as he pulled out his gun. You saw him look and saw him go pale before looking back at you. He stopped the car and stepped out of the car, you peeked up and looked outside as well. The men halted as he stepped out and put his gun up for them to see, they were a friendly house of ours. Thats when you saw it, the same stupid red leather jacket you hated on the pavement.

Jumping over the backseat you ran out of the car past your father seeing him on the ground. Jack. Your heart stopped and you reached him, you let out a sob before you could stop yourself you were on the pavement covered in his blood. It was everywhere, you knew he was gone. You were never dumb and you knew better than to try anything. Your father was shielding you, his men watching as your attempted to grieve in public over the man you were supposed to marry in months time.

You remember the blood that followed you forever. It made you ruthless, you never knew who called the hit on him and your father continuously said he wasn’t sure who made that call. You knew by now that the files were gone, burned, never to be recovered. You felt your head spin back to normal and looked at your hands, you still felt that you could feel blood on them even though the murder was three years ago now.

#tomholland #tom holland #Mob boss #@Mob!bossTomHolland #Fanfiction #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland mobster #tom holland mob au #tom holland x reader

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medu-nefer · 7 years ago

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Keith’s obsession with Lotor - clone!Shiro?

I get it that most likely nobody will ever read this and if someone does (and if they do, I’m sorry for the talkiness and lack of cohesion), they’ll be like “oh my goodness, what an idiot wrote that”, BUT I’m writing a lil VLD fic (okay, okay, it may be Sheith, not VLD, but bear with me) and I’ve been rewatching some VLD episodes (no order of subsequent eps whatsoever and perhaps that’s to blame) to get myself the vibes or something, AND my brain obviously had to be like “let’s not focus on our studies, let’s mess with Voltron instead!”... Hell yeah, I guess. So I need to vent a bit and none of my friends effing cares.

(The actual point of this post begins with “ So, now to the actual thing I wanted to talk about.” in bold - that’s where Keith’s part comes up. Before that, it’s mostly rambling and wondeing about the possibility of Shiro being a clone.)

So, there was a time when I couldn’t sleep because I was bothered by Lotor’s age and stuff. It was like four months ago, some time after I’d started watching VLD (needed some new subjects to talk with a new friend and since she had watched it, I thought I’d give it a go, watch one or two eps and hope for some new subject to come up, cause man, me and space? Nope, nuh-uh, no way José. Huh, guess it escalated pretty quickly.) but I’ve come up with a kinda plausible explanation for that, so I let it go. But then again, there was also the very first VLD theory I had, about Shiro being a clone. Yeah, that old shit, sorry.

Anyway, aside from the fact that he saw his another self on an operating table, I literally got an impression he was talking in a different manner. Maybe it’s just my terrible memory or I’m looking for something where there’s nothing but whatevs, that’s just what I felt. He generally felt different to me, like something really was off. There’s the fact that Kurōn means “clone” in Japanese (Josh Keaton insisted on saying it could mean something else in Galran, but then again in space everyone knows English, a language that was created long after some of the main characters were born, on a planet no one knew before the new Paladins emerged, so I guess the Galran meaning is moot), and his memory of being called “subject Y0XT39″, and the Galra in the room where he woke up, who had the chameleon-like abilitiy, much like Ezor’s, and disappeared when Shiro proved to be functional (and no, it’s not Ulaz, I checked it a few times). And, of course, there’s Keith’s weird reaction to finding the most important person in his life (cause that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You don’t have to be a sucker for Sheith to see that they’re closer than anyone else on the team.). He had trouble functioning without Shiro (bursting during an official political meeting, refusing to let go of his search, staring blankly at the Black Lion, etc.) and all we get after he had found him months later is a small, kinda distant smile? Nope, I’m not buying it.

(There was one more thing I was trying to figure out but gave up on. In short, I noticed that the first Shiro we met (except for the pre-capture one) was kicked out of Black’s cockpit by Zarkon (and later swallowed by that black sludge created by Haggar, which I honestly really worried about, ‘cause it all could’ve started even earlier), and our latest Shiro - up until a certain point - had no connection with the Lion. But then there was the middle Shiro who could easily pilot the Black Lion and kinda ruined that train of thought. But one more thing about that, I think the first Shiro (again, not the pre-capture one ‘cause it’s obvious) wasn’t a clone, since he had Ulaz’s help in getting away from the Galra - without the Blade’s doing, he wouldn’t have escaped. But that’s waaay beyond the point, so don’t mind that at all.)

So, now to the actual thing I wanted to talk about. Keith suddenly became obsessed with Lotor. With no apparent reason, honestly. He was desperate for his team to catch the Prince, then he bent to Shiro’s decision to get to their Lions - except he meant the others to get to them while he himself got his hands on Lotor (”Tailing a Comet”), then of course the Blades’ intel indicating Lotor’s whereabouts and Keith’s burning need to get him, even though it wasn’t the first and only priority anymore (since “Code of Honor”). Sure, there was Acxa and their old meeting, and the fact that Lotor was the new leader of the Galra Empire, and since he wasn’t Zarkon, he might have been seen as easier to defeat. But for me it still doesn’t explain Keith’s mania. So what if he immediately knew that the Shiro they rescued was a clone? (Perhaps he knew right away when he looked at him in that Galra fighter, or after that talk in Shiro’s room. It doesn’t matter when he figured out - he just did.) Since Shiro was the Black Paladin of Voltron, not just anybody could get access to him, right? It had to be entrusted to someone high in hierarchy. So perhaps Keith figured that Lotor, as the new emperor, had the knowledge of the real Shiro’s whereabouts? We know that the Prince never knew but for Keith it must’ve been a very realistic option. So the logic is, if he could get Lotor, he would find Shiro. And since the clone seemed to work for Voltron, he didn’t tell anyone else, taking full responsibility to find his friend on his own. Because he needed him. We’ve already seen to what lengths he was willing to go to ensure Shiro’s safety. So there.

Another thing that came to my mind today is that perhaps the Galra thought that other than Shiro’s character, the clone needed only the most basic information about his actual self, and thus ignored (at least vastly) his past relationships. Therefore, his and Keith’s relationship - whatever it might have been; romance, pining, bromance, just some regular friendship, something - could end up with a breach. Because it’s obvious they weren’t that close anymore. There was tension and misunderstanding, and the occasional attempt at trying to dominate the other one. They were drifting away because Keith had a Lion he didn’t want and Shiro couldn’t pilot it, whereas their bond survived an unknown amount of time in the Garrison and over a year of Shiro’s absence - and didn’t seem to be damaged, too.

Perhaps Keith didn’t want the clone to feel bad and so kept acting as if he believed he was the real Shiro, while internally not wanting to replace his friend, even temporarily - so when they talked one-on-one, he was gentle and quite sincere, in reality he didn’t grow any closer to him.

...All right, I’m done now. If there’s anyone who actually read it and wants to discuss it, or to show me how much of a stupid idiot I am, please do so! I’m kinda into making friends (at least acquaintances?) through internet, ‘cause I’m a weirdo and can’t quite make friends in real life.

And sorry for my English, it’s not my mother tongue and I haven’t had an English class in eight months, so I’m afraid it’s kinda rusty. I wanna start studying it next year but we’ll see how it goes. For now it kinda sucks, sorry.

Have a wonderful day/evening/night!

#voltron legendary defender theory #vld theories #keith (voltron)#voltron shiro #clone!shiro #prince lotor #voltron lotor #voltron #vld #my shenanigans

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior Home and Drive-In Edition July 24, 2020: THE RENTAL, MOST WANTED, YES GOD YES, AMULET, RETALIATION and more

Are we all having fun yet? Does the fun ever truly begin when you’re in the middle of a pandemic, and no one can seem to figure out how to get out of it? While I love New York’s Governor Cuomo and the amazing job he did getting us through the worst of it, he just doesn’t seem to know how to get movie theaters reopened, nor does he seem to care. I mean, they’ve had four months now to figure this out and New York City is already in Phase 4 (which was supposed to be the last phase of the reopening). It’s a real shame, because this has been a ridiculously hot summer and with none of the “cooling centers” from past summers being possible, it is brutal out there. Fortunately, there are a few decent movies this week to watch at home and some in the drive-ins that are popping up all over the country.

I gotta say that I’m particularly bummed that my favorite local theater, the Metrograph, won’t be opening any time soon, but starting Friday, they’ll be starting “Metrograph Live Screenings,” which will consist of the type of amazing programming the theater has gained a reputation for since opening four years ago. They are offering new “digital memberships” at $5 a month or $50 annually (about half the price of a normal membership) so that you can watch any of the movies being offered at home. The program begins on Friday with Claire Denis’ 2004 film, L’Intrus, which Metrograph Pictures picked up for release. That’s followed on Monday with St. Claire Bourne’s doc, Paul Robeson: Here I Stand. You can see the full list of screening times and dates (many with filmmaker introductions) on the Official Site, and this will be a good time for those who can’t get downtown to the coolest area in New York City to check out the Metrograph programming until they reopen. (Apparently, they’re working on a drive-in to open sometime in August. Wish I had a car.)

If nothing else, it’s safe to say that IFC is killing it this summer. The indie distributor stepped right up to the pandemic and said, “Hey, we’ll play in those drive-in theaters that have mostly been ignored and didn’t play our films for decades!” It has led to at least two big hits in the past few months.

This week, IFC releases the horror/thriller THE RENTAL (IFC Films), the directorial debut by Dave Franco. In it, brothers Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Josh (Jeremy Allen White) decide to take a weekend away with their significant others, Charlie’s wife Michelle (Allison Brie) and Josh’s girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand), who also happens to be Charlie’s creative work partner. They have found a remote house to rent, but they’re immediately suspicious of the caretaker (Toby Huss), who they think may be spying on them. He’s also racist towards Mina’s Arab lineage.

The premise seems fairly simple and actually quite high concept, and there have been quite a few thrillers that played with the premise of a creepy landlord/caretaker, including last year’s The Intruder, directed by Deon Taylor, and a lesser known thriller called The Resident, starring Hillary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Part of what makes The Rental different is that Franco co-wrote it with Joe Swanberg, so you know it’s going to be more of a character-based thriller than some kind of gorefest. Sure enough, this deals with the competitive nature between the brothers and the jealousy that arises when you have such a close working relationship with your brother’s girlfriend. It’s what happens between these two couples over the course of this vacation that makes you even more interested in their behavior after things start happening to them, but there’s a pretty major twist that happens just when you think you know where things may be going.

That’s all I really should say about the plot to avoid spoilers. Although the third act veers into the darker horror tropes we may have seen before, that’s also when it starts to get quite insane. Franco clearly shows he has the eye for the type of suspense and timing necessary for an effective thriller, and his cast, including wife Alison Brie, really deliver on all aspects of his script to deliver shocking moments that will keep you invested.

In some ways, The Rental might be the most obviously accessible movie of the weekend, and since it will be playing in drive-ins (and maybe a few still-open theaters?), it probably is worth seeing that way i.e. with others, although it will also be available via digital download, of course.

Another “Featured Flick” this week -- and I’m guessing this is one you won’t be reading about anywhere else -- is Daniel Roby’s MOST WANTED (Saban FIlms), a real-life crime-thriller starring Josh Hartnett as Globe and Mail journalist, Victor Malarek, who discovered that a French-Canadian junkie named Daniel Léger (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) had been sentenced to 100 years in a Thailand prison for drug trafficking in 1989. As Daniel attempts to survive the violent conditions of the Thai jail, Victor tries to uncover the crooked practices by the Canadian federal police to get Daniel imprisoned for their own means.

This is one of two Saban Films releases that really surprised me, maybe because I’ve gotten so used to them releasing so much action and genre schlock meant mainly for VOD, usually starring fairly big-name action stars from the past, usually not doing their best work. Most Wanted is a far more serious crime-drama that tells an absolutely amazing story from North America’s famed war on drugs from the ‘80s. First, we meet Antoine-Olivier Pilon’s Daniel, a lowlife junkie who is trying to find a place to live and a job, something he finds when he gets into business with Jim Gaffigan’s Glenn Picker, a complete low-life in every sense of the word. It’s funny, because when Gaffigan’s character is introduced, you’re immediately reminded of the famous “Sister Christian” in PT Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and as we watch Picker completely humiliate and then betray Daniel, you realize that we might be seeing one of Gaffigan’s best performances to date.

What keeps Most Wanted interesting is that it tells the story on a number of concurrent storylines, ignoring the fact that one of the threads might be taking place years before the other. Through this method, we see how Daniel begins working with Glenn, while also seeing Victor’s investigation, as well as the sting operation being perpetrated by the Canadian feds, as represented by the always great Stephen McHattie. (McHattie’s appearance is also a telltale sign that this is indeed a Canadian production, as is the role played by author and filmmaker Don McKellar.) I’ve always feltHarnett was a really underrated actor especially as he got into his 30s and started doing more mature roles, and while his reporter character may not always be the central focus of the story, his attempt to get his editor to respect his work is something far too familiar to far too many writers. One also can’t sleep on the fantastic performance by Antoine-Olivier Pilon, who really holds the film together by starting out as a scumbag almost as bad as Picker but through his troubles to survive in Thai jail, we start to become really invested in his story. (The only character who doesn’t get nearly as fulfilling a story arc is Amanda Crew as Victor’s wife Anna who gives birth just as he gets involved in this major story.)

I wasn’t at all familiar with Daniel Roby’s previous work but the way he broke this story down in a way that keeps it interesting, regardless of which story you’re following, makes Most Wanted as good or better than similar films by far more experienced and respected filmmakers. (For some reason, it made me think of both The Departed and Black Mass, both movies about Whitey Bulger, although Daniel’s story is obviously very different.)

Okay, let’s get into a trio of religious-tinged offerings…

Natalia Dyer from Stranger Things stars in YES, GOD, YES (Vertical Entertainment), the semi-autobiographical directorial debut by Obvious Child co-writer Karen Maine (expanded from an earlier short), which will open via virtual cinemas this Friday as well as at a few drive-ins, and then it will be available via VOD and digital download on Tuesday, July 28. The coming-of-age comedy debuted at last year’s SXSW Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize for its ensemble cast. Dyer plays sixteen-year-old Alice, a good Midwestern Catholic teenager, who has a sexual awakening after a racy AOL chat. Wracked by guilt, Alice attends a religious retreat camp where the cute football player (Wolfgang Novogratz) catches her eye, but she constantly feels pressure to quell her masturbatory urges.

I’m not sure I really knew what to expect from Ms. Maine’s feature film debut as a director. I certainly didn’t expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did, nor did I think I would relate to Dyer’s character as much as I did -- I’ve never been a teen girl, nor have I ever been Catholic, and by the early ‘00s, I was probably closer to the age that Maine is now versus being a teenager discovering her sexuality. In fact, I probably was expecting something closer to the Mandy Moore comedy Saved!, which was definitely more about religion than one character’s sexual journey.

Either way, I went into Yes, God, Yes already realizing what a huge fan I am of coming-of-age stories, and while there were certainly that seemed familiar to other films, such as Alice’s inadvertent AIM with an online pervert early in the film. Even so, Maine did enough with the character of Alice to keep it feeling original with the humor being subdued while definitely more on the R-rated side of things. On top of that, Dyer was quite brilliant in the role, just a real break-through in a similar way as Kaitlyn Dever in Book Smart last year. (Granted, I’m so behind on Stranger Things, I don’t think I’ve even gotten to Dyer’s season.) The only other familiar face is Timothy Simons from Veep as the super-judgmental (and kinda pervy) priest who Alice has to turn to when confessing her sins. (A big part of the story involves a rumor started about Alice and a sex act she committed on a fellow student that keeps coming up.)

Yes, God, Yes proves to be quite a striking dramedy that I hope more people will check out. I worry that because this may have been covered out of last year’s SXSW, it might not get the new and updated attention it deserves. Certainly, I was pleasantly surprised with what Maine and Dyer did with a genre that still has a lot to tell us about growing up and discovering oneself. (You can find out where you can rent the movie digitally over on the Official Site.)

Another horror movie that premiered at this year’s Sundance is AMULET (Magnet), the directorial debut by British actor Romola Garai, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Romanian actor Alec Secareanu as Tomaz, a former soldier who is offered a place to stay in a dilapidated house in London with a young woman named Magda (Carla Juri from Blade Runner 2049) and her ill and dying mother. As Tomaz starts to fall for Magda, he discovers there are sinister forces afoot in the house with Magda’s mother upstairs being at their core.

I was kind of interested in this one, not just because it being Garai’s first feature as a filmmaker but also just because Sundance has such a strong pedigree for midnight movies, probably culminating in the premiere of Ari Aster’s Hereditary there a few years back. It feels like ever since then, there are many movies trying to follow in that movie’s footsteps, and while this was a very different movie from the recent Relic, it had its own set of issues.

The main issue with Amulet is that it deliberately sets itself up with a confusing narrative where we see Tomaz in the present day and in the past concurrently, so it’s very likely you won’t know what you’re watching for a good 20 minutes or so. Once Tomaz gets to the house, escorted there by a nun played by Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), the movie settles down into a grueling pace as the main two characters get to know each other and Tomaz explores the incongruities of the decaying house.

Honestly, I’m already pretty burnt out on the religious horror movies between The Lodge and the still-unreleased Saint Maud, and the first inclination we get of any of the true horror to come is when Tomaz discovers some sort of mutated bat-like creature in the toilet, and things get even more disturbing from there. Although I won’t go into too many details about what happens, the movie suffers from some of the same issues as Relic where it’s often too dark to tell exactly what is happening. As it goes along, things just get weirder and weirder right up until a “what the fuck” moment that could have come from the mind of David Lynch.

I don’t want to completely disregard Garai’s fine work as a filmmaker since she’s made a mostly compelling and original horror movie – I have a feeling some might love this -- but the grueling pace and confusing narrative turns don’t really do justice to what might have been a chilling offering otherwise.

Going by the title and the fact it’s being released by Saban Films, I presumed that Ludwig and Paul Shammasian’s RETALIATION (Saban Films/Lionsgate) was gonna be a violent and gritty crime revenge thriller, but nothing could be further from the truth. Adapted by Geoff Thompson from his 2008 short film “Romans 12:20,” it stars Orlando Bloom as Malcolm, a troubled ex-con doing demolition work while fighting against his demons when he spots someone in the pub from his past that caused a severe childhood trauma.

This is another movie that I really didn’t know what to expect, even as it began and we followed Bloom’s character over the course of a day, clearly a very troubled man who has been dealing with many personal demons. Make no mistake that this is a tough movie, and it’s not necessarily a violent genre movie, as much as it deals with some heavy HEAVY emotions in a very raw way.

Honestly, I could see Geoff Thompson’s screenplay easily being performed on stage, but the way the Shammasian Brothers have allowed Malcolm’s story to slowly build as we learn more and more about his past makes the film so compelling, but they also let their actors really shine with some of the stunning monologues with which they’re blessed. While this is clearly a fantastic and possibly career-best performance by Bloom, there are also good performances by Janet Montgomery, as the woman who loves Malcolm but just can’t handle his mood changes. Also good is Charlie Creed-Miles, as the young priest who tries to help Malcolm.

I can easily see this film not being for everybody, because some of the things the film deals with, including pedophile priests and the effects their actions have on the poor, young souls who put their faith in them, they’re just not things people necessarily may want to deal with. Make no mistake that Retaliation is an intense character drama that has a few pacing issues but ultimately hits the viewer right in the gut.

A movie I had been looking forward to quite some time is the Marie Currie biopic, RADIOACTIVE (Amazon Prime), directed by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and starring the wondrous Rosamund Pike as the famed scientist who helped discover radiation. Based on Lauren Redniss’ book, this is the type of Working Title biopic that would normally premiere in the Fall at the Toronto Film Festival, and sure enough, this one did. The fact it wasn’t released last year makes one think maybe this didn’t fare as well as potential awards fodder as the filmmakers hoped. It’s also the type of movie that works too hard to cater to the feminist resurgence from recent years, which ultimately ends up being its undoing.

The problem with telling Marie Currie’s story is that there’s so much to tell and Redniss’ book as adapted by Jack Thorne just tries to fit too much into every moment as years pass in mere minutes. There’s so much of Marie’s life that just isn’t very interesting, but trying to include all of it just takes away from the scenes that do anything significant. Maybe it’s no surprise that Thorne also wrote The Aeronauts, Amazon’s 2019 ballooning biopic that failed to soar despite having Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as its leads.

I’m a similarly huge Rosamund Pike fan, so I was looking forward to her shining in this role, but she does very little to make Marie Currie someone you might want to follow, as she’s so headstrong and stubborn. This is the most apparent when she meets Pierre Currie, as played by Sam Riley, and maybe you don’t blame her for being cynical, having had much of her work either discredited or stolen by men in the past. Shockingly, Pike’s performance seems all over the place, sometimes quite moving but other times being overly emotive. Almost 90 minutes into the movie, Anya Taylor-Joy turns up as Curie’s grown daughter, and it’s one of the film’s biggest infraction, wasting such great talent in such a nothing role.

While Radioactive could have been a decent vehicle for Ms. Satrapi to flex her muscles as a filmmaker, the movie spends so much time having Currie fighting against the male-dominated science field that it loses sight of why she was such an important figure in the first place. Radioactive just comes across as a generally bland and unimaginative by-the-books biopic.

Also on Digital and On Demand this Friday is Chris Foggin’s FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS (Samuel Goldwyn Films), another quaint British comedy based on a true story, much like the recent Military Wives. Rather than being about a group of singing women, this one is about a group of singing men! What a twist!

Daniel Mays plays Danny, a music biz exec from London who travels to the seaside town of Port Isaac, Cornwall with some of his record company coworkers. Once there, they discover a local group of singing local fisherman, known as “Fisherman’s Friends,” who Danny wants to sign to a label. He also wants to get closer to Tuppence Middleton’s single mother Alwyn, who, no surprise, is also the only pleasant-looking younger woman in the town.

Fisherman’s Friends isn’t bad, but if you’ve seen a lot of British movies from the last few decades, then you’ve already seen this movie, particularly the “fish out of water” humor of a guy from the big city trying to relate to the down-to-earth ways of folk in a fishing village. It’s the type of really forced humor that is perfectly pleasant but not particularly groundbreaking in this day and age with so many filmmakers trying to do cutting-edge work.

Instead, this goes for a very typical and cutesie formula where everything works out with very little real conflict even when it throws in a needless subplot about the local pub falling on hard times and selling to a rich man who has little regard for the ways o the town. On top of that, and even if this wasn’t based on a true story, it’s very hard to believe anyone in the music industry or who buys records would be that interested in this group to make them worth signing a million-pound record deal. (Apparently, this really happened!)

I think it’s adorable that filmmakers are trying to turn character actor Daniel Mays (who you’ve seen in everything!) into a romantic lead, especially when you have James Purefoy right there! Instead, 56-year-old Purefoy is instead cast as Middleton’s father, while she’s put into a situation where she’s the love interest for a man that’s 23 years her elder. This kind of thing rarely bothers me as it does many younger female critics, but their romance is just ridiculous and unnecessary if not for the formula. As much as I enjoyed seeing Dave Johns from I, Daniel Blake as one of the singing fishermen, there really isn’t much for him to do in this.

If you like sea shanties and you are a woman over 60 (or have a mother that age) then Fisherman’s Friends is a cute butnever particularly hilarious British comedy that tries to be The Full Monty. But it never really tries to be anything more or less than the formula created by that movie 23 years ago, so it’s quickly forgotten after its saccharine finale.

Unfortunately, I just wasn’t able to get THE ROOM (Shudder/RLJE Films), the live action directing debut from Christin Volckman (Renaissance), but it’s now available on VOD, Digital HD, DVD AND Blu-Ray! It stars Olga Kurylenko and Kevin Janssens as a couple who leave the city to move into a an old house where they discover a secret hidden room that has the power to materialize anything they want, but this is a horror film, so what might seem like a fairy tale is likely to get dark. (I actually think I saw the trailer for this on Shudder, so I’ll probably check it out, and if it’s worth doing so, I’ll mention it in next week’s column.)

Yet another horror movie hitting On Demand this Friday is Pamela Moriarty’s A DEADLY LEGEND (Gravitas Ventures) that stars Corbin Bensen as a real estate developer who buys an old summer camp to build new homes unaware of the dark history of supernatural worship and human sacrifice. I’m gonna take the fifth on this one, which also stars Judd Hirsch and Lori Petty.

Available via Virtual Cinema through New York’s Film Forum and L.A.’s Laemmle is Gero von Boehm’s documentary, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (Kino Lorber), about the photographer who had a nearly five-decade career before dying in a car crash in 2006.

From Colombia to various Virtual Cinemas is Catalina Arroyave’s debut, Days of the Whale (Outsider Pictures) set in the city of Medellin, where it follows two young graffiti artists, Cristina and Simon, who tag places around where they live but coming from very different backgrounds, but they eventually bond while part of a revolutionary art collective.

Danny Pudi from Community and Emily C. Chang from The Vampire Diaries star in Sam Friedlander’s comedy Babysplitters (Gravitas Ventures) as one of two couples who have mixed emotions about having kids, so they decided to share one baby between them. Okay, then.

Netflix will also debut the rom-com sequel, The Kissing Booth 2, once again starring Joey King as Ellie, who is trying to juggle her long-distance romance with Jacob Erlodi’s Noah and her close friendship with Joel Courtney’s Lee. I haven’t seen the first movie. Probably won’t watch this one.

Next week, more movies in a variety of theatrical and non-theatrical release!

If you’ve read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com, or tweet me on Twitter. I love hearing from my “readers,” whomever they may be.’

#Movies #Reviews #TheRental #Retaliation #Radioactive #YEsGodYes #VOD #Streaming #MostWanted #Amulet #TheWeekendWarrior

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bienstockonnativ · 7 years ago

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Week 1

Monday

It was right after fall boards. I was on the train with Zach, Noah, and Jeff on our way to Newark airport when I realized that I was actually doing it. I was really going to another country for a whole nine months. Now that wave of “what the hell” would continue on for at least another four days, and I don’t think will ever fully go away, but that was the beginning.

Once we got to the airport, Noah, Jeff, and Zach went off and I stayed to try and find food and then chill until the rest of the group would get there. Because I was so early I was in no rush. I ended up stumbling around for a few hours before I finally found where everyone was to meet before leaving for the gate. Noah and Jeff found me first, we waited a few hours, ate some pizza, and then finally Zoe and Deb from the office arrived and the Nativers started to trickle in.

There are 87 people on Nativ this year, the biggest group since 2013. In terms that one can understand, that’s about three USY on wheels busses- which is all of wheels basically. What they do in order to make it easier is they split you up into three tracks based on your second semester group. So I’m part of the Kfar Yemin Orde group which is composed of 32 Nativers and 3 staff members. Our little group is sort of like a mini family within the whole and a lot of what we do this year is done with them.

But back to the airport, I’m sitting there and thanking the lord that I know a lot of people going. Now it doesn’t really matter anymore, but at that first little bit- if you don’t know someone and you don’t like being friendly you just kind of sit there until you get on the plane. Eventually we all checked in and just as we were about to get through security I got this wave of what the fuck am I doing get me out of here. Having been here for a little while now, I know that everyone was thinking like that on the first day.

We met all those people who had connecting flights at the gate and started the second phase of waiting. I was still super tired from fall boards and I figured I had nine months to get to know people so I just got some food and started eating. Eventually I started being more friendly with everyone and by the time we had to go through security phase 2 (in order to get into the plane [an iIrael thing]) I had meant a bunch of new people. Deb and Zoe gave us all Siddurs and sent us off. Once we got through to the real gate we were alone, no more adults. Just us. That was a pretty weird moment.

I git on the plane and ended up sitting next to Max, a guy I went to high school with. We had the same sweater and were even listening to the same music which was pretty funny. The plane we were on was a brand new 777 on United so it was really nice and the screens were super sleek. I watched a movie or two, slept a little, listened to music, and before I knew it- 9 1/2 hours later- we were in the holy land.

And just like that, we’re onto Tuesday.

Tuesday

Once we get to Israel its already the next day. All of us are exhausted. Its 4 PM and we just woke up basically. Once we get of the plane and to customs we are put in a giant line. Eventually some lady comes over and tells us to go to the express line since we all have Visa’s. We get a pass to get out of customs and finally get to baggage claim. We collect all our bags and find our way outside where the Nativ staff are waiting.

All of this took almost 2 hours (ugh).

Keep in mind that all of us still barely know each other- its pretty terrifying being in a place you barley know with people you really don’t know, being told what to do by people you really really don’t know. Anyways I knew it would get better. We got all our bags out to the busses and through them all into a giant truck (because 3 bags per person is not going to fit underneath a regular coach bus). The ride to Beit nativ was sufficiently long so between talking to people sporadically, I fell asleep, and when I woke up we were stoped at a random place right outside Jerusalem.

We all gather around and Yossi, the Nativ director introduces himself. He explains that he stopped us there to show the differences between the old and new Israel. Jerusalem vs. Tel Aviv. And he asks us our first question “where do you fit in between this, if at all.” As you may have guessed, I don’t have an answer for that yet. Maybe I will by May 22nd, maybe I won’t. I guess we’ll find out.

We got back on the busses and eventually arrived at Beit Nativ. Otherwise known as the Fuschberg Center, otherwise known as the fuckberg centre, otherwise known as Agron, otherwise known as the home of conservative judaism in Israel, otherwise known as just plain old home for us Nativers. It also houses the pilgrimage groups when they are in Jerusalem and since I went two years ago, I was already pretty familiar with the campus. From the outside it doesn’t look so big but once your inside, you realize how much actually goes on here. There is tons of room for sessions, people to study, to pray, to live, to have fun. Its great. And not only that, its relatively central in the city. So if you want to get to the Kotel or Ben Yehudah or the shuk its no more then a 20 minute walk. Also nearby is a nice park, some pretty good pizza, a place where people often protest, the PM’s residence, the US consulate, a supermarket, hair dresser, bank, and a ritsy shopping area called mamilla.

We didn’t do much that first night. I live in the older building, 2nd floor, with 3 other guys on my track; Sam from NJ, Jonah from Portland, and Josh from St. Louis. Besides lugging our luggage all the way up to our rooms, some people went out but most stayed home. The minute after I got my bags settled and we did our mini orientation, I got to my room and passed the fuck out.

Little did I know what was to come in the days ahead.

Wednesday

Wednesday was our first real orientation day. When we woke up we did our first schacharit with our track. The Yemin Orde staff, Ethan, Cassie, and Julia explained that we would pray together for the next monthish during the mini mester and holidays seasons (More on the mini mester later). Tefilot were pretty standard and similar to USY so all good there. Later, after breakfast, we did some icebreakers with our track and finally gathered with the whole group with Yossi for our initial orientation.

Yossi explained how Nativ was about many things, leadership development, finding a connection to Judaism and Israel, becoming a better person etc… We talked about how each of us will come out of this year not with answers, but better questions- which is really what we need. There is no curfew on Nativ, but if there are outside visitors they aren’t allowed to stay on the premises past 12. We talked about drugs and drinking. Since the legal drinking age here is 18, Yossi has no problem with it outside of campus but doesn’t want anything on campus. He basically wants to make Beit Nativ a safe place where we can all come when we are tired of the outside world. Drugs are a big no no though.

I never realized how much freedom we actually had until we sat down and talked about what we do on a day to day basis. If we aren’t in school, or at a mandatory service or program, we don’t need to be anywhere. That means we have a ton of free time- or in Yossi’s terms: opportunity time. I’ll learn what that means later.

After lunch, we got in a giant line to buy and order our phone plans. It took 2 1/2 hours but I finally got to the front of the line only to discover that my phone was in fact locked still. No worries though, after getting my SIM I called my dad to sort it out and in no time at all (or some time, depending on how you look at it) I had a phone that worked in Israel! I have 20 GB of data on this plan per month as well as international calls for only 99 shekels, which is like 30 bucks.

After waiting for so long I finally had some time to start unpacking but before I got a chance to finish I went down to storage in order to pick up some stuff past Nativers left for me. Both Batya Feder and Jack Lawson left me drawers (thanks guys) which were super helpful in unpacking. Then we went on a walking tour of the neighbourhood; the staff wanted us to get acquainted with what was around us. When we got back I basically finished unpacking before dinner. And finally we got on the bus to Tel Aviv to see a Eurobasket game between Israel and Ukraine.

I was actually full blown sick at that point, from fall boards and all the travel etc… And concidering the game wasn’t so exciting I wasn’t so happy. But it was all good in the end, I ended up chatting it up with a new friend named Rachel and spoke to an old friend, Jacquie, on the bus back. And again, once we got back, I passed the fuck out.

Thursday

For the first 4-6 weeks of Nativ, the 67 members of the Hebrew U track during 1st semester take a coach bus to school every day at 8:30 am. Each of us chooses between 2 classes for our first block, and 2 classes for our second block. The third, afternoon class, is pre chosen for us as it is a tour based class that takes place all over Jerusalem. This was all explained to us by Linor, our academic advisor at the rothberg international school at the Hebrew U campus on thursday.

After Shacharit, we got on the bus and took the 20 minute ride to the university for our orientation. Once we all sat down, Linor explained how the mini mester was created just for Nativ to transition us from high school into university life. After October 15th, we will be starting our real semester with much more flexibility in terms of classes and choices but for now we’ll be doing this intensive mini mester. Every day we take the same classes until the end of the semester. Think of it like university summer school, but in September. Since we are at Hebrew U’s international school, for now we’ll be with just Nativ kids, but in October we’ll start having classes with people from all over the world.

After orientation we were given a tour of the campus buy this cool guy named Ira and then taught how to get food at the Frank Sinatra cafeteria (cool name right?). You basically get a tray and wait for the Israeli behind the counter to yell at you, then quickly yell out the main and two sides that you want with your salad and drink. After lunch, we got back on the bus to beit nativ and had the afternoon to unpack more and go do anything we needed to do.

Once I got back, I napped for a few hours but I knew that I needed to do a whole lot of stuff so I made myself wake up, got dressed and journeyed out by myself for the first time. I walked across the street, where I met Moshe the hair dresser. Since I didn’t get a haircut before hand, Moshe was kind enough to fit me into his schedule and charge me only 60 shekels for a cut. Almost half of his regular price and about $20. Once I got my haircut, I went over to the supersol to buy a kettle and a bunch of other essentials for the room. And finally I found a pharmacy so I could buy Echinacea for my cold.

A successful first day as an adult out by myself I must say.

That night was the only free night we would have before school started on Sunday so after dinner 12ish of us decided to go out. We were out until after midnight and it was super duper fun. It was around then that I first felt like I was truly finding people to talk to that were real and that I enjoyed conversing with like Aviva, Talia, Aaron, the Zachs, and so many more people. And not only that, I was finally feeling as though I wasn’t just on vacation in Israel- I finally felt like I was actually living and growing here. Once I got back, I didn’t end up getting to bed until pretty late since we were talking for a few hours. That was ok though, Friday was next and in Israel- its not a week day.

Friday

On Friday morning we woke up at 8:15 (SO LATE) for Shacharit and soon after breakfast, left Beit Nativ for the Jerusalem Hills with bagged lunches in hand. I was pretty tired but so down for a hike. Once we got there Yossi gave the safety shpiel and we were off downhill. On the way we saw naked Israelis, hot springs, and caves. This lasted for a few hours until we got to the end of the hike near the Hadassah Medical Centre. Finally, we found a place to eat lunch while waiting for the buses to take us back and then arrived back at beit nativ.

I went out Friday afternoon with the intention of doing productive things but ended up putzing around Jerusalem while walking a whole lot. I went to ben Yehudah, the shuk, got lost a little bit, and finally back at Beit Nativ just in time to get ready for Shabbat. What I didn’t know then, that I now do is that most stores close really early on Fridays (who knew lol?). Once I got back I put my empty bags into storage and ran up to my room to get dressed for shabbos.

Shabbat was magical, let me tell you.

After we took pictures at beit nativ, we walked over to Yemin Moshe, a really nice area overlooking the old city for Kabbalat Shabbat and Mincha. I stood next to Casey, a girl in my track, who I helped follow along in the siddur. As she came from an orthodox background, our conservative tunes were super confusing to her but it was all good in the end. I love Kab Shab so I was singing my heart out the whole time. As the sun went down Yossi explained the value of a community and how Nativ will not only give you a community, but a place to discover where you fit in the great tapestry of Israel.

When we got back to Beit Nativ, we had a beautiful shabbat dinner and sicha with our staff. Then, we had our first Nativ Tisch which was a beautiful experience. Think of Tisch as ruach but less weird and high schooly. Later that night, I was planning on just chilling with friends but a bunch of people wanted to go to the Kotel. I didn’t really love the idea of traversing the old city at night, considering I have no idea where I’m going in there. But due to some quite persistent friends I was on my way with joggers, a flannel, socks, and sandals in toe.

It takes about 20-25 minutes to get from Agron to the old city and another 10ish minutes to find the Kotel. I almost turned back at least three times, but thankfully my friends brought my through and got us to the Kotel. Once we got there, Louis gave an inspirational speech that wasn’t really inspirational but made us look cool. The 3 boys and 6 or 7 girls split up to get to the wall where we all had a few moments.

I was stunned.

I mean, I had been to the kotel three times before- But as you walked closer, you could feel the power and history of the structure, the area, everything about it. I close my eyes, and felt thousands of years of history reverberating through my whole body- a feeling so indescribable that I’ll just have to leave it at that.

The kotel was relatively quiet at 12 AM but there was at least two circles of guys singing in their respective tischs. Once we met back with the girls, we were joined by Cassie and Noah and ending up chilling in the plaza. We sang songs and even took off our shoes and lay on top of each other. While singing a random Israeli came and lay next to us and later, a different Israeli came to teach us a song with his friend (who happened to have went to Ramah in America [yay jewish geography]).

There was one sour part of the night. The guard on our way into the kotel complex made my friend Emily take off her Kippah as he said that it was dangerous to aggravate the orthodox. She reluctantly took it of but such an event definitely goes to show you that there is so much work when it comes to the government and Rabbinate accepting different denominations in Israel, especially at such universal places like the western wall. Just some food for thought.

Anyways, once we were done we walked back to Beit Nativ but instead of going straight to bed (because who does that) I spoke with Cassie until 2:30 am.

Saturday

Yesterday was less magical then Friday but still pretty cool. First of all, I woke up only 5 minutes before we had to go so I had no time to shower, to put on different clothes then the other day, eat anything, or wake up. So 10 minutes later, when we were on our way to shul I was feeling pretty crappy. Keep in mind I was still sort of sick at this point.

I chose to go to Shira Hadasha, which is an Egalitarian Orthodox Synagogue in the German Colony about 20-30 mins walking distance from beit nativ. How can it be Egal and Orthodox you ask? Well they have a mahitzah because they believe that men and woman distract each other during prayer. BUT, both women and men wear talitot and lead the service. There is a table right in the middle of the mahitzah where both women and men can lead as well as read torah. Its a little strange, but in a more traditional country like Israel it makes more sense then what we are used to.

Shul ends at 11/11:30ish but we couldn’t stay that long so our group left at around 10:50 in order to get back to beit nativ for a program before lunch. In Yemin Orde’s program, Yossi led us in a discussion about our relationship with Israel. By going around the room we answered questions he asked but did not discuss with each other, for the conscious and intentional purpose of making sure we don’t have time to respond to the people around us; that way we are only worrying about ourselves and our own answers.

After a much needed lunch, we had free time before the rest of the day. I took that opportunity to sleep, which I did for 2 1/2 hours. After that we did Mincha, Seudah, Maariv, and finally Havdalah with the occasional Yossi rant in the middle. On Nativ I’m finding payer services more boring and purposeless then I ever have. I honestly don’t understand why we do it the way we do- I don’t really connect with it at all and I know there are better ways that I can connect to Judaism and God. But what do I know… I still have another 9 months to figure out my place.  When shabbat ended, me and a bunch of friends went to find Pizza and Icecream so we could chill at Beit Nativ and watch a movie. After some work, we found Pizza and although we didn’t end up watchning a movie we did chill until 12ish. it was around then that I went to find some other friends before sleeping at 1:30. After all… Tomorrow would be our first day of school!

Sunday

Today was our first day of School! From here on out, night time fun will be at a minimum as mini mester is pretty intense. This morning I was introduced to my first two classes.

The first one is all about Jewish philosophy in reference to our relationship, or lack there of, with god and the land of Israel. The teacher has clearly been doing this for a long time, he knows his teaching style and how to communicate his ideas. It may be hard to grasp but boy was it interesting. Apparently I was so into it that I was making verbal noises and bothering people around me (sorry guys).

The second class wasn’t as good as the first partly because the teacher was less engaging and partly because the subject, jewish history, has been mostly covered at CHAT over the last four years. In this course we focus on the early modern period between the dark ages and modern times.

Later that day I regesitred in the library so I could take out my first book for readings while trying to figure out how the hell my 2nd teacher wants us to get the readings. She mentioned something called a moodle? Whatever that hell that is; and thought that we knew exactly what she meant, which was annoying. Its fine though, we have every day for the next month to figure everything out.

University is pretty cool so far, but at the same time 1. I can’t count the credits, 2. The classes are so small that it feels like high school, not to mention we can ask a lot of questions randomly, and 3. its only been one day.

Tomorrow is our first FULL day of school which includes our afternoon Jerusalem course. That course will take us all around Jerusalem with a teacher so that we aren’t just sitting in desks all day.

Anyways, the day isn’t over yet but besides doing some homework and chilling around the neighbourhood- I don’t have too many plans.

Nativ has been pretty cool so far. Like anything in life, its simultaneously strange, amazing, annoying, lovely, freeing, and constricting. Its a whole new experience in a land that I know only so well with people Ive just begun to scratch the surface with.

If I can learn this much in a week, I don’t even know what the next 9 months have in store. All I know is I think I’m ready now so lets go!

And tune in next Sunday for next week’s review!

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herequeeranduncomfortable · 8 years ago

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Tah for the tag @mr-dvorak :)

THE LAST:

Drink: sparkling water

Phone call: one of my best friends (she was desperate to tell me how her date went!)

Text message: sorry I didn’t pick up earlier, what’s up?

Song listened to: The Only Exception by Paramore

Time I cried: last week, got a bit overwhelmed by simultaneously being bored and feeling like I have a shit-ton of stuff to do 😣

HAVE YOU:

Dated someone twice: kinda? First guy I was kinda interested was a bit of a dick and I gave hima second chance but the second time round wasn’t really dating??

Kissed someone and regretted it: nah

Been cheated on: nope

Lost someone special: not entirely sure which meaning of special we’re going with but I’ve lost 2 of my grandparents and I was pretty close with them

Been depressed: yeah, towards the end of GCSEs I got quite down and I’ve been in and out of depression since tbh 😕

Gotten drunk and thrown up: my nickname is Chunder Thunder, go figure😂

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS:

Blue (pretty much all shades tbh)

Dark purple

Hot pink

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

Made new friends: So many new friends! Moved to Southampton for uni and met sooooo many great people there!

Fallen out of love: nah

Laughed until you cried: plenty of times

Found out someone was talking about you: nope, but now I’m a lil paranoid people have been😓

Met someone that changed you: hell yeah, meeting so many new people at uni and some of my closest friends there have definitely changed me for the better 💕

Found out who your friends are: yeah- leaving school I’ve only really kept in touch with 3 friends and no one else has really made much effort to keep in touch (tbh I’ve kept the people that mattered and I’m happy). Also certain friends at uni defo look out for me loooaaads more than others; ‘finding out who my frineds are’ isn’t really the way I’d put it, like I knew who they were and events have just kinda proved it

Kissed someone on your fb friend list: pretty sure everyone I’ve kissed is on my friends list

GENERAL:

How many of your fb friends do you know irl: I think all of them? Some of them I might have only met briefly but I’ve at least met all of them

Any pets: A cat called Fudge 😍

Do you want to change your name?: Nah, as much of a pain my name can be (Kahlan) I like it

What did you do for your last birthday: went back to uni (we were on Easter break) with friends from uni and school and went drinking in town

What time did you wake up: 7, 7:30, 7:40, 8:00 (I really didn’t wanna get up this morning) 😪

What were you doing at midnight last night?: sleeping, I crashed out at like 9 last night 😂

Something you can’t wait for: Going back to uni in september! Going stir crazy at home and really want to hang with my friends, missing ‘em loads💔💕

One thing I wish I could change in my life: uuhhhhh idk? Probably my mental health, just wish I had a little bit more control over the rougher days

Listening to right now: my boyfriend’s playlist, currently listening to What You Know

Ever talked to a Tom?: yeah, there were 2 Toms in my block and a Tom in my lab group last year

Something getting on your nerves: being at home- as much as I love my fam and being around my cat I’m going stir crazy, just want a bit of my independence back tbh

Most visited website: Tumblr or fb

Moles: nah

Marks: scars on my legs from shaving and falling over a lot when I was younger, a scar on my wrist from where I leant on an iron

Childhood dream: A massive treehouse/summerhouse in a forest with a ton of fiction books. That or a massive blanket fort, like the one they built in Community

Hair colour: naturally brown but currently black

Long or short hair: Long hair

Do you have a crush on someone: yeeeeaah

What do you like about yourself: I dip in and out of liking most things about mysef tbh, there’s never been one thing I’ve always 100% liked about myself- maybe that I’m there for people when they need me (or at least try my very hardest to be)? Idk really

Piercings?: Got 2 piercings in each of my earlobes, planning on getting a third in a few weeks

Blood type: not a clue

Nickname: Chunder Thunder (well-earned at the the first house party I went to😂)

Relationship status: taken 💛

Zodiac: Aries

Pronouns: she/her

Fave TV show: I have a few but atm it’s GoT

Tattoos: not yet, really wanna get an ace tattoo tho

Right or left hand: right

Surgery: never

Hair dyed a different colour: yeah, went a subtle pink/purple in A-levels and then Black at Easter

Sport: casually I do karate, ballet and badminton, used to do rounders and trampolining. Mostly I just go running now tbh, kinda wish I did more sports

Vacation: going to Madeira in August- the airport I'm going to has that horrific bust of Cristiano Ronaldo 😂

Pairs of trainers: I have a pair of Asics for running and a couple pairs of converses

MORE GENERAL:

Eating: not sure what’s meant by this but I like most foods besides seafood and bland/creamy sauces??

Drinking: I like most drinks tbh, though my go-to favourite drinks are the cocktails from a bar in Southampton called Clowns

I’m about to: go to bed

Waiting for: September, just really wanna be back at uni

Want: …to be back at uni

Get married: maybe?? Wasn’t sure I’d ever even be in a decent relationship until about 6 months ago, let alone thinking about marriage

Career: not a fkn clue my guy, probably gonna end up staying at uni to do research tbh

Lips or eyes: both preferably??? Eyes I guess?

Shorter or taller: taller, defo

Older or younger: around the same age tbh, but older if I had to pick

Nice arms or nice stomach: nice stomach, but either tbh

Sensitive or loud: if I had to pick one it’d be sensitive but a good mix is better

Hook up or relationship: relationship

Troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker, I’m hesitant and ik I’d never have to guts to try stuff out without someone encouraging it

HAVE YOU EVER:

Kissed a stranger: yeah

Drank hard liquor: I’m a uni student, ofc I have

Lost glasses/ contacts: surprisingly no

Turned someone down: yeah,the same guy multiple times

Sex on the first date: nope

Broken someone’s heart: …yeah. It broke my heart too but it would never have worked between us, I’m pretty sure he can see that now.

Had your heart broken: ^^

Been arrested: nah

Cried when someone died: yeah

Fallen for a friend: yup, on more than one occasion 😂

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

Yourself: sometimes- only when I know I’m competent in what I’m doing, if there’s any doubts my self-belief goes through the floor

Miracles: uuhhhh kinda? More the ‘exception to the rule/anomaly’ miracles than the ‘a higher being saved me’ miracles

Love at first sight: definitely not, but that’s just from personal experience and as someone who’s identified as ace for pretty much all their life it’s not much to go on😂

Santa: nah

Kiss on the first date: only if it feels right? Never really done dating tbh

Angels: nope

OTHER:

Current best friends names: Josh😘💕 & Freya

Eye colour: green-brown

Fave movie: probably Rogue One

Tagging: @alicee-in-wonderworld @easily-broken-by-emotion @tlhingan-tlhup @unitedspoonsofvulcan (and anyone else who wants to!) if you guys are bored and have time to kill😊

#asks #long post #personal spam

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katdvs · 8 years ago

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Lucas Friar moved back to Texas at 17, now he’s running for Mayor of Rosewood Springs so best friend Zay and little sister Gigi decide he needs a little help from a political consultant.

Riley Matthews found her calling, she found a fiancé, but she never expected to find herself here, of all places.

Cross-posted to FF.net | Soundtrack | Past Chapters

-I hope you understand-

Lucas had changed into jeans and a t-shirt, he grabbed the hoodies before he went downstairs, already smelling dinner from the kitchen, finding Riley putting together a meal from the leftovers they had from the night before.

He watched her for a moment, she had her jeans on, a purple t-shirt, her hair was down, loose not styled, just her natural curls.

What he wouldn’t give to be able to walk up behind her, place his hand on her hips, brush her hair away from her neck with his other hand and kiss the back of her neck, feeling her quiver with pleasure at his touch.

“Hey” She smiled when she saw him, “I just threw a few things together. You know I kind of miss cooking, I don’t do it that often. I usually end up in a hotel and at tons of different dinners to collect money from donors, this is nice.”

“I’m glad you think so, if you’re here for long you might not after a while.” He put the hoodies down on a chair, “Thank you for putting this together.”

“It’s nothing major.” She handed him a plate, “Mostly reheating.”

God, he wanted to kiss her, screw the movies, let him make love to her all night long, but he couldn’t, no he couldn’t jeopardize her future, if Dave makes her happy, then who was Lucas to get in the way of that.

A man who could make her a million times happier than Corn Chip Dave.

“So, does Dave watch Chris Evans movies with you?”

“Sometimes, when we have time we’ll both stream the same movie or TV show.” Riley explained, “Sometimes it’s easier to do that kind of stuff when I’m away, which is a lot of the time.”

Lucas nodded as if he understood, he didn’t. How could Dave spend so much time away from Riley, wouldn’t he want to be with her as much as possible?

“I mean when we’re in the city together, we’re just so jampacked with dinners, and family stuff we have to do the catch up with everyone. Thank God for Maya and Charlie, without them our date nights would be filled with lawyers and politicians.”

“I always thought that Maya and your Uncle Josh were going to end up together, what happened?”

“Josh and Maya, they were friends, they are friends, but they’ve never been at the same place emotionally at the same time. And one day, Maya and Charlie got put together on a project for class, and next thing you know he’s got the big ask going for Prom, and they’ve been together ever since, two kids now.”

“And Josh, did he find someone?”

“He’s dating one of the teachers at Abigail Adams, where he is also a teacher, so he gets to hang out with my Dad, a lot. It’s good for them, I think.” Riley smiled pushing her hair behind her ear, “What about Gigi, she hasn’t mentioned any guys, is their one she’s got her eye on?”

“If there is she hasn’t mentioned it to me or Zay.” Lucas sighed, “I mean she dated this kid in high school Tyler, but he went off to school in California I think. I don’t know if it was ever serious between them.”

“What even is serious between two people in high school?” Her heart raced, knowing that she had felt they were serious, more serious than they probably ever realized.

“We were serious.” He looked up, “Life had other plans I guess.”

“I guess so.” She took a final sip of her water, “We should probably get going.”

“You’re right.” He took her plate to the sink along with his, rinsing them before loading them in the dishwasher, “I um, I grabbed a hoodie for you.”

“Thank you.” She smiled before he handed her the old sports gray hoodie with the familiar print, “You still have this? I loved wearing this.”

“I know, I remembered.” He put his hand on the small of her back as they moved to leave the house.

“I can’t believe you still have this.”

“I’ll be honest, it’s been in my closet for ages, I um wore it like every day the first few weeks I was back here, but then it,” he stopped himself, “It um felt weird, especially when I made the team here to wear this.”

Riley hugged the hoodie close, remembering the nights sitting on her fire escape or roof looking up at the sky void of stars thanks to the light pollution of the city, but remembering the feel of Lucas’ arms around her.

Lucas put the radio on while they drove into town. Cheerful country songs played, nothing holding any memories thankfully as they pulled into the parking lot for the theater.

“Nice” Riley commented as she looked at the newer structure.

“Well we’re a small town, but we love movies around here, so they upgraded it about five years ago,” Lucas explained as he pulled on his own hoodie, watching Riley out of the corner of his eye as she pulled on the one he’d given her.

“How about I get the tickets and you get the snacks.” Riley suggested as they walked into the building.

“That works for me. Do you need corn chips?”

Riley rolled her eyes, “Popcorn and,”

“Chocolate.” He smiled as he moved towards the snack counter to place the order.

“Lucas it’s great to see you again” the voice was as thick as syrup and he cringed as he heard it.

“Hi Dixie.” He didn’t turn around.

“So, you all alone?” She tried to hide her smile at the thought.

“No, Riley is getting the tickets.” He accepted his card from the concessionaire, slipping it into his wallet as he grabbed the small popcorn and box of chocolate, along with the large Cherry Coke.

“Hey honey” Riley came up to him, kissing his cheek, “Oh hi again, Dixie, right?”

Dixie frowned, ugh this New York bitch, “Hi, what are you seeing?”

“The new Chris Evans.” Riley slipped her arm around Lucas trying to ignore the heat she felt from him.

Dixie took the sight of them in, trying not to roll her eyes, “My Grandmother loves Chris Evans; nice hoodie, bring it from New York?”

“Actually, Lucas had it waiting for me.” Riley smiled, not knowing just how true those words were.

Dixie couldn’t believe that Lucas would be interested in this woman, was this what he wanted, some stuck up New Yorker? “Well enjoy, I heard it got awful reviews.” She was about to leave when she stopped and turned to Lucas, “I hope Gigi has been saving all her pennies, because I have, and I plan on giving her a real run for her money at the auction.”

“I think Gigi is sitting this year out, Riley will be bidding on me.”

Dixie scoffed, “Is that so, well we’ll see if the best woman wins the good Doctor here this year.”

Riley stepped forward having put a few pieces together, “Dixie, don’t worry, I will.”

Dixie’s nostrils flared for a moment before she walked away too angry to say anything else.

“I don’t like her” Riley confessed as they moved towards the theater.

“I can tell, it’s weird she comes around and you get all, never mind.”

“I get all what?”

Lucas smirked, “Pearl Harbor.” Before leading her into the theater to find seats.

Pearl Harbor, what on earth did that mean? Riley tried to place it as they sat down, she automatically pulled the armrest up that was between them.

Lucas watched as she tried to figure out what he meant, he knew it wasn’t an obvious statement, and she would protest it once she figured it out.

“Lucas” Riley said softly, turning towards him, “Look at me as if I’m the only woman you have ever wanted to make love to, the woman you want to marry.”

Lucas smiled nervously, looking at her the way he did when she wasn’t watching, “Why?” he breathed softly.

Riley gazed into his eyes, amazed at how easily he pulled this off as she reached up to caress his cheek with the backs of her fingers before kissing him. It was slow, soft, as she let herself have this moment. Feeling him run his fingers into her hair as he held her in the kiss. She pulled away, “Dixie was watching.”

“She’ll probably watch more of us than the movie.” He put his arm around her, encouraging her to rest her head on his shoulder, God he’d missed this.

Riley reached for the soda taking a sip, “Cherry Coke, you remembered.”

“Of course, how could I forget?” he looked down at her, those brown eyes, everything he wanted in the world, every secret he’d ever had were held in them, “Riley, I…”

“Sneak attack.” She blurted out, “Missy, that’s what you meant by Pearl Harbor, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged as the coming attractions began.

The movie played and they made their way quickly through the popcorn and chocolate mixed together. Somewhere during the middle of the movie, Riley slipped her hand into the kangaroo pocket of his hoodie the way she used to when they were dating. Lucas was sure she didn’t even realize she did it as he played with her hair as they watched the movie.

This was too easy, the way they could fall into these moments. Maybe it was easy for a reason, because this was exactly where they were meant to be together. Or it was easy in a way to test them, test their resolve.

Lucas didn’t know how much longer her could hold on to what resolve he had. She would break him, and she wouldn’t even be trying to that which was the real kicker.

When the movie was over they gathered their trash, “Hey you want to check out the Wild Z?”

“I would love to, I’m curious to really see it. I mean I’ve seen pictures on Instagram and stuff, but you know I would love to see it in person.” She told him as they ventured outside into the summer air.

He put his arm around her as they walked down the street, Riley stopped him as they got outside of Zay’s bar, “Hand me your phone.”

“Why?” He pulled it out from his pocket.

“We’re doing the couple thing and taking a selfie.” She told him before she felt him lift her up the way he used to whenever she wanted to take a selfie with him. He was stronger how, she could feel it in his large hands. She snapped a shot of her smiling, hiding her face against his neck.

She for a second thought about not posting it, but no she took it for the sole purpose of doing so. She quickly typed a caption and posted it.

“What happens if Dave sees that?” Lucas slid his phone into his back pocket, already making the mental note to print out a copy of that picture as soon as he could.

“Well he never goes on Instagram, and he would have to be following you, which I’ve been on his account—he had me post a picture of his boat for him once. All he follows are corn chip companies and boat accounts.” She tried not to roll her eyes, but it happened none the less.

Lucas filed that away, perhaps things were not as peachy between Riley and Dave as he thought. Then again how could they after that cheap ring Dave gave her.

Riley was surprised how busy the Wild Z was on a Sunday night.

“Not a lot to do in town, it’s movies or the bar.” Lucas leaned into her, “It’s not as wild as a Saturday night, but also the college kids are home, so you know they’ve got a totally different schedule then all us actual adults.”

Riley giggled, “Gosh, this is amazing. Zay did all of this?”

“Gigi helped, she’s studying interior design, she’s got a great eye.”

“She really does” Riley followed Lucas to the bar.

Zay was mixing a batch of margaritas when he looked up and saw Riley and Lucas, “What are you two doing here?”

“We just got out from the new Chris Evans movie, thought we could come and check this place out.” Riley sat on a barstool with Lucas next to her.

Zay smirked, “Riley I ordered something special for you, give me a minute and I’ll get you a glass.”

“What nothing special for me?” Lucas feigned feeling hurt.

Zay rolled his eyes as he came back and grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge, “You see Lucas, I know a little secret about our girl Riley here. She loves one wine above all others. She’ll drink other, but this is the one that will always bring a smile to her face.”

Riley hid her face in her hands, “You didn’t.”

“I did.” Zay put the lass in front of her before pouring the pink, bubbly wine for her.

“What is that?” Lucas tried to see the bottle but he couldn’t see the label.

“Pink Moscato” Riley smiled, “It’s sweet, peachy, bubbly…”

“So, it’s the Riley of wines.” Lucas watched as she blushed as he pushed her hair away from her face before he kissed her gently, a short one, “Dixie just came in.”

“Gosh it’s almost as if she’s just waiting to catch us not acting like a couple.” Riley gazed into his eyes, noticing a softness she hadn’t seen since they were in high school as Zay placed a beer in front of Lucas.”

“Well, I guess she’s just going to have to wait until November.” Lucas smiled.

Riley blinked, “Um yeah, November.”

Gigi came up to Zay, her eyes on her brother and Riley, “What are they doing?”

“Gazing into each other’s stupid eyes.” He chuckled, he couldn’t believe these two idiots, his best friends were going to trick themselves into falling in love with each other all over again.

“Smooth move Friar.” Maya giggled to herself as she scrolled through Instagram, double tapping the image before scrolling on. The kids were in bed, Charlie was working on something in the living room while she went into the kitchen.

“What’s so interesting on your phone.” Charlie came into the kitchen, grabbing a juice from the fridge.

“Oh, just this picture of this sickeningly sweet couple.” Maya waved it off, “So Dave is really planning his and Riley’s wedding?”

“Yeah he wants them to get married on the new boat.” Charlie shrugged it off.

Maya put her phone on the counter before getting something down from a cabinet, “Has he told Riley about the new boat?”

“I think he wanted to surprise her when she gets back.”

Maya shook her head, “That woman is probably never coming back.”

“What, what does that mean Maya?”

“Nothing, I just mean she’s got a new client to consult and before you know it she might be back for what a week if that before she’s off to the next one.” Maya opened the jar and took a handful of trail mix. “I guess I still haven’t warmed up to the idea of Riley and Dave.”

“They’re getting married Maya, she’s your best friend, he’s my best friend. Just think we’re going to see them all the time, all those couple vacations we’ll get to enjoy on that nice boat.”

“It’s a yacht,” Maya rolled her eyes, “And where would the kids being during these great couple vacations?”

“My mom loves to take them whenever she can.” Charlie reminded Maya as she left the room.

“I’ll keep that in mind, I’m off to bed, the kids and I have a busy day tomorrow.” She called to him.

“I’ll be in, in a few minutes.” Charlie called out as he picked up her phone to put it on the charger. He was checking to see how full the battery was when he saw the picture she’d just liked.

Was that Lucas Friar? More importantly was that Riley Matthews cuddled up to him?

Charlie pulled out his own phone, looking up the account on his, and stared for a moment. If he was just scrolling mindlessly he might think it was a picture from years ago, except it was obvious that Riley and Lucas were grown adults.

He clicked share, sending the post to Dave.

No idea what’s going on, why is Riley with Lucas Friar? I thought she was working on a new campaign. I’m sorry buddy.

Charlie felt a wave of guilt as he put his own phone on the charger, wondering if maybe he hadn’t just done something to hurt his best friend, or even worse bring on the wrath of his wife.

#Thunder Chasing The Wind #Riley Matthews #Lucas Friar #Rucas #Rucas Fanfic #Girl Meets World #GMW Fanfic #Zay Babineaux #Gigi Friar #Maya Hart #Charlie Gardner

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componentplanet · 5 years ago

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Why the Best Super Bowl Commercials Were All Cars and Tech

Super Bowls used to mean Tom Brady hoisting another trophy along with ads of polar bears drinking Coke on not-yet-melting polar ice caps, that and the Budweiser Clydesdales. Now the most memorable – sorry, memorably good – commercials are cars and tech. Car ads have always been part of the 54 Super Bowls, but in the dotcom boom years “tech ad” meant money frittered away. Remember Pets.com? Agillon? Epidemic.com? All goners. Maybe automakers did a better job because there really are differences among cars. And the tech guys have learned from the money-wasting days at the turn of the century.

Here are the best car and tech ads of Super Bowl 54 (that’s LIV for traditionalists) along with some that didn’t click quite as well, and the best non-tech ad. We’re linking to ads from places (mostly, automaker sites on YouTube) that don’t have ads in front of them because why should you pay (with your time) to see an advertisement in order to see an ad?

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The Best Ads: Hyundai Sonata, Jeep Gladiator

Hyundai Sonata Smaht Pahk. Two car ads stood out. The Hyundai Sonata spot for Smaht Pahk was the winner because it was funny, it made fun of a socio-economic group you can always make fun (people from Boston, especially since New England departed the playoffs early), and most of all because it is going to sell Hyundai Sonatas. The Sonata is the most important new car of 2020 (see our review), it is the Extreme Tech Car of the Year, and it’s loaded with standard safety features, virtually all of which are on the base, $26,000 Sonata SE. The top-line Sonata Limited, $34,000, includes Remote Smart Parking Assist, now being called Smart Park. Hop out, press the keyfob, and the Sonata pahks itself at Hahvahd Yahd, and backs out when you return. If you have a narrow garage in Back Bay or Chahlston, you don’t have to squeeze in and out inside the garage.

Too many Super Bowl commercials are ad agency spitting matches using client money to prove who’s more clever, with less thought given to whether the ad sells the product. The “Smaht Pahk” ad will do just that: Get customers to consider Sonata, and realize a mainstream car includes important new technology.

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Jeep / Groundhog Day. This is the other spot that rose above the rest. Bill Murray reprised the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, this time in a Jeep Gladiator, the truck of the year in several autowriter / magazine competitions. It’s funny, it’s nostalgic, and if you don’t know Jeep makes a pickup truck in Punk’n Metallic orange paint and the doors and top come off (you do it yourself), now you do.

The concept of Groundhog Day the movie is weatherman Bill Murray is caught in an endless time loop that restarts each day when he wakes at 6 am to Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, and has to again cover Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. It’s faithfully recreated in the ad, except no Andie McDowell this time. And to Jeep’s good fortune, the 2020 Super Bowl was played on Feb. 2, Groundhog Day. Appreciating this spot probably helped if you’re old enough to remember the movie from when it was in theaters. But if not, you should, since it’s in the National Film Registry for being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

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Amazon Before Alexa. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi ponder what life was like before Amazon Alexa. The spot borders on slapstick: An 1800s upper-class woman in the parlor tells the maid, “Alexxa, turn the temperature down, two degrees,” the maid takes a log off the fire, tosses it through the window to the sound of shattering glass and a man’s muffled scream. A man in an 1800s city asks the newsboy, “Alex, what’s today’s news?” and he responds, “It doesn’t matter. It’s all fake.” Then in a 1970s Oval Office scene, a Nixon-esque voice commands, “Alicia, remind me to delete those tapes.” In the next room, an admin says loudly, “Yes, Mister President,” then softly, “I ain’t deletin’ …”

Conservatives are probably fuming if they conclude the “fake news” line makes fun of rather than echoes the current administration (hmm, who runs Amazon?), and liberals find it fair recompense for sitting through a patriotism-heavy, pre-game show that did conclude with a touching moment when four 100-year-old World War II veterans took part in the pre-game coin toss, led by Charles McGee, a pilot with the Tuskegee Airman that battled both the Germans and racism.

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Google / Loretta. An old man reminisces about his life with Loretta through old pictures Google calls up, along with a clip from their favorite movie, Casablanca. If there’s a “when they cry, they buy” ad, this is it. It’s going to make everybody wish their parents scanned or at least saved and ID’d their favorite photos for you to scan. Not in the commercial but important to know is that face recognition is getting so good – too good, in China – that the thing that used to hard to do, figuring out who that is in a 50-year-old photo, can now be done automagically.

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Old Luxury (Going Away Party) / Genesis. Hyundai’s Genesis division rolled out its first SUV, the GV80, using young and hip Chrissy Teigen and John Legend as they make their escape from old people, oddly shaped dogs, and an old-world mansion into the GV80. From the staircase, she looks down and says, “To old luxury: You had a good run but now it’s time to choose you up a little bit … I give you young luxury.” Teigen then gestures to the open courtyard doors and points to the GV80 that – oops – hasn’t yet pulled up (“Where were you?” she asks driver Legend. “It was supposed to be a thing and you made it not a thing.”)

Never mind that Audi did essentially the same ad – “Old Luxury” (even the same name) – in a 2011 Super Bowl commercial. In this case, yuppie inmates inhabit a faux luxury prison (a mansion in LA) filled with affluent Boomers / Millennials. They unlock the cell bars and make their way toward a waiting car. A guard releases the dogs (showy hounds). When that doesn’t work, he’s ordered, “Hit ’em with the Kenny G,” and as Songbird plays, some refuse to leave while others do. Two escapees make it the courtyard, a Mercedes pulls up (you see the tri-star hood emblem) and one says, “Lancaster, no, it’s a trap,” and Lancaster replies, “Nonsense, my father owned one.”

But the theme works, and has for ages, going back at least to 1988 and “Not your father’s Oldsmobile.” Actually, it doesn’t always work. America’s oldest car brand, the brainchild of Barney Olds, was killed off in 2004.

youtube

The Other Car / Tech Ads

Porsche did a creditable job with “The Heist”: The Porsche Taycan EV sports car is spirited out of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. Once the heist is discovered, the guards argue / squabble over who drives which museum Porsche to track down the Taycan. That gives the viewer a chance to appreciate Porsche’s storied history and possibly begin to realize the Taycan is a continuation of Porsche history, not a bunch of greenies gone mad. The voices were a bit muffled, especially if you were watching the game with noisy friends, and works much better played on a PC with closed captions running.

A Toyota Highlander ad showed the car does indeed have a lot of room as the driver – 20 years ago this would have been a soccer mom commercial – picks up various people in comic distress from various scenes, ending with her son.

A third Hyundai group (Hyundai, Genesis, Kia) ad was for the upcoming Kia Seltos but more about the inspirational story of Oakland Raiders rookie Josh Jacobs and hard times growing up. It left some people wonder what Seltos is. Answer: The same platform as the subcompact and well-established Hyundai Kona, a bit roomier inside, and shipping this quarter.

T-Mobile and Verizon touted 5G service, which is still a ways off. T-Mobile used Anthony Anderson’s real-life, sassy, talky mom. Verizon essentially said that without 5G, emergency responders won’t get their job done as well.

youtube

Microsoft, whose Surface tablets are universally used (mandated) by the NFL, told the story of Katie Sowers, an assistant coach of the San Francisco 49ers. It’s a true story of perseverance and success, but the story was already being told in the two-week run-up to the Big Game.

Audi had an eTron Sportback spot run late in the evening after the kids were in bed, so they missed Maisie Williams singing “Let It Go” from Frozen.

GMC touted the rebirth of the Hummer as an EV in an ad with LeBron James. The Hummer is a ways off, so maybe it was okay to be low-key and laid back. This was not a call to action for hand-raisers.

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Scout, the golden retriever owned by Weathertech founder David MacNeil, had his cancer cured at the University of Wisconsin vet school. MacNeil took a 30-second spot lauding the Badger vets and encouraging donations. Wisconsin hasn’t gotten this much PR since this mentions by Wisconsin alum / Wall Street Journal sportswriter Jason Gay in his column. Nice touch – who doesn’t like retreivers? – and if MacNeil wants to spend six mil in hopes of getting at least that much in donations to Wisconsin, more power to him. Pets cure a lot of human ailments by being there for you.

Tom Brady made it to the Super Bowl (as one of the game’s 100 best players of the NFL’s 100 years) and also was a spokesmodel for a Hulu spot. Amazon promoted its drama Hunters. Quibi pushed its short video service that launches this spring (nothing more challenging than 10 minutes) and hopes you’ll start saying “I’ll be there in a Quibi.”

youtube

Best in Show (Non-Tech): Lil Nas X

The hands-down winner among non-tech or car ads was the Wild West dance moves showdown between Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott with Old Town Road playing in the background. (The guy strumming the guitar at the end was Billy Ray Cyrus.) Doritos footed the bill and reaped the rewards, as long as remembers remember it was Doritos and not Bud Light or Axe body wash. And yes, when Lil Nas rides off on a horse with cascading speakers, it pays homage to Sheriff Cleavon Little and the Gucci saddlebags in Blazing Saddles.

Fast and Furious 9: Everybody’s still trying to match Bullitt.

There also were ads that continued through the show, especially Tide Pods, the claim being that if you get a stain on your shirt before the game starts, you can much later wash – remember, wash, not eat detergent pods – and the stain comes out, at which point in the last ad, the guy gets his now-clean shirt stained again. There were plenty of ads for upcoming movies – Fast & Furious 9 (photo), Minions, Black Widow, No Time to Die – and the trailers’ special effects made people glad, or annoyed, they have surround sound speakers.

Fox ran a lot of promos for future programming, including one for the Daytona 500 where stock cars appeared to come onto and arc across the field. Conspiracy theorists will see hidden hands at work when a Super Bowl broadcast on Fox News (actually, Fox Sports, but don’t let facts get in the way) runs the Donald Trump commercial midway through the first period when everyone is watching and the Michael Bloomberg spot didn’t get airplay until late in the extended halftime. Fortunately, Kansas City and San Francisco made it close until the final minutes; three late Kansas City scores made for a 31-20 win. So most viewers stuck around all three hours of the game and J Lo / Shakira halftime.

A few ads got remade at the last minute to downplay or factor out death or helicopters (RIP, Kobe). So the death-and-resurrection of Mr. Peanut spot was pretty bland.

Now read:

5 Lessons From the Death of Frankfurt Motor Show

The Best Cars, Car Tech, and Trends of CES 2020

Best Cars of the 2019 LA Auto ShowDetroit

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/305660-why-the-best-super-bowl-commercials-were-all-cars-and-tech from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/02/why-best-super-bowl-commercials-were.html

#Why the Best Super Bowl Commercials Were All Cars and Tech

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thomaspredestined-blog · 7 years ago

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End of the Age (Typed Sermon).

Here’s the transcript from the sermon I gave on December 3rd, 2017.

The audio version is here.

Mark 13:24-37

Good morning!

Just as a general disclaimer up front, I want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed in the next half an hour-ish don’t directly reflect that of Josh or the leadership team at The Bridge. Likewise, if I say anything that you’d like to further discuss, you’re more than welcome to talk to me after the service or we can get coffee together sometime.

My name is Ryan. I’ll be speaking this week and next.

I’ve come to terms with the fact I might be so bad at this that y’all collectively decide not to show up next week. If that happens, Shad is gonna play me some songs on his guitar, I’m gonna say some words to him, and then we’re gonna get margaritas. However, if it’s good, or you want to hear some more about why Josh decided to have the tattooed, angry chubster speak, I invite you to come back next week for a more in-depth look at me and how I got to this place.

Right up top, I wanna let y’all in on something I believe to be true. There are ONLY two dumb things in this world. Of course, there are evil, grotesque, abhorrent, and violent things in this world that are awful. But, only two TRULY dumb things. The first of those dumb things is listening to Pearl Jam. The second is trying to figure out the end times, the end of days, the end of the age, whatever you wanna call it. So, today, we’re gonna be talking about the end of the age. We’re gonna be breaking the scripture reading for today down into two parts. The first part dealing specifically with the Christ predicting his death, the fall of Rome, and what it meant to the world of his day. The second part dealing with what happens next, after his death, after he’s left our plane of existence, and what that means for us.

And, for the record, there will be absolutely no talk of Eddie Vetter’s divinity.

If you would join me… Pull out your phone, open your Bible app to Mark 13:24-37, and remember what life was like when you had to thumb through a physical book to get to the scripture reading…

For the youth and kids in here, a book is an app that you can hold with your hands. It has lots of smashed, dead trees glued together with full-sized words printed on each page. And yes, a page is just like a website, but you know, if the website were made of dead trees…

Here we go!

24 “But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[a] 26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it[b] is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown 32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert[c]! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

It’s so Christmas-y! Like a peppermint mocha in word form, eh?! Nothing says Christmas quite like an adult, full grown, not-baby Jesus talking about the end of the world!

Today, we’re gonna be focusing on verses 32 and on for the majority of this message, but we will briefly discuss what the first half of what the Christ was saying here means. To put the last section of this into some sort of palatable, applicable context.

Right before the reading for today, the disciples come to Jesus proclaiming how amazing the temple is and how beautiful the buildings in Jerusalem are. Poor dudes never got to see midcentury modern architecture, am I right?! Jesus tells the disciples about the destruction of the temple, how the stones for the buildings will no longer lay on each other, but will be scattered. He tells them about the end of their current age. The fall of Rome, the fall of Jerusalem, the end of the opulent, extravagant thing built by man.

He goes on to tell his disciples to be alert, on the lookout, for false messiahs. Today, we’ve taken that to mean people who suck at interpreting scripture, or the people who interpret it in ways that we don’t like. But, at that time, when Christ was speaking this message to his followers, there were about 8-12 known, active “messiahs” in Judea. These were violent men, leading violent mobs against the Roman rule. They dealt strictly in the physical world, using physical violence in an attempt to establish a physical kingdom. All things Christ had no interest in.

He follows that statement up by telling the disciples, “Look, I’ve already told you all of this about the demise of empire and my death.” But, once more, he points to scripture to show them the prophecy he’s living.

The opening quotation is echoed in Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel. This idea of the sun going black, the moon going black, the stars falling so the skies go black, and the heaven’s quaking. Everything fades to black and then starts shaking violently. Proving once and for all that God is a Metallica fan. And the first three albums can be considered the blessed trinity of thrash…

Thank you, my work here is done…

Kidding, kidding.

Everything he’s saying here is an echo of great cities, empires falling. He’s speaking directly to the fall of Rome, the current empire the Israelite people are languishing under. The current empire that’s controlling the temple and all of Jewish life.

Josh spoke a number of weeks ago about how the disciples were really, really bad at listening. So, this is Jesus, once more, reiterating this idea that he will die and Jerusalem, Rome, etc. will fall. He is trying to drive this point home using prophetic language that they all would have known and understood.

In today’s parlance, it would be Jesus saying that the world is swirling the same drain as the DC movie universe.

He’s setting all this up, this prophetic speech, to let them know that something, something big is about to happen. These words were spoken before. When Babylon fell, when the Jews escaped Egypt, when Joel prophesied the gospel. He wants them to know that a YUGE, THE BIGGEST, thing is about to happen. As in, just around the corner. As in, soon.

He tells them they will all be alive when this thing happens. When he dies. They will see it all happen. They will, most importantly, see heaven and earth pass away. The destruction of the temple. The place the Israelites saw as the meeting place of heaven and earth, the dwelling place of their god. In Christ’s death, this would no longer be the dwelling place of God.

Right after this, you have Jesus mentioning a fig tree. Just a few chapters before this text, Jesus curses a fig tree and it withers and dies in front of the disciples. The same disciples he’s speaking to now. The fig tree was an incredibly significant symbol for Rome, at the time, that all of the Jewish people would have understood. Rome was said to have been founded by a pair of twins, Romulus and Remus, who were found under a fig tree being nursed by a she-wolf. Christ then goes on to say that despite the tree growing, the end is still near. Rome will fall. Roughly 30 years after this, a long bloody war began between the Jews and the Romans that lasted nearly 70 years.

Quickly, before we move on to the second half of the reading and the bulk of the message, I want to point out how fickle language can be and how one wrong translated word can change the entirety of the text.

Lots of people read these specific verses, 13:24-27, and see the phrase “Son of Man coming in the clouds” and immediately assume that it’s the return of the Christ. However, the word “coming” is translated from the Greek work “erchomai,” and yes, I probably butchered the pronunciation of that. Greek was a very figurative language. In English, the word “coming” means…well…”coming.” An arrival or an approach. Something that is going to start. But, “erchomai” means, “to arrive, to come into being, or to go or follow.” That one word then changes the text to read a handful of ways…

“At that time people will see the Son of Man arriving in clouds with great power and glory.” “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming into being in clouds with great power and glory.” “At that time people will see the Son of Man leaving in clouds with great power and glory.” “At that time people will see the Son of Man following in clouds with great power and glory.”

All of the sudden we have one word’s full definition range that turns one section of one verse into four possible translations. And, just a short time after Jesus is offering up this prophecy, he leaves this plane of existence in the clouds with great power and glory. Now, I’m not telling you what to believe, but I have an idea of where he was headed with his train of thought…

In essence, verses 24-31 is Christ telling us that he’s gonna be killed. In his death and resurrection, there will be a sort of completion that all will experience. He’s also alerting the disciples to what will come after his death, the fall of Rome and the work they will be tasked with.

Now, to the meat of the message.

The end of days…

The end of time… The end of the age.

Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel once said that “Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time.” Jesus, for those of you unaware, was not a Christian, but was Jewish. He would have understood the Israelite tradition of living around the idea of time. And he speaks to their need for knowing time in the following passage.

Two thousand years later, we still wrestle with this idea. We are a people caught in time. We exist centered around the idea of time. Church starts at 10:30am on the seventh day of the week, every day of the month, 12 months a year, and sometimes other days that we deem holy, based upon a calendar that we constructed around the moving of celestial bodies. We created time, a way of knowing, based upon physical objects moving in a physical space. Even Jesus, himself, in the flesh, is bound by time. And right here, in this passage, Jesus is saying that the physical, the tangible, the touchable, can not predict the coming age because we all exist within time. The Father, however, is not. The Father, God, exists beyond this age.

And that’s what it is. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not an all-encompassing fire. It’s not death and destruction for Muslims and Jews and Hindu’s. It’s the next age. That’s the way the Jewish tradition understood it, the early Christian church understood it. It’s the time after this time. It’s this, but the next this. A better this. A completed this. The finished creation of a loving creator. The completion of a masterwork. Time restored.

And so, Jesus is saying that because the Father exists outside of the confines of time, we shouldn’t worry ourselves with when the next age will come. Instead, we should prepare for it. We should work towards it.

My mother is a beautiful, saint of a woman. But, you know, she’s crazy. To quote Christopher Titus, "I don’t mean, ‘My mom’s crazy…’ I mean, 'We the people find the defendant…’”

Growing up, we would always have to clean the house when people were coming over. It didn’t matter who it was. The meter reader could be coming by the check the electric usage and we’d have to be on our hands and knees picking individual lint balls out of the carpet from where it had fallen off our socks.

She also told me to always leave the house wearing clean underwear. You didn’t wanna get into an accident and be wearing dirty underwear.

Again, a saint of a woman.

But, she was always preparing for something. At the time, it was sheer lunacy. It was busywork for a bored son and a special needs daughter. It was a punishment. Why make a bed if I’m gonna be sleeping in it that night? That question was always answered with, “Who says I’m gonna let you live that long?”

That’s precisely what the Christ is saying in the latter half of the scripture here. The only things he promises are that he will return, this age will end, and his words will endure. He doesn’t promise that he’s gonna let us live long enough to make it to bed tonight. He promises this age will come to an end. And he follows that promise with a command for us to prepare for that end. To work towards it. We work towards a promotion at our jobs. We work towards a better relationship with spouses or kids or parents. We work towards having a nicer lawn and bigger, shinier things. We work towards certainty. We work towards all of these things, wallowing in our salvation and pointing our certainty at the next thing. Waiting for the end of days, where we’ll be vaporized into the heavens and dance around on streets of gold with a crown. But, that’s not what we’re called to do here.

Simply put, Jesus is calling us to prepare this incomplete place for the day of it’s completion. Jesus is calling us to do the work. Now. Here. Prepare. Now. Here. It’s not about someplace after this one and it isn’t about sometime after this one. It’s about beginning the completion, the rectification, the healing of the here and now. Because we exist in this place and in this time. We are to always be working toward the coming age where God will peel back the hurt and the suffering. Where God will make ALL of the wrongs right. Where God will pour out the love we are called to embody. And, selfishly, where God will heal the brokenness in my wife, and in my friends, and in my family, and in me. That’s what we’re to be working towards.

There’s a brewery across the street that does more outreach for this community than most churches. They paint houses, feed the hungry, and make incredible beer. They open their arms and love and look past gender, skin color, sex, orientation, and so on. They brew and sell beer and give love. Does that not make you feel the exact same shame I feel? They talk to the homeless. They love the outcast and marginalized. I look the other way. I pretend the music coming through my headphones is too loud to hear them asking for help.

We have messed everything up, guys. We have twisted and misinterpreted a beautiful message. We have been called to create community, but we do so only with those we deem worthy. With those that have the physical and spiritual characteristics that we agree with. I have friends who are pastors, theologians, that aren’t welcome to discuss their hurt and brokenness with their congregations because it’s not what a leader is supposed to do. They’re to be certain, strong, have all the answers. Always. Is that the next age kinda community we are supposed to be ushering in?

We give money to organizations, but don’t look the people who benefit from that money in the eye when we pass them on the street. We donate to charities and shelters and speak out against rape and abuse and a million other things, but we do not sit with the woman who was raped and let her cry.

We do not sit with the black family who’s son was murdered for selling cigarettes on a street corner.

We do not sit with the heroin addict who’s puking and shaking from detoxing.

We complain about football players protesting Empire for destroying community. We post on social media and talk with our friends about how horrible mass shootings are, but we’ll be damned if anyone takes our guns from us.

We give money through websites and text messages. We give our thoughts and prayers through likes and hearts online. And we go on with our day feeling a little bit better about ourselves. We just put another jewel into a crown.

Jesus isn’t calling us to delegate the responsibility for the work we are to be doing. He calls us each to do it. To do the work. He could have used any analogy that he wanted, but he uses the analogy of servants. Those who are to do the master’s work. Plain and simple. The end of the line. Where the bucks stops. No one below us to delegate our task to. He says we are to be the servants, doing the bidding of the one who exists outside of time, that will usher in an age of completion. And you know what we do? We shirk our responsibilities and pass off the dirty work to those “with a heart for it” or “the patience for it” or “the stomach for it.”

We are each called to a task and we hope someone else will come along and do it for us.

I’m ashamed of myself. I’m ashamed of the church as a whole. I’m ashamed that we have taken everything in this book and twisted it into self-serving, political and social power and propaganda. When we’re called to be the servants preparing the people for the age when they will be made whole. We weren’t called to add to their pain, to scream “Whore!” at the woman getting an abortion for circumstances we don’t know, to legislate marriage so only the people we deem worthy can enjoy it. We were called to be the community, the completion, the coming age to the hurting here and now and we have beyond missed the mark on that. To you, to me, to the church, be better. Today. Be better now. Be better here.

This time of year always breaks my heart. I was fortunate to never miss a meal or a holiday. I got presents every year at the applicable time of year. I grew up knowing we weren’t wealthy, but there were many, many people worse off than we were. I didn’t ever give up anything of mine to them, though. My stuff? My parents’ worked hard for my stuff. The kids who weren’t getting a ham, or weren’t getting a new toy, their parents didn’t work as hard as mine. A truly disgusting mindset, I know.

But, that’s what society told me. They said that the mom on welfare shouldn’t have had another kid. That extra kid cost the others a good Christmas. They said that the kid who’s parents were junkies should have been born to parents without a drug addiction, or mental imbalance, so they could have had a good Christmas. And I was spoon fed that mindset by the church, gobbling it up like my Christmas ham.

We are called to create the next age now. We are called to make this time of year mean something more than toys and meals and “How much did so-and-so spend on the thing?” We are called to prepare for the coming age.

This season, the advent season, is all about that preparation. Preparing ourselves for the coming Christ, preparing our communities. In our preparation, we are called to remember where we’ve come from. Because we exist in time, we have a past to look back at and honor. We have traditions to tie us to those who came before, to those who did the work to usher in the coming age before us.

One of those traditions is the lighting of the advent candles. Each Sunday, leading up to advent, another candle is lit, culminating with the fifth candle on Christmas Eve. Each of the five candles represents something different.

The first candle, today’s candle, is the candle of the prophets. Reminding us to look back at those who came before, prophesying the coming of the gospel of the Christ. And it serves as a reminder that we are now the ones being sent with the good news of Christ’s coming to reach our communities. Doing the work, bridging the gaps, and working towards the completion, the rectification, of creation through Christ. The second candle is the Bethlehem candle. It serves as a reminder that God acted in a particular place at a particular time. God, who exists outside of time as we know, operates within time in a very specific manner. This candle serves to remind us that the Christ was born a human to a human in a real place during a real time. It also serves to remind us that we exist within a particular place at a particular time and in both, we are to be working towards the coming age.

The third candle is the Shepherd’s candle. The shepherd, the smelly, poor, outcast member of their society and culture. This candle is a reminder to us that God chose the lowest member of society to reveal himself to and to reveal his nature to seek out and restore those who’ve been marginalized and pushed to the edges. It’s this candle that reminds us that God sought these people out, and it is our work to continue seeking this people out, to reveal the restoration of creation to.

The fourth Sunday ushers in the angels’ candle. The candle of extravagance. The extra candle, as my wife would say. The candle that shows us God can, because God can. One angel would have been more that sufficient as a messenger to the shepherd’s from week three, but God sent an entire choir of them. Because he can. Because he is God and God’s love is an extravagant, over the top, YUGE kinda love. God truly has the best love.

And the final candle. The one lit on Christmas Eve. It’s the candle for the Christ. The one sent to begin the work of restoration for all of creation. The one sent to begin the completion of God’s creation and the one who will come again to finish that work. This candle reminds us of what was done and what’s left to be done.

As the prophets were called to foretell the coming of the restoration, so are we called to continue the work of restoration.

As the human birth of the divine happened at a particular time and place, so are we called to live in the present, our own particular times and places, to continue the work of restoration.

As the shepherds were called to prove God’s love extends beyond class and culture, so are we called to continue reaching out past physical and social borders and boundaries to continue to work of restoration.

Is anyone seeing a pattern emerging here?

As the choir of angels was called to show us God’s extravagant love, so are we called to continue showing the extravagant love of the one who exists beyond time and comprehension in an effort to further his desire for restoration.

And the final candle, the Christ candle, calls us to continue the work he started some 2,000 years ago. The work of reaching out, reaching down. The living, physical, tangible figures of restoration, ushering in the age to come that he promised.

As we enter into this time of advent, I beg all of you to do your part in bringing about the next age, the age to come. The age promised to us by the Christ. I beg you to begin the work of restoration in your community, wherever that may be.

I’m gonna close simply.

I want to invite my wife on stage at this time to join me in reading the passage for the prophet’s candle. The candle that reminds us we are to be telling our communities about the great restoration of the Christ. After the reading and the candle lighting, I will pray for us, and then I’ll shut up and we can all go home.

#sermon #church #theology #advent #christian #believer #jesus #end of the age #abraham herschell #judaism #faith

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