#Care Bears Movie II : The Next Generations | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gyuphorias · 3 years ago

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mark lee as your college boyfriend

genre | fluff, general headcanons

warnings | kissing, parties, alcohol consumption (mentions of throwing up), academic stress

word count | 1.5k

i. you meet in your world music appreciation class. you sit next to each other in the lecture hall, chatting idly before class starts. he's so kind, so gentle, so sweet. he always picks up your things when you accidentally bump them off your desk, smiling shyly when your fingers brush. he offers to help you with listening tests and exams.

ii. you can't bear to not have him in your life after the semester ends, so you make a concerted effort to keep being friends with him. he just brings a comforting, all encompassing warmth into your life and you don't want to let it go. you go out for coffee every tuesday morning because neither of you have classes. you meet up in the library or one of your apartments to study together, even when you aren't studying for the same class.

iii. you're always the first to hear his new songs. he makes a whole show out of it. you go over to his place every friday night to have a takeout dinner just to treat yourselves for working so hard all week. most times, it means watching a movie and the new episode of a show you're watching together. sometimes, though, it means mark sitting you on his bed and playing a song he's just finished to get your opinion, even though he knows that you're going to say it's perfect. he just likes the way you sit cross legged on his bed and watch him so attentively, absently swaying to his guitar's melody. he thinks it's cute.

iv. he realizes that he has a crush on you on a random saturday morning. you've been out partying all night and he didn't want you to be at home alone with no one to take care of you later, so he spends the night at your apartment, rubbing your back every time you have to run to the bathroom and throw up, wiping the sweat from your forehead and helping you back to bed. it's not until 7 am when he wakes up naturally and turns over to face you in bed, taken aback by how ethereal you still manage to look. you're a little sallow and you wear your exhaustion on your face, but to him, you're still the prettiest person in the whole wide world.

v. he confesses one friday night, maybe a couple of weeks later... through song, of course. he interrupts the whole routine just to do it because he knows he can't make it through the night without telling you. so instead of ordering food first and picking out a movie, he makes you sit on his bed and listen to his new song that he just finished earlier after working on it for a while. he tells you he's really, really proud of this one and he just had to share it with you as soon as possible. so you sit and you listen and when you hear your name thrown in there between lyrics about crushing and being in love, you cry. he thinks he's done something wrong and puts his guitar aside to apologize, but you just climb into his lap and hug him tight, telling him you like him too.

vi. you spend the night telling him that you've had a crush on him since the day you first met. he doesn't believe you, no matter how many times you tell him. he just says you'll have to keep telling him, so that maybe one day, he will believe you.

vii. he dedicates so many of his songs to you, writes so many of them about you, about things only the two of you would know about: when he confessed to you, your first date that was by all means a complete disaster because he'd taken you ice skating and you'd fallen down so many times your hands were cut and bruised up, how you tried to surprise him with cookies but you'd ended up burning them so bad that the fire alarm went off. he swears that he's going to dedicate an album to you one of these days and you believe him entirely.

viii. he tries to walk with you to and from as many of your classes as he can because he likes being around you. you walk out of your world masterpieces class and he's standing on the other side of the hall, wearing his round, wire rimmed glasses and a nice sweater with your university's name stitched across the front and he's smiling so wide, his eyes sparkling in the florescent lighting of the hall because he's just that excited to see you.

ix. he comes to see you at work, especially if you work on campus. he makes the trip to the library at night just to come sit with you at the third floor service desk. you sit together and do homework - or rather, you do homework and mark pesters you, playing with your hair and getting you to play footsies with him under the table even though everyone on the third floor can see. you make him move somewhere else while you do floor counts so you don't get in trouble. and he gives you a ride home after work, insisting on walking you to your apartment door and giving you a goodnight kiss, which he swears he can't sleep without having.

x. he convinces you to live with him once the year is over, telling you that it'll be perfect. you'll get to share a room and you'll get more than a single drawer in his dresser. it's probably one of the best living experiences you've ever had in college because you chose to live with him. you guys have joint morning and night routines: making breakfast together while listening to one of mark's many curated spotify playlists, taking a shower together and laughing the whole time because mark keeps letting you spike his hair up, brushing your teeth together at the sink at night and doing face masks. it's just so lovely, you're in complete sync with one another.

xi. he loves making you come with him to campus events, mostly movie nights the activities board puts on every month. he thinks it's a really good date without having to spend any money. he fills his backpack with snacks and brings a blanket for you to share. he loves scooting your chairs close together and pulling your legs over his lap so you can lean into him and rest your head on his shoulder. he just thinks it's really cute and he's obsessed with being able to cuddle you.

xii. he's so good at taking care of you in so many different ways. when you get you get stressed out about academics, sitting at the desk and crying over your textbooks and notes as you struggle to complete an assignment, he shuts them, puts them away, drags you up out of the chair. he wraps you up in his arms, cradling the back of your head as you cry into his shoulder and swaying just a little bit. eventually, he walks you back into bed and he lays down, letting you melt into him. he tells you to get some rest because you deserve it. he's so good at reminding you to take breaks and rest a little to give your mind some time to recover from working so hard. he offers you his blue light glasses when you get headaches from staring at your computer screen for too long. he just likes being there for you in every way he can, even when he doesn't need to be. he likes feeling needed, likes having the responsibility of looking after someone else and being looked after in return.

xiii. he is absolutely so obsessed with kissing you. he does it every chance he gets just because he can. when he comes to pick you up from class or from work, he acts like he hasn't seen you in years and he cradles your face in his hands to give you as many kisses as he can manage before he gets weird looks. one of his favorite kisses when you're together doing domestic things like making a meal or doing laundry. he just thinks you look so good and he can't help himself. he smiles so wide and pulls you into him, kissing you breathless and giggling into your mouth. it's such a cute habit of his that you really cannot complain about it at all.

xiv. he graduates in the winter a semester ahead of you. you're in the stands at the college of arts and sciences commencement, leaning over the railing trying to find him. you only spot him because he's turned around looking for you too. when he sees you, he smiles so wide and you swear that even from here, you can see his eyes glittering with the entire galaxy. you smile back and wave, feeling so lucky to have met him a couple of years ago. when he walks the stage, you clap and cheer so loud with his parents. and when you find him afterwards and he wraps you up in his arms, picking up and spinning you around, you swear you've never been happier.

#mark lee x reader #mark lee fluff #nct x reader #nct fluff #🌕 — full moon #🌕 — nct

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jacquiebethelina44 · 2 years ago

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Ranking My Top 10 Disney Animated Sequels

10) Mulan II

The plot and story may pail in comparison to the original, but the songs are still catchy and I’m a sucker for a follow your heart love story. Also there’s a super dramatic moment where you think a character legit died. Disney went harder than it needed to and I respect that.

9) Lion King II: Simba’s Pride

Kovu. Need I say more? It’s a nice continuation but leaves something to be desired for me in both the portrayal of the new characters added and the original characters. It may not have captured the original magic, but it’s still less ridiculous than Mulan 2.

8) Lion King 1 1/2 (Technically 3)

This movie is ridiculous. And that the point! It’s the story of the original events of The Lion King from the perspective of Timon and Pumbaa. The universe acts as their personal realtor until they find right where they belong. It’s funny, cute, and has one of the catchiest ear worms you’ll ever hear in your life. Digga Tunna!

7) Cinderella II: Dreams Come True

I love continuations of classic stories that expand the world the stories live in. And that’s exactly what this does. Sure the story within a story format has been done before and done better, but these three vignettes are too good for me to care. I like ‘em. Especially the one where Anastasia finds love!

6) Brother Bear 2

What else could a movie about a man who turns into a bear have to explore? His soulmate becoming one too! (Spoiler alert) This is a cute story about childhood best friends who were meant to be something more and it is just as visually stunning as the first movie. Good for them because quality control is something seriously lacking in these sequels.

5) Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch

This movie was a lot for me when I was a child. Mostly because of this scene below. This movie has the perfect combo of hilarity and heart and has a really good plot that’s believable as well as entertaining. If you want a good cry, go ahead and give it a watch.

4) Little Mermaid II: Return To The Sea

Those who know me might find this placement weird because little mermaid was literally my favorite movie growing up. So how could a story about Ariel and Eric having a daughter not be my favorite sequel? Well, upon a recent rewatch a lot of it is derivative of the first move and some of the new characters lack … complexity. They’re very one sided and can get annoying at times so it loses points for that. Still in the top 5 though! I love it!

3) Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure

Excellent songs and and excellent story about how to handle revealing your sordid past to your children. It’s visually one of the best made sequels and continues the story while also making their new characters well rounded and fully fleshed out. It still stands the test of time and that means it’s a true Disney classic.

2) Cinderella III: A Twist In Time

This. Movie. Is. BONKERS. But in the best way possible! A lot of people complain that the original trio (Cindy, Sleepy, and Snowy) are bland and not great role models for young girls of a new generation. This movie fixes that. Cinderella saves herself. And the prince has a personality! This movie is hilarious and has great songs and animation. There’s a reason it’s my number 2. If you haven’t seen it … fix that.

And finally …

1) Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World

(More-ish)Historically Accurate? Check. Quality Animation? Check. Catchy Songs? CHECK. Same characters in a new environment is always great because if you stay true to who they are there’s so much entertainment to be found. And that’s what this movie is about. Pocahontas is quickly becoming one of my favorite Disney characters and I think too many people criticize and sleep on her because she’s a historical figure. It’s a movie people! Don’t miss out!

Let me know what you guys think!

Until next time

-jacquiebethelina44 ❤️

#disney animation rewatch #disney sequels #lady and the tramp #the little mermaid 2 #pocahontas #mulan #brother bear #the little mermaid #cinderella #the lion king #lilo and stitch

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bistevethor · 3 years ago

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Steve Rogers Fanfiction Recommendations

Happy birthday, Steve!

I know that there are some (a lot?) of steve fans who sometimes struggle to find fics focused on him, so I am here now putting a list of Steve fics. I was going to fics that I haven't seen recommended a lot and most of the ones on this post have less than 200 kudos only, but I end up putting everything (it's probably easier to put my bookmarks as public but well...). It's a massive list (over 100 fics?), so it's will be separated into several posts/reblogs.

Not all of them are from Steve's POV or even have him as the main 'main' character, but rest assured he played an important role and is featured heavily. Lots of these are friendship-focused but I categorized them. The shippy ones are mostly samsteve, thundershield, and some rare pairings because I don't venture to other ships a lot and when I did it's to the rare ones instead lol. Hopefully, any of you can find some gems from this list and these are as enjoyable or as good as I remembered. I'll continue to update it, hopefully, every time I find new ones.

Fics are under read more.

General

The Rocket's Red Glare

Steve was born on the Fourth of July (no joke), so a party is in order! Unfortunately, PTSD decides to rear its ugly head. Fortunately, Steve's got an entire team at his back to help him through it. And screaming goats.

an entry in the scrapbook of absurdity

In which Steve turns into a baby and bites people.

Baby Steve Adventures

Captain America gets hit by a spell during a battle. The rest of the Avengers look after him.

Do You Remember Being Happy? ('Cause I Sure Don't)

"Dragr," Thor called them. "Demons" Clint had said. "Thieves" is what Steve labels them as. AKA, the one where Steve is captured by creatures that feed off of happy memories, and the team is left to pick up the pieces. Post-Avengers.

In Search of (Bucky, Family, Home)

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson

A week following the events of CATWS, Steve recruits Natasha and Sam to help find Bucky.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Do we need to recap again? You were shot three times, beaten near to death by an enhanced super soldier with a metal arm and then almost drowned. Yeah, your ass is going to need a few more days of healing time.”

The Truth When Captains Meet

Steve Rogers wakes up on an alien’s space ship being carried bridal style by Carol Danvers. As far as first meetings go, it’s memorable.

Irish Coffee

Pairings: Jessica Jones & Steve Rogers

Jessica runs into an incognito Cap at a cafe. They form an unlikely friendship of sorts.

The Lifetimes of Steve Rogers (Series)

What happens when Steve Rogers steps onto the quantum platform to return the Stones? Where does he go? What challenges does he find? Who does he meet? How many lifetimes can one man have?

Fifty-Two Pickup

Less than a week after the fall of the Triskelion, Steve Rogers is released from the hospital. Although his physical wounds are almost fully healed, other injuries need a bit more time, and some help from friends.

little kids get big so fast

Steve ends up having to take care of the deaged Defenders.

Grampa Steve's Bedtime Stories

If Mommy was away for work, then Morgan’s Grampa Steve came over to stay with her. He’d tuck her in, let her give Mommy a kiss on video chat, then hand her the picture of Daddy for his kiss. Once Daddy’s picture was back on the bookshelf, Grampa Steve would turn off the bedside lamp so that Miss Friday could cover the ceiling with stars, and ask Morgan what story she wanted to hear.

“Captain Steve, Grampa! Tell me Captain Steve!”

Grampa Steve sometimes read to her from books and other times watched a movie with her, but her favorite by far was when he told her Captain Steve’s Adventures Through the Multiverse.

On Camping Trips

Sam is more Hermione than Natasha is, and Steve doesn't want to be Harry.

Powerful

Steve loses the advantages of the super-soldier serum. This is not a tragedy.

His Dream

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

As if on cue, Steve cut him off with a loud sneeze.

"Yeah. Like that." Sam nodded. "And please sneeze into your elbow next time, dude. You could've just started an epidemic."

"Sorry. Allergies." Steve excused, and Sam raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know it's allergies?" Sam asked, and Steve sighed, putting the ingredients together and solving the mystery of what the gas had actually done.

The answer wasn't ideal. "It feels like the seasonal allergies I had before. Before the serum- and I haven't had them since the serum."

Realization clicked in Sam's head.

"The gas de-serumed you."

Steve swallowed and nodded reluctantly.

OR: Steve gets temporarily de-serumed, with his height and stature staying the same but his immune system being as bad as it was before, and has to stay in the hospital to prevent a severe allergic reaction or illness. Sam stays with him the whole time, making sure he's not alone.

A Strange Encounter

Things have gone awry and Strange is injured. With no other options, he's called for assistance from Captain America and his team.

even if we're apart, i'll always be with you

Steve finds a dirty toy bear at an abandoned gas station, on the way back from a school trip. He brings him home.

As Long as You’re Not Tired Yet of Talking

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

When Steve Rogers tells her, “Don’t be a stranger,” as they’re all going their own ways after New York, it makes her want to laugh.

Draw/Breath

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

Natasha like knowing what makes people tick. She likes knowing things, about her teammates and her coworkers and herself. Oddly enough, sometimes other people like knowing her too.

AKA: Natasha wants to know why Steve isn’t drawing anymore, and takes the long way round to get her answer. Because why not.

With Magic We Do Fly

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers

In Civil War we see Wanda fling Steve into the air with her magic. They must have practiced that, right?

Que Wanda throwing Steve against a wall. Many times.

Just Like We Practiced

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers

Steve had said, in the movie when he asked Wanda to lift him into the building, "Just like we practiced." But just how did they come up with the idea of her lifting people with her powers, and putting them up somewhere like an escalator? Perhaps it was because Wanda accidentally sent a certain tall, blond Avenger face-first into the floor once and he decided he would help her learn to utilize this as a confidence building exercise. Natasha keeps an eye, Thor and Sam help build the training grounds, and Wanda has found her new home. Takes place between AGE OF ULTRON and CIVIL WAR.

Black and White but Red and Blue

They're watching black and white film reels, but Steve sees them in colour.

"My shield may be black and white but it was red and blue. Just like the blue sky under which red blood was spilled. Like Bucky's blue eyes and Peggy's red lips..."

The Road Warriors

Characters: Sam Wilson (Marvel), Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff

It wasn't pretty, but somehow the four of them managed to make it through two years on the run.

We'll Fix It

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

Steve has a hard time after his battle with The Winter Soldier and isn't sure what to do with himself. After not seeing him for a week, Natasha finally shows up to his apartment unannounced to figure out how they can get back to work. There is some crying involved.

From Here On Out

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

The Accords, the search for Bucky, the fight at the airport ... In a world where nothing will ever be the same, sometimes the road to rebuilding trust and friendship is a little rockier than it should be.

AKA, the story of Steve & Natasha and how they got to where they are.

Set post-Civil War but pre-Infinity War.

I have this breath and I hold it tight

Parings: Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers, Clint Barton & Wanda Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff & Vision

Steve finally goes to Wanda’s tiny room and taps on the doorframe, although it’s hardly necessary, with the slightly warped floorboards creaking under his feet. “Hey,” he says. “Got a minute?”

Wanda's been a little withdrawn since Steve broke everyone out of the Raft. She's had a lot to think about.

to you.

Pairings: Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton & Wanda Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff & Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff & Tony Stark

It's Wanda's birthday today. She's not sure how to feel.

New Love

Pairings: Diana (Wonder Woman) & Steve Rogers

Near the end of World War II, Diana Prince finds herself attempting to reconnect to her long-gone, beloved Steve Trevor. However, she comes across Steve Rogers instead.

Sharing Life (And Canned Green Beans)

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

It’s Thanksgiving, and Steve is hiding in the second living room on the 8th floor of the penthouse apartments with a can of green beans.

I'm Fine

Steve slowly began to realize that the problem with being a national icon, a hero, and a role model, is that somehow, he became more than human. He become a symbol, not a person. So when he becomes increasingly unhappy, deeply depressed, and utterly adrift in a world where he doesn't belong, the loneliness and isolation are unbearable. How could anyone believe that an iconic hero like himself was really just an ordinary kid from Brooklyn, dying inside because everything he'd gained still wasn't enough to replace everything he'd lost? How could he possibly bring himself to bleed on the ones he loves? So he tells himself the same lie over and over, hoping one day, he'll believe it.

dogpile

"My dog ate my mission report" An injured Steve remembers something he has to do. Unabashed Steve and dogs fluff. "Didn't peg you for a pet guy." "Allergies."

Alone In This World (Together)

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson

“We’re fugitives,” Steve said finally. “It might never get better.”

“The world’s always going to need saving," Sam replied. "We’re still Avengers. No one can take that away from us.” Then, like they hadn't been having an entire conversation before, “So when do we leave?”

“Once night falls.”

Do we have any idea where she is?”

“No.” Steve took a sip of his coffee. “But I know where she’ll be.”

it gets the worst at night

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

Here's how it goes: Natasha sometimes shares a bed with Steve. It's not what it sounds like.

(In which there are Colombian drug lords, awkward boners, cuddly super-soldiers and the Avengers are all giant dorks.)

Shelter

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

Sam and Steve, right after the fall of SHIELD.

Princely Bickering

Pairings: Jane Foster/Thor, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers & Jane Foster, Steve Rogers & Thor

Steve allows Sam to lean up and inspect his head for bruises and blood. He then checks out Steve’s eyes. ‘Do you know where you are?’ Steve rolls his eyes. ‘Don’t be an ass, Cap, apparently you can break.’ ‘London, England, chasing apparently useless Hydra intel despite having about five hundred international arrest warrants out for us because we’re just that stupid,’ says Steve. Sam pats him - gently - on the shoulder. Life on the run isn't easy, especially not after an injury. Fortunately Steve still has a few allies left.

And The Seconds Tick Down

AU of Civil War. How the world ended in twenty steps when Steve died.

"Grant" and "Francis" Go Shopping

Pairings: Clint Barton & Steve Rogers

Steve and Clint both have holiday shopping to do for their family of choice, so they make a day trip to an outlet mall, have a few heart to hearts, use some coupons, buy a bunch of presents, and eventually get through their shopping lists.

A Tune Without Words

Pairings: Jane Foster/Thor, Steve Rogers & Thor, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

As he and Sam prepare to begin searching for Bucky, Steve gets various offers of help—some more unexpected than others.

Purpose

Tony Stark wins the fight in Siberia completely by accident.

Steve Rogers does not resist his arrest as he is taken to the Raft.

Sam Wilson, T'Challa, and Pepper Potts pick up the pieces.

Full of Wounds and Still Standing on my Feet

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Wanda Maximoff

The five times Steve looked out for Wanda, and one time Wanda decided someone needed to look out for Steve.

Three Awakenings

The first three times that Steve Rogers woke up during his first twenty-four hours in the twenty-first century.

Making Your Own Future

Characters: Steve Rogers, Diana Prince, Steve Trevor Five times -- plus one -- that Diana Prince and Steve Rogers encountered one another.

Better Living Through Pizza

Pairings: Clint Barton & Steve Rogers

Steve takes some time off from soldiering and Avengering to get his head on straight, and Clint is assigned to keep an eye on him, because apparently SHIELD believes in the blind leading the blind. Steve really needs a hobby, since modern television shows baffle him, but Clint keeps bringing him DVDs and pizza.

Five Times Clint Barton Spoke with Steve Rogers about Growing Old and the One Time He Didn't.

Pairings: Clint Barton & Steve Rogers

When Steve Rogers reappeared from the past as an old man, there was a lot of catching up to do. Clint Barton made sure nobody got left behind.

Hammer's Totally Heavy-Handed and Incompetent Revenge

"So, at the end of IM2, Justin Hammer swears revenge on Pepper. He waits until Tony and Rhodey are halfway across the world to launch his attack.

Unfortunately for him, thanks to SHIELD, Iron Man and War Machine aren't the only superheroes in Pepper's rolladex. Steve thinks Pepper's just swell and doesn't take too kindly to somebody trying to hurt her."

Cue badass!Steve and competent!Pepper

Fan Mail

Steve starts getting his fan mail and receives an invitation to the prom. Written for a prompt at the Avengers kink meme. It was a great prompt, and so much fun to write and get feedback for!

Prom. Steve 'Grandpa Iceberg' Rogers at a 21st-century high school prom. "This isn't happening. This whole conversation is just an elaborate practical joke. Bruce really just has orders for widgets or something."

Bruce waved the printouts at him. "Fraid not. I don't really do practical jokes. Messing with other people's moods just seems. I don't know. Karmically unwise."

Mascot

Steve runs. People see Steve run. Steve gets adopted by the neighbourhood he runs through every week day morning. He finds this confusing. Tony finds it amusing.

Locks Not Replaced

Tony angsts back at Avengers' HQ, Ross is a bully and Steve makes sure he doesn't get away with it. In other words, there is much regret, a bit on the philosophy of locks, adventure and far too many Robin Hood metaphors.

woof

For a prompt on the avengers kinkmeme: "...something different happens when Steve gets Dr Erskine's serum plus the Vita ray treatment... Steve does get taller and stronger, but when the first full moon hits, he turns into a big friendly looking dog. Yes, he's a weredog, not a werewolf."

Mission: Baby

Pairings: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

The Asset finds himself in charge of the care of a small baby, but somehow he knows—he has to protect the baby from all harm, whatever the cost.

14 Tracks

Pairings: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Avengers Team 14 tracks from Steve's iPod and how they got on there.

Life Will Rattle Your Bones

Pairings: Erik Lehnsherr & Steve Rogers

Captain America and the Howling Commandos find Schmidt sooner than they thought... wait, what do you mean this is a *different* Schmidt?

In war-torn Germany, the paths of Steve Rogers and Erik Lehnsherr cross, part, and cross again.

come build me up

Pairings: Sharon Carter & Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

“Do you ever feel like -- like you joined up because you wanted to do good. You wanted to do the right thing but somewhere along the way, you just lost the whole fucking plot.”

“All of the time.”

Or: the one where Captain America and Agent 13 give long distance friendship a whirl.

Down in the Worn Out Place Again

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Wanda Maximoff

“You don't look a day over 85, Captain,” Wanda says.

Natasha smiles, just barely, and nudges Steve with her elbow. “She makes jokes now.”

(Post AoU, stories about friendship.)

Satellites

Characters: Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Nick Fury Pairings: Natasha Romanov & Steve Rogers, Minor Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Minor Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov

In the immediate aftermath of SHIELD's collapse and Steve's plunge into the Potomac, Natasha considers her place in the world. Also the fact that Steve is depressing.

Timeless Classics

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Avengers Team Five An undetermined number of times (six, apparently) Steve unexpectedly got the reference (sort of), and one time everyone discovered something new together.

you just wait and see

Pairings: Rocket Raccoon & Steve Rogers

“Thor said you’re the captain.” Rogers says, his voice distant, sad smile growing into a sadder grin. “Tough job.”

The Small Hours

Pairings: Steve Rogers & T'Challa, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

"I'm not getting him back, am I." The words were flatly delivered – not a question so much as fatigued resignation. "We will do everything we can to help him," T'Challa quietly replied, but he wouldn't lie, not about this. Not to a fellow warrior he respected on and off the field of battle. "The possibility does exist, however, that the triggers are permanent."

The Man We All Remember From the Newsreels

Still getting used to the twenty-first century, Steve comforts himself with memories of long-gone friends. But Howard Stark, the man Steve remembers, is nothing like the man he sees in the newsreels.

we're all choir boys at best

Characters: Steve Rogers, Johnny Storm

You are totally getting laid tonight. "Please stop talking." You hijacked my brain first, this is totally not my fault.

Epistaxis

Steve doesn't worry the first time he gets a bloody nose that won't quit. But when it happens a second, third, fourth... He, and his teammates, start to get concerned.

You Close Your Eyes and the Glory Fades

His body isn’t his own, he knows that, knew before the procedure that everything would change. That was the easiest thing to wrap his head around, actually, the physical changes. He’s used to his body betraying him, so this is just another thing to learn his way around. But the colors of everything, even the sliver of blue sky he could see, craning his head at the tiny window, look different.

Looking For Answers (From The Great Beyond)

After the Battle of New York is over, and Loki and the tesseract are returned to Asgard, Steve takes a road trip across the country, and tries to figure out what he wants to do next.

Mourning the Future

Steve's ties to the past and the future are pretty tenuous, and the serum ensures he lives in an eternal present state of ever-youthful vigour. When an old war buddy gets handed his last marching orders, Steve has to wonder if everyone will eventually leave.

Riviera Life

Sam and Steve have been traversing Europe looking for Bucky. Not everyone is convinced it isn’t an open invitation road trip.

Voluntary Bros.

Characters: Steve Rogers, Johnny Storm

"Dude, you could be twins, they tested you before they defrosted you to see if you were a clone or something, or if he was a clone," Clint said.

"I want to talk to him, I think. I mean, a girl threw her latte at me last week for not calling her back and this dude felt me up at an art gallery yesterday," Steve said.

Two Brooklynites and One Big Apple

Pairings: Miles Morales & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

“You did good out there today,” Captain America said, brushing a layer of detritus from his unfathomably broad shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”

“Not if I see you first,” replied Miles, fingergunning with one hand as he sent a web rope fwipping off into the distance with the other, catapulting himself away at tremendous speed.

... in which two superheroes battle with bad guys, embark on community art lessons, and a friendship forms along the way.

Battle Fatigue

Steve thought he was doing okay. Things weren't going great, but they were fine, manageable even, and then suddenly they weren't.

We Become New Yorkers (or: Five Times Steve Rogers Looked For Home, and One Time Home Found Him)

New York is a million cities at the same time. This is how Steve found his.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

In which Steve and Peter learn that the best way to get through a bad situation is together. And to avoid collapsing buildings. And that concussions are terrible, terrible things.

Leviticus 25

"You want to save Bucky Barnes? You are going to have to put your own house in order first because he is going to need a rock to cling to. You are not ready to be that rock for him. You owe it to him -- and more importantly, you owe it to yourself -- to figure things out, figure out how you can be happy in this time and place, whether or not Barnes is with you."

Strike

Sometimes the road to recovery involves bowling. Conveniently, so does the one to the Grand Canyon.

Conversation in Wakanda

“I have been told that you had the privilege to share a training session with some of our Dora Milaje,” T’Challa says. “May I ask how it went?”

“Well,” the Captain huffs. “There’s no polite way to say it: I had my ass handed to me. Repeatedly.”

He sounds and looks utterly delighted.

Contact Light

Everyone thought computers would be the thing that really blew Steve's mind about the 21st century. They were wrong. When he finds out that he missed the moon landing, it's the start of an ongoing obsession with space that maybe involves Neil deGrasse Tyson, Twitter, and Star Trek marathons.

Twenty-Two

“This is Lucky,” Clint said when a dog got between him and Natasha. Lucky’s vest was bright, like desert mornings and night explosions.

“Does he help?” Natasha asked.

Clint pressed his hands flat on the counter behind him. “He saved my life.”

Natasha looked at Steve, her expression fierce. Steve resisted the urge to yank down his sleeves. Instead, he dug his nails into the puckered skin on his forearms.

AKA An AU in which Steve is a veteran just trying to survive (or not).

Gray

Peter doesn't expect Steve to show up at his house one night when he gets home from school. He also doesn't expect to have a long conversation with him, and choose to be on his side instead.

We're Happy, Free, Confused, and Lonely at the Same Time.

"Tony isn't sure, but he *thinks* Steve Rogers is going to try and argue with him about not being a kid, while wrapped up in a fluffy blanket and plaid pyjama pants watching a Disney movie. Tony really hopes that is the case. The Captain America voice looses all affect when wrapped up in that blanket and Tony can't wait to inform him as such." - The one where Tony realises that Captain America and Steve Rogers are not the same person, and Steve is so much younger then he thought.

This Isn't A Love Song, This Isn't A Fable

Steve's not OK with people's perception of Captain America, no matter what he says or how much he pretends otherwise. It's like no one in this time period realizes that there's more to him than a spangly outfit. And yes, he's including the Avengers in that. ... or, the one where everything's all right, until it's not.

it's safe here in our new world

Post TWS. In which Natasha and Steve go shopping, have Thursday night movie nights, and learn that Natasha loves to platonically kiss Steve. Which is good, because Steve loves being platonically kissed by Natasha.

Shadowboxing

Pairings: Matt Murdock & Steve Rogers

It doesn’t matter how many times you fall – what matters most is how many times you get back up. Steve Rogers knew this lesson far too well and it was one Matt Murdock had endured all his life. With both men at their lowest, could a chance friendship bring each of them to their feet again?

Everybody Eats When They Come to My House

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

“You’ll ruin your dinner,” Sam says, gesturing with Steve with his spatula.

i fear for the calendar; its days are numbered

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

Before she goes off the grid, Natasha gives Steve her phone number. He’s honored that he’s the only one to be trusted with it, but quickly learns that she spends most of her free time texting him Dad jokes.

Status Quo Ante

Pairings: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

A tale in which Sam suspects he should be used to this by now, for values of 'this' that involve certain folks he hangs out with and situations he finds himself in, Team Cap becomes Team Ex-Cap becomes TBD, and nobody but Clint really wants to know what happened to Scott Lang's GI Joes. (Sam Wilson from the final scene to the mid-credits scene.)

The Glass Parade

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov

Steve thinks that he’s seen Natasha be at least three different people in the short time he’s known her, and he isn’t sure which one is real.

In which the most confusing part of the future is how much Steve has in common with Natasha, and the fact that she seems dead-set on being his friend.

Still Life

Steve Rogers and a very modern form of art therapy. (The one where Steve draws himself out of despair and into some notoriety when his cartoons hit the internet, but he's still not allowed to look at Tumblr without an okay from Pepper.)

Selective Service

The serum's given Steve a lot, but it hasn't taken anything away from him. Not even the things he never wanted in the first place.

I'm a Hustler, Baby

Steve Rogers has a talent for pool--and for making others believe he's terrible at it.

The Healing Properties of Felt-Tip Pens

Rapid healing has worked wonders on Steve Rogers' body, but occasionally it really screws with his head. In the aftermath of torture, Bruce Banner helps Steve to reconcile mind and body.

If I Die Before I Wake

It's his job, as their leader, to endure the sadistic focus of their captor, and that is the one thought that carries Steve through.

Even Gods Do

Captain America doesn't have a good relationship with sleep anymore. Also, he's not a toy.

Under My Skin

Written for a prompt on avengerkink: I want to see something where, for whatever reason, Steve's accelerated healing turns out to be a bad thing. Something where the faster healing is making things worse. I would prefer something other than the standard, super-healing allows for more torture without death. “He's lucky – to have the serum, to have you all.” Tony wasn't sure about that first part. When one faced death and destruction every day on the job, there were many advantages to having a healing factor...and a great many disadvantages as well.

A Glossary of the 21st Century

Pairings: pre-Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov

Steve's sick of not understanding what's going on, and the team are not all that helpful, so he starts keeping an illustrated notebook for further research. With the help of wiki, google and Logan he starts to settle in and find his place in the twenty-first century.

Blanket Gift Policy

“You didn’t,” Bucky said, with no real hope of being contradicted. Clint shrugged helplessly and passed him the large, soft bundle wrapped in shiny purple foil.

“Sorry.” Tony covered his eyes with one hand.

“I’m getting a migraine.”

“So,” Bruce said wearily, “counting Clint, me, Bucky, Tony, and Sam, that brings it up to five.”

“Excuse you, mine’s not a blanket,” Sam said. “Mine’s a slanket. Big difference.”

Bucky resisted the urge to throw the whole heap of parcels at Sam’s head. “Because it has sleeves? It’s still a blanket, Wilson. They’re all blankets. Even Thor’s direct-from-Asgard raven gift delivery was a cloak, which just means it’s a blanket with a strap. We all got Steve a goddamn blanket.”

One Tin Soldier

Written for a prompt at avengerkink: Because really, under any other circumstances, why would they follow him when he's some guy who's younger than the rest of them (time as a Capsicle aside), who goes around wearing that spangly outfit, who's not even used to the modern world? Why Steve Rogers, rather than a Norse god or the CEO of Stark Industries or anyone else?

“Love is for children,” she'd said, but respect knew no such bounds. The five times the Avengers accepted Steve as their leader, and the one time they followed without question.

and if there's life we'll see it

Steve is instantly taken with this idea of having the picture of the person calling you flash on your screen when they ring your cell.

Secure Your Own Oxygen Mask (Before Assisting Others)

Steve keeps going, because they need him. Being Captain America - having the serum - is a responsibility and a privilege he takes seriously, and he won't waste it by sitting around resting in the middle of a crisis. But then the work is over, and the original victims of the crisis aren't the only ones needing looking after.

Way of the Eagle

Clint introduces Steve to kung-fu movies. Things escalate quickly.

Walking Wounded

In the aftermath of the battle against the Chitauri, Steve's doing just fine. Until he's not. Fortunately, Thor is a perfect mother-hen, Tony makes decent back-up, JARVIS is a genius, and Soap Operas are life-changing. (Or, Post-Shawarma Feels.)

#steve rogers #fic rec #pro steve rogers #i guess i'll tag the ships #samsteve #thundershield

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 10/1/21: VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY II, THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK, TITANE, MAYDAY, THE JESUS MUSIC

Yeah, so I haven’t had the time over the past couple weeks to write a column, and I kind of hate that fact, especially since I’m coming up on a pretty major milestone for me writing a weekly box office column and reviewing movies. In fact, that milestone comes next week! And once again, I’m struggling to get through the movies I was hoping to watch and write about this week, because I’ve been out of town and once again, very busy over the weekend. Let’s see how far I get...

Before we get to this week’s wide releases, I’m excited to say that my local arthouse movie theater, The Metrograph, is finally reopening for in-person screenings, and they’re kicking things off with a 4k restoration of Andrez Zulawski’s 1981 thriller, Possession, starring Sam Neill and Isabell Adjani, who won a Best Actress prize at Cannes for her performance in the film. I actually saw this at the Metrograph a few years back, and Metrograph Pictures, the distribution arm of the company is now distributing the 4k restoration. There’s a lot of exciting things ahead at Metrograph, including an upcoming four-film Clint Eastwood retrospective, including White Hunter, Black Heart (1990) and A Perfect World (1991) this Friday. Also, Lingua Franca director Isabel Sandoval will be showing her fantastic film from 2020 (a rare chance to see it in a theater and I’ll be there!) as well as program a number of other favorites of hers. Sunday will have screenings of Ingmar Berman’s Scenes from a Marriage (1973) in its full four plus hour glory, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) and John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1994).. In other words, the Metrograph is back!

Moving over to the weekend’s three wide releases, the first one up being Sony’s VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE (Sony Pictures) with Tom Hardy returning as Eddie Brock aka Venom, joined by Woody Harrelson as the psychotic symbiote, Carnage. Taking over the directing reins is Andy Serkis, who has only directed two other movies, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and Breathe, but as an actor, he’s been heavily involved with the CG VFX (and performance capture) needed to bring the characters in this Marvel anti-hero movie to life.

Venom has been one of Spider-Man’s most popular villains and sometimes allies for quite a few decades now, starting out life as a cool black costume Spider-Man found on a strange planet during the first “Secret Wars,” which turned out to be an alien symbiote that had malicious intentions. Spider-Man got the costume off of him but it then linked up with Eddie Brock, a sad-sack journalist whose emotions drove the alien symbiote to become the Venom we known and (mostly) love, thanks to one Todd McFarlane. Venom continued to play a large part in the Spider-Man books before getting his own comics, and not before a super-villain was created for him in Cletus Kasady, a vicious serial killer whose infection by the symbiote turns him into Carnage. And that’s who Harrelson is playing.

Being a sequel, we do have some basis to go on, although the original Venom movie, released in early October 2018, also arrived at a time when it was only the second time the character of Venom was brought to the big screen -- the first time being Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, in which the character was received without much love as Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And yet, Venom did great, opening with $80.2 million and grossing $213 million domestically, which is more than enough to greenlight a sequel. (It made over double that amount overseas, too.) For comparison, the Wolverine prequel opened with $85 million but at the beginning of summer, so it quickly tailed away with other movies coming out after it. Venom: Let There Be Carnage has to worry about the new James Bond opening a week later, so it very likely could be a one-and-done, opening decently but quickly dropping down as other big movies are released in October (basically one a week).

I’ve already seen the movie, and by the time you read this, reviews will already be up --including my own at Below the Line. Social media reactions seem to not be so bad though, so maybe it’ll get better reviews than its predecessor, which was trashed by critics, receiving only a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But if you look at the fan ratings, they’re higher with 81%, although it’s hard not to be

I’m thinking that bearing COVID in mind and the law of depreciation since the previous movie, Venom: Let There Be Carnage will probably be good for around $50 million this weekend, maybe a little more, but however it’s received, I expect it to drop significantly next week, though a total domestic gross of $135 to 140 million seems reasonable.

Another strong sequel to kick off October is the animated THE ADDAMS FAMILY II (MGM), which is following up the 2019 hit for MGM/UA Releasing with most of the voice cast returning, including Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Finn Wolfhard, as well as Nick Kroll, Snoop Dogg, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, and Bette Midler voicing the popular characters from the New Yorker cartoons, a popular ‘60s TV series, and two Barry Sonnenfeld movies from the ‘90s.

The 2019 animated film was a pretty solid hit for the newly-launched UA Releasing, grossing $100 million domestic after a $30.3 million opening, making it one of MGM’s biggest hits since it was restructured under UA and became its own distributor again. Who knows what’s going to happen with Amazon’s plans on buying MGM and whether the latter will remain a distribution wing, but MGM still has a number of movies out this year that likely will be awards contenders. But that doesn’t mean much for The Addams Family II, which will try to get some of those people who paid to see the original movie in theaters back to see the sequel… and if they’re not going to theaters, MGM is once again offering the movie day-and-date on VOD much like they did with last year’s Bill and Ted Face the Music, which opened much earlier in the pandemic (late august, 2020), so it far fewer options to see it in theaters compared to this animated sequel.

It’s highly doubtful that The Addams Family II was going to open anywhere near to $30 million even if there wasn’t a pandemic, and it wasn’t on VOD just because MGM just doesn’t seem to be marketing the movie as well as its predecessor. You can blame COVID if you want, but it’s also the fact they’re distributing the company’s first James Bond movie in six years, No Time To Die, on their own vs. through another distributor, ala the last few Daniel Craig Bonds. But we’ll talk more about that next week, since that’s going to be an important movie to help cover MGM’s expenses for the rest of 2021. (I haven’t had a chance to see this yet, but it’s embargoed until Friday, so wouldn’t be able to get a review into the column regardless.)

We’ve seen quite a few family hits over the past few months even when the movies were already on streaming/VOD, but parents are probably being a bit more careful with kids back in school, many younger kids still not vaccinated, and the Delta variant still not quite under control. Because of those factors, I think The Addams Family II is more likely to do somewhere between $15 and 18 million its opening weekend, maybe more on the lower side.

Third up is THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (New Line/WB), David Chase’s prequel to his hit HBO series, The Sopranos, which went off the air in 2004 but still finds fans on the new HBO Max streamer. Ironically, this prequel will air on the streamer at the same time as it's getting a theatrical release, which probably won't be a very tough choice for fans.

Chase has reunited with director Alan Taylor, who won a Primetime Emmy for his work on the show in 2007 before moving onto other popular shows like HBO's Game of Thrones. Taylor has had a bit of a rough career in film, though, having directed Marvel Studios’ sequel, Thor: The Dark World, a movie that wasn't received very well although there were rumors that Taylor butted heads with the producers and maybe didn't even finish the movie. He went on to direct Terminator Genesys, which honestly, I can't remember if it was the worst Terminator movie, but it was pretty bad.

What's interesting is that because this is a prequel set in the '70s and '80s, none of the actors from the show appear on it, but it does star Alessandro Nivola, a great actor in one of his meatiest roles for a studio movie. It also introduces Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini (who played Tony Soprano, if you didn't know), playing the teenage Tony, plus it has great roles for the likes of Jon Bernthal (as Tony's father), Vera Farmiga (playing Tony's mother), Corey Stoll (playing the younger "Junior” Soprano), and Lesile Odom Jr, as the Sopranos key adversary, even though he ends up coming across like the good guy of the movie. It also stars Billy Magnussen, who oddly, also has a key role in next week's No Time to Die.

I'm sure there's quite a bit of interest in seeing where Tony came from and to learn more about his family, many who were dead long before the events of the HBO show, but will that be enough to get them into theaters when they already have HBO? I already reviewed the movie for Below the Line, and reviews are generally positive, which might get people more interested in this prequel.

As with most of Warner Bros’ movies this year, Many Saints will also debut on HBO Max and unlike some of the studio’s other 2021 offerings, it will actually make more sense to watch this one on the streamer since that’s how most people watched The Sopranos. That seems like a killer for Many Saints, and it’s likely to keep it opening under $10 million, where it might have done better on a different weekend (like sometime over the last two weeks).

This is what I have this weekend’s top 10 looking like:

1. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony) - $50.4 million N/A

2. The Addams Family II (MGM/UA Releasing) - $16.5 million N/A

3. The Many Saints of Newark (New Line/WB) - $9 million N/A

4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel/Disney) - $7.5 million -44%

5. Dear Evan Hansen (Universal) - $4.1 million -45%

6. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $3.3 million -30%

7. Jungle Cruise (Disney) - $1.1 million -35%

8. Candyman (Universal) - $1.3 million -48%

9. Cry Macho (Warner Bros.) - $1 million -52%

10. Malignant (Warner Bros.) - .7 million -53%

Opening in select cities is French filmmaker Julia (Raw) Ducournau’s TITANE (Neon), the genre thriller that won this year’s coveted Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It stars Agathe Rouselle as a young woman who has an interesting relationship with automobiles, but she also has psychotic tendencies that leaves a trail of bodies behind her. On the run, she decides to pretend she’s the missing son of a fireman (Vincent Lindon), who has been missing for 10 years, and things just get weirder from there.

I honestly wasen’t sure what to expect from this although I do remember walking out of Ducournau’s cannibal movie, Raw, just because it was so gross, even though so many of my colleagues and friends swear by the movie, and this one, for that matter. Sure, there’s a certain “prove it” factor to me watching a movie that wins the Palme D’Or, because it’s very rare that I like the movies that do win that benchmark cinema award.

After a flashback to Agathe’s character Alexia when she was an obstinate young girl kicking the back seat of her father as he’s driving. They crash and she’s forced to get surgery that puts an odd looking piece of metal in her head. Decades later, she seems to be a pseudo-stripper at weird punk rock car show -- I guess they do those things different in France -- and hooking up with a fellow “model” afterwards. Agathe is actually a very popular model/dancer but when one fan gets too grabby, she pulls a knitting needle out of her hair and stabs it through his ear, killing him. Oh, yeah, she then has sex with a car and seemingly gets pregnant, but that only happens later. First, she goes on a bit of a killing spree and then goes on a run and decides that by strapping up her breasts and breaking her nose, she can pass off this fire captain’s son… and it works!

So the second half deals with acting great Vincent Lindon’s absolutely bonkers steroid-addicted man who seems to be sexually attracted to his own son, and most of his fellow firefighters knows that he’s gay but in the closet, but I’m honestly not sure what that matters. He’s a pretty disgusting character whose 70-year-old ass we see way too much of, and even those who might find Rouselle to be quite fetching, there’s a certain point where her nudity is not alluring but quite horrifying.

Oh, and at this time, Alexia (or Adrien, as she’s now going) has also gotten significantly pregnant, but it’s not a normal pregnancy because what should be milk from her breasts seems to some sort of motor oil. That’s because she FUCKED A CAR earlier in the movie!!! What do you expect when you fuck a car and don’t use protection, girlie? The fact Alexia/Adrien is trying to hide the fact she’s a pregnant woman from a station full of men isn’t even particularly disturbing. The part that really got me was when she broke her own nose to pass off as this guy’s son -- I actually had to look away for that part.

Listen I’m no prude, and I think I can handle most things in terms of horror and gore, but Titane just annoyed me, because it felt like Ms Ducournau was doing a lot of what we see more for shock value than to actually drive the story forward. There just doesn’t seem to be much point to any of it, and once the movie gets to the firehouse, and we see her interaction (as a young man) with her “father” and his colleagues, it just gets more grueling.

It’s as if Ducournau had watched a lot of movies by the likes of Cronenberg or David Lynch, or more likely Nicolas Refn or Lars von Trier, and thought, “I could be just as strange and horrific as those men… let’s see what people think of this.” And way too many people fell for it, including the Cannes jury. While I normally would approve of any good body horror movie, especially one with cinematography, score and musical selections as good as this one, I doubt I’d ever want to watch this movie again. And therefore, I don’t think I can recommend this movie to anyone either, at least no one I want to remain my friend.

As far as the movie’s box office, NEON is opening the movie in 562 theaters to build on buzz from various film festivals, including the New York Film Festival earlier this week. I think it should be good for half a million this weekend, although maybe it'll surprise me like NEON's release of Parasite a few years back. I just don't see this getting into the top 10 but maybe just outside it.

And then we have a few more movies that I got screeners for but just couldn’t find the time to watch, but might do so once I finish this verdammt column.

The faith-based doc THE JESUS MUSIC (Lionsgate) by the Erwin Brothers (I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe) takes a look at the rise of Christian Contemporary Music through artists like Amy Grant and Stryper and everything in between, featuring lots of interviews of the artists’ trials and triumphs. Even though there isn’t much CCM I ever listen to, I’m still kind of curious about this one, since I generally like music docs and this is guaranteed not to be the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll of most of them. I have no idea how wide Lionsgate intends to release this but it certainly can be fairly wide, because the Erwins have delivered at least one giant hit for Lionsgate, and I Still Believe may have been another one if not for the pandemic. It actually opened on March 13, just days before movie theaters shut down across the country, so it's little surprise it only made $7 million domestic. That said, the acts in this one have a lot of fans, and if Lionsgate does release The Jesus Music into 1,000 theaters or so (which is very doable), then I would expect it would make between $1 and 2 million, which would be enough to break into the Top 10.

I haven't seen any of the movies based on Anna Todd's YA romance novels but the third of them, AFTER WE FELL, will play in about 1,311 theaters on Thursday i.e. tonight through Fathom Events, and may or may not continue through the weekend. These movies just kind of show up, and again, having not seen any of them, I'm not sure what kind of audience they have, but this one stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes, as well as Stephen Moyer, Mira Sorvino and Arielle Kebbel with Castille Landon directing.

Grace Van Patten (Under the Silver Lake) stars in Karen Cinorre’s action-fantasy film MAYDAY (Magnolia), playing Ana, a young woman who is transported to a “dreamlike and dangerous” coastline where she joins a female army in a never-ending war where women lure men to their deaths. It also stars Mia Goth, Havana Rose Liu, Soko, Théodore Pellerin and Juliette Lewis. It will be in theaters and On Demand this Friday.

The great Tim Blake Nelson stars in Potsy Ponciroli’s action-Western OLD HENRY (Shout! Studios/Hideout) about a widowed farmer and son who take in an injured man with a satchel full of cash only to have to fend off a posse who come after the man, claiming to be the law. Not sure who to trust, the farmer has to use his gun skills to defend his home and the stranger.

The romantic-comedy FALLING FOR FIGARO (IFC Films) is the new movie from Australian filmmaker Ben Lewin (The Sessions), who I’ve interviewed a few times, and he’s a really nice chap. This one stars Danielle Macdonald, Hugh Skinner, and Joanna Lumley, and it will be in theaters and On Demand this Friday. This rom-com is set in the world of opera singing competitions with Macdonald playing Millie, a brilliant young fund manager who decides to chase her dream of being an opera singer in the Scottish Highlands. She begins vocal training lessons with a former opera diva, played by Lumley, where she meets Max, a young man also training for that competition. Could love blossom? This actually sounds like my kind of movie, so I’ll definitely try to watch soon.

The second season of “Welcome to Blumhouse” the horror movie anthology kicks off on Amazon Prime Video on Friday with the first two movies, Maritte Lee Go’s Black as Night (which I’ve seen) and Gigi Saul Guerrero’s Bingo Night (which I haven’t), and actually I’ll have an interview with Ms. Go over at Below the Line possibly later this week. The former stars Ashja Cooper as a teen girl living in Louisiana who has a bad experience with homeless vampires, along with her best friend (Fabrizio Guido).

Also, Antoine Fuqua and Jake Gyllenhaal’s remake of the Danish film THE GUILTY will begin streaming on Netflix starting Friday after premiering at TIFF a few weeks back. I never got around to reviewing it, but it’s pretty good, maybe a little better than the original movie but essentially the same. I’d definitely recommend it if you like Jake, because he’s definitely terrific in it.

Also hitting Netflix this week is Juana Macias' SOUNDS LIKE LOVE (Netflix), a Spanish language romance movie that (guess) I haven't seen!

A few other movies I didn’t get to this week, include:

STOP AND GO (Decal) VAL (Dread) BLUSH (UA Releasing) RUNT (1091 Pictures)

Next week, it’s not time for James Bond, it’s time for James Bond to die… no, wait… there is NO TIME TO DIE! Also, a very, very special anniversary for the Weekend Warrior….

#The Weekend Warrior #Venom: Let There Be Carnage #Many Saints of Newark #Addams Family II #movies #review #box office #reviews #The Jesus Music #Titane

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carebearbro · 4 years ago

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I'm confused. Wasn't that Share or Harmony Bear running with Bedtime Bear, Lotsa Heart Elephant, Birthday Bear, and Loyal Heart Dog escaping from Dark Heart's lair in Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation?

This is a very good and interesting question, and I actually wasn’t able to answer it without watching the scene multiple times. If you look in the second to last pic, Harmony is standing close to Lotsa and Loyal Heart. Earlier in the scene, Share is holding paws with Bedtime. You would think that it should be Harmony since she’s closer to Lotsa and Loyal. But, Bedtime is also in that last scene. So in terms of their positions, you might be able to argue it either way. Who knows how the Bears and Cousins may have moved around throughout the scene. However, if you look at the color, in that last pic, the color is definitely Share’s, IMO. Harmony is a darker purple. It’s possible that it was supposed to be Harmony, and they made a coloring error. Or maybe they didn’t really care. We’ve seen all kinds of little animation errors and things that don’t make sense. However, it may not be a mistake. Share appears to be a lot closer to the camera in that last shot compared to Lotsa and Loyal, so it’s possible that she’s not really next to them. So it’s hard to say. But I say that it’s Share in that last pic.

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flyingmycolours · 4 years ago

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My First Custom Care Bear - Wonderheart Bear!

I’ve made my very first custom Care Bear! Wonderheart Bear, Tenderheart’s cute little niece from “Welcome to Care-A-Lot” and “Care Bears and Cousins”. I’ve always liked cub Care Bears (probably a big reason why The Care Bear Movie II: A New Generation” is my favourite piece of Care Bear media, period), and I like the see the little 6-inch Kenner plushies as “cubs”. So, when I got an extra Love-A-Lot in a recent Ebay lot, inspiration hit! I’ll go over my construction process here:

Firstly, I had to remove Love-A-Lot’s tummy symbol. Luckily, a thread picker was all I needed. I just carefully removed the border threads and it came right off.

I was quite happy to discover that underneath a Care Bear’s tummy symbol, their tummy is perfectly intact. There will be a little indentation where the tummy symbol was (so you can’t make perfect symbol-less bears this way), but it’s still better than having fluff come out.

Originally, i was going to make Wonderheart’s new Tummy Symbol completely out of felt, but I didn’t have the light pink for the outer of the hearts. What I did have in my sewing kit, however, was embroidery thread. So, I made a base out of white felt, and drew on the hearts with just a simple pen.

Embroidery is basically colouring with thread. I first traced the drawn heart “outline”, then “filled it in”, starting from the middle and working my way out. The whole process, for about a 1 1/2 square inch patch, took a few hours, but I barely noticed the time passing.

The fully embroidered heart. Excuse my blurry photos.

Next, I used fabric glue to place the new tummy symbol, and pinned it in place. I then took some normal, white thread and sewed it in place as best I could. Sewing plus fabric glue is much better than just using glue alone, IMO. I forgot to take photos of that part of the process though.

I just used sharpies on her eyes. Metallic blue around the edge, and dark brown on the eyelids, so she doesn’t have the “sleepy” look that classic Love-A-Lot has. I think her eyelids may need another coat, lol.

Tenderheart and his niece <3

I have a few other extra mini Care Bears left -- Tenderheart, Funshine, Friend Bear, Bedtime Bear and Good Luck Bear -- and no ideas, just yet, as to what to customize them into. If you have any ideas, let me know!

#Care Bears #custom Care Bears #Wonderheart Bear #Tenderheart Bear #new character in classic style

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artblooger19moon · 2 years ago

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Noble Heart and True Heart

Care Bears II : The Next Generations

#noble heart #noble heart horse #true heart #true heart bear #care bears #care bear movie ii #Care Bears movie 2 #care bears ii : the next generations #drawing #fan art

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aggressivelyarospec · 4 years ago

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‘Aro Movies Monday’: Master List ⇝ July / August 2020

[Completed 9/01/20] | [YouTube]

❧ Romance-Free

Finding Nemo (2003) — Movie [Link]

Finding Dory (2016) — Movie [Link]

Zootopia (2016) — Movie [Link]

The Care Bears Movie (1985) — Movie [Link]

Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986) — Movie [Link]

The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987) — Movie [Link]

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) — Movie [Link]

Glory (1989) — Movie [Link]

Hunter Killer (2018) — Movie [Link]

The Good, The Bad and the Weird (2008) — Movie [Link]

Inside Men (2015) — Movie [Link]

Glitch Techs (2020) — TV Show [Link]

Project Power (2020) — Movie [Link]

❧ Aro-Friendly

Doctor Who (1963) — TV Show [Link]

Care Bears: The Nutcracker (1988) — Movie [Link]

Night at the Museum (2006) — Movie [Link]

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) — Movie [Link]

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018) — Movie [Link]

Hunger Games Trilogy (2012-2015) — Movie [Link]

Aquamarine (2006) — Movie [Link]

Vincent will meer (2010) — Movie [Link]

Tangerine (2015) — Movie [Link]

The Graduate (1967) — Movie [Link]

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) — Movie [Link]

The Magnificent Seven (2016) — Movie [Link]

Seven Samurai (1954) — Movie [Link]

Leverage (2008-2012) — TV Show [Link]

❧ Aro-Negative

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) — Movie [Link]

The Old Guard (2020) — Movie [Link]

{ ALL ↺ } { ⬅ Previous | First ⬆ | Next ➡ }

#ammmasterlist #amm20 #amm: jul20 #amm: aug20

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cherrybloomn · 4 years ago

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Delicate - Chapter 3

Note: ok Chapter 3 is here. Your opinion is always welcomed (criticism included!). Its my first stoey ever so please be kind. I know I have much to work on, but I hope that it will get better and better.

I would like to thank very (VERY) much @musings-sans-muse and @shellbilee for your support, help, ideas, everything! You girls rock!!

Thank you @oddsnendsfanfics for your encouragement!

Warnings: swearing

April 2020

Naomi spent the whole March shooting her show in Berlin (as there was a theatre festival) and preparing the charity event for children. She managed to schedule everything– the place (Hyde Park), the catering, the guests. Obviously, everything was cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions. Everyone was forbidden to go to the tv studio, so Naomi worked on the new scripts of the episodes, watched movies, wrote reviews of new plays, etc.

Since their last lunch, Naomi had been regularly in touch with Henry, mostly via WhatsApp. They have met a couple of times. The more she talked with him, the more she liked him. He made her laugh. But not only that. He seemed to care about others, yet had this reasonable attitude - often saying that you can’t change the world alone.

She valued him for being the voice of reason. They have known each other for only two months, yet she told him a lot about her family and difficult relationship with her father (who was a real - life spitting image of Logan Roy from The Succession), her issues with James, her weird fascinations of criminal stories about murderers and disappearances and the II World War.

One day she had just come home and put the groceries on the kitchen island, when her phone buzzed. She picked up the video call. Henry. The thought of seeing his face and talking to him always shifted her mood. “Hello boy. Give me a moment I need to wash my hands. I’ve just been out in a bad, bad store.” She giggled and headed to the bathroom with her phone, placing it next to the sink.

“Of course. I can see your tits now, by the way. No worries though, I enjoy the view.” He chuckled lightly. Naomi rolled her eyes and quickly moved the phone to the higher counter. She took a minute to study Henry’s face. Something was off. She couldn’t tell if he looked sad or tired. It was off though. She was wondering why. In this very moment she also realized that he was one of very few people, who were… important to her. Not in a romantic kind of way. No. Naomi didn’t date, she didn’t want to build a relationship with any man, not anymore. Still, he was important.

“Helloo..” Henry waved his hand from the other side of the screen.

“I’m sorry. I thought of my round, perfect, little tits. Changing the awkward subject, how are you doing in times of isolation? You look tired. Is everything ok?” Naomi dried her hands with a towel, grabbed her phone and headed to the kitchen. She placed her phone on the kitchen island, leant on her elbows and focused on the phone screen.

“I’m fine. A bit anxious I think. Not my best day today. That’s why I’m calling. I expect to hear some entertaining story about your crazy childhood.”

She laughed, and thought for a moment. “I’m not in the mood today. You know, I almost got a role in the Moulin Rouge musical in the Old Vic. I mean I did get the part of Satine, and I was so excited, as it would be my debut after all these years. Unfortunately, they called today that due to the lockdown, the project has been entirely called off.” She shrugged “At least Netflix doesn’t disappoint. There’s the Money Heist premiere today.”

After a second she added “Join me today! Look I know it’s illegal, alright? But I can promise we will keep the two – meter distance. I can offer you good whiskey and whatever meal the chosen restaurant could provide. Except for pizza and other carbo shit. I’m on a low-carbo diet. You know I’d love to say I’m one of those women who can eat everything because they’re so cool and don’t care about their looks or have a wonderful metabolism. But unfortunately, I’m not them. My metabolism is my enemy and I do fucking care about how I look because the CEO of BBN asks about my weight like once a month.” She smiled at him “So, take it or leave it.”

“I take it. I can cook something if you want. Oh, can I take Kal with me?”

“Cooking – ok. Sounds cool. Kal – Henry, in general of course. But you need to keep in mind I’ve got two Pomeranians – and as much as they love people and small dogs, they sometimes hate the big ones. So, bring Kal with you and in case there’s war, I’ll take Marilyn and Audrey to my neighbor.”

They discussed the details about the dogs’ meeting and decided to meet at 6 pm. Naomi took her time to call her mum and friends, take her dogs for a walk and take a shower. Afterwards she applied a bit of makeup, put on her black Nike leggings and white tank top. She let her hair loose so that it could dry quickly. Just after she poured herself a glass of water, her phone buzzed and Henry informed, he’s waiting outside with Kal. Naomi called her dogs and all of them headed to the small park near her apartment. Naomi couldn’t stop laughing when she spotted Henry with the Salvador Dali mask on – a kind of tribute to Money Heist, which they were going to watch.

Unfortunately, just as Naomi thought, there was no love between Kal and Marylin. At least Audrey accepted the big bear immediately. Naomi decided to take Marylin to her neighbor, and the rest of them headed to her place.

Much to Naomi’s surprise, Henry cooked a delicious dinner, and they spent the whole evening watching five episodes of the Netflix series. Being her kittenish self, Naomi gently touched Henry’s knee with her toes from time to time. “Heey… relax.” She said with a smile. “I can tell you something nice, wanna hear?”

Henry raised his eyebrow and looked at her with a smirk “Go on, entertain me.” He gently rubbed her ankle with one hand, the other one was supported on the back of the sofa.

“Alright..” Naomi closed her eyes for a moment and enjoyed the delicate massage. Finally she looked him in the eyes. She smiled shyly and turned her face away, “Henry.. Do remind me please, is your dad a boxer?” She asked coyly.

Henry seemed a bit puzzled “No, no. Have I ever said that he was?”

“Well no...but damn, I’m asking because you’re such a knockout!”.

They both burst out with laughter.

“What a cheesy pickup line, I love it! Where do you know that from?”

Naomi started to play with her hair “Well, it happens to me all the time” she joked. “It’s nice to see you laughing.” She added after a second.

At around 3 a.m. they decided it was really late, so they were to terminate their evening with just one glass of Jack Daniels (due to her diet Naomi didn’t drink alcohol, but promised to have a goodbye drink).

Naomi brought two glasses to the living room and sat on the sofa. Henry was sitting on the opposite side. Once Naomi extended her hand and handled him a glass of whiskey, he slowly grabbed the glass with one hand and held her wrist with another. “What a massive rock!” He said, looking closely at her two - carat diamond engagement ring. He gently caressed her knuckles with his thumb. His touch, ever so gentle made Naomi shiver. Something about it felt so wrong and so right at the same time. “Has James proposed to you? I had no idea”. Henry let go of her hand and supported himself on the back of the sofa.

“No, of course not. It’s an engagement ring I was given by my husband. I often wear it.” Naomi didn’t like to talk about her marriage with anyone. She felt very comfortable with Henry and they talked about many personal things, but she never mentioned her married life.

Henry slowly nodded. “You never talk about your marriage.” He took a sip of his drink and after a couple of seconds asked “Do you still love him?”

Naomi zoned out for a second, focusing her eyes on the floor. Her hand tried to retrace Henry’s touch on her knuckles. This touch. So delicate. It was one of the most intimate moments she’s ever experienced. Why was it so intimate - she didn’t know. She had had a lot of sex lately. Mostly with James. James never touched her this way. Why? Why had nobody ever touched her this way, she thought.

“Naomi.” Henry’s low, but soft voice snatched her out of her thoughts. She looked at him with slightly parted lips. What were they talking about? Oh, right. Her ex-husband.

“Do I love my husband? Because I wear the engagement ring? No. Not at all. I just love expensive jewellery with big diamonds.” She chuckled looking at her engagement ring. “That’s the secret. But no. I have no feelings for my ex - husband. As for why I don’t talk about my marriage, there’s just nothing to talk about. I was 20, he was 34 at that time we got married. I wanted to be an actress, he was a serious entrepreneur. I wanted to run away from my mum, who was trying to take over my whole life, and he was looking for a young woman to build a home with. At some point it didn’t work out. We had a nasty divorce and division of assets. He then moved to Moscow, and as far as I know he still lives there. The end.”

Naomi refilled Henry’s glass with whisky, Naomi willed herself to focus back on the conversation and not on the ghost of his touch that lingered on her skin. “What about your love life, Mr. One Hundred Questions to Naomi Poesy?” She asked and winked at him.

“You know how it is Naomi. It’s just hard to get involved with someone, if you have this kind of job. It’s all about either accepting my schedule and traveling with me, or building a long – distance relationship. It hardly ever works. Also…”

Naomi suddenly held her right hand up in a stop gesture. “I’m sorry, but I just have to interrupt here. That sounds like you’re trying to find a justification. I mean – and I’m really sorry for sharing my opinion unasked – but building any relationship is hard in general. Do you really think your situation is any different from a situation of CEOS or anyone who has a career, money and power? The scale may be different but the issues are all the same. I mean a CEO of a big insurance company does have the very same problems. He asks the same questions - if his new other half is with him because of his status, money, position or because she’s in love. And the schedule thing – sure it’s hard to build a relationship when you’re on the set for a couple of months and it literally consumes all of your time. Trust me though, it’s not easier if you work as a physician or a lawyer, or if you work in a big tv corporation like I do. Instead of being on the set for a couple of months, people work their asses off every day, because they have loans to pay, plans to realize. And they usually don’t have any breaks. The fact that you get back home to your other half after 9 pm does not necessarily make your relationship better. It’s just the matter of what you’re expecting from a relationship.”

Henry just nodded and added after a moment “I just want to have a family of my own.”

“Well. But this is not the answer to the question of what you are expecting from a relationship. I mean, obviously everyone wants to start a family. The question is – what does it mean to you? Some want to start a family because they hate to be lonely, some feel like they need to take care of others, and some just feel like it makes them feel complete. You know sometimes you meet the person you resonate with, you feel the great chemistry with, but it just doesn’t work because of lots of other factors like the timing, circumstances etc. So, what I mean is that you really need to know what you expect from your partner so that you can fight for it.” She thought about what she said for a minute “Hm.. it sounded much wiser in my head before I verbalized it.”

Henry laughed and looked her in the eyes licking his lips. That gentle touch. After a few seconds of glancing at each other she smiled at him and shyly turned her face away. “Ok, enough. Don’t try to charm me here.” She grabbed her phone from the coffee table. “Man, it’s 4 am! I’m not surprised I’m bubbling something half intelligent. I should be sleeping already, I have promised to help Sarah tomorrow morning. This morning. If you want to you can stay, I have a guest room and a spare toothbrush.”

“Thank you, but I guess I better get back home.” He grabbed his phone and ordered an Uber. “I just have to say” he started as they both stood up and headed towards the hall. “You are so tiny without high heels!”

She laughed “No shit Sherlock.”

“No, but seriously. I wanted to say” he stopped there and looked at Kal. It seemed like he was fighting with his thoughts whether to verbalize what he wanted to say or not. “I really like spending time with you.”

Naomi crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t date Cavill.” She said with a smile.

Henry just nodded and leaned towards her, so close that their faces were just inches away, and said “Well, pity.” He chuckled and leaned even closer to give her a goodbye kiss on a cheek “Bye, girl. Get some sleep.” He then took a step away and called for Kal, who was already bouncing on his legs ready to go.

Naomi reached to open the front door for them, but instead of doing it, she turned towards Henry and leaned against the door. She noticed his clenched jaw, then placed her eyes on his lips and eyes. She slowly grabbed the drawstring of his hood with her right hand and wrapped it around her fingers. “Hey.. I don’t, but what would you do if I did date…?” she asked playfully. She bit her bottom lip in anticipation.

“Naomi..” Henry smiled lightly at her, and tenderly touched her cheek, moving his fingers from her cheekbone through her lips to her chin. He was slowly studying her face. Naomi looked at him stunned, her lips parted, she was not expecting that.

“I’m 37. I’m too old to play this game. Please, don’t play with me.” He stroked her cheek once more with his index finger and stepped back. He fastened Kal’s leash. In the meantime Naomi unlocked the door and moved back.

“Goodbye” He gave her a warm smile and left.

Naomi quickly closed the door and tried to understand what had just happened. She felt all the emotions at once - arousal, humiliation, sadness, anger, happiness. She brushed her fingers through her cheek. That gentle touch. She took a deep breath. In her entire life Naomi had always been the “tough guy” - first in ballet school, at home, when her mother suffered from depression, and Naomi had to take care of her mother and her brother, then drama school. Establishing her position in television was not easy either. Oh, and her marriage. She was just a girl when she got married and her older husband always knew better. The random men she fucked after she got divorced. James. They all wanted to have her, possess her. And she kind of liked it. It made her feel attractive and in charge. But that touch was somethings new.

Naomi felt the tears welling in her eyes, as if for the first time in her life, she experienced such a gentle touch. And it felt so good.

#henry cavill #henry cavill x other female character #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill fanfiction #slow build

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pastelvampyre · 4 years ago

Photo

so @nartatoalevy and i did a little quarantine project. we started this back in april, and it’s taken us until now to get all the data compiled!

click on the images for better quality.

image descriptions under the cut.

[ID: 14 images of black text on a white background.]

[ID 1 of 14: a definitive ranking of all disney direct-to-dvd sequels. we watched them all so you don’t have to. by tumblr users levy (@nartatoalevy) and rian (@pastelvampyre)]

[ID 2 of 14: What Quantifies a Disney Direct-to-DVD Sequel? we came up with 4 criteria for this: 1. the original has to be a full-length movie, 2. the original has to be easily recognizable (for example, all “Mickey”-branded movies are excluded because there isn’t a singular recognizable “original” movie), 3. the sequel’s gotta be a full-length movie), 4. the sequel is direct-to-DVD (ie. it didn’t show in theatres at the time of its release). ok, yeah, technically 5, cause the “sequel” has to be related to the original in some sort of coherent timeline (ie. not alternate universe), which does mean that prequels do count. don’t worry about it.]

[ID 3 of 14: Methodology Part 1. You can skip the next bit if you don’t care about this part. The movies will be judged generally in eight categories relative to the original film: 1. Animation Quality: Is the quality of animation in the sequel on par to that of the original? 2. Voice Acting Continuity: Do the voice actors sound similar to the original characters? 3. Voice Acting Realism: Is the voice acting appropriate to the scene & the character’s emotions? 4. Music & Lyric Quality (if applicable): Is the music interesting? Are the lyrics good? 5. Plot Coherency: Does the plot make sense? Are there any obvious plot holes? 6. Character Continuity: Do the characters have the same personalities? 7. Comparability to the Original Film: Does it do the original film justice? 8. Overall Feel-Good Factor: Does it make you feel content & satisfied?]

[ID 4 of 14: Methodology Part 2. Ranking Scale. A: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to others. It performed well in 7+ categories. B: I enjoyed this movie. It performed well in 5-6 categories. C: I am neutral on this movie. It performed well in 3-4 categories. D: I did not enjoy this movie. It performed well in 1-2 categories. E: I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy. It performed well in 0 categories.]

[ID 5 of 14: Methodology Part 3. we then found the average of our two scores for each movie to find the final score of the movie. they then were ranked in seven categories: Class I: A, Class II: A- / B+ (the cream of the crop), Class III: B, Class IV: B- / C+ (enjoyable but not perfect), Class V: C, Class VI: C- / D+ (mediocre), Class VII: D, Class VIII: D- / E+ (these ones are just bad).]

[ID 6 of 14: The Results.]

[ID 7 of 14: Class VIII: D- / E+: The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2. Class VII: D: Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World, Tarzan & Jane, Atlantis: Milo’s Return, Stitch! The Movie. these movies are the worst of them all. they didn’t perform well in very many (if any) of the judging criteria, and watching them wasn’t an enjoyable experience.]

[ID 8 of 14: Class VI: C- / D+: Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World, Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp’s Adventure, The Fox and the Hound 2. Class V: C: Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar, Aladdin 3: Aladdin and the King of Thieves, The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea, The Lion King 1½, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, Kronk’s New Groove, Leroy & Stitch, Brother Bear 2. these movies are not as bad. they performed decently in their categories, but i wouldn’t watch it again unless i had a specific reason.]

[ID 9 of 14: Class IV: B- / C+: Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True, Tarzan 2, TinkerBell and the Great Fairy Rescue. Class III: B: The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride, 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure, Bambi 2, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, The Pirate Fairy. these movies are pretty decent! they did ok in most of the categories, but they weren’t showstoppers, and they still had some problems.]

[ID 10 of 14: Class II: A- / B+: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, An Extremely Goofy Movie, Mulan 2, TinkerBell and the Lost Treasure. Class I: A: Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time, Secret of the Wings, TinkerBell and the Legend of the NeverBeast. these movies were the cream of the crop. they performed well in most, if not all, of the judging criteria, stayed faithful to the original movie, and gave us an enjoyable movie experience. if i wanted to watch a sequel and have a good time doing it, i’d go straight to one of these.]

[ID 11 of 14: Best in Show: TinkerBell and the Legend of the NeverBeast. this movie is brilliance. a showstopper. the music, the plot, the characters, everything is fantastic. both rian & levy cried at the end (& rian isn’t a movie crier, so that means a lot!). RUNNER-UP: Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time. Attached Photo: Movie Poster for “TinkerBell and the Legend of the Neverbeast”.]

[ID 12 of 14: Worst in Show: The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2. don’t watch this movie. unless, of course, your desire is to watch something so unabashedly, hilariously bad that you can’t help but skip through the songs and roll your eyes at literally every single character. RUNNER-UP: Atlantis: Milo’s Return. Attached Photo: Movie Poster for “The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2”.]

[ID 13 of 14: More Numbers. Average Movie Score: B- / C+, Mean Movie Score: C, Median Movie Score: C. The average was found by assigning each category a number value from 1-8, adding them together, and then finding the average of all these numbers. The combined total of all these numbers was 147 points. The exact average was 4.742 rounded, which places the average just slightly short of the B- / C+ category. The mean category was C, with a total of 8 movies in this category. The second-largest category is the B category, with 5 movies. The median was a score of C, just barely (the median being the first listing in the C category). The movies in classes higher than C outnumber the movies in classes lower than C (15 > 8) and are in fact almost double.]

[ID 13 of 14: Conclusion: these movies are overwhelmingly average, but still enjoyable.]

[end ID]

#image #the dragon master speaks #disney

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random-thought-depository · 5 years ago

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The movie Fail Safe was on TV last night and I watched it. I thought it was a really great movie! It was very dark, but in the best possible way; it was a great tragedy.

Quick summary of the film (with spoilers): due to an accidental miscommunication, a USAF bomber group carrying hydrogen bombs receives orders to fly into the Soviet Union and nuke Moscow. The bomber pilots are also ordered to ignore any attempts to recall them, on the assumption that it may be a Soviet trick. This is similar to Dr. Strangelove, though in Dr. Strangelove the situation happens because of a renegade officer who wants a nuclear war to happen, whereas in Fail Safe the situation happens because of a mechanical failure and is nobody’s fault and everybody’s fault. USAF fighters are sent on a suicide mission to shoot down the bombers (they don’t have enough fuel to intercept the bombers and make it back to land, and will run out of fuel over the Arctic Ocean), but this fails. The US President warns the Soviet Premier of what’s happening and explains that it was an accident, but there’s a very rational fear that if Moscow gets nuked the situation may lead to war anyway. The Soviets have limited success in shooting down the bombers. The US government and USAF high command decide to actively help the Soviets, giving them information about the bombers’ capabilities and vulnerabilities. To avert a possible nuclear war with the Soviet Union, the US President offers the Soviet Premier a horrific bargain: if the bombers succeed in nuking Moscow he will order the USAF to destroy New York city with a hydrogen bomb; the death of a great Russian city will be paid for with the death of a great American city, and this will be a costly signal to the Soviets that the destruction of Moscow was truly an accident and not a deliberate raid with plausible deniability or an opening move in a general attack. In the end, the Soviets shoot down all but one of the misdirected bombers, and the last surviving bomber nukes Moscow (having received fatal doses of radiation from near-misses by Soviet nuclear anti-aircraft missiles, and believing they would return to a ruined homeland, the pilots of the last surviving bomber allow themselves to be killed by the explosion of their own bombs). The US President keeps his bargain with the Soviet Premier, and the USAF destroys New York with a hydrogen bomb.

There’s a phrase that’s sometimes used on the Spacebattles.com and Sufficient Velocity forums: “hard men making hard decisions.” This phrase is usually used as a derisive description of this sort of thing:

“Hugh Farnham, the hero of Farnham’s Freehold, has a signature move: when people disagree with him, he barks ‘‘Lifeboat rules!’’ at them and pats his sidearm. Hugh Farnham is the proprietor of a nuclear fallout shelter that has managed, thanks to his excellent timing and foresight, to have rescued his family and some of their friends. The shelter is their ‘‘lifeboat,’’ the only thing standing between them and certain death in an uncaring universe where the cold equations of nuclear fission dictate that rules must be followed.

Poor Hugh is a good guy, but he has the responsibility of taking care of the lifeboat’s passengers. That means that he’s got to bear the sidearm, and threaten his friends and family with lethal violence if they get out of line. It’s for their own good.

Heinlein’s Hugh Farnham is a character who is in charge of everything except the circumstances that led to him having to coerce, cajole, and terrorize the people around him. He’s that character because Heinlein wrote him that way.

…

The thing about lifeboat rules is that they are an awfully good deal for lifeboat captains.” - Cory Doctorow, The Cold Equations and Moral Hazard.

I think Fail Safe was the “people making hard decisions” concept done well. “Hard men making hard decisions” in the bad sense is bad because the “hard decisions” usually actually means “easy decisions if you’re a right-wing authoritarian.” Fail Safe showed people making hard decisions that actually felt like hard decisions. I think part of what made it work was that the hard decisions depicted in Fail Safe required not just willingness to violate “nice” liberal morality, but also willingness to betray in-group solidarity.

Hard decisions means ordering some of your own pilots on a mission that, if it succeeds, will consist of them killing some of their comrades and then running out of fuel above the frigid Arctic Ocean and certainly dying (by freezing to death if they choose to bail out and open their parachutes, by being splattered like bugs on a windshield if they choose not to).

Hard decisions means helping your enemies kill brave and loyal people who believe they are acting on your orders in defense of your nation. Hard decisions means telling your enemies the weaknesses of one of your greatest weapons, in service of that enterprise.

Hard decisions means carrying out one of the most horrific massacres in history against your own people just to send a costly signal to your enemies that you didn’t really mean to attack them.

The First Lady is visiting New York when the events of this film are happening; when the President orders New York destroyed he orders the likely killing of his own wife. The bomber pilot who drops the bomb on New York lives in New York with his wife and children; when he drops the bomb he likely kills his own family.

The movie doesn’t depict what happened in the aftermath, but I imagine that that President was impeached and then arrested and executed for treason or something like that in the aftermath; can you imagine a President going on TV and admitting that he ordered the USAF to nuke New York as part of a round of Great Game chess with the Soviets; there’d be an immense desire for somebody to punish for that and the obvious scapegoat would be the person who gave the order. And hard decisions would mean accepting that too; it’s just another one of the millions of lives traded away to save the hundreds of millions who’d die in a nuclear war, and the electric chair or gas chamber or firing squad or hangman’s noose is more merciful than the way a lot of the sacrificial victims in New York would have died (I think if you want to experience this movie in a maximally horrifying and depressing way, the way to do that would probably be to watch it immediately after watching Barefoot Gen).

Making decisions like these wouldn't just make you feel like a butcher, it’d make you feel like a traitor and a betrayer.

There’s a scene in this movie where USAF officers have to tell Russian officers some technical information about the missiles the bombers carry. One of the USAF officers just can’t do it. The next one speaks through gritted teeth and clearly hates every second of the experience. Part of this is they’re compromising national security by doing this, but I saw a subtext of a more intimate betrayal of the pilots. I saw a subtext of the capabilities of these aircraft as an expression of comradeship from the engineers and the rear-echelon support institutions to the pilots; you can’t be with them, but you can do the next best thing by giving them the best possible aircraft and therefore the best possible chances of completing their missions and returning alive. And now they’re being asked to undo that, to as much as possible take away the advantages they’ve worked so hard to give the pilots. I suspect that if this movie had been made in a more computerized age this scene might have included the USAF giving the Soviets the information they’d need to do something kind of like the prefix code trick in Star Trek II, which would have made this subtext more obvious.

There’s a scene a bit earlier where the misdirected bombers have just crossed into Soviet air space and one of them is attacked by Soviet fighters and successfully defends itself and destroys the attacking Soviet fighters. Most of the USAF officers watching this happen on their big war room screen start cheering, and then the commanding officer reprimands them and says something like this isn’t a football game. I read this scene through the subtext I talked about in the previous paragraph; the commanding officer wants to discourage the natural sentiment of thinking of the bomber pilots as comrades, admiring their skill and bravery, being proud to have armed them so well, and being happy for them when they succeed.

Side note: another subtext I saw in the USAF officers cheering when the bomber destroyed the Soviet fighters: they are thinking about the symmetrical opposite battle that would happen in a full-scale war; the one over the United States between USAF fighters and the Soviet long-range bombers that would be coming to drop nuclear weapons on American cities. They are reassured to see that US bombers do well against Soviet fighters, because that means US fighters will probably do well against Soviet bombers.

Side note to that side note. I vaguely remember reading in discussions on forums that in the early ‘60s the USSR didn’t yet have the capacity to use nuclear weapons to conduct a general massacre of the US urban population? But Fail Safe feels like it takes place in a world where a nuclear war would mean basically every significant US city goes up in flames. I’m inclined to interpret it as alternate history, taking place in a world where the Soviet Union was more formidable than it was in our world (given the ending it’s definitely alternate history anyway). I think sequel fanfiction to this movie could definitely be interesting alternate history.

Other side notes:

I felt really sorry for … well, basically every character in this movie, but I think the situation of the misdirected bomber pilots was very poignant. They believed there was an actual nuclear war happening; they believed they were living through the worst day in human history! I imagine them making mental calculations like: if we’ve had time to cross the Arctic Ocean from Alaska and fly deep into the Soviet Union, then probably every city between Lisbon and Kiev is in flames right now, and hundreds of millions of people are already dead or dying, and maybe our Soviet opposite numbers are flying across Canada and the Atlantic Ocean right now, Fairbanks and Juneau are burning though the next wave of real massacre is maybe yet to begin (it’ll start when the Soviet bombers reach the part of Canada near the border where most of Canada’s population lives, a few hours after that the Soviet bombers will have finished their work and North America will look like Central Asia immediately after Genghis Khan was finished with it). It was impressive and poignant that in this situation these people were holding together and doing their best, but this quality isn’t an unalloyed good; this sort of obedience is exactly what insures that tragicomic or atrocious orders are obeyed; they were fighting skillfully and bravely while knowing that their mission was basically to commit a massacre as an act of spite (yes, destroying major enemy cities is a rational part of MAD; spite is often rational in a game theory sense).

One thing I found interesting about the movie was the complete absence of ghoulish Dr. Strangelove types. Even the war hawk guy who advocated a full-scale strike on the USSR wasn’t portrayed that way (I picked up an implication that he was a Holocaust survivor and trauma had a lot to do with why he was Like That). I mentioned that Dr. Strangelove really feels like it’s riffing off this movie, and one of the interesting differences is this feels like a sort of optimistic-humanist West Wing/Star Trek version of a Cold War thriller; there’s an assumption that basically everyone involved is basically well-meaning. I think maybe this reflects that 1950s high point of trust in institutions? I suspect a movie made later would have been more cynical.

I really wonder about the relationship between Dr. Strangelove and this movie now, I assumed Dr. Strangelove must have been made later and been a sort of parody of this movie but a quick Google search says they were made the same year. Dr. Strangelove (the title character) kind of feels like a fusion of the war hawk guy and the secretary of defense (the disabled guy with crutches) in this movie. On that subject, seeing that guy with crutches reminded me that FDR would still have been fairly fresh in living memory when this movie was made, and when this movie was made there were still a lot of older adults where were disabled from effects of polio infections earlier in life. Really reminds you that the world was very different not all that long ago.

I think the film’s idea of “nobody is at fault and everybody is at fault” is applicable to a lot of our current problems.

#I read/watch something #nuclear war

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gffa · 5 years ago

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Hii I'm new to the Fandom and I'm obsessed with your blog! I ADORE your point of view really its making me love star wars more and more, my question is do you have any recommendations on which books to read to understand more about the lore and where cannon is right now??

Hi! I’m glad if I can help you like SW lore more and thank you for such kind words, I deeply appreciate them. And, oh, what a tricky question that is, without meaning to be!A lot depends on which part of the SW lore you’re looking for–are you looking for technical terms or character backstory tidbits? Lore on Force woo? The stories that help better inform the structure of Star Wars? Because I feel like my answers would be different for each of those!So, I’m going to do a “here’s what I think is the best places to start when getting into SW supplementary material” list:1. THE TV SERIESIf you haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels yet, those should be first on your list! TCW is there to help give you the bigger picture of just how awful the Clone Wars were, how politics dragged everything down into the mud, and will give you a ton of feelings on established characters. I’m currently in the middle of a rewatch and its kicking up all these feelings I had and you can really tell that this is what George Lucas’ world looks like when they have the time to explore it. (Though, hell, even with this show, it only covers things in broad strokes, especially because it is still aimed at younger audiences, too.)And Rebels is just a really great series by itself, but it also does a fantastic job of showing you just how complicated the war against the Empire was, how hard it was to wind together these various minor factions into one bigger Rebellion, as well as it does a lot to show what it’s like for Jedi after the genocide of their people. It also has some killer cameos and resolution to things started in TCW and moments of confrontation for all the characters.Both of those really only have minor moments of exploring the Force Woo Lore (but there’s really not one singular place that explains it, imo, it’s something you have to piece together to see the bigger picture), but they’re fantastic for echoing the narrative structure of Star Wars and its themes.2. THE COMICSThey’re the next best stop, they are also really great stories in terms of the character arcs, as well as the next best place to get more on the themes of Star Wars. There have been so many moments, more than anywhere else, that I have wanted to just absolutely (virtually) SCREAM, because HOLY SHIT THAT WAS A HELL OF A MOMENT or HOLY SHIT THAT UNDERSTOOD STAR WARS SO WELL or just had really amazing moments. I would recommend starting with:- The Star Wars 2015 comic (by Jason Aaron) and read it concurrently with Darth Vader vol. 1 (by Kieron Gillen), as they’re meant to go together.- Then read Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith (by Charles Soule)- After that, in any order: Age of the Republic comics (by Jody Houser), Obi-Wan & Anakin (by Charles Soule), Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu (by Matt Owens), and Kanan: The Last Padawan (by Greg Wiseman).- I also really enjoy the Star Wars Adventures comics from IDW, the Poe Dameron comics (by Charles Soul) are incredible and give a lot of context to the sequel trilogy and Shattered Empire does a lot in the same vein.3. THE NOVELSNovels are trickier, because some are good for lore but aren’t necessarily stories I would recommend to new fans, others are amazing stories but don’t necessarily have a lot of lore. So, I’m going to focus on the books that I think do the most bridge work and help you understand the bigger picture of Star Wars:- The Star Wars Battlefront II video game (okay, not a book, bear with me) does an amazing job of giving more context to how the Empire ended and how it connected to the First Order. You can do a search on YouTube for “Battlefront 2 game movie” or similar search parameters and watch it like a movie, it’s about two hours and it’s wonderful. Fall in love with the characters with me, understand why Jakku was important, and get some amazing cameos (and stunning planets) for the OT trio!- The Aftermath trilogy by Chuck Wendig also does a ton of showing how the Empire’s fall wasn’t instantaneous after Endor’s moon, as well as the faltering early steps of the New Republic, and a ragtag bunch who hunt down Imperial war criminals and all come to love each other AND I LOVE THEM, sobs. I would add in the caveat that I think these work massively better as audiobooks, so check if your library has them and maybe you can check them out on-line and be prepared to give the books a little time to grow on you.- Bloodline by Claudia Gray shows Leia six years before TFA and the New Republic still faltering and how she discovers the early origins of the First Order and loses her position in the Senate and starts up the Resistance. It’s at its best when it’s a Leia book, but it also does do a lot of groundwork for the connections between the OT and the ST!- From a Certain Point of View by various authors, is a collection of short stories, many of which are hits and many of which are misses, but the hits are amazing. If nothing else, “Master & Apprentice” (by Claudia Gray–not to be confused with the full novel of the same title), “Time of Death” (by Cavan Scott), “There Is Another” (by Gary D. Shmidt), and “An Incident Report” (by Daniel Mallory Ortberg) are all MUST READS. I read all of them and I’m glad I did, but if a story isn’t gripping you, feel free to skim over it for the next, they’re only connected by theme, not events.- I loved both Spark of the Resistance (by Justina Ireland) and Resistance Reborn (by Rebecca Roanhorse) as books set between TLJ and TROS, where I grew even more fond of the characters getting to have adventures together. I also thought the Dooku: Jedi Lost audiodrama was probably the best PT era canon book to recommend, too.4. THE GUIDEBOOKSGuidebooks are more fun when you’re already invested and just want to look up a thing or two, but there’s at least one that I think is a must-read from cover to cover: Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy by Pablo Hidalgo. It doesn’t sound like it would be that interesting–a history told through art? But it’s an absolutely stellar bird’s eye view and explanation of how things happened in the GFFA, how the Clone Wars happened, how the Republic fell, how the Empire rose, how the Rebellion fought back, how the New Republic rose, how the First Order knocked it all down again.5. ANYTHING ELSE?I love the game Jedi: Fallen Order and I think it does an amazing job of staying true to the Jedi Order, their culture, and the themes of Star Wars. You can do the same thing of looking for a movie-version on YouTube, it should be about four hours long to cover the majority of the game, and I absolutely fell in love with the characters and the world, it was clear they really cared about the story and the lore and making this feel like a game where you got to experience becoming a Jedi.This isn’t a list of “stories I thought were good” but ones aimed at establishing the best understanding of the bigger galaxy, as well as stories that I thought were really good for new fans! While I put them generally in the order I would suggest them, if something’s not working for you, feel free to drop it and move on to another thing, either coming back later to the dropped one or not, because this should be fun and not boring work.HOPEFULLY THAT’S A GOOD PLACE TO GET YOU STARTED and if someone else would suggest a good Starting Place For A New Fan, feel free to chime in!

#Anonymous #fic recs #(not really but that's my tag)

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ryanmeft · 5 years ago

Text

Ryan’s Favorite Films of 2019

A stuttering detective,

A top hat-wearing vamp

A forced-perspective war,

A bit of Blaxploitation camp

Prisoners on a space ship

Having sex with bears

A writer goes remembering

Whenever his pain flares

A prancing, dancing Hitler

A gambler high on strife

Here will go cavorting with

A mom who becomes a wife

A family plot with many threads

Three men against their own

A stuntman and his actor

A mobster now quite alone

Doubles under the earth

Two men in a tall house

Are here to watch a woman who

Is battling with her spouse

A family’s plans for their strong son

Go awry one night

A man rejects his country

Which is spoiling for a fight

A house built by his grandpa

(Maybe; we’re not sure)

Looks out upon three prisoners

Whose passions are a lure

All these are on my list this year

It’s longer than before

Because picking only ten this time

Was too great of a chore

What are limits anyway?

They’re just things we invented

I don’t really find them useful

So, this year, I’ve dissented

You may have noticed this time out

That numbers, I did grant

Promise they’ll stay in this order, though?

Now that, I just can’t

I’m always changing my mind

Because, after all, you see

Good film is about the heart

And mine’s rather finicky

There are a lot more I could name

(And I’ll change my mind at any time)

For now, though, consider these

The ones I found sublime

20. Motherless Brooklyn

I’ve got a (hard-boiled) soft spot for 90’s neo-noirs like L.A. Confidential, Red Rock West and Seven, and Edward Norton’s ‘50’s take on Jonathan Lethem’s 90’s -set novel can stand firmly in that company.

19. Doctor Sleep

There’s something about Stephen King’s best writing that transcends mere popularity; his work may not be fine literature, but it is immune to the fads of the moment. So, too, are the best movies based on that work. This one, an engaging adventure-horror, deserved better than it got from audiences.

18. Jojo Rabbit

There was a time when the anything-goes satire of Mel Brooks could produce a major box office hit. Disney’s prudish refusal to market the film coupled with the dominance of franchises means that’s no longer the case. If you bothered to give Jojo a shot, though, you got the strange-but-rewarding experience of guffawing one moment and being horrified the next.

17. By The Grace of God

I’d venture this is the least-seen film on my list; even among us brie-eating, wine-sniffing art house snobs, I rarely hear it mentioned. Focusing on the perspectives of three men dealing with a particularly heinous and unrepentant abusive priest and the hierarchy that protects him, it’s every bit as disquieting and infuriating as 2015’s Oscar-winning Spotlight.

16. Waves

You think Trey Edward Shultz’s Waves will be one thing---a domestic drama about an affluent African-American family (and that in and of itself is a rarity). Then it becomes something else entirely. It addresses something movies often avoid: that as life goes on, the person telling the story will always change.

15. Transit

You’re better off not questioning exactly where and when the film is set (it is based on a book about Nazi Germany but has been changed to be a more generalized Fascist state). The central theme here is identity, as three people change theirs back and forth based on need and desire.

14. American Woman

Movies about regular, working class, small-town American usually focus on men. This one is about a much-too-young mother and grandmother, played brilliantly by Sierra Miller, dealing with unexpected loss and the attendant responsibilities she isn’t ready for.

13. Marriage Story

There is an argument between a married couple in here that is as true a human moment as ever was on screen---free of trumped-up screenplay drama and accurate to how angry people really argue. The entire movie strives to be about the kind of realistic divorce you don’t see on-screen. It is oddly refreshing.

12. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to 70’s Tinseltown is essentially a question: What if the murder that changed the industry forever had gone down differently? Along the way, it also manages to be a clever and insightful study of fame and fulfillment, or lack thereof.

11. High Life

Claire Denis is damned determined not to be boring. Your reaction to her latest film will probably depend on how receptive you are to that as the driving force of a film. Myself, I’m very receptive. I want to see the personal struggles of convicts unwittingly shipped into space, told without Action-Adventure tropes, in a movie that sometimes misfires but is never dull.

10. Dolemite Is My Name

And fuckin’ up motherfuckers is my game! Look, if you don’t like naughty words, you probably shouldn’t be reading my columns---and you definitely shouldn’t be watching this movie. Eddie Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the ambitious, irrepressible and endlessly optimistic creator of Blaxpoitation character Dolemite. Have you seen the 1975 film? It’s either terrible and wonderful, or wonderful and terrible, and the jury’s still out. Either way, Moore in the film is a self-made comic who establishes himself by talking in a unique rhyming style that speaks to black Americans at a time when black pop culture (and not just the white rendition of it) was finally beginning to pierce the American consciousness. What The Disaster Artist did for The Room, this movie does for Dolemite---with the difference being I felt like I learned something I didn’t know here.

9. 1917

Breathless, nerve-wracking and somehow intensely personal even though it almost never takes time to slow down, it is fair to call Sam Mendes’s film a thrill ride---but it’s one that enlightens us on a fading historical time, rather than simply being empty calories. Filmed in such a way as to make it seem like one continuous, two-hour take, for which some critics dismissed it as a gimmick, the technique is used to lock us in with the soldiers whose mission it is to save an entire division from disaster. We are given no information or perspective that the two central soldiers---merely two, in a countless multitude---do not have, and so we are with them at every moment, deprived of the relief of omniscience. I freely admit I tend to give anything about World War I the benefit of the doubt, but there’s no doubt that the movie earns my trust.

8. Ash Is Purest White

Known by the much less cool-sounding name Sons and Daughters of Jianghu in China, here is a story that starts off ostensibly about crime---a young woman and her boyfriend are powerful in the small-potatoes mob scene of a dying industrial town---but after the surprising first act becomes a meditation on life, perseverance and exactly how much power is worth, anyway, when it is so fleeting and so easily lost. What do you do when everything that defined you is gone? You go on living. This is my first exposure to writer-director Jia Zhangke, an oversight I must strive hard to correct in future.

7. Knives Out

The whodunit is a lost art, a standard genre belonging to a time when mass audiences could appreciate a picture even if someone didn’t run, yell or explode while running and yelling every ten minutes. Rian Johnson and an all-star cast rescued it from the brink of cinematic extinction and gave it just enough of a modern injection to keep it relevant. Every second of the film is engaging; Johnson even manages to have a character whose central trait is throwing up when asked to lie, and he makes it seem sympathetic rather than juvenile. The fantastic cast of characters is backed up with all the qualities of “true” cinema: perfect camerawork, an effective score, mesmerizing production design. As someone who didn’t much care for Johnson’s Star Wars outing, I’m honestly put out this didn’t do better at the box office than it did.

6. A Hidden Life

After a few questionable efforts and completely losing the thread with the execrable vanity project Song to Song, Terence Malick returns to his bread and butter: meditative dramas on the nature of faith, family, and being on the outside looking in, which encompass a healthy dose of nature, philosophy and people talking without moving their lips. That last is a little dig, but it’s true: Malick does Malick, and if you don’t like his thing, this true story about a German dissenter in World War II will not change your mind. For me, what Malick has done is that rarest of things: he had made a movie about faith, and about a character who is faithful, without proselytizing. That the closeness and repressiveness of the Nazi regime is characterized against Malick’s typical soaring backdrops is a masterstroke, and the best-ever use of his visual style.

5. The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers is a different kind of horror filmmaker. After redefining what was possible with traditional horror monsters in The Witch, he returned with something that couldn’t be more different: an exploration of madness more in the vein of European film than American. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are two men stranded in a lighthouse together slowly losing their minds, or what is left of them. The haunting score and stark, black-and-white photography evoke a nightmare caught on tape, something we’re not supposed to be seeing. It’s not satisfying in a traditional way, but for those craving something more cerebral from horror, Eggers has it covered.

4. Us

I have become slightly notorious in my own little circle for not thinking Get Out was the greatest film ever made, and now I’ve become rather known for thinking Us just might be. Ok, so that’s definite hyperbole: “greatest” is a tall claim for almost any horror movie. Yet here Jordan Peele shows that he can command an audience’s attention even when not benefiting from a popular cultural zeitgeist in terms of subject matter. It’s a movie with no easy or clear message, one that specializes in simply unsettling us with the idea that the world is fundamentally Not Right. I firmly believe that if Peele becomes a force in the genre, 50 years from now when he and all of us are gone, his first film will be remembered as a competent start, while this will be remembered as the beginning of his greatness.

3. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Ostensibly about urban gentrification, this story of a young black man trying to save his ancestral home from the grasping reach of white encroachment is a flower with many petals to reveal. Don’t let my political-sounding description turn you off: the movie is not a polemic in the slightest, but rather a wry, sensitive look at people, their personalities and how those personalities are intertwined with the places they call home. Though the movie is the directorial debut of Joe Talbot, it is based loosely on the memories and feelings of his friend Jimmie Falls, who also plays one of the two central characters. If you’ve ever watched a place you love fall to the ravages of time and change, this movie may strike quite a chord with you.

2. Uncut Gems

When asked why this movie is great, I usually say that it was unbelievably stressful and caused me great anxiety. This description is not usually successful in selling it. The Safdie Brothers have essentially filmed chaos: a man self-destructing in slow-motion, if you can call it slow. Howard Ratner has probably been gradually exploding all his life; he strikes you as someone who came out of the womb throwing punches. He’s an addictive gambler who loves the risk much more than the reward, and can’t gain anything good in life without risking it on a proverbial roll of the dice. His behavior is destructive. His attitude is toxic. Why do we root for him? Perhaps because, as played by Adam Sandler, he never has any doubt as to who he is---something few of us can say. He’s an asshole, but he’s a genuine asshole, and somehow that’s appealing even when you’re in his line of fire.

1. Pain and Glory

When I realized I would, for the first time, have the chance to see a Pedro Almodovar film on the screen, I was overjoyed. His movies aren’t always great, but that was of little concern: he’s one of the handful of directors on the planet who can fairly call back to the avant-garde traditions of Bergman or Truffaut, making the movies he wants to make about the things he want to make them about, and I’d never seen one of his films when it was new and fresh, only months or years later on DVD.

It seems I picked right, as his latest has been almost universally hailed as one of the best of his long career. An aging, aching filmmaker spends his days in his apartment, ignoring the fans of his original hit film and most of his own acquaintances, alive or dead---he tries hard to put his memories away. Throughout the course of the movie, he re-engages with most of them in one way or another, coming to terms with who he is and where he’s been, though not in a Hallmark-movie-of-the-week way. Antonio Banderas plays him in the role that was always denied him by his stud status in Hollywood. It isn’t simply him, though: every person we meet is engaging and, we sense, has their own story outside of how they intersect with his. Most engaging is that of his deceased mother, who in her youth was played vivaciously by a sun-toughened Penelope Cruz. Perhaps Almodovar will tell us some of their stories some day. Perhaps not. I would read an entire book of short fiction all about them. This is the year’s best film.

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heyyy-hey-babyyy · 5 years ago

Text

They’re All Wax. Everyone.

Part II

Read part I here

Summary: Dean and Y/N investigate the disappearance of some college kids in the small town of Ambrose, only for Y/N to be captured and hurt. Dean looks for her and finds unimaginable horrors.

Pairing: Dean X reader

WARNINGS: Canon-typical violence, horror movie scenes

House of Wax (2005) Fusion with Supernatural

4079 words.

Notes: Please note that I changed the plot a bit, because some of it would not make sense if the main character was Dean Winchester. Just saying.

Spoilers for House of Wax (2005) below.

______________________________________

You felt your knees giving out and your eyes beginning to droop, wanting nothing more than to succumb to the feeling that closing your eyes would give. Your entire body began to ache, but you felt Dean’s arm snake around your shoulders protectively, dragging you along with the group as they walked. You heard the voices of the others, but the pain in your head was intensifying and all you wanted was to lay down on the ground and sleep for a while. Anything to get rid of the pain behind your eyes. You began to let your body go slack when you felt Dean’s arm tighten.

“Y/N.” He muttered; his lips close to your ear. He pulled you back up to a standing position, bearing much of your weight against his side. “Sweetheart. You have to keep your eyes open, okay?”

You nodded your head lightly, focusing on the leather boots you were wearing as they clomped loudly against the cement, Dean practically dragging you along. You were all stopped in the middle of the road, Carley and her brother both checking the bright screens of their phones.

“Shit.” Nick scoffed, putting the phone back into his pocket, Carley mimicking his movements.

Dean balanced you against his shoulder and reached into his own pocket, drawing out his phone.

“No service.” He muttered more to himself, gnawing down on his bottom lip as he thought, glancing at you quickly with a pained expression.

Dean knew he wouldn’t be able to carry you all the way to the car in the state you were in, and without cell service he wouldn’t be able to get ahold of Sam for help. And with that jerk from the service station still out there it wasn’t safe to be standing in the middle of the deserted street with nothing but Dean’s gun to protect them. He had checked Y/N quickly for her gun but didn’t find it. Suddenly he remembered something the guy had said.

“He said he had a brother, right?” Dean asked, looking directly at Nick.

“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “Vincent.”

Charley chimed in saying, “at the House of Wax, he did all the sculptures. He’s gotta be the one who does the wax. What if he’s around here somewhere?” She added looking anxious, glancing toward the sickly pale building we saw advertisements for on the way into town. Trudy’s House of Wax.

Dean stood you solidly in the middle of the road, making sure you wouldn’t fall over, before turning around in the general direction the guy had pointed and seeing a giant house on a hill. He wasn’t one to take risks with the lives of the people he was trying to protect, but they didn’t have a lot of options with no wheels, little to no weapons, and down a hunter. He made the decision for them all and wrapped his arm around your shoulder, securing you tightly to him before walking down the empty streets. Nick and Carley followed silently behind. As you all continued down the street Nick veered off toward a store front, and Dean read his mind instantly, turning you sharply to follow.

“Nick.” Carley said glancing around. “What are you doing? You gotta be careful.” She gripped her injured hand tightly running after Nick faster than Dean could while carrying Y/N.

“I am being careful.” Nick answered gruffly, moving to throw a wrench through the store front window when Carley stopped his movement.

“It’ll make too much noise!” She yell-whispered at him. “Why do you have to be so damn stubborn? He’ll find us.”

“Yeah chances are he will anyways.” Nick answered glancing back at Dean who nodded in agreement.

“At least with this,” Dean gestured toward the crossbow in the window while removing his own gun, “he might not want to find us.” Dean nodded at Nick to continue and he reached back his arm chucking the wrench through the glass, shattering it, both women cringing at the noise. Nick jumped through the open window and gripped the crossbow in his arms tightly, glancing back at us standing in the street behind him.

His eyes went wide as the glass on the door next to him shattered with the echo of a shotgun.

“Run!” Nick yelled grabbing Carley by the arm and rushing into the next building over.

Dean tore around sharply staring down the man with the grimy hat, his eyes trained on the shotgun scope having quickly reloaded the weapon. Dean didn’t think twice before grabbing you roughly and launching both of you through the doors of the movie theater, firing off a few rounds, before another burst of shrapnel shattered the theater doors.

_________________________________

You didn’t have time to think about your head injury as Dean was gripping your wrist tightly tossing you through the doors of the theater. You crawled from your hands and knees, Dean grabbing your waist and pushing you to stand position before you entered the theater from the lobby, having nowhere else to run.

Nick and Carley rushed in ahead of you, jumping as the lights rose up and the movie started playing. The theater was half full of stagnant long-dead humans sitting upright in chairs enjoying What Ever Happened to Baby Jane playing on the screen, the eery title number echoing off of the dust covered walls.

“I’ve written a letter to daddy…” Bette Davis sang, the pleased faces of the frozen audience mocking us.

“Come on.” Dean whispered pulling you down into a seat near the middle of the theater, him rushing further down and crouching into a seat. You didn’t dare move your head but noticed movement out of the corner of your eye, indicating that Carley and Nick did the same. The doors behind you all whispered open, the man from outside stepping in, letting the doors close with a creak.

“I know you’re in here.” He stated, the wax figure attendant with the flashlight uttering a recorded “shushing” noise in response. The man continued down the rows, poking random people with his shotgun, making sure they were wax.

Other random recorded human sounds emerged throughout the theater, a cough in one direction catching the man off guard, and he whipped around pointing his gun wildly, before returning to meander down the aisle. You began to sweat as you could feel him getting closer and closer to where you were attempting to sit as still as possible your head pounding. You saw movement next to you as the man shoved a wax figure that had similar Y/H/C hair as you did, only for the figure to topple over uselessly.

The movie continued a piano melody playing as the man approached the front of the theater where you knew the glow of the movie would give your faces away.

___________________________________

Dean stood crouched down waiting for an open shot of the shadowed figure walking toward him. He raised his gun just as the man spotted Y/N sitting in the middle of the theater. A shot rang out and Y/N ducked at the last second, the shrapnel hitting the figure immediately behind her, shattering the head into a million pieces. Dean pulled the trigger on his gun winging the guy who fell to the floor, quickly reloading the shotgun. Dean threw himself up the aisle grabbing Y/N by the hand, hoping Nick and Carley were following them, when a shot rang out exploding the projector above their heads, which sparked and sputtered out, leaving the movie theater bathed in darkness.

You turned just inside of the lobby and waited for Nick and Carley to exit, before shoving Y/N out the door after them. Dean waited for the man to emerge, slowly creeping toward the theater doors, his hands locked on his gun. He nudged the doors open with his foot and grabbed the flashlight off of the wax figure nearest the door, shining the light in, but saw no sign of the man he’d just shot. He contemplated searching the rest of the building when he heard commotion outside before a slight “Dean” was yelled.

Dean pushed open the doors and exited the theater into the cool night, his breath hitching at the scene before him.

He stopped in his tracks and watched as you clutched your right shoulder with your hand, blood seeping from the open wound. Your face was twisted in agony and Nick had his arm on your non-injured shoulder having just noticed your injury. Dean rushed over, removing his canvas jacket and the flannel he was wearing pressing it roughly into the wound, attempting to stop the bleeding.

“I guess I zigged when I should have zagged.” You muttered more to yourself than anyone, but Dean chuckled lowly, tying the sleeves of the flannel under your armpits and pulling it snug. You winced and looked up at him your eyes guarded and angry. Dean reached down and pulled his jacket back on before heading back down the street toward the dark house on the hill.

“Is there anybody left alive in this town?” Nick asked out loud looking up and down the streets again.

“What about this Vincent guy?” Carley questioned gripping onto Nick’s hand.

“Who knows if there even is a Vincent.” Dean answered lowly, glancing at Y/N who was staring off, lost in thought. “We gotta get out of this place.” He finished.

“What about Wade and our other friends? We can’t just leave them behind.” Carley asked from behind, making Dean stop and turn to look at her. They were getting closer to the house and needed to stop to make a plan before running in halfcocked.

“Alright,” Dean began glancing at Y/N who was gripping her shoulder. He looked around him taking in his surroundings. “This is what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna go up to the house and see if I can get that truck started. Y/N, you take Nick and Carley back to the road and I’ll meet ya’ll there.”

Y/N looked at Dean and her eyes flashed. “No way. No. I’m not leaving you.” Dean turned frustrated and stared into her eyes matching their intensity.

“Why do you have to be so…” He began his temper flaring. Y/N stood up taller meeting his gaze.

“Damn stubborn?” She answered for him, with a raise of her eyebrows. Dean took in a long breath and let out a sigh before answering, knowing he wasn’t going to win this argument.

“Okay. We stick together.”

__________________________________

You and Dean took off one direction toward the truck, watching Carley and Nick as they headed up toward the house, after Dean insisted that they wait there and not go inside. Nick was the only other one with a weapon, which made Dean feel better about leaving the duo alone.

The ancient yellow truck sputtered and coughed when Dean tried to start the engine and his fist slammed down on the steering wheel as he muttered out a quiet “son of a bitch.” He got out of the truck and you both headed up toward the front door to meet up with Carley and Nick who were lost in a whispered conversation.

“Wade went into that house and never came out.” Carley stated, her voice catching at the end.

“Alright,” Dean answered rubbing a hand down his face. “We’ll go in quick. Make a pass.” He stopped and looked hard at Nick. “If we can’t find your friends, we have to get the hell out of here.”

The brother and sister nodded their heads agreeing, and Dean took out his gun, gesturing for you to follow close behind him. The four of them approached the door quietly. Leaning up against the wall was a wooden bat and you gripped it placing it over your good shoulder, feeling more secure with a weapon, even if it was short range. Dean looked back and scoffed at your lightly. You raised your shoulders in a “what?” motion, wincing at the movement. A soft smile played at his lips and turned the knob of the door stepping slowly inside.

The door opened into a dark entryway. There was a phone on the wall that Carley picked up, a busy tone echoing through the handset, and she put it back on the hook uselessly. We ventured in further as the house opened up into a kitchen, living room, and side room with a pool table. You broke off, all four of you stepping into a different room when something white caught your eye.

“Dean.” You said quietly, starring into a glass case that held a small gun, and yours, an identical twin to Dean’s Colt that he bought you for your birthday a few years back. It was something you treasured and you felt guilty not having it in the back of your jeans as usual. You had noticed its absence instantly, but now knew the man had taken it off of you and you felt more violated than ever. Dean came over and reached for the bat in your hand, wrapping a towel around the end and smashing the glass case soundlessly, until it was nothing but iron bars between you and the gun.

“It’s bolted to the wall.” He stated, glancing at the back of the case. “Spread out and let’s look for a key.”

You instantly threw yourself into checking every drawer you could. It was stupid, but you weren’t leaving without that gun. You didn’t find much other than a few news articles about Siamese twins that were separated, a clue to the man and his brother’s identity, the names Bo and Vincent standing out to you. Before you could think too far into it the front door opened with a bang, and the man from before, Bo as you now knew him, stepped in, gripping his arm where Dean shot him. You crouched down under the pool table, glancing around for the others. Dean and Nick had walked up the stairs, but Carley was only a few feet away watching the man closely as he attempted to clean his wounds at the kitchen sink. When his back was turned, she hustled over to you and you put your arm around her protectively as you watched Bo. Seconds later, a truck pulled up and Carley glanced out the window, falling back with a gasp, her hand clutching her mouth wordlessly as tears slipped down her cheeks. You gripped her knee softly, eyes questioning her.

“It’s my other friends. They’re dead.” She whispered, before the door opened again and another man entered, this one wearing a mask giving his face an unnatural tint.

Bo approached the open door and started yelling. “Hey! You don’t ever leave without me. You know better than that. Don’t be so stupid!”

The other man, who you gathered to be Vincent, didn’t answer, merely approaching his brother slowly to help him tend to his wounds. The man waved him off with a harsh, “don’t!” muttering “fuckin’ freak,” below his breath as Vincent lit a candle, using the heat and wax to fix his face where a deep gash was. You were too tuned into the situation before you, you hadn’t noticed Dean motioning to you to head toward the stairs until Carley gripped your hand tightly. You hustled toward the stairs heading up and into a room with a trap door, Nick beckoning you all to follow him down.

“Dean, wait.” You stopped him, gripping his bicep. “My gun…” You muttered trailing off.

“Hey,” he started, putting a finger under your chin to force you to look at him. “It’s not a big deal, okay? We have to get these two out of here.” He look at you intently, his green eyes calming your guilt, before pushing you lightly forward to fall down the trap door, Nick catching you at the waist.

________________________________________________

Dean didn’t hear the conversation from below, but he knew there were now two men downstairs, and Y/N was hurt badly. They needed to get out of this town and quickly. Him and Sam would figure out what to do later, once Y/N and these two kids were safe. He wasn’t sure where the trap door led, but followed behind Nick nonetheless, until it opened up into a workshop of sorts and they took a second to get their bearings.

Carley stopped and gripped her brother’s hand halting him. “I saw Paige and Blake’s bodies.” She glanced back at Dean and Y/N. “They’re dead.”

Nick nodded his head slowly like he already knew. “We have to get out of here.” He pulled her along and I wrapped my arm around Y/N carefully to avoid her shoulder.

As we moved forward we approached a figure that was perched on top of a contraption leaning against the back wall, that looked like it was encased in something that was dripping onto the floor. Nick stopped near the work bench and gripped a red hat in his hands, before approaching the figure.

“Dalton.” He stated. Dean glanced at Y/N as Nick looked into the figure’s eyes. “I’ll get you out of there.” Nick continued his voice cracking as he gripped onto the metal helmet the figure was wearing. Tugging it away, the contraption broke a sickening crunch erupting as the head fell off of the person’s body.

“No!” Carley cried, gripping roughly at her brother’s shirt. He hugged her silently, and Dean gave them a moment, hearing Carley’s pain at losing another friend so horrifically. Dean glanced up into Y/N’s eyes and again saw nothing but anger and fury, knowing it was affecting her to not be able to take these two men out herself.

Suddenly the masked man approached from around the corner, and Dean took his gun and aimed, the shot ringing out.

“That’s Vincent!” Carley screamed, the man taking the bullet to the shoulder, but not stopping, coming toward us full bore. He gripped roughly at the table in his way and shoved it toward Dean, who took it to the gut, his gun falling out of his hands as he fell to the floor. Vincent extracted two long machetes and Nick approached him, raising the crossbow before taking a cut to the arm and falling back. Dean got himself up off the ground, approaching Vincent with fire in his eyes and grabbed the man by the middle careful to avoid the long knife in his hand. Vincent fell to the floor, pushing the lever on a cauldron of wax, igniting a large fire that spilled over into the grates at our feet, trapping Vincent on one side and us all on the other.

“Come on!” Dean yelled grabbing my arm and rushing us toward the exit, emerging into the wax museum. The fires from below began to lick the surface of the wax floor, and we struggled to walk as the wax melted, Nick and Carley finding themselves stuck close to an exit next to a man posed playing the piano. Carley let out a cry, realizing it was her boyfriend Wade, half of his face missing.

“Get out of here!” Dean yelled, pointing them toward the door behind them in the corner. The two glanced at you both before picking up their feet as best they could and trudging toward the door. Dean gripped your arm roughly and pulled you further into the museum looking for another exit. Turning a corner, you came face to face with Vincent’s brother, Bo, and Dean didn’t think twice before running straight at him, knocking him to the floor.

The two scuffled on the floor, both getting in a few punches before Bo extracted a knife and shoved it into Dean’s right thigh. He yelled out in pain, gripping at his leg as the man stepped back up with a smirk. You gripped tightly to the bat in your hands and sucked in a breath before slamming it roughly into the man’s face, knocking him to the floor, where he fell halfway into the wax. You hit him again and again the sound of his bones crunching fueling your anger until his face was unrecognizable. Dean sunk to the floor and you moved toward him, your feet resisting as they slipped in the sludge.

__________________________________________

You took one step forward and Vincent rounded the corner, eyeing you, the dark holes of his mask an unreadable emotion. You panicked and ran up the stairs, Vincent following close, picking up his feet with ease.

“Don’t you hurt her!” Dean yelled from below, as you sprinted up the staircase emerging into a bedroom. Vincent entered slowly, approaching you with his knife drawn and you rounded the corner of the bed facing off with him. He rolled the knife from hand to hand looking for a fight after seeing the condition of his brother. You gripped the bat tightly preparing yourself when Dean burst through the door, shoving Vincent to the wax bed. The two struggled, Vincent attempting to stab his knife into Dean, when you spotted the one protruding from Dean’s leg. Acting fast you ripped it out of his thigh and shoved into the side of Vincent’s neck, effectively killing him, Dean shoving him roughly. When Vincent fell to the side a hole burst through the floor, flames fighting to emerge, and engulfing Vincent and his brother in the heat. Dean grabbed you and hobbled his way back down the stairs away from the flames engulfing the wax museum and leaving it a steaming pile of sludge.

___________________________________________

Dean hobbled out to Carley and Nick who were sitting on the curb staring off in the distance, Nick’s arm draped around Carley’s shoulders. You approached, Dean muttering about both brothers being dead before you began the trek back toward the Impala, Y/N bearing much of Dean’s weight this time. He didn’t unclench his jaw until they made it back to the Impala. Once there, service miraculously returned to their phones and Dean used his fake FBI badge number to call in the fire department and explain away the murders. Carley and Nick leaned against the Charger listening intently, staring at Y/N, but she only shook her head, clearly not wanting to explain or give “the talk,” even if nothing about this hunt was supernatural. You got off the phone, explaining to Carley and Nick that the local cops were on their way to take statements and get them home safely when his phone started to ring.

“Yeah.” He answered, not even looking at the caller ID.

“Dean. Thank God.” Sam huffed out with a sigh. He sounded like he had been holding his breath for days and Dean instantly felt guilty realizing that was probably true when he hadn’t heard from him or Y/N.

“Are you okay? Is Y/N? What is going on?” Sam continued concern lacing his voice. Dean smiled for the first time in 12 hours hearing the familiarity of his brother’s concern.

“Yeah, Sammy.” Dean answered, glancing at Y/N, whose Y/H/C hair was shiny in the early morning sun. “We’re fine. We’re gonna leave here in a bit and catch up with you soon, alright?”

He heard Sam sigh into the phone. “Okay. Catch up soon.” Dean ended the call and walked over to Y/N placing his hand at her lower back and pulling her in, planting a kiss at her temple.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered into her hair, feeling guilty for allowing her to go off on her own. She shook her head slowly, looking up at him with striking Y/E/C eyes.

“Don’t do that.” She replied with a small smile, saying a quick goodbye to Carley and Nick, hugging Carley tight, before planting herself into the front seat of the Impala, planning to make someone else come get her car later.

Dean sighed heavily feeling the weight of the situation hit him all at once. He turned and gave Nick a quick pat on the back, thanking him and Carley and leaving them with his phone number, just in case. He nodded toward them before heading toward the Impala and stepping in hearing the familiar groan of the door.

“Well.” He started putting the key in the ignition, leaning his arm on the back of the bench seat as Y/N scooted over to cuddle against his side. “I’ll say it again…” He leaned over and placed another kiss against her forehead before pulling the car away from the faded ‘Welcome to Ambrose’ sign.

“Demons I get. People…. are crazy.”

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