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snickerdoodlles · 1 year ago

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📓 :3

:D!

@mortimerlatrice got me thinking about a KimChay Chrestomanci AU, so more of that.

the Chrestomanci series, sidenote, is an absolutely delightful fantasy series by Diana Wynne Jones. it's composed of mostly independent stories set in a universe of 12 parallel universes (called Series), each with their own string of worlds (except Series 11). generally speaking, every person has eight identical copies borne into other series than their own, but very occasionally all nine lives will be borne into one person. this nine-life enchanter has all the power of nine magical people in them and is therefore the only person powerful enough to fill the role of Chrestomanci to regulate magical use and prevent any abuse of it across the 12 series.

which cool, very fun story premise actually, but not what I care about here. I'm setting kp in one of the series that doesn't deal much with magic because I don't care about magic meet mafia, I care about Chay having nine lives and all the ways that could make things worse.

(cw: non-permanent but slightly graphic character death under the cut. ft a dash of actual character death, but that only applies to Tawan.)

Chay doesn't have all his lives when canon starts. he lost his first one the same day he and Porsche lost their parents when he fell out of his crib trying to investigate the noise. he lost his second to food poisoning, before Porsche started working for extra food money and they had to make every scrap stretch. he lost another when a debt collector hit him too hard and snapped his neck. (Porsche wasn't home for that day. Chay told him he wasn't either.)

Chay loses his fourth life in the warehouse. it actually wasn't intentional on anyone's part -- Tawan's hired meat weren't careful enough bringing him in, and Chay's luck has his head hit a curb or scrap metal at just the right (or wrong, as it were) angle to kill him instead of concuss him, and head injuries take so long to come back from. Tawan drags out the charade because he wants Porsche desperate, not angry, and Porsche is in too deep of denial to accept the possibility of Chay actually being dead not to fall for it.

Kim arrives before Chay comes back to life. it's...bad. Porsche is screaming for him to get Chay out. Kim first checks Chay's breathing. failing to find that, he frantically (but carefully!) hauls Chay upright. that's when Chay's head flops limply to the side and reveals the dried blood down the back of his neck, which Kim had already felt grabbing but refused to process.

Kim sees red.

Tawan knifes Big. Porsche's shouts break through the fog threatening to overwhelm Kim. then Tawan gets one very distraught, very angry, very murderous Kim materializing in front of him and going right for his eyes. it doesn't matter that Tawan's the one with a weapon, he could've had an armory and that couldn't have helped him. Kim is very, very, very good at fighting, and he's on a mission to hurt. but he's also missing his control, and kicks Tawan in the kidney so hard Tawan stumbles back into a pile of scrap and, in true irony, jostles it hard enough the end of steel beam falls on his head. as discovered earlier, metal and concrete are not kind to heads, and bullet proof vests certainly can't protect from that.

it's too quick and too kind, and Kim stares at him disbelievingly, half a mind to drag Tawan out and beat out the little life he's surely still clinging to, when Chay groans. Kim first thinks he hallucinated it, but then he sees Chay move and he's so relieved he was wrong that he shoves everything else out of his mind and just gets Chay out. then everything and one trailing shouty Porsche slams back into him the minute Chay's out of his arms and with the paramedics that Kim bolts to go hide in a dark corner in his apartment and fail to process any of it.

Chay misses all of this btws. He was dead, then he was back with a headache, and he loves Porsche but he needs Porsche to please shut the fuck up and get him some tylenol.

then apartment confrontation, where Kim says I'm sorry and shoves off even quicker because all he can remember are those moments when he'd been so sure Chay was properly dead. club scene goes down even worse when Kim yells at Chay for making stupid reckless choices that could get him killed, and Chay demands to know why Kim even cares, and Kim goes pale with anger that Chay doesn't care that he (only nearly, surely) died, and it's all very terrible and ends in them storming away from each other.

then comes Yok's bar.

Chay dies. Kim had taunted them into a direct fight inside instead of picking them off outside, and it should have been fine, would have been fine, had Chay not had a bit more awareness and looked over to see Kim pinned between two guys and rushed to help only to get shot by one of the goons on the other end of the bar. he bleeds out while Kim kills off the rest.

Chay comes back to a bar full of bodies and Kim (clutching) cradling him. Kim isn't crying. he isn't really doing much of anything other than clinging and staring off into nothing with a thoroughly haunted expression.

Chay blinks and tentatively lays his fingers against Kim's cheek. "Kim?"

Kim's eyes snap to him, but still don't quite see him. he stays looking blank for a few seconds that feel like hours before saying matter-of-factly, "I've snapped."

"Kim!" Chay protests, distressed.

"It's okay," Kim says, still matter-of-fact but smiling tenderly, "better to be mad with you than without."

it takes a while to convince Kim he's not insane and that Chay's really back. Chay's not certain he fully manages it. but his death also shook loose a lot of confessions Kim normally couldn't say out loud. ("why--" Chay starts, voice cracking, "why did you say 'I'm sorry' that day?" / "You were supposed to be safe," Kim replies hoarsely, mad smile slipping for tears.) there's more clutching and clinging, this time by Chay too. both of them manage to forget they're in a bar of dead bodies until Porsche and Kinn come crashing through the door.

"Chay!" Porsche yells when he first sees him.

"Chay," Porsche pleads brokenly when he sees Chay's blood soaked shirt.

"Not mine!" Chay says quickly, and would've been given away by how fast Kim's head snaps around in any other circumstance. "See?" he says, raising his shirt to show unblemished skin, "No injury."

this does a lot to reassure Porsche, but Chay can tell Kim still thinks he's a little bit insane. Chay decides that's fine for now, because dying takes a lot out of you and apparently everyone around you too and it's unfair to expect Kim to just bounce back from him bleeding out on him, he'll work on it after a shower and dinner.

I'm not writing this AU because I only really have these two vague scenes in my head, but Chay having multiple lives making his existence in the mafia hurt more than canon's calls to me, it really does.

oh, also: in the AU source material, one of the nine-lifers has one of his lives removed and stored into a ring for safekeeping. he later gives this ring to his to-be-wife as her wedding ring. I'm not sure yet how to work that into this AU because Chay's contact with magic and other magicals would be slim to none in this, but please picture how this would absolutely wreck Kim, because there's nothing Kim wants more than to safeguard Chay but as far as he's concerned, he's already failed Chay in that regard twice. 😈

[[ ask me about fics im not writing ]]

#kinnporsche #kimchay #ask game: fics im not writing #this idea is fun but im only really here for vibes #and i already have many similar vibes in timeloop AU so im gonna stick with that one but like...so much fun 👀👀#ANYWAYS vague possibility for how chay meets magicals: in charmed life they mention looking for a 9-lifer off world/outside of series 12 #chay's that 9-lifer in this case #originally not the candidate they wanted because he's in a different series AND a non-magical world to boot #then he gets involved with the mafia and all these government officials go Uhm #christopher: what's the problem i smuggled black market goods for years as a kid #government officials: uHM?!#christopher musing to himself: and that resulted in gabriel getting blown apart for a few days hmmm maybe not #christopher then meeting cat post apple scrumping: are all nine-lifers simply criminals as children??? is there no hope for us???????#i love Very Specific AUs made for an audience of me and 1.5 people can u tell 😂

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denimbex1986 · 1 year ago

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'July 2023's box office was filled with major blockbusters and the highly-anticipated Barbie vs. Oppenheimer showdown, and here are the biggest stats, records, failures, and more from the past month. The 2023 July movie lineup made it one of the most anticipated times of the year for movie fans. New movies from directors like Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig arrived, as did the latest installments from the Mission: Impossible and Insidious franchises. It understandably made for an exciting time to go to theaters and check out new horror movies, comedies, action adventures, and much more.

While several movies from the June 2023 box office still made an impact a month later, the majority of July's box office was dominated by a handful of movies. The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer was expected in many ways, but surprises still came with Sound of Freedom's overperformance. Meanwhile, the trend of sequels largely stumbling financially continued with some of the biggest stars and pieces of IP in the world. The result was the July 2023 box office breaking records across the board to deliver huge hits and some massive flops.

13. Barbie's Opening Weekend Broke Multiple Records

The biggest box office story from July 2023 is the runaway success of Barbie's record-breaking performance. It all began with a historic opening weekend which saw Margot Robbie's movie make $162 million domestically and $356 million worldwide. This meant Barbie's opening weekend box office was the biggest ever for a movie that was not a sequel, remake, or superhero property. It also became Warner Bros.' biggest opening weekend since 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Adding to Barbie's records, it became 2023's biggest opening weekend and the biggest opening of all-time for a movie directed by a woman, giving Greta Gerwig a major achievement.

12. Oppenheimer Had Christopher Nolan's Third-Biggest Opening Weekend

More box office records were also broken by Oppenheimer, as it became the biggest R-rated movie in four years. However, the bigger accomplishment is that Oppenheimer's opening weekend is the third-highest at the box office for any Christopher Nolan movie. The only two movies that are ahead of it are The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. This means that Oppenheimer had Nolan's biggest opening weekend for a non-DC movie, topping Inception and his other original works. The success comes despite the movie's 3-hour runtime as audiences are flocking to 70mm IMAX screenings to see the widely-praised biopic.

11. Barbenheimer Hype Delivered The 4th Biggest Box Office Weekend Ever

The individual success of Barbie and Oppenheimer at the box office was impressive, but the two movies releasing in the same weekend also allowed records to break overall. The Barbenheimer phenomenon that drove over 200,000 people to watch the movies back-to-back in theaters generated massive hype. The end result was Barbie and Oppenheimer leading the way for the fourth-biggest box office weekend in history. Their total opening of $244M led the way for a $307M weekend domestically, which only fell behind the weekends where Avengers: Infinity War ($312), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($314M), and Avengers: Endgame ($401M) opened.

10. Barbie Had Record-Low Second Weekend Hold On Way To $775M Worldwide

The record-breaking success of Barbie continued through its first full week of release and the end of its second weekend. The movie had a record-low second-weekend drop of only 42% as it made an estimated $93 million. The incredible demand to see Barbie means the movie ends the July 2023 box office as the biggest hit. It has made over $350M domestically already and flew past the $775M mark globally. This performance has guaranteed that Barbie will make $1 billion at the box office. Now, the question becomes whether it will be only the seventh movie to crack $2 billion.

9. Oppenheimer Had Record-Low Second Weekend Hold To Pass $400M Worldwide

Christopher Nolan's 3-hour R-rated movie about atomic bombs has cemented itself as another huge box office hit after its second weekend too. Oppenheimer made another $46M domestically in its second weekend according to estimates, and that is good for a mere 44% drop from the first weekend. The movie has already nearly doubled its budget domestically alone, but the performance has also been strong enough to see Oppenheimer exceed $400M worldwide. With no immediate signs of slowing down, how many other Christopher Nolan movies it beat at the box office remains to be seen.

8. Sound of Freedom Became The Biggest Box Office Surprise Of The Year

While the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer was expected, the way that Sound of Freedom's box office has continued to perform has been a massive surprise. The movie about child trafficking employed a Pay-It-Forward campaign to hand out free tickets to any interested party and has remained a hotly debated movie weeks later. It has made nearly $150 million domestically thanks to the word of mouth that comes with a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and Sound of Freedom's free tickets. With Angel Studios securing international releases now too, Sound of Freedom's box office will expand to new audiences.

7. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Massively Underperformed At The Box Office

Although Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny technically opened in June 2023, only its first day of release counts toward that month. The rest of its run has occurred during the July 2023 box office, and Harrison Ford's final entry in the franchise has not gone as anticipated. It opened below Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and has only managed to make $355M worldwide so far. That might sound okay for most movies, but Indiana Jones 5's budget ballooned to $295 million during production reportedly. This means the movie will not even come close to breaking even, making it a huge flop for Disney.

6. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning's Box Office Was Crushed By Barbenheimer

Another surprising box office disappointment has seemingly come with Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. The Tom Cruise-led sequel was expected to be one of the biggest movies of the year after the prior installment's success and Top Gun: Maverick's box office records. Despite Mission: Impossible 7 earning rave reviews, it has made less than $150M domestically and has become lost in the Barbie and Oppenheimer domination. The silver lining for Mission: Impossible 7's box office is that it has made nearly $450M worldwide so far, meaning there is still a chance it breaks even for Paramount despite its $291M budget.

5. Insidious: The Red Door Breaks Two Major Franchise Records

The 2023 box office has been strong for horror movies, and Insidious: The Red Door continued that trend with its release in July. The movie set a new franchise record for the best opening weekend for an Insidious movie after making $33M. The success did not stop there, as the horror movie finished July with a global total of $174M. That is enough to make Insidious: The Red Door the highest-grossing movie in the entire Insidious franchise worldwide. The success comes as plans have already been announced for the universe to expand.

4. Elemental Breaks Even After Hitting $400M Worldwide

Pixar's Elemental was one of the apparent box office failures from June, but the July 2023 box office breakdown reveals how great the animated movie has continued to perform. It made almost $70 million domestically during the month, bringing its total domestic haul to nearly $150M. The great legs have helped Elemental's box office hit the $400 million milestone worldwide. This appeared unfathomable upon its near-record low opening weekend for a Pixar movie. However, audiences have continued to check out the family-friendly adventure to the point where it now breaks even for the studio.

3. Haunted Mansion Has Record-Low Opening For Disney Ride Movies

Disney's Haunted Mansion reboot was the last major release of the July 2023 box office, but it did not land as the studio hoped. After poor reviews and with all eyes still on Barbie and Oppenheimer, Haunted Mansion opened to a mere $24 million domestically. That is officially the worst opening weekend for a Disney movie based on a ride since the previous Haunted Mansion movie starring Eddie Murphy nearly two decades ago. The updated version carries a $150M budget. Disney did not wait until October to release the family-friendly horror movie around Halloween, something they likely regret now.

2. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken Becomes A Major Box Office Bomb For DreamWorks

Another box office failure in July came with DreamWorks releasing Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. The animated movie received positive reviews but never caught the attention of audiences after its release on the last day of June. It had a horrible $5 million opening weekend and will not make more than $50M worldwide at the box office. The disastrous performance for the original animated movie comes after the studio had back-to-back hits with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Bad Guys last year.

1. July's 2023 Box Office Was The Highest Since 2016

One final July 2023 box office stat really shows the full effects of the month. The 83 movies that played in theaters this month domestically collectively made over $1.3 billion. That means that the July 2023 box office was the highest for the month since 2016. It is the fourth-biggest July box office total in history, falling behind 2013, 2016, and 2011. This is a great sign for the overall strength of theaters considering those three prior years each had at least 178 movies in theaters, more than double the amount that has been available post-pandemic.'

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