#I should have drawn this scene in the sewers

[raccooncitysewers]

A doodle for @sergerolddayne of our webfishing session where she made MOUsker and I attempted to make Tyrant Birkin

[trollprincess]

Okay, so. “The Apprentice.”

Before we go in, if you’re going to watch this film, keep in mind trigger warnings for marital rape and racial, religious, and homophobic slurs.

Now, I would cut for spoilers, but I feel like at this point we should all know enough about Trump’s past that none of this is a spoiler. It’s a bit like saying “The boat sinks” about “Titanic.” Well, yes, it does, but the devil’s in the details.

Anyway. The movie focuses on a younger Trump’s mentorship under attorney, known scumbag, and gay-but-let’s-pretend-he’s-not Roy Cohn. (Let’s put it this way. If he’d died now instead of ‘86, the “I didn’t know the leopards would eat my face” song would be playing over celebratory TikToks.) Cohn proceeds to mold him into the douchebag we all know and loathe, and ends up getting bitten in the process. (Just as a note, this prompted me to get a Cohn biography so I could beef up on just how awful he was in even more detail than I already know.)

The film itself is very well-made. There are choices in terms of camera usage (making it look more 70s and 80s), storytelling, foreshadowing current events, etc., that are very well done. At the beginning, you almost have a smidge of sympathy for Trump, although it’s a HUGE almost. (It’s clear he was raised by a dick and wants to be like said dick, when maybe he would have been better off if his father croaked when he was little and his mother had all the control over his raising and that of his siblings.) Like, there is a *hint* that he might be redeemable if the right person got their hands on him. Instead, it’s Roy Cohn, and we have the six-foot pile of chinchilla diarrhea we have now.

So here’s the thing. I think anybody who heard Jeremy Strong was cast as Cohn thought, “Now that’s perfect casting.” And it is! He looks like him, he sounds like him, he plays him as manipulative sewer sludge. I will be incredibly surprised if he doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Every time he’s on screen, you’re drawn to him. He’s a monster, but a monster you want to keep your eyes on, either to see what he pulls next or to see if he finally gets what he fucking deserves.

But you know what was a delightful surprise? Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump. No, I’m not kidding. I mean, no, Trump is not delightful, but I know a lot of people were like, “Aw, SebStan as Trump? Come on.” The thing is, he’s *good*. Obviously, Trump in 2024 is an absolute cartoon of a human being, but all those tics and vocabulary choices and style choices came over time. The Trump at the beginning of the movie is a sliver of what he is now. You can see him if you squint, but you’re still working on SebStan in a bad wig. By the end of the movie, though? He IS Trump in the late 80s. He moves like him, speaks like him, brags like him. It’s as if the current Trump is him turned up to eleven, and SebStan at the end of the movie is him at about five tilting toward six. The last scene is him speaking to the ghost writer of “Art of the Deal,” and you can see Marla Maples-era Trump *right there.* It’s not a comic impression, it is a very real and respectable performance.

I feel like I should also mention that Maria Bakalova portrays an empathetic Ivana, especially given the mentioned rape scene and the moment when she shows Cohn something approaching real sympathy. I think she may be overshadowed in terms of awards by Strong and Stan, but she does a commendable turn as the first of the three wives Trump bulldozes through as his desires change with the wind.

It’s entirely unsurprising that the Trump campaign wouldn’t want this movie released. I mean, for starters, the marital rape scene is horrific and upsetting. But I think they should also be worried about just how much Trump seems to lift wholesale from other people without attribution - Cohn’s rules for life, Reagan’s campaign slogan - not to mention Cohn repeatedly getting him out of shit that should make any average American enraged. Why in God’s name would you support someone who got out of federal discrimination charges and $160 million in taxes for building a hotel using Cohn’s expertise with blackmail?

Of course, that requires the entire movie to be true, and … well, even the most historically accurate movies have their flaws. The problem here is that the people who worship him aren’t going to believe anything bad about him, and the people who wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire are bound to feel that even if something isn’t true, it *sounds* like something he’d do. So fact-checking “The Apprentice” is like fact-checking Cocomelon. Your toddler doesn’t care as long as you give them the damn iPad. But at least with Cocomelon, if you just give them the iPad and walk away with your hands up in defeat, your toddler is probably not going to threaten to set the house on fire because Cocomelon told them to.

So yes, anyway, an excellent movie. I hope someone else is president when it gets nominated for Academy Awards because Jesus fucking Christ.

[dasinclair]

how’s the art book? I’ve been trying to find pics online but I haven’t found many. any cool trivia?

i really like having it! i love the full-page spreads of background paintings, they're beautiful. we get turnarounds of every character, and expression sheets for several. it's nice to have clear references and see some range of emotion we didn't see in the show proper

some interesting stuff i never would have thought of, too. like a floor plan for the sewer sinclair works in, the lighting effects on characters' powers, robot's eye displays, fun details like that. if there's anyone/anything specific you'd like pictures of, i can try to get them for you!

the only real disappointment for me was the lack of concept art. i really like seeing the process of character design and the drafts that didn't make it, even if a lot of these guys didn't change that much from page to screen. there's some discussion of that, but not a lot of examples shown

trivia:

the grayson home had no consistent design in the comic, and kirkman wanted them to have a sort of nonsensical house with no fixed layout in the show too. this didn't pan out obviously

a lot of the iconic gory shots were done by the character designers rather than the animators, and some scenes had to be re-boarded to match the intensity of the action with the brutality of what they'd drawn... every seemingly random blood splatter was done with artistic intent ❤️

nate bellegarde got super attached to the background heroes we see at the guardian tryouts. some of them have names and a little bit of backstory in here too. there's a green goop guy named Big Mildew who didn't make it to the screen but he's in this book

there are designs, somewhere, of mark & amber in prom outfits. eve used to have a whole collection of pins on her jacket. bellegarde always thought that cecil was from texas and should have a cow skull bolo tie. i wish we got pictures of all this

dou hong thinks they picked the ugliest outfits out of all the ones she drew for debbie

rex was designed to be "as different as possible" from mark in the show, which is why he now has a one-piece visor instead of goggles like mark's

ryan ridley came up with the bit about ka-hor the mummy and everybody thought it was really funny

kirkman wanted to reference different styles/genres in each episode, for instance s1e5 being a crime drama and s1e6 being horror

season 1 was more self-contained because they didn't know if the series would get to continue, which is why in the viltrum flashback they made sure to include recognizable characters like thula, kregg, and conquest. just in case that was all we ever got of them

[alpydk]

Red on You (Part 5) - Knights of Cydonia

Gale x Rugan - ZhentWeave Shenanigans

Going to get some more Gale x Rugan next chapter. Don't worry, I've not forgotten this is their fic after all ^^ (I'm just enjoying writing all this madness, so thanks to anyone along for the ride for dropping in)

Ao3 Link

Rugan’s leg slipped from the drainpipe he’d clung to tightly, the iron clattering against the wall loudly. He hugged his chest to it, his breath caught in his throat as he closed his eyes and hoped that attention had not been drawn to him. His plan had been to reach the roof of the Mighty Manticore Tavern, but the lack of ladders, rusty piping and the horde of undead approaching from the south had left him to find another alternative. He’d since found himself heading further northwest, the coastline coming into view, expensive townhouses of various wizards away for the holiday season covering the horizon.

“At the academy. Avoid the streets. Supposed undead. Unclear of number or cause. I love you.”

Bit fucking late, Rugan thought to himself as the sending spell came wordlessly to him. The rising groan around him had been enough to get him climbing the side of a nearby manor, hands clinging to the pipe, legs aching from the hours of running and crouching without reprise. Should’ve taken the sewers... He peered out of the corner of his eye, a shambling monstrosity of what had been the previous tenant coming into view at the base of the building. A severed leg was dragged behind in the grasp of what was left of the towering merchant, his barrelled stomach open bare and the torn contents hanging down over his gore covered kneecaps. Rugan could smell the stench of putrid, decayed flesh and it took all his self-control not to vomit from the few feet above the ground he had found himself stuck.

Lifeless eyes came into his view, arms held up with the shredded gurgles the creature produced. The sound built and with it, so did the desperation as it tried to reach up and grab the legs it hungered to have. Rugan felt as if his heart had stopped, all time around him now closed on this one pinpoint moment of live or die. His legs scrambled up the pipe, but he felt as if he could not move from the point he’d become trapped in. It was simply him and the growing number of corpses that homed in on his position.

---

“Clear you a path!? You do realise she is over a kilometre away. Even with my spells, it cannot be done.” Gale pulled at the shoulder of Leonidas as he stood at the wall of the academy rooftop, looking for a straightforward way down to reach the woman they had seen panicking.

“Maybe not that far, but the roofs are empty around her. If you can clear around even a hundred feet, then I can make a run for her.” He began to remove the heavy armour he wore, revealing loose dark leather underneath. “I move quickly, I move quietly. I can get to her.”

Gale hesitated a moment. He knew they couldn’t leave an innocent to die when there was even a slither of a chance to save her. “And what of your return?”

“I’ve survived worse. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.”

He sighed, rubbing a fingertip in a circle on his temples to relieve the headache caused by stress. He looked out over the city before them, the hordes in the streets mostly massing around the courtyard walls. For a moment he was almost thankful for his years of lanceboard, the scene before him like that of a grid, and the creatures, the pieces of the enemy in a strategic formation. “Follow my exact steps. I will place upon you the fly spell. It will give you enough distance to get across to the Flagon Dragon.” Pointing out the tavern across the way, he then gestured to the surrounding undead. “Once there, I will fireball the entire area. It will draw attention to me, but should grant you enough of an opportunity to continue towards our damsel unscathed. I will continue to keep the area as free of danger as possible, awaiting your return.”

“Understood.” Leonidas placed his sword aside, stood on the edge of the stone wall and, with a deep breath, prepared himself for what was to come. “It’s a good thing I enjoy thrill rides.”

“Tibi do pennas.”

With the spell cast, he was in the air, a determined arrow heading to the tavern as instructed. The wind blew through his dirty blonde hair, tears cut the corners of his blue eyes with the speed he moved. As Gale’s second spell erupted in scorching white light, Leonidas felt the heat of the flames below him, the streets now a mixture of charred bodies and burning shopfronts. Hitting the sun-bleached tiles of the Flagon Dragon, he started into a sprint, an alternation of running and flying between rooftops with only the woman ahead in his sights. He would reach her; he would save her. There was no option of losing anyone else in this life.

---

Ilmater…

Andora sighed to herself, her dress torn and stained with blood and dirt from the sewers she had sat in. She’d not moved from the ground for some time after descending the ladder into the darkness, the only source of light from the spell she had cast on a nearby torch, long since burnt. Praying was bringing little comfort, and she’d started to question what purpose her god had in mind for her with all that had happened. The Crying God, one of self-sacrifice, was one she had always unknowingly followed until she had joined the clergy. Whether it be caring for her dying mother or comforting the homeless that she lived amongst, suffering had been her way of living and she’d known when she��d chosen to follow him it had been the right thing to do.  

The sound of her quiet breathing was interrupted by mutterings in the surrounding tunnels. She lifted her head, her eyes peeled for who might be approaching. Shadows flickered on the damp reddened tiles of the walls, a lone figure moving silently towards her location.

“And here I was thinking I was done with rats.”

Standing up, she held herself steady listening to the words as it the voice grew louder. She’d heard the rumours of the Zhentarim in the region from visitors to the temple, injured in suspicious circumstances, but she’d never asked further questions. It wasn’t her place to question the lives of those who needed her help. She held her breath and readied her palm to cast a spell, prepared for if it should it turn out to be a monster having followed her into the depths, or something worse that she knew to flee from. As a pale face emerged into the light, she said the verbal component without thinking, watching the golden flames hit the wall and cast a glow upon the shocked survivor.

“By Gods, is nowhere in this city safe!?”

He was alive, insulted but alive, but his pallor was also that of the priest’s she had left within the scriptorium not so long ago. She kept her palm raised before her. “Are you infected, bitten?”

“Infected?” Running a hand through his white hair, he approached her, little fear in his steps, his red eyes glinting in the white light around them.

She could see the viciousness of his features, the sharp angle of his jaw, the pointed fangs behind open curved lips. His voice was soft, a purr as he grew close to her, placing an icy hand around her outstretched wrist and lowering it. She was captivated by him, the way he moved almost like that of the alley cats she had fed as a child.

“Bitten? Once.” He smirked. “Infected? No.” He released her wrist just as quickly as he had grabbed it, looking her over with interest. “An unusual place to find a cleric.”

His words didn’t fully register as she felt his hand let go of her. “You’re not one of those things then? Haven’t been infected by them?” Andora couldn’t believe he might be like her, a survivor hiding in the underground, hoping that when they emerged again, all would be as it was.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. “As healthy as the day I was born.”

It took all her energy not to break down on the cold tiles beneath her, but she could feel her strength wavering with each second that passed. Fatigue had caught up with her. The overwhelming events and adrenaline she had been living off now left her. Her breath caught in her throat, the world span with reckless abandon, and before she knew it, darkness had descended over her in one fell swoop.

Astarion cautiously stepped over the body of the half-elf that now lay limp in front of him. He could hear the quiet beat of her heart and so, with a sigh, sat down next to her, waiting for her to wake again. “Typical clerics...”

---

Darnys’ acting had not gone unnoticed, both from the approaching paladin that leapt across rooftops towards her, and the undead that now pounded on the door to the bedroom below her. Her shrieking had stopped, instead replaced by yells needing actual help as she saw the number of undead on the move.

The distraction had been a little too effective, thought Friol as she climbed the ladder up to join her subordinate, abandoning any attempt at getting the amulet with the movement of the marketplace crowd that had instantly turned on her location. Sunlight burnt her eyes as she emerged from the attic room they’d hidden in, the odour of the undead worse outside than within the sealed tavern. Squinting against the light, she caught her bearings. There was little around them to shelter amongst, but roofs spread before them, east and westward, enough to clamber onto if needed.   

“Weren’t you going to get that necklace? What the hells happened?!” snapped Darnys, her eyes still glued to the approaching figure on the rooftops not far from them.

“Change of plan. We split up and get to it another way.”

She moved quickly, running across the rooftop and searching for a way to the next to get to somewhere safer. “Split up... Hells, why do I ever listen to you? First Rugan, Tibs, now this!”

Crashes and yells could be heard from the lower floors of the tavern, and Friol knew they had little time left. “Look, your job is to listen and do as I say. That amulet is needed-”

“I don’t give a fuck about the job, boss! I just don’t want to die!”

Words were fired out from Friol’s short stature, her command being shown in full for the first time since the events of the docks a year ago. She may have only had one person to order, but it was enough to give her purpose as a leader of the Zhentarim. “Shut it and listen to me! I don’t know what that artefact does, but it was going to be delivered to some wizard at the academy. Powerful dark magic, Manshoon type business. It is the key to this, and we need to separate it from Tibs before it gets anywhere near its destination. Do you understand me?”

Darnys straightened up out of reflex. “Yes, boss.”

“When that paladin gets here, you’re to go with him to the academy. Tell them it’s a magical item causing the problems. Do not, I repeat, do not, tell them of what the item is, especially if the wizards have survived. Use the paladins to get through the crowd and-” A loud smash was heard in the room below them, the undead having broken through the door. “Shit... Just get out of here. You’ll know what to do.”

“And what about you?”

Rolling her shoulders, Friol smiled confidently. “I’ll live to fight another day.” She turned, leaping from the eastern side of the rooftop, falling a few feet before vanishing into the shadows of an enclosure that lay before her.

“But...” Darnys felt lost, orders given but not fully understood in the panic of everything that had happened. She was alone, snarls and moans growing louder under her feet as the room filled with the walking corpses trying to reach her.

“Come on, I’ve got you.”

A leather covered arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her away from where she’d been frozen. Keeping moving was the only option she had as her senses came back to her, as the paladin she had lured pulled her from the rooftop back towards the safety of Blackstaff Academy. Following orders was all she had ever done, and it was what she would keep doing if she wanted to survive.

---

Clearing his throat, Lucius walked the halls of the academy. They lay silent, the horde outside nothing but a distant murmur that did not help him relax. He’d seen his men slain before him; trained soldiers who should have been prepared for every eventuality cut down in minutes. A recruit had raised his sword to find his neck bitten before the blade had then been thrown aside and he’d turned on his brethren. All Lucius could do was order a retreat, watching as they fell one by one. The recruit a snowflake in the avalanche that came to follow. Now he followed that same metal clad recruit down the stone corridors, steel boots echoing with each step, the sight of blood dripping down the paintings something he barely registered.

“Tristan... You’re to return to camp...” His words trailed out before him, but the recruit ignored all his commands. He coughed up a layer of thick saliva from his back of his throat, spitting it to the floor, the taste of copper simply from the blow to his jaw, he reminded himself.

Blood dotted along the floor before him, shadows danced along the walls, the eyes of the paintings watched him, judged him. “Tristan... You can not ignore a superior,” he whispered into the darkness. Reaching his arm forward, silver armour met his palm, cold and smooth against his touch.

A rasped scream was released as the recruit turned to face him, gleaming armour turning to stained rust, shades of brown and red, a mixture of the metal and blood that oozed from dead flesh. Lucius backed up, fear visible in his eyes and heart. “No...” His footing was uneven, his legs unstable, caught in the tarred earth beneath him. Sweat beaded on his brow, his eyes burnt with unshed grief, but before he could shout, he found himself on the floor, reality spinning around him, and the body of Percival lying, throat slit before him.

[invinciblerodent]

one of my favorite little pieces of headcanon I have been rotating around in my mind is that in the graveyard scene in Astarion's romance, there is such a realistic chance for being caught.

i mean, it's in the middle of the Lower City. it's literally in a hotbed of activity (criminal and otherwise), at a place that's frequented by mourners, and zombies, and elements even less savory than that. the security, even if it does relax, probably doesn't stop at night, or at least not for as long as it should.

in my hc, the Mortarch who is patrolling the grounds during the day lives in one of the buildings overlooking the graveyard, and i'm thinking about a possibility where she just... happens to glance out the window on her way back from the bathroom, and catch a not entirely unusual glimpse of a macabre couple. (This is Baldur's Gate. There are most definitely people who are morbid enough to want to make love on top of a grave without any specific inspiration for it, and to be fair, it'd be more concerning if someone's first thought at seeing that was "hm, well hold on now, one of them could be the deceased, and this moment could be a beautifully cathartic metaphor for rebirth".)

in this version, a shout startles them apart, and they have roughly a minute to disentangle themselves from each other and flee before the Mortach would make it down the stairs.

yanking clothes on to make themselves actually presentable isn't really feasible, of course: Astarion can manage to pull his pants up to the point where they're kind of on, if undone still (they were around his knees, the upward motion wasn't the difficult part, it was stuffing himself back in there that proves a futile task), and Iona manages to make a split-second decision and opt for throwing on his shirt (which is at least long enough to pass for a dress on her, if a deeply indecent one, especially with nothing else on), and it's with truly uncontrollable, free laughter bubbling from them (and the rest of whatever clothing they -mainly she- had on clutched in their fists) that they half-run, half-drag each other out the gate.

the city is fairly quiet, of course. it's gone past being late and well into the small hours of the morning, the pink dawn is just about to start licking at the tiled roofs, and even a city as bustling as Baldur's Gate is largely empty, as if asleep.

they run and stumble through the streets chased by the echo of their own giddy laughter bouncing off the walls. they dodge the patrolling guards and Steel Watchers by ducking into side-streets and doorways, pushing and dragging each other up against the wall for playful kisses- a ruffle of his hair, a squeeze of her ass, a thigh drawn up to his waist with a grip just this side of rough, a scratch down his chest and a nibble on an earlobe, they just can't keep their hands off one another for long enough to make it back home.

she bloody well squeals as his hand finds its way under "her" clothes as she runs up the stairs to their rooms (to be fair, her ass was at eye-level, what's a man to do?), and picking that lock should be the easiest thing in the world (the key? who knows. probably fallen out of her pocket and into a sewer somewhere. absolutely not important.), but not with the dirty, airy whispers in his ear and the hot, insistent kisses being mouthed onto his jaw, his neck, his shoulder...

the communal room may have been a mistake in retrospect, but the roof... may offer some privacy. probably. it's more than nothing, at least.

besides, there is scarcely a better way to greet the first golden morning of a free life than... bathed in its light, warm and content, while overlooking a city full of such endless possibilities.

[brsb4hls]

Kinda ranty iwtv review ahead.

When I finally got the chance to watch iwtv I found it meh. Which was weird to me, I was so excited about it.

Been trying to find out why for over a week.

I think I figured out now what I didn't like.

1. A small thing, the music. It didn' fit the scenes and simply sucked.

2. The atmosphere. The show kept the gore but ditched the gothic part of that horror genre imo.

This might partially be due to the fact that the act of blood drinking is pretty much de-mystified in the show. First, it's not a stand in for sex anymore, since there's actual sex. Not a bad thing per se of course, but different vibes.

Secondly, the "experiencing the whole life of a human via their memories when drinking their blood" part obvi couldn't really be put into the show.

3. Daniel. What the hell. Ok, there's the aged up thing, I could live with that. But due to his newly constructed history with Louis, Daniel is missing the wonder, scepticism and in the end downright horror when confronted with an actual vampire.

He's just sassy, bitchy and judgemental all the time, which kinda shapes how Louis in those scenes is presented to the audience.

There's not even respect, like, basic respect for another being who's guest you are. Feels totally off.

(Also I personally love book-Daniel and Armands relationship, so kinda miffed I wont get that).

4. The biggest point: Lestat's and Louis' relationship. There are multiple factors here.

First, the beginning. In the books Lestat was drawn to a deeply depressed Louis with a death wish.

Show Louis attracted Lestat by being assertive and very clear of his boundaries (if you take the most positive spin on his confrontation with his brother).

That sets off an entirely different dynamic. Also, show Louis pretty much has his shit together given the circumstances. He has to run his buisiness while being surrounded by bigotted racists and he's managing kinda well. (Until he rightfully explodes).

He also seems to turn to drinking animal blood not out of guilt or shame, but reason.

It's more like blood is blood and less clean up that way.

Louis doesn't huddle in the sewers, bawling and hating himself while munching on pest rats.

Which interestingly makes show Louis much more likable, because, ngl, book Louis took my last nerve. I was relieved to get Lestat's perspective in the second book, which was much more entertaining.

So, show Louis is likable and relatable, which changes the dynamic. In addition to to that Claudia becomes his sworn ally, so those two built a front against Lestat.

(Rightfully so, Lestat treats them like shit.)

But it divides Louis and Lestat further.

Plus by making Louis more self confident and assertive, it actually feels worse that they added that horrible scene where Lestat beat him up and dropped him (totally unnecessary btw, he was hovering above the ground in the first or second ep already, it was clear he could do that).

It felt like building the character up to tear him down more if that makes sense.

There are things I did like though:

*Like I said, I actually like Anderson's Louis more than book Louis, just not in that combination.

*Sam Reid does an amazing job as Lestat, everyone already knows that of course, and there's just no arguing here.

*Both actors have crazy good chemistry (which yeah, would be even better if not for the changed dynamics, I mean, they're pretty much end game in the books, they should work well together).

*Armand is perfect. He is ridiculously gorgeous while also appearing very calm and collected with a side of creepy. Which is exactly how Armand should be given the way he is described in the books (he's not 17 in the show, but I still think he's a great choice).

All in all it's not a bad adaption, it has some great scenes and I will keep watching, I'm just not blown away by it.

I would love for people to add to this, since it's probs a more unpoplular opinion, so discussion is always interesting.

Also, full disclosure, I ditched my Anne Rice books years ago, so I might remember stuff wrongly, please point that out to me.

[a30somethingslookatpopculture]

Halloween Ends

This one took a lifetime to complete, as my thoughts were all over the place. But, my thoughts on Halloween Ends 👇🏻

I literally typed up notes the day it came out, and felt too overwhelmed to even finish this until recently (yay, anxiety) 😱

Enjoy!

(Sorry it's lengthy).

____________________________

Where do I start with this one? Halloween Ends was…well, I don’t know what it was. The thing about this movie is that it left you unsure of what you thought in the end. It took time to gather your thoughts. Whether or not that's a good or a bad thing, idk. 

After I watched this movie, I remember thinking so many things. One of those is that perhaps maybe this should have been the movie we got in 2018, kickstarting a “reboot series’...considering they were trying something new with this one. I like the idea that perhaps it isn’t Michael who is evil, but rather something in the town. It’s creative and fun. Tacking this idea on at the very end of the series feels gratuitous. Why try something cool and new...only to end it in the same movie? Another way I see it is what if the Laurie/Michael saga wrapped up with Ends (in a different way), and then the next movie followed Cory and Allison similar to how it did in this film? We see the curse of the town live on even without Michael. That may have been the better route to go, honestly. Because they needed the idea of Laurie and Michael being back to even sell audiences on a revival in the first place. 

Until the drain pipe thing, which saw a total shift in the story, I was into it. I didn't mind following Cory around and seeing how life was now for both he and Laurie after trauma. I liked seeing the parallels in their lives (with parallels between Cory and Michael as well later in the movie).. I was just thoroughly confused after the shift. Like what even? Michael just stares into his eyes, and suddenly this "thing" is passed onto him? Did they scrap the supernatural aspect of Michael, only to bring it back? I had some Jason Goes To Hell vibes, and idk if that's a good thing. 

I believe the marking for this film left us all a little bit disappointed in the final product. We expected an epic showdown between Laurie and Michael and all of the best things the Halloween franchise (can) offer. And we did get that, to some degree. Obviously, there couldn't be a 2 and ½ hour movie of fight scenes without a story arc. And I personally am not sure what else they could have done to end the series satisfyingly. So I like that they tried something interesting and unique with it. It just felt too disconnected from the previous films, and the franchise really. They REALLY zagged with this one. And I don’t think we got the proper ending we deserved. 

Now let’s talk about some of the plot points or things that kind of irked me. First, Michael. We’re supposed to fear him and root for Laurie. He should be unkillable with inhuman-like strength and the ability to take damage. He always has been. Even from the beginning. But it was incredibly hard to see Michael as a decrepit, vulnerable old man. How did Michael not seem to deteriorate much at all in 40 years, but then 4 years pass and he's falling apart. I guess an argument can be made that him living off dead rats or whatever in the sewer and not receiving proper health care could make him deteriorate faster...but idk. I don't buy it. C’mon! It’s Michael Myers! 

Another thing, Allison saw what evil really is when Michael killed her parents and destroyed Laurie's life for 40+ years. So I have problems with her not seeing it in Cory. Or heck, even just accepting it without even a second thought. I guess it's a way to show that the Strode women are drawn to evil, or it's drawn to them. But I just can't see how she'd not see it or question it even a little. They took a character I kind of liked and made me question everything about her. By the end, Allison became just another dumb Slasher character to me. 

The final showdown between Michael and Laurie was the highlight of the movie. As it should be. It felt like old times with these characters; a contained battle, complete with knives and Laurie outsmarting him to gain the upperhand. I take issue with how it all ended for them, though. It felt a bit anticlimactic to me. Michael has been shot, stabbed and burned a gazillion times. But he dies in a shredder? I mean sure, that would definitely kill someone for good. I think my issue was mostly just with how it was shot. The scene with the whole town at the shredder felt way too drawn out to me. I personally would have preferred if they just showed his throat being slashed, then a few seconds or so at the shredder. I’m not super fond of it, but that’s all that was really needed. Otherwise it just comes off too awkwardly for me. But that’s just my personal opinion. 

Don’t let everything I have said thus far fool you. I didn’t hate this film at all. In fact, I think I like it more than most. I kept asking myself throughout the movie, "would I like this on its own, if it didn't have anything to do with Michael and Laurie?" And I think the answer is, yes. More or less. Without the connections to the previous films and massive franchise, it would be good. Even the parts of the story that I take issue with, wouldn't happen if I didn't have prior knowledge of the other films. Everyone thinks differently. So things that do or don't work for some, might or might not work for others. Casuals may have enjoyed this movie more than die-hard fans. Because they are more than likely to go to slasher films for the gore and mindless fun and not read too deep into the stories. And let’s be real, most slashers lack solid stories anyways. 

All in all, I had fun with Halloween Ends. It’s something that I would watch again, and I'd recommend it to anyone. I’d just suggest they go into it with an open mind. More than anything else I think It’s not a bad film, it probably just has bad placement in the series. The music was great, as always. And the Halloween III font and vibes in the opening were chefs kiss! Actually the inclusion and love for all things Halloween III in the reboot series has been perfect! And hey, did you spot Darcy The Mail Girl in this movie? So cool! 

2.5-3/5 Stars.

[theharshlightofday]

30 Days of Buffy Challenge

Day 13 - Favorite Season 6 Episode

- Tabula Rasa -

This episode is such great comedy! I love seeing how bad they fail at figuring out who they are. But of course if you lost your memory you’d probably come to some of the same conclusions. Xander and Willow wake up laying next to each other with her wearing his jacket, makes sense they’d think they’re a couple. Giles and Anya own the store together so they think they’re together too. Spike and Giles are both English so obviously they’re related lol I love when they pull out their IDs and both Willow and Tara have the UC Sunnydale ones and Willows like “Hey! Maybe we’re study buddies.” Yeah, sure Willow. And Buffy doesn’t have an ID so she names herself Joan like what lol and Spike is Randy it’s all too good. And the scene where Giles and Anya are trying to find a spell to help bring back their memories but Anya just keeps making bunnies! Giles: “Perhaps we should try another book.” Anya:“No. This book made the little fluffers, this book's gonna send them back.” Meanwhile Xander, Willow, Tara and Dawn are in the sewers. I loved how even without a memory Willow and Tara are drawn together. They almost kiss a couple times, and the line “And I think I’m kinda gay.” Is brought back. Of course the ending to the episode is sad but everything before makes it worth it lol

Honorable Mentions: Bargaining 1&2, Life Serial, Once More With Feeling, Gone, Hell’s Bells, Entropy, Seeing Red, Villains, Two to Go, and Grave

[0w0bean]

A biased review of every Barbie movie, in no particular order

Starting with 2001's Barbie and the Nutcracker

The animation itself is a tad bit stiff and odd, but not necessarily bad in anyway, it is the first 3D Barbie movie. The characters move like dolls, which actually really fits with the movie. They also look like the dolls you'd have been able to find in stores. Some of the movement animations are a bit weird, like running animations and jumping.

The voicing is actually pretty good. Kelly Sheridan as Barbie/Clara, Tim Curry as the Mouse King, Kirby Morrow as the Nutcracker/Prince Eric. The voices all fit their respective characters quite well. Not very much to say about it.

The are a couple holes in the story of the movie. Clara and the Nutcracker find these 2 little kids, they take them in so they can find a safe place for them. While being chased by a fully armed troop of mice, the group is rescued by a camp of tree dwelling fugitives, chased out of their homes by the Mouse King's army. Given that the village the children were found it is the only village in that area we (the watchers) are aware of, it wouldn't be unjustified to assume that the kids should at least recognize the people that had fled. But apparently not.

Clara realized that the Nutcracker is, in fact, the prince, who is hiding his identity from everyone because he wasn't really a good prince in the peoples' eyes. Though, it wasn't really hard for her to figure it out.

Eric and Clara get a cute bonding scene together after setting free a swarm (idk what to call it) of fairies. The scene was cut short by a "rock giant" interrupting. The group, our main 2 accompanied by 2 from the camp, Major Mint and Captain Candy sled across a frozen ocean.. sea..? Lets go with large body of water, on a horse drawn sleigh. Eric stabs the ice with his sword and the Rock Giant falls right through.

Just as the group is about the give up and turn back, in fear of the ice melting before they make it to land, the horse sees something, inciting Clara to walk in that direction. Finding the island that they believe to be home to the Sugar Plum Princess.

Turns out it wasn't, Eric, Mint, and Candy got captured and brought back the the Mouse King's castle, leaving Clara stuck on the island. The fairies she helped free helped her back to the main land by carrying her on a swing made of, like, a single vine.

She find her 3 friends, frees them. They all go fight the Mouse King, Eric hits his wooden head while protecting Clara, she freaks out, thinking he's, like, actually hurt, giving him a kiss, he catches a case of the blue glowies, and turns back to the prince.

Major Mint, who genuinely didn't realize he was shit talking the prince TO HIS FACE is like

"The prince! e- ooo- the prince" Pulling his hat down to cover his face, realizing he was shit talking the prince TO HIS FACE. And I'm kind of living for it.

Clara takes human Eric's hand and SHE catches a case of the PINK glowies and BOOM! Fancy hair and dress.

Turns out she was the Sugar Plum Princess!

All the people the Mouse King (who had jumped into a sewer drain by this point) had turned to stone turned back from stone. Cheered for the prince, they all danced. Major Mint and Captain Candy danced together, I think there was some break dancing? Clara and Eric danced together. Everyone was happy.

Me during their dance, "Is... is his leg ok? I'm not sure legs are supposed to bend like that?"

The world is healed, everything returns to how it was before the Mouse King. They 2 finish their dance, everyone cheers for them. Eric asks Clara to stay with him, and be queen. She agrees, but the Mouse King steals her magic necklace, forcefully sending her home. Eric proclaims his love for her and she disappears. Probably traumatizing all the kids that were watching at the time.

But, worry not, the power of LOVE conquers all and Clara meets a King that was a friend of her Aunt. And everyone lived happily ever after.

Ok, but in all seriousness, it was a cute movie. I don't have the nostalgia many others do, and I was never a fan of Christmas movies when I was little. And It came out before I was born, so that may have also been a factor.

If you like Barbie and haven't seen this one, I recommend watching it.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Genji Heavy Industries (Part 5) Hell

In this part of the plot of the game and Novel several things are happening at once. The scene I felt was most relevant to our MC is the scene I picked. 

This scene is not in the game. Please enjoy.

Chu Zihang coughed low in his throat next to Caesar and that man’s killer’s aura subsided. You could finally breathe again. You weren’t upset with Chisei Gen and you had nothing against him. You barely knew him at all. Caesar Gattuso just had a bad habit of getting emotionally invested in every single person he came across and that’s why you were here, disguised as Hydra Executive Bureau members, helping Hydra move -- while at the same time, being surrounded by armed guards who would shoot you full of holes and ask questions of your corpse.

Chisei Gen was here with Masamune Tachibana and were talking in Japanese while observing the moving process. You keep your eyes low, maintaining that careful methodical pace that would make sure that you all got on the elevator with the fiftieth box so you could leave to escort that shipment and escape.. 

Caesar successfully got on the elevator and the operator yelled “HAI”. As the elevator descended, you caught the sharp flash of Caesar’s blue eyes, as though, with that look, he could slash the man’s throat.

Next was Chu Zihang. It would take ten more minutes of work for him to get on the elevator and Mingfei was getting a bit distracted. He was interested in what Chisei and Tachibana were talking about, being the only one who spoke Japanese. While reconnaissance could be handy, the survival of the team was more important. If you survived, you could come back. So you approach him where he is dawdling and lightly nudge him with your elbow..

Chu Zihang successfully boards the elevator. He gives you a two fingered salute as he descends down the shaft and disappears.

You’re next.

Working steadily, you pass by Lu Mingfei. “I want to say I’m sorry.” You murmur in a low voice. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you… and tried to hit you. That was wrong.”

Mingfei looks at you with a confused expression. “No… I messed up. I almost ruined everything.”

“I’ll explain later…”

“HEY YOU!”

 Both of your heads look in the direction of the voice. A man in a dark windbreaker was gazing directly at you! Your heart stills. He’s saying something in Japanese but you can’t understand.

“He’s telling you to put the box down and follow him. He has another assignment for you.” Mingfei is looking at you with a face full of tragedy. “Little Sister…” He whispers. “Please don’t die.”

You smile at him and take his hand and give it a squeeze. “It’s okay.”  You whisper and turn away to follow the man in the black windbreaker. You give a sharp bow in front of him. He presses a button on the elevator that you came in on, and it opens. He hands you a small brown paper bag and gestures that you should get in the elevator alone.

Your mind is racing. Caesar and Zihang were already gone and there was no way to get in touch with them. They would just wait for you expecting you to come down the elevator. Lu Mingfei would have to tell them what happened. Knowing Caesar, he wouldn’t leave the place without you and would probably search the building and continue to risk his life and everyone else’s lives! You had to find another way to get to them.

You turn around to face out of the elevator and don’t let your emotions show. Lu Mingfei is trying to work, but he’s pale, terrified and alone. You smile calmly at him as the door of the elevator closes.

From the moment the elevator door closed, the screen showing the floor you were on suddenly went out. The lights and the music in the elevator shut off. All the floor buttons were disabled, and the word "HELL" lit up in red above the door. 

Your heart rate jumps and you try to press the door open button but it’s too late! You’re already descending, and fast!

You try every button but nothing works! Finally, you look up through the ceiling. Just as you’re thinking about escaping through the top, the elevator slows, and the lights come back on.

The lights reflect off the bronze doors like a mirror. Behind your reflection is the fuzzy reflection of a human shaped shadow. You reach for your pistol extremely fast, but a strong grip takes hold of both your wrists.

With a mighty twist, the person in the reflection turns you around, shoves you against the elevator doors and presses his lips to yours in a passionate kiss!

Your muscles jump and you try to escape, but his scent fills your nose. You recognize his hair. You go from resisting him, to embracing him and pulling him closer.

Z. 

How did he get here? Where did he come from? You want to ask, but he doesn’t allow you to speak. He kisses you as your knees buckle and your back slides down to the elevator floor. When he finally lets you go, he smiles, watching you tremble filled with a strange tingling you don't understand. There is a satisfied glint in his golden eyes. “Good. I wanted to make sure I got to you before those other idiots did.”

You catch your breath for a moment. He was dressed smartly in a suit and patent leather shoes over his bare feet. A black serrated army knife was on his belt. He rested one hand over his bent knee, crouching in front of you. As always, that clever smile that hid an inside joke was on his delicate features. He really did look quite a bit like Lu Mingfei. But you decide Z is much more handsome. But you were alone when you got into the elevator. How did he get here?

“How do I know you're really here and this isn't a dream?” You ask.

His eyebrows raise. “Is this the type of dream you would have of me? You’ve grown up…”

You huff with amusement. “I’m serious. Lu Mingfei has proof of his guardian angel. I want one, too.”

His eyes travel the length of you and his smile fades. “I’m no guardian angel. But if it's proof you want...” He leans forward on his hands and nuzzles your neck tenderly. But then at that moment he bites down hard and you cry out in pain.

 When you touch where he bit you, your hands come back with a small streak of blood on them. Z licks his lips slightly. Your heart beats faster and you feel a bit dizzy. You’re drawn to him far more than any of the ‘idiots’ on your dating game show. “Z… I think I love you…”

He wrinkles his nose. “That’s because you don’t know any better. I’m always curious. How does a human know what exactly ‘love’ is? You could throw yourself body and soul at them and they reject you. Or you can bite them and they call it love. It’s silly.”

The elevator continues to descend and you don’t know how to answer him. “I just want to be with you.”

“Then just say that.”

“Where are we going?”

He smiles again, showing his teeth. “Hell.”

You roll your eyes. “I know, stupid. I mean in this elevator.”

He chuckles, a little birdlike.”Ke-ke-ke…” and again you delight in making him laugh. He sighs and settles next to you. You’d dropped your brown paper bag and he handed it to you again. “Here. It’s food. Eat it. You’re going to need it.”

Inside, is an apple and a small sandwich labeled “egg sando”. It was good and suddenly you feel your hunger roaring like a beast. As you devour the food, he reaches up and gently runs his fingers over your hair, much like you did to the little black kitten in Chizuru.

At the bottom of Genji Heavy Industries, deeper than the Iron Dome Shrine, in absolute darkness, a deep red "ならく" is lit up, which is an elevator light. 

The word "ならく" is an exotic word derived from the Buddhist scriptures. Naraka is the deepest part of hell, the infinite fall of the void. The evil spirits in Naraka can never return to the human world, but experience an eternal fall into a bottomless pit.

The elevator door opened. You and Z, two black shadows, walked into the darkness where no one could see. Except for the faint sound of the ventilation fan turning, there is only dead silence here. 

The wall ahead suddenly lit up. The giant wall seven or eight meters high emitted an eerie blue light. A closer look will reveal that it is actually a huge water storage tank. The wall is a glass made of hundreds of pieces of glass of about one square meter, between the glass is a narrow metal frame. Above the water storage tank, a several meters in diameter turbine and filter is installed. The volume of this storage tank is comparable to the giant fish tank in an oceanarium built to house manta rays and whale sharks. The general water supply pipeline simply can not provide enough water, so it takes water from the sewer. Sewage filtered into this storage tank, and then pumped away with the turbine when the water was changed, re-entering the Iron Dome Temple system. 

The two of you lie on the ground under the glass wall, the blue light illuminating your faces. Z’s posture is reclining upright on his elbow, like those Greek boys carved in alabaster in the Parthenon, from a certain side he looks rather feminine, but from your angle he looks handsome like a young god. You’re lying on your back, looking up at him, staring into those golden eyes.

“Someone once said that the aquarium is one of the top places to go on a date.” He said, stroking your hair.

“Is that what this is? Odd timing…” You murmur.

“Well, you are a very busy woman and many men are looking at you now. Caesar Gattuso jumped in the rain from the top floor of the dorm into a moving convertible to stake his claim. Am I supposed to wait until the mission is over for me to make my move?” 

He was right. For as much as the Takamagahara Star-Heart contest glorified looks, money, and pure carnal instincts, what pulled you to Z was the sense that he would stand over you and snarl like a lion. Once he had you, no one would be able to take you away.

“It’s just a show, Z. Are you being jealous?”

“I’m communicating… that’s what this is.” He pressed one finger to your forehead in an odd gesture. “Anyway, the date's over, we have work to do.”

You sit up. 

“Use your Soul Skills. We are at the deepest roots of the Heavy Industry Building down here. I need you to cause an earthquake for me. Go for Magnitude 7 or 8.’

You’re silent for a moment. LIke any high level skill, it required considerable amount of practice and skill to wield without causing enormous amounts of unnecessary damage and death. Chu Zihang’s Royal Flame could be wielded like him, in various ways, like pottery in his hands, but he could only control it so much. Without injuring himself and others.

S-Level Skills like yours not only could cause excessive levels of death and destruction, but also came with sequelae, side-effects to the user. In order to create a Magnitude 7 or 8 you would not escape these side effects. But you would do your best to minimize them.

You place your hands on the ground and focus, slowly working your spiritual energe through the floor, through the meter thick slab and down into the bedrock formed by millions of years of heat and pressure. As it goes, so does your mind. The ground becomes like a skin, and you can feel the rubble of the subway, and the rush of the fierce waters in the Iron Dome in a steady vibration. A golden color lights up your dark eyes like a the headlight of a motorcycle in a tunnel that eventually fills the space until its entirely glowing yellow. 

Z  peeled off a piece of gum and stuffed it into his mouth, facing this empty water storage bin. He was not anxious at all. The sound of rushing water came from the depths of the water storage bin. Some kind of large aquatic animal swam at high speed, leaving a series of swirls with its long tail. The boy fished out a laser pointer from his sleeve, and after opening it, a red laser dot appeared on the glass wall, which cat owners often use to amuse kittens. The boy slowly moved the laser pointer. The light drifted, and gradually attracted the attention of the aquatic animal. It swam closer and closer. There was not one, but a group of large fish. The big fish put their heads against the glass wall, staring at the red dot. 

Their faces were so pale, they looked like floating corpses that had been floating in the sea for dozens of days. 

The group of fish with human faces peered through the glass at the human world, some expressionless, others with mouths turned upward, seemingly smiling. 

They are not all the same. Most have long tails and scaly armor, some look like sphinxes with animal paws or have uncanny organs attached to them. Some have huge sharp claws and knife-like bony fins, and, when they breathe, the cracks at the base of their necks open up to reveal deep red, gill-like structures. 

The boy turned his wrist slightly. The sphinxes twisted their bodies delicately, chasing the dots of light and swimming fast, like a group of obedient pets. The entire tank stirred and a dark golden skeleton came up from the bottom of the tank. The shape of the skeleton was between human, fish and flying birds. It was obviously the same kind of sphinxes. It seemed that these sphinxes do not mind eating their own kind when they are very hungry, and the dark golden skeleton is covered with teeth marks, as if cut out with a logging axe. 

Z turned off the laser pointer and approached the glass wall. The sphinxes that had lost their chase scattered. 

The size of the tank is almost equivalent to a small underground lake in the rock formation. The filtered groundwater is still clear, but once the sphinx swims far away, it is no longer visible. Only a smaller one was left, swimming in the waters near the glass wall, still seemingly trying to find the mysterious spot of light. The boy pressed his palm against the glass wall, which was half a meter thick from the reflection of the glass, and was made of huge glass tiles. 

Your Soul Skill has reached depth. Earthquakes were typically created when two broken slabs of continental plates floated on currents of magma, collided, and pressed together until the pressure was too great and then they slipped. There were many such faults in Japan. The skill was to find the one that would create the right amount of slip in the right location, and at the right depth.

Forcing an earthquake was like forcing open a stuck door. You leaned into it, gradually increasing the pressure against it to force it to move. If the door was inclined to move anyway, it wouldn’t take much force and the slip wouldn’t be too great and the earthquake would be small. But to create a great earthquake was to reach the limits of your control. Only a well stuck plate could create something like that. You had to force great pressures on the plate and, when it finally moved, it was like a door swinging open uncontrollably. It would be easy to turn a 7.0 earthquake into an 8.5 earthquake by accident.

You could jostle Genji Heavy Industries… or you could destroy all of Tokyo, depending on results you could not predict. In order to best guess how to apply pressure you had to increase the spiritual roots in the ground to make sure you had maximum sensitivity. And therein lie the danger to you. It was like burying your mind into the ground, your brain. If you poured enough of your thoughts into the earth, then you couldn’t be aware of your surroundings. You might lose track of how much brainpower you have dedicated to the task and little by little, the ground would suck your mind dry of thoughts and Caesar would find you in the depths of Genji Heavy Industries, completely braindead.

The sphinx pressed its face against the glass wall to observe the boy's palm, and then its appearance became clearer and clearer. It is actually a female with long dark hair, a deathly pale but beautiful face, with faint traces of minimally invasive plastic surgery between the eyes and eyebrows. 

"You were beautiful," Z said softly, "when you were still alive." 

Pretty only in that face, the sphinx was deformed from the neck down, the lower half of its body fused into a python-like tail, the remnants of its feet vaguely visible. 

In the mythology of the world, this image of the sphinx repeatedly appears, from the ancestor of mankind, Fuxi Nuwa, to the Three Emperors, and  Five emperors of the Taihao. Emperor, "Zhuangzi" was seen by the Duke of Qi Huan in purple clothes wearing a vermilion crown shaped like a half man and half snake. In the "Shanhaijing" there are multiple mentions of a  "human face with a snake body and red, straight eyes.” The god of Zhong Shan, ZhiYin, the so-called "Naga" in Sanskrit, the so-called "Medusa" in Greek mythology, and even the group of snakes whose names have been lost in the Mayan pantheon ...... 

They are between gods and demons, symbolizing seduction and ultimate mystery. Mythologists still find it difficult to explain why such monsters appear so consistently in various myths. If they could take a look at this "beautiful" monster, they would understand that their ancestors had indeed witnessed similar things crawling, swimming or lunging in front of them. They were so hideous that they could never be a species that God would make, but only a joke played by the Devil on man. This impression was like a lightning bolt that exploded in the minds of the first people, and they passed it on from generation to generation as a myth. 

Z lit up the laser pointer, the point of light appeared in the heart of the forehead of the sphinx, like a bright vermilion mole. The sphinx's ghastly white face was suddenly lit up. If you didn't look at the ghastly lower half of the body, it could be described as charming. It stretched out its deformed claws to grab the red light in the glass wall, although its claws are hard, but only in the super-hard glass scratching out a toothsome sound. However, it couldn’t grasp the red dot! Suddenly, became furious, and issued an inaudible roar at the young man. Its huge mouth opened to reveal sharp teeth as dense as thorns. This is when you can clearly see it's horrible mouth structure. On each side of its delicate cherry lips is a barely discernible slit extending to the ear. When it opened its mouth as if the entire cranium opened! 

"You're getting ugly like this." Z said.

The sphinx's hiss lasted only a few seconds. The giant claws coming from behind dragged it back to the middle of the tank. 

Z extinguished his laser pointer and watched the killing in silence as a dozen sphinxes surrounded and killed the smaller of their kind. They bite down on their prey’s body parts, swinging their long tails wildly, using tremendous twisting force to tear the prey apart. The prey and predator together formed a strange fleshy flower, a demon flower with snake-like petals, each one twisting and swaying as red blood smoke rose to the water's surface. 

"How ugly, this world." Z said faintly, his face devoid of sorrow or joy. 

You finally make your choice and your eyes glow in the dark. You open your mouth and let out a loud moan, as though you were giving birth and push! You push harder and harder and your cries grow louder and louder!

A soft popping sound ran through the entire glass wall from top to bottom, the metal frame supporting them twisting and distorting rapidly. The feeding sphinxes also noticed the change in the glass wall and swam over, leaving their bloody food behind, as if the prisoners had heard the iron prison door slam and would have looked in the direction of the door in unison. Glass wall is shaking. First, a huge glass tile fell where water pressure topped out against the metal frame, then more glass tiles fell off. Each is a square meter square and half a meter thick. Pushed by the force of several tons of pressure,  water sprayed out through the gaps more than ten meters away.

Z produced a white silk handkerchief from his coat pocket and dabbed the sweat forming on your forehead with gentle touches, like a husband comforting his birthing wife. “You should protect yourself.” He says softly.

You grit your teeth and nod. A thick wave of soil and rock smashes through the meter thick slab and rolls over you both to form a barrier.

 A few seconds later this transparent wall completely collapsed and tens of thousands of tons of water broke through the dam, carrying an unknown number of sphinxes with it.

[fluffykitty1999-blog]

Dog of the Military- Chapter 35

Chapter 35

A little bit of rest and relaxation for our favorite heroes, and some family bonding time fluff. 

Also- Mustang gets a little ribbing from Hughes and acknowledges that yeah, he’s a dad.

Roy ended up lacking the motivation to carry Ed up the stairs to his room. Or to make himself climb the stairs to get to his own bedroom. He ended up depositing Ed on the couch and flopping into his favorite recliner.

Alphonse had gotten a ride to the hospital at some point, and he puttered into the house behind them, with a bag full of prescriptions for both the other residents of the home.

Al seated himself calmly on the floor and started reading an issue of Cosmo as the Roy and Ed slept.

It was sunlight streaming through the window, the smell of coffee, and voices that woke him in the morning.

Roy blinked harshly, getting to his feet and checking the time. It was almost noon.

He'd thought he was doing good- but as he walked, he realized there was a jackhammer drilling behind his eyes and his headache came back as he became more awake.

Still, he trooped into the kitchen, intent on tracking down some of the coffee he'd been smelling.

He found Hawkeye sitting at his kitchen table, speaking quietly to Alphonse.

"Good morning Colonel!" Al said happily.

"Morning, Alphonse." Gosh, he felt like absolute garbage. Still, if He slammed some coffee and painkillers, he could probably get in a good half day at work, if the Lieutenant was kind enough to drive him. There was no way he'd be able to drive himself in his current dizzy state.

"Lieutenant- mind giving me a ride to work?"

Riza sipped from her mug of coffee, shaking her head. "No need. You've been given the day off. Edward, too."

"By who?"

"General Haruko himself, sir. He and the brass have enough to deal with, he wanted to congratulate you on catching Banks." her gaze flickered to Alphonse for a moment, and Roy knew he wasn't getting the whole story. Still, he knew that Riza must have a reason for keeping the truth from him, and he nodded, grabbing some bread from the breadbox and making himself some plain toast, pressing his palm to his pounding head.

"Take two of these, sir. Alphonse will give you more in an hour." Riza offered him something from a prescription bottle, and he downed both pills dry before nodding, grabbing his toast.

"What about Ed?" Roy asked, thinking of the boy still passed out on the couch. "Has he got anything he has to take?".

"I woke him and gave him his medication about an hour ago. My lunch is almost over, though, I have to get back to the office. One of the men from the office will bring by dinner, Alphonse will call and tell us what you want..."

Riza Hawkeye was, in fact, an angel in human form.

Ed was still out cold on the couch, and Roy took the opportunity to toss a blanket over him before sinking back into the recliner. He briefly considered reading the paper before electing not to, deciding today would be better spent being lazy. He hardly ever got days off like this- and neither did Ed. Might as well waste it sleeping while he could.

LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK

"Yeah- four cheese pizzas, with like, a bunch of shit on them. I don't even care, as long as those little fish aren't on it. Surprise me. I dunno- a soda. Something brightly colored. Yeah, he'll probably eat some too. No, he's not awake. You know what, throw some breadsticks in there too. They're really good. Yeah, he's alive, I totally checked like five minutes ago. Alright. See you soon. Thanks Havoc." Ed hung up the phone and plunked himself back on the couch, looking pleased with himself.

Roy opened his eyes.

"Oh good- you're awake." Alphonse said cheerily.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Bastard." Ed smirked. "You want anything for dinner? You weren't awake, but I can call back and order more..."

All Roy really wanted right now was some tea, and maybe a breadstick or two.

"No- I'll have some of whatever." his headache was still there, but not as intense as before. It was more a quiet sort of misery than a burning agony, now.

"Alphonse- do we have any tea?"

"Yes, we do! I'll go put on the kettle." Alphonse bounded to his feet, setting something off his lap and going into the kitchen. He was glad to be of help.

Roy looked down to see some sort of red yarn monstrosity nearly covering the floor of his living room.

"Alphonse taught himself how to knit today. I'd say that's lame, but all I've been doing is drinking juice boxes and complaining, so he did more than me." Ed spoke up from the couch.

"I tried to read something about the stone, but then I fell asleep again. These damn pills ruin everything." Ed complained, sitting up a little straighter.

Roy smirked. "That's not what you were saying at the ER last night. The pain medication made you act like a little kid."

"Shut up, I don't wanna hear it!"

"It was adorable. You came over and cuddled with me."

"Lalala!" Ed was covering his ears, now, and Roy laughed slightly. The only bad thing was that with Hughes in the hospital, he wouldn't have photographic evidence.

The doorbell rang just as Alphonse came back into the room with tea, and Ed jumped to his feet, excited. "Dinner!"

He came back with Havoc and several pizza boxes, settling himself down on the floor and starting to demolish an entire pizza by himself.

Havoc smirked. "Well. Glad to see the Chief wasn't too badly affected by everything. How are you, Boss?" Havoc looked over at Roy, who shrugged.

"I'll live." he sipped his tea and grabbed a bread stick from one of the take out containers. "How are they resolving this whole incident?"

Havoc shrugged. "I'm under orders not to talk about work with you. Hawkeye says you can get caught up on it yourself." Havoc shot a quick glance at Ed, who was still eating at an insane pace, and once again, Roy realized that there was something he didn't want to tell him in front of the boys. He'd find out soon enough when he went back to work again tomorrow, anyways.

"Hey Havoc- you wanna sign my cast!?" Ed held up his casted arm and continued to eat pizza with his other arm, and Havoc grinned, pulling out a sharpie from his pocket.

"Sure, Chief, let me see.".

LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK

The morning at work was quiet- Hughes had been discharged from the hospital yesterday, and Hawkeye told him he should go visit him friend immediately when he came in, despite the obvious stacks of paperwork on his desk. Roy complied without question- he'd known something was up since yesterday.

Fullmetal was occupied filling out his own share of paperwork about what'd happened, and getting people to sign his cast between forms.

He found it easy to duck out and stride into the investigation's branch, letting himself in and nodding to Scheska before he was knocking on the door to his friend's office excitedly.

Hughes was sitting sideways at his desk, his casted leg propped up on a chair set beside him. He gave a tired smile when he strode into the room.

"I was wondering how long before you showed up."

Roy snagged another chair and pulled it up, sitting down across from his friend.

"Well, I'm here. And I get the feeling something else has happened, but none of my team will say it outright. So tell me what it is. How are they resolving this case? Is Banks in custody?"

"No." Hughes frowned, sliding a manilla folder across the desktop.

"Banks was driving a car with two Drachmans in it and Ed in the passenger seat. They were tailed by a car driven by a single Drachman. Despite the crash, there was only one fatality. A Drachman in the car Ed was in- he was ejected and died on the scene. Everyone else survived the crash."

"So why aren't they in custody, then?" Roy said, not understanding.

"Open the file, Roy."

Roy obeyed. He found himself staring at the pieces of a destroyed car- the black car was upside down, the windows shattered, the front absolutely smashed... Roy found himself nauseas just looking at it, and he had to pull his eyes away.

"Ed... that was..." he could hardly put the words together.

Hughes nodded. "That was the car Ed rode in, yeah. He was the only one wearing a seat belt. He was also the only one uninjured enough to walk away from the crash. And it's a damn good thing he did."

"I don't understand. Ed said Banks was breathing when he left him, they were too injured to run away..."

"Someone else got there before the military, Roy." Hughes said gently. "Armstrong is processing the scene- he's the one who took these pictures. Shortly after Ed left, the wedding band killer surface from a nearby manhole."

Roy continued flipping through the folder- pictures, of a blood trail from bodies being dragged across the pavement, an open manhole cover...

"They were too injured to get away. The wedding band killer dragged every living man out of those cars and took them down into the sewers with him. He's having a hell of a lot of fun right now chopping them up- Armstrong has been able to confirm Banks is dead, though we're still looking for pieces of the other two. The corner is going to get back to me- let me know if we have enough body parts to account for three bodies. He left the dead man in the street- he only wanted the ones that were still alive."

Roy kept flipping through the photos. There were messages written in blood on the sewer walls. Cryptic warnings, some quotes of religious text, and for one, just a large smilie face drawn in blood.

"Are you okay?" Hughes asked, looking at Roy with concern.

Roy took a deep breath, closing the file folder when he was done. His heart was hammering in his chest. "I will be." he said finally, looking up. "I just... didn't expect them to all be dead. And like that..."

"Dragged into the sewers by a madman and tortured to death. Yeah, it's not exactly an ideal ending for anybody..."

"That could've been Edward."

"But it wasn't." Hughes said firmly. "Your staff all knows, but nobody has told Ed, and we're not planning to. All he needs to know is that they've been handled by the justice system."

"What kind of justice is that?" Roy looked down at the folder in disgust.

"Street justice. I know nobody deserves that, and it's horrific, but the one good thing that came out of all of this is that Ed is finally safe in Central again. That's what I tell myself, anyways."

"So- what does the brass think of all of this?"

Hughes sighed. "They have... mixed feelings on the matter. They're glad the whole Banks Fiasco has been dealt with. They're glad the Drachman issue is dealt with and was never publicized. And they're breathing down my neck trying to get me to catch the Wedding Band killer. I've already borrowed a couple of your men and called in as many favors as I could to help locate this guy. We're going to be starting to search the sewer systematically in teams next week." Hughes said simply.

"Enough of the official talk, though- what about the boys?"

"What about them?" Roy asked, looking puzzled. "I'm not planning on telling them about any of this. Now that the Drachmans and Banks are out of the picture, he'll probably start asking to travel again..."

"And what will you do?" Hughes asked, steepling his fingers and eyeing his friend carefully.

"I'll let him go." something painful in his chest tugged as he said those words, but he knew it was the right thing to do. Edward had goals to accomplish, leads to chase- and he wouldn't get anywhere standing still. "There's no reason to worry about him more than usual, now that things are dealt with. Besides, it's probably safer. It means I won't have to worry about him while I'm helping with the Mr. Fingers case. I'd rather have him out of the city while this is dealt with- he's already gotten too close to this killer for comfort a few times."

"Right. That's what I figured. How soon do you plan on letting him go out again?"

Roy paused for a moment, thinking. Ed did have a broken wrist- he was still sleeping more than usual, starting to recover...

"I'll keep him here for a week. Then he can go back out on his search."

"You sound disappointed." Hughes observed.

"It's... more lively with them around. But I'd only be hurting them if I kept them too close. I'm not the only one with goals, Hughes." he wondered about the day when Ed would return to Central city not with a suit of armor, but with Alphonse in the flesh. He realized he didn't know what Alphonse physically looked like- not even in pictures- and something fluttered in his chest at the thought of finally seeing the younger of the two boys for the first time.

"That's what being a parent is, you know. Knowing when to protect them and keep them close, and knowing when to let them go into the world on their own."

"I'm not their father, Hughes."

"No. You're not. But you're the closest thing they have. Ed's probably gonna be back here in two months, pissed and tired because he hasn't found anything. What'll you do then?"

"Tell the kid to go take a shower and let him crash upstairs. If he finds any alchemy that he needs my help with, he'll ask me about it."

"That's what a parent does. You're they're father, Roy, in all but name."

"Somethings are better left unsaid, Hughes. I'm climbing up the ladder- the less people know about who I care about, the better."

"And if Edward says it?"

"He already has."

"He has!?" Hughes eyes widened and his grin grew impossibly wide.

"Yes. He was drugged to high heaven in a hospital, but he's called me Dad."

"And did you correct him?"

"No."

"That's it. I'm starting a damn photo album." Hughes was rooting through his desk drawers.

Mustang sighed, standing and heading for the door. This was probably all the useful conversation he'd get with Hughes today.

"You had two damn kids and I didn't even get to come to your baby shower!"

"Shut up, Hughes!"

Obligatory ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/fluffykitty12 .

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #506 (November 1993)

Superman vs. Superboy! I mean, vs. Superman, since the Kid still insists that Superboy is definitely NOT his name and never will be. The two Supermen meet while the younger, radder one is dealing with some sort of deformed flying babies that are trying to kill him, which is the sort of thing that happens to you when you wear an “S” emblem on your chest.

These turn out to be deformed flying babies THAT EXPLODE, but the Kid is able to push them away with his (very non-Superman-esque) telekinesis powers. He then deduces that these things must have come out of Project Cadmus, the top secret genetic experimentation facility that created him, and brushes off the elder Superman to get back at those geeks by doing what he does best: being a brat on live TV.

So I guess the “top secret” part of Cadmus’ description is no longer accurate, thanks to the Kid. On the other hand, I kinda feel like the people of Metropolis deserved to know that there's a nearby government facility churning out genetic atrocities into their sewers.

The Cadmus gang sends Guardian to bring their wayward creation home so they can talk to him. Obviously the Kid isn't very interested, and for a while it looks like we might get the fight scene teased in the cover, but then Superman the First convinces Superman the Second that he should at least hear them out. And, while at it, ask Cadmus to tell him exactly what the hell he is. If he’s Superman’s clone, why does he have those weird TK powers? The Kid agrees, but... he doesn't like the answers he gets.

The Kid finds out that he's NOT a clone of Superman since, as established a while back, Kryptonians are damn hard to clone. So, since Cadmus was determined to create a new Superman after the original appeared to be dead, they instead took a clone of a regular, non-super man and genetically modified it to approximate Superman's powers (for instance, translating Superman’s “aura” into a telekinetic field). But who was that human DNA donor? Surely it was someone good and cool!

Just after the Kid wonders that, the quite evil and deeply uncool Director Westfield bursts into the lab and demands that this "super-punk" be taken into custody, probably so they can flush him down the toilet like Cadmus' other failed experiments. Superman makes Westfield see that making Cadmus' whistleblower disappear wouldn't look very good right now, but they can't just let him run around unsupervised. So, at Guardian's recommendation, the esteemed telepath Dubbilex is assigned to follow the Kid wherever he goes. I smell a sitcom! (Or a spin-off comic.)

As a last order of business, the Kid decides to give Superman his trademark to the Superman name, which his manager Rex Leech doesn't take too well. So what are they gonna call this teenage “S” emblem-wearing hero now? Superman has an interesting suggestion: SUPERBOY. Our young friend still isn't a fan.

But after storming out and thinking about it for a couple of pages (and trying out the name on some guys robbing a jewelry shop), the Kid realizes he's "earned" the title of Superboy and accepts it. Character development! And just in time for his solo series. ("That Non-Superman Clone Who Also Calls Himself Superman" wouldn't look good on a cover.)

Plotline-Watch:

The final page shows a shadowy figure shaped like the recently introduced Bloodthirst outfitting someone with a weapon-teleporting gizmo, then calling him "Bloodsport"... except that this dude is quite paler than the Bloodsport we met way back in Superman #4 (in an issue inked by current writer Karl Kesel, so you'd think he'd remember the character). This looks nothing like Idris Elba! What gives?!

Superboy is still bummed out because his friend Tana Moon left Metropolis without telling him where she was going, which is now known as "ghosting". In the end, Rex talks about sending Superboy on a promotional tour to establish his new brand, and the first destination of that tour will be... exactly where Tana went to hide from Superboy. This is now known as "time to get a restraining order."

Clark Kent is slowly morphing into a hipster the longer he rooms with Jimmy Olsen. For a long time I assumed all the bands listed in the panel below were made up, but turns out the only non-existing ones are “James Rock” and "Axel Rose". Luckily, Superboy was happy to give Clark's old apartment back to him (apparently only Pulitzer-winning journalists can afford it), so Jimmy won't hipsterize him for much longer.

Westfield gladly assigns Dubbilex to Superboy because it means there won't be a telepath at Cadmus to read his thoughts and find out about his evil plans (like sending the ugly flying babies after Superboy). Very clever, Westfield! Except for the fact that he thought that right in front of Dubbilex, who clearly "heard" the whole thing.

Incidentally, there's an apparent error in this issue when Superboy thinks "They won't take me without a fight!" and Guardian shows up and says "That's too bad, son. Because I don't want to fight you." How did Guardian know what Superboy was thinking? Obviously, Dubbilex patched Guardian through to Superboy's mind to assist in finding him. Now where's my damn Baldy Award?!

Is it me or is this page reminiscent of the cover to Superboy Prime's first appearance during Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Patreon-Watch:

Special thanks to your Patreon pals Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, and Samuel Doran, and welcome aboard to Bheki Latha (our first $6.50 patron ever!), Mark Syp, and Ryan Bush! You are all excellent. This month they got to read a long-ass post entitled 45 Things I Learned by Reading the “Death of Superman” Novel (Part 1), in which I talked about the stuff Roger Stern added to the canon in the first part of the Death and Life of Superman book. This includes Superman’s private thoughts on the JLI (and Guy Gardner in particular), what Lex Jr. calls Supergirl in bed, and Professor Hamilton getting romantic. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

But now: the Don Sparrow show! Take it away, Don.

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

The end of an era, at least temporarily, as Tom Grummett draws his last Adventures of Superman issue, moving onto Superboy (and I think still doing Robin at this time?) with Karl Kesel.  He’ll return for the quarterly Superman: Man of Tomorrow and other things, but it’s a long gap until he does.

A pretty good cover, with Superman and Superboy about to tussle.   Though it can be seen as cheaping out on the backgrounds, I always love radial rays as an effect.  

Inside the issue, we have a great splash page of Superboy getting attacked by botched clones, and I love the gesture here—having his head snapping away from the camera adds to the motion and action.  Great stuff. 

Though he won’t be drawing her again for a while, Grummett excels at the new, shorter-haired Lois in these pages.  Superman soaring to the skies is a great panel as well, and I especially like the way his cape and fist slightly break the panel barrier, giving it a sense of motion, again.

The sequence of Guardian acrobatically flipping from one ledge to another is very well drawn.  Ditto the splash on page 13, where Superboy loses his temper.  The body language in this whole sequence tells the story very well, as Superman is calm and patient, confident in his ability not only to reach Superboy with his words, but also withstand him physically.  

The way Superboy snaps the carpet, but controls it mentally with his Tactile Telekinesis is a great example of his unique powers in use.  It reminds me of a technique they tried on the CW Supergirl show (but almost immediately abandoned) where they made like the Kryptonian fabric of their capes was like “smart fabric” and could be used as a weapon.  

Lastly, the dreamy, child-like expression on Superboy’s face during the Peter Pan exchange is wonderful, and a fitting end for Tom’s run on the book. [Max: You mean the William Shatner exchange, Don.]

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

I almost never like it when they reference pop culture stuff in Superman comics, particularly music.  Karl Kesel isn’t the worst offender in that department (that would be JM DeMatties a few years down the line, who had Clark Kent bizarrely asserting he loved the Beastie Boys) but Clark’s discussion with Jimmy about an apparently fictional musician working with a rolodex of early nineties names makes me cringe (as does trying to imagine how awful a “Hip Hop Lyle Lovett” or “Grunge Frank Sinatra” would sound).

The car poster on the wall of Jimmy’s bachelor pad looks for all the world like Robin’s Redbird, also a Tom Grummett creation.  (Fun fact:  Tom once told me he still gets {very small} royalty cheques from the Batman & Robin movie, because Robin’s motorcycle was called the Redbird, though that might no longer be true with Paul Levitz no longer in charge of such matters.)

Superboy (in no less than his third time calling those pink creatures “spuds”) references John Candy and Joe Flaherty’s “Farm Film Celebrity Blow Up” where the guests would frequently “blow up real good” and it does my SCTV loving Canadian heart good.  

It’s interesting (and a little sad) that they again note that Superboy knows things (pop culture, etc) without ever having experienced it.  I feel like there’s a lot they could do with this concept.

This issue reads very much like the end of the Superboy “Reign” issues, as Superman is more of a secondary character to the kid.  All of it begs the question of why Superman, or Guardian put up with Cadmus.  Superman has said in previous issues that he has moral problems with how Cadmus treats life with their cloning experiments, and they’ve attacked him in the past (and also stole his corpse!) so other than the fact that it’s a launchpad for Superboy’s series, there’s really no reason any of these heroes should associate with Cadmus.  Especially Guardian, who comes off as little more than an errand boy here.  He wants to bring Superboy in, but won’t promise Superboy won’t be harmed or imprisoned?  

Nice to see Superboy return to his “Slammin’” catch phrase!

An interesting bit of foreshadowing when Superboy asks Big Words whose clone he is, and who immediately enters but Westfield. [Max: That’s right, Westfield! Not Luthor! Sorry, sorry.]

[jennymanrique]

Redistricting battle heats up - Houston activists fight for fairer maps

The lack of representation provoked that during Hurricane Harvey, neighbors were not properly assisted by local governments.

Activists in Harris County, Texas, mobilize to make the once-every-decade redistricting process fairer to communities of color and low-income neighborhoods.

Every time Myrtala Tristan recounts her experiences during devastating Hurricane Harvey, she relives the scenes of relentless rain that turned her neighborhood’s streets into rivers and her home into a floating furniture museum.

“They never told us that we would have to evacuate or that it was going to be so terrible,” Tristan, a resident of Houston’s Lakewood suburb for nearly 40 years, recalled at a June 30 briefing on redistricting. “I live with my husband. For five hours I was calling (emergency) 311 and they never answered. We were up all night.”

Early the next morning Tristan left her house with just her driver’s license and some money, packed in a Ziploc bag. Outside, a boat was rescuing people from the fetid waters, prioritizing children and senior citizens.

“We were navigating those dirty waters all day. They didn’t give us water or food … I think this is very unfair and that the government should be helping us in a different way,” said Tristan. Almost three years later, “we are still applying for some help. Nothing ever came.”

Tristan joined the Northeast Action Collective, a group of advocates and neighbors that emerged in response to the lack of public investment in drainage and flood mitigation in her community. “It is time for our voices to be heard.”

Right now, Tristan is focusing on a county-wide effort to engage communities of color and low-income neighborhoods in redistricting – a process of redrawing political boundaries that determine what candidates people vote for.

“Redistricting is about drawing lines on a map to represent who is going to vote for certain elected officials,” explained Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). “It is a very political act to create groups of voters, so it is very important to get involved.”

Neighborhoods are grouped into districts that are redrawn every 10 years based on census data. Depending on what the electoral district is, those lines are drawn by the city council, the school district board of trustees, county commissioners, and ultimately the state chamber.

In places like Pasadena, a suburb in Harris County, these lines have effectively segregated the Latino from the Anglo population: Latinos live in the northern area that has historically received fewer services than the southern area – where Anglos live – making it more prone to floods and natural disasters.

When the Texas House of Representatives drew other lines within the northern zone that further divided the Latino vote, MALDEF filed a lawsuit and won, regrouping them in District 144 .

“The representative of that district, who was Anglo and conservative, lost his election. And he was replaced by a progressive Latina woman in the House of Representatives,” Perales said. “Our increased political participation is strongest when the political lines that are drawn around our neighborhoods are fair.”

Lost in translation

For Miguel Rivera, the Redistricting Outreach Fellow at the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), one of the challenges is that the Hispanic community is still not familiar with these processes, starting with terms such as “gerrymandering” and “redistricting” that are difficult to translate.

“I first came upon this conundrum when trying to explain to my parents, who were both born in rural Mexico, what I did for a living,” Rivera said. “They understood the fight for voting rights which had a lot of translatable terms, but their understanding of the census and redistricting was very different based on what they knew in Mexico versus in the U.S.”

Now the TCRP is doing educational campaigns for the Hispanic community to coalesce behind a specific term: redistribution.

Cassandra Martinez, who just graduated from high school and will attend Columbia University in the fall, first heard the term in census workshops organized by Mi Familia Vota.

“Hispanics don’t know the specifics behind redistricting and census counting, but the community cares about income inequality, about the schools children go to, about the construction projects that never quite get done,” Martinez said.

“A lot of us come from immigrant households; our parents…feel disconnected from politics,” she added. “There is this whole mentality of ‘my vote doesn’t matter.’ What really helps people in my age group is connecting voting with the future of our families and communities.”

Deborah Chen, an attorney and activist with OCA-Greater Houston, relates a similar experience with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders whose numbers are growing faster than Latinos in Texas. She said her organization knocked on more than 221,000 doors to make sure AAPIs were counted in the census. “You don’t have to be a citizen or registered voter to participate in redistricting,” she emphasized.

OCA uses “opportunity maps” to demonstrate how majorities and minorities in those districts receive services such as sewers, electricity, pavements, pipes, and so on.

“Everyone who got counted in neighborhoods in the greater Houston area is worth $15,700 in federal money, and districts determine how that money is spent,” Chen said. “You want to live where multiple communities are evenly balanced and they have an even chance of having representation.”

African-Americans also have suffered discrimination in how lines have been drawn mainly by Republicans in power, and for this reason organizations such as Pure Justice promote their participation in electoral map drawing.

“Everybody wants to crop the map out in a certain fashion for certain beneficiaries,” said Roshawn Evans, co-founder of this organization. “At the top of the political food chain, Republicans are on everything, but we still can make suggestive maps and draw them ourselves.”

“We want to keep together people who have the same kinds of problems, so I just want to emphasize that voting really matters,” he concluded.

Originally published here

Want to read this piece in Spanish? Click here

[sturedmans]

good: 

jovan adepo is fantastic as larry, as i hoped

i’m already VERY into irene bedard as a genderbent ralph brentner - more native american roles please and thank you!  i love that they maintained ralph’s loyalty to mother abigail right off the bat 

i no shit shrieked when nick showed up and i cannot even pretend to have any chill about it.  love of my life nick andros and his eyepatch and his serious little face!!!  god!! 

alexander skarsgard is already killing it (heh) as flagg 

i really like nat wolff as lloyd but i have more thoughts about that later

furthermore the lloyd introduction is good!  the book introduction is an entertaining chapter but the writers chopped it down to fit pretty well 

the special effects are fucking gruesome and somehow i’d never really thought about what trips looks like despite reading the book probably a dozen times? blurgh

bad: 

the larry storyline is moving WAY too quickly to have any meaning, especially when the entire point of his character is to show that people are capable of change.  i realize that his beginning in the novel is pretty drawn-out, but condensing it down to “rockstar with addiction issues -> disappointed mom -> mom dead -> uh oh! everyone’s dead!” isn’t... great 

likewise, larry/rita is moving way too fast/is too condensed, and it’s a shame that he’s going to wake up to find her dead next episode because it’s going to be stripped of basically all meaning for the viewer - he was never really responsible for her like book larry was (obviously deepening his sense of failure when she dies) and they’ve known each other for two days in this universe, whereas in the book they’d been travelling together for at least a week.  not a huge difference normally, but when the show’s timeline is roughly two months, that’s a big change.  the lack of an otherwise-petty fight before he tells her to fuck off in the city also just makes him telling her to fuck off in the sewers seem like inconsistent writing 

what the hell was the point of swapping it so that instead of finding his mom at home and taking her to the hospital, he found his mom at the hospital and took her home? 

HATED the swap from the tunnel to the sewers. hated hated hated. i realize that was probably purely a budget thing but the tunnel scene is absolutely iconic and one of the other real pieces of Stephen King Horror that we get in the novel, and it’s a really effective way of showing the that the us military was preventing people from leaving the city!  was cbs discouraged from showing that the military/government was one of the primary antagonists early on? 

the larry-meets-harold scene should have been way longer and i just say that because it’s one of the best scenes in the book 

observations: 

i fucking knew they were going to make lloyd semi-sympathetic as soon as they cast nat wolff.  i’m not mad about it!  lloyd is one of my favorite characters in the book, and i don’t hate that they shifted things more towards the “lloyd really was a small-time criminal in the company of a psychopath murderer” angle that lloyd’s lawyer was going to use in the novel

i dig that they’re leaning into the flagg/lloyd subtext in the book (”you’re a beautiful fella”)

i like the gorgeous george reference with his cellmate! 

nick next week?  please god let nick’s story be next week and take up most of the time, i am praying they don’t chop-and-screw his section like they did larry’s 

[nimblermortal]

  Just an fyi, if I ever do rewrite an origins fic for the Old Guard, I am going to lift Booker’s plot entirely from Les Miserables.

(tl;dr - it takes Booker 18 years and the violent deaths of all his friends to agree to join the other immortals, and this is why Andromache just kidnaps Nile)

So Booker dies at Waterloo. You know who else died at Waterloo? Marius’s father.

Other things I’ve picked up around the fandom include that Booker was not a soldier (the only one who wasn’t!), he was a counterfeiter who got conscripted and he died when he was caught deserting. So Booker dies, the Old Guard drops what they’re doing to come fetch him, but when they show up Booker goes, “But that’s stupid. Why would I do that? I’m not a fighter. I paint money. I have a life to get back to. Go do your thing without me.”

He’s really stubborn about it, so eventually they just... do. Circle back every few years to verify that, yes, Booker is still at university, still turning them down. Maybe stick around for a few months hanging out in his café to remind him of their presence. Or maybe they do this for the duration! But it’s an eighteen-year duration, because that’s how long it takes for Booker to notice his son is in his class.

Or rather, for Coufeyrac to drag his new friend/roommate over to Booker and go, “Isn’t it hilarious how much alike you two look?”

which jolts Booker out of his academic fugue state enough to proffer an invitation to Marius to join them at the café, and to start taking an active interest in the political discussions they’re having there, and to begin making elegant points. At which we come to the serious business Les Mis crossover:

-Andromache is Grantaire, sitting in a corner with her drunkenness and cynicism. She knows how this one is going to end, but she can’t drop it because Booker is immortal. (Also because she’s getting slowly drawn in by his rhetoric, shhhh.) -Yusuf and Nicoló and Victor Hugo are Jolly, L’esgle, and Musichetta, not necessarily in that order. Writer’s/reader’s choice about whether Yusuf and  Nicoló are actually seducing Hugo, or whether they just get on really well. Regardless, Yusuf is spending a lot of time trying to persuade Hugo to write Nicoló into one of his stories as the most beautiful man who ever existed. -which, spoilers, Hugo does afterwards, but for the functionality of the story he conflates him with Booker and creates Enjolras -the rest of the café exists in some form that Hugo exaggerates in order to fill out the cast of the Amis. Also, Yusuf and Nicoló disagree about Hugo’s tangents - one of them is Team Pay Your Writers (So They Don’t Have to Make Up Weird Long Extra Bits) and the other one is Team Don’t Sabotage the Boy, Dear and admittedly both of them learn a lot about Paris’s sewer system that comes in handy later...

...when Booker, or really the lot of them, get overly excited about the death of General Lamarque and the whole June Revolution gets kicked off.

Booker’s son Marius does not die of cancer. They have a much more condensed drama in which Booker is the first to die on the battlefield and Marius goes, “Wow, you’re immortal? You should share, that means we could REALLY get some work done with the saving of the people of France!” and Booker is all, “Uh, no, I cannot share” and then, I don’t know, maybe Andromache dies and Marius goes, “So you can’t share, huh?” and this gets progressively dialed up as their situation devolves with the arrival of additional guardsmen, cannons, etc.

At one point a volunteer shows up in a guards uniform, a la Les Mis, and they offer it to anyone who wants out, and that turns into, “Let’s get Hugo out, he can tell our story.” Goodbye, Victor Hugo, hope you enjoyed your time inside one of your own stories!

And then they all die. I’m going for a 2012 movie version of their deaths, partly because that’s what they’re familiar with, partly because I enjoy the ‘corpses hanging out the window’ moment. In this version, obviously, there is no Jean Valjean to cart Marius’s dying body to safety; Marius just dies, and one way or another, it’s Booker’s fault. (Booker does not read Les Mis, and is grumpy about it becoming a classic.)

It gets down to the four immortals. Andromache is going, “All right, what’s your plan here, revolutionary leader? Or are you going to turn this one over to me?” Booker is looking for a way out, there has to be a way out, they can’t all just die here!

(He’s died of desertion once and of neglect a couple of times in his fugue academic wanderings, but the problem with dying of neglect is that it didn’t exactly register right - anyway, he doesn’t believe he’s immortal, or perhaps he’s forgotten in the heat of the moment.)

Andy pulls him upstairs, leaving Yusuf and Nicoló to guard the stairs (bizarrely cheerful about their impending doom), to give him a little more time to make his decision - die, pretend to stay dead, and join them, or... whatever the heck plan he’s coming up with in this panic. He’s still panicking, trying to tell Andy to put on skirts and pretend she was coerced so the guards won’t shoot her. Andy decides he’s hysterical and tries giving him a couple of smacks, which is when the guards walk in.

This is the bit Hugo sees: when Andromache drops Booker’s lapels and steps back, one pace. The guards hesitate; Andromache is not their goal. And their world seems strangely quiet as she looks at Booker and asks, “Do you permit it?”

And he gives her a shaky nod, and she throws herself into him (and out the window!) as the guns report.

Hugo high-tails it out of there. Andromache hangs on to Booker as the both of them recover. The guard secures the café and takes off. A few minutes later, Yusuf and Nicoló show up at the top of the window and reel in their boss.

“So, is he ready to come with us now?” Yusuf asks, cheerful and riddled with bullet holes. He’s mostly just excited about getting to do things other than sit in a café for eighteen years, charming little French writer or no.

“I’m sorry it did not work out for you,” Nicoló consoles.

“We’re not waiting eighteen years for the next one to develop a death pact,” Andromache promises. She’s already fantasizing about how much better this would have worked out if they had just shot Booker and dragged him off to a safehouse somewhere.

Booker goes with them. Booker has all his emotional baggage neatly packed, the toast of his emotions prepared for a liberal slathering of the butter of blame, which will quietly sink into said toast over the next few decades as he gets used to his new family and their relentless love of mankind, and plays the café scene over and over in his head until he realizes that there was not, in fact, a way any of them could have saved Marius.

[afuckingtoastaddict]

Charcters we all f#3!ing hate and want their 2-dimensional asses erased from the drawn world of stories :D

AT THE TOP OF THE LIST! At the number one spot! we have (and I assure you, EVERYBODY hates him. No one loves him, not even his own mother).

THIS little bastard. I hate him so much I don’t effing care that he’s a kid, how do you not know how to fuckiong walk there was literally nothing to trip on except himself and his ratty-ass shoes AND HE DIDN’T EVEN SAY THANK YOU TO GIN HIS UNGRATFUL LITTLE ASS KEPT ON RUNNING LIKE IT WAS GIN’S FAULT HE TRIPPED AND FELL LIKE BRUH, I BET HE SHOP LIFTS, THAT LITTLE BRUNETTE BASTARD, GO DIE; GET YOUR 2-D ASS ERASED FROM THE ANIME WORLD PLEASE NO ONE LIKES YOU GOD DAMMIT

*ahem* :) okie dokie on to the next one!

 Next, but not in any type of form at all hated any lesser, we have this...subject. It’s hard to beleive that she isn’t dead yet. (drumroll please) 

Must I explain what this hag did? She fucking put a pillow over a man. Okay, so that man was Oh Sangwoo and he killed some people bUT HER REASOniNG WAS A PETTY REASON LIKE SHE FOWKING SUFFICATED THIS MAN BECAUSE HE WAS CALLING FOR BUM. THEY DIDN”T GET TO FECKING SAY GOODBYE BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU CROTCHETY DUSTY MUSTY RUSTY OLD HAG I WANT TO ERASE YOU FROM THIS STORY DAMMIT, WHO DOES THAT? Damn...okay. Whew.

 Next up we have someone I consider a hobby to hate. I ain’t even joking y’all, I wish this charcter never crossed the minds of it’s creators ‘cause...shiiiit. Look. Look at this trash; 

He’s the epitome of useless and the embodiment of garbage, he’s not even a man. Just a waste in space that should go live in the sewers with It and eat rats’ ass all day. 

I’ve never hated some drawn lines so much, but these three take the cake and always come to mind first. I consider rocks more lovable than these three creatures that found their way out of the deepest pits of the underoworld.

 Thanks for this rant. I needed it. <3

  -First character (un-named and unworthy of a name. Let’s call him little bastard boy or LBB for short) He’s from’Hotarubi no mori e’, a very sweet and short story of a girl falling in love with a man who cannot be touched. It’s a must watch and I cry everytime I watch it. LBB isn’t even in a scene for a full minute he’s so unworthy.

 -Second character (Old biscuit hag OBH) OBH appears at the end of the popular Korean phsycological drama, “Killing Stalking”. (I just finally finished it yesterday night and am still fuming so I’m gonna keep this one short and sweet before I GO INTO ANOTHER RANT.)

 -Third character is from the amazing and well loved “Banana Fish”. And what a sad pathetic life this man has. Dino Golzine deserves to go step on legos for eternity and eat upside-down buttered toast.