#Robert Patrick Modell

[ragnarockz]

By now we know that Modell isn't long for this world, and that his powers most likely stem from a brain tumor. He wants to win, but he already has a death sentence. What's fascinating is how this episode speculates on just how much of a death wish Mulder has. Given the intensity and desperation that often characterizes his work, there's a certain despair buried in all his efforts, the fear that nothing he does could ever be sufficient.

Monsters of the Week The Complete Companion to the X-Files, Zack Handlen & Emily Todd Vanderwerff (2019).

[storagecompartments]

The X-Files S3 E17 - Pusher

[pedroam-bang]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 3D (2017)

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Meat Loaf - I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) 1993

"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is a song written by Jim Steinman, and recorded by American rock singer Meat Loaf. The song was released in August 1993 as the first single from the singer's sixth album, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993). The last six verses features English singer Lorraine Crosby, who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud" in the album notes. While visiting the label's recording studios on Sunset Boulevard, Crosby was asked by her manager Steinman to provide guide vocals for Meat Loaf, who was recording the song "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". Cher, Melissa Etheridge and Bonnie Tyler were considered for the role. The song was a commercial success, however as Crosby had recorded her part as guide vocals, she did not receive any payment for the recording but she receives royalties from PRS. Crosby did not appear in the Michael Bay-directed music video, where model Dana Patrick mimed her vocals. Meat Loaf promoted the single with American vocalist Patti Russo performing the live female vocals of this song at his promotional appearances and concerts.

The power ballad was a commercial success, reaching number one in 28 countries. The single was certified platinum in the US and became Meat Loaf's first and only number one and top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100. It also became Meat Loaf's first and only number one single on the UK Singles Chart, and was the best-selling single of 1993 in the UK. The song earned Meat Loaf a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

American film director and producer Michael Bay directed the accompanying music video for "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". The cinematographer was Daniel Pearl, particularly known for filming The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1973. Pearl says that this video "is one of my personal all-time favorite projects… I think the cinematography is pure, and it tells a story about the song." The video is based on Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera. Bob Keane did Meat Loaf's make-up, which took up to two hours to apply. The make-up was designed to be simple and scary, yet "with the ability to make him sympathetic." The shoot went over budget, and was filmed in 90 °F (32 °C) heat, across four days. The video, which was the abridged seven-minute version of the song rather than the twelve-minute album version, was put into heavy rotation on MTV.

Meat Loaf appeared in over 50 films and television shows, sometimes as himself or as characters resembling his stage persona. His film roles included Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Robert Paulson in Fight Club (1999).

"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" received a total of 77,7% yes votes!

[grandhotelabyss]

Advice/hard truths for writers?

The best piece of practical advice I know is a classic from Hemingway (qtd. here):

The most important thing I’ve learned about writing is never write too much at a time… Never pump yourself dry. Leave a little for the next day. The main thing is to know when to stop. Don’t wait till you’ve written yourself out. When you’re still going good and you come to an interesting place and you know what’s going to happen next, that’s the time to stop. Then leave it alone and don’t think about it; let your subconscious mind do the work.

Also, especially if you're young, you should read more than you write. If you're serious about writing, you'll want to write more than you read when you get old; you need, then, to lay the important books as your foundation early. I like this passage from Samuel R. Delany's "Some Advice for the Intermediate and Advanced Creative Writing Student" (collected in both Shorter Views and About Writing):

You need to read Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, and Zola; you need to read Austen, Thackeray, the Brontes, Dickens, George Eliot, and Hardy; you need to read Hawthorne, Melville, James, Woolf, Joyce, and Faulkner; you need to read Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Goncherov, Gogol, Bely, Khlebnikov, and Flaubert; you need to read Stephen Crane, Mark Twain, Edward Dahlberg, John Steinbeck, Jean Rhys, Glenway Wescott, John O'Hara, James Gould Cozzens, Angus Wilson, Patrick White, Alexander Trocchi, Iris Murdoch, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Vladimir Nabokov; you need to read Nella Larsen, Knut Hamsun, Edwin Demby, Saul Bellow, Lawrence Durrell, John Updike, John Barth, Philip Roth, Coleman Dowell, William Gaddis, William Gass, Marguerite Young, Thomas Pynchon, Paul West, Bertha Harris, Melvin Dixon, Daryll Pinckney, Darryl Ponicsan, and John Keene, Jr.; you need to read Thomas M. Disch, Joanna Russ, Richard Powers, Carroll Maso, Edmund White, Jayne Ann Phillips, Robert Gluck, and Julian Barnes—you need to read them and a whole lot more; you need to read them not so that you will know what they have written about, but so that you can begin to absorb some of the more ambitious models for what the novel can be.

Note: I haven't read every single writer on that list; there are even three I've literally never heard of; I can think of others I'd recommend in place of some he's cited; but still, his general point—that you need to read the major and minor classics—is correct.

The best piece of general advice I know, and not only about writing, comes from Dr. Johnson, The Rambler #63:

The traveller that resolutely follows a rough and winding path, will sooner reach the end of his journey, than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hours of day-light in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.

I've known too many young writers over the years who sabotaged themselves by overthinking and therefore never finishing or sharing their projects; this stems, I assume, from a lack of self-trust or, more grandly, trust in the universe (the Muses, God, etc.). But what professors always tell Ph.D. students about dissertations is also true of novels, stories, poems, plays, comic books, screenplays, etc: There are only two kinds of dissertations—finished and unfinished. Relatedly, this is the age of online—an age when 20th-century institutions are collapsing, and 21st-century ones have not yet been invented. Unless you have serious connections in New York or Iowa, publish your work yourself and don't bother with the gatekeepers.

Other than the above, I find most writing advice useless because over-generalized or else stemming from arbitrary culture-specific or field-specific biases, e.g., Orwell's extremely English and extremely journalistic strictures, not necessarily germane to the non-English or non-journalistic writer. "Don't use adverbs," they always say. Why the hell shouldn't I? It's absurd. "Show, don't tell," they insist. Fine for the aforementioned Orwell and Hemingway, but irrelevant to Edith Wharton and Thomas Mann. Freytag's Pyramid? Spare me. Every new book is a leap in the dark. Your project may be singular; you may need to make your own map as your traverse the unexplored territory.

Hard truths? There's one. I know it's a hard truth because I hesitate even to type it. It will insult our faith in egalitarianism and the rewards of earnest labor. And yet, I suspect the hard truth is this: ineffables like inspiration and genius count for a lot. If they didn't, if application were all it took, then everybody would write works of genius all day long. But even the greatest geniuses usually only got the gift of one or two all-time great work. This doesn't have to be a counsel of despair, though: you can always try to place yourself wherever you think lightning is likeliest to strike. That's what I do, anyway. Good luck!

[baronessblixen]

Fictober Day 14: Always Stick To The Plan

Prompt: "Did you stick to the plan?"

Angst fic: The moment between Mulder, Linda Bowman, and Scully in "Kitsunegari" plays out slightly differently… Rating: T, wc: 961

Tagging @today-in-fic @xffictober24

The anger blazes hot under his skin. His finger is poised and ready to shoot. He stares at the woman, at Robert Patrick Modell’s sister, tasting bile on his tongue. The woman who just shot his partner.

How many times has he been there just in the nick of time? How many times has he heard Scully yell his name? The gun had been at her temple. Now… now. He doesn’t want to think about it. Can’t think about it. Scully on the ground, pale and lifeless. A sea of blood around her, her life drowning in it.

His finger twitches. How easy it would be. A life for a life. But nothing he’ll do will bring Scully back. Nothing he can do to ease the pain that’s threatening to bring him to his knees.

“I’m gonna kill you,” he screams. Just one more second. He will pull the trigger and end this once and for all.

“Don’t listen to her, Mulder.” The words are so familiar, but the face, and the woman saying them, are not. Don’t play her game. He won’t play her game. She’s trying to weaken him, make him believe she’s not who he thinks she is. Then she’ll pounce.

“You were right about her,” Linda Bowman continues. “It’s me. I’m Scully.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Doubt shoots into him like a dagger. What if he’s wrong about the game she’s playing? He has to get it right. He thinks of Scully. Of his Scully. The body lying there on the ground. That was Scully. He’s seen that expression on her face before. The sheer panic. The twitch of her lips. It was her. It is her. Linda Bowman is messing with his head.

“I’m Scully,” she says again. “Mulder, listen to me. She wants you to kill me because she knows you’ll never forgive yourself.”

Well, she’s right about that. In a flash, he sees his future. Calling Mrs. Scully and giving her the news. The funeral. The life after. There’s a void. Nothing more than blackness. Her brother had warned him. They have all warned him and now, he’s killed her. Linda Bowman might have pulled the trigger, but Scully’s blood is on his hands.

“You killed her,” he growls. “You did this.” His finger is still on the trigger and his aim is true.

“Mulder, you-,” she trails off, and her expression changes. Except Mulder can’t read it. He doesn’t know this woman at all. “Did you stick to the plan?” The question comes out of nowhere and hits him right in the chest.

“What?” he asks.

“Did you stick to the plan?” The voice is all wrong. The look on her face is undecipherable but these words... Last year, on their way back from seeing Eddie Van Blundth, Scully came up with it. They spent most of the drive in silence, neither of them knowing what to say. What’s there to say when you’ve almost made out but one of you wasn’t even you? But then Scully said they needed a plan. A phrase. Something that would let the other know it was them whenever evidence pointed to the opposite.

Mulder had laughed it off at first. Because he was still hurt. Hurt and confused. “What kind of plan?” he’d asked eventually, deciding it couldn’t harm. It was just in case after all. And then Scully came up with what turned out to be the perfect plan.

“Did you?” she asks again, bringing his mind back to where it’s needed. He sees himself back in that car, Scully next to him. She’d said, “Whenever one of us isn’t sure, we’ll ask ‘did you stick to the plan?’”

“But why?” Mulder had asked.

“Because. If it’s you – or me – we will know. We’ll know there’s no plan. The impostor, however, won’t know. They’ll try to make sense of it.”

And he got it. He turned to her, amazed. Scully had grinned at him and he’d known that everything would turn out right in the end.

It should have been him asking. Him asking Scully about the plan, but in his pain and anger, he hasn’t even thought about it.

“Scully?” he asks in disbelief.

“It’s me, Mulder-” Her reply is swallowed by a gunshot. Mulder winces as if he’s been shot. He’s still staring at the woman – at Linda Bowman. Except she no longer is Linda Bowman. She’s Scully.

“Scully,” he says again. She squeezes his arm in passing, kneeling on the ground to check the other woman’s pulse. This time Mulder looks. For a split second, he sees Scully there. The way he’s seen her minutes ago. He saw it. He watched her pull the trigger and crumple to the floor. Lifeless. The image disappears and now it’s Linda Bowman. He blinks a few times to make sure.

“It’s over,” Scully says and it’s her voice. It’s her. He spins around, looking her up and down. He reaches out and touches her arms, her hands. He cups her face, observing her. She lets him, doesn’t say a word.

“It’s you,” he says over and over again. “I thought I lost you. I thought I lost you for real this time.” He doesn’t think and acts on instinct. He throws his arms around her and holds her. Just holds her as tightly to himself as he can. Only when her arms go around him, too, does he break down, letting his tears flow.

“I’m here, Mulder,” she whispers, kissing his temple and every spot she can reach on his face. “I’m all right. We both are. You did stick to the plan,” she adds with a whisper and he hiccups a laugh, not letting go of her. Not ever letting go.

[silo1013]

my dream rotation is monica reyes, melissa scully, the astrologist from syzygy, and clyde bruckman

re: x files what’s the dream and nightmare blunt rotations

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol3]

Title: Young Men in Training (2005)

Director: Robert Boggs

Models: Patrick Veselsky Johnny (Johny) Saint

©️ Jet Set Production (INTERNATIONAL)

[themakeupbrush]

List of Met Galas since 2001

I've gotten a few asks for a list of Met Galas. Technically, the gala has existed since 1948, and been themed since 1973, but I started at 2001 to keep it short (there was no gala in 2000 apparently). If you're interested in every theme that's ever existed, there's a chart on Wikipedia.

Most lists online start somewhere around 2011-2013, since it wasn't covered by the press the same way before then.

2001 Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Christina and Lindsay Owen-Jones, Annette and Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera Caroline Kennedy and Edwin A. Schlossberg

Sponsor: L'Oreal

2003 Goddess: The Classical Mode

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, Nicole Kidman

Sponsor: Gucci

2004 Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Renée Zellweger, Lawrence Stroll, Silas Chou, Edgar Bronfman Jr. Jacob Rothschild, Jayne Wrightsman

Sponsor: Asprey

2005 The House of Chanel

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, Nicole Kidman Caroline, Princess of Hanover

Sponsor: Chanel

2006 AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Christopher Bailey, Sienna Miller Rose Marie Bravo, The Duke of Devonshire

Sponsor: Burberry

2007 Poiret: King of Fashion

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Cate Blanchett, Nicolas Ghesquière François-Henri Pinault

Sponsor: Balenciaga

2008 Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Giorgio Armani

Sponsor: Giorgio Armani

2009 The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, Justin Timberlake Marc Jacobs

Sponsor: Marc Jacobs

Ticket Price: $7,500

2010 American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Oprah Winfrey, Patrick Robinson

Sponsor: Gap

2011 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Colin Firth, Stella McCartney François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek

Sponsor: Alexander McQueen

2012 Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Carey Mulligan, Miuccia Prada, Jeff Bezos

Sponsor: Amazon

2013 Punk: Chaos to Couture

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Rooney Mara, Lauren Santo Domingo, Riccardo Tisci Beyoncé

Sponsor: Moda Operandi

Ticket Price: $15,000

2014 Charles James: Beyond Fashion

Co-chairs: Aerin Lauder, Anna Wintour, Bradley Cooper, Oscar de la Renta, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch

Sponsor: AERIN

Ticket Price: $25,000

Theme Announcement: September 4th, 2013

2015 China: Through the Looking Glass

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Jennifer Lawrence, Gong Li, Marissa Mayer, Wendi Murdoch, Silas Chou

Sponsor: Yahoo

Ticket Price: $25,000

Theme Announcement: September 11th, 2014

2016 Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Jonathan Ive Nicolas Ghesquière, Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada

Sponsor: Apple

Ticket Price: $30,000

Theme Announcement: October 13th, 2015

2017 Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Rei Kawakubo

Sponsor: Apple, Condé Nast, Farfetch, H&M, Maison Valentino

Ticket Price: $30,000

Theme Announcement: October 21st, 2016

2018 Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Amal Clooney, Donatella Versace Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman

Sponsors: Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Versace

Ticket Price: $30,000

Theme Announcement: November 8th, 2017 (currently the latest they've announced the theme)

2019 Camp: Notes on Fashion

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, Alessandro Michele

Sponsor: Gucci

Ticket Price: $35,000

Theme Announcement: October 9th, 2018

Planned for May 4, 2020 (canceled) About Time: Fashion and Duration

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Nicolas Ghesquière

Sponsor: Louis Vuitton

September 2021 In America: A Lexicon of Fashion

Co-chairs: Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, Naomi Osaka, Tom Ford, Adam Mosseri, Anna Wintour

Sponsor: Instagram

Ticket Price: $35,000

2022 In America: An Anthology of Fashion

Co-chairs: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Regina King, Tom Ford, Adam Mosseri, Anna Wintour

Sponsor: Instagram

Ticket Price: $35,000

2023 Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty

Co-chairs: Anna Wintour, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Roger Federer

Sponsors: Chanel, Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld (brand)

Ticket Price: $50,000 (most expensive to date)

Theme Announcement: September 30th, 2022

[catharsisxf]

THE X-FILES 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION ➙ day 6: favorite monster of the week

Robert Patrick Modell aka Pusher

This episode was so intense from start to finish, particularly the 3rd act in the hospital. (The way Mulder's hand shakes fighting to not shoot Scully...gah!) I had a hard time not gif-ing the entire episode.

"Please explain to me the scientific nature of the whammy." - Scully s03e17

[virilitas]

MUSES THAT WILL BE ADDED HERE SOON.

the family members.

( luke roberts fc ) arthur chase - father to eric chase, step father to athony kyle. harsh business man who loves his children in the only way he knows how, however extreme it might look for them. rarely engages in sexual affairs outside of his marriage, but when he does, he always seek utmost discretion. [ position: versatile, top leaning ]

( chad michael murray fc ) richard heaton - father to harris, harley, hunter, and henry heaton. a former a-list actor, big shot director, and now a visual artist, richard has pretty much left the limelight and stopped chasing the stars when he had his boys. he already has a lot of money, with businesses and investments that makes sure his bank account is never empty. so now he's just enjoying his life making art, and getting his ass fucked. [ position: bottom ]

( jay hernandez fc ) almario moreno - father to patrick moreno. former celebrity chef who opened up his own chain of restaurants. as a single father, he tried his best to raise patrick in the way he knows. there are days that he doubts his parenting is effective, but patrick has grown into a fine young man. shy and quiet, sure, but he could be worse. has not had a relationship in a long time. [ position: versatile ]

( ricky whittle fc ) alphonse "alpha" harrison - father to bash harrison. a failed musician before he became a commercial pilot. built up a travel and tours company with his wife. really wants to support his son so he could be the musician he failed to be, but his wife insists on bash to take over the company. still tries his best to be the best dad on the sides. let him be your sugar daddy. [ position: top ]

( drew starkey fc ) harris heaton - the eldest of the heaton children. probably the most troublesome of the bunch, definitely inherited a lot of his father's charm, good look, and ... virility. traits, some would say, he then passed down to his younger brother hunter. but these traits have certainly gotten him far-- with connections to everywhere due to him being a socialite and internet celebrity, and his face on everyone's mind as a sought after model. [ position: versatile, bottom leaning ]

the neighbors.

( giacomo gianniotti fc ) cristian callo - doctor. versatile, an alumni of the elysian fields university and family doctor to the chase, heaton, and harrison families. owns his own clinic within the neighborhood. an exceptional doctor with a charm to match his brain. though, sometimes his charm gets a little too much and he gets into all sorts of ... situations. [ position: versatile ]

( travis van winkle fc ) matthew chase - brother to arthur, and uncle to both eric and anthony. he loves his family so much, but when presented with the option to leave, he took it without any hesitation and has not looked back since. now, he spends his days travelling the world and writing famous travel guides. anthony looks up to him so much. [ position: versatile, bottom ]

( josh dallas fc ) andrew wilson - former partner ( business and relationship wise ) and close friend to almario. father of thaddeus. like almario, he was also a former celebrity chef who had an expertise in baking. but unlike him, andrew didn't stick around when the fame starts to be too much. when almario decided to open his chain, he split from their partnership amicably to start a small pastry shop and focus on writing cookbooks instead. [ position: top ]

( freddie stroma fc ) thaddeus wilson - son of andrew. the neighborhood's golden boy. works at his father's pastry shop and is currently studying the trade. he could have dreamed big, because he has the brains and the motivation to do so. but he chose to continue in the family business instead. [ position: bottom. ]

( ed skrein fc ) alexander riemelt - musician. some would say, he sticks out like a sore thumb among the other families in the neighborhood ... especially since he is living in a big colonial house on his own. but he's been living there for as long as he can remember. he just sought other avenues to spend his time following a tragedy in his life. now, he plays in the cradle every night to make money and forget. maybe pick up a guy or two to have a little fun. [ position: top ]

[scotianostra]

17th August 1871 saw the death in London of the Scottish landscape painter Patrick Naysmith.

Patrick was the eldest son of the more well known Alexander Naysmith, known as ‘the father of landscape painting in Scotland’. Patrick was named after his father’s friend Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. He was taught the rudiments of drawing and painting by his father before moving to London in 1807. He suffered from poor health and an accident to his right hand when he was young meant that he had to learn to draw left-handed.

He studied under his father, and travelled to London in 1807. Nasmyth was a landscape painter and although his subject matter was usually found in the countryside around London, his style was modelled on the Dutch seventeenth century artists, especially Meindert Hobbema, he was wrongly given the nickname “the English Hobbema, having said that from what I can gather he spent most of his life down south.

His landscapes are described as “pleasing and conventional” and achieved considerable success in their day, I’m not an expert, but enjoy some art, to me his work seemed boring and all the sameish, unlike others Scottish artist like Allan Ramsay Jnr, David Roberts or, in my opinion, the best of them all Henry Raeburn.

Naysmith exhibited at the Royal Academy, Suffolk Street and the British Institute and was one of the founder members of the Royal Society of British Artists. Many of his brothers and sisters were also painters, which led to much confusion about the family and their work he was one of eleven children, of whom Patrick was the eldest. Of the other ten Jane (b.1788), Anne (b.1798) and Charlotte (b.1804) were all landscape painters.

His studio sale was held at Christie’s 18th June 1831. Titles exhibited at the Royal Academy include “View of Windsor Castle”, “A View in the New Forest” and “A Windmill on the River Don, Yorkshire”. His works can be found in museums in: Cape Town; Edinburgh; Glasgow; Hamburg; Liverpool; London, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum; Montreal; New York and Sheffield.

Pics are of the artist, Valley of the Tweed and Edinburgh from Craigleith

You can find a more detailed bio and more pics on him here http://www.thefamousartists.com/patrick-nasmyth

[pedroam-bang]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 3D (2017)

[pin-crusher2000]

(Cracks fingers….and they break, just kidding lol)

1) Young Titans’ favorite movies and/or movie series?

2) Do the Young Titans and New YJ have vehicles that are handy for transportation like say the T Ship for the older Titans?

3) What’s the Young Titans’ favorite holiday?

4) Since Chris and Mar’i are a little couple, do they get publicity for it from say the Daily Planet?

5) Speaking of the Daily Planet, how well do you see kid Mar’i get along with Lois and Clark once she and Chris are dating?

lol

1:

Jake: Shrek, Kung fu panda, the incredibles, despicable me, spider-man, Scooby Doo, tmnt, space jam 1.

Mar’i: Scooby Doo, the lion king, tangled, little mermaid.

Robert: 300, lord of the Rings, Kung fu panda, DragonBall (if that counts XD) Hercules (Disney), Jurassic park,

Cerdian: Percy Jackson, little mermaid, Hercules. Rise of the guardians.

Lian: goofy movie (1+2), Mulan, the Lorax, wall-E.

Irey: Toy story, Brave, Up, Inside out, Kim possible (canon)

Jai: Star Wars, big hero 6, Robots, anything sci-fi XD

All: in-universe movies about their parent(s) & maybe a movie trilogy about them XD

2: For Young Titans, yes when they get old enough to drive/fly XD they definitely put some spray paint for the T-Ship like a blue & purple Nightwing symbol (Jake/mar’i).

Young Justice on the other hand, I say nah, just cause XD Robin has his bird bike, SuperBoy can fly (does have the superbike from the story “world without a Superman”) etc…. They do like to steal the T-Ship sometimes for the giggles.

3: besides birthdays.

Jake: Halloween, saint Patrick’s day (so he can pinch someone’s butt XD)

Mar’i: Valentine’s Day (so she can do some kissy kissy stuff with Chris plus presents from & to him.)

Robert: doesn’t really have a favorite, so Christmas.

Cerdian: hmmmm all the holidays XD

Lian: Christmas & Father’s Day.

Irey: Halloween & Christmas

Jai: same as his sister.

4: hmmmm I’m gonna say sure, but not front page, (maybe, cause she is not that popular like her grandpa; but like super model popular, B-C tier)

5: pretty good since Clark & Dick are super close like in the comics, she’s emotionally their daughter, & to them emotionally uncle & aunt/mom & dad in law.

Thanks for the questions! Give me more! XD I’m hungry!

[baronessblixen]

Msr 5 on the kisses list plz and thank u ☺️

Another one from the list! This was: knuckle kiss

This is angst/hurt/comfort with a dash of hopeful cheesiness. Starts off in Dod Kalm (yes, you read that right). Mulder decides to be brave in what he believes to be his last moments on earth. (wc: 1,307)

Tagging @today-in-fic @xffictober2023

Fictober Day 2: Just in Case

He's not a gambling man, but he knows the odds are against him. Rien ne va plus. The house always wins. There won't be a cruise in his future. Well, at least he won't go bald as an old man. His body has immaturely aged and he just knows that the end is drawing near. Has he ever been this tired? He doesn't remember. Can't think.

With great difficulty, he forces his eyes open to glance at Scully. He's never allowed himself to seriously consider growing old, not with the life he's leading. But he thought he had more time. More time than this. And now, where he doesn’t have much time left, he allows himself to think about how it could be.

If this was happening 40 or 50 years later. Would Scully be there? He’s known her for less than two years, and yet, the part she takes up in his life is monumental. He wants more time with her. Wants to grow old with her. But this is all they get. Or all that he gets. There’s no future for him, but there might be one for her. 

"Mulder," she murmurs with a raspy voice. "We could still be saved." He smiles, but this time he knows she's wrong. It doesn't give him satisfaction. 

"You might be," he replies, his voice unrecognizable to his ears. "I'm- I'm so tired, Scully."

"Just hold on," she pleads with him. She takes his hand in hers and it feels just like it always has. One last time. If this is the end - and what else could it be? - shouldn't he play his last card?

"Hey," he whispers and she lowers her head. His heart beats with the vigor of a man in love. "If this ends badly-"

"No," she cuts him off.

"If," he repeats, staring up at her. "I want to you to know that-"

"I know, Mulder," she says, unable to hold in her tears.

"Just in case." He gathers the strength he has left to lean up and capture her lips in the sweetest of kisses. A moment later, everything goes dark. 

When he wakes again days later in his hospital bed, Scully smiling at him, he's convinced it was all a dream, a hallucination his mind conjured up as he lay dying. It's not until later that he remembers the feel of her lips, the softness despite it all. He smiles to himself.

Their first kiss. It had been just in case. Now he has to get it right.

But they don't. 

*

He tries to kiss her before he goes in to face Robert Patrick Modell. His lips brush hers and all he tastes are tears. She turns away from him, gently shaking her head. 

“No,” she says. “You’re not… nothing is going to happen, Mulder.” He nods, making it a promise. Even after, his heart thumping in his chest, his thoughts only his own, he doesn’t dare to try again. Scully is with him, squeezing his hand. He could kiss her again, make it right. Celebrate that they won. That they’re going to live another day. But he doesn’t. 

Fear rattles him and almost paralyzes him as he stands in the coroner's office, preparing himself. As soon as he opens the blinds, he will know. He thinks about Mrs. Scully. He’ll have to call her after this, no matter what. If this is her daughter then… he swallows hard. His fingers are weak, his hand shaking. He needs to know. He needs to see. One last breath before he opens the blinds and a million bricks fall off his chest. 

“It’s not her,” he says to the coroner.

It’s not her. It’s not his Scully. But he knows it’s someone. As he rushes to Mrs. Scully’s house, he decides he will tell Scully. Take her into his arms, kiss her silly, and ask her to spend the rest of her life with him. Or the rest of his. Just in case next time it is her on that table, pale and ripped from life.

Once again, it doesn’t happen. 

Scully gives him a peck after he returns from Siberia (and after he’s showered). Her smile is radiant, her lips as soft as he remembers. It’s a promise, nothing more. And he hopes. He dares to hope in the weeks that follow. His hopes are trampled down by a tall, dark stranger in Philadelphia whose name tastes like acid on his tongue.

Just as he thinks they’re moving toward something again, Scully calls him from the hospital. Says it’s cancer. It’s terminal. Nothing they can do. Except Mulder doesn’t accept it. Can’t accept it. They can kill him, but not her. He won’t let that happen. He thinks of the ship and remembers what it was like to feel old and feeble. He would have done anything to save Scully. Against all odds, they both lived. He’ll make damn sure they’ll both live again.

But just in case he kisses her eyelids in a hospital hallway. 

Just in case, he kisses her nose. 

Just in case, he kisses the corner of her mouth, because that is all he dares to do. 

*

The oncology ward is as quiet as a graveyard as he sneaks in at night, ready to flash his badge if anyone wants to stop him. No one does. His shoes squeak on the linoleum floor as he makes his way to Scully’s room, the only sign of life. He peeks inside the room and his eyes need a few seconds to get used to the darkness. There she is. The light of his life. His Scully. She’s fast asleep, curled into herself. He marvels at how peaceful she looks while the cells inside her body are raging a deathly war. The house always wins, he thinks bitterly. 

He touches her hair and gently brushes it away from her face, not wanting a stray strand to wake her up. His knees buckle and he sinks to the floor, as if ready to pray. His hand is on hers and it’s warm and soft. So soft. His tears fall silently as he forbids himself to make a sound. He puts his cheek on her hand, and lets himself calm down while she slumbers on unaware.

“I want to grow old with you,” he whispers against her skin. He kisses one knuckle, then another, and another. He kisses every single one of them. With each kiss, he makes a promise. This is not how it ends. You will win this. I will love you as long as I breathe. I will be there for you, always.

“Just in case, Scully. One day we’ll get it right.” 

She doesn’t wake and he leaves her side, convinced he’s leaving a part of his soul right there with her. Much, much later, she tells him she’s in remission and it’s the best news he could have heard. She grabs his face, staring into his eyes, and her face is blurry before him through the tears. 

“Go home,” she says wih a smile. “And get some sleep. You look worse than I do.” They both laugh as if they’ve just heard the greatest joke in the world. 

“I don’t want to leave you,” he says once he’s found his voice again. 

“Mulder, I’m not going anyway. My family is coming over, too. I won’t be alone. Just- go take a shower, eat something.”

“Always the doctor, huh?”

“Someone has to be.” 

“Okay, fine,” he relents. “But I’ll be back.” His terrible Schwarzenegger impersonation makes her laugh again and what more could he ask for? 

“One more thing, Mulder, before you leave.” Her hands are back on his face and she tugs him down to her level. “Just in case,” she whispers against his lips.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hi, in the HTTYD episode "Tone Deaf", you had mentioned that Smotlouts song was a ripoff of a similar song (repetitive melody with increasing pitch). What is the artist/song title of the song that Snotlout was imitating? I remember hearing this on a radio station and have been unable to identify it. Thank you.

Hey there! I'm stoked about this because you're sneaking into my passion for folk music! Be prepared to get 500% more information than you needed! ;)

For starters, I'm glad good search engines exist to refind what you were referencing. In this 2016 post about Tone Death, I commented Hiccup's song started melodically similarly to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," while later elements of the song sounded familiar, but I was unable to place it. I'm still unable to place it, though it sounds like another old-fashioned band tune.

Since you mentioned a repetitive melody with increasing pitch and that matches When Johnny Comes Marching Home, I'm assuming that's what you were thinking about!

I don't mind that RTTE 'used' When Johnny Comes Marching Home. It wouldn't be a ripoff in my book. It makes music in RTTE boringly unoriginal, but composers closely mirror songs (especially folk songs) constantly, and a composer would know that, if he modeled something off a famous melody like When Johnny Comes Marching Home, it'd be noticed.

I'm not going to assume knowledge or nationality here, though I know many folks online will be well-acquainted with the song. So I'll start by saying there's no artist particular to it. There's technically not even one concrete title since it's a folk song from the United States Civil War, and as with all folk songs, that means variation, variation, variation. As a child, I learned it as The Ants Go Marching One by One! There's another children's variation, The Animals Went in Two by Two.

I have to nerd out and blab on the song since your ask gives me the excuse!

Irish-born immigrant Patrick Gilmore, one of the most well-known bandleaders of his time, is said to have composed When Johnny Comes Marching Home, with lyrics, in 1863 while serving the Union in the US Civil War. It was published on September 26 under the pseudonym Louis Lambert. The song became popular with both Unionists and Confederates, as it sang about the desire to see soldiers return home. However, Gilmore acknowledged he'd adapted an older melody. Where this older melody came from, though, isn't clear-cut.

The best claims I've seen point out the tune was published in July 1863 as Johnny Fill Up the Bowl, arranged by J. Durnal. Well, where did Durnal arrange it from? I've read Johnny Fill Up the Bowl was a popular drinking song with soldiers. But that's not the origin point, either.

There's a branch of this folk tune that's Irish, Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye, published contemporarily to When Johnny Comes Marching Home. (Hmhmhmhm Gilmore was Irish.) This publication was in 1867 by Joseph B. Geoghegan. I read that was originally under a different melody, though I couldn't find a scan of the sheet music to verify that with my own two eyes.

Tracing the song back further isn't as certain. Folklorists have pointed out melodic similarities to John Anderson, My Jo. That came from Robert Burns circa 1789, but even he was placing lyrics to an earlier melody. His poem was a polite change from bawdy lyrics that existed previously - a song running back to at least 1630. There are tons of variant titles to John Anderson, My Jo, and there are reportedly about forty variations to the tune (everywhere from Sweden... to Wales... to the USA's Johnny).

Going further back then that, there's less consensus. One scholar has suggested a connection to The Three Ravens, which was first referenced in print in 1611, but would be even older than that. Another song that's been proposed is I Am the Duke of Norfolk or Paul's Steeple, first put to print in 1651, but possibly arising from an event that occurred in 1561. Presumably a ballad arose within a week of a fire that burned down a steeple at Old Saint Paul's in London.

Of course, if you listen to something like Paul's Steeple, it's quite different from Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye - but that's the nature of centuries-long folk song evolution, where new sounds, shifting melodies, different lyrics, and more spawn across generations. It's like languages... Old English ain't intelligible to today's English, but there's a direct chain of evolution linking back.

As an American, I can say When Johnny Comes Marching Home is one of the most ubiquitous folk melodies around me. Its references typically retain military connotations -- to give one example, in Guns N' Roses's Civil War.

If you heard it recently on the radio, that's heckin' cool! I know that this song keeps appearing and reappearing in pop culture in different iterations. I'm so removed from pop culture I have no idea what you might've heard that's recent. Maybe now that you know it's citing When Johnny Comes Marching Home helps! Best of luck finding what you heard.