#also like……. ok this definitely leans more into heavy spoiler territory but like

[thompsborn]

!! the return of harley “daddy issues” keener (or is it mostly new angst? or mostly, like, physical?)

okay i love all these anons but also i am trying So Hard to not spoil things omg. please send more but also if i lowkey spoil something eventuallly it’s not my fault !! it actually definitely is entirely my fault but shhh

but anyways, kind of and also kind of not?

so like, in to build a family harley and peter are teenagers, but not like homeward bound. they’re high schoolers still, yk? they’re younger and haven’t gone through all the things that homeward bound harley and peter have gone through. i only bring up tbaf because obviously harley has Daddy Issues™ in tbaf. even before the second fic when his dad dies and he has to deal with that—in the first fic there’s a part where harley reminds his sister of their dad bc of how he left to go to new york and it’s this whole moment, yk? but he’s younger in tbaf and since tbaf is like not at all canon compliant to the mcu, they’ve gone through a lot less in comparison to hb, yk?

i say all that because while daddy issues are an ongoing lifelong thing for homeward bound harley, they aren’t as detrimental or as Big as they are in tbaf or other fics i’ve written where that comes up. hb harley is still effected by his daddy issues but he’s 18, he’s in college, he died for 5 years and came back to find out tony died, he has some family stuff that will be further explored and explained in the sequel with his mom and sister, and now also he has peter and the knowledge that peter is spider-man and the heaviness that comes with peter’s tragedies and past as well.

it’s a heaviness he’s okay with, don’t get me wrong, he’s more than happy to be there for peter and to learn these things and has been curious about peter since the first time peter walked into late night (again, will be explained more in the sequel!) but it’s heavy nonetheless, you know?

essentially, in the grand scheme of things, while he’s still impacted by his daddy issues, he also just… doesnt care anymore? like not caring doesn’t erase the impact but also he barely thinks of his dad and when he does he doesnt feel angry or upset or any of the things he felt in the past about his dad leaving, he just… doesnt care. he’s been through so much at this point that it’s just Another Thing. he’s desensitized to it to the point that like, why does it matter? it doesn’t.

there’s a part in hb, i can’t remember which chapter but it’s a small texting segment in one of the chapters where harry talks about him harley and peter making a no dad’s club for funsies and in that text convo harley mentions that he has a dad he just doesnt know where he is and doesn’t care enough to find out.

also, to answer that last part—it’s new angst that includes physical stuff! there’s gonna be… a lot lmao. i have a lot of things planned for this series, a lot of ideas taken from various comics, from the movies, from the games, etc. i’m even planning to read through plotlines for some of the animated series to see if there’s any additional ideas to draw from there.

but like, think of it this way, i guess: harley cares. a LOT. like some of his remaining daddy issues have developed in the form of being a bit slow to trust new people, but like he’s mentioned in the fic, once he chooses to care about someone, he is ALL IN. he is COMMITTED. and now that he knows about peter being spidey and is actively choosing to be involved in that, his instincts and his heart are going to want to do anything and everything he can to help.

okay actually sorry this answer is SO long BUT i remembered something i had harley say and i went back and looked and in chapter three he tells peter “my Mama says I have the heart of a protector” and THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IM TRYING TO CONVEY HERE LMAO so THAT is who he is at heart yk?

and peter is gonna be in a lot of dangerous situations as spidey, and as the series goes on people connected to him are going to be in danger because of spidey, and essentially like…. a lot of emotions and a lot of angst and a lot of potential for getting hurt, yk?

i need to stop here because i keep almost saying fuck it and giving an example that is definitely a spoiler but yeah. take that as you will (:

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

for @bend-me-shape-me 's SPN advent calendar 2020. prompt: phone calls and late night texts.

Cas isn't a serial texter.

And Dean's a-okay with it.

But for all that's worth, they sure seem to have a ridiculous amount of emotionally significant conversations via, or starting off as, texts. And most often, in the middle of the night.

*

>>> hello, dean. [12:07 am]

Dean jolts up at the sound, realizing he fell asleep still wearing his headphones, with the laptop on his lap (and a new episode of The Good Place playing) and rolls his eyes at himself, hitting pause before he can see what’s happening (because he has good reflexes, and because screw spoilers that’s why) and rummaging for his phone.

At this hour of the night, it has to be something important.

It doesn’t really strike him that Mechanical Engineering majors whose only other selfprofessed skill is air guitar aren't exactly the frontline warriors for midnight emergencies.

Cas's name shows up when he squints at the too-bright screen, and he sits up a little straighter.

<<< hey [12:09 am]

<<< you OK? [12:09 am]

The response is immediate.

>>> do you have peanut butter? [12:09 am]

And as if it's an afterthought, Cas adds.

>>> yes, I'm fine. how are you? [12:10 am]

Dean blinks.

<<< peachy. peanut butter? [12:10 am]

At least this time the response takes a while. Dean wonders if Cas realized it was midnight, and not exactly a time to run inventory on your best friend's stash of condiments.

>>> I ran out. [12:12 am]

Dean sighs, unable to help smiling.

It's not like he's a stranger to Cas's weird cravings when he's high. (There'd been this one time with pie and a traumatized Gas 'N Sip cashier that still sits heavy on Dean's conscience.) But he doesn't think Cas is supposed to be high right now — Dean's usually either invited or informed by an unspoken rule — which just means this is regular "jelly, not jam"-Cas, at his core a weird, persistently sleep-deprived economics major and astronomy nerd, that Dean may or may not have had a crush on for an embarrassingly long time, and who's also prone to grammatically perfect texting, deadpan, Disney references, and bluntness when the occasion calls for it.

<<< pretty sure i have some [12:14 am]

>>> :) [12:14 am]

>>> I'm coming over [12:14 am]

*

And weird as it may sound, that had turned out to be the night Cas told him he was gay. Said it had been a revelating moment, unprecedented and wholly unexpected — and apparently revelations come in pairs because it had been followed by an intense need for peanut butter, and the rest, he explained emphatically, was history.

Dean had just snorted, congratulated him, and brought out the fancier plates for sandwiches — shipped in from home instead of a sale at Target — all the while, repeating to himself in a loop, that this changed nothing between them, nothing at all, and Cas having the capacity to be attracted back to him didn't mean that he ever would be (or for hell's sake, he'd scoffed at his traitorous chick-flick-nonsense brain, is.)

*

The second time had been early — way, way too early and it was by pure chance that Dean was awake to respond at six friggin' am on a Sunday. Like, that’s practically nighttime. 

Goddamn stupidly-fit running-freak.

Dean picks up his phone blearily, tongue in cheek as he clicks on it.

>>> I miss you [6:28 am]

>>> I'd* miss you [6:29 am]

Dean's stomach twists, and he's not sure if it's in a good way, or a bad way, or what-the-sincere-fuck-are-you-talking-about way.

<<< what [6:32 am]

<<< wtf are you talking about? [6:32 am]

Nothing.

<<< cas? [6:33 am]

<<< dude [6:34 am]

<<< cas???? [6:34 am]

Dean swears at his screen, more queasy than irritated. He can't stop fidgeting, so gives up on lying down altogether and hoists himself to his feet. Better to get his friggin' toothbrush since he's already up, and now definitely awake. Cas was so paying for this later.

He comes back, mouth mint-fresh in theory but still tasting awful and of fear and dread, and practically sags when he sees his screen blare with two messages from Cas.

>>> sorry, I had to make a call. [6:42 am]

>>> I'm not taking the job. [6:42 am]

*

And that's how Dean finds out about Michael (Cas's oldest brother, entitled asshole) inviting Cas to join his and Lucifer's (second oldest, bag of dicks) firm the year he graduates — invite, of course, being a loosely used word here for expecting it blindly (out of some crap he calls 'loyalty') and being readily willing to manipulate him into it.

And it's how he finds out that Cas turned them down.

"It's not who I am anymore." Cas had repeated, third time probably, and surer than before, and Dean had nodded earnestly before realizing Cas couldn't see him through the phone, and humming his affirmation instead. "And if I go back there, I'm never getting out again."

Dean'd swallowed.

"I don't want to." Cas had said, voice trembling. "I am — my own person here. It shouldn't be like this but this is the first time I have autonomy, Dean. Here is free will, and here are you. I don't — I can't. I'm not going to let them take it away."

"Good." He'd sounded shaky to even himself. "Don't."

"Yes." Cas had promised. "I'm not going."

*

And eventually they'd moved past the heavy talk into why-didn't-I-hear-about-this-before territory, Dean being righteously annoyed at his best friend for keeping something so huge from him, and Cas making lame (but probably valid) excuses in the name of not knowing how to explain the situation until he knew himself what he was going to do, because Dean may've been the first person he'd confided in about the insane fuckery that been his childhood and adolescence, but that still didn't mean he'd understand this, broken and convoluted.

And then Cas had nicely segued himself out of Dean's target of irritation and added, "They asked Gabriel too, by the way."

"And?" Dean didn't ever have much care for Gabriel (third oldest brother, cares about Cas, still a jerk) but Cas shared an apartment with him, so he had to face him plenty.

"He's running off to Miami."

And Dean had thrown his head back and laughed until Cas had smoothly added, "And I was wondering if you would consider moving in with me." 

At which point, of course, he'd started coughing instead, because holy shit, it actually made sense (Sammy had left for Stanford two months back, and Dean lived alone in a space that had probably been two big even when there were two of them) and might actually happen, but Dean wasn't really sure how much longer he'd be able to hide his crush, sharing a friggin' kitchen with the guy.

*

The third time's after their first date.

(Because, well. It happened.

It happened with Dean leaning across the breakfast table to prove to Cas his bacon was superior (to cookie friggin' crunch, because goddamn is Cas a dork) and Cas taking a bite with their eyes fixed on each other's, and Dean turning red when Cas licked his lips and then, just like that, Cas swearing under his breath (definitely filed for later pondering, that bit), grabbing Dean, and kissing the living daylights out of him.

And Dean had kissed back with everything he had, hands cupping his face, and nearly melting in his arms - but then they'd separated for air and Cas had had an apologetic look on his face and when Dean had tried to lean in to kiss it away, he'd received half a smile and a shake of his head.

"Let's do it the way we're supposed to."

And Dean had known immediately what he'd meant. Let's not fuck this up by becoming best friends and roommates who sleep together. Let's...play safe.

"Okay. Uh," he'd rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

"Thursday." Cas had promised with twinkling eyes, though Dean had already known he was going to say that since he knew Cas’s week at least as well as he knew his own, and two days and an anxious half of a thursday later, they went on their first date. Burgers and beer, and Led Zepp, and hands held in the Impala. Four hours later, they were back, and in their respective rooms, and Dean couldn't stop thinking about Cas.)

When his phone vibrates, Dean reaches for the bedside table.

It's at least midnight, it feels like he's been in bed for ages, and the only reason he isn't asleep is because all his brain seems to be capable of at the moment is thinking endlessly about the date. Fortunately, he's not the only one — although he's better at hiding it (practise, he'd say) because his heart is in his mouth the moment he reads Cas's text.

>>> I think I'm falling in love with you [11:43 pm]

>>> already. [11:43 pm]

Dean is very grateful for autocorrect as he types back with too-excited thumbs and a racing heart.

<<< so much for doing it the regular way cas mosby [11:44 pm]

>>> in my defense, it's been years. [11:44 pm]

<<< that part i get [11:44 pm]

<<< me too [11:44 pm]

<<< but youre supposed to wait three days before calling dumbass [11:45 pm]

Jesus, he'd never expected to blush cause of texts, but here they are.

>>> I'm texting. [11:46 pm]

And he guesses he'd never expected to giggle (he's alone there, sue him) cause of them either, but Cas apparently exists to prove him wrong about himself.

<<< good for you [11:46 pm]

He sends, biting his lip, and then lies in the silent darkness for a couple of minute, devoid of text notifications entirely, thinking uneasily — before he gives up.

They're idiots, sure, but nobody is this dumb.

<<< so when the fuck are you coming over then [11:50 pm]

>>> on my way <3 [11:50 pm]

And thinking about the lightening speed of that reply and the fucking heart emoji is enough to sustain him the entire one minute it takes Cas to get there, gently opening Dean's door, and climbing into bed — fitting in Dean's space like it's been made for him, and kissing him in greeting after leaving his phone on the table next to Dean's.

*

As it goes, with the confessions and the midnight cravings (and the grocery lists that keep getting piled onto through the day, and random pickup lines Cas decides are perfect to send Dean daily once he's found a website for puns, courtesy of Claire, and of course, pictures of Grease, which clog Dean's cloud in dozens whenever the ridiculously cute cat does something even slightly out of routine, god bless her lazy soul) Cas might just be a texter.

But Dean's pretty sure he's more than okay with it, so it doesn't really matter.

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Crawl

Hurricanes? Scary. Alligators? Scary. Put em together and you’ve got a damn solid premise for a creature feature action/horror movie. Hayley (Kaya Scodelario) is going to check on her dad (Barry Pepper) during a severe hurricane because she and her sister haven’t heard from him even though everyone has been ordered to evacuate. When she gets to the house (after an ominous sign warning of an alligator farm nearby), she discovers her dad bleeding and unconscious in the crawl space below the house...and he’s not alone. I mean, that’s some solid shit, right? Pretty difficult to mess that up, wouldn’t you think? Well...

Thankfully, yeah, it is hard to mess up and director Alexandre Aja does a perfectly fine job of keeping the tension high, the sequences scary, and injecting enough human heart into the proceedings that you actually give a damn about the characters. All in all, this is a job well done.

Some thoughts:

The main purpose of this movie is to encourage people not to fuck around with hurricanes, and also to personally target me and my foolish attempt to tempt fate by visiting Florida semi-annually to see Wife’s family. The gators are gonna get me, y’all, and honestly I probably deserve it for my hubris and presumption.

So she’s a swimmer for the Florida Gators swim team. And her dad/swim coach motivates her by telling her she’s an apex predator. A little heavy handed on the foreshadowing here, don’t you think?

Remember when Barry Pepper was in everything? He can still get it. 

This sequence of her driving through the blockade to get to her dad’s house feels like a Jeep commercial, the product placement feels very intense.

Ok, as soon as you see this dog (named Sugar!) I’m sure you’re thinking what I thought which was, “oh shit this dog is gonna die” because in horror movies, the dogs die. BUT! I am so happy to report that this film goes by action movie rules, meaning the dog lives!! She is perfect and very helpful and a sweet angel and no harm comes to her other than, you know, a bit of a stressful day.

The movie is a tight 87 minutes, because it knows what you want to see. You want to see gators. All the pre-gator parts of the movie move along pretty briskly to get to that sweet, sweet gator action. That being said, the pre-gator part also suffers from a general lack of...urgency? Maybe it’s just that Kaya Scodelario works best when she has something perilous to work with (be that the gators or her tumultuous daddy issues). The setup scenes where she’s driving to her dad’s house and monologuing to the dog is cringe city, not least of all because she’s not keeping her eyes on the road when she’s driving in a motherfucking hurricane!

One of the things I appreciate most about this movie is that the characters are industrious and for the most part pretty smart. It makes it much easier to root for them when they’re grabbing makeshift weapons, treating their own wounds as best they can, and using strategic maneuvers to avoid the alligators. There’s really only one “GIRL WHAT ARE YOU DOING” moment and it could be forgiven due to wanting to take advantage of cell phone signal while she had it. Since the rest of her actions were pretty smart, I’m willing to give her a pass on one. 

Can I just say, after last year’s The Hurricane Heist, I am loving this trend of movie genres + hurricane to create a whole new genre. Now that we have monster movie + hurricane, let’s expand the horizons to include even more options. Buddy cop movie + hurricane. Period costume drama + hurricane. Broadway musical + hurricane. The possibilities are endless!

The movie really hits its stride when Scodelario and Pepper are finally reunited, and the tension and bickering between them feels very real. They don’t have a lot of time but Michael and Shawn Rasmussen’s script goes a long way to establish some real family drama and resolve it in a cathartic way before the movie’s end. A lot of that heavy lifting is done by Pepper as a headstrong and stubborn estranged dad, but the chemistry between both actors is top notch.

I always think about the filming conditions for things like this, and this must have just been a nightmare to shoot. They’re underwater for SO MUCH of this movie, and there are quite a few stunts and action effects that had to be coordinated, especially with the fake alligators. The finished product is honestly very impressive.

As for the gators - holy shit these gators! You guys. I know they’re CGI, but these gators don’t feel over-the-top ridiculous. This isn’t The Meg. These are just normal size (read: huge) gators going about their lives tryin to find a snack. And they are fucking TERRIFYING. I’m drawing a line in the sand here - and I don’t care how controversial you might think this is, I’m gonna say it - don’t fuck with gators.

There is some very realistic body horror happening.

I would definitely call it more of an action movie than a horror movie, but there are quite a few jump scares because these alligators are SNEAKY and can just pop up anywhere.

THERE IS ALSO A SCENE WITH SPIDERS ON HER FACE I WANT TO DIE JUST LET THE GATORS TAKE ME NOW THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE.

One thing I was somewhat confused by - they show this in the trailer, so it’s not a spoiler. At one point Haley discovers alligator eggs that have clearly recently hatched, and it makes you think oh shit now there are gonna be even more alligators everywhere but we never actually see any? There’s a shot of one teeny bby gator coming out of an egg, but other than that, nothing. It feels like the setup for something that never delivered. The only thing I could think was that if this is the territory where they’re laying eggs, the momma gators will be more protective, and thus more aggressive. But I mean...did we have to make them MORE aggressive? I hear “abandoned house + hurricane floodwaters + escaped alligators” I’m not gonna be like “But wait, would they really be trying to attack people?” Say no more, man - my disbelief is suspended.

I have to confess though, the strategy of saying, “Alligators hunt by detecting splashes, so NO SPLASHES,” while sound, is a line that made me laugh.

At one point the eye of the hurricane passes over them (obviously) and Wife leaned over to me and started singing, “In the eye of a hurricane there is quiet for just a moment” from Hamilton and then about 30 seconds later, “I splashed my way out” and that really took a lot of the bite out of that one of the big final escape sequences of the film.

Did I Cry? I teared up a tiny bit. Dad-daughter stuff just gets me right in the heart. I’m a sap, what can I say.

Honestly, this is really solid fare from start to finish. You could easily enjoy this film on Redbox, but there’s something to be said about the immersive, incredibly stressful experience of cutting off all distractions and focusing on a 90-minute adventure like this in a theater. Wife said she has literally never been more stressed, and that’s pretty much the best endorsement you can get for a movie like this.

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