#also- Serial adopter. This man cannot help himself

[an-unraveling-unknown]

I'm interested in Deimos, in general, care to ellaborate on them?

(what's their taste favorite food?)

YES ABSOLUTELY (bit of a long one again, sorry!)

Deimos, as previously stated, is the Embodiment of Human Fear - human fear specifically, being a result of rather than a wielder (as all the embodiments are really) and only coming into existence once homo sapiens became a thing (twice), but he is the fear by all accounts. Some miscellaneous stuff: 1. Essentially retired by this point in terms of his title. The Embodiments as a whole used to be a lot more 'around' per se, but the lot of them all kind of split off and humans do all the fear-mongering for him now, which is both fascinating and sad.

2. Bit of a bastard (/aff), likes to poke fun in his own eloquent way but knows when to back off. Maybe backs off a little too often, he prefers to avoid conflict when the option is available. Can and will read anyone like a picture book made for five y/o's and is a huge Shakespeare nerd (which probably has something to do with a chance encounter in London circa. 1592) 3. He's gone by countless names and forms, and the very notion of sticking to binary gender is laughable, (though he/him is the latest preference,) but 'Deimos' kind of became the default after Locke threw it at him as a nickname and it stuck 4. He's fond of referencing pop culture, (something of which Locke has no hope of ever understanding,) but it's either pop culture thats slightly too old for the current age or slightly too new. Slightly too old is self-explanatory, but what I mean by slightly too new is that since its naturally ingrained in him to pick up on the social patterns of humans, he will slightly nudge something forward in the public consciousness attuning to those patterns that will inevitably pick up in popularity because he finds it incredibly amusing. 5. Alas, he can't take credit for TikTok trends 6. Literally radiates terror to anything in a five mile radius that isn't dead. When he and Locke used to meet up in various points in history, they'd meet at around midnight to early morning as to not alert the local population, which unfortunately had the additional consequence of freaking out the local wildlife. Locke had to reason with the outraged birds that they could sing at dusk instead, saying that its just like morning but backwards. It took much convincing every time. and a hefty bribe of seeds. 7. Found the Woods a little while after he and Locke split up for the last time. To his knowledge, this vast stretch of wooded area somehow exists in several places simultaneously all over the globe while also not technically existing at all, looking at a decent map. Those that enter with good intentions exit, and those who enter without seem to blip off the face of the earth. It's usually pretty silent. And theres a big hecking house plop in the middle of it in pristine condition, looking wildly different in appearance depending on who's looking at it - so naturally he sets up camp in it and stays there for the next 300-something years 8. HAVE SOME CONCEPT ART, he does little things with his appearance every now and then for fun (colorful markings, scales, runic symbols, that sort of thing) but generally keeps up the base appearance of not quite fitting in seamlessly with reality, like a memory blurred around the edges.

the odd cross where his face should be is to remind myself where the heck he's looking lmao (he likes dressing casual-fancy because it makes him feel sophisticated) 9. He was close with another embodiment of fear early on in his existence - Phobos was moreso the reaction to fear and wasn't restricted to just humans for Some Reason. The two of them haven't spoken in ages though, for good cause. 10. He was debating reaching out to Locke for a while before they ended up in the woods themselves- despite his own interests, he's always preferred to let them do what they wish, especially given the extenuating circumstances 11. However, these extenuating circumstances say nothing on a plethora of curious children dragging the android in to stay a while (12. he doesn't really need to eat, and he has to fashion a whole digestive system for that, but Deimos does have a fondness for sweets - pastry items, chocolate, you name it. He'd also never admit it in front of the children ever)

[serialadoptersbracket]

Full Propaganda: Phoenix Wright

(Mod note: Also a shoutout to the submitter who begged me to use the beanie pic)

1. “This man cannot walk five feet without accidentally tripping over yet another new kid/teen sidekick.”

2. “his mentor dies leaving behind her teenage sister hes like 'my sister now' teenage sister's aunt is arrested, and her 9yo cousin needs looking after 'say no more' dudes entire career comes crashing down around him at the same time a dude abandons his daughter 'looks like i have a reason to live now'”

3. “Tired old man (he’s 35) single lawyer dad of two other lawyers and a famous magician. Absolutely unhinged but appears Normal™️. Constantly embarrasses himself and is routinely assaulted and verbally abused in court but wins all his cases anyway (and he only forged evidence like twice!). Runs his own law firm (possible front for adopting more children?) and has 100% faith in his kids and his clients (two categories that overlap wayyyy too often, he and his family are constantly being framed for murder). He has a dumb hairstyle and no one ever lets him forget it. Phoenix has eaten glass before and would probably do so again. He has also survived falling from a 40-foot burning bridge into an ice-cold river, being the victim of a hit-and-run, and nearly being executed by a foreign government twice. Plus he’s bisexual and suffers from gay angst disease. Phoenix Wright is God’s favorite and he should be yours too!”

4. “Phoenix will see a young person going through truama and be like: "Is anyone going to help them?" And then not wait for an answer.”

5. “He may have only legally adopted Trucy, but he in spirit adopted the others. Phoenix just sees a girl (and Apollo) wandering through life without a parent and goes “is anyone going to parent and raise this?” And then doesn’t wait for an answer”

6. “This man can't go one game in his series without finding a new young person in a desperate situation who he picks up and makes his personal responsibility. Textbook serial adopter.”

7. “Canon says he adopted Trucy. I will argue he’s also adopted Apollo for… various reasons, and if he’s adopted one lawyer why not adopt another? I can’t imagine he’d look at her and the dad instincts… didn’t kick in. He’s also an older brother figure to Maya if that means anything here”

8. “Phoenix legally adopted Trucy and has just been taking kids without parents into his law agency ever since. Also if you consider him and Edgeworth to be together, then Edgeworth also essentially adopted Kay Faraday, so that's another one right there.”

9. “He's a lawyer. He adopts a little sister after her sister (his boss) dies. His client runs out on him so he does the logical thing and adopts the daughter he left behind even as his life falls apart. He meets her biological brother and manipulates him into joining his found family. I have no idea how he met teenage Lawyer Athena but that's his daughter now too.”

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/13/2021: TITANE

This year I feel like I've started way more posts than usual with a disclaimer about my not feeling totally qualified to discuss the movie I assigned myself...and in general, I think this is a good sign that I am challenging myself (even if I should maybe learn to be less apologetic). Today I find myself back in that boat, not because of any established analysis of the film, but because Julia Ducournaus' sophomore solo effort (WTF girl?!) TITANE practically demands to be interpreted in terms of trans identity, and a cis het lady like myself may not be the ideal person to hear from about this. I'm going to do my best! But, I welcome any comments or suggestions pointing to other, more learned discussions of this great movie, which I am about to describe in detail. If you can, see it first, without any knowledge of its many shocking delights.

*I am using the pronoun "she" for Alexia/Adrien for various reasons. The character never insists on an alternative, and I don't wish to complicate things with my own projections. But, I do want to say before I begin that I am well aware of how awkward this becomes, and I'm curious about how other writers will choose to manage this.

I can't shake the subconscious assumption that the title is actually TITAN, matching the movie's power and grandiosity, but TITANE refers to the titanium plate in the protagonist's noggin, necessitated by a childhood car crash. As an adult, Alexia (Agathe Rouselle in her feature film debut—another WTF?!) is an exotic dancer who we find grinding athletically on a Cadillac at a motor show. Said Cadillac is, to put it delicately, Alexia's boyfriend. Alexia is also a serial killer, which we discover as soon as other humans start coming onto her, whose work has reached the dimensions of a public crisis. To escape capture, she changes her appearance into that of a cadaverous androgyne, and adopts the identity of a long-missing boy, Adrien. Adrien's father, firefighter Vincent (the exceptional Vincent Lindon), is so lonely that he willfully ignores signs that Alexia is not Adrien, and together the two tortured souls find redemption in their perverse relationship. Selective ignorance can't last long, though, as Alexia has become pregnant by the Cadillac.

Bodily identity is out front and center in TITANE, in such a bold and complex manner that I'm sure people will be analyzing it for years to come. Alexia's childhood head injury may be to blame for her inhumanity, but the plate in her skull makes her more than human, capable of reproduction with mechanical objects. As Adrien, her pregnancy complicates her ability to present as male, making the binding process even more painful and difficult than it can be in the best of circumstances; but, at least it helps protect her clothing against the motor oil she can't stop secreting. Vincent knows in his gut that Alexia cannot really be Adrien—he even has a hallucination suggesting the realization that his son is long gone—but he encourages her to play along, offering her love and protection, training her to save lives as a firefighter rather than take them as a killer, and teaching her to shave her face to cultivate a more masculine presentation. Vincent himself is struggling with his body's rebellion against his self-concept, age slowly getting the better of him despite a steady regimen of steroids, so maybe it's not so strange for him to try to make a strapping young man out of Alexia.

Vincent Lindon's tremendous performance, and Julia Ducournau's compassionate examination of his body, manage to stand up to Agathe Rousselle's flashy, chameleonic charisma.

Early in TITANE, Alexia's hair gets tangled in a nipple piercing on another dancer, Justine, causing a cringe-inducing injury reminiscent of the bikini waxing scene in RAW. (Notably, Justine is RAW's Garance Marilliere) When I saw this, I thought, ah yes, of course, this will be all about the masochistic nature of female-ness, it's true, we are in a constant state of ripping out hair, scraping ourselves with blades, burning our skin with acid, et al ad nauseum, all so we can compete for the ostensible privilege of being crudely penetrated by some primate, only to wait with bated breath for the moment that our entrails agonizingly wring themselves out like an old rag... But actually, my thinking was too primitive for what TITANE was getting at. The film isn't out to confirm any heteronormative notions of essentialism, nor does it stick to a linear motion of trans-ness (from the false anatomical sex to the felt, singularly correct one); Alexia is capable of becoming Adrien, but that does not invalidate her feminine aspect, as we realize when she confronts Vincent with her biological situation. Something of a cyborg, Alexia is not so much transgender as she is transhuman, her "true self" rooted in the titanium plate rather than between her legs or in her thoughts. Her sexuality is totally separate from the male-female spectrum, aimed only at union with industrial objects: the Cadillac, a firetruck, even Justine's nipple rings, the only part of Justine that Alexia pays any attention to in their fatal tryst. And most importantly, Alexia's sexual behavior is not a perversion or a fetish, nor a trauma-induced neurosis, but a legitimate biological directive, apparently natural and fully functional. It brings about a new form of life.

I'm sure some readers will find my engagement with TITANE more than a little clumsy, but I find this general interpretation to be almost mandated by the movie. 24 hours was just not enough time for me to come up with a commentary that was more "in my lane", and I don't want to hold my breath waiting for alternative inspiration. There is certainly something to be said about human union with the artificial (an increasingly real situation in the digital age)—or, the growth of the artificial into something like a natural ecosystem—but my thoughts on that are more of a stretch at present, so I didn't "go there". I'm sure we'll all have many years' worth of opinions on TITANE to sort through in the future, as it is just that provocative. As for Julia Ducournau, I'm dying to know what she'll do next, having reached this level in the space of two theatrically-released features. I don't know how you follow this act. I wouldn't blame her if she just retired.

[scorpionyx9621]

Do you think Jason Todd fandom is kinda toxic? Because it seems like NO MATTER what DC do, there'll always be complains. Forget the bad adaptation like Titans. Even Judd Winick cannot escape the criticism with how he potrayed Robin!Jason. They just never satisfied.

SORRY, IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO RESPOND TO THIS. I just moved from Washington D.C. to Seattle, which, for my non-American friends, that's 4442km away. And I DROVE THERE ALL BY MYSELF. And now I'm trying to find new work in a new city and trying to stay mentally healthy and positive. Life is exciting but hard and scary.

*sighs*

As someone who was a fandom elder with V*ltr*n. I've seen some of the worst when it comes to fandom behavior. I'm talking people baking food with shaving razors and trying to give them to the showrunners. I'm talking leaking major plot details and refusing to take it down unless they make their ship canon (I am looking at you, Kl*nce stans) For the most part, DC Comics has had a decades-long reputation of treating their fans like trash and not caring what they think so from what I've seen, we all just grumble and complain in our corners of the internet about how we don't like how X comic portrays Jason Todd.

The challenge with Jason Todd is that he's your clinical anti-hero, the batfamily's Draco in Leather Pants, he's a jerkass woobie, and on top of all of that, he's a Tumblr sexyman. It's a perfect storm for a very fun but frustrating character to be a fan of. It doesn't help that every writer decides to re-invent the wheel every time Jason comes up so his canon lore is confusing at best and inconsistent as a standard.

I guess starting with a general brief on who Jason is and what is uniform about him with every instance he's appeared in comics/media.

Grew up in a poor family in Gotham with a dad who was a petty-mid-level criminal, and a mother who dies of a drug overdose.

Survives on the street on his own by committing petty crimes and potentially even engaging in sexual acts to keep himself alive.

Is cornered by Batman and taken in after Dick Grayson quits/is fired

Becomes the second Robin, but is known for being the harsher, more brutal Robin.

Is killed by Joker after being tortured, but somehow comes back to life and regains senses through the Lazarus Pit

Resolves himself to be better than Batman by basically being Batman but kills people.

Where there has been a lot of conflict in the fandom is the fact that Jason Todd is not a character that is written consistently. DC Comics loves to go with the narrative that Jason was "bad from the start" and was the "bad robin" when, yes, he has trouble controlling his anger, but he also still is just as invested in seeing the best of Gotham City and trying to be a positive change for the world as any other DC Comics hero.

Where I get frustrated with the fandom is its ability to knit-pick every detail of a comic they don't like while completely disregarding everything that makes the comics great and worth it to read. My example being Urban Legends. To which most people had pretty mixed reactions to. I was critical of the comic at first but as it went along I ended up really liking it. I have a feeling DC Comics went to Chip Zdarsky and told him he had 6 issues to bring Jason back into the Bat Family, and honestly he didn't do a bad job. Did it feel rushed? Absolutely. I wish there was more development of Jason and Bruce's characters and their dynamic as a whole. However, where I see a lot of people being angry and upset with Urban Legends is that they feel Zdarsky needlessly wrote Jason as an incompetent fool who needs Bruce to save him.

Whether or not that was the intention of Zdarsky is up to debate. However, and this may be controversial, but I don't think he wrote Jason Todd out of character at all. For as fearsome, intimidating, and awesome as Red Hood is. Jason is a character who is absolutely driven by his emotions. Why do you think he donned the role of Red Hood? As a response to his anger towards The Joker for killing him, and towards Bruce for not taking action against The Joker and for seemingly replacing him so quickly after he died. Jason didn't care about being the murderous Robin Hood or for being the bloody hammer of justice against N*zi's and P*d*ph*les. He only cared originally about making The Joker and Bruce pay. It wasn't until he trained under the best assassins in the world and realized most of them were horrific criminals who trafficked children and were p*dos that Talia began to realize that the teachers that she sent Jason to train under started dying horrific and painful deaths.

The entire story of the Cheer story in Batman Urban Legends was started because it finally forced some consequences upon Jason. Tyler, aka Blue Hood's father was a drug dealer who gave his supply to his wife and kids. And when Tyler's father admitted he gave the drugs to Tyler, it immediately made him fall within the self-imposed philosophical kill-list of Jason Todd. And Jason, well, he proceeds to kill Tyler's father. When this happens, Jason is in shock. Tyler's dad fit the bill to easily and justifiably be killed by Jason. We've never seen Jason having to deal with the consequences of being a murderous vigilante on a micro-level. When Jason realizes what he's done in that he's murdered Tyler's dad, he's shocked. He tells Babs the truth. He does a rational thing because he's in shock. He doesn't know what to do, he never has had to face the consequences of his actions as Red Hood and now the gravity of befriending a child as a vigilante hero who kills people just set in when he killed the father of the same child he was just introduced to.

(Oh here's a little aside because it had to be said, Jason would not have been a good father or a good mentor to Tyler and absolutely should not have been his new Robin. Jason is a man who is in his early 20's (not saying men in their early 20's can't be good fathers at all) who is a brutal serial killer using the guise of a vigilante anti-hero to let him escape most of the law. the complications of having the man who murdered your father adopt you and make you his sidekick are way too numerous for me to explain in a long-winded already heavy Tumblr essay post. There's a reason why we don't advocate for a story where Joe Chill adopted Bruce Wayne or one where Tony Zucco took in Dick Grayson.)

The next biggest argument is that they feel that Jason is giving up his guns as a means to just be invited back into the Bat-Family. To which I will tell anyone who has that argument to go actually read Urban Legends. Already have and still have that argument? Please re-read it. Don't want to? That's okay, I will paste the images from the comic where Jason specifically says that he doesn't want to give up his weapons for Bruce and his real reasoning down below since the comic isn't exactly readily accessible.

Jason gave up the guns because he felt the gravity of what he had done and knows how it'll effect Tyler. Thankfully his mom is alive and in recovery. But Tyler doesn't have a father anymore. And Jason killed Tyler's father. It may have been in accordance to Jason's philosophy, but it was a case where it blurred the lines. Jason Todd isn't a black and white character, just very dark gray. He doesn't kill aimlessly like the Joker. If you are on Jason's list you probably have done something pretty horrific, and also just in general, being in his way or being a threat to him. Mind you, in early days of Red Hood and the Outlaws (Image below) Jason almost killed 10 innocent civilians in a town in Colorado all because they saw him kill a monster. That being said, Jason isn't aimless in his kills.

(Also can we just take a moment to appreciate Kenneth Rocafort's art? DC Comics said we need to rehabilitate Jason Todd's image and Kenneth Rocafort said hold my beer: It's so SO GOOD)

That being said, the key emphasis in the story of Cheer asides from trying to introduce Jason Todd back into the Bat Family and give an actual purpose for him being there, other than him just kind of being there ala Bowser every time he shows up for Go Kart racing, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, and the Olympic games when Mario invites him, is that Jason and Bruce ultimately both want the same thing. Jason wants to be welcomed back into the family and to be loved and appreciated. Bruce want's Jason back as his son and wants to love and protect Jason. Both of these visions are shown in the last chapter of Cheer while under the effect of the Cheer Gas. It's ultimately this love and appreciation they both have for each other that helps them overcome their challenge and win.

Jason Todd is a character who, just like Bruce, has been through so much pain and so much hate in his life. The two are meant to parallel each other. While Bruce chose to see the best in everyone, giving every rogue in his gallery the option to be helped and give them a second chance, hence why he never kills, Jason has a similar view on wanting to protect the public, but he understands that some crimes are so heinous they cannot be forgiven, or that some habitual criminals are due to stay habitual criminals, and need to be put down. But at the end of the day, the two of them both try to protect people in their own ways.

I am aware that through the writings of various DC Comics authors such as Scott Lobdell and Judd Winick, the two have had a very tumultuous relationship. And rightfully so, I am by no means saying that Scott Lobdell writing an arc where Bruce literally beats Jason to within an inch of his life in Red Hood and the Outlaws, nor Judd Winick's interpretation of Under the Red Hood where Bruce throws the Batarang at Jason's neck, slicing his throat and leaving him ambiguously for dead at the end of the comic is appropriate considering DC Comics seems to be trying everything they can to integrate Jason back into the family. That being said, a lot of these writings have shaped the narrative of Jason and Bruce's relationship and have an integral effect on the way the fandom views the two. It doesn't help that Zdarsky acknowledged Lobdell's life-beating of Jason by Bruce at the very end of Cheer by having Bruce give Jason his old outfit back as a means of mending the fence between the two of them. That does complicate a lot of things in terms of how they are viewed by the fandom and helps to cause an even greater divide between the two.

Regardless, I want to emphasize the fact that Jason Todd is a part of the family of his own accord. Yes, he's quite snarky and deadpan in almost every encounter. However, Jason is absolutely a part of the family and has been for a while of his own will. There's a great moment in Detective Comics that emphasizes this. Jason cares about his family because it is his found family. Yes, they may be warry about him and use him as a punching back and/or heckle him. At the end of the day, we're debating the family dynamics of a fictional playboy billionaire vigilante whose kleptomania took the form of adopting troubled children and turning them into vigilante heroes. Jason Todd wants a family that will love and support him. This is a key definition of his character at its most basic. This was proven during the events of Cheer and is being reenforced by DC Comics every time they get the opportunity to do so.

Now, none of this is to say that I hate Judd Winick. I do not, I don't like the fact that in all of his writings of Jason, he just writes him as a dangerous psychopath, and Winick himself admits to seeing Jason as nothing much more than a psychopath. Yet Winick is the one who the majority of the fandom clings to as the one true good writer of Jason Todd because 'Jason was competent, dangerous, smart' Listen, friends, Jason is all of that and I will never deny it. However, what I love about Jason isn't that he's dangerously smart of that writers either write him as angsty angry Tumblr sexyman bait or that they write him as an infantile man child with a gun. There's a large contention of this fandom that has an obsession with Jason Todd being this vigilante gunman who is hot and sexy and while I definitely get the appeal. It is very creepy and downright disturbing that all of you hyperfixate on his use of guns and ability to be a murderer. It is creepy and I'm not necessarily here for it.

What I love about Jason Todd is that despite all of the pain, all of the heartache, all of the betrayal, and bullying, and death, and anguish. Jason Todd is one of the most loving and supportive characters in all of DC Comics. Jason has been through so much in his life, but he still chooses to love. He still chooses to see the bright side in people. Yes, he takes a utilitarian approach and chooses to kill certain villains, but at the end of the day he wants to see a better world, and he wants to be loved. It takes so much courage and so much heart to learn to love again after one has been abused or traumatized. I would not blame Jason at all if he said fuck it and just went full solo and vigilante evil. He has every right to, but he still chooses to be with the Bat Family of his own accord. That's something that I see a lot of in myself. I have been through a lot of trauma and yet I try to be a better person myself in any way that I can. It is extremely admirable of Jason to allow love back into his heart when he really doesn't need to. He kills and he protects because he has this love of society. It may have been shaped by anger and hatred, but Jason has found his place amongst people who love him and value him. I think Ducra, from Red Hood and the Outlaws put it best in the image given below.

To end this tangent, I love Jason Todd and all of his sexy dangerousness, but it's far more than that. As much as Jason may be dangerous and snarky, he loves his family without a shadow of a doubt. I look up to Jason Todd because despite all of his pain and all of his trauma, he still choses to love. Jason Todd is a character who is someone I love because despite all of his flaws and having a very toxic fandom, he still serves as a character filled with so much heart and so much passion. I wish more writers would understand that. But for now I will live with what I have. Even though the fandom may be vocal about it's hatred for his characterization, I choose to love Jason regardless because he is a character who chooses love and acceptance regardless of his pain. Jason Todd is by no means a good person in any sense of the word. He has easily killed upwards of 100 people by now. He is a character who is flawed and complex but ultimately is one who powers forwards and finds love and heart in a place from so much pain and anguish. That is what I love about Jason Todd. After all, to quote a famous undead robot superhero, "What is grief, if not love persevering?" Jason Todd chooses to love despite all of the trauma and pain and grief. Yes, he is hardened in his exterior, but inside there is a man with a lot of love to give and someone who deserves the world in my eyes.

[spaceskam]

inspired by a fic that i cannot find and therefore i feel I hallucinated. also apparently ballsy enough to post this when notifications are in hell 

Summary: Different things that happen within the year after Max died. 

warning: a lot of sad. happy ending though

ao3

Alex left Roswell two days after Max died.

“Please, please don’t leave,” Michael had begged him, “We need you. Maria and Liz–they need you. I need you.”

Alex had grabbed his cheeks and smiled all sad and beautiful. He’d kissed him and it felt like a goodbye. Michael didn’t try to stop the sob that cracked through his chest and left him aching.

“Is it because I kissed Maria? It wasn’t anything, I swear, I was just–”

“Michael,” Alex said softly, but stern. Michael whimpered at the sound of his name, rolling his forehead against Alex’s collarbone. “This is something I have to do to keep you and your family safe. I’m not angry at you.”

“I don’t want to be safe without you,” Michael whispered, crying harder and clutching tighter.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Alex,” Michael whined one last time, “I need you to stay with me. I can’t do this without you.”

“I’ll come home, I promise.”

“When?”

Alex didn’t give him an answer.

Isobel left Roswell one week after Max died.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Michael yelled, glaring with a level of anger he’d never been able to find for Isobel before.

“I need to get out of this hell hole, Michael!” she screamed back, face red with rage.

“Max is fucking dead! You’re just going to leave me to pick up the fucking pieces?! You’re not going to help?!” Michael followed her out to her car, still shouting at her regardless of what sort of scene they might’ve been causing. Fuck this. Absolutely fuck it.

“My husband was an abusive serial killer and my brother is dead! I need to get away from it!” she told him, slamming the door to the backseat.

“Are you gonna come back and help me?! Are you expecting me to just fucking fix shit?!”

“This isn’t about you, Michael!” she spat, shaking her head, “I’ll come back eventually, I need to get away from this!”

“When are you coming back then, huh?! When are you going to help?!”

“I don’t know!”

She drove off without saying goodbye.

Maria separated herself two weeks after Max died.

“Maria, forget about me and everything, Liz needs you right now.”

“And where was she when I needed her?”

Michael gulped and bowed his head. His hands were shaking, desperate to hold onto someone that he still could. Maria couldn’t run away from Roswell like the rest. He thought that meant he had a chance to try. Yet, even she was done.

“She’s sorry about that, we both are,” Michael insisted, “We’re sorry about everything.”

“You all lied to me about everything, Guerin, for decades,” she said. It wasn’t even bitchy, so he couldn’t even find the right words to defend himself. And, when he tried, she didn’t even let him get past opening his mouth. “Withholding the truth is the same as lying when it comes to this.”

“I know,” he sighed, slumping down further, “It’s just, Liz needs someone.”

“And she has you,” Maria said. When he got up the courage to look at her, he tried to look even more pathetic than he felt. He already felt pretty pathetic.

“You really gonna cut us off completely?”

Maria held her head up high.

“I have to do what’s right for me.”

She kept her word.

Kyle… tried.

“I can, uh, bring that heart monitor over when I get off, but I get off at five in the morning,” Kyle said, his voice muffled. There was something horrifically annoying about a man who worked 80 hours a week.

“Nah, it’s whatever,” Michael grumbled, shuffling the grocery bags from one hand to the other as he tried to make sure he had what he needed. He and Liz were pulling an allnighter in the cave again. “It’s not like we’re doing anything important or anything.”

“Hey, I’m trying,” Kyle argued. Which, he was. But trying was hearing from him maybe once a week. “Also, I’m flying out to search shit with Alex on my day off this weekend, I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“You still talk to Alex?” Michael asked, feeling his heart ache all over again.

“Yeah, dude.”

“Cool, glad the resurrection of my brother is less important than anything else.”

“It wouldn’t be if he wasn’t such a jackass.”

Kyle kept in touch when he could. He helped when he could. It just wasn’t enough.

Liz showed up at the airstream at three AM two months after Max died.

“Mikey?”

Michael opened his eyes and looked up to the crying girl that had come to him in the middle of the night. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary for them to spend nights together, usually falling asleep in bunkers or labs after going 48 hours on nothing but energy drinks. They no longer had anyone to police them, leaving it to just be them two against the world.

Only, tonight was a little different.

Liz hadn’t cried since Max died. He wasn’t sure if it was denial or anger or what, but he’d liked that she was the only one who hadn’t fled. He didn’t like seeing her cry though, so he opened his arms and let her crawl up against him. It only made sense when she told him she was pregnant.

Michael considered breaking down then, considered screaming and cursing a God he didn’t believe in about why the hell they were being thrown another fucking curveball. Why, after everything, was this happening to them? He wanted to let himself break.

However, crying hadn’t made Alex stay. Anger hadn’t made Isobel come home. Guilt-tripping didn’t make Maria stick around. Being passive-aggressive didn’t make Kyle help. None of those would work now.

Instead, he chose to be strong. That seemed like the only option left. Nothing else worked and, at this point, they were all they had. So Michael didn’t cry. He held her close and stroked her hair and promised her that they would figure it out. They had this.

Michael held her as she cried and he held her when she slept. He held her when she profusely apologized for being so dramatic and he held her for a little while longer after that. They didn’t really budge for at least 24 hours. It was the most either of them had slept in months.

“Have you thought about what you want to do?” Michael asked her at some point the following night. It was so dark he couldn’t see her face, but he could feel her breathing against his shoulder.

“I’m weighing my options,” Liz admitted, her voice softer than it had ever been before. “On one hand, this is the actual worst time to have a baby. On the other hand, it… it’s Max’s. It’s what I have of Max. It feels wrong to terminate given the circumstances. And, and I know he’d be so, so angry when he woke up.”

“Yeah, he probably would be,” Micahel agreed. He tried to steer away from politics when it came to Max, but he could assume the way he felt about that.

“But then I remembered it’s my fucking body,” Liz said in a way that sounded a lot more Liz than she had since she came to him the night prior. He smiled.

“Also very true.”

“And then I’m left with the thought that I have no idea what the difference between a human embryo and an alien embryo looks like. What if it’s noticeably different? What if I go to get an abortion and they get freaked out and then I get turned into a science experiment?” Liz rambled quietly. He rubbed her arm and tried not to think about how terrifying that was. It would be scary at any point in time, but it was particularly scary when she was the only thing keeping him alive.

“We could get Kyle to do an ultrasound,” Michael suggested, “See if the difference is. And you’re, what, eight weeks along? You have a little bit of time to decide.”

“Yeah,” Liz sighed, nodding her head, “I just know I can’t give it up for adoption. I can’t put another child who might have powers, might not, into a situation like that.” Michael didn’t say ‘thank you’ but he thought about it.

“Whatever you do decide on, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Thank you, Mikey.”

Liz decided to go through with it three months after Max died.

Michael watched her like a hawk.

Kyle did what he could to watch her, but it was mostly Michael. His focus pretty quickly shifted from reviving Max to making sure Liz was okay. As she crossed over into her second trimester, things began to get a little more worrisome. While the baby looked like a normal fetus and seemed to be growing like one, it was affecting Liz worse than it should’ve.

Normal pregnancy cravings became something intolerable. She couldn’t ever figure out what she wanted so badly and Michael had it in the back of his head that maybe it was nothing she could find on Earth. For a week or two, she became really attracted to the smell of acetone and Michael almost had a heart attack. The cravings would bother her, distract her, and some days she would sit in the corner of the bunker and just cry her frustrations out. Neither of them got much done on those days.

Even then, that felt like the easy part. She would get dizzy multiple times a day and she would get sick even more than that. While they tried to convince themselves it was normal, there was still the fact that it never seemed to stop. Worst of all, it was paired with pains. Liz had originally compared them to period cramps, but they progressively got more and more vicious with time. Some days she couldn’t get out of bed. At some point, she was unable to get out of bed anymore at all.

Michael moved in with her at that stage of things. They got a tiny one-bedroom apartment and slept in the same bed. She would wake him when she needed him and he never minded. She was what he had left and she was ill. He was going to do what she needed.

Each day, she looked worse. She stopped gaining any weight once she hit her third trimester, rather appearing to almost lose it instead. Her face was pale and she would sweat all day and night, consumed with hot flashes that left her a shaking and sweating mess. She was weak and she was in pain and she was hardly even Liz anymore.

“We need to do something,” Michael said, his voice leaving no room for argument. Kyle was coming by to do his weekly checkup and even he was struggling to hide his worry on how bad she was doing. “This isn’t okay, this is going to kill her.”

When Kyle didn’t deny that, it made things ungodly worse.

“What is making her sick, Kyle? What do we need to do?” Michael demanded, “Is the baby even still alive? Is it, like, infecting her or something?”

“Michael, I don’t know what-”

“Well, you need to know!” he snapped, “Liz needs to survive. You’re going to figure out what is happening and if you can’t, then I’m risking bringing her to an actual fucking doctor.”

He went back into the room to find Liz already asleep, her face almost as white as the sheets. It made him feel sick. He crawled up behind her and pulled her hair away from her neck and face, balling it up at the top of her head. He laid with her and tried his best to will her survival into existence.

At this point in time, he had decided he didn’t need anyone but Liz to survive. She was the only one that wasn’t going to leave and he wasn’t going to leave her. And that meant making sure she was okay.

Kyle returned a few days later and said a C-section was the best option.

Ileana Paloma Rosa Ortecho-Evans was born seven and a half months after Max died.

She was tiny.

Michael didn’t really know how to process just how tiny she was. She was the perfect size to fit in his palms and that’s all that was needed. He felt almost unworthy to hold her. Yet, he was the first one outside of Kyle who was allowed to.

He had looked her over extensively and, somehow, she was fine. He’d explained that usually babies born that early had issues breathing at the least, especially when they were that small, but she seemed to be fine. Because they didn’t want any other doctor or nurse looking at her too hard just in case, he gave Michael the assignment to watch her and alert him if he noticed any issues at all. He took it like it was the most important job in the world. And, honestly, it was.

She fit in the crook of his arm perfectly‒it helped that she wasn’t even the length of his forearm. He moved slowly back into the hospital room where Liz was still sound asleep. Already, she looked better. Color was coming back to her cheeks. Arturto sat beside her.

“I bet she’s excited to go back to work once she heals,” Artutro said. He didn’t ask to see the baby and Michael wondered if it was because he was just so focused on making sure his baby was alright.

“Yeah,” Michael confirmed, “She is.”

“And you’re going to help her?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” Michael said without hesitation, gulping softly as the baby in his arm wrapped her hand around his finger. She held on tight. “I’m not going anywhere, I swear.” He wasn’t like everyone else.

Arturo nodded and kissed the back of Liz’ hand. “Thank you.”

When Liz woke up and got the first glimpse at her daughter, they both smiled for the first time in a long time. She was still weak from her surgery, but she managed to sit up a little and he sat beside her as she held her baby. It looked right.

“She’s so little,” Liz gushed, sniffling as tears brimmed her eyes. It didn’t even phase Michael anymore. He’d seen her cry so many times now that it was almost just apart of things.

“I know,” Michael said, smiling over her shoulder at Iliana. Her head was a little big and her eyes were even bigger and her skin wasn’t exactly a pleasing color, but, fuck, she was theirs. He couldn’t call her cute, but it took no time to fall in love with her.

Liz leaned into him and relaxed, breathing slow and steady. They both just stared at her for awhile. She was hard not to look at. All Liz’s suffering had ended in a person. It seemed unreal. Well, then again, everything in the last few months had seemed unreal.

“I wish Max was here,” Liz whispered to him a little bit later. Michael chewed on his lip.

“I know,” he said. What he didn’t say was ‘I do too’ or ‘I wish Alex was here’ or ‘I wonder if Isobel would want to meet her niece’ or ‘do you think Maria knows you had a baby?’ because none of those felt like comforting statements. They weren’t comforting statements. They were the ones he thought about non-stop though.

His body ached for the people he’d lost, but he hoped one day he wouldn’t care anymore.

Days passed, though, and things just went back to the way they were. Well, not really. They had a baby now. Iliana slept in a bassinet less than a foot away from Liz’s side of the bed, perfect reaching distance for her even on the nights that Michael was on baby duty.

Occasionally, Michael would lay in bed and wonder if he was doing the right thing. That dark little voice in his head said that he was too happy on some days and that he had forgotten about Max and that he had merely stepped into his shoes. However, then he’d look over to Liz’s determined face and he’d feel like he was going to be alright. Liz was his lifeline.

And, with time, Liz got back to her old self. She was walking around and holding conversations and outsmarting him. It felt like she’d finally come home and he couldn’t have been more thankful. Kyle slowly began to withdraw again once he was no longer needed, but it was alright. They had each other and a baby to focus on.

They were too busy with working and adjusting to parenthood that they couldn’t focus on reviving Max, but, somehow, they were remembering how to be happy.

“Ay dios mio, Mikey, look at that face, she is mean-mugging you,” Liz said as she held the month old baby while Michael shook up her bottle. He laughed at the little glare on her face that seemed to resemble the Ortecho sisters more and more each day, pressing a kiss to her head before handing Liz the bottle.

“You’re going back to work tomorrow,” he pointed out, watching her features morph into a broad smile, “You excited?”

“Listen, I love this, I love her, and I love spending all my time with you,” Liz promised, following it up with a sigh, “But I am so ready. Even if it is just imaging at the hospital, I’m here for it. I need something to do. Also I’m tired of living off a mechanics salary, no offense.”

Michael snorted, “None taken.”

“And you,” Liz prodded, kicking him lightly, “How are you?”

“I’m good.”

“Are you?” she asked, eyeing him, “Have you talked to Alex or Isobel recently?” Liz knew everything, every last detail about basically everything that had ever happened. She knew how he felt about Alex and she knew how badly he missed Isobel. However, she also told him he shouldn’t have taken a step away from Alex whenever he felt like he was crashing. She’d told him that was what scared her about her feelings for Max, but it turns out all she needed to do was to give in.

And Michael really was ready to give in.

“Nah, but it’s okay, they made their choice,” Michael said, brushing it off. He wasn’t angry at Alex‒Alex had left for a good cause and his lack of keeping in touch made sense. He was, however, unimaginably pissed at Isobel for dropping off the face of the earth.

“Okay,” Liz said, “You know you can vent to me if you need to.”

“I know, Lizzie.”

She smiled and scrunched up her nose adorably at him.

They went to bed shockingly early that night. Iliana went down at 8 and they were dead asleep before the clock hit 8:30. Michael had taken off the following day so that Liz could enjoy her first day at work without stressing which meant he was also on baby duty, so it meant he couldn’t bring himself to regret going to bed so early.

However, he still had to be kicked awake when Iliana woke up a few minutes shy of midnight.

“Mikey,” Liz groaned, kicking him not too unlike a child, “Your turn.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he breathed, dragging himself out of bed and going to pick up Iliana and take her into the living room to get her a bottle.

He shushed her softly as he held her to his bare chest with one hand, rubbing his eye with the other one. He flicked the lightswitch on and that seemed to assure her even more that she was going to be fed and she slowly quieted down more. He used his telekinesis to make her bottle which Liz had been vocally jealous of even if he used it to help her all the time.

“You know, you’re really lucky you have Uncle Mikey instead of your daddy on nights like this,” Michael said between a yawn, “‘Cause he used to lose it when I woke him up. Now, he’d probably be a whole lot nicer to you, but I’m just saying.”

He’d barely finished making her bottle whenever there was a knock on the door.

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the clock, seeing it glaring a bright green 12:04 on it. There was actually no reason for anyone to be at their door this last. Michael did his best to keep his heartbeat still as he walked towards the door and looked through the peephole.

Alex returned to Roswell nine months after Max died.

Michael felt like he was hallucinating.

He opened the door carefully, regulating his breathing and trying not to jump to conclusions about what exactly was happening. Still, when the door was open, it was really Alex. His hair was longer and he was dressed in a way that screamed Alex. He had a nose ring again‒this time it was a stud on the side rather than septum, but still. He looked phenomenal. It took everything in him not to attack him in kisses.

“Hi,” Michael said softly. It took him a few seconds to realize that Alex’s eyes were trained on the baby he was feeding and then it took a couple seconds more to put together that he was probably jumping to conclusions. He left Michael when he was a mess and he returned to see him shirtless with a baby.

“Should I g‒”

“She’s Liz’s,” Micahel clarified. Alex’s eyes got impossibly wide.

“You and Liz‒”

“No! No,” he laughed, his hands shaking enough to get milk on Iliana’s cheek, “Max.”

Alex’s eyes formed sad realization and nodded. Then they just stared at each other for a minute. This didn’t feel real. Michael had been adjusting to a life with no one except for Liz and Iliana and it was weird to welcome someone home. But, god, it felt good to see Alex.

“Come in,” Michael said after a moment. Alex smiled and walked in, looking around.

“When Kyle said you got an apartment, I was impressed,” Alex said, “But now that I see you’re just staying with Liz it makes more sense.”

“Well, we live together, like, permanently,” Michael explained, sitting on the couch and adjusting the bottle in Iliana’s mouth.

“Oh?” Alex asked, sitting on the other side. Michael nodded and then gestured towards the baby. “Is she showing any signs of getting alien abilities or anything?”

“Not yet,” Michael said, eyes drifting off of Alex and down to the baby in his arms. She was still so small. “But Liz had a really horrible pregnancy and I think it was because she’s not completely human. I was reading, like, a ton of research on pregnancies and stuff and I think that her body was registering the baby as, like, a parasite and was sending antibodies to try and kill it which, then, made Liz extremely sick. We don’t know for sure or anything, but that’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Fuck, that’s horrible,” Alex said, “She’s okay now though, right?”

“Yeah,” Michael confirmed, looking up to him with a smile, “She’s asleep though. She goes back to work tomorrow, though. Hope everyone’s ready for Iliana spending a whole lot more time with Papi Arturo.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think about that, how did he take everything with Max?” Alex asked, voice hushed. Everyone in Roswell was under the assumption that Max had just up and left. Arturo wasn’t any different.

“Fine, not like Liz really gave him an option to feel any other way. She basically just went up to him and was like ‘I’m pregnant and I’m keeping it and that’s all I have to say on the matter’. He hasn’t mentioned Max.”

“Man, it’s gonna real suck for him if you guys bring him back,” Alex laughed.

Things fell silent again as they just stared. It only broke when Michael propped Iliana on his shoulder to burp her and Alex seemed to remember he had other stuff to talk about. There was a million things to talk about. Michael didn’t even know where to start.

“So, uh, how is everyone? Isobel, Maria, Kyle, I guess,” Alex laughed. Michael couldn’t even manage a smile.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly, “Isobel left not long after you and hasn’t kept in touch, Maria cut everyone off, and Kyle is just off being Kyle, I guess. It’s basically just been me and Liz.”

Alex frowned, “I didn’t know that.”

“You missed a lot,” Michael said softly.

“I missed you,” Alex blurted out and Michael couldn’t take his eyes away, “Seriously, I missed you so much it hurt. I didn’t know I could ever miss you as much as I did when I was at literal war, but, fuck, I did. If you weren’t holding a baby right now, I would probably kiss you until I couldn’t breathe.” Michael smiled wildly, his cheeks heating up and his heart thudding. It was the best thing he’d ever fucking heard. “Sorry if that was too straight forward, but I’m so tired of wasting time. I miss you.”

“I missed you too,” Michael agreed, suddenly extremely eager to go put Iliana back to bed and make Liz take over, “But you probably shouldn’t make me want to put the baby down. She doesn’t really accept not being held until she’s asleep.”

Alex chuckled, “You guys don’t just let her cry?”

“Fuck no,” Michael said, “I don’t want her to ever think we’re not there.” Alex nodded with the same big smile.

“What’s her name?” he asked, leaning closer to get a look at her, “God, she looks like Liz.” Michael could smell his cologne.

“Iliana,” he answered, nodding his agreement.

“That’s really pretty.”

“I know.”

“Can I hold you?” Alex asked her in a baby voice that Michael had never heard. It struck him to his core and he suddenly felt lightheaded. Michael slowly passed her into his arms.

Alex looked good with a baby. It was annoyingly attractive and Michael wondered if he even would’ve noticed that before Iliana was born. He didn’t remember ever finding someone’s maternal or paternal skills inherently attractive before, but seeing Alex rock her to sleep felt like the sexiest thing that had ever happened.

“Have you guys been working on bringing Max back?” he asked. Michael felt that attraction immediately bleed into guilt.

“Not recently. We’ve been just so focused on her.”

“That makes sense.”

Once she was asleep, Michael promised Alex that he’d be right back out. He placed Iliana on his side of the bed and created a pillow wall around her. He spared a look at Liz too and saw her out like a light. He wondered if she would be happy to see Alex in the morning. He hoped so.

When Michael came back out of the room, he found Alex only a few steps away. He looked serious and his face was illuminated by the bright kitchen lights. Michael hesitantly stepped closer.

“Are you home for good?” he asked. Alex touched him first, grabbing his arms and pulling him in close.

“Yes,” he said, “I’m home for good and I want us to work. I’ve missed you so fucking much, Michael. You don’t know.”

“We need to talk.”

“We will.”

Alex closed the space completely, kissing him like he was coming up for air. Michael kissed him back just as feverently, leading him back to the couch. He was reminded that, while he could survive with only Liz, he was never really living until he had Alex.

Maria listened to them ten months after Max died.

Liz and Michael had both gone to her bar before they opened and decided no wasn’t an answer. Except it made it a lot easier whenever Maria smile at the sight of them.

“Long time no see,” she mused. They both look at each other like they were waiting for the catch. “Look, I can’t hold a grudge that long. Well, I can, but it’s not healthy. I was just waiting for you guys to come see me. I gotta admit, I’m a little annoyed it’s taken so long but I’m glad to see you.”

“I know it’s not really an excuse, but I had a baby and I really lost track of time,” Liz said. Maria’s whole face transformed and she was on the other side of the bar in an instant.

“What? Oh my god, I didn’t know,” she gushed, hugging Liz. Liz folded into her the way Michael had seen her do with Alex a month prior. He always seemed to forget that they were basically inseparable at one point.

“Before you guys delve into the Iliana talk, I wanted to apologize,” Michael said. Maria looked over Liz’s head at him, still not letting go. “I should’ve been completely honest with you and I also should’ve told you what was going on with Liz. I couldn’t do anything about everyone else separating from us, but I could’ve reached out to you. I fucked up multiple times and I’m sorry.”

Maria breathed slow and steady and smiled. “You’re forgiven.”

“That easy?”

“Well, you both are going to have to pull, like, a lot of the friendship weight for a little bit just so I know you’re serious, but I think we’ll be able to get back to good.” Maria assured. Michael closed his eyes in relief.

And he smiled.

Isobel came back to Roswell eleven months after Max died.

“Hi.”

Michael just stared at her. He had never felt so much negativity towards Isobel in his life. Unlike with Alex and Maria, he didn’t feel that urge to hug her and ignore the problem. Because she was the problem. Michael had always gone out of his way to be there for her and, when they needed her, she was gone. He knew she had her own things to deal with, but she should’ve come to him. They could’ve healed together. Instead she was a new level of selfish.

“How did you get my address?” Michael asked. Isobel flinched at his tone.

“Michael, I‒” She paused for a moment and then sighed. “I got it from Alex.”

Michael turned up his nose. He was going to have to talk to Alex about that. It’d been two months of being back together and they were doing good, but clearly he didn’t know when to keep his address a secret.

“What do you want?”

“To apologize,” she said, “I shouldn’t have left.”

“Damn right you shouldn’t have left,” he spat, “We needed you.”

“I know and I’m sorry! I just… I needed to escape,” she said. Michael scoffed, shaking his head. Like clockwork, Iliana started crying and left Michael having to deal with his sister wondering why there was a baby crying.

“None of your business,” he said, closing the door a little bit so she couldn’t investigate, “You didn’t want anything to do with me or anyone else, so it’s none of your business.”

“Michael, I told you I was going to come back, I just needed some time,” Isobel sighed, “You don’t know what I was going through.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t even give me a chance to try. I have always been there for you, Isobel, and you just treated me like shit. I didn’t deserve that from you,” Michael said erestly, shifting from foot to foot as he tried to tune out Iliana’s crying. He hated that sound. He just wanted to hold her all the time so she never cried. But he also didn’t want to give Isobel the gift of seeing her.

“No, you didn’t and I’m sorry. I will be paying that price for the rest of my life,” she said sternly. He almost believed her. “Why is there a baby crying? Did you get Maria pregnant?”

“None of your business.”

“Michael, please. Will you just give me a chance to make it up to you?” she begged. He huffed a laugh.

“Yeah, I might’ve if you would’ve come home after a couple of days. You’ve been gone almost an entire year. Fuck that. I don’t need this.”

“Michael! Listen to me,” Isobel said, tears in her eyes as she put her hand on the door. For a moment, she looked like his sister and not the girl who abandoned him. “I think I know how to bring Max back.”

He froze.

“I have spent the last year trying to get stronger and I have. I think I know how we can do this,” she said and his stomach turned. He wanted to turn her away, to tell her no, to say he didn’t need her help.

But the fact of the matter was there was a baby in the next room who might have a chance to know her father if Isobel was being honest.

“I’m listening.”

The next month was full of trying to work with Isobel and not scream about how angry he was. Alex helped. Every time he felt like he was going to explode, he would soothe him. Liz was the best at it though. She also wasn’t too happy with Isobel, but she had mastered the art of being completely passive aggressive and bitchy while also accepting help. It was fun to watch.

However, Isobel really did have a point. She had honed her powers in a way that even Michael hadn’t. She could do all sorts of stuff and she didn’t struggle too much. She helped Michael got to the point he could heal. And, one day, he actually hugged her goodbye.

“Are you gonna forgive her?” Liz asked as they climbed into bed that night. Michael sighed and shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he admitted honestly, “It feels like she’s really trying and it seems like she put her time away to good use, I just… There’s no reason why she couldn’t keep in touch.”

“I know, Mikey,” Liz said, patting his chest, “I support whatever decision you make.”

Michael stared at the ceiling for a long while, weighing all of the options that he had. It’d been one hell of a year and he was eager for a break, but it still seemed like there was major fuckery in the future. It didn’t seem like anything would ever end.

“Liz?” he asked in the darkness. He didn’t really expect an answer, but he got one anyway.

“Yeah?”

“If we do figure out how to bring Max back, what does that mean for us?” It wasn’t a secret that, if they were successful, there was no way they’d be able to continue on like they had been. They’d shared a bed for seven months now. Even now that Alex was home, Michael spent at least six nights a week in bed with Liz and Iliana. That wasn’t an option once Max was home. None of this was an option once Max came home.

That made him feel empty.

“I don’t know,” Liz replied honestly, scooting a little closer. She put her head on his arm and he just pulled her in all the way.

“I know she’s not my baby,” Michael whispered, “But I don’t want to go back to not taking care of her everyday. I don’t want to go back to not seeing you every day.”

Liz was quiet for a moment, her long eyelashes brushing against his shoulder each time she blinked.

“Maybe we can get like a three bedroom house,” Liz suggested softly, “One for me and Max, one for Illy, one for you and Alex. That could work, right?”

Michael huffed at the idea. “It’d have to be a big house to get either of them to agree.”

“True, but four paychecks‒we could do it.”

Michael sighed and nodded. He hoped they could do it.

And that hope extended to something greater whenever they stepped into the cave during the thunderstorm. Both Michael and Isobel were vibrating with a power-strengthening serum Liz had managed to concoct and they were about to try their hardest to get shit back to normal. Or, at least, normal for Roswell.

Alex kissed him good luck and Isobel gave a reassuring look. He decided he would give it a shot, even if they failed. He looked up to Liz last and saw her give him the biggest smile in the world. She believed in him. If no one else did, she did.

That seemed like the most important thing he’d ever had.

A year after Max Evans died, he took his first breath of life again.

[incorrectjorgejoestarquotes]

“JORGE JOESTAR”, Wikipedia + Google Translate edition, volume 2.

For example, the 4567 characters meet each other, the boss characters fight each other (time stand vs time stand), the ultimate life cars are revived, and so on. (Quite a company.) In 1900, 10-year-old George Joe Star, living on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, was struggling by Antonio Torres and sent a daily life to help his childhood friend Lisa Lisa. (Yep, he’s just sent the entirety of his daily life to help Elizabeth. That’s the Joe Star way for ya’!) A mysterious case of being killed occurs. (... I don’t even know, what to think about this) Detective 999 (Tsukumoduk) (Poor boy. At least he’ll now understand Dio, who was only called “D” and was miserable) George Joe Star, who lives in Nishiaki Town, Fukui Prefecture, meets with a boy 9999 who came from another world because he was able to unlock the code hidden in the murder of a closed room. (Sounds kinda like unlocking secret codes in games) In addition, a message from Yoshikage Kira sent a message saying, "If you get close to Morio-cho, you will kill it." (Kira’s message sends a message on it’s own, while Morio-cho decides to die for no better reason, than someone getting close to it) As it continued, 999,99 were found dead in Morio-cho the next morning. (... Quite the killcount.) Yacross House (Ya’, ain’t no ye ol’ Arrow Cross House!) Yasuhiro Hirose, Mysterious Nijimura, and the innumerable large number of Nijimura (The Nijimure family keeps getting bigger) Moriojima is covered with a transparent barrier, and cannot pass military missile attacks Outside detectives said, “Kira Yoshikage, calm down. We know you are not the culprit in the detective triple murder case. The true criminal may be trying to hunt down you in wet clothes. Could you consider cooperating in the investigation?' (The wet clothes saga continues) Nijimura and his colleagues prevent the townsmen from getting confused and hysterical, and at the gymnasium that causes mass burnt suicide. (What a nice gymnasium) Nijimura and his colleagues prevent the townsmen from getting confused and hysterical, and at the gymnasium that causes mass burnt suicide. (The town’s not better either) However, Kenton is killed and George is suspected as a suspect (Makes sense) The George criminal theory is an impossible crime The mafia boarded the town of Morio and began controlling the mayor and residents. (No opportunity wasted) Mafia Shiohana Hatsuryu calls the detective George and requests a detective to "find out the boss's diabolo." (Kinda ironic, given, who Giorno is here) Darlington tells George "Resuscitation of the Dead". What we did about Dio Brando and Stone Mask, and that my father and brother were obsessed with the delusion of resuscitating Kenton. (What a nice time to live) 300 zombie aviation units have launched a mainland attack on Britain. George and Lisa Lisa are all defeated in an aerial battle, and London is regained. (... Are they sure they didn’t completely misinterpret the results?) Butcharati says, "The bad guys who die are good. You don't have to figure out the truth of death." (Great words, Butcher-rati!) I have Giovana treating my wound. (Whom do you mean by “I”?!) The explanation of the stand was received, and with the help of dew, it was possible to see the stand and have a conversation in Japan. (M - Multitasking) In this place, Arrow Cross House, the mystery of the diabolo, Yoshikage, and 999 killings is to be solved. (The killcount stays awesome) When I was a kid, I had a timid personality. When I was a kid, I was bullied by Antonios and helped by Lisa Lisa. He became a friend of 9999 and gained experience as a detective assistant in his early teens. He is also very interested in airplanes and cars, and once he is an adult he becomes an excellent British military pilot. (The POV keeps jumping. Also, multiple Antionions? I think Torres wasn’t a skin zombie yet by this point.) Shortly after his birth, he was adopted and was adopted, and was adopted by the British Joe Star family in Fukui Prefecture and was named "George". (The holy adoption trinity, embodied in one boy. Maijo be happy) Received a message from "Yoshikage Kira" by name, and further killed 999, whom he met, in Moriomachi, leading to Moriomachi and becoming involved in a stranger case. (... I’ve thought serial killer detectives were a thing of the ID: INVADED) Kato Tsukumo 99 (Tsukumoduk Kato) (Poor boy.) The world has a meta- idea that it is a story, and I believe that by believing in Beyond, we must overcome our destiny as the protagonist. (Quite an optimistic outlook on life) In Chapter 1, I was aware that I was a detective and the protagonist of the story, but when I learned about unknown existences such as vampires and ripples, I was convinced that Beyond moved to George and became the protagonist. (The fourth walll just keeps getting broken) Seiryoin Ryusui 's JDC series ' famous detective " 9999 " has the same name as "Kato 9999 " in Maijo's past work " 999-Tsuku Moduuk- ", but it is set. And different people. I had been planning for 100 years in a canoe on the sea floor. (The coffin was too expensive, so, he had to do with canoe) . Elizabeth Strazzo Known as Lisa Lisa . George's one-year-old childhood friend. With a strong personality, he helped George, a bullied Antonio, in his childhood. He later married Ai Soai and has a son, Joseph Joe Star . Under the influence of the ripples of Jonathan Joe Star, he learned the basics of ripple breathing when he encountered a marine accident at an early age. (Wait... did Lisa Lisa transition at any point?) Penelope de la Rosa A younger girl than George, a person who was involved in a case that was resolved by 999 and George. In a nightmare, the clown forced him to murder a closed room, causing him to become a clown phobia. Later he worked in Elina's office and became a co-resident of the Joe Stars family. (Penelope too... also, murdering the closed room? And becoming the embodiment of clown phobia? AWESOME) Nijimura Mysterious (Nijimura wonder) Bad-looking student with left and right afro hairstyle. A high school boy with a fast-moving personality, and an enormous twin brother. The shirt and school run have the description " 10^64 ". I am chasing Yoshikage Kira who has gone missing. There is a character with the same surname in the fourth part of the original work. (Nijimura with afro. Cool) He has the appearance of a middle-aged man and can speak with his ego. (NYPD Blue speaks not with mouth or some Stand bullshit, but with ego. Awesome.) On Manhattan Island, I am motivated. (And nowhere else) Yuki Kachi, Cat Cat Nyan Nyan Nyan He had been killed in the Boyoyon cape and the Angelo rocks in the town of Duo. (Neko Neko too...) Lumbaba 12, lol curry (Lol) PocoRoco Triple Seven Astronaut of HG Wells. Black youth. Light staff Multiple stand. Carry out the given instructions. Goya Three Soundman Astronaut of HG Wells. A Native American bloody youth. "Soundman", which was said to be the real name of "Sandman" in the 7th part of the original work, is in the family name. Dune The body and sand are united. Bounce, not stand. Ability has a vision. (”I, Dune, have a vision!") Giorno Giovana / Shiohana Hatsuno Rino Executive of the Paschone family. Betrays the boss Diabolo and pursues his identity with his colleagues. It has a star-shaped bruises, although its history is unknown. Brno Bucharati (Vry intrsting mfioso) Narancha Gilga A mafia boy whose age is not so different from that of George. Shake the knife easily. Even simple calculations are wrong. (That... is correct) . Panna Cotta Fugo It seems to be a hallucination stand. (Well, at least Reimi won’t be only one of her kind anymore) Diabolo (common name) The boss of the Paschone family. He never reveals himself to his subordinates. I have been betrayed by Giorno and others and are being chased by them. Later discovered as a corpse at Arrow Cross House. Dio referred to him as "the son of a train robber," and was sucked into the blood as familiar. King Crimson Diaboro stand. You can skip the time for a few seconds. (Now Diaboro has become a familiar?) Dorcio chocolate Doctor. A person involved in drug trafficking and terrorism in the United States. Gaido is also taking a slaughter of civilian massacre by taking advantage of Giorno-led boss purge operation. (Dorcio expanded his influence to the USA? Cool) A man dressed like a bondage. A patient with chocolate, who has a psychiatric outpatient history. He is involved in the massacre of civilians with Chocolatata. Evil Dead Secco stand. It looks like a giant person. It has the ability to hide events that occur anywhere and make them imperceptible from a particular direction. (Chokolatata. I think I’m going to keep this one in mind. Also, Evil Dead got buffed, I see.) Cars [B] The ultimate life form born by a man on a pillar wearing a stone mask wearing Aja's red stone. Dangerous creatures that are strictly ordered by the United Nations to never approach the earth. After being thrown into space at the end of the battle with Joseph Joe Star, he wandered through space and arrived on Mars and settled in. He had previously communicated with Fannier Valentine of the United States (the previously mentioned fear was Tatezen), and returned to Earth with Fannier's death along with George, Nalancha and Pucci. By further learning the stand as the ultimate life form, it is possible to copy the stand ability of others (the ultimate is added to the stand name, and it is further strengthened). The Eyed Baroon Spacecraft HG Wells newly discovered Mars' third moon, or creature. A sphere with eyes, fangs and tentacles. Named by NASA. It is directly connected to the right hand of Cars on the surface of Mars, and a sphere with a diameter of 5 km floats in the sky 8 km above. I couldn't observe it from Earth because Cars was hiding it by moving against the rotation of Mars. As described above, it is a living body that extends from the body of Cars, and the inside is hollow and contains the body of the spacecraft Giotto. (UN ordered Kars never to reach Earth? Ha-ha-ha. Also, is he now just a simple Homo Sapiens, who wore an Aja mask on a pillar? And what’s the Tatezen?) Jonathan Joe Star [B] Jojo, the fifth generation detective George. He died together in 1889 in an attempt to prevent Dio's train robbery. Dio Brandow Joe Star [B] Adopted by the Joe Star family and Jonathan's brother-in-law. It is said that Jonathan died in a train robbery. (The family tree keeps getting weirder) Joseph Joe Star [B] The Joe Star family emigrated from the United States to Nishixiao Town in his time. He was the great-grandfather of the detective George, and was called "Joseph Grandfather". Died in 2010. He is a hero who once exiled the ultimate life cars. Honoring his grandfather Jonathan, he called Dio only "D" and said it horribly. (Dio still has no luck with names) The land is only one huge continent Panlandia, and the Japanese archipelago is attached to the eastern end. The ocean is Ocean The Ocean. (The ocean is Ocean The Ocean. Does it make a trinity?) Arrow Cross House A residence of Rohan Kishibe. A strange structure where the four tips of the cross are in the shape of an arrow. It was said that it was built without anyone's knowledge, it seemed to have been relocated from Sai Akatsuki-cho, or the shape had changed before I knew it. It was the scene of the 9999 killing case and the Yoshikage Kira & Diaboro killing cases. Remi Sugimoto, the stand, controls the building and space. The interior space embodies the tesselact structure, which is a conceptual figure because of the stand. (How did they manage to pile up 9999 corpses in there?) 14 words In July 1999, the fragments of the spacecraft Giotto crashed, the Pucci family became craters, and only the eldest son Enrico, who was out, escaped the difficulty. 14 words on the surface of the iron plate "spiral stairs" "beetle insects" "ruins town" "fig tarts" "beetle insects" "road to Dolorosa" "beetle insects" "singularity" "Giotto" "angel" "Hydrangea," "beetle," "singularity," "secret emperor," and "how to reach heaven" were written. Detective George experiences these 14 things through the story. Pucci, who accompanies George, also experiences these phenomena, and when all the conditions are met, a maid in heaven is born. ( @sophianightdreamer So that’s how this Touhou/JJBA crossover came to be...)

[fangirlxwritesx67]

No Lover Like A Hunter: Part One- As Many Times As You Want

There are not enough words to thank @thoughtslikeaminefield​ for the work she has done with me on this story. She calls it a beta read. I call it a transformative crash course in writing smutty fanfiction. She read and reread and pushed me and questioned me until I tore this series down and rewrote it from the heart outwards. She also made me the header graphic as a present. Seriously, if you are not reading her work, I cannot stress how much you should be. Thank you, hon.

Saving people, hunting things - the hunter’s life was a lonely business. The few friends Dean and Sam Winchester had were closer than family. Every so often, working a case, they crossed paths with someone they knew, someone else in the hunting business. Of all their fellow hunters, Jody Mills was a favorite. A kick ass sheriff at work, a firm but caring mom to her ragtag group of adopted girls, she was always a welcoming home.

This particular weekend, they had solved the case - a truck stop serial killer that turned out to be trafficking in black market parts for cannibalistic monsters. They had killed the monsters but not in time to save every victim. Bruised and tired, they returned to Jody's to clean up, eat and rest. Passing bowls of spaghetti and loaves of crusty garlic bread around the table, they teased one another and swapped stories. Wine flowed freely, and with it laughter.

After dinner was done and the dishes washed, the girls headed to their rooms. Jody, Dean, and Sam went to the living room with their glasses of wine to continue talking. A fire crackled in the fireplace, sending gentle flickers of light across the room. Comfortable and full, Sam couldn't help yawning. "Ready for bed, big guy?" Dean asked. Sam drew his hand across his eyes and nodded. The brothers said goodnight to each other, and Jody gave Sam a gentle squeeze before he trooped upstairs.

Jody settled back into the oversized armchair next to the fire, drawing her feet up beneath her. Dean sprawled on the couch, his feet up on the worn coffee table. Their voices got softer as they talked, their stories more personal. Dean found himself watching Jody as she talked. In the firelight,  she was radiant. Her high cheekbones and straight nose were striking in the shadows. The flames leapt in her dark grey eyes when she laughed and played in her messy hair, streaking the salt and pepper color with golden light. He had never seen her quite like this- so soft and desirable. Eventually, they settled into comfortable stillness.

Finally, Jody reached out and placed one hand on Dean's knee. Her touch sent a shiver straight to the core of him. "Dean," she whispered, her voice low. "Haven't you ever thought about us, about making this something… more?" Dean was caught off guard. Had his desire been that transparent? "Jody... I- I don’t know." Jody cupped his strong jaw in her hand. "Dean." Dean pushed her away, not unkindly. "Jody, we're friends, we're hunters! We're not-" "Lovers?” she asked. “But what better lover than a friend? And who knows a hunter's life like a hunter?"

Dean looked at Jody with newly appreciative eyes. The fire cast shadows over her high cheekbones and into the little crinkles gathered by her eyes. Her chin was set, but her lips were still full and soft. He could see her life story in her face - all her love and loss and courage. He knew her. He respected her. Could he love her, at least for tonight?

While Dean tried to gather his wayward thoughts, Jody waited. She had seen the man behind the handsome face. She had experienced first-hand the big heart that hid under his tough, ass-kicking bluster. She knew his story, too, knew things he had never shared with anyone else. She trusted him, wanted him. Before Dean could answer, doubt rose in Jody's mind. She began to second-guess herself: what if she had misread Dean? Jody thought of him as an equal, a friend and a safe place. Maybe he thought of her differently, as too old or undesirable. Maybe he didn't think of sex as something they could share. Hot shame crept up her cheeks.

"Dean, I'm sorry," she spluttered, standing up, "I thought we shared this feeling but now... now..." "No!" said Dean, reaching up quickly and taking her hands in both of his. "No, you don't understand, I want this, I want you! I never thought you saw me as more than just a friend! Jody, you are one of the most beautiful women I've ever met and-" his voice dropped to a growl. "I've dreamt about that ass since the first time I watched you turn and walk away."

Dean pulled her down to sit beside him and slid his hand up to cup her face, running his fingers over her cheekbones and into her hair. Her messy hair was surprisingly soft under his touch. Holding her face, Dean kissed her. Their first kiss was soft, and then grew deeper as they explored one another. The kisses quickly turned hot and passionate. They kissed until they were both out of breath. Jody pulled back and looked at Dean. Her dark eyes flashed with desire. "So we can do this, just this once?" Dean's eyes crinkled and he laughed delightedly. "Oh, Jody, baby, we can do this as many times as you want." He kissed her again and again, as Jody leaned into his strong embrace. Wrapped in his arms, she felt safe.

The fire began to burn low, and the room grew darker. Dean got up to get more wood on the fire. Jody took advantage of the moment to strip down. When Dean turned back around, his jaw dropped. Standing there in a only dark grey bra and black cotton panties, Jody felt suddenly vulnerable. "Dean," she asked, only half joking. "Are you disappointed?"

Dean's voice was husky and certain, "Disappointed? Hell no." He leaned back on the couch and reached for her, "You're magnificent, Jody, everything I dreamed of and more." Dean wrapped his arms around Jody's hips and then slid one hand slowly over her round ass and down her legs. She shivered under his touch. "And your legs, damn!" Dean kissed the stretch marks that ran in a line across her soft lower stomach. Then he began to kiss her right hip and down her thigh. When he planted a kiss on the outside of her knee, her knees buckled. Dean laughed as he caught her and laid her down gently on the couch. She trusted him so much, not to let her fall, not to let her down. Dean traced a line of kisses up the inside of her other leg, until his face rested between her thighs. "Jody," he murmured. "Take off your panties for me." The feeling of his words against her made her sigh with pleasure. She tilted her hips up and pushed her panties down so Dean could pull them down the length of her legs. They locked eyes, and in the firelight, Jody was luminous.

Finally, Dean spread her legs. He looked down at her wet, enticing pussy. Dean wanted her so very, very much, and lowered his face into her. This was not what Jody expected but very much what she wanted. She arched her back and pushed into him. His strong tongue quickly found her sweet spot. Jody moaned softly. Dean grinned. Jody could feel his pouty lips curl against her. Over and over, Dean's enthusiastic mouth brought Jody to the brink of climax and then backed off, every time pushing her higher. He wanted to take his time, making sure she was absolutely satisfied. Jody enjoyed every moment of his skillful efforts. Her legs trembled on Dean's shoulders and then tightened around him. She moaned, long and low and shuddering. Dean threw his head back and laughed, his wet lips curving with delight.

Once Jody could catch her breath, she held out one hand for Dean to pull her upright. She rested her head on his broad shoulder and nestled into the base of his neck. He turned his head to kiss her, his mouth open against her warm lips. Jody whispered, "Your turn now." Dean's mouth turned up on one side. "Oh, yes." Jody slipped her hand around Dean's waist and up under his layers of shirts. "Take your clothes off," she told him.

Dean stood up and peeled off shirt after shirt. Jody's eyes followed his movements appreciatively, trailing over his broad arms and muscled chest before dipping lower. Feeling her gaze, Dean gave his hips a sexy wiggle while he undid his belt. As he kicked away his jeans and underwear, Jody took a step towards him. She unclasped her dark grey bra, letting her soft warm breasts fall free.

For a long moment, they stood there in the warm firelight, taking in the sight of one another's body. Both of them were long and lean, in peak physical form. Both of them bore the marks of time, the scars of the hunting life. They knew each other well, but this was something entirely different.

Jody closed the space between them. Dean took her tightly in his arms. As they kissed, their hips ground together. It was rare for Dean to be with a woman who almost matched him in height. He cupped her ass, that amazing round ass. Jody felt his erection press hard against her thigh. She reached down to stroke him. My god, he was even bigger than he looked.

A moan escaped Dean's lips. "Dean, let's-" Jody began. "The couch?" he asked at the same time.

Jody shook her head. Turning to the couch, she pulled off a blanket and several pillows, tossing them to the floor. Dean knelt down, spreading out the blankets as he reached for his discarded jeans. He put on a condom in one swift motion as Jody settled down, lying comfortably on her back.

Dean leaned over her and took Jody's breasts in his hands. They were a grown woman's breasts, full and ripe in his hands. He kissed one and then the other, enjoying the weight and the velvety softness of her skin.

Dean had never seen Jody like this, bare and warm and soft. Her vulnerability was so appealing to him, he didn't want to wait any more. He moved over her, settling between her legs. He looked up to Jody's face and she nodded. That was all he needed.

He thrust into her and she gasped with delight. They moved their hips together, seeking a rhythm. Suddenly Jody felt a wave of toe-curling pleasure - Dean had hit her g-spot. She wrapped one strong leg over him to pull him close. "Yes, Dean, yes!" she gasped. She grabbed his ass as if she could press him even closer, as if they could disappear into one another. Their bodies ran together like a river, moving swift and hard. Jody let that river carry her to another orgasm. She threw back her head as the current of pleasure swept through her, like tumbling down a waterfall.

Dean bit his lip as he felt Jody shudder and gasp underneath him. That was all he needed to stop holding back. He groaned as he rode to his climax deep inside Jody.

Dean and Jody lay on the floor, facing one another. They gathered pillows and blankets around them until they were comfortable. The firelight played over their faces, warm and flickering. There were so many things that could have been said, but none of them needed to be spoken. They knew one another now like never before, inside and out.

Dean laid his hand on Jody's cheek, ruffling his fingertips through her thick cropped hair, and running his thumb along her swollen lower lip. They kissed once more, slow and tender. "Oh Jody," he murmured, "you beautiful, sexy, magnificent woman." Jody smiled just a little, her dark eyes warm and liquid. "There's no lover like a hunter, is there, Dean?"

...

Tag list: @tloveswriting​, @awesomesusiebstuff​, @idreamofplaid​

[tomeandflickcorner]

Umbrella Academy Rewatch 1x02

1x01

So last episode, we were introduced to the Hargreeves Siblings, Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus and Vanya, a group of young adults who were trained by their adoptive father, Reginald, as children to be a superhero team but had grown apart as they reached adulthood.  Upon the sudden death of Reginald, the estranged siblings were reunited for the funeral.  However, Luther, who had been the appointed leader of the group when they had been children, suspected foul play had been involved since Reginald’s signature monocle was missing.  But a bigger mystery appeared when, right before the funeral, Number 5, the long-lost member of the Hargreeves Siblings that had gone missing 17 years prior, suddenly reappears, explaining that he had gotten stuck in the future during a botched attempt at time travel.  Number 5 later confides to Vanya that, when he had been trapped in the future, he learned of an apocalyptic event that will effectively wipe out all human life on earth, and the date of this apocalyptic event will arrive in just over a week.

This episode kicks off with a flashback to the day Number 5 disappeared.  During dinnertime one evening, Number 5 grew impatient and insisted he was ready to test the limits of his power and attempt time travel.  But Reginald forbid it, stating he wasn’t ready, since time travel was a complected feat.  However, Number 5 brashly decided ‘I am too ready!’ and ran out to attempt time travel anyway.  This resulted in him jumping too far ahead in time, and he arrived in the future, where he was greeted by a post-apocalyptic world.  When he made it back to the location of the Umbrella Academy, he found the building had been reduced to burning ruins.  Number 5 then attempted to time travel back to his original timeline, only to find that he couldn’t.  He was stuck in the future.

It then cuts to where the last episode left off, with Number 5 finishing relating his story to Vanya.  Vanya pretty much admits that it’s a lot to take in.  But when Number 5 is about to leave, deciding that his sister is still to young to understand (because Number 5 is mentally a 58 year old man now), Vanya convinces him to stay for the night, saying that they just got him back and she doesn’t want to lose him again.  Number 5 relents and agrees to stay over.  But after Vanya heads off to bed, we see Number 5 is carrying a single glass eye with him.  And, after looking at it, he leaves the apartment.

Elsewhere in town, two shady looking people appear on the scene, checking into some seedy motel.  They introduce themselves as Hazel and Cha-Cha.  The woman, Cha-Cha, informs the desk clerk that there should have been a package waiting for them.  When Hazel and Cha-Cha make it up to their room at the motel, it’s revealed tat this package contains guns and a pair of masks.  As the pair converse, it’s revealed that they’re looking for Number 5.  Hazel also hides away the briefcase he was holding, ignoring Cha-Cha’s reminder that they were supposed to keep it with them at all times.

Meanwhile, a group of cops are investigating the scene at Griddy’s Donuts, where the gunmen had all been killed by Number 5 last episode.  The main cop, Detective Patch, interviews Agnes about what she saw.  In the process, Detective Patch learns that someone else had already questioned her about everything.  That other someone turns out to be Diego, and Detective Patch is not happy about it.  So, when she sees Diego is still on the scene, she angrily confronts him about talking to her witnesses.  It’s vaguely implied that Detective Patch and Diego have some sort of personal history, but whatever that was is clearly over now.  Now Detective Patch is just irritated at Diego for constantly trying to insert himself into police investigations, and she reminds him that he is not a cop.  Unbeknownst to the pair, Hazel and Cha-Cha are watching from the crowd of bystanders.

We then cut back to the Umbrella Academy, where Luther has just woken up.  As he makes his way down the vacant halls, he passes by one of the bedrooms, where he sees Alison has stuck around.  But she’s currently in the process of packing up to return home.  They proceed to have a chat, with Luther stating how strange it feels to be back there after spending the last four years on the moon.  He then asks Alison about her daughter, Claire.  Allison says that there are things she needs to do before she can see Claire again, but also tells Luther that she’d told her daughter all about her uncle, and that Claire would love to meet him one day.  However, Luther admits he cannot forget how Reginald's monocle is missing.  Allison begs him to not turn their father’s death into another mission, but her words don’t seem to sink in.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Pogo approaches Klaus, who has just woken up himself.  He informs him that some items from Reginald’s study have gone missing.  Particularly an ornate box.  The same box that Klaus had successfully made off with in the last episode.  While Pogo doesn’t directly accuse Klaus of the theft, tells him that, if the contents of the missing box were returned to Reginald’s office, the thief would be absolved of all consequences.  Which is a problem, since we see that Klaus had already sold the ornate box to a pawn shop for drug money while tossing the box’s contents (a bunch of papers and a leather-bound journal) into a random dumpster.

Now, I probably should mention this.  In this scene, it’s heavily implied that Klaus has a great difficulty in tuning out the voices of the dead, to the point where he can’t even sleep peacefully due to their endless wailing.  This does explain why he became a drug addict.  I guess it’s much easier for him to drown out all the voices when he’s high.  In that regard, you do have to feel bad for him.  Yeah, it’s clearly not a good thing that he’s always high on drugs.  But at the same time, can you completely blame him?

Anyway, getting back to the episode, Number 5 has traced the glass eye he’s carrying to some prosthetic limb manufacturing company.  He approaches the main desk, claiming he found the glass eye in a playground somewhere and that he wants to return the eye to its owner.  However, the man who works there, Mr. Biggs, states that, due to the laws pertaining to patient confidentiality, they can’t just give him the address of the glass eye’s owner.  Number 5 does not take this well, and pretty much threatens Mr. Biggs, only backing off when the receptionist calls for security.

At the police station, Detective Patch has decided to release Diego, with a warning that she’ll have him arrested for obstruction of justice if he ever sets foot on a crime scene again, also reminding him that he was thrown out of the police academy for a reason.  Diego isn’t the least bit repentant of his behavior, though, and urges Detective Patch to just forget about the whole bureaucratic red tape, inviting her to put her badge aside for one night and join him on the streets to really take down the bad guys.  To her credit, Detective Patch is not having it, insisting that the bureaucratic red tape is what helps them put the bad guys away in a court of law.  She also tells Diego that recess is over and it’s time for them to be adults.  All I can say is, props to her.  Especially in light of the current environment.  Though it’s probably only a matter of time before she relents on her stance. 

Luther, still not able to let the missing monocle go, heads out to the gym where Diego works as a custodian in exchange for exclusive access to the back room.  He makes his way into Diego’s room.  Of course, Diego isn’t there, as he’s still detained at the police station at this point, but Luther sticks around until he returns.  When Diego does show up, Luther informs him that he’s determined that Diego has an airtight alibi for the time of Reginald’s death, as he (Diego) was in the boxing ring at the time of the death.  So Luther no longer suspects Diego.  Although, Diego is still a bit put out that his brother even suspected him in the first place.

While this is going on, Vanya returns to the Umbrella Academy to find Number 5.  She locates him in his old bedroom and apologizes for being so dismissive of his story.  Number 5, in turn, apologizes for leaving without saying goodbye.  In the end, Vanya admits she might have not been the best person to talk to about all this.  And it seems that Number 5 agrees, because once she leaves, Klaus emerges from his hiding place in the closet.  It turns out that Number 5 is recruiting Klaus to help him get the information about the identity of the glass eye’s owner.  This proves to be a good call, as Klaus is crazy enough to pull it off.  Basically, in Mr. Biggs’ office, Klaus punches Number 5 in the face and smashes a snowglobe over his own head.  He then threatens to tell security that Mr. Biggs was the one who assaulted them, unless he surrenders the information they need.  Unfortunately, this leads to a dead end, as the glass eye with that particular serial number hasn’t been manufactured yet.  Number 5 is really upset over this, since the person who the glass eye will be made for is quite possibly the one who will be responsible for the apocalypse, which will happen in 7 days.

Meanwhile, Hazel and Cha-Cha have tracked down the tow truck driver who had been seen at Griddy’s Donuts right before Number 5′s confrontation with the gunmen.  It appears that they think the tow truck driver is Number 5.  And they proceed to torture him for information.  Of course, they soon figure out that Number 5 is a kid now and that they abducted the wrong man.  But they proceed to continue torturing the tow truck driver to find out where Number 5 is. Because apparently, Number 5 questioned him for the address of a certain department store during their brief interaction last episode.  Unfortunately, it’s later on revealed that Hazel and Cha-Cha ultimately killed the tow truck driver when they were done torturing him, as Detective Patch finds his dead body later on.

Sometime later, Number 5 breaks into the department store in question.  Looking around, he comes across a store mannequin.  Number 5 greets the mannequin as Delores.  Number 5 had admitted to Klaus earlier that he and Delores had been in a relationship for a while, during the time when Number 5 was stuck in the future.  Clearly, this is a strange revelation, as Number 5 is a person and Delores is a store mannequin.  Of course, we have to remember that, when Number 5 was trapped in that post-apocalyptic future, he was denied any actual human contact.  So it’s not as if Number 5 had many options in regards to companionship.  The unorthodox reunion between Number 5 and Delores is interrupted when Hazel and Cha-Cha appear, wielding guns and wearing Halloween costume-style masks.  (Cha-Cha has a dog mask and Hazel has a bear mask.)  Hazel and Cha-Cha proceed to unleash wave upon wave gunfire at Number 5, but Number 5 is able to get himself and Delores away unscathed, while Hazel and Cha-Cha slip away when they hear police sirens outside. 

Back at the Umbrella Academy, a bit of family drama is going down.  Allison is on the phone with her ex-husband.  Allison wants to talk to Claire, but the ex-husband is denying the request because Allison missed some sort of court-mandated session.  Allison tries to argue that she only missed the session because of her father’s funeral, which the courts understood was a reasonable reason.  But the ex-husband is not having it.  Vanya overhears the conversation and tries to offer her sympathies.  But Allison, rather harshly, dismisses her attempts, stating Vanya cannot possibly know how she feels about not being able to be with her daughter, since Vanya has never had a relationship with anyone.

Vanya, saddened by this whole conversation, returns to her apartment.  After a while, she is visited by a young man called Leonard, who has arrived for a lesson.  Vanya apparently gives violin lessons.  She is a bit taken aback by Leonard, as her usual students are kids, but she lets him in regardless.  They seem to hit it off, especially when Leonard tells her he and his father never got along.  Which clearly resonates with Vanya, on account of her own family issues.

As for Allison, she reflects on things up in the attic.  While she’s up there, Pogo approaches her, informing her that Vanya had called asking how she was.  To try and offer her a bit of comfort, he takes her into a side room, where Allison can review some of the old security footage taken of them when they were kids. Yeah, while most families have home movies, the Hargreeves Siblings had security footage recordings.  By looking through the old recordings, Allison notices that Vanya was often left on her own while the rest of them played together.  As such, Allison realizes that they didn’t include her in their activities, which further makes her regret how she treated her during their last conversation.  However, when Pogo steps out to let Allison to review the rest of the security footage at her leisure, she ends up coming across a recording of something that visibly alarms her.

In the episode’s final moments, Allison approaches Luther to inform him that he was right in his suspicions.  Whatever she saw in the security footage confirmed that Reginald’s death wasn’t a clean cut heart attack after all.  But before Alison can show him what she found, they spot Number 5 returning to the mansion, recovering from his narrow escape at the department store. Noticing that he isn’t looking too good, they ask if they can help.  But Number 5 all but shoves them back, stating that there’s nothing any of them can do.  And the episode comes to a close with showing us that, when Number 5 returned to the ruins of the mansion in the future upon first discovering the apocalypse, he found Luther, Diego, Allison and Klaus’ lifeless bodies among the rubble.  And we also see that Number 5 had found the blood-soaked glass eye in Luther’s fist.  Which explains why he believes learning the identity of the owner is imperative. 

Questions/Observations:

It’s still not clear what Allison did that led to her loosing custody of her daughter

Who exactly are Hazel and Cha-Cha?

What did Allison see in the security footage?

Who does the glass eye belong to?

Will Klaus be able to retrieve the papers and journal he left in the dumpster?

[thecomicsnexus]

Look On My Works, Ye Mighty...

WATCHMEN #11 AUGUST 1987 BY ALAN MOORE, DAVE GIBBONS AND JOHN HIGGINS

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

Rorschach and Nite-Owl approach Karnak as they discuss about Adrian Veidt's agenda and his unexplained reasons for wanting to destroy the world.

Inside the retreat, Veidt gets up from his bank of television monitors and heads into a control room. He then pushes a button on the console next to a time gauge that reads "Eastern Standard Time: 11:25" before communicating to his associates that his work is done and to meet him in his vivarium to celebrate.

Veidt then recounts, to his friends, his life story. He was born in 1939, the same year his parents immigrated to America. He was a very intelligent young man, but he hid his intelligence from his teachers and parents by deliberately achieving average grades. By age seventeen, his parents died and he inherited their vast fortune. However, he chose to give it all to charity to prove what someone could accomplish from nothing. He idolized Alexander the Great and decided to measure his greatness against his by retracing the steps of his hero in which he traveled throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. On his return, he adopts the name Ozymandias, the Greek name for Pharaoh Ramses II, and starts his career as a costumed hero to fight all the evils of the world. As Veidt finish his story, he turn to his associates, which he has apparently poisoned, then opens the vivarium dome letting a blizzard of snow into its tropical enclosure.

Rorschach and Nite-Owl finally arrive at Karnak and eventually confronting Veidt. A brief melee ensues, but Veidt subdues both of his attackers with precision. Nite-Owl demand Veidt what he's trying to do. He explains that he realized fighting crime could never rid the world of evil, as he had been fighting only the "symptoms, leaving the disease itself unchecked." Then at the ill-fated Crimebusters meeting, he realized that The Comedian was right when he said it was pointless to form a crime-fighting team when nuclear war was inevitable. With the Cold War escalating and the proliferation of more arms - all of which are exacerbated by Dr. Manhattan's existence, he realized the military deadlock would eventually lead to one final conflict. For the last ten years, Veidt formulated his plan to solve this dilemma by tricking the world; frightening humanity into salvation with "history's greatest practical joke."

Veidt knew that Manhattan has to be out of the way of his plan first. He gave all of Jon Osterman's associates cancer which forced him into his exile. With the new technology that Manhattan had brought to the world, Veidt began to research advancements in the fields of genetics and teleportation on his private island. The Comedian discovered his island by accident while returning from Nicaragua. Initially believing to be a Sandinista base, Blake went to investigate and found a collection of artists and scientists working on a "monstrous new life form." Upon learning the creature's intended purpose, Blake was severely traumatized. But he was too afraid to expose the plot, and Blake only told Moloch, who he knew wouldn't understand. Since Veidt had Moloch's apartment bugged, he personally killed Blake before he could tell anyone else of Veidt's master plan: to frighten the world's governments into cooperation against a false alien threat designed by Veidt.

After killing Blake and ridding Manhattan, Veidt orchestrated his own assassination attempt in order to throw Rorschach's suspicion off of himself. He was also responsible for pushing a cyanide capsule into Roy Chess's mouth after subduing him to prevent him from talking as well. Veidt would finally teleport his life form, whose brain was cloned from a powerful psychic, into New York City. Since teleporting technology was limited, anything living that is transported would die of shock and explode. The ensuing psychic shockwave would kill half of the city's populace.

Nite-Owl is left deeply skeptical of Veidt's plans and asking him when he had planned on perpetrating this outlandish scheme while under the belief that he and Rorschach are here to prevent what he is about to do. Veidt replies that he didn't "do it." He already did it "thirty-five minutes ago."

In New York, the news vendor complains about the loud music being played by the Pale Horse band coming from Madison Square Garden that is being attended by knot-tops. He soon stops his rant when he sees Aline, Joey's ex-girlfriend. Aline ask him if he saw Joey, which he haven't. So she decide to wait outside the Promethean where Joey works. Joey soon steps out and is not thrill to see Aline, whose middle-class lifestyle and mannerism clashes with Joey's. The former couple attempt to salvage their relationship, but only to fall apart; Aline attempt to give her a book about relationships to help Joey understand what happened to them, and Joey complains that she just wanted to go to bed with her one time. Joey angrily tears the book apart and begin to fight Aline.

Meanwhile, Gloria Long meet Malcolm and tries to make amends with him. She admits she misses him, but cannot live with someone who fell driven to help hopeless cases that affect their marriage. But Malcolm then notice Joey's fight and tries to stop what she's doing against his wife's wishes.

The vendor talks to the kid reading Tales of the Black Freighter and is surprise to learn the kid's name is "Bernie", short for Bernard which is also the vendor's real name. But Bernie doesn't care too much since it's a common name. Bernard then notice Joey's fight with Aline. This is also seen by Detectives Steven Fine and Joe Bourquin, who are just passing by in their car. Fine, who has been suspended, stops the car and interfere the fight over Bourquin's objections. The scene also attracts Joey's boss and his brother, the Gordian Knot technician who fixed Dan Dreiberg's lock.

Just as everyone tries to break up Joey from Aline, they pause in stun horror when they see a large bright, blinding light emerge from the Institute for Extraspatial Studies building. Bernard and Bernie are closer to the building in which the vendor attempt to shield the boy from harm as the light engulfs them and everyone nearby.

TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER

The mariner rides into Davidstown and enters his own home, expecting to find pirates occupying it. In the darkness, he attacks a woken figure to be a pirate. But he stops when he is discover by his own children and the figure he was beating is his wife. The mariner reel in horror of what he just done before fleeing from his house and the town. He runs back to the beach as he wonder how he could have mistaken the black freighter's nonexistence arrival. The revelation soon unfolds which he sees the very ship waiting out in the water. The mariner then realizes that the black freighter didn't came for Davidstown at all, but for the mariner himself. He then willingly swim towards the massive ship and joins her crew.

AFTER THE MASQUERADE

In 1975, Doug Roth, a reporter for the Nova Express, conduct an interview with Adrian Veidt at his Antarctic retreat Karnak. Throughout the interview, Veidt recounts his life story from his humble beginnings as a costumed hero to his retirement, his interest in subjects such as futurology and electronic music, and his views on his fellow costumed adventurers. Veidt finish his interview by saying that the public may see him as the smartest man in the world, he "wish it wasn't this one."

REVIEW

I always forget that Veidt has an actual flashback, but because it is narrated by him to others and it is short, mixed with the exposition about his plan, it gets lost. I also think his backstory, while logical, doesn’t have the human appeal of the other characters.

The punchline of this issue is of course, that Veidt already doomed New York on page 7. And with it, the supporting cast of the series that conveniently end up together by the end.

Veidt may not be another Republic serial killer, but he does like exposition. In fact, Gibbons had to ask Moore to shorten the exposition, as his original script wouldn’t fit the pages. Moore accepted the challenge and did that, but you can still see that Veidt talks too much.

The “Hiroshima couple” takes the shape of the two Bernies in this issue and the shape of the blood stain from issue 1 (and the cover of this issue as well).

To be concluded...

[lilyxareum-blog]

( bae joohyun (irene), cisfemale, she / her ) — Welcome back, HAN AREUM. I’m surprised you’re still ( a ) Costume Specialist ! Congrats ! You’re TWENTY-EIGHT years old ? Our agents usually don’t last that long ! :O I see you’ve been given a BORDER COLLIE. Funny how it seems they work harder than you ! Can’t wait for another lovely day of you being KIND. Though, if we’re being honest, we really know you’re more ANXIOUS. Welp, have a good at work, Agent LILY. I really don’t care ! I’m a robot, I have no feelings.

Hello, hello everyone!! Its Lina, your, classic, anxious and panicky mun of Areum that’s always active on discord and never got her pages done (*sobs* I’m sorry, Areum–) I don’t have a plots page nor a bio page for now (Which I SWEAR I’M WORKING ON), as well as a plots page, but I do have her profile up! Here’s some plot ideas, as well as information about Areum that you’d need to know!!

History:

Areum was born Han Areum on 29th March 1991

Born to Seo Youngjin and Han Kang Hwan. She was born a few days early, and surprised her parents by being a girl, so they didn’t have a name ready for her.

A nurse named her–because the newborn was such a pretty baby, and so, lacking sorely in ideas for a great name that would fit their kid, they named her Areum (creative i know lmao–sorry my brain LACKED that creativity)

Han Kang Hwan was a Korean diplomat, and Seo Youngjin was a retired agent from Hwarang. The two had a classic love life that started after a shoulder throw, and Areum was the catalyst that caused her parents to get married.

She has a younger brother who’s 1 year younger than her and they were very close.

On the year she was 16, the family was tracked down and killed in the dead of night– the assassin was an old enemy of her mother’s employed by on of the disgruntled rivals of her father, whom disagreed with Han Kang Hwan upon certain political reforms.

Areum’s brother had grabbed her and shoved her under the bed to protect her, and so she watched the man that killed her family stab her younger brother to death.

Areum was then stabbed severely in the stomach and shoved out of the second storey and onto the lawn below. She ended up almost bleeding out, suffered a severe concussion from where the man had knocked her head into the wall, followed by a broken right arm and a broken left leg. The house was then burned down and she was left to die on the lawn of the mansion.

Because of the incident, Areum has a bumpy scar on her stomach from where the scarred tissue from the stab remains. 

Had to go through physical therapy for a year to regain her muscle strength, another year was spent working on her stamina and muscles to make her up to par with the recruitment test.

She was too old for adoption, and so Areum chose to follow the Hwarang agents that had rescued her and applied for Hwarang as a recruit.

Entered as a recruit aged 18, Spent 4 years as a recruit, graduated aged 22 as a field agent, worked as a field agent for 2 years before specialising in the costumes department and working there from then on.

Areum is highly talented in art and music, and has been drawing since she was 5. 

Areum debuted as an artist (painting) when she was 11, selling her art pieces under the pseudonym Raye Licht. She thought of making her handle “A Ray of Light” at first, but found it far too much of a mouthful to say easily

 Areum still sells paintings under that pseudonym, and hence is rich enough to purchase a mansion + live comfortably and luxuriously for the rest of her life. But she wanted to continue her work in Hwarang. 

Can play the piano, violin, flute, and is also great at singing

Technically if she was born in the Joseon era, she’d be a perfect wife + perfect daughter to marry off from a noble family

Areum’s ideal type is someone who’s not afraid to express himself, and is a little aggressive in confessing his feelings, because she’s more passive as well.

Areum has a minimalist tattoo on the middle of her lower back of a lily, which she got right after being given her agent name.

Areum also usually uses money out of her own budget to pay for pple’s expenses, or the expenses inflicted by the costume production, just give her the right reason and she’d fund you (because she’s hella nice)

personality:

Areum is sweet, generous and kind, apart from being lovely. 

Was class president and popular in her school back when she had a normal family.

A little naive, and airheaded, gentle, and a soft talker.

When with friends she’s slightly childish, more naive and exuberant

Usually the mood bringer, hypes people up as well as brightens up the room

But alone Areum is silent and melancholic, reflective and understanding.

A lot of people don’t she the dual side of her, because she only shows her bright and happy side to others, because she feels that its her responsibility to liven up the atmosphere since they’re doing such emotionally heavy and taxing work.

Thinks everyone, even grouches are adorable and that each have their own worth.

Is socially anxious and a bit of an overthinker

Highly romantic, swoons easily, easily manipulated esp if she trusts someone

Serial watcher of netflix, and cries as hard as possible when it comes to heartbreaking stories

Areum also doesn’t think that she’s pretty–in her mind, she believes that she’s just average,or less than average.

Areum is also physically affectionate with others, hugs are kind of her thing– she aims to make people feel welcome, so that they wouldn’t find it necessary to be interested to know more about herself.

Career History:

Because her mother was a retired Hwarang agent, she had an agreement with her old comrades that if anything happened to her and her husband, the children would be taken in, so Areum was taken in by Hwarang agents, but had to train herself up to the standards to a recruitment agent to pass.

Had to train really hard for the entire year that she recuperated and just barely made the cut for the team of recruits.

Entered recruitment at aged 18, her physicals were low, but Areum made up to the mark with her intelligence.

Areum holds an IQ of 143, is more of an observant person–and a practiced user of being able to put on a happy go lucky facade so that no one has a clue to what she really feels inside.

No one really knows about Areum’s background or heritage, except that she’s rich,  she paints, and that she’s hella good at costume disguise.

Graduated from recruitment at 22, and became a field agent, but unfortunately Areum was GREAT at disguising others, but not great at disguising herself. (Areum: hat, no lense glasses, fluffy sweaters, slippers)

After 2 years of field agent work, and more than one trip ups in disguises because Areum got recognised, Areum decided she was more cut out for costume specialisation rather than field work.

Areum became costume specialist at age 24, and has been working in that spot for 4 years.

Plot Ideas!!

[For her other costume specialist] You cannot believe the naivety of Areum thinking that she’s fine with disguising herself with just fluffy sweaters and a no lense glasses to not be recognised.

All physical, not emotional – Areum has needs just like everyone else, and you’re one of the special people who has seen the more solemn, contemplative side of her, which she doesn’t usually use outside of the bedroom or her own room [fwb connection ; 0/3 filled]

Classic Annoyance – You’re one of the colder friends of Areum. You can’t fathom why she’s so physically affectionate with people, but you’d comfortably say that you two are close with each other. [ friends ; 0/3 filled]

Walk my Dog – Areum has a habit of offering help to others even though she sucks at it, and with her small stature, its hilarious to see a 158cm tall tiny person trying to drag more than two large dogs away from their wayward tracks. You’re one of those individuals that take advantage of that and always ends up walking your dogs with her, because its just adorable watching Areum frazzle up over a bunch of too big dogs that she can’t control

You remind me of him – Areum’s connection and relationship with her younger brother has always been more than extraordinary, even in his death she feels somewhat connected to him. You are the one that reminds Areum of her deceased brother, and Areum does everything she can to protect you from what she perceives to be harm, even if sometimes its rather over the top. 

Why Are You Doing This To Me? – Being the overly romantic and sweet, naive person that Areum is, its no doubt to say that she’s been used and manipulated by people before. You’re the person that she has a crush on, and knowing that she has a crush on you, you’re intent on using her for your own needs. Its purely unemotional for you, but entirely emotional for Areum, and she just doesn’t know that you’re using her just yet. [ crush, fwb, angst angst heavy angst in the future]

Again? – One of Areum’s responsibilities is to patch up the costumes that have either been destroyed or ruined in the field work, and you’re one of the more reckless field agents/ recruits that always seem to mangle up your clothes to the point of nearly beyond repair. Its perplexing for Areum, and she’s up to the challenge to make a new piece that you can’t possibly rip, but you always seem to outdo yourself in ripping yourself a new piece of clothing. 

Exes, Crushes on Areum/ Romance – this can be plotted however you like it! Areum is pretty open and free when it comes to having either slept together with another agent, or dated another agent before, she’s mostly clueless when it comes to someone crushing on her, or perhaps the idea of something between them that blurs the lines of friendship but they never acted upon it etc. Feel free to hit me up!

[mst3kproject]

The Choppers

It’s teenage crime spree time!  With Arch Hall Sr. writing and producing, Arch Hall Jr. starring, and Bruno VeSoto supporting, the result is sure to be MST3K-worthy. All it’s missing is Ray Dennis Steckler, but I guess one can’t have everything.

America’s youth is its greatest resource, and those youth are in danger of growing up into criminals.  Witness our antagonists here: Cruiser, Torch, Ben, Flip, and Snooper. They drive around in a truck full of chickens, taking apart random cars and selling the pieces to Moose, a grouchy and unscrupulous junkyard owner.  The cops are baffled, but sooner or later the young thugs are bound to make a fatal mistake – and theirs comes when they girl they decide to sexually harass turns out to be the secretary of an insurance investigator.  At around the same time, Moose gets tired of their attitude and decides to turn them in.  Looks like the Choppers have chopped their last, uh… chop, I guess.

I’m sure you all want to know whether Arch Hall Jr. sings in this movie.  He does, but not until forty-five minutes in when I really had begun to hope I’d escaped him.  The piece is actually kind of catchy although not particularly memorable, but I may be in a forgiving mood because the first musical number in the movie was so much worse.  It’s performed by an elderly guy who works at Moose’s junkyard, and not only is he a bad singer, but what starts out sounding like a boy scout campfire ditty turns out to be a mournful country song about his divorce.  It made me long for the comparatively sweet strains of I Love You Vickie.

The photography here is notably terrible.  Almost the entire movie takes place outdoors in harsh desert sunshine because I think they didn’t actually have any lights.  Indoor scenes are kind of dim and night scenes are completely indecipherable – although I think somebody didn’t believe a practically pitch-black screen was enough to convince us it was night, because there are also lots of loud cricket noises.  There’s a bit where the Choppers vandalize a guy’s car because he took their parking spot and it’s almost impossible to see anyone’s faces or tell who’s talking.

The acting is sort of indifferently bad. Arch Hall Jr. is Arch Hall Jr., where everything he says sounds kind of stagey and dumb, and nobody else is much better.  The twenty-somethings playing the young criminals use hip slang in a way that suggests they have no idea what these words actually mean.  Arch Hall Sr. continues to believe he can build his son into a teen heartthrob, and so he shows us things like Cruiser’s pasty chest and belly as he lounges by a pool.

You say you didn’t need that screencap? Well, I didn’t need the shot it came from.

Most of the screen time in the movie is spent on the Choppers as they take apart cars, play or listen to bad music, argue with each other, and harass women.  The supposed heroes aren’t on screen nearly so much, but that’s okay because they are stunningly un-likeable.  There are a couple of bland cops, but the ones who are really our protagonists are inept insurance investigator Tom Hart and his nagging girlfriend Liz.  Tom comes across as an oblivious dope, while Liz constantly whines that she’s tired of fighting crime and wants to go home and eat.

Tom never redeems himself, but Liz gets a couple of moments.  She’s the one who notices that feathers keep turning up at the crime scenes, and when she recognizes Cruiser’s car at a drive-in she is able to keep him staring at her boobs long enough for her to memorize the license plate number. Naturally at the climax, she is not present and Tom, who did pretty much nothing all movie, gets all the credit for catching the gang.  The movie doesn’t make anything out of this because it doesn’t see anything wrong with it.

Which of course brings us to the fact that The Choppers hates women something fierce. There are only two we can actually be said to meet: Cruiser’s empty-headed girlfriend Gypsy (I know a bot who would be righteously angry at this name choice) is there to hang around in a bathing suit and be dumb.  The movie can’t decide how much she does or doesn’t know about his criminal hobbies – she seems to help vandalize the car in the parking lot, but then becomes the damsel in distress at the final shootout.  Liz nags, mocks, and generally treats Tom terribly, and at the end her competence is treated as his accomplishment.

Several of the five boys have backstories that depend on absent fathers – Cruiser’s was killed in WWII, Torch’s is an alcoholic, and Snooper has had a series of uninterested stepfathers.  The implication is that a single mother cannot possibly raise a boy.  He needs a father to turn him into a man (this is as near as stated aloud when a reporter attempts to interview Torch’s drunken father on the radio).  The only moment involving a woman that doesn’t reek of misogyny is when the boys harass a waitress and she blows them off.

If we’re gonna talk about fathers and sons… this is another movie Arch Hall Sr. made to try to build up his son’s career, and another movie in which the two of them are at odds.  They never actually meet in The Choppers, but the reporter played by Hall Sr. comments on how intelligent and talented the boys are and how much they could have accomplished if they’d only had the chance to live up to their potential.  Once again, it’s really, really tempting to try to do some psychoanalysis here, as if Arch Hall Sr. was using his films to tell the world how disappointed he was with his son.  I don’t know these people, of course, but that’s definitely the impression I get.

The main theme in The Choppers is one I’ve already dealt with, the idea that a boy without a father will become a criminal, stuck forever in the stage of life where rule-breaking is fun and consequences are things that happen to other people.  There seems to be a level on which the boys have adopted Moose as a sort of substitute father – he has encouraged and taught them in their criminal endeavours, and while he and they argue and threaten each other, they are honestly shocked by his eventual betrayal.  In the end, Moose abandons them just as their biological fathers have done.

There also seems to be some attempt to talk about class. All the Choppers seem to come from underprivileged backgrounds except for Cruiser, who has a backyard pool and a fancy car.  This puts him in the same category as Paula from The Violent Years, in that we’re given no good reason why he does this besides what his says to the reporter at the end: “we had a ball.”  Like Paula, Cruiser is the leader of the gang, but unlike her, he does not participate in the actual crimes.  Instead, Cruiser and his fancy car serve as lookouts – his upper-class origin allows him to be in charge without having to get his hands dirty, and there are signs that the rest of the boys resent this.  When they are all cornered at the end, it’s Cruiser who suggests giving up while Torch prefers to go down fighting.  Unlike the others, he’s not sufficiently invested in this to die for it.

What the movie is trying to say here is that money is not a substitute for good parenting, and privileged boys can still fall into crime if their fathers aren’t there for them.  What it manages to imply is that even in crime being rich gives you a head start and can make you a leader regardless of actual leadership qualities.

So this movie is really, really bad, and doesn’t deal very well with its thematic material – but that’s not to say there’s no entertainment value to be found here.  It’s never funny when it tries to be, of course. There’s an attempt at a running joke with Snooper wondering if he’d be more attractive to women if he wore contact lenses, which will make you shudder if you know what contact lenses were like in the 50’s and early 60’s.  The humour that works in The Choppers is naturally the unintentional kind, to be found in the bad acting and the unwieldy chicken truck.

My favourite moment is when Cruiser, talking on a candy-striped walkie-talkie the size of a dachshund, tells his cronies to give the police “the farmer routine”.  Flip and Snooper immediately pull a couple of cowboy hats out of fucking nowhere and put them on, and I almost did a real-life spit take.  This feels like the kind of thing that would have fascinated the Best Brains.  I can imagine Joel, Crow, and Tom whipping their own Stetsons out from under the theatre seats to wear for the rest of the scene (Servo would have needed help with his) and every subsequent appearance of a cop being greeted with, “quick, put on your cowboy hats!”  It would definitely be the stinger.

Talking about having a favourite Arch Hall Jr. movie is like talking about having a favourite kind of turd to eat, but insofar as the statement means anything, The Choppers is my second-favourite of his movies I’ve seen so far.  It’s less misogynistic than Eegah! (not a high bar) and doesn’t have nearly as much crappy music as Wild Guitar (accomplished by simply having less music).  My favourite Arch Hall Jr. movie is The Sadist, which I actually don’t consider bad enough for this blog.  In The Sadist Hall Jr. played a serial killer, and he was pretty terrifying.  If he’d had more roles like that (with directors who were not his father and could actually coach good performances out of him) he might have been a decent character actor.

[darkouter]

hp verse cecil stuff:  blood status & the bag entity, reese

i.     fucked up point to make:  everyone looks at cecil like he’s a muggleborn because of his childhood, but this isn’t even necessarily true.  he grew up without a family in the foster care system, was unsuccessfully fostered a few times, and eventually adopted by the muggle mccallisters.  he has no idea what his heritage is.  it lent a hand to his anger as a teenager.  imagine being a wizard and just abandoning your child, knowing they would eventually have to go through developing magical skills while in an unstable environment?  cecil caused so many issues because he was an emotional kid getting thrown from one place to the other.  so many cases of magical outbursts and feeling strange and/or different and/or utterly insane because of it.  do you know how many times shit exploded and he was punished for “setting off fireworks” or “lighting things on fire?”  everyone thought he was going to, like.  become a serial killer or something.  

he always wondered if his biological parents were that cruel, that they didn’t offer any means for him to know he was more than likely going to be a wizard.  of course, he doesn’t know this for certain, so it’s frustrating.  he no longer cares about it nor his blood status, but the times when someone tries to discriminate against him, he usually points out, well, actually, i am a case of schroedinger’s blood status.  it’s not like there’s a way to test his blood purity, given that blood supremacy is...  y’know, just as stupid and unprovable as other justifications for bigotry.

ii.     to piggy-back on that post about cecil’s hip bag, he eventually acquired an...  interesting one in his hp verse.  and by interesting, i mean that he stole (rather: was chosen by) one.  

during his days on the street as a lad, picking up odd-jobs, an old wizard took pity on him.  cecil was invited to live with the old man for a week or so while helping him organize his home, as he was a magical collector and historian.  there were a ton of oddities in his home and he wanted to take note of his entire collection to create a will that would designate where each item would go after his death.  cecil, being in his unfortunate situation as an addict, did what many financially strained addicts do and lifted a few items to sell.  he felt incredibly bad about it and only took a few less-valuable things that he didn’t think would be missed — as soon as he was finished taking inventory, he was going to be back out on the street, so he didn’t feel like he had an option but to plan for that.  he set aside a few things that he chose not to account for in his list.  one of them was a bag that seemed to constantly appear in front of him during his time there.  it just kind of stuck out to him, so he took it.  he needed a new bag for personal use anyways.

it took him a while to notice how odd it was.  it was bigger on the inside.  in fact, it didn’t have a bottom that he could reach.  because of this, he could stuff Very Large items inside it.  it would stretch wide and snap back to shape afterward, which was very convenient for a man living on the street and without any personal storage.  but he seemed to lose items in it.  sometimes he would pull things out of it that he didn’t remember ever having.  where did his granola bar go?  who knows, but now he has a new pair of shoes, apparently.  nice.  he needed some.

it wasn’t until someone tried to steal the bag when he set it down that he found out:  it was a living being.  or, at least, there was something(s) living inside it.  specifically, a ton of HANDS.  one poor bastard tried to run away with it, only for a sea of blackened, shadow-like arms to reach out of it and start swatting him.  scared the shit out of the guy AND cecil.  he very nearly left the thing right then and there.  unfortunately(?), the hands were not in favor of this, so it reached out its unending arms and grabbed him, dragging the bag over to him.  a panic attack later, cecil started to learn about his new...  bag friend(s).

the bag is an entity.  cursed?  haunted?  is there just a creature in there with many incredibly long arms?  who knows.  it’s hard to communicate with the hands because they cannot speak.  they seem to work in unison, but not necessarily as a true hivemind.  what he learns, however, is that the bag tends to eat some of the items he puts into it, but regurgitates new items when he is in need of them.  the supply is not endless, however, and it needs to be fed in order to produce more.  he doesn’t really know how it works, but it seems to convert matter — to create an item, it needs an equal amount of mass to eat.

he decided to name the bag reese.  as in, recycle.  people tend to think cecil picks up litter in order to clean messy places like a good lad, but the reality is that he is just feeding reese anything and everything available.  they have a personality, though, tending to prefer certain items (shiny! pretty! expensive! rare!) and regularly gets sticky fingers. reese gets cecil in trouble because he is often blamed when the hands can’t help but grab something they want.  cecil does his best to hide the many hands from people, preferring no one know about reese (especially muggles), but it can be hard when they like or dislike someone.  they’re mischievous things, playing tricks or trying to gift people things.  they get rather upset when cecil starts shoving them back in the bag.  because cecil shuts himself off from people so often, they try to get him to make friends by planting gifts everywhere that cecil has to claim responsibility for due to trying to hide reese.   they like playing rock, paper, scissors.  

eventually, cecil takes up sign language to communicate with them better, but they also have many of their own signals to each other.  he’s particularly fond of the ross gesture or reverse victory sign, among a few other made-up signals.

after getting sober, cecil returned to the old man to inquire about reese’s origins and apologize for the items he took, offering to give the bag back.  the old wizard accepted his apology, but informed cecil that reese had clearly chosen to tag along with him, and the old wizard was not about to claim ownership over something that was a living being.  reese never revealed themselves to the old man, so he reasoned that they specifically wanted to go with cecil, probably preferring to adventure out into the world.  he never really knew where the bag came from, buying it at borgin and burke’s from a very charming young man that worked there named tom.  it just called to him, so he bought it, but he never understood it.

cecil and reese have a strange bond, being together for nearly 20 years at this point.  cecil is very attached to them and considers them a companion.

[douxreviews]

Doctor Who - ‘An Unearthly Child’ Review

(aka 100,000 B.C., The Tribe of Gum, The Stone Age, or The Paleolithic Age)

Two teachers follow a mysterious student into a junkyard, spawning multiple generations of sci-fi geeks.

Season 1, Serial A Starring William Hartnell as the Doctor With William Russell (Ian), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara) and Carole Ann Ford (Susan) Written by Anthony Coburn and C.E. Webber Directed by Waris Hussein Produced by Verity Lambert

Episodes and Broadcast Dates:

An Unearthly Child – 23 Nov 1963

The Cave Of Skulls – 30 Nov 1963

The Forest Of Fear – 7 Dec 1963

The Firemakers – 14 Dec 1963

Plot Summary

At the end of another day at London’s Coal Hill School, history teacher Barbara Wright and science teacher Ian Chesterton compare notes about an enigmatic student, Susan Foreman. Her knowledge of history and science surpasses their own, but is also awkwardly unaware of the ins-and-outs of contemporary life. They trail her to her given address, 76 Totters Lane, only to find a scrapyard wherein sits a rather incongruous Police Box emitting an eerie hum. They encounter Susan’s grandfather, who brusquely shoos them away. But when Susan’s voice is heard from inside, they push past him into the Police Box and find themselves in a vast futuristic chamber, much larger on the inside. The old man is furious at their intrusion. Susan explains that they are exiles from another world and another time, and the Police Box is their ship, the TARDIS. The old man is paranoid and irascible, certain that the teachers will expose their secret, and despite Susan’s panicked pleas he activates the TARDIS, leaving 60’s London behind.

The quartet find themselves in the Stone Age, and are soon abducted by a tribe of primitive humans. There is a power struggle for control of the tribe between Za, son of the late elder, and the outsider Kal, focused on the secret of making fire. When the old man announces he can make fire, they become pawns in the struggle. Along the way, Ian and Barbara introduce the tribe to concepts of mercy and helpfulness, that in ‘their tribe,’ the firemaker is the least powerful person, and that one tyrant is not as strong as a unified collective. This lesson is lost on the old man; when Za pursues them through the forest and is attacked by a wild beast, he is perfectly willing to kill the wounded man to help them escape. Ultimately they make fire for the tribe, Za kills Kal, and the travelers escape to the TARDIS.

It is made clear that Susan’s grandfather, who is known as the Doctor, cannot control the navigational systems of the TARDIS, and may never be able to return Ian and Barbara home. They arrive at their next destination and go out to explore. They do not notice the TARDIS’s radiation meter inching into the danger zone...

Analysis and Notes

-- Episode One’s viewership was quite low – possibly due to news coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination the day before, possibly due to a number of regional power cuts – so the BBC granted a virtually unprecedented re-broadcast immediately prior to Episode Two. More people saw the repeat broadcast than the initial one.

-- Episode One was a re-write and re-shoot of the un-broadcast pilot episode, which was beset by technical difficulties and featured an even harsher characterization of the Doctor.

--Most of the principle guest cast would appear in future serials: Derek Newark (Za) in Inferno, Althea Charleton (Hur) in The Time Meddler, Jeremy Young (Kal) in Mission to the Unknown, and Eileen Way (Old Woman) in The Creature from the Pit.

Okay, all you Smith-heads, Tennant worshipers and Capaldians (all three of you, myself included), listen up. The sci-fi institution you know and love originated over a half century ago, right here. Before the action figures, the magazines, the thousands of fansites, the DVD’s, the convention circuit, the minisodes, and all the flood of BBC Enterprises swag, there was An Unearthly Child. And in some cases, it looks and feels very much like the show you’re watching now; there’s a big blue (well, dark gray) box called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, and it makes the same wheezy noise as it takes off and lands. There’s a mysterious central character called the Doctor and a handful of travelling companions. But there are also enormous differences.

In the current series, the TARDIS can land anywhere it wants to. But initially the central concept of the Classic Era was the TARDIS’s unreliability. This meant that when the Doctor takes off with Barbara and Ian on board at the end of episode one, there’s virtually no chance of getting them home again. In future serials where the Doctor and crew need to get to a specific place, they have to hitch a ride.

The early days of the show were a sharp contrast from the ethos displayed in the upcoming Series Nine catchphrase, “I’m the Doctor. I save people.” In most cases, they landed in a certain place or time, got separated from the TARDIS, and spent the rest of the series more focused on Not Dying and/or Not Changing History than they were about liberating oppressed humanoids or saving Earth from alien invasion. And especially in this opening serial, the only person the Doctor feels obliged to save is himself.

Having never been companions by choice, Barbara and Ian’s primary goal throughout their time on the TARDIS was to get home again. Even when they weren’t so much traveling companions as kidnapping victims, this meant getting back to the TARDIS whenever they were separated from it, and keeping the Doctor – their kidnapper – safe at all times since he was the only person who could operate it. Ultimately they do get home again, but end up using a slightly more reliable Dalek time capsule to do it, and we never quite learn how they explain their two-year absence to the Coal Hill headmaster.

And we have to assume they left no significant others behind. Because if there’s one consistent theme amongst the TARDIS’s early classic era companions, it’s that they have no backstories or families or home life that’s disrupted when they meet the Doctor. They’re orphans, bachelors, and free agents. No room for outside domestic drama on the TARDIS.

As for the actual story:

I can’t help but fall in step with the Received Wisdom that the first episode is classic and the remaining three are comparatively mediocre. That said, the Stone Age episodes are very noteworthy. The initial concept for the series was that science fiction and historical stories would balance each other – thus the need for a history teacher and a science teacher. The historical stories would follow the format established here; the TARDIS crew gets separated from the ship, and after a few cycles of capture-escape-recapture where they encounter historical figures or crucial historical events, manage to escape to the TARDIS without getting killed or dramatically changing history.

And the Doctor couldn’t be further removed from how we come to know him now. Selfish, paranoid, and bad-tempered, over-protective of Susan, a kidnapper, a would-be murderer, a refugee rather than a traveler, he’s a quintessential anti-hero, and if it weren’t for the fact that he was the only one who could pilot the TARDIS, odds are they’d boot him out. It’s his dealing with Barbara and Ian that over time gives him a moral compass, either making him a heroic figure, or re-making him one after whatever as-yet-undetermined incident caused him to flee.

The Stone Age tribe is surprisingly multi-dimensional. They’re not ignorant, just uneducated. The oldest among them are fearful of new technology (i.e. fire). The savage conditions in which they live, where death lurks around every corner, render concepts like tenderness, kindness, and democracy as luxuries. You may just have to grit your teeth as the social liberalism is delivered with a side of colonialism; the well-dressed white bourgeois travelers drop into the jungle like the Galactic Peace Corps to teach the dirty savages how to live better. Also a dash of sexism as the girl – named, appropriately enough, Hur – exists as the prize to be awarded to either Kal or Za.

It’s evident that the BBC wanted this program to succeed. Even though they put the show in the young and relatively inexperienced hands of producer Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein, possibly so they could be scapegoats for the program’s potential failure, they allowed the pilot episode to be re-tooled and re-filmed, and they re-broadcast Episode One immediately prior to Episode Two.

As this is the very first serial, it’s worthy to note which concepts have stayed etched in granite over a half-century and which have been more malleable (if not rejected entirely):

The Doctor’s Name – Susan only refers to him as “Grandfather.” Ian recalls, before they meet, that Susan’s grandfather is “a Doctor or something.” Since the junkyard’s front door reads I.M. FOREMAN, SCRAP MERCHANT, and Susan’s given surname is Foreman, he calls him “Dr. Foreman” in episode two, to which the old man replies, “Huh? Doctor Who? What is he talking about?” strongly suggesting that “Foreman” was never their name. Does one require a PhD to run a junkyard? Or are they squatters, with Susan adopting the name on the door? If so, whatever happened to I.M. Foreman? He never explicitly instructs Ian or Barbara as to how he wishes to be addressed, and basically adopts the title “The Doctor” by default.

The TARDIS – Susan claims to have made up the name of the TARDIS as an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space, as if this TARDIS was the only one in existence. For most of the first season, they refer to the TARDIS simply as “The Ship.” In episode two, the Doctor notes that the external appearance of the ship is supposed to blend in with its surroundings (though the term “Chameleon Circuit” would not be coined for over a decade), suggesting this is the first time it has failed; with rare exceptions, it would never function again. And the most pivotal concept about the TARDIS is that the Doctor cannot navigate it properly. Either he never learned, or he forgot, or the mechanism is faulty; it’s never explicitly stated, but once they leave London 1963, there’s no guarantee they’ll ever get back.

Their Origins – No Time Lords, no Gallifrey, these terms don’t appear for years to come. The details they give in the first episode are sketchy. They’re exiles, wanderers in time, cut off from their own planet. No mention is ever given of Susan’s parents (i.e. the Doctor’s offspring, presumably). They’re hiding on Earth, and have lived incognito for several months; from what and why are never stated.

Been Here Before – Barbara lends Susan a very thick book about the French Revolution, which Susan reads in a split second and remarks, “That’s not how it happened!” Though no mention of a prior visit was ever made later in Season One when they land in Robespierre’s post-revolutionary Paris. The gift of superhuman speed-reading appears again in the New Series’ reboot, Rose.

In Summation

You could be forgiven if you only watch the first episode, but what an episode it is! It’s as noteworthy and epoch-shifting a debut as the Beatles’ Please Please Me eight months earlier (or their follow-up, With The Beatles, issued the day before). Yet despite creator Sydney Newman’s directive of “No Bug Eyed Monsters!”, the program’s watershed moment was yet to come, and British popular culture would never be the same.

Rating: 3 out of 4 epoch-shifting moments in British pop culture.

John Geoffrion balances a career in hospital fundraising with semi-pro theatre gigs, and watches way too much Doctor Who and Britcoms in between. He'll create an author page after he puts up a few more reviews.

[cianmars]

Sleeping Arrangements (2/?)

Killian Rogers is a detective whose life revolves around work and hanging out with his best friend, and often friends with benefits, Regina Mills. How will he cope when his life become entangled with troubled, runaway teen, David’s? When Killian takes the risk of deciding to foster David his organised life get turned upside down, changing both his entire outlook and his relationship with Regina, and David finds himself in a position he has not been in before.

“You got him!” Nash was packing up his stuff as it was the end of his shift when he saw the young man, who had been the bane of his working life, following his colleague into the station. “What did you get him on?”

Killian sighed at Detective Nash’s excitement. He came to a pause but kept his hand on David’s shaking shoulder, the kid was keeping his eyes down, not even reacting to Nash like he had been earlier. “Nothing. He didn’t break a crime.”

“Then why’s he here, for his pleasant company?”

“Because he’s not eighteen, he’s fifteen, he’s a kid. I’m helping him.” Killian snapped, he saw Nash look surprised, he clearly wasn’t a very good detective if he had thought David was an adult, but it was hard to stay mad at him when he himself hadn’t been bothered to step in as it wasn’t ‘his problem’ earlier on. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Nash, come on kid, head to my office.”

“Do you ever take a break?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Killian wasn’t too surprised to see Weaver still there, he wasn’t sure he even had a home he always just seemed to be in the office, however he could see that Weaver was surprised to see him there with a teenager. “This is David, I’m helping him, I just need to make some calls… can you keep an eye on him.”

“Of course.”

“I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Well I don’t want you dying on my watch, so you’re having one. Here sit on the couch, I’ll find you some clothes which aren’t soaked through.” He directed David to sit on the couch placing it beside David so the teenager could keep himself warm, he found his gym bag and a towel from inside of it, he passed it to David along with a granola bar from inside. “Here, dry yourself up, I’ll be back in a couple of minutes, Weaver will get you anything you need.”

David rolled his eyes but it was without heat. He took the towel and scrubbed at his long dirty hair, the office was warm, probably warmer than any place he had been in recently. “Thanks.” He mumbled, his voice had gone all high, he cleared his throat. “I mean, thanks.”

“It’s okay.” He looked between the sick teenager and his partner, he didn’t really want to leave David there, he didn’t think he was going to run away, but he didn’t want anything to happen to the kid, he was sick and clearly had no one to care for him.

“We’ll be fine, Killian.” Weaver soft voice was uncharacteristically gentle.

Killian nodded. “Right. Of course. Thanks.”

Killian wasn’t gone too long, as he was grabbing a sweatshirt and sweatpants he made the phone call to CPS, he knew the right things to say to get through to David’s social worker, all the while something was in the back of his head, a thought which hadn’t yet turned into an idea. He managed to get the social worker to come out to them as quickly as he could, not even giving himself time to mull on his own thoughts before hurrying back to his office, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Weaver, he just felt responsible for David, for the time being at least.

What he didn’t expect, when he got back to the office, was David and Weaver sat on the couch eating pizza and drinking sodas from take away cups, David was looking guarded and had jumped when Killian had opened the door. Killian gave him a closed mouth smile and held up the clothes he had scavenged. “Here.”

He opened his mouth quickly when David went to drop the pizza, something which a runaway doing surprised Killian, he had expected him to eat it quicker if anything.

“For when you’ve finished eating that slice, then you can grab more if that’s alright with Weaver, you look like you could do with a good meal in you.”

David finished the slice of meat feast pizza and took the clothes, he didn’t move far, just to a slightly shielded part of the room, in the corner, he changed as quickly as he could which wasn’t helped by yet another small coughing fit.

Both Killian and Weaver looked automatically to the boy, they were both wearing worried looks, though David hadn’t been particularly charming to them they had grown to care for him even in such a short space of time. When they glanced over, however, they were met by a sight which made them both struggle not to react: David was pulled down the sweater but his ribs were clearly sticking out from malnutrition, and were covered in cuts and bruises, they had no idea how he got them. They both shared a look but quickly looked away so David wouldn’t know they had seen, they’d have to talk to his social worker about them though.

David balled up his own clothes and went to shove them back into his backpack but remembered that they were still damp so walked back to the couch with them in his arms.

“Here, I’ll put them in a bag until they can be dried properly.”

David handed them off to Killian, keeping a careful eye on them, he didn’t have any other clothes, they were important. “Are they coming to take me?” He asked Killian, speaking for the first time since Killian had been back, he had only spoken a handful of words to Weaver while Killian hadn’t been there, most of them ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

“David, I told you I will not let you be taken to any home I cannot guarantee that you’re safe in, I don’t break my word.” Killian’s voice was serious and earnest, and he meant every word, he just wasn’t sure how he was going to pull it off.

It wasn’t long before David’s social worker turned up, and David became even more guarded as Killian informed him of the entire situation, it only took five minutes before the conversation turned tense.

“David, if you thought that a foster home wasn’t a good fit then you should have talked to me, not run off for a few weeks-”

“-So, you lot could just shove me around to a new home? Yeah, I’d rather take my chances on the street-!”

“Hey.” Killian hushed, gently placing his hand on David’s back, getting him to make eye contact with him, even if the teen shrugged his hand away as soon as he did. “You’re going to bring on another coughing fit, you need to calm down.” He fixed him with the look he had given him earlier, David glared, but slumped back against the back of the couch. Killian passed him over the throw blanket again, this time draping it over him a bit, the kid was clearly extremely cold as he didn’t shrug it off.

“Can we talk?” Killian asked the social worker and led him to the other side of the room, he could feel David’s eyes on him, he kind of wished Weaver hadn’t stepped out to give them some space, either to give David support, or to make sure that Killian wasn’t about to act impulsive.

“Thank you for finding him.” The social worker, Mark, sighed. “He’s a good kid, deep down, he just…” He trailed off, truth be told he didn’t know what David needed, not really, he knew that he could be morethough.

Kilian nodded his head. “Yeah, he seems it… What’s going to happen to him now?”

Mark sighed. “Now I try to find him a place in a secure unit, they’re like group homes but-“

“-More locks.” Killian finished frowning.

“This isn’t the first time he’s run away, he’s a serial runaway sometimes they weren’t a good fit, sometimes his previous social worked put David in homes which clearly hadn’t been vetted properly: There’s just no more foster families who are equipped to take him. If he had been charged with something I think the judge would send him to juvie.”

“He said he had a brother who’s also in care.”

“Ah, yes, James.” Mark nodded. “He’s about two years older than David, the two were adopted after their mother died, the man who adopted them severely abused them for just over a year. They were split up as David was in hospital and it was thought that James would be the one who would need a more experienced home, he was sort of a problem child, but…”

Neither of them said that David was the one who turned into the problem child, but it was implied. “He doesn’t have anyother family? Aunties, uncles, anyone?”

“His biological father is in prison for armed robbery, and he has two half siblings from him, one’s in medical school, the other is a photography, David doesn’t really see them too much, he’s just not been settled enough.” Mark looked over at David, he was still shivering and was still covered by the blanket the detective had draped over him, normally he would have been arguing and wouldn’t stand for him talking to anyone about him, he was clearly sick, and he looked his young age.

Killian cleared his throat. “I erm, when we talking on the phone I mentioned that I am a registered foster carer, I’ve not fostered since I moved into my new apartments, and I used to foster younger kids than him, but my apartment’s been approved and I’m a cop, obviously, so I can provide a bit more of a safe place, I could, I could foster him?”

[henrymidfields-blog]

Review: Review: Persona 4 Dancing All Night - Atlus's MeToo response? - SPOILERS

Originally posted in Serenes Forest - Link

Last month saw the first anniversary of what marked the beginning of the MeToo movement, which were the sexual abuse accusations against Harvey Weinstein. From there, the #MeToo movement spread amongst women in showbiz across the United States and eventually other countries as well. Well, except Japan. Japan (my home country) did not see the same level of activity in the MeToo movement, where the wrong kind of conservatism prevails. However, there are three cases that spoke out against it (and possibly more that I am unaware about). The first, and ongoing one is a journalist named Shiori Ito who was raped by a senior journalist. The second, and more relevant to this, was Perfect Blue, an animated movie which is a story of an ex-idol's desparate attempt to further her career in showbiz, and discussed sexual exploitation in showbiz years before MeToo did. The third one, which basically dropped the same anvil as the second one was Persona 4: Dancing All Night.

The Gameplay

Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a rhythm and dancing game with a "Where are they now" story after the canon epilogue of Persona 4 Golden. As a persona who has only passing interest in dancing games, this was perhaps the only one that I actually was interested in, and played fairly extensively.

Considering that, the game was easy enough to get used to. The interface and controls were intiutive, with the notes spreading outwards, indicating which outer buttons on the PS Vita I need to press or hold down, and it was easy to follow the notes. You can play the various songs from various Persona 4 entries, with many remixed by various Japanese artists, in which they appear at certain points in Story Mode, or as a score attack in Free Mode. Bonuses for high scores and story mode progressions appear in the form of extra costumes which you can buy using in-game currency in this game's versions' Tanaka's Amazing Commodities, or pay and download via DLC.

As for the difficulty of this game, it is very easy to get used to (as mentioned before), yet very difficult to master. There are four modes in score attack, which are Easy, Normal, Hard, and All Night. Easy is very much for beginners to the genre, while Normal is also managable. The former two settings are also the modes available in Story Mode, which means that you can enjoy the story without having blisters on your fingers. On the other hand, Hard is quite challenging, while only the best rhythm gamers will be able to even have a go at All Night, let alone master this difficulty setting.

So far, this sounds like what a good rhythm game should be. So why did I pick up this game and not, say, Dance Dance Revolution, PaRappa the Rapper, or even Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight?

Story Part 1: Overview

What Persona 4: Dancing All Night had which others generally lacked is a story - while less substantial than the main game, was nevertheless a story very much worth watching, and was the main reason I got into this game. 

So, Rise Kujikawa, the J-Pop idol who went back to the city (presumably Tokyo) after her adventures in Persona 4 (Golden), and was going to join an all-star concert with the upcoming Kanamin Kitchen as her comeback debut. And she wants Yu Narukami and his friends from their old school (who all solved the serial murders together) join in as backup dancers for her debut. However, the game soon takes a darker turn which focuses on the other idols gone missing, and it is up to the Yu and his Investigation Team to solve the case.

Yes, sure, there is quite a lot of fanservice in this game, but the story is much more than that; not only did its take on tatemae and honne resounded with my mind, it also helped me appreciate some of the basic aspects of the #MeToo movement. Zhiqing Wan has wrote a review that I almost wholeheartely agree with, so expect a number of quotes from her. (I strongly urge readers to read her review too.)

Story Part 2: Being ourseleves and acceptance

One of Dancing All Night's discussion is the dark side of people's true self versus people's perceptions. Wan wrote:

Dancing All Night follows a slightly different path and instead deals with issues like meeting the expectations of others, and putting on a façade or adopting an entirely different personality so as to be accepted by the majority. ... [omission]

[omission]...How many times have we felt unappreciated or unloved for being ourselves? And how often have we tried to change who we are just to fit societal expectations? Persona 4: Dancing All Night tackles these questions with finesse and, just like Persona 4, proves to be a very human game that we can latch onto easily.

I can very much relate to the above paragraph that Wan wrote, as I had a similar issue with my classmates. Back in 1997, my family and I returned to our hometown of Tokyo from San Francisco, where my dad worked as a bank's branch manager. And the conformist Japanese classroom was as such that I felt punished for acting assertive or even honest, whether it was through the regimented curriculum, or the bullying I experienced from my classmates. It felt like Atlus questioned the usage of tatemae (the veneer we all have in our lives) versus honne (our real opinions) in modern Japanese society, and how we should be not afraid to be more honest with ourselves.

Story Part 3: J-Pop Idols and sexual exploitation

The other, more timely, moral that Atlus explored was the lives of Japanese pop idols. This is the industry where older people (mainly men) are attracted to the idols, which we see has some of the strictest lifestyles of Japanese professionals (both private and public). Wan described it succinctly here:

...Dancing All Night doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to exploring the lives of Japanese pop idols either. There are a few narrative sequences in the game where we get to witness the emotional turmoil of the four Kanamin Kitchen girls, and the struggles they face within the industry. These sequences are all incredibly stylized within the game, of course, but just like in Perfect Blue, it’s shockingly easy to draw parallels between the in-game events and real life itself.

The story's critique got me curious and I had a look at some of the stuff that idols had to go through. Many of the idols have to follow codes of behaviour that demands a high level of politeness and purity: the extent that bans having boyfriends and requires prior permission to marry. One idol member from AKB48 shaved her head and made a public apology for going out with a boyfriend - something many of us do as part of our teenage lives. Even worse, unlike stars on the Disney Channel which at least has the justification that they are starring on a children's show, the situation surrounding the J-Pop idols are basically the hypocrisy of the managers and audiences alike. Hannah Lee, a Law/Asian Studies student from Australian National University writes, for example:

Most fans who follow groups like AKB48 are middle-aged men. The idols themselves are teenagers, who begin performing at around 13 years old. Idols are often presented in cute school outfits and perform in synchronised groups. Whilst sexualisation of women is not limited to Japan, Japanese idol groups specifically pander to a young girl fetish, which is encouraged for the sake of record sales.

But what young girl would ever consent to this? If consent is ‘free and informed’, there is simply is no way that a girl, at 12 years old, can knowingly consent to being sexualised by men four times her age.

Equally disturbing is the fact that this idol fad came as the counter-response to the first wave of Japanese feminism in the 1970s (referenced from the link). Japan Subculture Research Center describe's AKB48's founder, Yasushi Akimoto, as:

...a Zegen [sex merchant] with a vision – having never been popular in high school himself, he recognized the deep sexual frustration and vast need for sexual fantasies festering in the educated and dateless Japanese male. When he came out with “Onyanko Club” in the mid-1980s, people were blinded by the sheer genius of this man. Here he was, peddling quite ordinary high school girls on TV, who all got up on the studio stage to teasingly sing “oh please don’t take my school uniform off, no-no-no!” to an audience who could never hear such titillating pleas when they were 18 so was totally stoked to hear it now...

And the above mentioned are just the articles written in English - there are more on that on Japanese news sites. As for myself: While I enjoyed watching the so called gravure idols in their swimsuits (and to some extent still do), this has made me have second thoughts about the stuff they possibly have to go through. The game (and the subsequent research) was quite enough to make me feel uncomfortable about myself, and acknowledge that I have my fair share of misogyny that I may have contributed.

Story Part 4: Ashly Burch as a mature Rise Kujikawa

And my thoughts do not end here. I also noticed that this game was released a couple of years before the Weinstein scandal had its cover blown last year. Granted, it probably did not have the effect in kicking off the MeToo movement anywhere near the level of other factors, and it definitely has not in Japan, sadly. But I cannot help but think about how the release had such perfect timing.

The other thing is that the English localisation had a response in implying a possible reconstruction of the idol's role. While a lot of people seem to miss Laura Bailey as Rise's English VA, I actually welcome the more mature treatment of Rise by her new VA, Ashly Burch. It seems like Rise asked her agency for permission to assume a more mature persona for her new idol role, allowing her to shed her airhead-ish role of her old idol persona, and it seemed like she did so assertively too. It's a very good thing, considering how idols should be able to grow up and be more independent like the rest of us.

Conversely, it's to my high disappointment (and my only disappointment in this game) that the Japanese original of the game did not do so in the first place - either Rie Kugimiya (the Japanese VA) should have toned down the chipmunky voice Rise turned out as, or Atlus should have casted someone else to sound more in-line with Ashly Burch.

Story Part 5: Other comments

There are also some interesting tidbits to read from the characters speeches as well. The characters don't get much character development per se, partly because the story only takes 2-3 in-universe days at most, and also because I think, understandably, everyone in general wants to be more like silly, carefree teenagers after their harrowing work in solving the serial murders in the prequel. This particularly applies to Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko, as they are in their final year in high school and will be having their university/job entrance exams soon - this is their last opportunity before they need to get serious again.

However, there are many retrospective reflections that come into play when they interact with each others, and with the idols they are saving and befriending. Many are very heartwarming and awesome to see, precisely because of how they reflected upon their own issues, and how their generally honest interactions with each other over the past year in the prequel strengthened their friendships, and how they became more confident with each other.

The majority of the story piggybacks the prequel which is Persona 4 Golden (the main story) - as such everyone should play before this game, as they won't be able to appreciate Dancing All Night's story otherwise. (See here for my reviews of that game.) Both this and the prequel are on PS Vita, so if you can play this game, you practically have no excuse to not get Golden! Special props goes to Uncle Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima:

Back in Persona 4 Golden, Ryotaro was unable to come to terms with his late wife (killed in an hit-and-run accident) and how he has to raise his daughter Nanako on his own, therefore himself emotionally fleeing into his work as a detective. Nanako, on the other hand, was lonely at home, having to do many of the house chores by herself, until Yu and his friends started to befriend her. Here, Ryotaro does his detective work just as his duty, and yet still enjoys his time with Nanako. Nanako, on the other hand, fully trusts her father, and is even befriending Kanami the idol.

Conclusion

So there you have it. If there was a game that not only wrote a story worth reading, but highlights some of the social issues Japan's biggest fad has tucked away conveniently, this is the game. I encourage everyone to either borrow a friend's copy of Dancing All Night (or even better buy a copy, but not before understanding the story of Persona 4 Golden) and look up "the dark side of japanese idol industry" on Google. And maybe spread the word. I'm not sure how I myself can do to address the issue that Dancing All Night rightly raises apart from acknowledging my contribution to misogyny, but at least I can say that Atlus has done a great service in raising the social issue, and they should not be ashamed for it.

Verdict: Buy the game. (But play P4G first!) Other recommendations: Look up the info on the social issues. 

[curious-wildflower]

Silent Hill 4: The Room – 2001 Part 1

In this game we follow Henry Townshend. A man who lives in South Ashfield Heights apartments in the City of South Ashfield a place half a day’s drive from Silent Hill.

He starts experiencing strange and nightmarish dreams and one day wakes up to find that he’s chained up from the inside. inside his own apartment Room 302, he cannot escape through either the windows or his front door.

The people standing directly outside Room 302, can’t hear him when he pounds on the door and cries for help. The other residents while noticing Henry's absence simply carry on with their everyday lives. Even with the master key, the superintendent, Frank Sunderland, cannot open Room 302.

Henry's next-door neighbor in Room 303, Eileen Galvin, expresses concerned about Henry's welfare when he observes her through Room 302's peephole and walls. By listening to Eileen, Henry learns that she is passing time in her apartment just before arriving at a friend's party.

After five days trapped, Henry finds a hole that has opened in his bathroom wall.

Arming himself with a steel pipe that broke loose when the wall opened, he proceeds to venture into the Otherworlds.

The Otherworlds are all inhabited by dangerous creatures. He is able to travel between them and his apartment through mysterious holes resembling the Halo of the Sun.

Every time he travels back to his apartment, Henry finds himself waking up on his own bed. In the different Otherworlds, he witnesses the murders of people who are stuck in realms like him while the murders also occur in the Real World. The victims are Cynthia Velasquez, Jasper Gein, Andrew DeSalvo, and Richard Braintree.

As Henry investigates further, he learns about Walter Sullivan, a serial killer that terrorized Ashfield several years ago and left numbers carved into his 10 victims, Walter was eventually arrested and committed suicide soon after.

(UGgfff)

Thirty-four years before the events of Silent Hill 4: The Room, an abusive unhappy couple lived in Room 302 they fled the apartment (it was speculated by Frank Sunderland, the building’s superintendent, that they may have had financial troubles or got themselves into danger) and abandoned the newborn baby Walter in the living room and since the apartment was the first thing the baby saw subconsciously, he saw it as his mother.

He was later discovered by Frank who gave the baby to the nearby St. Jerome's Hospital after a short stay in the hospital, Walter became a ward of the state and was adopted by the Wish House Orphanage in Silent Hill (The orphanage that is run by the Sect of the Holy Mother) It was there that he began to learn the ways of the Order and was given the name Walter Sullivan.

Walter and the other children of the orphanage were heavily disciplined, physically and psychologically abused while in the orphanage by Andrew DeSalvo, raised to mistrust the world outside the orphanage and to read the Order's scriptures

When Walter was six years old, Dahlia Gillespie came to Wish House and told Walter that his mother was ‘asleep’ in Ashfield and that if he did a good job reading the 21 Sacraments for the Descent of the Holy Mother (a ceremony that requires 21 specific sacrifices that the cult believes will create ‘Paradise’) he could meet her. Walter misinterpreted what she said, and this led to the firm belief that his mother was Room 302, not in it.

Every week for years Walter traveled from the orphanage to South Ashfield Heights by taking the subway train or the bus, but someone else was always in Room 302, preventing him from being reunited with his ‘mother’.

The tenants, especially Richard Braintree, began to complain and treat him badly when they saw him hanging around, and Walter began to fear the tenants and saw them as obstacles preventing him from seeing his mother. Walter would write letters to his ‘mother’ and slip them under Room 302's door, asking her why she wasn't able to wake up.

George Rosten, a priest of the Order's Valtiel sect, instructed and raised Walter in the 21 Sacraments and in doing this, let Valtiel into Walter's subconscious, which allowed him to perform the ritual, it would also likely give Walter some supernatural powers and earned him the nickname ‘The Red Devil’.

Walter killed 10 people in different ways taking their hearts out to perform the Ritual of the Holy Assumption, which allowed him to make himself the eleventh victim through suicide by crucifying himself in Room 302's storage room and remain in his own manifested world.

The exact requirements of the ritual aren’t known but when Henry discovers Walter’s corpse in Room 302, he also finds some of the cult's sacred objects like the Obsidian Goblet (an ancient-looking goblet made of pure obsidian with a snake carved into its stem,) and a bottle of White Chrism (thought to be the liquid form of White Claudia or PTV) ten hearts are known to be required though these are found inside the storage room's refrigerator.

The four new victims that Henry encounters in his wanderings are victims 16 through 19. In Walter's Otherworlds, Henry also meets two versions of Walter: an immortal adult and a child manifestation conjured by Walter's reminiscences.

The newest victims in Henry’s timeline bear the same signature numbers carved into their bodies of Walter’s first 10 kills and events suggest that Walter has come back as a ghost.

After exploring Walter's first four Otherworlds, Henry arrives in the fifth Otherworld: an alternate South Ashfield Heights. He sees Walter Sullivan knocking on Eileen's door, and after finding the key that unlocks Eileen's room, Henry witnesses her be assaulted and bleeding to death on her living room floor having been marked the next victim. Eileen thanks Walter's younger self for trying to protect her from his adult self and passes out. Following Eileen's supposed death, Henry wakes up in Room 302 and notices an ambulance on its way to St. Jerome's Hospital.

In his apartment, Henry notices "hauntings" invading from the Otherworld. Henry creates a new hole in his laundry room that leads to St. Jerome's Hospital's Otherworld, where he discovers Eileen, alive, in one of its rooms. Henry and Eileen decide to stay together to and find a way out of Walter's world. Henry takes Eileen to one of the Halo of the Sun markings but finds out he’s the only one who can actually use or see them.