#and decided to see the showing at the movie theater in that bigger city while we were up there

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I think some part of me will always be that kid walking out of a huge movie theater into a grey overcast afternoon not realizing her world was about to be permanently changed but feeling changed already herself by the animated Disney film she'd just seen that she would spend a year acting like she was too cool to be affected by, even though she'd never cried at a movie before that and and the cries from the speakers were still ringing in her ears on that cold, overcast afternoon, right before her world changed

[biromanticbooknook]

My Most Ambitious Crossover

I got bored by posting only my second gen Amazon AU, so I’ll get back to that tomorrow, but enjoy this one-shot about Chloe and Marinette creating their own trip instead of their class trip in the meantime. Can’t have you all thinking I’m a one-trick pony, can I?

“-and that’s why we think you shouldn’t go on the trip this year.” Mlle. Bustier tried to look apologetic, but it was as much her idea as the students. Between Marinette refusing to set an example and Chloe associating with her, neither of them deserved to go.

“Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid I would have to get my daddy to donate 30% of the funds like he does every year.”

“I’m just glad I don’t have to take 60% of the trip funds out of my commission profits. That will give me a much bigger budget for fabric and accessories.” Everyone blanched at the statements of the 2 girls. They were saying that they paid for 90% of the trip every year, but that couldn’t be right. They worked so hard on fundraisers every year, they must be lying about how much they contribute.

Marinette just ignored them, turning to her seatmate. “Do you think that our other friends would want to go on a trip with us? Most classes take their trips during May, so we could leave at the beginning of June and take the entire summer.”

“Nice thinking, Maribug. With fewer people, prices go down and we can afford more bang for our buck.” They walk out of the classroom, discussing who to ask and when.

The class just made a big mistake.

-----

By the time the weekend rolled around, Marinette and Chloe had their group list finalized. The people going on their trip were themselves, Luka, Kagami, Aurore, Mireille, and Marc. They got together and started brainstorming fundraisers.

Marinette started. “There are the given examples; you know, car wash, bake sale, raffle. What else?”

“We could host a show.” Luka suggested.

“Like an exhibition?” Marinette asked. “We could have you perform, Kagami do a fencing demonstration, and I could do a small fashion show, using Chloe and Marc as models. Aurore and Mireille could be our MCs.”

“To capitalize on money-making, we could sell tickets, food and drink, and merch for Luka’s solo career as well as commission spots for our resident designer.”

“That’s good.” Marinette starts scribbling in the shared notebook.

“At Le Grande Paris, we could host parties. I know days when the grand ballroom is open. We could host an auction, sell lessons and creations and stuff. We could also host a masquerade ball that we sell tickets for. We could charge for food and drink. The pools are open for private reservation quite often, we could have parties there too.” Chloe takes the notebook and starts writing down her ideas, mapping out all the resources needed while muttering.

“We could also host a carnival or a gaming tournament in the ballroom.” Kagami looked thoughtful. “I’ve never actually been to one.”

Chloe added that to the list. “Should we do anything else?”

“We could start a go-fund-me. Artists and writers do it all the time to get their creations off the ground.” Marc murmured.

“That would be great. What’s our goal for this entire endeavor?”

“Our goal, Maribug, is €45,000. That should cover travel, boarding, tours, food, and souvenirs. Whatever we don’t spend gets redistributed to the group.” Chloe supplies.

“Then that should be it. Nice job, guys!”

“My, what a whirlwind of a planning session. I hope nothing rains on our parade. I wonder weather Mlle. Bustier’s class is doing this well.” Aurore beams at them.

“Mm-hmm.” Mireille agrees with Aurore.

“Probably not. Our classmates couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel. They’ll just listen to Lila that the boot will empty by itself through the toe because ‘I worked on patenting this boot’, then they’ll get mad at the boot for not doing it.” Chloe chuckles dryly.

“Be nice.” Marinette reprimands half-heartedly.

-----

Chloe immediately filed the paperwork with the school board so they could go on their trip with no safety or legal concerns. She recruited Mme. Mendeleiev and M. D'Argencourt to be their chaperones, who were more than happy to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles, Star City, Central City, Metropolis, Gotham, New York City, and Tokyo.

They had their first fundraiser at the end of September, a pool party at Le Grande Paris. Even Mlle. Bustier’s class attended, though they didn’t know who had set it up, only that Luka was performing. They hadn’t even started their planning  yet. The group made €3,041.

The next was a car wash in the middle of October. It was cool enough for a car wash to be pleasant while being warm enough that everyone was still out and about. They earned €2,632. Bustier's class was getting ice cream and listening to Lila brag.

They then had an All Hallow’s Eve bake sale, complete with candy decoration reminiscent of the American holiday. They earned €1,800.

During November, they held a carnival, with a full fall theme. It was wildly popular with families from all over Paris, earning them €6,483. It was around this time that Mlle. Bustier’s class held a bake sale, and earned €1,594. They celebrated.

Throughout the holiday season, they took advantage of peoples’ spirit. They held a raffle throughout the 12 Days of Christmas, while also holding a bake sale the day before winter break. Overall, they earned €10,749.

Over winter break, Chloe bought plane tickets and reserved tours and hotels, so all that was left was to get money for the tours and food. They were over halfway to their goal.

During January, they rented a theater, and held their exhibition. They had a crowd of fencing enthusiasts, rock music lovers, and fashion followers. They made €5,830.

They held a date auction and a masquerade to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It was amazing, and they earned €7,284.

They had checked their go-fund-me, and had found that €10,000 was there, putting them €2,819 over their goal. They were ecstatic!

They still held the gaming tournament at the end of April, but let it be free for everyone to enjoy as their celebration of reaching their goal.

-----

Mlle. Butsier’s class had made €7,000 over their 3 fundraisers, and they were pretty proud of themselves. No doubt they would be going somewhere much better than whatever Maribrat and Chloe have planned. Once the girls walked into the classroom, the class started to brag.

“We’ve finished fundraising!”

Marinette smiled and decided to be nice to them. “Cool. Where are you going?”

“We are going to New York City.”

Chloe was not as kind. “Oh, so are we! It was so hard to raise the €45,000 needed for our trip, but we did it. It was so euphoric to meet our goal. How much did you guys raise?”

“We made €7,000.” The smiles slowly slipped off the faces of the class. “What do you mean the €45,000 needed?”

“Well, we needed to cover food, travel, boarding, and tours, and that was just for the 7 of us. I can’t imagine what the budget would’ve been like for an entire class.” Her smile got an edge, like a lioness who knew she had cornered her prey.

Her classmates blanched. “What was our budget, Alya?” Rose looked towards their new class representative, hoping that she had an answer.

“We never had one.”

“Well, at least you filed the paperwork right?”

“What paperwork?”

Marinette responded this time. “The paperwork needed to go on a trip. You were supposed to submit it to the school board for approval of safety and legality. It was on page 17 of the packet I gave you at the beginning of the year. Didn’t you read it, Alya?”

“I-I-no. Lila said that was just extra work that you had given me to throw me off my game. She said you didn’t actually need to do all of that.”

“I didn’t know that Lila had more experience being a class representative than me and Marinette, the only 2 people who have ever been class representative here.” Chloe’s voice became as sharp and sweet as her smile. “Well, have fun with your trip. Marinette and I have to do last-minute checks on our arrangements.”

The class looked at the people that had carried them the previous years, and realized how much they relied on the girls. Lila was cursing herself for pushing away the only people who actually did anything in this class.

-----

The class ended up going to Disneyland Paris, and tried their best to look as upbeat as possible on their social medias. Meanwhile, The group was having the time of their lives.

They stayed in LA for 2 weeks, visiting movie sets and meeting actors. They spent another week just going on everything at Disneyland and California Adventure.

They then spent a week in Star City, touring Queen Industries and having a meet and greet with Oliver Queen and his ward, Roy Harper, who seemed to enjoy Aurore’s outgoing personality. They even saw the vigilantes.

They spent another 2 weeks in Central City, touring STAR Labs and watching the rogues try to fight the Flash family. It was the most meta-filled city in the world, and They toured a forensics lab with Bart Allen. Chloe seemed grimly pleased with seeing the bodies. She might’ve been projecting certain people onto them, not that she would ever admit it.

2 weeks in Metropolis was really fun. They toured the Daily Planet with Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Mireille was amazed by what you could do to report without having to be in front of a screen. They made a scavenger hunt of how many Supers they could find, and they found 2 different superboys. Lex Corp also gave them a tour, although it was more professional than the tour of the Daily Planet.

They spent 1 week in Gotham. They toured Wayne Enterprises and stayed out of the Bats’ way. Luka got the phone number of Tim Drake. Marinette enjoyed the inspiration that the gothic architecture brought her. There wasn’t much of a nightlife scene, considering only fools stay out after dark in Gotham.

Their 1 week in New York City was hectic. The Avengers were all at the tower when they were touring with Pepper Potts by Chloe’s request. Chloe might’ve been unofficially adopted by Tony Stark when she stood up to them and made them ‘cease their bullshit’. The Black Widow also took a liking to the girl. They also ran into these weird teens muttering about monsters when they were waiting for the elevator at the Empire State Building.

2 weeks in Tokyo. Their last stop. They visited the prestigious Ouran Academy, the host club getting Marc to come out of their shell by constantly helping boost his self-esteem. Chloe enjoyed talking business and finances with Kyoya Ootori. Kagami led them all in a traditional tea ceremony, before they all stormed the streets to try the unfamiliar street food.

Marinette ended up being unofficially adopted by 3 heroes, 2 rogues, and 5 billionaires. She was happy getting to spend 7 weeks on the road with only her closest friends.

The class was incredibly jealous of the trip their classmates took. They hoped next year they could go on a trip like that as well, but they had missed their shot.

[ckneal]

So, there’s this one angel story in the back of my head that I know I wont write. I wont write it, because it’s utter nonsense, with very little regard for the canonical timeline of Supernatural, and a willfully blurry view on what is and is not “in character.” It’s fluff. It’s all fluff, in the form of a bunch of smaller stories that gradually weave together, following the Love, Actually style of storytelling, but instead of problematic love stories, it’s all about angels playing hooky from Heaven after the Fall.

(Seriously, there is no substance here, I swear.)

Stories include Abner, living out the first half of the movie Family Man, struggling to figure out how to be a good father and house husband after he steps into the life of the raging alcoholic who agreed to be his vessel. There’s also a very minor story about Esther (not to be confused with Hester, who is not in this story because she never deserted her post in Heaven) learning to play the part of a little girl and navigating schoolyard politics, but kids can be mean and Esther learns the hard way that Michael’s approach to asserting dominance in Heaven does not translate well. There’s also Daniel and Adina, who both settle into vessels in the same movie theater where a romantic comedy is playing, and fall into a very innocent, play-acting sort of love after they leave the theatre—like little kids pretending to be in love, recreating the scenes from the movie, but at the same time not really understanding it. Balthazar, Gabriel, and Anael each trying to roll with the luxurious high roller life style, and awkwardly running into each other at VIP poker games, exclusive spas and clubs, and the occasional orgy that they promptly leave IMMEDATELY after running into a sibling (don’t give me weird looks, Balthazar and Gabriel canonically include that sort of thing in their definition of luxury, and the whole thing of their story is their siblings keep cramping their style). Tyrus is in there bowling, somewhere. Benjamin’s playing arcade games with his wife. And then there’s Thaddeus, my pet favorite minor angel character, realizing what’s happening as he’s falling with all the other faithful angels during the Fall and seizing the opportunity to abandon his life as a guard and torturer, settling into a pop star for his vessel—initially for the sake of the cushy lifestyle, but then gradually looking back, before the garden and Lucifer, before everyone was assigned a job in Heaven, like it or not, and the options were to adapt or to be smote, and remembering that back then, he could sing.

And of course, Michael and Adam get a story too—in which Michael lowkey gets into a pissing contest with death, as he and Adam travel the world, hitting up hospital after hospital to heal people. Because the first thing Adam wanted to do after getting out of the cage (okay, second thing—burgers came first) was go to the nearest medical center and start healing people left and right. And at first, they’re having a great time. Adam steals a white jacket he finds in the breakroom somewhere, and anytime someone says he looks a little young to be a doctor (Adam still looking nineteen years old, because I say so), Michael wipes the poor sap’s mind. But eventually—sometime after they’ve cleared out the children’s ward, the cancer ward, the cardiac ward—Billie shows up, sniping at them that they can’t just go around healing people who are destined to die, because there is an order to life and death that cannot be shoved aside. And Billie tries to make a show of it, as Terra did with Dean, by having several people who Adam had healed over the course of the day inadvertently cause several massive accidents. The news suddenly comes pouring out of the television, channels flipping as newscasters talk about tragedies occurring in several different parts of the city they’re currently in. The sound of approaching ambulance sirens fills the air, as in the hospital hallway, doctors and nurses begin hurrying to receive a rush of ER patients.

Adam’s horrified.

Michael does not take kindly to this. He snaps his fingers and makes it so that the carnage has never happened. Because he is the archangel Michael, only two steps away from being a god, and if he says that all of these people are going to live, then they are going to live, and he WILL NOT be intimidated, especially by an amateur reaper whose only qualification for her position was dying at the right time.

Billie in turn lands Michael with a cold stare, and points out that the order to life and death is beyond even God’s authority, let alone daddy’s blunt, sniveling instrument.

As Michael’s eyes start to glow, Adam steps in and says, “So, to be clear, you want us to stop healing people on the verge of death? We can do that.”

After Billie leaves, Michael is outraged, but Adam says, “No, Michael, THINK about it.”

We then cut to other stories, where newscasts in the background reveal that ailments that are not IMMIEDATELY fatal (AIDs, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, etc.) are mysteriously disappearing overnight, worldwide.

Billie is not amused, and tells her reapers to be on the lookout for an archangel at every major hospital in the world.

Cut to Michael throwing open the door of the bunker, muttering aloud to Adam that he’s going to do it, he’s going to bind Death, just like Lucifer did—how hard can it be? Sam and Dean see him as he goes stomping off toward the cabinet where they keep all of their magical dry goods, but Michael snaps his fingers and the two of them are abruptly half drunk in Dean’s man cave, sitting in front of Dean’s flat screen TV, watching some campy monster movie, because that’s lowkey what Michael and Adam assume they do all day.

As they’re raiding Sam and Dean’s supplies though, Adam says, “Wait, I have an idea.”

Cut to Abner looking up while pushing his vessel’s daughter in a park swing, and literally seeing Michael and Adam chasing an ambulance, so they can technically heal the person inside before reaching the hospital.

Yes, I’m aware that Abner was dead by the time Michael and Adam got out of the cage. But see, this story? This story is like when someone gifts you a goldfish unexpectedly, and you put it in a bowl, checking in to feed it a couple times a day, lowkey expecting it to die. But it doesn’t die, it gets bigger. And you’re not a cruel person, so you put it in a bigger tank, but it just gets bigger again, and you don’t really know what’s going on, but you know, you just kind of keep checking in, meeting the minimum requirements but not really getting in there as a guiding force because it’s a goldfish and it’s surely going to die any minute now—but then you look over and there’s giant tank taking up your living room, and you’re thawing out bloodworms twice a day, and looking into tankmates to keep Charles company, and realize that “Oh wow, I guess this is a thing now.”

In short, the story says we’re ignoring the timeline, and it’s calling the shots. I’m just keeping the tank clean.

The angels all eventually wind up running into each other. Abner and Esther happen upon one another in a park, where Esther is morosely realizing that she is terrible at being a human child but she does not want to go home to Heaven, and it just happens to be the same park where Abner goes with his “little nibblet” once a day to let her toddle around the playground while he chats with nannies and other house parents. Anael, Adina, and Daniel meet up when the latter two’s game has reached the point where they’ve decided to get married, and they apparently need to buy something new—preferably blue—as per this very important rhyme someone told them about. Esther and Gabriel run into each other in an ice cream parlor. Thaddeus gets recognized while doing an interview on TV that everyone sees. And, while out joyriding in a Lamborghini, on their way to meet up with the growing community of angels who decided to opt out of their responsibility to Heaven and their father’s legacy, Balthazar, Gabriel, and Anael are all startled to see Michael land on an ambulance stopped next to them at a red light.

Balthazar and Anael are both terrified, as if they’ve just been busted by a parent, because Michael, of course, is the guy who enforces the rules, and isn’t he supposed to be in Hell? They both shoot Gabriel looks as if to say ‘what the hell are you doing’ when Gabriel, watching as Michael climbs down and matter-of-factly wrenches the ambulance doors open, calls out, “Hey, Mike! Is that you?”

Michael looks over, freezes for a second—not prepared to be suddenly thrust into a social situation in the middle of his self-imposed mission to spite death—then his eyes flash and Adam takes over. “Oh hey, you’re Michael’s family? What a small world! I’m Adam, I’ve heard so much about you. Wait, hang on—”

The light starts to turn green, but Adam snaps his fingers and it promptly reverts to red.

Three jaws drop in the luxury car, and they don’t even hear Adam politely explain that he and Michael are in the middle of something, as he ducks into the ambulance, because Michael’s evidently letting a tiny human use his powers like it’s nothing, and what does that mean?

“Sweet dad in the unknown, Michael’s shagging a human. . .”

“Nooo!”

“HOW?”

“Hey, kid, you like weddings?”

At some point in the story, all the MIA angels are together, and Benjamin or someone comes running in saying, “Quick, they’re coming! Everyone hide!”

And everyone scatters, except for Michael, who stands in place, saying, “Gabriel, we’re archangels, two of the most powerful beings in existence. Why would we—”

And then Gabriel picks Adam up like a sack of potatoes and sprints off, calling back, “Trust me, you do NOT want to get involved with them!”

Being a projection, Michael is obligated to follow.

Team Free Will then walks by, looking constipated from whatever Big Awful Thing is currently threatening to destroy the world.

The story, of course, culminates in the wedding of Adina and Daniel, who still don’t quite understand what marriage is beyond promising to love each forever, which of course they will, after all, they are the very best of friends—which is about the same concept that most of the other angels present have. Adam is the first one to actually approach the big awkward question, upon finding out who the bride and groom are.

“Wait, aren’t they brother and sister?”

To which Serafina’s Adam, (who is of course there since Serafina was the original angel to play hooky) whose sons married his daughters, and all the angels, who do not understand what that has to do with anything, all cock their heads in unison and respond with, “So?”

Adam struggles to find words, looking into so many innocent faces. Then Benjamin’s wife puts a hand on his shoulder, whispering, “Shhh, let them have their fun.”

Benjamin’s wife and the two Adams wind up sitting at the venue’s bar, where they order nachos from a very confused bar tender, and watch as the angels go about setting up a wedding. But given that most angels haven’t been on earth regularly in roughly two thousand years, none of them have a clear grasp of what a human wedding entails.

“I heard it’s traditional for the father to give away the bride.”

“I think they’re supposed to kiss over bread.”

“Do humans still slaughter cows at these things?”

“I’m pretty sure someone is supposed to break a glass—”

Several angels promptly throw glassware on the floor.

At no point do the angels ask the humans for advice.

Occasionally, Gabriel knowingly throws out obscure details to keep the confusion going.

“You know, the groom needs to stand with the right arm to the aisle in case a sword fight breaks out.”

“Right! . . .How do we know which one’s the groom?”

At the bar, Adam open’s his mouth to say something, but the original Adam shushes him.

“No no, son, let them get there.”

The angels agree that being the better fighter, Adina should be the groom.

They’re nearly ready to start when Michael suddenly doubles over with his hand over his mouth. It coincides with the sound of Adam pounding the bar top, having just eaten a Carolina Reaper pepper on dare. Michael’s eyes quickly flash silver-blue as he straightens, and both he and Adam are abruptly fine—even if their eyes are still watering somewhat. But a different sort of damage has already been done, as Anael, Balthazar, and Gabriel all abruptly turn toward the triad of humans, having been reminded that the Michael walking around with them is actually a projection. In actuality, Michael is anchored to the human ex-college student sitting at the bar.

All three of them rush toward Adam, but Serafina gets there first, asking Adam if he’s ever tried mushroom tea.

Balthazar gets there next. 

“Adam, was it? We didn’t get to talk in the car, let’s fix that. Are you over twenty-one? You know what, this is a family affair, don’t worry—CAN I GET TWO SHOTS OF DON JULIO OVER HERE?”

From that point on, any time Adam turns around, there’s one of Michael’s siblings, wanting to get to know him—by consuming some sort of beverage. Because Adam and Michael are sharing body—and that means they share a liver too. A bet ensues as to how much it will take to get God’s alleged favorite wasted.

Gabriel’s actually one of the first out, having been convinced that Michael would be a lightweight. Little does he suspect that Benjamin and his wife caught onto what was happening soon after Adam was fed his third long island iced tea and second jager bomb, and began quietly cleansing the alcohol from his system through casual shoulder pats and high fives.

Adam does not know what to make of any of this, but it’s Michael’s family and he wants to make a good impression, so he just goes with it.

Thaddeus, of course, is in charge of music, Gabriel and Esther consume the majority of the cake, and Michael catches the bouquet (he may have cheated after finding out what the bouquet toss is for).

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

I don’t need you to respect me, I respect me

I’m gonna miss writing about Amethyst.

As the most sisterly Crystal Gem, a firebrand in the new role of middle child after spending millennia as the baby of the group, Amethyst’s story is about growing from a wild teen to a responsible adult. Like Steven, she feels the need to prove that she’s a Crystal Gem too, but unlike Steven, she already is a Crystal Gem, so she carries a different kind of resentment as she continues to be treated like a child. It’s made even worse by her warrior instincts clashing with her small frame: she lives with the constant anxiety that she’s a mistake, a Gem who came out wrong and doesn’t belong in her family, so she comforts and distracts herself with hedonism and shapeshifting. Her problem goes beyond not feeling respected: deep down, she fears that she doesn’t deserve respect.

But she changes her mind.

“This isn’t normal.”

The Return and Jailbreak culminated the first act of Steven Universe, giving our characters subtle achievements (Amethyst and Pearl casually fuse into Opal, Greg reveals a deeper understanding of the Gems than we once thought, Beach City comes together as a community when Steven is in danger) and huge changes (Steven summons a massive shield, Garnet’s status as a fusion is confirmed, Lapis goes from prisoner to imprisoner). While not an official finale, Beta and Earthlings culminated the second act, narrowing the focus to five characters as they each reach one milestone or another: Lapis and Amethyst find a level of peace, Peridot defends her new home, Jasper succumbs to corruption, and Steven helps his friends but fails to help his enemy.

In a way, Change Your Mind culminates the third act with an even narrower focus. Sure, it gives big moments to a ton of characters (there’s fanservice galore, and we see the three Diamonds in particular take enormous steps), but we zero in on Steven in the same way the entire act has zeroed in on Steven, because this is a story about identity. It isn’t only about who he is, but who he wants to be moving forward, and fusing all the insights he’s learned from his human family, his Crystal Gem family, and his Diamond family into a song that encapsulates his growth over the course of the series.

We start in the most lifelike of the Diamond dreams, so real that Steven still sees himself as Steven rather than embodying Pink. Once again, this connection emerges from sleeping in a location where Pink once dwelled, but while he wasn’t feeling her impatience and rage in Jungle Moon, nor her hardening resolve in Can’t Go Back, nor her whimsy in Familiar, this time they share the same headspace when they’re both locked in a tower.

Considering how bombastic things get in this episode, I love how low-key this final dream remains until White Diamond interferes. We’re as lost as Steven at first, worrying about Connie and baffled at Blue’s recognizable mood but incongruous accusations, but as the truth becomes clear, he transforms into Pink off-screen without any fanfare, both in body and in mind: Steven isn’t questioning Blue’s warning about Pink Pearl, Pink Diamond is apologizing for her own behavior in Zach Callison’s voice. Still, looking down jolts him out of it, and after seeing the Crystal Gems poofed at the ball for a more definitive Steven memory, we cycle in Rose’s horror at her family launching a final attack on Earth. The rapid-fire identity shifts that follow inspired the most haunting piece of promo art for the episode, drawn by Rebecca Sugar herself, but I didn’t wanna display it without a seizure warning.

It’s excellent exposition, hitting the highlights of the Diamonds’ many wrongs and establishing Steven’s fraying sense of self in a way that’s both artful and brief; it’s important to remind younger viewers about the stakes, but Change Your Mind doesn’t pretend that anyone should be watching this episode without context, so it doesn’t prioritize thorough explanation. And despite how frightening the nightmare becomes, Steven gains a new sense of clarity after seeing the pattern laid out in front of him. The Diamonds are hurting him in the same way they hurt his mother, and if he’s going to help everyone, he needs to help himself.

When Blue Diamond returns to the tower in modern day, Steven isn’t afraid, and he isn’t alone. The first of many puns riddling the finale emerges (“Déjà Blue!”) before Connie proves why she’s the perfect partner for our hero, platonic or otherwise. He’s terrible at confronting the people that hurt him—this would require him to acknowledge he’s hurt in the first place, which he’s also terrible at—but if she was comfortable enough with confrontation to call out her best friend when he wrongs her, Blue Diamond doesn’t stand a chance. Connie comes out swinging, loading the bases with candor and sass despite Blue’s confusion over why a human even gets an opinion about this stuff, which makes Steven’s refusal to apologize hit the Diamond like a grand slam.

I love that Steven’s flat “no” takes Connie by surprise as well as Blue, because yeah, it’s uncharacteristically blunt for someone who’s spent his entire trip to Homeworld bending over backwards like he usually does to accommodate others. When he doubles down by explaining that he isn’t sorry about creating a show that celebrates queer characters whoops sorry I mean fusion, Callison makes it sound like the most obvious thing in the world, and this is what upsets Blue enough to inflict her tears on him. We’ll learn even more about Pink’s temper in Steven Universe Future, but the simple act of not bowing to authority makes Steven “worse than ever” in Blue’s mind: violence is more acceptable than insubordination. (Also, violence in cartoons is more acceptable than queer folks just sorta existing in cartoons, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Change Your Mind is about combating bigotry and cycles of abuse, and Blue is the obvious first test. She’s a bigot who doesn’t think she’s a bigot (compared to Yellow, who doesn’t care that she’s a bigot, and White, who’s quite proud of being a bigot). She passively perpetuates a toxic status quo (compared to Yellow, who actively perpetuates it, and White, who established it in the first place). It makes sense that she’s the first of the remaining Diamonds to change her mind, because all it takes for her to realize that something is wrong is thinking about it a little harder.

This doesn’t let her off the hook, of course: Blue’s sloth—the sin, not the animal—might not look flashy next to Yellow’s wrath or White’s pride or Pink’s envy, but she still chose to do nothing for thousands of years rather than contemplate how her actions and her society might have wronged Pink. If it was this easy for Blue to realize she was hurting Pink, it makes it that much more of an issue that it took her this long to figure it out. Unintentional bigots might be the “best” option by default, but they can be just as harmful as intentional bigots, and there’s a special sort of damage that can come from an oppressor who truly believes themselves an ally.

That said, while it’s important to acknowledge her blame (emphasized here when she only stops attacking Steven when he calls her out rather than the Diamonds in general), Blue is also a victim. She’s one of the most powerful beings on Homeworld, but she’s still trapped by White Diamond, and resorts to putting others down as a means of reclaiming a sense of that power. In the same way oppressed people often turn to sexism and racism and homophobia to make themselves feel bigger, Blue (and Yellow) reinforce White’s sweeping bigotry in the same way they echo her family-specific abuse. It’s not a good coping mechanism, in this show or in the real world, but understanding the problem is key to fixing it.

So it still feels like a victory when Blue turns, even though it should’ve happened ages ago, and even though she’s a tyrant. She isn’t just deciding to help Steven, she’s breaking out of that cycle in a way that allows for growth beyond our hero’s immediate concerns. Lisa Hannigan captures this transformation beautifully, shifting from manipulative whining about Pink’s behavior to a crushing realization that she’s the one who’s wrong. And even as she joins Steven’s side, she remains weighed down by her longstanding prejudice: Hannigan stutters as she refers to the Crystal Gems as his family, and her triumphant defense of Steven’s name to Yellow comes with the caveat that she’s still misgendering him.

But before we get to Yellow, we take a pit stop that grounds us back to Steven and Connie’s hunger. It may seem small, but this is a critical moment in establishing Steven’s humanity in a way the show has quietly done from day one: with food.

The very first scene of Steven Universe establishes our hero’s human half in a donut shop, upset about dessert. From there, the next five episodes drill in that Steven will take a unique approach to his magical Gem heritage, and they all involve food in a major way: Cookie Cats, then his father’s saying about pork chops and hot dogs, then the Cheeseburger Backpack (important enough to be the episode’s name), then the Together Breakfast (ditto), then creating a monster based on fries.

It’s not just Steven, either. The first few Connie episodes involve eating and drinking in ways that show hints of growth (worrying about trans fats, then sneaking food into movie theaters) and mark key moments in her life (sharing a juicebox, taking her parents to dinner). Lars’s development is tied with his love of baking, and on top of him and Sadie working at the Big Donut, the Frymans and the Pizzas are so tied to their food service jobs that it’s in their names. And speaking of names, we’ve got Vidalia calling her sons Sour Cream and Onion. It even extends to the Gems: Amethyst’s connection with Earth means she loves food, and Pearl’s greater distance from humanity means she can’t stomach it.

Food is fundamentally something that humans require and Gems don’t, and just like we saw in Lars’s Head, Steven’s physical body forces him to think about his own needs despite his usual focus on others. Both his humanity and his ability to stand up for himself are key to his eventual victory, and what could’ve been a generic transition between Blue and Yellow’s big scenes instead becomes a quiet Steven scene. Steven changing into his usual clothes (including his mom’s star) and Connie changing into her own outfit (including her dad’s jacket) is the perfect finishing touch before we dive back into the drama.

True to their natures, Yellow Diamond gets a starker introduction than Blue’s dream sequence: as the lights burst on, we get two shots focusing on a horrifying number of mutated Gem Shards floating around in the room, then the Crystal Gems’ thankfully intact gems in one big bubble, before panning down to the villain who caused all this pain. The menace is palpable before she even opens her mouth, but Patti LuPone’s low tone keeps the mood from boiling over just long enough that when she loses her cool, it hits like a freight train.

Blue’s passive bigotry endured because she lacked introspection, but Yellow’s active bigotry requires constantly justifying actions she knows are cruel by presenting it as a matter of superior reasoning. We’ve known from her first appearance that Yellow’s seething fury undermines her reputation for cold logic, and now more than ever the connection between her behavior and that of “sophisticated” bigots is clear. You know the type: openly, smugly hateful, but couching their hate as something derived from some deep knowledge about the subject, whether in religious convictions or whatever “science” they can scrape together to confirm their worldview.

Sure enough, even in her rage, Yellow lays down what she sees as a rational explanation for why it was okay to mistreat Pink, and why it’s okay that they themselves are mistreated: if they make exceptions for anyone, even other Diamonds, they must make exceptions for everyone, and chaos reigns. Besides the slippery slope being a fallacy, her argument is punctured by Connie’s second big retort of the night, pointing out that this extreme conclusion of Homeworld Gems living free actually sounds pretty nice. But you can’t force this type of bigot to change their mind through reason; if such a person was actually interested in logical worldviews, they wouldn’t have become a bigot in the first place. You need to change their heart.

Fortunately, emotions are Blue’s domain, so she’s just the person to help. Unfortunately, in the same way she still can’t get Steven’s pronouns right, Blue lacks experience with healthy communication, and strikes a first blow against Yellow on instinct. The ensuing brawl is brutal, switching between the massive scale of two warring titans and the smaller scale of Steven and Connie scrambling to save the Crystal Gems as Blue and Yellow unload millennia of baggage on each other. It’s so important that Blue is the physical instigator here, as it fuels Yellow’s white-hot self-righteous streak like nothing else, and it keeps the fight from being one-sided all the way through: Yellow pretty much needs to be the one dealing the final blow for the scene to stick, so it gets balanced out by Blue’s opening punch.

Blue uses her powers on Yellow, and Yellow uses her powers on Blue, but Steven’s power is talking. So just like with Blue’s conversion, Connie gets the opening words while Steven gets the finisher. When he finally gets her attention after being ignored throughout the scene, he makes Yellow listen to him by using the same food-based expression I mentioned from all the way back in Laser Light Cannon. It’d pack a bigger punch if Greg said “If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs” at literally any other point in the show, but it still does the trick.

Blue was emotionally ready to accept that Pink was suffering, but hadn’t considered the Diamonds’ role in that suffering. Yellow knew that Pink suffered thanks to the Diamonds, but suppressed her emotions to the point where she couldn’t empathize with her sister’s plight. Blue needed to be more thoughtful to change, and Yellow needed to be more in touch with her emotions to change, and thus the stage is set for the Battle of Heart and Mind against White Diamond.

Except that this isn’t the lesson of Change Your Mind. Blue and Yellow show that some bigots can be reached, which is great! But despite their differences, Steven uses the same basic strategy in both: he doesn’t let them belittle his identity, he confidently dispels their wrongheaded assumptions, and he gets help from allies instead of shouldering the burden himself. We spend the beginning of the episode seeing that in the right circumstances this approach can work, but from here we’ll see that with some bigots, it’s a non-starter.

So long as you can engage with bigots while maintaining your self-respect, it can be good work to try and help them see the light. It’s not an obligation, but if you want to change hearts and minds, Steven provides a good template for how to do it. Now the rest of the episode can focus on the bigger lesson: if someone refuses to respect your humanity when you’re steadfast and forthright, it isn’t your job to breathe in their poison, or to hold your breath until you asphyxiate waiting for change.

But more on that after the break!

I Can’t Believe We’ve Come So Far

As we reach the end of the original series, it would be criminal not to acknowledge three long-time storyboarders who are on their way out. This isn’t their final contribution to the series, as only one of Change Your Mind’s twelve credited writer/boarders didn’t go on to work on The Movie in some way (Christine Liu, whose tenure was brief but great), and Hilary Florido stayed on as a supervisor for Future. But I wanted to write the big sendoffs here, as this is the last proper “episode” that these three worked on as regular boarders. So it’s time to say goodbye to Katie Mitroff, Hilary Florido, and Jeff Liu.

First up is Katie Mitroff, who clocked two early knockouts with Alone Together and The Test alongside Florido. Mitroff’n’Florido went on to make other classics like Maximum Capacity and Joy Ride before the former teamed up with Lamar Abrams and the latter teamed up with Jesse Zuke for their next batch of episodes.

With Abrams, Mitroff deepened the lore of the show with We Need to Talk, Steven’s Birthday, Bismuth, Buddy’s Book, Three Gems and a Baby, and especially The Answer. She gave us the harrowing revelation of Back to the Moon, and the most ridiculous episode of the series, Restaurant Wars. Her final partner was Paul Villeco, finishing strong with The Trial, Back to the Kindergarten, Your Mother and Mine, Pool Hopping, What’s Your Problem?, Reunited, and Change Your Mind, 100% of which are either in my Love ‘em ranking or my Top Episodes. (Oh, sorry, spoiler alert I love Change Your Mind.)

It’s strange, because she didn’t work on any of the major episodes of Amethyst’s big arc at the end of Season 3, but Mitroff is one of my favorite Amethyst boarders: she’s the consistent thread between Maximum Capacity, Back to the Moon, and What’s Your Problem?, three cornerstones of the character. She excelled at going outside the show’s usual style, as seen in The Answer and Your Mother and Mine, and it’s no coincidence she helped animate Isn’t It Love? to bring Cotton Candy Garnet back for one last ride.

Katie Mitroff is an absolute rock star, I wish her well and you should too.

[symphonicmetal101]

Wishlist For Someone Special

Ok, so I'm feeling really sappy and just a little lonely. All my friends are boring and my family members are too young for me to take to do some stuff.

This is kind of a wishlist of things I wish I had someone to do with or look forward to doing eventually...not necessarily romantic, but I wouldn't mind if it was. (broskis, I ain't never been on a date, not even, like, a platonic one, so bear with me if it seems ridiculous)

Stargazing- lying on a blanket in an open field or in the bed of a truck, just watching the stars, pointing out constellations, and making up stories

Watching the Northern Lights- bundling up in our warmest winter clothing, grabbing a couple campchairs and hot chocolate as we watch them dance and flicker.

Laser Tag- sneaking around, just trying to one up each other, or being on the same team and still- try to one up each other😂

Paintball- a little more painful than laser tag, but still fun. Checking up on each other afterwards to make sure there aren't any really bad bruises

Graffiti- I've always liked the way it looks. I would love for someone to teach me, or for us to learn together in one of those public graffiti houses

A Willow Tree- I would love to find a weeping willow tree and climb it's branches, only to sit and read there with my loved one enjoying their company.

Just Drive- just take a roadtrip with someone I love, blasting music, laughing, singing, and snacking as we blaze down the roads. It doesn't have to be long.

Visit an Animal Sanctuary/Reserve- I find animals fascinating, but also find that sanctuaries and reserves are more educational and often more humane than zoos.

Volunteer at the Food Bank or SPCA- just general acts of service. They make me happy.

Pillow Fortress- I didn't really get to make blanket forts when I was younger, so I want to try doing something even bigger! I want to convert the couch into a cuddle palace.

Spontaneous Dancing- idk man, it just makes me really happy. My dad used to twirl and dip me when I was little, so that's probably where it started.

Cooking/Baking Together- so what if we make a bit of a mess? So what if we screw up the recipe? It doesn't matter, it was time well spent.

Cleaning Together- Growing up as an only child for ten years and then becoming the oldest means I've done chores alone for a long time. I want someone's company, maybe we'll talk, maybe we'll work in comfortable silence, or maybe we'll blast music. I don't care. I would be happy just to know I wasn't alone.

Learning One of Their Hobbies- I want to learn something they know!! Please, let me understand a little better, I just need them to be patient with me.

Forest Walks- especially in Fall. I want to walk down an old trail, listen to leaves crunch under our feet as more fall from above I want the blustery weather to give us rosy cheeks and noses by the time our walk is over.

Horseback Riding- I've done it before, but I would love to bring someone with me. You have more experience? Great! I love to see that confidence in you. You've done it a couple times? Yay, we're in the same boat! Never done it at all? That's ok! I'll do what I can to help you!

Outdoor Movie Night- we don't have drive- in theaters anywhere nearby, but give me a sheet, campchairs, and a projector? I've got us.

Indoor Movie Night- let's bundle up and cuddle together while we watch a new movie. Or maybe it's a classic. Idc.

Try New Food- let's go somewhere for lunch and pick something completely foreign...(I am not eating guinea pig again though, thanks.)

The Wharf- if one of us happens to live by the ocean, we'll be frequent visitors. Not necessarily the beach, bit on wooden planks where the salty sea air still reaches you. We can watch the boats come and go. (Fisherman's Wharf in B.C Canada is fun. There's a really good Mexican food place😂 There's a blind seal named Sammy that lives there, and you can buy a bucket of fish to feed him. Be careful though, seagulls are vicious, being pecked by one sucks...yes, I needed a bandaid and my finger was sore for a long time. Idk if it's still like that, it's been a while. Sorry, just reminiscing a bit.)

Painting- let's buy a couple canvases and paint and see what we can do! It doesn't have to resemble anything, just do what feels like you.

Splatter Painting- dear god I've wanted to try this for so long. Just full on globs of paint and flicking it towards the canvas. (I was never allowed to do it because it was seen as a waste of paint. I couldn't even do it with an old toothbrush on a small canvas😑)

Video Games!- Please teach me how to play! Video games are banned in my family. I mean, I've done Just Dance, but that's about it. Mobile games have been kept a secret...basically just teach me to play and don't make me feel bad about playing, and I'll love you forever, mkay?

Ice Cream Date- again, idk. The idea just makes me really happy, whether we're sitting in a small shop, eating and talking. Or maybe we're walking, maybe holding hands, trying to point things out to each other, but our hands are full, but there's no way we're letting go. Or maybe we're sharing a cup of ice cream on a park bench, just people watching.

Thrift Store Outfits- I want to go to a thrift store and pick out the most ridiculous outfits for each other. We don't have to go anywhere, but just humour me when we're alone by wearing whatever I found for you, and vice versa.

Writing- writing a poem, a atory, a quote, or learning calligraphy and just writing their name- I want to write something to you

Books- let's go to the library and choose a book for each other, one that neither of us have read so we can talk and ask questions, come up with theories as we continue to read.

Books pt.2- if you write me a note and give me a book telling me why it's one of your favourites, I'll melt. I'll do the same for you, and soon we'll have a few more things to talk about and enjoy together

Music!- you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to send you music that reminds me of you, and I would be overjoyed to recieve the same.

Music! Pt.2- if you happen to play, sing, or dance, let's make something beautiful together! If not, I'll teach you!

Improv/rp- just making stuff up as we go, not caring if other people hear our conversations.

Trampoline Park/Something Similar- I just want to try it. Don't care if I break my leg, I want to try it. I'll care if you break your leg though.

Plant Shopping- again, idk. Just the idea of choosing a succulent or two to take care of together sounds nice.

Dance Classes- maybe you're already an amazing dancer, I'll let you take the lead. Maybe you just know the basics like me, we can learn together. (I know how to do the basics for, like, salsa, cumbia, bachata, swing, and waltz, that's it. Please teach me more🤩)

Sewing/Knitting/Crocheting/Fabric Work- useful skill! And maybe we can make something for each other. (Spoiler alert: you're getting a pillow case, mask, or a scarf, I can't do much yet😂)

Rage House- let's just let loose! Make a mess! Yell! Doesn't matter, all of it's legit. I just want to destroy stuff.

Weird Cuddles- again, just the idea makes me happy. If you're lying down, I may as well just flop on you, right? Or maybe somehow we end up upside down. Cuddling while we read books or listen to music. Ok so maybe just cuddling but it feels weird because I'm touch-starved👌

Late Night Calls- I've never done this with anyone under happy circumstances. Could you help me change that? It would be nice to have the last thing before I go to sleep be reassurance and happiness.

Calendar/Planning- let's make a calendar together with pictures of the places we want to go one day. Let's talk to each other so we know what we both want and make sure we put it down.

Scuba Diving- this is something I've wanted to do since I was little- actually it was the first job I said I wanted. I don't want to do it as a career anymore, but I would love to try it with you.

Finding Random Things- little things that remind me of you. Maybe I was out and found a heart shaped rock. Or I heard a bird sing and managed to record it. Or maybe there was a cute keychain at the store that reminded me of you. And that would be enough to make me smile.

Ride a Double-Decker Bus- I've done it before, but the excitement that comes with the thought of riding one again makes me giddy. Just being able to see the city and people from a mobile throne😂

Bike Riding- let's explore nearby, just riding together. Maybe you have trails you want to show me. You can lead, I'll follow. Or vice versa. If we get lost at least we can laugh about it later.

Camping- lets share a tent and a campfire together, roasting smores as we laugh and tell each other stories. Maybe we'll try and sing a few songs too.

Punch Buggy- just playing the game properly will make me happy tbh. It's been 8 years of bending the rules😂

Board/Card Games- yes. I will get competitive. But that's half the fun. Also, I would like to play these properly as well lol

Museum Date- maybe somewhere local, or maybe we were driving by and decided to stop, or maybe we actually planned to go. Let's learn something new together, take some pictures.

Comfy- I didn't know what else to call it. Basically, take out, sweat pants, (messy buns), snacks, drinks, and a good show. Bonus if it's storming outside.

Rain- watching it rain, listening tonit rain, going outside and dancing or running in the rain, jumping in puddles- I want to do it all with you.

Little Gestures- little things we develop as we get to know each other, faces that we come to understand, hand movements we start to copy. Idk, I find it really cute.

Ok guys, sorry this isn't what, well, any of us were expecting. I guess this is my Valentine's Day post?? Idk. If you read it, I hope you liked it.

Feel free to put who you thought of in tags or comments, real or fiction. Or add to the list if you want. I would love to know😊 I know there's a lot of "I wants" but that's because for the first time, in a long time, I feel comfortable admitting that.

51. Mutual comfort characters

[transientwordsmith]

Don’t Fall-- Chapter 9

This is technically a bonus chapter! It picks up right where chapter 8 left off because they were originally going to be one long chapter, but it was too disconnected. This has been a fun journey! | Word Count: ~1300 | Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Ned Leeds | Link to ao3

After finishing breakfast, Tony and Peter saw Dr. Strange out.

“Thank you for this. If you ever need anything, just call,” Peter told him.

Then, Peter got ready to go see that movie he had been waiting for. He was sitting in his room, deciding on a shirt, when he got a text from Ned:

so did you convince mr stark to come with us?

Peter gave a long sigh. A lot has happened since that conversation, he thought. He responded:

no not yet lemme ask

Then he added:

also ive been calling him tony now btw

Peter left his phone on his bed to avoid it buzzing like crazy in his pocket after what he just said.

“Hey Tony?” he called out into the hallway.

“Yeah?” Tony responded from the living room.

“D’you want to come to the movie with me and Ned?”

A moment of consideration.

“Sure.”

Peter returned to his phone, and sure enough there were a bunch of messages from Ned:

since when???

peter explain

p e t e r

so is he not coming

is this like a secret thing

Peter smiled and wondered how he was going to explain everything. He responded:

tony’s coming

also ill explain everything when i see you it is a  l o n g  story

Ned responded by sending Peter a facetime request. Peter hung his head in defeat and clicked the accept button.

“You can’t just say ‘ill explain when i see you’! Tell me now!” Ned said. Peter chuckled.

“Wow, impatient much?” he said.

“Yes, I am.”

Peter explained everything from the first Friday to this morning. He explained the moment he realized he couldn’t keep any notes and that nobody would remember anything. He recounted the moment when he realized that falling asleep before midnight was what was resetting everything. And, of course, he explained when he went from calling Tony “Mr. Stark” to just calling him Tony.

“I just realized that it must be such a sudden change for him,” Peter said. “I had a week to adjust, but he didn’t.”

“Yeah, man. I mean, I last saw you on Thursday and you were calling him Mr. Stark,” Ned said.

“Thursday?” Peter said. “But I went to school on Friday…” He trailed off, remembering that the only Friday, May 7 that would be immortalized in history was the one when he skipped school.

“Damn, I’m going to have to make up so much work!”

Ned and Peter chatted for a bit longer before getting off the phone. About 15 minutes later, Peter and Tony left for the movie theater. They went to the store to buy candy first, because the candy at the store is much bigger than whatever you can get at the theater, but they bought sodas at the theater.

They met Ned outside the theater.

“Ned!” Peter called out to him. Ned saw him and they did their handshake. “It’s good to see you,” Peter said, a sincere look in his eye.

“That must have been the longest week of your life,” Ned said. Peter nodded. Tony placed his hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Come on, we’re going to miss the movie,” he said and walked inside. Tony didn’t often show his concern, but Peter knew it was there. Peter also knew he was going to get told he needed therapy after this.

The movie was okay, but not as good as Peter thought it was going to be. It was incredibly predictable and most of the characters were flat. The action sequences were confusing at best, and the indoor scenes were so poorly lit you could barely see anything.

“So how’d you guys enjoy the movie?” Tony asked as they were walking out of the theater.

“It was good,” Ned said.

“Well, I didn’t like it that much,” Peter said. He told Ned what he thought.

“Ok, all of those things are true, but I still liked the movie,” Ned said.

“That’s fine,” Peter told him.

Peter invited Ned to sleep over at the tower that night because he still wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to wake up again on Saturday morning. When they got back to the tower, Tony went to go to corporate business things while the boys played video games.

“Minecraft?” Ned asked.

“Minecraft,” Peter agreed.

Peter played on his laptop while Ned played on the TV. For a while they played on one of their old private servers where they just built whatever they wanted wherever they wanted. They had planned multiple cities there and had built scale replicas of fictional buildings, such as the Death Star or Trump Tower.

Then they moved to Hypixel where they could play games like hide and seek or build battle, which was a lot of fun even though they frequently lost to strangers. During one of the rounds of build battle, “The Avengers” was the prompt. Peter and Ned both tried to convey a chaotic scene in the kitchen, everyone else drew giant heroic statues. Peter and Ned came in last place.

After a few hours, the two got hungry.

“What do you want?” Peter asked. Ned shrugged. 

“I don’t know either,” Peter said. They both thought for a moment. Then, Ned had an idea.

“What if we filmed ourselves making viral food or something,” he suggested. Peter did finger guns at him.

“You’re a genius,” he said.

Peter got on his computer and looked up some recipe trends.

“I can only find ones from 2020,” he said.

“That should be fine,” Ned said.

One recipe for no-churn ice cream looked interesting.

“Does Mr.--Tony even have cream?” Ned asked.

“He has everything, I’m sure he does,” Peter reassured Ned.

Most of the recipes looked too difficult to try at 9.30 pm so they fell back on something it turned out both of them had wanted to try since it became popular: whipped coffee.

“I know Tony has coffee here, he practically lives on the stuff,” Peter said.

It was late, so Peter and Ned agreed to try and find some decaf. It took a bit of searching but at the back of the drawer they found an almost brand new jar of instant decaf. They added two tablespoons of that, two tablespoons of sugar, and two tablespoons of warm water to a bowl. Then they went rummaging through the drawers in the kitchen again in search of a whisk. Once they found one, Peter whisked the mixture until there was a layer of foam on top. A glass of iced milk was poured and the foam was added bit by bit. The boys put in two straws and each had a sip.

“This is good,” Ned said.

“I know, right?” Peter agreed.

After they finished the whipped coffee, they cleaned up and washed the dishes. It was getting late so they decided to move into Peter’s room and get ready to go to sleep. Eventually, Peter got settled in his bed, and Ned got settled on the air mattress Peter set up for him. The pair started chatting about the day. They talked about the movie, about the games they played, and the coffee. And what would happen in the morning.

Peter got hesitant when talking about the morning.

“Are you okay?” Ned asked. “You’re getting all quiet.”

“Yeah,” Peter assured him. “I guess I’m just a little nervous that I won’t wake up on Sunday, you know?”

“I get it. Well, no, I don’t, but I can imagine how you feel.”

“Thanks.”

After a little while, both boys fell asleep.

And both boys woke up on Sunday.

Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

[steve0discusses]

The Full Metal Alchemist Live Action Movie Part 8: Watch This Episode Covered in Butts be the Only One Not Flagged by Tumblr

Gonna be risky business and not only upload all of these caps the way I screenshot them--which has just SO MANY poorly CGI’d butts but also gonna do it on the Tumblr Drafts folder, which I have been assured works now.

I’m so worried about so many things, but considering all the fears I have about like...everything else in the world right now...I guess I’ll take a risk on tumblr.

Edit: I cannot believe that I had 8ish episodes of Kaiba’s tall dueling tower get flagged but not this movie. I just....wow I cannot.

So anyway, last we left off, General Hakuro stepped in and was like “Hi guys, you like my wily plans that no one in their right mind would have ever guessed???”

Yo remember this part of the anime? Where the bodies drop from the ceiling and it’s a hunk out of the final arc--it’s here. In this movie. This movie that can’t possibly afford to do that. Lets get some CGI animated bodies in here ASAP.

(see some texture regrets under the cut)

It’s like a Monet, as the Mean Girls say, because far away and shrinked to 500 pixels this looks kinda neat. They sort of look more like those slime ball that grow in the back of your throat rather than human bodies, but they still look pretty gross hanging up there.

But then.....we zoom in. Remember again that this was full screen on my computer, and at one point was on a freakin movie screen. This level of 3d...was on a movie theater screen.

The mind boggles. The mind boggles!

Like as you know, I am an artist, and I’ve dabbled in...basically everything in my pursuit to make a dollar...and I have taken about 2 years of classes in 3D art with Maya and all those. I’m not thaaat great at it--I’m much more an illustrator/painter--but I feel like I have that reference point. Can I just say--the model is...fine...you can do a lot with layers of bump maps so you don’t need a truly detailed model (not like they did that, because they didn’t do that, but I can figure that maybe they had an intention to do that and forgot?)

But, there’s no connection of the wires to bodies. They just kinda float? The bodies are also all the same shiny-ness? To the point that it looks like a copy paste? (I don’t think it is, the wires are slightly different on a few of them) There’s just not much in the way of a texture map or a bump map. It just...there’s also something missing from the skin.

Skin is actually kind of rough to render, so when I did it back in the day, I followed like a checklist to make sure I had all the layers and steps to make someone look...clammy. Some things are kinda translucent, they reflect light a different way...especially white skin like this wouldn’t be just...white like putty. Dunno if you ever saw a white person, but we got so many veins...there was so much potential to make something really gross and fleshy.

Instead we got silly putty. It’s fine. I’m fine.

So General Hakuro decides to just...kill everyone right now.

This makes no sense to me.

That means that the whole thing of Lust killing Hughes was completely unrelated to General Hakuro. All Hakuro needed was Shou Tucker, who has been in prison for...I assume months since Ed shipped him off. And Shou was only released today? Just now? Just now when Hughes was shot?

So this all just happened at the same time by accident?

I mean the General sent us to the wrong lab initially, so he didn’t actually want us to be here, and now that we are here, he’s going to set off an entire army as a reaction to three people walking in and going “oops”?

So, lets get a look at our army.

Oh it was so disappointing, this reveal. Not just the eyeball that has a bounce light coming from below the top lip there (how did that even happen???) but also when it opened it’s mouth, it had a flat animation of skin breaking--it wasn’t actually rendered 3d skin, it was like a jpg wrapped around it or something (or at least that was the illusion I got. That is fine for a video game or a TV show, but this is a movie. This is shot so that it can be displayed in a size bigger than your own house.

What happened to the animation team on this one? Not saying I can do better, cuz no, I can’t, that 3d chapter in my life was a while back, but I’m just one guy. This was an entire animation studio and they just...didn’t render 3d face ripping (which is their entire job, to work in 3d) and then they kinda just turned on the stock physics dynamics and dropped em instead of animating them.

The way they fell was like fish from a bucket--the same amount of speed, too. they all ragdolled like a 3D shooter, their rigs just hanging on for dear life (and yes, you could see the deforming happen on the joints of these models.) I’m fine with having a computer program render something out with a physics engine...but there is a balance.

You do have to still go in there and finangle it back because...real life is hella stupid. Real physics? So stupid. It was hilarious how nonthreatening it was, too because they’re like...the size of shrimps in that zoom out image. The scale is just so wild!

It was like one bored guy in a sound booth and they multiplied his voice three times. Golden. Absolutely golden.

So these guys stride over, all of them with the same amount of speed (leading me to think it was probably a recorded walk cycle they all share with slight alterations between all of em) and they kinda just...pile on eachother in a weird way.

I will give them this: I was happy to see something that wasn’t physics or procedural. They mo-capped and animated that part for sure. It had the touch of an artist’s hand. It was also a very funny way for Hakuro to die because this guy was on screen for like 5 minutes, and maybe 7 minutes of this whole movie.

Youknow...I think it really says a lot about your nude 3d models if they’re not disturbingly human enough to trigger the tumblr filter, youknow?

Anyway, Envy looks on.

And then Gluttony saves the city.

Meanwhile, they decide to bust out the fire effects and Mustang becomes the most useful person in this entire movie. Like honestly this movie was poorly named, because it should have just been “Mustang saves the FullMetal Alchemist’s Entire Ass.”

The next part seems like I forgot a cap, or maybe missed something. I swear to you, I did not.

First off, Al becomes fullmetal and makes this happen without an alchemy circle. The show doesn’t really care to talk about that though, it’s just a thing he can do now, and you’d only notice it if you were writing a Tumblr post about it.

I swear to you, Winry is just inside of Al and there is no explanation.

There is no explanation for this.

She was on the couch...why is she not on the couch? What?

And then when you think they might have a moment, Ed’s like.

Damn.

For reals what the hell was that entire scene except for a way for Ed to get his arm stitched back on in like 2 minutes?

Outside, Envy and Lust are just strolling around the back-alley of this red brick building we have seen used for this entire movie.

And like...it’s so funny to me because they weren’t trying to run or hide. It makes complete sense why they got shot. This is what happens when you just...walk away when the whole military guard wants to kill you.

Now lets go see how Hawkeye is faring.

Luckily, all of the ambling bodies have decided to walk slowly through this one weird grass section between extremely long buildings.

And Hawkeye tells everyone “You have to shoot their heads off” and I want you to look at that scene and tell me how many of those bodies still have heads.

Oh, all of them. Don’t worry about it.

Kinda hard to see, but Ed shows up to give Mustang a hand, which was fully unnecessary but we’ll get to that in a bit.

This movie is such a gem.

Ed goes big brain and realizes that Envy is still burned up, and thus is about to pass on.

And whatever, I’ll take it. It’s not like the movie has told us that they are made out of 1000000 lives, for all we know, in the movie universe, they really are only 4 lives. Like half a cat. Maybe Father only killed half a cat instead of an entire city.

Yugi Muto would be so freakin proud of Envy for how often this guy gets hit square in the chest with fire balls. It’s basically every scene where Envy and Mustang share screen time.

And don’t worry, I don’t think Envy died? But they sure made it look like he did, which I’m sure everyone everywhere was really happy to see, since Envy’s death was one of the climaxes of the whole series. Like people used to make these lists of “top 10 saddest anime deaths” and how many people had Envy on there? Like everyone? People freakin love Envy and they did him so much dirty in this movie.

Again I have no explanation for Winry.

So Mustang is like, Ed, you make sure Winry doesn’t biff it in that corner, and I’ll do my actual job over here on this side. And yo, he did.

And so then that’s it, Lust is dead, and now we have a Sorcerer’s stone.

Man it looks delicious, right?

I’d eat the hell out of that.

Anyway, we only have one more update and we’re done with this movie!

I know!

I know! They only have 10-15 minutes to resolve pretty much everything, and that’s assuming that the credits don’t take up a heap of that. Hell, I might only have 3 caps next episode if that’s all credits. I honestly don’t remember.

Anyway, hope y’all take it easy this February, here is a link for people who just got here to read these FMA recaps in Chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono

[moviemunchies]

Okay so Hamilton is a stage musical not a movie, but it’s streamed a bit like a movie so I, someone who knows very little about theater, am going to try to talk about it a little bit. I realize that it’s 2021 and basically everyone who cares is all Hamilton’d out, but we’re here anyway because I don’t update this blog enough because I need to see more movies.

And I did just see this on Disney+.

Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda is the play based off of Ron Chernow’s biography of the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. He read the book while on vacation after doing a run of In the Heights and thought that Hamilton had a lot of parallels to rap icons and started working on an album for it. This album became a stage musical. It blew up much bigger than anyone expected, and though it was filmed at one point early in its run, the film footage was never shown in its completed form--just bits and clips in publicity pieces, documentaries, and features.

Disney eventually bought the rights to it, and planned to show it in theaters in 2021. And then the pandemic happened, so they decided to put it on Disney+, and it became a hit (again), becoming one of the service’s biggest draws.

So yeah I watched that.

Once again: if you’re of the school of criticism that is to nitpick historical inaccuracies in movies, plays, and books, yeah, we know this isn’t the most faithful depiction of true events. That’s not the point. (Though if you’re curious, TV Tropes has a list here that might be worth your time.)

One thing that struck me is how much of the musical is… music? I knew this going in, but it’s still odd to watch a play that’s a musical in which almost all of it is constructed out of musical numbers. I thought perhaps there were a few bits of dialogue between songs, but there isn’t really? If you’ve listened to the soundtrack, then you’ve heard almost all of the play. Obviously the performances in a studio are slightly different than those on stage.

And I think there is quite a lot to be gained from watching the performances rather than just listening to them. A large part of what makes drama work is not just the sound of dialogue or singing or instrumental music (although those are all important as well), but you also get quite a bit about these characters from the way the actors bounce off of each other (and the audience) on stage. About they react to different parts of the story, in expression and in body language.

[In retrospect I’m thinking that the performers in audio dramas and voice actors really don’t get enough credit by how much they have to convey to the audience without the benefit of using their own movements and facial expressions.]

So yes, even if you’ve heard this soundtrack a bajillion times, I think it’s very worth your time to try to see this, whether on actual stage or on the streaming service.

I am also very impressed with how much they were able to capture on film and how well? I don’t know the logistics of filming a stage performance like this, in front of an actual audience. But they did a very good job. I can’t say that it was like being there, because it wasn’t. I haven’t been to a performance of Hamilton but I have been to plays a few times and the views you get aren’t anywhere near as good as you got on this filmed version.

And I would suggest that this proves the effectiveness of releasing filmed Broadway shows? People are happy to see these shows, it’s just expensive to go to New York City and try to see them. If they were more widely released, they’d get a lot of views! There’s an audience for that! And it’s wild that it took this long for people to realize that.

Also there are a lot of really cool tricks? Like that some of the actors who play roles in Act I have different roles in Act II that are completely different and yet are portrayed very well? That there’s this spinny thing on stage that I don’t know how they come up with but works effectively to tell the story in musical numbers? That there are a lot of snazzy outfits?

If you’re interested at all in the musical and haven’t gotten a chance to see it, you should try to see it if you have access to Disney+, either by yourself or through a friend’s account. There’s good acting, there’s good singing, there’s good staging, and there’s good filming. If you had no interest before, I don’t think you’ll have much fun, but I found the experience worthwhile.

[fluffyunicornofdanger]

Bad Reputation

A/n: Long time, no see. God, life has been a mess since the last fic I wrote. I know I don’t owe an explanation but I think I’ll give you guys one later because some shit that happened to me is shit that some of y’all need to hear. ANYWAY, I’m back now! Hopefully I’ll be more active on here. And yeah.

*~~~*~~~*

Masterlist

Axl Rose x Reader

Summary: Being  Broadway actress was all Y/n ever dreamed of. The lights and the thousands of eyes on her was a dream come true. But not all dreams are meant to be. Traveling the country to find her new dream, she stumbled upon the destructive leader singer of a rock band. She didn’t know it, but he had a lot to do with her knew dream. If only their reputations didn’t get in the way of it.

Word Count: 2.5 k

Warnings: None

The crowd cheered as the cast took their final bow. Flowers weren’t thrown on the stage like in the movies, everyone was tired. The night had been long and the audience wanted to venture back to their beds. As good as the show was, everyone wanted to be anywhere else. Before the cast could straighten, velvet red curtains danced across the stage, signaling the end of the show. 

  Y/n breathed a sigh of relief, brushing a loose curl out of her face. The corset that had been restricting her would finally come off and her hair would be able to flow freely. 

Normally, she never complained. No one else but herself forced her onto the stage. Everything, the lights, the costumes, the acting, the singing, that was all what she had been dreaming of. She was the one that worked her way to that point. To be standing in the middle of the stage with all eyes on her. It was a dream come true.

But dreams change…

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment in time when she wanted to start over, but it wasn’t hard for her to tell that her old dream was dead. There came a point when being on stage singing in ridiculous costumes made her feel like a fool. She no longer was the queen watching the jester dance. Instead, she was the jester dancing and singing for the queen. She no longer felt like the broadway star that everyone made her out to be. Y/n felt more and more like a puppet, doing what she was told to do. 

“What are you gonna do now that the shows over?” her costar, Cindy, asked as they stripped off their oversized dresses.

Y/n shrugged. “Beats me.”

Cindy shook her head. “Would’ve thought you’d already have another show planned out. I’m going to go to London for a couple of months, maybe try out for a show there.”

That sounded like a good plan. Once the idea had crossed Y/n’s mind to pick up and move to London. The shows there were just as grand as those on Broadway, if not bigger. The fame she would come across by doing that, oh Lord, it would be a dream. 

“I think I’m going to travel around a bit. See what feels right.”

“What about everything you have here? Your apartment, your stuff?” Cindy asked.

“Well,” she thought for a moment. “I think I’m gonna invest in a car, a fast one. I’m thinking red or black. And I’m going to sell all my furniture. What I wish to keep I’ll keep in storage. I’ll have to pick through my clothes. All my big fancy dresses will probably be sold. I’ll only keep what I can fit comfortably in the car and what I’ll wear.”

“What makes you think this is a good idea?”

Y/n shrugged, grabbing a towel to get the makeup off her face. “I don’t know.”

Cindy scoffed, “Don’t die because of you’re foolish idea, Y/n. That would be a horrible way to go.”

Y/n rolled her eyes as Cindy walked away.

It did seem foolish, she had to admit. Rash, unplanned and unprepared. But her gut was telling her that it was time to leave New York. The big city wasn’t the place for her, not anymore. She needed the open road and unexplored cities. She needed clean air and a different way of life. She needed everything that New York couldn’t offer her. Everything that she pretended to be when she stood on the stage. What Y/n needed was to find herself, not who everyone wanted her to be. 

She needed to find who her heart believed she was. 

*~~~*~~~*

It didn’t take long for Y/n to clear her apartment out and sell everything that needed to be gone. Everything was in good shape, almost brand new, as she was never home to use anything. It was hard for her to part with some of her dresses, but she knew better than to think that she would ever use them again. The life she once had was no more. 

All of her belongings consisted of a shoebox full of pictures, letters, and notebooks, a couple pairs of shoes, a suitcase packed full of shirts, pants, dresses, and whatever other clothing she decided she needed. Another suitcase had books and sheet music. The last thing Y/n packed into the black 1965 Mustang, that she’d bought off a horder in Buffalo, was her guitar. Cindy told her it wasn’t worth bringing, but it was hard to part with. That was what made her want to pursue theater. 

Throughout her childhood, Y/n had been told that music and theater weren’t worth pursuing. They were only hobbies to be enjoyed at home. Suzi Quatro and The Runaways proved to her that what she wanted was worth pursuing. No dream was too small with rock stars as role models. 

Y/n shut the trunk of the car and made her way to the driver’s seat, twirling the keys around her finger as she went. Sliding in she, smiled to herself at everything around her. This was her freedom. 

She started the car, feeling the roar of the engine under her fingers that landed on the steering wheel. Turning the radio on, “Black Betty” by Ram Jam filled the cab. Y/n couldn’t help but sit there for a minute. She knew this was what she was meant to do. This trip would change her for the better, she knew it. Or it would leave an everlasting impression on her. Either were what she was looking for. 

“Here we go.”

*~~~*~~~*

It had been a few months since Y/n had started her trip. Going up and down the east coast had been fun. She stopped in Flordia for a week and learned to surf. As much as she thought it would cure her fear of the ocean, it did no such thing. It didn’t help that everyone there went on and on about sharks in the area. She also stopped in North Carolina to watch NASCAR. That was an experience she wasn’t likely to forget.

Fast cars and the wind in her hair was a feeling she loved. It was an odd feeling of freedom that she hadn’t know to exist. 

Though the east coast was a delight, there was more to the U.S. than that. So, as manifest destiny allowed, she headed west. And that is how she ended up in Los Vegas.

It wasn’t her intent to go to Sin City, but that’s where she was forced to stop when her engine started acting up. She was told her car would take a few days to be repaired as a part had to be ordered. So, she was left to find some means of entertainment.

That is what lead to Y/n walking around the city with no set destination.

She window-shopped, sometimes going into stores to look at dress or shoes. Every once in a while she came across a bar and decided to get a taste for it. None of them were anything fancy. A haze of smoke obstructed her vision in each that she entered. The crowds in them were all different. Some had men in suits and ties, just looking for a place to kick back for a while. Others had half-naked women and men that looked rough around the edges. 

Y/n came across a shop that caught her eye. There was something about it, the rough exterior, that made her open the door and browse around. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, everything was ripped and ragged, but she’d find it. 

“Oh, now this is it,” she smiled and grabbed a leather jacket off a rack. 

Something about the item spoke to her and she had to have it. 

Y/n had decided along the Flordia-Georgia border that this trip was all about what felt right. If there wasn’t a good feeling behind doing it than it wasn’t meant to be done. Life does work in mysterious ways, she’d determined, with added effort, of course. So, what was meant to be would be. 

Three hours had passed since purchasing the jacket. It was now 7 o’clock at night and she still hadn’t found a place to stay, not that she was looking. Pulling out a pack of cigarette she’d bought earlier, she pulled one out of the pack and lite it. She put it to her lips and took a drag, watching the smoke flutter past her,  before spotting yet another bar. It didn’t look much better than any of the others she’d visited, but with nowhere to go, it really didn’t matter.

Y/n crossed the street, watching as people danced around her, all in their own little worlds. The only thing that had come out of being stuck in Los Vegas was that she learned that the world was full of people who were happy doing their own thing. 

Those were her people.

They didn’t seem to have a care in the world, any clock to worry about, as they walked around. That’s how Y/n had always wanted things to be. Calm and relaxing. But that wasn’t how her life had turned out. It dawned on her that it took money and zero stress to be at that level. 

She pulled the door open to be met by a cloud of smoke that hovered over everything. Everyone she saw had a cigarette in hand. It was good to know she wouldn’t have to put her’s out. Walking up to the bar, she slide onto a barstool and let her eyes wander. 

There was a group of three older men in a corner both that all looked like bikers. Their hair looked like the wind had got the better of it, tossing it around. A man and woman sat on the far end of the bar. Y/n didn’t have to look long to see there were hearts in their eyes. She didn’t get far in her observations before a loud ruckus pulled her attention away. Around a pool table, at the far end of the room, stood five men, by how they were acting some would call them boys. 

Y/n rolled her eyes. They looked ridiculous with their hair teased up and messy. And they wore all sorts of colors. Each one of them had a different array of colors, some clashed and some didn’t. But she couldn’t judge, she’d worn worse. 

Turning away from them, she caught the bartender’s attention and ordered a drink. Y/n had a feeling it was going to be a long night. 

*~~~*~~~*

She was a few drinks in, the world was only spinning slightly. It was a good thing that she stayed away from vodka. With that in her glass, she knew she would likely be on the floor. 

There were too many times, after shows, that she would order vodka and have no recollection as to what had happened the next morning. That only became a problem when she’d done a few things that ended up in the paper. Her manager didn’t want her to ruin her reputation, so vodka went out the window.

Y/n was just starting to wonder if it was a good time to leave. She was almost done with her drink and she knew if the bartender came back she would order another and that wasn’t what she wanted. Before she could move though, someone slide into the seat next to her. 

“What’s a girl like you doing here by yourself?” A rough voice asked her.

She couldn’t help but chuckle. A girl like herself? Like what? She didn’t look like any girl that was expected to be anywhere else. Y/n had stripped herself of what had held her to that standard. She was a nobody just like everybody else. 

There was no reputation to uphold where she was. 

Turning to face the person, she was shocked to see it was one of the men from the pool table. From this proximity, she saw how red his hair was and how it turned gold under the light. It was probably the liquor running through her blood, but for a second, the mess of a man looked like an angel. Shaking her head, the image went away. “0h, you know,” she drawled. “Just wishing life would work out for me,” she said dramatically. 

Moments like that, when around complete strangers, Y/n found it fun to slip into characters. No one would know the difference. She could be anyone she wanted. She could be a seamstress from Paris, a duchess from England, a professor from Harvard. The world was whatever she made it as long as she had an audience. 

“Life’s not going your way?” The ginger laughed. “Not the only one.”

“I’m well aware. But the world is what you make it. It only sucks when you think it does.”

“Is that so?”

“I assume.”

The ginger nodded, looking around the bar. His friends, at least Y/n assumed so, had taken a seat at a booth and were too engrossed in conversation to pay him any mind. 

“What brought you over here?” Y/n asked, wondering why he left his friends to sit next to her. She didn’t look like the girl worth ditching friends for.

He shrugged, “Who wouldn’t want to sit next to a beautiful girl?”

Y/n couldn’t help but scoff. That line had been used on her countless times at the bars she’d go to after her shows. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

The man laughed, “ Oh, that certainly isn’t the best I’ve got. But I can’t give that away for free, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“I’m Axl,” he extended his hand out to her.

She grasped it, “Y/n.”

Axl smiled, “I like that name.” 

Y/n didn’t know why, but that there was something about Axl that made her want to sit next to him for hours and do nothing but talk. They hadn’t even exchanged many words so she wasn’t sure where the feeling came from. They were simply doing what strangers in bars do, try and make each other less lonely. 

As if fate were trying to prevent anything more, Y/n turned to see the clock on the wall. It was late, way too late for her to want to stay out any longer. There were a few places she wanted to visit before her car was fixed and if she woke up early there would be just enough hours in the day to do everything. Though she had no place to stay, there was a hotel around the corner that had to have at least one open room. 

“Oh, god. It’s late. I really should be going.” Y/n stood from the bar and placed enough cash on the table to cover her tab. “I’m sorry, Axl.”

He waved it off, almost like he expected an ending like this. “Do you think I’ll ever see you again?”

Y/n smiled, “ I think you just might.”

Before slipping out of the bar she waved back at the ginger, she had a gut feeling that Axl would cross her path again. If the cards worked out in her favor, she would at least see him one more time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Is Back!!! Raya and the Last Dragon, Chaos Walking and More

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior!

This is probably going to be a little different from any of my previous columns, because New York City theaters reopen on Friday, and I swore that once they do, I would be writing about box office again. But this will also essentially be a previous column, so it will include reviews, it will include festivals and repertory series, and basically, whatever the hell I want to write about.

But let’s be realistic here. While there are a lot of movie theaters in New York City, not all of them will open, and they’ll all still have a capacity ceiling at 25% or 50 people in the larger theaters. Many of the larger multiplexes like AMC will be able to show films on two, three or more screenings to be able to make up for the limited capacity, but smaller theaters and those who have been doing well with the virtual cinema may remain closed. I know that the Angelika will be reopening to show some of the indies that haven’t had a theatrical release in NYC yet like Minari, and the IFC Center is reopening but with insanely strict protocols. (Don’t you DARE take off your mask even if you’re watching a three-hour movie! The good news is that they’re showing a lot of great movies on reopening including a comedy series that includes a number of Lynn Shelton movies.)

There’s also the issue of New Yorkers who are still petrified of being out in public, even those who have already been vaccinated and are possibly spending time in congregate settings that are just as likely to cause COVID spread than movie theaters. (I’m not gonna go on a rant about the egotistical and elitist film critics and journalists who have been ranting about movie theaters reopening for the past six months – for some reason, they think they’re as important as essential workers. Guess what, NAME REDACTED, you’re not.)

The big release of the weekend is the Disney animated movie RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, which will hit probably around 2,400 theaters on Friday as well as be available for a premium on Disney+. I honestly don’t know a ton about this premium streaming release, but this is the second one after last year’s Mulan, which came out (better sit down for this) six months ago!

This magical fantasy adventure centers around Raya (a teen girl voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), who is trying to save her world that has been relegated to dust by the destruction of a valuable magical gem that contains destructive spirits imprisoned there by the legendary dragons. When Raya finds the last dragon, Sihsu (voiced by Awkwafina), the two of them must travel across the land collecting the separated pieces of the gem to reassemble them and restore their world.  Raya is thwarted along the way by her arch-nemesis Namaari (Gemma Chan) who wants to reunite the gem pieces to help her own city of Fang.

(Raya is preceded by the animated short Us Again, which is a nice wordless short about a cranky old man who reflects back on his younger days dancing with his wife. It’s okay, nothing particularly memorable.)

Raya and the Last Dragon, on the other hand, is pretty wonderful, a mix of action, adventure, magic and humor, directed by Don Hall (Big Hero Six) and Carlos Lopez Estrada (Blindspotting) in a way that blends those disparate elements in fun ways. I’ll freely admit that I was a little worried that Akwafina’s schtick was going to annoy me, but after a while her wise-cracking dragon grows on you. In fact there are actually so many other funny characters to add to the laughs that the more brought in the mix on Raya and Sihsu’s journey, the more enjoyable the film gets.

One of the reasons the film works as well as it does is that unlike last year’s Onward, it wasn’t just the two characters and what they had to offer but how their situation changes as it goes along and they visit different cities. I was pretty surprised by how well the film keeps you entertained and invested in the journey.

I also absolutely loved the score by Thomas Newton Howard, which may be even better than his score for News of the World, which I honestly think he’ll get another Oscar nomination for. This is a film that explores all sorts of emotions as well as its Southeast Asian myths, so I feel that I was always going to be a complete and total patsy for this movie since it combines a lot of things I like such as fantasy and Asian mythology. In that sense, Raya is also a nice companion to the recent Mulan, which made my Top 10 last year, but sadly never even got a nominal theatrical release.

So let’s talk about box office, something I haven’t done in almost a year. Last weekend, Warner Bros’ Tom and Jerry had a fairly spectacular opening of $13.7 million. Raya is the first new wide release Disney movie since Pixar’s Onward literally a year ago. That ended up opening to $39 million in 4,310 theaters but only grossed $61.5 million domestic after its legs were cut short by COVID one week later. Raya will likely open in about 2,500 theaters by comparison and that’s with limited capacity for safety, but it should fare decently against the second weekend of Tom & Jerry, and I could easily see it bringing in $15 million or even as much as $18 million, but again, we’re in the baby steps part of the reopening, and things are going to start slowly and keep building as the vaccine continues rolling out.

Being released theatrically by Lionsgate this Friday is CHAOS WALKING, the adaptation of Patrick Ness’ future-set young adult novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, which stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. Holland plays Todd Hewitt, a young man living in a world with no women where men’s thoughts can be perceived by everyone around them. One day, he discovers a mysterious girl named Viola (Ridley), when she crash lands on this planet but her very presence puts Viola’s life in danger, so Todd agrees to accompany her to find her own people.

Yeah, where do I even begin with the latest film from director Doug Liman that was probably filmed two or three years ago and was being delayed even before COVID came along? That’s already a bad sign, but when see how “The Noise,” the way that we hear all of characters’ thinking emerges, it immediately feels like it’s gonna be a problem. Sure enough, it’s such an awkward plot device to watch smoke billowing from the heads of the various characters as we hear their thoughts that it takes most of the movie to get used to it, and yet, it’s still so comically inept a concept that you can’t help but laugh when Holland continually rants, “My Name is Todd Hewitt,” over and over to keep Ridley’s Viola to hear his pubescent teen boy thoughts on experiencing his first girl.

The thing is that the scenes with just Holland and Ridley aren’t bad, but when you have a movie with actors like Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Demian Bechir and Cynthia Erivo, it’s disappointing that they can’t elevate the movie above anything other than the most obvious sci-fi (and Western) pastiches. Mikkelsen is the town mayor who is so obviously another bad guy, that he doesn’t bother to put too much into his performance cause we’ve seen him do it so many times before.

Liman is more than a competent filmmaker but he clearly is unaware of how watching clouds pool around the heads of characters as we hear and see their thoughts become material, and even the introduction of the particularly silly-looking aliens – called, get this, the “Spackle” -- makes you forget that this is a sci-fi film from the director of Edge of Tomorrow (or whatever it ended up being called). It’s not even particularly surprising when we find out what really happened to the women in Todd’s community.

I have a feeling that the problems within Chaos Walking come straight from the Patrick Ness source material and the fact that he decided to adapt it himself may have made him tone-deaf to how hard it is to make the film’s central premise work without eliciting guffaws even from the most dedicated or devout fans.

This is also opening in IMAX theaters this weekend, and when it comes to New York, that might be the ideal way to see it (if you so choose) since it’s generally bigger theaters with a maximum of fifty people. Honestly, I don’t think Chaos Walking will make more than $5 million this weekend even in what should be over 2,000 theaters and with the presumed star power of Holland and Ripley from their franchise work. This could be seen as counter-programming from the animated movie, although any teens ready to go back to the movies might stick with Raya as well. Honestly, how this didn’t end up getting dumped to streaming compared to some of this weekend’s better movies is beyond me.

Offering a bit of indie counterprogramming for the two (relatively) big studio movies is Eddie Huang’s BOOGIE, the directorial debut of the Fresh Off the Boat producer, being released by Focus Features into who knows how many theaters? (1,000 or less, I’d Imagine.) It’s a coming-of-age movie starring Taylor Takahashi as Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a Queens high school basketball ace who dreams of one day playing in the NBA but whose temper gets him in trouble with the scouts for college where he’s hoping to get a scholarship.

I was kind of looking forward to this one, because I generally enjoy Fresh Off the Boat, and I’m interested in what stories Huang has to offer as a filmmaker. The film has its merits but it’s not necessarily Takahashi, who isn’t strong enough to really keep the viewer’s interest.

On the other hand, Huang was wise to cast the amazing Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) as Boogie’s love interest and even better than both is Pamelyn Chee as Boogie’s “Tiger Mom” mother who is sugary sweet when it comes to wooing possible recruiters but also is a complete nightmare to his ex-con father (Perry Yung).

Thinking back on the movie, I definitely didn’t hate it as there were character relations and dynamics I enjoyed, but not all of it clicked with me, and it’s hard to imagine this one connecting with audiences as well as some of the other movies out this week, unless you’re into college hoops, which I am not.

As far as box office, I’m not sure this will be in more than 1,250 theaters (if even that) and even if it plays in New York City (where it would normally find its biggest audience), I just don’t think there’s much awareness for the movie out there. In fact, I see it only playing in one movie theaters in NYC, and that’s way up in Harlem, presumably hoping to get the street ball fans, but I’m not so sure too many up there will be interested in an Asian-American story, so honestly, I don’t think this will make more than $500,000 or $600,000 tops.

Besides the reopening of movie theaters, the other big excitement this week is the launch of Paramount+, the relaunch, spin-off, rebranding of CBS All Access that I had also been considering checking out. It will launch on Thursday, March 4, with the animated family movie THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN, which was supposed to be released by Paramount Pictures last year and did get a bit of a theatrical release in Canada while theaters were open there last year. This one involves SpongeBob and his buddy Patrick trying to retrieve SpongeBob’s beloved pet snail Gary, who has gone missing.

I generally enjoyed the first to SpongeBob movies, even though I never watched the show, and the regular creators and voice actors always seem to step up their game in terms of the wackiness whenever they’re given a chance to bring the lunacy to the big screen. In this case, it comes in the form of some of the guests including Snoop Dog and Danny Trejo in an odd Western section complete with musical number or Keanu Reeves introduced in the same section as a tumbleweed named Sage. (Oddly, this also features Awkwafina providing the voice of a robot, and I kind of liked her in more of a subdued role like this.) Although SpongeBob and his friends are CG animated, the movie doesn’t try too hard to integrate the live action in as fluid a way as last week’s Tom and Jerry – live actors just kind of show up – but it’s still pretty darn entertaining to watch another movie in which everyone involved, including director Tim Hill (who shockingly directed last year’s awful The War with Grandpa!), just going about making the movie as crazy and wacky as possible, something that should appeal to kids and… THC-laced adults (preferably not those watching with kids) … to get an overall enjoyable experience. Maybe it’s no surprise that I was particularly tickled with SpongeBob and Patrick’s adventures in Las Vegas.

Along with that, the streamer will have a new animated series called KAMP KORAL: SPONGEBOB’S UNDER YEARS, which is a CG-animated series that focuses on SpongeBob and friends when they were younger, which actually is one of the funnier bits in the movie as well.

There’s a lot of great stuff coming to Paramount+ that should make it a real player in the streaming world, and that includes all of the Paramount movies that will be streaming on it, both those that are getting a theatrical release this year and the studio’s absolutely vast library over the past 100 or so years.

And that’s not all! This weekend also sees the release of the sequel thirty years in the making, COMING 2 AMERICA, which will launch on Amazon Prime Video on Friday (after being sold to the streamer by Paramount, oddly), so yeah, there’s plenty of options to keep people home this weekend even with theaters reopening.

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall are back as Prince (now King) Akeem of Zamunda and his trusty aide Semmi, and in fact, almost every character and actor from the movie has returned, as the duo return to America to find Akeem’s illegitimate son Lavelle (Jermayne Fowler) in queens, hoping to teach him the Zamundan way so he can take over as King after him.  Unfortunately, Lavelle is joined in Zamunda with his family which includes mother Leslie Jones and uncle Tracy Jordan.

Unfortunately, reviews are embargoed until Thursday, so I’m not sure I’ll get to review this one, but I did like the movie, more than I thought because my rewatch of the original 1989 movie led me to believe there was a good reason I hadn’t watched it in over thirty years. The sequel offers a lot of originality and humor in the forms of Leslie Jones and Tracy Jordan, but that’s all I’ll say about it for now.

Incidentally, you can check out an interview I did with director Craig Brewer over at Below the Line AND I also talked to the film’s make-up team, and after you see the movie, you’ll understand why I’m holding it until after people have seen the movie.

Another movie that would probably have gotten a theatrical release but now will be seen on Hulu is the Joe Carnahan-directed BOSS LEVEL, reteaming him with long-time collaborator Frank Grillo as a man who cannot die, because he’s living in a single day that’s being repeated over and over as he takes on a series of assassins sent to kill him.

This as a really fun action-comedy that never lets down in terms of either half of that genre, and it’s kinda groovy to see Mel Gibson playing a fairly key role since he became the master of that action genre with the Lethal Weapon movies.  But this really is Frank Grillo’s show as a leading man, and while I can understand some thinking him not having enough charisma for that sort of thing, I respectfully disagree.

We get into this high-concept premise pretty quickly as we watch his character, Roy Pulver, take on a string of assassins for his over 100th attempt to do so, and as per the title, it is a lot like a video game where Roy has to defeat all of the assassins on his way to the big boss, Gibson’s The Colonel. Apparently, Roy’s wife Gemma (Naomi Watts) has been killed by the Colonel or his thug (Will Sasso) so Roy is now on a quest for revenge. But first he has to survive the onslaught of killers, all of whom he’s given cute nicknames.

Easily my favorite of the killers is Selina Lo’s Guan Yin, a feisty swordswoman who proves to be the most formidable opponent for Roy. I won’t say how he bests her, but it does involve Michelle Yeoh, who has such a strange nothing appearance in one section of the movie, you wonder what she’s doing there. In fact, the movie does hit a slight lull after the initial concept is introduced, but it

Listen, I’ve long been a fan of Carnahan’s dark sense of humor and to some, it might seem mini-spirited, to me it harks back to one of my favorite movies he directed, Smokin’ Aces, a similar movie with a crazy ensemble cast, though maybe a slightly smaller budget. Still, Carnahan is a terrific action director, which makes this one of the stronger action movies in a while, and he finds a way to take a fairly simple premise and make it bigger in that Roy’s dilemma turns into something where he has to save the world, but also something more emotional and personal as he tries to bond with his son before said world ends. I guess in many ways, it’s hard to put into words what makes Boss Level so special, but I can only hope that Ryan Reynold’s Free Guy is as good as this after being delayed so many times, because this will be a tough act to follow for sure.

Over at the Metrograph, still closed physically unfortunately, they’re doing a series this week called “David Fincher/Kirk Baxter” which looks at the relationship between the director and his frequent editor, showing a series of movies over the course of the week:  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network

The Metrograph has a lot of movies as part of its digital membership (just $5 a month) including Chloé Zhao’s very first film, Songs My Brother Taught Me, which was available to members through Wednesday night. (Sorry, I tweeted about it multiple times if you missed it.)

This week also launches the 26th annual “Rendezvous with French Cinema” up at Film at Lincoln Center, which was actually one of the LAST events to happen up there LAST year. This year, they’re keeping things safe by holding it virtually. It runs from March 4 through March 14, kicking off on Thursday with Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl, which will be released by Music Box Films in the Fall. There’s a lot of fairly recent French films with an all-access pass available to rent all 18 films for $165. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything, so can’t really recommend anything but I’ll probably be checking out the free talk “How Music Makes the Film” on Monday, March 8.

Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood) and Sigourney Weaver star in Philippe Falardeau’s MY SALINGER YEAR (IFC Films), based on Joanna Rakoff’s book. Set in New York of the ‘90s, Qualley plays Joanna, a grad school student who dreams of becoming a writer who gets hired as an assistant to literary agent Margaret (Weaver), whose biggest client is J.D. Salinger. Although Joanna’s role is more of a glorified secretary, she gets to go through Salinger’s fan mail from around the world, and she decides to start answering some of the letters to the author, an experience that helps her find her writers’ voice.

I wasn’t sure if this movie would be for me, but I find Qualley to be quite delightful, and this was a light film with a comedic tone from the Canadian filmmaker of the boxing movie, Chuck, and the Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar. I enjoyed its look at the New York literary world of the 1990s, and it kept me quite invested even if I’m not particularly invested in Salinger’s work or an obsessive with The Catcher in the Rye as many are. Weaver is also fantastic as Joanna’s boss – think of a lighter version of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada – and also enjoyed the tentative relationship between Joanna and her writer boyfriend Don, played by Douglas Booth.

Basically, Falardeau has created another generally wonderful and crowd-pleasing movie that sadly missed its opportunity at a festival run to build an audience after debuting at the Berlinale almost exactly a year ago. Presumably, this will open at the reopened IFC Center this weekend. (In fact, IFC Center released its reopening schedule and it’s a pretty cool mix of IFC Films movies from the past as well as some of the Netflix movies that weren’t released in NYC previously.)

Okay, let’s get to some other releases from the week, beginning with Ivan Kavanagh’s SON (RLJEfilms/Shudder), the latest film from the Irish director of The Canal, a fantastic horror film that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival about seven years back. In this one, Andi Matichak from Halloween plays a single mother whose son David (Luke David Blumm) suffers from all sorts of maladies but when she starts getting closer to a local detective (Emile Hirsch), he discovers that there’s a lot more to her past and to her son’s ailments.

Honestly, I do not want to say too much about the plot, because there are so many shocking surprises in the movie once you think you know where it’s going, although I will say that it has connections to films like The Lodge and shows like Servant, but it also does a good job fucking with the viewer’s head, so you never know what’s really happening and what might be in the characters’ heads.

I will say that the movie is very dark and quite disturbing with lots of gruesome gory sequences, but if you’re a fan of smart horror, you’ll want to check out Son. (I’ll have an interview with Kavanagh over at Below the Line next week.)

Sony Classics is finally releasing Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s doc THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (Sony Classics), which has been playing on the virtual festival circuit all the way back to Sundance last year, so we’ll see how many people are left to see it. It’s set in the forests of Piedmont, Italy where a handful of 70-to-80-year-old men are on the hunt for the rare white Alba truffle, which has resisted all modern science to be cultivated.

For whatever reason, I procrastinated on watching this movie for most of last year, maybe because I’m not that big a fan of cinema verité docs, but this is infinitely entertaining between the various men featured – including a lot of real characters in there – and how the movie shows their close bond with their truffle-sniffing dogs. This is a genuinely enjoyable movie that I feel can appeal to a wide range of viewers, although be aware that is in Italian, so maybe one should consider that even with the cute dogs, this should probably be watched by teen or older rather than small kids. (I don’t remember anything particularly racy, but the movie is Rated PG-13.)

Staying in the dog realm, Magnolia Pictures is releasing Elizabeth Lo’s documentary STRAY on Friday, which documents the life of Zeytin, a stray dog living on the streets of Istanbul, and some of his dog frenemies. Actually, this was a pretty wonderful film that I quite enjoyed, although there were a few dog fight sequences that disturbed me a little bit.  But it’s a great look at Turkey through the eyes of some of the canines on the street, how they interact with the humans around them. Essentially, Stray is the dog version of Kedi, but I’ve seen other similar docs like this including Los Reyes – this one is just as strong as either of those movies, the images of all the beautiful dogs accompanied by gorgeous string music by Ali Helnwein that helps you understand the dogs’ complex emotions.  Seriously, if you like dogs, you can definitely do worse than the previous two movies mentioned. Stray is available via Virtual Cinema, including that of the Film Forum.

Filmmaker and EDM artist Quentin Dupieux (Rubber) is back with his latest, KEEP AN EYE OUT (Dekanalog), starring Belgian comedian Benoît Poelvoorde as police officer, Commissaire Buran, investigating a guy (Grégoire Ludig) who has discovered a dead body in a puddle of blood outside his apartment building. The prime suspect is then left alone with a one-eyed rookie, and if you’ve seen any of Dupieux’s other films, you’ll probably know to expect the unexpected as things get crazier and crazier. (I seem to remember seeing this last year at some festival, maybe FantasticFest, but I’ll have to watch again before remembering if this was one of Dupieux’s movies that I liked.)  This will be available in select theaters and also in virtual cinema this Friday. (Oddly Dupieux’s last movie, Deerskin, debuted at last year’s “Rendezvous with French Cinema” right before theaters shut down for a year, and I don’t want to be superstitious, but yeah, I’m worried.)

Barnaby Thompson’s Ireland-set crime thriller PIXIE (Saban/Paramount) stars Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal) and Alec Baldwin with Cooke playing Pixie Hardy, a young woman who wants to avenge her mother’s death by pulling off a heist that will allow her to leave her small town. The crime goes wrong, and she’s forced to team up with a group of misfits including Baldwin’s Father McGrath.

Bradley Parker’s action-thriller THE DEVIL BELOW (Vertical) deals with a team of researchers who are investigating a series of underground coal mines in Appalachian country that have been on fire for decades where they discover a mystery. It’s getting a combined theatrical, VOD and digital release Friday.

Phil Sheerin’s directorial debut THE WINTER LAKE stars Emma Mackey (Sex Education) as Holly, a young woman with a secret that’s uncovered by her unstable neighbor Tom (Anson Boon from Blackbird) and the two of them are pulled into a confrontation with her father, who wants to keep the family secret buried. This will be in select theaters on Friday, On Demand on Tuesday, March 9 and then on DVD March 23.

Dylan McCormick’s SOMETIME OTHER THAN NOW (Gravitas Ventures) stars Donal Logue and Kate Walsh, Logue playing Sam who is stranded in a small New England town after his motorcycle crashes into the ocean seeking refuge at a run-down motel run by Walsh’s Kate, a similarly run-down and lost soul. When Sam learns that his estranged daughter Audrey, who he hasn’t seen in 25 years, lives in the town, he starts to learn more about why he ended up there.

Jacob Johnston’s DREAMCATCHER (Samuel Goldwyn) stars Travis Burns as Dylan aka DJ Dreamcatcher who meets up with two estranged sisters at the underground music film festival, Cataclysm, where they become entrenched in 48 hours of violence and mayhem after a drug-fueled event. Sounds delightful.

Some of the other VOD stuff hitting the ‘net this week include: 400 Bullets (Shout! Studios), Sophie Jones(Oscilloscope), Dementer (Dark Star PIctures), Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know (Giant Pictures)

That’s it for this week. Next week, theaters hopefully will remain open, and we’ll have some new movies to write about.

[aion-rsa]

Biggest Movie Traitors and Backstabbers in Cinema

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Last week, as part of the streaming service’s ongoing plan to bring Warner Brothers’ slate of theatrical releases to audiences at home HBO Max premiered Judas and the Black Messiah on the same day it opened in theaters. Directed by Shaka King, the incendiary historical drama centers on the rise of Fred Hampton, the charismatic Black Panther Party leader, and his tragic betrayal at the hands of FBI informant William O’Neal.  Daniel Kaluuya stars as Hampton, a scorched-earth performance that attempts to recreate the magnetism and magma-like intensity of the revolutionary figure, but Kaluuya is somehow not the star of the film.

The film’s true protagonist is O’Neal, played by LaKeith Stanfield. After getting himself into some hot water, O’Neal is propositioned by FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) to either infiltrate the Black Panther Party and report back on his findings or face jail time. At first O’Neal seems to luxuriate in the kickbacks he’s given by Mitchell for his intel but he quickly learns how dangerous it is to lead a double life. O’Neal also has to try to reconcile betraying the very movement he’s spent real time and energy trying to build.

Stanfield’s performance is filled with queasy anxiety and paranoia but also cockroach-like survival tics. It’s an all-time great turncoat performance, worthy of the biblical reference in the film’s title. To honor Stanfield’s turn as “Wild” Bill O’Neil, here’s a countdown of some of cinema’s greatest backstabbers.

Fredo Corleone – The Godfather Part II (1974)

Fredo Corleone, the least intelligent and most ineffectual of Don Vito’s children, has become something of a pejorative term used against anyone deemed to be the lesser sibling in a famous family. Played with a sense of melancholy and knowing pity by esteemed character actor John Cazale, Fredo’s betrayal of his brother Michael is due more to petty jealousy than it is to Machiavellian scheming or dreams of leading the Corelone Crime Family.

As the character pathetically rages, “‘Send Fredo off to do this. Send Fredo off to do that. Let Fredo take care of some Mickey Mouse night club somewhere’… I can handle things! I’m smart! Not like everybody says!” The worst part about Fredo’s actions against his family is that it’s unclear if Fredo actually knew what was being planned against his brother or whether he was just blindly jumping at the opportunity to be important and have something for himself.

Lando Calrissian – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Perhaps the most lovable backstabber on the list, Lando at least shows some backbone and tries to make up for his nearly unforgivable alliance with the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. While serving as Baron Administrator of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back, Lando is visited by Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett and told to help trap his old friend Han Solo and the Rebels seeking sanctuary in Cloud City in exchange for the safety of the city’s citizens.

After selling his friend out, Lando has a change of heart when he overhears Han being tortured and realizes that Vader and the Empire were already reneging on their promises. He helps Leia and Chewbacca escape, and is able to evacuate Cloud City before the Empire is able to retaliate. Later he participates in the near-incompressible plot to rescue Han Solo and serves as a key general in the Rebel Alliance. Still, even back when he’s on the wrong side of the fight, Billy Dee Williams is able to turn Lando an appealing character, making his eventual redemption that much sweeter.

Henry Hill – Goodfellas (1990)

Ray Liotta plays the ultimate rat. After a long and fruitful career as a capo for local boss Paulie Cicero, Henry Hill’s mafia lifestyle comes to a final, screeching halt after he’s arrested by narcotics agents while trying to facilitate unapproved drug deals with his Pittsburgh associates. Henry’s good friend Tommy jokingly posits that Henry would crack under questioning earlier in the film, but Henry’s damning testimony against his associates Jimmy Conway and Paulie is all about survival: Henry knows that if he doesn’t cover his own ass, Jimmy will have him and his wife killed.

Read more

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The Real Goodfellas: Gangsters That Inspired the Martin Scorsese Film

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Becoming the very thing that mafioso’s hate most of all, Henry turns on his friends and is forced into the witness protection program. All Henry ever wanted was to be a gangster, but in the protection program, he’s reduced to “an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.” It’s a fate that may be worse than death for him.

Mr. Orange – Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Arguably the villain of the story, depending on who’s side you’re on, Mr. Orange is actually L.A.P.D. undercover cop Freddy Newandyke. Looking to bring down crime boss Joe Cabot, Mr. Orange infiltrates his crew and takes part in diamond heist gone bad. In the ensuing chaos, Mr. Orange is shot and ends up killing an innocent civilian in retaliation. Played by Tim Roth, Mr. Orange screams and cries as he believes he’s fatally wounded, but it’s also possible that he’s airing out the guilt he feels in letting his undercover operation get so out of hand.

Without going into all of the bloodshed in the conclusion of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Orange’s double agent status is so sound that it eventually leads to the demise of almost all of Cabot’s colorful crew, and Orange then feels compelled to confess his deception, resulting in an ambiguous ending that most believe concludes with his death.

Dennis Nedry – Jurassic Park (1993)

Wayne Knight’s Dennis Nedry is probably the most cartoonish Benedict Arnold of the bunch, and if you think about it, the only human antagonist in the original Jurassic Park film, if you’re not counting short-sighted, megalomaniacal John Hammond. The slovenly Nedry is chief architect of the computer system at the fledgling Jurassic Park theme park, and he’s miffed by perceived low pay. So he decides to take an offer from Lewis Dodgson (“DODGSON, WE GOT DODGSON HERE!) of rival biotech company Biosyn to steal embryos of 15 dinosaur species in exchange for $61,500,000.

To make his grand escape with the embryos, Nedry shuts down the park’s security systems, including the electric fences surrounding the dinosaur paddocks. He also uploads a self-aggrandizing computer virus to prevent the systems from being quickly turned back on. However, a perfect combination of his own harebrained scheme and a nasty storm leaves Nedry stranded and at the mercy of a young Dilophosaurus. It does not end well.

Cypher – The Matrix (1999)

Cypher’s betrayal of the Nebuchadnezzar crew in The Matrix is pretty easy to see coming, and not just because the character is played by Joe Pantoliano, who’s portrayed many malcontents throughout his career. Cypher being a red pill dabbler and wishes he had taken the blue pill instead. He also outwardly makes his disapproval of Morpheus known throughout the movie. Using “ignorance is bliss” as his mantra, he strikes a deal with Agent Smith to return him to the Matrix and erase his memory of ever awakening from it in exchange for selling Morpheus out.

Read more

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By John Saavedra

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After tipping Smith off to a meeting with the Oracle, Cypher goes full villain and unflinchingly kills Dozer, Apoc, and Switch before finally being stopped and killed. At least he’s free from the reality he hated so much.

“Mad Eye Moody” (aka Barty Crouch Jr.) – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

What’s a bigger betrayal: Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. revealing that he’s been impersonating Alator “Mad Eye” Moody for the entirety of Harry Potter’s fourth year at Hogwarts, or Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealing herself to be a transphobe, betraying many of the themes of her beloved book series? We’ll leave that one to you, dear reader.

However, Barty Crouch Jr. (David Tennant before he was the Doctor) memorably betrays Harry Potter and the Hogwarts community by using the Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the former Auror and ensure that Harry would get into the Triwizard Tournament and ascend to the Third Task, which was a trap to help Lord Voldemort return to a body of his own. At least the real Mad Eye didn’t actually turn his back on those that revered him (like Rowling).

Colin Sullivan – The Departed (2006)

The biggest rat in a film full of “gnawing, cheese-eating fucking rats,” Sgt. Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is the criminal counterpoint to Leonardo DiCaprio’s undercover cop Billy Costigan, an undercover gangster who serves as the personal mole to Irish mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson).

Played with smarm and cowardice by Damon, Sullivan eventually double crosses the police and Costello when he discovers that Costello is an FBI informant—a rat leading rats. Scared but trying to retain his high-ranking job, Sullivan misguidedly tries to position himself as a hero and tie up all loose ends, resulting in a shocking, bloody finale that finds cocky Colin Sullivan miraculously as the last man standing. Or at least the last man standing for the moment, as a final, forgotten loose end returns to give the audience what they want; another dead rat.

Robert Ford – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Well, it’s all right there in the title, innit? Played with a jealous, insecure bent by a creepy (in multiple ways) Casey Affleck, Robert Ford starts off as a Jesse James fanboy, desperate to join the outlaw’s gang with his brother Charlie (Sam Rockwell). When he finally gets close to the mythical criminal (a shadowy Brad Pitt), Bob begins to resent the man, eventually brokering a deal with the Governor of Missouri to either capture or kill Jesse James in exchange for a substantial bounty and full pardon.

Read more

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By David Crow

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By David Crow

Bob Ford cozies up to Jesse James even further, eventually earning the man’s complete trust, before cowardly shooting the man in the back—although in the film both carry an air of expectation that it needs to happen. Ford then lives out the rest of his days known as the coward punk that betrayed Jesse James until his eventual murder.

Aaron Burr – Hamilton (2020)

Close knit allies but ideological opposites, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton both fought in the Continental Army for independence from the British. However, when it came time to actual govern the new country that they fought to begin, the men drifted apart.

It’s unfair to call Burr the only backstabber in this relationship, because both men betray their former friend. Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.) becomes jealous that Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) constantly has George Washington’s ear, and switches political parties to defeat Hamilton’s father-in-law in an election, ending their mutual admiration.

Burr also inadvertently pressures Hamilton to publicly reveal an affair, which strains the rivals’ relationships even further. However, when Hamilton endorses Thomas Jefferson (Daveed Diggs) in the third presidential election, a man that he doesn’t even like, to block Burr’s political malleability from the presidency, it becomes the final straw for Burr, who challenges Hamilton to a duel. In the ensuing gunfight, Hamilton throws away his shot, and Burr seals his fate to be remembered as the villain who killed Alexander Hamilton.

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[ NATALIA DYER, CIS FEMALE, SHE/HER ] did you hear that [ MARY “MARGOT” HENDERSON  ] is back in town? i figured, since i’ve heard [ THE LUCKY ONE ] playing on repeat all week. everyone says they’re [ SECRETIVE & UPTIGHT  ], but i think they’re really [ QUICK-WITTED & INTELLIGENT ]. whenever i see them i think of [ EXPENSIVE BOTTLES OF LIQUOR, SECRETS WHISPERED UNDER THE COVER OF NIGHT, ROLLING YOUR EYES BEHIND SOMEONE’S BACK, ALWAYS GETTING THE LAST WORD ]. ooc - b, 22, she/her, est

[ PINTEREST ] [ PLAYLIST ]

name - mary “margot” henderson

birthday - january 14, 1998

zodiac sign - capricorn

hometown: lake wisteria, rhose island

height - 5′5″ 

sexuality - bisexual

occupation - actress

character inspiration - rory gilmore (gilmore girls), rosalie hale (twilight), topanga lawrence (boy meets world), christina yang (grey’s anatomy), 

ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｉｔｙ

positive - quick-witted, intelligent, ambitious, independent 

negative - secretive, uptight, ill-tempered, hot-headed, judgy

TW: forced outing

you’ve had it figured out since you were in school

there were always big things in mary henderson’s future, that much was clear. she doesn’t remember a time before gifted programs, the expectation to hit every milestone early, and the whisper of great potential in her ear. she was that girl, the one with her nose always buried in a book, the one who always knew the right answer, the one who kept her arm very firmly over her tests to block her classmates from cheating. she was quiet, but not shy, every word always filled with so much intention. she heard the whispers behind her back, uptight, prude, stuck up bitch, but none of it mattered to her. not when there was yale or stanford or harvard in her future. 

everybody loves pretty everybody loves cool, so overnight you look like a sixties queen

high school is when her world shifted. at the insistence that she needed to show she was well rounded, she decided to audition for the school play. at everyone’s surprise, her own especially, she landed the lead role. and she loved it. she loved being someone else for a little while, loved capturing the audience’s attention, suddenly all eyes on her for a whole new reason. like stepping into one of her books. it was only a matter of time before her dreams of yale and stanford and harvard turned to dreams of tisch and julliard, though in the end none of them came true. 

another name goes up in lights, like diamonds in the sky

at sixteen she landed a movie role, it was a small movie, but it was a role nonetheless. it was never expected to turn into anything bigger until all of a sudden it was. the director submitted it to sundance, and it was accepted. in the blink of an eye she was being flown out to the west coast, sitting in a real theater and watching herself on screen.

new to town with a made up name, in the angel city chasing fortune and fame

suddenly, she had an agent. suddenly it was margot, not mary. suddenly, her mom was quitting her job and flying them out to la, an apartment and a line of auditions waiting for them there. she finished high school on a movie set, all the effort she’d put into perfect grades going into her new perfect image. that girl. the one from a small town that made it big, the newest shiniest toy. 

your lover in the foyer doesn’t even know you

it started as a publicity thing, a relationship with a co-star, and somehow turned into something more. they were hollywood’s newest it couple, and no one could get enough of them. at some point they’d become a package deal, constantly being cast in movies together as love interests. by the time she realized she didn’t want to be with him it felt like she was trapped, like ending their relationship would end both of their careers. so she stayed, no matter how distant the two of them were, and found the romance she was looking for elsewhere. 

and your secrets end up splashed on the news front page

if reaching fame happened in the blink of an eye, falling from it happened in slow motion. she remembers the sound of the car door opening and the camera flashing in her eyes. she’d been caught. to make matters worse she’d been caught with another co-star. a female co-star. the photographer gone before she’d even had the chance to offer hush money. 

they still tell the legend of how you disappeared, how you took the money and your dignity and got the hell out

her boyfriend did a great job playing the hurt party. and maybe he really was, but it was no surprise when he moved on just a little too quickly. she’d always suspected they felt equally as apathetic about one another, but only one of them had gained anything from it in the end. she’d become that girl. the one who cheated on her boyfriend, the one who was hiding her sexuality, the one who was suddenly “too difficult” to work with. so she ended her lease and moved back to lake wisteria, at least she was used to the whispers there. 

[jinfluffychan]

Who's the good side? - Mx x Y/N x BTS - Chapter 2

Summary: When you’re the new girl in a new place many secrets are kept from you, right? But when you find out about those secrets who can you assure that the story behind them is the truth and not a lie? Y/N’s in her first year of college and has just moved to a new city, she wants to find the best people so she stays out of trouble in her new life… However, is she completely sure she should form her opinions based on looks and petty rumors? After all… A cute face and good clothes doesn’t make you automatically good…

Pairing: Monsta X x Reader x BTS

Word count: 2.3K

Note: Please leave feedback! You will help me a lot and I will appreciate it very much! Thank you!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Good new friends?

It was already nighttime. I spent the whole day unpacking and decorating my room, and when I realized it, it was time for dinner..

"I saw that the dinning room was near here" I thought and get up stretching.

I saw the clock in my nightstand, it marked "8:30 p.m". "I wonder if there is many people eating tonight..."

I looked in the mirror and decided to tie up my hair in a pony tail; I grab one of my sweaters with my phone and wallet, put my shoes on and left my room.

Out in the hallway there were some people talking, I saw a group of girls talking to someone on their phone with the speaker on.

–Let's go to Big Cesar! The pizza there is awesome! –a guy said through the phone– –Everyone is going to be there –one of the girls said with a bored voice– I prefer going to Gigi's Place! Hamburgers and milkshakes?

The girls were wearing really nice outfits, those you can always see on pinterest or on an aesthetic instagram account; for their conversation I think they're discussing where to go to eat, but for some reason they remind me of a really famous group of popular girls... Maybe because of the way they're standing.

I didn't pay much attention and pass by them, but a moment later they start walking to the elevators like me.

When we stopped in front of them, I pushed one of the buttons and gave them a little smile, they smiled back and nodded.

We enter the elevator and they continue their conversation with the guys that were on the phone.

–Stop fighting! We'll leave this up to luck! –a guy that's voice ringed a bell to me said– –You say that cause you're not the one driving! –another guy said– Only the people that drive can talk here. –So everyone except Namjoon and Charlotte? –the girl next to me said–

I opened my eyes, "it was Namjoon! These are his friends?".

The doors of the elevator opened and the girls got out, one of them stopped it so I could go out.

–Thank you –I said shyly getting out, she smiled and went out with the rest of the girls, leaving the building–

I walked to the entrance and stopped to see a map of the university, I saw my location and where the dinning room was, I took a pic with my phone so I could follow it and wouldn't get lost.

Even if it was night and the first week of university there was plenty of people out, some where unpacking or trying to find their building, others were just talking or deciding where to eat.

I smiled excited seeing so many different people and for the things I'm going to experience.

Finally, after a long walk, I was in the dinning room. "That freaking map was bad or what?! I thought this was "near"?!".

I stepped inside and see a lot of people eating and chatting, my face got red as my heart beat faster, I got really nervous since I didn't know anybody here.

I walked to one side and took one of the trays, saw all the food that was available and felt a smile formed on my face.

I started to take some things until I heard a scream.

–I'm telling you this is the best movie ever! I can't believe you're saying that! –a guy said to another guy– –Just because it sold out and stayed in the theaters for many weeks doesn't mean it's the best movie ever!

I blinked, surprised at the situation until someone talked to me.

–Are you picking that? –I saw two big brown eyes looking at me, it was the brunette girl from this morning pointing to a aluminium thing– –N-no? –I said shyly– –Thank you! –she took two of them with a smile on her face– –Leave something for the others, you scared the poor girl because of your sexual attraction to burritos –a black haired guy with tattoos said amused– –I didn't scare her! –the girl saw me– did I?! –N-no! Don't worry! –I continue to star grabbing some things– –If you keep grabbing things you're going to break Hyungwon when you sit on his lap –the black haired guy said mocking the girl– –Ugh, let me breath, you're taking as much as me! –the girl crossed her arms– And Hyungwon's pretty... –they saw each other and the guy raised an eyebrow– tall. –the guy laughed and the girl denied with a pout– –I'm going to take something from the pastry section! –the girl went to another part leaving the black haired guy alone–

I was waiting for my turn to pay for the food next to him, when I saw beside me a big bowl of yogurt with cereal and blueberries, my eyes opened and my lips turned into a smile.

I was going to take it when I saw another hand by my side, I looked up and saw the black haired guy looking at me.

–You like it too? –I nodded and he smiled– which one you prefer? Strawberry? Blueberry? –B-blueberry... –he took it and hand it to me– –For you –he smiled and I took it shyly– And strawberry for me! –Thank you... –I said with my cheeks red– –You're welcome, now it's your turn to pay –he said pointing to the counter–

I nodded and when I looked back there was no one there, I blinked in confusion.

–Hello? –I said looking inside and heard someone's giggle– –No, in the nights you have to pay for yourself –he said amused for the situation– Let me teach you

The guy got closer to me and started explaining while touching the screen.

–Then you put your university I.D. card –he saw me and extended his hand waiting for my I.D.– –A-ah I don't have my I.D. yet... I forgot it because I spent the whole day unpacking... –I said to him embarrassed– –Oh... Well... Don't worry, I will put mine –he put his card on the scanner and saw it on the screen– Now you can pay –Thank you... –I said embarrassed– Let me get you something! –I said putting out my credit card– –Well now you owe me a food plate –he smile and winked at me– Whenever I need your I.D. Card to enter somewhere or food, you can help me –he looked to other side– I always forget it... –I giggle and nodded– –Thank you... Changkyun –I said looking at the screen– –You're welcome... –he saw me waiting for me to say my name– –Y/N –I smiled– –Changkyun! Look how many pastries there are! –the brunette girl came back smiling– –As I said, you're taking this food lover thing too far for your skinny body –she raised her shoulders and went to pay– –Thank you again Changkyun –I said smiling ready to go to find a free spot– –You wanna sit with us? –Changkyun asked– –Uhhh Changkyun is inviting a girl! That's something new! –the brunette girl said smiling– –Ignore her, she's really extra –he said started walking– –Hey! Wait for me! –the brunette girl said running towards us– I'm Justine –she said smiling– you are...? –Y/N –I said shyly– –Nice to meet you! –First year huh? –Changkyun said and I nodded– I'm a musician, she's from movies –he said pointing at Justine– You? –M-movies too! –I said while we were getting out of the dinning room, outside there were others tables with people chatting, it was way more calm and pretty than inside– –Really?! You're going to love it! It's okay if you don't have a specialization in your mind right away! It can change or it just comes to you while you study! I remember my first year, it was so scary and exciting and- –Changkyun put some fresh fries in Justine's mouth– –She talks a lot too –he said getting closer to a table where a guy and a girl where waiting– Guys, she's Y/N, Y/N they're Hyungwon and Stella. –Hello –a black haired girl with a British accent said smiling– Nice to meet you –Hi –a tall black haired guy said– –Changkyun stuffed a whole bunch of potatoes in my mouth! –Justine said sitting next to Hyungwon– –That's nothing new –Stella said and the others laugh– What's your career, sweetheart? –she said looking at me– –Movies, yours? –I said looking at them with curiosity– –Music –Stella said– –Fashion design –Hyungwon said– If you study movies then you're going see a lot this girl and another guy named Kihyun... I'm so sorry for you –he said taking a bite to his food– –WHAT?! –Justine looked at him mad– –There is more people in your group? –I looked at Changkyun and Stella– –Yeah –Changkyun said– We met through common classes or electives... Eventually the group just got bigger and bigger.

I nodded and kept eating while chatting with them and laugh to some of the things they say.

–Time for dessert! –Justine said– –You really have room for dessert after all that? –Stella said amused while drinking her drink and leaning in her sit– –I share it with Hyungwon –she said nodding, she looked at me– You want some? –No, thank you! I found these! –I showed the cereal and yogurt– –That's Changkyun's favorite dessert –Hyungwon said with a smile– –I took strawberry this time, after all, it's her first time here, we need to be kind –Yeah, not like them –Stella said pointing at the guys I saw before– They always fight –she denied with her head– –Even more than Hyungwon and Kihyun –Justine said– –Hey! –Hyungwon said and everyone laughed–

Despite there were only a few of them, I could see they were very united, even with the jokes and jostling, they were always smiling.

When we'd eaten, we got up and put the leftovers and garbage in the trashcan.

–You have classes tomorrow? –Justine asked looking at everyone while putting Hyungwon's arms around her– –Yeah, at 8 –Stella said– So if you're going to watch anime, please do it quiet –I have one at 10 and then at 4 –Changkyun said stretching– you, Y/N? –I haven't checked it... –You know how to do it? –Stella asked nicely– –Yes, I saw a tutorial on the university's website! –I said smiling– –Justine watches them every semester –Hyungwon said amused– –YOU DO THAT?! –Changkyun said laughing– –I just want to be sure I'm doing everything right! –she said red as a tomato, hiding herself in Hyungwon's arms–  

Everyone laughed at her reaction, me included, "these people are really nice... I hope I can see them again!"

Hyungwon and Justine said goodbye and went the other way.

–Are they a couple? –I asked– –Who? Hyungwon and Justine? –Changkyun asked– Something like that... They come and go... Mostly Hyungwon. –I betted for them getting together this semester, so I hope they get together cause I want my money –Stella said smiling while looking at her phone– –I didn't bet cause I think it's going to be like this for some time –Changkyun said– –I think they will look good together –I said shyly– –They do –Changkyun said stopping and looking at us– Well, this is where we take different roads! My bedroom is this way –he pointed behind him– –Bye Changkyun –Stella said moving her hand and started walking again– –Bye –he said and looked at me– Bye Y/N, hope to see you again –he smiled and went– –Bye –I smiled and went with Stella–

We walked for a little time in silence until I decided to break the uncomfortable atmosphere.

–So... You have a roommate? –I looked at her– –Yeah, it's Justine... –Oh right, you said something to her... –I blushed shyly– –And you? –she looked at me– –No... I have a solo room, a guy said I was the "lucky one" this semester –I made the quotation marks with my hands– –Well, you are! I had it in my first semester! It was awesome, I could go and relax and nobody would bother me –she said smiling–

We enter the building and I looked at her.

–You live in here too?! –Yes, I wanted the ones that are near the dinning room, but I guess they didn't read my notes –Stella said raising her shoulders– At least Jus has a mini-refrigerator. –It seems like she really loves food –I said walking to the elevator– –Well, I think if movies doesn't work she's probably going to end up as a food critic –Stella said amused and I laughed–

I pressed the button to call the elevator.

–I live on the 6th floor,  you? –I live on the 4th floor –she said smiling– Pass by when you need help or just to hang out!

I was going to say something when we hear some noise from the entrance, I looked back and there was Namjoon and one of the girls from before.

–Go get your jacket, I will wait for you here –Namjoon said smiling– –Nooo, come with me and tell me which one looks good on me! –the girl said holding Namjoon's hand and making him walk inside the building– –Tsk. –Stella clicked her tongue and looked to another side–

I looked at her confused when Namjoon and the other girl noticed us.

–Oh, sorry, I thought we were alone –Namjoon said– –Don't worry, the slut-i-ness can be seen even in the quietness. –Stella said, I looked at her opening my eyes, impacted by her comment– –That's why you don't loose your time talking, right darling? –the girl said smiling at her without letting go of Namjoon's hand–

I looked confused at both of the girls, "what's happening?..." I thought while raising my eyes and finding the Namjoon's, he looked confused and kept looking Stella and me back and ford... In that moment his words came to my head "Be careful who you are with"

"But who he was talking about?..." I looked at Stella "Them?" I looked at the other girl "Or them?"

[residentanchor]

so i got an idea if you are ok with with a short prompt bc i need this idea come to life and its ok if you dont want to do it or you change it a little. so alip roman gets an animated movie abt his superhero self and he thinks its great but cant find a time to go watch it in the theaters but virgil surprises him with a date to go watch it?? ~💛💛💛

Sounds like a fun idea!! 

When the news article came out that there was interest in making a Prince Charging Movie, Roman was over the moon. He went on patrol that night and so many people were the unfortunate victims of his excitement. Him! A real superhero with his own movie! Up there with freaking Avengers! How real was that?

Of course, it was short-lived. Roman couldn’t be excited because Roman wasn’t Prince Charging. Of course, there was also the reality that the movie might not even be made. Or that it would be terrible! It could just be an awful movie. So as time went on, Roman tried to forget about the movie and focus on the important thing he could--protecting his city.

Once in a while, things would pop up about the movie. Roman got excited but tried to downplay it a lot, not wanting to get his hopes too high. After it was said a script was in the works and they gave him a female love interest, Prince Charging threw a bit of a fit and gained a lot of media attention. After that, any talks about the movie grew quiet.

Then, it happened. Big news, good news, and Roman couldn’t hide his excitement anymore. It was bigger than just removing his love interest altogether!

“This is incredible!” Roman cried out. Even Virgil, who always expected the worst, couldn’t help but smile. “They worked on Into The Spiderverse! And they’re working on my movie!”

“That’s super cool!” Virgil scrolled down the news article and read through it quickly. “They’re making a comic that will follow the movie a bit as well! Oh...” 

“What? What is it?”

Virgil ducked his head and smiled. “Uh, you have a male love interest in the comic.” Roman’s eyes lit up at the news. “Something you want to tell me?”

“It’s obviously you, duh.” Roman rolled his eyes. “Who else would it be?”

“Well, here’s to hoping I don’t die to further your character arc.”

Things popped up once in a while until finally... A Trailer. A release date. And Roman was over the moon! 

“Prince Charging can’t go.”

“Why not?!”

“People will be expecting it. You can’t put other people at risk like that.”

Roman hated that Virgil was right but... When the premiere came and went, Roman didn’t get to see it. He decided to take Virgil’s warnings to heart and didn’t go to see it at all, patrolling as he normally did on weekends.

The reviews were... well, better than Roman had hoped. People were talking about it everywhere. Roman knew he had to go see it! But the weekend was done and he had to go back to work. It would be another week until he would get the chance.

“Ro?”

Looking up from his phone as he was waiting for water to boil, Roman saw Virgil standing in the doorway. “Hmm? What is it, Virgil?”

“Are you alright?” Roman grew confused and put his phone on the counter. “Of course, I am. Are you alright?”

Virgil pulled something out of his pocket and held it in his hands. “You weren’t home all weekend.”

“Of course, I was. Where else would I be?”

“No, I mean...” Virgil paused and let out a sigh. “All night, you were out.”

“That’s what I always do?” Virgil glanced at Roman through his long, dyed bangs. “Why? Was something wrong?” Instead of answering, Virgil held out the thing he was holding in his hands. Roman carefully reached out and took it, inspecting it closely. It was a piece of glossy paper... a ticket. To a movie. His movie. “W-what is this?”

“I got us tickets to see your movie together but... I didn’t see you all weekend and you don’t keep your phone on you when you patrol.”

Roman looked at his boyfriend with a confused expression. “You said I shouldn’t see the movie. It wouldn’t be safe.”

“I said Prince Charging shouldn’t go. That doesn’t mean Roman can’t.”

“Oh, Virge, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize...”

“I get it, it’s fine. Um... Did you still want to go?”

Roman looked back down at the ticket and sighed. “These are no good anymore. I can buy new ones, but I won’t have time until maybe this weekend.”

Virgil scoffed and shook his head. “A time-traveling boyfriend is the perfect alibi you numbskull. I can still take us to that showing. It’s never too late.”

Roman smiled and reached out, pulling Virgil close. “That’s perfect, thank you.” 

“It’s a date then.”

[what-if-rpg]

Welcome to the family, KATT! Your application for AISLIN MURDOCK (FC: Katie McGrath) was accepted. I am really happy to give you your second character! Make sure to read the beginners checklist, and remember, have fun! I can’t wait to roleplay with you! Have fun!

IN CHARACTER

CHARACTER NAME: Aislin Theresa Murdock CHARACTER AGE & DATE OF BIRTH: 35 & September 22nd OCCUPATION: Actress FACE CLAIM: Katie McGrath HOMETOWN & CITY WHERE LIVES NOW: Galway, Ireland & Los Angeles, CA SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER: Bisexual & Cis-Female RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Engaged to Lucille Chang POSITIVE TRAITS: determined, curious, methodical NEGATIVE TRAITS: intense, fiery, stubborn CHARACTER QUOTE/LYRIC: “The rules that we live by are simple and clear: be wicked and lovely and don’t live in fear.”

HEADCANONS

Aislin was raised in the theater, daughter of two predominant Irish stage actors, it only made sense for her to be an actress herself. However, she eventually realised that life on the stage wasn’t really what she wanted to do. She enjoyed acting, yes, but she wanted something different, she wanted to act in movies and television. So, she made the shift in her early twenties, landing roles in commercials and one off appearances on television. While Freakdog was her first big role, it wasn’t until she landed Morgana on Merlin that she really saw a future doing what she loved. From there, her career blossomed.

Aislin’s private made public life was quickly rife with scandal when she started as Morgana. Something that would proceed to follow her over the years. A number of relationships that met somewhat explosive ends, rumours of infidelity, and various other things. She also seemed to have quite a sex, drugs, and rock n roll kind of attitude about her, which led to questions of addiction. However, in 2015, just before Throwaways premiered on Crackle, Aislin’s entire private-public life disappeared. She deactivated every social media account she had and went underground. While she was seen in various places by paparazzi and was constantly asked in interviews why she left social media, she refused to answer, citing personal reasons. Rumours of illness, relationship, and even rehab, floated around but were never confirmed. In truth, Aislin just wanted to get away from social media as it had become a detriment to her health and she needed the break. Only explaining this upon her return to instagram when it was announced that she was to take the role of Lena Luthor in the CW’s Supergirl.

During her time away from social media, Aislin focused on herself, adopting a dog, a Mexican Black Kingsnake, and an albino, high white California Kingsnake, as well as taking on various hobbies. She took up blacksmithing and building Lego sets, both of which quickly overtook her Instagram, once returning to it at the urging of her team, having had a backlog of pictures she wanted to share. Ever since, her social media has evened out to include promotional work, book recommendations, her pets, and other various aspects of her life. Though her private life, in terms of friendships and any other sort of relationships, is still kept rather under wraps.

When Aislin isn’t in on set for a show or film, she’s often doing limited runs in plays on Broadway. She even did a 6-month run as Ginny Potter in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child after returning from Australia, post the filming of Secret Bridesmaids’ Business in 2019. She loves everything to do with theatre and has a deep appreciation for those in musical theatre. While she herself does not have any musical talent, she loves a good musical and is forever in awe of anyone who can sing and dance for eight shows a week.

Aislin’s family is everything to her and while acting has given her a life she loves, she knows it won’t be complete without family. In early 2020 she finished the paperwork to become a foster parent, looking to foster, and possibly even adopt, an older child. A fifteen year old by the name of Ridley was placed into her care in September of 2020 and while it’s not always easy, Aislin is happy to be giving a child the chance at a life and a family.

CONNECTIONS

Conor & Siobhan Murdock :: Parents :: Aislin loves her parents, but has always lived in their shadows. Even as she’s taken the world by storm, both on stage and on screen, she’s never exactly managed to get out of their shadow. She loves them dearly and misses them often but doesn’t see them as frequently as she used to. Ridley :: Foster Child :: Aislin is genuinely trying her best with Ridley and while it’s been a rough process, she’s slowly getting to know the lanky, intelligent human who she’s brought into her home. They’re not the most open person ever, but Aislin takes everything in stride, and especially listens when they speak. Lucille Chang :: Fiancée :: They met, originally, when Aislin was working on her last stage show ever, in Ireland. Lucille was in Galway visiting and after a run in, in the street they had a short-lived affair before Lucille returned to the States. Flashforward a number of years, and a mutual acquaintance of the pair set them up on a blind date. They went on a number of other dates before Aislin’s team caught wind and effectively forced the relationship into the spotlight long before it was ready to be called a relationship. This ended up in a “fake-real dating” situation, where they both said it wasn’t a real relationship to those in their lives, so that they could keep the fact it actually was a secret from Aislin’s team who would have made a much bigger deal out of it. Over two years into their relationship, around the time Aislin finished the paperwork to be a foster parent, Aislin’s team decided it was a perfectly good time to stage the break up, except instead of breaking up, Aislin proposed.

[lukassprehn]

Interview for a Wizard liveblog - Episode 2: “Chapter 1”

Second installment in my Salem Concord liveblog series.

Episode 2 - "Chapter 1 - Sunday"

General plot summary + a few misc. notes

Another location and tone set-up episode/chapter, but more of a cozy feeling than the first. However, it does end on a foreboding note, especially just coming out of the other chapter. They seem connected. You will see why…

We are told about a small shop pressed in between two large office buildings, in the small town of Mount Dora: Alivan’s Wizards and Witches Corner Store, a small wooden house with a wrap-around porch, large windows covering all walls that face the street, two-storey with a high pitched roof and no huge, glamorous signs or neon signs attracting customers and showing the way. Just an old, hand-carved wooden sign hanging above the front door. There are wind chimes that sound in “the gentle breeze”. The house is described as a historical building dating to the late 1800s. There’s nearly never anyone coming by the store, and when they do it’s usually a historical area fan. The shop is also described as being hard to find due to it being tucked in-between the large office buildings.

We hear further about Mount Dora: The two large office buildings are occupied by cute stores and small cafes on the street level. These buildings bring a lot of movement to the area, with its occupants and customers strolling across the small stores at all hours of the day. In the evenings Mount Dora is not dead either, as the small movie theater (sitting across from Alivan’s), small restaurants and an ice cream shop keeps the commercial square busy. This, as aforementioned, is not the case for Alivan’s, however. Mount Dora is quite small, a tourist town which is named after a large lake that attracts fishing and water-sports activists throughout the year. Downtown is “small and quaint,” with the only hotel being located at the edge of the lake. Here honeymooners or weary travelers can sit on the vast porch on comfortable rocking chairs and sip on cool drinks while they watch the beautiful sunset above the lake. There are also railroad tracks running through the central park - Donnelly Park - however no trains have run on the tracks since World War 2. Visitors used to be able to take a ride on a local tourist train going around the lake and back to town, but no more. Years ago, many of Mount Dora’s old houses were converted into stores, including bed and breakfasts, ice cream shops, antique stores, specialty stores, professional offices for doctors, lawyers and real estate agents, and Alivan’s is no exception to this new trend. A big difference between those other stores and Alivan’s is, however, that not many changes had been made to the building that housed Alivan’s since the late 1800s when it was first built. Jesse, the new sole employee of Alivan’s, thinks that this is the only reason anyone stops by these days.

Jesse is originally from a bigger city about 2 hours away from Mount Dora. Not long ago, he decided that he’d try and figure out himself. He only just graduated from high school. He’s been good at anything he’s tried - sports, playing the piano, studying, is loved by all people at his school - both teachers, coaches, the student body etc. - but he doesn’t find any actual joy or interest in what he’s tried so far. He has a great love and fascination with computers, though. It gave him a head-start in computer class, and it also helped him land his new job at Alivan’s now. He saw an ad in his local newspaper in the first weekend after graduating high school advertising the spot at the store, and he decided to apply over the internet. Only 2 hours later he was already hired. The work entailed using computers and the internet a lot, as most orders came in through the store’s website. Jesse sees Alivan’s as the perfect place for him to work, and Mount Dora as the perfect location for him to be at as well. The town is busy but not too busy, and quiet but not too quiet, and it’s far enough away from the big city and his home for him to be home in his old bed if he wishes in 2 hours but still far enough away from it to be feel free.

As soon as Jesse got to Alivan’s the first time, there was a letter waiting for him from his boss, “Mr. Claw”, which had information about an apartment rented by Claw for Jesse to stay at, whose rent would be deducted from his payment. He’d never met Mr. Claw, and Jesse didn’t care much about this. He liked that he was being left alone. The only communication he ever had with his boss was over the internet, through email for example. Jesse spends most of his time at the store in front of a cash registry’s desk, which contains a cash registry, an apple laptop and a printer, and behind him on a shelf there is a stereo with dusty speakers playing his favorite music from CD or the radio. Jesse comes in every day of the week at 9 a.m. and begins taking the orders from the website, and at 10 a.m. he opens the doors to the shop. He’s paid well for his services. That’s all he’d ask for. Jesse has been at Alivan’s for six months so far.

Since the first few days of October, Jesse finds the store is more busy than ever before. Suddenly there are people dropping by to shop for the right parts for their wizards’ and witches’ costumes for Halloween. Most orders are still coming in through the website, however, from all over the States but most of all from the north-east. The three biggest places are Boston, Salem and New York City. Jesse especially enjoys some of the odd names of his customers - Nicholas Fidgewidge, Mily Breezy and Yolanda Roundbottom are just some of them.

When there’s a week till Halloween Jesse begins having a lot of visits from children, and people walking by the store, the younger ones window-shopping. The boys beg their mothers to buy them the latest “2006 Stealth” model of flying brooms, which claimed to be faster than the 2005 model of last year. The girls like trying out witches’ hats. The store carries wizards’ and witches’ clothing, flying brooms and hand-carved wooden wands which the store supposedly is famous for. The walls are adorned with male and female pointed hats, the wands are in a large display case. Wands are the big seller, followed by hats and cloaks, and lastly the brooms, which Jesse was glad of, as they were the hardest items to package and ship. Mannequins at a large display window in the front of the store sport the latest fashion of magical clothes. Jesse had to start making two UPS deliveries a day to meet the demands of the increasing orders during this time, too, and every day new products would arrive at the store. Mr Claw had given him strict instructions to not open them but instead to carry all boxes up the stairs and leaving them in front the door to Mr. Claw’s office.

In the week leading up to Halloween and the town’s annual Halloween festival, people are moving through the city to get to the bigger cities and the theme parks there that cater to people’s fascination with Halloween, and Jesse has been decorating the store with pumpkins and scarecrows and feeling the Halloween spirit overtake him. He’s asked Mr. Claw over email if he’d be permitted to hold a Halloween costume contest at Alivan’s and give away a hat or a broom as a prize, but he’s not heard back from his boss yet - which he finds odd, since Mr. Claw usually responds right away. It’s not 3:00 pm in the afternoon - still Sunday, which like every other Sunday is somewhat busy in Mount Dora - and watches parents and children and/or shoppers out on the streets strolling up and down the sidewalk while daydreaming about the costume contest, and of kids all dressed in costumes purchased at Alivan’s, when he sees something odd. Across the street from Alivan’s a strange-looking man stands, facing the store. He stands under the night-light, in front of the movie theater, wearing a tall grey pointed hat, a long dark robe, and is holding a long staff. And to Jesse it seems as if he’s staring straight through the window at him.

Character introductions

Jesse, the new and only employee at Alivan’s Wizards and Witches Corner Store, in Mount Dora.

Mr. Claw (only mentioned, not even Jesse’s met him).

A wizard wearing a long black robe, tall pointed grey hat and holding a wizard’s staff, just staring at Jese through the window across the street … Ch-U-Ch is that youuu???

Events

Not a lot. The city of Mount Dora is set up for us for future chapters, and at the end Jesse notices a wizard-looking fella looking through the store window directly at him. We also a tiny bit about Jesse’s life before he came to Mount Dora, and we hear about his wish to host a children’s costume contest at Alivan’s for Halloween.

Emotions and thoughts

In general a great location and tone set-up episode/chapter for the book. I really enjoy getting such a fleshed out feel for a small town like Mount Dora. I also definitely enjoy this one better than the prologue. It’s also longer and we’re introduced to the world surrounding Alivan’s with greater detail than we were told about the small New England town in the prologue. I gotta say, a lot of mentions of “Alivan’s Wizards and Witches Corner Store.” I’ve read up on this, and apparently the reason was that Areces had to meet the 50k word quota on NaNoWriMo, which was what he was writing this for, in order to have the book accepted as an actual full novel. Thankfully, the next boosk in the series makes up for this greatly by having way more to explore of the world of the Wizardry. And even here, in Interview, we’ve got some great establishing chapters coming. Including this one. It feels almost like establishing shots, the most beautiful kinds of them, but with narration to tell us something about the background of the thigns we’re observing.

By the way, the place - Mount Dora - really does exist, in Florida. I enjoy hearing about Alivan’s Wizards and Witches Corner Store, and about the town and its history. There is a great atmosphere that’s created by Areces’ mention of the way the different shops are utilized today, and how they were converted from old, historic houses. It sounds both like a tourist attraction but also like an actual place you can live in. “Busy, but not too busy. Quiet, but not too quiet.” Areces breathes life into the place so well it’s clear he has been there to get a feel for the place.

We are told that the story is set in 2006, by the fact that the latest flying broom model, the Stealth, is called the “2006 flying broom model, the Stealth” and the older model is referred to as the “2005 model.” It’s also a week before Halloween (October 31st) and it’s Sunday. This places it as exactly October 22, 2006 if going by actual calendars, but if it’s literally seven days to Halloween it’s actually Sunday, October 24th, 2006, which is not a real date. It’s possible Areces didn’t think much about the year, or date, and wanted to start the story at Sunday out of some sort of preference.

The pronunciation of words are somehow already miles better in this episode. There are still issues with grammar in the text, however, like adding “was” instead of “were”, and some sentences sounding like they should have been extensions of other sentences and not their own ones grammar-wise, but being read as if they are their own lines.

Also, Jesse’s character sounds kind of perfect. Maybe a little too much. Like a Gary Stu. Let’s hope he gets some flaws soon. It is a bit refreshing to see someone who is so good at everything and doesn’t find joy in any of it, though, instead preferring to spend time on the computer and on the internet - but it’s not enough to keep my interest. We’ll see how Jesse develops with each episode.

That is all for now! Look forward to seeing something tomorrow or Thursday!