#channeled jeremy for a second there in the beginning

[0bnoxious0range]

So I was going through the sunshine court (cause i’m so heckin excited for tsc2) and I happened upon something. I know numbers in aftg is like A Thing, but I haven’t seen anyone mention the significance of the number 5 in tsc.

Five is the number is years Jean spent in Evermore

Five is what you get when you add the numbers in the age Jean was sold to Evermore (14)

Five is the number of tries it took Jean to get off the bed in Palmetto for the first time

Five is the number of phone numbers that were initially saved into Jeans phone (I’m guessing it’s Kevin, Renee, Betsy, Zane, and Riko)

Five volunteers to break Jean in

Five o’clock is when Jeremy wakes up

Five is the number of months Jean stood up for himself in the nest before he gave up

Five is the number of miles Jean (and Jeremy) ran when Jean found out the trojans had a pool.

Five is the number of Trojans most likely to share classes with Jean

Five is the number of classes Jean signs up for

And chapter five is when Jean watches the Foxes v Raven game and finds out about Riko’s death. Both events that change Jeans life and initiate his whole character arc.

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

I don’t know if this is going to resonate or matter to anyone, but as a black gamer who has seen this trope time and time again in video games and tv and movies, I really like the way NotGames goes about establishing Jeremy’s character. Specifically, how they dive around turning him into another victim of the dreaded white savior trope.

[Not for Broadcast spoilers beneath cut 🫡]

Personally, I think Jeremy separates himself from falling into this trope in two ways. The first, and the most simple of the two, is Megan’s presence and character. Though she starts out being the culture correspondent without much political or cultural sway, she inevitably rises to the same position Jeremy once held of being the country’s most beloved and trusted news anchor. Despite having this position, she hardly treats it the same way that Jeremy did before her.

She’s willing to use her power to benefit Advance- and by extension, herself. She understands that the country trusts her, and uses her position on Channel One to placate them, lulling them into a false sense of security and compliance. She acts in every way Jeremy wouldn’t- and while she comes to her senses as the world begins to crumble around her, she made a bold departure from Jeremy’s ethics in a way that has explicit consequences.

Not saying that Megan is white, because she isn’t- or her actress isn’t, at any rate- but she hits every other beat that Jeremy hits in regards to power and influence, and by introducing a character who does it wrong, it’s way easier to digest a character who does it right. It doesn’t feel as out of the blue. In many ways, Megan is a great foil for Jeremy’s character.

The second (and more important) element of Jeremy that stops him from drifting into the white savior trope is the way that he weaponizes his defiance. I’m not sure if it was written intentionally or not, but Jeremy is a really great example of being an ally to those around him- regardless of if it’s in regards to race, or status, or gender.

Jeremy is acutely aware of how much influence he has over people around him. He knows how much his word matters to those who watch Channel One- he knows the National Nightly News is the station everyone trusts. And so, when he is asked by everyone around him to throw his morals to the wayside for the sake of Advance, he refuses and defies them in whatever way he can.

He addresses the power outages and resource shortages directly, despite being scripted to treat them as alleged claims. He outright goes off-script after J-Zuss’ performance to tell their viewers that the NNN will never silence ideals. Even when he has to endorse things like the Team Membership Cards or transition centers, he twists the knife just enough to elude to his disapproval, even if he can’t say the quiet part out loud.

But he also goes out of his way to abide by his moral compass even to his own detriment. And I think that’s a really important- and potentially even overlooked- element of his character.

The entire reason he has a gun during the Heatwave broadcast in the first place is because he wrestled it off an officer. And why did he wrestle it off an officer? Because he was silencing one of his guests- arresting them for speaking their mind- and violently retaliating when his friends tried to help. Even when Truman was practically slandering him- accusing him of being the Advance bootlicker he would rather die than become- push comes to shove, Jeremy would rather scrap with an officer than stay silent and passive.

Jeremy Donaldson is not a passive man. Because he is aware that passiveness is the same thing as compliance. He is aware that staying silent about Advance is the same thing as endorsing them. He is aware that not helping is the same thing as harming. And his moral compass will not allow him to become a blunt instrument for Advance to wield.

The CCO would have tackled and arrested anyone else who dared to get in the way of his work. But no one would dare hurt Jeremy Donaldson- especially not on live television.

The security team in the Heatwave B route would have gunned anyone else down in a matter of seconds. But they wouldn’t dare do that to Jeremy Donaldson. They give him a countdown- hell, the even slow down their counting to give him more time to come to his senses.

Because they know the power he has over the country. Because they can’t just put their boot on his neck and bully him like they bully everyone else.

I found it very fascinating that Alan’s race was meant to play a critical part in his position as a pawn to the dark side of Disrupt. How he was supposed to be a pied piper for people of color, lulling them into a dance sense of security so they could all be rid of once Advance was out of the picture. Admittedly, I bristled a little bit when I realized the new, race-related layer that added to Jeremy specifically being the one to expose Disrupt for who they really are. But, when looking at his character in a deeper light, I feel like it’s hard to see him as a standard issue of the white savior printing press.

Jeremy, to me, is a great example of a white ally protagonist. He weaponizes his position of power for the purpose of good- does things that other people can not do for the purpose of good. I feel like I don’t see a lot of characters written that well in most media- especially not explicitly political medias like this one.

[xfolex]

Looking through Project Moon's old YouTube channel, there's some interesting stuff. Originally I was going to write about the Tumblbug as well, but there was a lot more stuff there than I realized, so I'll just talk about the YouTube for now.

The first video shows some very early concept ideas for the game. There's actually a lot of information in this first video, which I suppose makes sense as it's the first introduction to the game and the oldest as well. I've added some markings on my thoughts of some of the images and also brightened some of them as well.

Throughout the video we get to see pages from a manual that gives some basic information about the game. These are in Korean so I put them through Google Translate to read them. It's interesting how even from the very beginning the concept of the Sefirot and the Tree of Life was being used. Page 5 has the same list of Abnormalities that I was straining my eyes to figure out in my NDC post, but then there was the same list in color so all my effort trying to figure out each Abnormality kind of went to waste.

The list that explains the attack types corresponds to the way the attack types worked in the legacy version. With Black damage affecting the facility and Blue damage being Instant death (though attack types are very inaccurately assigned in-game). You can also see how it originally seemed like there were going to be only three types of work: feeding, cleaning, and suppressing. Though there's more information about that on the game's Tumblbug.

It's kind of hard to see, but page 15 shows Tangtang being part of the "Command and Surveillance Team" which is something mentioned in the game's code in early versions. According to the game's code, it seemed like the Control, Information, Safety, and Training teams were originally called the Command and Surveillance, Solution Development, Emergency Planning, and Material Management teams respectively.

This manual seems to be missing page 16 and 17, and it doesn't seem to be shown anywhere in any video.

The line of never forget/we remember the day the Abnormality first escaped that occasionally pops up here and there seems to be referencing Nothing There since it's a line from the first training video where Nothing There escapes.

The second training video was released on October 30, 2015. I don't have much thoughts on this video, but I thought the pixel art was very cute. I mention the date this video was posted because this is the last video with the square employee art style. The next video posted on February 15, 2016 has the Legacy art style, so between October and February the art style for the game changed. I'll talk more about this shift in art style when I look at the Tumblbug.

I also want to take this time to mention Jeremy, the original Lobotomy Corp mascot (not really) who appeared in only three videos but still managed to capture my heart. This post is dedicated in loving memory to Jeremy.

The Teaser Trailor video has a few key things I wanted to mention. First, the assign work UI seems to have the Book w/o Picture or Dialogue as the default icon for every Abnormality, and has a very different UI that I'm not quite sure how it works. Next, you can see some silhouettes of various Abnormalities, and most of them I recognize, but there's some I'm not 100% sure on. Throughout the video we see some Abnormalities that ultimately never made it into the game, but we can see My Sweet Orange Tree in the containment unit at the very end, which made me wonder how far along these unreleased abnormalities were in development. Even the ones in the very old videos, were they actually semi-functional Abnos or were they just placeholder images that never got developed?

The Proto-Demo video shows a manual and a line that leads to the target. The manual isn't in the demo version I have access to but can still be found in the game's files. I don't have much else thoughts on it other than how purposely bad the person playing the game is doing. Just absolutely picking the worst option consistently.

I also don't have much to say about the other game test videos except in the Day 14 video where we can see some very minor differences. First, the entire game seems a lot darker than normal, but that might just be due to the recording. Second, the Abnormality's Damage Type is listed instead of the Attack Type, which is honestly more useful information that I wish was kept for the Legacy version. Third, the hallways are all very dark as if Big Bird was breaching, and generic irrespective of the department. Fourth, the employee assign UI is very slightly different not that huge but just enough to be noticeable. Lastly, I found it funny how PM just left a broken icon for Snow White's Apple in the video.

The third training video with Queen of Hatred is pretty interesting because it seems to be following QoH's story where an employee talks to her over the course of a few days and her moods gets worse every day. But specifically the old version of QoH's story, since it seems like a lot of Abno stories were ever so slightly changed sometime after the 1.0.2.2 version. The new version of the story omits the fact that QoH was neutralized with anesthetic, which was probably because that mechanic was removed after the legacy version. Also, another interesting thing about the video is that the background containment unit seems to be different that usual, where some stuff is in different places and the number written on the wall is 76 instead of 27.

The Lobtomi♥High video was PM's April Fools for 2017, released alongside version 1.0.1.0 which introduced Little Red, Big and Might be Bad Wolf, Central Command Team, and most importantly You're Bald...! PM has historically celebrated April Fools a lot, whether intentionally or not. There's a lot of random abnormalities in this video, including some released, unreleased, and joke abnormalities. I find it interesting that Fragment of the Universe was the only abnormality that was unreleased and not shown before when the video was published that was then released later on. This video was the first time Fragment of the Universe was ever made public.

[ I can't show a screenshot of the video because I reached the max image limit for the post :( ]

There's two launch trailers for the game, one for when the game was first released in early access, and one for when the game was about to fully release. Between the two, I personally like the first one better because it has a better sense of progression rather than just showing bad things happening out of context, but maybe I'm just biased since I like first trumpet more.

Ok, I think that's enough for this post. There's a lot of stuff to unpack with these videos, so it was nice to look back through them again since I haven't really sat down to watch them all in years.

[denimbex1986]

'****

Alan Yentob waits in reception at Doctor Who’s new HQ, with a Dalek prop for company. “Look, there’s the greatest evil in the universe,” says Russell T Davies in welcome. “And a Dalek.” I suspect it isn’t the first time Davies has cracked this gag, but delivered with a hearty laugh and a bear hug, Yentob is powerless to resist. After all, as presenter and series editor, he gamely left it in the final cut.

This joyous film profiles the once in a generation talent known as RTD. Well, I say once in a generation. A lovely sequence sees Davies reunite with his old Granada mucker Sally Wainwright, arguably his sole rival as Britain’s top television writer. As they ponder their parallel careers, I’m relieved there isn’t a gas explosion or similar tragedy. Contemporary British TV would have been ruined in one fell swoop.

A whistle stop tour of his TV CV begins with Davies’s roots in children’s programming, including a brief stint as a Play School presenter. Imagine if he hadn’t realised that his destiny lay behind the camera. Doesn’t bear thinking about. We fast forward past underrated gems like Bob & Rose (gay Jonathan Creek!), The Second Coming (young Christopher Eccleston!), Casanova (young David Tennant!), and Cucumber (which makes me cry all over again at that devastating Cyril Nri death scene).

Yentob traces Davies’s evolution as our foremost screen chronicler of the gay male experience. Davies first dipped a toe in with an episode of period soap The Royal, about a closeted barman discovering Manchester’s Canal Street in the 1920s. When producers hesitated, he held his nerve, knowing that budgets were so tight they had no choice but to shoot his script. Having found his voice, Davies was emboldened to create the landmark drama Queer As Folk and its spiritual prequel, the recent masterpiece It’s a Sin.

After channelling his political rage into the dystopian polemic Years and Years, and powered by the death of his beloved husband Andrew Smith, Davies felt ready to tell the story he’d been avoiding for 30 years. He had deliberately ignored HIV and Aids in Queer As Folk to kick against screen stereotypes. Now it was finally time to honour “those brave, beautiful boys” who died during the 80s epidemic. It’s a Sin duly broke streaming records and led to a huge rise in HIV testing.

Davies has always plundered his past for ideas. As he says: “There’s not the writer and then me. There’s just me. All of my life connects to the writing. All of it.” In his home in Mumbles, Swansea, there are toy Daleks on the bookshelves, and “La!” mugs in the kitchen (a nod to an in-joke from It’s a Sin). His teenage memories of the Jeremy Thorpe trial begat A Very English Scandal. His obsession with the wobbly-set soap Crossroads led to Nolly. He cheerfully reveals that stories, scenes and chunks of dialogue sit in his head for decades, waiting for an opportunity. Broadcast-ready scripts then come pouring out all at once, his typing fingers struggling to keep pace. He asks Yentob: “You talk to lots of writers. Aren’t we all like this?” Not really, no. Davies looks slightly disappointed.

Woven throughout, of course, is a certain Time Lord. Watching Doctor Who aged three isn’t just Davies’ first TV memory, it’s his first memory full stop. While other Swansea schoolboys were discovering football and girls, he was glued to the telly, creating remarkably accomplished Who comic strips. He eventually realised he was writing, not drawing. In 2005, Davies masterminded the show’s reboot after 16 years off air, transforming it from a naff joke into a global franchise.

There’s no better custodian of the ultimate show for outsiders and underdogs, hence he is taking the reins again for its 60th anniversary special. He must have been in the Tardis countless times, but Davies still fizzes with glee when he takes Yentob inside that magical blue box. It’s a Sin reinvigorated his taste for shows that spark a national conversation. Now he can pour all his passion and stored-up stories into NuWho MK II, using Disney’s cash to help realise his vision. It bodes well for the show’s future. So do tantalising glimpses of the incoming Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, who has charisma – or “rizz”, as the dictionary now calls it – to burn.

Sure, this is puff as much as documentary. Yet with its riotous interviews and evocative clips, this is a timey wimey treat – whether you’re a Whovian, a fan of great TV or just someone who appreciates a man with a resealable pack of 1,000 Tetley teabags (Davies is an out and proud bulk buyer). It is glorious to spend an hour in the company of his big, blazing brilliance – and a reminder of how lucky we are to have him.'

[ratmonk]

jeremy strong singing honesty as kendall roy and somehow channeling both 'control freak' and 'unstable wreck' makes me want to chew on an electric chord hdhdhj the way he misses the starting cue and is slightly off-beat and is trying so hard and second-guessing and says each word with such painstaking effort that he's constantly struggling to keep up and whenever he decides to go for it he starts steady but then he gets too eager with his earnestness and overshoots the mark and the desperation comes through and his voice gets shaky and he's off-tune and the cracks begin to show and the facade crumbles and the anguish seeps through. it's a halfway genuine plea for authenticity from an egotist, a hypocrite, a crack-up and a real person, it's cringe and it's devastating and it is disgustingly kendall. jeremy strong this is going on your emmy reel

[fluffymcu]

Letting Loose

Part FOUR

This series is TICKLE related. Outfits that are linked here are purely for picturing the clothes, you don’t have to look like the model.

Series Summary: You’re the little sister of the one and only Captain America. You’re also the youngest girl on the team, so that automatically makes you the avengers’ little princess. And they spoil you as such. They have become your amazing family and you don’t know where you’d be without them. This series will show random adventures and fluffy events in the daily life of the reader and her family, along with an unexpected turn later on as you read.

A/N: I’m so excited to be writing this series! This is my first time writing one and I’m a bit nervous but I hope it all goes well. :) The first few chapters will be about random events, not really following a timeline until Chapter 9. Hope you enjoy!

Word count: 2,483

Previous Next

———

It was a Friday afternoon and you were having lunch with Mj and Ned. Peter was up in the library preparing for a test coming up. “So, do you think if I went over to the compound and pretended I was an orphan, the Avengers would let me in?” Ned asked you as you three walked to the table with your lunch trays. You rolled your eyes playfully and scoffed.

“Ned, I have told you 20,000 times and I’‘ll tell you again. If you wanna visit and check out the compound, just ask. I’d be more than happy to give you a tour, and so would Peter. The Avengers know you’re my friend and they wouldn’t mind having you over.” You smiled, taking your seat next to Mj.

“Yeah, Ned, don’t be a wuss. Just ask for a tour already.” She chuckled. You and Ned smiled along and started to eat your lunch. “Also, I like your drip. Looks nice.” She nodded towards your outfit. You smiled and thanked her.

The three of you continued to eat and talk until until the bell rang, cueing that lunch was over. “Alright, I’ll see you guys after school.” You waved, making your way to your next class.

----

You sighed audibly as you and Peter strolled into the compound. You laid your backpack on the floor to the side and plopped on the couch. No one seemed to be out and about right now, so you closed your eyes for 5 minutes. You were pretty tired today. Why? You didn’t know. Jeremy hadn’t bothered you too much today and you had gotten pretty good sleep last night. After your 5 minutes of shut eye, you ran up to your room and changed into your leotard, taking the next 30 minutes to stretch and practice your positions. You were thinking about going down to the gym so you can practice more and dance, but you didn’t really feel like dancing too much today since you were a bit tired already.

After your stretching, you took a hot shower, which made you more sleepy. You decided to take a small nap to get some energy and as soon as you hit the mattress, you were out.

You woke up, not knowing what year it was and you grabbed your phone to look at the time. It had only been 20 minutes. You were surprised you were feeling so well rested. You got out of bed without a problem, and you heard people downstairs. You smiled to yourself as you knew now that everyone was downstairs and talking. You began to fix your bed a little before Peter practically burst through your door, running towards you while letting out a battle cry. You were startled, to say the least. Although this was a very common occurrence, it still surprised you as Peter tackled you onto your bed for a play fight. He had jumped acrobatically, flying almost upside down; grabbing your head and body slamming you on the mattress. You let out a squeal but quickly recovered, getting your head in the game and fighting back. You grunt as you push him off you and grab his collar to slam him onto the bed.

He grabs your wrists and gets out from under you, standing up on the mattress. He picks you up with ease, only to throw you back on the bed with force. You begin to giggle again, a bad habit you have, because it makes you weaker in these play fights. Although you both play pretty rough, Peter is always gentle with you, and he’s never seriously hurt you. He still is very strong though, even when he’s not trying to use his strength. You get up on the mattress to be at the same level as Peter, and you grab your pillow, whacking him on the head. He snatched the pillow from you and you instantly ran, knowing what was next. You hopped off the bed and he chased you around it. Of course, it was inevitable. After you received your whack, you wrestled him onto the bed and got back on.

When you were both standing on the mattress again, you grabbed your other pillow and whacked him again, making him fall off the bed. You gasp, covering your mouth and giggling, but quickly recovering. “I guess I win.” You smirk. Peter sits up from the ground and gives you a predatory look.

‘I don’t think so!” He laughs, getting up and jumping back on in one swift movement, lifting you up before throwing you down. He smirks at you before taking a stance. “I’m about to end your whole career.” He chuckles, jumping in the air, pointing his elbow at you and pretending he’s about to land on you before moving at the last minute and falling down next to you. You flinch, letting out a laugh. You try to fight back once again, but you’re weakened by your unstoppable giggling. Peter chuckles before standing up. “This ends now!” He says dramatically, carrying you off and holding you above his head. “THIS IS SPARTA!!!!” He yells before throwing you off the bed, aiming for your bean bag. You land on it with a squeal, and put your hands up in surrender.

“Okahahahay, you win!” You say breathlessly. Peter cheers and does his victory dance before hopping down and giving you a hand.

“You okay?” He chuckles.

You nod with a wide smile. “Yeahah. I’m goohood.”

-----

You shake your head with a lopsided grin, sitting back as the team once again finds themselves in a fight over who picks the movie and what to watch. You were surprised even Nat was in thr middle of it. Usually she’s there right next to you, laughing at them.

“I should pick the movie this time. I have excellent taste.” Pietro grounded out, his hands on his hips to show he was serious.

“As if, Blondie.”

“I AM NOT BLONDE!”

“I should pick the movie because you liked because you all like the movie I put on last time.”

“Exactly. You picked the movie last time so it’s my turn to pick the movie tonight.”

“No, Tony.”

They all continued to squabble in a standing circle, the conversation so overlapped that you couldn’t even understand much else. Time was ticking and you were pretty sure you’d all be stuck the for the rest of the night before even deciding on a movie. Thankfully, Peter came to save the day. Or, your boredom, better said.

“Hey!” He whispered from the other couch, getting your attention. You sat up a bit and leaned over to hear him a bit better. “How about we steal the remote and hide it? We can put what we wanna watch, and they won’t be able to find the remote!” He raised his eyebrows as he shared his master plan. You narrowed your eyes at him with a smile.

“I like this plan. I like it a lot.” You and Peter immediately got to work, sneaking over to the couch nearest to the team, where the remote was sitting. It was actually pretty easy to steal since everyone was too occupied being at each others throats. They didn’t even notice or hear the channel change as you put on The Matrix, quickly running to the kitchen and getting Peter to lift you up so you can put the remote on the highest cabinet shelf. You both stealthily sneaked back into the living room and jumped on the couches, pretending nothing happened and watching your movie with a smirk.

“Wait-wait a minute wait a minute.” Tony said all of a sudden, making the rest of the team quiet down. They all caught on and turned around to see you and Peter on the couch watching your movie.

“Uhhh. What do you guys think you’re doing?” Clint asked, the whole team stepping towards you a bit.

“Watching our movie.” You shrugged, turning your attention back to the tv.

“We’re not watching that, though.” Steve said, the rest of them audibly agreeing.

“Well, it’s on, and we’re watching it, so... I guess we are!” You smiled, unbothered. The team put on confused faces.

“Nnnnno we’re not. I’m changing it.” Tony said, turning around, determined to change the channel.

“Yeah Tony, change it.” The team murmured, cheering him on. Tony looked around on each couch, a look of confusion gracing his features. “What’s wrong? Change the channel!”

“I can’t! I can’t find the remote, it’s gone.” Tony mumbled. The team groaned and started looking behind the cushions and under the chairs. “Wait a minute. I bet these two trouble makers have something to do with it.” You and Peter secretly exchanged nervous looks.

“That would make sense. The tv just happens to land on their favorite movie and suddenly the remote is gone.” Steve hums. Suddenly, everyone is around you, blocking your view of the tv.

“Whatever you guys are accusing us of, we didn’t do it.” You defend, not meeting their eyes.

“We don’t believe you.” Steve mocked, grabbing your arm to get you to sit up. “Tell us where the remote is, y/n, or else.” He said, the team nodding behind him.

“I don’t have the stupid remote.” You quipped back, crossing your arms defiantly, now looking your brother straight in the eye.

“Then where did you hide it, if we’re going to be technical.” He smirked slightly. You whole tough guy facade faltered for a second, smiling nervously, making Steve raise his eyebrow teasingly. “So you did hide it. Where?” You scoffed.

“I’m not telling you!” You sass, probably the wrong move. Steve exchanged looks with the team before nodding, telling Tony to get Peter too, since he most likely knows where it is. Steve turned to you with a mischevious grin, before lifting you off the couch and laying you on the floor.

“Suit yourself!” He chuckled, straddling your hips. Pietro sat behind you, next to your head and grabbed your wrists, keeping you from defending yourself. Bucky sat by your legs while Nat sat at your feet. You were incredibly nervous and you instantly started begging.

“Noooohohohoho plehehease don’t!” You kick out your legs, whining when Bucky grabbed them and held them down.

“Then tell us where the remote is, y/n.” Steve asked, his fingers tapping at a steady rhythm against your sides. Giggles caught up in your throat as you looked over to see Peter being pinned down as well by Tony, Sam, Clint, and Thor. You groan and pull at your hands, unable to get out of Pietro’s hold.

“But we wanna watch The Matrix!” You whine. Steve smirked and turned to look at Bucky and Nat.

“Team, I am sensing resistance. I hereby approve the movement for the next phase.” He teased, digging into your ribs. You let out a shriek, already pulling desperately at your hands, dissolving into more hysterics when you felt Bucky tase your inner thighs. You shook your head side to side, yelling out pleads and apologies, anything to make this stop. except giving up the remote.

“BAHAHAHAHA! WAHAHAHAIT!” You cackled, recoiling when Pietro started to flutter his fingers behind your ears. Bucky began to squeeze your knees, knowing how bad that spot makes you react. You scream continuously for about 30 seconds non stop, making your brother crack up. Bucky’s laughing too, still torturing your knees. Tears of mirth are falling from the corners of your eyes as the team shows you no mercy. Steve is blowing raspberries on your belly while scribbling his finger into your sides, Bucky is tormenting your hips and thighs, squeezing his hands up and down to your knees, and Nat is waiting a few moments to see if you give in before going for your feet. “GUHUHUHUYS I CAHAHANT!” You beg.

Bucky smirks and pauses on his attack. “Does that mean we’ll see the remote anytime soon?” You laugh, falling limp, not wanting to give it up. Peter was laughing hysterically a few feet away from you, Thor blowing raspberries on his stomach and Tony attacking his armpits. You giggled tiredly at the sight of him, Steve’s finger poking your belly drawing your attention back. “Hey, don’t laugh at him, you’re in the saaame situation too, Princess.” He chuckled. Bruce and Vision were sitting on the couches watching, not wanting to be dragged into another squabble, and Wanda was sitting back, smirking and taking pictures and videos to embarrass you later.

You giggled and looked at Bucky, who was looking at you expectantly. “Uhuhuhummm,,, ugh I can’t tell you!” You cry. They all shook their heads at you before resuming their antics, tickling you mercilessly. Your laughter became desperate again, going up an octave when Nat’s long nails raked up and down your bare feet. “NOHOHOHOOO NOHOHOT THEHEHEHERE! NAHAHAT!” Your laughter was becoming hoarse, the torture driving you insane. You had to make a choice: Giving up the remote, or death. “OHOHOHOKAHAHAY! I CHOOSE LIHIHIHIFE!” You yelled, falling into silent laughter right after that. Your brother signaled Bucky and Nat to let you go, and Pietro let go of your wrists. You finally relaxed and you greedily sucked in air.

Your brother looked at you fondly, letting you catch your breath, tapping you with his knee. “Well, on with it.” You sighed and sat up a bit. nodding toward the kitchen cabinet. “The shelves?” He asked, looking at you. You nodded, exhausted. “Which one?”

“You’re gonna have to look for it till’ you find it.” You smiled cheekily. Steve growled before pushing you back down and tickling your armpits. You screamed and immediately gave in. “OKAYOKAYOKAY THE TOP SHEHEHELF!! THE TOP SHELF!” Steve chuckled and stood up to retrieve the remote.

“Alright, guys, you can let Peter go, I’ve retrieved the goods.” Steve smiled, waving the remote in his hand. Peter let out a weird relieved giggle as he melted onto the floor making everyone laugh. They let you both go and you slumped down on the couch, Peter falling right next to you.

“Okay, that plan was not as good as I thought it was.” You sighed. Peter nodded out of breath, and you both vowed to never hide the remote on movie night again.

This time, everyone was able to agree on a movie much quicker, deciding to play Divergent. You rested your head on Peter’s shoulder, watching the movie with droopy eyes. You surprisingly stayed awake till the end though, everyone yawning and starting conversation as the end credits rolled.

You peacefully fell sound asleep to the quiet murmur of the team, Peter following shortly after. Steve took Peter to his bed while Bucky carried you to yours. He tucked you in your bed, smiling softly as he kissed your forehead, turning off your lamp and leaving your room to go to bed himself.

[aion-rsa]

The Forgotten Era of Internet Jump Scares

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Beware: Every video clip embedded in this article features a jump scare.

It’s 2005 and you just received an email to your Hotmail account with the subject line “Bet you can’t get out of this maze.” You immediately click the link because you love a challenge and don’t fully understand the internet yet. 

The first two levels of the maze game are easier than you thought and you fly through them. By the time you reach level 3, however, things get much harder. The walls begin to shrink and the turns you have to navigate are much sharper. Is this going to be impossible to finish? Is that the trick here? You lean forward to get a better look. Your nose is damn near touching the screen and then…

REGAN FROM THE EXORCIST OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE!

As Linda Blair’s scarred face and two inhuman screams penetrate every ventricle of your heart, the reality sets in that you just fell victim to one of the most infamous jump scares in internet history.

No one would call the internet of today a civilized place. But believe it or not, it used to be even less…refined. Back when the Space Jam website was built on caveman HTML code and Facebook was but a glint in a horny Harvard creep’s eye, the Internet was truly the Wild West. Into that entropy stepped some of the most diabolical pranks pulled off at a scale not seen since Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

Throughout the mid-2000s and early 2010s, the World Wide Web was fit to bursting with PTSD-inducing internet jump scares or “Internet Screamers” as they’d come to be known. “The Maze” or “Scary Maze Game” was among the phenomenon’s first big hits. The game was created in 2004 by developer Jeremy Winterrowd and hosted on his site winterrowd.com (until it was taken down in early 2019, shortly after Adobe Flash was discontinued). Even its creator was taken aback by the simple Flash game’s viral potential.

“I made this game in October of ’04 for Halloween and sent it to a few of my friends in an email,” Winterrowd wrote on Yahoo Answers more than a decade ago. “About 5 months later, someone had sent the same email back to my mother! It had turned into a viral email joke. I was very flattered and figured I should make a website for all the stupid prank games I’ve made.”

Though The Maze was among the first Internet Screamers, it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Screamer Wiki, the unofficial catalog of all Internet jump scares, features over 1,500 examples of online heart-skippers. Among them are what is believed to be the first example, “Kikia,” a clip which originated on message boards in China and features a 17-second serene animation concluding with a terrifying face from the video game Fatal Frame II.

Other “classics” in the genre include the “Color Vision Deficiency Test” first hosted on Liquid Generation, “Mysterious Scary Dot”, and “Ghost Caught on Tape.”

The most well-known Internet Screamers all have one thing in common: they’re relatively old. Though the internet still churns out the occasional unwanted surprise spooky, the fad has largely died off and has entered the second stage of any Internet phenomenon’s lifecycle: nostalgia posting.

Toby Bouchard is a Canadian horror enthusiast who was looking for the best angle to launch his YouTube channel, TobyPasta, in 2019. Long fascinated by modern creepypastas like Slender Man and Jeff the Killer, Bouchard decided to delve into an even earlier internet horror phenomenon with his channel’s first video “Internet Screamers: Remember Those?”

“Out of the blue one day, I was like ‘no one is talking about Internet Screamers’ so I thought that would be a great idea. It’s been awhile since they’ve been circulating,” Bouchard says. 

The move paid off with that first video garnering 14,000 viewers and leading to more specific follow-ups on The Scary Maze Game, Zalgo, and more. Still, the most successful videos that Bouchard has produced have revolved around what has come to be considered the GOAT of all Internet Screamers: “Ghost Car.”

“Number one definitely has to be Ghost Car,” Bouchard says. “I was very scared of it and I wanted to share that with everyone.”

A video called “Ghost Car” was first uploaded to YouTube by user mrssmithereen on July 30, 2005. The 20-second clip features a white car gently gliding down a mountain road surrounded by lush greenery. It’s incredibly calming until roughly 14 seconds into the video when a zombie jumps in front of the camera and screams. The screen cuts to black and white text is displayed: “Now…Go Change Your Shorts And Get Back to Work!”

“Ghost Car” has every element that makes an Internet Screamer a hit. It is short, relaxing, and then unbearably shocking. Since its uploading, it has generated nearly 38 million views, and many more reaction videos, homages, and parodies. What’s particularly interesting about “Ghost Car” is that, while many Internet Screamers and other urban legends have mysterious origins, the source of “Ghost Car” is both crystal clear and surprisingly mainstream.

The video that was uploaded to YouTube in July 2005 was actually a slightly edited version of a TV commercial that first aired in April 2005. The ad that would become the viral “Ghost Car” video was from German caffeine company K-Fee. It was part of a series of nine 20-second long ads with similar premises. Viewers would be presented with a peaceful quiet scene that would be interrupted by an actor in zombie or gargoyle makeup jumping out and screaming at the end. Each ad would finish with text in German or English that promoted its canned coffee product. In the case of “Ghost Car,” the text read “Ever been so wide awake? Canned caffeine with coffee.”

The facts surrounding K-Fee’s shocking ad campaign have floated around the internet for roughly as long as the Screamer it produced. Earlier this year, however, the full story was compiled into a 43-minute documentary from British YouTuber Rhys Lapsley. Lapsley’s documentary features the complete saga of K-Fee’s infamous commercials from conception to execution to eternal memedom. Lapsley says he first encountered the video when he was six years old thanks to his father, and the experience led to a lifelong fascination with the clip.

“He showed me the video on his phone and I screamed. It was awful,” Lapsley says. “Then I just wanted to know more about this video.”

Lapsley’s research included interviews with Brad and Adam Johnson, brothers who portrayed the zombie and gargoyle respectively in the series of ads. The brothers address the rumor that the ads caused cardiac episodes in some viewers, though that’s never been corroborated. 

“That wasn’t the first time I’ve heard that,” Lapsey says. “On Reddit there were rumors that some older people had heart attacks but no one really knows.” 

Lapsley also uncovered that there was a series of radio advertisements from K-Fee that feature audio jump scares. That was perhaps a bad idea, given that most people listen to the radio while driving. 

In addition to its massive impact in the online space, “Ghost Car”’s traditional television origins make it the most interesting Internet Screamer. It’s easy to understand why jump scares would be pervasive in the anarchic early years of the Internet, but on television there is considerably more regulatory red tape to clear. The fact that K-Fee cleared that red tape makes it something of a minor miracle.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“Ghost Car”’s success in the pre-internet era also begs the question as to where all the Internet Screamers have gone now? Jump scare pranks will certainly persist for as long as there are innocent internet users to be taken in by them, but the fad is certainly many years away from its height. Both Bouchard and Lapsley have similar theories as to why the Internet Screamer era has fallen away. 

“I think people got tired of it,” Bouchard says. “It’s the same schtick over and over again. That’s what I’ve noticed as I’ve been making videos on my channel. A lot of people now expect it. If a video is too good to be true they think ‘oh yeah, this is a jump scare.’”

“There aren’t many originals,” Lapsley adds. “I gave [making one] a go myself for the documentary. It didn’t go well. It got no views and I’m quite glad it didn’t.” 

Inoculation is certainly part of it. When savvy internet users begin to recognize the telltale signs of an Internet Screamer, they are less likely to see a video through to its terrifying completion. Another aspect that cannot be ignored, however, is that the internet itself isn’t as much of an unchartable frontier as it once was.

Moneyed interests like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and more have bought up a considerable amount of online real estate and they have a vested interest in ensuring that the visitors to their many sites aren’t viewing them with their hands over their eyes. In 2018, New Line Cinema produced ads for its Conjuring-verse horror film The Nun that featured a jump scare. After receiving some user complaints, YouTube reported that the ad violated its “shocking content policy” and removed the official video, though the clip lived on through countless other bootleg uploads. 

There’s possibly a third reason Internet Screamers have declined though. Perhaps we all as Internet citizens came to an implicit understanding that enough was enough and we would no longer attempt to scare one another. Call it an Internet Screamer cease-fire if you will. Is it possible then that the people of the internet have become more sophisticated and conscientious than ever before?

Yeah, no. It’s probably the money thing. 

The post The Forgotten Era of Internet Jump Scares appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Jeremy Knauff - His Inspiring Story of Surviving A Health Crisis

https://www.jayconner.com/jeremy-knauff-his-inspiring-story-of-surviving-a-health-crisis/

If you are interested in hearing and learning the most inspiring story that Jay Conner heard this year, stay tuned and watch this video.

Jay is in the Mastermind group with a gentleman who is phenomenal. His special guest today has experienced a health crisis and survived it.

In today’s episode, they are going to dive deep into the inspiring story of Jeremy Knauff.

Jeremy has become successful not because of brilliance, charm, or a superpower, but rather because he’s always learning and refuses to give up. He is a speaker, author, and founder of the digital marketing agency Spartan Media.

He is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, author, proud father, husband, and a US Marine Corps veteran. Today, he runs Spartan Media, a digital marketing agency where they provide web design, SEO, social media, and PPC marketing services.

“A lot of the people I work with come to me because they have a website but they aren’t getting enough new business out of it. Other people come to me because they’re losing business to competitors, or because they don’t think their website presents their company to potential customers very well, or even because they’re starting a company from scratch and they don’t want to screw it up and waste a ton of money. If that describes you or sounds like anyone you know, let’s connect.” – Jeremy Knauff – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyknauff

If you want to learn how to get funding for your deals using private money, get on over www.JayConner.com/trial  for 30 days of free access to Private Money Academy.

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Jay Conner (00:04):

If you are interested in learning and hearing one of the most inspiring stories that I've heard this year, I want you to stay tuned. I'm in a Mastermind group where the gentleman that is just phenomenal, he has taken his filter off totally. And he has made it through and survive on the other side, just a very serious health crisis. And so if you are going through a health crisis or, you know someone that is going through a health crisis, stay tuned right now, you're about to be inspired.

Jay Conner (00:45):

Well, welcome to another episode of Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner. I'm Jay Conner also known as the Private Money Authority. And on today's show, we're going to take a little bit of a detour. We're not going to dive deep into real estate per se, but we are going to dive deep into a very inspiring story that can change your life and make a difference. But before we get to my guest, I have got a gift for you. And that is if you're interested in getting funding for your real estate deals, without relying on banks, mortgage companies, any kind of institutional lenders, then here's my gift. I launched earlier this year, it's called the Private Money Academy membership. And twice a month, I go live on a private Zoom coaching call, and I interview successful students. We taught deals. Talk about how we're finding real estate deals, how we're getting them funded with private money.

Jay Conner (01:43):

Again, without relying on banks and institutional lenders. We talk about all kinds of real estate, but I want to give you a free gift. Come join us and check us out at www.JayConner.com/Trial, after the show, get right on over to www.JayConner.com/Trial, And again, if you're on a YouTube or iTunes or Google play, we really appreciate it for you to like share subscribe, rate, and review and on YouTube, be sure and tap that little bell. So you'll be notified. So you don't miss out on any of these fantastic shows and guests that I have on here. Well, as I mentioned or alluded to a moment ago, I'm so excited to have a friend, and fellow mastermind brother, come on here to the show to tell his story and make a difference in your life. So let's bring out of the green room or right on here up front. Mr. Jeremy, Jeremy, are you there?

Jeremy (02:48):

I am here. How are you doing today, man?

Jay Conner (02:49):

Scott, I lost connection. So I'm going to sign out real quick and hop right back in. I'll be right back.

Jay Conner (03:00):

There we are. Jeremy, can you hear me?

Jeremy (03:02):

I can hear you.

Jay Conner (03:03):

All right. Well, welcome to the show, Jeremy. I appreciate so much. You've taken the time to come on and join me.

Jeremy (03:10):

Thank you. It's my pleasure.

Jay Conner (03:11):

You bet you. Well, as I mentioned to everybody here in the opening you and I are in a Mastermind together and a few weeks ago, I heard you speak on stage and I just really appreciated your authenticity and et cetera. But before we jump into your story of breaking through and living through the health crisis tell her about your background story and how you gotten to where you are today and tell a little bit about Spartan Media.

Jeremy Knauff (03:44):

Yeah, so I've had kind of a, an interesting ride. You know, I finished high school joined the Marine Corps, bounced all over the world there for a while. And then started my first business, which was a colossal failure. Pretty much lost everything went into massive debt from there. Spent a few years kind of rebuilding started my second company an agency, and ran that successfully for many years until the episode that you had briefly hinted at in the beginning here, when I had a health crisis that almost killed me. And then, you know, racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical expenses and bills and burn through all of our savings. Basically had to start over from zero, well from less than zero, really because we had racked up debt and, you know, then I had the additional challenge of starting over, which in the marketing world, you know, at that point, I was pretty much on my death bed for about two years. So there was no case studies, there was no examples, there was no clients. So I had to start over from less than zero at that point. And now here I am today.

Jay Conner (04:52):

Wow. So I want us to get into your health crisis story and lessons. We can learn from that, but before we do tell everybody about Spartan Media and what your company does.

Jeremy Knauff (05:04):

So Spartan media is a, basically it's a full service digital marketing agency, but what we've been focusing on lately is taking people and turning them into an authority within their industry. Right now the website doesn't really reflect that because the cobbler's kids always gets shoes last, but what we've been doing lately is taking people and turning them into an authority within their industry. So there's a particular example that I like to use. And that's this example was kind of the pivot point for me. At one point in time, me and a good friend of mine, I ran my marketing agency, he ran a printing company, a particular client together. You know, he did all the printing stuff, we did all the marketing design and all of that. Well, at some point in that relationship, he decided to sell his printing business and go work for client.

Jeremy Knauff (05:58):

And he quickly moved up to become the Chief operating officer. But then because of some things that happened with the founder the company was kind of in turmoil. And they got to a point where I think it was 19 franchisees were walking away from the organization. They were trying to organize a class action lawsuit. They had all kinds of online reputation management problems to deal with. It was just, it was a complete toxic mess from top to bottom, but what happened was because of all the things we were doing for them with the search engine optimization, the social media, the PR, all of the various marketing components. He went from basically having no experience, being nobody in the industry. I left out a piece. He, the founder had to step down and he had to step up and become the CEO because at that point, the relationships were just destroyed.

Jeremy Knauff (06:49):

So as a result of all of the things that we were doing for them, he ended up becoming so recognized. And so authoritative within his industry that last year, before all this COVID stuff happened, I was actually in DC with him. He was lobbying Congress on behalf of his industry. So he went from basically being nobody in that industry to now he's up here talking with congressmen and senators about the laws that affect that industry. So we develop that into a front end service where we basically take someone and turn them into an authority within their industry so that they can get more media coverage, get in front of more people charge more money and you know, make more profit.

Jay Conner (07:31):

So what is your like ideal client? Like what type of industries does your service work well for?

Jeremy Knauff (07:38):

Generally, it comes down to somebody in a, like a professional business services, right? So it wouldn't be necessarily good for a restaurant owner. I mean, although it, theoretically it could help them in some ways it's not going to have the same impact that it might for somebody like you, where you want to be recognized as the person to talk to when it comes to this kind of stuff, private money, hard money lending, stuff like that. So generally somebody that's in a professional business service is going to see the most impact from this.

Jay Conner (08:06):

Okay. That makes sense. Well, let's let's dive into your personal experience and your personal story.

Jeremy (08:13):

Yeah.

Jay Conner (08:13):

So I'm going to turn it over to you to tell that story, Jeremy, and I'll interrupt you when I think I need to.

Jeremy Knauff (08:19):

Okay. All right. So this one was a, this was an interesting ride. I touched briefly on the crisis itself, but basically what happened was I was kind of on top of the world, had plenty of clients had plenty of money. Everything was going great. And then out of the blue, I get hit with this, with this health crisis. And, you know, I went to every doctor under the sun. I was going to the emergency room three to five times a week. I was trying to figure this out. Nobody had any answers and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. So, I was pretty much on my bed for the first two years of this. You know, we did all kinds of things from a pharmaceutical perspective, from a diet perspective, I was seeing all kinds of specialists. I was seeing, you know, things I would have never considered like, you know, energy healers and acupuncturists and all kinds of non-traditional approaches.

Jeremy Knauff (09:13):

And throughout the beginning of this, it was incredibly frustrating because the doctors didn't know what it was. So they just dismissed it. It was, Oh, well, you're having a, you're having a panic attack. You're having an anxiety attack. Well, I knew that wasn't the case, right? Because I had this pain from basically head to toe from the skin down to the bone and it was constant. It was 24 seven. And it was a level of pain that I have never felt in my life. It was a 10 on my chart. And to put that in perspective, I took a tattoo off with a drum sander once. All right. So I have an abnormally high pain tolerance. So I've got this excruciating pain in basically every cell of my body, no doctors have any answers. There's no idea as to when it's going to end.

Jeremy Knauff (09:58):

And there was a point where I'm walking around my house, as you know, as this stuff is going on. And I didn't mention this on stage, but I have a lot of weapons in my house. A lot of firearms I'm Marine, this shouldn't surprise anybody, but I remember walking around and I would see these weapons in various rooms. And I would be feeling this incredible pain. And I knew that there was no answer. There was no idea as to when it was going to end, how it was going to be solved? And I got to a point where I actually understood how people got to a point where they chose to take their life.

Jeremy Knauff (10:39):

And it got to the point where I actually took everything, disassembled, everything tossed in a duffel bags. And I called a friend and I was like, look, I, we don't really have anything to worry about yet, but I'm just letting you know that I may ask you to come pick these up and store them at your house for a little while. Right. So I've got all these thoughts that are just like, absolutely outrageous. Like I've never had these kinds of thoughts before. And then right around that time, one of the toughest guys I've ever met, a guy I served with, his name was Todd Grant ended up taking his life.

Jeremy Knauff (11:18):

And as Terrible as that situation was, I also feel like it was a sign, right? Like I'm going through this, this happens. And I figured at that point, this is going to be, it's a sign. And we're going to find a silver lining in this situation. And where I saw from that was, this is an opportunity to help fellow veterans. I don't know if you're aware of this, but within the veteran community, we're losing 22 roughly per day to suicide. So from that point, I made it my mission to, despite going through this insane health crisis, despite being in massive pain with no idea what the hell is causing it, or when it's going to end, or if it, if we even could fix it. I'm going to get out there. I'm going to get back on top. I'm going to serve as an example to the other veterans, to the other people who are struggling. Even non-veterans everybody, people who are struggling, people who don't know what they're going to do, they don't see a solution to their problem.

Jeremy Knauff (12:22):

And, you know, I began being very vocal about the challenges I was going through. I was very vocal about what's going on, what you know, how to overcome these things. I was just completely transparent in all of this. And at the same time, I started reaching out to people who I knew were struggling, fellow veterans, as well as civilians. And it got to a point where my number was just freely passed around. And pretty much everybody knew that if somebody was struggling, they could give out my number freely to anybody. And as a result of that, I, there are several people that I've talked to. I've probably counseled hundreds of veterans over the several years that this health crisis has gone on. I remember one particular one that was really moving for me. And that was a buddy of mine from high school, reached out to me one night and he's like, Hey, we've got this guy.

Jeremy Knauff (13:20):

You know, he just got back from Iraq. He's going through all these issues. We've sent him everywhere. He's gone to all the counselors. He's gone to all the, you know, the doctors he's done everything and nothing's working. And he's like, do you mind if I give him your phone number? I was like, absolutely, have him call me. So the kid called me we were out of town visiting a friend of my wife's. And so I take the call. I go outside and I'm talking to this kid for, I don't know, probably two, three hours, get him to a point where I think he's in a good spot. Come back in the house now because of my health crisis, I've got my phone set to where at a certain time in the evening, it goes into do not disturb mode. So it's not going to ring things will still show up on the screen, but it's not going to make any noise.

Jeremy Knauff (14:06):

So, I come back in the house just a few minutes after he and I had talked and I got this little thing that dings up on the phone, no noise, just notification on the screen, it's a voicemail. So I pick it up and listen to it. Cause it was, it was him. And I'm like, well, maybe, maybe something went wrong. Maybe he's still got a problem, whatever. I listened to the voicemail and he's just sobbing uncontrollably. And he's like, I just, like, I don't know what to say. I've talked to all these counselors, nobody's had any answers. And like, I talked to you and you just, you get it. And now I'm like, I'm in a place where I see a light at the end of the tunnel and I see what's possible. And like I'm in a, such a different place than I was even before I was in the military.

Jeremy Knauff (14:45):

And he's like, you know, just thank you. And it was just such an emotional message. And that's the kind of thing that I took out of this whole experience is the silver lining here is had I not gone through this? Had I not had this pain, had this health crisis, had all this stuff happened to me, lose everything, start over and get to a point where I understood how people could take their lives. I may not have ended up on this path where I started helping other veterans and helping other people who are struggling. So that was something that I think I took out of that whole experience, just, you know, to be able to give back into the world in that way and, you know, save people who are struggling in that regard.

Jay Conner (15:28):

Wow. That's amazing. So I know you can't summarize a three hour conversation in three minutes, but what I mean? So you've council just, you know, a lot of people that have had suicidal thoughts and, you know, really, I mean, one of my best friends in the world is I mean, he actually speaks at my live events and a few years ago he took his filter off. And I mean, he had actually gotten to the point of, you know, Googling, you know, how to commit suicide. He'd actually figured out how he was gonna do it. And so he's got his story, but for people that are out there and you know, when the times are going on now, average suicide rates are just out the ceiling before, you know, as compared to historically. But what are some strategies or some therapies that you could share that maybe you have as a common thread when you're talking to people?

Jeremy Knauff (16:42):

From what perspective, as far as like somebody, for somebody who's trying to,

Jay Conner (16:47):

Yeah. Obviously you listened to them in every story is different because every person is different. But is there a way you can share, what are some ways that you get into think about to get into a better place as you?

Jeremy Knauff (17:02):

Yeah. So ultimately you have to look at the situation as an opportunity because every situation is an opportunity provided that you can allow yourself to see it that way. You know, and this was what I went through in the beginning of mine. It was like, well, why me? Why this, this is. Why should this, why should I have to deal with this? But the reality is things happen. The why doesn't really matter. It's up to us to figure out what value we can take from a situation. So what value I took from this, you know, I'm going through this particular thing. And then on top of it, a guy that I served with took his life. Well, I had to find some kind of value in that. And that was how I was able to get through this because now, I mean, think about it, what the hell happens if I decide to take my life? All these hundreds or thousands of people who have been looking up and I've got this thing, I call it the cookie jar, and this is something we'll actually touch on here shortly. Cause this is another way that can help get through these. But like, I've got various messages that I got from people over the years of, you know, how my posts have inspired them or motivated them to push through this particular challenge or that challenge or whatever. So that's a good way to do that is, is having that, what we call it cookie jar, but, had I not done this, had I not found that value in it.

Jeremy Knauff (18:22):

I would not have gone down this path. And I know I don't have the exact count in my head, but I know there's a certain number of people who would not be here today. So, let's say that I didn't, let's say that I got to a point where I took my life. What the hell is that going to show to those people? So now that that meeting is there. That's something to carry me through no matter how bad things get. So as long as we have a strong, why we're going to be able to get through anything, that's why you see, you know, the military doing things that ordinary people can't do. It's because they have a mission and it's not just the mission on paper. It's not, Hey, go kill these guys or blow that up or whatever. It's their mission is the guy to their left and their right in combat.

Jeremy Knauff (19:04):

It's their brothers and their sisters. So when we have a strong, why we have a powerful mission behind what we're doing, that allows us to go through something. And that's why people in general don't accomplish their goals because they want to do it. If it's convenient, they don't want to do it no matter what, they just want to do it when it's nice and simple. So that's, that's one aspect is having a really strong why. The second aspect is the cookie jar thing that I talked about, where you basically take things that you've overcome in your life, right? Like we've all had some pretty terrible things happen to us. So if you can go back and look at those significant challenges, those difficult times and use those as motivation. It's like, Hey, I got through this, I got through that, I got through this.

Jeremy Knauff (19:51):

Then you can use that as fuel. Well, that's just another case of this, right? So now you just, you have that, it's like, I've already done this. Let's just do it again. And the cookie jar, you can look at it in a number of ways. You can have it be something in your head. You could have it be something tangible, like the collection of messages that I've got from various people. It could be, you know, maybe you've got a what a buddy of mine in the military used to call his, I love me wall, all the awards and the recognition and the things he had accomplished. When we have this kind of thing that shows us that what we've done has prepared us for what we're going through now. And I mean, you can even purely look at that from a physical perspective, right?

Jeremy Knauff (20:32):

You know, you look at what we do in the military, or you look at what an elite athlete does, and they're not, let's say you're going to go run a three mile race. You're not going to go run three miles. Your training is going to consist of you running, you know, six, nine, maybe twelve miles. You might do a series of sprints. You might do all these different things that are larger than what you're actually trying to accomplish. So when we look back at the things that we've actually done to prepare for what we're doing in the totality, we've already overcome the thing that we're facing. We just haven't put all the pieces together to realize that.

Jay Conner (21:06):

That is wonderful. Now, you mentioned a moment ago that people you get feedback from people really being inspired and helped with your post. Where could people see your posts and, you know, the types of things that you're posting?

Jeremy Knauff (21:23):

I mean, I'm pretty active on especially on Facebook, but I'm active on most of the social media platforms. I'm not a hard guy to find considering what I do. I'm pretty public and pretty out there. So Yeah.

Jay Conner (21:36):

So Scott, let's put Jeremy's name up there. And so folks, the spelling there is, and if in case you're just listening is Jeremy, J E R E M Y. And his last name is K N A U F F as in farmer farmer. And I guess it's okay to give out your email since we've got it up there on the screen.

Jeremy Knauff (21:57):

Already out there now. It's all over the place anyway. So it's all good.

Jay Conner (22:03):

There you go. So Jeremy says it's pretty easy to find him folks if you want to start following him, I've got one curious question I have is you've talked with all these people. You've helped a lot of people that have considered taking their life. Do you think, or have you heard back and I think I know the answer to this question. Have you heard back, or do you think some of those people that you helped are now out there doing the same thing you're doing and that is helping other people with that situation?

Jeremy Knauff (22:35):

You know, that's a good question. I stay in touch with a lot of them. I don't know if anyone's doing that, but I would hope so. Right. Like, I think that that's something we all should be doing, not just this particular topic, but whatever the topic, right? Like I think we all should be putting value back into the world. And if you know that you've already struggled with the thing and overcome it, then you've got that knowledge, you've got that empathy. You can deal with it in a way that others can't. So I hope, I certainly hope they are. It's. I mean, if you've already got the background, we need to be adding value back to the world in that way. So yes, I hope they are.

Jay Conner (23:10):

Well, you know, it all comes down to serving and I mean, clearly Jeremy, you have got a servant's heart and you said it beautifully, you go through this thing, you overcame the thing and now you can help others do the same thing. I mean, in my education business, the Private Money Authority, it's the same thing I was, no, it's not the same thing. You're not the same thing. The concept is the same. I was, I mean, I've been relying on local banks to fund my deals for the first six years of investing. And this story pales in comparison to yours as far as its importance. But I was cut off from the banks. Then every way to fund my deals, I found a great way to get my deals funding with private money. And then what I started doing two years after that is just teaching other people what I know to do. So, you know, or how to fix the problem now, a mentor mindset years ago, I said, you know, Jay, if people didn't have problems, they wouldn't need us.

Jeremy Knauff (24:17):

This is very true.

Jay Conner (24:20):

And guess what? the world is your oyster because everybody's, got problems. So as we wrap up here on the show final comments Jeremy.

Jeremy Knauff (24:32):

Final comments, I just, I guess, look for ways to add value back into the world. You know, too far, far too often people look at, Hey, what can I get out of this situation or this deal, or this person or whatever. When we look at how we can make something, a win for everybody involved, it creates more value as a whole, and we all rise. So I just think more of us need to take that approach.

Jay Conner (24:57):

Excellent. So one more time folks. Jeremy's very, very easy to find all the social media and all the platforms. Again, you spell his name, J E R E M Y. Last name K N A U F F as in farmer and his company, www.jlknauff@SpartanMedia.com If you are any type of professional and you're looking to be known as the authority and expert in your space, then you definitely want to check out Jeremy and his team it's www.jlknauff@SpartanMedia.com. There you have it. Folks, another show, Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner. I'm the Private Money Authority, and I'm wishing you all the best and here's to taking your business to the next level. We'll see you on the next show.

[nawcelest]

Vampire Diaries: WandaVision Inspired Headcanon

General Idea of what I having been thinking:

A United States government agency contacts Bonnie asking for her help on a project. They have discovered a small amount of Dark matter and have been doing research and experiments on it. So far they have discovered two things. First is that when concentrated Dark matter particles interact with different forms of energy it can change the composition of said energy and turn it into a new/different energy. Second that when concentrated Dark matter interact with living things it also changes their composition evolving them in a way. Nothing major just things like healing rate, brain capacity, physical limits, etc. However with a such a limited amount of concentrated Dark matter their research is reaching its limit and they can’t do much without acquiring more. 

They explain they have been keeping and eye on certain Supernatural beings and through their observations realized that Bonnie Psychic powers can create Psychic imprints of certain things like fire, water, etc. Similar to how Arcadius created a Psychic hellfire from being burned alive. They want to test the theory that Bonnie can create Psychic Dark matter imprint. However she explains she barely can control her Psychic powers and barely understand. They offer to help her understand her powers more if she helps them. After years of study and researching her Psychic gifts they finally get Bonnie to create multiple Psychic Dimensions of Dark matter. After further study they realize that the Psychic Dark matter particles are more potent and could theoretically achieve more due to their mystical properties. 

Bonnie goes through old photos of her and her friends/Family and begins to have an emotional break down realizing all the people she has lost and even begins to question her current happiness. She begins to think about resurrecting Enzo by combining her Psychic energy with Expression, Spirit and Dark magic. As she begins to do it she feels her mind begin to fracture and a huge explosion happens: The explosion in turn creates 3 pocket realities based on her Psychic Dimensional abilities. Members of the government Agency can feel the surge of energy and upon further review discover this 3 realities. They can look inside Bonnie pocket dimension by creating a sort of Psychic feed using the Psychic Dark Matter particles and embedding them into a satellite feed. 

At first they decide not to interact but to observe as this dimensions are self contained and posed no real threat. However with time the 3 Dimensions seem to be on a collision course and if they were to collide it would create a big bang like moment that could potentially affect the “Real World”. In order to try to avoid this they want to send people in to contact Bonnie. However the people they send in seems to disappear into a sort of white space. Since they don’t have a counterpart in said reality that reality writes them out as a protective measure. Those with counterparts in said reality merges with their counterpart however the dominate personality overwrites the weaker one which tends to be the one from the “Real World”. They however believe that by sending people Bonnie is close to into said dimension that somehow Bonnie would subconsciously protect them from having their personality overwritten or having them erased. 

They end up contacting Elena, Damon, Caroline and Matt. They a chosen because while they are close to Bonnie they aren’t too close to her to cause a big commotion. 

As far as what each reality offers:

Reality 1: Based off Charmed

Bonnie gives/creates herself 2 sisters in which case the 3 of them make up the power of three. A powerful force destined to fight demons and other forces of evil. They come from a powerful Bloodline aka the Bennetts’. In this reality Jeremy is Bonnie love interest and the girls whitelighter. Elena is a good friend of the family who believes her brother died and doesn’t know he was brought back as whitelighter. Bonnie is the middle sister with Molecularkinesis, Her older sister has thought Projection and the youngest is a power Empath. In this reality Stefan is a senior whitelighter and a potential love interest for Elena.

Side note: Damon, Caroline, Enzo, etc don’t exist in this reality. Only Jeremy, Stefan, Elena and her family. 

Reality 2: Based off Bewitched

In this reality Bonnie brings back a Human Enzo. They are trying to balance a normal life that is constantly interrupted by supernatural issues. Bonnie wants to not use her powers as much and have a white picket fence life with her husband Enzo. However her family disapproves of her marrying a mortal. Grams is constantly popping in their life and causing chaos. She also has a brother in this reality that loves to play tricks on Enzo and cause trouble for him. Caroline is the nosey neighbor who is also a f\good friend of Bonnie. She is married to Tyler in this reality but having an affair with Klaus. 

Side note: Magic is used non verbal. Gestures and movements are how magic is performed. The rules of magic is less defined in this reality. 

Reality 3: Based off Arrowverse

In this reality Bonnie is an Alien who crash landed on earth when she was a baby and taken in by a nice couple. As she grew up she begins to discover she has powers and use them to save others. As time goes on more superpowered beings and Aliens emerge on earth. In this reality Damon is the son a billionaire who has shady dealings and is hellbent on not becoming like his father. Him and Bonnie develop a friendship but due to her keeping her powers hidden from him their friendship becomes strained. Matt exist as the pretty rich boy that wasn’t born with any powers but takes on the mantle superhero of an archer. 

Side note: Bonnie comes from a race of beings that can channel, manipulate and produce different types of energy. 

[loudlyhappycupcake]

Disney’s Tangled Series Renewed Ahead of Season 2 Premiere by James Sanders Via Flickr: via WordPress ift.tt/2kFoory BEGIN SLIDESHOW Disney’s Tangled series renewed ahead of Season 2 premiere Today it was announced that Disney Channel has ordered a third season of the Emmy Award-nominated animated adventure comedy Tangled: The Series. This news comes before the premiere of its second season, which has been re-titled Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. Disney Channel also announced that the second season premieres on Sunday, June 24, 8AM EST/PDT on Disney Channel, the DisneyNOW app, and Disney Channel VOD. The series’ talented voice cast includes Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi as the beloved Rapunzel and Eugene, as well as Eden Espinosa, James Monroe-Iglehart and Jeremy Jordan as fan-favorites Cassandra, Lance and Varian. The series features music by Academy Award-winning Disney Legend Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater. Season two of Tangled: The Series finds Rapunzel venturing outside of the kingdom in search of where the mystical black rocks lead, after discovering she is somehow connected to them. Accompanying Rapunzel on her journey is her partner in life, Eugene; her best friend and confidante, Cassandra; her loyal chameleon sidekick, Pascal; no-nonsense and dutiful horse, Maximus; Eugene’s best friend, Lance and the Snuggly Duckling Pub Thugs. Together, they’ll discover new people and places and embark on an incredible new adventure far beyond Corona’s walls. The guest voice cast for season two includes Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Carol Kane (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as the mystical traveler Madame Canardist, Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) as a fast-talking host named Goodberry, Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) as Eugene’s old love interest Stalyan, Bruce Campbell (Cars 2) as the bizarrely charming King Edmund, Britt Robertson (For the People) as the whip-smart no nonsense teenager Vex, Timothy Dalton (License to Kill) as inventor and adventurer Demanitus, Katy Mixon (American Housewife) as the stunningly beautiful Seraphina, and Kathy Najimy (Hocus Pocus) as a sprightly and strange resident of the magical forest. Brand extensions for the series include toys, role-play products and more from Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products. New products, including a brand-new line of back-to-school items, will be available at Disney Stores beginning June 11. Produced by Disney Television Animation, Tangled: The Series was developed by animation veterans Chris Sonnenburg and Shane Prigmore. Sonnenburg serves as executive producer and supervising director; Benjamin Balistreri is co-executive producer, Jase Ricci is story editor and co-producer, and Alan Bodner is art director. Celebrated artist Claire Keane, who painted Rapunzel’s tower murals in the feature film, is the series’ visual development artist. Emmy Award-winning Kevin Kliesch serves as score composer. 2 images The post Disney’s Tangled Series Renewed Ahead of Season 2 Premiere appeared first on ComingSoon.net. Disney’s Tangled Series Renewed Ahead of Season 2 Premiere published first on filmstreaminghdvf.tumblr.com/

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #467

Top Ten Romantic Couples in Superhero Movies (& TV)

It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend. Woo, I guess? I dunno. I’m not generally cynical about holidays but Valentine’s Day does seem to be entirely focused on selling cards without any of the associated pleasantries of, say, Christmas or Halloween. I’d rather just try to be nice to my wife all year round. At least because of the apocalypse all the restaurants are closed so we can’t be tempted to pay through the nose for a set menu. Anyway, it gives me a strained excuse to tie this week’s Top Ten to something vaguely romantic.

Superheroes are often horny. This seems to be a defining characteristic of the artform. Whether it’s their descent from ancient myths, or their creators’ origins in writing romance books, or just a function of genre storytelling in the mid-twentieth century, there’s quite a lot of romantic angst in superhero stories. Pretty much every superhero has a significant other; Lois Lane even got her own comic that was actually called Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. It’s hard to conceive of many heroes without their primary squeeze, and often – as we get multiple media adaptations of characters – we can add diversity or a twist to the proceedings by picking a lesser-known love interest, or one from earlier in the character’s fictional history; for instance, Smallville beginning with Cark Kent’s teenage crush Lana Lang, or The Amazing Spider-Man swapping out Mary Jane Watson for Gwen Stacey.

Anyway, I’m talking this week about my favourite superhero couples. I’ve decided to focus on superhero adaptations – that is, the characters from movies and films based on superhero comics or characters. I find this a little bit easier as I don’t have a phenomenal knowledge of sixty years of Avengers comics, but I have seen all the movies a bunch. As many comics as I’ve read, and as much as I love various ink-and-paper pairings, I can arguably talk more authoritatively about the fillums than the funny books. And let’s be real here, kids: my favourite comic book romantic couple is Chromedome and Rewind in Transformers. Also if I split them in two I can talk about comic couples next year. Woohoo!

It really is hard thinking of these things nearly nine years in, folks.

So! Here, then, are my favourite movie-TV Couples in Capes. Obviously there’s a fair bit of MCU in here. And I’ve been pretty specific about “superhero” romances: so no Hellboy and Liz Sherman, sadly (and I do really like them in the movies, of which they really need to make a third). Some are civvies-and-supes; some are capes-and-capes. You’ll work it out.

Superman & Lois Lane (Christopher Reeve & Margot Kidder, Superman, 1978): who else? The most famous romance in all of comics, a combo so strong it remains the focus of pretty much every interpretation of the character, but arguably never better than here; so good are Reeve and Kidder that their fast-talking banter and inherent goodness set the template for a huge swathe of other comic adaptations to follow. She’s sarky and streetwise; he’s gormless and good-hearted. She leaps in where angels fear to tread, he’s an invulnerable alien in disguise. They have buckets of chemistry and an utterly believable (tentative) romance. They’re perfect performances and the scenes of Clark in Metropolis for the first time (including Superman’s balcony interview with Lois) are the best bits of an already excellent film.

Raven & Beast Boy (Tara Strong & Greg Cipes, Teen Titans Go!, 2014): on a totally different register, we have the comedy stylings of the Teen Titans. Raven and Beast Boy had a flirtatious relationship on the original Titans series, but on this longer-running and much more demented comedy follow-up, they were allowed to make the romance more official (I nearly said “explicit” but, y’know… it’s not that). The jokes and banter – BB the love-struck, jealous suitor, Raven the too-cool partner who feigns nonchalance – build and build, but every now and again they’re allowed a moment of genuine heartfelt romance, and it hits all the more strongly amidst the ultra-violence and outrageous comedy.

Captain America & Agent Carter (Chris Evans & Hayley Atwell, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011): the premier couple of the MCU, Steve and Peggy spend a whole movie flirting (she sees the goodness of him even before he gets all hench) before finally arranging a date that, we all know, is very much postponed. Peggy casts a shadow over the rejuvenated Cap and the MCU as a whole, founding SHIELD, inspiring dozens of heroes, and counselling Steve to her dying days. She remains Steven’s true north (like Supes with Lois, Peggy’s an ordinary human who is the actual hero of an actual super-powered hero), guiding him through the chaos and tragedy of Endgame, until they both get to live happily ever after. Even though he snogged her niece.

Batman & Catwoman (Michael Keaton & Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns, 1992): Pfeiffer delivers a barnstorming performance as Selina Kyle, all barely-supressed mania and seductive feline charm. The chemistry between her and Keaton is electric, and propels the film forward even when the Penguin-runs-for-mayor stuff gets a bit daft and icky. There are beautiful moments of romantic comedy when they’re both trying to cover up injuries they gave each other, and of course there’s “mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it” – a line that runs a close second to “dance with the devil” when it comes to Burton-Batman quotations (just ahead of “never rub another man’s rhubarb”). Burton, generally favouring the macabre villains over the straighter edges of the heroic Batman, nevertheless makes great play of the duality of the character, and how this is something he and Catwoman can share – both “split right down the centre” – but also how this means a happy ending for either of them is impossible.

Spider-Man & Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2002): whilst a lot of this is really down to the sexiness of them kissing upside-down in the rain, there’s a nice duality to Peter and MJ seeing through each other too: he sees the wounded humane soul beneath her it-girl persona; she sees the kind, caring man underneath his geek baggage. This arc plays out beautifully across the first two films (ending in that wonderfully accepting “Go get ‘em, tiger”) before sadly getting all murky and unsatisfying in the murky and unsatisfying third film. Still: that kiss.

Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor (Gal Gadot & Chris Pine, Wonder Woman, 2017): probably the film that hews closest to the Clark-Lois dynamic of the original Superman, to the point where it includes an homage to the alleyway-mugging scene as Diana deflects a bullet. Steve is Diana’s window into man’s world, showing her the horror of the First World War but managing to also be a sympathetic ally and never talking down or mansplaining anything. He’s a hero in his own right – very similar to another wartime Steve on this list – and very much an ideal match to the demigod he’s showing round Europe. And, of course, Gadot’s Diana is incredible, both niaive and vulnerable whilst also an absolute badass. There is an enduring warm chemistry to the pair, with a relationship which we actually see consummated – relatively rare for superheroes! The inevitability of his heroic sacrifice does nothing to lessen the tragedy, and no I’ve not seen Wonder Woman 1984 yet.

Hawkeye & Laura Barton (Jeremy Renner & Linda Cardellini, Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015): I love these guys! I love that Hawkeye has a relatively normal, stable family life. He has a big old farmhouse that he wants to remodel, he’s got two kids and a third on the way… he’s got something to live for, something to lose. It humanises him amidst the literal and figurative gods of the Avengers. And they’re cute together, bickering and bantering, and of course she is supportive of his Avenging. I hope we get to see more of Laura and the kids in the Hawkeye series, and I hope nothing bad happens to them now they’ve all been brought back to life.

Wanda Maximoff & Vision (Elizabeth Olsen & Paul Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War, 2018): theirs is a difficult relationship to parse, because they’re together so briefly. They cook paprikash together in Civil War before having a bit of a bust-up, and by Infinity War they’re an official couple, albeit on the run (and on different sides). That movie does a great job in establishing their feelings for each other in very little screentime, with their heroic characteristics on full display, before the shockingly awful tragedy of Wanda killing Vision to save the galaxy, before Thanos rewinds time, brings him back to life, and kills him again, and then wins. Their relationship going forward, in WandaVision, is even trickier, because we don’t know what’s up yet, and at times they’re clearly not acting as “themselves”, defaulting to sitcom tropes and one-liners. Will Vision survive, and if he does, will their relationship? Who can say, but at least they’ll always have Edinburgh, deep-fried kebabs and all.

Batman & Andrea Beaumont (Kevin Conroy & Dana Delany, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 1993): woah, Batman’s back but it’s a different Batman, say whaaaat. Animated Batman has had a few romances, from the great (Talia al-Ghul) to the disturbingly icky (Batgirl, ewwww), but his relationship with Andrea Beaumont is the best. Tweaking the Year One formula to give young Bruce a love interest that complicates his quest is a golden idea, and making her a part of the criminality and corruptiuon that he’s fighting is a suitably tragic part of the Batman origin story. Conroy and Delany give great performances, him wringing pathos out of Bruce, torn between heart and duty (“It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore,” he wails to his parents’ grave, “I didn’t count on being happy”), her channelling golden age Hollywood glamour. The tragedy of them rekindling their relationship years later, only to wind up on different sides again, is – again – so very Batman. It’s a beautiful, earnest, very Batman relationship, a great titanic tragedy of human emotions and larger-than-life ideals. And they both look good in black.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy (Kaley Cuoco & Lake Bell, Harley Quinn, 2020): this one’s a little bit of a cheat, as I’ve only seen the first season of the show, where Harley and Ivy don’t even get together. But in the wider, non-canonical sense of these being characters who are part of the pop-cultural ether, Harley and Ivy will always be a couple, I feel; and there’s definitely enough in there already to see the affection between them, not yet consummated. They adore each other, are always there for each other, and as the season follows Harley getting out of her own way and acknowledging the abuse of her relationship with Joker – and finally getting over it in the healthiest way possible for a bleached-white manic pixie in roller derby gear. And all through this, holding her hand, is Ivy. They’re utterly made for each other, and I’m glad that they do get together in season two. I hope that Margot Robbie’s rendition of the character can likewise find happiness with a flesh-and-blood Ivy. Hell, just cast Lake Bell again. She’s great.

Just bubbling under – and I’m really gutted I couldn’t fit them in – was Spider-Man & M.J. from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Like Batman, I’m comfortable including multiple continuities here, and those cuties offer a different spin on a classic relationship.

[lee-at-the-movies]

Powder

(1995)

Director: Victor Salva

*Spoilers*

I’m not sure I've ever seen a movie that insists upon itself to the degree 1995′s Powder does. Director Victor Salva is relentless in his campaign to tell the audience they are being moved. There is not a solitary element of this film that isn’t contrived to the point of parody. The average Lifetime channel flick is more confident letting its audience process emotions without being steered, groomed if you will, at every moment. Powder uses its score to evoke sympathy and warmth the way sitcoms use laugh tracks to let you know something funny is happening. Had the filmmakers given the audience more room to freely interpret the events taking on place screen, they would have ran the risk of having people see Powder for the ludicrous freak show that it is.

To quickly run through the plot of Powder - a pregnant lady gets struck by lightning and dies, but the baby lives. The father rejects the baby at the hospital and it’s raised by some hick grandparents. Sixteenish years later a the grandparents die and a social worker discovers the then teenaged boy living in a dank, book-filled basement out in the country. His name is Jeremy, AKA Powder. He’s albino, hairless and agoraphobic, but he’s read Moby Dick, so the social worker knows he must be a gifted kid. She takes him to a boys home, enrolls him in the local high school, he displays misunderstood powers, hearts are allegedly warmed, minds are expanded, yada yada yada....

It’s all tone deaf. The first act seems like it should be leading up to Powder turning on society and hurting people. That would have been more compelling! The people in town are actually a little nicer to Jeremy than you would think. There is obviously the one implausibly vicious bully and his bitchboys who instantly target him, but Jeremy is literally some kind of Nosferatu-lookin, bald-headed ass, cellar dwelling, electrical warlock monster. Upon going to school for the first time, he is only bullied for 30 seconds before he opts to use fucking psycho-electric telekinesis on the whole cafeteria in what would, in real life, be a TERRIFYING display. People SHOULD other him for that! Instead, he doesn’t even get detention and a hot girl suddenly has eyes for him - the chalk white, hairless MONSTER that recently crawled out of a dilapidated basement on the outskirts of town! 

His persecution is:

A) not as extensive as a movie like this calls for 

B) warranted, for the most part

Sakes! I’m not in favor of hunting, but I’m also not in favor of mind rape! There is a crucial scene in this movie where Powder is disgusted to witness one of the sheriff deputies hunting deer with bully kids. His response is to grab the guy by the arm and TRANSPORT HIS FUCKING CONSCIOUSNESS into the body of the dying animal! Since when is it okay to brain swap people without their permission? Two wrongs don’t make a right, Powder.  He’s supposed to be perfect! That is the text of the movie. The movie explicitly tells you that Powder IS better than you. This kid is literally an ascended being. 

I rented this movie because I wanted to see something featuring 90s Jeff Goldblum. He plays the physics teacher at Jeremy’s high school. After being accidentally electrocuted by the dangerous monster child Goldblum apparently feels smarter and fucks better. This causes him to postulate to powdery ole Jeremy that he must being living proof of some misappropriated Einstein theory about humans being able to become light energy. In the movie, Goldblum is presenting it to Powder as a theory, but as a viewer you know the film is basically declaring that is how we are to understand Powder from that point on. Jeff Goldblum touches him inappropriately in this scene. He begins to stroke Jeremy’s body and head, caressing him sensually. There is a justification given for this, but it is false and Goldblum is still his fucking physics teacher! Sick!

The whole time this dusty little ghoul has been seeing the social worker played by Mary Steenbergen - the one who pulled him out his wet book-hole. Jeremy has one last blowup with the jock kids after randomly walking into a gym and staring at one of the “bullies” taking a shower. The jocks get rightfully weirded out. He is, after all, a dangerous Magneto-esque goblin who can steal their minds and electrify their bodies. They pull his pants down and push him in a puddle of mud. You would think that being covered in mud might limit Powder’s ability to extoll psycho-electric violence, but you’d be wrong. He fucking KILLS one of them for this, but he brings them back to life so it’s still Powder being perfect and too good for this world. It’s not dark at all. 

This last kerfuffle is the last straw for Jeremy, his social worker and his physics professor. They decide that Powder will have an easier time finding acceptance in a different environment. (They were probably going to move to Austin or something. I think this movie took place in Texas.) Jeremy seems onboard with this plan. He has his neighborhood watch logo rapist costume on, his briefcase at his side, but then it begins to storm. So instead of getting in the car waiting for him, Jeremy sprints wildly into a field. Nobody knows what the fuck he’s doing, but they do not give much chase. A bolt of lightning strikes the bald teenager, either vaporizing and or consuming him. This is all a good thing. Everybody instantly intuits that Jeremy had decided to become light energy. They felt him in their loins or something after he was zapped. Nobody entertains the possibility that he was simply exploded and killed dead by a giant lightning bolt. That’s what their eyes observed, but they’re all going with the random hypothesis of a high school science teacher and choosing to believe the ashy kid in the fedora was some kind of Akira like god being. 

How did Powder even decide that was a possibility? Was Jeff Goldblum telling him he had 100% usage of his brain before molesting him all he needed to hear to figure out that he had the option of becoming lightning? I choose to believe that he didn’t ascend to a higher state at all. In my mental canon, Powder commits suicide via lightning storm and everybody looking on is fine with it, because he is a dangerous little creep. They all knew he would eventually turn on humanity, so they put it in his head that he could become electricity by letting lightning strike his body. By the way, if that’s NOT the case, then did Jeff Goldblum discover that superhumans can be made by electrocuting pregnant women? That’s how Powder got his freak abilities. His fucking mom was struck by lightning while he was in the womb. Nothing about this movie was okay. None of it made emotional sense, sci-fi sense or basic common sense. I have so much more to say about Powder, but I’m cutting myself off. Life needn’t be so Powdery.

Verdict - it’s bad

I’m glad to have seen Powder. It’s fun to hate and pick apart, but it’s insultingly pushy. Speaking of which, apparently this director is a pervert. He abused some kid on the set of a movie called Clownhouse. Imagine that. Maybe that scene with Jeff Goldblum fondling Powder’s dome was exactly as problematic as it felt. If you are not a jaded individual or somebody that enjoys picking apart shitty movies, there is no reason you should ever subject yourself to this movie. It’s a bizarrely bad movie made by a sick child abuser.

Note: I did not know the stuff about the director going into this viewing. As I said, I was looking for a 90s Goldblum movie and this is what I settled on. I only learned the director was a pervert afterwards. Same guy directed Jeepers Creepers. What’s up with him and abandoned country basements? I wonder if there’s something worth investigating there.

[rogerblackwolf]

The Hudson Incident

8 Miles North of Hudson, New York

-1938-

The skies were clear as the full moon shined down on the dense woodlands flanking the road. The sound of two sedans being the only disturbance as they drove towards their destination. Aside from the music on the radio, the four occupants were silent, none saying a word since they left Brooklyn. One, a priest, was reading a passage from his Bible and holding his rosary which was wrapped around his left hand. The man next to him, a skinny built fellow with neatly kept hair and peach fuzz named Michael, was staring out the window as if in thought, he'd sometimes look at an envelope that contained a file and read it likely out of boredom. The man in the front seat, who was of average build with short dark hair named Vin, fiddled with the dial of the radio but settled with what they were listening to before. Finally the driver, a heavier set man with a slight Italian accent named Luca, spoke.

"Alright, it's been a few hours and no one's said a word."

"Maybe there's nothing to say." Vin responded.

"Really Vin? You've had a wisecrack or smartass thing to say about anything and everything and Now is the time you got nothing?" Luca replied

"Like I said." Vin repeated

"Calm down Luca, The Organization got us all on edge." Michael said.

"If you call going into a cultist compound full of trigger happy saps, all to destroy some artifact, on edge. I mean we don't even know what this artifact is anyway." Luca adds

"We don't need to know, just that these people plan to use it for something not good." Vin says

"Oh come on for God's sakes-" Luca starts only to be cut off by the priest.

"Do not take His name in vain." He scolds

"Alright, Alright...sorry Father Bruni, just nervous is all." Vin replied apologizing.

"You are forgiven. But be sure to go to confession as soon as you can." Father Bruni said.

The ride was silent for another few minutes before Luca turned off the main road followed by the second car. Michael looked at the file for the fifth or sixth time during the ride. The cult they were going after was set up in the old Bryant Sanitorium, closed during the peak of the Depression for lack of funds and unethical practices. The cult was called Pathway to Heaven, led by a man who was known only as The Speaker, a self-proclaimed prophet who claimed to know a way to Heaven. The Sanitorium had been under surveillance for a week, during which it was determined that there were thirty members, that they were armed, and strange lights emitted from the building's basement windows. Luca pulled off to the side of the road, the other car following suit. The gate was no more than fifty yards ahead, the main building just beyond it across a sizable front drive and of course the gate is chained, complete with a padlock.

"Ok...let's get the guns. And the bolt cutters." Luca said as everyone gathered at their car trunks. Michael pulled a strap in the floor to reveal multiple M1921 Thompson submachine guns, a pair of Browning Automatic Rifles; or BARs, a separate box had several Colt 1911s, and plenty of ammo for each firearm. The second car had a similar setup only instead of BARs they had a pair of Winchester Model 12 shotguns as well as a crate of dynamite and grenades. As everyone grabbed their weapons and some grenades, Michael took a 1911 and offered it to Father Bruni.

"Father I know you aren't allowed to carry guns but I doubt these cultists will be kind to you." He said

To his surprise, he took it and loaded a single magazine.

"There is no verse in scripture that says I am not allowed to defend myself. I am a man of peace, but I also understand that when peace is not an option then force is required." He explains.

As the rest of the group gathered, Father Bruni asked everyone to bow their heads. He then prayed for their success, their safety, for guidance in their mission, and protection from evil as he felt the sinister forces at work even from this distance. Upon him saying "Amen" Father Bruni asked Michael to take the lead with Luca and Vin while the others, led by a man named Thomas, watched their backs.

Vin cut the padlock and gently opened the creaky gate, the old sign on it read "Jeremy Bryant Sanitorium for the Mentally Ill", the group of eight men briskly made their way across the drive to the front double doors, only to find them locked.

"Now what?" Luca asks

"There's a reason I brought dynamite." Thomas suggests

"They will get a rude awakening." Vin commented as everyone gave Thomas some space. He rigged a three stick bundle on the door handles, set the timer and ran to hunker down with everyone behind a low wall off to the side. The following explosion practically splintered the tall double wooden doors, windows on the first and second floors were shattered sending glass everywhere. With the dust beginning to settle the men rushed in, firing their Thompsons and BARs at the cultists who came to investigate. Between dodging bullets and taking cover Bruni could see these cultists were not human, something was terribly wrong. Aside from the gunfire, Bruni could also hear faint chanting in no language he knew. 

As the group of men proceeded through the halls, they saw many strange symbols written in blood. The further they went into the bowels of the Sanitorium, the more the men felt presences all around them, shadows danced and formed inhuman images. The cultists also seemed off, Bruni noticed strange and gruesome ailments had befallen the individual cultists.

Many were covered with injuries that looked self inflicted, bloodshot eyes, and blackened veins around the face.

"These men...they are under some kind of spell. Their actions are not their own." Bruni warned

"I don't think they'd listen to us anyway, Father." Luca said as he checked a corner.

Down the hall, just beyond a closed set of double doors, the group heard the chanting clearly as well as seeing a red glow on the other side. The group slowly walked towards the doors, feeling a powerful pulse of energy pass over them every few seconds. When they get close to the doors, the pulse is so strong it forces them all back a step. Bruni steps to the door and goes to grab the handle only for all of them to hear the sounds of multiple people screaming. 

"Thomas, blow the door." Bruni ordered.

The group took cover in an alcove taking the time to reload their weapons, once Thomas joined them they braced for the explosion. Once the initial shockwave had passed the group eased their way towards the room, the doors were obliterated by the explosion, blackened burns on the stone floor marking the direction of the fireball into the room.

Inside the room the group saw a more gruesome scene. Gathered in a circle of candles and cryptic symbols were the bodies of five cultists, their throats slit, the blood flowed through channels along the floor to a dais covered in the same runes the group had seen throughout the building. Just past the dais stood a male figure dressed in a white robe, his brown hair was pulled into a ponytail and his face was clean shaven. He looked human but the air around him felt anything but, especially as an unsettling smile curled across his face.

"You are too late. It is done. The Path is open." He said in a distorted voice. 

He then revealed an amulet from around his neck, both it and the symbols began glowing bright crimson he then resumed the chant. The room darkened as inhuman voices joined in, the candles flickered as the blood in the dais started gathering in a floating orb of pulsating liquid. The amulet siphoned the blood from the orb seemingly empowering the Speaker.

"Put him down!" Michael shouted followed by the hail of gunfire, when one of the men ran out of ammo in his BAR he dropped it and pulled two 1911s to continue the fire. The Speaker was hit so many times his robe changed from white to red, the orb splattered onto the dais as the runes ceased glowing along with the amulet. Everyone sighed with relief before investigating the room, Bruni walked towards The Speaker stepping over the blood as best he could. When he closed the distance the presence of evil was easily felt on the medallion, which he now realized was made of carved bones, dark forces were at work darker than any man could conjure. Bruni retrieved his bible and a flask of holy water, beginning to read whilst splashing the holy water on the dais and body. Bruni, as well as the others, were caught off guard when the body began to twitch; a little at first but more violently once touched by the holy water. The twitching was replaced with bones breaking and violent convulsing, The Speaker got to his feet revealing his full transformation. A pair of horns sprouted from his head, a tail whipped out from under his robe, and claws adorned his hands.

"You cannot stop me!" He roared.

Bruni did not stop his incantation while splashing the last of the holy water into the Speaker's face. Unholy screams of agony and pain were heard as the holy water burned the creature like acid. The creature lunged at Bruni only for its fangs to scratch the metal of Bruni's 1911 as the barrel was shoved into the creature's mouth. The first shot sent it to the ground, the next three to the head ensured it wouldn't get back up. The men came to check on the father only for him to finish his incantation.

"In nomine patri, et filii, Spiritus Sancti, Amen." He said while making the symbol of the cross with his free hand. 

Bruni reached down to the amulet, upon touching it he was bombarded with multiple visions. Visions of a dark world filled with mountains of skulls, oceans of fire and blood, cries of agony while dark figures chanted and cackled at their nefarious deeds of slaughter. He watched vast armies rising and clashing, beasts made of iron and steel trampling the land, and cities turned to ash in an instant. He then saw a creature that looked akin to a dragon cloaked in shadow and flame, speaking a tongue he didn't know but it filled him with primal fear especially when it lunged to devour him. Bruni was then thrust back to reality with Luca and Vin restraining him while Michael calmed him down. Bruni calmed after a moment before Michael asked him;

"What should we do now Father?"

"This place is filled with evil. That amulet is an instrument of chaos itself, I fear the influence it would have if it ever left this place. Thomas, use what dynamite you have left to destroy this room and that infernal thing. We need to return to the Organization, tell them that this place must be buried along with its secrets." Father Bruni explained as beads of sweat drizzled from his brow.

Thomas went to work as everyone else began leaving the building Thomas caught up just as they exited the front door. By the time they reached the gate the fireball engulfed the entire right side of the building, the floors fell through into the basement. The group watched the fire for a time before finally getting into their cars, leaving the Sanatorium and it's dark secrets. Even still Father Bruni felt that what he saw, were they simple visions made to strike fear into him? Or were they premonitions of a future that has yet to come? Either way, they had succeeded in putting a fear in him he could not easily shake...nor escape.

[writingsoftheunderworld]

AU - yes! Time Travel -no?

C. 2 here ; C. 1 here; AO3 here. Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Bonnie Bennett had begun her day with a slow calming chant of Don’t let him get to you, her thought firmly centred around one Damon Salvatore, a true thorn in her side since he’d first arrived in town not too long ago. She’d woken up slowly, light filtering through her blinds and shrouding the whole room in a husky shade of caramel, the lingering scent of citrus from the candles burnt the night before giving the room an all to homely feeling. She could hear her dad bustling downstairs, most likely getting some coffee for the road. It was fairly early still, but she had free-period the first half of the day and she was skipping the rest - life ending crises a good enough reason even if Mrs Jason still claimed that unless you were actually dead you had to show up for math class. She laid in bed a few more minutes, listening to her dad get dressed and slip out the door. She wondered for not the first time whether it would be better off if she tried to tell him all about this witch vampire mess again, but Grams had wanted him out of it, and he had wanted out of it after her mom left, so for the thousandth time she put it out of her mind. 

She showered, changed and climbed down to get the little mug of coffee her dad always left out for her, dropping more sugar into it than a candy store had on its selves. Elena had once joked that if she didn’t end up making it big she would always work as an oompa-loompa for Willy Wonka for how much sugar she dumped into her coffee each day. Bonnie was still not sure if Elena thought that was just a good joke or if she just hadn’t understood the Chocolate Factory as a child. Caroline just liked to pat her on the shoulder with a wistful look on her face, like she wished she had Bonnie’s devil-may-care attitude about it - which ironically seemed to have not been the case even now as a vampire who ate more than a Quarterback. 

The noise of Jeremy knocking on the door startled her out of her thoughts enough to almost spill the coffee on her shirt. Almost being the key word thankfully, so she dropped the mug into the sink and swung her bag over her head and headed for the garage. They were meant to meet Damon on the edge of the former Salvatore Estate, just off of the main road, by the woods, from where he’d then show her where the former Salem witches had been burned some centuries ago and where the Founders had burned Emily as well. Klaus was a threat hanging over their head constantly at this point. 

On their way Jeremy began telling her about Isobel’s impromptu visit earlier this morning and how poor Aunt Jenna had locked herself in her room following it. Bonnie felt sorry for the woman, she definitely didn’t deserve to be lied to like that, but Bonnie also felt that telling her the whole truth would’ve been equally unfair. The least Alaric could’ve done was say that his wife was missing rather than dead, but that was none of her business at the end of the day. They talked some more as they waited, they’d arrived a bit early after all, and Bonnie realised once again just how different Jeremy now was, and how nice it was to see him so invested in her. She wasn’t sure yet if she actually liked him like that, but she definitely could imagine how sweet and thoughtful he’d be as a boyfriend. And she needed someone frankly. Seeing Elena with her two Salvatore’s bending over backwards to rescue her from any and every inconvenience and now Caroline complaining about having been kissed by both Matt and Tyler made her frustrated. Less so for the fighting over her situation, that sounded exhausting, but rather for the constant work she had to put into herself to even be noticed. Maybe she should move for college, she had a feeling Virginia might be part of the problem here as well, though she did find it hilarious how both Matt and Tyler had initially dated her before either moved on to Elena or Caroline. Then it just made her sad. Was it something about her that pushed them away?

She remembered with sudden clarity asking that to her Grams and the hour long lecture following her words, of how she was a strong woman, how boys wouldn’t be able to handle someone like her until later, how she should still enjoy herself and not be tied down to a boyfriend from middle school onward because then you saw what could happen - exhibit a through z Elena’s many rants about Matt. She’d listened but not believed her Grams. She still wasn’t sure if she believed her Grams but she did know she wanted someone for her own now, hell, she needed someone with all the stress and violence her life had suddenly turned to. And Jeremy was safe, and cute, and had puppy dog eyes for her and vived for her attention. Was part of her thinking she was settling? Maybe. Did she care? Not really. And speaking of not caring, where the hell was Damon at? He was already late by 15 minutes. Don’t let him get to you. Her inner voice chimed again.

“Jere, how about we just head to the Boarding House? Clearly someone is looking to be set on fire.” Jeremy laughed and nodded. He clearly thought Bonnie was joking, but oh boy couldn’t he be more wrong. Bonnie was 1000% setting Damon on fire if he didn’t come up with a good enough excuse. 

_._._._._._._

Rose waited and watched. Jeremy Gilbert was off to the side, looking completely eager and completely in over his head as Bonnie and Damon were arguing about the best course of action following her short introduction into what she knew. And if they thought that was all she could tell them, then obviously they were still underestimating her which frankly was a bit condescending seeing as she was at least 2 years older than the Bonnie currently glaring at Damon. But she’d guessed that would be the reaction she was going to get when she made her choice to be as dramatic as possible. Mom used to say she got it from dad, but seeing the two younger versions of them interacting now she could safely say she got it from both. God knows those eye rolls and ridiculous insults were exaggerated as hell. How did these two people become her slow dancing in the kitchen on a random Thursday evening parents?

“Excuse me?” she tried, weakly, but still she gave it a shot. Jeremy looked over to her then at the still arguing duo then back at her with a look that seemed to say this is just an ordinary Monday for them. “EX-cuse ME!” she tried again, this time much louder but nothing. She sighed. Lost cause.

“If you would’ve let me pick you up like I said initially, you wouldn’t be here wanting to blow my head up now Judgy!”

“If you’d know how to use a phone like a normal person, I wouldn’t have waited needlessly for you for hours Damon!”

“Oh please, it was barely 5 minutes.” he scoffed and Jeremy piped up with a it was fifteen technically that Damon just elected to ignore it seemed. Sometime he did remind Rose of her dad. 

“It doesn’t matter! We’re dealing with Klaus! A 5 seconds text shouldn’t be something I need to tell you to do!” Aaannd sometimes she reminded Rose of her mom. Great, now she had anxiety again. And lord knows her mom won’t just raise her voice to yell at her for ending up here like this Bonnie was doing, no no, her mom would have a level voice that somehow would hurt far more. She needed a distraction. She also needed to figure out what was about to happen around this time. Like she remember her dad mentioning that Alaric had gotten possessed at some point and that he and mom had danced at a school 60s event - which she had to ask who actually came up with that stuff, because while Lizzie definitely loved a nice theme party, she still went with like a hava night, or a rock theme or an Austrian ball or something more generic but more fun, not a decades dance. Digressing though, Rose knew these facts, but she didn’t know anything immediate. She needed more information. More inside information.

“Guys, could you take a break and answer a few questions for me first?” she tried one more time. To no avail. So hard times ask for hard measures or something like that and stubborn younger versions of her parents call for her parents usual solve to stubborn daughter fighting with her friends voice so she did her best to channel her mom’s level tone and her dad’s intimidating presence and for someone not actually related to them she though she did a good job seeing as Bonnie and Damon turned in unison to glare at her before being reminded of where they were and what was going on here. She was actually pretty proud of herself for that feat.

“So as I was trying to say, can you give me run-down of what’s been happening here?” 

“Oh, I’m sorry, weren’t you the one who knew everything?” Damon commented snidely and Rose almost high-fived Bonnie when both her and Rose said in unison.

“Oh, you know what sorry means?” Bonnie off to the side.

“Oh, so you agree I was right?” Rose with a grin.

Damon  seemed to take a moment to grit his teeth and bite back his words before shaking his head, giving a smirk and walking right past Rose to pour himself a glass of bourbon and spread out onto the couch in seeming nonchalance. Rose would almost commend his acting here, if he didn’t also irritate her with it. Who knew dad used to be such a child… well, more so than in her universe...time?

“Damon, she didn’t say she knows everything and don’t be a dick. She’s the only one willing to help us here.” Bonnie on the other hand, Rose was beginning to appreciate more and more. Maybe she was more Mom’s pet in the past than Dad’s pet as she was used to.

“Thank you, Bonnie. And no, I don’t know everything I just know a lot, but I still need to have the full picture and all the players to tell which is the best plan of attack here. As I said, you can’t kill Klaus, but you also don’t want him to become a hybrid right? That means we need to take every variable in consideration.” she argued and saw both Bonnie and Damon share a look before seemingly agreeing with her point of view. And boy was the Klaus of her universe going to laugh himself stupid when/if she made it back and told him his lessons in planning schemes - her dad’s turn of phrase not hers of Klaus’ - had been what had helped her most here. Oh irony, you cruel, opportunistic bitch. 

“Bonnie was meant to take on over 100 dead witches’ energy today, it’s why we were waiting for Damon, he knew where they’d died.” came the first important nugget of information from the most - or least? - expected person, Jeremy Gilbert himself. Rose smiled at him in gratitude, glad at least one person was listening. 

“Ok, that’s still going to be useful so maybe you should do that anyway and meanwhile I’ll see what Katherine's hiding?” Rose suggested and she didn’t even need to think before knowing that Damon was going to disagree with her - her dad still made that face whenever she and her friends planned something he thought was too dangerous or risky. Bonnie however seemed more receptive. 

“No way! Do you even know what that bitch is capable of?” as she said, predictable.

“Damon, I think she might be right. You know Katherine is planning something, no way is she helping from the goodness of her heart and she won’t say anything to any of us.” Ah, how she loved her mom’s pragmatism at times - except when she was 14 and wanted a pony, then she much rather preferred her dad’s personal brand of impulsiveness that not only got her the pony she’s wanted since 5 but also made a stable off a little way further from the house.

“And she is still keeping Katherine knocked out.” Jeremy was quickly becoming Rose’s favourite person, no joke. He was full of wonderful insight and 100% helping her barely formed ideas come to fruition. She smiled proudly and nodded to the still unconscious vampire on the floor. She elected to ignore outright looking at the woman for now, too weirded out by the 1 to 1 replica of Elena to feel comfortable with it. Doppelgangers were too much for her. It was like evil clones, her dad had explained when he tried to make her understand how the whole doppelganger thing even worked - something about the universe or some chick named Tessa or another, she hadn’t been paying too close attention by that point. Their lives were very convoluted in her opinion. 

Damon seemed to consider this possibility then, taking another large sip of bourbon and looking directly at Rose as he did so, before slamming the glass onto the end table by the foot of the couch and jumping to his feet. 

“Alright, fine, then Bon-Bon, you me and little Gilbert need to head off. Rosie-Posie, you get the Queen of Hell. Good luck to you, you’re going to need it. The bitch hasn’t told the truth a day in her life.” 

Rose nodded, smiled and waved them off as they all got out and left to do what they’d planned to do. She couldn’t wait for that honestly, it would at least get Bonnie’s magic up closer to the levels Rose knew from her mom. But the Rosie-Posie was going to kill her the longer she stayed here. It was going to make her slip and call Damon dad and it would all implode into itself, because if she was weak to one thing, it was being her dad’s Rosie-Posie and while she was fully aware this wasn’t actually her dad, her heart didn’t care. All was left now was for her mom to brush her hair out of her eyes and she might just snap. She’d missed her parents far before she got herself stranded in a different universe - despite it having been barely a few hours - since she hadn’t been home in at least 2 months. Sure she’d seen them nearly every night, more mom than dad since dad tried to pretend he still was immune to missing his girls, but it wasn’t the same as hearing her dad from a few feet away, well within hug reach or feel her mom’s warm hand through her hair. Fuck, and now she was crying. This day couldn’t be going worse. Her eyes strayed to Katherine and she groaned. Oh, it could definitely get worse. It could get so much worse.

[mysweetestcreature]

Tomorrow Never Knows (President!Harry) Chapter 8: Head Over Feet

(Banner by the wonderful noblewomankat!)

***

Masterlist

***

Thursday, November 13, 2008

In the heat of the blistering summer just before the start of ninth grade, Y/n had experienced her first kiss. It really isn’t anything she would brag about –– she might say that it doesn’t count at all –– just a measly three seconds of her nervous and shaky lips grazed against the red Gatorade doused mouth of Zachary de Gala during a harmless round of spin the bottle. Not much of that night was memorable, maybe with the exception of the cheesiest pizza she’d ever had the pleasure of stuffing down her throat (but that’s an entirely different love affair to be discussed at a later date). 

Her second kiss...well, it was more of an almost second kiss, one that had been interrupted by a cute little six-year-old with an addiction to Neapolitan cupcakes and a knack for capturing the attention of every soul in the room. From the top to bottom of her smallest nail, that’s how close their lips had been to touching. If her brother had only interrupted them two seconds later, or if she’d been even the slightest bit more audacious with her actions, she’s almost certain that it would’ve happened. She still thinks about it quite often, even though she knows that she probably shouldn’t. After all, past is past. Right? 

But every time Harry’s cheeks would dimple, or his eyes would light up at the mention of particularly historic play by the Green Bay Packers, all she can do is sigh to herself because he really is so darn handsome. She just wishes she could do more with how she feels than keep these thoughts so kept that it’s only a matter of time until she loses her mind. 

Her dad, on the other hand, has no problem talking on and on. The way they intrigue about football and World War 2 (she had no idea that Jeremy was so knowledgeable on anything besides computers and NFL players), an outsider would think they’ve known each other for years. And maybe she shouldn’t be feeling a slight pang of jealousy with how easy the two have gotten on. After all, Jeremy had been ready to shut the door in his face when all Harry had wanted was to apologize to her for that pesky misunderstanding. 

Taking that into consideration, she would have never thought they’d be in this place not even a month later. She’s completely torn about how to act with Harry sitting so close beside her with her parents (and Mason) surrounding them at the dinner table. 

“You know, the Packers are playing on Thanksgiving this year,” Jeremy starts, twirling the seafood linguine around his fork. Y/n pauses just as her own utensil clinks between her teeth, eyes darting to her father as he continues to speak. “If you and your family aren’t doing anything, we would love to have you join us. It would be great to have someone to watch the game with who isn’t under four feet.” 

“Really?” Harry gasps, and the crevices in his cheeks concave once more. 

Y/n chokes down a gulp of water, just barely able to stop herself before she spits all her mouth’s contents onto her mom’s plate across from her. Three pair of eyes land on her –– the fourth and smallest pair staring intently at a noodle as it shrinks away through his lips –– and Harry is the one to lightly pat her on the back until the fit of coughs whimpers down. 

“Are you alright?” his eyebrows lift up in concern. Unable to say anything in return, she simply nods and strokes down on his arm as though to tell her that everything is fine. 

Olivia doubles up in amusement but shields it away with the use of a napkin. As if anything could ever be kept from a mother, it’s a lesson every parent will come to understand once they have kids. “That sounds like a great idea!” she elates, but she remains glued to the image the two teenagers exchanging bashful grins as they recoil touches under her husband’s watchful eye. “What do you think, Mase?” 

Face covered in an abundance of marinara sauce, the little boy perks up and displays his teeth for everyone to see. His mom rolls her eyes, taking a napkin and giving him a good wipe down until only the dried streaks remain. Mason grunts, pouting as he tries to break free of the attack. She turns back to the rest of the table. “Hard to say no to a face like this, huh?”

***

“I knew you were into art and stuff, but wow,” Harry stares in awe at all the sketches and paintings that adorn the walls of her bedroom. From pieces he’s seen her work on during lunch, to new and surprising scenes decorated on canvas, he can feel a part of her in each one. “Hey,” he smiles, stopping to admire one in particular. “You finally finished it.” He’d never say it out loud, but something about it makes him feel nostalgic, brightened. It’s almost like he’d seen this image in a book, or maybe in person if he can only remember when and where. 

He looks over his shoulder, only to find her in a complete daze as she stares ahead without true intent. “Y/n?” No answer. Only the sound of gentle inhales through the nose is what keeps the room from drifting into barren silence. The look on her face is far too serious, like all her energy is being channeled into such deep and unwavering concentration. Slowly making his way towards her, he ducks his head lower, trying to intercept the line of her gaze. 

“Wha-” her eyes blink furiously as she snaps out of her trance. For a moment she almost forgets where she is. She shakes her head as to rid herself of the confusion, suddenly becoming aware of all that’s around her. As she meets Harry’s eyes, her lips turn up ever so delicately. “Did you say something?” 

A cheeky smirk spreads across his face. “Only the plans for my next murder,” and he taps the underside of her chin, then curls his finger along the edge. 

“As long as you don’t make me dig up the grave, I won’t say a thing,” she says with a tilt of the head. They hold the gaze, finding comfort in the silence that falls between them. 

Would right now be the best time to ask her? After all, he’s rehearsed it over a dozen times in front of Maxxie (and Cici when she’s not in one of her moods). There’s just an overwhelming desire that blasts through him like lightning, only this keeps occurring whenever he’s able to hold her or even just be a few inches away. He’s pathetic, he knows that, and maybe half of their grade knows it as well. But he could care less what anyone thinks because he hasn’t felt so content ever in his life. 

“I wanted to ask you something,” he begins, slowly lowering his hand from her face until it’s relaxed in his front pocket. 

She cocks an eyebrow as she falls back to sit on the bed. “And what’s that?” she wonders, crossing her legs under her bottom. He lets out a nervous chuckle as he sits beside her. It feels strange to him, the mattress beneath him is almost too soft under his weight. He bounces a bit, as though to test its form as a possible cloud. To be honest, he’s never really stayed so long in a girl’s room before, let alone make himself comfortable on her bed. 

“So, you know how there’s this...you know, this thing next month,” he blushes, already feeling his nerves begin to startle him. 

“Go on,” she prods, doing her utmost best to hide her eagerness. 

The back of his hand brushes along where her knee touches the side of his thigh like a feather. His mouth quirks to the side as he looks up from his actions.

Her eyes gleam with an innocent curiosity, as she gnaws on her bottom lip. She bops her head in anticipation. “C’mon! Don’t just leave me hanging!” And she nudges playfully pushes on his arm. 

“Well, I just wanted to know if you’d maybe consider–”

“Hey, I just packed your bike in the trunk. Are you ready to go?” 

His eyes squeeze shut as his head drops in mild annoyance. They turn to Jeremy leaning coolly in the doorway, his keys dangling from his pointer finger, legs crossed at the ankles. Harry is almost positive that he’d been listening in the hallway, there’s just no chance that he’d be so unfortunate to get interrupted, now of all times. But he’s also become exceedingly paranoid since spending so much time home alone. 

Y/n looks between Harry and her dad. “Um...” she sounds, “Just tell me tomorrow in Algebra?” 

***

Friday, November 14, 2008

“Do you want to go to the dance with me?” 

“There’s a formal in a few weeks, right? Would you want to go...as my date?”

“I was thinking that it would be pretty cool if we went to formal together. What do you say?”

“If you were planning on going to the dance, maybe you’d want to go with me?”

Harry doesn’t think he’s ever hated himself more than he does right now. It’s bad enough that it started raining halfway on his bike ride to school (and that’s not even mentioning how damn cold it is outside), but he thinks the worst part is being put in an all too familiar position. The last time he’d hesitated with Y/n, she hadn’t spoken more than a few words to him over the course of two weeks. Of course, he has a certain red-headed cheerleader to thank for that, but he won’t mention her name at this time. Except now it’s like every single word to leave his mouth makes him want to knock himself over on the head.

The goal is to be straightforward, but he also wants to make his proposal at least somewhat romantic. That’s what every girl wants, right? To be treated well and make this kind of thing memorable? He’d seen a few of the seniors with posters and large bouquets of flowers for their girlfriends when they’d ask them. Does Y/n expect that kind of gesture? Or would that be too much considering he still hasn’t told her that he likes her beyond the boundaries of simple friendship? 

“Just end me,” he groans, banging his head against his locker door. “Put me out of my misery.” The cool metal will at least soothe his aching head as he comes up with a better way to ask her to the dance. How hard can it be, really? It’s not as though he hasn’t had any experience at all. There have been at least a few times where he’d asked a girl he liked to the mall or ice cream or a middle school dance. Why is this any different? Actually, he knows why, but he refuses to say it out loud in fear that he’ll end up jinxing it all. 

“There you are!” 

“Shh!” he hushes, covering his eyes with his forearm. Now really isn’t the best time, not when he’s desperate to get himself together by second period. “Not too loud, aye? I already have a migraine.” 

Maxxie retreats a few steps back, shifting his weight from side to side. “Okay then...” he says unsurely, digging the toes of his shoes into the freshly waxed floor. “I was just going to ask if you were ready for today? Because the bus is leaving in like twenty minutes so...”

“Excuse me?” Harry’s jaw drops, snapping his head up to look at his friend. “Why am I getting on a bus?” 

“Debate with Bayview? Literally all Mr. G’s been talking about for weeks? Pretty important?” 

Harry rummages through his bag for his planner. “That’s next week, though!” He swears he has it marked on the twenty-first of the month! This just can’t be right! He’s usually so on top of these things because of all the activities he’d been taken on since the start of the year. The competition isn’t meant to happen until the... “You’ve got to be shitting me...” Next time he’ll be sending alerts to his phone. 

“Don’t tell me you forgot! You’re literally the best one on the team! Dude, tell me we’ll win this!” Maxxie begins to panic as he brings his fingers to his mouth and bites anxiously on his nails.

“Chill, will you? It’s not that I’m worried about,” Harry sighs heavily, closing the book harshly and tossing it aimlessly into his bag. 

Maxxie pats his friend on the back. “No luck, I’m guessing?”

“It’s like her family knows when I’m about to do something! First when I wanted to kiss her, then when I was going to ask her to formal,” Harry shakes his head as he shuts his locker. He checks the time on his watch, another heavy sigh puffing out of him. “Hopefully we’ll get back before lunch.”

***

“The U.S. Supreme Court has legalized gay marriage, but the issue is still widely debated across the country. At the center of the debate are what the true definition of marriage is and whether gay couples are permitted the same rights and benefits as married heterosexual couples. Some question whether this is a legal issue or a religious issue.”

Harry stands at the podium that oversees the entire auditorium. So many eyes watching him as though he were a caged creature at the zoo. To his left, he sees his teammates, all signaling him their signs of encouragement. The papers in his hands contain all the factual evidence he’ll need to support his argument, but it doesn’t make the constriction in his chest feel any less prominent. 

*** She hadn’t thought much of it when Harry hadn’t been at their lockers before homeroom, although, she had been a bit tardy this morning since Mason had come down with a sudden case of the sniffles. When he hadn’t shown up to Algebra and then Spanish, she started to worry just a bit –– okay, a lot –– but only because he’s usually quite punctual.

It’s just after eleven, and he’s usually here watching her while she bakes whatever goodie Miss Genevra has challenged her to make, or at least doing some last-minute homework on the bench. Yet, here she is, all to her lonesome self, mixing her cookie batter by hand because all the electric mixers are in use. Her arm feels a bit achy, but it’s a pain she can ignore as she continues to think about where on earth her curly-haired crush might be.

There’s one thing that’s been really bothering her since last night, and that’s all to do with the unsaid question she already has an answer for. Because of course Cici gave her the hint that Harry has been meaning to ask her to the dance. (More like sent her a long and detailed text about how Harry had forced her to pretend that she was her while he practiced how to go about asking her.)

“If he doesn’t grow a pair and just do it, I swear I’ll shave all that beautiful hair off,” she had written in conclusion.

***

Harry studies his notes one last time. “What is the definition of marriage? According to Merriam Webster, it’s the “state of being united as spouses in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law,”” he reads, then looks up, scanning the room with regard for the genuinely intrigued faces. “Nowhere in that sentence does it indicate a specific gender-gender requirement, nor does it exclude any individual of any background. Now imagine this, not being able to fully commit to the person you love because there are some people that say it’s wrong.”

“The United States has claimed to implement equal rights into the everyday routine of its citizens, and that includes gender, race, religion, and sexuality. And yet, how can a country that defines itself by its desire for equality be so willing to stunt that privilege for a certain group?” he pauses momentarily. “We throw the phrase “freedom of speech” around so liberally, it’s a basic right that we as citizens of this country heavily agree on. Yet, when it comes to same-sex marriage, there’s still such a heavy dispute, and conservative bias becomes the dominant factor in its opposition.”

***

Just as she’s just balled up about a tablespoon of dough, her ears perk at the door swinging open behind her. Excitement takes over her, and she swiftly pivots on her heel in anticipation. 

“I’ve been looking for you all day!” she exclaims. It’s then she realizes that she’s made the same mistake she’d committed once before. She frowns, expression faltering as quickly as her shoulders. “Oh...” she hums, trying her best to hide her disappointment. “Hi, Jasper.”

The older boy smiles at her, placing his book bag on an abandoned bench before making his way towards her. 

“Why do I always feel like you’re always expecting someone else?” he teases, then snags a finger’s worth of cookie dough from the rim of the bowl. “Is this peanut butter?” he asks, face twitching just the smallest bit. 

“Yeah,” she replies, ignoring the first part of his spiel, gently placing another ball on the tray. Her goal is to make all her cookies as identical as possible, which means she had weighed each spoonful beforehand. “These are my brother’s favorite.” She just knows that Mason will gobble all these up when she brings them home at the end of the day.

Jasper slowly nods, bracing both hands on the surface as he leans forward. “I see,” he shrugs. “I’m more of an oatmeal raisin guy, myself.” 

She has to stop herself from grimacing, considering how Mason absolutely refuses anything with raisins in it. Once Jeremy had accidentally put a few in his oatmeal, and her baby brother had cried for ten minutes straight. Sometimes she can get away with putting a few in her carrot cake, but otherwise he’ll absolutely have a conniption. 

***

“The idea of a “normal” marriage only existing between a male and female has become flawed and out-dated. Marriage isn’t the same as it was a century ago, even fifty years ago. We as a society have evolved to become more and more accepting of the changes within ourselves and our peers. The American Psychological Association has continually shown its support for homosexuality and same sex marriage. It is to their belief that same sex marriage is perfectly natural, as opposed to the unnatural light that those in opposition to these rights choose to cast.”

***

“Anyway,” Jasper starts again, and he adjusts his tie around his neck and pulls his beanie down over the tops of his ears. “I actually stopped by to ask you something.” He inches closer until their arms are just barely touching. 

“What’s that?” 

***

“The debate of same-sex marriage stems from the words stated in the Bible. However, we must be reminded about the maintained separation between church and state. We have the right to practice our religion, but that does not extend to dictate how others choose to live their lives. It is the reason why such a demarcation exists. Who is one to tell another what is right from wrong? What is natural and unnatural? Love for another, whether that be between family members, friends, or lovers, is a force beyond the dictation of any religious belief. We are the so-called ‘melting pot,’ we take pride in the diversity that surrounds us, and we accept our neighbors for who and what they are. What doesn’t and what should never have variation, however, are the basic rights that each individual is entitled to.”

*** Her hand is suddenly encased by his much bigger one, and she inspects it with furrowed eyebrows before looking up. Only now does she notice the rose as it sticks out of his back pocket. 

“Y/n Y/l/n,” he announces, and all the other students in the kitchen stop what they’re doing to stare at them. He reaches for the rose and holds it in front of her. “Will you go to the winter formal with me?”

***

Harry steps off the stage, feeling much at ease. The looks on the judges faces as he was reciting the final lines of his argument looked very promising, and Mr. G had congratulated him as soon as he’d rejoined the others.

“Never doubted you for a second!” Maxxie cheers.

“Yeah, okay,” Harry chuckles. He glances down at his watch and smiles. “I think we’ll make it back in time.”

***

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Out of Warp.”

You guys have been waiting a long time for this, I have been waiting a long time to write this. It’s going to be a wild ride, and this is just the beginning, so strap yourselves in. Comment, question and ask me any questions you have. I need reactions. I need to know what you are all thinking during this journey :) Hope you like it 

The ship was quiet, the soft whirring of the engine underscored the quiet, exhausted relief that had followed them from the courtroom not days before. The Captain’s chair lay unoccupied, the bridge crew lounged quietly in their seats absently monitoring all incoming data before the warp.

Krill sat at his chair on the bridge just over Sunny who sat, curled up against the back wall listening to her music. Unlike everyone else, the court case hadn’t seem to have eased her worries. She sat against her own tense muscles hunched inwards on herself as she stared at her playlist.

Towards the communications console, Captain Vir sat speaking quietly to someone over the phone. The communications expert sat a polite distance away, but the rather smug and amused look on his face told of someone eavesdropping.

“Yes….. yes, YES…. Mom, I’m fine. I KNOW I didn’t tell you because I KNEW you’d freak out…. Well if it was Jeremy, you would barely even notice….. That’s beside the point….. MOM, I won the case, I am back on my ship, barely a slap on the wrist.” He sighed, “Yes mom….. yeah…. No…. no, I just have to wear the leg Sunny gave me…..” He paused for a long moment sighing deeply a few times, “Yes, she gave me a leg, yeah it was a gift, and by wearing it it’s sort of similar to adoption, you know, technically I’m part of their clan now…. MOM can we talk about this later…….” He rolled his eyes to the heavens, “No mom, I am not rolling my eyes….. I am NOT lying, look I love you, I have to go.” He hung up and sighed glowering at the com expert as he walked past, “Get rid of that grin corporal before I get rid of it for you.”

The threat didn’t take, and the crewman just burst into a fit of childish giggling.

The captain rolled his eyes and took his seat, “Alright, The UNSC is sending us on a wide patrol, I think they are done with us being around for a while, so ready the ship for warp.” Upon hearing the order, the crew sat up in their seats, while Sunny buckled herself in at the defense controls.

Navigation sent over a pre-plotted course to the captain’s screen, pulled up as a hologram in front of the chair. He dropped the controls, and took the joysticks with the ease of someone who knew they had complete control.

“Preparing warp core.”

“25…. 45….65…. 75…..85….90….100.”

The captain’s hand pressed forward on the controls, and below decks, somewhere in the bowels of the ship, the warp core pulsed once, thrumming with a pulsing power that rolled its way through the ship dimming lights and flickering projections as power was diverted to the warp for a split second. There was one horrible moment like they were all being folded inwards, and then the view outside of the windows whent completely white as the cameras shut off.

The entire crew slumped in relief as the feeling passed, and they were finally on their way. If the calculations were right, they should appear just off from the Heaven’s Gate Nebula, and then circle around the perimeter, a journey that would take more than a few months with strategic warp jumps spaced throughout.

Captain Vir sighed turning sideways in his chair and throwing his legs over the opposite armrest. Under the leg of his pants, the blue, metallic prosthetic of his new leg winked out at the crew. It only had two toes, like the foot of the Drev and a single backward facing spur. It had taken a while for him to get used to the dynamic of the leg, but once he had, it was almost impossible to notice the difference.

Inside the warp channel, the crew allowed itself to relax, moving from their attentive positions back to their postures of relaxation and sleepy watchfulness. A warp was run completely on autopilot, to do it manually would be to commit suicide in in the most spectacular way possible, perhaps by flying themselves straight into the sun. Either way, the only thing to do now was to sit back, relax and monitor the inner workings of the ship.

Captain Vir was taking the advice quiet seriously, closing his eyes and turning to a light nap within the embrace of the warp channel. Oddly enough, one of the safest place in the universe happened to be carried on the wings of a powerful and reactive force capable of causing planets to implode. It was surprisingly calming, like being rocked to sleep by the universe. The ship itself did rock gently ever few minutes rising over the strange currents residing in the warp tunnel. Sunny was back to listening to her music, and the Captain was fast asleep.

And then the entire world imploded.

If going into warp felt like being folded, than coming out of a warp felt like being stretched and then let go like a rubber band snapping back into place. Coming out of warp forcibly, however, took the rubber band feeling and multiplied it by about a thousand. The entire world was pulled, dragged, and snapped. The ships interior constructions screamed and protested. The entire crew deformed, shifted back and were thrown suddenly and violently from their seats screaming to match the crying of the ship.

The main power of the ship was disrupted plunging them into darkness, before emergency lights kicked on around the room. Captain Vir had been thrown from his seat and lay face down on the deck unmoving.

Warp protocol was strictly regulated for many reasons, the sudden termination of a warp was physically horrendous, and potentially catastrophic. The humans lay across the bridge moaning and contorted into positions of pain against their own whiplash, some of the humans lay very still.

Krill lay draped over one of the seats, also unmoving.

Sunny struggled to her knees armored carapace having protected her form the worst side effects of the warp termination. “No, no, not now, not like this.” Sunny whispered. The ship shuttered and jolted with a metallic screech. The emergency lights cast an unholy glow over the room. Sunny scrambled across the floor and onto the defense console. Ahead of her at the systems console, she watched as the ship desperately tried to reboot itself. As far as she knew the main power sources and life support would have remained intact. If there was one thing surprising about humans, it was their extensive need to create backup systems to their backup systems. In some cases, humans could be very cautious.

The ship rattled again, and Sunny desperately rattled at the battle station controls.

Weapons systems offline.

She cursed under her breath, and tried to pull up close radar of the area. The loading screen seemed to take forever as she pulled it up, “Please, no.”

The radar came up, but the small signature of their ship was completely surrounded, a mass shape dwarfing them, engulfing them. Somewhere below the ship, a loud metallic thud reverberated through the hull. Sunny raced towards the wall, dashing the coms from the wall, pressing the button and screaming her orders into it, “DON’T FIGHT THEM, REURN TO THE BARRACKS, DON’T FIGHT THEM.” A loud screech echoed through the corridors of the ship, “PLEASE, YOU WILL DIE!” She thought about the marines, those idiotically brave humans. How could they not fight; she had a horrible image of the marines lying on the ground, dead.  The rattling continued for some minutes and then went quiet.

Sunny rushed over to Krill checking for signs of life, she didn’t know what she was looking for, she was a solider not a doctor; that was Krill’s job…. But to her….. he…. Wasn’t moving. She couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t feel anything. She shook him gently, but his large head just flopped forward like a rag doll.

Breathing hard, she lay Krill gently on the ground and then leaped to her feet running over to where the captain lay on the floor nearly tripping over waffles, who lay on her side voice wheezing with a quiet whimper as she struggled to breathe

She threw herself to her knees next to the captain and flipped him over placing her hand over his chest. She knew relatively where a human heart was supposed to be, and placed one of her hands over his chest desperately feeling for some signs of life. There she felt it, the distant thudding of his human heart and his chest rising and falling with labored breath. She shook him to trying to wake him up, if anyone knew what to do….

Just like Krill, the man slumped forward upper body falling against her chest head sagging downwards. She knelt on the floor holding him in her arms trying desperately to wake him up, and she was still there as she listened to the floors begin to rattle.

Something was coming.

“Captain-“ She began, ready to beg him, to plead with him to wake up, and it seemed as if his eyes had begun to flicker.

The door burst open with a loud CRACK, hinges squealed as metal warped in protest bending and twisting into unintended positions. The door itself rattled to the deck, skidding halfway onto the bridge. A light haze of smoke poured into the room, obscuring the figures behind into shadows. Three figures rushed into the room one after the other ducking through the small space weapons raised to point at the incapacitated crew.

The mist dissipated.

Sunny felt her heart skink….

The Drev soldiers stared back at her with expressions of impassive disinterest. From where they stood, they fanned out across the room brandishing their weapons, blasters, razors, arm cannons, lasers, and of course their armor slid into place between and over the already armored carapace.

They were a good two feet taller than her on average.

Captain Vir shifted against her chest arms limply trying to regain consciousness fully.

And that’s when the fourth figure stepped into the room. The shape was so massive they had to bend almost double to make it through the door and into the room stepping with a soft clatter on the floor. Humans may have grown out of predators, but nothing at that moment could have looked more sinister than the shape that stepped from the shadows, and out onto the deck raising itself to a full 10 foot height only added to by the magnificent set of armor about her shoulder, and the mighty war staff in her upper right hand.

….

Sunny’s mother stood, metallic purple armor shining in the light of the emergency illumination, casting shadows about her body that turned her normally warlike form into nothing short of sort of hellish. Like the goddess of war herself reincarnate, and come down from the fields of battle to grace her presence on this very isolated ship.

Her regal armored head turned about the room taking in the fallen crew, some of which were finally beginning to stir, and then her eyes locked on Sunny. Sunny rested the captain back down on the floor and took to her feet slowly forced to look upwards at her mother’s face. The piercing golden eyes stared back at her as she stepped forward, easily striding over the fallen door with her massive pace.

She paused over Sunny staring down at her.

Sunny stared back.

Captain Vir groaned and struggled to his hands and knees. His bleary human eyes were out of focus ad cloudy with confusion.

Sunny’s mother bent down, and with her other massive hand, she grabbed the human by the throat, and hoisted him into the air like he was nothing more than a kitten in the jaws of a lion. He gasped, and gagged and struggled against her massive grip hands desperately scrabbling at her wrist and fingers. His legs kicked as his lips began to turn gradually blue.

The noise of his choking filled the entire bridge from front to back.

“Pathetic little creature, aren’t you.” She mused as the other humans were just beginning to pull themselves from the floor, only to be encouraged back there by the weapons of the Drev soldiers, “To think many of the Drev consider you to be mighty warriors, but look at you now.”

All that could be heard over the sound of the rebooting system, was the human slowly choking. His kicking grew more frail, more labored as he began to grow limp. Sunny took a step forward.

Her mother’s head snapped up, and with a flick of her wrist, she discarded the human to the floor. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and a reverberation through the metal. A desperate gasp rent the air as he took in breath hands to his throat.

A set of golden eyes fell on her. The gaze that had contemplated her many times, and only ever come back with disgust and distaste was filled with something else this time. A smile broke across her face, “Daughter…..” She looked around to the assembled Drev, “My daughter, a true soldier in the art of espionage. Good work, you did your job perfectly… quite a miracle considering your….usually lacking in these areas.”

On the floor Captain Vir choked a single word breaking from his lips, “Sunny…” A word filled with so much betrayal and despair, it turned Sunny’s blood right to ice.

She didn’t want this.

Her mother laughed, “Look at the poor stupid thing, Sunny, seems you did your job better than I expected.” Her laughter rose, and with it came the laughter of the other Drev soldiers, echoing out of the bridge, down the halls, and through the ship to die in dusty corners with its sinister intent.

  Scale of captain Vir to Sunny o Sunny’s mother for some context. 

 https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post