#colin... colin said things like that while actively trying to hide the fact that he is gay

[gottagobackintime]

The seven layer dip speech was so Ted. It also was proof Ted is straight.

Agreed on the speech being so Ted. Not so much that it's proof of Ted being straight.

Look, I don't think that Ted will ever come out. And I don't think that Ted and Trent will get together. But I also don't feel like this was some final proof of him being straight. People come out at all ages, some don't come out until they're 70. Some people think they're straight until they're suddenly not. I thought I was straight until I fell in love with a girl when I was sixteen and then I realised that I've been bi for as long as I can remember, I just didn't realise it, because I already knew I like guys. Maybe he's not ready to come out, maybe he hasn't fully realised yet. Maybe he didn't feel that it was his time to come out at that point. Just like Trent didn't come out after Colin did.

If you think that this was the final proof of him being straight, that's fine. But I still see him as bi, and always will.

[thekatebridgerton]

Bridgerton superhero au I'm posting one of these days:

Lady Danbury aka Director Danger, is the head Of T.O.N, An agency founded by retired superheroes and special agents dedicated to the protection of civilians and training of superhumans. Her recent broken hip prompts her to announce to her eight best superheroes that she wants to appoint one of them as her successor. The problem is.... that none of them want the job.

Simon is in the middle of a takeover from Bridgerton industries and has no time for TON, it doesn't help that he suspects that Daphne, his fake fiancee for the sake of the merger, could be working for his supervillain father.

So before he has an identity crisis, he'd rather keep his alter ego's súper activity to a minimum

Kate on the other hand has been losing control of her powers ever since she was forced to collaborate with Bman against some nanobot supervillain. Which strangely coincided with her appointment as Anthony's PA in Bridgerton Industries. So it's a no for her. At least until she stops accidentally zapping people and gets her storms under control.

Sophie might have said yes, except she's been investigating the jerk who discovered her many secret identities and considers herself a risk for the organization untill she catches whoever 'Sketchermaster' is and shuts him up for good.

Penelope is out of commission, since Lady Whistledown kissed Traveler and accidentally switched powers in the process. Problem is that while Penelope knows who he is in real life, Colin has no idea his sister's shy best friend is actually London's most dangerous antiheroine and Traveler refuses to kiss Lady Whistledown again until she reveals her secret identity, effectively holding her powers hostage.

Michael considers himself too new to the team And besides he can't tell Director Danbury, that Francesca's alter ego 'Fairy Wings' has it out for him, mistakenly thinking that 'Runner' was responsable for John's death and Michael's mysterious disapearance. So until Michael kills the supervillain targeting the Stirlings, he can't exactly get rid of the massive target on his back that puts everyone he associates with in danger. Including the agency.

Phillip rejects the offer outright. It's not enough that he was forced to come out of retirement now that his kids started showing elemental powers, but keeping up with Oliver and Amanda is taking all of his energy. Lately all he can do is thank heavens for Penelope's telequinetic friend. Who seems to know how to train the twins. It's hard enough hiding that both Eloise and he know each other's secret identity when they fight supervillains, but if he starts putting work before his family again might destroy everything he's working for.

So the competition comes down to the teenagers, Garret and Lucy, who both have nothing to lose.

Garret's only problem is that like Simon, his father is a notorious supervillain who is trying to ruin Garret's life. And until Garret finds evidence good enough to convict him, he'll always have to watch his back outside the agency. But he's going to win against Lucy, even if it means asking the Bteam resident super human to help him find a treasure of evidence and put his nemesis behind bars. It's the best way to prove that he has what it takes to be his grandmother's replacement.

And Lucy. Her problem is that she's the sidekick to three heroes, one of them, is head over heels for supervillains. so Until Lucy can convince Hermione that her resident beus do in fact want to kill her, convince Richard that joining their evil uncle is a bad idea and Gregory that going full Dr Dolittle Will be a good career choice. then she's got her hands full.

Danbury then issues an ultimatum, they can either resolve their problems as a team and provide her with a suitable replacement from among their group or TON will be disbanded when she dies.

Let the games begin

An: some things I talk about with @olicityonmymind late at night

[nuclidic]

Given that a lot of us are stuck inside with all this COVID-19 stuff, do you have any good TimKon fic recommendations to keep us more happily occupied?

Haha yes! I have this list from years ago but it is way past time for an update.

Disclaimer: these are just things I like, please heed all tags and warnings etc. I'm also not reccing any WIPs because unfinished fics kill me every time.

Crystal Clear by Merit andAnd I'll Tell You No Lies by caecily

Two short takes on soulmate tropes that have to go first because I love them so much, I love soulmate aus, Tim and Kon are soulmates, the end.

Where There's a Wish by LeeayreBeing Robin’s vessel is hard enough: the exhaustion, the life-threatening late night activities, the bruises and bullet holes and broken bones. Trying to hide all that from his incredibly suspicious, incredibly hot new roommate while maintaining his studies and placating his parents? Tim has never had it so hard. Especially since said roommate doesn’t actually know he’s Superboy.

So the setup for this is unusual, I'm not sure if it's based on anything but: superhero identities are Personas, independent (basically magical) personalities created by the wishes of a person or groups of people who act through hosts that have the will to manifest whatever that persona does. Basically: Robin is an independent persona, Tim shares his body with him and when Robin manifests the costume and all the gadgets appear. It's explained throughout the story, but just in case you start it and are like wtf is happening. This possibly should go in the thirds section because the actual pairings in this are: Robin/Tim, Red Robin/Tim, Tim/Kon, Red Robin/Tim/Kon, Red Robin/Superboy, and Red Robin/Superboy/Tim. Red Robin can also be kind of dubconny so watch out for that if it's a concern.

Wing Beats in Reverse by firefrightJason Todd is the third Robin, not the second, growing up in shadow of Tim Drake's death. Despite this, he still manages to form strong bonds with his new family. Especially Damian, who wishes to atone for his past mistakes with Jason's predecessor. But when he's fifteen, a mysterious red hooded figure kidnaps Jason from the rooftops of Gotham, and after that his life will never be the same again.

A Robin reversal AU (ie Damian is the eldest, Dick the youngest) that's Jason-centric but of course that doesn't lessen the Tim angst. Or the Kon angst when he finds out Tim is alive. Hopeful ending, but it doesn't fix everything.Other pairings: JayRoy, StephCass (barely)

Time Flies by by LaroyenaJon Kent is Superboy. Tim's gut instinct tells him that's wrong.(Timkon fix-it where reboot!Tim misses Kon like a phantom limb. And then he gets him back.)

Sometimes you just need to cry over the lack of Kon in your life and this fic provides the PERFECT excuse. Heartbreaking and then happy. (Also brings Colin back UNLIKE DC.)Other pairings: implied Clex

Not Completely Powerless After All by ChimaeraKittenNobody was quite prepared for the kid who runs the company to visit, but they manage, in fact, they might be pleasantly surprised; they weren't expecting him to be nice. Of course, they weren't expecting him to be a possible ninja either, but you gotta take the good with the bad.

Outsider POV!!! I have never watched Powerless so you definitely don't need to be familiar with it, this is just a glorious casefic told by someone who doesn’t know it’s a case.

Matters of the Heart by DMWith Clark off-world as an ambassador to Earth, Conner has to watch over Metropolis. Though it should be straightforward, there appears to be something amiss with seemingly random crimes happening around the city. Conner has a hunch that they’re connected and calls in his best friend to help. But as the two of them spend time together working the case, Conner realizes that his feelings for Tim might not be what he had thought.

A long casefic with feelings, basically everything I ever want.

Stumbling Home by bewaretheboojumIn his mid-twenties, Tim moves back to Gotham City after several years living abroad. He's feeling adrift, unfocused and a little off balance as he tries to re-establish a life in his home town.Kon is a fireman by day and superhero by night. When mysterious fires start cropping up in Metropolis, all signs point to arson. Who better to help him get to the bottom of this arson case than Tim? And really, it seems like Tim could use the distraction...

Another casefic with older TimKon. I didn't like the initial setup with Tim having abandoned his friends for years but it won me over in the end.

the honesty in your body by LaroyenaLuthor's tech saved Kon's life at the cost of his mind. Tim must take a feral Kon across space to restore his humanity... which is just as difficult as one may think.(Batman Omegaverse AU: unabashed TimKon porn detailing their original get-together in their early teens to their definite get-together in their late teens. But mostly porn.)

Yep, this is mostly omegaverse porn and it's excellent and I love it, I really don't know what else to tell you.Other pairings: BruDick

I'm Alone Here, I Think by unluckylokiSuperboy is fighting robots in San Francisco and remembers something that wasn't.There's a new priest in the Naxos temple appointed by Dream of the Endless.Kon is missing something. Tim is missing everything.One day Krypto practically drags Superboy to a remote island in Europe and there's a dark haired guy smiling at Kon like he knows him.Maybe he does.

Sandman crossover but I haven't read Sandman in 500 years so you don't need to know most of it. Kind of identity porn, but more...fraught. Excellent Tim angst (there...might be a pattern here) and I'll be honest I'm not very into all the witches and stuff but overall very enjoyable.

Nowhere But Forward by MishaBerryIt shouldn't have happened the way it did.When Kon finds Tim in Paris, it leads to a night that neither of them will ever forget, for better or for worse. Tim is then forced to confront something he's been denying about himself for a very long time, and Kon begins to question some things about himself. The road ahead is full of twists and turns, but there's nowhere to go but forward.

I really love long fics, but tbh I found this started to drag a little towards the end. I still enjoy it overall with delicious Tim angst.

Plus One SectionSometimes when pickings are slim we can try food we wouldn't normally eat, and sometimes it's delicious. Which is to say these are fics with Tim/Kon/Another Person. Don't go any further if this upsets your OTP soul, I completely understand.

TimKonBartTroika by glitterandlubeThis is kind of written like crack and definitely won't appeal to everyone, but it's a fix-it of preboot where instead of living with the Kents in Smallville and becoming the country boy of Teen Titans (2003) Kon moves to Gotham and then scores with Tim and eventually Bart. Follows the previous canon's timeline almost to the start of Red Robin. Some (honestly warranted) bashing of Steph but also of Lois Lane (???).Also contains explicit Tim/Dick.Other pairings: Clex, JayDick

TimKonCassieTrymmetry by glymrWhy do they feel like something's missing?

Set in a universe where Kryptonians form triad soulbonds. Kon and Cassie have both always been thinking about Tim when they're together, and after Kon comes back they can no longer deny it. They have to find Tim. I wish this was ten times longer.

JayTimKon

Heart of the Hoard by firefrightJason is a knight on a mission to save a captive young woman from a cruel and vicious dragon. However, when Jason reaches the keep the girl is kept in, it quickly becomes clear that not all is as it seems with his quest. For starters, Lady Timothea is actually Lord Timothy, and - as Jason soon discovers - he's hardly a prisoner in his tower.

Perfect because Kon is an ACTUAL DRAGON though it does lean on his YJ cartoon characterization.

I (Don't) Want to Believe by chibinightowl and strikeyourcolors

FBI agents Tim Drake and Conner Kent are sent to Arkham Heights High School to investigate a series of unexplainable incidents that have both staff and students on edge. Tim's firmly of the opinion the school is haunted while Kon is positive the occurrences can be explained in a more reasonable manner. After all, he doesn't believe in ghosts.Right? Right?

Horror casefic where Tim had a previous thing with Jason but also a thing with Kon so sharing is the way to go, especially when you're more (or maybe just equally) concerned about being murdered by ghosts in a haunted former asylum.

Okay I am stopping now because otherwise I will continue forever. I hope this satisfies some hunger.

[chicagocityofclans]

Hailey Colt→ Chole Bennet  → Hunter

→ Basic Information 

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Questioning

Birthday: June 21st

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Religion: Questioning

→ Her Personality Whilst Hailey truly is a very upbeat person, it’s hard for her not to swing the other way into depressive moods. After her back was broken two years ago she has been incapable of going back into the field in any capacity. She was forced to stay in Chicago in order to have access to the best medical team. Whilst she’s glad of the medical support she’s found it hard being around her family and their operation. It feels like a constant reminder of what she’s no longer able to do. She tried to fight these feelings, aiming to stay positive and do what she can. At the moment that means working at Lilly’s as she’s not physically able to do anything else of use for the Colts at the moment.  

→ Her Personal Facts

Occupation: Bartender at Lilly’s Place

Scars: Surgery scar from when they repaired the discs in her back 2 years ago

Tattoos: Star, moon and sun (all shaded black) on wrist

Two Likes: The color Orange and the Sun

Two Dislikes: Cursive text and Italian food

Two Fears: Losing Iris and Being entirely paralyzed 

Two Hobbies: Sudoku and Sunbathing

Three Positive Traits: Magnetic, Upbeat, Industrious

Three Negative Traits: Resentful, Angry, Depressed

→ Her Connections

Parent Names:

Simon Colt (Father): Simon took her under his wing when she was younger. He said she had the same ambition as the rest of the family and would excel at hunting. Though Iris didn’t notice, Simon would take Hailey on more hunts, and towards the end of their parent’s marriage he told her she would amount to more than her sister ever would. Hailey froze him out, and he died a couple of years later. 

Missy Colt (Mother): Missy is off doing who knows what in Alaska. She claims it’s so she can hunt down the Polar Bear who attacked her, but Hailey thinks she has a hard time looking at her being unable to go out in the field. Hailey gets her dyslexia from her mother, and was taught by Missy how to work around it when it interfered with the hunt.

Sibling Names:

Iris Colt (Sister): Hailey has always been protective over Iris. It’s why she shut out their dad, why she moved from sunny Albuquerque and why she threw herself in front of that Heavy and nearly lost the ability to walk. Hailey would still do anything for her, and a part of her worries about the life she may be marrying into. 

Megan Colt (Half Sister): Megan and Hailey got off on the wrong foot when Megan became caught in a particularly bad venting session. It took them a while to get to know each other, especially after Hailey learned that Megan didn’t know Simon had other children. They’re now much closer and Hailey is glad someone is able to look out for Iris in the field. 

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Trevon Anderson (Interested): Iris introduced the two of them at a post-hunt celebration between the Andersons and Colts at Lilly’s. She thought he was gorgeous and interesting, and she hopes he’ll stop in to see her again.

Platonic Connections:

Blaine Colt (Cousin): Hailey wonders if Blaine finds her useless. They don’t really talk and she doesn’t know what they would talk about, since she can’t go out hunting and doesn't need to know more of the topic secret information. 

Imani Colt (Cousin In- Law): Hailey and Imani are friendly, though they don’t talk. Hailey heard of Imani all the way in New Mexico and was eager to talk to her about her greatest takedowns. 

Colin Colt (Cousin): Colin can hover at times, wanting to make sure that the people in his family are safe. It bothered Hailey a lot in the beginning after the attack, especially when she thought he was treating her like she couldn’t do anything. It’s become a comfort thing, and Colin tries to stop by when he can for lunch at Lilly’s.

Alice Colt (Cousin): Hailey has watched Alice deal with her own disability to try and see what steps she could take to become a hunter again. They don’t talk much, but they certainly aren’t cold to one another. 

Amy Colt (Cousin): Amy has been trying to encourage Hailey to shadow her while she deals for the family. It is something that Hailey is interested in, but Elle’s been holding her back because of her dyslexia. 

Elle Colt (Cousin): Elle is the only person in Chicago, aside from Casper and Iris who know about her dyslexia. She is working on a way to help Hailey move into another field of the Colt business that may not require her to do as much reading or spelling as Hacking or Tracking might. 

Casper Colt (Cousin): Everyone hates Casper, but she can’t help but feel somewhat of a kinship with him. They’re both sidelined, though hers is permanent, and she thinks the other active members of the family don’t really understand how that feels. Together they test out the new weapons and he’s even found some that she can use on her “bad days” that won’t hurt her back.

Paul Stone (Future Brother-In-Law): It wasn’t that Hailey wanted to hate Paul, it’s just that she thought she would. Fortunately he’s a good guy and Iris seems to genuinely like him. 

Anya Grace (Friend): Anya is always fun to hang out with. They met when she sat down next to Iris at wine painting night, and clicked instantly.

D.W. Colt (Cousin In-Law): Hailey likes D.W. a lot. They have a lot in common and when she feels up to it, she’ll join her on her long walks. 

Matthew Stone (Frequent Customer): Hailey gets along well with Matthew, and is glad that someone in the family might watch out for Iris when she moves closer to them. 

Thea Stone (Medic): Thea has been the one to bear the brunt of Hailey’s anger and depression. She has been working to rehabilitate her and she knows that she wouldn’t be as far along as she was without her. She has also found herself becoming flustered when Thea flirts during their sessions together. 

Hostile Connections:

James Stone (Dislike): James Stone frequents Lilly’s like many of the hunters, but he seems to think he’s better than her family and rubs her the wrong way.

Clara Fields (Suspicious of): Hailey has been looking into the local heavies, and from reports believes the bear that attacked her may be hiding out in Chicago and was taken in by Clara. 

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background)

→ The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

[tricenorthman-blog]

Chapter 2

 It was still afternoon and the children were accompanied by their mothers at the end of the various after-school activities, but in Glasgow the darkness came very soon, especially if the sky was overcast and threatened to unleash a big storm.

 Henry – the name he was getting used to – decided to go for a walk despite the bad weather. While others ran to shelter themselves from the cold air and the possibility of rain, he walked calmly ignoring the bad day.

 The stores were still open to public but very few customers were inside. It was Thursday and most of them had to go home to get dinner ready and relax a little bit before going to bed. They had to work and go to school the next day, so staying up late and enjoying the nightlife was not an option chosen by many.

 The first night he didn’t leave the hotel, he couldn’t explore the surroundings because he was exhausted. Neither his body nor his mind were able to resist fatigue beyond a hot shower. But tonight Henry was feeling strong, willing to find a safe place to go if he were discovered. He did not like the idea of continuing to flee, but it was necessary if he wanted to have an escape plan. He was absorted in his own thoughts despite the amount of looks – almost all feminine – that he attracted after his change of appearance. The lack of beard and a mustache made him look younger, more attractive, and allowed his deep blue eyes to stand out even more over his dark hair.

 What started as a short walk suddenly turned into a long journey back, but Henry did not care. He was more than trained to endure the pain, the rain, the snow and almost anything that fell on his shoulders. After all, not long ago he had survived a terrible helicopter crash with just a few bruises, and as a special bonus he managed to make those who chased him to believe that he was dead.

 That made him relax a little each time he thought about what happened. He thought he would get over it sooner, that he’d be able to accept it and move on, but it wasn’t becoming easy for him. The nightmares chased him when he slept but the memories remained in his mind at all times. He did not socialize with many people, so chatting with another human being to forget about his problems was not something Henry could count on.

 Except that nice waitress. But he couldn’t fool himself, she just did her job and continued behaving in the same way with the next customer. Also, a distraction like that would bring him more problems.

 It was late, he looked down at his watch and saw that he had lost track of time. He took a break sitting down on an old painted wooden bench to observe the increasingly lonely stree. There was light in the windows of the houses and nearby flats, but outside there was hardly any noise. Some cars circulating at high speed, animals rummaging through garbage for something to eat, and a few teens laughing and returning home from a workout.

 Except that, Henry was able to hear his breathing in a quiet atmosphere.

 &&&

 The last shift of the day was over and Celine’s feet were barely able to keep her up. She was very tired and the tips were not worth the effort. Almost all of her customers were men who preferred to try touching her butt instead of rewarding her for not sending them to hell at the first chance. But that was her job, which allowed her to pay for her studies at the college in order to become a nurse.

 “Hey Celine, some of us are going out to have a drink, you in?” Susan, her co-worker, asked her. “One night only for girls, what do you say?” She would have loved it but she was too tired.

 “Sorry, not tonight. My whole body hurts.”

 Susan came over and took her hands. She was older than she was, she was close to forty, and maybe that was why she took great care of Celine. She had no children of her own and saw her like her little girl. “You’re twenty-four years old, honey, if you don’t have fun now, when are you going to do it?”

 Celine smiled because Susan always used to ask the same question. “It’s Thursday and I have to study tomorrow. Having finished the practices doesn’t mean everything is done. Now I must pass the exams and if I go out every night…”

 “Okay, I understand. But the weekend is ours, you promise?”

 “Promised.”

 Susan hugged her and picked her things up to leave. Celine still had a couple of tables to clean up and then she would go home. She wanted to arrive early to study a little, or at least put everything in place for the next day. She looked forward to her day off at work because she could relax and concentrate on her studies. These last exams were crucial, and if she wished to build a good future outside of a restaurant, she had no choice but to work hard for it.

 The owner said goodbye to her and as soon as she walked out, he turned off the lights of the local and both went in opposite directions. The night was freezing, and not even her coat and huge scarf were able to warm her. She didn’t live far from work, but she still had at least a twenty minutes walk home. Of course she could have taken the bus but it was a bit scary at midnight and it was almost empty except for some weird guys she preferred not to share a small enclosed space even for a short time.

 The strees were deserted at that time because the next day the routine continued for another day. But Celine was used to walk back home when no one else used to. However, her legs moved quickly because of the cold and she was anxious to feel safe in her own apartment.

 Suddenly, something caught her attention.

 She turned around expecting to meet another passer-by but saw no one behind her. She was sure she had heard footsteps but she thought she had only imagined it. “It’s just the wind.” She whispered and continued walking, almost running. But Celine was right, someone was following her, although that one knew very well how to hide so she wouldn’t realize that she was being watched.

 She was short of breath and a cold sweat ran all over her body, but that didn’t stop her. Grabbing her messenger bag tighter she turned in the last corner before reaching her building. She stopped and looked back but again saw nothing sinister or dangerous. No one was chasing her, because who was going to do it? She wasn’t a troublemaker or had enemies. Celine Beckett only worked and studied, and she barely interacted with people beyond her co-workers and customers.

 She climbed up the few steps that gave access to the front door of the building and stopped searching in her bag to find the keys. She didn’t stop shaking because she was freezing, and the sweat didn’t help at all. Besides, her heart was beating fast and she knew she wouldn’t feel safe until locking the door of her apartment.

 “Celine.”

 The girl choked back a shriek and grabbed her chest tightly. She thought she was going to suffer a heart attack because she felt her heart was trying to get out of her mouth. Needed to breathe deeply a few times before calming down and being able to speak normally.

 “What are you doing here, Colin?” She asked surprised. “Was it you who was following me back there?”

 The young man, older than her, nodded from the other side of the stairs, staring at her.

 “Are you mad? You can’t do these things, they’re weird and…spooky. You can’t follow me like that, do you understand?” The man looked embarrassed, but Celine wouldn’t fall into that trap again. “Hey, you have to accept that there’s nothing between us anymore, okay?”

 “I love you.” He replied no more.

 “Colin, we’ve already talked about this. We both want different things and that won’t change. You try to make me leave everything for you but I can’t do it. I want to study and get the job of my dreams and all you want is for me to marry you and have a lot of kids.” It wasn’t a crazy story Celine had invented, it was something Colin himself expressed in more than one occasion during their brief relationship. “We had a good time but it’s over. Go home.”

 “I won’t give up, Celine.”

 “Just go home, Colin. Please.” She opened the door, closing it immediately and without looking back. She was still feeling nervous and all she could do was run up the stairs to her apartment and finally breath a sigh of relief.

 The first few times Colin approached her were innocent meetings in the restaurant or when was leaving college. But he had never followed her home from work. In fact, during the time they were together she never invited him to her home. He didn’t know where she lived and Celine preferred it to be like that. She didn’t trust people easily and when things between her and Colin ended, he wasn’t able to accept it and kept calling and begging her to forgive him.

 “This has to end.”

 She turned on some soft music and left things on the couch. In her small one-bedroom apartment she was happy, but that night she looked through the window before closing the curtains to make sure Colin wasn’t still out there. She couldn’t see him and finally breathed. She walked into bathroom, turned on the hot water and got undressed. She needed a relaxing shower and to rest. A quick and light dinner and she would read a little before going to bed.

 Luckily, she’d see things differently in the morning. Maybe she would forget the incident with Colin and he’d realize that it hadn’t been appropriate.

[edyacouky]

WIP DamiColin

Just a wip of a fic DamiColin that happen in my Beautiful Bouquet AU

The text happen when Damian and Colin are 13-14yo, after Colin adoption by Roy.

                                                             ~*~

It’s been a while since Roy and Jason had a night to spend only together. They love their kids, they really do. But there is some activities they love to do and can’t, or not as loud as they would have liked, when their children are with them.

It was really a nice gift from Bruce and Oliver to babysitting their kids, well from Alfred and Dinah.

Jason and Roy get to eat to this new restaurant, talking about each other, to each other. For the night, they didn’t have to worry about giving the good example and it was really relaxing.

They are so happy that they feel a little drunk without have to drink one drop of alcohol.

They can’t keep their hands to themselves on the elevator, which was a little embarrassing when Mrs.Nisard saw them.

“Night without kids.” She guess blinking at them

This should make them learn something, but as soon as their door is unlocked, they start undress each other.

Their vest fall somewhere near the door.

Roy open Jason’s shirt to kiss his collarbone, then goes bite his nipple while Jason lock their door.

His anxiety won’t turn off because Roy turn him on.

Going to their room, they take off their shoes, their shirt without take care where they end. Tomorrow morning, they will have time to tidy up before their children come home.

Near their bed, they have drop their sock before kiss again.

“God, I love you.” They keep whisper

Roy open his pant, taking it off with his underpants.

“Let me be good to you.

-You always good to me.” Jay admit whispering

Damn, he really can’t understand what he did to deserve someone like Roy in his life.

Jason is trying to take his pant off, when Roy knock him over their bed, flatten their body.

Jason could have been more invested on their kiss, and where Roy’s hands go, if he didn’t hear a yelp. A kid’s yelping.

Reacting more than take the time of the reflection, he kicks Roy hard on his balls to make him fall on the floor, while he lifts their sheet.

If he thought he was embarrassed before Mrs.Nisard, then he is mortified when he realizes that it is Colin in their bed crying.

“Fuck … Fuck … Why …? Fuck Jaybird!” Roy complain still on the floor both hand on his genital, crying too

Jason takes the sheet to hide Roy and himself while he put back on his pant.

“Hey, Colin. Jason said giving an explanation to Roy. What are you doing here, sweetheart?

-I’m … so …sorry … Colin keeps crying

-That’s ok. I’m not mad at you. Jay said hugging him. Just surprise to see you here, at home, in Roy and I’s bed.”

After a very long minute, Roy succeed to stop focusing on the pain to take back on his pant and look at Colin.

Jeez, the kid look miserable.

“What happens?”

Colin can’t seem able to talk, he can’t almost breath with his sobs.

“That’s ok, kid. Cry if he makes you feel better. No judgment, no hard feeling or anything.

-I just need you to answer one question. Just move your head. Did you warn anyone at Wayne Manor that you’re here?”

Sound unlike Bruce or Alfred to bring back their kid to their home without a word, especially if Colin is so much in pain.

After awful seconds, Colin shakes his head and cry stronger.

“Ok. Well, that’s not ok that you didn’t warn anyone but we’re not mad at you, ok?

-I’m so stupid! Colin manages to yell between sobs

-No you’re not. Look, we have just to warn them, then we will be focus only on you, ok?”

Jason search where he puts his phone when Roy said that both of their phone are in their vest in the entry.

Roy stand up with a grimace to go get them, but Jason, feeling guilty, pushes him gently in bed so he can lay down with Colin.

“Stay there. He said before whispering in his ear. I will kiss it better later.”

Roy just sneer but doesn’t argue. He hugs his son, telling him that everything will be alright and he can cry as much as he want.

Jason found his phone and calls Alfred.

“My dear God! Alfred exclaim visibly panicked. I was going to call you. I’m so sorry Master Jason …

-Colin is at home with us. Jason intervenes. I’m sorry he worries you like that. We will make sure it doesn’t happen again.

-I’m just relieve, Master Colin is safe and sound. He is, isn’t he?

-Well … Not exactly. Did something happen at the Manor? Colin keep crying and doesn’t seems able to give us information for now.

-I can’t really think of something that could cause such a reaction. Alfred thinking at loud. It’s true that Master Damian was called for a simple mission, but it’s sure thing he will arrives in some minutes now. Master Colin looked disappointed when I talk to him but … I’m so sorry, Master Jason.

-I’m sure you did nothing wrong, Alfie. I will just wait till Colin feel comfortable enough to talk. I’ll keep you informed.

-Sure thing. I’ll try see if Master Damian knows anything.

-Thank you Alfie.

-It’s normal, Master Jason.

-Good night, then.

-Good night.”

When Jason comes back to their room, Colin is a lot calmer. Roy looks him expectedly but all he have as answer is a shrug.

“Are you feeling better?

-No …” Colin admits after a while

He still feel so angry and so gloomy despite the love of his two dads. No matter what Damian say, Roy and Jason are his dads. No matter if they don’t want him anymore.

“I’m sorry I ruin your date.

-Hey, Colin. Roy said forces him to look at him. Yes, we’re unhappy you leave the Manor without tell anyone and you can’t do it again. But we’re glad you come to us.

-How so? You will have a wonderful night without me.

-Knowing that you trust us enough to come if you have a problem, is more precious to us that a simple date. Jason said kissing Colin’s forehead. We love you so much.”

Colin blushes furiously with all the attention giving to him. Before he can apologies or his fathers asking him what happen, his stomach is rumbling.

“You didn’t eat?

-No, we were supposed to wait for Mister Damian.” Colin answer with venom in his voice

Well, now they know that whatever happen, Damian is concerned.

“What about we command one pizza from your favorite restaurant, Luigi’s pizzeria? You will feel better once your stomach full.

Colin simply shrug, despite how he loves this idea. He doesn’t feel like he can ask for anything right now.

While they wait for their command, Roy and Jason change their clothes for something more comfortable.

Once they are in bed with a pizza for Colin, they ask him:

“Can you explain to us what happen tonight?”

Colin sights but nods.

“It’s stupid. He says biting in his part to take the time to think about how he can explain that. I just … I thought that Damian was different, you know?

-What do you mean?

-Well, I know you joke about Damian being a spoiled brat, but I never thought he would be ashamed of me.”

Jason frowns hearing that. Doesn’t sound like Damian. Everyone knew who Colin was the minute Damian meet him, because the Demon Brat keep talking about him every single day. Even Jason who doesn’t speak much with Damian at the moment knew about the kid.

“Tt, Todd. Why do I bother helping you? With Colin it would have been already done.”

“Well, Colin said …”

Again and again.

Not what you expect from someone who is ashamed.

“What make you think that he is ashamed of you? You remember how surprised you were that I knew who you were when we met? I knew because Damian talk to me about you, in glowing word.

-Yeah … Well maybe he liked me better than I was poor and without a family. Explaining why he refuses every family that could have taken me. Sure if you guys didn’t want to adopt me I will be back at an orphan.”

Definitely not like Damian at all. What happen between this two? Aren’t they supposed to know everything about each other?

“You do realize that if, for an absurd reason, Jason and I didn’t want to adopt you, Damian was making plan to force Bruce to welcome you in his house? I mean the kid knew where your room would have be. He forces Cass to switch place.

-Somehow it was cute.”

Seeing that Colin isn’t convinced Roy ask again:

“Can you explain to us what happen tonight?”

Colin’s pizza is almost completely eaten and he wish it isn’t so he still have an excuse to not talk about tonight.

“Damian has to go being Robin …

-Are you still mad that you can’t go with him? Jason ask after a moment of silence. Because Damian have nothing to do with our decision

-In fact he treated us for that.

-No … well, I’m still sad I can’t help him. But I sort of understand why you don’t want me to. It’s just … He wasn’t going alone or with Batman … He was going with some friends of his.”

Colin doesn’t add anything else like he can explain everything.

“So what? Roy said. I mean, I know for sure you have other friends than Damian, so are you mad that he have other friend than you?

-Wha … No … That’s not that he has other friend! Colin defend himself. It’s just when he invited himself to the zoo visit with my friends I present him to everyone and he wasn’t very nice to them. But Mister Damian refuse to present me to his friends. He said that it wasn’t worthy of interest and that I wasn’t permitted to see them! We were only one meter to each other! I could see them! They heard how Damian talk to me! And then what? I was supposed to wait gently that Mister Damian come back?! Hell no!”

Colin start furiously blushing again with rage as his tears fall down his cheek.

He always knew that Damian and he weren’t part of the same word, but being treated like that! As some kind of servant!

It is too much for his heart! He truly lo … He truly like Damian! And knowing that it’s not even a little reciprocated is too much for him.

“Ok, you’re not totally fair with Damian here, Roy said, I’m the one telling him where you were and that he could join you if he wanted.

-Well for the part not being nice. You’re not totally wrong. Jason admits. But for what I saw it was more because he doesn’t know how share your time with other people as the same time, that for being mean to your friends.

-But, Roy adds before Colin can say anything, if he was really mean to you, that you don’t want spend anymore with him, we will support you, ok? You’re important, Colin. If being friend with Damian doesn’t make you happy, you don’t have to be.”

The simple idea of not seeing Damian anymore make Colin’s heart aches, but he says thank you with gratitude between his tears. Because he is still too mad at Damian for wanted to seeing him now and he doesn’t want be forced to do it.

                                                      ~*~

Despite all the affection Damian have for Jon and Maya, he is glad when he succeed force them to go back to their home without ruinning his time with Colin.

It’s been forever since Damian and Colin could spend time alone. There was always members of their family or Colin’s friend to ruin that before.

Not this time.

Damian leaves the Batcave with enough pizza from Luigi’s to feed a regiment. He brought the game Colin was curious about, but he makes sure neither of his sibling take another games that Colin loves to play.

They won’t have any bedtime and Damian swear to Alfred that he will clean his room tomorrow so he won’t come to take the trash while they will have fun.

“Colin! I’m here!” Damian calls but no one answer

Well, the Manor is huge so it’s not impossible that he doesn’t hear him. He goes to the kitchen where he thinks find Alfred and Colin drink some tea like they do sometimes.

All he found is Bruce and Alfred whispering some secret to each other. Tonight, Damian doesn’t care.

“Alfred, where is Colin?”

The two man exchange a look before Bruce take the pizza from Damian while Alfred serves three cup of tea. Weird.

“It’s for Colin and I. Damian said feeling weird without understand why. I buy it with my allowance. If you’re hungry, eat something else.

-Damian, Colin is at his home.

-What? No. Colin is here! We suppose spend the night together! Damian argues trying to find Colin but his father stop him and forces him to sit down

-He is not. He … He wasn’t feeling well so he came back to his home.

-Wh … Is he sick? What does he have?

-I was hoping you could help us understand.

--I don’t understand. He doesn’t seems sick hour ago. I’m not sick and I take great care of having a shower in the Batcave after every altercation with some kind of chemical substance.

-I thought I understood that Jon and Maya meet Colin, Bruce tries to change his tactical, what did they thought about him?”

Damian shrugs. What does it have to do with everything?

“They barely see each other. No one was mean to each other. Damian explain slowly like he walk on mined land

-I’m surprised. For what I hear, Jon and Maya were in the Manor at the same time that Colin for almost thirty minutes.”

Damian shrugs again. He didn’t want them to meet and he succeed that they weren’t in the same room for almost twenty nine minutes.

“What the hell is going on?”

Bruce sights but doesn’t say anything about his language.

“Damian, did you or did you not present Colin to Jon and Maya?

-I didn’t. Damian admits

-Why?

-Jason and Roy don’t want Colin being part of the Heroes community, so there is no need to him to know more heroes than he does. Damian lies but his father doesn’t buy it

-Are you ashamed of Colin?

-What? Of course not! There is nothing to be ashamed of Colin! Damian defend himself, blushing

-Well, Colin is sure that you are ashamed of him.

-That’s ridiculous! Where do you hear such lies?! Damian explodes

-Colin said that to his dads …

-They’re not his dads. Damian grumbles

-Not that again. They are.

-That’s ridiculous! Todd is just ten years older than him, he is my big brother! How can he be his father?

-He is.

-And why did Colin say such thing? He is my … best friend, ok? He knows that! I’m sure Todd and Harper exploit Colin’s sickness to make him say anything and then interpret that like they want, because they don’t like me!

-It’s not true. Bruce argues, he wishes to be tender with his son but sometimes only the harsh true works. Colin is hurt by the way you acted at the zoo with his friends and tonight with yours. If your relationship isn’t bright right now it’s only because of you two.”

God, he hates seeing his son’s face so turn with anger and despair but if Colin and he don’t realize where the fault is they could never be friend again.

“Please, tell me the true this time. Why didn’t you present Jon and Maya to Colin?”

There is a long pause where Damian laughing like a mad man. He looks at his father like he can’t believe he ask something so stupid.

“You think I don’t know how people see me? He asks after a moment. That I don’t know all of you see me?”

He looks accusing also at Alfred.

“I know damn well that no one want me. Not mom, not you, not my … not my siblings. I’m not stupid!”

It’s broke Alfred and Bruce’s heart that Damian still feel that way after three years with them.

“And I know that … eventually my … friends wouldn’t like me anymore … Not Jon … Not Maya … Even Colin …”

Bruce never want his kid to shut up as much as he want now. But Damian needs to say everything on his heart. After, Bruce will make him see how wrong he is.

“Of course they will immediately becoming friend. Jon has a little sister like Colin, they both have power that make their life harder, Maya still hate me for killing his dad, and Colin is so wonderful! But I don’t … Not now …”

Damian doesn’t know how but he succeeds hold back his tears. He knows what he is. A failure. A spoiled brat. A deception. An assassin. Despite all his wishes, he can’t be any good for the people he lo … for the people he learned to appreciate.

Bruce stay mortified and look at Alfred hoping his father figure could help him reassure Damian. After three years, realizing he didn’t make any progress with Damian so he can feel loved … Thinking of, it was something he was unable to do with Jason. Did his relationship with all his children is that bad?

Maybe the next time he will go to the therapist he won’t simply say that he had trouble only with Jason.

He had to make sure they know how deeply he is proud of him and that he loves him.

But first, Damian.

“I’m not hungry anymore. Can I go back to my room?

-Certainly not! Alfred exclaim with vivid emotion in his voice before Bruce could refuse too. Since you buy for dinner tonight, we will eat it together.

-Damian, you have to know that I love you. I’m sure I’m not lying by saying that Alfred love you too.

-Of course I love you young Master.

-You can’t deny Dick’s affection for you.

-Grayson is a fool. Damian mumble but look embarrassed to doubt about his affection

-And despite the fact that you may not be that close to your sibling they care about you, they love you. You had terrible word about Jason’s intention but when he explains to us what Colin said he was keeping saying “That’s not like Damian at all. Damian would never feel that way to Colin. It must have been a horrible misunderstanding between them.” He makes me promise to help him make sure you stay friend with Colin.

-You lie. Damian protest without any vigor, feeling too tired

-I’m not. For Colin, I’m sure he is angry at you now but he will be able to discuss about that with you soon. Jon really appreciate you, you can’t hide how good you are, Damian.”

Damian accept the slice of pizza Alfred give to him and after a hard look from the butler, he eats it.

“For Maya …I can’t support what you did. You know that. I can’t lie to you, saying it was nothing. And I was terribly worried when I learned that his girl was in your life. I am not ashamed to say that I spy on her, make a background check on her. I was so scared about what she could do to you.

-She has every right to do everything to me.”

Bruce shakes his head, taking his son’s hands in his. His so little hands. His son is so young, so small yet. His son was hurt by so many horrible way.

“I never want you to think that you can and have to kill someone. Bruce admits. But you are my son. I love you so much. Damian, you have no idea how much I adore you. I can’t bear to lose you.

-You bare losing Todd. Damian accuse him. And you loved him more than me.

-Master Damian!”

Bruce laugh bitterly at that remark. The idea of him bearing the loss of his child is so absurd, he can’t help himself.

“Ask to Alfred, Dick or Jason. They knew me before, they know me after. I am not the same man. I never would be again. And I don’t love him more. I don’t love any of you more. I may love differently because you are different. But I love unconditionally all of you for what you were, what you are and what you will be. I see that you don’t believe me. But I swear, I will do everything so you will.”

Neither of them was authorized to leave the table before half of the pizza was eaten.

They stay silent, but Bruce keeps touching Damian, caressing his hairs, pressing gently his arm, and Alfred pretends he doesn’t see anything when Damian let Titus eat some slice of pizza.

[blueyesandleatherjacket]

Our last winter, 2/31

► Our last winter - Human!Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler. ► Written for @doctorroseprompts 31 days of ficmas. Day 2: Hope. ► AU Verse, Teen. ► 1,717 words. ► A/N: This is a prequelle to Ghost of you.

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is time for home.” - Edith Sitwell.

Third day of December 2012. Researches about a cure for Alzheimer. Maxence Spitz video log.

  Our researches are cruelly slowing down lately. We’re not going anywhere with this new ‘cure’ we’ve been asked to create. Every year we’re giving this stupid challenge of finding a cure for one of the most destructive diseases this world can count. For the last three years, we’ve been working on finding an experimental treatment that would prevent the persons genetically exposed to Alzheimer from suffering from the degeneration f their brain cells. So far, no one of the studies we’ve run came to a positive conclusion.

Unfortunately, Alzheimer seems to be the disease in vogue since we are recording an impressive increasement of people suffering from this terrible illness that’s eating up the brain cells and sick people sanity. I feel rough not to be able to help them. Science doesn’t bring the answer we need to understand the disease, its way of working. If we can’t figure this out, we can’t find a proper way to fight it. This situation is helpless.

Every year, we’re selling those so-called meds supposed to prevent or slow down the active genes but it actually doesn’t do anything. It’s a placebo made for people to believe that they can be healthy for a little while, that they can avoid this disease from making them go insane and impotent. If I could publicly apologise for all those fake hopes we’re giving them, I’d do them. But I’m their goose that lays the golden eggs and they want me to stay away from the medias as much as possible.

We’re synthesising something new at the moment. We completely changed the formula and followed Tegan’s directives. After all, he’s our neurologist. He knows the brain and its working better than any of us do. Clever man. I’m really glad to have hired him in my team. I wanted the best and he really is. And he has this very advantage of being humble. Still being a bit clumsy when I’m around too but he’s fitting well in his new work environment. I don’t want to disappoint people and he doesn’t want to disappoint me. So we’re both very involved in this mission. Just like the rest of my team.

  Maxence turned off the recording and sighed. It was long gone the happiness of this delightful and relaxing weekend in the snow with Rose. They had been back to work for a couple hours now and he was already feeling the knots coming back and the pressure eating him up like an army of dangerous ants. He wasn’t reacting well to anxiety. It was a known fact to everyone here. He scratched his elbow. This was one of the first signs. Rose would tap his hand and reprimand him if she could see that. But she was working in her own office. She was as serious as he was when it came to work. Hiring her in his team had been mandatory when she got her own doctorate with the best note. Those studies were what had saved her after the Jimmy Stone event. Those studies gave her a bright future, a future she had never imagined for herself.

He remembered taking his whole day off for her certificate presentation. He had helped her to relax and to prepare her speech of head of the class. He was sat at the front row of seats with his mother and they had applauded the loudest. After that, they had gone to the restaurant to celebrate and the very same day, when night fell on them while they were sharing a picnic in Hyde Park, he had asked her to marry him. To which she obviously said yes since they were married now for the best and for the worst. Their next step was to try to have kids. They were taking their time. There was no rush in this wish. For now, they were more focused on their career and on the two of them to have that child, but if it was falling on them suddenly, he wouldn’t mind either. Even if it would annoy their boss to have two brilliant scientists off because of a maternity/paternity leave.

  “Daydreaming again?”

  Maxence jumped at the knock on his door and the muffled voice he heard. He turned around to see that his wife was standing in front of the glass door with his name on it. ‘Maxence Spitz. Head of the biology department.’ Too showy for him. But that was his office and the ���mention of department’ was important for his colleagues to know where they could go to have advices or new directives. He got up and walked the door he unlocked for Rose to come in. He stole a kiss from her.

  “Just thinking about you, love.”

  She couldn’t keep a straight face when he was telling her things like this and a large grin answered him. She pressed her lips against his and felt him smiling in return. That was those simple things that were making her loving him more and more every day.

  “Funny. I was thinking about you and about the fact it was time for us to go share a lunch.”

“You never come by for lunch usually. I have to come and get you.”

“I had nothing to do. We all have to wait until Colin and Martha are done.”

“True.”

  His hand found hers and she intertwined their fingers. She frowned and picked the glasses on his nose to have a proper look at them. She rolled her eyes and put it back where it belonged before he complained that he ‘couldn’t see the beauty of his fantastic wife’. It was a fun game sometimes to steal his glasses and see him looking for it everywhere and insulting every furniture he was bumping into.

  “You always complain about not seeing me without them but I don’t understand how you can see anything with them on.”

“You’re making fun of me. I don’t like it.”

“Oh, and the world is gonna stop turning because the great Maxence Spitz is pouting?”

  She lightly tapped his clean-shaven cheek. She had done a good work as usual. When Maxence was shaving himself, he was always cutting himself and insulting half the inhabitants of this planet. When she was doing it, there were no little cuts. Sometimes she would just sit on the toilet’s lid and watch him, bemused.

  “Of course, not. The world doesn’t revolve around me. But this lab might stop working!”

“Because it all revolves around you?”

“Have you seen the name of this door?” he bragged, pointing to the large letters on the door.

“Should I be impressed?”

“I am impressive!”

  Rose chuckled and finally they left his office to go to the cafeteria. They picked a tray and got in line for food. Finding a table was more difficult since it was the rush hour. Most scientists were coming at this time to eat and go back to work. They found a spot at the very bottom of the room. They sat down and started eating.

  “So what’s the problem with my lovely wife?”

“Wha’?”

“Oh, come on, you can’t hide anything from me.”

“I don’t want to raise your hopes high.”

“You’ve ordered my Christmas gif?”

“Sort of.”

  Maxence put his cutlery down and intertwined his fingers under his chin. He sank his blue eyes into her brown whiskey ones. She immediately looked down and played with her food. It confirmed him that something was wrong with Rose. He needed to know what it was. He wouldn’t let her in peace until she told him.

  “I’m late.”

“You’re late? What does that mean you’re late?”

She lowered her voice, “My period. It’s late.”

  His mouth formed a silent ‘O’ as he realised what it meant but Rose was biting her lower lip nervously. It wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t in their immediate plans. She didn’t want to ruin their career with a possible pregnancy. But Maxence seemed quite happy with this news.

  “It’s just two days, Max. Maybe it’s nothing but…”

“Do you want to do a test?” he asked her.

  He was trying not to be too happy about this news, not to raise his hopes too high. It wasn’t the first time that this scene was happening but they had never really hoped for it to be true until now. He took Rose’s hand in his and gently squeezed. She didn’t have to be nervous. He wouldn’t blame her if she was pregnant. They both wanted it to happen.

  “We can go to Liv. She will do the test. She won’t tell anyone.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t wanna force you.”

“I wanna know.”

  Maxence softly kissed her hand and reassured her that it was okay. He pulled her closer to him and she leant into him. They finished eating and dropped their empty trays on the trolley before heading to the infirmary. Liv was about to leave the place but she stopped her move when she saw the two of them.

  “Do you have a problem?”

  Liv was an old friend of Rose and Maxence. She had gotten this job thanks to them, she wasn’t hiding it. Maxence had wanted people he could trust around him. There was no better people to trust than his friends who thankfully were all specialised in the fields he needed. He had completed his team with the most talented people.

  “We’d like you to…” Maxence cleared his throat and looked around. “Is this possible for you to do a pregnancy test?”

  For a moment, Liv didn’t know what to answer. Then, she realised that it wasn’t any kind of joke. She made them come in the infirmary and took them to the exam room. She did a blood test.

  “I’ll do the test myself and I’ll tell you when the results will be there.”

“Thanks, Liv.”

  That was all. Now, they just had to wait. Rose was still anxious about the results and Maxence was hoping. He had promised not to raise his hopes high but he was still hoping that it would be positive because he wouldn’t have any better gift for Christmas than a child with the woman he loved…

Our last winter © | 2018 | Tous droits réservés.

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[write-stuff-for-life-blog]

Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

NOTE: I actually saw this movie in theaters but since it’s DVD release was yesterday I figured I’d post my review of it here. I might ramble on for several paragraphs in these reviews, especially if I feel strongly about something, so I’ll try and make it a point to post a short rating at the top as well as a more in depth one at the end.

NOTE THE SECOND: I don’t usually care about spoilers in these reviews so read at your own risk.

1 out of 5 stars. Only watch on Netflix if you exhaust all your other options.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is written by Colin Trevorrow (previous writer and director of the last entry in the franchise) and Derek Connolly and was directed by J.A. Bayona. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reprise their roles as Owen Grady and Claire Dearing respectively and are sent back to Isla Nublar by Jon Hammond’s previously never mentioned before former partner billionaire Ben Lockwood played by a James Cromwell who can barely bother to keep his eyes open throughout the movie. I, in fact, share that same sentiment.

Usually in these reviews I try to touch on all the aspects of said medium: visuals, camera work, writing, directing, acting, etc. But this review is going to focus mainly on the writing and acting because both are so atrocious all the other aspects are inconsequential. 

I didn’t think the first Jurassic World (JW) was as great as it needed to be for a soft reboot / revival of such a beloved franchise but it did have several memorable moments. The leads were charming enough to make you forget that they lacked meaningful character arcs (Claire does have one but the movie doesn’t care about it that much) and the action in the second half of the film was pretty cool (specifically T-Rex and Raptor and Giant Alligator Thing vs. the Indominus Rex). So for the second go around I was hoping that the filmmakers would take the time to really get it right and do the franchise justice. My hopes were far too high.

The only two performances that were worth anything in Fallen Kingdom (FK) were the two returning leads, Pratt and Howard. Howard is a decent enough actress but I’ve never seen a performance from her that I really love and FK continues that trend. Claire does undergo a change from shrewd, cold businesswoman to animal rights activist and that does give some depth to her character but it happens off screen during the three years between JW and FK. It was a little jarring at first but I swallowed it better when the film took a minute to explain her motivations. Pratt was as Pratt as ever as Owen is exactly the same through this movie as he was when we first met him in JW. I fear there’s a real risk for Pratt here as it seems as though he’s becoming another Will Smith or Tom Cruise. He is varying degrees of his usual charming and charismatic self in whatever project he appears in. Owen is just Pratt but outdoorsy to the extreme. Star-Lord is just Pratt with his ego turned up to eleven. Andy from Parks and Rec is just Pratt as a dumb man-child. And I guess that’s fine. Plenty of stars have made careers doing the same but actors actually stretching themselves and challenging themselves to become someone else will always be more impressive.

One thing that annoys me about modern blockbusters are their tendencies to inject new secondary characters into each following installment while completely ignoring the B cast from the previous entry. In the original Jurassic trilogy it did make some sense to do that as each sequel followed the branching lives of Ian Malcolm and Allen Grant who, we can presume, never encounter one another again after the first film. But here there’s little justification for it. JW’s comic relief characters Lowery and Vivian, played by capable comedy actors Jake Johnson and Lauren Lapkus respectively, are nowhere to be seen in this movie. Instead we have Franklin Webb, a spazzy tech guy played by Justice Smith, and Zia Rodriguez, a ball busting veterinarian played by Daniella Pineda. I don’t have much to say about Pineda, she was decent enough and served her purpose, but Smith … Oh my God. I believe this guy will go down in history as the absolute worst character in any Jurassic movie ever. Yes, he is even worse than every child character in all of the movies combined. He does nothing for the movie other than to scream in a high pitched voice when something scares him. Everything scares him. It’s always played for laughs but the joke falls flat on its face every time. The movie thinks it’s funny for a grown man to shriek in terror and scream out loud the thing that’s scaring him. “Lava!” “T-Rex!” “Social interaction!” All right, I made up that last one but the character is so cliché he might as well have said it. And what’s more there is no reason for this character to be here. The movie wastes a fine opportunity to bring back JW’s Lowery who was also a tech guy. In fact it even makes sense for him to run with Claire in her animal rights activism as he was a huge fanboy for Jurassic Park. He had toy dinosaurs all over his work station, he loves them! And it makes even more sense for him to return to Isla Nublar because he was familiar with the park’s computer systems. Why isn’t he joining Claire? He was courageous and had some genuinely funny interactions with Vivian. He certainly would have been better than Spazzy McScreamy.

Speaking of trends let’s talk about the obligatory child character. Isabella Sermon makes her big screen debut as Maisie Lockwood, Ben Lockwood’s granddaughter. Of all the new additions to the franchise she’s the standout as her performance has a depth and range most child actors would struggle to convey. Now one thing about the Jurassic movies is that their child characters were usually pretty capable in some way or another. Hammond’s granddaughter in JP reboots the computer system. Malcolm’s daughter in Lost World is able to gymnastic a raptor to death (yeah it’s a dumb scene but she saves her dad). The teenager in JP3 survives Isla Sorna alone for eight weeks. And the brothers in JW are able to fix a derelict jeep and rescue themselves. FK started out following this trend of capable children with Maisie … until it abandons the idea so we can have a “monster creeping through a child’s bedroom” scene. This completely undermined her whole character. Up until then the movie had established her as smart and independent and capable as hell. She snuck into the secret lab, spied and hid from the bad guys, busted out of her room which she’d been locked in, and climbed atop buildings all secretly by herself without help from a single grown up. But the minute the new hybrid dinosaur goes after her, which she had seen several times before then, she immediately forgets how capable she is and hides under her bed sheets. This might be the most heinous example of bad writing in this whole movie. Mixed messages? Okay, fine. Forgettable action sequences? Whatever, that’s most of Hollywood anyway. But please, for the love of God, have consistent characters!

Now the villains. Ugh.

BD Wong returns as the dastardly Dr. Henry Wu, the mastermind genius behind the dinosaur cloning process, the I-Rex, and FK’s new hybrid the Indoraptor.  It would seem that in the three years since JW InGen and its parent company Masrani Global have cut Wu loose as he’s now partnered with a new financier Eli Mills played by Rafe Spall, the CEO / director / executor of Ben Lockwood’s … estate? Company? Trust fund? I don’t remember the movie specifying what Mills’ job was, only that he was another white collar villain (because we haven’t seen that before in a Jurassic movie). Toby Jones makes an appearance as Mr. Eversol, an auctioneer for the high rolling criminal underworld, and Ted Levine plays Ken Wheatley, the leader of a disposable mercenary force who has an odd fetish for collecting dinosaur teeth. And that is literally all there is to the villains. Each of them is cartoonishly shallow to the point that Wheatley is a parody of an archetype and all Dr. Wu needs is a mustache to twirl. True, the villains have never been that big of a deal in the Jurassic movies as the dinosaurs have always been the main attractions but not even Vincent D’Onofrio’s Hoskins from JW was this bad and in a movie full of weakly written characters he was the weakest link.

And let’s not forget the dinosaurs. They are there. Not as much as you’d like but they’re around. The big draw for Owen this time around is to save Blue, the only surviving raptor from the pack he raised and trained, from Isla Nublar’s impending volcanic eruption. FK plays this up as though Blue was always the equivalent of a loyal attack dog but it conveniently forgets that JW established her as a dog capable and willing to bite the hand that fed her. The scene from the previous movie in which Owen is in the raptor enclosure is a tense moment because he is under threat from all the raptors, Blue included. In fact when the I-Rex persuades them to go after the humans all the raptors focus in on Owen. There was that one moment when Owen pulls off Blue’s head camera at the end of JW but to rewrite the relationship as though she were a loyal golden retriever, I feel like that was not earned in the slightest. And the main attraction this time is the new hybrid, the Indoraptor, essentially a smaller version of the previous movie’s I-Rex. FK presents this abomination of genetic manipulation as an ultimate monster but it really just looks like rejected concept art of the I-Rex. Also the Indoraptor is only in half of the movie. The I-Rex in JW was a better monster because it was terrorizing the island for almost the whole runtime. Plus the I-Rex has some decent build up and a good reveal. Here, it feels like the movie couldn’t be bothered. “By the way, we made another hybrid dino. Here it is.” I did enjoy the return of more practical animatronics over every dino being CGI but if you saw the last film this one doesn’t have anything special for you in that regard.

Let’s talk about Trevorrow’s writing. It’s awful. Like a pile of hot rancid garbage awful. The biggest problem with JW is that it completely ignores the moral of the original. JP was a cautionary tale that proves whenever man tries to exert his will over nature he will lose and just because we can do something it doesn’t mean we should. It’s classic man vs. nature ending with man being humbled. JW said, “Hey look, we’re going to keep doing that ethically questionable thing most people believe we shouldn’t be doing and wield the power of a god with no regards to any possible consequences,” and gets upset when the monster it created wreaks havoc. But does FK finally learn that lesson and try to take the franchise somewhere new that doesn’t lead the characters into being idiots who keep going back to the island? Do Michael Bay’s Transformers movies understand subtlety?

More than ever this movie has dumb characters making dumb decisions that nobody with a brain can follow. The villains want to capture the dinos and auction them off to billionaire criminals because these crime lords want them for pharmaceutical reasons (but why though?), the ability to hunt one like a big game hunter (because we also haven’t seen that before), or for weaponization. Let’s touch on that last point. The villains justify it by saying animals have been used in combat scenarios for centuries when armies rode to battle on horses and elephants. And the movie might have had a point if either one of those transportation methods hadn’t become outdated before the fifties.

Now just for the sake of argument I’ll list off a few more examples for this movie’s case: K-9 units, bomb detecting dolphins, and pidgins have all historically been used by one military or another at various times. But here’s the common thread among all those examples: none of those animals are predisposed to ripping a man’s head off in a single bite. Why do you think it isn’t common practice for a military to use lions and tigers and bears? And let’s take a closer look at the proliferation of working dogs and horses. Could it be that thousands if not millions of years of closely co-existing with humans have made them predisposed towards not killing us on sight? What’s that called? Oh yeah. Domestication!

Whether we’re talking about fiction or not, training an animal that never co-existed with humans so it can become an attack animal is not a good idea any way you slice it. Any semi-intelligent person can recognize that there are way too many variables to take into account. Oh but what about Blue, I hear you asking. Owen proved that raptors can be trained with Blue. That may be true but one successful instance against a multitude of failures does not prove the concept. Sure the Polish Supply Brigade around WWII kept a bear named Wojtek that would carry their supplies for them but you don’t see cargo bears being implemented throughout the world’s militaries these days. Do you know why? Because they’re freaking bears! They could go in for a playful swipe and nick your carotid by accident you MORONS!

And that leads me to this movie’s message. Apparently FK believes these animals have as much right to life as any other endangered species. That’s the whole reason Claire wants to go back so she can save them. But the film is bookended with Jeff Goldblum reprising his role as Ian Malcolm speaking before a congressional committee on how much that is a bad idea. He argues that nature selected the dinos for extinction millions of years ago and bringing them back was a mistake. The volcano erupting and eradicating the clone dinos on Isla Nublar, he says, is nature’s way of correcting that mistake. So the film opens and closes arguing why protecting these creatures from a second extinction is the worst. And yet we spend most of the runtime doing exactly that.

Seriously?

Malcolm has always been the ultimate voice of reason in these movies and we as an audience are inclined to agree with him given the proof each movie provides for his argument. There are four previous films illustrating why bringing the Earth’s most dangerous predators back to life is a horrible idea. And now that nature wants to correct the mistake you’re going to defy that decision?

The film uses Maisie here to make this case. The dinos are technically clones and we learn that Maisie is a clone as well so now we’re using clone rights to justify saving the dinosaurs. It is a weak argument thrown in at the last moment. Arguing for conservation is good and all but how well are you going to side with that argument when the T-Rex is meandering through a neighborhood gobbling up pedestrians left and right? These animals have lived on an island their entire lives. Aside from T-Rex who visited San Diego in the 90s they have never seen a town. The only human made structures they are familiar with were the derelict park buildings that the movie shows them waltzing through all the time. Even our own real world wild animals don’t understand that they should stay away from human settlements, how well do you think Blue is going to do the first time she’s caught in the headlights? But apparently they have a right to live because they are just as alive as Maisie the clone is so let’s end the movie by releasing all these dangerous animals, most of which are as large as a rhino or elephant, into the American countryside.

Sure, forget about public safety. Forget that dinosaurs had their chance but nature selected them for extinction over sixty million years ago. Forget about all the indigenous plant and wildlife that is now under threat because you just loosed at least eleven different dinos onto the world. Forget about how their nesting habits might destroy the landscape like nutria in Louisiana. What was your motivation again? Conservation? Give me a break.

Honestly this movie makes me glad Trevorrow was fired from Star Wars Episode Nine. This proves that he has no clue what decent writing looks like and has no regard for what the original was trying to say. Just because he was given the opportunity to make these films doesn’t mean he should have.

 1 star out of 5

A forgettable and messy film that slowly meanders through the second and third act with no sense of purpose other than to say, “Ooooh look. It’s a dinosaur!” And it doesn’t even say that well.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 42 - EDM - Thirsty Thursday

3-2 OT Win

When I was an undergraduate in college there was this special night of the week called Thirsty Thursday. A lot of my classmates created their schedules, so they had no classes on Fridays creating a prolonged weekend for all the activities Animal House taught you college students do. Thirsty Thursday was the beginning of that debauchery. Specifically the mid to late evening as the party people dressed to the nines emerged from their dorms, already tipsy, and climbed into Ubers, Lyfts and Cabs to go to the skankiest clubs and try to cross the border into Canada. Niagara Falls is pretty lit on the other side in case you weren’t aware. The Buffalo Sabres had themselves a bit of a Thirsty Thursday yesterday. This time however I’m excited for the consequences. I drew attention to GM Jason Botterill’s planned 5:30 radio appearance before the game against Edmonton so that when it was called off it seemed cowardly. Not that my lone tweet riled up an angry mob like the gif I used implied, but the timing seemed… well very bad. Dalton Smith was put on waivers the day before after an embarrassing affair on New Year’s Eve against Tampa and it all seemed for nothing: as if our GM had no clue what he was doing and now he was hiding from facing the fans. In reality perfect setups like that never happen. When WGR550 was told Botterill couldn’t make his regular radio hit the negativity around the team right now would naturally make you think of that dodging the press theory. Us wild and crazy optimists hoped against hope he was busy working on… dare I say… a trade!? The whispers came in as game time approached and Thirsty Thursday kicked off with a three-way (Normally something reserved for the end of the night if you know I mean). At about 6:40 pm the team announced a 2020 fourth round pick had been acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for Marco Scandella. The next part unfolded when the team announced at about 6:50 pm that the same 2020 fourth that was yielded from the Scandella trade was going to the Calgary Flames for RW Michael Frolik. No salary retained or conditions, it was essentially Marco Scandella for Michael Frolik.

Set aside all your newfound appreciations for Scandella, even his revitalization was to inflate his trade value. Not to be harsh but he won’t be missed; especially when Jeremy White’s Super-Secret Sabres Source (SSSS) then tells him they’re not done, and they want to bring Lawrence Pilut up from Rochester. This humble blogger says good and good. Scandella for Frolik constitutes a wash in terms of salary if not a little bit more taken on by Buffalo. However, if it gets Pilut back up to Buffalo and or Colin Miller out of buying tickets out of town then it’s a win in my book. In spite of how few trades we saw in the last five months of 2019 it does make a lot of sense that this is the prelude to bigger trades. One can only hope. I hope this analysis of it is outdated by the time I post it. Although we all thought the Jokiharju trade was the prelude to a bigger trade that never came so it could go both ways I suppose. All this figuring out distracted me from the actual game unfolding. I looked up and suddenly the Sabres were down 2-0 to the Oilers at home and certainly a blood bath was to ensue if another egg was laid in downtown Buffalo. Then as soon as I had that thought Thirsty Thursday ticked up again, but this time with some good clean action: Marcus Johansson disposed an Oiler along the wall in the offensive zone and went around behind the net. Johansson got it to Curtis Lazar who tapped it in past Mike Smith in net. It was now 2-1 and Jason Botterill had that much more cover to come out and face the press in the first intermission like we hadn’t gotten three hours earlier while trades were unfolding.

Jason Botterill spoke for about seven minutes saying a lot of things you might expect: Michael Frolik will bring even strength scoring, he’s won a Stanley Cup, has playoff experience and what not. Perhaps the most important things Botterill said is the special teams have to be better. He said that Frolik could help on the penalty kill and could be a bit of a rover on the wing. Botterill spoke to greater roster competition as something of a rationale for seeing as many players publicly want out. Assuming this isn’t the only move to be made its just refreshing to hear that the GM does understand what’s going on. The Dalton Smith Fiasco will probably be pushed under the rug 1984 style and that’s probably the only way to handle it at this point but pushing forward the point that there is in fact a plan here will allow some optimism, however scant, back into the fanbase. Once again, assuming there are more moves coming this move helps. The move itself is more or less whatever. If you get what Frolik was in years past then maybe he’s not just another piece to be traded at the deadline. Getting Frolik was one of those rumors from months ago and evidently the conditions on this Thirty Thursday were just right to make it happen. Conditions were not just right in the second period and apart from a slash on Jack Eichel and the Sabres taking over the lead in shots on goal, nothing really happened. Then it creeps into your head, like I hear it does for the party people at some point in the early morning hours on Thirsty Thursday, that all this momentary excitement could just melt away with nothing truly rewarding coming from it unless… unless you kiss that hot little number down the bar. It was unlikely another trade would happen as the clock ticked past 9pm last night but the clap-back Sabres awoke again. As an early offensive push unfolded in the third period for the home team they began cycling the puck around in the Oilers’ zone. Zach Bogosian took a shot that Sam Reinhart redirected in for the 2-2 equalizer and… well what do you know: Reinhart’s 100th NHL goal. For a moment try not to think about the impending second coming of the Reinhart contract drama and just savor what Samson does and who Samson is. But just like most things with this team, darkness follows close behind and Victor Olofsson was escorted out of the game after a weird fall all on his own just after he got the secondary assist on the equalizer. No new word on that today either mind you, just Scott Wilson getting called up because you can’t let us get too high, right?

The third period went on and the Sabres threw everything and the kitchen sink Zemgus Girgensons at Mike Smith. Nothing went through and we found ourselves in overtime. To Ralph Krueger’s credit most of the Sabres overtime periods have been tight possession affairs like they should be, even when they’re losing efforts. The same happened last night until an absolutely bonkers ten seconds about a minute into the extra frame. Jack Eichel went end to end, like from behind the Linus Ullmark net all the way to Mike Smith’s mouthguard on the other end. Along the way he drew a penalty when Oscar Klefbom hooked him on his final approach. That was good for a penalty shot but before the play was even over Jack almost scored on the rebound. This Thirsty Thursday was about to see it’s last act. That hot little number down the bar I mentioned earlier, that was Jack mother fucking Eichel, and we kissed his greatness to cap off the night. He took the puck, skated in and snapped it far side past Mike Smith, 3-2 Sabres in Overtime! And so the inebriated masses stumbled out of their rides in the wee hours of the morning; still concerned about their future but sated for just a time until the next party comes. Hopefully more parties to come then sadness they hope.

Like, Comment and Share this blog now because some of you will not like what I say next. The game on Saturday was moved to 1pm in the afternoon because the Buffalo Sabres organization shares an owner with the Buffalo Bills and is therefore allowed to be self-aware. You probably already knew that. To those of you whom pointed to that move as a sign of the Pegulas caring more about the Bills I’d just ask you to take a deep breath, maybe play your favorite video game and relax. There is good evidence that theory is true, but the Buffalo Bills also happen to be in the playoffs for only the second time in twenty years. Forgive the whole City around you if they want to focus on that team when they come on at 4:35 tomorrow! I know its 90s night… or afternoon now tomorrow, but please, let good things be good. Enjoy yourself a little bit. The Florida Panthers will be a challenge and then they’ll be off for four days, hopefully while Botterill is making more trades and Michael Frolik is getting his Visa figured out so he can actually come and play. Then its six games leading into the bye week of varying difficulty but mostly difficult. I would guess even if the Sabres miraculously won eight straight going into that break they still might only crack the top three in the Atlantic Division given the spaces between games. Nonetheless the tide of this dissent into another lost season we’ve been experiencing since before Christmas can be reversed this month. It will likely take more work on the part of the GM even though the deadline is still several weeks away. Yesterday’s Thirsty Thursday events were not enough for me to fully get back in the conductor’s chair of the hype train but whether it be for hoped for trades or just the first Buffalo Bills Playoff win since I was in diapers I can enthusiastically say right now: Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. According to NHL PR that OT Penalty shot goal by Jack Eichel made him the first player in Buffalo Sabres history to do such a thing. That is some kind of surprising stat.

[filipfatalattractionrblog]

First off: Donald Trump is a moron. No matter how much time and effort pundits and democratic party officials try to gin him up as some conniving mastermind so they can convince themselves their candidate didn’t get beaten by a man who thinks health insurance is dirt cheap because he sees life insurance for babies advertised on Fox News, he is an ignorant dipshit of the highest order. His attention span is nil and his ideas can be changed by whoever talked to him last, or whoever just butters him up enough to play to his ego. He is not a clever man, or a consistent one. He’ll say anything, then change it in the next minute. The few things he sticks consistently to are his ego, his bigotry, and his predatorial behavior towards women. Steve, on the other hand, is portrayed as a very clever man. Not just historically as Captain America, but here in the modern Secret Empire arc and everything leading up to it. How he plays people against each other, manipulates connections and government power to get what he wants, putting together all sorts of tricky plots to end up deposing the Red Skull and also taking over America. The way Donald Trump rose to power was heavily pinned on old fashioned bigotry. Not just his personal bigotry either, which he’d use to fire up overt and latent racists, but how the GOP has spent decades suppressing minority vote, especially black vote. And when keeping them from getting to the ballot isn’t enough, just straight up purging votes, or them ending up getting ‘lost’. Manipulation of the right to vote itself, and also, fostering state level power via gerrymandering and more, continuing to play to bigoted ends, to prop up their own power and also continue to use racism and other forms of bigotry to solidify their base. We did not put some too-clever-for-us genius in power. We elected a short-sighted moron who was willing to tear all the dogwhistles off on standard southern strategy GOP campaign racism, whose power was solidified from a local to national level with a GOP who stand behind his actual policies and decisions 100 percent even if they may dislike how erratic he is as a person. Which leads nicely into the next way Steve is a poor fit as a representative for Trump: Steve isn’t racist. Steve isn’t even secretly racist, as Spencer will tell us over and over again, and that Hydra is actually the wokest fascists in the world and more socially progressive than the standard democrat. Steve is so much not-a-racist that even while using Inhumans being shoved into concentration camps as minority metaphors, and mutants being exiled to their own nation as another set of minority metaphors, none of the writing will take the leap to say that Steve is bigoted against these minority metaphors. Even while using them as symbols of the damage bigotry does, Steve himself, fascist in charge of it all, gets to stay clean, gets to be “I don’t personally have anything against mutants and Inhumans…” Trump, on the other hand, is a racist in the extreme. Not a secret racist, not a dogwhistle “welfare queens” and “urban youth” racist, he is very publicly a racist. He has been for decades. He called for the death of the Central Park 5, even took out ads for it, no matter how thoroughly their innocence was proven. He got a federal investigation into the fact that he wouldn’t allow properties to be rented out to black people. Before he started his 2016 campaign, he had spent years and years railing against Obama, calling for his birth certificate, believing and inflaming a racist conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t an actual American citizen. A racist conspiracy theory that even “mainstream” GOP members found themselves having trouble explicitly denouncing. He kicks off his campaign early calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. He casually puts out the idea of Muslims having to be registered in America. And that’s not even getting into his sexism, either, which modern Steve Rogers would be painted as being totally devoid of. Trump preys on women, talks about them like objects, sexually assaults them, and when one of them infuriates him, his misogyny is constant, even against conservatives who would be believed to be on his “side”. And even all that wasn’t enough to stop him from getting the majority of the white women vote, which shows a hell of a lot of the power of explicit racism. The stunning reality of how much people will tolerate or even cheer for. Then there’s the fact that while both Hydra Steve and Trump are fascists, Steve was a secret fascist the whole time, and Trump was very much publicly so. So much so that there was whole debates on “should we call him a fascist?” while the campaign was still going, and if there was any foolish doubt left before he got elected, the time inbetween certainly removed it. America did not elect someone who hid his true, fascist intentions, relying on their belief in him as a good, moral, and certainly not bigoted man; we elected someone who publicly called for reporters and protesters to be assaulted, that said he’d pay for the legal troubles of anyone who beat up people at his campaign stops he didn’t like. We elected someone whose racist behavior was publicly documented daily and decades ago in legal courts. We elected someone who talked about registering Muslims, who talked about building a wall to block out Mexico and forcing them to pay for it to boot. We elected someone who did absolutely nothing to hide his beliefs, or his intentions. He shouted them out, and loved the attention it got him. He did not go through backdoors, and he did not use socially acceptable dogwhistles the way types like Paul Ryan might have. He just threw it all out in the open. He was what he showed us to be. He called for his own opponent to be thrown in jail while he was campaigning. His fascism was naked. Which leaves the other thing. Steve wasn’t elected, he was appointed. The way Trump takes power is far more banal than Steve’s byzantine plot and use of Hydra soldiers to take the country by force. Trump was elected, and despite the fact that yes, there was meddling from various Russian interests, that cannot, and does not, explain the whole situation. If GOP hadn’t been suppressing black vote year after year after year, this wouldn’t have been a contest. You can blame hacking on political interests from another country, but you’re going to have a hell of a time trying to blame GOP racism which has been in action for longer than I’ve been alive on Russia. Trump didn’t need soldiers on the ground either, though there was plenty of random racist civilians trying to intimidate people at voting booths. People tend to imagine fascism can only come into power by sheer military force, but here it is, through vote suppression of various flavors, through rallying of bigoted interests all across America, from a fucking presidential campaign that was allowed to do whatever the hell it liked, and given infinite coverage by networks because it was too good for their ratings. Hell, even extends to social networks like twitter, which could’ve cut off his influence forever ago because of his racist and abusive comments breaking the TOS, but twitter never wants to rock the boat there, and is constantly scared of ‘losing’ users, no matter how much people like Trump and his followers drive others off. There are people who actively collaborated in Trump’s win, and there are people and corps who enabled it, and there’s even liberals like Spencer who tsk-tsked protesters who shut down a Trump rally because it was “bad optics” and “giving Trump what he wants”, instead insisting on some meaningless silent protest that would’ve been ignored by CNN anyway. It’s not hard, either - news networks ignored the massive anti-war rallies when Bush was pushing it. Whether protesters did anything or not, Trump was still getting that media attention, cuz media wanted to give it to him. Trump didn’t need a bunch of costumed goons with guns to take America for him. All he needed was the fact that America can and does vote for racist fascists, and even supposed liberal, progressive people and groups will sit back and let him do and say what he likes because they fear disrupting order and comfort more than they fear the damage of what Trump and his followers were doing and still are. If you wanted to tell a story about American style fascism, you’d be better off talking about elections and how much bullshit America is actually willing to tolerate, or even enthusiastically vote for. Hell, you can look back at the original Secret Empire. The guy in charge of that entire plot was already in office. America doesn’t need to be tricked into fascism, we vote for it. We vote for it regularly, and often, enthusiastically. In all these ways, Steve Rogers is a terrible fit as an analog for Trump. But the racism, the bigotry, sticks out a lot. Intentionally avoiding grappling with bigotry in Steve Rogers’ Hydra, his ascent to power, and his rule over America means what you have to say about America? About American fascism? About fascism at all? Is fundamentally dishonest. It omits some of the most important things. You cannot have effective fascism without bigotry of some form. It just doesn’t happen. No bigotry? You’re not taking the throne, that’s for sure. If Trump wasn’t as racist as he was? If Trump was, in some bizarre alternate universe, not racist at all the same way Steve is portrayed as? He never would’ve stood a chance at getting elected.He would’ve never been allowed to get anywhere near power in America. His racism did not fell him, it empowered him, because we, as a country, are racist as hell. Our history is racist, our government is racist, our present reality is racist.

Colin Spacetwinks, Comics and Cowardice

[secretsocietiesdiary]

Loyalty - Chapter 2

August 14, 2014

Los Angeles

Over the past four years, Audrina’s life was none of an easy one, always filed up with major episodes of acute stress mainly generated by her goal orientation desire of opening her own restaurant in LA downtown. Audrina has had that elite culinary talent since her childhood, all acknowledged from her maternal grandmother who sadly passed away five years ago. This one cited as one of the most inspirational person right after her mom. As well a very part of her love life has been totally rattled down when she and her fiancé actor Rob Pattinson broke off engagement, after Pattinson reportedly cheated on Audrina with bombshell actress Amber Heard. That episode clearly left a fragile born Audrina heartbroken followed by reckless consequences which threatened her life. After that episode, she vowed to herself that no men would ever fill in her bubble and that being single forever wasn’t a sin.

After coming back from a two weeks holidays in the dreamy Caribbean Islands, Audrina concluded that getting back to a radical stress-free activity like yoga was required. She already had enrolled a week ago, and couldn’t wait to go for it.

~ ~ ~ ~

It wasn’t like Audrina never practiced yoga or another fitness activity. During The Hills era, she had fitness two to three times a week, fitness was like an addiction. And even though of her busy schedule at university, she managed to have some fitness sessions at the gym with her best friend since college Bebe Rexha. Let’s say that she was in need of incitation and a re connection to a clean and stress-free life style. A few hours before her yoga session, Audrina realized how did she run off from that clean world, she stressed over the idea of being the rookie among the trained yoga lovers. She prayed asking God to make everything to go easily.

CorePower Yoga – West Hollywood Audrina’s POV

“Ohhh gooooooooosh what the hell were you thinking of Audri, that you’d fit in perfectly just in the first session ….hmmmmm… stop it you dreamy girl. I nearly vomited the delicious breakfast I had earlier, damn. I couldn’t even focus on a simple exercise of relaxation…. shit… what the hell even I’m doing here. Blah blah blah teacher said that I must be patient and listen to my inner energy, when the right time will come, then my body will find it’s equal balance again. It’s all with you mind he said. The mind and brain is the engine of your body. If your mind doesn’t work properly, it will result in frustration, thus including your body to contract. Damn girl, you got a big work to do on yourself, a really tough one!”

A sweaty Audrina rushed out from the yoga building at fast steps, deeply wishing she would reach her black Porsche SUV parked in the on street parallel parking as soon as possible.  As the underground parking were already full with cars, she didn’t have a choice of parking her car off the building, a building of eleven floors mostly consisting of ultra-modern  gym clubs, sports shops and spas.  Audrina had the idea of getting herself a nice massage to relieve her from all that unnecessary stress but pulled back as she had other plan priority lunch with her mom Lauren.  

As she reached her car, she unlocked it with the automatic unlocking button key, opened the back-seat door and grabbed her packet of Benson & Hedges from the bag an threw it immediately at the back seat.  She starred with a doubtful gaze at the cigarette, hesitating before she lighted it with her pink electronic lighter.  Audrina had made a promise to her mom and herself that she’d quit smoking for good, but the temptation was too hard to resist, and the accumulated stress didn’t make things easier.  She just had to smoke.  In spite of the fact that this private parking was smoking prohibited, she couldn’t care less.

Sitting comfortably at the back, with her left fingers holding the cigarette and the other holding her iPhone 5, verifying her Instagram notification and what type of comments have been left under her latest photo with the Yoga outfit. Some among them made them laughed. At least she had some great fans, but not everything came clean and pink.  Like others celebrities, she had her bunch of haters, and mostly of them surfaced up when she broke up with Rob on last year.  

“You’re cheating girl…” A masculine voice could be heard, with a very strong accent.   Audrina being way too aimed on her social network notifications didn’t even pay attention to the man addressing to her.  

“Girl, I said you.re cheating…” He repeated with a funny voice tone that kinda brought back Audrina to the reality.

“Uh.. what?” An astonished Audrina said as she starred at the man.

“You’re cheating, with that cigarette.” He said smiling as he pointed the cigarette with his finger

“Cheating… what do you mean?” An astound Audrina asked.

“Cigarette and yoga, definitely not a good match.”

“Seems you’re an expert, Colin.” Audrina shot back perhaps on a too much serious voice, nearly arrogant.

“I’m in yoga for nearly four years now, so yes, kinda of an adept now…” Colin grinned with satisfaction.

“Oh fantastic, you must be given an award then.” An annoyed Audrina replied back.  This one had always had a problem with the people standing up to her.  She never like of the fact that she could got something wrong mostly when it came to a subject she was concerned in, like cigarettes and yoga.  Audrina couldn’t swallow her pride, she was a typical headstrong woman, despite of her very sensitive side.  Behind those tough layers of a cover up, something else was hiding.  

Audrina felt a sort of hotness reaching her cheeks, and deep down prayed she wouldn’t turn alike a crayfish. The girl was conscious each time she was wrong over any particular subject, the crayfish would make it’s appearance as a reminder of her bad judgement.  The brunette puffed one more time at her cigarette while giving a goofy ugly stare at the Irish bad boy.  For sure Audrina knew perfectly who he was.  Colin Farrell, the Irish actor, who was for several year’s Hollywood’s finest bad boy, in the two thousand century.  During her three last teenage years, Audrina has had a hard crush for the Irish womanizer.  At the age of seventeen she told her mom she would get to marry her.  But now, as an grown matured woman, that time of her life where she fantasized hard on a celebrity like any other normal teenagers was so far behind her.  Gone for good.  

“But anyway, Audrina, you do whatever you want to… We all have different opinions and I respect your…. Sorry Audrina, but I must leave now, gotta fetch James at his mom’s place, have a good day.”  Colin said as he opened her GMC black SUV front door that was parked next to Audrina’s SUV Porsche.  Something just triggered her, it came to her mind at the speed of light.  

“How do you even know my name….?” She asked back with some annoyance as if Colin offended her.

“Mr Chang introduced you to the class before we started the session.”

“Oh yes.. yes… Sorry for my reaction, I forgot on that detail.” She said throwing the cigarette stub on the ground.  

“I hope the camera’s didn’t caught you throwing it..”

“I can pay the fine… not a problem to me…” She said while opening her driving seat door.  “Oh, and concerning your so called quiting cigarette ideas, they are useless coming from someone who smokes himself right after his yoga practice.” Audrina said as she turned the key to activate the Porsche engine, and closed the door.  

“Yes… ouch, touché… I guess you are right though, but I’m trying to….”  The Irish man didn’t had a time to finish his sentence, that Audrina cut him instantly by the words.    

“I gotta go Mr Colin Farrell, it was nice to have such advices from the expert that you are, but I do have a lunch with mom, she must be waiting for me now, bye…” She said as her foot pressed the acceleration pedal and made her way out of the parking.

“And hope to see you for the upcoming sessions….” A puzzled Colin kept on speaking as a result that Audrina didn’t even let him spoke.  “She’s so just like her mom..” Colin said as he took pace inside of his car.  

[frankensteindotpdf]

All of them (bc why not)

HOLY CRAP HERE WE GO

Harry Potter: How do you want to be remembered?

As someone who made a difference; someone who was kind, sweet, funny, and loving. 

Hermione Granger: If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you meet?

Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket- This man is amazing. He’s my favourite author and I couldn’t even begin to express how much I love him.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- Another one of my favourite authors. He was insanely intelligent and just sounds like an awesome guy.

J.K. Rowling- Obviously.

Gerard Way- His songs mean so much to me, and his art is amazing…I just love him so much

Dan and Phil- (including them as one fite me) They’re so smart and funny and sweet and I just really really want to meet them.

(that’s just the first few to come to my head)

Ron Weasley: What ice-cream flavours do you love/hate?

Mint Chip is one of my favourites (fun fact! for a while I only said it was my favourite because it was my favourite character’s favourite flavour). I also L O V E cookie dough and cotton candy. I cant hate ice cream broski

Hagrid: If you could breed two totally different animals together, what new animal would you create?

A turtle and a sloth. No specific reason why.

Dumbledore: What is your most treasured possession?

My books, probably. (This includes my sketchbooks)

Voldemort: On the first day of ruling the world, what would you do?

Remove all laws against things people can’t control or that don’t harm others (being gay, bathroom bans, religions, etc.). After that I’d order the wealth of the world to be spread more evenly, as well as the food.

Fred Weasley: If you were told you only had one week left to live, what would you do?

Cry? Then I’d probably read, try to do something impactful, start a fundraiser (people love to donate to dying teens) so the funds could go somewhere important like disaster relief.

George Weasley: If you could read minds, whose would you want to read?

Authors mostly. Also my friends, see how they really feel about me.

Draco Malfoy: Do you like yourself?

I’m working on it? I know I don’t hate everything about myself (even though it feels like it sometimes), and I’m trying to be more positive.

Ginny Weasley: What’s your favorite indoor/outdoor activity?

Drawing and listening to music.

Neville Longbottom: What’s your fondest memory?  

(Oh it sounds so pathetic) Going to Universal? Honestly I was shaking it was literally like stepping right into the movies I’ve been watching since I was 2. I really love the peaceful happy moments spent with friends and my cousins (they live like 10 hours away). Singing and feeling genuinely happy.

Luna Lovegood: What are your favorite lyrics?

Oh there are SO many I’ll just go with the ones I can think of first

“I never let them see the worst of me. ‘Cause what if everyone saw? What if everyone knew? Would they like what they saw? Or would they hate it too?” Words Fail, DEH

“I cry tears you’ll never see. So fuck you, you can go cry me an ocean, and leave me be.” Save Rock And Roll, FOB

“Oh how stupid to think that I could compare to the pretty girl with the butterscotch hair. And I won’t hate you but oh, it stings. How does it feel to be adored by him?” Adored By Him, Dodie Clark

All of Waving Through A Window

And wow that was depressing how about a nice one

“Take my jumper. Wear it, you’ll need it on the train home. And everyone will know that I’ve been loved tonight; a permanent hug from you.” Permanent Hug From You, Dodie Clark

Severus Snape: Of all your pet-peeves, which is the strangest?

Wow there’s a lot…incorrect grammar, being able to hear people chewing, clicking noises with no rythm or beat, people being too physically close…

Remus Lupin: What is your greatest fear?

Being alone.

James Potter: If you were reincarnated as an animal/drink/ice cream flavor, what would it be?

Honestly I have no idea…I have yet to decide on a favourite animal, drinkwise maybe one of those punches with pop and ice cream, and ice cream flavour…uhh is music a flavour?

Lily Potter: Who or what, if anything, would you die for (or otherwise go to extremes for)?

Anyone? People in general, I don’t really see myself as a person anymore, or at least worthy of the same respect and treatment so I’d do a lot for other people and yes, if it came to it, probably die for them too.

Sirius Black: What are your views on sex?

Personally I think it looks like a great thing to be shared with the right person. I think everyone has a right to their own bodies and their own decisions but I personally would have to be with someone for a while first.

Tonks: if you could be anyone else for a day, fictional or non-fictional who would you be any why?

Oh man idek that’s so difficult…..maybe Tonks? Honestly she’s so sweet and fun and CONFIDENT I could totally learn from that. Plus the metamorphagus powers would be awesome. and of course she’s married to remus

McGonagall: What do you believe I am thinking right now?

I think you’re doing the Jared Kleinman Laugh TM because of all the work you’re making me do.

Bellatrix: three words would others probably use to describe you?

annoying, irritating, stupid hopefully sweet, kind and funny

Lucius Malfoy: Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?

I love debating, but actual arguements happen VERY rarely…I never stand up for myself so the only time I’ll argue with someone is if they’re hurting one of my friends.

Molly Weasley: What do you define as a family?

A group of people who love each other, feel comfortable around each other, and support and bring out the best in each other.

Arthur Weasley: If you could have any career possible, what would it be?

FULL TIME LIBRARIAN, PART TIME TATTOO ARTIST

Peter Pettigrew: If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?

If I had to, I would put much more thought and research into it but atm probably Beatrice or Elizabeth or something gender neutral

Umbridge: If you could choose, how would you want to die?

I WANT TO BE HIT BY AN AMBULANCE, AND HAVE JUST ENOUGH CONCIOUSNESS TO SAY “SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE”

Colin Creevey: Who inspires you?

Youtubers like Dan and Phil, Thomas Sanders, and Dodie, as well as the members of MCR and authors and artists in general.

Dean Thomas: Are you generally organised or messy?

It’s a mix. I want to be organised, and some places of my life are organised (my closet is organised in rainbow order as well as type of clothing) but others are horrible (my room is a dump).

Seamus Finnigan: What makes you laugh?

Youtube, memes….everything tbh

Dudley Dursley: Who is the person you despise the most, and why?

Not gonna say the name but there’s a person I know who basically destroyed my mental state. They insisted they were a friend while shredding any self-esteem I had to bits. They made it nearly impossible for me to talk, telling me “no one cares” “shut up” or “you have no friends” anytime I opened my mouth, which of course echoed in my head when they weren’t around. They terrify me, because I know they can rip down the self-confidence I’m working so hard to build back up with a sentence. And I have to see them every day again. And they’re acting just like they used to.

Vernon Dursley: Who is the most important person in your life, and why?

Gosh this is tough. I don’t really…have a best friend. I used to, years ago. And last year, another person. But at the moment…no one. So that makes it really hard to choose someone. I know it doesn’t have to be a best friend but there isn’t really anyone else, either so…no…one?

Petunia Dursley: How close are you to your family?

Fairly? I feel like I hide a lot though.

Victor Krum: What is your favorite form of exercise?

none probably hiking on a nice cool day in the forest. Or sit-ups. Those aren’t too hard, so I don’t mind them.

Dobby: Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?

(FINALLY LAST ONE) For most things, I very much need a plan. Otherwise I panic. If it’s just hanging out with friends, though, I do enjoy just wandering around shopping at festivals or downtown (but there has to be a set plan to get there ha)