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girldragongizzard · 29 days ago

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Epilogue 1: The dog days of Winter

We've taken to using my rooftop for the experiments.

Or, rather, we continue to do so. We never stopped.

The building management has completely given up. It's become clear that I'm a permanent non-rent-paying resident of the property and that I will go where I please, and that any authorities that are called will not do a damn thing about it. But, also, since around the time that Säure mysteriously disappeared one Saturday afternoon, after his last horrific rampage back in October, things have been going remarkably well for the whole block. The city and county at large, really, but particularly well for the Magnolia apartments and all the businesses that shared the first floor.

Because of that, it's possible that some see me as good luck, though I know I'm really just another feature of that luck.

A lot of the horrific shit going on in the rest of the world seems to be taking kind of a break, but I don't know if that's related at all. Still, it does give us some emotional room to enjoy the smaller things. In any case, a lot of people are writing about the global effects of dracomorphosis, and you can read their blogs and articles, so I'm going to remain focused on my local experiences. They're what I can write about best.

So.

The experiments.

On the rooftop with me today, on a cold Saturday in January, is Chapman, Kimberly, and a new person.

And Kimberly is so goofy with nervousness. She does know how to dress warm in her style, with fuzzy black mittens, a thick black scarf and knit wool toque, fat furry black boots, long johns, quilted jacket, and a poodle skirt. This should be good enough for 55 degrees, really. It's not that cold. But she's shivering, and I know it's a mammalian response to excitement, akin to shock. And she occasionally jumps up and down, and claps her mittens together. Then, while most of the time she's very quiet and serious looking, she gets a wild grin on her face and it looks like she just wants to run wildly around the rooftop.

Any time someone asks her a question, it takes her a second to respond, and it's either too subdued and quiet to understand, or she just responds with a loud, "Yeah?"

So, for anybody who's familiar with the conversations she's been having with Chapman, it should be pretty obvious what's going on.

And I'm just watching.

I can't not be here for this.

I've gotta be here for Kimberly.

And I've gotta spend time with Chapman when I'm not spending time with Rhoda.

But it's the new person I'm paying particular attention to right now.

She's kind of a tall, skinny woman, with short, spiky blond hair, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with broad horizontal stripes under a lab coat. And the way that she's standing next to this huge cardboard box from a refrigerator delivery and talking to Chapman about the particulars of how to render hir circuitry, I feel like I'm being deliberately reminded of a huge chunk of my childhood.

She looks to be in her twenties, close to Kimberly's age, but I know she's much older than that.

I guess when you're the Artist of Transformation, you can appear however you like whenever you'd like.

She's going by the name Jones, though, which breaks the visual illusion a bit, if you were following me in the first place. (It's OK if you weren't, I'll explain it to you in the comments if you need me to.)

So, here she's pointing at the box and saying that Chapman needs to put the circuitry on the inside because otherwise it will break the aesthetics of "the transmogrifier". And Chapman is holding hir chin with one hand, hir elbow with the other, and sighing and nodding. While Kim grins really big and beams at me with what looks like utter embarrassment.

"That is going to be harder," Chapman says. "I can do it, but it will take longer. The more surface area I can utilize, the faster it will be to draw the channels needed, believe it or not."

"I know," Jones says. "But my work is almost all about appearances, you know. And that's sort of important on my end. It's a compromise."

"Really."

"Yes," she nods definitively. "Before we can transform Kimberly into her true self, we're going to have to transform this box into its true self, which is a transmogrifier. And that requires things like this." She pulls out a plastic game spinner from her coat pocket and a brad from her other pocket. "And we're going to need to draw up a dial on the side of it. Also, a visual representation of some rivets and vents and other controls and dials would be really cool, but less necessary."

Chapman rolls hir eyes.

"Don't give me that."

"I want to trust her on this," Kimberly says. "Can we do it her way? Please?"

"Yes," Chapman says. "It's just… Yes, OK. No, this is way cooler, obviously. Let's do it."

Jones claps her hands and beams at everyone. "Perfect! So, we've got two Sharpies, right? I'll work on the outside while you do the inside. Common, let's tip it over. We'll rotate it as we go."

Chapman's sigh sounds like it could give me lift.

"Is this what you usually do for transformation?" Kimberly asks.

Jones shoots her a deadly serious look and says in a flat voice, "No. This is specifically for you."

"Oh." Kimberly looks like she instantly regrets being there at all.

"Relax," Jones says, loosening back up. "I know exactly what I'm doing, and I love it."

Kimberly's hesitant grin looks more like a grimace, but Jones doesn't notice because she's now entirely focused on working with Chapman.

"We are absolutely going to be doing this differently for the larger populace," Chapman says as sie pushes the box over, and then reaches down to adjust what is now the bottom flap so that sie can work on it.

"I was thinking, like, pills, or something," Jones says.

"I definitely cannot do shit with pills," Chapman grumbles as sie gets into the box.

"Well, that's a you problem," Jones quips cheerfully.

Getting Jones to come here was a trick.

Getting her attention was easy, once we'd located her and devised a way to deliver to her the pendant Chapman had made. And all that work had been done with some massive scanning circuits drawn in chalk on my rooftop, and many, many nights of Chapman frowning and cussing about it. Which was then followed by the use of an artistry fueled homing rocket, which sounds as utterly ridiculous as what we're doing today. But when Chapman explained that using hir Art to channel kinetic energy was really the simplest thing sie could do, I guess it made sense.

The rocket just had to be designed to survive the trip, and to not hurt anyone upon "landing".

In the end, it turned out to be a simple hobbyist's rocket with a payload bay that was then covered in Chapman's signature decorations. But the rocket part was converted into a cardboard jet engine of sorts with the strategic application of physical intakes on the sides of the fuselage. And that was part of the steering mechanism as well, apparently. And before I could protest that it looked unworthy of the task, it had been launched with the pendant aboard, and gone.

"It's the next phase that I hate," Chapman said, heading back to the roof hatch. "Now we've got to talk to each other."

Two days later, sie received an email from Jones, upon which sie informed me by texting me, "It begins."

Over the course of the following month, I didn't see much of Chapman. And when I did, sie insisted on talking about other things. But sie eventually explained, apparently when things were starting to go well, that Jones needed to be argued into visiting and working with hir. And, not persuaded by good arguments, but enticed simply by being argued with. At a certain point of investment, she would lose patience with the email and need to do the arguing in person.

And then, theoretically, once she was here, they could settle the arguments and get to business.

And then I'd asked Chapman, "Why?"

Chapman had then looked directly at me with exhausted eyes and simply waited until I apologized.

Now, as I'm watching the two of them, it really looks like Chapman is doing the bulk of the work. There's a constant shifting come from hir while sie is in the box. While the grating static that comes from Jones only happens when she puts her pen to the box, and she does that for about a second or two every few minutes. The rest of the time, she just stands staring at the box and frowning, taking various poses of exaggerated concentration.

After a while, I can't contain myself and I key up a question I soon regret, "Are you putting on an act?"

Scowling at the box, Jones says, "Do you know what a magic trick is, Meghan?"

"Yes," I say.

"It's theater," she says anyway. "I'm not the Artist of Metamorphosis, thank everything. But that means I don't work biologically. I'm the Artist of Transformation. That's magic, and that's theater. Everything I do is theater." She gestures sideways at Kimberly, "And our volunteer, here, needs a good show. Otherwise, why participate in it?"

"Oh."

"Now, the reason we're getting away with using a simple cardboard box is three fold," she says, stepping forward and adding a circle to represent a rivet near one of the corners of the box. Just so. "For one, Chapman's Art is absurd. Have you seen what sie can do? It defies all logic."

"No it doesn't," Chapman protests.

"Please don't interrupt," Jones retorts. "Anyway, sie can do things like slap some kind of esoteric squigglies on a piece of paper and cause an explosion with it, and that's in hir sleep. So, the substrate that sie uses is nearly irrelevant."

"Also very not true," Chapman says.

"Shush."

"You shush."

"Secondly, we're combining Arts, which is totally a big no-no for anything nuanced or careful, which, thankfully, we're not doing in any way," Jones explains.

"Oh, Hailing Fucking Scales," Chapman shouts. "OK, turn."

"Not yet!" Jones yells back. Then she jabs at the top of the box with her Sharpie to place another rivet, and then says more quietly, "OK, now."

Chapman starts getting out of the box to carefully turn it over while Jones steps forward to try to forcefully roll it while Chapman is in it, and it just hits me I am actually, yes, watching siblings interact with each other.

They are acting entirely like little children, too.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop," Chapman is saying, while Jones continues her explanation.

"Thirdly," Jones says. "My magic only works while no one is looking, so we've got to put Kimberly in some sort of box. We can't see her transform, after all. That would be too weird for it to happen. And we're doing this on the cheap, because we're cheap."

"Oh," I say again.

"So, yeah, it's an act," she kicks the box, and Chapman pops out of it and throws hir Sharpie at Jones.

Kimberly has been sidling over to me while this has been going on, and now she's right by my side.

She leans over and murmurs fairly quietly, "Maybe we shouldn't be annoying the immortals with questions."

"No, it's fine," Jones turns to her and says.

And Chapman waves hir hand dismissively, saying, "Yeah, no, you're good. Keep it up."

And then they go back to the business of constructing the transformation device. And the afternoon proceeds pretty much like that until it's done.

In the process, I learn pretty definitively that while I can sense the use of Art, I don't sense every use of it. Though, it doesn't have to be aimed at me to trigger the sensations. And I'd already worked out that the amount of energy being harnessed or altered will affect the range of my sense, a lot like being able to hear sound. But, it is some other specific quality of the act of an Art that causes the notable vibration, or whatever it is that I'm picking up. I don't know what it is, but I do get Jones to tell me when she's using her Art and when she's not. And it turns out she's been using it constantly since before she arrived. Chapman confirms something similar about hirself.

Also, because each Art is so different, it's probably going to take a while to learn just what it is that I'm sensing. But Chapman is all about helping me figure it out, when we're done with this.

So, with that, it starts to sink in that the whole act of arguing and bickering with each other, and the occasional roughhousing, is an indelible part of combining their Arts. And I end up thinking about Ptarmigan and how she talked about working with nightmares and what was a nightmare and what wasn't. And how she'd sometimes engage with them through her scribbling, and sometimes she wouldn't. I think, sometimes, it seemed like the strongest use of her Art was when she was talking to someone, and I never sensed anything then.

I remember that a while ago Rhoda said that the Artists were to us as humans were to ants. That when they talked to us, it was like when scientists were communicating with ants by laying down pheromone trails. To one party or the other, it might seem like something that makes sense is being communicated, but really neither the scientist nor the ant has any way of knowing what the other is thinking or intending.

And I also remember when Ptarmigan tried telling me that the world was a plural system, like a person with DID or OSDD, that we were all its system members, and that Rhoda was its frontrunner in a nightmare.

So, that's got me thinking, what if the universe is like that, too? What if reality itself is just one big colonial entity. And what these two Artists are doing right now is trying to act as translators between Kimberly and the rest of the universe, in order to negotiate some sort of agreement?

Which.

It's.

I'm probably completely wrong. But I kind of like that thought at the moment. It helps me make sense of what I'm seeing. It helps me be OK with how this act between the both of them sort of feels like when a Kindergarten teacher talks to an adult as if the adult is one of their students.

And then, when the two of them are done, they both physically relax and smile at each other. I think they've completely dropped the adversarial posturing.

"OK," Jones says. "All we do now is lower this thing over Kimberly here, with your consent, of course. And then I rotate the spinner from human to werepoodle, as you see written on the box. And we give it a second, then we remove the box."

"Yep," Chapman says.

"What?" Kimberly asks in obvious disbelief, a hint of nervous laughter in her voice.

"We just did all the seriously hard work," Chapman says. "The rest is just activating the device, and we made it that simple. It's really like when Meghan puts the pendant on. Five years went into that piece, too, you know."

Kimberly half points at the box and protests, "But five years didn't go into this cardboard box, though. Right?"

"No."

"It was synergy," Jones says. "And also, when Chapman made that pendant, sie was working way outside hir wheelhouse. This time you've got me involved."

Kimberly looks at me and asks, "What does it feel like?"

"Nothing much," I knuckle into my tablet. Then I sigh and take my princess form to deploy my thumbs, "I didn't notice the change until I started doing things. Moving made it feel wrong right away, but that's because I'm not Chapman."

"I based the human form on my pre-transition self," Chapman explains. "She felt physical dysphoria over it."

"You had to transition?" Kimberly asks.

Chapman waves fingers to the side. "That's off topic, but yes. I'm just always most comfortable as a post transition trans masc enby, if I'm human. Which requires going through the process every life. It's a thing."

"I have a similar problem that's harder to describe," Jones says. "Every Artist has these quirks. Even when we're other animals, or storms, or computers, or whatever, we're queer in some way. I mean, by human standards. I prefer the word atypical. It's more accurate and broad enough. But queer people are cool, so queer works, too."

"Yeah. I like queer a lot," Chapman says.

"OK. Fuckin' cool," Kimberly says. Then she slaps her thighs. "I guess I'm ready for this? I'm kind of scared, actually. It's a big, weird step."

"Oh, if you don't like it, we can turn you right back," Jones says. "That's super easy. We just put the box over you again, and turn the dial the other way. Boom. Done."

"Oh," Kimberly says. "It's still scary."

"Like transition?" Chapman asks.

"Yeah? Kinda? But this is magic. Or Art. It's weirder."

"We did this entirely to your specs, your request," Chapman says. "In theory, based on my scans to back you up, you'll just feel even better. It'll be like taking HRT. You know, when you took those pills and nothing obvious happened, but you felt better right away? Like that. But even more reversible."

"OK! Let's do it! Let's get it done before I jump off the roof to avoid it!"

Jones holds up a hand. "Don't do that.

"I won't," Kimberly says. "I want this too much. But I'm getting that intrusive thought from all the adrenaline."

"OK. Come stand right here, in the middle of the roof, then, please."

"Got it."

And then, once Kimberly is situated, Chapman and Jones both pick up the box and lower it over her.

"You doing OK in there?" Chapman asks.

"Yep!" Kimberly says. "I think so!"

"Okidoke," Jones says, and then reaches out and twists the dial to aim it at the word "werepoodle". And then she says, "One Mississippi."

"Huh," Kimberly's muffled voice comes from the box.

"Picking up the box," Chapman tells her, and then sie and Jones remove the box.

Nothing about Kimberly appears to have changed. I didn't even feel any kind of shift when the dial was turned. Though that's similar to what happens when I use the pendant. Or, what doesn't happen.

Kimberly looks confused and disappointed, holding her mitten clad hands up and turning them over. She's obviously clenching and unclenching her fingers within the mittens.

"You did say 'werepoodle'," Chapman says.

"Right," Kimberly responds.

"It's not a full moon."

"Oh, right!"

#dragons #writeblr #original fiction #serial fiction #transformation #transgender

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lizzygrantsbsf · 2 months ago

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fall / autumn ౨ৎ ⋆ ｡˚

knit ankle warmers, chai pumpkin cream, gilmore girls, reading donna tartt, pretty little liars, doc martens, cinnamon buns, burgundy nails, Coraline, butternut squash soup ,london fog, starbucks, journalling,studying in small cafes,messy hair, corduroy jackets,taylor swift, black cats,mascara, mist and fog, nina simone and billie holiday, casper, crispy leaves, deers, cardigans, cold brew, caramel apples, apple cider donuts, barnes and noble, library, rain, converse, fantastic mr fox, uggs, conkers, the bell jar, lane kim, dunkin donuts, candles, norah jones, baking, farmers markets, pumpkin patches,hot cocoa,

#lana del rey #fall #farmers market #fall aesthetic #im just a girl #gilmore girls #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore #emily gilmore #feelings #this is a girlblog #girlhood #aesthetic #wes anderson #baking #girly tumblr #autumn #pinterest

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typingtess · 2 months ago

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youtube

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 14 Rewatch: “The Reckoning”

The basics: With four dead, including a CIA Officer, NCIS investigates if this has something to do with the DRONA project.

Written and directed by: Frank Military Military wrote "Little Angels", "Deliverance", "Lockup", "The Job", "Greed", "Betrayal", "Crimeleon", "Vengeance", "Out of the Past" Part One, "Rude Awakenings" Part Two, season four’s finale "Descent", season five’s premiere "Ascension", "Allegiance", "Spoils of War" (directed by Military), "Black Budget", "SEAL Hunter", "Rage" (directed by Military), "Unspoken", "Unlocked Mind", "Revenge Deferred", "The Seventh Child" (directed by Military), "Crazy Train", "Uncaged" (directed by Military), "The Silo", "Monster", "Line in the Sand" (directed by Military), season ten opener "To Live and Die in Mexico" (directed by Military), "The Patton Project", "Better Angels", "False Flag" (the season 10 finale), "A Bloody Brilliant Plan", season 11 finale "Code of Conduct" (directed by Military), "Raising the Dead", "Through the Looking Glass" (directed by Military), "Indentured", "Down the Rabbit Hole" (directed by Military) and "The Body Stitchers".

Military directed one episode he did not write, season 11’s holiday episode "Answers".

He also appeared as Donald Kessler in "Raising the Dead" and several other episodes in photos.

Guest stars of note: Jere Burns returns from season 13’s “Genesis” as Howard Pembrook, Duncan Campbell is back from the last episode (“Sensu Lato”) as NCIS Agent Castor, David DeSantos as Anthony Beltran and Milissa Sears as Leah Novack are back from “Sleeping Dogs”, Philip Anthony-Rodriguez as CIA Officer Rafael Cortes, Scott Christopher as CIA Officer Chris Behr, Amy Kim Waschke as CIA Officer Avery Lamica, Maurice Hall as AMT Julian Cousins, John Marshall Jones as Jonathan Hunter and Rick Tunell, the series’ longtime producer/director was the Head of Airfield Security

Our heroes: DRONA drama blah blah blah.

What important things did we learn about: Callen: Lone wolfing. Sam: Out of town. Kensi: Tailing Callen. Deeks: Airport trip. Fatima: Figured out early that the CIA was up to no good. Rountree: Tailing Callen with Kensi. Kilbride: Side-eye master.

What not so important things did we learn about: Callen: Wasn’t getting violin lessons as a kid. Sam: Absent. Kensi: Waiting for Deeks to return from the airport. Deeks: Mostly absent. Fatima: Side-eying with the best of them. Rountree: Started the day with Deeks, ended it with Kensi. Kilbride: Friends with the head coach at USC.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Basking in guilt according to Pembrook.

Who's down with OTP: Not a lot of OTP time.

Who's down with BrOTP: Down one part of the BrOTP but Pembrook’s final conversation with Callen was all about the brotherhood of Callen and Sam, the show’s most important relationship.

Fashion review: Callen wore a light blue and white plaid button down shirt before going in the pool and a navy blue hoodie post-pool. Kensi wore a wine colored long-sleeve top. Deeks wore a pale blue henley. Fatima had a fabulous black leather jacket (soft like butter!) and a white sweater with blue piping at the collar. Rountree black long sleeve tee-shirt with a black jacket. Kilbride, as always, dark blue three-piece suit, red tie, pale blue dress shirt.

Music: “Home” by Aron Wright plays at the end of the episode.

Any notable cut scene: Not today.

Quote: Kilbride: “And you are not leaving my office until you tell me everything you know about Pembrook and Beltran.” Cortes: “And you're gonna stop me? With force?” Kilbride: “Don't tease me.”

This is was very solid Kilbride as a badass episode.

Anything else: The previously-s include all the Pembrook nonsense.

In the hospital, a still comatose Leah Novak is being moved to a rehab facility with serious CIA security around her. Callen is there as well. Nobody knows where Leah is going except the head security man – who is driving the ambulance. Novak will be checked in under an alias. The security chief promised to keep Callen advised of her status.

As the security team leaves, the second security team member tells her boss they found one of the Drona subjects, Clayton, dead. If they can find Clayton, the head man tells her, they can find everyone. for some reason, the head of security thinks it is a good idea to meet with the other Drona subjects in Pershing Square. He leaves the ambulance with only a nurse watching Novak. Clayton was tortured before he was killed, according to one of the Drona survivors. The group realizes none of them are safe. And they’re not as a sniper picks off all the Drona subjects except the security chief. He dodges bullets getting back to the ambulance and driving off.

A cranky Admiral is marching from his office to Ops. Deeks and Rountree are just behind him. After a Deeks mindfulness joke falls flat, the Admiral explains that four people, including a CIA Officer named Avery Lamica – she was the number two person moving Novak - were shot dead in Pershing Square. Kensi has already left for Pershing Square to meet with Callen.

In Ops is CIA Officer Raphael Cortes (another person allowed to wander about the super-secret office). After the Admiral does some introductions, Cortes wants to talk to Callen and Sam. Sam is out of town and not available. Cortes does not want Callen running the investigation but the Admiral makes sure Cortes understands that Cortes doesn’t make staffing decisions for NCIS. When the Admiral brings up that Cortes asked for help, Cortes makes sure the Admiral understands that the CIA doesn’t need help, they need information. Since the FBI is investigating the shooting, Cortes wants to question Callen about letting Beltran get away. And Cortes wants the Admiral to do that right now. Knowing Callen wouldn’t return to the office even if Kilbride ordered him to do so, the Admiral won’t – and didn’t plan on anyway.

Deeks asks if the CIA is tracking the ambulance. They can’t find it, according to Cortes. CIA Officer Chris Behr is missing – he’s the head security guy. Cortes thinks Lamica was meeting with other Drona team members. Pembrook ran black ops for the DoD, NSA and the CIA. Rountree mentions Beltran’s plan for a lawsuit against Pembrook for what was done to him and to the others when they were children. Cortes believes Pembrook made monsters – “including Agent Callen.”

At the crime scene, Callen is covering Avery Lamica’s body with a tarp when Kensi arrives. Callen has not heard from Behr. Looking at a high rise building just off Pershing Square, Kensi is going to check the victim’s locations and angle of the gunshot wounds to see if she can backtrack the math to the sniper’s location.

On comms, Callen asks Fatima to check out security cameras. Also on comms, Kilbride tells Callen that Cortes would like to speak to him – the FBI can cover the crime scene. Callen tells Cortes that the FBI isn’t even at the crime scene – though LAPD is all over the crime scene. Deeks talks about Drona and Callen thinks it makes sense – Lamica and Behr were put on the protection team by the CIA and likely Drona. Cortes pushes for Callen to come in but Callen fakes some static and is off comms.

Kensi returns to Callen. Based on the wounds, there is no way the sniper fired from the high rise. The angles of the bullet wounds are too steep. The sniper was likely in a helicopter and one great shot.

Fatima has eight helicopters over that part of Los Angeles at 8:16AM – the time of the shooting. Kensi thinks the shot came from at least 1,400 feet east of Pershing Square. On the big screen in Ops, Deeks finds the helicopter. Deeks traces it to a company called Cypress Park Industries. Rountree asks where did the helicopter come from – Camarillo Airport. Kilbride is sure there are witnesses or video of someone getting on the helicopter. Deeks is going to track that down.

Cortes orders Callen to return to the office or he’ll get the FBI to bring Callen in. Callen says he’s returning but gets a call from an unknown number followed by a text message telling Grisha to pick up. Callen has Kensi take them off comms. It is Pembrook on the phone. Callen has a flashback to his happy times with Pembrook. He wants to meet and Callen does too. Kensi gets back on comms to get Fatima to trace the call. She does this quietly. Pembrook is about a block away inside Pershing Square, watching Callen and Kensi.

Pembrook starts to walk away from the crime scene, saying that Callen won’t miss a chance to face the monster of his childhood. Under a bench near the coffee cart is a discarded water bottle with an address in it. Pembrook wants to meet Callen without any other agents around. Pembrook hangs up and walks away. Even tosses his phone into a half finished glass of water. Callen and Kensi check out the bench – he finds the water bottle. Cortes hears from the FBI – they’re on site and want a sitrep. Callen shows Kensi the address in North Hollywood. With the FBI closing in on Callen, he’s off to deal with Pembrook with Kensi on his tail.

At Camarillo Airport, Deeks confirms that Beltran and three other people were on the helicopter but Pembrook wasn’t one of them. Deeks is getting security video. Cortes demands that it is sent to Langley as soon as it is available. The Admiral does his version of rolling his eyes and says “of course.”

Callen arrives at the address Pembrook provided with Kensi just a few blocks back. No one is at the home but since the bottle had the word “pool” in a circle, Callen check out the backyard. There is a pool with a box at the bottom and lots of cameras all around. Realizing that by going in the water Callen shorts out all his comms, Kensi tells Callen not to let Pembrook control the next move. The Admiral doesn’t want Callen to go offline Callen tosses his earwig and phone into the pool before diving in for the box. Cortes pitches a fit that Kilbride has no control over his agents. Saying they can track Callen through his car – and Kensi can trail him – the Admiral wants Rountree working with Kensi.

A wet Callen finds a key to the house in the box. Inside the house is a change of clothes and a key to a vehicle.

Kilbride wants Kensi to go in and see what Callen is up to.

Callen is up to getting into a van and in the van is an armed Pembrook. Pembrook does the Pembrook stuff – talking about teaching Callen the language of violence. After getting Callen’s gun, the two are off for a drive.

In Ops, Fatima has video from Camarillo Airport. Beltran and three randos – two men and a woman - are walking to the helicopter. Cortes demands Fatima send him the photos to run them through facial rec. She was going to do that but he barks “send them to me.” The Admiral nods and Fatima sends the photos.

Entering the house by picking the lock, Kensi finds Callen’s wet gear. Kensi tells Ops that Callen mentioned a van by the house. Cortes is disgusted they lost Callen “completely.”

Using Kaleidoscope, Fatima traced Callen through Van Nuys to LAX. Cortes disses Kaleidoscope as a tenuous connection and tells Kilbride – who is quiet with a lot of side-eyeing – they better pray they don’t lose Callen. Cortes gets a call – the CIA has ID the three with Beltran. He leaves Ops.

Callen asks Pembrook what are they doing? Pembrook says he’s trying to understand what Callen is feeling but Callen is not ��doing that.” Not wanting Pembrook as a therapist, Callen asks what Pembrook wants. Pembrook wants to save Callen’s life, save Leah’s life and by that, maybe save his own. Callen really doesn’t care about Pembrook’s life – “full stop.” Pembrook leads Callen to an underground garage of an office building.

Fatima is still tracking the van on a bit of a delay. The vehicle is near San Pedro. Kilbride thinks that an awful long ride for Pembrook to take Callen on just to kill him. Cortes disagrees – Pembrook could be taking Callen someplace off the grid to torture him. After his phone beeps, Cortes has IDs for the three people with Beltran. The three are Russians but not FSB. The CIA got intel on the three entering the country but nothing else. Fatima is joining the side-eye brigade.

In the parking lot, Pembrook starts by telling Callen he was obsessive and filled with anger. Callen says this isn’t about him but Pembrook keeps pushing. Callen’s anger drives his obsession. Again, Callen really doesn’t care. Pembrook admits he did horrible things – he won’t deny it. And the Drona subject were children. Pembrook says he thought his training methods were justified. He’s consumed with remorse. Callen doesn’t care. Pembrook says he takes solace that Callen has moved on from his trauma. Angry, Callen tells Pembrook he doesn’t know anything about Callen’s life. Pembrook does – he’s been following Callen for 35-years.

Fatima hears from Vance’s assistant. Kilbride is needed on a conference call in three minutes. The Admiral is not pleased as he returns to his office.

Rambling, Pembrook has been following all the Drona children, trying to help those in the most distress. Callen doesn’t believe him. Knowing Callen so well, Pembrook offers to turn over Callen’s paper file – everything about Callen’s past. Pembrook tells Callen he can date test the ink. Pembrook starts talking about his own childhood. If Callen isn’t interested in hearing Pembrook talk about Callen’s childhood, he certainly doesn’t want to hear about Pembrook’s. All Callen cares about is the file and is offended that dangling the file in front of Callen is an apology. Callen starts talking about having a hard time building relationships – he went from the DEA to the CIA to NCIS because Pembrook took from him the most elemental part of being a human – the ability to feel. Pembrook knows this and knows it was a terrible thing to do. He apologizes again and Callen isn’t interested in another apology.

In his office, Kilbride is waiting for Vance. Fatima sends him the NCIS facial rec runs on the “Russians”. They are, of course, Americans. Cortes approaches Fatima, asking that she check the last area where the van was seen – maybe there is a CIA safehouse in the area. Kilbride pops up on the big screen – he wants to see Cortes in his office.

Entering Kilbride’s office, Cortes asks if Kilbride shared what’s going on with Vance. The Admiral did not and asks Cortes to close the door behind him. After bickering about Cortes sitting down, Kilbride brings up an issue of dishonesty, especially with Callen being in such a precarious position. The three with Beltran were Americans, not Russians. Cortes tries to sell it as a good job with backstopping their IDs. No, one of the men played football for USC. Kilbride texted the head coach at USC to confirm it. Cortes is not leaving the office until he tells Kilbride everything. Sneering, Cortes asks if Kilbride thinke he can stop him by force. “Don’t tease me,” the Admiral sneers back.

Rountree meets up with Kensi near the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. They are sitting tight, waiting for an update on Callen. Kensi asks Fatima about Cortes’s Russians and Fatima is sure they aren’t Russians. She’s watching what’s going on Kilbride’s office via a security camera on the second level over the bullpen.

Callen asks Pembrook why is he killing the other Drona subjects. Pembrook has been running a black ops Drona team for years. Beltran was part of that team but wanted to start doing jobs for the highest bidder. The only way Pembrook could get the rouge Drona subjects to stop doing these jobs was to kill them. Beltran and his team killed a pro-democracy presidential candidate in Ethiopia along with the candidate’s family. Pembrook was outraged that they killed children for a paycheck (as opposed to Pembrook I guess who only tortured children for a paycheck). Since Pembrook was trying to kill Beltran’s team, they are returning the favor. Callen reminds Pembrook that he is responsible for turning these people into psychopaths.

A team of shooters open fire on the van. Callen gets his gun back from Pembrook and the two make their way to a stairwell. From the stairwell, Pembrook shoots into the van and blows it up. Callen and Pembrook start running up the stairs but Pembrook is slow – he’s been shot. Neither Callen or Pembrook have phones – Callen’s went into the pool, Pembrook ditched his burner at Pershing Square. Pembrook has more happy news – he’s out of ammo.

Walking into an office that is being refurbished, Callen and Pembrook have Beltran and a partner in hot pursuit. Hiding in a cubical farm, Callen and Pembrook escape to a stairwell but almost run into Beltran’s other two partners. Callen and Pembrook go up another flight.

In Ops, Fatima downloads some photos of Beltran and his team – Cortes is in one of the photographs.

Kilbride wants full transparency on Pembrook’s Black Ops from Cortes. That is going to happen according to Cortes. The CIA is willing to cooperate in the matter but not everything is going to be shared. With his earwig in, Fatima tells the Admiral that Cortes worked with Beltran. Cortes gets a text message with a list of CIA safe houses near where Callen and the van were last seen. Kilbride starts talking to Fatima with Cortes in the room. Cortes wonders what the Admiral is doing.

Callen and Pembrook get a higher floor. Pembrook is in rough shape. Finding a server room – that is fireproof and locks from the inside – Pembrook wants to stop running and let Callen go. Callen and Pembrook wind up locked in the server room with Beltran and his team now on the floor.

Kilbride accuses Cortes of being part of Beltran’s team. Cortes denies it. The Admiral wants to know what Cortes’s role is in all of this.

Beltran tries to open the server door but it is locked. He is about to move on when he realizes there is blood on his hand. He asks the team to find something that will cut through the steel door.

Saying that Kilbride’s accusations are stupid, Cortes stands to leave. The Admiral warns him not to so Cortes pulls a weapon on him. “Are you insane,” is Kilbride’s reaction. Saying his life is over as he knows it, Cortes is desperate to get out of the building. Looking at the big screen, Fatima sees Cortes with his weapon out.

Fatima walks into Kilbride’s office with her tablet and a pretend update. Cortes orders her to leave – he’s exiting the building with Kilbride as a hostage. Fatima won’t leave, earning a second gun pulled by Cortes. She tells Cortes to look around. There are several NCIS Agents with their guns drawn all over the second floor of the office building, including Agent Castor directly across the second floor.

Cortes wants to leave the office and threatens to shoot Kilbride and Fatima if he can’t get his way. When nobody moves, Cortes fires a shot into the floor by Kilbride and promises the next one is going into Fatima’s face. While Fatima is clutching her tablet, she has her firearm under it. To protect Fatima, Kilbride stands. Cortes wants everyone to lower their weapons and Fatima gives the order to the others. Cortes wants her to move to the left. Causing a distracting, Fatima makes a Beyonce joke, asking if it is her left or his left. When it is her left, the Admiral hits the deck, as does Fatima and the other agents on the floor unload their weapons in what was Kilbride’s office. When Cortes does not go down, Fatima starts shooting and before long, he’s fallen out the window and onto the main floor outside of Hetty’s office.

As Beltran and company work to drill their way through the lock, Callen is looking for a way out of the server room. Pulling down an air vent, he makes enough noise to stop Beltran for a second but only a second. The drilling resumes. The air vent is way too small to fit Callen or Pembrook.

Using Cortes’s facial ID iPhone, Castor is able to open the phone and pass it on to Fatima. She finds evidence that Cortes was sending out everything NCIS was working on while he was there (and alive). She starts tracking Beltran’s phone location. Fatima sends the office building location to Kensi and Rountree who are on their way. They were waiting for Deeks but are going in without him.

As the drill gets closer to opening the door, Pembrook tells Callen that when Hetty found out what he was doing she pulled Callen from the program. He’s to blame for all that happened, not Hetty. Callen wonders why Hetty didn’t tell him. The drill breaks through the lock.

Kensi and Rountree see smoke coming out of the garage. Inside, they find the burnt remains of the van with no bodies. Bringing the big guns, Kensi and Rountree follow the bloody handprints Pembrook left on the stairway walls.

When Beltran gets into the server room, Pembrook looks to be alone. Asked where Callen is, a seemingly struggling Pembrook says he doesn’t know, they split up. Beltran says everyone always thought Pembrook was evil, a monster. But Beltran knew otherwise and that was going to be Pembrook’s downfall. Pembrook doesn’t agree. Living with what he’s done is far more difficult than dying will ever be. Beltran promises to put Pembrook out of his misery.

Hanging from a small ledge over the door, Callen shoots Beltran. Jumping down, he takes out Beltran’s partner. As the other two team member rush back to the floor, Kensi and Roundtree arrive, arresting both. Kensi gets an ambulance for Pembrook.

Outside of the ambulance, Pembrook hears that Officer Behr and Leah are safe. Callen has arranged for NCIS Agents to take Pembrook to the hospital. That’s not happening as Officer Behr shows up with Intelligence Agents from both the DoD and NSA – they’re taking Pembrook somewhere safe. Callen is livid – does Behr know what Pembrook has done? He does, Behr was a Drona subject, “There are a lot of us. He made us, for worse or for better.” As Pembrook drives away, Callen wants to know why Hetty never said anything.

Back in the office, Callen looks at all of Hetty’s things. He gets a phone call from Pembrook. He wants to meet Callen outside.

Outside, Pembrook has a large file. He answers Callen’s question – Hetty never said anything because she was consumed with guilt for getting Callen involved in the Drona program. Callen isn’t really interested in Hetty’s guilt about trying to turn children into super-agents. Pembrook disagrees. Hetty put Callen into the program because he was brilliant and gifted, wanting him to live up to his full potential. Hetty’s world was the arts and Callen wasn’t going to learn how to play the violin. She wasn’t going to make the mistake some parents make of taking child with one set of talents and forcing the child to master a different set.

Callen points out that Hetty isn’t his parents. “You mean everything to her. And you always have.” Callen is as close to a son as Hetty ever had – she told Pembrook that because even Hetty needs someone to talk to sometimes. While Callen may feel he’s been alone in this world, “you’ve been far from an orphan.” Hetty loved him deeply. Both Callen and Pembrook are a little weepy.

Pembrook turns over the file with some advice. “Don’t make your life be just about the past. Let it be about the present and now the future.” Pembrook offers his congratulations on Callen’s engagement and wishes him all the happiness in the world. As he leaves, Pembrook mentions he gave Hetty the dossier on Senior Chief Petty Officer Sam Hanna. “I thought he’d make a great partner. No, that’s not true. I thought he’d make a great friend.” With all he did, Pembrook tried to look out for Callen as a way to make up for it all.

What head canon can be formed from here: “Frank Military, please come to the front desk, clean up on aisle Drona.”

As an independent hour, this was great. There wasn’t a dull moment, there wasn’t a dip in the tension, the dialogue was crisp, the action was top notch and there wasn’t a useless scene or conversation. Frank Military is the king of “competence porn” – everyone on the team was at the top of their game, doing their best work. Sam being “out of town” was a bummer – nobody writes the Sam Hanna competence porn better than Military.

But Drona. For the life of me, I don’t know why in season 13 the program completely retcon’d Callen’s childhood. For years, the backstory was Callen bounced from foster home to foster home, some bad, some really bad and some good. He was found by Hetty, went to a good college, joined the DEA/CIA/NCIS and served his country. Now, it seems Callen was some test subject where beating children was seen as great training and Callen completely forgot that part. He remembered all his foster parents but not the guy who took a hammer to his fingers.

Feh.

And if Drona and Hetty were keeping their eye on Callen from the time he was a little boy, could someone maybe have grabbed Amy Callen out of the orphanage and moved her in with a foster/adopted family before she drowned.

Retconning characters’ past isn’t new to me – Samantha Mulder had multiple middle names and multiple kidnapping scenarios. I have a high crapola tolerance level when it comes to this stuff but 13-seasons in, knowing that every season could be the last, introducing a complicated new storyline just seems like a bad idea. And it was.

Nice touch having Cortes land right outside the Hetty’s office, what Mosley called Hetty’s throne. Glad to see Castor not knocked out, instead being a key part of taking Cortes down.

So what did we learn today – you can abuse children physically and psychologically but if you suggest Sam Hanna as a friend to Callen, all’s good.

Episode number: This is episode 19 of season 14. The 321st episode overall.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la #Youtube

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radioactive-metal · 20 days ago

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silly little fic part 2 (1.5?)

this picks up right where the other one left it. Tyler’s first part was originally meant to be part of pt.1 but k couldn’t make it work

Tyler:

So it turns out she actually brought some O- blood….

And I have a new scar, or seven…

April 12 2831:

Total cases: 1,936,921,635

Cases in the legion: 40,736

Aurora: Turns out there’s only so much of the stuff they made in the 220 years I was gone was worth watching. I never thought I’d see the day, but I’m dead out of holovids to watch, stories to read, song to hear. The only new things in my life are provided by Kal, as my mom would have said, “Ah sure bless him, he’s trying”. He finds new things for us to do, from teaching me to spar to painting. The legion had issued us a stipend to spend on entertainment, and we can get stuff delivered on the biweekly supply deliveries, but still. I. Am. So. Bored.

My only hope is that Finian has taken a 3rd of this weeks requisition budget for “a special surprise”. He refuses to elaborate on what that means, but he insists it will be great. I don’t have much choice but to believe him… maybe between whatever it is, my duties on station, and flying lessons from Tyler my free time will actually mean something again.

Scar: I’m not religious, Tyler tended to do enough praying for the both of us but: THANK YOU MAKER FOR STICKING ME WITH FINIAN DE KARREN DE SEEL. Beyond… well, him, he is the only one keeping us Sane. Today he’s organized a tournament, not just any, but a tournament of everything. Each player will propose a contest of something, be it boxing or time trial flying or cooking, and everyone else gets to vote in which happens. The absolute highlights are: Watching Saedii try to cook (turns out she isn’t perfect.), watching my little brother try and paint (that was one hell of a mess, and watching kal try and play pool (the station had one laying around, it’s crap but it works). After all that he went back to his room on the zero mumbling about “a suprise”.

He stopped wearing his pen on his exo suit, its kind of odd.

(The Next day)

Finian:

I finished the distraction project, and the main one, finally, after a month of working. The pocketed the main suprise, and carried the diversion in my hands.

“Close your eyes everyone! No peeking! It’s done!”

Everyone stops talking as I clomp my way over to the Holovid display, and begin running wires. It take some a minute, but I eventually get it working, a logo flashes to life

A stylized old fashioned game controller, and the words “retro cake” are visible.

“Ok open your eyes you silly dirt children! Behold, my genius made manifest! A DEVICE THST CAN PLAY EVERY SINGLE SIMUGAME MADE IN TBE PAST 300 YEARS!”

Auroras eyes light up, “Does that mean?”

“Yep”

She squeals and almost sprints over, dragging Kal with her. As everyone is distracted by that, I grab the real suprise from my pocket.

My exo grumbles as I drop down to one knee, Scarlett hear it and turns, I look up at her. I find the ring in my pocket, and hold it out to her.

“Scarlett Jones. Will you make me the happiest little, and Ms. Kim put it, Bleachboy in all of this galaxy and Marry me?”

Her eyes well up with tears and for one microscopic second I think I’ve screwed it up.

And then she says it

That one little word

“Yes”

I slide the ring onto her finger, stand up, and kiss her.

There is nothing in the galaxy but us in that moment, and I could not be happier.

Tyler looks at me and raises an eyebrow, but drops it and shows those infamous dimples

“We never did have the conversation did we?”

#aurora burning #auroras end #aurora cycle #aurora rising #the aurora cycle

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imsparky2002 · 10 months ago

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Mirrorverse Crossover - Juleka

Julebeast’s claws gripped tightly at the chair she was sitting in. The sorceress noticed this and flashed a taunting grin. “Honestly.” Juleficent cooed. “Can’t we put that little tiff we had last night behind us? Have a pleasant conversation?” The hero couldn’t help but let out a growl as she responded. “How could I ever have a pleasant conversation with you?” Juleficent’s grin grew even wider. “Nonsense! There’s plenty that we can talk about! Our love for the gothic culture, Our beloved Rose…” At the mention of their girlfriend, both Julekas felt themselves soften.

“She is truly one of a kind…” Julebeast replied wistfully. “A lovely petal in a sea of thorns.” The villainess nodded in agreement. “My candy queen is a beacon amongst this flock of mindless drones who believe in…goodness.” She said that last word as if took everything she could not to gag. Outside of the room, both Roses reacted to the words of gratitude by their partners. “See?” Roselle said to her counterpart. “Doesn't it feel nice to see them getting along?” The Candy Queen merely crossed her arms in reluctant agreement. “I suppose.” she muttered. They looked back at the bubble.

“I wonder, my dear, if I may trouble you with a question?” Juleficent asked. “About your... transformation. How on earth did you go from a noble to a beast?” The hero took a deep breath. ” Well…allow me to tell you a story. There once was a princess, lusted after by many.” Julebeast took a moment to scowl as she remembered the countless days having to worry if someone would see her either as a person or an object. “One of those idiots happened to be a decently powerful sorcerer. One night, he came to visit the princess, made his move. And, him being a smarmy little asshole, you can imagine how that went for him.” The villain genuinely looked disgusted. “I take it he was a lout.” She responded.

“Yes, so after she politely turned him down and asked him to leave, he continued to push. She turned him down again… I’m guessing you can put the pieces together from there.” The hero laughed bitterly as she finished her story.

“What a vile creature!” Juleficent hissed. “To think such pigs could exist in our worlds.” Julebeast could only stare at her in a shocked silence. “What?” Juleficent said, sounding hurt. “There’s being evil and then there’s being a crude and objectifying bastard.” The villains observing the conversation agreed.

“OFF WITH HIS HEAD!” screamed the Mad King, swinging his dagger at the air. “He'll be swimming with Davy Jones when I'm done with him!” Reshma Hook snarled, pulling out her sword. ”The lord frowns on such petty hubris!” Simon Frollo exclaimed. Kimton just rolled his eyes. “You guys are freakin’ out over nothing. What’d he do that was so wrong? She’s the one who-” His remark was cut off when a large burlap fist slammed down upon his head. “I hope you ain’t ferget what happened th’ last time I caught ya disrespectin women?” Ivan Oogie growled. The villainous Kim could only mumble gibberish in response, his eyes struggling to focus due to the blow. Everyone turned back to the bubble to view the two Julekas.

“As infuriating as the actions of that fool who dares call himself a mage, Why did you let him get away with it?” Juleficent asked.

“Why do you throw a bitch fit anytime you get snubbed from a party” The hero countered, as Juleficent’s scepte began to glow.

“As previously discussed, it is a sign of disrespect I can not merely stand idly and tolerate. If you do not fear me, you do not respect me!” she said, haughtily. The hero snickered in response.

“You’re right, I do not fear or disrespect you. But I don’t need to keep you off of a RSVP list, I can just say it to your face.”

Juleficent twitched before deciding to go for the kill.

“Just like I can brag to your face that I never had to play Beehtoven on my transformed brother.”

This insult earned a scratch to the face from Julebeast. Before a brawl can start, both Roses burst into the room and hold their Julekas back.

“My licorice, don't let her get to you, she's not worthy!” QRC pleaded, wiping the blood from her girlfriend’s face. “Let's wait until they sleep, then we can kill 'em!”

The Mistress of Evil nodded, before taking a moment to calm herself. "You are right as always, my queen." she admitted. "Why waste the magnificence of my wrath on these fools?"

“Sweetie, I'm here for you, ok? I'm right here.” Roselle said, soothing JuleBeast down.

“I don’t know what it is about her, Petal. She just…” The hero growled in frustration.

“Knows how to get under your skin. Trust me, I know. You were right to not give in to thoughts of revenge. You'd have thrown your life away, and your own family.”

“I know. Thank you, Rose.” Julebeast responded, hugging her girlfriend while glaring at her counterpart. “But I still hope that dragon bitch gets what’s coming to her in the end.”

“Silly girl, everyone knows that whether hero or villain, the beast is always slain.” Juleficent replied, walking off to her besties Mylensula and YzAlya.

It's finally here! Sorry for the long wait, combo of writers block and school got in the way. It's not as big as some of the other confrontations but tempers are still flying high regardless. Once again thank you so much to @msweebyness for helping out with the dialogue and the idea. Make sure to reblog, reply post and ask for more. @artzychic27 @msweebyness

#juleka couffaine #juleka #the beast #beast #malificent #beauty and the beast #sleeping beauty #class of villainy #class of heroes #mirrorverse #crossover #disney #disneyau #miraculous ladybug #miraculous

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kimjimagery · 1 year ago

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Tad’s Daydreaming Disaster

By Kim J

==================================

If you're not a fan of corporal punishment or disciplinary measures do not read this story I'm not going to change anything due to someone's feelings if you don't like it don't read it

This story is not to be taken too seriously it's just a fanfic story.

==================================

After his adventure of searching for King Midas's collar, asking Sara to be his girlfriend, and returning to his studies, Tad goes back to the construction he use to work at and begs his boss, Mr. Anderson, a stern and no-nonsense boss to rehire him. It took some convincing but Anderson against his better judgment, he had agreed to rehire Tad.

“You're lucky I even considered rehiring you. Pay attention to your work. I don't have time for your shenanigans!” Mr. Anderson scowling Tad as a warning.

“I know I messed up before, but I really appreciate you giving me this second chance. I promise I'll do better.” Tad nervously thank his boss.

The following day the construction site was busy. Tad is seen busily working, but soon his mind often wanders off, causing him daydream and to make mistakes that result in minor accidents. As the week progressed, Tad found it increasingly difficult to keep his mind in the present. Thoughts of fun and excitement filled his head, distracting him from his responsibilities. And each time his mind wandered, a catastrophe seemed to unfold at the construction site.

His co-workers quietly watch, amused.

“Look at him!” Chuckling one of the co workers “He's a walking disaster. This guy never fails to entertain.”

“I can't believe Mr. Anderson fell for his promises. It's like watching a sitcom.” Another worker laughed.

They had come to view Tad as a form of live entertainment, always ready to provide the unexpected. It was as if he possessed a unique talent for causing chaos without even trying. Yet, a midst their laughter, there also lingered doubts about his ability to change.

Mr. Anderson, felt a growing sense of regret. watching from a distance with frustration growing on his face, doubts gnawed at him as he wondered if Tad would ever truly change. Was this just Tad’s nature, or was there a way to prod him in the right direction? He had to find a solution, not only for the sake of the business but also for Tad's. Mr. Anderson decides to give Tad one last chance and if Tad doesn't change then it's time to intervene and take immediate action.

One day on a bustling construction site, everything seems to be going well until Tad's daydreams get the best of him once again. While driving the bulldozer Tad mind wondered, he started daydreaming of what his next adventure might be, thinking of a getting chased by bandits in a jeep while tying to keep a valuable artifact from them.

“Tad look out!” Tad snapped out of his fantasy just in time to see he was about to collide into the side of the building, He jumped out of the machine the bulldozer crashes into a stack of bricks and support beams, causing a domino effect of destruction. In the nick of time, Tad manages to escapes the chaos and nervously looks on at the damage he created.

“Oh crud...” Tad said to himself.

From the office Mr. Anderson heard the commotion and looked out the window to see what happened. Immediately he knew that it was the result of his employee Tad Jones' daydreaming habits and clumsiness.

Infuriated, Mr. Anderson walks out and marches over to confronted Tad, his voice filled with irritation. "Jones! How many times have I told you to stay focused?!”

Tad, looking nervously to his boss and replied, "Sorry, sir. I guess I wasn't paying attention. My mind was somewhere else, and-"

Cutting him off, Mr. Anderson's anger grew. "My office, NOW!"

Reluctantly, Tad followed him and entered the office while his fellow construction worker friends, including his loyal dog Jeff, gathered near the door, anxious to hear the conversation.

Inside the office, Tad nervously cast glances at Mr. Anderson, feeling a mix of anxiety and curiosity. Mr. Anderson sat behind his desk, his stern expression unchanged, filling the room with unease.

"Tad, I've called you in here because your daydreaming has become a serious issue. It's causing accidents, equipment has been damaged, but luckily nobody has been hurt. It needs to stop!" Mr. Anderson spoke seriously, his gaze fixed on Tad.

Looking down at the floor, Tad replied apologetically, "I'm really sorry, Mr. Anderson. I never meant for any of this to happen."

Mr. Anderson's agitation grew. "I know Tad, But this is becoming dangerous, and I won't allow this kind of reckless behavior on my construction site! Tad, you're becoming a safety hazard, and it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt, or you get hurt."

Tad know this was true given what just happen but he’s determine to make up for it "I'll be more careful from now on. I promise."

However, Mr. Anderson remained skeptical. "Promises won't be enough."

Feeling defeated, Tad asked, "So I'm fired again?"

Mr. Anderson surprised him. "No, I'm not going to fire you. That never works. I would end up rehiring you because your skills are too valuable to this company. Instead, I'm going to take a different approach with you."

Confused, Tad looked at his boss. A moment of silence filled the room as Mr. Anderson got up from the desk and walked to the side, gesturing towards it.

"Tad Jones, bend over."

Perplexed, Tad asked, "What?"

"Bend over the desk. Don't make me tell you again!"

Tad realized that his boss was serious. Reluctantly, he obeyed, leaning over the desk. Mr. Anderson picked up a small cut piece of a 2x4 and approached Tad. He adjusted Tad's posture just enough so that his rear was sticking out more, making it a good target for what was about to happen.

"I can't have you putting yourself and others at risk. If you cause another mishap due to your daydreaming, you'll receive THIS as punishment!"

With that, Mr. Anderson raised the board and delivered a firm swat to Tad's clothed backside, catching him completely off-guard. Tad winced, his voice trembling as Mr. Anderson administered more firm swats.

Swat! Swat! Swat!

"Sir, please... I'm too old for this!" Tad pleaded.

But Mr. Anderson remained stern. "If you want to act like a child with your daydreaming, then you'll be treated like one. Now stay still!"

Swat! Swat! Swat!

Tad did as he was told and sobbed silently as the spanking continued, the sound of the wooden board making contact with his bottom echoing in the small office.

Outside the office, the workers who had been eavesdropping exchanged shocked and concerned glances. Even Tad's faithful dog Jeff whimpered, wanting to comfort his owner but unable to do so.

Ask they listen they begin to talk, "Did you hear that?" Worker 1 said to his co workers.

Nodding, Worker 2 replied, "I had no idea the boss would go this far with Tad."

Reflecting on the situation, Worker 3 chimed in, "To be fair, Tad has been causing more accidents than usual around here. If this keeps Tad from causing any more trouble, then I'm not complaining."

Concerned, Worker 2 added, "Yeah, but this doesn't seem right. We did kind of let Tad get carried away with his daydreaming. We should have helped him concentrate on his job instead of using him as a means of entertainment. Instead of letting it get to this."

Inside the office, Mr. Anderson continued the spanking, each swat harder than the last, determined to drive his message home. Tad winced, yelped, and sobbed, begging for it to stop.

"Please, stop! I'll do better, I promise!" Tad pleaded through tears.

But Mr. Anderson remained stern. "Your promise isn't enough, Tad. You need to prove it with your actions."

Swat! Swat! Swat!

Finally, Mr. Anderson finished the punishment, satisfied that Tad had learned his lesson. He helped Tad stand, and offering consolation.

"Tad, this punishment is not meant to humiliate you but to ensure you realize the gravity of your actions and the potential harm it can cause. It's for your safety and the well-being of everyone on this site. Try and be more focus on your work."

Nodding, Tad wiped away his tears and sniffed. "Yes sir. I won't let you down again."

Mr. Anderson's expression softened slightly. "Good. Because if this happens again, you're going back over this desk, and next time it will be on your bare bottom!"

Gulping, Tad nodded in understanding.

As Tad exited the office, his face flushed and hands rubbing his sore rear, his fellow construction workers approached him with concern. Jeff greeted him, wagging his tail.

"Tad, are you okay?" Worker 1 asked worriedly.

Looking at his coworkers, Tad managed a weak smile. "I'm fine, guys. Just a little shaken up."

Understanding his need for space, the workers nodded, their eyes filled with empathy. “We're sorry you went through all that, where just as much at fault for you getting in trouble with the boss.

"Remember, Tad, we've got your back. If you need anything, just ask," Worker 2 reassured Tad patting his back.

Gratefully, Tad nodded. "Thanks, guys."

The following morning, the construction site remained busy but the workers where silent, still shaken from the events of the previous day and word travels fast. Tad timidly stepped onto the site, his face still slightly red from the memory of the spanking and the warning he got yesterday. His dog Jeff stayed by the car, while he begins his work.

Tad's presence momentarily lifted the mood, but soon whispers filled the air. Was it really right for their boss to have punished Tad like that?

Meanwhile, Mr. Anderson appeared unfazed, continuing to deal with construction projects and workers as if nothing had happened, Tad also appeared to be ok at least he looked that way physically but they weren't so sure how he is mentally.

Throughout the day, Tad took extra care to stay alert and focused, while his fellow workers gave him the space he needed. They were quick to intervene whenever they noticed his mind starting to drift.

As the workday drew to a close, Tad was surprised to find a group of workers around him, offering words of encouragement. Jeff, rushed over greeted Tad He pick his dog up happily and thanking everyone and assuring them he was fine.

As he approach his car he set Jeff down and took out a dog treat waving it in front of Jeff.

“Come on boy, let’s go home, Super cookie!” Tad said as he toss the treat in the air, Jeff jumps up and catches it

From his office window, Mr. Anderson watched with a satisfied nod, feeling proud that none of the workers were hurt in any accidents that day. He did worried that his action yesterday was the right course to take and what state Tad would be in after the fact but given the result of today it looks like it was the right action.

Hoping that the lessons had been learned, he looked forward to a safer and more focused work environment.

END

===============================

I’m setting this story after the events of the second movie.

This story was the result of me reading all those theories and discussions about Tad not being called out on the things that he does in the movies and not really facing the consequences of his actions.

Particular in this case his daydreaming habits at his job. We see this happen once in the first movie but considering the lines from his boss and coworkers Tad has been doing this for quite a long time which prompted the line about him getting fired so many times.

Daydreaming in a construction site is just begging for trouble and it can be life threatening.

#my art #fanart #fanfic #tadeo jones #construction site #tad jones #tad the lost explorer #tadeo jones 2

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ipoxcky · 1 year ago

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I WROTE AN INFORMAL ESSAY ON ZILA MADRAN FOR MY SEMINAR CLASS—MAJOR AURORA CYCLE SPOILERS!!!!

Tyler Jones is a human who graduated at the top of his class at the Aurora Academy. He is the squad’s “Alpha,” or commander. He was supposed to get first pick in terms of the other people on his team, but because he went to save Aurora, he ended up with those who remained after everyone else made their pick. He is a White-passing heterosexual cisgendered male. We find out later he is also half-Syldrathi, an alien race that is presumably based on BIPOC ethnicities and practices.

Scarlett Jones is a diplomat who knows many languages, handles foreign affairs, and negotiation, otherwise known as the squad’s “Face.” Tyler Jones is her twin brother. She has a long history of exes and is ever longingly sarcastic. She is a white heterosexual cisgendered woman. We find out later she is half-Syldrathi as well.

Kaliis Idraban Gilwraeth is Syldrathi (an alien race in the book) who was born to be a warrior. He is the squad’s “Tank,” whose primary purpose is to fight if need be. Since the age of six, he was trained to defeat his enemies and not tolerate anything less. He is a heterosexual cisgendered male.

Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley is a human girl out of time who was awoken by the squad after centuries frozen in a colony ship, and found herself gifted with dangerous psychic powers. She is Asian-American (Chinese and Irish,) and a heterosexual cisgendered woman.

Finian de Karran de Seel is a Betraskan (another alien race in the book) who has a heart for all things mechanics. He is the squad’s “Gearhead,” and has a crude sense of humor. He is a disabled bisexual cisgendered male who has pale white skin.

Zila Madran is the “Brain” of the squad, a medic who knows the body inside and out and is stellar at all things STEM. In the third book, her work allows her to statistically calculate the probabilities of every ideal event occurring and she is eventually the one (with her wife Nari Kim) who saves the entire galaxy from destruction. She is a Black queer cisgendered woman.

This media analysis will focus on Zila Madran’s role in Aurora’s End, which becomes crucial in the third book and the mechanics of the plot. It will analyze the message that Amie Kaufman, a white woman, and Jay Kristoff, a white man, have delivered to its readers by having Zila, a Black queer woman, be the one who saves the entire galaxy from its demise.

Zila’s character description, thankfully, is one that is not offensive. Unlike the common tendency for white authors to compare Black skin to food, her description in Aurora Rising that we get when we first meet her is simply “dark brown skin and long, tight black curls.”And in Aurora Burning on page 45, there is a conversation between Scarlett and Zila where readers first learn about Zila’s queer identity:

Scarlett: “Yeah. But don't fall in love with me, Zila. I'll just break your heart.”

Zila: “That does seem consistent with your romantic modus operandi. You are also too tall for me.”

Scarlett: “Wait… you like girls?”

Zila shrugs, scanning the crowd: “Not tall ones.”

However, a closer look at one scene in the book will reveal that Zila’s identifiers are taken into account in the overall plot of the story. In terms of sexuality, Zila is the last one to enter a relationship. The readers have watched every other squadmate enter a romantic entanglement in Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning. Their relationships grow to become a large, important part of the plot, with multiple chapters dedicated to their development. In the beginning of Aurora’s End, Zila, Scarlett, and Finian get sent back in time to the year 2177 in a time loop. In other words, they are stuck in a segment of 2177 where, after a certain amount of minutes, they meet some sort of untimely death. Most of the time it’s a quantum pulse hitting the station or angry lieutenants deciding to shoot at them. Once they die, the segment of time resets. Each time the segment resets, it gets shorter, and the squad has to figure out how to escape the time loop before they die in it again. In the time segment, they successfully reach out to Nari Kim, a legionnaire of the academy who they find at the station they are attempting to come into contact with. After Scarlett successfully works her diplomat magic before she can get blasted to pieces, Zila gets to work detonating the pulsar with Nari. Meanwhile, Scarlett and Finian decide to start messing around. Prior to this time loop, Scarlett and Finian agreed to enter a romantic relationship, so when they decide to start messing around, their lack of focus makes Zila a bit irritated, so she shouts: “are you two spending precious minutes in the middle of a heretofore unheard-of temporal paradox engaging in frivolous presexual activity?” To which Scarlett replies, “You’re such a hopeless romantic, Z” (Kaufman and Kristoff 185). In the scene, Zila is angry with their lack of consideration for the task at hand. However, it can be argued that she is somewhat romantically/sexually frustrated with the fact that everyone has found love but her. This argument can be supported as she ends up realizing Nari is “not tall” (Kaufman and Kristoff 98), and “as [Nari] keeps speaking, I let myself sink into her voice” (Kaufman and Kristoff 201) Later on, after many romantic events have occurred like this one, she realizes that Nari Kim is the one that future, probability-calculating Zila assigned herself to fall in love with by giving her past self hawk earrings that match the animal insignia on Nari’s vest (it’s quite complicated—I hope that is clear enough. I’d be happy to explain more if it’s unclear.) Her frustrations are then relieved when she learns that Nari feels the same way. At that point, Zila learns that she is supposed to stay in the year 2177 with Nari in order to calculate the events that make up the most optimal timeline: a timeline where her squadmates save the galaxy.

Arguably, there are a lot of identifiers that shape the scene described above, the one that ultimately is the start of Zila’s romantic journey. The fact that she is the last one to enter a relationship could possibly be due to three identifiers. To start, the eurocentric beauty standard is against her, as she is African American. In 2014, an OkCupid study found that black women were rated the “least desirable” amongst all other races. Second, mainstream society encircles the idea of white queerness being the only queerness to exist. In a paper by the National Library of Medicine, Carmen Logie states that “by representing queerness as white…women of color were rendered invisible in both queer and racialized communities…” and that, as mentioned later on, “women of color were further marginalized by constructions of "real" women as passive, feminine and white, and conversely perceptions of women of color as aggressive, emotional, and hypersexualized.” Due to all of these factors, the ‘dating pool’ shrinks for Black queer women in terms of future partners. Applying this logic, it is quite sensible it would take her a longer time to find the right partner, and luckily, she did. Therefore, the scenes quoted and described above could encompass Zila’s Black, queer, and female identifiers with both their overt statements and what is unsaid by the timing.

Kaufman and Kristoff have successfully established Zila Madran as a strong, self-sufficient, beautiful, bright Black woman who, simply by existing, redacts harmful stereotypes and creates a new image for Black women in the world of science fiction. One stereotype that the Aurora Cycle Trilogy combats with the character Zila Madran is the ‘weird girl’ stereotype. One could argue that the reason Zila is the last one to find a relationship is because she is naturally quiet and not very emotionally available until her character arc near the end of the book. A counterargument is that this is a stereotype which has been romanticized in the media quite often, only that the stereotype requires the quiet stoic girl to be white and heterosexual, and that if she is any other race/sexuality, she’s seen as even weirder. White heterosexual women who fill this stereotype and find romantic interests are Raven from Teen Titans, Detective Jet Slootmaekers in Law and Order, and April Ludgate-Dwyer from Parks and Recreation. Like Zila, they are quiet and stoic, so physical appearance and romantic preference must be the only thing that sets Zila apart from the common narrative. Fortunately, Zila and Nari marry and grow old together once they fall in love. So, Kaufman and Kristoff challenge the ‘weird white girl’ single story stereotype by changing the race of the ‘weird girl’ and writing Zila with a fulfilling queer relationship.

In addition, another stereotype that Kaufman and Kristoff combat is the stereotype that Black women are unintelligent. Black people, women, and especially Black women have been stereotyped as unintelligent for centuries. As Zora Neale Hurston puts it in Their Eyes Were Watching God, “De n----- woman is de mule uh de world,” meant only to sit and do meaningless tasks that don’t let them build any type of real intelligence or skill. Of course, this stereotype dates back to slavery, where most Black people—especially Black women—were unable to pursue any sort of formal education because they were enslaved. A very small percentage were taught to read and write while they were enslaved. Kaufman and Kristoff combat this by designing Madran’s character with astute intelligence, which is evident throughout the story as she is deemed the military squadron position “Brain.”

A third stereotype is that Black women are aggressive. This stereotype originates from slavery and thrives in lots of pop culture and media. Some examples are Sapphire in Amos ‘n’ Andy, and Florence in The Jeffersons, according to the Harvard Business Review. The stereotype has even been immortalized in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture through the addition of Nene Leakes and her famous eye roll. To fight this, Zila Madran is a medic who heals the wounds of all of the squadmates. She is the one who instructs Scarlett on how to save Finian from anaphylactic shock with only the plastic tube in a ballpoint pen, a gift that was, like Zila’s hawk earrings, planned from Zila in 2177 to be given to Finian in 2380. Zila instructs Scarlett remotely through her earpiece while Scarlett is panicking, and Scarlett describes Zila’s state as “calm in [her] ear” (Kaufman and Kristoff 386). In Zila being the medic of the squad, there is also possibly the irony of the poor treatment of Black women in the healthcare system at play here. The first doctors went years before they expanded their studies of the body to Black people, claiming all kinds of things about how different and underdeveloped their bodies are. They have tried to defend their racism and neglect of Black health with eugenics and other harmful pseudosciences, but the root of the predominantly white field refusing to assist Black people is racism, clear and cut. A recent example is Serena Williams and the birth of her child. Even though she is famous and wealthy, she was still treated poorly in the healthcare system while she was in one of the most vulnerable states a person could be in–postpartum. Unfortunately, racism does not stop for those who financially can sit in the same places as their oppressors. And so, in Kaufman and Kristoff choosing Zila to be the medic, they have established her as a helpful and healing Black woman rather than an aggressive one, and they have supplied her with the skill that her oppressors have continued to systematically oppress Black women with—medicine. For Kaufmann and Kristoff to choose Zila Madran, a queer Black woman, to be the one to find her lifelong partner, to be the “Brain” of the team (literally), to be the one to heal her squadmate’s injuries, and to be the central figure in saving the entire galaxy and founding the Aurora Academy is a huge step towards reversing various stereotypes and is a promotion of Black excellence and Black representation.

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msclaritea · 1 year ago

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Amazon Studios: Big Swings Hampered by Confusion and Frustration – The Hollywood Reporter

Despite ambitious bets like 'Daisy Jones & The Six' and the upcoming 'Citadel,' insiders complain that there’s still "no vision for what an Amazon Prime show is." But chief Jen Salke says they are missing the point: "You don’t reverse-engineer true creative vision."

BY KIM MASTERS

APRIL 3, 2023 12:43PM PDT

It’s long been an open secret that Jeff Bezos has yearned for his own Game of Thrones, and that Amazon’s big swing as it reached for its own massive hit was The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, believed to be the most expensive series ever made.

Last September, the show began with a bang, delivering the biggest debut ever on the streamer in what Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke called “a very culturally defining moment” for the company. But when season one wrapped, the show was less defining than hoped, falling short of being the breakout hit that Amazon had envisioned.

While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series). Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders). The show has not been a major awards contender, either, overlooked by the major guilds with the exception of one SAG-AFTRA nomination for stunt ensemble.

But according to Salke, the series has worked. “This desire to paint the show as anything less than a success — it’s not reflective of any conversation I’m having internally,” she says. The second season, currently in production, will have more dramatic story turns, she adds. “That’s a huge opportunity for us. The first season required a lot of setting up.”

Data from Nielsen on minutes watched reveals that when it comes to original shows generally, Amazon has lagged. In 2022, Netflix hoovered up the top 10 spots for original streaming series, with Amazon’s The Boys in 11th place — ahead of The Rings of Power at No. 15. Using the same measurement, none of the top 15 originals of 2021 came from Amazon. (Netflix again took all the slots except for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale in 10th place, Apple’s Ted Lasso at 12, and Disney+’s WandaVision in the 14th spot.)

Many current and former Amazon executives, as well as showrunners who have series at the streamer and agents who make deals there, believe that this is no accident. They describe Amazon Studios as a confusing and frustrating place to do business. When it comes to movies, where Amazon’s footprint is expanding following the $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM a year ago, a veteran producer says that, in recent years, “there has been no sense of what the philosophy is.”

On the series side, numerous sources say they cannot discern what kind of material Salke and head of television Vernon Sanders want to make. A showrunner with ample experience at the studio says, “There’s no vision for what an Amazon Prime show is. You can’t say, ‘They stand for this kind of storytelling.’ It’s completely random what they make and how they make it.” Another showrunner with multiple series at Amazon finds it baffling that the streamer hasn’t had more success: Amazon has “more money than God,” this person says. “If they wanted to produce unbelievable television, they certainly have the resources to do it.”

But Salke believes the studio’s approach fits Amazon’s broad remit. “I have never been one to say [to the creative community] ‘We need five action franchise shows and three workplace situation comedies.’ That’s the kiss of death,” she says. “You don’t reverse-engineer true creative vision. We are programming for over 250 million households across the entire globe. We would say we have a big, broad audience, and we are looking for content that entertains the four quadrants.” (That is, male and female, under 35 and over 35).

The question that makes many in Hollywood nervous is whether the Amazon Studios overlords in Seattle believe they are getting enough bang for their megabucks. The last thing the industry wants at a time of belt-tightening is a cutback in spending from a deep-pocketed buyer. According to Salke, that concern is misguided. “The proof exists that the giant tentpole shows are driving people to subscribe to Prime,” she says. “Do we pressure ourselves to be more disciplined, more strategic? Of course. We consistently examine if we’re producing the right amount of content at the right value to drive the most engagement across our service.”

Like Apple, Amazon is not a traditional entertainment company but a huge retailer with a side hustle in Hollywood. Amazon’s view is that the more hours you spend watching Prime Video, the more likely you are to renew your membership and the more likely you are to shop on the site. As Amazon, like Netflix, pursues overseas growth in the wake of saturation in the U.S., Salke notes that in some countries like South Africa and Argentina, Amazon’s programming is the tip of the spear, entering the territory before retail sales or fast, free shipping is even available. “International is everything,” she says. “It is our business to deliver global shows for a global audience.”

The streamer has certainly had its success stories, including buzzy shows like Transparent, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Fleabag, and popular series like The Boys, Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher and The Terminal List. But it has arguably never had a brand-defining show that is a commercial and critical juggernaut in the vein of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Netflix’s Stranger Things or Apple’s Ted Lasso. And all of those Amazon series, except Jack Reacher and The Terminal List, were launched when Salke’s predecessor, Roy Price, ran the studio. (Price departed in 2017 amid allegations of improper conduct; Salke took over in 2018.)

Jennifer Salke CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES

One of Salke’s first greenlights was Daisy Jones & The Six, based on the Taylor Jenkins Reid novel and co-produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Lauren Neustadter, president of film at Hello Sunshine, says she and Witherspoon had lunch with Salke just as she was starting at Amazon. “She was really clear and articulate in her vision” for what she wanted to do with the job, Neustadter says. “Reese and I both said Daisy is all the things she was talking about. The book, the show, fashion — we had big dreams for this.”

Amazon put more than $140 million into production, in part due to high COVID protocol costs. The show dropped March 3 with solid numbers and eventually topped Parrot Analytics’ weekly engagement chart. The 2-year-old novel popped back onto Amazon’s best-seller list, and the retailer is able to sell tie-in merchandise. Aurora, an album featuring songs from the fictional band, is climbing the Billboard charts. However, insiders say the show remains shy of the breakout hit the studio hoped for. (Released around the same time, Donald Glover’s Swarm is also delivering strong results for Amazon at a more modest $30 million budget.)

A far more costly and troubled production was the Russo brothers’ Citadel, which debuts on April 28. Anthony Russo says Salke first approached AGBO, the Russos’ production company, with a general concept of making a U.S. show with international foreign-language versions. AGBO came up with “a global spy show where you would have a mothership U.S. language show” alongside foreign-language versions in other countries, Russo says. The various versions are “related to one another, but they also exist independently and distinct from one another.” Some of the international shows may be set in different time periods, he adds.

Amazon has committed to three seasons of three versions of the show; so far, a local-language production is underway in Italy and in early stages in India. “We love the ability to communicate with people all over the world, and to connect people through stories,” Russo continues. “Amazon and Jen basically brought us a brand-new opportunity to do that at a scale that’s never been attempted before.”

But in December 2021, with production well underway, the Russo brothers decided to replace showrunner Josh Appelbaum. “It was clear after some audience feedback and discussion that some changes needed to be made,” says Mike Larocca, president and co-founder of AGBO. “We felt like it needed some more character work early to draw people into the show. It was that straightforward.” Appelbaum declined to comment.

David Weil took over as showrunner. When Joe Russo came on set, a “huge bunch of material” was tossed out, an insider says. Sources say the cost of the series climbed toward $300 million, making it Amazon’s second-most expensive show after LOTR. (In an onstage March 10 conversation with Salke at SXSW, Priyanka Chopra said her work on Citadel was the first time she had achieved pay parity in 22 years. That prompted some Amazon executives to joke internally that this was actually the first and second time, since she and the other leads on the show got paid significantly more than planned due to the massive reshoots.)

Joseph Russo (R) and his brother Anthony Russo

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo are executive producers on Citadel, Amazon’s high-stakes, $300 million bet on a multinational franchise. SUJIT JAISWAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

While the original plan called for eight hourlong episodes, the show that will drop on Amazon in April ended up at six, roughly 40-minute episodes. Amazon has already renewed it for a second season of six hourlong episodes. “There are a couple of relationships where I don’t really understand the bet that is being made,” says one Amazon veteran of the commitment to the project. “But Jen believes in the Russos.”

The challenges on Citadel can happen with the “best-managed creative endeavors with the highest level of talent,” Salke says. “Given the choice of making it mediocre or fucking great — we made the right call there. And at the end of the day, our customers will be the judge.”

Hunters and A League of Their Own, which is ending with a truncated season two, stand out as expensive disappointments of the Salke era. The latter cost in the ballpark of $90 million for eight episodes, including a premium paid to Sony for certain rights.

What generates some of the frustration that sources cite in dealings with Amazon is that Salke, who was previously president of NBC Entertainment, seems to be pursuing conflicting goals. Despite her assertion that Amazon is “a home for talent,” insiders say the mandate is increasingly not on finding the kind of curated hit that defines HBO, but more middle-of-the-road, meat-and-potatoes shows like Jack Reacher. “We’re so desperate right now for safe hits,” an Amazon exec says. (Netflix has also been pursuing broader material.)

But at the same time, current and former Amazon executives say Salke has a pattern of “chasing what she perceives as hot,” as one insider puts it. That person cites as examples paying a premium for Daisy Jones because of the Witherspoon connection, or making a Dead Ringers series, based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film, that came with Rachel Weisz attached. Salke makes deals with auteur talent to “deliver Jack Reacher results,” says an Amazon veteran. “But they don’t.”

Amazon recently renewed The Peripheral, a sci-fi drama from Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy that cost close to $175 million for eight episodes (sources say their final eight-episode season of Westworld at HBO cost about $140 million). Amazon has ordered six additional hours of The Peripheral despite what sources say has been lukewarm audience engagement. “It probably should have been canceled,” says an insider. “But they made a megadeal and the political capital they would lose with Lisa and Jonah would be too great. And they have other shows coming.” Fallout, the next show from Nolan and Joy, is also “extremely expensive,” says a source.

Nolan and Joy’s deal has been worth at least $20 million a year since they signed on in 2019. One insider calls the Nolan deal the worst example of Salke’s mantra that Amazon is “a home for talent.’” He adds: “We cede decisions to powerful producers. We hold the line on other producers who do great work for us.” Nolan and Joy declined to comment.

Some rich Amazon deals have failed to produce anything at all. In the wake of serving as an executive producer on Them, Lena Waithe got a two-year deal worth $8 million a year that yielded nothing; in November 2021, she moved her banner to HBO Max.

And in September 2019, Amazon announced a deal with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who had just swept up six Emmys for the second season of Fleabag. The plan was for Waller-Bridge to collaborate with Donald Glover on a Mr. and Mrs. Smith series, based on the 2005 film.

But within a few months, Waller-Bridge departed the show due to clashing creative styles. Her three-year deal, at $20 million a year, bore no fruit, yet Amazon recently renewed it, announcing that Waller-Bridge would write (but not star in) a Tomb Raider series. Some Amazon insiders have questioned how much she will contribute to the project, noting that Amazon has been seeking a showrunner to help write and oversee it.

The low-key Sanders bristles a little at the assertion. “Phoebe has not only fully embraced Tomb Raider and I think is feeling very committed to it, but she’s in a writers room right now working on it,” he says. Waller-Bridge is developing other material for the streamer as well, he adds, “She’s a perfectionist, so she absolutely wants to make sure that what she does is great and right, but she’s proven that when she does deliver, she delivers.” Waller-Bridge declined to comment.

But a showrunner with considerable experience at Amazon sees it differently: “They don’t learn from their mistakes.

They [say], ‘We can’t do any more deals like that.’ You turn around and they’re right back to — the impolite term is ‘star-fucking.'

” For creative executives at the studio, the result has been exasperation. “They say, ‘We don’t want to buy from outside studios,’” says a former Amazon exec. “Then packages come and they buy everything that comes through the door, and our development is thrown out.”

One of Salke’s early hires at Amazon was Sanders, who had worked very closely with her as head of current programming at NBC. At Amazon, Salke initially made him co-head and then sole head of television. Before coming to Amazon, Sanders was overseeing NBC shows that were already up and running rather than developing and launching shows. Some Amazon insiders complain that he doesn’t offer them enough in the way of direction.

Vernon Sanders

One of Salke’s first hires at Amazon was Vernon Sanders, now head of television for the studio. AMY SUSSMAN/GETTY IMAGES

“No one knows what he likes,” says a former executive at the streamer. In a similar vein, a producer who’s worked with Amazon says, “Vernon seems so sincere, but when you talk to him about a project, you come away not knowing where you stand. What kind of shows does he really care about making? At the end of the day, that makes it hard for talent to truly trust him.”

Sanders says his job is simply not to program for his own taste, echoing Salke’s point about the importance of international. “We have over 250 million global customers, so our goal is to program for everyone — we have a big, broad and diverse audience,” he says. “We see that as one of our strengths. We can produce global tentpoles as well as inventive, character-driven series, with plenty in between. And our customers welcome it all. That’s why Lord of the Rings and Swarm can co-exist and succeed on our service.”

Rings and Swarm can co-exist and succeed on our service.”

Another complaint is that Sanders relies heavily on feedback from focus groups, which tend to favor broad and less inclusive programming. Several Amazon insiders say the reliance on testing and data led to a clash late last summer, when an Amazon executive said in a marketing meeting for the series A League of Their Own that data showed audiences found queer stories off-putting and suggested downplaying those themes in materials promoting the show. Series co-creator Will Graham became greatly concerned about bias built into Amazon’s system for evaluating shows, which multiple sources say often ranked broad series featuring straight, white male leads above all others. One executive calls A League of Their Own “a proxy for how diverse and inclusive shows are treated.”

Graham launched into an interrogation of the system, questioning multiple executives about it. Amazon took the issue seriously and dropped the system of ranking shows based on audience scores. Insiders cite this show as one that Sanders did passionately support, but for months after it dropped, there was no word on whether it would be renewed. Ultimately, Amazon agreed to a four-episode second and final season. Still, several Amazon veterans believe the system remains too dependent on those same test scores. “All this perpetuation of white guys with guns — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says one. And another: “Relying on data is soul crushing … There’s never, ‘I know the testing wasn’t that great, but I believe in this.'” Graham declined to comment.

One executive says it was different when Salke first took charge at Amazon. “She shot from the hip, she went with her gut, and she didn’t let data overrule her,” this person says. “But she hired a staff that was in over their heads in terms of being able to get those shows produced at a number. I think if we had [FX boss] John Landgraf or [HBO’s] Casey Bloys or somebody who had more credibility and direct interaction with the development of shows, it would be so much easier to spend less. But we kind of act like it doesn’t matter if we have deep conversations with talent. A guy like Donald Glover would think, ‘No way in hell I’m doing a deal with these guys unless they overpay me.’ I know we’re third or fourth on their priority list. Agents are direct about it: ‘You guys pay a premium for being Amazon.’ They have clients who would much rather work at other places.”

Salke responds: “If people say my gut’s been tamped down, there’s no evidence for that.”

Even some producers who have successful television projects at Amazon say its executive structure remains confusing to the point of opacity. A recent reorganization — the latest of several — does not seem to have done much to clarify things. An executive at a production company that has done repeat business with Amazon says it’s hard to know “who you should go to if you want to bring [a project] to them.” Says a showrunner who has had success at the streamer: “I couldn’t honestly tell you who reports to whom. It keeps changing.”

Some of the confusion around Amazon may arise from conflicting goals at the top. Mike Hopkins, Amazon’s senior vice president for Prime Video & Amazon Studios, is a seasoned business executive and a veteran of Sony and Hulu but does not come from the creative side. A top industry executive who dealt with him at Hulu calls him “a seemingly egoless, laid-back, efficient manager.” A former Amazon executive says Hopkins is a “very intelligent, very calm and collected leader, but all he seems to care about is the bottom line. He doesn’t understand a lot about production because he doesn’t come from that.” Hopkins declined to comment.

Salke is known as a charismatic leader who has “a great touch around talent,” says an agent. But one long-standing complaint is that she can be hard to reach and unresponsive to texts or emails. “I really like Jen,” says an executive whose company has done repeat business with Amazon. “When you get her, she’s really engaged. She’s obviously spread thin, but if you actually get her, you can get a pretty clear answer.” That issue might only be exacerbated as, in the past year, Salke has taken on responsibility for MGM’s film and television studios, as well as marketing oversight.

On the fundamental issue of money, Hopkins and Salke were destined to clash. “Her strategy is to get whatever seems hot. Mike’s vision was to cut costs on shows and get football,” says a former insider. In 2021, Amazon became the first streamer to make an exclusive deal with the NFL, signing an 11-year pact for exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football at $1 billion per season. Amazon’s sports chief, Jay Marine, told staff in a September note that the launch game produced “the biggest three hours for U.S. Prime sign ups ever in the history of Amazon.” But while the streamer had told advertisers it expected to average 12.5 million viewers per game, at the end of the season Amazon said it had 11.3 million viewers, while Nielsen calculated 9.6 million average viewers. Amazon has said it compensated advertisers for the shortfall but offered no specifics.

In recent months, current and former Amazon executives say, Salke seemed to be in a political battle with Hopkins. “Mike is a lot about budgets and that’s not something she reacts well to,” says one. But a top executive at another entertainment company says his lack of creative experience hampers his ability to limit spending on shows and movies. “That’s why he says yes when Jen says we’ve got to pay Simon Kinberg $8 million for a project,” this person says.

That’s a reference to the spy thriller Red Shirt, written by writer-producer Kinberg with Channing Tatum attached to star. The project, acquired in November based on a treatment and short video heavily featuring Tatum, had several bidders, but Amazon offered the richest overall package.

The film calls for Tatum to be paid $25 million, with a staggering $18 million for director David Leitch. Add in Kinberg’s $8 million for writing and producing services and the deal represents one of the highest, if not the highest, payment for an original pitch in Hollywood dealmaking history. Kinberg, Tatum and Leitch declined to comment.

And that’s only one of several pricey film bets that Amazon has made. Salke put in a preemptive bid for Air, the Nike movie with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Affleck says Salke was his point of contact during the making of the film and he found her to be “straightforward, and true to her word.” Salke “always had thoughtful ideas and notes,” he adds. “We took almost all of them.”

But an executive at a competitor calls the deal for Air “crazy,” claiming, “She just bought it off a pitch, went in and bought it for $160 million.” (Industry sources say it cost far less to produce.) “Matt made more money on [Air] than any other movie but Bourne. She just took it off the table,” says the executive. (Affleck and Damon declined to comment on the deal.) Another source involved with the project says he’s certain some competitor would have matched the deal. While it’s uncertain the film, which has garnered critical acclaim, will gross enough at the box office to be profitable, the value of having it to lure subscribers to the streaming service may justify the expense.

Recently, Salke has been perceived as pivoting toward film. Several Amazon sources believe there was a tug-of-war with Hopkins over who would have oversight of the MGM film studio. Initially, Hopkins intended to hire former Fox and Paramount executive Emma Watts and have her report to him. But then Watts — a seasoned but sometimes sharp-elbowed exec — was out of the picture, despite having gone through vetting. Amazon announced in November that Salke, not Hopkins, would have direct oversight of the film studio despite her very limited film experience. Amazon declined to comment on the switch.

Given Salke’s background in television, many in the film community assumed she would need to hire an executive with strong movie experience to oversee MGM films. But some Amazon insiders believe she wanted to give the job to Julie Rapaport, the executive in charge of original movies for the streamer. While Rapaport is well-liked, in the view of several outside movie execs, she lacks the experience to run MGM film.

If Salke indeed wanted Rapaport in the job, there was one big snag. MGM’s crown jewel is the James Bond franchise, which is controlled by Barbara Broccoli. Sources say Broccoli made it clear that she needed an experienced movie executive at the helm of MGM’s film division. The sources also believe that Salke put her foot wrong with Broccoli by mentioning a possible Bond TV project, which Broccoli would not want. And following the acquisition of MGM’s distribution arm, they say, Broccoli was not impressed when weeks passed during which Amazon did not communicate with the longtime marketing and distribution executives who Broccoli sees as vital to handling the Bond films, leaving them in doubt as to whether they would keep their jobs. (A source says one of those executives, the late Erik Lomis, fought to move Creed III out of a crowded November to a March release date, giving Amazon a hit that has grossed $250 million.) Salke says, “We have deep respect for Barbara and Michael” — a reference to Michael G. Wilson, her Bond producing partner. Broccoli did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon went through a protracted who’s who of potential hires before settling on former Warner Bros. executive Courtenay Valenti. Sources say Salke was chilly to Valenti during the hiring process, which Salke denies. Valenti joins former longtime Warner Bros. executive Sue Kroll, who in October became head of marketing for Amazon Studios and MGM. Even Amazon critics say Salke made an excellent move in hiring Kroll, who brings a much-needed boost to promoting Amazon films and series. Now reunited, both Valenti and Kroll will report to Salke.

Part of what irks some Amazon entertainment executives is that, as part of a supersized tech company, the studio must contend with an idiosyncratic culture that often doesn’t mesh with traditional Hollywood practices. (In a sense, Amazon the parent is as alien to Hollywood as previous outsiders who have come and gone: Coca-Cola, Matsushita, a wave of German investors.) Amazon culture manifests itself in many ways that go beyond the well-known everyone-flies-coach rule. The compensation system caps base cash pay at $350,000 for all employees (exclusive of signing bonuses) plus stock options, which for a high-level executive will make up the bulk of pay. The base pay cash ceiling was $160,000 until last year, when the cap was increased due to the declining stock price. Over the past 12 months, the stock has been down more than 35 percent. (In contrast, at Netflix, executives can decide what percentage of their compensation they will take in stock options.)

“A lot of people there are not that incentivized to stick their necks out,” says an agent. “Everyone’s sort of marking time to get as much stock [to vest] as they can. That’s no way to run it. This is a hit-driven, risk-taking business.”

Another Amazon tradition: Only top executives have offices. Until this year, other high-level execs have worked in assigned cubicles. Since January, however, the vast majority have to contend with “agile seating,” meaning they work at unassigned cubbies in designated “neighborhoods,” and are provided with lockers for their belongings. “These things are coming from so high up [in the company],” says an Amazon Studios insider. “It just contributes to the sense of anonymity — that nobody knows where their own spaces and belongings are.” This arrangement seems to be in favor with some tech types; Jason Kilar was “adamant” about imposing a similar plan at HBO and HBO Max, according to a source, though equivalent top executives at Netflix do get offices.

Meanwhile, the broader company is now facing very public challenges: In January, Amazon announced the biggest workforce cuts in the company’s history, laying off more than 27,000 of its 1.6 million employees. So far, the studio has been spared, though a hiring freeze is in effect.

Industry executives feel it’s imperative to keep as many buyers in the game as possible, and some worry that the NFL deal has shown Amazon a way to sign up subscribers in a way that is not as unpredictable as making scripted entertainment. Says one former insider, “In bringing Mike in, they wanted to keep Jen in check. Then you add sports and in 24 hours make more progress than in eight years of TV. The whole sports launch changed the prism of how they look at the ecosystem and what role film and TV and music plays into it.”

So far, Amazon hasn’t hinted at any unhappiness with the return on its content spend, which was $7 billion on Amazon Originals, live sports and licensed third-party video content in 2022. That’s up 28 percent from the previous year, thanks in part to the cost of football and Lord of the Rings. (In comparison, Netflix spent about $18 billion.) According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Amazon’s U.S. Prime subscribers stalled last year at 168 million, essentially flat from 2021. (The company last publicly disclosed a Prime subscriber number in 2021, when it said it had “over 200 million” globally.)

During a February earnings call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky sounded upbeat. “We regularly evaluate the return on the spend [on content] and continue to be encouraged by what we see, as video has proven to be a strong driver of Prime member engagement and new Prime member acquisition.” Speaking at a New York Times Dealbook summit in November, CEO Andy Jassy said he could see a possible future in which Amazon’s entertainment operations could work as a stand-alone business “with very attractive economics.” He added, “All of that content is a really important ingredient in why people choose to sign up to Prime.” But Amazon watchers might have noted that he mentioned Thursday Night Football in particular. The company will continue to invest in sports, he said, “a unique asset with an unrivaled ability to drive Prime sign-ups.”

Additional reporting by Lesley Goldberg.

Maybe this will clear things up. Maybe not. Jennifer Salke is married to Bert Salke, Head of Fox 21. His reps:

Agent: United Talent Agency, 9560 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 500, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.; Office: Brancato/Salke Productions, 5300 MelroseAve., Suite 229 East, Los Angeles, CA 90038.

Some or maybe all of what's going on at Amazon Prime, frankly looks like straight up money laundering, to several outfits in Hollywood, either willingly or unwillingly. United Talent Agency has so far tried screwing over talents like Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch. A number of actors left the agency and it's because they have a longstanding, close relationship with the Church. No fucking wonder I'm staring at Tom Cruise's face every time I go on the Amazon Prime or old Simon Pegged movies, out front and center for hot picks.

While I'm not a fan a big fan of this guy, Disparu (uses the word Woke in tye negative and seems to have a soft spot for Tom Cruise) he makes some very straightforward points about the craziness of paying Phoebe Waller-Bridge $20 million per year to do fuck all. And Bridge is only big in Britain. So, I'm not the only one who's wondered at the overhyping. It could only be from powerful outfits like COS or Lavender Mafia.

youtube

#Youtube

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