#especially since mick has said once or twice | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thebadboyfanclub · 4 years ago

Text

You Can Do Better (Rio x Reader)

Requested by anon, i’ve posted this for the third time and tumblr is being a fucking asshole to the point were i’m thinking of quitting this since every week I get a new way of them hiding my works. Enjoy it while it lasts

T.W. mentioning of attempted rape

(Y/n) had been Micks neighbor for a few months before the incident happened, this absolute dumpster was the only thing she could afford at the time, fresh out of college, in a foreign country without any family, but she was hoping to moving quickly. However, when Mick was coming home, he heard her screams and cries for help from the bottom of the stairs, he had seen her once or twice, even baked him cookies when he first moved in, she was nice and a quiet neighbor.

He found (y/n) being held down by two men in masks and one of them try to rape her, she was begging and screaming, he almost acted on instict when he shot the guy in the back, the other tried to attack him and he also ended up with a bullet in between his eyes. (Y/n) thanked him and Mick had to stop her from calling the police. Instead they called Rio. He was met with two dead bodies, A girl in her torn pajamas shaking and crying and Mick trying to calm her down.

“Those motherfuckers”

Was all he said, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what had gone down, Rio was a criminal and balls deep in despicable things, yet he was proud to say he had never laid hands on a woman nor a child. He kneeled in front of her, took a good look at her eyes, her entire body shaking as she looked at him, you could sense the trauma she had been through.

Rio had heard of her when Mick told him about this little girl next door that baked him cookies as a welcoming gift, he recalled how his friend laughed when he mentioned that the girl asked him his opinion about the next tattoo she wanted to get. Now this happy light hearted girl was replaced because two men thought they are superior.

“Hi sweetheart, I understand this is hard, we will take care of everything alright? You trust us?”

“I had locked the door, I was sleeping”

“I know sweetheart, it wasn’t your fault. We’ll take care of you ok?”

“Thank you”

Since Mick had vouched for her and Rio had seen her at her worst they felt obligated to take her under their wings, maybe even help her earn a little more money, get a good car, pay her bills comfortably, that sort of stuff. Until one day she asked to do more, get initiated

“Mama this isn’t the playground, we ain’t playing cops and robbers”

“I know, but you said I am learning quickly, why not teach me more?”

“Why you wanna do this? All of a sudden you feel like being a gangster? You were shaking in your shoes a few months ago”

“I’m done being your little child Rio, I want to hold my own. I will do this with or without you”

Rio looked at her with a serious face. She was growing, becoming fearless, ruthless, he had seen it coming, she was picking up more slack, asking more questions, she wanted to prove herself.

“You’re threating me mama?”

“And what if I am?”

She quickly not only proved herself, she became one of his most valuable members, she was his secret weapon, nobody would suspect a young little hotel receptionist being linked to them. She worked twice as hard and smarter than most if not all his men, advised him wisely and was always cool, calm and collected, she worked best under pressure. Scared little (y/n) felt like had never even happened, she was his soldier now, she had Micks status and Mick couldn’t be more proud, he had a soft spot for her.

“Hey mister policeman, Have some room for another criminal?”

She joked as she leaned at the door of her car, waiting for the new little boy toy to get out of the police station. Now the normal question is why is (y/n) around a police man, there is a two part answer to that. Great lover and also great cover, she was his little thing, so nobody would dare blame you for any crime, the girl of the police man being a gangster? it sounded like a joke.

“Depends on what crime we are talking about miss”

“I can think of a few, we can put those handcuffs to use”

As he approached her she smiled and took off her sunglasses. She looked amazing in her blue loose ripped jeans and a simple oversized white t shirt, a chain necklace around her neck and some nice rings on her fingers as her hair fell in front of her breasts, wearing a pair of high heels to style it up.

How you doing gorgeous?”

“Oh you know, thriving and surviving. How about you, I thought you had a day off today”

“Yes but I got assigned to a new case”

“Ohhhh should I be concerned? any criminal on the loose?”

“Not really, we are trying to find a link for this Rio guy”

Jackpot, this couldn’t have gone better. She tried to contain her smile and leaned back on the door, acting like nothing had happened.

“Oh I think you’ve mentioned him before, what did he do now?”

“Lots of things but motherfucker always slips away, chief thinks he has someone on the inside”

“Like a dirty cop?”

“Yes, so he wants me to look into it”

“Look at you, leading a case... Sexy”

The guy smiled at her, he was completely fooled and hooked. She hadn’t told anyone about her plan of seducing him to get information, she didn’t need to up until this point, yet what she did not calculate was Rio seeing her outside the police station talking to a fucking cop, the outmost enemy and being all close and cozy to him, acting all buddy buddy in broad daylight.

“I’m glad you like it miss”

“There’s a lot of things I like about you baby, anyway I have to go, I have a shift to clock in to”

“I’ll see ya later?”

“Maybe. Bye handsome”

At that (Y/n) got in her car and drove away. Rio was pissed, the girl he trusted and the girl he wanted was flirting with a policeman, how could she? He trusted her, taught her everything he knew, gave her everything with generosity and she was becoming a cops whore? Of course it wasn’t just about flirting with a cop, it was flirting with someone that wasn’t him.(Y/n) was a charming woman, he found her extremely attractive and she was even better now with the confidence she had gained over time, she was a woman he craved, the woman he wanted to have on his side, a queen that could hold the keys to his kingdom. Now all this was slowly shattering, no there had to be an explanation and he couldn’t wait to hear it.

Of course he could not just appear at her workplace, she was gracious enough to arrange a room for him incognito when Beth shot him, yet they had to act like strangers so all he could do was wait for her.

“Hey boss, sorry I’m late I had to take care of a few things”

“Like that cop friend of yours?”

She had barely closed the door of his office before he blurred it out, he had this whole plan of making her confess by herself, except when he saw her he lost control. Betrayal and confusion clouded his mind, as she stood there a bit dumbfounded for a quick moment before smirking at him.

“Stalking much?”

“I like to make sure my people are in line”

“Really? Is that why Beth is still walking around unharmed?”

He knew how much that had shook her up, (Y/n) took care of him almost as good as the doctor, she stayed with him until he fell asleep, helped him renew his bandages and anything else he needed, even though she never said it he was aware she was extremely concerned for him and he was grateful for her care, which made it even more complicated considering the fact that he was slowly becoming more addicted to her, needing and wanting more than she gave him.

“Let’s just cut to the shit, what were you doing there?”

“Talking”

“Talking? to a cop? what is this (y/n) huh?”

She sat in the chair calmly, any normal person would have either shit their pants or told him what they were planning right away. (Y/n) on the other hand found this amusing, she had grown tired of him doing things without considering the danger he was putting himself, especially when it came to Beth and the others, if it was anyone else they would have been six feet under the second Rio opened his eyes, now he had cut them in once again and had almost gotten Boss status.

“Yes, one of your little ladies is married to a cop, what’s the issue with me talking then?”

“Last time I check you ain’t never flapped your gums to a fed”

“I don’t flap my gums Rio, I have conversations and if you really want to know he is my new boy toy. He also was the one that told me about your case, how the fuck do you think I got the information? By holding interviews?”

Rio didn’t know how to feel, she was still working for him, had used her privilege to get information for him that had saved him a lot of money, however the whole “boy toy” thing did not sit well, she liked him, she gave him her time and even though she was stringing him along, she still had him in her life.

“You did what you were supposed to do and you got rewarded, so why you still talking to him”

“Don’t start the bullshit Rio, I’m not your daughter nor your girl so why do you care who am i fucking with”

“Where’s your fucking respect to your boss (y/n)?”

“Respect? how about where’s the respect for yourself? You let the suburban moms do whatever the fuck they are doing and I’m getting shit for having sex and getting you info from the feds?”

He was pushing it, he knew that and he didn’t care, it was time to reveal his cards and she was going to do the same, whether she liked it or not. Rio leaned back on his chair, his hand rubbing his chin as he looked at her, sitting there and looking right back at him, she wasn’t lying he knew that, she had a point for the suburban moms and she had expressed her disapproval for the little thing that was going on between him and Beth. What he did not understand was if she didn’t like it cause she was a tad bit jealous or because it fucked with their money and reputation?

“You are something else you know that?”

“Yet you still question my methods, if I remember correctly I wasn’t the one that planted three bullets in you”

“You are scared of losing me mama?”

She did not respond, she just turned and looked away from him. Of course (y/n) had picked up his little flirty remarks from time to time, she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit she had thought of how he would be in bed, how his embrace would feel, his raspy voice was enough to start fantasies enough to make a book.

“Let’s say I am, what are you scared of Rio? Why do you care who I’m sleeping with?”

“He is a cop”

“A handsome cop, I’m sure you noticed how nicely that uniform was on him, let me tell you it’s even better when he sweats”

“I don’t need to hear it”

“Why? Does it bother you Christopher?”

She raised herself from the seat and placed her hands on the desk, leaning closer to him and making her breasts show just enough as her back curved in a perfect little S, she focused in his eyes as her tongue went over her upper lip. Rio got closer to her, his hand reached her face, as he held on to the side of her head and his thumb went over the lower lip.

“You’re not for him mama”

“Why not?”

“A woman like you is not for no goody two shoes, you can do better”

“Really? like who?”

They could feel each others breaths, their faces were almost touching as they both spoke in whispers, this conversation was not meant for no one else, they didn’t even have to speak as their body language was saying everything it needed to be said. She felt her breath become more swallow, his scent was getting her a tad bit flustered and so was hers to him.

He wanted to take her right here and then, just the idea of her naked body was enough to drive him wild, her hair was so soft he could only imagine them stuck on her face from the sweat, the most amazing part was her lips, soft and full that made his mind go wild with the need to feel them in his lips and his body, the doors to her moans.

“I can show you better than I can tell you”

“Let’s get it then boss”

#rio x reader #rio imagine #rio x you #rio x oc #good girls rio #good girls nbc #rio good girls #good girls imagine #nbc good girls #manny montana imagine #manny montana x reader #manny montana x you #manny montana #good girls x reader #good girls rio x reader #good girls rio nbc #rio

818 notes · View notes

knives-out20 · 3 years ago

Text

The Impact Of The Intergalactic - David Bowie Opinion Essay - by Beck S.

This is an essay I wrote about the span of David Bowie's career. I wrote it for a summer school course I took last year (August 2021) for a course called History of Rock & Roll.

My teacher gave nice feedback after he marked it, talking about how it was an "Excellent paper. It charts Bowie's progress throughout his career well, and includes significant detail. I could really feel the passion you have about him throughout. In fact, there is *too much* detail! The paper was supposed to be 3 pages max, double-spaced. Still, this is a good problem to have; better too much than too little."

So...enjoy!!

From his early works like Hunky Dory, to Black Tie White Noise in the 1990’s and stretching over to Blackstar as his final album, David Bowie has rarely had a bad album or song- in my opinion. His career has had ups and downs, his musical creations ranging in the way he would pitch his voice and what instruments he would use, the people he would produce with, and the wild things he would say. Charting David Bowie’s development over time is in fact an interesting journey.

Early on in his dreamy career, Bowie would have done nearly anything- or in fact, anyone- to grow in the music world. Hopping from band to band (like The Velvet Underground), producer to producer, doing whatever he could do to get ‘in’ in the industry. His early albums weren’t taken very highly in their times- especially with the ‘man-dress’ he wore on the British release of his The Man Who Sold The World album. Although, this dress was only the start of the androgynous appearance he would soon be known for, over the course of his 5-decade-spanning career.

The 1970’s were strange, to say the least. He married Angela Bowie at the start of the decade, then welcomed their son Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones a year later. Bowie went on to be hopped up on cocaine. David donned the look of one of his famous personas, The Thin White Duke. The same persona with slicked-back ginger hair, a white button-up under a black waistcoat and paired with black dress pants. The same Duke who called Adolf Hitler one of the first ‘rock stars’ and gave off a lot of faschist energy. He said many statements he’d later apologize for and grow as a better man from, which is good- it’s better than standing by then, or even backing himself up and supporting them. David Bowie called that period the darkest days of his life, and blamed the crazy statements on his horrid addiction and deteriorating mental state. The late 1970’s were more favorable, seeing as it gave the world what was dubbed the Berlin Trilogy alongside Brian Eno and David’s personal friend, Iggy Pop. Made up of three of his albums: Low and Heroes (both in 1977) and Lodger (1978). He moved from Los Angeles to Switzerland, then to Berlin as a further decision to escape his addiction (the reason he moved away from LA in the first place). It was in Berlin, of course, where he wrote his famous song Heroes, about two lovers, one from East Berlin and one from West.

Speaking of Berlin, David Bowie performed near the west of the Berlin Wall in 1987; he played so loud that crowds gathered on the east to listen. At this time, Bowie had no idea he would be the beginning of the city’s soon-coming unifying. After his death in 2016, the German government thanked him for bringing the wall down and unifying a divided Germany.

Music isn’t all he is known for, though it is a majority. He also starred in movies from time to time. Being the titular man in The Man Who Fell To Earth in 1976, Jareth the moody goblin king in Jim Henson’s 1986 Labyrinth film (what is most likely his most famous role), Monte the barman in the 1991 movie The Linguini Incident, cameoing as himself in Zoolander (2001), Nikola Tesla in the 2006 movie The Prestige, and even Lord Royal Highness in Spongebob Squarepants’ Atlantis Squarepantis in 2007, among a few others. David Bowie dabbled in the art of acting, and was not that bad at it. He was good enough to gain a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, too. Sometimes it bends my mind that my first introduction to my all-time favourite musician was in a Spongebob Squarepants movie, back before I knew who he was, but David Bowie was never one to shy away from foreshadowing. At least one song from many of his albums would hint at the direction he’d go in for his next release. For example, his track Queen Bitch on Hunky Dory foreshadowed his soon-coming Ziggy Stardust. And the Diamond Dogs track 1984 actually hinted at the Philadelphian soul of Young Americans, which is a more famous song of his, which he went on to perform on The Cher Show with its host.

The 1990’s were certainly an experimental time for David Bowie. But to my knowledge, I think the 1990’s was a time for everyone. He married supermodel Iman some days after performing at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, and released the album I named earlier, Black Tie White Noise. It is known to have had a prominent use of electronic instruments, as was his other 1990’s album, Earthling. The early 1990’s greeted David’s first real band since the Spiders From Mars, dubbed Tin Machine. They recorded three guitar-driven albums which received mixed reviews from the masses, but Bowie looks back at this period- as do I- with a certain fondness; “a glorious disaster” he called it, when talking to journalist Mick Brown. Tin Machine is a period I don’t listen to often, compared to his solo stuff, but I don’t press the skip button when it comes on.

Alas, the starman’s career drew to a close as the 2000s rolled in. David Bowie greeted the 2000’s with the birth of his and Iman’s daughter, the beautiful Alexandria Zahra Jones. After suffering a- strange, as it were- heart attack symptoms mid-song during a concert in 2004, he took a hiatus from his career. I say strange because given what I know, he was trying his best to stay healthy at the time. According to my special Rolling Stone edition magazine about David Bowie (released at the start of this year), he was on tour and performing in a really hot arena. But Bowie was sober, and had quit smoking. He was taking medication to lower his cholesterol, and worked out with a trainer. Bowie looked great, and yet he felt a pain in his shoulder and chest, along with a shortness for breath. A bodyguard rushed onstage to usher Bowie off of it, cutting the concert short. He only performed live once or twice after that point, but was set on never going live ever again. And he kept his word on that, unfortunately but also fortunately. Unfortunately, because David Bowie live would have been quite the experience- I wouldn’t know, personally. But fortunately, because I do not believe anyone needs a repeat of the 2004 Reality scare.

I am actually not too fond of speaking of his final years. Nobody really likes to speak of the last years of their idols’ life before their death, so it’s no surprise. Blackstar was David Bowie’s 25th and final album, recorded entirely in secret in New York alongside his long-time producer, Tony Visconti. The album's central theme lyrically is mortality, and seeing as Bowie was undergoing chemotherapy for his cancer at the time, I see it as his way of coping with his incoming death. His producer Tony Visconti called him a ‘canny bastard’, when he realized Bowie was essentially writing a farewell album. Every song on the album is what is considered a swan song, a swan song in question being a phrase for a final gesture of some sort before retirement or death. In this case, death. Over the course of recording the album, David Bowie’s chemotherapy had actually been working and he had an eerie optimism while recording. But by the time they shot the two music videos Blackstar and Lazarus, where he showed off the definite passage of time and cruelty of chemotherapy through sparse and gray hair with sagging skin, he knew his condition was terminal and that this would be a battle he would lose. Blackstar wasn’t the first album to have been made by a musician succumbing to a fatal illness, but in my opinion it is in fact the most beautiful. It’s jazzy, and elegant, showing how at peace he had become with dying.

Blackstar the album was released on January 8th, 2016. Also known as David Bowie’s 69th birthday. Two days later, David Bowie died at his Lafayette Street home on January 10th after living with liver cancer for up to 18 months. Beforehand, he had let it be known he did not want a funeral nor a burial, but rather that his body be cremated and the ashes to be scattered in Bali by his loved ones. His wish was received, and planet Earth was very much bluer and quieter without his colour and wonderful noise.

As I said earlier on, David Bowie’s career came with ups and downs. His mysteriously close relationship with Mick Jagger, his cross with famous underage groupie Lori Maddox, the births of his two talented children, his faschist bender in the 70’s, and final bang of Blackstar in his final year on earth. Through the highs and lows, his career and his music meant a lot to the quote-unquote misfits and freaks of the world, myself included. David Bowie turned and faced the strange, shouted “you’re not alone!” To those who felt the loneliest, he surely spent his career helping those who needed to be themselves, feel more freer and braver in doing so, no matter what they may be when they are themselves. He never went boring, he never went stale, he sang what he wanted and dressed how he pleased, and kept to his word on how much more to life there is when you’re just that; yourself. A year after David Bowie’s untimely passing, his son Duncan Jones accepted an award for British album of the year that was won by Blackstar at the 37th annual Brit Awards. When he accepted it, he made a speech about his father that I will leave here, and never forget. Seeing as it perfectly encapsulates David Bowie’ legacy, and the true meaning of his extraordinary career.

“I lost my dad last year, but I also became a dad. And, uhm, I was spending a lot of time- after getting over the shock- of trying to work out what would I want my son to know about his granddad? And I think it would be the same thing that most of my dad's fans have taken over the last 50 years. That he’s always been there supporting people who think they’re a little bit weird or a little bit strange, a little bit different, and he’s always been there for them. So...this award is for all the kooks, and all the people who make the kooks. Thanks, Brits, and thanks to his fans.” - Duncan Z. H. Jones (February 22 2017, at The O2 Arena in London.)

14 notes · View notes

mego42 · 5 years ago

Text

Writer Asks

Tagged by @sothischickshe, @bourbon-ontherocks and @medievalraven who are all v lovely and for reasons unknown to me, want me to ramble about my fic so like, blame them for this I guess

Tagging @fairhairedkings, @riosnecktattoo, @inyoursheets, @foxmagpie, @pynkhues if you feel like it

ao3 name: ms_scarlet (origin story no one asked for: I came up with it for a creative writing class where we had to submit everything under pseudonyms for anonymous full class critique, which was gr9 and not at all traumatic, and I was deeply obsessed with both the Grateful Dead and Sublime versions of Scarlet Begonias at the time)

fandoms: the only fandoms I’ve written fic for are bellarke/t100 and Good Girls (and Buffy but it was way back in the day, pre-organized archives and has been completely lost to time which is For The Best)

number of fics: 14 (lol, 5 over the course 3 years in t100 fandom and 9 since joining the GG fandom at the beginning of s3, you could say I have been inspired)

fic i spent the most time on: a song inside the halls of the dark for sure, it’s the first multi chapter I’ve ever done and I’m far enough into it that I will be super honest, I was extremely dubious over whether or not I’d actually see it through when I started but huzzah! It’s happening. But yeah, I spend like, a lot of time thinking about it, writing it (lmao obvs), rewatching clips of the show to pick apart characterization and mannerisms, etc, etc. I try to work on it in some capacity every day (sometimes that just means outlining or deleting chunks of my outline and crying about how much I hate myself) to keep up momentum so yeah, def that one.

As far as one shots go, there’s blood in my body (I’m holding on) for bellarke, I think I spent a month, maybe 6 weeks working on that

fic i spent the least amount of time on: as the world turns, the blunt burns, I was doing my usual lazy Saturday morning scroll through Tumblr before I got out of bed and saw a post like I want beth and mick to get high together (I would love to give credit but I haven’t the foggiest notion who said it, I wasn’t intending to write it so I didn’t pay too much attention, I’m the worst, I’m sorry) and then some dialogue popped into my head maybe 10 min later and I think I wrote the whole thing in like, 45 min on my phone. Cannot emphasize enough how little I thought about it (or proofed it tbh, yikes, so many typos) before posting

most hits: overall, I’ve Got You Here my t100 post s3, alt s4 thing. For Good Girls, a song inside the halls of the dark

most kudos: overall, there’s blood in my body (I’m holding on) - bellarke modern au. For GG, still song.

most comment threads: a song inside the halls of the dark by a M I L E (it twice as many as blood, the next highest), the GG fandom is so lovely and supportive and friendly and I love you guys, I really do

most bookmarks: same as kudos, blood overall and then song for GG

highest total word count: lol song is killing it

favorite fic i wrote: oh man, that’s hard. I love them all for different reasons. Blood was my first ever AU (I am a canon/canon-divergent ho) and it also deals with some stuff that’s important to me so that’s always going to have a special place in my heart. I’ve Got You Here was the first time I tried to tackle something bigger than a missing scene or short one-shot so that’s also significant.

I’m really proud of smoke, fire, it’s all going up because I think I did a p good job with the Rio POV there. I’d give her a HA! And a HI-YA! is special bc it’s my first outside POV and it was based on so little info it was basically OC, so that was a fun challenge.

All of that said, obviously, a song inside the halls in the dark is my fav. It’s been the biggest stretch of my skills (I had NO! IDEA! If I could plot and pace on the level required to sustain the fic I’d originally outlined and it’s only grown from there tbh), it’s also been like, the loveliest experience? I keep saying people’s reaction to it has broken my brain and I’m not actually just saying that. I’m deeply overwhelmed. And last but emphatically not least, it’s how I’ve gotten to know @nickmillerscaulk who, on top of being an incredible editor (seriously y’all, she is Skilled, I’ve learned so much from her), is such an awesome, amazing person and I’m so very glad we’ve become friends.

fic i want to rewrite/expand on: Oh man, idk. Pills N Potions is the easiest because it’s a prompt collection! Send me prompts! I can’t promise I’ll write them right away (my ADHD is so very real and only dubiously under my control during quarantine, so I live in constant terror of losing the thread of song especially this close to the end) but I def want to flex my quick and dirty short fic for funsies skills. I’m super looking forward to @goodgirlsficrecs prompt-a-thon.

share a bit of a wip or story idea you’re working on: ahahaha oh man, my google drive is littered with partially drafted or outlined ideas. I have a bunch of missing scene things I started at various points in s3 that are realistically dead in the water.

In terms of WIP/ideas I’m still intending to work on/finish:

A post 311 Rio POV pwp

A fishing/fencing/flute playing fluff for @medievalraven because I keep taunting her with my tags for song

The Good Guys (Rio, JT and Stan) thing that snowballed in a post way back when from @jazillia007, @nickmillerscaulk, and @inyoursheets

I still low-key want to do the transcripts for the Mick, Annie and Ruby group chat. I might save that for whenever I rewatch and have it running concurrently to s3, idk we’ll see

A Jewel Thief AU that I am wildly hyped about. I outlined the first chapter of it around when I started posting song and haven’t let myself do anything with it because I know once I get started I’m going to abandon whatever else I’m working on

More Annie POV, I don’t have any specific ideas, I just really love writing Annie POV

#tag games #my fic

33 notes · View notes

rushingheadlong · 5 years ago

Text

A review of Queen: The Early Years

Well I have finally finished reading Queen: The Early Years, and now that I have read all 198 pages of this book I feel very confident in saying:

Yall I don’t think this is a good book. Like I really, really do not think this is a good book.

I’ve talked about some of this once or twice before, but I wanted to get all my thoughts about this in one place so, here we go. Brace yourselves, this is going to get wordy (as all my posts invariably do).

The Sources (or lack thereof)

The author wrote this book based on interviews with “over 60 friends and colleagues” of the band. Contrary to an earlier post of mine, he does provide a full list of the people he spoke with, however a lot of these connections are... dubious at best.

He does interview former band members of the groups they were each with before Queen, which might be the only good bits of this book. But a lot of the people he talked to fall under “friends of friends” or “casual acquaintances” or “knew them for a few months decades ago” and not really people who had deep insights into Queen as people, which is fine but he’s presenting their information as if they did.

He also doesn’t give any qualifiers for the information presented - and unless it’s a direct quote from someone, he doesn’t even tell you where he’s getting 90% of the “facts” in his book from. There are no in-text citations, apart from those sporadic quotes, and no bibliography list anywhere in this book.

Instead, he just presents everything he’s writing as the absolute truth with next to nothing to back up what he’s saying, apart from cherry-picked quotes from people who have their own biases in these conversations to begin with. He writes about how many of these people fell out of touch with Queen for 30+ years, and there are several moments during reading where I was wondering whether these stories that were being quoted were true or if it’s the sort of thing that these people made up for the purpose of getting their name in print (especially stories about Freddie).

In the interest of fairness, he does admit in the two-page epilogue that he knows the people he talks to will have their own slant to their stories but he claims that all biographies are “a random assembly of thoughts and recollections” as if to absolve himself of the work of verifying anything being told to him, or at least putting in the effort to let the reader know that things cannot be verified rather than simply presenting everything as pure objective fact.

Authorial Bias and Band Portrayal

The author very much comes across as writing about the band to fit his preconceived ideas of who they are. There are definitely points in the book where he presents images of the band that almost seem like caricatures - Freddie made out to be the deeply self-loathing gay who everyone knew wasn’t actually straight, Brian to be the aloof controlling perfectionist - with little to no nuance given to their actions or stories.

But there are also a lot of moments when it seems like the author doesn’t like the band at all and that he’s writing this book in an attempt to tarnish their image?

Like I wrote in one of my earlier posts, he literally says that Freddie and Brian had the power in the band and that Roger and John had “token” roles. He also implies that Queen only started attributing songwriting credit to the band as a whole beginning with The Miracle to prevent singles royalties from going to Freddie’s estate when he died. The author also often feels the need to put the blame for failed friendships solely on the band, and on several occasions implies that they “betrayed” the people who helped them out in their early career.

Because of this, and because he conveniently doesn’t provide sources for anything he says, it makes me call into question basically everything he writes in this book. Are these stories and facts all accurate, or is he spinning the truth to fit the story he wants to tell?

It’s worth noting also that he apparently asked Brian, Roger, and John for their input, and they and all their official representatives declined. It’s always a red flag for me when someone writes about Queen without the band’s involvement, but the author presents this situation as if he had been deeply wronged by this and implies that any bias in the book was because he didn’t have “their” side of the story - and not because he simply failed to do any work to validate what 60+ strangers were telling him.

I also want to give a warning that how he writes about Freddie’s sexuality is painful in a lot of places. It’s a combination of ideas that don’t hold up well in the 25 years since publication (for example, he says in one place that since Freddie went to an all-boys boarding school it was obvious that he would end up being queer) as well as loose anecdotes shared by people who didn’t know him well, but all felt that they had to give input about his sexuality.

It feels like every time this author interviewed someone about Freddie, he felt obligated to include their “opinion” on whether it was obvious that Freddie was gay in the early 70s or not. It’s a heavy and strange focus that gets really uncomfortable to read about after a while, and one that I don’t think is really appropriate to have been included to the degree that it was.

Misinformation

The author flat-out puts wrong information into this book. I will admit that most of what I picked up on during my read is trivial, but it’s the sort of trivial that makes me question his authority to write anything accurately and also (I believe) has led to misinformation being spread in other Queen writings.

He says that Brian’s parents could have afforded to buy him a guitar, and that the building of the Red Special was essentially an act of ego. This is directly contrary to everything that Brian has ever said on the topic, which is that his family was too poor to afford to buy him a guitar and that the Red Special was built out of an act of necessity. (This also ties into the author’s biased writing of Brian as a controlling perfectionist.)

He gives incorrect dates for concerts and tour information, as can be proven by other first-hand sources like ticket stubs and tour posters. (For example, he says that Queen played six shows in New York’s Uris Theatre in 1974, when we know they only played five.) Again, this is a minor thing but if he’s getting details like this wrong why should I trust his broader stories or conclusions that have no other verifying sources to be correct?

I also think his book is the origination for the story about Brian getting gangrene due to a dirty vaccine needle in 1974. I have a problem with this claim in that I don’t think it’s actually true, but this book is now the earliest source of the story that I’ve seen by over a decade. However since the author doesn’t cite anything in this book, I have no idea how he found this information (or whether he made it up himself).

I also suspect that this is the book that Mick Rock copied information from when compiling the timeline in his book Classic Queen, which was published 12 years later in 2007. Mick Rock not only copies the gangrene story (again, with no further information or citations given) but also includes a very specific reference to Brian complaining about not feeling well while on tour on April 21st, 1974 - a date which is also specifically referenced in The Early Years, again without any citation for where this information came from.

No one takes Mick Rock seriously as a good source for Queen information (beyond info about the photo sessions themselves, which is about the only thing within his scope of expertise). Now it seems like he might have copied those “facts” from this book, which means we might very well have a situation of one questionable book being copied by another until misinformation and lies get assumed to be true just because they’re in more than one place now, never mind that none of this is getting backed up by anything concrete.

Tiny details because I’m big mad about this book just in general

Maybe this is just my copy (which is a physical book, not a digital copy) but there are a lot of typos in this book. Mike Grose becomes Mike Crouse from one paragraph to the next. Words are misspelled, punctuation is missing... It’s a little jarring to see in a book that was actually physically printed up, and makes me wonder if this went through any sort of editing process whatsoever.

Conclusions, or something of the sort?

I need to admit here that I am very angry about this book, because particularly in the later chapters I think the author starts speculating about band dynamics and things from later in their career in a way that is entirely wrong and inappropriate.

However, for the most part, I did enjoy the first part of this book. Roger’s and John’s early chapters seemed to be fine (and from what I’ve been told, the information in Roger’s chapters is backed up in other, better researched, sources). The book started falling apart for me around Brian’s and Freddie’s chapters, though, and as it progressed it just kept going off the rails.

I’m actually really frustrated and disappointed by this, because there’s a lot in this book that reads like it could be true. There’s a lot here that sounds very believable, that seems to align with what others have said about the band, and that I didn’t blink twice at until the cracks started showing up and everything got called into question.

There’s nothing exactly wrong with writing a “biography” based solely on loose anecdotes, especially given that this was written in 1995 shortly after Freddie’s death and before a lot of the more contemporary sources had come out (like Brian’s books and the things him and Roger have said in more recent years).

But I do think that the author has a responsibility for doing some vetting of these stories, either by trying to verify what’s been said or making it apparent to the reader that some of the information is hearsay or has to be taken with a grain of salt. The Early Years doesn’t do that, though. This book is presenting itself as a labor of love from a tired, dedicated author who has toiled over tracking down these stories while being rebuffed by the band itself, and at no point does anything come with a caveat about what’s being said.

The author wants you read this book and assume everything in it is true. The author wants you to feel sorry for him that he couldn’t interview Queen directly, and frankly it seems like he wants you to side-eye the official Queen story (or at least question their morals and motives) in favor of agreeing with the narrative that he presents.

And that’s the big issue that I have with this book. Most of the information in here could very well be true - but as a reader, you aren’t given the tools you need to judge that for yourself and instead are encouraged to sympathize with the author and his work, and to take what he says as objective fact and not look at any of it too deeply.

And because of that, the entire book falls apart for me. If I know that the author is printing small details of misinformation, and I don’t have any way of verifying what is being printed here, and the author starts presenting conclusions and narratives that run counter to everything else that has been said about Queen... how can I trust that anything in this book is accurate on it’s own?

#text #long post //#ramblings

22 notes · View notes

firesoulstuff · 4 years ago

Note

Captain Canary + Soulmates have a set of coordinates where they will meet their soulmate

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12378978/chapters/62394961

It’s safe to say that when they decided to blow up The Oculus the Legends really had no idea what was about to happen to the universe. One thing none of them were expecting was to come out of the mission with the sudden appearance of coordinate tattoos on their wrists; all of them different.

“Oh hell,” Had been Rip’s groaning response to the tattoos. “This is one of those universes.”

“What do you mean?”

Kendra had asked and Rip, looking all suffering as ever, had sighed.

“In about half of the realities that exist within the multiverse people are born with a mark of some sort that is supposed to signify a soulmate. Apparently this universe was among them before The Time Master’s took control of The Oculus.”

Sara had furrowed her brow, crossed her arms, and taken a threatening step forward.

“Soulmates? Didn’t we just destroy The Oculus so we wouldn’t have any of this pre-determined crap?”

“We destroyed the Time Masters’ hold on The Oculus.” He answered her, meeting her glare. “But The Oculus itself is essentially time condensed. It doesn’t control anything, but it knows what will happen.”

That hadn’t been overly reassuring in the wake of Leonard’s death.

But, Sara learned to live with it.

The coordinate tattoos weren’t hard to figure out; they represent where two soulmates are supposed to meet.

At least, that’s what everything tells them.

It seems to work for everyone except for Sara, because she doesn’t have any coordinates.

She has a mark, but where everyone else has the latitude, longitude, and even letters for direction she has dashes. She has the degree symbols, the apostrophes, and the periods, but between them all where the rest of the world has numbers she has dashes.

“Maybe it has something to do with being at The Vanishing Point when The Oculus blew.” Kendra suggests before she leaves. “Mine and Carter’s coordinates don’t lead back to Egypt, or where we first met in this life. Instead it’s where we were first reunited after The Oculus.”

She nods along and gives an unconvinced “maybe,” but ultimately she isn’t sure believes Kendra. The rest of the team was at The Vanishing Point to, and they all have normal marks.

She tries not to think about it much, and as time goes on that gets easier. Of course there are exceptions, such as Ray and later on Nate’s easy reading of coordinates leading to them both knowing right away when they’ve met their soulmates.

Whatever, bigger problems, as always.

Actually, today her mark isn’t even on her mind. Today she is far more interested in relaxing and doing some maintenance around the ship, especially since Behrad is off with both Zari’s trying to explain the whole split timeline thing to their parents. So that’s what she’s doing, maintenance, on Gideon’s main console system to be specific, when she hears Nate yelp.

She growls, so much for getting anything done today.

“Uh… Sara?”

She’s already crawling backwards, setting down her wrench and getting to her feet. She’s bracing herself for whatever he is about to say.

But, instead of saying anything, he is pointing one shaking finger at something through the window pains.

She squints as she moves closer, her eyes trying to process the rather large shape suspended in front of them in the green and yellow of the time stream and then she gasps.

It’s a body.

More than a body, she realizes quickly, it’s Leonard Snart.

She reaches out an arm towards Nate, her fingers barely brushing his bicep.

“Call Ray.” She orders, though her voice is barely a whisper.

And her eyes do not move.

Ray comes, quickly, and between him in his suit and a very sturdy rope they manage to get Leonard brought on board The Waverider.

The atmosphere around the rescue is tense. Between Sara, Mick, and even Ray not wanting to get their hopes too high, and John and Nate knowing Leonard’s history with the team but not having been there for it, you can feel the air on the ship growing heavier with every passing minute even after Gideon confirms that this is their Leonard.

Something Sara really can’t believe.

She has Gideon double check twice, and then three times to confirm the lack of consciousness is really the only detectible problem with him. Ray and Nate start spouting theories right around then about how the temporal zone must have kept Leonard’s body in stasis all this time. They also argue about how he was never launched out of it.

Sara doesn’t have it in her to listen.

Eventually everyone but her clears out of the med bay. Mick is the last to go, but he does go, telling her Lita has a soccer game and he’ll check in again when he gets back.

Somewhere in the back of her mind it processes that in 2020 soccer season ended months ago.

She thinks about leaving too, but it would be cruel to allow Leonard to wake up alone so she pulls up a chair and sits in wait.

She doesn’t end up waiting for long.

It’s barely an hour before he starts to stir, his eyes scrunching before they crack open. He looks confused, and he starts to sit himself up but then he notices her, and he closes his eyes again with a sigh.

“Please tell me I’m alive.” He murmurs, and while she wants to laugh outright she thinks that might scare him, so she settles for a smirk.

“You’re alive crook.” She says, and the feel of that name on her lips makes it impossible to hide her genuine smile.

Good thing his eyes are still closed.

Her face does fall, after a moment, because he is alive but… Well, as far as they’ve been concerned, he hasn’t been.

She leans forward in her chair, her elbows balancing on her thighs and her hands wring together. His eyes are still closed, but she can tell he’s paying her his full attention. He’s listening, intently, even if he is too tired or embarrassed to look at her.

“How long do you think you’ve been out?”

He shrugs, and his eyes crack open, his expression thoughtful.

“A few hours, maybe a day.”

He rolls his head up against the back of the chair, craning his neck to look at her.

“How long was it really?”

She bites at the inside of her lip and glances down to her folded fingers for a moment.

“Four years.”

She watches the air leave his body.

He blinks and starts to sit up. She watches as he stares out into the med bay at nothing in particular. For a long moment the two of them sit in silence. In fact the silence lasts for so long Sara starts to wonder if maybe she should go and come back later; give him some time alone to process.

Except before she can bring herself to leave him he brings his eyes down to look himself over and his brows knit together with confusion.

“Who gave me a tattoo?”

She’s able to smile and emit a small laugh at that, at least until he pulls up his sleeve and turns his wrist out to show her his newly acquired marking, as if to tell her he’s serious.

The smile falls from her face.

No coordinates.

Degree symbols, apostrophes, and periods, but no letters or numbers. In place of those he has dashes, just like her.

Suddenly her mind is catapulted back to Kendra and how she said her and Carter’s marks represent the place they were first reunited after the explosion at The Oculus rather than where they first met before the wellspring was destroyed.

Leonard is still looking at her for an explanation, but his eyes drop down and she notices she has at some point grabbed hold of the cuff to her own sleeve, one finger dipping below it and running across the dashes marked there on her skin.

Dashes that suddenly make sense.

The temporal zone is everywhere and nowhere all at once. There is no way to mark this place on a map.

This place where she is reunited with Leonard for the first time since The Oculus.

“It’s a long story.” She says, and on a whim she does pull her sleeve up to show him her matching mark.

He looks surprised, but not like he suspects she did this to him.

“Cards?”

10 notes · View notes

candyheartharry · 5 years ago

Text

Go Your Own Way - Part 1

Hello, hello! I know I brought this up a while ago, a good collection of people seemed interested, so sorry it took me a while to touch it up and post it, but here’s Go Your Own Way, which as stated previously is based off a tweet I once say for a Mamma Mia!-esque movie using Fleetwood Mac songs and starring Harry. OBVIOUSLY I once again have a playlist which can be found right here This first part is roughly 2k words for a shorter little intro piece before we dive in a little deeper, please please please let me know what you think and as always I hope you enjoy! 💕The film of the same name stars Harry as our lead, who on screen is the frontman of an up and coming band called The Silk Roses in the mid-70′s, while our female lead (who also wrote and directed the film) plays his not-so-obvious love interest when she joins the band singing background vocals at the suggestion of the band’s guitarist who met her through her brother. During the day she manages the record shop her father had started, while her brother runs a recording studio out of the back where The Silk Roses recorded their early demos. Off camera, Harry and the main character have become close friends, and sometimes acting as someone’s love interest can be hard to drop when the cameras aren’t rolling.

“She’s a real triple threat if I’ve ever met one.”

“What do you mean triple? All we did in the film was sing and act!”

“Well, yeah, but you wrote it too, didn’t you? I’d say that definitely counts for something.”

“The question was ‘What did you learn the most about the other while working on the movie’ so my answer would be that Harry likes to make jokes, but can’t take jokes.”

At the fourth and final interview for the last day of the press tour, the two main leads answered yet another round of questions, this time doing a special feature for Vogue’s 73 question’s segment while taking them on a tour of the set. Harry was obviously well known for the countless accolades he had collected throughout his career, while she was the rising starlet about to make her “triple threat” debut for writing, directing, and starring as the lead in her own film. If she was going to write a role for someone to play Harry Styles’ love interest, who better for the role than herself? The film, a movie musical about the personal lives of a band on the cusp of fame in the mid-70’s with a soundtrack composed exclusively of Fleetwood Mac songs, was set to debut at the end of the month in New York City at Radio City Music Hall, so this final day of interviews was likely to be the last time the costars would see each other until the release.

After answering the final questions for the interview while leading the interviewer back to the parking lot, the pair made their way back to the trailers to collect their things before going their separate ways. While they had formally been given their own trailers, they had grown so close during the filming process they ended up informally sharing one the majority of the time; what had started as an accident after quickly rushing back from sneaking off site during an ensemble rehearsal time and throwing all their belongings in one dressing room before running to set had grown into a habit. Although the film had wrapped months ago, there was a good majority of the promo that was filmed on location, so naturally they fell back into the habit of unintentionally sharing a dressing room to spare each of them from having to cut their conversations short, especially this time around since they hadn’t seen each other nearly as much as they did during filming.

“So have you already gotten your arrangements to New York straightened out?” Harry asked once the two of them reached his dressing room; he took a seat at the swiveling chair in front of the vanity mirror while she took up her usual spot on his couch next to his entirely too expensive Gucci throw pillows and an acoustic guitar. “Yeah, I’m getting there a couple days ahead just to have some downtime, what about you?” she asked as she tucked her feet underneath her and held one of the pink pillows to her chest. He held out his hand for her to pass his guitar over to him, and once he had it in his hands, he absentmindedly played a few notes to a song as he replied.

“Yeah, I’m gonna get into town pretty early. I’ve got a flight out tomorrow, so I’ll be in town about two weeks.” He kept his focus on the guitar in his lap while he spoke to her, and glanced up for just a moment before he carried on with his thoughts. “You should let me know once you’re in town and we could go to dinner or something,” Harry tried to say as casually as he could, while in the meantime she held her grip on the pillow a little more tightly at his proposal.

“There’s bound to be another twenty-five headlines about how me might be dating if we do,” she attempted to say as coolly as she could, not about to turn him down, but wanting to make sure he actually really wants to. “You get used to them,” he shrugged, not looking up from his guitar. He had already made up his mind that if she turns him down now, he would ask again once they’re both actually in the city, so really she didn’t have a choice in the matter, although he’d really like a confirmed yes from her now. “But if you really don’t want to be seen out with me, you can always just come by my apartment,” he continued, glancing up at her again, knowing he’ll break her down eventually, but not knowing that he never really has to at all since she’d say yes to nearly anything he asked her.

She rolled her eyes at him and shook her head as he continued to play his guitar with that stupid smirk on his face. “Why are you so insistent on the fact that you think I don’t like you? Explain to me where you would get that idea?” she pressed, letting go of how firmly she’s gripping the pillow to fold her hands on top of it. He stopped playing his guitar and for the first time this entire conversation he properly looked up at her.

“So we’re going to dinner once you get into the city; if you don’t tell me when you’re arriving, I’ll just have somebody get in touch with the premiere coordinator and they’ll let me know when you’re supposed to get there. You don’t have to come if you really don’t want to, but I’d really like it if you came,” he said with a soft smile, melting her heart that would do anything for him.

“Harry, you know I’d always go to dinner with you, you never have to try to convince me,” she said reassuringly, matching his smile. He went back to playing his guitar before he could stare at her too long and start to blush. She’s got a question that’s been on her mind since day one of pre-production, and once he was cast for the lead role in the film that she wrote, she knew Harry would be the best person to ask.

“So is anybody you know coming to the premiere?” she tried to ask casually.

“No not this one, my mum and my sister are coming to the one in London. Your family coming?” he asked while she watched his fingers dance across the strings. “I’m not sure, they haven’t said for sure yet,” she took a moment’s pause before she gets to her actual point of asking. “Would you happen to know if Stevie is gonna be able to make it?” she asked trying to sound nonchalant about the concept, hopeful that he can pull some strings, but not getting her hopes up in case it doesn’t work out. She had been at the same events as Stevie Nicks about three times now, but they’ve never been able to actually be introduced.

“Last I talked to her she said she would like to but might have rehearsals scheduled that day, so it kind of depends on what she’s got going on,” Harry replied as he started to play a different song. “If I hear one way or another from her, I’ll let you know,” he added with a knowing smile, very familiar with all that she’s told him about how she’s nearly met her more than once now, but never quite gets the opportunity to. “I think Mick might be coming? Maybe Christine?” he threw in, hoping an appearance by some other members of Fleetwood Mac would still be good enough for her fangirl heart.

“I’d be honored to properly meet any of them, I can’t believe you just talk about them so casually. It still blows my mind you’re practically adopted into the family collectively by all of them together,” she said exasperatedly. She had never missed the opportunity to let him know how jealous she was of his connections to one of her favorite bands since the day she met him. He abruptly stopped playing in the middle of his second song.

“You know, sometimes I really wonder if you wanted me in your movie just so I could introduce you to the band, you know that?” he teased, to which she calmly and casually placed the pillow she had been holding back down on the couch before standing up. She motioned for him to hand over the guitar and placed it behind her on the couch as well before she walked over to him and placed her hands on the arms of his chair, leaning down so they were nearly eye level so he’s forced to look at her directly.

“We’re friends, aren’t we, Harry?” she asked casually.

“I mean at this rate we’ve known each other for a little over a year now, so I’d hope so,” he replied with a smirk.

She leaned in just a little bit closer - any closer and one might argue it’s pushing the boundaries of just friendship she had just asked him to confirm - and continued. She softly brushed back a strand of his hair behind his ear and gently cupped his jaw in one of her hands, the feather light touches against his face being something that their friendship isn’t accustomed to off camera. “Let’s make it very clear that I’d push you off of a bridge to meet Stevie Nicks and not think twice about it,” she said before giving a soft kiss to his cheek and a gentle pat to his jaw, after which she collected her purse from the vanity behind him before heading to the door to leave.

Before she exited, she turned around to him one last time, where he remained looking both a touch shocked and surprised in his seat. “I’ll let you know once I’m in New York, if you don’t take me to dinner, I’ll be very personally offended. See you soon!” she announced with a quick wave over her shoulder before she was out the door, leaving Harry with his heart racing as he turned to face the mirror behind him, his fingers gently going to the place she kissed on his cheek where he finally let a flustered smile make his way to his face. Mixed signals on exactly how close they were as friends was another trend they had developed during filming; it was almost expected and it seemed as if it hadn’t ended once the project wrapped.

#actor!harry #Harry Styles #harry styles fic #harry styles one shot #harry fic #actor!harry fic #harry one shot #harry imagine #harry styles imagine #fleetwood mac #harry series #writing #styles #go your own way #vintage harry #70s harry

131 notes · View notes

sodalitefully · 5 years ago

Text

Sumthin’ for Nuthin’ (part 1), Mick Mars/Nikki Sixx AU

An AU based on the lyrics to Motley’s Sumthin’ for Nuthin’. Set sometime in 1980, Nikki is 21 and Mick is 29. Mick’s wife in this fic is based off of the woman he dated in the early 80s (aka The Thing), as she is described in The Dirt (normally I don’t write too much about the real relationships the guys were in, out of respect, but like, she fucking hit him, man).

Mick had it all worked out: He’d tell his wife he was working a late shift, then he’d drive down to the Strip and catch a rock show. Meanwhile, the wife would call up whatever man she thought she was fucking behind Mick’s back and have a fun night of her own. It was a funny coincidence then, that her favorite backdoor man also played in a band, that Mick saw him on stage at the Starwood before he saw him on his doorstep. Or maybe it was more than coincidence, maybe Mick and Nikki were meant to be, drawn together by the powerful cosmic forces of rock n roll and spite.

~~~~~~~~

Nikki would call himself an aspiring rock star, but nearly anyone else who knew him would call him a whore. It started as a way to make easy money, and it worked better than he ever expected. He’d clean himself up, spend a night with some despairing housewife, then spend the money he earned to glam up for his band’s show the next night, rinse and repeat. It was foolproof.

Well, almost.

“Get the fuck out!”

The client’s husband had showed up while Nikki was balls-deep in his wife over the kitchen table, and he’d wasted no time giving Nikki a hard shove out the front door. Nikki tripped on the step and his shoulder crashed into the pavement. The door slammed shut but Nikki could still hear the husband and wife screaming at each other as he caught his breath and slowly picked himself up. He checked himself over: his jeans (skin-tight and still unbuttoned) just had a some dirt on them, but his sleeve had a little blood on it from the scrape on his arm. Fuck. He only had a couple “work outfits” (i.e. clothes that weren't black, or studded, or torn, or burnt) and there was no way he could dig up another clean shirt before his next “appointment” that evening. Especially since this client hadn’t bothered to pay him upfront.

Nikki shouted some expletive-studded remark about the husband’s sexual prowess, punctuated by a demand for the money he was owed, but he didn’t think the couple could even hear him over their increasingly violent row. The neighbors definitely heard him though, so Nikki zipped up his pants and decided to cut his losses before someone called the police.

Well, the day wasn’t a total bust yet. The woman he was planning to meet later that night was a regular. She’d developed a taste for Nikki’s company a couple months ago and had met with him at least once a week since. She was a tall brunette with a fiery temper and a generally unpleasant attitude, but she was generous with her husband’s money, and there was nothing more attractive than that.

~~~~~

– One more round with the client, shouldn’t take more than an hour… If he was lucky he’d make it home in time to finish the melody of that song he was working on the other day… A few hours of sleep and then a shift at the liquor store tomorrow morning, another appointment all the way across town and then all the way back right after for band rehearsal…

“Nikki?” He tore his eyes away from the second hand on the wall clock against the room, dragging his gaze back down to the woman leaning against him on the couch.

“Would you like another drink?”

“Yeah, thank you.” Nikki’s vision was starting to swim a little, but he still downed the proffered glass of liquor. Since when was he such a lightweight? The fact that he hadn’t eaten anything but pussy since breakfast might have had something to do with it.

“Ready to go again?” The older woman purred in his ear.

“Absolutely,” Nikki slurred, hoping he sounded more enthusiastic than he felt. He hadn’t known it was possible to be so tired that sex became a chore... Just lie back and think of hairspray.

~~~~~~

“Nikki! …Nikki!”

Nikki tried to roll away from the claws digging into his shoulder, but the shaking only became more violent.

“What,” he growled as he blinked sleep out of is eyes and realized that he was still in his client’s apartment. Fuck. He’d gotten drunk and passed out after round two, that's real-fuckin’-professional, Nikki.

“You need to get out of here,” the woman hissed in his ear. “My husband just pulled into the parking lot.” She shoved Nikki’s jacket and a handful of crumpled bills into his lap and stomped over to the kitchen window to spy on her husband though the blinds.

“Are you serious? I though you said he worked late tonight.”

“He’s home early! And you’re here late. It’s almost midnight, Nikki!”

As soon as Nikki had his jacket halfway on, she grabbed his arm and steered him towards the sliding door that opened up to the balcony.

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s a second story apartment, does it look like we have a back door? He’s almost at the stairs, get the fuck out of here!”

She heaved open the door and shoved him into the balcony – not unlike the way his previous client’s husband shoved him into the street (twice in one day, Jesus Christ). She shut the door right behind him, leaving Nikki to feel around in the dark for the easiest way to the ground: swing over the rail, balance on the top of the downstairs neighbor’s fence, drop about six feet into the bushes, grumbling all the while about the indignity of having to fumble in the dark and wade through the shrubbery.

As he snuck around the building to loop back to the street, Nikki couldn't resist checking out the husband. He was short, probably even shorter than his wife, and dressed in work clothes: black pants and a faded blue button-up, too generic for Nikki to guess what he might do for a living. His black hair fell past his shoulders, just a bit longer than was fashionable. His face was pale as hell and so were his eyes – Nikki only got a brief glimpse at his face but it was clear that the man was wearing a grimace like he was born with it. His wife was obviously stalling him at the door, making him stand on the welcome mat while she bitched at him about who-knows-what, giving Nikki as much time as possible to sneak out unnoticed.

Poor bastard.

~~~~~~

Nikki just can’t catch a break… he’s still kinda a dick tho :)

Tagging @lilypetite88 who has been waiting for me to get back to posting my motley fics for ages, I can’t say for sure when part 2 (of 3) will be up, but I don’t expect it to take nearly as long as part 1 did.

#nikki sixx #mick mars #motley crue #the dirt #the dirt netflix #the dirt movie #nikki x mick #motley crue fanfiction #sodafics

24 notes · View notes

thats-the-teen-spirit · 5 years ago

Text

Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind album review

My first impression when I heard about the new Slipknot album coming was that they’ll never outgrow themselves when it comes to writing songs. They’ll never go full experimental and throw a bunch of random shit to their songs to make it either poppier or even heavier. Turns out they can, but the pop aspect is still far from them.

We are not your kind is named after All Out Life, the first single they put out in 3 years. That song however didn’t make it to the album because the band (probably mostly Corey Taylor himself) thought that it didn’t fit the story and the mood of the whole album, but the chant towards the end of the song made it to be their new album’s title. It sounds like an edgy emo band’s new single at first but honestly that chant is gonna be the greatest thing to sing and scream live.

Insert Coin, the first track of the album is the usual Slipknot intro, it’s creepy, it’s dark, it makes no sense, just like on their previous albums. With intros like 742617000027, (515), or .execute they already made it clear that they’re going back to their roots with the random noises instead of a song as an introduction.

Unsainted, the first single from the album divided the band’s oldest fans when it came out. It has a choir in it which makes it a little Ghost-like, semi-satanic (the lyrics imply that as well) and creepy, especially when after the choir and the clean buildup the songs blasts like crazy. Ghost isn’t known for the aggression Slipknot has that’s for sure but after the first scream Corey lets us know that they’re not going to play poppier, they play the same shit, they just wanted something to spice it up. The chorus is clean, catchy, the riffs are the usual Slipknot quality, the drums are banging, the breakdown is heavy, everything you’d expect from them as they march towards the catharsis of the song when Corey screams: YOU’VE KILLED THE SAINT IN ME.

Birth Of The Cruel is the third single, came out right before the album dropped. It’s probably the most old-school-ish Slipknot song they wrote since the Vol 3. days. It has the thing that Corey did best on their first two albums which is that Nu metal buildup that goes from silently whispering, to talking or rapping and then screaming. Sounds like a mix of Scissors and I am hated in my opinion but I might have overlooked the lyrics a little bit. The headbanging breakdown is great, the sampler sounds from Sid give this song a Self-titled feel. A solid song they’ll play live for sure.

Death Because of Death, is an interlude that is simple, short and experimental. Corey said they tried this because if this fits in the right moments, ‘you’ve really got something’. I don’t think this song will be played often but if it hypes up the crowd it might as well just work.

Nero Forte is my favorite so far, but I don’t think “trve maggots” will appreciate this one. The intro sounds like a melodic death metal song with Slipknot drums, then it turns into the usual riffage from Mick and Jim with the scream-rapping from Corey, nothing special in the first minute, then the buildup, aaaaaaand, a really clean, high-pitched chorus. What. I was so surprised when I heard this first, I was genuinely smiling on the bus and people thought I was crazy. Then of course the chorus has the same Corey screaming/rapping as usual, the bridge is cathartic, what more do you want really. Unites both the new and the old direction and fans.

Critical Darling starts off as an old-school Slipknot song, same riffage, same buildup-scream and old school scream-rap verses. The prechorus has that walking feel to it, as if you’re slowly building up your speed as you try to run away from something. The chorus sounds like it came from an idea Corey had for Stone Sour but somehow it didn’t make it to Hydrograd. The clean interludes in the song has AHIG vibes (remind me of the bridge of Dead Memories). For some reason it closes off with random noises I never understand in Slipknot songs, I guess when they’ll play this song live they’ll have time for a beer when it plays.

A Liar’s Funeral might be the most experimental thing on the record. First I had the feeling of Snuff, with the depressing acoustic intro and Corey’s sad lyrics with pure clean vocals. Then it takes a weird turn as he sceams LIAR, the depressive acoustic guitars in the background turn almost creepy with the heavy guitars in front, sounds like Corey’s in pain but in a melancholic way. The bridge where he screams: BURN, BURN, BURN THE LIAR is gonna be screamed by the maggots who feel like they’ve been betrayed that’s for sure. The song then turns into a weird hybrid of a usual Slipknot heavy song with a cool solo and an emotional end. I had the ‘Killpop’ vibes with this song but with more random shit thrown together.

Red Flag is the most boring song for me on this album. Yes, it has the same riffs, yes, it has the screams, yes it has no clean chorus. Honestly it sounds like The Negative One part 2. It’s most likely a filler song they might play once or twice live but will never make huge success. If I’m wrong that’s because the fans of AHIG and .5 are hyping up this song too much because it sounds like from those records and they have the nostalgic feel to them.

What’s Next is an elevator song interlude. That’s it. Towards the end it gets louder and guitars come in as if something big and spooky is about to happen as you get out of the elevator.

Spiders starts off with a piano intro and Corey singing to a weird time signature. Corey’s vocals are mixed and mastered great on this one, I can’t even decide if it has those creepy vibes or it sounds like Stone Sour went progressive metal. Definitely a cool song to have on here, a little bit experimental, a little bit new, the same catchiness, the same feeling on the clean vocals, It’s like a creepy depressive little brother of the Vermillion songs.

Orphan is another song they’ll play live for sure. Slow noisy intro, usual Slipknot riffs, great chorus. A little higher pitched than Unsainted, a little less than Nero forte. It really speaks to the outcasts of society. The emo kids are gonna lose their shit if they hear the lines: EVERONE HAS SOMETHING, SOMEONE HERE HAS EVERYTHING. The breakdown is solid with vocals that go from talking to screaming, great to hype up the crowd just before the end of the show for the last bits and the encore.

My Pain is another experimental piece. If i want to put it in words it’s like a mix of What’s Next and Spiders. Gives me Danger/Keep Away vibes as well, just to make sure we have every album united on this one. It’s the last calm before the storm before the end of the album and it fits really well.

I can only imagine the writing process of Not Long For This World. Nine masked guys sitting around a table and each one of them has an idea. In the end it gets thrown together and pretty much all of their past albums’ unique sounding elements are present. The samples of Self-Titled, the creepiness of Iowa, the silent vocals in the first verse from Vol 3, the chorus feels like it’s from AHIG, the riff from the prechorus is like from Killpop on .5. I’m sure some parts of this song is made to make you feel nostalgic for their past records and it does a great job.

Solway Firth with its weird, random title, the last song on the album was the second single after Unsainted. It’s such a normal Slipknot song that most of the fanbase loved it and it’s the perfect song to end the record with. The lyrics are about the same topic as many songs in their past: don’t lie to me, don’t try to understand me, I’m different, you can’t do anything about it. Perfect for outcast kids, for metalheads, for anyone who feels like this way. It’s also a message for the media probably since they write about Corey and the rest of the band so often.

Did Slipknot change over the past 24 years? Yes. Did they have musicians swapped around and have them (especially Corey and Clown) to blame? Yes. Do they give a single fuck about it? Absolutely not and this record proves it. They won’t change their style, they won’t get heavier or softer, they’re the same guys from Iowa (well, most of them) and they like to play music.

This album is their best since Vol 3. It unites everything that has ever been Slipknot. The aggression and the feelings are the same. I’m proud of them for making this record and writing it a little more experimental but not as much as it becomes something else they’re not

10 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 6 years ago

Text

Fic: An Internal Affair - Chapter 3 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: The Flash Pairing: Leonard Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————

"You'll never believe what happened today," Len says, settling into the chair next to Mick's bed. He's panting lightly, trying to regain his breath, and his skin is covered by a sheen of sweat; he was a little late, and he suspects his physical therapist took those two minutes out on him.

Shlomit has no mercy.

To be fair, mercy isn't what he's paying her for. Little by painful little, Len is getting better. No one can deny it, not even Shlomit, and she's even agreed to let him try out maybe using a more discreet leg brace instead of always using his good friends the crutches.

Fucking bullets. It's been four months already, but the bullet to his leg tore through muscle and nerves at a bad angle and the bullet to his gut nicked his spine in a dangerous fashion, and he maybe - maybe! - went back to work a little too fast and tore up a whole bunch of stuff again.

So even after all this time, he’s still here.

He can't wait to be up and about and able to move freely again. The new leg brace - accompanied by a back brace to help keep his spine straight - won't give him that, especially since he's only allowed to use it for an hour or two a day in the beginning, but still, it's progress.

Len is determined to make progress.

(And if that's in part because Len can't quite crush the superstitious hope that the second he no longer needs Shlomit's services, Mick will finally wake up and be the one in need of them? No one needs to know that.)

"No, really," he says to Mick, whose eyes are closed today. Sometimes they're open, and he gargles words without meaning, and hope will seize at Len's heart only to break it all over again when nothing comes of it. The doctors say it's a good sign, a promising sign, that it means there's hope that Mick will wake up out soon, but they've been saying that for a month or more. "Today was, quite literally, unbelievable."

He settles down more comfortably in his chair so that he has a good view of the window. He doesn't look at Mick; not looking makes it easier to pretend that Mick's not actually comatose in a hospital room. That instead he's just lying in bed, too lazy to bother getting up, listening to Len ramble on about whatever-and-nothing as always while rolling his eyes and humoring him with an occasional grunt and a "Sure, boss, whatever you say" or two that Len can imagine so well that sometimes he feels like he can almost hear it.

"Let me start at the very beginning - a very good place to start," he tacks on, unable to help it. Mick likes musicals; Len has no idea where that came from, but Mick took it upon himself to ensure that Len was appropriately educated as to them and now Len keeps dropping references into conversation no matter who he's around - fellow criminals, dangerous gangers, or the Police Commissioner, to name a few semi-recent examples.

It's embarrassing, is what it is.

"I had court in the morning,” Len continues, “the last bit of testifying against Cichowski - he's the one I told you about, the cop who was taking bribes from the Families to slow-walk certain investigations so they had a chance to cover up the evidence? Anyway, that was harrowing enough, given that the defense brought in his weeping wife and a whole wall of blue to sit out there in the audience, glaring death at me like that would make me think twice about what I was doing or stutter or something. Didn’t work, of course; I don’t regret testifying for a second. After all, no one made him take those bribes..."

Len's a cold-hearted sonovabitch, he’s the first to admit it (and he's pretty sure his mother would agree with him that Lewis is a total bitch), but the whole experience had still been fairly awful even by his unduly elevated standards.

The first person to go down for corruption in a given precinct is always the hardest, because the assholes always think their precious blue line will save them right up until the moment it doesn't.

Cichowski had been the first one in this precinct.

At least Singh’d had the dignity not to show up.

Len'd finished up his testimony in the morning, last one to go before closing arguments because the defense wanted one last try at breaking his story as their last desperate hope of victory. It hadn't worked, of course. And then during the midday break Cichowski's wife somehow got ‘accidentally’ let into the same hallway as Len – accidentally, his crippled ass – and she took advantage of the fact that he moved slowly to come right up to him and start screaming about how he was destroying her husband's life, and her life, and the lives of her little boys, five and three, and didn't he feel any shame about it?

"I didn't make him take bribes just because he couldn't afford to buy that fancy house of yours without 'em," Len pointed out to her. "That was all his own doing."

"Is that what a good man's life is worth to you?" she spit at him. "Sure, he took a few hundred dollars -" Wrong by an extremely large magnitude; Len's seen the figures. "- of course he did, they're the Families, this is Central; you don't cross the Families, not in this town, but he didn't do anything that wrong -"

"We have proof of him dragging his feet on investigations -" Len started to say, since he didn’t want to get into the issue of the Families.

Honestly, he doesn’t blame most people for giving in to Family pressure; Central City is what it is and all the clean-up in the world is still just starting to make a dent for the first time in forever. It’s just that he believes that people who are willing to give in to the Families have no business becoming or being or remaining cops. Cichoswki should've turned in his badge the second after he took the first bribe - he could've gone to work in security or something, and Len would've not thought twice about him.

"So he went slow a few times!" she shouted. "That's not that bad!"

Len isn't exactly proud of how he reacted to that.

He gave her his best smile filled with bared teeth and his iciest glare, the one he perfected on Family gangsters instead of suburban housewives, and while she was still quailing a bit from that, he asked, "Do you know, Mrs. Cichoswki, that most kidnapping cases are solved in the first twenty-four hours, or not at all?"

"I - what?"

"You've got about twenty-four, maybe forty-eight hours to get a good lead," he repeated. "I mention that only because your husband was assigned several kidnapping cases, during the period he was getting paid off."

"I -"

"You've got two kids, dontcha, Mrs. Cichowski? Five and three, you said. And if you go back to the house where you left 'em today and the babysitter meets you at the door in tears and tells you one of 'em just got snatched by some man in a van, but don't worry, she's called the police, and they say don't you worry, ma'am, they'll be getting right on it - well, Mrs. Cichowski, I guess you'll be just fine if they're just a bit slow getting on it, won't you? Maybe they take an extra couple of days here, couple of free weekends there, that’s no problem by your standards, ain't that right, Mrs. Cichowski? You wouldn't hold it against 'em if they traded a bit of speed and your darling baby's best chance of rescue in exchange for, what'd you call it, a few hundred bucks?"

She was quiet, pale-faced and tight-lipped.

"I mean, maybe it's just that you don't give a fuck as long as it's other people's kids your husband's selling out, but hey, what do I know? Maybe it’s more straightforward – just, y’know, fuck the kid, right? You can always have another, s’long as the money’s good enough," Len added, unable to keep himself from doing it because he's an asshole like that, because he hates corruption so much it overcomes his self-control sometimes, and - and, well, because he's seen all too well the sort of parent a corrupt cop can be.

Of course, that's when she went for his face, nails extended.

Luckily, the court officer was there nearby and yanked her away before she did any actual damage – or, more accurately, before Len was forced to bash her over the head with his crutch to ensure that she didn’t cause any actual damage.

He didn’t press charges, of course. No need; the inevitable guilty verdict came down less than twenty minutes later, and he figured that was punishment enough.

Still.

What a fucking day.

"So that's how it started," Len tells Mick, shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I probably shoulda been a bit more sympathetic about it, her losing the nice safe foundations of her life like that - losing the father of her kids, probably losing the main family income, not to mention Cichowski's pension - fuck it, Mick, you're such a goddamn softy, leave off! I only reacted that way 'cause I'm all but sure she knew what he was up to and couldn’t actually bring herself to care until the consequences started coming home to roost."

He shakes his head, his eyes closed as he imagines the smirk on Mick's face turning into a mock glare as Len impugns his impartiality and general pretended attitude of apathy towards the world, not that Len's ever really believed in that anyway.

If Mick was really apathetic about it all, he wouldn't be here.

He wouldn't -

No. Len's not thinking about what ifs now. He's not thinking about Mick.

He’s not thinking about Mick’s well-hidden kindness and sympathy, about the way he always pretended to be tough but always checked in to make sure people were doing okay, even people he didn’t know, just because that’s the way he is – or at least, was –

No.

He’s not thinking about Mick.

He's talking about his day.

"Anyway," Len says, clearing his throat. "That's not even the interesting part, you know? I went back to the office after that -"

And arrived to face a solid wall of angry, hateful eyes.

That was fine. He’d been expecting that.

" - and, well, I figured I could do with a bit of time outside the office, doing something else."

He remembers seeing Danvers' worried face through that crowd of implacable rage. He waved jauntily at her before he left, calling out cheerfully that he’d be in later because he had another appointment he needed to get to, and she looked relieved that he wasn't going to throw the precinct’s newfound vulnerability back in their faces.

Maybe on another day he would, but not today. He’s a spiteful asshole, but he’s not dumb enough to incite a full-on riot among armed police.

"Didn't really have all that much to do outside, though," Len says, making a face. "Office filled with pissed off pigs, all of our favorite bars are filled with Family informants ready to tell their masters that they have a good clear shot at me, all our old haunts -" Too empty to go to, without Mick. "- and even Allen was too busy to talk when I swung by Jitters."

Len pauses, imagining Mick's response to that and smiling. He's maybe mentioned Allen a time or twenty.

Or maybe more.

And Mick's always been the number one fan of Len's love-life - or, perhaps more accurately, the number one critic of Len's lack thereof.

"Okay, yeah," he says. "You've got me. I like the kid. Doesn't mean I ain't gonna nail him to the ground - not like that, you jackass, get your mind outta the gutter - when I find out what lies he's been cooking up."

He winces a little at that, his smile fading away. It'd been good to see Allen that morning - Allen has an infectious sort of joy about him that's positively catching - but Len is investigating him, not making friends.

And certainly not dating, no matter how attractive Allen is.

That's why he's already regretting their scheduled dinner, at least a little. Yes, it'd be good to get more info from the main source, especially since he'll have a few hours to work on Allen rather than the five-ten-fifteen minute intervals they’ve had so far, but doing the investigation personally like this will only heighten the betrayal when Allen eventually gets dragged away to prison on corruption charges.

Len can see his face now, upset and hurt and angry and shocked and horrified, just like that woman from this morning...

He doesn't want to see that.

But unluckily for Allen, Len's very good at betrayal - as Mick could testify.

If he ever wakes up, that is.

"Anyway," Len says, putting the Allen question from his mind for now and ignoring the pang at the thought of sweet, smiling Allen stuck in the harshness of Iron Heights. Honestly, Allen has the sort of personality that would probably let him make friends even in there - not that that would help make it any less of a miserable pit to be in - not that the fact that Allen would be sad to be in prison even matters, since if he was there, it’d be because Allen'd chosen to be corrupt in the first place, bringing all the consequences down on his own head. "As I was saying, I didn't have anything better to do, so I ended up ringing a few old buddies of ours - neutrals, all, the sort that'd sell to anyone, even cops, the dirty ratfuckers that they are, but they're all I've got left right now, being as I got outed as a pig myself – and long story short, they got me a heads up about an absolute beaut of a job about to go down on Grand."

He smiles a little at that. One of the biggest perks of being in Internal Affairs is that his mandate generally applies to cops, not criminals. Sure, strictly speaking he ought to be stopping any illegal conduct he sees happening, and of course he won't hesitate to call for back-up if he sees something that'll actually harm people, but a nice clean in-transit robbery conducted by a reputable thief known for covering all the angles and minimizing casualties?

Nah.

He’ll leave that for the ‘real’ cops to stop, if they can.

Besides, as an IA guy, it's good for Len to know which armored car drivers can be bought.

"You'd have loved to hate this one," Len assures Mick. "Guy got a decent crew together; had liquid nitrogen portable backpack form to pop the door; pulled out to chase the truck in motorbikes the second the truck passed Friedman, gave the driver a goose to scare him into going faster before coming in for the final hit, then caught him right in that sweet spot between Glenview and Highwood, with all the police over two minutes thirteen seconds away and shouting about it helplessly on their speakers - beautiful. Just beautiful."

Len feels his smile go a bit wicked. "Pity it didn't help them."

He shakes his head, his smile fading back into seriousness.

"The job was planned out perfectly," he tells Mick. "Perfectly, and you know how rare it is that I say that. Hell, this is the sort of thing I’d’ve put together, back in the day. It should've worked. But - you remember how I told you that Danvers was getting really into this one blog about weird events in Central? How she kept nattering on about some sort of weird 'streak' phenomena and I laughed her off?"

He makes a face. "Turns out I owe her an apology -"

He'll buy her a super-jumbo box of donuts the way he always does; she’s a sugar fiend.

"- because the Streak itself showed up to mess the job up."

Mess it up thoroughly, no less. Not only were the crew unable to get their target (a super-sized diamond of all dumb things – who were they even going to fence something like that to, anyhow?), they'd tried to fire at the blur of light and ended up scratching one of the bought-off guards, who promptly got whisked away by the Streak to a nearby hospital (Len'd called and checked – the guy was fine).

"That got my attention, though," Len says. "How'd a local phenomenon like that know how to stop a crime? Or to take someone to a hospital after they got shot? That's sentience, that's what it is. Thinking. So I got curious and pulled the surveillance tapes. And you'll never guess what I found."

He pulls the laptop out of his bag and flips it open, looking at the image that's still frozen on his screen.

"Looks like our Streak ain't an it. It's a him."

A figure barely visible, more a blur than anything else, but with a definitely visible hand, a raised arm, and the outlines of a head. A human being; one moving too fast to be spotted naturally, yes, but a human being regardless.

A human being who is choosing to fight crime on his own, without authorization, without working with the justice system, without being watched over to keep to the rules.

A vigilante.

In Len's own city.

How dare he.

Len bets this guy was inspired by that shadowy Hood vigilante over in Starling, that hypocritical murderous fuck. Maybe even there was some inspiration from that old time urban legend over in Gotham, the shadow Bat that supposedly stalks the streets at night meting out Gotham-style justice without any restraint, leaving broken bones and concussions and worse in its wake.

And sure, maybe this one's just starting by messing up crimes in progress, but Len knows far, far too well how quickly things go wrong when someone who views themselves as enforcing the law starts thinking of themselves as being above the law.

He wonders grimly how soon it'll be before the deaths start. Death, served quick as a blink and the perp gone in a flash. Best way to be sure a criminal won’t re-offend or betray you, after all...

(if you're in, you're in - and if you're out...)

Len stares at the image a moment longer, then shakes his head to dispel the memories. He leans over towards the bed to show the image to the still-quiet Mick. Even though he knows it's dumb, the thought of not showing Mick, of not pretending that Mick can actually hear him despite his deep sleep...it's too painful to contemplate.

He puts the laptop away.

"Anyway, I'm having Danvers dig into all the mysterious shit that's been going on in the city recently," Len continues. "She’s real good at that stuff – runs in the family, apparently; she’s got a cousin who’s an investigative journalist, I think? Either way, she’s looking at everything: murders, disappearances, the like. Gonna pull on my underground contacts, too; see if they've heard anything, seen anything. No one ever pays attention to the cardboard brigade."

Len's got no idea who first thought to organize the homeless people in Central City into an information network, setting up a central station where upstanding criminals like Len can go ask a question and have it be spread out all over the city, and, in return for the opportunity or the intel he gets, he pays regularly into a distribution fund that keeps all the homeless in the city (both informants and otherwise) fed and in coats and shoes.

Len's never been bad enough off to have to join their ranks, but it's been close a time or two, the times when he couldn't access any of his legit money without blowing his cover and he couldn't get enough illegal work in to cover expenses. Mick helped him then, too, just as Len helped him whenever he got kicked out of yet another place for lighting fires...

Don't think about the past. It brings nothing but pain.

He shakes his head and forces himself to continue.

"Now, I know what you're going to ask -"

If Mick ever wakes up, that is, which he might not. Looks like the future isn't safe to think about either.

Clearly Len's going to have to embrace living in the now.

"- and I'm at least 90% sure that he ain't a robot. No, I don't know how he's moving that fast, maybe some sort of super-suit tech or something, but the way he moves, that raised hand like a runner? That’s definitely organic."

Len pauses, frowns, thinks about Mick's response - it'd be snide, of course, and insisting that he hates all of Len's stupid sci-fi shows and movies even though they're no stupider than Mick's own dumb ninja thing, and yet also usually insightful.

"Could be technorganic, sure," he concedes, caught on an intriguing line of thought. "Like the ones in that film you like ragging on so much, yeah. And if he-she-them-it is like that film, then yeah, it's possible that they're - he's? - communicating with something, or someone, and getting instructions from a distance like a drone...huh. Y’know, if he's corresponding with some sort of main entity - there could be radio transmissions, or over-Internet transmissions using the local WiFi. If I could just figure out another place where the Streak's likely to be, maybe manage to stall him a bit before he runs onwards, I might be able to tap into that communication line. If he's talking with someone, that can't be at super-speed or else it'd be unintelligible on their end."

Len starts to smile. "And it won't be all that hard to set up a place where he'll be, either, assuming he's tapped into the local police radio to hear all about ongoing crimes for him to stop. No – don’t worry, Mick, I’m not gonna go up against a super-speed vigilante blind! I could get some untraceable weapons from that fence, you remember him, Bertolli; he’s always good for some stolen stuff. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m a pig now, I’ve got a licensed pea-shooter and everything, but if I use stolen hardware to start, that means that even with the best surveillance in the world, the Streak won’t realize I'm a cop until I’ve laid eyes on him. Of course, before I get to that, I need to get some place that’ll agree to me using it as an ambush point -"

And best of all, it would be fun. That old adrenaline rush of planning and executing a job...sure, hunting vigilantes isn’t quite in IA's bailiwick, but whatever, IA or no IA, he's still a cop.

Might as well use that fact.

Len grins at Mick. "Good ideas all," he says happily. "I wouldn't have thought of it without needing to defend myself from you on your usual bullshit. As always, you're a real lifesaver -"

Len's voice catches in his throat.

Lifesaver.

How true that is.

He breathes in, long and slow and shaky, and exhales it all out again, the way he always does whenever he remembers – as he always remembers – that terrible day when he thought he was going to die, and in the process lost one of the few reasons he had to live.

Len never even got a chance to tell Mick the truth about himself.

Never told him - anything.

Never told Mick how much Len appreciated him, never told him that he was Len's best friend, his brother, that he loved him and that he’d always love him no matter what was between them, never told him that Len never meant to hurt him by keeping all those secrets - all those lies -

"I asked Allen out," Len says abruptly, desperately casting out for another subject to talk about. He can’t think about that. He can’t. "Not on a date, of course; that’d be unethical. Just a dinner to learn more about him. Danvers' idea, she has this stupid idea that I should date him, but just because that's a terrible idea doesn't mean that going to dinner with him isn't a decent one. I've already figured out that he's Doc Allen's kid, you remember, that guy from Iron Heights, the wrongly accused one, but if anything that counts in his favor -"

No, he can't. He can’t do this. He can't stop the thoughts, the feeling of failure, of guilt, of sorrow.

He leans forward in his chair, exhaling hard, dropping his head into his hands and pressing at his temples like he can keep the thoughts away by physical force.

"I'm not going to dinner with Allen just because I like him. It's because I don't have anyone else to go with," he admits, his throat sore and tight. "I don't - I don't make friends easy, you know that. Lisa's off living her own life – we still talk, you know, but she’s not – she hasn’t been – it’s okay, really. It’s just I don’t think she’s entirely forgiven me for getting hurt, after all the times I promised her that no matter all the risks I was taking, that I’d be fine. I broke that promise. She’s still pissed, and you know how we Snarts hold a grudge. And, I mean, I like Danvers plenty, she’s a peach, but she’s still an employee, and you -"

Len swallows. It hurts. "Well, you know me. I get too caught up with work without you to kick my ass about it, you know how it is. And this Allen kid -"

He scrubs at his face. If he were anyone else, he'd say his eyes were getting wet, but he's him, so they're not.

"He's nice," he says. "He's - he's fun, for what little I know of him. Really fun, not the put-on-a-charming-face fun that I put on for marks. And I know you'd be telling me I ought to drop the work inquiry, just let it go, focus on the real bad guys and date the one that's just a maybe-criminal because lord knows it's hard to find someone who meets my ridiculous standards, I know that's what you'd be telling me, but - I can't. I can't. He disappeared for nine months, Mick. Nine months unaccounted for -"

Len's hands are trembling.

"Nine months in a coma, supposedly," he says bleakly, staring at his hands, watching them shake uncontrollably. The tools of his trade, when he was a criminal, his most prized possession, and now look at them. His dad would’ve called the whole thing a disgrace. "And that's the problem, ain't it? Nine months. You’re almost halfway there already. It’ll be nine months soon enough. Nine months in a coma...that's how I know he's got to be corrupt. That he’s got to be hiding something. ‘cause the docs have told me all about what I ought to expect when - if - you wake up, and exactly none of it is running around the city with a brand new set of abs in the best physical shape of your life."

Len closes his eyes.

"He's got to be corrupt," he repeats, even though every time he's met Allen in person his instincts scream at him that Allen's not, that Allen's sincere, that Allen's one of those rarest of rare creatures, the honest policeman. CSI, whatever. The good man. Just like old Doc Allen, back in prison, the way Len had taken one look at him and known that the guy hadn’t murdered his wife, he really hadn't, no matter what the accusation said, and the only reason he isn’t still appealing his unfair sentence is because he’s given up. Just like Len's always known that Mick’s a good man, too, underneath the violence and the pyromania; the way Len knows down to his bones that Mick��s the best man he’s ever met or will ever meet. "You don't understand, Mick, he's got to be. There's no choice in it for me. Because if he ain't corrupt - if he's telling the truth -"

He looks at Mick, forces himself to look at Mick as he is right now, not as Len likes to imagine him to be, but the way he really is: lying there like a lump, still and unresponsive, his muscle mass slowly starting to fade away and atrophy despite the best efforts of medical science, connected to a dozen wires and other machines that stand imposing and silent and are the only things keeping him alive now that his body has decided it doesn't want to do the work itself. Burns everywhere, even after the skin grafts; snarls of raised white scar tissue and shiny angry red marks instead of flesh, still healing so very slowly all these months later.

The damage done – to the muscle, to the nerves, to the bone, to the heart, the lungs, all of his insides – damage that would take years to fully recover from, even by the best possible estimate –

"If he's telling the truth," Len says, refusing to tear his eyes away. Forcing himself to look at what he’s done. "If he's telling the truth, then I might start hoping for a miracle again. And I can't, Mick. Not another disappointment. Not another heartbreak. Not another hope for me to make an ass out of myself over, just for the meagerest chance that you might wake up and be yourself again, just like before. I – I can't go through that again, Mick. I can’t. And that's a shitty reason to go after someone, I know it is, even if he probably is corrupt, but - I've got to do this. I have to know. You know how obsessive I get when I've got my teeth in something."

Mick doesn't respond, because he's not actually listening. He's in a coma. A coma Len's responsible for.

"I've been eating badly, without you," Len tells him. "The way I always do. You'd be pissed at me for letting myself go this way."

Nothing.

As always, nothing.

"Please," he says, and Leonard Snart never says please to anyone. He never begs anyone for anything, not even for his very life, but he's begging now. "Please, Mick. Even if it's to yell at me about my diet or to make fun of me for my crush on Allen, I don't care. I don't - I won't even care if you hate me for being a pig when you wake up, or if you think I betrayed you, or if you never want to see me again, just as long as I know that you're okay. Just - please."

Len buries his face in his hands.

He doesn’t cry – he can’t; his father beat it out of him years ago. But somehow his shoulders keep shaking.

"Please wake up."

#coldflash #leonard snart #barry allen #mick rory #an internal affair #my fic

25 notes · View notes

thesportssoundoff · 6 years ago

Text

The UFC Released A Schedule; Let’s Play Matchmaker For It

(As always, this shit is tiring but also a lot of fun. If you read this, I appreciate it. It's a lot of work to even try to play around with this stupidity but I also think having to do this exercise makes you a teensy bit smarter, if only because you gain an appreciation for its difficulty.)

Joey

November 12th

The UFC unveiled it's 2019 early schedule slate and it is in so many words, an attack on you, me, the world of MMA, the universe as a whole and all we love dear. It's a loaded slate of 11 fight cards compared to 8 in 2017 and 9 in 2018. It's the debut of the ESPN era where 42 guaranteed shows at 12 fights a pop are coming our way with rumors of as many as 4-5 Fight Pass slates as well. The UFC will be on ESPN, ESPN+ and PPV from locales like Brooklyn, Brazil, Australia, London and Arizona with plenty more to be announced in the coming weeks obviously. The past year whenever the UFC has rolled out their scheduling in THIS format, I've tried to play the best Sean Shelby/Mick Maynard I can and matchmake for the events. It is a long painful process and if you're reading this, I hope you're prepared for me to do it again.

Couple o' caveats before I begin:

-I am not predicting any flyweight fights. Until they book a single fight in 2019 at the weight, I'm assuming it's gone.

-We're rolling with what we got. No GSP, no Diaz Brothers. no Rumbles bails out, none of that. We got what we got.

-Just doing co-mains and main events. If I got a PPV fight or two in mind, it'll be in the overview of it.

-Don't expect a non-Brazilian main event in Brazil or so on so forth. There ARE rules to this game, ya goons.

Ready?

January 19th UFC on ESPN+/ESPN Barclays Center Brooklyn New York

ESPN+ Main Event: Anderson Silva vs Israel Adesanya Co Main Event: Yoel Romero vs Anthony Smith

ESPN Main Event: Rachael Ostovich vs Paige Van Zant Co Main Event: Cub Swanson vs Jeremy Stephens

At the press conference, Dana White said somethings at UFC 230 were going to lead into what would happen for this card. Given the amount of middleweights on the show, I suppose that's where the action is. We know Yoel Romero has a signed contract for Jan 19th so right off the jump, the first assumption is Romero vs Costa which, I suppose, is the right fight to make at least until Ariel Helwani broke news that Paolo Costa is hurt----again. The question I have (and perhaps will continue to have) is where Anderson Silva fits into the discussion. Silva is rumored to be returnign in January LIKELY for this card. Silva vs Israel Adesanya sounds very interesting and I'd be 100% with it. It would be a tremendous treat for striking fans and is the perfect use of both guys. My concern is that Adesanya, Paula Costa and Jacare Souza are all basically jockeying for the back up spot for the February show from Australia. It makes FAR more sense to put Adesanya there vs JAG and roll with something else for Silva----but you're not going to get a lot of these opportunities. Silva vs Adesanya will probably draw more eyeballs to your ESPN+ debut than any other fight you could come up with that isn't a title fight (and for the record, I bet the app will get a few title fights here or there). More on that in a pinch. Keeping Yoel Romero on the card and finding somebody else to fight him keeps a dude who just headlined a PPV on your undercard in a somewhat premier role. I am all aboard on Romero vs anybody but let's go with Yoel Romero going UP in weight to try his hand at 205 lbs vs Anthony Smith. Let's roll. The ESPN "prelims" need to be treated like a main card due to the attention it's going to receive and while PVZ vs Ostovich might sell folks on your app, PVS vs Ostovich probably gets more eyeballs on your ESPN debut on a network. Go with that because it's a lie to assume you can come up with another fight to garner that level of attention.

UFC 223 January 26th Honda Center Anaheim, California

Main Event: TJ Dillashaw vs Henry Cejudo Co-Main Event: Robbie Lawler vs Ben Askren

This one is I guess pretty much locked up. The UFC isn't going to bring Ben Askren in without the plans to showcase him and a co-main under this kind of a title fight makes some sense. Personally I'd go with something else BUT I'm also not sure what would fit better. If they're committed to Askren fighting for a title, might as well co-main event him. Cruz vs Lineker is a tremendous #2 fight with the idea that a guy can jump up in the case of an injury to Cejudo or something of that ilk. Wouldn't surprise me if they roll out a title fight to protect them in the event that fight falls through BUT I'm not sure we're going to get one of those. Your PPV main card could look something like TJ/Cejudo, Lawler/Askren, Till/Mike Perry, Cruz/Lineker and a filler fifth fight. Not awful but probably not the greatest shakes either.

UFC on ESPN+ Feb 2nd Centro de Formação Olímpica Fortaleza, Brazil

Main Event: Jose Aldo vs Donald Cerrone Co-Main Event: Demian Maia vs Diego Sanchez

Brazilian Fight Nights often times suffer from cards that are sliced and diced and picked apart before fight time comes around. The UFC's got an easy one to deal with here as apparently Aldo vs Cerrone was in the works once upon a time. Aldo has said he's waiting to see if Holloway or Ortega wins to make a move to 155 lbs but my belief and hope is that he'll simply make the decision to go up 10 lbs regardless. The co-main event can just be a fun time. Demian Maia has said that he's retiring at the end of his UFC deal so let's just give him safe and fun fights. Watching Maia vs Woodley, Covington and Usman combined with the losses from the top guys he beat gives off the impression that his run to the title shot was very much the work of some amazingly fun yet brief smoke and mirrors. Maia vs Sanchez is a rare "fun" fight that sort of protects both guys and could give way to some intriguing grappling exchanges. Let's not beat the devil out of Demian just yet. Throw in your usual collection of good solid Brazilians on the undercard (Thiago Santos will show up here for sure, I'd imagine Shoeface and Lil Nog will as well) and you're on your way to something good.

UFC 234 February 9th Rod Laver Arena Sydney, Australia

Main Event: Robert Whittaker vs Kelvin Gastelum Co-Main Event: Cain Velasquez vs Either Tai Tuiavasa or the winner of Curtis Blaydes/Francis Ngannou

There are very few fights I'm as intrigued about as Whittaker vs Gastelum. On paper, that's a fantastic fight well worthy of a main event spot. It's the confirmed headliner so there's not much to play with there. I originally figured Rose vs Andrade would make sense here but there's a problem; Rose Namajunas says she's not going to be ready to go until the Spring. Andrade vs Suarez as an interim title fight would be nice and all but I imagine most fans would reject that fight on principle alone. Let's dream big and by big I mean HW. Cain Velasquez is APPARENTLY healthy and ready to fight soon for the UFC. Per Javy Mendez, Cain and the UFC are wrapping up a new deal and once that's done, Cain's getting brought back out for a fight. I don't TRUST that but Cain vs anybody is a fantastic co-main event and would give Australia something nifty and different. I don't need to see Cain vs JDS IV especially since both men are cooked and Stipe Miocic has a more important role to fill. That means that Tai if he beats JDS or the winner of Blaydes vs Ngannou can get the Cain fight instead. Rounding out the main card, I've got my eyes on Jacare as the back up for the main event. While UFC booking says Jacare gets the best MW available (because why would we do something simple?), I'm giving Jacare a soft touch for doing me a favor and staying on the show. Italian Alessio Di Chirico is coming off a win and is a weak-ish enough grappler that I could see that being easy work for Jacare. Ross Pearson is bound to show up on here somewhere (it's the way of the world) and the same goes for Tyson Pedro (fighting in early December). Wouldn't snub my nose at maybe one more Mark Hunt old dude HW fight either vs another old dude (Arlovski?). Also if Volkanovski wins vs Chad Mendes and is fresh enough to return around this time? Put him in the showcase spot.

UFC on ESPN February 17th Talking Stick Casino Phoenix, Arizona

Main Event: Tony Ferguson vs Dustin Poirier Co-Main Event: Frankie Edgar vs Josh Emmett

The UFC's official OFFICIAL debut on ESPN comes in February in Arizona so let's go out there and give us some of that fresh out the oven violence for fight fans. Let's say Khabib Nurmagomedov gets suspended for six months from the date of UFC 228. That puts him in line-ish to fight in April which is basically the cut off point before he takes off for Ramadan. It would be doable but a tight squeeze for the UFC to pull that off, right? Okay NOW let's say he gets suspended for eight months. An eight month suspension is basically a year long suspension since it'll take Khabib into Ramadan and Khabib tends to re-emerge into the September to December months. As such, Khabib could be out into "it's reasonable to have an interim title" range. The same goes for a year long suspension or potentially even longer. With the lay out as it is, Tony Ferguson vs Dustin Poirier makes a lot of sense as a potential interim title fight. Tony Ferguson is the unofficial official UFC lightweight champion while Dustin's never been hotter as a fighter. The co-main event just feels like a good way to get Edgar back into the mix vs a guy who has some steam on him. Holloway vs Ortega, Moicano vs Bektic, Volkanovski vs Mendes sucks up six of the top featherweights and I've seen Edgar beat Swanson twice and Stephens once (and I kinda booked them against one another but shhhhhh!). That leaves very little that's appealing for Edgar at 145 lbs and the idea of doing a fun as shit Edgar vs Cruz fight at 145 lbs probably has very little zest with fans PLUS Cruz is fighting in December. The only other option I felt moderately interested in seeing Edgar face would be Josh Emmett. Emmett is coming off a loss but he did headline on Fox (and was a co-main), he's got some spark behind his name and I feel very comfortable and confident that it'll at least be a somewhat captivating fight on paper. As for the rest of the main card? I don't have anything definitive in mind given how loaded November and December are for the UFC. If you forced me to flesh out six fights, it might look something like this:

Ferguson/Poirier Edgar/Emmett Mackenzie Dern/Felice Herrig Aljamain Sterling/Rani Yahya Gian Villante/Khalil Rountree (Because deep down inside of my soul, I really do hate all of you and myself)

That's assuming they do five fights. If they do four, scratch that last one and thank me for it.

UFC on ESPN+ February 23rd Scotttrade Center St. Louis, Missouri

Main Event: Justin Gaethje vs the winner of Dan Hooker/Edson Barboza Co-Main Event: Marlon Moraes vs Raphael Assuncao II

The UFC hasn't announced a venue for this yet so we're playing a little bit of God here. There are heavy rumors that this show is bookmarked for South Korea but if that were the case then the UFC Would be going Korea, Australia and Brazil in a span of a mouth and that doesn't seem overly likely. If it was up to me, the main and co-main event here would be swapped and reversed. The only way you're going to get bantamweights accepted as main eventers is to roll them out and see what happens. Assuncao vs Moraes II is supposedly a fight the UFC is working on and both guys are #1 contender types in a division hungry FOR a number one contender. Feels like a fair and easy fight to make but ALAS----welcome to MMA where everything is fine until it isn't. Figuring that the desire to have a "big" main event trumps logic and common sense, even for a digital streaming app, let's go with what I think is a perfectly acceptable headliner of Justin Gaethje vs the winner of Barboza vs Hooker. Gaethje has main evented in three of his four UFC fights so he's clearly a guy the company has faith in in that spot. Barboza is a proven headliner and IF Hooker beats Edson then there's no doubting where he should be ranked and who he should wind up facing. That main event just feels right in the UFC's never ending division of great fights. Moraes vs Assuncao II is a perfect co-main event, teeth firmly grinding together as I type it.

UFC 235 March 2nd T-Mobile Arena

Main Event: Daniel Cormier vs Brock Lesnar OR Stipe Miocic Co-Main Event: Tyron Woodley vs Colby Covington

The main event feels like a lock for DC's final fight before he either goes off to work as a WWE commentator or replaces Dana White as the face of the UFC while Dana takes a more behind the scenes role in the company. Despite Cormier saying he'd fight Jones again at LHW, I don't see that ever being the case just due to the weight cut. Not cutting to LHW has been such a positive for DC that he has joked (perhaps?) that the lack of a weight cut has opened the door for him to extend his career if he wanted to. That means either Brock or Stipe is getting the call to face Cormier. My immediate thought is that they will do everything in their power to get Brock vs DC in March. Why? Because if both guys are retiring then you're just free to do whatever. It's sort of like how Bisping turned down Vitor as a retirement fight when both were looking for one last fight; what's the downside to cheating if you're going to be gone anyways? As for the co-main event, we can't avoid this forever. At some point, Tyron Woodley vs Colby Covington is coming our way and our collective asses are going to have to deal with that. It's an intriguing fight I suppose inside the cage but at the end of the day, there's simply no way to workaround the ugliness that'll follow it outside of it. And just for the sake of funsies, add a third title fight here for good measure. Give me the winner of Jonna/Shevchenko vs the winner of Eye/Chookagian in December. Feels like everything should match up in a timely fashion there. Hell I wouldn't even be totally opposed to Nicco Montano getting the shot here either. Throw in Michelle Waterson vs Livia Souza and Chris Weidman's debut at 205 lbs vs Misha Cirkunov and we are happily off to the races.

UFC on ESPN+ March 9th Boardwalk Hall Atlantic City, New Jersey

Main Event: Cody Garbrandt vs Jimmie Rivera Co-Main Event: Dominick Reyes vs Jan Blachowicz

Again, no location is listed here so we're left to play creative games with locations. The UFC has agreements in place to run shows in China and Russia twice a year (in theory) but they also have deals with Singapore (normally in June) and Atlantic City. Let's keep it in the States and turn our attention to Atlantic City. AGAIN the only way you're going to get bantamweights respected is if you give them main event opportunities. I would've gone Cruz/Lineker winner vs Garbrandt but I'd imagine the winner of Cruz vs Lineker is the fast track candidate for the bantamweight title fight. Garbrandt needs a break from TJ Dillashaw and Cruz----and a fight with Jimmie Rivera feels a bit like a safe and secure rebound fight. Rivera is probably the easiest of the available top 5 guys and I'd like to see if a refreshed Garbrandt could handle Rivera's pressure and crisp combinations. The co-main feels like a damn good fight that even Reyes has chimed in about. Dom Reyes wants this to be a main event but I'm more committed to helping improve the imagery of bantamweights as main eventers than I am in giving Reyes a main event spot. He doesn't need it as much as bantamweight overall needs it.

UFC on ESPN+ March 16th The 02 Arena London, England

Main Event: Darren Till vs Derek Brunson Co-Main Event: Marcin Tybura vs Alexander Volkov

Guys like Jimi Manuwa, LEon Edwards (the hell do you find a spot for him on these shows?), Arnold Allen and the wealth of other good European fighters figure to be on here somewhere. This is where not having a Mousasi type hurts because you could willingly plug him in here at any spot and he'll be a reputable international draw. For me, give me Till vs Brunson in a test to see whether Darren Till is ready for the move up to 185 lbs. Brunson is sort of the Mr. Reliable a la Uriah Hall who the UFC calls on when they need a guy with some clout who can pop in and do a deal. The co-main is just the usual international bit; two big European heavyweights being told to go out there and throw hands at one another. Sneak in Overeem somewhere on this main card in an easier fight (Shamil Abdurakhimov, lookin at you!) and you've got a pretty decent top of the billing for a return to the UK. Leon Edwards is the one guy I kind of lack a spot for; Edwards was supposed to fight a bunch of different guys but the UFC has basically hidden him out in Europe (with a pinch hit in Brazil or Asia) so it's hard to find a good spot for him. Just talking out loud here on that one but maybe the loser of Usman vs RDA? I can't see RDA being willing to go to Europe but he fought in Mexico and Singapore recently so perhaps the travel isn't going to be THAT big of a deal. Also I assume this is where we'll see the return of Gokhan Saki despite him being MIA for what feels like a century now. Mairbek Taisumov vs David Teymur would be a dandy too.

UFC on ESPN+ March 23rd American Airlines Center Dallas, Texas

Main Event: Holly Holm vs Amanda Nunes/Cris Cyborg Co-Main Event: Yair Rodriguez vs Ricardo Lamas

I am going to BET you that ESPN has some "You'll get a title fight" assurances from the UFC. Just a random guess. With Amanda Nunes bottoming out on PPV with under 100K buys vs Rocky Pennington and Cyborg always one foot in, one foot out the door, maybe this is where you use your digital platform to help make some folks happy. Holly Holm is (usually) always really good at attracting eyeballs to her fights in some form or fashion. Consider that she sold 200K+ buys with GDR as a headliner for the love of all that's holy (with some help from Anderson Silva too) and remember the numbers she's drawn on free TV. Holm vs Nunes is a fresh fight at 135 lbs that would/could make folks happy on all fronts. It's a respectable main event. Cyborg vs Holm 2 could follow a similar suit as a "big" fight main event given to fans for $4.99 a month. It's an enticer and perhaps that ESPN+ sub count means more to ESPN (and the UFC) than whatever rating you pop the week AFTER this one. Things don't always make sense in MMA anyways. Yair vs Lamas is a fight the UFC has tried to make apparently three times before and so now I imagine is as good a time as any to pull it off. Yair's stock will never be higher and Lamas seems to be on the downswing of things in his career potentially. Maybe that's a fight you can pull off and feel good about. Also I imagine March is more than enough time for Derrick Lewis to heal up and grace us all with his wonderful presence

UFC on ESPN March 30th SAP Center San Jose, California

Main Event- Luke Rockhold vs Paulo Costa Co-Main Event- Anthony Pettis vs Nik Lentz

And so we end this long and painful march towards the end of the "official" calendar with one more show on ESPN. I feel like at this point the "obvious" fights are exhausted and you're left to try and get creative with a smidge of spots that make sense for an ESPN headliner. The one fight that remains that I'd feel most comfortable with is this one; a clash between rising MW contender Paulo Costa and longtime stalwart and guy who seems too stubborn to cut to 205 Luke Rochold. In reality, it's a pretty fair match up for both guys. Costa gets to chase the big "name" that eluded him and after pulling out of two fights and struggling with injuries, it makes sense that Rockhold's return would be a bit more subdued. Rockhold is still a guy who can draw eyes to TV sets and so Rockhold vs Costa on "free" TV feels like a bit of a dandy for fans. As far as a co-main event for the ole boys at ESPN? Kinda stuck. At this point I'm projecting 10 events (and like four months into the future) so it's not exactly the easiest deal in the world. As such how about Anthony Pettis vs Nik Lentz? Pettis is still a name who can be relied upon for some semblance of notoriety and Nik Lentz is one of the few dudes at 155 lbs he hasn't fought quite yet. Most of the fun exciting LWs I believe Pettis has either fought or has passed on as well given that he turned down Mairbek Taisumov (not the worst idea), Kevin Lee (for UFC 228) and so Lentz feels like a fair shake in giving Pettis someone he COULD beat while also presenting challenges to him. Throw in Ovince St. Preux somewhere and give us the latest from Cat Zingano and I'm cool with that.

#MMA #UFC #Fight Nights #2019 #Match Making

6 notes · View notes

kalinara · 7 years ago

Text

So, I’ve just babbled endlessly about my hypothetical rewrite for the first half of season 2, so now to talk about the second half.

In general, I’m happier with the second half. Mostly because my favorite character is back...so to speak, and there’s more of a sense of metaplot movement. There are some pacing issues: it is awfully abrupt at parts, but I think some of that can be smoothed out by introducing a few key concepts earlier.

Therefore, I’d probably keep Raiders of the Lost Art through Land of the Lost as pretty much the same as is in canon, with a few caveats.

I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve decided that one big change that I would make, that I didn’t mention in my last post, is that I would jettison the whole hallucination Len bit, after all. And I would have Leonard Snart as a member of the Legion of Doom much earlier.

I feel like this would introduce a bit more suspense in Mick’s arc. I don’t think he’d be inclined to side with the Legion on his own without provocation, but actually seeing Len there in earlier episodes, like my hypothetical JSA/Spear episode would have a bit more of a bite.

I think I’d revamp Camelot a little and have Malcolm accompany evil!Rip to kill Charles. I wouldn’t have Malcolm do anything, mind you. I think it’s important storywise to have Rip be the one to kill him, but it’d give a bit of an opportunity to see how Malcolm feels about the entire evil!Rip situation. We know from Arrow that he’s not above brainwashing, but he had an interesting little dynamic with Phil.

The other thing is that I would like to play up Sara’s rage a bit more. Bloodlust was an important arc in season one, and all but forgotten in season two. Sara has specifically chosen not to kill Damien Darhk at this time, out of duty. But I’d like to see that wrestled with more. Especially because of how I’d end the season for her. (She’d still get the heroic moment, don’t worry. :-)) At no point would we see her succumb to her bloodlust, but I really think it’s important to re-establish that struggle.

I think I’d keep Moonshot mostly the same too, though I think I’d want to emphasize Ray’s role a bit more. Ray didn’t get a lot of development at all in season 2, which saddens me. I think a lot of that might be alleviated though if we actually allow him to react to Damien a bit more. That moment of rage in Camelot fascinated me. Damien had imprisoned him for a year, and he just saw him mistreat a (admittedly brainwashed) friend. I think maybe that’s a thread I’d want to develop through Moonshot and maybe Fellowship.

Here’s where we get to the big change though: Fellowship/Doomworld/Aruba. I’d keep the original theft of the Spear, but that’s pretty much it.

Doomworld was fun, but in the end, it was a completely pointless jaunt. The characters didn’t learn anything, because it got rewritten. We had Mick betray the team twice, and no consequences, except bitter cynicism when the showrunners start touting the idea that Mick finally sees the team as a family. This is Fellowship Mick, after all. And it’s hard for me to not see him as one dickhead move by the team away from betraying them all.

But mostly I’m pissed off that the penultimate episode gave us nothing to work with in terms of character growth when a much better premise was squandered. We know that the spear tempted the crew, but except for Mick and Amaya, we don’t even know what it SAID.

So what I’d do is expand Fellowship into two parts. No stupid rewritten universe. I’d go full on temptation arc. We have eight characters at this point who have tremendous losses and issues, so let’s take two episodes and explore that for each of them.

Also, I’d have the Legion of Doom defeated soundly at the beginning of Fellowship. Done. The team’s real adversaries in the last three episodes are themselves. (Though the Legion members can assist with temptation perhaps from the brig, Hannibal Lecter style.)

I kind of want to keep the idea of Mick betraying the team, but I would avoid that out of character confrontation on the bridge. I think I’d make it entirely about Leonard. He does care about the team, but if Len goes back, he dies. How can he let that happen?

So maybe Mick’s hears the voices of his family, sees Len in the Brig, and just snaps and tries to use the Spear. Which promptly ensnares each character in a personalized temptation:

Most of the characters would have pretty straight forward temptation quests but we’d actually get to see them. Amaya’s would include Rex as well as her village. And we’d see it all, including a vision of Mari at the end when she succeeds in defeating her temptation to manipulate fate. Ray’s would be heavily symbolic. Heroism, being able to make a difference grand scale, and culminate in taking the throne of Camelot and ushering in a new age, while bringing justice to his enemies. (Eobard’s monologues from Moonshot play heavily into this.) He passes when he realizes that he’s been a hero all along and he can work on ways to increase his positive impact on the world. (Ideally Kendra would appear because I love Kendra).

I’ve never had a good grasp on Nate, I’ll be honest, but I think it would offer him ultimate knowledge and the power to make things better for himself and his friends. Save Amaya’s village, bring Henry back. A bit like Ray’s but a bit narrower scale. Not selfish, but more self-centered.

Jax’s and Martin’s would be linked, I think. Jax wants to be recognized as his own man, for his own accomplishments. I think the Spear wouldn’t offer him as much direct power, but the means to achieve things on his own. Fixing his knee. Money for school. A ship of his own. Basically start up capital. Jax of course realizes he doesn’t need any of that. He already is a great man who can do great things, and his potential is only growing.

Martin is deathly afraid of losing more people that he loves, so his temptation would involve protecting Lily, Jax and Clarissa. To the point of over controlling everything to keep them safe. Of course, he’d need to let go.

Rip and Sara will have slightly different set ups though. Rip’s avoided the temptation of using the Spear before, after all. And Sara’s already had that lovely “I’d rather have a nightmare that’s real” speech.

So their tests will be less about using the Spear itself (though what’s offered to them should provide insight into their characters), and more about their personal flaws. Namely, Rip’s issues with reaching out/trusting/being honest with the team, and Sara’s fear of herself.

Rip: It’d be easy to bring back Miranda and Jonas for this, but I think that matter was put to bed in season one. Like Sara and Laurel, this is a test that he’s already passed. He’s also the one who has past experience with the Spear’s temptation. The Spear's temptation of Rip is more about shame and regret. Specifically, it will offer him the chance to undo all the evils committed by evil Rip: bring back Charles, Galahad. He can bring back Henry, who lost his family and then died because of Rip’s mission. He can undo recruiting the team, undo Leonard’s death, and Carter’s. He can undo falling for Miranda, and putting her in the crosshairs of the Time Masters and Savage. He can undo himself.

Rip is tempted more than Sara is, his self-loathing is strong, but he’s too much of a Time Master to believe that he can undo his past mistakes. Instead, he wants to take the spear and basically go, with it, into a black hole or something. No more spear. No more Rip. Complete the journey he should have taken in Legendary. This is his responsibility and his burden. (There should be a thread of distrust in Rip’s plot. He loves his team, but he doesn’t want to burden them and he doesn’t really trust them with the burdens.)

So of course, then, his true test is to let it go and relinquish his burden to someone else, to trust SARA to act.

Sara: I wouldn’t make Sara’s test about bringing back Laurel. Since, as I said, she’d already resolved that in Compromised. Sara’s test is different: The Spear promises her wrath: the ability to destroy her enemies and eradicate anyone who has ever or will ever hurt her, her sister, and her friends. I’d specifically highlight: her murder at Malcolm’s hands, her sister’s murder by Darhk, and Rip’s violation by Eobard, because that gives an additional temptation: they’re helpless in her brig. She CAN deal with them now. She can protect anyone. “No woman should suffer at the hands of a man” can be a reality now.

But Sara doesn’t respond to this temptation by going for the Spear, but rather fleeing away from it. Sara is terrified by this temptation and terrified that on some level she wants it. That’s why, in the end, she’ll be the one to use it. Because her true test is to trust herself. When she does use the spear, she doesn’t bring back Laurel. She doesn’t obliterate her enemies as a Goddess of Rage. She just does what needs to be done. The Spear neutralizes itself and they’re all freed.

I’m torn when it comes to Mick, since on one hand, I want to give him the chance to undo his mistake in a heroic manner. But on the other, who can blame him for wanting to save his friend? But I like this betrayal better than the ones in Fellowship/Doomworld, because I think the team can accept that these sort of circumstances would not likely happen again.

That might require more thought.

In the end though, the team rejects their temptation, Rip trusts Sara, and Sara overcomes her fear of herself to use the spear.

(I admit, that I’d be inclined to throw Sara and Mick a subconscious bone. Somewhere, hidden in time, a version of Laurel Lance and Leonard Snart wake up. NOT because Sara couldn’t resist temptation. She succeeded. But more as an act of the Spear itself.)

I suppose I’d still keep Rip leaving and the broken time at the end, but I’d make it less about having rewritten time that once and more about the team’s general carelessness along the way. The people saved and people killed. The zombies and stray Time Pirate. Tokugawa and Turnbull wouldn’t have happened in this version, but I’m sure we can find a few more instances of the team trampling through history to use as a basis. And then, go on from there. :-)

[ETA: I admit, I probably would not include Gideon in the mass temptation, but it’s possible that she can be involved in Mick’s side of the plot. If he does end up choosing to help the team in the end, he may be unsnared by this whole mess, and she can help him. That also will require more thought.]

#legends of tomorrow #wherein I continue to steal other people's ideas

11 notes · View notes

one-soul-two-brothers · 8 years ago

Text

one-soul-two-brothers’ ultimate fic recs: wincest edition (part III)

Wincest fics are my (other) absolute faves to read First time fics are the best (but not imperative) I like them to keep some semblance of canon A fic doesn’t have to have sex to be good (but it doesn’t hurt) They have all been thoroughly vetted (aka I’ve either read them all at least twice or will definitely be reading them again) And the most important: happy endings are a requirement

ENJOY!

best LATE-SEASON FIRST-TIME

title: The Exodus rating: explicit word count: 14k relationship: first time summary: So. Dean left with Cas over a week ago on some sort of recon mission, and yeah, Sam has been trying to bury himself in research, but he's just not coping all that well with the long-term separation. He wakes up early one morning, expecting the day to be like all the rest: brother-less. Oh, except, it's even worse than all the rest, because he's completely and totally alone on his brother-less thirty-fourth birthday. His bleak outlook quickly changes with an unexpected phone call, and he has to admit that maybe someone, somewhere answered his embarrassingly needy birthday wish, despite his lack of candles to blow out. excerpt: “Yeah,” Sam breathes, trying to convince himself he’s not dreaming. It’s just-- Dean is only sweet like this, open like this in Sam’s best dreams, so… how on earth could this be real? “I missed you,” Sam adds, breathing it shyly into the air between them, watching how the words affect his brother.

title: O Brother, Where Art Thou? rating: explicit word count: 6600 relationship: first time summary: Over the last fifteen years, Sam Winchester had walked away from his brother more times than he cared to count. This time, Sam couldn’t come up with a legitimate excuse. At least, not one that was appropriate to tell his brother. He knew that, as much as him leaving would hurt Dean, staying here would lead Sam to making choices that could hurt Dean so much more. Could push Dean away permanently. Because Sam Winchester was in love with his brother, and he couldn't hide it any longer. anna’s notes: Shameless self-promo.

title: The Claiming rating: explicit word count: 6900 relationship: first time summary: At age 32, Sam Winchester presents as an Omega. No one is more surprised than Dean, the Alpha who's been pining over his little brother all his life. Canon divergence after scene with Piper in 11x04, "Baby." anna’s notes: Look...I think I’ve read this like five times (at least) since I discovered it (like, a month ago). I know, it’s ridiculous, but it’s just SO GOOD. And yes, it’s an a/b/o fic, but if you’ve never read one or don’t really like them, I still think you should check this out. There are absolutely no dom/sub or non-con components that are often in a lot of other a/b/o fics. And IT’S LATE SEASON FIRST TIME WINCEST, OKAY? THE BEST KIND OF WINCEST. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH.

title: The King and The Lionheart rating: explicit word count: 53k relationship: first time summary: After the disastrous but effective removal of the Mark, facing a life without allies or a reason to keep hunting, Sam and Dean Winchester leave their old life behind them in flames. They re-emerge from the ashes as Sam and Dean Wesson, residents of Misty Luna, Maine-- a town with a personality all its own. As they settle into civilian life, they gain careers, a home, good friendships and the kind of fulfillment they never thought possible. But with nothing left to fight, the underbelly of their particular kind of love is thrown into sharp relief, especially considering the whole town thinks they’re married, anyway. After dancing around their feelings for the past twenty years, Sam and Dean find a peace they never knew existed, and through it all, they find each other again. And maybe, just maybe, forever. Curtain!fic. Canon divergence after 10x21, “Dark Dynasty.” anna’s notes: THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD.

best PLOT WHAT PLOT

title: Coupons rating: explicit word count: 5730 relationship: established summary: This could, quite possibly, go down as the most ridiculous thing he's ever done. He feels all of ten years old again, in a grade school where he doesn’t know anyone, creating a coupon book for Mother's Day that he plans to give to Dean. Only this time, he's 29 and his brother's turning 34, and the coupons aren't for chores around the house. anna’s notes: I mean...there’s a little plot. And plenty of fluff. It’s so good.

best MPREG

title: Not A Curse After All rating: explicit word count: 23k relationship: established summary: Dean didn't understand how his life always seemed to take the oddest turns. Another case with a witch and it was official, he was dying, not just dying, but a slow torturous decent into his worst fears before he went. He was eating like a teenage girl on a date, sleeping like a middle aged man in a mid-life crises and he hadn't wanted sex in....shit he didn't even know how long.

title: It Only Takes One Oops... rating: mature word count: 20k relationship: established summary: Someone gets pregnant. excerpt: “How, I mean, when… fuck,” Dean mumbled, his speaking ability currently matching his thought process.

“You’ve got the ‘how’ down perfectly,” Sam said as he sank down on the bed next to his brother. “The when? Oh, cast your brain–your upstairs brain–back about six weeks to that weekend at the Grand Canyon. The night with the full moon, the back of the Impala, NO condoms, the ‘come on Sammy, just this once, what can one time hurt, it’ll be fine, please Sammy, please.’”

“I didn’t beg--”

“You sure as hell didn’t use a condom! And, yes, you begged.”

title: Settling Up, Settling In rating: explicit word count: 38k relationship: established summary: Dean's been running himself ragged keeping Sam from scratching at the Wall Death put up in his little brother's head, and things are not okay between the brothers because Sam won't let Dean anywhere near him, and the only thing Dean really wants now? To retire. Because it's the only way to keep Sam safe. But a routine salt and burn leads to a cursed object that causes Sam to go into a sexual frenzy and get Dean pregnant, which is okay with Dean because that seems like the perfect ticket out. Until the Hell in Sam's head starts to spill over and he freaks out when Dean tells him about the baby.

best CRACK

title: SAMpala rating: explicit word count: 12k relationship: first time summary: Sam wishes he was the damned Impala, at least he might get some Dean love that way. anna’s notes: This is both hilarious and sweet at the same time.

best SEASON 12 CODA (episodes 12-20)

title: 12x13 summary: When Mary tells Sam and Dean that she's been working with the British Men of Letters, neither of the boys takes the news well. anna’s notes: Shameless self-promo.

title: Coda to 12x13 excerpt: He tries. He tries. He watches Dean scowl every time they see their mother and he works, honestly works to try and smooth things over, talks to Dean and talks to Mom and tries to help them see the other point of view. And if he catches Dean texting surreptitiously, later, he’s pleased about it. It’s good, right? That was the point, and there’s no reason she should message them both.

title: Dragged Up (12x17) summary: Sam's still so unsure of what he and Dean have. Drinking one night with Dean and Mick, Sam's thoughts spiral down into a deep pit of despair.

title: Through These Walls (12x18) summary: When Ketch put a bug in the bunker, he was looking for usable intel. What he got? Well, that is something else entirely.

title: You’ve Got Mail (12x18) summary: Sam's been getting an awful lot of emails from his brother lately... anna’s notes: Fluff and schmoop and a first kiss!

title: But We Can’t Punch Ourselves Awake (12x19) summary: Sam is sure this, too, will be forgiven. excerpt: Sam isn't like his brother. Dean forgives and forgets once you're back in his good graces. Sure, he's ruthless and can hold a grudge like no other but once you've proved yourself? He forgets it all. Sam is living proof of that. Still alive after all those years after Dean had planned on killing him. Sure, they'd made up after that but there are things in Sam's mind that he won't ever be rid of. It's evident even more by Dean's constant forgiving of Castiel.

title: Coda: The Future (12x19) excerpt: “I know what you’re gonna say, Sammy, but no. Not this time. He’s messed with my car, the Colt and my baby brother on the same fucking day. You are not making any more excuses for him. We’re done with him, you hear me? We’re done.” Dean pushes Sam’s hair out of his eyes. “You doin’ OK? Can you stand?”

title: Untitled 12.20 coda excerpt: Max won’t tell her anything. Bad witch is all he’ll say. Bought her power from a demon, used it against Mom, used it to make Mom turn on you. He won’t explain why he burned Mom without her. Won’t explain how she was healed, why there isn’t a bloody gash in her abdomen. Natural magic. Don’t worry. You’re fine. Everything’s gonna be fine. anna’s notes: This isn’t actually wincest, but it was too good not to add to this list.

title: Coda: Twigs and Twine and Tasha Banes (12x20) summary: Written mostly because I'm so worried that Sam wouldn't wake up at the end of 12.20. *chews nails*

For all my other ultimate fic recs (j2 non-au, j2 au, and wincest), go here.

#i'm putting together this post when i should actually be working #the perks of working from home #IT'S THE FUCKING BEST #anyways #ultimate fic recs #fic rec #wincest #w fic rec #wincest fic rec #i'm about to make a j2au one now too #oops

284 notes · View notes

amwritingmeta · 8 years ago

Text

Possibilities for S13...

There is absolutely no point in me calling these ramblings predictions because I have no frigging clue as to what will actually happen.

That said, with the picture tweeted by Mark of Misha dressed as a plain old civilian, the implications could be human!Cas. Or it, very well, could not be. It could just be M2 fucking with the fandom, as they are wont to do. I do not possess the knowledge of Misha’s wardrobe that some of you devoted lovelies do, but it has been pointed out that it looked as though he was in plain old private wardrobe. Whatever reason they had for putting make-up on him in his plains, we may never know. Or what am I saying - we’ll know in May. *gulp*

And as far as these speculations go, I can only look at what I would want to work with in S13 if I were a writer on the show. My biggest issue with the thought of a separation for Dean and Cas has always been that we’ve partaken, so keenly, in this very scenario before. Actually, we’ve seen Dean worry for Cas twice - first when Cas was possessed by Lucifer, and secondly when he disappeared to Heaven without a word - so rule of three dictates…? I’m looking at this as Dean’s story, mind, and so his worrying journey is paramount to every decision made about plot and supporting cast. Sorry, Sam and Cas, you do fall under that heading, no matter how strong your individual arcs are.

In either case, here’s me spewing my ponderings on the possibilities for S13 onto this dash o’mine. Thoughts, reactions, discussions are more than welcome! I’d like to flag down @tinkdw, @postmodernmulticoloredcloak, @floralmotif, @mittensmorgul and anyone you guys want to flag (if I dare be so bold) because I really would love to interact with you brilliant and observant meta-mothers! If my thoughts grab you and make you go hey or ho or WTF, that is. That said, everyone’s input is, of course, welcome. Please never feel as though you can’t ask me to clarify, ask me to elaborate, ask me to dial back (never will) or tell me to generally fuck off (though in which general direction is helpful as I may otherwise end up somewhere completely random and I will hunt you down and hug you, which will, you know, negate the fucking off).

The Seasonal Arcs

Let me start by saying that part of what I’m basing this on is that I’m thinking about the writers well-established use of dual seasonal arcs, where they have repeatedly used one season’s overarching plot line to set-up the truly Big Bad to come in the following season. They did this, and do excuse my simplification of these arcs, with Cas’ bad choices in S6 ushering in the Leviathan threat of S7; with Cas trusting Metatron in S8 causing the angels to fall and setting Metatron up as main villain for S9; with Dean’s salvation from the MoC at the end of S10 bringing in The Darkness in S11; and now they’re doing it again with, as I read it, the World as We Know It vs. the World as the BMoL would have it. I’ll dig deeper into that in a minute.

Out of the Bunker (Into the Impala?)

I’ve read speculation that the Bunker may be blown up - I sincerely hope not. Mostly because it’s Dean’s “nest” and it would break my heart to see it go, but also because it feels like the best place for the brothers to stay united in the family business, and yet begin to lead separate lives. (More on that, also, in a minute. Or so.)

So, putting aside the blowing up scenario, I find that turning the brothers out of the Bunker at the end of the season makes sense to me, because I feel this season has been so much about changing the rules of the world in order to reestablish them, moving how the characters relate to one another forward and yet keeping what we love about them intact, reminding us of what’s important in the fight we’re watching and, more than anything, pointing out the fact that this group of men has never been the well-oiled machine that they could be if each got to play a role suited to their disposition.

Roles Suited to Their Disposition

Dean: wants to lead and needs to lead, but he also wants a partner, someone whom he trusts to always have his back, and, yes, of course this applies to Sam, but Sam is also someone whom Dean constantly worries about, looks out for and, foremost of all, still thinks of as his responsibility. Dean will always hunt, no matter what: he’s the born hunter.

Sam: lights up whenever anything is mentioned regarding trivia, archives or getting to dig into knowledge few have access to, he’s the born researcher, a bookworm who thrives on learning through reading and not always, by necessity, doing. Yes, he loves being a hunter, he loves saving people and making the world better, but it’s not where his passion truly lies - he wouldn’t be doing it without Dean.

Cas: wants to follow a leader he believes in, because however much the leader that he is in his own right, he genuinely just wants to help, and getting to hunt alongside someone who will teach him as they go, and who trusts him implicitly, would grow him into a force to be reckoned with in no time at all. Will he always take orders from Dean? (Because of course it’s Dean he’d be following through hell or high water.) No, of course he wouldn’t just sitstayrollover because Dean says so, but this is what makes them a stronger match: they think so alike that when they actually disagree there must be a damn good reason, and if they were communicating openly, without misunderstandings or subterfuge of any kind, there’d be no stopping them.

Open Communication

This season has highlighted the lack of communication between all characters who need to be, and should be, working together, and it’s the dishonesty - with each other and with themselves - as well as the duty that Dean, Sam and Cas feel towards “doing what is right” that is keeping all three of them from reaching their full potential. It all comes down to how the three of them are bound to one another for all the wrong reasons at this moment, because loyalty and love and deepest fear and worry keeps them from breaking out of their rut and speaking honestly what they really need from one another:

The brothers need to let each other go to be whole (and they’re getting there)

Cas and Dean need to admit they love each other for that same reason.

So back to my first possibility: out of the Bunker and, perhaps, back into the Impala...

The Change in the Game

The British Men of Letters have blasted onto the scene with a completely different, utterly mercenary way of doing business, opposite to what we have seen evolve into the hunter way and, indeed, that of the MoL legacy itself. The BMoL kill-everything-that-kills attitude may be echoing the attitude of the brothers, especially of the first few seasons, when anything that was a monster was immediately disposed of without a moment’s consideration for the possibility of saving the vessel (the victims mattered, whatever that was monstrous did not), but the brothers have done a lot of evolving since then, and the BMoL way of doing things is clearly not the right road to go down. Things are not that black and white in the world of Supernatural, and, honestly, it never was.

We, and more importantly the brothers, have learned that not every monster is the same, that some have good hearts and that those that don’t still deserve a show of compassion, as they can’t help what they are. Dean’s actions with the vampire in 12x14 highlights this change in the brothers’ attitude, and this difference between the brothers’, and, by extension, the hunters’ rules of engagement vs. the BMoL’s.

Sam being seduced by the BMoL’s promise to change the world - to be “the future” - is underlined as the wrong choice with his reaction to Mick killing the girl-turned-werewolf: “We’re not angry - we’re done.” Sam is back on track and moving away from the dark side as he now clearly sees what’s right underneath the too glossy surface. Dean saw it from the very start because it was how the BMoL was first introduced to him (and to us): as a threat. And once you’ve hurt Sam, Dean isn’t prone to forgiveness.

But the BMoL don’t need his forgiveness, or his trust, because they’re rich, powerful and organised, and I do believe the idea of them taking over the Bunker and throwing the brothers out - when Sam and Dean adamantly refuse to work for them, of course - makes for a compelling upturning of the world we’ve gotten so used to. It would also, nicely, bring us back on the road for the first half of S13, taking us back to the beginning of things, which I think could be imperative for the writers making some major changes come mid-season finale, bringing the boys back “home” again, but this time with the foundation for their own MoL, headed by Sam and Eileen.

Let me elaborate.

Life on the Road

Imagine if human!Cas becomes part of this set-up at end of S12 and we see the three of them - Sam, Dean, Cas - driving off in Baby, escaping the clutches of the BMoL just as the Old Man (or is that Men?) appears on the scene. Beginning of S13 sees them on the road for the first half of it, and I’m thinking they’d have one imperative - to make war on the BMoL. This would set them up to start hunting down the other Legacies, as well as possibly sabotaging for the BMoL as much as possible… The brothers would call in their hunter friends and, moving forward in the season, begin to find allies among the monsters. That may be a stretch, don’t get me wrong - I just love the villain turned tentative friend motif (like Crowley, only more unreliable and truly more of a when-this-is-done-we-go-back-to-killing-each-other vibe).

I can’t help but think that the BMoL are a crucial ingredient to the push forward, this reestablishing of the old, that will still feel fresh due to the character evolution forced through this great threat that brings every aspect of the Old World, our known world, together to fight against it.

This season has been about creating division within the core group - I feel next season should logically be about bringing them together, making them a tighter unit than we’ve ever seen them before, as honesty begins to permeate their relationships. It seems inevitable that it simply must at this point.

Sam and Dean have gone through moments of true metamorphosis this season: sleeping in separate rooms on the job, Sam getting a love interest in Eileen etc. We’re unequivocally being told that things are changing. As has been stated, first in 11x01, where the motor for so much of this change really started revving up, and then restated in 12x01: change is needed and it’s wanted. It’s been coming for a long time now.

Getting thrown out of their home - for Dean - and knowledge base/workspace - for Sam - and having to fight to get it back, this could be used as the brothers laying the foundation for a real change in their working relationship, where Dean wants to move back into the Bunker, while Sam wants to save the research, the books, all the things that facilitate his possible new role as MoL. The difference between “home” and “workplace” is, to me, an important distinction. Sam relates so strongly to the MoL that he has never nested among the books and paraphernalia because he’s not meant to live there. He’s meant to come back there to conduct research and work with Dean, but he’s not meant to live with Dean. I’m not saying Dean is meant to spend the rest of his life in the Bunker, he might choose to live somewhere new with Cas, once they get their heads out of their asses. (….ummmmmmmmmmmmm, nope, not going to go there.) (Guess I just did.) (That really should be heads in each other’s…) (Shut up.)

Destiel

It’s happening. I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I know something’s starting right now. Watch, and you’ll see. One day I’ll….. Ok, man, my brain is fried. Sorry. The Little Mermaid goes right to the back of my head as of this moment and I’m back. That said, Ariel does have a point. And it’s a good one. If human!Cas was to be a reality as early as season finale this year, well, you might say, where the hell are they supposed to go with that then? What, drag it out for two years with human!Cas and Dean eye fucking each other? Or perhaps human!Cas is straight straight straight and goes off and gets married? What if they do that? That’d be a separation, wouldn’t it?

I’m going to say this only once: (I’ve already said it once. Dammit! Okay, I’m going to say this only twice:) Dean is our protagonist. His journey from as early as I can remember (S1) has been about self-acceptance, it has been about letting go of his brother, it has been about settling things with his fucked up childhood, it has been about finding his individuality, about daring to be himself, because every time he has ever tried in his formative years, something has happened to stop him, and this has made him feel as though trying to be anything other than a killer is him pretending, and now he fears that this is all there is to him, this killer, but all of this change he’s undergoing began with Castiel coming into his life.

That’s what this face is about:

Cas represents love.

If there is one thing that Dean Winchester has ever wanted to have in his life, it is unconditional love.

If there is one thing that Dean Winchester has ever needed to have in his life, it is unconditional love.

Cas represents the reward at the end of Dean’s long road to self-discovery and self-acceptance, and nothing, nothing aside from Misha actually saying that he’s decided to leave the show, will ever convince me that Destiel is not endgame.

Final Words

These are just impressions, stuff that begins to lurk at the back of my head as I’m watching the season unfold, little threads that I as a writer would personally love to pull on. And please, do disagree with me, I truly honestly do not mind. We all take different things from what we watch and I will admit freely that I cannot recite the entire series by heart. There are so many intricacies that I may have missed and, please, do point them out! I’m eager to learn of them.

What truly cemented the not-as-dark-as-before thoughts I have on the show and how they might approach a more unified cast of characters in S13 is how S11 ended on such hope. Dean’s evolution as a character in that moment was staggering and gorgeous and his reward was one big leap forward to the endgame for his character arc: a long and happy life with the man he’s loved for a very, very long time now.

All of this said, I’m looking forward to watching 12x19 and I’m eager to see what they do with the season finale because once we know how they end this season, well, then the real predicting can begin! :)

#spn meta #spn s13 #possibilities

27 notes · View notes

firesoulstuff · 7 years ago

Note

Foxfire + “I need to tell you something.”

Sharing a Destiny

Read on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/13188444/chapters/30786162

It’s late, but Zari’s been havingtrouble sleeping recently, so she almost doesn’t care. It’s been a few weekssince they took down Mallus, and a rough few weeks at that. First there’sdealing with the aftermath of the battle with Mallus, as he wasn’t what anyonewas expecting. Not to mention that some of them barely made it out alive, andthen to top it all off it was only a few days later that they were fightingKuasa when she suddenly dropped into a seizure. After getting her back to theWaverider Gideon revealed that there was nothing she could do for the woman,but that the timeline was starting to cement without Amaya in her proper placeand thus Kuasa was going to fade out of existence sooner rather than later, aswas Mari.

Needless to say, Amaya was back inZambesi within an hour.

They’ve all been adjusting to herdeparture. Zari misses her; she was one of her closest friend’s on this ship.Nate has been pretty quiet about it, but things between him and Amaya neverreally got back to anything beyond teammates, especially after she startedspending so much time with Mick.

They weren’t dating, notofficially, but the feelings were visible. As the mission against Mallus wenton they spent increasing amounts of time together, and one would have to beboth blind and stupid to miss the longing ways the two looked at each other.Mick was the one who carried Kuasa back to the Waverider after she collapsed,sprinting as if it were one of their own in his arms, not their enemy.

She’s still here, Kuasa, stillunconscious in the med bay. They’ve determined it’s going to take some time forthe timeline to realize Amaya is back where she belongs. They make sure tocheck in on her status at least once a day.

That’s where Zari finds Mick.

He’s hunched over the med bay’scomputer, still dressed from the day, and focused so intently on whatever is onits screen that he hasn’t even noticed her watching him from the doorway.

“How’s she doing?” She finallybreaks the silence and Mick looks over at last, but only for a second before hereturns his focus back to whatever he’s doing.

“Unstable, still.” He grumbles andZari frowns, but it’s a better answer than dead.

“She’ll get better,” she doesn’tknow if she’s looking to reassure him or herself, but it doesn’t much matterconsidering it isn’t working on her and he isn’t paying attention. “Mick,” shetries but still nothing, “Come on, go to sleep. Gideon’s promised to let usknow if anything changes in here. Staring at her charts isn’t going to make herwake up any faster.” She knows reason, while normally a surprisingly efficienttactic with Mick, isn’t going to do her any good here, but she tries anyway.She can’t force him to go to his room and sleep, but he needs to. “I miss hertoo,” she tries, obviously no longer meaning Kuasa, but she still gets nothingfrom Mick.

Heaving a sigh she puts her proteston hold and sinks into the chair beside Kuasa, eyes studying the other woman’ssleeping form. It’s funny, how when she’s asleep and the only thing they haveleft of their friend, she almost doesn’t look deadly.

A grunt from Mick snaps Zari fromher daze; he’s grabbing something from the printer and scribbling somethingelse onto the bottom of it with a pen before folding up what must be anothercopy and slipping it into his pocket.

“Come on,” he orders as he stalkspast her, stopping in the doorway when she doesn’t immediately get up.

“Where are we going?”

“Jump ship,” he answers simply.

“Amaya! Look at this!” With a rollof her eyes Amaya looks over at Foyinsola for the sixth time to see the latest,unfortunate, spider that has been picked up by the little boy. “Look how manylegs it has!”

Eight, for the record. It has eightlegs. Same as the previous five along with every other spider in existence.

“All the better for crawling intoyour ear if you don’t put it down,” she halfheartedly scolds and her youngfriend makes a face at her before returning the arachnid to the dirt.

“I’m going to look over there fortreasure.” He announces and Amaya can’t fight the amused smile on her lips, heis supposed to be helping her wash the clothes but that only lasted about sevenminutes before he lost interest and began playing his imaginary games.

“Just be careful,” She doesn’t mindhim not helping, even if his mother would be having a stroke at the sight ofhim goofing off when he’s supposed to be doing chores. He’s a child, and Amayaintends to allow him to be one while under her watch.

The familiar sound of an enginesuddenly interrupts her thoughts, one that sends a chill down her spine anddraws just as much excitement from her as it does fear. Looking around itdoesn’t take her long to locate the source of the sound; a jump ship from the22nd century isn’t exactly inconspicuous in the middle of theclearing. The hatchway door opens and the sight of both Zari and Mick greetsher, and she just smiles. They smile back, Zari rushing off the small vesselfirst and engulfing her in a tight hug.

“I’ve missed you,” she murmurs intoher ear.

“”I’ve missed you too,” Amayareturns before pulling back and moving to hug Mick, who holds her almostdesperately.

Not that she isn’t holding to himwith an equal grip.

“What’s going on?” She asks as soonas she pulls away from Mick. “Are Kuasa and Mari-?”

“They’re fine,” Zari interrupts,before looking at Mick as though for confirmation, but not waiting for it andinstead deciding to continue. “The timeline is still being sorted out, butthey’re going to be ok.”

Amaya exhales a breath of relief atthat; feeling like a huge weight has left her shoulders. She hasn’t met anyonesince returning home, even if it hasn’t been very long it’s still been worryingher that she may have accidently missed her chance, that she may have alreadycost her daughter and granddaughters’ their existences by traveling throughtime when she did.

But, if her granddaughters areindeed fine, that means her friends must have another reason for being here.

“Guys,” she starts, sadly.“Whatever is going on, I can’t get back on that ship.”

“That’s not why we’re here,” Zariquickly assures her, looking up at Mick again and then back to Amaya. “I’mjust… I’m just dropping him off.”

She looks like she wants to cry,which is definitely not like Zari, and then even stranger she turns and givesMick a hug that he returns.

“Take care of yourself, ok?” Sheasks of him as they pull apart and he nods, asking her to take care of the teamin return. With an awkward wave and a quick “bye” Zari then heads back to thejump ship, leaving a very confused Amaya behind her.

Along with Mick.

“Mick-” She cuts herself off,because she has no idea what to say, or what’s going on for that matter. “Youcan’t be here.” She finally decides on. It was hard to leave the team, butalmost impossible to leave him. She can’t deny the road they were starting togo down, nor can she deny how badly she wanted to go there. But destiny hasother plans for her, no matter how much it might hurt.

“I need to tell you something,” hesays, looking almost uncomfortable and yet hopeful all at once. “After youleft,” he starts, “Kuasa didn’t get much better-”

“But Zari said-” She starts tointerrupt but stops when he holds up a hand.

“She’s still there, but Gideonhasn’t been able to stabilize her. Couldn’t figure out why, then I startedthinking about the place you and me both knew we wanted to go if you could’vestayed-”

“Mick,” she’s desperate to not lethim finish, to not have to tell him againall the reasons they can’t be together.

“So I went to the med bay, and Iran a test.” He says; set on not letting her stop him from saying whatever itis he’s insisted he needs to. He does, however, pause for a second, pulling apaper from the pocket of his jacket and carefully unfolding it before handingit to her.

He remains quiet while she readsit, once and then twice, trying to understand what it is. It’s a sheet ofnumbers, and abbreviations, and names. Two names actually, his and Kuasa’s.There are words on the paper as well, words that she understands but her brainwon’t process, because it would mean… it would mean something impossible.

“Guess she needs both hergrandparents in 1942 to get stable.”

Amaya could swear that her hearthas stopped.

Mick is Kuasa and Mari’sgrandfather.

Mick is her daughter’s father.

Mick, she can be with Mick. Theuniverse is going to allow her that.

Without thinking through what she’sdoing Amaya finds herself laughing and grabbing him by the lapels of hisjacket, crashing her lips onto his. She feels him smiling into the kiss andfeels his hands grab onto her hips, and it all feels so much better than anyother time she’s kissed him before because this time she knows it will last.

By the time she pulls back from thekiss, breathless, they’re both grinning from ear to ear.

“And you’re ok with this?” She hasto ask, despite knowing that he wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t.

“Course I am,” He promises her,pressing another kiss to her forehead. “More than ok, I can’t wait.”

She can’t help but to giggle athim, because this is all still a little surreal to her. She doesn’t have toleave Mick behind.

“Alright,” a new, and rather annoyedsounding, voice demands and cuts through their little haze of a reunion and hasthem both noticing that Zari has returned, dragging a giggling Foyinsola behindher. “Whose responsible for my stowaway?”

#DC's Legends of Tomorrow #amaya jiwe #mick rory #foxfire #mixen #writing prompts

13 notes · View notes