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tsukumo-nya · 2 years ago

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TWCFM Episode 2 Thoughts

This episode wasn't as good as the first episode, but I still liked it.

Enter, Daisuke Jigen!!!

it's kind of hard to explain stuff that happens in this episode without giving at least some context, so this one will be longer than my post about episode 1.

You can see my thoughts on episode 1 here.

There are spoilers, so click keep reading if you want to continue

(TW// Also warning, there is mention of suicide in this episode)

Jigen kind of looks like he's in a different art style then the rest of them in this show. I feel like the art for him in the character expression and reference sheets looked more like manga Jigen then he ended up looking in the actual show.

Anyways this episode has Fujiko immediately do something dumb for money 🤣

She is at this casino, and is cheating at roulette and is constantly winning money, so the owner Cicciolina walks up and plays against Fujiko and bets the entire casino, meanwhile Fujiko bets herself and somehow thinks she is going to win... *facepalm*

THIS SET UP WAS SO OBVIOUS!!!

Like no owner is betting their entire business if they aren't 100% certain that they are going to win, especially if that business is a casino in Monaco. And as expected, the dude spinning the roulette cheats in the owner's favor, and Fujiko loses.

So the lady that owns the casino tells Fujiko that she will let her go if she completes a mission for her. She wants Fujiko to steal Jigen's gun and give it to her, then stick around till everything is done. One of the mobsters that work for Cicciolina tells Fujiko that Jigen killed the former boss while he was working as his body guard, and that the current boss Cicciolina is the former's widow.

Like Fujiko was legit worried about trying to rob from a renowned hitman, but Cicciolina was just like...

Cicciolina: "Eh, he has a weakness for women, you'll be fine!"

Like... Unless you consider women coming out of the woodworks to try to kill or rob him "a weakness for women", then you are waaaaay off the mark Cicciolina, he will literally shoot you and move on if you try to take him down...

*and yes that was foreshadowing*

Anyways Fujiko goes and becomes the girlfriend of the old guy who Jigen is currently employed by (it's Chin-Chin from part 2, actually he might have been in Part 1 too, and a movie). Jigen is working as the old guy's body guard, and is suspicious of Fujiko, as he should be... especially considering he notices that she is carrying a giant knife around in her skirt...

Yeah Fujiko, most people don't do that...

So in order to steal Jigen's gun, Fujiko tries to seduce Jigen... *facepalm*... and of course she fails miserably at it... I think we all know why that never had a possibility of working.

And yes, he even says this in the episode after her first failed attempt at flirting with him.

To anyone who hasn't seen Lupin before or that doesn't know what "onnagirai" means, the literal meaning of the characters used in the word mean "woman hater", but it's super old timey slang for saying "I'm gay", but since the 2010's it's been used as slang for "incell".

But it is also heavily implied in this franchise that Jigen is gay, or sometimes even bi with a preference for guys depending on the writer. And because of the writers constantly changing, he's been in the closet in some seasons, and out of the closet in others, and then back in the closet in the next season. Basically he's been going in and out of the closet for over 50 years now.

So, back on topic, because that plan failed (no duh), Fujiko then proceeded to forcefully kiss Jigen and slipped a knock out drug in his mouth, and then she stole his gun... Oh yeah, and she also told him where to go for a duel if he wants his gun back.

A good chunk of this episode is just Fujiko flashing and harassing Jigen, meanwhile Jigen is just forced to be there even if though he want's to leave because his boss want's him to guard her too.

So right before Fujiko knocks Jigen out, Fujiko asks him about the Casino owners husband and why he killed him, then he has a flashback.

Cicciolina was the wife of the former boss. While Jigen was hired as the boss's body guard, he instructed him to also watch out for his wife since she had attempted to kill herself multiple times.

Jigen asks why she is suicidal and if anthing is making her sad or something, but her husband is just like...

Husband: "Hell if I know, but if you just hang out with her and I'm sure you'll understand her, I mean you're a hitman, hitmen have sad lives don't they?"

Husband of the year everyone *Facepalm*

Anyways Cicciolina has an affair on her husband with Jigen, so at this point you know she is going to be evil and try to kill Jigen.

Jigen's Evil Ex Confirmed!

Then they even do *you know what*, while inside a coffin... WHAT!??

Cicciolina's husband found out that she was cheating on him with Jigen, and threatens to kill Jigen, so she shoots him to protect Jigen, and Jigen takes the fall for her.

So you might ask, why does she want to fight Jigen if he didn't kill her husband?

So Jigen meets Cicciolina at the location of the duel and is like...

Jigen: "Why are we even doing this??

Cicciolina: "You know!"

Jigen: "No, I really don't"

And then Cicciolina's men bust in through the windows, and one of them randomly shouts...

Penne: "Hah hah! Jigen, you thought Cicciolina liked you, but she was also dating me all along, Ha haaaaah!

Like no one cares dude, you know how long it's been since they have even seen each other, plus he doesn't even know you, and plus she is trying to kill him! Also why is the Italian dude named after pasta...? *facepalm*

Jigen of course was so confused about what was even going on.

Anyways, a gun fight breaks out while Fujiko watches, and Jigen shoots all of the bad guys, including Cicciolina.

Jigen rushes to pick up Cicciolina as she falls after getting shot by him, and then she is like...

Cicciolina: "Yes finally!!! You know I really wanted you to shoot me, now I can finally go, Bye!"

Fujiko: "Well that was... something... But at least I can go home now!"

Jigen: "...??? Yeah, I still don't understand her... I feel like understand even less now???"

So I didn't get it either, so I looked it up...

Apparently the reason why Cicciolina constantly tried to kill herself despite not being depressed, sad, stressed, traumatized or anything like that, and why she wanted to do *you know what* in a coffin, is all because she has a death fetish... Like what...??? That's an actual thing!??

Yeah Jigen, I'm with you, I don't understand, and I don't think I ever will...

So in the end Jigen and Fujiko bury Cicciolina, and before leaving Fujiko asks if he's going off to his next hitman/body guard job. Jigen tells her that he's too emotional to continue that line of work, and that he thinks he's going to try doing the pro thief thing like she does and see how it works out.

Fujiko offers to let him join her on her escapades, but he is literally like...

Jigen: "Are you kidding? Yeah right, working with you is the last thing I'd ever do."

Never say never Jigen!

This episode wasn't as fun or silly as the first one, but considering this is a "Jigen Vs His Evil Ex" episode, I didn't expect it to be.

Also, apparently Cicciolina is named after the stage name of a former Hungarian-Italian porn star and singer, turned politician, turned pro chess player... Interesting... I definitely was not expecting that.

I wasn't expecting this to turn into a full fledged review like it did, but I don't mind it, it was fun writing all of this out!

Well until episode 3! I'm looking forward to seeing the Goemon episode!!!

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may-bonne · 3 months ago

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Sorry I'm basically blowing up your inbox today 👉👈

I know a few of the Mrod blogs on here were femslashy. Especially when she was dating Cara. If it wasn't about them, it was about Rain and Alice or Luz and Miss San Antonio. The het stuff definitely dominated though and it was definitely Vin's fault. Part of me is now morbidly curious about that poetry

Ahhh I have a rant locked and loaded for the majority of Mrod's movies. That outfit was terrible! I HATE when writers think motherhood has to completely soften and suck the personality out of character. It's always a blouse or a cardigan I swear to god. It's not a big surprise that female characters in a series about zooming cars around get the short end of the stick but that doesn't make it any less annoying. Elena having Dom's baby instead of Letty is one of the less stupid decisions imo. I'll have to skim back through F9 again to get my thoughts all back in order brb with that full rant. Fuck Hobbs and Shaw why can't we have a true Letty and Mia focused flick!!

Yeeessshh no worries. I was born the year Girlfight came out ✌️ Talk about Frank's cock all you want

That clothing line would be a problem for my wallet I'm not sure it could handle. The interviews were generally a little painful but I must have watched most of them anyway

The nice thing about the Resident Evil series is that most of the fandom now is femslash because Alice has homoerotic tension with at least one character in every movie. There's a part in the third film where she blatantly checks out Claire Redfield's ass when she walks away and she runs across a room to pet Rain's hair to comfort her in the first one. Quality cinema

don't you dare apologize!! i'm hanging on the telephone. i never realized how much tumblr asks could resemble my preferred method of communication (long rambling emails) and i've had a hard time getting people irl to do that instead of just texting me :/

the mrod poems were written by "bryan s. coe" (who i just googled and discovered is perhaps a digital marketing strategist in detroit these days). the two i still have links to are titled "poem to a hottie on a zip line" and "euphemistic poem to a woman with sub-machine gun" and are about nikki from breed and chris from s.w.a.t. respectively. i feel this stanza from the second one needs to be shared:

while everyone takes cover and protects their body i spy around the corner and see a special weapons hottie those sure are some special "weapons," wouldn't you say kind of appropriate that s.w.a.t. ends with a t and an a!

and it goes on in that vein. extensively. i mean, come on, dude. the meter is all off!! you need to cut "and see" from the second line and "that" from the fourth. also that is a very liberal definition of "euphemistic"

i like the idea of just generally defining time in mrod movies. *guy living in a dystopian future where that's all that remains of our civilization voice* "yeah my great great grandmother was born the year girlfight came out"

personally i thought i got blue crush but that's 2002 :/

i agree that they were right not to knock letty up. the only tragic part is i think she's probably too old to play pregnant now and i would have liked to see that just as fuel for some letty/mia fantasies :(( i can't even imagine what they would have dressed her in. considering you would think mia's 75% sundress wardrobe would be pretty transferable to maternity clothes and they still put her in that ruffled yellow abomination

i kind of wish it hadn't even been dom's kid though. like wouldn't that have been more in keeping with the family-goes-beyond-blood thing? dom could have still done all that crazy crap to rescue elena and her baby. i also hate elena dying. i really did not like fate of the furious in general and it didn't have mia so what was the point anyway. i kind of recognize that objectively f9 might have been the nadir of the franchise but it gave us letty and mia's tokyo dinner date so i'll always love it

also mia going in for the hug just grinning like hey! letty! it's great to see you! and then it cuts to letty, like, closing her eyes and huffing the scent of her hair. baby this is why in my head you've been hung up on her for decades

they need to do a mia & letty spinoff and i feel like there's no way it's actually going to happen. vin's too much of an egotist he would shove himself in there to present himself as the king of feminism or something and then the movie would just be his big dumb head like always. i'm holding out hope they'll kill him in the last movie for pathos but it's probably in his contract that they aren't allowed to

last note on f9 is that i love how after all that backpatting for finally having the gals share a scene it STILL doesn't pass the bechdel test because they exclusively talk about han, brian, jacob, dom, and little brian in that order. i do like when mia says "you'll always be my sister." i hope letty got off to that furiously and guiltily in the shower and then cried

don't even get me started on how the franchise butchers mia. my whole ao3 presence is basically a 750,000-word manifesto on how badly i think they screwed her over. i'm not even asking for that much but just let her be a fucking doctor you'd think with eleven million bucks she could afford to go to med school

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mirroredmemoriez · 1 year ago

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Here with an opinion someone actually asked for! This is my own perspective and based upon what I've observed in the fandom. I'll state the most obvious one right now then move on, he's beloved because he is the main face of the franchise. Now we'll start a more in depth ''explanation.''

John Kramer is ''appealing'' because of his reasons, the justifications he makes and how he truly believes what he's doing is correct- And even with that, he falls under the label of a hypocrite. For example, Jeff Denlon? He was tested due to the neglect of his child and also his obsession with revenge, the reason for that vengefulness? The loss of his other child to a drunk driver... Now, why did John test Cecil and possibly Amanda for? Their drug addiction and involvement in Jill's miscarriage, his own child.

We've also got the the fact he can't admit that yeah, he fits under the murderer role? Just because he tests people who he believes need to be pushed to appreciate their lives, doesn't mean he should be the judge and jury- It also doesn't take away the fact he is the one to orchestrate these peoples demises too, even if he says he gives them a ''chance.'' Joyce Dagen for example? She shouldn't have even been put in a trap in the first place. She had no knowledge of her husband lies and didn't need to be used in John's game. Yet, she died in the the Brazen Bull.

At the same time, it's very likely someone like Cecilia Pederson is still walking free and it's not really negotiable that compared to someone like Joyce, she deserved her trap and to die way more? Not only did she scam multiple people who then later on passed, she also outright killed someone whilst in her test. He however, even with this knowledge, still sticks to the fact that his games and traps work and continues to use them, when there is living proof around him that it doesn't actually really WORK? It's almost applaudable how righteous this man is- But at the same time, he's a pretty pitiful person at times. You can't help but feel bad for him at certain points, mainly due to the fact he's literally dying throughout the franchise from colon cancer and a frontal lobe tumour. It isn't a reach to say that, John Kramer is not ALL there in the head at times.... Saw X was also the first time we got to see a movie from his PERSPECTIVE. I can't lie, the scene where he realises he's been scammed did tug at me.

We also have to look at his relationships. The main one the fandom focuses on is John and Amanda and how he almost fills in a father role for her. It's such a bittersweet one as well, I love and hate it to equal measures. It reminds you that at the end of the day, they also just are people- Severely damaged people. Their dynamic is raw and problematic, as much as though there is care within it, the hurt is also there.

He tests her so many times and it's so fucked up but also there is the debate of whether he's doing it just because that's what he thinks will HELP Amanda. It ''taught'' her a lesson once, why can't it teach her more? Even within death, they both reach to one another. With all this said, I think it's less so people LOVING his character because they think he's a great person or all that jazz- It's literally due to the fact not only is he an interesting villain, he's also just some old guy. Unlike let's say Jason Voorhees or even fucking Pennywise. He's not supernatural, he is a flawed man with flawed views. Oh! Also Tobin Bell did a wonderful job portraying John Kramer and some credit definitely has to go to that. If he wasn't played right, a lot of these things would have fell flat. Generally, as a person? I don't like him, I understand but at the end of the day I don't think anything could justify what he does or how he thinks to me. HOWEVER, as a character? He peaks my interest and is a wonder to analyse. Sorry for how long this got...

is there like . anyone willing to explain to me what’s so appealing abt john kramer? aside from the fact that he’s an interesting villain and character? LIKE ????? i don’t understand why he seems so beloved??????????

#john kramer #tobin bell #saw #saw 2004 #saw x #saw 2 #saw 3 #saw v #saw franchise #saw movies #jeff denlon #joyce dagen #cecilia pederson #amanda young #sawposting #character study

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oskea93 · 2 years ago

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Hello! Your writing is amazing❤️

I’d love to put in a request please, ike a first date with jamie bower? Ends with a kiss and maybe smut😈

First Date - JCB x Reader

Warning: Sexual content, cursing

(Requested by Anonymous)

I took a deep breath as the dark SUV pulled up in front of the house.

“You can do this.” I spoke to myself, taking one last look in the full-length mirror. I hadn’t been on a “first date” since freshman year of college – the date ending in complete disaster. I told myself that maybe I wasn’t the dating type. It never seemed to work out and I was tired of wasting my time.

My heels clicked against the concrete walkway as I approached the car. I watched as the driver quickly opened the door, giving me a small greeting as he helped me into the vehicle. This was defiantly a first. I never had a suiter send a car for me, let alone a fancy SUV. Most of the time, I had to drive myself and wait for the guy to show up – which sometimes that wasn’t the case. I guess my friends were tired of me being the only single one in the group. They all had significant others, some even had children. Yet, here was little ol’ me, on my way to being the spinster that imposed on everyone’s dates. I received a text from a random number one day at work, telling me that the sender had received my number from a mutual friend of ours. At first, I ignored it. I wasn’t interested in going on a date, especially with a guy that my friends had picked out. The didn’t exactly have the best track record when it came to dates. He ended up texting me a couple more times throughout the day, finally asking if I wanted him to stop.

His name was Jamie, and he was an actor. I know it's taboo to do but I was curious, and the internet is so handy. He was in some pretty big franchises, even dabbling into the musician roll. He was handsome. His blonde hair and blue eyes being the first things I noticed. I had dated a few guys that were considered actors before, always leaving early due to their extreme egos. When I agreed to go on a date with him, I had already thought of an exit strategy.

The car soon pulled up in front of a small restaurant on the outskirts of town. It looked to be a mom-and-pop type place, only really known to those that were locals. I thanked the driver as he helped me out of the car, directly me to where Jamie would be located. I learned that I was way over dressed for the place, my romper and heels not matching up with the jeans and t-shirts worn by the other patrons. My eyes quickly landed on the man of the hour – his all-black ensemble sticking out from those around him. His blonde hair was pulled back in a tight bun as his shirt showed off the various tattoos on his arms.

“Y/n?” His accent reaching my ears, my internal organs melting in a pile of goo.

“Yes, and you must be Jamie.” I smiled.

“That indeed I am.” His smile bright. “Do you mind if I give you a hug?”

I nodded my head, my heart racing as his arms wrapped around my body. His scent was intoxicating. I was never a fan of dating anyone that smoked but the way the sent mixed in with his cologne drove me close to the cliff. We slowly pulled apart; his smile still present. “Here-“He quickly moved to pull the chair out. “Please, have a seat.”

I followed his lead, thanking him as he walked towards his chair. You could tell he was nervous, but it was a cute nervous. “You look absolutely stunning.” He complemented.

“Oh, thank you.” I gushed. “You look very handsome yourself.”

He made a gesture with is hand, “These old duds-“He laughed. “I wasn’t aware that this was a honky-tonk type of place or else I could have told you that there was a secret dress code.”

I let out a laugh, looking around at all the other people. “It’s okay. Sometimes it’s better not to blend in with everyone else.”

“Indeed.” He smirked.

We spent the next two hours just talking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. He talked about his upbringing and how he got into acting. He spoke highly of his parents and his brother, who you could tell he was very fond of. He was an open book, speaking candidly about his battle with addiction and his road to recovery. I found it very honorable of him to speak to a complete stranger about his past struggles. He could have kept everything hidden or lied completely.

When we talked, it was like we had known each other for years. The conversation flowed like a smooth river, no rocks or ridges insight. I was never one to fully open up to someone about my family life but there was something about Jamie that I trusted. The way he looked at you the whole time you spoke, showing that he was invested in what you were saying. He made me feel safe, comfortable.

“Would you like to dance?” The slow country song bringing the other couples onto the floor.

“Sure.” I smiled.

His hand gently held mine as he walked us onto the dance floor, those around us lost in the music as they moved around. Our fingers laced together, bodies flush against one another as we moved to the song. My head rested under his chin as I listened to his heartbeat, my own fluttering with passion. The last time I had danced with someone so intimately was at my senior prom, never really in the mood to do so afterwards. There was just something about Jamie. He possessed something in me that I never felt. I barely knew the guy, but I was smitten.

I lifted my head from his chest, our eyes meeting. “Is it alright if I kiss you?” His voice low.

Without hesitation, I placed my lips on his, our lips moving in a heated synchrony. I had long forgotten about my rule of kissing like this on the first date or having any type of intimacy period. His hands traveled down my hips, resting right above my ass. “You wanna get out of here?” I asked between kisses.

He looked at me, “You sure?”

I nodded my head, “Never been surer about anything else…”

I tiptoed around the room, gathering my things, careful not to wake him as I moved. I was due into the office earlier than normal this morning, not knowing at the time I scheduled myself that I would be hooking up with Jamie the night before. I guess you could say that I could have ended things before they got to this point, but the moment his lips met mine, I was fucking done.

I kept looking towards the darkened partition, worried that the driver could move it down any second. My moans filled the backseat, fingers wrapped in his unkept hair as his tongue caused my demise. “Fuck sake.”

As soon as we entered the car, we couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves. Teeth pulling at skin, leaving marks – our lips swollen from the force. I watched with lust as he slowly unbuttoned my romper, pulling the fabric all the way down, my bare chest on display. My nails dug into the leather seat as his lips trailed down my body, stopping right above the band of my underwear. I wasn’t expecting to have sex tonight, choosing a pair of boy shorts instead of something sexier. His eyes locked with mine, asking for permission before pulling the garment down. With a quick nod, he slowly pulled down the clothing, his lips trailing back up my left leg, my right leg hooking onto his shoulder. With just a flick of the tongue, I was in fucking heaven. I never felt such pleasure in my entire life.

I barely had time to redress by the time the car pulled up to his building. He stuffed my panties into his pants pocket before ushering me out of the vehicle and into the structure. We didn’t even make it his apartment, pressing the emergency stop button on the elevator panel. My bare back slammed against the cool metal, our reflections staring back at me as he drilled into my body. After the first round, he resumed elevator operations, pressing his floor number. From the time the elevator stopped to the time we arrived at his door, I was able to catch my breath and prepare for what was to come (literally). Every inch of his apartment was used – kitchen table, couch, staircase. We finally reached the bedroom, the sex more sensual and not as rushed as before.

Before leaving, I wrote him a little note, thanking him for the wonderful night. I made sure to put it near his phone, knowing he would see it as soon as he woke up. My lips softly touched his cheek, lingering for a moment before pulling away.

The first date that I dreaded the most ended up being the best one of my life.

#jamie campbell bower imagine #jamie bower #jamie campbell bower x reader #jamie campbell bower smut #jamie campbell bower

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odetoviscera · 2 years ago

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Liveblogging Mission: Impossible, I Guess

alright let’s start with FOR THE RECORD this is ENTIRELY the fault of @leupagus, who always does this to me, i swear to god i have been onboarded to more media by this villain (affectionate)’s posts than any other, so goddamnit it here we go MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE I GUESS

I GOT A PARAMOUNT+ SUBSCRIPTION FOR THIS AND BY GOD I’M GONNA BLOG ABOUT IT

warning: liveblogging below.

FIRST MOVIE. 1996. I AM SIX YEARS OLD. I DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM CONTEMPORANEOUSLY FOR OBVIOUS REASONS. i have a vague memory of watching it at some point in my teens, but remember almost nothing except a vague impression of like. A Claustrophobic Hallway. might not be from this movie. i’ll call it out if it’s real!

OH my god the paramount military drum roll is alternating left and right channel in my headphones. brain is flustered. inauspicious beginning.

(dead prostitute even less auspicious beginning.)

(undead prostitute/agent?)

ah I see they are spying on Russian Rocky Balboa and the (un)dead prostitute is a plant.

OH Tom Cruise is the cleaner, I was wondering why he wasn’t in the room with all the surveillance equipment. hang on, did MI INVENT the Suspiciously Lifelike Plastic Mask Gag? also yes that was the least horrific screengrab i could manage.

so undead prostitute and Mr. Cruise clearly have Chemistry. I do sort of wish undead prostitute’s first lines had not been in a ridiculous baby voice lol.

OPENING CREDITS. god, that was the logo? very b-average middle school powerpoint presentation. wait, tom cruise was a producer on this? on the FIRST one? damn, this really is the man’s anchor franchise.

these opening credits have TV Show vibes-- you know, “here’s a bunch of split-second clips of future episodes” except all for one movie. which is... oh right, movies used to be under 2 hours.

is this how we did movies on flights back in the day? a stewardess walks around with a tray of cassettes like she’s shilling the in-flight snacks??? nowadays to pull this stunt you’d have to have a coded conversation with a chatbot and convince it you know which squares contain stop signs before it would deliver your self-destructing message.

also the contrasting formality of codewords and passphrases and top-secret clearances and shit (displayed where any passing passenger could see it walking to the bathroom MY GUY WHERE IS YOUR OPSEC)-- paired with the Voice On The Radio calling mr. phelps JIM several times is kind of wild. everything is simultaneously deadly serious national security threat and “two dads discussing their respective divorces at a barbeque”. also i can’t tell them apart yet and their hair is too similar, which of these lady agents is undead prostitute and is it claire, jim’s wife (which, btw, seems like a conflict of interest) bc if so the divorce thing may be more literal, tom “ethan hunt” cruise was getting pretty soft-boy handsy with her face

mid-briefing YEP UNDEAD PROSTITUTE IS THE WIFE, also in person it’s very clear how much younger she is than jim, wonder how that relationship came about. also also SEEDS OF SUSPICION sown about why jim is always swanning off on “recruiting assignments” and the team doesn’t know where he is during these times. also maybe i’m paranoid I DID READ THE POSTS @leupagus

"if they're exposed, they'll be executed." bit of a buzzkill there jim

so much intra-team flirting! you’d think that would be counter-regulations but i guess jim is married to one of his operatives so the rules must be pretty lax lol

okay no mr. hacker/the team q making ethan a stick of EXPLOSIVE GUM when ethan has been chewing gum this ENTIRE set of scenes during the planning of the op-- that is a piss-take, lol. that is a loving piss-take. this is “here you dumb bastard i made something in your colour” energy. JUST DON’T CHEW IT. i’m love them. i know they die and i will be upset about it.

the first-person perspective is fascinating film-making. (obviously i, obsessive video game nerd, am making immediate parallels to video games that won’t come out for another half decade or so, lol.) this feels so disjointed and claustrophobic, though-- it’s a narrower FOV than you usually see in a first-person perspective, and we don’t have any of his peripheral vision. being trapped in ethan’s head (or more correctly, i suppose, in the camera on his glasses) seeing only what’s in his field of vision for these scenes is making me overanalyze everything lol. i feel like half the guests are staring at him.

oop, meanwhile jack is fighting elevators. i worry for my boy. i have known him five minutes. i should not have learned he had a name other than “mr. hacker” now i’m invested.

dslkfhas;ldkfhas;lkh stop roasting him ethan he’s in an elevator shaft! on a 1996 laptop!

elevator/spy tetris

oh my god this mark had a FLOPPY DISK on his person. the 90s were insane.

The Flirting Continues

ah, the classic Lover’s Embrace Distraction. kind of interesting to see this done with sarah, who is NOT ethan's flirtatious love interest (that's claire; sarah has something maybe going somewhere someday with jack, hypothetically) honestly it kind of reinforces that this is very much just an "it's part of my day job" move for them, i like it. and they both move into it very fluidly, without discussion or hesitation-- it's a standard play.

oh noooo jack. “i don’t have control” says jim, man who just had control. HMM I HAVE DOUBTS YOU ASSHOLE. :(((

…hang on, is the drunk laughing couple the pair i clocked staring at ethan earlier in the night or am i hallucinating bc i can’t tell actors apart

ooooh, ethan’s going off book. admittedly the book is bad but still, bad form.

“they’re covering this frequency, cut all radio communication” mmkay except what’s your evidence of that, bc we’ve seen nothing to indicate that’s the case-- jack was killed where he was supposed to be during the whole op, and you could have been spotted and shadowed from the safehouse. none of that had to be gleaned from radio communications

Convenient Les Miz River Death. also the angle on that gun ethan saw in his little camera watch was pretty sus, but he's under a lot of stress, so i won't hold it against him for not noticing.

ethan, babe, how you gonna call an abort right after ignoring an abort, of course she’s not listening to you. (however, heartbreaking: the tiny little “god!” when he takes off running back to sarah. guy is having the worst night of his life and it’s just getting started.)

WELL THERE GOES CLAIRE AND HANNAH

sarah's still following the mark so i assume she was too far away to hear that. and i KNEW there was something shifty with the drunk couple

damn the mark is getting got too. aaaand finally sarah. full house.

EVERYBODY got fucked on this op

kdfjal;skdhf;lakh god idk if i’m even supposed to trust the nice calm voice on the phone (Kittridge) like my dude ethan is focused on relaying the vital intel (little bit of shouting but the circumstances are, admittedly, DIRE AS FUCK) and you’re using your soothing kindergarten voice.

“one hour, i’ll be there myself” BITCH? HOW? YES ETHAN EXACTLY THE FUCK, WHY IS THIS GUY IN PRAGUE??? SUSPICIONS RAISED AGAIN

aquarium diner is kind of out of place/distinctive here. like, cool location, but damn, not what i’d call inconspicuous.

i think the shock is setting in, ethan’s walking like he’s half-dead already and so far the worst that’s happened to him physically is Running A Lot.

oooh, ethan spotted something. OH OKAY the drunk pair and the embassy pair were two differently suspicious pairs lol.

extreme dutch angle on kittridge. spooky boy. not the first dutch angle we've seen so far, even in this scene, but definitely the one i've noticed the most.

oof. whole team died for Nothing. ethan’s resistance to aborting the mission was AT LEAST partly predicated on the threat that had been presented-- literally dozens, if not hundreds, of lives directly in the crosshairs if that list got out. and it’s fucking. Nothing. and as far as ethan can possibly know at this point, the only reason the WHOLE team got wiped out is that he ignored the abort. sarah, at least, he could have hypothetically saved by keeping her with him instead of sending her after the mark.

“dying slowly in america, after all, can be a very expensive proposition.” BITCH. MURDER HIM ETHAN. SET THIS WHOLE PLACE ON FIRE. anyway, this was in 1996, nice to see capitalism hasn’t improved at all in nearly thirty years. doing great. oh the explosive gum, YES BABE, jack’s last gift to you! blow a bitch up!

“kittridge, you’ve never seen me very upset” ooooh the VENOM. ethan has been kind of a kitten so far-- soft boy, very few stunts actually! kind of a jokes boy! he’s a PERFORMANCE ARTIST, his role has been Wear The Mask and play a specific part. he is, in leverage terms, the SOPHIE, not the eliot. we have not actually seen a SINGLE instance of real violence from him yet-- even taking out Russian Rocky Balboa was with a drugged drink that sarah delivered.

alright admittedly blowing up the aquarium was probably the better move but i would have liked to see kittridge get it in the face

also holy FUCK ethan can run

now here's a logistical question: does this count as an Ethan Stunt? bc so far he hasn't done any of the characteristic No One Else Would Do This shit that is famously his hallmark. i don't think this does count, honestly-- it's fairly low stakes by the standards of an Ethan Stunt, and although obviously the fish are gonna be upset about it, the overall risk to ethan himself is not high. worst case scenario if he couldn't outrun the flood was getting arrested. i'm gonna call this Typical Spy Nonsense unless someone can convince me otherwise.

listen i know all this counter-espionage shit like crunching the lightbulb to make a broken glass noise trap and unscrewing the hall light is shit he was taught in Spy School however i would like to forward that my IMMEDIATE thought whenever he does something clever is just OH MY BOY IS SO SMART

i have trauma-bonded with ethan hunt. it took exactly half an hour. goddamn it, i get it now @leupagus

And Now He Has A Gun, let’s see if he uses it.

okay the emergency money not being in the safehouse is another dick move by jim.

job 314… job 3:14?

OH MY GOD IT IS

seriously is this what the internet was like in 1996. i was an aol kid, i missed the usenet era, but i also don’t trust hollywood to know what the internet was like lol

MY BOY IS SO SMART

although doing all this in what must be the compromised safe house maybe is less so

here begin the PTSD Nightmares

oh shit! claire’s not dead! alright maybe the gun wasn’t such a great addition to the inventory lol although i’ll given ethan points for what looks, to my very untrained eyes, like a pretty solid firing posture. maybe got his elbows locked a little but he’s Stressed.

the Aggressively Sexual Frisking i could do without. very 90s though lol, and i will forgive ethan’s behaviour bc he’s having a Very bad night and claire’s shock isn’t helping with his justifiable paranoia. STILL. BE BETTER.

claire still using that baby voice. ma’am please speak with your whole chest, you sound like a toddler, i can’t take you seriously.

Spy Shenanigans ahead. back in ethan’s limited POV for a bit! i like the framing on the pickup car responding to the match.

ooh, max is a maxine.

dutch angle on max. they like that technique a lot. and a very tight framing.

fkjha;djfh;lksh MA’AM. you haven’t even CLEANED THE BLOOD OFF, you’re gonna gunk up your disk reader

imf sure is efficient-- okay no i love the cleaning lady just “fuck it, i keep vacuuming”

Fucking Kittridge. this man has the most smarmy affect upon this earth outside of an actual british butler in a murder mystery. also what looks like an extremely fake tan. hate his guts. wish him death.

ethan has been 100% Manic Grin at max since the mask came off and i am not sure how much of that is a front and how much is ethan running at 100% capacity on 10% fuel. let this man have a nap.

lol max likes him. he’s Charmed her. “aggressive, but playful” is her type lol.

god are claire and ethan STILL staying in the safehouse? i mean I GUESS at this point imf must not know the location but this still seems dicey.

i get the impression claire actually loved jim, which makes this whole setup Wild. The Chemistry is there with her and ethan, but clearly nothing has actually come of it at this point, and if/when it does, it will be totally justifiable bc she is, to her knowledge, A WIDOW. really played yourself there, jimbo.

oooh, they’re gonna hook up with other disavowed ex-spies. …however, i will observe that it seems ULTRA FUCKING STUPID to keep a list of the people you’ve explicitly decided to cut ties with??? isn’t the point of disavowing/burning an agent that they can’t be legally tied to your organization? imf competency varying wildly lol

damn, they’re getting fucking leon on the team lol. hang on i have to google something-- yes, leon: the professional came out two years before mission impossible, this joke works.

ethan as mission planner is Much ballsier than he was as a point man/Face lol

oh my god luther’s Hacker Names lol

luther the fact that you know this much about the system already suggests you’ve thought about it lol

ethan: i’m hiring you for an impossible job the team: no such thing ethan: Let Me Explain

luther looks like his hopes and dreams are crashing down around his ears during this security breakdown lol

Theme Music!

we love an Emergency Services Scam. big bulky costume and everybody’s in too much of a panic to think too clearly.

oop, krieger’s a loose cannon, lol. (leon!) guess ethan is still hoping to get his job back, doesn’t want to Kill Coworkers. understandable. holding out hope for an exception being made for kittridge.

i wondered if this vent crawl might count as the first proper Ethan Stunt, but krieger’s doing it with him, so i think it’s still on the side of “a comparatively sane operative would do this”.

sidebar, tom cruise in this glasses headset getup is giving me farscape john crichton vibes, which is baffling given john crichton does not wear glasses.

oh we TRAP the laser instead of turning it off. Clever.

krieger sneeze into your ELBOW my guy.

and this is the iconic Hanging From The Ceiling Scene! oh holy shit i didn’t realize krieger was there to HOLD ETHAN’S BODY WEIGHT, damn.

excellent treatment of the tension with the silent shot and only luther’s whispered warnings. ethan is remaining REMARKABLY phlegmatic.

holy shit this guy would be the most annoying officemate. i mean i know he’s been poisoned but still. get thee to a cubicle nowhere near me.

that flip! my boy is BALLETIC

OOOOH NO WHY ARE THERE MICE IN THE VENTS OF THIS SUPER SECURE AGENCY. MOUSE THEY GOT LASERS HERE WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING

df;lakddf;laklsh;lk aaaand the slip

excellent handling of the tension again

legit how did ethan get his hand into position for this catch with so little space

KRIEGER YOU DUMB BITCH SECURE YOUR KNIFE

and now there actually is an evacuation! lol. back to the safehouse.

krieger is gonna be a problem if you don’t communicate, ethan. ah, yes, and here we see him proving me right. we know a bastard when we see one.

MY BOY. IS SO. SMART.

i’ll be surprised if we keep working with krieger lol he doesn’t seem like he takes an insult well

OH HO. DRAKE HOTEL IN THE GIDEON BIBLE. the penny drops.

oh, i think ethan’s suspicious of claire again. jim’s wife, after all.

oop! kiss! but is it legit or is it to throw him off his game?

man, no one play poker with ethan hunt.

“i’m not gonna let this get out in the open.” luther for best boy

oh my god kittridge you fuckwit

seriously ethan do a murder you’ve earned it

holy shit is that jim in the phone booth next to ethan???

IT IS

blaming kittridge. couldn’t throw a nicer asshole under the bus, lol

oh excellent touch with ethan envisioning it with the knowledge that it’s actually jim. doesn’t fall for it for a second, but plays along, and lets the audience in on it. we get to see exactly how smart ethan is, without a doubt, but jim doesn’t get clued in. smart, smart movie.

oh shit! krieger was the assassin on the op! i missed that completely

and now ethan's debating claire’s involvement with himself.

my poor boy looks like he’s gonna have a breakdown right here at the table

“you got a lousy marriage and 62 grand a year” first of all, bitch, your wife is extravagantly attractive and doesn’t seem to be an idiot or an asshole, your marriage is probably fine; second of all, in the year of any lord 2023, NEVERMIND in 1996 money, i would kill for 62 grand a year. shut the fuck up.

okay, jim keeping the secret from claire PROBABLY clears her

love ethan continuing to write to max with bible verses bc she thought it was fun the first time lol

tasteful fade to black lol

honestly why are they bothering with having the shade pulled down to hide jim’s face lol

dlfkahsd;lkfhas;lk max enjoys ethan SO MUCH lol. i am undecided on whether she wants him carnally but i suspect she wouldn’t complain if he suggested it

oh no! overly helpful train attendant gave the game away!

oooh, max is playing both sides. unsurprising lol

i’m here for claire’s Itty Bitty Skirt.

oh shit! she DOES know about jim! damn it claire, i believed in you! fortunately ethan is more suspicious than me lol

“having tasted the goods” fucking classy, jim

eyyyy! foiled by the camera glasses! can’t believe i have to be team kittridge. offensive.

well, there goes claire. and ethan still isn’t quite at full Action Man, so he gets the shit knocked out of him.

okay i think ethan climbing the back of a bullet train with no assistive devices is his actual first Ethan Stunt. this is where this shit starts to get beyond “spy shenanigans” and into “i have no time to plan and no one else to rely on, so my improvisation is the WILDEST SHIT YOU’VE EVER IMAGINED”

fkha;ldkfha;lskhdl;kh he never did actually use that gun outside of pointing it at claire Once or perform any other acts of violence, so ethan’s first confirmed attempted murder is tying a helicopter to a train to fuck kreiger. of course.

the gum again! ethan did jack give you a whole PACK of that. also i’d like to point out that, while the circumstances are certainly warranting it-- he hasn’t got his hands free, he’s holding on to a helicopter-- when jack first presents ethan with the explosive gum, ethan handles it like it is a Very Delicate Grenade, and now he’s pulling it out of the packaging with his teeth. we are definitely past ethan caring much about his personal safety.

ethan legit came like. two inches from death.

wonder if luther’s gonna get reinstated for his part in this stunt

sounds like yes!

aaaand the chatbot stewardess is back and not taking no for an answer. guess ethan doesn't get to retire after all.

-----

ALRIGHT. LIVEBLOG COMPLETE. Claustrophobic Hallway never appeared, although there was a generally claustrophobic feeling to the whole film due to the very tight shots sometimes. i was haunted by the vague sense that i should know more about this movie than i did, lol.

in summary: ethan hunt is such a good boy and he is having SUCH A BAD TIME. literally at the end of his harrowing revenge/name-clearing adventure he just gets on a plane to england-- maybe back to those london apartments he liked? seems like it would have bad memories now, which has some interesting implications for how ethan deals with his traumas, namely “go roll around in them for a while and see if they start to feel comfortable instead of horrifying”. he’s so disillusioned with the whole pack of them that the tells luther he can’t imagine why he’d be doing it if he went back, and promises to remember luther as “disreputable”.

something i noticed while going back to get some screengrabs to illustrate a few of these points-- in the team briefing, the whole team is never framed together around the table. in fact, i believe this is the only time we’ll even see them all in the same frame. in the opening shots, sarah is on the other side of the room, pulling the shade down. claire is sitting next to ethan, and ALWAYS finds a way to be very close to ethan outside of the actual operations, which leads me to wonder how much of the Chemistry™ was being manufactured even this early on (and, by extension, earlier than the film shows us.) also poor hannah gets almost no job on this op and almost no characterization in this movie. they could have cut her out entirely and nothing would have been lost.

also in retrospect there were more clues about claire’s culpability-- she tells ethan later (during the Aggressively Sexual Frisking) that she walked away when the abort was called, but we SAW HER sitting in the car, watching ethan speedwalk past her with a frown, after she said she had already complied with that order. ethan says this when he's holding her at gunpoint, and she never actually produces a compelling explanation, she just kind of hustles us all past that by getting teary-eyed! excellent manipulation! she already knew the plan at that point, and presumably if ethan had complied with the command to abort the mission, he would have been somewhere else that claire and jim had predicted he’d be for their frame job to work. possibly claire’s Wiles would have come into things at some point there, instead of the 4am Frisk that ended up happening.

also also not to be "ethan hunt is feminine-coded" on main, but ethan hunt has quite a few Cinematically Feminine traits, especially in this action spy genre. he is the subject of violence, not the performer of it. he runs AWAY from confrontations instead of engaging them. his most successful grifts are Conversations and Disguises, and he mostly uses those tools to de-escalate. claire tells him how many bullets he has for his TWO GUNS at one point, and he never fires a single one. he is blind-folded, taken to the villain's lair, charms the villain with his good looks and witty banter. his one moment of really Macho Aggression is in a panic after a PTSD nightmare, is ultimately defused, and never recurs. will be interested to see how this develops in further films.

10/10, if ethan hunt was a dog he would be a border collie.

#will tag all of these with #ODE TO IMPOSSIBLE #so that my unfortunate followers can blacklist this saga if they so desire lol #mission: impossible

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thewriterthatghostedyou · 3 years ago

Text

The First Dance

Should I be working on school and the next chapter of Shadows and Scars? Yes. But I just needed to write something fluffy and cute so here we are. The next chapter for Shadows and Scars will come out in the next day or two.

Note: fluff, sunshiney character x grumpy character, Money by LISA and Levitating By Dua Lipa are the songs playing

Bucky Barnes x reader

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

“What. is. She. doing?” Nat deadpanned as she watched you flail around the dance floor as some song about money played in the background.

“I think she’s dancing.” Steve said with wide eyes.

“That is not dancing.” Sam said watching your pitiful attempt at twerking.

Bucky watched you with a small smile as you grabbed a random agent and started pulling him around the makeshift dance floor like he was a rag doll. Tonight was Tony’s annual avengers bash and as always everyone was either drinking or dancing. The compound had taken only a few hours to transform into a dance floor and adjourning bar area, and Bucky had tried to avoid the loud pulsing beat and flashing lights until Steve told him you’d be there.

Joining the avengers hadn’t been easy for him, even though most of the team had been nice and accommodating, Bucky still tried to keep his space from Tony since he found out about his parents. He had typically hung around Steve, Sam, and Nat before he met you. The second you walked in the tower, with your loud personality and “Don’t Taco ‘bout it to Me” shirt he didn’t know how to think about you. You never walked around him like he was made of glass or some fragile person, instead opting to stick fridge magnets to his arm and braid his hair.

You certainly weren’t like all of the other engineers in the compound labs and would commonly sport shirts with horrible puns under your Stark industries lab coat. At first he was hesitant to open up, but since you were always the one fixing his arm after missions, and chatting endlessly about pop culture references in an attempt to catch him up to this century, he started chatting back. Little things at first. What he remembered from the 40s, talking about the Hobbit and other movie franchises you had forced him to watch. Star Wars being one of both of the two of your favorites. One day, after a few drinks you even called him Anakin.

“‘Yer just like him! Tall, long hair, brooding… and you have a metal arm!” You had shouted excitedly as he walked you back to your room.

“Didn’t Anakin turn into Darth Vader?” He had asked, laughing at your analogy.

“Well yeah, but he became good again, when it really mattered. Like you!” You aggressively poked him in the chest at that. “Ooooooooh muscular!”

“Jesus Buck, just go talk to her.” Steve said, punching his old friend in his good arm and bringing Bucky back to reality.

“Please,” Sam begged. “Someone has to stop that.” He pointed to you aggressively doing the sprinkler. “For my sake.”

At that moment you turned and smiled at the trio. “Hey guys! You gonna dance?” You asked, running over with a smile.

“We’re okay,” Nat said with a sneaky smile. “But Bucky was just about to join you.”

“I was?” He sputtered out, staring at Natasha in shock.

“See, he just said he was!” Sam said, shoving him towards you and giving him a not so subtle thumbs up.

“Great!” You yelled over the music and grabbed his hand. “Come on Buck!”

“I’m not really a dancer.” He protested as you made a beeline for the dance floor trying to fight your grip. You were surprisingly strong for someone who never left their lab.

“So it’s about time that you learned!” You had to shout to be heard over the bass. “Just let go and move however you feel!” You let go of him and started doing a strange neck bop while swinging your arms in time to the music.

Bucky couldn’t help but laugh at the strange move.

“Less laughing more dancing!” You ordered, jumping around.

“How many drinks did you have?” He yelled for her to hear.

“One beer. Or two, but that's not important. Come on Skywalker and bust a move!”

Bucky turned to look at his crew, all of which were nodding. Steve gave him a thumbs up, while Sam had pulled out his phone to film the two of you.

“Fine.” He sighed, turning back to you. When the beat dropped, he started to copy your jerky movements.

You closed your eyes in concentration as you started head banging to the chorus and Bucky felt his feet start to shuffle and he attempted the sprinkler, a move that you had done earlier that night. You gave him a cute giggle as you copied him. “Now you’re getting it!”

Another fast paced song came on and your face brightened at the start. “I LOVE THIS SONG!” You shouted, starting to sing the lyrics. “If you wanna run away with me, well I can take you for a ride! I had a premonition that we fell into the rhythm where the music don't stop for life!”

Bucky clumsily copied you as you sang before grabbing your hands. You felt your cheeks warm up at the sudden contact. “I wanna try something.” He said with that goofy grin you loved so much.

The first time you met Bucky you already knew you were going to fall. The man was practically a fictional character come to life! But the more you talked with him, and the more he opened up to you, the more you loved him for him and not as a shadow of someone who never existed. He surprised you time and time again with his nerdiness and would always ask you close to 50 questions about whatever it was you would be working on at the time.

For your birthday or holidays, he would get you those punny t-shirts you loved so much and the majority of your closet was full of shirts from him.

Bucky gently took your small hand in his metal one and started to twirl you in a swing dance fashion. You broke out into a wider smile as he effortlessly led you in a dance that matched the pace of the song while still having swing elements to it.

“I thought you didn’t dance!” You laughed, blushing even harder as he pulled you flush against his chest.

“I didn’t think I could.” Bucky said honestly with a shrug. “I guess it’s just muscle memory.”

“You dance with a lotta girls in the 40s?” You asked. The song ended and another one started playing, a slower song that had the people on the floor pairing up. The two of you were too focused on each other to notice Nat slinking away from the DJ booth.

“None as talented as you.” Bucky held out his hand to you. “May I uh… have this dance?”

“I’d like that Skywalker.” You took his hand and leaned into his touch as he snaked an arm around your waist.

The two of you held each other for a moment, just enjoying the silence and each other. “This is nice.” You said finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” Bucky murmured knowing that he’d never forget this moment. “It is.”

You lifted your head and looked deep into his eyes, touching your forehead to his. Taking a deep breath, and mental shot of courage Bucky leaned in closer and pressed his lips to yours. The world seemed to stop as everyone around you disappeared. You kissed him back, memorizing the way his lips felt against yours. Something told you that you tonight would be something you never forgot.

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purplelea · 2 years ago

Note

did anybody give you the obligatory twewy ask yet?

THANK YOU!!! Nope, the only two asks I got were from my kh mutuals, so they didn't ask me that XD

ANYWAY. LET THE FUN BEGIN

Blorbo

Neku 100%. CALL ME BASIC ALL YOU WANT, BUT NEKU FUCKING RULES OKAY?? He's everything to me. He's just a guy. He got shot thrice. He's a fashion disaster. He tried to kill the person who is now his best friend. He's a mom friend. He's so powerful he can one-shot Minamimoto. He's a walking stick. He's friends with the local divine being. I love him.

Neku "best character development ever seen in a video game" Sakuraba. Also he's a bi icon.

Scrunkly

SHIKIIIII

She's. sooooo shaped. The girl ever. Almost gets killed and then goes "whoops my bad it was my fault anyway hehe". Her self-esteem is lower than the Mariana Trench. She's so obsessed with details and clothing that she forces a guy she met 4 days before to strip in the middle of the street. Her stuffed cat will make you eat your words if you talk shit about her. Scolds Neku like a preschool student when he tries to fight the final boss without her and Beat. Calls him a chicken when he runs away too much from fights. Absolute Queen.

and... BEAT!!!

I had to put my boy somewhere. And he's so shaped too so. That works. Fun fact: He's actually the most consistent character alongside Kariya and Uzuki in the twewy franchise. These three really go together, I love them. ANYWAY. I love Beat. If you don't, get out of my house. In this blog we love and support Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito, proud owner of zero (0) braincells because he gave them all to his sister when she was born, and of a heart of pure gold. And a really cool skateboard. Never forget the skateboard.

Beat is just the sweetest guy ever. He also gives the best hugs and that's a canon fact because I said so.

Scrimblo bimbo

SHUTO DAN, AKA SHOOTER, THE BEST SLAMMURAI IN TOWN (DUH DUH DUUUUUH)

Also called "the tin pin guy" by anyone who doesn't even remember his nickname. The number of people who actually know his real name could be counted in one hand I think. Anyway! I love him!! He's so cool!!! He's just there and he wants to play Beyblade with everyone!! He's 10 years old and he can't draw to save his life! He's super dedicated and always looking to improve! He's also a really good and fair player and accepts his defeat without contesting it- which is something super important and really cool to see especially considering his young age.

Glup Shitto

ERI. THE FASHION QUEEN. Do you guys have ANY IDEA how MAD I am because we didn't see her in neo??? "It was to avoid spoilers about Shiki in the first gam-" FUCK YOU. GIVE ME THE GIRL. She's so great. We saw her for like 5 dialogues in the og, 4 scenes in the anime but I will never ever stop talking about her. She envied Shiki just as much as Shiki envied her. She loves Shiki just as much as Shiki loves her. She met Shiki and saw her as the most talented girl she ever met. And then Shiki died, and Eri was ready to give up on her dream because it didn't have any sense now that Shiki was gone. She went to put flowers on Shiki's grave everyday because she didn't want her best friend to be lonely. She probably pushed Shiki to make Mr Mew the face of their brand- and it worked! The bestie ever.

Poor little meow meow

Haha. This is the tricky question. Previous ones were easy to guess, but this one? Man how alone I feel in this fandom... AS A HAZUKI STAN >< yep. Hazuki Mikagi, a well known mass murderer, famous for wearing crocs and for his excessive use of the word "friend" as punctuation in too many sentences and with people that are absolutely not his friend. People hate him for killing people, which, in all honesty, is absolutely fair and understandable, but I love him for his character development. "What character development are you fucking talking about Léa" well dear reader, may I offer you this link that will take you to my little character study of my favourite mass murderer so you may understand more what I meant. Enjoy~

Horse Plinko

Here I will put Joshua, because it's always fun to torture Joshua (the whole fandom can agree on this) and also because I've always been too nice with him in my fics (with one exception hehehe) So yeah. Get in the plinko twink <3

Eeby Deeby

I actually can't remember who I meant to put in here. I think he was a Player? No, a Reaper... Urg, why can't I remember? Oh well, I'm pretty sure you see who I mean.

Ask game: give me any fandom!

#i took way too long to do this but. doens't matter. it's for my beloveds #btw I'M SORRY JOSH BUT. YOU DESERVE IT OKAY #the last one is who-bo because i couldn't help it but do the joke. i'm not sorry.#he canonically went to superhell too so. that checks out.#léa replies #twewy #neo twewy #neku sakuraba #shiki misaki #beat bito #joshua kiryu #twewy eri #shooter twewy #hazuki mikagi #tanzo kubo

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theaceofskulls · 3 years ago

Text

Finally got around to reading Eisenhorn: Xenos by Dan Abnett.

I have to admit that this one was kind of lower on my list of “40k books you have to check out” given that it was about the Inquisition but enough people recommended it that I had to check it out (considering that it’s touted as “the book to get into 40k with”).

I think the best way I could sum it up is “it aged well”. I think that sentence has a lot packed into it that covers most of my thoughts on the book, but to write out a bit more...

The book is detective noir meets space opera, which does add to an “aged” feeling to it beyond just the feeling that it’s a more tentative but excited step into something that you can tell will get better fleshed out and more confident as time goes on, even if the writer, Dan Abnett, has already had several books under his belt at this point.

There’s worn tropes and tired cliches but it doesn’t linger too much on them or rest up against them too hard as it tells a more breakneck story that ramps up as a conspiracy begins to come to light that ends up involving some truly alien and bizarre objects and locations that bend the technosorcery of the setting to its limits. Still, some of the book feels a little well-worn to anyone familiar with either the franchise or genre, even to me who has read maybe 4 real 40k books by this point.

That’s not to say it’s just rote cliche. It’s hard to explain but I think the issue here lies more with the characters. As of this book in the series, there’s still a stoicism to the main character that’s typical of the detective noir roots of the book, which extends to a lot of how the other characters end up presented due to the first person perspective. Hell, early on he’s rendered unable to physically smile due to sci-fi torture.

It makes Eisenhorn and the center cast around him (who fill the roles of “the less rough and more light hearted pilot Lancer,” “the amoral and subdued researcher guy in the chair,” “the by-the-book senior cop who is sent along with them who eventually warms to the protagonist’s methods,” and “the girl who was originally a prostitute but quickly becomes the adept protege”) fit comfortably into the outlines of characters we’re familiar with, even if the story itself is given a lot of room to breath on its own merits and go to some more interesting places (though it does end up feeling like a cross between the action adventure blockbusters of old and current 3 act grand finale blockbusters of today).

I walked away a little less impressed with this book than I expected given its high, high praise, but at the same time a lot more positively than I feared, both due to the protagonist and also how cliche I was expecting it to be. And while Eisenhorn and his crew do struggle to stand out against other similar stories, the writing and plot direction, as well as some late book events that unfurled did get me interested enough to start on the next book in the series.

I’ll agree with most others that this does feel like one of the more solid introductions you could have with the franchise. It doesn’t feel consumed with it setting in the way I see some excerpts from some of the books come off as and manages to balance tightly having a character involved with one of the more grimey parts of the setting come off as both part of that but also not off-putting.

Anyways, I guess I’m reviewing a couple of 40k books here so stick around for some more I guess.

#Warhammer #warhammer 40k #ace's bookclub reviews

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asphyxiateher · 4 years ago

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Only Monsters Come Out at Night

A/N: Debating on whether or not I should put this on AO3. Thoughts? Do I need to edit what I have before posting on my favorite website? Anyways, I’m really into horror and I’d like to try my hand at focusing on MC’s descent into madness while falling for her captors. Dimitrescu Sisters x OFC (Desdemona) Summary: Desdemona, her twin brother and best friend are on vacation in Romania when things go horribly wrong the moment they run out of gas. Desdemona has the misfortune of enchanting the monsters that decided to terrorize her group.

It was a cold, pitch black night in the northeastern mountainous region of Romania, a heavy fog enveloping the roads which made it nearly impossible for any source of light to pierce through the gloom. This did not bode well for Desdemona and her friends as they dared to venture through the treacherous weather in order to reach their destination. The humble village of Bran should have been a welcome sight by now although from where the unlucky travelers were currently stranded, Desdemona had her doubts. To make matters worse, her best friend, Veronica, shoved a crumpled map of Brasov, Romania into her boyfriend’s hands and demanded answers. Her hot-headed friend was teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

“Desmond, are you sure we’re headed in the right direction? None of this seems to make sense!”, Veronica exclaimed as she nervously rummaged through her shoulder bag for yet another cigarette. She struggled to light her cigarette this time, the harsh winter’s wind blowing hard against her bare hands caused them to shake violently.

Desmond sighed in exasperation and ran his fingers through his messy chestnut brown hair, pushing wild dark curls away from his eyes.

“You think the shopkeeper gave us the wrong directions to fuck with us because we’re tourists? I knew we were gonna get shit signal out here in the bum fuck middle of nowhere but come on, the old guy looked knowledgeable. Can’t blame me for trustin’ him.” Desmond casually replied with a shrug. He then took a moment to straighten the map again before folding it neatly and tucking it into his pocket.

Desdemona was of the same mind as her twin. It seemed likely that the locals would be completely burnt out from the flocks of American tourists invading their hometown just to squawk about the castle that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. How exhausting it must be to constantly point out where to go to book a tour or who to call to arrange such things when the internet exists. In hindsight, Desdemona should have known better than to bug the polite yet obviously impatient shopkeeper about their vacation plans.

“Think about it, V, Desmond has a point. The guy probably gave us the run around for shits and giggles. You know, it would have been fine taking a wrong turn and then having to backtrack all the way back into town, but we should have just stayed the night at the Inn. Now we’re outta gas and it’s fucking freezing out here.” Desdemona added, now hugging herself tightly and occasionally rubbing her arms to keep warm for as much as possible.

Veronica growled but relented as she took a long drag of her cigarette, her foot resting against their rented vehicle. She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. Snowflakes began to drift downwards, and it only fueled Veronica’s anxiety about being stranded in the middle of nowhere in the dark. “Alright, alright, we can either freeze to death in this piece of shit,” Veronica began as she kicks the van for good measure, “or we can freeze to death out there looking for shelter. I think I see a path over there that we can take to find what we need. It might lead us to people who can help us, or it might lead us to certain death. All I know is that we need to make a decision now, it’s starting to snow.” Desmond grins and wraps his arm around Veronica’s waist, pulling her close and pecking her on the cheek. “To certain death it is! Des, grab the essentials and let’s head out. According to the map, there are a few small villages in the surrounding area. Chances are we’ll stumble into one of them eventually and find shelter. We’ll get this mess sorted out.” Desmond eagerly stepped away from Veronica’s embrace and stepped towards the beaten van.

After a few moments of scrounging around for what they deemed important, Desdemona ended up with a backpack full of snacks, water, spare clothes, and the first aid kid. Veronica settled for an entire carton of cigarettes and a few spare lighters because you know, it was “absolutely essential” to her survival in a foreign land. Desmond found a flashlight and decided that going light would be preferable to him in case they ran into any trouble. They paved the way forward, following the path that strayed away from the lonely sliver of road. Turning back to get a final look at the abandoned van, Desdemona swallowed the surge of fear that was beginning to creep up on her. She had seen enough horror movies in her lifetime knowing that this probably wasn’t going to end up well for her little group. The logical side of her brain, what little rational thoughts she had left, gnawed their way through her brain begging to be voiced out and heard.

‘Turn back around, it’s safer to stay put and wait until morning! This is dangerous and you know it!’

Desdemona reluctantly glanced back at her brother walking ahead with Veronica hand in hand and the younger twin suddenly stopped in her tracks. Maybe she should stay behind just in case while her gregarious brother searched for help in these mountains; after all, he was far more easygoing and could easily charm the most stubborn of fools into helping him.

“Des, what’s wrong? I thought we all agreed that we should stick together.” Veronica called out to her, uncertainty lacing her tone as her eyes flicked back and forth between the van and a terrified looking Desdemona.

Nervously fidgeting in place, Desdemona struggles to settle the conflicted thoughts warring in her mind. She knows that staying behind and waiting for help would be the wisest course of action, but there was safety in numbers. There’s danger lurking beyond the vast expanse of mountains that surrounded them and she would be utterly defenseless if left alone. Desdemona’s instincts were begging her to go back to the van but the connection she shared with her twin demanded that she follow him through the sketchy path that would most likely lead to their demise. She couldn’t let anything happen to Desmond, she would never forgive herself if something happened to him out here.

With a shaky resolve, Desdemona straightened up and gazed back at Veronica with a small smile on her face. “I’m just nervous, you know. Desmond and I binge watched all the Wrong Turn movies last Saturday so being out here alone in the dark is uh, freaking me out a little. I’ll be fine, though, let’s just keep going.” Desdemona lied as she rushed over to her best friend who rolled her eyes at the revelation.

“No wonder you’re acting all sketch, Des. First of all, binge watching horror movies the weekend before your vacation was stupid as hell so now you’re all hyped up over nothing. Secondly, Wrong Turn sucks. Y’all should have binged Hatchet, Danielle Harris is so hot!” Veronica declared, eager to get conversation going as the three of them trekked through a rocky and narrow trail that led to who knows where.

Desmond was quick to reply in defense of his favorite horror movie franchise and Desdemona was thankful to hear them bicker back and forth. The conversation drowned out the sound of cold whispers tickling naked branches in the distance, the loud crunching of their footsteps on the snow-covered ground, and ravens crying out above them. It was so eerie and something about it all didn’t sit right with Desdemona. She hooked an arm around Veronica’s free arm and together they discussed their favorite horror movies. Veronica could tell her best friend was still a little spooked, so she pulled her closer until she was pressed against her side to provide as much comfort as she could give.

The trail continued to narrow the further they moved along but nothing they observed thus far gave the impression that that anything was out of the ordinary. When they reached a clearing, Desmond sighed with relief. His breath steaming the frigid air was nearly the only thing they could see ahead if it weren’t for the flashlight providing what little comforting light source they had. The snow fall began to pick up the pace but it wasn’t blinding, thankfully. Desmond brushed aside large shrubs and stepped further into the winding path, coming to a full stop when he realized what lay ahead of the weary travelers.

The trio stared in awe at the overpowering sight of a 15th century castle looming over a quiet village sheltering underneath a blanket of darkness, or what Desdemona assumed was its shadow. No amount of fog could hide the monstrosity that was the architectural brilliance of this castle that Desdemona saw before her very eyes.

“Desmond, honey, where the hell do you think you’re going? Don’t leave Dezzy and I behind!” Veronica suddenly shrieked as she sprinted after her overly excited boyfriend down the hill that led into the village. Desmond turned around and could only offer a sheepish smile with a shrug before eagerly running into the unknown. Desdemona tore her gaze away from the castle and spurred into action, jumping and running as fast as she could in order to catch up with her twin.

Desmond was energized by both the cool crisp air and the promising sight of civilization, but that energy was quickly drained out of him when he encountered something wholly unexpected. Veronica reached the eldest Hawthorne sibling and was about to admonish him for leaving the two frightened girls behind, but she was quickly shushed by Desmond. Desdemona quietly approached the scene, her eyes widening when she realized that this was not the village of Bran at all.

They had indeed reached a small village but it looked completely obliterated. The houses looked shattered and broken, as if something gigantic and menacing had come through and picked away at the people that once inhabited this community one by one. Desmond cautiously led the group forward, calling out for any signs of survivors. This wasn’t on the itinerary…

Veronica was on the verge of tears, her hands covering her mouth as she observed the tragic scene before her. Every now and then, she would step into a broken home and call out to somebody – anybody- only to step back out with a grim look on her face. She pulled out her cell phone and attempted to dial emergency services only to be met with disappointment.

“There’s blood.” Desmond says quietly. His eyes peer over the trail of fresh blood and fear grips him the moment the flashlight scans over the corpse of a rotting horse. “Fuck, that stench – we need to get the fuck out of here now!” Veronica cries, gagging and turning away from the horrific view.

Desdemona would have expressed an equally strong reaction had she not felt a sense of…wrongness abruptly assaulting the atmosphere. The moment they stepped foot into the village, the environment reacted to their presence and that did not sit right with Desdemona at all.

“Desmond, do you hear that?” Desdemona asked, her voice laced with terror. Desmond Hawthorne heard the fear in his sister’s quivering voice and it made him feel uneasy. “I don’t hear anything, Des.” He replies as he reaches for Veronica’s hand and squeezes it tight. The couple began to frantically look around them as they slowly backed into Desdemona. As soon as they grouped up again, both Veronica and Desmond wrapped themselves around the youngest sister. The oppressive silence sent a whole new wave of fear over the group before something insidious could be heard approaching them in the distance. Desdemona gasped when she heard maniacal giggling and it was getting louder. A fluttering of what sounds like wings -bats, ravens, perhaps- advancing towards the group sent chills down Desdemona’s spine. What the hell was coming after them?

Desmond flashed his light from side to side before it settled on the massive black ball of insects that instantly appeared before him. The insects dissipated and somehow revealed the shape of a human being wearing a dark robe and hood. The only thing he could truly make out was the color of a red pendant wrapped around dainty, pale skin and a blood smeared smirk. Desmond’s heart dropped in absolute horror and panic immediately set in.

“RUN!” He screamed, taking off with a terrified Veronica in tow. Neither of them looked back to make sure Desdemona was following. The flashlight dropped, and it briefly circled the ground. The flickering light revealed two other black masses of insects approaching the younger Hawthorne sibling who was paralyzed with fear. All she could hear in that moment was delirious laughter coming from the women that revealed themselves two seconds later, the insects dissolving into thin air right before her very eyes.

The crazed woman standing directly in front of Desdemona leaned forward and took her time sniffing her pretty prey who stared at her with petrified gray eyes. Desdemona found it alarming that despite the lunatic’s appearance, dried blood caked on her lips and unruly red hair and a wild, untamed look in her eyes, she found her quite…striking. Perhaps she was going mad. None of this made sense, how could this be happening right now?

“Mmm, sisters, look at what I found. Such a pretty young thing all for me and she smells oh so delicious.” The woman with the green pendant spoke, giggling madly at the profound effect she had on Desdemona.

“Daniela, you’re delusional, she’s mine; I’m the one who picked up on her tasty scent!” The one with the red pendant spoke after she turned her attention to the only human who didn’t run from them.

The brunette with the yellow pendant reached over and yanked on Desdemona’s hair so hard back, Desdemona thought her life was over. She bared her teeth as she skimmed her nose across the young woman’s neck. Her tongue darted out between blood smeared lips and left a wet trail, causing the smaller woman’s breath to hitch at the unwelcome contact.

“Mmm, she smells so utterly divine. Bela, by the way, it wasn’t you who found MY new pet, it was me! You ungrateful wretches always want to touch what’s mine!” The hooded figure’s grip on her hair tightened and Desdemona whined, causing all three women to delight in her torment.

What Desdemona couldn’t figure out was what they wanted to do with her exactly and why they were fighting over her like three starved wild dogs fighting over a piece of meat. She needed to get out of there fast. “LET GO OF MY SISTER, YOU UGLY CUNTS!” Desmond’s angry voice broke through in the distance and all three creatures turned their attention on the young man who dared interrupt dinner time.

Desdemona decided this was the time to take advantage of their distraction and she quickly slipped away, sprinting as fast as she could to the nearest unoccupied house. Desmond, relieved that his sister broke free from whatever those things were, spun on his heel and ran the opposite direction. He could only hope that all three of them would make it out of this godforsaken village alive.

All three women threw their heads back and laughed wildly into the air as they knew catching their prey would be much more satisfying when they caught them alone in isolated surroundings. It added to their fear and it made the blood taste that much sweeter.

“The hunt is on, sisters. Leave the pretty plaything alive, but the others, we will present to our dear mother as gifts. We’ll make the new pet watch mother undo their very lives; it’ll only make her that much more delicious when we have our fill.” The one with the yellow pendant stated as she sniffed at the air, shuddering when Desdemona’s irresistible scent filled her nostrils once more.

Desdemona found refuge in a large house a few yards away and slammed the front door shut when she ran inside. She quickly assessed what she assumed was the living room, she found a bookcase and summoned whatever strength she had and brought it down in front of the door. She heard something clawing at the door the instant she blocked the entrance, the door shaking violently and mad laughter filling her ears once more.

Desdemona shakily reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, turning on the flashlight and began to look for another way out.

‘Jesus fucking Christ, Jesus Christ! What the fuck are those things!? Where’s Desmond? Is Veronica alright? How the hell do I get out of here? I just want to go home!’ Desdemona’s mind was running through a million thoughts per second but she couldn’t for the life of her settle on anything that would give her a moment’s peace. She was sobbing uncontrollably as she explored the dark home, her hands stretched out in front of her as she searched for anything that would provide answers to her problems. When she found a door near the kitchen, she cautiously opened it and cursed the eerie creaking sound that followed. It was discovered that the door led to a cellar of some kind and Desdemona rushed down the stairs without closing the door behind her. She slowly scanned the large open space and saw that this home had been recently ransacked or rummaged through. Clothes were scattered across the floor, furniture had been broken in half and tossed carelessly to the side but Desdemona found a hallway beyond the room she was in. ‘That must be the way out. Hurry up and grab something to protect yourself with!’

Desdemona carefully tip toed around the clutter, her phone flashing from side to side but to no avail, she couldn’t find anything that would prove harmful to whatever those monsters were outside. The woman nearly tripped over and fell when her foot stepped in something thick and wet, causing her foot to slip forward. Desdemona quickly steadied herself on a cabinet but it didn’t make her feel any better when she realized her fingers were covered in a thick, red substance.

Her breathing growing heavier, Desdemona flashed her phone light over to the cabinet only to find that it was covered in blood – a lot of it, to be exact and it was still dripping on the floor as though it were fresh.

All color drained from Desdemona’s face when she heard pained howling coming from the village; it was Desmond and he was screaming for help. Her twin was in danger and here she was selfishly trying to find a way to preserve her own life.

She quickly twisted around to run towards the howling but she stopped dead in her tracks when a black mass of insects appeared before her. The cloaked figure could only be identified by the color of her green pendant and a delirious smile plastered on her face. Fresh blood dripped down her chin and Desdemona’s eyes reluctantly followed the pool of blood forming at their feet. There was a sickle in her right hand and it was covered in blood, much to Desdemona’s dismay.

Desdemona began to tremble, overpowered by the frightening sight and the implications that followed a bloodied sickle carried by a madwoman. “The sound of your heart hammering against your chest is like music to my ears, pretty thing. Do not fret, my beauty, the moment we met I knew you were special. You’re meant to be mine, we’re meant to be!” She whispers madly, her tongue wetting her lips as her eyes rake over Desdemona’s body slowly and deliberately.

Desdemona doesn’t know what she’s talking about and she doesn’t want to know. Before she could form any kind of response, she’s pinned against the bloody cabinet behind her. She gasps in surprise and that seems to trigger the creature into action.

Desdemona screams as the hooded woman lunges at her collarbone and pierces through her skin with her razor sharp teeth. Desdemona weakly clutches at the woman’s shoulders, growing lightheaded from the sudden blood loss that was occurring. Feeling the woman about to collapse in her arms, Daniela pulls back and savors the taste of her blood. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she sloppily licks the blood off her mouth and regains what little self-control she had left to preserve her pretty plaything for a little while longer.

When dazed gray eyes meet hers, Daniela’s cold, black heart skips a beat. She had never seen anything more beautiful. So she raises her sickle, causing Desdemona’s eyes to widen in panic and Daniela can’t help but giggle a little.

“Don’t worry, my beauty, I’ll be gentle with you. The hideous man-thing and his bitch aren’t going to be as lucky as you, I hope. You deserve special treatment.” Daniela whispers, her fingers caressing her prey’s tear-stained cheek before swinging the sickle with full forced into the back of Desdemona’s thigh.

Desdemona remembers a high-pitched shriek escaping her but nothing else seems to come to mind after that. She remembers her vision blurring and a creeping darkness soothing her to sleep but what happened after, nothing. She enters the haunting abyss that welcomes her with black tendrils pulling her from reality, sleep coming to her easily. With better luck, she’ll never have to wake up again.

Only fools believe in luck as the nightmare has only just begun.

#resident evil village #RE8 #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #dimitrescu daughters x ofc #lady dimitrescu daughters x ofc #Holy shit this was just chapter one #I need an editor or something but bruh #I had to get this out of my system #other people may not like it but i did it for me lol #I need more dimitrescu sisters x ofc content

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worfs-fabulous-hair · 3 years ago

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Should I start adding spoiler warnings on these posts ? I didn't fully realize that I'm probably spoiling episodes for people until today so I might start putting that at the top of the posts.

Onto the episodes.

Series I'm currently on : TOS

Episodes watched: 01x15- 01x17

Episode names:

Shore Leave

The Galileo Seven

The Squire of Gothos

Thoughts:

Shore leave

Kirk was so accepting of the massage he was getting when he thought it was Spock giving it to him.

So it's the Alice in wonderland episode

Slowly zooms in on a rock that starts levitating with a conveniently placed loaded gun. That rock is going to shoot someone

Yells out someone's name in the middle of no where to see if they reply even though they both have communicators

Random shooting starts , turns out to be sulu who found a gun and decided it would be the best idea would be to just start shooting it at random

Random man shows up and starts fist fighting the captain and laughing manically

An officer is assault by someone and sulu follows them to try to apprehend them , everyone keeps splitting up even though it would probably be better if they stayed together .

A woman shows up and I'm assuming she is or looks like one of Jim's old lovers ??

At what point do they decide that something is really fucked up and go back to the ship ?

Like they already know about the shit that happened on Talos IV why haven't any of them been more suspicious of this planet being like that

I too get distracted by princess dresses I find in the forest

Oh shit a tiger

Samurai jumps up out of trapped door and starts attacking sulu , this seems slightly racist

That knights horse is walking so strangely

Bones has been stabbed by the knight

Everything is wax figures , everything

Another crew man is dead

Bones' body is gone

Jim is blindly running through the forest after the guy who fist fought him before

What is it with Kirk constantly wrestling men and getting his clothes half torn off

Was this guy like kirk's school bully ?

Also , " sleep as long as you'd like, I like watching you sleep jimmy boy " starts aggressively licking his lips

Bones was never dead he was just getting bitches

Rich people chuckles

So paramount plus started playing the animated series for some reason and it took me until the end of the first episode to realize that and that, that wasn't just a promotional episode thing for the animated series you know how shows do shit like that if there is two series for the same franchise going on at the same time.

The other episodes are under the cut

The Galileo Seven

A group of the ships crew go to investigate a space anomaly and get stranded

The shuttle is the Galileo Seven by the way that's where the name of the episode comes from

Some guy on the ship is really smug about this

These guys barely fit on the ship when standing up

The guy is a commissioner and has a stick up his ass

"3 of us will have to stay behind if we want to leave this planet to get back to the ship " so 3 people are probably going to die by the end of this episode

Oof there goes person number 1

The crew members are mad at Spock that dead person is dead , even though he definitely was not the person who went " hey go up that foggy mountain "

Everyone gets left behind , there's no more fuel

They fight giant monkey men

Montgomery " let's do some dangerous experimental shit " Scott

60s animal costumes will always be funny

Also person number 2 has died

Spock after finding a dead body :

Giant monkey man attacks shuttle , the crew is mad at Spock for not slaughtering all of the monkey men hours earlier

They electrocute the monkey man

" we've been attacked by the creatures several times now I don't think going outside for burial is the best idea" " man fuck you "

The ship has to leave the shuttle behind or else the commissioner will take over the ship

They got the shuttle into the sky , but used up most of their fuel leaving

They got saved

The fog machine guys must have been out here having a blast

Everyone is fucking with Spock for doing something illogical

"your a stubborn man " " yes sir "

More rich people chuckles

The Squire of Gothos

Sulu and Kirk just disappeared it's supposed to be wtf sort of thing but the way it happened was so funny

" Talleyho "

Why do star fleet officers immediately split up like this is a Scooby Doo episode everytime they get into a brand new place they know nothing about

Villainous medieval piano playing

This guy just sits at his window and looks in a telescope taking notes on earth

But like only know like 1600s shit

I should keep count on the amount of protagonists this show has that have magic and / or telepathic ( or telekinetic) powers

This guy reminds me of a very specific villain from a cartoon I watched as a kid but I don't remember who or what show their from

WOMEN

He teleports himself on the ship , and is threatening Spock for " taking you all away from me "

Rapey vibes but in the I won't acknowledge them because I act like a gentleman so that can't be true sort of way

Bones is going ham on that meal

Glove slap to announce a duel

Hamilton fanboy

This guy's immediate assumption upon learning of Spock is that there is such a close romantic relationship between Jim and Spock that if he threatens Spock, Jim will immediately do what he says and he's right.

The planet was a ship and is now following the enterprise

" murder is supposed to be fun where do you get the fun in hanging me "

The hunt of Jim Kirk for murder gets interrupted by mummy and daddy

This is the best possible ending to this episode I love it , cause it just turns out that he is a baby god that told his parents he was doing homework when he was just fucking with some humans

#star trek spoilers #star trek #star trek tos #star trek the original series #jim kirk #montgomery scott #spock #nyota uhura #hikaru sulu #i would have been able to watch 4 episodes if paramount hadn't freaked out and started playing the animated series

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dornish-queen · 4 years ago

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Pedro Pascal on Fame and ‘The Mandalorian’: ‘Can We Cut the S— and Talk About the Child?’

By Adam B. Vary

Photographs by Beau Grealy

When Pedro Pascal was roughly 4 years old, he and his family went to see the 1978 hit movie “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve. Pascal’s young parents had come to live in San Antonio after fleeing their native Chile during the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s. Taking Pascal and his older sister to the movies — sometimes more than once a week — had become a kind of family ritual, a way to soak up as much American pop culture as possible.

At some point during this particular visit, Pascal needed to go to the bathroom, and his parents let him go by himself. “I didn’t really know how to read yet,” Pascal says with the same Cheshire grin that dazzled “Game of Thrones” fans during his run as the wily (and doomed) Oberyn Martel. “I did not find my way back to ‘Superman.'”

Instead, Pascal wandered into a different theater (he thinks it was showing the 1979 domestic drama “Kramer vs. Kramer,” but, again, he was 4). In his shock and bewilderment at being lost, he curled up into an open seat and fell asleep. When he woke up, the movie was over, the theater was empty, and his parents were standing over him. To his surprise, they seemed rather calm, but another detail sticks out even more.

“I know that they finished their movie,” he says, bending over in laughter. “My sister was trying to get a rise out of me by telling me, ‘This happened and that happened and then Superman did this and then, you know, the earthquake and spinning around the planet.'” In the face of such relentless sibling mockery, Pascal did the only logical thing: “I said, ‘All that happened in my movie too.'”

He had no way of knowing it at the time, of course, but some 40 years later, Pascal would in fact get the chance to star in a movie alongside a DC Comics superhero — not to mention battle Stormtroopers and, er, face off against the most formidable warrior in Westeros. After his breakout on “Game of Thrones,” he became an instant get-me-that-guy sensation, mostly as headstrong, taciturn men of action — from chasing drug traffickers in Colombia for three seasons on Netflix’s “Narcos” to squaring off against Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”

This year, though, Pascal finds himself poised for the kind of marquee career he’s spent a lifetime dreaming about. On Oct. 30, he’ll return for Season 2 as the title star of “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm’s light-speed hit “Star Wars” series for Disney Plus that earned 15 Emmy nominations, including best drama, in its first season. And then on Dec. 25 — COVID-19 depending — he’ll play the slippery comic book villain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

The roles are at once wildly divergent and the best showcase yet for Pascal’s elastic talents. In “The Mandalorian,” he must hide his face — and, in some episodes, his whole body — in a performance that pushes minimalism and restraint to an almost ascetic ideal. In “Wonder Woman 1984,” by stark contrast, he is delivering the kind of big, broad bad-guy character that populated the 1980s popcorn spectaculars of his youth.

“I continually am so surprised when everybody pegs him as such a serious guy,” says “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins. “I have to say, Pedro is one of the most appealing people I have known. He instantly becomes someone that everybody invites over and you want to have around and you want to talk to.”

Talk with Pascal for just five minutes — even when he’s stuck in his car because he ran out of time running errands before his flight to make it to the set of a Nicolas Cage movie in Budapest — and you get an immediate sense of what Jenkins is talking about. Before our interview really starts, Pascal points out, via Zoom, that my dog is licking his nether regions in the background. “Don’t stop him!” he says with an almost naughty reproach. “Let him live his life!”

Over our three such conversations, it’s also clear that Pascal’s great good humor and charm have been at once ballast for a number of striking hardships, and a bulwark that makes his hard-won success a challenge for him to fully accept.

Before Pascal knew anything about “The Mandalorian,” its showrunner and executive producer Jon Favreau knew he wanted Pascal to star in it.

“He feels very much like a classic movie star in his charm and his delivery,” says Favreau. “And he’s somebody who takes his craft very seriously.” Favreau felt Pascal had the presence and skill essential to deliver a character — named Din Djarin, but mostly called Mando — who spends virtually every second of his time on screen wearing a helmet, part of the sacrosanct creed of the Mandalorian order.

Convincing any actor to hide their face for the run of a series can be as precarious as escaping a Sarlacc pit. To win Pascal over in their initial meeting, Favreau brought him behind the “Mandalorian” curtain, into a conference room papered with storyboards covering the arc of the first season. “When he walked in, it must have felt a little surreal,” Favreau says. “You know, most of your experiences as an actor, people are kicking the tires to see if it’s a good fit. But in this case, everything was locked and loaded.”

Needless to say, it worked. “I hope this doesn’t sound like me fashioning myself like I’m, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big s—,” Pascal says with a laugh.

Favreau’s determination to cast Pascal, however, put the actor in a tricky situation: Pascal’s own commitments to make “Wonder Woman 1984” in London and to perform in a Broadway run of “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson barreled right into the production schedule for “The Mandalorian.” Some scenes on the show, and in at least one case a full episode, would need to lean on the anonymity of the title character more than anyone had quite planned, with two stunt performers — Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — playing Mando on set and Pascal dubbing in the dialogue months later.

Pascal was already being asked to smother one of his best tools as an actor, extraordinarily uncommon for anyone shouldering the newest iteration of a global live-action franchise. (Imagine Robert Downey Jr. only playing Iron Man while wearing a mask — you can’t!) Now he had to hand over control of Mando’s body to other performers too. Some actors would have walked away. Pascal didn’t.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” he says. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s ‘Star Wars.'” (For Season 2, Pascal says he was on the set far more, though he still sat out many of Mando’s stunts.)

“The Mandalorian” was indeed the next big s—, helping to catapult the launch of Disney Plus to 26.5 million subscribers in its first six weeks. With the “Star Wars” movies frozen in carbonite until 2023 (at least), I noted offhand that he’s now effectively the face of one of the biggest pop-culture franchises in the world. Pascal could barely suppress rolling his eyes.

“I mean, come on, there isn’t a face!” he says with a laugh that feels maybe a little forced. “If you want to say, ‘You’re the silhouette’ — which is also a team effort — then, yeah.” He pauses. “Can we just cut the s— and talk about the Child?”

Yes, of course, the Child — or, as the rest of the galaxy calls it, Baby Yoda. Pascal first saw the incandescently cute creature during his download of “Mandalorian” storyboards in that initial meeting with Favreau. “Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and, boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode,” he says. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, yep, that’s a winner!'”

Baby Yoda is undeniably the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” inspiring infinite memes and apocryphal basketball game sightings. But the show wouldn’t work if audiences weren’t invested in Mando’s evolving emotional connection to the wee scene stealer, something Favreau says Pascal understood from the jump. “He’s tracking the arc of that relationship,” says the showrunner. “His insight has made us rethink moments over the course of the show.” (As with all things “Star Wars,” questions about specifics are deflected in deference to the all-powerful Galactic Order of Spoilers.)

Even if Pascal couldn’t always be inside Mando’s body, he never left the character’s head, always aware of how this orphaned bounty hunter who caroms from planet to planet would look askance at anything that felt too good (or too adorable) to be true.

“The transience is something that I’m incredibly familiar with, you know?” Pascal says. “Understanding the opportunity for complexity under all of the armor was not hard for me.”

When Pascal was 4 months old, his parents had to leave him and his sister with their aunt, so they could go into hiding to avoid capture during Pinochet’s crackdown against his opposition. After six months, they finally managed to climb the walls of the Venezuelan embassy during a shift change and claim asylum; from there, the family relocated, first to Denmark, then to San Antonio, where Pascal’s father got a job as a physician.

Pascal was too young to remember any of this, and for a healthy stretch of his childhood, his complicated Chilean heritage sat in parallel to his life in the U.S. — separate tracks, equally important, never quite intersecting. By the time Pascal was 8, his family was able to take regular trips back to Chile to visit with his 34 first cousins. But he doesn’t remember really talking about any of his time there all that much with his American friends.

“I remember at one point not even realizing that my parents had accents until a friend was like, ‘Why does your mom talk like that?'” Pascal says. “And I remember thinking, like what?”

Besides, he loved his life in San Antonio. His father took him and his sister to Spurs basketball games during the week if their homework was done. He hoodwinked his mother into letting him see “Poltergeist” at the local multiplex. He watched just about anything on cable; the HBO special of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman Broadway show knocked him flat. He remembers seeing Henry Thomas in “E.T.” and Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun” and wishing ardently, urgently, I want to live those stories too.

Then his father got a job in Orange County, Calif. After Pascal finished the fifth grade, they moved there. It was a shock. “There were two really, really rough years,” he says. “A lot of bullying.”

His mother found him a nascent performing arts high school in the area, and Pascal burrowed even further into his obsessions, devouring any play or movie he could get his hands on. His senior year, a friend of his mother’s gave Pascal her ticket to a long two-part play running in downtown Los Angeles that her bad back couldn’t withstand. He got out of school early to drive there by himself. It was the pre-Broadway run of “Angels in America.”

“And it changed me,” he says with almost religious awe. “It changed me.”

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pascal booked a succession of solid gigs, like MTV’s “Undressed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But the sudden death of his mother — who’d only just been permitted to move back to Chile a few years earlier — took the wind right from Pascal’s sails. He lost his agent, and his career stalled almost completely.

As a tribute to her, he decided to change his professional last name from Balmaceda, his father’s, to Pascal, his mother’s. “And also, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda,” he says. “It was exhausting.”

Pascal even tried swapping out Pedro for Alexander (an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander,” one of the formative films of his youth). “I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he says. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”

It was a desperately lean time for Pascal. He booked an occasional “Law & Order” episode, but mostly he was pounding the pavement along with his other New York theater friends — like Oscar Isaac, who met Pascal doing an Off Broadway play. They became fast, lifelong friends, bonding over their shared passions and frustrations as actors.

“It’s gotten better, but at that point, it was so easy to be pigeonholed in very specific roles because we’re Latinos,” says Isaac. “It’s like, how many gang member roles am I going to be sent?” As with so many actors, the dream Pascal and Isaac shared to live the stories of their childhoods had been stripped down to its most basic utility. “The dream was to be able to pay rent,” says Isaac. “There wasn’t a strategy. We were just struggling. It was talking about how to do this thing that we both love but seems kind of insurmountable.”

As with so few actors, that dream was finally rekindled through sheer nerve and the luck of who you know, when another lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson, agreed to pass along Pascal’s audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to “Game of Thrones” co-showrunner David Benioff.

“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff remembers over email. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like s—; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

Before Pascal knew it, he found himself in Belfast, sitting inside the Great Hall of the Red Keep as one of the judges at Tyrion Lannister’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey. “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire f—ing set,” Pascal says, his eyes wide and astonished still at the memory. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit — and with this view.” He sighs. “It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.”

And then it all started to happen.

In early 2018, while Pascal was in Hawaii preparing to make the Netflix thriller “Triple Frontier” — opposite his old friend Isaac — he got a call from the film’s producer Charles Roven, who told him Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him in London to discuss a role in another film Roven was producing, “Wonder Woman 1984.”

“It was a f—ing offer,” Pascal says in an incredulous whisper. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”

Pascal had actually shot a TV pilot with Jenkins that wasn’t picked up, made right before his life-changing run on “Game of Thrones” aired. “I got to work with Patty for three days or something and then thought I’d never see her again,” he says. “I didn’t even know she remembered me from that.”

She did. “I worked with him, so I knew him,” she says. “I didn’t need him to prove anything for me. I just loved the idea of him, and I thought he would be kind of unexpected, because he doesn’t scream ‘villain.'”

In Jenkins’ vision, Max Lord — a longstanding DC Comics rogue who shares a particularly tangled history with Wonder Woman — is a slick, self-styled tycoon with a knack for manipulation and an undercurrent of genuine pathos. It was the kind of larger-than-life character Pascal had never been asked to tackle before, so he did something equally unorthodox: He transformed his script into a kind of pop-art scrapbook, filled with blown-up photocopies of Max Lord from the comic books that Pascal then manipulated through his lens on the character.

Even the few pages Pascal flashes to me over Zoom are quite revealing. One, featuring Max sporting a power suit and a smarmy grin, has several burned-out holes, including through the character’s eye. Another page features Max surrounded by text bubbles into which Pascal has written, over and over and over again in itty-bitty lettering, “You are a f—ing piece of s—.”

“I felt like I had wake myself up again in a big way,” he says. “This was just a practical way of, like, instead of going home tired and putting Netflix on, [I would] actually deal with this physical thing, doodle and think about it and run it.”

Jenkins is so bullish on Pascal’s performance that she thinks it could explode his career in the same way her 2003 film “Monster” forever changed how the industry saw Charlize Theron. “I would never cast him as just the stoic, quiet guy,” Jenkins says. “I almost think he’s unrecognizable from ‘Narcos’ to ‘Wonder Woman.’ Wouldn’t even know that was the same guy. But I think that may change.”

When people can see “Wonder Woman 1984” remains caught in the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the industry; both Pascal and Jenkins are hopeful the Dec. 25 release date will stick, but neither is terribly sure it will. Perhaps it’s because of that uncertainty, perhaps it’s because he’s spent his life on the outside of a dream he’s now suddenly living, but Pascal does not share Jenkins’ optimism that his experience making “Wonder Woman 1984” will open doors to more opportunities like it.

“It will never happen again,” Pascal says, once more in that incredulous whisper. “It felt so special.”

After all he’s done in a few short years, why wouldn’t Pascal think more roles like this are on his horizon?

“I don’t know!” he finally says with a playful — and pointed — howl. “I’m protecting myself psychologically! It’s just all too good to be true! How dare I!”

#pedro pascal #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #variety magazine

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texaschainsawmassacrefullfree · 3 years ago

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Watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre full online free

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror film is a new story about the bloodthirsty maniac Thomas Hewitt, nicknamed Leatherface. Many years ago, he and his family of cannibals lived in a small Texas town, lured travelers into their house and butchered them. The main characters - four young people, two guys Dante and Richter and their girls Melody and Ruth, go to an abandoned Texas town to walk around the places where a maniac with a chainsaw operated half a century ago. The guys go into the same house and suddenly realize that someone is there. The chainsaw fires up and Leatherface begins a bloody hunt.

The new film stars Elsie Fisher (best known as the heartbreakingly optimistic eighth grader in eighth grade) as Lila, a moody teenager who joins her sister Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and their greedy friend Dante (Jacob Latimore) on a trip to the dinky, devastated Texas town of Harlow, where these young entrepreneurs have bought up run-down real estate in hopes of establishing an affordable haven for hipsters. When they arrive, they are surprised to find that one of the cheap old houses they thought they had bought is still occupied by a confused old lady, who really doesn't want to leave. The elderly person turns out to be Leatherface's (Marc Burnham) mother; and when these arrogant kids cause his mother's health to deteriorate, the angry paw goes on a rampage that sees him smash his way through several of Melody and Dante's visiting tech bros and influencers on the West Coast. Leatherface's return also brings one of his former victims out of isolation: Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), the sole survivor of the 1974 massacre, who has been training for a rematch ever since. This Texas Chainsaw Massacre is designed as a direct sequel to the first film, set in a world where the massacre itself has become an infamous murder mystery, covered in a true-crime television documentary narrated by the narrator. from the original film, John Larroquette. The 1974 Chainsaw—the only one where “chain” and “saw” are separated in the title—was directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Hooper with Kim Henkel, working with a cast of hippies and theater kids from the Austin area. Hooper was looking to break into Hollywood with a cheap drive-in movie that would also serve as a commentary on how Vietnam-era America had become desensitized to violence. He and Henkel tell a simple, almost folkloric story about Sally (played by the late Marilyn Burns) and her friends visiting the old Hardesty family estate and inadvertently stumbling upon a nearby house owned by an eccentric clan of cannibals, including the savage Leather face. (late Gunnar Hansen). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is dirty, relentless and genuinely shocking, thanks in part to some good “trust no one” twists, akin to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. (Both Psycho and Chain Saw are very loosely inspired by the real-life crimes of rural Wisconsin grave robber and murderer Ed Gein.) Hooper and LM screenwriter Kit Carson took a different approach with 1986's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, making a low-budget horror-comedy that amped up both gore and social satire. The first sequel offers a wildly imaginative vision of Texas as a libertarian wonderland, where dangerous weirdos are largely left alone by their neighbors and allowed to build mini-empires in the sticks. The Chainsaw films since then have been very patchy. Most of them continued Hooper and company's cocky comments about Texas culture, and all centered Leatherface, a mute man-child wearing a human skin mask. The five films made in the 21st century — including the new one — also followed the modern horror franchise trend of trying to piece together the fractured narrative elements of previous footage into something like a mythology. In the case of the Álvarez/Sayagues Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that means bringing Sally back. This choice ultimately feels nailed and unoriginal — and too reminiscent of recent Halloween movies' attempts to turn their original Final Girl into the villain's most formidable adversary. Sally is not really a character in her own right, she is only a symbol.

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#Texas Chainsaw Massacre film #Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie #Texas Chainsaw Massacre online #Texas Chainsaw Massacre stream #Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022 #Texas Chainsaw Massacre full

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fan-girling-101 · 4 years ago

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Pogue Halloween

Pogues x Reader x Kooks, Rafe x Reader

Summary: You’re dared to spend the night in a serial killer’s childhood home with your best friends and your worst enemies. But what happens when that serial killer comes back home?

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: references to Halloween franchise (mentions of killing, Michael Myers), typical horror movie suspense stuff, slight language?, lots of fear, Rafe lowkey being a sweetheart.

Thank you @thisismynerdyself who let me use her story. It’s going to be a multi chapter story but the first chapter is basically hers with just some small things. Please go check her out and read the original. And thank you for letting me use it. I hope it’s good enough. Also not going to lie about it I never watched Michael Myers Halloween movie thing.

Original here

Her Tumblr

Part two

“Okay, guys. Who’s going in first?” JJ looked around the group, challenging each one of you to make the first move.

None of you were particularly eager to enter the infamous serial killer’s childhood home, but you couldn’t back down from a challenge. So here you all are, face to face with the nightmarish home of Michael Myers. Windows had been boarded up years ago, the door was barely still attached. The ivy creeping up the walls all but covered the aged brick exterior. Yep, this was a horror house alright.

Pope took one step backward, holding his hands up in defense, refusing to be the first one in. You, Kiara, and Sarah looked at each other in solidarity, agreeing that none of you would be first. That left John B and JJ to fight it out.

Whether it was lucky or unlucky for them, they didn’t have to decide themselves. Just as they began to debate about it, you heard a chuckle from behind you. You all whipped around, already slightly on edge just from being on the property. Your entire group groaned in unity at the sight of Topper, Rafe, and Kelce striding toward you on the sidewalk.

“What are they doing here?” Kie whispered to you. You shrugged your shoulders, unable to answer her question.

“Look what we have here. Six little Pogues trying to act all tough. Too bad none of you can actually handle a night in that house”, Rafe sneered at you as he invaded the personal space of your group.

John B stepped forward to face his foe, “And you think you can?”

Rafe puffed out his chest even more than usual and replied “you bet I can.”

“How about we just put this to the test. We all go in. We see who lasts the longest. Pogues or Kooks. Last one out wins. Losers serve the winners poolside, the indoor pool- with a hot tub, of course, for one whole day,” JJ boldly challenged the three boys.

“Deal.”

You let Rafe go in first since he claimed to be so brave. Kelce and Topper followed after him, but neither of them looked comfortable with the arrangement. JJ, Pope, Kie, John B, and Sarah each filed into the main foyer of the dilapidated building. You came in last, closing the creaking door behind you. You made sure to keep it unlocked for whoever would leave first.

You all gathered together, formally declaring the beginning of the night. What had you all gotten yourselves into?

You decided to split into smaller groups to start out, making exploring the house a bit easier. Rafe, Topper, and Kelce decided to start upstairs, looking around the bedrooms. And oh how creepy it was to find that there were still neatly folded robes in the closet after all these years. To find the dusty vanity in Michael Myers’ sister’s room, old fingerprints still smudging the mirror.

Topper decided to venture out on his own, looking in the bathroom where Michael once killed his own mother while drawing his bath. The stains on the counter stood out beneath the dust. It was enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. He wasn’t too keen on being alone, but he knew Rafe enough to know that he would make this slightly scary night even worse with his inevitable shenanigans.

Everyone was moving around slowly, realizing it could be a long night, and not wanting to get bored too quickly.

Downstairs, JJ, Pope, and Kie stayed on the main floor, venturing through the kitchen, the dining room, and the living room. All the furniture had inch-think dust coatings and smelled like mildew and mothballs. Not a pleasant place to be staying for long. The kitchen was the eeriest room on this floor, all three of them finding utensils in the drawer that could easily be used as weapons.

As they made their way back toward the foyer, Pope froze in place as he thought he heard a noise from the stairs. As he looked up, he saw someone jumping down toward him, over the stairway railing. As the person landed with a thump, Pope backpedaled and collapsed against the wall, an involuntary yelp escaping his lips. The maniacal laughter emanating from the new occupant of the room sent Pope into a rage as he punched Rafe in the arm.

“Hey, we’re not messing with you guys, so leave us alone. I doubt Michael likes it when people pretend to be him”, Pope spat out at the boy in front of him. He already didn’t want to be there, so the cruel jokes would only make him more agitated.

Rafe feigned a guilty look and retreated back upstairs, but not before calling back, “it’s every man for himself in this game, Popey.”

You, Sarah, and John B decided to check out the basement. Not your wisest move in the world, but you would argue that none of you were being smart just by being in that house. You were immediately creeped out by the colder air and the musty odor.

You turned on your flashlight, eager to wash away the darkness. As you made your way through the room, you spotted the bottom of the garbage chute and opened the door, jumping back when a dead rodent dropped at your feet. You decided to stick closer to the other two for a bit longer. You all wound your way around boxes and turned corners until you came upon a dead end.

You took turns opening some of the boxes to find old moth-eaten clothes, file folders and other clutter. But among the stacks and stacks of storage containers, you managed to pull out an old shoebox full of photos. Passing them around, you were able to deduce that the box contained photos of Michael’s family, including some from the night he turned on them. Donning his halloween clown costume, Michael stood outside this very house, holding the very weapon he had used to kill his family.

From what you knew of the legend of the man, only his sister survived the tragic night, and she was whisked away into protection while he was taken into custody and held in various hospitals for years until his eventual escape.

Brought back to reality from your thoughts about what the murderer had done, you notice that behind a stack of boxes is a large hole in the wall. Against your best judgment, the three of you work together to reveal the hole, discovering a passageway behind it. By shining your flashlights through, it seemed as though there was a tunnel underneath the house. Definitely not something typical houses would have, but very fitting for a serial killer.

You glance between each other, wondering what to do. You aren’t usually one to back down from an adventure, so you take a step through the hole and into the tunnel. None of you dare to say a single word as you realize you’re deep beneath the house now, unsure of what could possibly lie ahead. Using your flashlights to light the way, you traverse the dingy tunnel cautiously. But you stop when the path is blocked by a floor-to-ceiling metal gate. The lock looks old, so John B easily kicks it apart and the gate swings open.

Once through the gate - you wonder why the gate was there in the first place - you find yourselves at the bottom of a sketchy metal ladder. Sarah steps up first, eager to get out of the too-tight tunnel. She reaches the top and you follow after her. John B brings up the rear.

You can see faint moonlight shining through a window in a nearby door. Huddled together as if your lives depended on it, you and Sarah approached the door, looking out into the yard of the house you were just in. Sudden realization dawned as Sarah whispers, “I think we’re in the shed.”

So far, none of you felt too overwhelmed by the house other than the overarching sense of creepiness. Were you excited to still be there, no. But so far nothing too terrible had happened.

Topper had wandered his way downstairs and into the living room, hoping to find a safe place to wait out the night. He found an old armchair in the corner of the room, attempted to dust it off as best as possible, and exasperatedly sat down. He didn’t even want to come here, but somehow Rafe had always roped him into things. He was tired and, if he was honest, he was already getting scared.

JJ, Kie, and Pope were headed into the basement, although none of them were keen on the idea. Pope got to the last step, took one look around, felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and hightailed it out of there. He had had enough. When he got upstairs, he spotted Topper in the armchair nearby. Topper, realizing that Pope looked like he was ready to go, stood up and said “if you’re leaving, I’m out too.” The two boys quickly made their way out the front door, not even noticing that the door that was once closed was already hanging wide open for them.

Kie and JJ rolled their eyes at their friend’s hasty exit and walked through the basement. Much worse than the main level, she already felt more uneasy. As they perused the cluttered room, they paused when they thought they heard heavy breathing coming from the back corner. Kie stepped behind JJ, choosing him to be the sacrifice.

As JJ stepped closer to the noise, he heard a low chuckle that erupted into a full blown laugh as John B stepped out of the shadows. “Dude, you should see the look on your face!”

JJ punched him in the arm, complaining “not cool John B. What are you trying to do, make Michael Myers come out here and prove to you that he’s real?”

John B simply rolled his eyes and pushed his way past his friend, heading upstairs to find the others. You came in through the front door right as he made it to the top of the stairs. “John B, I hate to say it, but Sarah decided to bow out. She saw Pope and Topper run out and figured she could make her exit then too. They went to wait in the van.”

“Did I hear you say you lost two already?” You hear Kelce’s voice emerge from behind you.

“Yeah, but from what I understand, you may have lost one of your own, Kelce. I don’t see Top anywhere” Kie replied as she glided into the room from the basement door.

JJ followed soon after, passing right through the room, headed to the stairs to take him to the second floor. “Alright you wusses, let’s break up this party. Nothing scary happens when everyone’s together”, JJ called out on his way through.

You laughed and followed him up the stairs, figuring his tough guy attitude might be your best shot at surviving the night. “Okay, J, where do we explore first?”

Meanwhile, Rafe and Kelce confidently strode down the basement steps, ready to take on any frightening scene that might unfold before them. As they crept through the basement, they took turns making creepy noises at each other, resulting in a laughing fit. Partly from their own antics and partly because of the three teens who had already bailed on the night.

And it was all fun and games until the basement door slammed shut, sending them into complete and utter darkness. Figuring it was just the fools upstairs, Kelce yelled up, “ooooh, I’m so scared” with a laugh just to stir them up.

But his laugh died as his eyes grew wide at the dark shadow, too large to be any of the others, slowly descending the stairs. The deep thud of the tantalizingly slow footsteps stopped when the shadow reached the bottom. When it turned toward them, they saw the masked face of the man and practically ran each other over in an attempt to find an escape route.

They tumbled their way to the back corner of the room where you, Sarah, and John B had uncovered the hole in the wall, and they practically threw themselves through the hole and into the passageway, no thought to what could be in store for them. Down the tunnel they took off, only turning around enough to know that the tall, muscular form was still following them.

Rafe was the first to reach the large gate in the tunnel, but it had been wired shut, blocking their way. Taking the time to unwrap the wire meant the mysterious pursuer was approaching closer and closer.

“Dude, hurry the hell up, man!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!” voices shakily yelling out in the darkness.

And just as the slow-moving man approached and raised his arm in attack, Kelce wrenched the gate open and they launched their way through and up a precarious ladder.

Kelce was first to the top, where he didn’t look back as he took off out the shed door and down the street to find the others. Panting, he knocked on the window of the old van. Topper unlocked the door and let in his friend, confused by the look of pure horror on his face. Kelce was speechless as he climbed in the back and sat frozen in his seat, not even coherent enough to realize Rafe hadn’t emerged behind him.

Meanwhile, on the main floor, Kie and John B heard the sudden commotion from the basement, recognizing the frantic noises that reminded them of a scene straight from a horror movie. And when the noises faded, John B realized they must have run back into the tunnel they had found earlier. He knew they would find their way out eventually since he had left the gate open down there. But when he turned to find the basement door had closed, knowing that neither of them had done it, he looked at Kie, who looked back with eyes as wide as they could go.

They cautiously walked into the kitchen to look out the window toward the shed and saw Kelce, alone, running for his life, a look of absolute terror on his face. That was their cue to leave, so they turned and ran out the front door, not even turning around to see the tall, masked man standing in the doorway behind them.

As you and JJ slowly made your way through the upstairs bedrooms, just glancing at the old furniture left behind to rot, you thought you heard thumping from below. Everyone was on edge tonight, so you assumed your mind was playing tricks on you. Then you heard a door slam downstairs, causing you and JJ to look at each other and smile. JJ couldn’t help but say “sounds like someone else just made us one step closer to winning this thing.”

While the thought of winning was pretty sweet, you knew that the people left in the house wouldn’t be easy to scare, so anything that caused them to run would have been seriously frightening.

You continued into the very back room, furthest from the main stairwell. The room was empty except for a few scattered boxes. Making your way toward the side wall, you found a door that was a bit different from the rest in the house. JJ was able to wrench the door open and you found yourselves staring up into the narrow attic stairwell.

You looked at each other, silently wondering if this was a good idea. JJ decided for you as he took the first step up and you hesitantly followed him. You were about to comment on the smell as you ascended the stairs, but your breath caught in your throat as you took in your surroundings.

You and JJ found yourselves in a vast attic space. You were surrounded by coffins. The coffins Michael Myers had used for some of his victims. This was his storage space. The ones you could get to were, thankfully, all empty. You even found one for a child, sick to your stomach just thinking of the poor soul it had been for. The acrid stench of death was seeping through your already plugged nose, but you were unable to block it out. Your quickened heartbeat was probably audible to JJ as he stood frozen in place as he connected the dots just as you had.

Without a word communicated between the two of you, JJ had grabbed your hand and pulled you down the stairs and toward the main stairwell. But you both skidded to a stop at the sight in front of you. The stairwell was blocked. By a tall man in a black jumpsuit and a horrifying white mask.

“SHIT!” JJ yelled as he pulled you into the nearby bedroom. After moving a small vanity in front of the door, you ran toward the window on the other side of the room. You both tried to pry open the window but it wouldn’t move. “SHIT!”

As he got closer you tried to look for something to defend yourself with. Your eyes finally land on a wooden plank that was used to board up windows. You lounge to grab it, swinging it in the direction of the man.

The two of you don’t waste a second sprinting out of the room as fast as you could. JJ made it to the stairs first running down with you in behind. As you make it to the last couples steps you miss one tumbling down the rest of the way.

“Come on Y/N!” JJ yelled at you, but when you got up you didn’t see the way the blond ran so you chose a door running through it. Of course you had the pick the wrong way into the kitchen with a back door that won’t open.

JJ makes it out running into Rafe on the way to the van. They get inside after sprinting from the house, not yet realising they were missing a certain Y/H/C headed girl.

“JJ where is Y/N?” Kie tries to calmly ask before freaking out that one of there best friends is still in the creepy house with a murderer. At this point they all look out the van for the girl.

“She was following me out. I don’t- she tripped… she probably is still in there. Oh God.” He stutters out thinking that the person he was closest with in the world was stuck in a house with a crazing killer.

Before anyone could react or do anything Rafe got out of the van with JJ’s gun in hand. He quickly starts his way back to the house hoping to get there before you're dead.

The tall man in front of your small frame grabbed your shoulders slamming you back into the marble counters. You let out a cry of pain, the pain spreading through your body. “Please.” You whimper. “Stop.” He lets out a creepy laugh watching the struggle. He brings up the knife running it down your side drawing blood while cutting the country artist shirt I was wearing. He brings it up going in for the kill before a gunshot rings out. The tight grip he has on you falls making you fall to the ground, as it was the only thing holding you up.

You feel a hand on your arm causing you to flinch before looking up to the blue eyes of Rafe Cameron. His hand slips under your knees effortlessly picking you up from the ground as if you weighed nothing. Your arms wrap around his neck hiding your face in his chest.

He carries you out and in the van. No one says anything before starting up the van. The quiet hum of the engine couldn't be heard over your sobs. A cloth was pressed to the bleeding on your side causing you to let out a loud cry. No one knew what to say as you buried your head closer into Rafe’s chest.

John B starts dropping people off at their houses. Starting at Kelce’s then Kie’s, to Topper’s before pulling up at the Cameron residence. You already all knew Sarah was going to stay at John B’s. Rafe tried to move you off him but you wouldn’t let him. Your arms around his neck tightening.

“I have to go.” He whispered into your ear. All the pogues left in the van watched the encounter between the two of you. Never had they seen Rafe be so nice to someone, so caring. Not even Sarah.

“Take me with you.” You cry into his shoulder. “Y/N.” He goes to say be cut off by a soft “please” making him give in. He picked you up again listening to the chorus of goodbyes you got.

He lightly set you down on his bed leaving for a second coming back with stuff to clean your wound with. He sits beside the bed on the floor grabbing the hem of your shirt looking up at you. “Can I?” You nod helping him get your favorite shirt off that was covered in blood. He must have seen the look of sadness you had as you watched him place the shirt on the floor.

“I can get the blood out but you can probably sew it or it might look cool with the rip but I don’t know.” His hand grabs one of yours putting a cloth soaked with something, cleaning the cut. You tried to hold in the sound squeezing his hand. “It’s not too bad we just gotta keep it clean. Anything else hurt.”

“My back.” You flip on the stomach letting him see where you got slammed into a counter.

“That’s going to be on nasty bruise Pumpkin, I grab some ice. And here change into this.” He sets some of his clothes on the bed for you to wear. You jump out of the bed grabbing his wrist pulling him to face you.

“Please don’t leave me alone.” The look you were giving the older kook boy made him give in quickly. The two of you walk down the kitchen happy that Ward, Rose and Weezie were asleep somewhere in the house. As Rafe grabs the ice you look through the cupboards looking for something to eat. Finally finding some oreos the two of you head back into his room.

You change and lay on the stomach on the bed Rafe getting in beside you resting some ice on your lower back.

“Thank you.” I move my head to face the boy who was already staring at me. “For everything.”

“Of course Pumpkin. Get some sleep okay.”

78 notes · View notes

angelinasway · 4 years ago

Text

Regaining Hope

Pairing: Clark Kent/Buffy Summers

Warnings/Triggers:Torture, Violence, Mention's of Major Character Death, Bad Language, Sexual Tension, Eventual Smut

Summary: Takes place during Man of Steel. When Buffy discovers the U.S Military trying to keep quiet about an object buried in a twenty thousand year old glacier, she immediately thinks the worst. However, when a surprise visit to the Canadian Arctic puts her in the path of a mysterious stranger her whole world is changed forever.

[TTH] [AO3] [FFN]

Authors Notes: I should first say that this takes place about eight and a half years after the first arc of the Season 8 Buffy Comics, however I’m only using aspects of cannon. The back story will not follow the comics as you will be able to see pretty quickly in this chapter. Secondly, I actually really do love Lois so please don’t bash me for being self-indulgent by wanting to see my two favorite Superheroes get together. I can promise you all that there will be no Lois bashing in this fic. Thirdly, as far as Clark’s story goes it follows Man Of Steel so if you’ve seen the movie you know his story. Thanks for giving this a chance I hope you all enjoy reading. Also thank you to my wonderful beta Hipkarma for giving this chapter a look for me. Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Chapter One

Buffy lurched as the helicopter made touchdown onto the ice. She closed her eyes briefly, mentally preparing herself for what was sure to be a battle of wills between her and one Colonel Hardy. She hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but just by his photo she could tell he was going to be a pain in the ass. There wasn’t much love lost between the Watchers Council and the U.S military. Not since Maggie Walsh and the Initiative, and certainly not since General Voll. The Governments of the world as a whole always seemed to have a really bad habit of sticking their noses in things they just didn't understand, hence why she was here in the freezing Canadian Arctic in the first place. Willow had created a program that had been monitoring all military chatter since Voll decided to commandeer Amy and a skinlessly resurrected Warren to attack the W.C. Headquarters in Scotland. That had been almost ten years ago, and since then Buffy had been dealing with countless other countries attempting to harness power or create weapons out of a force that they just didn’t seem to understand could never be controlled. The U.S however, had managed to keep their noses pretty clean since General Voll, even going as far as to work with her and ask for her help when needed. That’s why it was such a surprise to find out that they had found something buried in the snow that predated civilization and were trying to keep it under wraps. Especially from the W.C. And to make matters worse, she was just coming off a week-long mission from hell. Just last week she caught Russia restarting their subspecies research facility and when the shit had finally hit the fan, she had been forced to send in a team resulting in the deaths of two of her girls. After that, she and Wesley had spent the next day getting a hold of the girl’s families, which of course left her holding a big-ol-bag of guilt and the nightmares and sleepless nights to go along with it. So, to say she was cranky and pissed to hear about the U.S. keeping stuff from her would have been an understatement. She was furious! However, she was also willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe this actually wasn’t her jurisdiction. The Helicopter door slid open pulling her from her mental preparation. She blinked when her eyes met a pair of startlingly brilliant blues, surrounded by a handsomely rugged face, and scruffy beard. A green baseball cap adorned his head, hiding what she assumed from the few strands that were messily poking out of the brim was hair so brown it was almost black. He was probably somewhere in his mid-twenties, though on second inspection his eyes held the maturity of someone closer to her age. “Here let me help you.” He said loudly, so his voice could be heard over the whirling of the propeller and the grind of the engine. He held out a large gloved hand as she undid her seat belt and stood on unsteady legs. Her own gloved hand reaching for the strangers. As soon as her hand touched his however, she gasped, almost recoiling in fear, her inner Slayer rearing her head at the sudden sensation of power. And wow, was it powerful. She had never sensed anything like what was behind this man’s strong grip in all her years of slaying. It didn’t feel mystical in nature and it certainly wasn’t demonic. It was almost foreign, as if it didn’t belong here. Strength knew strength however, no matter where it originated from and her Slayer sensed him with a voraciousness that she had never experienced before. She felt a bit light headed and weak kneed by the sensation, and she had to shake her head to clear it of the roaring in her ears. Her eyes shot to his, widening in bewilderment and for a split second he had the look of a dear caught in the headlights. It was gone the next instant though, and a mask of a charmingly shy and unassuming guy replaced it. ‘Quick reflexes then, and someone who’s used to hiding in plain sight.’ The look worked well on him and she admired the quick cover. Only someone who had been living a double life could pull off a cover like that. Regardless of her admiration though, she needed to know if this guy was a threat or not. Especially with the way her Slayer was chomping at the bit and her heart pounding in her ears. So, she squeezed his hand slightly harder than she’d ever dare on someone human, just to let him know he wasn’t the only one standing there that was something other. It had the desired effect, though the fact that he didn’t wince was a little unnerving. His eyes shot to hers as she passed him, an innocent mixture of awe, curiosity, and fear burning in his irises. She knew then. He was no threat to her. The eyes were the windows to the soul and there was no doubt this man or whatever he was, had one. Plus, there was no way anyone could pull off a look that full of innocence if they had nefarious intentions. She removed her hand, breaking the overstimulation to her senses. She tried her best to cover what she had just felt by giving him a brilliant smile and winking conspiratorially. “Normally I would be worried about anyone carrying my bags considering how heavy they are, but something tells me it’s not gonna be a problem with you.” “Buffy Summers?” A new voice asked, distracting her from her assessment of Mr. Tall, Dark, and Muscular. She turned to meet the kind eyes of another man not much older than herself. "Hi." She said in greeting, reaching her hand out to shake. "Jed Eubanks, Arctic Cargo, nice to finally meet you, Miss Summers." Buffy raised an eyebrow in surprise, side eyeing Mr. Powerful for any reaction. "You heard of me?" She asked, watching the stranger’s reaction. When all she got was a look of curiosity and befuddlement her hackles finally lowered enough to completely believe that whatever or whoever he was didn’t have to do with her being here. Eubanks grinned, commanding her full attention as he said, “Little more than that, I was stationed in Afghanistan about five years ago. My chopper went down near Baghaln.” Buffy winced. “I remember that, a terrorist organization had commissioned hellhounds and were feeding their hostages to them.” “Saw you fighting that day.” He nodded. “Never seen anything like it in my life.” He paused, almost as if he was gathering up the courage to continue. “I was next in line you know, if it wasn’t for you and yours, I’d have been dog chow. I never got the chance to thank you for saving my life Miss Summers.” Buffy smiled softly at the man. It had been a while since she’d been thanked so sincerely. She linked her arm with his. “Call me Buffy, I’m sure I’m gonna have Miss Summers shouted at me enough today to give me flashbacks of high school.” Eubanks laughed. “Well, least you know you got one person rooting for you.” Buffy’s eyes traveled back to the mysterious stranger, who had been watching them with rapt attention. Questions, fear, and confusion still simmering in his eyes. She imagined it was very much similar to the look she was giving him, curiosity brimming over like an over flowing stream. She gave him a small nod of acknowledgment, hoping he understood it was her way of saying they would speak later, before she turned back to Jed and plastered on a huge smile. “Now show me where this camp is. The sooner I get this over with, the happier I’ll be.”

******

Clark watched the young blonde woman walk away with Jed, his heart galloping in his chest. She knew. Somehow, she was able to sense he was different. Part of him was horrified at the prospect of her walking into the basecamp below and announcing to the entire camp what and who he was. It was an old fear, one that had guided him and comforted him on cold lonely nights. If he just kept disappearing, no one would ever know the truth. Another part of him however, was beyond curious about her. How could she sense him like that, was she an alien too? When she squeezed his hand earlier it hadn’t hurt, but had he been a normal man it very well may have fractured a bone or two, and he doubted she just went around breaking people’s bones for the fun of it. No, she had definitely been testing his strength, which begged the question, how did she get hers? The military seemed to know her pretty well however, and even Jed himself had encountered her five years ago in Afghanistan. Which almost seemed impossible, because she really didn’t look much older than twenty-two. God, she was beautiful though, with those bright green eyes that looked older and far more tired than someone her age should be allowed to be. She was just the kind of girl he would have only dreamed of asking out when he was younger. He shook his head, finally forcing his eyes away from her retreating form, but keeping his hearing locked on her until he was sure he wouldn’t have to make a sudden and quick exit. He reached for the two duffle bags she brought with her, the first one pretty light and obviously full of clothes and toiletries. The second one however, was quite heavy and when he heard the sound of metal clanging against metal, he did a quick scan of the items in her bag and almost recoiled in shock. It was like a medieval arsenal in there, three sharp looking swords, a wicked looking red and silver axe, six daggers, four sharp looking wooden stakes, two flasks filled with some type of fluid, a cross, two pistols, a shotgun, and a pair of night vision goggles. ‘Who is this girl!’

******

“Colonel Hardy I presume.” Buffy said with a saccharine smile, holding out her hand to shake. Not at all surprised when he didn’t return the greeting. She then turned to the elderly gentlemen to his right. Her smile softening in recognition. “Dr. Hamilton, how many times do we have to run into each other before I can convince you to ditch these macho elitists and come work for me.” “Miss Summers, always a pleasure.” He said with an amused smile, side eyeing Hardy’s annoyed frown. “I wasn’t aware that you had clearance for this project?” Colonel Hardy said a little too arrogantly. Buffy’s smile grew, oh she was going to love putting this man in his place. “Oh, you wouldn’t, orders went through about,” She looked at her watch. “thirty minutes ago. You should probably be getting a call from General Swanwick any minute now.” Just as predicted, a young soldier came through the door the next second and Buffy couldn’t help the smug smile that crossed her lips. "Sir, General Swanwick is on SATCOM." It was immediate. The look of self-assurance morphed into pure annoyance within the span of mere seconds, and it was worth every bit of discomfort she was sure to receive in the next few days of her stay. Sure enough, Hardy did not disappoint. He excused himself and as he passed the officer he said, "Please ready Miss Summers accommodations and make sure they're as sparse as possible." Buffy chuckled in amusement, looking at Dr. Hamilton with a conspiratorial twinkle. "If he thinks making me crap in a bucket is gonna offend my delicate sensibility, he's mistaken." The Doctor chuckled, "I wasn't aware you had a delicate bone in your body Miss Summers." She snorted, "I hide it well." Her eyes then traveled to the scientific equipment obviously used for monitoring the anomaly. "So why don't you bring me up to speed on this find of yours, before Hardy comes back and attempts to make my life a living hell." Dr. Hamilton shook his head, leading her over to a computer screen with what looked to be a satellite image. "You do seem to enjoy ruffling their feathers." “Well, what can I say, never been much of a fan of authoritarianism. Also, not exactly easy to trust an entity that’s tried to have you killed more than once.” Buffy said, as she leaned over to get a better look at the dark blob like shape covered by layers of snow and ice. “So, what am I looking at? An Old Ones sarcophagus?” “We don’t believe its demonic in origin.” Dr. Hamilton stated. Buffy frowned in confusion, “But weren’t the samples of ice taken around the object more than twenty thousand years old? If it’s not demonic, what the hell do you think it is?” “A vessel Miss Summers,” Colonel Hardy said, walking back in the room. “A vessel not of this world.” Buffy blinked and turned around. “When you say not of this world, I’m assuming you mean…” Hardy’s smirk was patronizing. “That’s right Miss Summers, extraterrestrials. A spaceship. A topic I might add, that you know absolutely nothing about.” Buffy rolled her eyes, “Oh, as if you do.” “I know more than you Miss Summers.” Hardy responded indignantly. Buffy snorted in derision, her lip curling at this man’s stupidity. “So, what happens if you dig this thing up and you’ve got a violent alien that’s been sleeping in stasis for the last twenty thousand years?” Buffy shook her head. “Furthermore, I’ve seen Alien. What if the aliens inside crash landed on earth because a giant fucking Xenomorph is inside?” “I can assure you Miss Summers we’re taking every…” Buffy threw her arms in the air. Finally losing her patience. It looked like she was the one who was actually going to be doing the yelling today. This was just so typical, as if she didn’t have enough on her plate with Russia and Sudan creating their own Initiative-like secret facilities. “The fuck you are!” She shouted. “See this is the problem with you guys,” she pointed. “This is what happens, this is always what happens!” She started to pace, her fists clenched at her sides, uncaring of the sudden wary looks she was receiving by both Dr. and Colonel, as well as the few other scientists and soldiers in the room. “You discover something…for instance that demons and monsters exist, and instead of just killing it or leaving it the hell alone, you gotta study it, dissect it, see how it works, until eventually you’re trying to harness its power for yourselves!” She shook her head in disgust, “And do you wanna know who always has to clean up the mess? Me,” She pressed her fist against her chest, “It’s always me.” Her voice softened then, a sigh whistling between her teeth as her eyes locked on both a flabbergasted Dr. Hamilton and Colonel Hardy. Okay, maybe she went a little to far there. It wasn’t exactly fair to blame them for the previous week. “It’s not…If I was only dealing with this kinda stuff once in a while I wouldn’t be so cranky. I apologise for insinuating anything about anyone in this room.” She shook her head. “It’s just every single country on earth has their fingers in the demonic cesspool one way or another and I’m getting really sick of doing damage control on top of all my other Slayer duties, not to mention the lovely annual apocalypse that never really takes a vacation. Throw aliens in the mix now and the fact that I haven’t slept very well in a week and yeah, Buffy’s stress level just hit a new high.” Colonel Hardy’s disposition seemed to soften slightly at her words and he stepped forward, “I heard about Russia and am very sorry for your loss.” He sighed, “But we aren’t them, Miss Summers. I’m willing to play ball. Please let me be the first to promise, if we find anything that could be deemed even slightly dangerous as far as alien lifeforms go, we will hand it over to you immediately, without question.” She chewed on his words for a moment, figuring this was the best she was going to get as far as cordial cooperation went, and figured she throw out an olive branch so he knew she really wasn’t trying to step on his toes. “Yeah,” Buffy agreed, sighing with a nod. “Yeah, okay. And if it’s really just a ship I have no problem with giving you free rein on any alien technology you find. Just…just do me a favor, don’t make me regret this by killing us all with it.” Hardy cracked a smile then, “Alright Miss Summers, I think I can agree to that.” And surprisingly enough, he held out his hand to make it official.

****

Clark was more than impressed with the young woman who had pretty much wormed her way into his heart without her even knowing it. She was feisty as all hell; he'd heard her entire conversation and had been caught chuckling to himself a few times. Considering how quiet and reserved he normally was, the other guys on the crew were probably thinking he'd gone insane. There were a few things that were talked about that confused him however. Like her speaking about demons and monsters like they exist. Though, considering the fact that he existed, he wasn't all that surprised there could be something out there that was possibly a greater threat than even himself. He was just surprised he'd never run into anything of the sort before, especially considering how long he'd been traveling. Then again, he never really actively sought out situations where he was a savior, those situations usually just kind of found him. Buffy however, spoke as if she had been doing these types of things regularly for years. So much so, that not only was the military aware of her, but they had deemed her a threat on more than one occasion. He could certainly relate to that, for he knew if they had any idea of what he could do, they would do everything in their power to either try and kill him or use him as a weapon. And that was something Clark absolutely refused to have happen. It not only would disgrace his father’s memory, but it would spit on the very sacrifice John Kent made for him. When he was younger, he always thought that the fear his father sometimes wore on his face was because his father was afraid of him. It was one of the things that had led to the words he used the day his dad died. He remembered how frustrated he was that day; his father was being so stubborn about letting him go to college. He remembered thinking it was because his dad wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on him anymore. That he was so afraid of his son hurting someone…that he would never let him leave Smallville. Then that tornado hit, tearing Clark’s entire world to shreds and he was never able to tell his dad he didn’t mean what he said. It was his father’s sacrifice that finally made him realize that all that fear and distrust he saw etched in his dad’s eyes was never directed at Clark at all. His father had always trusted him, it was mankind that he was so afraid of. So, revealing himself to the world was absolutely out of the question. However, for the first time in Clark’s entire life, he felt he might have someone else he could trust enough to confide in. The simple fact that she hadn’t told anyone what she suspected about him was almost enough to make him trust her. The fact that she didn’t want the military to get their hands on an alien, for fear of what they would use it for and the harm it could cause to the human race also helped greatly in making him want to trust her. She was incredibly cautious about how they should go about unearthing the vessel and spoke of bringing in a witch friend of hers to put a ward around it in case there was something dangerous inside. It truly was a sound plan; it would let them be able to open the ship without accidentally releasing some deadly creature or virus by mistake. It’s also the reason he was now changing his plans of waiting a few days before he went in search of the ship. He hadn’t known magic existed until a few minutes ago and he had no idea if he was vulnerable to it or not. He didn’t think so, but he sure as hell wasn’t willing to stick around and find out. As much as he agreed with Buffy’s plan and admired her caution, he knew in his gut that this might be his only opportunity to find out where he came from. Something deep inside of him told him that the answers he sought were on that ship. He dropped the bags off at her trailer after Jed had informed him which belonged to her, noticing how sparse the accommodations were. Just like Colonel Hardy had ordered. There was only a cot, blanket, pillow, space heater, and sure enough in the corner was a bucket and a roll of toilet paper. He shook his head in amusement, apparently this was not the first time she was forced to rough it. He could hear her and Colonel Hardy heading this way, discussing the ship and what other precautions might be taken to ensure that no one would get hurt. On an absolutely and unexpected whim, Clark pulled out the notepad he’d been keeping in the inside pocket of his jacket and wrote down the first thing that popped in his head. He didn’t know what made him do it, and he hoped she didn’t take it the wrong way. The poem was called “I am” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and he didn’t really remember the entire thing, but the first verse had stuck with him. He quickly ripped the sheet of paper off the spiral, folding it, and tucking the sheet under her bag where just the edge could be seen. He stuffed the notepad and pen in his back pocket, getting to the door just as they were walking up. Their eyes found each other’s immediately, the intensity of her gaze sending an electric shock up his spine, his heart speeding up. God, those eyes of hers were like the color of the fields around the farm in spring. She raised an eyebrow in question at him but he just smiled politely and held the door open for her and the Colonel to pass as he slid by and down the steps. She followed his gaze and he found himself completely turning and walking backwards a few steps, before forcing himself to break contact and walk away. He was going to go talk to Jed, see if he could learn more about her. Plus, his shift was almost up and twilight was approaching. Soon it would be time.

******

When his gaze broke from hers it was like having a bucket of ice water doused on an over heated system. She stood there watching him walk away, her heart pounding in her chest, a loud rush of air she hadn’t even realized she was holding breaking from her lungs. Her nerves still tingled from the heat she felt in his gaze, and she was startled to realize she hadn’t had a reaction like that to the opposite sex in a very long time. Hell, she wasn’t quite sure she ever had a reaction like that, at least not one she remembered. She shook her head, turning back to the Colonel, only to notice he hadn’t missed the staring contest either. She thought he looked amused, but wasn’t quite sure. “Something I need to know about?” Buffy rolled her eyes, “I’m a red-blooded female. I’m allowed to notice a good-looking man when I see one.” The Colonel hummed, his green eyes accusatorily sizing her up. “Seems like he noticed you too.” Buffy’s eyebrows shot up and she frowned. “What exactly are you implying, Hardy?” “Just making sure you didn’t send a spy in close to gather information.” He answered seriously, eyeing her warily, as if she would do something like that so unnecessarily. She rolled her eyes, laughing at the absurdity of that statement. “Colonel, if I were to do something like that it would only be if I felt I was in danger, and I can guarantee it would be another Slayer and not some well-built, redneck, with puppy eyes. No one but the W.C. and the General knew I was coming, why would I risk the little bit of leeway I knew I would gain by showing up unexpectedly, and ruin it by having a spy already in your midst’s. Please do give me some credit.” Hardy shrugged unapologetically, leaning against the wall, “I still don’t understand how your people figured out about the find when we’ve only known about it for a week.” “Oh, so that’s what this is.” She said, raising an eyebrow and looked around the almost empty trailer. He smirked, “That’s what this is.” She shrugged, it didn’t really matter to her if he knew or not. She wouldn’t be sharing the technology no matter how much he tried to intimidate her. Not that she would actually be able to explain it anyway. “A friend of mine created a program that relies heavily on magic to monitor, decode, translate, and record when certain phrases or words are used in any and all military or government communication around the globe.” The Colonel’s eyes sharpened and she watched as his jaw clenched, a vein popping out on his forehead. “And I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share that little piece of technology would you.” Buffy shook her head, “Absolutely not. I’m not helping you war with other countries.” “And you call yourself some sort of hero.” He said snidely, heavy condemnation in his voice. “Do you have any idea how much something like that could help us?” Buffy froze, her back stiffening at his implications. She turned to him, her lips pursed and eyes as sharp as daggers. “It’s my job Colonel, to protect humanity. All of it.” She said, voice trembling just above a whisper in pure rage. “It is not my job to get involved with petty wars that mean very little when every year there’s some demon who gets the idea in his head to destroy every single one of us.” She pointed to the door, “I think its time for you to go now. Sun’s setting anyway, I hear it can get forty degrees below zero some nights.” Hardy frowned and opened his mouth as if to say more, but decided against it. Instead, he said, “Good night Miss Summers, will speak more about this tomorrow.” She stopped him with a hand on his arm, “No we really won’t. Despite what you may think, I’m not trying to hoard technology so I can be some kinda all-knowing God and rain judgment down on everyone. It’s the whole reason its only designed to pick out key words and phrases. I don’t want to know everything, but magic in the wrong hands is the most dangerous thing on this planet. It’s more dangerous than any demon I’ve ever faced or any God.” She sighed, removing her hand. “Trust me when I say, science will get there, you don’t need magic to move it along.” His frown deepened, before he seemed to sigh in defeat. He nodded once, then left her trailer without a word. Buffy sighed, hoping that was the end of that. She really didn’t want to have to keep explaining herself. She walked over and sunk down on the cot, reaching for the lighter of her bags and pulling out her satellite phone. She called Wesley first, knowing he would be waiting up for her to check in. She gave him a brief description of what had happened so far, leaving out the mystery man for fear of making him worry when he already had so much on his plate. Wesley agreed that Willow should be the one performing the warding spell around the ship, and agreed to make the necessary travel arrangements. Her next phone call was to Willow herself, and she smiled at the cheery voice that picked up. “Is the Arctic as cold as they say?” Buffy chuckled, “Yeah Wills, its pretty cold.” Then added, “But don’t worry, you’ll be experiencing it soon enough.” She could hear the frown on the other end of the phone, before an irritated whine escaped her friend’s lips. “But I don’t wanna go to the Arctic, you know how much I hate the cold.” Buffy chuckled, “Yes, but apparently they think they found a spaceship and we need you and your magical-witchy-talents to make sure no hibernating Xenomorphs escape and wreak havoc amongst the populous.” There was a long still silence, before the expected giddy meltdown on the other side of the phone. She heard a squeal of delight, before several vowels that sounded suspiciously like they should have been words. Buffy chuckled, “Breathe Willow, oxygen is of the good.” There were several panting breaths before, “Gods, Buffy do you know what a find like this could mean for us? The technology alone could help…” “Hold your horses there, Wills.” Buffy interrupted. “I already promised the U.S. that they could have the ship.” “Wait, what?” Willow protested. “Buffy if it hadn’t been for Voll joining up with Amy and Warren, those two would have never gotten powerful enough to join up with…” “I know Willow,” Buffy said, cutting her off before that train of thought could even be realized. “I’m just saying, why should we trust them when they’ve put us through so much?” Willow said, the pain and resentment clear in her voice. Buffy, sighed. “I don’t know Wills; guess I’m just getting more forgiving in my old age.” She paused, hearing Willow sigh sadly and knowing exactly where Willow’s thoughts were taking her. They had all suffered the consequences of General Voll raising Amy and Warren up from annoying nuisances, to actual threat. When they inevitably betrayed him, because that’s what happens when you align yourself with crazy, Amy and Warren had managed to gain enough clout to join up with a recently desouled Angelus, and together they had amassed an army of witches and demons alike. By the time anyone caught wind of what was going on it was already too late. Giles had been the first casualty in the chaos. Buffy freezing up when it happened, unable to even react to what her eyes were processing. Spike had been the one to pull her out, and for months he had been the one to push her to keep going. He had been her rock in that time, an unwavering support system without any expectations of what could possibly be if they made it out alive. Wesley and Illyria had joined the fold shortly after Spike's miraculous return, followed by a severely wounded Charles Gunn and an empath demon named Lorne. Buffy had offered Wesley the Head Watcher position, being too far gone in her grief of losing the man who was more like a father to her than her real dad ever was. However, it was losing Spike three months later that had fully pushed her over the edge. It was the only time in her life that she went completely dark, and it was Angelus who paid and then some. She had never thought herself capable of torture before that moment. Figuring she wouldn't have the stomach for it, but she'd been so very wrong. She had given her Slayer full control, and by the time she was finished with him there had been very little to stake. She remembered hating not just him in that moment, but Angel too. Years of pent-up emotional trauma caused by him leeching out of her as she bled him dry. Hatred and rage boiling inside of her at the fairytale romance they'd so naively convinced each other they had. It was never a fairytale; it had been a nightmare from the start. Even soulless Spike on his worse day would have never tried to break her so thoroughly. Angelus, in essence had succeeded in what he started so many years before. Except, instead of the broken pile of tears he expected would be the outcome of his mental torment, he got the broken primal force of the Slayer in full. He must have realized his mistake somewhere between her cutting out his tongue to shut him up and flaying his skin off the muscle and sinew because when she got to his eyes, they were full of the most potent fear she'd ever seen on a creature such as him. She remembered her Slayer purring in delight at the heady look of horror that was etched on his face, so unlike the arrogant knowingness he'd been giving her for hours. She remembered the feel of his sticky, coagulated blood as it spurted onto her face when she slowly pushed the blade into the brown pupil. The same eyes she had once thought so beautiful. She remembered how it felt to twist the knife until there was nothing left. The only sound Angelus able to make was a gargling, choking, scream. Buffy shook her head, banishing the gruesome memories to the back of her mind. She had disappeared for two years after that, running every few days to make sure no one could find her, too ashamed to face anyone. Wesley had finally found her in that broken-down, abandoned hovel, too weak to keep running. He hadn't asked what happened, he'd simply taken her in his arms and held her. When she had eventually shattered completely, sobbing dry tears, because she was to dehydrated to produce any, Wesley had stroked her back, hushing her. He never once asked what happened, but she suspected he already knew. There was a haunted look in his eyes that told her he had danced that fine line once himself. “Buffy? Buffy are you there?” Willow asked, forcing Buffy out of her memories completely. “Yeah,” Buffy said, shaking her head and blinking several times. “Sorry, what?” “I said, is there anything else I should know?” Willow huffed, a worried edge to her voice. Buffy chewed on her lip for a minute, thinking of her handsome stranger. “Yeah,” She said again. “There’s definitely something else.” She was quiet for a long moment, before finally saying. “Look, I didn’t say anything to Wesley, because he’s dealing with a lot right now, but there’s this guy here and he's...well..." she paused, shivering slightly at the memory of his hand in hers. "He's like uber-powerful." "You mean like Glory and Illyria powerful?" Willow asked, the worry in her voice unmistakable now. "I mean, like take Glory and Illyria, put them in a pot, add a few other Old Ones, stir, and you got this guy." Now Willow sounded downright frightened. "You're kidding? And he's working for the military?" Buffy shook her head even though Willow couldn't see it. "No, he's actually working for the cargo company the military contracted." "Huh?" Willow said in confusion. "Yeah, and here's the thing, he doesn't feel like a demon, or even mystical. It’s almost like..." and that’s when it all began to click into place. Spaceship, uber-powerful guy working as a civilian near said recently discovered spaceship. Power that felt foreign to her, not other worldly, but out of this world. She froze, her eyes landing on a piece of paper tucked under her weapons bag. With a shaky hand she reached down and unfolded it, her eyes scanned the quickly scribbled words on the page. "Willow, I... I gotta go." Buffy said, hanging up before she could hear her friend’s protest. She reached for her weapons bag, unzipped it and pulled out her Scythe. The words of the poem repeating in her head. She thought about changing into her suit, but decided against it. She wasn't sure how much time she had, but the sun had set a while ago and she had a feeling if she didn't leave now, she'd never see her handsome stranger again. She donned her jacket and her beanie, throwing on a backpack already prepacked with survival supplies. She opened the door and ran full speed out into the night. The forgotten poem falling into the snow, the words bleeding out as the slush soaked the paper. 'I know not whence I came, I know not whither I go But the fact stands clear that I am here In this world of pleasure and woe. And out of the mist and murk, Another truth shines plain. It is in my power each day and hour To add to its joy or its pain.'

[Chapter Two]

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