#foolish sucka

[scarlettblack24]

Foolish sucka! 😜😂🤣

[bebe-writes-stuff]

Hidden Hearts Reunited

A Mikey x reader oneshot (part 2, read part 1 so you understand what's goin' on sucka)

-- You were Manjiro's first and closest friend, before Baji, Sanzu, or Draken. You were there. Your mothers were friends, meaning you were destined to be friends either way. You spent every second together since birth, a result of both mothers planning the deliveries on the same day. They realized a distinct difference between you and Manjiro, like night and day; you and Manjiro are polar opposites. Unlike Manjiro, who was always crying and screaming, you were quiet with a cute smile on your little round face. Manjiro would constantly cling onto you, as toddlers, crying louder if you were ever separated. Both mothers gushed at his actions. He would share his toys only with you and sleep peacefully next to you. It was an unbreakable bond between the both of you, from birth --

Taking a single step forward, you urgently called out to him, "DON'T MOVE! STAY RIGHT THERE, MANJIRO!"

Your aunt, still bewildered by your abrupt encounter with the enigmatic boy, observed as he came to an abrupt halt. Simultaneously, a speeding car raced in front of him, emphasizing the gravity of the situation – had he taken another step, he might not have seen the sun again.

A sigh of relief left your lips as you realized what you had prevented,

"Damn, if that kid would've taken another step, he would've been mangled, shit. How do you know that car was coming?" Your aunt was somewhat surprised by the speed of your reactions and the intensity of your voice, considering your soft-spoken and gentle demeanor since she picked you up from the airport.

"Mikey! Where the hell are you going, man?!" His friend finally caught up, emerging from the restaurant they had just left a minute ago.

"Draken! It's Y/n, she's there!" He pointed across the street, locking eyes with his friend.

"Mikey...there's no one there."

"What..." his voice barely more than a whisper as he turned, only to be met with the sight of an empty street.

No...no...where did she go? Damn it, Y/n, why? Why do you keep leaving?!

He felt like he was losing his sanity. He had found you, after all these years. And now, he lost you again. You called out to him, saved him from getting hit. It was truly you, despite your physical changes over the years. The look on your face as you uttered his name, he was certain he made no mistake.

Your aunt wore a look of extreme confusion as you grasped her hand and hurried away, your expression dazed and breaths heavy.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concern evident as she cupped your face and observed your bewildered look. "Did you know that boy?"

"N-no, I didn't. I-I really didn't," Your tone suggested a mixture of shock, uncertainty, and a hint of nervousness, as if you were trying to convince both her and yourself.

Giving you a moment to catch your breath, your aunt supported you as you leaned against a random store's wall. You fell into a heavy silence, the repetitive thoughts echoing in your mind:

That wasn't him...

That wasn't him..

Your aunt enveloped you in a protective embrace, as if shielding you from your own thoughts.

"Hey, it's going to be alright. Let's head home. You've just endured a long flight, and you should have rested first. Leaving the house was a bit of a foolish idea anyway," she comforted, rubbing your back.

You trembled slightly in her arms as she continued to offer comfort.

What was I thinking? She needs to rest, especially considering what she's been through recently. I'm sorry, Y/n.

Now, as you lie in your bed, the weight of your new life in Japan, the recent loss of your parents, and the guilt of leaving your friend all converge, overwhelming you. The room feels heavy with emotions as you grapple with the fear of him hating you.

Tears well up in your eyes, slowly trickling down your face and cheeks. Each tear seems to carry the burden of your emotions, staining the pillows beneath you. The quiet sobs escape as your emotions spill over, and the room bears witness to the silent upheaval.

Your aunt, leaning against the door, observing the emotional storm within you. The weight of the situation hangs in the air, and her presence serves as a silent support, allowing you the space to navigate the complex emotions that engulf you,

"Y/n." Her voice was a little muffled, being behind the door.

"I know how you feel, I promise you, you aren't alone. Love has never been in my life; I never had the blessing of children, and loneliness was my constant companion. Until a couple of weeks ago when I was informed you'd start living with me. It felt as though the weight of a lifetime of isolation had finally lifted because of you. I love you more than you could imagine. I'll never let you have to face anything on your own." There was genuine caring and compassion in your aunt's words.

You fell into a contemplative silence, realizing that you had never known or met your aunt during your childhood, given her youth. Yet, you could sense the unwavering love she held for you.

…Could someone really continue loving another despite not seeing them?

Eventually, you assume your aunt has left because the shadow under your doorframe has disappeared. You hugged yourself realizing the constant sense of inadequacy that plagued you throughout your entire life. Fear holds you back from speaking up, going out, or forming meaningful friendships. Even the one friend you managed to make, seemed to hate you.

God, your message resonates with me – I know that I've been pathetic for as long as I can remember.

You rose from bed, changing into a pair of basketball shorts and a hoodie. You left your room and made your way downstairs, your aunt was engrossed in flipping through TV shows with the remote.

"Hey, you're up. Feeling better?" she inquired.

"Yeah."

You lied.

"I was thinking of taking a walk. Need some fresh air," you requested.

"Kiddo, as long as you're not into anything illegal or harmful, feel free. I trust you to make responsible choices and not get yourself into trouble Oh and here's some cash, if you want to treat yourself to something, keep it healthy." she assured.

Having made the decision to venture outside, you felt a slight chill in the air as you strolled through the neighborhood. A quick stop at a corner store satisfied your snack craving. Unbeknownst to you, your legs seemed to guide you effortlessly to the neighborhood of your childhood, drawing you closer to where Manjiro lived. Looking around,

I used to come here a lot with him, I wonder if he still lives near here

You thought about your choice, continuing on your path or checking if Manjiro was still there. Curiosity prevailed, and you found yourself walking toward the familiar location.

Unbeknownst to you, your arrival caught the attention of someone inside his shop, engrossed in working on bikes. Shinichiro paused his screw-tightening, squinting to confirm what he was seeing.

"Shin, you good?" Takeomi inquired, casting a peculiar glance your way.

"Manjiro wasn't joking. She's really around here! Keep an eye on the shop for a moment, Takeomi," Shinichiro declared, swiftly wiping his greasy hands on his jeans before dashing out of the shop to follow you.

He clearly hadn't thought it through, as, from your perspective, a fully grown man was rapidly approaching you.

Wait...WHAT THE-

In a panic, you sprinted scared for your life.

DAMN IT, I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE; NOW, I'M GONNA GET MURDERED BY SOME GREASY OLD GUY WITH A PIPE.

Glancing behind you, he was still in hot pursuit.

WHAT DID I EVEN DO?!

Abruptly, you collided full force into someone.

"Ow, fuck." you muttered, rubbing your arm.

"Watch where you're going, you idiot. Who do you think you are?" The man, radiating a tough demeanor and grabbed you by the collar of your hoodie.

...yep, I definingly should've stayed my ass home. Goodbye world.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? Let her go now!" The old man chasing you earlier, spoke in a firm tone, causing the guy to straighten up and bow.

"S-sorry, Shinichiro."

Shinichiro?

"Please don't kill me, old man," you pleaded, taking a step back.

"...Y/n, I'm only 25," he retorted, visibly hurt by your "old man" comment.

"Why are you running away from us, dude?"

Us...?

"Wait, Shinichiro Sano?"

"Yep, try not to fall for me." He remarked, a hint of smugness in his tone.

"...You don't have a girlfriend yet, do you?" You bluntly asked with a blank expression.

"You and Manjiro are bullies, I swear to God," he uttered, pained by the resemblance.

You looked away, hearing his name,

"I know it's hard after all these years Y/n, but I promise you. Manjiro doesn't hate you."

"You don't know that!" You were quick to shoot back,

"You're only saying that because you're scared." His voice was comforting just as it was back then.

He extended his hand towards you with a gentle smile. Though hesitant, the growing distance between you and Mikey became unbearable in your heart, the chains of your shared promise, shared curse, weighed heavily on your heart.

So here you were sitting awkwardly in front of Manjiro, not a single peep leaving your lips, your hands in your lap.

Damn you Shinichiro, I don't know what to say.

Abruptly rising from his seat and making his way to the door, you expect Manjiro to leave, not wanting to see your face ever again. But to your surprise, he did not leave; instead, Your heart skipped a beat as he locked the door.

@mysouleaten (You wanted to be tagged in part 2 so here ya go)

-- looks like Ima have to write part 3, it's probably gonna have some spice. Hope you enjoyed part 2

go read part 1 if you didn't, like who reads part 2 without reading part 1 lolol --

[stardust948]

[Nightmares and Daydreams deleted scene]

Ozai: Foolish child! You really think you can stop me?!

Aang: Do not underestimate me, Firelord Ozai. For I am Avatar Aang. Warrior of Peace!

Aang: *regal stance*

Aang, blasting him with all four elements: NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!!!

Ozai: Nooo! My only weakness! Dying!

[superiorsturgeon]

Tyrian: *creepy giggling and waving around his Faunus tail* Foolish child! I could kill you with a single sting!

Ruby: *dramatically poses with her cape blowing in the wind* Do not underestimate me, Tyrian Callows, for I am Ruby, warrior of peace! *puts a hand to her heart*

Ruby: …

Ruby: *drops to one knee and racks her enormous scythe-gun* NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!!!

[spacetimesally]

Peter Luuding and The Soul Spectacular Symphonic Orchestra featuring the vocal stylings of Vic de Lillo and their debut album Lip Bite, out August 12th on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, and wherever fine music is streamed! (YouTube Link for ya', right here.)

If you're a regular visitor here, you may have seen me mention I was biding my time writing a big band/swing/jazz pop album. I wasn't jokin' around. It's everybody's favorite Scandinavian big band leader, Peter Luuding with Vegas crooner and lounge singer extraordinaire, Vic de Lillo!

It's a 10-track album, do people even listen to albums anymore? I don't know. I have zero clue what people do. They baffle me, but I digress. 10 songs, 40 solid minutes of entertainment, not a single ounce of fat on this sucka. You got your 8 swinging tunes and 2 jazz standards/ballads. You can't go wrong. You'd be foolish to not check it out. I'll recommend you 2 songs, listen to "Doctah Boombotz" (there's your swingin' track) and listen to "The City in the Night" (there's your slower standard, if you want more of a sorrowful song about loss, Twilight Garden is your jam). This is gonna be your bag, baby. Check it out August 12th. Use this link to figure yourself out and smarten up.

My other musical works include the psychedelic funk/soul band, The Reverend, His Minions, and Me, as well as, psychedelic garage rock act, Gordon Roger Robertson. Now, Peter Luuding and Vic de Lillo. And seeing as how my funk/soul album and garage rock album went over so well with you people, I'm sure this will be a surefire success, too. That's sarcasm there, you buncha' uncultured filthy swine.

[enchantedchocolatebars]

AGREE! 👍

Fic Time! ✏️

Enjoy ~ ! 💖

💚 Azura vs Gildersnake 🐍

My interactions with Luz over the past few months have been both unique and wholesome. We've had many memorable moments. I've also shown her a plethora of new things. Our time together has made me feel like a sort of father figure to her. If fact, just the other day, she had mistakenly referred to me as 'Dad' rather than 'Philip'. Initially, it was confusing, but I also found it very amusing. I desire to strengthen our bond, but how?

As Philip sat his pen beside his diary to think, he noticed a fantasy novel sitting on his desk.

His eyes were locked on the book as he picked it up.

The cover had the words 'The Good Witch Azura' written in black behind a gold banner.

Below the title, a green haired witch is standing in the foreground with her staff raised while a witch in red and some sort of dog wolf creature stand behind her.

Philip was able to tell right away that Luz was the owner of this book.

He saw her reading it all the time.

Did she leave it there intentionally for him to find?

...

As Luz was about to leave the cave, Philip suddenly went before her, dressed in what seemed to be a purple serpent costume he had sewn himself.

Posing menacingly, a sinister smirk starts to form on his face. "Foolish child!" He hissed in a theatrical tone. "I could swallow you whole!"

The moment Luz heard those lines and saw who Philip was pretending to be, she let out a loud gasp, bright stars shining in her eyes.

She takes off.

As Philip watched her leave, a sad frown formed on the corners of his mouth.

Looking down, he gave his costume a small tug.

Perhaps it was too convincing.

He should apologize.

"Do not underestimate me, Gildersnake!"

Upon hearing the heroic shout, Philip swiftly glances up to see that Luz has returned in her Azura costume, her staff in hand.

"For I am the Good Witch Azura, warrior of peace!" Luz poses passionately, then drops into a battle stance and directs her staff like a bazooka at Philip.

"NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!"

Luz "fires" the boozooka, making blasting sounds with her mouth.

"No! My only weakness: dying!" Philip cries out playfully in "pain" as he's being "shot" before collapsing dramatically to the ground.

This causes both him and Luz to let out a laugh.

He then receives a heartfelt smile from her. "Looks like someone's been reading my Good Witch Azura book."

[toonmania25]

The Owl Mouse (unfin)

(since The owl house is ending soon,I thought I'd share this unfinished Patb x TOH au fic @cutesycadaver and I did a while back In the fandom)

“Foolish child, I could swallow you whole” hissed the snake beast that stood Azura. 

“Do not underestimate me giler snake, for I am The good Mouse-Witch Azura warrior of peace. NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!” She shot at the beast with her wand. 

“No, my only weakness, dying!” Cried the snake.  

“And that’s the end!” Pinky said, holding a snake (that somehow didn’t try to eat the mouse) and an Azura doll

“The end of what?” His mother asked, 

“My book report. I think I knocked it out of the park, zort!” 

“Your book report is why you’re here!” Pinky's principal said, showing Pinky that everyone is being attacked by snakes. 

“Oh, that’s where the backup snakes were! Troz!”

��“And what were you going to do with this?” Pinky’s mom pulled a bundle of firecrackers from her purse

“That was for the act three closer.” Pinky said ashamed 

“Honey, I love your creativity” his mom said “but it’s gotten out of paw. Do you remember why you were in the principal’s office the last three times?” Oh he remembered. That time when he made Juliet’s death TOO real when he was trying out for Romeo and Juliet. And the time he made a baby griffin for his art project also and added actual baby spiders along with it. And let’s not forget the time when he was showing classmates what he can do to his eyes (which was VERY disturbing and VERY cool.). 

“We all love that you express yourself but if you can’t learn to separate fantasy from reality then you're going to have to spend the summer here.” His mother handed him a pamphlet about Reality Check summer camp. 

“Don’t worry mom. narf. I won’t let you down. No more weirdness.” The snake Pinky was holding attacked the principal. 

“That doesn’t count right?”

Pinky was standing outside his house waiting for the bus to come to take him to camp. A sad look plastered on his face. His mom came out “Oh my baby.” She hugged him in an attempt to comfort him 

“Now don’t worry, summer camp is only going to be for three months. You’ll be so busy balancing checkbooks and...learning...to...appreciate public radio, the time will fly by. 

“But Mom, I don’t like any of that stuff. I like cooking, music, and reading books. Mostly the romantic ones. They always make me feel mushy and gushy inside. Poit!” 

“Honey, your fantasy world is holding you back. Do you have any friends, real ones that aren’t imagined, or drawn, or equestrian?” His mom had a point but Pinky didn’t like the point, it was true and sharp and not at all fun fun silly willy. 

“Summer camp is a chance for friends but you have to try. Can you do that?” Pinky looked at the trash can beside him 

“Yes mom.” He said defeated, throwing his favorite book in the trash. His mother’s phone buzzed 

“Oh I gotta go to work.” She came over and kissed his head 

“Your bus is coming soon. Text me when you get there. I love you so much goodbye.” 

“Bye, mom.” As soon as his mom walked off, Pinky dug through the trash 

“where is it? Where is it? troz” 

“Who” 

“Not who, WHAT!” There was an owl...and it was holding his book in a little bag. 

“Owl trash thief!” Pinky scolded running after the owl. He chased it into the woods spotting a shabby house it ran into. The house was old, kinda spooky, and was most likely haunted. Pinky gulped. He was scared, but he has to be brave to get his book back. 

“Off I go. P-p-poit...” He said nervously. The squeaky door slammed behind him, which was weird because he doesn’t remember pulling on it. In a flash of yellow light a strange door with an eye appeared. The owl went through and so did Pinky. 

“Stop adorably hopping away you…” Pinky looked around, he was in a tent of trash. 

“Whoa, I thought I had a lot of weird stuff, but this. This is impressive.” He picked up...something.

“Finally you're back.” A woman’s voice said. Pinky ducked down. 

“Now let’s see what we got here.” He pushed open the tent. A woman with graying brown hair in a ponytail and magenta glasses went through the bag the owl had. The owl sat on a stick and the woman turned him around and he turned...into wood. 

“Narrrrrf!” Pinky said in amazement  

She picked up a smartphone. “Garbage.”

 A huge diamond ring. “Garbage.”

 A golden shiny goblet.  “Garbage.” 

She gasped “Now this!” She put on some silly springy eyeglasses 

“This will make me rich! And this…” she picked up Pinky’s book “This will make good kindling.” 

She put it over a candle.``NOOOO!” Pinky cried. He got out of his hiding place and took the book out of the woman's hand. “Excuse me! Sorry! It’s mine! Narf! Gotta go bye!” Pinky tried to go back into the house but the door formed itself into a key and landed in the woman’s hand.``You’re not going anywhere.” The woman said as she glared at Pinky. He immediately put the book in his backpack and ran for his life. He stopped at a cliff, looking at the monstrous landscape beyond. “Oh no! No! No! No! narf! What’s going on?” A little pink fairy flew next to him. “AH! Oh. Hello, little fairy. Are you gonna tell me this is all a bad dream and I’m gonna wake up back to reality?” Pinky asked. “GIVE ME YOUR SKIN! '' it said in a demonic voice. “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He screamed as he smacked the fairy and ran away once again.``What’s going on? Did I die? Am I in hell?” 

“You wish.” a voice said behind him. Pinky immediately turned around and saw the same woman he saw earlier. “AHHH! NO! NO! PLEASE! NARF! NO!” But before he tried to escape the woman grabbed Pinky by the tail and hanged him face to face.``I’m so sorry! I just wanted my book back! If you're gonna eat me, please make it quick! But I must warn you I haven’t taken a bath in two days!” 

“Eat you? Why would I eat a potential customer?” Pinky relaxed, now confused, she owned a little shop “Can I offer you a human foot full of holes, a bar of green human candy, how about this shadow box that reflects only sadness!” She held out a little TV. “That’s not all it can do.” Pinky laughed, he picked up some batteries and hopped up on the TV. He popped them in and the TV turned on to an at-home workout video. 

The TV drew in a crowd of monsters wanting to buy it. “What did you say your name was?” The woman asked. “I’m Pinky!” “Well, Pinky that was very clever for a mouse.” Pinky giggled “You Humans say that all the time.” “Oh dear child…” she took off her bandanna to reveal pointed ears “I’m no human. I’m Nora the Owl Lady! The most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!” “A witch!” Pinky whispered “I am respected, feared…”  ”BUSTED!” A giant fist smashed the TV interrupting Nora. “Nora the Owl Lady, you are wanted for misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors.” Said a pudgy police-looking witch in a brown uniform. “Whoa witch criminal.” Pinky whispered, “You are hereby ordered to come with me to the conformitorim!” “Would you guys quit following me around, I haven’t done squat.” “And you’re coming too!” He picked up Pinky “For fraternizing with a criminal.” “What, that’s not cool! narf.” “Alright, Alright you win just let me get my stuff.”

 Suddenly Nora whacked the police guy with her staff. She put her shop stuff in a bindle and ran off, Pinky followed. “This is crazy if I die here my mom’s gonna kill me!” “I won’t let him hurt you. A talking mouse is much more useful alive.” They turned a corner ”WOOHOO!” Nora shouted as she grabbed Pinky and flew into the air with her staff. Pinky forced his eyes closed, tearing up a bit “You can open up your eyes now little mouse.” He did, looking down he latched onto Nora’s shoulder. “Flying staffs, scary monsters, you’re a witch, what is this place? zort?” 

“This is the Boiling Isles, every myth the humans have is caused by a little of our world leaking into yours.” “A griffin!” Pinky pointed at the beast as it breathed spiders “I knew it!” “Yep, griffins, vampires, giraffes, we banished those guys” “whoa.” They landed and 

Nora jumped off the staff, leaving one of her hands behind. “Gahhh!” “Oops, that happens sometimes.” She screwed it back on. ”Well I have had enough adventure for today.

This is definitely not the fantasy world I’ve always dreamed about. So can you help me get 

Back home? Troz?” “Only if you help me first,” Nora said.

 “Deal!”

They looked over a giant building with a huge eye. “Whoa, Aren’t  those meanie mean guards finding us?” “Nope, my house has a state-of-the-art defense system!” “Hoot-squeak password, please? OW!” Nora poked the mouse owl thing in the eyes “No time for this Larry let us in!” “Alright Alright Jeez you never want to have any fun, ow, squeak!” Larry’s mouth opened wide and they walked through. 

“Welcome to…” She snapped her fingers and magical things started happening everywhere “...The Owl House! Where I hide from the pressures of modern life. Also cops, ex-boyfriends, etc. “This place is amazing! Do you live here all alone?” 

Then all of a sudden loud giant stomps shook the house. “Actually I have a roommate.” Nora said. Pinky went behind Nora. He hoped her roommate doesn't eat mice. “Who dares intrude upon me, The King of Demons” A cute little...something came out with a ducky hood towel and a rubber duck. Pinky stood in awe of how cute they were.

 “Oh! My! Narf! Nora, they’re sooo CUTE! Who’s a wittle guy?! Who’s a wittle guy?! Is it you?! Is it you?!” Pinky jumped up on them and scratched behind their ears. “No! I don’t know who your little guy is! Nora, who is this little monster?!” The adorable creature grabbed Pinky by the tail, putting him off their ears. Nora took him in her hand holding Pinky up. “Oh, this is Pinky, a talking mouse and possible help for our situation.”

 “Oh. Hooray!” 

“Wait-Wait-Wait, I don’t like the sound of this “situation”.” Pinky said. “Just let me explain…” said Nora as she drew a glowing yellow circle in the air with her fingers. “Wakko warner was once a great king of demons and...creatures like themself. But warden Wrath stole their crown and locked it behind a door that only a human could get through. Or maybe a small animal like you.” 

“Naaaarfff…” the glowing circle showed the whole story in a cool storybook way. “If you help us retrieve their crown we’ll send you back to your realm, what do ya say? Plus who can’t say no to this lil cutie.” Nora said as she picked up wakko (they was somehow now wearing a blue sweater). “DON’T ENCOURAGE HIM!” “I mean we are kinda your only way home.” “So I don’t have a choice do I?” Pinky said. ”Nope! Now we have no time to lose!” Nora said as she put Pinky on her shoulder. “Where are we going anyway?” Pinky asked. “Somewhere super fun!”

XXX

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   “The comformatorium” Nora said  as they arrived.”A place for those considered unsuitable for society.” “Zort! This doesn’t look like a fun place to me.” Pinky said. He looked at a wanted poster for Nora “They really got the hots for you.” “Yup!” She winked, “But we never got caught because we’re too slippery.” “Try to catch me when I’m covered in grease, I’m a squirmy little fella!” Wakko added, “You and I will sneak up to the top of the tower where they’re keeping my crown.” They said pointing at the tower

 “And I’m gonna make sure the warden is distracted” Nora said.”Can I wear a disguise?’’ Pinky said with excitement. “Uhhhh....” Nora said, confused. “I’ve always wanted to do this!” Pinky flipped his cat hoodie on.”Look at me! I’m a kitty cat! Narf!” Nora and Wakko looked at Pinky’s disguise “It’s hideous!”  “Oh you’ll fit right in!” Nora used her staff to create a flying disc for Wakko and Pinky “Hang on tight you two!” It brought them up to a window. Wakko grabbed the ledge, Pinky clung to their hat. Nora activated her staff “See you guys at the top of the tower and flew away. 

The two young creatures climbed into the window. Their eyes met with the sight of thousands of prison cells, spiraling upward. “Hey Cat-mouse.” came a voice from behind them, they turned around. “How did you get out of your cell?” “Oh I’m not a cat.” Pinky took down his hood “or a criminal. Zort.”

 “Not yet, you’re not.” Wakko giggled. 

“Neither are we.” the cat in the cell said bitterly. 

“The stupid warden likes to lock people up who don’t fit in. Like I like to write fics about foods falling in love. I like food, I like love, just let me write about it!” 

“I’m here because I like eating my own eyes.” A dog said next to the cat 

“We are agents of expression, they cannot silence us”  a little chubby mouse said 

“yeah he’s really into conspiracy theories.” 

“The world is a simulation. We play things for a higher being.” The criminalized animals spoke of their woes and Pinky grew more upset by the word. 

“These aren’t crimes! None of you did anything wrong! What if they locked me in jail every time I say narf!”

 Then Pinky realized. 

“You’re all just a bunch of weirdos..... like me. troz. “ Just then the chamber started to shake.

“It’s the warden! You two got to hide!” 

 Pinky and Wakko ran to an empty cell to hide.They huddled together in fear. Not saying a word. 

“I can hear you!” A big burly man slammed the door open. 

“Just what are you whispering about” suddenly his voice became far less menacing and a bit dopey. He looked down at the wanted poster that had fallen to the floor.

“Ah The Owl Lady…” he picked it up. His hand morphed into a hammer around it. Ralph slammed his shifted limb into the cell door Pinky and Wakko sat behind.

“I’ll get my hands on her soon enough.”

“Fight against the oppressor we’ll resist! We will conquer! We’ll never be afraid of you, big creep!” Egwind said.

Without a word, Ralph opened the cell that Egwind was in.

“Hooray I’m free!”

But then ralph grabbed egwind and carried him to the torture room

“Let this be a lesson to all of you. There’s no place in society for people who don’t fit in.” He squeezed the mouse in his fist. Ralph loudly stomped out.

“Don’t worry we can get you out!” Pinky confidently assured the prisoners. He led Wakko to the cat and dog’s cell. They pushed the lever up but it wouldn’t budge.

“Nooooo! my weak mouse arms!” Pinky cried. 

“Just get out of here while you still can kid.” She signed “enjoy freedom for us.”

The duo looked dismayed but carried on into the next room.

“Hey, I just checked the warden is distracted tormenting a tiny creature.” Nora said flying next to Pinky and Wakko. “He won’t be coming around here anytime soon.” 

“That’s nice…” Pinky said sadly. Nora looked at pinky concerned 

“You alright?”

“Yeah. let’s just get Wakko’s crown back.”

Pinky, Nora, and Wakko walked to the contraband where Wakko’s crown was placed 

"My crown! I can taste its power! Wakko said as they ran to the front door and tried to break it .

"Awwww they're so cute when they're hungry for power." Nora cooed.

" I don’t get it, Nora, " Pinky said sadly. "They all in here for just being themselves. Why does everyone think being weird is bad? Poit."

[top-tier-tickles]

Princess Luzura of The Boiling Isles

This is an Owl House AU fanfic that's been on my mind for a while, so I thought you all would enjoy it! The poll results said you would, so this is the prologue!

______________________________________

Prologue

The girl backflipped onto the stable ground of the cliff as she braced to attack. Her mint green hair and white dress flowing in the wind.

"Foolish child, I could swallow you whole!" The massive purple snake monster shouted, baring it's fangs.

"Do not underestimate me, Gildersnake! For I am the Good Witch Azura, Warrior of Peace!"

A slight pause, then the witch knelt down and loaded her staff.

"NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!" She yelled, firing massive fireballs at the Gildersnake as it recoiled and fell.

"No, my only weakness! Dying!" The Gildersnake's last words were.

A loud crash onto the cave's floor, and the monster lay dead forevermore-

"Princess?" A guard knocked at Luzura's door, the thirteen-year-old shoving her 'Good Witch Azura' book underneath a stack of papers.

"Y-Yes? What is it?" She answered.

"Your father would like to see you, your majesty."

"Ah, yes, I'm coming. Thank you." Luzura clipped on her white Emperor's coven cloak, exiting her bedroom and walking through the corridor towards the throne room.

Two guards stood in front of the entrance, talking about something that was evidently funny, given how much giggling was going on.

Luzura's stomach began to squeeze, for some reason, their laughs affected her. She felt that they were laughing at her, despite that the giggling was going on before she showed up.

Despite this feeling, her face remained stiff, as she cleared her throat to announce her presence. The guards jolted, just now noticing Luzura, and stepped out of the way and opened the door.

The girl stepped inside, taking a few steps before the door shut behind her. There, she waited.

The emperor sat on his throne across the room, his staff in one hand, the other's fingers tapping against the arm of his throne.

"You requested my presence, Father?" She asked, taking a deep breath.

"Yes, come in, Luzura."

She walked up to him until she was just a few feet away from the throne. She curstied, staying like that with her head bowed.

"I wanted to discuss your progress in your studies, Luzura."

Oh boy, here we go again...

"Your work is becoming...sloppy, my dear, and you're letting yourself be distracted from what's important. I would hate to see your priorities be shifted."

"My apologies, Father, I am trying my best in my studies."

"I can see that you are, but I can also see the various drawings on your papers and such. And you are taking longer and longer to complete what you need to."

"Father, I can explain-"

"There is no need to, you're young, you're imaginative. But you need to set your fantasies aside if you ever hope to be a good empress in the future."

"I understand."

"Good. That is all. You should head to bed, it's getting late."

She stood up, exiting the room, and walking back into her quarters to prepare for bed.

After going through her nightly ritual, Luzura poked her head through her door, making sure the coast was clear, before slinking back into her bedroom and pressing a stone into the wall.

Said wall then opened up into a secret room. Only Luzura knew of this room, and she used that to her advantage. The room had bean bag chairs, action figures, shelves and shelves of books, and posters of various fictional characters littered the walls.

All of these were her "secret nerd things" as she called them, hidden away from the eyes of her father.

She snatched a book off of a shelve, plopping onto a bean bag to immerse herself into another world until she actually went to bed hours later.

[angelcloves]

Terra: "Foolish child! One of my Venus flytraps could swallow you whole."

*Terra summons one.*

Willow: "Do not underestimate me Snapdragon, for I am the plant witch Willow Park: Daughter of Harvey and Gilbert Park."

*Willow waits a moment... before pulling out a massive spray bottle filled with potent weed-killer from behind her back!"

Willow: "Now eat this sucka!"

*She sprays Terra's Venus flaytrap... and Terra herself, with it.*

Terra: "No! My only weakness! Dying!"

*A moment passes, before-*

Willow (To Luz): "Did I do it right?"

Luz: "You did it perfect!"

YES AAAAAAAAA

[vickysaurus]

"Foolish child, I could swallow you whole!"

"Do NOT underestimate me, Gildersnake, for I am the Good Witch Azura, warrior of peace!"

"NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!"

"No! My only weakness! Dying!"

"And that's the end!"

Alright, that was a fun rewatch

As beginnings go, I kind of love this one. It's pretty silly, but it immediately introduces us to Luz, her fantasies, and how delightful she is, as well as Good Witch Azura. A little detail I quite like is that the actual animated Azura looks way more like Luz than her action figure.

[wrestlingcreative]

look at him. look at Alex.

i’m trying to not oogle married men so much 😔 but i’m a sucka for the full beard look apparently.

THIS IS AN INNOCENT CRUSH I REFUSE TO THIRST AFTER THAT SWEET FOOLISH MAN

[watusichris]

You Oughta “Get Carter”

Another old Night Flight piece, tied to a Turner Classic Movies airing, about a movie I never tire of watching. (Unfortunately, the Krays film “Legend” turned out to be not so good.) ********** The English gangster movie has proven an enduring genre to this day. The 1971 picture that jumpstarted the long-lived cycle, Get Carter, Mike Hodges’ bracing, brutal tale of a mobster’s revenge, screens late Thursday on TCM as part of a day-long tribute to Michael Caine, who stars as the film’s titular anti-hero.

We won’t have to wait long for the next high-profile Brit-mob saga: October will see the premiere of Brian Helgeland’s Legend, a new feature starring Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Knight Rises, Locke) in a tour de force dual role as Ronnie and Reggie Kray, the legendarily murderous identical twin gangleaders who terrorized London in the ‘60s. The violent exploits of the Krays mesmerized Fleet Street’s journalists and the British populace until the brothers and most of the top members of their “firm” were arrested in 1968.

The siblings both died in prison after receiving life sentences. They’ve been the subjects of several English TV documentaries and a 1990 feature starring Martin and Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet. However, the Krays and their seamy milieu may have had their greatest impact in fictional form, via the durable figure of Jack Carter, the creation of a shy, alcoholic graphic artist, animator, and fiction writer named Ted Lewis, the man now recognized by many as “the father of British noir.”

Born in 1940 in a Manchester suburb, Lewis was raised in the small town of Barton-upon-Humber in the dank English midlands. A sickly child, he became engrossed with art, the movies, and writing. The product of an English art school in nearby Hull, he wrote his first, unsuccessful novel, a semi-autobiographical piece of “kitchen sink” realism called All the Way Home and All the Night Through, in 1965.

He soon moved sideways into movie animation, serving as clean-up supervisor on George Dunning’s Beatles feature Yellow Submarine (1968). However, now married with a couple of children, he decided to return to writing with an eye to crafting a commercial hit, and in 1970 he published a startling, ultra-hardboiled novel titled Jack’s Return Home.

British fiction had never produced anything quite like the book’s protagonist Jack Carter. He is the enforcer for a pair of London gangsters, Gerald and Les Fletcher, who bear more than a passing resemblance to the Krays. At the outset of the book, recounted in the first person, Carter travels by train to an unnamed city in the British midlands (modeled after the city of Scunthorpe near Lewis’ hometown) to bury his brother Frank, who has died in an alleged drunk driving accident.

Carter instantly susses that his brother was murdered, and he sets about sorting out a hierarchy of low-end midlands criminals (all of whom he knew in his early days as a budding hoodlum) responsible for the crime, investigating the act with a gun in his hand and a heart filled with hate. He’s no Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe bound by a moral code – in fact, he once bedded Frank’s wife, and is now sleeping with his boss Gerald’s spouse. He’s a sociopathic career criminal and professional killer – a “villain,” in the English term -- who will use any means at his disposal to secure his revenge.

Carter’s pursuit of rough justice for his brother, and for a despoiled niece, attracts the attention of the Fletchers, whose business relationships with the Northern mob are being disrupted by their lieutenant’s campaign of vengeance. As Carter leaves behind a trail of corpses and homes in on the last of his quarry, the hunter has become the hunted, and Jack’s Return Home climaxes with scenes of bloodletting worthy of a Jacobean tragedy, or of Grand Guignol.

Before its publication, Lewis’ grimy, violent book attracted the attention of Michael Klinger, who had produced Roman Polanski’s stunning ‘60s features Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac. Klinger acquired film rights to the novel before its publication in 1970, and sent a galley copy to Mike Hodges, then a U.K. TV director with no feature credits.

Hodges, who immediately signed on as director and screenwriter of Klinger’s feature – which was retitled Get Carter -- was not only drawn to the taut, fierce action, but also by the opportunity to peel away the veneer of propriety that still lingered in British society and culture. As he noted in his 2000 commentary for the U.S. DVD release of the film, “You cannot deny that [in England], like anywhere else, corruption is endemic.”

Casting was key to the potential box office prospects of the feature, and Klinger and Hodges’ masterstroke was securing Michael Caine to play Jack Carter. By 1970, Caine had become an international star, portraying spy novelist Len Deighton’s agent Harry Palmer in three pictures and garnering raves as the eponymous philanderer in Alfie.

Caine had himself known some hard cases in his London neighborhood; in his own DVD commentary, he says that his dead-eyed, terrifyingly reserved Carter was “an amalgam of people I grew up with – I’d known them all my life.” Hodges notes of Caine’s Carter, “There’s a ruthlessness about him, and I would have been foolish not to use it to the advantage of the film.”

Playing what he knew, Caine gave the performance of a lifetime – a study in steely cool, punctuated by sudden outbursts of unfettered fury. The actor summarizes his character on the DVD: “Here was a dastardly man coming as the savior of a lady’s honor. It’s the knight saving the damsel in distress, except this knight is not a very noble or gallant one. It’s the villain as hero.”

The supporting players were cast with equal skill. Ian Hendry, who was originally considered for the role of Carter, ultimately portrayed the hit man’s principal nemesis and target Eric Paice. Caine and Hendry’s first faceoff in the film, an economical conversation at a local racetrack, seethes with unfeigned tension and unease – Caine was wary of Hendry, whose deep alcoholism made the production a difficult one, while Hendry was jealous of the leading man’s greater success.

For Northern mob kingpin Cyril Kinnear, Hodges recruited John Osborne, then best known in Great Britain as the writer of the hugely successfully 1956 play Look Back in Anger, Laurence Olivier’s screen and stage triumph The Entertainer, and Tony Richardson’s period comedy Tom Jones, for which he won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Osborne, a skilled actor before he found fame as a writer, brings subdued, purring menace to the part.

Though her part was far smaller than those of such other supporting actresses as Geraldine Moffat, Rosemarie Dunham, and Dorothy White, Brit sex bomb Britt Ekland received third billing as Anna, Gerald Fletcher’s wife and Carter’s mistress. Her marquee prominence is somewhat justified by an eye-popping sequence in which she engages in a few minutes of steamy phone sex with Caine.

Some small roles were populated by real British villains. George Sewell, who plays the Fletchers’ minion Con McCarty, was a familiar of the Krays’ older brother Charlie, and introduced the elder mobster to Carry On comedy series actress Barbara Windsor, who subsequently married another member of the Kray firm. John Bindon, who appears briefly as the younger Fletcher sibling, was a hood and racketeer who later stood trial for murder; a notorious womanizer, he romanced Princess Margaret, whose clandestine relationship with Bindon later became a key plot turn in the 2008 Jason Strathan gangster vehicle The Bank Job.

Verisimilitude was everything for Hodges, who shot nearly all of the film on grimly realistic locations in Newcastle, the down-at-the-heel coal-mining town on England’s northeastern coast. The director vibrantly employs interiors of the city’s seedy pubs, rooming houses, nightclubs and betting parlors. In one inspired bit of local color, he uses an appearance by a local girl’s marching band, the Pelaw Hussars, to drolly enliven a scene in which a nude, shotgun-toting Carter backs down the Fletchers’ gunmen.

The film’s relentless action was perfectly framed by director of photography Wolfgang Suchitzky, whose experience as a cameraman for documentarian Paul Rotha is put to excellent use. Some sequences are masterfully shot with available light; the movie’s most brutal murder plays out at night by a car’s headlights. The breathtakingly staged final showdown between Carter and Paice is shot under lowering skies against the grey backdrop of a North Sea coal slag dump.

Tough, uncompromising, and utterly unprecedented in English cinema, Get Carter was a hit in the U.K. It fared poorly in the U.S., where its distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer dumped it on the market as the lower half of a double bill with the Frank Sinatra Western spoof Dirty Dingus Magee. In his DVD commentary, Caine notes that it was only after Ted Turner acquired MGM’s catalog and broadcast the film on his cable networks that the movie developed a cult audience in the States.

Get Carter has received two American remakes. The first, George Armitage’s oft-risible 1972 blaxploitation adaptation Hit Man, starred Bernie Casey as Carter’s African-American counterpart Tyrone Tackett. It is notable for a spectacularly undraped appearance by Pam Grier, whose character meets a hilarious demise that is somewhat spoiled by the picture’s amusing trailer. (Casey and Keenan Ivory Wayans later lampooned the film in the 1988 blaxploitation parody I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.)

Hodges’ film was drearily Americanized and relocated to Seattle in Stephen Kay’s like-titled 2000 Sylvester Stallone vehicle. It’s a sluggish, misbegotten venture, about which the less that is said the better. Michael Caine’s presence in the cast as villain Cliff Brumby (played in the original by Brian Mosley) only serves to remind viewers that they are watching a vastly inferior rendering of a classic.

Ted Lewis wrote seven more novels after Jack’s Return Home, and returned to Jack Carter for two prequels. The first of them, Jack Carter’s Law (1970), an almost equally intense installment in which Carter ferrets out a “grass” – an informer – in the Fletchers’ organization, is a deep passage through the London underworld of the ‘60s, full of warring gangsters and venal, dishonest coppers.

The final episode in the trilogy, Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon (1977), was a sad swan song for British noir’s most memorable bad man. In it, Carter travels to the Mediterranean island of Majorca on a Fletchers-funded “holiday,” only to discover that he has actually been dispatched to guard a jittery American mobster hiding out at the gang’s villa. It’s a flabby, obvious, and needlessly discursive book; Lewis’ exhaustion is apparent in his desperate re-use of a plot point central to the action of the first Carter novel.

Curiously, the locale and setup of Mafia Pigeon appear to be derived from Pulp, the 1975 film that reunited director Hodges and actor Caine. In it, the actor plays a writer of sleazy paperback thrillers who travels to the Mediterranean isle of Malta to pen the memoirs of Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), a Hollywood actor with gangland connections. Hilarity and mayhem ensue.

All of Lewis’ characters consume enough alcohol to put down an elephant, and Lewis himself succumbed to alcoholism in 1982, at the age of 42. Virtually unemployable, he had moved back home to Barton-upon-Humber, where lived with his parents.

He went out with a bang, however: In 1980, he published his final and finest book, the truly explosive mob thriller GBH (the British abbreviation for “grievous bodily harm”). The novel focuses on the last days of vice lord George Fowler, a sadist in the grand Krays manner, whose empire is being toppled by internal treachery. Using a unique time-shifting structure that darts back and forth between “the smoke” (London) and “the sea” (Fowler’s oceanside hideout), it reaches a finale of infernal, hallucinatory intensity.

After Lewis’ death, his work fell into obscurity, and his novels were unavailable in America for decades. Happily, Soho Press reissued the Carter trilogy in paperback in 2014 and republished GBH in hardback earlier this year. Now U.S. readers have the opportunity to read the books that influenced an entire school of English noir writers, including such Lewis disciples and venerators as Derek Raymond, David Peace, and Jake Arnott.

Echoes of GBH can be heard in The Long Good Friday, another esteemed English gangster film starring Bob Hoskins as the arrogant and impetuous chief of a collapsing London firm. Released the same year as Lewis’ last novel, the John Mackenzie-directed feature is only one of a succession of outstanding movies – The Limey, The Hit, Layer Cake, Sexy Beast, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels among them – that owe a debt to Get Carter, the daddy of them all.

[na-na-namine]

This took me an ungodly amount of time to write. It was originally going to be a much shorter one-shot, using an unfinished LWA fanfic I had saved, but I just kept adding to it. So it’s going to be a two chapter story now. Special thanks to my brother, @megamanofnumbers for the title!

This chapter is primarily from Amity’s POV. The second chapter will be from Luz’s.

Content warning: Contains blood and graphic descriptions of suffering.

If you want to read here on tumblr, keep reading below.

---

Unspoken: "She can be so stupid, which I love."

"It's Amity," Luz admitted to her friends, smiling sheepishly. "We're going out."

No one said anything as six pairs of stunned eyes were cast on Luz. Willow in particular looked ecstatic from the revelation, while Gus simply raised his hand. But before the illusionist could say anything, a flustered Amity spoke up first.

"We are!?"

"Huh?" Luz turned to Amity and spread her arms out. "Of course we are! We've, like, held hands and cuddled a bunch of times, right?"

Amity's jaw dropped. "Luz, you do that with literally everyone!"

"I do?"

"Yes! You do!"

Luz gave Amity a confused look. "Well, what about all the dates we've gone on, hmm?"

"Da- dates!? " Amity spluttered. "What, the book club? You never said they were dates!"

"Secret book club."

"Luz!"

"Oh, um..." Luz retracted her thoughts in a blur. "But if they weren't dates, what do you call it when you hang out with your girlfriend?"

"Girlfre- you never even confessed to me!"

"I... didn't?"

Amity continued to stare at Luz, utterly flabbergasted. Luz herself was uncharacteristically contemplative for a moment.

"...Oh!" Luz perked up in realization before dropping back down. "I guess I didn't."

"Luz..." Willow narrowed her eyes in disappointment.

Gus shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "Man, that's Luz for you."

Luz shrunk back a bit, anxiously fidgeting with her fingers. "Sooo... I'm guessing what happened on Grom Night wasn't some... unspoken thing?"

Amity sighed buried her face in her hands. She couldn't tell if her ears were burning from embarrassment or frustration. Maybe it was both.

'Unspoken thing?' I can't believe it.

Except Amity could believe it, and that was the worst part. All of that angst. All that worrying over whether Luz felt the same way or not, and it turned out that she did but chose not to say it.

"Amity, I'm so sorry," Luz frantically apologized. "But, um, does this mean we're... not girlfriends?" Luz's lips pursed into a pitiful frown.

Amity felt her frustration melting away, and confidence took its place. She couldn't help but marvel at how adorably stupid the human looked.

"I never said that you dummy." And with that, the witchling leaned in and kissed her silly. It might've not been the exact circumstance she was hoping for, but when Luz kissed her back, she found it hard to care about any of that.

---

Indulgence: "As long as it's a secret club."

Ideally, the library should've been completely barren after closing time, and yet two witches could be heard giggling away deep within Amity's secret hideaway, although ever since Luz came along, it slowly became one she shared with the human-now-turned-girlfriend. Just the thought was enough to send butterflies through Amity's belly.

"Foolish child!" Luz slid menacingly across the floorboards, her hands bent in snake-like motions. "I could swallow you whole!" Across from her was Amity, who was dramatically posed in a heroic stance.

"Do not underestimate me, Gildersnake, for I am the Good Witch Azura, warrior of peace!" The witchling smirked mischievously before raising a pillow over her head. "Now eat this, sucka!" She lunged forward and smushed the pillow on Luz's face, earning a yelp from the human.

"No! My only weakness - cuddles!" Luz sneered on the last word, swiftly wrapping her arms around Amity's waist.

"Wah! No fair, Luz!" Amity retorted bashfully, despite her widening smile. Luz matched it, briefly lifting her girlfriend with her weak nerd arms before falling onto some nearby bean bags. The two witches burst into a fit of laughter and cuddles, basking in their shared warmth and the feeling of comfort.

Minutes of laughter gave way to serenity as the two witches gazed blissfully at one another. A part of Amity felt silly from getting lost in those beautiful hazel-browns, but, thankfully, a much bigger part of herself relished in how happy and secure it made her feel. It was such a refreshing feeling from acting studious all the time. Her reputation and family name often required she keep up appearances, but with Luz, it was impossible to keep a straight face, figuratively and literally.

 "Amity..." Luz whispered in such a way that Amity felt her insides turn to mush.

If her heart sac could pound any harder, Amity swore Luz would hear it. Was it too soon to call this feeling love?

"...I love you."

Wait. Amity's heart skipped. What!? Her eyes widened as she gawked at the now panicking human.

"Ohmygosh, I'm so sorry! It just kinda slipped out and I didn't mean to-" Luz hid her face with her hands and turned away in embarrassment. "It's only been a couple of months, I shouldn't have said that someone please kill me..."

"Luz, it's okay!" Amity brought her face close to the human. "It's okay." Her hands gently pried away Luz's, and aside from how flushed her girlfriend was, she noticed in her eyes a glint of yearning that wasn't there before. The witchling bit her lip. She's so cute!

"I love you, too." Just saying those words lit a spark in her chest, and when Luz kissed her fiercely, that spark burst forth like a thousand fire glyphs.

The moment they part, all the human could utter was "Wow."

"Yeah. Wow."

Amity was certain from how those hazel-browns sparkled that Luz was feeling the same way.

---

Nightmares: "I'll be your fearless champion!"

Amity ran as fast she could, trying to ignore the sheer exhaustion wearing away at her body. By the time she had finally caught up, she could already taste blood in her mouth and the salt of her tears.

"Luz!"

Luz was standing before the portal to the human realm. Flinching from the sound her name, the human slowly turned around, sadness written over her face.

"Amity..."

Amity ran up and wrapped her arms around Luz in a tight hug. "Please don't leave. Stay here with me."

Luz stiffened, her fingers gripping the front of Amity's shirt. Her lips part, a soft intake of air, before meeting her girlfriend's eyes. "I can’t."

"Why? I don't want a life without you. I want you here." Amity begged desperately as she rested her forehead against Luz's. "Please, I need you."

Luz shakes her head. "I'm sorry."

"But-"

"You can move on, Amity. You have to.”

"I can't, Luz, I-"

In an instant, Luz faded through Amity's arms and into the portal, disappearing without a trace. The witchling reached out uselessly, crying out into the darkness.

"No, don’t go! Please! Don’t leave me here don’t leave me don’t-"

Amity wakes up drenched in sweat. She could barely make out the tattered roof of Luz's bedroom through her tears and the moonlight.

"Amity!"

She heard Luz call out her name beside her, browns filled with concern and worry. The human was snuggling close enough that Amity could hear her breathe. She felt the sting of her tears, her heart sac pounding, and remembered - Luz was still here.

"Luz," her voice trembled as she buried herself into her girlfriend's chest. "Luz!"

"Shh, it's okay," Luz soothed. She held Amity close and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm still here, it was just a nightmare."

"Don't go," Amity sobbed, clutching onto Luz's shirt as her tears soaked into it. "Don't leave me all alone."

"I won't. I'm your fearless champion, remember?" Luz kissed away Amity's tears, her voice filled with sincerity and warmth like always.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

---

Dying: "I'm sorry, Luz! I should have fought my own battle!"

It hurt to breathe. Luz figured she might have a broken rib or two. When she looked down, however, she noticed the front of her uniform was drenched in blood. And it was spreading.

Oh... that can't be good...

Although her mind was hazy, she could barely make out muffled sounds before her.

"...Lu...z...!"

She knew this voice.

Amity?

"Luz!" Amity cried out, crouched next to Luz.

Luz was dying, gasping weakly with her eyes squeezed shut from the excruciating pain. Amity had already cast a healing spell, but her inexperience with such magic was limiting its effect.

"Luz, I need you to stay with me. Say something!"

Luz's only response was a silent cry of agony. Amity took off her cloak and pressed it against the bleeding wound on Luz's abdomen. Luz's condition was worsening by the second, her pulse rapidly drumming beneath the witchling's palms.

She's bleeding so much. Why do humans have so much blood? If only I knew more healing spells!

"Ami... ty…" Luz huffed, her eyes barely opening. They were glazed with pain and fear. Amity felt hot tears spilling down her cheeks, desperate for the magic to heal quicker.

"Yes, Luz, I'm here!" Amity reassured. "You're going to be okay, I promise. Just focus on my voice. Focus on me, okay?"

"A... mi..." Luz struggled to speak again. Her pupils barely flickering with the shine Amity had spent ages getting lost in.

The healing magic isn't working. "I'm here, Luz." Keeping one hand pressed on her cloak, Amity reached down to cup Luz's cheek, shivering at how cold it felt. That terrified her. Luz was never cold, only warm and bright, and full of love. "I'm not going anywhere. You're going to be okay, just..." her voice trembled, panic seizing her with all the signs that Luz wasn't okay.

Luz opened her mouth but didn't have the strength to respond. Her pulse, no longer erratic, was slowing with every beat. 

"Just... don't leave me, okay?" Amity caressed Luz's cheek as her body became wracked with sobs. "I love you, Luz. Please don't leave me..."

She almost didn't notice Luz's faint tugging at her shirt.

"L-Luz?"

Amity glanced down to see Luz scribble something in the dirt. A glyph? It only took another second before she realized what it was. "The healing glyph!?"

Luz nodded weakly as her eyes closed.

Amity fumbled for Luz's torn up notepad that laid in arm's reach. The pen was nowhere to be seen, so she used faint fire magic to copy the glyph onto the paper, taking care not to burn up the notepad. She tore out the page as soon as it was done and pressed it against Luz's chest.

"Please work," she pleaded, silently praying to the Titan for strength. "Come back, Luz, please..."

For a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, incredible magic was surging through the glyph, as though it were responding to Amity's feelings, enveloping Luz's body with a powerful blue aura. The magic worked its course, stopping the bleeding and immediately healing the wound on her abdomen.

Amity was in awe at the miracle before her. She could feel Luz's warmth returning along with the quickening pulse of her once-fading heartbeats. "Luz...?" she begged quietly.

Luz gasped loudly, which was followed by rapid and shallower breaths as her body began replenishing what it needed to survive. She clutched onto Amity's arms as her breaths evened out, the pain slowly subsiding from her body. At last, her eyes opened to meet Amity's; hazel-browns meeting amber, shining brightly like they always have.

"L-Luz! Luz!" Amity cried out in relief, throwing herself over Luz and pulled her into a desperate, yet, comforting hug.

"Amity..." Luz's voice was unsteady yet reassuring. She returns the embrace, her arms clumsily wrapping themselves around the small of Amity's back.

Amity sobbed into Luz's shoulder, basking in her familiar warmth; the feeling of her chest rising and falling against her own;  all of those signs that Luz was still here and alive. Her Luz was alive, and she would not let her go until she was sure it stayed that way.

"Thank you, Amity. I love you."

Amity gasped, easing back enough to meet Luz's eyes. Despite her fatigue, the human gave her a smile that melted her heart, as though all was right in the world again, and the witchling couldn't stop herself from smiling back.

"You're such an idiot."

[acornbringer]

Just taking care of this foolish sucka' fool 🤜💀

High quality link: https://gfycat.com/magnificentreliablebushsqueaker

[letterboxd]

TIFF Premieres.

We reveal the highest-rated world premieres at Toronto, and unpack the Letterboxd reactions to the TIFF People’s Choice winner, Jojo Rabbit.

The ten highest-rated narrative feature films at TIFF this year were, in order: Parasite, Bacurau, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Marriage Story, The Lighthouse, Knives Out, Uncut Gems, Pain and Glory, Honey Boy and Jojo Rabbit.

Of those, only Knives Out and Jojo Rabbit had their world premieres at TIFF; the others have had the chance to climb the Letterboxd ranks over the past several months (with the exception of Marriage Story, which premiered at Venice, and Uncut Gems at Telluride).

But when we looked at the ten highest-rated narrative features based purely on TIFF world premiere status, that shook things up. We get some Midnight Madness, several local Canadian features, three women directors, and Riz Ahmed speaking both in English and American Sign Language. We made a list:

The top ten premieres at TIFF 2019 as ranked by the Letterboxd community.

Unpacking the People’s Choice winner

The Taika Waititi-directed Jojo Rabbit won TIFF’s coveted Grolsch People’s Choice award, a gong that often points directly to Oscar success, as outlined in this IndieWire explainer. The first runner-up was Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite claimed third spot.

We were at Jojo Rabbit’s world premiere screening, where the atmosphere was buoyant and the jokes landed just where Waititi intended (for most audience members, but we’ll get to that).

A still from Taika Waititi’s short film ‘Tama Tū’ (2005).

Considering Jojo Rabbit in the context of Waititi’s earlier films, it’s rewarding to see threads that run through his other work all tied together in this. War, and the ordinary people who get stuck in it, is a topic of fascination, from the silly humor juxtaposed against a tense waiting game in Tama Tū, his short about a small contingent of the 28th Māori Battalion fighting in Italy in World War Two, to the scene on the beach in Boy, where Boy, his brother and their wayward father Alamein play at “war” with sticks. (The name is no accident: El Alamein in Egypt was the site of the longest WWII campaign fought by New Zealand soldiers, including members of the Māori Battalion. It's telling that Alamein prefers to go by his Crazy Horses gang name, "Shogun".). Then there’s the epic finale of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which literally involves the New Zealand Army.

Te Aho Eketone-Whitu, James Rolleston and Taika Waititi in ‘Boy’ (2010).

Children in sticky situations—usually caused by adults—is another common thread, whether they’ve been left to fend for themselves outside a rural pub (watch that one here), or lifted from the city and fostered out to a remote farm, or sent to a Nazi Youth boot camp. These are horror scenarios, but by focusing on the worlds and friendships that children create for themselves in these circumstances, Waititi invites us to see how ridiculous grown-ups are; often more childish than the children they’re supposed to be parenting. That stupid Terminator argument between Ricky Baker and Paula the child welfare officer in Hunt for the Wilderpeople; the “foolish sucka!” scene in Eagle vs. Shark; the debate over whose turn it is to do the bloody dishes in What We Do in the Shadows.

A still from Taika Waititi’s short film ‘Two Cars, One Night’ (2003).

Colonialism and its consequences sit heavily beneath all of Waititi’s work, even Thor: Ragnarok, in its examination of the bloody history of Asgard, the events that precipitate a refugee crisis, and what it means to lose your land, and your people. Absent parents—and the effects of yearning for father figures in particular—are common themes, too. This is true even when a parent is present. Witness Alamein's plea in Boy: “Can you stop calling me ‘dad’? It sounds weird.” And the slow transformation of Sam Neill's "man alone" Wilderpeople character.

Waititi said at the Jojo Rabbit premiere that the film is a love letter to solo mothers. This applies off-screen as much as on: his mother introduced him to Christine Leunens’ book Caging Skies, upon which the film is based, and his wife, producer Chelsea Winstanley, who spent many years as a solo mother, provided inspiration for the imaginary friend storyline. Finally, Jojo Rabbit is also an ode to freedom, especially the freedom of one’s own mind in the face of inappropriate heroes and dangerous ideologies.

One thing the Letterboxd reviews out of TIFF agree on: the brilliant young actors (Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo, Archie Yates as his best friend Yorkie, and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie as Elsa). “One has to congratulate Waititi for his—once again—great casting. The child actors are a joy to watch,” writes Jesse, with Brock praising McKenzie in particular: “Thomasin McKenzie smashes it again, proving with this, and last year’s underseen masterpiece Leave No Trace, that she is one of the best young actresses working today.”

What’s more debatable, looking through the reviews, is Waititi’s command of the film’s tonal shifts. "This is stupid and smart at the same time and is made with a great big heart," writes Ella. “Some things happen that are so heartbreaking that it would be difficult to imagine how the film could go back into joke mode a mere two scenes later, but it does, and it works,” observes Justin. This was all a pleasant surprise to Matt, who writes: “I had no idea Waititi was capable of landing such diverse and effective tones while still keeping things (relatively) fun.”

“Taika’s skill is to masterfully weave humor, sweetness, the absurd and goofiness right alongside weightier issues and tragedy,” Jennifer elaborates. “He does it with such a deft hand that you might miss how incredibly talented he is. He is my modern day Frank Capra.”

Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Roman Griffin Davis in ‘Jojo Rabbit’.

However, not everyone was charmed by Waititi’s style. Keith Uhlich took issue with the way the director “prefers to treat his audience like drooling cretins who need their hands held through every shift in tone, reassured that everything, even in a world off its axis, is going to work out”.

“Anti-intellectual nonsense,” writes Jesse. “Waititi claimed to have made this film in order to remember the horrors of nazi Germany and WWII, instead it joins the ranks of narratives that [revise] history… belittling them from their ideology.”

This was concerning to Awilmc: “I was shocked to read a number of negative reviews that said it glossed over the details of WWII… I mean… it was a satire and told through the perspective of a child who clearly wasn’t aware or, at the very least, did not fully understand the circumstances of the devastation and evil around him… Jojo was after all in every single scene.” Adds Karsten, “If there was a film that truly felt like it needed to happen in 2019, it was Jojo Rabbit.”

At several points in the film, characters note that, within the horrendous circumstances of war, people "did what they could". The same is true of Waititi, from whom nobody expects a straight-up drama. In what other movie would "Shitler" be portrayed with a shabby German accent by a Jewish-Māori from the South Pacific?

‘Jojo Rabbit’ is currently sitting at 3.9 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd; higher than any other aggregated score for the film. It opens in US cinemas October 18 and over subsequent months around the globe.