#good news everyone you'll get a brand new story from me later in the year lmaoo

[limetameta]

i'll sign up for a big bang for fma, it'll just be this small time committment. i won't even sign up for the big bang piece i'll do the small one minimum 5k and be one and done lickety split, easy peasey, lemon squeazy, oki dokie artichokie. i'll get back to writing my regular stuff. i just need a palette cleanser.

cut to 35k later, head in hands: motherFUCKER

[jerzwriter]

Moving On

Hey, don't blame me!🙃Thank you to @dcbbw for sending me this angsty prompt from Grey's Anatomy for Ethan x MC. This is for @choicesprompts Rewrite Event.

For those who don't know, I have two Open Heart worlds, Ethan/Kaycee and Tobias/Casey. In the latter, Casey had a brief affair with Ethan during her intern year. But they never reunited after his "reset." Later, she begins dating Dr. Tobias Carrick, unaware that he was Ethan's former best friend. This fic takes place not long after Ethan learns of Casey & Tobias's budding relationship.

Book: Open Heart (Book 2)

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (past)

Based on: This scene from Grey's Anatomy

Rating: Teen + / Angst

Words: 1,100

Summary: When Ethan left for a WHO mission without saying a word to Casey, then returned with a "reset" in mind, he told her that he wanted her to move on. Now that she has, he's not taking it too well.

A/N: Before y'all complain - I asked everyone for scenes to recreate for Ethan, and no one sent fluffy ones, so here you are. lol This actually fits into my HC for my Tobias x Casey world. I did alter the original scene to better fit this story. There is one place where you'll see italic text. Those are lines that are directly from the Grey's clip. I hope I did it justice.

Edenbrook was one of the top hospitals in the world, located in the busy city of Boston, there was never a lack of chaos within its walls. Sometimes, that benefited those who worked there and practically called it home. Many an indiscretion could go undetected under such conditions, even with an extensive gossip grapevine in place. But sometimes, things were too big to ignore. And the way Dr. Ramsey was barreling down the hall right now was one of those things.

The broad-shouldered doctor stood at an impressive six-foot-three. Standing about a head above most of the people he plowed out of the way with a mere glance. While he wasn’t known for his affability, his behavior today was exaggerated, even for him. The muscles on his face were taught, and the fire in his eyes bordered on rage.   When an intern joked that you could see steam emitting from his ears... it was only a mild exaggeration.

All eyes followed him as he flung the heavy stairwell door open with such force it bounced off the cinderblock wall, the loud crash reverberating down the hall. Overcome with curiosity, many bystanders wished to follow him, though no one dared – until Dr. Casey MacTavish appeared.

With all attention on Ethan, no one noticed the young woman flying down the hallway, making good use of the path he just cleared. Casey was the antithesis of Ethan in many ways: pleasant, charming, approachable, forgiving, but right now, none of those traits were present. The indignance on her face and every movement she made matched his ire. So when she followed him through the door, even the most die-hard gossip knew it was best to stay away.

Ethan had already climbed a flight of stairs when she entered the stairwell.

“Ethan!” She hollered, rushing to catch up with him. “Who the hell do you think you are, and what makes you think you can speak to me like that?”

He was normally a logical man, and his visceral reaction was to continue; he knew that would be best. But the best decisions aren't made when one is blinded by anger, and he turned around so quickly, Casey nearly crashed into him.

“Who do I think I am?” He growled, attempting to keep his composure, even as the throbbing vein in his temple betrayed him. “I don't know, Casey, but I'll tell you what I’m not. I’m not getting caught doing god knows what in supply closets with a different person every other week. If I’m keeping count correctly, it was Dr. Carrick last week. Now, who was this one? They’re brand new here. I haven’t even had a chance to learn their name yet... did you? Or does the name even matter?”

He quickly turned, assuming he had the last word. But if he was ever foolish enough to doubt Casey’s will and determination before, she was about to ensure he wouldn’t make that mistake again. Forcefully grabbing the lapel of his lab coat, she pulled him back to face her.

“How dare you!” She spat. “You misjudged what you just walked in on just now... and I’d explain it to you if I felt I owed you an explanation, but I don't! And how dare you sit in judgment of me for something you’ve done countless times yourself! The stories about your old days are legendary, Ethan! And before you say they’re just stories, don’t gaslight me. I haven't forgotten that I occupied those very spaces with you not long ago. So save your hypocrisy and watch how you talk to me in the future!"

His lip twitched before curling into a sardonic smirk, the logical side of his mind losing to the emotional side he so rarely trusted.

“I used to think so highly of you... even before you arrived at Edenbrook and certainly after. But your decisions... your choices recently... they’ve made me question everything I thought I knew about you. At least have the sensibility to follow my advice and contain your... extracurricular activities... to someplace outside of the hospital. If you want to be treated as a doctor who commands respect, then start acting like one!"

“Respect?” she laughed, with a voice that expressed anything but humor. “You want to talk... respect? Did you respect me last year when you entrusted me to keep your secrets? Or when I solved Naveen’s case and saved his life? Did you respect me when you carried me into your bed? Or when you led me to believe... when you told me we’d make it work... only to take off to another continent without so much as a word to me! How respectful was that! You can't sit in judgment of me, Ethan; you just don't get to!"

His hand trembled as he ran it down his face, lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper. “How long, Casey? How long before it was over between us did you hop into bed with someone else? Even if I was wrong today, I wasn’t wrong about you and Carrick. You can’t explain that away.”

“What are you saying? You don’t get to insinuate that I’m a whore! Not after all you've done to me! When I met you, I thought I had found the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I was done! Other men? Other women? They meant nothing. I was done! But you left me! You took it upon yourself to decide our future without so much as a word to me. And now I’m glued back together. And I"ll make no apologies for how I chose to repair what you broke. I make no apologies for moving on with my life... like you told me to do! If you're angry, you might want to examine why. Are you angry with me for moving on? Of with yourself for being w stupid enough to let me go.”

Now, it was her turn to walk away. Her body trembled, and angry tears rose to her eyes as she raced down the stairs. Ethan was motionless, processing her words, knowing they were true. He got the outcome he said he desired, and now, he was berating her for having the strength to see it through. The only one who deserved his outrage would be looking back at him that evening when he looked in the mirror. A pit formed in his stomach, he knew he was wrong.

He could tell her... try to make amends. He could ask for forgiveness and tell her that seeing her move on with someone else wasn’t what he wanted at all. But he pushed that all aside. This was the path he put them on. The road he deemed to be best, and he had no right to be angry at Casey for trying to find happiness on it.

“Casey,” he yelled as she reached for the door. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I have no right to be upset, to be angry at you. We... we’ve been over, and you have every right to move on with your life.”

“And that’s what I’m doing,” she said as she turned the know. “And I think it’s time that you do the same.”  

@openheartfanfics @choicesficwriterscreations

Other tags on reblog.

[iabggsyk]

The prologue to my book Blood on Wattpad. A prequel to the bigger Numbered Series I'm doing. This is the longest chapter I've ever written on this phone and I think it turned out really good, I'm proud of myself. I also hyper fixated on this so it took me 2 days to do.

2129 AD/BCE, Samuel Genkins:

He could remember rather vividly the nights when he and his older brother Adrian played in the garden behind their house or the first day of kindergarten or how, only a month after the 5 year old Samuel started kindergarten, his mother gave birth to his younger brother Dylan.

He remembered the excitement they had when they found out that they were going to get another brother, how he would try to see if he could feel his baby brother moving and kicking in his mommy's tummy, how he and Adrian each took one of their father's hands as he took them to visit the brand new addition to their little family.

As Samuel leaned over the crib to get a better view he was met with the most adorable baby on the planet. His baby brother was giggling and waving his hands around happily and his bright blue eyes and chubby cheeks combined with his antics seemed to light up the room causing everyone to smile or laugh.

Samuel curiously put his hand down into the crib and felt surprised when Dylan latched onto one of his fingers with a happy gurgle (babies couldn't really speak he later learned after asking his mom why Dylan didn't say anything, well not any who were only a couple of days old like Dylan).

What's more was as this little innocent baby held his finger in his tiny little hand Samuel felt a wave of love wash over him and something else... he didn't know what it was exactly or even what the emotion was called but in that one moment Samuel suddenly felt the need to protect his baby brother from anything that would dare to try and hurt him, he made a promise to Dylan in his head that day, 'I won't let anyone harm you, you'll have the best life and will never know pain.' In that moment he wondered if this was the same feeling his parents and Adrian felt for him.

Too bad things turned out the way they did. He just wished that he could go back in time and warn his family about the events to come... things should have never happened the way they did.

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

March 22, 2134, Dylan Genkins:

There was this new virus that was spreading, Dylan was still too young to completely understand but it sounded very scary to him he looked to his family for comfort as they reassured him that it wasn't anywhere near where they lived in San Diego.

April 5, 2134

It was a Pandemic now, it was very deadly too killing 90% of the people who caught it and it was now in San Diego. School had just been cancelled. He was scared and he curled further into Adrian's side for comfort and was grateful when Adrian soothingly ran his hands through his hair.

Samuel was also, somewhat, curled up next to Adrian's other side. Dylan said somewhat because Samuel was close enough to their older brother to feel comforted, but not close enough where it would be too obvious that he was scared because, if you asked him, he wasn't scared of anything and those who were were babies.

June 9, 2134

Adrian was the first to catch the deadly virus. It was a week ago and since then he had been violently convulsing, throwing up blood, sweating, constantly tired and running a fever of 101 which concerned their parents greatly causing, in turn, Samuel and Dylan to worry.

Dylan spent most of his days trying to be near Adrian which had been a fruitless endeavor seeing as their parents and Adrian himself didn't want them to see him for fear of one of them catching it. As the nights came he would seek comfort from Samuel seeing as his parents were busy tending to Adrian and tried to be brave.

Sometimes Samuel would even tell him bedtime stories or play with him which would always cheer the 5 year old up. Today Samuel was reading Dylan's favorite bedtime story, a rather old book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Dylan interrupted him to ask a couple of questions.

"Sammy... We'll always be together right? You'll always love me right?" He asked afraid that this pandemic might end up causing them to not talk to each other as often.

"Of course I will, why do you ask?" Samuel questioned.

Dylan looked down at his tiny hands before responding, "What happens if when we grow older we stop talking to each other because we're mad at each other or what if it gets so bad that we can't talk to each other? Will you still love me then?"

Dylan looked sad and worried and it hurt Samuel to see his brother this upset. So he thought to cheer him up by telling the truth. "Dylan, there's this really important thing that I want you to know. Do you know what unconditional love is Dylan?"

Dylan shook his head and replied with a meek "No".

"Well," Samuel started again, "unconditional love is when you love someone no matter what... And we're family- brothers and that means I'm always going to be there for you and love you and care about you no matter the distance or the argument or how annoying you can be sometimes-"

"HEY!" Dylan exclaimed puffing up his cheeks in a pretending to be hurt way.

"Anyways, no matter what happens or doesn't happen in the future I'll always love you and have your back because I'm your big brother and that's what big brothers are supposed to do. And if you ever need me to comfort or protect you I'll only be a call away okay, because I love you."

"Really?" Dylan chirped happily.

"Really. Now do you have any more questions for me?" Samuel asked with a warm smile on his face.

"Well yes actually, just one more. Do you think Adrian will be alright?"

Samuel stayed silent for a brief minute, reassuringly patting Dylan's head before speaking. "He'll be fine, and once he recovers we'll all be able to play together again and Mom and Dad won't have to worry as much."

"Thanks Sammy, I really love you." Dylan said tiredly snuggling onto Samuel's side (it really wasn't that fair, it was late at night and Sammy was giving him head pats how was he supposed to stay awake). Samuel kissed his brother's forehead and whispered goodnight.

What Dylan didn't know was that for the last question, when asked by Dylan whether he thought Adrian would be alright, Samuel lied to Dylan for the first time in his life. The first out of many times.

And it wasn't like he wanted Adrian to die, no, nobody wants a family member, especially their big brother to die and certainly nobody wants to witness as their older brother slowly loses his own battle however Samuel couldn't just ignore the fact that Adrian, to put it lightly, wasn't doing so good. He, unlike his little brother had seen so himself.

Yesterday when their Mom had fallen asleep due to exhaustion and their father was making food for Dylan and him he had snuck into Adrian's room to check on him to only find him worryingly pale, sweating buckets, looking like he lost 20lbs and in an uneasy sleep breathing rapid shallow breaths. He furrowed his brow in worry before quietly shutting the door.

It was better to lie to Dylan. He didn't need to know the severity of it... not yet anyways. And there was still a small chance that Adrian would pull through.

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

June 23, 2134, Adrian Genkins:

Adrian knew his time was up, that it was his last day. But instead of being miserable or in denial or angry at the world he felt a strange wave of calmness wash over him. He knew what he needed to do.

He struggled to get out of bed every nerve cell in his body was screaming in protest as if he were on fire but he had a mission. He had to say goodbye to everyone one last time, before his time was up.

He struggled in agony to reach the door semi collapsing - semi leaning on the handle as he struggled to catch his breath, his heart racing way more than it really should be for such a simple thing as walking to the door.

He opened the door and continued walking down the stairs internally screaming in pain and out of breath. He finally made it to the back door that led to the garden and opened it. Reyna stood in the garden as the wind blew around her making her wavy black hair get in her face. She had tan skin and lively Shamrock green eyes. She was beautiful.

Her parents had moved from Spain to the United States just a short few years before she was born. Currently, Reyna was living with them since last week when they found out that her whole family had been wiped out due to the Virus and she'd been the only survivor.

His parents had allowed it since they'd known her and her family ever since Adrian had asked to go to her birthday party in first grade. And they were a couple since 8th grade, however it wasn't really hard for the pair's family to figure out that since they were always side by side beforehand and neither of them were good at hiding the fact that they were in love with each other, they were highschool sweethearts.

"You still working on your newfound abilities?" He rasped unused to speaking with a smile on his face. She somehow always managed to light up his day.

"What are you doing up!? You should be in bed!?" She said rushing over to him with worry.

The wind picked up ever so slightly.

"I wanted to say goodbye. Honey I'm dying." He rasped out, his voice cracking on the last part. He rubbed circles into her arm with his thumb to try and lessen the blow.

"What! No! You can't be! What about me! What about your family! You're supposed to be getting better, why would you say something like that!" Reyna shrieked panicked, the wind becoming furious now.

"I'm only getting worse my flower... I wish I could stay with you and my family but I can't... Thank you for being the best girlfriend in the world." He was crying now... he could feel it.

"No! You- you can stay, you should stay, you can't just leave us alone. Please." She begged, the wind was howling and raging now.

"Please don't leave me-" Reyna was cut off as Adrian pulled her close and pressed her lips to his in a kiss.

The wind calmed down to a gentle breeze.

He drew back before answering, his rasp getting worse by the second. "I wish I could stay, I really do but I can't... and I just want to let you know that I love you and when I do die I want you to take care of my family for me... especially my brothers... I also want you to love again... make new friends and maybe, just maybe, find a new person who you can spend the rest of your life with... I don't want my death to hold you down from enjoying your life... it would be be unfair of me... and lastly, here take this so you can remember me." He handed her a necklace.

"I don't want anyone else but you... will you at least celebrate your birthday with me?"

His birthday was tomorrow. He would be turning 16.

He didn't answer her. He just pulled her in and kissed her on her forehead briefly before whispering "I love you my flower". She understood him.

"Can you at least stay with me... at least for a little while?" Reyna dared to whisper.

"Yes... yes I can."

They laid down in the garden and he held her in a attempt to at least comfort her.

Later that night...

He snuck into Samuel's room his nerves still on fire only to discover Samuel reading a bedtime story to Dylan. He smiled. "Do you have time to chat?" He asked.

It hurt to talk now.

"Adrian!" Dylan exclaimed happily.

"Yes" Sam said closing the book he was reading to Dylan.

They talked for awhile, Sam and Dylan caught him up on what they had been doing and he told stories. Eventually Adrian asked if Dylan could go get his favorite stuffed bunny seeing as it looked like he would be sleeping with Samuel tonight which was really just an excuse to talk to Sam in private.

Sam turned to Adrian. "What do you want?" He asked knowing that it was something more than just Dylan fetching a stuffed animal, in fact, normally Adrian would have gotten Dylan's stuff animal himself.

"Take good care of yourself and Dylan."

His eyes widened in shock and Adrian saw grief flash on his face before it was gone. 'Still so stubborn' he thought right before Sam responded with a simple (though Adrian still heard the crack in his voice) "Yeah... will do...".

"I Got It! I Got It!" Dylan yelled happy that he had retrieved his worn and well-loved Bunny (Mr. Hopper) that had been Samuel's before Dylan's, Adrian's before that, their father's before that and their grandfather's before that.

Adrian tucked them both in for bed, wishing them each a goodnight before kissing their cheeks, and made sure to tuck Mr. Hopper in too next to Dylan before climbing the stairs to his room. He really wished that he was able to tell his parents goodbye but he simply didn't have the energy to. Everything still hurt, tenfold now, and Adrian had coughed up blood just trying to make it up the stairs.

As he laid in his bed he sighed knowing that the second he fell asleep he wouldn't wake up. He just wished he could be there for them all still. He was the glue that held the family together and he knew how much of a blow it would be for him to die. He just hoped that they would be alright without him. He was sorry that he was giving up on life but it was too much. His heart and immune system just couldn't keep going.

He breathed in and out his breaths getting slower by each second until after thirty minutes he took his last breath, closed his eyes and drifted off into the eternal sleep.

At 11:31 p.m., June 23, 2134, Adrian Genkins died. He did not reach his 16th birthday.

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

7:00 a.m. June 24, 2134 Eric Genkins:

It was Adrian's birthday today and Eric wanted to surprise his eldest son by making him his favorite breakfast. He got up early so that his wife could get some rest since he had noticed she was rather tired lately. Eric checked on his younger two kids and his heart internally melted at the sight of them curled up together sleeping with the family stuffie Mr. Hopper.

He then made his way down to the kitchen and started to cook bacon and eggs. Once he was done he put them on a plate and carried them up to Adrian's room. Quietly he opened the door and tried to shake his son awake.

Adrian didn't budge... no he didn't have a pulse. Eric panicked and tried to see if his son's chest was rising and falling, it wasn't. He started to hyperventilate making choked noises as he fell to the floor on his knees. Long before that, he didn't remember exactly when it happened, he dropped the plate and it shattered spilling the food all over the floor.

'My son... my sweet precious baby boy... he's dead... gone.'

Eric let out a bloodcurdling scream, a gutteral from deep within, one that can only be made by a parent who lost their child.

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

7:31 a.m. June 24, 2134 Mabel Genkins:

Mabel woke up to the sound of the horror movie scream-wail from her husband.

2700 words.

[gingermintpepper]

After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

[plasticnightmaredoll]

Mortal Kombat (2021) Review

Well, well, well....here we are, a Mortal Kombat movie -- not the first, obviously. I will say, it's much better than both films from the 1990s. I will also say that, for the most part, I enjoyed it more than "Mortal Kombat 11" and its garbage DLC "Aftermath."

Come for me all you want, but I am standing by my thoughts on that game and its DLC.

Overall, I did like this new "Mortal Kombat" movie. It was entertaining. However, I have...a lot of issues with it, too, pertaining to lore, acting, and special effects.

What was the best part of this movie? If I had to pick one? Oh, definitely Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion. He is one of the best Japanese actors working today. He's one of the best actors working today. Having him play such an important character was probably the best choice the producers made.

Also, quick side note: Hiroyuki is 60 years old. HOW?! I mean, he doesn't look 20, but 60? I have my doubts.

Also, this is the first time I've heard him speak English. Interesting.

Another wise decision the producers made for this movie is casting Josh Lawson as Kano. I don't like Kano. He's a dick, but Josh gave the idiot a sort of douchebag charm that you couldn't help but be amused by.

So, what did I like, broken down:

Josh Lawson and Hiroyuki Sanada

The opening scene and final fight were the best scenes in the movie. Fantastically done, both of them.

Some cute little references to MK lore: a picture of Nightwolf, the use of "flawless victory," the use of "fatality," some suspiciously MK-sounding music cues, the massive statue of Shao Kahn...There were some nice fan service moments.

The fights, even the training ones, were all entertaining. Kind of like with "Godzilla vs Kong," the action is one of the strongest points of "Mortal Kombat" (2021).

The concept of the dragon brand to indicate who would fight in MK tournaments was actually a great choice. It does give the writers an excuse to not worry about including EVERY MK character; only the ones who have been "chosen" can fight at this time. It makes sense, it works, it's intriguing.

Kung Lao slicing Nitara in half (Sorry, Nitara -- love ya, Girl!) with his "spinning hat" technique was probably the most Mortal Kombat kill of the movie. It was extremely graphic, bloody, gross, over-the-top...it was perfect.

Hanzo toasting Bi-Han with his classic fire breath was a badass move if I ever saw one.

I did like how Mileena's mouth "worked" in this movie. She had sharp teeth and reddened skin(?) around her mouth to indicate that there was something not quite right with her face. Then she gets pissed later in the movie and opens her jaw completely, revealing an almost snake-like mouth, the skin tearing in the process. It was pretty badass. I liked it.

I actually liked Raiden a lot in this movie. I don't particularly like him in the games (don't come for me -- it's just my opinion) but I thought he was awesome in this movie, a truly intimidating but wise presence. His lack of full assistance made more sense in this movie, too (again, don't come for me because this is just my opinion).

The special effects were sometimes quite good. Sub-Zero's ice powers were well made, for example. Another example is Goro, who was fantastic (so much better than he did in the 1995 movie).

The backstory behind the main weapon of Hanzo was a pleasant surprise: it was a gardening tool to being with, and he just so happened to find it and turn it into a weapon.

Mixed thoughts:

The acting was decent overall. The only two I thought did great were Josh Lawson and Hiroyuki Sanada, but everyone else was ok. Some of the performances got a little hammy at times, but...I'm not going to take too many points off for that.

I liked Mileena but also was disappointed. She wasn't as malicious and flirty as she normally is; like she was watered down in this movie for some reason. However, she still was a dangerous fighter and her mouth was crazy! 👄

What I didn't like:

Some things didn't look so great. When Jax lost his arms, it looked...well it looked like blatant CGI. The lighting barrier Raiden created to protect his fighters from Shang Tsung looked pretty cheap as well. Some set pieces looked a bit too much like set pieces. I know we're on a set because this is a movie. However, when it looks kind of obvious, it really distracts you. I know this is a Marvel movie or something, but I think the special effects and sets could have looked a bit more refined.

I preferred the Quan Chi twist in regards to the death of Hanzo's family. It provided a much more complicated revenge story, and...I just think it was a better choice than making Bi-Han the murderer, like in this movie. I get that if they did use the Quan Chi twist, this movie would have become, like, 5 hours long or something, and would have had yet another character to develop (or attempt to develop). Still, it's not my favorite take on the Sub-Zero vs Scorpion story. So...meh.

Reptile looked impressive. He was more like a ... reptile than usual, you know, as opposed to a humanoid reptile creature. However, he didn't speak and didn't wear any armor, and his role in the movie seemed forced. It felt more like a badly executed fan service moment, like, "Heeeyyyy, it's Reptile, Guys! Ok, kill him because we have too many characters already...."

Cole was a likable guy, but I didn't see a point in his character being in the movie. He isn't an MK character from the games, and this just doesn't seem like the time to make a new character for the franchise. There are so many more MK characters to choose from, I think they could have avoided making up someone.

At the same time, though, this movie does suffer from having too many characters to focus on: Cole Young, Kano, Sonya Blade, Jax Briggs, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Reptile, Mileena, Reiko, Kabal, Shang Tsung, Raiden, Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion, Bi-Han/Sub-Zero, Goro, Nitara...I mean, damn, that's a bunch of characters to cram into one two-hour film. People who know little to nothing about MK may not be bothered by this, but fans like myself most likely will feel disappointed with how certain characters were handled in the movie.

Reiko, what...did they do to you? Did...he even need to be in the movie? I mean, he was just.....there.

Having the concept of "arcana" was just...I don't know. It wasn't a terrible idea but it also made things even less believable. No one got their unique traits due to some sort of weird-ass prophecy or whatever in the games. I suppose the writers used this "arcana" thing as a way to keep the movie flowing and avoid having it be hours long. However, it just didn't sit right with me.

I know this movie is only two hours but I would have liked a little more development for Mileena, Reiko, and even Kabal. Kabal gave us the short version of what happened to him but, again, it was so quick. Like, blink and you'll miss it. I think Mileena and Kabal are two very interesting characters in MK, and having them be so one-dimensional was disappointing.

Hanzo was barely in this movie. It seemed....weird to me. Bi-Han was out there wrecking everyone's shit and Hanzo was somehow trapped in the Netherrealm until Cole was forced to fight Bi-Han one-on-one? I mean, eh? They chose the absolute best actor to play Hanzo but didn't use him much.

I was so disappointed to see Kung Lao killed off. I mean, characters that die in MK games don't always stay dead but still....he was so much fun in this movie (as he should be).

I didn't care for the portrayal of Nitara at all in this movie.

I didn't hate "Mortal Kombat" (2021), but I didn't love it, either. I'd watch it again, and I would watch a sequel, but there is definitely room for improvement. There is a lot of potential for the next MK movie(s) to be much better (this movie had clear potential, too, to be honest). I just hope that maybe the writers will realize this if a sequel is made.

Final grade: C+

[ye4gerismarchives]

an: i really do feel bad for not being able to reach requests before xmas. so please have a chapter from my brand new leopika story.

warning: n/a

Swardini City, Swardini

September 2001

Kurapika stepped off the bus feeling like a completely new person. Maybe that was a little cliché but that's how he felt. Even though he carried his Kurta heritage in his heart and would always be welcomed back to the clan, Kurapika felt like he was letting go of it. He didn't see anyone wearing any kind of cultural attire here.

It was funny to him though. Swardini City was supposed to be one of the most diverse areas in the world. Kurapika expected people to be singing and dancing or something! All there was were people cussing other people, women in suits on the phone, and nosy tourists. The Kurta shook his head. Maybe he'd find more diversity and embrace his own culture once he lived here a bit. Right now, his focus was on surviving the city.

The twenty-year-old had applied for a daycare job in Swardini City. When he told the clan about his desire to leave, they questioned his career choices and how he was going to live. At first, Kurapika had no idea. But he remembered that a lot of people trusted him with their kids. "I'll be a caretaker," he blurted. The elder, his parents, and a few clansmen thought amongst themselves and agreed. They put together some money for him because they knew Kurapika needed a place to stay. As they did that, Kurapika started searching for jobs. After weeks of exploring online, he finally found Swardini City Angels. It had good reviews and from the photos, it seemed like a good environment. Kurapika immediately applied. He did an interview and met the owner, Melody. She was a short woman, with gray like skin and her hair was silver. Her face looked young and happy. They clicked instantly. Melody gave him the job on the spot and asked him to come for a tour later on just to make sure he still wanted to job.

Kurapika was here now for his interview. The daycare looked sad on the outside but once you walked in, it exploded with color. The Kurta was greeted by Gel, the long, darker-toned woman who handled the front desk. "You're here for the tour right?" she asks kindly. Kurapika nods yes. "Alright, let me get your tour guide." Gel gets up from her seat at the desk and goes down a hallway. Three minutes later she comes back with this long, tan, and incredibly handsome man. Kurapika gasps quietly. He quickly closes his small mouth when the handsome man stops in front of him.

"Hey, I'm Leorio. I'm an infant teacher. I'm also going to show you around," he says cheerfully. Leorio puts out a hand for Kurapika to shake. Instead of shaking it, Kurapika just holds it. Leorio smiles awkwardly at the smaller boy and finally forces his hand out of his grip. "Let me show you around. It shouldn't be too long." Leorio's cheerful tone remains. Kurapika nods, still mesmerized by this man. Leorio gives him one awkward look before turning on his foot. The look managed to get Kurapika out of his daze. He tried not to show it but inside he was freaking out. Control yourself, Kurapika, he thought to himself.

"So, here's the lounge. It isn't too big because most of the teachers eat with their kids. There aren't a lot of infant teachers, so the few of us hang out in here," Leorio starts. He's pointing to the first door of the hallway they had just entered. Leorio turns to the left and goes down another hallway. "This hallway has the preschool classes. There are only three. We won't go to all of them but we'll look at your future class," Leorio explains. He flashes Kurapika a smile. Kurapika smiles back, unsure of what to say. Leorio goes down the hallway and knocks on the door right of the hallway. Within a few seconds, the door is opened. "Baise, how are you?"

Baise was the teaching assistant of Kurapika's future (or possible) class. She had always worn shoes that would boost her height. The woman had magenta-colored hair that was tied back. "I'm fine, Leorio. I assume this is the future teacher?" Leorio nods. Kurapika nods with him. "I'm Kurapika. It's nice to meet you," he says simply. Baise lets out a little 'mhm' before moving out of the way so the two could enter.

The minute Kurapika stepped into the classroom, he was met with "oooh"'s from multiple children sitting on one big carpet. His face reddened slightly. "Oh, you just be Kurapika!" Kurapika turned his attention to a heavily pregnant woman sitting in front of the children. She had shoulder-length hair and wore a pink sundress. She attempted to get up but Leorio started to freak out. "Oh no! Pyon sit down. You're pregnant, please!" She rolled her eyes at his comment and sighed. "I would introduce myself but Leorio's big mouth covered that for us, huh?" She laughed as Leorio muttered a sorry. Pyon turns to her class. "Hey, kids. This is Mr. Kurapika. He most likely going to be your new teacher," she says. The kids gasp and whisper small things like "really?" and "huh?". "Unfortunately, I have to stop working for a bit because of my baby. Mr. Kurapika, will be taking over for me. But I promise to come visit," Pyon continues. She looks back at Kurapika, "Why don't you introduce yourself?" Kurapika hesitated for a moment. He was probably going to stay with these kids for a while, it'd be best.

"I'm Kurapika-."

"We know!" one kid exclaimed.

The Kurta was taken aback by the comment but he laughed it off. "You're right," he says, "I'm from the Luskos Province. I loved there for all 20 years of my life and I'm so excited to start living here and to get to know everyone here." Kurapika decided to leave it at that. He didn't want to bring up anything about Kurta Clan. There was an awkward silence. Pyon clasped her hands, ending it. "Thank you, Mr. Kurapika. I'm sure the kids can't wait to work with you either. It's probably best for you to finish your tour." Kurapika nods and looks back at Leorio, who was opening the door. He turns back to the class and flashes a kind smile. "Thank you for having me here today. There's a good chance I'll see you again." Maybe Kurapika would take the job. Everyone keeps referring to him as the "future teacher". He couldn't let those kids down.

Leorio and Kurapika said their goodbyes to Baise and were soon standing outside of the classroom. "They seem nice," Kurapika soon says. Leorio lets out a chuckle before responding, "Yeah, they're so sweet and adorable." The taller boy starts walking out of the hallway and goes down the one they were originally in. He stops at these three doors. Two of them were across from each other and one was in front of him. "I work in these two rooms," Leorio says, pointing to the rooms across from each other. "If you need anything, I'll most likely be in these two rooms." Kurapika took a peek in the room on his left. Seven toddler-babies were playing on a carpet. He lets out an "awe". Leorio grins proudly as if they were his own kids. "Yeah, they're awesome!"

"They must be since their caretaker is so so sweet," Kurapika said in a sing-song voice. Leorio winks at him before placing his palm in the back door- the only door he didn't go over. "This leads to the playground. You'll get a schedule and you'll know when to take them." Leorio flashes another mesmerizing smile at Kurapika. Kurapika attempts to smile back but he can't stop thinking about how attractive Leorio is. The two don't say anything for a while. "Should I walk you out?" Leorio asks. The smile remains on his face, however, it's awkward again. Kurapika nods for like the hundredth time. "Yes please."

The walk up the hallway was silent. Why are you so weird? You see one hit guy and - ugh! The Kurta thought to himself. Gel wasn't at the front desk anymore, leaving Leorio and Kurapika in the lobby. Kurapika walks towards the entrance of the building, but he's forgetting something.

He turns around and looks at Leorio. "I'll see you in a week. I'm taking the job."

[lokirupaul]

Lokiru Paul : Jason Sudeikis Is Having One Hell of a Year

Jason Sudeikis Is Having One Hell of a Year

He got famous playing a certain kind of funny guy on SNL, but when Jason Sudeikis invented Ted Lasso, the sensitive soccer coach with the earnest mustache, the actor found a different gear—and a surprise hit. Now, ahead of the show’s second season, Sudeikis discusses his wild ride of a year and how he’s learning to pay closer attention to what the universe is telling him.

BY ZACH BARON, GQ

PHOTOGRAPHY BY HILL & AUBREY

July 13, 2021

Shirt, $188, and tie (worn at waist), $125, by Polo Ralph Lauren. Pants, $255, by Aimé Leon Dore. Watch, $10,200, by Cartier.

On the day that he wrapped shooting on the second season of Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis sat in his trailer in West London and drank a beer and exhaled a little, and then he went to the pitch they film on for the show—Nelson Road Stadium, the characters call it—for one last game of football with his cast and crew. There's this thing called the crossbar challenge, which figures briefly in a midseason Ted Lasso episode: You kick a ball and try to hit not the goal but the crossbar above the goal, which is only four or five inches from top to bottom. And so Sudeikis arrived and, because he can't help himself, started trying to hit the crossbar.



Jason Sudeikis covers the August 2021 issue of GQ. To get a copy, subscribe to GQ.

 Shirt, $228, by Todd Snyder. Shorts, $480, by Bode. Sneakers, his own. Socks, stylist’s own. Watch, $6,300, by Cartier.

Confidence is a funny thing. Sudeikis has been riffing on it, in one way or another, for his whole professional life—particularly the comedy of unearned confidence, which he is well suited, physically, to convey. Sudeikis is acutely aware of “the vessel that my soul is currently, you know, occupying”—six feet one, good hair, strong jaw. He's a former college point guard. On Saturday Night Live, where most of us saw him for the first time, he had a specialty in playing jocular blowhards and loud, self-impressed white men, a specialty he took to Hollywood, in films like Horrible Bosses and Sleeping With Other People. He became so adept at playing those types of characters, Sudeikis said, that at some point he realized he'd have to make an effort to do something different. “It's up to me to not just play an a-hole in every movie,” he said. In conversation he is digressive, occasionally melancholy, prone to long anecdotes and sometimes even actual parables—closer, in other words, to Ted Lasso, the gentle, philosophical football coach he co-created, than any of the preening jerks he used to be known for. But he can definitely kick a soccer ball pretty good.

So he's up there trying to hit the crossbar, and he's got a crowd of actors and crew members gathering around him now, betting on whether he can hit it. And he's getting the ball in the air, mostly, but not quite on the four-to-five-inch strip of metal he needs to hit, and the stakes are escalating (“I bet he can get it in three.” “I bet he can get it in five”), and after he misses the first five tries, Toheeb Jimoh, the actor who plays Sam Obisanya on the show, says, “I think he can get it in 10.” Then Sudeikis proceeds to miss the next four attempts. But, he told me later, “there was no part of me that was like, ‘I'm not gonna hit one of these. I'm not not gonna hit one of these.’ ”

Like I said, confidence is a funny thing. You have to somehow believe that the worst outcome simply won't happen. Sometimes you have to do that while knowing for a fact that the worst outcome is happening, all the time. “It's a very interesting space to live in, where you're living in the questions and the universe is slipping you answers,” Sudeikis said. “And are you—are any of us—open enough, able enough, curious enough to hear them when they arrive?” This sounds oblique, I guess, but I can attest, after spending some time talking to Sudeikis, that everything is a little oblique for him right now. He had the same pandemic year we all had, and in the middle of that, he had Ted Lasso turn into a massive, unexpected hit, and in the middle of that, his split from his partner and the mother of his two children, Olivia Wilde, became public in a way that from a great distance seemed not entirely dissimilar to something that happens to the character he plays on the show that everyone was suddenly watching. “Personal stuff, professional stuff, I mean, it's all…that Venn diagram for me is very”—here he held up two hands to form one circle—“you know?”

Shirt, $195, by Sid Mashburn. T-shirt, $195, by Ralph Lauren. Vintage pants from The Vintage Showroom. Belt, $2,500, by The Row. His own sneakers by Nike x Tom Sachs. Socks, $18 for three pairs, by Nike. Pendant necklaces, $2,100 (tag), and $3,000 (bar), by Tiffany & Co. Jacket (on bench), $498, by Todd Snyder.

Anyway, Sudeikis hit the crossbar on the 10th try. “It's a tremendous sound,” he said of that moment when the ball connects with the frame of the goal. He'd done what he knew he would do. Everyone on the pitch was cheering like they'd won something. It was, for lack of a better way of describing it, a very Ted Lasso moment—a small victory, a crooked poster in a locker room that says Believe. “There's a great Michael J. Fox quote,” Sudeikis told me later, trying to explain the particular brand of wary optimism that he carries around with him, and that he ended up making a show about: “ ‘Don't assume the worst thing's going to happen, because on the off chance it does, you'll have lived through it twice.’ So…why not do the inverse?”

Watch Now:

10 Things Jason Sudeikis Can’t Live Without

Ted Lasso. Man—what an unlikely story. The character was initially dreamed up to serve a very different purpose. Sudeikis first played him in 2013, in a promo for NBC, which had recently acquired the television rights to the Premier League and was trying to inspire American interest in English football. The promo was the length and shape of an SNL sketch and featured a straightforward conceit: A hayseed football (our football) coach is hired as the football (their football) coach of a beloved English club, to teach a game he neither knows nor understands in a place he neither knows nor understands. The joke was simple and boiled down to the central fact that Ted Lasso was an amiable buffoon in short shorts.

But Sudeikis tries to listen to the universe, even in unlikely circumstances, and for whatever reason the character stuck around in his head. So, in time, Sudeikis developed and pitched a series with the same setup—Ted, in England, far from his family, a stranger in a strange land learning a strange game—that Apple eventually bought. But when we next saw Ted Lasso, he had changed. He wasn't loud or obnoxious anymore; he was simply…human. He was a man in the midst of a divorce who missed his son in America. The new version of Ted Lasso was still funny, but now in an earned kind of way, where the jokes he told and the jokes made at his expense spoke to the quality of the man. He had become an encourager, someone who thrills to the talents and dreams of others. He was still ignorant at times, but now he was curious too.

In fact, this is close to something Ted says, by way of Walt Whitman, in one of the first season's most memorable episodes: Be curious, not judgmental. I will confess I get a little emotional every time I watch the scene in which he says this, which uses a game of darts in a pub as an excuse to both stage a philosophical discussion about how to treat other people and to re-create the climactic moment of every sports movie you've ever seen. It's a somewhat strange experience, being moved to tears by a guy with a bushy cartoon mustache and an arsenal of capital-J jokes (“You beating yourself up is like Woody Allen playing the clarinet: I don't want to hear it”), talking about humanity and how we all might get better at it. But that's kind of what the experience of watching the show is. It's about something that almost nothing is about, which is: decency.

In the pilot episode, someone asks Ted if he believes in ghosts, and he says he does, “But more importantly, I think they need to believe in themselves.” That folksy, relentless positivity defines the character and is perhaps one of the reasons Ted Lasso resonated with so many people over the past year. It was late summer, it was fall, it was in the teeth of widespread quarantine and stay-at-home orders. People were inside watching stuff. Here was a guy who confronted hardship, who suffered heartbreak, who couldn't go home. And who, somehow, found his way through all that. Someone not unlike Sudeikis himself.

“If you have the opportunity to hit a rock bottom, however you define that, you can become 412 bones or you can land like an Avenger. I personally have chosen to land like an Avenger.”

Sudeikis likes to say, in homage to his background in competitive sports, that there's no defense in the arts. “The only things you're competing against, I believe, are apathy, cynicism, and ego,” he said. This is a philosophy of Sudeikis's that predates Ted Lasso by many years, though you wouldn't necessarily have known it until recently. He grew up outside Kansas City, in Overland Park, Kansas, a “full jock with thespian tendencies,” as he once described himself. His uncle is George Wendt, who played Norm on Cheers. “He made finding a career in the arts, in acting or whatever, seem plausible,” Sudeikis said. But mostly he was drawn to the camaraderie of athletics. When Sudeikis first tried his hand at professional improv, in the mid-'90s, it was through something called ComedySportz, a national chain with a fake competition angle, teams in sports uniforms, and a referee. Brendan Hunt, who co-created and costars on Ted Lasso, initially met Sudeikis in Chicago, he told me. Sudeikis had traveled the eight hours up from Kansas City to do a show: “Suddenly there's a beat-up Volvo station wagon, like an '83, and this is '97, I think, and these two guys get out, all bleary-eyed, and wearily change into their baseball pants. And one of them was Jason.”

Sudeikis had gone to community college on a basketball scholarship but failed to keep up his grades, and he eventually left school to pursue comedy. For a while, he said, his sincere aspiration was to become a member of the Blue Man Group. He got close. “They flew me out to New York,” he said. “That was August of 2001, right before 9/11. And I got to see myself bald and blue.” (In the end, he wasn't a good enough drummer.) By that time, he was living in Las Vegas with his then partner, Kay Cannon, doing sketch comedy at the newly formed Second City chapter there. “Ego,” Sudeikis told me about this time, “that gets beaten out of you, doing eight shows a week.”

Eventually he was invited to audition for Saturday Night Live. “I didn't want to work on SNL,” Sudeikis said—he'd convinced himself that there were purer and less corporate paths to take. “At a certain point in your comedy journey, you have to look at it as like McDonald's,” he said. “You have to be like: ‘No. Never.’ ” Then he got the call. “It was like having a crush on the prettiest girl at school and being like, ‘She seems like a jerk.’ And it's like, ‘Oh, really? 'Cause she said she liked you.’ ‘She what?!’ ”

Suit, $4,860, by Tom Ford. Vintage t-shirt from The Vintage Showroom. Suspenders, stylist’s own. Shoes, $1,535, by John Lobb.

Sudeikis auditioned, of course, and was hired, in 2003—but as a writer: “It was like winning a gold medal in the thing you've never even trained for. You just happen to be good at the triple jump, and you really love the long jump.” He wrote for a couple of seasons, but he was unhappy—Cannon was still in Las Vegas, and Sudeikis missed performing. Finally he went to Lorne Michaels, to ask for a job as a member of the cast. “He had the best line. I go, ‘I had to give up two things I love the most to take this writing job: performing and living with my wife.’ And on a dime, he just goes, ‘Well, if you had to choose one…’ ”

At Saturday Night Live, Sudeikis often channeled the same level of cheerful optimism and forthright morality that he'd later bring to Ted Lasso, but audiences didn't necessarily notice it at the time. One of Sudeikis's most famous and beloved early sketches on SNL as a performer is 2005's “Two A-holes Buying a Christmas Tree”—Kristen Wiig and Sudeikis, chewing gum, oblivious to their surroundings, terrorizing Jack Black at a Christmas tree stand. It's a joke about a very familiar form of contemporary rudeness; it's also a riff on a certain kind of man who speaks for the woman next to him, whether she wants him to or not. And people laughed and moved on to the next bit, but to this day Sudeikis can tell you about all the ideas that were running through his head when he created the sketch with Wiig. “That scene was all about my belief that we were losing touch with manners,” he told me. “And yet it's also about love, because he loves her, and that's why he interprets everything for her—she never talks directly to the person.” But, he said, sighing, “once you start explaining a joke or something like that, it ceases to be funny.”

Sudeikis brought this type of attention and care to the movies he began acting in too, like the workplace comedy Horrible Bosses, even if it was lost on most of those who watched them. “That movie, Horrible Bosses, is riddled with optimism,” he said. “The rhythms of that movie, of what Jason Bateman and Charlie Day and I are doing, are deeply rooted in Ted Lasso too. But people don't want those answers. They want to hear the three of us cut up and joke around.”

So that's what Sudeikis did. He got used to a certain gap between his intention and how it was understood. During his time at SNL, his marriage fell apart. “You're going through something emotionally and personally, or even professionally if that's affecting you personally, and then you're dressed up like George Bush and you're live on television for eight minutes. You feel like a crazy person. You feel absolutely crazy. You're looking at yourself in the mirror and you're just like, ‘Who am I? What is this? Holy hell.’ ”

For a time he became a tabloid fixture. He remembers “navigating my first sort of public relationship, with January Jones, which was like learning by fire. What is the term? Trial by fire.” In a 2010 GQ article, when confronted with a question about rumors that he was dating Jennifer Aniston, he sarcastically responded that she should be so lucky. “And obviously I'm fucking joking, you know?” Sudeikis said. But back then, he treated interviews like improv—Yes, and—and that could create misunderstandings. Asked once on a podcast about what people tended to get wrong about him, Sudeikis responded, “That I was in a fraternity—or maybe that I would be.”

To that point, Hunt told me, “He's much less the assumed fraternity guy than you'd think.” But Hunt said he also understood where the impression came from: “I don't know where he learned it necessarily, whether it was from his parents, or his basketball coaches, but he exudes an easygoing confidence. And it's easy to hang with a guy like that. But some people are also like, ‘Fuck that guy,’ intrinsically.”

Shirt, $188, and ties (worn at waist), $125 each, by Polo Ralph Lauren. Pants, $255, by Aimé Leon Dore. Shoes, $782, by Alden. Socks, $15, by Smart Turnout. Watch, $10,200, by Cartier.

When he won the Golden Globe, Sudeikis gave a dazed speech while wearing a hoodie, sparking glee and speculation about his mental and physical states. “I was neither high nor heartbroken,” he said.

Shortly after Sudeikis and Wilde got together, near the end of his SNL run (he left the show in 2013), Wilde made a joke during a monologue that she read at a cabaret club about the two of them having sex “like Kenyan marathon runners,” and Sudeikis spent years answering questions about the joke. “The frustrating thing about that is that Olivia said that in a performance setting,” Sudeikis said. “It wasn't like she just was saying it glibly in an interview.” He described the experience of growing into celebrity, and confronting other people's misperceptions of him, as a disorienting one. “You're just being tossed into the situation and then trying to figure it out,” he said. The picture of him that was circulating wasn't exactly the one that he had of himself. But he didn't fight it, either. “You come to be thoughtful about it,” he said. “But also try to stay open to it. I don't ever want to be cynical.”

So he tried to stay open. But it wasn't until Ted Lasso that people really saw the side of him that comported with the way he saw himself. Last year, as it became clear that the show was a hit, he found himself answering, over and over, some version of the same question. The question would vary in its specifics, but the gist of it was always: How much do you and this character actually have in common? Sudeikis told me that over time, in response to people wondering about his exact relationship to Ted, he developed a few different evasive explanations. Ted, Sudeikis would say, was a little like Jason Sudeikis, but after two pints on an empty stomach. He was Sudeikis hanging on the side of a buddy's boat. He was Sudeikis, but on mushrooms. Sometimes, in more honest moments, he would say that Ted is the best version of himself. This, after all, is how art works: If it was just you, then it wouldn't really need to be art in the first place. And so Sudeikis learned to separate himself from Ted, to fudge the distance between art and artist.

Except, he said, after a while, every time he tried to wave off Ted, fellow castmates or old friends of his would correct him to say: “No.” They'd say: “No, that is you. That is you. That's not the best version of you.” It's not you on mushrooms, it's not you hanging off a boat, it's just…you. One of Sudeikis's friends, Marcus Mumford, who composed the music for the show, told me, “He is quite like Ted in lots of ways. He has a sort of burning optimism, but also a vulnerability, about him that I really admire.”

Hearing people say this, over and over again, Sudeikis said, “brought me to a very emotional space where, you know, a healthy dose of self-love was allowed to expand through my being and made me…” He trailed off for a moment. “When they're like, ‘No, that is you. That is you. That's not the best version of you.’ That's a very lovely thing to hear. I wish it on everybody who gets the opportunity to be or do anything in life and have someone have the chance to say, ‘Hey, that's you. That's you.’ ”

And if he's being honest, that's the way he feels about it too. “It's the closest thing I have to a tattoo,” Sudeikis said about Ted Lasso. “It's the most personal thing I've ever made.”

Sweater, $398, and shirt, $95, by Polo Ralph Lauren. Pants, $255, by Aimé Leon Dore.

On the first Saturday in June, Sudeikis flew with his children, Otis and Daisy, from London to New York, where he owns a house in Brooklyn. “Brooklyn is home,” he told me simply. While filming the first season of Ted Lasso, he'd had the house renovated—there was black mold to get rid of and other changes to make. “So Olivia and the kids had to rent a lovely apartment in Brooklyn Heights. But it's not home. It's someone else's home.” Saturday was the first time Sudeikis and his children had set foot in their own place in two years. “The kids darted in,” he said. “Last time Daisy was in that house, she slept in a crib. So now she has a new big bed. It was hilarious. I walked up there after like 15 minutes and both rooms were a mess.”

He and Wilde, he said, no longer share the house. They split up, according to Sudeikis, “in November 2020.” The end of their relationship was chronicled in a painful, public way in the tabloids after photos of Wilde holding hands with Harry Styles surfaced in January, setting off a flurry of conflicting timelines and explanations. Sudeikis said that even he didn't have total clarity about the end of the relationship just yet. “I'll have a better understanding of why in a year,” he said, “and an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it'll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle.” Right now he was just trying to figure out what he was supposed to take away, about himself, from what had happened. “That's an experience that you either learn from or make excuses about,” he said. “You take some responsibility for it, hold yourself accountable for what you do, but then also endeavor to learn something beyond the obvious from it.”

In the first season of Ted Lasso, the comic premise of the show is revealed to be a tragic one: Ted is in England, far from home, doing something he doesn't know how to do and probably shouldn't be doing at all, in order to give his failing marriage space to survive. When the character's wife and son visit, in the show's fifth episode, his wife tells him, “Every day I wake up hoping that I'll feel the way I felt in the beginning. But maybe that's just what marriage is, right?” It's a wrenching moment that also gives new meaning to the show: Ted Lasso's heart is big, but it can also be broken as violently and as easily as anyone else's. By the end of the season, Lasso is divorced and renegotiating his relationships with his now ex-wife and son.

The first season of Ted Lasso had already been written—had already aired—by the time Sudeikis found himself living some aspects of it in real life. “And yet one has nothing to do with the other,” Sudeikis told me. “That's the crazy thing. Everything that happened in season one was based on everything that happened prior to season one. Like, a lot of it three years prior. You know what I mean? The story's bigger than that, I hope. And anything I've gone through, other people have gone through. That's one of the nice things, right? So it's humbling in that way.”

And in fact, the seeds of Ted's heartbreak, Sudeikis said, went all the way back to a dinner he had with Wilde around 2015, during which she first encouraged him to explore whether Ted Lasso could be more than just a bit on NBC. “It was there, the night at dinner, when Olivia was like, ‘You should do it as a show,’ ” he said. They got to talking about it. Sudeikis asked why Ted Lasso would move in the first place, to coach a team he had no real reason to coach: “ ‘Okay, but why would he take this job? Why would a guy at this age take this job to leave? Maybe he's having marital strife. Maybe things aren't good back home, so he needs space.’ And I just riffed it at dinner in 2015 or whenever, late 2014. But it had to be that way. That's what the show is about.”

I said to Sudeikis that I thought that while it was common for artists to put a lot of their lives into their art, it was less common that they end up living aspects of the art in their lives, after the fact.

“I wonder if that's true,” he replied. “I mean, isn't that just a little bit of what Oprah was telling us for years and years? You know, manifestation? Power of thought? That's The Secret in reverse, you know?”

But…if we're being honest, is that a thing you wanted to manifest?

“No. No. But, again, it isn't that. It wasn't that. And again, that's just me knowing the details of it. Like, that's just me knowing where it comes from, where any of it comes from.”

But he acknowledged it had been a hard year. Not necessarily a bad one, but a hard one. “I think it was really neat,” he said. “I think if you have the opportunity to hit a rock bottom, however you define that, you can become 412 bones or you can land like an Avenger. I personally have chosen to land like an Avenger.”

Is that easier said than done? To land like an Avenger?

“I don't know. It's just how I landed. It doesn't mean when you blast back up you're not going to run into a bunch of shit and have to, you know, fight things to get back to the heights that you were at, but I'd take that over 412 bones anytime.”

He paused, then continued: “But there is power in creating 412 bones! Because we all know that a bone, up to a certain age, when it heals, it heals stronger. So, I mean, it's not to knock anybody that doesn't land like an Avenger. Because there's strength in that too.”

Shirt, $228, by Todd Snyder. Shorts, $480, by Bode. Watch, $6,300, by Cartier.

In February, Sudeikis attended the Golden Globes, which were being held remotely on Zoom. He had his misgivings about the event—the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the awards, had been in the news for a series of unflattering revelations about its organization, and also the show was taking place in the middle of the night in London. Tom Ford had sent over a suit for Sudeikis to wear, and he tried it on, in his flat in Notting Hill, but he felt ridiculous, there in the middle of the night, and so changed out of it and into a tie-dyed hoodie made by his sister's clothing company. “I wore that hoodie because I didn't wanna fucking wear the fucking top half of a Tom Ford suit,” he said. “I love Tom Ford suits. But it felt weird as shit.”

“With kids, knowing is half the battle. But adulthood is doing something about it. ‘I'm bad with names.’ ‘I'm always late.’… All right, so win the fucking battle by doing something about it!”

The rest of this story you know: Sudeikis ended up winning best actor for Ted Lasso and gave a dazed acceptance speech while wearing the hoodie, and this in turn sparked glee and speculation about his mental and physical states. For the record, “I was neither high nor heartbroken,” Sudeikis said. It was just late at night and he didn't want to wear a suit. “So yeah, off it came and it was like, ‘This is how I feel. I believe in moving forward.’ ”

Lately, Sudeikis told me, he had been trying to pay more attention to how he actually felt about any given thing, to all the various signs and omens that present themselves to a person during the course of living their life. Even in his past, he said, there were moments that were obvious in retrospect, in terms of what the universe was trying to tell him, messages he missed entirely at the time. In Vegas, where he was living with Cannon before Saturday Night Live, he developed alopecia and his hair stopped growing, and he didn't know why. And then, at the end of his 30s, “during the nine months before Otis was born and the nine months after he was born,” Sudeikis developed extremely painful sciatica. “I went and got an MRI and was like, ‘Oh, yeah, the jelly doughnut in my L4, L5, is squirting out and touching a nerve.’ ” But why? When he had his second child, this didn't happen at all. So: why?

“I mean, since last November,” Sudeikis said, “the joke that feels more like a parable to me is a guy is sitting at home watching TV and the news breaks in to say flash flood warning. About an hour later he goes outside on his porch and he sees that the whole street is flooded.” You've probably heard the rest of this joke before: While the guy is praying to God for some kind of help, a truck, a boat, and a chopper come by, offering aid, which the guy turns down. God'll provide, he says. Sudeikis finished the joke: “Two hours after that, he's in heaven. He's dead. He says, ‘God, what's up, man? You didn't help me.’ God goes, ‘What do you mean, man? I sent you a pickup truck, I sent you a speedboat, I sent you a helicopter.’ ” So, Sudeikis said, “you can't tell me that hair falling out of my head wasn't—I don't know if it was the speedboat or the pickup truck or the helicopter, but yeah, man, it all comes home to roost. What you resist persists.”

He went on. “That's why I had sciatica,” he said. “That's the speedboat. That was like: ‘Hey, you gotta take a look at your stuff.’ ”

And this is another way that Sudeikis and Ted Lasso are alike, because both are always learning and relearning this lesson, which is: Be curious. Both are philosophical men whose philosophies basically boil down to trying to live as decent a life as is possible. Not just for the sake of it but because to be curious—to find out something new about yourself or someone else—is to be empowered. “I don't know if you remember G.I. Joe growing up,” Sudeikis said, “but they would always end it with a little saying: ‘Oh, now I know.’ ‘Don't put a fork in the outlet.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because you could get hurt.’ ‘Oh, now I know.’ And then somebody would say, ‘And knowing is half the battle.’ And I agree with that—with kids, knowing is half the battle. But adulthood is doing something about it. That's the other half. ‘I'm bad with names.’ ‘I'm always late.’ Oh! Well, knowing is half the battle. All right, so win the fucking battle by doing something about it! Get better at names. Show up five minutes early, make it a point to do it. So, I'm still learning these things. But hopefully I've got plenty of time to do something about it.”

Sudeikis smiled a little wearily: “I mean, at the end of that joke, the guy still got to go to heaven, you know?”

Zach Baron is GQ's senior staff writer.

A version of this story originally appeared in the August 2021 issue with the title "Jason Sudeikis Paints His Masterpiece."

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Photographs by Hill & Aubrey

Styled by Michael Darlington

Grooming by Nicky Austin

Tailoring by Nafisa Tosh

Set design by Hella Keck

Produced by Ragi Dholakia Productions

[anitabyars]

★★ BRAND NEW RELEASE ★★

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Sawyer Bennett comes a new story in her Arizona Vengeance series…

RAFE by Sawyer Bennett is available now!

✔️Kindle: https://amzn.to/32ONFEh

➣ Watch the book trailer: https://bit.ly/35axv9X

➣ Follow Sawyer Bennett on Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/sawyer-bennett

-------

I was living my dream until one phone call changed everything.

As the second line center for the Arizona Vengeance, my mind has been on one thing—helping my team bring home a championship. But that all changed when I found out my dad had cancer and only months to live. In that moment, nothing mattered more than getting home to North Carolina to be by his side. That meant asking for the unthinkable—a trade to the Carolina Cold Fury.

Now I’m home and when I’m not on the ice with my new team, I’m helping care for my dad. And in the midst of my grief, I find comfort from the one person I never expected.

Calliope Ramirez stole my heart at a very young age. The beautiful, smart, headstrong girl next door, she was my first… everything. She has never forgiven me for leaving her, believing that I chose hockey over a future together. What she doesn’t understand is that every decision I made was for her, and I’ve never given up hope that one day we’d be together again.

Watching my dad slip away is a harsh reminder of how short life can be, and having Calliope by my side makes me realize I was a damn fool before. That changes starting right now. Calliope Ramirez is mine and I’m not going to waste the second chance that I’ve been given.

**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.**

------------------------

About the author:

Since the release of her debut contemporary romance novel, Off Sides, in January 2013, Sawyer Bennett has released multiple books, many of which have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.

A reformed trial lawyer from North Carolina, Sawyer uses real life experience to create relatable, sexy stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From new adult to erotic contemporary romance, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone.

Sawyer likes her Bloody Marys strong, her martinis dirty, and her heroes a combination of the two. When not bringing fictional romance to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to a very active daughter, as well as full-time servant to her adorably naughty dogs. She believes in the good of others, and that a bad day can be cured with a great work-out, cake, or even better, both.

Sawyer also writes general and women’s fiction under the pen name S. Bennett and sweet romance under the name Juliette Poe.

Connect with her:

Website: https://sawyerbennett.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bennettbooks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bennettbooks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sawyerbennett123/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6950682.Sawyer_Bennett

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/sawyer-bennett

EXCERPT

I swing open the door, eager to see Mrs. Filmore because she’s an excellent baker, but am stunned stupid when I see Rafe standing there with two grocery bags in hand.

I left him at his parents’ house not more than an hour and a half ago. There was no kiss goodbye, only a promise to call me later. I didn’t know what to—or if I should—read into that. The kiss would have implied some lingering affection; the lack of implying the sex was a one-time-only thing, and perhaps a mistake. Yet the promise to call spoke to wanting to see me again. Or maybe we’d just go back to being tentative friends.

Ugh. So confusing. In the moment, the only thing I can think to say is, “What are you doing here?”

“I missed you, too,” he replies with a sly grin, pushing his way into my apartment.

“Why don’t you come on in?” I mutter sarcastically and close the door, noting how good he smells as he passes me. “But, seriously...why are you here?”

Rafe takes a moment to survey my small apartment and then moves into the kitchen. He holds up the grocery bags. “I thought we could hang. I brought all the makings for tacos, and we can watch movies or something. Really great apartment, by the way. It’s totally you.”

I pad across the small living area and rest my forearms on the counter that separates it from the kitchen. He starts unloading the bags—ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, a six-pack of beer.

“Dad’s sleeping, and Mom’s doing some spring cleaning,” he explains as he moves to put the items in my fridge. “She shooed me out of the house, and I thought we could hang.”

“Hang?” I ask skeptically. What does that even mean?

And then it dawns on me.

“Oh,” I drawl in amusement. “You want sex again?”

Rafe pops straight up, looking at me over the refrigerator door, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “You offering?”

“Um,” I reply, unsure of myself.

He grins at me. “As much as you totally rocked my world today at the pond, Poppy, I really just thought we could hang out. Get to know each other again.”

My eyebrows draw inward, and I’m more confused now than ever. I rocked his world? Really?

Why I flush with pride is beyond me, but what makes a girl feel good is what makes a girl feel good.

Rafe shuts the fridge and moves around the kitchen counter to me. He takes my hand in his, covers it with his other, and brings them to his chest, his expression somber. “I know I can’t possibly hope for you to understand what I did to you eight years ago, and I know it’s likely a lot of wishful thinking that you could forgive me completely. But right now, we reconnected, and I want to see where this goes. Today with you has been the best day since I found out about my dad. I guess I just want more of it.”

My Review

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I devoured Rafe. This sexy hockey hunk made me swoon and oh my heart went out to him when he requested a trade to Cold Fury from the Arizona Vengeance, so he could be close to his dying father in Dominik. So I knew this was going to be emotional but...what I didn’t know is, what else was there when he got home. Rafe left his best friend since birth, his first kiss, his first girlfriend his first everything. And she was and still is Pissed!

Calliope Ramirez has been close to Rafe’s family her whole life. After Rafe left her behind eight years ago to pursue his hockey career, she went on to pursue her dreams of becoming a nurse. Callie has been helping Rafe’s parents deal with his cancer. And although she has hated Rafe since he dumped her all those years ago, she is there to also help him understand what to expect and what is going on.

But when Rafe returns and sees Callie, his Pro hockey career fades, along with all the women he dated, and all the money he has made becomes unimportant. It time for him to not take a single moment for granted. Because the truth is he has carried a torch for her all these years. But when he wants to build a relationship with her, Callie isn’t willing to put her heart on the line again.

And Wow, what hurt and lost time for these two who had loved each other since they were young. When you read it your heart will literally drop and you will get so angry. But there’s hope for these two as the love, the chemistry, that hot, panty-dropping heat is still there and I was literally flying through the pages because I just couldn’t get enough of them. Will they fall in love again? Grab this book to find out.

Received an early copy in exchange for an honest review.