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blueboxphenomenon · 8 years

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The Gatwick Incident, 1966

London. 20th July, 1966

On the morning of July 20th, 1966 flight 729 returned from Madrid to Gatwick airport, only to be forced to abort its attempted landing due to an obstruction on the intersections of runways five and two. The pilot reported the presence of a police box on the runway, prompting air traffic control to dispatch police. Police chased away four strangers, and the police box was collected from the runway. Control initially believed it to be the product of a practical joke. If only they knew what they were in for that day…

If you were a student in 1966 looking for a cheap gap year, Chameleon Tours were your best budget option. For just £28, Chameleon Tours offered people between the ages of 18-25 a package holiday to any one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe: Zurich, Rome, Athens, Dubrovnik, and Freiburg, Madrid, and Baden-Württemberg. It was a popular choice, with 50000 young people taking to Europe from Gatwick via Chameleon Tours, who operated four of their own planes from the airport.

Fifty-thousand young adults left Gatwick for various European flights, and not a single one returned. One of those people was Ryan Briggs, who took a Chameleon Tours flight to Rome. Everything seemed normal to his family at first. Ryan caught his flight, and sent back a hand-written postcard shortly after arriving. However, that was the last the Briggs family heard from Ryan for some time. His sister, Samantha Briggs, implored the authorities for help, but was unable to get anywhere with them. She contacted the hotel at which Ryan was supposed to be staying, only to find he had never checked in. Police in Rome found no trace of a Ryan Briggs, and neither did Rome's international airport. Inspector Gascoigne was the first to take Samantha's worries seriously and, on the 20th of July, arrived at Gatwick to investigate. While airport security was dealing with the matter of a police box and four trespassers, Gascoigne was investigating the private Chameleon Tours hangar. That is where his corpse was later found, his clothes singed as though he somehow died by electrocution.

A police box on a runway, a missing young man, and a murdered police officer. You would think things were already as strange as they were going to get, but you'd be wrong. Two people arrived at Immigration and Customs attempting to report a dead body. They arrived with no passports, despite coming from the arrivals gate. One was a scruffy-looking gentleman in a frock coat and the other a boy with a Scots accent wearing a kilt. When interviewed by journalist James Stevens, Samantha Briggs would describe the scruffy-looking man's accent as "blurred," and referred to him as "a short man with a mournful face and dishevelled clothing." He seemed to her to be "incredibly well informed." Everyone seemed to call the man "Doctor," as though it were more of a name than a title. The Scots boy wearing the kilt went by the more conventional name of Jamie. Curiously, a white-haired man also calling himself "Doctor" was present with Sir Charles Summer in South Kensington at the time, seemingly involved with the on-going War Machine threat caused by the activation of WOTAN.

The airport manager, Charles Gordon, was called to satisfy the Doctor's demands to see a figure of authority about the body, and escorted the mystery man and Jamie to the Chameleon Tours hanger, where they found nothing more than a crate of plastic cups. Unamused by the Doctor's claims, Gordon tried to have trespassers arrested, only for them to escape.

It was around this time that Samantha Briggs arrived at the Chameleon Tours kiosk to make enquiries about her missing brother Ryan Briggs. She found the representitive entirely unhelpful but ended up meeting with Jamie, who promised that he had a friend who might know how to help her, and mysteriously asked that they meet later. It was Samantha that made an important discovery in the case of the missing passengers - Chameleon Tours had their customers fill out postcards before leaving on their flight. The postcards were collected at the kiosk, sent out to Chameleon Tours facilities at the country the flights were supposed to go to, and then posted back by Chameleon Tours to the families in the UK as if from the passengers. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Crossland arrived in search of his missing collegue: Detective Gasgoigne.

Inspector Crossland was able to convince Charles Gordon to humour the Doctor further, and it appears some members of Gatwick staff were starting to come around as it was the manager's assistant Jean Rock who made the next key discovery. Having called around the various international airports to which Chameleon Tours were chartering flights, she discovered that Chameleon Tours only ever picked up passengers but never dropped them off. It was as though the passengers disappeared mid-flight.

Gatwick usually only monitors flights for around fifty miles before they drop off the radar, otherwise they would have too much traffic to monitor. It was not unusual that Chameleon Tours flights disappeared from their radars after fifty miles, as they simply weren't looking that far. Manager Gordon could not have expected to see what he did when he requested the RAF to tail the 1530 to Rome, however. As the Chameleon Tours flight to Rome reached the edge of expanded radar range, the RAF jet was seen to go completely out of control and crash into the sea, disappearing from radar. The Chameleon Tours flight then appeared to stop moving, something that could only indicate that it was dropping straight down. The plane then disappeared off radar.

The initial assumption was that the two aircraft had collided, dropping into the ocean. When rescue services found the wreckage, however, there was only wreckage of the RAF fighter jet and no sign of the 1530 to Rome. The pilot was found electrocuted in his seat. So where did the Chameleon Tours flight go? Where do all the Chameleon Tours flights go? Perhaps the plane did not drop out of the sky, but instead shot directly upwards beyond the scope of radar, into space. Maybe that sounds farfetched, but how else do you explain an aeroplane hovering in the same spot on radar but without leaving wreckage in the sea below? Admittedly, many wrecks are lost at sea, but then how do you reconcile the fact that the RAF flight, which went down at the same time, was found while the Chameleon Tours flight was not?

Let's break down what was happening. Chameleon Tours planes would leave from Gatwick carrying a cabin filled with young people. They would fly fifty miles out of the UK and disappear. The flight would then return without passengers. Postcards from the passengers, filled out before the flight, would be sent to the plane's supposed destination and then posted back to the UK to make it appear as if the passengers arrived safely. But to what end?

The reports of DI Crossland simply refer to "holiday fraud," and while there are no police reports regarding the recovery of the fifty-thousand missing people, they started to turn up on delayed flights for the rest of the evening, trickling back into society as if they hadn't gone missing at all. Twenty-five members of staff at Gatwick airport recall waking up lying on the concrete in the carpark, missing hours of time with no recollection of how they got there.

Some theorise that Chameleon Tours were a cover for a human trafficking ring and even though they were busted the whole thing was covered up so London's second biggest international airport could save face. Others theorise that it was a money laundering front involving simply moving the same group of people around to make the company look busier than it really was. More outlandish theories include Chameleon Tours being a result of C-Day and the computer WOTAN trying to wipe out humanity, a system of alien abductions replacing people with shapeshifting duplicates, and a government test of international security where they abducted real people and wiped their memories before returning them later.

Whatever the truth was behind Chameleon Tours, there are plenty of witnesses to the presence of "the Doctor" and it features one of the most convincing blue box sightings in history as it comes from a pilot.

#bbp-blog #blue box phenomenon #blue box sighting #Chameleon Tours #the gatwick doctor #widw #who is doctor who?#other #featured

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grapemoon · 1 year

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Hello Gordon where is your passport 😀

Slowly turns tocamera with a knowing look

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can-i-see-your-passport-please · 1 year

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I had to go back because I didn’t read the full doc for Do Your Job, and it hurt even more!! Especially that Morse code! Once I realized it said “Help Me, Please Help Me, I’m Sorry” my heart just shattered. And how he didn’t want to die in the end!!

EEEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEE YAY!!! I originally added in the long blank space because, and I'm not fucking kidding here, in Hbomberguy's video on fucking CAD (THE COMIC WITH FUCKING LOSS.JPEG) which has horror elements and is genuinely great, there's a part after a whole analysis of the movie The Room I SWEAR NONE OF THIS IS A JOKE where (timestamp 22:54) there's a technical difficulties beep that decreases in pitch- that's what the decreasing squares was meant to be. Benrey dies, and it gets replaced with a long, descending beep, and then morse code. That was the vibe I was trying to get there. I was referencing a serious analysis of the Control Alt Delete webcomic. The comic that spawned from it fucking loss.jpeg.

(MAJOR cw for suicide under the cut as I discuss the last thing anon said)

YEAH because. That's a thing that really happens!! People try to kill themselves and regret it, try to back out. It's not a universal thing, of course, but it is fairly common. (Bojack Horseman had an entire poem about that in its penultimate episode and it's fucking heartbreaking.) And like, that doesn't just get rid of the suicidal thoughts. In my post-canon reunion fics, I've tried to show that even after Xen, Benrey's still suicidal. Like, in You're Still Here (which I consider my magnum opus), during his breakdown he had a whole PARAGRAPH where he just rants about how he should've died on Xen, and then later asks Gordon to kill him.

You get the point. A lot of times, when people try to kill themselves, they freak out and try to back out at the last second (suicides by falling from heights is fairly common, and the example Bojack Horseman uses in the View From Halfway Down poem, which if you can handle listening to it go do it, it's fairly short). And Benrey going "this isn't fair!!" in canon once Passport Guardian starts up is what made me wanna do that with him. Like, before that most of it was "oh noooooo, you're neeeeever gonna kill me, anyway i'm gonna hold up my passport for several seconds and make no attempt to defend myself." But after the final passport got destroyed (and specifically after the SuperPlayer feature was activated), he started freaking out.

My beta reader, when analyzing it, pointed out how that part specifically is horrifying not just because at that point I pulled out all the stops to show his Complete Breakdown, but at this point... It's too late for Benrey to back out. He edited the code to make himself into the final boss. At this point, he can't just go back and fix it, because the game needs a final boss, and the Nihilanth can't be that, BECAUSE IT'S DELETED. They compared it to jumping off a roof, and then screaming for help as you plummet to the bottom. (Except it's not directly jumping off yourself, it's sitting on the ledge and goading people who are angry at you to shove you off the roof.) There's nothing you can do, nothing he can do, nothing the others can (or will) do, because he's implemented his suicide into the fabric of the code.

#tw suicide #suicide #ask to tag #just in case #do your job and keep them safe #cassie writes #asks

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thezeekrecord · 2 years

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c'est la vie

[index/summary]

A year and a half after the resonance cascade, Gordon had almost stopped wishing it had all just been a bad dream. It had taken some work to get to this point, emotionally; something his therapist referred to as “radical acceptance”, just letting the horrific event be what it was so he could move on rather than agonize over what could have been different. What if he’d refused to do the test, when Benry shoved his way into the chamber? What could he have said or done to convince Bubby and Benry that he wasn’t worth sacrificing to the military for their own safety, without even knowing that had been in their plans? What if this, what if that—what if he’d simply, by absolute chance, had his stupid fucking passport on him that morning he walked into work?

These were questions he mulled over less and less now, of course. The resonance cascade happened. He had one less arm, a lot more trauma, but also four new friends—even if he felt complicated about them, sometimes. At least Benry was dead; he wasn’t sure he’d be able to navigate those feelings with that lunatic around, making matters worse.

Gordon startled at the sound of a sudden shout from the back seat, followed by a dull thump against the back of his chair.

“Josh, don’t throw things at me, I’m driving.” Gordon reminded his son exhaustedly, looking into the rearview mirror to see him in his carseat. Quickly, he turned his gaze back to the road, turning on his low beams and squinting in an effort to see through the thick sheets of snow ahead. He should’ve left the house earlier, he lamented—if he left at the same time as Dr. Coomer and Bubby to meet up at the mysterious cabin Tommy and Darnold had invited them all to, he might not have gotten caught in this storm. Now, he was fighting for his life on a long winding road, driving at a snail’s pace out of an abundance of caution.

“Daddy!” Joshua whined from the back. “My gnome...!”

Gordon sighed deeply. “Is that what you threw at my chair?”

“No...”

Gordon recognized that tone of voice instantly. “That’s why you don’t throw your toys at me when we’re in the car, kid! I’m busy driving, I can’t get them for you. You’re just gonna have to wait ‘till we get there to get the gnome back.”

God, that gnome was weird, Gordon thought to himself as Joshua made frustrated noises. He wasn’t even entirely sure where he got it from—it just showed up into his life one day, and of course, his son just had to be obsessed with it. It seemed like it belonged more in some old person’s front garden than it did in the hands of a toddler, aside from a little button on its back that prompted pre-recorded lines to play from the speaker on its shoe. (Mysteriously, it didn’t even seem to have batteries, nor an end to the recorded lines it could say.) Gordon sighed again as Joshua’s frustrated sounds pitched up higher into a miserable wail.

“C’mon, Josh, I can’t stop every time you lose something.” Gordon told him, more pleading with him than anything else. “We’ll be there soon, okay? You’ll get the gnome back, and I’ll make you hot chocolate at the cabin. How’s that sound?”

Apparently, Joshua just wasn’t having it. Keeping his eyes firmly on the road, Gordon grumbled to himself a little as he leaned to the side, trying to reach behind his seat to see if the accursed ornament was at least easy to grab. Instead, he felt the sole of a tiny shoe connect harshly with his forearm.

“Hey! Don’t kick me, I’m trying to help!” Gordon scolded, making firm eye contact with his son in the rearview mirror to get his point across.

When Gordon looked at the road again, he wasn’t sure what exactly it was that was caught in his headlights—it was silhouetted through the snow, but it rivaled Gordon’s car in size. Gordon yelped as he hit the breaks, finding almost too late that his tires had no traction against the road. In the mere milliseconds where time almost seemed to slow down, Gordon wrenched the wheel to the side, the car sliding in an earnest effort to follow his direction. There was no time to feel relief when he narrowly avoided the thing by inches; the car barreled off the road, bumping harshly until it slammed to a stop in a ditch. Over the sound of broken glass settling, metal groaning, and the pounding of blood in Gordon’s ears, he heard the gnome’s muffled high-pitched voice underneath him, chirping out “You have failed the challenge!”

Breathing hard, Gordon fumbled to take his seatbelt off, clambering out of his seat to get into the back. “Josh? Josh, are you okay?” Gordon asked, putting a hand to Joshua’s chest and checking him over. Joshua whimpered as he put a little hand to where the seatbelt had dug into his skin a bit, but otherwise, he looked entirely unharmed. Gordon let out a deep breath, resting his forehead against the side of Joshua’s carseat.

“I’m sorry, bud.” Gordon said once he’d composed himself enough to speak again, his body feeling stiff and exhausted as he came down from the adrenaline rush. He reached underneath the driver’s seat, finding the ceramic gnome and placing it in Joshua’s lap.

Joshua immediately pressed the button on its back, prompting the gnome to say exactly what Gordon wanted to say in the moment: “Fuck!" Gordon couldn’t help an exasperated laugh. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and flipping it open. Luckily, he’d already programmed his friends’ numbers on speed dial—his hand was shaking too much to do much more than push the two buttons it took to dial Tommy. Settling back into the seat beside Joshua’s, Gordon pressed the phone to his ear, expecting to hear the dial tone. Instead, he was greeted by high pitched beeps, followed by an unsympathetic, "We’re sorry, the number you are trying to reach cannot be completed as dialed." Gordon looked at his phone, dread creeping up in his stomach as he found it read a simple no service at the top.

Flipping his phone shut and stuffing it back into his pocket, Gordon forced a deep breath in and out. “Okay.” He said on his breath out. “We’re alright. Just take stock, Gordon, we got this.”

After brief reassurances to himself, Gordon climbed out of the car, shutting the door firmly behind him to trap the warmth in for Joshua. The ditch he’d gotten them into wasn’t incredibly deep by any means, but the front of the car didn’t look good; he tried to pry the hood up to check on the engine—not that he knew much about cars—but it was stuck shut, too deformed from the crash to open. Wedging himself into the ditch and planting his palms firmly on the front of the car, he made an earnest, well-intentioned effort to push it out onto even ground; it didn’t take too long for him to come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t going to manage that anytime soon. He circled the car a couple times, climbed back into the driver’s seat and made several attempts to get the car to restart, but it was becoming all too clear now: they were stuck.

“I wanna go!” Joshua complained from his seat, blissfully unaware of the situation they were in. Gordon dragged his palm down his face, trying his hardest to keep himself composed.

“Uhh—we can’t, bud. Not like this.” Gordon told him carefully, turning in his seat to look back at him. “The car’s broken. I, uhhh...I think we’re just gonna have to wait for a bit for someone to come help us.”

In a storm like this? Gordon’s anxiety demanded. Who in their right mind would be on the road right now? Well, besides him, of course. Getting himself and his vulnerable, young son stranded out in the middle of a snowstorm, with very little hope of rescue for God only knew how long— stupid, stupid, stupid.

Okay, Gordon reminded himself—radical acceptance. Don’t get caught in the past, just focus on solutions for now. With another steadying breath, he began collecting things he hoped would help. In this storm, he wasn’t too sure how easy it’d be for a passing car to see their wreck, so he climbed out and grabbed their things from the trunk, setting up his flashlights on the car to aim towards the road in the hopes they’d act as some sort of beacon. Settling into the backseat with Joshua again, he unrolled their blankets and pulled out their coats, anticipating the car to lose heat fast through the cracks in the windshield. In a desperate bid to keep Joshua content, despite their circumstances, Gordon pulled out one of Joshua’s favorite picture books, a lighter, and the bag of marshmallows. Joshua was thoroughly entertained by Gordon’s efforts to roast the marshmallows over his little lighter, and they ended their first hour alone with uncomfortably sticky hands.

“Come on.” Gordon murmured to himself as he peered out the back window, hoping to catch a glimpse of headlights on the road behind them. Still no service, either, no matter how many times he desperately checked his phone; he eventually had to turn it off to conserve battery. By the time the second hour dragged to an end, Gordon had taken Joshua out of his carseat to bundle him up in his coat, wrapping them both tight in their thickest blanket. Joshua’s face rested against the warmth of Gordon’s chest, their breath manifesting together as steam in the cold car.

Gordon glanced at his watch to confirm the end of their third hour, Joshua still fast asleep against him. The temperature was dropping fast; his face had started to feel numb a little while ago. Maybe if he was alone, he’d just grit his teeth and stick it out. The fact was, though, he had a toddler to worry about, and in the dark, freezing car with nothing else to do or think about, worrying was all he could do.

Careful not to lose too much heat from the blanket, Gordon pulled up his massive paper map he’d used to plot their course to the cabin, tracing his finger along the interstate they were on. As far as he could remember, it had been about an hour since they last stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break, and he’d only been driving 30 miles an hour once the snow started coming down hard.

“We’re probably here...about 20 miles to the next turn off, then, maybe...” Gordon muttered, trying to calculate exactly how stupid it would be to try and walk that. Lethally stupid, right?

With a defeated sigh, Gordon looked out the back window again, jolting at the sight of a light in the distance. He rushed to set Joshua down back in his carseat, freeing himself up to practically throw himself out of the car.

“I’ll be right back, Josh, stay put!” Gordon said as he slammed the door shut, hearing the gnome shout a few repeated yays. He grabbed the snow-covered flashlights he’d set out on his car, waving them around desperately like he was trying to direct an airplane for an emergency landing. “Hey! Hey, stop, please!” He shouted all the while, trudging through the snow to stand right up against the side of the road.

Gordon could have sobbed with relief as the car pulled to a stop in front of him. It was an old-looking pickup truck, rusted around the edges and smartly supplied with chains on the thick tires. Gordon stood on his toes to look at the person in the truck, who rolled down the window to talk to him. He looked close to Gordon’s age, maybe a bit older, with messy black hair and a five o’clock shadow. Gordon reveled in the blast of warmth he felt against his face as he leaned in closer to the truck.

“What’re you doing out in this storm?” The man asked with concern on his face.

“Listen, I crashed my car a couple hours ago, I got a three-year-old in there. It’s getting so cold, we really need some help.” Gordon told the man desperately, indicating back at his car. “Could you give us a ride to the next town? Anywhere warm and with a phone, then I can at least call my friends and keep my son warm.”

“Well, of course.” The man said, straining to reach the passenger door to open it up for Gordon. “My house isn’t that far off from here, stay with us as long as you need.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” Gordon said with a deep sigh of relief, leaving the passenger door open as he began to hurry back to his car. “Lemme get my kid, we’ll be right there!”

Gordon opened the door, finding Joshua stuffing his face with marshmallows. He didn’t have the wherewithal to scold him for it; he just scooped Joshua up in his arms, ready to drag himself back to the man’s truck.

“I want my gnome!” Joshua shouted with dismay, reaching out towards the gnome left on the seat.

“Josh—” Gordon tried to say, interrupted by Joshua shrieking in protest. “Fine! Fine. We’ll take the damn gnome.”

With Joshua and the garden gnome over half the size of his own son, Gordon stumbled back to the truck, climbing into the passenger seat and shutting the door behind him. Once settled, he pulled his seatbelt on and rubbed his hands up and down Joshua’s back with the hopes of warming him up faster.

“Seriously, man, thank you so much.” Gordon said as the truck lurched forward. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t come by.”

“Hey, it’s no problem. I’m glad I was out here to find you.” The man replied with a kind smile. “Means this whole outing wasn’t a total bust.”

“Yeah, what’re you doing out here yourself, anyway?” Gordon asked curiously. “If you live close by, surely you would’ve known about the snow already, right?”

“Yeah, well, one of my mom’s cows got out.” The man said, rubbing the back of his neck with a free hand. “Me and my brother have been out trying to find her. At this point, it’s too dangerous to keep looking, so I just hope my brother found her already before I did.”

Gordon opened his mouth to say something reassuring, pausing as an image of the road mere moments before crashing returned to his head with a vengeance. “A cow!” Gordon exclaimed, slapping his palm against the armrest. “Holy shit, maybe that’s what I almost hit!”

“You hit my cow?” The man questioned, looking at Gordon seriously.

“No, no, I didn’t! I said almost.” Gordon repeated, putting his hand up defensively. “I swerved to avoid it, that’s how we crashed in the first place. I was so caught up in the moment, I didn’t think to try and check what I almost hit.”

The man was quiet for a moment before he deflated a little. “Well, anyway, I’m glad you two are okay. Sorry, just worried about her and my brother, with all this snow...”

“That’s alright.” Gordon said. “You know—”

Gordon stopped as he recognized through his fatherly sixth sense what Joshua was gearing up to do. He’d lifted the gnome up a little, looking at the man in the driver’s seat. Gordon snatched the gnome out of Joshua’s hands.

“Joshua Freeman, I need you to understand that you literally have to stop throwing this gnome at people, especially if they’re driving.” Gordon said firmly, setting the gnome down out of his reach.

He must have bumped the button along the way to put it on the floor by his feet, because the gnome almost seemed to protest. “Stop! Put me back!” It cried as Joshua whined and reached for it desperately.

“You’ll get it back if you’re good.” Gordon promised, patting Joshua’s chest. He glanced at the man in the driver’s seat, getting a glimpse of a confused look in his eye before he turned back to the road. Gordon cleared his throat awkwardly. “Uhhh...what’s your name?”

“Emmet.” The man replied. “You?”

“Gordon.”

“...Huh.”

Gordon tilted his head at Emmet curiously. “What?”

Emmet shook his head and shrugged. “Nothing, nothing.” He mumbled to himself after that—Gordon wasn’t entirely sure what it was he said, but he swore he heard a quiet, “probably a coincidence...”

Gordon let it slide, though, not interested in questioning his savior for the evening. It didn’t take too long before Emmet was turning off the interstate onto what seemed to be a dirt road—not that Gordon could really tell due to the snow, all he knew was the terrain became less even—and soon enough, he saw the warm lights of a house. Emmet hopped out of the truck comfortably, indicating for Gordon to follow. Gordon nearly fell out of his seat, keeping close behind Emmet as he held Joshua (and, unfortunately, the gnome) to his chest. They had to be careful up the snow-covered wooden steps of the porch, but once they were inside, Gordon could feel nothing but pure relief. They stood in a sort of mini-foyer, where Emmet and his family kept their shoes and coats; a couple small steps separated the entrance of the house from their living room, which had old, grandma-looking couches with floral patterns. Emmet pulled his winter gear off, Gordon kicking his shoes off before setting Joshua down gently to unbundle him from all the layers he’d wrapped him up in.

“Mom?” Emmet called into the house. “He find her yet?”

“Oh, Emmet, you’re back!” A voice called from further inside. A woman appeared from around the corner, her long, wavy black hair matching Emmet’s. She had on a warm looking sweater and a long skirt, holding a kettle in her hand. “He just got back a few minutes ago, he’s putting her back in the barn now. Who’s this?”

“They crashed out there in all that snow.” Emmet explained as Gordon peeled off his own puffy coat and scarf. “I told ‘em they could stay here...”

“Well, of course!” Emmet’s mom said, smiling down at Joshua. “What’s your name?”

“Hot cho-cate!” Joshua demanded loudly as he began climbing up the steps into the living room.

Gordon snorted, scooping Joshua back up in his arms once they were freed of all their extra layers. “Sorry, sorry, I’ve been promising him hot chocolate all day once we got where were going...”

“Well, I can certainly get him some!” She said, turning away back into the kitchen.

“Oh, you don’t have to—I just really need a phone, is all...” Gordon said, keeping a firm grip on Joshua as he squirmed in his arms.

“Phone’s in the kitchen, here.” Emmet said, leading Gordon further inside. His mom was stood at the stove, already pouring something steaming into a mug. Emmet picked up a landline phone connected to the wall, sliding it across the counter towards Gordon. Gordon set the gnome down on the counter to free up a hand so he could pick up the receiver.

“I really can’t thank you enough, seriously.” Gordon said as he strained to remember Tommy’s phone number.

“No problem.” Emmet told him, looking anxiously at the back door.

Gordon opened his mouth, ready to ask Emmet a question, only to be interrupted by Tommy’s voice hardly a second later.

“Hello?” Tommy asked with a worried voice.

“Tommy! Hey.” Gordon greeted. “So, uhh, this storm—my car ate absolute shit, man. I don’t think we’re gonna make it out there for a good while.”

“I was—we were so worried, Mr. Freeman!” Tommy exclaimed. “The snow started coming down hard, and we hadn’t heard from you at all! We were starting to wonder if we should call someone...”

“Yeah, I guess you had good reason to worry.” Gordon told him with an exhausted laugh. “But we’re both okay. Someone picked us up, at least, so we’re not completely stranded.”

“That’s good.” Tommy said with a small sigh. “How far are you away from here?”

“I think probably only, like...an hour, hour and a half, if it weren’t snowing like this?” Gordon guessed. “Once the storm clears out, I guess we can figure out what to do from there.”

Gordon heard distant chatter on the other end, his friends clearly debating what to do.

“No, it’s too—these roads are too dangerous in a storm like this.” He could hear Tommy saying firmly. “I don’t know about—I guess I wouldn’t know your car, Dr. Coomer, but I know the 1995 Honda Civic isn’t recommended for snow like this. I wouldn’t guess your car is, either.”

“Yeah, hey, if you’re talking about coming and getting us, don’t even think about it.” Gordon said. “We’ve already got one crashed car between all of us, we don’t need another.”

“We’ll just...you should call us when the snow stops.” Tommy told Gordon. “Are you sure you’ll be okay until then?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.” Gordon said reassuringly. “Stay warm out there, okay? Don’t...”

Gordon paused at the sound of the back door opening, revealing a heavily bundled form covered in several layers of slightly frozen snow that cracked and slipped off the swishy fabric of the person’s coat, followed by a snow-covered border collie. They reminded Gordon of a couple of powdered donuts like this, or maybe a sled dog and their owner just coming back inside from an arduous journey. The dog stopped dead in its tracks, craning its neck and tilting its head a little as it looked at Gordon curiously; Gordon braced himself to be jumped on, but Emmet made a clicking noise with his tongue, and the dog immediately sat down. The mysterious person’s hood was up, obscuring their face from Gordon as they shook off the snow from their dark blue coat.

“Hey, how’re the cows?” Emmet asked, his casual voice betrayed by the way he anxiously drummed his fingers on the counter.

The voice that came out from under the mountain of snow stood by the back door made Gordon’s stomach drop. “Don’t try to milk ‘em now, man, all you’ll get is ice cream. Haha.”

Emmet let out a strained laugh as the receiver slipped out from Gordon’s hand. It clattered to the counter, finally catching the person’s attention; two gloved hands pulled the hood of the coat off, revealing a furred hunter’s hat that almost matched the color of the Black Mesa security guard helmets. Gordon couldn’t mistake those distinctive eyes, no matter how badly he wanted to disregard the person stood in front of him entirely.

“Benry?” Gordon shouted.

“Gordon?” Benry replied, looking exactly as shocked as Gordon felt.

“What the fuck are you doing here?!” Gordon demanded, turning his body slightly to hold Joshua away from Benry protectively.

“What do you mean? This is my house.” Benry said, furrowing his brow as he shucked off his coat and stepped in front of the dog, like he was creating a barrier between them. “The hell are you doing here, man?”

“Wh—I don’t—but...” Gordon struggled, finding himself at a loss for words for a moment. “Your house? But—no, no, that doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter whose house this is! I thought you were dead!”

“Uhh, yeah, that was real fuckin’ mean of you, by the way.” Benry said flatly. “I was trying to tell you shit, you didn’t even listen, you just killed me for like, no reason.”

Gordon laughed incredulously. “No reason? No reason? Dude, you were the one who like...Jesus, I don’t even know where to start! You caused so many problems, what the hell am I supposed to even say right now?”

“So this is Gordon?” Emmet’s mom asked, stepping around the counter to stand between Gordon and Benry.

“Christ, I knew it.” Emmet sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Figures this’d happen...”

“You knew it was him, and you still brought him here?” Benry asked, crossing his arms with an offended look.

“What was I supposed to do? He was stranded out there with a toddler, Ben.”

Benry grunted, looking down at the floor and kicking his boots off. “Man, I don’t even wanna see you right now...” He grumbled.

“You don’t wanna see me?” Gordon demanded. “I should be saying that to you! You tried to kill me!”

“You did kill me.” Benry pointed out bitterly.

“And on any other day, I’d kick you out of my house for killing my baby boy.” Emmet’s mom said, looking at Gordon with a firm expression. “But...I guess I can’t do that with a good conscience, with that storm...”

“Baby boy?" Gordon echoed with a baffled laugh. “Listen, I don’t think you even understand who—or what—this guy even is!”

“I understand perfectly well! He’s my son.” She replied, putting a hand to Benry’s shoulder. Benry looked away, muttering something under his breath as she did.

Gordon could only just stare at Benry in awe for a moment.

“Right...brother...” Gordon murmured, looking between Emmet and Benry. “So...this is your family?”

“Yeah, man.” Benry replied, picking at a stray thread on his hoodie. “Didn’t have anywhere to go after you killed me, so...”

Looking at Benry’s mom and brother, he couldn’t help but feel he wasn’t finding a strong resemblance—Emmet and his mother had a very similar, round face type and dark brown skin, contrasted by Benry’s slightly more gaunt look and paler skin. Maybe he was trying to pick this situation apart too much, though; it was possible he took after another parent much more, or perhaps he was adopted. It just felt surreal, after what he’d seen Benry become, to see him standing in a regular house with a seemingly regular family.

“Are-...are you not hearing this?” Gordon asked Benry’s mom earnestly. “He’s just openly admitting he came back to life after being killed, like—does this not concern you at all?”

“The only thing I’m concerned about is the fact that you killed him in the first place.” Benry’s mom said.

“I-...” Gordon shook his head before stopping. If this was his mom, what did that mean? He wondered. Was she some sort of alien or whatever Benry was, too? Was he in a house full of mysterious, humanoid creatures? He let out a quiet breath and turned back to the phone, still left on the counter. He picked up the receiver slowly and put it to his ear. “...Tommy? You still there?”

“Yeah, what’s happening over there, Mr. Freeman?” Tommy asked.

“There’s, uh...” Gordon swallowed hard, his palm growing sweaty as he came to terms with what his situation very well may be. “There’s no way you can come get us, can you...?”

“I—we already said that the roads are too dangerous like this.” Tommy said. “Where are you right now? You said someone picked you up, right?”

“Uh...” Gordon didn’t know what to say, anymore. He’d clearly already agitated Benry and his family—he might as well be walking on hot coals, now. “Yeah. Yeah, someone picked us up. We’re in a house right now, so...no chance of freezing to death, for now...”

“Is there something wrong?” Tommy asked anxiously. “Should we call someone to—I mean, I don’t know who we’d call...”

“Just...stay here or whatever.” Benry interjected. Gordon turned to Benry, watching him stare at the floor with his arms still crossed. “Don’t gotta go make Tommy die on his way out here.”

Emmet sighed as he nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We don’t need anyone getting hurt over this.”

Gordon couldn’t help a grimace. So, what were his options? Risk his friends’ lives so they could come rescue him, risk his own and his son’s lives staying with these people who ranged from definitely to almost certainly not human, or risk his own and his son’s lives trying to rough it out in the snow to get somewhere safer? For however frustrated they all looked, though, at least Benry seemed to be on the same page for once, not wanting to talk to Gordon—maybe as long as he and Joshua laid low while they were here, they’d make it just long enough to meet up with the others.

“Fuck.” Gordon exhaled quietly before speaking into the phone again. “O-...okay. Yeah, Tommy, I guess I’ll see you later, once the storm dies down.”

“Okay, Mr. Freeman. You stay safe.”

Gordon gently hung up the phone, staring down at it for a few moments to avoid the inevitability of acknowledging Benry and his family again. Using his newly freed hand to pat Joshua, he looked up at them again, clearing his throat nervously.

“So, um...h-how long’s this storm supposed to last?” Gordon asked slowly.

Benry just eyed Gordon before walking away, Benry’s mom circling around the counter again to get back to the stove. Emmet didn’t look pleased to be left to talk to Gordon himself; where did he get off, acting like a victim here? Gordon wondered with frustration. As he opened his mouth to reply, Benry paused on the way to the staircase, turning back to look at the dog.

“C’mon.” He said, patting his thigh.

The dog looked to Benry before turning back to Gordon, letting out three low barks.

“Yeah, I know, I see him.” Benry replied flatly, as if he fully understood exactly what the dog was saying.

Emmet sighed, standing up straight and nodding at the dog. “Go ahead. Be nice.”

The dog quickly stood up, approaching to sniff Gordon cautiously. Gordon couldn’t help a small snicker, holding out his hand to allow her to smell before he gave her a cautious pat on the head.

“Is she okay with kids?” Gordon asked Emmet.

“Yeah, she loves them.” Emmet said, so Gordon set Joshua down, holding him by the shoulders as the dog sniffed him and Joshua pet her.

“That’s enough, Beef. C’mere.” Benry said suddenly, patting his thigh again.

Gordon couldn’t resist a snort as Benry walked away with the dog in tow. “Beef? Is that her name?”

“...Yeah. Benry picked it out.” Emmet said, brushing his fingers through his hair. “Anyway, as for the storm, it’s gonna be a huge pileup out there. To be honest with you, Gordon, I don’t think you’re gonna make it wherever you’re going for a while. Not from out here, anyway—these highways get plowed eventually, at least, but between that and the fact your car’s probably gonna get buried out there, it’s gonna be a hell of an effort to get out of here.”

“Fuck...” Gordon muttered again. “...Okay. Um...I-I’ll—we’ll just stay out of you guys’ way...”

Joshua gasped excitedly at the sound of a ceramic tap on the counter. Gordon followed Joshua’s gaze, finding Benry’s mom sliding a little mug of hot chocolate towards them.

“Oh. Shit, uhh—thanks.” Gordon said tentatively, picking the mug up to hand to Joshua. “What do we say, Josh?”

Joshua grasped the mug eagerly, trying to gulp it down, only to spill some on himself. He let out a surprised sound at the temperature, but at least it had sort of been sitting out for a minute, meaning it wasn’t dangerously hot. Gordon sighed, pulling the mug away.

“That’s why we’re careful with hot chocolate, dude.” Gordon scolded gently, pulling his sleeve down to wipe hot chocolate off his face. “Now you’re all sticky—well, stickier after the marshmallows, too. I could use you as a lint roller right now.”

“How old is he?” Benry’s mom asked as she handed him a damp paper towel.

“He just turned three.” Gordon replied, trying to keep the unease out of his voice as he cleaned Joshua’s face and hands off the best he could.

“What’s with the, uhhh...?” Emmet indicated vaguely at the gnome.

“I wish I could fucking tell you, man.” Gordon sighed, setting down the paper towel and returning the mug to Joshua. “Careful this time, okay?”

There was another brief awkward silence, Gordon occupying himself by making sure Joshua didn’t make a huge mess with the hot chocolate. He stole a sip for himself after a moment, eyes widening at the taste.

“Wow, this is some really good hot chocolate.” Gordon said with shock.

“Yeah, we use our own milk.” Emmet explained, nodding towards the back door that Benry had come in through.

“...Speaking of which, I’d better go check up on the cows.” Benry’s mom said, pulling her sleeves down and crossing her arms in preparation to head outside.

“Mom, c’mon, it’s too cold out, I’m sure Benry got them settled down just fine.” Emmet said, intercepting his mom before she could reach the door. “I don’t want you to get sick again...”

Gordon watched them curiously as Emmet ushered his mom towards the stairs, where she gave Gordon one last glance before she headed up. Emmet sighed, clapping his hands and rubbing them together.

“Well...I’d better show you where you guys can get settled in, too.” Emmet said, leading Gordon upstairs behind his mom.

The door at the very end of the hall was just barely closing by the time they reached the top; the door across from it was open already, Emmet leading them through it and turning on the light for them. There was a large, comfortable looking bed with a chair to the side, a bedside table, and an intricate, old-looking wardrobe. Gordon set Joshua down, letting him clamber excitedly up onto the bed.

“Um—thanks.” Gordon said, looking to Emmet. “For picking us up, and letting us stay. It’s just the absolute craziest coincidence you happen to be Benry’s brother. I don’t know what he’s told you about me, but...well, we’ll be outta here as soon as we can.”

Emmet sighed, running his fingers over the stubble on his chin and leaning against the doorframe. “It’s no problem, Gordon. I, uh...yeah. From what I hear from Benny, sounds like a lot happened to you guys. Just...”

Emmet paused, shaking his head and reaching for the doorhandle. “Bathroom’s down over there, across the hall. If you wanna take a bath or a shower to warm up, you’re welcome to.”

Gordon nodded, giving Emmet a quiet “thanks” as he left, shutting the door behind him. Gordon turned back to the room as Joshua flopped around on the bed. There were a few framed pictures on the walls; one showed Benry’s mom knelt down with a calf, another showing a couple more cows with their dog—somehow, Gordon found himself surprised to see actual, real photos of cows, as if he’d step out into their barn to find weird alien creatures they were simply trying to pass off as cows. Lastly, Gordon stopped at a small photo, showing Benry’s mom much younger than she was now with two kids. Gordon picked up the photo as he sat down on the edge of the bed. The older kid looked about ten, with long, wavy black hair and covered in dirt. The other child was probably about 6 or 7, wearing blue overalls and black hair pulled back in a ponytail, holding the hands of both family members tight. Logically, there was no mistaking who was who, but Gordon had to set the photo down before he thought about it too hard. Looking at it brought up too many questions.

It wasn’t very late, yet, but Gordon wished it was—he just wanted to put Joshua down to sleep, allowing him peace and quiet to watch the door vigilantly. Instead, Joshua was hyped up from the hot chocolate, and they were sitting on the bed across from each other playing a game they frequently revisited, where they took turns asking the gnome questions. Despite his reservations about the gnome, Gordon was usually eager to play this game when Joshua brought it up, hoping to find some sort of definitive proof for himself and his friends that this thing was more than just an average garden gnome.

“What’s your favorite...shape?” Joshua asked the gnome before pressing the button.

The gnome made some strange wheezing sounds before saying any actual words. “I’m hungry! You need to feed me or I will die!”

Gordon snorted, picking up the gnome for his turn. “What’s two plus three?”

“Stop! You are hurting my brain!”

Gordon and Joshua both laughed at that, Gordon jolting at a little clatter just outside their room. He stared at the shifting of shadows in the gap underneath their door; someone seemed to be walking away, having left something behind. After it was quiet enough for Gordon to decide they must be relatively alone again, he set the gnome aside and stood, opening the door just a little to peek out. As predicted, nobody was there. He looked down at the floor, finding a tray with a couple bowls of soup, some bread and crackers, more hot chocolate, and what looked like a pile of spare, folded clothes. Gordon picked everything up carefully, peering down the hall before closing the door quietly.

“Well...guess we get dinner after all.” Gordon said to Joshua, sitting on the edge of the bed and balancing the tray across his lap. It was truly a Herculean effort, getting a toddler to eat soup without spilling it all over someone’s guest bed—especially Joshua of all toddlers—but they managed to eat their dinner with minimal damage, and Gordon set the tray aside on the wardrobe. He unfolded the clothes next, finding adult-sized pajamas and even tiny, toddler-sized clothes—they might be a little big on Joshua, but at least they were clean. The tiny black t-shirt was worn and faded; it clearly used to have some screenprinted design on it, but was lost to time at this point.

Gordon caught himself holding the clothes close, considering taking Joshua to the bathroom Emmet had pointed out and getting warmed up with a bath, like he suggested. Emmet seemed nice enough, anyway—if it was just him, Gordon might not have felt so threatened in this house. Benry was still here, though, Gordon reminded himself. There was no way he was going to risk some kind of real life enactment of the shower scene from Psycho. He folded the pajamas back up and set them aside, pulling the covers on the bed down and urging Joshua to get comfortable. It took some effort to get Joshua to sleep, but once he was down, Gordon propped himself up comfortably on a pile of pillows and watched the door carefully.

[next]

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panini-legs · 3 years

Text

Brain gone. *POOF*

Here are sum Benrey drawingz 2 fill da void :))

#hlvrai #hlvrai benrey #benrey #where’s your passport mr feetman #gordon feetman #actual insanity

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fallmutual · 3 years

Video

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hlvrai live action official cast!! (big long transcript under the cut)

[Start Transcript:

Holly: gamer212000 in chat asks, “Half-Life 2 VR But The AI Is Self Aware when?” Uh, didn’t’cha hear? They announced they were doing that in 2027.

Wayne: We’re doing the first one again.

Mike: We got actors this time.

Wayne: Yeah, we paid some actors. (laughs)

Holly: Yeah, we’re hiring, uh…uh…

Wayne: That’s actually a great idea for a bit.

Holly: Donald Glover.

Wayne: We’ve joked about doing like, let’s just do a stream where we do Half-Life VR again, like we just— We, we like, transcribe everything we said into a script, and we like, re-perform it, uh, and see how that goes. But let’s just pay some people that aren’t us to be in it, and see how that goes.

Mike: Live theater adaptation.

Wayne: We’re GOING HOME!

Holly: I wish that I knew— I wish that I knew anyone famous enough that would be down to do that.

Wayne (reading chat): “That sounds awful”? Yeah it does, and you would watch it.

Mike: (laughs)

Wayne: All of you would watch it.

Holly: (laughs)

Wayne: I don’t even need to ask you, I know you would. (laughs)

Wayne (reading chat): Yuri Lowenthal? Aw, man. That’d be awesome.

Mike: It’d be fucked up. As Gordon?? (laughs)

Mike (cut off): —yeah.

Holly: Who’s the guy who voices everyone in Dota 2?

Holly: Nolan North! Nolan North.

Wayne: Nolan North, yeah.

Holly: Nolan North will play, uh, Bubby.

Wayne: (laughs)

Mike: (laughs)  

Holly: Uh, and…and Jennifer Hale will play Dr. Coomer.

Holly: We should get Lance Reddick to play Benrey.

Scorpy: (laughs) I’m seeing a lot of people say Adam Sandler.

Mike: (laughing) As Benny???

Wayne: (laughs)

Holly: No nononononono no. No no no. No! We just said—

Wayne: No, they’re just saying Adam.

Holly: —Lance Reddick is Benny.

Mike: Lance Reddick is Benny.

Holly: Adam Sandler would be like, I dunno, the VOX or something.

Wayne (imitating Reddick): Gordon, I require passports.

Holly (imitating Reddick): Mr. Freeman, I’m going to need to see your passport.

Wayne (imitating): Mr. Freeman, I’m going to need at least 200 Crucible Coins immediately.

Holly (imitating): Gordon, come home with me tonight and we’ll play Heavenly Sword.

Wayne: (laughs)

Baaulp: I want Gilbert Gottfried as Tommy.

Holly & Scorpy: (laugh)

Mike: Your call.

Holly (imitating Gottfried): I got a desk drawer full of Tic Tacs!

Wayne: (laughs)

Holly: (laughs)

  Wayne (imitating Reddick): Gordon, you need to stop playing Gambit right now.

Holly: (wheezing laughter)

Wayne (imitating Todd Haberkorn): Howdy, sistah, we can use ropes!

Holly: Fuuuck.

Wayne: We get Todd Haberkorn.

Holly: Which famous actor would we pay to play Sunkist? The dog. The JPEG of a dog.

Baaulp: Vin Diesel.

Wayne: Yeah, we get Vin Diesel to play with the Wowozela.

Scorpy: (vocalizing)

  Mike: Vin Diesel’s already in it, he appears!

Holly: Right, yeah, in the credits we straight-up have real Vin Diesel.

Wayne: We need someone to play Vin Diesel. We need another celebrity to play Vin Diesel.

Baaulp: He’s got— He’s gonna use all that Groot— He’s gonna— He’s got all that Groot experience.

Holly: Okay, so, we get Vin Diesel to play the dog, and we get Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to play Vin Diesel.

Mike: Okay.

Scorpy: That works.

Holly: (laughs)

Wayne: Where is my dog?

Mike: I’m googling “G-Man Half-Life movie” to see what the people think.

Holly: Uh, Don— Donald Glover.

Wayne: Usually my dog would be pissing in this field…

Scorpy: I want— I want Steve Harvey somewhere.

Holly: Steve Harvey can play…the, the marine guy, the soldier guy.

Scorpy: You’ve been a bad, bad, bad, bad boy.

Mike, Wayne, & Holly: (laugh)

End Transcript]

#video #speaking descent #hlvrai #radio tv solutions #i don't know why the audio is out of sync....i'm so sorry #i hate editing so much it's unreal

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hiraya-sa-dilim · 3 years

Text

as someone generally unfamiliar with the franchise, some character writing stuff i liked in the batman (2022)

the rorscach fucking journal montage. all monologs are corny by nature but as the movie progresses, you see bruce's match him well, introduces him accurately instead of exagerating his character or misleading the audience just for a sense of drama as journal-writing scenes often do

selina on the phone call with annika and how she comforts her coming home. i can't tell if she was romantic with her but whatever the answer is it's clear selina loves her Immensely

when bruce looks away from the binoculars because selina was getting dressed. he looks pissed that he might be missing out on information, but he keeps his eyes away

selina being scared of batman during their first encounter. she fights with all she's got and when she fails, she doesn't try to bluff or distract him with seduction, she makes a defensive excuse and backs away with her shoulders up

selina less than a minute later pawing at his arm for the passport

bruce realizing he doesn't know what to say at some point and resorting to "you have a lot of cats." fucking pathetic and we love him for that.

bruce replaying the part of the recording where selina gets upset with him. man's Obsessed over how sorry he is that that went bad and is probably thinking up ways he could've changed things

bruce all prickly when alfred teases him for it

bruce "i don't want your cufflinks, alfred" wayne already having his hand out for said cufflinks. say he's not your dad all you like, but you're definitely his son

when martinez cheerfully greets bruce at the funeral with a "mr. wayne, owo!!" and you can See bruce judge the man for calling him a clown just a few nights prior for a split second

that scene in the police precinct where batman's losing his shit surrounded by a swarm of cops, God. he's the fucking batman and he's taller and stronger than everyone on there, he's mostly bulletproof too, but they surround him and they're the fucking police and it's fucking Scary for him and the audience

when batman stops at the precipice of the building with a scream and theres a close up of his face all "jesus FUCK i don't wanna die. this scares me and i don't wanna die." and when he crash lands he's Loud about it, expressive with his pain. and then he Limps away from the scene. this entire sequence would have been unnecessary if he handled it as batman all cool and smooth and hero-like, but bruce's vulnerability shining through the mask over base physical pain is a great way to show character

i want gordon to level up from going jeez, man to shit, dog every other sentence he says to the fucking batman himself in the next movies. man's not afraid of this costumed freak and the way he talks to him not just expresses that but makes way for comedy and chemistry, two birds in one. good of the scriptwriters for taking that shot

batman not at all reacting defensively to penguin telling him upfront that he's got it wrong and just immediately getting on with the case with the new information he has. he made a not exactly plot-pertinent mistake any high schooler would have made--an impossibility for protagonists in run of the mill superhero films--and then acknowledges it in the least macho i'm-better-than-you way. he was embarassed by it, but doesn't use violence or agression to cover up or silence the penguin

and Then batman and gordon wordlessly leaving the penguin to waddle. professional to downright petty in under five minutes. That's fucking funny, That's a great way to show duality

selina looking close to tears as she tells batman the truth, and not to emotionally disarm him. again unbecoming on a supposed femme fatale, but very real on a girl who's had to deal with injustice her whole life

selina just Loving Annika. she becomes intwined in batman's story, she did everything she did throughout the movie Because Her Friend/Lover Was Hurt and later on Had To Be Found And Rescued. she didn't need to recite that spiel about caring for people less important than police deputies and crime lords, and straight white men. the moment she sneaks out to steal annika's passport back, selina is already the most human out of everyone in the movie

batman's reaction to selina saying the riddler might have been doing the right thing. seeing unsureness under the mask and all that eyeliner is unnerving, because at this point in the film, they've already established that the batman and bruce are Supposed to be two different people

bruce attacking alfred with accusations the second the man wakes up. like let him at least maybe have a bite to eat first my dude, man's nearly fucking died. but that shows you how angry bruce is even though sorrow had been the most obvious emotion you see on him a few minutes before

"that's a you thing." gordon's not afraid of batman when everybody else is, and having him defy expectation so bluntly (and bruce very briefly looking disgruntled) makes their exchanges hilarious

the scratch marks on the man on the roof's face (forgot his name). aesthetic as hell chef's kiss, but it's not the most damage selina could have done. she could have pierced his eyeballs or ripped his ears out instead, but he has scratches over the cheek and one eye. these are hurried marks you can make without thinking. she found him and instead of strategically doing him dirty for her needs, inflicts whatever pain she could give in the fastest time possible. see how mad she is over annika's death?

when bruce not yet in costume knocks on the door to the club and then just. sneaks in and locks the door behind him. no need for superhero skills for that one. it's something second-graders do for fun. on him, with everything you know about his skills and shenaniganerry long since in place, it's pretty fucking Funny

"do you know how hard you're making this for me? my own flesh and blood?" that is a serial rapist/abuser's line right there--YOU are giving ME a bad time here, How Dare You--and hearing falcone say that in this context (strangling his own daughter lol) really screams EVIL in the audience's face. subtle with how few words he needs and simple line delivery, yet on the nose. fucking disgusting and effective

some dude: "sir, he shouldn't be here, this is a crime scene." batman: "*looks at his security police officer to say i will throw a fucking tantrum if you kick me out and it's gonna be so embarassing you mark my words*" gordon: "he has fucking gloves"

batman--or maybe bruce--closing the door to the batcage again after taking the envelope. if he wanted, he couldve picked the bat up and freed it out the window. it's not immediately obvious evidence and even if it was, the batman can do whatever the fuck he likes. but he closes the door on the trapped thing. this is his professional, don't-get-attached, stay-emotionally-neutral code shining through no matter the circustance and also reflects how he has willingly trapped himself inside the notion of what he should be (vengance etc). neat!

i just. love the riddler's asthma. a natural and constant tool to show you how vulnerable he is even with all the murder going on. a bit on the nose all things considered but paul dano does it so well

batman's expression hardly changing but his body language spitting how RELIEVED he is at riddler saying "we" after the whole bruce wayne rant. hella in character, huge props to rpatz for all that Subtlety

riddler's "we're not so different with our shared mask kink, you and i" making batman freak the fuck out because holy shit, i don't wanna be this guy anymore. and again, you hardly see it, it's all in the eyes, not in the face

martinez, the most vocal among the cops over his disapproval of batman being there, half-heartedly shooing the man away from the evidence. the mumbled small talk. the Disgruntledness. alone in a room with some weirdo in a cape, he's Small and kinda Scared without his mates to back him up just in case he pokes the bear to waking. sweet and funny as hell

bella real going up to the front to calm the arena down. i think what she said about making a stand could be a little less direct, like instead of saying "the problem with This City" In Particular, she couldve went for a more general quip (maybe something along the lines of "i'm the mayor, aren't i?" or "hiding isn't what they elected me for" or some other cheesy but less This is gotham so decent response to crisis is more extraordinary than if this happened anywhere else as if a city-wide flood like this couldn't easily be an irl situation that forces leaders into cowardice or courage). but anyways, when she returns alone to the mic, you can't help but wish all politicians were like that.

actually, scratch that. this scene would work best if she just glares at gordon then goes off.

i also like how nobody stops to listen to her. for all her human spirit, no good intention is going to make a dent on instinctive fear and panic too far gone

the "Real Change" display thing blacking out screen by screen as batman fights with "vengeance" on top of it--battles it out with himself. ouGHFF

bruce panicking over how he almost died and selina sympathetically crying as she comforts him. look at all his fear! look at all her empathy and love! nothing to see here folks, just two dudes being human. 10/10

bruce's aa what the fuck not again let me rest for 20 fucking seconds look when selina gets pulled away just before he goes into where the fuck are my drugs, it's batman time mode. he's so tired of fighting and being relied on, so tired of being batman, but he pushes on because he cares for selina + believes being bruce isn't going to save anyone

gordon not even fucking touching batman to get him to stop beating some poor fuck to death. he just goes "hey, asshole!" or something like that and bruce resurfaces because it's safe to be himself around gordon. gordon won't let him get hurt even when he's not being batman. gordon is his friend.

everyone frightened of batman in the dark and the flood, and the orphan boy reaching for his hand first, because he's a dumb kid who doesn't kow any better. the mayor seeing how the kid is not immediately mauled or anything and saying fuck it, i can trust my people with this guy; they will follow my lead, and i will follow him. again, human fear is the primary factor in this scene, which makes everyone's decision to trust the batman so big and important

someone already said it, but this movie ends with batman in the mud among the people, not alone and looking down on them. he's still a head taller than them and goofy in the cape, he's still different, but he walks level with them on equal footing in more ways than one. powerful visual storytelling

bruce looking overwhelemed coming into physical contact with another human longer than it usually takes for him to hit someone. this injured girl trusting him is almost too much, but he pushes himself to hold her long enough so she gets comforted and assured enough to let go. it's difficult, obviously. and he goes through with it

when bruce stops to look up at the kid disappearing in the distance instead of doing the practical thing and move on to assisting the next rescuee. he has always cared for gotham but never actually let it into his heart--the exact same way he used to see himself and his associates. now all that's about to change. the sun rises on another bleak but nevertheless new day

the almost kiss between bruce and selina. 🥺🥺 he's begging please enable me to be weak and myself and not alone. now that he knows being bruce just might be his biggest asset to being batman, he allows himself to acknowledge that he Is a stray and maybe acting on that instead of denying it would be good for him. i still think this is more of an act of selfishness than strategy, though, which is such a healthy step in character development...

...and yet selina pulls away. we see that so far the greatest trait she has in all of this isn't her capacity for love, it's her decision to act on that love. for annika and her mother, initially, and now for batman (and maybe without knowing it, bruce). but now we see that maybe she hadn't been as fully in control of her choices after all. maybe instead all that love had been intinct, a pull she couldn't help but heed. and she knows letting someone she has grown to care for closer is going to stop her from getting on with her life finally out of the city that caused her so much pain. she emotionally cannot kiss bruce (and then say) goodbye. she doesn't even trust herself to speak when he asks her to take care of herself. so she nips what would have been a new beginning for them, and the further extension of her hurting, in the bud before she gets swept up in the current of her heart

not only do we see this whole new aspect to her character in her final scene, selina treats us to another by making her first selfish decision--acting for herself instead of for a loved one. that's how you make a well-rounded character: by giving them, even when their story ends, fertile potential for more.

AND overall, this selina kyle is such a wonderful subversion of the woman-sidekick-in-love trope. she is earnest, she drives the plot forward because of how much she cares, but all this goes out to her friend/lover and mother, not the hero. and when there is finally a chance to redirect that love to the one "s u p p o s e d" to have it, she steps away.

the little motorcycle race bruce and selina have when they could have both just kept pace instead of one-upping each other. completely unnecessary but it's one last show of friendliness between them. i could imagine them both grinning inside their helmets.

how they both pause at the crossroads to look at each other one last time. 🥺🥺🥺🥺

this has been a mostly closed reading from someone who's only exposure to batman was the first two christian bale movies and the ocassional mutual's post. couldn't tell if i would have enjoyed this movie more or less if i knew more about the franchise

overall, the writing in this movie isn't perfect, but i appreciate how the protagonists aren't paragons like in typical superhero movies. the batman (2022) makes a good study for character depictions of humanity and heroism and it's definitely an example i'll follow for my writing.

#the batman #bruce wayne #selina kyle #catwoman #robert pattinson #zoe kravitz #lets be real here these two are the best parts of the movie #writing #hacks #ako #post #matt reeves #peter craig #2022 #editing this as i let it further simmer in my mind #rpatz #mine

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