#has like three filming locations I swear

[marzipanandminutiae]

The Handmaid’s Tale: this is an event venue in Washington DC!

Me: that is very clearly Casa Loma

Me: I can recognize the hallway that they also used as the hotel hallway in Crimson Peak

Me: and I have that stained glass ceiling in my blog header

Me: you’re not fooling anyone

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

why them??

Whenever we visit a new location, there's an in-game reason given for why it's these specific four characters chosen to go! I was eager to see why Vil had Jamil, Azul, and Ace come along with him to an acclaimed film festival... and I was not disappointed 😂

***Tapis Rouge in the Shaftlands spoilers under the cut!!***

So as it turns out, Vil has been invited to the International Film Festival in Fairest City (a significant location for the entertainment and beauty industries). He’s going to promote a movie he’s in that’s releasing next year.

The original plan was for the Film Research Club to accompany Vil and take the chance to learn more about movie productions. However, the club is in the middle of filming for their own project and a change in weather has led to their shoot next week being cancelled. The filming they would have done next week now has to be done this week, so Vil’s club members cannot go on the trip. (Vil himself still has to attend because he is contractually obligated to.)

The other NRC students start to argue over who Vil should take in his club members’ places. The people vying for spots include:

Cater (because the Fairest City is so trendy and always popular on Magicam)

Azul (many famous brands are sold in Fairest City; he has a financial interest in this research)

Lilia (has visited the city before, but never the film festival)

Jade (the city is close to old mines, which he is interested in)

Ace (he loves the idea of going to a fashionable city and “tasting” the celebrity world)

Rook (a lover of movies and dramas; he is curious about the movie studios)

Floyd, Epel, Deuce, Grim (lol it sounds fun to them; Epel also says he has not traveled a lot so he wants to go this time)

Ruggie (FANCY FOOD)

Jamil (wants to take advantage of Vil’s presence to see behind-the-scenes things they don’t normally show; he usually prepares snacks for when Kalim watches movies at one of three at-home theaters but hasn’t had the time to really appreciate the films for what they are himself)

DKJLBHASILYFAYFVQEFIFQEPI; I love the added detail of Jamil telling the others they're inconveniencing their senpai but then Azul cuts in and implies the behavior is a manipulation tactic to show off to Vil how reliable Jamil can be (thus increasing his odds of going while he still maintains his "humility")... Those two just cannot stop getting at each other's throats, I swear 💀 (In part 2, they continue the pettiness when Ace comments that they’re both quick to tease him together, so do they actually get along? Jamil says no but Azul says yes… and the two of them are STILL bullying each other about their personalities once they get their new outfits. Truly not a dull moment with them…)

BUT THIS IS THE REAL STINGER

So since Vil can only pick 5 people to take with him, he says they'll have to prove that they somehow excel over the others. It's then that Azul cooks up a scheme on the spot and recruits Jamil and Ace for it: a lottery! Azul proposes it, has Jamil pitch in, and has Ace prepare the drawings. THIS WORKS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS BECAUSE:

Azul can present the idea as "random" and "fair". This makes him appear like a kind problem solver not wanting to give anyone, not even himself, a leg up.

It would come off as shady if he gets one of the twins (known to be his henchman) to agree with him... so who does Azul get to back him up? Jamil, someone from another dorm, and someone who was passive aggressive with him earlier. This creates a false illusion that others beyond Azul and his dorm believe in the "fairness" of the lottery.

Ace has deft fingers; he a cut a deck of cards--and he can easily rig a lottery since he's in cahoots with Azul, the guy who suggested it to begin with.

This creates a situation where Azul, Jamil, AND Ace get to go to the event. These bitches are mutually benefitting from being collectively sneaky (According to Ace, Yuu and Grim pulled the remaining two slots by coincidence, so they just happen to be "lucky") 🤡 AND THE FUNNIEST PART OF IT ALL IS THAT VIL SUSPECTED THEY WOULD PULL THIS SHIT, BUT HE LET IT HAPPEN ANYWAY SINCE IT'S TECHNICALLY STILL THEM DEMONSTRATING THEIR TALENTS TO HIM...

Truly, bravo... That deserved a standing ovation, gentlemen 👏

[natailiatulls07]

Haunted house

Oscar Piastri x female!reader

Summary - McLaren are doing a haunted house halloween video and Oscar manages to rope in his girlfriend

Warning - Blood (fake), swearing, chainsaw (fake), clowns, spiders and a mention of the exorcist??

A/n - Another first timer today!! I love Oscar!! 🤍

23 Halloween season

-

When Oscar told me that McLaren were doing a Halloween challenge video for their YouTube channel and had offered Oscar to rope me in, I was excited. Growing up I Ioved Halloween; dressing up, getting free sweets and watching spooky movies, they were just so exciting to me.

Naturally I grew up but yet I still held that love for the holiday. So that’s why I agree and now I’m in the passenger seat of Oscars car on our way to the secret location.

Every so often he was gently rub his thumb across my thigh, we were have a light conversation between ourselves.

Eventually, Oscar pulled in a car park when the McLaren social media team and Lando were stood around just talking and most likely waiting for our arrival. “Ah the couple has arrived!” The Brit was the first to notice us and announce our arrival.

Getting out the car, I was grateful that I decided to wear a large cream wool sweater because the weather felt nippy. “Hey dude!” Oscar and Lando greeted each other with a quick fist bump. It was soon followed by a quick side hug between me and Lando.

-

The McLaren pr manager was quick to fill us in with the details of the video; we all would be going into the haunted house, go through the different sections and then come back out at the end. Simple as that.

At this point though, thats when my nerves kicked in. I started to get anxious but I didn't want to show that emotion, knowing that if I did Oscar would make me not do it.

The team started to film, before Lando and Oscar explaining the video to the viewers. "Hey guys! So today me, Lando and Y/n are going to do this super fun haunted house!" There's sarcasm in his voice when he says 'super fun', which makes both me and Lando laugh together.

Lando manages to compost himself. "There will be multiple different sections to the house, however we don't know what the sections are and what they're like" I look over to the entrance of the house and cringe. "So let's go!"

We all start to walk towards the entrance with the camera man behind us. "Ladies first..." As if insync, Lando and Oscar move to allow me to walk in first which I quickly say thank you to and walk inside despite my nerves.

Once inside, it's pitch black. I can hear distant noises which I cannot describe, foreign noises. A hand goes to grasp mine and I jump at the sudden contact. "It's me, sweetheart" Oscars australian accent comes from behind me in the darkness.

"Oh god...we're two steps in and Oscars already being all lovey dovey" The Brit from what sounds like behind Oscar complains.

"You're such a child!" Oscar moans as to which laugh along with him.

After walking about five steps through the darkness, we come to another door. Making our way through the door, I'm greeted with walls decorated in thousands of tiny orange, blue and green glow in the dark dotes. "Oh this is cute!" I comment but immediately regret my words when a glow in the dark clown starts jumping out on us.

"AH FUCK!" Lando shouts, even though he is the furthest back out of the three of us. The bright clown laughs hideously and starts making his way towards me.

I'm suddenly pull back by my hand, the hand that Oscar has ahold of. Colliding with his chest I feel him quickly moving us past the clown onto the next section.

Just as we made it past the clown, the two of us hear Lando again. "You ain't scary bitch!" There's a pause. "AH Wait fuck, maybe you are!"

Oscar leans his head down, so that his mouth is next to my ear. "Are you okay?" He whispers, and in that moment I feel alone and disconnected from the world with him.

Nodding my head. "Yeah, it was cute and then that fucker came. But yeah I'm okay" I lean up to give him a quick kiss on the lips before looking around at the next section.

There's a bloody operation table, laid on top is a little girl dressed in a long white gown. Her hair long, black and extremely tangled. Around us, looks like an old operating room yet the walls, much like the table, is covered in crimson blood.

You know instantly when Lando has entered because of his uncontrolable reaction. "EW! WTF" I find myself laughing at his childish reaction to the section, Oscar laughs along with me.

Lights start flashing and we all turn to the girl on the table. Noticing how she is now slowly moving up into a sitting up position. "Oh and she lives, just fucking brilliant!" McLarens British driver comments sarcastically.

Once she sits up, her waist turns so she is now facing us. "Help me! Help! He's going to kill me!" Just as she finishes her sentance, we all hear the whirring of a chainsaw behind us as to which we all turn. Coming face to face with a tall and broad man, in his hands there's a chainsaw and much like the rest of the room covered in blood.

He jumps forward, more so my way, causing me to scream out in fright. "I need another body...yours will do" He smiles disturbingly.

“Yeah fuck this, no way are you coming after my girl sir!” This took both me and Lando by surprise as Oscar was never one to react this much openly. He quickly moves us out of the room, Lando still behind us when he says “Yeah that’s right bitch! Back off!” Followed by his high pitch laugh and a high pitch scream, also from Lando.

-

We all collectively make our way through the rest of the haunted house, coming across a spider themed room and a exorcist themed room. As usual, Lando is making little comments and screams the whole way through.

Admittedly on some of the room, either me or Oscar join in Landos terrified comments.

I push through the long bunting across the door way, we come out of the haunted house. A camera team is set up awaiting our post haunted house reactions.

“That was fun!” I comment which earns me a dirty look from Lando, and a laugh from Oscar who has his arms wrapped around my waist.

Both Oscar and Lando are quick to make a outro, wrapping up the video. After talking with the media team and Lando, me and Oscar get back into his car making our way home.

“Thank you for inviting me today baby” I say, looking over at Oscar who is focusing on the road.

“It’s alright, plus I needed someone to put up with Lando so thank you!” Pulling up to a red light, Oscar takes my hand and kisses my knuckles gently.

-

Tag list - @ilovechickenwings @carlossainzwho @ipab @erikasurfer @soph1644

[sturniccz]

Pretty boy

Chris Sturniolo smut. If you dont like it, leave.

slightly inspired by a request i received, but not fully because im not comfortable writing the full request, this is what yall get😭😭💕

Warnings: nothing crazy tbh, mommy kink, sumbissive chris, slight age gap, oral, fem receiving, swearing, lmk if i missed anything!

not proofread, feel free to send requests!

___________________🎀__________________

Being best friends with your older brothers, coworker does have its perks, but at times like these, when all Chris wants to feel is love, He swears he would do anything. He has never really been into relationships, or any kind of love feeling other than the love he has for his family, but as for y/n, Justin‘s coworker at his new location for his job, he has discovered a new feeling that he has never felt before, which somehow scares him.

Every time he’s with Justin, y/n is there also. After a significant amount of time of knowing each other, they have grown to be very close with each other, regardless of their age gap. With Chris being freshly 20 years, old, and Laila, being 25, it almost feels illegal to have such feelings for her. But he didn’t care, all he wanted was to make her feel good. Thats what she deserves.

Another night crept upon Chris and he cant help but feel the absence of her not being in the house like usual. After some thought, he decided to send her a message politely asking her to come over. Regardless of her being so hesitant, he insisted, and eventually she caved.

After about 15 minutes there was three soft knocks at the front door, and Chris quickly jumped up, walking to the front of the house to greet her. He was excited, and it was obvious from the slight tent in his sweatpants.

“Hey Chris, how are you doing? Why did you want me to come over so late?” she breathes. “Its only 10,” he replies, “and plus im your favorite co-workers little brother, right?” he asks, only half serious, trying to keep a conversation going. “Well, I suppose I dont know any boys better than you.” She chuckles.

This caused Chris to freeze. He began to get lost in his thoughts, staring at her as she makes her way into the kitchen, grabbing herself a drink and getting comfortable on the couch. Chris makes his way over to sit next to her, noticing that she’s significantly keeping her distance from him.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” she quietly suggests, almost as a way to erase some of the deafening silence between the two. “U-uh sure, you can pick.” He stutters. She chuckles at his remark. “You sure you’re alright pretty boy?” she laughs, an inside joke, of course she didn’t mean it whenever she calls him pretty boy, but she is completely unaware of the affect it has on the boy. Physically.

“Yeah it’s nothing just put on whatever you want” he says, trying his best to just end this painfully flirty conversation in fear of her noticing his boner.

Not even ten minutes pass by and Chris can’t seem to keep his eyes off of her. She’s so gorgeous its almost unreal, as if shes a genuine angel that got lost on the way to heaven. Her hair is so perfect the way it rests across her shoulders, and the way her necklace looks laying against her collarbones. He could look at her forever, but he couldn’t, he might just die from getting so horny.

“Alright why are you staring at me? Do i have something on my face?” She snaps, not meaning to startle him, but still coming across as angry. He loved it.

“No, sorry.” He breathes as he reverts his attention back to the film on the screen. Less than ten seconds later he’s staring again. “Alright Chris stop doing that.” She says, using the same tone as before and somehow getting even deeper under his skin. “O-okay, i’m sorry,” he says looking into his lap, “i just think you’re pretty.” he finishes. “You think im pretty? Chris you’ve hardly ever spoken to be before why are you telling me this?” she questions, slightly confused and slightly turned on. “I just wanna make you feel special, wanna show you love, wanna be good for you. Am i good for you?” he blurts out, hardly thinking.

She is completely stunned by his words, but chooses to play along, with the boy now laying his head and shoulders in her lap. “Of course. You’re good for me Chrissy, always.” she says looking down at him, playing with his hair. “Do you wanna show me how good you can be? Show me how much you love me, baby?” she says as he slowly sits up, looking at her in the eyes. “Y-Yeah? You mean it?” he asks, a bit hesitant about what he had said. She nods.

“Be a good boy for mommy and touch me, yeah?” She is completely in control. Chris is practically at her mercy at the moment, and he is fucking loving it. Chris lets out a small whine as he begins trailing his hand down her torso, stopping just above her waistband. He looks at her for a nod pf approval one last time before finally making his way down her body.

After quickly removing her leggings, he leaves a long trail of wet, open mouthed kisses from the crook of her neck all the way down to her panties. He licks a stripe from the bottom to the top of her pussy over the pink, lace fabric, stopping right at her heat. Her hand slowly makes its way to his hair, slightly pushing down. “Go ahead baby, show mommy how much you love her.” She’s good at this. Really fucking good. So good that Chris begins riding the fabric of the couch he was previously sat on, trying to get any amount of friction he could.

He loved eating pussy. So much so that he didn’t even consider any foreplay, he went straight in, tongue fucking the older girl, looking straight into her eyes. “Oh fuck, Chris! God your mouth is amazing-“ she cuts herself off with a moan as he slips a finger into her. “God- Fuck, Chris!” she moans biting her lip. “Good boy, baby, such a good boy for me. Keep going baby you’re doing so good-“ she says looking down at him as he lets out a guttural moan at the names.

Chris is a slut for praise. Her fingers curled in his scalp as he adds another finger, in hopes of getting more praise from her, now curling upwards. “Fuck, yes right there! Oh god-“ she says arching her back. Chris removes his mouth, replacing it with his thumb temporarily. “You’re so pretty mommy, I can never get enough of you.” he says leaving kisses to the inside of her thighs before returning to her heat. “Fuck Chris- Im gonna cum! Gonna cum on your fingers, yeah, baby? You gonna be a good boy and l-let me cum on your hand?” she says stuttering and arching her back. He nods in agreement, remaining eye contact before her eyes squeezed shut and she threw her head back. Letting out the sluttiest moans and whimpers, she finally finishes on Chris’ fingers, watching as he pulls them out and placing them into his mouth, sucking off the juices.

“God thats hot.” she admits. “You calling me a good boy is hot for fucks sake.” he breathes. “You want me to take care of you?” She asks, looking at the obvious bulge in Chris’ sweats. “No, I just wanna sleep. M’tired” Chris says before snuggling into her space between her neck and her chest. “Okay Chrissy, you get some sleep. You did good for me, love.” She says as she watches his breathing steady and him slowly drift off into a deep, very much needed sleep.

Lmk if you want to be removed from my tag list, ive just composed a few people like my mutuals etc

Tags: @daddyslilchickenfingers @apclyptc @byerreddue @chrisenthusiast @christophersfilm @ciarasturn1 @christinarowie332 @lovingmattysposts @mangosrar @oversturn @plasticferal @recklesssturniolo @softsturn @sturnsbaby @sturniolosluvv @sturniscz

[torahoes]

(IDOLiSH7) Ryunosuke Tsunashi - Drama Collection 2 Summer Rabbit Chat

Please note that I am not a professional translator. If you come across any mistakes, feel free to let me know and I will make the necessary corrections.

Haruka Isumi: Good work today, this is Haruka Isumi from ŹOOĻ.

Haruka Isumi: Um

Haruka Isumi: About tomorrow’s drama promotion, I don’t have much experience with location shoots so I might cause you some trouble, but I’ll do my best. Looking forward to working with you!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Haruka-kun, good work today! This is Ryunosuke Tsunashi from TRIGGER. Thanks for reaching out!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: It’s a location shoot at a resort, isn't it? I’ve been really looking forward to working with you one-on-one. Let’s do our best to get a lot of people to watch the drama! ✨

Haruka Isumi: Thank you! I’ll do my very besh!

Haruka Isumi: ↑ I'm sorry, that was a typo

Haruka Isumi: I’ll do my bast

Haruka Isumi: Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: It’s okay! I got what you meant! 😊

Haruka Isumi: Mannnn, I’m really sorry

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Don’t worry about it! It kind of feels like I’m chatting with my little brother, so it's comforting

Haruka Isumi: Oh right, you have a little brother, don't you

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: That's right! I have three younger brothers: one in first year of high school, one in first year of middle school, and one in fifth year of elementary school

Haruka Isumi: All younger than me…

Haruka Isumi: I’m not usually like this, I promise!! I’m usually more well put together

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Of course! You lead your group as the center of ŹOOĻ, and I always find your performances incredibly powerful and cool!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Oh, speaking of which, yesterday Torao-kun told me, "Take care of Haruka" ✨

Haruka Isumi: Huh, for real!?

Haruka Isumi: I mean, really!?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Yeah, after we wrapped up filming for the drama! Maybe he was worried because the location is a bit far from the city 😊

Haruka Isumi: Torao, seriously — that guy's too overprotective, I swear...

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: I’m a bit worried about you too, Haruka-kun 💦

Haruka Isumi: Eh, about what!?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Have you been getting sunburned during the shoots? Are you okay? I’m used to it since I grew up on an island, but it can get really bad and painful with the stinging and peeling, so I was concerned.

Haruka Isumi: Ah, I’m perfectly alright! Rokuya-san shared some good tips with me, and I’ve also been using the expensive sunscreen Torao gave me

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: That's a relief! Nagi-kun struggles with the summer heat too, after all 😅 When he showed up for the shoot in an outfit that completely hid his face, I assume for sun protection, I was surprised ☀️

Haruka Isumi: I panicked; I thought I messed up during the shoot…

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: No way! You’re a great actor! That scene where your character evolves and says, “I used to think it'd be nice if the four of us could always be together. But there’s still so much I need to learn,” really struck a chord with me! 👍

Haruka Isumi: T- Thank you! ✨ There were quite a few scenes where I was the only one sulking or crying, and they were a bit complicated, so I'm glad to hear that lol

Haruka Isumi: And Tsunashi-san, you were like the mood-maker, always cheering up your childhood friends

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Until now, I haven't had the chance to play such a lively and high-spirited character, so it’s really refreshing 😳 And since my character's rich, delivering the line, “I’ll take everything from here to here in this store,” got me really excited! Lol

Haruka Isumi: It's definitely one of those things you want to say at least once, right? 😳 lol

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Right! Lol. Filming has been a blast, including the drama-filled chaotic scenes that unfold when we have no choice but to take care of a wealthy acquaintance's son and daughter during vacation 😆

Haruka Isumi: Same here! I came to realize that this is what a lively summer vacation spent with friends must feel like. I’m pretty shy like my character, so I haven’t had many experiences like this

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Oh, I know! If you'd like, how about hanging out together sometime when we're both free? 😆

Haruka Isumi: Eh, is that alright?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Only if you're up for it, Haruka-kun 😆 Since you’re close in age to my brothers too, I’d love to learn about what’s trendy and stuff from you ✨

Haruka Isumi: Rather, if you're okay with me, I'd be happy to...!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Thanks! I'm looking forward to it! 😊👌

Ryunosuke Tsunashi:

Haruka Isumi:

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: I'm excited for the drama's completion...! Will you watch it with your family, Haruka-kun?

Haruka Isumi: Yes, I plan to watch it with my grandma. Though it's a bit embarrassing

Haruka Isumi: How about you, Tsunashi-san?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: My brothers saw the commercial for the drama the other day apparently and gave me call

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Since I really took to the child actors, it seems my youngest brother got a bit jealous, so it ended up being an angry phone call 😂💦 Lol

Haruka Isumi: Cute lol. Did you guys make up?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: As I asked him about what happened at school and other things, he started feeling better 🤝

Haruka Isumi: That's good! Being an older brother sounds tough

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Maybe it bothered him more than usual since I haven’t been home much recently 💦 Haruka-kun, what do you want to do in the summer? I'd like to hear it as a reference 🤗

Haruka Isumi: Um, I'm not sure

Haruka Isumi: Maybe have Nagashi Somen...? [1]

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Nagashi Somen!!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: That's great! It's also something you can enjoy with a large group! Thanks for the wonderful suggestion! ✨

Haruka Isumi: I- Is that really good enough...?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: You won't believe this

Haruka Isumi: Yes?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: They've recently launched a raffle in the nearby shopping district, and the third prize is a Nagashi Somen machine!

Haruka Isumi: No way!!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: And to top it off, it's named "Nagashi Somen-kun Hyper Great Ver.!" The name was so impactful that it stuck with me. Lol

Haruka Isumi: Sounds like those noodles are gonna flow super fast!! lmao

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: We have no choice but to win it now, huh?! How about we try our luck at the raffle when we hang out? 😂✨

Haruka Isumi: Absolutely!!! I'll make sure we win 🔥

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: That’s reassuring...! Then, let's have a strategy meeting tomorrow! 🔥

Haruka Isumi:

The End.

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

[1] Nagashi Somen: A traditional Japanese summer dish where somen noodles are served flowing down a bamboo flume filled with ice-cold water.

[slippinmickeys]

Proof of Life (5/?)

1. “Through here,” Langly says, shoving his shoulder into the door, which has swollen in its frame. It finally gives with a creak and swings into the room, which is dark and smells of dust, maybe mildew, mice. He takes a couple of steps in and reaches up to pull on a small chain, illuminating the bare room with a single 40 watt bulb which hangs from the ceiling.

The room is windowless, its walls gray. Cobwebs loop gently from corner to corner like party bunting. Mulder steps inside, turns once on the gritty floor.

“This should work nicely,” he says genuinely. “Thank you.”

“I have some tables I can bring in,” Langly says, and Mulder nods his thanks. “Asuka has a room made up for you upstairs.”

“I can stay down here,” Mulder says absently, already cataloging the locations of the nearest shops where he can get the supplies he needs.

Langly looks at him sympathetically, seems to understand the impulse. “She would kill me if I let you.”

Mulder finally looks his friend in the eye, the dingy little light glaring off the skinny man’s glasses. “We wouldn’t want that,” he says gently.

Langly nods, turns to back out of the small room. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you need to, Mulder,” he says when he reaches the doorframe. “We’re happy to have you.”

For once, Mulder thinks, it might feel good to stay still.

2. The debrief was painful. The questions the intelligence officer asked were formal, but systematic, the goal not to unburden him from the trauma he carried from his imprisonment, but to wring every bit of useful intel out of his story.

When he is finally released, he practically bursts from the room. All they would tell him was that he and Scully were being debriefed separately and that the military would arrange for his transportation back to the States should he wish to go. He had asked what Scully was doing, but was told that information wasn’t being released.

Once he is reunited with his camera equipment (he had handed over two rolls of film that he’d shot in the street before his kidnapping, but had the three rolls he’d shot in the hotel room hidden in the false bottom of his bag – those would be of no use to the military, and he wasn’t willing to share), he grabs someone and asks to use a phone. If anyone can figure out where Scully is, it is Melvin Frohike.

But the number he has for his fixer has been disconnected, and the answering service they’d used on occasion no longer answered for his particular account. When the woman who got him the outside line begins to get annoyed with him, he tries one last number.

“Byers,” he says into the receiver, relieved beyond words to hear a friend’s voice.

“Mulder!” the other man says. “My god, we were afraid you were done for.”

“I very nearly was,” Mulder says. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time here. I’m trying to get in touch with Frohike, but the number I have for him is no good.”

There’s a long silence on the other end of the phone, and Mulder is worried they’ve been disconnected when Byers begins to speak again.

“Mulder,” he says. “Frohike is… Not in a good place. He’s off the grid. He… felt responsible for your kidnapping. He’s gone to ground. I don’t know where he is. Nobody does.”

Mulder swears, earning him a look from the administrative staffer who is still sitting several feet away.

“I need a local fixer,” he finally says to Byers quietly, turning away from the woman for some privacy. “Someone who can get me information.”

Byers takes a beat and Mulder can hear keystrokes in the background.

“Most everyone we know has cleared out of the area, Mulder. I can get you transportation, but that’s about as good as I can do.”

Mulder accepts the help, figuring he might be able to get some more information once he has boots back on the ground. His first step will be getting off this military base, as it’s clear Scully isn’t here. He hands the phone back to the woman who was helping him and cranks up the charm, asking where he can wait for his ride. She points him to a rec room, and he picks up his single bag and makes his way there.

In the corner of the room is a TV set to an international feed of CNN, and he is knocked back on his ass when old footage of Scully starts to run, playing under a Wolf Blitzer voiceover. After a few seconds, a grainy picture appears; the proof of life picture the militants took of both of them. They are breaking news. Mulder approaches the television, unable to take his eyes off of it. It cuts back to a Blitzer talking head, who drones on about how he and Scully have been recovered alive, and how they’re waiting on more information to be released to the press. More footage showing Scully on location, a shot of her from an old segment, one of her on a bright soundstage. Mulder can’t look away.

And then. And then. It cuts back to Wolf Blitzer, who is announcing a guest; CNN’s own Ethan Minette. Scully’s “longtime boyfriend,” who goes on to tell the host that Dana Scully, the love of his life, has been successfully rescued and how he has it on good authority that she is even now on her way Stateside, racing her way west to be reunited with him and her family. And how he can’t wait to wrap his arms around the woman and never let go.

Mulder’s own arms feel heavy at his sides. She has never mentioned the man, Ethan. But then, Mulder has never really asked. Not outright. He had been half afraid of her answer. Mulder is a man that people leave, always has been. It’s why he never lets anyone in. But Scully had been different, was different in every way.

And before he could properly process what he’s just heard, he is already moving out of the room. His transportation will be here soon. And if it couldn’t take him to Scully, maybe it could take him far, far away from the hurt that was starting to press in as well as out. That was even now ballooning up inside of him. That was pressing him down to the ground.

3. Mulder strolls the market leisurely every morning around ten. He is there as the awnings rise up from the base of their stalls, as the baskets of bread are being set out, wafting a warm, yeasty smell through the nearby stalls in an intoxicating purl. He watches the flower vendors carry heaping armfuls of ranunculus into the back to be trimmed. He hears the fishmongers filling deep trays with ice and watches as the farmers tuck the odd looking fruits and vegetables into the bottom of their displays, leaving only the perfect looking jewels of their bounty for the shoppers to peruse. Voices call out to each other in melodious chorus, asking for an extra bag, for change, asking after the health of wives and husbands. Old men, young; women that are beautiful, women who are plain. He takes pictures of it all.

Paris is at its best in the summer, but at its most interesting in the spring. Langly has so far kept the news outlets at bay, refusing to share any information with even his fellow information-gatherers, and Mulder is free to roam the streets without worry of being bothered.

Asuka has done her best to fatten him up, feeding him the fish and rice dishes of her youth between the heartier peasant cuisine of their current home. Langly himself has complained about gaining weight, even as he wraps his arms around his longtime partner while she stirs a hearty stew in the kitchen. She shoos him out, but never Mulder, who likes to sit at the small kitchen table by the window, looking out at the sky and tasting anything she offers him on an old wooden spoon.

He is quiet, pensive. And at night, when they ease back into an old creaking bed, Langly whispers to his love that he is worried for his friend.

4. He tells Scully about Samantha. Every gritty detail. How he went for his father’s gun, how he opened the door and saw the squiggling taillights of a car as it tore off down the street.

He tells her about the police interview after it all happened. Did he see what kind of car it was? What color? Did he get the plate number? He was twelve. He was only twelve.

“But I remember thinking,” he says. “That if I’d gotten a picture of it, they would have got the guy. If I’d gone for my father’s camera instead of his gun, I could have saved my sister.”

Scully moves to where he’s leaning against the bed, runs her hand up through his hair soothingly, scratches his scalp, then presses the thick clunk of her forehead against his shoulder. He can feel the steam of her tears, of her hurting for him, gathering on his skin.

“Mulder,” she says, empathy thick in her voice, muffled a bit where it’s pressed to him. “You were only a kid.”

“But it tore the family apart,” he says.

She presses a kiss to his neck, then another, then another, kissing every bit of him she could reach.

“And now you try to get the picture,” she whispers, understanding him, his very essence.

“And now I try to get the picture,” he repeats.

5. This is the part of photography he likes the most: the alchemy of it, the process by which he can transfer a single moment in time onto a piece of glossy paper using only a simple mixture of chemicals.

He takes the roll of film he’d shot the week before—tight knots of flowers in the market, a boat on the Seine—and trims it, feeding it through the spool. His dev, stop and fix chemicals are already mixed and waiting in the developing trays. This is the point at which he feels himself enter the zone of the process. It’s just him in a darkroom, lit only by a thick red light. There is silence, and there is peace, and he could be anywhere at all in the world.

He runs a test print and is happy with it. And he begins.

***

Langly knocks on the swollen door and waits patiently. When Mulder finally ushers him in, he stands in the room, slowly turning on the grungy heel of his old Converse. Above them, Mulder has strung up a wire around the whole of the makeshift darkroom, amongst the ropes of cobwebs, and the line is chocked, cheek by jowl, with hundreds of photographs. Langly takes them all in on his gradual rotation, like a zoetrope in slow motion.

Eventually he stops, turns to Mulder.

“They’re all of her,” he says, his voice free of judgment.

“Yes,” Mulder says, reaching out with a gentle finger to touch the one nearest him. “Every one.”

[givehimthemedicine]

some of the footage the lab is feeding El in NINA is of a MIRRORED Rainbow Room.

continuing off my recent post about why NINA has 4 cameras inside of it watching El. some more realizations:

those six screens around the sides are actually just the same three video feeds doubled. the only unique feed is the center one.

which gives us a total of FOUR feeds in NINA even though there are seven screens.

and one of them is backwards.

in reality, if you're standing at the mirror, the benches-and-drawing-tables side of the RR is on your right - as it appears, correctly, in the red feed and green feed. their footage makes sense coming from the cameras I've circled here (not the events within, I'm just talking about the angles these cameras see)

but the yellow feed has been flipped horizontally:

if we are SEEING the drawing/chess corner of the room in the yellow feed, that means it was filmed by the camera in the other corner - over by the plinko/puzzle table. that is the camera circled in this shot of El playing plinko. except we're seeing the wrong side of the room behind her.

"oh Nat, that's all so normal. I wish this was harder to understand." I GOTCHU

we get another shot where the yellow feed IS oriented correctly! like, in the shot where you see all the NINA screens at once, the yellow is wrong. but in the subsequent shots where El is looking woozy at individual screens, that version of the yellow is correct. that is what this camera should see.

and both are the same footage flipped horizontally.

well. the same footage except one of them is a wider angle where you see a lot more of the plinko board on the right but shh I'm too tired to think about that

anyway maybe this helps explain the moving bodies/blood locations, specifically the cases where I swear the sides of the room keep getting conflated.

the live massacre scene is unreliable because it's poor El's brain's mashup of the doctored / contradictory footage she's being shown. El doesn't know which way the RR really was. she doesn't remember it at all. so all footage is given equal weight, rather than her brain autocorrecting the wrong ones.

the RR is so hard to mentally map because it's a mind-numbingly-almost-symmetrical room, and we're frequently shown it via its mirror reflection, which confuses our perception further. El is canonically just as confused.

(I need to dive deeper on the details of this idea when I get more time. @aemiron-main iirc you're the lead investigator on the changing bodies/blood thing so you'd know better off the top of your head - would you say a room mirroring accounts for many more of the discrepancies? certainly not all)

finally, back to the center feed -

I believe this is correctly oriented (you can see a sliver of the mirror on the extreme left, which tracks with where the plinko game is situated, and Little El(?) is operating it right-handed which is consistent with Big El.)

BUT, don't worry, there's still a weird problem with this footage!

this is a close-up low shot behind El(?) which was not filmed from any of the corner-mounted RR surveillance cameras like the other feeds. it would've had to be filmed from one of those tripod ones.

and they do keep a tripod camera in that area of the RR, but it's visibly not where it would've had to be in order to film this footage which causes El to "remember" One in the plinko scene.

btw, why is this the only footage filmed in portrait mode? if it was landscape, we could have seen One sit next to her. as it is, he wouldn't be visible in it at all. maybe that's why.

so why are they flipping just that one feed?

well, since they showed right and wrong versions of the yellow feed, I suspect they sometimes flip the other feeds too. I just only caught them once. they only seldom give us glimpses of what's going on inside NINA.

is the center feed important because it's unique?

the lab hasn't made sure El is watching that one right-side-up. you can see in the reflection in her eye that she's watching the center screen landscape.

which means the one and only of seven screens El is actually watching right-side-up is this one:

why wasn't NINA designed like this, with all the screens the same way, if you just want the viewer to watch and comprehend all the footage?

because NINA isn't for remembering or comprehending.

having all the screens side by side and right-side-up makes it easy to compare footage and spot discrepancies between them (is that why Brenner is watching multiple screens of the same event?).

the NINA weird screen angles is exactly what stopped me from spotting the mirrored RR problem until right now, and I've been scrutinizing this, and I'm not drugged like El is. with a bunch of screens of boring, redundant-looking footage at random angles, your brain tends to just kinda be like "eh, I don't feel like mentally righting that, I'll take your word for it. seems legit."

what's on the center screen when El banishes One?

they don't want me to know. I wish I did.

every time we see El in NINA, her body breaks the water surface in such a way that prevents us seeing a reflection of the center screen. which apparently tends to display the only unique feed.

is it fair to call this footage-flipping onscreen proof of NINA being not merely a memory-viewing machine but a memory-altering / memory-implantation / machine? so, a brainwashing machine?

which has major implications for the Henry and Victor Creel contradictory memories situation, as long suspected by folks smarter than I.

so the "memories" we experience live with El are actually a meshing of either: A) real events and doctored / fabricated elements B) real events but from 4 different timelines C) por qué no los dos?

not sure whether this "creates" a new timeline in any way besides in El's mind, but even if it were just that, that is valuable enough - to make arguably the strongest superpowered person on the planet remember whatever events you want them to.

but just that doesn't explain the 4 cameras inside NINA, does it?

El using her current mind in past memories

don't forget we have a whole scene of Big El, while immersed in a NINA memory, conversing with current Brenner about the events she's experiencing being a memory and not real.

which means Big El is talking while floating in the tank, or else current Brenner wouldn't know to respond by microphone.

and if she can access her current mind/knowledge and apply that inside of past (real or fake) events.... doesn't that mean she can also use her current powers in past events?

YES. HERE SHE IS DOING IT:

El very very rarely bleeds from both nostrils. two-nostril jobs are very strenuous in relation to her current power level (killing the cat guards and closing the gate are the only other times I remember).

which indicates she's doing something HUGE even in relation to her newly HIGHER THAN EVER power level.

I just find it funny that she also bled from both nostrils in the exact event she was remembering while bleeding from both nostrils.......

also Brenner and Owens see her EEG spiking at that moment, which they've shown us repeatedly throughout the show reflects power use. she's DOING SOMETHING.

so.... Iots I need to chew on.

did the massacre go down wrong and the lab needs to trick El into remembering it differently, and using her current powers inside of the "memory" to somehow actually either change the past, or switch/unswitch timelines, or merge timelines, or something?

is there a timeline where One kicked Little El's ass, or killed her, and the lab needs her to go back and win in that one instead? did little El banish the wrong guy and the lab wants them switched? something like that?

there's something more time machiney going on with NINA even beyond just brainwashing, I swear.

[whatareyoudoingwithamaserati]

yessss, two friends showed me jennifers body a couple years ago! the movie deserves every single bit of hype it gets, i had so much fun, it was delicious!

(if you have more recs? 👀👀 I love literary/audio horror but ive been too... idk, scared? because i don't know what i like when it comes to visuals?)

LET’S GOOOOO!!! I put off watching Jennifer’s Body for so long because I was worried it would not live up to the hype but MAN was it worth it. They have been plaguing my thoughts ever since. I am especially a massive fan of the costume design because they NAILED that shit!!

Admittedly I’m more into horror movies than novels (it is . So hard to read these days) and podcasts have never caught my fancy, but it would feel wrong to not recommend sign here by Claudia Lux and the ever infamous American psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I actually haven’t finished American psycho because it is a dense read but my god it’s a beautiful masterpiece of a book and I did not expect it to be as hilarious as it is

Movie wise I tend to jump all over the place and watch whatever catches my fancy so this is. Not a very cohesive rec list and not full of very many older homoerotic movies but. I plan to watch more when I can

First and foremost I am an absolute die hard fan of house of 1000 corpses. I cannot put into words how much I love it in all of its weirdness. It was made by rob zombie of living dead girl fame and you can TELL in the best of ways. It’s got fun colour grading, excessive swearing, weird ass characters, and such a fun setting. I’d say it’s on the medium-heavy side of gore with a couple of body horror scenes and a good bit of blood and mutilation. The seocnd movie is good, third eh, but you don’t actually need to watch those two. They take the camp of the first movie and turn it into a more gritty realistic energy that is almost meanspirited in nature

I’m a HUGE cabin fever fan and I will recommend it at every chance I get, BUT! There is a caveat and that is that it is not only significantly gory but also that it is weird, campy, kitschy, and a real big fan of slurs, LOL. I think we hit several n-words, an r-word or two, and some use of faggot. Some of the later scenes are downright WEIRD but despite it all it is one of my favourite horrors with some really haunting scenes

Hellraiser in general is a wonderful franchise, I love Clive Barker’s choice to base the cenobites around a mix of BDSM and gay culture and how he characterizes pinhead, even if the later movies fuck it up a little. The 2022 standalone is a huge favourite in particular, I love the imagery and the cenobite redesigns that lean heavier into body horror as well as the cinematography. Jamie Clayton’s pinhead is fucking INCREDIBLE to boot

If you like erotic horror, X is definitely a good one to watch - the plot centres around sex workers determined to make an erotic film and make it big, with some immaculate commentary on desirability, beauty, and aging. Good bit of tits and ass in that one, as well as medium level gore. It also has two sequels, Pearl and MaXXXine, which are set in the past and future respectively. Pearl was secretly shot at the same time as X in the same location and focuses on the lust for fame, the need to make it big, and a youthful mania of sorts coming from Pearl. MaXXXine I haven’t actually seen yet so I cannot say much about it, but I hope to get to it soon!

The fear street trilogy is also a remarkably well done series that seamlessly covers one long tangled mystery throughout three different timelines, using the same handful of actors for each one! The use of setting and cinematography is so fuckint cool, the eventual mystery reveal is absolutely wild, and there’s even a canon queer relationship! The gore isn’t too bad, I’d say light but there are some moments that push it to a medium at best

Ready or Not is a movie I enjoy for a variety or reasons (I think the iconic shot of Grace in a ripped and bloody wedding dress is pretty big on the internet), from the setting to the storytelling to Samara Weaving’s fucking banshee screams, with medium-light gore (though the bits that do show up are impactful as all hell. Cabin in the Woods is fun as a deconstruction of the horror genre (and a story that theoretically makes every single horror movie made canon, wow), though it’s also just really fucking funny. Another medium gore!

Candyman 2021 is a brilliant take on an old legacy of movies (again, no previous ones need watching) with a wonderful exploration of gentrification, black trauma, and what makes the candyman the candyman. I know I keep talking about cinematography but holy fuck, the multimedia use in this film in particular. Immaculate. I feel practically obligated to recommend Deathgasm, which is an indie horror with some pretty wicked gore, if not just because the main characters are all metalheads, and as one myself, it’s SO COOL to see us as protags in a horror movie

Last but not least, Prey 2022. Holy fuck, Prey is an utter masterpiece. It’s the latest addition to the predator franchise, another one of those ones you don’t Need to have watched in order to watch prey, but havint seen them gives the watching experience a good bit more depth, with iconic lines being given a new spin. It’s technically a prequel to the first ever predator movie, focusing on one of the first few appearances of a predator on earth (ehhh debatable considering the canon of aliens vs predator but I’m ignoring that for the sake of conciseness), giving it more a more basic appearance and weapons, while also letting it kick absolute ASS. The plot is incredible, the cinematography is incredible, the CGI animals are so much better than ever expected, and it’s also the first ever feature length film to ever have an official Comanche dub!!! Holy fuck!!

As a bonus, though I haven’t seen it, Doctor Sleep also seems like a really well done movie! It’s based off of the Stephen King book set after the shining, reprising and revisiting a lot of iconic moments to tell a new story with fucking incredible visuals that put their own spin on the shining

[luna-writes-stuff]

Do you have a plan to make a modern au headcanon for Starcrossed Losers?

WOW THIS TOOK FOREVER TO ANSWER I AM SO SORRY. But yes. Yes, I do.

Kili and Raewyn modern AU! headcanons

Kili X Starcrossed Losers! OC

Fluff, headcanons

Tw: Mentions of miscarriage/dying through childbirth, dogs and cats.

Wait, you don’t know who Raewyn is??? Blasphemy. Check her story out right here!

-In a modern day setting, I think Fili and Kili would own a busy pub somewhere in a side street. Ironically enough, I believe Raewyn would become either a history or geography teacher. At night, she’ll help in the pub, serving guests or helping in a band performing that night. Because, obviously, she’d take music lessons (see earlier headcanons)

-Due to the vacations of the school, she travels a lot with Kili, visiting big cities in Europe and distant villages in Asia. Her students love to hear tales about the people there, and she loves telling them.

-Kili helps Raewyn prepare lessons for students. He actually has some really good ideas in there and Raewyn loves to tell him how the class responded to ‘his’ teaching.

-Even though the pub is located in the centre of the city, Raewyn and Kili would live in a house surrounded by forests. Those tiny roads leading through woods, sometimes extending towards two or three houses? That’s where they’d likely live. Raewyn loves to spend her nights walking the forest. Kili is just glad to be there.

-The garden offers enough room for Farris, because - naturally - she’d still be there. Knowing Kili, she’d probably be accompanied by three dogs, likely named after characters from famous films, like Gizmo, Luke, and Marty McFly.

-Raewyn would get a cat just to spite Kili’s dogs. They’d get a decent name - likely after someone from ancient history. She’d go with names from gods, like Bastet or Artemis. Because Kili insisted on big dogs, she got a Norwegian Forest cat.

-The cat loves Kili more than Raewyn. Kili hates the cat.

-Likewise, Marty McFly loves Raewyn. He doesn’t like Kili because Kili doesn’t let him swim in lakes.

-Speaking about ‘children’. Raewyn and Kili would adopt two kids rescued from war zones, left without family. Raewyn used to want biological children, but her mother never lived long enough to hold her youngest daughter, and ever since, she’s been terrified of the idea of getting pregnant.

-Thorin and Bilbo are the godparents - naturally.

-Surprisingly, Raewyn is the chill parent. Kili does his absolute best to not teach the kids any swear words or let them watch anything under the age guide on films and series. The oldest said their first swear word just three weeks in Raewyn and Kili’s care. Fili was the culprit. To this day, Kili still believes it was Raewyn. She thinks so too.

-Bilbo often visits the dogs when Raewyn helps Kili in the pub at night. They’re twice as heavy as he is, but they love him. Bilbo used to be scared of them.

-Don’t worry, Raewyn gets therapy sessions.

-Kili is a swiftie. He pulled Raewyn into the fandom. Her favourite album is folklore. Kili is a 1989 stan. Raewyn’s favourite artist would probably be a classic rock band like Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.

-On the topic of modern media; the two love to watch horror films late at night. Raewyn is the psychopath who can go to bed after the credits roll. Kili needs to watch at least one episode of a comedy show before he can even walk up the stairs.

-Kili loves science fiction most, preferably Star Wars or Back to the Future. Raewyn has a secret love for terrible comedies like the Monty Python works. Horror and fantasy are their middle ground.

-Their home is littered with books. They have a bookcase. But there are books everywhere. At least three in the bathroom. Kili is a binge reader. He finishes series within a week. Raewyn reads twenty books at the same time. None of them place the books back in the bookcase. Bilbo does when he looks after the dogs.

-Gandalf has a spare key to their house. He never enters unannounced (surprisingly), but does enter their garden to entertain the dogs. When Raewyn invites him in, he claims to hate the dogs. He doesn’t. He even has a favourite. But don’t tell Marty McFly and Gizmo.

-The dogs aren’t forced to be outside. They just never want to go inside. Raewyn and Kili have to carry them in at night for their own safety. Luke, the St. Bernard, has to sleep in bed with them every night. So does the cat. Luke is the only dog she accepts. Raewyn and Kili often wake up on the floor.

-Once a week, Raewyn and Kili have a ‘duty-free’ night. They’ll go to a little shed in the forest Raewyn bought while someone takes care of the children and the dogs (the cat takes care of themself). They usually fall asleep there, but every so often they play boardgames or spend the night chatting away under the stars.

-Kili packs Raewyn’s lunch every morning. He leaves little notes in her lunchbox. There is not a day he has forgotten to do so.

-Raewyn and Kili wear matching ugly Christmas sweaters around the holidays.

[seymourssecondchance]

Entry Four: Date; April 25th, 2024

It’s been a few days and the modifications for DJ have come along much quicker than I realize but I’m quite thrilled at how wonderful he looks now, I was given permission by DJ himself to go tearing through his frame to get all the Skibidi upgrades off of him. I was watched by Webb and Whistle as I went nuts on getting all of the Skibidi stuff off of DJ externally and internally, I… I’m glad that I was able to do this because I remember having the Agent forcibly make me approve the upgrades as soon as the stupid plans got to me so I was able to hit all the upgrade points… those things fucked up his internals so badly that I had to do small repairs to keep him functioning, I had Webb come in with repair crews after each area that got torn through by me. Was told later that I nearly tore 80% of his body off of him which the Engineers had to come in after about 15% was torn off to keep DJ from shutting down. He insists that he’s glad that I got through there because he was getting frustrated by the skibidi implanted coding; I had Webb and Whistle deal with that as I was passed out in my hammock at that point. The Engineers are currently getting the latex padding filled and DJ has been getting restless which I can’t blame him because I felt like that when I was recovering myself, It’s kinda funny that we’re both always moving maybe it’s a trait thing he picked up when he was in the server nursery all those years ago while watching me pace around. Cinema has gone through the ringer recently, three of his screens got shattered and he lost his arm, kinda ironic that he lost his arm that was equipped with his sword. Monitors had to get the arm back and get Film’s arm as well, Hammer is missing… Again, seriously can he not lose that damn weapon? I swear I’m going to put a riptide effect on it so it can return to him if he flicks his hand in a recall motion, hm… I might do that now that I think about it. Yin and Rave have been running around the base and training to get back on the field sooner, I really hope that their siblings can keep up with those two. Might be traveling down to New York City later tomorrow, will be interesting to be there after nearly 5 years of not being there.  Galaxy has been sending reports back to me and others on the progress of hunting Agent down, it’s not going well as Agent keeps fleeing whenever they get near his location. I’m hoping that they’ll eventually corner him somewhere, I believe I got another ask or two today so I’m going to check those out after going down to NYC. - Dr. Seymour

[crazy56u]

Guess who has two thumbs and only barely got out of bed in time to do this?

"Previously on Quantum Leap: Remember that relationship bullshit?"

And Ben winds up in Yellow Filter Egypt.

And Ben does the smart thing and immediately finds a wallet.

"You see that pyramid? That's how you know we filmed on location."

How much do you want to bet they didn't cut anything, and Raymond Lee actually did walk until the sun started going down?

"1961. You want an actual date. Fuck you."

There's a different world where that man slightly raising his newspaper was supposed to mean he wanted Ben to fuck off.

"When are we meeting?" "1PM" ...yeah, you're kinda late, there...

Ben, you've technically been a spy at least three times by now (fourth if you count undercover cops).

And cut to the life Ben should be living, just to tighten the screws.

And of course Tommy's about to propose. How much do you wanna bet that's getting flushed too?

Ian, you know damn well what she means by "a ring", don't be coy.

"You've never leapt out of the country before. It took Sam four seasons to get to Egypt."

Addison, not for nothing, but leaping is technically the same as espionage, given how you described it.

Yes, keep loudly talking to ghosts in the middle of the trailing mission, that never ends poorly.

["That's right, you sit there for a minute, and you think about how you fucked up, son."]

You got bluffed by a Zippo, Ben, you are bad at this.

Yeah, I'm willing to bet we ain't leaving Egypt this leap, ma'am...

"The traitor from your embassy." ...not to get conspiracy theory-y, but given how Ben's waitress friend returns this episode...

"Nomad's a myth." Confirmed. [Inside joke.]

I swear to God, I keep thinking this guy is played by Christian Slater, even though he isn't.

Sir, that was a shitty-ass fake sneeze, you better hope no one actually noticed that.

"Ben, you're gonna get fucking killed if you fuck up today. Pep talk over."

Annnnnnnd der she is! Not having aged a day since 1947!

[Seriously, I'm still on the "Hannah is a secret leaper" camp, this is the third episode where she got involved on a leap where Ben was some form of government agent doing some form of government agent shit, there's a connection here...]

[If there's nazis in Egypt this time, I swear to God...]

"I waited a long time to see you." ...it's been six years, though. Last time, it took you 8.

"How do you feel?" "Alive. Waiting for renewal."

Ben, I'm willing to bet Hannah is the reason you're here, and not to get conspiracy theory-y, I think we both know what I mean by that...

"...Hannah, my hologram-ex just indirectly gave us the okay to pretend to be married this leap, you in?"

"Darling, are you enjoying our honeymoon, which we are both on?" "Yes, we are definitely married and on our Egypt honeymoon, this is natural conversation."

Well, Ben, maybe you can slip in the backdoor and undo your fuckup...

Ben continues to suck at Metal Gear Solid, so in comes Suddenly Southern Hannah.

I am actually fucking impressed that this gong show worked.

"Okay, kid, you scored." That terminology existed in 1961?

Hannah, there's 34 minutes left, unless this is a multi-leap episode, you ain't done.

"I told you to photograph the meeting. You sent in a Southern woman, and slipped me a recorder. How did you fuck this up?"

...well, ma'am, to be fair, Ben kinda sucks at this spy shit...

I love how Addison left after Hannah's sales pitch.

Oh, that's because Addison's heart broke, I don't wanna laugh, but dear God, this makes me want to so bad...

Imagine if they decided to hard cut from Ben and Hannah kissing to Addison sobbing in the break room, dear God, this plot twist is so damn funny, I'm trying to not be like this, but dear God...

"No, Ben, you are the nomad." And then, Ben was a zombie- wait.

And cut to Addison getting drunk in Magic's office.

"Be true to your present, Addison." It will be doubly funny if it turns out my theory about them undoing the time skip is still in the cards...

...why does this double-break up feel like Addison telling Ben she quits?

"Like I said, she's a pro." "She's gonna make it." Annnnnnnd three... ...two... ...one...

Ben, time to make like a tree, and get the fuck out of here.

"Look, while you were off having a romantic subplot with that Hannah lady, I had to do my goddamn job, even if that meant blowing Layla's cover!"

Oh, don't fucking tell me we're having Layla be killed offscreen, that's dirty fucking pool, episode...

"Annnd... Fade to black. Whelp, that was a sad way to end it, but hey, maybe people won't mind-" "Frank, there's still 20 minutes left in the episode." "But, I- we- where the fuck do we go after killing Layla?!"

"Maybe this is why we kept crossing paths; sooner or later, I was gonna fuck up big time..."

[And it is around this point I am reminded of them discussing the grandfather paradox during the trailer for this entire {chunk of the} season...]

Addison, don't act like the solution isn't having someone leap into Layla to fix this...

...

...I swear to God...

...

...okay, I am actually annoyed, you don't make us think Layla died offscreen, only to pull the "Just foolin'" card, THAT is dirty fucking pool

Oh, hey, they remembered Ben got a phone number at the start...

And so we have a chase scene in a mosque. But at least the bad guys know to take their shoes off.

And so Ben knocks out that Bill Burr looking motherfucker.

...Ben, you are so close to doing the full Kyle Reese, just say the line properly...

Plot twist, Layla was secretly Hannah, was a shock!

Yeah, get fucked Bill Burr, say bye bye to your car!

"Look, we're sorry about lying about Layla getting killed offscreen, how about we have her drive off into the sunset instead, we good?"

Hannah, call me totally nutty, but I think you'll see Ben again this season.

"I spent more than two dozen leaps looking backwards. From now on, I look forwards" Translation: #RenewThisShowForSeason3.

"So, Ben almost fucked up the leap, but turns out he didn't, that's wanna see me propose?"

...goddamn, this is a plot-twist heavy episode.

["Whelp, we ran out of pre-strike episodes! See ya next year!"]

And to think, I almost missed this one.

[donfadrique]

Previous part

Part Three

9/🗡️

Let me remind you of one canonical moment before we finally meet Señor Zorro.

"There goes a man!" Gonzales cried, flourishing his arms. "He is my friend, that caballero, and I would have all men know it! He seldom wears a blade, and I doubt whether he can use one—but he is my friend! The flashing dark eyes of lovely señoritas do not disturb him, yet I swear he is a pattern of a man!

Music and the poets, eh? Ha! Has he not the right, if such is his pleasure? Is he not Don Diego Vega? Has he not blue blood and broad acres and great storehouses filled with goods? Is he not liberal? He may stand on his head or wear petticoats, if it please him—yet I swear he is a pattern of a man!"

© "The Curse of Capistrano" (1919) by Johnston McCulley, Chapter Two

Ladies and gentlemen, if the director intended to film McCulley's novel (and then it was a film adaptation we were talking about), then he needed an actor who would look both convincing in the role of a bandit and in the role of young man who would look beautiful in petticoats :) Good film adaptation, in my humble opinion, should convey spirit of the novel, even if a book plot is somewhat different from a movie one.

(I really want to make jokes about this photoshoot, but I won’t. Probably, the shoot replaced that remark about petticoats ;)

10/🗡️

For the first time, Zorro appears unexpectedly for viewers, and the first three scenes with him are short and without background (we are not told how Diego came up with the image of Zorro, where his lair is located, etc.). This can be explained by the lack of screen time, but, on the other hand, it emphasizes the "ghostly" nature of Zorro.

This Zorro comes upon you like a graveyard ghost and like a ghost he disappears.

First appearance. I would like to note the elegance of the rider and the successful choice of a black stallion. Of course, this is a matter of taste, but this Zorro looks daring and, more importantly, he looks more like a vengeful spirit than a man. It's midday, hot in a village-like pueblo, dusty soldiers—and suddenly, out of nowhere, a man in black appears, an elusive man in a mask.

Second appearance. This time, Zorro looks exactly like a bandit and acts like a bandit: his face is hidden by a scarf, he intimidates the Alcalde and his wife, robs them (even takes Inez’s necklace), after which, grinning, he rides away. It is unlikely that Diego could have acted really ignoblely, but, be that as it may, in this scene he doesn't spare the corrupt Alcalde and his depraved wife. El Zorro is dangerous, ironic, vicious.

Third appearance. Zorro (again in a mask) appears in the Alcalde's office to tell him that he must leave for Spain, and Don Alejandro Vega must take his previous position.

In addition to the beautiful candlesticks and nice embroidery on the Alcalde's suit (ha-ha), I'd like to note the excellent operator's work. The beginning of this scene is reminiscent of films of the suspense genre or even mystic horror movies: a candle is extinguished, a man in black appears from the shadows, and then disappears into them. (For the first time, I'm glad that I'm watching the original black and white version, and I am able to fully appreciate the creepy impression that Zorro produces when he wants to. Perhaps this kind of suspense was irrevocably gone along with the Golden Age of Hollywood...)

TBC

[therese-lokidottir]

The Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes & X-Men Evolution series watch

Meet Captain America written by Paul Giacoppo

Well, this episode starts off with Kang watching old film stock of Captain America before transitioning to The Howling Commandos fighting Hydra trying to infiltrate one of their bases. Captain America and Bucky arrive to add. Those two do end up making it through to the castle where Hydra base is located before being attacked by a giant Cyclopes monster. Inside the hydra base, they come across hydra weird experiments. the red skull reveals himself revealing that he has found a stone that allows him to access the Bifrost where he has been capturing monsters. Cap and Bucky can fight off the monster and send them back through the portal but the red skull runs off. They pursue him and both manage to get on the Red Skull's jet before he escapes but during a fight, skull sets the rocket to self-destruct. Bucky kicks Cap off the jet but he isn't able to and Cap falls in the ice. Pulling back Kang is disappointed as he is unable to figure out what's causing his timeline to start to collapse all he knows is that Captain America has something to do with it. While he attempts to leave his base he love Princess Ravonna but she ends up getting caught in one of the time anomalies and starts to fade in and out of existence. Kang swears with this he'll do whatever he has to do to save his time and Ravonna even if he has to conquer the past

This episode was pretty neat. It was cool to see the Howling Commandos, which her included Nick's father Jack Fury and pre-adamantium Wolverine. All the creature designs were also really cool and unique. If I had had criticism because the introduction is so action focus I feel that there ended not being a lot of time to really establish Steve personality. He's determined and brave but compared to the last three who all did have moments that really established who they are Cap feels like he gets least. This is in contrast to Kang who actually does get a strong sense of who he is as a character.

Something funny about this episode is that it's set in WWII but they are clearly not allowed any kind of reference to the Nazis. Everything is the Hydra Octopus logo. Red Skull even refers to the Allies by name but nothing about nazis. I remember reading something a few years back the creators basically had a choice between depicting realistic firearms or Nazis but they couldn't have both. I don't know if that was true. Censorship standards sense the earlier 90s basically prevented any reference being in children's cartoons so it's actually some EMH manage to get away with as much as they did.

Mutant Crush By Katherine Lawrence

The episode starts with The Blob, aka Freddy Dukes, being offered a place at Bayville High by Principal Darkholme after his performance at a monster truck show. On his first day, Freddy meets Jean Grey and falls for her. During lunch, Freddy while trying to sit down accidentally flips a table, causing a food fight and destroying the cafeteria. Jean talks to Freddy about controlling his powers and invites him to meet Professor Xavier. Later, Freddy finds a picture of Jean and Scott in Jean's backpack, tears out Scott's part, and keeps the piece with Jean in it. Fred asks Jean out, but she declines. He gets angry and takes her to talk privately. They fight, knocking over scaffolding and causing Jean to pass out. Later, Fred ties her to a chair for a candlelit dinner. Jean calls Professor Xavier for help. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Xavier watch Kurt and Kitty play football. Xavier gets Jean's call and sends Wolverine to find her. Rogue tells Scott she wishes for a deeper connection with someone. Kurt teleports Scott away to search for Jean. Wolverine attacks Blob, who knocks him out. Scott blasts Blob, but he throws Wolverine at him and Scott goes down too. Jean hits Blob with a filing cabinet, making him angry. Rogue absorbs Cyclops’ powers and attacks Blob, knocking him out. She runs off, and Wolverine stops Jean from following. Kitty and Scott agree they owe Rogue.

This episode was just okay. Watching The Blob's socially awkward and extremely short tempered was sad to watch. Rogue character development was interesting. But right now I have to say I'm a little confused about what characters what and how much they know about each other, because it's a little vague.

I really just can't think of much to say about this episode, sad to say. I don't feel like the main X-men characters had much development. I will say this is another episode that had some strong 00's vibe. Just the layout of the lunch room and the fashions on display was so new millennium.

[brutclhonesty]

★ CADE HOLLINGSWORTH on the cover of this week’s most recent tabloid! many say that the 26 year old looks like THOMAS DOHERTY, but i don’t really see it. while the ACTOR is known for being INTENSE, my inside sources say that they have a tendency to be ARROGANT. i swear, every time i think of them, i hear the song MILLION DOLLAR BILLS by LORDE

details.

name: cade william hollingsworth

dob: october 6th, 1997

zodiac: libra

face claim: thomas doherty

gender identity: cis man (he/him)

sexuality: heterosexual

profession: actor

hometown: kensington, london

spoken languages: english, french

positive traits: dedicated, honest, hard working, charismatic

negative traits: impulsive, stubborn, brutally honest, not reliable

about.

privilege, wealth, & fame were the cornerstones of the hollingsworth family, so cade has never known anything else. born the grandson of the both the legendary hollywood director, joseph hollingsworth, and the starlet of the silver screen, evelyn sterling, cade grew up around performers his entire life, which might be the reason you're never quite sure if he's being real or putting on a show. his parents, both famous in the industry, moved back to los angeles from london when he was twelve, which proved to be a challenge for him since change was never something he handled well. entering into his adolescence with a chip on his shoulder & an entitled attitude, cade quickly established the role of the 'it guy' at his private school; throwing the best parties, taking his pick of the numerous girls who fell for his smooth accent or his bright green eyes. all of it felt hollow, like something was missing, but he'd grown up in a family where status was everything, so cade couldn't identify what it could be. after graduating, cade began working alongside his father, adding his name to the credits of several big name films before he decided to pursue acting. he hated his first big role, the one that took him out from under his family's shadow, as it was exactly the opposite of the kind of films he wanted to make. the reality was, romcoms did well, so cade went on to do three of them before calling it quits and ending the trilogy. his arrogance seeped through his charming persona in various interviews, but his talent made up for how unpleasant he could be to work with. on the outside, he was the golden boy of hollywood, with the famous family and the private jet, while on the inside, he was a hollow mess. as time went on, cade continued to search for meaning, to find something of substance in the shiny world of los angeles, all the while keeping up appearances with partying & a few perfectly executed PR relationships. while the world thinks they know cade hollingsworth, he's an actor- and it's all an act. with his days of being a leading man behind him, at least for now, cade is intent on lining up solid projects that will help him grow as an actor, despite his parents encouraging him to take whatever role will end in the biggest payday. the son of two selfish creatures, it's no wonder he turned out the way he did; his whole life, he's had to look out for himself because god knew his parents wouldn't. they saw their son as an accessory, a prop to be brought out for a photo op or whenever there was a cheating scandal in the magazines. when they had no use for him, he was left for the nannies and drivers to take care of. these days, when he's not on set or off filming on location somewhere, cade lives in a beachfront villa with his own staff, the picture of confidence & wealth. his elusive white whale, finding meaning in the cold game of life, has yet to be captured, but cade has never backed down from challenges & he won't start now.

[kierianpattonphoto]

Ten portraits

Receiving this brief before i headed to Italy with my friends for a week, i knew for a fact i wanted to shoot my brief while i was there. We would be travelling to many places such as Torino and Genova plus a few coastal towns. My original idea before this was to shoot my neighbour Alistair as he was quite the handyman, he would often make or repair things that either my parents or neighbours needed. I previously shot portrait’s of Alistair for a HN2 project and they turned out very nice. Unfortunately, before i could pitch the idea to him his health took a small turn and i didn't want to add any stress to him and thats when i went for my Italy idea. 

Since we had to incorporate our images into a zine i knew design would have to go hand in hand with photography. I loved the idea of doing something similar to a photo-book your family would put together, hastily put together and stuck down with tape. But i would also take design elements from well put together zines and use bold lettering and colours. I essentially wanted to create a portrait of Italy through the eyes of someone who has never been before, my plan is to include portraits of the locals i see. 

Design Inspiration - 

As you can see ive been focusing on light tones of blue and white lettering, this is to reflect the bright images that’ll be used in the zine. You could almost say its anti-design by using off centre lettering and placement of text. I was planning on using this type of design as i’m imagining my zine being placed amongst others on a shelf, by using this type of design language id want it to stand out. 

Photography Inspiration - 

I wanted to take an almost candid photos style when it came to shooting in these places and not go for the classic tourist images of white sandy beaches. I wanted to look for interesting shapes and shadows, local characters and fun take on locations and people. 

Zine front cover mockups - 

I created three mockup front covers for my zine and ill go into which one i prefer.

As you can tell the designs are quite abstract and they all feature certain design principles, such as repetition and gradients. I think my favourite is the third as it contains the bright blue and pink lettering that i think will work with the best with images produced. As the idea is to colour match sky to the images so there is a natural visual flow to the zine. 

Equipment - 

I am always cautious with taking photo equipment abroad and travelling with it. Even though i had camera and lens insurance i still took a few precautions such as taking my backup Nikon D810 as i didn't want to risk my primary camera being stolen or broken. I also took a sharpie and filled in the white Nikon logo to be a bit more inconspicuous. 

i also took only two lenses which was a 50mm and an 85, this is mostly because i wanted to travel light and i wanted to avoid putting my equipment in the planes cargo hold. With the precautions i took i dont think it affected the quality of the images i got at all, i think only having two lenses forced me to get creative and that combined with taking a slow approach to shooting was perfect and yielded some good results that i’m pleased with. 

At one point during the trip my lens barrel got extremely loose so i spent a good portion of the trip attempting to find very very small screwdrivers with no luck. I was even going into mechanic shops with google translate attempting to speak to the owners, with some luck i found a small jewellery maker who helped me out. Despite him speaking no english at all and swearing a lot in italian we managed to fix it. 

Shooting - 

For someone who was in another country for a week you would think i would of shot a lot more frames. But i took a slow approach to shooting, almost as if i was shooting on film. I believe that instead of shooting as many frames and hoping for the best would be rather inefficient compared to slowing down your process. 

Like i previously said i tried to focus on the small details and shadows, for example. In our apartment it was a very old school styled flat with wood furnishings and 70′s green kitchen cupboards. I spent a little bit of time shooting the apartment as had featured interesting ornaments and furniture like the images below. 

Getting portraits of shop owners and sometimes random people in the street was a lot easier than i thought. Typically by explaining to them via google translate of course that you were a photography student and you wanted to take a photo of them for your course they are more than happy to allow you to. Usually they spoke enough english to allow you to direct them a little bit also. 

I also managed to do some street photography, i did this mostly as an ode to random photos your parents would take of random streets and of the sea to stick in the photo album too. 

Final Images - 

I eventually narrowed my images down to ten, it is a good mix of abstract, portraits and street photography. I specifically chose them as they mix in well with the style of design i am doing for the zine.

Zine Design and Implementation -  

As you can see i used a simple range of colours which i used the dropper tool to sample colours from my images so the zine can flow better visually. I also sampled design elements from my inspiration, such as breaking up shapes and lines by overlapping text over images. I also tried to use only three fonts to force myself to get creative on sizing text and shaping it. For example, on the forth page instead of typing “cinque terra” once and having it commonly off to the side of the image, i repeated the words three times and cropped them in to form a shape and to create a bridge between to separate images.

As you can see i also added circles in some of the corners too the pages mostly to fill negative space and add an abstract element to my work. I added inner shadows to the circles to give them more depth and for a 3D effect too. On some of the images i added a tape vector to reference the fact i wanted to his zine to be reminiscent of an old photo album.

Evaluation / Conclusion - 

Overall I am happy with how this came out, initially I was struggling to find an idea for my ten portraits. As once I read the brief I install thought it had to be portraits of people and from there I found it tricky to find a subject which would be interesting both to look at but to also put into a zine. My first idea was to photograph my neighbour Alistair who liked to tinker with things in his garage such as building small shelves for his house or just doing general repair work. I had previously taken some very successful portraits of him for HND2 and I wanted to improve on what I previously shot by potentially moving him inside the house and to shoot his thimble collection. Unfortunately when I went to speak to him to pitch the idea I found out his health took a small turn and he previously wasn’t in the best of shape, so I didn’t want to add any more stress or interfere. That’s when I came up with my Italy idea as a few days later I was headed to Italy where I decided to create a zine that was abstract by design but contained characteristics of which you would find in an old photo album your parents would put together from one of their holidays.

I would deem the design element of the zine very successful, I am proud of my design. I researched numerous design elements of which I adopted into my own and then placed them amongst the images I shot. As a reference in my workbook I spoke about how I limited myself to only three fonts for the whole zine, this was to force me into getting creative with what size I made the font and the placement on the page.

For the images I personally think they could of been a bit better and wished they linked together throughout the zine a little better. The images by themselves are nice images but as a series I think they leave a bit to be desired. The direction I would of loved to take it in would be a reference to my HN2 graded unit project on liminal spaces, by taking a graphical stance when it came to shooting my images to keeping things very minimal and almost 2D. In future if I was to revisit this project I would take a different approach when it came to shooting. For example, I would research the exact locations I was going and have a look at what local shops there were to potentially get a portrait of someone who worked there. Another example would be creating a story board or even a shot list of images that I wanted to capture. The benefit of this would be is that I could see exactly how the images would link to one another if not have a greater understanding of how the zine may look once it’s done. I do also wish I shot some images on film and included them into the zine, I say this as I think having film images that were shot on a cheap point and shoot would convey more of the fact I wanted the zine to feel like a photo book your parents put together. Overall Im happy with how it turned out regarding the design aspect of the zine but I would rather the images were a bit more up to par in terms of how they linked to one another in the zine.

[msfbgraves]

Missing scene

The Karate Kid franchise is not about the Kid's mother, I get that. But Lucille LaRusso is quite strongly rendered, and I keep wondering, having first really watched all three films in my thirties -

Daniel blowing his whole college fund on a bonsai shop for Mr. Miyagi, that must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Especially since Cobra Kai wrote it so that business failed.

I'm sure Daniel made the best deal he could with the location, may have made it so Mr. Miyagi had something to retire on.

But think of what it would have cost Lucille to put that money by? The extra shifts, the coupons, the night school, the little luxuries gone without, because her darling boy deserved a chance. So no coffees for Lucille, no haircuts, no night out, other than maybe a work outing. The strategic thrift store finds. The packed lunches, the bill extensions, the endless bargain hunting. The paying each other in favours, the telling herself that she can do this, Lucille, it's only five years until he has his high school and college diploma. She can do this. She must do this.

And then he wants to buy a ticket to Okinawa and she understands, somehow, that this is about her boy's grief over his father, her lost love. And she couldn't stop him, and it's an experience and he says he'll earn it back, there is a whole American army base and... she lets him. Dio mio, but she does.

But the bonsai store.

All these years, away from home, everyone she knew, because she needed to give Daniel a chance, away from all the friends that might go into stuff she wanted him far away from. All that work, the aggressive optimism.

It's the first time she has to forgive him something.

Years later, and Daniel has a good job in sales, and so does Amanda. She's been babysitting Sam, who's been asleep for hours, when Daniel and Amanda return from a night out, because of course she wants them to have that. Amanda goes to check on Sam, and she doesn't want to impose on what hopefully continues to be a romantic evening.

But Daniel sits her down.

"Mama..."

He looks like there's a burden on his shoulders, and immediately, she's worried, but he straightens up.

"Ma. I'm sorry."

She blinks. "What about?"

He swallows. "When I didn't go to college, Ma, you didn't say anything, but I knew you were mad."

She's still a little tender at the memory of her, alone, sobbing in that cheap motel just returned from Newark after Louie's funeral.

Of course Mr. Miyagi had offered her a place in his home, but she couldn't accept it. Because much as she'd hoped that they were both thriving in that store, she could see they weren't. And in her heart of hearts, she thinks Miyagi could have stopped her son, but didn't.

Daniel sighs. "Ma, I thought you couldn't be proud of me like this."

She looks at him, shocked. "I've always been proud of you!"

He licks his lips smiles. "Ma, I understand. I think I really understand. What you did. When I think of Sammy, and what I want for her. What I would do..."

She smiles, cups his cheek. "I knew you would, Tesoro." He falls into her arms, lets himself be held. He's almost never allowed her to hold him like this since he was eight, but now he does. "I'm sorry, Mama," he whispers. "I didn't know."

She holds him close. "You know, part of me was glad you felt safe enough to do something stupid," she says. "About time."

He bristles. "Little Trees was -"

"Not just Little Trees," she says. "Your car, Okinawa, whatever was going on there you still won't tell me about, and then that tournament." She kisses his forehead. "You'd been so responsible for so long. Something had to give."

He sits up. "I swear LaRusso Auto is a good idea," he says.

"I couldn't stop you." When she hears Amanda come downstairs she stands up. "I won't keep you," she says, smiling.

"Good night, you two."

One more hug, a smile, and nothing more needs to be said.