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rebelliousstories · 7 months ago

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Not On My Watch

Relationship: Cooper “The Ghoul” Howard x Reader

Fandom: Fallout

Request: Yes by @victias

Warnings: Strong Language, Brief Violence, Suggestive Themes

Word Count: 1,128

Main Masterlist: Here

Fallout Masterlist: Here

Part Two: Faces of Old, Faces of New

Summary: There is something that can flip a switch in even the most trusting of men; jealousy. Now what switch that is all depends on the man.

Walking alongside each other in the desert was not the most ideal plan for anyone. But it worked for them. Salvation from the blistering heat was found just up the road at a small city that was hustling and bustling with people and shops.

“How many you got left, baby?” She asked, peaking her head out from the lip of her matching cowboy hat. Deftly, Cooper dug around in his satchel to pull the bag with his chems out.

“Got three. Know anyone with access here?” He replied, tucking them back in and continuing to walk.

“Please. You know I always know a guy, baby. Don’t worry about it.” Her tone was teasing as she playfully hit his shoulder. Cooper allowed a small smirk to overtake his face at his partner’s jests. Thoughts ran rampant in his head as he continued to walk. His self esteem was finally on the up and up after they collected the latest bounty, but it was times like these that tested that.

It seems like a lifetime ago that he had stumbled upon the woman in the middle of the Wasteland, half beaten and looted, but determined to get her effects back in a timely manner. An unusual partnership struck up when she offered a hundred caps to help her find the men that took her gear. As they tracked them through the Wastelands, they quickly realized that they had more in common with each other than they previously thought.

Oh, and get her gear she did. Cooper did not realize that he was that attracted to someone so covered in blood and gore until he saw the hell she unleashed upon those men. From that point forward, they continued to travel and make their living together. Trading chems and caps for companionship.

However, in between the nights nestled together for warmth, and days on the open land, doubts came in to the scarred head of Cooper Howard. There was the persisting thought of never being there in the long run. If being feral doe not get him, it is going to be someone else. Or he will just have his body shut down because even he does not know what is going to happen exactly. Or maybe she would realize that being with a ghoul is more of a hinderance rather than a benefit.

“Hey,” she jolted him out of his thoughts, “you alright there, baby? You left for a little while.” Her voice was honey sweet, and lace with concern as she observed her partner.

“Course I’m alrigh’. Let’s go.” He trudged on ahead, leaving the woman to catch up to him yet again. Once in town, they took inventory of what was around them. A few street vendors for food and crafts, a medical shop, a bar, and a little inn that was left from the old days. Walking into the doctor's place, the sterile smell was a welcomed change of pace from the dirty way of. life outside these white walls. Their boots clicked against the hard floor as the saddled up to the counter.

“We don't take your kind here, Ghoul. Go somewhere else.” A man behind the counter spoke, looking up from his ledger. His eyes scanned the deformed man before his gaze landed on the woman next to him.

“Now what can I help you with, little lady?” He leered, teeth yellowed beyond saving in his smile.

“Sixty vials of chems. Now.” She stated. Her face was devoid of any emotion other than contempt. But the man in front of her only saw that as a challenge, while the Ghoul watched.

“Oh. I think we can strike up a deal. Just for you of course.” Once more, he tried to make himself more appealing than he actually was.

“Chems for caps. I have no interest in a man that looks, smells, and acts worse than the foulest of ghouls.” She said bluntly and watched the man's face fall. He shuffled around quietly and produced the sixty vials they requested.

“Sixty chems for one hundred twenty caps.” The doctor eyed the woman nervously for her next movement.

“That sign out front says ‘five chems for three caps.’ Now, the only you're gettin’ a hundred twenty caps from me, is if you supply the appropriate amount of chems. Now, here's thirty-six caps for sixty chems.” Tossing the bottle caps on the counter, the woman kept them just out of reach until the doctor produced what he had promised. He kept to himself while working on grabbing the vials. Once they had swapped hands, she tipped her hat as the duo walked outside.

“Pleasure doin’ business with you.” And with that, they left. She passed the chems to Cooper so he could replenish but he just stood there dumbfounded.

“The hell was that?” He questioned, voice tinged in false fury.

“That was me getting your meds. What's the problem?” She pushed back, wondering what was going on with the Ghoul.

“Why didn't you want him?” Cooper's quiet voice whispered as he kept his eyes to the ground.

“Whatcha talkin’ about baby? What do you mean?” Stepping closer, she tried to get him to look up but to no avail.

“You could have your choice of man. Even one not so… deformed. What are you even doing with me anyways?” There goes his barriers yet again. Howard had perfected building the walls back up around his heart when they would fall down in front of her. But she just stepped closer to him, and pressed her fingerless gloves hand to his cheeks so that she could look in his eyes.

“Coop, I don't want no one else but you,” she started, “I don't want someone not deformed. Most of these men are far uglier inside then out. I can deal with someone not attractive to most people. He just needs to be attractive to me.” By the time she had finished, Cooper was looking her in the eye, and feeling himself crumble.

“Now you gonna make this old cowpoke go soft which is not gonna be too good now, sweetheart.” He drawled out, resting his hands on her hips softly. Pulling her even closer, they stood underneath their hat brims for a moment.

“That's okay. As long as that cowpoke knows I ain't goin’ nowhere for no one. And I'll continue to make sure he believes and knows that. No self doubt on that front. Not on my watch.” She replied, saying them ever so softly.

“What's you say we try and find us a nice spot to camp tonight? Wanna be able to treat you for bein’ oh so kind.” Cooper smirked, finally Slipping right back into the charming ghoul she knew and loved.

“Lead the way, partner.”

#rebelliousstories #writing #cooper the ghoul howard #cooper howard x reader #cooper howard #cooper howard imagine #the ghoul imagine #the ghoul fallout #the ghoul x reader #the ghoul #fallout imagine #fallout

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simplylove101 · 22 days ago

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2024 Horror Challenge: [87/?]

↳“I wanna know what it's like to be in the present of that kinda evil.” Terrifier 3 (2024) dir. Damien Leone

Plot: Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Starring: Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton, Elliott Fullam, Samantha Scaffidi, Antonella Rose, Margaret Anne Florence, Bryce Johnson & Chris Jericho

Yeah, I did it. lol I watched it. I honestly had doubts if I should because I tapped out last year at the infamous hacksaw scene in the original Terrifier movie and I've only seen bits & pieces of the 2nd one because of my work friend who loves the movies so plot-wise I knew I'd be a bit confused. Now, there'd be an argument from the detractors of the film series who'd say, what plot? There actually is beyond the gore. While I didn't watch Terrifier 2 in its entirety (I already know the gore was gonna test me aka the cannibalism cuz yuck lol), I did know going in that Sienna was a survivor from that movie so I was like, okay we have a final girl to root for. It's not just gonna be Art killing people and we get no story to weave it into something, which hey, it's true splatter horror so even if it hadn't, it still was gonna have its fans. Gore-wise, it still was testing me and yet, I feel like I handled it well. Ofc I learned my lesson and wasn't eating anything while I watched so that was probably a good start. XD But it does also help to remind yourself just how outrageous the violence actually is and that it's not meant to be taken seriously. Now, the main controversy of it was the tease of this being a movie where kids were not off-limits as Art's victims (People have said the originals All Hallow's Eve movie made it clear that Art didn't have that blind spot already but seeing as I know nothing about those films & they're not part of this trilogy, whatever I guess?? lol) and I will say, they actually handled that part as tasteful as they possibly could if they were gonna go there. Yes, they fully go there but the actual violence is off-screen. It's the adults/teens that get the screen time for that and goodness, the overkill. XD Everyone's talking about the shower scene cuz that definitely was wild and very graphic but the worst kill is hands down the rats (IYKYK) because that is just vile. *shudders* It's gotta be said David Howard Thornton deserves his praise as Art because he truly brings that character to life in a way where he's doing these very awful things and yet we're entertained by him? lol Honestly, I liked how funny his interactions with Samantha Scaffidi's character were as well. Really good evil partner in crime energy with them. Also, Lauren LaVera as Sienna is a final girl for the ages imo. She was very badass in the final act. Kinda crazy they're making the 4th movie cuz it did feel like this could have been a nice & tight trilogy but then they had to add things about Art's mythology, while also still not giving us everything about him or much really. So, I guess the last one is gonna be the one to give the answers? I guess we'll see (assuming I'm gonna watch it but now I think I will have to because I have an actual investment in it now) This is obviously not a movie for all horror fans but I do see its value in the genre now. If nothing else, you're getting exactly what you're expecting when you choose to watch this. I figured I needed at least one movie to be a true challenge for a Halloween watch and I got that. And I didn't hate it lol so that'll be interesting when it comes to my rankings.

#terrifier 3 #horrorchallenge2024

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yformaldehyde · 7 months ago

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IND. COOPER HOWARD — THE GHOUL from FALLOUT (TV SERIES)

by kotys, 21+, she/her

ABOUT | VERSES | RULES BELLOW ⤵

RP ETIQUETTE EXPECTED — don't control my character & talk to me before you want to inflict major damage onto them. Respect the golden rule - do unto me what you would want done unto yourself. If you're unsure about anything, my IMs are open.

MULTI EVERYTHING — I accept the multiverse theory & don't shy away from AUs. This applies to duplicates. Mains and affiliates are earned. I don't do exclusives.

NO MINORS — if you're younger than 21, please don't interact with my blog. It's a comfort thing.

DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT — triggering & NSFW topics will either be written or mentioned. I will tag everything I can, including mentions that belong to sensitive topics. Bear in mind that my responsibilities end here and that curating your space to your needs is your job. Prevalent themes: cannibalism, gore, body rot, substance/drug abuse, blood, violence, disfiguration, denial of basic resources, torture, murder not excluding children & animals. I don't condone what I write. I just write it with those willing to explore it.

SHIPS & SMUT — I'm personally disinterested in both, especially the latter. I don't write smut unless it makes sense to the story. Cooper is tough to ship with, so chemistry & OOC communication is imperative to get there.

THREADS & STORYLINES — I like a good challenge & adore threads that feel like we're writing a book together. I don't drop threads without letting my partners know about it first. My main preference is to bring a thread to a satisfying close, even if it needs to get cut short. These are my values & I don't expect you to share them, though it's appreciated if you do.

SPEED — I'm not chronologically locked when it comes to replies & will prioritize whatever sparks my muse the most. That's not to say that I don't treasure every single thread I have going. Life is stressful, so I cope by channeling my attention into whatever comes easiest to me in the moment. I leave the rest for when I am able to allocate the time to offer a worthy reply. I also don't mind threads that are put on hold. I've had threads & plots continue after a year of pause, so I'm not looking to rush you or be rushed by you. I'm a strong supporter of letting the story breathe at its own pace depending on the time, motivation and general availability of the writers.

CHARACTER — The Ghoul is not a nice character who hesitates out of the goodness of his heart. He operates through the mentality of dehumanization & general devaluation, therefore he will shoot, harm, mock, cannibalize and kill without mercy if the latter doesn't garner him a service. Maybe your muse can fix him, but chances are he'll make them worse.

THE MUN — I'm in my late 20s & live in Europe. I haven't played the games, so I only know about Fallout from the show & whatever tidbits I consume on the internet. I mainly just post things & bounce, so I don't spend a lot of time on the dash and therefore might miss out on a ton of things! English is my second language. I will do my best to mimic a southern dialect, but I must preemptively apologize if my dialogues are going to be a miss rather than a hit. You can ask for my discord but your best bet to chat with me OOC is through IMs. Little PSA since it happened.

#pinned.

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sobriquett · 2 years ago

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Dear Candy Hearts Exchange Author,

Dear Candy Hearts Author,

Hello, and thank you for thinking about writing for me!

Please find below a summary of things I love in fic, things I don’t love, and then some further details and prompts by fandom. Also, if you’re looking for a beta reader in any of these fandoms (or any other fandom referenced in past dear author letters or on my AO3 page or Tumblr page, please get in touch.

Treats are enabled and very, very welcome!

Fandoms here are in alphabetical order to avoid the appearance of favouritism!

Likes:

DNWs:

Smut-Specific Likes:

Honestly, I am up for near anything that feels like it fits into the canon context and isn’t on my DNW list. Bonus points for anything I haven’t thought of that is really contextually appropriate!

Smut DNWs:

1. The Big Bang Theory

Amy & Bernadette & Penny Beverly & Leonard & Sheldon Howard & Leonard & Raj & Sheldon Penny & Leonard & Sheldon Leonard & Sheldon Raj/Howard Sheldon & Penny

This is a first-time fandom request for me, but it’s been my in-the-background tv while cooking/cleaning for the last several weeks, and I’ve just watched the last two seasons for the first time. It's weird to think that I've been watching this show for nearly half my life; no, it's not perfect, not even close, but it's fun and fluffy and easy and I like that. This is a canon I want more of, not more from - if you can capture the tone or spirit of the show, I'll be ecstatic.

Canon-typical anything Post-canon: what changes, what stays the same Does Sheldon ever grow his own Leonard Nimoy? A classic Bazinga Raj/Howard's ersatz homosexual marriage becomes explicit Personal growth and support, particularly for the women Characters playing board games (I'm a board gamer) Beverly writes a new book Sheldon (or anyone else!) conducts an experiment Outsider POV These characters as parents Moving house Penny finds success/fulfilment What is a happy ending for these characters? More Fun with Flags Managing/balancing time with more adult responsibilities (at least 6/7 main characters have children, all have careers and homes, etc.) Five times: hugging

2. Bridgerton (TV)

Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sharma Daphne Bridgerton & Kate Sharma Benedict Bridgerton & Kate Sharma Simon Basset & Kate Sharma Violet Bridgerton & Kate Sharma

Season 2 was not what I was expecting, and nor was it a terribly faithful adaptation of the book. (Not a bad thing in my opinion; I stopped reading the books because they were too ridiculous for me, but the show hits just right with its own flavour of absurdity.) To quote a previous exchange:

I was very, very “what the fuck” from the end of episode four right through to the end of the season, peaking in episode six with some what the actual FUCK, and basically watched it in one sitting on release day and into the night.

There’s so much potential for fun here; have at it!

Post-Gazebo fic – any consequences you please, or none at all Kate leaves for India Violet Bridgerton loses her position to Kate – her home, some of her responsibilities; how do both handle it? Daphne and Kate torment Anthony together Another incident with a bee What happened to Kate’s fear of storms? Somebody’s past comes back to haunt them An unfortunate item in Lady Whistledown’s latest issue Where is Simon in season 2? What does he think of all this? What does he have to say to Kate, Anthony, Daphne, anyone? Pall Mall Riding and racing Seasonal fic - spring, summer, autumn, winter; a typical (or exceptional) moment

3. Downton Abbey

Anna Bates & Mary Crawley Edith Crawley & Mary Crawley & Sybil Crawley Matthew Crawley/Mary Crawley

My tv comfort blanket! I’ve rewatched this most years since it was first on tv, although sometimes I stop watching after 04x01. (Fuck that rape storyline, seriously. The show has some fun stories after that but they’re always tangled up with some absolute nonsense, whereas I love 95%+ of S1-3. Even the angsty stuff!)

Pre-canon/first meetings/childhood Do the Crawley sisters keep in touch after any of their marriages? (Or a divergence - e.g. Edith marries Anthony, Mary marries Matthew in 1914) Do any of these characters have advice for others? Is it welcomed or resented, followed or discarded, sensible or mad? Bates is hanged, the story breaks; Anna and Mary go to America The inevitable passage of time Anything during the war, or WW2 if you want to go post-canon What if the Kemal Pamuk episode went differently? Do Anna and Mary talk about it again? Do Edith or Sybil actually overhear, does anything change? What if Mary and Matthew got together at any other time? Either as a one-off with regrets, or all the way to the altar? Matthew Crawley Lives/Sybil Crawley Lives Matthew/Sybil meet their children; what are they like as parents? Living in the gaps in the house routine (all relationships) - how do they fit a life in around all the meals and costume changes and clockwork routine of a big house? A break in dignity Do ghosts walk the halls of Downton Abbey? A moment of true despair Comfort and support A happily ever after What does the future hold?

4. The Gilded Age

Agnes van Rhijn & Ada Brook Agnes van Rhijn & Oscar van Rhijn Agnes van Rhijn & Peggy Scott Bertha Russell/George Russell Marian Brook & Peggy Scott Marian Brook/Larry Russell Marian Brook/Tom Raikes

I haven’t written or read in this fandom, but I really enjoyed the show. My period drama tastes normally run a little earlier (1800-1860) or later (1910-1960) and are almost entirely British, so this is new to me. I’m a raging history nerd, if you’d like to cater to that, and love a fic that delights in its historical context.

I love the complicated dynamics and tensions between the characters, their very different priorities and worldviews and the way they express or cling to or seize power.

Pre-canon moments, esp. for Agnes & Ada or Bertha/George What was Agnes’ marriage like? How was it for Ada and Oscar to live in their household? What if Marian had run away with Mr Raikes? Characters protecting one another Significant first name usage (this is a world of extremely rigid social rules – to break them or vary them is a big deal, and sign of considerable intimacy.) Does Ada have any power in her relationship with her sister? Peggy starts to find greater success as a writer – but the piece that’s raised her profile was a subject about which she should not have written Bertha or George Russell supporting one another (or any other relationship) Bertha/George have a disagreement about parenting their children (they each support their child of the opposite gender, but each want their other child to follow closely in their footprints) Dealing with a setback Epistolary fic – are characters writing to one another who shouldn’t? How do they send messages?

5. Star Trek: Voyager

Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway Kathryn Janeway & Tuvok

One of my favourite themes in fic for this fandom is the conflict between the isolation and aloofness demanded by Janeway’s command position (and particularly her strict views on this and the more pragmatic position others may take) and her own social and emotional needs. It’s an impossible position in impossible circumstances. I love the angst that comes from it, and I love it when a writer either works out a meaningful and thoughtful situation or deals with the consequences one way or another. There’s such rich soil for both of these relationships, in their different backgrounds and worldviews but their shared goals.

Command structure and interpersonal dynamics A moment of vulnerability Things they’ve lost, paths not taken Scuttlebutt Fix-it Resolutions fi Year of Hell fic A recurring gesture/a new habit Post-canon - keeping in touch/a new normal

6. The West Wing

CJ Cregg & Toby Ziegler Jed Bartlet & Leo McGarry Jed Bartlet & Toby Ziegler Joe Quincy & Ainsley Hayes & Cliff Calley Josh Lyman & Donna Moss Josh Lyman/Donna Moss Josh Lyman & Leo McGarry

Missing moments Platonic intimacy Quiet comfort/support in a difficult moment (Zoey's abduction, the MS fallout, Gaza incident etc.) Donna readjusts to the workplace after Gaza Workplace silliness/hijinks Post-canon/life after the Bartlet administration/life in the Santos administration Blurring lines of professionalism Being so very, very tired What happened to Ainsley Hayes? Why did she leave? Is there secretly a Bartlet Republicans club? Do they have an outisder POV of canon events? Campaign life - long days, buses, trains, planes, hotels, crap food Speaking in shorthand A press room incident A guy falls into a hole Pre-canon moments - first meetings Desperate pining (Josh or Donna or both) Friendship/love Donna keeps a diary. Entries? Does another character read it? Doing something stupid to protect someone Press intrusion into private lives Email chains/notes/memos in the office Women being awesome and holding their own Poker night Life under siege/under threat The passage of time - before and after the administration What if the S1 shooting went differently?

7. The Witcher (TV)

Geralt & Jaskier Geralt/Jaskier

I am finally coming to the end of Blood and Wine, having played through The Witcher 3 this year, but in terms of fic I’m still mostly reading in the TV fandom, so here we are. That said, please shovel in all the games references you want! I would particularly love anything in or around Toussaint, but TV canon-style. (I appreciate that this is a pain in the butt for any number of reasons, but handwave away!)

This is a fandom where I would prefer to avoid PWP. If there is plot, then porn is welcome, and trope-y goodness is very welcome – curses, spells, sex pollen, whatever. Just… a touch of plot.

Non-human Jaskier Post-mountain angst/pining Emotional support bard Music and singing Truth spells/compulsions Magic gone wrong/laws of magic/unexpected magic Post-canon for S2 Facing a monster from the bestiary/fulfilling a contract Character comes back wrong The nature of destiny The passage of time Enhanced senses Platonic intimacy Platonic intimacy that crosses a line! Looking out for each other

#dear author letter #candy hearts exchange #big bang theory #bridgerton tv #downton abbey #the gilded age #star trek voyager #the west wing #the witcher tv

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bluecarelesswhisper · 3 years ago

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TOP 100 FEMALE SOLO SINGERS OF THE '50S AND '60S

Patti Page - All My Love, The Tennessee Waltz, Mockin' Bird Hill, I Went to Your Wedding, The Doggie in the Window, Cross Over the Bridge, Allegheny Moon, Old Cape Cod; Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Connie Francis - Who's Sorry Now, My Happiness, Lipstick on Your Collar, Everybody's Somebody's Fool, My Heart Has a Mind of its Own, Where the Boys Are, Don't Break the Heart That Loves You

Brenda Lee - Sweet Nothin's, I'm Sorry, I Want to Be Wanted, Fool #1, Break it to Me Gently, All Alone Am I

Kay Starr - Wheel of Fortune, Side By Side, Changing Partners, If You Love Me (Really Love Me), Rock and Roll Waltz

Doris Day - A Guy is a Guy, Secret Love, If I Give My Heart to You; Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera); Everybody Loves a Lover

Dionne Warwick - Anyone Who Had a Heart, Walk on By, I Say a Little Prayer, (Theme from) Valley of the Dolls, I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), Respect, Baby I Love You, Chain of Fools, The House That Jack Built

Teresa Brewer - Music! Music! Music!, Till I Waltz Again With You, Ricochet, A Tear Fell, A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl

Jo Stafford - Shrimp Boats, You Belong to Me, Jambalaya, Keep it a Secret, Make Love to Me!

Rosemary Clooney - Come On-a My House, Half as Much, Botch-A-Me, Hey There, This Ole House

Joni James - Why Don't You Believe Me, Have You Heard, Your Cheatin' Heart; My Love, My Love; How Important Can it Be?

Petula Clark - Downtown, I Know a Place, My Love, This is My Song, Don't Sleep in the Subway

Dinah Washington - I Don't Hurt Anymore, What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, Unforgettable, This Bitter Earth

Mary Wells - The One Who Really Loves You, You Beat Me to the Punch, Two Lovers, My Guy

Georgia Gibbs - Kiss of Fire, Seven Lonely Days, Tweedle Dee, Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower)

Lesley Gore - It's My Party, Judy's Turn to Cry, She's a Fool, You Don't Own Me

Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin'; How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?; Sugar Town, Love Eyes

Sarah Vaughan - Make Yourself Comfortable, How Important Can it Be?, Whatever Lola Wants, Broken-Hearted Melody

Dusty Springfield - I Only Want to Be With You, Wishin' and Hopin', You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Son-Of-A Preacher Man

Ruth Brown - Teardrops From My Eyes, 5-10-15 Hours, (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean, Oh What a Dream

Kitty Wells - It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, Makin' Believe, Searching (For Someone Like You), Heartbreak U.S.A.

Etta James - The Wallflower, All I Could Do Was Cry, At Last, Tell Mama

LaVern Baker - Tweedlee Dee, Play it Fair, Jim Dandy, I Cried a Tear

Gale Storm - I Hear You Knocking, Teen Age Prayer, Dark Moon

Dinah Shore - My Heart Cries For You, Sweet Violets, Chantz-Chantez

Jaye P. Morgan - That's All I Want From You, Danger! Heartbreak Ahead, The Longest Walk

Eydie Gorme - Mama, Teach Me to Dance; You Need Hands, Blame it on the Bossa Nova

Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes), B-A-B-Y, I Like What You're Doing (To Me)

Patsy Cline - Walkin' After Midnight, I Fall to Pieces, Crazy

Peggy Lee - Lover, Fever, Is That All There Is

Dee Dee Sharp - Mashed Potato Time, Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes), Ride!

Kitty Kallen - Little Things Mean a Lot, In the Chapel in the Moonlight, My Coloring Book

Annette - Tall Paul, O Dio Mio, Pineapple Princess

Cher - All I Really Want to Do, Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), You Better Sit Down Kids

Barbra Streisand - People, He Touched Me, Second Hand Rose

Linda Scott - I've Told Every Little Star, Don't Bet Money Honey, I Don't Know Why

Connie Smith - Once a Day, Ain't Had No Lovin', The Hurtin's All Over

Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger, Baby I'm Yours, Make Me Your Baby

Anita Bryant - Till There Was You, Paper Roses, In My Little Corner of the World

Skeeter Davis - My Last Date (With You), The End of the World, I Can't Stay Mad at You

Sue Thompson - Sad Movies (Make Me Cry), Norman, Paper Tiger

Della Reese - And That Reminds Me, Don't You Know, Not One Minute More

Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind), Fist City, Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)

Betty Everett - You're No Good, The Shoop Shoop Song, There Comes a Time

Jackie DeShannon - What the World Needs Now is Love, Put a Little Love in Your Heart, Love Will Find a Way

Timi Yuro - Hurt, What's a Matter Baby, Make the World Go Away

Debbie Reynolds - Tammy, A Very Special Love, Am I That Easy to Forget

Gogi Grant - Suddenly There's a Valley, Who Are We, The Wayward Wind

Maxine Brown - All in My Mind, Funny, Oh No Not My Baby

Betty Johnson - I Dreamed, Little White Lies, The Little Blue Man

Jean Shepard - A Satisfied Mind, Beautiful Lies, Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar)

Shirley Ellis - The Nitty Gitty, The Name Game, The Clapping Song

Little Eva - The Loco-Motion, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, Let's Turkey Trot

Vera Lynn - Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart, Yours, If You Love Me (Really Love Me)

Eartha Kitt - C'est Si Bon, Santa Baby, Somebody Bad Stole De Wedding Bell

Lulu - To Sir With Love, Best of Both Worlds, Morning Dew

June Valli - Crying in the Chapel, I Understand, Apple Green

Connie Stevens - Sixteen Reasons, Why'd You Wanna Make Me Cry, Mr. Songwriter

Jane Morgan - Fascination, The Day the Rains Came, With Open Arms

Nancy Wilson - (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am, I Wanna Be With You; Face it Girl, it's Over

Esther Phillips - Release Me, And I Love Him, When a Woman Loves a Man

Vikki Carr - It Must Be Him, The Lesson, With Pen in Hand

Little Peggy March - I Will Follow Him, I Wish I Were a Princess; Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love

Mindy Carson - Candy and Cake, My Foolish Heart, Wake the Town and Tell the People

Sandy Posey - Born a Woman, Single Girl, I Take it Back

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe, Fancy

Brenda Holloway - Every Little Bit Hurts, When I'm Gone

Eileen Rodgers - Miracle of Love, Treasure of Your Love

Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose a Good Thing, Second Fiddle Girl

Dottie West - Here Comes My Baby, Would You Hold it Against Me

Baby Washington - That's How Heartaches Are Made, Only Those in Love

Kathy Linden - Billy; Goodbye Jimmy, Goodbye

Cathy Carr - Ivory Tower, First Anniversary

Fontella Bass - Rescue Me, Recovery

Barbara Mason - Yes, I'm Ready; Sad, Sad Girl

Marianne Faithfull - As Tears Go By, Summer Nights

Shelley Fabares - Johnny Angel, Johnny Loves Me

Wanda Jackson - Let's Have a Party, In the Middle of a Heartache

Tammy Wynette - D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Stand By Your Man

Mama Cass - Dream a Little Dream of Me, It's Getting Better

Faye Adams - Shake a Hand, Hurts Me to My Heart

Jill Corey - I Love My Baby, Love Me to Pieces

Dodie Stevens - Pink Shoe Laces, No

Bettye Swann - Make Me Yours, Don't Touch Me

Jan Howard - Evil on Your Mind, Bad Seed

Nina Simone - I Loves You, Porgy; Ain't Got No; I Got Life

Norma Jean - Go Cat Go, I Wouldn't Buy a Used Car From Him

Miss Toni Fisher - The Big Hurt, West of the Wall

Damita Jo - I'll Be There, If You Go Away

Patty Duke - Don't Just Stand There, Say Something Funny

Bonnie Guitar - Dark Moon, Mister Fire Eyes

Gloria Lynne - I Wish You Love, Watermelon Man

Jody Miller - Queen of the House, Home of the Brave

Gisele MacKenzie - Hard to Get, The Star You Wished Upon Last Night

Betty Madigan - Joey, Dance Everyone Dance

Ketty Lester - Love Letters, But Not For Me

Barbara George - I Know (You Don't Love Me No More), You Talk About Love

Joanie Sommers - One Boy, Johnny Get Angry

Irma Thomas - Don't Mess With My Man, Wish Someone Would Care

Diane Renay - Navy Blue, Kiss Me Sailor

#50s #60s #music

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

Text

Once Upon a Time in America Is Every Bit as Great a Gangster Movie as The Godfather

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This article contains Once Upon a Time in America spoilers.

The Godfather is a great movie, possibly the best ever made. Its sequel, The Godfather, Part II, often follows it in the pantheon of classic cinema, some critics even believe it is the better film. Robert Evans, head of production at Paramount in the early 1970s, wanted The Godfather to be directed by an Italian American. Francis Ford Coppola was very much a last resort. The studio’s first choice was Sergio Leone, but he was getting ready to make his own gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America. Though less known, it is equally magnificent.

Robert De Niro, as David “Noodles” Aaronson, and James Woods, as Maximillian “Max” Bercovicz, make up a dream gangster film pairing in Once Upon a Time in America, on par with late 1930s audiences seeing Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney team for The Roaring Twenties or Angels with Dirty Faces. Noodles and Max are partners and competitors, one is ambitious, the other gets a yen for the beach. One went to jail, the other wants to rob the Federal Reserve Bank.

Throw Joe Pesci into the mix, in a small part as crime boss Frankie Monaldi, and Burt Young as his brother Joe Monaldi, and life gets “funnier than shit,” and funnier than their more famous crime films, Goodfellas and Chinatown, respectively. Future mob entertainment mainstays are all over Once Upon a Time in America too, and they are in distinguished company. This is future Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly’s first movie. She plays young Deborah, the young girl who becomes the woman between Noodles and Max, and she even has something of a catch-phrase, “Go on Noodles your mother is calling.” Elizabeth McGovern delivers the line as adult Deborah.

When Once Upon a Time in America first ran in theaters, there were reports that people in the audience laughed when Deborah is reintroduced after a 35-year gap in the action. She hadn’t aged at all. But Deborah is representational to Leone, beyond the character.

“Age can wither me, Noodles,” she says. But neither the character nor the director will allow the audience to see it beyond the cold cream. Deborah is the character Leone is answering to. She also embodies the fluid chronology of the storytelling. She is its only constant.

The rest of the film can feel like a free fall though. Whereas The Godfather moved in a linear fashion, Once Upon a Time in America has time for flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, and detours that careen between the violent and the quiet. It’s a visceral experience about landing where we, and this genre, began.

Growing up Gangster

Both The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America span decades; it’s the history of immigrant crime in 20th century America. But they differ on chronological placement. Once Upon a Time is set in three time-frames. The earliest is 1918 in the Jewish ghettos of New York City’s Lower East Side.

Young Noodles (Scott Tiler), Patrick “Patsy” Goldberg (Brian Bloom), Philip “Cockeye” Stein (Adrian Curran) and Dominic (Noah Moazezi), are a bush league street gang doing petty crimes for a minor neighborhood mug, Bugsy (James Russo). New on the block, Max (Rusty Jacobs) interrupts the gang as they’re about to roll a drunk, and Max makes off with the guy’s watch for himself. He soon joins the gang, and they progress to bigger crimes.

The bulk of the film takes place, however, from when De Niro’s Noodles gets out of prison in 1930, following Bugsy’s murder, and lasts until the end of Prohibition in 1933. Max, now played by Woods, has become a successful bootlegger with a mortuary business on the side. With William Forsythe playing the grown-up Cockeye and James Hayden as Patsy, the mobsters go from bootlegging through contract killing, and ultimately to backing the biggest trucking union in the country as enforcers. They enjoy most of their downtime in their childhood friend Fat Moe’s (Larry Rapp) speakeasy. Noodles is in love with Fat Moe’s sister, Deborah, who is on her way to becoming a Hollywood star. The gang’s rise ends with the liquor delivery massacre.

The final part of the film comes in 1968. After 35 years in hiding, Noodles is uncovered and paid to do a private contract for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Christopher Bailey… Max by a different name who 35 years on has been able to feign respectability and make Deborah his mistress. An entire life has become a façade.

Recreating a Seedier Side of New York’s Immigrant Past

While The Godfather is an adaptation of Mario Puzo’s fictional bestseller, Once Upon a Time in America is based on the autobiographical crime novel, The Hoods. It was written by Herschel “Noodles” Goldberg, under the pen name of Harry Grey while he was serving time in Sing-Sing Prison.

Coppola’s vision in The Godfather is aesthetically comparable to Leone’s projection. From the opium pipes at the Chinese puppet theater to the take-out Lo Mein during execution planning, the multicultural world of old New York crowds the frames and the players in both films. Most of Once Upon a Time in America was shot at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. The 1918 Jewish neighborhood in Manhattan was a street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which was made to look exactly as it had 60 years earlier.

Leone skillfully, yet playfully, captures the poverty of immigrant life in New York. The first crime we see the four-member gang commit could have been done by the Dead End kids. They torch a newspaper stand because the owner doesn’t kick up protection money to the local mug. And like the Dead End kids, they needle their mark, and joke with each other. At the end of the crime, Cockey is playing the pan pipe, and the very young Dominic is dancing. They are proud of their work and enjoy it. It’s fun to break things for money. And even better when they get a choice between taking payment in cash or rolling it over into the sure bet of rolling a drunk.

Violence without the Cannoli

Gangster films, like Howard Hawks’ Scarface and William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy, were always at the forefront of the backlash to the Motion Picture Production Code. Which might be why gangster pictures were one of the first genres to benefit from the censors’ fall. A direct line can be drawn from the machine gun death which ends Bonnie and Clyde (1967) to the toll-booth execution of Sonny Corleone (James Caan) in The Godfather. Another from when Moe Greene (Alex Rocco) gets one through the glasses and Joe Monaldi gets it in the eye in Once Upon a Time in America.

The Godfather has some brutal scenes. We get a litany of dead Barzinis and Tattaglias, horse heads and spilled oranges. Once Upon a Time in America ups the ante though. The shootings and stabbings are neat jobs compared with the beatings, which allow far more artistic renderings of gore, and pass extreme scrutiny. The one time the effects team balks at a payoff is when it’s not as gruesome as the setup.

“Inflammatory words from a union boss,” corporate thug Chicken Joe asks as he is about to light Jimmy “Clean Hands” Conway O’Donnell on fire. The mobster has such a nice smile, and the union delegate, played by Treat Williams, looks so pathetic while dripping gasoline that it feels like it might even be a mercy killing. It is a wonderful set piece, perfectly executed and timed. When Max and Noodles, and the gang defuse the situation, rather than ignite it, it is a lesson in the dangerous balance of suspense.

Like many specific scenes in Once Upon a Time in America, Conway’s incendiary introduction would’ve worked in any era. This is the turning point for the gang. The end of Prohibition is coming and all those trucks they’re using to haul liquor can be repurposed for a more lucrative future.

“You Dancing?”

Music is paramount in both Leone’s and Coppola’s films. The Godfather is much like an opera, the third installment even closes the curtain at one. Once Upon a Time in America is a frontier film. The score was composed by Ennio Morricone, who wrote the music behind Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The film opens and closes with Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America.” Though the scene occurs during the 1968 timeframe, the song comes out of the radio of a car seemingly from another point in time.

Morricone’s accompaniment to Once Upon a Time in America is as representational as Nino Rota’s soundtrack in The Godfather. Characters, settings, situations, and relationships all have themes, which become as recognizable as the Prohibition-era songs which flavor the period piece’s ambience. Fat Moe conducts the speakeasy orchestra through José María Lacalle García’s “Amapola” while grinning dreamily to Deborah who is chatting with Noodles. He’s a romantic.

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The music becomes part of the action in Once Upon a Time in America. Individual couples cut their own rugs, doing the Charleston between tables as waiters and cigarette girls glide by. Cockeye, who has been playing the pan pipe since the beginning of the film, wants to sit in with the band.

Forsythe almost steals Once Upon a Time in America. He cries what look like real tears at the mock funeral for Prohibition and drinks formula from a baby bottle during the maternity ward scene. The blackmail scheme, which involves swapping infants, plays like an outtake from a Three Stooges movie, something Coppola would never dare for The Godfather. The ruse is choreographed to the tune of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie,” which elicits the youthful thuggery celebrated in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.

Devils with Clean Faces

One ironic difference between the two films is whimsy. The Godfather, which glorifies crime as corporate misadventure, is a serious movie with no time for funny business. Once Upon a Time in America, which is an indictment of criminal life, has moments of innocence as syrupy as in any family film (of the non-crime variety) and can be completely kosher. It’s sweeter than the cannoli Clemenza (Richard Castellano) took from the car, or the cake Nazorine (Vito Scotti) made for the wedding of Don Vito’s daughter.

The scene where young Patsy brings a Charlotte Russe to Peggy in exchange for sex is a masterwork of emotive storytelling. He chooses a treat over sex. On one level, yes, this is a socioeconomic reality. That pastry was expensive and something he could never afford to get for himself. But as Patsy sneaks each tiny bit of the cream from the packaging, he is also just a child, a kid who wants some cake. He learns he can’t have it and eat it. It is so plainly laid out, and so beautifully rendered.

The Corleone family never gets those moments, not even in the flashbacks to Sicily or as children on the stoop listening to street singers play guitars. We know little of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) or Sonny as youngsters, much less teenagers, and are robbed of their happier moments of bonding. We know they are close, they are family. But Michael has his own brother killed while Noodles balks at the very idea. Twice, as it turns out.

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“Today they ask us to get rid of Joe. Tomorrow they ask me to get rid of you. Is that okay with you? Cos it’s not okay with me,” Noodles tells Max after the gang delivers on a particularly costly contract, double-crossing their partners in a major diamond heist. They are not blood family, but from the moment Max calls Noodles his “uncle” to fool a beat cop, they are all related.

Noodles then does what young men in coming-of-age movies have done since Cooley High: Something really stupid. An indulgence the Corleones could never enjoy. He speeds the car into the bay. The guys can’t believe it. It adds to his legend. The scene could have been in Diner, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or even Thelma & Louise. It is hard to dislike the gangsters in these moments. We know them too well, even as they do such horrible things.

How Women are Really Treated by an Underworld

The Godfather is told from the vantage point of one of the heads of the five established crime families; organized crime is as insular as the Corleone mall on Long Beach. That motion picture reinvigorated the “gangster film,” long considered a ghetto genre, but its perspective is insulated. By contrast, no matter how far they climb, Leone’s characters never really get off the block. They are street savages, even in tuxedos. Once Upon a Time in America whacked the gangster film, and tossed its living corpse into the compactor of a passing garbage truck.

The Godfather doesn’t judge its gangsters. The Corleones are family men who keep to a code of ethics and omerta. They dip their beaks in “harmless” vices like gambling, liquor, and prostitution. While there are scenes of extreme domestic violence, and a general dismissal of women, the film stops short of challenging the image of honorable men who do dishonorable things. Leone offers no such restraint. His history lesson is unabridged.

Long before Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman stripped gangster lore to a tale of toxic masculinity, Once Upon a Time in America robbed it of all glamor. There is a very nonchalant attitude toward violence and other demeaning acts against women in Leone’s film, from the very opening scene where a thug fondles a woman’s breast with his gun in order to humiliate her civilian date.

This is deliberate. The director, best known for Spaghetti Westerns, wants to obliterate any goodwill the gangsters have accumulated through their magnetic antiheroism. One scene between Max and his girlfriend Carol (Tuesday Weld) is so hard to sit through, even the other members of the gang squirm in their chairs.

Noodles sexually assaults two women over the course of the film. While there is some motivational ambiguity in the scene during the jewel heist attack, the rape of Deborah is devastatingly direct. It kills any vestige of romance the gangster archetype has in film. The camera does not look away, and the scene lingers with terrifying ferocity and traumatic intimacy. There is a visible victim, and Noodles’ wealth and pretensions of honor are worthless.

The Ultimate Gangster Epic

Once Upon a Time in America brings one other element to the genre which The Godfather avoids, a lingering mystery. Coppola delivers short riddles, like the fate of Luca Brasi, which are revealed as the story warrants. But the 35-year gap between the slaughter of Noodles’ crew and the introduction of Secretary Bailey is almost unfathomable. How did Max go from long-dead to a man with legitimate power?

What happens to Noodles in those years is fairly easy to guess, without any specifics. He got by. The gang’s shared secret bankroll was empty when he tried to retrieve it as the last surviving member. He put his gun away and eked out a quiet life. But even as the details spill out on the true fate of Max, it is unexpectedly surprising, as much for the audience as Noodles.

“I took away your whole life from you,” Max/Bailey says. “I’ve been living in your place. I took everything. I took your money. I took your girl. All I left for you was 35 years of grief over having killed me. Now why don’t you shoot?” This final betrayal, and Noodles’ inert revenge, take Once Upon a Time In America into almost unexplored cinematic depths.

Max has gone as low as he could go. The joke is on Noodles, everyone’s in on it, including “Clean Hands,” who is tied in to “the Bailey scandal.” The cops are in on it, and so is the mob. Max admits even the liquor dropoff was a syndicate set-up. He’d planned this all along. Just like Michael Corleone had a long term strategy to make his family legitimate.

This is an ambitious story. Beyond genre, this bends American celluloid into European cinema. By sheer virtue of being outside of Hollywood, Leone transcends traditional boundaries. He has a far more limitless pallet to draw from. He can aim a camera at De Niro’s spoon in a coffee cup for three minutes and never lose the audience’s rapt attention. Leone can pull the rug out from everything with a last minute reveal. Coppola bent American filmmaking for The Godfather, but stayed within proscribed parameters. He never gets as sweet as a Charlotte Russe nor as repulsive as the back seat of a limo.

Once Upon a Time in America ripped the genre’s insides out and displayed them with unflinching veracity and theatrical beauty. It is a perfect film, gorgeously shot, masterfully timed, and slightly ajar.

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detective-with-one-arm · 4 years ago

Note

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

Vanilla!Rachel

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Not on purpose. While she doesn’t really get jealous, there is the smallest sharp prick in her chest. But she keeps that shit to herself and supports her friends and loved ones no matter what. She would honestly rather die than let her jealousy leak out and affect her relationships.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

Most of the time, no. She’s generally a very affectionate, patient, and kind person and is typically the one who initiates it. But if something has happened and she’s been hurt by someone, she’ll need some time away on her own before she’ll accept anything from them and if it comes across as hollow and selfish, then she will reject it.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

I was hoping someone would ask this.

Because the thing is...she would. She wouldn’t want to. She would do absolutely everything in her power not to. It is the last thing in the world she would ever want to live with doing. But if there is no other choice and no other way out and if either they or someone holding them captive was so dangerous and was causing so much harm to people that the only way to stop them was to either kill or allow them to kill someone close to her...she would do it.

And it would haunt her for the rest of her life.

It would destroy her.

Siren!Rachel

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

She more just gets really clingy and sad. Like, she would never hurt someone out of jealousy, but she might make them feel kinda guilty. Not on purpose, but she’s been alone for pretty much her whole life and once she has friends, she tends to get really attached to them really quickly. Even more so if she finds a mate. So she’ll more do the whole ‘you don’t want me anymore...?’ sorta thing. But this is nothing some soft reassurance can’t cure. She’s just lonely and insecure and doesn’t really know better.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

Never. She cherishes her friendships that she gains and would never take their affections or kindnesses for granted. This does make her a bit naïve and too trusting and forgiving for her own good, but she doesn’t really know better. All she knows is that she wants her friends to stay.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

She would literally rather die.

Sea Naga!Rachel

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Oh, definitely. She doesn’t really attach herself much to someone emotionally. But when she does, she can definitely have a selfish streak. If that person seems to prefer someone else’s company to hers, she’ll be rather irritable towards her chosen partner and will do just about everything to keep them to herself. And if they somehow separate from her, she’ll probably end up hurting the person getting more of her partner’s attention.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

She wouldn’t...refuse it, exactly. She would more just be confused by it. Not that she’s particularly soft or anything, she would just be baffled as to why anyone would show her kindness. It’s neither a negative or positive feeling, it’s just confusing as shit.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

She doesn’t really...care about a greater good. She just exists in a state of self-indulgence. That being said, if someone did manage to get close to her, she would never want them dead. She might hurt them if they do something that genuinely angers or pisses her off, but she would never kill them.

Ichthyocentaur!Rachel

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

No. She would never hurt someone out of jealousy, but she doesn’t get as clingy as Siren!Rachel probably would. Maybe a little dejected, but she would let her partner or friend do whatever they’d like. She would just sort of sit on the sidelines and wait for them to come back and give her attention. She’s already shy and tends to keep her distance, but once she actually makes a connection with someone, she’ll be around them more, but she won’t really hold onto them if they’d rather maintain their distance. She’d feel too shy to say anything.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

She’s already hesitant to approach people as is, so she would be hesitant to accept anything from anyone. But if someone she knows and it decently familiar shows her kindness and affection, she would accept it reluctantly.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

She would probably run away rather than have to make the choice. She doesn’t really have a concept of ‘greater good’ and more just is concerned about immediate self-preservation. She’s not really a fighter or a hunter, so she would probably run away first. If someone close to her died because of this, it would probably upset and devastate her for a good while.

Pirate!Rachel

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

She definitely has a bit more of a jealous streak, but she wouldn’t do anything to someone else out of jealousy. After all, she earned her position as captain not by being a spiteful bitch but genuinely gaining the camaraderie of the crew and then culling down the former captain that inspired mutiny and skullduggery within the crew. She’s become quite the diplomat growing up with the scurvy crew, so she’d know how to communicate with her partner how she feels and if she trusts them, so long as they’re honest and she knows they aren’t afraid of being honest, her jealousy isn’t something to worry about. In fact, she finds something kind of attractive about a partner who likes making her pay attention to them. It’s kinda hot to her. At least, so long as her partner knows that’s what they’re doing.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

While she’s figuring or sussing someone out, yeah, probably. Despite how tightly knit she is with her own crew, even she has a healthy amount of skepticism towards them and takes things offered to her with the utmost caution. With someone she doesn’t know too well, that increases by tenfold. But once she’s absolutely sure about someone, she actually enjoys it, not that she’ll let it show in front of her crew. She may be about fun and adventure and revelry and camaraderie, but she doesn’t let them think she’s soft.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

The most ‘greater good’ she really cares about is her crew and her ship. Maybe even some of the towns she’s stopped at that she really likes and is on good terms with. With her history and her having to usurp the previous captain, she would not hesitate to take someone out if someone she’s invested her resources and trust in became a threat. She would put them down in an instant and make an example of what happens when you abuse her trust and her generosity.

Putting the rest of these under a cut because this post is already long and it’s gonna be even longer.

Vanilla!Howard/Collector!Howard

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Most definitely. And he would do it in a really sneaky and underhanded way. This man is really good at manipulation and getting right to the emotional wound that will sting the most to ward someone away from his object of obsession affection, including gaslighting.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

I wouldn’t say he would refuse someone’s kindness. Affection, definitely. He’s not really an affectionate or intimate person, but he won’t refuse kindnesses shown to him. But accepting them means absolutely nothing to him.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

He does not care about a ‘greater good’ nor does he really consider anyone ‘close’ to him, but there are no lengths he won’t sink to to further his own goals.

Siren!Howard

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Oh, yes. He most certainly would. If his catch somehow has someone else that would either be looking for them or they somehow manage to escape to, Howard will not hesitate to make sure his catch knows that they’re his and that that’s not changing. Though, he might not just hurt or kill the other. He might just be tempted on capturing them, too, and depositing his brood in them, too, and force his initial catch to watch. Just to make a point.

You and everything you have is his.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

He doesn’t really care about either of these things. That being said, if his catch was doing kindnesses and being affectionate towards him, even if it was against their will or out of fear, he won’t refuse it. He takes great pleasure from it and it boosts his ego.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

Once again, he does not give a shit about a ‘greater good’ or even has a ‘greater good’ to care about. He operates entirely out of self-interest. However, if someone were to harm (at least from his perspective) his catch, he wouldn’t hesitate to put them down.

Ichthyocentaur!Howard

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

He will stomp them to death with his hooves. Nobody touches or even goes near his catch.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

When he puts on the whole ‘charming steed’ act, he definitely won’t. But once he’s caught his victim, anybody else who tries will promptly be met with violence.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

More or less the same answer as Siren!Howard, but it’s less ‘I won’t let you harm my mate’ and more ‘don’t fucking touch them or I will reduce your bodies to piles of flattened gore.”

Vanilla!Serena

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Under ordinary circumstances, she won’t get close enough to someone to feel jealousy. But if she does, she will probably punish them in some way. She doesn’t know how to handle her emotions very well, especially in a relationship and she doesn’t know how to express them in a healthy or productive way.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

Oh, all the fucking time. She might pretend to for the sake of keeping her act up long enough for her to trap her victim, but she does not give a shit or want it. Well, okay, secretly she does but she’s not gonna make that known. That being said, if she does end up getting close to someone, she will do so. Very very very reluctantly and hesitantly and with a decent amount of convincing, but she will do it.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

Technically speaking, she’s convinced herself that all her killings are ‘for the greater good.’ Even though she’s operating entirely on selfish interests, she does believe all in all that what she’s doing is ‘for the greater good.’ She doesn’t want to let anyone get close to her, but if she does, she would really only do it if she was convinced they were somehow different. If they prove her wrong, she won’t hesitate to sentence them to the same fate as her other victims.

Siren!Serena/Ichthyocentaur!Serena

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

She can’t be jealous over something she has no interest in having. She only cares about one thing and that’s killing and devouring people.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

No, but only because she’s trying to lure them into their watery doom.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

There’s no such thing as ‘close to’ or ‘greater good.’ She just kills and eats people.

Vanilla!Nathan/Marine Biologist!Nathan

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Nathan doesn’t get jealous. At all. So, no chance of harm coming to someone if he did. And even if he did, he would never want to hurt anyone regardless.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

Not on purpose. A lot of the time, he gets so enraptured in something that he forgets to acknowledge some things, but he does really appreciate the kindnesses and gifts people show him. Y’know, once he makes close connections outside of his scientific pursuits.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

No. Not under any circumstances.

Mer!Nathan

♛ Hurt someone out of jealousy

Nathan is absolutely fascinated by humans. So if he discovered one was equally fascinated with him, he would be ecstatic! So if they were to spend more time away from him with someone else, he might get a little possessive and jealous, but he would never want to hurt anybody.

✿ Refuse someone’s kindness or affection

He might be a little averse to affection, at least until he gets close with someone, but any positive and kind attention given to him from humans is accepted. It allows him to be closer and understand them better.

☢ Kill someone close to them for the greater good

The closest thing to ‘greater good’ to him would be a threat to someone he cared about. If he saw that they were in immediate danger, he would absolutely kill someone to protect them.

#the-quantum-repairman #ooc #answered ask #ask meme #ask #dbh ocs #siren verse #ichthyocentaur verse #mer verse #pirate verse #sea naga verse #collector verse #marine biologist verse #{Rachel}#{Howard}#{Serena}#{Nathan}

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thorne93 · 5 years ago

Text

Unforeseen Chasm (Part 14)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.

Word Count:3148

Warnings: Language, violence/gore

Song: Don’t Blame Me - Taylor Swift

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm

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

Shannon finally started to stir, it’s a wonder it took her this long, being bound to a chair with heavy log chains. You stood several feet in front of her, your feet crossed at the ankles as you leaned against a workbench in a huge, empty warehouse.

“Hi there,” you greeted as she woke.

In a groggy tone, she lifted her head to examine her surroundings and asked, “Wha--Where am I?”

“I’ll tell you exactly where we are when you do something I ask.”

She frowned at you, entirely confused. “What? Y/N, why am I in chains? What the hell is going on?”

“All I need is some help from you and I’ll let you go, I promise,” you vowed in a hopeful voice.

“Why the fuck am I chained up in the first place?” she demanded, her eyes erratic as she looked around. She was probably looking for an exit.

“I know how you get when you panic, and your powers can make you uncontrollable, I didn’t want that to happen,” you said as you eyed a table of tools… well, torture devices.

“Oh, yeah, and chaining me was a real award winning idea to keep me calm,” she argued, straining against the chains.

“Shannon, I won’t hurt you so long as you cooperate,” you informed her, completely honest.

“Well what do you want?” she asked, slightly curious.

“I need you to call Dr. Banner and get him here, that’s all. A simple request,” you stated.

Her frown deepened. “What? Why?”

“It’s best you don’t know why. Simply call him, and get him here and you’ll have your freedom.”

“And what will you do once he gets here?” she questioned.

“That’s not for you to worry about,” you told her as you played with the tools on the table.

“It is if I’m telling my friend to come here. Y/N, what is going on? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“Not yet,” you said nearly inaudibly. “But I will be if you don’t give me what I want!” you stated, your voice raising to a shout.

“No, no, something is wrong. I won’t help you get Bruce. Just tell me what's going on,” she demanded in a gentle voice.

“I can’t,” you said, letting more pain show than you intended. Memories flickered in your head of the reminder if you failed this mission or told Shannon or Tony about the plan. Painful, awful memories.

“Can’t or won’t?” she challenged in an angered voice.

Your eyes simply slid toward her, darkness and sorrow filling your gaze.

“Oh, I get it. Y/N/N, what the hell happened to you? Why are you doing this?”

“Because I have to,” you said softly.

“No, you don’t. Whatever you’ve gotten into, Tony and I can get you out. We can help,” she begged.

A callous laughed escaped you as you threw your head back. “Help me? Wow, that’s rich. You finally decide to help me? After all these years of making sure you got ahead--”

“What are you talking about?” she questioned, baffled.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” you shouted, stepping toward her. “Your parents sent you off to that fancy ass academy. And Howard Stark decided to give you a full ride anywhere you wanted, all to help his precious son. Who, lets not forget, you pined after. You caught every break in the book. Unlike you I had to work for everything!” you snarled.

“So did I!” she shot back. “None of it was handed to me! I graduated top of my class from the Red Room.”

“Oh, you must be so proud, being the top assassin. I’m sure that’s real good dinner talk,” you mocked.

“I am proud, do you know why? I fight for countries’ freedoms. I eliminate threats. I learned skills and trades that are hard to master.”

“You can tell yourself that if it makes you sleep better at night. But we both know you’ve spilled a hell of a lot of blood.”

“Just doing my job.”

“And your job comes so easy, doesn’t it?” you ridiculed.

“The hell is wrong with you? What, Asgard didn’t make you happy so you decided to come back and try and make me feel bad about my life? Yes, I got some nice opportunities, but as I remember it, you got a scholarship to a school and you aced everything. You got to do what you love. Tony asked you to come work for Stark Industries for years, and you said no. That’s no one’s fault but your own, so don’t blame us!”

“I said no because he asked out of pity!” you replied angrily. “I don’t need pity. I want what’s rightfully mine. I deserve to be a partner at his company, not some lowly lab assistant.”

“You and I both know that's not true! He asked you countless times to join because of your accomplishments.” She scowled. “For fucks sake, Y/N, you’ve got more brains than this! He would have gladly given you any position, said so himself when you kept telling him no that he wanted you as a bigger asset than some assistant like I was.”

“It doesn't matter, it's in the past. Just like everything else. I lived in your shadow for years. Men fell at your feet, you won the Nobel Prize for research I recommended, you got every job offer handed to you. But you don’t remember any of that, do you? No, of course. But I remember how every time your name and my name was on a list, who was the one that got picked?” you demanded with venom, staring her down.

A look of guilt shadowed her face.

“Yeah, that’s what I remember too,” you quietly said, straightening and turning around. “If you really want to help me, if you really want to make up for all the wrong that transpired between us, you’ll call Bruce.” You walked over and placed the phone in her lap. “As soon as you agree to call him, I’ll take the chains off.”

She peered up at you.

“All that time on Asgard really messed with your head, didn’t it?” she rhetorically asked, an air of disdain in her tone. “It’s probably because you’ve been spending all that time with Loki. Should’ve known he was bad. He tried to kill Thor because he had Daddy issues,” she snarked with an eyeroll.

Your eyes flashed to her, gleaming with darkness.

In a low tone, you warned, “Don’t you dare speak ill of Loki, ever.”

“What are you gonna do? Smite me?” She smirked a bit.

“I'll do whatever I need to for my love,” you promised in a firm voice, your knuckles turning white.

“We both know you won’t hurt me, you’ve always clung to me like a baby lost without a clue where to go.” She raised her head up. “And do you really think that a once Asgardian turned mortal who's recently discovered who she is is enough for him?” She knew she was pushing it because she needed time to free herself of the chain around her wrists. “If it weren’t for me Jane never would have had access to your research files.” She seethed, her eyes had begun to change from their chocolate brown to a milky white and along with it the weather outside.

You narrowed your eyes as you noticed the change in atmosphere. “Go for it. Use your powers. You won’t like what happens next,” you dared her.

Her brow furrowed as concerned came onto her face. “What the hell happened to you? We used to be like sisters. And now you’re… You were never like this,” she said, confusion and desperation coloring her voice.

“You’re right. I’ve changed. I’ve been shown the light. I’ve been shown how you robbed me of the life I deserve.” You picked up a handgun lying on the table and aimed it at her. “Give me the number to call Banner.”

“You wouldn’t shoot me,” she said nonchalantly. “Besides he turned off his phone. I don't have a way to contact him.”

“Bullshit! Don't lie to me.” You moved the gun slightly to the left, and fired. The bullet grazed her arm but she cried out. “Next one won’t miss,” you promised. You walked over to her, took the phone, and lifted it up. “Give me the number.”

She sighed and looked at you, reciting the number. As soon as it began to ring, you placed it between her ear and shoulder.

“Hey, it’s me. I was wondering if we could meet up and talk about a few things for the new research?” she said looking at you waiting for the name of the location. “Yeah, do you have a paper to write the address?” She recited the address you had written down. “Don’t forget your umbrella, it’s about to storm outside, see you in a few. Bye.” She ended the call you were unaware that she had actually told the person on the phone that she was in trouble.

———-

Shannon’s POV

Y/N was completely unaware that the number I had recited to her was Tony’s and that “about to storm outside” is code for “come get me, I’m in trouble”. There was no way in hell I would give up Bruce’s location. I do know where he is but she doesn’t.

I don’t know what's happened to her but she’s not the Y/N I thought I knew all those years ago. I just hope to get her back and end everything that comes with it without losing her.

I could have easily gotten out of these chains but I stayed to find out what’s gotten to her. And if there’s anyway I can get her out of it.

———————-

“There, I called him now let me go! You said you would.” She pointed to the chains around her body and legs. “Y/N, why are you doing this? Is Loki forcing you?”

You laughed again. “Forcing me? Sweetie, he’s freed me. He’s helped me see the side of me I never knew existed.”

“Maybe he shouldn’t have,” she mumbled. “What went wrong? I thought Asgard was good for you? For two months I got letters about how great it was and all this progress you were making. Then one day you just stopped answering me. Was that Loki? Did he turn you against me?”

“No,” you answered in a solemn tone. “No, that wasn’t Loki. I… I stopped replying because I wasn’t in Asgard.”

A charge filled the air as she stared at you, her eyes narrowing.

“What do you mean?”

“I was in Asgard for those first two months but then….”

“Then what?” she questioned, urging you to keep talking. Her voice was soft and full of concern.

Your eyes finally came up to meet hers. “Then Thor destroyed the Rainbow bridge and the Bifrost, which caused Loki to… well he was hanging on the edge of Odin’s staff. When Odin disapproved of Loki’s actions with Thor and trying to destroy Jotunheim, Loki let go. Without thinking, I jumped after him,” you explained simply, toying with your hands slightly.

“What? Why? Why would you do that? You tried to kill yourself for him? What kind of asshole--”

“Watch it,” you warned again, your anger returning. “He didn’t ask me to jump. He was just as upset that I jumped as you or anyone else would be.”

Quietnes flowed between you two for a moment.

“I don’t know why I jumped,” you continued. “Just seeing him, seeing him falling, alone, so broken...I couldn’t help but feel so sorry for him. Not to mention, I couldn’t see a life without him in it at that point. I was in love with him and we found comfort in each others company. We both knew what it was like to be overlooked, forgotten, taken for granted.” Your eyes drifted to her, a look of pain tinging your eyes.

“Y/N, you know I never did those things intentionally. I can’t help what other people did or said,” she tried. “I never took you for granted. I helped you all the time. I tried to get you in any job or door I could. I accepted you into my family as my own sister. Or did Loki make you forget all of that?”

“I only remember being rejected for jobs, or grants, meanwhile you’re standing on stage winning a Nobel Prize that I gave the idea to,” you reminded darkly in a soft tone.

“And I gave you credit and grant money!” she retorted.

“Consolation prizes, how sweet,” you mocked with a smirk before turning around to look at the tools you no longer needed.

“I thought you said you would let me go if I called Bruce. I called him, I’m still chained.”

You sighed. “Not until he shows up. For all I know we just called a pizza joint. As soon as Bruce arrives, you’ll have your freedom.”

“That may come sooner than you like,” she muttered.

You frowned at her words, but then you heard it -- the hydraulics on Tony’s suit.

A smile flashed onto your face.

“Oh this should be good,” you stated wickedly. Your gaze danced over to Shannon. “So… you called Tony, and not Bruce. That’s good… really good.. ” You grabbed a throwing star and threw it at her, lodging it in her arm. “Except now you’ve pissed me off!” You marched towards her, and grabbed her hair, yanking it back and screaming at her. “It was simple! Call the doctor and get him here! But I suppose Stark will do.” You looked up to the tall ceiling of the warehouse, waiting for him to make his move.

Then the noise came. That clank of his metal on the concrete floor.

“Ah, come to save the day, Stark?” you asked as you turned toward the noise.

“Just let her go, Y/N/N. Whatever you want, whatever you need, I’m sure we can come to some conclusion about,” he tried as he walked in, already in suit, his mask off.

“Call Banner, get him here,” you said simply.

“What do you want Banner for? Why him?”

“Leave that to me,” you stated with a shrug.

“Yeah, see I don’t like handing over potential atomic bombs to people we haven’t heard from in over a year. Where you been anyway?”

“Why the fuck do you care where I’ve been?” you questioned incredulously.

“What do you mean? We cared for you! Shannon cried herself to sleep for months thinking you were dead! You abandoned her to run off and go play Mythology!” he informed, his voice raised.

“I found out I was a goddess! That’s not going off and playing anything.”

“Then what are you doing back here on Earth, playing Assassins Creed--” he gestured to your outfit “-- and demanding to see Bruce, huh? What is this? What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing but my will to conquer this puny waste of a planet.”

Tony’s eyes slightly narrowed as he cocked his head. “What the hell does that even mean?”

“It means by the end of this, you’ll wish you’d sent Banner.”

Tony’s eyes flashed to Shannon, who was bleeding from both her arms and visibly tired. Tony could be a calm man, but he wasn’t exactly patient or forgiving when someone he loved had been hurt.

“I don't do well with threats sooo…” Tony drug out his last word.

“So that's a no?” you asked, making your way over to Shannon, making her nervous.

“Emphatic no.”

“I'm sorry to hear you won't be cooperating. You should start to learn that we don't negotiate.”

In the blink of an eye, you manifested a dagger, hoisted it high in the air, and brought it back down into Shannon’s upper thigh, hard. She screamed out in agony.

“Not a good idea,” he said before shooting a repulsor beam at you. The energy propelled you back against the concrete wall. It didn’t hurt, unsurprisingly. But it did knock the wind out of you as you laid on the floor.

Tony tried to make quick work of the chains but you stood up and threw a dagger at him, it grazed his neck.

“Bring me Banner,” you demanded.

“I think it’s time you sat in time out.” With that, he shot at you again, slamming you back into the wall. You pushed back into it, only for him to double his force. Meanwhile his other part of the suit used a laser to cut the chains. They fell around Shannon as she tried to stand.

He was about to make your entire mission mean nothing. He was about to be the reason you failed, and you couldn’t have that.

“No!” you shouted as you launched off the wall and nearly flew at Stark, colliding with his suit. You two landed on the floor, with you on top of him. You reeled your arm back and hit him while he was still slightly dazed that you were even able to knock him off his footing. You only got one punch in before he doubled his own fist and hit you. The iron sliced against your face and you winced. He did it again and you got the message to get off him. You stood up and stumbled back, preparing yourself for further fighting.

“I don’t wanna hurt you, Y/N/N. You know that. End this right now and we’ll forget the whole thing,” Tony tried.

“It won’t be me that gets hurt,” you responded darkly as you moved your body to the momentum to swing and kick him in the face with your foot. As soon as he recovered from the blow, he suited entirely up, his mask on, and fired at you again. Deep purple energy clouded around you as you deflected the shots easily, but you hadn’t anticipated the next thing that happened.

A knife, the same knife you’d plunged into Shannon, came soaring at you, but you didn’t see it until the last second, and it hit your stomach. You gasped and stepped back, holding the knife. Tony took the advantage and hit you with everything he had, slamming you hard into the wall, causing it to crater under your form.

Tony backed up, put his arm around Shannon-- while still blasting you, and took off. The two of them propelled through the roof of the warehouse.

Quiet rage stewed inside you as you clenched your fists and stared up after them. Suddenly a wetness hit your cheek. You reached up and touched it. Upon first inspection it might’ve been a raindrop but no, you could smell the saltiness. Shannon was crying as she chanced a glance down at you.

Against your will, saltiness of your own formed and hit the warehouse floor.

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

Tag List: @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaelingoat @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo @damalseer @heyitscam99 @yknott81 @sorryimacrapwriter @glitterquadricorn @xxqueenofisolationxx @little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama @bittersweetunicorm @alyssaj23 @sea040561 @princess76179 @thisismysecrethappyplace @sarahp879 @malfoysqueen14 @ellallheart @breezy1415 @marvelmayo @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @cocosierra94 @hardcollectionworldtrash @capsmuscles @marvelloushamilton

Loki: @lostinspace33 @ultrarebelheart @lenawiinchester @esoltis280 @tngrayson @wangdeasang @harrymewmew @jayfantasyatyourservice

UC:

@lokis-high-priestess

#Loki Laufeyson #loki x reader #tony stark fic #loki fic #tony stark x ofc #bruce banner #unforeseen chasm

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olyollyoxenfree · 4 years ago

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10 preguntas y respuestas, Pt 2

Thanks for the 10 Questions tag-back, @averysiriuschromie! These were fun!

Your Questions

1. If you get to start over your teenage years, would you change anything, or are you happy with the way things were?

I wish I could've expressed certain things better and could've asked questions to certain people, but I'm satisfied enough with how things were.

2. Do you separate your real life from your Tumblr life?

Mostly, but I do vent on here sometimes.

3. Have you ever shown any of your fanfic/fanart to person you know in real life? How did they react to it?

I don't really show my sketches, which mostly consist of fanart, to people outside of my friend group. One friend spams me with variations of "nerd", and it's great lol

The few times I have shown someone outside my friend group were to kids I tutored; they really like my art and praise it (I nearly die on the spot when they do). There was one kid whose voice was the embodiment of an eyeroll, but that was more about memories stirred up from the content rather than the drawing itself (Miraculous Ladybug; she told me her sibling would not shut up about the show and it got on her nerves. Preteens are such drama queens, I swear :P )

4. State 2 unlikely facts about yourself.

I used to have a bowl cut because my mom would cut my hair. It was bad and I refused to cut my hair for a while because I was "traumatized" 🤣 (Shows how long that "trauma" stuck, because now I keep getting my hair cut short lol)

I was kind of a tomboy growing up and a little terror to the other children around my age in the neighborhood, who were mostly boys. I'm not exploring ditches as much anymore, but my inquisitive nature hasn't changed; I just don't act on impulse if I don't have a partner in crime.

5. Ketchup on your fries or ketchup on the side of your fries?

On the side. I'm not a [completely] greedy animal like my little brother. (But most of the time, I eat them as is or sprinkle them with pepper)

6. If you were trying to convince your non-anime watcher friend to start watching it, what anime would it be?

Depends on their interests. But most of my friends already watch anime to some degree, so I don't really have that issue lol (I only have to coax Sheena with boobs :3c)

7. Since you came from Florida, what do you think your Florida Man headline would be? :p

My brand of weird is normal for me, so I had to call on my friends for answers:

Me: Really stupid question, but I'll ask anyway: What would my Florida Man headline be?

Turtle:

"Florida Woman found with millions of dollars worth of shoplifted manga".

Alternatively, if it was an online article:

"Man found dead after groping Florida Woman: 10 Reasons You Don't Mess With Lolitas"

Rebekah:

I’m gonna go with my first thought even though it might be dumb: "Gay woman from Florida runs for president, is popular candidate".

Either that or "Florida woman built so many bookshelves she can’t get out of her room"

Sheena and Ro:

Sheena: This just in: local Floridian steals a human skull from the cemetery at 11 PM.

Sheena: Authorities still don't understand why this happened

Ro: The only piece of evidence was some art pen

Me: Sadly, that really would be how I get caught

Me: I tend to drop them ;-;

Sheena: I can see the police walk around with your art pen in a plastic bag and ask "Do you know who this belongs to?"

Me: Yup. And I'd just hold up my index finger to the police to hold up, then walk back inside for a minute to apologize to my brother for assuming he took it (because they always end up in his piles somehow)

Emily:

"LOCAL NERD DISAPPEARS IN CEMETERY ONLY TO RETURN AS CHAMPION OF THE FAE"

"[Redacted] GIRL ACCUSED OF SUMMONING THE DEAD"

"FLORIDA GIRL CHARGED WITH CAUSING HEART ATTACKS, CLAIMS ALL SHE DID WAS WALK INTO THE ROOM QUIETLY"

"FLORIDA GIRL TRIPS ON THE SIDEWALK, FALLS STRAIGHT INTO HELL AND RETURNS TO TELL THE TALE"

I have been scalped 🤣🤣🤣

8. Unsolved crimes or aliens?

Unsolved crimes!

9. Name one book you can read over and over again without feeling bored.

Hmm.. I guess any of the short story collections I have:

"The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief & Sinister" by Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire Legrand, Emma Trvayne: off the top of my head, my favorite story from this one is "The Cake Made Out of Teeth" by Claire L. (mentions of violence, and verbal abuse, kind of cannibalism and gore, vomiting).

"More Bones: Scary Stories From Around the World" collected and retold by Arielle North Olson and Howard Schwartz (I wrote my name in this book and it has the most wear of all the books in my small collection because I read it so many times over! I kinda want a hardcover copy if it's available): my favorites are "The Gruesome Test" (warning for cannibalism and mentions of death) and "The Haunted Violin" (warning for death).

"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" collected and retold by Alvin Schwartz, even though it contains some words that are antiquated and derogatory: a few short stories that never fail to send chills down my spine are "Me Tie Dough-ty Walker" (warning for gore and animal death), "Wonderful Sausage" (warning for death and cannibalism), and "Oh, Susannah!" (warning for death and gore).

...I just realized one-third of these have to do with some sort of cannibalism, which I'm not sure what that says about me, other than I'm probably hungry lol

10. An OTP you’re currently obsessed with!

I'm finding it difficult to pinpoint which ship I'm obsessed with right now because all the fanart I've seen is so cute ;-;

My 10 Questions:

(See "I tag")

I tag:

No one. While I am curious to peep into people's lives, that would require coming up with more questions, and that means work :P

#olyollyoxenspeaks #quizzes and tag games #tagged #oh hey it's me

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buckybarnesbingo · 4 years ago

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BBB Week 22 Roundup! Go give our fabulous creators some love!

Title: Choose your destiny Collaborator: Kalee60 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Abandonment Issues Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Shrinkyclinks, Explicit Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Light Angst Summary: Steve Rogers had been waiting for his soulmate for a lifetime. And was still waiting. Actually, he was sick of waiting, if they didn’t want to find him, that was their business, but he couldn’t wait around any longer. Not when a cute guy just moved into his apartment block that he wanted to get to know better. Bucky Barnes had spent his adult life trying to find his soulmate, and although he didn’t want to give up on his one true partner, it was disheartening. He was starting to think that maybe he should take Natasha’s advice and meet new people. Like the cute guy in the apartment block he’d just moved in to. In a world where your soulmate’s vision is overlaid on yours at different times, and finding them can prove tricky, will two weary men whose other halves seemed impossible to locate, find something together instead? And what happens when their soulmates seem to be closer than either of them expected? Word Count: 4241

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Title: Unusual You Collaborator: abitnotgoodiebag Link: AO3 Square Filled: K5 - surprise dancing Ship: BuckySam Rating: Mature Major Tags: homophobia, minor violence, semi-public sex (ish) Summary: Maybe he’s not even human, ‘cause only an angel can be so unusual. He’s a sweet surprise, Sam could get used to. Word Count: 7506

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Title: I Had A Plan Collaborator: avidreader6 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: K2 - I Had A Plan Ship: BuckySam Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Getting together, minor smut, mission fic, nsfw gif inspired, sexual content Summary: Sam and Bucky get together after a mission gone sideways Word Count:745

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Title: Guarding You - Chapter 1: En Garde Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y2 - Bodyguard Ship: WinterIronHusband Rating: Explicit Major Tags: AU Bodyguard, AU College/University, College Student Tony Stark, College Student Rhodey, Bodyguard Bucky Barnes, Fluff, Angst, Happy Ending, Dorks in love, Falling In Love, Fade to black sex, slices of life, Mention of alcohol, creep tries to creep on Tony, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Pining, Minor Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau/Nick Fury, mentioned dog, betrayal, Violence, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Injury Recovery, Clint Barton Trolls People Summary: As Tony Stark always managed to get rid of the bodyguards Howard sends, the older Stark decided to try a different agency, one he knew had specialized bodyguards.The man he ends up hiring seems competent enough.James "Bucky" Barnes gets a job which leads him back to college. He might or might not gets into trouble with his neighbors Tony Stark and Rhodey Rhodes.And those troubles might lead to something neither of the three could have anticipated. Word Count: 2585

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Title: Afterglow Collaborator: trekchik Link: Tumblr Square Filled: U4 - KINK: AFTERCARE Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content Summary: Steve basks in a little aftercare. Word Count: 347

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Title: [Art] Bingo Clusterfuck - Chapter 6: fire away Collaborator: Call_Me_Kayyyyy Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y1 - Soulmate Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: art, sexual content Summary: You're born with the outline of your soulmark but the color doesn't fill in till you meet your soulmate. Not everyone is born with a soulmark, Bucky never had a soul mark before hydra got their hands on him, and it didn’t matter because he never expected to find love no matter how well his recovery went. Steve was born with the faded shape of a star on his right shoulder, being sickly his whole life he never imagined he’d live long enough to meet his soulmate anyway.One day coming out of a coffee shop Steve slammed into the other person going through the door and landed on his ass, his coffee unsalvageable. The massive guy he crashed into, who felt more like metal than muscle, reached his hand out to help Steve up. The second he gripped Bucky Barnes hand the skin of his soulmark began to itch and fill in red. They got to know each other fast, and though neither of them felt like they deserved the other, they just couldn’t stand to be apart. Steve felt safe, and Bucky felt needed, and they both felt seen for who they really are.No one can quite explain how and why this happened but no one can deny it either, Steve and Bucky were just means to be.

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Title: family man Collaborator: jurassicworjd Link: AO3 Square Filled: C4 - Meeting The Family Ship: BuckySam Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff Summary: Sam has always been a family man, and Bucky’s heard so many wonderful stories about his family. Sam suggests Bucky comes with him to meet them on his next visit, but just the thought of meeting new people gives Bucky anxiety. Word Count: 2334

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Title: Iron Dad Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: C4 - reunion Ship: WinterIron Rating: Teen Major Tags: Humor, fluff, interrupting kids Summary: Bucky just wants to sex up his boyfriend after a long day, but Tony being the Team Dad to the next generation makes that difficult. Word Count: 887

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Title: Life is a Circus Collaborator: jamesbuckystark Link: Tumblr Square Filled: B3 - Occupational Hazard Ship: WinterIronHawk Rating: Mature Major Tags: Violence, Animal attack, Blood and gore Summary: The Avengers as a found family of circus performers Word Count: 1408

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Title: [Podfic] Marvel: Internet War - Chapter 1 Collaborator: shadow-ravin Link: AO3 Square Filled: U2 - Peter Parker Ship: Stucky Rating: Not Rated Major Tags: podfic, Bucky Barnes Returns, BAMF Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes-centric, US History teachers are so fucking done with this shit, Coming Out, Boys In Love, Steven Grant Rogers’ Star Spangled Ass, Kamala Khan is such a fangirl, Jewish Bucky Barnes, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes Summary: Podfic of Marvel: Internet War by Lasgalendil Author's summary: Bucky Barnes vs. The Internet

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Title: [Art] Bingo Clusterfuck - Chapter 7: Well you're a real tough cookie Collaborator: call-me-kayyyyy Link: Tumblr Square Filled: U5 - Surveillance Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: art, Shield Agent Bucky & Steve, Burlesque, surveillance, USO Outfits Summary: Steve and Bucky are S.H.E.I.L.D. agents on a fact finding mission about an "enhanced" individual. They're known to frequent this burlesque club, so the boys donned some USO themed costumes and put on their best star-spangled tease. They end the night with leads on the suspect's abilities and associates, a couple of crisps dollar bills, and more than few phone numbers. They start packing up, knowing they have reports to file before the night is over. Bucky turns to Steve and asks, "So your keeping the outfit right?" Steve responds with nothing but a smirk as he heads toward the door, he was already planning on holding on to them both!

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Title: Guarding You - Chapter 2: Guard Your Heart Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity, Purple_ducky00 Link: AO3 Square Filled: B1 - Thirst (for Fighting_for_Creativity) Ship: WinterIronWar Rating: Explicit Major Tags: AU Bodyguard, AU College/University, College Student Tony Stark, College Student Rhodey, Bodyguard Bucky Barnes, Fluff, Angst, Happy Ending, Dorks in love, Falling In Love, Fade to black sex, slices of life, Mention of alcohol, creep tries to creep on Tony, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Pining, Minor Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau/Nick Fury, mentioned dog, betrayal, Violence, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Injury Recovery, Clint Barton Trolls People Summary: Bucky complains about his job and realizes that he might have a crush on a certain genius. But that was impossible, right? Word Count: 9906

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Title: You Promised Me! Collaborator: queen-of-the-avengers Link: Tumblr Square Filled: B4 - image prompt Ship: Bucky/Reader, Steve/Reader Rating: Not Rated Major Tags: love triangle (kind of), the snap, angst Summary: You and Bucky were like two peas in a pod. You two loved each other more than anything in the whole world… then the snap happened, and you spent five years without him in your life. During that time, you grew closer to Steve and learned to fall in love him. Now, everyone who died because of the snap is back, and Bucky doesn’t know you and Steve are now a thing. Who will you choose? Bucky or Steve? Word Count: 2.6k

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Title: Aria in B♭ - Chapter 5 Collaborator: 27dragons, tisfan Link: AO3 Square Filled: fisfan, Y5 - Accidental Feelings Ship: WinterIron Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content, attempted rape/noncon Summary: Lord Stark has his faults -- a bit too fond of a drink, a little too reckless at cards, and entirely too happy to flout his good fortune in his rivals’ faces. But a man as wealthy and powerful as Tony Stark is bound to have a few peccadillos. What he is not, is the sort of man who would force himself upon another unwilling, unlike Lord Killian, who seems to have taken a particular shine to an opera singer in the troupe Killian is hosting. Tony rescues Mr. Barnes from Killian’s untender mercies, moves the troupe into his own home, and takes Mr. Barnes as his bed companion for the season. The arrangement provides protection for Bucky and the troupe from Killian’s spite, and tweaks Killian at the same time -- a win all around, as far as Tony is concerned. He wasn’t counting on Bucky being so utterly charming and wonderful, or for the possibility that he might actually, after so many years a bachelor, fall in love. Word Count: 18,803

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Title: [Art] Bingo Clusterfuck - Chapter 8: Put up you dukes Collaborator: call-me-kayyyyy Link: Tumblr Square Filled: K2 - Rifle Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: art, sexual content, airport, sex toys, tsa agent, weapons Summary: A TSA agent is taking apart Bucky’s carry on with indescribable look on her face. Something between rage, confusion, and pure joy. ��Mr. Barnes how exactly would you explain this,” holding up a rubber phallus that was borderline terrifying.

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Title: I Was Cold Collaborator: trekchik Link: Tumblr Square Filled: B5 - Intercrural Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content Summary: Bucky wakes up cold and Steve is a convenient heater. Word Count: 697

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Title: [Art] Bingo Clusterfuck - Chapter 9: Knock me down, it's all in vain Collaborator: call-me-kayyyyy Link: Tumblr Square Filled: C1 - Nightmares Ship: Stucky Rating: Mature Major Tags: nightmares, friends with benefits, cuddles Summary: Bucky has a nightmare so bad it breaks Steves heart to see him in so much pain. “Sorry you had to see that Stevie, they’ve been a lot better lately.” “This happens a lot?” “Yeah but it’s better when I’m with you” “Well I’m not going anywhere pal.” Steve says while cradling Bucky’s head to his chest.

#buckybarnesbingo2020 #bbb2020 #bbb weekly roundup #bbb week 22

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ravenbell-exchange · 6 years ago

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Here come the prompts!

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. All Dear Author letters that were published before now are linked below, but please do check the prompter’s blog just in case -- they might’ve posted a letter later on.

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic -- go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

Url: @raiindust

Dear Author letter: here

Prompt 1: ❝We won’t ever be holy, or galaxies or whatever else I’ve ever fucking written about. We are built upon too many ruins, but my god, some ruins are known as wonders of the world. And you’re mine.❞ Source: here Raven + Bellamy + at the edge of the world: setting off with a group on a post-apocalyptic road trip. Stumbling across a long abandoned city; deciding that it’s as good a place as any to begin anew.

Prompt 2: Raven + Bellamy + Grounder Alliance: Raven and Bell are chosen as emissaries of Skaikru to help develop relationships with the various Grounder clans, and spend the better part of (insert your preference of period of time here) moving and living between one, two or multiple clans.

Prompt 3: ❝You’re the girl I want to be slow dancing with at 2AM in my kitchen.❞ Source: here

Raven + Bellamy + things you said to me at 2AM: canon compliant, canon divergence, modern au. Raven and Bellamy have a lot of things to say, so why not say them to each other in the dead of night, when things are still.

Prompt 4: Raven + Bellamy + Modern AU.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Unnecessary angst, torture or heaping of awful things onto individual characters (so basically canon for my ray of sunshine Raven Reyes) is absolutely not a thing I want to see, hear and especially read. A light sprinkling of personal angst is absolutely fine, but anything more than a tablespoon and it hurts my soul. So character death is pretty much off the table as well.

Also: I tend to stay away from super heavy kinks, or anything that isn’t moderate smut then fade to black. Despite my issues with canon representations of these things, devaluing Octavia’s relationship to Bellamy, or Finn’s importance to Raven as a person are also things I don’t like to see. That being said, if your plot doesn’t call for it, also don’t feel the need to throw it in there for the sake of it.

Url: @finnicks

Dear Author letter: here

Prompt 1: i thought this time last year i'd be dead.

Prompt 2: you had so much to give, you thought I couldn’t see.

Prompt 3: here

Prompt 4: shy

Prompt 5: i just want to stay here with you

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Super heavy kinks. Smut for the sake of smut. Character bashing - it's a little unnecessary. Ship bashing. Would prefer it if it's pure Raven/Bellamy, and if any side ships are merely sides/mentions. No AUs where they're in the modern world; I prefer it if it's an AU on canon. First person or second person.

Also: I've seen all seasons of the show, so I'm okay with any requests that point out a specific season.

Url: @wells-jaha

Dear Author letter: here

Prompt 1: An intimacy

had grown between us

like a forest around a castle.

- Louise Glück, excerpt of The Sword in the Stone

(taken from here)

Prompt 2: (Art) Heist AU

What I kind of want (a few examples):

1) In which Raven and her gang have been part of a series of heists all over the continent and Bellamy is the private detective/ police detective (if you really want to) set out to stop their next possible heist. But maybe he's impressed, maybe a little into her? Who knows!

2) In which Raven and Bellamy are part of different rival heist groups both set on the same object, naturally that means that they will clash somehow.

These are of course only examples, you can do whatever you want. It doesn't even have to be an art heist. I'm however kind of set on Bellamy and Raven being on different sides for this, so that it (hopefully) turn into to nice frenemy making out stuff.

Prompt 3: And we fall through empty corridors

And we talk in useless metaphors

(Only cause we're lonley)

A Vague Prompt around the topic/theme Friends with Benefits with Ben Howard's Empty Corridors (Youtube Link Here) as inspiration. Can be canon compliant, doesn't have to be.

Prompt 4: Something about longing, about being in love, but never finding the right words, about circling each other for years and years, always missing the right time, always having the courage in the moment the other is in a relationship or not there. A horrible dance, Bellamy and Raven are caught in.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: daddy kink, gruesome death scenes, gore, a successful suicide

Also: my fandom blog is named wells-jaha, so guess which character I would like to see a) living b) as a friend/former partner of Bellamy or Raven?

i'm fine with Octavia being in the fanfiction, but either revise the whole character (make her like season 1) or deal critical with her actions.

I'm fine with a lot of stuff, but would prefer if the writer could tag: abuse, self harm, suicide, alcoholism (note: only use if a character has an alcohol problem, not if characters just drink alcohol)

Url: @kinselllas

Prompt 1: Raven's on a date waiting for Finn, and he takes so long to show up, Bellamy ends up sliding into his seat to take over so she doesn't feel stood up (could be taken in a few directions)

Prompt 2: Bellamy and Raven reunite at a wedding, slow dance, admit that maybe...deep down...there's always been something ;)

Prompt 3: Pre-series/Season 1 AU- Bellamy is the person Raven comes to the ground for.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: N/A

Url: @ravenbells

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: Modern AU with a proper millennial vibe. Think debt, lack of stability and shit jobs, but also strong political opinions, easy access to sex ed, social media. Let them negotiate boundaries, use sex toys, struggle with navigating both commitment and casual sex, change jobs and houses all the time. Obviously I’d like Bellamy and Raven to be front and center, but if you want to make them function within a group of family/friends (Octavia, Monty, Miller, Harper, Lincoln, whoever else you please), be my guest.

Prompt 2: The Ancient Rome AU I Deserve. I don’t really care how you place them. Republic? Early Empire? Late Empire? I am not the boss of you. Just let them be Romans.

Prompt 3: Canon-verse. Bellamy thinks of his body as a shield.

Prompt 4: Bellamy and Raven agree to have a casual, no-strings-attached relationship, except they both catch feelings embarrassingly quickly. You can make this canon or modern, I don’t really mind.

Prompt 5: Canon-verse. Anything exploring parenthood. It can be a pregnancy scare, or an actual baby, or maybe just a conversation about sex/contraception that turns into Bellamy and Raven discussing their options.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Overly sugary view on parenthood; major character death; erasing Raven's disability.

Also: I have only seen the first 2 seasons, please have mercy on me.

Url: @tentaclabia (shortitude on AO3)

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: (canon-ish) The one where they keep cuddling each other for no good reason, just casually in a snuggle pile talking about life and the future or the past, or just sleeping. Casual contact, casual offerings of comfort, and of course they mean so much more.

Prompt 2: (future!au or canon-deviation!au) There is a unanimous decision to explore more land, so it's Bellamy and Raven in a car, on a roadtrip, being at peace and exploring and feeding their curiosity and feeling free and happy. Also in love.

Prompt 3: (once-upon-a-canon) The one where they talk about the elephant in the room: that time they had sex. (And how they'd totally do it again.)

Prompt 4: (the trashiest prompt) Raven is convinced that Bellamy has feelings for Clarke and is determined not to let history repeat herself when it comes to love. Bellamy is just confused and wonders how much more can he do save for write 'RAVEN REYES PLEASE LOVE ME' on his forehead for her to notice just who he's really pining for.

Prompt 5: (canon reinterpretation) Season 5, except Raven and Bellamy have been together for 4 and a half years and there's nothing that can tear them apart. Alternatively, what season 5 would look like, if they were.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: death. angst over death of parental figure (please don't). trauma and exploitation of trauma. torture. unhappy endings.

Also: I haven't mentioned it, but it goes without saying that I will be glad for all and any smutty content :)

Url: veritykims (twitter)

Prompt 1: Thieves AU: Any AU where Bell and Raven are both thieves of some kind (con artists, burglars, hackers, pickpockets). Favorites include Robin-Hood type criminals (think Leverage) and rivals trying to steal the same thing/con the same person (think Imposters); but any take is cool. I would absolutely love to see this set aboard the Ark in the canon verse, but other settings are cool too.

Prompt 2: Android AU: Any AU where Bell and/or Raven is an android! Contemporary settings are cool, but so is futurism. I would really like to see this as a canon divergency too, given that ALIE sort of gives us the basis for self-aware AIs. Up to you!

Prompt 3: Reincarnation AU: Any AU where Bell and Raven keep meeting across lifetimes. I really like the variation where one of the two is immortal for some reason (vampire, robot, demon, deity, etc.) and the other is either a human or a mortal supernatural creature; so that’s a safe bet; but I’m sure to love any take on this.

Prompt 4: Pirates AU: Historical pirates! Anything will be cool, but I’m a big fan of Raven as either Captain or Quartermaster, and Bell as an ex-navy soldier who heavily resents the Empire.

Prompt 5: Other prompts (I can’t post a Dear Author so bear with me): Modern Holmes/Elementary AU. Professors at the same college AU. Queen Of The South AU. Any vigilante/superhero AU. Pride and Prejudice AU. Space pirates/space bounty hunters AU. Pacific Rim AU.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: No pregnancy or babies, but I’m cool with adopted children and teens. No AUs that erase Raven’s disability. No canon-compliant fic that portrays the Griffins, Octavia, Murphy or Finn in positive light (I would much rather they just don’t exist, at any rate). No abuse, no assault, no rape.

Also: I don’t mind canon compliant fic, but I haven’t watched in a couple seasons, so I only really know the characters and plots for s1, s2 and part of s3. I love Nathan, Wells, and Monty; as well as Lincoln, Jaha, Kane, Indra, Anya, Sinclair, Gina, Harper and Monroe; and I love seeing them integrated into stories. Big fan of Bell/Nathan and Bell/Wells as well as Bell/Wells/Raven and Gina/Raven/Bell, so if you wanna go for polya… And, JSYK, explicit stories are more than welcome!

Url: @growlereish

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: gina/bellamy/raven - gina and bellamy are dating. raven is pining for both of them, but unbeknownst to her they're both also in love with her! somehow they all work this out and get together.

Prompt 2: bellamy/raven - post-breakup, learning how to be friends again.

Prompt 3: bellamy/raven - virgin!bellamy enlists his best friend raven to experiment with this whole sex thing. casually. but then both of them catch feelings.

Prompt 4: bellamy/raven - marriage of convenience which they are both determined will stay platonic. of course, it does not.

Prompt 5: bellamy/raven - doing fun activities together and enjoying their life and being happy!! some sadness is also okay but i just want my kids to have a Good Day for once in their lives.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: kidfic, pregnancy, power imbalances

Also: pls warn for self-harm and coming out stories involving parents

Url: @icouldnotsee

Prompt 1: Bellamy and/or Raven in political office, whether this be in a monarchy or a democracy. Bonus if there's a coup (that they're the subject of or that they're behind). Also bonus if one or both weren't expecting to be in power, but they were runner-up to someone else and now are thrust into that position and must find their footing.

Prompt 2: Telepathy, where after getting sick with the disease that the Grounders sent to the 100 through Murphy, Bellamy develops the ability to hear thoughts but he can't hear Raven's. Of course, that's just the version of it that came to my mind, but anything with mind reading/telepathy is cool with me, canon or AU, any set up or situation.

Prompt 3: They meet in the Ark, either really young, after Bellamy becomes a guard, after Finn takes the fall for Raven's spacewalk, or after Bellamy's a janitor.

Prompt 4: Hurt/Comfort. I have no other specifications on this one, I just really love that trope.

Prompt 5: Angel/demon or angel/human or human/demon or angel/angel or demon/demon stuff! I love seeing that in stories and it'd be cool to see interactions with creatures beyond humanity.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: I'm rather not receive smut beyond it being implied. Also, I really would not like to see any infidelity or character bashing in the fic I receive.

Also: No nsfw content.

10.

Url: @laufire

Dear Author Letter: here

Prompt 1: Braven + Mythology AU. Specially if they’re still humans who get mixed up in some Gods Drama™

Prompt 2: Raven + her love for science. Preferably canon-verse. Can be gen or shippy.

Prompt 3: Braven Historical AU of your choosing.

Prompt 4: Post-s4 canon divergence: all the sex in space. Zero-G sex, kinky sex, healing emotional sex. Just. Sex.

Prompt 5: Bellamy/Raven/Shaw – Canon Divergent AU: Different First Meeting (as in, Shaw meets Braven/the Space7 in a different way).

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Clarke written in any positive way. I don’t want them cheating on other people (poly ships are more than fine). Any rating works for me. No watersports, humiliation. I’m not really into Modern AUs or Soulmate AUs. And PLEASE don't erase Raven's disability.

11.

Url: @maybenowforeverlate

Prompt 1: Bellamy admiring Raven In Space. Raven on earth was already incredible, and that was her adapting to a new environment. but the environment she's from? in her fucking element??? i'm into it and so is Bellamy. competence. kink.

Prompt 2: "She could not remember, now, ever, feeling happy or sad. Only hungry. Only empty, and greedy, and insatiable. "

(Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless)

Raven centric, canon or AU.

Prompt 3: Raven being subtle about taking care of Bellamy. prefer a loose canon-verse, but can be modern AU or any type of AU.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: I do not know what's happening in the most recent season, and I would prefer any canon-verse/divergence to be from before Bellamy and co get back to Earth w/Raven in space.

12.

Url: @becketted

Prompt 1: The 100 are sent down to the ground but in batches of people, rather than all at the same time, Bellamy is among the first to go to earth, Raven among the last ones. When she arrives Bellamy is the one who has to show her the ropes on how earth and the Grounders work, he geeks out about both the plants/animals stuff and the bits of earth history he's discovered (so different from what they teach in the Ark!), while Raven uses her skills to help everybody face the structural challenges of living on the ground, Bellamy admires a lot, they fall in love, etc.

Prompt 2: 1960s AU where Raven is a mechanic and the Space Race inspires her to become an astronaut, her trials to become one, etc. Bellamy can be a geek working at NASA (national security staff?), a journalist covering Raven's amazing career, her supporting boyfriend, I don't mind, I just want Raven as a 1960s/70s astronaut. It doesn't have to be a super detailed AU, just the flavor of the era would do.

Prompt 3: Arranged marriage/marriage by lottery. It can be on the ground or in the Ark, I don't care, I just love this trope a lot, I just want them awkwardly sharing a bed and pining a lot.

Prompt 4: Pirates AU, because who doesn't want that? (Historical, but space pirates are okay too, as long as Raven and Bellamy do some swashbuckling)

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Pregnancy. Anything that involves Murphy in a positive light (Murphy being in the fic is fine, as long as the portrayal is negative). I will not read/write Kane/Abby stuff. Other characters are fine.

Also: I'm very partial to stories about the Grounders (both reading and writing them), they're my faves.

13.

Url: chll51 (AO3)

Prompt 1: It can be canon compliance or not but just something to do with this quote:

"I think we deserve a soft epilogue, my love. We are good people and we've suffered enough."

Prompt 2: modern AU: First day at a new job and the boss is Bellamy, who Raven has Hooked up with the night prior.

Prompt 3: high school reunion: need a date.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: I don't care much for smut but if it's fit with the story then sure. also, I have vanilla taste so I guess keep it like that.

#ravenbell exchange #blayesnetwork #rellamy #braven #ravenbell #bellamy x raven

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blackkudos · 6 years ago

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David Dinkins

David Norman Dinkins (born July 10, 1927) is an American politician who served as the 106th Mayor of New York City, from 1990 to 1993. He was the first and, to date, only African American to hold that office.

Before entering politics, Dinkins served in the U.S. Marine Corps, graduated cum laude from Howard University, and received a law degree from Brooklyn Law School. He served as Manhattan borough president before becoming mayor. Under the Dinkins administration, crime in New York City decreased more dramatically and more rapidly than at any time in previous New York City history. After leaving office Dinkins was named professor of public affairs at Columbia University. Dinkins was a member of the Board of Directors of the United States Tennis Association, and a member of The Jazz Foundation of America. He serves on the boards of the New York City Global Partners, the Children's Health Fund (CHF), the Association to Benefit Children and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF). Dinkins is also on the Advisory Board of Independent News & Media and the Black Leadership Forum, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

Early life and education

Dinkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Sarah "Sally" Lucy and William Harvey Dinkins, Jr. His mother was a domestic worker and his father a barber and real estate agent. He was raised by his father, his parents having separated when he was six years old. Dinkins moved to Harlem as a child but returned to Trenton and attended Trenton Central High School, where he graduated in 1945 in the top 10 percent of his class. After graduation, Dinkins attempted to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, but was told that a racial quota had been filled. After traveling the Northeastern United States, he finally found a recruiting station that had not, in his words, "filled their quota for Negro Marines". He became a Marine, but World War II was over before Dinkins finished boot camp. He served in the Marine Corps from 1945 through 1946, and was among the Montford Point Marines awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

Dinkins graduated cum laude from Howard University with a degree in mathematics. He received a law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

Political career

Dinkins rose through the Democratic Party organization in Harlem, beginning at the Carver Democratic Club under the aegis of J. Raymond Jones, and became part of an influential group of African American politicians that included Denny Farrell, Percy Sutton, Basil Paterson, and Charles Rangel; the latter three together with Dinkins were known as the "Gang of Four". As an investor, Dinkins was one of fifty African American investors who helped Percy Sutton found Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in 1971.

Dinkins was a member of the New York State Assembly (78th D.) in 1966. He was nominated as a Deputy Mayor by Mayor Abraham D. Beame but was ultimately not appointed. Dinkins was President of the Board of Elections from 1972 to 1973, and City Clerk from 1975 to 1985. He was elected Manhattan borough president in 1985 on his third run for that office. Dinkins was elected mayor of New York City on November 7, 1989, defeating three-term incumbent mayor Ed Koch and two others in the Democratic primary and Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani in the general election. Dinkins came to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, seeking his blessing and endorsement.

Dinkins was elected in the wake of a corruption scandal that involved several New York City Democratic leaders. Mayor Koch, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was politically damaged by the corruption in his administration and his handling of racial issues, and among the candidates Dinkins was his greatest challenger. Additionally, the fact that Dinkins is African American helped him to avoid criticism that he was ignoring the black vote by campaigning to whites. While a large turnout of African American voters was important to his election, Dinkins campaigned throughout the city. Dinkins' campaign manager was noted political consultant William Lynch, Jr., who became one of his First Deputy Mayors.

Mayoralty

Dinkins entered office pledging racial healing, and famously referred to New York City's demographic diversity as a "gorgeous mosaic." Under Dinkins' Safe Streets, Safe Cities program, crime in New York City decreased more dramatically and more rapidly, both in terms of actual numbers and percentage, than at any time in modern New York City history. The rates of most crimes, including all categories of violent crime, made consecutive declines during the last 36 months of his four-year term, ending a 30-year upward spiral and initiating a trend of falling rates that continued beyond his term. Despite the actual abating of crime, Dinkins was hurt by the perception that crime was out of control during his administration. Dinkins also initiated a hiring program that expanded the police department nearly 25%. The New York Times reported, "He obtained the State Legislature’s permission to dedicate a tax to hire thousands of police officers, and he fought to preserve a portion of that anticrime money to keep schools open into the evening, an award-winning initiative that kept tens of thousands of teenagers off the street."

During his final days in office, Dinkins made last-minute negotiations with the sanitation workers, presumably to preserve the public status of garbage removal. Rudy Giuliani, who defeated Dinkins in the 1993 mayoral race, blamed Dinkins for a "cheap political trick" when Dinkins planned the resignation of Victor Gotbaum, Dinkins' appointee on the Board of Education, thus guaranteeing Gotbaum's replacement six months in office. Dinkins also signed a last-minute 99-year lease with the USTA National Tennis Center. By negotiating a fee for New York City based on the event's gross income, the Dinkins administration made a deal with the US Open that brings more economic benefit to the City of New York each year than the New York Yankees, New York Mets, New York Knicks and New York Rangers combined. The city's revenue-producing events Fashion Week, Restaurant Week and Broadway on Broadway were all created under Dinkins.

Dinkins's term was marked by polarizing events such as the Family Red Apple boycott, a boycott of a Korean-owned grocery in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the 1991 Crown Heights riot. Lemrick Nelson was acquitted of murdering Yankel Rosenbaum during the riot. Regarding the Nelson verdict, Dinkins said, "I have no doubt that in this case the criminal-justice system has operated fairly and openly." Later he wrote in his memoirs, "I continue to fail to understand that verdict."

A 2009 report in The New York Times looking back at the Dinkins administration summarized its achievements, noting:

Significant accomplishments in lowering New York City's crime rate and increasing the size of the New York Police Department, and the hiring of Raymond W. Kelly as police commissioner;

The cleanup and revitalization of Times Square, including persuading the Walt Disney Corporation to rehabilitate an old 42nd Street theater;

Major commitment to rehabilitation of dilapidated housing in northern Harlem, the South Bronx and Brooklyn despite significant budget constraints—more housing rehabilitated in a single term than Mr. Giuliani did in two terms;

The USTA lease, which in its final form New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called "the only good athletic sports stadium deal, not just in New York but in the country";

Mental-health facility initiatives; and

Policies and actions that decreased the size of the city's homeless shelter population to its lowest point in 20 years.

1993 election

In 1993, Dinkins lost to Republican Rudy Giuliani in a rematch of the 1989 election. Dinkins earned 48.3 percent of the vote, down from 51 percent in 1989. One factor in his loss was his perceived indifference to the plight of the Jewish community during the Crown Heights riot. Another was a strong turnout for Giuliani in Staten Island; a referendum on Staten Island's secession from New York was placed on the ballot that year by Governor Mario Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Dinkins defeated Giuliani handily in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, but Giuliani's margin in the other two boroughs was large enough to win the election.

Citywide tickets on which Dinkins ran1989 NYC Democratic ticket

Mayor: David Dinkins

City Council President: Andrew Stein

Comptroller: Elizabeth Holtzman

1993 NYC Democratic ticket

Mayor: David Dinkins

Public Advocate: Mark J. Green

Comptroller: Alan Hevesi

Later career

Dinkins is a Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Since 1995, Columbia has hosted the annual David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum. Forum keynote speakers have included prominent New York and national leaders such as Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Rangel.

Although he has not attempted a political comeback, Dinkins has remained somewhat active in politics, and his endorsement of various candidates, including Mark J. Green in the 2001 mayoral race, was well-publicized. He supported Democrats Fernando Ferrer in the 2005 New York mayoral election, Bill Thompson in 2009, and Bill de Blasio in 2013. During the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, Dinkins endorsed and actively campaigned for Wesley Clark. In the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Dinkins served as an elected delegate from New York for Hillary Clinton.

Memoirs

Dinkins' memoirs, A Mayor's Life: Governing New York's Gorgeous Mosaic, written with Peter Knobler, were published in 2013.

Personal life

Dinkins is married to Joyce Dinkins (née Burrows). They have two children. The couple are members of the Church of the Intercession in New York City. Dinkins' radio program "Dialogue with Dinkins" can be heard Saturday mornings on WLIB radio in New York City.

Dinkins is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi ("the Boule"), the oldest collegiate and first professional Greek-letter fraternities, respectively, established for African Americans. He was raised as a Master Mason in King David Lodge No. 15, F. & A. M., PHA located in Trenton, New Jersey in 1952.

Dinkins was hospitalized in New York on October 31, 2013, for treatment of pneumonia. He was hospitalized again for pneumonia on February 19, 2016.

Humanitarian works

Dinkins sat on the Board of Directors and in 2013 was on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America. He worked with that organization to save the homes and lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina. He serves on the boards of the Children’s Health Fund (CHF), the Association to Benefit Children and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF). Dinkins is also Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

Wikipedia

#David Dinkins #07-10

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housewithoutkindness · 7 years ago

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Rules / About

RULES

Adult themes will occur, whether they be gore, violence, sex, or other mature content

I don't tag triggers religiously, though I try! I have none, myself.

I put smut under cuts (not that I expect Charles to get any), but I don't ask the same.

I'm WAY over 18. I prefer to write with other adults, but will write with under 18s.

Please don't be an asshole and argue with me about my portrayal or opinions therein.

I’m non-selective & I love OCs (especially female OCs), so hit me up!

I’m a cis male with he/him/his pronouns.

You can send asks or tag us, unsolicited. It’s hard to get Murder House partners!

Any meme I post is open game at any time, regardless of how old it is. If I posted it six months ago, it’s still okay to send me something from it, totally at random.

A tiny bit of godmodding doesn't bother me. I'll tell you if it's overboard. I once had someone decide that my character shot his (even though my character shot into the air) and I went with it, so I’m flexible.

IMPORTANT

Feel free to ignore or delete anything I send, or ignore/block me if you’re at all uncomfortable. I’ve had dozens of things deleted by friends and strangers, and I’m sure I’ve been blocked. It’s all good -- you’re here to have fun, not to worry about me.

I'm slower than hell, but PLEASE don't ask when I'm going to reply. That stresses me out like crazy and I’ll drop that thread like it’s on fire. I’m sorry if that’s mean, but it’s just the one thing I can’t handle. Doesn’t mean I don’t love everyone, however. ♥

BIO

Everyone knows Charles Montgomery (or so he likes to think). Even in the afterlife, he continues his struggle for recognition. He loves his wife Nora very much and still yearns to win her affection and acknowledgment. (If anyone has or knows a Nora, please feel free to let me know, or send asks, or tag Charles into something).

Unlike other denizens of the house, he’s somewhat willing to share the abode and is content there, comparatively speaking. He reads materials left laying around the house and still does projects in his workspace. Charles can be arrogant, at times, but is more personable in death than he was the last few years in life.

Whether or not he’ll admit it, or is even aware, Montgomery retains a strong urge for approval and seeks opportunities to demonstrate his genius (and to indulge his corpse-mutilating hobbies). If you have a body that needs butchering, he’ll be elbowing other ghosts out of the way to volunteer his services.

My headcanon is that the still-beating heart he removed from one of his clients was about to stop beating anyway due to surgical complications. In his grief-stricken and drug-addled state, he figured he might as well harvest the organ for Thaddeus since the girl wasn’t going to need it anyway.

Objectively speaking, whether or not he meant to, Charles Montgomery offered a real rarity for the 1920s: safe and clean abortions for women. These women were anesthetized and kept on a saline drip, with clean bedding and good instruments. That wasn’t a done thing back then and he could’ve skimped out to save money, but doesn’t seem to have done so.

ABOUT

The mun is 35+ years old and an experienced roleplayer. He loves horror and can do crossovers into some other horror fandoms and is happy to do crossover into fandomless horror too.

He has a strong background in American history from approximately 1880 - 1945, so takes great delight in writing for Doctor Montgomery. On a personal level, he views Montgomery as a sympathetic character and tends to portray him from that mindset.

Mun’s favorite characters in Murder House are Nora and Moira (I love Lily Rabe and Frances Conroy), so if anyone has either and is willing to write, please let me know. Other partners of interest are Madison Montgomery and Billie Dean Howard. But seriously, I’ll do almost anything with anyone. ♥

#rules #about #bio #background

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back-and-totheleft · 4 years ago

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A Journey Against a Raging Historical Backdrop

If there is anything the year 2020 has shaken into the very fabric of our imperial society, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan, rarely is anything absolutely assured. While a biological threat has upended not only our nationalist pride as a world hegemony, it no doubt has uprooted many personal obsessions with career paths and lifestyle. That most provocative of American film directors, Oliver Stone, has now released a passionate and absorbing memoir, Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador and the Movie Game, which in its own way, is fully apt for our time. More than any other work of autobiography to be released this summer, Stone’s account of going against the grain and demanding to be allowed to live off his vocation reads like a tonic.

For consumers of cinema, Stone remains a filmmaker eternally divisive. Whether it be his style, and above all, his politics, he inspires admiration and derision. He probably remains best known for his work from the ‘90s, especially the technical masterpiece JFK, which somehow collages every conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Natural Born Killers, a visually anarchic satire crystalizing our American obsession with violence and celebrity. Agree with their theses or not, the fact that both films remain instant pop cultural reference points is a testament to their lasting value as art. I dare argue Stone’s 1995 opus Nixon, is a grossly underrated and vital drama unmatched by anything released since when it comes to cinematic political biography. This article could continue on and discuss Stone’s hallucinatory Jim Morrison biopic The Doors or his 1999 football epic Any Given Sunday, written and shot with the spirit of a Roman gladiator.

But Chasing the Light is powerful reading precisely because it is about those years before Stone reached Hollywood prominence. It is a book full of memories, self-doubt, stirring experiences and that ever so hard, grinding need to push oneself towards a stubborn goal. It helps that Stone is a natural born writer, chronicling his early years with a crisp, eloquent prose. But pulsing in nearly every space of subtext is a spirit of surviving by going against the grain. Stone even brushes aside the stale sugarcoating of other Hollywood biographies. He is blunt about sex, the personalities of others, and of course, his political opinions.

As evident in his work, Stone is obsessed with history and its lessons, the way it casts a shadow over our daily lives, whether we notice it or not. His book opens in 1976, as the U.S. celebrates it bicentennial and Stone stares out New York Harbor. Chapter one opens with a line recognizable to any dreamer without immediate resources, “I was coming up on thirty, and I was broke, but I didn’t want to think about that anymore.” The Statue of Liberty, the pomp of American Independence Day, even as the country was reeling from Vietnam, only adds to Stone’s sense of personal limbo. The narrative then shifts to a reverie going back to 1946, when Stone was born to Lou Stone and Jacqueline Goddet. Stone was himself a direct product of history. Lou was in General Eisenhower’s staff as a military man stationed in post-World War II France. Jacqueline was a French upper class girl who fell for the American G.I. fantasy. But like all dreams, the shores of reality provide a hard crash. Stone would be born into privilege, with Lou described as one of the last breed of Wall Street brokers still imbued with a slight sense of morality. He had lost it all before in the crash of 1929, but would lose more again. Sent off to boarding school, it was there that a young Stone would receive a blunt phone call informing him his parents were getting a divorce. In a swerve away from the typical image of 1950s America, Lou and Jacqueline were pretty blunt with young Oliver about their extramarital activities. On top of that, Lou was wallowing in debt.

It is this shattering of the ideal atomic family, white, affluent, basking in the delights of American capitalism, that seems to be the first real catalyst in the formation of Oliver Stone. In 1967, at the eve of turning 21, Stone is on his way to Vietnam after having enlisted. Here the rebel emerges, running from the plasticity and lies of the American privileged class, deciding on his own he wants to taste the real world. Raised in a conservative environment, Stone has little to say about the early cultural shocks of Elvis or the Beats, it simply wasn’t much a part of his world. What he does carry in him to war is a love for Homer, Greek mythology and its potent lessons. A Homeric view of combat, its bloody terror mixed with boredom, the cast of warriors in his platoon, would stay with Stone forever. This literary view sustains him as he returns to a country embroiled in radical cultural change.

If there is a romantic, almost Hemingway tone to the early sections of Chasing the Light, relatable to anyone who has ever felt like running away, even if it means to seek something greater in a tumultuous world, the second half of the book becomes one of the great recent testimonials of the struggling artist. What Stone knows from the beginning is that he is a writer. Words are his vocation. But after penning a failed, hallucinatory novel (later published in 1997 as A Child’s Night Dream), Stone realizes screenwriting is the new literary form of the age, because it is also an age of cinema. Books may never entirely go out of fashion, but the masses consume images, coupled with sound and music. This seemed to Stone, who confesses his mother would play hookie with him to see movies, like a better pathway to express the ideas and memories swirling in his intense psyche.

NYU would be where Stone would attend film school with Martin Scorsese as an instructor described as wonderfully manic and passionate. In the ‘70s a B.A. in had even less job market value than today, and Stone is soon driving cabs to survive, admitting that he wanted to avoid practical jobs as much as possible. Stone’s life reads like those classic, romantic authors of decades past, who would defy the norm, live in poverty and peck at their manuscripts. Stone eventually marries Najwa Sarkis, a Lebanese UN worker serving the Kingdom of Morocco. She provides Stone with a comfortable home as he writes scripts and treatments, and directs his first, low-budget feature, a horror film named Seizure. It fails, playing in a small grindhouse spot as a double bill in New York City. This is when Stone makes that difficult decision of again casting aside comfort, ending the marriage so he can move to Los Angeles with a script in hand based on his Vietnam experiences, Platoon. As Stone boards the plane for L.A., history both political and cultural blaze in the background. Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter are some of first cinematic attempts to grapple with Vietnam. Stone admires their scope, but they are obviously grandiose films made by directors who never fought in the war.

When Stone lands in the city of angels with its Hollywood promises, it is Platoon that gets him work. Through talent and stubbornness, Stone comes across as rather the lucky writer. His first major studio assignment, Midnight Express, based on a book by Billy Hayes, who was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for smuggling hash, is for then emerging British director Alan Parker and becomes a smash hit, winning Stone his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The passages describing the cocaine-fueled ambiance of the Golden Globes before they were a live broadcast show are hilariously decadent, as well as the party atmosphere of late ‘70s Hollywood. Stone vaguely recalls writer Gore Vidal attempting to seduce Mick Jagger at one gathering.

Some of the warmer passages in the book involve Stone meeting his second wife, Elizabeth Cox, a blonde Texan who Stone describes as everything he would have ever wanted in a partner at the time. One gets the feeling of Stone constantly battling between the search for domesticity and his own impulses to go further, experiment and search as a young writer. He wants to be both loved and a libertine. He’s also a collaborative type of partner, giving Elizabeth a speaking role in his second feature, the box office bomb The Hand, which like Seizure, has not aged terribly and retains an eerie psychological force. When acting is not Elizabeth’s calling, Stone hires her as his typist.

Yet even as Stone basks in both the bacchanalia of the times and a loving relationship, developing a dangerous coke habit along the way, he writes every single day and manages to put his stamp on projects that would later be remolded by other filmmakers. Stone includes pages from his early drafts of Conan the Barbarian, which read like a Wagnerian fever dream. There’s still a sting of regret in the way he describes macho director John Milius taking the script and cutting it down to more of a B-movie romp to show off Arnold Schwarzenegger. The colder, by Stone’s observation slower, Brian De Palma would provide a better learning experience however, when Stone is hired to write the enduring cult classic Scarface. The infamously violent update of the 1932 Howard Hawks classic, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee rising in the cartel world of 1980s Miami, would bring Stone into contact with underworld elements. There’s a darkly fun moment where he recounts meeting with Colombian gangsters and then unwisely dropping the name of a certain lawyer.

Through Scarface and other projects, Stone vividly remembers all the characters, some endearing and others downright venal, one encounters along the way of attempting success in this field where creativity and greed are nearly Siamese twins. What is eternally admirable about Stone is that he refuses to sell out. Even when slammed as overly violent or on the nose, preachy and despairing in his work, Stone’s voice is his own. He reserves low-grade acid in his prose for New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, who would write with a condescending, almost pathologically obsessive hatred for Stone’s scripts. And history is always in the background. The loose ‘70s would give way to the ultra-capitalist, hyper nationalist Reagan ‘80s. At one point Stone was even offered the chance to write Top Gun, still seen as a defining example of the post-Vietnam, macho American military movie meant to stir hearts to Uncle Sam’s marching call.

It would be history that would come and save Stone as well. Disappointed in the way the system seems to use writers as nothing more than hired hands, yearning to direct but having burned bridges in his wilder days, Stone puts it all on the line to make an independent war movie about the then raging civil war in El Salvador. Based on the experiences of wild man journalist Richard Boyle (who provides page after page of colorful anecdotes in the book’s latter half), Stone’s movie stars James Woods as Boyle and Elpidia Carrillo as the young Salvadoran peasant he loves. Outrageous, bloody, with a Hunter S. Thompson tone, Salvador has a making of story as intriguing as the movie. Nothing can stop the hungry director whose time has come. Stone tries to shoot in El Salvador itself amid the war, meeting with fascist military figures with Boyle. When that falls apart the production moves to Mexico as producers sweat over depleting funds. Yet Salvador opens the door for Stone to make his beloved Platoon, casting an unknown Charlie Sheen in the role based on himself. It’s quite the shift from capturing war in Central America to then reliving his memories from Vietnam, in a powerful opus featuring Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger as well, both embodying figures Stone remembers from his days in combat.

Both Salvador and Platoon not only close the book victoriously, as one becomes a sleeper hit and the other a box office sensation that would win Best Picture and Director Oscars for Stone, they also crystalize the historical obsession that defines his journey. Like few, if any, movies made about Latin America since, Salvador is about a war in which the United States intervened to prevent revolutionary forces from overcoming a local regime and aristocracy firmly beholden to U.S. interests, and Platoon is about Stone having been a young man holding the rifle used by American power to impose its order on the world. He has been an agent of history, which is why it haunts his mind even now with his recent documentaries, the most controversial being a sit-down with Vladimir Putin.

Chasing the Light is like a tonic in these times when the world becomes increasingly unsettled, as if hurtling towards major conflagrations but our movies are now devoid of radical politics or even political passion, with a few exceptions. Great directors who begin with promise then get lured by the bigger system, and they end up contributing to the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Agree with him or not, Stone at least celebrates two things in this book we can all agree on: The hard work wanting to write demands, both in commitment and honing of the craft, and the need to engage with the wider world. Film obsessives and Stone’s fans will no doubt eagerly await the next volume, I know I will, when he will surely explore his defining political films. For now, Chasing the Light is a volume to give comfort to wandering talent out there, writing deep into the night, wondering if anyone will ever read it or care.

-Alci Rengifo, “Oliver Stone’s Chasing the Light Chronicles the Great Director’s Journey Against a Raging Historical Backdrop,” Riot Material, Sept 3 2020 [x]

#oliver stone #chasing the light #books #reviews #riot material

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