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a-day-in-the-afterlife · 4 years ago

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The 14th Department (AFTERL!FE) Meets the Demon Brothers and Undateables (Obey Me!)

Lucifer

Noah heard he has a dog. He is staying far away from the pretentious eldest.

Oldest big brother? You better believe Youssef finds a kindred spirit, even if they differ wildly in personalities.

Louis lives for the almost regal aesthetic Lucifer has got going on. Lucifer, in turn, lives for the day Louis will stop talking.

Quincy finds this whole trip preposterous (“What the heck is the Devildom? What happened to the Underworld?”) and does not like Lucifer’s condescending attitude (it conflicts with his own!).

Ethan doesn’t like Lucifer—proud and arrogant people with no reason to be so are not to be respected. Lucifer despises Ethan for the same reason.

Day! Will! Not! Go! Near! Lucifer! He’s so scary! But Cerberus is his best friend now (Nine-Nine who?).

Nine and Theo together find out that the eldest demon is into classical music and spend hours discussing early compositions with him.

Ell cannot be around this demon! He is a fallen angel! He tries to be nice (and because Ell is kind, so is Lucifer, even if the sickly sweetness of the angel drives him up the wall), but every good wish is punctuated with a sneeze.

Lucifer is so overworked, so by way of his calm disposition and love for meditation, Jamie helps him find ways to relax.

The eldest demon’s general demeanor astonishes June. How manly he is!

Likewise, Sian can’t go near Lucifer without feeling nervous. The man drips dominating energy!

Verine can’t understand the eldest’s love for classical music. Rock is infinitely better.

Mammon

Um, Mori and him are best friends. They together cause trouble in the House of Lamentation and in the 14th Department with their many get-rich-quick schemes.

Gaudy and expensive taste? Sign Louis up.

Ethan says ‘no’ to the demon’s general pomposity (it reeks of low self-esteem) and by God, doesn’t he own anything that depicts an iota of class?

Mammon is one speedy demon—how can Kirr not appreciate his fleetfootedness when it would bring him so much use whilst hunting? Apart from that, Kirr has no respect for that reprehensible thief, for the very idea of stealing brings back terrible memories.

Always belittled by their peers, Day and Mammon find a kindred spirit in each other, and Day is always reminded of his past life when he sees all the gold that Mammon professes to possess possesses.

Kati bit him twelve times because no dumb tsundere was going to steal his (cough Aitachi’s) spot as cutest in the Department!

Licht is eclipsed by Mammon’s demon form because how is he able to pull off wearing so little clothing so well? He must take notes. When he learns that Mammon is a model, too, he goes berserk with delight.

Cyrille finds the secondborn exceedingly stupid, although he begrudgingly gives him credit for being pretty decent at math.

Sian spots a fellow tsundere and runs away, because oh my God, it’s so obvious that Mammon likes this MC person!

Leviathan

Games? Social awkwardness? Extreme interest in things that no one else seems to care for? Cyrille has found his soulmate!

Aitachi and Kirr cringe at how Leviathan spends his leisure time, but are intrigued because they have never seen such methods of gaming and media consumption before.

Leviathan is forever at Quincy’s mercy, for the fellow demon has no qualms of absolutely crushing Levi’s already non-existent self-esteem.

Even though he loathes to admit it, Sian really likes the rhythm games Leviathan plays, and the thousands of idol posters in his room make him strangely nostalgic of his past life.

June wonders how Levi can go so long without feeling the overwhelming need to burst into a sprint now and again.

Theo almost kills the thirdborn because how is his room filled with so many Demonrito and Hell Mountain Dew containers? What filth!

Speaking of filth, Licht finds some of Levi’s dating sims and oh my darling, some of them are quite … lewd.

Ghilley and Leviathan together construct an elaborate Lego model of a castle from the anime My Sister Is A Fairy Princess, And Her Suitor Is Secretly An Ogre From a Land Far Away And Wants to Eat Us All, And It’s Up to Me to Save My Sister’s Kingdom.

Ethan can’t even walk past Leviathan’s room without a disapproving “tut.” Has the demon no discipline, despite being rumored to be the Grand Admiral of Hell’s Navy?

Kati spends all day poking at the cute monster and waifu figurines situated in Levi’s bedroom. He thinks Azuki-tan is cute, but not as cute as him, and anyone who says otherwise will get bitten!

Aitachi likes to rifle through Leviathan’s anime sword replica collection and giggle because in combat, they would be of no more use than a toothpick.

Satan

Finally! Someone with sense! thinks Ethan. Boy, do these two get along, right down to their educated and proper mannerisms to their mutual hatred of Lucifer.

Verine can’t go near Satan without coughing violently because the forthborn always has some manner of cat hair on him, no matter how diligently he preens.

Cats are infinitely better than dogs, so Noah sticks close to Satan.

Cyrille thought he had found a friend in Satan, who always has his nose in a book, but it turns out, Satan is more philosophically-and-intellectually-versed, while Cyrille is more scientific.

Nine likes Satan, for he is as calm as himself. Strangely enough, they both seem to have hidden wrathful feelings and bond over this.

Kitties! :D is all Day can think when he sees the fourthborn.

Youssef enjoys Satan’s company, too, for they both are anthropological in nature—always watching, but never interfering until there is a need.

Blond and princelike are the two of them, but Louis is sorely disappointed when Satan’s royal appearance is merely a façade of darker emotions to come, where Louis enjoys life in its every aspect. “How disappointing art thou, Satan!” Louis throws rose petals in distress.

Kirr and Aitachi try to hunt one of Satan’s cats, thinking it was some kind of Devildom’s finest prey. Satan does not forgive them for the attempt.

Theo sneezes the moment he enters Satan’s room. Although everything is in its place and not truly messy by any means, he refuses to let the stacks and stacks of books sit idly by when they are begging to be put in shelves!

Quincy and Satan each add to their respective repertoire of curses in their time together. It does not bode well for anyone in the House of Lamentation or 14th Department.

Asmodeus

They are … essentially the same person, so you can bet your ass that Licht and Asmo absolutely live for each other’s company. They literally spend hours modeling clothes together, discussing fashion, gossiping about their romantic exploits, and praising their overall appearance.

Louis joins in too, although he mostly stays for the latter, and the three vanquish away many nights complimenting their own and the others’ looks.

Sometimes Asmo likes to sew patches and sequins onto his clothes and mend them to his own design, and Aitachi, who likes to sew, learns many different ways of stitching from the fifthborn, although he hates the fact that Asmo, like Licht, never shuts up about what an “adorable and cute warrior” he is!

Asmo has to know Kirr’s hair care routine, which Kirr gives in one, succinct sentence: “I wash it. Sometimes.”

Nine has to constantly flee Asmodeus’ presence because it is in his nature to compliment the Soul Reaper on how absolutely beautiful he looks.

Kati expects makeovers, all of which should emphasize his cuteness, every other day.

Don’t ask how long Mori spent calculating how much money Asmo spends on beauty products, because he wept at the end of it.

Verine refuses to step a foot into Asmodeus’ room because do you know how much his sinuses are going to bother him when he spends even a second into a room so deeply entrenched in the fragrance of flowers and perfume?

Ghilley is used to a personality so akin to his roommate, Licht, so he has no qualms in dealing with Asmo and quite likes the gossip he is quietly able to distill from the fifthborn.

Beelzebub

Brothers in their flaming orange hair, June gloms onto Beel with astounding loyalty (Theo refuses to admit jealousy, but ...), especially when he hears of his dedication to his twin.

Cyrille has to interrogate Beel on the structural integrity of his wings in his demon form because there is no way that such a flimsy apparatus could lift a demon of Beel’s stature even an inch into the air! Also, how much does Beel exercise if he expects to gain muscle and burn off the infinite calories that he consumes? It is a scientific mystery.

Day likes snacks, Beel likes snacks! Everything is right in the world (even if the demon accidentally mistook Day’s hair for a mint ice cream cone).

Jamie is constantly offering fresh fruits and vegetables to the sixthborn, but even though he eats them willingly, Beel much prefers foods that will actually fill him up for a short amount of time.

Again, Ethan is appalled by the lack of discipline Beelzebub shows. The demon is simply a slave to his appetite and deserves nothing less than scorn.

Theo cannot decide if he likes or hates the fact that Beel leaves a trail of crumbs wherever he goes. On one hand, he gets to clean, but on the other hand, it’s so messy ...

Even though he has many misgivings of fallen angels, even Ell cannot help but like Beel! As long as he is fed, the demon is very sweet and kind.

Noah likes Beel, too. Something about his easygoing and generally cheerful personality pleases him to no end.

Beel tried to eat Kati’s hair, thinking it was a yummy bun. Sadly, he got bit more times than Mammon.

Youssef is a good cook and is thereby followed by Beel wherever he goes. The kind Soul Reaper doesn’t mind, though.

Belphegor

Noah likes how Belphie takes things easily and calmly, although it probably wouldn’t hurt for him to get more exercise.

Belphegor is even more of a conundrum to June than Leviathan was. He decides that next time he goes to the Devildom, he’s going to bring an extra pair of running shoes because the demon most certainly was wanting of physical exertion!

Kirr is absolutely astonished at the unguarded and completely lax way Belphie sprawls out in the House of Lamentation, sleeping. If he was an enemy tribesman, he would have no trouble in taking the demon down as he slept.

“This kind of laziness is not fit for a warrior at all!” cries Aitachi any time he seems Belphie dozing off.

Jamie likes Belphegor’s way of thinking. Sometimes, sitting under an apple tree in the sweltering summer heat after a hard day of work just causes one to be overcome with the desire to take a nap.

Youssef tries to brew Belphie a cup of espresso, but the caffeine just doesn’t seem to have an effect on the Avatar of Sloth.

Although he is slightly disheartened by the fact that his quiet footsteps seem to have no effect on the seventhborn, as he is always asleep, Ghilley revels in the prospect of drawing unsavory graffiti on the demon’s face when he slumbers.

Day sometimes tries to rouse Belphie, and Belphie, in turn, tries to kill Day.

Like his observations on his twin, Cyrille cannot fathom how the demon could sleep so much. How could one body need so much rest?

Simeon

Ell loves him. How can he not? He is the perfect angel! He is also very curious as to how the Celestial Realm of Obey Me!’s world works compared to the one in AFTERL!FE.

His whole aesthetic mesmerizes Louis. There’s something so tranquil but regal about it.

Licht wants to know where he can get an exact copy of Simeon’s outfit because darling, it's gorgeous.

Youssef probably spends more time around Simeon than he should, but his calm demeanor is so refreshing compared to the chaos in the 14th Department and the House of Lamentation.

Kirr and Aitachi together lament with Simeon on the struggles of working with technology. Why is it so difficult?

Something about the angel’s holy air makes Mori very much not inclined to ask him how much the gold clasp on his cape is worth.

Quincy hates the “pretentious” and “stuck up” angel and bickers with him almost as much as he bickers with Ell. Simeon never responds to his goading, although ... he does get a bit prickly when Quincy criticizes Luke or the Celestial Realm too harshly.

Encouraged by the prospect that he can actually breathe in the (fresh-smelling) presence of Simeon, Verine enjoys his company, but is perpetually annoyed by the fact that the angel seems to pity him for his condition.

Ethan can’t hate Simeon, either. He is the sole honorable character he can find in the entire Devildom, even though he has to admit that it seems that the angel is hiding something.

Day really likes Simeon! He’s so nice and is always ready to play with him.

As a man of science, Cyrille scoffs at Simeon (and Luke’s) unfaltering belief in religion.

Luke

Kati bites him on sight. Luke just seems irritating and how dare he think himself cuter than him!

Aitachi sympathizes with Luke, for they both lament on not being taken seriously because of their age.

Luke reminds him a bit too much of a chihuahua for Noah to be too fond of him, but the little angel means well, so Noah suffers his incessant barking out of (Kind)ness.

Day is a human puppy ... and Luke is an angel chihuahua. They get along great, although Luke makes it his most important goal to Christianize Day, who seems to believe in other things!

Quincy wonders when Luke will stop talking and is constantly entertaining thoughts of hastening the day when he will. Likewise, Luke wishes the “horrible demon” would go away forever.

As a fellow angel, Ell finds Luke to be great fun. It’s strange though, Luke seems to always be expressing the opposite of what he’s feeling in typical tsundere fashion, but he never sneezes.

Sian finds Luke to be of the utmost annoyance. He’s so short (heh) and yappy and annoying!

Kirr wonders if the little angel will make a good hunting dog, but after he realizes that Luke has a lot of trouble keeping his mouth closed, he thinks better of it.

His dealings with Day cause Nine to be an excellent caretaker of Luke when Simeon is away. You just have to deal with exuberant personalities like his carefully, is all.

Ghilley and Licht give Luke “five stars” in terms of cuteness. The young angel does not approve!

Theo stays far away from Luke. Children are walking crumb-and-stain-factories and he is not going to get dirty.

Solomon

Quincy and Solomon exchange many spell incantations and curses and keep the rest of the Soul Reapers, angels, and demons in an uproar with their constant shenanigans.

When he notices that Solomon has many fortune-telling artifacts in his room, Kati rifles through them all (without permission), much to the sorcerer’s amusement, especially when Kati discovers many supposedly unpleasant things about his future.

Although Quincy and Solomon are the true troublemaking duo in terms of pranks (Satan helps, sometimes), Day and Solomon are almost equal in measure, although much of Day’s rogurey is an accident, and he never means to cause any harm!

Licht is instantly enamored by Solomon’s cape—what style! You can see the entire Milky Way embroidered on it (Cyrille instantly assures him that that is not actually the case)!

Ghilley can’t help but wonder why anyone thinks Solomon is shady. He seems to be a pretty upstanding, if chaotic, guy?

Youssef admires the humanity of Solomon. In a land of angels and demons and even Soul Reapers, it’s good to have someone so normal.

Unlike Ghilley, Ethan definitely notices that something shady is afoot when Solomon is around. Because of this, he tails the sorcerer wherever he goes, for he’d rather not a ruckus be caused.

Sian has many questions for Solomon on the status of idols in the Human World since he left it. What are the newest trends? The most popular groups? The most admired dance moves? He wants to know it all.

Barbatos

Cyrille finds the whole time-travel aspect of Barbatos’ powers intriguing and derails the butler from his duties for hours in attempts to understand the nuances of this overpowering concept.

Ethan privately thinks that he looked much better in a butler suit than the demon. What is even going on with the front of his outfit? A diligent and uncomplaining demon is Barbatos, and Ethan has to respect him for that, even if he is a position so beneath his own.

He’s so scary! D: thinks Day, even though Barbatos is nothing but kind to him.

Kirr likes the fine fare that Barbatos cooks, although he laments not being able to win “the mind game” against the butler, who he spends many hours staring coolly at.

Theo and Barbatos spend many an evening chatting about the best way to maintain the most perfect state of cleanliness.

The strong smell of detergent follows Barbatos sometimes, and Verine can never bring himself too close to the demon. However, he has to begrudgingly admit that if it weren’t for the overwhelming stench of chemicals, he would be breathing in a suffocating cloud of dust particles, so he has to thank the butler for that.

Jamie gives Barbatos many good recipes for fruit pies and Youssef can’t wait to try all the (possibly) delicious recipes that Barbatos recites to him.

Ghilley, unfortunately, finds it very difficult to sneak up on the butler, for Barbatos has seen all Ghilley’s attempts to scare him in all the timelines he has observed.

Diavolo

This bumbling idiot is the ruler of the Devildom? thinks Ethan with great distaste. However dignified Diavolo might be, Ethan cannot see past the blindingly cheerful mask he puts on and finds it most undignified.

A fellow royal! How is Louis supposed to resist striking a long-winded conversation? Diavolo entertains Louis’ pompous and overbearing self and they find each other most delightful.

Licht positively drools over Diavolo’s demon form outfit. Just how he is pulling off that much style?

Quincy finds much enjoyment in disrespecting the Prince of the Devildom to no end and is always disappointed when Diavolo responds to his insults with a tolerating smile.

The Prince of Demons and the son of the Demon Lord are titles that are essentially the bane of Ell’s existence, but he manages to be most respectful toward him, even though he is shaking in his shoes and wondering when all their interactions will come to and end.

Day lived like a king in his past life and is not even remotely fazed by the enormous amount of finery found in the Demon Lord’s Castle. He is, however, enamored with the Little D’s, who, when not insulting him, are great fun!

Diavolo’s lifestyle of luxury is basically Mori’s dream, so he takes every opportunity to make notes of the expensive furniture and ancient pieces.

Noah and Youssef like how down-to-Earth Diavolo is, despite his high position. They feel as if he has something to hide, but for the most part, he is a jolly fellow and they enjoy his company.

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rokutouxei · 4 years ago

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the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

ikemen vampire: temptation through the dark theo van gogh / mc | T | [ ao3 link in bio ]

The challenge seemed pretty simple: to try to befriend the university bookshop’s most sour employee, Theo van Gogh. As a literature major with a boatload of book recommendations on her back, it ought to be a simple task indeed. But as she uncovers what lies between Theo’s pages, the more she finds it harder to become closer to him without having to put the feeling directly into words. What can she learn from Theo about what it means to stay—and how can she teach Theo about what it means to let go? | written for ikevamp big bang 2020!

[ masterpost for all chapters ]

CHAPTER 5 OF 22

It’s not on purpose.

Theo isn’t intentionally testing her determination or anything of that sort. He just can’t wrap his head around her persistence.

He doesn’t purposefully make himself hard to contact to shrug her off. It’s just that he’s not as fond of social media as the next person. Sure, he does have accounts for the biggest names in the industry—Instagram, Facebook, the works—but he doesn’t use them regularly, or posts on them at all. The easiest and more surefire way to contact him, really, is through the usual, plain old messaging app on the phone, or maybe through a call.

(And he’s not so sure about giving her his number so suddenly.)

He doesn’t give the most roundabout answers to Arthur’s questions to keep her hanging. He just doesn’t want Arthur sticking his nose in business that isn’t his to begin with. He doesn’t find any reason to tell his coworker anything about their book exchange, even if—after Arthur’s admission—this entire friendship began with his orchestration.

He’s not doing it on purpose.

He knows how easily this could lead to understandable frustration. Maybe even the vague feeling that maybe he’s only attending their little book exchange sessions at the Grove because she gets Vincent to tell him. Maybe she won’t have the patience for him. Maybe she’ll just drop it.

But she doesn’t.

And that makes it even more confusing.

“Why are you taking this so seriously?” Theo asks one day, after they’ve handed the next week’s books to one another. He’s looking at her with a stern gaze, as if calculating every minuscule twitch on her face.

She only shrugs her shoulders and looks up at him innocently. “I’m having fun, aren’t you?”

As if the extra steps he’s making her take are not wasted time. As if she sees that she’s already slowly melting ice. It’s not that Theo is shunning her—but it’s safer like this, keeping her at a distance. Theo has his own priorities, and all arrows point to Vincent. The least he can do is make sure the books he lends are good; make sure he has the appropriate insight to bring with him. And she, in turn, sends every pass-the-message text (to Arthur, to Vincent), leaves all the notes in between lent and borrowed books, shows up to every meeting with that unbeatable smile on her face.

And in truth, Theo isn’t sure where this is going. Theo isn’t sure what she’s going to do to him, why they’re doing all this. But for now, he’ll just let her keep on doing this. For now.

They just both have a good feeling about it.

There is a certain art of choosing books to recommend to people. There is, of course, the matter of having a certain level of being well-read, as choosing from a hundred books allows more elbow room than choosing from ten.

But she knows better; there is more to it than just that.

If there’s one thing she is absolutely sure about the world, it’s that books—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, name it—all have the ability to bring people elsewhere. It’s magic she wishes she could have in real life. Sneak in between the pages and find yourself transported to an entirely separate timeline of the universe where these things happened. Slip a hand at the center-point and find yourself in a different world, where things are different.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

But it’s not just about the bringing into, but also the bringing with—what do the books carry with them that will be useful to the reader? Which of its commendable qualities will match the receiver? Is it its storytelling, the way it weaves each character through their growth and journey? Is it the message, the core of it which it carries throughout the text through every plot point that happens? Is it the imagery, the space between the real and the imagined, where the infinite possibilities exist?

This is the tender part. This is the part that feels the most raw.

Romance has never been at the top of her priority list. She’s no newbie to it, but it’s just never been the most important thing in her life. It’s never been on the list at all. Getting into a relationship, the dating scene, being romantically attached to people—she understands the joy of it, she’s definitely dipped her toes into the water, but it isn’t what she wants right now.

She figures choosing books for people is the closest she can get to that feeling for now.

It’s not only Theo, of course—sometimes Arthur asks her for some recommendations too, and sometimes Dazai does, as well. To her it’s nothing more than a way of showing her affection, a little, “I had you in my thoughts,” as she matches a book to its recipient. It becomes more than just another title, not just another author.

She clutches the book Theo’s lent her for the week close to her chest as she crouches in front of her bookshelf to browse her own collection. She thinks, matching their theme to her heart: which book would best suit Theo’s needs? Which things might he benefit from hearing?

Pulls a book out from the shelf and wonders—which one would grace his life with a little bit of stardust?

That week, Theo asked her to “lend me the book you wish everyone would read at least once”—and when she answered with “no, that’s impossible, I can’t lend you 39 books at once?”—he clarified, “the one you’re still coming to terms with.” And that’s a really odd way to describe a book you’d want everyone else to read—Theo himself knew that—but somehow it made perfect sense to her, and the week later she hands him the small bound book.

She had passed onto him Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

An interesting choice, really, for that book to have fit under the said category, but Theo’s stopped trying to make sense of the surprises she brings up for him at this point. The book isn’t really lengthy—this particular volume is less than a hundred pages long, and it only took Theo a good hour to go through the contents, even while relishing every word of it. (She does the opposite, speed-running every book as fast as possible, because she “can’t be patient about what happens next”, a concept he cannot understand—“The book is not leaving, why don’t you enjoy what is written?” “I can’t wait! I need to know!”)

It’s not a complicated book.

But it sure has complicated feelings.

So he kind of understands why she had chosen that one.

Theo has a complicated relationship with love. Not that he’s had any sort of traumatizing past relationship or a lingering resentment for an ex, but there was just something about the concept of romance that doesn’t sit…right with him.

It’s not that he doesn’t know what it is, he does. There are books he loves—books he is very thankful for having found in this lifetime. There are food he loves, food that fills his stomach with warmth and makes his heart flutter and makes him feel like maybe world peace is achievable, and it’s in a spoonful of this creamy sugary pancake after all. And most importantly, he loves his brother very much; would like to see Vincent do great things in the future, or, if not that, then at least be happy, and live the life he wants to live—that’s what love is, isn’t it? To enjoy something wholly for what it is, and what it does to you. To want the best for a person.

His problem with love is he doesn’t know what to do with it.

In the same way that he still loves his parents even if they don’t understand why he’d go through such lengths for Vincent. In the same way that he still loves the people who’ve left him behind in the past, friends, old lovers, even when his heart was still pouring. And isn’t that what love is? To love something wholly for what it is, what it does to you, to forgive it of its mistakes and shortcomings?

Even when the cost is yours to bear?

What to do with a love that can live in his heart when the other no longer wants it?

Theo reads Neruda’s poetry book once. And then reads it again. And then reads some of his other books for good measure.

It’s pretty common to find Arthur walking around the campus with his hands in his pockets and the many eyes of adoring (or maybe loathing) girls on him—for all the understandable reasons. Today was a little different though, because he is outside the Arts Building in the late afternoon, reading some sort of a flyer.

“Arthur!”

He hastily keeps the flyer into his bag as she jogs up to him. “Hello, little miss. Nice to see you around.”

“What’re you doing here?” she asks, trying to peep into his bag.

Arthur, instead, pushes himself off the wall that he’d been leaning on, smoothly slipping his arm around hers. Months of friendship had gotten her used to him being touchy; she lets him. “Labor of love. Walk me back to the bookshop?”

She’s not surprised, but she asks anyway. “Are you on your shift?”

“It was an important errand to run, no need to be so incensed,” he says, half-laughing. “Let’s go back before your boyfriend has more than words for me.”

Pinching Arthur’s arm, she quips back: “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Why, that’s exactly what he told me! You know you don’t need to keep it a secret from me.”

“You’re the absolute worst, Arthur.” The two of them fall into an even pace walking down the sidewalk. She relies on the silence to get them there, but there is something about the biting intrigue that snags her. “…What did Theo say?”

Arthur smirks. Openly. “Curious suddenly?”

“He doesn’t exactly talk to me about things like this,” she huffs. “It’s just books and literature with him.”

“That just means you haven’t cracked him.”

She pouts. “You’re not supposed to need to crack people.” She tugs at Arthur’s sleeve, insistent. “C’mon, tell me. He has to have told you something, right?”

Confidently, Arthur says, “Theo tells me everything.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“I suppose my information is subpar, then, so why should I—”

“Arthur!”

“Yes, yes, okay,” he says, finally relenting. “He won’t say it to your face, but he really enjoys spending time with you, little bird.”

Her face lights up like a little sun. “Really?”

“Oh, dear. Whatever will he feel, ratting him out like this—”

“Please, we all know you do not care because we are your source of entertainment,” she says, elbowing him. “…I was doubting it, honestly, but that’s a relief.”

“He never stops talking about your book club, actually.”

“No way.”

“Always masked in a complaint, but always about it all the time,” Arthur says, watching the smile grow on her face. “You’re a good influence on him, at least he’s not brooding away in a corner all day long. The customers have enjoyed his new, refreshed presence. All the lovely girls coming in now, what a joy.”

She squeezes his arm as they round the corner. “Why do I feel like this is going exactly according to your plan?” Arthur does not attempt denial.

Theo does not stop asking for poetry books.

Only because he knows that even if she doesn’t voice it out loud, she’d want to lend him poetry books anyway. She, on the other hand, changes genres every week. Poetry, nonfiction, YA fiction, children’s fiction. She jumps from Ariel to A Little Life to The Girl Who drank the Moon to On Earth we Were Briefly Gorgeous. She has so much to say and so much to ask.

It’s just about driven Theo insane.

(It’s a good thing he enjoys her company.)

He won’t admit it, of course, but he shows up anyway. He frowns at every text she sends Vincent but he’s there. Every single Saturday. Reads every stray fast-food receipt note she slips in between the pages of the books she returns. Spends time on the books she lends him.

Ah, what did he get himself into?

Whatever.

Today, he’s brought with him Kerouac’s On the Road because she asked for a book that made him want to go away.

“Why am I not surprised that you brought me a Kerouac?” she asks while taking the book into her hands. She always holds them so gently. “His style is so interesting, though. Is it a shame to admit I’ve only read his poetry?”

“Only a little,” Theo says, but he’s joking because the corner of his lip is curled up ever so gently.

She flips the book to read the summary at the back. “Beat Generation, huh.”

“They wrote about liberation,” Theo says, sounding somehow defensive of his choice of a book. “Gritty and maybe even sloppy writing, but they wrote about freedom. Breaking the norm, finding yourself, facing the reality… doesn’t that fit your criteria of making one want to go away?”

She turns to him curiously. “Have you ever wanted to go away, Theo?”

He doesn’t turn to her. “I’m more the kind of person that stays.”

“Well, being a househusband isn’t bad work,” she comments, to which Theo snorts. “You know, I’ve really found that you have some sort of… classical, helpless romantic kind of aura on you.”

That makes him turn towards her. “What.”

“I mean, the books you’ve lent me—they all have some sort of romantic quality to them, you know? No matter how serious they get. I’m still recovering from A Little Life, you know.” She laughs. “Plus, all you’ve been asking me to lend you is poetry. Have you perhaps changed your mind about poetry?”

He narrows his eyes. “I don’t see how that makes me a romantic.” He sighs. “I didn’t think lowly of poetry, it just wasn’t my priority,” Theo clarifies. “We agreed to let the borrower decide the genre of the book but you’re so insistent on poetry that I’d rather take what you have instead of asking for something else. You’re pretty annoying when you’re insistent.”

She doesn’t deny the fact that she’s always saying about how she already has a poetry book to lend him every week. “I’m not annoying,” she says, pouting. “Geez, Theo, all you need to do is be honest and say you love poetry now and it’s because of me.”

“Is this a cause of yours? Getting people into poetry?”

But then, the banter stops. She falls silent for a moment that feels too long. Theo feels like he has to take back what he says, when, “Yes, something like that,” she says, softly. “They’re like love letters to the universe, I think they’re great.”

“That’s an interesting take.”

She frowns. “Do you not like love letters?”

Theo shrugs. “They’re classical.”

“That’s a non-answer,” she huffs. Holding her palm upward to the sky in a gesture, she says, “I just think they’re neat. It’s like a different experience in every book, every collection. You ever get a feeling that some poems find you, instead of the other way around? Like you were meant to find it at that exact moment?” Theo lightly shakes his head. “Really? Maybe you’ll experience it with some of the stuff I give you.”

He doesn’t know what’s hiding behind that serious expression, that other reason she’s so attached to poetry that she isn’t quite ready to say yet. He can feel it though. He doesn’t have the right to ask yet.

Instead, he raises his eyebrow and says, “You seem awfully confident.”

“I’m planning to make you read hundreds and hundreds of them, so it’s just a matter of numbers,” she says with a grin. “C’mon. Have any of the books I’ve given to you at least had a poem that resonated with you?”

And Theo pauses. Resonated, that’s a heavy word, it carries a lot with it. One could wish what they create would resonate with a lot of its consumers, whether that’s paintings or poetry or philosophies, but it’s not an exact art, and sometimes it’s all just a question of luck. Theo hesitantly shakes his head. “Not that I can think of,” he says. Thinks of the lines he’d copied out of the books to be remembered later. They were good lines, but hardly ones that resonated.

She hums, not sounding too put down by his answer. “Well, that just means we have to keep looking, right? I hope today’s at least gets some emotion in your face, Mister-Statue-Face-With-No-Feelings.”

“Hondje… What did you just call me?”

That day, he gives her his phone number.

She doesn’t know why everyone keeps asking her about it.

Sure, she had a crush on him, but it was really only entirely out of aesthetics. There was no denying he was hot, but he’s rather rough on the edges and has a rather sharp personality to be someone would want a boyfriend out of. Really, at this point, all she wants is to hang out with him and maybe reads some of the books he reads. Again—she doesn’t have space for distractions right now.

But everyone keeps asking her about it. Non-stop.

When she goes to the bookshop and Theo is at the back, Arthur comes up to her and asks her how The Friendship is going—as if it were something more special than just your regular old friendship. Most of the time she doesn’t know what to tell him, because somehow all he ever says to her after hearing about it is a small hmm like the answer didn’t quite fill in what he wanted to hear. Well, Arthur, sucks to be you, but you’re not hearing what you want to hear, she says to herself. Arthur’s a secret sucker for romance, the playboy that he is, and she’s not giving him a show.

But it’s not just Arthur. Vincent, too, asks her regularly. And considering she spends a good amount of time in the café he works at, the questions aren’t exactly that avoidable. She’ll order her drink and a pastry and Vincent will go, “is Theo being nice to you?” or any other variation of that sentence. (Somehow that feels like Vincent knows Theo is just mean in general, and that’s a kind of relief she doesn’t know how to explain. If his brother thinks he’s regularly mean, maybe that’s really just who he is, and also kind of forgivable.) Of course, she can’t exactly tell Vincent that Theo isn’t being nice to her, but oppositely, Theo isn’t really being mean to her either. He’s tolerating her every attempt to annoy him—or really, not annoy him, just hang out with him—and he hasn’t pushed her away exactly, so it must be going alright, right?

Of course, Dazai is curious as well, despite his earlier misgivings with Theo. (Dazai’s had bad experiences with business majors and romance in the past.) He’s not as persistent as Vincent and Arthur, but every chance he gets—say, an offhanded remark about a book or the bookshop, any little topic he feels he can reasonably steer towards the direction of Theo—he does ask. He asks in the way a friend would be curious of a new relationship—it is one, just not romantic, she insists—all full of worries for said friend. She appreciates this in many ways, because she knows Dazai can give her advice that will be very valuable to her. Still—the attention the thing pulls is kind of ridiculous, to her.

It doesn’t end with Dazai though, and at this point, it’s just going to be a long laundry list of people who are looking for gossip between her and Theo when—there really isn’t any. Despite being a literature major, she’s actually part of the campus’ local astronomy club, because why not? Stars are neat and she can’t quite catch up with the rest of the astrophysics majors that is actually with her, but the stargazing with the telescopes definitely makes it worth it. It’s just that Dazai is friends with their club head for a reason or another—a graduate student in astrophysics, Isaac Newton, and when Dazai knows there really isn’t any much harm, he runs his mouth, so—Isaac’s asked her at least once about Theo as well. Luckily Isaac is more on the awkward side—and they really aren’t that close quite yet, club aside—so he asks once, sees her reaction of despair and exhaustion, and never asks again.

She wonders if Theo gets the same barrage of questions as she does. From Arthur, for sure, but—Theo doesn’t exactly talk about other friends of his. Maybe they just haven’t gotten close enough for him to bring them up. Besides, whether or not people ask him about them or not, he’s sure that he already knows about the little crush—he’s just playing at it. Playing for what, she doesn’t know, and somehow, she’s fine with that.

That was all it was ever meant to be, anyway—a passing crush, a nice face, a sight for sore eyes, something to fall back on to refresh herself after long days of pushing her mind to the limit, working herself to exhaustion.

He was meant to be a breather, not a distraction.

To be friends is more than enough.

She screams into a pillow and grins.

#the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart #ikemen vampire #ikevamp theo

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Army of the Dead: How Zack Snyder Is Revolutionizing Zombie Movies

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Since long before Zack Snyder or Army of the Dead, zombie movies have proven to be one of the most surprisingly versatile subgenres in film. George A. Romero pioneered the form with the incisive, socially conscious Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, and since then we’ve seen an ever-growing menagerie of zombies and zombie movies. More than a few times, the undead ghouls have been reinvented to frighten and fascinate audiences across the world.

So it’s probably fair to wonder at this point whether we’ve just about seen it all when it comes to zombie flicks. Innovative takes on the genre like Shaun of the Dead, Train to Busan, and Warm Bodies have taken the zombie myth and twisted it in unexpected ways. And Zack Snyder’s own remake of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was an amplified homage to the original with a wry sense of humor. It received praise from fans of the genre, and to this day is considered to be one of the best efforts in Snyder’s oeuvre.

Now, 16 years later and after an eight-year stretch of superhero movies for Warner Bros., Snyder is returning to his zombie roots by partnering with Netflix for Army of the Dead, a heist/zombie movie mash-up that he hopes will take the genre to new heights in several ways.

The story is set in a zombie apocalypse that originated in Area 51. Six years after the outbreak, Las Vegas is essentially quarantined, with a wall built around it to contain the zombie hordes that have taken over the city. The government plans to nuke Vegas to end the zombie outbreak for good. In this time of chaos, a former casino boss, Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), hires a group of mercenaries led by zombie war hero Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) to infiltrate the city and extract $200 million that’s sitting in his vault underneath the strip before the city is pancaked by the government. The team should have plenty of time to get in and out before the bomb drops, but once they’re inside, they learn that the president has moved up the drop date to appease his supporters, giving the team little time to get out of the drop zone before the city is blown sky high.

Worse, while on their way to the vault the team will have to fight off a massive army of undead led by Zeus, a highly intelligent and combat-savvy “alpha” zombie who started the outbreak at Area 51. When Zeus bites someone, they become a deadly alpha like him; when an alpha other than Zeus bites someone, they become a more traditional “shambler” zombie.

Netflix invited Den of Geek to the set of Army of the Dead back in 2019 where we had the chance to sit with Snyder and the cast to get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie.

“From the first conceptualization of the movie, [we knew] there were going to be these evolved zombies,” Snyder explains as he sits with members of the press on his lunch break. “I thought it would be cool if there was a way to have a little bit of sympathy for the bad guy. It’s hard to have sympathy for a normal zombie. In a way, the guys who kill them seem like they’re doing them a favor. I thought if we were able to create this other class of zombie that was semi-conscious, treating them like a wolf or dog, like, they can’t talk, but they can organize.”

This highly evolved class of zombie gave Snyder and co-writer Shay Hatten more creative opportunities when laying out the story, lending emotional depth to the traditionally one-sided human-zombie conflict. The government feels that they’ve imprisoned the zombies in Vegas, but perhaps the alphas and their shambler offspring would rather just be left alone.

Alphas aren’t the only new form of zombie that you’ll see in the movie. Las Vegas is home to all manner of bizarre creatures, both animal and human, and you can expect to see a wide variety of gruesome undead versions of Vegas oddities and eccentrics as the mercs battle their way to the center of the strip. Zombie Elvis impersonators, zombie male dancers, zombie tigers, zombie brides… it’s all very Vegas, and reflective of just how much fun Snyder had making the movie.

“Zeus rides a horse!” Snyder gushes. “He’s the smartest of all of them. Whether he has hopes and dreams, I’m not sure. But our humans give zero fucks about his world. It’s kind of a fun relationship between him and the team.”

As for the team’s interactions with each other, Snyder assured us that while the movie is as fun and bombastic as you would expect, the character work is the spine of the film and informs all of the action.

Bautista’s Scott begrudgingly lets his estranged, activist daughter Kate (Ella Purcell) join his crew in the film, and they’re forced to work out their issues as they carry out the mission. Joining them are Scott’s friend and adept mechanic Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), helicopter pilot Marianne (Tig Notaro), expert zombie-killer Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), reckless social media influencer Guzman (Raúl Castillo), the casino’s head of security Martin (Garret Dillahunt), and Scott’s “ride-or-die” compatriot, Chambers (Samantha Win). The film also stars Nora Arnezeder, Theo Rossi, Huma S. Qureshi, and Matthias Schweighöfer

“At its heart, it’s a relationship movie,” Snyder says. “[Scott] and his daughter are trying to mend their relationship over the course of the movie. She shouldn’t have been on the mission but she kind of tricks him. It’s this small relationship movie inside of it all about a father who kind of abandons his child and tries to make it right. On top of that, it’s pure genre insanity.”

From what we were shown on set that day, the movie certainly looks to deliver on the genre goodness, for both the zombie and heist fronts. Snyder and company had rented out the entire casino floor at the Showboat hotel in Atlantic City, and they spent several days filming frantic zombie-killing action scenes involving a ton of wire work and big, loud guns (which Snyder test-fired himself with childlike giddiness). There were dozens of zombie extras running around, and the casino floor was so littered with inanimate zombie bodies that we had to watch our step virtually everywhere we went. Rest assured, the movie will be action-packed.

Another way Snyder and his team are attempting to make Army of the Dead a progressive entry in the genre is with its deliberately diverse cast.

“Something that was really important to us was to have a global cast,” says producer Deborah Snyder. “Being on Netflix, the majority of the audience is international. There’s no reason the cast should be all American, all white. And it was really important for us, and me especially, that the women are as strong as their male counterparts. That’s something that I’ve been striving for, especially in action and genre. Their characters have depth.”

The cast being led by Bautista makes sense in that he’s a big star, but what perhaps goes under the radar in many people’s eyes is that he’s essentially the first Filipino-American to lead a diverse cast in the history of major motion pictures.

“Dave has been amazing. He’s awesome,” Zack says of his leading man. “My movies are pretty popular in the Philippines anyways, so I’m excited about this added bit that’s really going to take it to the stratosphere, I hope. He considers himself this anti-action hero but he can do any of the action! It’s cool. He’s not afraid to be rough and not look good all the time. That’s what’s cool. And he can be vulnerable.”

When sitting down with Bautista on set, the actor describes a deep sense of duty and fulfillment in representing Filipinos on the big screen.

“I’m getting ready to have the Filipino stars tattooed on my chest, front and center, really big!” Bautista shares. “It speaks to where my pride is as far as being a Filipino. I’m half-Filipino, but I embrace it completely. I’ve never been embraced like I was when I went to the Philippines. It means a lot to me. I want to represent something and I want to inspire people. It means everything to me.”

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In addition to the film’s cast representing a wide range of communities, Snyder harnesses the strength of zombie movies as socio-political commentary by weaving statements about the current state of the United States into the fabric of the narrative.

“There’s zombie-infested Vegas, and then what happened was they built this refugee camp at the outset of the zombie plague to quarantine,” Zack explains. “Six year later, the camp still exists, so now it’s this political tool that the government uses. If you have contradictory political views, they’ll stick you in there. They have a heat gun, and if you’re below 98.6 degrees, that’s probable cause to put you in.”

The director continues, “A lot of the people in the refugee camp are disenfranchised. Whether it’s a statement about immigration or the literal refugee camps around the world, it made sense to me to have an internationally diverse cast because of the centerpiece of the movie. This group that goes in are a mish-mash… they’re mutts. They’re rogue samurai.”

For Snyder, the feel of Army of the Dead was inspired by some of the most classic genre movies from his youth, though as in his previous work, he attempts to build on the concepts they introduced by subverting expectations and putting his own unexpected twists on genre conventions.

“When we did Dawn of the Dead, it was a slightly genre-buster movie in that I was a fan of the original, and I didn’t want to remake the movie, exactly,” Zack says. “I was trying my best to pay homage to the movie but I was always only referencing the original as opposed to a straight remake. I find that to be a fun area to be in.”

He continues, “Army of the Dead was really inspired by Escape From New York, [James] Cameron’s Aliens, Robocop… that world. It’s very much a genre deconstruction in the sense that I love all the genre tropes, and so I’m constantly trying to subvert the tropes by having them not finish as they typically would.”

After spending eight years in the superhero movie making business, Snyder felt that going back to intimate, genre storytelling would be exactly what he needed to reinvigorate his creative mind and passion. He needed a change of pace, and he missed being hands-on with the filmmaking process.

“Your relationship to the photographic process, even the actors… you grow further and further away from it,” he says of making big superhero movies. “I was still drawing the shots, but they were getting made further away. That’s kind of true of all aspects of the movie. This movie, for me, is a 100 percent organic experience where I take hold of it as a filmmaking process, as a writing process, photographically, as a director. It’s a joy to get up and work on. There are no real politics. Just make the movie as cool as you can, that’s it. In that way, it’s super refreshing and inspiring.

Snyder’s proximity to the tactile, hard work of filmmaking was evident from my time on set. In addition to directing, he acted as the movie’s DP and B camera operator and was interacting with the actors constantly, all while quite visibly having a lot of fun. It’s difficult to imagine he was as playful and loose on the sets of his DC movies. According to Snyder, while Army of the Dead certainly took a lot of hard work to make, he was constantly inspired by the material and embraced the challenge.

“Every movie is a struggle, right?” says Snyder. “I love that about moviemaking. The smoothest movie in the world is a shitfight. But with this movie I could make a subversive movie but no one would have to reach for the symbolism. It’s right there. It’s a genre that is about that, right? A good zombie movie, all the great Romero movies, they’re all mirrors. The zombies are us. For me, that was a great place to dig my teeth in.”

And working on a smaller scope means that this is the most personal movie Snyder has made in quite some time.

“It’s a giant movie, but I’ve tried to get at it in a super intimate, personal way,” he says. “This is not a movie that’s made by committee. It’s personal, singular, my eye seeing the movie.”

Army of the Dead hits select theaters on May 14 and Netflix on May 21.

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dralentines-day · 8 years ago

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Gift #1, @cant-we-just-dance

Hey @cant-we-just-dance , more like cant-we-just-HAPPY-dance! This gift is music to our ears - and it’s for you!

Our gifter says:

“In my mind, Harry doesn’t lose the ability to speak Parseltongue after the war, so I really liked this prompt. Fun fact: Alvyn is an old English name that means ‘wise friend’!”

Untitled - Harry goes back to Hogwarts for his eighth year to finish his schooling after the war. While there, he decides to befriend an old school rival, but could it turn into something more? 2k.

Tags: no smut

Harry sighed. He rolled over, staring at the ceiling. Today was the day- September 1st. The first day of his eighth year at Hogwarts. Harry was excited, of course, but he wasn’t quite sure he was ready to see the castle yet. He’d gone to help rebuild it during the summer, and had been overwhelmed by the memories it brought up. He hoped it would be better this time, but if it wasn’t, he could always leave.

After he got dressed, Harry looked in the mirror to (try to) fix his hair. Deeming it useless, he turned to finish packing his things in his trunk, when he noticed the photo strip held to his mirror with a sticking charm. They were Muggle photos from the time he and Hermione had taken Ron to the Muggle fair. Harry smiled, knowing that his friends would help him if the memories threatened to overwhelm him.

His pet snake, Alvyn, hissed at him, reminding him that they needed to go.

"Come along, then,“ Harry hissed at the snake, taking his things out to his new car. Feeling the excitement of a new school year starting, he made sure he had everything he needed, started the car, and made his way to King’s Cross station.

• • •

Barely making it to Platform 9 ¾ and getting on the train as it was about to start moving, Harry blew his hair out of his eyes and set off to find Ron and Hermione.

Finding their compartment halfway down the train, Harry knocked on the half- open compartment door.

“Anyone sitting there?” Harry grinned at Ron, remembering their first year.

“Harry!” Ron grinned, while Hermione smiled up at him.

“We haven’t seen you practically all summer, Harry,” Hermione stated, “Where have you been?”

“I’ve just been busy fixing up Grimmauld Place, and avoiding the press,” he said, placing his trunk on the shelf above the seats and sitting down, Alvyn wrapped around his arm the whole time.

“Sorry I’ve not been writing. I sort of don’t have an owl anymore,” Harry said, holding up his hand to show them Alvyn curling around his arm.

“You… got a snake?” Ron had turned pale and looked like he didn’t believe his eyes.

“Oh sure, Alvyn’s great. We’ve been talking, and he’s helped me work through a lot.” Alvyn’s head bobbed, and his eyes, to Harry, looked proud.

Hermione smiled, Ron still looked uncomfortable (but like he was trying to be supportive), and Harry shrugged, watching the rolling country side. He remembered how he couldn’t figure out how to stop the memories, how he felt about Ginny, and how to come out to her and everyone else. He also remembered being embarrassed at first, then realizing that it’s just like talking to one of his other friends. Harry smiled as Alvyn curled around his shoulders and fell asleep.

• • •

Walking into the Great Hall, Harry realized it was slightly fuller than usual.

“There’s… five tables?” Ron looked confused, Hermione rolled her eyes (Harry realized that some things never change).

“Of course there’s five tables. McGonagall mentioned it in our Hogwarts letters. Since there’s not enough room for a whole new year in the house dorms, they just created a new common room and dorms for eighth-year students’” Hermione said, quoting the letter with such accuracy that Harry wondered if she’d memorized it.

As they walked over to their table, Harry looked to see who came back for their eighth year. Near the end of the table sat Ernie Macmillion, Padma and Paravati Patil, and Lavender Brown. In the middle sat a group of Slytherins, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson. Past them, Dean, Seamus, and Neville were talking to each other, and at the very end sat Draco Malfoy, alone, looking down at his hands. Harry felt a twinge of sympathy and almost went to sit next to him, before Ron and Hermione led him over to sit with Dean, Seamus, and Neville.

“Hello, Harry,” a dreamy voice said over his shoulder. Turning, Harry saw Luna walking along the eighth year table. She sat down next to him, seeming to forget she wasn’t in their year.

“Hi, Luna. It’s good to see you,” Harry smiled.

• • •

After dinner, McGonagall called the eighth years aside and assigned them their rooms. Ron was with Dean, Seamus, and Blaise Zabini, and Harry was with Neville, Theo Nott, and Draco Malloy. He decided at that moment that if he would be rooming with the two former Slytherins all year, he would at least try to befriend them.

As they walked up to their rooms, Harry told Ron his plan (getting a skeptical look in return), and hurried to catch up to Mal- Draco to talk to him.

“Draco! Wait up!” Harry called out breathlessly, running as he did so.

“Potter? What do you want?” Harry noticed that it didn’t sound scathing, just confused.

“Well… we’re gonna be roommates all year, right? So i thought we should-”

“We should nothing. I’m only here because my mother wanted me to. I’m not here for friends, so don’t bother.” He walked away, and Harry decided that he was definitely not giving up.

• • •

The next morning after breakfast, Harry caught up to Draco to try to talk to him again. As he was taking a breath to speak, Draco stopped him.

“Just don’t. If you won’t let me walk alone, at least be quiet about it.”

“Done.” It was progress, at least.

• • •

As they walked through the halls after History of Magic, Gryffindors started whispering. Eventually, one sixth year stepped in front of them, effectively stopping them in their tracks. Harry raised his eyebrows, while Draco looked down at his feet and hugged his books to his chest.

“Harry! Why’re you talking to a Malfoy?” He looked Draco up and down scornfully.

“Well, why wouldn’t I? He’s my friend. And I would like it if you would let us go to our next class, thanks,” Harry said, leading Draco around the stunned group of Gryffindors.

When they reached an empty hallway, Draco turned to Harry and grabbed his arm, stopping him in place.

“Why did you defend me?” Draco didn’t sound angry or sarcastic, just genuinely confused. That just confused Harry.

"Why did- why wouldn’t I?“ Harry watched the emotions flash through Malfoy’s eyes- confusion, defensiveness. There was also anger, but it didn’t seem to be directed at Harry. The secrets in Malfoy’s eyes were amazing… Malfoy’s eyes were amazing… Draco’s eyes were bloody gorgeous…

Wait. What?

“I… I guess I didn’t think you would actually like a former Death Eater.”

Huh? Oh, right, they’d been talking.

“Draco, your past doesn’t define you. This-” Harry placed his hand over where the Dark Mark would be on Draco’s arm-“ doesn’t define you.”

Draco looked at Harry’s hand on his arm. Harry cleared his throat and remover his hand.

“Other people don’t see it that way. They probably wouldn’t like to know that their Golden Boy is hanging about with former Death Eaters.” Draco looked down again, then started walking away.

Harry’s eyebrows drew together as he said, “I don’t care what they think.” Draco stopped.

“Look, i know you don’t really like me much. But I know you don’t hate me, the Manor proved that. And i don’t hate you. We’re staying in each other’s space all year, so why not try for a friendship? I don’t care what the media thinks, never have.” Harry took a deep breath and started walking down the hallway toward Draco.

“At least give me a chance to be your friend, Draco.” Harry grinned as Draco sighed.

“Well? Are you gonna start walking or are you trying to make us late for class?”

• • •

After Transfiguration, Draco went off to Potions, which Harry had dropped, and Harry went back to the eighth year common room with Ron for a game of wizard’s chess.

As they entered the common room on the seventh floor, one of the empty spaces near the Room of Requirement, Harry noticed Luna and Pansy sitting and talking at a table in the corner. Luna seemed not to care that she wasn’t actually an eighth year. Outside of classes, Luna spends most of her free time in the purple themed common room. Harry smiles at Luna across the room, leading Ron to one of the couches and tables near the fireplace.

“So how’s your plan coming?” Ron raised his eyebrows at Harry after they’d started the game.

“What plan d'you mean?” He moved a pawn two spaces forward.

“The one where you make friends with Slytherins,” Ron stated as he decided which of his pieces to move.

“It’s fine- I came to an agreement with Draco today, but i haven’t talked to Nott at all,” Harry said as he moved his knight to take take one of Ron’s pawns. They continued talking about the days events as Ron destroyed Harry, both laughing when Ron’s queen took Harry’s king, winning the game.

Potions must’ve ended just before that, because Draco walked into the common room. Harry caught his eye and motioned with his head to come sit with them. Ron raised his eyebrows and Harry shrugged as Draco made his way over.

He flopped down on the sofa behind Harry, hair mussed, and dropped his books and book bag on the floor next to him.

Harry turned to look at him. His gut twisted. Draco Malfoy was completely, undeniably gorgeous.

Harry Potter was so in trouble.

How had he never noticed that before? The guy was like a god. Harry cleared his throat- this was not the time.

“Potions went well, I see,” Harry said sarcastically, surprised when his voice didn’t crack or waver.

Draco cracked his eyes open to glare at Harry (though it was definitely a friendly glare, the kind Harry would give Ron). Harry chuckled.

“What happened, then?”

“Slughorn is a prick,” Draco said, startling a laugh out of Ron.

“Well, what’d he do this time?” Harry raised his eyebrows at Draco, softening his mood a bit.

“Git made us brew Amortentia, then as he went to examine mine, his stomach splashed some of it on my tie. Nothing happened, because no one else was connected to it, but now I smell like everyone’s favorite things and a group of seventh-year girls followed me around until I got back to the common room.”

“Oh, so that’s why you smell like Hermione! I thought I was going crazy,” Ron exclaimed.

Harry frowned. He leaned closer for a second, detecting the faint smells of treacle tart and broom polish. But mostly what he smelled was Draco’s cologne. He leaned back, swallowing. He was in so deep. Harry realized Draco had been talking.

“-not like I mind all that much, it wasn’t a super dangerous potion so it could’ve been worse, but I really did like this tie, and Amortentia doesn’t wash out of clothes, so my tie will now smell like what I like, which I guess isn’t all that bad, I just think the real thing is better than-” Draco seemed to realize he’d been ranting, and abruptly shut his mouth.

After a few seconds of silence, Draco cleared his throat and said, “Nevermind, I, uh, I’m gonna go get a different tie.”

Harry nodded, then leaned back against the couch after Draco left.

He was in so much trouble.

• • •

Just after midnight, Harry was the only one in his dorm room, reading “Quidditch Through the Ages,” as the common room got too loud for him.

Draco came into their room, nodded at Harry (who smiled back), and started getting ready for bed.

Harry tried to go back to his book. He really did. But when his eyes caught on the motion of Draco shrugging off his shirt, he really couldn’t resist. Harry glanced up from his book and saw Draco’s bare chest, then his bare back and oh Merlin, his Quidditch-toned body never went away. Harry looked back down at his book, blushing, before certain other parts of his body could start to take notice.

“Uh, Harry?”

“Hmm?” What?! Had Draco seen Harry looking at him? Harry looked up, surprised to see that Draco was standing right next to his bed.

“Can I, um, can we talk?” Draco looked extremely nervous, as if Harry accepting was a life or death decision.

“Oh, sure. D'you wanna sit down?” Harry moved his books around to make room, and Draco sank onto the bed gratefully.

It was silent for a moment, then Harry asked, “So what did you want to talk about?”

“Oh, right. I-” Draco sighed, then continued, “I need to tell you something, before you get too invested in this whole ‘friendship’ thing.” Draco wouldn’t meet Harry’s eyes, seemingly more interested in his hands.

“Okay,” Harry said slowly. What was going on?

Draco took a deep breath, then said, “I wasn’t actually going to tell you. I told myself that it was a bad idea, and it wouldn’t end well. But I have to try, so…”

“Draco, what’s going on?” Harry leaned forward to catch Draco’s eyes.

“I fancy you. A lot,” Draco blurted out, immediately turning pink.

“… What?” Harry couldn’t believe his luck, gaping at Draco, who looked down.

“I’m sorry, I understand if you never want to speak to me again or if you hate– mmph!” Harry cut off the thought with a kiss, practically launching himself at Draco, almost toppling them out of the bed.“

“Oh. So-”

“Will you be my boyfriend, you git?” Harry grinned down at Draco’s flushed face as he said, “Yes, you idiot!”

Harry’s grin widened before he kissed Draco again, slowly, before pulling him to his chest in a hug.

“Harry, your snake was loose in the common room, so me and Ron brought him- oh,” Neville’s thought cut off as he saw the two boys on Harry’s bed.

“Thanks mate,” Harry said, not caring to move from his spot wrapped around Draco, “You can leave him on my trunk, he’ll be fine.”

Draco’s arms slowly encircled Harry after Neville left, pulling him closer. Harry charmed the curtains closed, and they slowly drifted off into a dreamless, peaceful sleep.

~fin~

Want to see more? Check the “dralentine’s day” tag or head over to dralentines-day.tumblr.com!

Happy Dralentine’s Day!

#drarry #dralentine's day #dralentine's day gifts #dralentine's gifts #drarry squad

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charbear177 · 6 years ago

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April Bookclub Recommendations

If you are like me you love a good book. I read all of the time, but tend to stick to one or two genres and authors. A great way to find new authors and be exposed to literature you would have never considered is by joining a traditional bookclub, or signing up for a book of the month club.

If you are already in a bookclub, but looking for some suggestions I am here to help. Or if you are just trying to figure out what to read next I think I have some great choices for you. I have read a couple of the below books, and plan to read the rest before summer. Not sure if I will love them all, but that's the beauty of reading a book. You never know what you are going to get, or how it is going to end.

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April Bookclub Recommendations

The Priory Of The Orange Tree

The Silent Patient

A Place For Us

Becoming

Nine Perfect Strangers

Never Tell

The Priory Of The Orange Tree - Samanthan Shannon

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

A Place For Us - Fatima Farheen Mirza

As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia: their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. And lastly, their estranged son, Amar, who returns to the family fold for the first time in three years to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best? A Place for Us takes us back to the beginning of this family’s life: from the bonds that bring them together, to the differences that pull them apart. All the joy and struggle of family life is here, from Rafiq and Layla’s own arrival in America from India, to the years in which their children—each in their own way—tread between two cultures, seeking to find their place in the world, as well as a path home.

Becoming - Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty

Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.

Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer – or should she run while she still can?

It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.

Never Tell - Lisa Gardner

A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. But his computer has been shot twelve times, and when the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun. D. D. Warren arrives on the scene and recognizes the woman--Evie Carter--from a case many years back. Evie's father was killed in a shooting that was ruled an accident. But for D.D., two coincidental murders is too many. Flora Dane sees the murder of Conrad Carter on the TV news and immediately knows his face. She remembers a night when she was still a victim--a hostage--and her captor knew this man. Overcome with guilt that she never tracked him down, Flora is now determined to learn the truth of Conrad's murder. But D.D. and Flora are about to discover that in this case the truth is a devilishly elusive thing. As layer by layer they peel away the half-truths and outright lies, they wonder: How many secrets can one family have?

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#Bookclubs #Book of the Month

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joneswilliam72 · 6 years ago

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The Great Recession of 2008, desperation, and the documentary of the Great Cocaine Treasure Hunt: meet director Theo Love & Rodney Hyden.

We love a great based on a true story flick at The 405 Film. It's one of our favorite things to cover for a variety of reasons, but above all because �� quite often – truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Such is the case in Netflix's wildly entertaining, documentary tale of quintessentially American desperation, dreams of wealth, and the power of mythic storytelling: The Legend of Cocaine Island, out now on the streaming giant.

The Legend of Cocaine Island tells the true story of a Florida man (Rodney Hyden) who came into hard times – like so many – with the Great Recession of 2008. Hyden owns a construction business in central Florida (a state hit harder than most others) which was booming until the real estate bubble burst and triggered a huge part of this story.

Yet, what makes the story different is the tale Rodney was told by his neighbor Julian. You see Julian lived in Puerto Rico for a time years before, when one day he found a suspicious… package, on the beach. Inside – according to Julian – was roughly $2 million worth of cocaine. Apparently, a trafficker mistakenly dropped it either out at sea or in the air and it washed up on Julian's beach.

As Julian did not want to involve Puerto Rican police, who likely would not have believed he was innocent in all this – he generally wanted to avoid that hassle – he decided to bury the package near the trailer he was living in at the time and leave it there.

This became a "southern fairy tale" as it got passed around bonfires in Florida with each telling from Julian and others who heard and retold it. That is, until Rodney Hyden heard it, and decided he was going to try to find the cocaine and cure his post-Recession financial woes. Will he succeed? What will happen with this strange tale of desperation and the American dream? You'll have to watch the film to find out – trust me, you won't regret it.

Theo Love – the mind behind the 2013 documentary Little Hope Was Arson, about a series of 2010 church arsons in East Texas – director of Cocaine Island, took a novel approach to telling this story. Rodney Hyden plays himself in the film, with his daughter and wife also making appearances. It was a tremendous gamble which really paid dividends in Love's final product that is the film.

(L-R) Rodney Hyden and Theo Love at a 2018 event for THE LEGEND OF COCAINE ISLAND. Source:IMDb

Check out our interview with Hyden and Love below – we talk film-making, myth-making, great movies, the Florida Man Challenge and much more. And check out The Legend of Cocaine Island on Netflix worldwide now.

Hello Theo and Rodney.

RH: Hey, how you doing?

I'm great. How are you guys?

RH: Good.

TL: Doing good. Doing good. We're excited to be putting the movie out but a little nervous, too.

It was fantastic, and I just have to ask as the first question. Not totally related, but a little related. Have either of you guys done the Florida Man Challenge that's going around social media right now?

RH: No.

TL: No, I haven't. I just heard about it today. This is the second time it's come up, so I should probably do this today. Rodney, we should do it together.

[Laughs] Could be interesting.

RH: Tell me what I'm getting into first before we make that decision, Theo.

Yeah, it's googling "Florida Man", then your birthday (month and day), and you're supposed to share the first article that comes up.

RH: Oh, wow.

Like for instance, mine was Florida Man gets sent back to jail after not paying taxi that picked him up from jail.

[Both Laugh]

TL: That's a good one.

But yeah, it made me think of that with this story's very Florida-centric nature. Yeah. Rodney, what was going through your head when you finally decided to pursue Julian's story?

RH: Nothing was going through my head until I was approached about it. That's as simple as I can answer it.

Interesting. Did you ever think that something like The Legend of Cocaine Island would come out of it?

RH: Absolutely not. I mean, come on. When Theo called me, I didn't believe it would ever happen. Come on. It's surreal. Totally surreal.

TL: Yo. Yo Rodney, you said that you were waiting for somebody from Hollywood to call you when I first called.

RH: Yes. Hollyweird.

Rodney Hyden in Florida. Still from THE LEGEND OF COCAINE ISLAND. Source:Netflix

[Laughs] Well, there you go. Theo, I was curious, what was it about the story that made you wanted to do it in a documentary format versus doing it in a more conventional format like a fictionalized true story or based on a true story?

TL: I look for true stories, and I am leaning towards narrative. That's a goal of mine, but a lot of times when you are researching these true stories, the real people who lived the events are better than any actor you could get, and people like to tell their own side of the story.

Absolutely.

TL: Rodney wanted to make sure that this was accurate, and that we portrayed him the way he was. Frankly, we were a tiny little indie film, and we wouldn't be able to do it justice. But kind of doing it in the documentary form allowed this to have that anchored in realism to it.

Another interesting thing about it that I found really cool was the way that you did it almost as mythic storytelling. Mythic in the sense that it's a big story, it's what you would think would be an improbable story, and I was curious what your process was like in writing it to accent that?

TL: Yeah. Pretty early on, we realized that this was a story about storytelling, and the power of storytelling. Growing up, and honestly still to this day, a lot of times when I'm hanging out with my friends it's sitting around… and drinking, and we're smoking and telling stories. Rodney and his group of friends out there in Archer [Florida], they had the life that I wish I could have, but I'm in L.A. making movies. But just the whole atmosphere of how this came about was really attractive. Then, when I actually met the storyteller, Julian, he's this barefooted hippie. He looks like kind of like Gandalf, and he's just larger than life. Wouldn't you describe him like that, Rodney?

RH: Pretty much except ... yeah. Don't forget the bottle of wine. He loves wine.

TL: Yeah.

Gandalf if Gandalf lived in Florida [Laughs]. Yep.

RH: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

A question for both of you, I'm sure there's probably many, but any funny or memorable moments that stick out from the process of filming?

RH: Yeah. The digging scene, I'll never forget it 'cause Theo makes you do it about a hundred times. That ground is solid rock, believe me.

[Laughs]

TL: That's hilarious. Rodney agreed to act, and I fully pressed him for it, and I think it wasn't ... at the end of the day, Rodney, are you glad you did it?

RH: Hey, let me say this, I work with two of the most brilliant people and their staff. Now, their crew was excellent, and the little I know about movie and film-making, I think you should call Theo "Mr. Innovation" and that's all I need to say about it.

Nice.

TL: Oh man.

RH: Who else has brought a guy in that lived it and did it, and said "look, you're gonna be a part of it if you want to. I think it was a great experience."

Absolutely. Quite the novel and effective approach.

TL: Rodney, you're gonna make me cry.

RH: I'm being serious.

Yeah.

TL: We just honestly had a blast making this film. We really did, and we got to know all the people who were involved, their friends, and yeah. I hope the audience has half as much fun that we had making this film.

Julian in Florida. Still from THE LEGEND OF COCAINE ISLAND. Source:Netflix

You know, I think they will. I had a hell of a lot of fun watching it. I'll tell you that.

TL: Well, thank you.

RH: Thank you so much.

My pleasure. Thanks for telling the story. Let's see. Looking for that next question there. Rodney, what do you hope people will take away from your story?

RH: That it could happen to anybody. This story could literally happen to anybody, Wess.

Interesting.

[At this point, we had an issue with the phone connection which was quickly resolved]

Let's see. Rodney, if you could do it over again, would you?

RH: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. In the future, hell no. Absolutely.

TL: It's this attitude, Wess, that I heard on the very first call where I called Rodney. I just cold called the guy.

Having worked in sales I have great admiration for that approach Theo.

TL: Called him at this business, and this is how he talks. He is self-aware, and he's able to laugh at himself, and if that was the case for everybody else, it's just a good story. It's just a good story. Is something that we recommend people doing in the future? No, but we might dare you to, but we don't think that you should. But yeah, you could.

Yeah didn't mean to imply that you're recommending it because the film doesn't. There's definitely that playful suggestion at the end which worked really well with Cocaine Island considering the film's tone though.

Julian in the reenactment of the original tale. Still from THE LEGEND OF COCAINE ISLAND. Source:Netflix

Let's see. This is one I had for both of you, although you might be answering it separate. What were the challenges like?

RH: Go ahead, Theo. I want to bother you first.

TL: What were the challenges. Honestly, I think that it was the creative decisions that we were making. It was a bold choice to cast Rodney in these movie moments, these recreations, whatever you want to call them.

Definitely. That was a gamble that paid brilliant dividends.

TL: We were really gambling on that. But when we thought about it, we were like, man, I think that this is just ridiculous enough to be good. That thought that ... and we really felt like we were going out on a limb like, "Oh my gosh, man. The documentary community, they might hate us. We're not making a serious documentary."

[Laughs] the blasphemy! Wonder how many were clutching their pearls?

TL: It shouldn't be this fun making a movie in the Caribbean. It was kind of a dream scenario. As a filmmaker, I feel like I'm never gonna have a more fun set.

That's great. That's excellent you guys had that experience. Theo, one question I like to ask all filmmakers that I talk to, what movies and directors would you consider as the most prolific influences over you?

TL: I would say that ... I grew up watching just the big blockbusters. My family didn't even have a TV until I was in middle school, and we didn't live in a place where there was movie theaters. By the time I got into movies, it was just the big Steven Spielberg blockbusters. When I'm in high school, the big Michael Bay movies.

TL: But then, once I got actually into filmmaking myself, and started to break down kind of who are the filmmakers that I want to emulate, it really leads to the Coen Brothers I'd say more than anybody. I find myself just going back over and over to their movies, and with Cocaine Island, I watched The Big Lebowski quite a few times.

Well, there you go.

It's a very Coen Brothers story, too, when you think about it. Cocaine Island I mean. It's a modern tale of misadventure that does echo the Coens.

TL: Hey, if the Coen Brothers are available to do the remake of this, the narrative version, I will take that meeting [Laughs].

[Laughs] I bet.

Rodney, how about you. Favorite movies?

RH: Favorite movies. Scarface. No, just joking.

[Laughs]

TL: [Laughs]

RH: Grown Ups, Adam Sandler.

Cool.

RH: Yeah.

One that came to mind there, you guys were watching, was it The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in the hotel suite?

RH: Yeah. When I was a young kid, that's what my dad liked. The early Clint Eastwood Italian movies, and it brought back memories when we chose that scene to watch. Seen it before. Probably seen it 50 times.

Oh, me too with the spaghetti westerns. One of my favorites as well. Let's see. Yeah, another question I'd like to ask everybody. What makes a great movie to you? Kind of a big question.

TL: Yeah. That's a good question. What makes a great movie?

Thank you.

TL: Rodney, you want to go first?

RH: Yeah, I've got a pretty quick answer that didn't take much thinking, and I'm only gonna speak specific about the genre of this movie or documentary. I think the biggest thing was that ... tell me your question again.

What makes a great movie?

RH: In this case, based on what I saw at the film festivals, it's the audiences' reaction and that's all I'm gonna say.

That's interesting.

TL: Whether the audience likes it?

RH: Oh yeah…

TL: That's actually a pretty great answer. What makes a great movie is whether the audience responds to it. We have taken it to a few film festivals, and audiences really enjoy it. That feels amazing as a storyteller and as a filmmaker. Yeah. Good answer, Rodney.

It is a really good answer.

RH: Sitting in the middle of everybody with my hoodie on, nobody knew who I was, and everybody around me was cracking up. It was just great.

Rodney, I've gotten quite the variety of answers to that question in the numerous interviews I've done, but I don't think I've ever got your answer: the audience's reaction. That's a fantastic answer.

RH: [Laughs] There's only one… Let me tell you, man.

It is fantastic. Let's see, actually the last question I had for you guys is what's next for you?

TL: Well, Rodney is gonna be an actor. Right Rodney?

RH: No. No, I'm gonna take an early retirement.

Great.

RH: Let me say for me I'm in the construction industry, and it's just booming right now. I'm just blessed with what I've got, and I never forget this memorable ... one of the most memorable things of making this movie in my life, the other memorable was getting in trouble, but this one really, really was the best. That's what I take with it.

Fantastic. Theo, how about you?

TL: I'm in post on my next feature, a future documentary. Can't talk much about it, but I've got quite a few projects in the works. But I'll let you know when I can give you more details. How does that sound?

Hey, that's great. We'll definitely be watch for it. Yeah, and even your first movie, Little Hope Was Arson is excellent. I watched that the other night, too.

TL: Oh really, wow. Thank you so much. Not a lot of people saw that one, so yeah, that means a lot. Thank you.

Yeah. More should. I try to do that with everybody I interviewed to at least catch one more of theirs…

TL: A lot of journalists sometimes ... yeah. You're going above and beyond. That's all I'll say. That's amazing. Well, cool, I'm glad you enjoyed them. Thanks so much for doing this, and asking us all these questions.

youtube

LITTLE HOPE WAS ARSON (2013) trailer.

from The 405 https://ift.tt/2JTxJLN

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lhnicolelegendary · 7 years ago

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2017 was a fun year for great movies and tv shows. But more than that it was a great year for movies and TV with powerful and inspirational female characters and their stories!

There are some true standouts that are getting a LOT of well deserved attention but some of the ones that I personally connected with the most have not gotten a whole lot of recognition. I want to take a few minuets to really talk about the ones I really love!

I am picking my top 4 Female Power fav’s from 2017 to showcase.

Before we dive in don’t forget that all this month I am running a very special giveaway for Legendary’s coming birthday! I’m giving away two big prize baskets, one that even included the elusive and wildly popular Rose Gold Minnie Mouse ears from Disney! Don’t miss your chance to enter below in the rafflecopter! So many ways to win 🙂

#1 WONDER WOMAN

This one should come as no surprise! I was going crazy when this came out in theaters, and even back in 2016 when the media campaign really kicked it up. Wonder Woman has been a source of fascination, amazement and inspiration to me since I was nine! I loved to watch the Justice League cartoon shows (and its many forms over the years) and read the comics when I could get my hands on them.

I truly do not think they could have chosen a better actress than Gal Gadot to play Diana Prince, Princess of the Amazons of Themyscira. Gal captured the innocence, the strength, the iron will wrapped in the finest silk, and the open, honest heart that is rooted in doing what is right, no matte the cost.

The genius women behind this movie broke the mold of female characters with the visuals they used. Showing all the Amazons training and fighting in ways that were not meant to entice or capitalize on sexy female body images like Marvel does so damn often. They showed these women working hard to have the skills they do and the steel bonds that weave them together. They supported each other and empowered each other to be better, and they were there for when the other fell to help them back up. That is what gave Diana such a strong moral compass, even when she had to defy her mother, and leave her home forever to do what she believed to be right.

Diana charged across the WWI battle field when no men were even brave enough to dream of doing such a thing. For me this was the most powerful part of the movie because she had no fear of facing such danger alone and she couldn’t bare the thought of just walking away from people who needed help. She stood up for those who could not stand up for themselves and that is a truly rare and inspiring act of heroism.

I loved reading all the cool tweets and articles that came out in the weeks after. One that really sticks out for me was an article with a bunch of young children’s reactions that I read on Cosmo’s site.

Seven girls playing together during recess on Tuesday, saying that since they all wanted to be Wonder Woman they had agreed to be Amazons and not fight but work together to defeat evil.

A boy threw his candy wrapping in the floor and a 5-year-old girl screamed ‘DON’T POLLUTE YOU IDIOT, THAT IS WHY THERE ARE NO MEN IN THEMYSCIRA’

#2 SUPERGIRL

There are so many great things this show has done on 3 seasons. I loved the light-hearted quirkiness of season one with the added layers of Cat Grant snarky inspiration and powerful sisterly devotion. Then the slightly more mature, more dynamic second season where Kara learns how to love an enemy of her planet and also how much she’s willing to sacrifice to do what’s right. And now we have season three which has gone darker than both previous seasons, but I can understand why because of what Kara is dealing with, and the underlying layers of danger that are shaping her world.

I am only going to focus on the things that happened in 2017 that really got to me about this show. The biggest moment is two-fold. To save her city, Supergirl took on her revered and god-like cousin in a battle Royale that would put Superman and General Zod’s battle to shame. Clark was at his full-strength, and fighting enraged because of the effect of silver kryptonite which made him see his worst fear (General Zod, pun fully intended above). Despite the odds being so far skewed against her, and everyone in the world thinking that no one could beat Superman, Kara-Supergirl-did. And she did it on her own, with no help or interference; my mind was blown! Part two is the even bigger fold of this scenario because of what Kara had to end up sacrificing to save the innocents of National City and the world.

Mon’el and Kara had a very intense and passionate build and burn to their relationship. I have to admit I was not happy that James got thrown to the side, but I really started to like Mon’el about half way through the 2nd season. After the truth about who he was on his planet came out, that was when I fully committed to team KaraxMon’el. She loved him, truly loved him despite the stupid things he did. Then she had to do the one thing that would rip him from her life permanently. To stop his Psycho Daxamite mother from taking over she set off a bomb created by Lena Luthor that saturated the atmosphere with lead, the one thing Daxamite’s are deathly affected by. Kara knew that doing that would mean that Mon’el would die too, and it would break her heart, but she still did it.

She was able to save Mon’el but only because she put him the pod he came to earth in and sent him into space where he was sucked into a black hole that we found out in season 3 dropped him several hundred years in the future.

At the end of season 2 in ’17 even Clark came to Kara and affirmed to her that she was the superior kryptonion, and not just because she beat him, but because she made a decision that forced her to give up her heart, and Clark admitted that he would not have had the strength to do it.

There are many more reasons to love this show and the fantastic female power that it delivers every week, and that is because of the amazing cast of strong, independent and capable female characters that don’t need men to save them. Lena Luthor, Cat Grant, Alex Danvers and Meghan–in addition of course to Kara Zor-el ;D They even threw in the most popular and well-known actress who donned the Wonder Woman gauntlets and lasso, Lynda Carter, as the president of the good old US of A. It doesn’t get much more powerful than that.

#3 PITCH PERFECT

“Say your prayers because Fat Amy is coming for you.”

I had NEVER expected to see the action sequence that kicks off the whole movie and set up for an aca-spectacular finale to a franchise I love so much! (Yes, that is largely in part because of the amazing songs and musical sequences.)

The two parts of all this that got me the most focused around my fav Bella: Beca. Yes the premise of the movie, all the girls abandoning their lives to tour with the USO to perform on military bases hoping to get picked by some crazy big shot DJ to be signed by his label is very far out there, but this is not the typical Bella competition.

Beca of course immediately catches the attention of the producer, and you can totally tell he’s fascinated by her, and she in turn is strongly drawn to him, thought she seems to not realize it. Said hot producer and DJ Khaled eventually offered a contract for JUST HER but she turned it down because she is a Bella and she was not going to stab her girls in the back like that. The best part was in the end when she told the girls about it they told her she was crazy for not taking the deal! They all go on to tell her that they realize now that they don’t want to keep singing and that real friends, real sisters always support each other and don’t hold any one back from getting their dream!

The second part about this I loved so much, and something that is so NOT a normal thing in dramedies is the fact that despite the attraction, Beca didn’t fall into the arms of the hot producer, Theo, that clearly had a thing for her. Instead she held him off and made a crack about how he now worked for her and she was going to drive him crazy.

I also loved that we got to meet Fat Amy’s estranged father and the aca-crazy he brings to the already guaranteed to be a disaster shenanigans of the Bella’s. Despite Pitch Perfect’s plot having several holes, the expected final of sisterhood and female empowerment felt natural and impactful without being over done.

#4 The Bold Type

I am the first to say I’m not much of a contemporary books or shows that don’t have some kind of action element to it, but this gem snagged my attention right from its first seconds! I love the dynamic chemistry between all the stars of this show, but especially between the characters of Sutton, Jane and Kat. I love seeing three girls who are so inseparable. I love that when one of them does something bitchy or stupid or hurts the feelings of one of the others, instead of losing their shit, they come together, apologize and support each other.

This show broke a lot of molds like the other shows and movies I’ve listed here and they took on a hell of a line up of real issues facing women today. They took on everything from sexism and racial issue to online bullying and rape survival in a powerful season finale that had tears in the eyes of every person that has a heart.

When the series starts we find that Sutton is in a relationship with a man in a powerful position in the company. They highlighted the age-old assumption most people would have made accusing Sutton of sleeping her way up. Instead the relationship was NOT at all about that, they truly cared for each other; but they also showed the strain it put on the relationship to have to hide their love from everyone they know. Sutton is my favorite of the three girls because her personality is so close to mine, plus I loved seeing her gain her confidence to go for her dream of working in the fashion department of the magazine and finding her courage to show what a kick ass talent she is and how she refused to give up despite making many mistakes.

Little Jane is my second favorite. I like that her story focused on her admitting that she was not what her image portrayed and her journey to discovering who she is and what she really wants in her life and career. Jane had several major story lines from having to write an article admitting she had never had a Big “O”, getting into a relationship with a notorious player, finding ways to break past the assumptions others made of her because of her look and where she worked, and having to face the fact she was positive for a gene that can cause breast cancer in women–the same cancer that killer her mother. At the end of the season they had Jane making a huge decision that put her out on her own, but I love that they showed how supportive her tough as nails boss was of it and how she knew that no matter where she was her friends would stand beside her.

Kat is a wonderfully complex character. She had some of the more crazy but impactful story lines. She dealt with falling in love with a truly beautiful and strong feminist Muslim photographer and realizing that her sexuality was NOTHING like what she had believed all her life. Her relationship with Adina was riddled with everything from cheating to getting arrested (and dealing with the ignorant hate that people have for those who look or talk differently, especially an Arab woman.) She also had to learn how to step up into being a boss and managing the people working for her. And most importantly she learned that she needed to step away from all the things that held her back from growing into the woman she wanted to become.

There are so many shows that could be included in this list but for me these are the ones that I loved the most and I hope that if you haven’t checked out any of these movies or shows, you will and see if maybe you can’t find something of yourself in all of them. I know I sure did!

❤ always LH

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'17 Screen Favs, Disney #RoseGoldEars & more on the blog #Legendary @PitchPerfect @WonderWomanFilm #Supergirl @TheBoldTypeTV #femalepower 2017 was a fun year for great movies and tv shows. But more than that it was a great year for movies and TV with powerful and inspirational female characters and their stories!

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