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connan-l · 5 years ago

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Ciconia Phase 1 Ramblings

Well, it sure was a wild ride, but I enjoyed it quite a bit!

The whole thing was very Heavy and Intense and Long and a lot of stuff happened. I’m not sure I really digested everything yet, but I have Thoughts.

GOD I spent so much time writing all of this... At first I just wanted to make a short Twitter thread about it, but it ended up a lot longer than initially... 😔

Those are just some messy ramblings and I don't think I said any more new or interesting stuff than what other people have already said, but I still felt the need to write it down, so...

Ciconia spoilers for Phase 1 and the tips:

So I thought overall it was pretty good and interesting! As someone who didn’t play the demos, I went in completely blind, and it was a nice read. (As such the flood of Okonogi memes some time ago were kinda confusing to me at first lol.)

It was radically different from Higurashi and Umineko, but that was something I expected (Umineko was radically different from Higurashi, after all.)

I’m not sure if it’s going to hit me as personally as Higurashi and Umineko did yet, or even if I’m going to like it as much — I enjoyed Phase 1, and the story is really intriguing, but it’s not quite on the level of its predecessors for now. Then again, it is only the first part of the story so it’s a bit unfair to compare them now, and I remember I was far from being into Higu and Umi by just their first installments too. So I guess I’ll just have to wait for the other phases and see!

On a technical level, this is definitely ones of Ryukishi’s most sophisticated visual novels — with the big animations and sound effects during the battle scenes, of course, but also with the numbers of different backgrounds and the visuals for the Kizuna thing. The sprites are also my favorites from all of Ryu’s games, they have the uniqueness of his artstyle all while being more polished and with really pretty coloring. And the character designs are SUPER GOOD — the best of 07th Expansion works to me (well, I was still a bit disappointed in Vier’s design, though. I mean. She’s just Takano with a lab coat. You could’ve at least changed her clothes or something, Ryu.) The music was the only thing that was... pretty average. It wasn’t bad, there was a lot of neat OST in it... but there wasn’t really anything memorable either (Alright, except for Apocalypsis Ciconia II. This one was dope as hell and it gave me chills.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how good and compelling the worldbuilding was too, as personally I find this peculiar part of Ryukishi’s writing has always been one of his weakest points. I don’t know much about sci-fi stuff admittedly, so I’m not sure how that would be perceived by fans of the genre, but Ciconia’s world is still quite fascinating — the different factions, the technology and selcom stuff, the way childbirth is managed or the history of World War III, all of that was good. Although to be honest, some stuff felt kinda contrived too (like, sure, let’s say the entire history of WWIII is entirely erased, like that we don’t have to deal with the political issues of our current real world lmao), and I don’t know all of the histories of the countries mentioned, so I can’t really tell if some things were insensitive (for example, how Africa was “unified” by a single king felt a bit off to me, but, er... I don’t know...)

The more absurd elements like the conspiracy theories, the chivalric orders or the freaking ILLUMINATI KINGS were pretty hilarious, honestly. I’m... not sure what to make of them. Obviously none of Ryu’s stories were ever going to be realistic (and well, the entire premise of Ciconia is about children soldiers who have the strength of an entire army in one gauntlet, which is ridiculous enough), but knowing him I wonder how much of this is going to be played straight and how much of this is meta stuff. Especially with all the religious/spiritual references (the blue bodies of Evil Miyao and of the gauntlet girls alluding to the Hindu god Shiva, Seshat being a Egyptian goddess, etc.)

I have more mixed feelings about the plot, and especially the pacing. Most of it was okay, but some scenes were really dragging and redundant. Which, isn’t really something new with Ryukishi’s writing, but here especially with the political stuff and the long blocks of exposition it was... kinda boring and hard to focus on it, and after a while it even felt quite egregious. Some of those parts weren’t needed, or at least didn’t need to be that long. Especially given that after the first hours, there were not a lot of more peaceful moments that would give the player time to breath.

Which is another one of my complaints: a lot of intense things happened, but the narrative rarely give you the time to actually digest those things, especially in the second part of the story. It often pretty much felt like “X event happen > Discussion of X event between the characters > Y event happen > Discussion of Y event between the characters,” and this without any breaks (with the exception of some exposition here and there in between, of course). The events, discussions and characters were interesting enough to more or less keep my attention, but it still felt like too much at times. Part of this may be volunteer, as it put a stressful and opressive feeling on the reader (God, the clock and quotes between each chapters stressed me out a lot lol), and after a while I really felt like I was kinda suffocating with all of this like the characters — but even so I think it would’ve been better to give us some pauses here and there. Which is something we could have had with, say, the tips. I thought it was a shame all of the sixteen tips could only be read once the main story was over, because the narrative could have really benefited from having them fit into the plot or in-between chapters, like in Higurashi.

Also, I know Ciconia wasn’t exactly marketed as an horror story unlike the other WTCs, but hoo boy, I think some of the sequences in it are honestly among the most gory and disturbing things Ryukishi wrote? I haven’t read Iwaihime or TRianThology, so I can’t really say for sure, but damn, those human factories really are big nightmare fuels...

Now, I think the most tricky parts and the ones who are gonna get the most criticisms are, likely, the whole political and military stuff. Ciconia is probably Ryukishi’s most political and provocative work so far, maybe on par with Rose Guns Days — not to say Higurashi and Umineko are not political, they definitely are, but here it truly is in-your-face. Which is not a bad thing, per se, but... let’s say it all depends on how Ryukishi handle and criticize all those stuff down the line in the other installments, when so far it’s been... meh?

Like, the whole military stuff, specifically, was... shaky, at best. The thing with fiction that portray militaries with soldiers as their main characters is that they walk a thin line between just portraying this thing and actively glamorizing it. The narrative was definitely critical of some of it (lol the whole massacre at the end was very obviously there for a reason), and I appreciate Ryukishi often makes a point in his stories to frame a problem with different persepectives... but the whole “healthy military balance” and “Walls of Peace” thing was still iffy, and I’m... unsure about how much of it is going to be criticized within the narrative in the end. Now, again, it is just the beginning of the story, and Ryukishi has always been good at presenting a thing at the start for later on tearing it down to pieces, so... I don’t know.

It’s way too early to decide what kind of themes and messages Ciconia is going to have, so here too I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m just a bit wary given some things that were in RGD were... definitely questionable. Now I actually think Ciconia got to a better start than RGD, but... well. I’m also not really someone who know much about these stuff, so I’m not the best placed to talk about it, but it’s definitely something worth to be under scrutiny.

On the more positive side, there were times where some things felt really, really real, as well as pretty in tone with some of today’s social issues. Like all those news about the terrible things going on in the world and that a war can happen anytime, the military propaganda to recruit young people who “want to fly” in the army but who just end up killing each other, or the feeling that these kids have about how in the end they’re just powerless pawns who can’t do anything used by selfish old men... I saw someone said Ciconia was basically Fuck Boomers: The Game, and... yeah. Yeah, that’s basicaly it lmao. All of the adults being assholes is not new in WTC or even in Ryukishi’s works in general, but here it was definitely a big theme. God even the whole thing at the end about how the planet is dying and that everyone knows it but people just don’t care about it... lmao, if that wasn’t directly referring what we’re living right now with climate change, I don’t know what is.

I just really loved too the way the game was sort of sold as this “cool sci-fi battle royal,” but in the actual story all of those kids are desperately trying to not kill each other, until the very end where everything just goes to hell.

I said it before, but there really was a huge feeling of suffocating and being powerless the more and more you reach towards the end, and the way everything culminated in this huge massacre truly sent shivers in my back. I know at some points I could really feel for the kids who were like “Well, fuck it, let’s just let all those awful people kill each other and the world get destroyed.” The final scene with the Christmas party was really powerful and also so uncomfortable to read, it was really well done.

Otherwise, if there was one work I wasn’t expecting to scream “LGBT+ rights,” it was Ciconia, but here we are I guess lmao. Honestly, that entire conversation was super neat, not just in a “Oh it’s great they acknowledge gay and trans people exist in a positive way,” but also because it really adds a lot to the worldbuilding. I remember some people talking about it when a similar thing happened in the comics of The Legend of Korra, and honestly more stories should do that, not just in term of representation but because, well, it’s just good writing to put this much thought in your fictional world. The conversation in itself was a bit clumsy (GAYS DON’T FUCK), but it also felt very sincere and a pretty believable discussion a bunch of teenagers with very different backgrounds could have on the subject (and I really loved the narrative acknowledge how different cultures and religions feel about those topics, without it being judgemental.) I’m also thankful it was here at all because of the, uh, gay jokes made about Miyao and Jayden early on that were a bit tasteless to me.

(Now it would be even more great if we could have actual canon gay and trans characters too. Ryukishi... please...... I beg you........)

And of course, the characters were also really good!

It was so nice to have such a big diverse cast all constituted of likeable characters, and I was honestly impressed Ryukishi managed to handle it. That was something I was wary of when the game was first released, but in the end I think he did a good job so far. Of course, that’s only from my point of view, so I can’t say if other people found there were some things he did badly or that was offensive...

But personally, I honestly love all of the Gauntlets kids so much. They’re all so good and charming! And I kinda want to adopt them all lol.

I think my favorites for now are Miyao, Gunhild, Naima, Rethabile, Chloe, Koshka, Rukhshana, and Lingji... But like I said, they are all really good it’s hard to choose!

However... when it comes to their writing I felt Ciconia went in the continuity of Rose Guns Days and concentrated more on the plot than the characters, and that’s something that... honestly bother me a bit. I liked RGD, but Ryukishi’s writing is still at its strongest when it comes to very human, character-driven narratives, like Umineko and Higurashi. Like I said, I love all of these kids a lot, and some of them have pretty solid characterization and screentime... but in the end a part of me still feel like we didn’t really... get to know them much, if that makes sense? Even with the main ones, like Miyao, Jayden or Gunhild — most of their scenes were principally focused on the Plot Stuff, and not much about them as people.

I know there are a lot of folks who criticize the slice-of-life parts of Higurashi and Umineko, where there are lots of scenes of just the characters spending time with each other or goofing around and that don’t do much to advance the plot — and in a way I understand that, because yeah, some of these scenes can be pretty long to get through and drag the pacing. But personally, I always thought those sequences are very important. Even if some of them are admittedly unnecessary or are a bit too long, they’re really needed to humanize the characters and make you invest in them — which was something that was a bit lacking in Ciconia. Basically I guess I’m saying the VN needed more slice-of-life stuff, and that rejoin with what I said earlier — that including some of the tips in the plot here and there instead of putting all of them at the end would have really helped with that.

Now, that said, again I’m aware this is just the first part of the story. I understand Ryukishi needed to have all of those exposition blocks and truly pose the basics of his story first and foremost. So I’m really hoping that after that he’ll be able to focus more on its characters — especially on those who got almost no screentime, like the Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad girls. Having characters and human grounded moments is especially important in a story where war is a big focus like Ciconia.

Now, on the characters themselves...

Miyao was a really charming protagonist, and I love him a lot! He was so endearing to me during the whole story. He was instantly more likeable as a male protagonist than Keiichi and Battler, where it took me some time for them to grow on me — principally because, well, Miyao don’t have the shtick of sexually harrassing the female characters around him, which was profoundly annoying in the other WTCs. I loved his serious but caring and friendly personality, his friendship with Jayden and Gunhild and with all the other kids, and his anger against the adults trying to use him and the others. His relationship with his father too was interesting. His interactions with Evil Miyao were also pretty intriguing, even if I’m not sure yet what to think of him being a “murder program” or about what even is Evil Miyao.

Now, the only thing I am on the fence about him is... his whole DID thing and Meow. Like, on one hand, I think it is neat to have a likeable protagonist with a named mental illness, and the narrative felt sincere on not wanting to present this as a bad thing and just a part of who Miyao is... but on the other hand, there were all the jokes made as a result of this, which made the whole thing pretty awkward to me. Furthermore, there’s the problem that this “CPP” thing is not really DID, as if I recall it doesn’t actually seem to come from any trauma-related reason, and is almost a made-up condition? It kinda gave me Kara no Kyoukai flashbacks, in which Shiki, the protagonist, also has an alter, but it is not as a result of trauma or anything — it has a fantasy explanation. And, I mean... An author taking an actual, real condition that a lot of people have to bend it at their will to fit a story isn’t super cool, especially if you’re going to make some jokes at its expense... The other kids calling out Jayden on how he didn’t act properly with Miyao about this was nice though. (Also, now that I think about it, did Miyao just... randomly told all of the other gauntlet knights about it? Wasn’t it said that “CPPs” were something most people didn’t like to talk about? It’s a bit odd.) Plus there’s also the fact Miyao is possibly a “program” and it adds another layer of not-so-great stuff... So I’m just really wary of how Ryukishi is gonna handle this going forward...

Those problems aside, Meow herself was... fine. She’s cute, but she doesn’t really have much going on for her. She and Jayden are dorks together and their scenes definitely made me smile, but their relationship still felt kinda shallow so I don’t have much feelings about them as a couple (like, it’s just that to me Miyao and Jayden have a lot more chemistry and have been friends for quite some time, so it’s just odd that he instantly decides to date Miyao’s sister whom he just met. And, also, he was definitely flirting with Miyao before meeting Meow, too.). It was also pretty jarring the way she just... almost disappears once the war stuff began, so in the end I had this disagreeable impression that she really was just here to be Jayden’s girlfriend, and not as a character on her own or to develop Miyao more...

Jayden was pretty neat too! He’s a character that could be “yikes” pretty easily, but in the end he really did come across as a awkward but kind teenage boy who may be clumsy at times but is still trying his best. In fact, I really wish Ryukishi had wrote Keiichi and Battler more like Jayden. It was nice in general that none of the guys in Ciconia acted inappropriately towards the girls (with the exception of Toujirou, I guess. The way he acted towards Valentina especially made me go “ehh dude please no.” Like I know the LATO girls are said to be older than the other kids so they’re probably 18 or something, but still, it was a bit ugh... But even then it wasn’t something that was too overt, so it didn’t bother me too much), because some of Keiichi and Battler’s antics towards the female characters was something that annoyed me greatly. Don’t get me wrong, I did end up liking Keiichi and Battler despite this, they’re both good kids at heart — but it’s possible to write horny teenage boys without them ~comically~ sexually harassing the girls around them, if you feel me? Aside from that, I like that the story made a point to show that Jayden is actually a pretty lonely and kinda socially awkward kid just like Miyao, and that’s why their friendship work so well. On the other hand, though, his character mostly only turned around Miyao and Meow, and so we didn’t get much of him as a person? Which is a bit disappointing as he is meant to be one of the main kids, so I’ll hope he’ll get more interesting later on.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE GUNHILD, she really intrigue me! I wasn’t expecting to love her so much — for the most part I thought she was okay but nothing more... though now that I finished the story, she’s probably my favorite character for now? Her scene in the restaurant with her sibling, and especially the tips focused on her, really got to me. I loved her cool personality and her backstory was really interesting, as well as her relationship with Miyao and Jayden. She seems to honestly like and care for both of them, but at the same time resent them, and the way she obviously have a lot of pent-up anger towards the world and some self-hatred make her a truly compelling character. I’m pretty intrigued by Maya and her relationship with her too. She’s honestly one of the characters towards who I look forward the most, and I really hope Ryukishi will deliver on her.

Chloe has definitely a lot of Rena Vibes, so of course I was going to love her lol. Although honestly for now I find her mostly... confusing. She’s obviously really fucked up (CHLOEVIL), and she made me pretty nervous during the entire story because there was this “Okay so when is she going to snap?” kind of tension with her. And her last scene with Lilja gave me chills... At the same time, her kindness and caring nature as well as her friendship with Koshka, Lilja and the others felt genuine, so it was an interesting contrast. Other than that I wasn’t a fan of the running gag of Okonogi hitting her whenever she mess up (or do not mess up, for that matter)... Like obviously Okonogi is meant to be a Bastard, but the thing being presented as comical made me go :/ I really wish it’s going to stop.

Koshka was cute and also Extremely Relatable in a lot of ways (I, too, would rather spend my time playing silly games on my phone rather than socialize lmao). I love her a lot, and like Gunhild she really fascinate me. I like the fact that she’s meant to be an asocial, cold person but that at the same time it’s pretty easy to see glimpses of the affection she has for Lilja, Chloe or Miyao, and how she’s actually a deeply traumatized and angry teen. I’m pretty intrigued by what kind of “crime” she must have committed and how she ended up being an “equipment”... Not sure what to think about her super brain or the thing about her being some sort of “chosen one” lol. It sounds really shady.

For Lilja, I have to say I wasn’t exactly fond of her at first, but then the small moments we got with her where she obviously care a lot about Koshka and Chloe still got to me. That scene in the tips where she fiercely defends Chloe made me go “awww.” She really give me the impression of being the sort of person to hide her vulnerability behind a tough façade and her odd tics, and in that way she’s pretty similar to Koshka, which is how their friendship feel really special. The revealation at the end that she’s probably faking a lot of her personality and of her friendship with Koshka because it’s an assigment made her and her relationship with Koshka a lot more interesting to me, and I hope it’s going to result in a lot of compelling character stuffs.

Lingji was great! She’s pretty cool. I liked her optimism and her will to do the right thing, and how that actually cover the fact she’s a pretty fragile and sheltered person. Her scene where she break down after her grandfather’s death is really illustrative of this especially, and where I really felt for her too. I think she’s the most interesting character in term of possible development. I quite enjoyed her friendship with Miyao too, but here again I wish these two had gotten more moments together. Like, how much more impactful the scene where Miyao kill her would have been if we had actually seen these two have some intimate moments before? But, oh well...

Aysha was really cool too, and I especially loved the way her sharp and down-to-earth personality contrast to Lingji’s idealism. The moment where she calls out both of her teammates was super good. Momotake was okay, and I love his intense admiration for Lingji (I’m a sucker for male characters really looking up to cool female characters lol)... but otherwise I felt he was honestly the most stereotypical character of the bunch — especially compared to Lingji and Aysha.

NAIMA IS THE BEST, SHE’S MY BABY I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She was my favorite before I even start the game because of her design alone (SHE’S THE CUTEST CHARACTER RYU EVER DESIGNED OKAY), and I wasn’t disappointed from seeing her actual personality. She’s not especially complex or anything for now, but she has a lot of potential. I loved her relationship with Naomi and Stan too — it kinda felt like two older siblings looking after their annoying youngest one reluctantly, but who still have a lot of affection for them. Also she’s such a little badass, I literally cheered out loud during that rescue scene or during the last battle scene where she screams she wants to protect all of her people. I want more of her in Phase 2 pleaaaase!

Naomi was really overshadowed by Naima and Stan, so as a result I don’t have much to say about her. I think she’s cool, and her backstory about how she apparently lost a lot of her memories and emotions is interesting, but again I can’t say much given we barely see her at all. Stanisław was a good boy, but despite the fact we see him a lot during the story, I... don’t really have a lot of thoughts on him? I liked his implied friendship with Gunhild as them being death metal buddies, but we didn’t actually saw them interacting at all, which was a shame.

Rethabile was the coolest character of the cast, I love her dearly! I like how she can be so adorable and such a dork but at the same time she’s probably the one who has her shit together the most out of all the kids. I feel she really has a good grip on politics and how the adults just want to use them compared to the others — which, well, isn’t all that surprising given she’s literally a princess. The scene with her brother’s death was pretty harsh, and I’m sad they didn’t really... put much attention to her reaction to such a traumatic event. I know the plot hadn’t time for that, really, but I feel even Lingji got more focus when her grandfather died, so I wish we had more of that with Rethabile too.

Ishak and Abdou... well, they didn’t really get much time for them either. They seem like nice dudes, and I really love their relationship with Rethabile, how they tease her quite a bit but there’s still obviously a lot of complicity and respect among them. So I hope we’ll get to know them more, especially on an individual level — as for now they were only present as a duo.

The LATO girls were... interesting too. I especially love Valentina, because she really give me Bad Bitch vibes and I love bitchy female characters lol. It’s pretty clear she has some Secrets and I’m really curious about her goals. As for Maricarmen, I thought she was mostly going to be comic relief like the Yeladot Shavit, but towards the end she actually showed some interesting depth so she did grew on me quite a bit.

And then there was just the teams no-screentime lol. Alright, I guess Suparṇa did get some time, and Rukhi is ones of my faves, but they still were really sidelined. I liked Sujatha, she’s such an uptight idiot, and her scene towards the end where she says she was aware that Miyao’s plan was doomed but still played along for Lingji made me kinda emotional. Rukhshana is the cutest and the greatest — I really liked her personality, how she can be extremely shy but then also completely goof around when she actually trust the people around her. And that moment at the end where she just say to her superiors to fuck off was glorious and one of my favorite scenes. Her relationship with Sujatha and Andry is adorable too. Andry himself was also... not present at all, but I really love the small glimpses of him we have seen, he’s pretty cool. I like how he sincerely seems to care a lot about his teammates despite his aloof character (him protecting Rukhi when their superiors try to hit her at the end was sweet.)

Still, Suparṇa wasn’t sidelined as much as Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad, though. I mean, I do like those girls — I adore Gannet because she’s cute as hell, Noor seems cool and Mariana intrigue me, but I can’t actually say much about them. Leah, Fatma and Stephania were also mostly comic relief except for one or two scenes towards the end. So I really hope Phase 2 will remedy to this, ‘cause I want more of these six, definitely!

I’m not sure I have a lot of thoughts about the adults characters quite yet — GERMAN TAKANO cracked me up, but she’s just as great as her Higurashi counterpart for now, and I always trust Ryukishi to write good Terrible Women. Especially Terrible Mothers, which is one of my personal weaknesses. Though I guess it’s not actually been confirmed she’s Miyao’s mom? It’s heavily implied, but we all know Ryukishi love to troll his audience so I wouldn’t put it past him that it is in fact just a red herring, but well, we’ll see I guess.

Toujirou is obviously a bastard, but he’s an interesting one, and I have no fucking idea what is going on in his head. Like it’s interesting that on the one hand he seems to genuinely care about his son, but on the other hand he has no problem manipulating and screwing him over (and the implication of Miyao being maybe just a program is... ooof.) Okonogi was... a bit less worse than in the other WTCs, I guess? He obviously care about the kids in his own way, and him defending them at the end was nice... but I still can’t really feel anything but contempt towards him. He’s still a pretty bad instructor, and like I say, I’m really not a big fan of the way he treats Chloe at all, even if it’s meant to be “comical.”

The Three Kings mostly made me laugh to be honest, and they’re more plot devices than actual characters for now so I really don’t care about them (a part of me even wonder if they “exist” at all, because, you know, meta stuff). I absolutely LOVED Jestress on the other hand! I have no idea what’s the deal with her, whether she’s Lambda or whatever, but she’s really intriguing and her design is top notch and I want more of her. Seshat was so fucking cool and I don’t have much thoughts about her yet other than I wanna marry her.

And that’s pretty much it!

I’m not really good at predictions or at throwing theories around (sorry, Ryukishi), so I’m not sure what to expect for the rest of the story. I guess my only thoughts are that the moles are probably Gunhild and/or Chloe, but then they seem like obvious candidates, so I don’t know. I kinda suspect Valentina too, because, er, I do not trust her at all and she just have that traitor vibe.

I really hope too that we’ll have time loops here again instead of a linear story because... well... I don’t wanna these kids to die okay... I also know that Ryukishi said Ciconia is only going to have four parts, and that’d make sense given how long Phase 1 was... but a part of me still kinda hope we’ll have a bit more... I guess it’s just that only four phases seems really little compared to the density of the story, and I’m really hoping he’ll have the time to develop well all of his narrative points and characters...

In any case, I think my thoughts on Ciconia for now pretty much get down to: it’s interesting and it has the potential to be a really great story, even if it’s far from being flawless and that I’m still very wary about how Ryukishi is going to handle some elements in the future.

But I’d definitely recommand it to people who love 07th Expansion stuff and sci-fi stories, and am very much looking forward to Phase 2!

#Ciconia: When They Cry #Ciconia no Naku Koro ni #Ciconia #07th Expansion #Connan's posts #Connan's ramblings #My posts #Ciconia Spoilers #Ciconia: When They Cry Spoilers #Ciconia no Naku Koro ni Spoilers #Text #Ciconia Phase 1 #Phase 1 #Phase 1: For You The Replaceable Ones #Ciconia: When They Cry Phase 1

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hermionesterrier · 6 years ago

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More Than Human: Chapter 9 Liveblog Pt. 2!

Something about it made her look very feminine, and Butch held his breath a little longer before exhaling. He stared at her awhile, then realized she had just asked him something.

He lets her playfully shove him. He's not even high but he's letting her think he is. He thinks it's the only way she'll open up to him. But he's watching her and observing her and he's focusing on every little move she makes. He's so painfully aware of her presence, of her proximity. He's thinking about how easy it would be to kiss her right then and there and he's careful enough not to blow the smoke he knows she doesn't like in her face. Oh Butch....he's so head over heels for her that it's just painfully obvious at this point.

Those quiet Green moments are part of the reason why I'm so in love with this ship. It doesn't need big love gestures to be epic. The text just lets them...be. The writing for them specifically is so unique that they make every scene they're in comforting yet electrifying. Kudos to SBJ 💚 PLEASE DON'T TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME

BOOMER WANTS BUBBLES TO SING AND PLAY FOR THE BOTH OF THEM I'M C R Y I N G

Protective Brick, battling the creeps away, one glare at a time xD

AHAHAHAHAHAHA BLOSSOM WANTS TO LICK BRICK OMG

BRICK AND BLOSSOM KISSING. HE. KISSED. HER. KISSSING. I CAN'T. DEAD. SEND. HELP. I REPEAT. BRICK AND BLOSSOM K I S S I N G!!!!!!!!

I am commenting from the grave kbye

Brick's gonna be very upset the guys ate his cereal

Despite the length, her hair still curled in circular, wavy patterns against the carpet, like black ink on a blank canvas. Butch is very artisty when it comes to his Buttercup thoughts isn't he xD

This scene KILLS ME I AM TALKING FROM THE GRAVE RN OKAY I CAN'T WITH THIS DAMN CHAPTER

Butch completely fascinated with Buttercup like wow too fucking cute

Mitch had said that they'd never done anything worth mentioning, which sounded stupid to Butch. He didn't understand how any guy could stand to keep his hands off her when Buttercup looked like this. Except him. But Butch was different. He didn't know how, but he was different. Uh huh sure Butch. It's definitely not you who can't stop staring at her and you're tooootally not attracted to her that you actually have to force yourself to stop looking nopppe not at alllll

Reds are a mess...more so Brick tho hehehehe

Fuck it begins...watch as I curl into a ball and wrench my own heart out...

SHE IS SO HAPPY SO FUCKING HAPPY I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS NOPE SORRY NO

Buttercup, after a horrified moment's contemplation, reached for Blossom's glass of milk and sniffed it. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Smooth Bubbles lol xD

"No part of my brain is in that girl's body, I swear." The suspicion is real tho hahahahahaha

Awww @ the boys showing genuine concern over Brick ❤

Yea sure Brick because hormonal kissing totally normally shifts the earth like something heavenly and puts puzzle pieces into place like duh ofc....fucking idiot gives me headaches why are boys so stupid?

Boomer & Butch barged into Brick's room to keep him company and cheer him up with some weed even though they don't know what's wrong with him SINCERE BROTHERLY MOMENTS ARE MY BREAD AND BUTTER OKAY

Oh my god Blossom is so hopeful and waiting and making excuses for him and it's breaking my fucking heart

This part is so triggering for me ngl I fucking hate it

FUCK YOU BRICK FUCK YOU AND YOUR STUPID PLAN HOW DARE YOU GIVE HER HOPE JUST TO CRUSH IT LIKE THAT YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE

SOMEONE HOLD BLOSSOM PLEASE THIS IS TOO PAINFUL I'M NOT OKAY

Crying does help

How could he ask her to just forget a moment in her life that was one of the happiest she'd ever experienced? I thought, she started, and then tried to stop, but it finished itself. I thought he liked me. FUCK MY LIFE I AM BAWLING

Oh man Buttercup's so concerned and Blossom's trying to get herself together and fuck I can't handle this

Stop stop STOP THIS FUCKING HURTS PLEASE STOP

Is it wrong that I feel just as betrayed and excluded as Buttercup? I feel so much for Blossom but that's her sister! And it's really unfair to exclude her like that especially since she knows she went through her own emotional breakdown after Mitch so she would understand....she IS her sister too :/ i'm very protective shhh

"...Okay. Is she okay?" Both of his brothers looked up at him. "Who?" Butch said sharply. "Is who okay?" Brick stared at Boomer, wide-eyed, one hand still on the doorknob. Can we just take a moment to deduce that Butch was definitely asking if Buttercup's okay? He got worried about Buttercup and no one can convince me otherwise nope na uh....AND BRICK YOU FUCK YOU BETTER BE WORRIED ABOUT BLOSSOM

And the first person Buttercup chooses to go vent to is....? #besties

Butch's "Whoa, whoa, whoa" totally reminded me of Noah Centineo, that's like his catchphrase! Anyone else think he'd make an awesome Butch? I already casted him in my head sorry not sorry xD

Buttercupppp :'(

Brick suddenly hated himself, more than anything. GOOD YOU SHOULD

IT'S THE ASTEROID SCENES I AM CHOKING GREENS WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME I SWEAR I LOVE THEM AND THESE SCENES SO FUCKING MUCHHHHH

Oh he's pissing her off real good oh god

A+ to Butch for instinctively knowing exactly what she needed 💚

"No boys are smart when it comes to girls." Truer words have never been spoken

"Why doesn't he like me?" Blossom mumbled, her tone childlike, plaintive. / Instead she kissed her sister on the forehead and whispered, "To Hell with him. I like you." I AM FUCKING C R Y I N G this is one of my absolute F A V O R I T E sister moments it is FUCKING PAINFUL AND BEAUTIFUL AND BUBBLES LET ME LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER ❤❤❤

Buttercup panted for breath, her muscles aching and joints sore. Butch was draped on top of her, his elbows shaking as he propped himself up; he, too, was panting. Her fist opened against his stomach, skimming along the tense muscle before gliding over that chest of his, rising and falling in an incessant, almost calming pattern of movement. She bumped her forehead against his shoulder as she pressed her cheek to his sweaty neck and whispered, "Thanks. I needed that." I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE SBJ I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE :D this totally threw me off the first time I read it ahahahahahaha panting sweaty touching muscle aching greeeeens *_*

I love how after they beat the shit out of each other they still have to make sure the other's okay xD

A small, slow smile worked its way onto his face. She watched it form, almost mesmerized at the gradualness with which it appeared. Like how Butch stared at her smile in those photos and videos? Is this his head over heels in love smile? :D

"Don't see your bra showing." "I like to let it all hang out there, you know." That cracked me up hehehehe

Butch actually apologizing for staring at a pretty girl's boobs? That's a first xD

SHE SAW THE STARS REFLECTED IN HIS DEEP GREEN EYES LIKE WHO THINKS THAT ABOUT SOMEONE THEY CONSIDER "ONLY A FRIEND" HUH???

Butch reeeeeally doesn't like her hair long...and what it represents to him.

This whole scene is everything okay like they're just (ironically considering what they'd just finished doing) so fucking gentle with each other and so quietly comfortably touchy and total comfort zone like I LOVE EVERY LITTLE THING ABOUT THIS SCENE E V E R Y T H I N G greeeeeens 💚💚💚

Yup Buttercup knows, Blossom. She gets it. She understands

I'm better than that, she thought again, jaw set and face hard. I'm stronger. DAMN STRAIGHT LEADER GIRL!

Oh my god Brick fuck off and grow up! You chose to reject the best thing that's ever happened to you so deal with the consequences....idiot.

I still feel bad for him even though I harp on him so much ngl xD BUT WTF IS WRONG WITH HIM LIKE HE'S ACTUALLY UPSET THAT SHE DOESN'T LOOK MORE UPSET WHAT DO YOU EXPECT YOU EGOTISTICAL MORON WTFFFF

Only Blossom would use the 3 day rule to force her sisters into doing their homework hehehehe

Brick you grinch, leave the Blues alone not everyone has to be as miserable as you are.

Brick almost went after him, ready to beat some God damn sense into him, because fuck, what did Boomer know? What did he know about anything? He didn't get that this was all his stupid teenage emotions getting in the way of rational thought, that he was blinded by affection for her, and she had no idea, she wasn't looking at him, she wasn't talking to him, no matter if she was only doing exactly what Brick had suggested they do— STOP PROJECTING YOUR ISSUES ONTO THE BLUES YOU ASSHOLE YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF AND BROKE MY BABY'S HEART....this was so well done and human though kudos sbj :D

Wait is that the first time Boomer's said the L word seriously? B A B I E S

"Something tells me Brick's not going to get a lot of things," Bubbles said cheerfully. Like a girlfriend. Shots fired :D

Oh my god Boomer is KILLING MEEEEEE LITTLE BOY BLUE LET ME HUG YOU

He's so insecure and he feels like not even Bubbles trusts him to be strong enough to handle shit. I see where he's coming from and him being so upset is making me so upset :'(

She hadn't realized how much of a little boy Boomer was, how much he bought into this idea that he was the dumb one who couldn't do anything, to the point where he assumed everyone thought that of him and resented them for it. :'(((

He is a little boy who actually doesn't know any better. Man the boys' upbringing was so messed up and they're still teenagers.

BUT SHE DIDN'T TELL HIM TO GO HOME AND HE FOLLOWED HER ANYWAY AWWWW BUTCH YOU BIG SOFTIE 💚

Aaaand Boomer told Bubbles. Now the only one who doesn't know about JS Inc. is the one who probably shouldn't know....I feel like this is gonna blow up when she finally finds out.

SAY BYE TO YOUR MULLET BRICK AHAHAHAHAHAHA

All the haircuts though...symbol for the boys' character evolution or a big change coming up?

ROBIN WEARING MIKE'S JACKET!!! I love these little throwaways for them. THOSE TWOOO ❤

Sidenote: 3 guesses who Mike was looking for in the prom chapter :D

Watch as Brick turns into a big baby craving attention *rolls eyes*

"I'd rather kiss Brick than you," Butch sniped at Boomer. "Holy crap, I'd pay twice as much to see that happen!" Buttercup shouted, raising both hands, and the rest of the girls whooped and hollered. HOLY SHIT YESSSS PLEEEEASE GIMME *_*

I would also pay to see Butch and Buttercup kiss just putting that out there...

Buttercup's inner panic at the possibility that Butch might kiss her tho xD

HER SHOULDERS GOT TENSE WHEN BUTCH KISSED ANOTHER GIRL TELL ME THAT ISN'T A SIGN OF JEALOUSY I FUCKING DARE YOU

Butch licked his lips thoughtfully. "Cherry soda." He winked at Julie as he sat down, and as Buttercup stared furtively at him it seemed to her that he was avoiding meeting her eyes. Hmmm am I overthinking or is Butch feeling kind of...guilty or ashamed that he kissed someone else?

Coincidence or use of powers that Butch's spin landed squarely on Buttercup?

SHE'S DOING IT! SHE'S ACTUALLY FUCKING DOING IT OH MY GODDDD THAT'S SO LIT HOLY SHIT

A few of the other guys voiced their hearty thanks to him. Butch, meanwhile, stared at the full bowl, the image of Buttercup's jaw, open wide and with her cheeks slightly sucked in, playing over and over again in his memory. He suddenly felt a strong, strong craving for cherries. SCREAMS INCOHERENTLY!!!!!!!

Buttercup kisses Brick. Was talking about Brick contemplating the kiss with my best friend (shoutout! 💚). She was saying she's hoping it doesn't turn into a cheesy love triangle or some shit like that but I really don't think SBJ will travel down that road....hopefully xD

Butch is pisssssed af hehehe...wonder if this will come back later.

Let Him come, Bubbles thought, her face hardening for a second, for one brief moment where she forgot to keep it inside, to herself. He can bring it. Let Him try. She focused on Boomer's bright expression, on that happy smile, and summoned up a cheer. Let Him come, she thought again. Her hands tensed, gripping the cushion of the couch. He won't take Boomer from me. I won't let Him. I swear to God, I swear, if He lays a hand on Boomer, if He so much as touches a single hair on his head, I swear I will make Him regret it. I am very much looking forward to that point in the future where Bubbles goes all ~haaardcooore on Him's ass to protect Boomer :D

TEENAGERS HAVING FUN YAYYY

That ended on a pretty depressing note though :(

AND NOW COMES THE NEWEST CHAPTER THAT I HAVEN'T READ YET

God help me when I'm done with it because I will probably be a m e s s

Time for you to join the dark side!

#sbj more than human #jess reads mth

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roman-reigns-princess · 7 years ago

Text

The Pack Survives (Roman Reigns): Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Writing Masterlist

Summary: Andromeda has spent years overseas trying to outrun her past. She finally decides to come back to Florida to try and settle down in the house her grandmother left her. She meets Leati and feels instantly drawn to him; but there's something he's not telling her, a secret he's hiding. A secret that may cost Andromeda her life if she can't accept it.

Warnings (for the fic over all, not specifically this chapter): cis-female OC, 18+, mentions/flashbacks of previous physical and/or mental abuse, smut at some point, werewolves. I will be switching between their wrestling names & their actual names in this fanfic, im sorry if it gets confusing (I’ll make sure to mention who’s who below so yall dont get the twins mixed up lol)

Andromeda Drakos (OFC) Face Claim: Naomi Scott

Word Count: 2019

A/N: Did I really steal the title from that Game of Thrones quote? Yes I did lmao, dont @ me. I don’t really know where I’m going w this fic, I’ve had about 3 chapters written since may, so we’ll see where it goes lol. I love my werewolf shit, but I also love my Hellenic/Greek stuff so it might get confusing im sorry. Also idk why it wont let me tag some of yall, dont hate me.

Tag List: @savmontreal @vivalavonvon @hardykat @racingandreigns @inkedirishbbydoll-blog-blog @fivefootxo @lovetusk @captainrogersbucky @imamoxbrose24 @kamdog0014 @empress-with-the-crown @sabrina-blyton @littledeadrottinghood @vanity1385 @wweburnitdown @maahsrandom @glowrioustrash @roman-reigns-empire-1996

Roman = Leati Jimmy = Jon Jey = Josh

Andromeda’s house:

Andromeda huffed as she hauled box after box into her new home; a large house in Tampa left to her by her grandmother when she passed. Meda was beginning to wish she'd just sent all of her stuff with the moving trucks that would arrive in a day or so, but she needed stuff for that day itself.

As she walked back out to get the third box from the back of her truck she spotted two men standing by it. A smile stretched across her face as she recognized them.

"Jon! Josh!" she exclaimed as she jogged back down the driveway. She'd known the twins for most of her life. Despite the age difference and the fact that she barely saw them more than once or twice a year as a kid, they'd become good friends and she'd grown to trust them. The last time she'd seen them was at her grandmother's funeral nearly seven years ago.

"Good seein you again, Meda," greeted Jon as he pulled her into a hug. "It's been too long."

"You all grown up now," smirked Josh, eyeing her as he hugged her in turn. She laughed and shoved him with her shoulder, though he didn't really move at all. "Need a hand with your stuff?"

"Yeah I'd appreciate it," she replied with a smile as they started grabbing several boxes each. "Be careful though, I've got a bunch of expensive camera equipment in some of them."

"Yes ma'am," teased Jon, she stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed another box, leading them up the driveway.

"You can leave 'em anywhere," she said, gesturing around the house.

All it took was one more trip, as the boys managed to carry most of the boxes between them. She was about to say something to them when Jon yelped, nearly jumping out of his skin.

Andromeda's cat Enyo had startled him by winding around his legs; Josh tried and failed to hide his chuckles while Jon grumbled under his breath. She bent down and picked the cat up.

"Sorry that's Enyo, she's a very friendly cat," she said, trying to hide her own smile. "I'd offer you guys drinks, but I just got here."

"'S alright. We'd love to stay and catch up , but we actually gotta get goin now," said Josh sharing a look with Jon that she couldn't decipher. "However, if you're free tonight around 8, we usually have a couple drinks with a few friends at Boomer's. Give you a chance to meet new people."

"Yeah sure I'd love to," she replied as she walked them to the door. "I'll see you guys later."

Roman's POV:

Roman paced back and forth in front of the large oak desk; he'd already sent a message through the pack bond to his cousins to get their asses back. The patrols had just reported four sets of foreign tracks.

If he had to take a guess he'd probably say they were rogues, which he could easily take on himself, but he couldn't be completely sure without engaging them, and he wasn't about to leave the pack mansion unprotected.

Roman came to a stop when the twins barged in; he had half a mind to chew them out for taking so long. But his thought process was halted by a new scent. It was coming from his two cousins standing before him, but it belonged to neither one of them; it was new, and intoxicating, and Roman knew he had to find the owner before his wolf drove him insane.

"Who were you with?" He growled, his eyes flashing grey for a moment as he unintentionally let his power seep into his demand. The two brothers exchanged a panicked glance, wondering if they'd done something wrong. "You didn't do anything, just tell me who's scent is all over the two of you."

"Oh, that would probably be Andromeda, she's Sophia's granddaughter, she moved in today," explained Jimmy, Roman barely waited for him to finish before marching out of the room. "Yo, uce, what the fuck's going on?"

"I'll explain later, just stay with the pack," Roman ordered as he walked out of the house and into the woods, leaving the twins staring after him in confusion. Quickly shedding his clothes at a familiar tree, he shifted into his wolf form.

Find her, find her, find her, findherfindherfindher

He sprinted through the trees, heading down the familiar path to the Drakos house. Her scent grew more and more enticing as he neared the house. She smelled like honey, and lime, and roses; soothing and invigorating at the same time.

The trees gave way to the backyard, and he silently walked up to the backdoor. The house was silent but he knew she was in there, he could sense her, and he wondered if she could feel his presence too. Her scent seemed human enough, but there was something about it that made him wonder if there was more to it.

Still driven by his wolf, he shifted back to his human form to yank the door open, but now that he was back in his human form, he managed to stop himself before he went any further; he took a deep breath, trying to shake himself out of the trance.

Showing up naked probably isn't the best way to meet her even if she is my mate, he argued with himself. Besides, he was supposed to be dealing with the invaders.

His ears pricked up as he heard distant howls that he knew didn't come from any of his pack members. Shifting once more, he took off into the woods, trying to clear his head as he set out to hunt down the rogues.

Andromeda's POV:

Meda shut the front door and set Enyo down as she walked over to the boxes. She grumbled at herself for not labeling them, she had to open more than a couple before she found some clothes, towels, and Enyo's cat stuff. She set up the litter box, food, and water by the kitchen before dragging the box of clothes upstairs to the masterbedroom on the second floor.

After spending half an hour digging through her clothes, she threw together a pair of dark green jeans, a black tank top, and a mismatched set of underwear for that evening.

She made her way to the conjoined bathroom to draw herself a relaxing bath. She groaned softly as she leaned back in the tub, her hand absentmindedly reaching up to rub an old scar on her shoulder. The bath proved to be too relaxing, and very soon she found herself asleep and dreaming.

It was a full moon and Andromeda was in the middle of a clearing in a forest, crouching low behind a fallen log. She was scanning the trees with weary eyes when they settled on a dark figure on the edge of the clearing right beneath the moon.

The world stilled around her as it moved into the moonlight, revealing a giant black wolf. She knew she should've been scared as it approached her, but instead she felt an eerie calm she'd ever felt before as it came to a stop right in front of her.

She held a hand out for him to sniff as she looked into his intelligent grey eyes. She flinched a little when his tongue flicked out to lick her fingers. She slowly reached further to run her fingers through his fur when-

Andromeda was abruptly pulled out of the dream by a throbbing pain in her right shoulder; she'd come to learn that the mark on her shoulder blade only hurt when something was bad was happening or going to happen.

She quickly got out of the tub, letting it drain as she rinsed and dried herself off. She pulled her clothes on in a hurry and padded downstairs. Andromeda looked outside to see that the sun had set, a chill settling in her bones; Enyo loved wandering in the dark. What if she'd left a door open and her cat had run out?

"Enyo," she called out, checking the kitchen first of all, but she wasn't there. "Come here, Enyo!"

Nothing.

Meda continued to call for the cat as she searched the house; the front door was shut, but that did nothing to calm her nerves. She became more and more frantic, searching under couches and behind cabinets. She finally made her way to the back and her heart nearly stopped beating. The back door was open, she had no idea how, and the back yard was directly connected to the woods behind the house.

Not thinking clearly, she ran out of the house, into the woods, barefoot calling for Enyo. She nearly sobbed with relief when she heard a faint meow coming from the depths of the woods; not wanting to let Enyo wander further away, she ventured on without any light, playing a weird game of Marco Polo in the dark with her cat.

Something brushed against her leg, making her screech before she realized it was Enyo. She scooped up the cat, who proceeded to rub her face against Andromeda's neck, purring. Despite finding her safe and sound, Meda was still on edge, something didn't feel right.

She froze when she heard a twig snap behind her, and Enyo hissed at something over her shoulder. Very slowly she turned her head, holding her breath, hoping that she was just being paranoid. Her fears were not unfounded as several vicious growls sounded before she could even turn her head half way.

Gripping the cat tightly, she bolted in the opposite direction, further into the woods. She, somehow, managed not to trip in the dark as the adrenaline heightened her senses. She ran till the trees finally broke to reveal a small clearing.

She forced herself to halt in the middle as she saw two wolves at the other end; albeit rather mangy wolves, but they were as tall as her waist, and their fangs sharp enough to tear her to bits.

She turned around and confirmed her suspicions when she saw two other wolves behind her. As she stood panting in the middle, her mind raced, trying to get her out of this situation.

Duck down.

She whipped her head around, thinking that someone else was in the clearing with her before she realized she'd heard that voice in her head. She was trying to figure out what to make of it when she heard it again.

Duck, NOW.

She automatically obeyed, dropping to the ground behind a log, curling her body around her cat just as two of the wolves pounced towards her. She shut her eyes, waiting to feel their claws and fangs pierce her skin but there was nothing except the cool evening air and a lot of growling. Instead it sounded like a fight was ensuing; she dared to sit up and peer over the log.

The four wolves seemed to be fighting a giant black mass. It was mesmerizing to watch as it threw one wolf half way across the clearing, into a tree; the wolf howled and yelped as it fell to the ground.

She heard the sickening crack of bones as another wolf had one of its legs snapped. Soon the black mass was chasing them back into the woods until the howls became fainter and fainter.

She gulped, shivering with adrenaline rather than cold as she looked around, making sure nothing else was there. She looked up into the sky and her breath hitched, a feeling of deja vu slamming into her as she saw a full moon. This was almost exactly like her dream except Enyo was squirming in her hands. Deciding it was safe enough, she set the cat down on the log she was still kneeling behind.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood as she could feel herself being watched; her eyes instinctively went to the woods below the moon, and sure enough there was the giant black wolf standing there.

#roman reigns #roman reigns fanfiction #roman reigns fanfic #roman reigns fic #fic #my writing #my post #wwe fanfiction #wwe fanfic #roman reigns werewolf

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renaerys · 3 years ago

Note

Prompt 50. But Berserk & Boomer😔👉👈💕

50. “I thought you left.”

We’re calling this one Unfortunately, She Impressed Him. This is a pair of characters I love with all my heart in any flavor of relationship and can’t wait to write more of in my ongoing multi-chapter fic Trinity House over on AO3.

This fic is part of a prompt challenge that is now closed to new requests, but you can read all the completed submissions here. Reminder that the challenge is to make everything SFW, so we’re getting creative here.

xxx

Boomer was halfway across the deserted lobby of Faust Keating Rogers, LLP when he realized he’d forgotten his keys at his desk. He groaned aloud because it was 8 p.m. and no one was around to hear him because they had all gone home to their families hours ago like normal people. Boomer didn’t have two to three kids and a house in the suburbs, though, and neither did his boss. The three hour lull reserved for dinner, baths, and bedtimes before the evening work-from-home grind offered him no alternative but to power through. He fully planned to grab take out on his way home and enjoy an episode of whatever was on HBOMax before getting back to the tedious work of reviewing the draft prospectus statement his boss had sent him to proof by tomorrow morning.

Except, his keys were forty floors up and he now had to risk running into her again when he’d managed to slip away so neatly. He’d even removed his tie on the elevator ride down, and now he rubbed his exposed neck, flushed with anxiety over what might happen if she saw him and asked him to stick around to finish the work here.

“Nice going, dumbass,” he lamented as he stepped onto the elevator and hit the button for the fortieth floor.

It wasn’t that Boomer disliked his job. In fact, he didn’t mind it at all. It was better than slinging drinks or waiting tables. He had health insurance, a steady paycheck, and a resumé that could proudly display the name of one of the most elite accounting firms in the country. He could pivot his career if he wanted to, as Brick would say. Boomer wasn’t thinking about his next job right now, though. Right now, he was thinking about this one and how his boss was a hard-ass and a workaholic even if she was brilliant, and how there was a one hundred percent chance she would detect him coming back to his desk (which was annoyingly set up right in front of her office so that he could answer her calls, manage her meetings, and deal with whoever passed close enough to her event horizon to get suckered into the latest heinous audit in need of staffing).

There were his traitorous keys sitting on the desk next to the framed picture of his brothers. He glared at them, as if they were a forgotten household item that had developed a supernatural grudge like in those old Japanese folktales he liked to read online. He half expected them to jingle and alert his boss to his presence, just to spite him.

They didn’t, and he slipped them into his pocket as quietly as could be. He released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and took a beat. It was quiet. Most of the offices were dark, save for a few poor souls in the large conference room stuck on the ongoing year-end audit for one of the firm’s most important clients: Unicorn, Inc. His boss’s office was also lit up behind her closed door, but she hadn’t called out to him like she would during the day when he got back from his lunch break hoping for a few minutes to catch up on emails in peace before she dumped more work on him.

This, of course, was odd. The small legion of assistants who had come before Boomer were notorious for their short-term employment working this specific desk. The work was demanding and so was the boss, but there was something else that set her apart from other senior associates in the International Tax Services division, something that seemed to intimidate away any support the higher ups sent her way. Denise a couple desks down had warned Boomer not to bring too many personal effects to the office; chances were he wasn’t going to last long. Boomer had smiled thinly and thanked Denise for her advice, and brought the picture of his brothers in the next morning because he had his pride and Brick told him it was healthy to indulge that once in a while. Brick would certainly know.

So here he was, uncertain. Anxiety over having to sit here for another two hours finishing work and having tepid Doordash delivered pulled him toward the elevator and escape, while that annoying, rare pride demanded he check on his boss and make sure she knew he was here to support her, lest she get the idea that he needed to be fired.

The longer he stood there, indecisive, the greater his curiosity grew. What was she doing in there? It was quiet, even when he strained his Super hearing. He could hear Dean Matheson pouring whiskey a few offices down (that guy had a drinking problem and everyone knew they only kept him around because he had the Unicorn, Inc. account), Adebayo Hansou on a conference call with Dubai that was escalating to profanity, Shelly Kim with her head down and typing away at an Excel spreadsheet like a pro. Their assistants were long gone for the night, but here was Boomer, loitering and indecisive and what is she doing in there not yelling at me when she definitely knows I’m here?

He couldn’t take it anymore. He knocked on the closed door—rap, rap, rap—and called out softly, “Berserk?”

A beat, then: “Come in.”

Finding his boss in upward facing dog while still in her pencil skirt was not a sight Boomer was prepared for. Berserk had her eyes closed as she stretched at a near ninety degree angle and listened to music on her Airpods. Boomer had never seen her with her heels off and her mane of red hair thrown together in a messy bun; it was so casual that it was almost obscene.

“You’re staring.”

Fuck, he was staring and now she was looking right at him down her nose, even though she was the one on the floor. He stood up straighter, unable to help himself when she took that tone that reminded him so much of Brick’s when he was about to criticize, but he didn’t avert his gaze. ��Sorry.”

She breathed in deeply through her nose and hoisted herself up into downward dog position. “Why are you here?”

Forgot my keys seemed like a really lame excuse that she’d probably laugh at him for, but he also was not in the habit of making shit up on the spot if he hoped to make people believe him. “I forgot my keys.” He took them from his pocket to show her, as if she might not know what keys are, as a concept.

“Smart locks.” Berserk exhaled and slowly walked her hands back on the yoga mat until she reached her feet and began to swing slowly left and right.

Huh? he almost said like an idiot, until he caught himself. “Don’t think my landlord would approve of me installing that.” Also, those things were like $200 a pop, which was not worth the occasional inconvenience and shame of forgetting his keys and then catching his boss doing yoga in her office after hours.

Berserk made some noncommittal sound like whatever, peasant and slowly uncurled upward one vertebra at a time. Boomer realized he was back to staring again, literally lingering in her door watching her and trying to equate this subdued, casual version of Berserk with the terse, no-nonsense businesswoman he was used to dealing with on a daily basis.

When she finally achieved her full height, she popped her neck. The hair that was too short for her bun fell in around her narrow face in a stylish, athleisure sort of way. The top buttons on her blouse were undone. She wore a small, golden necklace he’d never noticed before because he wasn’t in the habit of checking out his boss. “I thought you left.”

The accusatory nature of her words were totally at odds with her flat tone, only the barest hint of curiosity dangling there at the end, like she expected him to respond.

Oh, she expected him to respond.

Boomer took another step into her office because he was full of poor judgment today. “I forgot my keys.”

At which point he showed her his keys again and also had a mild stroke, because what the fuck are you doing, mate?

Berserk smiled. “Yeah, I got that part.”

Was she laughing at him? He had never heard her laugh before, unless it was at Dean Matheson, that comb-over in denial who, in addition to being a high functioning alcoholic, also had a reputation for throwing associates under the bus when a client wasn’t happy.

Boomer smiled back, because that was what he did when people smiled at him, and ‘people’ now included Berserk, apparently.

“Well, since you’re here,” she said as she padded around to her desk.

Crap, there was the work he was afraid of soliciting from her by remaining in the building. He debated an excuse to give her: picking up dry cleaning? Plausible, but transparent. Meeting up with his brothers? No, she’d probably make him stay all night for the chance to ruin Brick’s plans.

“Thai or Mexican?”

Boomer stared dumbly. He was becoming quite good at that (10,000 hours and you can become an expert at anything, they say). “Huh?”

The yoga must have put Berserk in an exceedingly gracious mood, because she actually repeated her question without getting that look on her face like she was picturing him getting trampled by stampeding monsters. “Thai or Mexican? I don’t have a preference.”

Oh.

Boomer’s stomach picked that time to snarl at him—8 p.m. and still no dinner, the fiend.

Berserk snorted in laughter and fanned herself with her phone. “Jesus. Mexican it is.”

Which was how Boomer found himself on the small sofa tucked in the corner of Berserk’s office, shoes off and belt loosened, with enough tacos, tamales, and rice and beans to feed a small family. He even had a beer from the mini fridge Berserk kept under her desk.

She hadn’t stayed late to work. Well, she had, but only because she didn’t have a reason to go home.

“I just hate getting home to a dark apartment sometimes,” she said in between bites of food. She had her legs tucked up under her on the sofa close enough to brush Boomer’s thigh if he reached to grab the salsa.

“I thought you lived with your sister?”

“Brute got her own place a few months ago. The arrangement was only temporary while she was in between jobs.”

It was weird knowing so little about a person whose whole family had been in Boomer’s inner orbit since childhood. As far as he knew, Berserk wasn’t close to any of her cousins, not even Blossom. Boomer himself had never been more eager to leave a room than when Brat walked into it. Only Butch, Brute, and Buttercup had ever found common ground among each other once the sworn rivalries and blood feuds of their youth gave way to teenage rebellion against their respective overlord fathers and then the slog of adulthood that was inescapable even for a bunch of Supers flying high on Chemical X.

The fact that Boomer had gotten this job surprised him more than anyone. After drifting from restaurant jobs to office temp placements over the last six years, he’d never thought he would dust off his economics degree and land a temp-to-permanent position that seemed way above his qualifications. And he never thought it would be working for a woman he’d most definitely electrocuted in battle at least a dozen times before puberty.

“What?”

Boomer blinked. He’d been staring again, Jesus Christ. “Sorry, I was just thinking… I didn't know that. I’ve been working here for five months and I don’t actually know much about you at all.”

“Hm.”

Her magenta eyes were wine-dark against the murky sky beyond the window forty stories up. Boomer did avert his gaze this time to reach for the salsa, but he didn’t use it.

“I don’t even know why you invited me to stay for dinner in the office if we’re not going to do any work.”

“Why did you stay?”

“For the free food.”

Berserk grinned—the third time she had smiled at him tonight (or ever). He needed to stop counting; he’d be disappointed when it stopped happening tomorrow.

“Don’t get used to it. Much as I appreciate the company now and again, there’s no need for both of us to be stuck here while Matheson’s breathing down the associates’ necks. Can’t have him poaching you out from under me.”

“Well, I don’t work for him; I work for you.”

“It’s sweet how you don’t understand office politics.” She ate a lone slice of avocado with a fork. “He landed Unicorn back when they were early stage, and back when he was still putting in the work to earn his reputation. But since they IPO’d three years ago and make up twenty percent of our revenue now, he’s just another big name coasting by on associate work. You know he regularly schedules client calls and just doesn’t bother to show up? He forgets half the time, and the other half he’s busy playing golf or buying a yacht or whatever the fuck rich, white Boomers do.”

“Well, as a Boomer myself, I can say I’ve spent exactly zero hours buying yachts.”

She chuckled. Fourth time. “Oh, really.”

“Never even thought of yachts. As far as I’m concerned, they’re not even real.”

“Thanks for your expert opinion.”

“Any time.” Boomer turned his body to face her and draped his arm over the back of the sofa. With only the soft light from the floor lamp in the corner, he imagined himself adrift in the darkness, the sky scraper lights nearby stars. It was a lonely thought, one made romantic in the knowledge that she was here too, and he wasn’t actually alone.

“Matheson almost did poach you, you know.”

“What do you mean?” Boomer couldn’t recall exchanging more than a few words with the man.

“When we were filling support positions. Someone recognized you from the news a few years back, when the Cyclops Monster attacked the marina district and you and your brothers took it out. Matheson got it in his head that you’d be able to work at Super speed and help lower his billables.”

“Wow. Maybe you should’ve let him. What do you think the net savings would be in yacht units of measurement?”

Berserk rolled her eyes, but she was smiling again. “I claimed you before he could get the paperwork in.”

Boomer hyper-focused on that word: claimed. He also pointedly ignored it entirely, much in the same way he ignored the new count of five smiles tonight. “Showed him your bending powers, did you?”

Berserk’s Corona bottle turned frosty under her hand in a totally unnecessary, big dick energy display of said powers, and she took another sip. “No. Sharon from HR likes me. And I promised her I wouldn’t fire you after three months like your predecessors.”

Flattered was not how Boomer would describe the feeling of being claimed by Berserk and eluding Matheson’s vampiric clutches. But he was a bit tickled all the same. This was the woman Butch had once described as essentially Brick, if he were constipated all the time.

And then he realized what she was doing. “Hey, you’re sharing things about yourself.”

She clinked her bottle to his, and Boomer shivered at the frosty chill she transferred on contact. “Aw, you figured it out all by yourself.”

“Ha ha.”

She didn’t quite smile, but she did look kind of serene then, content even, as she lay back against the arm of the sofa and yawned. Her gold necklace—just a simple disk with an engraving Boomer could not make out—reflected the lamp light when she moved. It rested just beneath her collarbone, which had suddenly become the single-most interesting part of Berserk, and oh no, was he interested—

“You’re staring again.”

Son of a bitch.

“Sorry,” he said automatically. “I didn’t mean to.”

Hard no. He was not allowed to be any percent attracted to Berserk. First, she was his boss, and there was a cliché here that, while subverted on the gender role spectrum, was still very risky for both of them. Second, she was Berserk, a fellow Super, cousin to his best friend Bubbles and a shrewd, stiletto bitch in Brick’s estimation, which sounded bad. Not that she was bad, or even evil, unless you counted helping rich corporations accurately report their taxes while taking advantage of the many egregious loopholes in the Internal Revenue Code. Which, okay, point taken, but he also worked here and anyway, people should not be deemed good or evil so much as their choices ought to be—

“Are you thinking about fucking me?”

You shrewd, stiletto bitch!

She was smiling again, and Boomer pathetically logged that as the sixth time, although he wasn’t sure he should count it given the overt malice behind it.

Unfortunately, Boomer was, as had been previously established, very bad at making shit up on the fly. So he miserably said, “Yeah.”

“Hm.”

She sipped her beer slowly, and of course he watched. If it was out in the open, as fleeting a bout of insanity as it may have been, at least he could wallow in it without worrying about appearances.

It was the yoga. That fucking upward facing dog, Jesus Christ.

It was more than that too. Over the last few months, he had worked closely with her, watched her navigate the cutthroat halls full of piranhas like Matheson and other account managers, getting herself work on the best clients while managing her juniors with efficiency and professionalism. She was excellent and sharp, and she demanded excellency and sharpness in kind. After years of going it alone or temping for bosses who didn’t care enough even to learn his name, much less provide him with guidance and mentorship, it was an unspeakable relief to work under someone who knew how to rally the troops. Someone who knew how to lead, how to motivate, and how to reward loyalty with loyalty in return. It didn’t hurt that she looked amazing in her daily stilettos, either.

Unfortunately, she impressed him.

“I have some work to get done tonight.” Berserk stood up and smoothed her skirt.

Boomer scrambled to his feet. “Of course! Um.” He began closing food containers and repackaging them in the bags they’d come in, because he was panicking. “I’ll get rid of the trash. Do you want the leftovers in the fridge?”

“You take them. Otherwise my office will smell like a burrito for a week.”

“Okay.” Numbly, Boomer finished packing everything up, while Berserk made her way back to her desk and logged into her computer to check her emails.

Boomer lingered at the door. “I’ll have the prospectus back to you later tonight.”

“Thanks.”

Wow, way to go, stud.

He turned to leave, but her voice stopped him.

“Boomer?”

“Yeah?”

“Friday is good.”

He stared back at her in expert mode. “Huh?”

Berserk poked her head around the side of her large, external monitor. She was smiling again. Lucky number seven. “For fucking.”

“Okay,” Boomer said.

Okay?!

She pulled back behind her monitor. “I was going to get a cat, but you’ll do much better.”

Because she didn’t like going home to a dark, empty apartment alone. With no one to fuck.

“That was a joke.”

“Yeah, I got that,” he croaked.

Friday is for fucking, he thought, which was delightful alliteration and also completely insane and one hundred percent something he was getting more on board with by the nanosecond.

“See you tomorrow,” she said.

Boomer clutched the leftover Mexican food in his fist. “Okay. Goodnight.”

It took him the time to fly home and put the food away in his small fridge to realize that he had a sort-of date with Berserk lined up for two days from now.

He Y-posed at the window and whooped, “Hell yes!!”

Loud pounding in the floor followed by old Mrs. Cruikshank’s muffled Keep it down! couldn’t bring down his mood.

Boomer leaped onto his threadbare, living room sofa with his work laptop and took to the prospectus with alacrity. He’d send over superior work product and make Berserk’s job just that much easier tomorrow morning.

xxx

If you enjoy my writing, check out more of my fics on AO3, link in my profile. I’m currently updating Trinity House (which has a lot more Berserk and Boomer content, btw!) and The Alchemy of Us. Thanks for reading!

#powerpuff girls #powerpuff girls fanfic #bersoomer #ppg berserk #ppg boomer #september fic prompts #so this turned into a 3k one shot because i love these characters and i couldn't help myself #tfw considering a part 2

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aclosetfan · 4 years ago

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Aight here’s a 16teen-esque mall au for the ppg that I’ll never write, but enjoy thinking about and have heavily outlined (its long, so most is under the cut):

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup aren’t related in this one, but you’d figure they were. Bubs/Buttercups are fraternal Twins (Mom/Dad=Keane/Prof)

Blossom’s mom is Ms. Bellum, who is dating Ms. Ima Goodwoman. Sedusa is actually a good woman in this lol, she just doesn’t vibe with blossom very well.

It also doesn’t help that Ima’s son, Butch, is now an even more permanent fixture in Blossom’s life. She had always thought school was enough.

Later on in the story, Bellum and Ima get married and Butch&Bloss have to come to terms with being step siblings (they break up their parents and end up having to parent trap them back together)

This new relationship between Butch&Bloss works out perfectly for Brick because Brick’s bestfriends with Butch and also has a low-key crush on Bloss. They have English class together and while he very much has a goth persona that he can’t compromise (obviously) by a preppy girl like Bloss, he still enjoys fucking with her. Too bad she has that boyfriend :(

Wait what happened to the mall part?? Here we go:

So, to preference, Bloss is a very smart young women. A real intellectual. Tons of smart extracurriculars. She’s definitely going places, but an Ivy League school costs money. So, she gets a job at the local mall in the bookstore. Bookstores in malls aren’t doing to hot financially and hers gets bought out. It’s going to be replaced by a more mainstream Barnes and Noble, but applications for employees don’t open up until after construction. She’s out a job and for some reason (maybe it’s her horribly inconsistent schedule) no one’s hiring her!! She’s worried about a gap in her resume, but her Mom ends up having the hookup. Turns out her mom’s boss (the mayor, who’s not the Mayor in this one) actually owns the lone hot dog (& pickle) stand in the mall, and it needs a new person to man it.

(((This is a call back to when blossom, in the show, had to get a job at that hot dog stand 😂 she has to wear the same uniform with the stupid hat. )))

Her best costumer is actually Mayor, which perplexes Blossom because that can’t be a financially sound business move. His weird wisdom guides her.

ANYWAY, she takes the job and finds out the stand (and the embarrassing uniform) is unfortunately located in front of. . .

. . .HOT TOPIC.

Who works there??? Lol obviously Mr. Doom and Gloom himself--Brick!

So, Brick’s pretty much the manager there, right? Wrong, but he is a decent employee. He doesn’t actually need a job, but he’s a counterculture rebel, right?? And rebels go against their parents wishes, right?? And his dads (Mojo and Him) don’t want him working in a filthy mall because they’re rich and there’s better things to do. But he’s pretty anti-them so (🖕) he gets the job (Mojo also does not at all understand goth culture)

And then, because the gods favor him, not only does he end up getting to bug Bloss in English, but ALSO on his work breaks. He ends up eating more hotdogs then he ever thought he would in his life, but also, eventually, ends up becoming her study partner. Another fun and great thing for him is that as the story progresses he gets to watch her relationship with that-Jared-guy crumble right before his very eyes, which just adds fuel to his fantasy fire.

So tbh this story actually really works out for Brick. He gets to spend time with the girl he secretly likes and has a decent shot at getting her to date him!! Blossom, on the other hand, suffers, but who’s there to help her through this suffering?

Well, obviously, Bubbles (and BC)! Bubbles works at Claire’s. She does well on the floor, but does not at all like piercing ears. She’s not good at it. She messes piercings up too frequently and blood freaks her out. Her coworker Mary often has to step up and do it for her. Still, she likes all the sparkly stuff in the store, so it’s generally a good fit. As of right now, Bubbles really just vibes in this story. Her biggest source of conflict is with Boomer, who works at the Spencer’s across from Claire’s.

Boomer is what Brick calls a shitty scene kid. He isn’t, Brick’s just mean, but Boomer rolls with it. Tbh he just likes dying his hair a shit ton of colors. He isn’t an ideal employee and is often found taking one too many breaks, but he’s charming and doesn’t make too many bad jokes about the dildos on display in the back, so they keep him around. He should honestly be on Claire’s payroll instead, because when Mary’s not available he’s the one who does the piercings (and the right way too, he might add, not with that fucked-up piercing gun) for Bubbles. And while that might make him seem like an overall helpful guy, do not be fooled. Bubbles always pays a price.

Boomer also has a shitty mom (femme fatale; she didn’t want a son), so his at-home life isn’t great, but he puts on a brave face. Brick and Butch essentially share custody of the boy. He has a room at each of their homes, which throws Blossom for a loop because not only does she have to share space with Butch later in the story, but also with Boomer (who she ends up tutoring).

Speaking of Butch, he was fired from Spencer’s after Boomer got him a job there because he was “immature.” He was also fired from Hot Topic for basically the same reason. Then he landed a job at the Sporting Goods store, but again ended up getting fired (but this time it legitimately wasn’t his fault. His manager was just out to get him, as explained later) Now, he works for the malls arcade arena (they have go-karts and bumper cars; it’s one of those good arcades, ya feel?), so he runs a lot of kid’s bday parties. And to everyone’s surprise, he’s actually really good at it. Apparently, Butch really vibes with kids jacked up on sugar. Parents like him too because he flirts with the moms and pulls the dads into “friendly” but competitive go-kart racing betting pools.

The person doing the actual hard labor at the arcade is Robin. She gets stuck in the chuck-e-cheese-like costume way too often. She’ a good voice of reason for everyone else, especially Butch. She’s his favorite co-worker.

Going back to the sporting goods store. Buttercup works there. She’s the best sales rep they got. It helps that she’s crazy athletic and is on track to get a pretty decent scholarship with some D1 schools. (What’s she play? Idk? Whatever your heart wants) She can’t say though that she’s the most popular amongst her coworkers. She got in a fight with Mitch, which also meant she got in a fight with the twins that follow Mitch around. She definitely didn't get along with Butch when he worked there. And she thinks her manager’s kind of creepy and he’s only gotten creepier since his partner Snake broke up with him

She doesn’t know why Snake broke up with Ace, but she’s pretty sure it has to do with Butch getting fired

Now, this one’s going to throw y’all for a loop, but the reason she gets in a fight with Mitch is because Mitch was picking on her boyfriend Elmer (THATS RIGHT IM SHAKING IT UP—but don’t worry 😏 I love the greens too much).

Elmer works at the comic/geek shop with Mike. She obviously likes her boyfriend and is big buds with Mike. Elmer’s pretty insecure tho and thinks BC’s going to break up with him all the time. This really bums her out. She doesn’t get why he thinks that (b/c she’s out of his league, but she’s oblivious) because she really likes him. Unfortunately, it gets to the point that she eventually decides she has to break up with him because she can’t convince him to trust her (still their relationship is cutesy side plot for a long bit). It’s her first big heartbreak. A heartbreak that is. . .

. . .ideal for Butch because he’s realized he has more then friendly feeling for her. See they weren’t friends AT ALL beforehand, but his new sibling relationship with Blossom has catapulted BC squarely into his life. Slowly they end up going from workplace enemies to eh to friendly to friends to (😉).

A significant turning point in their relationship happened to involve Ace. Butch was on his smoke break and saw Ace making Buttercup uncomfortable. That same night he sees Buttercup trying to leave and Ace/his gang are trying to pressure her into following them. Butch takes offense to this and ends up walking Buttercup to her car. She argues she doesn’t need him saving her, which he readily agrees to, but explains that any excuse to beat that creep Ace up is a good excuse. Afterward, anytime BC has to work close, Butch walks her to her car.

Eventually, he explains to her that he was the one who inadvertently convinced Snake to get out of their toxic-ass relationship with Ace. Ace found out and that’s why he was fired. So, now, he has real beef with the guy. Him and Ace don’t get along at all. To the point where Butch was banned from the sports store, but he sneaks in to see his friends and mess with BC.

HAHA does the story ever end????

The story ends when Barnes n’ Noble opens. Blossom gets the job, ditches the old boring boyfriend, gets the goth boy, saves her mom’s relationship, and gains a sibling.

The format of the story would be pretty episodic, with a conflict/resolution in each chapter. But what’s written above highlights the over arching plot lines

and holy shit! how could I forget the cherry on top??? Brick and Princess are cousins, and she does NOT let him forget this.

((If you want more specific details ya gotta ask. there’s a lot more then just this.))

#ppg fic outline #I'm not going to tag this too heavily #i dont need people judging me on how bad and unoriginal it is lololol #because its hella stupid #but its been on my mind for a while #it's way funnier in my head #hey maybe one day??#ppg fic #my writing

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andrewuttaro · 5 years ago

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Hypostatic Thoughts: The Kingdom Christians don’t want

Hello and welcome to the Hypostatic Thoughts blog. This is my newly christened religion blog. If you’re here reading this you’re probably in one of two groups: friends and elders from my past life as a Youth Minister seeing what I write about religion or someone who at least moderately enjoys my sports or review blogs dipping into a blog about… gasps… religion. For group two I am going to send another shiver down your spine: I’m going to talk a lot about Catholicism! AGH! Not often will I talk strictly about that. This is a religion blog generally speaking but I am catholic and some of those opinions and beliefs will be very evident here. Don’t cringe, this isn’t one of THOSE religion blogs. I am not here to judge or spread judgement. That’s not my place and frankly I think the itch to judge is real problem in contemporary Christianity. But that’s an article all its own. In all my blogs I love to start a conversation so please feel free to talk back; even with religion discussion is an important piece.

So admittedly this title is a little bit of clickbait. If you’ve grown up in the orbit of Christian faith you’ve probably heard of this phraseology of the Kingdom of God. The phrase “Kingdom of God” or the invocation of it implicitly is used more than 63 times between the Old and New Testaments. That’s a low estimate at least; if you shorten it to just Kingdom there are 480 instances across 14 translations of the bible. In some denominations the phraseology is used very liberally from naming churches to organizing elder councils. It’s one of those phrases that deserves to be unpacked. Jesus had a lot to say about it as well and its stuck around even in the age of democracy because it’s a call to action as much as it is a theological principle.

The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament was very right-here-right-now. For the Israelite Nation and all the descendants of Abraham even after that nation split it was what they were doing right now. King David and all the Kings of Israel for that matter were thought of as servants of God within this very Kingdom. They were the Kingdom of God because they were his chosen people. All the while the screw ups were constant. There is not a single book in the Old Testament where the story does not somehow involve that very present Kingdom being in some kind of jeopardy because someone or a group of people are screwing it up! Often it was the Israelites themselves screwing it up. The whole back half of the Old Testament is essentially prophets coming to the people and telling them to repent and come back to God and the Kingdom that they were supposed to be in him!

It makes sense then that when Jesus comes along he uses the term liberally as well. Once again for the very Jewish Jesus the Kingdom of God was very much at hand right now. In Matthew 10:7 the gospel talks about Jesus going out and telling people the Kingdom of God was at hand. By that point in history the Israelites were back in their homeland but very much occupied by the Roman Empire. For them the Messiah that the prophets had talked about a few hundred years earlier would be a military leader like King David who would lead them into victory in throwing off their colonial overlords. Jesus preaching about a more metaphysical, religious Kingdom was his first major theological departure from Judaism. That departure is really at the core of what makes us Christians… well Christian.

For us Christians the Kingdom of God, the one spoken of by Jesus, is our Christian community. That understanding permeates the theology of every denomination and sect within this religion to different degrees. Mark 9:1 cements this as Jesus literally tells an assembled group of his followers that some of them will live to see the Kingdom. Unless Jesus was lying, the Kingdom of God would have to be a community of his followers then because the Israelites wouldn’t throw off roman oppression. In 70 AD the Siege of Jerusalem would formally end the original Israelite nation and begin the Jewish diaspora. That said, the teaching of the Kingdom of God is a bit sharper than some of us moderns would like to admit. And no I am not advocating for monarchical rule in anyway.

The Kingdom of Heaven on the other hand is very specific. There’s a distinction to be made there that Heaven is a thing theologically and metaphysically separate, at least in our time and place, from what Jesus means when he says Kingdom of God. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says to seek the Kingdom of God first and then other virtues will be added to you. That’s life advice different from the aspirational phraseology of getting into heaven even within that same chapter. As the apostles would preach after Christ’s death the Kingdom of God is something to be made here on earth… there are even places where the Greek word for build or build with your hands is used in the books of the missionary disciples later in the New Testament.

The claim I just made isn’t controversial. In most every Christian denomination there is this call to action in building up the Kingdom of God here on earth. It’s in hymns and homilies the world over. Most missionary credos are rooted in some way building up the Kingdom of God in addition to the Great Commission. In the Catholic tradition Saints and Doctors of the Church preach very stridently about how us as one Church need to build up the will of God in the world and establish his Kingdom right here on earth. This is where the eschatology comes in. No, that’s not a medical field, that’s the study of the end times or how theology deals with how human civilization ends. Think of this as the study of the apocalypse but in nicer terms if you will. This is where the Kingdom of God really gets lost on us these days.

How you talk about the end of time matters. While the hardcore biblical flawlessness of some protestant sects have developed an eschatology not unlike a Jerry Bruckheimer apocalypse film a la Armageddon or Deep Impact, the teachings of some of the older, more mainline protestant and catholic/orthodox sects is much lighter on the pyro budget. The Left Behind series captivated me as a child. To think everyone who loves Jesus enough gets vanished away before a decade and a half of absolute mayhem and the eventual Second Coming of Christ in an epic battle against the anti-Christ is pretty rad to say the least. There may or may not be dragons in this version of eschatology, I’m not kidding. It reads like the script for a Video Game I would buy in a heartbeat. Who wouldn’t want that to be true if you count yourself on team Jesus, eh? Well, the Kingdom of God as Jesus preached it doesn’t neatly fit into that eschatology.

When I said many mainline protestant and catholic/orthodox sects are a bit lighter on their eschatology I mean it. The canonical Catholic teaching could be summarized on a post-it note: Jesus comes back at the right hand of the father to rule over the Kingdom of God. That’s essentially it. The idea that’s heavily implied in Jesus words and the more orthodox ways to understand Christian eschatology is that there is no trigger for a tremendous religious epic at the end of days. No, the Kingdom of God, if you trace the theological moorings all the way through Bible and Tradition is that we have a job to do.

We have a job to do as Christians that isn’t just bringing others to Christ or love one another. The reality of the teaching of the Kingdom of God the way Jesus preached it is that Christians have world building to do. We have to build the Kingdom of God right here right now until the time Jesus comes back. There is no rapture, we don’t get to say goodbye to the work at some point: we have to build up the Kingdom for Christ to return to. We are the trigger for the establishment of the Kingdom in a way.

But wait Andrew, isn’t that taking a lot from the implied? I don’t know, Rapture and Tribulation theology is a lot to take from a bible that doesn’t ever use the world rapture. Most of the canon of Christian teaching is more or less implied. The way Jesus wants marriage to be is implied for example: the one big mention of the institution of marriage that is so often pointed out in the Gospel of Matthew is unclear whether its Jesus making an incidental comment on cultural mores of the time as part of a larger teaching or any real exhortation of a specific vision for marriage. That example is a fantastic segway into the real kicker of this blog that justifies the clickbait title: we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.

Does it help to build up the Kingdom of God to be so divisive? Though we live in a time of greater communications connectivity than any other time in human history, we still find plenty of ways to malign each other and build walls. Christian teaching, particularly in the United States and the industrialized West has taken on a certain spice of consumerism that is ultimately unhelpful. Mega Churches with charismatic preachers at the center preach a buffet version of Christianity that at best asks you to talk about Jesus to your friends occasionally. Meanwhile those same churches go as far as funding political candidates and telling you who to vote for as more a statement of power for themselves than any real concerted effort to build a vision of the Kingdom of God.

Perhaps the most troubling thing I see, even just in American Catholicism, is that political sides get conflated with religious theologies creating two separate ideological camps within the same Catholic Church. And don’t go right to that boomer praying their rosary watching EWTN stereotype. Go on any Catholic forum online and you will quickly run into Millennial Catholics drawing distinctions between “Trads” or Traditional Catholics and “Liberal” Catholics. I’ve done enough study of Catholic theology to tell you there is no conservative or liberal Catholicism, we’ve just gotten to a profoundly stupid time in Christian history where we’d prefer to have distinct factions than unified vision.

The theology of the Kingdom of God in Christian teaching is a call to work together and build a better world. It’s not that hard to figure it out with a basic understanding of Gospel and Tradition. Yet we seem to live in a time where there is Christian Faith and then there is the Kingdom of God that Christians don’t want.

Thanks for Reading.

#christianity #jesus #faith #blog #catholic #protestant

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magnificentglitterllama-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Manager Lady (Crimes Of Fashion) ( 2004).

A jealous trainee who dressed in a niqab prior to throwing acid in her friend's face due to the fact that she once called her hideous was advised she encounters an extensive prison sentence today. One such sexpert who consistently gets questions similar to this on his column and also podcast is Dan Savage, who advises people of any ages, histories, sexualities as well as sex identifications about ways to have much better relationships as well as sex. You could appreciate the sex, however a great browse can frighten you at the opportunity that he would certainly desire extra from the partnership. She claims she does not want a relationship yet will certainly such as to recognize something about the person she sleeps with.Gideon agrees when Gideon asks her what she desires. Choose with each other (or disagree completely), as your communications and connection with your partner affect the game. The official name for it is status incongruence." Florian Kunze, a co-author of the paper and also a professor at the College of Konstanz in Germany, told The Post that the circumstance of unfavorable sensations could spread out throughout a firm as well as consist of staff members who are not directly component of the unusual age managerial partnership. In the fall of 1894, as she was writing The Settlement as a Variable," this brand-new point of view became her favored style. Later on we believed to call on his moms and dads, however they appeared so active, that they did not pay any type of regard to our demand. How I might use this book in Friends has to do with a child who goes through many experiences to find his buddy that has actually moved away. The low word matter and also appealing illustrations make this publication an all-natural read-aloud for children as young as 3. However the styles in her book could open up a deeper discussion for youngsters approximately age 6. If your employer has concerns with your performance, it's better for both of you that you know sooner as opposed to later, so you have time to make adjustments. No matter what you have actually accomplished the day in the past, you begin every day at the bottom of the mountain. If you are coaching him for a future connection, never make use of the break up session to offer him suggestions as. In high-stakes connections, as an example in between firefighters whose lives depend on colleagues, the effects of objectives might be amplified because the responsiveness of others to existing requirements might live or death effects. Assist her explore exactly how she could make it a reality if a friend comes to you with a brand-new concept. Both children locate themselves living with a kind and also caring as well as Close friend Or Foe is one of Michael Morpurgo's earliest publications, composed and also initial published in 1977. Boomers might really feel uncomfortable taking direction from more youthful bosses-- and also more youthful employers might really feel uncomfortable dishing it out. The partnership was a monstrous building, family members as well as friends state, a dark residence of passion, manipulation, love, cash and physical violence. http://fitnesswelt-de.com -Price claimed the defendant had targeted the close friend out of retribution for tampering with her Instagram and Tumblr social media accounts the previous summer. Keep reading to see just how a harmful connection could affect your overall health. flatmates has effects for both people's perceived partnership top quality. Research study 2 made use of data from the Roommate Goals Research study( Crocker & Canevello, Study 2 )to analyze just how students 'objectives predict forecasted and reciprocatory responsiveness in between roommates that inevitably influences both individuals' relationship top quality. The basic layout resembled Research 1, but over a different period; same-sex freshmen roomie dyads completed a series of pretest, posttest, as well as 21 everyday questionnaires, each including steps of thoughtful as well as self-image goals, responsiveness to roomies, perceived roomies 'responsiveness, connection high quality, and also self-esteem and also esteem for flatmates. While it's not much even worse compared to its predecessor, Friend 2: The Heritage has none of the bromantic appeal that made Close friend, South Korean writer-director Kyung-Taek Kwak's 2001 mobster dramatization, the highest-grossing movie in Korean background. This book extends his entire life, describing all his (cringeworthy) experiences with ladies along the road as well as, yea, his funny Dad is there to chime in with guidance along the way. The other 2 Spanish survivors had returned to stand versus the much wall surface, as far from the show as they can get. The tune titles for chapters is charming but includes very little to the mix other than to become annoying. Think of your relationship style-act towards your friends and family the way you hope your child's close friends will act toward him. Savjibhai Dholakia, who runs a ruby export firm in the booming west coast city of Surat, announced his firm would certainly provide 1,260 cars and trucks, 400 flats as well as items of jewellery to his employees in advance of the Hindu festival of Diwali which landeds on the weekend. A 2011 research at the College of Pennsylvania discovered that most individuals rate the value of a close friend based upon exactly how vital they believe they are to that close friend. Stephanie Coontz, a historian specializing in marital relationship as well as family members research studies and the author of Marriage, a Background: Exactly how Love Conquered Marriage, claims that - motto or not - the trope of marrying one's buddy is ultimately valuable, particularly for women, that had one of the most to comparatively acquire from the changing marital ideal. He sometimes fails to draw back his lens and also offer the viewers a wide-angle shot of the male's skills as well as the challenges he dealt with as mayor of a huge city during a very challenging time in history. In 2010, when he participated in a testing of the docudrama regarding him, The Assurance, at BFI Southbank in London, a good friend and also I were strolling down the red carpeting to the movie theater when there was a stir around us; we felt it before we observed the faces lining the obstacles turning in one instructions. Make use of the most affordable reliable dose for the shortest period consistent with individual client therapy goals (see WARNINGS ). He works a constant task, has a better half he loves, yet that doesn't compare with just what he finds when he lastly joins Facebook and also sees one friend specifically from his youth that is still young, solid, and also bordered by different females at every update. Refrain from sending text, talking on your mobile phone or usually being distracted while you're in the firm of close friends.

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smokeybrandreviews · 7 years ago

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Rotten

If you can’t tell by this blog or the many reviews I write or the entire sub-blog full of my reviews, I genuinely enjoy cinema. I enjoy a good movie. I enjoy a trip to the theater. I have since i was little. All of the pomp and circumstance of it; Getting a terribly overpriced hot dog, standing in line for hours to see the new cape flick or summer blockbuster, laughing with an entire auditorium of cats over the most foolish of turns, and bonding over ridiculous scenes with the stranger next to me - ll of that is just too dope. I love going to the theater. That’s why, when I read that this summer was the worst summer for film since 1999, I was flabbergasted. But it’s true. I’ve been to the theater every weekend this year, with the exception of twice, and no one’s there. No one is coming out to see film anymore. The occasional tent poles like It and anything Marvel drops, packed to the gills, everything else? nah. No one wants that experience and it got me wondering why. This is my analysis of that quandary, as a creator of content but more as a fan, first.

Streaming services are supplying box office quality but you don’t have to put on pants

Like literally every other industry that Millennials are killing, we’re apparently choking the life out of the Hollywood but why Why should we go out and spend 15 dollars on a flick that may or may not be terrible, when we can watch new sh*t on Netflix? Better sh*t on Crackle. Original sh*t all over the place. Netflix has the draw to pull huge stars and their productions are often ridiculously high in quality. Okja was dope. Beasts Of No Nation was an Oscar contender. Will Smith, and his hefty ass paycheck, have a movie coming out for them in December, i believe. And it doesn’t stop there. Netflix dropped A Series Of Unfortunate Events as a series and it KILLED the film. Their Marvel properties are spectacular. Daredevil is sh*tting on the majority of what Hollywood crapped out this year by itself! I had more anticipation for Defenders than I did for probably 90 percent of the theatrical releases in 2017! And don’t get me started on Amazon Prime. Seriously, I saw two films this year that are in my top 20 and neither were released wide, stateside. Raw was f*cking incredible and Lure was just as fantastic. They’re foreign, true, but none of them played anywhere near my home in theaters. Not even in the niche, hipster ass theaters! I had to watch them on Prime! But I got a goddamn 8th Fast sequel, though! Ingrid Goes West is a film I’ve been DYING to see but I can’t because it was only out here for a week and now it’s gone. But Wry tho??

Studios are creatively bankrupt

I get sh*t for watching anime. I love that stuff. Love it. Most people think it’s because I like cartoon tiddies and I do, tiddies are awesome, but that’s not why I enjoy anime. My favorites tend to be creatively vibrant and defiantly unique. They tend to be steeped in originality and that makes for an interesting watch. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira, Ghost In The Shell (which I will get to in a minute) are all beautifully animated, poignant stories that really engage the viewer and challenges us to actively think about what we’re watching. The last two films to make me engage like that was Ex Machina and The VVitch. Split, too, to a lesser extent, did that as well. The only film that even remotely accomplished that this year was Get Out and people were up at arms about THAT film being racist! Really? You’re missing the f*cking point! It’s like, cats who have a voice, a story to tell, get the backseat, underfunded or outright ignored but the Hollywood machine but those are the people you need to take a chance on. Those are the directors and creators who you need to develop. Josh Trank made one of the dopest cape films not backed by a major studio in Chronicle and Fox wouldn’t let him do what he needed to in order to properly craft his for Fan4stic narrative. I don’t think that team is very cinematic to begin with but Trank had a unique vision for that property and if Fox felt uncomfortable with it, they shouldn’t have let him cook to begin with. Marvel took Ant-Man away from Edgar Wright for this specific reason and he rebounded by giving us Baby Driver instead; a brilliant heist film that, at its heart, is just a wonderful love story. Great storytellers tell great stories, if you f*cking let them. The Japanese understand the f*ck out of this concept and let their directors and studio houses run wild. Hollywood does not.

Sequels, adaptions, and reboots! Oh My!

Look, I love a good sequel. They add to the lore and build the world created even further. Sometimes those additions are dope as sh*t. The Dark Knight, Aliens, John Wick: Chapter II, T2: Judgment Day, The Godfather Part 2, Winter Soldier, and Split all come to mind. And, yes, Split. It’s a sequel to Unbreakable. These films were all spectacular and embellished an already rich cinema universe. Hell, even the retread of cape films surprised me. Guardians was amazing, Homecoming is easily my favorite of the year but I am a legit Spider-Man fanboy so take that with a grain of salt, and Logan might be nominated for a f*cking Oscar, it was so good: all are basically sequels, adaptions, and reboots! It’s not hard to make a dope retread, particularly when there’s a story to be told. Sh*t like The Last Knight, though? THAT nonsense was unnecessary. An eighth Fast film? Really? Who wants a third XXX and why? Ghost In The Shell was doomed from the beginning. There’s no way an American audience can digest the content of that, even given to them in the brilliantly repackaging of Ex Machina last year. The Mummy was the worst thing I’d seen all year, bar none! Hollywood has become wildly risk averse and have been banking on stupid f*cking reboots no one asked for to hedge their bets and that sh*t is terrible for the industry. I still got a Flatliners reboot, a sequel to Blade, Runner, and another Star Wars film coming out this year. I’ll go see them but I’m not expecting much. Hollywood’s current track record with this sh*t is atrocious.

Star System

I went and saw The Mummy because I am a fan or the original and the Brendan Frasier duology. The first two were dope but that third one though? Terrible. Just like this reboot! I don’t care that Tom Cruise is in this film. I don’t even LIKE Tom Cruise as an actor. He hasn’t made a film I’ve actually enjoyed since probably A Few Good Men. I saw the Mission Impossible flicks. They’re okay. I don’t remember anything from them except Cruise gets blown up a lot and Philip Seymour Hoffman was a pretty good villain in one of them. No one has got anything on Jaiver Bardem’s Raoul Silva but that cat was Ledger Joker caliber so, you know, high bar. My point is, this ain’t the 80s. Baby Boomers aren’t going to movie like they used to. No one cares WHO is in a film rather than WHAT the film is about. Ids there a plot? Is it shot creatively? How well is it directed? What’s the goddamn point? Why is this flick even a thing? Pirates had a sequel this year banking on star power and it flopped. GITS didn’t even take a chance and cast ScarJo In the lead role of a character named Motoko Kusanagi, only to cop out and make her a Japanese teenage brain, in her cybernetic Scarlett Johansson “shell”, the whole time. That flick also bombed. I didn’t give a sh*t that Jennifer Lawrence was in Mother!, I went to go see that because the plot seemed f*cked up. I adore the rock but I’m not going to go see Jumanji and I flat out REFUSED to take in Baywatch. Both of those premises are f*cking retard. I didn’t go see John Wick or Atomic Blonde because Keanu and Charlize were in them, I went because they looked dope as f*ck! And they were. And they were also beautiful. And they also told a coherent story. And I bought into those universes. And I want a f*cking crossover! No one goes to the theater anymore because of billing. I don’t give a sh*t about celebrities or that star mentality. F*ck off with that nonsense. Do your jobs and make great sh*t. Yall make enough money for it.

Television is making better sh*t

I touched on this earlier with the whole Series of Unfortunate events thing but it’s not just Netflix sh*tting on Tinseltown, regular ass s TV is doing a pretty good job of it as well. Atlanta is the best goddamn show on television and Man Seeking Woman is easily one of the best adaptions of a book I have ever seen put to film. The first two seasons of Fargo are as good as the film they’re based on, and, even though I haven’t seen the third, I hear it shine just as bright. Hannibal was just and OUTSTANDING interpretation of that Lecter series and I was devastated to see it go. Legion was a better X-Men Film than HALF of their franchise! FX is out here making quality sh*t! Starz ain’t no slouch either with its American Gods and AMC is releasing that firer with Better Call Saul and the excellent Breaking Bad. The Walking Dead petered out after the second season but, I guess it’s still good. I guess. I’m not even going to get into the quality of Westworld or its HBO brethren. Showtits is doing well with Ray Donovan or whatever, too. If I can literally get sh*t of this quality on my big ass, 4K, 7.1 surround sound, home media set up, why the f*ck do I want to go to the theater and drop 15 dollars for f*cking Bayformers 5? A sub-par Apocalypse sequel? A terribly adapted anime devoid of the existential questions driving it’s original?

Sh*t costs too much to make

When you’re dropping upwards of a country’s GDP on a goddamn Car chase movie sequel, you don’t want to take risks. I get that. But that’s the f*cking problem. Films use to have something to say, they use to be art. They use to convey emotion and present an actual plot. Now, most movies are bloated special effect spectacles that think more is better and storytelling is ridiculous. Why did King Arthur need a 175 million dollar budget? You could have make that move for a third of that, tightened up the narrative, and created a better, far more profitable film. NOPE! Why did Transformers 5 get a 125 million dollar budget when market research will tell you each of these sh*tty films has had diminishing returns? Cats have been telling you to drop Michael Bay since the second one and you refused, just to watch your budgets bloat and profits wane. Wonder Woman cost 150 mil, a great deal, yes, but modest for a Cape flick. It’s counterpart, BvS, cost 300 million, literally twice as much. Guess which one is a better film overall? Guess which one was better received? Guess which one SAVED the DCEU? Some of the best films of the year had shoestring budgets, Split was made on 9 million, took in 275. Logan was made on 97 and took in 620. Deadpool was made on 58, looks like it was produced for much more, and brought back 785. Baby Driver dropped for 24 mil and hauled in 220. Why are you throwing 230 million at Pirates when the first only cost 140 mil and brought back 655. That’s 4 and a half times its budget! Number 5 raked in 795 mil, a little over 2 and a half times its budget. Hell, XXX-3 LOST 70 million! Valerian LOST 70 – 100 million! LOST. The Fifth Element, another Luc Besson film, one that did much better in the box office, one that was directly influenced by the Valerian comics, MADE 263 Million of a 90 mil budget. Why did Valerian NEED so much f*cking money? Why did Transformers or Fats 8 or BvS or Kingsman 2 when John Wick Chapter II, Atomic Blonde, Split, and Logan did MUCH better for a fraction of those investments? Hell, f*cking Get Out, one of the most popular films so far this year, cost 9 million to make. It made 250 million dollars, man! Films don’t need 100, 200, 300 goddamn million dollar budgets to be good! More often than not, that kind of money bodes terrible for the movie, unless you’re Marvel, Disney, or Star Wars. If you’re not part of the Disney Zeitgeist, your ass better keep them sh*t’s around 50- 80 million if you want to make any money from now on.

Rotten Tomatoes is doing its job too well

I love Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews are poignant and they tend to be relatively accurate. I tend to air more toward Critics than I do Audience but that’s because I expect more from film than the average American. Out of my consumable media, period. I hate sh*t that doesn’t have substances. My reviews usually reflect that. I can’t stand Zack Snyder or Michael Bay. All their films are is cool looking sh*t and explosions. Neither one of those assholes can tell a story. I use to really like Ridley Scott, but he’ so far up his own ass right now, I don’t even think he could recognize his own masterpiece, Alien, even if he were to sit and watch it. Rotten Tomatoes does a fantastic job of exposing what’s sh*t and Studios HATE it. Movie executives and stars, alike, have gone on tirades about how that joint is tanking their films before they even release. No, your movie is sh*t and people don’t want to see sh*t, sir. When BvS got torpedoes, cats claimed Marvel paid reviewers. They didn’t. Then they claimed critics didn’t get it because it was too heady. It wasn’t. Then they said it was for the fans. Yo, if your fans look at BvS and see a masterpiece, they’re drunk. Same goes for Suicide Squad, every Transformers film except for the first, and the majority of Adam Sandler’s library. All Rotten Tomatoes does is let you see that “Thumbs Down” before you pay your cash as opposed to having to wait for a reviews in the paper or a magazine. No one is doing that. By the time Ebert got his two cents in, you had already seen that trash or not. Now, thanks to the intrerwebs and RT, you can get an idea about how sh*t a film might be BEFORE you spend your hard earned cash. Lesson to be learned? Hollywood should stop making sh*ta and RT won’t have to sh*t all over them.

Ultimately, Hollywood needs to evolve and fast. We live in an age where information is at our fingertips. Where we can speak to someone on the other side of the country through facetime or skype. Finding a review of a film is as easy as google. Hell, finding the film, itself, is as easy as a torrent site. Yo want to make money in this new age? Stop patronizing your audience. Make sh*t that is both engaging, accessible, and challenging. It’ not hard. Netflix does that sh*t regularly. FX, too. A24 also has a fantastic track record as a distributor. It’s not hard to make a great film, with a great director, on a modest budget. Stop meddling with your talent and them craft their narrative. If the investment is small, you can just shelve the thing and write it off. Split was one of the best films I’ve seen all year and it was a cheap, beautiful, great, f*cking story that added to an established universe, and gave me one of the most brilliant performances I have ever seen. Make more films like that. Stop making bloated, explosion packed excuses to load a bunch of computer effects on film. Scaling back does wonders for perspective.

In the 60s when the Baby Boomers started coming of age, we got Spielberg, Scorsese, and Coppola. Look what they created. It happened again in the 80s. We got Cameron, Hughes, and Cronenberg. The Nineties gave us Tarantino and the aughts gifted us Edgar Wright and Christopher Nolan. These cats started their careers making small films and grew into the powerhouses that they are today. No one is pocket checking James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. No one is telling Tarantino or Coppola or Scorsese to re-shoot a scene. Why is it okay for Trank or Wright to have their vision torpedoed by a bunch of glorified bean counters? Hollywood’s biggest problem I that it’s become too much of an industry, There’s too much money at stake so risk has gone out the window. But that’s not what movies were supposed to be. We movie goers are called Patrons because we’re supporting artists. Let these artists paint, man. Stop trying to stifle creativity for the almighty dollar. Doing so is just going to make you lose more than if you let an up and coming talent, make the movie they want.

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smokeybrand · 7 years ago

Text

Rotten

Streaming services are giving supplying box office quality but you don’t have to put on pants

Studios are creatively bankrupt

Sequels, adaptions, and reboots! Oh My!

Star System

Television is making better sh*t

Sh*t costs too much to make

Rotten Tomatoes is doing its job too well

0 notes

renaerys · 4 years ago

Note

I know in BTM the guys are estranged at the moment (*tear*) but in the sequel as they start to repair their relationship will the apologies be from all of them? I know that in BTM it ended with Brick causing a lot of emotional damage which he did need to apologize for however imo I feel like all of them owe each other an apology. It's obvious they don't get each other and there's been underlying tension brewing for years. Boomer and Butch don't get that Brick wasn't controlling all the time because he necessarily wanted to be but because he had to in order to ensure their survival. They're products of shit parenting and because of it the oldest sibling had to step up and become an adult way before his time. As as result he wasn't there for his brother's the way they needed. He supported them financially but was never there emotionally. He was dismissive of their feelings and internal struggles. Basically miscommunication from all ends. Brick doesn't get his brothers and they don't get him. I know in the sequel after all the angst and tension dissipates they'll have that hallmark worthy reconciliation we all can't wait for but what I'm hoping is that in the uncomfortable conversation that needs to had. Not only are the apologies coming from all of them because they all owe each other that(though it mostly should come from their "parent") but most importantly they at the end they come out of it with an actual understanding of each other and a real brotherhood with no toxicity or lack of boundaries running rampant. Love your work. Looking forward to the sequel. I had to get this out because it was a nagging thought in the back of my mind for awhile now.

Thank you so much for reading Beyond This Morning! I’m always delighted to hear from readers. This is going to be a long answer, but it’s extremely important to me that these points make sense and are heard. You’re right that the brothers’ relationship will be more of a focus in the sequel. However, I want to be clear: Butch and Boomer do not owe Brick anything, not an apology and not their forgiveness. I think you may have missed some of the point of the emotional climax of BTM, so I’ll try to explain it here.

“Boomer and Butch don't get that Brick wasn't controlling all the time because he necessarily wanted to be but because he had to [sic] in order to ensure their survival.”

That’s not true. In Chapter 14, Boomer admits in his POV that he understands exactly why Brick did what he did, and how he will always be grateful for the sacrifices he made. That’s not at issue. What is at issue is Brick’s subsequent treatment of his brothers over the years since they left Mojo’s care. It was Brick’s choice to be a controlling asshole, just as much as it could have been his choice not to be that way. For example, Boomer flat out tells him that four years ago, he didn’t need Brick’s money, he needed emotional support and understanding when he was going through a difficult time after breaking up with Bubbles. But Brick never asked what Boomer wanted four years ago, or even what really happened. Instead, he threw money at him and threw a tantrum, and Boomer realized that there was no way he could leave Brick because Brick was no good on his own. This is emotional manipulation by a person with more power and authority in the relationship (Brick) at a time when the party with less power (Boomer) was in an emotionally and financially vulnerable place. That was all Brick’s choice to make, which you can piece together through the various hints and foreshadowing through the fic up until that confrontation in Chapter 14. It was also Boomer’s choice to stay because, and this is a little fucked up but realistic imo, Boomer loves his brother and let that behavior slide at the time for the sake of preserving the relationship. But the confrontation in Chapter 14 is the breaking point when Boomer has had enough and will no longer put up with Brick’s toxic behavior.

By contrast, another choice Brick makes is to let Butch leave Townsville to join the military overseas. Butch talks to Buttercup about this in Chapter 8 when they are talking about what it means to be a leader. Letting Butch go was a choice Brick made because, as Butch tells Buttercup outright, they both knew Butch would never learn unless he experienced leading and failing himself. This too is a type of manipulation by Brick, but like Boomer in the above example, it’s a manipulation Butch fully understood and went along with to get what he wanted and needed. And of course, Butch comes back in the end because he was always going to come back. That’s the relationship the brothers have, for better and for worse. They stick together. Brick demands blind loyalty from both of them, as Boomer said, and yet he manipulates and controls them to his own ends. Sure, he does this out of a sense of love and loyalty himself, but it is grossly misguided and often executed for the wrong reasons.

“They're products of shit parenting and because of it the oldest sibling had to step up and become an adult way before his time. As [sic] as a result he wasn't there for his brother's [sic] the way they needed. He supported them financially but was never there emotionally. He was dismissive of their feelings and internal struggles.”

You’re right about Brick’s behavior here, but not for the reasons you stated. When Brick got them out of Mojo’s house when they were 16? Yeah, that was him making a difficult choice to ensure his brothers’ survival, using the tools he had at the time and doing what he thought was the best thing he could have done. Boomer explicitly tells the reader how he and Butch understand that sacrifice, how they are grateful for it, and how they will never forget the solid Brick did them for as long as they live. But that is the past. None of it excuses or absolves Brick’s subsequent behavior up until the present, which included controlling, manipulating, and being emotionally unavailable to his brothers and to pretty much everyone else. Having shitty parents may explain, but in no way excuses, absolves, or forgives a person’s terrible treatment of others. That kind of thinking harms real life people who are the victims of this type of toxic treatment. I made an effort in BTM to call this out. I will make an effort in the sequel to show how people who genuinely want to make positive changes in their lives might go about doing that.

Brick’s shitty treatment of his brothers is not the product of a “miscommunication from all ends”. It is squarely a product of his own bad choices, which are informed but in no way excused by his troubled upbringing. In the sequel, I will examine the steps Brick chooses to take to make positive changes in his life. I will show how his brothers react to that effort he makes, and how it might improve their opinion of him. But I will also be extremely clear that they are under no obligation to forgive him, and how that has nothing to do with Brick’s decision to try to be better anyway because that is what it means to grow and be a good person. I think Brick as he will appear in the sequel does deserve empathy, patience, and understanding for the work he does on himself, and I am interested in showing that journey for him as he rebuilds his support system. Many people who put in the effort to be a better person deserve that chance to build new relationships and move forward. But they are not entitled to the forgiveness of their past victims, no matter how much progress they make.

All that said, I am very glad you sent me this Ask. I suspect that there are others with similar views or questions that were raised here, and it’s very important to me that you all understand the type of story I’m telling. There are a lot of stories out there that do apologize for Brick’s shitty behavior, that ignore it, that even romanticize or glorify it. And yeah, they’re just stories and people can write what they want. I’m not here to police anyone or ruin their fun. But stories don’t exist in a vacuum, and media and culture are reflections that inform and influence each other. For me and my fics specifically, it’s important to me that I do my best to tell a story that calls out bad behavior unequivocally and holds that behavior accountable, even if the character exhibiting that bad behavior is the hot, cool love interest. Perhaps even more so because of that, since that’s a Venn diagram with a lot of crossover in general. I do not think I’ve done a perfect job, far from it. I don’t think I haven’t made mistakes (I know I have). But I work closely with my beta, I talk to other writers whose work I admire, and I listen to smart, feminist people whose opinions I respect. I use everything I glean from them to try to write a story that is sensitive to these types of topics. I’ll keep working to improve, as I think all creators should.

#i won't put this in the brick tag #but as far as my stories go this is it people #ppg btm #Anonymous #ppg meta

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