#like how can i enjoy the scene if the female character’s only function is to sex sex hot hot

[theprestigegirly]

i am often SHOCKED at movie misogyny in a way that splash damages the rest of the film for me

[daybrightsims]

🦋❤️👑☀️I've read all of the Twisted Series by Ana Huang, so I need to put my thoughts on Tumblr ☀️👑❤️🦋

For reference, I didn't read them in order. I read Love first, then Lies, then Hate, then Games. But I could follow everything just fine.

Overall thoughts: I really like this series. I don't think they're literary masterpieces, and you can tell the themes that Ms. Huang sticks to in her books. But they're fun, the twists in the stories were good, and they were 🌶🌶🌶 muy caliente 🌶🌶🌶.

I will likely let Games settle for a minute then go back and read them as well as some of the additional material. If you like spicy romance with morally gray men who apparently aren't allowed to have functional families and beautiful, slightly naive women (other than Jules) who also have family issues, all with people who have more money than you will ever have in your lifetime, I recommend.

Below are some of my rankings! ENJOY! 🥰 (Spoilers Ahead)

Books Overall

Games

Hate

Lies

Love (but that doesn't understate its importance in setting up the universe.)

Couples

Josh x Jules

Rhys x Bridget

Christian x Stella

Alex x Ava

Male Leads

Christian (I will not explain)

Josh

Rhys (but it's close)

Alex

Female Leads

Jules

Bridget

Ava

Stella

Best Boombayah Scenes

Hate 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Games (which I was not expecting to be as spicy but 🔥🔥🔥)

Lies (low key wish there were more)

Love (I only remember the one with the couch because I need to reread it)

Nicknames

Princess

Sunshine

Red

Butterfly

Grand Gesture

Ohio

Italy

Costa Rica

London

Proposal

Rhys

Christian

Alex (though him asking Josh was so fucking cute it almost got bumped past Christian)

Josh (mostly because it doesn't happen until fucking Lies epilogue and we DON'T SEE IT)

Best Friend Overall

Ava

Bridget

Jules

Stella

How much I trust the male leads

Rhys (and it's not even close)

Josh

Christian

Alex (but he and Christian are close in the billionaires who've done a lot of shady and illegal things category, I'm just more scared of Alex)

How much I trust the female leads

Ava

Stella

Bridget

Jules

How likely I would date the male lead

Josh (he's the only non broody guy here, and I love a sarcastic, charismatic guy)

Rhys (overall great bf/husband but too broody)

Christian (looks are great but too sociopathic)

Alex (same as above, but Christian is at least charming)

How likely I would date the female lead

Jules (most real and fun)

Stella (looks and sweet)

Ava (most genuine)

Bridget (is a queen and I would be ✨️stressed✨️)

Breakups that hurt my feelings the most

Josh and Jules (which made me cry AND angry)

Alex and Ava (similar to the above)

Christian and Stella

Rhys and Bridget

Reunions that made me cry

Rhys and Bridget

Josh and Jules

Alex and Ava

Christian and Stella

Favorite Twists

Rhys's parentage and the parazzi leak (fuck you, Ellen!)

Who killed Alex's family and Ava's almost murderer

Jules's deal with Christian to get rid of the video

Stella's stalker ID and Magda origins (also shout out to Magda for being one of the most consistent characters for being an ugly painting)

Tropes

Enemies to Lovers (Hate)

Forbidden Love (Games)

Brother's Best Friend (Love)

Fake Dating (Lies)

Best Male Lead Not in Their Own Book

Alex (he literally comes in clutch for everyone)

Christian (in Games specifically)

Rhys (in Lies)

Josh (he's just better in his own book tbh)

Best Female Lead Not in Their Own Book

Ava (literally the glue of that friend group)

Jules (will kill for friends confirmed)

Bridget (because #is queen and for what she did for Ava)

Stella (also just better in her own book)

Best Sexual Tension

Christian and Stella (I was edged for 30 chapters 😫)

Josh and Jules

Rhys and Bridget (but was VERY close to #2)

Alex and Ava (again not fourth by much)

[singlecrow]

I'm going to treat myself and do that thing where you write about your five favourite stories of your own (of the moment). why the hell not.

everything we do is sewn with this colour [DS9] A late-seasons DS9 Julian/Garak story with a very simple premise: Garak teaches Julian to sew. It takes time for Julian to learn, and during that time, the two of them go from being awkward and unhappy friends with benefits to being in a functional romantic partnership. The idea, of course, is that Garak can sew - he's a tailor, he runs a tailoring business, people get married in the dresses he makes - and in a way, this is the only way Julian can be sure Garak isn't lying to him. If Garak teaches him to sew, then it's because Garak really knows how to teach him. It's my only real Julian/Garak, and honestly I don't think I need any more: this is how I see it going. It's also got Miles, Keiko and Kira as a functional triad in the background, because I know what I like. My one grief about this story is that I don't think Phoebe, purplefringe, my beloved Julian Bashir superfan, ever read it.

some things you just can't speak about (wherever they come from, they'll never run out) [DS9/MASH] This is the most fun I've ever had writing anything, ever. Like, somehow I'd never done a MASH Star Trek AU (I have Star Trek AUs for nearly every non-SFF fandom I've ever done, including Sports Night and Master and Commander), but it didn't click until I realised it was a story about the Dominion War, and then suddenly it's a DS9 AU and it's my two favourite things mashed (lol) together. So this! Hawkeye, though not the protagonist, is very much the main character: they're a nonbinary half-Betazoid, still bipolar, still brilliant, still a walking fuck-you to authority. I made no changes at all to the canon version to make them nonbinary, or an actually-psychic empath. (The screaming! I think some ppl thought I had made up the scene where Hawkeye screams in their sleep enough to wake up everyone in the habitat. Nope, the tv one does that, and he isn't psychic.) The only real change to this Hawkeye is that they're ship's CMO - so they do, sometimes, have to give orders. They don't like it, but they do, and in so doing have to betray their competence (love ppl being competent). And also, they wear the Starfleet uniform dresses, because I could not with how cute that would be. I never said in the story that they were afab, but I assume they were just so they'd be shorter than Margaret.

The other thing here is, the tension between Hawk and Margaret in the show is gender. Margaret would thrive, if she could do what Hawkeye can do - if she could be a soft-edged man who gets respect from nearly everyone for his ability and competence, who sleeps around nd never has it damage his reputation. But he can do that, and she, a woman in the 1950s, can't. Instead, she gets harassed and socially punished every time she steps out of line, though fundamentally she's nothing different from him. But Star Trek doesn't have that gender tension, so instead we have Margaret as Bajoran, who doesn't have Hawkeye's privileges as a Federation citizen. And it's the one rift in their otherwise extremely loving best-friends-with-benefits relationship. (my fave! their canon relationship, my favourite in fiction, probably).

BJ, bless him, is exactly unchanged: his role in the story is to observe the others. Even Potter, a female half-Vulcan who tolerates no crap who I enjoyed enormously. Anyway this story is 40k! longer than any other fanfic of mine and probably always will be because I can't imagine anything else being as fun.

a girl wild and unwished for [MASH] Ah. So, it's 1957 and it's not fun. Hawkeye is in his mid-thirties, and he's fine, except one night he's not: following an intense depression, he tries to commit suicide and is stopped barely in time.

Which is a hell of a beginning to a story, and honestly I feel a bit conflicted about it; I've been unhappy for years about how (some bits of) fandom went from to "you should content-note this content" to "you shouldn't make this content". When this sort of thing is so often my subject matter, it often does feel like fandom doesn't want my fiction and it legit was part of the reason I shifted towards pro. But that's by the bye, and I'm trying to write what I want to again. So in this story, Sidney is so worried about Hawkeye's mental state that he persuades him to try psychoactive medication for the first time. And the story becomes, in its way, a retelling of The Bell Jar with Hawkeye in place of Esther Greenwood: so about life and friendship, about New York in summer, about Hawkeye's work and place in the world, all muted and sharpened and modulated by the effect of the drug. Of course it's about Hawkeye's manic depression, but it's also about who he is; about what he can concede of his mind and personality, and what he can't. I was really pleased with this one. Despite the description, it does have jokes in it.

who were captured, who would not yield [Good Omens] A Good Omens story written just after s1, in the summer of 2019. That feral Good Omens summer! That summer where everything was still perfect and beautiful! I remember writing this by hand on the train to Cardiff to Vidukon, to P's endless amusement. The story isn't a romance - Aziraphale and Crowley have sex in it, for purely pragmatic reasons - but a story about what they do now they're not on opposite sides or on sides at all. Like in all my GO stories, they go to Waitrose, as follows:

Everything is fine. Crowley is definitely not having a breakdown in Waitrose.

“Crowley,” Aziraphale says, by the self-service checkouts. “You were supposed to get an avocado pear.”

“Damn your avocado, angel,” Crowley says, trying not be actively diabolical in all directions. The next customer is buying strawberries, whipped cream and WD-40 – it’s a Friday night – and Crowley can make out the scent of unhappy dairy. Everything’s fine. He’s definitely not having a breakdown. Much more of this and there’s going to be an unexpected fire in the bagging area.

in the chillest land on the sea [the Magnus Archives] Until recently this was my longest story on the AO3, because it was co-written with dearthoughthenightisgone (imperfectcircle on the AO3 because of their godawful brand management). It's a very complex Magnus Archives story, where the basic premise is that all the while Jon is accumulating the statements belonging to the fears to go into the Archive, there is one additional power that we don't see: hope, at the bottom of Pandora's box. So every so often he gets a hopeful, happy statement, and eventually - the day in the Scottish cabin where it all goes wrong - the assistance of the hope power makes things go a little differently. I love this story. We had to write the statements! There are five of them and each one is a little standalone work of original fiction. And the two of us are pretty good at jamming together our disparate styles and themes and doing something good with them, but this one was hard - they wanted a happy ending, I wanted a bleak ending, we had to thread that needle. But I think we did it well, because this is the story where I get the most consistently overwhelming and sweet comments, people who read the story while a beloved family member was ill, or when locked down with covid, and took a little comfort from it. There was fanart! It was something special.

meditations ex post facto [Guardian] This is allegedly a Guardian AU. (Guardian is a fantasy cdrama about a guy called Zhao Yunlan who runs a paranormal investigatory agency, and his lovely boyfriend, who is both a local academic and, uh, a mysterious ancient ghost king.) What this is actually is a romantic comedy with lawyers. It's all I want in life. I wrote the entire first half of it in the Apple store in Covent Garden waiting for my updates to install. This is the best bit in it.

Zhao Yunlan can’t actually blame her, because he’s never been any good at hiding his feelings and he’s kind of composing an email to Shen Wei in another window. Deaaaaar Professsssor Sssshen, he writes. The spilled latte from the other day has made itself at home in his keyboard. Zhao Yunlan painstakingly scrolls back and deletes all the extra letters. I reaaaaally want to see you again pleaaaaaaassse come to dinner with me.

Not at all weird. 

Shen Wei, I was planning to go for noodles tonight. Perhaps you’d like to accompany me.

Weirdly formal, but better. He presses send before he realises that “planning” still has two extra As and a stray Z.

[variousqueerthings]

SO Hungry Earth/Cold Blood happening. I understand what these episodes are saying and doing and I quite enjoy a fair bit of them -- I think they're overall quite underrated in this season in favour of flashier episodes, however the politics aren't quite all there

I think this episode is one thing if you haven't seen classic!who and another perhaps if you have... slightly. mainly in the sense that it's essentially telling the same story as back in s7/Jon Pertwee's era, so there are comparisons to be made about what it's choosing to add to that story

back in that story ofc the Brigadier killed the Silurians that existed there, and in this one the Silurians are pretty antagonistic...

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 6/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored): 5/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 8/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 6/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 9/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 10/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 9/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 8/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 6/10

FULL RATING: 70/100 (if I can count….)

high ratings on the whole!

OBJECTIFICATION: Overall not too bad + there are several interesting women in this, of which the only one who's got any sexy-related jokes made about her... is Amy

so they step out of the Tardis and the Doctor announces Rio, except they accidentally landed in Wales, and therefore Amy is wearing... NOT a miniskirt, but minishorts. because she dressed for Rio (as if she would have dressed otherwise according to show-canon)

this is then the source of several jokes about how she's not dressed for the weather, because she dressed for Rio. Otherwise, pretty chill

PLOT-POINT: Amy's feelings are not really central to the story... until the end....... at which point Rory is swallowed by the crack and Amy tries desperately not to forget him, but of course she does

now this is of course where we're at subjectively with Amy/Rory, but I don't buy their relationship, which went from pretty bad to ride-or-die without any real reason for Amy's change of heart (or indeed Rory believing in it) -- when we see her trying to remember Rory they put in scenes of their past, there's not really... much to show. because the show hasn't given them real moments. one of the "bits that establishes their deep love" when she's trying not to forget him is when she was so uncomfortable being associated with him on a romantic level that he had to pretend to be her brother

However if we look at before that/assume they are deeply in love. there's an interesting thing that's happened where Rory really wants to protect Amy and is angry that the Doctor "allows" her to be in danger (both in Venice and here), but then of course it's Rory who ends up dead and forgotten

that's kind of sad. bit sexist, because again, Amy is not a part of this journey that Rory's having, but the underlying Stuff is sad

also camerawork: for some reason we're not really following Amy through the grief she feels about Rory dying, when she's screaming at the door, the camera is on the Doctor's face. it's the Doctor watching Amy lose her fiance, not... Amy....

COMPLEXITY: it's quite simple, sets up the conflict and then the denouement, and it's really mostly about how people react to the situation more than anything

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: we get a continuation of a plot from 1970, which is fun! and reintroduces the Silurians. the crack returns at the end, it seems to be stalking them... wonder what that's all about (I say, pretending I don't know)

character dynamics... eh, not so much. the main Thing in that is that Rory is killed, but there's not much of Amy and Rory before that on the whole, or Amy and the Doctor, or indeed the Doctor and Rory

COMPANIONS MATTER: Amy gets captured and then she escapes and then she gets captured again and then they let everyone go and then she sits at the table to talk about the future of Silurian/human alliances, and she's definitely not qualified and for some reason the director thought that her putting her head in her hands didn't make her look bored and out of her depth, and then they run away and Rory is killed and she forgets because of the crack in the wall *deep breath*

Rory for his part is... there. and then gets killed/erased

the other characters in this episode are the weight -- the people who have opinions, who have ideas, who make decisions (for good and for bad), who are emotional anchors, etcetcetc. Amy and Rory aren't really important to it, they could just as well not be there, but for the ending which could have been inserted into any episode

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: definitely just a guy! we love that! and he makes a few mistakes (takes his eye off Elliot the kid), and apologises, and really just wants everyone to get along!

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: It directly talks about the previous time Silurians and humans met and says that the humans killed them, which... yeah, is what happened. I don't think it necessarily needed more than that, especially considering they're different people to the ones they met before

"SEXINESS": Are we free at last? of witty sexiness? (maybe that's just Chibnall). Lost a point for Amy's final line though

INTERNAL WORLD: I quite like the Silurian set-up. it's especially fun on top of the previous episode, giving the Silurians more scale across the earth

the human characters also feel connected and interesting and like their dynamics matter

POLITICS: listen, they're talking about... sharing the earth. which they both have claim over. I think it has very good intentions, but its issue lies in the fact that I'm watching it in 2023 and it's therefore quite simple. but I believe in its beliefs! I like that it's trying to explore this. but yeah, it doesn't quite manage stick the landing

I think some of the experimentation storyline has uncomfortable AF connotations, especially considering the Doctor is like "well as long as you're only dissecting live adults and storing the young in a slowed down life-cycle so you can study their growth, that's good guy science"

also Amy being like "what about all these places that are deserted" and talks about places that have historically had indigenous people living there... but then Amy shouldn't have been there to begin with

I really like the characters who very consistently are like "lol no, we don't like humans/Silurians" and their minds aren't changed and they do indeed fuck it up at the end

the Doctor telling Elliot "let it be known, this planet is to be shared." this episode literally takes place in the 2020s. fascinating. what to do with all this. I'm not sure the episode quite knows

FULL RATING: 70/100 (if I can count….)

SO ON THE WHOLE: where this episode does good is on the other characters. I'm a big fan of them. It's a part of the world-building, which generally works for me, and is further cemented by being a loose continuation of a classic!who plot

where it doesn't work so well is the companions, who don't really fit into the story and are just tagging along and aren't given emotional dynamics that then lead into the supposed tragedy of Rory dying

the politics have both good and bad elements, but on the whole I like what it's trying to do, even if it doesn't quite manage it

also noting that Amy seeing herself in the future doesn't track with hers and Rory's eventual actual fates, I believe.... but I guess M*ffat can get away with it because everything is unfixed

[corruptimles]

Hi! I stumbled across my ask where I asked you about your thoughts on Geats's first episode, and with the show coming to an end, I wanted to see how you felt about it now, if you've kept up with it? I really liked it, it gave me brain worms

I've been enjoying Geats a lot! I'll try to keep this brief review mostly spoiler-less just in case.

It so far has had the most dynamic and fun fight choreography in Reiwa? Though some scenes from Zero-One still live rent-free in my brain (Fuwa my beloved). It's just really refreshing compared to the previous season. I love the use of environment and more hand-to-hand that can actually be seen without flashy effects. Not to say it doesn't have occasional colourful cgi, but the usage is more consistent for when an attack's power/type actually calls for it. Characters take creative actions with their tools! Buffa using his feet/leg to kickstart his chainsaw because it's a big heavy weapon also lives rent-free in my head. Different characters use the same power-up different ways. I have more actual examples to prove I'm not just over-exaggerating but those are big spoilers. I just like the Geats is consistent with having fights with flow and appeal and suiting different characters styles. Important when they can change or lose their power-up weapons so often w how DGP suits work.

The designs are cleaannnn. The emphasis on the undersuit as a base uniform that is functionally customizable? That's very fun. It has a consistent belt/power-up gimmick and is surprisingly versatile despite people only using the same one or two belt type. (Not groundbreaking as other KR shows have done limited tech before as well, due to literally only having 1-3 riders at most, but important to me) I don't think there's a design I really dislike from Geats. There's suit combinations being jarring colour combos but they're temporary anyway. And the ones that looks clunky and alien were, well, those made sense really.

It's done some things that I wasn't expecting from KR, at least from a Reiwa/Heisei 2 style. Heisei 1 had its serious/scary moments since those leaned more into the J-Drama side but those were yearsss ago so seeing it in Geats was an interesting whiplash (SPOILER: referring to some scenes/revelations that surrounded child death and existentialism)

I do have nitpicks but not enough to really ruin the experience for me. To be vague, it's about an arc's relevance/writing, a specific character's writing, and a more inconsequential thing like lack of some specific character designs.

I'm curious on how it'll wrap up since this is the first time Yuya Takahashi wouldn't have to rewrite and rush anything due to unforeseen circumstances like with Ex-Aid and Zero-One

Realized how often I use the word 'consistent' lol. It's just one of my pet peeves if rider/power systems are just, thrown away, and people start getting belts and forms up the wazoo w no decent explanation. [deletes a bunch of typing here] That's another few paragraphs worth of explanation so I'll shorten it to this: it makes it less tv show and more toy commercial, if that makes sense.

anyway Neon is my favourite female rider by far

edit: oh I haven't caught up w the last two eps yet

[jasonbehrs]

‘why didn’t i say it a million times’ impressions

writing this after finishing the whole series, so i refer to things out of order. spoilers under the cut.

these are not all of my thoughts, just the most overarching ones. if you’re watching and want to dump your play by play reactions on someone who will get it, definitely hit me up! i have plenty of both criticism and appreciation for the show :)

~~~

i started watching for sato takeru (sttkr) and sttkr only. i am so glad netflix doesn’t allow screenshots anymore or else my phone’s memory would be in huge trouble lol he portrayed naoki so CUTELY!

matsuyama kenichi (matsunichi) is another huge fave of mine, and i was wondering why he accepted a non-lead role for this drama. between the two of them (sttkr and matsunichi), he is definitely the better choice for the role considering the possession power. i love sttkr and think he’s talented, but i don’t think he’s better than matsunichi for pulling that off.

that being said, the show runners completely /wasted/ him. he wasn’t possessed nearly often enough to show off his acting acumen, and the detective stuff was very rote and not quite action heavy either. i appreciate what he brought, but i feel bad for him.

that being said (x2), i loved every scene where he and sttkr were partnered. matsunichi moves his face so much, and sttkr seems to forget he has a face to move. the visual dichotomy is so deeply pleasing to me. i need them to act together again, and in something better! (also, i cannot BELIEVE naoki did not hug uozumi in the last episode! where is the gratitude he spoke so much about? lol)

this is my first time watching inoue mao act, and i was not impressed. she is suuuper cute, but i don’t think she had a lot of screen presence. is it the character, or is it her?

speaking of her character, no one can convince me yui is the main character. she may be the female lead and inoue mao may be at the top of the call sheet, but this is a story /about/ naoki. we meet his family, we understand his regrets, we watch the lengths he’s willing to go to and not go to where it concerns the one he loves. yui’s idealism is still storytelling, but the realism in naoki doesn’t just reveal more about his personality, it drives 50% of the emotional plot. (it is worth saying that the other 50% comes from uozumi’s reactions to naoki’s decisions. doesn’t leave a whole lot for yui!!!)

i’ve seen some reviews so far that say the script wasn’t good enough for the superstar leads, and i hard agree. no one said it yet, but i hope no one blames the ensemble cast for it. i loooved all of the secondary characters. song hayoung is my ultimate favourite, the elder uozumi is my second. 🤍🤍🤍 (i love when there’s korean language in my jdramas lol)

i get that the murder mystery plot is necessary with a premise like ‘main character is a ghost but doesn’t know how he died’, but wow i was not invested at all. i could tell eisuke was involved from that very first shot of the grape jellies. i also think his motivation for murder seemed weak? most people break friendships over a misunderstanding like that, they don’t /kill/ the other party omg. the romantic aspect of the show and everyone’s interpersonal relationships were far more compelling. i WOULD watch 50 minutes of unwitting polyamorous negotiations between the dead naoki, the smitten uozumi, and the oblivious yui.

i can’t enjoy episode 10 for what it is. i understand it’s an epilogue/SP of sorts, but the fact that they saved The Reason The Show Is Named What It Is for the final conversation instead of the climax conversation in episode 9 really devalues the watching experience. i disliked 9 while watching, and i disliked it even more once i understood the function of episode 10. honestly, most of 10  could have been a montage, and i’d have derived the same level of satisfaction

the last 40 seconds though, excellent.  when you know he's gone and you're making peace with it at the same time yui is.............................. and then the whistle hits? i gasped. i wished there were no dialogue after that, but it was a good enough feeling that i rated it a 9/10 on mydramalist instead of the 8 i was gonna give it originally lol. ENDINGS MATTER!

speaking of which, i’ve noticed that jdramas lately are trending towards less bitter, more sweet endings. more definitive endings too. a lot of what drew me to jdramas was emotional heaviness, bittersweet quality, and open endings which kdramas and cdramas just weren’t providing me. i suspect that this is an appeal to global audiences, but i hope this is just temporary. i love payoff as much as the next person, but i also love thinking about the story long after it’s over. i’m getting less of that now, and i miss it

if you read to the end, thank you for your time! i hope you have a lovely day :)

[ciaossu-imagines]

I really liked your answers to my question on K for day fourteen, I also agree with a decent amount of your points. Could you also do day fourteen prompt five for Bungo Stray Dogs please?

I’m very happy to hear someone enjoyed reading my fandom thoughts, and it’s really cool to hear that people agree or find reasons in some of them! I can definitely do this and hope you’ll enjoy reading my thoughts here as well, my lovely anon!

Send me a show and I’ll tell you…

The first character I fell in love with

It was, like most people in this fandom, Dazai. I still adore his character and think he’s fantastic, but he’s not the reason I continue reading anymore, or at least, not the sole reason.

The character who is my ‘baby’

I honestly don’t have any characters in this particular fandom that trigger that ‘this character is precious, and I will love them and take care of them and never let anything bad happen to them’ response in me.

The character who I do not understand

I find Mori to be really hard for me. I find it difficult to really understand and flesh out his character in my mind, I find him difficult to write, and I find him difficult overall to enjoy even in canon as a character. I’ve even tried reading a translation of Vita Sexualis and researching the author he’s based off of to further try to understand his character and flesh it out, but generally, he’s impossible for me.

The character that I think the show ruined

While not exactly ‘ruined’, I think the manga (and the show, by extension, really could have done so much more with the Guild members, particularly Louisa May Alcott, though I could be very biased there as she is one of my all-time favourite authors, to the point she occupies a large section of the ‘As’ on my bookshelf. I just feel that, in terms of characterization and even character designs, she just fell really, really flat and bland to me.

The most attractive male and female character

I really enjoy androgynous looking characters and Gin is absolutely gorgeous to me, both in her appearance Mafia-wise and in her civilian clothes. I’m going to surprise everyone here by my pick for the most attractive (to me) male characters and admit that both Ango and Tachihara tie for that position! Also admitting fully that I adore Ango and hate how much hate he gets.

The character death that was the worst for me

It’s Odasaku! I feel like, from what we see of him in story and especially after reading Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era, that…well, honestly, I feel like he’s such a compelling, interesting, wonderful character and while I understand that he was never supposed to be a primary character and that the storyline he has and even his death was absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of the story, I feel a little cheated by how many amazing storylines and how many amazing scenes we could have had if only he’d lived. Also, not quite a death, but can we all just admit that Kunikida…that boy is not having a good time lately and while I’m really loving the twists and turns of the story, everything with him is slightly breaking my heart.

The character that is the most like me

I do resonate quite strongly with Kunikida’s character. There’s a lot me I can see in some of his character quirks, beliefs, and mannerisms but I will say that he’s a lot more rigid than I am in some ways.

The character that I just want to be happy

All and none of them, haha. In some way, because I do love every character, I do want them all to reach happy endings or to enjoy good times. But at the same time, while it can come off campy or super silly at times, the world of Bungou Stray Dogs is very noir-ish at times and it’s definitely quite dark and not a world where happy endings are guaranteed and I do also really, really love that aspect to the whole thing and would hate to lose it.

My four favourite characters, past or present

Narrowing it down is so freaking hard!! Ranpo, Lovecraft, Akutagawa, and Chuuya would probably be what I could narrow it down to though.

My four least favourite characters, past or present

Again, this was so hard!! Mori was the only one that popped right into my head, and as for the other three, I guess Alcott, Q, Lucy, and Pushkin rate up there for various reasons.

[spectre-writes]

Why you should read 'The Witch and the Beast' manga by Kousuke Satake

Alrighty folks, time to talk about this manga:

Looking at the covers, you're probably thinking ‘oh, this is some cute paranormal romance kinda thing, right?’ Well, that where you’re wrong… this manga is a hell of a lot more action packed and filled with horror than you’re thinking, and while there’s certainly a degree of… ‘something’ going on, it’s subtle, it’s complicated, and it’s anyone’s guess where it’s going. 

Heads up that there will be a few spoilers in this. I'll start off by dropping some fight scene panels so you know I'm not fibbing about how action packed this manga is:

This is a dark fantasy where the world is one filled with magic, where witches are considered the biggest threat, and have a reputation as being evil (which while not all are, there are some super bad ones out there). Basic plot is about our two main characters taking on witches.

So, who are our main characters? Well, first off we have Ashaf. He’s a mage working for ‘the order of magical resonance’, which specializes in dealing with magical problems/threats. He’s polite, calm and collected, and acts like everything is going to plan (even when it very much isn’t). Carries around a coffin and has crow familiars so a treat for you goths out there. His motives are… ambiguous but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Our second character is Guideau, someone who is violent, fowl mouthed, rash and… pretty much Ashaf’s complete opposite. But she’s agreed to work with him and the order. Why? Well, she’s been cursed by a witch, and needs to find that witch to break the curse… What curse you ask? Well… minor spoilers, but that’s not Guideau’s actual body… Guideau’s actual body is a beast of world destructive power that looks like this:

Yep, that’s right. Massive non-bindary/genderfluid energy there… my personal interpretation is non-binary in a sort of ‘whatever pronouns are most convenient go, but idgaf I just wanna kill that witch’ way, based on the fact Guideau never objects to anyone using female pronouns or male pronouns or states their gender. 

In fact, this whole manga has massive queer vibes… As well as another character later on who plays fast and loose with gender roles, there’s a way to temporarily break a witch’s curse (giving Guideau access to his original body), wanna know what it is? You have to kiss a witch… so yeah, we get scenes like this:

I really wasn’t expecting this and personally this whole aspect of the manga was a treat, though I get that might not be a factor for everyone.

There are some great side characters too, my personally favourite being a necromancer and her servant. She’s very sympathetic/kind to the dead and believes in treating them with respect, which is refreshing to see.

Now, Ashaf and Guideau… it’s complicated. Guideau’s motive is simply to find a way to remove her curse by locating the witch that cursed her, and that’s the only reason she agreed to work with Ashaf. As for Ashaf… well, he says their interests align, and I’d say he definitely has some stake in this, but there’s definitely some stuff he’s keeping quiet about and that’s something we’re going to slowly have to unravel. But I think it’s fair to say they’re growing closer, the question is… where exactly is that leading? I genuinely don’t know and that’s part of what I’m enjoying the most, I pretty much never get invested in stuff like this but I'm hooked. Big spoilers ahead but look at these panels and tell me you’re not intrigued…

Now, as for the world building… I really love how mages write to cast, it’s a nice little detail, and I enjoyed learning about how necromancy functions in this world. The witches also seem to have quite varied powers, which can make their fights seem more unique and means you don’t always know what to expect from them (unless you know their lineage). There’s vampires too if that’s your thing, elementals, and who knows what else going forward. I’m curious to learn more about ‘the order of magical resonance’, there’s definitely some mystery there too… Solid stuff on the whole.

I just… really love this series, and I’d love more people to give it a try too. My only warning is there is some gore, so if that’s an issue for you unfortunately you might have to give this one a pass. Otherwise, please give it a shot! It deserves attention.

[fifiliphaser]

We all know how that will end, but I’ve just gotten up and I think that some violence is in order.

But yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've been in quite a few fandoms and it's blatant that Aziraphale is basically getting what I call the "female character treatment", down to the bar for his decisions and actions being so much higher than for Crowley's. The fact that he functions (and I personally think that to some extent identifies) as an effeminate gay man is the main contributing factor to this; I also think that he has a couple of other characteristics that make him less, say, "appealing" to the fandom at large (on top of what you have already mentioned in your other posts).

Firstly, he's not thin. And I don't really want to elaborate on this too much -- the point is clear -- but I think that that may contribute to somehow sidelining him in the fandom discourse (we all know how it is).

Secondly, he's rather old-fashioned in his style and to some extent also behaviour, and that is not cool. Sure, he's faithful to his own sense of style and what he is comfortable in, but you can see it and think that he's behind or too ignorant to keep up (even though we know that that's not the case; my favourite example here is his knowledge of current technology as described in the book vs. how TV show portrayed it and how fans have been reading it). Looking weird, but not in a fashionable sense might be seen by people as just weird (and not in a positive light; sure, there are people who enjoy wearing old-fashioned clothing and so on, but I think generally if it goes beyond what is considered fashionable within mainstream or the community at large, it might be considered by some as silly).

And lastly, he's kind, but not in a way that Crowley is. He's kind in a way that some people might consider naive (even though he clearly isn't that). I really like your take on how Aziraphale always has faith in Crowley, which isn't the case the other way around. I would extend it even more - Aziraphale has faith not only in Crowley, but also in humans, Heaven, and God. I think that's what's driving his decisions - he believes that all of the above have good intentions in the end, but he does so not from a place of naivety, but a conscious choice. He chooses to believe that Crowley is good, that humans are good, that Heaven is good, and that God has an ineffable plan that is good - and that faith is what allows him to persist in his angelhood (dunno if that's a word, but well - it is now).

And I know this for a fact - that's exactly what the opening scene of season 2 shows us. I don't think that a person who blindly follows the system would be so worried about who might hear Crowley's questions, unless they are well-aware of what the consequences to that might be and they don't think those consequences are okay. He tries to stop Crowley's questioning not because he thinks that the questioning itself is bad, but because he's worried for his fellow angel.

Just this scene fully shows us why Aziraphale chooses to go back to Heaven, even without Crowley - he doesn't have all the information, and his choice will most likely backfire, but he believes his doing the right thing, by himself, by Crowley, and by the humanity. He's ready to make things right, because he has faith that he can.

(And that's why all the theories about coffee and whatnot infuriate me so much, because not only do they take away from his character, but they also take away Aziraphale's agency - which is a definition of the "female character treatment".)

Do I want to choose Ultimate Violence on TikTok and talk about how Aziraphale’s effeminate presentation and more non-conventionally attractive appearance has significantly contributed to the unfair treatment he receives from part of the fandom or do I want to keep posting Supernatural memes?

[jenna--ortega]

okay so it’s not my business and i guess i get it for newcomers to this site to see a name and assume it’s the actual celebrity but it always makes me laugh when i see those types of asks 🤣 anyways

hello again winnie! so about universal studios yes it is a theme park but it has backlots and sets where shows are filmed so it has two types of tours. one comes with the park (the studio tour) where it takes you around the backlot and you see different sets where movies were filmed like back to the future and it doubles as two rides with king kong and fast&furious. one of the best things about the park tbh. the one that costs extra is the vip tour and they walk you around the park and take you to warehouses where set pieces are kept and you don’t have to wait in the lines as much. if you ever go i’d recommend going during halloween just because they do extra but either way the food is good and makes it worth the price. i used to work there and i may have access to some leftover tickets if you’re interested!

&yes! it is so good i’m only on s3 but castle and casket have me in a chokehold. though now i wish i had watched aos since you seem to like it more 😅 so please lmk!

well now i’m jealous i wanted to play the violin and yes i play the flute and saxophone. also want to learn how to play the harp. i love the sound, like it seems so calming. so you’ve done recitals? did you enjoy them? sorry to hear that you were forced to play instruments you never wanted to but i have to admit that i laughed at the side comment 😆

i try to listen to a bit of everything but mainly r&b and pop. i like rock music and i’ve been getting into classical too. it makes nice background noise when i’m making edits.

what about sports? and movies? what are your favorite foods and are you looking forward to the upcoming holidays?

-psc secret santa

Hi there 👋 it's funny to see there's actually newcomers and people are trying to figure out how the site works. But actually we don't know how this shit works half the time because it's not actually functioning most of the time 🤣

That sounds amazing 😍 I'll be sure to visit next time I'm in the area. I've always wonder what it's like to work in a theme park, I've seen so many people working over at Disneyland during the summers in uni. But I just didn't think I'm right for the job, can't stand the heat/ sun and generally not a cheery person. But people seems to have lots of fun. Just wondering though, do your tickets have expiry dates 😅

Omg now that you're on s3, can we talk about the s2 finale?!!!!! It always had me in tears 😭😭😭😭 they could've been together right then & there. I mean I get it, they're kinda the main couple, so the writers had to drag out their relationship for multiple seasons to come. But still talk about bad timing 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 also, s2 is probably one of my fav, especially the 2 episodes case tick tick tick & boom 😍 there're gonna be some iconic scenes in s3, not gonna spoil it for you.

Do I like aos more than castle?! I don't think so. I just happened to be obsessing with AoS when I started giffing and I guess I got too comfortable, like I know the scenes, which ones work well with each other etc. Castle will always have a special place in my heart, and Kate Beckett is my first on screen idol, like nothing will quite live up to your first love. But aos did come close. Personally I was already really interested in this kind of black ops operation in the marvel movies and wished they had more screen time, and marvel turning it into a TV show is basically a dream come true. I just love Melinda May since ep 1, and has been relating to her since ep 2, and I don't think I've ever related to a character this much. Like female badasses are often written as cold and closed off with the excuse of a traumatic experience, and there's little depths to their characters, either because it's a movie or a series that didn't survive long enough for character devInnelopment. But with May, sure the tropes applied, but even early on you can see that she has a heart and that she cares very deeply. And that she smiles and play jokes secretly. Her whole quiet, stoic personality wasn't necessarily the outcome of the trauma, but more so just who she is, and it just felt very natural and genuine to me and I relate soooo much, and I guess her being Chinese helped with that too. Like it was from that moment I understand how important diversity and representation are to so many people.

This got kinda long, but you got me into talking about castle & aos so it's bound to happen. I would highly recommend aos if you like sci-fi & marvel. They had more tie-ins with the movies in s1-s3, but honestly the show got better when they kinda diverged from it and did their own thing. The writing is pretty mind blowing, and the fight scenes & cgi got better each season. It's ridiculous the amount of stuff they did in the timeframe they had. My personal favs are s1 & s4, s1 mostly for nostalgia and it was the world/ characters building season, s4 (maybe ep 9 forward) was simply phenomenal. S5 was mind blowing you'll probably have to watch it twice to understand everything 😅

Harp is such a beautiful instrument, but it's like huge and expensive. Where I live, very few people's apartments are big enough to store that. So it's a very rich people kind of instrument to us. And I have only listened to it in a handful of occasions. But I know more kids are learning it these days, because apparently piano is too basic 😒 The only recitals I've done are in competitions and exams and idk if it counts, and those are really stressful. But I do enjoy playing the piano in front of (non-judgy) friends & families where we just basically chill, usually people I play in front of know how to play it too so they wouldn't care if there's a slip or it's not perfect etc. It's more so sharing what pieces we were playing at the moment.

I would say violin could be way more complicated, but idk how it compares to playing the flute because I know it is hard to play the flute well too. But I think it wouldn't hurt to take some lessons and see if you like it or not.

I'm not really into sports, but I do like swimming and it's pretty much the only thing I did as a kid. I just love being in the water, it's so calming & cooling. Just the pools though, preferably indoors, the beach really isn't for me. I've always wanted to learn Kung Fu was a kid, like I can feel it in my blood, but my parents only made my younger brother who doesn't want to learn it to go to taekwondo lessons, and don't allow me to go. As a kid, I thought because it's not ladylike, but I found out years and years later it's because my parents saw that I was so good at it and I often fight with my brother (because he's an a**hole as a kid) and there's pretty much no fighting chance for my brother, so my parents wanted to equip him with some fighting skills. But jokes on them, he hates it and drops it after a couple lessons and I kinda resented them for that. It wasn't until in my early 20s that my dad suggested we take some lessons from a Thai boxing coach that his colleagues recommended, because I gained quite some weight after my weight loss rebound. My whole family went for the first couple of lessons, and the coach straight up asked if I have learnt wing chun (another type of Kung Fu) before because I punch like that style, and I said no I've never had any lessons, then I turned to my mum and said now you see how you've wasted a Kung Fu talent (kidding not kidding). I need to work on my cardio but I would say my instincts are pretty good, even more so as a kid, it got "duller" overtime because I often being called "over reactive" to stimuli (like getting hit/ touch accidentally by people/ objects).

I'm more of a TV show kind of person, especially those 20+ eps per season like how it used to be. There's more room for character development and more things for me to obsess over. Good movies are like a nice treat, but I watched it and moved on. Some of my favourite series are hp, Narnia, marvel, basically the ones I grew up with.

Favourite foods: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Italian, French (mostly pastries & desserts)

We don't do much for Christmas but I've always loved my mum's gingerbreads. I used to look forward to Starbuck's peppermint mocha, but it has kinda been discontinued here for years. I actually went to a Starbucks while travelling in the states just to get peppermint mocha 🤣 I do love peppermint, in tea, sweets, chocolate, etc.

The bigger holiday we celebrate is actually Chinese new year a month later. My mum always makes all these traditional foods and snacks and they're so delicious, store bought ones, even the fanciest ones can't compare (especially the first 2 pics). It's like a lot of work. I'll just put in some pics for you in case you have no idea what I'm talking about 😅

And then there're ones that we just buy from the store.

Basically a lot of fried food 😅

I always say I don't talk much, but when asked the right questions I blab on and on about it, hope you don't mind.

Merry Christmas! 🎄

[dippedanddripped]

Old Nollywood aesthetics and fashion may be considered trendy today, but the films were not always so well-regarded. In the 90s and early 2000s, when these movies were made and watched in parlours across Nigerian homes as they were shot, straight-to-video, they were considered as bad entertainment, or ‘low culture’. To watch and enjoy Nollywood films was to celebrate mediocrity. But today, nostalgic young Millennials and Gen Zers are overlooking the jarring audio, grainy pictures, and sometimes hammy acting, to appreciate not only the grooming and style of the actors, but the original and diverse stories that reflect unique Nigerian experiences.

It was for this reason that sisters Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu started Nolly Babes, a nostalgic Instagram account dedicated to celebrating the cinematic period’s women. Started in December 2017, their first post was of Nollywood’s biggest star Genevieve Nnaji; a still taken from 2004 film Sharon Stone In Abuja, directed by Adim Williams. Nnaji plays the titular character, a sexually liberated young woman who uses her beauty and charm to ensnare unassuming men into doing her bidding.

The account is an ode to the female characters of old Nollywood who were often portrayed as warning examples. The storylines were steeped in moral principles rooted in the patriarchal culture and the dominant Christian religion of Southern Nigeria. A large number of the female characters were considered immoral because they kissed other women, challenged men, smoked and drank, or wore mini skirts. Today, Nolly Babes and similar accounts are reimagining these women, taking their scenes out of the moralistic context of the films, and turning them into iconic feminist personas.

The first time Nollywood content seeped into the mainstream internet consciousness can be traced back to 2017 when videos of Nollywood’s favourite comedic duo Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme, better known as Aki and Pawpaw, rose to popularity due mostly to the influence of a now-defunct Twitter account @nollywoodroll ran by Nicole, a woman based in Brazil.

Their memes became the go-to reaction videos for expressing a wide range of emotions: joy, disappointment, sadness, frustration. The appeal was in seeing children making mischief or in adult situations – drinking beer and smoking cigars, wooing bigger women, or in oversized suits shouting instructions at people twice their size. Although both Ikedieze and Iheme were in their 20s in the early 2000s when most of the films were made, they mostly played children because of their body stature. By 2019, the memes had achieved such virality that brands like Rihanna’s Fenty would use them for social media clout.

Theodora Imaan Beauvais is the curator of Yung Nollywood, another archive of clips and stills from old Nollywood paying homage to its controversial female characters, after screenshotting moments from Nollywood she found “appealing or inspirational”. Yung Nollywood is remarkably distinct from Nolly Babes for its subtitling of the films’ stills from Nollywood films, something she attributes to Tumblr. While the idea to give witty captions to the actors’ facial expressions came from watching Netflix. “I thought, ‘If someone could describe Nollywood reactions in short phrases it’d be an art form on its own,’ and I became that someone.’”

In December 2019, Tochi and Ebele hosted a Nollywood-themed party in Lagos. Nollywood actor and musician Nonso Bassey attended the party dressed in a two-piece jean set and bucket hat, a signature look of the bad boy/alpha male archetype, and a role reprised multiple times by older actors such as Hanks Anuku, Emeka Ike, and Jim Iyke. Since that party, Nonso has attended social functions and premieres in outfits that make a nod to the fashion choices of that era of Nollywood. He insists, though, that he isn’t cosplaying Nollywood characters of that era. “I’ve always been attracted to the idea of merging old world charm with a new school approach,” he said.

The party caused a cultural stir amongst Nigerians and Africans both at home and in the diaspora – every other week, there seems to be a Nollywood-themed party held either in Lagos or London. Take for instance friends and business partners Imani Okunubi and Aseosa Uwagboe, two Nigerian-British kids who grew up in the UK. Nollywood was one of the ways they could connect back to their roots. That experience informs their event brand, Lasgidi to London, targeted at Nigerians living in the UK. “We wanted to create events that were reminiscent of the Naija hall parties (Owambe) we attended as kids, as we don’t want to see that culture die,” Aseosa said. Their next owambe is a Nollywood-themed party and guests are expected to come dressed in their “best nolly Y2K aesthetic”.

Below, the Nolly Babes sisters talk about creating and hosting the first Nollywood-themed party and the cultural moment it has inspired.

How did that first event come about – please take me through it, from the planning to how it turned out?

Nolly Babes: From the inception of Nolly Babes, we knew we had to throw a party. Fashion is a huge part of what makes Nolly Babes different from other Nollywood-themed pages and we knew we were the only ones that could set Nolly Babes as the dress code and have people commit as they did. There are many iconic Nollywood scenes and scenarios. The daughter meeting her evil mother-in-law, the ominous visit to the Babalawo, the campus stroll – just the mere mention of these scenes evokes images that have been embedded in the minds of our fellow Nollywood enthusiasts. The party scene is probably the most iconic of them all. Whether it’s in a club, a mansion while mum and dad are out of town (but coming home early to crash the whole thing) or poolside, the Nolly Babes party scene has its staples: mad music, dancing, and sick outfits.

December in Lagos is notoriously hectic. On each day, there are day parties, beach hangouts, concerts, and we just knew we had to be a part of it. Our flyer was the first thing we made sure was done right, and that has been replicated (but never duplicated) many many times. We went through at least six drafts of that until we got the flyer to be a realistic replica of the home video covers from the golden era. The DJs Kemi Lijadu and vIVENDII Sounds understood the assignment and played music from the Nolly Babes era. We’re talking Tony Tetuila, Mo Hitz, Wande Coal, Plantation Boyz… We curated a special cocktail menu: Genny Colladas, Jim Iyke’s Hard Lemonade, MargaRita Dominic, and our Lagos Island Iced Tea, in tribute to Nollywood stars Genevieve Nnaji, Jim Iyke, and Rita Dominic respectively. We had a video projection on the famous red wall at Nok showing a mashup of emblematic scenes. We were partying while seeing images of a young Jim Iyke dressed just like many of the attendees were dressed. It was magical! We have an event we’re planning in New York for the summer – it’s going to be a madness.

Did you envisage it becoming the cultural movement it’s now become?

Nolly Babes: We really didn’t. We hosted the party because we knew people were taking inspiration from our page for styling jobs and music video treatments, and wanted to give everyone a chance to recreate some of their favourite looks. Now every week we see people planning Nollywood-themed parties and sending people to our page for references. It’s awesome. Toke Makinwa even recently attended a Nolly Babes-themed party and she was dressed as a character we have immortalised – Regina Askia in President’s Daughter. She killed it! Even though the character wasn’t referenced, it was clear as day and it was awesome to see that she pulled it off! Honestly, when we see people really pay attention to detail and execute the theme well it’s so, so dope.

How has TikTok helped grow Nollywood's influence? You posted a scene from Girls Cot, the famous “you stink with poverty” clip on TikTok and it went viral and birthed these recreations even by non-Africans.

Nolly Babes: We’re just happy to see that another aspect of Nollywood that we champion – the iconic scenes and one-liners – is also resonating across the world. We see Nolly Babes as an archival work and as much as we focus on beauty and looks on Instagram, it’s nice to be able to point people in the direction of the scenes that are forever embedded in our brains. These are scenes we recreated in jest ourselves before there was even a Nolly Babes to begin with, so to see it catching on TikTok is exciting and a new frontier for us to fully explore. I think what distinguishes Nolly Babes from other Nollywood pages and what contributes to our TikTok success is that we really watch Nollywood movies. We grew up watching these movies and continue to do so now so we can capture those moments in films that the casual consumer or poster of Nollywood content might not.

What are your thoughts on Nollywood’s influence on the Alté scene? Music videos of artists such as Lady Donli and Odunsi nod to the aesthetic and fashion styles of that era.

Nolly Babes: Nollywood, and specifically the aesthetic we have shone a spotlight on, is probably one of the biggest influences in terms of visuals in that scene right now. I have never seen so many Eucharia (Anunobi) eyebrows on TV and we love it! It’s awesome to see our images and scenes being used in treatments and storyboards. If we’re being candid, we think it would be great if we got the chance to step into our stylist/creative direction bag and help with the execution of the aesthetic.

“The bottom line is really that Nolly Babes has brought what was already an international cultural influence to the modern social media realm with a new lens” – Nolly Babes

How far do you see Nollywood's influence on pop culture, beyond Nigeria and Africa?

Nolly Babes: When we moved to New York we found our Dominican and South American friends had also grown up watching Nollywood films. The bottom line is really that Nolly Babes has brought what was already an international cultural influence to the modern social media realm with a new lens. Nollywood clips were online everywhere – but it was always in a comedic way. Aki and PawPaw are meme gods now, and that’s because their expressions transcend cultural boundaries. Black Twitter eats that stuff up.

Nolly Babes chooses to center the beauty, style, and iconic imagery, even the home decor with our #NollyDecor hashtag of the golden era of Nollywood. We share the makeup, accessories, fashion, iconic phrases, and scenes in a way that isn’t just comedic but inspirational and aesthetically groundbreaking. I see Nollywood being at the centre of this Y2K resurgence that is happening all over the world, from TV to runways and fashion collections. That era is coming back around and, this time, the Black experience is being revisited and centered in a way it wasn’t back in the late 90s and 2000s. (Black people) were always the originators of the trends and this time they’re tapping into the source and Nollywood, particularly the era we celebrate as Nolly Babes, is a great resource for that.

Follow Nolly Babes on Instagram

[brothim]

watching What Happened To Monday

spoiler alert

Ok beginning. A nod towards the Chinese one child policy, which is radically applied to the whole world (or the USA at least, but same thing I guess) because of dwindling resources

Ok, the grandfather obviously wants to protect his seven granddaughters, so he has to amputate all of their pointer fingers because Thursday lost hers in an accident but like.... that scene was brought across kind of emotionless.

Fast forward to present times, monday is puking her brains out before her big day at work. She says she's just really nervous but we all know the only reason women ever puke onscreen is because they're pregnant. I bet you it's gonna be a reveal later

The checkpoint dude asking Monday whether he has to search her....... makes me kind of uncomfortable

Male colleague accusing monday of having slept her way to the top, nice integration of everyday sexism. Looking forward towards having hologram phones and people still doubting my competence

They send three swat guys with machine guns who still somehow fuck that up. If they were sent to kill why not shoot on sight?

How are the sisters still chilling in their house unbothered? How did the authorities just have three guys killed and not send another team???

Bro, why does the sniper unnecessarily kill her colleague, alerting wednesday so she can hide? Is their entire military operation just made up of unqualified people??

There's a whole ass army outside, yet somehow they did not secure all exits

Loved the scene where the swat gets mauled by an angry crowd

Again, how are the sisters still chilling at home???? Hello???

While Wednesday is struggling, let's let this guy inside and have a chat

It's Monday's checkpoint dude?????

You have to fuck him Saturday, that's the only way

This is where I'm like: that movie is 100% written and directed my men (looked it up afterwards, it is).

Not only is Saturday, the virgin, willing to have sex with a random guy, but she is also somehow able to enjoy him eating her kitty cat while in an incredibly stressful situation

To hack him, their ID armbands have to be in close proximity for a while, which absolutely cannot be achieved without an explicit sex scene

He also doesn't even notice she's not his girlfriend because, obviously, same face = same woman right?

Did Saturday really just judge her missing and presumably dead sister Monday for having kinky sex??????? After she had kinky sex with her missing sister's boyfriend?????

Also Monday's not dead

Incompetent authorities finally have the idea of raiding the sister's house, still didn't secure all exits

Checkpoint guy finally understands he fucked one of Monday's sisters but he loves her so he has to save her!!

Also what's the function of the female black fed? She's always there but doesn't have a single line. Diversity win!

Called it. Monday's pregnant

Also her motivation was her pregnancy all along. Because what else would serve a woman as motivation?

Bonus:

Searching the tumblr tag and scrolling through pages and pages of thirst over the checkpoint guy, with none of the main characters in sight

[letteredlettered]

Hello! You already told us what you think about Ron, but what are your thoughts on Ginny Weasley? Pretty controversial figure in drarry fandom, yet you have a fanfic about her

That's one of the fics I'm prouder of! You can read it here.

This got long, so here you go:

When I first started reading HP I loved Ginny and wanted her to hook up with Harry. I really identify with youngest-girl-lots-of-brothers, so I could see the attention she wanted and the way Ron dismissed her was familiar to me. In the second book, I was a bit disappointed that she ended up mostly being a victim, but after I processed it I was happy she would have to face the darkness of being used in such a way. Ginny murdered chickens and wrote on walls in blood and was responsible for kids getting petrified; even if she was being possessed, she can remember her hands doing those things. I assumed at some point Harry would have to face a darkness within himself, and I felt like CoS positioned Ginny to understand and identify with him in a way others--who had not been possessed--could not.

Ginny wasn't a big feature in PoA or GoF, which was disappointing In OotP, I was disappointed at first that Ginny seemed to be growing up without much "screen-time", as it were, and seemed to have her own interest in guys other than Harry. I was a shipper! I'm ashamed! Once I had time to process, again, I realized I far preferred a Ginny who had moved on from Harry and could be her own person. That way, they could be more like equals when they eventually got together.

In HBP, I really rooted for her going her own way--but also began to feel pretty confused. I didn't understand how she could be Harry's love interest with so little attention paid to her. And then the romance did start, and it felt--completely out of the blue for me? Especially when it happened right after a very powerful scene in which Harry almost made someone bleed to death, and especially when it seemed to have more to do with Quidditch and Dean Thomas than Ginny herself. And then Ginny was barely in DH, which made me wonder why the romance even existed in the first place.

I think a big part of the problem for me is the love interests I enjoy in fiction share goals and are an important and equal part of both the characters' lives. Harry going camping to fight Voldemort while Ginny stays at Hogwarts feels a little to me like the fantasy of the wife you come home to, the one who waits. By DH, Ginny shouldn't join in the adventure; she has no place there. Furthermore, we all hope that Harry gets to move on and have a life after Hogwarts; Ginny can become central to him then in a way she wasn't earlier in life. People you end up with don't have to be the people who were the centers of our young lives--and in most cases, they probably shouldn't be!

But it doesn't make for a good story, and frankly, I have difficulty identifying with it. I have trouble understanding couples who seem to live in separate worlds. I don't mean that a person can't have their own friends and interests; having some aspects of your life that don't belong to your partner is good and healthy. But Harry starting a romance with Ginny when Ginny is never involved in anything he does is as weird to me as if I were to have a relationship with someone and never ever share my fandoms with them. That's just the way I am.

I do think this is a classic problem in Hero's Journey stories, in that the most important person to the hero is the villain they're trying to defeat. See Star Wars. Luke's most important relationship is with Vader, which is why it makes sense to discard Leia as his love interest by writing her as his sister. Aang's most important relationship is with Zuko and then Ozai, which is one reason Katara/Aang falls flat. I think a lot of this has to do with the propensity for creators (generally male) to make both the central hero and the central villain male, and an unwillingness to really tackle the homoeroticism inherent in the central relationships. The narratives I can think of with central female protagonists, like Buffy, are give male counterparts who function as both villains and love interests.

I'm making some sweeping statements here; it's not true for all heroes journey stories, but I think it's why you see Hermione and Ron paired off. Harry's central relationship is Voldemort, and if you scale that down, you can make Draco Harry's central relationship, because Draco is a pawn of Voldemort. Now, I have argued quite stridently that Draco is only peripheral to Harry's life, and I stand by that statement most fervently--but that is according to Harry. According to the structure of the narrative, you can replace Voldemort with Draco under and umbrella of "evil/Death Eater/foe." By doing so, you can deal with issues that are very central to Harry's story.

As for Ginny herself, in the end, she suffers from the exact same problem as Ron, and so many other characters in HP. In other words, the set-up is there, but the execution is not. Ginny is the youngest of seven in a loving, magical family. In that way, she is a perfect counterpoint to the loneliness and negligence and Muggleness Harry experiences growing up. Yet, in such a large family, Ginny has to understand what it feels like to be overlooked and ignored--in that way, she's in a perfect position to understand and identify with some of Harry's isolation.

Ginny is the only other person in the book besides Harry to be possessed by Voldemort. (The only classmate to come close to having a similar experience is Draco, and his mind and body are not possessed at all, not like Ginny's or Harry's.) As such, she's also perfectly positioned to identify with a lot of Harry's trauma. She's also perfectly positioned to hate Voldemort with a very personal passion that's different from Ron or Hermione--Voldemort befriended her in the journal, and then violated her; it's very different than hating Voldemort on principle.

But in the end these aspects of Ginny just aren't utilized. We never see what she suffers in CoS really resonate. We never really learn the effect her family has on her, or even really who she is, other than that she is sporty, tough, and pretty. It's difficult to dislike Ginny Weasley, because the way she's written does her such a disservice, and she could have been such a brilliant character. She's just a lot of wasted potential, in my opinion, but those last two books certainly killed my whole Harry/Ginny shipper heart.

[misscrawfords]

Spoilers for Spiderman: No Way Home under the cut.

I should preface by saying I am not a fan of the MCU and I saw the film with school, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

HOW MISOGYNISTIC IS THIS MOVIE? OH. MY. GOD. WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT THIS????

50% of the world's population is female and yet there were only two (TWO! 2!) female characters in this film. One was fridged to provide motivation and manpain for our hero. The other could have been replaced by a sexy lamp and did n-o-t-h-i-n-g whatsoever. And the personality of both characters was essentially just to be kind and nurturing and supportive and provide wise words so the hero can learn. Very, very stereotypical female roles.

What??? Have Marvel learned nothing? Do they care so little for 50% OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION?

I've been stewing over this since I saw it on Thursday and I just cannot get over it.

I was actually quite enjoying it until Aunt May died and then ALL I could think about was how terrible the writing of women in this film was. It ruined everything. I can't HELP watching it through a feminist lens because I am a WOMAN. That's how I SEE things. Representation matters.

It would have been so easy. There were a bunch of monsters - why were none of them female coded? What, are women not allowed to be monsters? Why did Ned get magic powers and MJ got... to be a love interest? I haven't seen Far From Home but she was cool in Homecoming and had a really defined, rebellious personality. That seemed to totally disappear after the brief scene in the police station and then she was functionally useless for the rest of the film. She was entrusted with the cube thing and did... nothing with it. Totally pointless. (Note: I am not knocking Ned's plot here - he's a non-conventionally-attractive character of colour and I thought the idea of him having magic was very cool indeed.)

Anyway, screw you, Marvel. Yet another misogynistic blockbuster success that will stifle creativity in the industry. Back to watching the likes of Healer and Strong Woman Do Bong Soon which take the ideas of superheroes and somehow manage to write them with interesting, well-rounded female characters. Can you IMAGINE!??!!

EDIT: I forgot Ned's grandmother. She was in it for 5 minutes and did not contribute to the plot. Cool character though. Good, so we're up to 3 female characters. Nice.

[ninzied]

i’ve been really feeling the energy surrounding the discourse on race re: the falcon and the winter soldier, and i think it is so crucial that the mcu has created space for this conversation. in that vein, and because i have genuinely enjoyed the show for many reasons that i wish not to detract from, i would like to expand on this space by discussing ways in which the show could have engaged more thoughtfully with its themes of racialized trauma.

for your consideration, a list of the show’s side characters who identity as bipoc, and how their arcs in fact work to reify certain stereotypic portrayals of race in tv/film/etc:

isaiah bradley: the military-sanctioned super soldier program that experimented on bradley for 30 years in jail is a clear allusion to the tuskegee study in the mid-1900s, which subjected black bodies with syphilis to decades of unethical experimentation, including the withholding of life-saving treatment, in order to study the natural progression of the disease. i actually think his conversations with sam were so important to have. it’s the first explicit mention of race that problematizes the shield as a symbol. sam comes to acknowledge that it also stands for a country that has built itself on the backs of black (and immigrant) bodies - and that is where they mean for these bodies to stay, through exploitation of labor, medicalized violence (tuskegee being only one example of many), police brutality, the segregation of schools, discriminatory housing and criminal justice systems, and so on. my issue is that these systems of oppression are so deeply rooted that to skim the bare surface - to present this one singular narrative - is reductive of a longstanding history that does not live externally to the mcu and is frankly not going to cut it. waiting until episode 5 to have this conversation was also a disservice to sam. maybe his own generational trauma was too internalized for him to have the language to express it. but if the show had addressed this better and sooner, it would come off less as sam trying to move through the world thinking he’s just like any other guy who also happens to be a superhero. when he goes to the bank with sarah, flaps his ‘wings’ and still doesn’t qualify for a loan; or when he chides a kid for referring to him as ‘black falcon’ rather than, simply ‘falcon’ - these moments reinforce the idea that the lived experience of his blackness is not fully realized until bradley forces this articulation upon him. it is as though sam could not already be aware of their collective racialized trauma without the ‘revelation’ of bradley’s personal trauma writ large that he endured as a super soldier. which is just weird and inconsistent given what sam has been through, including his own troubled relationship with the military. for sam to take up the shield is not a ‘solution’ to racism, any more than the shield is a symbol of heroism, when its legacy stems from a country of deeply imperialist and colonialist roots.

lemar hoskins: relegated to the black best friend stereotype aka sidekick to the main white character. his two most memorable scenes function mostly in service of john walker’s story - firstly in walker’s decision to take the serum, and secondly as the catalyst to walker’s grief, rage and vengeance that will utterly transform him. this development of walker’s character can only occur through the literal death of another black body.

literally every east asian character, but specifically leah, yori and yori’s son rj: these characters are the least fleshed out on their own, as they all exist solely to lend more depth to bucky’s trauma. i say this because though yori is grieving, his grief is all secondary to bucky’s guilt over being the cause of that grief. leah, who plays a love interest for her five seconds of screen time, becomes yet another of countless examples of the fetishization of asian female bodies. (all of this is particularly tone-deaf in the wake of rising anti-asian hate crimes, and the mass killing of asian female spa workers by a man who wished to eliminate ‘temptation’ for his sexual addiction.) also, it would be nice to see a show finally lean away from the asian food establishment setting for its asian characters. that is not the only place they eat and work and also go on dates after they work????

olivia walker: a great example of tokenism that checks multiple boxes (‘look how diverse our cast is - and we have an interracial couple!’) even though she speaks 0-2 lines throughout the whole show.

karli morgenthau and co: the actress who portrays karli is half-jamaican, and it is not hard to notice that the overwhelming majority of the radicalized flag-smashers group are bipoc as well. at surface level it might make sense for the show writers to choose this kind of representation - the ‘displaced’ are all members of marginalized communities, and racial diversity (i.e., diversity from the norm, i.e., not-white) is the easiest way to depict these communities. but for this reason, it also seems that the show could not be more careless with the parallels it has drawn to our current climate. during a global pandemic, which has disproportionately affected those already most disenfranchised; increased our obsession with border control; and galvanized movements against racialized violence, perhaps the last thing we need right now is a narrative that vilifies a marginalized group of people trying to combat structural oppression (operationalized in this case by the grc, which has a clear militaristic and political pedigree*). perhaps the last thing we need right now is a narrative in which marginalized people gain the power to enact change (i.e., serum), but only know how to use that power to cause more harm.

*please note: the senator who grants walker his other than honorable discharge is one and the same as the talking head of the grc. who gave this guy all the power, and what good is he using it for? this may be a hot take but the government + military washing their hands of walker and taking zero responsibility for their role in his making is not great for ‘optics’ either. but the show, for all its moralizing, doesn’t seem to be aware of the dissonance here?

[lunarbuck]

What Once Was

ix. Nine

pairing: buckyxoriginal female character

chapter summary: Bucky confronts Sam and Elizabeth undergoes testing in the facility

word count: 2,671

warnings: mentions of infertility, testing, disassociation

series masterlist ✧

an: hope you're all enjoying the story, I've loved writing it and am pumped for the next few chapters :)

It took a few days, but eventually, Dr. Raynor got back to Bucky. She gave him the contact info of a few lawyers and, in his session, explained that the best thing he could do for Lizzie was not to threaten her boss (he had already done that) and to not make a scene (too late). If it looked like he was trying to break her out of the facility or coerce anyone into letting her go, it could harm her case. Bucky promised to stop intimidating people and instead tried to keep his thoughts from spiraling about the horrible things Lizzie might be going through in the facility.

--

Lizzie still didn’t have an answer to the static she was hearing. It had been almost a week since they had arrived at the facility, and few of Lizzie’s questions were ever actually answered. They rarely left the suite once Lizzie realized that most of the facility was off-limits to her and her daughter. Agents delivered food for each meal, so the only time they ever really left was for Lizzie’s daily meetings with her case manager, Christina. The meetings were exhausting. She had to put the lie-detecting stickers on her head and tell stories about her time in HYDRA until Christina was satisfied. Lizzie didn’t understand how that would help her case, but Christina insisted that it was necessary if she wanted any chance at a pardon. At the end of each meeting, Lizzie would ask about the noise, but Christina would coyly respond with, “What noise?” and shoo the girl out of her office. Lizzie was getting good with the crutches, but they hurt her arms, so she tried not to use them in the suite.

Exactly a week after getting her blood work done, Dr. Sai came to her with her results. She welcomed him into the suite and made him coffee, but there was a tension in the air that she couldn’t seem to get rid of.

“Your results came back, and I just wanted to go over them with you,” he said, setting some papers out in front of Lizzie. She had sent Fiona to play in her room; she didn’t think this was a necessary conversation for her to hear. “Your kidneys are working great. They’re actually doing better than we would expect of someone your age,” Lizzie nodded but didn’t ask which age he was referencing. “From your blood, we could tell that your body is functioning as if you were 20-21, so your kidneys work perfectly for someone your age, and even better for the 93-year-old you really are,” he said as if he could tell what she was thinking. “Your vitamins are a bit out of balance, but that’s understandable considering the things you went through, and we can get you back on track with some supplements.” Lizzie nodded again, looking at the lab results on the table. She flipped through the pages. Dr. Sai had included a few pamphlets about vitamins, blood, and things she could learn from her tests.

“Is that all? I should probably go check on my daughter--”

“Sorry, a few more things,” Dr. Sai said, interrupting Lizzie. “We can learn a lot about your fertility from these tests, and I’d like to go over the results of that with you,” Dr. Sai flipped to a page towards the back of the pile he had laid out and grabbed a pamphlet about fertility in older women. “You’re an interesting case, your body is nearly 100 years old, but the serum and cryo have greatly affected the way you have aged,” he paused, not sure how to proceed. “Do you plan to have children in the future?” Lizzie wasn’t sure, she hadn’t planned on having Fiona when she did, but there hadn’t ever been a time in her life when she felt like it would be good to bring a child into the world.

“Maybe,” Lizzie said quietly. “Why?”

“It is unlikely that you would be able to have a successful pregnancy at this point,” Dr. Sai paused, waiting for Lizzie to respond, but she couldn’t form a sentence. “If you want to have another child, I recommend you get further testing.”

“What about the serum and the cryo? Everything else about me is fine. Why would this be affected so much?” Lizzie felt gutted, at the ripe old age of 21, she wouldn’t be able to have another child.

“I can’t say for sure; we would have to evaluate you more. This also might be an issue of genetics, though from what I understand about the serum, that shouldn’t have such an impact. You know, Elizabeth, very few people have ever received the super-soldier serum, and you are the first to have a child. While you’re here, maybe we could--”

“No,” Lizzie said, standing abruptly, forgetting she no longer had the support of her metal leg. She fell back down onto the couch but pushed herself back up, grabbing her crutches from the floor.

“Elizabeth, I’m sorry if I’ve overstepped, but--”

“No,” she said again, making her way over to the door of the suite. She opened it angrily and gestured for Dr. Sai to leave. “She will not be your guinea pig. If you want to test anyone, test me, but you will not touch her. Ever.” Dr. Sai stood and apologized quietly as he walked out. Lizzie found her way back to the couch, and she shoved all the papers and pamphlets into a pile. Fiona tottered out of her room and joined her mother on the couch.

“Mama, did they want to test me for something?” Fiona asked, hugging her mother close.

“When I was young, doctors gave me a shot. The shot gave me something called a serum. It made me strong, it made me not get sick, it made me able to survive everything I went through,” Fiona nodded. “They only gave the serum to a few people: me, a man named Steve Rogers, and Bucky. You are the only person to be born from someone who was given that serum,” Lizzie didn’t know how else to explain it, but she hoped she was getting the point across.

“So, I’m special?” Fiona said in a small voice. Lizzie nodded.

“Yeah, baby, you’re special. Doctors don’t know what the serum will do to you. If it has made you stronger, if it has made you more special than you already are. They want to do tests to see what it’s done to you,” Fiona made a face at the idea of having tests done on her, and Lizzie smiled a bit. “But I won’t let them. No one touches my baby,” she said, pulling Fiona into her lap. Lizzie tickled her daughter relentlessly, and Fiona’s giggles filled the dark room. When she finally let up, Fiona rested on her tummy and fiddled with the hem of Lizzie’s shorts. They hung loosely around her hip where her leg should have been, and the socket where her metal leg usually sat had wires hanging from it which Fiona also poked around at.

“Do you feel this?” Fiona said, bumping the metal with her fingers.

“No, even when I have my leg, I can’t feel it.” Lizzie's only feelings in her leg were phantom pains and occasional soreness at the implantation site.

“Maybe they’ll give you an even better leg, Mama. Maybe it’ll be as cool as Mr. Bucky’s arm,” the little girl said, flipping onto her back. Lizzie laughed but didn’t have the heart to tell her daughter that that probably wouldn’t happen.

“Maybe,” she said softly, running her fingers through Fiona’s hair. “Maybe.”

--

Bucky walked out of the meeting with the lawyers Dr. Raynor had recommended more confused than when he had walked in. They had all agreed to help, one of them even offering their services pro-bono. The two others required payment, but Bucky could handle that. He had a bit of money saved up, and this was as good a reason as any to use it. He couldn’t get permission from S.H.I.E.L.D to share the documents detailing Lizzie’s time with HYDRA, so they would have to talk to her directly, which complicated things. The lawyers said they would handle getting into contact with her and sent him on his way.

He walked back to the apartment building and headed up the stairs, taking them slower than usual. Bucky couldn’t believe how quickly everything had happened, how fast things could change. He made it up the stairs and shoved open the door to his unit. Something was off, but he couldn’t identify what. He slipped a small knife from his pants pocket and flipped it through his fingers. Slowly, Bucky walked through the apartment, clearing every room. When he made it through the whole unit, he put the knife away. Though he didn’t find anyone, he knew someone had been in the apartment. The blankets and pillows that he usually left on the floor were placed neatly on his couch, and on the coffee table was a little slip of paper.

She’s here. - A.T.

Beneath the writing was an address and phone number. Bucky knew exactly what it meant and knew that A.T. was Mr. Alan Thompson, Lizzie’s boss. It was a dramatic way to give him the intel, but he didn’t have time to question Thompson’s motives. He flipped open his phone and cringed as he pressed the first number on his speed dial.

“Now this, I wasn’t expecting,” Sam Wilson said from the other line.

“We need to talk,” Bucky replied, trying to hold back the frustration in his voice.

“You’re right we do, look Buck--”

“Bucky,” he interrupted. He didn’t like when people called him Buck. It was Steve’s thing. And Lizzie’s thing now, he supposed. “And I don’t want to talk on the phone. We need to talk in person. It’s important.”

“Barnes,” Sam continued, “are you in New York? I can meet you in a few hours if you are,” the mood of the conversation had shifted, no more joking.

“I am. Meet me at my apartment.” Bucky hung up and shot Sam a text with his address. Sam buzzed Bucky’s apartment a few hours later, and Bucky let him in. A few snide remarks were made about the lack of decoration in the apartment, but eventually, the two found their way to the couch, and Bucky finally brought himself to speak. “You shouldn’t have given up the shield. It’s wrong.”

“Look, I’m working on it. The outrange can wait,” Sam said, rolling his eyes.

“You didn’t know that was gonna happen?” Bucky didn’t believe it. He couldn’t.

“No, of course, I didn’t know that was gonna happen. You think it didn’t break my heart to see them march him out there and call him the new Captain America?” Sam stood, too frustrated to stay sitting.

“Steve didn’t want this,” Bucky said, dropping his head in his hands.

“Oh, my God. What do you want me to do? Call America and tell ’em I changed my mind? Huh? Yeah, right.” Now it was Bucky’s turn to stand. Sam had begun to pace around the apartment, and Bucky stood in his way.

“You had no right to give up the shield, Sam.” Sam turned to face Bucky, hands shaking.

“Hey. This is what you’re not gonna do. You’re not gonna come here in your overextended life and tell me about my rights. It’s over Bucky. You didn’t have me come all the way out here just to yell at me about the shield, so what’s this really about.” Bucky stood for a moment, calming himself down.

“It’s about her.” He pointed to his laptop, open to the Subject Hermes files.

--

Lizzie hopped behind Dr. Ellis and Dr. Sai on her crutches as they led her to the lab. Fiona walked alongside her mother, there was nowhere else for her to go, and she refused to leave Lizzie’s side. They had taken her up on her ‘offer’ to test the effects of the serum, and since there was nothing she could do to stop them, she complied. They arrived in the lab, sterile and white. Dr. Ellis patted an exam table for Lizzie to sit and, and she climbed up onto it not so gracefully. The doctors pulled the equipment out of drawers and cabinets, and Fiona helped her mother put her crutches down.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Seavers,” Dr. Ellis began, writing down a few notes on his tablet. “Today, we will begin our first round of testing. If we have your consent, we would like to film these tests and exams.” Lizzie nodded. She didn’t feel like fighting with them about it.

“Thank you, Elizabeth,” Dr. Sai said to Lizzie as Dr. Ellis set up the camera. Once it was in place and recording, Dr. Ellis continued.

“All right, the date is December 13, 2023, and it is 11:00 AM. I am Dr. David Ellis, and this is Dr. Patrick Sai. Patient Elizabeth Seavers, age 93, join us,” the man continued by explaining the tests they would be conducting, but Lizzie couldn’t hear him. It was December 13th, a week before her daughter’s birthday. How could she have let time get away from her like that?

“Mama, my birthday is soon!” Fiona whispered excitedly. Lizzie grabbed her daughter's hand and squeezed it, forcing a smile.

“You’re right, baby, you’re gonna be so old!” Dr. Ellis cleared his throat in an attempt to bring back Lizzie’s attention.

“We are going to begin now,” he said, eyes glinting in the harsh light of the room. They began with a physical exam, standing her up, testing her reflexes, and showing her implantation sight to the camera. Even though the wounds had healed well after the amputation, the scars were dark and raised on her skin, showcasing the damage that the amputation had done. Fiona sat quietly in the corner, watching intently. Next, they took blood samples and did a cheek swab, finishing up with a spinal tap. It all reminded Lizzie of the time she spent with HYDRA, being tested and examined constantly. She hated how normal it all felt. She barely flinched when they jabbed her with needles, it was like she wasn’t even there.

“Elizabeth,” Dr. Sai said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “We’re all done for today,” Lizzie’s attention snapped back, and she nodded. “We’ll see you again tomorrow,” he said. Lizzie nodded again, sliding off the table. Fiona handed her the crutches, and together they made their way back to the suite. It was a long walk, full of twists and turns, and though Lizzie had gotten better with her crutches, she still was not very quick yet. Fiona didn’t mind, though. She was happy to just be out of the room for a bit. She missed her friends from daycare and her teacher, Ms. Abby. She loved spending time with her mother, but it was nice to be around other people sometimes.

They made it back to the suite, and Lizzie collapsed on the couch. She was exhausted from the testing and didn't have the energy to move or do anything else. Fiona changed into one of her princess dresses and paraded around the suite in an attempt to cheer up her mother. She came up to the coffee table but noticed something sitting on its surface.

“Mama, what’s this?” She asked, pointing to the object. Lizzie shifted to look at the table and saw what the girl was pointing to. It was an old flip phone, dark grey and boxy.

“It’s a phone,” she whispered, grabbing it off the table. She flipped it open and pressed a few buttons to find the contacts. The only one listed was J.B.B. She pressed the button, and the line started ringing.

“Elizabeth. ”

“Bucky.”