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grigori77 · 3 years ago

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Summer 2021′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

10. WEREWOLVES WITHIN – definitely one of the year’s biggest cinematic surprises so far, this darkly comic supernatural murder mystery from indie horror director Josh Ruben (Scare Me) is based on a video game, but you’d never know it – this bears so little resemblance to the original Ubisoft title that it’s a wonder anyone even bothered to make the connection, but even so, this is now notable for officially being the highest rated video game adaptation in Rotten Tomatoes history, with a Certified Fresh rating of 86%. Certainly it deserves that distinction, but there’s so much more to the film – this is an absolute blood-splattered joy, the title telling you everything you need to know about the story but belying the film’s pure, quirky genius. Veep’s Sam Richardson is forest ranger Finn Wheeler, a gentle and socially awkward soul who arrives at his new post in the remote small town of Beaverton to discover the few, uniformly weird residents are divided over the oil pipeline proposition of forceful and abrasive businessman Sam Parker (The Hunt’s Wayne Duvall). As he tries to fit in and find his feet, investigating the disappearance of a local dog while bonding with local mail carrier Cecily Moore (Other Space and This Is Us’ Milana Vayntrub), the discovery of a horribly mutilated human body leads to a standoff between the townsfolk and an enforced lockdown in the town’s ramshackle hotel as they try to work out who amongst them is the “werewolf” they suspect is responsible. This is frequently hilarious, the offbeat script from appropriately named Mishna Wolff (I’m Down) dropping some absolutely zingers and crafting some enjoyably weird encounters and unexpected twists, while the uniformly excellent cast do much of the heavy-lifting to bring their rich, thoroughly oddball characters to vivid life – Richardson is thoroughly cuddly throughout, while Duvall is pleasingly loathsome, Casual’s Michaela Watkins is pleasingly grating as Trisha, flaky housewife to unrepentant local horn-dog Pete Anderton (Orange is the New Black’s Michael Chernus), and Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story) and Harry Guillen (best known, OF COURSE, as Guillermo in the TV version of What We Do In the Shadows) make an enjoyably spiky double-act as liberal gay couple Devon and Joaquim Wolfson; in the end, though, the film is roundly stolen by Vayntrub, who invests Cecily with a bubbly sweetness and snarky sass that makes it absolutely impossible to not fall completely in love with her (gods know I did). This is a deeply funny film, packed with proper belly-laughs from start to finish, but like all the best horror comedies it takes its horror elements seriously, delivering some enjoyably effective scares and juicy gore, while the werewolf itself, when finally revealed, is realised through some top-notch prosthetics. Altogether this was a most welcome under-the-radar surprise for the summer, and SO MUCH MORE than just an unusually great video game adaptation …

9. THE TOMORROW WAR – although cinemas finally reopened in the UK in early summer, the bite of the COVID lockdown backlog was still very much in effect this blockbuster season, with several studios preferring to hedge their bets and wait for later release dates. Others turned to streaming services, including Paramount, who happily lined up a few heavyweight titles to open on major platforms in lieu of the big screen. One of the biggest was this intended sci-fi action horror tentpole, meant to give Chris Pratt another potential franchise on top of Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, which instead dropped in early July on Amazon Prime. So, was it worth staying in on a Saturday night instead of heading out for something on the BIG screen? Mostly yes, although it’s mainly a trashy, guilty pleasure big budget B-picture charm that makes this such a worthwhile experience – the film’s biggest influences are clearly Independence Day and Starship Troopers, two admirably clunky blockbusters that DEFINED prioritising big spectacle and overblown theatrics over intelligent writing and realistic storytelling. It doesn’t help that the premise is pure bunk – in 2022, a wormhole opens from thirty years in the future, and a plea for help is sent back with a bunch of very young future soldiers. Seems Earth will become overrun by an unstoppable swarm of nasty alien critters called Whitespikes in 25 years, and the desperate human counteroffensive have no choice but to bring soldiers from our present into the future to help them fight back and save the humanity from imminent extinction. Less than a year later, the world’s standing armies have been decimated and a worldwide draft has been implemented, with normal everyday adults being sent through for a seven day tour from which very few return. Pratt plays biology teacher and former Green Beret Dan Forrester, one of the latest batch of draftees to be sent into the future along with a selection of chefs, soccer moms and other average joes – his own training and experience serves him better than most when the shit hits the fan, but it soon becomes clear that he’s just as out of his depth as everyone else as the sheer enormity of the threat is revealed. But when he becomes entangled with a desperate research outfit led by Muri (Chuck’s Yvonne Strahovski) who seem to be on the verge of a potential world-changing scientific breakthrough, Dan realises there just might be a slender hope for humanity after all … this is every bit as over-the-top gung-ho bonkers as it sounds, and just as much fun. Director Chris McKay may still be pretty fresh (with only The Lego Batman Movie under his belt to date), but he shows a lot of talent and potential for big budget blockbuster filmmaking here, delivering with guts and bravado on some major action sequences (a fraught ticking-clock SAR operation through a war-torn Miami is the film’s undeniable highlight, but a desperate battle to escape a blazing oil rig also really impresses), as well as handling some impressively complex visual effects work and wrangling some quality performances from his cast (altogether it bodes well for his future, which includes Nightwing and Johnny Quest as future projects). Chris Pratt can do this kind of stuff in his sleep – Dan is his classic fallible and self-deprecating but ultimately solid and kind-hearted action hero fare, effortlessly likeable and easy to root for – and his supporting cast are equally solid, Strahovsky going toe-to-toe with him in the action sequences while also creating a rewardingly complex smart-woman/badass combo in Muri, while the other real standouts include Sam Richardson (Veep, Werewolves Within) and Edwin Hodge (The Purge movies) as fellow draftees Charlie and Dorian, the former a scared-out-of-his-mind tech geek while the latter is a seriously hardcore veteran serving his THIRD TOUR, and the ever brilliant J.K. Simmonds as Dan’s emotionally scarred estranged Vietnam-vet father, Jim. Sure, it’s derivative as hell and thoroughly predictable (with more than one big twist you can see coming a mile away), but the pace is brisk, the atmosphere pregnant with a palpable doomed urgency, and the creatures themselves are a genuinely convincing world-ending threat, the design team and visual effects wizards creating genuine nightmare fuel in the feral and unrelenting Whitespikes. Altogether this WAS an ideal way to spend a comfy Saturday night in, but I think it could have been JUST AS GOOD for a Saturday night OUT at the Pictures …

8. ARMY OF THE DEAD – another high profile release that went straight to streaming was this genuine monster hit for Netflix from one of this century’s undeniable heavyweight action cinema masters, the indomitable Zack Snyder, who kicked off his career with an audience-dividing (but, as far as I’m concerned, ultimately MASSIVELY successful) remake of George Romero’s immortal Dawn of the Dead, and has finally returned to zombie horror after close to two decades away. The end result is, undeniably, the biggest cinematic guilty pleasure of the entire summer, a bona fide outbreak horror EPIC in spite of its tightly focused story – Dave Bautista plays mercenary Scott Ward, leader a badass squad of soldiers of fortune who were among the few to escape a deadly outbreak of a zombie virus in the city of Las Vegas, enlisted to break into the vault of one of the Strip’s casinos by owner Bly Tanaka (a fantastically game turn from Hiroyuki Sanada) and rescue $200 million still locked away inside. So what’s the catch? Vegas remains ground zero for the outbreak, walled off from the outside world but still heavily infested within, and in less than three days the US military intends to sterilise the site with a tactical nuke. Simple premise, down and dirty, trashy flick, right? Wrong – Snyder has never believed in doing things small, having brought us unapologetically BIG cinema with the likes of 300, Watchmen, Man of Steel and, most notably, his version of Justice League, so this is another MASSIVE undertaking, every scene shot for maximum thrills or emotional impact, each set-piece executed with his characteristic militaristic precision and explosive predilection (a harrowing fight for survival against a freshly-awakened zombie horde in tightly packed casino corridors is the film’s undeniable highlight), and the gauzy, dreamlike cinematography gives even simple scenes an intriguing and evocative edge that really does make you feel like you’re watching something BIG. The characters all feel larger-than-life too – Bautista can seem somewhat cartoonish at times, and this role definitely plays that as a strength, making Scott a rock-hard alpha male in the classic Hollywood mould, but he’s such a great actor that of course he’s able to invest the character with real rewarding complexity beneath the surface; Ana de la Reguera (Eastbound & Down) and Nora Arnezeder (Zoo, Mozart in the Jungle), meanwhile, both bring a healthy dose of oestrogen-fuelled badassery to proceedings as, respectively, Scott’s regular second-in-command, Maria Cruz, and Lilly the Coyote, Power’s Omari Hardwick and Matthias Schweighofer (You Are Wanted) make for a fun odd-couple double act as circular-saw-wielding merc Vanderohe and Dieter, the nervous, nerdy German safecracker brought in to crack the vault, and Fear the Walking Dead’s Garrett Dillahunt channels spectacular scumbag energy as Tanaka’s sleazy former casino boss Martin, while latecomer Tig Notaro (Star Trek Discovery) effortlessly rises above her last-minute-casting controversy to deliver brilliantly as sassy and acerbic chopper pilot Peters. I think it goes without saying that Snyder can do this in his sleep, but he definitely wasn’t napping here – he pulled out all the stops on this one, delivering a thrilling, darkly comic and endearingly CRACKERS zombie flick that not only compares favourably to his own Dawn but is, undeniably, his best film for AGES. Netflix certainly seem to be pleased with the results – a spinoff prequel, Army of Thieves, starring Dieter in another heist thriller, is set to drop in October, with an animated series following in the Spring, and there’s already rumours of a sequel in development. I’m certainly up for more …

7. BLACK WIDOW – no major blockbuster property was hit harder by COVID than the MCU, which saw its ENTIRE SLATE for 2020 delayed for over a year in the face of Marvel Studios bowing to the inevitability of the Pandemic and unwilling to sacrifice those all-important box-office receipts by just sending their films straight to streaming. The most frustrating part for hardcore fans of the series was the delay of a standalone film that was already criminally overdue – the solo headlining vehicle of founding Avenger and bona fide female superhero ICON Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow. Equally frustratingly, then, this film seems set to be overshadowed by real life controversy as star and producer Scarlett Johansson goes head-to-head with Disney in civil court over their breach-of-contract after they hedged their bets by releasing the film simultaneously in cinemas and on their own streaming platform, which has led to poor box office as many of the film’s potential audience chose to watch it at home instead of risk movie theatres with the virus still very much remaining a threat (and Disney have clearly reacted AGAIN, now backtracking on their release policy by instigating a new 45-day cinematic exclusivity window on all their big releases for the immediate future). But what of the film itself? Well Black Widow is an interesting piece of work, director Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome) and screenwriter Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok) delivering a decidedly stripped-back, lean and intellectual beast that bears greater resemblance to the more cerebral work of the Russo Brothers on their Captain America films than the more classically bombastic likes of Iron Man, Thor or the Avengers flicks, concentrating on story and characters over action and spectacle as we wind back the clock to before the events of Infinity War and Endgame, when Romanoff was on the run after Civil War, hunted by the government-appointed forces of US Secretary of State “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) after violating the Sokovia Accords. Then a mysterious delivery throws her back into the fray as she finds herself targeted by a mysterious assassin, forcing her to team up with her estranged “sister” Yelena Belova (Midsommar’s Florence Pugh), another Black Widow who’s just gone rogue from the same Red Room Natasha escaped years ago, armed with a McGuffin capable of foiling a dastardly plot for world domination. The reluctant duo need help in this endeavour though, enlisting the aid of their former “parents”, veteran Widow and scientist Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and Alexie Shostakov (Stranger Things’ David Harbour), aka the Red Guardian, a Russian super-soldier intended to be their counterpart to Captain America, who’s been languishing in a Siberian gulag for the last twenty years. After the Earth-shaking, universe-changing events of recent MCU events, this film certainly feels like a much more self-contained, modest affair, playing for much smaller stakes, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less worthy of our attention – this is as precision-crafted as anything we’ve seen from Marvel so far, but it also feels like a refreshing change of pace after all those enormous cosmic shenanigans, while the script is as tight as a drum, propelling a taut, suspense-filled thriller that certainly doesn’t scrimp on the action front. Sure, the set-pieces are very much in service of the story here, but they’re still the pre-requisite MCU rollercoaster rides, a selection of breathless chases and bone-crunching fights that really do play to the strengths of one of our favourite Avengers, but this is definitely one of those films where the real fireworks come when the film focuses on the characters – Johansson is so comfortable with her character she’s basically BECOME Natasha Romanoff, kickass and ruthless and complex and sassy and still just desperate for a family (though she hides it well throughout the film), while Weisz delivers one of her best performances in years as a peerless professional who keeps her emotions tightly reigned in but slowly comes to realise that she was never more happy than when she was pretending to be a simple mother, and Ray Winstone does a genuinely fantastic job of taking a character who could have been one of the MCU’s most disappointingly bland villains, General Dreykov, master of the Red Room, and investing him with enough oily charisma and intense presence to craft something truly memorable (frustratingly, the same cannot be said for the film’s supposed main physical threat, Taskmaster, who performs well in their frustratingly brief appearances but ultimately gets Darth Maul levels of short service). The true scene-stealers in the film, however, are Alexie and Yelena – Harbour’s clearly having the time of his life hamming it up as a self-important, puffed-up peacock of a superhero who never got his shot and is clearly (rightly) decidedly bitter about it, preferring to relive the life he SHOULD have had instead of remembering the good in the one he got; Pugh, meanwhile, is THE BEST THING IN THE WHOLE MOVIE, easily matching Johanssen scene-for-scene in the action stakes but frequently out-performing her when it comes to acting, investing Yelena with a sweet naivety and innocence and a certain amount of quirky geekiness that makes for one of the year’s most endearing female protagonists (certainly one who, if the character goes the way I think she will, is thoroughly capable of carrying the torch for the foreseeable future). In the end this is definitely one of the LEAST typical, by-the-numbers MCU films to date, and by delivering something a little different I think they’ve given us just the kind of leftfield swerve the series needs right now. It’s certainly one of their most fascinating and rewarding films so far, and since it seems to be Johansson’s final tour of duty as the Black Widow, it’s also a most fitting farewell indeed.

6. WRATH OF MAN – Guy Ritchie’s latest (regarded by many as a triumphant return to form, which I consider unfair since I don’t think he ever went away, especially after 2020’s spectacular The Gentlemen) is BY FAR his darkest film – let’s get this clear from the start. Anyone who knows his work knows that Ritchie consistently maintains a near flawless balance and humour and seriousness in his films that gives them a welcome quirkiness that is one of his most distinctive trademarks, so for him to suddenly deliver a film which takes itself SO SERIOUSLY is one hell of a departure. This is a film which almost REVELS in its darkness – Ritchie’s always loved bathing in man’s baser instincts, but Wrath of Man almost makes a kind of twisted VIRTUE out of wallowing in the genuine evils that men are capable of inflicting on each other. The film certainly kicks off as it means to go on – In a tour-de-force single-shot opening, we watch a daring armoured car robbery on the streets of Los Angeles that goes horrifically wrong, an event which will have devastating consequences in the future. Five months later, Fortico Security hires taciturn Brit Patrick Hill (Jason Statham) to work as a guard in one of their trucks, and on his first run he single-handedly foils another attempted robbery with genuinely uncanny combat skills. The company is thrilled, amazed by the sheer ability of their new hire, but Hill’s new colleagues are more concerned, wondering exactly what they’ve let themselves in for. After a second foiled robbery, it becomes clear that Hill’s reputation has grown, but fellow guard Haiden (Holt McCallany), aka “Bullet”, begins to suspect there might be something darker going on … Ritchie is firing on all cylinders here, delivering a PERFECT slow-burn suspense thriller which plays its cards close to its chest and cranks up its piano wire tension with artful skill as it builds to a devastating, knuckle-whitening explosive heist that acts as a cathartic release for everything that’s built up over the past hour and a half. In typical Ritchie style the narrative is non-linear, the story unfolding in four distinct parts told from clearly differentiated points of view, allowing the clues to be revealed at a trickle that effortlessly draws the viewer in as they fall deeper down the rabbit hole, leading to a harrowing but strangely poignant denouement which is perfectly in tune with everything that’s come before. It’s an immense pleasure finally getting to see Statham working with Ritchie again, and I don’t think he’s ever been better than he is here – he's always been a brilliantly understated actor, but there’s SO MUCH going on under Hill’s supposedly impenetrable calm that every little peek beneath the armour is a REVELATION; McCallany, meanwhile, has landed his best role since his short but VERY sweet supporting turn in Fight Club, seemingly likeable and fallible as the kind of easy-going co-worker anyone in the service industry would be THRILLED to have, but giving Bullet far more going on under the surface, while there are uniformly excellent performances from a top-shelf ensemble supporting cast which includes Josh Hartnett, Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Sicario), Andy Garcia, Laz Alonso (The Boys), Eddie Marsan, Niamh Algar (Raised By Wolves) and Darrell D’Silva (Informer, Domina), and a particularly edgy and intense turn from Scott Eastwood. This is one of THE BEST thrillers of the year, by far, a masterpiece of mood, pace and plot that ensnares the viewer from its gripping opening and hooks them right up to the close, a triumph of the genre and EASILY Guy Ritchie’s best film since Snatch. Regardless of whether or not it’s a RETURN to form, we can only hope he continues to deliver fare THIS GOOD in the future …

5. FEAR STREET (PARTS 1-3) – Netflix have gotten increasingly ambitious with their original filmmaking over the years, and some of this years’ offerings have reached new heights of epic intention. Their most exciting release of the summer was this adaptation of popular children’s horror author R.L. Stine’s popular book series, a truly gargantuan undertaking as the filmmakers set out to create an entire TRILOGY of films which were then released over three consecutive weekends. Interestingly, these films are most definitely NOT for kids – this is proper, no-holds-barred supernatural slasher horror, delivering highly calibrated shocks and precision jump scares, a pervading atmosphere of insidious dread and a series of inventively gruesome kills. The story revolves around two neighbouring small towns which have had vastly different fortunes over more than three centuries of existence – while the residents of Sunnyvale are unusually successful, living idyllic lives in peace and prosperity, luck has always been against the people of Shadyside, who languish in impoverishment, crime and misfortune, while the town has become known as the Murder Capital of the USA due to frequent spree killings. Some attribute this to the supposed curse of a local urban legend, Sarah Fier, who became known as the Fier Witch after her execution for witchcraft in 1668, but others dismiss this as simple superstition. Part 1 is set in 1994, as the latest outbreak of serial mayhem begins in Shadyside, dragging a small group of local teens – Deena Johnson (She Never Died’s Kiana Madeira) and Samantha Fraser (Olivia Scott Welch), a young lesbian couple going through a difficult breakup, Deena’s little brother Josh (The Haunted Hathaways’ Benjamin Flores Jr.), a nerdy history geek who spends most of his time playing video games or frequenting violent crime-buff online chatrooms, and their delinquent friends Simon (Eight Grade’s Fred Hechinger) and Kate (Julia Rehwald) – into the age-old ghostly conspiracy as they find themselves besieged by indestructible undead serial killers from the town’s past, reasoning that the only way they can escape with their lives is to solve the mystery and bring the Fier Witch some much needed closure. Part 2, meanwhile, flashes back to a previous outbreak in 1977, in which local sisters Ziggy (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink) and Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd), together with future Sunnyvale sheriff Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland) were among the kids hunted by said killers during a summer camp “colour war”. As for Part 3, that goes all the way back to 1668 to tell the story of what REALLY happened to Sarah Fier, before wrapping up events in 1994, culminating in a terrifying, adrenaline-fuelled showdown in the Shadyside Mall. Throughout, the youthful cast are EXCEPTIONAL, Madeira, Welch, Flores Jr., Sink and Rudd particularly impressing, while there are equally strong turns from Ashley Zuckerman (The Code, Designated Survivor) and Community’s Gillian Jacobs as the grown-up versions of two key ’77 kids, and a fun cameo from Maya Hawke in Part 1. This is most definitely retro horror in the Stranger Things mould, perfectly executed period detail bringing fun nostalgic flavour to all three of the timelines while the peerless direction from Leigh Janiak (Honeymoon) and wire-tight, sharp-witted screenplays from Janiak, Kyle Killen (Lone Star, The Beaver), Phil Graziadel, Zak Olkewicz and Kate Trefry strike a perfect balance between knowing dark humour and knife-edged terror, as well as weaving an intriguingly complex narrative web that pulls the viewer in but never loses them to overcomplication. The design, meanwhile, is evocative, the cinematography (from Stanger Things’ Caleb Heymann) is daring and magnificently moody, and the killers and other supernatural elements of the film are handled with skill through largely physical effects. This is definitely not a standard, by-the-numbers slasher property, paying strong homage to the sub-genre’s rules but frequently subverting them with expert skill, and it’s as much fun as it is frightening. Give us some more like this please, Netflix!

4. THE SPARKS BROTHERS – those who’ve been following my reviews for a while will known that while I do sometimes shout about documentary films, they tend to show up in my runners-up lists – it’s a great rarity for one to land in one of my top tens. This lovingly crafted deep-dive homage to cult band Sparks, from self-confessed rabid fanboy Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim), is something VERY SPECIAL INDEED, then … there’s a vague possibility some of you may have heard the name before, and many of you will know at least one or two of their biggest hits without knowing it was them (their greatest hit of all time, This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us, immediately springs to mind), but unless you’re REALLY serious about music it’s quite likely you have no idea who they are, namely two brothers from California, Russell and Ronald Mael, who formed a very sophisticated pop-rock band in the late 60s and then never really went away, having moments of fame but mostly working away in the background and influencing some of the greatest bands and musical artists that followed them, even if many never even knew where that influence originally came from. Wright’s film is an engrossing joy from start to finish (despite clocking in at two hours and twenty minutes), following their eclectic career from obscure inception as Halfnelson, through their first real big break with third album Kimono My Place, subsequent success and then fall from popularity in the mid-70s, through several subsequent revitalisations, all the way up to the present day with their long-awaited cinematic breakthrough, revolutionary musical feature Annette – throughout Wright keeps the tone light and the pace breezy, allowing a strong and endearing sense of irreverence to rule the day as fans, friends and the brothers themselves offer up fun anecdotes and wax lyrical about what is frequently a larger-than-life tragicomic soap opera, utilising fun, crappy animation and idiosyncratic stock footage inserts alongside talking-head interviews that were made with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek style – Mike Myers good-naturedly rants about how we can see his “damned mole” while 80s New Romantic icons Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, while shot together, are each individually labelled as “Duran”. Ron and Russ themselves, meanwhile, are clearly having huge fun, gently ribbing each other and dropping some fun deadpan zingers throughout proceedings, easily playing to the band’s strong, idiosyncratic sense of hyper-intelligent humour, while the aforementioned celebrity talking-heads are just three amongst a whole wealth of famous faces that may surprise you – there’s even an appearance by Neil Gaiman, guys! Altogether this is 2+ hours of bright and breezy fun chock full of great music and fascinating information, and even hardcore Sparks fans are likely to learn more than a little over the course of the film, while for those who have never heard of Sparks before it’s a FANTASTIC introduction to one of the greatest ever bands that you’ve never heard of. With luck there might even be more than a few new fans before the year is out …

3. GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE – Netflix’ BEST offering of the summer was this surprise hit from Israeli writer-director Navot Papushado (Rabies, Big Bad Wolves), a heavily stylised black comedy action thriller that passes the Bechdel Test with FLYING COLOURS. Playing like a female-centric John Wick, it follows ice-cold, on-top-of-her-game assassin Sam (Karen Gillan) as her latest assignment has some unfortunate side effects, leading her to take on a reparation job to retrieve some missing cash for the local branch of the Irish Mob. The only catch is that a group of thugs have kidnapped the original thief’s little girl, 12 year-old Emily (My Spy’s Chloe Coleman), and Sam, in an uncharacteristic moment of sympathy, decides to intervene, only for the money to be accidentally destroyed in the process. Now she’s got the Mob and her own employers coming after her, and she not only has to save her own skin but also Emily’s, leading her to seek help from the one person she thought she might never see again – her mother, Scarlet (Lena Headey), a master assassin in her own right who’s been hiding from the Mob herself for years. The plot may be simple but at times also a little over-the-top, but the film is never anything less than a pure, unadulterated pleasure, populated with fascinating, living and breathing characters of real complexity and nuance, while the script (co-written by relative newcomer Ehud Lavski) is tightly-reined and bursting with zingers. Most importantly, though, Papushado really delivers on the action front – these are some of the best set-pieces I’ve seen this year, Gillan, her co-stars and the various stunt-performers acquitting themselves admirably in a series of spectacular fights, gun battles and a particularly imaginative car chase that would be the envy of many larger, more expensive productions. Gillan and Coleman have a sweet, awkward chemistry, the MCU star particularly impressing in a subtly nuanced performance that also plays beautifully against Headey’s own tightly controlled turn, while there is awesome support from Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and Carla Gugino as Sam’s adoptive aunts Anna May, Florence and Madeleine, a trio of “librarians” who run a fine side-line in illicit weaponry and are capable of unleashing some spectacular violence of their own; the film’s antagonists, on the other hand, are exclusively masculine – the mighty Ralph Inneson is quietly ruthless as Irish boss Jim McAlester, while The Terror’s Adam Nagaitis is considerably more mercurial as his mad dog nephew Virgil, and Paul Giamatti is the stately calm at the centre of the storm as Sam’s employer Nathan, the closest thing she has to a father. There’s so much to enjoy in this movie, not just the wonderful characters and amazing action but also the singularly engrossing and idiosyncratic style, deeply affecting themes of the bonds of found family and the healing power of forgiveness, and a rewarding through-line of strong women triumphing against the brutalities of toxic masculinity. I love this film, and I invite you to try it out, cuz I’m sure you will too.

2. THE SUICIDE SQUAD – the most fun I’ve had at the cinema so far this year is the long-awaited (thanks a bunch, COVID) redress of another frustrating imbalance from the decidedly hit and miss DCEU superhero franchise, in which Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn has finally delivered a PROPER Suicide Squad movie after David Ayer’s painfully compromised first stab at the property back in 2016. That movie was enjoyable enough and had some great moments, but ultimately it was a clunky mess, and while some of the characters were done (quite) well, others were painfully botched, even ruined entirely. Thankfully Warner Bros. clearly learned their lesson, giving Gunn free reign to do whatever he wanted, and the end result is about as close to perfect as the DCEU has come to date. Once again the peerless Viola Davis plays US government official Amanda Waller, head of ARGUS and the undisputable most evil bitch in all the DC Universe, who presides over the metahuman prisoners of the notorious supermax Belle Reve Prison, cherry-picking inmates for her pet project Taskforce X, the titular Suicide Squad sent out to handle the kind of jobs nobody else wants, in exchange for years off their sentences but controlled by explosive implants injected into the base of their skulls. Their latest mission sees another motley crew of D-bags dispatched to the fictional South African island nation of Corto Maltese to infiltrate Jotunheim, a former Nazi facility in which a dangerous extra-terrestrial entity that’s being developed into a fearful bioweapon, with orders to destroy the project in order to keep it out of the hands of a hostile anti-American regime which has taken control of the island through a violent coup. Where the first Squad felt like a clumsily-arranged selection of stereotypes with a few genuinely promising characters unsuccessfully moulded into a decidedly forced found family, this new batch are convincingly organic – they may be dysfunctional and they’re all almost universally definitely BAD GUYS, but they WORK, the relationship dynamics that form between them feeling genuinely earned. Gunn has already proven himself a master of putting a bunch of A-holes together and forging them into band of “heroes”, and he’s certainly pulled the job off again here, dredging the bottom of the DC Rogues Gallery for its most ridiculous Z-listers and somehow managing to make them compelling. Sure, returning Squad-member Harley Quinn (the incomparable Margot Robbie, magnificent as ever) has already become a fully-realised character thanks to Birds of Prey, so there wasn’t much heavy-lifting to be done here, but Gunn genuinely seems to GET the character, so our favourite pixie-esque Agent of Chaos is an unbridled and thoroughly unpredictable joy here, while fellow veteran Colonel Rick Flagg (a particularly muscular and thoroughly game Joel Kinnaman) has this time received a much needed makeover, Gunn promoting him from being the first film’s sketchily-drawn “Captain Exposition” and turning him into a fully-ledged, well-thought-out human being with all the requisite baggage, including a newfound sense of humour; the newcomers, meanwhile, are a thoroughly fascinating bunch – reluctant “leader” Bloodsport/Robert DuBois (a typically robust and playful Idris Elba), unapologetic douchebag Peacemaker/Christopher Smith (probably the best performance I’ve EVER seen John Cena deliver), and socially awkward and seriously hard-done-by nerd (and by far the most idiotic DC villain of all time) the Polka-Dot Man/Abner Krill (a genuinely heart-breaking hangdog performance from Ant-Man’s David Dastmalchian); meanwhile there’s a fine trio of villainous turns from the film’s resident Big Bads, with Juan Diego Botta (Good Behaviour) and Joaquin Cosio (Quantum of Solace, Narcos: Mexico) making strong impressions as newly-installed dictator Silvio Luna and his corrupt right hand-man General Suarez, although both are EASILY eclipsed by the typically brilliant Peter Capaldi as louche and quietly deranged supervillain The Thinker/Gaius Greives (although the film’s ULTIMATE threat turns out to be something a whole lot bigger and more exotic). The film is ROUNDLY STOLEN, however, by a truly adorable double act (or TRIPLE act, if you want to get technical) – Daniella Melchior makes her breakthrough here in fine style as sweet, principled and kind-hearted narcoleptic second-generation supervillain Ratcatcher II/Cleo Cazo, who has the weird ability to control rats (and who has a pet rat named Sebastian who frequently steals scenes all on his own), while a particular fan-favourite B-lister makes his big screen debut here in the form of King Shark/Nanaue, a barely sentient anthropomorphic Great White “shark god” with an insatiable appetite for flesh and a naturally quizzical nature who was brilliantly mo-capped by Steve Agee (The Sarah Silverman Project, who also plays Waller’s hyperactive assistant John Economos) but then artfully completed with an ingenious vocal turn from Sylvester Stallone. James Gunn has crafted an absolute MASTERPIECE here, EASILY the best film he’s made to date, a riotous cavalcade of exquisitely observed and perfectly delivered dark humour and expertly wrangled narrative chaos that has great fun playing with the narrative flow, injects countless spot-on in-jokes and irreverent but utterly essential throwaway sight-gags, and totally endears us to this glorious gang of utter morons right from the start (in which Gunn delivers what has to be one of the most skilful deep-fakes in cinematic history). Sure, there’s also plenty of action, and it’s executed with the kind of consummate skill we’ve now come to expect from Gunn (the absolute highlight is a wonderfully bonkers sequence in which Harley expertly rescues herself from captivity), but like everything else it’s predominantly played for laughs, and there’s no getting away from the fact that this film is an absolute RIOT. By far the funniest thing I’ve seen so far this year, and if I’m honest this is the best of the DCEU offerings to date, too (for me, only the exceptional Birds of Prey can compare) – if Warner Bros. have any sense they’ll give Gunn more to do VERY SOON …

1. A QUIET PLACE, PART II – while UK cinemas finally reopened in early May, I was determined that my first trip back to the Big Screen for 2021 was gonna be something SPECIAL, and indeed I already knew what that was going to be. Thankfully I was not disappointed by my choice – 2018’s A Quiet Place was MY VERY FAVOURITE horror movie of the 2010s, an undeniable masterclass in suspense and sustained screen terror wrapped around a refreshingly original killer concept, and I was among the many fans hoping we’d see more in the future, especially after the film’s teasingly open ending. Against the odds (or perhaps not), writer-director/co-star John Krasinski has pulled off the seemingly impossible task of not only following up that high-wire act, but genuinely EQUALLING it in levels of quality – picking up RIGHT where the first film left off (at least after an AMAZING scene-setting opening in which we’re treated to the events of Day 1 of the downfall of humanity), rejoining the remnants of the Abbott family as they’re forced by circumstances to up-sticks from their idyllic farmhouse home and strike out into the outside world once more, painfully aware at all times that they must maintain perfect silence to avoid the ravenous attentions of the lethal blind alien beasties that now sit at the top of the food chain. Circumstances quickly become dire, however, and embattled mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt) is forced to ally herself with estranged family friend Emmett (Cillian Murphy), now a haunted, desperate vagrant eking out a perilous existence in an abandoned factory, in order to safeguard the future of her children Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and their newborn baby brother. Regan, however, discovers evidence of more survivors, and with her newfound weapon against the aliens she recklessly decides to set off on her own in the hopes of aiding them before it’s too late … it may only be his second major blockbuster as a director, but Krasinski has once again proven he’s a true heavyweight talent, effortlessly carving out fresh ground in this already magnificently well-realised dystopian universe while also playing magnificently to the established strengths of what came before, delivering another peerless thrill-ride of unbearable tension and knuckle-whitening terror. The central principle of utilising sound at a very strict premium is once again strictly adhered to here, available sources of dialogue once again exploited with consummate skill while sound design and score (another moody triumph from Marco Beltrami) again become THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of the whole production. The ruined world is once again realised beautifully throughout, most notably in the nightmarish environment of a wrecked commuter train, and Krasinski cranks up the tension before unleashing it in merciless explosions in a selection of harrowing encounters which guaranteed to leave viewers in a puddle of sweat. The director mostly stays behind the camera this time round, but he does (obviously) put in an appearance in the opening flashback as the late Lee Abbott, making a potent impression which leaves a haunting absence that’s keenly felt throughout the remainder of the film, while Blunt continues to display mother lion ferocity as she fights to keep her children safe and Jupe plays crippling fear magnificently but is now starting to show a hidden spine of steel as Marcus finally starts to find his courage; the film once again belongs, however, to Simmonds, the young deaf actress once and for all proving she’s a genuine star in the making as she invests Regan with fierce wilfulness and stubborn determination that remains unshakeable even in the face of unspeakable horrors, and the relationship she develops with Emmett, reluctant as it may be, provides a strong new emotional focus for the story, Murphy bringing an attractive wounded humanity to his role as a man who’s lost anything and is being forced to learn to care for something again. This is another triumph of the genre AND the artform in general, a masterpiece of atmosphere, performance and storytelling which builds magnificently on the skilful foundations laid by the first film, as well as setting things up perfectly for a third instalment which is all but certain to follow. I definitely can’t wait.

#movies 2021 #werewolves within #werewolves within movie #the tomorrow war #army of the dead #Black Widow #black widow movie #black widow mcu #wrath of man #fear street #fear street trilogy #fear street movies #The Sparks Brothers #gunpowder milkshake #the suicide squad #a quiet place part ii #a quiet place part 2 #awesome sauce

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staticscreenwriting · 4 years ago

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The loneliest time of the year || Part one

Part 1 of 4

Summary: With a broken heart and the fear of having failed as a father, Frankie returns to his parents house for Christmas. What is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year feels quite lonely. Though when an old friend shows up unexpectedly with her young son in tow, Frankie’s Christmas seems to gain a little more happiness. Can they help each other fight the ghosts of their pasts and overcome their fears ? A/N: This is part of my 12 days of Christmas / Advent special. Every sunday leading up to Christmas you will get another part. That’s 4 parts in total. Likes, reblogs, comments are all much appreciated.

[additional note: I am German. Sometimes I get the tense wrong or make mistakes. I am useless when it comes to punctuation. Go easy on me, please.]

Christmas time is the most depressing time of the year. Seriously, you can look that up. There’s a bunch of statistics about it and essays using long fancy words.

It’s a time that makes you so acutely aware of how lonely you actually are. And then you’re left to reflect on all the reasons why and that’s just fucking depressing.

Frankie maneuvers his car along the streets of his hometown, a light dusting of snow covers the ground and the trees to his left and right have long sharp icicles hanging from their branches like the sharp teeth of an imaginary monster that lives under your bed.

He passes by the old movie theatre, the 7/11, the diner where he got his first kiss, the red brick building that was once a printing house but has been turned into a Starbucks for some reason, and the public library that he used to volunteer at when he was in high school. There are ghosts in all the windows looking back at him. Ghosts of the boy he used to be and the memories he thought long forgotten.

This wasn’t the plan. He’s not supposed to be here. Or maybe he is. Maybe this is exactly what he deserves. To come crawling back home to mom and dad because the future he had tried so hard to build for himself came crumbling down on him in a matter of moments. And all of it is entirely his own fucking fault. If only he wasn’t such a damn mess.

“I'll have a blue Christmas without you

I'll be so blue just thinking about you.”

“Ah fuck off, Elvis!”

He turns off the radio and is left with just the quiet and his thoughts until the little blue house at the end of a cul-de-sac comes into view. This house has seen many versions of Frankie. Highs and lows. He wonders if he even knows the person he is anymore.

Across the street sits a park and then another little house, this is one red and the shutters are white and the paint is chipping. It used to sit empty for a while but there’s a car in the driveway and light coming from inside. Maybe he was wrong, maybe he isn’t the only one that changed, maybe the town did a little bit of changing too.

His mom is a hugger, always has been. Still is. At least that hasn’t changed. She has him wrapped in a warm big hug as soon as he gets out of the car. She smells the same way she did when he was a little boy. Like lavender and fresh cotton and warmth. His mom, Frankie thinks, has the ability to talk faster than anyone else he knows. Even faster than Pope when he’s drunk. She bombards him with information about various distant relatives and has him caught up on the last several years of their lives before his dad even manages to get to the door.

His dad looks older than the last time Frankie has seen him, but not in a fragile way. Age doesn’t make his dad look sickly or weak, it just makes him look wise. He’s got lines etched into the skin around his lips, from all the laughter and the smiles. Every adventure, every memory, it’s all there in his face and Frankie admires that so much. With every day passing he himself just looks sadder and more worn out.

“Darling, let him come inside. It’s freezing out here.”

Ever since he was little, Frankie knew that what his parents have was special. There was so much love in the way they talked with each other. It exuded from every word. From every look. They were a package deal. One could simply not be without the other. It’s something he knew most of his family members were envious of. Hell, he himself was envious of it.

“Hey Pops, good to see you.”

His dad wraps him in a hug as he steps into the warm house. His dad isn’t a hugger, he’s more stoic and calm but that doesn’t make him any less loving. There was never a day in his life, that Frankie ever doubted his father’s love for him. It’s just that he’s not the most physically affectionate guy, and that’s fine. When he does give out hugs, they are the best.

“Did the Murphy’s house get sold then?” Frankie questions, motioning over his shoulder towards the little red house. The couple who lived there, Margaret and Edwin, were lovely. They were the kind of old people that others just adore. Always a smile on their faces, always greeting you with the most infectious of good moods. They were already old when Frankie was a kid, but they were the kind of people you’d expect to live forever. Though death doesn’t care for any of that and eventually it came for them too. The house went to their only son, a man that always intrigued Frankie. Michael was a photographer and always on the road looking for a new adventure. He was his parents' age but there was a youth about him that made him look much younger. He always seemed like more of a friend or older brother to his daughter than a father.

His daughter. (Y/N) and Frankie weren’t friends. Not really. For that, they didn’t spend nearly enough time with each other. But whenever she would come around and spend the summers at her grandparents' place, Frankie and her would gravitate towards each other. There was an undeniable attraction, a magnetic pull. She always had the most exciting stories and for a teenage boy, there was nothing more exciting than a pretty girl with adventure in her veins.

He hasn’t seen her for a long time though, eventually, she went off to college and he joined the military. She came around less and less and then when first Edwin and then Margaret died, the house stayed quiet and lonely. Last time he saw (Y/N) was when he randomly ran into her at a bar but even that must’ve been at least 10, maybe 12 years ago.

“Oh no. Their son, Michael, do you remember him?”

“Sure.”

“He had a bad accident. Can’t work no more, needs a lot of help. You know what he was like, always on the road never really having a place he called home. Other than this house. So him and his daughter are back here. Do you remember her?“

“ (Y/N), yeah.”

“She’s moved back too. Gave up her entire life to help her father. Poor thing now works at the diner waiting tables for a living all the while taking care of Michael and her young son.”

“She has a kid?”

A sting of pain runs through his heart. Big brown eyes stare up at him in his mind, eyes that look so much like his. Eyes he couldn’t wait to see sparkling from joy on Christmas morning. Eyes he ain’t allowed to look into anytime soon.

“Yes, a little boy. Leo, he’s 7 years old. So well behaved and smart. Such a lovely little boy.”

A warm mug of coffee is thrust into Frankie’s hand as his father guides him to sit down on the big couch in the living room that’s been there ever since he was a kid.

“We invited them to come around for Christmas Eve dinner which reminds me that I still need to get a present for the boy.”

“Darling, it’s December 5th we still got time.”

Despite his heart laying in shambles by his feet, being around his parents sends a warmth through Frankie. It’s so familiar and comforting to be here. Maybe this isn’t all bad. Maybe this is exactly what he needs.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me: One sweet reunion.

Frankie sits on his old bed in his old room. There are fewer posters there and the wall that used to be painted a dark blue is now a soft peach color. The old dark wood furniture has been replaced by white cupboards and two beds, both white too. An adult-sized bed for him and a toddler bed for Rosie. Little butterfly decals decorate the walls and soft pink curtains hang before the window. This is more Rosie’s room that’s his now, only she isn’t here to see it.

A knock on the door shakes him from his daydream. Voices echo through the halls and up the stairs. Voices he doesn’t recognize but by the tone in his mother’s words, he can tell they’re friendly faces.

“So we thought maybe we could borrow your car.”

Frankie sees her before she sees him. Had he not knows she was in town, maybe he wouldn’t have recognized her. (Y/N) looks older. Not old. Just more mature. She must be in her 30s now. Grown into her body. A mother.

“Of course dear, Frankie can help you get the tree if you want. We still need one ourselves anyway. Two birds one stone.”

“Frankie is home?”

(Y/N)’s voice shines with a glimmer of hope.

“I am.”

A smile spreads on her face, and that one he recognizes so well. It’s equal parts mischievous and warm. Familiar and comforting. Sassy and soft.

“Oh man, it’s so good to see you. It’s been some time, huh ?”

“Sure has,” he replies and the two of them share a quick hug. She’s cold from the air outside and smells like winter and snow. Her hair is hidden beneath a beanie and her fingers are kept warm by some fluffy blue mittens. She’s adorable. So fucking adorable.

“So, you want help getting your Christmas tree?” Frankie asks as she pulls away, missing the softness she brought.

“Well actually I was just asking to use your dad’s car but since you’re here, would you mind helping out ?”

“ Course not! We need a tree anyway and I’ll have you know, I’m great at finding the best Christmas trees.”

“That so?”

“Sure is.”

Another big smile spreads on (Y/N)’s lips. “Okay cool. Let me know when you’re ready. Leo and I are free all day.”

“That’s right, you have a kid now.”

There’s an infinite sense of pride that washes over her face. He knows the feeling, sees it in his own mother when she talks about him. Feels it in his heart when he thinks of Rosie.

“Frankie has a baby too, little girl.”

His mother means well. Doesn’t matter though, the mention of her still sends a pant of pain through him. Right to his heart and then it spreads slowly but surely to the rest of his body. Like an ice pick melting slowly.

“You do? Oh, I can’t wait to meet her.”

His heart breaks. Shatters. Crumbles.

“She’s uh — she’s with her mom for Christmas.” And pretty much any other day too.

“Huh, well I guess you’ll just have to tell me all about her then. “

He appreciates this. Her not asking but just taking the situation for what it is. Questions ask for answers he can’t give, doesn’t want to give.

“I can do that.”

“Okay great. Let me bother you no longer, just come knock on our door when you’re ready. You know where I live.”

With a wave and a smile, she makes her exit and steps back into the cold. Snow now falling in big white flakes from the skies, like big bubbles of soap. Like star fragments.

“She’s such a nice young woman, I wish life was a bit more gentle on her. “ his mom spoke up from beside Frankie.

“Yeah. Yeah, me too mom. Me too.”

When he steps out of the house a few hours later, the ground is already covered in a thick coat of fluffy snow. His boots leave deep prints in the pristine white blanket.

Across the street, he can hear a melody of laughter flowing through the air before two figures jump out from behind the house, wrapped in warm clothes, throwing snowballs at each other.

“Mom you’re cheating!” The young boy, Leo calls out, laughter ringing along with his words.

“No way! Nu-uh.”

“Yu-uh! “

The exchange puts a smile on Frankie’s face. It reminds him of his own childhood. When the world didn’t feel like it was working against him. When it was kind. When things were easy. When he was happy.

Realizing neither of the two has spotted him yet, Frankie squats down and gathers some snow in his glove covered hands. In a swift motion, he pulls his arm back and throws the snow in (Y/N)’s direction hitting her right in between her shoulders.

“Hey!”

There’s a second where anger and confusion reign over her face and then she realizes it’s Frankie who threw the snowball and it melts into warmth and mischief.

“I’ll get you back for that, dude. “

“That a threat?”

“Nah, it’s a promise.”

The boy regards them with careful curiosity.

“Leo, come here. This is my friend Frankie.”

To be quite honest, Frankie hadn’t really considered himself a friend of (Y/N) but to hear her introduce him as such felt real nice. He had friends, good friends, brothers even. Pope and the Millers knew him like the knee themselves but this was different. This was home.

“Frankie, this is my son Leo.”

The boy is all (Y/N). Same smile, same eyes. Like a copy and paste.

“Hey, Leo, nice to meet you.”

The boy gives him a shy wave. “Hi.”

“You guys ready to get some Christmas trees?” Frankie asked, looking from (Y/N) to Leo and back to her. The excitement on their faces makes him feel a little giddy.

Back when he was a kid, buying a tree was one of his favorite things to do during Christmas season. His dad always used to wake him up real early so they could be one of the first people at the Christmas tree sale. They’d stay for hours looking for the perfect tree. Now perfect didn’t mean it had to be actually immaculate. Perfect meant perfect for them. Sometimes they’d decide to find the fastest one or the one with the biggest hole. One time they found one with a bird's nest still inside.

Those were the good times and Frankie, knowing now how harsh life can be, will never take them for granted.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Two perfectly imperfect Christmas trees.

“Too big.”

“Too small.”

“I can literally count the branches on one hand.”

(Y/N), Frankie realizes as they look at what feels like the 12 millionth tree, is very particular when it comes to her Christmas trees.

“Mom, can we just pick one? They’re all good!” Leo chimes up as his mother dismisses yet another tree for being too skinny.

“I just want it to be perfect. When I was a little girl my dad and I were always traveling and when we’d come to my grandparents for Christmas they’d have this big beautiful tree every year. I want my dad to have that again.”

There’s more there, he can tell. By the way, her voice shakes slightly and the determination and chaos raging in her eyes. Frankie has yet to find out what exactly happened to her dad, what kind of accident he got in. But it’s not really a conversation starter now, is it?

Leo’s eyes meet Frankie's, a clear message traveling between them. A silent understanding.

“Look (Y/N) how about we let you roam this place in peace until you’ve found the perfect tree and Leo and I go see if we can find one for my parents? “

Leo nods his head in enthusiastic approval. A smile playing on his lips that is so strikingly similar to the one Frankie has seen so many times on the boy's mother.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, two of us are gonna find a perfectly imperfect tree for my folks and you go find the tree of your dreams. Just call if you need us, okay?”

She takes a breath, lets out a sigh. “Okay sounds good. Leo?”

“Sounds good to me too, mom.”

“Okay. Well, you boys have fun then.”

As she rounds the corner in search of the tree straight from a Christmas fairytale, Frankie turns to Leo who regards him with a guarded kindness.

“Thank you. “

“ For what? “ Frankie asks and raises his eyebrow in confusion.

“ For not making fun of my mommy. She’s so worried about grandpa, sometimes she goes a bit crazy.”

“ Nah she’s not crazy. She just wants to make everyone happy. Why would I make fun of her? Did someone make fun of her? “

It sends a flash of anger through him, the idea that someone might ridicule her for caring too much. If anything it’s what makes her so endearing. The world could do with more people like her. People who care. Deeply.

“ She talked to my daddy on the phone yesterday. I think he made fun of her. She cried. “

“ That’s — that’s not nice.”

Leo shrugs his shoulders in a way that seems casual but weary. As if he’s so used to it. Geez, the kid is 7. This isn’t something he should be used to.

“ Dad is not a nice person. Mama always says he’s busy and that he wants to see me but I don’t think that’s right. I think mama just doesn’t want me to be sad. I think daddy doesn’t really want to see me. Don’t think he loves me. But that’s okay mama loves me so much that’s enough. “

Leo’s words sent small cracks to Frankie’s heart and it’s quite hard not to let it crumble entirely. He’s never known what it feels like to be unloved by those that are meant to love you most. His parents adored him, still do. Even when he doesn’t deserve it. He can’t even begin to understand how much that must hurt. How devastating it must be, especially to a 7-year-old.

And yet Leo looks so — at peace. Like it bothers him sure, but it’s no big deal really.

Because he is loved either way. By (Y/N).

“ You’re a cool kid, you know that? “ Frankie asks and pats the young boy’s back in a friendly manner.

“ Mom says so. “

“ Well, she’s completely right. You really are. Now, you wanna help me find a tree? “

Leo nods enthusiastically.

“ Okay cool, but I’ll have to tell you how it works. “

“ We don’t just look for one we like?”

“ Oh no, you see the Morales family has a very specific tradition. Each year my dad and I go looking for a special tree. “

“ A special one? “

“ Mmmh. We always think of something special and then try to find a tree that fits that special thing. One time we tried to find the tallest tree on the lot or the widest or the skinniest. “

“ So what are we looking for this year? “

“ How abouuut … we look for one that has two tops? “

A giggle falls from Leo’s lips. “ That’s silly, that’s not a thing. “

“ Sure it is. You wanna go look for it? “

“ Yeah.”

There are big trees and small ones. Ones in shades of greens and some that look almost blue. There are fat ones with lots of branches and skinny ones that look like they’ve seen better days. None of them have two peaks though — until …

“ Frankie, look !”

His small, glove-covered hand is outstretched, pointing towards a tree before him. It’s a big tree, wide too. It’s blueish green color shines through the white haze of the winter's day.

And true to Leo’s words, the stem of the tree goes halfway up before it diverges into two different branches. Two tops.

“ That one’s perfect! “

“ He’s special! “

“ He is special. Good job, kid. “

The two share a high 5 as a laugh sounds from behind them.

“ I see you boys are getting along well. “ (Y/N) says as she approaches the two of them, placing a kiss on her son’s head as she reaches him.

“ We found a special tree, mom.”

“ Did you? Well so did I, it’s perfect. “

Her eyes wander towards Frankie’s and for a second it’s only the two of them there, veiled in shared understanding, a silent thank you.

“ I’m glad you found your tree, (Y/N). “

“ I’m glad you two had fun. Now hooow about we get those trees home and set up? “

“ Can we have hot cocoa at home, momma? “

“ Duh. Of course. You can’t decorate a Christmas tree without a good hot cup of cocoa.”

The softness in her voice, the pure adoration she holds for this boy, it makes Frankie think back to Leo’s words about his father and about (Y/N). About how she loves him enough for the both of them. And he can see it, clear as day. Her love for Leo.

Those two, he thinks, don’t need anyone. Especially not someone who doesn’t treat them with the love and respect they deserve. Those two are their own warmth, their own little universe. And it’s enough. It’s plenty. Everyone who’s allowed to be a part of their little world should be grateful because it’s a good world. It’s gentle and kind.

“ Alright you two, let’s get those trees home. “ Frankie pipes up and for a moment he is part of their little universe too. And it’s wonderful. He doesn’t wanna let go of this feeling. How anyone ever could is entirely beyond him.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Three mugs of cocoa.

Bobby Helms’ voice echoes through the room accompanied by the soothing crack of a vinyl record. It’s an old one, one (Y/N) has found in a box of her grandparent’s stuff. Jingle Bell rock fills the air with a sense of excitement and wonder only a good old Christmas song can bring.

There are 3 cups of cocoa on the table, one of them in a Star Wars mug. It all feels warm and cozy. Homey. And for the first time since he’s back, Frankie doesn’t feel out of place. He doesn’t feel like a stranger watching through the window into someone else's life. Someone familiar. Someone he once knew. Someone he once was.

Right now he feels like he’s right where he’s meant to be. With friends who chose him. A family that lets him into their lives and willingly shares a piece of their kindness and warmth and magic with him. Not because they are bound to him by blood, by shared trauma. Just because they like him, as he is.

(Y/N) and Frankie sit on the old leather couch that’s been there in this same living room for so many years. One that has seen different versions of (Y/N). Some of him too.

In the corner of the room, across from the big window leading out into a snowy dreamland, stands a perfect Christmas tree. (Y/N)’s perfect tree. It’s decked out in lights and ornaments and tinsel. Leo hops around the tree, adding yet more ornaments here and more tinsel there, a big smile on his face the entire time.

And as she watches her son relish in the pure unfiltered joy only a child really knows, (Y/N) smiles too. Because sometimes this is what it means to be happy, seeing your loved ones smiling.

“ Thank you, Frankie. “ she says, eyes still locked on her son.

“ For what? “

It’s the second time that day that he is being thanked and for what? For being there? Really he hasn’t done much. This is what friends do, isn’t it? What they should do. Help each other out. Be there for one another.

“ For playing along with my crazy antics. I know it’s just a tree but I just want this Christmas to be — to be good. For me and for Leo and for my dad. We haven’t had the best year and I just want to make this perfect for us. Or as perfect as possible. Thanks for not letting me see how annoying I was back at the tree sale. “

Frankie shakes his head dismissively. “ You weren’t being annoying. I get it, don’t worry. Leo, he uh — he said something similar to me earlier. Said his dad made fun of you? Made you cry. “

(Y/N) lets out a scoff, curls her lips in an unamused smirk. “ Derek’s a — “ her eyes trail towards her son who pays the two adults no mind “ — he’s such a dick. Always has been. But he was suave and he had a motorcycle and I just kind of fell for his bad-boy charms. He’s unreliable though and a goddamn child. When I told him about Leo he bailed on us. Sometimes he tries to be a dad, whenever he gets one of his moods and feels like he needs to turn his life around. Those don’t last very long though. He sends birthday gifts and Christmas presents and he calls every once in a while but — well his interest in Leo isn’t all that big. “

“ What an asshole. Why’d he make you cry? “

“ Ugh, it wasn’t really any particular thing, just an amalgamation of so many. He was making me feel stupid because of the tree thing. He was being dismissive of my feelings. He didn’t want to talk to Leo. It was just his entire mood that day that once again made me realize why I ended things with him in the first place. And it isn’t fair. It really isn’t. That I have to work twice as hard to be a good parent because I have to fill both roles and he gets off scot-free. Not even a guilty conscience. How am I ever gonna be able to play both roles and play them well? How can I do that? I feel like I am failing already. “

“ Are you kidding me? “ Frankie says and softly nudges her shoulder with his “ You’re a great mother. You’re fun, you’re loving. What else could Leo want? (Y/N) you are doing an incredible job, trust me. Little mistakes you make that might seem big to you, they really don’t matter to Leo. Not now and especially not in the long run. He’s gonna remember the good times. The snowball fights and the hot cocoa and the tree decorating. Those are the little moments that will become memories. “

“ You think so ? “

“ I know so. It’s what I remember about my childhood. And it’s uh — it’s what Leo told me. He said that his dad might not be around but that it doesn’t matter because you love him twice as much. Said that’s plenty enough. The boy loves you. You’re a wonderful mom. “

He forbids his mind from going to that dark corner where he’s banished all his own fears. Those that whisper to him in quiet moments. About how his shortcomings, his mistakes, his faults, how all of that will stain his relationship with Rosie. His ability to be a good father.

Lord knows he wishes his daughter was here now. Maybe not in this exact moment, a toddler really ain’t much help when setting up a tree. But here. In his arms. With him. During Christmas time. He fears that she never will be. That the times he gets to see her will become few and far between. That he will one day only be a distant memory to her because he ain’t ever given the chance to make any good ones with her.

His heart aches from how much he misses his little girl at that moment. But he has to remind himself not to wallow in it. Because once he goes there, lets himself fall into this big black hole of grief and of missing and of fear, there’s no coming back.

So he looks back at the people around him, at their soft smiles and the Christmas lights reflected in their eyes. Shining with happiness. Shining with joy.

And as the snow falls softly outside, he tries to focus on the warmth in this room. The warmth from the fire and from the hearts so soft and so filled with love.

Because he’d rather get lost in a beautiful dream than the sad reality of his fears.

#frankie morales x reader #frankie morales imagine #francisco morales x you #francisco morales x reader #frankie morales x you #francisco morales imagine #frankie morales imagines #francisco morales imagines #triple frontier imagine #jos2020xmasspecial #catfish imagine #catfish x reader #catfish x you

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365days365movies · 4 years ago

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January 29-31, 2021: The Mad Max Franchise

Now that I’ve finished watching all of the Mad Max films, I can confidently say that I am indeed a fan! The journeys of the ex-cop through a post-apocalyptic landscape that just gets increasingly worse and worse. Yeah, I can dig it.

And so, I thought it’d be fitting to talk about all of these movies at once, rather than just talk about them one at a time. And I mean ALL of these movies. After all, I started this month by saying the Fury Road was my favorite action film; might as well end it talking about the movie!

Recap

Mad Max: 78%

Mad Max was a great movie, honestly. It’s also HANDS-DOWN the weakest of the quadrilogy. I think that, since this is Miller’s first film, as well as being the first in this franchise in general, this is Miller carving out this universe on screen for the first time, so it doesn’t feel as fleshed out and as stylistically unique as the succeeding films. So, it’s hard to hold that against this film. Anyway, let’s break it down a little.

Cast and Acting: It’s legitimately nice to see Mel Gibson before he became...well, Mel Gibson, at least from a cinematic standpoint. And yes, Hugh Keays-Byrne is certainly memorable as Toecutter, and is a fitting first villain to the franchise. But, uh...that’s it for standout performances. Yeah, Joanne Samuel is endearing as Jess, and I like Steve Bisley as Goose, of course. But they don’t take the spotlight in my memory as much as our main two players. Which, obviously, is fine, but I like me a good supporting character in there as well. Still, this is getting a good 8/10 from me.

Plot and Writing: Plot’s you’re pretty standard cop story. Cop is awesome, cop wants to quit to spend time with family, cop’s family is killed by the villain, cop destroys villain. Not much outside of that. The biggest thing to praise to story for is the mild universe-building given to us. And even then, there isn’t a whole lot. Not, of course, that there needs to be. Credit goes to George Miller, Byron Kennedy, and James McCausland for this 7/10.

Directing and Action: George Miller’s cutting his teeth on the celluloid for the first time, and it’s awesome...for a first-time director, anyway. As for the action: yes, please. It doesn’t have the same pageant s future entries in this franchise, but it’s certainly great at the same time. Overall, 8/10 here.

Production and Art Design: It’s beginning, even though it’s not there yet. This universe hasn’t become the post-apocalyptic hellscape that it’s going to become, but the beginnings are there. Because of this, leather might be a dominating fashion choice, but...not as much as its gonna be. But, OK, let’s stop comparing this to the rest of the franchise. On its own merits, this film looks good! Doesn’t stand out too harshly from the crowd, but it still looks quite good. So, 8/10 here, too!

Music and Editing: Tony Patterson and, yes, George Miller were the editors for this mad boy, and they sought to make an Australian film with a fast-editing style, and in a way that the film could work without sound, as well as with. They way they incorporated sound and music (by Brian May, but not the one you’re thinking) into the film would actually be incorporated as industry standard practice in general! Wow! So for all that...8/10. It’s good, but this is early in their careers, so it can be a teensy bt choppy at time. And the music’s recognizable, but not particularly memorable after the fact. But still, 8/10.

Mad Max 2 AKA The Road Warrior: 92%

This is where I start to fall in love with the franchise. The Road Warrior is where the franchise really begins for me, and it’s EXTREMELY high up on my favorite action films list for this month. Obviously not the highest, but it’s up there for sure.

Cast and Acting: Gibson’s starting to come into his own and own this character, and I think this film is where he’s at his finest as Max. Definitely the most memorable and noteworthy. Antagonists, both Vernon Wells and Wez, and Kjell Nilsson as Lord Humungus, are fanTAStic, and I love them both. Supporting cast also ain’t no slouch this time! Bruce Spence’s Gyro is a wonderful character, and extremely fun to watch. Even the settlers, like Michael Preston’s noble portrayal of Papagallo, were memorable to me. Great cast all around, and they’re getting a 9/10 from me. Why not a 10? Well, for all of those performances, there’s also Feral Kid and Toadie...so, it’s not perfect

Plot and Writing: Plot’s definitely more interesting this time around! We’ve gone into the deep end of apocalypse, as compared to the first film, and we instead get an enforcer storyline for Max. And, yeah, I love that. This movie would carve out the tone of the rest of the franchise, and there’s a reason for that: it’s great. Terry Hayes, Brian Hannant, and of course, George Miller, you guys get a 9/10 for this one, too!

Directing and Action: Right off the bat 10/10. Action is AMAZING IN THIS MOVIE, and George Miller is doing a great job with directing. Not much to say here, other than the fact that this movie looks fantastic, all the way through.

Production and Art Design: A 9/10. This is where the franchise comes into its own, and it does that with a HELL of a lot of leather and metal studs. And yeah, the villains of this movie have a BDSM vibe about them, but it’s still iconic. Not to mention that the vehicles are now taking their true, metal-modded forms. Again, 9/10.

Music and Editing: Brian May turned it UP this time, and the music here is iconic and great. Editing’s pretty good, too, although I did notice some spotty sound editing areas, like in Mad Max. For this one, 9/10 as well.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: 86%

I honestly wish this was rated higher for me, but there are a few issues that I did have with it. However, I gotta say, this one might be the second-highest in my heart. You know what the number one is. Still, I wanna talk about this one, because it’s what made be fall in love with the universe of this franchise.

Cast and Acting: By the time we get here, Mel Gibson is, well...Mel Gibson. He kind of stops inhabiting the role of Max at this point, and becomes the ‘80s and ‘90s action star that we’re all familiar with. So instead, the focus should be on the villains. Tina Turner! WHOOOOOO, Aunty Entity! Look, I love Lord Humungus, but Tina Turner definitely beats him in terms of character. And I might like Wez, but I love MasterBlaster, and...well, mostly Angelo Rossitto. Paul Larsson’s good too, even though there isn’t much acting in the role. And then, there’s Helen Buday, Tom Jennings, and the rest of the desert kids. And let’s not forget Bruce Spence or Edwin Hodgeman! Yeah, this one earns its 9/10 for some memorable performances. Might not have been Oscar-worthy, but they have a special place in my heart.

Plot and Writing: Intricate plot this time! It does seem like George Miller and Terry Hayes get better and better with each movie. Real talk, the universe-building in this one is INTENSE, and well-done for that matter. And the writing’s good as well. This one gets another 8/10, because it’s not perfect in the writing department, but it’s still damn good!

Directing and Action: Y’know, weirdly, 8/10 on this one. Yeah, the action’s pretty damn light here, as compared to the previous two films. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, I love me some good character development and story. But if I’m judging it for action, it’s a bit less. Still, direction’s fantastic; definitely George Miller’s best effort so far. So, 8/10.

Production and Art Design: No surprise, but it’s a 10/10 here. The style of these films is evolve WAY FURTHER with this one, as we get the sense that the world has gotten worse, just by pure physical comparison. And yet, everything is starting to return to some kind of rudimentary order, with places such as Bartertown. Yeah, this one RULES visually, and I would say it’s arguably the best yet.

Music and Editing: Well, music’s still good, but the tone shift from rock instrumentals is a little jarring. Still, for the score, Maurice Jarre does good. And, yeah, Turner’s power ballad, “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, is more well-remembered than the movie itself by many. Hell, I had NO IDEA that this song came from this movie. But for all of that (and for great editing), an 8/10 is going here.

Mad Max Fury Road: 94%

Need I say anything? Let’s get into this one.

Cast and Acting: Well, Tom Hardy’s Max Rocktansky is fine, and definitely takes off of Gibson’s earlier portrayals, but I can’t really say he’s the absolute star. No, that’s the Atomic Blonde herself, Charlize Theron. Furiosa is FAR more memorable than Max here, and that’s pretty obviously on purpose. And hey, Hugh Keays-Byrne is back for a FAR more memorable villain in Immortan Joe. GOD, I love Joe; he’s great. And again, supporting cast aren’t slouching a BIT. Nicholas Hoult, Rose Huntington-Whiteley, and of course...iOTA. You know, the Doof Warrior. Yeah. The dude who plays the blind flamethrower guitarist on the back of a truck is called the Doof Warrior, and is played by a dude who calls himself iOTA. I LOVE THIS GODDAMN MOVIE. 10/10!

Plot and Writing: OK, I’l freely admit that this is the weakest element of an otherwise amazing movie. Because, yeah, it’s basically one long chase with some background plot. Not bad, but not great at the same time. While it’s certainly engaging, and the writing is overly memorable, I’m still giving this one an 8/10.

Directing and Action: I mean...c’mon. 10/10.

Production and Art Design: I mean...COME ON. 10/10!

Music and Editing: MUUUUUUSIC. Junkie XL is the composer this time, and he’s put to excellent usage. Yeah, this is the most memorable music in the franchise, bar none. And the editing is also great, as per usual. While it’s not on my playlist (yet), it deserves to be, just for pump-up music. Although, if I listen to that while driving...eh, maybe not. 9/10!

And the winner is Mad Max Fury Road, at a...94%.

Wait...94%? OH. OH NO.

That means...it’s been dethroned? I, uh...I’m gonna have to figure that out. End-of-month summary?

End-of-month summary. See you later today, people.

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imjustthemechanic · 4 years ago

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The Price of a Soul

Part 1/? - Agent Russel Part 2/? - The Letter Part 3/? - Miss Lake Part 4/? - The Stewardess Part 5/? - An Assassination Part 6/? - Fallout Part 7/? - Face to Face Part 8/? - Deals, Details, and Other Devils Part 9/? - Baggage Part 10/? - Private Funding Part 11/? - Just Passing Through Part 12/? - Party of Four Part 13/? - Resolute Part 14/? - The Wreck Part 15/? - Body Snatchers Part 16/? - Out of the Frying Pan Part 17/? - A Miracle Part 18/? - A Matter of Circumstance Part 19/? - Nome Part 20/? - The Future Part 21/? - A Hero’s Welcome Part 22/? - Up to Speed Part 23/? - Expect Further Delays Part 24/? - The Welcome Wagon Part 25/? - Fugitives Part 26/? - A Reluctant Accomplice

Agent Russel probably doesn’t deserve this. Probably.

The next day, when Agent Russel showed up for his tuna melt, it was served to him by a woman in the same uniform any of the other waitresses wore. As she set the plate in front of him, another came to refill his coffee cup.

“Thanks, ladies,” he murmured, raising the cup to his lips.

“Don’t mention it,” said Peggy.

Agent Russel looked up with a start. His brown eyes darted from Peggy to Kay and then back again, and his expression suggested he was seriously considering screaming. Peggy sat down across from him at his booth, and Kay took the seat next to him, blocking his escape.

“Not a sound,” said Peggy.

Something under the table went click, sounding suspiciously like a gun being cocked. Kay, her hands invisible, gave Agent Russel a dazzling smile.

“So you two are working together,” Russel said.

“Don’t look so nervous, Ned,” said Kay. “You’re flirting with two waitresses at once. You should be a happy man.”

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Your help,” Peggy replied.

“Why would I want to help you?”

“Because we’re the ones who found Captain America,” said Peggy. “Doesn’t that suggest we’re the good guys?”

“I don’t know who are the good guys in this,” Russel admitted. “Last time I saw you,” he pointed at Peggy, “you were going home in protest because Thompson was working with her,” his finger moved to Kay, “and she drugged and robbed me.”

“I apologized,” said Kay.

“Now suddenly you’re on the same side?”

“Kay persuaded me that we always have been,” Peggy said, though that still wasn’t totally true. “Remember those numbers I mentioned she gave me? Those were the key to the Captain’s location. Kay is not a spy, she’s a defector. She has information for us, and she thinks she knows how to get more out of Olga Barynova.”

Russel nodded slowly, although his expression remained skeptical. “And where does she come into this? Because she says you let her out of prison and flew her to Los Angeles yourself.”

“Did she say why?” asked Peggy.

“We haven’t been able to get that out of her,” Russel said.

Peggy laced her fingers together in front of her. “I’m afraid it’s true that I let Miss Underwood out of her cell,” she said, “but I did so with every intention of returning her to it, and because I needed a service I felt only she could provide. I’m sure you’ve heard of Whitney Frost?”

“Yes…” said Russel slowly. “She’s that actress who went nuts and murdered her husband, right?”

“There’s a bit more to the story than that.” Peggy leaned in a bit closer. “Let me explain. You can check what I say with Daniel Sousa and Edwin Jarvis, and they will tell you the same.”

Russel looked around, and then opened his briefcase to get a notebook. “All right. Let’s hear it.”

Peggy tried to be as quick as she could in describing the situation, but it was not a simple one and it took a while. They probably went on significantly beyond the break two waitresses would have gotten, but it was essential that Russel get details he could confirm if he liked. In particular she described how they’d dressed Dottie for the mission, how Mr. Jarvis had observed that she was an excellent dancer, and what they’d been able to learn as a result.

“Unfortunately, Miss Underwood is better than you are from escaping the trunks of cars,” Peggy finished, “and we haven’t seen her since.”

“Uh-huh,” said Russel. “If any of that is true… well, freeing her was still a stupid thing to do.”

“Yes, it was,” Peggy said, “and I regret it every time I hear she’s committed another robbery or ended another life. However,” she gestured to her companion. “Kay thinks she knows what Dottie’s trying to accomplish, and if she’s correct we can get good information from her. We obviously can’t get in to talk to her because, as you already noted, we’re supposed to be in jail with her. But you can.”

Russel frowned, thinking. “What are you two up to?” he asked. “What are you trying to do?”

“Make the future a little better than it’s stacking up to be,” said Kay.

“If we can find out where Dottie and her ilk came from, we can shut them down and make sure we don’t see any more like her,” Peggy said. “And possibly free American prisoners of war, as well.”

“What would you need me to do?” Russel asked.

“For now just deliver a message and bring back her reply,” said Peggy. “Kay has a page written up. She’ll give you a translation if you want it.”

Kay took the paper out. “If you do this for us, not only will you be potentially saving lives, but I will personally go see your wife and tell her you were supposed to be investigating me and that’s the only reason you had a drink with me, and try to convince her to take you back. I can’t promise miracles,” she added, “but I’ll do my best and my best is pretty damned good.” She offered him the page.

He made no move to take it. Instead he just sat there, apparently lost in thought.

“Agent Russel,” Peggy said, “what was your first impression of me?”

“Of you?” He looked her over. “That you were very, very… devoted… to getting your job done. But my first impression of her,” Russel looked at Kay, “was that she was harmless and flighty, so I’m not sure I trust those anymore. Can I have twenty-four hours to think it over?”

Peggy didn’t want to give it to him. Twenty-four hours was time to think, but it was also time to tell Thompson and Masters they’d been here. Could they afford that? Twenty-four hours from now, Steve would have left New York on the beginning of the publicity tour Masters had put together. If he still wanted to rescue his friend from captivity in Russia, were they going to have to chase him across the country in order to give him their information?

“Can I have your word you won’t go straight to the police?” she asked.

“I am the police,” Russel reminded her, “but yes. I think there’s more going on here than you can see on the surface, but I don’t know which side of it you two are on… especially when you’re pointing a gun at me under the table.”

Kay smiled at him and brought her other hand up to show him a bolt mechanism from a disassembled doorknob, which she’d used to make the metallic click.

“Well,” Peggy said in an American accent. “We’d better get back to our shift. See you tomorrow, Mr. Russel. Same time, same place.”

They spent a second restless night in the Pine Barrens. Kay busied herself with some knitting needles and yarn she’d bought in the town, producing some intricate-looking lacy thing Peggy couldn’t begin to identify. Her thoughts were a mystery.

Peggy herself spent the time thinking about what they were going to do if this didn’t work. It seemed to her that they’d have to find Steve, but she really didn’t want him to get involved in this mess. Daniel was in it with her whether she liked it or not, as was Mr. Jarvis, but she would have liked to keep Steve safe.

That was a strange thought, wasn’t it? Steve had always been able to take care of himself, even when he’d been only five foot four, yet Peggy’s urge was to protect him. Was that one of those ‘motherly instincts’ men insisted all women had, or was it just that Peggy wanted to keep everybody she loved safe? She’d failed with Michael. There was a part of her that still thought, no matter how irrational she knew it was, that if she’d only joined the spy corps earlier he would still be alive. Was she trying to make up for that?

What would happen if she just disappeared?

She’d wondered that from time to time, like when Anna Jarvis had been shot… wouldn’t the people she loved be safer if Peggy weren’t around? Without her, Daniel and Mr. Jarvis wouldn’t be in trouble right now. She was the one who’d involved them in the situation with Dottie. The problem with that thought was that the trouble had already come to them. If she were to vanish, they would still end up in prison or worse on the strength of Dottie’s testimony, or perhaps have their fates dangled like carrots to encourage Peggy to return. She couldn’t stand for that. She’d gotten them in trouble, she had to get them out of it.

Which meant she’d better come up with a backup plan in case Russel wouldn’t help.

They scoped out the Automat very carefully before returning the next day, making sure there were no suspicious fellows hanging around watching who came and went. Peggy saw none, and Kay agreed with her. They went inside and changed into Angie’s spare uniforms, Kay putting a few safety pins in hers so it would look like it fit. When Agent Russel arrived, they took him his usual and sat down across from him. This time, they did not bother with sound effects.

“I didn’t talk to the police,” he said. “But I felt like I had to talk to somebody… so I talked to Captain America.”

Peggy’s heart started beating a little faster. “How on Earth did you manage that?” she asked. Steve and Masters had left New York early that morning. They’d heard it on their car radio.

“I told Jack I wanted to meet him in person because he’s always been a hero of mine, Jack talked to Masters, and Masters let me in,” Russel explained.

“Wow. I’m momentarily glad I didn’t kill him yet,” said Kay.

“Please stop that,” Peggy told her.

“If you want something fun to do on your weekends,” Kay said to Russel, “take a look at what Vernon Masters was up to around… oh, 1943-ish.”

“Do you know something I don’t?” Peggy asked her. A foolish question, really… Kay always knew something nobody else did, or at least, she acted that way.

“In this case, no,” Kay replied, “but I have strong suspicions.”

Peggy shook her head and brought things back to Russel. “What did he say? Steve, I mean.”

“Well, he told me to call him Steve,” Russel said, “which was a little like meeting one of your schoolteachers as an adult and having him tell you to call him by his name. I told him what you were asking me to do, and… he said he doesn’t know about Miss Lake, himself, but he trusts Peggy Carter with his life and I should do what she asks. He seemed pretty sure you know what you’re doing.”

Peggy had to chuckle at that. “He has such faith in me,” she said. Of course, she had faith in Steve, too… he’d always done the most recklessly foolish things imaginable, but he’d always managed to make them work in spite of everything. “Thank you, Agent Russel.”

“I still don’t know what’s going on here,” Russel admitted, “but I don’t think Captain America would involve himself with traitors. I read the file the FBI gave me about you, and I remember thinking there must have been some kind of mistake. That was my instinct from the beginning.” He glanced at Kay… the woman who’d given him cause to doubt his instincts. “What’s this message?”

Kay unfolded it and handed it over – a page of pseudo-Cyrillic accomplished with an ordinary English typewriter and going over some of the letters two or three times. “I think I know what she wants. She’s amassing money and blackmail material. She’s going after the mob now because she wants to force a diplomat with criminal connections to smuggle her back into the USSR. If she tries to go there legitimately, or even secretly but without protection, she’ll be shot. She needs to enter the country unnoticed, and then she’s going after the people who made her.”

“For what? Revenge?” asked Russel.

“Exactly.”

“And you’re going to let her do it?” he guessed.

“On her own she can’t,” said Kay. “She’ll never get that far, or she’ll be caught, and she’ll just disappear from history. But if I’m right, it gives us a bargaining chip.”

“I see.” Russel tucked the message inside his jacket. “I’ll deliver it this afternoon, and if she gives me a reply, I’ll pass it on tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Agent Russel,” Peggy repeated.

They left him to his lunch then, and returned to their stolen car to go back into hiding. Kay still hadn’t broken her habit of checking for seat belts when she got in.

Halfway through New Jersey, she suddenly asked Peggy, “have you see Frankenstein? That was made in the thirties, wasn’t it? Or read the book?”

“I haven’t,” Peggy replied. “I’m not one for the cinema, and the very idea of the book put me off.” As a child she simply hadn’t liked horror stories, and as an adult she’d seen far too many of them in real life to enjoy them in fiction.

“I have,” said Kay. “Several more versions, too, and most of them miss the point. The creature couldn’t help being what he was. The monster was the man who created him.” She sighed. “Everyone treated the creature as a monster, until he decided that was the only thing he could be.”

“Do you believe that of yourself?” Peggy asked.

“I think Barynova might,” Kay replied.

#fanfic #agent carter #captain america #peggy carter #steve rogers #steggy #fix it fic

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player-1 · 4 years ago

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Anyone who’s been in the TMA fandom (or those who understand the bare minimum of the story) know damn well that whatever was going on with Michael D. Stortion and Gabriel/Worker-of-Clay was not just a simple Avatar/Entity partnership. No, in the twisted timeline of the Spiral itself, the Armageddon arms-race pales in comparison to the romantic tragedy subplot those two had long before Jon and Martin were in the picture.

(This is also going to be a long one, and with some MAG 101 spoilers, so buckle on in...)

Here’s what I mean:

Gabriel (or in this case, Gabe) works with Neil Lagorio (Web aligned special-effects dude) in the mid 1900′s on their first movie The Labyrinth of the Minotaur. Unfortunately for him, Gabe quits in 1972 just as the movie was released.

Not much is known of this time after 1972 up until the dreaded sculpting class in 2004. Speculation-wise, Gabriel might have been corrupted by the Flesh during his movie-making times or earlier before he came into contact with the Spiral.

Reasons: -The Spiral connects with the unraveling of reality, question one’s sanity and eventually “spiraling” into insanity. -The Flesh, in its literal sense, connects to the fear of people or animals being killed for meat; even the appearance of flesh/bone being twisted, bent, or butchered. But it can also connect on a emotional level, such as being viewed weaker than others, mostly relating to a person’s body image. That’s also the reason why the nature of his death is completely unlike the Spiral simply letting him fade out of reality. -Gabriel displays more Flesh-like qualities in his appearance and work up until the end of MAG 126. He doesn’t want people to judge him by appearance alone (even if his entire body is made up of clay) but he makes up for it with his unassuming personality and amazing talent. In a literal sense, he wants to mold himself into the kind of person that gets praised for his clay-making abilities, not just from his creations alone.

[Enter Ｔｈｅ　Ｄｉｓｔｏｒｔｉｏｎ: Stage Left] Of course, while there’s no evidence on how, when or why the Distortion would target him specifically, but there is one thing. Compared to all the other Spiral avatars and fear-aligned creatures, they all used to be humans in the past. The Spiral by nature is to cast aside their humanity and submit to the nature of insanity. But since most of the Spiral avatars either faded out of existence or just refused to do anything ritual-wise, how was it supposed to create a new world if all they ever do is destroy? It adopts an artist, of course. There’s nothing more chaotic than the struggles of a budding sculptor such as himself. But while that may be a convincing argument for the Spiral to get Gabriel to join the Dark Side, there could be more to convince him that it’s worth following the unknowable being of delusions. Long story short, there was no reason for Gabriel to judge himself so poorly if he knew how to reshape the world to how he sees fit. it would convince him that, like the archangel he’s named after, he could show the world the coming future; twisting the laws of reality so that there’s no room to judge how something should be right or wrong, imaginary or real. As if they were said from the Lord himself, Gabriel heard the Distortion’s tell him about a new world and finally found inspiration in them.

Then comes the sculpting class. It’s worth noting that, even with the angel symbolism for Michael and Gabriel, it could be implied that Gabriel is also a goody-two-shoes Christian boy who regularly attends church, as evidence of Michael having knowledge about Mass in MAG 20, assisting the Flesh in driving Father Edwin to cannibalism (so the Flesh and Spiral have an interesting partnership, huh?). Besides that, this is where Gabriel takes the spotlight. From Deborah’s point of view, he was a strange little man from the beginning; eyes always jutted out of his face, appearing right in someone’s personal space and disappearing just as fast, and of course, his works of clay. (Also a random headcanon just because: Gabriel may be afraid of water, either because his entire body being made of clay, and since you need water to help shape the material, he does not want to get it melded into his own flesh. Could also be the reason why he has short and greasy hair, cause he would practically melt into a puddle if he was unfortunate enough to get wet.) And apart from Deborah and her friends’ growing discomfort over Gabriel in general, he’s just vibing in the back of the class, trying to make a shape for the unknowable form of the Distortion. And the second Deborah inadvertently gives him a break from his artist’s block, he quite literally takes control of the class; switching over the biweekly schedule it was before into every week, and even manipulating the space of the classroom to further support his artistic needs.

“Ray told us the lesson was ‘faces.’ I put my hand up to say that sculpting faces was probably a bit advanced for where we were in the course, but he shook his head, and said that we were… a lot more talented than we thought. He said the key was that faces were twisted. All faces were twisted on the inside, and all you had to do was reach into the deepest part of yourself and put that twisted on the outside of the clay, and as soon as you can scream you’ll have your own face staring back at you.” (MAG 126)

This is also the key to the Spiral itself. With Gabriel’s assistance, he will be able to let the spiral to insanity move in reverse, create the physical manifestation of that fear instead of letting it collapse and destroy itself. And in that lesson as well, Gabriel finally creates a fitting image of the Distortion...A door, the physical entrance to insanity itself.

Then comes the final stretch in Sannikov Land, the nonexistent island that was said to exist between the years 2009 and 2011. And as Michael D. Stortion explains in MAG 101, was the perfect place for their ritual, The Great Twisting. After everything Gabriel had done to appease his good “friend”, The Distortion seemed extremely invested in the Worker of Clay at that point. Nevermind the fact that its telling Jon how its identity was stolen away from Michael Shelley by merging with the Distortion, but there’s more to this origin story.

“Michael was protective of the frail old woman he believed her to be. So… so delicate, so forgetful, yet gently wise. He cared for her. He trusted her. And she fed him to me. She made him to destroy our transcendence. And she did not hesitate.” “And it was me they sought to stop. Me and the others of It-Is-Not-What-It-Is. Our Great Twisting. The-Worker-of-Clay had laboured for decades on that contorted, impossible edifice of doors… and stairs… and falsehoods… and smiles. A thousand staring morsels stood, and not one of them believed themselves sane to look upon it. And in the centre, the door that would open to all the places that were never there, was me.�� “Perhaps I should have realised what was happening; seen those two lonely figures approaching me, but I cannot tell you the existential joys of truly… becoming. Of an entireness finally crossing the threshold into your self. So ecstatic was my completeness, I did not even hear my own door creak open.“ “Even sharper than the joy of becoming is the agony of being opened and remade. To have your who torn bloody from your what, and another crudely lashed into its place. To become Michael. And to do so at such a crucial point in our Twisting, in our becoming, well of course it destroyed it. The impossible altar collapsed. The-Worker-of-Clay tore out his veins to dissolve himself in crimson mud. The others of us were cast to all the places that aren’t; some have still not found their way out again...My very existence tied to my pointlessness. Wearing my failure as the very fabric of my being. Reduced once again to feeding on the unsuspecting and confused. That is who I am.“ (MAG 101)

Even if all of this was to explain how the Distortion became the being it is in the series, it’s easy to see how overjoyed it was during the ritual. All that the Spiral ever did was bring the sense of unreality and paranoia unto people for ages, only breaking down the mind until they eventually spiral into oblivion. It wanted to be something, it wanted to make something twisted and nonsensical from the world, to shape the world itself to the nature of insanity. And after all that time, no matter how many avatars it had in its control, Gabriel was the only one who began creating the ritual. Even if it was for an ulterior motive, The Distortion was pretty giddy as Gabriel worked for years on end to create the meaning of insanity; to create something that the Distortion saw as the perfect vessel for itself. And even as it was explaining it, with all these feelings of joy and ecstasy and very human thoughts and emotions, this was before it was forced to become Michael. So much for not being bound by human nature, huh? But it’s pretty ironic that, as the embodiment of delusions, insanity and lies, it never considered the idea of having an avatar that could make something out of that chaos. Even if the Distortion was explaining how Michael-not-Michael Shelley came into being, it also can be interpreted as Michael just yearning for his best Avatar so far. So instead of “I’m going to tell you my entire backstory.”, it’s more like “I’m going to tell you how a nosy old woman and her idiotic assistant ruined my chances to be with my Avatar of the Decade who may or may not be my boyfriend.”

In conclusion, Gabriel AKA The Worker of Clay AKA Igor with an art degree became the Hands of the Spiral because the nonbinary embodiment of delusion (who is also a door) gave a miserable struggling artist a shot of self-confidence (and a shot out of the Flesh’s control), eventually becoming its #1 Boyfriend Avatar of all time, and is the only person that would make the “hates gender and existence itself” Distortion yearn for years after his tragic death.

Takes notes people, this is what peak performance looks like.

#not kh #tma #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #tma michael #tma gabriel #tma michael shelley #gay shit #shitpost #rant post #text post

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overclocksaa · 3 years ago

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anon / Was Jarvis like Alfred to Tony? I always thought Jarvis came late into Tony’s life. He is not super old in the comics.

tbf, anon, tony’s only in his late 30s/early 40s in the comics, he’s not at all like his mcu counterpart, became iron man at 22/23, so think about it that way.

so, full disclosure: what i know of dc period comes from the michael keaton batman movies, the animated series, the arkham games, and that one time i read killing joke. i just have never really gotten into dc the way i did marvel so my knowledge of alfred as a whole is very limited.

however, i can tell you about edwin jarvis, because i love him.

so, edwin jarvis is very much alive in 616.�� these days he’s semi-retired, and has featured a whole bunch in the unstoppable wasp with nadia and jan (nadia often refers to him as her grandfather), and pops in and out of avengers stuff still. here are some basic facts about him:

+ born in brooklyn (he’s not british) + joined the raf and stayed for many years + was hired on by the starks at the very least when tony was a wee baby + takes care of his aging, ailing mother whomst he refers to as a battleship because she’s pretty tough + is considered an avengers member because he’s served in some capacity or another for years and years + has had adventures all on his own + loves elizabethan poetry + loves literature in general + was once replaced by a skrull and kidnapped luke cage and jessica jones’ baby, dani

jarvis as a whole has basically been a part of tony’s life since he was very small. he and maria both fought howard on sending tony to boarding school when he was seven, he was the one who read tony bedtime stories and encouraged his creativity with his building (which tony discovered at age five). we see lots of flashbacks from tony’s youth that contain jarvis and in every one he’s serving in a parental role because - again, not disparaging maria stark - but tony had very absent parents otherwise. he’s very obviously been an influence on tony as a person for a very long time, and it’s presented without outright stating that he and tony are to be viewed as family. the formality of him calling tony mr. stark is really just for formality’s sake, when you come right down to it. but anyway, jarvis was the main parental figure in young tony’s life and he’s the one that stuck with tony when his parents died once he’d reached adulthoood and took over the company.

jarvis has also served in a support role for all of the avengers since day one. he’s been there for every major avengers event in their history, waiting at the curtain’s edge with coffee and aspirin as needed, and sometimes has been swept up in the calamity, as well. people who say jarvis is just a butler may not see that he is that, yes, but he’s also been a confidant, source of support, an understanding and sympathetic ear, a moral goalpost for those that have needed it, and a keeper of secrets. and he does it while managing to feed a superhero army and distribute the mail properly to each member. basically what i’m saying is that while jarvis is in a support role, sure, he’s just as much an avenger as any superhero that’s walked through the mansion or tower doors, and he’s had just as much an influence on their history as any costumed member. i can’t think of an avenger that doesn’t love him, even clint. even if clint did used to do 6am flybys on his house with a quinjet.

#anon #. ooc asks #. about #// i guess #// but jarvis is like #// not just part of tony's story #// the avengers story is also jarvis's #// he's played a major role in a lot of things #// if he gets hurt it's a group effort by the avengers to take care of his mother for him #// tony has always consistently made sure his mother never wants for anything #// and that jarvis doesn't either #// and jarvis cares about these supershits in his care #// because god knows they can't adult on their own #// anyway jarvis is great #// and he's the reason for the most part #// that tony is still as soft as he is #// and well-rounded as he is #// with a wider range of interests beyond building shit #// thanks for coming to my tony's real dad ted talk

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benchgenderstudies · 4 years ago

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Opening Letter to Labor Secretary Martin Walsh//

Disclaimer: This letter was originally slated to go through the White House email form as it could not be left for understaff prone to market loyalties. The matter relates to the physical abuses of laborers in the fashion industry and the protection of women in the marketplace. One runway model summarized her experience in the runway fashion industry as ‘ what most people called sexual harassment, we called compliments”. ..

As was written for the White house email form.

Dear President Biden, Enclosed is a letter I have prepared for your new US Labor secretary. The reason I am sending it through this venue is because M Patricia Smith, Labor Solicitor/assist to secretary is likely to trash it. Smith is a loyalist to a misogynist fashion industry and cannot be trusted to assure the Biden administration is made aware of significant problems. Problems that I found the Pennsylvania House and Senate delegates were too incompetent to handle.

Dear Labor Secretary Martin Walsh

Congratulations on your appointment to the US Secretary of Labor. It is a post with many opportunities of advancement considering its previous inhabitants have done so little to advance it. OSHA's budget is only limited by the initial investment in staff so that dangerous workplaces can be fined . David Michaels, Edwin Foulke Jr, and trumps appointee were not prepared of the bankroll they were leaving on the table by keeping the agency understaffed.

Ever since 2008 I have called on OSHA to regulate the fashion industry , specifically the fashion modeling agencies; to stop the industry anorexia that exists in its coven. One of your very own employees : M Patricia Smith, solicitor actively enabled the sex trafficking industry within NYC fashion to flourish by circumventing regulation aimed at ending eating disorders. How would that be linked? Agencies such as Elite Models go along with haute couture's demands because they can prescribe upon a female an emaciated frame by which she is no threat to them. She is no threat to demand her due pay for her commercial estate as the person the luxury brand uses to parade their diseased prescription of 'the female”. She is not female, usually, not for them.. rather she's typically pictured the androgynous prepubescent frame suited to turn on pedophiles as they are.. even if she's technically 16-22yo. That alone is a public health danger no matter who calls it art. Luxury fashion exists to be callous by its exercise of Bourdieu's Habitus: the arrogant exercise of trashing others for not wearing their clothing well or talking under the luxury parameters/terms of the Veblen good.

Every time I contact DOL, somehow the entire explanation bores them into inactivity. So , I'll tell you ahead of time.. if you dont understand what I'm telling you .. ask. The Department of Labor ,especially OIG and OSHA are far underperforming in protecting American workers. It is not only OSHA's duty to adopt the body mass index to regulate industry but also to adopt ALL health standards accepted by NIOSH/CDC in the effort of assuring a safe workplace. That is OSHA's duty as an agency. Is it not the Department of Labor's duty to avoid protect workers despite how the market might recontext them as contractors as a financial convenience. It is the goal to protect the rights of workers as they are in each industry and not by that industry's cowardice or vanity to exploit them in all the ways they will and do.

In this debate you're going to hear all sorts of nonsense about “Feminism' and “ Homophobia” as a defense for what the luxury fashion industry does. All you have to do is ignore their lawyers and their excuses and instead protect the public from the models and from becoming “ their kind of fashion model”. You're going to probably ask “ how can I prove the fashion industry causes eating disorders?” It does. But be real clear that just like murder you can kill a man with a sword or a gun. I am not saying all eating disorders are caused by the fashion industry; an industry who models malnutrition as a class status repeated back in the time of the “Gibson Girl”. All girls colleges reported worry that their students looking like worn dark eyed zombies was not a healthy state for students to be in.

A gay male fashion designer is neither an expert on anatomy nor gender studies, or gender psychology simply because he has a front row seat to his experience. He is open to be criticized and prodded exactly what about the female body he is aware of in physiological terms. Whether he protests by barking back “ you're just homophobic” avoids recognize he has nothing to respond. Dolce and Gabbana's designers failed out of fashion school so would hardly be the candidate to have a graduate or even bachelors degree in basic biology. Bluntly, just because he prefers his sex as a penetration by penis in his orifices doesn't mean he can appropriate the Cis Female identity and preferences for his own; for his microphone to redesign her; to artify her as an object of his creation. She is not his creation. So lets start at the reality that if a fashion model emaciating herself from age 16 onward AWAY from her natural fillout.. by the same championed methods as anorexics.. (stimulant abuse, strict calorie restrictions, exercise abuse, drug escapism) that she too will become injured no differently than the diagnosed anorexic the Usgov/NIH currently confuses themselves to be 'a mental disorder”. Its not a singular set of incidences. Its a tragic mistake of LGBT fashion designers and agencies to abuse a girl into their standards of sizing when said sizing is injurious to her.

I am going to close on these points: No matter if a foolish girl moves from Wyoming to New York City to chase her Vogue dream of being a runway model... her sense of liberation to be that model stops being 'feminist” when she forgets herself as an object set infront of youth and the public. When she is made a model to others.. her liberty is zero. Her occupation is not an ideal circumstance no matter how she smiles or how many magazine covers shes on. She is not an ideal female nor feminist to allow herself be made a 'hero' and 'celebrity' infront of young girls while she secretly is only in the industry to settle a fraudulent debt against her. These agencies recruit girls on the image of prestige. They hire limos and other image related services at her expense without telling her... or so the scam goes. Even if I detest the model herself for being a foolish stooge ,.. she has a right to grow up physically as a case of health no matter what her occupation is. Her identity does not owe the industry a duty to stunt itself to 'be its girl' . “It” doesnt know what a real girl is nor how to correctly respect her. If we really were talking about 'gender bending”, then the bulldyke butch female is absent on the range of imagery. The guys might wear the dresses but the females just look angry and spent.

Due to couture labels like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Dior.. the luxury fashion market clusters around them as a cult of personality. It is not merely fashion. Dior built his name on trying to repopularize the waspwaist.. and so we must also realize the practices of body modification (ie tattooing, piercing, corsetry) are also not for people below 18; an age 16 & 17 year old girls should not be allowed or expected to oblige. Couture's waif is body modification in a most anti female way of things; so.. neither CFDA nor its couture industry are feminists at all. Balenciaga is actually more famous than Dior in that the original models were 14 year old girls in place of models. Now the fashion critics are all gaga for 'the androgynous' norm not calculating that a girl too young to have one gender isn't either old enough to split the difference between two. The artification of gender is not its study nor its protection as an asset of classism.

The fashion industry is arguing that the “ Body Mass Index' is an inaccurate measure of health. As a paper chart, it was never meant to be a clinical test measure; Strike one. When skin calibers or hydrostatic weighing become part of the actual measure of body adiposity then BMI is plenty fair. More the point, a female below 18.5 even by the paper chart shows a lack of care for herself in weight training and metabolism maintenance. By trying to be a model or imitating model prescribed crash diets.. the youth and females of the public injure their metabolism in three ways : 1) they are incapable managers of any crash diet. 1a) they dont know to reset their reward food choices. 2) they indulge multiple crash diets and for far longer than the plan itself advises 3) the crash diet look is not the same look offered from hard training and a mere weekend worth of fasting for a judged event. These females are acting like the ideal body is maintained daily and weekly. Its not. The fashion industry tries to cheat its way to looking like the hard work of elite athletes concealing all the cheap taste addictions/ 5 star lard cuisine its fine dining jet setters choke down their throat between events.

The fashion industry also doesnt realize that body composition is larger than the height/weight chart. Body composition is small piece of Anthropometrics and Goniometry of the Movement studies field; Not Psychology. I actually find the female led psychology field in the study of eating disorders has enabled young girls to remain getting injured by market forces. This is not a day camp for women to console each other as victims.. Its a mockery of gender and sex education that its archetypes are paraded as ambiguous fads on the runway There are finite limits to the health of the female body that the industry is not protecting ; worse.. they indulge these 'international standards” so that the females and males applying for these jobs are worn out and too tired to fight about due credit. The broken mirror on the industry is they worship youth only so the youth cluster for easy fame.. and much easier exploitation; knowing nothing about the industry's dangers. New models are especially vulnerable to prostitution, forced drug addiction, rape, and the long term effects of eating disorders due to the silence of the current models and organizations like “ The Model Alliance” that try to legitimize the profession. Fashion designers have no say what eating disorders. They hesitate incriminate their own “homoerotic imagination” as diseased. Neither Fashion designers nor talent agencies have a soapbox on which to defend their exploitation of the models (mostly female).. in that 'she can leave whenever she wants... except she cant” . Due to the debt scam held over her.. she is forced to crash diet continually (malnourishment) until she is either out of debt, dead or in a hospital. She'll remain in that hospital taking small checks to shut up.. and take blame for 'her self made diets”.. instead of connect that no matter how self managed her disaster.. the primary cause of her illness ; her PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION; is by the compulsion to 'fight hard for her fame” and the agencies income.. no matter how unlevel their commitment is to her safety or industry legitimacy.

TO BE QUOTED:”Eating disorders victims are bonded by physical exhaustion that cannot be mistaken as a mental symptom to be bandaided by antidepressants.” -Michael Bench. Eating disorders are a physical ailment resulting from the queer fetished 1)calorie restrictions AND 2) food combination/pairings that set her GI tract and immune system into a downward spiral. 3) When the female dieter decides the first crash diet didnt work, her move to another plan ( of weird diet combos like grapefruit and baconbits) adds to the confusion of the GI tract. The GI tract biome is set off balance by these diets... and so too is an injury to her metabolism.. An injury of the public occurs through these extreme and fast results diet motivations as much as the fraudulent diet instruction itself.

The problems of the Department of Labor effectively advocating for employee safety are also complicated by its unwillingness to address NIOSH- NORA as a bunch of deadbeats.. They're too worried if a Christmas tree bundler was risky instead of keeping young women away from molesters, sadists, human traffickers and embezzlers among the industry protected by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. CFDA's primary error is that it only wants to defend the designers broken visions instead of the whole industry's aspirations to forward interesting art-as fashion. The Androgyny fad is a lie; its an artification of the female body by MALE models and designers to wear.. without concern how its prescriptions are unhealthy to her. The Fashion industry and HHS are going to retort “ anorexia” is a mental health problem.. not an employment/labor problem. So it happens uniformly in all industries then? Its image is promoted in fashion but not taking fault for? A female prescribed to look as though her growth curve recessed on itself.. to a size she was at age 12 or 14 is not only unhealthy.. its negligence and injurious damages owed to her by the brand and the agencies defending it.

Again. If you have any questions or wish to hash out more of a detail about these matters, do not hesitate to contact me. However.. after these many years that Department of Labor has done nothing to protect women from the fashion industry's bad actors.. its about time the whole executive branch find a conscience. Where there is a gender wage gap there also exists here a lack of care whether any industry abuses women or the public of females. There is only the President and the Vice President to conference on this .. I can tell you first hand the Labor OIG have failed repeatedly to act in forcing OSHA to perform its duty in adopting and enforcing HHS/ CDC health guidelines whether developed by NIOSH or otherwise. When Howard Shapiro was acting OIG legal he exclaimed “ we have no mandate to regulate fashion modeling by Bmi because its not in the 1970s founding of OSHA”. Of course it wouldnt be if BMI was adopted in 1998. Here I have to emphasize Shapiros lame excuse wasn't just that he didnt want to address BMI as a health metric but that he was refusing all health research and standards that were available ever since OSHA and NIOSH were founded. Shapiro owes the government his salary back. I hope your service in US LABOR determines you deserved every dollar of your office salary.

the regulation of the fashion industry is a necessary act of responsibility for all workers and to protect women. If the equality of women is a central pillar of President Biden’s campaign , this is not a matter to ignore. Please recognize my effort carrying on ever since 2008 has always stated “a prescription upon women that makes an ideal of a male cut/toned physique will not be healthy for a female to sustain. In the cause of artified androgyny and not accurately presumed gender swapping,, the female model is being physically abused for a norm ambivalent to her health” And this is why the gay male fashion designer is not credible to be designing for women in the frame of presuming himself gifted to those ends. The cult of personality around Dior and Balenciaga are not merely poorly aware of the female body. Couture is actually stubbornly refusing a majority of women in its pathetic aversion to sewing around curves. They are selfish to actually recognize any curvy female frame as it takes attention away from the slim “androgynous” ideal .. most like their mirror. Cosmosexuals vanity is toxic.

Cordially , Michael Bench , MEP, WGSGC

Exercise Physiologist

Gender Anthropologist

Author of Native Supremacy

#fashion #anorexia #sexualabuse

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themattress · 4 years ago

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OUAT AND ME: IN WONDERLAND

Story - Because this spin-off series only lasted for one season's worth of 13 episodes, its story is simply the Wonderland Saga and nothing else beyond that, which is for the best given that the story reaches far too complete an ending for anything beyond it to make any sense. The story is about Alice and what transpired after she returned from her original journey through Wonderland as a little girl, leading up to her romance with a young genie named Cyrus as a teenager, their tragic separation, her commitment to a mental institution, and her return to Wonderland in order to reunite with her lost love alongside her friend the Knave of Hearts, all while facing threats from the Red Queen and Jafar who seek to use Cyrus’ genie powers to break the laws of magic in order to accomplish their own secret goals.

The Wonderland Saga is as tight as tight can be, with one chief setting (Wonderland), a relatively small cast of characters, and a 4-episode beginning, 4-episode middle, and 5-episode end. Of course, this wouldn't matter if it wasn't an engaging story with enjoyable characters, but thankfully it very much is. This series is the brainchild of not just Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, but also of Jane Espenson and Zack Estrin, and because of this fact combined with its limited length, it actually surpasses the original Once Upon a Time when you stack the two completed shows up against each other. Sometimes, less is more.

As I said, the story is divided into a clear-cut beginning, middle, and end. The beginning focuses on the early part of Alice and the Knave's journey and establishing who they are and what their deal is, while Jafar and the Red Queen's goals and motivations are kept enigmatic and Cyrus is trapped in a cage for the whole duration of the time. The middle lets Cyrus escape, sheds light on Jafar and the Red Queen's goals and motivations, and explores the darker sides of Alice and the Knave as we see just how badly their past traumas have affected them. And the end is all about the alliance of Alice, Cyrus, the Knave and the Red Queen as they fight Jafar and his new ally the Jabberwocky to decide the fate of Wonderland. It's here that all lingering questions are answered and all character arcs are fully completed.

As far as stories go, this is top tier OUAT. I think I like the Dark Curse and Neverland Sagas slightly more, but the Wonderland Saga comes in at an incredibly close third place.

Characters - There are less of them than in the main show, so this will be easy.

* We start with Alice, played by Sophie Lowe as a teenager and by pre-Stranger Things Millie Bobby Brown as a child. She is a wonderfully multi-faceted heroine, capable of great love and great hate, great kindness and great cruelty, great ingenuity and great gullibility, and always treading the line between holding to hope and giving into despair. While her romance with Cyrus is the focal point of the story, I love that it's not the only important aspect to her character. We also delve into her fractured relationship with her father; her initially unsteady but eventually rock solid friendship with Will; her hate, fear and distrust of Anastasia up until she finally sees the girl behind the queenly mask and how very much alike they truly are; and even her internal mental and emotional conflicts with herself on various matters that sometimes go external due to how Wonderland works. And no offense to Emma Swan, who is great in her prime, but I feel like Alice is ultimately the stronger and more likable lead.

* Cyrus really impresses me, because being the romantic male object of the heroine's attention and a guy who spends the entire first third of the story stuck in a cage, he could have very easily been a boring character. But very quickly, he shows that good looks and magic powers aren't all there is to him - this guy is smart. His cleverness and ingenuity that allows him to affect the plot even when inside his cage is something to behold, and he only gets better once he's free from his prison and gets to play off other characters with more frequency. Add to this a backstory where we see he used to be a selfish con artist, and it being his love for Alice that changed the selfish part while repurposing the con artist part for the cause of good, and you have a character you can enjoy and a couple you can root for.

* The show's breakout character, for better or for worse (no, it's definitely for worse, as we'll see in the next post) is the Knave of Hearts / Will Scarlet. Played excellently by Michael Socha, Will was formerly one of Robin Hood's Merry Men but is now an outlaw all to himself in Wonderland. He's sardonic and quippy, selfish and yet reliable at the same time, eerily muted in his emotions due to having his heart removed from his chest and yet clearly possessing deep feelings within his soul that occasionally bubble to the surface. We watch him go from an untrustworthy, cowardly cad who refuses to accept responsibility for anything to a brave and loyal friend who will sacrifice his own well-being for those he cares about. And his love story with Anastasia honestly steals the show from Alice and Cyrus', as it's full of betrayal and heartbreak and fights and truces and reconciliations before its happy ending, and that honestly feels more human than Alice and Cyrus' entirely plot-based separation.

* Speaking of the Red Queen / Anastasia, she is the female villain with a redemption arc that Regina (and Zelena, to a lesser extent) wishes she was. When she first appears, the Red Queen seems to be a chillingly calm and poised sociopath without moral scruples, but she quickly starts displaying vulnerability, and kudos must be given to Emma Rigby for conveying this through her amazing performance. Her cool, haughty face is like a mask, with more and more cracks beginning to show until we see who she really is - Anastasia, a peasant girl who was misled into a life that was full of power and privilege but that was also lonely and way over her capability to endure in the long run, and who desperately wants to take it all back and return to who she used to be. Once she realizes that she won't be getting the magic shortcut she seeks and that in the process of seeking it she'd wrought even more damage to Wonderland, Anastasia fully commits herself to doing better by everyone that she'd hurt. Even horrific torture, temporary death and mind control doesn't stop her from aiding in the cause to save Wonderland! She's amazing and more than earns her happy ending with Will.

* I could gush about Jafar, the Big Bad of the story, all day long. Jafar has always been my favorite Disney Villain, but he's the villain of an animated musical comedy, so I guess I've always had the question in the back of my mind as to what he'd be like if applied to something with a more serious tone? Well, this version of the character, played to chilling perfection by Naveen Andrews, answers that question. Stripped of most of his caricatured and humorous elements, Jafar is a psychotic, power-hungry madman who will stop at nothing to get what he desires. There is no-one he won't manipulate or torture or murder in his quest to become all-powerful. And the show also gives him a feasible, compelling and incredibly dark backstory (he's the bastard child of an Agrabahn sultan who rejected him to the point of trying to murder him) that explains why he is the way he is but is never used to excuse him or entertain the slightest notion that he might be redeemable. This version of Jafar perfectly embodies what Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg said about the original: “Jafar is just pure evil. He wants to take over the kingdom and kill everybody in sight or enslave them, or whatever suits his fancy." "This is the guy that wants it all. You know right from the start that he is a desperate character, capable of doing anything and everything to get what he wants".

* The White Rabbit / Percy is a purely CGI character, and you'd fear that this wouldn't work, but the show embraces how cartoony he is and so it actually works perfectly. He's a very appealing character as well: very neurotic and cowardly, but also a family man whose heart is in the right place and who can be very brave when push comes to shove. A lot of his likability also comes from the fact that John Lithgow (yes, I'm surprised they were able to get him too!) does his voice, and I can't think of anyone else who could voice such a character better.

* In terms of side characters, we have many Wonderland staples reimagined for this show, such as the Cheshire Cat who is now a feral beast voiced by Keith David, the Caterpillar who is now a Jabba the Hutt-esque crime boss voiced by Iggy Pop (who sounds nothing like the voice from the main show, but I digress), Tweedledee and Tweedledum who are the Red Queen's manservants (one being undyingly loyal while the other is a spy for Jafar), the sleazy Red King who tempts Anastasia into becoming his bride, the Carpenter who is trapped in a drug-like haze in the Boro Grove, the White Knight who stands guard over an important pair of doorways, and the Jabberwocky, a monster in the form of a humanoid woman whose power is being able to see a person's greatest fear and use it to psychologically torture them.

There is also mention of Alice having met Jefferson the Mad Hatter when she was a child, and Cora the Queen of Hearts herself appears in the flashback that shows how she manipulated events so that Will became the Knave of Hearts and ensure that Anastasia remained the Red Queen, whom she taught magic and villainy to and treated like a daughter. Regina, Zelena, Anastasia...is there no young woman that Cora won’t attempt to ruin?

Other side characters from other realms include Alice's highly flawed yet ultimately repentant father Edwin, his bitch of a new wife Sarah and her precocious young daughter Millie, and the cold-hearted Dr. Lydgate all from Alice's Victorian world; Robin Hood, Maleficent (voice-over only) and Anastasia's mother Lady Tremaine all from the Enchanted Forest; Nyx the guardian of a sacred well, Cyrus' mother and Jafar's teacher Amara, Cyrus' brothers Taj and Rafi, and Jafar's father the Sultan and half-brother Mirza all from Agrabah. The Sultan, by the way, is a particularly interesting character, as he's introduced as Cyrus' kindly old cellmate and you really get to thinking of him as a good guy, only to then learn who he really is and just what an utterly horrible person he was in the past. His tale is a tragic one, as while he sincerely commits to repenting, it’s not good enough and thus he cannot escape fatal poetic justice.

And then there's one side character that just really gets my goat: Elizabeth aka the Lizard, a cute young thief who has a crush on Will. She appears in the 4th episode and doesn't really do much of anything, then disappears for a while. I thought maybe she was going to end up paired with that "Mr. Darcy" suitor of Alice's from her world and it was going to be a big Pride and Prejudice reference...but instead, she reappears in the 9th episode, becomes the now genified Will's master, and makes a wish that accidentally kills her in order to give Will man-pain. And then she isn't really spoken of again afterward. What was even the point of her!? You could cut all of her scenes and actions from this story and miss absolutely nothing!

Atmosphere - I would describe this show's atmosphere as light and dark, back to back. When it's light, it is much lighter than Once Upon a Time, being very whimsical and romantic and fluffy and hopeful to an even higher degree than its parent show at its best. However, this kind of lightness helps to make the dark elements come off as that much darker as a result. And while there's certainly some dark stuff where Alice in concerned, from an intended lobotomy in the premiere episode to the intense clashing she has with her father, and in the troubled pasts of Will and Anastasia, nothing comes close to the darkness of everything Jafar-related. It's a guarantee that he will do something horrible to someone at least once per episode, although it's usually more than once. The nature of his backstory as a bastard child whose father attempts to drown him plus the intensity of his depraved power-lust also make him a particularly dark character, as is his eventual partner, the terrifying Jabberwocky. Personally, I have always appreciated stories that can balance light and dark in this way and am able to handle both of them, so this show's atmosphere is very appealing to me.

Episode Quality - All I can say here is that there is only one dud in this series, and it's not hard to spot which episode it is. Like I said, while the beginning and middle portions of the show are 4 episodes each, the end is 5 episodes...and the first of those 5, "Nothing to Fear", is incredibly awkward and poorly executed. On top of being where the aforementioned death of the Lizard occurs, the plotline with Alice, Cyrus and Anastasia is also botched. Alice clinginess to Cyrus out of worry that he might become separated from her again and she wants to savor the time she has with him now doesn't really work in the context of needing to find where the freshly genified Will went ASAP, and it makes Alice look bad - Will went through "Bloody Hell" to help her reunite with Cyrus, and now that she's been reunited with him at the direct expense of Will, she doesn't give a fuck? She feels no urgent desire to pay her friend back and be as dedicated to helping him as he was to helping her? Also, the way she verbalizes her issues sounds too ripped off of Emma Swan from the similarly clumsy episode "The New Neverland", and what works for Emma doesn't really work for Alice.

Alice's distrust of Anastasia and dislike of working with her is also badly written, in literally every other episode the tense dynamic between these two has been handled with more care and nuance, but here Alice just comes off as a bratty child. Again, Will is missing and you need to find him quickly, so being able to put aside your differences with Anastasia maturely would go a long way in helping make that happen, Alice! Also, there's a sequence with angry peasants tying Anastasia, Alice and Cyrus to stakes to be eaten by nocturnal wolf-like creatures, and it's so thoroughly mishandled to the point of coming across as comical (Anastasia really can't fight back or escape her binding despite the skills we've seen her have before? Cyrus really thought an eloquent speech was going to instantly convince the peasants to do what he wants of them? The peasants act like they're righteous people who are getting justice against their oppressor and yet then tie two completely innocent people up for daring to go against the grain on the matter? And oh my God, those wolves look awful!)

The only good parts of the episode are the very last scene between Alice, Cyrus, Anastasia and (finally!) Will, plus all of the scenes with Jafar which lead up to the Jabberwocky's debut. Otherwise, this was a transitional episode that needed a lot of fine-tuning from its makers.

Overall - Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is now on Disney+, so if you have that streaming service and haven't watched it, please do so. It's a very well-made limited series that features a great story and great characters played by great actors, and is a definite part of OUAT in its prime. And again, when both completed shows are compared, this one wins hands-down.

#Once Upon a Time #ABC #OUAT and Me #Opinion #Analysis

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splendidshinobi · 4 years ago

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FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2003 LIVE REACT: EPISODES 6-10

back at it again with the white vans

episode 6: the alchemy exam

alrighty then

um mustang calling edward “ed” is EXTREMELY offputting

ohhhhhhh noooooo not shou tucker

FUCK

im wholly unprepared

them all being in central instead of east is low key jarring like my brain isnt computing it

alexander’s intro is basically the same

nina bbyyyyy girl u deserved so much better

ed is such a fucking nerd...chemistry club modern au confirmed

god the more tucker talks the more i wanna beat his face in

al pretending to eat by tossing a potato in his armor i-

aww theyre playing in the snow theyre so pure

wonder how long thatll last

“bigger brother” and “little big brother” and ed doesnt even get mad

ed’s birthday party????????

A MELON? ED YOURE SO RUDE

so 03 had ed’s bday instead of elicia’s...CAUSE THEY GOT ELICIA IN THE WOMB

“it’s here!” “the tea?” “the baby!” hughes is a fuck head

ok so now they’re having elicia replace rush valley baby arc

this was winry’s time to shine in fmab i miss her

if winry isnt here who is gonna birth this baby

oh my god they just realized ed can use alchemy without a circle

no wonder he’s been using circles this whole time

SO ELICIA JUST POPPED OUT????? WHAT

STUFF ALEXANDER IN THE ARMOR AND PRETEND YOURE A TALKING DOG???

“i dont think thats very funny” NO ALPHONSE IT IS NOT

THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING WITH THAT ONE I SWEAR TO GOD IN THIS ESSAY I WILL

damn bradley what up homie

im so thrown off by the way theyre doing the exam omg

seriously what the hell is fuhrer bradley’s purpose right now is he even the fuhrer in this i feel like they wouldve mentioned it

oh lord ed is about to impress everyone with his clappy hands

ok so next episode is nina FUCK

episode 7: night of the chimera’s cry

havoc babeeee

im gonna marry him my himbo king

also can RIZA DO SOMETHING PLZ

“huhhhhhhhh nina” ew tucker that was weirdly gross

wonder why

cant do it cant do it

do we think jean kirstein was modeled after jean havoc slightly looks wise

was that purposeful

ill have to google

serial killer who only targets women? it cant be scar...scar drinks respect women juice

barry or slicer bros maybe? um ok

why did we start with liore if they were just gonna hop right back into the past for a huge chunk of episodes idk

assessment day??? oh noodles

AL WHY DID YOU TELL TUCKER TO MAKE ANOTHER TALKING CHIMERA ALPHONSE NO

THE NOISE I EMITTED IM GONNA TAKE A LAP

im gonna FUCKING SCREAM

ed r u writing to winry??? that’s a bit out of character for u good sir

no tucker put that baby down

im gonna fucking SCREAM

aww he burned nina’s picture thats not sus at all

SHESKA!!!!!

wait does the ironblood alchemist know what tucker did to his wife? thats kinda the vibe im getting

SCARRRRRRRR

looking like a pirate too damn

his voice sounds different is that j michael tatum

apparently not it was dameon clarke in 03 ya learn something new everyday

ew elicia has a lot of hair for a FUCKING NEWBORN

ed really is such a cynic very suspicious of everyone as he should be really

basque grand knowS SOMETHING

oh jesus oh fuck oh god please do not TOUCH THAT BABY

ed and al snuck back in to the house well u know what its for the best

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

im gonna cry again please god no

FUCKING DIE SHIT HOLE

she’s hurting? oh my god

my sweet angel

ew his eyes!!!!!!!

tucker is such a fucking failure...like look at the chimera squad and greed’s theatre troupe being the way they are. ugh it really hits how fucking unfair it is

ed was really about to split them? boy you know better

where is nina going...im hurting

ed really tried to save her in this one

SCAR KILLS NINA IN THE STREETS???????? SIR

thats different

oh snap

oh FUCK

SCAR WHY DID YOU LEAVE HER BODY LIKE THAT

THE WAY SHE WAS ARRANGED ON THE WALL THAT WAS FUCKED UP

AND THEY FOUND HER LIKE THAT???? AT LEAST IN BROTHERHOOD THEY DIDNT HVE TO SEE HER CORPSE ARE YOU SHITTING ME?

that was fucked.

episode 8: the philosopher’s stone

can yall get ed and al away from nina’s fucking MURAL

get out of the car mustang

finally jesus christ

roy mustang talking about healthy coping mechanisms dont make me laugh but alright baby boy go off i guess?

im curious about who this goddamn serial killer is though lets turn to that plot thread

r u kidding me

mustang is making ed and al take over tucker’s research?? thats actually wildly messed up

oh tucker was straight executed that’s a choice i guess

tucker and the philosopher’s stone sounds inaccurate but ok

ed please stop being mean to your brother

03 mustang has got me reaching for a fucking baseball bat on GOD

scar and edward having this conversation right now i literally cannot

WINRY yes bitch

BRADLEY WHAT IN TARNATION

JESUS LORRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD

alphonse shut your mouthhhhhhhhhhh

im so confused what is bradley up to

“alchemists are not cold blooded murderers?”

i mean

kimblee would beg to differ for one

whos this creepy lady

her voice sounds familiar

barry’s food shop?

the killer is barry ok got it

IS BARRY DISGUISED AS A WOMAN

I KNEW THAT WAS JERRY JEWELL’S VOICE

WELL I KNEW IT SOUNDED FAMILIAR AT LEAST

WINRY GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TRUCk

has PINAKO TAUGHT YOU NOTHING

ok so i VASTLY prefer suit of armor original manga canon barry

this is such an odd plot what in fuck

um OW the meat cleaver

im so confused this fucking plotline

oh hey alphonse nice of you to show up!

is barry still gonna become a suit of armor later on

it makes NO SENSE to introduce him otherwise

everytime i see 03 mustang i wanna beat his ass HONESTLY

literally i will shove my foot up his ass

fullmetal here we go

ed thinks he’s so punk rock

oh great scar’s seen the watch

episode 9: be thou for the people

ed you simp buying winry all this stuff my edwin heart is ascending

SIMP SIMP SIMP

“mr. elric”?? you mean MAJOR ELRIC

to be fair though fuck the military

YOUSWELL??? oh LORD

im gonna need to read a full chronology of this show

alphonse continues to be a precious angel

where’s my boy yoki!!!!!

edward you idiot don’t go flaunting your money

woof woof ed

al looks so offended by ed saying they just met

whereas in brotherhood didnt he totally throw ed under the bus???

a choice to be sure

ah there he is hello yoki

who’s the chick

shes a lesbian

yoki makes me miss my baby girl mei chang

mei where r u

WAS THIS MILITARY DUDE REALLY ABOUT TO CUT DOWN A CHILD??? oh my god

hawkeye getting a promotion yes bby girl

jesus theyre transferring them to east now OKKKKKAY thats not how it happened it the book but ill take it....just doing it the opposite way i guess

who is lyra who is she

cute some military bribery

umm lyra what the fuck did you do

lyra is a homunculus im callin it now

they definitely invented/changed up some homunculi in fact im certain they did and shes one of em. gotta be

i feel like 03 wrote ed as much more insensitive towards others than he really is...just a vibe im getting

i know he was faking for the townspeople’s sake but i still get this vibe from other instances

i mean i cant say its not “canon” because its 03 canon

anyways what a show off

i cant believe theyre going to east...fuery and breda better be there

ok finally some answers on their ages....ed got his license at 12 like normal and nina and youswell were when he was 12...liore was 15,

if they didnt flash the ages on the screen id be lost honestly

at least we’re back up to “present day”

episode 10: the phantom thief

ed saying he doesnt wanna see mustang

same

03 mustang is activating my fight or flight and im choosing fight

ed cheating at cards totally checks out

um who the fuck is this woman

what is she wearing

SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THAT CUTOUT MAAM HOW DO YOUR C**CHY LIPS NOT POKE OUT

idk but this is fem!hisoka

“hey shouldnt we talk first” after getting handcuffed??? christ almighty these innuendos

siren??????? siren is probably also a “fake” homunculus

ugh

ok so the nurse is siren

ya aint slick girly

alphonse control your crush

I REFUSE!!!! ALMEI RIGHTS

why is al’s hair so brown in this flashback anywayssss

oh its spelled psiren ope

like she’s literally a batman villain...

oh my god...............the tiddy grab. my son would never

my son is respectful

is this her homunculus tat or just a random alchemy tat

the added plotlines and original content continue to confuse and astound me every single time....

ok but if psiren really was doing this for the hospital she wouldnt be so flashy about it. like thats how you get caught sweet cheeks

girly stop flirting with this child on god im gonna fucking kick you

now shes a nun????????????????

Shes a fucking troll i hate her

im going to kick alphonse into the sun

oh great now shes a teacher

wow shes a savior. the savior of amestrian venice. greatttttt

ed looking exactly like this emoji on this gondola rn 🧍‍♀️

STOP FLIRTING WITH THE CHILD

GOD THIS IS SO BATMAN VILLAIN ESQUE

alphonse plzzzzzzzzzz she aint your girl

ok so probably not the last we see of this ding dong con artist

ok so its starting to get muddy. im scared the 03 stans are gonna come after me like i do like it and im having fun watching it but some of the plot and characterization choices are just....odd??? idk i gotta keep going though!! im sorry i just stan arakawa and her work in all her glory!!!

#carol watches fma03 #fullmetal alchemist #carol's remaining brain cells #this is fun for me and no one else #whatever i dont care about anyone else on this website anyway #this is my stupid hole

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smarti-at-smogwarts · 4 years ago

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The Venturi Family

I wanted to make a post about my MC’s family, since their reactions to some parts of the gameplay have been noodling around in my brain. Only the immediate family though.

Jacob Derek Venturi

FC Michael Seater

Jacob was the first born son of Abigail Rowle and George Venturi, and the older brother of Edwin and Marti Venturi. He was the one out of his siblings to spend the most time with his parents together and while their separation was hard for him to deal with at first he started noticing his mother was in a better mood and overall better to be around after the separation. Jacob was four years old when his little brother Edwin was born and ten years old when Marti was born, as such his relationships with them were different. With Edwin they were more brothers than anything and often he teased him as much as played with him and bossed him around. Marti however due to him being younger and their parents separating when she was still in diapers he became much more a doting older brother. He did however care about and was protective of both his siblings.

He had a good relationship with his parents though he was a bit closer to his father because of him keeping custody of him and his siblings. Abby visited and kept him for weekends so overall he was fairly affectionate and close to both of them. He knew he could get away with more with his father since out of the two, he was a bit more lax in parenting and could often take advantage of that though since the separation was civil they tended to stick together when he was -inevitably- punished for something [ ‘’why can’t you not get along like most divorced parents..yeah i know grounded.’’]

Personality-wise Jacob was charismatic and outgoing, which gained him a lot of friends wherever he went. Having been an only child for four years and then still the eldest, and been born to fairly young parents who could be said to be a bit soft on him, he grew up with the mentality that he could get get away with things if he just figured out how to get what he wanted. He was sneaky and a bit snarky and was known for pulling pranks and getting in trouble but it was mostly kid stuff..until his alleged involvement with [Redacted] after his disappearance came through. He was known in his time at school as an affable and charismatic kid, if a bit known for getting Howlers and well acquainted with the detention process.

Due to how long he has been missing. ( he was sixteen when he went missing and would have been twenty one as of Marti’s first year.) The case of his disappearance has more or less gone cold.

George Antonio Venturi

FC: John Ralston

gif by yours truly

George works as an wizard attorney. He’s an alumni of Hufflepuff house and married one of his closest friends ( Abigail) straight out of Hogwarts. This was done partly so that Abigail could escape an incredibly toxic home. However, if you asked him he’d say at the time he did love her.

It became apparent however as time passed ( and three children were born) their marriage seemed to become strained. They separated with George keeping custody of the kids.

Due to his own strict upbringing, he has a very lax style of parenting, often trying to be their kids friend as well as parent: ( More so with Jacob than Ed and Marti since Jacob caught him younger) an approach he also takes with his step children. While this can often catch him criticism there’s no question his children adore him.

He was really close to his son Jacob and losing him was absolutely devastating to him. If it wasn’t for his other two kids he might as well not have been able to keep going.

His dating and marriage to Nora was something he was hesitant about ( not in the least because there were children involved on both sides but also because of how badly losing his son had hit him) but it has helped him move forward after all the grief he experienced.

Abigail Leticia Rowle

FC : Amy Adams

Abigail comes from a highly extremist and toxic family. The Rowles affiliated with Voldemort during the first wizarding war and had very high expectations of the children of their house. For Abigail, Hogwarts was an escape; one that she knew wouldn’t last long as she would have to leave upon graduation. This is something that she knows influenced her decision to marry one of her best friend from Hogwarts who ( as a pureblood wizard) was also acceptable for her family and so wouldn’t bring retribution for them.

There’s no doubt she loved George but as time passed she realized she was’t happy. She had spent all her life in survival mode due to her parents and now that she was out she was starting to realize how much it influenced her decision. She loved her children, but she slowly realized she could not be a good parent to them in the state she was in.

She separated from George ( after making sure her family could not contact her about it) and more or less gave him full custody of their 3 kids with her doing visits to spend time with them.

Her friendship with George survived this and they were still friends as exes and able to coparent ( though undoubtedly George did more as he had full custody, this was okay with both of them) However, Jacob’s disappearance put a strain in it neither one has been able to mend. Like George, Abby blames herself for how things with Jacob turned out and when things were at their worst they couldn’t help but project that blame to each other. She still visits Ed and Marti but her interactions with George are much more brief and cold.

Edwin Alphonse Venturi

FC : Chris Wood

Jacob and Marti’s middle sibling and George and Abby’s middle child. Edwin was born when Jacob was 4-5 and is also 4-5 years older than Marti ( so is in his 5th year as of her first year and graduates after her second year) He’s a Ravenclaw and a foil to his extroverted outgoing little sister. Edwin is much more likely to be found buried in books than around people. Due to Jacob’’s loss ( which happened in when he was 10-11) and how much it affected him he is fiercely protective of his family. ( which Marti sometimes finds annoying though she is just as protective of him even if it shows less/differently )

He and Marti have a very “dork” “brat” relationship though they also have each other’s back unconditionally as they share the title of “Jacob’s sibling”

Unlike Marti tough, the wants to move on from Jacob and all the pain it caused him and as the game progresses is likely to react Badly to her thinking she can find him. Their beliefs about Jacob and reactions to his disappearance and rumors thereafter are already a strain between them as of year one. (Considering Plot happens from then on it’s safe to say it’ll only grow. )

10 facts about Edwin

Elizabeth Blair -Lizzie- Mcdonald

FC: Jordan Todosey

Lizzie is a Hufflepuff and also Marti and Edwin’s step sister and George’s step daughter. She is Nora’s youngest daughter and how Nora met George. She’s the only witch in her family and became best friends with Edwin shortly after their families blended ( actually George and Nora met Because they were both school shopping and Nora looked understandably lost ) She also has a pretty good big sister/little sister relationship with Marti. She’s in Edwin’s year and like him will have graduated as of Marti’s second year.

Lizzie’s the embodiment of Hufflepuff’s traits of kindness and tolerance ( and patience, enough to befriend Edwin at his angriest) .She’s supportive of her family and friends and tends to be the voice of reason for whichever sibling she’s with. Her two main loves are animals and quiditch. She plays as a beater for the Hufflepuff team. She also has enough pets ( both magical and not) George jokingly got her zoo sign to put on her bedroom door. ( Marti liking snakes is absolutely her influence) She’s likely to wind up working in Magizoology.

Nora Jean Mcdonald.

FC: Emily Deschanel

The stepmother to Edwin and Marti Venturi and wife to George Venturi. Nora was introduced to the magical world when her youngest daughter turned 12 and received her Hogwarts letter. She started dating George when Edwin and Lizzie were 13 and Marti was 8. She adores her husband and his kids and from the get-go made a point to treat them as her own.

Cassandra Imogen Mcdonald

FC: Cassidy Freeman

Nora’s first daughter. Her mother married George Venturi when she was 17-18. Went to an all girls school while her sister went to Hogwarts. As such she doesn’t have much interaction with the magical world or her stepsiblings, though she was exposed to it before moving out of her parent’s house. She does keep in touch with them though even if she’s more distant. She lives with her girlfriend Emily Davis ( fc Madeleine Mantock) in muggle Brittain. She cares a lot about her mom and little sister, and is happy they have people to help them through everything that comes from navigating the magical world.

Pets

Ozzie the Owl

Ozzy belonged to Jacob and was named after a musician he liked. After Jacob’s disappearance he was almost given away by a grief stricken George but was saved by Edwin. He resides with Edwin in Ravenclaw tower and is for all intents and purposes his owl.

Mickey the Snake

Mickey is a grass snake ( a smooth snake specifically) that was found hurt by Marti on one of her visits to her mother. After he was nursed back to health Marti decided to keep him. He lives in Marti’s room. Marti’s very attached to him.

Ignoring Lizzie’s pets because as said before that would take a whole nother post.

#im not super happy with some of the actresses but overall i dig this #George also has a short eared owl he uses #but I havent figure out his name yet #Jacob's Sibling #Marti Beatrice Venturi #HPHM #this was my first time making a gif like ever

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luxurylives · 4 years ago

Text

Missing Pieces Epilogue

Pairing: Logan x Ellie Wheeler

Book(s): Ride or Die: A Bad Boy Romance

Word Count: 1,741

Rating: T (Mild language)

Summary: Logan and Ellie say goodbye

Author’s Note: At first, I was going to end with Part 7, but I decided to do this instead, it’s more open-ended. Pixelberry Studios owns the characters. Thank you so much to those who read!

Tagging: @desireepow-1986 @rodappreciationweek @leelee10898 @choicesarehard @shadowycreatorpaperopera @client-327 @brightpinkpeppercorn @liam-rhys @silverofdreams @mfackenthal

“Detective Salinas”.

Javier turned around to see Captain Michael Wen approach his desk. “Yes?”

“What did we talk about yesterday?”

The gruff and exasperated tone of his voice sent a chill down his spine. “Captain let me explain— “.

“Salinas, I will only say it one more time. You are not on the case regarding the Mercy Park Crew and the Brotherhood, it was turned over to the FBI— “.

“Captain, I think there is something we overlooked”.

“Salinas, what did I just say? It’s done, now clock out and go home, that’s an order”.

Javier frowned and began to shuffle the files back into the box.

Before Michael headed back into his office, he placed a hand on Javier’s shoulder. “Listen, I know that case hits home for you because of Salazar— “.

“Emilio was like a brother to me” Javier answered sharply.

“I know, I assigned you after Wheeler left abruptly— “.

“That right there! Doesn’t that seem odd to you? A ‘Decorated Officer’ decides ‘I don’t feel like it’ and quits the investigation?”

Michael took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Detective, you need to calm down”.

Javier tossed a few papers aside and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just wish I could have stopped Emilio from going down that road”.

“Salinas, he made his choice, and as far as Wheeler goes, that was his decision”.

Javier slowly turned to face his boss. “Captain, I’m aware of that but— “.

Michael held up a hand defensively. “Look, if there are any updates, I will let you know but for now, it is out of our hands. I want you to clock out, go home, and get some sleep, are we clear?”

Javier begrudgingly stood up from his desk. “Alright, see you tomorrow”.

Captain Wen gave him a polite nod and sauntered back into his office. Once the door was closed, Javier slid a few files into his messenger bag and headed out.

As Javier walked to his car, his thoughts drifted back to all of the testimonies he read, security tapes he watched, and evidence he poured over. There was no way he was going to let this go, his cousin was dead, and the FBI was moving at a snail’s pace. The Brotherhood and the Mercy Park Crew must be held accountable.

Logan awoke, gulping, and desperate for air.

“Logan? What’s wrong?”

“Huh? What?” he asked worriedly.

“Are you okay?”

Logan rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. What the hell? Was that a dream? Or a nightmare?

“Logan?”

“Sorry I…I had a dream”.

Ellie sat up in bed and gently rubbed his back. “About what?”

Logan hesitated for a moment; his heart thumped rapidly.

“Here let me get you something to drink,” Ellie said.

Logan gently grabbed her arm and shook his head. “No it’s fine…it’s just…the dream felt so real…”.

KNOCK KNOCK

“Who is that?” Logan asked worriedly.

“I’m not sure…it’s pretty late” Ellie reached for her phone to check the time. “Wait here”.

Logan absently ran a hand through his hair while Ellie slipped on a hoodie, slippers, and left the bedroom to answer the door.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“You’re Ellie Wheeler, right?”

“Yeah...what’s going on?” Ellie defensively folded her arms across her chest.

“My name is Vanessa Kingsley; I’m an R.A. at Edwin Hall— “.

“Wait, what does this have to deal with me? I’m in singles housing— “.

Vanessa held up her hand as a signal to let her finish. “I understand that, but I’m here because someone filed a complaint about a parked car without a Langston parking sticker”.

Ellie nervously bit her lip; she could tell where this was going.

“Also, this isn’t the first complaint because that same car was seen at Stein Hall in the President’s spot and at Foredale. Now, I know this isn’t your car because I saw you talking to the driver and so did campus security”.

Ellie anxiously picked at her nails

“Not to mention— “.

“Look, I’ll talk to my friend about it” Ellie interjected quickly.

Vanessa pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at her.

Ellie started to back away and close the door. “Sorry, I’m just a little tired, I have a huge exam coming up”.

“Listen, I wasn’t going to say anything, but people talk, and I’ve heard a few rumors about you”.

“Rumors?”

“Just that you got mixed up in something with some people”.

Ellie bit her lip; it was obvious someone knew something but how? She quickly schooled her features and refocused on Vanessa.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is if you are hiding a ‘friend’ who is in trouble with the law, it probably isn’t a good idea to bring them to college. Especially with you being on a scholarship”.

Ellie started to speak, but immediately closed her mouth.

“Have a good night and make sure that the car is moved, preferably now. Normally campus security deals with this so…consider this a favor”.

Before she could respond, Vanessa turned on her heel and disappeared into the night.

Ellie sighed as she closed the door, as soon as she turned around, Logan emerged from around the corner.

“I should go,” he said quietly.

“Yeah…” Ellie said as her voice trailed off.

Logan shook his head and walked back into the bedroom with Ellie on his heels.

“Let me give you some money for a motel room”.

“No need, I’ll figure something out”.

“Logan…”.

“I will figure something out” Logan asserted as he took a few steps forward and planted a kiss onto her forehead. “It will be okay”.

Ellie wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed him tightly. “I’m just worried since…you know”.

“I know” Logan answered quietly.

After a few minutes had passed, they pulled away from each other. “I need to pack so you don’t get any more trouble”.

Ellie shook her head and took a step back; her eyes began to water. “Right”.

Once Logan finished packing, he and Ellie exited her house and trudged across campus towards Edwin Hall. Despite the situation, they reflected on the memories they shared with the crew and theorized what the gang was up to.

“So this dream you had earlier…”.

Logan paused as he and Ellie reached Langston’s quad. “What about it?”

“You were pretty freaked out…what happened?”

“Um…”.

“I can tell it’s bothering you, so spill”.

Logan sighed and took a seat on a bench. “Well…it all started after the crew split up…I was working in a bar with someone named Javier who helped me get in touch with my foster parents and then there was this girl— “.

“Girl?”

Logan froze and swallowed nervously. “Listen it’s not— “.

Ellie laughed heartily and rubbed his knee. “I know, I’m just messing with you”.

Logan smiled and wrapped an arm around her. “There were parts of that dream that made me question things”.

“Like what?”

“My family”.

“You know whenever you want to try and reconnect with them…I’d be happy to help”.

Logan gently squeezed her and smiled. “I just might take you up on that offer”.

Ellie reached for his hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “It’ll be okay, trust me”.

Logan leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. “What would I do without you?”

Just as Ellie leaned in to kiss him, both of them turned to see a security guard strolling nearby.

“We better get going” she cautioned.

Both of them rose from the bench and walked down a nearby path, hand-in-hand.

“Do you think Teppei has done stuff we don’t know about?”

Ellie pursed her lips; it was a valid question and something she thought about too. “I guess we’ll never know”.

After a while, they arrived at the Edwin Hall parking lot where a silver 2012 Marconi LX was parked underneath a tree with multiple tickets on the windshield.

“It’s so weird seeing you drive a sedan”.

“Can you imagine what Colt and Mona would say if they saw this?”

Ellie laughed heartily. “I can only imagine”.

Logan grinned as he pulled out his keys to unlock the door.

“Seriously, I hope this car isn’t giving you any trouble, I read that Marconi Automotive was sued a few months ago”.

Logan opened the backdoor and tossed his bag into the backseat. “I’ll be okay, besides Toby hooked me up with this one and did some work on it before I drove out here”.

Ellie sighed gratefully. “I hope all of us can get together again…someday”.

“We will don’t worry” Logan affirmed as he closed the door and walked back towards her.

Ellie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her. “If you say so”.

Overhead, a series of claps rolled across the sky.

“It’s about to storm” Ellie cautioned. “Do you think you’ll be okay about driving in the rain?”

Logan grinned as he enveloped her into his arms. “Yeah, I’ve been through much worse”.

After they held each other for a moment, he planted a kiss onto her forehead and pulled away. “This isn’t goodbye, its ‘see you soon’”.

Ellie reluctantly took a step back. “Promise?”

“Promise” Logan answered firmly and kissed her once more. “Talk soon Troublemaker”.

The tears steadily flowed down her cheeks as he slid into the driver’s seat and started up the car.

Above them, another round of thunder bellowed across the sky and raindrops began to fall. Logan sighed as he adjusted the rear view mirror and slowly pulled out of the parking lot.

Ellie wept as she watched the sedan turn a corner and disappear from view. While she trudged back to the house, a small smile appeared on her face. Logan was resilient and something told her he was going to be just fine.

Once Logan got on the highway his thoughts drifted back to the Mercy Park Crew. Even though they weren’t blood-related, they had a special bond, something that was unmatched and unique. However, there was something about his dream that bothered him—everything felt so real…almost like a premonition.

“Did Teppei ever…no…but…? No, it’s impossible” he mused and quickly purged the thought from his mind.

After cruising for a while, he noticed an exit coming up on his right. Logan wasn’t sure where it would lead to, but he had all night to find out.

#rodaw #ride or die: a bad boy romance #choices fanfic #choices fanfiction #ride or die #choices rod

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