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sweet-villain · 4 months ago

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Stumble Confessions ~ Steve Harrington

Summary : You confess to Steve how you feel and it doesn't go well.

The air crackled with the smell of burnt popcorn as the flickering light from the TV danced across the room. Laughter erupted from Steve, his head thrown back, as you gathered the courage to speak.

“Steve, I need to tell you something.”

He turned, puzzled.

“Is this about the movie? Because I thought we agreed it was terrible.”

“No, it’s about us.” Your voice trembled, the words stacking up behind a wall of doubt.

“Us?”

“Yeah. I like you.” A sigh escaped as the confession slipped free, a fragile thing in the chaos of his laughter.

“You’re joking.” Steve wiped tears from the corners of his eyes, still chuckling. “You’re serious?”

“Do you think I’d joke about this?” His laughter stung, tiny nails scraping against your heart.

“C’mon,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “You’re like, my best friend. This is…” His words faded into a breathy chuckle, the comedy of it thrumming between you.

You glanced away, the room suddenly drowning in silence. The TV buzzed on, oblivious to the shift.

“Forget it,” you said, barely above a whisper.

As he turned back to the screen, the weight of unsaid things hung heavy in the air, cracking like static.

Steve mumbled something, still fixated on the flickering horror movie, but gave nothing more than a casual shrug.

“Seriously?” You tightened your fists, your pulse pounding. “You can

“You can't just laugh it off, Steve. You’re not even trying to take me seriously.”

“Okay, okay.” He turned slightly, the humor fading from his eyes. “I just didn’t expect… Well, it kind of blindsided me. "

"Look, you’re like a sister to me,” he said, fidgeting with the popcorn bowl. “This isn’t exactly what I envisioned when I invited you over for movie night.”

“A sister?” The bitterness coated your words like oil, "Oh forgot, you're still hung on Nancy" His expression shifted, a flash of defensiveness replacing the amusement. “It’s not like that.”

“Then what is it, Steve? You think we fit into pre-worn boxes? Can’t a friendship be something more?”

" You're being childish," Steve mutters. His shoulders squared, the flicker of irritation igniting in his eyes.

“Childish?” You felt the heat rising to your face. “Having feelings isn’t childish. You just don’t get it, do you?”

" You have a silly crush on me, it will go away" His words clipped through the air, sharp and dismissive. You clenched your jaw, fighting the sting of rising anger mingled with hurt.

"That’s all you see? Just a crush?” The words spilled out, unable to hold back any longer.

“Let’s be real, you and I? We live in different worlds.” He waved his hands, gesturing around the cluttered room. “You’re endless daydreams while I’m just…me. And I’m still figuring it out. You think we could just click like that? It’s complicated.”

“Complicated?” You laughed, but it sounded hollow. “You think love needs a roadmap?”

" Love? Now your in over your head silly girl" Steve rolled his eyes, a defensive mask slipping over his features. “I’m just saying… what we have is solid. Why mess with it?”

“Because what we have isn’t enough for me.” You crossed your arms, feeling the walls close.

" It's always about you, huh?" Steve’s eyes narrowed. “You think I don’t care? You think I enjoy hurting you like this?”

“You’re not hurting me. You just don’t see.” You met his gaze, a fire flickering in the depth of your own.

The conversation stops there and you leave for the night.

The streetlights flickered as you stepped outside, the chill of the night air biting through your jacket. The laughter behind you felt like a ghost, haunting the space where your hope had just dissolved. Shadows danced along the pavement, twisting with your thoughts

You paused at the curb, the chill wrapping around you like a shroud. The moon hung high, casting silver beams onto the empty street. You caught your breath, each inhale heavy with the sharpness of rejection.

The quiet thrum of the night enveloped you. You pulled your jacket tighter, fighting back the chill both outside and within.

The night deepened as you paced along the deserted street, each footfall punctuating the silence. A distant echo of Steve’s laughter lingered in the back of your mind, a cruel reminder of what could never be.

The wind whispered tales

You leaned against the lamppost, the harsh light flickering intermittently. A low rumble of an approaching car disturbed the stillness. The vehicle glided by, its headlights slicing through the darkness, offering a brief glimpse of a world untouched by your turmoil. You stared at its retreating tail lights, warmth fading as it disappeared into the distance.

From the shadows, voices drifted towards you—kids laughing, carefree in their twilight play. It felt like a distant echo. They chased each other down the street, their joy stark against the cold air enveloping you.

You shoved your hands deeper into your pockets, a cold reminder of Steve’s laughter wrapping around your heart like a vice. How could he not see?

As the echoes of laughter faded, you turned toward home, the pavement underfoot feeling rough and unyielding. Each step drove the reality of your situation deeper into your chest.

A haunting melody floated through the night air, the sound unfamiliar yet compelling. You paused, straining to pinpoint its origin. It rang in crystalline fragments, echoing off the walls of nearby houses and blending into the wind’s whispers.

Blood pours down your nose and in confusion you wipe it away. You stared at the crimson smear on your fingers, disbelief mixing with a sudden rush of adrenaline.

The door creaked as you pushed it open, the familiar scent of stained wood and fading lavender filling the entryway. You stepped inside, the warmth cocooning you, yet the chill of rejection still lingered at the edges.

"Are you alright?" Grandma’s voice broke through the haze of your thoughts, her figure framed in the soft glow of the hallway. She hovered there, worry etched across her brow.

You nodded, not trusting your voice. The blood turned your fingertipsa dark maroon, a stark contrast to the pale wood of the entryway.

“Your nose looks bad.” Grandma stepped closer, her concern mounting.

“Just a little bump,” you said, forcing a smile, but it faltered,as your mind flickered back to the laughter that echoed in the air, sharp as shards of glass. Grandma's hand brushed against your cheek, the warmth of her palm a stark contrast to the chill settling deep in your bones.

“You know, I remembers those days when you used to tell me everything.” Grandma's voice softened, nostalgia dancing in her eyes. “You can talk to me, dear.”

The warmth of her concern mixed with the cold ache in your chest. You wanted to spill everything, but the words caught in your throat, entangled in a web of hurt and confusion.

“I just… I told Steve how I feel,” you finally managed, your gaze dropping to the floor, avoiding the tender scrutiny of her eyes.

"Did he make fun of you?” Grandma’s voice clipped through the air, sharp with protective instinct.

You swallowed hard, the taste of humiliation bitter on your tongue. “He laughed. Said it was ridiculous. Just a silly crush.”

“Kids can be cruel, especially when they don’t understand,” Grandma said, her voice steadier than you felt.

“Cruel?” You shook your head, your hands curling into fists. “He’s not a kid. He’s just… Steve. And he doesn’t get it. Maybe he never will.”

“People are often blind to what’s right in front of them.” Grandma brushed a strand of hair behind your ear, her gaze softened by years of wisdom. “But that doesn’t diminish your feelings. It takes courage to be honest about what you want.”

“I just wish…” The words hung suspended, heavy with unresolved longing. “I wish he could see me.”

Grandma studied you for a moment, her eyes reflecting a depth of understanding that cut through the pain.

“What do you need him to see?” she asked, her tone gentle but probing.

“He needs to see me as something more. Not just his best friend,” you said, frustration leaking into your voice. “I’m not just a backup plan or someone to laugh at.”

" Get some rest, dear" your grandma kissed your head. The warmth of your grandmother’s kiss lingered, but the comfort faded with every heartbeat. You turned away, the urge to fight bubbling beneath the surface.

Heading up the stairs, you walked into your room feeling it cold as you glance at the picture of your mother. " I miss you mom" The photograph stared back, capturing her smile in a moment of sun-drenched joy. You traced your fingertip over its glossy surface, the warmth of memory clashing with the chill in your heart. The room felt suffocating, the walls closing in as shadows crept along the edges of your vision. You tossed your jacket onto the bed, frustration igniting a spark in your chest.

You paced back and forth, the wooden floor creaking under your steps. Memories flooded your mind—the laughter you shared, the late-night conversations where secrets spilled like candy wrappers scattered on the floor, the moments when it felt like you were the only two souls in the universe. Yet tonight, it felt tainted by the echo of rejection, the sour taste of his laughter still curling in your ears.

" You won't be good enough for him" the voice spoke to you. But you don't know who it is as you turned around in your room in fright. The air thickened, heavy with silence, as if the very walls held their breath. You glanced over your shoulder, your pulse quickening. Shadows twisted, melding into each other, forming shapes that felt simultaneously familiar and threatening.

A knot formed inyour stomach, twisting tighter with each fleeting shadow.

You pressed your back against the door, bracing for something—anything—to leap from the darkness. Your breath quickened as the soft echoes of the night filtered through the window.

Then, likea sudden gust of wind, the shadows receded into drapes of darkness, leaving only stillness in their wake. You dared to breathe, the air thick with the scent of old wood and mothballs, tinged with something unsettling.

Darkness settled over the days like a heavy blanket, smothering thoughts, and breath. Nights blurred together, each one winding tighter around you, a relentless grip that threatened to suffocate all logic. Your mind raced between thoughts of Steve and the eerie whispers that danced around the edges of sleep. Each time you closed your eyes, shadows creeped closer, wrapping themselves around you like tendrils of smoke. You lay wide awake, the memory of Steve’s laughter echoing relentlessly while the air felt thick with something unspoken.

The thin slip of paper landed softly on your desk, its edges curling slightly as it slid into place. You looked at Nancy, her brow furrowed, the concern in her eyes cutting through the fog of confusion.

You unfolded the note, the paper crinkling quietly in your hands.

*Hey, are you okay? I saw your nose…*

It felt like a lifeline thrown into a sea of chaos. You glanced around the classroom, the mundane chatter fading into a muffled backdrop as you focused on Nancy’s note. *I’m fine,* you scribbled back, each stroke of the pen wishing the weight in your heart away. But even as you scrawled the words, you felt he truth press against your ribs, heavy and unyielding.

Your name was called in a whisper distance. “Hey, you okay?” Nancy leaned closer, her voice a concerned whisper. “You’ve been out of it.”

You forced a smile, though it felt more like a mask slipping awkwardly in place.

“I’m fine.”

Nancy leaned in, her eyes narrowing with determination. “This isn’t like you. The nosebleeds, the days off… Something's off, isn’t it? You can talk to me.”

You shook your head, feeling the pressure build in your chest.

“It’s just… everything’s fine. Really.” A forced laugh escaped your lips, brittle and unnatural.

“Don’t do that.” Nancy’s gaze drilled into you, unwavering. “You can’t brush this off. I can sense there’s more. You’re not fine, and I know it.”

“Fine, you want the truth?” You leaned closer, the classroom buzzing around you fading into the background. “I’m just… a little stressed. That’s all of it.”

Nancy crossed her arms, unwavering. “Stressed? What, over school? That doesn’t explain your nose. You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

Nancy decides to ask you, " Have you been hearing clock chimes?" The question hung in the air like a whispered secret. You stared at her, blinking against the flood of memories and strange sounds that invaded your nights.

“Clock chimes?” Confusion twisted in your gut. “What do you mean?”

In your head, like your seeing things too?" The world around you faded, leaving only Nancy's voice echoing against the backdrop of your swirling thoughts. You leaned closer, aware of the weight of the moment pressing down.

“I think…I think I’ve heard them,” you admitted, the admission.

Nancy face paled as she understood what was happening. " We have to tell the others, your in danger." The words hit you like a punch to the gut, the gravity of the situation pooling in your stomach. “Danger? What do you mean by that?”

“We know what’s been happening in Hawkins,” Nancy said, her voice dropping to a near whisper, urgency threading through her words. “The disappearances, the strange occurrences. They’ve all been linked to Vecna. If he’s after you…”

Your heart raced, the weight of those words pressing down like a leaden blanket.

Vecna is… well, he’s not just a myth anymore,” Nancy murmured, glancing over her shoulder, as if the name itself might summon shadows. “He’s connected to the disappearances. The kids… They’re victims."

"Am I a victim?" Nancy’s eyes widened, the gravity of your question hanging in the space between you. “I don’t know, but if you’re hearing things... If things are happening to you… It could be a sign.”

" I keep hearing my name called and clock chimes. I heard talking in my head too" Nancy’s gaze sharpened, piecing together the fragments of your fragmented account. “This isn’t good. We need to figure out what's happening and quickly."

“Figure out what?” Panic clawed at your throat. “What do we do?”

We have to tell the others" she closed her books and stood up. " come on, let's go. We don't have much time." With a single glance back at the classroom, you followed Nancy’s lead, your heart pounding against your ribcage. The hustle of students faded as you hurried out into the sun-drenched hallway, where the fluorescent lights flickered above, mir

roring the chaos within you. Each step felt heavier as you navigated through the sea of students, their laughter and chatter blurring into noise that masked your racing thoughts.

“Stay close,” Nancy urged, her tone urgent as she cut through the crowd of students. The halls seemed to stretch endlessly, lockers slamming and feet pounding against the linoleum floor. The buzz of youthful chaos faded into white noise, but your heart drummed relentlessly in your chest.

“Where are we going?” you asked. " Steve's house, everyone will meet us there" Nancy navigated the throng of students, her determination cutting a path through the chaos. You ducked under the fluorescent light fixtures, their flickering reflections dancing in your periphery. The tightening in your chest pushed you forward, though doubt clung.

The lights began to flicker causing you to stop in your tracks, fearing the worst. “Nancy!” Panic strummed through your voice, slicing through the din. “What’s happening?”

She turned to face you, her brow knotted. “Just keep moving. Don’t stop.”

They both get into the car as Nancy drives off fearing the worst is to come, looking at you seeing how lost you are in all of this. The car’s engine roared to life, a rumbling counterpoint to the chaos building in your chest. Nancy’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, knuckles white against the black leather. As she turned the corner, you stole glances at the passing buildings, their familiar shapes blurring into streaks of color. The world outside felt unmoored, each street a stranger as the gravity of your situation sank deeper.

“Do you really think Vecna is after me?” Fear curled in the pit of your stomach, biting and relentless.

“I don’t know for sure, but we can't take any chances,” Nancy said, her voice steady despite the tension in the air. The car accelerated, tires screeching against the asphalt as Nancy navigated the streets with a focus that bordered on frantic, her eyes darting between the road and the rearview mirror, as if expecting something sinister to loom just out of sight.

“I can feel it, Nancy.” The words slipped out before you could stop them, a raw confession tearing from your chest.

The car comes to a stop at Steve's house as she races with you hot on her tail inside where she throws the door open, " Vecna is after Y/N" she steps aside as your eyes land on Steve, Mike, Eddie, Lucas, Max, Steve and the others. The air in the room hung heavy, the ticking of a clock marking your racing heartbeat as you entered. Conversations faded into silence, eyes turning toward you and Nancy, the weight of the moment suffocating. Eddie leaned against the wall, arms crossed as he surveyed the scene, his usually playful demeanor replaced with a sharp attention that cut through the tension.

“What’s going on?” Lucas leaned forward, eyes glinting with concern.

“We think Vecna might be targeting Y/N,” Nancy leaned back slightly, her voice steady despite the storm brewing around you. “It’s serious. She’s been hearing things, and—”

“Things?” Eddie interrupted, dark eyebrows knit together inquisitively. “What kind of things?”

“I’ve been hearing chimes,” you said, the words spilling out as if they'd been locked away for too long. “And voices. Sometimes my name. It’s like—” You hesitated, the shadows of uncertainty creeping back in, but you forced yourself to continue. “It’s like someone’s calling me. And it happens in the quiet moments, especially at night.”

Steve crossed his arms, a guarded expression settling on his face.

He exchanged a glance with Nancy, tension popping in the air.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice rang flat, eyes locked onto yours, but the weight of his words felt charged, electric.

"Because… I thought it was just stress. I didn’t want to freak anyone out,” you admitted, the confession tasting bitter against your tongue. Every face in the room stared back, a sea of concern and disbelief washing over you.

“Plus it's my parent's death anniversary tomorrow.." The room fell into a heavy silence, each word landing like a stone. Steve’s expression shifted, the lines of amusement from earlier giving way to an unsettling concern.

“Shit.” Mike’s voice cut through the quiet.

" Language!" Nancy shouts. “Sorry,” Mike muttered, his eyes darting between you and the others as the mood thickened.

“Maybe we should've figured this out earlier,” Lucas said, shifting nervously. “What if it’s already started?”

“It has started,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper, the truth settling heavily in the room. “I feel it. Every day gets worse.”

Eddie pushed off the wall, stepping closer, his presence a small comfort against the weight of fear that constricted your chest. “We need to figure out how to stop it,” he said, determination glinting in his eyes. “No way are we letting Vecna get to you.”

“Exactly.” Nancy nodded, her gaze unwavering.

The lights were flickering earlier in school today" you tell them. “Flickering?” Steve’s brows furrowed, tension tightening the lines around his eyes. “Like, just like that night?”

“Exactly,” you replied, the weight of his earlier laughter hanging heavy in the air. “It’s almost as if he's coming."

Steve ran a hand through his hair, the familiar gesture grounded in confusion and worry. “Look, we can’t wait around for something bad to happen. We need to take control of this.”

You were out of trance as you heard your name being called louder, this time closer and more evil. It was him. Vecna. The shadows thickened, wrapping around you like a shroud, your heart hammering against your ribcage.

“Y/N!” The call slithered through the air, dripping with malice.

Guys!" Dustin shouted. " Her eyes!" Your heart lurched, an icy grip tightening around your throat. You blinked, instinctively rubbing your eyes, but that only deepened the horror. A dark haze encroached on your vision, twisting the air around you into something suffocating and oppressive.

“Y/N!” The voice grew louder, more insistent, invading your mind like an unwelcome guest. The shadows writhed, and with them, dread surged, pulling you deeper and deeper into an abyss.

Steve began to panic seeing you eyes and you weren't replying back to him as he shook you over and over. “Y/N! Talk to me!” Steve’s grip tightened, shaking you as if trying to rattle sense back into you. His voice cut through the haze, but the darkness coiled tighter, a vice around your thoughts.

Eddie took your one side and yelled in your ear to help. “Y/N! Snap out of it!” Eddie’s voice broke through the haze, frantic and sharp. His hands gripped your shoulders, shaking you slightly, as if trying to jar your consciousness back from the darkness.

" You can't do this, not now. Not ever!" Steve shouted.The room blurred, a whirlpool of colors and shapes narrowing into a single point of darkness. You tried to grasp onto the voices, the echoes wrapping around you like tendrils, pulling you deeper into the abyss.

“Y/N!”

You snapped back out it but crowed in fear as you saw him in your head. He was close. Your heart raced as the figure loomed in the shadows of your mind, ethereal yet tangible—a grotesque silhouette with hollow eyes boring into you, a void staring back, endlessly deep. You felt cold sweat trickle down your spine, panic pooling.

" I'm going to die.." you mumbled, snapping out of it. "You’re not going to die!" Steve’s voice sliced through the ambient noise, desperation creeping into the edges of his tone. He pulled you closer, his eyes fierce with resolve.

“I swear, I can see him! He’s coming! Vecna is trying to take me!” Your voice trembled, a raw edge of panic seeping through the cracks of your composure.

“Not on my watch!” Steve’s grip tightened. The urgency in his voice cut through the chaos as the gathered friends.

“Y/N, we’re not going to let that happen,” Eddie said, his tone steady but laced with urgency. “We’re a team, remember?”

" Friends till the end" Eddie bumps your head with his playfully. You cracked a weak smile, the warmth of his jest breaking through the fog, if only for a moment.

Steve’s intensity didn’t waver. “Alright, we need a plan. Has anyone found something related to Vecna’s pattern?”

All eyes turned to Mike, who fumbled with his notes, the pages crinkling in his anxious grip. “I have some stuff on the disappearances. It’s like he’s targeting people with… unresolved grief or trauma. It’s a-" he stops.

" He wants you to relive how your parents died. That's your truama. You were in the car? " You recoiled, disbelief rushing through you like ice water. “No. No, that can’t be right.” A wave of nausea crashed over you, each heartbeat echoing memories you wished to bury.

“Y/N…” Steve began, his voice steady yet filled with an urgency that sent shivers down your spine. “It’s not just about them. It’s about you. Vecna is powerful; he feeds on your fears. We can’t let him exploit that.”

" I was only six years old when my parents died. It was horrible. I was found with my leg broken in my mother's hands.. it was in the papers.." you tell them. The silence that enveloped the room pressed down like a heavy blanket, each word echoing in the charged air. You could feel the pity in their stares, the concern etched on their faces, and it only deepened the ache in your chest.

He's going to use my mother isn't he?" The question hung heavily in the air, its weight palpable. Silence filled the room, thick and suffocating, as if the shadows themselves were listening, poised to ensnare you in memory.

“Y/N…” Nancy stepped forward, eyes wide with compassion. “We can’t let him get into your head. We need you to fight this.”

“Fight what?” The bitterness in your voice surprised you, but the edges of fear curled at your spine. “How am I supposed to, Fight what? How am I supposed to fight something that’s already in my head?”

Nancy stepped closer, her expression fierce, determination shining through her gaze. “You aren’t alone. We’ll help you face him. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

“We’ll find something to counter him,” Lucas said, a hint of bravado tinging his voice. “We’ve faced down monsters before. We’ll do it again.”

“Together,” Max chimed in, her voice steady, a fierce light sparking in her eyes. You looked around the room, at the faces of your friends—each one a pillar of strength against the rising tide of dread.

“Together,” you repeated, though the tremor in your

oice betrayed the fear clawing at your insides.

“Alright, let’s get to work.” Steve’s gaze settled on a large whiteboard propped against the wall.

He strode over, markers in hand, determination emanating from him likea blazing fire. He scribbled down notes, brainstorming ideas, while your breaths came in short bursts, the weight of the moment pressing down on your shoulders.

“Okay, we’ll need to review everything we know about Vecna,” Steve declared his voice steady as he turned back to the group. “We have to figure out his weaknesses and what he feeds on. If he’s targeting unresolved grief and trauma, we can’t let him use that against you.”

You stepped forward, heart thundering in your chest, desperate to contribute despite the hollow feeling that gnawed at your insides.

“I can think of moments…experiences,” you started, your voice shaky. “Things that might give him power. Memories that I can't run from.”

The room shuddered with silence, a heavy weight settling upon everyone. Each face turned toward yours, expressions ranging from concern to resolve, a mixture reflecting back all you feared and all you hoped.

“Tell us,” Nancy urged, her voice a steady anchor amidst the storm of emotions that threatened to overwhelm you.

You took a deep breath, grounding yourself in the unyielding presence of your friends. With each word, the memories clawed their way to the surface like long-buried secrets clawing through the soil.

“I remember that night. The sound of glass shattering, the way the car felt like it was spinning, the feel of my leg snapping like a twig,” you murmured, voice faltering as the memory cascaded through you. Each fragment felt sharp, cutting into the present with ruthless clarity.

“The smell of burning rubber, the sinking realization that my parents were…” You choked on the words, fighting back the surge of

that had pierced the confines of your memory for so long. “...were gone.”

The room fell quiet, the weight of your confession hanging in the air like a heavy fog.

" Oh god, he's going to really kill me.." The words fell from your lips in a whispered tremor, the truth unfurling like an ancient script long buried in your mind. Panic washed over you, a tidal wave crashing against the fortress of your resolve. Steve’s gaze sharpened, slicing through the tension, his determination coiling tighter around you.

“Y/N, focus,” he commanded, voice steady and unyielding. “We’re going to figure this out. You’re not alone in this.”

You heard his chuckle, " Guys... he's in my head.." The laughter rippled through the room, but it felt empty, reverberating off the walls as if all humor had been sucked from the air. A chill crept up your spine, reminding you of the darkness lurking just beyond the door.

Your memories are powerful,” Eddie said softly, his voice breaking the suffocating silence that held you captive. “But they don't have to dictate what happens next. You can control this.”

“He's talking..." you tell them. “Who’s talking?” Steve’s voice rose, tension tightening the air between you.

“Vecna,” you murmured, both terrified and mesmerized by the sensation that enveloped you. “He’s whispering. He wants to take me.

“Take you? Where?” Steve shot back, urgency lacing his words. Panic thrummed in the air, stretching thin as you wrestled with the grip of their concern.

“To… to that dark place. I can feel him pulling me.”

Panic surged through the room, each heartbeat reverberating against the walls like the thrum of impending dread.

"Listen to me," Steve's voice cut through the chaos, grounding you, though his urgency matched the frantic rhythm of your pulse.

“Y/N, listen to me.” Steve stepped closer, the intensity in his eyes igniting a flicker of determination within you. “You need to fight back. He thrives on fear. Remember that.”

Shadows twisted in the corners of your vision, and the oppressive darkness loomed larger, pulsating like a heartbeat against the chill in the air. You felt Steve's gaze bore into you, a tie to the reality that anchored you amid the encroaching madness. Panic rose in your chest, but Steve’s presence felt like a shield, holding back the waves of shadow that threatened to overwhelm you.

“Y/N, listen,” he urged, his voice low and steady. “We’re going to come up with a plan.

but you need to stay with us. We can’t afford to lose you to him.”

“I—I’m trying,” you gasped, the weight of the memories threatening to pull you under. Each recollection felt like a hand gripping your throat.

" What if we sleep here, in the same room watching over Y/N and taking turns?" Dustin suggests.

"Sleep here?” Max frowned, crossing her arms. “You think that’ll keep Vecna away?”

“We have to do something,” Dustin insisted. “If he gets into her head while we’re not around… we can’t let that happen.”

The room fell silent again, every face reflecting the urgency of the situation. You could practically feel the undercurrent of dread winding through the air, tightening like a noose around your throat.

“That might be the best idea we have right now.” Steve nodded, his eyes flicking between you and the group, weighing the impact of his next words.

“Okay, let’s do it. All of us stay here tonight.” He turned to you, urgency lacing his tone. “We will make sure nothing gets to you.”

Your heart sank at the gravity of the promise resonating in his voice. Doubt nibbled at your resolve. This wasn’t just another movie night; it felt like walking a tightrope over an abyss.

he clock above the mantel ticked ominously, each second a reminder that time was slipping away. Tomorrow marked the day when shadows took everything from you, and it felt like Vecna anticipated your grief like a predator lying in wait.

“Alright"

The kitchen felt like a different world. Dim light filtered through the curtains, casting long shadows across the tile floor. You scuffed your sneakers against the linoleum, the sound punctuating the heavy silence that settled around you.

“Y/N,” Steve called softly, his voice breaking the stillness like a whisper in an empty room.

You turned to face him, the weight of everything pooling at the corners of your eyes. The anger and confusion still roiled inside, battling with the empowerment of his unwavering presence.

“Steve,” you started, but the words caught in your throat, tangled with fear. The emotions churned, a storm brewing just beneath the surface.

“Hey.” He stepped closer, concern pooling in his gaze. “ I know tonight is going to be tough,” he said, his voice low and steady. “But you’re not alone. We have your back, okay? All of us. The memories, the darkness—they don’t have to win.”

You opened your mouth, but the lump in your throat hardened. The floodgates threatened to burst, memories crowding your mind’s eye, invading the sanctuary of your heart.

“I’m scared,” you breathed, the admission breaking against the tension in the air like a fragile glass.

Steve stepped closer, the warmth of his presence anchoring you. “I get that. It’s okay to be scared. Hell, I’m terrified too, but you have to trust us. Together, we can keep Vecna away from you.”

The weight of his words wrapped around you, squeezing tight as the truth settled in your chest. You searched his eyes, looking for the assurance you so desperately craved. The flickering kitchen light cast shadows that danced ominously on the walls, echoing the turmoil within. You felt the warmth of his presence, yet beneath it swirled a tempest of insecurity and fear, pulling at the seams of your resolve.

The moon bathed the room in a pale glow, illuminating the familiar chaos of Steve’s living room—crumpled popcorn bags, scattered board games, and remnants of holiday decorations. A circle of sleeping bags hugged the edges, each one a fortress of comfort and safety crafted by your friends. Yet the shadows beyond the window pressed against the glass, encroaching like a tide that threatened to pull you under.

“Hey.” Steve’s voice broke the quiet, gentle but firm. He stood just inside the doorway, framed by the soft glow of the kitchen light behind him.

“You okay?” He ventured closer, his brows knitted with concern. The shadows danced in the corners of the room, reflections of your unspoken fears.

“I… glanced at the moon, its cold light filtering through the window like a silver blade. “I don’t know,” you admitted, your voice barely above a whisper. “What if he comes for me tonight? What if I can’t fight him ?” The tremor in your voice resonated through the stillness, a raw thread of fear tugging at the edges of your composure.

Steve stepped closer, the warmth of his presence wrapping around you like a familiar blanket. “You’re not alone in this,” he said, drawing nearer until he occupied the space beside you on the couch. The shadows stretched, swallowing the edges of the room, but your heart steadied a fraction, anchored by his proximity.

“I just…” You stopped, your voice faltering as the weight of your thoughts crashed down like a tidal wave. “I don’t want to lose anyone else. I can’t go through that again.”

Steve’s gaze softened, mirroring the swell of sympathy in your chest. “You won’t. I promise we’re going to make it through this. We’ll find a way to defeat him.”

His confidence wrapped around you, a fragile shield against the darkness clawing at your thoughts. The swell of emotions cracked the surface, threatening to spill over. You turned to face him, searching his eyes for the reassurance you so desperately craved.

“Promise?” The word came out as a whisper, laced with vulnerability.

“Promise.” He met your gaze with unwavering intensity, the warmth in his eyes igniting something within you—a flicker of hope pushing against the shadows that threatened to suffocate you.

Just then, a resonating chime echoed through the tranquil hum of the night, slicing through the fragile air like glass shattering. It lingered in the corners of the room, twisting the familiar into something malevolent and dark, a music box tune gone awry. The sound slithered through the air, curling around your senses like smoke as dread tightened its grip on your throat.

“Did you hear that?” you asked, your voice barely above a whisper as the chill of apprehension crept in.

No" Steve says.“Are you sure?” You leaned closer, straining to listen. The silence that followed felt like a heavy blanket, pressing down, making the air thick and suffocating.

“ Take a deep breathe" Steve's voice broke through the thickening silence, firm yet soothing. Your heart raced, panic clawing at your throat, but you focused on his words, drawing in a shaky breath.

“Breathe with me,” he instructed, his tone steady.

As he inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with air, the rhythm grounding in the tension-laden room. You mimicked him, the air rushing in and out, pushing away the chilling echoes that threatened to consume you.

As Steve holds you, he falls asleep and silence fills the room. The clock is after midnight. The silence wrapped around you like a shroud, thick with unspoken fears and lingering echoes, but it felt different now. The shadows still danced ominously in the corners, but they seemed more distant, as if tethered by the warmth radiatingfrom where Steve sat beside you. The slow rise and fall of his breathing became a steady anchor against the chaos swirling in your heart and mind.

You dared to close your eyes, but the weight of the shadows loomed just beneath your eyelids whispering promises of despair. The darkness pulsed, curling around you like a predator poised to strike.

Then, it was like a nightmare coming alive. You weren't in Steve house but on the gravel seeing flashing light of the car turned over on the road. There is pleading for help coming from a woman who's crawling. Your heart speeds up hearing the familiar voice of your mother.The gravel crunched beneath your feet as you stepped into the nightmarish scene, the acrid scent of smoke clawing at your throat. The world around you warped with familiarity, every detail sharp and vivid—the twisted metal, the shattered glass intensifying the colors surrounding you. Voices echoed, twisted cries slicing through the fog of memory, warping time and space. The world cast in shades of gray suddenly flickered, revealing a gory tapestry of your past.

“Help! Someone, please!”

A familiar cry twisted through the air, piercing through the haze of confusion. Your heart dropped into your stomach as recognition cut through the nightmare. The sight before you felt almost too surreal, each detail as sharp and unforgiving as the glass shards scattered across the gravel. The memory flooded back—every agonizing second replaying in vivid clarity. You stood frozen, your feet anchored to the ground, awash in the horror of it all.

“Mom?”

As you approached, the flickering lights from the crumpled car illuminated her face—a ghost of your childhood, a visage you had memories etched into the deepest corners of your mind. But this was different; the memory twisted and distorted, trapped in the grip of Vecna's dark influence.

“Mom!” Panic surged through you as you reached the broken silhouette struggling against the wreckage.

"Help me" she pleads seeign you.You faltered, a surge of terror pulsing through you. “Mom, I’m here!” Each word felt shrill, shattering the quiet night as your heart raced.

But the figure only stared, eyes wide with desperation, the horror of recognition etching itself deeper into your bones. The scene warped around you, shadows weaving through the air like ominous wisps, thickening as they curled against the world you once knew.

You took another hesitant step forward. “Mom!” The word slipped from your lips like a prayer, a plea that echoed through the night. With each step, the ground shifted beneath you, the gravel crunching like brittle bones underfoot, amplifying the chaos around you.

“Help me!” Her voice pierced the darkness, reverberating in your chest like a drumroll of dread. The shadows thickened, swirling around the crumpled wreckage, and you felt the very air constricting, heavy with sorrow and anguish.

“Mom!” You stumbled forward, desperation clawing at your throat, each step echoing the panic crescendoing in your heart. The shadows wrapped tighter around you like coils of smoke, whispering doubts that gnawed at your sanity.

The twisted wreck of the car creaked in protest, each sound a reminder of the horror that echoed within the confines of memory. You reached out, fingertips brushing against the cool, jagged metal of the vehicle, trying to ground yourself as reality warped around you.

Dustin rubbed his eyes, squinting against the dim light of the room. He shuffled toward the kitchen, but noticed you standing still, your eyes wide and unblinking.

“Y/N?” he called softly, but you didn’t answer him, the echoes of your mother’s cries drowning out the present. The shadowy figures danced at the edge of your vision, each whisper tightening their grip around your heart.

“Y/N?” Dustin’s voice trembled, concern lacing through every syllable. He stepped closer, his feet shuffling across the floor as he tried to pierce through the haze enveloping you.

You stood frozen, heart racing as the familiar figure of your mother began to fade in and out, both a balm and a blade to your heart.

“Y/N?” Dustin's voice grew urgent, but the world around you twisted and distorted, each pulse of your fear echoing. Eddie’s footsteps thundered across the floor as he darted into the living room, urgency radiating from him like heat. “Y/N! What’s wrong?” His voice broke through the haze, a lifeline thrown amidst the rising tide ofchaos engulfing your senses. The shadows continued to writhe, clawing at the edges of your mind while your mother's cries echoed in your head, a chilling symphony of despair that drowned out.

" Her eyes! Vecna is trying to get her!" Max says in panic. Startled, Steve’s eyes shot open, his breath catching as he took in the scene unfolding before him.

“Y/N!” He surged to his feet, the urgency in his voice cutting through the chilling fog that wrapped around you.

The figure transformed, twisting grotesquely, every memory tethered to your mother merging into something dark and sinister. The face morphed, features sliding like liquid shadows. What once wore the visage of your childhood hero now stretched into an eerily.

" Vecna?" you called his name out. The name tasted bitter on your tongue, a summons both desperate and defiant.

“Yes, Y/N. Welcome ,” the figure crooned, its voice rippling with mock affection. The semblance of your mother twisted, her features bending and warping into something grotesquely familiar. “Help me,” it whispered, a twisted echo that sent chills racing down your spine.

“No!” Panic surged through you, raw and unrelenting. You felt the shadows wrapping tighter around your limbs, " your not my mother! She died!" The figure's laughter reverberated through the air, a cruel mockery that echoed in the darkness. "Did she?" The word dripped with malice, a twisted taunt that slithered past the barricades of your mind. " What do you want from me?!" “Feed on your despair,” Vecna hissed, the words curling around you like poisonous vines. “Let your grief awaken the darkness within.” The shadows shifted, swirling around you, blurring the lines between memory and nightmare.

“Get away from me!” You screamed, the raw force of your terror splintering the darkness, pushing back against the echoes of your mother’s voice. “You’re not real!”

His hand wrapped around your throat pulling you up. A gasp escaped your lips as Vecna’s grip tightened, the pressure squeezing the breath from your chest. The room spun, reality warping around you like a malignant shadow. His face loomed closer, the once-familiar features twisting into a grotes que mask of malice and pain. Every heartbeat felt like a drum echoing the horror circling around you. The chilling emptiness behind his gaze reflected all your fears, the darkness pooling like poison in your veins.

You carry the weight of your pain with you, and I shall feast on it," Vecna whispered, the malignancy lacing his words echoing in your ears. It was an intimate threat, one that drew on the depths of your worst moments and twisted them into a weapon against your very soul. The shadows danced around you, a suffocating cocoon tightening around your chest, making each breath feel like a futile struggle.

“Y/N! Stay with us! Fight him!” Steve’s voice pierced through the chaos, a beacon of clarity amidst the suffocating darkness.

Eddie and Dustin rummaged through the cluttered mess—old vinyl records, crumpled posters, and forgotten cassette tapes littering the floor like remnants of battles fought in better times.

“Where is it?” Dustin's voice grew frantic as he flipped through the mess, desperation creeping into his tone. “It has to be here! The one album that could break his hold!”

“Keep looking!” Eddie shouted, his fingers dancing across the clutter as he scrambled to find something—anything—that could tether you back.

" Harrington has bad taste in music" Eddie mumbles.

" Did you find it?" Robin asks joining them on the floor. “Not yet!” Dustin’s voice carried urgency, anxiety weaving through his words like a fraying thread. “It has to be here. We’re running out of time!”

" you're taking too much time, bozos" Eric says as she pushes Dustin away and looks herself. “Get back!” Dustin protested, but Eric shrugged off his frustration, her focus fixed on the task at hand.

“I’ll find it! Just move!” The urgency in her voice sent a jolt through the cluttered room. As she dove headfirst into the heap, tossing aside albums and posters with wild abandon, her determination electrified the air.

“Come on, come on!” Dustin grunted, shoving a stack of records aside, his fingers skimming over the familiar labels.

“Wait!” Eddie’s eyes widened, realization hitting him like a lightning bolt. “I think I left one in the van!” The words tumbled from his lips, an eruption of hope breaking through the haze of despair.

"Go! We need it now!” Dustin barked, urgency threading through his tone.

“Right—stay here! I’ll be back!” Eddie bolted out the front door before anyone could protest, the sound of his footsteps fading down the walkway.

Inside, Vecna talked about how pathetic your life is and mocking how Steve was a waste of time. “It’s amusing, really,” Vecna’s voice coiled through your mind, laced with a sinister glee that sent a shiver down your spine. “Here you are, surrounded by friends, yet so utterly alone. They cannot save you from the darkness that cradles your heart.”

“Shut up!” You felt the bile rising as you summoned every ounce of willpower, squaring your shoulders against the suffocating grip of dread. “You're not real—you’re nothing but a twisted figment of my past!”

“Ah, but your past is a mirror I wield,” Vecna hissed, his voice dripping with mockery as he leaned closer, his malevolent gaze boring into yours. “Every pain you’ve buried with mockery as he leaned closer, his malevolent gaze boring into yours. “Every pain you’ve buried is the key to your downfall. Feed me your memories, and I’ll show you how insignificant you truly are.”

Steve's voice cut through the oppressive darkness, a luminous thread woven through shadows thick with despair. "Y/N!" he shouted, desperation lacing each syllable, piercing the veil of your panic. The contrast was stark—his voice a beacon, a lifeline anchored in the storm of dread that threatened to pull you under.

“Y/N! I love you!" The words erupted from his mouth with an urgency that stemmed from fear, shooting straight to the core of your despair. "I love you! I always have! I was too stupid to see it before, but I know now! You're not alone in this, I swear!"

The laughter echoed in your mind, a cruel symphony that warped Steve’s desperate confession into mockery. The shadows thickened around you, drowning out the light of his proclamation, shaping it into something dark and cruel.

“Hear that?” Vecna sneered, his breath cold against your ear. “Even his love won’t save you. It only deepens your despair. All that remains is eventual loss—his love, your hope, and your very life.”

You could feel the darkness tightening its grip, the suffocating shadows wrapping around you like a vice. Each word Vecna uttered echoed through your mind, puncturing the feeble shield of hope that had begun to light the edges of your despair. The shadows skittered closer, chilling tendrils coaxing doubt into your heart like poison spreading through your veins.

" Where is that album, Munson???! " Max shouts. Eddies comes in putting the cassette and putting headphones over your head while he steps back nibbling on his nails. The moment the headphones nestled around your ears, the world around you shifted. The pulsating shadows flickered for a brief second, the whisper of music lacing through your mind like sunlight breaking through clouds. Eddie's fingers trembled as he described the sound, coaxing a defiance from the depths of your being. “Just listen, Y/N! Breathe with it. Let the music wash over you!”

As the melody swept through the headphones, it felt like a lifeline thrown into turbulent waters, each note reaching deep into the recesses of your heart. The music surged through you like the first breath of fresh air after a long dive underwater, illuminating the shadows that loomed in the corners of your mind.

"Fight back!” Eddie shouts and starts to sing your favorite song joined by Dustin as he knows he words as everyone shouts the lyrics in hope to save you. The familiar chords thrummed through the headphones, a pulse that resonated in your core, cutting through the darkness strangling you. The voices of your friends rose, the lyrics woven with urgency and raw emotion. They flooded the space, the harmonies intertwining like threads of light piercing through the heavy gloom. Each note carried the weight of their support, reverberating against the warping shadows that threatened to consume you whole.

“Feel it, Y/N!” Dustin shouted, his voice a fierce." Feel it, Y/N!” Dustin shouted, determination etching every syllable with unwavering strength. “You’re not alone! We’re right here!”

The portal opens as you see your friends singing their hearts out. Vecna growls as he sees it and turns to you, just as you kick him hard as his grip loosens. You fall to the ground in fear as he stands up. The shadows surged and stretched, flickering with an unholy light as you scrambled backward, heart racing. Your hands dug into the gravel, frantic against the rough surface as you pushed yourself away from Vecna, the weight of dread still pressing down like a heavy stone. Each frantic beat of your heart echoed through the night, matching the relentless tempo of the music flooding your ears.

You throw whatever you could at him, sliding in between his legs making your escape.

"Please Y/N" your friends beg. Shadows lunged, tendrils reaching out like claws grasping for your ankles, but the pulsating rhythm of the music propelled you forward.

“Keep running!” Steve’s voice broke through.

Each step felt harder, the shadows curling around your legs like creeping vines, but the power of your friends’ voices surged around you, wrapping you in warmth and determination.

as you charged forward, a wave of desperation fueling your every movement. Panic clawed at your insides, but the melody resonated through you, sparking the fire of resistance in your chest.

“Y/N, keep going!” Dustin shouted.

From somewhere within the maelstrom, his voice a beacon in the dark. The rhythm of the music pulsed around you, each note forging an invisible path through the encroaching shadows.

You pushed harder, your legs pumping as the darkness.

" Come back to me" Steve pleads. wove tighter around the edges of your vision, an oppressive fog that threatened to snuff out your spirit. The music surged within you, the familiar melody pushing back against the encroaching shadows as you fought for clarity, for freedom.

Your body slowly goes down as your back to your friends, arm engulf you tight. An overwhelming flood of warmth wrapped around you, a cocoon of safety from the chaos that roiled just beyond the edges of consciousness. Your friends' voices resonated in the air, their harmonies intertwining to drown out the whispers of darkness that clung stubbornly to your thoughts. The weight of Vecna’s presence loomed, but the warmth of your friends reached out, pulling you back toward the light.

" Did I really hear Harrington confess his love too?" Eddie asks all of sudden. Laughter erupted, shattering the oppressive weight of fear for a moment, and you found strength within the absurdity of it all.

Was it true?" you asked Steve looking up at him. Steve’s eyes widened, a mixture of surprise and vulnerability etched across his face. The shadows that had engulfed you flickered, their grip momentarily loosened by the absurdity of your questions amidst the chaos.

“Yes,” he breathed, voice thick with emotion. “It’s true. I love you, Y/N. I always have.”

You blinked, disbelief blending with a torrent of emotions. The shadows around you pulsed, the darkness wavering for a brief moment as if caught in the storm of your shared confessions.

" So it took me to get captured for you to tell me how you feel. Alright understood" The words hung in the air, laced with a mixture of irony and incredulity, but as your eyes locked with Steve's, everything felt charged with urgency.

" Well! Are you going to kiss her?" Robin asked,her voice breaking through the tension like a call to arms. Laughter rippled through the room, a buoy of levity amid the darkness that pressed in on all sides.

“Shut up, Robin!” Steve snapped, his cheeks flushing, eyes wide with embarrassment but glinting with amusement.

“Seriously? You’re on the verge of losing her to Vecna, and *that’s* what you focus on?” Eddie interjected, laughter lighting his features, injecting energy into the somber atmosphere. The absurdity hung between you like a thread, pulling the heaviness of the moment upward.

" Do I smell bad that your not going to kiss me?" you asked. A wry smile tugged at your lips, defiance mingling with the lingering dread swirling in the shadows. Steve blinked, his gaze locking onto yours as a flush of embarrassment raced across his cheeks.

"What?” he stammered, his cheeks flushing deeper, the vulnerability in his eyes opening a small chasm of warmth against the encroaching darkness.

“Do you really think I’m just going to let Vecna win?” you shot back "I really want that kiss, I needed to win". you winked at him.Steve’s eyes widened as the tension shifted, color flooding his cheeks. The corners of his mouth twitched like they might form a smile, fighting against the shadows that still loomed.

“Are you serious right now?” he asked, half-playful, half-breathless. But the light in your eyes sparked something within him—a determination melded with hope that pushed back against the tide of darkness.

“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” you insisted, a flicker f defiance igniting in your chest. The shadows continued to dance at the edges of your vision, but the power of laughter filled the room, wrapping around you like a protective shield.

" If you won't kiss her, then I will " Eddie chimed in. The laughter erupted, breaking the oppressive weight of fear that filled the air.

“Eddie, you’re not helping!” Steve shot him an incredulous look, but beneath it lay deep embarrassment mingled with something softer—understanding, perhaps.

" So Harrington, your going to leave me hanging or do I have to do it myself?" you asked. The atmosphere in the room shifted, thickening with tension as laughter blended into something electric. Steve's eyes widened, disbelief painting his features, grappling with the absurdity of the situation even amidst the swirling chaos that threatened to engulf you.

“Wait, are you serious?” Steve stammered, stepping closer, his gaze locked onto yours with a mixture of urgency and disbelief.

" You talk too much, Steve" Laughter rippled through the room, an unexpected balm against the weight of fear. Steve’s eyes brightened despite the chaos, and that flicker of hope ignited something deep within you.

“Alright, alright.” He raised his hands in amock surrender, but determination sparked in his eyes. “Just hold on for a sec, okay? I’m not letting you go. Not now, not ever.” He stepped closer, each heartbeat resonating with the gravity of his words. The shadows clung to the edges of your vision, but they felt less suffocating in this moment, swallowed by the brightness in his gaze.

“Y/N,” he said, his voice steady yet thick with uncertainty, “if we make it out of this…” His determination wavered, but the sincerity in his eyes shone through, illuminating the shadows that threatened to suffocate you. " I want you to know I’ve admired you for so long. You’re… you’re everything incredible.”

Eddie grew tired of this from Steve as he pushed him into you and Steve lips were inches from yours.The world around you seemed to suspend, time stretching taut as the distance closed between you. Steve’s eyes flickered with uncertainty, a silent question hanging in the air, heavy with hope and trepidation.

The world around you seemed to suspend, time stretching taut as the distance closed between you.

With his lips merely inches from yours, everything faded into insignificance—the shadows, the darkness of Vecna’s taunts, even the pulsating fear that had gripped your heart just moments before. The world shrank to a single point where nothing mattered but the whispered promise contained in that fleeting moment.

“Y/N,” Steve breathed softly, his voice barely above the thrum of the music, each syllable laced with vulnerability and an urgency that felt electric. The shadows receded slightly, as if honoring the connection between you.

You stepped closer, feeling the warmth radiating from him, a lifeline amidst the chaos swirling around you.

"Oh get on with it, already " Erica threw her hands up in the air. As the laughter bubbled through the room like a lifeline, an unexpected surge of courage washed over you. You locked eyes with Steve, a fierce determination igniting within you.

As you leaned toward him, your heart raced, a pulse of adrenaline mixing with the tender resolve that anchored you. Steve’s arms immediately encircled you, grounding you in the moment, even as the chaos threatened to consume it.

"finally,” you breathed into the space between you, the weight of laughter and shadows falling away.

His lips brushed against yours, tentative at first, but then the urgency of the moment ignited a fire between you. The kiss deepened, hearts racing in tandem as the world around you faded into a distant murmur.

" Finally he had some balls to do it" Erica says. The kiss consumed you, an electric jolt of warmth igniting the shadows that surrounded you. Each heartbeat echoed like a drum in your chest, threading through the chaos in a whirlwind of emotion.

As the kiss deepened, time warped and twisted, dissolving the barriers of the moment.

This was far from over. Vecna will be back but he can wait, as this moment was everything between the two of you.

Vecna had another thing coming.

#steve harrington #Steve Harrington x you #Steve Harrington x reader #Steve Harrington x y/n #Stranger thing x reader #jewls writes

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talenlee · 1 year ago

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Story Pile: Bloodthirsty Hearts

I feel like pre-emptively, there’s a lift I have to ask of you. Bloodthirsty Hearts is a horror podcast. Wait, no, it’s a horror fiction podcast. Wait wait wait no, no, it’s a horror comedy fiction podcast. Oh, wait, no I missed a bit, it’s a horror comedy fiction podcast about zoomers engaging with popular media that feels definitely like it’s millenial stuff.

Did I scare you off?

There is a chance that you never listened to radio plays growing up. You aren’t the kind of person who finds it adorable, charming and narratively acceptable to hear characters giving semi-naturalistic dialogue that’s meant to handle transitions and setting and reacting to oh no! there’s a monster in the room! We’re going to scream in a way that won’t blow out the mic or clip the audio, while still trying to convey meaningful emotion!

I think, inherently, there’s a strong chance, that just this whole form of media, is a hard no for you. And that’s okay. You should not imagine that anything I say about Bloodthirsty Hearts is going to change your mind about it. It is 100% exactly what it is, and it’s not about to elevate the form. If you don’t like fiction podcasts, this is not going to change your mind, and it’s a very classic example of it.

Also I guess, spoiler warning, but nothing too explicitly important, just generalities until right at the end where I mention the way that a plot point is woven around other things. If you’re immediately curious to check it out, and want to talk about it, you can check it all out, for free. I liked it! I think that if you like the style it’s projecting, yeah, it follows up on it, and that’s good!

Bloodthirsty Hearts is about Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans.

I mean it’s not, it’s about Harry Potter fans.

But reealllly it’s kinda about being an anime fan. Or no, not even that. You know what I’m being unclear, and glib, like clippy dialogue.

Anyway. Bloodthirsty Hearts is a story about a gaggle of girls who, at one point in their tween years, were united by their interest in a series of Edgy Tween To Teen Aged horror-fantasy-adventure stories, Bloodthirsty Hearts that are full of all those things that kids like in those books like adventure and drama and deniably racy sexy bits, you know the things they like if they weren’t Animorphs fans, since we like traumatising body horror and heavily deniable nonbinary centaurfucking. Then, we fast forward a few years and these tweens are now teens and teens are complicated and relationships are different and they’re not friends any more, and the big convention for their childhood interest is tomorrow and and and —

Look, the moving parts of the story are really obvious to kick off. Teens who had drifted apart go to a convention for their favourite horror franchise and it turns out the franchise is real and now their love of the franchise and their trust in one another has to keep them alive while they grapple with a sudden existential horror and get to watch the people around them getting munched for a variety of narratively important reasons.

It’s exactly the kind of story you get looking at the label and it’s good at it, and I liked it a lot!

I always have this thing about teenage focused media, where I think about how a lot of the stuff I parsed as a teenager, that was about ‘young people’ I was meant to relate to was always, even in the webcomic era of stories being crafted with less of the publishing structure around, about adults making stuff for teenagers. I remember joking that Homestuck is an underdiagnosed Gen Xer passing on their brain worms to a millenial audience who didn’t know they were dealing with a single person’s very specific idea of a story rather than an actual meaningful treatise from an expert position about those things, and also, hi, you have these kinks now.

The thing is, to me, what Bloodthirsty Hearts reminds me of is not the story of a now, not a current event of how youths today engage with the kind of media they do. It’s kinda a 1990s feeling story to me, as it might be if the primary people producing it have a teenage experience of the early 00s and late 90s, rather than a focal experience that’s currently contemporary. It’s not like it’s anachronistic, but it’s just that the kind of thing it is feels anachronistic. It feels ultimately, like something that got a movie production that was kinda shitty, that paid adult actors were showing up for a convention that really, ultimately, couldn’t even do a good job faking not being shitty idiots.

So it’s about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. But Buffy The Vampire Slayer — a 90s horror action comedy instrumental to culture and a generation of creators despite almost every single thing that resulted from it being an immense disappointment — is a TV show, not a book series, so what if it’s actually about say, Terf Wizard Cops Stop Wizard With A Nuke, which oh look at that, it’s also about being an immense disappointment.

There are two competing threads I felt running through my fingertips as I listened to Bloodthirsty Hearts, one of the first things I put on my podcast player at normal speed in five years. One of those threads is the way that a group of girls who love and care about a piece of media confront, one after another, every single figure in that work’s creative pipeline and every structure of their life disappoints them and then as a direct result winds up eaten by a gargoyle vampire, but the gargoyle vampires are also bad. Anyway, the point is for that, that the books aren’t good, the movies aren’t good, the girls are good and them finding what they loved about it is their communal space and sharing that space and enjoying the books together. That! is! Good! Shit!

The other thing the story is about is gay yearning and how useless teenagers are at communicating and I’m not joking or exaggerating and it resolves well.

Anyway uhhhh yeah.

Bloodthirsty Hearts. Surprisingly good, considering it has peeing on yourself as a comedy plot point. Multiple times.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Media #Story Pile

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shamrock313 · 4 months ago

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I love Fresh Prince of Bel Air! I haven’t had a chance to watch the newer series. I told myself I’ll give it a chance since their take is more serious and less comedy.

I loved Poetic Justice! Tupac was so cute 😍 him and his nose ring.

Oh no he didn’t lol! I once had a ex who told me I was so little that he should get on of those back carries 🤣.

My one old friend in college told us a story about how she was making out with this guy and I can’t remember how, but he knocked off her wig on the floor. They just both stared at it In silence for a hot second and then he was scared and worried. I don’t think they continued after that for a while.

I didn’t know there was two podcast! I’m glad they included the background actors as well because that really shows they cared and thought of them as part of the Boy meets world family. I have to listen to them because it’s always nice to hear how they would change certain scenes, or how they interpreted a certain character moment.

My cousin had the biggest crush on silly Terence J 🤣 him and Rocsi always had their moment.

I forgot about Eric Matthew’s he was fine too!

Lmao!! She was lucky that day because those trains be going fast! But I guess those 90’s trains were different.

Did you see the clip for the Monsters series about the Menendez brothers? The clip looked more put together than the last season of American Horror Story. Ryan Murphy better put his all into Grotesquerie, because I’m not playing about Nicey Nash! I still don’t know why they canceled The Rookie Feds. I loved that show

I love this gif of Pac. This was needed after listening to Kdot today

There’s a tweet from a guy talking about how one time a cop pulled him over. Cop never gave the guy a ticket but he gave one to the girlfriend because she was so short, he told them it was illegal for her to be in the front without a booster seat 😂

One time, I was working so hard one of my braids feel out and I made a joke about it. My poor coworker was so concerned she literally thought my braid was my real hair and was like “Do you need to go to the hospital? Are you bleeding? Why are you laughing?” and I had to show her that the braid was not my real hair and that my natural hair was still good but dang she had me laughing.

You had me at Niecy ❤️❤️❤️ I love her even if she was a mess on Claws (that show will have a special place in my heart because Uncle Daddy and that damn funeral was a fucking trip). Last thing I watched that was Ryan Murphy related was Dahmer and AHS Cult.

Evan you lucky mf. Dancing with my girl 🤺

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quirklessidiot · 4 years ago

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title : cigarettes and parfaits [3] pairing : older!nanami kento x younger!reader [13 year age gap, ft toji fushiguro] Genre: romance, fluff, slice of life, josei, angst, comedy, strangers to lovers au

Summary: you’re pretty sure you’d remember marrying a man 13 years older than you, right?

Warnings: alcohol, smoking, mild smut, y/n making stupid decisions, everyones a human-au so yeh non-canon stuff and everyone’s happy (periODT) i keep forgeting to add that this isnt beta-rread..all of my stories arent so yeah shshs Notes: ah, i feel like this story will be lengthen more than 8-10 chapters shshshs i wanted to add a little spice anyways thanks for all the comments uwu ily all!

Masterlist || taglist || [prev ; next] [updates; every saturday!]

“Y/N-chan!!!”

You cringe in embarrassment as soon as you hear that awfully familiar and cheerful voice, you could barely remember this man and the events that transpired the night before but here he was, acting like your new best friend. You weren’t even sure if you wanted to go here but you needed clarity. Surely you didn’t just legally marry a man at an Izakaya out of all places last night?

“Oh, you actually did marry him.” Gojo Satoru proclaims as soon as you take a seat across him, he gestures around his face, “I could tell by your whole, ‘I hope this guy is messing with me’ face. You have it, signed and sealed. Even got the cute matchy rings that I had one of my assistants delivered.”

You pale at the thought of his assistant coming in with a silver ring. Wasn’t he sober? How could he not have stopped you two from doing something as reckless and stupid as this? Weren’t older men supposed to be more responsible than this?

“Why the hell didn’t you stop us?” You groaned, burying your face in your hands, embarrassment painted all over your features.

“I was just as drunk as you two.” He confessed, scratching his head, “probably even more drunk but anyways back to the topic in hand, I only remembered it when the same assistant came in and congratulated me about it. It’s good I had your number on my phone before you two bailed.”

“So you don’t really remember?”

“Bits and pieces.” Gojo grinned, this guy was a maniac, how did the serious man you met just this morning have friends like this? You probably wouldn’t even last long, “I did call Nanami-”

He’s cut off by the rough sound of someone pulling a chair out, you immediately jump on your seat when you realize it’s Nanami Kento, the guy from this morning. The man you had recklessly married!

“This better be some prank you’re pulling, Satoru.” His voice was anything but kind that you almost wanted to hide behind Gojo’s back.

“Hey, hey.” Gojo raises his hands, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t force you into anything and stop scaring your poor little partner.”

Nanami snaps his gaze towards you and you notice how his eyes soften just a bit when he sees your red ears and your eyes looking away from him, “You better call Geto and fucking fix this, I refuse to bother this young-”

“It’s fine.” You cut him off, still shy and red, “It’s...fine...I just…Please don’t think I’m burdened by it. It was technically my fault for even agreeing immediately.”

Nanami clenches his jaw and turns away, “Nevertheless. L/N-san’s young. I hope to not be such an uncouth man like you.” he retorts, voice sharp as he eyes the white-haired businessman up and down. Gojo, seemingly used to it, rolls his eyes behind his dark shades.

“Maybe you guys should try it out.”

The blonde man looks like he’s about to smite the white-haired man out of existence yet Satoru remains oblivious to his friend’s gaze, “Don’t ya think so? It will take a while for those divorce papers to settle in so why don’t you two go out and get to know each other? Who knows…” he sing-songs the last part and Nanami is so close to chunking his briefcase towards the tall businessman, not even caring

“Ah, he’s not exactly wrong, Nanami-san.” you try to calm him down, placing a small hand on his broad shoulder.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually listening to this idiot’s idea.” Nanami replied, gaze narrowing.

“Not really but you have some problems I can help you out on and I have problems that you can help me out on...Of course, the last say is on you...”

“Told you I actually had a brain.” Satoru piped in.

“Shut up, Satoru.” he quips, then turns to you, “I’m thirteen years older than you, L/N-san. I have two high school kids that could pass off as your siblings, and-”

“Well, I technically did marry you.”

“You were drunk.”

“Doesn’t exactly really excuse it.” You laugh nervously, “The whole divorce process usually lasts up to a few months, some even takes a whole year. I could help you out with the boys and I can use you to ward my family off from moving back home.”

Nanami is quiet for a moment, actually thinking about it. Weighing the pros and the cons, not only would you be able to help him out but you’d also be able to get Gojo and blind-dating out of his back.

There really wasn’t anything he could loose, really.

“Or you two might fall in love.” Satoru teases, making Nanami throw him another side-eye, as if saying ‘I dare you to say another word.’

It’s a Thursday today and Sukuna absolutely loathed Thursdays apparently because it reminded him of Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. They all were far from the weekend Everyone seems to be happier than usual though. Maybe it was because you were there teaching some basic shit at the board or something.

“...and if we transfer this here and change the positive to a negative, you’ll end up having five as your answer.” You smile, placing your chalk down, “Does anyone have any questions?”

Echoes of no’s resonated throughout the room.

“Alright then, let’s end the lesson here so you guys can have an early lunch. I don’t think an assignment is in order since many of you were able to get a perfect score in the activity awhile ago.” You winked. A couple of whoops resonated throughout the whole class right after.

As the kids shuffle out of the room of the class, Sukuna remains behind. The ojisan had cooked them something delicious this morning and he wanted to eat it in peace without that pesky Nobara grabbing a share from his bento and Yuuji’s annoying babbles about horror movies with his best friend Junpei (the only one who was really bearable was Megumi, really)

“Sukuna-kun?” you called out, snapping him out of his small trance, “Are you alright?”

He notices a glint of worry in your eyes, he had to admit since his transfer here last Monday, you were the least annoying teacher in the academy the blue-haired professor in Japanese literature was absolute shit since he loved to tease him a lot and that bald-headed teacher in science who looked a lot like Mike Wazowski was an annoying twerp who loved dawdling in him and Yuuji’s business and you were kind of good at your job. Not only did his idiot of a brother stop coming to him and their ojisan for help in math but he could actually do the worksheets right and get an actual decent grade at it.

“Yeah.” he roughly replies.

“That’s good.” You smiled, he watched as you bind their worksheets together and clip them in utmost delicacy, “You should head to the cafeteria now, I heard they’re serving milk bread today.”

Without saying anything more, you left the room, leaving him there in the silence.

Well, the Christmas tree idiot was right.

You kind of had a motherly aura on you and it didn’t even look forced.

No wonder, everyone in this room was whipped for you despite your subject being a pain in the ass.

“You look like an idiot.” You mumbled as you slapped Mahito’s hand away in annoyance, your workmate wiggling his eyebrows like the little shit he is.

You completely forgot you did have someone like Gojo Satoru in your life and it was one of your co-workers, Mahito, a Japanese literature teacher who was too nosy for his own good.

“You’ve got a ring on your ring finger and a mailman comes in and gives you an invite for Zen’in Toji’s fortieth birthday.” he whistles, “Even Jogo-sensei gossiped by the water cooler awhile ago, saying that you had eloped with the man. Not that I’m judging you or anything...”

You choke on your saliva, clearly thrown off by the backhanded comment. That darn bald-headed fool that looked like the green eyed monster from the DreamWorks cartoon, he sure needed to lay off the gossip and actually focus on his job as the head of the science department, “You’re not denying it.” Mahito stated, narrowing his eyes in suspicion, “Why aren’t you denying it?”

“I’m not dating Megumi-kun’s father.” You grumbled, finishing up your paperwork, “That man is off limits.”

“Right,” he drawls on sarcastically, “...because you have a strict rule against dating hot older men with money.”

“I also teach his kids and his cousin…” You deadpan.

“We don’t even have a rule against that.” He retorts, rolling his eyes, “If we did, Hanami-sensei would’ve been fired a long time ago.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“And you’re so secretive. If it isn’t Toji Zen’in, who’d ask you out?”

“Hey, I do have a man.” You huffed, “and he’s very kind and considerate...”

The image of the tall and lean man sleeping next to you slowly wormed its way back from your memory and you feel your cheeks start to flush. Good god, what were you? twelve? How embarrassing.

You needed to get that image off of your head, it wasn’t right.

It was all temporary, anyways and he doesn’t even see you in that sort of way-

“Yes, I’m Sukuna and Yuuji Itadori’s guardian…” a very familiar stoic voice could be heard from the nearby table, cutting your thoughts short. Wait, were you so head over heels for the man that you started imagining him here? Yuuji and Sukuna’s guardian? Wait a minute.

All color drained from your face as you snap your head behind you to find the same man you were imagining.

Oh no.

Oh no, indeed.

There stood Nanami Kento in all his glory; crisp suit, stoic face, and eyes laced with mild worry.

“...L/N-sensei is Sukuna-kun’s adviser, by the way. It would be best to discuss this with them.” Akari somberly informed the man, turning to your direction. You don’t miss the shift of expressions when he sees you standing there.

Your mouth parts and you know you look like gawking fish trapped in a small aquarium.

“Akari-sensei’s looking at you with the new hot daddy.” Mahito mumbles next to you, eyeing him up and down, “Definitely wonder where all these old men come from these days.”

You were only half-listening to your co-worker because your head was all over the place, just what were the odds that he was the guardian of the new transferee’s? Just how awkward would everything be? Why did it even have to be at this school out of all places?

Never ending questions pop out of your head as you approached them, “Good afternoon, Nanami-san.” Your smile comes out very stiff and awkward while you hold your hand out for him to shake, clearly there was no memo on how you were suppose to act around your sort-of-fake-husband-whos-kids-you-actually-taught.

Nanami reverts back to his stoic expression as he clears his throat, “Yes, good afternoon to you too, L/N-sensei.” he greets, maintaining a straight-laced tone.

“Akari-sensei says that Sukuna has been quite...rude...in class…” you try to rack your brains up to describe his kid.

“Your son literally pointed out that the history lesson I was teaching was fake and that I should study again so he could get his tuition’s worth.” Akari looks clearly perplexed and ready to throttle the boy if it was legal. You had to admit, Sukuna went overboard with that insult.

You knew how passionate Nitta was about her job and what Sukuna just said to her was like a big ‘fuck you, you suck.’ to her.

“I’ll be sure to talk to him about this,” he sighs, bowing down, “I’d like to ask for forgiveness for that, the boy is a good and smart student-”

“Nanami-san, the school not only cares about grades but character as well.” Akari Nitta sighed, cutting him off, “I’ll let this slide once, if he does that again, it goes on the record.”

You internally bit your cheek, still trying to process everything that was going on.

“I understand. Thank you for that.”

“I’ll walk him out, sensei.” You immediately say soon after, wanting to have some alone time with him, “Let’s go, Nanami-san.”

You walk right next to him silently, some students peerlessly glancing at the tall blonde next to you but you were too immersed in thought to notice the stares, “Nanami-san?” you ask softly as soon as you reach the exit.

Nanami Kento looks at you, his eyes still laced with a bit of worry, “It’s okay.” you silently comforted him, “Just talk to him calmly.”

“That’s not the problem.” he sighed, “I just didn’t expect that the person I married would be the boy’s teacher.”

You sweat drop, “Aren’t you worried about talking to Sukuna? I mean, he literally just disrespected a teacher and you said that he and you weren’t in good-”

“It’s easier to talk to him about that rather than…” he paused, showing his ring, “this.”

You blinked.

Seemed like Nanami knew what to say about the little attitude problem his son had, “So you must be used to this?” you asked, “Him disrespecting the teacher?”

You notice the shift of expressions on his face, you had only known this man for a few days so far but he was starting to get easier to read. His eyes shed more emotion than his face, no wonder he likes wearing those funny sunglasses a lot.

“It’s something I’ve scolded him over a couple of times,” he gruffed, trying to dance around the subject, it seemed like he had such a soft spot to the point where he had a problem with disciplining them, “At times I believe it’s just because he’s way too smart for his age. The boy has read history books for fun when he was a kid and solved quadratic equations to prove that he’s better than me when he was ten.”

“It still doesn’t give him the free pass to say things like that to a teacher”

“I know,” he acknowledged, “I’ll be sure to give him a better scolding-”

“No, you see. This is why he thinks he can get away with it. He isn’t afraid of you. You’ll only probably tell him that you can’t do that.” you frown, crossing your arms, “You do know that not all sensei’s are as nice as Akari-sensei and he could get in trouble for that even more in the future, right?”

Silence lingered between you two for a moment and suddenly you realize that you must’ve said something way off the rails.

“I..” you turn red, embarrassed by the sudden outburst, “That was too much, wasn’t it?”

You look at him directly in the eye, the worry-filled ones are now replaced with a softer gaze. God, he really needed to stop looking at you like a kid. It would only make this set-up more awkward!

“No,” he mumbles, “It...It wasn't too much…”

“Oh.” you cleared your throat, flustered and looking away from his face, “Well, okay then goodbye then Nanami-sa-”

You needed to get out of this conversation quick.

“Kento.”

Your gaze snaps directly towards him, clearly taken aback by the correction.

“What?”

“We’re technically married now, right?” he softly corrected, “Call me Kento.”

“Oh,” You uttered again, this time softly. You looked down on your shoes, it seemed like the floor looked really interesting now, “Then bye-bye, Kento.”

“Bye Y/N.”

He leaves you standing there, cursing yourself because of your erratic heartbeat at the way he says your name in that voice. First name basis? okay, totally normal for sort-of lovers, right?

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@Kurok1717 ; @hcn421 ; @shinhiromi ; @airybnb ; @katshuya ; @atsuhaya

#jujutsu kaisen imagines #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk imagines #nanami kento x reader #nanami kento x you #cigarettes and parfaits

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d-criss-news · 3 years ago

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Nine Songs: Darren Criss

When Disney, Phantom Planet and Mr Hudson collide: Glee star, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and musician Darren Criss talks Andrew Wright through the pivotal songs in his life and the unexpected ways they found him.

“When we are younger, our gateway drugs to a lot of popular things don’t come from the sexiest of places. It’s up to you how proactive you want to be with your curiosity from there, and how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, if you go down at all.”

Choosing the songs that define you is a tricky business to say the least, especially when the power of song has provided an ongoing soundtrack to your life. “When you’re as avid a music consumer as musical artists are, trying to pin down Nine Songs is difficult,” Darren Criss laughs. So much so, his final choices only really crystallise as our conversation draws to its close. “It’s hard for me not to see the value and joy in literally everything,” he explains. “The curse of the creative person is that your ideas and your interests always move way faster than your body can execute.”

Criss is a creative par excellence. As well as his Emmy and Golden Globe winning performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, where he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan, to his upcoming role in Muppets Haunted Mansion Halloween special as The Caretaker, he’s also a prolific musician. Criss enjoyed a decadent musical consumption since childhood, so “this was a bit of an archaeological dig,” he admits. As such, everything from jazz standards, to 808s, punk rock, ‘90s teen pop, and musical numbers are excavated in the course of our extemporaneous journey through the music he loves.

Equally on his mind is how to go about approaching the task of creating his Nine Songs, full stop. “The interesting social experiment is: Are my answers going to be songs that actually shaped my life and were formative to me as an artist? Are they songs that were formative to me as a human being? Or am I picking songs that I think represent who I am to people that do not know me? All three of those things aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

He reaches a conclusion of sorts. “For the purposes of making some kind of decision, I’m gonna lean less into trying to look cool to your very cool readership, and more into the literal, ‘What made me think about music in a different way? And hit me in a very emotional way?’ I think that’s probably the healthiest route.”

Embracing the accessibility that characterises Criss’ picks - or at times the initial touchpoints that led him to them - are something he vacillates over during our chat. “I’ve seen a lot of other people’s Nine Songs and they’re super cool. It’s like Leonard Cohen B-sides and old opera records and stuff. I’m gonna be pretty honest with the pop culture zeitgeist of how I grew up but explain why there is so much value in those moments.” His contemplation continues into the next day, Criss’s publicist passes on his regrets at being tentative to admit how he encountered one of his song choices via the Shrek soundtrack.

A yearning to reinterpret accessibility and the value attached to it drives Criss, however. He tells me that a festival performance that applied the anarchic verve of punk rock to a more refined Great American Songbook number remoulded his perception of music entirely. His love of the fusion of these two genres in particular symbolises the salient musical backdrops of his childhood - the guitar bands he played in with friends, and his musical theatre endeavours that led him to Broadway and multiple Ryan Murphy juggernauts, including his breakthrough playing Blaine Anderson in Glee.

Criss employs these contrasting musical lexicons, and other areas in between, on Masquerade, his new EP. Comprising five stand-alone “character-driven” singles, it sees Criss donning different musical personas. “I’m leaning into people that might know me as an actor,” he explains. “Because if actors can do Shakespeare, romantic comedy, and then do a horror movie and wear a prosthetic nose and a wig, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just do that with music.” The song “walk of shame” draws on jazz-standard chords interlaced with hip-hop production, “i can’t dance” looks to new-wave, and “for a night like this” is the product of Criss’ goal to create the ultimate end-of-the-night crowd-pleaser for a new-year bash, wedding or bar mitzvah. “This is all of the parts of me as a lifelong fan of these genres, trying my hand at servicing the pieces of them that I love.”

“I really love all styles of music and understanding what makes them unique and special and what makes them really pop. There are so many things that really make things sing - for lack of a better verb - and I like acknowledging those things and celebrating those things.”

“So, let’s begin. I have runners up and shit, and I have artists, I don’t just have the songs, so we might have to pick them as we go.”

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“Part of Your World” by Jodi Benson

“When people read this, they’ll go ‘That’s cute, he likes Disney songs’, but it’s more profound than that. Some of the most formative pieces of music to hit me at a very early age would have been any of the songs that were coming from ‘The Disney renaissance.’ The early-mid ‘90s explosion of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast.

"One of the through lines between the three of those musicals was Howard Ashman, who is one of my all-time heroes. Dramaturg, songwriter - he really was the voice behind what made those songs great. I have always loved Howard’s lyrical sensibility and also Alan Menken, his partner who wrote these songs with him. There was a musical structure to a lot of the songs which I would unconsciously pick up in my own songwriting, not just musically, but the idea that not only did somebody make these songs, but they wrote them for a story.

“There’s a clip of Howard Ashman vocal directing Jodi Benson, who was the original voice of Ariel. It’s a wonderful example of his genius, where not only was he songwriting but he was storytelling in the way he would tell her how to perform it, and you can really see the song coming to life in that clip. That’s when you cross the street from ‘It’s a song’ to ‘This is an experience.’

"There are certain ingredients that are required to elevate music that goes beyond just a nice melody, a beautiful orchestration and a good voice. There are things that are required to really give a performance a characterisation, context and a vulnerability, that he architects in real-time with Jodi Benson. You see that what he’s doing is what makes the record so special, and that’s something that’s always been inspiring to me.”

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“MMMBop” by Hanson

“I think my love of Hanson was because some people didn’t like it, so I was like ‘Fuck you, I like this, how do you feel about it?’ But this is difficult for me, because you know, I’m speaking to The Line of Best Fit and we’re trying to be cool! Although, do you know what’s cool? Being accessible! Writing a pop hit when you are 10 years old. Being in a band with your brothers and you’re all below the age of 15, you have a record contract where you are writing, producing and performing songs that are doing well.

“I was 10 years old when their first album Middle of Nowhere came out, and I remember reading somewhere that there were these kids that had a record. At the time, I was playing guitar and I was writing songs, but in my mind I was a kid, and that was it. I couldn’t be on the radio; you had to be a grown up to do this.

"This was the first time where I realised ‘Holy shit, kids can do stuff!’ It’s the value of seeing yourself in the media - that’s a whole other conversation to talk about - but there’s an immense value in feeling like there’s a piece of you out in the zeitgeist and doing well because it’s encouraging. You go, ‘Holy shit, maybe I can do this as well.'

“When you see children doing things, you’re ‘Wow, this is so cute and fabulous’, but then when you actually look at it you go, ‘This is miles above what most people in this age group are capable of,’ and that’s all I saw, because I was in the same age group and I was so inspired by that. This whole album was really a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I can do this, I can do music too, because these guys can.'

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“Ooh La La” by Faces

“This song really blew my mind. It became my own theme. It’s that ‘Make your heart sing’, nostalgic moment when you’re a teenager, driving in the car listening to it, playing guitar with your friends and you’re singing “I wish that I knew what I know now / When I was younger.” You’re like, ‘because I’m an adult now, I’m 15-years-old. If I only knew what I know now.’

“I was doing theatre from a young age and I was part of a young conservatory called A.C.T. in San Francisco. By way of somebody who knew somebody, I had an audition for a movie. As a kid not being near New York or Los Angeles it was really exciting, and this audition was for a film called ‘Max Fischer’, which would become the movie Rushmore, which would become one of my favourite movies of all time by the now very distinguished Wes Anderson.

“Separate from my own objective love of Wes Anderson, when this movie came out I was just around the age of getting into my own sort of identity with music, but also movies - indie movies - and trying to assert who I was. So, I see this movie Rushmore and I love it. I love the soundtrack, I love it so much, it’s one of my favourite albums ever. This song is the end sequence, and the way it made me feel - the vocals on it, I could play it on guitar and it was part of a cool movie - it really represented a lot in my life.

“And because of the acting thing, and Rushmore being great - it’s about this kid in high-school who's misunderstood but has his own agenda - everything about it was just so fucking cool to me. To this day, I cite that song as one of my favourite records of all time.”

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“Recently Distressed” by Phantom Planet

“A guy that really formed the way I would sing and write songs is Alex Greenwald, the frontman of Phantom Planet. I went to see Phantom Planet because I loved Rushmore and I found out that Jason Schwartzman [who had been cast as Max Fischer] was also the drummer for a band called Phantom Planet.

"So, when I saw their name on the bill I went, but I didn't know their music. I was barely 14, but their set blew my mind. It was Rock and Roll, but I loved Alex Greenwald’s voice. I loved everything, and I would follow their career from there. I always tell people that my voice is a combination of me trying to be Alex Greenwald, Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright, but failing. Alex was incredibly formative for me.

“One of their biggest records was a little while after I first saw them, which was the song for The O.C., "California." That was more of an Elvis Costello thing, and they employed a lot of stuff that sounded to me like The Beatles and a lot of ‘60s mod/pop-rock. But later they would employ things from Fugazi, Radiohead and harder shit, and that eclecticism, again, only accelerated my love for Phantom Planet.

“Recently Distressed” is from their 1998 album Phantom Planet Is Missing. This was a cool rock song that employed these George [Harrison] and Paul [McCartney] background vocals and included all of the things that I loved. It was harder but melodic and employed minor 4th chords and more complicated chords than I was used to. I had grown up with power chords - which are very Gregorian - on a lot of alt. punk rock, like Green Day or Nirvana, and if Kurt Cobain was using power chords then that’s how I was playing guitar. Hearing this music was like ‘Oh, I’m using full chords, not sevenths, minor 4th chords, diminished chords’, shit that I would learn to use more and more.

“When you haven’t experienced much, anything that gives a hint towards possibility, even though it’s probably always been there, you’re like, ‘I like this, I’ve always kind of liked this, but it’s very encouraging to hear somebody else do it and it’s gonna make me reconsider my possibilities.’ That was literally the moment that my power chords turned into full barre chords.”

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“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright

“I forgot the other day how I got into Rufus Wainwright, because all of this stuff I was getting into quite young. It’s like when I talk to 11-13 year olds, it’s funny to think that this was when I was really starting to build my musical identity. But then I remembered, and I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to sound uncool, because he is such a revered artist who exists in a much cooler place than what I’m about to say.

“I loved soundtracks and I would always buy soundtracks for movies that had cool playlists. I had the Shrek soundtrack, and there’s a cover of Leonard Cohen’s seminal “Hallelujah” that Rufus does and he smashes it, and I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Rufus Wainwright? What a beautiful voice.’ Then I saw that he was going to be at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco one week, so I go and he’s there promoting his new album Poses. I remember I didn’t have enough money to buy the album that day, so I had him sign my sneaker and I saved that shoe.

“The first song on Poses was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, which is a very dark and reflective song about his own battles with addiction, but he’s singing it over this really beautiful, whimsical song that has a lot of really great wordplay. I always love when artists, especially lyricists, can encapsulate an idea with not exactly what they’re talking about. The song’s called “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, it’s not called “Addiction”. Its talking about things that he craved and how that’s representative of other things that he’s gone through. There was a sophistication and elegance to that that I really gravitated towards, that I didn’t possess but wanted to shoot for. So when I saw him, that was a big one for me and he would also continue to influence me later in my life.

“I’ve become friends with Rufus since. I’ve performed with him and we’ve made records together, which is crazy. His songwriting was very complex and punk-rock, but he had this classic cabaret voice, the kind of voice that I don’t have. I was fascinated that there was somebody that could write this really dark material but have such elegance on top of it. He was virtuosic on the piano, which I thought was very cool because musicianship is always the thing that gets me going the most about artists.

“You know what? People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.' I completely disagree. Chase the living fuck out of your heroes. I’ve spent a lifetime doing so, it’s made me a better artist, and I’ve sometimes got to meet them and work with them. I’ve worked on music with Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. I’ve performed with Hanson. I’ve performed those Disney songs with Alan Menken at The Hollywood Bowl.

"This is all because there are people that I love who I have put on my vision board, and the things that they have done are the things that are bringing me to them. So it is nuts, but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, what else did you think would happen?’ They did stuff that some part of me connected with, so obviously there’s a magnetic pull towards that person.

“Rufus Wainwright is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and like I said, me trying to sing like him and failing is a big part of my own journey as an artist.”

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“3x5” by John Mayer

“John Mayer’s another guy that came around when I was 15. I heard a song of his on a middle-of-the-night, singer/songwriter college radio show. This is where I used to get music. You would listen to these carefully curated playlists that you wouldn’t be able to hear anywhere else, and the host played “No Such Thing”, a new song by this young kid who had just dropped out of Berklee College of Music - John Mayer.

“I’m listening to this song and I’m like, ‘Not only is this guitar playing really interesting, but the lyrical value and everything that is going on here ticks all the boxes.' It was jazz, but it was pop. And he did something that all these other guys and girls I’ve mentioned did. They made something very unique and very accessible.

“I immediately went out to buy this album, Room For Squares, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an album that was really formative for me. "3x5” is a really beautiful song that employs a lot of chord structures and melodies that blew my fucking mind at the time, and it made me wish that I could write songs like that.

“That album was a huge turning point in the way I played the guitar, because it was the first time in my life where I would look up tabs. Up until this point in my life, if I heard a song I could play it instantly. It was like a party trick, I would get how it worked if I heard it, because most of the songs I would hear on the radio - especially those that involved a guitar - were [centred around] power chords. And now I’m hearing all of these ninth chords and thirteenths, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ So I’d have to look up tabs.

“I think any young artist can attest to this - when you try and learn other people’s shit, it’s the best tool for educating yourself. Playing other people’s music really helps you lock in what your own style is. Trying to learn these songs - and sometimes pulling it off and sometimes not - really changed the way that my hands moved around the guitar and considered chords and voicings that I’d never really thought of.

“There’s another tie to musical theatre here, where I remember seeing Audra McDonald, who is a very venerated theatre actor, and she did a cabaret. If you’re familiar with cabaret culture, it’s more about performing the story of the songs – ‘Life is a cabaret’. She did a John Mayer song because she thought it was from a musical theatre show, and I was so tickled by this, because I was like ‘Yeah, if you really think about it, I don’t think he knows this and I don’t think his fan base even thinks about this, but there’s a number of his songs that feel very theatrical in the way that the lyrics play with each other and the way the chords move’.

"When I saw this I thought, ‘That is why I like John Mayer’, because yes, he’s an amazing guitar player, but he’s also a really strong songwriter.”

youtube

“Cabaret” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

“Also, around this time growing up in San Francisco, as a guitar player playing music with your buddies, the number one thing that you play is punk rock. There are different parts of the spectrum of punk rock, there's the NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, like real punk, punk. And then there’s the pop-punk thing that was happening at the same time, which was also equally influential - blink-182 and Green Day.

“Fat Mike was the frontman of NOFX. I loved NOFX, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were a supergroup of different members from different punk bands, of which Fat Mike was one of the main architects. They would cover songs and turn them into punk rock songs. They have an album of hits from the ‘60s, and they also have an album called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag, and that record is just a tonne of musical theatre covers that are done through punk rock.

“That was completely in line with everything I loved at this time of my life but didn’t really know how to articulate. I loved punk rock but I also really loved musical theatre. Not only the performative element of it, but there was a real musicality to musical theatre that wasn’t as present in some of the other shit that was popular at the time, just harmonically, or where chords would go. There was a sophistication I loved that seemed to not exist in punk rock.

“Then hearing Fat Mike at The Warped Tour going ‘Alright, which one of you Motherfuckers loves Julie Andrews?’ and hearing a mixed bag of reactions, because people were ‘What? I was not expecting that from you, sir?’ And then they start playing “My Favourite Things”, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song which is very accessible, but sophisticated nonetheless. And I am just living. I’m like, ‘This has got the attitude and simplicity of punk rock, but the sophistication of a beautiful song.’

“That was the first time in my life where I went, ‘It’s just all music. All these categories and boxes are completely arbitrary.’ So I thought, ‘I can do that.' I was playing power chords in punk bands but I realised that you can take chords and make them into other rhythms and voicings and have the same song. I could take a punk song and make it jazz. I could take a jazz song and make it country. So, quite providentially, I would end up on Glee, where they took popular songs and would sometimes do their own versions.

“By that point, I had been doing this my whole life. The first time this ever became a possibility for me was seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and that way of thinking about music and genre. I’ve put that into Masquerade, and it’s all born from that moment of ‘Oh my God, nothing has to be one thing. It’s just about how you look at it.'

“Cabaret” is from a pretty famous musical that I would’ve probably heard about later in life, but I first heard that song as a punk song and then I went back and heard the original. It doesn’t matter how these things happen, the inspiration happens and then you can go from there. But Me First and The Gimme Gimmes were a huge gateway drug and I play “Cabaret” now every year at my festival. That’s why the festival is called Elsie Fest, because it covers the song.”

youtube

“Modern Nature” by Sondre Lerche

“One of the great joys of being a younger brother is that you get to inherit the music of your elders. My brother and I were both really proactive consumers of music, so we would share stuff with each other all the time. But then he would come home from college, which is like coming home from a music festival essentially, right? He was in a new time zone with new people, so he’d bring home these mix CDs that he’d made from people that he’d heard about, and he brings home this guy named Sondre Lerche.

“Hearing this guy blew my mind, because he also was using jazz chords and drawing on musical theatre. Musical theatre’s a massive category, so I can’t just say that musical theatre sounds like one thing, but when I say this, I’m referring to The American Songbook, the jazz standard songbook. “Modern Nature” was a duet that I would go on to play many times with one of my oldest musical collaborators, Charlene Kaye. When we got to college and we both found out that we loved this guy.

“There was a much more whimsical way to how he wrote these songs. And what’s crazy is that loving this guy meant that we also loved Rufus Wainwright, that we also loved these other artists. But Sondre was the first time I considered that I loved that type of music, but I didn’t know that you could be a singer/songwriter and put out music that sounded like it.

“I don’t know if ‘twee’ is the right word to use, but with “Modern Nature” there was a playfulness about it, and again, a musicality that I really gravitated towards. There is a through line - there was a sophistication that was accessible, and me trying to learn those songs did make me rethink the way that I was writing music. The structures were weird and different and I liked that.

“To this day, I find myself writing songs that I think might be difficult for people to ingest, because they’re a little too left of centre, and I realise that I’m trying to write like Sondre Lerche, or I’m unconsciously just copying him.”

youtube

“Everything Happens to Me” by Mr Hudson & The Library

“I was in an H&M in Stockholm when I was 21, and I heard this really cool groove and the lyric was “Why must I always play the clown?” It was sung with a really thick British accent, had an 808 feel on it, and lyrically it had an attitude. Who would say something that sounds so like you’re in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, but it feels hard? It was cool.

“I went home and looked this up and it was off the record A Tale of Two Cities by Mr Hudson and the Library, which would really, really fuck me up. I bought the album immediately because I loved this song. I had to order it on the internet because I couldn’t find it. It was doing well in England and he was on the festival circuit in the early-mid 2000s, but the first song on the album was a musical theatre cover with 808s.

“It was a pared-down, sort of a hip-hop version of “On The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady, and I’m like ‘No fucking way, this guy gets where my head is.’ I’d thought about punk rock musical theatre, but I never thought about 808s and 909s scoring these beautiful songs. I go down the track list and he has “Everything Happens to Me”, which is another very famous standard, and he had this really cool, what we would now call chill-hop, ‘study beats’ version of this song. I was like, ‘This is it. This guy gets that good music is good music and you can reinterpret it to offer it as a new song.’

“I would later become great friends with Mr Hudson. I got to meet him years later when I was with Columbia Records, and they said to me ‘Who do you want to meet?’ He was at the top of my list. I went to London and we’ve been friends ever since and have created all kinds of music together.

“He told me a story where Tyler the Creator went up to him once at Coachella and said, ‘Oh man, “Everything Happens To Me”, that’s like my song.’ We both wondered if Tyler the Creator knew that it was a Chet Baker cover. And we were thinking how cool it is that you can offer these songs to a new audience through a different lens. Tyler’s a smart guy, he’s very cultured, and I’m sure he did know. But it’s more the idea that if someone experienced this song and didn’t know that it was a cover, and this is like the first time they ever get to experience it.

“Mr Hudson would go on to do his own thing with Kanye and was on 808s & Heartbreak and has had his own career. I think “Supernova” was a hit in the UK, it didn’t really cross over here to The States, but before that moment for him, that Mr Hudson and The Library album changed my life. People use that phrase willy-nilly, but this literally was a turning point in my life. It all had to do with the same thing that happened with these other songs, where I saw someone do what I always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to pull off. Where he had this fusing of old songs delivered through a contemporary lens, but also laced it with his own original material that also employed the things that made that old songwriting interesting.

“It’s like changing the font of a great essay but finding the font and figuring out that that font is its own art form. He really displayed that marvellously on this.”

The Masquerade EP is out now

#darren criss #the line of best fit #press #sept 2021

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hintofelation99 · 3 years ago

Note

Can you describe the batfam by the type of movies or series they like to watch? Also what are the other's reaction whenever they watch it together?

Hell yeah! Tbh I feel like movie nights would be some of the most frustrating nights in Wayne manor, just cause everyone is hella opinionated. Like they take turns letting each other choose movies but even then they fight for at least an hour over what was chosen. But here's what each member typically chooses when it's their turn. Also I briefly mention their reactions in here but I'll probs do a Batfam Movie Night dialogue, fic, series, thingy (??? Idk what to call those things) and I'll link it back to this ask when I do. Link.

Dick:

Genres— Musicals, Rom Coms, Spy Movies

Favorite Movies— Mamma Mia, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, The Greatest Showman, Notting Hill, Pretty Woman, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Kingsman

Basically Dick is guaranteed to pick a musical or a rom com. He loves things that are big and dramatic and beautiful, but also a bit cheesey and silly. Like him.

Everyone groans when Dick chooses the movie because they know it will be a bit cheesey or the stereotypical "Chick Flick". That being said usually what he picks is genuinely good (Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again are both masterpieces) and they leave everyone laughing or feeling happy.

Dick does also love classic foreign films (mostly European) because they remind him of movies his parents would sometimes take him to see, this wasn't super common but occasionally the Graysons would find a local theater showing classics.

He used to love the Kingsman movies but stopped liking them after everything that happened with Spyral.

Babs:

Genres— Sci-Fi, Comedy, Rom Coms

Favorite Movies— A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Martian, Star Wars, Star Trek, When Harry Met Sally

Babs is a complete nerd and loves all of the Star Wars and Star Trek movies. She'll occasionally watch Lord of the Rings with Tim but she definitely prefers the nerdy Sci-Fi movies.

She only started liking Rom Coms after dating Dick, he loves them so much that it was pretty difficult for her to not start liking them as well.

When watching one of her favs Babs will be mouthing along the entire time. She also has a lot of cool memorabilia from her favorite franchises.

Jason:

Genres— Classics, Dramas

Favorite Movies— Twelve Angry Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, To Kill a Mockingbird

Jason isn't too big on movies. And surprisingly he's not usually super opinionated about movies, he can be pretty opinionated on which movie the family will watch. This is less because he's trying to be combative and more because he's sick of watching his siblings favorite movies, he feels like hes seen them all a million times.

Typically Jason isn't a huge fan of movie adaptations or remakes. They don't bother him and he doesn't care when a new one's released but he's not going to watch it.

Sometimes Jason will accidentally fall asleep during family movie night, these are one of the few nights where he 'cuddles' and honestly it's less cuddling and more 'oops I feel asleep and ended up on someone's shoulder or lap. Whether or not he falls asleep depends on if he's fighting with Bruce or not. If he and Bruce are fighting Jason won't feel comfortable enough to fall asleep (he might even skip movie night), but if they're on good terms he might doze off.

Cass:

Genres— Fantasy, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror

Favorite Movies— The Big Sick, The Thing, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tangled

Cass mainly knows about movies from her movie nights with Tim, Babs, and Steph, so her tastes have developed based on theirs.

She and Tim frequently watch old B Horror movies together, every once in a while one will quietly sing "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" to the other and they immediately burst out laughing. This is most commonly done at galas.

Tim bought her a sweatshirt with a "horror movie periodic table" on it and she wears it almost constantly.

Tim:

Genres— Fantasy, Classic Horror

Favorite Movies— Lord of the Rings, The Exorcist, The Thing, Stardust

Tim absolutely adores fantasy movies, he's a huge nerd and definitely uses fantasy movies to help him plan his next DnD campaign.

While Tim adores fantasy movies he's more likely to watch movies from his second favorite genre— Classic Horror.

Him, Cass, Steph, and Babs love having movie nights together because they're all major nerds and tend to like a lot of the same movies.

Steph:

Genres— Comedy, Anything Cass recommends

Favorites— Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Big Sick, Palm Springs

Steph is much more outspoken than Tim, Babs, or Jason. This is part of the reason why she is one of the more polarizing siblings on movie night. If she doesn't want to watch something she will let you know.

She can making picking a movie difficult, but every other aspect of movie night is improved by Steph. She gets fun snacks, fuzzy blankets, cool sodas, and she even made them all shirts when they did a Lord of the Rings marathon.

When watching a movie Steph will quietly mimic lines or noises that she likes. She never notices but she does it during every movie. Like during Monty Python she'll whisper 'clip clop, clip clop' when they bang the coconuts together.

Duke:

Genres— Documentary, Mockumentary

Favorites— Darkest Knight: The Truth Behind Gotham's Hero, The Keene Act, America's Most Dangerous City: Gotham, What We Do in the Shadows

Duke loves watching documentaries on Batman just to see how off they are. No one argues when he suggests them for movie nights.

One time he, Jason, and Tim made a 'documentary' about Batman. It looks completely serious to anyone who doesn't know Batman's secret identity.

After making the Batman documentary he decided to make some more on random Gotham villians. He's made about six and all look completely serious to anyone who doesn't know the villian.

In his documentary titled "Riddle Me This" he said that the Riddler gained riddle themed powers after a tragic accident at a riddle book factory. Edward did not appreciate this.

Damian:

Genres— Action, Survival, Documentary

Favorites— John Wick, Riddle Me This, The Keene Act, Jungle, High School Musical

Damian is the absolute worst to watch action movies with, he spends the entire time ripping the movie apart and mocking anything that is even remotely unrealistic.

He and Duke will often talk about their favorite documentaries, he's even started helping Duke make documentaries. Right now they're working on one about the League of Assassins, Tim watched the first cut and almost pissed himself from laughing so hard.

Jon showed him High School Musical and Damian pretended to hate it but secretly he doesn't mind it. Obviously Jon knows this so he showed Damian the entire series, and now it's sort of become their thing.

Bruce:

Genres— Whatever the fuck his kids agree on

Favorites— Please for the love of god let his kids pick a movie

Bruce is tired and just wants to watch a goddamn movie

As always these are all headcannons and have little to no cannonical support. Also all of Dukes movies (except the last one) are documentaries I imagine would exist in the DC universe.

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 years ago

Text

The Best of 2020

Better late, than never. I enjoy seeing other people’s top-10 lists and I said I’d do one for 2020, so here we go. I haven’t had the chance to watch EVERYTHING I wanted to, but you’ve got to pull the trigger at some point. When the Academy Awards took place on Sunday, I felt like I hadn’t seen ANYTHING nominated but I could remember dozens of times where I felt like I wasted my precious minutes with cinematic detritus. I assumed putting this list together would be easy. It wasn’t. I’ve got a lot of runner ups but for now, here are my Top 10 “Best” (by which I kind of mean my favorite) movies of 2020:

10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always gave me a lot to think about. On the surface, it's about a teenager who has to travel outside of her hometown to get an abortion, but it could've been any kind of procedure she's uncomfortable (or unable) asking her parents for. It's about the lengths she has to go to when her main source of support is cut off. You feel uneasy throughout, wondering what lengths the girls will have to resort through and whether something horrible is just around the corner. For this reason, I think many parents would find the film enriching.

9. Mank

I haven’t posted my review of Mank yet - just haven't had the time so consider my star rating for it "spoiled". If you don't know, it's about Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and the time he wrote Citizen Kane for Orson Welles. I can’t call Citizen Kane one of my favorite films, but I do often think of it. The story, the characters, specific shots, the overall look, etc. Every time I revisit it in my memory, my appreciation for it grows and in a way, Mank helps complete my relationship with the film. For that reason, I foresee myself revisiting Mank in the future - probably as part of a double-bill. I’d love to see it enough times to memorize some of Gary Oldman’s best lines.

8. One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami addresses the present while being set in the past but something about it clicked with me more than Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. It's essentially a series of long conversations, the kinds that force you to really examine tough questions and see these legendary figures as normal people. Unlike Mank, it isn't so much the individual lines that stand out, it's more the vibes you get from the exchanges. Out of all the movies on this list, it's probably got the best ensemble cast.

7. Sound of Metal

I'm sure you've seen that clip from Un Chien Andalou where an eye gets sliced with a razor? It gives me the willies just thinking about it because if I were blind I wouldn't be able to watch movies or draw. In Sound of Metal, we're dealing with a career cut short because of deafness but the dots are easy to connect. I immediately connected with this movie, which made its ending feel like a punch in the gut.

6. Tenet

I keep telling myself that I won’t love a movie Christopher Nolan directs just because his name is attached to it. Hopefully, this doesn't make me a fanboy, despite my falling for pretty much everything he's released. I love how ambitious Tenet is. The plot is so complicated but then again it isn't because once you're able to grok the mechanics of its reverse-entropy technology, you'll probably figure out most of the plot's mysteries. For me, that was the fun part. It felt good to see my understanding of the story and theories confirmed. I'll be watching it again once groups can gather so my friends and I can discuss everything in detail.

5. Trial of the Chicago Seven

I know The Trial of the Chicago Seven fudges history in ways certain people would say is irredeemable but I never go into a film “based on true events” assuming liberties won’t be taken. At the end of the day, I care about being entertained. My enjoyment was also amplified by the fact that I didn't know what the verdicts would be - my American history is spotty, at best. It's got laughs, outrage, drama, and inspirational moments. Aside from romance, you've got pretty much all the bases covered.

4. Palm Springs

Out of all the pleasant surprises of 2020, Palm Springs was the biggest. I thought the Groundhog Day thing was played out and the 0-star-worthy Love Wedding Repeat did nothing to convince me otherwise. Then, this movie comes along and does everything you want in one of those movies, and then some. Not only did Palm Springs give me the romantic comedy I'd been craving for (feels like we haven't gotten a good one since "Crazy Rich Asians" it also examines what love and relationships mean through smartly written metaphors.

3. Possessor

No, I didn’t put this movie on the list just because it’s Canadian; Possessor is on this list because it’s the most unsettling movie of 2020. I mean that in a good way. I've already talked about how unsettling the premise is but it's also the execution. Those bizarre “dream” scenes with the different identities merging in unnatural ways is unforgettable. That mask of Tasya's face, half-melted is already creepy enough, when worn by Christopher Abbott as he re-enacts her memories is just so weird it makes you wonder if you’re actually seeing what you’re seeing, or if you’re going mad. Then, there's that shot with the fingers at the end! Makes me wince just thinking about it.

2. Soul

During the Oscars, I get a little mad at Pixar. They effortlessly churn out these masterpieces that mean no other studio has a chance of winning an Academy Award for the Best Animated Film category. It makes me wonder if the voters even bother to watch the competition but I don't think anyone could argue against Soul. It's among their best films. It’s gorgeous, profound, and modern without showcasing any issues that might flush your day down the toilet.

Runner-Ups:

Enola Holmes

I never believed Enola Holmes would end up on my "Best of the Year" list but this movie is a lot of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. Just wanted to remind you.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) I was disappointed when audiences didn’t seem interested in Birds of Prey. Seeing Margot Robbie go all-out and given a script that actually makes good use of her character was lots of fun. I also found it refreshing to see a superhero movie (not really, but kind of) that didn’t involve a plot to destroy the world, upheaval all of civilization, or shoot a giant beam into the sky. I think this is one people will discover down the line and go “why didn’t I go see this in theaters when it was playing?”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm I’m not 100% in love with Borat 2 but boy am I looking forward to showing it to people who have no idea what’s coming. That scene with Rudy Guliani might not have the same impact down the line as it did when I first saw this sequel, but that’s ok. It’ll still have you picking your jaw off the floor.

Nomadland It’s a great movie and I might’ve put it on my list of the best… but I just don’t see myself watching this one again anytime soon. Great movie though. It deserves every accolade you see directed towards it. Chloé Zhao is shaping up to be a major talent. While before I might’ve said “Eternals who?” Now, I’m excited.

The Vast of Night Until I saw Possessor, this was my favorite horror film of 2020. I love the way this movie does so much without showing anything. It’s all about letting your imagination do the work.

Hamilton I’m still unsure how I feel about the casting in Hamilton. Everyone does a terrific job. I understand why actors of color were chosen to portray the historical figures we meet during this story. It still doesn't sit 100% comfortable with me. Then again, who can argue with those results? I’ve seen the movie twice and the songs are still playing in my head.

1. Promising Young Woman

I only had so much before this post went up. Enough for one more movie. It was a tossup between The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Promising Young Woman. As you can imagine, I’m pretty satisfied with the choice I made. Writer/director Emerald Fennell takes the rape-revenge genre and reshapes it into something that feels completely new. Like many of the other films on this list, it also feels relevant to what’s going on today. There are many reasons why I could’ve given it this slot. The writing, the performances, the way it puts your stomach in knots as you wonder what’s going to happen next, the pitch-perfect ending… but I’m going to pick a more personal reason. I try to look at films as snapshots of when they were made. There’s a part of me that winces when I look at Gone with the Wind but I’m also able to take a step back and say “but other than that…” and then just enjoy the movie. In Promising Young Woman, the past is confronted in a way that made me pause and think about two movies on my shelf: Wedding Crashers and American Pie. The Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy, in particular, has a lot of questionable bits of comedy, bits made even more eyebrow-raising by the fact that it isn't an "old" movie whose entire cast is now dead. Let’s just say that when a movie makes me go “This movie is replacing X”, makes me think this hard about things, and does everything else you want in a thriller… it’ll stick in your head for a long time. That's why I'm calling it the best/my favorite movie of the year.

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finn-on-the-side · 3 years ago

Text

I binge watched a playthrough of RE7 last night, and took notes while I did so. Enjoy my stupid thoughts out of context.

Warning for spoilers of course.

I’m watching Jacksepticeyes playthrough for context.

Jesus, Ethan gets even more hand trauma??? My man gets a knife clean through it.

Motherfucker just axed his wife!!!!! No! I love her!

We get one phone call from another woman and our wife disappears 😔

Did the Beneviento manor take inspiration from this house? This feels like a gross rundown version of it

MORE HAND TRAUMA?????? a screwdriver through it this time. Ethan, honey, don’t you not even have mold powers yet? How the hell Does the first aid juice keep that hand functional?????

HIS HAND GETS CUT OFF IN THIS GAME TOO????

“Welcome to the family son” daddy? Jk jk

Weird dinner scene? Lukas sucks and I hate him. Jack is off his fucking rocker. The mother is also off her rocker but in a less violent way? Grandma is very specifically on her rocker right now

Daddy’s coming a calling. Ethan’s leg gets cut off????? And this motherfucker offers him some of the fucking first aid juice??? And it worked????????? In RE8 I accepted that because he is half mold. Isn’t he half mold cause of the end of this game???????

I know Damn well that if I wrote for this motherfucker, I could make Elliot simp for him. They’d never forgive me for it either.

I love you Zoe, are you going to betray me?

“You don’t know him, but get the feeling he’s an asshole” halshsoshoshsia lmao I fucking knew it

The whole garage scene is actually so fun. This man is fucking insane. Also? Caught on fire? Blew his own brains out?

Zoe my beloved, please don’t betray me.

This whole house really does make me think of the Beneviento manor.

Evaline? 👀

Mia my beloved, you deserve so much better than this.

Alshlsha Ethan fucking canonically refers to Jack as daddy at least once, I’m having a stroke

Horrible mold men, I hate them

Travis 🥺 he deserved better. He did his best to help Courtney

This motherfucker (jack) in ironically uses groovy while trying to kill someone

He is??? Theoretically dead?? If he can regenerate from just a pair of legs, that’s real fucking impressive

Ooh, Lucas has shown up. Does no one in the game know the word ‘dad’ or ‘father’ cause they keep just using daddy

Marguerite just telling you to fuck off and closing the door? Peak of comedy

I am trying to eat fruit! Stop showing me bugs !!!!!!

I’m able to accurately describe one of these characters as Moth Mommy. I hate this

Horrible awful big lady. This section has so much grossness and awfulness

Thank god she’s finally dead. She has a great horror design, and I hated it

Creepy little girl. Creepy creepy little girl

Come on Zoe, don’t betray me now. I got you the arm. Hopefully this makes more than just one serum.

Lucas you mother fucker. He sounds like such a creep.

So can granny teleport and move herself or is one of the family members moving her?

He’s a creep!!! I cannot wrote fluffy content for any of these characters. I’d only write for them if I were to write darker content.

Jack was a marine????

Clancy! Poor dude

I’m angry now because the whole Clancy segment was actually really good cause I love villains who are clever and deal in puzzles and riddles and shit, but Lucas is a fucking creep

This man is the fucking blueprint for heisenberg and I’m mad

I am so angry that this fucking creep is exactly my type for fictional villains

Jack is still kicking??????

🥺😭 Zoe doesn’t betray you, but you have to choose between her and Mia. The playthrough I’m watching chooses Mia, but I’ll find a clip of what happens if you choose zoe

POV switch to Mia my beloved. Wait if you’re playing as Mia, are you able to choose Zoe in the other segment? Would you play as her here?

Mia lore????? Bamf Mia my beloved

I think Evie needs a hug

Ghost? Jack comes to say hello? Zoe was also there so I assume that means she died after we left her

“He doesn’t love you” he literally fucking came out here to Louisiana and has been continually risking his life to save her??? After 3 fucking years??????

I have a hard timing blaming small children for shit like this, especially if they had a shitty childhood, so evaline deserves sympathy.

Chris?? You are not nearly as wide as you were in Re8

Clancy DLC?

This one is actually really fun, I like games like that. Also Clancy seems real handy! Shame he dies

This ones real cool too! The one with Marguerite. I really do like puzzle games. I think Clancy deserves better

Jack and Marguerite sharing a tender moment:

Clancy bleeding out beside them:

Watching the daughters dlc now. What I’m understanding is that Lucas fucking sucks, and Zoe deserves better.

Poor Clancy, the 21 dlc was super cool but poor dude. Lucas sucks and I hate him

#finn rambling #re7 reactions

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anncanta · 4 years ago

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The imagery of BBC ‘Dracula’: mythology, alchemy, literature. Part 5

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

Literature

The classic horror novel by Bram Stoker, which formed the basis of Dracula, has gone through many adaptations. The new BBC series is one of the closest to the text of this work.

To begin with, the entire first episode, with minor changes, almost literally repeats the description of the story of Jonathan Harker from his diary in the novel, and those details that look different in the film are changed so delicately and embedded in the narrative so gracefully that when watching it, you get a complete feeling of the exquisite classical setting.

But this feeling is deceiving. Like much of what Steven Moffat offers to his viewers, this story is a complex text, saturated with all sorts of meanings and literary references.

First of all, as I have already said, the film itself ‘lies’ on the material of the novel as a basic fabric. All its plot and psychological twists come from here, as much of the story, and – characters, which are recognizable even when their roles are changed. Further, as you move through the text, hidden ‘pockets’, motives, and whole plug-in plots are revealed in it.

The most obvious, of course, is the plot, parodying the novel by Agatha Christie Ten Little Niggers (And Then There Were None) about people gathered in a closed space from which it is impossible to get out, dying one after another.

What matters here is not so much what work is chosen for the parody as the way it is introduced into the text and creating a kind of crossover by the authors of the film. Absolutely in the spirit of fanfiction.

What if Count Dracula finds himself in a situation from Ten Little Niggers? How will he behave? What will the other people do? Will Count be revealed? And if he will, in what way this problem could be solved? In this sense, it seems to me that it is very important to pay attention to how the narrative structures from one genre (fanfiction) affect another (film) and how naturally these very structures invade today where it was difficult to imagine them thirty years ago (or they were forced then to ‘hide’ or disguise).

The teenage ‘vampire thrash’ that the story of Dracula and Lucy Westenra shows us is just as parody. Balancing on the verge of drama, comedy, erotic novel, this story consistently passes through all the stamps of films and books about bloodsuckers loved by young fans of the genre and turns them inside out.

Love watching a fragile and beautiful heroine meet a fatal man? Here the guy is for you, spectacularly appearing in red light in a nightclub. Do you like impudent girls who themselves throw into the arms of vampires and are not afraid of anything? Please, here's a date at the cemetery. Do you prefer romantic conversations and slow cuddling to a gentle neck? It's not difficult for us. And all this is lined with restrained, slightly melancholic, calm laughter of an adult, showing tricks to a child. With a final note that will show everything that is needed to the one who understands.

And finally, the most vivid, unexpected, and beautiful literary allusion, which gives the story an additional dimension and special meaning, is, of course, the finale. I didn't immediately notice the reference and realized exactly what it meant after the second or third viewing. Probably because it is too obvious.

Who first appears in your memory when you think of the great lovers in world literature? That's it. Only, unlike that one, this story does not seem sad.

But how elegantly done and played.

Romeo and Juliet were representatives of warring families, in fact, enemies that could not be together under any circumstances.

Who could be more antagonists than a vampire and a nun?

Romeo and Juliet fell in love with each other in spite of everything and against the will of their relatives, they strove for each other.

The entire episode on the ship is about how mutual attraction, interest, and love arise despite the circumstances, the wishes of the characters, and the frankly cruel behavior of one of them. And in response to Dracula's words that the kiss of a vampire is an opiate, the quote requested by, ‘You kiss by the book.’*

For violating the order of the Duke, Romeo was expelled but returned after learning that Juliet had died. Finding himself in the crypt in front of her (as he thought) dead body, he was poisoned.

One of the main plot conflicts and drivers of the third episode – is there Agatha here or not? Is she alive or dead? And if there is not Agatha, can she be returned?

And when Juliet, according to the plan of the priest, who undertook to help the lovers, woke up and saw the lifeless Romeo next to her, she stabbed herself with Romeo's dagger.

In the final episode, Dracula dies from the poison in Zoe's blood and Agatha – from the bite of his fangs.

Not enough for you?

Romeo and Juliet, Act II Scene II

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Conclusion

All the mythological, alchemical, and literary images we have considered here, in one way or another, ultimately work for the story. Not only to make it sound brighter and more original in a new performance but also to understand it. Because there is no Dracula without Shakespeare's heroes, without Agatha Christie's half-fabulous, hermetic detectives, without tension between the ‘vampire’ canon of the nineteenth century and the same canon one hundred and fifty years later, changed almost beyond recognition and made a new round in the story of Edward Cullen. And the better you understand them, the more voluminous and profound the story being told becomes.

So much the better you can see how far art has gone and how it today reflects what it feared yesterday and what it only briefly mentioned.

You see, after all, in Stoker's novel, Dracula is not so much a man or even a monster, but a certain mysterious incomprehensible element, chaos embodied, the personification of natural force, which is opposed by human reason and courage. It is no coincidence that the novel is constructed as a collection of written evidence – documents, newspaper clippings, letters, and diaries. The ‘screen’ of words, created by the author, allows the reader to distance himself from what is happening to the extent that he can perceive it calmly, without being captured by the emotions that are caused by the incomprehensible and supernatural. This is a very wise decision on Stoker's part, especially in the nineteenth century, when such stories were new to people and served in part as a way to ‘tame’ and make familiar their own fears.

Therefore, this novel probably gave rise to a whole genre. From this seed, almost all Western European horror literature grew. And the way the new Dracula is shown in the BBC film shows how long it has come.

From overwhelming panic horror through reckless falling in love (which psychologically can be considered an inverted fear – something like Stockholm syndrome) to the search for humanity. And love.

Because the stories of monsters and vampires are always about us. About how we look at the world and at ourselves. What we love in ourselves and what we hate. What are we ready to run headlong for, and what we turn away from. And what makes us who we are.

And if Sherlock Holmes helps us to understand how high we are ready to fly, then Dracula – how much courage we have to see who lives in the depths.

* W. Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, Act I Scene V.

#dracula 2020 #bbc dracula #dragatha #agatha van helsing #count dracula #psychology #literature #meta

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bloopbyoop · 4 years ago

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weep woop

ayo. ive read my scheduled email and its time for freewriting shit again. lmao. I want this post to be like a small light from a lit match stick inside a very hollow, icy, and numbing cave. (sounds cartoonish right? I know. Im obsessed with Adventure Time.) I want all people to be genuinely happy. Spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Upon reaching my 24th anniversary in this world, I finally learned how to truly embrace all my emotions. Some are more overwhelming than the other, but we have to heed in our treacherous yet perplexing minds that everything is fleeting and we are in control. The feeling of extreme sadness fades, but so does joyful states. Everything can change in a matter of minutes or years. You are in control of all your emotions. You are in control of all your life choices. Your actions. Your words. Your perspective. It feels weird to actually write about it. I've wanted to talk about it. I never wanted help from anyone as I firmly believed that I was alone. Sure, I have a family and friends, but it is hard to see that when your head is clouded with negativity. I've even come to the point where I was too overwhelmed, I found being physically hurt less painful. The pain I felt distracted me from what I was thinking. My mind tended to go bonkers. lmao. But bro, I was so good at concealing my bonkers mind. It's easy to fake any emotion that you have. Slap anything sunshine-y or happy to anything and people would believe you. It went on for years. Long story short, thousands of bracelets collected, it became worse. The physical pain could no longer withhold the emotional pain. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't stop thinking. And voila! I found a good amount of self help books (from tumblr) and novels. Novels that brought me to different places. Self-help books that made me understand what I feel and what to do. I've read that taking the easy way out will leave everyone sad. AND IN THE FIRST PLACEEEEEE, I NEVER WANT THATTTTTTT. I want everyone to be happy. I would act foolish and do dumb shit to make everyone happy in a heartbeat. So, that idea made me push a few more years. Later on, the crippling shit came crawling back again to my head, sooooooo I needed new shit to keep me distracted again. Films, series, music, and short clips from YouTube helped me out a lot. Every single time that my mind is going to think like anything that can think of, even to the point that I was just going to think that I might be hungry, I'd watch something. There's just something about silence for me. Because of this new habit of mine, I've learned more about myself. I love different types of things. I like horror. I like thriller. I like comedy. I like romance. I love all types of films, but there is something about the horror genre that interests me. I still can't point out what, but I love watching horror films. With regards to music, I've learned that I love Indie, Punk Rock, Rap, and Pop. We all can't like a specific genre. It's stupid to ask "what genre of music do you like?". It's not actually stupid-stupid, it's just stupid. Ya know? Anyway, passing this phase, I needed to find something again because it's not doing the shit that it was supposed to, I tried investing more time on video games. By investing more, I mean a whole shit lot. I love video games since I was young cuz.... u know.... they keep u... try to guess it! oh yeah. you got that right! distracted! I love the aggressive plays and trashtalks that my friends and I make. The short stories we tell one another. The rants. The lame jokes. The late night we sound drunk but we are not drunk jokes. The roleplays. The lame jokes. The memes. And once again, The lame jokes. Something about lame jokes and the laughs and curses after that always gets me every single time. Oh shoot. Yup Yup. Few years later, I finally noticed the pattern that my sadness is temporary. I got over it one way or the other (or another. depends on how you wanna read it. i dont wanna say another cause i might write about one direction like what im doing now so-). Happiness is temporary as well. But, we are the ones who are actually in control of our emotions. If you wanna feel sad, be sad for a while. You're getting too sad? Try hanging out with your funny friends. Can't do that? Find an alternative. Watch a movie, knit a sweater. Anything your mind could think of as long as it will keep you mentally distracted from being physically and mentally hurt. I do have a few notes though. We cannot and should never assume what people are going through. It may be petty for you, but it may be very crucial to them. So never everrrr say things like: -Some people have it worse than you -At least you have ..... These sheetsss are annoying as heckkk and could really down someone. I know it is not your intention to annoy but people react differently. alsooooooo, it is not okay or normal to hate on things for bandwagon. that is just plainly crazy and stupid. let people enjoy things. anddddddd never suppress your emotions. admit what you feel inside and try to think of a way to resolve ittttt. keeping it to yourself will just make it worseeeeee. find your own outlettttttttt. hihihi ️ alsooooo. being more spiritually full with God's words and ideas really help me to be spiritually happy. ps. im christian but i dont discredit other religion and even applaud other religion's ideas and beliefs. this is a really long, selfish post so i might as well recommend some things I like : Songs with their lyrics that made me go through life. “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier” -All These Things That I've Done, The Killers “It's not too late, I'm still right here” -Breaking Your Own Heart, Kelly Clarkson "And the salt in my wounds / Isn't burning any more than it used to / It's not that I don't feel the pain / It's just I'm not afraid of hurting anymore / And the blood in these veins / Isn't pumping any less than it ever has / And that's the hope I have / The only thing I know that's keeping me alive" -Last Hope, Paramore “There is not a single word in the whole world / That could describe the hurt / The dullest knife just sawing back and forth / And ripping through the softest skin there ever was / How were you to know?” -Hate to See Your Heartbreak, Paramore "It's holding on, though the road's long / And seeing light in the darkest things And when you stare at your reflection / Finally knowing who it is / I know that you'll thank God you did" -1800, Logic "Did some things you can't speak of / But at night you live it all again / You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now / If only you had seen what you know now then" -Innocent, Taylor Swift (My bb) "10 months sober, I must admit / Just because you're clean don't mean you don't miss it / 10 months older, I won't give in / Now that I'm clean I'm never gonna risk it // Rain came pouring down when I was drowning / That's when I could finally breathe / And by morning gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean" -Clean, Taylor Swift “I guess I always knew / That I had all the strength to make it through.” -Believe in Me, Demi Lovato "I'm addicted to the madness / I'm a daughter of the sadness / I've been here too many times before / Been abandoned and I'm scared now / I can't handle another fallout / I am fragile, just washed upon the shore / They forget me, don't see me / When they love me, they leave me" -I Hate You, Don’t Leave Me, Demi Lovato “I'm overwhelmed / I need a voice to echo / I need a light to take me home / I need a star to follow / I don't know” -Nightingale, Demi Lovato "I'm a walking travesty / But I'm smiling at everything. // Arrogant boy, Love yourself so no one has to." -Therapy, All Time Low "I tried it once before but I didn't get too far / I felt a lot of pain but it didn't stop my heart. / But maybe I'm alive 'cause I didn't really wanna die / But nothing very special ever happens in my life / Take the blade away from me I am a freak, I am afraid that / All the blood escaping me won't end the pain / And I'll be haunting all the lives that cared for me / I died to be the white ghost / Of the man that I was meant to be" -Ghost, Badflower "Are the pieces of you / In the pieces of me? / I'm just so scared / You're who I'll be / When I erupt / Just like you do / They look at me / Like I look at you" -DNA, Lia Marie Johnson Movies and series to try : -The Perks of Being a Wallflower (The book is bomb af. if yall havent tried, ur missing out) -The Kings of Summer -Never Let Me Go -The Art of Getting By -Silver Linings Playbook -Winter’s Bone -The Lovely Bones (The script. The words) -Me and Earl and the Dying Girl -American Horror Story -Black Swan

pps. remember that every one has their own pace and point of view. don’t push yourself too hard, and don’t overthink. give yourself time, and respect all your emotions. analyze them but not more than like 5 minutes as anything beyond that might cause you to overthink and be sadder. and sad is not rad. hehe. you got this. you got you. self love is the best even though it can be tricky to do. nobody else is like you. you’re the only one of you (i just remembered me.......... i might have hummed it while typing it mid sentence). consider other people’s opinion but do not let it cloud your own judgement as you know yourself best. dont let other comment’s define you. spread love. vibe people you vibe with. ayeeee lets go!!!

ppps this is my last post bc im happier now and know myself better. i no longer limit myself on the age that I want. I want to live as long as how God wants me to be. hehe.

x :D

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yankyo · 5 years ago

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Promised Fic

That fic I still don't have a real name for where you peg Beej yay

Warnings : mention of pet play, denial, beej begging, soft domming fun with the bby

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You loved Halloween movies, every year the tradition was to gather up bags upon bags of candy, make a happy little fort in your living room and just binge the classics until there was just nothing more to watch - and every year more and more spooky movies joined that list. This year, however, instead of adding another movie, you added a companion. Curled up in your lap, happily purring as you ran your fingers through his hair was your beloved demon: Beetlejuice. The past new nights, he had talked through the grisly slashers, giggled through the psychological horrors, and had gorged himself on all of your candy - not a surprise, Beetlejuice simply adored being a little shit and irritating you. What was surprising was the movies he shut up to watch: The Addams Family. Of course, you weren't complaining, they were great, feel good comedies, but not even a giggle was a little strange. You found yourself watching him more than the movie, watching the way he stared at Morticia everytime she was onscreen - honestly, you agreed. Morticia was a babe, and the actress did a phenomenal job, in fact she was part of your bi awakening as a kid - along with Debbie, of course. But every so often, Beej would glance over at you with this thoughtful expression that told you he was mulling something over - which could be anything ranging from, goth gf, or tiddy noice or isn't it interesting how the Addams are treated like they're dumb but they really know that people are trying to take advantage of them and are more amused than anything by the attempt. Beetlejuice was an enigma that way.

But as long as he wasn't saying anything, you weren't pressing, he would speak up in due time. So you simply focused on stroking his hair, there was one spot if you scratched just right, he would go completely limp and purr all the louder - he refused to admit that he purred, something about 'I'm a demon, not a house cat, babes!' but he also wasn't about to admit how he nuzzled into your lap and sent you that expectant look whenever you didn't immediately begin petting him either. As much as anyone could see just how needy your little bug was, his pride was verbal but he still flopped in your lap without even the moments hesitation for more cuddles. Looking down at the happy demon, you couldn't help but lean in and kiss his cheek if just to see his cheeks flush green with happiness. Too cute.

"That's the look of a woman who's gonna be breaking out the strap later." He spoke up, lifting his head slightly to send you a grin as he pointed to the screen. With a soft smile of your own, you tilted your head in mock confusion.

"There's a specific look?" You asked, only for him to practically shoot up with an overenthusiastic

"Yes!!" He fumbled for the remote to pause the movie at just the right moment. "See? The little smirk, the way she looks at him as if to say 'imma fuck your brains out', the way he looks back at her like a dude who just had his brains liquidated out of his skull. That's a dude getting his bussy fucked up." You snorted at the explanation, but he was still going. "You give me the same look before you dom." The blush was back and stronger than ever, the slight pink in his hair telling you just how excited he was really getting.

"So, basically, she reminds you of me?" Flattering, really, and the way Beetlejuice peeked over at you with that look of neediness had you shuffling forwards to take his cheeks in hand. "Is that why you've been quiet all movie? How long have you been thinking about that?" He squirmed in place, refusing to meet your eyes for the moment.

"Since when she was clipping roses." You laughed,

"So since the beginning? Oh, Bj, you know... you shouldn't be torturing yourself like this." You pressed him down into the couch with a hand as you straddled him, "that's my job." Your voice had dropped into a husky purr, a poor imitation of Morticia, but Beetlejuice whimpered all the same.

When Beetlejuice subbed, he was either extremely bratty, or, like today, he was like limp and willing under your touch - eager to please. Either was cute, but his obedience was absolutely endearing. Especially when he was trying to hold back from bucking up into you as you slowly ground your hips into his. Cupping his cheeks, you kissed him until you both were breathless before you pulled back just enough to whisper a single word, 'bedroom'. Before you could even blink, the room snapped away and the two of you fell onto your bed - and your comfortable sweatpants and tank top had been swapped out for a form fitting black bodysuit, the pattern not unlike a spider's web. "Bug? What's this?" You sat back with your hands on your hips - the words almost scolding if not for the amused twist to your lips.

"It looks good on ya, doesn't it?" Not completely obedient then. You sat back on the bed, giving him a look that made him fidget in place before you stood to make your way to the toy box at the far end of the room. "B-babes?" The nervousness in his tone making you automatically give him a reassuring look - bad dom bitch persona aside, you didn't want to make him too anxious. At least, not in a bad way. Once he had relaxed again, his tense expression smoothing out, you snapped your fingers and pointed to the floor.

"Where do bad boys belong?" You asked, your voice stern, he almost fell flat on his face in his eagerness to kneel next to your bed - if you gave permission you knew he would already be at your leg - but you didn't want your puppy just yet. "Now stay." He went ramrod straight and still - if not for the fact that his tongue had lolled out of his mouth as you bent over to rummage through the toy box. You were fairly certain there was new things added, but that wasn't all that strange, you didn't know where he was getting them, but Beetlejuice was constantly bringing home various sex toys that either interested him or just made him giggle. He had used to just show up with them and toss them your way, but after accidentally beaning Delia in the head with a dildo that looked like it belonged to freaking Sauron, you had told him he was to keep such things in the bedroom - and then made him fuck himself on said dildo until he came all over himself. Good times. Of course, Beej loved the bigger toys, the ones that were textured and thick and filling, and being quite the size queen yourself you were more willing to oblige. And watching him come undone on such a dildo was always so entertaining, but not the way his eyes just lit up whenever he saw you pull out the harness was just so much more fun.

"Which one do you think I should use?" You asked, pulling out two different straps - one was small, thin, pink in color and the other was green with black stripes, long, thick and was textured. You didn't really need to ask, you knew which he would pick and weren't all that shocked when he shyly spoke up,

"The green one."

"What's the magic word, baby?"

"Please?" Oh that word was just so pretty on his lips, but you remained silent. It took but a few seconds for Beetlejuice to realize his mistake and hastily correct himself, "please, miss." Better.

"I don't know," you sighed, giving a slight shake of your head, "you've been pretty bad lately, talking during my movies, eating all my snacks and not even cleaning up after yourself. Do you really deserve this?" You asked just to hear that whiny little sound he made whenever you denied him what he wanted.

"I'll be good, miss! I swear! I'll clean up and everything." He was crawling forwards tentatively until he was at your feet. "Please, I want..." he looked wrecked without you even having to lift a finger, his cheeks flushed, his pants strained, his breath coming out sharp and fast. When you reached down to pet his hair he let out a shaky moan and pressed into the contact.

"I think you can ask better than that, Bug, what do you want?" He hesitated and your gentle touch turned hard, your soft fingers digging into his hair to yank his head back and force him to look up at you. "Come on, baby, tell me what you want." Despite the rough touch, your voice was soft, barely more than a whisper, yet he hung ok each word.

"I want you to fuck me, Miss." He practically moaned the words, you had no doubt he would cum untouched if you were to pull his hair any harder. "Wreck me, use me, I'm yours." You leaned in and kissed him softly.

"Then why are you still dressed, baby?" The urgency in which Beetlejuice ripped off his clothing was amusing, to say the least. He was more than capable of just snapping his fingers and rid himself of his clothing, but he was so focused on you that the idea probably didn't even cross his mind. Within moments, his already tattered clothing lay in shreds and your eager demon sat squirming before you. "Good boy," you praised, kneeling to give him the attention he deserved, as well as to show him the cock ring you had pulled from the chest. The sight made him shudder and gulp, but he leaned back and set his hands at his sides all the same. He always came far too quickly when you fucked him, so the cock ring was something of a necessity if you really wanted to have some fun with him. And there was no better sight than when he had been denied one too many times and was begging you in tears to please please just let him cum.

He let out a shaky sigh as you stroked his cock, once, twice, one more time just to see the precum beading at the head. His eyes trained on you as you slowly slid the ring over his cock to press it firmly down to its base - he hissed at the pressure, his thighs already shaking. One more reach into the chest and you pulled out a long silk rope, soft gray in color. Automatically, he held his wrists up for you to tie, letting out an excited exhale as you pulled the rope tight against his skin and used it to lead him back towards the bed. As your thighs hit mattress, you took a seat, your demon crawling between your legs to lay his head reverently on your thigh. For a moment, you regarded him quietly, as if trying to figure out just exactly what you wanted to do with him before you raised your leg and placed it on his shoulder. You knew he didn't have to be close to you to smell your arousal, but he took in a deep breath all the same, his pupils narrowing into slits at the smell of you. It didn't take long for him to start to squirm, drool already dripping from his chin as he tried just so hard to hold himself back. Control had always been something of a problem for him, but he had come quite a long way from where he was. Now, even as he twitched and gave you those longing puppy dog eyes, he waited until you gave a slight nod of your head to lunge forwards and nuzzle against your clothed core. His teeth grazed your inner thigh gently, soft nips quickly followed by his tongue as he tried nosing aside the fabric blocking him from you. After a moment, you took pity on him and peeled away the tight fabric yourself and no sooner was your pussy revealed to him did he rush forwards to taste you.

Beetlejuice always said that eating you out was his favorite pastime, and really, actions spoke louder than words with just how much enthusiasm he put into the task. At first, the wet sounds of him slurping up every single trace of your arousal his tongue could reach had been embarrassing - but after so many months of dating and the many, many, times he had his head between your legs, the embarrassment was long gone and your immediate reaction was to lace a hand in his hair and rock up into his eager mouth. His tongue slithered it's way inside of you, full and quickly swelling up as his teeth ever so gently scraped your clit, your thighs trembling as his tongue wriggled against your g-spot insistently. Sometimes, Beetlejuice was something of a tease, pushing you closer and closer before pulling away mere milliseconds before you could actually cum. This, unfortunately, was one of those times as the smug little bastard yanked back to grin at you, his face all slick with your arousal. Unamused, you scowled back at him, making trembling limbs pick yourself back up to stalk over to the forgotten harness.

"Up on the bed." Of course he followed that order without playing around, crawling up onto his hands and knees, raising his cute little butt up in the air for you. You took your sweet time in stepping into the harness and attaching the strap, pausing for a moment to pick up a bottle of lubes before you meandered your way back over to the bed and your waiting boyfriend. You ran a hand up his back, pressing forwards to maneuver him into just the right position for you before you noticed something. "Babycakes, when did you put this in?" You pressed on the plug currently stretching your boyfriend out and he mumbled into the pillow. You didn't even have to look up at him to know that he was blushing - or to know that it had probably been there since the moment he started thinking of you taking charge for the night. Impatient as he was, he never did want to waste much time in prepping when you could be plowing him instead. Which was ironic seeing as he would, could, and has spent hours eating you out and fingering you. But, of course, after being denied yourself, you weren't about to just give him what he wanted! Oh no! There was a lesson to be learned here!

His whine echoed through the room as you slowly tugged on the plug before pressing back into him, his cock bouncing as you fucked him with the plug.

"Babe, please!" He cried out, even as he automatically pressed back as you nudged the plug forwards. Of course, you knew it just wasn't enough.

"I have to make sure you're ready, sweetie! I don't want to risk hurting you, right?" Pain really never was a worry with Beetlejuice, sure, certain things could hurt him, but he always healed far too quickly for it to even matter. But proper etiquette called for prep and who were you to ignore etiquette. In, out, in, out, in, in, swift pull out, Beetlejuice's whimpers and pleas fell on deaf ears you played with him, the sounds growing sharper as you reached underneath him to slowly stroke his cock. It didn't take long for him to be absolutely shaking, his cries getting desperate as you just barely missed his prostate with each push inwards. "Oh baby, what's wrong?" You asked, your voice soft and sweet. "Is it not enough? I mean, you chose it! Surely you must like this plug, right?"

"No! Want you! Please!" He was almost sobbing now as he pushed back in vain. You took pity on him this time and actually pulled the plug out of him this time to set aside.

"Its ok baby, I've got you." You crooned as you rubbed his tense back. "I won't tease you anymore." With one hand you grabbed onto his hip while with the other you grabbed the base of the strap-on and once you had applied an adequate amount of lube, you began pressing into him. His babbled words of thanks were sharp and high pitched, your hand on his hip possibly the only thing stopping him from just shoving back to sheathe the whole thing. Soon enough, your hips lay flush to his, your body curved over his so you could take the end of the rope to tie his hand to the headboard. "How we feeling babe? Green?" You asked, leaning down to press a tender kiss to his back.

"Beyond green, fluorescent green, neon, fuck me already, -" before he could say more, you pulled out slowly before swiftly slamming back into him, making him choke on whatever words he still had left. After that, there was simply no mercy given, you kept a hand on his hip while reaching up to lace a hand in his hair to yank his head back so you could sink your teeth into his neck. There were days you felt bad for your neighbors, after all, Beej and you weren't the quietest of lovers and they surely heard everything - this was not one of those days. No, you were way too invested in the indulgent, appreciative moans you were pulling from your boyfriend as you fucked him.

"Look at you, drooling already." You purred, pressing your fingers into his open mouth, "so wrecked already and I've barely even started." You breezed your wet fingers down his chest til you just barely brushed the tips of your fingers along the length of his cock. The headboard creaked as Beetlejuice pulled on the ropes, already begging for you to touch him more, please, please, please, touch him! And really, how could you deny him? Wrapping your hand around his dick, you jacked him off in time with your slamming hips and his cries only grew louder.

"I wanna cum! Please, fuck, let me cum!" You toyed with the cock ring, twisting it this way and that before you let out a soft tsk and kissed his cheek.

"Not yet baby, patience." Not like this, at least! You pulled back, ignoring his sharp whines as you pulled out to guide him onto his back for you. "Relax, baby," with him laying down, his cheeks flushed, his eyes wet with unshed tears, his hands bound above his head - you just needed to take a picture! So, you hopped up off of the bed to swipe up your phone and took a few quick shots of your boyfriend. There was just one thing missing in this shot... and the whimpers your boyfriend was letting out while sending you abandoned puppy eyes did tug at the heartstrings. Alright, you had teased him long enough - not really, but you couldn't help but be weak to him.

As you settled on the bed, he pulled you in closer with his legs, and you just had to lean in and kiss your squirmy demon before you took your strap in hand once more to guide it back into him. This time, you didn't tease, you didn't hold back, with sharp strokes as deep into him as you could manage, you pulled the cock ring off of him and began stroking his cock. The cry he let out echoed throughout the apartment, his back arching up so high you would've wondered if he was going to pull something if he weren't already - you know, dead. As worked up as he had been all night, the stimulation proved too much for him to last and soon enough he was moaning garbled praise and pleas once more. "Its ok, Bug, you can cum."

"Thank you! Fuck! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" His moans grew higher and higher until he cut off with a choked gasp and came. Hard. The slightly fluorescent cum reached up to his chin and yet cum still dribbled past your fingers and onto his stomach as you worked him through the orgasm, praising him all the while. Now, you took another picture of him, cum splattered on his chest, his eyes dazed, his expression damn near ascended. Perfect. While he was still coming down, you untied his hands and stroked his hair,

"How we feeling, Bug?"

"Like you fucked the life back into me." You both giggled softly as he reached up to kiss you. "Give me five minutes and I'll return the favor..." he grinned, his thumb stroking softly across your cheek. "Cara mia." You snorted softly, but placed your hand on top of his and sent him a warm smile in return.

"Don't be gentle, mon cher."

#beetlejuice smut #beetlegeuse #beetlejuice #beetlejuice x reader

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nclkafilms · 5 years ago

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The absurdity of fanaticism

(Review of ‘Jojo Rabbit’. Seen in Biffen Art Cinema, Aalborg on the 23rd of January 2020)

“Let everything happen to you, Beauty and terror, Just keep going, No feeling is final.” (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Taika Waititi received his commercial breakthrough with ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, which followed indie hits such as ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’. He is one of those directors with a very clear style and vision, and he continues with a unique style in his latest film: nazi satire and self-proclaimed anti-hate-film, ‘Jojo Rabbit’. As if the notion of making a comedy/satire about Nazi Germany was not controversial enough, it certainly raised some eyebrows when he cast himself, half maori and half jew, to star as Adolf Hitler. And ever since it premiered, ‘Jojo Rabbit’ has divided audiences and critics alike into more or less three groups: those, who are deeply offended by its lack of political correctness and comedic take on one of history’s most tragic events, those, who think it is not dangerous enough or does not expose the horrors of the holocaust enough, and, finally, those who has been charmed, entertained, provoked and moved by a perfectly balanced mix of slapstick humour and gut punching drama. I, myself, sit firmly in the third group - ‘Jojo Rabbit’ is a wonderful piece of filmmaking.

We follow 10-year-old Johannes Betzler, better known as Jojo, as he prepares for a weekend camp with the Hitler Jugend. We watch him as he proudly dresses up in his uniform before heiling his imaginary friend, Waititi’s Hitler, as if he was a sportsman preparing for a game before he ultimately shoots through town heiling at everyone to the tunes of the german version of The Beatles’ “I wanna hold your hand”, while we alternately see Jojo and b/w clips of Hitler being celebrated as a superstar complete with cheering girls and everything. A bizarre and weirdly entertaining opening scene that perfectly sets the tone of the film’s dark humour; nothing is sacred here. The story that follows is Jojo’s coming-of-age-story. A process that typically lasts years, but in the midst of a world war nothing is “typical”. Waititi manages to beautifully balance the naivety and blind-eyed fanaticism of young Jojo with the horrors and brutal reality of war as things start to spiral out of control for our main character from the moment he discovers a jewish girl hidden in the walls of his home. Where is her horns? Is she going to eat him? Why is his mum helping her? and what does it mean to love someone? Jojo is forced to discover the many feelings of life and following him on his journey is as hilarious and endearing as it is thought-provoking and tragic.

This is more than anything thanks to just 12-year-old debutant, Roman Griffin Davis, who is nothing short of a revelation as Jojo. The range that he shows in his portrayal of Jojo is simply spectacular. He truly has funny bones with both physical comedy and a great timing, but it is when the story gradually shifts from Wes Anderson-ish, bizarre, slapstick nazi satire to a much heavier and emotional war story that Griffin Davis really pulls the rug from under you. In the process of the film you both laugh at and with Jojo, you are shocked by him, you feel his excitement and loss, and most importantly you really care for him. This is, of course, down to Waititi’s screenplay and directing, but it would never have worked without Griffin Davis’ wonderful performance that really bodes well for his future.

In addition to him, the other actors also turn in some memorable performances. Scarlett Johansson is perfectly endearing as Jojo’s mother, Rosie, who has to raise him on her own, while hiding a jewish girl in the attic and manoeuvring through the hardships of war with a heavy heart from losing her daughter. The chemistry between Johansson and Griffin Davis is stunning and feels so natural that their mother-son-bond becomes one of the most heartwarming aspects of the film. Johansson shines just as much as Rosie shines as the film’s clearest ray of humanism and empathy. As Elsa, the hidden jewish girl, Thomasin McKenzie is fierce and strong with the inevitable vulnerability of an oppressed person hiding to save her own life. As such she represents all the jews who suffered from Holocaust while staying brave to save their own and loved ones’ lives. Just as with Rosie and Jojo, the chemistry between Elsa and Jojo is electric and it is an absolute delight to see how their relationship develops and becomes deeper and deeper the more they both get to see each other for what they see rather than what they have learned. As such they become the clearest symbol of the film’s obvious anti-hate, anti-prejudice moral.

In the other spectrum, Sam Rockwell, Alfie Allen and Rebel Wilson are all hilarious as absurd caricatures of Nazi officers blinded by their fanaticism and extremism. This is, of course, one of the film’s very divisive decisions; because the actions that they perform whether it be teaching children to shoot and use grenades or burning books and teaching lies about jews are obviously despicable - especially in the light of what happened during holocaust. So to turn this into something funny (and boy, is it hilarious) is a brave decision, but also a clever one. The things they do are so absurd that to simply show them as dreadful and horrible is sometimes too easy; showing the absurdity and making people laugh at it can be quite disarming and, frankly, relieving at times. Another example of this is Stephen Merchant’s unforgettable, yet short, cameo as Gestapo agent, Deertz, who is hilarious at first. You laugh at him only to find yourself on the edge of your seat seconds later as the tone shifts and the scene becomes immensely nerve-racking. Now Deertz’ absurd behaviour is intense and in no way funny. Waititi disarms you by exposing you to the hilarious absurdity of this character only to catch you off guard shortly after and hit you with reality. He does this in another simply devastating scene that stands as one of the single biggest gut punches that I have had in the cinema for a while; leaving me with my mouth wide open and a tear running from my eye. To round off the acting performances, Waititi’s own portrayal of Hitler never really becomes anything other than a funny sidenote that adds some interesting comments to the extremist thoughts roaming around Jojo’s head. It’s funny and at times delightfully dark in its humour, but it - thankfully - never draws focus away from the other, much more interesting characters.

But let’s get back to this balance between the laughs and tears, because this is what lifts ‘Jojo Rabbit’ up as a stunning film experience. It works as a comedy/satire and it works as hard-hitting, thought-provoking drama. This is an insanely difficult balance to truly hit and only a few films manages it. ‘Jojo’ succeeds in being a hilarious comedy thanks, partly, to its well-written and delightfully politically incorrect screenplay by Waititi with so many great and memorable one-liners. But it is also because of its tight editing by Tom Eagles and brilliant score by Michael Giacchino, who supports the shifting nature of Jojo’s perspective through both joyful and more sorrowful compositions. As a drama it works - of course also thanks to the screenplay - because of a brilliant production design by Ra Vincent that often stands in great contrast to the absurd action unfolding in it. Finally, the costumes by Mayes C. Rubeo are simply delightful whether they are historically accurate or hilariously comedic as when Jojo roams the street as a robot gathering “metal for Hitler” or Rockwell and Allen take their final bow as some kind of absurd superhero devoid of all the human faults that they otherwise infuse their characters with.

And now let us return to the quote from the beginning of this review.

“Let everything happen to you, Beauty and terror, Just keep going, No feeling is final.”

This is not only a beautiful quote that gives us an important lesson on why not to give into hate and despair, it is also a quote that is mirrored in the film’s three main characters. Elsa remains hopeful and decent even when the entire world seems to hate her and want her dead. Rosie gives her son the love a mother should give despite him representing everything she fights against. And, finally, the film tells the story of how Jojo learns this lesson; to not be tempted by hate and the “easy exit” of jumping on the bandwagon, but to stay curious, to acknowledge love and to let it in. As such ‘Jojo Rabbit’ does not become “oh, that film that made fun of Hitler”. No, it becomes a film about the importance of experiencing and exploring the world around us. The importance of being curious and engaging with people despite our differences. Simply put: the importance of never forgetting love. It might not be in the absolute top of 2019 objectively, but personally, Jojo and Elsa danced their ways into my heart and my top 3 for 2019.

4,5/5

#Oscars 2020 #Academy Awards #Film Review #Movie Review #Jojo Rabbit #Taika Waititi #Roman Griffin Davis #Scarlett Johansson #Sam Rockwell #Alfie Allen #Rebel Wilson #Stephen Merchant #Michael Giacchino

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twentiethcenturymoviesandtv · 4 years ago

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Frankenstein: The Story

Before Frankenstein even starts, the movie wants you to know that it isn’t messing around. This isn’t a horror-comedy, or a mildly spooky drama. This is a horror story, make no mistake.

The film opens up in a rather unconventional way. Edward Van Sloan, who plays Dr. Waldman in the film, appears from behind a curtain in order to directly address the audience:

“How do you do? Mr. Carl Laemmle feels it would be a little unkind to present this picture without just a word of friendly warning. We’re about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation: life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now is your chance to, uh… Well, we’ve warned you.”

After this genial warning, Mr. Van Sloan steps back behind the curtain, and the music starts over the credits. (This is the only time music will play during the film.)

The film opens proper this time, appropriately enough, in a graveyard.

The scene is a funeral, a sad occasion over which church bells are heard ringing. Fittingly enough, the story of Frankenstein already is focused on death, and so is our possible main character.

Enter Dr. Henry Frankenstein. (Colin Clive) (Spoilers below)

Frankenstein waits outside the graveyard, alongside his hunchback assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye), for the mourners to leave, and for the gravedigger to finish up. As soon as the cemetery is deserted, the gruesome twosome move in, using their own tools to dig up the grave again, removing the coffin. As they do, Frankenstein manically murmurs this:

“He’s just resting. Waiting for a new life to come.”

With that, the pair put the coffin on a wheelbarrow, and head off. They stop at a gallows, where Frankenstein tells Fritz to clamber up and cut the body down. Reluctantly, Fritz obeys. The doctor examines the body, before proclaiming it useless.

“The neck’s broken. The brain is useless. We must find another brain.”

He’s 2 for 2 on the ominous foreshadowing, despite the fact that that’s not how neuroscience works.

Fritz, in a quest to find another brain, hides outside a medical college, where he listens to Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan) teaching a seminar about brains. He has two specimens: one, a perfect example of a model brain, and the other, the brain of a criminal.

After class is dismissed, Fritz sneaks into the classroom, intending to steal the well-adjusted brain. At first, it looks like success, but a loud noise startles him, and he drops it. Panicked, Fritz grabs the brain labeled: ‘Abnormal Brain’ and takes off.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to a few new characters: Elizabeth (Mae Clark), Henry’s fiancee, and Victor (John Boles), friend of Henry and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has just received word from Henry for the first time in four months. She reads the letter out loud to Victor, who explains that he is in the middle of an amazing discovery, and is working on his experiments in hiding in an abandoned watchtower, where they can remain secret.

Elizabeth explains that she sent for Victor because she is worried about Henry, saying that he’s talking as though he’s crazy. She also says that she’s heard him talk about these experiments before, and that when they were first engaged, Henry was happy to tell her about them, but now acts as though everything is a great mystery.

Victor agrees that Henry’s acting strangely. He tells Elizabeth that the last time he ran into Henry and asked to see the lab, Henry got very defensive.

So far, the movie really isn’t selling the audience on Henry. Not many good traits for this guy if we’re being honest.

At this moment, Victor tells Elizabeth that he is in love with her, which doesn’t help the situation at all. This is not the first time he has done this, but Elizabeth is already engaged to aforementioned mad-scientist.

Victor also says that he will go track down Dr. Waldman (remember him?) who was Henry’s mentor, to see if he knows anything about Henry’s behavior. Elizabeth runs after him, determined to go along, and the two set off.

The two arrive at Waldman’s office and begin discussing Henry and his odd behavior. Waldman admits that Henry is brilliant, but he’s also erratic, possessing an “insane ambition to create life”. Waldman also explains that Henry had wanted actual human corpses for his experiments

“You do not quite get what I mean. Herr Frankenstein was interested only in human life. First, to destroy it; then, recreate it. There you have his - mad dream.”

The university obviously wouldn’t allow the use of human corpses, and so Henry left, in order to pursue graverobbing for his experiments. More worried than ever, Elizabeth convinces Waldman to accompany them to find Henry and bring him to his senses.

Henry, as it turns out, is inside his watchtower where a mighty storm is brewing. It’s dark, there’s a thunder and lightning storm growing, and inside, Henry is busy about his laboratory, full of crackling electric gadgets and a table, on which lies a figure, with a cloth lying over it and bandages wrapped around its head, inside which is the brain that Fritz had stolen.

“The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands! With my own hands.”

As Henry prepares his experiment (powered by electricity, hence the storm), there is a knock at the door, interrupting him at his work. Irritated, he sends Fritz down to send whoever is there away. Upon realizing that Elizabeth is at the door, Henry changes his mind, and lets her, Victor, and Waldman in, albeit reluctantly. He tries to persuade them to leave, but is stopped short when Victor accuses him of being crazy.

“Crazy, am I? We’ll see whether I’m crazy or not.”

Taking the accusation as a challenge, Henry brings his unexpected guests upstairs to the lab to witness his experiment. He forces Victor and Elizabeth to sit, chases Waldman away from the hidden body, and describes his experiment.

In short, Henry has discovered a ray that is the foundation of life, and that he has created a body, stitched together from other corpses, super large, super strong.

Without further ado, Henry launches into the most famous scene of cinema history. He starts up the equipment as the storm begins to rage, and the table holding Henry’s creation rises up the tower towards a skylight, where the thunder and lightning crash and flash. Slowly, Henry brings the body back down, and the hand of his creation begins to move.

Say it with me:

“Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive… It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, IT’S ALIVE!”

In his euphoria, Henry compares himself to God, and in shock and horror, the others restrain him.

Weirdly enough, at this point, the movie decides to put itself on hold.

After an emotional, tension filled high point, one of the most famous scenes in movie history, the film decides that, rather than show you Frankenstein’s creation, to take you instead to the home of Baron Frankenstein, Henry’s father, and a conversation with Elizabeth and Victor.

The movie has been moving at a pretty good clip up to this point, albeit with rather sparse ‘monster’ action. We don’t see Frankenstein putting his creature together, we only see the before and after, and now we don’t even get to see the after. The sequence interrupting the ‘good stuff’ seems to come in, interrupting a continuous flow.

Henry’s father is also worried about him (it seems to be a pattern), but refuses to believe Elizabeth’s claims that he’s just tired. The Baron believes there’s something legitimately wrong with him, and that he’s involved with another woman. At this point, the Baron isn’t sure if there’s even going to be a wedding between his son and Elizabeth, which is unfortunate, since the whole town is preparing for it.

The Baron makes a decision: he’s going to go visit Henry now, too.

See, as it turns out, Henry hasn’t left the watchtower. He’s still with his experiment, and so is Waldman.

Waldman, for his part, isn’t in the slightest happy about Henry’s experiment. He explains that the ‘monster’ is dangerous, but Henry isn’t buying it.

“Dangerous? Poor old Waldman. Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous? Where should we be if no one tried to find out what lies beyond? Have you never wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars, or to know what causes the trees to bud? And what changes the darkness into light? But if you talk like that, people call you crazy. Well, if I could discover just one of these things, what eternity is, for example, I wouldn’t care if they did think I was crazy.”

Waldman explains that the brain that Henry used was a criminal brain. Henry looks disconcerted for a moment, but brushes it off, ignoring Waldman’s pleas to stop experimenting.

“I’ve got to experiment further. He’s only a few days old, remember. So far he’s been kept in complete darkness. Wait till I bring him into the light.”

As he finishes speaking, heavy footsteps are heard in the hallway. Henry shuts off the light, casting the dark room into further shadow, as a towering figure steps, backwards, through the doorway. It turns, slowly, facing the camera, with a dead, blank expression.

You already know what he looks like.

Henry tells the creature (Boris Karloff) to come in and sit down. The creature, although mute, seems to understand him, obeying as Henry rolls back the skylight.

The monster stands, looking up, and raises his hands to the sky, trying to touch the light. The expression comes to life, full of curiosity-

And Henry closes the light again.

The monster halts, looking dejected, as Henry gleefully brags about his creation.

Right here, we as an audience have been told a lot of information about a lot of people.

There’s Elizabeth, the loving fiancee, Victor, the concerned friend, Waldman, the dismayed mentor, and Baron Frankenstein, blustering father, but when you boil it right down, the audience’s concern lies with two characters: Henry and the monster.

We know that Henry is a raging egomaniac, who is determined to make his mark on scientific discovery. He is proud of what he has done, to the point of hysteria, and has become so absorbed with his work that he has neglected family, friends, and his fiancee, to the point where he has driven them all to worry about him. He’s obsessed with his creation, with his apparent success.

And the creature?

As famous and magnificent as the laboratory scene is, the scene where the monster first sees the light is almost as well-known, and with good reason. Arguably just as important, this sequence gives the audience some very important information about the creature: he is not inherently a ‘monster’. His expression is not that of a vicious beast, but a curious child. His backwards lumber into the room and straining to touch the light stirs an emotion out of the audience: not fear, but pity.

Hold onto that, we’ll be coming back to that shortly.

After the monster sits back down, Fritz comes tearing into the room with a lighted torch, brandishing it at the creature. The creature, naturally frightened, goes into a bit of a frenzy, barely restrained by Henry and Waldman. The two scientists tie him up, and Waldman, more resolute than ever in his stance that the creature is dangerous, tells Frankenstein that he must destroy the monster.

The two scientists move the creature to the cellar, where Fritz continues to torment him, beating him with a whip and antagonizing him with the torch.

Upstairs, Henry and Waldman hear a bloodcurdling shriek, and rush downstairs, where they discover the monster, free, and Fritz, strangled.

The pair manage to get out of the cellar and close the door behind them, but it won’t hold for long. The monster’s superior strength comes to bear as he struggles to smash down the door.

Henry, horrified at his own creation, reluctantly agrees with Waldman’s assertion that the monster must be destroyed, and allows Waldman to go up for a needle for a hypodermic injection. After Waldman returns, the pair open the door, and as the creature attacks Henry, Waldman injects the monster in the back with the needle. After a tense moment, the drug takes effect, and the monster slumps to the ground, unconscious.

Waldman and Frankenstein hide the body of the creature as they hear a banging on the door: Victor, warning Henry that Elizabeth and Henry’s father are on the way, right behind him. Henry goes upstairs to clean the blood off of him.

When Elizabeth and Baron Frankenstein do arrive, they find Henry, collapsed from exhaustion in his lab, muttering mournfully about Fritz. They decide to take him home, and Waldman promises Henry that he will preserve Henry’s research, and destroy the monster.

While Henry is taken home and helped to recover, Waldman sets about dissecting the creature. Before he can get started, the sedative wears off, and the creature wakes up. Seeing the doctor bending over him with sharp tools, the creature strangles Waldman, gets up, and wanders out of the watchtower, now loose across the countryside.

The story takes a little bit of a skip now. Henry is recovered, and it is the day of his wedding to Elizabeth. His father, the Baron, hands Henry and Victor orange blossoms, family tradition for weddings, and toasts the wedding, remarking about his hope for a future son of Frankenstein.

An interesting comment. More on that later.

Meanwhile, the creature’s wanderings have taken him to a forest, relatively close to civilization. There, he stumbles upon a girl named Maria, who is playing by the side of a lake.

Instead of being frightened at his appearance, the girl approaches the creature and invites him to play with her, bringing him down by the water as well. She gives him a flower, which he reacts to with a look of genuine happiness.

Maria offers up an interesting look at how people approach the creature. Up until this moment, he has been contained, tortured, and treated as an experiment at best, and a monster at worst. This is the first time that anyone has treated him as anything close to ‘human’, and it’s a touching moment.

Unfortunately, this is a horror film, and we have to take a sharp left turn into disaster. Or at least, tragedy.

See, Maria teaches the creature a game where they toss flowers into the water, demonstrating how they float. Once the creature runs out of flowers, he tosses Maria in, not really understanding why that’s not acceptable. As it turns out, Maria can’t swim.

Her floundering in the water frightens the creature, and, clearly upset, he runs away.

The scene switches once more to wedding preparations. Elizabeth, already in her wedding gown, asks to speak to Henry privately, as she’s feeling rather uneasy. As a matter of fact, she’s downright afraid. She explains to Henry that she’s not sure why she’s afraid, but she is concerned for Waldman, and asks why he’s late. She adds that she’s very afraid of losing Henry, but he reassures her that he’s not going anywhere.

The touching moment is interrupted by Victor, banging on the door, shouting about Waldman. He’s been found, dead, in the watchtower where Henry had been working. Henry locks Elizabeth in a room and rushes out, knowing that the monster must be loose. He and Victor begin searching the house for the creature, all the while thinking that at least Elizabeth is somewhat safe.

Elizabeth is pacing the room, very nervous. I can’t blame her.

As she paces, the monster comes through the window of the house, stalking her down. Elizabeth screams, and tries to escape, but of course, Henry locked the door in his most brilliant move since reanimating the dead. The monster gets out the way he came in, and Henry bursts in to find Elizabeth unhurt, but hysterical.

Henry proclaims that he cannot get married until his creation is destroyed, and leaves Elizabeth in Victor’s care while he leaves to track down the monster.

“I made him with these hands, and with these hands I will destroy him. I must find him.”

Meanwhile, interrupting the wedding festivities outside, a grief-stricken father carries the body of his little girl, Maria, into the town. The townspeople, now subdued, follow him as the father approaches the Burgomaster, proclaiming that his daughter has been murdered. (This is perhaps the one plot hole that I have the hardest time getting around, as if she’d been drowned, there’s no way the father could have figured she’d have been murdered.)

Still, it’s enough to get the townspeople in a riot.

The Burgomaster organizes the mob, splitting it into three groups and putting Henry in charge of one. The mob storms off, armed with torches and pitchforks (what else?).

Henry’s group spots the monster, and stumbles upon an injured man who points them in the direction of the creature.

Naturally, Henry gets separated from the rest of the group while up on a mountain, and, of course, runs into his creation.

Frankenstein tries to scare the creature with his torch, but the monster is well past the fear of fire by now. He lunges at Henry, they struggle, and the monster knocks him unconscious, dragging him away.

The creature takes Henry into a windmill, pursued by the mob of angry villagers. As the monster lugs Henry up to the second story, the search party tries to break the door down.

Henry wakes up, and narrowly escapes another attack by the creature, hiding behind mill machinery before entering another losing grappling match with the creature. After a brief struggle, Henry falls from the mill, unconscious.

Some of the search party stop to take Henry home, as the rest light the mill on fire.

The monster remains trapped in the flaming building, under a fallen beam, terrified and alone.

With the monster presumed dead, Henry begins recovering again, under the care of Elizabeth at his home. His father, the Baron Frankenstein, breaks out the old wine for the wedding and makes another toast: a toast to the son of Frankenstein.

Cue closing credits.

The story of Frankenstein is not a long one, clocking in at just over an hour and ten minutes. On a rewatch, it can seem like there isn’t even that much of the monster. Instead, we spend a lot of time with the creator of the creature, watching him prepare for his wedding. We even get a few scenes with Elizabeth and other supporting characters.

At first, these scenes really seem to slow the story down. The odd placement of a few scenes with Henry’s friends and family worrying about his sanity sprinkled in-between the monster’s creation sequences can seem to abruptly grind the movie to a halt as the audience is forced to sit back from the edge of their seats. I mean, what is this story about, anyway? Reanimating the dead or Henry’s wedding?

More specifically, who is this story supposed to be about?

That’s kind of the problem, isn’t it?

The easy answer is to say that Frankenstein as a film is focused on Frankenstein as a man. The scientist, bent on playing God, creating a monster and forced to destroy it. Frankenstein, the son, the fiance, the student, the friend.

By the same token, it’s equally as simple to claim that the focus of the story is on the monster.

The mute creation of a madman, the childish brute who never asked to be made, who was never shown any kindness. The lonely monster, tortured and brutalized for being ugly, condemned for the sins of his creator. The monster, the son of Frankenstein.

Typically, finding the protagonist of a film isn’t that hard. Luke Skywalker, Rocky Balboa, Dorothy Gale, are all easily presented as who the story is about, the person who pushes the action forward. But unfortunately, protagonists aren’t as easy to spot in every case.

Protagonists, as it turns out, aren’t always at the center of the story. In our study of Ladyhawke (nearly a year ago!), we discovered that sometimes, the protagonist and the character that the audience spends the most time with aren’t necessarily the same person. In Running Scared, there are two protagonists, but only one major one. In our analysis of Psycho, we discussed the fact that the protagonist doesn’t even have to be a hero.

That’s certainly the case with Frankenstein.

Whichever way you slice it, there is no ‘hero’ in Frankenstein. Neither monster nor man saves the day. The climax, presented as a victory to the townspeople, is a tragedy: the creature, beaten and hated for his entire short life, is seemingly burnt alive, trapped, rejected by his creator.

This is not a happy ending. But then again, it’s not a happy story. It started with digging up corpses in a graveyard, remember?

It turns out, when you think back over the events of the film, it’s actually pretty easy to spot the protagonist.

When it comes to ‘spotting’ the protagonist in Frankenstein, it’s less an analysis of the actions taken by specific characters, and more the ‘blame game’. Who’s fault is most of the story? Is it the monster, for killing? Is it Fritz, for antagonizing him unprovoked? Waldman’s, for mentoring Henry in the first place?

Rather grimly, looking back over the course of events in the story and determining who is to blame gives us our protagonist. It is, of course, Henry Frankenstein.

Henry Frankenstein is far from heroic, but he is responsible for nearly every action taken by every character in the story, from his friends checking up on him to his creation wreaking havoc. It is his blind arrogance and refusal to take into account the consequences of his actions that lead to so much suffering, and, ironically, death. Henry is bent on achieving the impossible, and in doing so, nearly dooms much of the main cast. He digs up the graves. He creates the monster.

Worst of all, he’s the one who won’t give the creature what he needs most: love.

For all intents and purposes, the creature is the son of Frankenstein, his creation. Henry has been nothing but an active character up until the point where he creates the monster, and after that, he suddenly becomes passive. His goal accomplished, he doesn’t treat the monster like a person, but a successful experiment. He halfheartedly scolds Fritz for tormenting him, but doesn’t actively try to stop him. Through his carelessness, he gives the monster none of the attention he needs, and as a result, the monster is treated terribly at worst, and with indifference or scientific curiosity at best.

Once people start dying, Henry wakes up a little bit. His growth, his character arc, comes in the form of self-realization, of owning up and accepting blame for what he’s done. After he realizes his guilt, he does something about it, going after the monster and trying to ‘right’ his wrong by destroying it.

While still not exactly a heroic figure, at the very least, Henry does change by the end of the story. And isn’t that what protagonists are supposed to do?

Yes, it is.

But there’s another character we’re leaving out of this equation.

The idea of the monster being a reflection, or another side, of Frankenstein is not a new one. It’s an idea that’s frequently discussed and analyzed by plenty of experts. Right now, though, we’re not looking at the monster as a reflection of Frankenstein. We’re looking at him as a creation, as a son.

See, Henry isn’t the only person that changes throughout the story. While Henry goes from mad monster to man, the creature has a reverse progression.

Throughout the first part of his existence, the creature is a passive character. He is acted upon, created through no will of his own, and then tormented for no good reason. He is a curious creature, a being that demonstrates a childlike joy at the world around him.

The creature doesn’t truly become a ‘monster’ until more than halfway through the film. He kills Fritz, only because he tormented him. He kills Waldman while the doctor is trying to dissect him. In his early moments, the monster reacts to people trying to harm him, rather than lashing out, unprovoked. His interaction with light, and people who aren’t cruel to him, demonstrate the monster’s potential true nature: a gentle giant.

When the monster breaks out of the tower and meets Maria, there is no hostility. He is genuinely happy, enjoying interaction with the first person to show him genuine kindness. Her death is an accident, the result of his misunderstanding, causing him great distress.

After that, a switch is flipped. It is here that he goes after Elizabeth, (though not harming her) and attacks Henry after Henry pursues him. At this point, it can be argued that the creature truly becomes the monster…but it’s hard to say that it’s his fault.

We as an audience don’t know what’s going on in the monster’s head at this point. He can’t speak to tell us. But it’s not a large leap of logic to wonder if the monster might be blaming his misery on Henry and the others in his life as well. And in the end, he is seemingly killed, abandoned by his uncaring creator and shunned by a world who mistreated him without cause.

No matter who Frankenstein is about, it’s a sad story. It’s also a good story.

Frankenstein learns his lesson, repents from playing God, and fixes his mistake. The monster dies. All of the human, ‘non monster’ characters live happily ever after. (Until Bride of Frankenstein.) Good…wins?

There’s no line drawn, no sides of ‘good or evil’ in Frankenstein. The story is not good guy vs. bad guy, no good vs. evil, just a creator and his creation, the tragedy of a man too arrogant to realize the blasphemy of his actions, and the creature he made, turned into a monster due to mistreatment and misunderstanding.

It’s sad, yes. It’s also a satisfying ending.

It ties up loose ends. It answers the questions. It gives everyone an ending, happy or not.

While Frankenstein does have some plot holes, overall, it’s a tight story. More importantly, it’s an emotional story, and a smart story. It brings up questions of morality, of nature vs. nurture, and of what we perceive as monstrous. It’s a gripping story with a great atmosphere, an iconic look, and immortal characters, setpieces, scenes and dialogue that have been remembered for almost ninety years for a reason. It’s an iconic film, a memorable masterpiece of simple, but smart, storytelling, constantly driving at an emotional core that still holds up to this day.

A toast to the son of Frankenstein.

In the articles ahead, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the other important elements to the story of Frankenstein, so if you enjoyed this one, stick around and join us! Don’t forget that my ask box is always open for questions, requests, comments, or just a conversation. Thanks so much for reading, and I hope to see you in the next article.

#Movies #Film #Frankenstein #Frankenstein 1931 #1931 #30s #Horror #Sci-Fi #Science Fiction #Drama #PG #Boris Karloff #Colin Clive #Mae Clarke #Dwight Frye #Edward Van Sloan #James Whale

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