#me channelling Debbie from GLOW

[poisonandpages]

I saw someone in one of the X-men tags complaining about the "soap opera drama" in the comics and their adaptations. Way to say you've never read the comics lmao. It's been a superpowered soap opera since 1963, baby!

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

More Write-Ups/Photos on Hallmark's Holiday Schedule

Here are some links:

Varity / People / TVLine / TVInsider - Hallmark Mystery

TVInsider - Hallmark Channel / TVInsider - Hallmark+

Hallmark Limited Series/Original Series premiering on Hallmark+:

Mistletoe Murders Premiere Date: Thursday, October 31 Stars: Sarah Drew, Peter Mooney, Sierra Marilyn Riley Based on the popular Audible original, Mistletoe Murders is a cozy mystery series with equal parts charm and intrigue. Emily Lane (Drew) owns a year-round Christmas-themed gift shop called Under the Mistletoe located in the quaint tourist town of Fletcher’s Grove. Emily tries her best to fit in without letting anyone get too close, but when her friend is accused of murder, she can’t help utilizing her sleuthing skills when her friend is accused of murder…or falling for local Detective Sam Wilner (Mooney). Of course, it’s only a matter of time before Emily’s secret past catches up with her. One new episode is available every Thursday through December 5.

Holidazed Premiere Date: Thursday, November 14 Stars: Dennis Haysbert, Erin Cahill, Holland Roden, Ian Harding, John C. McGinley, Lindy Booth, Loretta Devine, Lucille Soong, Nazneen Contractor, Noemí González, Osric Chau, Rachelle Lefevre, Ser’Darius Blain, and Virginia Madsen This eight-episode series follows six families from different backgrounds, cultures and generations, all living on the same cul-de-sac, as they gather for the holiday season. During a time when emotions are amplified, each family comes together to celebrate their unique, rich traditions and navigate family eccentricities that ultimately help them discover what they do have in common: LOVE in all itsdifferent forms. The first two episodes premiere on November 14, followed by one new episode every Thursday through December 24.

Ready, Set, Glow! Premiere Date: Thursday, December 12 Host: Wes Brown Hallmark star Wes Brown hosts this holiday lights showcase spectacular, in which he takes viewers around the country to some of the most impressive, festive displays. Wes will introduce the special people behind them and share their heartfelt – and often emotional stories – behind their displays and how they contribute to the community. A new episode is available every Thursday throughDecember 24.

Finding Mr. Christmas Premiere Date: TBD Host: Jonathan Bennett Lead Judge: Melissa Peterman Hallmark’s first-ever reality competition series, Finding Mr. Christmas, will follow 10 promising Hallmark “hunks” who live together and compete against one another for the lead role in an upcoming original holiday movie. From festive physical challenges to emotional acting scenes, co-creator, executive producer and host Jonathan Bennett will be finding Mr. Christmas in this new, eight-episode competition series filled with heart. Then, watch the winner opposite Jessica Lowndes in the all-new original movie Happy Howlidays, premiering December 21 on Hallmark Channel.

Photos for movies as follows:

A Carol for Two, Novel Noel, A Reason for the Season, Believe in Christmas, Christmas Under the Lights, Debbie Macomber's Joyful Mrs. Miracle, Seasons Greeting from Cherry Hill (2 photos), Happy Holidays from Cherry Lane, Deck the Halls on Cherry Lane, Holiday Crashers, Jingle Bell Run, My Sweet Australian Holiday, Santa Tell Me, Scouting for Christmas, The 5-Year Christmas Party, The Christmas Charade, The Christmas Quest, The Finish Line, Three Wiser Men and a Boy, To Have and to Holiday, Trivia at St. Nick's, 'Twas the Date nBefore Christmas, Unwrapping Christmas: Mia's Prince, Unwrapping Christmas: Lily's Destiney, and Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion

[dio-the-thot-exterminator]

Weird question, but who has the embarrassing videos of their school play

[baby Meredith on the left, baby Debbie on the right]

That is an interesting question! We have a couple of choices >:)

Loriann

First option would be Loriann (Loriann is Matilda and Debbie’s mom).

Loriann would have some videos, this was back when they were a happy family <3 Since Loriann was a busy business woman she didn't have much time to go to their school events.

But the ones she did attend she recorded! (She would later put them in a storage unit and forget about them bcuz now it makes her sick to her stomach).

These videos would have been mostly of Matilda, she is a big theater kid and was also involved in every school function.

Idk if they are even cringe bcuz its Matilda, you know, they’d prlly be fire.

Matilda

Now Matilda would be the one who has videos from when Debbie and Meredith were super young.

(Since everyone hates Debbie now no one's going to let her be in a play, they’d prlly try n kill her, plus she sucks at everything).

I have conflicting opinions, both Debbie and Meredith would NOT want to participate, so they’d be tree #1 and tree #2.

But I also think it would be silly if they were given lead roles bcuz Matilda pulled some strings, her little sister is not going to just be a side character…Debbie flops.

Matilda would still encourage her though.

Debbie starts crying every time she's on stage.

[Lisa on the left, Becky in the middle, Hanna on the right. I drew this while trying to make mashed potatoes its kinda rushed 😭]

Becky

Becky is an obvious choice bcuz she wants to be a star.

When she's in her villain era she would TOTALLY do a CinemaSins style video with the play recordings and then upload them to the Rune youtube channel (she's such a meanie).

If she hates someone, she'd do some digging and find the videos, using them as blackmail (she alr has copies ready to distribute don't fuck with her)

Secretly tho in her diary she's scribbling about what she would do to make it better and how she should've been cast instead. 

Also Becky doesn't think she ever flopped (except that one time…) she's the best and has been since she was a weebabe.

That being said any play she would have been in is AFTER her glow up.

Becky would look back fondly on it. It would not be embarrassing for her, however it would be embarrassing for other people involved (mainly Lisa and Hanna).

Lisa hates it the most but Becky is like “take a chill pill, you’re standing next to ME!! It’s soooo unlikely anyone's going to notice you buggers” 

Here are some honorable mentions since they don't have schools or school plays they can't rlly record anything. But in spirit if given the opportunity I know they would. 

The Doctor 

The Doctor is the very supportive parent, attending all of his children's events and recording everything.

The parent who is helping make the costumes and stage props, and then afterwards takes you for some ice cream.

Honestly the best one on the entire list.

The Doctor has on occasion snuck Pheobe out of the lab to The Madam’s performance room so she could mess around on the stage.

That's his lil baby <3

These last 3 are kind of similar they are boring bitches.

Isla 

Isla does not care at all, but she is one of The Scholars so it's in her nature to record everything down.

Because she's imprisoned though she would not have access to a recording device.

She's kind of glad because she wishes she could never experienced this foolishness again..

The Scientist

The Scientist is also one of The Scholars so yes it's being saved.

He would also not care at all and think it's a waste of his time…

He’s still bringing out a camera and recording it in 4k while also transcribing it…

For archival purposes of course (he a fan)

Natalia

Since she's a robot everything is automatically recorded and saved to her memory.

So she would have it…but it's against her will!!!

She's a walking computer, it's her job to store information about everyone.

She doesn't understand the purpose of it, or why it would be embarrassing.

So if you were talking about it she’d deff pull it up and instantly start playing it “oh…you mean this video?” “wtf why do you even have that!??!”

If she ever needs more space in her memory she is deleting them instantly, they are useless to her. 

that's all I could think of off the top of my head. sorry for typosss

[warningsine]

When the first season of GLOW ended, it was on a cliffhanger. Over 10 episodes, Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin) had crafted new identities as Zoya the Destroyer and Liberty Belle, two women wrestlers with an intense, Cold War–inspired rivalry. In the final episode, Zoya and Liberty Belle faced off after weeks of training in a thrilling, meticulously choreographed bout. At the end, they took a minute to acknowledge how well it went. They both smiled. Ruth tentatively asked Debbie if she wanted to get a celebratory drink. Debbie’s smile immediately fractured. “No,” she said. “We’re not there.” Ruth’s face fell. The credits rolled.

It was an odd, disconsolate note for the series to end on given the triumphant nature of the final few scenes, as the stars of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling wrapped their first TV shoot. But it was a realistic one. In the pilot for GLOW, viewers met Ruth, an out-of-work actress, and Debbie, a soap star turned stay-at-home mother, only to discover at the end of the episode that Ruth had been sleeping with Debbie’s husband. Debbie, incandescent with rage, confronted Ruth in the warehouse where GLOW was rehearsing, prompting the show’s wily director, Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), to imagine how sparks might fly between the two women in the ring. Debbie was cast as Ruth’s arch rival. The question underpinning the season was whether wrestling would bring the friends back together, or whether Ruth’s behavior was ultimately unforgivable.

Television has centered female relationships before, often in quartet form (Girls, Sex and the City, The Golden Girls), or in ways that are riven with tension (The Handmaid’s Tale) or codependency (Broad City, Grey’s Anatomy). Insecure thrives on examining the relationship between Issa (Issa Rae) and Molly (Yvonne Orji). But GLOW does something different. It treats the relationship between Ruth and Debbie like a romantic one, elevating it above any other partnership in the series. Their breakup as friends is the core event that precipitates their casting on the show, and it’s conceived as seriously and as thoughtfully as a romantic breakup. Debbie’s final “We’re not there” affirms that they might have made progress as coworkers, but they’re a long way from fixing the damage that Ruth has done—and they might not make it.

The second season of GLOW, which was released in its entirety late last month, continues to foreground Ruth and Debbie’s relationship, culminating in a moment of violence and a furious, ugly fight in a hospital room. One of the questions for the writers in Season 2, GLOW’s co-showrunner Liz Flahive told me, was whether Ruth deserves happiness, and if she does, whether Debbie, who is going through a divorce, should have to watch Ruth be happy. It’s a question that branches out from something the show considered in its first season: Can Ruth, who’s revealed so early on to have betrayed her friend so egregiously, still be sympathetic? As a character, Ruth defies simple likability: She’s ambitious, pretentious, and frequently ridiculous. But in Brie’s hands, she’s also engaging, insecure, neurotic, and brave enough to be rooted for. “Look, people do really mess things up,” Flahive said. “And watching a character try, for better or worse, is so compelling.”

For the first half of Season 2, the dynamic between Ruth and Debbie remains unchanged. Debbie, in addition to channelling some of her anger into her bouts as Liberty Belle, redirects her energy toward her professional ambitions, negotiating a raise and a promotion to producer. Ruth, for the most part, meekly takes whatever Debbie throws at her. At work, they interact politely but struggle to make eye contact. When Ruth is asked out by a cameraman, Russell (Victor Quinaz), she accepts a ride home with Debbie instead, taking whatever crumbs she can get. “Is it going to bother you if, um, I go out on a date? Do you mind if I meet someone?” she asks Debbie. “I don’t care what you do,” Debbie replies quietly, before going on to deride Russell in a way that makes it clear how much she does care.

As the season continues, the tension between the two women comes to a head first when Debbie rails at Ruth for running away from a casting-couch situation that might have saved their show. “Feminism has principles,” Debbie spits. “Life has compromises.” Then, after a furious, despondent Debbie encounters her ex-husband’s new girlfriend, she intentionally fractures Ruth’s ankle in the ring. The event restores a degree of balance to the relationship that enables one of the most excruciatingly realistic TV fights between two friends in recent memory, in which buried resentments are dug up and toxic patterns thrown out. Gilpin, conveying Debbie’s commingled rage and guilt, is hypnotic in the scene, equally furious at Ruth and at herself. Ruth, emboldened by a growing sense of her own victimhood (and by a Valium–Klonopin cocktail), strikes back. Their relationship, she poses, is built on how Debbie savors her success against Ruth’s failure. It doesn’t justify Ruth’s infidelity to her friend, but for the first time in the series it suggests how it could have happened.

The scene is so potent because it’s so familiar. Friendships between women rely, often, on the unsayable—the secret comparisons, the petty jealousies, the familiar patterns of behavior. A fight with a friend can feel as emotionally draining, as unbearably cruel, as a fight with a partner. By putting Ruth and Debbie’s tangled relationship at the center of GLOW, the show comprehends this dynamic, almost to the detriment of the supporting characters (it’s the rare Netflix show that has so many stories to tell that it could stand to be longer). It uses the tension between two former friends as fodder for both character growth and narrative progression. But it also takes a realistic view of female friendship that television often sugarcoats. TV friendships, Emily Reynolds wrote in the New Statesman in 2016, tend to be idolized and cherished in a cutesy Galentine’s Day, yas-queen, matching-bangs kind of way. Ruth and Debbie are different. GLOW never guarantees that their friendship will recover, or that it should. What it does do is assert its significance in the first place, and emphasize how devastating its breakdown is to each of them.

[ladyvesuvia]

☀️ - cym as y/n’s

Idk if you had already done this but 🤷‍♀️

☀️ under the heat » send me something to cast my mutuals as. (you may take inspo from my fandom list here.)

ok first of all this is not meant to insult u i’m sorry if u take it that way i only mean to make fun of the stupid y/n tropes nowadays but i may have gone a but off topic and attacked the tropes i hate

i’m gonna be very brutal and oddly specific and not with the general pining romantic crap because i’m just that cool

so i’m casting you as the manic pixie dream girl y/n in a high school setting who ✨awakens✨ the male lead with a sad boi personality then he’s all “y-you f-found me” like??? ok like u were trying so hard to be hidden??? 😐 but said y/n ends up dying in the end for his unreasonable ‘character development’

@selenesheart as t-t-the nerd y/n in another high school setting but this time it’s fake dating and this y/n ends up heartbroken and never comes back but woAh 🤯 turns out y/n moved abroad and when they came back they got a glow up because that’s sooooo relevant to the plot and the story itself

@elevatorsdoor as the bad girl y/n who used to be… 😔the sad nerd person😔 and y/n shares a moment with the lead where the lead is all “wHat chAnged yOu?” </3 and y/n’s like *unnecessary sigh* “i don’t know.” then she blows out a cigar but then in the end she ‘changes back’ like it was ever mandatory ergh then in the end she turns back to her ‘real self’ like??? then who were u??? ur fake self??? 🥸

@slut4drvc0 as the shy y/n who’s been crushing on the musty second male lead and the writer describes her as uNLikEabLe but strangely has two guys on her beck and call pfft. this is also the y/n who’s 2 inches tall with a 0.3 inch waist and blue orbs and is very very c-clumsy 🥺 then this y/n gets bullied but mesmerized people when she sings fight song on the rooftop then male lead actually falls in love with her

@amourtentiaa as the manic pixie dream girl not like other girls y/n because woAh!!! she doesn’t like dresses like other girls!!! she’s cool not like other girls!!! and rock music randomly plays in the background whenever she walks in!!! 😋 it gets ruined when said y/n goes like i-i g-guess i’m not like other girls *debby ryan* then at the end this y/n leaves the country just for the male lead’s cHaraCtEr dEvElOpMeNt

@holden-caulfield as the fLeeTing mOmeNt y/n who is always trying to capture the moment but can never be captured 🥺🤢 this y/n carries a paintbrush even in the grocery for…idk what reason then ends up parting ways with the male lead because she needs to find herself and he has to do the same too 🥶

@starless-starkov as the concerningly perfect y/n who for some reason attracts birds and butterflies like wtf are u? a carcass? 😍 this y/n 100% knows everyone in the neighborhood like that’s actually possible ergh and this y/n also probably leaves the country for the s/o lead’s chAracTer gRoWth.

@railmeharrypotter as the poor disney channel protagonist y/n who’s enrolled in one of the most prestigious schools even without a scholarship anyway. this y/n is the y/n who goes from invisible to visible and the mean girl’s all wHo’s tHis y/n 😡 but they get along well in the ending anyway and the mean girl’s all “hey 😏, watch out.” *2000s romcom movie smirk*

join my beach party!

[amerrierworld]

Three Times Over (pt 3)

Ocean’s 8 - fan fiction

Pt 1 | 2

Summary: You, Lou, Debbie. A road trip. 

Characters: Lou x fem!reader x Debbie

Word Count: 2,461

Warnings: the end to a trilogy folks. Super Fluff and NSFW. Hope you enjoy!

“You’re lost, aren’t you?”

“I’m not lost, Ocean. Shut up.”

“Lou. Admit it. You’re fucking lost.”

Lou huffed, looking up from the map to glare at Debbie as you wandered by the road edge, overlooking hills and a far-away shoreline. You kicked some stones from the gravel on the ground, turning your head to bask in the setting sun heat.

The three of you decided to take an impromptu road trip on Lou’s new motor cycle, loaded with money from the last heist. You’d been squished between the blonde and brunette on the bike, holding on for dear life for the whole trip so far. Somewhere along the way, Lou had pulled over -something about watching the view or enjoying the outdoors?- to glare at the map.

She was so lost.

“Look, I might have taken a wrong turn somewhere, fine. But that doesn’t mean we’re lost.”

“Lou, that is literally the definition of lost,” you giggled, hands shoved deep in your pockets. She shot you a look but you blew her a kiss and her eyes softened a bit.

You hurried over to her, wrapping your arms around her waist from behind. “It’s okay we’re lost, baby,” you said. “Cause look at this view we got to catch because of it.”

“We’re not lost,” Lou mumbled defensively. You and Debbie shared a look.

“How about I just look up where we are?” she said, waving her phone in Lou’s face, who groaned. 

“But that ruins the adventure,” she whined, and you hugged her tighter. “Ugh, fine. I’m trying to find the same motel from the last time I went down these roads.”

Within minutes, you figured out where you were and you were back on the road after Lou had analyzed and remembered the directions. Cool summer air whipped past your face and you felt an occasional kiss against the back of your head from Debbie. 

The sky was darkening by the time you arrived at the motel, at the centre of a small rural town with a gas station and a shop or two. A motorcycle trip with three people didn’t leave room for too much luggage but you and Debbie had managed to sufficiently pack small backpacks to bring along. Food you could buy easily, that wasn’t an issue. 

Lou checked the three of you in, greeting the motel owners with a familiar hug and sliding them extra tips for letting the three of you share one room meant for two. They didn’t question it with the sight of more green bills being passed their  way. 

“It’s surprisingly cozy,” you said as you walked in. Dim yellow lights lit up the room with a nice view of the forest behind the motel.

“Oh, the owners owed me a favour from the last time I was here. Helped them out of a scam. I might have conned them in the process but they’re none the wiser,” Lou shrugged as she flopped down on the bed. “The one reason why I always come back here is cause they actually clean their rooms.”

“Hey!” Debbie scolded. “Boots, missy. We all have to share that bed.”

Lou grumbled again and tugged her black boots off her feet, tossing them on the floor before shuffling up further on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly. Debbie grabbed your hand and the two of you wandered the town, buying some food and drinks from the convenience shops and chatting with the locals. It was quiet and peaceful; streetlights brightening the roads and the weather cozy enough for you to wander around without any burdening layers. 

Lastly you bought ice creams from the gas station and a pack of cigarettes for Lou before heading back to the room, where you found said blonde snoring into the pillows. You gently shook her awake to ask if she wanted food and soon the three of you were sitting on the bed in a pile, eating junk food as the rickety ceiling fan spun above you.

“Where are we going after this?” you asked as you popped open a bag of chips.

“It’s a surprise,” Debbie said.

“Ugh, no fair,” you said, puffing your cheeks indignantly. “Why do I always get left out of the planning?”

“We just want to spoil you baby,” Lou said, nuzzling your cheek. “You’re the only one who hasn’t seen the place yet, so we wanted to make it special.”

You pouted at Debbie insistently, who sighed in response. “Fine, you brat. It’s a cottage.”

“What! No way, how on earth do you own a cottage?”

“It’s a family property; well, technically it was Dannie’s, and now it’s mine, since he’s dead,” she said.

“If he’s dead,” Lou chuckled. “But,” she continued, holding you tighter, “it does mean we gotta get up early tomorrow to get there. It’s a few hours away. I don’t want to drive over those bumpy roads in the dark.”

“Mkay,” you agreed. “Thanks for telling me.”

“Of course,” Debbie said, a loving look in her eyes as she watched the two of you. “Now pass me the gummies before Lou eats them all.”

You turned on the tv where the only channel that worked was a crappy crime show. Lou and Debbie kept pointing out rookie mistakes by the criminals and cons of the show and you found yourself falling asleep with your head in Lou’s lap and your legs on top of Debbie’s.

-

The next morning you awoke at the crack of dawn, three sets of limbs tangled with each other as the rickety fan kept spinning. After a meagre and quick breakfast you were back on the bike and speeding along the countryside while the sun came up. 

The cottage was close to the edge of a beautiful forest with dirt roads leading to it. Debbie led you inside while Lou put her bike away.

It was basically just a regular house plopped in the middle of the forest. The Ocean siblings clearly spared no expense for this place. Debbie gave you a quick tour and you marvelled at the beautiful home.

“..and this is the guest room, though we most likely won’t be using that,” Debbie said with a wink. You giggled and pinched her side, leading her to gasp in mock offence and chase you through the hallways.

After digging through the kitchen with Lou to look for preservatives, cans and frozen food that were still good to use and eat, Debbie walked by the two of you, her hair up in a knot and a large towel wrapped around her body. 

“I dunno about you two, but I’m knackered. I’m gonna go take a bath,” she announced. Both you and Lou stopped and couldn’t help but watch as she hurried up the stairs. Just before she disappeared around the corner to the master bathroom she gave a flick of her hair and tugged the towel off with one hand to sling it over her shoulder, leaving her stark naked.

“Care to join me?” she chuckled at the top of the stairs. Neither of you needed to be asked twice.

Clothes lay strewn about the floor leading into the bathroom. The tub, thank God, was enormous. 

“Jesus, it’s like a fucking pool,” you exclaimed, dipping one foot in. Debbie sat at the other end, submerged in the water to her shoulders with a glass of champagne, looking every bit a luxurious home-owner who definitely didn’t do anything illegal for a living.

The warm, floral scented water enveloped your body and all the aches in your body from riding calmed down. You sighed contently and twisted your body to watch Lou undressing.

“Down, girl,” she scolded you after catching your hungry gaze while she unbuttoned her shirt. 

“Hm. Make me,” you grinned back. She nearly lunged at you, barely able to finish undressing as you scurried back before she could grab you. You were met with Debbie’s arms around your middle pulling you flush against her, her lips nibbling at the shell of your ear.

One of her hands trailed down to rub teasingly along the inside of your thighs and you shuddered at the feeling. Lou stepped into the bath opposite you, dipping low into the water and coming closer. Her own hands pulled your ankles apart and she moved in between them, kissing you softly as Debbie began circling your clit. 

“Hm, this is a much better surprise than the cottage itself,” you commented as Lou moved down your neck, hands fondling your breasts and Debbie starting to rub your clit diligently.

“Yeah? You like it here?” she asked with a smirk against your hair. You nodded, limbs trembling as Lou sucked a bruise into your damp skin. “We can stay as long as you want, baby.”

“Well, uh, until the food runs out,” Lou remarked. Your chest began heaving as Debbie worked up your arousal under the water. Lou moved away to give you more space but you grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. She let out a groan of surprise as her own centre came in touch with yours and Debbie’s persistent fingers. You pulled her even closer, legs entwining so that you could feel her against her and you bit and sucked at her jawline as she rubbed herself against the two of you.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Debbie whispered in your ear as she felt the two of you against her fingers under the water. 

Lou’s fingertips dug into your thighs and she shuddered as her orgasm took over, the sight of your face and Debbie looking just as aroused sending her over the edge. She growled into your shoulder as she came, hips jerking. Debbie kept moving her hand, making Lou tremble with aftershocks from her persistent fingers.

“F-fuck,” you stammered, your breath ragged as Debbie kept pushing you further and further. “W-wait, I wanna.. do something else..”

Debbie halted her movements and Lou watched you patiently. You turned around, pulling Debbie to sit up on the sturdy edge of the tub right by the wall and moving in between her legs. She got the hint and smirked deviously as she opened her legs for you and you wasted no time in licking a long stripe up one leg to her cunt. She tasted salty- no doubt from the bath salts she used in the water, but her skin was warm, wet and glowing, and you dug in hungrily. 

As you worked on sucking on Debbie’s clit and teasing her entrance with your tongue, Lou’s slick body moved up against you and a hand wormed its way back under the water to press against your clit, spiking your arousal tenfold again. There was a yank that lifted Lou’s body slightly off of you and looking up, you saw Debbie focusing on Lou behind you, no doubt with a hand pulling at her hair. 

You moaned as Lou’s fingers twisted and pressed your clit and folds, sending waves of pleasure through Debbie who slumped against the wall, eyes shutting. 

“Curl your fingers inside her, Y/N,” Lou whispered in your ear. “She likes that.”

You made a noise of understanding just as Lou lifted your ass out of the water for a better angle. “Just like this, baby girl, I’ll show you.”

You gasped as Lou pressed two fingers inside you from behind, the other hand holding you up to show you exactly what she meant. Despite your trembling body, you mimicked Lou’s movements on Debbie, fucking her with your fingers. She was right, Debbie was soon writhing and begging to cum. 

Focusing extra hard and pushing your own arousal down for just a little longer, you curled your fingers inside her just as your lips sucked hard on her clit. Debbie’s hips stiffened and she bit down on her own hand as she came. You were looking up at her lovely, flushed face and nearly came undone by the sight alone, but Lou stopped her motions just there, leaving you teetering on the edge.

“Wha- n-no, I was so close,” you whined at the loss. Lou turned you around, gazing at you with a playful look in her eyes. Her hands guided you to sit against the edge of the tub, between Debbie’s legs, and moved you up with ease in the water until you found yourself straddling Lou’s thighs. Your mouth opened wide in shock. 

Debbie’s hands ran through the wet locks of your hair first, cooing at you as you began rocking back and forth, your earlier denial making you extra horny for release. Lou held you tightly as you moved up and down against her thigh, helping you out with motions of both her leg and arms, making sure that you were grinding deep against her.

Hands reached down to pinch your nipples and Debbie licked a hot stripe up your neck from behind. As Lou’s nails dug into your ass and Debbie’s hands gripped your breasts, you came with a desperate cry. 

“Good girl,” Debbie murmured in your ear, kneading your breasts softly as you rocked against Lou, shaking uncontrollably. “God, you’re so perfect. You both are.”

“N-no, you guys are more perfect,” you breathed out, your head falling back against Debbie’s middle. Lou took the opportunity to lean down and suck your aching nipples.

“We can do this all day, Y/N. You’re perfect for us,” she said as she eased your body down from her thigh, letting you submerge a little further into the water.

“I don’t ever wanna leave,” you murmured as Debbie’s hands raked through your hair again.

“Good,” the brunette responded. “Cause we don’t want to either.”

Lou grabbed a bar of soap and began rubbing your sore legs with it. “Good thing about bath sex is that you can get as dirty as you want while still being clean,” she commented. You giggled as Lou ran the bar up your thighs, working it deep in the sore muscles and you almost dozed off again. 

“Alright gals, move over, let me back in, it’s getting cold up here,” Debbie said. You pushed yourself up off of her and she came off the edge to settle into the warm water. You turned around to kiss her on the mouth, arms wrapping tightly around her neck and she returned the kiss eagerly. 

You took the bar of soap from Lou and moved behind Debbie to rub and wash her back, admiring the smooth skin with your hands. As you did, Debbie and Lou shared a heated, passionate kiss that made you beam. Not an ounce of jealously filled you and you hugged Debbie tightly from behind, moving the soap from her back to her abdomen and pressing a soft kiss against her hair. 

A/N: Aaahh! Here u go! We can never have too much smut and fluff with these ladies honestly. Though I’m gonna say this is officially the final instalment of Three Times Over, it doesn’t mean it’s the last piece I’ll write for Debbie x Lou x you ;) You never know what can happen! Love u all

[eyeofnewtblog]

Yzin is patient

Yzin has always been grateful for her biological disposition for waiting. Events fall clearly into one of two categories: they either require action, or waiting, and she is genetically predisposed to out-wait her predators. She is also highly skilled at calculating the probability of her actions consequences.

But here, and now, it is difficult to say which is happening. She is perched on David’s shoulder, listening to eight frequencies coming into the control center of the flagship, listening as the fleet nudges into position, listening as tens of thousands of lives ready themselves to confront a threat that she has trained them for. Not all of them, not personally; but she recognizes every officer voice hailing in.

David is standing with his feet planted, arms crossed, and his head just slightly angled so that his cheek is flush with her wing. She knows this pose, has her neck craned over his head so that they can watch the displays on opposite sides with out him turning.

“Rachel has the medical evacuations in place,” Yzin murmurs, too soft to carry to anything but David’s ear. She watches the displays as Rachel orders system shut downs, hiding the emergency response team ships in the asteroid belt, cutting them off from everything but basic life support and incoming signals.

“Debbie just lined up,” David murmurs back, but Yzin doesn’t dare to turn and watch the fading dots of Debbies ships disappearing into the magnetic fields of the systems first planet.

“Planet evacuations at twenty percent,” Yzin says in response.

“The poor?” David asks.

“Possibly. Major cities are more biologically diverse, but this planet was originally settled by humans. You know how farmers get about their cows.”

She can feel David’s mouth pull wide, into that hard, mean grin he gets sometimes, the feathers of her wing shifting with the pull of his facial muscles. He presses his nose into her as well, for one brief moment, as if he’s trying to hide his reaction.

There’s a crackle of static before a new transmission feed pops up, cutting across the fleet channels and hijacking the broadcast beacons.

Mary’s face is the only thing projecting from the signal, her dark curls lost at the edges of the capture field and the blue of her eyes faded from the glow of the projector, but her voice is hard and loud across the signal

“Calling all trucks, this here’s the Duck. We about to go a-huntin’ bear.”

The transmission clicked off, just as Mike’s face projected up on a private channel.

“What the ever loving fuck, Dave!”

“I left her with you!” David yelled back.

“Mike, please don’t think that I won’t peck out your eyes and liver once David is done with you.”

“You said she got you out, not ‘oh, hey, my unsupervised grandchild stole several ships, bombs, and miscellaneous other weapons in the process of rescuing me from slavery and slaughter, so you might want to treat her with slightly more caution than the average teenager,’ which would have been fucking helpful!”

“It was-” David tried.

“Shut the fuck up, I’m not done.” Mike snarled. “She hijacked a commercial freightliner shipping mining explosives, with an unregistered rouge AI, a Too’orlian pilot, and four Morin engineers! Where the fuck did she find Morin engineers in the TEN MINUTES I left her alone?”

“Um.” David said.

“That explains how they ended up in the pit with us,” Yzin said.

“YOU RESCUED THEM?” Mike screamed.

“What, I was supposed to leave the nearest people in my vicinity completely helpless?” David threw his hands out, jostling Yzin with the movement.

“THEY’RE BASICALLY SPACE DOGS, DAVE! We haven’t had any come through because their planet is still negotiating peace treaties with the Galactic Senate, and it’s taking ten years longer than it should because they pack bond the same way humans do! And you left your grandchildren alone with them!”

“I left my grandchildren alone with you,” David jabbed a threatening finger at the holo projection.

“Incoming!” Yzin screamed over both of them.

There was one commercial freighter, sans cargo, hauling at top speed for their position, with a Too’orlian fleet hot on their trail.

“Hold fire!” David yelled, his voice echoing across the lines.

Yzin watched the count, the freighter taking hit after hit, stray shots blasting off the wall of the defense line, until the freighter had passed the line.

“All ships, open fire,” Yzin ordered, not daring to shield her eyes from the flash of laser cannon as it bombarded the Too’orlian fleet at full strength and close range.

[femininenachos]

is there a word for describing the feeling of absolutely embracing a (fictional) character to the point of being unable to move beyond? For the 100s (no pun intended) of new shows on network, streaming and pay channels in the 2+ years since the 3rd season @#$%%^^&, I've yet to be even incrementally become invested the way I was with Lexa and Clarke. This is coming from an X-Files, Buffy, etc. fan who's been there, done that. Show writers need to get up on it!

I feel exactly the same way. Nothing has come remotely close to matching my adoration of Clexa. If anything, I’m more emotionally invested now than I was during season 3 because of all the wonderful fan-created content that’s appeared since—and continues to flourish!

I see other wlw ships all over my dash and, of course, I support them 100%, appreciate the aesthetics and hope those couples continue to bring happiness to their fans. But... they’re just not Clexa, you know? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Tbh, it’s going to take something really fucking special for me to drag myself out of the Clexa trash heap. If GLOW ever went there in maintext with Debbie/Ruth, I might. Until then, Clexa 4 lyfe.

[weasal]

Hey, weasal, what TV shows are you into atm? Can you recommend anything sci-fi to watch? Thnx

Hey friendly anonymous person! 

This past week I’ve been watching the new season of OITNB. But I’m not reccing that because it’s a bit pants really. So dull! We’ll slog through it anyway because I still want to know what happens, but yeah, bit of a yawn-fest sadly. 

Loving The Bold Type again this season. It’s always such a breath of fresh air and an easy, fun watch. I’m in the hardcore Sutton Fan Club. 

KILLING EVE. I’m sure you’re all over it like a tramp on chips, but if not, watch it immediately. Pretty close to perfection. I enjoyed it immensely and just want MOAR. 

My wife has been working crazy hours in her job lately so I binged all of the latest season of Homeland over a few days, because she’s not really interested so I am very limited with what I am allowed to watch without her! It’s getting a bit closer to 24 style nonsense every season, but Claire Danes’ ugly Carrie cry-face keeps me entertained just enough. I want to rip my ears off when they have the jazz sequences though. 

This season of Handmaid’s Tale was pretty incredible. Dark as fuck, but incredible nonetheless. But the three-pronged warning I give out to any new viewers is: don’t binge it, have a viewing partner if possible, and don’t watch if feeling fragile. It’s a lot! 

Glow S2 was better than S1 and I gleefully (glowfully?) lost myself in each and every one of those spandex filled 20 minute episodes. That’s my only complaint; the episodes are too short. It’s fun and easy but shows female friendships in a quality and quantity that’s rarely seen on tv. Also Debbie 🔥

I haven’t started it yet but am reliably informed that Amy Adams’ new show Sharp Objects is very good. Grim, but good. 

I realise that none of these are remotely sci-fi. There’s definitely a lack right now of quality genre shows, cough cough still not even watched all of this season of The100. But these are some that I’ve watched either fairly recently or a while back that I can recommend. 

Jessica Jones - I really enjoyed this last season. It wasn’t quite as exciting as the first, but I appreciated the change of tone and I think overall it’s a really well executed show. For me it’s essentially like Faith Lehane got her own spin-off, so I pretty much love it. I’m weak for hot chicks with superpowers wearing biker jackets n boots, loads of eyeliner and who’ll punch you in the face if you look at them the wrong way. 

Altered Carbon - With Dichen’s parts you can basically imagine you’ve dropped into some sort of futuristic Anya AU. We came for her but we ended up enjoying lots of other elements of the show. Yes, it rips off Bladerunner’s aesthetic and it’s quite derivative of other classic sci-fi. But I kind of liked that about it. It’s a bit clunky and a bit old school and definitely a bit cheesy. But I found all those things just made it more enjoyable. And I liked the sweeping arc of it being set over hundreds of years. I’m glad they’ve got a season 2 and a MOC has been cast in the lead role this time. I just wish we could get more Dichen in the buff throw-down sequences because wow.  

Sense8 - What’s not to love. Hot people, beautiful locations, smattering of questionable science fiction, ORGIES. 

Black Mirror - All the fucked up sci-fi not-so-future dystopia you can shake a sentient selfie stick at. I found earlier seasons stronger than the latest, but San Junipero is of course one of the finest hours of sci-fi tv, or any tv, ever. 

Utopia - Now not a lot of people know this one, British or otherwise. It was on Channel 4 in the UK and had two seasons. Highly recommend. It will absolutely twist your melon though, and be warned, there are some fairly graphic scenes of violence (but none sexual). It’s truly fucked up brilliance and Rose Leslie makes an appearance at the beginning of S2. It’s very stylised and uses a lot of comic-book imagery, and has some low-key sci-fi elements to it. I think it’s on Amazon or you can find it on streaming/download sites. 

And this is about as far from sci-fi as you can get but if you’ve never seen Kath and Kim I would run to Netflix right now and start watching. They just put it on there which when I heard caused my heart to burst with joy. It’s the silliest ever Australian comedy series and it’s the perfect look into Aussie humour. I plan on re-watching all of it. 

But I mean, in response to your question, I don’t really have time to watch much television as I’m sure you can tell from my very brief response…..

[mfmagazine]

Debby Ryan

Article by Kelli Kickham

Photo by Everette Perry

The life of an 18-year-old girl usually centers around boys, graduating high school and wondering "what next?" For teen star Debby Ryan, things are a little different. You probably know her from her role as Bailey on The Suite Life on Deck, and now she's getting ready for the premiere of her new show Jessie this fall. Ryan's pretty face has graced the covers of many teen magazines. There's plenty more to come from the talented young actress. She's known for her impeccable comedic timing and adorable smile, both of which she carries with an extraordinary level of poise. Rumor also has it that she bakes some pretty amazing pastries and plans to own a jet-pack sometime in the future. So, you may be wondering, "How can I even start to get to know the ins and outs of one of teen America's favorite stars?" Aw, I'm so glad you asked! Trust me, you've come to the right place.

You decided to pursue acting as a full-time career when you were 10 years old. That's a young age to be making any life decisions. Can you remember the thoughts that were going through your head when you made the decision "Yes, this is what I want to do"?

I realized that every amount of work and sacrifice was worth that moment: sitting by a velvet curtain, pulsing with the adrenaline of preparing to get lost in another world, and take people with me. I wanted to use every minute of free time between school, chores, dance, and homework to immerse myself in that realm. I found myself captivated with spending hours studying characters and acting styles, running lines, go to bed early so I could rehearse before school. That, to me, was better than going to the mall, and worth not having free time.

The Suite Life on Deck is all but wrapped up. Are you going to miss your cast mates? Did you make any friends you think you'll keep in touch with?

Of course. I realized I talk to at least one person or another from Suite Life almost every day. When you work with a group of people for 9 to 12 hours for three of some of the most monumental years of your life, it would be pretty hard not to form bonds. You see so many sides of these people, more often than family sometimes. Honestly, the cast and crew of Suite Life was such a diverse collection of people with so many different skills and experiences; I'm very excited to see where everyone goes from here.

So, moving on to the present-day, congratulations! You are starring in the show Jessie where you play the lead role as-- you guessed it-- Jessie. How are you feeling about the new show?

I'm proud- watching this artful machine with my name on it. Disbelief- that I get to come to work everyday and do what I do. Restless- always looking for some way to make it better. Anxious- can't wait to show my fans what I've been pouring my heart into for the last seven months. Developing this project was some of the most fun work I've ever done. Now that we are in production, it's not only meeting, but actually exceeding my exceptions. It already feels like a family, of such talented people. I get to tell such funny stories, on gorgeous sets, in amazing clothes, alongside talented people. What else could I possibly ask for?

Do you relate to your character at all?

Yeah, I mean, one of my favorite things about this role is that I get to play someone who was raised sort of similarly to my own upbringing. Except Jessie is a much cooler version of myself. She's sweetly strong; confident in her strength that she doesn't feel the need to try and prove it all the time. Plus, she's a funny chick. You know, we both babysat growing up and it seems to have really helped prepare us for the roles we've just found ourselves in. Jessie, as the nanny of 4 crazy kids with the world at their fingertips. Myself, at the helm of a young cast who's brand new to the sitcom world. We both grew up around the military world, and family is very important to us. Both Jessie and I have been encouraged from a young age to find our strength, and fight for the things we believe in.

All the Debby Ryan fans out there already know that singing is a huge passion for you. Do you get to do any writing or singing for this new show?

I always loved to write, and express myself through art. As I watched my brother Chase channel his passions into music, my words started to come with rhythms, and melodies. I'm most interested in the writing/producing side of music, but I can't go five minutes without singing or humming something. Plus, sometimes I write a story that I just need to tell in my voice. That's how "Open Eyes" and "Made of Matches" both were, even though they're insanely different...and Yes, I do get to work on and sing the theme song. Plus, we may or may not work some of my hobbies into the show, as well as how the cast and I have been spending our time [jam sessions!] but Disney and I have established that Jessie is not a music show.

When you work on your music, where do you look for inspiration?

I don't look for it. I couldn't. I never want to sit down with the intention of writing a song. That's when it becomes forced and contrived, and not art and expression. A lot of my writing comes from my acting; feeling what others are feeling and telling someone's story. Come to think of it, last night I wrote lyrics from the perspective of someone whose heart I've watched get broken. I see the situation as it is, why he does what he does, where it leaves him, but sometimes you need to blind yourself of the full view. When I look at him, alone by his own hand, and start to feel his cold of loneliness, trying to chase it away with unfulfilling sparks, holding too tightly and smothering the embers, and letting go the second the orange starts to fade, because it's all or nothing in his fairytale mind, and he's so afraid of being left again.. when my heart starts to break for someone, that's where I get the best songs.

Alright, so we know you're a busy girl. Moving from one TV series to another, working on your music career... assuming that you have any time to do anything extra, what do you do with your spare time? Any hobbies or interests that we might not yet know about?

Well lately, I've been obsessed with taking my kids on cast excursions. Glow in the dark mini golf, breakfast, Disneyland, etc. I go to concerts with my friends, download records, make playlists for my friends, and write about these experiences in my music blog, whoisdebbyanyway.tumblr.com.

Do you have any actresses that you look up to? Have you had the chance to talk or work with her/them?

Emma Stone, Tina Fey, Sandra Bullock, Zooey Deschanel...Growing up, I watched a lot of Amanda Bynes. There's something about a girl who can lose themselves in a role, comedy in particular, in such a ridiculous but genuine and earnest way. Smart, professional, directably, and fearless. Also, I totally see Tina Fey's business sense as a road map to my ideal career. I met Emma Stone at a premiere very briefly, and was enamored by her approachability. Some people fake it on screen. She's genuinely relatable, but still inherently cool. Zoe Saldana's that way as well. That's such a cool balance.

What's the most valuable piece of advice you've ever been given (career oriented or otherwise)?

Learn. Always listen. Ask questions. Soak it all up and use everything as a lesson and an opportunity to become better in every area. Also, learn multiple sides of your trade. I never learned certain things as an actor until I sat in the editing room on Suite Life after work, or the writer's room on hiatus, or shadowed a director during other people's scenes.

You're doing great with family-oriented shows on the Disney Channel. Are you hoping to branch into other genres?

I initially wanted to be in independent drama films, but I fell in love with multi-camera sitcom style. The older progression of what I do would be something like The Big Bang Theory or Friends. But I would like to branch into another genre of television: I watch a lot of NCIS, so something like that, or Psych or the Warehouse. That feels like a mini-film, with plenty of drama and splashes of comedy. Also, I've discovered randomly enough how much fun I have with my hosting gigs. As far as films go, ultimately, I'll be kicking butt in a fast paced action adventure.

What would be your dream role?

A sort of rogue modern-day superhero. Lara Croft, James Bond, Hit Girl, Indiana Jones' -hybrid chick. If Emma Stone's character in Zombieland had a setup like Catwoman.

Do you ever have trouble balancing your career and your personal life?

I learned early on that one of the biggest tools you need to be a successful actor is the understanding that you will have to give things up on one side to keep your priorities on the other side. I'm a person first. A daughter, sister, granddaughter, and friend first, and I have to be willing to say no to exciting or important things and keep promises to loved ones at all cost. It's all about balance, and you can never find the perfect one, but you should never ever give up trying.

Ok, you're a talented actress and singer, but let's talk about some things outside of your career!

Okay. I bake some pretty mean gluten-free brownies. ..from a mix, but still.. they're mean.

Do you have any pets?

Yes. My nugget Presley was the best 17th birthday present ever. He's a toy poodle, and totally converted me to a little dog person. I've been wanting a Siberian Husky or a lab, but I saw him and we pretty much fell in love. He's strong and tough and doesn't quite know he's a little dog, and I'm determined to keep it that way. I bought him a spiked collar, and whenever he goes anywhere, he walks or runs on his own four feet. And our family has a sweet older Yorkie named Daisy.

If you were able to be any animal, what would it be? Would you be domesticated (cared for, pet, spoiled) or wild (freedom, fighting, killing-for-your-food)?

Wolf. I'm definitely a pack animal, and I'd rather go hungry than be sustained by something canned and set in front of me.

Do you like to read in your free time?

Yes. I used to read a lot more when I was younger; now, it's more like I collect books with hopes of absorbing them through osmosis. Just began Frannie and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Salinger's tone is so cool. I'm usually into Shakespeare and C.S. Lewis, where you do a bit more translating of words and concepts, but this book vibes conversationally offbeat. Actually, the book was a gift. On the inside cover, it explains that, with the way I use words, I'm reminiscent of a modern day Salinger.

When it comes to things outside of the acting/music industry, who do you look to for advice or guidance?

My brother, Chase. He's got a great head on his shoulders and doesn't mind telling me the things I don't want hear, in a way where I can receive them.

Let's say you're taking an astronomy class, and as you're looking through the telescope you see a star not in the book. "Wow," your teacher explains-- you've discovered a brand-spanking-new star. What will you call it?

Wow, I'm honored. Go me, with my little telescope...I'd name it 'Galadriel', or 'a UFO'. "Hey look, up there! What's that star?" "Oh, that's 'a UFO'." "NO WAY!" "yes way. Debby discovered 'a UFO', last week. She saw it with her own two eyes." "gnarrllyyyyy!"

Another scenario: The world is being torn apart by a war. It's a war between ninjas and pirates. Which side do you choose?

Ninjas. They're agile and shifty, and I use words only when necessary.

Now you've chosen your side, a regular human name just won't do... what will your alias be?

Redemption.

There are a lot of young girls in the world who feel lost-- be it about family, relationships or what they want to do with their lives. Do you have any words of advice or encouragement?

I don't think you ever fully figure yourself out, because you are always growing and changing. Own that! Find the joy in surprising yourself. Explore the world around you and finding out how you feel about what you see. Try out new hobbies, styles, foods, cultures.. see what sticks. Its natural if you don't know just yet what you stand for, but you need to know what you stand against. Have an anchor so life doesn't toss you around. It's good to have a mentor who has achieved what you want to achieve. They can help you so much and you can learn from their mistakes.

[jennaschererwrites]

How 'GLOW' Recreates the Golden Age of Lady-Wrestling TV - Rolling Stone

No doubt about it: The 1980s was a strange time to channel surf. Those neon-tinted, big-haired, irony-free days have provided Internet curio-seekers with fodder for infinite terabytes of grainy, colorful ephemera. And one of the cornerstones of weird Eighties television was "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling" (G.L.O.W. for short), an all-female pro-wrestling league whose exploits were filmed in Las Vegas and syndicated nationwide.

It's the type of retro-kitsch from the Reagan era that could have vanished down the YouTube black hole – until Netflix resurrected it, sort of. The cult grappling-females show from yesteryear is monkey-flipping its way back to the surface in GLOW, the new series created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch and executive produced by Orange Is the New Black's Jenji Kohan. Starring Community and Mad Men alum Alison Brie, the ensemble dramedy features a diverse cast of ass-kicking actresses — and enough hairspray and spandex to send you straight back to 1985. (The entire 10-episode first season hits the streaming service today.)

"We both come from a theater background, so the theatricality of wrestling was definitely interesting to us," says Flahive. "There were these two modes the show could take on: the sort of grounded, naturalistic storytelling in these women's real lives, and then this heightened space of the ring. That interplay was super exciting."

Created by promoter David McLane and director Matt Cimber to cash in on WWE craze that was a hallmark of Eighties entertainment, the real-life G.L.O.W. featured a motley assemblage of women wrestlers fighting cooked-up battles in deliciously outlandish costumes. They represented a variety of body types, races and backgrounds, and sported monikers like Babe the Farmer's Daughter, Little Fiji, Zelda the Brain, and, uh, Stinky. It was simultaneously exploitative and liberating, a friction that makes it ripe for dramatic adaptation.

Flahive (Homeland, Adult Beginners) and Mensch (OITNB, Weeds) were both writing for Showtime's Nurse Jackie when they first came across the phenom via Brett Whitcomb's 2012 documentary GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. They'd been looking for a female-focused project to work on together, and latched on to G.L.O.W.'s gaudy, singular world. Their take keeps the story in the mid-Eighties but moves the action to Los Angeles, where struggling actor Ruth (Brie) finds herself auditioning to play "the heel" on an all-female wrestling TV show overseen by B-movie impresario Sam Sylvia (a wonderfully sleazy Marc Maron). She is our entry point into the lives of the other ladies who wind up inside the ring, all for their own various and complex reasons.

"I love Ruth. I sympathize with her," Brie says, calling in from L.A. "I feel like I've been her. I like that she's not a perfect person" The actor even had a Ruth-like experience in her quest to land the part, literally throwing herself into the role during her chemistry reading with costar Betty Gilpin, who plays her estranged best friend/onscreen nemesis Debbie. "The first time we read together, we really went all-out. We were full-on wrestling. Betty was lifting me up; I'd be crawling across the ground and she was dragging me back across the floor. And then the second time we read together, our director was like, 'Don't … do that.' I think the producers were like, 'Can you please not kill yourselves before you maybe get these roles?'"

When it came to the actual headlocks and body slams, Flahive and Mensch were looking for actors who were game to learn how to wrestle and do their own stunts when possible. To coach the performers, GLOW tapped none other than Chavo Guerrero Jr. of the legendary Mexican-American wrestling family. (His uncle Mando Guerrero was a trainer for the real-life G.L.O.W. fighters in the Eighties.)

Brie, who had no previous wrestling experience before signing on, recalls the day Guerrero was teaching her a move called the head scissor. "Helena Barrett, who was my stunt double on the show, was trying to break down the move," she says. "And she was like, 'When you feel your vagina hit Chavo's chin, you know you're in the right position. You really want to make contact crotch-to-chin.' This was right at the start of the show. I was sorta like, 'Okay. So this is what we're doing. I'm in.' You really become very free with your body very quickly. We've all cultivated an immense confidence."

The world of women's wrestling – particularly in the GLOW era – is portrayed in the series as being simultaneously exploitative and empowering. The women in the ring walk the line between being scantily clad objects to gawk at and performers given an arena to express themselves in a brash, physical way. The show also plays with the crude, racially charged stereotypes of wrestling personas and lets its characters find power in subverting them.

"Thinking about where the line is in wrestling in terms of what's funny and what's offensive," Mensch explains, "that gave us a kind of permission to take on some more uncomfortable things and examine them and play with them. That tension was something we never wanted to resolve. We wanted to keep it alive and use it as the motor for a lot of our storytelling."

"It's not about women tearing each other down," says Brie. "It's about women working together to find themselves. And the thing that they're making, in whatever way that men are going to interpret it, whether it's exploitative or what, they aren't seeing it that way. They are really feeling like superheroes in the ring, and finding their voice and their inner warrior."

And unlike most modern shows set in the Eighties, the show feels like a true period piece rather than a slick slice of nostalgia. Both the glam and the grit of the era are on display, from the tricked-out mansion of a manchild producer (Chris Lowell) to the worn leotards and scuffed sneakers the women wear to wrestling practice. For inspiration, the creators watched movies like The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) and The Apple (1980), keeping an eye on the background actors who would often bring their own costumes to set. "It felt important to us that if the ring was going to be this kind of Technicolor dream, then real life needed to be as grounded as we could make it," says Mensch.

Flahive and Mensch are also quick to note that they were drawn to the era not just for its aesthetic, but also the significance of the historical moment to the story they wanted to tell. "We wanted to look back on the Seventies – coming out of the women's movement – and into the Eighties, and ask the question: Did it work? Did things get better?" Flahive says. "We were pitching the show pre-Trump, and we went into the pitch saying things like, 'This is a great time for women. We're about to elect our first female president.' So a sort of double looking back is something that's really present in the show."

Even though women didn't end up being in charge of the country, they were most certainly in charge on the GLOW set. And according to Brie, being part of a female-dominated production created a space where it felt safe to take chances. "It felt unlike any set that I had ever been on," she says. "It was such an open, warm, environment, and very encouraging and comfortable. I think that was important, because we were taking a lot of risks with our bodies, in a literal way in the ring – and we needed to feel protected and safe. The women owned the set. It was our set."

[wherever-i-look-blog]

Goliath Jackson (Winston James Francis) playing Carmen’s dad in GLOW.

GLOW refocuses on the yet to be developed characters and takes a keen interest in Sheila, Carmen, and a little bit into Tammé.

Sheila

Sheila is not a wolf. She knows she is not a wolf. But something about wolves are empowering to her and that is why she puts on the makeup, the dusty wig, and takes on the persona[note]She’s been doing it for 5 years now.[/note]. If you were looking for an explanation beyond that? Well, good luck.

Commentary

Before the makeup and wig.

After the makeup and wig.

Um, okay. Was I expecting some grand, the wolf is how I channel my power after a tragic incident? Kind of. But I think that thought process stems from the idea that people can’t just be weird. Like, being weird is more so a by-product of trauma. Be it something as small as not having friends to being assaulted. So with it seeming Sheila is weird because that’s just who she is, I appreciate it. I also appreciate how Ruth just accepts this. It takes a little time, but she understands through something happening to her and her channeling Anne of Green Gables to see her through.

Carmen: Carmen, Rhonda

Carmen explaining to Rhonda (Kate Nash) that she stares at her breasts since she hasn’t seen any but her own and her brother’s.

As noted, Carmen comes from a wrestling family. Her dad is a wrestler, her brothers are a wrestler, but she isn’t allowed to be. Goliath Jackson, her father, expects her to live a normal life. He wants her to meet a nice man, get a respectable job, and let that be it. However, Carmen grew up around wrestling and loves it.

I mean, since her mom left, this is the most women Carmen has ever been around. Perhaps one of the few times she has had female friends. At least her friendship with Rhonda (Kate Nash) makes that seem so. Much less her ability and desire to be kind to Ruth despite the homewrecker moniker. So at the age of 25, she decides she isn’t going to continue to deal with her dad’s hypocrisy and she is sticking with GLOW.

Commentary

When I look on IMDB and see the genre tags of “Comedy, Drama” I find myself trying to understand how this show is either. It’s not that funny and while we get touching moments like what Carmen had, it doesn’t fit what drama traditionally holds. Though, in general, this isn’t a traditional show, right? So why expect its version of what’s funny to be something that cracks any and all people up? Much less, I find myself having to remember that not every show or movie is pushing for awards. Sometimes they are just trying to provide entertainment.

Which I know seems off topic when it comes to Carmen, but hear me out. When it comes to Carmen, she is sort of the first character who tows the line between comedic and dramatic. Being that this show is dealing with stereotypes, misogyny, and also womanhood, she is perhaps one of the few who can take a joke, is treated like a joke, but has feelings too.

We sort of saw that in Melrose, but she has become pure comic relief at this point. So Carmen, be it helping with someone else’s struggle or her own, is the only one who brings both a sort of goofy comic appeal while being involved in emotional storylines. Even if it is something as simple as threatening to leave her dad like her mom did.

Offensive & Difficult: Tammé, Ruth, Debbie

Tammé (Kia Stevens) talking to Keith, Cherry’s husband, about working with Sam.

Tammé (Kia Stevens) was cool playing the Welfare Queen for a minute. However, with a son in Stanford and it really hitting her this character will be on TV, she has some thoughts. But being that Sam doesn’t care about political correctness and thinks the commentary is wonderful, he doesn’t want to budge. In fact, he gives some of his tapes to Tammé so she can understand who she is working with. Thus leading to a Blood Disco viewing with the girls, and Keith.

Someone Tammé asks about working with Sam. For she is really trying to understand if the man is racist, just plain insensitive, or maybe she is in her feelings. Which leads to Keith saying Sam is more sexist than racist. Thus answering that question.

As for Debbie? Well, same old same old. She can’t deal with her husband much anymore, he refuses to leave the house, so she leaves. Making this whole Sam and Sebastian, “Commune at a motel for awhile” thing a blessing. She, unlike the other girls, gets her own room, there is a pool and enough space for baby Randy. Unfortunately though, living at the motel, a mandatory thing if anyone wants to get paid, means seeing Ruth.

Yet, with no friends, even among the girls, maybe Ruth may have to do. Yes, she is the mistress of her marriage. However, she was nice once. They could maybe be friends again. Not today, not tomorrow, but with some time.

Commentary

Touching on the gimmick thing, a part of me honestly wonders if Stevens ever was approached with such a character. For I can truly picture WWE, especially in the 90s, perhaps putting a character out like this. Back when they were trashy and wonderful. But while on that thought, I do feel compelled to wonder what is Stevens take on all this? After all, she is the only one of the reoccurring cast members, that I know of, that was an actual wrestler. So I do wonder if this story mirrors hers or if the characters mirror people she has worked with [note]I honestly wish, in my own way, this was her show at times.[/note].

As for the Debbie situation? I won’t be a broken record. I’ll just note that I am looking to see how Ruth ends up back on good terms with her. It isn’t on the top of my list of what I’d like to see by the end of the season, but it’s somewhere near the bottom.

#GLOW: Season 1/ Episode 4 "The Dusty Spur" - Recap/ Review (with Spoilers) GLOW refocuses on the yet to be developed characters and takes a keen interest in Sheila, Carmen, and a little bit into Tammé.

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

Emmys 2018: How ‘GLOW’ Became a Life-Changing Experience for Alison Brie (Exclusive)

Alison Brie delivered one of ET's Standout Performances of the 2017-18 season.  

“I often think I am my truest self when I am Zoya the Destroya in the ring,” Alison Brie tells ET, referring to the wrestling persona she embodies on Netflix’s summer darling GLOW. The series, about the formation of a women’s wrestling league, sees the former Community and Mad Men star playing Ruth, a struggling actress who auditions for a spot in the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, a fledgling 1980s syndicated TV series. The show follows the league of 14 women -- mostly new to the sport -- who come together to challenge themselves and each other both inside and outside the ring.

While Ruth is a persistent, calculated individual, concerned about screen time and initially resistant to the idea of degrading herself for a role, Zoya, her wrestling alter ego, is a different character entirely. The Russian caricature is free of inhibitions, full of confidence and bravado, unafraid to taunt her many costumed counterparts.

While an entire cadre of women seemingly inspired Brie’s Ruth, her biggest inspiration for Zoya is, well, herself, the Hollywood native says with a laugh during a recent interview with ET, recognizing how silly that might sound. “What a total narcissist,” Brie says. “I like to channel myself, I’m very inspired by myself for this role. What!” But the actress -- whose humility shines through in her thoughtful answers and easy manner -- has good reason for counting herself among her own inspirations for her onscreen characters.

“It’s like tapping into my childhood silliness, or any stage of my life -- times in high school or college or even on the set of Community, the way we used to make jokes and do characters and voices off-camera with each other,” she says. “The silliest way I like to joke is embodied by Zoya.”

It’s an apt metaphor for the role that Brie plays on GLOW, which returns for a second season on June 29. Created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the Netflix series chronicles the changes that the women undergo as they learn to empower themselves through the rough-and-tumble sport -- primarily by shedding their inhibitions and getting closer to themselves.

“The show as a whole felt very different from anything I had ever worked on before, in tone, [and] I found it to be very intriguing and tricky, too,” Brie says. “It seemed a little dangerous in that respect, that if we don’t do it right, it could go really wrong. If we do it right, it could be really special, which was exciting.”

So much of the transformation that Brie’s character undergoes in adopting a new wrestling persona parallels Brie’s own transformation as an actress. “I went through this empowering experience training for [GLOW], and then while shooting the show, the character is getting in touch with that aspect of herself,” the actress says, adding that it’s a “dream job” to play two characters on screen.

Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin in a scene from season one of 'GLOW.'

Netflix

“It’s almost like you’re acting on two different shows at times. There’s one show when we’re outside the ring that is very nuanced and there’s a lot of subtlety to it, and you’re playing very real human emotions and situations. And then we get into the ring and we’re shooting the show GLOW within our show and suddenly I’m Zoya the Destroya and nothing is off-limits and you can be as big as you want to be, as silly as you want to be. There are no wrong answers, and it’s insane! And so fun.”

Wrestling itself was also a challenge for Brie, who had never really watched it before joining the series. Training lasted for four weeks leading up to season one, and another four weeks prior to shooting season two. The women worked with stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins and Chavo Guerrero Jr., a wrestler whose uncle, incidentally, trained the original women of GLOW (“So you can enjoy that coincidence!” Brie says with a laugh).

“I am a really physical person,” she says. “I’ve been training with my personal trainer and doing strength training for seven years now, so there was this side of myself that I felt like I really wanted to showcase, and [that] no one would suspect would be something that I would do, you know? I’ve been looking for a project that would allow me to be more physical, and in my mind, I sort of thought that it would come in the form of a movie, so I was actively looking for a cool action movie or something that people would let me audition for, and then this show came along, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this is exactly the thing that I've been wanting to do.’”

Once she started really digging into her training for the show -- “a lot of it is about heavy lifting and really focusing on certain muscle groups and building them,” she explains -- she felt like she had crossed a threshold and couldn’t go back to her previous way of viewing workouts: as simply a way to burn calories and stay trim.

“The wrestling training was the most life-changing part of the GLOW process, because it was very scary and it was very exciting,” Brie says, before correcting herself. “I didn’t feel very scared going into it, actually. Only excited and very naive about it. But very gung-ho about it, too. All of the women were. It turned out to be this amazing bonding experience for all of us to learn this new physical feat together, and everyone was really surprised in ourselves everyday of the things we were capable of and were still learning from each other. We had to be really vulnerable with each other right away because we had to get really physical and really intimate with each other right away, like, ‘So, you’re going to put your chin against my vagina and then kick your legs up,’ you know?”

In addition to learning stunts, Brie started weight training, building both strength and confidence, as she went from being unable to do one pushup to now being able to complete multiple sets. While she hasn’t bulked up -- at least not intentionally -- she’s much more lean, allowing her to reportedly do 100 percent of her stunts on the show. “It was also really empowering to just use our bodies in a different way and in a strong way, and for me to think of my body as an athlete and not just as an actress,” she says.

One of Brie’s favorite memories from shooting season one, in fact, took place in the ring, during a scene that she shot with costar Betty Gilpin, who plays her best friend-turned-nemesis-turned-lukewarm-friend Debbie. In the scene, producer Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) is envisioning a fantasy sequence of what GLOW could be, with Ruth and Debbie as the headlining event -- Ruth as the “heel” and Debbie as the “face.” The scene was shot in the Mayan, a nightclub and theater space in downtown Los Angeles (“where I’d actually been to see a wrestling match before,” Brie notes), and involved an arena full of several hundred extras.

After the stunt doubles warmed up the set, helping cameras to get all the right angles and marking all the right spots, Brie and Gilpin themselves stepped into the ring, much to the background actors’ surprise. “I think the audience just assumed that [the stunt doubles] were gonna do the match and we were just gonna jump in and do the dialogue,” Brie says. “And so when Betty and I got into the ring and just did the whole match, top to bottom, with a body slam and a front three-quarter and stuff like that, the crowd went crazy, and you could sense that it was genuine. Betty and I had so much adrenaline. I’d never felt so powerful. I felt like I could lift up a car. I didn’t feel a thing, my body was numb. I was like, ‘Body slam me 30 more times,’ you know? I just felt totally invincible, like a god.”

 MORE STANDOUT PERFORMANCES OF THE SEASON:

Emmys 2018: How Laurie Metcalf and Zoe Perry Could Make Emmy History (Exclusive)

Emmys 2018: Sarah Jessica Parker Plays to Her Strengths on Season Two of ‘Divorce’ (Exclusive)

Emmys 2018: Holland Taylor Looks Forward to Sharing an Emmys Moment With Sarah Paulson (Exclusive)

[retailtouchpoints]

Editors Share Top Takeaways From #RIC18

The 2018 Retail Innovation Conference has come and gone, but not without showcasing its fair share of content and insights from some of today’s greatest industry minds. C-level execs from Walmart, 1-800-Flowers.com, TechStyle Fashion Group, 99 Cents Only, Sleep Number, Boxed, West Elm, Overstock and Adore Me peeled back the curtain of their retail strategies to reveal how to meet the customer at every turn.

The RTP editorial team shares their biggest takeaways from RIC18 keynotes, breakout sessions, Retail Innovator Award Winners and even mystery shopping studies.

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: The Retail Innovation Conference confirms the importance of bringing together retail executives with different titles and responsibilities, representing different types of retail segments. It’s become clearer every year that retailers must continue to break down their internal silos and work together — across Merchandising, Marketing, IT, Finance, Store Operations — in order to deliver the cohesive brand experience today's digitally demanding shoppers are looking for. Every RIC18 session featured influential retail leaders sharing their insights with an audience of decision-makers across business roles. That's the key takeaway that RIC promises and delivers every year.

Adam Blair, Executive Editor: My biggest takeaway from RIC 2018 came during the Store Tours, specifically the Williams Sonoma flagship at the Shops at Columbus Circle. It was about all the elements, visible and hidden, that go into creating a really inviting retail experience. Williams Sonoma isn’t content to just show you great products. The store stimulates all your senses: taste, with a food or drink sample offered right at the entrance; smells that are literally curated for each season; touch (in our case, how to properly use a knife to chop vegetables, which apparently I’ve been doing incorrectly for decades); and sounds (such as those coming from the frequent cooking demonstrations in the back of the store). The planning involved in calibrating these stimuli, and executing on them on a daily basis, shows that there’s no such thing as a small detail in retail.

Marie Griffin, Managing Editor: To me, the best thing about RIC was the ability of the speakers and panelists to take concepts we write about regularly and drive them home in new ways. Take personalization. As Ernan Roman, President of ERDM Corp., explained, consumers expect retailers to know them from their buying habits and other behaviors, and they are willing to trade data for more personalized experiences — but they rarely get them. Even online-first retailers, most notably Amazon, haven’t evolved in this area. “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” and “Customers who bought this item also bought” seemed helpful in 2002, but they waste too much precious time in 2018. In contrast, Traci Inglis, President of JustFab and Shoedazzle (divisions of the TechStyle Fashion Group) said that her company produces emails that are unique to each of its 2.5 million members based on their clicks, purchases and fashion preference info they provide on their first site visit. With AI and machine learning, one-to-one marketing at scale in possible, and consumers are coming to expect it. If you’re not there — or not willing to partner with a company that can get you there rapidly — you are more vulnerable than you probably realize.

Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor: The theme that stood out to me throughout RIC was the need for retailers to continue to seek out ways to adapt. Look no further than the story of 1-800-Flowers.com. Once most known for its toll-free phone number and delivery service, the retailer always has managed to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to disruption within the industry. 1-800-Flowers.com actually partnered with AOL in 1994 to have a presence on the platform. This was well before the Internet blew up in the late 1990s, giving the company one of the first mainstream e-Commerce presences. More than a decade later, the retailer began making investments in mobile even as most companies were losing money on the channel. CEO Chris McCann noted during his closing keynote that even though the company took a near-term hit, it was much more prepared for the proliferation of mobile shopping than just about everyone else: more than half of 1-800-Flowers.com consumers purchase on mobile devices today. Retailers can definitely take notes from what the leaders are doing to meet the consumer where they shop, but it’s going to take an investment and a risk.

Bryan Wassel, Associate Editor: As a relative newcomer to the retail industry, attending RIC was a bit like jumping into the deep end of the pool for the first time: frightening, yet exhilarating. More than anything, it was a glimpse into an industry caught in a fascinating transition, from the continuing evolution of Walmart discussed by CIO Clay Johnson, to the numerous disruptors who showed how their up-and-coming companies are finding new ways to sell old products. The one recurring theme throughout the conference was that retailers need to be willing to take chances, fail fast and learn from their mistakes. Behaviouralist Ken Hughes emphasized the importance of this process in his breakout session, particularly how taking risks is one of the key inputs in generating creativity and innovation. Even then, it’s never over: Erica Yamamoto, Director of Lifecycle Marketing & Customer Experience at zulily, noted that it’s critical to incorporate any innovations across the company rather than rest in the glow of a job well down.

[sailingbrisa]

Shelter Bay and the Panama Canal

We arrived in Shelter Bay Marina on Friday … sent an email to the Eric the agent who would help us get through the canal and did our Customs clearance and immigration after a taxi and ferry ride into Colon. Easy and friendly… wouldn’t say fast though. We had to wait until Wednesday to be measured and spent our time exploring the jungles around Shelter Bay, swimming in the pool and meeting fellow cruisers from all over the world on their way to many different destinations. Significantly for me.. most of the people here were a different type of cruiser to what I was used to. Mostly the St. Martin cruisers are used to sailing around the Caribbean, always fairly close to land and a bar. In panama they cruisers were more exploration oriented and had stories of great remote little anchorages all over Central America. Elwin and Ross went for a mega hike… I think in all about 18km round trip in brutal heat and humidity, out to the old fort. Lots of cool animals and good memories.

 We finally had everything we needed so we packed up and shipped out for a 132 nmovernight hop to Boccas Del Torro. A surf/ party destination. We arrived, had a Red Bull and went for a walk around. There were a lot of hostels and Europeans and commercialization, so we zoomed across to one of the nearby islands and explored the mangroves. We were hoping to see lots of dolphin, but we were only welcomed in and out of the main channel and didn’t see any others. We decided to pull anchor and head off to Bluefields Lagoon… supposedly a beautiful anchorage filled with fish and fairly remote. It got its name from a Dutch Pirate… so Elwin was happy. WE went snorkeling and climbing around a big gannet hatchery.. loads of fish everywhere and beautiful warm water.. Almost too warm I think! We got back to Brisa and ross had managed to get 6 lobster for 7 dollars… good size ones too so we got stuck into barbeque lobster with garlic butter off of the grill. LOVING IT! The bay was beautiful and we enjoyed watching the local school kids in uniforms so white it hurt to look at paddling across the bay in their little traditional dugouts. They would all stop by to say hi and get some candy from us! I gave one of the bigger kids who was learning English a book about Babara Kendals windsurfing history…. He didn’t believe I knew her, but said he would take it to his school for the English library… now apparently they had 12 books in English! He was very excited.. so Babara.. if you ever wash up in Bluefields I imagine the kids will now who you are. J We anchored very close to a little fishing village in deep water. That night we had a flashlight on the ladder… but crazy jumping fish hit it and knocked it off the boat and it sank to the bottom in 50 feet of water, leaving just a faint glow. As we were right beside some mangroves and had heard of big crocodile stories… I wasn’t about to go in there and get it.. but came up with a plan to use one of our sinking lures to hook the string on the light. I was sitting there for about half an hour bouncing the jig of the bottom and I had only caught a couple of plastic bags, when all of a sudden there was the unmistakable strike of a big heavy fish… I handed Elwin the rod and he pulled … but nothing moved. I think we hooked a big ray or Nurse shark.. because it wasn’t even noticing it had been hooked. Sadly we snapped the end off the rod trying to get it up to unhook it… and then the line broke too…. Needless to say I didn’t go down there to get the light……

 We pulled up the anchor and motored off to Isla Escudo DE Veraguas…. A little island about 25 miles off of the Panamanian Coast. 5 hours later we anchored in a spectacular little island. Beautiful sand beaches, awesome little islands and caves and bays, potential for surf.. but we didn’t manage to time the swell well. We brought more lobster and went exploring the island.. snorkeling incredible reefs filled with fish and lobster, touched nurse sharks… and napped in the evening. The next day was my birthday and we spent it eating lobster, snorkeling and windsurfing on the JP convertible stand up board as there was only light wind. Elwin was a pro after his first couple of hours of trying. I received a great hammock, a thermos to keep my water cold and my midnight watch coffee hot and a great mug from the boys! Awesome gifts. I have to say I enjoyed the day there very very much with a great crew doing exactly what I had always dreamed of doing with Brisa.

 We sadly left the little island.. but knowing we would soon be crossing Central America in the Panama Canal started to sink in and as we motored ( yeah that’s all we do these days as there is almost no wind anywhere here ) back towards Shelter Bay I told Brisa to enjoy her last few days in the Caribbean salt and to get ready to explore a new ocean.

 Now I wish I could say the trip back up was routine… but this time of year in the tropics we have massive land mass thunderstorms.. slow moving very active and covering between 6 and 10 miles. Darkness really makes these monsters impressive as you can see the forks of lightening very clearly and they were slowly getting closer and closer. WE were about 20 miles out to sea but the closer we came to the marina the less distance there was between the storms and the coast .. leaving us about 2 miles offshore in the middle of a big thunderstorm… luckily we made it through with no damage and popped out the other side and made out entry into the breakwater by the canal just as the storm we just went through came back and got us again. It was now about 130am… puring rain and I was driving around using the radar to know where I was… I found a big ship and went over beside it figuring if the lightening came this way it would hit that big boat before Brisa…great idea until Ross comes up and asks me why we are sitting bobbing around in the thunderstorm by an LPG tanker… lol. Zoom off we go and arrive in the tiny entrance to shelter bay with about 500 yards visibility and lightening everywhere. The dockmaster standing there at 3am flashlight and radio in hand smiling at us form under his raincoat. Thanks Dockmaster Frank! You rule. We tied up.. I took a shower under the rain and curled up in bed about 430 am after a loooong day. The highlight apart from making it in one piece was just after dinner… literally as I Said “ Ross thanks great meal! Now all we need is to get lucky before sunset.. “ at that very second the reel took off and we hooked a great little spearfish… basically a marlin with a little nose. Thirty minutes later he was by the boat, we gave him a little slack in the line, the hook fell out and I didn’t have to wrestle any angry pointy nosed fish again! Ross had requested to catch a marlin on the trip so we ticked that off the list! I think for Elwin he was pretty damn happy with having enough lobster that he could throw one in with his ramen noodles…J For me the highlight was the night thunderstorms and dodging them .. and making it into Shelter Bay marina in the middle of it all. Great fun.

 The next day we spent getting ready for the Panama Canal crossing. Checking the engines, receiving the buoys and long ropes we would need for the locks… 3 up +100’ and 3 down – 100’ and about 37 miles of motoring through the canals with all the big ships. And about 5 pm we motored across the canal and anchored at the flats anchorage awaiting our advisor to arrive between 4 and 5 am the following day. Debbie and Bob were also onboard as our line handlers. I went up[ the mast to see why the anchor light wasn’t working and basically the wiring fell apart in my hands… oops .. maybe I should of waited until we got through the canala to “fix” that eh? I spent a very rolly hour and a half up there fixing the little wires back together and … voila problem not solved. Still no anchor light. So we had a look the next day in the control box in the anchor locker, joined a broken wire and voila problem fixed.

 The advisor didn’t show up until about 1pm.. and with him onboard we followed a big ship up the canal and said our goodbyes to the Caribbean as we passed the construction of the new Panama Canal bridge and entered our first lock. We were with a big boat, a tug and a beautiful sailboat called Altos. WE tied up beside them and uneventfully passed through the three locks. We had to tie up to a mooring ball for the night in the Gatun Lake and as the sunset we spotted some manatees playing close to the boat, got some great photos and had a few Balboa beers as a reward for leaving the Caribbean. Brisa sitting 100’ above sea level in a fresh water man made lake!

 The next day at 745 our next advisor showed up and off we went across the Gatun lake.. about 26 miles from start to the next lock… it was beautiful scenery, cool to see the huge new panama boats and be up close and personal with all the commercial traffic… but Brisa didn’t skip a beat. N fact since we left she has been nothing short of exceptional. We showed up at the next locks a little early so tied up to another bouy for about an hour waiting for the other ships we would go down the next locks with. We went in first, the dockhands threw us little lines on monkey fists and then pulled back out lines. As we would go through three locks, each about 30 feet down, we would need to pay out line evenly on all four corners to keep the boat straight. The three locks went by without incident and we pootled out into the PACIFIC! Brisa motoring under the bridge of the Americas and we took a mooring ball in front of the Balboa Yacht Club, went to TGIF and had some food and beer and then back to Brisa for a good sleep.

 Bob and Debbie were a bit sad as they knew this was possibly the last time we would see each other for a while… but like all sailors.. they knew it wasn’t the last time. We really had a lot of fun going through the canal.. and it was an amazing feeling to see Brisa floating there with the Panama canal behind us and the Pacific Ocean calling her name. I guess that is one right of passage for every sailor, but not every boat.

 The next day we went to Casco Viejo to take care of some paperwork with the rental of my little apartment there. We all stopped into the Red Bull office to say hi to everyone. Was great to see the guys and girls again!

 Next we picked up some parts that had been ordered and went to the fishing shop to get a couple of our reels that were there being repaired, brought Elwin some flippers, a three prong spear gun and a replacement fishing rod for the one we broke in Bluefields. Heheheh. Great fun.

 That afternoon refueled and relocated to the other side of the Amador Causeway. Interestingly the Marina wanted to charge us 21. Usd to park our dingy while we brought supplies and had dinner at their restaurant and shops….. ??? Huh? Incredible. So we told them we didn’t like their attitude and off we went to climb up the rocks and go get some supplies. Red Bull, beer, bread and coffee. The next day Ross and I zapped off to super 99 in the mall for some resupplying. WE had a great time there buying up everything we needed and an even more entertaining time while we watched the lady at the register try to work out how to use the Vale Panama food stamps that I had been keeping from my time working in Panama. Was pretty sad when even with a calculator the lady had to count 110 little $3 vale panama tickets 8 times to work out how much I had given her….. even with a calculator she couldn’t get that 10 x 3 = 30. It literally took us 40 minutes for her to sort that out and eventually the packing boy helped her count as obviously he had finished high school.

 Then we head outside and I wont take the little yellow taxis in Panama. They continuously try and rip you off and have shitty attitudes. So I walk out with Ross and the bagging guy form super 99 that can count, and dial up an Uber. At least 40 taxis stop while im there and ask if I need a ride and a big police man comes over and asks why im not getting in the taxi. I explain the shitty time ive had with Taxis and that id wait a week for an Uber before getting in the taxi and he gives me some shit about Uber not being legal. The Uber dirver shows up, the cop stops him and asks for all his papaers… lol. Everything legal and the cop calls his boss… who explains that it isn’t illegal and the cop lets us go, saying Ubers time is almost up in Panama. Jajjajaja. The driver was super cool and wished the officer a lovely day.

 We got back to the boat dropped off the food and I went for dingy gas while the boys organized the food. AS soon as I got back we started the engines and headed for Las Perlas Islands, showing up around 430pm and straight into glassy clean lefts and rights. Not so big, but just me and Elwin in the lineup. Lots of waves ridden before sunset. Very positive start to our surfing mission in the Pacific as the goal of it all is to surf un-crowded remote areas…. And this definitely was one of those.

 Today we got up early and went for a look around the island. Dragged the dingy up the beach a little and went for a twenty minute walk.. when we came back the dingy was 20 feet up the beach. Huge tides here are something that will take us a while to get used to. We surfed a little bigger waves this am, but the wind was a little onshore in front of a big thunderstorm, so we came back, had lunch and played gin while we waited for the lightening to stop! Now as the tide drops we are foaming for another glassy evening surf session!!!

[eyeofnewtblog]

Chapter Seventy-Three

Yzin has always been grateful for her biological disposition for waiting. Events fall clearly into one of two categories: they either require action, or waiting, and she is genetically predisposed to out-wait her predators. She is also highly skilled at calculating the probability of her actions consequences.

But here, and now, it is difficult to say which is happening. She is perched on David’s shoulder, listening to eight frequencies coming into the control center of the flagship, listening as the fleet nudges into position, listening as tens of thousands of lives ready themselves to confront a threat that she has trained them for. Not all of them, not personally; but she recognizes every officer voice hailing in.

David is standing with his feet planted, arms crossed, and his head just slightly angled so that his cheek is flush with her wing. She knows this pose, has her neck craned over his head so that they can watch the displays on opposite sides with out him turning.

“Rachel has the medical evacuations in place,” Yzin murmurs, too soft to carry to anything but David’s ear. She watches the displays as Rachel orders system shut downs, hiding the emergency response team ships in the asteroid belt, cutting them off from everything but basic life support and incoming signals.

“Debbie just lined up,” David murmurs back, but Yzin doesn’t dare to turn and watch the fading dots of Debbies ships disappearing into the magnetic fields of the systems first planet.

“Planet evacuations at twenty percent,” Yzin says in response.

“The poor?” David asks.

“Possibly. Major cities are more biologically diverse, but this planet was originally settled by humans. You know how farmers get about their cows.”

She can feel David’s mouth pull wide, into that hard, mean grin he gets sometimes, the feathers of her wing shifting with the pull of his facial muscles. He presses his nose into her as well, for one brief moment, as if he’s trying to hide his reaction.

There’s a crackle of static before a new transmission feed pops up, cutting across the fleet channels and hijacking the broadcast beacons.

Mary’s face is the only thing projecting from the signal, her dark curls lost at the edges of the capture field and the blue of her eyes faded from the glow of the projector, but her voice is hard and loud across the signal

“Calling all trucks, this here’s the Duck. We about to go a-huntin’ bear.”

The transmission clicked off, just as Mike’s face projected up on a private channel.

“What the ever loving fuck, Dave!”

“I left her with you!” David yelled back.

“Mike, please don’t think that I won’t peck out your eyes and liver once David is done with you.”

“You said she got you out, not ‘oh, hey, my unsupervised grandchild stole several ships, bombs, and miscellaneous other weapons in the process of rescuing me from slavery and slaughter, so you might want to treat her with slightly more caution than the average teenager,’ which would have been fucking helpful!”

“It was-” David tried.

“Shut the fuck up, I’m not done.” Mike snarled. “She hijacked a commercial freightliner shipping mining explosives, with an unregistered rouge AI, a Too’orlian pilot, and four Morin engineers! Where the fuck did she find Morin engineers in the TEN MINUTES I left her alone?”

“Um.” David said.

“That explains how they ended up in the pit with us,” Yzin said.

“YOU RESCUED THEM?” Mike screamed.

“What, I was supposed to leave the nearest people in my vicinity completely helpless?” David threw his hands out, jostling Yzin with the movement.

“THEY’RE BASICALLY SPACE DOGS, DAVE! We haven’t had any come through because their planet is still negotiating peace treaties with the Galactic Senate, and it’s taking ten years longer than it should because they pack bond the same way humans do! And you left your grandchildren alone with them!”

“I left my grandchildren alone with you,” David jabbed a threatening finger at the holo projection.

“Incoming!” Yzin screamed over both of them.

There was one commercial freighter, sans cargo, hauling at top speed for their position, with a Too’orlian fleet hot on their trail.

“Hold fire!” David yelled, his voice echoing across the lines.

Yzin watched the count, the freighter taking hit after hit, stray shots blasting off the wall of the defense line, until the freighter had passed the line.

“All ships, open fire,” Yzin ordered, not daring to shield her eyes from the flash of laser cannon as it bombarded the Too’orlian fleet at full strength and close range.