#miles teller is always solid no matter what he's in

[lullabiestoparalyze]

holy shit the casting for The Offer is next level. find me a better robert evans, a better brando, or caan, or pacino, or coppola. i dare you

my. god.

[secretlysheikah]

Blood and Bowstring 

Well well well, I have something special for all of you! To celebrate getting to 200 followers on this little angsty blog of mine, I have decided it would be fun to write a little something for you all to enjoy. Its not very long, But I hope you like it! 

Thank you all so much for supporting me and my writing! I don’t know where you all came from, but I am so happy you decided to join me. Thank you!

Start Here:

Wild as he was now called was still wary of the eight other heroes, but that was to be expected considering his past. Wild had spent his adventure alone, and even now, after his adventure was done he often found himself wandering Hyrule alone. It felt freeing, not having to answer to anyone but himself. But now, being around this large and rowdy group, he realized just how lonely he had been. He still wanted to have privacy, felt the urge to wander, but as a whole he didn’t mind the others. The various Links hadn’t been together for long but Wild could feel the tenuous bonds of friendship beginning to grow between them.  

It had been about three weeks since Wild had been... Recruited? Asked to join? Added to the group, and there had been a bit of a learning curve. He had to learn how to fight in a group, which was a pain and he couldn’t just wander off anymore without being rounded up (by a wolf of all things) and then getting a lecture for his trouble. The chain, as the youngest of the group had dubbed them, had a mission, a dangerous one and it wouldn’t be good if he got lost or hurt when he wandered. Thinking of their mysterious mission Wild honestly didn’t really know what that they were supposed to be doing. Besides traveling between the different eras of Hyrule and fighting powerful monsters there didn’t seem to be much direction as of yet. Wild was pulled from his thoughts when a voice piped up from across the camp.

“Who do you think is the best archer?” Wind asked from his place next to the fire. They had just finished dinner and everyone was chatting amicably as they relaxed. This question had the group pause in their collective conversations as they pondered the question. 

“Well I don’t want to brag, but I have shot keese from a far distance before.” The one called Warriors said proudly adjusting his blue scarf before he mimicked shooting an arrow.

“A keese? Are you kidding me pretty boy, how about something actually impressive,” Legend scoffed and was playfully jabbed in the side by the brown haired boy. Wild tried to recall the name of the other boy but found he was drawing a blank. 

Wild had struggled with the names of his fellow heroes for a while now, there were some names he was able to remember easily. Like Legend, the distinctive pink in his hair made it easy for Wild to remember his name. Well that, and the fact that Legend often came off as a standoffish prick with the ability to cut your pride in half with a sentence also helped. Wild struggled to recall the name of the brown haired boy for a moment longer until it popped into his head. The boy’s name was Hyrule, soft spoken and kind, Wild liked him. Hyrule was a wanderer like himself and with the few interactions they had Wild knew he found someone to take with him if he ever had the urge to explore the new terrain.   

The conversation quickly escalated from there with everyone trying to one up each other with more outlandish stories from their adventures. It was terribly amusing and Wild had an urge to join them but he decided to sit this one out and just observe. While he was getting used to the others, he still found that he didn’t want to offer too much information about himself just yet. It would be better to have an element of surprise just in case things turned sour. 

Warriors as it turned out was quite the story teller, he boasted about feats that had no chance of actually being true. Though Wind did come up with some whoppers of his own. The conversation continued on, and Wild found that the most impressive story was told by Twilight. He claimed that with a special mask and some enchanted arrows he was able to take out a whole camp of bulblins (whatever those were) from over a large field length away. Not to be outdone Wind was quick to jump in and Wild had to hide an amused laugh when he claimed that he had to shoot a sea monster in the eye while trying to sail through a storm and a whirlpool all at the same time. 

“It was nuts! I could barely see through the rain and the flashes of lightning!” Wind said, jumping to his feet and dramatically acted out the scene. Out of the corner of his eye Wild noticed how Legend winced slightly whenever Wind described the lighting. Curiosity burned inside him and he wanted to ask about it but one look from the red clad hero stopped that line of thinking before it even got started. Wild looked away quickly when he realized with dawning horror that he had been staring but it was too late, he had been caught.

“What about you Wild? Have anything to contribute?” Legend sneered and Wild felt his heart freeze. All eyes turned to him and he shrunk down under the weight of the stares. He hated having so much attention on him, it made him uncomfortable. Wild tugged at his hood. He thought about pulling it on hoping it would release him from the crushing weight of their stares, but he found he couldn’t get it to lift up. He could feel heat rising to his face, his scars began to burn and he rubbed at them in a vain attempt to quell the ache. Wild could feel his breaths growing quick and he longed for escape and fresh air. Luckily a voice sliced through his panic and he felt the eyes of the others shift away from him. 

“Hey, It’s okay if you don’t want to share, we have plenty to go off of already,” the smallest hero, Four said, drawing the attention of the others off of Wild. He gave the other hero a short nod in thanks and after a moment of awkward tugging managed to pull the hood up and over his head. The weight of it calmed him slightly and he took special care to ensure that his face was hidden in shadows. 

“Have anything specific in mind, Four?” The soft spoken hero, Sky asked with a sleepy yawn and a stretch. Wild felt himself slouch and he pulled his knees up towards his chest so he could rest his arms on top of them. He was curious despite himself, and he wanted to know what the others considered impressive. 

“Well there was the lizalfos that he shot through the eye. That was pretty impressive given the fact that, from where he shot, there was barely enough clearance to see, let alone fire,” Four said matter-of-factly. The others nodded in agreement and Wild felt his eyebrow quirk up. He remembered that, it wasn’t a hard shot in his opinion, anyone could do that. He kept quiet though when Wind began to speak.  

“OH! And remember the moblin he took down? He shot three arrows at once!” Wind added excitedly and the others murmured excitedly. Wild hardly considered that impressive, though he supposed he hadn’t seen the others do something like that before. As they continued to chat Wild still felt the tight coil of anxiety twisting around his gut. His heart thudded hard against his ribcage and he worked on calming it while he continued to listen to the others rattle off more examples of his archery prowess. 

Even with all the eyes off him he still couldn’t stop himself from wanting to shrink down into a ball. He chided himself for being so weak, they were just talking about his archery skills. Though he could hear a distant bell of familiarity ringing in his mind. This whole situation felt very familiar in the worst kind of way and for some reason it made him very anxious, like he was being judged. In a way he was being judged, but it was all in good fun, he knew that. So why did he feel like he was about to get punished?

“Did you have any training?” Someone asked and Wild could only manage the barest of nods. The ringing in his head became deafening and he felt his muscles beginning to lock up. He could tell the others were still talking to him but they might as well have been miles away. His gaze became fixed on a point somewhere in the distance as everything began to fade into the background noise. He knew what this was now but there was nothing he could do to stop it. The memory was already pulling him away from the world and everyone in it. He took a deep breath and let himself fall into it. 

************ 

Link felt the painful vibration from the bow string as the arrow was loosed. It landed with a solid thunk into the target making a tight grouping at its center. His fingers ached, his back muscles pulled and cramped painfully and his arms were little better than chu jelly. At the shout from his commander Link stood at attention ignoring the pull and burn in his back as he did so. Back perfectly straight and rigid and eyes staring straight ahead he schooled his face into a flat emotionless mask and waited. His commander walked up to the target followed by one of his subordinates and together they studied his handy work. Link could tell by their posture that they weren’t satisfied with his shooting. His fingers gave a painful throb and he felt something warm pool at the tip of his middle finger.   

“Sloppy work,” the commander scoffed as he ripped one of the arrows free and eyed the hole left behind in the target. Link felt his mouth press into a firm line but he said nothing. 

“I agree, this is worse than last time,” the subordinate commented blandly as he too pulled another arrow out from the target and examined the fletching. Link felt his heart begin to sink, he knew what this meant. They had already been shooting for over three hours now and his fingers were little better than raw and bleeding skin. 

When they had begun with his archery training Link had been excited. He always had an interest in archery after watching the older soldiers practicing in the courtyard some years ago. But after a few rounds of shooting, his fingers became stiff and sore. His arm that held the bow had already begun to bruise and his shoulders had burned. 

There had also been little in the way of actual instruction, instead they had just handed him the bow and a quiver of arrows and showed him how to stand. Other than that he had to figure it out on his own and he would have been lying if he said he didn’t find it difficult. Though taking into account his lack of instruction he thought he was doing fairly well. His superiors on the other hand had made it clear they weren’t happy with his progress. By the time they were finished shooting for that day Link couldn’t curl his index and middle fingers and his arm had such deep bruising that just the fabric of his shirt rubbing against his forearm caused pain. 

It wasn’t until later that night around the dining table with the other soldiers that he learned that archers were meant to get braces to protect their arms and a special tab to help protect their fingers against the bow string. He found himself without words when he learned this new information. So he kept his head down and pushed his food around his plate, his apatite forgotten in the swirl of his own thoughts. At his next practice he asked his commander why he wasn’t given a guard and a tab and was met with a hard glare and a sneer. He was told in no uncertain terms that he must learn to feel the string of the bow before he would be allowed the luxury of a guard and tab. That day he was forced to practice archery until the sun went down, and it was the first time his fingers bled.  

From that point on Link had made it a point to learn as quickly as possible so he could earn his gear. But after months of practice that left him with bleeding fingers and bruises he found he always fell short of his commander’s impossible standards of perfection. Every missed shot led to fits of rage and even when he honed his skills to the point of out shooting his fellow knights, it never was good enough. A scoff from the commander’s laky brought his attention back on the task at hand.  

“Blood on the fletching, how disgusting,” the subordinate sneered as he handed the offending arrow to the commander. With a disgusted look of his own the commander ordered his subordinate to gather the rest of the arrows as he made his way back over to Link. He steeled himself for the tirade and surreptitiously wiped his hand on his pants and hoped it wouldn’t be too hard to get the blood out of the fabric later.   

“sloppy work Link, you can do better than this,” the commander said as he brandished the arrow in front of his face for him to examine. There was only a small smear of red on the white and blue feathers, but it was enough to be noticeable. 

“Look at this mess you left on this arrow, disgusting,” he said as he leaned forward and got into Link’s face. His breath smelled rancid and Link had to force himself to keep his face neutral in the face of his commander’s anger. 

“Not to mention you can’t even manage to hit the target’s center! You’re at fifty paces, a toddler can do better than that!” He bellowed and Link felt spittle land on his cheek. Link could feel a tight ball of rage coil like a snake in his gut and it was a challenge to keep his silent mask firmly in place. 

“And you call yourself the hero. Pathetic. How can we trust the fate of Hyrule to a hero that can’t even hit his target?” He asked and Link was sorely tempted to snap back. Instead he only blinked slowly, and let his eyebrows raise ever so slightly. The commander straightened and looked down his nose at him. His subordinate trotted up next to him and handed the arrows back over to Link. He took them mutely and placed them back in his quiver and waited for the next round of shooting to start. The subordinate looked at his hand and made a face at the small smear of blood that Link had accidently left behind. 

“Honestly can’t you keep your failure to yourself?” He drawled as he leaned forward and wiped the offending blood on Link’s shirt. Link felt the something snap in his chest and without thinking words tumbled out of his mouth. 

“Maybe if I had something protecting my fingers I wouldn’t leave my ‘failure’ on you,” Link hissed and as soon as the words left his mouth he knew he had made a terrible mistake. In one swift movement his commander shoved the subordinate aside and whipped the arrow across Link’s face. Pain bloomed across his face as the fletching on the arrow made a fine slice across his cheek. He felt a welt beginning to rise and before he could straighten the arrow was brought across his face once again and this time he felt the arrow snap from the force. He could feel a new welt rising along his jawline and tears welled up in his eyes from the stinging pain.

“How dare you speak out of turn! You are meant to be seen not heard!” The commander roared, tossing the arrow aside and fisting Link’s shirt in his hands. Link forced himself to make eye contact, staring down his commander’s rage with all the spite he could muster. Link watched as the commander’s eyes flared with renewed rage and he was flung off his feet. He hit the ground hard and before he could recover he found the tip of a blade at his throat. He couldn’t stop his eyes from widening in shock, this was a new level of rage and a small part of him wondered how far his commander was going to take his threat. The look of malicious glee that spread across his commander’s face sent a chill through him. 

“Not so uppity now are you. On your feet,” He commanded and Link slowly began to get to his feet, his eyes trained on his commander’s face. His breathing was heavy and Link watched for any change in body language that might indicate an attack. The tip of the sword followed him as he moved and when he was finally upright the tip of the sword traced the welt on his cheek that was left behind by the arrow. 

“I should have you whipped soundly for this insubordination,” The commander said softly as the tip of his sword once again found the soft skin underneath his chin. Link had to force himself to regain his neutral mask and he raised his eyes to meet his commander’s cold gray eyes. Link could handle a lashing, it wouldn’t be the first time and with his track record he fully expected to receive more. But the look in his commander’s eyes made him think a lashing would be a kind alternative to the punishment he was about to get. Link felt his heart begin to race against as he felt the tip of the blade come to rest against his Adam’s apple. After a moment of contemplation his commander smiled and removed the blade from his neck. 

“You know, you caught me in a good mood. Since you seem so determined to earn your guard and tab, you will shoot these arrows until your form is perfect.” He said with a small smile. Link felt his fingers give a painful throb at his words but he refused to show any weakness. With a curt nod and a determined glare Link inclined his head and reached for an arrow. The commander and his laky smiled evilly and moved off to the side allowing Link to knock and pull back his arrow to take aim. Link’s arm throbbed and blood dripped off his fingertips but he refused to make a sound, refused to show any signs of discomfort as he let the arrow fly.

******

The memory slowly faded away and Wild felt himself come back to the clearing. His fingers ached with the memory of the past and he had to force himself not to suck in a deep breath when he remembered he was not alone. Slowly he let his eyes wander around the camp. The others were still chatting about archery and looking around it seemed that none of them noticed that he had mentally disappeared. Wild bowed his head slightly and thanked Hylia for that small mercy. He knew he couldn’t hide his condition forever but he didn’t want the others to know just yet. A part of him feared they would toss him away if they realized he was broken in a way that couldn’t be fixed. 

As casually as he could he brought his hands together and felt along the inner knuckles of his right hand. Thick calluses lined his middle and index fingers where the bow string would sit when he drew arrows back to fire. He wondered how long he had to shoot in order to earn his tab that day, if he ever earned his tab that day. A phantom ache throbbed through the joints of his fingers and he massaged the pain away absently. Wild was so engrossed in his thoughts he completely missed how the hero of Twilight watched him out of the corner of his eye.

[elsaclack]

Prompt Request: 'You know I can't do that' Jake to Amy in as soft a voice as he says to Pam in Casecation. Hope you can get to it! Thank you in advance! All the love! ❤️❤️❤️

HI SO

I KNOW YOU SAID YOU WANTED ANGST AND I TRIED TO MAKE IT ANGSTY BUT i couldn’t resist,,,,,,,,The Action™

I HOPE YOU LIKE IT FHASDLKFJ

The thing is, when she first decided to pursue a career in the NYPD, Amy had no idea just how damn dramatic her life would get.

Like, she’d expected car chases, maybe a few shootouts. A handful of kidnappings and murders, and maybe, if she played her cards right, a big-name serial killer that would propel her through the ranks like a rocket launcher. She’d expected the action-oriented drama. She’d relished in the idea of it.

She hadn’t expected Jake.

Maybe if she had, she wouldn’t be familiar with a hollowness so bone-deep it left her whole body aching, sickly and spent, helpless to do anything but cry as armed guards led him away in handcuffs. She wouldn’t know the exact degree the moonlight slants through the windows along the far wall at 4 o’clock in the morning - the only thing to focus on outside of her own spinning anxiety with Jake gone, not in their bed, sleeping in a narrow prison bunk thousands of miles away. She wouldn’t know the gnawing fear of loss and loneliness always lurking in the back of her mind, even with him settled right beside her; she wouldn’t know the exhilaration of love in its purest, most simple form.

Maybe if she had, she wouldn’t be chained to a steel railing on the upper floor of a bank with a live bomb strapped to her chest right now, an hour before their wedding is meant to start.

(But then again, Dario was her perp - so maybe she’d have ended up here all the same.)

Sweat is beginning to drip in earnest down the small of her back and she squirms, trying and failing to bend her neck in such a way that will allow her to catch a glimpse of the steadily-beeping timer protruding from the front of the bomb. The chain winding tightly around her torso loops around her neck, too; even just turning her head a degree presses the links against her throat, cutting off her airway. She feels herself choking and lifts her chin again, eyes falling shut of their own volition at the responding ache of her tender head. Her arms are pinned, the railing unyielding, and even with her legs sprawled out freely before her, she’s never felt quite so trapped before.

She has no idea how long she’s been here. She has no idea how long she’s been missing in general - it was still early in the morning when Dario attacked her, whacking her in the head with what she could only assume was a heavy metal pipe based on the metallic clang still ringing in her ears. Her memories are foggy, coming in pieces and waves - the stench of a musty apartment, a terrifying wall of photos of her with her eyes scratched out, the pale and frightened face of a child, Dario towering over her, blackness.

And now, the upper floor of a bank, chained to a steel post bolted to the marble floor.

Commanding voices are shouting instructions downstairs and she closes her eyes, imagining the scene in her mind. She only knows it’s a bank from the teller’s voices echoing up here and the panicked 911 call that followed her screaming for help, but she’s responded to this kind of scene before - a dozen civilians, a few employees, and the full force of the squad decked from head to toe in riot gear now storming the building.

(The last time she was in a bank like this, Jake ended up in prison. Bank jobs have never been kind to them. She tries not to think about it.)

There’s a method, a process, and she’s followed it enough times to know that by the time someone makes it to this wing of the second floor, it will be too late.

It’s the first time in her life she genuinely hopes someone will break protocol.

Heavy booted footsteps pounding up the marble staircase some fifteen feet in front of her snap her back to attention - sure enough, the moment her vision focuses, she spots the familiar shape of an officer in riot gear sprinting toward her. The officer casts his semi-automatic aside blindly, like it’s some cumbersome annoyance instead of a literal lifeline in the event of an armed attack, and dives toward her, skidding to a stop on his knees just inches away.

It’s here that she gets a look at his face.

It’s here that she regrets everything.

“Jake,” she croaks, voice strained around the chain links digging into her neck. His body is visibly taut with tension as he carefully removes the bomb’s cover, eyes moving with practiced precision as he quickly studies the inner workings. “Jake, Jake -”

“It’s okay,” he tells her in a calm, rehearsed voice - his calming-the-victim voice, a surefire sign that he’s lying. And of course he is, how can it be okay, there’s a bomb strapped to her chest and a timer steadily moving closer to zero. “I’m gonna defuse this thing and get you outta here -”

This is the first time she’s seen him since she left their apartment this morning - he’d been half-awake then, still in bed, smiling serenely when she’d bent to kiss his forehead. He tried to convince her to stay in bed with him a little longer but she’d resisted, somehow reasoning that all the last-minute day-of-wedding errands were more important than staying with him.

She can’t remember why, now. It seems so far away.

Jake’s face radiates concentration, shining with a thin sheen of sweat that glistens in the late afternoon sun emanating from the first floor over the balcony behind her. He carefully moves the wires, fingertips just barely brushing against them, and each high-pitched beep from the timer has her closer and closer to the edge of pure panic.

Judging by the frustrated growl he releases as he rips his earpiece out of his ear and his helmet off altogether, she’d venture to guess she has less than a minute left.

The panic is closing in quickly but she fights it, chin lifting slightly in an effort to gulp down more air. “It’s too late,” she rasps, and Jake blinks down at the exposed wires rapidly. “Jake, it’s too late, you need to get out of here before this thing goes off -”

“Not a chance, Santiago,” he snaps. “Not without you.”

“Please, Jake,” her voice is ragged. “Get downstairs, get to safety. Please.”

For the first time since reaching her side, his eyes flick up to her face. “You know I can’t do that, Ames,” he says softly.

The panic in her chest squeezes mercilessly around her heart.

He quickly reaches into one of the small pockets on his vest and produces a small pair of scissors, already entirely refocused on the control panel before him. “You trust me?” he asks breathlessly.

Despite the terror quaking in her veins, she nods wholeheartedly.

He clenches his jaw and reaches inside the panel with the scissors, and in the split-second of silence between heartbeats, she hears the tell-tale snip of the blades slicing through a wire.

She holds her breath, but the next beep of the timer never comes.

And all at once Jake is collapsing backwards, the tension leaving him in a rush, and Amy’s borderline sobbing with relief. The chain around her neck pulls tightly and it distorts her voice, but she’s never been so far from caring.

She feels him back at her side before she sees him, his hands firm and steady where they lift her, adjusting her position to alleviate the pressure on her windpipe. “Easy,” he says, voice thick and unfamiliar in her ears. “It’s okay, Ames, just relax. The bomb squad’s on their way up to get this thing off’a you, just try to relax…”

He rips his gloves off with his teeth and strokes her hair soothingly, resting his forehead against the side of her head until they hear footsteps pounding up the staircase before them. The bomb squad converges quickly, and Jake is forced to shuffle aside to make room for them. He doesn’t go far, though; she can still see the shape of him hovering behind the officer to her left, one hand over his mouth, foot tapping against the floor.

The straps of the bomb fall away, taking the weight of the world with them, and then her vision is full of Rosa shoving her way through bomb squad officers with bolt cutters in hand. It takes a few tries, a few grunts of effort from Rosa, but before long the chains are falling away, too.

And the moment they do - before they’ve even fully hit the floor beneath her - Amy is on her feet and flying into Jake’s arms.

He sweeps her up in a bone-crushing embrace, lips and nose pressed against the line of her shoulder, and for a brief moment she’s sure they’re both at risk of floating away from the utter relief of it all. Her head still aches and her throat isn’t much better, but none of that matters when Jake heaves a shuddering sigh and gently tangles his fingers in her hair. “I love you, Amy, I love you so much,” he mumbles hoarsely into her shoulder, and her toes barely brushing the floor. Her exhale escapes like a high-pitched keen and his fingers tighten in her hair. “I’m so glad you’re okay, oh my god I was so worried, you just - you weren’t at any of the places on your list and you weren’t answering your phone and -”

She lets out a quiet whine and the fingers fisted in her hair loosen and begin to gently stroke. “Thank you,” she whispers, and he nestles even closer.

The EMTs converge less than two minutes later, and she has to bite back the urge to fight them off for one more moment. He seems just as reluctant to let her go as she feels - he stays close, even after she’s been hefted onto a gurney, his hand squeezing hers firmly down the stairs and into the back of an ambulance.

Head wrapped in bandages and mind made fuzzy with painkillers wasn’t quite the way she imagined her wedding night ending - but that’s alright, she thinks. Because despite the bandages and the painkillers making her unsteady on her feet, she’s positive no one will ever feel as beautiful as she feels with Jake looking at her like that. Terry’s arm is steady and solid beneath her fingertips - an added precaution should she go down partway down the hallway-turned-makeshift aisle, definitely more out of necessity than tradition - and even though the sterile walls and linoleum tiles are a far cry from the Gina Linetti-approved decor currently adorning the rec center on the other side of town, Amy can’t find it anywhere in herself to care.

Judging by the overjoyed twinkle in Jake’s eyes as he takes her hands and pulls her close, she’d venture to guess he feels the same way.

When she decided to pursue a career in the NYPD all those years ago, she hadn’t expected to be married in a hospital hallway, concussed, relying on her goofy partner - no, her goofy husband to hold her upright as her head spins violently. She hadn’t expected the family her squad has become for her - she hadn’t expected the love that now permeates every aspect of her life.

She hadn’t expected Jake - and she’s never been more thrilled to be so thoroughly caught off-guard.

[victoria-shade]

Authors note: I own nothing in the MCU or anything at all really.

This story will mostly be written from Wanda’s POV. This is a no powers regular people AU. Wanda is a waitress in a small town diner with her sister Natasha and brother Pietro. This will be Wanda and Vision pairing.

—————————

When you live in a small town people tend to know things about each other. It’s almost funny how everyone’s dirty laundry just flows through the air like a contagious virus.

I know that the principle at the high school, Mr. Rodgers was in the army during world war 2. I know that his wife Peggy was married when they met during his deployment.

Or how the mayor: Tony Stark has a nasty habit of cheating in his wife Pepper almost any chance he gets.

Most of us try to stay out of everybody’s mouth, he seems to do his best to get into them. Maybe I do know more than most though, working at the only real restaurant in town.

It’s a quiet town, barely more than a Main Street with a few shops, and some houses scattered for about 25 square miles. As are most towns in Vermont. But for most of us that call Derbyshire home it’s all we’ve ever known.

The shops are nice enough, as long as you don’t try and talk to the woman who owns “Mar’vels home town clothing”. Her name is Carol Danvers, everyone knows she is barley more than a mean drunk on a good day. It’s generally best to get what you need and get the hell out.

I work at my parents diner, it’s been in our family since before prohibition. My grandfather named it “Maximoffs home town cuisine” but everyone just calls it “Maxy’s”.

The basement used to be a speakeasy, which my mother always feels the need to tell almost anyone new who comes in. Most of the regulars already knew or came during that time themselves. My sister and myself do the waitressing, my older brother Pietro works the kitchen. We have a wonderful old man named “Bucky” as we all call him in the dish room. He is best friends with Steve Rodgers, the previously mentioned principle at the high school.

Bucky is quiet and keeps to himself for the most part, but is always kind to anyone he comes across. Although he did punch Pietro right in the face one time. Only ones who know why is Bucky and Pietro. We are all content to leave it at that.

But this is not the story of the petty nonsense that us small town folk like to entertain ourselves with. This is the story of how I found the love of my life, and how we beat the odds to be together. The odds being my mistake of dating William Ultron, a terrible brute of a man, if you could even really call him that.

————

I first saw Victor on a rainy day in October in 1967. He had just gotten a job in the bank as a teller. He was tall and handsome, his blue eyes took my breath away almost instantly.

Natasha was about to take his table as it was technically in her section, but I told her I had it. She could see in my eyes that I was smitten and just smiled and went to her other table. It was Tony Stark and another one of his female conquests.

I felt my heart in my throat as I approached his table, his Ray Ban clubmaster glasses sat on his nose like they belonged there. His blonde hair was cropped short and slicked back in a style that would make any woman swoon.

He was wearing a very nice black three piece suit, every part of it ironed to perfection. He took off his fedora and trench coat and hung them on the coat rack before choosing an empty table next to the window.

He was just getting settled and was looking at the menu as I got to his table.

“Good morning Sir! Welcome to Maximoff’s, can I start you off with something to drink?”

I couldn’t help but cringe, even to myself I sounded like a giddy teenager. I’m 25 I should be able to handle myself better than this.

He flashed me a beautiful smile, I knew immediately I would do anything to see it again. Possibly after a night of amazing... no. I really shouldn’t be so crude.

“Thank you Miss, I will take some of that coffee with cream for now.” He said nodding at the coffee pot in my hand.

His voice was music to my ears. I usually wear my heart on my sleeve, but I have never had a crush so fast in my life. I even think I detected a bit of a British accent, damn I think he may be my dream man.

“Sure thing Sir. Would you like to take a few minutes to look at the menu?”

“That would be lovely thank you very much.”

I smile at him as I pour the coffee, taking great care not to over flow the small cup.

“Well I will be right back then.”

I smile at him as I turn to leave, he returns it politely.

Walking through the swinging doors the the kitchen I notice the knowing grin on my sisters face.

“So looks like Wanda has a crush!”

Natasha taunts me in a sing song voice that makes me blush. I don’t know how she can just read people like that. One look and she can tell your deepest secrets. It’s almost scary.

“Well he is handsome isn’t he? I doubt I will ever see him again though so does it really matter?”

“Guess you haven’t heard, that’s the man that will be taking over Bruce Banners job at the bank. I think his name is Victor or something like that.”

I look at her dumbfounded for almost a solid minute.

“How in the world do you know everything in this town? I may be nosy, but even I don’t eavesdrop that much on the customers Nat.”

Sometimes I think my sister would have made a great spy, she just knows things about people and about the town.

“Oh come on, you know I have been seeing officer Quill. That dumb deputy tells me everything, he may be handsome but he is so lost he doesn’t know weather to scratch his watch or wind his butt half the time.”

That’s curious, I wonder why the police would know about who the bank hires, I mean beyond a background check. That’s probably why.

“Well then, maybe I will get to see a lot more of this Victor around town.”

I wink at Nat as I go to check on my handsome customer.

She only chuckles and picks up the pancakes Tony Stark ordered for himself and his “secretary” or mistress as we call her around town.

I walk by Tonys table in my way and can feel his eyes on my ass I go by. He really is a disgusting pig on a good day.

Victor has put his menu on the corner of the table and seems lost watching the rain outside. From his seat he can see the mountains and the forest past the parking lot. As much as this town can suck, it is undeniably beautiful. Northern Vermont tends to be that way any time of year.

“Have you decided on what you would like?”

I ask him politely, but try to keep my nerves in control. If I am to see more of him, I would like for him to at least not think I am as immature as I probably came off earlier.

“Actually yes, I would like some toast with jelly and some bacon. Thank you.”

As I write down his order I couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes slowly went up and down my body. He didn’t do it in a way that made me feel gross, but it was a tasteful look. Like he was appreciating, rather than simply lusting.

It was so slight a flicking of his eyes that had I not been so entranced by them I wouldn’t have even noticed.

I flash him a warm smile.

“I will get that right out for you.”

As I turn to leave I notice a familiar car pulling into the lot, my heart drops. Even if this wasn’t a small town, I would know that damn black Ford pickup anywhere.

Fucking William Ultron. I broke up with him over 6 months ago, but the jerk keeps harassing me. One would think as time goes by he would give up, but it seems like the time is only making him worse.

Victor seems to notice my frightened face and sudden change of demeanor. His gaze follows mine to the tall black haired man quickly walking to the door to get out of the rain. He must have also noticed the look of furious anger on Williams face.

The door slams open just as I make it to the safety of the kitchen. Natasha has already noticed Ultrons unwelcome entrance.

“This ass hole really doesn’t take a hint does he?”

I call out for Pietro, he knows why I left Ultron and hates him more than anything else in this world.

“Pietro get out here! And Nat call Peter Quill over at the station!”

I step out of the swinging door, and try to make myself look less frightened and more pissed off.

“What the hell are you doing here Ultron? You know you are not welcome here anymore! You need to leave right now.”

I don’t think I came off as fearless as I had hoped I would. Almost as soon as the words left my lips he grabbed my arm painfully.

“You know why I am here? When are you going to stop playing these stupid games already?”

“William stop! You are hurting me.”

I wince at the pressure of his grip, and hear the kitchen doors swing open forcefully.

It’s Natasha and Pietro, and they are pissed.

“Take your fucking hands off her right now you son of a bitch.”

Pietro practically yells as he stomps over to me and my abusive ex. Natasha is right behind him and holding our fathers shot gun.

“You heard him, now you better get out of here before I get to use this! The police are already on their way.”

Natasha picks up the gun higher to show how ready she is to do just as she said.

In the corner of my eye I can see Victor standing up ready to help out with the unfortunate situation unfolding before him.

William only glares at me before letting go. The next words out of his mouth make me feel weak with fear.

“This isn’t fucking over, no body just leaves me! I promise you this isn’t over.”

He stomps out of the door and jumps into his truck before peeling out of the parking lot. The squeal of his tires when he gets to the the pavement only serving to show just how pissed that narcissist is.

Victor is still standing by his table looking in in concern as my siblings walk me to the kitchen. Natasha takes over for me the rest of the day so I can just go home. The last I saw of Victor that day was his beautiful blue eyes follow me in concern. I could see he wanted to ask me if I was alright. I know he was probably just to polite to pry into what was so obviously a personal matter. But I wish he had, somehow I just knew that if he was to wrap me up in those arms I would have felt better so much quicker.

To be Continued.

Authors note, this is going to be long I hope. If you like it or have anything to say feel free to review. I’m hoping to have at least 2 chapters a week. Hope you enjoy.

[corruptionofteller]

12. Christening the Reaper Table

Scarlet cursed under her breath trying to get her car to start, Jax had ran out in his jeans towards the car drawing more attention to the two of them. She punched her steering wheel making sure the doors locked sliding her sunglasses on ignoring whatever Jax was muttering outside the car door. ‘Just great…I really need this right now’ She had thought while sitting in her car scrolling through her phone trying to ignore her surroundings.

Scarlet had no idea why she got so upset seeing him with that ‘eater. She had guessed it had to do with the fact he kissed her yesterday and she had secretly but non admittedly wanted it to mean something. Clearly it had not, otherwise he wouldn’t be fucking whoever the other chick was in the same room he professed his need to keep her safe, his need to keep her around in Charming.

Maybe this was all a mistake, Otto had the right idea by keeping her away. “What the hell is your problem?” She had heard Jax yell in frustration towards Scarlet. It was not her intent but she snapped, unlocking the door she swung it open aiming to hit him but he jumped back in time. There was now a sea of people watching from the distance but she didn’t care anymore, let them watch. Scarlet was sure she would be heading out of town after this anyway.

“My Problem?” She yelled using both hands to shove him in the chest, Jax stood tall not budging at her attempt to make her stumble back. He went to grab her left arm but she swung with her right, missing him but making him step back. “Don’t fucking touch me! I don’t have a problem but clearly you do! How dare you give me the whole I want to keep you safe, I need to protect you speech. How fuckin’ dare you kiss me the way you did. I am not one of your whores. I have self respect. I can count how many men I have fucked on one hand! Can you even think that high? You really think that me, a woman of my caliber, needs a man who thinks like a damn thirteen year old boy with a boner to protect me?”

Scarlet was screaming at Jax not holding anything back, her tone had given her away to everyone watching. She was hurt. She was disappointed. She felt betrayed.  

 Jax found his heart pounding so hard against his chest he could hear the pounding in his ears. The adrenaline pumped through his body a hundred miles a minute as he got closer to Scarlet’s car, only to find she had locked herself inside. His molars ground in the back as he smashed his palm against the window, glaring at her as she ignored him.

“Goddamnit Scarlet! What is your fuckin’ problem?!” He shouted, pounding the window again. He didn’t have to look to feel the presence of individuals gathering around him, even Chibs had tried to grab him and calm hi down but Jax’s angrily pushed his brother away. It was when he least expected it that Scarlet forced open the car door, and despite her petite size, he could see the rage in her eyes as he stared into the. Her small hands slammed against his bare chest in an attempt to push him away and he didn’t budge, only reached out with his left hand to grab her to try to calm her. No use. She was just like him, he could already see that. Like you ticking timb bombs just waiting to go off. Not a good combination for them or anyone surrounding them. Pulling her arms away she tried to hit him and if he wouldn’t have had the quick reflexes she would have got him. His eyes narrowed on her as she began to spit words at him, making his nostrils flare with each hateful comment. Jax had wanted to protect her, he still did. And the kiss, he assumed, meant more to him than it did to her considering the slap he took for it. Typical women.

Jax snarled, his eyes darting to the croeater he had just been fucking as she exited the clubhouse with a bitchy grin on her face. Figures, he’s dealing with this shit and all she can think about was that she was just on the president’s dick. It made him wonder about himself for a quick glimmer of a moment. Scarlet was right, he had slept with more women than he’d ever be able to count in his goddamn lifetime, but it didn’t mean the kiss he had shared with her only days ago didn’t mean something. He didn’t handle rejection well, he wasn’t accustomed to it. The poor fuckers at the warehouse found that out not so long ago.

“She don’t mean fuckin shit Scarlet! You pushed me away, slapped my goddamn face but now? NOW you wanna act like it matters cause you saw me fuckin someone else?” His tone was harsh but somehow he knew he could talk to her the way he was and not break her. She wasn’t weak, not by a long shot. She was as tough as her old man and maybe then some.

He could feel his brothers stepping in closer to the action just in case things rapidly became worse. They knew him and knew what he was capable of. Jax waited for her response, his fists clenching as he glared at her. He didn’t want her to go, he wanted her to stay but at the same time the level of anger would only escalate if she didn’t.

Scarlet scoffed a laughed at Jax outburst, but not out of amusement. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing fly out of his mouth as if it would justify his actions. From the corner of her eye she caught the red head smirking off in the distance in her shorts and bra. The anger that flooded her veins kicked her heart into overdrive fueling her adrenaline. Scarlet was no longer in her right frame of mind, not that she ever really was.

“That is my point you dipshit. You think you can go around and fuck anything with a goddamn pussy…” She was about to lay into him when she heard the redhead laugh calling Scarlet pathetic. Her head slowly turned in the direction of the Croeater, her brow arched as she calmly examined the the slut Jax had been balls deep inside of only moments ago. Her tongue swiped over her lower lip turning her attention back to Jax.

“Maybe it did mean something, You are not used to rejection, I am not used to getting treated like a damn whore.” Reaching to her back pocket she pulled her fly knife out keeping it hidden in the palm of her hand. “Bitch you are not anyone special, like it or not you are one of us.” The cro had spat out loud enough for Scarlet to hear. She laughed shaking her head, looking at Jax winking at him as she began to step back towards the girl. “Is that it Jax? Am I one of them to you?”

Scarlet rubbed her face with her left hand, her eyes locked on Jax who seemed confused by the calm way Scarlet had suddenly flipped. Only Scarlet knew how deadly a calm rage can truly be. She laughed making sure Jax was watching her every move, he had taken a few steps after her but it was clear he wasn’t sure what was happening until it was too late.

Scarlet flipped out the knife and in one smooth move she grabbed the STD by her throat, in the same motion swiping the blade across her cheek slicing her like butter. Before any real damage was done there was a rush of hands dragging Scarlet back but not before she got in a good kick to the bitches stomach.

His eyes shifted as he carefully watched Scarlet’s movements. She was suddenly eerily calm and Jax knew that was not good, at all. He took a few steps closer to her as she backed away from him, making a pissed off expression when he heard the redhead taunting Scarlet.

“Get her out of here!” Jax pointed at the bitch that was now annoying the fuck out of him with her shit talking. He caught the wink Scarlet shot at him and it suddenly made him sick to his stomach. The gasps rang out when she grabbed the croeater, Jax’s eyes widening when he saw the knife in Scarlet’s hand, the blade open and ready.

“Jesus Christ Scarlet!” Before he had the words completely from his mouth the blood was already making a steady stream down the redhead’s cheek as Scarlet’s arm tightened around the whore’s throat. Before Jax could get to her, Tig and Chibs had Scarlet in their firm grasp, peeing her off the other woman. Gemma’s eyes, now wide, shifted to Jax, indicating he needed to do something and do it now. Taking Scarlet by the wrist, he pried her out of Tig’s grip, despite her fighting his every move. If Chibs hadn’t taken the knife, he was sure it would be his throat that was sliced open.

Dragging her across the lot, Jax forced Scarlet inside away from the onlookers and more fucking attention they didn’t need. Even though she pounded her fist to his forearm and bicep, he didn’t let go, not until they were in the double doors of the clubs’ most sacred room. Harshly kicking the doors closed he finally let his grip on her wrist release, flinging her angrily into the room.

“You wanna explain that shit out there huh? What the fuck were you thinkin’? Slit a fuckin’ whore’s throat open right here at TM? Jesus Christ Scar!” He inhaled and exhaled sharply and deeply as he paced behind the high back leather chair that his ass always claimed. As he rounded the corner of the table his fist pounded into the corner of the carved table, the only way he knew at the moment to rid himself of the frustration and anger.

Scarlet’s back hit the wall as Jax tossed her in the room like a rag doll. She didn’t speak at first, she watched Jax pace back and forth. Her head hung taking in a deep breath as Scarlet pushed off the wall. Scarlet’s core clenched when Jax’s fist connected with the solid oak table, triggering a flicker of arousal. She walked to him without fear, she knew that even in his darkest moments Jax wouldn’t ever throw harm her way.

“Well which is it Teller? You either care about the whore or you don’t because if you didn’t then me cutting the bitch wouldn’t be a fucking problem.” His eyes darted to her almost daring her to keep up her shit, Scarlet never missed an opportunity to press buttons. “Or is it that you fuck all these sick bitches because you couldn’t handle someone like me. Yeah…I bet that is what it is.” She looked down at her hand feeling a warm stream of blood dribble down her arm, droplets of blood splattered on the floor.

Her eyes moved back to Jax ignoring the small cut on her forearm due to the struggle with Tig and Chibs. “I don’t know what you want from me Jax, But you are wrong about one thing. When you kissed me I felt something I didn’t want to feel. /That/ was why I slapped you.” Her eyes dropped away from his angry gaze as she wiped her arm on her Jeans smearing the blood. She wasn’t sure why she made her confession to him. She had guessed it was because for some sick reason bloodshed somehow calmed her, she never understood it but

causing pain somehow centered her. Maybe because for the moments she was in control of someone else pain she didn’t have to feel her own. Having the say over someone else’s life made her feel like she was in control of her own.

It was her darkest secret, one that she would never share aloud. Her feelings for Jax was next in line on her secrets list. A loud sigh was let out turning her back on Jax afraid to look at him, she didn’t want to even hear his voice as she had no doubt the next words to come spilling out would rip her apart. The room grew awkwardly quiet, she swore she could hear both of their hearts beating in sync while she waited for some sort of response.

His fist clenched and unclenched as it laid against the reaper table in the center of the dim room. He heard Scarlet’s words but he didn’t dare look at her. He knew if he did he’s either lose his shit in two ways; aggression or passion, maybe even both.

Handling her wouldn’t be a problem, he didn’t have to question that shit. He was read to dance with the she devil if that’s what she claimed to be. Her hard ass shit didn’t phase him in the list. Pissed him off, yeah. Made his dick hard, possibly.

“You wanna know why I fuck those whores? Do you?” He finally forced his head to lift and look at her, noticing the stream of blood travelling down her forearm. It reminded him of the red head that now would wear a scar on her cheek because of his bullshit. But that was the least of his worries at the moment. His feet scuffed forward, moving him around the table, pushing each chair out of the way until he reached her. His motions stopped when he was within arms length of Scarlet, her stare never faltering away from his. His voice lowered, his tone all but a whisper.

“I fuck them because..” He paused, his eyes searching Scarlet’s as he took the last step that would bring his body almost flush with hers. “…sometimes the one woman I /want/ to be buried in is too busy trying to deny that she wants me too. Right Scarlet?”

If he didn’t know better he swore he could hear the way her heart was pounding against her small frame. He didn’t move, his muscular build stood tall in front of her, waiting for some indication that she wanted more than a goddamn fight.

Her eyes bored into the floor, each step he took towards her made her heart thrust against her chest. Each carefully thought out word that escaped his lips wrapped around her trying to force her into his arms. Scarlet’s eyes hesitantly lifted to find his gazing down over her, if she didn’t know any better she would think he was looking at her like she was a thing of beauty he had never seen before.

Scarlet knew he was right but she would never admit that to him. She looked into his eyes and saw her own reflection looking back at her. Her hand lifted, hesitating before laying it flat over his heart she could feel it pounding wildly just as her own was beating. “Maybe if you treated her like she was her own person and not a job you would get somewhere. Ever thought of that Jax?” Her voice was barely a whisper. She wanted nothing more but to give into him, God her body ached to be touched by his and just as she was about to cave a flash of him deep inside the red head hit her like a truck.

“Sometimes in life you have to work for things you want. Not that you would understand that as the king of this shit hole.” Anger began to build yet again but she didn’t push him away. Scarlet was torn between her true feelings toward the outlaw before her and her natural inclination. “You only want me because you can’t have me, What happens after you have had me Jax?”

She finally looked away clenching her jaw hating everything about the way she was feeling, but more importantly she was angry that she had hoped he would give her a good enough reason to let go and give in.

 His molars clenched and began to grind in the back as she spit words once again at him. His blue eyes locked onto hers and he swore he could see some passion in them for him mixed with the anger she was radiating. Her words almost seemed like a challenge. She might have rejected him that day in the apartment with a slap to the face. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to that shit. But one thing he did know was there was an underlying attraction to the woman standing just inches away from him.

“Can’t have you?” Jax scoffed with slight laughter, stepping closer. “Is that so? So if I did this..”

Before she could answer Jax had her smaller body pressed against the wall behind her, the space between them closing in an instant until his body was firmly pressed against her, his hips grinding against her lower belly. His rough, calloused hands forcefully pushed her arms above her head as his mouth claimed hers, his tongue swiping across her lower lip in an attempt to gain entrance. Their fingers linked, her smaller ones filling the spaces between his. His first indication she was enjoying as much as he was going to.

In one thought he expected her to push him away, in another he expected just what she was doing. She was kissing him back except this time there was no palm to his face. She was as eager as he was in the kiss. His large hands traveled down the inside of her arms as they stayed raised above her head, her body now reacting with a grind of her own. The moan that escaped her lips and brushed against his made his cock stiffen and twitch in the confines of his baggy jeans that were slowly losing their relaxed fit in the front. Jax was aching to be inside Scarlet. It was a need he hadn’t felt in so long. The other whores were a distraction but the attraction to Scarlet, whether it be she matched his aggressive and cocky nature, was growing rapidly just like his cock. His fingers crawled down the sides of her body until he found the hem of her tight shirt and gathered it, quickly pushing the fabric up and over her head, her dark hair falling down around her now exposed breasts.

 She was about to protest when his hips guided swiftly over hers, sending a shiver throughout her body. Scarlet wanted to push him away but Jax set her in a trance alluring her right into the palm of his hands. She hated to admit it to herself but she had dreamed of meeting her lips with is once again. This time when she return the kiss his touch soothed her rage just as the way bringing pain to someone had done for so many years.  

Her lips parted lapping at the upper lip, her tongue danced with his in a heated desperate kiss. Forgetting the entire reason they even stood in the reaper room her hands groped at his muscular chest traveling down to his belt. Jax gave her no room to protest her shirt being removed, not that she would at this point. All she could think about was the way her core ached, tightening at the thought of him being inside her. “Fuck it” she moaned locking her arms around Jax’s neck bending at her knees she jumped up to be caught by her ass in his hands. Scarlet rolled her hips into the hard crotch groaning at the pleasurable friction against his hips not breaking the passionate kiss.

He stumbled back into the reaper table holding her plump ass in his hands while she grinded against him, her lips leaving his to kiss along his jawline leaving a damp trail to his neck. Scarlet was gentle when sucking on the salty flesh, pinching it between her teeth giving into her urges she moaned against his ear lobe “fuck me”. She threaded one hand in his hair, using her free hand to work the belt between them in a rush.

All her sense of keeping Jax at a distance somehow turned into a distant memory in the moment they lived in. She had thought about what it would be like to be fucked hard by the president of SAMCRO but she had swore that is all it would be; a thought. In that moment nothing mattered to her but his hands on her body, All she wanted was to be filled by him all the time she refused in came crumbling down to be replaced by a desperate plea to be fucked raw by the same man she swore she would never let get to her.

 In the heat of the moment Jax squeezed his hands into the plump flesh of her covered ass, groaning with each precise movement of her hips against his ever growing bulge behind the zipper. As their tongues tangled and he stumbled back, he suddenly heard his mother’s voice in his head. He hated when she did that shit, getting in his subconscious at the wrong fuckin’ times. But right now Jax Teller was thinking with the wrong motherfuckin’ head.

“Jesus Christ.” Jax growled in a deep, husky voice when her sultry voice conveyed just what she wanted. She didn’t have to ask twice. Scarlet Delaney was going to be screaming his name before he was through.

Turning them around Jax sat her ass down on the edge of the old table where he was sure it had seen a few sexual fantasies played out between his mother and at least one, if not both, of her dead husbands. His breathing was rapid as he stepped back forcing his kutte off his shoulders, tossing it to the other side of the table where Scarlet sat while her small hands worked his buckle. His eyes lowered, catching the cleavage that protruded over the top of her bra. He couldn’t be bothered to fumble with the fuckin naps, instead he grabbed one side and ripped it free, her perfect, perky tits bouncing free. The way her nipples went taught made him almost drool over himself. His palm cupped one of the perfect mounds as his mouth found it’s way to it, flicking his tongue over the darkened skin before taking it completely in his mouth for a thorough taste.

Scarlet’s head fell back just as she got his belt buckle loose, his heavy jeans falling with a thud to the floor. A soft moan dripping from her ruby red lips while Jax assaulted the nipple in her mouth. Her small hand reached down between them wasting no time slipping into his boxers and down the hard length of his cock making her groan anxiously.

“I fucking hate you….Oh God help me Jax fuck me!” Her hand grasped around his thick member stroking it up and down slowly. Scarlet moaned in a desperate plea her body blazing with passion. All her doubts about the man, all her sense of truth was hushed by her need to have him buried balls deep inside her. It had been almost a year since her last sexual encounter and even that wasn’t considered satisfying to her.

Scarlet used her free hand to unlatch the button on her short jean shorts trying to tug them free while pumping him in her hand. Jax grabbed the sides of her shorts yanking them down with her nipple in his mouth. The swift motion only made her inner core ache more for him. Her thin red laced panties were soaked, now clinging to her like a second layer of skin. She knew the moment Jax growled he inhaled her scent. There was no going back now, all the consequences they faced no longer mattered.  

He wasted no time ridding her of the shorts that was covering just what he wanted, just what he needed. He didn’t even fucking remember why they had been fighting prior to them entering the room and quite frankly the only thing on his mind was being buried inside the woman that had somehow invaded his thoughts every waking minute since she strolled into TM with that letter from her ol’ man. He inhaled deeply as her arousal took over every shred of common sense he had. Fuck it.

In a mad rush he pushed her back further onto the table, his rough, calloused hands gliding up the back of her thighs as he leaned back, giving him his first view of everything he craved. Her dark hair contrasted with her pale, inked skin. Her lips were glossy and plump, just waiting to be consumed by him. His deep blue eyes stared down at her, in a way speaking to her with no words at all. And with that look he suddenly smirked and buried his cock balls deep in the warmth of her tight, wet pussy.

Her eyes widened as her core tightened around his shaft. She wasn’t like the other tits and ass roaming the clubhouse; she felt like a goddamn vise tightening around him and for that one moment, it was more gratifying that an hour long session of fucking one of the girls he bedded any given night of the week.

“Fuckkk..” He grunted as she licked her lower lip, no doubt in an attempt to drive him even more insane. His fingertips turned white as he gripped the back of her thighs and plummeted his cock inside once more until he was in a good, steady rhythm. His hands slipped free and grabbed her slender hips, drawing her back against his own as he spread her open, the wetness coating him with every thrust. The actions made her tits bounce in perfect unison, the sound of skin on skin now joining the massive amount of moans and groans.

There was a silent moment of agreement between the two before Jax showed no mercy  plummeting deep inside her. Her body trembled while her slit was streched beyond it’s limits. She could feel his fingertips bruising her pale flesh but it only increased the pleasure of him pounding into her. “Holy fuck” Scarlet hissed raising her leg up over his shoulder. Jax moved in crashing his lips to hers with a hungry passion, thrusting into her in a rhythmic pattern. Each thrust lining perfectly over her sweet spot, drawing her in closer and closer to her release.

Her hands explored down his back, dragging her nails over the sweaty flesh in a plea to have him closer to her. She screamed out dropping her head back losing all concentration over then the way the biker was making her feel. She was consumed by his every touch, all her curiosity has been answered, exceeding all expectation she had imagined about the man wildly fucking her on the same table her father once sat at.

The fact that it was so wrong only made it feel that much better. Scarlet lifted her head catching his eye, she could feel her pussy pulse trying to pull him deeper inside her, she knew she was close but all she could do was moan out in broken breaths. All her words had been lost, all her mind could wrap around was the building ball of fire that was about to explode and make her coat his dick with her sweet nectar.

The control she had over herself was now controlled by his throbbing cock, Scarlet lifted her hips rocking into this thrust fucking him back. His heavy sack slapped against her plump ass. Nothing was held back, there was nothing sweet or loving about the way the two tangled together desperate have that breathtaking wash of bliss hit them.

She was sure people could hear them and though the small voice in her head told her to shut up she couldn’t help the pleading screams of his name that rushed out her mouth. Jax reached between them slapping her clit before rubbing it in a rough circle quickly shutting the voice up. “Fuckk…Jax…Don’t stop fuck me harder baby I am going to….Oh god Cum”   

Hearing her pleas made his own release threaten despite him wanting it to. He needed to keep that shit at bay, give her just what all the ladies raved about and came back for. But not tonight, not here. This was all about his need to have this woman that has done nothing but teased and tortured his own sick, demented mind with visions he wasn’t ready to admit.

As she called out his name his palm connected with her ass, watching the once pale spot turn a nice shade of pink. The instant his hand met her round curve she whimpered and her pussy clamped down around him tighter than she had since he filled her warm core. Her legs began to tremble in his grip, giving him his first real indication she was going to soon become a hot, dripping mess.

“Mmmm fuck, this the way you like to fight Scar, huh? Me pounding this sweet fuckin��� pussy?” His words came out as a rumbled growl, both hands finding her ass to urge her up against him. Their naked torsos now sweaty flesh on flesh as he hammered into her, not letting up on his relentless pounding, sure that she’d be sore when he was through. Her long nails dragged over his broad, muscular shoulders, his chest heaving with each deep breath. As her head fell back Jax took the opportunity to run kisses over the salty flesh, leaving a trail of bites behind.

“Jesus Christ..” He blurted with a growl of pleasure, feeling Scarlet contract around him once more as she let go, feeling the warmth of her no doubt delicious honey run over his shaft from within her. Squeezing her ass he forced her to stay right where she was as his own orgasm began to emerge. His head fell forward, his dirty blond hair falling into his eyes, lost in the pleasure that was about to come. Literally.

“Shit, baby…I’m gonna…Unnnffff.” Her pussy wrapped around his swollen, aching shaft felt so good he had half a mind to stay put, but he knew better, it was bad enough he didn’t take the time to wrap his shit up, this was not an option.

As Jax threw his head back and prepared to pull out of the vise her pussy had become, the sudden gasp he heard next broke all concentration he once had. Scarlet’s arms tightened around his neck in an attempt to cover her naked self, his eyes darting to the now open doors and a very displeased Gemma standing wide eyed in the doorway.

“Jesus Christ Jackson!” Gemma yelled as Scarlet scurried behind him, understandably so. Gemma Teller was one woman you didn’t cross, especially when it came to her baby boy.

“Get the fuck out of here!” Jax scowled, not even phased that he was standing with his jeans pooled at his feet.

[lorrainecparker]

ART OF THE CUT with Billy Fox, ACE on “Only the Brave”

Billy Fox, ACE, last spoke to Art of the Cut after he cut Straight Outta Compton. Fox’s other feature film work includes Hustle and Flow, Low Riders, Footloose and Black Snake Moan. His TV work is also notable, including the critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated work on Band of Brothers and Emmy-winning editing on Law and Order.

(This interview was transcribed with SpeedScriber. The entire interview was transcribed within 15 minutes of completing the Skype call. Thanks to Martin Baker at Digital Heaven)

HULLFISH: I went to go see the movie last night. It really flies by for a movie that’s two fifteen in length.

FOX: Goes by very quickly. The scenes are all kind of shortish which creates a kind of momentum.

HULLFISH: Do you remember how many scenes it is?

FOX: I wanna say it’s 150.

HULLFISH: You’ve done a bunch of movies with strong music in them — pop, rock, rap — and this movie is not a music movie, but there are some nice strong musical montages to rock tracks.

FOX: I find the shots that I basically want to use and I string them together without music, but at a certain point I attach the music to it and start tweaking based on the music. And adjusting the editing of the music, depending on how recognizable the song is. When I was doing my editor’s cut I was playing with a lot of temp music, and at some point Joe (director, Joe Kosinsky) and I felt, “Let’s lose ALL of the music.” We want to make sure the scenes are playing without music. And if they play well without music, then ideally, they’ll get better with music. We came to the realization, particularly at the end, that so much of it played better dry. It plays more emotionally when it’s dry. Music can sometimes be a support system. You feel more comfortable with music sometimes, and the fact that you would normally have music at this given point and you don’t makes you even more uncomfortable.

HULLFISH: Can you think of a specific scene that you played dry?

FOX: We did an experiment with the producers where we ran the whole movie dry. Obviously the scene in the bar had music because it’s part of the scene. It played really well and it allowed you to focus on the movie itself. It was very interesting.

HULLFISH: If you add music, the music sometimes gives things away.

The Granite Mountain Hoteshots overlook a fire in Columbia Pictures’ ONLY THE BRAVE.

FOX: That’s a big deal for me. Certainly the choice of music track is important, but even more important is where the music STARTS. I have a constant struggle dealing with composers who want the music to start too early. Basically, I feel that the scene needs to establish that it NEEDS music. Sometimes a composer will give you that extra music at the top, and the composer’s intent isn’t necessarily for it to start where he starts it, but so that you can bring it in early if you feel like you need it. But when you’re on the dub stage,  sometimes mixers will bring up the music as soon as it’s available.

HULLFISH: In an early firefighting scene, you leave the action for a while to show two druggies doing drugs on a couch. What was the thought process of that choice to bring that scene in at that time?… one of the druggies ends up being a central character in the movie — Miles Teller’s character, Donut.

FOX: It’s interesting because that was a scene that moved around a little bit. There were versions of the cut where the fire came to its conclusion before we went to the drug scene. But in testing, people felt that the movie got better when Miles Teller was on the screen and we felt that was a logical place to open up that fire. We didn’t move a lot of scenes around.

HULLFISH: That happens a lot with movies where the audience, or just you as an editor, realize that you need to get to a certain person or event earlier in the film. It’s not a question of shortening the whole film, but tightening between specific story beats.

FOX: In Straight Outta Compton, that whole concert sequence, which is about 40 minutes long… before that, there were other concerts, varying venues and little vignettes. Even the writers knew that where they were placed in the script was not really where they would probably end up. Those moved around continually. But in Only the Brave, not so much… a little bit of movement.

HULLFISH: I’ve had conversations — pro and con — about pre-lapping dialogue. You definitely did it several times in this movie.

FOX: Pre-lapping inside of a scene or between scenes?

Helicopter Hueys arrive to pick up crew at Chiricahua Mtn.

HULLFISH: Both, but I really mean between scenes — hearing someone speak from the next scene before you cut to the picture of that scene.

FOX: I like it. I think you have to be careful. What you have to be careful of is killing the moment of the outgoing scene. You have to give it enough breath. But if used well and the timing is right and if not overdone, it pulls you in. I know that there are editors that don’t like it. I think it would be easy to not do it, I just think it connects things up. In the old days, before digital projection and digital editing, it used to make it really complicated for reel changes but now it doesn’t really matter.

Screenshot from Adobe Premiere Pro of the “Only the Brave” timeline. (right-click on the image to open it at full resolution in another browser window.)

HULLFISH: Another show that’s using Premiere is Mindhunter. Do you want to talk about how Premiere worked for you?

FOX: I’m always watching out for better systems. In between projects, I’m always looking for what can make my next show better. And sometimes it’s as simple as just the speakers or the video monitors or my control surface. I’m always tweaking stuff. Of course, the NLE is something I’m always looking at. I’m always looking at systems that are better. I have pictures of me using a LaserEdit, CMX6000, LightWorks, Final Cut, Avid and Adobe Premiere The list keeps going. I’m always moving along.

I was keeping my eye on Premiere, like I was keeping my eye on Final Cut. For years and years I was watching and it wasn’t quite ready. And eventually it got to a point where I had to take a serious look at it. Adobe and I finally had a nice long chat and I said, “I think you have a very interesting system, but I don’t know why I want to use it. I have to be able to sell the decision to other people. I have to sell it to the head of post-production. I have to sell it to the director.” We talked for two hours and we never even turned on a system. Van Bedient of Adobe demonstrated a number of features that he thought were very cool. So then I talked to Joe about it and he was very into it.

Crew 7 in the burnt forest including Brendan McDonough (Miles Teller), Jesse Steed (James Badge Dale),Chris MacKenzie (Taylor Kitsch),Grant McKee (Sam Quinn),Andrew Ashcraft (Alex Russell), Clayton Whitted (Scott Haze), Garret Zuppiger (Brandon Bunch), Travis Carter (Scott Foxx), Anthony Rose (Jake Picking), Robert Caldwell (Dylan Kenin), Travis Turbyfill (Geoff Stults) in Columbia Pictures’ ONLY THE BRAVE.

Then I had a long chat with a team of about six people from Adobe: the product manager and marketing and myself. And I said, “I’m thinking of using your system. But I’m not interested in you just handing me a piece of software. I need your support. I need your support on a daily basis. I need bodies available to us.” And they gave us all of that. And I also said, “I have to have shared projects.” I had dealt with Final Cut without shared projects for many years and I know how to do it and you can do it and it’s fine. It’s just frustrating. It’s kind of a pain. I came up with this philosophy that I don’t buy a car without reverse. And as far as I’m concerned your editing system has to have shared projects. They said, “Well, funny you should mentioned that. We are developing shared projects.” They said we wouldn’t have it for the editors cut, which is fine, because I’m pretty independent at that point, but they said they would have shared projects for me by the director’s cut. It came right down to it and they delivered. The first version we had for the first couple of days had a couple of things we didn’t like and they fixed it immediately and it worked great.

If you compare it to the shared projects in Avid, it’s not as robust as Avid’s but that was version 1. Now at version 3, it is pretty great. It’s pretty amazing. Like any editing system, there are things you want to scream at, but largely it was fantastic. We had a great time with it. My assistant had never worked on Adobe Premiere before. He adapted very quickly and he loved it. For me it was straight-forwardish because it’s cousins to Final Cut. Once I got the philosophy locked in then I thought it was fantastic.

HULLFISH: What are you missing on Avid that you loved in Premiere?

FOX: A lot of different stuff. But probably the biggest one is that Avid is the world of constant stopping. Everything you do in Avid, you’re constantly stopping. In Final Cut – and Premiere’s even better – you’re in a world of constant rolling. You’re trimming while your cut is going. You have this momentum, and certainly you save time just because of that. I figure the time it saves me is roughly 40 minutes a day. More important than the time is the momentum. I’m adjusting this, I’m trimming this, and it just keeps on playing. So that’s probably the biggest. I’d have to think about it. There are things I really like about Avid. I think its trimming functions are very powerful. Premiere’s are actually very good, so it’s debatable which is really better. Avid is a really solid, powerful, beloved tool.

HULLFISH: I’d be interested in your take on Resolve, because it’s also very similar to Final Cut.

FOX: I know, because, as I said, I keep my eye on systems. I’ve been very impressed with it. Paul Saccone showed it to me and boy does he do a great demo. I wanna continue to learn. I’ve played with it just a little, but I know very little about it other than the demo. It seems great. I love some of the stuff. I spend so much time in audio,so Fairlight would be great. So I want to see how Fairlight interfaces. One of Resolve’s strongest things, of course, is its color correction. I love color correction and I very much like to do it. I love that process.

But on an editorial level and a sound level and even a visual effects level, I never have time for color correction. And what really intrigues me about Resolve is its collaboration and having multiple people in the same sequence at the same time. That would really be great for me to be cutting in my room, then an assistant’s in another room doing color correction and another is working on audio. That’s really powerful. Competition is good.

“Supe” Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) and Amanda Marsh (Jennifer Connelly)

HULLFISH: Amen. Jennifer Connely’s character gets into a huge fight with Josh Brolin’s character at the horse stables of their house and the whole scene is played in a wide silhouette. It’s the kind of thing a lot of people would play — because of the intense emotion — on close ups. I loved it. Tell me about that decision.

FOX: I don’t think there’s any coverage on that and there are only two takes. Both takes are really good, but the one that’s in there? The lightning in that shot is real! I was in Santa Fe, where they shot, for about a week, and the lightning was just beautiful.

HULLFISH: There’s a follow shot of a truck that has some amazing lightning in the movie too.

FOX: Oh yeah. Most of that is real. A couple are VFX. Our visual effects editor was with us, John Carr, who was on After Effects, and he was working with ILM. So he would send plates and he would do temp versions. It was a great working relationship. Having After Effects and having ILM and being able to do Dynamic Linking, which was particularly powerful, and not have to comp the files or do anything crazy.

HULLFISH: Let’s talk a little about all those fire VFX. It looked like the plate provided you with a good sense of the shot and then the fire was layered on top.

FOX: The very end with the big, big fire where the fire was getting closer and closer and coming at them? There was a lot of natural fire there. Surprisingly a lot. But there was tremendously more in the VFX. In the scene in Yarnell where Donut is stranded behind the dozer, there were a medium number of real fires going on around him. But the interesting thing is that you can’t just take a bush and add fire to it, because part of what fire is all about is the wind. The wind just goes racing through the valleys. You can’t add fire to a natural stationary bush, because the bush should be absolutely going nuts. So they had to replace all of the bushes. All of those are CG bushes. So we’d have to decide for each shot how fast the wind was going. So first they’d have to get the movement of the bush to match the wind speed, then they’d add fire on top of that.

HULLFISH: So on something like a drone or helicopter shot of a landscape that has no fire in it, does it at least help that you have the movement and the geography of the drone plate? And all you had to do was imagine where the fire would be?

FOX: A lot of times I thought there would be fire out on the horizon or further away from camera, and I didn’t know that we’d actually be traveling WITH the fire.

I wanna backtrack a bit. When I finished the editor’s cut and Joe and I started working, I threw something out as a suggestion. The bulk of the visual effects were in that final reel, so I suggested that we start with the last reel of the movie. Let’s cut the big fire. What that does is it gives ILM a start. Get’s them started maybe a month or two early. More importantly, that’s the peak of the movie. Let’s get that done. It kind of takes the pressure off. And it worked out great. It didn’t change a lot from that original first cut that Joe and I did.

HULLFISH: That’s fascinating that you cut the last reel first. Did that inform the editing of the previous — what? six reels? seven?

FOX: Seven. Yes. It definitely informed the earlier reels. It’s also really nice to know that you don’t have this giant monster waiting for you. I like to do that actually. Get the big thing out of the way. Also, you’re starting to learn the techniques of the movie and what the language is. Every show I do, there’s a language. There’s also getting to know a character better.

Working on this, I used the same template that I used when I worked on Band of Brothers. Which is, in this case, the war and the battle, or in this case the fire, are ultimately boring. But what’s more important is the characters and the connection and the camaraderie between the individuals. On Band of Brothers, there were scenes that I had to go back and re-edit, because I now know that character better. I now understand what makes them tick.

HULLFISH: So that’s really interesting for this movie because since you’ve edited reel seven already and — for example — the character of Donut is a totally different person in reel seven than in reel one, and knowing him like you do in reel seven would give you a different perspective on that character… The subtext becomes different.

Josh Brolin and Director Joseph Kosinski on the set of Columbia Pictures’ ONLY THE BRAVE.

FOX: Yeah. Correct. I’ve always wanted to sit with a director and go over the script and talk it through. “Let’s look at this scene. What’s the importance of it. What’s really happening.” I have my own interpretation, but they’ve been living with it for so long. So I’m coming in a week or two or three before they start shooting. They’ve been living with it for a year. They know the characters. I don’t. So I’m always playing catch up.

HULLFISH: Another complicated scene to cut must have been the bar scene with all of those people and the band and the stuff going on… the music.

FOX: Like any music scene where you’ve got a song going on. You got the song going on and if you make a trim, what do you do with the music? You want the music to end at a certain place, or you want to make a transition to where you’ve got Jeff Bridges back on camera when he’s performing. So sometimes you want to cut something, but you can’t because then you won’t be able to come back at the right time. It was a very difficult scene to cut. I almost spent more time on that scene than anything. It was hard.

HULLFISH: There’s a lot of people in the scene. There’s the geography of the bar and there’s the music going on the whole time.

FOX: You’re flying around the room. You’re telling different stories. You know there’s that scene in there with Taylor Kitsch’s character ‘Mac’ and the two girls? I thought, “I wonder if this scenes gonna last?” So we discussed it at a certain point, but there’s not a lot of girls in this movie, so we were like, “No, no, no. We’ve got to keep that.” Amanda’s character: Eric’s wife was such an important character and so pivotal to the movie’s success.

HULLFISH: You were talking about matching back the mix sound to the iso tracks. That’s kind of a pain in Avid.

FOX: My assistant sets it up in a way that’s the same way that I do it on Avid. You matchframe. Your source comes back to the mix and it pops out to six tracks. It’s definitely not as elegant as how FCP-X does it.

This is the first show that I’ve done in 5.1. Adobe has a little work to do on their 5.1. I think Avid is a little more advanced. FCP-X is a little more advanced as well. At the present time, in Premiere, I run 24 tracks.

I spend a lot of time with my sound. I would say 49 percent of my time. And dealing with music and dealing with SFX. My process is that I start out by dealing with pure dialogue and picture, nothing but dialogue and picture. At a certain point — almost to clear my head a little bit — I go into sound effects world. I just build a bed. Something simple. It lets me look at the scene, but I’m actually working on something else. I come back into dialogue and I go into trimming and at a certain point I go back to sound effects and start getting more specific. More hard effects. I’m continually playing this constant game of going from editing picture and editing story to sound and music and they’re getting better and better and they’re going back and forth

HULLFISH: And the sound and picture are informing each other.

FOX: They are definitely informing each other. Both sound and picture is completely checkerboarded, so that I can easily slice underneath. My dialogue is always tight, tight, tightly cleaned. So you can play dialogue only and it sounds great. I base the mix on the dialogue. I have my dialogue living about minus ten db, and then I mix music and effects to meet that. I love using a control surface for audio. I use this Avid mixer on Avid and on Final Cut and on Premiere, and it’s the best. It just makes all the difference in the world. And I use a Tangent Devices Ripple for color correction with Premiere. I don’t have a lot of time for color correction, but the way that the Ripple works with Premiere, with 20 seconds of work, I’m done and I move on. It’s just very elegant.

HULLFISH: And having grades that match from shot to shot makes the edits appear to be cleaner, right?

FOX: Yeah. It was nice, because I didn’t have to carry a color correction stem, which I hate. And when it came time to do the DI, Joe had spent so much time dealing with the color correction that he knew what he wanted. The colorist, Mike Soa, a great colorist,. Joe said, “Here. Take the output of Premiere, and this is what I want. We’ll make it better, but for the most part, this is the look. These are the tones. All those decisions were made.

HULLFISH: I’m assuming you weren’t cutting with camera original media.

FOX: We transcoded to ProRes. For dailies, we used NextLab from FotoKem, They took all of our raw files and made editorial files and made our output files and our distribution files. NextLab is a really great box. If you haven’t gotten a demo on it, you should really check it out. Worked fabulous.

It’s how we always worked, but I’ve always been frustrated by it because ultimately when you start getting effects back from ILM, they’ve been handed the LOG plates, the uncorrected plates, When you get in the visual effect, it doesn’t have the same color correction as the footage. Joe has corrected our dailies, so that look doesn’t exist anywhere. So you’re chasing a color correction and it’s a very time consuming pain in the butt.

So on our next project, the editing system will have the LOG files only. No color correction. We will add the LUT and the CDL (color decision list) not in the timeline, but through metadata, so when you’re color correcting, your color correcting through the LUT and through the CDL. So when you get the VFX in from ILM, you just put it in the timeline with the same LUT. We were receiving 20 or 30 shots every couple of days, so that was a lot of work to have to do manually.

HULLFISH: There’s a scene in the movie during the bar scene where Donut goes out to talk on the street and in the middle of that conversation, you cut back inside the bar for a moment — kind of through a window. (We are conducting the interview on Skype and I can see Billy makes a face.) What was that face for?

Director Joseph Kosinski on the set of Columbia Pictures’ ONLY THE BRAVE.

FOX: I always had a problem with that. I know it’s done all the time in other movies. But what do you do with the music? What do you do with the sound? I’m too close to it. For me, it just doesn’t feel real.

HULLFISH: So the purpose of the shots back into the bar was to see that there’s parallel action inside the bar with Jennifer Connelly that we need to understand when we come back later?

FOX: Yes. It was setting up that when Miles and Josh come back into the bar, Jennifer would be dancing with Steinbreck. It also helps you see that she’s worrying about her husband. It also helps to set up the scene in the car right after. It just keeps her alive. I completely get the need for it. For me it bumps a little.

HULLFISH: I’m not trying to point out a bump, but as a fellow editor, it was a place where I just thought that there must have been a discussion between you and the director or whether that was scripted. And if it was scripted, sometimes you have some latitude to decide exactly where in the scene it goes — though it has to be in a pretty linear story order.

FOX: That was scripted. Originally there were actually two shots back to the bar and we simplified it a bit.

HULLFISH: I don’t want to do any spoilers, so I won’t mention the reason or situation, but there’s some really powerful cross cutting when Donut is listening to his crew over the radio, that must’ve been very difficult and complicated: When to cut to him. When to cut back to the crew.

FOX: For example, when he hears the news of the crew going into the tents, he drops his head and I had that drop of the head in another place. There was some discussion of where exactly to put it. Hearing it through his eyes. The strange thing is that we have the real audio recordings from that real event. You can go on the internet and actually hear that radio call yourself. You can hear the dispatch guy saying, “We’ve got a plane coming around…it’s looking for you…” We built that whole thing based on the real deal.

At the BBQ at the Hotshots’ HQ, “Supe” Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin)

HULLFISH: You also have to deal with making the decision of the sound through the radio and the sound live from the people on the other side of the radio.

FOX: At a certain point, we couldn’t cut back any more. So from a certain point it all had to be on Donut. I looked at a lot of different coverage of Miles and it was most powerful to  stay on him and not do a lot of cuts. Especially the last bit. I think the whole thing is 30 or 40 seconds and there might be one cut. From the original cut it changed a little, but it didn’t change a lot.

HULLFISH: Anything specifically that you want to talk about from a technical standpoint?

FOX: There were a couple of things. We used OpenDrive. Have you ever used that?

HULLFISH: No.

FOX: OpenDrive is an SSD RAID solution. My understanding is that it was developed through David Fincher’s company. I cut a lot of films right here in my house, so we put the OpenDrive in the guest room. It’s in a rack. All these solid state drives. 24 terabytes and it’s loud and it needs a lot of air-conditioning, so we had to bring in a special air-conditioner. It’s really fast. I’m not sure that in our particular case that we needed that kind of speed. We were just pushing around 2K files. Adobe just finished a movie called Six Below and they were editing in 6K Raw.

HULLFISH: That’s Vashi Nedomansky, right?

FOX: Yeah. He taught me Premiere right here. He came in on three separate Saturdays and we had a great time. It was fun. OpenDrive was really a cool device. You should look into it. It was a good solution. And NextLab was particularly great. They built special edit rooms for us over at Margarita Mix in Santa Monica. We edited here at my house while they were shooting, then we moved to Margarita mix for the director’s cut and on. Very nice facility five minutes from my house.

Brendan McDonough (Miles Teller) in Columbia Pictures’ ONLY THE BRAVE.

HULLFISH: Talk to me a little about your relationship with the director. You talked a little how you wanted to be able to sit down and discuss scene objectives but that never really happened.

FOX: I didn’t know Joe. My agent got me the interview. Oblivion is one of my wife’s and my favorite movies. We watch it all the time. We love the film. So I had an interview with Joe, and we hit it off. Joe is a very very mellow and incredibly bright guy. He likes that we don’t talk a lot about it because he wants me to just interpret it however I want to interpret it. I looked at the material in a different way. I came at it from a different angle. He likes to have a fresh eye on it. Fresh Perspective.

When you have an interview with somebody, discussing the film is only part of it. You may like that person and that person may like you, but you really don’t know their sensibilities until you start working together. In Joe’s case, we locked in pretty good. We’d both see something on the screen and I could see his head turn. And I’d just say, “Yeah. See it. Got it.” We wouldn’t even have to write down a note. Life would be good if I just kept working with Joe. Sometimes directors can be complicated. Mostly I’ve worked with really nice, bright, mellow guys.

HULLFISH: What was your method of collaborating during the director’s cut?

FOX: We didn’t look at individual scenes. We pretty much would go over a reel. We would look at a large chunk of the film. I would take notes and then he would just take off. His office was next door and he’d just go there and do other stuff. Sometimes while I worked, he would go re-examine dailies. And he would come in with a list of takes he wanted to try. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn’t. Mostly it would. But I would work on my own for a while, then call him and say, “Ready for you. Come on back.” That was kind of the groove.

HULLFISH: Tell me your approach to a scene.

FOX: For me it’s important to have a point of view. I can’t cut a scene without having an understanding of what the scene is about. What’s the key objective? – even though it may be my interpreted key objective. What do we want to communicate or what do we want to say here? I can’t just cut something even if I have the script in front of me and there’s the dialogue. It has to be grounded in something.

As much as I absolutely love editing, the one thing I don’t love is building a first cut. For me I don’t spend too much time killing myself trying to find the right take. I look at a couple takes and if I can find one with no real mistakes and it’s good, I just do it, because at this point all I’m trying to do is build a scene with a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s there. It’s the whole body.

At that moment, whenever I edit that last chunk in, everything changes. I start molding. And I start working with the footage and I start listening to the dialogue and working with the energies. Where people are looking. Everything has to be very carefully motivated.

Once it’s feeling better’ish, I go back into dailies again. I start re-looking at raw footage and they take on a whole new color. I start seeing real subtleties. Little performances. Little things that I didn’t really see before. Now I see them because I’m now into the dynamics of the scene.

There was a day where I would spend a tremendous amount of time doing what I call a performance cut. I would string out every single line from every take and every setup. I don’t do that anymore. Very time consuming to do it. And I just feel that this process works better. I just mold it into the refined takes.

What I also do is I create a thing called my Golden Moments cut, which is not really performance-based. It’s a templated sequence I have which has leader. Everything is based on leader. Everything works with leader for me because it’s all timing and it’s all musical. And the leader sets up the rhythm. So everything I do, every little sequence or reel has its leader at the top because it sets me up, but I’ll do a Golden Moments where I have these little two second slates that say, one two three four, scattered onto the sequence. Then I go back and I start looking at the dailies. And I look for great moments. I see a great little thing and I see that it’s supposed to be at the end so I’ll move it all the way down to number 9. Or this is for the beginning so I’ll move it to number one. I find all these little little teeny tiny things that I would love to get into this cut. Maybe there’s 20 things in there or 30 things.

Now I try and see what I can put into the cut. And the thing I find fascinating is that these are all GREAT moments, but when I try to fit them into the cut, I’ll find that it’s stronger just to be on the person. And of the 30 really good moments that I’ve put in my Golden Moments, I’m lucky if I put in five. I couldn’t find a home for them. “Oh my God! That’s such an amazing shot!” Great. Let’s find a home for it.” And then the director sees why it’s not in. Sometimes you can see it in another editor’s work where they forced in all of the great little moments. I think the key thing that makes a really good editor is not what you edit in, but it’s what you leave out.

HULLFISH: I would worry about showing that Golden Selects reel to the director because they probably want to see all those shots in.

FOX: Oh, and they do. And I let them try. “Come on. Let’s do it together. Let’s try this one. Let’s try to put it in.” And they see, “Oh, right. You’d have to cut away from this shot and it’s so much stronger to just stay on that person.” So it’s a process. It’s a process of fine tuning. I work on it. I go off and do some sound. I can feel it’s getting closer and it’s getting closer. And the thing that’s the greatest is that you take one edit, one little thing and you trim it by one frame and the whole scene just goes (BOOM). It’s no longer a series of shots, it’s a window of reality. I keep drilling on it until I get to that place.

HULLFISH: That takes some faith in your skills that you can just knock out an initial cut that may not be great, but to understand that it’s a process and that eventually you will get it there. But not to be so discouraged by the first pass… to have patience and to understand that the first cut is only part of the process. Sometimes if you let an assistant cut a scene, they kind of freak out about those early decisions. But you have to realize that that first cut is only one small step in a larger process.

FOX: Exactly. It’s part of the magic When you do your job well, it’s the invisible art. It just looks natural. It looks like nothing.

HULLFISH: So many people think that that invisibility happens the first time you put a scene together.

FOX: Wouldn’t that be nice. I am incredibly neurotic in that — even down to cutting a oner — I start to think, “This is the scene I won’t be able to figure out.” But even at the rough cut stage when I see that it’s not pretty at all, there’s something in there, where I say to myself, “This scene will work. I know I can get it there. This will be great.”

HULLFISH: I saw a quote from the fantastic Carol Littleton saying the same thing. That she’s never sure that she’s going to be able to get some scene done… but of course she does. Thank you so much for your time and I really appreciate your generosity and wisdom. Have a great time with your project.

FOX: Thank you. Bye bye.

To read more interviews in the Art of the Cut series, check out THIS LINK and follow me on Twitter @stevehullfish

The first 50 interviews in the series provided the material for the book, “Art of the Cut: Conversations with Film and TV Editors.” This is a unique book that breaks down interviews with many of the world’s best editors and organizes it into a virtual roundtable discussion centering on the topics editors care about. It is a powerful tool for experienced and aspiring editors alike. Cinemontage and CinemaEditor magazine both gave it rave reviews. No other book provides the breadth of opinion and experience. Combined, the editors featured in the book have edited for over 1,000 years on many of the most iconic, critically acclaimed and biggest box office hits in the history of cinema.

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