#nd now i like just about any found footage i watch

[eldritch-nightmare]

the plan today is to put on some horror movies, sit down, nd write. maybe found footage... found footage is my favorite subgenre of horror.

[dweemeister]

The Steel Helmet (1951)

Looking through American World War II films made during the war itself, one notices that many have overt strains of bellicose patriotism and propaganda. That war, the final world-consuming crisis for several decades, impacted even civilians living oceans away from the violence. The Korean War cannot be described as such. When North Korea’s Kim Il-sung ordered the invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, the U.S. military that countered the invasion was a shadow of what it was five years earlier. What was originally described as a “police action” and nominally pitted United Nations forces (of which the U.S. provided ninety percent of troops) against Communist troops failed to garner much attention from the American public even as it was being fought.

Released a half-year after North Korea’s invasion, The Steel Helmet is one of the first films set during the Korean War. Directed, produced, and written by Samuel Fuller for the independent studio Lippert Pictures, the film was made on the cheap ($104,000; just over $1 million in 2020’s USD) and shot in ten days. The Steel Helmet bears little resemblance to its older cinematic cousins, the WWII films released during that war. Convulsing with bitterness, racism, and post-traumatic fury, this is an attempt to portray life as an American infantry soldier with emotional honesty. The details of battle scenes might not be as accurate as they could be – and certainly not how Korea itself and the film’s Asian characters are portrayed – but The Steel Helmet succeeds in its primary goal.

Surviving a North Korean massacre, Sergeant Zack (Gene Evans) is found by a South Korean boy he will nickname “Short Round” (William Chun; this nickname, also used in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for Jonathan Ke Quan’s character, refers to a flaw in a gun’s ammunition). Short Round knows English and begins following Zack – much to the latter’s annoyance. The boy won’t listen to, “beat it, kid”; nor does he appreciate being called a, “gook”. Zack and Short Round soon encounter Corporal Thompson (James Edwards), a black medic who is the last surviving member of his unit. The accidental trio shortly stumble onto a small, battered patrol commanded by Lieutenant Driscoll (Steve Brodie), who immediately suspects Thompson – because of his race – to be a deserter. Just as the trio argue with Driscoll and his unit, the soldiers are ambushed by snipers and take cover in an abandoned Buddhist temple (to the film’s discredit, it resembles nothing like an actual Buddhist temple and the centerpiece statue looks nothing like the Buddha). There is a North Korean soldier hiding in the shadows of the temple. And unbeknownst to the American soldiers, an enormous wave of North Korean soldiers is advancing on their position.

The events and characters of The Steel Helmet are fictional, but they have been adapted from Fuller’s war diaries and adjusted for the difference in setting. The Steel Helmet’s limited budget ensures that the violence is contained to the premises of a soundstage; the hordes of North Korean soldiers appearing in the film’s finale either the product of stock footage or Asian college students from UCLA hired as extras. There are no soldiers in The Steel Helmet who show complete deference to authority or accept the reasons why the United States military is in Korea at all. The encompassing political reasons for the Korean War are of little concern to them – survival becomes their only motivation. As a portrait of an infantry soldier’s mentality in desperate circumstances, The Steel Helmet benefits from Fuller’s military service during World War II. The soldiers’ actions and mindsets always seem realistic.

With his scruffy beard and punctured helmet, Zack is a grunt soldier that has become disillusioned with a war that has not even lasted a year. The anger he feels about the adversity he and his comrades have faced is boiling over. Zack is constantly searching for something or someone to take his emotions out on. His somewhat contemptuous attitude towards Short Round suggests racial resentment (more on the film’s depiction of racism later in this review) and that he has no patience for those who cannot defend themselves when the enemy is near; his initial behavior towards Driscoll’s squad is colored by grief manifesting as antagonism.

Fuller’s attempts to articulate the deranged psychology of battle-hardened infantry soldiers are taken to extremes rarely seen in American films in the 1950s. The most chilling example occurs as the film’s closing act begins. A prisoner of war (POW) is unexpectedly murdered by Zack as North Korean soldiers draw near. Zack carries out this murder with concealed, stone-faced passion. Even without the gruesome images that are allowed in modern cinema, the murder is shocking and, considering the characterizations of those involved, conceivable. It is lawless battlefield “justice” where the executioner is also the judge and jury. For moviegoers accustomed to the mostly propagandistic – intentional or otherwise – World War II films released in the prior decade, the notion that a member of the United States military could commit a war crime must have been unconscionable. Then and now, other American viewers not nearly as critical of the military’s conduct might have seen what is an obvious violation of the Geneva Convention as justified.

Joseph Breen’s office at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was tasked with enforcing the Hays Code (censorship guidelines that applied to American films until 1968, when replaced by the present-day ratings system). As one might expect, the Breen Office voiced vehement objections to this scene – especially since Zack is never punished on-screen for his actions. Nevertheless, Fuller campaigned to keep the scene and it remains in the film. The Breen Office’s reasons for backing down on this appear to stem from the fact that Driscoll threatens a court martial immediately after Zack fires his gun – a peculiarly minor concession, it seems. The Breen Office’s ultimate approval of the film’s debate on racial relations are unclear, and I have been unable to find any explicit reason in freely available literature describing that aspect.

The film’s prisoner of war (played by Harold Fong, whose character is credited as “The Red”) is an English-proficient North Korean soldier. Observing the unit that has captured him, the audience will notice that this is a motley bunch. Granted, the notion of a diverse military squad is a war film cliché. But after President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948, note that this is one of the first depictions of an integrated U.S. military in film. A decade earlier, Cpl. Thompson would have been bandaging the wounds of black soldiers and might not be allowed near a wounded white comrade. One of Driscoll’s subordinates is Sergeant Tanaka (Richard Loo; a Chinese-American actor who nevertheless made a living playing numerous Japanese antagonists during the 1940s), who served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment – which was composed almost entirely of second-generation Japanese-American (Nisei) soldiers – during WWII.

Under watch by the Americans, the North Korean soldier will attempt to stoke racial divisions among his captors. Speaking to Thompson, he notes the hypocrisy of a black man fighting for a nation that has failed to recognize non-white people as equal under the law. The prisoner notes that, if Thompson ever returns home, there will still be “whites only” services and that he will have to sit in the back of public buses. Thompson keeps his cool, acknowledging the reality of the prisoner’s words. Nevertheless, Thompson reasons, he is assisting the nation he cares for, showing that he can perform as ably as anyone regardless of race. As Thompson implies, perhaps one day the United States will achieve the ideal it is purported to be – in his individual way, he shall serve the best he can.

Then there is the nighttime conversation between the North Korean and Tanaka. The POW begins by remarking that Americans despise Asian eyes, and then – in what is possibly the earliest, non-documentary mention of this in American cinema – evokes the Japanese-American concentration camps that Tanaka and his family almost certainly were forced into. An exhausted Tanaka, with a fatigued but barely annoyed glance, tells the North Korean major that his charade is too transparent:

THE RED: …They call you “dirty Jap rats” and yet you fight for them. Why? TANAKA: I’ve got some hot infantry news for you. I’m not a dirty Jap rat. I’m an American, and if we get pushed around back home… well, that’s our business… knock off before I forget the Articles of War and slap those rabbit teeth of yours out one at a time.

If The Steel Helmet had been made a few years, perhaps a few months, earlier, these disapproving mentions about the United States’ terrible record on racial equality might never have appeared in the film. The legitimate concern that black Americans would not support the United States military resulted in films like The Negro Soldier (1944). In World War II, the then-segregated military was viewed unfavorably by a substantial minority of African-Americans, so the government (and a cooperating American film industry) reasoned that directly addressing the nation’s painful racial history might be counterproductive. And so soon after World War II’s end, the “yellow peril” that was the Japanese was substituted for another anxiety: communists. Still, the prevailing attitude among American narrative media in the early 1950s was to celebrate the “patriotic” Japanese-Americans and those who served in the 442nd – erasing almost entirely the unconstitutional and inexcusable internment of Japanese-Americans.

As Fuller realizes as he dons his Cold War glasses, the likes of North Korea, the Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China could easily use the United States’ racism to undermine its message. Those nations did exactly that and continue to do so (the Soviet Union succeeded by the Russian Federation). America’s idealized self-perception as democracy’s champion collapses quickly even at a cursory glance of its racial relations. The Steel Helmet should be applauded for including this dialogue in the film, but these scenes are brief and never fully adopt Thompson or Tanaka’s point of view. Both are portrayed as intelligent, composed soldiers. But beyond their soldiering, we learn little else – The Steel Helmet is Zack’s movie, with everyone else not nearly as developed as Gene Evans’ central character.

Fuller avoids glamorizing military service and war. Despite Korea as his setting, Fuller makes little constructive use of it and his Korean characters. Fuller might have found his own wartime mentality analogous to Zack’s, but the film becomes one-dimensional as it cannot branch out to detail the other American soldiers’ personal responses to the war they are fighting. The Steel Helmet is homiletic, so be warned if you are not seeking a war film that is unafraid to moralize – sometimes without artistry. But given the restricted budget and the film’s abbreviated 85-minute runtime, I found myself forgiving the film for most of these flaws.

Communist and far-left commentators accused The Steel Helmet of being pro-American propaganda; the far-right, Breen Office, and the Pentagon were horrified by the film and blasted it as anti-American. J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), even launched an investigation into Fuller for suspected Communist sympathies. Such reception must have allowed Fuller a strange satisfaction, if one accounts his future reputation for addressing controversial themes with heavy-handed metaphors and allegories.

Moderately popular when first released, The Steel Helmet languished in obscurity in the decades after. That is unsurprising – the film was made and distributed by an independent studio. Thanks to the Criterion Collection and their special relationship with Turner Classic Movies (TCM), The Steel Helmet has found renewed attention thanks to its home media availability and the occasional TCM broadcast (it is regularly scheduled around Memorial Day and/or Veterans Day, in addition to the odd showing outside May and November). It is a fascinating addition to the lengthy list of American war films, supplying an era known for its propaganda-heavy elements with a forceful rebuke.

My rating: 7.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[hnd1bphoto-geraldmcmillan]

Artisan - Research & Evaluation

If I’m honest, the Artisan brief didn’t initially fire my imagination – videography per se wasn’t really a subject that I had any interest in, however that said, I am most certainly interested in photographs that have a cinematic quality, and in films that appear to have been shot with a photographer’s eye.  (I mentioned this before in my previous blog for NEW (photographer) – how much I admired and enjoyed Cuaron’s award-winning “Roma”).   Also, although I wasn’t sure what I wanted to shoot, the theme of “Artisan”, I thought was an inspired choice for the curriculum.

I thought the selected “instruction” videos that were available on the course website on how to shoot video on a DSLR camera were excellent – even the very first “basic” video produced by Fenchel & Jansch was extremely informative.

From the above video (I watched it a few times!) I learned about optimisation of camera settings for shooting over the 6 steps detailed in the video, e.g. for normal/daylight conditions,

·        a frame rate of 24/25 fps (frames per second –as used in feature film productions)

·        a shutter speed of 1/50 (for a frame rate of 24/25 fps – these both to be doubled in the case of, for example, shooting a scene that might ultimately be shown in slow-motion)

·        an ISO of 100 (to have maximum quality image of minimum digital noise)

·        aperture as wide open as possible to have a shallow depth of field – this means the focus and focus of attention will be on the intended subject in the frame, all under the control of the photographer

·        all camera controls to be in MANUAL mode – especially focus (see above bullet point)

·        picture settings to be adjusted with sharpness and contrast set to minimum (or near minimum) to achieve a “flat” cinematic look, also saturation reduced slightly

·        white balance setting to be determined by the ambient light conditions and quality

·        a tripod should be used to achieve a smooth final video production

The above represent ideal conditions, and there were hints and tips in the video such as using an ND filter if the lighting conditions were too bright, and for shooting under low light conditions.

The above information was sufficient to get going with a few in-class trials, which were really useful in that these sessions allowed us the students to familiarise ourselves with the camera settings and “see” how successful or otherwise our rapidly story-boarded/put-together mini-blockbusters turned out.  Actually these trials were probably more essential than useful – some idea of how to actually shoot a video was surely advisable before letting us loose on even the most patient of unsuspecting artisans out there in the general public.    

The next thing was to select which type of artisan I would be able to actually shoot a video of.  I’d seen dramatic videos of a blacksmith at work, with red-hot metal and sparks flying as a horseshoe was hammered into shape over an anvil, but I wondered if that might not now be a bit overdone, and possibly a little bit clichéd. Probably a less-clichéd option – and possibly more accessible/amenable would be a cobbler at work. There is one on Calder Street in Govanhill that I have used regularly – however I found he’d shut up shop when I investigated further. A chat with my lecturer helped immensely; he asked me what sort of stuff I liked doing in my spare time – apart from photography – and when I said playing (or trying to play) acoustic guitar, he suggested my artisan could be a luthier. And that was that really – my guitar tutor who had a connection with The Guitar Workshop Ltd in Glasgow put in a good word for me and I was good to go.  I really have no answer as to why I didn’t think of a luthier as my Artisan shoot before it was suggested to me – it immediately seemed an obvious option, as I am very interested in their craft, but I just didn’t see it in advance at the time.

As was suggested, I carried out a reconnaissance visit to meet the luthier and the premises, noting the layout and the lighting conditions. The shop has a big shopfront window which lets a lot of daylight in, and I was worried in case I might need an ND filter to control the light while maintaining optimum camera settings. I was relieved to see that a roller-blind could be lowered if necessary.  The shop featured a LOT of overhead LED panels and anglepoise desk lamps, but these were easily switch controllable.   I became aware that I wanted to vary the light intensity and introduce a softly-lit aspect to at least part of the video rather than continuously use the quite harsh light that I’d encountered in my preliminary visit. ( I understood that of course bright light conditions might be necessary under normal working conditions to prevent eye fatigue and to allow the luthier to see and work with intricate detailing).  The layout of the shop meant that I maybe had 3 possible strong angles from where I could set up my video tripod. However space was limited, plus there was a second luthier working in the workshop on the days I was able to shoot.  

From the College stores I booked 4 days in advance the following equipment:

·        Video tripod

·        Canon 6D camera with

·        50mm and 100mm prime lenses.

·        LED Lighting kit (comprising 2 off fully- controllable lamps) plus coloured gels (red + orange)

The video was shot over two visits spaced 2 weeks apart. I shot a lot of footage the first visit which I reviewed and carried out some preliminary edits on, again following the advice of an instruction video also shown in class. A fellow classmate Adam Boyd also suggested some really useful hints and tips on how to use the video editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro). I had captured some excellent sound bites of instruments being tuned and played as well as (I thought) some nice shoulder-level focus shift video shots between the two luthiers working at different work benches.  I worked out that I needed some extra shots of other instruments (apart from guitars, that is – it makes sense in the video) and extra voiceover comments from Ian Dickinson, the luthier, and I got those in my second visit.  Some of the additional shots I needed had to be

There was a lot of juxtapositioning of the video sequences and the accompanying soundtrack using the Adobe Premiere Pro software, and for the soundtrack I also adjusted the sound levels at certain sections – when the luthier was about to speak, and to increase the volume of speech in one instance - using the pen tool which made me feel quite proficient in video editing – well I feel I certainly ended up learning a lot more than I thought I would, anyway!

I was actually quite pleased with the final video. I think my best shot was the focus-shift going from the nearer luthier to the one working at the further workbench.  I liked how I edited my voiceovers to fit with the video sequence at each stage and the music itself which was from instruments played in the workshop. And I really liked my final sequence, courtesy of Barney, who plucked the notes of Bach’s Prelude for Cello Suite No. 1 (you’ll know it when you hear it!) on a cello that he literally had just put back together. 

I did promise a copy to the luthier, Ian, so hopefully he’ll like it well enough also.   (If he doesn’t, I’ll maybe feel obliged to buy a bespoke handmade guitar from him. I really wouldn’t mind that at all, but as it’s quite expensive item, and I’m not really that brilliant a guitarist, I think my wife might insist on a divorce first! So maybe I’ll just practice a bit more on one of the three guitars I already have!)

[3000isthenewinfinitynow]

The song Tony sings to Morgan every night

You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum

Pumpy-umpy-umpkin,

You're my Sweetie Pie

You're my Cuppycake, Gumdrop

Snoogums-Boogums,

You're the Apple of my Eye

And I love you so

and I want you to know

That I'll always be right here

And I love to sing sweet songs to you

Because you are so dear

Tony thought the world looked a little different at night.

Calm,almost inviting... like he could just drawn all his sorrow there,calm down his brain for once.

He doesn't like staying at home when the moon is bleeding red.

Morgan loved the night too. Liked to peer through the window of her treehouse at the endless sky,at the reflection of the stars in the lake. The smell of lily heavy in the air.

She had the whole night ritual thing memorized since.... forever? From the beginning to the end.

First they will share their secrets of the day.

And one common aspect is those secrets can never be told to mom. Like that time daddy took her to their "secret treehouse" in the middle of the night cause it was full moon.

They successfully came back without getting caught by mom.

But then...she really, really wanted to have some juice pops before going to bed and that's how mommy caught them in red,no, juice- stained hands.

Today's secret was a big,big one though.

But daddy didn't reveal it till the very end.

After tucking her in to bed dad simply started singing "their song"

Morgan loved his singing voice.So,she didn't interrupted him.

"You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum"

She didn't know if it was just her or if his voice really seemed catchier than other days.

"I love you so and I want you to know"

Or judging by how small his voice is

may be they should have icy juice pops in the middle of the night less often.

"That I'll always be right here"

Okay, change of plan. May be not in the midnight. Never in the midnight.Because he sounds like he's about to cry...And Morgan hates to see him cry.

And no body knows,not even daddy,that she has seen him cry more times than they both would like to admit.

He cries in his sleep. About someone hitting him in his chest.Hard. Sometimes he will clunth his chest painfully. Other days his stomach. Sometimes he dreams he is falling, like there's not enough air.

She knows he'll never admit. And she doesn't make him.She gently lays down with him.Hugs him as tight as she can.

He always reaches towards her by blind instincts.He knew her touch,the sound of her footfall. He even knew her breathing patterns.

Though she had no words, she murmured lovingly and he understood her gentle murmuring better than all speech.She would throw her arms round his neck; she would rub her cheek against her father's.

And it would always calm him down.

She thought may be she needs to do the same thing this time.

She hopes it will work.

"And I love to sing sweet songs to you"

She threw herself in his arms and finished the last line together.

"Because you are so,so dear"

He hugged her tight and didn't show any indication of letting go anytime soon.She was more than happy to oblige.

She doesn't know how long they stayed like that.Then daddy cupped her cheeks and kissed her forehead.

Which was another part of their night ritual. She almost forgot. Well, almost.

Then he surprised her and kissed her forehead. Again.

Okay,that was definitely special. But not abnormal. He tends to do that.

On those days, when she stays specially a good little girl.Every year on her birthdays.Everytime she achieves something new.

Or,when he has one of those bad days.

And sometimes just because...she thinks this kiss falls into none other than the "just because" category.

But then something astonishing happened.

He kissed.Again.

Whoa. That's crazy.

Her eyes go big like the saucer and she shoots those big brown eyes to another identical pair.

As soon as their eyes met it was as though she could guess his anguish of spirit from his quiet look of sadness. Coming closer to him, she rubbed her cheeks softly against his arms, and in dumb, puzzled fashion tried to comfort him.

Finally couldn't being able to hold it anymore she cupped his face in the same way he does whenever she wakes up from a nightmare,then looked straight into his eyes and said,"what's the big secret daddy? what's wrong?"

He looked shocked at the surreal amount of maturity in her voice and for the first time in his life,tony stark was...speechless.

"Uhh, what are you talking about, little miss?You are with me,see?what can be wrong?"

But if anything,it just bluntly declared to her that something was indeed very wrong.

"Daddy,what is it? I promise I won't tell mom."

He looked at her as a stricken doe looks in the hunter's face, whispering in silent agony,"umm,bussiness trip... there's this business trip daddy needs to attend..."

"But I thought that boring stuff was for mommy..."

"Well,you know what, Morgan? For someone so little you really captured the meaning of life..."

"Just send mommy to do it, she is bored anyway...yesterday I found her glaring at a cat,she claimed she was practicing 'the eyebrows' "

"God,I feel bad for those employees..."

"How did you do it,dad?"

"Huh, don't ask me.Nightmare,pure nightmare...Sit stotic all day.Look professional. All mannerism.No you can't touch that. That is mehegony. Make any shenanigans,and poof...you are dead....how about you just let me live and i don't know may be climb a tree or build a tree house and all that..."

Morgan chuckled and Tony willed himself to capture that sound deep,deep inside his memory.

"Give yourself some credit,dad.I wish to be as genius as you"

"Twelve percent?"

"Geez,no,aim higher"

"Okay,on a scale of 1 to 3000 because three thousand is the new infinity now how much credit should I give myself?"

"How about three thousand square?"

"For so long, I thought that's going to be my life.And now I think, ‘Oh, my God, me and the missus will be here until the grandkids attend our funerals. We’ll always be here. We’ll never move from here. Crazy."

And that's when the reality of what Tony just said sinks into him.

It's true. He doesn't wanna move.He doesn't wanna...live. After all of these...he...he... just...

He doesn't want to think about tomorrow.

For a moment, just for a moment,he let his emotions run wild because...

just because it feels so good.

Too good to be real.

He wants to live in this moment.

For and ever.

He just blurted out his wildest dreams even though it was about to get ruined.

Just like everything else in his life.

All his life he has been thriving for a place,a place where he can go,a place where he belongs,a place where he is...loved.

And now that he finally has it...no,he can't think like that.Not now.

He takes one look at his daughter,

who was trying to suppress a smile as soon as it emerges but the hopes were sipping through her eyes.

And he...he wanted to feel it.

One more time.

"So you are not going then?we,ahh, --we can finish the Lego set tomorrow. And pizza, movie nights...And mom,she can practice her glare on them,those are for moms,my dad is--"

"A mechanic?or better yet the dishwasher-man? But I have to tell you,for the record, these dishwashing stuffs are really underrated, Morgan,where are you--"

Tony watched as she went to the closet sprinting leaving him to anticipate what crazy idea came to her head this time, God,she really was a lively thing,handful sometimes,and,boy,did he love her?

"Ironman," Morgan,or should he say ironman,emerged from the closet,with the mask and repulsor gloves ,"my dad is ironman,earth's best defender, the strongest avenger...", she said moving her hands anematically.

She pointed one of her gloves at him and giggled ,"Boom!"

Tony pretended to drop dead.

She tiptoed near him, touched his face,her hands were bare now,the repulsor gloves were abandoned on the floor.

"Dad?" less than a whisper,so small.

Tony decided to play a little hard. Didn't move, didn't budge.

And everything went quite for a while,Tony wondered what she was up to this time.

Next thing he knew it was raining down on him.Little raindrops fell down on his face.But was it raindrop though?

Cause last he checked it was summer and even if it rained he was inside his house.

Little did he know there was a little cloud hanging in his house. Yes, his sunshine has turned into a cloud. All because he was an idiot.

"Hey,shh,hey,hey,hey, I thought we were playing?"

A nod. Too engrossed in crying to manage a reply.

"I'm so sorry. Did I scare you?"

Affirmative."itw'sl'k---"

"Okay,breathe,take a breath,kiddo..."

"It was like---"

He didn't push her to say anything.

"One of m-mm...you,ahh,"she stuttered over her words, growing frustrated, finally growled," my nightmares, it's like new York,w'rmhole,y..'ou,...,'nd ,and that man telling to shu...tttt, shut it,the portal" a hiccup, "and then...youuuu,you fell,eyes closed...I..."

Tony didn't want to hear anymore.He too had nightmares about it,still raw as ever,still real,but Morgan?she shouldn't...why would she have nightmares? she's just a little girl,his little girl,she should dream about nice things... unicorns and rainbows and all that...

And,and may be about candies too...

not that he ever knew what childhood dreams feel like,never experienced them firsthand,cause his childhood was...yeah,less than ideal,but why would anything like that touch her ever?

"Okay,fetch up,who was it?Who told you?"

"Miss Amenda...our history teacher"

He didn't need to hear anymore. Of course,it was part of history. Of course, Morgan is shown live footages, it's was a pretty big deal,alien invasion and all...

He was going to ask why she never told him anything about it but she spoke first.

"Daddy?"

"Yes,dear?"

"Please don't ... go?"

And he knew she was not just talking about the ,uhh, which he decided to call "Bussiness trip" ; but it was beyond that...

"Sure," a fake smile. A pair of teary eyes.

When we express our thought in words, the medium is not found easily. There must be a process of translation, which is often inexact, and then we fall into error.

But brown eyes need no translating; the mind itself throws a shadow upon them. In them thought opens or shuts, shines forth or goes out in darkness, hangs steadfast like the setting moon or like the swift and restless lightning illumines all quarters of the sky.

And in that moment, Morgan knew he's leaving. But his eyes screamed that he didn't want to,she could feel it in her bones.They why?For a genius,she was an idiot.

"Ahh, Morgan... actually,I ...truth is..."

"Is that why the bland looking grandpa came?to take you away with them?The one who looks like a bird just flew away with his sandwich?"

"Yeah,yeah,if you ever feel dumb,not that you ever will,you are the brightest girl,most genius girl I know..."

"Daddy's girl..."

"Ah,yes, let me finish it...in case you ever feel blue just remember that crap-tain american-a once tried to choke a robot"

That made Morgan go pikachu and Tony misinterpreted that as wonder.

Morgan came closer to him. If that was even possible. She came near his ear,her voice barely a whispered,"Is that cap...is he," a pause, "the one?....Is he the one? who hurt you?with that sheild?"

And for the second time in that night, Anthony Edward Stark's throat was full of cotton.

After several attempts he gave up trying to talk and just focused on breathing. Yeah, breathe, that's important, that's priority,but...

"Morgu-u-u-na, H- o-w?" It seemed like he was learning those three words for the first time in his life,"You might want to stop doing that. I am just a man with heart condition and all. And I didn't know until now that I was raising a little Sherlock Holmes all along"

Morgan looks instantly taken aback, like she wanna take back her words..."Did I make you sad,,, I am sorry... I'm..."

"No, look, no...you didn't...if anything you, Morgan? look at me,yeah, look at me,"

He pointed his fingers at her and said those next words one by one, "YOU.DID.NOT.MAKE.ME.SAD....ok?OKAY?

But daddy needs to know, Morgan? How did you know?"

[runephoenix6769]

Widowmaker one shot fic

  In the aftermath of “Alive.” Taking some down time at her ancestral home, Widowmaker and Sombra discuss Tracer. 

                                                                        ‘Reflections ‘

Between Numbani and Kings Row, she was too hot to move freely.  

The sign of a job well done.

She grinned inwardly at the irony of the words as she lounged in the heat that as a child had seared her veal like skin, causing her to retreat to the cool shade of the grandiose and sweeping architecture that the alcoves offered.  Such childish impulses no longer afflicted her, now she basked in the tendrils of flame that licked her skin and warmed her muscles.

She had intended to take a moment of respite, in this place that held gossamer whispers of a past life, but for Sombra, a well-stocked wine cellar had been too good of an opportunity to miss. The French woman was not naive enough to believe that her ‘friend’ had just  casually dropped by, like an annoyingly over eager neighbour from the cobble stoned village that skirted the edge of the Lacroix lands, offering fresh pastries or cheeses.  

Such was the illusion of her sanctuary.

It was an intrusion Widow was willing to tolerate, for now.

Keeping a mask of indifference, she was loath to watch, as in passing the Mexican hacker had flicked the wedding photo of a spectre and Gerard, stating “Nina, no esta mal.” followed by a playful knowing smirk and blink heralding that the image had been stored to memory, before routing through the bottles of the extensive collection within the cool cavernous arches in the bowels of the castle until she found something to her liking.

For now, Amelie Lacroix was intent on enjoying a glass of wine even with the annoying interruption.

The lake was still, save for the ripples of the bobbing fish and the concentric circles caused by her acquaintance trailing her toes in the cool waters that surrounded the Lacroix ancestral home. Silence occasionally broken by the hooting of some bird far off in the distance that Widow knew, if the urge took her, she could skewer out of the sky.

To the untrained eye and ear there was no wind shear to speak of. Perfect conditions for a kill shot.

She coolly observed a mallard alighting from the mirror like surface, counting in her head the wing-beats, the distance, and the trajectory. It was hardly a challenge, not worth wasting a high calibre bullet that would no doubt reduce the creature to little more than scraps often found within a pillowcase.

One,

Pump,

Two,

Pump.  

Amelie closed her eyes, embryotic pinks mixed in with flashes of purple and blues, trailing her fingertips across the baked granite beneath her as she imagined caressing the trigger of Widow’s Kiss.  A deep intake of breath through her nose and slowly out through her mouth, that could be akin to a sigh, as in her mind’s eye the bird faltered in mid-air before pin wheeling to the earth below.  Widow felt a sense of peace.

A tentative slap on her ankle brought her out of her reverie,

“Mi amiga, no me oiste?”

“Je ne t’ecoute j’amais!”

They both shared a look before laughing.

An acquaintance out of necessity, not a friend, the annoying wisp of Amelie reminded.  Widow leant forward offering the wine bottle, remnants of dust upon the label written in a language that was almost obsolete in the 22nd century stave for those few that knew it. Like taffeta clinging to a Madame, a sign of prestige and fashion long passed but no less regarded.  Sombra waved off the advance.

“No , no, I have what I need here.” As she pulled a small net from the waters, “You can keep your pigs swill.”  

Sombra continued to reel in her delights.  The bottles of clear liquid, that in the 20th and the 21st century that had been available over the whole of Europe which was now difficult to come by and it had once been claimed was capable of running cars, tanks, staving off cold, fighting bears with AK47’S and eventually Omenics.  

Widow watched as her acquaintance retrieved her preferred beverage from the cool depths, the bending of her back showing off the cybernetic hardware grafted to her skin.  Curiosity got the better of the sniper,

“Does the water not short out your circuits?”

Sombra looked nonplussed, “Are you living in the 21st century, me amiga?” Dipping her legs further, she submerged her thighs as if to prove a point, “What good would it do if every time I took a shower I had to worry about such things?” Using her hands, she dramatically made a splash as she triumphantly claimed the bottle she was looking for.

She grinned whilst pouring herself a lavish dram, necking it back in a way that Amelie would cringe at but Widow understood.

“Only the best for Sombra!”

“There is no accounting for taste.”

“The Russian’s knew what they were doing. “

“Unlike now?”

“Mi amiga, in this fucked up world nobody knows what any of us are doing anymore!”

Widow tipped her head in agreement before lapsing into a comfortable silence. Toying with the stem of her wine glass, she ran through her head how each glass receptacle was either a concave or convex shape. Each glass shattered or broke in its own unique way. Each different type of tempered glass and liquid within bringing its own variables.

Sombra spread her hands showing a light screen video, the glare of the water making it almost unintelligible, she cursed under her breath.  Between her delicate fingers and technological nails, the Talon operative tapped until she was satisfied with the contrast of the footage showing the exact moment of Widow’s triumph; the decommissioned Overwatch agent recognisable by the bright colours of her signature uniform, blinking in and out of existence, as the bullet slid like a needle through her chronal accelerator continuing into the forehead of the target.

One shot, one kill.

“Did you know she was going to do it?”

“Do what?”

“Her Marty McFly thing.”

The footage of Tracer patting her chronal accelerator with panicked fervency continued to play.

“Oui, I was counting on it.” Swilling the glass in the palm of her hands, she noted how the liquid briefly coated the sides, reminding her of venous spray. “Nobody wants to die, not even Heroes.”

For a brief moment in free-fall as the red brick buildings gave way, the sniper hadn’t been so sure, as she aimed through Lena’s sternum. In a split second where her and her rival were suspended in the air that had seemed to last for eons, she squeezed the trigger. Widow had found herself wishing for the British agent to blink as the recoil propelled her backwards. The tight feeling in her chest only abating as the exquisite moment of defiance gave way to broken resolve, before Tracer blinked out of time, only to come back with the pained realisation that she had somehow failed.

The youthful innocence that no one in their line of work had any right to possess, shattering into a thousand pieces. The lithe body of the ex-RAF pilot slamming her into the rooftop, as she demanded to know “Why?” The glossed coral shell coloured lips pulled back over gleaming white teeth, the flurry of expressions causing the smattering of freckles to chase each other across the bridge of her upturned nose and her huge doe eyes brimming with a myriad of emotions Amelie recognised but Widow was not meant to feel.

The memory brought goosebumps to her skin and a luxurious shudder down her spine.

Olivia Colomar slyly watched her through long dark lashes.

“What if she hadn’t?”

The thought reached into the recesses of her sternum, catching her heart in a vice like grip. Knowing every part of her behaviour was being catalogued and at some point could potentially be used to betray her. Widow remained aloof as she took a languid sip of her wine.

“Then ce la vie. I clinched an Overwatch agent.”

Like a gnat intent on committing suicide, the hacker pressed further,

“Why didn’t you finish her off?”

“I flung her off a roof.”

The hacker played grainy footage taken from a nearby surveillance drone, showing Widow making her way up the ramp into the VTOL as Tracer stood below.

“You had plenty of opportunity to finish the job.”

“She wasn’t the objective!”

“All former Overwatch agents are the objective.”

Those snatched, precious moments of life Tracer elicited in her, Amelie was not willing to trade and she often wondered just how much Sombra suspected about her strange fascination with the Overwatch poster girl.

Would it come to a point where she would have to be eliminated? She could do it now and have done with it.

Sombra broke into a toothy grin, raising another shot of clear liquid, “One shot , one kill.” She guffawed. “Should be more like, what do the English say?  Two birds with one stone?”

One shot, one kill indeed.

Widow remained silent as Amelie asked, “Have you ever flipped a stone?”

The smaller woman rolled her eyes, shaking her head, “I had better things to do than throwing rocks into what little uncontaminated water we had. “

Widow uncoiled, feeling her bones crack and her muscles stretch in an altogether familiar way.  Gracefully alighting from her perch, picking up a pebble, she weighed it in her hand. Her other hovering over the soft, exposed neck of the unsuspecting woman.

It would be so easy to push the smaller woman under the water, gripping her by the back of the neck, holding her down as she thrashed uselessly until bubbles ceased to break the surface. The French assassin could dig out the cybernetics in case they contained any tracking devices and discard them at her earliest convenience. She could wrap the body in a tarp and net, secreting her former acquaintance in the dark waters underneath the house.

But much like her first kill, it would be messy and lacking finesse.

The coding extraordinaire had her uses, that maybe one day the sniper would have a need for. Maybe for now Widow would sit back, safe in the knowledge that she was aware of the Los Muertos former member’s double dealing.  

In the Mexican hacker’s own words, “Information is power, mi amiga, and no one can hide.”

A small reprieve.

Olivia would live to see another day.

Taking a stance, Amelie flicked the stone out, watching it as it curved before lightly kissing the surface, skimming the mirror of her childhood before disappearing into the inky depths.

One shot. One Kill.

[sasuhinasno1fan]

A trip worth of Birthday Grimlin

So I never wrote a bday fic for Pidge last year, I had no time, and I want to keep the YouTuber AU train going with the bday fics. So I was trying to think about what they’d do for their birthday, since a lot of my ideas have come from other video’s I’ve watched, and then I remembered in Japan, there’s a place called the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku and I was able to find a video of one of their whole shows and I thought, “would Pidge make all their friends get on a plane and fly to see this show? Probably.” So I mixed together two different shows, this and this. The first link is more of what I described. Also these shows are from two different years so if by any chance you did want to go to this resturant, the show won't be spoiled because they have new shows each year I believe. I know there's was a new one last year. So here we go, please enjoy.

Pidge was scrolling through their twitter feed when they felt their brother lean on them. They looked up to see their vlogging camera attached to what looked like Lance’s selfie stick, extended just far enough to get them both in frame

“So Pidge, my amazing younger sibling, where are we?” Matt asked, looking down at Pidge, who smiled unapologetically back at them.

“At the airport.”

“Right and what’s coming up?”

“My birthday. I’ll finally be 21, so I can legally drink now. Even though I’ve already had beer before.”

“You hate beer though. Anyway, why exactly are we at the airport with your birthday so close?”

Pidge stared the camera down. “We’re going to Japan to go to the Robot Restaurant!”

“Now anyone who knows me knows I’d usually be pretty scyed to go to this but Pidge,” Matt asked, the smile on Pidge’s face turning from unapologetic to embarrassed, “what else did you do?”

“I might have misbooked the tickets I got everyone? Ok but seriously, the whole time zone thing confuses the hell out of me. I know Japan is 3 hours ahead of us but I somehow forgot that Japan is also a day ahead of us.”

“No joke, they were googling and texting Shiro like crazy and yet they still managed to mess up the tickets and the reservation for the Robot Café.”

“I thought we’d be getting in on the 2nd still.” Pidge tried to defend

“Pidge, it’s the fact that Shiro texted and called you to remind you about this. He’s from Japan and talks to his parents all the time. I’m extremely tempted to make you read the gigantic text Shiro sent you reminding you about this.” Matt said, as Pidge hide their face on his arm.

“Shh, I feel bad enough. the good thing is the Robot Show isn’t until 4 and we get to Tokyo at like 12 pm so we have time to go to the hotel, shower and change, maybe eat something, even though I want to buy things at the place.”

“Oh yeah, the original plan was to do one of the dinner shows but those end near closing and where the Restaurant is, can get really crowded. besides, Shiro was like, after the show, we should hang out maybe a bit long until like it’s 8 and then go to sleep because our bodies will still be like, jetlagged.”

“An 11 hour flight and some of us aren’t surviving so far.” Pidge told the camera, taking the selfie stick and fiddling with it a bit to extend it even more before turning and lifting it so the whole Voltron crew could be in shot. Keith and Lance were next to Matt and using each other as supports as they snored away, Shay was passed out on Hunk’s lap and Hunk looked like he was following. Allura and Shiro were still awake, no doubt used to what they had to do when they went to go visit Shiro’s parents in Japan. “Only 4 of us are left if Hunk gives in.” Hunk woke up more at the sound of his name and waved sleepily at the camera. “I think we’re losing him. Thankfully we have like half an hour left until boarding starts and we all have first class tickets so we can go on early and pass out. It might be hard for me because Grassbomb usually comes and purrs next to me when I’m trying to sleep but Matt suggested I record her and listen to it on the plane.” Pidge explained shortening the stick so they wouldn’t whack any other tired passengers. “I don’t really think I’ll be recording on the plane and – oh Coran!”

The orange haired man had gone to get coffee since he said even in first class, airplane coffee was abysmal. Pidge didn’t care, coffee was coffee.

“Yes number 5? Is that Lance’s selfie stick?”

“I stole it from his bag.” Matt said, not sounding sorry

“Don’t expect help when he comes after you or worse, sends Keith after you. But, yes Pidge?”

“You’ve been to the Robot Restaurant right?”

“Yes I have and I can promise you one thing, there isn’t any other kind of show like it.”

“Sweet. Well, we’ll see you guys in Japan.”

The Voltron crew was able to sleep most of the flight away. Recording Greenbomb, Pidge’s cat, purring helped the youngest member pass out, almost missing when Keith and Lance got in trouble for trying to share the same pod seat to sleep. Pidge also wasn’t sure how their brother managed it, but he got the flight attendant to announce it was Pidge’s birthday during the announcements to landing. It was 12 pm, April 3rd, which made filling out customs forms hard.

Borrowing Lance’s selfie stick, Pidge was able get them all in the shot so they could all announce to the camera, “We’re in Japan!”

“And we have our entire luggage so we need to go and find our hotel’s shuttle driver because we have to get to the hotel, possibly change if we have time and then get down to Shinjuku because we have a reservation to make. Let’s go!” Pidge explained while the others grabbed their stuff and headed out to hopefully find their ride.

Luck was on their side as the driver found them easily and after playing Tetris with everyone’s bags, they were off. Almost everyone had either their phones or cameras out to take footage of the passing scenery, Pidge testing her Japanese on the driver. They got to the hotel and into their rooms before being given a small tour by the staff. It killed time before they got changed and were able to get a taxi all the way to Shinjuku where Coran told them to look for the sparkly dinosaur.

“Um, I found it.” Keith said, as Lance videoed the sparkly dinosaur as well as two robotic women, which the Holt siblings immediately ran to. “This is gonna be a weird evening isn’t it?” Keith asked rhetorically

“Pidge told us that we were going to Japan for their birthday just because they wanted to come here. Trust me, nothing about this day will be normal.” Lance said, giving his boyfriend an answer anyway.

Once they got enough pictures with the moving woman robots, they headed inside the narrow hallway and went down the stairs with strange and crazy themes for each floor, the bedazzled elevator being the groups favourite. They finally reached the front desk, where Shiro got them signed in and they were directed to get their drinks before being lead into the stage area to get their seats. Pidge was willing to admit they spoiled things a bit by looking at videos but they wanted to figure out the best place to sit. They got most of the whole third row on one of the sides reserved for them and while most stayed to save the seats, others went back to where they got their drinks to get bento boxes for everyone.

“Ok, so ready?” Matt asked, Pidge’s video camera in his hands, pointing it at his younger sibling.

“The mic is on right?” the room wasn’t fully packed but it was already loud from the excitement. At Matt’s nod, Pidge focused on the camera and waved. “Hey guys, so we’re finally here at the Robot Restaurant. Getting down here was weird because of all the crazy themes they have for each of the floors, not really up my ally but I was warned that there’s no other place like this, except for maybe the Monster Café Matt wants to go to.”

“It looks so cool!” Matt said from behind the camera

“Well, we’re here for a week, so we have time. Anyway, coming here gets you a free drink and if you wanted to, you could book tickets that also get you access into restaurants who work with this place, which was the original plan, but they’re mostly for dinner shows and Shiro suggested an early night, so most of the others are getting us bento boxes so we can eat. They do have a gift shop that we’re gonna visit later because I told everyone I want them to buy me something each from there.”

“There’s 8 of us here and only about 10 items I remember from the website, you’re just getting the whole store.” Matt said, Pidge not even looking the slightest bit concerned.

Pidge and Matt had set up cameras to film the whole thing and no have to worry about constantly messing with it while they watched.

Finally the show started, first with clown hype men getting the crowd excited while the master of ceremonies welcomed everyone and explained the rules. Pidge was glad they didn’t reserve front row tickets since those in the front row had to practise leaning back to avoid any passing robots. Soon the stage was clear and Pidge could see two moving stages come onto main stage and they started bouncing in their seat as the taiko drummers started their performance, the stages lighting up and moving as the drummers got very into their performance, the separate person on drums and percussion also rocking out before they were joined by a yokai dressed guitar player.

“Having fun?” Matt asked, watching the huge smile on Pidge’s face

“This is the coolest birthday ever!”

Before they knew it the stage was filled with performers and the performance was over as all but one stage of taiko drummers went off stage before they were joined by dancing fan girls, yokai dressed warriors and ninjas, who fought as the music surrounded them before the master of ceremonies invited new floats and robots to parade in front of the audience, the floats seeming to become filled with each round they made before a large silver robot with outstretched hands joined. Pidge did notice the floats seemed to all be pushed along by men in black with strange looking hats that covered their face. They leaned around their brother to poke Shiro, who sat next to Matt.

“Who are the guys in black?”

“They’re called kuorko, servants who hid in the shadows. They’re kinda like the backstage crew that moves stuff in the dark.”

After the performance, they were once again joined by the clown hype men who danced for the audience before announcing they were giving away a free popcorn to a lucky winner. Pidge stared at the screen, hoping their seat number would be picked. They had finished their bento and half of Matt’s but they were still hungry. The winner turned out to be Shay, who poured some in her empty bento box and passed it down for the others to do the same, but it never made its way back up once Pidge got a hold of it.

“Are you going to be able to eat dinner after this?” Allura asked as the lights were dimmed and the sound of chains filled the room.

“I don’t know. I didn’t eat anything yesterday because I was editing all day.” Pidge said stuffing more popcorn in their mouth.

“Pidge!” Allura scolded, to which Pidge shrugged

“I got busy. Besides that McDonalds breakfast from wasn’t exactly filling.”

The next show was a battle royal between robots, though Pidge could tell there were just costumes, it made them even more excited to see the one that actually looked more like robots. They show wasn’t as entertaining as the others and when it ended, they were given an intermission to go to the bathroom. Matt used it as an excuse to grab food and also somehow get the master of ceremonies to know it was Pidge’s birthday.

When he got back and the master of ceremonies came back to the stage, they first made sure everyone had been given a light stick and introduced the performers. Pidge had been focused on eating that they didn’t pay much attention to the start of the happy birthday song until their name was called.

“Happy birthday Pidge!” Pidge looked up, a piece of tempura hanging from their mouth as the master of ceremonies was able to get to the stairs to get to Pidge. They looked over to see a line of vlogging cameras capturing the moment.

“What did you do?” they demanded to know, but wasn’t given an answer as they were handed one of the robot plushes from the Restaurant’s store.

Once that was over, it was announced that the last show was about to start before LED lighted people came out on skates, segways and the coolest circular motorcycle Keith ever saw.

“No you can’t get one.” Lance teased seeing the look on his boyfriend’s face.

“Screw that, I’m making one!” Pidge announced

The stage was soon filled with two DJing dressed robots as they danced along while two robots, similar to the once that Matt and Pidge darted to at the entrance came moving on with bikini clad girls cheering on them. It was like a rave on steroids. When the rave ended, the one thing Pidge had been waiting for finally walked or in some cases was rolled onto the stage, the people in the more robotic looking costumes.

“Do you think we can make this?” Pidge asked their brother as the music started and the robots started dancing as the dancers came out to join them.

“As long as mom and dad don’t find out.” Matt replied

“Don’t encourage them!” Shiro said, already seeing the plans forming in the Holt sibling’s minds.

The last part of the show involved a plane that was covered in bikini clad girls, who’d switch with the girls on the LED tank that came towards them on the opposite side, a girl on a Tron looking bike and two other girls on barrel shaped robots making their rounds around them.

It all seemed like it ended too soon for Pidge but the whole crew of dancers and performers came on the stage one last time before disappearing into the wings. With their skill of putting video equipment away quickly, the group was able to gather their things and start exiting early so the store wasn’t as crowded as it would be once everyone was out. When they were finally on the street again, Pidge sat themself’s down on the robot again so their brother could film them.

“So what can you say about the show?” Matt asked, knowing the look from Pidge’s face had to tell the audience all

“Like Coran said, can’t find a show like it. Guys, I did record this, but watching the recording and seeing it for yourself are two different things. Trust me, if you have the chance, book a ticket and get down here! Now we need to get food because I couldn’t book the dinner combo tickets without it dragging on too late. I think I might end it here. Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes I would have read by the time this video goes up. We’re getting on a train in the morning to get to a prefecture that has a dog amusement park, because why not love both cats and dogs? This is your HackingGrimlin signing off and I’ll see you later, bye!”

Pidge didn’t survive the trip back to the hotel though. For the first time since getting their cat, the rush of adrenaline knocked Pidge out without the need for purring. Matt had to piggy back them back to their room, where they slept until 1 am and had to kindly ask the front desk if they could still order room service, since no one left after that.

Pidge was right about one thing, this had been their coolest birthday ever. It did make the others just slightly concerned with what Pidge no doubt had planned for the next year.

[calliecat93]

RvB Season 15: Top 3 Worst Things

With Season 16 only weeks away, I’ve been going back over Season 15 a lot the past few days. I’m very late to the party on giving critique because at first, I had zero issues with the season. And overall, I think it’s still a very good one. But... it’s not flawless. There’s definitely a few issues that could bring the season down for some and now that I ave a clearer mind, I can’t ignore it. But I also think that there’s plenty to praise about the season as well, so... I’m going to make two Top 3 Lists, starting with the Worst. Note, this post exists for critical reasons. This is not an attack on Joe, Miles, Burnie, or anyone at Rooster Teeth. There is no reason for it. I want to see Joe improve, not bring him down. SO if you want that, kindly fuck off. For now, lets get into the list!

...that got incredibly long so look under the cut!

Top Three Worst Things ABout RvB15

3. The Film Refrences Are Overly Used

Joe Nicolosi has admitted to being a movie buff, and I always feel like you should use what you like/what you’re good at when making anything. Jax’s character existed to use film humor, and at first it was pretty good. Things like him the Citizen Kane reference and Force Awakens reference in Episode 4, Jax forgetting to record in Episode 5, and his jokes in Episode 7 were legitimately funny. The problem is... they never stopped. It’s perfectly fine to use a running gag, and Hell RvB HAS used pop culture humor multiple times. It’s a show based on Halo after all. But Nicolosi used in in every episode and it stopped being funny. Jax became annoying and while he was helpful in getting footage of Temple’s plans and distracting Lorenzo, he got grating because he wouldn’t shut up. And if you are like me and don’t understand all the references, it’s going to feel like Joe is cramming them down your throat. Fortunately, hes said that he’s going to hold back some in the upcoming season, which is good. He listened, and that's important. I don’t mind this kind of humor at all, just... space it out a little and don’t wear it out. Otherwise, ti just becomes annoying and unbearable and for a show like RvB, that’s something you just can’t afford to do.

2, The Blues and Reds

The idea of using evil versions of characters is always a fun plot. Its a good way to show how the heroic character has grown or even trigger them into growing. For example, in Danny Phantom he’s faced with an evil future version of himself and it is horrifying. It leads to Danny not only maturing a little to not make the mistakes, but he’a chance to fix the damage and does so. It’s a great example of a hero being faced with the worst of himself and choosing to become something better. This idea for RvB was a legit good idea and leads to a lot of possibilities. So the problem? There’s a few...

First, the copies are just exaggerations of the Reds and Blues. They don’t feel like characters aside form Temple, Loco, and Biff and I’ll explain why in a bit. The others feel incredibly shallow. I mean Hell, Simmons’ copy is voiced by Gus still even though everyone else got a different voice actor. I mean it leads to the amazing moment in Episode 20.. but at the same time he still feels less like a character and more like a plot device. The Blues and Reds, aside form the ones I listed, just feel like they’re there because the plot demanded that everyone have some kind of copy. It’same issue I felt Miles had with The CHorus Trilogy, he added a lot of characters but couldn’t do a lot with the majority of them due to time. 

In relation to this... why are they committing to this plan? I know what you’re, “Well Biff was horribly killed and they realized they were pawns”. No. That is Temple’s motivation. He is angry that his best friend was murdered in cold blood and that it was ultimately for no reason. Loco’s motivation is to be Temple’s best friend, but unlike everyone else he has regrets about it and uses his final moments to make it up to Caboose. It gives him a character even if he is more or less a Caboose copy, but it’s something. Biff is dead, but they did take the time to explain why he ended up int he military, why he wanted out, and he was an overall nice guy who isn’t like Grif aside form wanting out of the military, wears orange, and the Sarge copy hating him. Similar want, completely different motivation and character.

Why do Surge, Gene, Lorenzo, Cronut, and Bucky want revenge? Why are they committing to Temple’s insane plan? Why si no one questioning this Did they before? How did Temple convince the Reds into it? Maybe if we saw their reactions when they found the Freelancer Base and the truth, liek we did with our guys, that would be answered. But we don’t know. We don’t knwo why any of them would go along with this, or at least not ask if this is the right thing to do. We know that Temple cared about Biff, but what about Biff’s actual team? Likely he and Gene weren't as close as Grif and Simmons are, but did they have a friendship at all? We saw briefly that Surge may feel bad about Biff’s death, but he doesn't express it and it’s more based on his need to obey orders than anything. We don’t know Biff’s relationship with his team, so you question why they’re going along with it and... do you see what I’m getting at?

The Blues and Reds feel shallow and one-note. A lot of people don’t like Temple because he’s an asshole...a nd he is. But at least they fleshed out his motivation and character so even though you hate him, at least you see why he’s doing what he’s doing. Loco overall i also fine since he differed and did have a conscious. The others though Wasted. They just to because this plot demanded it and nothing is done to make them distinctive. We just want to see them die... okay maybe that was the intent, but still it made them weak villains and I’m not going to be missing them. But hey, we got the moment in Episode 20 due to it so... it’s not all bad.

1. It Was One Season

This is by far the biggest issue with the season. The were a lot of ideas for this season, and you can tell. It was a legit good idea and could have carried two seasons worth of stories... but for some reason they decided to make it a standalone. IDK if it was Joe who decided this or Burnie and Matt did, but it meant that things had to be rushed. You now what I said above? About the villains falling flat? If they had more time, chances are they could have fixed that. But because it was condensed into one season of 21 episodes, they couldn’t.

Now if it had been two seasons, they could have worked on some more things. Like what I said above about the villains and maybe extending the flashback so we could see them discovering the truth. We could have had some mroe solid characterization and understood what was motivating everyone into such drastic actions. Outside that, we could have seen how Red Team was dealing with Grif quitting more and explored things like Donut feeling left out or watching Sarge’s descent into siding with the Blues and Reds. Heck, we could have had Simmons maybe play up siding with the Blues and Reds for an episode, then actually trigger an escape plan that fails, but it would show us that he's what his kissassing ways. Especially if they emphasize on how much worst Gene is at lot and have it be like old Simmons is talking to current Simmons, provoking him further into becoming more independent. That would also justify Gus (who did a great job in the season BTW) being the voice actor for both which let sit feel less like it’s for just a joke and make it even more impactful since it’s current Simmons talking to himself essentially. Which would make the moment in Episode 20 even mroe satisfying. It took me about five minutes to come up with this and in a larger story could have been an effective and if played right funny character arc... but in a one season story, it would have taken up too much time so it wouldn’t be able to be included. But do you see how Simmons would get character development base don both his feelings about losing Grif and for his own benefit? And how it would make Gene a much stronger evil reflection, becoming something for Simmons to overcome and be better than by the end?

I’m saying is’the standalone format caused things to be rushed and ideas to be wasted. As I said, there as enough for two seasons worth. The first season could have the content of... the first fourteen episodes. If you do it as a typical 19 or 20 episode season, you get 5-6 more episodes to play with more ideas. Int he second half, we can start with showing Grif again and bringing Locus back in. Maybe have them go on a little roadtrip where they gather more people like Sister or something, letting her be a regular again and not in just two episodes. You have more room to experiment like show how far Locus has come, have Grif Sibs humor, let Sister have more character and show that she can be clever and resourceful, show more of how Grif’s isolation really affected him and how he needs the others. You can still make all of that both funny and emotional like have Grif and Sister talking about their various shenanigains and Grif is at first complaining about all the shit he goes through. Then he slowly starts talking more slowly about the dumb things and how he hates everyone.. but he also misses them all, feels horrible for walking out like he did, and show how negatively he thinks about himself. Sister, in her own way, makes him feel better. You get comedy, character development, and fun interactions that way. See where I’m going?

There great ideas and opportunities with this season. Hell, the possibility of meeting more Freelancers is pretty cool. But because we only had one season, they had to finish the plot in limited time. They couldn’t explore the opportunity gift-wrapped for them. Int he end they still made a good product, but you still are left feeling like there was so much more that could have been done. Like if I were paid to rewrite Season 15 and was able to make it a two parter, I already have a general idea of what I would do. It is doable.  But if I had only one season... yeah, I’d have to cutback a LOT of it. Like I said, IDK whose idea it was, but it was in hindsight one that hurt the season. Because of this, ti is the worst thing about Season 15.

And there you have it! 'l best another day, typing this took me an hour. And regardless, I really enjoyed the season. It could have bee so much more, but I will gladly take what I got. Joe’s already stated on how he’s read the critiques and will try to improve, and that is important for any content creator. So I wish him the best of luck,a nd now I can feel better now that this is out of my system.

[huntertales]

Part Two: Adventures in Babysitting. (Two and a Half Men S06E02)

Episode Summary: Sam and the reader investigate a case about missing babies whose parents are being murdered, and upon working a crime scene, discover a baby boy. Dean is called to help after the reader and Sam are unsure of what to do. However, while taking care of the orphaned child, the reader and Dean discover something about themselves—they make decent parents. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 5,160.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

Never in your entire life did you think you'd be down the baby aisle of the grocery store, even more, would you be picking up supplies to keep one alive. But, in this line of work, there was a first time for everything. You carried the baby into the store and buckled him safely into one of those carts with a seat attached and put Sam on duty to push the car. It took you a minute before you finally found the proper aisle to get all the things you would need to help take care of this baby. You began to eye all the different sort of products, making a mental note of what you might need. It’d been a very long time since you had taken care of a child, but it didn’t mean you forgot the basics of what you would need.

“Okay. I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of jelly you’re supposed to put on their butt.” Dean was right next to you, examining all of the products with a close inspection, trying to compile his own list of supplies.

“It’s for diaper rashes.” You noted, pretty sure you wouldn't need it. Sam found a little yellow box and plucked it off the shelf, Dean nodded his head and pointed a finger at the product. You rolled your eyes and grabbed a few things like formula into the cart before finding at least few dozen options of baby food. Grabbing a few jars, you held them up to the baby. “Okay, bud. Do you want green beans or turkey and squash?”

Your response was a blank stare, you let out a quiet sigh and ditched the choices, moving to something a little bit sweeter, in hopes that he might eat it later. You made sure to grab a thing of bottles and even a pacifier, not sure if you might need it to calm down the baby.

"So how do you guys know all of this?" Sam asked, watching as you and his brother grabbed all sorts of things like you'd done this before.

“Babysitting. Lots and lots of babysitting.” You said, grabbing an unscented packs of baby wipes as Dean grabbed a box of diapers. "I had a neighbor who had a newborn, too. That's how I earned most of my money as a kid."

“And Lisa’s got a baby niece. So I’ve been on a few milk runs myself.” Dean said. He reached out to grab something else that might have been of use. Sam looked at his brother with a bit of an amused expression as he muttered something underneath his breath. Dean, however, didn't find it all that funny. "Shut it."

“I said, ‘huh.’”

“I said, ‘shut it.’”

The boys were quickly pulled away from their petty argument when they heard a sound they had been dreading, it was the sounds of whimpers coming from the baby. You winced when you saw the familiar unpleasant look start to settle in his face. The baby turned his head to look away from you, who was trying your hardest to cheer up the best that you could, to Dean. Your smile began to falture as the baby clenched his tiny little fists and rubbed his face, letting out another whine. It was the telltale sign someone wasn’t the least bit happy, and if you weren’t quick, he was going to let everyone know by screaming on the top of his lungs.

“All right, we gotta get moving.” You warned the boys. “We got the waterworks in T-minus-ten.”  

You had to admit, taking care of the baby was easy, you were lucky to have little moments of him crying and being fussy...until this moment—until you came that person.You sympathized for the women who tried to balance normal chores like shopping with babies and kids of their own who cried because they were hungry or threw temper tantrums because they couldn't have a candy bar they wanted. Because everyone was that child at point in their life. But the world wasn't filled with people who understood. They would rather look, waiting for you to shut up a child that wasn’t even yours.

You could feel the glares and judgmental stares coming from customers and employees as the baby let out a cry and his eyes filled with tears. You and Dean tried your hardest to calm him down by soothing him with calm words and baby noises, but he wasn't having it. Sam was getting pissed himself. He hated your idea of bringing the thing along in the first place.

“Y/N, make it stop.” Sam hissed at you. You scoffed and looked at him with a glare of your own, he slammed a few products down on the belt, causing the cashier to give the three of you a side eye that went unnoticed. You tilted your head to the side and, with a sarcastic tone, asked him how you could possibly do that. “Everyone’s staring at us like we’re child abusers. Feed it.”

“We already fed it, genius.” You said. Sam rolled his eyes in frustration from your lack of help and look to his brother, hopeful that he might have some answers. Dean shrugged his shoulders, seeming clueless as ever. You looked down at the baby and came up with a possible theory. "Maybe he needs a diaper change, that's all."

“Oh, God,” Sam suddenly appeared horrified at the thought. “I hope not.”

You could feel a sudden audience upon you when the baby cried even louder, you looked over your shoulder and gave an old man a dirty glare from how he was looking at you. Dean decided to be the brave one by unclipping the baby from the seat to check for himself if the baby was in fact wet, or worse, had a full diaper. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing when he held the baby at arms length, moving it around slightly, he was happy to see there wasn't any wet marks. Dean's next big solution to calm down the baby was to mimic him, letting out a mocking cry. You let out a frustrated sigh, trying your hardest to avoid smacking the man upside the head from how he was acting.

“Aw. What’s the matter?” You turned your head to see an older woman parked herself right next to you, poking herself into a situation that didn’t involve her. You gave her a friendly smile and tried to brush off her curiosity with a simple answer of a fussy baby. You gave her a smile a nd looked at Dean, getting ready for him to hand over the baby to you. But the woman was insist with asking questions. “What’s his name?”

“Bobby.”

“John.”

“Bobby John.” You answered for her, putting both names together as you smiled again.

“Hi, Bobby John. Aren’t you handsome? May I?” The woman seemed rather friendly from what she asked. You opened your mouth and outstretched your arms to take the baby, getting ready to deny her rather forward request. But you found yourself giving her a tight smile when she plucked the baby right out of Dean's arms. She cradled the baby in her arms, and like she had the magic touch, the baby suddenly fell quiet. "I see, now, Bobby John's a little wet. Now, no offense, but you two look exhausted. First time parents, I suppose?”

“Adopted parents. My...wife and I've been taking care of him for the past few weeks." Dean said to the woman, letting out a quiet laugh from the story that he was spinning. Your lips stretched into a faint smile when the woman's gaze fell in your direction. It took everything in you not to show your displeasure from what the older Winchester said. "Yeah. Bobby John sort of landed in our lap. But he is a handful, that is for sure. Right, sweetheart?"

"I don't mind giving you two a break for a few minutes." The woman offered. "Lord knows I've changed a million diapers."

“Well, uh,” You let out a quiet chuckle from her bold, and quite frankly, little weird offer to get the baby off your hands for a task that you could do just fine yourself. You looked over your shoulder for a moment and stare at a security camera footage, your eyes wandering to the one that was of you and the woman. You could feel your grip around the cart going knuckle white when you saw something that disturb you. You quickly looked over the woman and gave her a friendly smile, putting on an act so she wouldn't notice what you discovered. "That's a really nice offer, thank you, but, um, I think we've got it from here. I'm no stranger myself to a wet diaper.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, dear.” The woman reassured you. “Happy to help.”

“That’s sweet, really.” You chuckled out, playing along to her little game for a few seconds longer as you outstretched your arms. “Listen, granny—you have five seconds to hand over the baby or I’m going to stab you in the neck.”

"Y/N." Sam whispered your name in a surprised tone, his brow furrowing from how blunt and protective you were being to a woman that seemed harmless enough. But appearances could be deceiving to the human eye.

Pointing a finger over your shoulder, the brothers looked at the security monitor, only to discover the same horror as you had—those glowing white eyes, it meant the woman holding Bobby John was a shapeshifter. And she wasn't about to leave here empty handed. She bolted around the register and tried to make a run for it, but Dean was faster than the grandmother she posed herself as. You quickly found yourself going for the opposite direction, leaving Sam in the dust for a moment as you ran fast as you possibly could, your eyes never leaving the baby. Dean managed to grab ahold of the shifter by her arm—only for a chunk of her skin to fall off. He grimaced and quickly flicked off the unwanted present. But it was a good enough of a distraction to put the shifter a few seconds ahead of him. It looked like she was about to make a getaway, until you came out of nowhere, slamming yourself directly in front of her, catching her off guard.

You managed to grab the baby straight of her arms and backed away quickly, managing to run out of the exit with Sam behind you. Before the shifter could race after you, Dean tackled her to the ground, giving you enough time to head to the car and buckle up Bobby John best that you could before you went back for the older Winchester. Dean managed to escape when Sam pulled the car up to the entrance and throw himself into the backseat with you and the baby. Sam slammed on the gas pedal and set the car going forward, leaving the shifter as a small object you stared at from the backseat window, driving off to safety.

+ + +

Fifteen minutes into the drive, and you were farther away from the shifter than you had been before, and you were still struggling to keep Bobby John happy as you tried to buckle him up, Dean insisted on trying, causing you to roll your eyes in frustration and sit back, letting him try to figure this thing out for himself. The baby continued to fuss around, letting out quiet whimpers and rubbed his face, signaling that someone was in need of a diaper change and a nap followed right after. But right now you were concerned on getting the baby somewhere safe until you could figure out what was going on here.

“The hell’s a shifter want with a baby, anyway?” Dean asked. He struggled himself to figure out how all of these straps made sense, and it wasn’t helping that Bobby John was wiggling around, fussing and making things make complicated. You shrugged your shoulders from the lack of answers. “And how the hell did it find us? Ah, who the hell designed this thing, NASA?”

"It could have been following me this whole time." Sam theorized, thinking the shifter might not have ran off after you had cut him with the knife. You rolled your eyes from Dean's attempt as you decided to take one last go at it. "Since the baby's house."

“We gotta get off the road. Get Bobby John here someplace safe.” You said. You let out a victory laugh when you managed to clip everything into place and adjust the straps. But the baby wasn’t the least bit happy when he let out a warning cry. "Hey, it's okay. We'll get you out of that soggy diaper in one time. You'd like that, huh? That's right."

Your lips stretched into a smile when you watched Bobby John quickly change his tone when you began to speak in a calming tone, his crying soon changed into the quiet sounds of baby gibberish that made your smile grow even more. You bent down slightly for a moment, as your hair shifted slightly in your face, Bobby John took it as an opportunity to grab a fist full of it in his tiny fingers and yanked. You tried your hardest not to let out an involuntary yell from the unexpected pain. When you opened your eyes, Bobby John was staring at you with a toothless grin, seeming proud of himself for what he did.

+ + +

One booked motel room on the opposite side of town and one successful shopping trip later, you finally managed to get around to that soggy diaper that soon changed into something extra. You grimaced as you changed the baby the best that you could. Dean helped much as he could, distracting Bobby John with a few toys you had grabbed from the house. But the baby kept trying to wiggle itself away, seeming to be over the process of getting himself changed.

“Okay. All right, you know what? I’ll pay you money if you sit still.” The older Winchester tried to bribe the baby as he looked over your shoulder, trying to figure out how to get him to lay still for just a few minutes longer. Sam, who sat at the table and kept himself far away from the baby, couldn’t help himself but laugh at the sight of you and his brother occupied with Bobby John. He watched the baby fussed for a little while longer before you finally finished him up. You stepped away from him, grabbing the messy diaper and wipes and threw them into a plastic bag. Dean took over when you headed for the bathroom to wash your hands. He picked up the baby and decided that it was nap time. “All right. You are golden, Bobby John. Time to hit the hay.”

You emerged from the bathroom a few moments later with a towel in your hands. A smile began to creep at the ends of your lips at seeing the sight of Dean holding the baby. Bobby John was resting his head on his shoulder, seeming rather comforted by the song Dean was humming. His brother couldn’t help but make a remark that it was only going to make it more cranky. However, from your point of view, the baby seemed rather content. You leaned yourself against the doorframe, suddenly trying your hardest to hide the ache in your chest at the sight that would never be for you. Not that’d you ever wanted to be a mother, it was the sight of Dean holding the baby that made you think of a broken promise the two of you made before. Before you died and gone to the cage. Before you told him to run off to Lisa.

“Okay. If I put you down, you gonna be a man about it? Hmm?” Dean asked. He ever so gently placed the baby into the crib and quickly stepped away. A grin spread across his lips at the sight of Bobby John’s peacefully sleeping face, all thanks to him. “Well, look at that.”

You tossed the towel to the sink and headed over, wanting to see the baby’s sleeping face for yourself. Peering over the crib, you were rather surprised to see that he was, in fact, out like a light. “Huh.” Sam’s remark caused you to look away from the baby and to him. You gave him a look as you began walking over to the blanket you laid out to change Bobby John. “You two are, uh, actually...not awful at this.”

"Please." Dean scoffed, thinking his effort was minimal at best. "I'm barely keeping that thing alive. Y/N's the one who's doing all the hard work here."

“No, no, no, seriously. Who would have thought the two of you would make much a good set of parents. You got a whole Dr. Huxtable vibe coming off of you." Sam said, seeming to be rather surprised at how well his brother was handling this. You headed over to the table that he was sitting at while Dean occupied himself with folding up the blanket now the both of you didn't need it. You bent over to grab the bottle filled with formula that Bobby John had drank half of. You decided to put it in the small fridge for now so it wouldn't spoil. Your eyes wandered over to Sam, who had been staring at you intently, watching you with a look in in his eye that you had seen on occasion, in private. "And Y/N, who knew you were such a MILF.”

"Hey, Dean—put this in the fridge." You quickly pretended like nothing happened, quickly turning around on your heels and throwing the bottle at the man, giving him seconds to catch the object before it could fall to the ground. The man didn't move from his spot just yet. He suddenly looked at you two like he heard what his brother just said, despite the man whispering it underneath his breath for you to hear. You sat down and pretended like nothing happened, making him assume that he was just hearing things. You decided to change the subject, letting it linger on Dean for a little while. "Sam's right. You're, like, father material. It's suits you."

“Yeah, well, I kind of hoad to be lately, you know? Sink or swim, right?” Dean headed over to the fridge and put the bottle inside. You nodded your head slowly, wondering if he meant by Ben, and of course, he was. He grabbed himself a much needed glass of whiskey as he leaned himself against the countertop, happy to have a five minute break. “I mean, I know he’s not my kid...but I don’t know, I’m starting to feel like, yeah, he is. When I think about the way we grew up, I don’t know, I feel like I have a chance to do something different with Ben, you know?”

Your lips stretched into a smile at hearing him talk about the kid. It took a real, mature person to step up to the role of a parent for someone who had been missing one their entire life. You were rather happy to see that he wanted to be that for Ben. But it seemed your optimism wasn't as shared with someone else. Sam shifted around a few documents, trying to appear that he was working diligently, all while a remark slipped out from his mouth.

“You sure about that?” Sam's question made you and the older Winchester look at the man with a bit of a funny expression. You, who had been hiding any sort of doubt that this relationship between Lisa and Dean would end in misery, didn't seem to share the same realistic sort of attitude that Sam had. The younger man let out a sigh, hating to have to be the one to pull the both of you out of the clouds and back down to reality. "Look, you clearly care about the kid. But moving them around...keeping them on lockdown—I mean, you do have them on lockdown, right? How is that any different from how we were raised?"

Dean didn't like what he was hearing from the expression that slowly started to settle on his face. He pushed himself up from the counter and began walking to one of the beds and took a seat down on the edge. He looked over at his brother, and suddenly, he felt the need to defend himself. "I'm not shoving anybody into this life, okay? This is temporary."

“Dad always said it was temporary, Dean. Said it for twenty-two years.” Sam said. You watched as Dean began to grow a sullen look when he began to reflect on how he’d been acting over the past week since the djinn attack. He was always the type of person to always make sure that everyone was safe. He’d lost enough in life. You understood how much he wanted to cling on to what he had left. Sam, however, thought this cushioned lifestyle his brother had was really going to last for much longer. “Look, I get it. You wanna watch out for them. That’s great. I’m just asking, how do you do that, and not turn into Dad?”

The truth was a hard pill to swallow, but Dean was going to need to hear it before he got someone hurt. That's why Sam said what he did. And he wanted his brother back. He wanted things to be back the way they were. His brother hunting, not playing house with a woman he shared one night with. You let out a quiet sigh as you bit the inside of your cheek, not quite sure what you could say. Because part of you agreed with Sam. Hunters didn't ever get out of the lifestyle for good. But you wanted him out. You wanted him to live a happy, long life with people that were normal. This entire situation was bittersweet. And more confusing that you could ever quite process. Your personal opinion was always changing on what you were okay with.

"Crap. I can't believe I missed this." Sam didn't seem to find it all that hard to slip himself back into his work again. You looked away from the spot at the table and to him, wondering what he had found. "This house on Elm. The mother was killed, baby was grabbed, but Daddy wasn't living in the house at the time. So he's still alive. What do you say we go have a chat?"

“I say let’s.” You agreed with the plan, pushing yourself up to your feet as the brothers followed behind. As you were about ready to get yourself ready, you immediately realized that you were playing mommy. You let out a sigh and sat back down to the chair. “You boys go ahead. Unless either one of you got a badge for Bobby John, I’ll play Mommy Dearest for a couple hours. I mean, shouldn’t be too hard.”

You had all the confidence in the world that you could take care of a baby. You'd done it before. But that mostly was when you were a teenager and the baby was passed out for the night while its parents went out for dinner. You let out a frustrated sigh when you heard Bobby John slowly arise from his nap by the sounds of his cries that were slowly growing louder. It'd been almost a full day since you had gotten any sleep. You admitted defeat when you put your arms on the table and rested your head down, knowing this was going to a rough trip.

"Actually, you know, why don't you do a solo trip? I'll stay here with Y/N." Dean suggested, suddenly realizing that it would take much more than one person to take care of a baby. Sam nodded his head and got ready to head out, Dean walked over to the crib, thinking there might be a way to calm down the baby. He stuck his finger into his drink, and very sneakily, let the baby take a taste for the good stuff. Dean's lips stretch into a smile at how Bobby John quieted down just seconds later. "It’s good, isn’t it?”

“Dean! What the actual hell?” You looked up when you heard the room grow silent. You gave the man a disapproving glare from what he’d done and walked over to the crib, making sure that the baby was okay. Peering down, Bobby John seemed to have been content. “Well, I mean...they

used to give babies brandy when they were teething. Just don’t do it again. Okay?”

You grabbed the half empty glass from the man to finish up the last bit of it before heading back to get some more. One thing was for sure, this wasn’t going to be an easy few hours for the both of you. And you weren’t just talking about taking care of a baby.

+ + +

It'd been about an hour since Sam had left to talk to the father. Bobby John had been quiet in his crib, he'd fallen asleep right after, leaving you and Dean to figure out a way to fill in the silence that followed. You found yourself sitting at the table where Sam had been going through the paperwork to see if you could find any sort of other links to what was going on here. Shifters were pretty much creatures who liked to pretend to be someone else for their own personal gain, sort of like the pleasure of murder and robbery. At least, that's the few you'd come across during your time of hunting. Why was one stealing babies from parents? That was a question you had still to find out the answer to. But one thing was for sure, habits in some people never changed.

You looked up from the paperwork when you heard the sounds of vibrations coming from across the room. Dean was lying on one of the beds with his eyes closed, enjoying the perks of motel rooms, like the magic fingers he always insisted on using to relax. You brought your attention back to the papers to try and hide the smile that began to slowly spread across your lips. It was a sight that you would never grow old to stare at. Sometimes, back in a life that was before, when you and Dean were in a relationship and shared the same bed, you would sometimes be the first person to wake up. Maybe it was sort of creepy, watching him sleep, but it was a chance for you to see him in a way that you never really got to see before—peaceful, content. But the moment never lasted long.

“You know I always hated it when you stared at me, sweetheart.” Dean's unexpected voice made you suddenly shift your gaze away from the man and back down to your papers, trying to pretend that you weren't doing what he suspected. The man opened one of his eyes to see that you were sitting at the table with your eyes to the papers, but from the rosy tint starting to spread across the apples of your cheeks, you were caught. He let out a quiet chuckle, finding your frazzled behavior all too adorable. “How’s research going?”

"Peachy. I'm just...keeping busy. That's all." You said, shuffling through police documents and other papers you had collected over the past few days. The two of you remained silent for a few more moments as Bobby John remained silent in the crib. You looked away from the baby and to the older Winchester, suddenly, you were overcome with curiosity. "Do you miss it? Hunting, I mean."

I miss being with you and Sam. I miss riding around in the Impala. That was Dean's first answer that popped into his head from your question. But he didn't say that. Because it was only partially true. He pushed himself up to a sitting position on the bed, keeping silent for a second longer before answering you. "Sometimes. Yeah, I do. It’s all I’ve really known. But...my priorities changed. I've got..” You can say it. A new girlfriend, a new life—"A kid to raise now. Ben's a handful, but he's my responsibility. And I wouldn’t change anything in the world for that.”

"Good. You make a good father. Ben seems to be really happy when you're around. And I don't care what Sam says," You dropped the papers you'd been holding and let them fall to the table with a light thud. "You and Lisa can live a happy life without having to constantly move around all the time. I mean, look at me. I spent most of my life without anything bad happening to me. And I was alone. Well...not much changed there."

Your lips stretched into a smile as you let out a quiet laugh, finding your situation not the least bit bitter. Dean smiled ever so slightly, but for a moment, his mind reflected to a possibility that made him start to chuckle to himself. No, it was impossible. He'd been hearing things, that's all. But his hearing was working quite well from what happened next.

The both of you were torn away from your own thoughts when you heard a strange sound coming from the crib, followed by the baby starting to suddenly cry on the top of his lungs. You could feel your mouth slowly gape open when you noticed the walls and part of the crib was covered in a substance that you'd seen before. Ever so slowly, you and Dean looked at one another, wondering what the hell was going on. You pushed yourself to your feet as you quickly walked over to the crib, Dean cautiously followed behind with a slower pace, not sure what he was about to see. You didn't tear your eyes away from the baby when you heard your phone ring. Pulling it out, you answered it when you noticed that it was Sam.

“Talked to the father. He checks out. The baby…” Sam spoke on the other line, you barely gave him much more than a mumbled word as you picked up Bobby John from his crib. “I think the shapeshifter is his dad.”

“You think?” You muttered underneath your breath. You let out a quiet chuckle when you held the baby, who was not even the same baby anymore, but someone completely different. Your eyes wandered over to the box of diapers and the baby model. You were holding a carbon copy of the same baby. Letting out a quiet chuckle from what was going on, it seemed Bobby John was a very quick learner. “Oh, baby.”

[Next Part]

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[daddysfangirls-marvel]

I Know her

Pair: Bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings: smut, fingers, oral ( both receiving) , fluff 

Summary: Fury finds a Hydra fugitive and brings her in for interrogation. Bucky recognizes her as someone special from his brain washed past and it brings some good memories, some good physical memories, some sexual memories and he can’ t help but smile. He’s got to do the interrogation now.

“I know her” Bucky said as Director Fury showed footages of a woman in an integration room. “ I hope so. She’s been asking for you for the last two days won’t say anything else she won’t drink or eat anything we give her. She won’t even sleep.” Fury explained as he zoned in on her she had her eyes on the door “where did you find her” Steve asked “we found her running around in a small Hydra base. she hasn’t told her name and she isn’t  in any databases we or our neighboring countries have. So Barnes, who is she?”  

“her name is (y/n) she’s a child of one of the higher ups in Hydra she was also an experiment saw her in Cryogenic storage a few times. she was quiet but didn’t take orders well she wasn’t of much use but they kept her around ...never knew why” that’s a lie they kept her around for me.

Bucky watched her on screen her posture was straight it always was, except for when she was with him, her eyes were focused as always, except for when she was with him , her hair was combed back in a perfect ponytail like it always was , excepted for when she was with him, her breathing was even as it always was, except when she was him. It was always different when she was with him she wasn’t professional with him, she never was.

“Barnes, go down and talk to her get some useful information out of her and report back to me” Fury order Bucky gave a quick ‘yes sir’  and slowly left.

This integration was going strange. Unlike his last few encounters with her he wouldn’t be  to get ‘physical’ there would actually be more words used than usual. The usual. He remembered the usual he liked the usual, it didn’t involve much talking.

Hell he remember everything that happened those were memories Hydra couldn’t take with a shock wave.

The first time he just barged in and took her. Snatching her off her bed and throwing her against the wall without any hesitation or thought he ripped of her panties lifted her dress and leg and shoved himself in side of her. She didn’t scream, a few tried were shed for his sear sizes but, she didn’t cry and she didn’t fight she stayed still didn’t touch him and whimpered against the wall as he roughly thrusted himself inside her with no mercy. He finished with a grunt and left her a heap on the floor unfinished.

They had a few more encounters like in different places and position no words ever spoken just sex in and out and he never let her finish.

Until one day, Bucky had come to her again, he had her on all four on her bed as he took her from behind while pulling her hair back the room  only filled with the sounds of his grunts and her soft whimpers until she spoke for the first time “ may I cum” asked for the first time ever as she felt the all to familiar twitch of Bucky reaching his end. Bucky  didn’t respond in words  using his metal hand he gave her butt a good rough squeezes and then a hard slapped before he reached down and began to quickly rub her clit she began to scream and moan, for the first time , to shake and twitch as her orgasm took over, first orgasm in ever with Bucky, he quickly followed after. She collapsed forward on to her bed landing on her chest as she Bucky continued to filled her. Once finshed he gave her butt a hard slap making her whimper and said “see all you had to do was ask”.

Things changed after that became more vocal.

“oh Soldier, oh soldier please soldier faster, faster “ (y/n) moaned as Bucky took her from behind on all fours as he pulled her hair. He roughly thrusted into her as moaned and cried out loud he enjoyed her sounds. “you want me to go faster, you want me to go hard, want me to pound into you. Then beg” he said slapping her ass with ever other world. “PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SOLDIER FUCK ME FUCK ME PLEASE MAKE ME CUM PLEASE” She begged at the top of her lungs as she gripped the covers tightly. “I don’t believe you” he whispered sinisterly in her ear before he snatched her off her bed and pushed her on to her knees  “Suck it”.

Without hesitation she grabbed his penis and began to greedily lick him like a lollipop  he pulled her hair “I said suck it not tease it “ he growled 

“sorry”

“do better”

she finally just took all of his cock in his mouth beginning to bob her head, swirl her tongue, and sucked. Bucky groaned and moaned as she brought him closer to his edge with her mouth. Bucky had the last straw and had to remove himself from her glorious mouth when she began to moan and the vibrations sent a sensations through his cock.

“ you’re just to good “ Bucky said pulling her up by her hair and kissing her. He threw her back on the bed and spread her legs wide as he dipped down and took a long lick from her hole to her clit. She moan loud as she spread her legs wider and pulled his hair she moan louder as she felt his metal fingers enter her and his tongue lick her. As she quickly approached the end she wrapped her legs around Bucky’s head and came.

Bucky didn’t let us as she came he kept going and rode her through her orgasm right into another one and another one and another one . Her gave her 4 orgasms with his mouth and fingers now she was trembling and had tears running down her face for being sooo sensitive. She was on cloud 9 still moaning and mumbling about it being to good and no more. Bucky chuckled as he stroked her hair and kissed her trying bring her back to the really world.

“welcome back to the real world” Bucky teased when it looked like she was no longer in a haze

“I’ve never seen the real world only these walls” (y/n) said

“I’ve seen the really world but it’s not like I remember it it’s changed ....I think”

“Can you tell me about outside?”

And that’s how the pillow talk began and not long it became a usual thing to talk after sex so casually. But along with the pillow talk and sex came feeling even if they never talked about the feelings they knew there were felling they just never spoke of them. That was just how it went . But they did show their feelings.

Bucky took his time as he held both of her hands and thrusted  deeply, but slowly, into her he kissed her and breathe in her scent softly.(y/n) moaned and whimpered with Bucky’s deep but slow thrusts and held on to him tightly as she begged for more. This was different from the first time it was way more intimate  much more slower or softer much more ... feeling.

and then last words were spoken “I love you”

“I love you too”

Sooner or later the officials would have found out about (y/n) and Theirs Soldiers affairs and would wipe his memory and move him to another base separating the two. But of course , in time , Bucky’s memories did return.  Fortunately some memories decide to return now. 

Bucky smiled as the memories played on in his head. Of course this interrogation would be different from his usual visits to her. Very different. 

Bucky took a deep breath as he stood outside the door the interrogation. With one last breath he opened the doo to her. She smiled as he walked in and he smiled as well. She sat calmly letting Bucky take in her glorious beauty as she was .... hand cuffed to the table. Bucky stood for a moment letting her taken his new look his long hair, hairless face, and flexing metal arm.

“you’ve changed”  they both say at the same time laughing. Bucky took a seat across from her neither of them said anything.

“so...I hear they call you Bucky, Soldier”

request tags or stories 

@sasukexme15

[cheswirls]

a quick sum-up of che’s future career plans, bc reasons

im halfway through the dive!! anime show that came out this summer season, and i’m having a lot of thoughts, and plus i finished going through all the footage i missed today of skate america while i was at a bball game, and it’s made me realize different things i guess? 

it might be mid-long length so its going under a cut, but to gain intereststart off, this is all about my desire to be an athletic trainer for the usa olympic center at colorado springs, co !

ive been an at(now when you see that abb. you know what it means hah!! not assistant teacher hmm) student since my freshman year of high school, and i’ve loved it a whole bunch. back then i was set on going to columbia U for their writing program, and i wanted to major in graphic design afterwards/during/it wasnt super planned out i was a fr. i didnt know what bfa or mfa stood for yet. it wasnt until end of sophomore year than i thought about being an at for realsies.

but i also still loved gd. so there was a confliction there.

junior year i took a break from working volleyball in the fall and did my one and only year of football and it was terrible primarily bc the team i worked with didnt know how to function as a group and half the group were selfless bitch whores but like thats another storyyy, secondly bc i jus really discovered i didnt care abt football at all. it was mostly for the experience and i gained it and i liked it bc i hung out w a lot of people from helping out w varsity (i was one of two our of the five juniors that had been there since my fr year and was only on jv bc it was my first year w football, but one of the seniors had to work a bunch so when they needed an extra person i was the one w the most experience so i was w them a lot,) point was it was fun!!! and you have fun w ppl you like that you dont work w all the time and i shouldnt say fun bc lots of times it was awful,

basically! it was fun being w the varsity trainers which were the seniors and the other junior that had been around since fr year. volleyball was fun but it had always been a one-at-student-per-team sport , so it was different jus being w other ats that shared the same team and not the same sport(which in the us is made up of at least three different teams, a fr,jv,and varsity). it was a more open environment and so it inspired a lot of talk with the at grad students we had that semester (we got 3-4 every semester in a partnership w the D1 uni in town, it was always cool to hear stories from them!) and anyway i remember talking w a couple of the grads one practice and we were discussing all the different occupations athletic trainers could have, and what they wanted to work with in the future, and the topic veered towards professional sports and the olympics.

i thought it was really cool when we were talking about it, and then we got busy and it flew out of my mind. i dont remember when it came back and became a focus, but sometime before my senior year, i had decided i wanted to work at the olympic level.

real quick i mentioned gd and the struggle, so to bring that into focus, my junior year i took a whole bunch of different tech classes (gd&i, compsci, webtech) and in one of those, i had the opportunity to go to a ... i cant remember what the term was for it, but it was kinda an event for gd students and it had a little competition and stuff, and it was really fun! nd you got a lot of info abt the community college hosting it and i learned their program was really good, so the gd versus at internal struggle continued, and i remember talking to my sponsor teacher (she actually taught all three of my tech classes that year aaa i loved her) about how i didnt know what to do and shit and i dunno what she told me but like, i think she was trying to be encouraging but she basically said it was up to me, like she didnt try and nod me into a direction, that i can recall.

so SOMEHOW bc i honestly cannot remember, by senior year i’ve decided that im gonna jus fuck it and pick BOTH and double major in gd and athletic training. AND i had it all planned out, where i was gonna get a degree in gd and open up an online business, and then go into a masters program for at and then enter into the olympic field. 

by this point creative writing is still cool and a great hobby but i couldnt possibly double major AND have a minor that’d be too much. id still love to take a cw course tho one day.

basically a buncha crazy stuff happened that first semester but by winter break i had an acceptance letter to a uni a couple hours north of home with a good accredited undergrad program (accredited basically means you graduate w a masters in four years so its fasttracked which woulda been great but uh..) and by the time i found out that next semester that they were doing away with the accredited program i was already too emotionally invested to consider panic-switching(panic bc it was february and id already been admitted hah...) but i decided it’d be okay. basically if you dont remember/werent around one of my school’s head ats died in a car crash died around early october ‘16. she went to undergrad where i go now, and i’d talked to her about it september that semester wondering if she knew anything abt their program and uh surprise, she’d done the same program small world. after the funeral in november and a ton of thought i applied there. (november was.. crazy in general last year. rly crazy)

may was when i started adding on sports to the future olympics job, bc i started thinking about it and after finally getting a friend to watch yuri on ice, he started making his was through all of sochi’s figure skating stuff, and then the 2010 vancouver olympics, and i decided i wanted to recap a bit on that too.

the 2010 olympics was really my first experience with figure skating. i’m a west texas gal and so theres not a lot out here to get exposed to, so seeing these best-of-the-best class sports was fun, and the earliest experience i can remember of such. i was in fifth grade so i dont remember a ton, but i do remember being captivated by korea’s yuna kim, who won gold that year in fs. shes an fs legend at this point, so if you’re into figure skating and don’t know who she is, go look her up. you wont be disappointed.

in 2012 was the london olympics. i remember a lot from it, like watching the opening ceremony with my parents and seeing the queen jump out of a helicoptor(which is like,, still cool to this day wow) and being fascinated my michael phelps and all the swimming he did so grandly. it was also my first real exposure to diving. the oldest i could recall anything abt the sport was at a pizza hut somewhere.. in town i think, and i was w my best friend at the time and my mom was there so i think maybe we were on the way back from the lake??? sounds right, i think. and we were talking abt how i always held my nose when i went underwater bc i didnt know how to not get water all up my nostrils and be underwter(and i still dont to this day aha) and she mentioned like, joining a diving team would be cool! would help me get over it and all! and i like recalling it dunno what she was talking abt bc we lived in dirt city nothing so i highly doubt there was or is any sort of diving sport happening. swimming, yeah maybe, there were lessons at pools and bodyworks areas around town, competitive teams im not sure tho, but not diving like at all so??? dunno.

so my next and technically first real experience with it was watching the london olympics. and i thought, wow, this is so neat!! i watched from that one day like the opening events, and i think i was old enough to search online like yea i had a laptop by then so i looked up the schedule for the things i wanted to see most of, and i ended up watching i think most of the diving events (i missed a couple for.. archery, i think? maybe?) and absolutely loving it. iunno what it was, maybe something i never thought i could do?(bc not hold my nose?? while i dove???????? scaryy) but i enjoyed it a bunch.

i was older when sochi was a thing, my 8th grade year. i was able to appreciate things a lot more. when i tuned into events, tony hawk and snowboarding were the main focus, but figure skating was on a lot as well. i had a tv in my room by that point, so if i didnt like what was playing on the main tv, i could go watch another event. i learned a lot of names and faces through that, and so while my bff was watching it our senior year if i was with him id point out skaters and their nationalities and stuff, like yuzuru hanyus always been a modern day household name w figure skating, but i leanred abt him BECAUSE of the sochi olympics, and he was one of the ones i’ve never forgotten. i really really liked it, so much that i watched worlds after, and around the same time my fr year, i tuned in to just the worlds championship again. i didn’t pick up trying to watch grand prix(which is their regular season, for those unaware) season until my junior year, and most of it was day-or-two-late videos from youtube, since the ice channel i think it a paid-for thing (i still dont know much abt it hah) and nothing was on tv otherwise, aside from the skate america event. but since that first time after sochi, ive always been around watching worlds fs near the beg of each year. i’d familiarized myself by senior year with the fs world, and actually,

early (i think march?) of my junior year, i searched up trying to find a figure skating anime at the time. and what did i find?? ginban, the only figure skating anime at the time. i watched like maybe all of one episode, it was abt a girl who shared her body w the ghost of a former figure skater while she was competing in events, and it was.. okay? lackluster, in the animation dept, but it was a 2005 show so.. yeah.

so after that i was like kk that wasnt good lets find another. and i didnt. not yet, anyway. instead, i found an announcement for violet evergarden’s animated adaptation, and yuri on ice, a realistic adaptation of the sport of figure skating. thats bolded bc its important. i found that shit abt yoi before it even had a promo poster, certainly before the pv came around that got everyone hyped up. i found it bc i was looking for figure skating in the first place. in fact, i think when the pv came out and got popular, i didnt even relate it to the upcoming fs anime i’d read about previously. it took me a bit to connect the dots. 

watching yuri on ice at the same time as the gp 2016 season was surreal, but really interesting. i got my bff into it before the second to last episode came out, and i only remember that bc he finally showed any interest when he found something on twitter abt it being gay (newsflash/// hes gay, and before yoi his fav show was no6 bc that was as close as it got. he still rly likes it, we both do, but his solid favc is now definitely yoi. representation matters and all) and was like well now i HAVE to watch it and i was all yes it ends soon so pls. and he watched it twice in a weekend, and thrice before the finale came out, and then a few more times after that, iunno how many times but certainly more thn i have(i went back after the .. maybe ep 10? w/e ending had the after party reveal that changed everything, so i went back to analyze everything before the next ep) and between the week of 11 and finale 12, he started watching the sochi fs competition, and then the 2010 after the show ended w ep 12. 

seeing this great fs show and getting a friend into the world of figure skating really renewed my love for it all. before the semester went out i went back and watched the reruns of the sochi fs stuff. and by may i’d decided i wanted to cosider that to be the sport i worked with.

with diving, it took a similar twist. in the form of the rio 16 olympics. i was all over that shit, i downloaded an nbc app on my phone so i could watch events live while i traveled with volleyball to a tournament in dallas and while i was at practice w them at home and generally jus away from the house and a tv. i planned that shit out had a schedule and everything for what i was watching live, and a lot of it was swimming, but a whoooole lot of live stuff was the diving. 

in the hotel room in dallas the tv would always be on to w/e olympics events were airing at the time, either track or diving tho, one or the other, or recaps. quite a few girls ended up in the room in the evening and we’d all do stuff and watch in passing at the same time, and it was suuuuuper fun. watching the chinese women perform flawlessly and walk away w all the gold was fun, but finding a good commentator to actually say such was a disheartening challenge( one of the most memorable moments w live commentary that year was hearing a woman say of one of the chinese ladies that she’d done better before, after they revealed her personal best score ever like rly cmon be unbiased and jus passionate abt the sport youre covering pls.

ive always been super fond of the diving scene. it may not be as much as fs, but honestly, i wish i grew up in an area w a diving team now, or wish i could try it out now, bc thats how much fun it seems. i still wanna go up to the big city like 30min away from uni and learn to ice skate in the civic center there, but hands down if i had to pick a sport to join tomorrow or die i’d pick diving. 

so also by may, and throughout the culmination of senior year, diving was the second sport on the olympic to-train-for list. you get a five-year contract w the olympics, now i think it’s usa as a whole and i think its by center so say, if i get a job in colorado springs i cant apply in another five years to chula vista or even like lake placid, but iunno for sure. the five-year thing is involved somehow bc i’ve heard it from a physical therapist and trainer-that-works-in-a-sports-med-clinic duo in one body named sarah, who’s been contracted out from the clinic by my high school since junior year also, bc she knows people who’ve worked w the olympics, and then another from church that worked w olympics that knows my family uh iunno how well but i know of him, i think he also works in the clinic as some sort of on-hand surgeon but a diff person than who sarah knew. so its five years somehow and then i’ll take my bfa in gd and open my online business and do that from a studio at home and look after my owl/cat pet combo.

since may, it had been ‘olympics, with either figure skating or diving’. and it stayed that for a long time. now, since a couple weeks ago, and this is again while gp season is happening for fs, its diving. i wanna work w the usa olympic diving team as their team athletic trainer, and i cant do it this summer bc i have to have completed two years of uni, instead of a certain standing, like be a junior, but so NEXT summer, before my senior year of uni, (i came in a sopho so 6 sem only ah) i’m applying for an internship at the center in colorado springs, and that’s the team i hope i work with. 

now i tell people, diving, but if i get offered figure skating, i’ll take it, but diving is the goal now. if i love it and wanna continue professionally, great, i can do that and have an online gd shop. and if i decide i want something different? i’ll work olympics and then join w a professional-level figure skating i actually dunno how it works. coach, and their skater in turn. coach, with multiple skaters under them. a culmination of diff usa skaters. w/e, something in the professional fs world.

and thats uh, thats it! dive has been so much fun to watch, and i realize i talk a lot on here about working w basketball and being an at student in general and the vast majority have no idea what i mean, so hopefully this clarifies. thank you!!

[modernhobbit123]

It's Time Part 3

Charles Xavier x daughter reader

Soon the morning came and Charles got up early for once, with Hank's help. He figured if he wouldn't see his child again after today then it wouldn't hurt to at least give her a proper meal. Giving this to her was his only motivation to get up and into life, because it would show her he cared. He knew thats what she needed most in her life now. 

When the rest of them got around they ate together and (Y/N) ate until she wanted to vomit. Hank helped get her bag together and washed her old clothes the previous night. She had never been shown how good the world could be and was a bit excited to really see it for the first time. Soon they had to leave to find Raven and she had to be on her way. She stood at the entrance of the mansion with them, Logan was more of a see ya ler kinda guy. Hank let you know you had friends here if you wanted to come back. Charles gave you a few photos from before Cuba of old times to show her a better time. 

They hugged and she said she would come back to him if he wanted. "Of course I do, just when this terrible business is over." She nodded and was about to move off when Hank brought out a polaroid camera.

"You two should have at least one picture together." He smiled snapping their photos so both she and Charles could both have one. She gave thanks to them and they parted ways. (Y/N) ended up staying in new York for a few more weeks, she jumped from home to home but enjoyed seeing the city. She wanted to stay in the area to be close to her new home, but in the next week she wanted to be anywhere but there. 

One day passing people on the busy streets, everyone had stopped to watch the TVs in the windows and on the big screns. (Y/N) pushed through the crowds to see the news caster say, "Tragedy struck today in Washington D.C when mutant criminal Erik Lehnsherr lifted RFK Stadium from the ground and trapped President Nixon and his cabinet on the white house grounds. We believe he had intentions to kill the President at the unvailing of Bolivar Trask's new Sentinel program. The Sentinels were meant to a new modern safety measure for humans against mutants. Our team's footage shows a few other mutants at the scene, who appear to be protecting the President from this mad man. Unfortunately, their efforts were not enough to stop Lehnsherr from taking the life of Mr. Trask and President Nixon. Our sources tell us there were no survivors when police arrived."

She couldn't believe her eyes as the video showed her dad and Hank both being killed by Erik Lehnsherr and a female mutant there. She ran away to a quiet place so she could cry uninterrupted. She had lost everything she knew and was now completely alone. Another scientist moved the Sentinel program forward and soon all mutants lived in fear. 

At this moments (Y/N) was hiding in an underground base she set up in the sewers, she knew they were coming for her and she didnt care. If she was killed then she could be with her dad and Hank and Logan and her old friends again. They had been trying to break through the blast shields for hours and she had her escape pack on her back, but she sat down when she decided it wouldn't be worth it to run. At 13 or 33 or 73 they would kill her anyway. She listened to an old Elvis record and only looked at her photos of her almost home. They pushed through, and crept up behind her ready to blast her life away. "I'll be there soon dad." 

Unknown to her, the x-gene in her sparked and her mutation unleashed in her dispair. The heat reached her neck but the searing pain never hit. Before anyone knew it, (Y/N) wasn't in her base. She was sitting outside the gate of the mansion, but it was clean and there weren't any signs up. Nothing about her had changed and she still had all her belongings on her. She put away her photo and went through the gate, walking up the road to the house she could hear activity. More ane more so with each step, she began to feel nervous again, it wasn't the 1970s anymore. 

Stepping through the tree line she could hear people talking on the other side of the house, it was much different here compared to the last time she was there. She was afraid to knock on the door so she went around back to see who was there. Immediately she recognized Charles and stopped to stare at him, just like the first time. But he wasn't dirty or dressed in a robe. He was clean and shaven and looked like her photo from 1963. And overall, he looked so happy. He talked to a young teenage kid but stopped when he saw her. She wanted to run and hide, but it wouldn't help anything now that she was seen. She had their attention but couldn't find the confidence to speak. 

Charles went up to her, "Hello? Young lady? Are you lost?" He got down to her level. When her lip trembled and tears came out he got very concerned. "Hey, hey. What's wrong? Where are your paren-" he was cut off by her wrapping her arms around his neck for a hug. He was genuinely confused but patted her back. Raven came out to talk Charles and was shocked, to say the least, at the sight. He saw her and shrugged his shoulders to her, as he didn't have a clue.

He pulled back when (Y/N) didn't, "Are you ok?" He asked slowly. 

She nodded, "You are Charles Xavier right?" He nodded. "Good, well, this....is going to sound crazy. May we talk in private?" He looked to Raven and she nodded, going to find Erik. They went inside, to the library for the privacy.

"Alright. What is this crazy story you ha-" he was cut off once again.

"I'm your daughter.....and I'm from the year 1976." She started strong but her voice left her.

He laughed a little, thinking it was a prank. "I'm sorry to disappoint you but I dont have children. And as for the future bit, very funny. You almost had me."

"Its not a joke Da- Charles. I'm from thirteen years a head in the future but I dont know how I did it." He still wasn't convinced, but he saw she was desperate. "Look, just.....Just look through my mind! You're a telepath. I can't be lying about my memories can I?!" She got excited as she remembered.

He was wondering who she really was, "How do you know that?" 

"Because I found you when I was twelve and you told me yourself. Please, just look. I give you permission, just...please!!" She said exhaustedly and desperately. He was hesitant but if she was telling truth, this would change them both. He nodded after considering it. As he put two fingers to his temple he began to dive into her mind and looked into her life from start to finish. (Y/N) sat uncomfortably as she waited. Charles' expression changed from happy, to sad, to painful and so on as he looked at her. 

"Its all true." He chuckled nervously.

"Yeah and I have pictures. The older one is from this year, and the other is from 1975." She showed him the pictures and he read the back.

"We haven't taken any pictures yet."

"You will. Before you leave to find that Shaw guy. That photo is all my mom gave me before she gave me up. ...without it I wouldn't be here."

"You've certainly been through too much."

"It just makes me stronger." She shrugged. It was very fortunate for her that he had his powers, he understood everything she went through. He smiled at her resilience.

"Well, if you're going to stay I need to talk with the others so they know who you are and what's going on." She stiffened but launched herself at him for a tight hug. He chuckled and held her back just as tight, by looking through her mind he felt like he knew her even though this is their first meeting.

Later on through the day Charles got everyone else together, except Moira, and explained the situation. (Y/N) explored the house all day and met the others. She was a little nervous around her Aunt Raven and Erik being there because of what happened in the future, but decided not to worry. It was a different time, what could go wrong? Charles made the time to spend with (Y/N) nd get to know her from scratch. She told him about her abilities not showing up yet until the accidental time travel. He told her she was just a late bloomer, just because his powers came to him when he was nine doesn't mean she'd be the same way. Which she kinda understood. Moira was there to help, being CIA, and all but (Y/N) didn't know whether or not to get close to her. She tried being friendly more and more to her soon to be mom, hoping it could change her mind about giving (Y/N) up.

Night fell and she sat with Charles once again, so they could get to know each other better. He was droning on about genetics and how she was a mutant even though her mom was human. She laughed at his corney dad jokes. "Come on!"

"What? It was a good one." He reasoned laughing.

"No it was aweful!" She laughed back. It made her feel better than great to have this kind of moment with him. She even felt good enough to listen to music and really enjoy it. She lept off the couch and opened her pack to fish out her 60s Elvis Presley record.

"What's that?" Even though they lived in America she doubted he knew Elvis.

"A record of the greatest hits by the King of rock and roll music." She set up the record player and the song, 'Can't Help Falling in Love,' started. "It's my favorite album. Real American culture." She said giddily.

He listened to it with her and she leant into his arm, wanting to make the most of this moment. He found it sweet and held her close to return the affection. Soon she fell asleep to the music and warmth in the atmosphere. Charles held her for a while and gently took her to her room. He felt like fatherhood was ment for him. He set her in bed and gave her a kiss on her forehead good night before settling down himself in his room.

There had never been a more peaceful time in her life than now, until the deeper night that is. In her mind the voices in her dream were getting louder, like a new voice chimed in every second. Her sleep became disrupted and she figured when she woke it would go away. She sat up in bed and rubbed her head as it didn't go away and got louder, waiting for a while she started crying thinking it wouldn't end. Raven was still awake and passed by her room just in time, she felt protective of (Y/N) and opened her door, "(Y/N)? Hey? Whats wrong? Why are you upset?" She rushed over and hugged her trying to calm her. 

"The voices wont stop!" She cried out. 

Raven immediately knew what was happening because it happened to Charles and she left to go get him. He was groggy and wanted to sleep again, "Yes Raven?" He sighed.

"(Y/N)'s powers are here. She says the voices wont stop." She said before running out. Charles urgently followed and Hank had shown up for comfort too. Charles lifted her up and held her tight, speaking to her in her mind. 

"Shhh, its alright sweetheart. I'm here or you."

"They wont stop!" She yelled.

"I know, I know. The same thing happened to me. You have to use your powers to block them from your mind. Imagine a wall around your thoughts." She pushed her abilities and did what he said, keeping a wall between her mind and the world. She heard it all go quiet and she calmed down. "Good, good job. Keep that up and you wont hear them at all unless you try." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. The others patted her back to let her know she was safe and they were there to help. Her family was all there.

[lorrainecparker]

Small Cine-Rovers for creative POV video: Part 1

What first started out as a fascination with ground based POV cam rovers, cars and trucks, I’ve seen a lot of expensive development going into this lately, so I decided to venture into what it takes to build a functional DIY rover that can be used in various locations and production purposes.

What first started out as a fascination with ground based POV cam rovers, cars and trucks, I’ve seen a lot of expensive development going into this lately, so I decided to venture into what it takes to build a functional DIY rover that can be used in various locations and production purposes.

Ground based systems that may look like simple RC toys (which at their heart, really are) have a function that neither aerial nor handheld operation can achieve. Getting into locations inaccessible or possibly dangerous by other means, is probably the number one reason to build a system like this. Agriculture, wildlife, conservation, geological studies and many other industries have need for an economical entry into this technology.

RC Rover with DJI OSMO mounted scaling rocks

The purpose of my particular concept was to find a lightweight and very flexible rover platform that could be used in various types of video production that I might encounter with corporate and governmental agencies as my clients. Getting good POV footage is always a challenge and seeing the world from different and compelling angles always keeps your production interesting. It’s also good to explore various ways to get you cameras into locations that might offer closer details or discovery after the fact from a mission.

So this is only Part 1 of what I hope to be a multi-part exploration of this conceptual endeavor. With the help from the folks at Multicopter Warehouse that provided all the camera gear and support, I also hoped to expand on this basic concept with more automation in the near future from the help of my engineer friends who used to work at 3D Robotics to build an ultimate Ardu Rover with autonomous control and more advanced electronics and automation.

Step 1: Selecting the right rover base

I did a lot of reading up on various RC crawlers, and while I’m no expert in this form of hobby in any means, I wanted something that was RTR (Ready to Run) and very reasonable on the pocketbook for folks to get into. I was looking more for stability and articulation of the suspension/frame to allow the smoothest passage of the rover over obstacles and through uneven terrain to help the onboard POV cams and gimbals provide a steady video and less risk of a tip-over.

I’ve seen lots of smaller 1:10/1:8 scale RC cars and trucks with GoPros mounted to them out in some of the RC forums but most of them were made to record their speed/action and not to deliver smooth video. I wanted something that would be able to literally crawl and not lose footing or tip over with the added weight of cameras/gimbals attached. I also wanted enough speed when needed to provide a smooth carriage ride for low-profile dolly shots on pavement or concrete floors such as warehouses and office buildings.

I discovered some 4×4, 6×6 and 8×8 crawlers that were promising, but trying to figure out how to attach cameras to the smaller frames seemed problematic. After seeing the demo videos of the Exceed MaxStone 5 Crawler from NitroRCX, I knew that this would be a great start for my concept rover.

Not only is this RC frame one of the longest in this class at 33″, but also has waterproof electronics that will be less sensitive to the elements you may venture into. The articulation of the suspension/chassis is incredible, even under load. With the foam-filled rubber tires mounted on true-beadlocked aluminum rims and an all-aluminum frame, this should provide a good solid base for a lot of experimentation for our concepts. It also features an adjustable suspension that will allow for control of the wheelbase and stiffness of the ride.

No risk of small obstacles stopping this rover!

Camera Mounting Methods

After many different experiments in camera & gimbal mounting techniques, I’m currently settled on one particular design that works with the DJI OSMO Handheld Stabilized Camera (or even the GoPro Karma Grip) that allows a secure attachment and flexibility for various shooting scenarios. I tried a low-profile cine cheeseplate mount attached securely to the front of the frame which allowed the OSMO to shoot forward and stabilize in a low angle. However from my tests, I noticed that this introduced more unnecessary vibration in the footage and didn’t allow rotation of the camera head as it does when the handle is mounted vertically or inverted. Of course, the GoPros are easily attached to the frame with the sticky-mounts and various angles or flex-mounts; especially for the Session, which is easy to place in just about any position.

So I’ve decided for now that I’m going to use parts of my cine production kit from Genustech which includes two rails with a clamping mount base and a Cine Arm to attach the OSMO to the rover frame. This allows more mount points and reduces flex and twist from the gimbal mount and can be positioned either low-profile or twist the mount to any configuration to capture stabilized and smooth video.

The “OSMO Rover” running around a warehouse.

We also tried some smoother surfaces such as pavement (which still introduces some slight vibration in 4K footage as you’ll see in our demo video) which could be due to the off-road tires and stiffness of the suspension. Indoors, we tried smooth concrete, carpet and other crazy tests as you’ll see in test video as well.

Actually, the OSMO proved to be quite stable in the warehouse, while the GoPros showed quite a bit of vibration from the tires/frame.

Lastly, I’m not used to using the radio controllers that come with these RC cars and don’t plan on keeping this system hooked up for long anyway, especially once we incorporate the Ardu Rover into it, but for now I needed a way to attach the OSMO smartphone mount where I could see it and access it easily for operating the camera and gimbal features.

I opened up the stock controller just enough to check for clearance on the left side/top and then simply used some 3M tape and a self-tapping screw to attach the mount to the controller. It’s a bit awkward as you have to hold the gun-style grip/trigger with your left hand and twist the wheel knob with your right and the weight of the smartphone hanging off the left is a bit unbalanced, but it does work well.

Unfortunately, since the OSMO is WiFi from your smartphone to the camera, there is a slight lag in the signal, so trusting this setup as your only FPV source is inadvisable. It does however, help you line up the shots you hope to capture and if the OSMO is positioned in a vertical or inverted stance, you can use the touch-screen to rotate the gimbal around 360º.

So here are some first attempts at various terrains, obstacles and shooting scenarios, primarily captured with the DJI OSMO with PolarPro ND filters and GoPro Hero4 Black/Session so you can see the articulation of the chassis and watch the OSMO gimbal work.

One thing is very evident with 3-axis gimbals, especially on a small bouncing rover like this: we desperately need 3 more axis for X, Y, Z stabilization!

Video Montage of first series of tests with stock controller, electronics and various camera mounts:

Looking Ahead…

Check out Part 2 where we look at a line of ready-made cine rovers called the Eclipse Rover, with more capabilities and stability. Beyond that, we should have some autonomous rover tests in the can as well.

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