#r very strong with The Six Olympians

[cosmicourple]

I have a HC specific to Neal Illustrator’s design of Zeus (tho def not accurate to her canon haha), the HC being that he’s the spitting image of Rhea.

You’d think Zeus would have got his wide, sometimes unnerving smile or his built-like-a-brick figure from his Fathęr, but, nah.

The wiry don’t know if you’d rlly call Neal! Zeus’s hair that HAGRGSA😭 hair, sculpted figure, scruffy facial hair, over the top expressions, bronze skin, incredible physical power & (almost) effortless show of command / authority r all his ma’s’ genes on display <]!!! (although Rhea has a much less defined body & intimidating presence as her youngest, instead appearing more gentle yet tired looking & with a mum bod hehe *///u///*).

…But of course (and very much unfortunate 4 The Godking) The Harvest Titan’s features & traits lure just below the surface, taking the forms of Zeus’s striking yellow eyes, small canines, horrible / explosive temper, bipolar mood swings (a trait also unfortunately passed down to His other overthrower heirs + some of their children, tho mostly Zeus’s,,,), instability to deal w/ his mental health properly, gruesome cruelty when hacked off & excessive need to not appear weak,,, out of all the things inside of him that remind him of Fàthër, the last one still makes bile rise in his throat,,, he knows he acts like Him sometimes and it makes him want to cry, he doesn’t want to act like Him, he doesn’t want to be like him, he’s sworn over and over that he’ll be BETTER than Him, he has to be—-

I’m giving out angst 2 everybody in this A.U, whether it be trauma, dying, trauma, mental & / or physical health issues, trauma, family issues obviously, more trauma—

[freezegirl]

NPCS: THE OLYMPIANS / @theskyuniverse

Khione didn't mean for this to happen but she, unknowingly, gravitated towards other people with mythological names during her time at high school, college and the Maxville Ice Arena and so the Olympians were born.* (And, nope, Kie wasn't the person to coin the name this time around, either. If she had been, they would've been named the Ice Kings and Queens or the Snow Kings and Queens, but does anyone take her suggestions into consideration? No, of course not.)

*Note: While the kids in question are all original characters, the names of the parents and the last names in question are canon and are from the yearbook screenshots.

Minerva "Minnie" Topolski (K/aya S/codelario) doesn't love her powers and often wishes she was born without them because they're fucking useless. It's yet another reminder that she's nothing like her mom and her kid sister because they love their useless powers. Even in this world, filled with outstanding heroes and heroines, wishes like those don't come true. So Minnie focuses on what she has: a strong work ethic and a solid partner in Orion (E/van R/oderick) whom she loves and adores. Luckily, the feeling is very much mutual. Now if only her mother would look at her and see how much work she's really putting in, instead of some of the messes she's gotten herself into recently. Minnie has really been trying to turn it all around and it feels like Orion is the only one who sees that.

Viridiana "Diana" Ti (A/manda Z/hou), known mimicker of voices (and the go-to person for impersonation), fraternal twin sister of Sterling (aka the guy with the six arms) - the older of the two at that - and cousin to Magenta as well as Minnie's best friend. Her name might be Latin for 'green' but don't let that fool you; she's been on the ice for years. Diana is many things but definitely not green nor wet behind the ears. After a harrowing knee injury and a longer hiatus from skating than she'd like, she's slowly crawling her way back to the very top, back towards the silver spotlight, where she belongs. Diana has a secret, though, that she hasn't shared with anybody, not even her best friend: she's been in love with Orion for years.

Leslie "Leto" Topolski (J/anuary J/ones) never thought she'd become one of those ice skating mothers yet here she is, taking all these kids beneath her wings. (Though, of course, most of her attention is on her own kids.) Funny how these things go. She fell in love with and married a civilian. Even now, years later, she's very happy with her wife, who is a classics professor and the reason for her nickname, as well as the names that her children have been given.

Juno Topolski (W/illow S/hields) is Leslie's youngest daughter and the one who is happy to have inherited her mom's ability to shapeshift. Unfortunately, much like her mother, Juno can only shapeshift into inanimate objects too. That's okay, though. It's actually kind of zen to spend an hour as a beach ball! Juno doesn't mind the fact that her mom is so pushy, or that she's helping the other kids. She just wishes her mom would help Minnie sometimes, too.

Ceres Bonneau (J/ade M/a) came to Kim Bonneau with nothing but her name and the clothes on her back. Kim - an empath, who specializes in non violent communication and de-escalation - fell in love immediately. Like her adoptive mother, Ceres is an empath as well. Ceres' love for figure skating came as a surprise to both of them; it took Ceres a few years before she realized: 'hey, I'm good at this!' and from then on out, she found her footing, taking training more seriously as a result.

Adonis Brisso (J/eremias A/moore) is the oldest son of James Brisso and his civilian husband. Adonis, or Don, as most people know him by, is a hockey player. He plays for the Maxville Knights. He also has a younger brother named Jason, who is an aspiring hockey player as well (L/eonardo F/ontes).

Irene Summers (G/race B/eedie), sister to Eryx and daughter of Jenny and her civilian husband, did not take well to the move from the UK to the USA. Maxville was too far away from all she'd ever known. Yet Jenny insisted that she wanted to be closer to her remaining family members, and thought it best for her kids that they'd get taught what it means to be a hero or heroine at her alma mater too. Or, rather, alma maters, plural, considering she went on to study at Sky U after finishing high school. Irene didn't fit in all that much, she felt, not until she found the Ice Arena and the community of figure skaters. Now she'll do anything to hold onto that with both hands.

Hylas Teer (T/oby M/urray) is the only son of Rebecca Teer. Nowadays, Rebecca is happily married to her superhero husband, who has taken her last name. Said superhero husband (S/ean T/eale) is not Hylas' dad but for all Hylas cares, the man may as well be, considering he stepped up and all. Everyone at school knows his story: his mom had a one night stand, got pregnant and decided to keep him. It's not like he hates the institution as a whole, really. It's more so the people within. Hylas is counting down the days until he graduates. Until then, he finds refuge at the Ice Arena. He actually used to be Irene's skating partner until they had a falling out. Rebecca is pregnant at the moment with her second child, a girl. Hylas is looking forward to being an older brother, but he's also secretly terrified.

Orphea Swink-Ashcroft (A/nastasia C/hocholatá) understands Khione in a way few others do, as she has had a similar upbringing. Even so, the two don't get along at all. Orphea loves the attention and loves her parents' love story: Oksana Swink married her high school sweetheart Lenny Ashcroft and they've been together ever since. Orphea has happily made appearances on The Fabulous Lives of Superhero Wives, seeing as Oksana is one of the Superhero Wives in question. In fact, she begged her mom to get her on the show and thinks Khione should be more grateful to her parents for all that they have done for her.

Eryx Summers (D/akota T/aylor) is, much like Adonis, a fellow hockey player for the Maxville Knights. His sister, Irene, doesn't seem to get it, actively preferring figure skating. They bicker about it sometimes. Especially because Eryx' cousin and brother-figure Orion chose figure skating over ice hockey. And it's not something he's forgiven him for. He keeps everything that isn't related to hockey close to his chest. And, yes, that includes his feelings about the move from England to America as well as his super powers.

[hutz224]

World Masters Cross Country Championships preview part 4

With statistical assistance from Scott Lawrence 

With just one sleep to go until the 2k relay and two sleeps to the individual Sunday races, let's have a brief look at the 70+, 75+ and 80+ age categories. These groups compete over a shorter distance - 4k as opposed to 6k - and the fields are predictably smaller, but the rivalry will be just as strong.

The M70 field features two athletes with vastly different backgrounds, but impeccable distance running credentials. John Bermingham (NT) won two world championshipship gold medals in Finland last year (1500m and 10k road) and will start as favourite. Yassine Belaabed has set a string of Victorian M70 distance records over the last year and will keep John honest. Hard to prdict who will follow these two runners home - perhaps former Olympian Chris Wardlaw (Vic) or Ron Schwebel (NSW). 

(L to R) Bermingham, Belaabed, Schwebel

There are only two W70 entrants, so both are guaranteed to win a medal! Canadian Thelma Wright may have the edge over Heather Powrie (NSW).You will understand why I make this suggestion if you look up Thelma’s Wikipedia entry. She is one of the all-time greats of Canadian distance running. In 1970, she won a bronze medal in the open age World Cross Country Championships in France. It is wonderful to see her in Australia for this event 43 years later.

There are five entries in the M75 event, all Aussies. Frank Scorzelli (NSW) has recently run 22:01 for parkrun so he will start as clear favourite. Phillip Urquhart (Vic) is extremely well known in Masters ranks as a former President of AMA. The form of the other three runners is unknown. There are no W75 entries.

(L to R) Scorzelli, Urquhart

There are six 80+ entries, three men and three women, which is well organised by them because, as long as they finish, they will all get to stand on the podium. One name among them is famous, very famous. New Zealander Roger Robinson has so many great achievements in the sport that it would fill several pages to list them all. We can be sure that he will come to the event very well prepared and I’m nominating him as the likely M80 winner. Caroline Campbell (ACT) is a 1500m bronze medallist from the World Masters T & F Champs in 2018 and she will battle it out with Myrtle Rough, who was recently named the New Zealand masters middle distance athlete of the year. Roger and Myrtle should easily win the 80+ 2k relay.

(L to R) Robinson, Myrtle

Finally, and what a way to end this series of race previews, we have the oldest man in the field and the only 85+ entrant, Lachlan Lewis. He will win.

[ethanalter]

How to make a sexy sea monster and other 'Shape of Water' secrets revealed! (exclusive)

Guillermo del Toro’s romantic fairy tale The Shape of Water represents a breakthrough in human-fish relations. That’s not just because this lovingly crafted homage to classic ‘50s creature features is up for 13 Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. It also pushes the envelope well past love stories like Splash and The Little Mermaid, where men and mermaids enjoyed relatively chaste romances. In contrast, The Shape of Water’s lovers — mute janitor, Elisa (Sally Hawkins, a Best Actress nominee) and South American river god (Doug Jones) — get hot and heavy during the course of the film, instantly making them one of the most memorable interspecies couples in movie history.

Del Toro recognized early on in the production process that his love story hinged on audiences finding the Fish-Man as attractive as Elisa does. So, he devoted more than a year — and hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own funds — towards sculpting a version of the creature that was, to put it bluntly, a total stud. “It needed to be very attractive, a creature you could fall in love with,” the director remarks in this exclusive behind-the-scenes clip that Yahoo Entertainment is premiering today. (Watch the video above.) Del Toro handed that challenge off to top creature designer, Mike Hill of Legacy Effects, who built a suit for Jones that was further enhanced in post-production by Dennis Berardi, head of the visual effects company Mr. X, which oversaw the effects work for The Shape of Water.

Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones as the lovers in ‘The Shape of Water’ (Photo: Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection)

The technique was pure hybrid,” Berardi explains to Yahoo Entertainment in a separate interview. “Generally speaking, when you see the body and head movements of the Fish Man—or the asset as we called him — that’s Doug Jones in a suit. But whenever you see him underwater, then he’s animated. I would also say that every single shot where you have the creature onscreen, the eyes and brow area are digital, because the way the mask worked, the eyes were a thick resin plug that didn’t articulate. Our methodology was to work from the eyes out, preserving as much of Doug’s performance as possible. But every single shot has varying degrees of visual effects in it, from micro-expressions like eye blinks to full-body animation.”

Unfortunately for Berardi, visual effects was one of the few Oscar categories in which The Shape of Water missed out on a nomination, with nods instead going to Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Kong: Skull Island, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and War for the Planet of the Apes. But he and his team absolutely share a role in the movie’s success, infusing the creature’s costume design (which is up for an Oscar) with additional life. Having collaborated with Del Toro on both Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak, Berardi has regularly enjoyed a front-row seat to the director’s creative process. Read on for additional trade secrets behind The Shape of Water and its strapping Fish-Man.

It started with a sketch. Berardi’s first glimpse of The Shape of Water‘s aquatic heartthrob was as a two-dimensional sketch in one of the notebooks that Del Toro always has on hand to jot down ideas and images as they pop into his brain. (Some of those notebooks have been published in anthology collections.) “He showed me a sketch of their embrace,” the effects supervisor remembers, referring to an early version of the clinch between Elisa and the “asset” that appears on the movie’s poster. “It was such a romantic image, and he told me, ‘This is a movie that’s in love with love.’ You had a creature that had to be a leading man that Elisa had to fall in love with and that the audience had to fall in love with. He told us right at the beginning that this wasn’t a monster — it’s an intelligent being with a soul, and eyes that had to be soulful and deep.”

The creature also had to be a top-notch swimmer whose movements read as pure poetry in the water. To aid with that, Berardi had his team study Olympians like Michael Phelps as a starting point. “Those guys are powerful and swim somewhat gracefully, but nothing as graceful as what Guillermo really wanted. So then we looked at dolphins, sea lions, otters and seals, and settled on this hybrid of a humanoid swimming, with a bit of a dolphin kick. Seals actually became a lot of inspiration as well, because they move slipstream through the water very gracefully.”

Junk in the trunk In one of The Shape of Water‘s standout sequences, Elisa and her lover act consummate their powerful attraction in a bathroom that she transforms into a makeshift water tank. It’s an erotically-charged moment and del Toro takes full advantage of his R-rating, allowing the two to see, and touch, each other’s naked bodies like any homosapien couple would. Boundary-pushing as this scene may be, it stops just short of the final frontier: merman genitalia. And that’s just fine for Berardi, who would have been responsible for helping imagine what the creature’s junk might look like. “Guillermo’s got too much taste for that,” Berardi remarks with a laugh, pointing out that Elisa and her friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer) instead discuss her lover’s size after their intimate encounter. “His inspiration for the movie was when he was six years old watching Creature from the Black Lagoon and hoping that the creature gets the girl.”

That’s a note that del Toro passed along to Hill as well. “This thing has to be attractive to a woman,” the creature designer remarks in the above clip. “My directive was that I wanted to make him handsome.” For his part, Jones clearly appreciated the matinee idol physique that Hill crafted for his aquatic alter ego. “My lips are a little fuller, there’s a strong jawline and the body they sculpted on me is very athletic. He’s handsome in a fish-like way.”

Hawkins and Jones in an embrace in The Shape of Water (Photo: Fox Searchlight/Everett Collection)

The shape of (digital) water If the Fish-Man was a hybrid of practical and digital effects, the water he calls home is almost entirely digital with one notable exception — the aforementioned love scene in Elisa’s bathroom. “That’s the only scene where we had the actors in water, ever,” Berardi reveals. “We had a water tank that we built and submerged the bathroom set, with the actors, in the tank. It was done in such a safe way that they could just be hovering around the surface with footholds and handholds. They’d film for 20 or 30 seconds, and then come back up easily because the water level was just above their heads. Sally and Doug were both game.” Everywhere else, though, the H20 was all CGI, and even with all the advancements that have been made since The Perfect Storm — the movie that Berardi cites as a breakthrough for digital water effects — simulating water is still one of the most difficult jobs for an effects house.

Interestingly, the most challenging shot involved another tank of sorts, the iron lung capsule that serves as the creature’s prison as he’s transported from South America to the Baltimore research facility where the film’s events unfold. “There was no water in that capsule,” Berardi says. “It would have been way too unsafe to have Doug in there. But we had to see water sloshing around through the glass while the asset is in there. The creature also had to slam his hand on the glass, so his digital hand would have to come through the digital water and hit the glass. All of that is 3D and volumetrically rendered. That was the shot that kept me up at night.”

Richard Jenkins and Jones in The Shape of Water (Photo: Fox Searchlight/Everett Collection)

Here kitty, kitty Cat fanciers will be happy to hear that no real felines were harmed in the making of The Shape of Water. The same can’t be said for the computer-generated cat that the creature chows down on while hiding out with Elisa and her friend, Giles (Richard Jenkins). And the Fish-Man is a messy eater, too, getting blood all over the floor and himself. That may sound like a big turnoff, but del Toro felt it was crucial to showcase his hero in his less glamorous moments. “Guillermo didn’t want to make a traditional Beauty and the Beast-type story where the beast can’t really be himself. He’s eloquent, strong and heroic, yes, but he also needs protein!”

For the first part of the scene, Jones worked with an on-set cat wrangler to provoke a flesh-and-blood feline into a hissing fit. When the time came for the creature to open the cat’s head like a Pez dispenser, Berardi’s team took over. “We put a green sock puppet in Doug’s hands, replaced that with a digital cat and then severed the head. We went through about 25 iterations about what the cross section of the neck needed to look like, and showed Guillermo the grossest ones we could devise — anatomically correct with the spinal cord, nerve endings and all that stuff. We totally went there with it. That was also a moment where we took over Doug’s head and did it digitally: we fluttered the gills and had water spray off of them. That was probably one of the most fun things for us to animate.”

The Shape of Water is currently playing in theaters and available on digital services. The film arrives on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 13.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

How ‘Wonder’ completely transformed kid star Jacob Tremblay… and earned an Oscar nod

‘Wonder Woman’ wasn’t alone: 15 great movies dissed by 2018 Oscars

Charlize Theron addresses calls to play first female 007