#r.i.p. jackie welles
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doomandgloomspics · 2 years ago
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"Twelve rounds, buddy."
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chessalein · 1 year ago
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THATS how I imagen what it looks like when mini moth is big and a person thinks it can make trouble to the two of them in the middle of the night. (Thats why I gave Jackie violett goggles in the other drawings. Only because I had this idea)
Just a quick sketch so that I can show you what an epic moment I mean
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kungfuwushuworld · 3 months ago
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R.I.P sifu Lee Hoi-sang!
Lee Hoi-sang (April 15, 1941 – September 9, 2024) was a Hong Kong martial arts film actor and martial artist, known for his roles in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (as Abbot Li Hai Sheng) (1978), Shaolin Challenges Ninja (1978), The Incredible Kung Fu Master (1979), The Young Master (1980), The Prodigal Son (1981), Project A (1983), Shaolin and Wu Tang (1983) and Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985) , alongside actors such as Jackie Chan, Gordon Liu, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Bolo Yeung.
Lee Hoi-sang was a master of Wing Chun boxing. He served as a martial arts instructor and an action movie actor (debuting in British Hong Kong) starting in his early years. During the 1970s and 1980s he often utilised his kung fu expertise playing martial arts roles as well as other supporting roles on Asian TV dramas. To some of his audience he was known as "King of Fighters".
Lee Hoi-sang was a disciple of Yip Man, learning Wing Chun from him and later teaching it.
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taylorkellyreporting · 11 months ago
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i hope no one minds if i inconsistently liveblog this bitch: doctor who season one from 1x04
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1x04
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HELLO??
A WHOLE YEAR???
shit
“you’re 900 years old?” “yeah.” “my mum was right, that is one hell of an age gap.” lmfaooo
“i’m the only person who knows it exists.” spoke too soon
damn, he left her. i wonder if the key he gave her was even real.
it was a pig 😭
OH NOOOO
every time they get separated, shit goes off the rails
IS HE GONNA KILL HER MOM?!
1x05
girl, FUCK the emergency protocols
“sorry.” 😭
that shit was intense
“my mother’s cooking.” “good, put her on a slow heat and let her simmer.” CACKLING
i feel so bad for her mom :(
1x06
this episode really is…something.
why the fuck is the doctor just offering up all of this information???
he really should have seen this coming
*pretends to be shocked*
their cockiness is gonna get them killed
i never want rose and the doctor to be separated EVER again
“what use are emotions if you won’t save the woman that you love?” damn
don’t know how i feel about this dude joining them
1x07
“he’s your boyfriend.” “not anymore.” did i miss something???
something’s wrong…
is that guy dead?
i don’t trust adam at all
rose is so stupid. i could understand if it was mickey she was trusting but she doesn’t even know this man
huh, that was unexpected.
what the actual fuck
1x08
this ep’s gonna be so sad
the doctor never should’ve taken her to that day
“alright, i’ll tell him you’re not my boyfriend.” obsessed with her thinking that was the issue 😭
not important but jackie looks really good with her hair like that
well. that was heartbreaking.
1x09
sorry, but if a kid wearing a fucking plague mask was repeatedly saying “mummy” in an eerie voice, i would have turned and walked the other way. r.i.p. to rose but i’m different
what part of “don’t answer it.” is hard to understand? lmao
“excellent bottom.” gross.
i know i sound like a broken record but what the fuck?!
this is one creepy ass episode
this dude is coming on so strong dkgjgks
“finally, a professional.” rose, be serious.
“they’re not dead.” okay.
girl, what the fuck?
1x10
i can’t believe that worked lmfaooo
“those would’ve been terrible last words.” 😭
“half this street thinks your missus must be messing about with mr haverstock, the butcher. but she’s not, is she? you are.” SCREAMING
“i sent it to its room. this is its room.”
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that’s fucking terrifying
“the first day i met him, he blew my job up. that’s practically how he communicates.” pls
“okay, so he’s vanished into thin air. why is it always the great- looking ones who do that?” “i’m making an effort to not be insulted.” “i mean…men.” “okay, thanks, that really helped.” fkfhhgdj
i hate jack for interrupting their dance. IT WAS JUST GETTING GOOD.
“carry on with whatever you were…doing.” “we were talking about dancing.” “it didn’t look like talking.” “didn’t feel like dancing.” 😭
these episodes are so fucking creepy but they’re definitely the best of the season
oh my God, he’s her son
THEY’RE DANCING 🥹
1x11
i can’t wait for mickey’s reaction to jack
“trust me, safest place in the universe.” famous last words
i hope the doctor doesn’t trust her
poor mickey
“it’s always the doctor, it’s never me.” buddy you should’ve known you weren’t first choice when she left you in the beginning
she’s an egg 😭
1x12
i almost don’t want to press play.
lmao, what the hell
it always comes back to floor 500
oh shit, the doctor cause all of that?
WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK
rose can’t be dead
THANK GOD
i can’t believe the daleks actually survived
1x13
i’m not ready to say goodbye to nine
rose is getting a taste of her own medicine with the doctor and lynda djfjgjs
HE KISSED THEM BOTH 😭 I LOVE JACK
i can feel my heart breaking
who the fuck is bad wolf if it isn’t the daleks???
mickey’s really getting on my nerves this ep
HELLO
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“there’s nothing left for me here.” ‘nothing?” “no.” she’s RUTHLESS 😭 but honestly he shouldn’t be surprised at this point
JACK ☹️
“i am the bad wolf.” BITCH???? WHAT????
i got my kiss but at what cost
OH SHIT THEY LEFT JACK
all i feel is pain
that’s it??? how am i ever going to move on from eccleston? how the hell are you guys strong enough do this every season? cause i’ll tell you how i’m doing: not well, bitch!!
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blueopinions49 · 1 year ago
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Healthy/Unhealthy ESFJ
1. Kagome Higurashi 
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-Balanced use of FeSi and manages to develop her Ne in later to create plans in efficient ways that suit everyones needs. She is always on the look to make sure everyones needs are met without neglecting her own needs. 
2. Steven Universe
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-Overall healthy use of Fe he seems to struggle in his later years to truly understand people but overall he is very healthy and usually tries to find ways to fix everyones problem with his FeNe. 
3. Jackie Taylor
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-Jackie is halfway way there when it comes to unhealthy she portrays some of the more irresponsible managing of Fe. She focuses one the broad instead of the case by case aspect. Sometimes ending up neglecting Shauna and her emotional needs. However she is usually well intentioned and actually tries using her FeSi as much as possible for the good of the group ;R.I.P Snackie. 
4. Mac Mcdonald 
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-Unhealthy use of FeSi due to the repression of his sexuality he internalized allot of shame and tried to use religion as a way to chastise others and the self. He also portrays the more unhealthy parts of Si with his need to micromanage others (specially Dennis). 
5. Mima Kirigoe 
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-Her desire to please others via her career makes her complexity neglect her own emotional state and stat loosing track of who she is and where she stands In life. Eventually falling to an FeNe loop constantly wandering who she is in relation to the public and her career. At the end of the film we see her retuning back to center. 
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anonil88 · 2 years ago
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YELLOW JACKETS S2 FINALE LIVEBLOG 🐝 🐝
Warning spoilers ahead.
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-Rest in Peace Dolores. (A fitting song now that I think on it.)
-R.i.p Javi, I really wanted my fellow art kid to survive. I really did.
- Someone knock that fucking table with the Jonestown tea over please. Lottie is doing the absolute fucking most but also Shauna is correct for doing this. When your friends are paranoid you do have to talk them down, but you also need to not make them feel like they are wrong or insane. Because then they may get a little more than upset. I say this as a person with paranoia.
- Personally I think as teens they should gave never fully believed Lottie even if faith was all that was keeping them alive. They could've used that faith to be more resourceful and hop skip their asses to hike. Just like now they should use that faith to call a doctor and NOT do this faux hunt. Maybe a little belief is okay but nothing where a child is seen as prophet who helps everyone survive. Thats pressure that will crack even a non mentally ill person.
- They are all partly responsible for Charlotte being as bad as she is now and as bad as she got. She didn't start anything she just interacting with whatever force may be out there coupled with her mental illness, they all just wanted an excuse to satiate their hunger. Now the way Lottie looked at Misty when she showed up at the camp makes even more sense, she was afraid of her.. These girls, starting with Shauna, rationalized their eatting of Jackie based on their hunger. Then they rationalize it with Javi by using Lottie's belief and mental illness, even though she doesn't want that weight. And now as adults they rationalize their bad behavior and fuck ups by saying "trauma fucked me up" or "this is fine I'm just a little stressed." They know the right thing but age regressed trauma, no talking about their trauma, and pretending to have happy lives or placate it with drugs is just more rationalizing of we did that because something happened to us.
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- I was right about the masks and Shauna with the rabbits from season 1. I said in my s1 watch that the masks have always been so they didn't feel as bad about what they were doing, even though it was clear some of them enjoyed it.
- A GUN???? A shotty???
- Awww look at these cute theatre kids.
- Tai is sick very sick but not ward sick, woah lets not do this Van. They both don't need to be institutionalized but they do need proper therapy and medication.
- Shauna is hot with knives I'm sorry Melanie lynsky is my weaknes.
- Is Lottie gonna poison her followers?
- I hope that smug bitch of a cop is the sacrifice.
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- I want all these purple clothes and whatever dye they are using. I bet Walter poisoned the tea.
- Well I called that, damn I liked him. Should have been that smug bitch yelling in the background.
- Whoever made that theory about coach simply not making it to the rescue point because he's in that hole, I love you because I think you're correct. Also, the transition from striking flint to light in the cabin wonderful choice TV editors.
- They could at least idk bury the heart, have a little funeral for the boy or create a new tradition with it. Come on now.
- Well okay then Daenerys, but also the metaphor similar to Shauna eatting Jackie's ear. Those lost to the cold are now a piece of them inside them, making them a little colder everyday from the inside out as time goes on. Their trauma with time grows but so does all of the guilt they carry from the inside. Both of them coping with the fact that they both, Travis and Shauna, gave everyone permission to eat their closest person.
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- I adore the things they are doing with the audio and Buffy Sainte-Marie's song. No matter what happens i really appreciate the sound and music direction of this show. Oh Charlotte.
- Van not calling the facility wellness crisis team is so fucking stupid. NATALIE!!!!?!?!??? At least they all admit its their fault.
- This is so beautiful and so fucked up. I want them all to hug Lottie so badly, why don't they just hug her and hold her? Why don't they just be there for each other in moments of stress. They don't need to do this, I think that could be the whole tagline for this show. NO ONE NEEDS TO DO THIS.
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- Callie!!!!?!?!? GET OUT OF THE WOODS, GET OUT OF THE WOODS.
- SHE PROBABLY FUCKING POISONED THEM ALL. Nooooo lottie nooooo please someone stop this.
- Van was pulled back into this cult of the wilderness fast as fuck, this is what happens when you have nothing to loose. Dark Tai is about to come out to play, so is everyone else's dark side. This is so damn tense and yet Lottie is still even as an adult wishing for it to be her. Her own form of self harm and relief would be to be the queen.
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-Oh this all just got very very real.
-"IT WAS JUST US" and Lotties "does it matter?"
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- Fuck. They know what they did deep down and why it scares them isn't because its trauma and hunger, but because it was their own choice. And that is a deep deep trauma that only survivors can experience, a guilt that will never go away.
- The storyteller, the sleepwalker, the priest, the doctor, the hunter, the butcher, and the antler queen.
- Oh Lottie, she HAD to separate herself from this wilderness construct just so she wouldn't completely loose her mind. Then she passed it to the next person and they passed it to the next and the next until there wasn't anyone or enough to pass it to. And then they had to look in the mirror and realize it was just them when they were rescued. A group of kids with a false religion they created to justify the actions they made in their hunger and desperation.
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- His heart. The tension is grows please stop everyone just stop..
- Oh Nat. Oh Misty.
- She was finally sober, that card finally checked in. The wilderness is just death. It follows us all. They came so close to it in a final destination way that it just looms behind and in them, waiting. Waiting for Tai to embrace it with open eyes and the rest when their eyes finally close.
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- These girls make me so angry because of their starved or childish actions, they are so the same and yet different from before the crash. Yet still, seeing them as grown women who simply reflections of young girls and kids that are damaged and near death makes me want to hug them so tight. Misty fucked up all of their lives by smashing that black box in a juvenile attempt to be loved.
- Coach you are so fucked up for that but I get it. Those girls took everything they could, he knew they would tear eachother apart even without survival. So he left them to the cold. Any humanity and hope they had is now gone with their shelter. But it also now will provide a giant signal that may get them home in....10 months?
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- I need a drink or one of nats cigarettes.
Final thoughts: These writers know how to do a red herring right! Of course the pacing gets better in the last episode of the season but I desperately need them to work on middle of the season pacing and getting down the timeline flipping to a science. Great finale with some misses but a good wrap up if this strike lasts a long while. Imma miss my leather jacket baddie. Heavens gate honey should be the NOT cult's new flavor. Also, I think in the future the group can lie to cover up the Kevyn connection by saying that he and Nat reconnected and were doing drugs together and that's how it got into both of their system. The toxicology won't lie but they might get away per se if they say the drugs were laced. Damn her whole non soccer highschool friend group is gone.
Edit: HUGE FINAL POINT I REALIZED, all of them except Van, she is ready to die, had hidden weapons in their final hunt. Tai became sleep Tai, Natalie had her shiv, Misty had a needle with fent, Lottie brought an actual sharp knife, and Shauna had unknowingly Callie with a gun. None of them trust eachother enough to think they won't murder eachother in a *faux* hunt. What does that say about what else they did out there? Also this mimics what Shauna said last episode that she would murder their spouses if they did what Jeff did. She also left the circle terrified because they may chase her but they also might not, and she can't be sure if its because of the past or her recent fuck ups. The risk that they might have actually killed whoever pulled that card no matter the rouse to save Lottie or not was present to all of them. They are still those girls.
(Insert Gif of Natalie smiling)
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akaraboonline · 2 years ago
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Ex-Strictly head judge Len Goodman passes away at age 78.
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Len Goodman, a former head judge on Strictly Come Dancing, Ex-Strictly head judge Len Goodman passes away at age 78, according to his manager. In the presence of his loved ones, he passed away on Saturday at a hospice in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. His bones had cancer. Goodman appeared on Strictly from the show's inception in 2004 until 2016, and his wry humor and avuncular criticism won him fans among viewers. He appeared on Dancing With the Stars from 2005 to 2022 in addition to Strictly from 2005 to 2022. - Len Goodman obituary: From the East End to Strictly stardom - Tributes pour in for former Strictly head judge Goodman - Listen back: Len Goodman's Desert Island Discs Len Goodman passed away peacefully on Monday, according to a statement from his manager Jackie Gill. He was 78 years old. "A much loved husband, father, and grandfather who will be sorely missed by family, friends, and all who knew him." When awarding contestants a score of seven points, Goodman's animated delivery made the number into his catchphrase. Craig Revel Horwood, who has been a judge on Strictly for the longest time, led the tributes on Monday and referred to Goodman as a "gorgeous colleague and dear friend" in his remarks. "I always called him Len Goody Goodman, and 'It's a ten from Len & seveeeern' will live with me forever," he continued. Motsi Mabuse, a fellow judge, shared a black-and-white photo of Goodman with the simple caption "R.I.P." on her Instagram story. Susanna Reid, a former contestant, described the news of Goodman's passing as "such a terrible shock and so sad." "Len was the epitome of a proper gent and an absolute legend. He was a gorgeous man with a great sense of humor and a wicked way with words. She claimed that the time he called her Samba "all bounce, bum, and bongos" would always stick in her mind. Goodman was referred to as "one of a kind, a brilliant and kind man" by Claudia Winkleman, the show's host. She further stated that he was "full of twinkle, warmth, and wit." Along with Katya Jones and Johannes Radebe, other Strictly dancers who paid tribute were Gorka, Gionvanni, Janette Manrara, and others. Goodman started dancing when he was 19 and won the British Championships in his late 20s. He then retired and worked as a judge, teacher, and choreographer in the industry. From the show's inception, he served as the head judge, and he made his final appearance on the 2016 Christmas Day special. Additionally, he worked as the show's head judge for more than 15 years before announcing his retirement in November of last year, citing a desire to "spend more time with my grandchildren and family" in the UK. On his BBC Radio 2 show, music enthusiast Goodman frequently filled in for the late Paul O'Grady.
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Ex-Strictly head judge Len Goodman passes away at age 78. He was described as "a wonderful, warm entertainer who was adored by millions" by BBC director-general Tim Davie, who was among those paying tribute. "He appealed to all ages and felt like a member of everyone's family," the reviewer said. "Len was the driving force behind Strictly's success. Both the general public and his countless friends and family will greatly miss him. Russell Grant, a different former Strictly competitor, paid tribute on Twitter by writing: "The wonderful Len Goodman has left us. We met on other shows, including his own, which was filmed at BBC Glasgow, and he was so sweet and lovely to me when I was on . "The term 'legend' is overused, but Len and his 'SEVEN' became a catchphrase throughout the UK & USA. a real person."
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Boxing champion Frank Bruno added: "RIP Len Goodman this is shocking. He was the man we all thought was indestructible met him several times, he said he would personally give me some dance lessons if I ever got Strictly, really sad." Goodman owned the Goodman Academy, a dance studio in Dartford, Kent, and was a recipient of the Carl Alan Award for outstanding contributions to dance.   Read the full article
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gpgurl50recaps · 3 years ago
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That finale
I'm so sad about Jackie's death.  What makes it so sad is they both wanted to apologize and did love each other but were too proud and stubborn to say it first and Jackie died because of it.  It also makes sense why Shauna is so repressed and passive aggressive now.  The one time in her life she confronted someone, the person she loved most in the world immediately died. Also, Shauna was so protective of her, like watching her poison ivy, making her eat, making sure the girls didn’t turn on her, always looking for her when they were separated or fighting. To go from that to what happened must make it all even worse.
I wonder if Jackie is in some supernatural afterlife?  In which case, she can keep hanging with the girls as they pop up.
Well, it seems like Tai has joined the cult but consciously or unconsciously? Because she was bringing a lot of sweetness past and present.  Also, I have been shipping Tai/Van this whole season but I was so worried about Simone when she was crawling around and found the altar.  R.I.P. Biscuit.  
I cannot tell if Misty is really in Lottie’s cult or if she’s just down with group activities. Did Jessica not reach out to anyone before Misty killed her?  I wonder if she was actually going to honor the deal.  
Nat getting kidnapped seemed to save her life.  I like that she was willing to honor her deal with Misty pre-suicide.  She’s still a bit of that honorable girl she was in the woods.
Poor Coach having to react to the almost orgy and human sacrifice in the middle of a whole other situation.
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cryptidofthekeys · 4 years ago
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Siren!Marvin x Sailor!Jackie - My Jolly Sailor Bold
Yes, there is a reference to that song both in title and in the story, here’s a lil somethin for MerMay also I really just thought of what if, Marvin but s i r e n and my head went wRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN- anyway I hope y’all enjoy? Its killin  me not editin the dialogue text like I usually do BUT i just dont have time so r.i.p
Jackie was gathering his equipment up and then placing it in the boat, as he finished that up, his friends had come up to him, one of them shaking their heads “Jackie… I’m worried about this… You’re going to one of the most dangerous spots out there!” Another friend spoke up “Yeah… There’s talk of a siren that owns those parts!” Jackie tilted his head “A siren? One of those old folklore tales?” He grinned “Hah! I don’t believe in such fairy tales!” Another friend shook their head “J-Jackie… Sirens are serious business! They aren’t just folklore or fairy tales, sirens are REAL and they are evil, horrible creatures! Haven’t you heard?” The other friend interrupted “About the mysterious disappearances of many sailors out there?! People have even been nicknaming that place The Siren’s Sea!” Jackie rolled his eyes “Look, guys, I appreciate you trying to look out for me but I promise, I’ll be fine! If anything tries to come after me, well… I’ve got some pretty powerful equipment, I can take care of myself!” And then Jackie was climbing aboard his boat, double checking to make sure everything was all there and ready to set sails!
His friends pleaded and begged, one stepped forward and gave Jackie a hug “Jackie… We can’t stop you from doing this but please… I fear as though you’ll ne’er return again if you head to The Siren’s Sea…” Jackie sighed and hugged his friend back, pulling the rest of them into a group hug “Guys, I promise… I’ll be fine, I WILL return to you, I swear… I’m the best sailor around and I know I can handle myself out there! I’ve made a vow to explore every part of the sea I can, and this place is no exception! I’ll be back soon!” His friends sighed and waved Jackie off as he set sail across the seas, heading out to this infamous place in question, he didn’t really believe in such things as that, he was just going out there because he was curious about the area, he had never really been out that far but truth be told he had heard it had a beautiful cave hidden around the place, and he was determined to find that cave!
Eventually after what felt like ages of sailing, he finally made it to the place nicknamed ‘The Siren’s Sea’ He looked so relieved to have finally made it, sure, it did take a good bit to get to most places out on the seas but this felt like an eternity! The air around this infamous place where sailors had gone missing was thick, almost deathly thick… It did give Jackie a chill running up his spine but nonetheless, he looked off into the distance and noticed a cave, perhaps that was the one! Although, it was strange… That wasn’t very hidden… Either way he’d go check it out, he began sailing over to the cave in the distance and midway he suddenly got a feeling, a bad feeling, that someone was watching him… He looked around as he sailed, however he saw no one in particular, he also saw no sharks around either so he took a deep breath and chuckled “Them stories my friends told me must be messin’ with me… Yeah, that’s it…” He then continued onward and once he made it to the cave he looked around it, it wasn’t the one he thought it was but it was still pretty nonetheless! It seemed to go deeper than he thought it did as well, he squinted as he looked ahead, his boat could definitely fit through the cave so long as he was careful enough!
He eased his boat into the cavern and pressed forward, this was a big cave, bigger than most! Maybe this was the right cave! It looked almost endless as he sailed through it, this cavern was very beautiful even if Jackie didn’t find the hidden area, this would do him fine, as he continued sailing he decided to sing a tune to keep himself from getting bored, it was anything in particular really, just a little tune he had made up in his head, however unbeknownst to Jackie… A creature was swimming along the cavern, it’s head perking up as it heard the tune echo throughout it’s cavern “What a… Gorgeous melody…” It muttered to itself, and while the creature usually knew who sang each song, whose voice was whose, this voice in particular however, it was unfamiliar with… The creature was curious, it needed to find out who was singing this wonderful tune! It swam ahead, trying to locate the source of the noise, of course the creature was careful to keep its distance or stay hidden, because not all creatures, not even of its own kind would be friendly toward strangers… And or of course, it didn’t want to risk scaring the other off! Once the creature had managed to find the sound, it let out a soft gasp, this was no creature…! This was a… A damn sailor! Trespassing in it’s cavern no less!
However… The creature would not deny, the human had such a beautiful voice… To be a sailor no less… No matter, the creature did not take kindly to trespassers, especially not sailors… It slowly sank underneath the water, deep enough to where the sailor wouldn’t see it right off the bat and proceeded to follow the ship, meanwhile… Jackie continued sailing along, looking around as the cavern seemed to get more and more sparkly, he finally sailed into a big open area of the cavern, sparkles from one end to the other and there were even a few spots out of the water to stand on, some crystals strewn about on the ground, once he got in the middle of the area he stopped his boat and looked out, he was curious as he jumped off and into the water, swimming to one of the spots he could actually stand on in the cave, he pulled himself up onto the rocks and grabbed one of the crystals he found “Wow… Such a beautiful place…” The creature stayed under the water, listening intently to the sailor, well… At least the sailor could appreciate the beauty of his territory, he wouldn’t reveal himself just yet however… Meanwhile Jackie was picking up some crystals and bringing them back to his boat, he was going to take a few with him just because they were so pretty… And then he continued onward, man the cave was HUGE! Eventually, he came across an even larger opening with three tunnels ahead of him…
He had no idea which one to go through so he parked his boat in the middle and then sat down and sighed, beginning to hum another melody much to the creature’s delight below him… After a few moments it decided to join the sailor in singing a tune, this made the sailor’s eyes widen as he got up and slowly approached the side of his boat to look down into the water, he saw something… It was coming up! Annnnd… Whatever it was had splashed water in his face upon coming up to the surface, great, he had to take a moment to wipe the water away and once his vision cleared, his eyes widened at what he saw… There, resting on the side of his boat, was another man…  His green hair tied up in a man bun, his eyes as blue as ironically enough, the Ocean… That’s really the only thing he could see underneath his cat mask (y’all know what that looks like, sometimes a writer can get lazy and or tired with descriptions and that’s okay)
He looked like a normal man actually, a grin was splayed across his face, revealing needle sharp fangs which Jackie had to admit unnerved him a bit “Ah, hello there darling~! You are the one who sings, yes?” ...And he could talk like a normal human apparently too and that’s when Jackie saw the other’s tail swaying behind him, it was a mixture of various greens and blues and honestly… It looked so beautiful, and then it hit him… “A...Are you a Siren…?” He asked rather bluntly, to which the creature tutted at “Well how rude of you… Ignoring my question like that, however unlike y o u… I WILL answer a question… Why yes, yes I am dear~” Jackie also saw his hands, they were webbed and the other had claws “Woah… So my friends WEREN’T lying?!” He looked… Surprised but not scared, more so in awe than anything “Of course not! Why would they lie or make up such a thing? We aren’t just folklore, fairy tales, no no, none of that! We are quite real… Now, would you be so kind as to answer my question from earlier?” Jackie nodded “Oh yeah, sorry… I was the one who was singing, yeah! My name’s Jackie!” The Siren smiled at this “Ah, Jackie… What a lovely name~! My name is Marvin, it’s nice to meet you… Which is not something I say often about sailors you know…”
Jackie blinked in surprise before realizing “Oh uh yeah… Other sailors probably try to capture creatures like yourself, yeah?” Marvin only rolled his eyes, an irritated expression now on his face “Oh it’s S O much more than just mere capturing… Your kind has tortured mine for so long now… I suppose us sirens can fetch a high price but is that really any excuse for all the damage that has been dealt?” Jackie shook his head “Not at all… I uh… I really hope you don’t think I’m here to do that, I promise…! I was just passing through here, if you really need me to though I can just turn back” While he really didn’t want to turn back, if Marvin wanted him to he would do so, he wasn’t going to break any rules or trespass where he wasn’t wanted! And then he realized, his eyes widened as he looked back to the crystals “Oh shit… Uh, if these are yours by the way, I’ll also give 'em back, I don’t want any trouble here” Marvin clicked his tongue and smirked, resting his head in his hand, he wouldn’t deny, despite this man being a sailor he was MUCH more polite than all the others that had ever came through here… Nonetheless, a sailor is still a sailor... “Mm… You can keep those, they aren’t of any importance to me…” He paused for a moment.
Then Marvin got an idea “Actually, I would love it if you did one teensy little thing for me, darling…” Jackie tilted his head “Oh? What’d that be?” The Siren paused to clear his throat before staring straight into Jackie’s eyes, and Jackie swore that very stare had just pierced his soul “Well… I would l o v e it if you’d sing a little melody with me... After you sing with me, you can be on your way, I p r o m i s e…” Marvin was lying right through his teeth, the only place this sailor would be going was down below, but he wouldn’t deny, the thought of bringing Jackie down below and drowning him was triggering something within him, something he had never experienced before… No matter, this was still a sailor, sure enough if he ever tried to trust him, he’d be captured, tortured, or killed! He couldn’t risk this… He had to focus! Jackie could swear the other’s eyes were glowing now but he didn’t really know… His mind was starting to feel fuzzy, something was wrong here… “Upon one summer’s morning…” Marvin began, looking at Jackie expectantly who instantly followed up “I carefully did stray…” (dont worry im not going to type all the lyrics i s w e a r) Marvin seemed pleased with such a quick response.
“Down by the Walls of Wapping… Where I met a sailor gay…” Well… Jackie wouldn’t deny that last part at least “Conversing with a young lass…” Jackie continued, not wanting to keep Marvin waiting, absentmindedly getting closer to the edge of the boat and toward The Siren himself who seemed pleased with this so far “Who seemed to be in pain... Saying, Jackie, when you go, I fear you’ll ne’er return again…” And then simultaneously both Jackie and Marvin began to sing, Jackie coming closer when Marvin motioned for him “My heart is pierced by Cupid… I disdain all glittering gold… There is nothing can console me but My Jolly Sailor Bold…” As Jackie got closer Marvin began slowly dipping back down into the water, and Jackie knew something was wrong, despite not being able to stop singing along with Marvin and not being able to take his eyes off the other, deep down he knew this wasn’t right! This was what his friends were trying to warn him about wasn’t it! He desperately tried to pull himself out of whatever trance The Siren had put him under but it seemed to be no use as his body slowly began following Marvin under the water, he was beginning to panic internally now at this as he tried to hold his breath.
Now it was only Marvin continuing along the song as he gently placed a hand on Jackie’s cheek, he could sense the panic in the other and that seemed to strike a nerve in him, why was he feeling so odd?! This wasn’t anything new, he used his powers to gain control over the sailors, he dragged them down below to drown and then eat them! It wasn’t anything he hasn’t done before so why this particular sailor was he feeling… Sympathy for? He tried to continue downward but the farther he went the more Jackie began to panic, some of the panic had become external and Marvin saw the bubbles, shit… This just… Ugh! He quickly grabbed Jackie and headed back to the top, he carefully tossed Jackie back into the boat and then gave up his control, the other coughed and spluttered a little bit, grasping at his chest as he heaved in some breaths, his body was now beginning to tremble and he swore he felt tears prick at his eyes, meanwhile Marvin only sighed “I just can’t do it, not to you…” Jackie looked confused but he didn’t even dare look at the other as he spoke “I-I yo...you… What the f u c k…? Wha-What were you trying to do…?!” Marvin glanced toward the sailor, it pained him to see the other in such a panic, and because of him no less, he spoke not a word as he quickly dove back below, maybe at least now he wouldn’t have to worry about the sailor coming back.
Jackie gasped “Wa-Wait!” He called out and quickly made his way back to the side of the boat and looked below, he couldn’t see the siren anymore and he only sighed “What was that all about…!?” He muttered to himself, still feeling shaken he decided to turn back and call it a day, no way he was going to continue forward after that! He quickly managed to turn his boat back around and head out of the cave, not aware of the siren in the distance watching him leave… Marvin sighed “...Why couldn’t I do something so simple…? It’s in my n a t u r e…! I’ve done this for so long now…” He mumbled to himself, watching as the boat finally disappeared, he cursed himself mentally for letting the sailor go, he should have just continued, there was no way he had… ...No, he wasn’t even going to dare think that, he retreated back to the deeper parts of the cave so he could do some thinking… Meanwhile Jackie despite still being shaken up, he was still curious, he wanted answers ...And he knew what he’d have to do if he wanted to get them, but damn he wasn’t ready nor prepared for that ...Not yet anyways.
A few weeks had passed, Marvin was just swimming around in his cave, the waters were awfully quiet around the place and that sailor hadn’t come back yet, maybe Marvin really had frightened him off, it was for the best, no way things would end well if they got too close… It was a shame really, because that was the first sailor who had ever been nice to Marvin and showed him kindness… ...He had been thinking about what happened almost every day now and the more he thought about it the more he regretted it, the more he regretted scaring Jackie like that ...He still wouldn’t admit he was growing fond of the sailor, no way but he at least hoped that maybe… Just maybe he’d get his chance to apologize… He jumped upon hearing a boat in the distance, he glanced over and squinted, there was no way… No way that was him, he was just secretly hoping, after a few moments The Siren’s eyes widened as the boat got close enough for him to see, that… That WAS Jackie’s boat! Shit! He quickly dove down and began swimming to the furthest part of his cave, sure, he wanted to apologize but that sailor was probably angry with him, he could have brought weapons with him! Maybe that’s why Jackie was back, to seek revenge for what happened which wouldn’t surprise Marvin really.
And then sure enough, there was Jackie… He was coming upon that same cave, the one where he almost… Jackie shook that thought away, all he wanted was some answers… He did bring a harpoon just in case but he really didn’t want to use that, he didn’t want to hurt Marvin or any other creatures really, it was just for a last resort… As he pulled into the cave he took a deep breath and stopped the boat when he deemed it was far enough in, he then put on some of his equipment, sure, he had brought this last time… He could have followed Marvin then but he was just too scared at that moment, too shaky, but now… He finally felt he was ready to confront The Siren, if he’d even answer his questions, for all he knew Marvin could just easily attack him, and like it or not… Despite their previous encounter, Jackie did still have some interest in Marvin, he was still curious, once he got everything set up he finally took a dive below and began swimming further into the cave, he wondered if Marvin would even still be here, for all he knew that Siren could have moved locations by now, he didn’t necessarily know if they stayed in one place all the time like a home of sorts but he supposed if he got the chance maybe he’d find out today.
This cave was much prettier than he originally thought the deeper he went, he noticed that even if he wanted, there was no way his boat would fit through this spot, it was far too small, he also noticed there were MANY more crystals and shiny objects this far ahead, he didn’t dare touch anything though, he didn’t care about the treasure at this rate, that was the last thing on his mind, right now his only focus was trying to find Marvin! And eventually after a long while he managed to come to what was presumably the end of the cave, he stifled a gasp as he saw Marvin, laying down on one of the flat rocks and looking… Sad? He was messing around with some rocks, gently tossing them to the side… Jackie slowly swam forward, trying not to make much of a sound but Marvin only sighed “Why did you come back?” Jackie seemed startled at that question, even more so when Marvin turned around… The Siren’s eyes instantly shot over to the harpoon in Jackie’s hand and then his gaze shifted back to Jackie’s “Ah… Revenge, is that what you seek? Because, I won’t deny… Heh… I probably do deserve it BUT I still will NOT go down without a fight…” Marvin slowly rose from his spot and fully turned toward Jackie.
Jackie shook his head “I… I don’t want to fight… I didn’t come here for revenge, can we please just… Talk…?” To Marvin’s surprise Jackie slowly released the harpoon and he watched it float up to the surface “...I… You… You do understand how easy it would be for me to devour you right now, yes? And you just… Let that weapon go… The ONLY thing you had to defend yourself with? ...Darling, I admire your bravery but that was oh so stupid…” Jackie flinched as Marvin began swimming toward him “Like I said, I don’t want to fight you…! I just… I just want answers…” That made Marvin stop and raise a brow “...Go on…” Jackie paused for a moment to adjust some of his equipment before continuing “I just wanted to know… What were you planning to do with me?” Marvin sighed “...Like all sailors really, I had just planned on drowning you and then eating you… There, I’ve answered your question, you may leave my home now” Marvin turned away, heading back to lay on his rock but then froze instantly upon Jackie’s next question “...Why…?” The Siren turned back around, a confused expression on his face “...What do you mean ‘why’...?” Jackie instantly followed up and swam a bit closer “...Why didn’t you?” The Siren’s eyes widened a bit at that “...I… I just wasn’t feeling hungry, that was all, what is it to you anyways?”
Jackie shrugged “I just wanted to know, after all, I heard you say you just couldn’t do it, not to me… That doesn’t sound like you just weren’t hungry to me… You acted like I was, I don’t wanna say special, but I’m just another sailor, so why was it so hard for you to just… Kill me?” Marvin looked a little… Well, Jackie didn’t know how to describe his expression, he flinched a little as Marvin suddenly swam up to him “Good because trust me, you shouldn’t flatter yourself… You are not special to me, you are just another sailor like all the rest, I could end you right now if I so desired!” Marvin bellowed, he knew damn well however that what he just said was a complete lie, but he was determined not to let Jackie find that out, he went stiff upon hearing Jackie’s next words… “Wh...Wh-Wha...What did you just say…?” He wanted to be sure he heard that correctly, there was… No way, he surely misheard that! And then Jackie looked him dead in the eyes and spread his arms “...Then do it” Externally, Jackie was as calm as could be, he tried to keep himself calm internally because right now he was poking the bear or in this case The Siren… Marvin looked taken aback, he was shocked at what just came out of the other’s mouth.
“...Do you… Have some form of death wish? Is THAT the true reason that you came back…? Or are you just dumb…? Taunting a Siren like this, you have no IDEA what we are truly capable of do you?” Jackie shook his head “Not at all, honestly, I had no idea beings like you even existed originally, the things I’ve heard about your kind, people depict you as cold blooded killing machines essentially, but if I’m being honest… You don’t seem all that bad, you seem nice actually” Marvin blinked in surprise before he shook his head and got closer to Jackie “...Well I’m n o t… You’ve signed your own death warrant by coming back here, s a i l o r…” He hissed through his teeth, and Jackie wouldn’t deny seeing those razor sharp canines were not… Pleasant but he had to keep his confidence, but mentally he couldn’t help but curse himself for being THIS risky with a literal Siren! 
Marvin raised a clawed hand, letting out a hiss as he glared at Jackie, who didn’t even break his gaze with the other, the more Marvin stared at the other the shakier his hand got, eventually he sighed and lowered it “...Just get out of here already, I have asked so many times yet you STILL persist and stay, don’t you realize that you have overstayed your welcome…?”
Jackie practically beamed and internally he was sighing in absolute relief, he grinned “I knew it…! So I was right!” Marvin wouldn’t and honestly really couldn’t deny that, that did get him to smile a bit, the sailor was… Awfully cute when he was happy or excited ...Ah hell… Marvin really was falling for a sailor wasn’t he…? Of all things, a Siren falling for a sailor… “You are such a strange individual, you know that Jackie? You come back to the very place you could have died, you confront the exact same Siren who could have caused said demise, and then you even go as far as to offer yourself to me like some sort of… Sacrifice… I must admit, that is very flattering…~” Marvin grinned “...I would hope however, that you know not to do that to just… ANY Siren of course…” Jackie nodded “Don’t worry, you’re the only one I uh, I guess I trust to do that? I didn’t believe you’d hurt me anyways” Marvin chuckled “How charming… I have to admit, you are one of the nicest sailors I have ever had the pleasure of meeting” Jackie’s face turned a slight shade of red at that “O-Oh… Really?” Marvin nodded “Yes actually~ I mean, most sailors would have come back for revenge, which I suppose would be fair... Yet you came back here just for answers and then did, well, t h a t… Honestly, it’s a nice change of pace to see a sailor as different as yourself”
Jackie nodded “Oh uh, yeah it… I don’t think I could hurt you, even if I wanted to ...W-Which I don’t, don’t g-get me wro-” Marvin held up a hand “Darling, relax, I understand what you meant” Jackie seemed relieved about that “Uh, y-yeah… So like, I… That’s really the only reason I came down here, was for answers… I can leave now if you want me to?” Marvin paused for a few moments before shrugged “Eh… It isn’t like I’ve got anything better to do today so, you may stay for a little while… Although are you s u r e it was ONLY you wanting answers… Or perhaps… Were you still curious about me?” Jackie’s face flushed a little red and that made Marvin chuckle “Aww darling~ Admit it, you ALSO wanted to see lil ol’ me as well didn’t you~?” Jackie shook his head “I… N-No… It wasn’t anything like that…! I just…” And then he trailed off, shit… How could he make a comeback here…? Meanwhile Marvin only had that shit eating grin on his face “Well? I’m waiting~” Jackie just shook his head and crossed his arms “...Just.. Sh-Shut up…” He pouted a little and that made Marvin laugh, that was a genuine laugh and that definitely caught Jackie’s attention as Marvin stared at him “Oh darling… You are quite adorable… That little pout on your face… Although, I can’t say I blame you, I mean… Who wouldn’t want to see such a magnificent creature as myself~?”
Jackie only rolled his eyes “...A narcissistic creature at that…” Marvin merely chuckled “Narcissism or just purely confident in myself~?” Jackie gave him a look but refrained from saying anything else, he watched as Marvin then swam around and looked him over “You know… I am curious, what is all that equipment you have on you? I am… Not familiar with a lot of things that humans have” Jackie smiled “Well uh, the thing on my back is my oxygen tank, it’s why I can be down here for so long actually!” He then cleared his throat before continuing on.
“Next the mask here protects my eyes so I can well, ya know, actually see down here… And the suit helps me keep warm because honestly, this cave isn’t too heated eheh… And the flippers, it helps me swim a bit faster honestly” Marvin nodded “I see… How interesting… Well, I suppose it’s fair… Given how humans differ from creatures like me…” Jackie nodded “Yeah, you’ve got gills to breathe under the water forever, you’ve even got claws and teeth to defend yourself with just like that! You’ve also got a beautiful tail and…” And then the sailor trailed off as he realized what he said “I mean… uh-” Marvin seemed to perk up at this “Oh? You think my tail is beautiful~?” Jackie sighed “Yeah I mean… The u-uh… The scales are… Very beautiful honestly…” Marvin hummed at that, he wouldn’t deny, that made a blush appear on HIS face which was impressive, no one had ever been able to make him blush before “Mm… Thank you dear… Of course someone such as yourself can appreciate true beauty when he sees it~” ...Okay, Jackie didn’t know how to really respond to that so he simply nodded and then something beeped, he pulled out a strange device and his eyes widened to which Marvin raised a brow at “Something the matter Jackie…?”
The sailor looked over at the other and shook his head “Sh...Shit… This oxygen tank won’t, uh,  last MUCH longer… I gotta get back to the surface…!” Marvin frowned “Ah… Such a shame but… Do what you must, after all, I don’t want you to drown… No no, you’re FAR too lovely for such a cruel fate as that…~” Now it was Jackie’s turn to blush “A-Ah… Uh… Th-Thank you…? I’ll come back and visit if you really want me too! I have plenty of oxygen tanks back at home…!” Marvin hummed for a second before nodding “Yes, I would like that very much…~” And then Jackie was waving Marvin off as he began swimming away, once the sailor was out of sight Marvin only sighed and smiled “...I cannot deny it… I am falling for him… Heh… How quaint…” And then Marvin looked down at his tail, he noticed a greenish blue scale was coming off and that gave him a brilliant idea… He gently took hold and pulled it off (don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt him, sometimes a scale or two will fall from him) He then swam down toward the bottom and gathered up some other materials and various crystals, he knew what he would make for that sailor… He quickly got to work and began crafting the item, meanwhile…
Jackie was swimming back up to the top, he wasn’t… TOO terribly worried, he felt like he had plenty of time to get back to the surface and he wouldn’t deny, he couldn’t get that siren off his mind… Now usually a siren can play many tricks on a human but he didn’t feel as though this was trickery, in fact, the things Marvin had said about him seemed so… Genuine… ...Maybe Jackie was just hoping for that though, he had definitely felt things about the siren, he just shook his head, he shouldn’t get his hopes up though, there’s no way Marvin ACTUALLY likes him back, why would a siren, especially one like Marvin love a simple sailor like him? ...And then suddenly, Jackie heard some gentle humming that startled him, he quickly spun around and saw three sirens coming out of the shadows “Ooh… Lookie here~! We’ve got another f i l t h y sailor who’s dived down here and decided to steal all the treasures for himself~!” Jackie’s eyes widened and he put his hands up in defense “N-Now hold on… I didn’t come for tre-” The siren only swam over and hissed right in Jackie’s face and before the sailor could even t r y to get away the other two sirens came over and held him by his arms, he tried desperately to struggle against them but to no avail, they were strong, far stronger than he was.
What he presumed to be their leader grinned maliciously and chuckled “Hmm… You know if you weren’t a sailor I’d actually consider you cute~ But no matter… You should be running out of oxygen soon~” The siren gave a look to the others and they tore his oxygen tank clear off, casting it to the side which made him panic internally, shit… He wasn’t prepared for that at all! He continued to struggle, trying desperately to fight at them and kick at them even if they were stronger than he was, he STILL wasn’t going down without a fight until… The leader came closer, gently cupping his face and locking eyes with him, they began singing a soft melody and slowly but surely Jackie stopped resisting, his eyes growing slightly cloudy as he listened and swayed his head from side to side “There we go… Good boy~ Just relax now and listen to our wonderful melody~” The other two sirens giggled and joined in with their leader, making sure Jackie’s struggling and fighting ceased, he could feel his body going slightly limp but he wasn’t passing out, he just… He was beginning not to feel the need to fight back anymore, deep down however was that terror that was slowly building, despite his mind feeling fuzzy, he still knew if he didn’t get back up to the surface soon he’d run out of oxygen.
He tried his hardest to gain back control of himself, to try and continue fighting but their song was just… So powerful, who knew a song could hold such power? Granted… There had to be something more to a siren’s power than just an ability to sing, either way… After another few moments had passed, he could definitely tell needed to come up for air and f a s t! He still couldn’t struggle as the leader opened their mouth, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth that were ready and eager to devour him, his eyes widened slightly as he heard them all hiss, this was it, this was going to be his demise wasn’t it…? He couldn’t even close his eyes to avoid looking at the maw that was staring him straight in the face… Before the sirens could all begin to feast, suddenly they were all blown away by what Jackie had thought was a strong current originally… However he quickly snapped out of his trance as they had stopped singing and he looked to the much larger siren in front of him now, it was Marvin! And he heard Marvin snarling at the other sirens “I will only give you all o n e warning and one warning only… Stay. The. FUCK… Away. From. Jackie… He’s m i n e and mine alone… I should kill the three of you right now for your pathetic insolence anyway!” He hollered and the three other sirens cowered, huddling together “Ohhh!” The leader got another glance at Jackie only to look back at Marvin after he put a hand out.
“This sailor is YOUR prey?! O… Oh, we are so terribly sorry oh great one…! We had no idea that he was your pr-” Marvin hissed “He is NOT prey… Let me make this very clear, the three of you are to warn ANY other sirens out there that this sailor is NOT to be harmed, if I find one singular h a i r harmed on him, I will not HESITATE to end anyone who d a r e s to touch something that belongs to me…” Marvin heard some bubbles from behind him and he quickly held up a hand, suddenly, a bubble was forming around Jackie’s entire body and he gasped in some fresh air. This was strange but nonetheless he wasn’t complaining in the slightest, he could breathe and he felt safe and secure in this,  he heard the leader of the sirens apologize profusely “This will NEVER happen again sire…! We cannot express how terribly sorry for this!” The other sirens nodded and Marvin only hissed, baring his fangs “Enough with your apologies… I have heard enough, get out of here and don’t e v e r come near him again…”
And that was enough to send the others swimming away for their lives and Marvin then sighed, calming himself down and turning back to Jackie who was still breathing heavily, mostly trying to calm himself down from everything that just happened “...Come now darling… Let’s get you back to the surface…” And just like that, Marvin was swimming upward, the bubble slowly and carefully following behind him and Jackie could tell he was on edge, the siren kept looking around and behind himself to make sure the ones that had swam away wasn’t trying to attack him from behind, he seemed relaxed again whenever he saw the only thing behind him was Jackie and eventually he made it up to the surface, the bubble popping just as soon as Jackie got onto his boat, the sailor could feel his body absolutely trembling… Marvin leaned against the side of his boat “Are you okay, Jackie? Did those disgusting wretches hurt you at all?” Jackie shook his head much to Marvin’s relief “I… If yo… If…” He was a bit too panicked to try and get out what he was saying… Marvin noticed this and beckoned him over which Jackie slowly followed, carefully… The siren took ahold of Jackie’s hand “Shh… It’s okay now… Just breathe my darling… They cannot and will not hurt you ever again… I promise, I will let no harm come to you…”
Jackie took some deep breaths and focused on Marvin’s face, looking into the siren’s eyes was so calming and relaxing… He trusted Marvin after all so far “Just breathe in and out with me dear…” After a while of doing the breathing exercises, Jackie seemed to calm down finally “O...Okay… I… I’m good now… Thank you, so much Marvin… I-If you hadn’t shown up wh-when you did th… Then I…” Marvin lifted a finger and shushed him “There’s no need to worry any more about them… They wouldn’t dare defy the likes of me… They along with any other sirens out there will never bother you again” Jackie nodded and then he realized he and Marvin were still holding hands, he didn’t pull away however, his face only turned slightly red but he was… Grateful and honestly glad to see Marvin right now “I was originally coming to give you something but then I sensed you were in trouble, I should have swam back with you in the first place, I knew there were other sirens that populated this area… I’m so sorry Jackie…” The sailor blinked and gently took his other hand and placed it on Marvin’s cheek “H-Hey… C’mon Marv… Don’t beat yourself up over that…! I mean… How could you have known that those three would even be here, sure, ya might have sensed me in danger but that doesn’t mean you can predict what or when danger is coming… I promise… I’m fine… Besides, you did STILL come and save me!”
Jackie grinned and pulled Marvin into a sudden hug, being very mindful not to pull the siren fully out of the water “I’m very thankful you got there when ya did…!” That made Marvin sigh and carefully he placed his arms over Jackie as well “...I know but still… I should have not been that careless, next time, I will be here waiting to escort you around, and I will accompany you through this area…” Jackie smiled “...I appreciate that… I really do…” And then they both pulled away and out of the hug and then Marvin noticed, he chuckled slightly “...Isn’t this a familiar sight?” Jackie raised a brow “What do you mean?” Marvin gestured to the positions they were now in “Just like when we first met out here, when I first… ...Well um… A-Anyways, speaking of, I want to apologize… For… That…” Jackie blinked in surprise but merely shrugged “It’s okay Marv… It’s crazy though, it feels like years since that day, then again a lot HAS happened…”
Marvin nodded “Yes, I suppose things have been… Hectic as of recently, I can assure you, things should calm down now ...I would hope anyways, for our sakes” Jackie nodded “Yeah for sure…” Jackie looked out toward the entrance of the cave and saw the sun setting in the distance “Wow… That’s… Really pretty…” Marvin looked to where Jackie was and smiled, for a while, they sat in silence as they watched the sun go down before the sailor then realized “Hey wait… You said you had something to give me, didn’t you?” Marvin’s eyes widened “Oh! I almost forgot!” Marvin snapped his fingers and suddenly Jackie felt something around his neck, he looked down and gasped at what he saw, he took it off to get a better look at the item… It was a necklace, the pendants were all various crystals of different sizes and colors and in the middle of them was a bluish green scale and if Jackie’s eyes could they would sparkle right now “...Yo...You made this for me…?” He looked over to Marvin who smiled and nodded “...Yes, Jackie… I have something I wish to tell you… I hope this is not too sudden… But, from the very first day we met, granted, I DID unfortunately try to eat you… I felt something deep down that I have never felt for anyone else ever, not my own kind and certainly not a sailor…”
Marvin cleared his throat and Jackie could tell he was nervous which seemed extremely out of character for someone as confident as Marvin “As much as I tried, as much as I so desperately wanted to deny it… You were and are still very special to me… I, ahah… You probably are going to think this is ridiculous given the kind of being I am but Jackie… The truth of the matter is…” And that’s when Marvin hesitated, he could feel his heart beating more rapidly, he was never the type to really be nervous but this time… It was different, much different, deep down he was terrified of being rejected but at the same time he wouldn’t necessarily blame Jackie for rejecting him given what he tried to do upon the first meeting but… Marvin also knew, it was now or never “...Jackie… I… I… lo… l-lo… I love you….” He finally stuttered out and waited for what he thought would be rejection and heartbreak, to his surprise though Jackie smiled so brightly and after quickly placing the necklace back around his neck he leaned in and gave Marvin a kiss on the lips, this took the siren off guard and his eyes went wide, slowly but surely however, his eyes had fluttered shut and he kissed back, the kiss lasted for as long as they could manage before Jackie had to pull back to take a breather “...I love you too Marvin…” And then that made the siren’s heart flutter, his tail gently swaying behind him, and then he gave Jackie a genuine smile.
This was pleasant… He would make sure no harm ever came to this sailor, even if he had to tear down entire ships or the ocean itself to make sure of that, he would never let anyone try to take him away either, this sailor was his and his alone! He didn’t quite register Jackie’s question until the sailor snapped his fingers and that made Marvin snap out of his thoughts “Hm? What is it dear?” Jackie looked curious “So… Those sirens back there, why did they call you sire?” And that made Marvin sigh, only giving a slight smile “Oh my love… That’s such a long story, and one for another time… For now, how about we enjoy some peace and quiet under the full moon tonight, hm?” Jackie sighed, he was curious but he wouldn’t push on it, he only smiled and gave a thumbs up “Okay Marv, okay… ...Love you…” Marvin hummed as he gently intertwined his hand with Jackie’s “...And I love you as well, my jolly little sailor~”
(If y’all really want, i’ll talk bout the sire ordeal just shoot me an ask if your curious about all that anyhoo- im actually proud of this one)
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anotheruserwithnoname · 3 years ago
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Not R.I.P.: Tony Selby (at least not the one we know)
Shortly after the news that former companion actress Jackie Lane had passed away came reports that Tony Selby, who played Sabalom Glitz, a “semi-companion” of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors (and technically the guy responsible for Ace joining Seven), had also passed away.
Very soon after those reports began circulating, 1980s companion actress Nicola Bryant and Selby’s management reported he’s still alive and well. Apparently a BBC employee by the same name died and because of the BBC connection people thought it was the same guy.
Let’s pause for an R.I.P. for the other Tony Selby and condolences to his family.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a false (or mistaken) report related to the Who family. About a decade ago Peter Davison was a victim of one of those “fake obituaries” that were the rage for a while. But the one I remember dates back to before the Internet when we couldn’t easily fact-check things. I was reading a reference book on toys related to TV and movie properties, and there was a section on Doctor Who and it mentioned how Tom Baker had died in 1983.
Oops, you say now (as Tom continues to charm the world in his late 80s). Back in 1985 or whenever I saw that I was very saddened and it explained (to me) why Tom was only featured in the Five Doctors special using old footage, because he was dead. (I had only just become a fan of the show and I kickstarted it by bingewatching the entirety of Baker’s first season not long before I made this “discovery”).
Again, remember, no Internet in 1985-86. And I lived in Saskatchewan where things like DWM were very hard to come by and shows like Blackadder (in which he appeared in 1986) weren’t on my teenaged radar. Heck, DW was barely on my radar. I had no way of finding out that Tom Baker wasn’t dead.
It wasn’t until about 1989 or 1990 when the Myth Makers company - the people who produced a long series of interviews on VHS of people involved with DW - put out an interview with Tom Baker that I discovered the guy wasn’t dead after all. And, indeed, we know he continued to be quite active on film and TV in the 80s.
It was years - and the coming of the Internet, Google and the Internet Movie Database - before I found out that an American actor also named Tom Baker had been the one who shuffled off his mortal coil in 1983.
We’re fortunate that these days we can sort out mistaken death announcements with a quick google and get the word out by Twitter. Back in 1983, no such luck and for this fan it actually led to years of a false assumption!
P.S. I’ve been looking for that reference book with the Baker mention for more than 25 years - if anyone knows the title of the book I’m talking about, could you please PM me? I’d love to track it down again. Thanks!
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smilesthroughfandoms · 6 years ago
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Every Single Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode in one sentence or less
I’ll probably post a more in depth-review later this week, as I have opinions literally no one wants to hear but I will proclaim anyway, and then I’ll probably also due a revision of my ‘Past Queens Connection to Star’ post from way back in season 2. Cause that needs an update.
Anyway, enjoy!
Star Comes to Earth: Princess Cinnamon Roll that Could Kill you comes to earth and meets Misunderstood Safe Kid.
Party With a Pony: Spoopy Wardens hunt for the glitter pony while Star gets ice for Marco’s sweaty back.
Matchmaker: In which we learn it was probably a bad idea to give Star the wand in the first place.
School Spirit: Star misunderstands football and Marco tries to get Ferguson to blow his whistle not in that way.
Monster Arm: “Not my bowels! I love my bowels!”
The Other Exchange Student: Star is jealous of the meatball man from Bakersfieldville.
Cheer Up Star: “It’s supposed to be ironic!”
Quest Buy: Very accurate depiction of what it is like to work in retail.
Diaz Family Vacation: Both Marco and Star see new sides of their dads but that’s not necessarily a good thing
Brittney’s Party: Star and Marco party on a bus that Ludo hijacks
Mewberty: Star gets horny and snares boys in her web but not in that way
Pixtopia: Marco messed up and Alfonso marries Ferguson’s rebound
Lobster Claws: “… You can’t eat children.” “Really? Not even the annoying ones?”
Sleep Spell: “Camera Phooone!”
Blood Moon Ball: We’re suppose to ship them now, right?
Fortune Cookies: Love is never the answer kids
Freeze Day: Father Time offers Star and Marco some mud before riding away on his wheel-mobile pulled by giant time-hamsters I am not making this up.
Royal Pain: King Santa Claus destroy mini-golf
St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses: Princess Prison sure is a nightma–OH MY GOD ARE THOSE CLUBS?!
Mewnipendence Day: No wonder monsters hate Mewmans so much.
The Banagic Wand: Star still doesn’t get Earth and like all of us, Marco is always hungry.
Interdemensional Field Trip: Miss Skullnick fears the “Big Change” while Marco sends Jackie cat memes
Marco Grows a Beard: Ludo is out, Toffee is in, and Marco will probbaly be terrified of beards forever
Storm the Castle: “SURPRISE!”
My New Wand!: DIP DOOOWN
Ludo in the Wild: Wait, since when did Ludo become badass?
Mr. Candle Cares: “Star and I have recently become smooch buddies… On the lips.”
Red Belt: Marco searches for a meaning in life and Star searches for hammer.
Star on Wheels: *epic remix of Marco saying Star is in trouble*
Fetch: Marco can’t open juice and Star runs away from her problems and sending thank you cards
Star vs. Echo Creek: Star gets high and destroys a police car
Wand to Wand: Both Ludo and Star are terrible at magic also major ship tease
Starstruck: Star and her idol Sailor Super Saiyan destroy a park and Marco is 100002% done with this shit
Camping Trip: King Butterfly has a mid-life crisis and tries to control an eagle
Starsitting: They’re gonna be great parents some day.
On the Job: Buff Dad is best dad and buff babies are adorable
Goblin Dogs: “You might think this line is long, but listen to my goblin song!~”
By the Book: Ludo and Star still suck at magic and Glossaryck is a bigger troll than Alex Hirsch
Game of Flags: And I thought my family was dysfunctional...
Girls’ Day Out: Janna is back and is still awesome btw
Sleepover: “TRUTH! STAR HAS A CRUSH ON MA–” *cue fandom freakout*
Gift of the Card: R.I.P.  Rasticore Chaosus Disastorvayne… He couldn’ get his fucking chainsaw to work
Friendenemies: Star becomes one with Christmas tree while Tom and Marco go on a date and sing a romantic pop ballad.
Is Mystery: Meatfork is apparently a family name and Ludo is really starting to freak me out tbh
Hungry Larry: “He’s still hungry…”
Spider with a Top Hat: He tries and he is awesome and that’s all that matters
Into the Wand: SPAAAAADESS!!!
Pizza Thing: Marco is OCD about mushroom and Pony Head buys skinny jeans
Page Turner: Moon, how did you miss Toffee in the orb he was right there!
Naysaya: Marco is a mood in this episode
Bon Bon the Birthday Clown: Honestly my favorite episode overall
Raid the Cave: Glossaryck is the true neutral asshole.
Trickstar: Weird Al is a treasure and I’ll mes up anyone who makes Marco cry!
Baby: Aw, look at the little deadly baby, I love her!
Running With Scissors: Marco gets a new edition to his shipping harem and she is so cute!
Mathmagic: Why did the chicken cross the road?
The Bounce Lounge: Marco is definitely the mom friend.
Crystal Clear: The Chancellor guy is amazing and Rhombulus just needs a hug and wAS THAT ECLIPSA IN THE BACKGROUND?
The Hard Way: “SURPRISE!” 2.0
Heinous: Oh, so that’s how Marco got all that money.
All Belts Are Off: This is the negative side of “Pro-tag teen hangs out with older adult figure” trope done splendidly
Collateral Damage: Marco how do you not know what a possum is?
Just Friends: I’m fine! *blows up sign to prove just how fine I am*
Face the Music: This song is actually a banger
Star Crushed: Looking back, I’m starting to think the writing peaked at this episode....
BATTLE FOR MEWNI EDITION!!!!!
Return to Mewni: This is… just an exposition filler. Not much else to say….
Moon the Undaunted: B4! B4! B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4!
Book Be Gone: Seriously, did Glossy take trolling lessons from Alex Hirsch this is hilarious!
Marco and the King: This is the  “Pro-tag teen hangs out with older adult figure” done slightly better
Puddle Defender: Aw, look at the little buff babies, they’re getting so big!
King Ludo: The mime stole the show.
Toffee: Yeah, I think the writing peaked somewhere around here...
Scent of Hoodie: Huh, so Ponyhead can be written as likeable, who would’ve thought?
Rest in Pudding: The colors are not doing the censors any favor here, huh?
Club Snubbed: I literally yelled “Phrasing!” whenever they dropped the title
Stranger Danger: Is she the new antagonist of the series? I can’t tell
Demoncism: Tom is a wonderful baby boy and Ponyhead is written as likeable, part 2!
Sophmore Slump: *sobbing* Jackie deserved better, dang it!
Lint Catcher: I’m starting to wonder if there is any competant authority figure in Mewni
Trial by Squire: I think the writers were all like” You think these guys will ship anyone with Marco?” and decided to test that theory.
Princess Turdina: I got more lore out of this episode than I thought I would.
Starfari: Welp, she makes me uncomfortable.
Sweet Dreams: *Sailor Moon-ing intensifies*
Lava Lake Beack: Proof that this fandom will ship anyone with Marco at the slightest inclanation
Death Peck: Rich Pigeon is my new favorite birb and Ponyhead is written as likeable for the third time
Ponymonium: Well, it was nice while it lasted.
Night Life: The writers made so many new ships they had to get rid of an old one!
Deep Dive: “Chicken butt”
Monster Bash: Well, that explains the cheekmarks.
Stump Day: I think they just made an episode based around a picture from that bookcover.
Holiday Special: *insert every cheesy Christmas/Holiday episode trope here*
The Bog Beast of Boggabah: The title is fun to say and the episode is average at best.
Total Eclipsa the Moon: Seriously, I’m supposed to think she’s an ultimate villain.
Butterfly Trap: In which we are all Sean, don’t lie we were all him at the end
Ludo, Where Art Thou?: Dennis is best brother, hands down.
Is Another Mystery: *sniff* I got more emotional over this episode than anyone else did and I’m not sure how I feel about that
Marco Jr.: I… I just… Why? What’s the point?
Skooled!: Epic advertisment fakeout combined with wonderful character development and lore with a shock ending makes a 8/10 episode.
Booth Buddies: Old Man McGucket ships Starco, proceed to react accordingly
Bam Ui Pati!: Ponyhead is kinda likeable in this episod–nevermind she’s back.
Tough Love: Oh man, it’s happening! It’s happening guys here we go!
Divide: We are going to war everybody–And they’re all dead. That was quick.
Conquer: They should have paid Alex HIrsch to voice Glossaryck at this point, it’d be more in character for him.
Butterfly Follies: Proof that someone will always complain about politics no matter what.
Escape from the Pie Folk: Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that he kinda resembles Eclipsa more than Festivia?
Moon Remembers: I was expecting a freakout but was pleasantly surprised
Swim Suit: I’m starting to get a bad feeling about Rhombulus
Ransomgram: Why is everyone in this dimesnion hot?!
Lake House Fever: She’s a good mom
Yada Yada Berries: They missed an opportunity to have a Seinfeld actor guest-star, just saying
Down by the River: I’m glad that she can relax
The Ponyhead Show!: And Ponyhead is offically no longer likeable, can someone toss her into an abyss please?
Surviving the Spiderbites: SpiderSlime is canon proceed to react accordingly
Out of Buisness: How did this place go out of buisness???
Kelly's World: Man, they’re really setting these non-Starco ships up to fail, huh?
Curse of the Blood Moon: Pfft, yeah, sure, Starco won’t be canon at all!
Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell: I think Ludo has the most consistent character arc out of the entire show’s history.
Ghost of Butterfly Castle: Moon, Star is your daughter and Star supports Eclipsa, why would you not tell her?
Cornball: This episode has a heartwarming lesson that I hope more people come to realize
Meteora's Lesson: I’ll take any Toffee scenes I can get
The Knight Shift: I honestly don’t remember what happened n this episode
Queen-Napped: Seriously, can someone please dropkick Ponyhead into an abyss?
Junkin' Janna: The JanTom interaction I’ve been waiting for
A Spell with No Name: These types of episodes stopped being charming awhile ago
A Boy and His DC-700XE: I think Tomco has more ground to stand-on then Starco at this point
The Monster and The Queen: Don Panchito voices Globgor! There’s hope for this show yet!
Cornonation: They’re the best couple/parents/anything around!
Doop-Doop: I honestly think Rick just put Morty through some flux-capacitor or something
Britta's Tacos: Hey, remember these people that we suddenly brought back? No? Me neither!
Beach Day: This feels like a Season 1 episode and it’s nice
Gone Baby Gone: I want a TV show aout them now! Disney, please!
Sad Teen Hotline: Mr. Diaz is way to invested in Star’s love life.
Jannanigans: Hello last minute Janna character development!
Mama Star: So that’s how Mewni came to be--and I don’t care anymore
Ready, Aim, Fire!: Let’s get that finale ball rolling people!
The Right Way: Ok, that spell is actually pretty badass.
Here to Help: There, Starco’s finally canon will you guys just shut up now!
Pizza Party: Moon you idiot you ruined everything!
The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse: Toffee was right all along... I think we all knew that in some way
Cleaved: I expect nothing substanial and that’s what I got
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dream-of-kpop · 6 years ago
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Tags As A Kpop Group
Anonymous: Tag yo friends as members of a kpop group or the position you think they would best fit
well no one is gonna read this shit so imma put whatever cuz tumblr turning into youtube and not notifying ppl or do ppl just not care? 🤔
EliZa: reads books 24/7, pretty much wonu, gets harrassed 24/7 too *cough cough by me*, loses voice everyday, has mental headaches as well, sooooo s.coups basically
Me *aka KeN*: very hotheaded, I'm pissed off rn as I'm typing, friendly i sweaR, shitty cook yet Mingyu is my bias i-, extremely weird, terrible hearing so i mishear the weirdest shit
cHarLoTte *Aka @femsoftaes*: i love her but she would be the hoe of the group let's be real, So chanyeol pretty much, stans her own country, probably slept with exo and bts in the same night *she's gonna kill me*
jaCkiE *she doesn't have a tumblr i don't think?*: smart, anyone who i bias she probably biases too, hOw, she would probably be Doyoung tbh, soooo crazy then-
vAL *idk if she has tumblr r.i.p*: needs wifi to survive, will show up at SM's door demanding an exo comeback, her friends went to see bts...i feel for her on a major level, has files i mean SD cards OF PICTURES, she's just like hobi
AldanA *iDk iF shE haS tuMblr*: soft af for svt, so she's pretty much Dk, has a whole theory if u look at a pic of dk you'll do better on a test, it fucking works, exTreMely sWeet, actually listens to me
BroOke *i believe she has tumblr idk*: doesn't really know kpop but she still wants to learn, extremely weird aka mE, her cat "loves" her, aJu niCe, she would probably be Jungkook she likEs hiM i think idk
BRi *iDk eiTher it's been a while i need to message her ass*: *sighs* RM, she biAsEs mY maNz whAt, would steal an album for the group if she could, her instagram....my brain cells..., scamming queen :')))
gErda *iDk iDk iDk*: I would see her as i thiNk hoNgsEok, petty, especially towards cube, -_- fiGht mE cube, loves pentagon, probably more than our fake group 😂
admin 2-
-hyungwonthefraud-
its there
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fordarkisthesuede · 6 years ago
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At the Brink of Midnight - Chapter 11
IT’S FINALLY HERE! REJOICE!!!
<previous> <next> <all>
Important Spoiler Tags:  past suicide attempt (mention), death (mention)
(Read on Ao3 or Continue Below:)
Chapter 11:  A Laughing Matter
The ride to Jackie Lant’s apartment was fast and quiet. Bruce wasn’t sure why, as John had a tendency to talk a lot when they were riding around before, and would talk about almost anything.
John was mulling over something, and when asked, John had shrugged and said “just some things”.
Like Bruce couldn’t worry over a response like that. He figured it had to have been what happened at the Main Street Diner. John’s street make-up was back on, and done just as impeccably this time, but with the addition of heavy black eyeliner, so it wasn’t as if he’d left in a rush.
Jackie’s apartment was high up in a building that had definitely seen better days. The neighborhood wasn’t one of the best, either – Bruce had visited it many times, always late at night, and he was sure he’d been on the other side of the apartment building on a case long, long ago.
They entered through the rooftop door, which it seemed no one had bothered to lock. (Not that Bruce was surprised – he was the only one in the city who made a habit of flying roof-to-roof, and anyone who walked up to any building’s roof at night was up to nothing good ninety-five percent of the time. Raids by blimp or helicopter were few and far between, thankfully.)
“Kind of reminds me of Arkham,” John (no, Joker, they were outside together) commented in a hushed voice as he shook the rainwater off his borrowed fedora. The stairwell was vaguely reminiscent of the asylum’s, but rather than white-washed brick, it was bare and aged, and it didn’t have the large glowing florescent lights hanging on the walls. There was just a small light in the middle of the staircase leading down.
“Her place is just on the fourth floor,” Bruce said, leading the way with light steps. He was always careful about stairs; he never knew if someone was sitting below a set.
The metal door leading into the hallway was lighter than it looked. Peeling red wallpaper greeted them, and the dark wooden floor had seen better days, but it wasn’t the worst apartment building Bruce had ever set foot in. It’d be a four out of ten, if he was feeling generous… The water stains on the ceiling certainly detracted from that generosity.
“If I hadn’t been spoiled by your place, I’d say this was pretty nice,” John muttered, grinning over at Bruce.
Bruce bit back the comment that it was only because John had no decent standard of living, and gave a very small smile in return. He remembered the little place John had made for himself back at the Old Five Points – the Ha-Hacienda, as he had called it. He’d taken what was a run-down little shack and thrown his heart into it, putting up pictures and lights like it was a real home.
He’d tried going back there the day after John had fallen off the bridge, but John had somehow managed to smuggle most of his things out of there to one of his friend’s places, and now they were impossible to find. It hurt to think about.
Jackie Lant had the corner apartment, overlooking the back. Working the lock-picks in the door took so little time Bruce found himself thinking he should find a way to pressure someone into making a policy that apartment managers had to upgrade their client’s locks every few years.
The beam of light stretching in from the hallway cast his shadow over the place, but he could already see it was much homier than Dr. Crane’s, despite it being smaller than Bruce’s master bedroom.
He stepped inside, John (Joker) following him and immediately making a line for the dresser. Bruce decided to look elsewhere.
Posters were plastered and pinned all over the walls, most of which were for movies or famous plays. There were also over a dozen flyers mixed in, like those handed out for amateur gigs, and they all seemed to be for copyright-infringing shows at Gotham University or South End High School; the dates were in line with Jackie’s educational attendance.
There was a cheap wire shelving unit holding all matter of things – books, DVDs, and bits of décor that almost all looked like they came right out of the Halloween section of a D.I.Y. store. Casting a look over at the bed (it didn’t have a frame, it was just two mattresses piled on top of one another, but was a bed) told him it wasn’t just a seasonal thing, either; there were two different pumpkin-shaped cushions and the blanket on top was patterned with smiling jack-o-lantern faces.
At least she had a variety of different tastes:  romance, fantasy, popular YA literature, used psychology textbooks… There were some horror novels in the mix, but it looked more…pulpy than anything. Her little movie collection had a few of the same titles as Crane’s, too, but they looked to be either from the more popular franchises or cheesy b-movies.
Bruce cast a look at the kitchen unit – nothing spectacular, but he should go through the cupboards, just in case she’d hidden anything in there…
“Bats,” Joker called, frowning at the strung-up photos in front of the desk on the back wall, “can your gadgets scan faces?”
“Something like that,” Bruce answered, stepping towards him. Some photographs were placed directly above the desk, adjacent to the window surrounded by string lights with jack-o-lantern faces. They were hung up by laundry clips on wire wrapped around a combination of nails and tiny peel-and-stick hooks. Looking at them made Bruce think of John’s photos, all arranged in a smiley-face wherever he went.
The pictures were all group photos, varying in age, and it didn’t take a genius to notice that the last several pictures all held the same people, but dwindling in number. Bruce clicked a button on his visor, and waited as the Batcomputer scanned the faces he honed in on and ran through its database of connections to news and GCPD files. Jackie Lant was easily recognizable, due to her curly red hair, but in a few pictures she was very young. The oldest photo was just of her and another little girl, looking up into the camera with the sort of wide-eyed innocence that only children could really have.
He checked his gauntlet, and decided to go from the bottom to the top.
Richard Seed, deceased.
Zoe Smith, deceased.
Angela Maynard, deceased.
Deceased, deceased, deceased. It was just one after another, two of which happened one month apart, and half of the death records were pulled from the GCPD – car accidents, crossfire shootings, muggings gone wrong... The earliest death was almost fifteen years ago, when a missing girl was found wrapped in a rug by a dumpster.
Bruce cast a look back at the photo of the seven-or-eight-year-old Jackie Lant, and remembered her mention of how the formative years played a lot into one’s psyche.
The only people left alive came from the middle bunch of photos:  Dean Norton, who still lived in Gotham, and Veronica O’Reilly, who hadn’t lived there for a little over a decade. Dean showed up in only one photo near the end of the bunch, too, where he was with three other people who had passed away within the last four years.
Bruce thought back to the list of contacts she had on her FriendBook. He didn’t remember seeing any R.I.P. posts or anything like it in her timeline, but he’d checked out the people she contacted most on there, and none of them were dead… “Have you seen any other photos?”
“Just two on her dresser – pretty sure it’s her parents and… I dunno, an older guy, so maybe an uncle?”
“I’m beginning to think you were right,” Bruce grumbled, clicking off the scanning feature in his cowl, “Jackie Lant’s current friends might not really be friends. Almost all the people shown here are dead.”
“Yikes,” Joker winced, “and I thought I had it bad, with most of mine in jail…”
“Did you find anything in the dresser?”
“A few spare bullets and a box of condoms. You know, the essentials,” he joked.
Bruce cast a look down at the desk. A laptop and a tray of loose papers. “Check the closet. If she hid Crane’s stuff here, the only spot left is there or the kitchen.”
“On it,” Joker said confidently, swinging open the flimsy panel doors behind them. “Though I would think I’d scatter them all over the place… You know, put the drive in a bag and tape it inside the toilet tank. That kind of thing.”
Bruce flicked through the pile of paper – mostly the bills for rent, insurance, and student loans, at least two of the latter bearing ‘OVERDUE’ stamps. “Then check there, too. Follow your instinct.”
“Ha ha, okaaayyyy,” John drew out quietly, shifting through a pile of clothes. Jackie seemed to prefer yellows and reds; Bruce remembered her work clothes looking rather nice, and wondered if she hadn’t spent more money on them than anything else.
Bruce opened the laptop on her desk, mindful of the speakers she had plugged into it knocking over the well-loved stuffed cat sitting there. The lock-screen was password-protected and the hint was “check the handbook”.
Handbook…? Hadn’t he seen something with that?
Bruce returned to the shelf – The Handbook for the Recently Deceased sat next to an empty candlestick holder molded in the shape of a raven.
Sure enough, it was a blank journal with a list of contact information (birthdays and death dates were listed, too, much to Bruce’s surprise) and passwords to different sites – banks, her social media, and even a bloggr account – with the laptop’s password written on a sticky note in the front:  Pumpk1nPr1nc355.
“Hey, Batman, I found somethiiing,” Joker called, tugging out a heavy-looking lock-box. “Hidden right under the loose floorboard, how cliché… Ooh, you looking into her laptop?”
“I figured it might give an insight into her, if she didn’t have Crane’s work copied onto it.”
“Right. You look at that, I’m going to poke around her bathroom for a key to this thing.”
Bruce wanted to question that, but Joker left without another word, a confident smile on his lips.
Jackie Lant’s laptop hummed to life. It seemed it had been in hibernation mode – her browser was still open to her email.
Bruce read through the headers:
New post from Batman Watch
New post from Gotham-Sucks
[!] Application for job #P283451
[!] Application for job #E7990S2
We’re sorry to inform you that your…
New post from Gotham-Sucks
RE:  St. Mary’s Mental Ward Position...
RE:  Hopkins Mental Clinic application
BatmanChick96 replied to your post
[!] Application for job #8714E03
Bruce could deduce without even opening any of them that the application notifications were rejections. Judging by the bloggr notifications, she was likely trying to leave the city. Scrolling down further and seeing the list of rejected applications amidst the odd bank statement and old blog notifications told him she’d been trying to do leave Gotham for months.
That explained why she wanted to steal Crane’s work – she must have figured that she could take it and run out of the city, publish it with her name attached, and make something out of it. In her mind, he supposed, she had bills to pay and not much to lose.
He opened her file browser; thankfully it looked like she was the type to keep all her files fairly organized. There was what looked like a folder for her old school documents, a folder for her Arkham internship-employment, tax folders… A quick search said the only thing with Crane’s name in it was a term paper on Working Through Grief and some copies of his work, though they weren’t opened in over a year.
Looking under her recent files, she had a video labeled with a date from several days ago, and she did have a webcam… Maybe she was the type to vlog.
“Whelp, nothing in there… What’d you find?” Joker asked, coming to stand behind Bruce and lean on the back of the rolling office chair.
“Hopefully, a video log.”
“Well press play, then! Maybe she’ll just tell us where she stashed Crane’s stuff. I’m going to be mad if it’s not in that safe…”
Bruce double-clicked the video dated several days ago.
Jackie Lant sat in front of the desk, pushing back the laptop screen until she was entirely in view. She threaded her fingers together under her chin, on level with her hair, and and gazed right at the camera with an intense focus as she breathed deep.
“Normally, I try not to talk too openly in these sessions, in case I have one of those Agents monitoring me like everyone seems to think we do, but just in case I fail miserably, or Professor Crane decides to bury me in his backyard, I want to say something. I’m probably going to regret this video later… Then again, if everything works out, I’m going to delete this and pretend it never happened anyway.”
Jackie shrugged, folding her arms on top of her desk.
“There’s…no going back for me, now. I had to keep telling myself that if I did… If I did, then I might as well just throw myself off of the bridge tomorrow. I’m in too deep. I know too much. I’ve…seen too much.”
The young woman scowled slightly down at her hands.
“I can’t pretend that I’m not going to regret anything. I already regret a lot. I don’t think I’d be at this point if I’d chosen a theater major,” she said with a slight hint at a smile. “But in case something happens, I just really want to say – I’m the one who tried to kill Dr. Jonathan Crane, and stole all of the research that would’ve given evidence pertaining to his unethical experiments at Arkham Asylum. I’m hoping someone will find his bloated corpse floating around the docks or face-down in a pool of his own blood in the street,” she continued with a nasty curl of her lip that lasted all but a couple of seconds. “If not, then I failed, and I’m probably dead already, either by Dr. Crane himself, or Bruce Wayne, for taking advantage of him like I am tonight. I wouldn’t blame him for it, honestly…” She looked down, regret flashing in her eyes. “He and I both have mobster blood in us, I’d be surprised if he didn’t want to kill me for letting his friend get hurt and not doing anything to stop it… It’s what Great-Uncle Finger would do.”
Jackie looked back up at the camera, sincerity peeking through a steely gaze.
“But I am sorry to whoever might get caught in the middle. I hope there’s none, but… If I could see the future, then I would’ve swallowed that bottle of ibuprophen years ago.”
The video cut out after a moment, and Joker immediately leaned over Bruce to click through the video folder, his eyes shining in the light of the bright screen. “She’s got to have more. Something,” he muttered, and promptly played a video dated nearly six weeks ago in a folder marked “personal vlogs”.
The first thing Bruce noticed was that Jackie still had her long ponytail, giving credit to the date on the filename. The second detail was that she looked rather conflicted, even as she just sat there hugging herself in her jack-o-lantern blanket.
“I had…an epiphany, last night. I normally would’ve done this when I got home, but… I couldn’t. I was too… I’m not sure. Not scared… Bewildered, I guess is the right word. Dr. Crane invited me over to his house again, yesterday. I thought, ‘yeah, last time was nice, despite the talk about death in the middle, why not’? It was okay, at first. You know, home-made pumpkin spice lattes, catch-up about how I’m doing, gossiping about patients’ sessions I have to sit in on… And then we got onto the topic of Gotham, somehow. I think I asked him why he stayed here, since he had the means to leave, and he just…”
She was half looking into the camera with general disbelief.
“He said he liked it. He thinks all the general misery is fun to study. I didn’t know what else to say to that, so I tried to change the subject, and asked what he thought of Batman, because…I mean, what normal person doesn’t like him, right? And he thinks he’s fascinating. Or…really, he thinks the effect Batman has on the city is fascinating. He thinks the way criminals fear him is interesting. So… I just said, ‘yeah, that makes sense, you like studying human behavior around fear, don’t you?’”
She got quiet, but stared dead at the camera.
“He lit up at that. Like, the happiest I think I’ve ever seen him. He actually smiled a little,” she pressed, leaning forward to emphasize her point before sitting there with her arms on the table. “So, I figured that had to be good. We talked about his work for a really long time - I still remember going through bits of it at school, and I did genuinely like his stuff, so he walked me through his last one, and I guess I said something right, because… He said he was testing something special for his current research, and he asked what my worst fear was.”
She paused and sat up straight, crossing her arms again.
“I mean, I’m not stupid enough to ask why. I can guess why. So I told him my old one so it’d be believable. And he just looks at me and says ‘So imagine I can manifest those roaches before your eyes. What would you do?’” She phrased in a fairly good imitation of Crane’s pitch, “I said I didn’t know; probably squish as many as possible while screaming my head off, and he…he just said, ‘Yes, that’d be interesting, wouldn’t it?’”
She stared down at the surface of the desk, almost in awe.
“And I just… I just realized, right there, that he was making something to do that to patients. I never asked him about what he did in sessions, but… I’m allowed to peek at almost everyone’s notes to look at the progress of certain patients, and it just…hit me. He’s why some of them are regressing.”
She was quiet for a minute, only shifting to get comfortable again, and staring out the window by the desk.
“And I couldn’t help but think, ‘that IS interesting’. I thought that, and I meant it, and I hate that I thought it at all. And… I know that secret, now. I have to carry it around with everything else.”
Jackie stared a little longer, first out the window, then at her desk, and then she swiveled the chair and moved to click the mouse with an irritated scowl.
“Fuck it.”
That was certainly enlightening… Bruce had wondered how Jackie had developed the idea to steal his research – she’d apparently known for weeks already, before she’d reached out to him days ago and asked for his help. He wouldn’t have been surprised if it was her who had prevented him from seeing John, solely to drum up his suspicion and get him invested in her idea of helping her steal Crane’s files.
(Though he couldn’t see her knowing everything else in-between. There was no way she knew he stole Crane’s fake drugs from the lab, or that they would walk right by John that day, or that John would break out of his cell at all.)
John was already clicking to another video, a determined frown on his long face.
“Joker, that’s enough,” Bruce said, moving to stop him, but Joker was just fast enough to start a new one, dated almost four weeks ago, and it caught his attention enough that he let John’s hand go.
Jackie Lant faced the webcam with her head in her hand, taking deep breaths, and on the third, she turned her gaze to the window to her side.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I really, really, don’t.”
The look in her eyes was furious, despite her relatively flat expression.
“I hate it when people say it’s ‘the little things in life’ – they always mean ‘oh, life’s not so bad, just look at this fucking rainbow’, like that will make everything better for you,” she grumbled, turning to look at the camera. “It’s like, ‘hey, you ever see a guy get stabbed in the middle of the road? Just fucking stabbed? And you’re in your car, you have to keep driving, because you’ll be penalized for being late to work, and if you go out there and try to do something about it, you’ll be stabbed, too. And you have to just…pretend like you didn’t see anything. That everything is perfectly fine. It’s just…a little thing,’” Jackie finishes, a lopsided smile tugging on the corner of her mouth for a moment, and then it faded into a flat line. “I tried texting Dean about it, since he was there when Michelle got killed, and he just… He said ‘that’s how life is around here, you gotta be tough’.”
Jackie stared at the table, her eyes glistening slightly, the anger never leaving them.
“Four years… Four years, and that’s what seeing her die in the fucking street has reduced that to. Just another part of life in Gotham.”
She blinked away the tears threatening to fall, taking the sleeve of her hoodie to wipe at her face properly for a moment.
“I tried telling Ver’ about it, too – not directly, just, ‘hey I’m feeling super awful and I hate my life.’ And all she said was, ‘Look on the bright side! It’s the little things that make life worth living!’” she paraphrased in a falsetto sort of voice, her brows furrowing. “Fuck her. Just…fuck her. She can come live in Gotham for a day, see if she can look on the fucking bright side…”
Jackie grunted to herself, rubbing her face into her hands for a moment, and when she reappeared, she had a steady gaze.
“I just have to shove all this down, I guess. Like I don’t already do that all the time.” She stared right at the screen, as if watching herself, and her face grew soft and contemplative. “I’ll just put it next to the thoughts of how I threw my dreams down the gutter, or how much I’d rather risk taking the train to East End than having to work at Arkham one more day,” she added spitefully, despite the glint of humor that crossed over her expression. “I guess I just have to…” She smiled a little wistfully at the camera, even as her eyes dulled. “Smile, though your heart is breaking,” she half-sang.
Bruce heard John snort heavily, as if trying to stifle a laugh, and turned to look just as a loud cackle burst out of him.
John doubled over, clearly trying to stifle his own raucous laugh as he held his stomach like it was the funniest joke he’d ever heard.
Bruce almost wanted to punch him, but held himself steady, clenching his fists as John turned away from him, giggling uncontrollably.
Half a year in Arkham wasn’t going to change him. He was always going to find this sort of thing entertaining. Bruce never quite forgot the conversation they had during Harvey Dent’s speech about hunting down the Children of Arkham; John had grinned wide and joked about it all like it wasn’t actually happening, even though they both knew it was. That same man was right there, throwing open the window and laughing like a damn hyena.
John stuck his head out into the pouring rain, letting the water drown out some of the noise as brown hair dye and make-up started to wash away.
“What are you doing?!” Batman’s voice growled out as Bruce shot up and yanked him back out by the collar, angry at him for laughing at all, for doing something so stupid as showing his face, for further washing away the only thing really keeping him safe-
“I-I’m sorry,” John managed, still chuckling to himself as he tried to steady himself upright using Bruce’s shoulder. “It-it’s funny, but I just… I just can’t – hee hee – be-believe… I’m…” He tried to breathe, a grin still plastered on his face, make-up running terribly in what almost looked like tear-tracks on his cheeks as his laughter slowed. The sound of the video continuing on low volume as rain hit the brick and pavement outside was almost loud enough to prevent Bruce from properly hearing him. “I’m sympathizing with her!” He finished, letting out another little burst of laughter.
That was sympathy…?
“I just – oh, geez, that hurts,” John breathed, a slight giggle coming out as he clutched part of the cape draped over Bruce’s shoulder. “When she was threatening you, back at Arkham, I just thought she was like Crane; a weird, more emotional version of him, but… I hated her for it! And it turns out we - we not only having something in common, but she’s like you,” he emphasized, looking up at the white lenses with a bright-eyed look. It made Bruce feel like he was stuck to the floor. “You both just shove your real feelings down so far even I can’t see them! You both just put on your public faces and pretend!”
Bruce was tempted to wipe some of the run make-up away, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the knowing glint in the green eyes that stared up at him, or if was because he just wanted to distract the man from continuing to hit Bruce right in a sore spot.
“I still don’t like her,” he said, “but I don’t hate her anymore. And that’s so ridiculous, because I loathe anyone who even thinks about hurting you, Bruce,” he finished with a laugh, caressing Bruce’s arm through the batsuit.
He didn’t know what to say. What could he even do, in a place like this? In a situation like this? He felt guilt and warmth pile up on one another, and he wanted to tell him he was sorry, and he wanted to reach out and cup his face and get rid of all the color until there was nothing but John left, and he knew what John said wasn’t exactly healthy but it still sent a rush through him and he just wanted to…
It wasn’t the time or place for anything like that. He was Batman. John was Joker. They were supposed to be investigating Jackie Lant so they could get a lead on Crane.
Batman was sturdy. Bruce was sturdy.
“Joker,” he started, forcing himself to maintain eye contact even as John’s pupils dilated slightly in response, “Go wash the rest of that stuff off. I’ll copy over the rest of Jackie’s vlog files.”
“My face looks that bad, huh?”
“A little.”
Joker tore himself away, letting his fingers slide over the armored bicep as he passed by. He couldn’t feel the touch at all, but the gesture was more than enough to give him a pleasant little jolt.
Bruce copied a compressed version of her vlog files to the USB stick he carried in his belt. They might be useful, or they might not. A quick scroll through of the rest of her documents showed nothing nefarious, no hidden files, no detailed plans - not so much as a crude map of the asylum. Her browsing history was pretty normal, though he did see some bookmarks to particular blogs she followed, such as Batman Watch, Gotham’s-Dark-Knight, and Gotham Gazette Official.
Bruce was sure he could reason with her. Jackie Lant was stubborn, but she seemed desperate for someone to talk to, and relied only on herself for everything; she either had a backup plan memorized for if things went south, or she was making it up as she went along. She clearly internalized a lot of pain, and not having an outlet for it besides talking to herself seemed to be the final straw in what drove her to desperate measures of escape.
She would probably be thrown in a jail cell for assault and conspiracy to murder, but Bruce was fairly positive she needed some mental help. If he managed to talk her down, he could likely fix it so she wasn’t thrown with the rest of the wolves in Black Gate. Perhaps he could even transfer her out of Gotham entirely.
The files had almost finished downloading when Bruce heard a metallic clink ringing against tile followed by a muttered curse.
He rushed to the small, dimly-lit bathroom, and was greeted with John standing on the rim of the built-in tub, rubbing his head with one hand and holding what looked like part of the shower-head in the other.
“No need to worry, Bats,” Joker said without even turning around. “Just hit myself a bit on this,” he explained, holding up the outer piece to the shower attachment. “Good news though, I found the key to the safe!”
Joker hopped down, stooped, and picked up a key from the base of the tub, turning to face Bruce with a proud grin. “I knew it must have been in here!”
His face was mostly clear, now. His eyelids were still fairly dark, but it was a lot of make-up to wash away, and it couldn’t have been easy for such a fast job. His eyebrows were back to being green, and there were even chunks of color showing under the temporary hair dye.
Bruce forced himself to focus on the task at hand. “How did you think to look in the showerhead?”
“Jackie’s a super-secretive girl, and I would put a key to a safe holding what I was working my life towards in a place no one would think to loo… And the toilet tank was empty.” He dangled the key in front of their faces. “You want to do the honors, Batman?”
Bruce took the invitation. He dropped the lock-box onto the desk, minding the laptop, and turned the key, pushing away the tiny concerned thought about a potential bomb.
He pushed aside the academic papers Crane had written on top of the pile, and found a stack of Arkham patient notes that Bruce knew he’d comb through later, despite it likely not holding much more information than he already knew. And then, under all that, was Crane’s hard drive.
“See if you can find some plastic bags,” Bruce suggested, leafing through the papers to make sure everything was accounted for.
“No need to look, Batsy,” Joker grinned, and yanked an orange bag from the trench coat’s ticket pocket as if he were pulling out a line of scarves. “Ta-dah!”
“That’ll do,” Bruce answered, unable to stop the minute smile from spreading on his face.
He’d all but tied the handles together and passed it to Joker for safe-keeping when the head-set in his cowl rang obnoxiously in his ear.
“Hello?” He asked in his normal voice.
“It’s just me, Batman,” Tiffany answered, sounding somewhat drained; John mouthed ‘who is it’ as he stepped a little closer. “I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier. I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around���everything.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Yeah, well… I also wanted to tell you I got a signal from one of Maroni’s thug’s phones. I’ll send you the coordinates. Is he with you?”
“…yes.”
“Figures… I’ll…discuss that with you another time. Just…be careful out there.”
“Always am.”
“No you’re not,” Tiffany countered with a light-hearted scoff before hanging up.
Notes:  Blargggh, my brain failed me at a critical time, and then today my stomach acted up for about 2 hours, which impeded me further!! Something must have really wanted me to just wrap up this chapter here… That, or they wanted you guys to wait this long. I certainly didn’t!! (T^T)
As always, thank you SO SO much to everyone that comments, reblogs, likes, kudos, bookmarks, or subscribes!!! I said it before and I'll say it again - I love you guys!!! You guys are awesome!!!! (ෆˊ͈ ु꒳ ूˋ͈ෆ) I'm gearing up for some good times comin' soon... REAL good times. Stay tuned next weekend...
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jimsmovieworld · 2 years ago
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KILLING THEM SOFTLY- 2012 ⭐⭐⭐
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Three men set up a plan to rob a mafia card game and frame one of the mobsters that had robbed it in the past. The robbery goes well but one of them slips up and tells someone about it. The mob calls in a professional hitman, Jackie, (Brad Pitt) to take care of it....
Movie has an excellent cast and a good premise but never really picks up steam. Brad Pitt was excellent as Jackie. James Gandolfini was brilliant as Mickey, a fellow hitman whos excessive drinking has started to become a problem. Two other sopranos stars also appear, Vincent Curatole and Max Casella.
Was nice to see Ray Liotta (R.I.P), one of all the time great movie wiseguys.
This movie has all the right ingredients to be great, and is pretty stylish at points, but is largely uninteresting and has social commentary that to me felt out of place.
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mikijamcf · 3 years ago
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Remembering Jimmy Smith (James Oscar Smith) on the day of his birth, jazz musician whose albums often charted on Billboard magazine. He helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music.
He was a prolific recording artist and, as a leader, dubbed The Incredible Jimmy Smith, he recorded around forty sessions for Blue Note in just eight years beginning in 1956. Albums from this period include The Sermon!, House Party, Home Cookin', Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack and Prayer Meetin'.
Smith signed to the Verve label in 1962. His first album, Bashin', sold well and for the first time set Smith with a big band, led by Oliver Nelson. Further big band collaborations followed, most successfully with Lalo Schifrin for The Cat and guitarist Wes Montgomery, with whom he recorded two albums: The Dynamic Duo and Further Adventures Of Jimmy and Wes. Other albums from this period include Blue Bash and Organ Grinder Swing with Kenny Burrell, The Boss with George Benson, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Got My Mojo Working, and Root Down.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Smith recorded with some of the great jazz musicians of the day such as Kenny Burrell, George Benson, Grant Green, Stanley Turrentine, Lee Morgan, Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Grady Tate and Donald Bailey.
The Jimmy Smith Trio performed "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and "The Sermon" in the 1964 film Get Yourself a College Girl. R.I.P.
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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago
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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 12th August 2018
Top 10
Yep, we still have the same top two here, in fact the top five has stayed mostly still overall. “In My Feelings” by Drake featuring City Girls has stayed on top due to the video and streaming power, and I don’t see it stumbling for quite a few weeks.
Right behind it is “Shotgun” by George Ezra, still at the runner-up spot.
“No Brainer” by DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo and Chance the Rapper is up a spot to number-three, swapping places with...
“Rise” by Jonas Blue featuring Jack & Jack, which is down a single position to number-four.
“Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer is steady at number-five. Funnily enough, I recall saying these guys had their five seconds of fame back when I reviewed “Want You Back”, so don’t rely on me for predicting anything.
Also staying stable is “Jackie Chan” by Tiesto and Dzeko featuring Preme and Post Malone at number-six.
At number-seven, up a space from last week, is “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B.
Meanwhile, at number-eight, we have an 11-space gain straight to number-eight for “Body” by Loud Luxury and brando. I didn’t think this would be as popular as it ended up being, to be completely honest, and I’m very surprised at how fast this has gotten into the top 10.
Then we have our highest debut from Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD, which has landed an album bomb of sorts – three songs, as is the limit on the UK Singles Chart. That debut, unsurprisingly, is “SICKO MODE” featuring uncredited vocals from Swae Lee and Drake, at number-nine.
Also, we have Tyga and Offset creeping into the top 10 via a one-space jump to number-ten, with “Taste”, and that rounds off our top 10 quite nicely.
Climbers
Now for the climbers and, honestly, despite the album “bomb”, not much happened of interest on the charts other than those three songs, in fact, barely anything has really happened. The only notable gain out of three non-top 10 gains is the 11-spot leap for “Eastside” by benny blanco, Khalid and Halsey, which is now at #12. The other gains are only single-space increases so it’s pointless noting them.
Fallers
The fallers, however, are a bit of a different story. A lot of pop girls struggled this week, including Ariana Grande with “God is a woman” down three spots to #13 and her feature on Nicki Minaj’s “Bed”, which has dropped seven spaces to #38. Speaking of Nicki Minaj, “FEFE” with 6ix9ine and Murda Beatz whimpered down four spots to #21, and the other female rapper on the charts right now, Cardi B, hasn’t exactly been gaining either, as “I Like It” featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin is down five spaces to #14. Anne-Marie’s “2002” is down six spots to #32, Jess Glynne’s “I’ll be There” got hit identically down to #36, while “This is Me” by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble is down seven spots to #40. Drake had it particularly rough as well, with “Nonstop” down two to #30 while “Don’t Matter to Me” with Michael Jackson is down six to #19. The biggest fall, however, is definitely “If You’re Over Me” by Years & Years, falling a whopping 21 positions straight to #28. How much of this is due to Travis Scott? I’m not exactly sure.
Dropouts
“Ay Caramba” by Stay Free Get Lizzy Presents Fredo and Young T & Bugsey, or whatever on earth that title credit was, is unsurprisingly out straight from the debut at #38, while “Paradise” by George Ezra is also out from #39 – it had a good run. “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker is also out from #36, but that’s it, so let’s run through the Ed Sheeran Update!
The Ed Sheeran Update
“Perfect” is down three spaces to #60, while “Shape of You” stays at #77. Not much to see here.
Well, that was quick. No returning entries so let’s go right into our new arrivals.
NEW ARRIVALS
#37 – “Best Life” – Hardy Caprio featuring One Acen
Okay, so before Travis Scott, we have a song that been bubbling under the top 40 for quite a long time, and to be honest, I was dreading the day Hardy Caprio returns with another hit, because, God, is he boring? At least now he has a guest star to maybe improve or diversify things but has that really helped at all? No, because it’s still the same faux-dancehall faux-grime stuff to expect. I call it that but it’s really just desaturated trap with some shrill synths and keys that make a just listenable beat for the two rappers to spit over, however the song is mostly the singing chorus, assumingly by One Acen, who also sings during the post-chorus, and he doesn’t have a bad voice so I’m not complaining at all, but maybe I wanted something more interesting to combat Hardy on the first verse biting a Lil Baby flow from “Yes Indeed”, because, out of all the songs to copy, you had to copy the worst possible trap-rap song you could find on the Hot 100? Okay, Hardy... To be fair, this isn’t awful and they both ride the beat well, even if the rapping is actually quite brief. It’s just more of the same, more of the same. In fact, I think I’m going to coin a name for this. Damhall – it’s watered down dancehall with grime-ish lyrics and trap percussion, as well as autotuned vocals, rapping often with melodic, R&B-inspired flows. It’s not the best name in the world, but it’ll be better than saying “faux-dancehall faux-grime schlock” week after week. Not feeling this damhall genre to be perfectly honest. Now let’s take a ride down to ASTROWORLD.
#29 – “CAROUSEL” – Travis Scott featuring Frank Ocean and Big Tuck?
We start with the second track on the album, “CAROUSEL” featuring uncredited vocals from... Frank Ocean? Damn, Frank doesn’t seem like the guy to be doing pop features as often, so Travis and the beat must be something special that made Frank want to lend his immense vocal talent.
Not really. I do like the beat, however, it’s pretty cool how it’s just constant gang vocals going from the left to the right channel as a backdrop behind your typical trap-rap production, which makes it have a party-ish aesthetic that I really like and think fits Travis’ flow really well. Frank, on the other hand, on the hook, sounds asleep and bored, and he does throughout most of the song until his verse where he starts straining his voice very forcefully and frankly, it sounds pretty terrible over a club-ready beat. Come on, Frank, the bored flow at least works for stuff like this, you didn’t need to put any effort or emotion into this performance, yet, you do for some of it and it just doesn’t sound good at all. Stick to sounding like you’re on half a Xan during your guest features, it works much better. Oh, yeah, and this song is barely three minutes and ends very abruptly. It’s just kind of sloppy if anything, mostly because of, unfortunately, Frank Ocean. The song’s serviceable, I suppose, and I know why it charted – it’s catchy, it’s at the start of the album, yet I’d have much preferred “NO BYSTANDERS”, “SKELETONS”, “R.I.P. SCREW” or even “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD” to chart instead of this and the next few tracks, although this next one I’m not necessarily complaining about.
#15 – “STARGAZING” – Travis Scott
Ah, the opening track to ASTROWORLD, and one of the few songs that doesn’t have features as well as actually being somewhat astro-themed, as it’s very psychedelic and trippy yet does feel like a theme park ride in its structure. Let me elaborate.
It starts with some slow, eerie chords with some beautifully autotuned singing throughout, before you get a drop – the bass and the rollercoaster – which starts initially with some pretty disjointed drum patterns, as your mindset would be during a ride, as Travis says, “going crazy” and “rolling”, quite similarly to the effect of psychedelics. He has some pretty... interesting falsetto vocals here, as well as the classic ad-libs we know him for crowding the catchy hook, before the drums start to collapse briefly and we get a moment of peace, of build-up, with some sweet guitar and extra keys, which sound really pretty, especially with all the sound effects of people screaming and having fun on Astroworld building the atmosphere. It then comes to a sudden stop and you’ve gone down the biggest slope in the rollercoaster, so you’re calmer but the ride hasn’t stopped. The beat switches and now you’re going through maddening keyboard loops whilst a slick trap beat plays, allowing Travis to spit some surprisingly impressive bars here, with a simple flow but some funny lines like about how it’s not a moshpit without injuries and how Kylie’s jumping off him like Moby – you figure it out – while a faint “alright, alright” vocal sample plays, and then it just comes to an abrupt stop. Your ride has finished, but it’s only the first track so you’re ready for the unimpressive mediocrity of the other rides in the theme park that you only go on because you have younger siblings with you.
#9 – “SICKO MODE” – Travis Scott featuring Drake and Swae Lee
Speak of the devil.
Alright, so this track is three songs, and the only reason why this absolute mess of a song was the biggest hit is because of Drake, but you know that already. Let’s analyse each part of this five-minute trap-rap trilogy.
We start with a fantastic sample, and one of the best moments on the album as Drake just sings over one of the best beats I’ve heard this year, God, I love that sample so much, but then the percussion comes in and he starts rapping, for one bar. Yep, the last line (the title) echoes and we go into a completely different song with a serviceable beat, where Travis Scott starts rapping with a flow I feel we’ve heard from him a few times before, with some extra classic hip-hop samples acting as ad-libs to his rapping, as well as some pitch-shifted chopped-up Big Hawk samples acting as bridges while Swae Lee just repeats one line in the background, but then after two verses, that one transitions too, pretty abruptly, into a boring Tay Keith beat for Drake to go all “Nonstop” on. Drake does half a Xan on a plane and is out like a light (like a light, ayy, yeah, what), and it tells. Over a Memphis-influenced instrumental, Drake delivers a decent enough verse but really, neither him nor Travis have enough charisma and energy to carry this. I appreciate how the beat goes all DJ Screw on us by the end, leading into the next song on the album, “R.I.P. SCREW”, but really, isn’t this just a huge waste of money for Travis? Sure, he’s probably getting it back and more, but a huge feature in the form of Drake, two guest vocalists (Swae Lee and Sheck Wes) hired purely for ad-libs, at least three samples, two of which are short clips that really aren’t worth the royalties he and his label probably had to pay, can’t be cheap, especially considering the four to six producers probably involved in this that had to get their paycheck too, even though knowing the industry, they probably won’t be getting them at all.
This song, as it is, is just a five minute slog, especially considering only the first minute is worth listening to. If someone has a separate track of just that Drake intro, I’d appreciate a link.
Conclusion
Yeah, Best of the Week goes to Travis Scott for “STARGAZING”, who also bags Worst of the Week for “CAROUSEL” with Frank Ocean and one of the two Dishonourable Mentions for “SICKO MODE” with Drake and Swae Lee, with the other going to Hardy Caprio and One Acen for just being void of anything interesting in “Best Life”. See you next week.
L
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