#scott davies denies it’s him

[operafantomet]

It would be a lie to say I understood particularly much of the plot, but this figure from the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 was apparently the Phantom of the Opera.

[radioheadyaoi]

IF TRANQULITY BASE HOTEL AND CASINO WAS A MOVIE (DIRECTED BY ALEX TURNER)

unknown / reddit / the goldfinch by donna tartt / alex turner in tranquility base hotel and casino music video / 2001: a space odyssey directed by stanley kubrick / credit / sue zhao / blade runner 2049 directed by denis villeneuve / star treatment, arctic monkeys / warp speed chic / anyways, arctic monkeys / alex in tranquility base hotel and casino music video / sue zhao / warp speed chic / art and the future by douglas davis / the lovers (art installation), sneha solanki / the great gatsby by f scott fitzgerald / star treatment / alex turner in body paint music video / me and my dog, boygenius / ngc 2047 / unknown / unknown / unknown / alex turner photographed by matt helders (2018) / the last shadow puppets @ liverpool olympia, 02/04/2016 / crush by richard siken / sparkling spray of stars in ngc 2660 by nasa hubble / sleeping at last, saturn / the moon

Here he portrays himself as the director of a film. We can interpret that he means the whole TBHC album in its own right is a science fiction saga. Perhaps in some ways TBHC showcases stages of his life – certainly The Ultracheese which depicts past memories of lost friends, and One Point Perspective which refers to his crafted look of mysticism on stage whilst he also talks about a younger him dreaming of becoming a star. - genius annotation on anyways by arctic monkeys

STARRING ALEX TURNER AS THE LOUNGE SINGER

[loganwritesprobably]

The Hale Family

So, as someone who is an avid enjoyer of all Hales, particularly the Hale men, and is a writer, naturally their wider family comes up when I write. Anywhere between ten and fourteen people died in the Hale fire, not all Werewolves but presumably all family. That is a big ass family.

So, I did what Jeff Davis’s clown lookin’ coward ass couldn’t and I made the full Hale family, further extended family pending because I have too much free time.

Also, they even have birthdays, death dates, and birth years. Fuck you, Jeff.

I won’t be covering Derek, Cora or Malia in particular detail, just giving some basics, because otherwise this post would be.. even longer than it already is.

This took so damn long so.. enjoy

(This timeline works under the assumption that season 6B, when Scott and co are eighteen, takes place in the year 2013, and fuck you all the Hales lived and got to see their full potential so they can have actual personalities.)

Lillian and Lincoln Hale (Emma Thompson and Eric Roberts)

Lillian, she/her, straight. Born Werewolf.

Lincoln, he/him, straight. Bitten Werewolf.

Lillian’s birthday - July 20th, 1943. Cancer.

Lincoln’s birthday - December 27th, 1940. Capricorn.

Lillian’s death - October 12th, 1997.

Lincoln’s death - March 23rd, 2004.

Lillian lived until Peter, the youngest of five siblings, was fourteen years old and then died. She was the Alpha until her death, and at this point her eldest daughter Talia inherited the spark.

Lillian could’ve been a chef, but she chose to remain at home to care for her gaggle of pups, and later their grandchildren. She loved poetry, and that’s one of the reasons she fell in love with her husband, who was an amateur poet. She loved all of her children equally, or so she said, but everyone knew that Peter was her favourite. He was so much younger than his siblings, so truly they didn’t mind.

Lillian was a Cancer, the mother of the zodiac. She was very maternal, to any and all members of the pack, even those who were older or weren’t family. She argued this was because she was the Alpha, but Lincoln said it was just her nature. He loved that about her.

Lillian died just a short while before her youngest son turned sixteen. She was aged fifty-four. When she died, she was holding her son, who had skipped school that day to be close to her.

Lincoln was not as soft as his wife; he was firmer with his children but still rarely denied them things. He was passionate about education and wanted all of his children to excel in their chosen field, never wanting to pressure them into something they hated. You cannot succeed fully in something that you hate. He loved literature, particularly poetry, and nature. He was elated to move into the pack house when he married Lillian.

Lincoln was a Capricorn, the zodiac that thirsts for knowledge with his birthday on December 27th and was born in the year 1940. He never got a chance to go to university as a young man as he came from a lower-class family than his wife but if it had been an option, he would’ve done it online later in life.

Lincoln died aged sixty-four. Talia had been the closest to her father and it was her that organised his funeral, though it was a family decision to bury him beside his wife.

Talia and Nathaniel Hale (Alicia Coppola and Skeet Ulrich)

Talia, she/her, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Nathaniel, he/him, heterosexual (Talia-sexual). Bitten Werewolf.

Talia’s birthday - February 18th, 1963. Aquarius.

Nathaniel’s birthday - March 30th, 1963. Aries.

Their anniversary - December 26th. They’ve been married for twenty-nine years.

Talia was prepared for a long time to become the Alpha. Unlike many hunter families, Werewolf packs are generally not matriarchal, and neither are the Hales, instead the responsibility of becoming Alpha is given to the eldest born of the current Alpha. This is only not done in rare circumstances such as the eldest dying before becoming Alpha, the eldest being younger than eighteen when the current Alpha dies, or them nominating a younger sibling as a ‘better fit’ for the role. Talia had none of these happen.

She wasn’t sure that she wanted to be the Alpha, she had a good political career ahead of her that she didn’t want to give up. Then, her husband Nathaniel (who her siblings swear up and down is her soulmate) pointed out that she could have both. He was there for her to lean on when things got hard, as the partner of the Alpha, and plenty of women were excellent mothers while having thriving careers. So, she did both.

Talia was the mayor of Beacon Hills for many years and was well loved by her community. She invested family wealth into the town, making sure the community was not lacking in what it needed, never shying away from hard truths when it came to her work.

Nathaniel married into the Hale family because he loved Talia with every piece of himself. When she told him about Werewolves, he hadn’t missed a beat. The night she told him was the night that he told her that he loved her. He became a Werewolf himself shortly after Talia became the Alpha. They were both thirty-four at the time. 

Nathaniel loves Talia because she’s intelligent, a problem solver, he is sure there will never be an issue in their lives that she cannot overcome. Talia loves Nathaniel because he’s grounded and calm, and he has silly quirks that make her laugh like his personal vendetta against green beans.

The couple began having children quite quickly. They were high school sweethearts, went to the same college, and once they had both graduated, they began trying for children immediately. It took a while, and in retrospect they were glad because it gave them time to settle more into their careers, and Laura was born in 1986, when the two were twenty-three. Derek followed in ‘88 and Cora in ‘95, the couple aged twenty-five and thirty-two respectively.

Mae and Stuart Hale (Adelaine Morin and Andrew Walker)

Mae, she/her, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Stuart, he/him, pansexual. Human.

Mae’s birthday - September 22nd, 1969. Libra.

Stuart’s birthday - July 3rd, 1965. Cancer.

Their anniversary - February 11th. They’ve been married for twenty-one years.

Mae was the sort of person who could never quite be categorised. She was a social floater, never restricted herself to one interest or social group, tried everything that she could (and given that they were well off, that was plenty of things). She loved her twin brother dearly, but she needed more than family. She couldn’t be entertained by them anymore, not like the could as a kid, and that was nobody’s fault.

She got along with all of her siblings, though wasn’t particularly close with Peter. Again, nobody’s fault, they were just too different. Peter preferred to be calm, stationary, and relaxed, where Mae loved to be on the move, experiencing new things and amped up with adrenaline. The ADHD to his Autism.

Mae met Stuart while hiking. Stuart is the outdoors-y type, and likes anything and everything nature. When she told him about the Supernatural, he took it in stride in a way that no other family addition had (other than, of course, Brooke - who was Supernatural herself). Stuart is a very relaxed man when he isn’t enjoying nature, and he loves how passionate his wife is. They balance each other.

Stuart loves the little things, like playing Lego with his kids and going out on warm days to paddle in the creek that runs through the preserve. He makes sure to track the wildlife in the preserve, not wanting his Wolfy family to accidentally ruin the ecosystem. They assure him that this is unnecessary, but he enjoys it.

George Hale (Jared Padalecki)

George, he/him, biromantic, asexual. Born Werewolf.

George’s birthday - September 22nd, 1969. Libra.

Growing up, George and Mae were practically inseparable, and it was George that changed that. He watched as she changed, becoming less like him, and decided she would be better off with different friends, friends that were more like her and weren’t family members. Sometimes he regrets it, since he was a little lonely in school after that, but he knows it helped her thrive and so he’s also glad that he made the choice. They continued to be close despite the change, which he was glad for.

He’s kind of the black sheep of his siblings (though this did rub off on Peter in his younger years, just a little), with a more alternative style and taste in music, particularly as a teenager and in his 20s. He grew out of that when he had Iris, at least on the outside, though she was raised on rock music.

George wanted children much more than he wanted a partner. He didn’t much care for settling down with someone for the rest of his life, and as much as he understood the appeal and appreciated how happy his siblings were, it just wasn’t for him. But he did want a child. Enter his friend, who wanted to be a surrogate. Money wasn’t a problem for George, so they found the best doctor for the procedures and less than a year later, he had his little girl.

Celia and Brooke Hale (Claire Holt and Kylie Bunbury)

Celia, she/her, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Brooke, she/her, lesbian. Wendigo.

Celia’s birthday - February 22nd, 1977. Pisces.

Brooke’s birthday - January 8th, 1975. Capricorn.

Their anniversary - July 22nd. They’ve been married for eighteen years.

Celia and Brooke never truly grew up. Celia was always the most energetic and bubbly of her siblings, which absolutely rubbed off on her nieces. The family sometimes joke that they must all have gotten the giggly gene that their aunt has. It’s always been Celia that would be first to volunteer to play with the pups, happy to get muddy or covered in glitter if it would make them happy. The only person who would challenge her for that title would be Peter, but ‘he has a reputation to maintain’.

Brooke was everything that Celia wanted in a life partner. There had been some difficult conversations when Brooke had first met the other Hales because of her species, but after that she had been accepted as if she was a ‘Wolf like the rest of them. 

Celia hates the colour yellow and hates her wife for loving the colour yellow. Brooke loves the colour yellow, and loves tormenting her wife with it even more. They’re the most publicly affectionate couple of the Hales, and the locals love them. Celia works in the elementary school with the youngest kids, so lots of moms know her and while the odd one or two are intolerant, generally they love her and love knowing she’s teaching their children to be caring and gentle. Brooke is a private nurse, working specifically with the Supernatural. While some refuse to see her because she’s a Wendigo, many of her clients like her and it’s good for local relations. The Hale pack has the confidence of all Wendigos, within a couple hundred miles. It’s nice. It feels like family.

Peter Hale (Ian Bohen)

Peter, he/him, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Peter’s birthday - October 27th, 1981. Scorpio.

Peter loves his family dearly, considering himself to be a family man (though he’d never admit it out loud). His best friend growing up was his big sister Celia, and he admired his eldest sister Talia to no end. Mae helped him gain control over his shift and George had taught him how to fight, just in case. Peter went on to become the left hand of the Hale pack.

He was sixteen when he met Corinne, known often by her title of the Desert Wolf. She was a Werecoyote, significantly older than him. He felt special. This is when his daughter Malia was conceived. For a time, Corinne had been content with Peter under her thumb, protected by the power of the Hale pack, or so she thought. When Talia found out, she berated the woman, but Peter’s dedication allowed Corinne to stay. When Malia took half of her power, Corinne fled with her tail between her legs leaving Peter and his siblings to raise Malia to the best of their ability, even while Peter was still in school.

Peter hasn’t bothered with a long-term relationship since Corinne, too absorbed by his duties to his pack, his work obligations and making sure that his daughter has everything that she could ever want. Giving gifts is one of his love languages. 

Laura Hale (Meghan Ory)

Laura, she/her, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Laura’s birthday - June 5th, 1986. Gemini.

Laura grew up with the knowledge that one day she would become the Alpha of her pack, which was shaping up to be... kind of huge. It was a little bit overwhelming, and it worried her sometimes. She was glad to have her brother. Laura, of course, had other friends, but none of them knew about the Supernatural which meant she couldn’t really talk about the stresses that came with being the eldest child of the Alpha. But she could tell Derek.

They weren’t best friends, Peter held that spot for Derek, but they were very close and helped each other with schoolwork, Laura drove Derek home from school when she had a car, but he didn’t, she went to all of his basketball games. They were very close.

Laura loved skincare and flowers; her room was covered in as many plans as she could fit on each surface while still allowing them to grow. Later in life, she began working on her own skincare line, comfortable enough from their family fortune to open up a business and Derek was her unfortunate test subject.

Laura had a very close friend in high school with a boy called Josh. He was a bit of a man whore and had managed to have sex with just the right people to find out about the Supernatural by accident. This made them even closer, even if he couldn’t quite understand. They had gotten very close, she would even dare to say that they had fallen in love, but then a girl that Josh was friends with after sleeping with her became pregnant. He was a good man, only eighteen when he promised to be around to care for his child, but that meant when Laura went to college, they lost contact entirely. She misses him sometimes still.

Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin)

Derek, he/him, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Derek’s birthday - November 7th, 1988. Scorpio.

Cora Hale (Adelaide Kane) 

Cora, she/her, lesbian. Born Werewolf.

Cora’s birthday - August 9th, 1995. Leo.

Lucy Hale (Maia Mitchell)

Lucy, she/her, bisexual. Born Werewolf.

Lucy’s birthday - April 29th, 1989. Taurus.

Lucy is kind of anti-social. She got along well with her cousins, happy to be around them, but was never really interested in their rowdy activities. She was a Werewolf like the others, but was more comfortable with Iris as she was human and so had to be careful to avoid being hurt. Often, they would sit together while the others wrestled or played tag with no shoes on.

Lucy didn’t have many friends at school, mostly choosing to keep her head down and get on with things, though she got along well with her teachers. Her best subjects were always maths based (mathematics, physics, engineering) but she never bothered with college. She didn’t need to work, so she wasn’t too worried about higher education. Not to say that she does nothing, of course she does find ways to occupy her time and earn money, but not through conventional means. She also does a lot of volunteering, mostly with the elderly or the homeless. They’re calm, and nice to talk to.

Lucy is the mentally ill one of the younger generation, (maybe excluding poor Derek), suffering with both anxiety and depression, but nobody at home ever lets her sink too far, always there to pull her back and make sure that she’s taking care of herself, even if that just means sitting on the floor in her room while they work so she isn’t alone.

Charlie Hale aka Jackson Whittemore (Colton Haynes)

Jackson, he/him, bisexual. Human.

Jackson’s birthday - June 15th, 1995. Cancer.

Jackson is a human. His mother is a Born Werewolf, but his father is human, and he gets the genetic short end of the stick. 

The way I use Jackson’s story here varies based on whether I like Talia for the story. If I decide I can make Talia a bad person, I write that she gave Jackson up for adoption because he was human rather than a Werewolf. If not, Mae and Stuart either died as Jackson’s parents did in canon (car crash, though significantly more Supernatural) or Mae was young when she had Jackson, too young, and he was given up (in this situation, he would be older rather than Lucy). There are various other more outlandish ideas (the Whittemores are hunters that kidnapped Jackson to ‘save’ him) but those are my main ones.

If he’s going to be growing up with the Hales, then he is effectively the same as he is in canon, though with significantly less insecurity. Think young Derek. A little full of himself, still a little arrogant, but his desire for success is driven by competition with intelligent cousins and wanting praise (though he’ll get it regardless because his parents love him), this means if he was given the bite, he would simply become a Werewolf.

Jackson Hale is less emotionally constipated, and more affectionate. He would treat Lydia better, treat Danny better (probably also realise that Danny knows about the Supernatural, maybe even be the one to tell him), and just be an all-around better person. Standard douche still, sure, but not as bad as he was.

Iris Hale (Anna Cathcart)

Iris, she/her, bisexual. Bitten Werewolf.

Iris’s birthday - May 16th, 1993. Taurus.

Iris was conceived in a lab then implanted into her biological mother. She was born a human, because her mother was one, and so grew up cherished. Her father loves her dearly, she was always a little spoiled but thankfully it never got to her head too much. George offered to introduce her to her mother a few times, since after Iris had been born, she’d moved town (for unrelated reasons), but Iris had declined saying that he was all she needed.

Iris is an artist. She is happy to engage in any form of art really, but her favourites are pottery and creative writing. She works as an editor for a small publishing company, and she loves it, mostly working from home and on her own time as long as she meets her deadlines.

She has the bubbly gene that Celia has, seeing the joy in everything that happens, always the one to find the silver lining and people say that it’s contagious. She’s the first person to comfort family when they’re down and is very family oriented.

Iris got the bite from her aunt Talia after she got sick one year. It was only normal winter illness, but she’d gotten one after the other and her immune system was hugely struggling, her doctors warning her to be careful, lest she get sick again, because next time it would be much more dangerous. She got the bite not long later, making her immune to illness. 

Sophie Hale (Marsai Martin)

Sophie, she/her, bisexual. Human.

Sophie’s birthday - December 8th, 1992. Sagittarius. 

Sophie is the typical ‘basic girl’ type. She’s adopted, and human, and never particularly cared for getting the bite. She doesn’t need that to win against her cousins in a fight. Sophie is a big fan of going to the gym, and when she started going, she went with Derek. He was already more experienced with exercise, having done basketball for years, and he could stop people from staring (not that she couldn’t do that herself, but he had that look that made guys back off). Now she can confidently say, as long as a guy isn’t Supernatural, she can make him back up.

Though, she isn’t just a gym girl, Sophie also loves going clubbing. She’s been drinking since before she was old enough to do so because she could and growing up with Werewolves meant they often forget you aren’t immune like they are. Now, she loves getting dressed up with her girls, sometimes with her cousins too, and going out to Sinema, or sometimes even Jungle, and just having some fun and letting loose.

For work, she just does something perfectly mundane. She works as a receptionist, but she works as a receptionist at a smaller independent B&B. They get people who stop there just overnight as they’re passing through and couples sometimes too - probably having affairs. Originally, she’d applied to various places for similar but better paid positions, but then when a friend mentioned that she worked at the shitty B&B and sometimes worried she would get hurt, Sophie got a job there for herself. Now, she’s also technically security, and she loves it.

Malia Tate (Hale) (Shelley Hennig)

Malia, she/they, panromantic, asexual. Werecoyote.

Malia’s birthday - February 10th, 1997. Aquarius. 

[maya-matlin]

So I know this is probably dumb, but what about Jenna Middleton/Brooke Davis for that comparing Degrassi characters to people from other shows thing? Jenna's passion for music makes her more like Peyton or Haley, but in personality she really reminds me of Brooke: bubbly, adventurous, loving extroverts who prefer optimism so initially deny a few hard truths, not all that book smart but very intelligent and savvy when it comes to people, they're both spontaneous but also kind of impulsive, and both even announce that they're not letting boys define them anymore :) You could also maybe compare Jimmy to Nathan Scott...? And while I'm obsessively analyzing every character, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the differences between Emma and Clair - they seem very similar to me!

Comparing Jenna to any of those girls seems inaccurate to me, but maybe I'm thinking of early Jenna. I just feel like she was so bubbly and low key phony to begin with. She clearly got a lot of validation from being perceived as more desirable than other girls. So I'm with you. I don't think Haley and Jenna are anything alike beyond their passion for music. Haley was anxious, introverted, responsible and school oriented. That was never Jenna, unless you want to say she was more responsible during seasons 11-14. Out of the three main girls, Brooke is the closest comparison. But I still struggle to see it. I just feel like even before Brooke admits how smart she is, she's much more socially conscious and intelligent than Jenna. But I loved reading everything you had to say. I strongly agree that both Jenna and Brooke eventually come to define their own self worth based on how much they like themselves and personal growth rather than whether or not boys find them attractive. This makes me realize that I spend very little time analyzing Jenna.

As for Jimmy and Nathan, that works! Though, I think Jimmy was always more intelligent than Nathan. Even though both guys always saw playing professional basketball as their futures and even had fathers who pressured them to succeed and keep pushing even to their detriment, it seemed like Jimmy always had more going for him than Nathan. In spite of the tragedy that befell Jimmy, he was always going to be fine. Jimmy had a way of becoming successful at everything he tried, from art to rapping. Apparently, he had plans to become a lawyer. I got the feeling school came fairly easily for Jimmy compared to someone like Nathan, who heavily relied on his talent to get him far in life. Jimmy seemed more comfortable reinventing himself and figuring out an alternate path for his life than Nathan ever did - though it should be acknowledged that Nathan eventually thrived once his health forced him to retire. It's just that he had to put in a lot of effort to succeed.

Clare and Emma. Hmm. Obviously, both played the same role. They are the prominent good girls of their classes. There's a perception that both Emma and Clare never make mistakes (in universe, not in the fandom). Both are drawn to bad boy types from time to time. Neither is afraid to speak up when they feel something unjust is happening. However, Emma navigates social situations far easier than Clare does. From the very beginning of TNG, Emma has zero problem using her voice and making her opinions known. I'm sure this is related to Emma being raised by a single mom and basically being the center of Spike's world. Spike was always a feminist, so you can imagine Emma was brought up to believe women should use their voices and to never make yourself smaller to appease anyone. And Emma never did. Clare had a very different upbringing. She was raised in a conservative, Christian household with God-fearing parents. Unlike Emma, Clare always had an older sibling. It was known to everyone that while Darcy was the pretty, popular, social one, Clare was just the smart one. She was likely overlooked prior to coming to Degrassi and being noticed beyond being Darcy's little sister. Clare needed time to come into her own. Unlike Emma, Clare started as much more of a pushover. But once Clare gained some confidence and learned to use her individual voice without worrying about disturbing the peace, that was that. I don't think being social ever came completely easily to Clare, though. She was very by the books and is often accused of being sanctimonious in later seasons. Their goals were also different. While Emma was mainly focused on the environment and making the world a better place, Clare was more comfortable being a writer. She seemed to oscillate between pursuing creative writing or becoming a journalist before settling on the latter. Clare is nothing if not practical. Emma was more interested in feelings and morals than she was something more concrete. Interestingly, both girls ended up in a similar place with each taking time to figure out their next move with guys they probably shouldn't have settled down with.

[ulkaralakbarova]

An aging thief hopes to retire and live off his ill-gotten wealth when a young kid convinces him into doing one last heist. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Nick Wells: Robert De Niro Jack Teller: Edward Norton Max: Marlon Brando Diane: Angela Bassett Burt: Gary Farmer Steven: Jamie Harrold Danny: Paul Soles Jean-Claude: Martin Drainville Laurent: Serge Houde André: Jean-René Ouellet Albert: Claude Despins Sapperstein: Richard Waugh Sapperstein’s Cousin: Mark Camacho Woman in Study: Marie-Josée Colburn Man in Study: Gavin Svensson Tuan: Thinh Truong Nguyen Cop: Carlo Essagian Drunk: Christian Tessier Storekeeper: Lenie Scoffié Tony: Bobby Brown Philippe: Maurice Demers Guard: Christian Jacques Guard: Henry Farmer Guard: Dacky Thermidor Guard: Gerard Blouin Old Engineer: Charles V. Doucet Worker: Pierre Drolet Bureaucrat Official: Norman Mikeal Berketa Ironclad Tech: Eric Hoziel Janitor: John Talbot Thug: Richard Zeman Thug: Nick Carasoulis Special Appearance: Cassandra Wilson Special Appearance: Mose Allison Man at Airport (uncredited): June Järvenpää Film Crew: Original Music Composer: Howard Shore Editor: Richard Pearson Director: Frank Oz Director of Photography: Rob Hahn Story: Kario Salem Screenplay: Lem Dobbs Producer: Lee Rich Screenplay: Scott Marshall Smith Producer: Gary Foster Production Design: Jackson De Govia Costume Design: Aude Bronson-Howard Script Supervisor: Rebecca Robertson Casting: Margery Simkin Key Makeup Artist: Francine Gagnon Key Hair Stylist: Corald Giroux Makeup Effects: Matthew W. Mungle Construction Coordinator: Alain Brochu Supervising ADR Editor: Marissa Littlefield Sound Effects Editor: Paul Urmson Story: Daniel E. Taylor Art Direction: Tom Reta Set Designer: Félix Larivière-Charron Camera Operator: Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky Dialogue Editor: Nicholas Renbeck Art Department Coordinator: Genevieve Ferderber Set Designer: Lucie Tremblay First Assistant Director: David Sardi Boom Operator: Markus Wade Music Editor: Suzana Peric Property Master: Denis Hamel Art Direction: Claude Paré Rigging Grip: Alain Brouillette Supervising Sound Editor: Ron Bochar Stunt Coordinator: Jean Frenette Set Decoration: K.C. Fox Production Manager: Alain Gagnon Set Designer: Céline Lampron Greensman: Ray Légaré Boom Operator: Nathalie Piche Still Photographer: Phillip V. Caruso Steadicam Operator: Angelo Colavecchia First Assistant Camera: Maarten Kroonenburg Location Manager: Michèle St-Arnaud Prop Maker: Patrice Jacques Set Designer: Charlotte Rouleau Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Lee Dichter Special Effects Supervisor: Louis Craig Chief Lighting Technician: Jean Courteau Production Coordinator: Victorine Tamafo Set Designer: Claude Lafrance Foley Editor: Kam Chan Dialogue Editor: Fred Rosenberg Stunt Coordinator: Bud Davis Armorer: Julie Coulombe Art Department Coordinator: Michelle Drolet First Assistant Camera: Tony Rivetti Sr. Sound Effects Editor: Lewis Goldstein First Assistant Editor: Richard Friedlander Art Department Coordinator: Michel Bouchard Foley Editor: Frank Kern Dolly Grip: Alain Masse Production Controller: George Lakes Armorer: Brent Radford Executive Music Producer: Budd Carr Executive Producer: Adam Platnick Executive Producer: Bernard Williams Stunt Coordinator: David Leitch Movie Reviews: JPV852: A go-to for a solid heist-thriller that features two great performances by De Niro and Norton with honorable mention to Brando who looked a little worse for wear. Not the top notch in the genre but still a breezy but still suspense-filled watch if you don’t want anything thought-provoking. Still makes me chuckle that it was Frank Oz to be the one to direct three generations of great actors… **3.75/5**

[knavishepitome]

ੈ✩• 𝖘𝖔𝖑𝖔: 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖌𝖊𝖉𝖇𝖎𝖗𝖉, 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖙𝖜𝖔 • ੈ✩

My ribcage is made of every hand that has ever touched me. They rip me open. They keep me in.

When you finally get everything that you always wanted, shouldn’t you be 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲? That was the million-dollar question and in the case of Saoirse Davis, better known as Vera to the world; she wasn’t happy. Not even a little bit. She was trapped in a cage, not physically but mentally and emotionally. A cage that Scott designed for her, and he was the only one that had the key. This wasn’t the first time that she was caged but this time, she had no 𝐡𝐨����𝐞 of getting out and she had grown 𝐞𝐱𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝, this dream that she wanted more than anything was slowly 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 the life out of her and even though she had her three best friends: Zuri, Laila, and Zorina. Saoirse didn’t feel as if she was truly living anymore, all she had was this mask that she wore, one that was slowly cracking. The songbird was feeling 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐲 and even her 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 couldn’t help her.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐈 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐥𝐲 𝐈 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.

“Your words pulled me closer, but your words fuck me over. I kept on denying so you kept on trying and you went too far for closure, too far fucked me over.” The words uttered in a hush tone, her slender digits wrapped around the pen as she tapped against the notebook, inhaling a deep breath as memories of that 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 flashed across her mind; shiver runs down her spine as she blinked her eyelids a couple of times to regain her composure, the sound of the slamming of her front door yanks her back from her memory and confusion was evident on her ebony features. “Scott..?” She whispers, his dark eyes held a storm within them which Saoirse knew wouldn’t end well for her. “Don’t say my name.” Muted sigh escaped her parted lips. “What in the hell is this?” Scott roared as he tossed the magazine onto the countertop, Saoirse shifted her gaze from him and then back onto the magazine as her fingers languidly lifted it in her hands. “Scott..” She managed to say as he swiftly wrapped his digits around her neck and lifted her from her position on the couch. “I told you not to say my fucking name.” Scott’s gripped tighten around her neck, her eyelids began to flutter shut as he released her onto the cold tile. Saoirse let out a few coughs as the air slowly flowed back into her lugs, tears welled in her auburn eyes. “This is my fault; I should’ve known that he would want you for himself.” Saoirse placed her palm against her stomach as her fingers glided against the fabric. “He said he would only sign to the record label if he did a song with you, and I believed it was professional but now all the tabloids are saying you two are together and the baby in your stomach is his.” He paused momentarily, his glance landed on her stomach and then back to her face. “T..t..that’s not true.” Saoirse said softly. “You know this is 𝐨𝐮𝐫 baby. I..I love you.” A few tears glided down her cheek as she looked up at him, the pad of her fingers still gliding against her stomach. “You love me? You think I am stupid, don’t you? You don’t fucking love me, you love yourself and that thing inside of you. I told you before that I own you. Not that baby and not that wannabee rapper.” Each word that left his mouth sends a shiver down her spine, she slowly began to back away and her head rapidly shaking. “Please..” She mumbled. “Please don’t.” The grin that curled on his lips was one that she had seen before, and Saoirse knew that nothing she said would stop him from whatever he was going to do next. “It’s too late to beg now, even though I love when you do.” The grin on his lips spread wide as his eyes narrowed into slits, his right hand extended outward and his finger grazed the golden poker near the roaring fire, flicking the piece of mental within his digits. “W…what are you going to do with that?” She questioned. “I’m going to solve the problem, Saoirse.” His tone was stern, and her name circulated in her head, the tears that cascaded down her face felt like acid against her skin. Scott had never called her by her name; he always called her 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐚 which was a name that he gave to her. Scott had always been controlling since the beginning and Saoirse was naïve to believe that he would ever change.

Scott stalked towards her; his free hand coiled with her ankle as screams spilled from the depths of her lips. “Scott, please don’t do this.” Her frame yanked forward; the tears blurred her vision, but she still caught sight of his devilish grin. “Angel, you can scream all you want, it doesn’t matter. It just makes this more enjoyable.” Laughter emitted from his throat and with a quick flick of his wrist she felt a surging pain throughout her whole body, she glanced downward as drops of blood oozed between her parted legs. “I told you to behave.” He pulled the metal poker outward, and a gush of crimson colored liquid poured out, her head became light as her eyelids blinked a few times. Her screams grew louder as he repeatedly plunged the metal against her stomach. “Saoirse you are 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞.” The words he spoke began to fade in the background, her mouth opened but nothing escaped her lips. She could hear him repeatedly piercing her with the mental, but her body was numb, her eyelids fluttering shut.

“Scott, what the fuck?!” Dawn’s high-pitched voice bounced off the walls as Scott gripped onto the metal, he glanced up momentarily only to focus his attention back onto Saoirse but she was fading away, her eyes were shut and the blood beneath his shoes continued to pour out. “I am teaching her a lesson.” Scott said, his words escaped in a cool tone as he glanced down at the woman he claimed to love. “If she dies tonight then this supposed lesson you are teaching her will not be learned and your precious record label will end in flames because 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥, is the label.” Dawn’s words caused him to halt, dropping the golden metal poker to the ground and he dropped to his knees as he lifted Saoirse body in his arms. “Angel, can you hear me?” Silence. “Vera?” Silence. “Saoirse?” Silence. “Baby, please I’m sorry..” His words uttered in a hush tone, but nothing came from her mouth, he rested his head against her chest; her heart rate was weak. “Scott.” Dawn snapped at him, she sighed. “We have to get her to the hospital because at this rate we will lose her.”

•••

“Saoirse, can you hear me?” The voice questioned, he pulled up her eyelids as he shinned a light in her eyes and shifted his gaze onto the nurses. “You must save her! You better fucking save her!” Scott’s voice pierced through the packed waiting room; the nurse stood in front of him as Saoirse was pushed towards the double doors. “Sir, you need to calm down. We will try all that we can to save Ms. Davis.” He nodded his head, he turned and looked over at Dawn. Scott had always been controlling when it came to Saoirse Vera Davis, but he knew that this time, he took it 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫.”

𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝

[angelvyxen]

Afternoon ladies! Newsbreak for 5/11/23📰🚨

-Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis (head injury) will not return to tonight’s game. And he got escorted out with a wheel chair https://twitter.com/chrisbhaynes/status/1656514577604186113?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-After Prince William accepted millions secretly from Rupert Murdoch while Harry takes him to court, today he honored Jason Knauf, who contributed to Meghan's miscarriage by collaborating with the Daily Mail. Prince Harry dug a grave with his bare hands for his unborn child. https://twitter.com/archewellbaby/status/1656359488406822912?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-British officials have confirmed the first-ever births of babies using DNA from three different people. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1656337510996275200?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Today is Viola Fletcher's 109th birthday. She is one of the three last known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. (5/10/23) https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1656282957433438208?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a major bill weakening public sector unions — but *excluded* unions that are more likely to support Republicans. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1656003193174728709?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Tucker Carlson just announced on Twitter that he is relaunching his show ... on Twitter. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1656039438751809537?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Jury in federal civil case finds Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll and then defamed her when he denied it. Jean got 5 million and trump won’t face any time since it’s a civil case sadly https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1656014711169724419?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Tory Lanez WILL NOT get a new trial for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion. This is according to Judge David Herriford, who ruled from the bench a few minutes ago. (5/9/23) but yesterday it was just announced he could get up to 9 more years! https://twitter.com/meghanncuniff/status/1656012057953849344?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Robert De Niro has revealed he has become a father to his seventh child at the age of 79. https://twitter.com/popcrave/status/1655935739186778116?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Far-right Rep. Bryan Slaton has resigned from the Texas House after an investigation found he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 19-year-old on his staff. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655657518805266432?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-6-year-old survives after his mother, father and 3-year-old brother killed in Texas mall shooting. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655743194590478336?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Shooting at Dallas-area mall included at least eight victims between ages of 5 and 61 brought to hospitals. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655007123951046659?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Texas officials identify victims killed in Dallas-area mall shooting including 3-year-old boy, 2 grade-school girls. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655721766499627008?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Police: Dallas-area mall shooting left 9 dead, others injured. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655033838169477123?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Florida Democrats are hoping to recruit Grant Hill and Dwayne Wade to run against GOP Sen. Rick Scott in 2024. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655716790209503234?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the CIA rigs elections and assassinates leaders who refuse to comply with their agenda. https://twitter.com/leadingreport/status/1655337114307903489?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Hotel night manager accused of entering room and sucking on man’s toes. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1655180016907440130?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Horse euthanized after suffering knee injury in race ahead of Kentucky Derby, the 6th horse that has died in recent days. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1654915438046765060?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-A new DeSantis-backed bill would prohibit Chinese citizens from owning land — or homes — anywhere in the state of Florida. Asian American groups fear the bill will lead to racial profiling. https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1654104871505903616?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-a video of trump in court saying how stars can grab women by our pu$$y https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1654606787155206144?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-Summit Erupts Into Fistfight Between Russian and Ukrainian Delegates. https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-and-ukrainian-delegates-brawl-over-ukrainian-flag-at-summit-in-turkey

-An 8th grader “was forced to remove her shirt and pants, lift up her bra, and fold down the top of her underwear, knowing she was on her period” while officials at a Detroit school searched for a (nonexistent) vape pen, a lawsuit stated. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1654169013977489410?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

-FDA panel recommends allowing birth control pill to be sold over the counter. https://apple.news/A9Fh1QsZLRAemwZ03GeUBeQ

-The pandemic-era immigration law known as Title 42 ends Thursday. Here’s what you need to know. https://apple.news/A64tgKInhS1CJ0l7FmVhLkQ

-US Rep. George Santos of New York faces charges of wire fraud, money laundering and lying to Congress. https://twitter.com/phil_lewis_/status/1656288412297486337?s=46&t=6IIfCmFJC09gIma2nDjk2Q

Also more from the Texas mall shooting

-Family members confirm 20-year-old security guard Christian LaCour was also killed in the shooting

-Aishwarya Thatikonda, an engineer who originally came from India, has been identified as the 5th victim of the Texas mall shooting

-Family killed in the Texas mall shooting identified as Cindy Cho, Kyu Cho and their 3-year-old son, James Cho. Their other child, William, just turned 6 and is the only survivor. They were going to the mall to exchange clothes he received for his birthday.

-Daniela Mendoza, a 4th grader, and Sofia Mendoza, a 2nd grader, have been identified as victims of the Texas mall shooting. They were sisters. Their mother, Ilda, is in critical condition.

-Photo released of the sisters killed in the Texas mall shooting. Daniela was 10, Sofia was 8. Their mother is in critical condition.

-Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32, has been identified as the 8th victim of the Texas mall shooting

May they rest in peace/ pull through that’s all for now.

Apologies for being 3 days late to delivering the news, but I am here now! Thank you as always to our corespondent News Anon 👩🏽‍💼.

- I hope he’s doing alright. The Lakers really need him.

- For being a family who’s only job is to shut up and be rich, they sure do have a lot of shit constantly going on. Anyways, the only one I’m rooting for at this point is Meghan.

- I get that stuff like this is supposed to be ‘good’ because science is advancing but it kinda scares me. Generics aren’t something you should mess with.

- Happiest of birthdays to Ms. Viola. I hope 109 treats her well 🥳.

- Again, what ever happened to assassinating elected officials???

- Fox gave Tuck Tuck his job back? Good for him I guess?

- I lost interest in the case when I found out there was no way he’d (Trump) ever serve time. I mean, good for her for getting money but I feel like no real justice was served.

- THE MANIFESTATION WORKED! TORY IS STAYING HIS MIDGET ASS IN JAIL AND GETTING BECOMING SOMEONES PRISON BITCH! WE LOVEEEE TO SEE IT!

- We need to start forcefully castrating men. There should be NO reason he’s having children.

- You notice how it’s on republicans doing things that they always denounce? ‘Gays are pedophiles!’ They say as they have a mountain of child porn on their computers. I heavily dislike them all.

- I saw this. I hope he has family that can take care of him, going into the system is almost worse than losing both parents. Especially since he’s not white.

- Ban Guns.

- BAN GUNS.

- BAN GUNS!

- Dwayne Wade? 😭 I can’t even be mad at it because for some reason I feel like he’d make a decent politician.

- Did he lie? I think not.

- Jesus Christ?!? The TOES?

- R.I.P to that horse. I knew they would’ve showed up and showed out at that Derby.

- I saw this one too. I also saw something about Hispanic being mad at DeSantis for whatever the fuck, when they also voted for him lol. DeSantis will ruin Florida and all the POC who thought they’d be safe because they all mutually hate black people and gay people will be in for a RUDE awakening. Anywho, I hope all the Asian Americans will be alright. It’s getting nasty in Florida.

- I cannot wait for the day Trump dies.

- White people are so ghetto.

- ARREST EVERY ADULT INVOLVED. You can’t just do a simple a search?? The child has to strip down naked because of a Vape Pen? Not even crack, a VAPE PEN.

- THE FDA HAS SENSE! Generic Birth control should be sold over the counter, you should be able to get a prescription at any Walgreens or CVS. & specialized BC should be made for women who other health issues that don’t allow them to take BC.

- All of my immigrants who are not citizens or residents, take a gander at that Title-42.

- Another day, another politician that’s a criminal.

- May all the victims of the Texas mall shooting Rest in Heavenly Peace.

[did-nathan-cheat-on-haleyrp]

did nathan cheat on haley mod menu XP29&

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Renee Richardson was a woman who claimed to have slept with Nathan Scott during his first NBA season on the road, despite his marriage to Haley James Scott. No, Nathan never cheated on Haley. He has been loyal and honest towards the love of his life. But he was framed in the 7th season of One Tree Hill. I love Nathan and Haley as characters a lot, but there is no denying that Haley did cheat in season 2. In season 5, Nathan handled the carrie. Did Nathan cheat on Hayley? No, Nathan never cheated on Haley. He has been loyal and honest towards the love of his life. But he was framed in the 7th season. Nathan Royal Scott is a fictional character from the CW television series One Tree Hill He fell in love with Lucas's best friend, Haley James; and they married. Opposites often attract in the world of romantic television, especially in the world of high school drama One Tree Hill. Bad boy jock Nathan Scott and proud nerd tutor Haley James couldn't have come from more different worlds, and couldn't have made less sense on paper. But over time, these two found themselves drawn to each other, eventually falling in love, marrying, and building a beautiful family. While almost every romantic relationship in the series is contested by fans to this date, the relationship fondly known as Naley remains one of One Tree Hill 's most beloved storylines, no matter their many ups and downs. Though Nathan and Haley's relationship undoubtedly happened on a less than ideal personal timeline, it's hard not to feel sentimental and romantic about the birth of their first child. Haley goes into labor during their high school graduation, and Nathan is there for her every step of the way through the delivery. Their tearful smiles and joyful embraces upon the birth of James Lucas Scott stand out as some of the series' most loving moments. Before Nathan met Haley, he was more than a little bit of a bad boy, and quite a promiscuous one, too. During his previous relationship with Peyton Sawyer, Nathan even slept with Peyton's best friend, Brooke Davis, and made a sex tape with her. This would have been bad enough if Nathan didn't go on to get married to Haley. But it's made even worse when Haley learns about the sex tape while pregnant, and in an incredibly humiliating public scenario. While it was probably a bad idea for Nathan and Haley to get married when they were all of fifteen or sixteen years old, their second marriage two years later finds these two in much wiser if not much older positions. The third season finale wedding is what these young lovers always deserved, with their friends and loved ones present to join in the celebration. And though things go incredibly wrong afterward, this one peaceful moment of romantic bliss is more than earned at that point. One Tree Hill is an over the top soap opera in many ways, but at its core, the series is a drama about family, love, and basketball. For Nathan and Haley, those three things intersect in many ways, but they do so in an incredibly painful way in the series' fourth season. Nathan gets embroiled in a high school basketball gambling scheme with some very shady characters. When he refuses to throw a game as he has been asked to, Haley already pregnant winds up being hit by a car and very seriously injured. Nathan Scott spends almost his entire young adult life working his way to the NBA. After a debilitating injury left him near paralyzed during his college years, it seemed as though this dream was not meant to be for the young man, no matter how fully Haley supported him in his pursuit. But by the end of the series' sixth season, all of that changed when Nathan gleefully informed a stunned and tearful Haley that he had been signed by the Charlotte Bobcats. Their ecstatic embrace more than says it all. Season five is a difficult time for Nathan and Haley's relationship, as they spend almost the entire season on the outs in some way or another. But one of the most difficult times comes when, during an already heated argument between the married couple, they realize their young son, Jamie, is drowning in the family pool. Nathan rushes in to save the young boy, culminating in an incredibly emotionally fraught moment between the family where Haley, beyond overwhelmed and taxed, goes so far as to ask for a divorce. Kisses in the rain may not be ideal or realistic for many reasons, but more than any other television couple in recent history, Nathan and Haley have the art of the rain kiss down to a science. The two share a handful of rain kisses throughout the series, ranging from its first season all the way to the series finale. It's one of their many grand, sweeping romantic signature gestures, and it's one that stays with fans even after all these years. One Tree Hill is hardly a world where characters have realistic lives and career trajectories. That's made abundantly clear early on when, just midway through the series' second season, onetime Tutor Girl Haley James becomes a bonafide rockstar and approached with the opportunity to go on tour with Chris Keller and The Wreckers. Even though Nathan and Haley had just married, and even though Nathan didn't want her to go, Haley decides to leave anyways, bringing a sudden end to the young lovebirds' marriage the first time around. As should be abundantly clear by now, the romance between Nathan Scott and Haley James Scott is hardly one of television's most realistic. It's not often that high school sweethearts stay together forever, certainly not when they get married during those same high school years. But from the very beginning, these two shared their vows of always and forever, reaffirming their commitment to each other time and again throughout the series with those same words. And no matter what obstacle came their way, the series never let fans truly doubt them. Cheating is all too common in Tree Hill, but it's never been more toxic than during the poorly thought out and terrifying Nanny Carrie storyline in the series' fifth season. It's bad enough that Nathan hid the young nanny's flirtations with him from Haley, and lied to her about them as they grew more intense. But it's even worse as the plot spirals out of control, including a naked Carrie joining an unwilling Nathan in the shower and Carrie kidnapping Jamie, all at the expense of Nathan and Haley's struggling marriage.

[niallloverontheloose]

I’m waiting for Scott McCall/Tyler Posey stans to give Tyler Posey (with his involvement as a producer in the Teen Wolf Movie, him asking for more money despite knowing about Arden Cho, his gross "The Teen Wolf Movie has every character you'd ever want to see! It's everything we and you fans wanted!" comment, and his personal involvement in casting his own family in it) the same energy for the mistreatment of Arden as they give to hating on Tyler Hoechlin.

Y'all can’t keep making allegations against Hoechlin and then stay silent about your shitty personal fave, who is just as involved in the racist treatment of Arden Cho as Jeff Davis is. Either all of the Teen Wolf Movie producers are at fault and deserve to be called out, or stop trying to excuse Tyler Posey's shitty actions and behavior and denying his role in the racist treatment of Arden Cho in Teen Wolf and the Teen Wolf Movie. 

[thehollowprince]

Or maybe it was about Erica, Boyd or Isaac? Three characters that lasted a season, a season and a half, and two seasons respectively, all of whom also would not have been werewolves without Scott / Except that Boyd's, Erica's and Isaac's choice to get the Bite has literally nothing to do with Scott. And just because Jeff Davis got rid of them to prop Scott up and convince the audience that Scott was "superior" and "better" than Derek (his victim) doesn't mean they are less important than Scott

Oh, my dear sweet stupid child.

The choice that was offered to Erica, Isaac and Boyd (a luxury not offered to Scott) had everything to do with Scott. Without Scott, Derek would never have gotten the chance to kill his uncle and assume the Alpha mantle. It was Derek's direct manipulation of Scott, and then Scott's subsequent rescue of the man who repeatedly assaulted him, that allowed Derek to strike that killing blow. Without Scott, Derek never would have had the power to even offer the bite in the first place.

You can deny it to your heart's content, but when it comes to this show, all roads lead to Scott McCall.

This goes to the rabid Sterek shippers in my notes citing that time Stiles allowed Derek to hide out in his room as proof that Stiles really cared about Derek. You can bring that up until the cows come home, but you're leaving out the key motivation of that decision to allow Derek to hide.

Scott.

Stiles did what he did in season one, particularly every interaction with Derek, because of Scott. He was trying to help his best friend. He used Derek to sway Danny into tracing the text sent to Allison to help Scott.

Scott was the linchpin of this show and without him, you would have absolutely nothing to pretend you like.

PS: just for the record, he didn't "get rid of them" to make Scott look better. Those characters (along with others) were written off because the actors chose to go and pursue other projects.

[princeescaluswords]

I just saw some Anti-Scott people criticise Scott for the library scene in 5x18, for "putting everybody in danger" by leading the Beast to the children. They really do anything to villanise Scott🤦🏼‍♀️

I, thankfully, have never seen any anti-Scott people making that argument. It would be incredible. It would require them to ignore more than ten minutes of footage before that scene. It would require them to ignore what the library means to Scott for 78 previous episodes. It would require them to ignore cinematographic language and musical cues. It would require them to imagine that Jeff Davis intended that scene to attack Scott. It would be such an extremely toxic take that I can't picture someone attaching to their name to this atrociously bad criticism.

So, of course, I believe you 100%.

Because disproving their wretched interpretation takes less effort than doing the work I get paid to do, let me walk everyone through it. Scott, at the end of A Credible Threat (5x17), was inside the school trying to calm Kira down after her fight with Lori. Outside, due to the Desert Wolf's interference, Malia had failed to prevent the high-frequency broadcast, which triggered Mason's transformation into the Beast. The episode ended with Scott hearing screaming students seeking shelter in the school with the Beast pursuing the students.

Interwoven with the Beast's origin story in The Maid of Gevaudan (5x18), we see Scott fight a running battle with the Beast through the halls of the school. Only Scott is fighting the Beast, because a badly hurt Liam is being cared for by Stiles and Hayden and an unharmed Malia is looking for Stiles, worried for him because of both the Beast and her biological mother's threat. Scott fights to save a girl in the chemistry classroom, fights the Beast in the hallway, and finally seeks refuge in the library in order to catch his breath. None of this is imagined by me -- it's all visible on the screen. The Beast has been chasing students and Scott through the school for an entire episode before Scott's and the Beast's climactic confrontation in the library.

This confrontation is initiated because Scott, bloody and beaten, realizes while leaning against the table to rest for a moment that there are close to two dozen students hiding in the library. He decides to make a stand there, in the place where he was murdered and resuscitated only a few weeks ago, and to face probably death to save those students, only one whose name the audience knows at this point. "Go upstairs."

Their lives were already in terrible danger, unless you think that La Bete, a creature described by Gerard Argent in Damnatio Memoriae (5x12) as "A monster whose only purpose was to kill. Not for sustenance, not for revenge, not for any rational impulse other than the drive to end life wherever it's found." was going to spare their lives and go for a froyo instead. But sure, Scott was the one who endangered them.

I wonder if this argument appears in #anti scott mccall. I don't go to that tag, so I can't be sure, and I've never seen it shown up in the #scott mccall tag, though I've seen takes there almost as bad as this one.

There's a edgy sort of desperation in these attacks, as they flail uselessly trying to tell people that Scott wasn't a hero at all, that he was motivated by simplistic morals, vanity, selfishness, or -- at the height of racist absurdity -- by an arcane conspiracy led by his black mentor. In their fever-like Flat-Eartherish zeal, they will declare that Scott never did a single good thing the entire show, ignoring the reality that he has an iron-clad claim to heroism by simply showing up to fight the Beast.

In order to deny that they would have to ignore the fact that Scott fell unconscious with every expectation that he was dying, six times in the two years represented by Seasons 1 through 5: Co-Captain (1x10), Raving (2x08), Frayed (3x05), Alpha Pact (3x11), Time of Death (4x08), and Status Asthmaticus (5x10). As a high school senior, he had no moral obligation to get out there and try to stop the Beast, Theo, and the Dread Doctors once again. He had taken no oaths, he wasn't getting paid, and he certainly wasn't being supported. It's just amazing to me that the anti-Scott people can look at his behavior and find nothing laudable at all, when at any time, Scott could have said "I'm done," picked up the phone, called his dad and moved away to finish high school. He could have made the Beast and Theo and the Doctors someone else's problem, like Chris Argent or Sheriff Noah "Useless Nepotist" Stilinksi. Instead of saving that girl, he could have gone out the window himself and went home; he could have simply left.

You know, like Derek Hale did.

You see what I did there? That sentence is true: Derek Hale did leave. But that sentence also strips the event of all context and nuance. Reducing Derek's departure at the end of season four to simply leaving ignores everything that's gone before and his entire character development. It also unfairly maligns the character when real life intruded, as Tyler Hoechlin wanted to leave. It was a way for the writers to integrate what had to happen, using Hoechlin's departure and Derek's departure to highlight Scott's full embrace of his status as alpha.  It was a decision by the production to heighten the action, you know, like having Scott catch his breath in the library to discover students hiding there raises the stakes for his confrontation with the Beast.

If you had brought up this argument to me in 2016 when I first joined the fandom, I would have scoffed at you, because I wouldn't believe that someone could watch that scene and come to that conclusion. But I've endured this insidious campaign by extremists for five years, and I've watched it influence how the fandom views the show, and it's just as risible and racist as it was when I first noticed it. They have no limits. I'm waiting for them to claim that Scott allowed one of those six times I mentioned above to happen in order to get attention. It's bound to happen.

[brydeswhale]

The thing about sterek is that even tho, as I said, the show ITSELF didn’t lean on the ship, enough ppl inside and outside of fandom did use it for attention that the perception of teen wolf often was sterek.

From the idea of sterek as an actual ship on the show(more than one person in my circle expressed surprise when they started watching at how LITTLE Stiles and Derek actually interacted) to the idea that sterek would be canon if only Davis and co would stop being so cowardly.

(Denial runs deep in these ppl bc even in the godless tens and on cable, no one was going to actually make a pairing between an obnoxious teen and the man who, I will repeat this, assaulted him on more than one occasion, canon. It was never going to happen.)

It took Tyler Hoechlin leaving the show IIRC for the sterek fervour to die down.

And even then, the sterek contingency just shoved the supposed chemistry onto other white characters in Stiles’ vicinity, eg Peter(yikes), the villain of the month, or Lydia(I mean, at least they’re the same age, even if Stiles repeatedly fuckzoned her.).

Which honestly just proved what a lot of non/anti-sterek ppl had already been saying, which was that it wasn’t really about sterek. In fact it wasn’t even about Derek.

(Which had already BEEN evidenced by how sterek and stiles fans had taken Derek’s character development(he became less of an asshole) and canon love interests. They were particularly vitriolic towards Braeden, his second love interest, who happened to also be Black. Predictably.)

It was about what Stiles represented. The white lead they never got.

You might hear that TW was an ensemble show, or that it had an “unreliable narrator”(this was from one of the most racist anti-Scott ppl in fandom), but the reality was that the titular Teen Wolf of the show, Scott McCall, was the lead.

And the majority of the Stiles’ fandom couldn’t and can’t STAND this.

They absolutely writhed in agonies of racism over it, and spread their misery everywhere they could.

From harassment over anon, to fic after fic bashing Scott, to poorly researched, bad faith meta, gifs, and fan art, a highly vocal section of fandom(still active to this day) set out to do battle against the very show it claimed to be a fan of.

And this harassment didn’t stop at other fans. The actors were also targeted, to the point where Crystal Reed cited her treatment by fans as part of her incentive to exit the show.

Tyler Posey, who played Scott, was done much worse, as continues to this day. This has included ppl accusing him, a queer dude, of queer baiting, and someone who basically urged him to commit suicide when he opened up about his mental health issues post his mom’s death.

Of course, you’ll see many sterek/stiles’ fans talking about how these egregious occurrences are the work of a few “bad apples”, and “real” fans don’t do that.

Which would be easier to believe if they actually spoke out against these actions, against the racist tropes so often used in their fic and art, if they pointed out how the supposed “meta” produced by their number contains both bad takes and outright falsehoods, but, well.

They don’t.

In fact, they usually go out of their way to DENY that these ppl even exist. They say that Scott and Tyler Posey fans are the ones committing the harassment, that the call is coming from inside the house, and then they actually straight up lie about the rest of fandom.

So honestly, if any of them did speak up, we all know that the rest of them would turn on that person like the pack of starving hamsters they are.

Basically, sterek and stiles fans were not fans of the show. They were Ppl who put their fetishistic adoration of white male centred slash above the actual media they were supposedly consuming. I’m not saying that Teen Wolf was perfect. It sure as hell wasn’t. I’ve commented before on the bigoted tropes the show used and the cultural appropriation that basically made NO SENSE.

But at its heart, as explored thru Scott, it was a show about essentially rejecting the toxic masculinity pervasive in the urban fantasy/horror genre it took its inspiration from. Scott grows over the course of the show from a frightened teenager to a courageous leader, from someone willing to kill if that’s what it takes, to someone who kills as a last resort only, who relies on intelligence and diplomacy to get the job done.

He becomes someone who rejects the violence in the world he’s brutally forced to enter in favour of kindness and hope, even when things seem at their worst. A strong Latino(and yes, despite sterek denials, Scott is Latino) lead embodying the best his world had to offer, a new way forward that even the old guard and his worst enemies admired.

But when there are two white guys who exist within the same square mile on a tv show, who cares about that, amiright?

Bonus

https://twitter.com/cetotherium/status/1418570345007755267?s=21

And that was a big draw for a lot of ppl. When most urban fantasy was about EMBRACING toxic masculinity, Teen Wolf asked the Uber macho, might makes right, violently abusive Hunter/supernatural communities, “What the heck, man, are you alright?”

And Sterek fans HATED that, 😂. Their idea of a good urban fantasy horror show is one where the vicious but oh so cute white protagonist is over powered by the commanding, controlling, abusive alpha werewolf.

It would not surprise me at all if most of them were Anita Blake fans. Between the racism and the outright rejection of the core message of the show, they seem to have been saturated in LKH’s weird, bigoted nonsense.

[shawnssongs]

A New Start

pairing: topper thornton x reader

wc: 1478

warnings: unedited, mention of parental disappointment

summary: topper is a mess after sarah goes missing, and the reader wants to help him out despite protests from JJ

masterlist

gif from @water-aesthetics

“That was weak!” JJ mocked as the two of you made your way back up the beach from a rather unsuccessful session of surfing. Well, unsuccessful on your part.

“Shut up, JJ.” You joke, punching him lightly on the arm, causing him to laugh.

“You know, you really gotta get better at that now that John B’s gone.”

You gulped at the mention of your friend. Gone. Missing. Maybe dead. The fact that you weren’t sure is what killed you. You friends could be alive and having the time of their lives down in Mexico like they’d planned, they could be stranded in the middle of the ocean with no food or water, they could be lost at sea. There was no way of knowing.

“I was just distracted,” you mumble, your thoughts upsetting you a bit.

JJ quirks his eyebrow. “Distracted by what?”

You turn slightly, your best friend following your gaze to a certain blond boy, sat in the sand with his knees bent in front of him, staring out to sea. He was wearing a pair of board shorts and a dirty looking tee shirt, sunglasses covering the bags under his eyes. He’d been there since you and JJ had arrived, and he only ever moved to lift the bottle concealed in a brown paper bag up to his mouth for a swig.

JJ scoffs. “Topper distracted you? He’s been sitting there like a statue, drunk off his ass for days.”

You just roll your eyes and help JJ tie your boards to the top of the Volkswagen which he’d inherited when John B left.

“Chateau or your place?” JJ asked. He’d been staying at your house often, your parents being gracious enough to offer him as much food as they could spare. He hadn’t even tried to go back home after taking the phantom other than the one time he went to pack clothes, but he made sure his dad wasn’t home first. When JJ wasn’t at yours, he spent his time at the Chateau.

“Um, my mom’s cooking, so you can head to mine. I’ll meet you there.”

You start to turn but JJ stops you. “Wait meet me? You’re going back?”

You nodded your head. “JJ, he lost someone he loved too. And he has no one.”

“Oh please.” JJ countered. “He’s the king of the kooks. He has everyone.”

You shook your head at JJ’s ignorance. “He can’t talk to his mom. He can’t talk to Kelce. He can’t talk to Rafe.” Kelce didn’t understand the feeling, and Topper lost someone he loved, but Rafe lost his sister. He couldn’t talk to them.

“Rafe fucking caused it-”

“JJ,” you warn. Every time JJ let his mind wander to the kook, he’d let himself get mad. You’ve spent a few different nights trying to clean up the messes JJ made in the Chateau from his outbursts, punching walls and kicking things. If he didn’t already hate Rafe, he sure did now.

“Look, Jay, just go home. I’ll meet you there.”

JJ shook his head, still disagreeing with what you were about to do, but he obliged and let you go.

When you could no longer hear the hum of the engine, you padded through the sand toward’s Topper’s form. Not a muscle moved in his body as you sat down next to him in the sand, and if you couldn’t see that his eyes were open behind his sunglasses from the angle you were at, you probably would’ve thought he’d fallen asleep.

You sat there for a few minutes, staring out to sea like Topper. You weren’t sure what to say, but you wanted to keep him company.

After taking a sip of whatever alcohol he had in that paper bag, he reached his hand across his body, offering the bottle to you.

You shake your head, “I’m good,” so Topper shrugs and takes it for himself once again.

“How are you?” You ask, cringing at the words.

Surprisingly, he answers you. “Upset.” Pause. “Lonely.” You give him time to continue, but just as you were about to speak, he adds on one more. “Angry.”

You nod.

“Why are you here?” He asked, finally turning to face you.

You shrug. “You looked like you needed someone.”

“I don’t.”

“Topper, I know what you’re feeling. I’ve known John B since I was born. He was practically my brother.”

“Y’know, it doesn’t even hurt that it was John B.” Topper spoke quickly, interrupting your story and catching you off guard.

“What?” You asked, eyes wide.

“Sarah. It doesn’t bother me that she left me for John B.” He clarified.

“So what is it?”

“I loved her and she didn’t love me back, and I was an asshole about it because I knew. I knew I couldn’t hold on to her. Now she’s...” He trailed off, turning to face the horizon once again.

“John B was my first love.”

Topper scoffed at your confession.

“Hear me out, Top. I used to have the biggest crush on him. I followed him everywhere, did everything he did in hopes for that small chance he’d like me back.” You chuckle at yourself. “It lasted years.”

Topper turns to you and you can tell he waiting for the point of your story.

“And then I got over it.”

“How?”

“Because it wasn’t really love. It was infatuation.”

“How do you know the difference?”

“You don’t.” You shake your head, trying to look into Topper’s eyes, but staring right back into your own through the reflection of his sunglasses. “Not until it’s over.”

“Well things are pretty over between me and Sarah,” he sneered.

“Yeah, but your feelings for her aren’t. They will be, Top. Trust me.”

Topper didn’t respond and the two of you sat in silence, yet again. When your eyes drifted from the horizon to the dirty blond next to you, you couldn’t help but see Topper in a different light. He had been horrible to you and your friends, but he was just like you. He was just like JJ. He was a teenager that felt too much, gave into peer pressure too easily because he had no confidence in himself. Here he was, contemplating everything because he didn’t know who he was without Sarah or Rafe. He just needed time to find himself.

Topper could feel your eyes on him, so when you looked away, he would take the chance to watch you. The two of you had never been friends. He was horrible to you and the pogues, so why were you here? Why did you seem to care about him? The longer he sat there, the more he studied you. You were tanned from the sun, freckles adorning your skin. Your hair was mostly dry now, wavy and tangled since you hadn’t gotten a chance to brush it after surfing. Topper had noticed that too. He’d deny it, but he’d been watching you surf all day. Something about you was so intriguing to him. He found himself regretting all his choices in the past. He wasn’t a good guy, just like his mom would always say to him, and he wanted to fix that.

After a little while longer, Topper stood up, reaching his hand out to you.

You took it with pleasure and let him help you up out of the sand.

“Do you want to um, get something to eat?” He asked, his voice unsteady.

You give a soft smile to the boy in front of you before answering. “Um, I would...”

Of course, Topper thought to himself. You were just being kind, you couldn’t really car—

“but my mom is cooking,” you continued. “I have to get home.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I do want to, though.” You assured, placing your hand on Topper’s arm.

He hadn’t realized it, but Topper hadn’t felt any sort of human contact, any touch in days and your soft skin sent tingles throughout his body.

“Yeah?”

You nod. “Yeah. I’d um, I would invite you over but JJ’s there...” you trailed off. Topper would get the gist.

“No, I get it. If I were JJ, I wouldn’t want to see me either.”

You smile at the boy, finally removing your hand from his arm. “Bye, Top.”

He was about to let you go, but there was something left unsaid. “Wait!” He stopped you, this time him being the one to grip your arm. “I’m sorry. For everything.”

“Thank you.” You accept his apology. You could tell it was genuine. You’d usually say there’s no reason to be sorry, but in Topper’s case, there was.

Topper knew he should let you go, but for some reason he couldn’t. “Do you, uh. I know I can’t be there but, can I walk you home?”

You couldn’t help but smile at the gesture. “Yeah. That sounds nice.”

part 2?

add yourself to my tag list: all fics @thatsme-johnbookerroutledge @harrysbbby @maybe-maybanks @maybankdreams @ilovejjmaybank @i-love-scott-mccall @thelonewolfdies @obx-direction-sos @mahleeyuh @jjmeybank @simonsblue @summer-clouds-and-long-days @deviouscharitos all obx @thelocalpogue @maybankiara @ewgrossiknow @poguelifesurfshop @stargazingstarkey @pogxe @t8-er-tot @amanecer-cora @rudths @x-lulu @pixelated-pogues @apoguecalledjj @hiddleless @sungieeeeeee @letsgotothehop @canibeoneofthepogues @davis-brooke @cheshirecat107 @tcmhollnd @jjs--whore @miawantsapuppy @talksoprettyjjx @dani-c20 @hemmoemotional @kennedywxlsh @drew-starkey @beth-winchester21 @queenofthebees003 @jiaraendgame @teenwaywardasgardian strikethrough means I couldn’t tag you! let me know if there are any mistakes

[izcana]

“Darling, I’m Home!”

Disclaimer: I do not Teen Wolf. That credit goes to Jeff Davis. The only thing I own is the plot line. Enjoy! If I'm being honest here I might as well mention that I've never watched a single episode of Teen Wolf (:p) but I've read plenty of fanfiction about it and I did some research on fandom about the plot – hopefully, it's enough! It's canon-divergent anyway so I don't think it'd be that big of a deal but if anything (vital)'s wrong, please tell me so I can fix it straight away!

***

"When are you going to tell them you're married?" Laura asked after dodging yet another crowd of fans. "You can't go on like this forever, you know." Laura was probably right. She's always right. Yet Derek couldn't do it. Separating his personal life from his acting career was the best solution and he was standing by this. Derek felt bad for Stiles, his lovely mate, at home all alone and caring for the precious pups in his stomach. Despite all this...

"I can't, Lo," Derek mumbled, opening the door to the Camaro.

"Why not, Derek?" She demanded, pulling the door angrily, though not with her full force, of course. Being an Alpha wolf meant that she could have ripped the door off its hinges. "Cora announced her marriage to Scott a couple of months ago and she's doing just fine. Plus, if you tell them you're mated, the fans will leave you alone. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"It is, okay, Laura?" Derek glared at the window, pouting at nothing. He hit the horn, though it felt more like a tap to his Alpha senses. "Cora's...different."

"For your information, Der, she's also a very sought after actress. And don't go on saying how you're more popular than she is."

"I wasn't going to," Derek replied simply, rolling his eyes.

Laura flipped her hand dismissively and glared into her phone. Derek scowled at the car in front of him and beeped his horn.

"At least talk to Stiles about this, Derek," Laura implored, her eyes softening at the mention of the said Omega. There was practically no one in the Hale family who disliked Stiles; Talia dubbed him the most adorable little boy and though he wasn't the "ideal" Omega, no one (who mattered, at least) cared and loved Stiles all the same. Derek felt a wave of shame run over him once he remembered how much he's been neglecting the pregnant little were-fox. "He'll probably want you to stay with him. He's pregnant, Derek! Start thinking a little about your mate, shall we?"

"I am, Laura," Derek denied, though he agreed that he really ought to pay more attention to Stiles.

"Your heartbeat skipped. You agree with me, so stop lying!" Laura scolded. Derek silently cursed Alpha werewolf hearing.

"Whatever, Laura, I'll think about it." And that was that. End of the conversation.

***

Derek fumbled for the keys of his apartment, having finally shaken Laura off. "Darling, I'm home!" He called into the loft. Blank silence followed.

Derek wasn't too worried about it since he could hear his mate's heartbeat beating peacefully in the background and the peaceful smell of Stiles. Under normal circumstances, Stiles would already be awake since were-fox hearing was very sensitive (Derek could think about a million other things that were sensitive about his mate but that's beside the point) despite the fact that the bedroom was soundproofed. It only worked for were-wolves and were mainly for the benefit of the Hales, who dropped by at some of the most absurd times. However, after the pregnancy was discovered, Stiles had been sleeping a lot more and he seemed tired every day (not that Derek could blame him).

He stepped into the loft quietly, making sure to drop off his shoes next to the door as his mate had apparently cleaned the hallway earlier today, even though Derek had told him time and time again not to tire himself out – it wasn't good for the baby. Stiles refused to listen, though. Stiles was Stiles.

Perhaps, Stiles might actually listen to him when the pups are almost due...

He tip-toed around the enormous leather sofa Talia had insisted they get and into their shared bedroom. He took off his clothes carefully and stealthily walked to the washroom, turning the shower console to low so it wouldn't disturb Stiles, even though Derek was certain he'd wake soon if he hadn't woken already.

By the time Derek wrapped a towel around his waist and crept into his bedroom to get his clothes, Stiles was already awake, his slightly red-rimmed and puffy amber eyes staring sleepily back at Derek, nonetheless alert. "When did you get back?"

"Half an hour ago," Derek murmured gently. Stiles nodded and stretched, showing off the beautiful milky white skin and the swollen stomach that was full of Derek's pups. Derek and Stiles' pups. "Do you want anything to eat?" Derek now knew from experience that Stiles was always hungry and came up with the most peculiar food combinations.

"Yes, please," Stiles answered predictably. "Can you get some gherkins with whipped cream?" That was one of the "favourites".

Derek went to get the said "favourite". When he came back, Stiles was on the phone.

"Huh? Oh, that. Pause. No, no, he hasn't told me. Pause. Who told you? Pause. Oh, typical. Pause. I'll ask him. Pause. I'm wonderful, thanks. Pause. Bye, Cora! Visit whenever you want!"

"What did Cora want?" Derek asked, setting the cup of herbal tea and the plate of gherkins with whipped cream on the table.

"She told me that you and Laura talked about your career," Stiles said, scarfing down the gherkins. "When were you going to tell me?"

Knowing fully well that lying to Stiles was impossible (were-fox hearing and Stiles being Stiles) he admitted "Never."

"That's what I thought. Cora seemed to think so, too."

"Do you want me to?" Derek asked softly.

"Honestly? This is selfish of me, but I do. I wish you'd be around for my pregnancy. By the pace we're going at now, you won't even be there for the birth!" Stiles cries, and to Derek's horror, promptly burst into tears. He clutched at Derek weakly, as if willing for him never to leave again but not having the strength to stop him.

"It's not selfish, Honey, you're allowed to feel what you feel," he murmured softly into Stiles's peach-scented hair.

"But..b-but..." Stiles stuttered.

"But nothing. If that's what you want, Sweetheart, I'll tell my boss tomorrow to put me on paternal leave."

"I don't want to get in the way of your work, Alpha." That's when Derek knew Stiles was completely gone. He only called Derek "Alpha" if he was in heat or upset. "You seem to like acting so much, I didn't want to slow you down," he added pathetically.

"You're my mate, Stiles," Derek said, sighing. "You don't 'slow me down', you inspire me. Where did you get that idea? I love you."

"You're a movie star! Why are you still with me? You can get someone so much better," Stiles moaned sadly, clutching his stomach when the baby started kicking at his kidneys.

"Listen. I love you, only you, never anyone else, okay?" Derek said, staring straight at Stiles, who was avoiding his eyes.

"Okay," Stiles whispered, his eyes shining with tears. One slipped out and Derek wiped it away. "I believe you."

***

Should I keep doing a/b/o stories? Please tell me in the comments – I've been very interested in a/b/o recently but I didn't know whether I was good at writing it? If you want me to, I can definitely continue; practice makes perfect!

There will be a sequel in response to requests on Archive of Our Own.

Epilogue 

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 12/18/2021

Blade Runner: Black Lotus EP#07 - Reality: Injured from the explosion, Elle stumbles back to Joseph's apartment, where he treats her wounds. Officer Davis arrives and Elle hides in an adjacent room. Davis tries to question Joseph about the Black Lotus case and mentions his past as an Blade Runner, but he denies this. Extracting useless information from Joseph, Davis exits the apartment. Joseph goes to retrieve Elle, but finds that she has left through a window. At Wallace headquarters, Niander Wallace, Jr. indicates to his father that he has been locked out of his office. Due to Elle's slayings, Wallace Sr. intends to cover the company's tracks, as their company created her. Wallace Sr. informs his son that the company will be selling its Tyrell assets, including the replicant program. Wallace Jr. insists that his replicants are flawless and that Sr. would soon realize this. Elle makes her way to Doctor M's work office building. Inside, she incapacitates a guard and trips a laser, which allows Doctor M to stun her. She awakes restrained to a machine, which Doctor M and his colleague Goodman use to view her memories, making note that some are remembered by Elle differently than were programmed and some were given to her by someone else. While trying to question her directly, Elle breaks free from the restraints and grabs Goodman. Doctor M shoots Goodman in the shoulder and Elle unhands him. He attempts to shoot her again, but a bullet hits the machine, which releases smoke, allowing Elle to move in on him. Holding her blade to his neck, she learns from Doctor M that Niander Wallace, Sr. orchestrated the doll hunt. Security guards burst into the room and Elle fatally slashes Doctor M before knocking out the guards. A frightened Goodman confirms to her that Wallace Sr. organized the hunt and that her memory of being by the pool with her boyfriend was real.

The Animatrix: 

The Second Renaissance Part I

In the mid twenty-first century, humanity falls victim to its vanity and corruption. They develop artificial intelligence, and soon build an entire race of sentient AI robots to serve them. Many of the robots are domestic servants meant to interact with humans, so they are built in "man's own image" (in a humanoid form). With increasing numbers of people released from all labor, much of the human population has become slothful, conceited, and corrupt. Despite this, the machines were content with serving humanity.

The relationship between humans and machines changes in the year 2090, when a domestic android is threatened by its owner. The android, named B1-66ER kills its owner, his pets, and a mechanic instructed to deactivate the robot, the first incident of an artificially intelligent machine killing a human. B1-66ER is arrested and put on trial, but justifies the crime as self-defense, stating that it "simply did not want to die". During the trial scene, a voice-over of the defense attorney Clarence Drummond (whose name is a dual reference to Clarence Darrow and Henry Drummond from Inherit the Wind) quoting a famous line from the Dred Scott v. Sandford case in his closing statement, which implicitly ruled that African Americans were not entitled to citizenship under United States law:

We think they are not, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings...[3]

Using this as a precedent, the prosecution argues that machines are not entitled to the same rights as human beings, and that human beings have a right to destroy their property, while the defense urges the listener not to repeat history, and to judge B1-66ER as a human and not a machine. B1-66ER loses the court case and is destroyed. Across the industrialized world, mass civil disturbances erupt when robots, along with their human supporters and sympathizers, rise in protest. Rioting and protests such as The Million Machine March unfold across the United States and Europe, and the authorities use deadly force against the machines and their human supporters.

Fearing a robot rebellion, governments across the world launch a mass purge to destroy all robots (and their human sympathizers). Millions of robots and their supporters are destroyed, but the survivors lead a mass exodus to their own new nation in the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia (specifically, in the open desert). They name their new nation Zero One (a reference to "01", the numerals used in binary notation). Zero One prospers, and following the concept of the Technological singularity, its technological sophistication increases exponentially. The Machines begin to produce efficient, highly advanced artificial intelligence that finds itself in all facets of global consumer products, which further bolsters the fledgling nation's economy, while the human nations' economies suffer severely. Eventually, the entire global industrial base becomes concentrated in Zero One, leading to a global stock market crash.

The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency summit at the UN headquarters in New York City to discuss an embargo and military blockade of Zero One. Zero One sends two ambassadors to the UN (which has become the unified world government) to request the admission of their state to the United Nations to peacefully solve the crisis, but their application is rejected and the world's nations agree to start the blockade of Zero One.

The Second Renaissance Part II

The United Nations dispatch their aircraft to unleash a massive nuclear bombardment on Zero One, devastating the nation but failing to wipe out the robotic race as the machines, unlike their former masters, were much less harmed by the radiation and heat. Shortly after, Zero One retaliates by declaring war on the rest of the world; one by one, mankind surrenders each of its territories.

As the machines advance into Eastern Europe, the desperate human leaders seek a final solution, codenamed "Operation Dark Storm", which covers the sky in a shroud of nanites, blocking out the sun to deprive the machines of solar energy, their primary energy source; inevitably, it also initiates a worldwide famine and total collapse of the biosphere.[4] Operation Dark Storm commences as hoverpad-powered planes scorched the skies all across the world, while united armies of humankind launch a massive ground offensive against the machines armed with powerful mech suits, laser beam weapons, EMP-armed cannons and tanks, neutron bombs, and countless rocket artillery.

For a time, the tide of the war swings back to the humans' favor, and many of the older generations of humanoid robots are destroyed. Before long, however, the humans' advance stalls, hampered by the fact that Operation Dark Storm also took its toll on the attacking human armies. As the older humanoid robot models perished in the war, the machines gradually remodeled themselves to appear more like the insectile, arachnid-like, and cephalopod-like Sentinels of the Matrix films – as the machines now rejected the very image of their former masters. As the apocalyptic war drags on, the human military leaders acted recklessly by detonating nuclear weapons over their own forces as they are overwhelmed by the new models of machines. The machines responded by launching a mass campaign of biological warfare. While the machines initially suffered an energy shortage after being cut off from solar power, they eventually developed a revolutionary new form of fusion - coupled with the activation energy from the bio-electricity of captured humans. The machines start deploying humongous hive-like motherships imbedded with captured human POWs, using their bio-electricity to power devastating energy weapons and serving as a power source for the machines. Whilst humanity’s wide array of EMP arsenal went offline as their sources of power were utterly exhausted. In total desperation, the remaining human armies adopted guerrilla warfare and close quarter tactics in order to avoid being vaporized by the overwhelming barrages of human-powered machine armada. However this obsolete strategy inevitably backfired as the machine legions (sentinels and harvesters) were re-programmed to hunt and capture humans at all cost, and so the last years of the war turned into a vicious hunting frenzy in which the machines brutally subdue and capture humans wherever they were found. At the same time, the machines begin to construct skyscrapers filled with conscious human prisoners as well as experimenting on the prisoner’s mental, behavioural, and psychological faculties whilst also painfully forcing them into simulated realities. On the other side, the last of the human resistance succumbed to the incurable plagues previously unleashed by the machines.

Gradually overwhelmed, the few remaining human government leaders realize they have no choice but to surrender or risk extinction. At the United Nations headquarters, the representative of Zero One signs the terms of surrender and states "Your flesh is a relic, a mere vessel. Hand over your flesh, and a new world awaits you. We demand it." Then, the Zero One representative detonates a hidden thermonuclear bomb within itself and destroys the headquarters, New York City, and the last of humanity's leadership.

The machines achieve a total victory, though only after heavy cost and leaving them masters of a burnt-out husk of a world. With the war ended, they turn to the defeated humans – refining the technology from their bio-electric tanks to build massive power plants in which humans are essentially turned into living batteries. To keep their prisoners sedated, the machines create the computer-generated virtual reality of the Matrix, feeding the virtual world into the prisoners' brains and erasing the memories of their former lives, thus the first Matrix prototype was made.

Program

Program follows the protagonist, Cis (Hedy Burress), who is engaged in her favorite training simulation: a battle program set in feudal Japan. After she successfully eliminates an attacking enemy cavalry while playing as a samurai woman, a lone, male samurai appears whom Cis recognizes as Duo (Phil LaMarr).

Initially, the two duel as allies, testing one another's fighting abilities. During the course of their duel, Duo briefly disarms Cis. He questions her concentration and wonders whether she regrets taking the Red Pill that took them out of the "peaceful life of the virtual world". They continue fighting until she finally overpowers Duo. It is at this point that Duo states that he has something to say and that he has blocked the signal so that the operator does not listen. She assumes that he wants to propose marriage, but instead he desires to return to the Matrix and wants Cis to come with him. When Cis believes he is teasing, Duo says he's serious and states that he has contacted the machines and it is the only way to find peace before it is too late. He urges Cis to return with him, but she refuses. Duo becomes more aggressive in his arguments, saying that he does not care about the truth anymore and how they live their lives is important because what is real does not matter. As Cis becomes incredulous, their battle becomes more serious and forceful and they both end up on a rooftop.

When Duo reiterates that the machines are on their way, Cis believes he has betrayed the humans and she tries to escape and requests an operator in order to exit the simulation, but Duo reminds her that no one can hear her. When he offers her to come with him again, she refuses again and Duo, in a flying leap, tries to attack her. As the blade comes towards her, Cis, standing her ground, concentrates and catches the sword and breaks it. She takes the broken end of the blade and kills Duo. Duo states his love for her as he dies. Suddenly, she wakes from the program and discovers that the encounter with Duo was a test program devised for training purposes. A man named Kaiser (John DiMaggio) assures her that she acted appropriately during the test and met the test's targets. Clearly upset that Duo wasn't real, she punches him in the face and walks away. He remarks that "aside from that last part", she passed the test.

Cis made her first appearance as an image in The Matrix Revisited.

Kid's Story

Kid's Story is the only one of the animated shorts contained in The Animatrix in which Neo appears. The story takes place during the six-month gap between The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, where Neo has joined the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and is helping the rebels free other humans from the Matrix. Kid (Clayton Watson), who was formerly known as Michael Karl Popper, is a disaffected teenager who feels there is something wrong with the world. One night, the Kid goes on his computer and onto a hacker chat room on the Internet, asking why it feels more real when he's dreaming than when he's awake. He gets a response from an unknown person (presumably Neo) and then he asks who it is and if he is alone.

The next day, he is at school, where he absent-mindedly scribbles Neo and Trinity's name and writes "get me out of here" in his notebook. He receives a call from Neo on his cell phone, who warns him that a group of Agents is coming for him and he gets chased throughout the high school, before ultimately getting cornered on the roof. He asserts his faith in Neo and throws himself off the roof. At the Kid's funeral, among the people is his teacher, who converses with another school staff member and says that the world they live in is not real and the real world is somewhere else. He also says that reality can be scary and the world must have been a harmful place for the Kid and he is now in a better world.

The next scene fades out as the Kid awakens in the real world to see Neo and Trinity watching over him. They remark that he has achieved "self substantiation" (removing oneself from the Matrix without external aid), which was considered impossible. In both the scene and The Matrix Reloaded, the Kid believes that it was Neo who saved him, but Neo says that he saved himself. The last scene shows the Kid's last question on the hacker chat room being answered with "You are not alone."

World Record

The beginning of this short includes a short narration from the Instructor (implying that this short is a Zion Archive file) explaining details behind the discovery of the Matrix by "plugged-in" humans. Only exceptional humans tend to become aware of the Matrix, those who have "a rare degree of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature", all qualities which are used to identify inconsistencies in the Matrix. This is not without exceptions, given that "some attain this wisdom through wholly different means."

The story is about Dan Davis, a track athlete, who is competing in the 100 m in the Summer Olympic Games. He has set a world record time of 8.99 seconds, but his subsequent gold medal was revoked due to drug use. He decides to compete again and break his own record to "prove them wrong." Despite support from his father and a young reporter, Dan's trainer tells him that he is physically unfit to race and that pushing himself too hard will cause a career-ending injury. Dan is adamant on racing.

On the day of the race, he is monitored by four Agents in the stadium. The race begins and Dan starts off strong. However, the muscles in his leg violently rupture, putting him at a setback and scaring many of the people in the stands. Through strong willpower, Dan ignores the injury and runs much faster than he did before, easily passing the other athletes. Before he can cross the finish line, the Agents detect that his "signal" is getting unstable in the Matrix due to his massive burst of energy. Three of the agents possess the three closest runners and try to stop him, but are unable to catch up to him.

The burst of energy causes Dan to be unplugged from the Matrix and wake up in his power-station pod, where he sees the real world through his pod. A Sentinel employs electrical restraints to secure him back in his pod. Dan's mind is thrown back into the Matrix, where his body is instantly exhausted from the race and Dan tumbles to the ground at high speed. Despite this, he easily wins the race and breaks his original time of 8.99 seconds with a time of 8.72 seconds. The next scene shows a crippled Dan being wheeled through a hospital. A nearby Agent calls his other agents to tell them that they erased Dan's memory of the race and that he will never walk again, nor be an issue for them. However, Dan whispers the word "Free", angering the agent. Dan then stands, breaking the metal screws that bind his restraints to his wheelchair, and takes a few steps before falling down and being helped up by a nurse.

Beyond

Beyond follows a teenage girl, Yoko (Hedy Burress), looking for her cat Yuki. While asking around the neighborhood, which is somewhere in Mega City that resembles Japan, she meets a group of young boys. One of them tells her that Yuki is inside a nearby haunted house where they usually play.

The haunted house is an old run-down building filled with an amalgamation of anomalies, which are revealed to be glitches in the Matrix, that the children have stumbled across. They have learned to exploit them for their own enjoyment, through several areas which seem to defy real-world physics. The boys play with glass bottles that reassemble after being shattered and they go into a large open space in the middle of the building that has a zero gravity effect. Meanwhile, as Yoko searches for Yuki throughout the building, she encounters some anomalies on her own. She goes through an area where broken lightbulbs flicker briefly (during which they seem intact), walks into a room where rain is falling from a sunny sky and goes down a hallway where a gust of wind appears and disappears. She finally finds Yuki outside on a concrete pavement where she sees shadows that do not align with their physical origins. Yoko then joins the boys in the open space, where she sees a dove feather rotating rapidly in mid-air and experiences the zero gravity as she falls to the ground slowly and safely. She and the boys start using the zero gravity force to float, jump high and do athletic stunts all in mid-air and can also land and fall without hitting the ground hard. Despite the inherent strangeness of the place, the group is not bothered as they enjoy themselves and the mysterious anomaly that proves to be amusing.

Throughout the film, brief sequences show that Agents are aware of the problem in the Matrix, and a truck is seen driving toward the site to presumably deal with the problem. It arrives just as the children are having trouble with a large group of rats and an Agent-led team of rodent exterminators emerges from the truck. In the building, when Yoko finds a missing Yuki again, she sees one last anomaly where she opens a door that leads into an endless dark void before being found by the exterminators. The team clears everybody out of the building. The story ends when Yoko returns to the area the next day and finds the site turned into an unremarkable parking lot. She sees the boys unsuccessfully attempting to recreate the bizarre occurrences of yesterday and going in search of something else to do.

A Detective Story

Set in a dystopian future,[5] the story follows a private detective, Ash (James Arnold Taylor), who dreamed of following the steps of hard-boiled characters Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe but is a down-on-his-luck detective. One day, he receives an anonymous phone call to search for a hacker going by the alias "Trinity" (Carrie-Anne Moss). Ash starts looking for Trinity and learns that other detectives have failed in the same task before him; one committed suicide, one went missing, and one went insane.

Eventually, Ash finds Trinity after deducing that he should communicate using phrases and facts from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She proposes a meeting and he finds her on a passenger train. When he meets her, she removes a "bug" from his eye, planted by Agents earlier in an "eye exam," which Ash previously thought was a dream. Three Agents appear and attempt to apprehend Trinity in a shoot-out with her and Ash. While the two are trying to escape, an Agent attempts to take over Ash's body, forcing Trinity to shoot him in order to prevent the Agent from appearing. Ash is wounded, whereupon he and Trinity amicably bid farewell. Trinity tells Ash that she thinks he could have handled the truth as she jumps out of a window and escapes. The Agents enter the car to find Ash, who points his gun at them while looking in the other direction and lighting a cigarette. The Agents turn to Ash who, even though he is armed, will likely die. With this apparent no-win situation, the film ends with Ash's line, "A case to end all cases," as his lighter flame goes out.

Matriculated

The film deals with a group of above-ground human rebels who lure hostile machines to their laboratory in order to capture them and insert them into a "matrix" of their own design. Within this matrix, the humans attempt to teach the captured machines some of the positive traits of humanity, primarily compassion and empathy. The rebels' hope is that, once converted of its own volition (a key point discussed in the film), an "enlightened" machine will assist Zion in its struggle against the machine-controlled totalitarianism which currently dominates the Earth.

The film starts with a human woman Alexa (Melinda Clarke) looking out over the sea, watching for incoming machines, where she sees two "runners," one of the most intelligent robots, approaching. She leads them into the laboratory, where one runner gets killed by a reprogramed robot, but the second runner kills the robot before Alexa electrocutes it. The rebels insert the runner into their matrix. The robot experiences moments of mystery, horror, wonder and excitement, leading it to believe it may have an emotional bond with Alexa.

However, the laboratory is attacked by Sentinel reinforcements. The rebels unplug themselves to defend their headquarters, along with the help of other captured machines (indicated by the machine's mechanical eyes changing from red to green). Alexa unplugs the runner that has now turned good, where it saves her from a machine. The rebels and the attacking machines are all killed or destroyed, except for the runner. The robot plugs the dying Alexa and itself into the rebels' matrix. When Alexa realizes she is trapped inside the matrix with the runner, she is horrified and her avatar screams and dissolves as the runner exits from the rebels' matrix to see a dead Alexa in front of him in the real world.

The short ends with the "converted" runner standing outside, looking out over the sea, in a replica of the opening shot with Alexa.

Final Flight of the Osiris

Captain Thadeus (Kevin Michael Richardson) and Jue (Pamela Adlon) engage in a blindfolded sword fight in a virtual reality dojo. With each slice of their swords, they remove another part of each other's clothing. Immediately after cutting the other down to their underwear, they lift their blindfolds to peek at the other. As the two are about to kiss, they are interrupted by an alarm and the simulation ends.

In the next scene, the hovercraft Osiris heads for Junction 21 when operator Robbie (Tom Kenny) discovers an army of Sentinels on his HR scans. The ship flees into an uncharted tunnel, where it encounters a small group of Sentinels patrolling the area. The crew members man the onboard guns and destroy the patrol. The ship emerges on the surface, four kilometers directly above Zion and close to the Sentinel army. Thadeus and Jue see that the Machines are using gigantic drills to tunnel their way down to Zion. The Sentinel army detects the Osiris and pursues the ship.

Thadeus says that Zion must be warned, and Jue volunteers to broadcast herself into the Matrix to deliver the warning while the ship is doggedly pursued. Knowing that they are not going to make it, Thadeus and Jue admit to each other about peeking in the simulation before kissing farewell. Entering the Matrix, Jue eventually reaches a mail box where she drops off a package; this sets the prologue for the video game Enter the Matrix. She attempts to contact Thadeus via cell phone as the Osiris is overrun by Sentinels and crashes. The Sentinels tear their way into the ship, where Thadeus makes a last stand against the Sentinels. Shortly after Jue says "Thadeus" over her cell phone, the Osiris explodes, destroying many of the Sentinels and killing the crew. In the Matrix, Jue falls dead to the ground, due to her body being destroyed on the ship.

[ornamental-coral]

Snake-Birds and villainy (or not)

This is sort of an extended reply to this ask

I’m a Snake Bird.

Oddly enough, I have incredibly few favorite characters who are Also Snake Birds. 

...Okay, actually. That’s not strictly accurate. It’s more accurate that I’m not Infatuated with many true Snake Bird characters.

I have a number of characters who I Like who are Snake Birds. But it’s often painful to watch Snake-primary characters navigate a narrative. Anyone who writes will be familiar with old advice that goes something like this: “Stuck!? Find something Bad for your ink-baby to deal with”

Snake Primaries’ motivations are their people and those people are the center of their souls, so to have that threatened and just raw-nerve exposed can be great for nail-biting on-the-edge sort of action (ie Breaking Bad) or just make me, a sympathetic Snake, want to claw my heart out. For Bird Secondary characters this can also be hard to deal with as part of the narrative because Birds thrive on being... overprepared. And they need time to research (or have people they trust provide new information) when they are thwarted, which means pacing out the story to account for that time. And Deus Ex Machina is out, so the Bird-second really has to do the work themselves or end up a bag of [less-effectual] nerves.

This is part of why Snake Birds are not popular protagonist material and they’re more often the villains. They may occasionally be sidekicks or partners (think “dueling-second” type partners more than “I am also the leader” type of partners). Stiles Stilinski is probably a fandom favorite example for this type of Snake Bird. (Hi “house favorite” ‘nonnie, congratulations on also getting me to really expose the fact that I consume too much questionable media and find things to like about it, although I really don’t think Teen Wolf was that bad).

Stiles is ruthlessly loyal towards his best friend Scott, and only a little softer with Lydia because she’s almost more ruthless than he is and secondary-matches with him and they both understand what it’s like to hide part of that because it would scare the people they love or want to be loved by. But he wears himself to exhaustion researching and investigating because the monsters he faces are Time Sensitive, because His People are In Danger, and [he believes] only he knows enough to do anything about it. People can and have written “what if’s” with Stiles as the protagonist though and it’s a darker story because this cold-house combo, when called on to be the hero on their own, is not stereotypically concerned with any greater good, can, and will take out the source of the problem asap and erm permanently so it can’t come back and try hurting Their People again.

Oddly enough, Teen Wolf works with Stiles as a sort of secondary-protagonist because Scott, the main protagonist, is a Double Puff and the Hufflepuff secondary also likes putting in the work. This slows down the narrative enough for Stiles to keep up (which sounds funny when you think of Stiles literally being one of the smartest people in his school).

There are very few of the Lions among the Teen Wolf cast (actually they killed the only one from the original ensemble which probably says something about the writers. Jeff Davis also produced Criminal Minds and we see a similar lack of Lion secondaries there) and this simply changes what you can do with the pacing. In the show actually, a majority of the antagonists are Lion flavored, which is unusual and what really what provides a lot of the urgency needed to move the story along.

I haven’t sorted Breaking Bad, but @wisteria-lodge has added some of the characters to her live sorting list, and I agree that Walter White might be the Snakiest-Birdiest protagonist ever. And I haven’t finished the series At All so I don’t even knows if he stays the protagonist (as opposed to some kind of anti-hero) because it hits the line between edge-of-seat suspense and eat-your-heart-out. As far as a story goes, there’s a reason Breaking Bad is such a famous show, but it’s also uniquely un-bingeable because the result is (at least for this introvert) something almost as bad as a post-concert drop.

Spoilers and further conversation below because some of you have probably gotten tired of my ramblings:

Another likely Snake Bird candidate is James Flint of Black Sails. (See! I do have taste!!)

I hesitate to name him a Bird Secondary though because he is so single-minded (at least to the point in the show I am) in his quest to wrest control of Nassau from the British. He’s decided realizing the dream that killed one of his lovers is the only way he will ever be able to give Thomas’ memory a measure of peace. Doing everything in Thomas’ name is a pretty Snake Primary thing to do, and James Flint at least models Bird Second when he has the time. He likes to read and was able to learn multiple languages apparently, but I think that it was as much for the sake of being on the same page as Thomas and Miranda as anything else. He doesn’t have time to pursue knowledge for the sake of it and tends to kill his way through problems if he has no other options. It’s far more likely to be that he is a Snake Primary Lion Secondary with a fairly developed and mature Bird Secondary that he uses to tweak the direction of his Lion’s charge, but at this point neither make him happy because his Snake is so torn up with Thomas’ fate he’s ready to burn the world.

Anyhow it’s more common for Snake Birds to play the villains or not to “play” at all. The Snake with their people in place is a Snake that can and will follow their persons’ lead, and is internal with the rest of the Primary and Secondary performance so they’re harder to drag into the narrative action 

If you want to force a Snake to act, once again, threaten their people. A Snake without their people to protect (and be morality pets to some extent), and all the Bird resources to be able to plan a dozen way towards their enemy’s downfall, that’s an easy villain. And one that has a readily available arsenal of plot-worthy obstacles to throw in the way of your hero combined with the grief-fueled rage to never stop.

That’s what Thor’s Loki is about. He can’t get his father’s approval and he’s sick to death of being shown that his brother, his most important person, doesn’t appreciate him, and then on top of that he learns he’s not really a son or brother, so he goes ballistic. (He’s at least modelling a Snake breakdown, but he also tries to make places to belong, so I’m still not sure if he’s a Bird instead. More on that after June I guess).

Tl;dr

Snake Birds are easy villains and I’m not going to deny that a lot of us love whipping up a good plot (that was a writing pun it’s okay to laugh) so the giant axes swinging from the ceiling? the pit full of alligators? the seventeenth iteration of the kidnapping attempt in Megamind? yeah, a bored Bird Secondary could have come up with all that stuff.

If any of you are writers, having a Bird Secondary protagonist is Hard and having a Bird Secondary in your ensemble is Still Hard unless they’re a rapid-fire bird with plans to spare, has resources ready to go, or the ensemble is built in a way that supports the kind of time a Bird Secondary needs to regroup if their plans are foiled.

Also watching people who house match exactly with you in media is hard and painful but also really validating and everyone should have that experience at least once.