#the cheesy heavily scripted feel

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

I know too much about archeology to fully enjoy mummy movies

[purplecatghostposts]

ANY HURT/COMFORT FOR BRIAN

AYE AYE CAPTAIN!

I’ve always wanted to do an alternative version of Entry 80 so this is my excuse to do it >:)

Content Warnings for: Canon Typical Behavior, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Non-graphic Injuries, Blood-loss Induced Delirium, Hurt/Comfort (of course), and Angst With A Happy Ending (Or at the very least a heavily implied one).

Word Count: Roughly 2.6k

— —

Everything is spiraling out of control. Brian knows that a good chunk of it is his fault. He brought Alex here and could not find the will to kill him, even after all this time. He asked Jay and Tim to come here and now Alex is loose and all of them are in danger.

It lurks around every corner, within every shadow, and Brian isn't safe from it's reach anymore. It's stronger, it feeds off this situation, warping reality to its whims, and it intends for most of them, if not all, to die here. And it very well may succeed.

It’s been haunting Brian the most lately. When it finally leaves Alex’s side, it shadows him, pulling him in all directions and warping him to other planes of existence entirely.

The Ark awaits. It wishes to swallow him whole.

Brian wonders if it’s not a matter of if he will end up there, but rather when. Nonetheless, he fights to escape it, to keep it all together, but deep down, it feels inevitable. Hopeless. Like Brian can no longer control any of their fates, much less his own. He should have killed Alex when he had the chance but even now, even with this bastardization version of him who spits curses and bears his teeth at him, he cannot find it in him to pull the trigger.

Brian remembers—

(“And that’s a wrap!” Alex lowered the camera when the red light stopped blinking. He was sweating a little from the heat, the sun beating down on them relentlessly, but his grin doesn’t waver and the pride in his eyes is genuine. “That was fantastic, Brian! Seriously, if you ever wanted to get into acting, you could pull it off.”

Brian laughed then, rolling his eyes a little. “You’re just saying that— I know I sound cheesy.”

“You’re just following the script.” Alex waved him off. “I’m being serious! You could make it if you really wanted to! Plus,” Alex nudged him playfully, “You’re good looks are a bonus.”

“More flattery, Kralie?”

“I speak only the truth, Thomas.”)

—and he really wishes he could forget. The past doesn’t matter when he’s trying to salvage the present. And yet, it still haunts him, ever present and reminding him of the days he will never get back and the person he can and will never be again.

He has had so many chances to kill Alex Kralie, and the fact that he has been unable to go through with any of them will always haunt him.

Brian stumbles through the rooms of Benedict Hall, static receding from his mind as it finally leaves him alone. He doesn’t know if it’s giving up or merely choosing an easier target but it’s difficult to think about anything but finally getting a moment to rest. He staggers into one of the rooms in the basement, just barely remembering to close the door before he slumps against the wall and feels unconsciousness pull him under.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been running, nor how long he rests for. What he does know is that when he awakens again, there are footsteps nearby and he tenses on instinct.

Brian waits a few beats before managing to get up, unsteady on his feet but pressing forward. He opens the door just a crack to look out at who has joined him and lets out a small huff when he sees it’s just Jay. Someone he can handle— at worst, he might need to get him to back off, but Brian will burn that bridge when it comes.

Jay doesn’t seem to notice him, too busy looking through the rooms and not quite getting to his yet. However, he also doesn’t notice when silent footsteps descend the stairs into the basement, and Brian’s breath hitches when he sees Alex standing at the bottom of the stairs with a gun in his hand.

When Jay does notice, he freezes. Camera in hand, he stares at him and lets out a cautious and almost disbelieving, “Alex?”

Alex raises his gun.

Brian knows his role has always been to stay in the shadows, be cold and calculating, always one step ahead and always doing what is necessary in order to ensure the survival of who is left. He knows that he is the man with the plan, the haunting wraith, and the one who has to maintain control above all else. He knows.

But Alex raises his gun and Jay is just standing there like a deer in headlights and Brian can no longer think.

He acts.

The door is yanked open and Brian throws himself at Jay in an effort to get him out of the way. He succeeds on that front, but the gun still goes off and pain rips through his shoulder and suddenly, they’re both on the ground. Jay scrambles to get Brian off of him, panicked and attempting to ask questions that Brian can’t really hear. Alex is yelling now but Brian can’t tell what he’s saying either.

He just knows one minute, he’s lying on the ground, trembling and unsure if he has the strength to get up again, and the next, there’s hands wrapping around one of his wrists and yanking him somewhere else. Either he’s light or Jay is tapping into some hysterical strength, or a mix of both, because another shot just barely misses him and suddenly, he’s in another room with Jay using his entire body weight to keep the door closed. There’s pounding on the door, more yelling from Alex, and a camera is discarded on the floor.

Brian struggles to keep his consciousness. Everything passes by in a blur and when static rises to his mind, he isn’t terribly surprised. His body goes involuntarily limp, eyes struggling to open at all, and he can feel invisible tendrils beginning to curl around him, claiming him as theirs.

The Ark awaits. They whisper. The Ark has been waiting for you, Brian Thomas. You cannot deny it any longer.

All fight in him starts to drain away. Static builds, numbing him to the point where Brian thinks he’s gone for a moment there.

But then there’s a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him but getting more frantic. Brian lets out a shudder, feeling something tugging him back and urging him not to leave yet. That his work is not finished, that he cannot go into the Ark and feed it, and that he is not the Ark’s to claim.

Someone else has claimed him, needs him, and is not letting it take him. The invisible tendrils (were they ever really there to begin with?) recede, and Brian feels the familiar feeling of being warped somewhere else but the grip on his shoulder only tightens. A cool breeze passes over him, and it is welcomed.

When he falls into unconsciousness, it is with the knowledge that it has not taken him yet, and that he can rest easy for now. The uncertainty of where he is now and what comes next falls away, and it is a problem for when he wakes up.

—

Consciousness is a hazy thing when he returns. At first, Brian feels nothing at all, but the moment he stirs, pain shoots through his shoulder and he lets out a low and pained hiss.

Ragged breaths escape him. His skin feels cold and clammy and when he cracks open his eyes, his surroundings are blurry. Sunlight hits his face and blinds him, but he can’t move without aggravating his shoulder so he just squints and tries to put his thoughts together. Nothing quite makes sense but the greenery around him tells him he’s outside, though something about what he’s seeing is off. He can’t quite put his finger on it however.

A blurry shape moves closer to him. Brian stiffens, ready for a fight but their hands(?) are raised as if to try and convince him they’re not a threat. It confuses him slightly— definitely not Alex then— and his gaze doesn’t waver from them as they inch closer.

Slowly, a hand is pressed against his forehead as if checking his temperature. Something in him crumbles at the contact and hazily, he leans into it, causing them to freeze for a minute but steadily relaxing.

Something is off but he can’t quite place what.

“Hey uh— can you hear me?” A hesitant voice asks. Brian knows that voice. He blinks lazily, racking his brain for the answer before it hits him.

“Jay?” He manages to slur out. It’s rough on his throat to speak but it almost feels nice to speak at all. To be heard by someone for once.

Jay’s breath hitches a little. “Uh, yeah. It’s me.” He’s awkward and tense. Brian can’t remember why. He can’t really remember why Jay is here at all but his hand moves to keep a steady hand on his uninjured shoulder and it keeps him from drifting. That’s enough for now.

There’s a long pause before Jay hesitantly asks, “Brian? Brian Thomas? It’s you, right?” Like he can’t quite believe it.

Brian blinks a few times at that. It’s been a while since anyone called him that. He can’t remember how long. “Mmhmm.” He hums after a beat. There had been a reason he was hiding his identity at first but he really can’t remember it. Maybe he should stop worrying about what he can and can’t remember. “How’d you know?” He finds himself asking.

“I mean, your face is kinda a dead giveaway?”

Brian pauses at that. Then slowly raises one hand to brush against his face. It finally clicks then, what’s wrong. The cool breeze against his skin, the skin to skin contact, the ability to see clearly without anything blocking his vision— his mask. It’s gone. Jay probably took it off.

That’s probably a problem. Brian is struggling to care right now though.

“Huh.” He says instead. “Guess Brian is out of the bag.” A snicker escapes him at his own joke and he tilts into Jay’s grip more than he intends to.

“Shit.” Jay swears under his breath. “Questions later— you owe me and I have a lot of them— but we need to get out of here and to an actual first aid kit or hospital because I kind of just tore my jacket and used that to tie it off but you still got shot.”

That’s what happened. He knew he was forgetting something.

“Can you stand?” Jay asks. Brian makes a noncommittal noise. Jay grimaces but says, “Well, we don’t really have a choice right now.” And steadily helps him to his feet. Brian hisses when his shoulder is jostled but manages to stay standing with Jay helps. After a second of hesitation, Jay slings one of Brian’s arms around his shoulder and carefully, he leads as they stumble through the woods together.

Brian squints, trying to think. “We’re in Rosswood?” He mumbles.

“I think so. I haven’t really had a lot of time to think about it.” Jay glances at him. Brian stares back, tilting his head. “You— you saved me. Why did you do that?”

Brian frowns. “You were gonna get shot. What was I supposed to do?” The words come out slow but clear enough for Jay to understand. Jay searches his eyes for something. Brian isn’t sure if he found it when he finally looks away.

They walk in silence for a little while. Brian’s eyes glaze over the trees and his eyes flutter a little when he hears the soothing sound of a nearby babbling stream.

“Stay awake.” Jay reminds him. Brian’s eyes open a little wider obediently. He thinks he missed having someone else around him. Someone who made him have to think a little less. Someone to rely on.

“Where are we going?” Brian manages to get out.

Jay stops, staring straight ahead and lost in thought like he just realized that himself. “I… Was going to head to Tim’s house. I don’t have anywhere else to go but,” his gaze drops, “I don’t know how welcoming he’ll be.”

“‘s Tim.” Brian points out, trying to blink the sleepiness out of his eyes. “He’s not gonna kick you out if you don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Maybe.” Jay pauses. He then uses his free hand to fumble for his pockets. “I should— call him first maybe?”

Brian nods, leaning against his shoulder. “Probably.”

Jay scrolls to Tim's contact on his phone. He stares at it. Keeps staring at it. Doesn’t stop.

“You’re not calling.” Brian points out.

Jay grips the phone a little tighter. “I’m still kinda pissed.” He admits, hissing through his teeth. “Why did he lie? Why didn’t— why didn’t he trust me?” His furious gaze turns to Brian, bitterness seeping out into his voice. “Why didn’t you trust me? What was with the code bullshit, why— why did everyone else know what was going on and all of you collectively decided to leave me in the dark?”

Brian thinks of scrambled thoughts, beyond what he’s experiencing even now. Codes upon codes upon codes, masking what needed to be said. He needed to hide his messages— too many eyes were watching, never alone, always watches, can’t trust anyone but desperately needing to at the same time— like a cycle. One that repeats over and over and over and over and—

And he needs to break out of it. Because it spirals his thoughts and has him self sabotaging himself like a snake devouring its own tail until there’s nothing left, is there anything left, how much of you is really left—

“I didn’t want you to make the same mistakes as me.” Brian says slowly, feeling out the words as best as he can. “But I don’t think I did a very good job of that, did I?”

The angry look is gone now, replaced by a guarded one, but almost… Hopeful, he thinks. Like Jay doesn’t think it’s going to immediately crash and burn.

“I’m sorry.” Brian finds himself saying. “For… A lot of things.”

Jay doesn’t say anything. His gaze drops to his phone and after another beat, he presses the call button and brings it up to his ear.

Tim picks up on the third ring. “Jay?” Brian can hear him well enough, being in close proximity and all. He sounds hesitant, almost disbelieving.

Jay swallows before speaking. “Tim. We need to talk.”

Tim pauses for a long moment. “Is this gonna be like the last ‘talk’?” He sounds almost weary but there’s something else there. A wall he’s put up.

“No, I—” Jay lets out a breath, “It’s important. Alex almost—”

“—shot you.” Tim finishes. “I found your camera. I wasn’t sure what the hell happened or if— if you really got out or not but… You should know I’m glad you’re alive, alright?”

“Thanks.” Jay’s gaze flickers to the ground. “I’m not looking to fight but we really need to talk. All of us.”

“All?”

“You, me, and— and the Hooded Guy.”

“The— he’s with you?” Tim’s voice raises an octave higher.

“Long story. He’s kinda the reason I didn’t get shot but he got shot instead and he needs medical attention. I did what I could but— he lost a lot of blood, Tim. He’s barely standing.”

“‘m fine.” Brian insists.

“You’re delirious— look, Tim, we’re in Rosswood right now. It took us here but— can we meet you back at your place? It's better to do this in person.”

“That’s a long walk. I’ll pick you up— meet me at the parking lot, alright?”

Jay agrees and hangs up soon after. They take off again, now with a new purpose, and the rest of the walk is uneventful.

Tim is just pulling up when they finally get there. He takes one look at Brian and his mouth drops open. Jay tells him to focus on the more important matter and they lay him down in the back of the car to rest. Brian feels sleep dragging him down and finds it hard to resist.

Tim and Jay’s voices wash over him. All tension bleeds out of him and Brian finally sleeps, trusting that they’ll make sure he wakes up again.

— —

Listen. LISTEN. I wanted Jay taking care of a half delirious Hoody!Brian so I know he’s a little more relaxed than he should be but bloodloss and suddenly being in contact with somebody after all that isolation are some powerful drugs. I’m being indulgent, as a treat.

Hope this satisfies your Hurt/Comfort Brian desires, feel free to send more writing requests if you want! I might put this on AO3 too but unsure yet! Anyways, hope you enjoyed and thank you very much for the request!!

[coraniaid]

Most of the notes I made for myself while watching Passion were complaints or criticisms, but I do think it’s worth saying up front that I honestly love this episode.  For all its flaws I completely agree with the popular critical consensus on this one: I think it’s a genuinely great episode of television.  One of the best parts of the high school seasons and quite possibly the highest peak the show has managed to hit so far.

In a lot of ways it picks up where Innocence left off.  Both episodes lean heavily into the metaphorical reading of the newly soulless Angel as an older boyfriend who turned out to be a creep after Buffy slept with him (“Don’t tell me,” says Joyce early on.  “He's not the same guy you fell for.”).  Both episodes work very hard to show us that Angel is not redeemable – first with the Judge last season declaring him “clean” of humanity, now with Angel killing Jenny.  But Passion hits a little harder, I think, because there’s no counterpart to that rocket launcher scene.  The good guys don’t get to enjoy even a partial victory here.

Other thoughts:

I think this is a surprisingly good episode for Joyce, in a way we don’t typically really get until Season 3.  It hits the right balance between showing that Buffy and her mother struggle to communicate but that this doesn’t mean they don’t bother deeply care about each other.  Buffy’s concern for her mother is paramount throughout the first half of the episode (and Giles’ insistence that she can’t tell her mother about being a Slayer is more than slightly hypocritical, given that we’ve already been told that his parents always knew about him being a Watcher).  

Of course Joyce herself isn’t perfect – she doesn’t know the whole story, and yes Angel only tells her that he slept with Buffy because he knows Buffy well enough to anticipate Joyce’s reaction – but however bad The Talk goes it doesn’t feel like this really had as much of an impact as Angel would have been hoping for.  It doesn’t seem to have really damaged their relationship.  I believe Joyce when she says she loves Buffy “more than anything in the world” even if (she thinks) Buffy’s trying to shut her out.  And I think this particular conversation, and the way Buffy can only say “you’re not” when her mother suggests she’s “grossing her out” is the sort of thing Season 5 is calling back to when, three years from now, Buffy will tell Giles that “my mom is gone … and I loved her more than anything … and I don’t know if she knew.”

(I think the shot of Joyce hugging Willow when they get the call from Giles is a nice touch too.  That whole scene from Angel’s perspective is so good, isn’t it?  The whole framing device with his voiceover too.  It should probably be kind of cheesy, but it’s not.  Maybe it helps that I just think Angel is a really fun villain.)

Speaking of that scene: everything between Willow and Jenny is so sad knowing what’s coming up later.  I remember being slightly surprised, back in Season 1, that Willow didn’t seem to immediately warm to Jenny despite their mutual interest in computers (“how come she’s in the club?” she protested in Prophecy Girl).  But I think the show has done just enough by the halfway point of this episode to make it seem credible that of all the Scoobies Willow in particular would be hardest hit by her death.  (The juxtaposition of Willow being excited and eager to take over Jenny’s teaching responsibilities at the start of the episode and then how somber she looks when she is taking over for her at the end is particularly good.)

It rankles slightly, in the way I’ve complained about before, that the script still reduces Jenny to “Giles’ girlfriend” at times and that one of the reactions to her death – by somebody who knew Jenny! – is “poor Giles”.  Nobody even thinks to suggest that Angel might have killed Jenny for some reason other than hurting her boyfriend.  Equally Giles seems unnecessarily dismissive of Buffy’s concern about the fact that Angel has been sneaking into her room at night at the start of the episode.  But the scene with Jenny’s boyfriend attacking Angel in the factory (after the rather complacent advice of “you mustn’t let Angel get to you.  No matter how provocative his behavior may become”) and then Buffy coming to save him, giving up the chance to kill Angel herself to pull him out of the fire, is so good I’m almost persuaded to overlook it.

And the mere fact of Jenny Calendar’s death itself – despite the weird retcon about her past and the fact the show insists she betrayed the Scooby Gang while showing us she didn’t, despite the fact they bury her under a name she never used in the show, despite the fact that after this season ends Jenny’s name will only be spoken on screen twice, despite the fact it establishes the precedent that will later be used for any number of increasingly questionable ‘shocking’ deaths in the Buffyverse – despite everything, it’s still utterly heartbreaking.

Jenny isn’t the first recurring character the show’s killed off, but she’s the first recurring character of any significance (with apologies to Jesse and Principal Flutie).  Or, I suppose, technically she’s just the first recurring character of any significance who dies and doesn’t get better.  The first recurring character who won’t be coming back.  The first recurring character that Buffy and her friends show any sign of missing.  And the first recurring character that the audience will care about losing.

I just think this episode could have been even better if the writers themselves cared about Jenny Calendar at all.

[sage-nebula]

Game Review — Sonic Frontiers

Well, it's been a hot minute since I've done one of these, hasn't it? In fact, this is the first review I've written this year. The truth is, for the other games I've played this year I kind of lost steam partway through writing the reviews, and since so few people read my reviews anyway I figured there wasn't much of a point. But I know that at least a couple people have been waiting for my opinion on this game, and since I've gained quite a few new followers thanks to my Sonic posting, I figure I owe it to Frontiers to give it a proper review.

Overall Score: 8/10

When it was first announced that Ian Flynn was going to be writing the script for Sonic Frontiers, I was super excited. It’s not a secret to anyone who follows me that I really enjoy the IDW Sonic comics, even if I don’t always love every new character or plot beat, so I had full confidence that if he was at the helm of Frontiers, then—at least on the story front—the game was going to deliver. And I’m happy to say, my confidence was rewarded. For more details, let’s head under the cut (and on my blog for prettier formatting).

The Pros:

— As mentioned in the above paragraph, Ian Flynn was put in charge of the English script for Frontiers, and while I know that he didn't have full control over the story (it was a collaboration between him and the writers on the Japanese side), his influence showed in a big way and it was fantastic. Every single character was on point. Sonic had a good balance between snarky, confident, and serious; Amy's compassion shone through and, though her story did touch heavily on her romantic feelings for Sonic, that's not what the main focus of her character was; Knuckles was allowed to be intelligent again, and his struggle between his duty and his feelings of loneliness really came through; and Tails was done so much justice after the absolute nonsense he was put through in Forces, showcasing not only his intelligence, but also his struggles with self-doubt, his love and worry for his brother, and his desire to grow up and out of his insecurities. Ian's influence really shone through with the writing for Tails; without veering too far into spoilers, Tails himself uses the word "inconsistent" to describe his past exploits, which is the exact word Ian has used to describe Sega's handling of Tails in the past as well. Nonetheless, Tails was done justice in this game and I can't wait to see where future games take his character.

But of course, the core four aren't the only characters in this story. Eggman, for as few appearances as he had in the game, ended up really surprising me and touching my heart at the end. Again, I don't want to veer into spoilers here, but I never thought I would feel my heart ache for him, and it actually did in the end. And as for the new character who bears my name, Sage . . . I love her. Her character arc is stunning, and while there is one thing in particular they should have touched on with her but didn't for some reason, everything about her was handled marvelously. I couldn't be happier with what they did with my namesake, truly.

— Characters aside, the story itself was truly heartfelt and, honestly, something that I would expect from the current comics. While Sonic's central conflict was wrapped up very quickly with a moment that most would justifiably call cheesy, this is a Sonic game. Of course it's going to have cheese. You can't play a game with candy-colored anthropomorphic animals and not expect to get some cheese. Plus, I have a feeling that the reason everything wrapped up as quickly (and vaguely) as it did in that critical moment was due to crunch time, but I'll address that in a later section. Point is, the story was truly poignant, and is, in my opinion, the most beautiful Sonic game we've had since Adventure 2 in that regard. But I also haven't played every single game since Adventure 2, so take that with a grain of salt, I guess.

— The music was, of course, amazing. I feel that goes without saying, because Sonic games pretty much always have amazing music, but I'll say it anyway. All of the boss themes were hype as hell, even if I couldn't really hear the lyrics over all of the battle noises (I can always listen to the soundtrack later), but the music in the open world areas was really great, too. I will say that some of the cyber space levels had forgettable music (and I felt personally offended that a cyber space level that looked like it was based on City Escape didn't have some variation of the City Escape music, wtf), but overall the soundtrack is great, and the credits theme for the true ending made me weep actual tears. Again, spoilers, so I won't say which one. But I cried.

— The open world gameplay was really good for the most part (Chaos Island notwithstanding, more on that in a later section). When you were allowed to have full camera control and just sprint across the landscape, the controls worked really well. An open landscape is great for a game like Sonic, where you can sprint across the map in no time at all, making the lack of fast travel at the beginning of each island a non-issue. The 3D platforming segments were great as well; most of the issues I had with landing on rails came from my own clumsy playing (I have a tendency to panic jump when I really shouldn't) than any sort of actual issues with the controls, and there were tons of fun segments with springs and boost ramps and ziplines. The little island challenges were also fun, for the most part, and the fact that there were multiple times I had to look up a solution only to realize I was a dumb-dumb that forgot that cyloops were a thing again was on me, not the game design. So for the most part, the open world worked really well.

— The stat increase system (for speed, ring count, strength, and defense) was a neat little addition to the gameplay, and for me at least, leveling all the way up to 99 lasted the length of the story. (And this was with me cheesing a bit at the very end and just buying a bunch of kocos and seeds from Big so I would be buff enough to fight the final boss on Hard Mode.) I can say that I did notice an increase in speed as the game went on in 3D sections, and having more rings helped whenever I got hit (which happened a lot because I suck at dodging and block with Sonic's face). I can't say I noticed anything happening strength/defense wise, but maybe I would have noticed more difficulty if I'd neglected to level those up. Also, when visiting the Hermit Koco to increase your strength/defense, he just gathered all the seeds and increased both strength and defense all in one fell swoop, which made the process speedy and not a chore at all. (Yes, this is foreshadowing for something in a later section.)

— The combat was fun as well. There's a skill tree that you can use to unlock new abilities, and while I have some not-so-great things to say about that in a later section, I will say at least that it was nice to be able to fight in ways that weren't jumping and homing attacks. There are actual button combos you can use to attack with different moves, and honestly just mashing the attack button over and over won't get you anywhere very fast. You really do need to learn at least a few of the basic attacks in order to be able to do well, as well as parrying (which thankfully doesn't require timing and yes I did learn to parry for the bosses / enemies that required it, it's just not my go-to). Combat was something that Sonic Team could have slacked on for this game, but they didn't, and that was a nice surprise.

— For that matter, most of the Titan fights were sick. Sure, there were times when it felt a little cheap, or that first Titan fight where I forgot that parrying was even a thing in this game and died because of it. But, they really amped up the spectacle in the Titan fights with finishing cutscenes that could have been straight out of shounen anime, and it was awesome. Again, this is a Sonic game. We're here for cheese and spectacle. If you're not here for cheese and spectacle, then I have no idea what you're doing playing a game about an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog whose super form is what it is because the creators of the series looked at Dragonball and were like, "that looks cool, let's do that." The Titan fights have hype music and spectacle and intense gameplay. What more could you want?

— There are side conversations peppered through the islands that give you more time with Sonic's friends, and Sage. These moments aren't necessary, but I really appreciated them. Not only because I am a sucker for character interaction (I don't care half as much about lore as I do about characters talking to each other), but also because it really helps flesh out the character arcs and relationships even more, in addition to giving you a bit more information about what's going on with the islands. I know I just said that I don't care about lore nearly as much as I care about characters talking to each other, and I stand by that, but if you do care about lore then you really will want to do these side conversations, because they give you more information on the lore of the islands as well. Additionally, these side conversations are not hard to find; they are marked with an icon of the character's face on the map, and you can see their little digital self standing out on the field, so it's easy to track them down and initiate them if you want to.

The Neutrals:

— The 3D cyber space levels were fine. That's the nicest thing that I can say about them. They were short enough that they didn't take up too much time, the red star ring locations were in relatively sensible locations for most of them, and they played okay. I will say that it was disappointing how few of Sonic's past adventures the cyber space levels pulled from (if I never have to see Chemical Plant Zone again it will be too fucking soon), but again, they were a relatively inoffensive part of the game overall and they passed quickly enough that it's not like too much time is spent on them, in comparison to how much time is spent in the overworld.

— The length of the game is not the best. As anyone who has read my past reviews knows, I like to get one hour of gameplay per dollar spent on the game. I paid $60 for Frontiers, and got almost 40 hours of gameplay from it. This is being generous, because there were numerous times when I left it sitting idle while I got distracted doing other things (I have ADHD, let me live). Still, having a twenty hours-to-dollars discrepancy isn't too horrible, and it's definitely better than the 5 hours I got out of Sonic Forces after spending $40 on that, so it can go here instead of in the cons section.

— Frontiers has a True Ending, which is only accessible if you beat the final boss on Hard mode. This is in the neutrals section because you can play the entire game on Easy or Normal if you want to, so long as you change the difficulty to Hard right before the final boss, which is a good thing. However, what's not great is that there's nothing in the game (to my knowledge) telling you that you need to do this, and that you haven't seen the True Ending if you haven't done it. The closest I think there is is that if you try to change the difficulty during the fight against Supreme, I hear that a popup appears telling you that the boss fight that would come after Supreme will be skipped. Admittedly, I'm not positive on that though. I only knew about the True Ending thanks to some friends who beat the game before me, otherwise I probably would have missed it since I was playing on Normal due to the time crunch I had with Pokémon coming out on Friday. The True Ending is very good though, so if you can swing it, I would recommend fighting Supreme on Hard. Trust, it's not actually hard. (And neither is the final final boss; I got it on my second try.)

— Speaking of which, the final final boss was . . . interesting? To say the least, in terms of gameplay. It wasn't traditional Sonic gameplay at all, but was instead a bullet hell battle. To be fair this is not completely out of left-field for Frontiers; they give you a few bullet hell stages before this to prep you for how it's going to go down. But it was still a bit odd for a final final boss in a Sonic game to be bullet hell. Additionally, I couldn't hear half of what the boss was saying during the fight, which was a bit disappointing since I like to hear actual dialogue. Nonetheless, I'm glad I did it; the True Ending was worth it, and maybe it just felt easy to me because I've played Undertale and Deltarune (and the secret bosses in both chapters of Deltarune) so bullet hell is old hat to me now. (But seriously, this was much easier than Jevil or Snowgrave Spamton.)

— Without going into spoiler reasons as to why, Sonic's physical condition deteriorates as the story progresses. This is shown by his idle poses, as well as in certain cutscenes. However, although Sonic's physical condition is deteriorating, the gameplay doesn't change at all. Sonic can still run, boost, and fight just as well when he's in the worst shape of the game as he could at the very start. I understand why this is; hampering the movement of the player's character, especially in a game series that is all about movement, is risky business. Even if you're doing it for storytelling purposes, it can come across very badly to the audience. Although Sonic Team is known for taking some risks (they change up gameplay on a whim and clearly don't care too much about what fans think, otherwise we'd have a Chao Garden game by now), I doubt they'd want to go so far as to make it so that Sonic could only walk or barely fight during pivotal moments of the game. So I understand why it is the way it is, but the gameplay and story segregation here still pulled me out of the story a little bit, whereas I would have felt what Sonic was going through much more strongly if it became harder to move as him as well.

— There's a skill tree in this game, which I touched upon briefly above by mentioning that there are different attacks that Sonic can learn as the game progresses, and that it really behooves the player to learn because just spamming the attack button won't get you very far against the guardians and especially not the Titans. However, what's disappointing about the skill tree is that it is very small. You accumulate skill points pretty quickly, and I had the skill tree completely mapped out by the time I was halfway through the third island. For reference, there are five islands in this game. So ultimately, I ended up collecting skill points for literally no reason, which was pretty disappointing. It was nice to have a skill tree, but having a more robust one would have felt more rewarding, and also would have made the player have to think about which skills they wanted to unlock as well.

— It's not a huge deal, so I won't put it under cons, but having a little cutscene play every single time you reach maximum rings got really old after a while. There's a similar little flash of Sonic's eyes every single time he reels something in while fishing, and both of these things just felt like padding at best (for the fishing) and really intrusive on the gameplay at worst (the full ring count). Similarly, the reset for enemies and items in this game comes in the form of shooting star nights, which is really cool at first! It fits with the name of the Starfall Islands, is very colorful and pretty, and overall is a much more pleasant experience than Breath of the Wild's Blood Moon. However, the little slot machine that pops up on the screen is intrusive and makes it hard to see what you're doing, which is really frustrating when you're in the middle of things when the shooting stars hit. So by the second time this event happened, I was over it.

The Cons:

— The 2D gameplay in this game is atrocious. I literally don't know what happened; I was just playing Generations a week before this game came out, and the 2D levels in that game—which, remember, came out something like ten years ago—were fine. In Classic Sonic's levels in Generations, when you press right on the control stick, he runs. Just right out the gate. All you have to do is press right. Similarly, in other recent games such as Sonic Mania, the characters have no problem running when you press right on the control stick. You press right, they run. Sometimes this means you run into badniks or spikes or whatever, but hey! That's how you learn. Live and learn. We had a whole song about this in Sonic Adventure 2.

But for some reason that I cannot for the life of me understand, this is not the case in Frontiers. I don't know if it's just an issue with the Switch version or what, but for some reason, I could jam right on the control stick as hard as I could on the Switch version, and in the 2D areas (both cyberspace and overworld, which was basically all of Chaos Island), Sonic would just walk. He walked. You could almost say it was gameplay and story integration, except this also happened in the 2D cyberspace levels that came before his condition got really bad. I had to literally boost to get him to run at base speed when comparing it to the gameplay of the 3D segments. Worse still is that the camera is very zoomed out in the 2D segments, which makes spikes and other traps difficult to see. The 2D segments felt like honest to god torture in this game given how great the 3D segments were. At least if Sonic could run normally in the 2D segments it wouldn't be so bad, especially since I've played side-scrolling Sonic more than I've played 3D Sonic so, honestly, I'm pretty confident in my side-scrolling Sonic skills. Or hell, when you first boot up the game you're asked whether you want to play in Action Mode or Speed Mode; if he walked in Action Mode I'd understand, but I chose Speed Mode, so he should run. And he does, in the 3D areas! Just not in the 2D areas without really forcing it with boost. It's a nightmare. I don't know what went wrong here, but something sure did, because god fucking christ it was awful.

(And again, most of the third island—Chaos Island—is 2D segments, which made it hell to play through. If not for the fact that the third island hosts the best character, I'm not sure I would have made it through.)

— Earlier I mentioned that you can boost Sonic's stats in this game. I also mentioned that increasing strength and defense, which happens with Hermit Koco, was very quick and easy. Unfortunately, this is not the case for increasing speed and ring count, which happens with Elder Koco. To be fair, Elder Koco takes all of the koco you have collected in one fell swoop. However, you then have to manually choose whether you want to upgrade speed or rings. You have to choose this each time for every single level upgrade you have available to you, which is based on how many koco you brought back, and there's no in-game way of knowing exactly how many koco it takes per level boost of either speed or ring count. You can't move your cursor as soon as the option appears to choose each one, because although the words are on the screen, the menu isn't fully loaded yet. So you have to slowly, very slowly, click through to increase speed or ring count over, and over, and over again. If you wait a while to visit Elder Koco (due to not being in an area where he is for a while, for instance), you could be doing this for ages. I understand not wanting to lock players into spending all their koco on one or the other right away, but there are a few ways that Sega could have sped this process up:

Perhaps make it so that both speed and ring count are increased at the same time, a la strength and defense, without making the player choose.

At LEAST make it so that if you max out one stat, you can just bulk upgrade the remaining one. I maxed out speed before ring count, but I still had to manually select ring count for every subsequent level increase for some ungodly reason.

Perhaps let the player choose which they want to upgrade, and then they can choose how many levels they want to upgrade, in accordance with how many koco they have. This way if they have enough koco for 8 upgrades, they can choose to split 4 and 4 if they want.

In a game that's all about speed, AND one in which we have another stat increasing character who doesn't take nearly so long to go through the process, it feels bonkers bananas that it takes so long to upgrade things with Elder Koco. For someone with ADHD like me, it felt honestly torturous to have to sit there and slowly click through the menus to upgrade the levels one at a time. I felt like I was dealing with one of the sloth DMV employees in Zootopia. It was awful.

—This is a really minor thing comparatively, but it's related, so: the koco are annoying af. I don't find their incoherent gibberish to be cute (and actually . . . mocked them during cutscenes where one of the koco would babble on for a while), and more to the point, it bugged me how, when standing idle, the koco would materialize around Sonic and just start babbling. The koroks in Breath of the Wild were annoying too, but at least once you found them they poofed away and didn't continue to bother you every time you set the controller down for a second. The koco in this game actually made me mute my TV a couple times when I needed to do something but didn't want to shut the game off, because as nice as the background music was, I couldn't enjoy it with the koco babble. Thematically, the koco are beautiful. Audibly, I want them to shut up forever. Again, minor quibble, but still a complaint.

— One thing I was really excited about with regards to this game going into it is that it is chock-full of references to Sonic's past adventures, friends, and even other media (such as a shout-out to Tangle from the IDW comics). However, most regrettably, these shout-outs are extremely hard to trigger, to the tune of I didn't get a single one in my entire 40 hours of playing. The closest I got was two idle lines where Sonic talks to Amy and Knuckles toward the very end of the game, but that's it. There's been talk online about what it takes to trigger them, and some say you have to stand in one place for at least 10 minutes, which a.) who does that, and b.) actually I did that while waiting for nightfall (more on that in a second) and it still didn't help. So I don't know. I think it's really cool that there was fanservice, but the point of fanservice is to service the fans and I was a fan who was not serviced. So overall, I came away from the game feeling a little bitter about it. (And a little extra salty that Amy mentions an allegedly non-canon character in the end credits scene, but couldn't mention an allegedly non-games canon character from a non-games Sonic media I actually like in that scene . . . this is vague because of spoilers, but I'm being petty in this parenthetical, so maybe being vague is okay too.)

— While this is also not a huge deal, I think that this game would have benefited greatly from having a way to change the time from day to night, a la Breath of the Wild's campfires. The reason for this is because there are certain island challenges that can only be done at night. These aren't marked on the map (or at least the nighttime challenges I found weren't, but I also had glitch issues on the third island that prevented me from completing the map on that island so who knows), and if you happen across them during the day your only options are either to a.) stand there like a doofus and wait, or b.) mark it with a beacon and the run around while you wait. Since you can't set multiple beacons (another gripe in and of itself), your best option is to just stand there like a doofus, which can take a really long time (much longer than ten minutes, and yet I still didn't get any character references! yes I'm bitter). There aren't too many nighttime specific challenges so, again, it's not a super huge deal, but it's still something that I think a little developer foresight could have prevented. But alas, that brings us to the final point in this section . . .

— It's really obvious that this game experienced crunch time. I can't pretend to speak for what goes on at Sega, but it's really obvious that the last part of the game was rushed. Evidence of this includes:

The fourth and fifth islands are basically the exact same, landscape wise, as the first island.

Sonic's condition being cleaned up in a finger snap. I don't mind the cheesy aspect of how it happened, because again, this is a Sonic game. But the speed at which it happened, along with the vague handwave of how it happened, speaks to me that they just didn't have time in the game to spend on it and so they rushed it along to keep the player moving.

A lot of the later guardians are just slightly upgraded versions of previous guardians. This is especially noticeable on the final island, wherein we get two "new versions" of the tower guardian, only the only thing different is their coloration and their name. Like what was even the point of that, besides being able to re-use assets like they did by making the fourth and fifth islands the same as the first island.

Sage's memory tokens are the exact same memory tokens used for Amy. While you could claim that this is because she's thematically motivated by the same thing, it still feels . . . not lazy, but like maybe they just didn't have time to design and program in separate memory tokens for her. Something like a floppy desk (save icon for younger players) would have worked a lot better for her.

And so on and so forth. Again, this doesn't make the game bad, not by a long shot. But you can tell that they were rushing toward the end of development, and I wish they hadn't. They could have delayed the game by another few months, or even another year, and it would have been fine. I've waited years and years for Zelda games before; I'd be willing to do the same for Sonic games. It's OK to delay games to make them perfect and avoid putting your devs through crunch. It really is more than okay.

With all of that said, though, as I said at the top of this review, this game is an easy 8/10 and very, very good. While the cons might seem long, that's just because I'm a verbose person. Overall, there's much more to love about this game than there is to dislike about it. This is easily the best modern Sonic game we've had in a long time, and I hope that Sonic Team takes note of the positive reception, and keeps Ian Flynn on to write the next game, too.

[samthemarvelfan]

Breakeven: One Shot

Summary: It was Bucky choice to let you go. Now he’s learned that when hearts break, they don’t break even.

Pairing: TFATWS!Bucky Barnes x reader

Word Count: 1,100

Warnings: Angst, heartbreak, sad Bucky...a hopeful ending?

A/N: Yay! A oneshot! This is my submission for @pellucid-constellations​ beautiful writing challenge! I hope you enjoy it. Feedback is so, so appreciated! (Inspired by the song Breakeven by The Script)

Amends: to atone, do penance, or pay the price to redeem one’s self.

The word has been burned into the soul of Bucky Barnes for the past few years.

Set things right with any and everyone he’d hurt or wronged—that was his goal. One of the many his therapist had made for him, and for the most part, he’d done it.

“James?” The barista calls, drawing Bucky’s gaze to the counter. He smiles lightly at the young girl taking her job so seriously. He admired the work ethic.

The paper cup is warm against the sensitive vibranium of his left hand, the scalding black coffee inside. A stark contrast to the chilly autumn air whipping its way through the streets of New York. He’s walking the path he’d walked a hundred times before, though he’s doing it for the first time in months.

“You gotta let yourself feel things, James.” His therapist told him. “Even if their painful. It’s a good thing to feel, it’s a reminder that you’re human. That you’ve got yourself back.”

Bucky sighed heavily, waking the familiar cobblestones of Park Slope. He passed the bookshop that had the best collection of records from 30’s and 40’s, the bakery that had been run my the DiNuzzi’s since 1929, and the pink house with the pink roses and pink shutters.

Why someone would want to stick out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood, he’ll never know.

By the time he’d gotten back to his apartment, it was almost 4. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner. He’d run out of excuses and he’s pretty sure his therapist would want to see his journals were at least scribbled in for their next session.

So, Bucky grabbed the leather-bound book he kept situated neatly on his coffee table, a pen, and opened it to a clean page.

His knee was shaking as he got up the courage to write down his thoughts. His therapist told him to write letters—to himself, to his parents, to people he loves, hates or has hurt. What he does with the letters is up to him. He could burn them for all she cared, just write the thoughts down.

Bucky fiddled with the pen, before finally putting it to the paper.

Hey Honey, he wrote.

Thought about you a lot today. About us. I walked the old neighborhood again. It’s different and the same every time I see it.

Bucky’s heart was racing as he wrote. Your image clear as day in his mind.

I went to that coffee shop you told me about once…almost didn’t though, I was afraid you’d be there. Tucked away on that turquoise sofa in the corner, reading a book about to people that hate each other falling in love. Those cheesy stories were always your favorite.

Bucky smiles briefly, remembering how you would shush him when he made fun of your excitement as you turned each page.

The thought of seeing you terrifies me. Mostly ‘cause I don’t know what I’m supposed to say if I do.

He gets the urge to put the book down. To call it a day and not feel what he’s feeling right now, but then he’ll have no reason to think about you. So he continues.

Am I supposed to pretend I don’t know you? Am I supposed to shake your hand like we’re strangers? Hug you like I’ve done a million times? I don’t know the rules anymore, Y/N. I just wanna call you, see you, to hear your voice. That’d be enough.

He flips the page.

I want a lot of things, Sugar. I want to tell you I’m sorry. I want to tell you I choose you. Over a mission, over Sam, over the fucking pardon. I’d go back a pick you—us. Not like you’d ever make me pick one or the other. You always understood…never blamed me for doing what I thought I needed too.

You saw me for me, saw past the monster I tried to convince you I was. You saw the Bucky I used to be.

James felt his eyes brimming with tears. He bit his lip, hard enough to taste copper on the tip of his tongue.

I miss you. I feel like the biggest idiot, pushing you away. I thought, not that it matters now, but I thought I was holding you back. That you shouldn’t have to deal with a guy that barely has his life together. You didn’t deserve all of the glares people sent your way, or the constant fear of losing me. I know you hated that more than anything, and I’m sorry for that too.

I hope you’re happy, Baby. I hope you’re somewhere right now with someone who makes you smile. God, you deserve the world. I’d do anything to make sure you got it, too.

I hope you’re dancing in the kitchen making brownies. I hope you’re drinking iced coffee with way too much almond milk. I hope you still stick your tongue out when something is a little tricky, and that you still say ‘oops’ when you bump into the furniture.

He held the page tightly, snuffling as he wrote his final thought.

If there’s still room for me in that heart of yours, I hope we find our way back to each other. ‘Cause I promise you, Baby…I’d never let you go again.

To the moon, Sweetheart.

Love, Bucky.

Bucky closed the book gently, letting out a small breath as tears fell from his eyes. He put the book back in its place on the coffee table and stood, scrubbing his hands down his face.

He should call Sam, see if he wants some company for a few days. Just to get things off his chest.

Bucky pulls out his phone. As he does, your name flashed across the screen.

Something that hadn’t happened in months.

It was a text.

Bucky couldn’t even move as he read the small preview of your message still on the screen.

Hey Buck, you wrote.

Went to our coffee shop today…

[the-desolated-quill]

WandaVision: ‘Subverting’ Good Television - Quill’s Scribbles

(Spoilers for the first five episodes)

Hey everyone! Well... it’s been a while, hasn’t it? The last time I wrote a proper review or Scribble, people still thought the COVID crisis would be over within a month. The poor saps. But I thought that as a special way to mark this year’s Valentines Day, we could take a closer look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s shittiest power couple in their new Disney+ show WandaVision.

The first of many MCU spin-off shows that nobody asked for, broadcast exclusively on Disney’s totally unnecessary streaming platform, WandaVision is about everybody’s favourite whitewashed Nazi experiment and her red sexbot boyfriend as they try to fit into a suburban sitcom neighbourhood without arousing suspicion.

Yes, you read that correctly. The MCU has a sitcom now. My life is now complete.

Sarcasm aside, I was legitimately curious about WandaVision because of its unusual setting. And considering one of my most common criticisms of the MCU is its total lack of creativity, anything that’s even a little bit subversive is bound to attract my attention. Of course ‘subversive’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good.’ I could hand you a canvas smeared with my own shit and call it subversive. That doesn’t necessarily make it good art. And that’s exactly what WandaVision is. A canvas smeared with shit.

So lets split this critical analysis/review/angry bitter rant into two distinct chapters. The first focusing on the plot and setting, and the second focusing on the characters. Okay? Okay.

Chapter 1: Bewitched

Critics seem to be utterly enamoured with the whole sitcom gimmick, and it is a gimmick. As far as I can tell from the episodes I’ve seen, the sitcom setting serves no real purpose whatsoever other than to make the show ‘quirky.’ Which I wouldn’t mind, believe it or not, if the show was actually funny. There’s just one problem. It’s not.

Now in some ways describing why a sitcom doesn’t work is often futile because comedy is largely subjective. What I find funny, you won’t necessarily find funny and vice versa. With WandaVision, however, I won’t have that problem. I can demonstrate to you precisely why WandaVision, objectively, isn’t funny. And it all comes down to one simple thing. The stakes. Or rather the complete and total absence of stakes.

The show makes it very clear from the beginning that none of what we’re seeing is real. The cheesy theme song, the era appropriate special effects (mostly. It’s actually very inconsistent), the joke commercials, and, in the case of the first two episodes, which are in black and white, the appearance of red lights and objects in Scarlet Witch’s general vicinity. (Gee, what a mystery this is).

Basically Wanda has brought Vision back from the dead and created this sitcom world for them to inhabit. I’ll explain the stupidity of this in Chapter 2. The point is none of this is real, and that has a negative effect on the comedy because the very nature of comedy is suffering. Take the plot of the first episode. Wanda and Vision have to prepare a dinner to impress Vision’s boss. If they fail, Vision could lose his job and the couple could be exposed as superheroes. If this were a normal sitcom, it would work. The stakes are clear and it would be satisfying to see the two struggle and overcome the odds. But here, we know it’s not real. If it’s not real, it means there’s no stakes. If there’s no stakes, it means there’s no suffering. If there’s no suffering, there’s no comedy.

It would be one thing if the unfunny sitcom stuff lasted for like the first ten minutes or so before making way for the actual plot, but it doesn’t. Oh no. It doesn’t even last for the first episode. Out of the five episodes I’ve watched, four of them are almost entirely about these unfunny, objectively flawed sitcom homages, each set in a different time period. The fifties, the sixties, and so on. And what’s worse is that nothing that happens in them is plot-relevant. That gets relegated to the last five minutes of an episode. So you’re forced to sit through twenty five minutes of boring slapstick and puns in order to catch even a whiff of actual story. Which begs the question... who is this for exactly? It can’t be entertaining to Marvel fans, who have to slog through all this pointless shit so they can figure out what the fuck is going on. Comedy fans may get a kick out of the sitcom pastiche at first, but after four episodes, surely the joke would wear thin. So why is it in here? Clearly someone in the writer’s room absolutely fell in love with the idea of doing a Marvel sitcom, but nobody put in any time or effort to figure out how it would work in context.

I cannot stress enough how bad the plotting of this series is. As I said, the vast majority of a thirty minute episode is about shitty sitcom plots that aren’t funny and don’t have any impact on the story, only to then tease you with a crumb of actual plot in order to keep you coming back for the next instalment. Admittedly it’s an effective strategy. I was more than ready to quit after Episode 2 until that beekeeper showed up out of the sewer (don’t ask. It’s not important). WandaVision essentially follows the Steven Moffat school of bad writing. String your audience along with the promise that things might get more interesting later on and that all the bullshit that came before will retroactively make sense by the end. Except, as demonstrated with BBC’s Sherlock, that doesn’t work. And even if it did, it wouldn’t justify wasting the audience’s fucking time. And that’s what the majority of WandaVision is. A waste of time.

The only episode that doesn’t follow the sitcom format is the fourth episode. Instead it basically exists to explain all the shit that happened before. The shit that the audience, frankly, are smart enough to figure out for themselves. Wanda created the sitcom world as a way of coping with the loss of Vision, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we got it. Thanks. It doesn’t advance the plot or anything. It’s just a massive info-dump. But by far the lowest point was when Darcy (by far the most annoying character in the first Thor film and is just as obnoxious here) was sat in front of the TV, watching the sitcom and asking the same questions we were. Not even attempting to look for answers. Just reiterating what the audience is thinking. Like this is an episode of fucking Gogglebox.

In the end it becomes apparent why the series is structured the way that it is. It’s to hoodwink people into subscribing to Disney’s stupid streaming service. If you think about it, there was no reason for WandaVision to be a TV series other than to lure gullible fans in with a piece-meal story buried in a mountain of crap. This isn’t a TV show. It’s what is cynically known in the world of big business executives as ‘content.’ They’re not interested in entertaining the audience. Instead they crave ‘engagement’, which isn’t the same thing. Watching WandaVision is like staring into the void, waiting for something to happen, while Disney charge you for the privilege.

Chapter 2: I Love Lucy

So the plot sucks balls. What about the characters? Surely if Wanda and Vision are likeable at least, it’ll give us something to cling onto.

Well as I was watching the first episode, it suddenly hit me that I couldn’t remember anything that happened to them in previous films. I knew Vision died, but other than that, I couldn’t tell you significant plot details or their personalities or anything. Not a great start.

See, up until now, Vision and Scarlet Witch have been little more than background characters. So already there’s an uphill struggle to get us invested in their relationship, especially considering we haven’t actually seen that relationship develop. In Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Scarlet Witch is killing people because she’s pissed off about Tony Stark killing people (you work that one out) until all of a sudden she stops and joins the good guys because the script said so. Vision meanwhile is introduced as a convenient deus ex machina to beat Ultron and gets no real personality other than he’s a robot. Captain America: Civil War comes the closest to giving Wanda a story and personality of her own as it’s her actions that cause the Sokovia Accords to come into effect, but she never gets any real growth or payoff as the film is heavily focused on Cap and Iron Man’s penis measuring contest. And as for Vision, all he does in the film is accidentally cripple War Machine. No real character or arc there as such. And then we have Avengers: Infinity War, where Wanda and Vision are now sporadically in love and on the run until that pesky Josh Brolin, looking like a CGI cross between Joss Whedon and a grumpy grape, comes along and rips out Vision’s Infinity Stone to power up his golden glove of doom, and the film treats this like a tragic moment, except... it isn’t. Because we haven’t really had the time to properly get to know these characters and see their romance blossom. So instead it just comes off as hollow and forced.

WandaVision has the exact same problem. Apparently Wanda was so distraught about Vision’s death that she broke into a SWORD base, stole his corpse, brought it back from the dead... somehow, and then enslaved an entire town of people to create an idyllic lifestyle for her and her hubby while broadcasting it as a sitcom to the outside world... for some reason. Putting aside the dubious morality of it all, it’s impossible to really sympathise with Wanda or her supposed grief because we’ve barely spent any time with her. Had the Marvel movies taken the time to properly explore the characters and show us their relationship grow and develop, this might have had more emotional resonance. But no, it just happens. In one film they barely speak to each other and in the next they’re a couple. No effort to explore how they feel about each other or any of the problems that may arise trying to date a robot. It just happens and we’re just supposed to care. Well I’m sorry, but I don’t care. You’re going to have to try a little bit harder than that I’m afraid. What’s worse is that, thanks to the whole fake sitcom thing, it’s impossible to really become invested in Wanda and her plight because the show has to constantly keep us at arms length at all times in order to keep up the pretence that this bullshit is somehow mysterious.

Looking through the WandaVision tag, it amuses me how many people say that she’s acting out of character. And yeah, her actions are a bit of a head scratcher. Why would an Eastern European’s ideal life be an American sitcom? Why a sitcom? Why kidnap an entire town? Why keep changing the decade? None of it makes sense, but you’re wrong for thinking that Wanda is behaving out of character for the simple reason that Wanda has never actually had a character. In fact, ironically, Wanda mind controlling an entire town and forcing them to do her bidding is probably the one consistent thing about her as she did this in Age Of Ultron. In interviews, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany described how they used actors like Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick Van Dyke as influences, which is really funny because they’re straight up admitting they don’t have characters and even now they’re still not playing the characters, instead emulating the work of far better actors.

As I was watching the show, it became abundantly clear that not only do Marvel not have the faintest idea what they wanted to do with these characters, but they also straight up don’t give a shit about these characters. Wanda in particular has had a rough time under the tyrannical regime of the House of Mouse. First they cast Elizabeth Olsen, a white woman, to play a Romani character, then systematically erasing her Jewish roots, even going so far as to put a cross in her bedroom in Civil War, and now the character is being butchered even more by forcing her into an American sitcom housewife role that she apparently willingly chose for herself, which is laughable. I mean say what you like about Magneto in the X-Men films, at least they actually depicted his Jewish culture. At least they recognised his Jewish background was important (though not important enough to cast a Jewish actor apparently). Wanda’s steady cultural erasure over the years is incredibly insidious and judging by Olsen’s comments in interviews, where she called Wanda’s comic book outfit a quote ‘gypsy thing’ unquote, it seems nobody has an ounce of fucking respect for the character or the culture she’s supposed to be representing. (and to all those kissing her arse saying it was a slip of the tongue, she has been repeatedly called out for using the slur in the past, so at this point I’d describe her behaviour as wilful ignorance)

If you want further proof of how much Marvel doesn’t seem to care about Wanda, look no further than her brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver. At the end of Episode 5, Wanda brings Pietro back from the dead, except it’s not Pietro. It’s Peter Maximoff, the Quicksilver from the X-Men films played by Peter Evans, who coincidentally is not Jewish or Romani either. So Quicksilver has the dubious honour of not only being whitewashed three times, but also twice within the same franchise. But should we really be surprised at this point? It’s Marvel after all. The same company that whitewashed the Ancient One in Doctor Yellowface and claimed it wasn’t racist because Tilda Swinton is ‘Celtic’. But now I’m going off topic. My point is that this isn’t a simple case of recasting an actor like Mark Ruffalo replacing Edward Norton as the Hulk. WandaVision actually acknowledges the recast in-universe, which makes no sense. Why would Wanda bring back her brother, only to make him look like a different person? We the audience may be familiar with this version of Quicksilver, but she isn’t. That would be like me bringing my Grandad back to life and making him look like Ian McKellen. He’d be perfectly charming, I’m sure, but he wouldn’t be my Grandad. 

If Marvel really cared about the characters or narrative consistency, they would have brought Aaron Taylor Johnson back. Instead, now they have absorbed 20th Century Fox into the hellish Disney abyss, they use X-Men’s Quicksilver as a means to keep viewers from switching off and so that people will write stupid articles and think pieces about whether the rest of the X-Men will show up in the MCU. It’s like dangling your keys in front of a toddler’s face to distract them from the rotting corpse of a raccoon lying face down in the corner of the room.

And it’s here where I decided to stop watching the show because fuck Disney.

Epilogue: One Foot In The Grave

You know, I am sick and tired of the so called ‘professional’ critics bending over backwards to praise these god awful films and shows when it’s so clear to anyone with a functioning brain cell how bad they truly are. WandaVision is without a doubt one of the most cynically produced and poorly structured TV shows I’ve ever seen. Its riffs on classic sitcoms are pointless and self-indulgent, the writing is terrible, the characters are unlikable and unsympathetic, and it’s entirely emblematic of what the entire MCU has become of late. And it’s only going to get worse as Disney drowns us with more ‘content’ to keep the plebs ‘engaged’. In short; pathetic.

[kiss4kazu]

Hi! could I request some headcanons for what kissing Ashe and Dimitri (Felix too if thats not too much if not its fine) would be like for the first time?

☆ first time kisses with ashe, dimitri, felix 

↳ ashe babie boy 

although ashe is really innocent and pure i think he’s easily one of the most romantic in blue lions and would really go above and beyond always for the person he loves. 

i know a lot of people probably see ashe as someone being too reluctant and nervous to actually ever make a move first but i think if he really liked someone, he’d be extremely obvious about it, blushing like crazy, a stuttering mess, etc and after enough pep talks from sylvain he’d finally make a move to ask u out on a date and it would be an absolute wreck.

would literally put together something so fckin cheesy n corny but in the most adorably ashe way that it makes you want to punch him from being so precious

like a cute picnic or something by a lake and he’d make cute little cakes with some help from annette and it would just be so pure. 

he’d rehearse how he’s going to confess in his head like a million times but when the moment actually comes it ends up just being a jumbled up mess filled with “ums” and he’d try to stick to the script him and sylvain came up with and get out a “y-you’re r-really… u-uh… p-pretty..” but then he’d fuck it all up by saying something weird n dorky like “a-and you s-smell really nice… w-wait that’s weird i’m sorry-” and you’d just hold back ur laughter, ur heart swelling with so so much affection for him. 

ofc he’d ask for permission to kiss you, cheeks crimson and his eyes looking up at yours like tht one starry eyed emoji. you’d give him a vocal response, since he rly needs that reassurance. no stutters just “of course ashe” and he’d smile so so big and then just swoop down totally uncoordinated. 

would probs miss your lips and have to readjust. 

kissing ashe for the first time would be … messy. he’s not experienced at all, and doesn’t know what to do with his hands and he’d honestly be a dead fish for a good few moments. but as you ease him more into the kiss, he’d loosen up a bit, tilt his head and just stop overthinking. his lips would be really warm and would taste so sweet from the cake and he’d smile so hard into the kiss that your teeth end up bumping into each other and you’d pull away laughing

ashe kisses are the best honestly the butterflies fireworks the whole shebang yknow. 

as he gets more confident he’d probably try out a few things he’s seen in books like slipping his tongue in and would be completely taken aback by just how nice it feels. would probably whine into the kiss, cradle your face in his hands, and once you guys pull apart for some air he’d just breathe heavily against your lips with the dopiest smile on his face :( <3 

he’d be rly slap happy after kissing you for the first time and would probably tackle u onto the picnic blanket laughing from happiness kissing your face everywhere and showering you in compliments, shoving his face into ur neck and just breathing in ur scent. 

he’s very clingy ok. 

↳ dimi !!

whew. ok so we’re gonna do academy phase dimi since feral dimi is uh… probs not sfw & violent skjdfjslkjfd  

academy phase dimi knows NOTHING about kissing n he has 0 experience so it takes him forever n a day to finally get the balls to kiss u and when he does … whew. 

i can imagine kissing dimi to be during like , a deep convo or something late at night, when he’s having trouble sleeping or something and ur just running ur fingers through his hair, listening to him as he vents and admiring the sound of his voice bc he’s always more talkative at the dead of night when he’s sleep deprived. 

he’d just look at u so so lovingly and it would be suffocating and ur just staring at his lips but u know ur probs way in over ur head bc uh he’s the future king of faerghus 

but then he’d ask for permission too like ashe tbh bc he’s just polite like tht and has too good mannerisms 

plus he cares a lot about your comfort and would never want to make u feel unsafe or uncomfy especially by his doing

and you would nod with quickness n he’d waste not a second to connect ur lips 

kissing dimi is like a trance tbh, type of kiss that feels like something in u is short-circuiting 

literally the type of kiss that makes ur knees buckle u know the ones. 

he’s a rly rly good kisser n it makes no sense bc he’s literally never kissed anyone before in his life n it kind of makes u mad bc why is he perfect 

a rly rly passionate kisser and he can be kind of rougher than he intends to bc he’s not good with fragile things 

clearly v dominant in the kiss, one hand with an iron grip on ur hip the other tangled up behind ur neck, gripping ur hair. after a while gets reluctant and starts to overthink things and pulls away apologizing for being too rough

you’d probs have to reassure him a million times tht its okay dimi ur not hurting me!! 

he’s rly touch starved tbh so he always tends to take pecks into full-blown makeout sessions or when he intends to just kiss ur forehead he ends up kissing ur cheeks too, ur jaw, down ur neck just riling himself up tbh and then he finally  looks up at u with his eyes all dark n ur just like … here we go

did i mention he groans a lot during kisses bc he does 

dimi’s other sides shining through when his emotions overwhelm him is just .. dimitri 101. 

he’s rough, seemingly an expert at this shit, his tongue shoving past your lips and completely taking u off guard. he’d literally kiss you so hard your head would spin and he’d do it all with a blush on his face bc he’s still a shy babie.  as soon as the moment is over he’s back to stuttering n being all awkward boyish prince. 

he’s also the type to shower u in compliments between kisses.

kisses lips “you’re so gorgeous” smooches neck “so amazing” kisses jaw “goddess i love you” 

im scream crying

↳ felix too bc WHY NOT ! i love him 

listen. 

this little fucker kisses the life out of people u heard it here first folks. 

he’s 100% a heat of the moment type of kisser. it could go two ways tbh. like if you got hurt or something on his behalf he’d scream at you with glossy eyes for a good 5 minutes and then just stare at you all >:( and then he’d just grab you and  kiss the fuck out of you.

probably the most passionate kisser out of the three, he kisses to the point where u can’t feel ur toes and stuff he’d just completely indulge without any fucks given bc he almost lost you and he’s not good with explaining his emotions so hopefully this helps you understand. 

the other way i can see a first kiss going down with felix is more.. vulnerable, despite his hard exterior. he is rough and mean but it’s not bc he’s genuinely a bad person he just has walls built up so high tht its impossible for anyone to rly climb over 

to get a kiss from lix, u definitely have to have climbed over tht wall of his, or just fly a wrecking ball through it n send it crumbling to the ground

you’re literally the only exception, the only person who can rly get through to him 

he’d probably turn to you for comfort a lot, when dimitri agitates him with memories of glenn or his dad says something that ticks him off and he wants to punch something he’d just go to you instead, knock on ur door and just waltz in like he owns the place, sitting down on ur bed and u would know he wants cuddles bc this is how felix communicates 

if he had to actually say “i want cuddles” out loud he’d probably shoot himself in the foot with an arrow so he’s glad u understand, u always understand him just by looking at him n it’s reassuring bc he’s never been good with words.

its kind of cringe to him that he likes being held but shocker he likes being held 

he also rly rly likes it when u play with his hair he’s like a cat he will literally start nuzzling into you, so warm and pliant to your touch

ok im getting distracted back to the kissing shit

felix would probably just be rly overwhelmed with emotions n he doesn’t rly know how to tell u “i like u” so he just says “im going to kiss you.” like a literal statement n then he does it n ur just like o-o bc wtf. 

if ur not responsive at first he’d just pull away after a while and wouldn’t meet eyes with u and be all blushy. 

would let out a tch like the little shit that he is, and u have to turn his face so he’s properly looking at u again and meeting eyes with u 

he looks so vulnerable and stupidly gorgeous so u kiss him this time so he knows the feeling is mutual and it’d take him a min to really gather whats happening but once he does he’d literally. suck. the. life. out. of. your. face. period. 

felix kisses r rough n messy n just completely self-indulgent and he groans shamelessly when u pull his hair tie out from his bun and tug at his hair yes i have a thing for felix’s hair leave me alone.

gives 0 fucks would literally shove his tongue down your throat pull you flush against him and he always calls sylvain insatiable but rly its this fucker who’s insatiable he is literally eating your face. 

you’d have to pull him away from you and he’d just pant so hard against your lips and look at you like he wants to devour you and its kind of overwhelming bc he’s fucking hot !!!!! 

would shove his face into ur neck and mumble out an “i like you”  and u would tease him n be like “what did you say i cant hear u?” and he’d elbow u in the ribs  and groan into ur neck and u would laugh n kiss his head, telling him u like him too

at tht he’d lift his head up, his hair falling over his amber eyes and u would just push the strands away from his face and kiss him softly one last time before going back 2 ur conversation about punching sylvain’s face or sumn

anyway i love felix thanks 4 coming to my ted talk. 

requests are open! <3

- vivi ★

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S3:E1; Chapter One, Suzie, Do You Copy? - [Pt. 4]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

Summer brings new jobs and budding romance. But the mood shifts when Dustin’s radio picks up a Russian broadcast, and Will senses something is wrong.

Warnings: Hopper being a c*p 🤢 [ACAB BABEY], mentions of animal death, very brief mentions of anxiety

**Y/H = your height, ex; short, tall etc H/C = hair color**

||𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

"Alrighty. One scoop of chocolate, that'll be buck twenty five."

Steve places the cone in the girl's hands, smirking to himself when her hands meet his. With a shy yet charming grin he mumbles a soft 'there you go' and suddenly her hand is no longer touching his. The brief physical contact didn't seem to mean quite what it meant to him, as she looked rather eager to get back to her day at the mall. But Steve still saw a fighting chance when he spotted the gold letters displayed across her sweatshirt.

"Ah, Perdue." His eyes light up in recognition, and he sends her a silly smile. "Fancy."

She smiles brightly and Steve's spirits lift. She nods, handing over the money and readjusts her purse. "Yeah. I'm excited."

"Ah, you know I considered it." Steve nods, fingers flying across the register. "Perdue, but then I was like, you know what?"

A light air of resolve falls over him and the across the counter begin to shift as uncomfortable smiles flit across their faces. The second even trying to wipe the amused expression off of her face at Steve's obvious attempts at her friend. A knowing look is then passed on between the pair as Steve continues, seemingly unaffected. 

"I really think I need some real life experience, ya know, before I hit college. See what it feels like to, kinda uh, like, I don't know," He shrugs with a charming smile that doesn't quite reach the girls who now boredly lick at their melting ice cream cones. "See what it's like to earn a working man's wage, you know and uh-"

The register he fiddles with decides his time is up, its circuits shorting out as they did every few weeks and stuck itself into one endless high pitched beep that cuts him off. Flustered, Steve attempts to save the conversation not before subduing the intrusive noise, as he mutters a quick apology.

"-I think that's really important, and uh,"

"Yeah, totally," She responds, choking back a pathetic laugh.

Rolling with the punches, Steve shrugs goofily still wearing his best smile.

"Yeah, anyways, this was like, so fun," he laughs, the nerves now overtaking him. "We should, like, I don't know, maybe hangout? Like this weekend or something-?"

Yet again, he is cut off as the change he intends to give her spill out of his hands and onto the counter.

"Oh, sorry about that," he fumbles as she begins collecting the scattered coins off the counter. "Uh, I don't know, maybe next weekend?"

"Uh, I'm busy." She laughs uncomfortably as she tucks the coins away into her purse.

"Oh, that's cool. And I'm-" Steve nods, scratching his head. "I'm working here next weekend so... the following weekend is probably better for me."

"Uh, no. I'm sorry, I can't."

Her friend begins to laugh into her ice cream and even she is biting back a smile as she hurriedly collects herself to leave and Steve nods.

"Okay," The girls chuckle to themselves as they make their leave for the door. "Thanks."

"I..." Steve stumbles, his voice awkwardly trailing off as they do. "This is my first day here, so..."

But they were already filing back out into the crowds, giggling between each other at his poor attempts. Not that he could blame them.

"And another one bites the dust."

He sighs heavily, head sagging over his shoulders before swiveling around to face the girl carrying a mischievous glint in her eye and that damned scoreboard. Scrawled across the top of the divided two sections; YOU SCORE, which remained completely blank, and YOU SUCK which carried a total of five--

"You are oh for," --now six. "six, Popeye."

Steve nods bitterly with his arms folded over his chest. "Yeah, yeah, I can count." He sighs.

"You know that means you suck."

Against all odds - and the bitter taste of annoyance on his tongue - Steve still finds a smile creeping up on his face, however forced.

"Yep, I can read, too."

The spark of mischief in her eyes is fueled like a small flame, and a cocky smile twists her lips. "Since when?"

"It's the stupid hat." Steve groans, ignoring her comment and saunters over to lean against the back counter. "I am telling you, it is totally blowing my best feature."

Robin tucks away the menu-turned-score board back against the wall before folding her arms on the counter, draping herself lazily in the back window.

"Yeah, company policy is a real drag." She drawls. "You know, it's a crazy idea but have you considered... telling the truth?"

"Oh, you mean, that I couldn't even get into Tech and my douchebag dad's trying to teach me a lesson, I make three bucks an hour and I have no future? That truth?"

Robin's eyes drift past his shoulder and she quickly gestures. "Hey, twelve o'clock."

Steve's head whips over his shoulder to find a small parade of girls striding towards the counter, reigniting the nerves in his gut. "Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Okay... Uh..."

He turns back to Robin, his eyes darting across the counter as his mind races. Robin can practically hear the silent pep talk he's giving himself.

"I'm going in. Okay?" He says, more to himself than her. He nearly whips around to face them had it not been for the sudden hesitation brought on by a burst of confidence. "And you know what?"

He rips the tacky sailor's hat off his head pulling a curl loose that dangled on his forehead as he smirks. "Screw company policy."

Less than impressed, Robin doesn't even attempt to hide her boredom. "Oh, my god, you're a whole new man." She deadpans.

"Right?" He shakes his head around on his shoulders in a goofy manner as he backs away, drawing out a weak chuckle from the girl.

In one step he whirls himself around to face the small posse of girls at a frightening speed, even startling several gasps out of them.

"Ahoy ladies! Didn't see you there," he shouts, propping himself up on the counter with his arms. Several girls in the group watch him wide eyed and still a bit off put. "Would you guys like to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me? I'll be your captain. I'm Steve Harrington."

"Oh, god." The red head mutters to herself, exasperated as her friends begin to giggle.

"Can I get you guys a little taste of Cherries Jubilee? No? Anybody? Banana Boat? Four people, four spoons?"

Robin watches from the back room as the fire spreads, a wince overtaking her face as she steps back to her board, uncapping her pen as his boisterous voice echoes throughout the ice cream parlor.

"Sharing a booth? Anybody? It's hot out there."

Make that oh-for-seven.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"And I know this is a difficult conversation to have..."

Hopper's unsteady voice travels at a slow pace as he digests the words on the scrap of paper in his hands. His face is contorted in an uncomfortable grimace as he hears them leave his mouth but he tries to persist.

"but I hope you know that I care about you very much. And I know that you-"

"Eye contact-" Joyce softly reminds, from where sits opposite, her legs dangling off the empty pharmacy counter.

There's a brief lull in the station between songs before a familiar melody spills from the wire speakers in the corner of the store, Patsy Cline's She’s Got You. It's quiet and hard to hear but the lyrics still seep into Hopper's subconscious, briefly aiding his nerves in throwing his attention off course as he meets Joyce's deep brown eyes.

"And I know that... we both care about each other very much." Immediately he rejects the words coming off his tongue and shakes his head at her choice of words. "This does not sound like me at all."

"Just keep going. Come on." She reassures.

Hopper draws in a deep breath, clutching the makeshift script between his balled fists that were tucked nervously in between his knees. "Which is why I think it's important to establish these boundaries..."

He squints, straining against his anxieties to remember the words she had helped him brainstorm. "moving forward..." 

he sneaks a peak at the crumpled up paper in his hands, earning a soft chiding from Joyce who shakes her head.

"No looking. You know this. Come on."

Another deep inhale brings an uneasy look on Hopper's face as he shakes his head, tucking away the paper back in between his knees.

"so we can build an environment... uh... where we..."

Joyce silently watches with a series of encouraging nods, her hands gently waving like that of an orchestra conductor.

"all feel comfortable and trusted and open..."

Joyce nods once more, a light in her eyes as that silently encourages him. That puts him at ease. "'Share our feelings'..."

"...to sharing our feelings-- This isn't gonna work." He shakes his head, giving into the discomfort building all around him and he rises to his feet. "Um, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work."

"Yes, it will!" She scolds. "I promise."

He shakes his head as he expels another patch of nerves, and joins her on the counter.

"Oh, come on." She pleads softly.

"Maybe I'll just kill Mike," he grunts sarcastically. "I'm the chief of police, I can cover it up." [👁👄👁]

Joyce gives his knuckles a reassuring pat before she sends him another encouraging smile. Even as he leans against the counter that she is currently hoisted onto, he still manages to tower over her. 

"You got this." She gives another reassuring squeeze, and Hopper feels like a cheesy bastard for noticing the timing of it all. The swelling of the music and the spark she left whenever their hands met in the past few months, but he didn’t mind. "I promise."

The music seems to grow louder around them, and she still hasn't taken her hand from his. He finds himself smiling down at her with that goofy smile he had been wearing a lot lately. It only seemed to make an appearance around her, and he knew this.

"I really don't know what I know,"

Joyce meets his eyes with a genuine look, something familiar brewing in both of their chests. And that scares her. Her mind returns to Bob and the grip of fear tightens around her heart as Hopper looks at her like that.

"You want to have dinner tonight?" He asks, finally breaking more than one kind of silence that lingered between them.

Her heart catches in her throat, and she looks away growing bashful. And uncertain. Joyce can still feel his eyes on her and as he grins down at her flustered expression.

"You can give me some more pointers."

"Oh, I... Um..." Her hand leaves his and settles on her knee, and she returns her gaze to him with an apologetic look swimming in her eyes. "Um, I... I have plans."

"Okay, sure." He smirks, much too enamored with the awkward smile that graced her face to be offended by her answer.

Another comfortable silence befalls them as they sit enjoying one another's company. But even this moment is short lived in the wake of the customer bell announcing a new visitor to the store. Joyce perks, gesturing excitedly to the front as she excuses herself.

"Oh, a customer." Breathlessly, she heaves herself off the counter and eagerly makes her way to the woman up front. "Hey, Carol!"

"Oh, hi, Joyce!" The woman beams as Joyce scurried across the store to meet her. "How are you? So good to see you."

Hopper watches the exchange from where Joyce had left him standing, his eyes locked on the woman who had so quickly and so sneakily became such a vital part of his life. It was only logical to him that this friend of hers, Carol was so happy to see her; Joyce had a way with everyone she met. Not a single person left her company without their day brightened. She knew how to make everyone feel welcomed, heard and loved.

"She's got you,"

Looking at her now, there was no denying it. Not anymore. Hopper wanted that for her, and he hoped more than anything he could be the one to give her that.

||𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

The sun beats heavily down on my neck and shoulders the most, and I shiver every once in a while when I feel a bead of sweat fall down my skin. With a groan, I readjust the backpack on my shoulders and put all my energy into just keeping up with Max and Lucas and not on the burning sensation on my skin.

"This isn't fair," I pout. "Heat's my whole thing, I shouldn't be sweating like this."

"Well, good news is we're nearly there," Dustin assures, though I do not feel very comforted.

"Aren't we high enough?" Lucas asks, tugging at the large bag he was lugging over his shoulder.

"Cerebro works best at a hundred meters."

I groan up at the sky as I continue the hike up.

I began to hear spouts of quieted laughter from behind me but it's quickly cut off by Max's flat remark.

"I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones."

"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon." Dustin replies.

"Oh shit." Lucas says surprised. "She doesn't have electricity?"

She's five or six steps ahead of me with her back turned and yet I can still make out Max's eye roll. "Oh, that's the Amish." She corrects tiredly.

"Mormans are super religious white people," Dustin begins. "They have electricity and cars and stuff but since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve. It's all a bit... shakespearean."

"Shakespearean?" Max indulges, a smirk in her voice.

"Yeah," Dustin answers, puffing his chest out a little. "Star crossed lovers."

"Right."

"Well, regardless Dustin," I begin, sharing a smile with Will. "I can't wait to be introduced."

I see Dustin perk up even more, and my smile grows. "Yeah?" He asks hopefully.

"Yeah!" I answer. "I wanna be a good sister. Can't wait to repay you for being so cool with me and Will, ya know?"

"Guys?"

I bite back a laugh but my smile is still triumphant. Dustin stops in his tracks, the others stopping as well seeming more than relieved. When Dustin turns to look at me, his face is hardened completely in a threatening glare.

"If you do or even say anything, I swear I will-"

"GUYS!"

Me and Dustin break away from our small fight and everyone turns to find Mike and El several feet down the hill. They're standing hand in hand and sending us all weak apologetic smiles and I feel my heart sink.

"This was fun and all, but uh..." Mike trails off, tapping his watch obnoxiously.

"I have to get home." El finished.

All mischief I was previously feeling with Dustin vanished, quickly replaced by guilt as I stole a quick glance at his saddened expression and the duo before us.

"We're almost there!" He says, completely bewildered and I can hear the hurt in his voice.

"Sorry man," Mike says, not sounding very sorry at all. "Curfew."

He starts to back away down the hill and he takes El's hand and whispers something to her that I don't catch.

El sent us all a warm look, as if nothing was wrong and for the first time I was upset to see her smile.

"Good luck," she says, before following on Mike's heels with an elated giggle.

I stare after them, my eyes burning holes in their backs and my hands no doubt burning holes in my pockets if I wasn't careful enough.

"Curfew at four?" Dustin asks, finally catching on to the majority of our summer without him.

"They're lying." Lucas huffs.

I see Will shrug angrily next to me. "It's been like this all summer."

"It's romantic," Max offers but even she doesn't sound so convinced.

"It's gross."

I shake my head, letting out a short sigh.

"It's... not healthy." Another flicker of anger attacked me suddenly, and I looked at all my friends bewildered before my glare landed back on the retreating couple. "And what the hell happened to 'friends don't lie'?"

"I don't know but it's bullshit." Dustin replies, his voice sad and filled with disappointment. "I just got home."

I look back over my shoulder and give my brother a sympathetic smile but I know it won't fix anything.

"I'm sorry Dustin. I really didn't think they would do it this time. They seemed so excited for you to come home."

He meets my eye and nods. If I look close enough I can see him rebuilding himself.

"Whatever... They're loss, right?" He smiled at us all and gestured to the hilltop behind us. "Onwards and upwards."

He takes off for the hill at unnatural speeds for our condition and cheers excitedly into the air. "Suzie awaits!"

Well shit, more climbing.

I groan, head landing on Will's shoulder in a tired pout. My voice isn't alone for as soon as I do I hear Max and Lucas throw back similar whines at the remaining trek ahead.

By the time I pick my head up off of Will's shoulder, everyone else is already several steps ahead. I sigh, ripping my stiffened and tired legs from where they rooted into the ground and start after them. Readjusting the backpack over my shoulder, my eyes drill into the top of the hill- the finish line - as I push ahead.

"Think they'll carry me if I fake a leg injury?" I chuckle to Will under my breath.

There's a small silence aside from the distant giggling of El and Mike as they descend the hill and the panting of the others as they run out of breath from the climb above us. I look to my right where Will was previously, only to find him several steps behind me. His back was turned to me and he was nervously clutching the bag of wires he had been carrying.

I took a few cautious steps towards him, my heart pounding for reasons I did not understand.

"Will?"

He scrambles back, jumping from one foot to the other as if dancing on hot coals and it looks as if he sees something in the grass.

"What, what is it? Will!"

He snaps out of his trance, turning to me wide eyed and now several steps closer to me. I quickly bridge the gap to stand by his side, searching his eyes carefully. He casts one last lingering glance out onto the grass where he was previously standing before meeting my eyes. There was something he was holding back, something deeply uncertain in the way he held himself and I got a sinking feeling in my gut.

A sinking feeling not unlike the night I found him outside the arcade. Anger quickly bubbles to the surface at the thought of something else getting him, and without a second thought I take his hand in mine.

He seems to relax a great deal at my touch, and he looks greatly reassured and instantly so am I.

He was still Will.

There was a silence that hung between us as he put on a smile for me. It was far from genuine, that I knew and the only thing it reassured me of was the fact that something definitely scared him.

Will looks past my shoulders, and gestures. "Come on, we better catch up. We've got some revenge to enact." Another forced laugh is let loose and he starts off after them.

Tries to at least, but he's pulled to a stop when I don't move an inch, my hand still tethered to his. He stops, looking back at me curiously.

"Will, you know you can tell me anything right?" I see a flicker of fear in his eyes. "I'm always going to be here for you, no matter what. And so are your friends. Well,"

I laugh bitterly.

"you know what I mean."

Will presses his lips into a flat smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes, and nods a little too eagerly.

"I know," he reassures. "I promise."

One final flicker of fear flashes in his eyes as he seems to purge it from his system, quickly replacing it with a bright and happy expression. He tugs gently on our interlocked hands and gestures up the hill.

"Now... you ready to meet Dustin's first girlfriend?" He asks with a growing smirk.

I shake my head as a small laugh bubbles up despite the anxiety brewing fresh in my stomach. It still lingers in the back of my mind, but slowly boils down to a simmer, melting away as I meet the now genuine smile of Will's and I find myself giving in to the temptation of blissful ignorance. My legs begin carrying me to his side and quickly we start pacing up the hill with matching grins.

He might be able to tempt me with the offer of getting back at Dustin for now, but there's still a thought - a feeling - burning in the back of my mind. Something is definitely up with Will. The problem is, I don't know what and even worse, I don't think he knows either.

||𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

The endless parade of rats dart through the overgrown blades of grass, blending perfectly into the summer breeze passing through their surroundings. An undeniable instinct draws them onward to Brimborne Steel Works as sure as it set their skin ablaze in a horrendous flameless fire that ignited their insides just from their path even mingling with the Y/H, H/C girl who lingered nearby. Even a slight change in direction of the breeze had given them, the hosts, a feeling similar to standing atop a fresh layer of cooling magma that sent them scurrying off their path and was even strong enough to send pins and needles in the heels of their masters previous host.

They don't know their master, of course, or what a master is or why they have blended colonies. All they do know is the unceasing pull in their gut to follow orders. Orders to scavenge the unscavengable, feed on the inedible, and flee, flee... Flee.

And now hundreds of them scurry across the dying grass surrounding the abandoned steel works where they soon disappear inside. The wearhouse floor comes alive as hundreds more file in from every nook and cranny that can possibly be found. Their speed is fast enough to create its own gentle breeze that sweeps away several stray leaves that have collected on the concrete over the years as they head for a single steel stairway.

The enclosed space is soon overflowing with a sea of rats that create a symphony of pitter patter as their tiny feet scuttle down the metal staircase and into the deep lake of shadows that sat under the wearhouse. The only light that found its way down in the depths of Brimborne was the skylight leaking in from the doorway that illuminated the only possible clue to the sudden phenomenon;

Scattered across piles of glistening pink and red jelly were the hundreds of rats that had found their way home. The new home promised to them by the seemingly never ending pull in their gut. But the pull had mysteriously stopped when they reached the basement. But the presence of something dark and sinister remained.

The driving force - the pull - had not vanished but had instead morphed into a warm buzzing that grew intensely worse. It grew hotter and hotter, shaking their small bodies harder and harder as it spread to every cell at unnatural speeds that crippled them. They twitched and squealed in discomfort as they fell to the floor, their last cries for help before erupting into the very goo that they laid in.

The basement was filled with pop after sickening pop as the rats exploded into nothing, all of them and their remains glistening in the single beam of light just outside of the realm of shadows that held the true monster.

This monster that had poisoned Hawkins before. This monster that had spread its rot and death, and inevitable decay with everything it touched. However...

This was not the return of the Shadow Monster.

For the Shadow Monster had never left.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · All links are provided in the comments might not be accessible via the app BUT should work on the mobile website and desktop website. Please use them. Possible Warnings to black readers, and any other readers of color who might be triggered I have included several petitions to save POC facing the death penalty. However, first, here is the masterlist of black mental health resources if you need them. I've posted it many times but mental health is so important, and getting treated properly by people who truly understand you and your experiences can make all the difference, im sure. All my love 💓

Black Mental Health Carrd



[picture text id: there are other people on death row who can still be saved, petitions below]

Below is a link to @ SUNSETSAPPHICS twitter thread from the picture up above filled with several links that each take only a couple seconds to sign each, that i strongly urge - that I ask you to sign. You could potentially save a life. Please sign, spread the word anywhere and everywhere, tag people on your message board, tag people here, make a chapter about somewhere, idc just let your voices be heard and make a difference in these people's lives! Save. A life! It has happened before and we can do it again!

[link]

Petition to Abolish the Death Penalty

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

Tag List: @dickkwad @aimee-lucass @iblesstherainsdown-in-africa   @ @miscellaneoustoasts @happyandlonely-blog @missmulti @youpi-chan @peeperparkour @ba-responds @bibliophilesquared @blogforhoes ​ @witch-of-all-things-soft @shawkneecaps @whothefuckstolemykeds @mirdall @fishswimbetterunderwater @daughter-of-the-stars11 @stranger-things4 @kpopanimegirl @nightbu-g ​ @lozzybowe @bluechildrenlickmytoes

[etoileholland]

Note: please do not repost (copy and paste my writing) and try to claim it as your own.

as of 10/2020 requests are closed

The warnings are in parentheses, if any.

✨ Blessing in disguise; you and Tom are in university together, and the cuteness that ensues (fluffy blurb) (also my first piece)

✨ Last First Kiss; in which you’re afraid of having your first kiss, but Tom is more than patient. (major fluff, a tad bit of body insecurity)

✨ Hold me close, I’ve never been so far from home; because of quarantine, you can’t go back home. Also, you and the boys are getting fed up with each other. (angst, arguments, bad words)

✨ Dinner For Schmucks; you have had far too many bad dates, and Tom has to come rescue you yet again. (major fluff)

✨ I will make it up to you; while in quarantine, you and Harrison are not getting along, and it worries Tom. (slight angst, a sprinkling of bad words, fluff)

✨ Why must I meet you in a secret rendezvous?; you and Harry are best friends, but you’re dating Tom behind his back. (a lil argument)

✨ Love showed up at my door; Tom and Harrison fell in love with the pizza delivery girl, and now they’ve eaten far too much pizza. (just cheesy)

✨ My devilish darling boy; Tom’s son accidentally ruins his script for his new movie after finishing it and is reluctant to tell the truth after Tom blames it on his brothers. (a little argument and some bad words)

✨I can’t hide you from it all; while having a date night, you and your husband Tom left your three year old son to be watched by the boys. Your son ends up getting hurt and Tom isn’t happy. (a trip to the urgent care but nothing gross)

✨ I’d gladly surrender myself to you, body and soul; A lonely Tom wanders into an old jazz club where reader is a last minute substitute sultry singer. The two lock eyes and reader makes the first move by getting flirty during her song and Tom is desperate to find her after the show. (none)

✨ Bundle of joy; you and Tom already have twin boys, but when you become pregnant again, you decide to keep the gender a secret until the birth (none)

✨ La vie en rose; while at a museum in Paris, you meet Tom, a boy so beautiful that the masterpieces pale in comparison to him (none)

✨ Meet the parents; Tom is introducing his girlfriend for the first time to his family and Harrison and she’s a bit nervous but he tells her not to worry (none)

✨ Holland Park; your boyfriend Tom gives you your first ever kiss on a picnic date (none)

✨ I’m not half the man I used to be;  in the span of two years, you and Tom went from being inseparable, to him being someone you heavily detested. What happens when one drunken night rolls around and he wants to reconcile? (alcohol and drinking, a wee bit of angst with a fluffy ending)

✨ The Sims;  You teach the boys how to play the Sims, which may or may not have been a good idea. (fluff)

✨ Seeing double; Tom gets you, his girlfriend, and your identical cousin mixed up, which causes a lot of misunderstanding. (none) 

✨ lead me to your door; you’re Tom’s music loving neighbour, and he loves hearing you play music from your apartment, until one day it stops, which worries Tom (none)

✨If I could be that guy instead of me; Tom doesn’t think you like him in the same way, especially not after seeing you fawn over someone else.

✨ yours truly; a letter box shaped bag prompts Tom to tell you just how much you mean to him (no warnings)

✨ sealed with love, part 2 to ‘yours truly’, where Tom works up the courage to propose to you with the help of an old friend (no warnings)

✨ Hold me tight, tell me I’m the only one; you ask a clueless & oblivious Peter to the 60′s themed prom. (just a ton of fluff)

✨ As sweet as chocolate;  Peter falls in love with the sweet girl who works at a chocolatier. (all fluff)

✨ don’t leave me waiting here; Peter, after a failed mission, lashes out at the reader. (angst but fluff at end)

✨ cooking fiasco; after a failed attempt at making your anniversary dinner, Pepper and May help save the day (fluff)

✨ it’s nice to have a friend; upon finding out that you have no friends at school, Peter wants to be yours 

✨ untitled; a social media au where Tom shows off his girlfriend at a premiere (fluff)

✨ à toi pour toujours- yours always ; a social media au where Tom proposes to you in Paris (fluff)

✨ in my life, I’ll love you more; a social media au where Tom and the reader get married (fluff)

✨ my brother’s best friend; a social media au where you’re Tom’s sister and you’re dating Harrison (fluff)

✨ words hurt; being best friends with Harrison and Tom & them being protective of you when you receive hateful comments (insecurity)

✨ tall girl struggles; dating Harry Holland and feeling insecure about your height

✨ not in the same way; where you’re in love with Peter but he loves MJ

✨ feeling left out; where because of a rumour, Tom and the gang purposefully exclude you

✨ hush; harrison doesn’t tell his family that he’s with you until they accidently find out

✨ I do; where Tom asks for your parents permission for your hand in marriage

• more to come soon •

[charliejrogers]

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Or, Sorkin’s attempt to show you how nothing has changed in 52 years)

If you know anything about Aaron Sorkin, the much-acclaimed writer/creator of television shows like The West Wing, The Newsroom, you know that subtlety is not his strong suit. So, I was rather hesitant going into his newest film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, the infamous trial of eight gentlemen accused of conspiracy to incite violence/rioting in Chicago during the notorious 1968 DNC riots. Without diving too deep into the history, August 1968 was not Chicago’s finest hour. When the protesters chanted as a warning to the police, “The Whole World Is Watching!”, they weren’t wrong. Years ahead of the 24-hour news cycle, people all across America (and across the world) were glued to the TV watching the Chicago police beat the ever-living snot out of young folks protesting the Democratic Party’s decision to support the ever-controversial war in Vietnam. The film’s subject matter is sure to draw parallels to and resonate strongly with both the protests and civil unrest that took place this past summer following the death of George Floyd and countless other Black folk at the hands of police. So despite it’s appropriate timeliness, I was hesitant to watch this movie because I really wasn’t interested in watching Aaron Sorkin (who not only wrote but directed this film) try to mansplain to me that the trial of the Chicago 7 was all about injustice! Without knowing anything else about the trial beforehand (and I really didn’t), I already knew it’s a famous case of injustice. I wanted to watch the movie to learn about the people, the humans involved, and the nuance of the situation.

The film gets off to a rough start in the nuance department. After an effective montage introducing us to six of the eight members of the Chicago 7 (we’ll get to why there’s that numerical discrepancy), we meet the character who will be the lead prosecutor of the case: a straight-laced, clean-cut lawyer played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In an attempt to plant the seed early on that the eponymous trial is a sham, the first real scene of the film sees Gordon-Levitt meeting with Nixon’s newly appointment Attorney General John Mitchell who is pissed off that the prior AG didn’t resign from the office until an hour before Mitchell was confirmed. As retaliation, and in line with history’s understanding of Nixon’s pathologic paranoia, Mitchell decides to re-open the case exploring whether there was any conspiracy to incite riots in Chicago 1968. As JGL explains, this was something which Johnson’s AG as well as prior FBI investigations already decided did was not a viable case. The conversation that ensues is a little too on-the-nose. JGL shares his concerns that he doesn’t believe that the Chicago 7 are actually guilty, but Mitchell tells JGL, “then imagine how impressed I’ll be when you get a conviction.”

Of course, this conversation is largely a Sorkin invention, as is the weird decision to try to humanize the prosecutor played by Gordon-Levitt. I say "weird" because the film doesn’t do anything with it. We don’t get a real sense beyond that initial scene that JGL feels guilt or remorse for being a cog in the Nixon machine. The beginning of the film sets him up to be a similar character to David Schwimmer’s fascinating turn as Robert Kardashian in The People vs. O.J. Simpson. But in the end, it’s clear that Sorkin uses him just as a way in the beginning of the film to provide the thesis statement for the film, as if he were writing this script as a college term paper. This bothers me so much because it makes a late-film surprise appearance by Michael Keaton as Johnson’s AG lose a good deal of its impact. It would have been so much better if we as the audience came to the same revelation about the political origin of the trial at the same time that the defense lawyers did.

Sorkin’s lack of subtlety reared its ugly head in a few key moments that caused me to audibly groan while watching this film. Towards the end of the film, one of the more dramatic defendants, the merry prankster hippie Abbie Hoffman (played very well by Sacha Baron Cohen), is on the stand and is asked a particularly difficult question by the prosecution. He pauses. The prosecution asks what’s taking so long. Hoffman responds in a serious tone that runs opposite of his usual character, “Sorry, I’ve never been on trial for my thoughts before.” The film then slowly fades to black. I half-expected to hear the famous Law & Order “chun-chunn” sound next. That’s how cheesy and self-righteous the scene was.

The film’s ending too, where the defendants read off a list of all the fallen soldiers from Vietnam prior to their sentencing, felt a little too Hollywood to be believable… and indeed it didn’t happen that way. Elsewhere in the film, one of the more “prim and proper” defendants, the young head of the Students for a Democratic Society Thomas Hayden played by Eddie Redmayne, reflexively stands in honor of the judge’s exit as is court custom, forgetting that he and the rest of the defendants agreed not to stand. That’s not the bad part. The bad part comes later when Redmayne’s character travels to someone’s home and the Black maid who answers the door says to him, “I heard you were the only one to stand for the judge,” and then the camera just sorta lingers on her disappointment. We get it! The judge is a bad dude! Let’s move on!

Seriously, let’s move on. For all my griping, this is a very good movie. Those instances where Sorkin’s moral heavy-handedness is plain to see are so glaring because for the most part, the movie does a fantastic job of addressing the film’s (sadly still) politically controversial themes (police brutality, the culpability of protesters in starting riots, systemic racism, etc.) with a good deal of nuance. This mostly happens when Sorkin just sticks to the facts of the case, like when dealing with the whole saga of Bobby Seale, the eighth and only Black man of the Chicago 7. The day before the trial begins, Seale's lawyer required emergent surgery. Seale’s motion to have the trial postponed till he receive proper counsel is denied, as is his request to represent himself. Therefore, on trial without counsel, he frequently interrupts the court arguing about the unconstitutional nature of his trial, until the judge, played to chilling perfection by Frank Langella, becomes fed up with the interruptions and orders that Seale be bound, gagged, and chained to his chair. It’s a crazy powerful and uncomfortable scene, among the most haunting images I’ve seen in cinema. Finally, Seale’s case is determined to be a mistrial, changing the number of defendants from eight to seven. Hence, the Chicago 7.

But, the most inspired sequence of the film comes late in the movie when the defense gets wind of the prosecution’s plan to play a recording from the night of the riots where the prim and proper Tom Hayden can be (arguably) heard urging hundreds of listeners to “let blood flow all over the city.” Tom still believes that he would do well on the witness stand, but his defense lawyer (Mark Rylance as William Kuntsler) insists on showing him why this would be a bad idea. The ensuing scene sees Rylance role play the part of the prosecution cross-examining Hayden while the film intercuts scenes of a flashback of the actual events. the “truth” of that night, significantly muddies the water for this case. It by no means proves that the Chicago 7 are guilty of a conspiracy, but it certainly highlights the more human aspect of their situation. How is one expected to keep their calm when their best friend is beaten? And to what degree are people to be held responsible for decisions made in the heat of the moment?

The movie also has also interesting commentary on who should be the “face” or progressive politics, even today: the well-to-do and respectable Hayden or the in-your-face hippie comedian Hoffman? It’s an interesting question that never seems fully explored or resolved. Sorkin seems to land in the camp that Hayden’s respectability merely maintains status quo whereas Hoffman’s flagrant anti-establishment views is required for real change. But I don’t know how much of that is me just loving Cohen’s performance as Hoffman and finding Redmayne’s Hayden to be (appropriately) insufferably pretentious. Sorkin certainly gives Cohen the better lines.

Overall, this is a movie held up by its two primary strengths: its cast and its film structure. Aside from general inconsistencies of the script’s tone and the notable weakness I mentioned previously about overplaying the political motivation for the trial in the film's first 5 minutes, the film is nearly perfectly structured. We are sort of dropped in medias res into the trial and only get the facts of those few days shown to us in carefully placed flashbacks that help to flesh out the drama of the trial. It helps maintain pacing in what could have been a drag of a legal drama. 

But really, it’s the cast and their performances that sell this movie. Sacha Baron Cohen is the star in my mind, so perfectly cast as Abbie Hoffman, but Frank Langella as the septuagenarian, prejudiced judge of the case is equally powerful. Yahya Abdul-Manteen II as the Black Panther Bobby Seale lends an air of desperate seriousness to the film, Eddie Redmayne shines as that white liberal dude who takes himself way too seriously, and Mark Rylance is wonderful as the courageous lead defense attorney, particularly in scenes dealing with Bobby Seale. While the whole trial weighs on him heavily as the film progresses, his genuine concern for Seale is palpable.

I spent much of this review telling you the things that were odd about this film, and I stand by that. But as I said, those things stand out because this is such a slick production that the cracks become that much more obvious. It largely avoids Sorkin’s penchant for blunt lack of nuance and offers a story that helps to greatly contextualize the very world we live in. It’s interesting that a story that sees ten men (including their lawyers) fail to win a fight against The Man still feels like an inspiring underdog tale. It resonated well with this viewer, especially as the ending makes clear that justice is eventually served. Yet, I recognize this may be a dangerous tale to tell these days, and why I think the movie is so successful is that it gives plenty of sobering evidence to suggest that justice (both then and now) is by no means guaranteed.

***/ (Three and a half out of four stars)

[jupitermelichios]

What I’d change about Rise of Skywalker

To be clear, these are changes I’d make to the existing script, not what I would have written instead. We can all agree Sheev coming back was, at best, a bit dumb, I’m also fully aware that a lot of people disliked TLJ for a variety of reasons and wanted ros to retconn more stuff, but this is not an attempt to change any of that. I’m taking the basic structure of the movie and shifting stuff around to create something I think is tonally and thematically more in line with the overall trillogy.

Also i’m aware the extended universe is sort of canon-until-proven-otherwise at the moment but as far as i’m concered there was a DC style crisis and it’s now open season on worldbuilding elements

- Starting right at the very beginning, our opening crawl is now just about immortality being one of the secret sith powers Sheev kept hinting about in the prequels

- Our very first sequence in the movie is now a (short) montage of Sheev sending psychic messages to members of the First Order, telling them to join his secret sith club. It’s not just Kylo, this is a thing he’s just generally doing, Hux, Pryde, Kylo, random Storm Trooper number 7, they’re all getting this same message.

- Kylo buggers off to go murder Sheev, because Snoke never actually let him graduate (or whatever modern sith do) so he’s not actually a sith lord, but he’s like ah, new/old sith lord is in town, I go kill him and I get to take his title by right of conquest rule of one styley, and also take out a threat to my power base. Also in the one scene we see of him interacting with the first order it’s pretty clear he actually really fucking hates being in charge, so a mission to kill Sheev is looking super win-win

- The reason Exigor is sacred to the Sith now, the reason Palpatine’s able to communicate accross planets, and the reason he’s still alive (ish) are all the same - the planet “has a heart... oF KAIIIBURRRRRR!” (yes the line should be delivered exactly like that) that amplified force powers

- Instead of just being Ian McDermott in white facepaint, Sheev’s design draws heavily on Darth Nihilus or Darth Sion, his body is dead or maybe nonexistant depending on how gross they’re prepared to go. The point is, the answer to the question ‘how the fuck did he survive?’ should be essentially ‘he didn’t’; he’s a consiousness and a fuckton of willpower and not much else

- We establish a temple/cult in this universe that worships twin gods and are generally all about balance and shit coming in twos and they think force diads are sacred. I’m thinking someone at the temple has resistance information, and when Rey and Poe visit, Poe goes to talk to the contact while Rey meditates and sees Luke’s ghost who tells her how he and Leia came here together and about their belief system and how there are different ways of connecting to the force than just being a jedi, setting up the plot point of the diad, our theme of ‘the people we love are never really gone’, and also laying the groundwork for what’s going to be a second theme of building something new rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, by establishing the sith/jedi dichotomy isn’t the only possible path to take.

- Rose and Finn are bored and stuck on base while their friends are on this mission, so when they get a distress call from a minor First Order base they go off to investigate. They find Hux, who’s been ousted in a coup in favour of the First Order just straight up following Sheev after Kylo wondered off, who promises them information. At this base, Finn also sees some young storm trooper cadets.

- Back at the rebel base they all meet up and Hux (who they’ve taken prisoner) tells them about Sheev being back, which they didn’t know about because he’s only been speaking to bad guys.

- Leia is already dying, Rey is super upset about it and during an accidental mind share, Kylo finds out and tells her Sidious knows how to heal people by transferring life energy from one person to another. The healing thing is specifically a Sith power this go around. We get a moment pretty soon after during a mission where someone gets injured, probably Finn, and she figures out how to heal them based on the hints Kylo gave her

- Also this time Leia still isn’t a jedi but not because of a prophesy, it’s because she disagrees with their philosophy, which is going to be relevant later. We get a line to the effect that ‘Luke didn’t grow up surrounded by the legacy of the Jedi’s failings, I did’

- The weird knife thing isnt anymore, it’s just a hollicron now, and the whole bit with both Lando and Rey’s parents and the bonty hunter are removed to give us breathing room elsewhere, it’s just a more tradtional fetch quest now.

- In order to get the holicron translated, Poe’s like “you’re not going to like this, but I maybe know a guy from doing undercover missions”, and takes them to Black Sun to speak to Darth Maul, that’s right, Darth Maul is here now, and he helps them because his prosthetics are breaking down and Rose fixes them and saves his life. Also he’s pretty pissed at Sheev for getting him killed so he’s totally chill with them killing the guy.

- The Hollicron tells them that the last known map to Exigor was stored in the archives of the temple of Corisant.

- They go to the ruins of the temple, a place that is both nostaligic and also has actual character significance to kylo and ties into our theme of how the jedi and the sith are both a bit shit, and even though it makes more sense for it to have been cleaned up, it’s full of little baby skeletons from Anakin’s massacre, just for the drama of it

- Rey and Kylo fight, he taunts her again with the promise of healing Leia, but this time Rey uses their bond and her knowledge of how to talk to force ghosts to basically force Kylo’s third eye wide open so he’s hearing a hundred force ghosts all at one, stabs him while he’s distracted, heals him, and then she fucks off, leaving him to talk to the force ghost of Anakin, who tells him he’s a moron who’s falling for the same bullshit Sheev used on him

- Rey joins up with the others, but at the Rebel base Hux has managed to escape and shoots Leia (it’s dramatic and she dies saving someone but it’s not actually particularly plot relevant so imagine your own death scene of choice here), and obviously Rey feels it

- At this point the gang split up, Poe and Rose go back the the Rebels because they know they’ll be needed, Finn goes off to rescue the storm trooper kids he saw earlier (yeah I’m adding a subplot what’re you going to do about it), and Rey goes off to fight Palpatine

- In the temple, Leia appears to Kylo as a force ghost while he’s doing dramatic ‘i can’t go on’ kneeling pose and gives him a little pep talk and name drops the title

- Finn goes to the first order base, finds the kids, and the little ones are on board with escaping but then they run into some teenagers who actually have guns and it cuts away on a ‘will they turn him in?” cliffhanger

- Rey arrives in Sheev’s big cave thing, tries to fight him but he’s all ‘the jedi could not defeat me before, what makes you think they can now when you’re barely more than a padawan’ and force lightnings her a bit. They’re not related in this universe, he just wants to steal her lifeforce to heal himself more because she’s powerful

- Turns out that the First Order have been tracking Hux, so they know where the Rebel base is so there’s a big space battle going on, and the First Order don’t even have any fancy secret weapon but there’s a lot of them and there’s not enough Rebel ships left after TLJ. Poe’s up in the air flying even though he’s the boss now, and Rose is on the comms trying to contact allies

"This is the Rebellion, please. In the name of Leia Organa, we're calling you. Please, if there's anyone out there. For Leia Organa, for Luke Skywalker, for Amilyn Holdo, please…" and then when there's no response, in tears, she whispers, "For Rose Tico, please!"

There's a beat of silence, and then the radio crackles to life.

"Rose Tico calls for aid, and Black Sun will answer."

A moment later another, "Leia Organa calls for aid and Cloud City will answer."

and then a moment later, “The Rebellion calls for Aid and the Free Troopers will answer” and we cut to Finn in a stolen First Order ship full of the trooper cadets of all ages.

A makeshift amada joins the fight, same as in the original version, and rose and circular briad crown girl who’s also been trying to call for back up hug in celebration and have a very brief ‘oh wait maybe i’m into you’ moment

- Back on Exigor, Kylo arrives to find Rey on the floor, dying. He takes her hand and we see them as spirits, surrounded by the flickering memories of their lives, they’re seeing one another properly for the first time, and they ackoledge one another as twins via the force (personally i’d make them explicitly siblings, by force if not blood, here to carry on the proud star wars tradition of ambiguously incestuous twins, but that might not fly with disney execs in the the 21st century), and then he gives her his life force to heal her and his last words are a title drop again, mirroring what Leia said to him, because this movie is cheesy as hell

- "The power of the Jedi could have lived in you, as the power of the sith lives in me. But instead you threw it away, for what? For that pathetic little boy? He was no more a true sith than you are a true Jedi!"

"I don't need to be a Jedi. The force is with me, and I am with the force. You have the sith. I have all that was and is and will be!"

Behind her force ghosts begin to appear, but not just jedi. There is as many of the Skywalker clan as we can get (including some reused green screen footage of Carrie Fisher), and Rose's sister, and Han, and people visually implied to be Poe and Finn’s parents, and Holdo, and behind them hundreds of others. Basically if we can afford them, they’re cameoing here, alongside a load of extras. And last of all, standing beside her is Ben.They exchange a look, and then Rey strikes. Palatine tries to force lightning her but it doesn't work, and she presses her hands to his cloak, pulls the life force out if him. Thes a terrible screaming and we see glimpses of the other sith, before they dissipate and the robe falls to the ground.

And obviously the space battle also gets definitively won at the same time, this is movieland, I’m thinking Finn and Poe have to coordinate an attack that relies on Finn using the force is that vague ‘jedi’s are all amazing pilots’ way episodes 1 and 4 both used

Oh and then at the end they’re all celebrating back on the Rebel base, and Finn starts to hit on Rose and she’s like “I’m not the one you want to say that too, also you’re not my type” and smooches circular braid-crown girl who’s been in the background of all these movies with nothing to so

Finn joins Poe and Rey and they all hug in the same ambigiously-poly way they did in the original, and then Poe’s like “I’m sorry about Kylo” kind of awkward because he still hates the guy but he knows Rey doesn’t, and Rey’s like ‘I’m not, the people we love never really leave us’

and then the final scene, Rey is carrying Kylo’s lightsabre and lays Luke’s and Leia’s on the altar of the temple of the twins, and goes to ask the priests to tell her about their religion, with the implication that she’s starting to build her own new version of the jedi

(and if I was disney this would totally be the set up for a new animated series about Rey travelling around the galaxy meeting new weird alien cultures and learning about what cool force powers they have, and the knights of Ren can be the bad guys, and sometimes she’ll come and help Finn and Poe and Rose with trying to rebuild the galaxy. And then they have to take out Black Sun in season 2 and it’s all super dramatic because they were allies sort of and had cameos, and now rey and maul are forced to have super cool spider-legs lightsabre battles instead)

[lallemanting]

sara!!!!!! may i ask for a lil 'eliott coming home to lucas after the film shooting' fic🥺❤️ hope you've been well!

of course!! (though I’m gonna apologize now for the cheesiness) also happy birthday!!! 💛💛 hope you enjoy this little fluffy thing

never not thinking of you

His muse, he’d called Lucas once, when he showed him the completed script. Lucas had blushed, staining his cheeks a pretty pink and then rolled his eyes and called Eliott lame.

or, Eliott comes home to Lucas after shooting his film

Eliott is buzzing by the time he makes it home to his and Lucas’ apartment. 

It’s late. Or early really, the sun just about to rise, but Eliott hardly even feels tired, too amped up after finally managing to shoot the film he’s been worried about all semester. It wasn’t exactly how he imagined it, for obvious reasons, but he’s proud of it all the same, thrilled at the idea that he finally created something and managed to bring it all the way to fruition. Something he’ll be able to hold in his hands that started in his head.

He expects Lucas to be in bed as he turns the key and opens their door, stepping into the darkened hallway. He had told Lucas he’d probably be late and to not stay up and wait for him, knowing how exhausted he’s been recently studying for the bac. He’d been texting Lucas updates on the filming all night but when Lucas finally stopped responding around 1 in the morning, Eliott had hoped he’d finally let himself get some sleep. 

But when he walks into the living room, the light is still on, and Lucas is passed out with his face in his books on the couch. 

Something in Eliott’s chest picks up then, and all that excitement and energy he’d taken with him from the film set funnels down into a surge of affection for the boy sleeping there so peacefully, his cheek pressed into the pages of his biology textbook. Lucas looks so small and soft, and worry-free, a far cry from the anxious boy that’s been running around from study session to study session for the past few weeks. It’s like that first morning all over again, after the first time they kissed, when Eliott woke up and traced the lines of Lucas’ face with his fingers, so calm and happy that Eliott was beside him. The kind of thing he’d never felt before.

Eliott thinks for a moment about leaving him there, not disturbing his sleep and letting him rest, but he worries that his sleep won’t be as good if he stays there. Especially when they have such a comfortable bed in the other room. The last thing he wants is for Lucas to have a stiff neck in the morning. 

And there’s something else there, a selfish piece of Eliott that just wants to hold him close. The shoot, even though it had gone well with Lola, had just reminded him of all the ways Lucas had made him feel, the feelings and emotions he had had such a hard time articulating before that had just spilled out onto the pages when he sat down to write the script. His muse, he’d called Lucas once, when he showed him the completed script. Lucas had blushed, staining his cheeks a pretty pink and then rolled his eyes and called Eliott lame. But it’s true, how Lucas has inspired him, and later, when Eliott had pulled him close and kissed him deep and called Lucas his muse again, Lucas had let him.

Part of that energy that flows through him now: the excitement, the inspiration, rooted in his love for the sleeping boy in front of him. It’s the all-consuming, heart-wrenching kind of stuff that had taken Eliott a long time to believe he deserved. It rears up now and all Eliott wants to do is hold his boyfriend. Sue him. 

He lays down his bag gently on the floor and takes off his jacket and his shoes. He’ll put them away in the morning. Then he gently moves over to where Lucas is sleeping and begins moving the books and papers onto the table, careful to keep them in the same stacks and to mark the pages Lucas had open.

And then he gently brushes the hair off of Lucas’ forehead and leans down pressing a soft kiss to his sleep-warm skin.

“Lucas, baby,” he whispers, as Lucas begins to stir. “Let’s get you to bed.”

Lucas blinks once, then twice, before he seems to register the fact that Eliott is there at all. But then his face breaks into a wide smile and Eliott can’t help but fall in love all over again.

“Eli, you’re home,” Lucas says, his voice rough from sleep. He tilts his head back, asking for a kiss. 

And Eliott can’t say no to that, so he leans down and kisses Lucas gently, a press of lips as Lucas reaches out and wraps his arms around Eliott’s neck. 

“Lets go to bed,” Eliott says quietly, Lucas’ body soft from sleep as he holds him close. 

“Okay,” Lucas replies. And then, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Eliott whispers back. 

They walk together to their bedroom, Lucas tripping over his own feet as he fights his fatigue and Eliott holds on and breathes deep, something entirely Lucas filling his nose and calming him down, Lucas’ hair soft against his cheek. 

“Go lie down,” Eliott says when they finally reach the bed. 

“You’re coming too?” Lucas asks, eyes blinking and barely staying open. He clings to the bottom of Eliott’s t-shirt.

“Yes, in a minute,” Eliott promises. “Now go.” 

Lucas climbs gratefully into bed, pulling the covers up around him as Eliott strips down to his boxers, kicking his jeans off to the side. Then he goes to brush his teeth, fully expecting Lucas to be asleep again by the time he leaves the bathroom. 

But he isn’t. 

Eliott climbs into their bed and slides into the sheets, his head hitting the pillow before he shuffles closer, nearly brushing noses with Lucas where he lies near the center of the bed, facing Eliott’s side. 

Lucas opens his eyes as Eliott lies down and smiles when Eliott leans over and kisses the side of his mouth, sweet and soft. The fine line between what counts as late night and early morning hanging around them. 

“How did it go?” Lucas asks him, snuggling closer. 

The question makes a thousand things flit around Eliott’s mind all at once with all that he wants to say about that night. He wants to talk about the lighting and the shots and the way Jo had proposed his next film be about a ninja princess. He wants to talk about the rain that had just appeared and the way Lola had transformed when Maya showed up, but he knows that can wait for when Lucas decides he wants to hear about it. For now he settles on something simple. 

“Really well,” he replies, smiling at the sheer lightness of the relief. It had been weighing heavily on him, the stress of that project, and to finally have it done is exhilarating. 

“I’m glad,” Lucas replies, but he closes his eyes and again and Eliott can sense there’s something else there. 

He swallows, unsure of what to say. On one hand he would never want to make Lucas feel guilty for focusing on the bac, as he should, instead of helping him on his project. It all worked out in the end. But on the other hand, hearing Lola say the lines he had written imagining he’d be able to say them to Lucas had made his heart ache, wishing it could have been Lucas there instead. And he wants Lucas to know that, to know that he will always be Eliott’s first choice. 

The film was meant to be Eliott’s love letter to Lucas after all, to finally tell him all the things he had been keeping inside for so long, afraid that voicing them would make it disappear. But Lucas had stayed – he always stayed.

“I still wish you could have done it instead,” Eliott says quietly. 

Lucas opens his eyes again and smiles. “Yeah?”

“Of course,” Eliott replies. And it’s too much, Lucas all the way over there, three inches away across the mattress, so Eliott reaches out and pulls him to his chest. Lucas goes willingly, shuffling closer and tucking his nose into Eliott’s neck. 

“You can tell me about it if you want to,” Lucas murmurs. “And I know you want to.”

And Eliott does, but not tonight. Tonight he just wants to hold Lucas in his arms and breath him in and thank whoever sent him his way and saved him in the process.

“I will, but tomorrow.”

They breathe together for a moment, Lucas moving with the rise and fall of Eliott’s chest and he’s hit, for the thousandth time that night, with just how much he loves him. 

“I know you’ve read the script,” Eliott whispers, “but when we were shooting that last scene tonight, all I could think about was how much I wished I could be saying it to you.”

Lucas shifts a bit, propping himself up on Eliott’s chest as he looks at him. “Say it to me now,” Lucas says softly, leaning down to kiss Eliott gently, their lips brushing as Eliott inhales. 

“Now?”

“Now. Like a bedtime story.”

Lucas settles back down onto Eliott’s chest, and Eliott can’t help but hold him tight. He loves that Lucas knows he has it memorized. Loves that Lucas wants to hear it. 

“Okay,” he whispers in Lucas’ hair. “It goes like this:

I don’t want you to go. Because if you’re not here, it’s not worth it. Because I’ve been alone for years, and I thought it was better this way, but it’s not true. Because we barely know each other but I feel like I’ve been waiting for you my whole life. Because I love you, and I don’t want to be scared anymore and I don’t want to wait any longer. Because life is now.”

And as the sun breaks over the horizon, two boys, in a little flat in Paris, hold each other as they fall asleep. 

[miloscat]

[Review] Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3)

This dystopic reimagining of Journey to the West barely escapes the shadow of its influences.

The idea is sound: take one of the most popular and widely-adapted works of Asian literature and reframe it as a cyberpunk post-apocalyptic action video game! Unfortunately there were some stumbles along the way. There are bright spots too though.

The gameplay systems are decent, with satisfying if basic combat interspersed with scripted clambering sequences and some light environmental puzzling. Every now and then you also get to zip around on a hoverdisc. Despite being a relatively standard seventh-gen action game in this way, it avoids one of the pitfalls of this era by actually having colours other than brown and grey: the setting of a ruined wasteland being overtaken by nature means there’s lots of green and red vegetation, not to mention the lovely elevated windfarmer village later on. Even the junkyard area is full of colour!

The performances are also decent, even if the script is straightforward. Andy Serkis is heavily involved, lending motion capture expertise as well as playing the playable character Monkey, in this case a grouchy shirtless New Yorker thug. Basically Wolverine, but with a staff and “cloud” (the hoverdisc). He also plays the game’s villain, only revealed properly in the rushed epilogue, via live-action footage.

There’s only two other characters apart from the hosts of robotic enemies. Trip (Tripitaka) is the driving force of the plot, enslaving (title drop) Monkey with a gold headband, another element of the original tale. Her role in game was inspired by the dynamic in Ico with Yorda, although she’s more active and helpful here, and their tense relationship develops well, with Lindsey Shaw giving a sympathetic performance. Pigsy rounds out the cast as an eccentric, lecherous, and boorish mechanic, played ably by Richard Ridings no doubt drawing on his experience as Peppa Pig’s dad. He’s unlikable but I guess that’s the point?

As an adaptation of JttW, it’s very loose despite incorporating some of the main characters and important objects. It’s also worth noting that the cast is completely whitewashed. Ho hum. The setting is a lot of fun though, the ruined New York crawling with mechs providing some great setpieces at times. And the Wild Wild West-style climax in and around a giant mech crawling across the desert is cheesy as.

I wish the game’s technical performance could stand up to its art direction though. The frame rate is frankly garbo, frequently dropping low enough to be distracting. The twitchy and uncooperative camera doesn’t help either. It also doesn’t avoid overly detailed visuals and bloom lighting... in the sequences involving Monkey’s acrobatics, it can sometimes be hard to spot the next handhold as a result.

I also wasn’t able to access the DLC chapter, although since it revolves around Pigsy I wasn’t that interested. The in-game PSN link just failed on me, shrug. Without it the game feels fairly brief, at least in scope. I don’t mind a focused game though if it’s done well. This was done... OK. I think my favourite bit is the freeze-frames of Monkey’s snarling face when he deals the finishing blow to a robot baddy. Very dramatic.

[melodiesofblueroses]

𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘒𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴

→ 𝘡𝘦𝘯 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

✧ 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: Zen feels a bit anxious about the upcoming play, but (MC) knows how to make it all better

✧ 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦: Fluff

✧ 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵: ~1.4k

✧ 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱: f!reader 

Zen adored nothing more than the cold breeze that one could only feel atop his apartment’s rooftop underneath the night sky. Well, that was a bit of a lie. There was one more thing he enjoyed more, although it was a mere thought than anything: feeling the cool breeze atop the rooftop underneath the night sky with his love by his side. The brisk wind felt especially nice against his skin, mainly after a long and tiring day of rehearsals and such. It was a nice spot to rewind and relax before the next day came as the bustling city streets that lay beneath provided an excellent source of white noise. After having lived in the same area for a while, Zen learned to tune out the excessive noise and light, but they were also quite comforting at the same time. 

It was nearing midnight, and Zen’s mind had been occupied with various thoughts ever since the morning. You see, tomorrow was a rather big day for an aspiring actor such as himself for it would be the opening night to a play. This wasn’t just any play, however, for it was produced by one of the most renowned playwrights and there would be a very large audience without a doubt. For Zen to receive a role in such a big play and the leading one at that, it was quite exciting yet nerve wracking, to say the least. Whether it was from nerves or the anticipation and excitement, Zen just couldn’t fall asleep. The butterflies in his stomach wouldn’t quiet down, and every time he thought of the role, adrenaline was pumped into his blood and his heart beat just a bit faster. 

If he did well, surely his career and reputation in the industry would skyrocket, but it was also the other way around. If Zen were to even perform just a bit below his best, critics would for sure point out the flaws and exacerbate them in their reviews, causing him to permanently lose his acting career. Although that possibility was very low considering the countless hours he put into training and practice and memorizing every line and dance move, Zen couldn’t help but feel scared. Above all, this would be the first play that (MC) would see of him, and Zen couldn’t bear to disappoint her. Just the thought of messing up while she was watching was too much for him. Oh, what would she think of him then? 

“Gah!” The frustrated shout echoed throughout the night sky but was soon drowned out by the honks and revving engines of the cars beneath. The anxiety was just piling up, and Zen wasn’t exactly sure on how to calm down. Lighting a cigarette, he took a puff from it and heavily sighed, which did help ease some of his tension. The stars and moon above looked especially pretty tonight. The sky was clear of any clouds so the twinkling stars could clearly be seen. Maybe if he was lucky, a shooting star would pass by, and Zen would be able to wish for everything to run smoothly at tomorrow’s show. While he didn’t necessarily believe in such superstitions, he’ll take anything he can get right now. “Hmm, if only (MC) was here right now,” he mumbled without much thought, taking another puff from his cigarette as he mindlessly stared at the sky. 

And speak of the devil, there she was standing at the entrance to the rooftop, decked out in her comfy pajamas and half-lidded eyes and messy bed hair. Huh, so the sleeping beauty awoke from her slumber. Zen didn’t even realize she was there until she plopped down right next to him, which did startle him and give him a heart attack. Seeing her there made Zen feel a bit guilty for he assumed that she woke up only to not find him by her side, thus searching the building for him. While (MC) was very supportive and loving (which he very much adored and appreciated!), Zen didn’t want her losing sleep over him. After all, to him, her wellbeing and health were much more important. 

“Too excited for tomorrow, huh?” She chuckled and leaned her head on his shoulder, taking the opportunity to also stargaze a bit. The sky had never looked this clear after all. “I’m absolutely positive you’ll do well. You practiced so much after all!” 

“Heh, yeah,” he awkwardly mumbled, not really sure on how to respond. He’s glad that (MC) had confidence in him, but Zen couldn’t say the same for himself. Yeah, he gave it his all and basically could recite the script like the back of his hand, but that was just the duty of an actor, right? (MC), however, could immediately pick up on his nervousness. Zen did have a habit of tearing himself down, especially when it came to something important and full of meaning to him, like his acting career. This role would basically make or break his career, one that he built since he was a young teen. To have it all come crashing down in an instant, well, it was quite easy to see why Zen was mortified. 

Without so much as a word, (MC) swiftly kissed him on the lips, an action that left the albino man more or less speechless and flushed. For a big flirt like him, it was quite a surprise that Zen was easily flustered when it came to intimate actions, specifically ones that (MC) herself initiated out of the blue. Moonlight kisses, especially, held a special form of intimacy and adoration behind them. They were one of his favorite types of kisses, ones he shared with her while the moon shone a spotlight on them as if they were on stage acting a tragedy for all the audience below. 

“Zen, I know you feel nervous about tomorrow,” (MC) began, gently taking his hand in hers and giving it a quick squeeze for comfort. “But you’ve practiced so much for this moment, and I truly believe you deserve to have all eyes on you for even just a brief moment. I know you’ll do well.” It was short and sweet, and most importantly, it struck Zen (and maybe he did fall in love with her just a bit more in that moment). To hear someone he loved and trusted say that he’ll do well, well it must be true then. 

“Yeah I know, but still…” he trailed off, averting his eyes as the breeze brushed past them like in those cheesy tension-inducing scenes. Zen really didn’t want to admit his fear, especially not to her, mainly because it was about disappointing her. What would she even think if he told her that? But it was a bit too late for that since Zen had already started his sentence and couldn’t leave it unfinished. Also, he felt safe at this moment, knowing that (MC) would most likely understand. “I’m afraid of disappointing you.” 

“You could never disappoint me Zen, at least not with your acting.” Once more, she tenderly kissed him before continuing on. “I’m so proud of you and where you are today, so please don’t think like that.” Yet again, it was short and sweet, and while it didn’t entirely erase his worries, it did ease his tension and anxiety a bit, enough for him to calm down and get some rest. 

“If you say so, princess,” he responded, laughing to ease the atmosphere and change the pace a little. If nothing else, at least his dream of enjoying the night breeze with his love had come true at this moment. Being the rather affectionate being that he was, Zen once more went in and kissed her under the moonlight again, appreciating the atmosphere at the moment. He knew that the nerves would act up again tomorrow, but at least for now, he would try to forget about it all and enjoy the night with her. 

“Hm, how about we go back inside and cuddle and sleep?” (MC) suggested, already up on her feet and trying to pull Zen by the arm, to which he very much obliged. That sounded like a perfect plan, the ideal end to a very busy day. 

“Alright princess, but after some more moonlight kisses.”

[rangikuxmatsumoto]

– halloween shenanigans

“Oh come on, you guys are no fun,” Rangiku bemoaned, a slight pout forming on her lips as arms crossed defiantly across her chest. Yes, she was pouting and yes, it actually was working. A soft sigh escaped Izuru as he threw a knowing glance towards Shuuhei. Matsumoto’s pouting was easily going to work to sway his decision; Izuru could already see it having the desired effect as Shuuhei scrambled to appease the blonde.

“Ah, I mean if you really want to, I don’t see why we can’t…” Shuuhei stammered.

“Isn’t it a little….cliché?” Izuru questioned his tone level as his gaze shifted between the other two. Rangiku had already accepted Shuuhei’s reluctant acceptance to her proposal, which meant that most likely no matter how much Izuru protested he’d be forced to tag along.

“What’s cliché?” Renji chimed as he found three of his companions in huddled discussions in the corner of the fukutaichous’ meeting room.

“Nothing,” Rangiku shot, throwing a slightly glare toward Kira before turning her attention towards the red head, “I want to go out on Halloween but someone wants to be a party pooper.” Knowing that she could shift the tide heavily in her favor, her arm coiled around Shuuhei’s before looping the other around Renji’s, drawing the two males in close with a slight tug. “What do you say Renji? Want to come with Shuuhei and me to the World of the Living for a little Halloween mischief?”

“Uh….” Taken aback by Rangiku practically strong arming him into the planning, Renji felt he had little choice in the matter. “I mean, I guess…”

“So you’re coming,” Rangiku firmly decided for Renji, on his behalf.

“I’m not being a party pooper Matsumoto-san,” Izuru lightly protested but now with the decision three against one, he knew better than to press the issue. “…Fine, I’ll come too.”

A chorus of excited squeals erupted from the blonde female as she gave the two boys still wrapped up in her hold a little squeeze before releasing them to wrap an arm around Izuru’s form in a quick hug. “You guys won’t regret it; we’re going to have so much fun!” Rangiku announced as she bounced between the three of them, “Saturday, let’s say 8 PM, sound good?” Like they had any choice in the matter at this point, they nodded reluctantly, sealing their fate. With the plan in place, Rangiku tossed them a glance over her shoulder and offered a small wave, “8 PM, don’t be late.”

“What did we just agree to?” Renji questioned, still trying to figure out the whirlwind planning session he had accidently involved himself in.

“Uh, I guess we’re going out on Halloween,” Shuuhei responded, casually fantasizing over just how scandalous Rangiku’s Halloween costume might be.

“You just agreed to pay for Matsumoto’s drinks all night you know that don’t you,” Izuru chimed in, arms crossed as he realized Renji and Shuuhei were going to be absolutely useless.

As the week wound closer to Saturday and to Halloween night, Shuuhei, Renji and Izuru came to realize the predicament that they had found themselves in – Rangiku was highly invested in this, casually dropping hints very opportunity she got about the night they were going to have. It was Thursday night, the three of them out for drinks, when their conversation shifted to the looming weekend festivities.

“Wait, are you guys dressing up?” Renji questioned, the notion of Halloween costumes still a difficult concept for him to wrap his head around.

“I mean, Rangiku said she was…” Shuuhei chimed in as he refilled his glass, throwing a glance from Renji to Izuru, “You were planning on dressing up right Izuru?”

“…I’m still not happy about going…” Izuru sullenly replied as he downed a drink.

“Come on, you don’t want Rangiku to call you a party pooper again do you?” Shuuhei was trying his best to get the other two more on board with this adventure, figuring it might win him some brownie points with Rangiku.

“Okay so then what are you dressing up as?” Renji questioned his companions, pointing a drunken finger in their direction.

“Something cool,” Shuuhei chimed, trying to sound cool but only coming off cheesy in the process.

“Something easy,” Izuru groaned as he slumped forward, head to the table in a drunken state.

‘These two aren’t any help,’ Renji thought to himself, knowing that he’d have to go to Matsumoto for help.

The next morning Renji made his way to the Tenth; with the impending evening out only a day away he knew he’d find Rangiku in a good mood. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in her office but her taichou was. Renji was ready to turn tail and run knowing that Hitsugaya probably wouldn’t be pleased to hear about their plans but he wasn’t quick enough to get out of the sight of the young captain.

“Matsumoto isn’t here,” the ever present bite to his tone gave Renji the idea that Rangiku was supposed to be in the office, and the pile of undone paperwork was even more of a dead giveaway. The young captain pinched a note between his fingers, Rangiku’s elegant script fluttered across the paper but from where he stood he couldn’t make out what she had scribbled down as an excuse, “She had an errand to run – and since Kira and Hisagi have also stopped by over the past week, I assume the four of you are up to something.”

“Uh…” How was it that Renji was constantly finding himself put on the spot, “We’re just celebrating Halloween tomorrow…” Had he said too much? Based on the piercing glare he was receiving he might have.

“I figured,” Hitsugaya offered as a groaned escaped him, leaning back against his chair he let go of the note, “And what you’ve come to try and get out of going?”

“No,” Though the thought had crossed his mind a handful of times over the week, “Uh, I don’t have a costume yet and I was going to ask Rangiku’s opinion.”

“Do something clever,” It was the only advice Toshiro would offer, returning to the paperwork in front of him, “Or funny, she’ll appreciate that.”

Renji had been looking more for an actual costume idea, these vague notions as to what to look for in a costume weren’t helping him much. All he had gotten so far was cool, easy, clever, or funny – none of which helped and with Rangiku nowhere to be found at the moment he would be forced to figure this out on his own.

As the clock ticked closed to Saturday at eight, Rangiku put the finishing touches on her costume before sprinting off to meet the boys. For once, she was actually on time, unfortunately two of her companions for the evening were early. Her stride slowed to a stop as she took in the sight before her. Shuuhei was clad nearly head to toe in leather, leather pants, belt, vest – clearly he was going for the ‘biker’ look and Izuru, oh sweet Izuru, he really had gone with something easy, well something that made him look easy, a nurses’ costume.

“What the hell are you two wearing?” Rangiku questioned, slipping between them to get a closer look at the front of their two outfits.

“Halloween costumes,” they replied in unison, as if there was any question.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Shuuhei was the first up for judgement, Rangiku’s pale blue gaze narrowed as she turned her attention directly on him. Under her gaze, suddenly Shuuhei began to sweat, maybe his costume choice was completely wrong, Rangiku looked absolutely stunning in her witch’s costume, the low cut front, and the short frilly skirt – oh god he could feel the nosebleed coming on.

“Well, what even are you? A biker? You look like you belong at a gay bar with that outfit; all you’re missing is the leather ass-less chaps.” The bare chest, the short little croptop like leather jacket, god – the sailor style biker cap that he was now squeamishly clutching in his hands. She should have dictated their costume choices – allowing them free will in the matter clearly had been a terrible idea.

“—At least I’m not wearing a girl’s costume,” somehow Shuuhei had managed to squeak out a retort to Rangiku ripping apart his Halloween costume, trying as best he could to shift the judgment and ridicule to the other member of their party.

“It’s not a girl’s costume!” Izuru practically snapped, though there was a faint blush on his pale cheeks.

“It’s a girl’s costume. Your skirt is nearly shorter than mine and your heels are actually higher than mine,” Rangiku turned her wrath on the other blond, “But you had that in your closet already didn’t you?”

“…Maybe.”

A groan escaped Rangiku as she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, whatever – it was Halloween, no one was going to judge, no one was going to care – honestly, they’d probably get more attention because of how those two were dressed. “Where’s Renji?”

“He said for us to go ahead and he’d meet us, something about his costume…” Izuru chimed, tugging lightly at the hem of the sexy nurses’ costume.

“Fine, tell him where to meet us.”

Rangiku was going to need a drink or ten in order to get through the night with these two and whatever crazy costume Renji ended up showing up in. If he showed up at all, the night was early yet but as an hour or so passed by with no sign of the red head, Shuuhei and Izuru started to wonder if he had somehow managed to pull off ditching this evening out. Though, they were actually having fun, and Rangiku was enjoying herself with all the attention being paid to her and the drinks being bought for her. So when the door to the bar opened and another patron began to shove their way in, their obnoxiously large inflatable costume bumping into people left and right – the three didn’t think anything of it, until they noticed just who and what it was.

First it was Rangiku, drink poised at her lips as she caught sight of the inflatable green crown of leaves that nearly towered over the other patrons of the bar, stalking through the packed party. Her gaze lowered, catching sight of a crimson mane that was far too unique to one person, but it was the scowl on Renji’s features that made her nearly choke on her drink from the laughter that threatened. She couldn’t even get the words out before Shuuhei was in stitches at her side, having followed her vision to level on Renji.

“A pineapple!” That was all Rangiku managed, half buckled over in laughter, and clutching Shuuhei’s arm for support as the two, semi-intoxicated individuals laughed their asses off at their friend’s unfortunate choice of attire for the costume.

“Yeah, yeah, a fuckin’ laugh riot. Urahara said it was all he could get on short notice!” He snapped, trying as he might to cross his arms against the large yellow inflatable costume that consumed his entire torso.  

“You went to Urahara for a Halloween costume?” It was Izuru who at the moment was still managing to keep his composure at his friend’s costume choice, even if he could feel a slight tug at the corner of his lips threatening to give way that fact that he too found Renji’s predicament amusing. “You know he did that to mess with you, right?”

Renji, the realization dawning on him that perhaps he had been taken for a sucker by the mysterious shopkeeper, hadn’t been thrilled already and now he wasn’t happy at all.

Having managed to regain some of their composure, even if a bubble of laughter threatened to consume Rangiku the minute her gaze shifted back towards Renji, Shuuhei and Rangiku tried their best to console the red head. “No, no, it’s perfect,” she managed, waving a hand in front of her face to dry the tears that formed from laughing so hard. “You look great, it really suits you Renji.”

“…Shut up.”

[elleroodles]

el’s october movie recs!

so! new thing! i am a raging cinephile and have lots of thoughts on lots of movies so this is going to be an opportunity to dump them! usually this will be a lot more put together but since i wanted to get one out for october (hi big horror movie fan here) i’m shoving one out to get this ball rolling!

(since most of these are horror movies, i threw in a cut just in case! due to the short notice, there’s no visuals, but you can never be too careful! these normally won’t be cut and the formatting will be way different!)

EL’S #1 OCTOBER MOVIE REC!

donnie darko dir. richard kelly 2001

CONTENT WARNINGS (spoilers!): death, cp, manipulation, implied sex, lots of swearing, blood, shooting

WHY IT’S SO GOOD: if you know me, you know that i am wholly, completely in love with donnie darko. it’s my favorite movie of all time, and i doubt it will ever be topped. no movie has made me feel so human. it’s not a comforting feeling, not by any means, but one that makes me feel so much emotion. it’s immensely quoteable, with both hilarious lines and somber ones, and most of the concepts brought up will make your head spin. don’t expect to understand it on your first watch. it also has one of the best movie soundtracks, perhaps ever.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: troubled teenager donnie darko is a sleepwalker played by baby faced jake gyllenhaal: that much is clear up front. after his life is turned upside down by a freak accident, donnie is told the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. illegal wacky shenanigans insue!

EL’S OTHER OCTOBER MOVIE RECS!

hereditary dir. ari aster, 2018

CONTENT WARNINGS (spoilers!): dude, it’s ari aster. please please please proceed with caution. it’s hard to put warnings without spoiling the entire second act, but familial death and cults are two big ones

WHY IT’S GOOD: it’s not an exaggeration to say this movie wrecked me. i can genuinely say this is most horrifying movie i’ve ever seen. i don’t regret watching it, the cinematography, acting (toni collette deserves every award for her ‘i am your mother!’ speech), writing, and directing are incredible. i’ve learned so much from this script, this movie has been wonderfully made. and the story is so gut wrenching, so dark, depressing, anxious and lonely, and that energy seeps into the audience. the visuals are horrific in the most shocking of ways (this movie does not stray away from body horror, y’all. proceed with caution) and in the most raw of ways. it’s an unrepeatable experience, and it’s should stay that way.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: when the matriarch of the graham family dies, her secret unravels with her death, sending her daughter’s family spiraling

train to busan dir. yeon sang-ho, 2016

CONTENT WARNINGS: zombie apocalypse, violence, blood, death, people with daddy issues will cry their eyes out

WHY IT’S GOOD: once you can break the subtitle barrier, you have access to the saddest movie ever made. this movie is phenomenal. impeccably made, written, directed, acted, shot, you name it, train to busan did it right. it holds the title as saddest movie i’ve ever seen, and one of the most hopeless. it hit hard in all the right spots, and i’ve never felt so lost. plus i like zombies.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: businessman/distant father seok woo and his daughter soo ahn board a train to busan admist an outbreak of the living dead

the cabin in the woods dir. drew goddard, 2011

CONTENT WARNINGS (spoilers!): violence, blood, death, drug use (weed), horniness(?), some scary monsters

WHY IT’S GOOD: it’s so dumb, i love it so much. it’s kind of a scary movie-esque look at the genre, except a little bit more unironically cheesy. the overarching concept is fascinating, as well as it’s extremely meta take on the ‘final girl’ trope. leaning as heavily into stereotypes as it does with the main cast of characters could either end in a disaster or a delight, and i personally loved it. good luck predicting the final celebrity cameo!

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: a breakfast club reminiscent group of college kids go to stay in an isolate cabin in the woods. what could go wrong?

shaun of the dead dir. edgar wright (my favorite director!), 2004

CONTENT WARNINGS: zombies, cartoony violence, some swearing i think?

WHY IT’S SO GOOD: here’s a good october movie for all you romcom lovers out there! christened as ‘a romantic comedy. with zombies.’ on letterboxd, shaun of the dead lives up to that. since it’s an edgar wright movie, you know the soundtrack is stellar, and the use of music is very wright-esque as well. where the other zombie move on this list takes itself very seriously (and for good reason), this movie takes itself as a joke. the portrayal of a zombie apocalypse being a mild inconvenience is hilarious, and shaun’s oblivion to the world around him plays that trope up to the extreme.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT: london is overtaken by zombies! oh no! how unfortunate!

and that’s it for this month! thanks for reading till the end, and i’ll see you in a week or so with some good movies for november!!