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flanaganfilm · 2 years ago

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Hey Mike! First off, it makes me so happy to see you out there fighting with your writer friends to ensure they receive a decent living wage for the amazing work that they do.

As for my question, I would love to hear about some of the inspiration for making Before I Wake. It and Absentia were the last two of your films that I watched, and BIW just absolutely destroyed me. No other movie, including and especially a horror flick, has ever made me bawl like a baby like that. The entire tone of the film is so spot-on, and the climax of the nightmare monster “dissolving” from its evil form after being embraced…. To me that scene just perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be a parent, and human; sometimes we just need someone to hold us and let us know things will be all right. We spend so much of our time making sure that our children feel loved and cared for, that sometimes we forget about ourselves. And you just fucking nailed it, my dude.

Like I said, I would LOVE to read any backstory or inspiration that you have for this film! It’s so beautiful and underrated.

On the WGA front, don't be too impressed with me - I mean, I'm a professional writer, I've been a member of the WGA since Absentia, so I'm out there fighting for myself as much as everyone else.

But on the Before I Wake front, you know I very rarely get asked to talk about this one, so I'm happy to... fair warning for another long post!

Before I Wake was originally titled Somnia, which is latin for "dreams." It was part of an unofficial trilogy of sorts, comprised of Absentia, Oculus and Somnia. All three of those movies were meant to work together as a thematic triptych.

Ultimately, Before I Wake was brutally sabotaged by its own studio, who drastically undermined it creatively and then destroyed any hope of a meaningful release. It remains a particularly heartbreaking chapter of my career... but a film I have and will always have tremendous affection for.

A lot of people think that Somnia was made after Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil, just before Gerald's Game, but this is entirely incorrect. It was actually the second "real" movie I ever made, and was actually shot before Oculus was even released.

The basic premise of Somnia focused around a little boy whose dreams manifested physically in the world around him, and was an original concept I carried around for a few years before Oculus got picked up by Intrepid Pictures. In fact, I've talked about my first meeting at Intrepid, where I pitched a few ideas that were rejected... Somnia was the first one I pitched. Trevor Macy opted to pursue Oculus that day, but he ended up producing Somnia right after.

This unofficial "latin trilogy" seemed to fit together well. Absentia was a somber and bleak look at the loss of hope, Oculus was more thrilling dive into the labyrinth of past trauma, and Somnia was meant to take that loss and trauma and end the triptych on a note of hope and healing.

In fact, the script for Somnia was written before Oculus was greenlit. On the page, it was my favorite of the three. I was very taken with the story of little Cody and his personal boogeyman, and of the revelation at the end of the story... that with understanding, even the most monstrous of our fears can lose their destructive power.

Cody's birth mother had died of cancer, and he had seen her just before her death. That final image of her, as well as a misunderstanding about the pronunciation of the word "cancer" had led to the creation of a monster in his mind, who he called the "Canker Man"... a gaunt figure who took away people that he loved. When he finally learns the truth about his monster, and about his mother, he begins to understand it all... and the monster loses its awful powers as empathy and understanding take root.

While Absentia finished its festival rounds and Oculus inched its way toward production, Somnia was my first script taken out to market by my new agency. I had signed with APA just as Intrepid engaged me on Oculus, which was my first studio writing and directing job. Jeff Howard and I finished our first draft of Oculus and turned it in to Intrepid, and immediately turned around and started writing Somnia.

The script got some interesting attention. While some of the more mainstream horror companies balked at the emotional ending and preferred a story that was "more about a boy and his monster" than the emotional wrap-up we insisted on, others understood it right away.

Elijah Wood and his producing partner Daniel Noah sought me out when they read the script. We met for drinks in Venice and I was absolutely starstruck, and we've remained friends ever since.

Jada Pinkett Smith was another big fan of the script, which led to a surreal afternoon at her stunning home where we talked about the story at length and watched an early cut of Oculus in her home theater. Will Smith joined us toward the end of the meeting, and I had a difficult time speaking.

I've written before about the drama surrounding Oculus' premiere and eventual sale to Relativity Media, so I won't rehash that now, but as Oculus raced toward release, Trevor Macy at Intrepid made an offer to produce Somnia for Relativity and I eagerly accepted. My first "real" movie was going to be released wide in theaters, and the same studio was going to double-down on me - Somnia was greenlit by Relativity for a big domestic theatrical release. We'd pre-sell our foreign territories on this promise, and they eagerly snatched the movie up. This was my own Hollywood dream, coming to life.

It wouldn't work out that way. In fact, Somnia would turn out to be the first nightmare of my career.

It started well enough. We had filmed Oculus in Daphne, Alabama, taking advantage of an aggressive tax rebate. We would do the same with Somnia, bringing back a lot of my Oculus crew and shooting in and around Fairhope. We began shooting in the fall of 2013, less than a year after we'd wrapped Oculus.

We hit the ground running. Very little time had passed since we wrapped Oculus, and the movie hadn't come out yet, so at first it felt a lot like we were just picking up where we left off.

Bruce Larsen, who also carved the Oculus mirror, working on a prototype of the Canker Man.

We had casting challenges. I was still a relatively unproven director, my first studio film hadn't been released, and this was an ambitious script. After a lengthy search (driven by foreign pre-sales, a process I knew nothing about and now quite detest), Kate Bosworth signed on to play Jessie, and Thomas Jane - who I admired greatly from his recent work in The Mist - joined the production as Mark. (Funny story - Tom arrived with hair down his shoulders, and vehemently didn't want to cut it. That disagreement put us off on an awkward foot, and I ultimately conceded the point to him... though I do regret that now.)

The major discovery was 7 year-old Jacob Tremblay as Cody. Jake had only made one movie before this, he had a small role in The Smurfs 2. His self-tape audition came out of nowhere and we knew was a a phenomenal talent. Right after we wrapped, I got a call that he was being considered for a movie called Room, and we shared some footage to help him get the part (that movie would establish him as one of the biggest and most sought after child actors in the world... but we had him first.)

We were committed to practical effects wherever possible, and creating a striking suit for our monster. It all felt like it was going to work. But the shoot would prove to be much more challenging than we anticipated.

The shoot itself was challenging for the typical reasons. There was a little creative tension on set with particular actors, we didn't have enough money to pull off our more ambitious visual moments, and we were forced to remove several production days at the last minute, throwing our schedule into a bit of chaos.

But none of these issues were particularly unusual for a lower budget film, and while it was more challenging and frustrating than Oculus had been, overall the shoot was just fine. I felt that our third act was pretty drastically under budgeted, and what was scripted to be a deep dive into a child's imagination was stripped down to a few vines on the walls and some moths... but other than that, I don't really have much to complain about.

(Fun fact: it was also the first time I would work with Annabeth Gish. We were fast friends, and though she was only with us for a few days, I knew we'd end up working together again.)

We wrapped the movie, I got to editing, and all seemed fine. It was a unique story, much less horror-centric and much more of a fairy-tale. This was, of course, by design. There was a delicate vibe to the whole thing, anchored on Jacob's arresting performance, and a shadowy magic. It felt innocent, wondrous, and ultimately cathartic.

Then, Relativity got their first look at the cut, and the problems started in earnest.

We had been clear (and aligned, I'd thought) about what kind of movie this was. But almost immediately, despite these conversations, the studio began to push the film more and more toward being a traditional horror movie.

We had designed a practical monster in the Canker Man. Our creature was tactile, practical, and - we believed - appropriately simple. After all, it was meant to have come from the mind of a child.

The studio kicked hard, and the directive came down to try to make the monster "much scarier."

There wasn't a lot we could do; we'd shot what we'd shot, after all. The decision was made to take our footage of our practical monster and drastically alter it using visual effects.

The Canker Man would be digitally warped and molded into a skeletal, grinning creature. The visual effects artists would be using footage that wasn't captured with the intention of being altered that way, so a lot of the artifice would be obvious. He'd become a little rough around the edges. We told ourselves that this would be okay... it was a dream, after all.

Early camera tests of our practical Canker Man suit

The final VFX-enhanced monster This began to nudge our monster away from our core concept. While our practical suit would always need some help from VFX, this was now tilting into an area that strayed from the true identity of the creature.

Another major sticking point was the plot itself.

In the movie, Cody's adopted mother Jessie is shocked to find a physical manifestation of her deceased son, Sean, after Cody sees his picture. She then goes about trying to "rebuild" her dead son in the imagination of her new foster child, hoping to see and interact with him more... "I just want to hear his voice."

This morally questionable exploitation of Cody was, to put it mildly, the entire point of the story. Jessie goes too far, and when she finally resorts to drugging Cody to force him to sleep in the hopes of seeing her lost son, he is unable to wake up from a nightmare and her husband is killed.

Jessie spends the rest of the film clawing her way back to redemption, and having to atone for what she's done, all while finally focusing on Cody's past and healing instead of her own.

As a character, Jessie does things we do not agree with, and they have serious, permanent consequences. And the moral murkiness of this was, frankly, the point.

The studio was flinching hard. "It makes her unlikeable," they argued. There was a push to try to back off of this, and to pull the punch... sure, she could exploit him somewhat, but they wanted to pull it back. Kate Bosworth's performance began to be altered in the cutting room, flinching away from some of the more decisive choices in favor of a more watered-down, morally generic heroine.

This middle ground would prove to be ill-advised.

As we were battling over the edit, something else happened. Oculus was released in theaters in April 2014.

If the movie was a huge hit, it would mean I would likely win more of these arguments, and Somnia would be restored to something closer to my vision. If the movie bombed, the studio could (and likely would) run ramshot over Somnia, twisting it into a more generic studio horror story and jettisoning things they didn't quite understand.

Ultimately, the movie performed... moderately. It was kind of right in the middle. It wasn't a failure, but it wasn't a hit either. Both sides dug in. And suddenly, Somnia was being twisted into something between two tones.

Citing the "disappointing" performance of Oculus (which, frankly, did just fine), the studio insisted that we write and shoot some additional "scares". Among them was one of the worst studio notes I'd ever receive (well, at least until I started working for Netflix.)

The entire premise of the film was that, when Cody slept, his dreams would manifest physically. When he woke up, they would vanish. This was, to put it bluntly, our only rule.

The note came in: "We need a scare set piece to occur when he is awake."

Now, I can't understate how nonsensical this is. It defied the entire premise of the movie. Their rationale (such as it was) was that the audience wouldn't ever be frightened when Cody was awake, because they knew the monsters only came when he was asleep.

"Well yeah," I said. "That's why it's important that the movie isn't just about scares."

But they were insistent. If a monster showed up while Cody was awake, that would be "truly thrilling" and "catch the audience off-guard."

It was the equivalent of saying "the shark in Jaws only attacks people if they're in the water. We need an attack to occur on land." I mean, that would really catch the audience off-guard.

I had no idea how to address this note.

It was early in my career, I didn't have a theatrical hit under my belt, and I didn't have the ammunition to fight it. So I had to address it somehow, and it had to satisfy the studio, or else we may not get our theatrical release after all.

So I ended up writing a scene where Cody is wide awake, only to be attacked in his bed by the specter of a deceased bully (a previous victim of one of his dreams).

How the fuck were we going to make this make any sense? Well, we had to write a whole other scene - much earlier in the film - where a therapist explains the concept of "waking dreams." Jay Karnes (who was a lovely person and one hell of a good sport) had to randomly say "you know, some people can dream while they're awake" to Bosworth, desperately trying to set up this moment.

It doesn't quite work, to say the least. Cody looks under his bed, sits up, and is attacked by this eye-less specter. Then, he's dragged screaming under his bed, until the attack just... stops, for some reason.

We filmed it, and I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever shot (it wasn't, though - the stupidest thing I've ever shot remains the on-screen stalking and murder of a cat in the pilot of Midnight Mass, a truly braindead scene that Netflix insisted on adding.)

Along with this scene, which would become the crux of Relativity's trailer, we shot several other random scares that were peppered throughout the movie. Now, this wasn't enough to tip the film entirely into being a horror film... just enough to make it exist awkwardly in between two genres.

It got worse. The addition of all this new "horror" material made the film longer (go figure), so the directive came down to begin removing other elements to make room. Those elements were character development and context.

The cut began to get bumpy. The fairy-tale tone of most of our original footage was at odds with the overt horror tone the studio was insisting upon. Every time we tested one of these cuts, the audience was understandably confused... they really loved the concept, they really loved Jacob, and they all loved the ending revelation - but along the way, what was this movie? Was it a horror film? Was it a drama? A fantasy?

Even with this, our test screenings were actually pretty good. We were testing in the high sixties and seventies - which is, infuriatingly, right in that middle zone: not good enough to kill the studio interference, but not bad enough to let them take over.

So we kept fighting. And we kept cutting. And we kept testing. And with each screening, the studio forced it further and further into this no-man's land.

There were a few victories, though. Danny Elfman came on board to collaborate with the Newton Brothers on our score. Some of our non-horror sequences, like a scene involving Christmas-light butterflies, were being called out by our test audiences in the best ways. But the tug-of-war over the basic identity of the film was tipping decidedly toward the more horror-centric approach.

Finally, the studio came after the title. Somnia was too confusing, they said. Nobody knew what it meant. So, we added a scene where Jay Karnes - once again having to naturally sell force-fed exposition - literally defines the world "somnia" during a therapy scene (these therapy scenes were basically being used to spoon-feed material to the audience.)

That wasn't enough, though. The studio began workshopping other titles, and they landed on perhaps my most hated of all of the options: the ultra-generic Before I Wake, a title already used by a handful of low-budget thrillers over decades. We conceded after it was made clear that it wasn't really up to me in this case, and we limped into what I consider to be the worst title of my career.

With our new uneven tone, a new and "improved" monster, and a groan inducing title, they finally agreed to stop messing with the movie and honor their commitment to releasing it wide.

You tell yourself a lot of things in this business, and I told myself that the heart of the story - the revelation about where the concept of the Canker Man came from - was still intact, so all would be well. Viewers would be able to look past some of the bumps because the payoff was worth it.

But we didn't know what else was happening at Relativity.

They announced the release date for the film, posters started showing up in theaters, and we were anxiously awaiting our big wide theatrical release... when suddenly everything stopped.

We didn't know it yet, but Relativity Media was having huge financial problems. They were on the verge of bankruptcy, as a matter of fact, and though they weren't admitting it yet, internally they were in a state of absolute chaos.

Without warning or explanation, the studio moved us off our date. The movie wouldn't be released after all. We immediately knew something was very wrong, despite Ryan Kavanaugh's insistence that our date was "just a bad date," and that he'd moved the movie in order to make it "an even bigger success." No, this whole thing stunk. It stunk bad.

They set another date, and we watched and waited. But no trailers. No marketing. And then... that date was pushed as well. Again, they insisted everything was fine. But we knew. Something was deeply wrong with the company, and they were lying to us.

Some of this played out publicly. Kavanaugh and I got into a spat on Twitter when I suggested that the studio wasn't able to release the movie theatrically after all (I still don't regret saying this, and man oh man, was I proven right).

Meanwhile, our international distributors were scrambling. We'd sold a lot of international territories off the promise of our big theatrical release in North America, and they weren't going to wait forever. By the third time Relativity pushed our release date, the whole house of cards fell down, and various international territories started releasing the film haphazardly on whatever platforms they could.

There was no coordinated release strategy. Suddenly, the film was just available in Argentina, for example. Or it was On Demand in Russia. I remember being shocked when a German Blu-ray appeared on eBay without warning.

There was no rollout to critics, no coordination at all. Within a few weeks, it was pirated and available on torrent sites everywhere. And without a proper press rollout, the only reviews available were trickling in from these international markets, or random blogs in other countries. A slew of reviews - many of which were from obscure blogs in Russia and Turkey, not even written in English - hit Rotten Tomatoes. With no counterpoint from any credible critics, we debuted with a 30% rotten rating.

It would stay this way for years.

Relativity finally admitted the truth, declared bankruptcy, and went to court. Our movie was dragged down into the vortex with it. Our abysmal tomatometer score suggested that the movie wasn't released because it was bad, not because the studio had gone bankrupt. This assumption stuck to us like glue as the film languished in bankruptcy court.

Heartbroken, we turned our attention elsewhere. I would write and direct both Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil before the whole distribution saga of Before I Wake was finally resolved.

In the years that followed, very little would be said about Before I Wake, and whatever was said was absolutely not positive... how bad must this movie be, after all, to be so unceremoniously pulled from the release? Some theaters just left the poster up, still saying "Coming Soon." I know of one theater in LA that had it up for over a year.

By the time Relativity finally settled their mess, and the film was unceremoniously given back to us with the most lackluster apology imaginable, and our chances of a domestic theatrical distribution were entirely obliterated. The film was already available online through piracy and a tiny handful of foreign blogs had defined our critical reception. No other studio would touch it.

We were able to arrange one screening of the film once it was unencumbered... we had a single showing at Fantastia in Montreal, a festival I adore. Instead of a huge worldwide theatrical release, the movie would play exactly one time, to one audience.

It was sold out, it played wonderfully, and it remains one of my favorite screenings of my career.

With Mitch Davis, Fantasia's artistic director, Kate Bosworth, and my wife Kate Siegel.

In the years that had passed since we shot Before I Wake, Kate Siegel and I had gotten married. At the premiere, and in the picture above, Kate was pregnant with our son.

We named him Cody, after the little boy in Somnia... the little boy whose dreams came true.

In 2016, Netflix acquired the North American rights to Before I Wake, and quietly dumped it on the service. There was no premiere, no rollout, no screeners sent to critics. One day it just appeared on the service without fanfare, as Netflix does to so many titles.

It didn't even appear on the New Releases tab.

A few critics found the movie on their own, and slowly some new reviews started to trickle out. Bloody Disgusting led the charge, discussing how the film had been wrongfully maligned over the years, and correcting identified it as a "haunted fairy tale" that was being handicapped by the expectations that it was a horror film.

Our tomatometer began to slowly rise. After some time, it tipped out of "rotten" into "fresh"... and today stands comfortably at 66%. Those early, malicious reviews are still there, the movie is still scarred by them... but despite Relativity (and eventually Netflix's) efforts to rebrand the movie as a straight horror film, most critics were able to see it for what it truly was.

Our audience was as well, for the most part. Some viewers yawning their way through the Netflix original horror feature section would find it, and get something maybe just a little more thoughtful than they were expecting. A few people reached out to me to talk about losing their own loved ones to cancer, or about how the sweeter elements of the story impacted them. I've always been grateful for that.

But ultimately, the movie was just brutalized by its studio. I've never again had so much damage inflicted on a project by a creative partner and supposed collaborator. And while Netflix did the bare minimum when it came to releasing the movie, I am still very grateful that that they even did that much... if it wasn't for Netflix picking it up, I think there's every chance Before I Wake would have never been made available at all.

I'm proud of the movie. It's not perfect, by any means - it was an ambitious sophomore effort and I had a lot to learn about a lot of things - but it has some beautiful ideas and some moments that really work. I see its flaws clearly, too, and while I tell myself some were out of my control (like the awkward scares forced on us by Relativity), others were most certainly entirely on me. Not everything works, and that's okay.

But man, Jacob Tremblay is phenomenal in this movie. And I absolutely adore the final ten minutes.

My son Cody is almost 7 now, exactly as old as Jacob was when he was cast to play his namesake. I hope Cody's dreams come true; that's why we named him what we named him.

Sometimes, our dreams don't come true quite how we might expect.

Hollywood is just kinda like that, I guess.

#before i wake #behind the scenes

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newpathwrites · 7 months ago

Text

Arms Wide Open - Chapter 1

Gods, you touched him - nobody ever did that. He struggled to appropriately respond, stumbling over his words. “No, no… there’s no need…” he replied. Was his voice really high right now? “I’ve had plenty of near misses with this one…” he gestured toward Grogu. “So it was my pleasure…”

Pleasure!!?? What a dumb and awkward thing to say…

Series Masterlist Main Masterlist

Summary: Din didn’t see you coming, or… one fateful trip to the market and a platonic night together changes everything.

Notes: This fic was unexpectedly inspired by the opening scenes of “Anyone but You” - I loved the sweet, companionable dynamic featured in that first night together and imagined Din meeting someone who brought out the lighter side of his personality. I do not take it on the circuitous route taken in the movie, though. Din and reader will get their shit together a whole lot quicker here.

Warnings: Language.

Word count: 1.3k

Read on AO3

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You had to go… like really bad.

Your first day of work in the field office on Nevarro had gone quite well, but there had been one teensy little problem. You had no clue where to find the freaking fresher and nobody around after lunchtime to ask. So you held it. All day.

There wasn’t even enough time to run home to your small cabin on the outskirts of town when you finally left in the early evening. Your bladder was about to burst at the seams.

You looked around as you exited the building for any establishment likely to have customer facilities before running across the street to a small indoor market as quickly as your feet could carry you, praying to the Maker that you could manage to hold it for just a few more minutes.

Upon entering, you grabbed the first item within your line of sight, a small loaf of bread, and booked it to the checkout line…

…which traversed the entire length of the store.

Kriff.

Time to resort to begging.

“Excuse me, sir?” you attempted, approaching the cashier who was busy with a customer. “May I use your fresher? I promise I’ll buy this. I just really have to go… like immediately.”

He didn’t even look in your direction. “You pay first, then you get to use the fresher.”

“Please,” you begged, crossing your legs in a vain attempt to keep the urine at bay.

He simply pointed behind him to a sign which read ‘Fresher for Paying Customers Only’.

“Damn it!” you exclaimed in frustration, then muttering to yourself under your breath. “I’m going to wet my pants. And then I’ll have to walk all the way home like that. Fuck!”

“She’s with me,” you heard a distinctly staticy male voice say somewhere behind you. “I’ll buy the bread, too. Let her go to the fresher.”

You turned to see what stranger had intervened on your behalf.

A Mandalorian - decked out in full armor and faceless, metal visage with a small, green child in his arms. You’d never expected such a contradictory sight, but who were you to question it? This man just saved your dignity.

The young cashier, suddenly alert and attentive, subtly bowed in the man’s direction. “Of course, Mr. Djarin. I didn’t know she was with you.” The teenager finally looked at you and thrust a key in your face. “Go ahead, ma’am.”

You took it without ceremony despite your annoyance with the boy, and even as you rushed to the back of the store, you took a moment to mouth a sincere ‘thank you’ to the mysterious man who subtly nodded back in recognition of your gratitude.

________________________________________

Damned Grogu’s cute face. Nobody could resist it - not even the teenage attendant behind the register who offered the child free samples of those kriffing blue cookies.

Din didn’t dare refuse. If he did, the treat would find its way into Grogu’s mouth instead by way of the force which he still preferred his son not use around aruetti.

As they sat at a small table in the dining area of the store, Din’s thoughts turned back to you - the desperate woman he’d never seen before begging to use the fresher. Did you not know about the public facilities right in the center of town? What were you even doing here in Nevarro? It wasn’t exactly a bustling tourist destination.

Perhaps he needed to do some sleuthing, make sure you weren’t a threat.

It couldn’t possibly be that he just wanted to know more about you… your age… marital status… No, of course not. He was just Nevarro’s sworn protector… It was his job… obviously…

The fact that you were both beautiful and appeared appropriately middle aged like himself had absolutely nothing to do with it.

“Mister… Djarin…?”

Din was startled out of his musings by your voice and looked up to see your lovely face beaming at him.

“Thank you again for your help,” you started, taking one of his gloved hands in yours for a moment before letting go. “Stars, I’m so embarrassed… But please, let me pay for your groceries. You can even keep the bread - I didn’t even need it.”

Pleasure!!?? What a dumb and awkward thing to say…

To his great embarrassment (and relief), you laughed. “I suppose it’s not every day you get to save a grown woman from wetting her pants.” Ah, so you were funny, too… not that he was keeping track of your attractive qualities…

Grogu, bless him, intervened then to save his father’s dignity, reaching out to you with a cookie in hand.

“Why, thank you, little one. I would love a cookie.” You took it from him and placed it in your pocket. “I’m not hungry right now, but this will be a very fine dessert after my dinner tonight.”

Good with kids - check… and smart enough not to actually eat something that had been in Grogu’s grubby hands.

The child made a series of hand gestures in response, and Din was forced to translate. “He says ‘you’re welcome’ and…” A sigh emanated from the vocoder. “... he wants to know where you came from… Grogu, she doesn’t even know us. We shouldn’t ask personal questions.” Says the man who wanted to investigate your background.

Din looked back up at you apologetically before adding, “I’m sorry - he’s very curious. You don’t have to answer that.” But he hoped you would.

You smiled - and stars, he might die if this conversation didn’t end soon. He was getting redder and redder under the visor.

“Well, Grogu, it’s very nice to meet you. I am new here, just started a job directing the agricultural field office - see if we can get more vegetation growing so that Nevarro never goes hungry for healthy produce.” So you were smart, too… check… “Today was my first day, and silly person that I am, I let everyone go early to enjoy the pleasant weather before they could show me where the fresher was located…” And kind… another check… not that he was counting or anything.

Grogu gave her a toothy grin in response - he found this woman quite nice and funny.

“They’re uhmmm…” Din started. Why was he struggling so much to speak? “They’re in the building next to the magistrate’s office - public facilities…”

“Oh!” you exclaimed, knocking yourself lightly on the forehead. “That makes a lot of sense. Thank you.”

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “You’re welcome…”

You stared back at him serenely for just a moment, sparking his heart rate, before holding out your hand. “I’m Flora… nickname…”

Din’s hand moved to take yours of its own accord, and he responded dumbly, “Din… real name…” Maker…

Grogu looked up at him through scrunched eyes for a moment before bursting into a delightful fit of childish giggles, and you couldn’t help following suit. Din finally gave in, allowing himself to take this all as lightly as you were, despite his humiliation with the entire interaction, chuckling softly under the helmet.

Din didn’t have many light moments like this. Could he have more?

“Din… and Grogu…” you said as you regained your composure. “It was very nice to meet you. Thank you again for helping me out. I hope we run into each other… often.” Well, that sounded promising… and terrifying…

He didn’t trust himself to say anything more, so he simply nodded as you turned away and walked out the door.

The moment you were out of sight, Grogu began furiously signing in his direction.

Din sighed - Grogu was too insightful for his own good. “Yes, kid, I like her… No, we can’t follow her - that’s creepy… Yes, I know I do that all the time, but those are bounties - not innocent women… Stars… ok, fine…”

________________________________________

Next chapter

#din djarin x f!reader #din djarin fanfiction #the mandalorian fanfiction #newpathwrites #arms wide open #din djarin x reader

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laurasimonsdaughter · 3 months ago

Note

How would you see a Disney adaptation of Momotaro (because for some reason, I see it having a similar vibe to Disney’s Hercules)?

I think that if Disney did decide to adapt Momotarō it would be a lot like their Hercules, for better or for worse :P

Personally I've always enjoyed Disney's Hercules for the jokes and songs, but it feels very much like a "these could have been original characters but we decided to market it with Greek mythology". The actual story of Hercules/Heracles would not make a good Disney movie, so they pretty much made up their own story completely. If Disney tried to adapt Momotarō, I think they'd do the same. Although the "problem" with Momotarō isn't that the story is too complicated (and morally dicey) like with Hercules, but that it's rather too simple:

An old couple in rural Japan work hard and have wished for a child but never gotten one.

The old woman finds an extraordinarily large peach, but when they try to cut it open to eat it, a beautiful child steps out. He explains that he is a blessing from the gods and will be their son. They call him Momotarō, named after the peach.

Momotarō is soon well known for his strength and bravery and when he is no longer a child he proclaims that he will go fight the evil, man-eating Oni who keep leaving their island to plunder Japan.

On the way there he collects a dog, a monkey and a pheasant as loyal followers. They defeat the Oni, take their leader prisoner, and return home victorious with all the stolen riches.

Of course there are many versions of this tale, I'm most familiar with the translation by Yei Theodora Ozaki. But if Disney was going to take a stab at this they would undoubtedly make additions. For instance:

A whole pantheon of Shinto inspired deities, to look down on the old couple and decide to bless them with a child.

An earlier introduction for the chief of the Oni (the Villain), who gets a prophecy that a child will be brought into the world in such and such place, who will defeat him. He sends three Oni (bumbling comic relief characters) to kill the entire family, but they only find an old woman carrying a peach so they return home confused.

Different introduction to the three animal companions. They no longer just meet each other on the road, Momotarō rescues each of them and they become full animal sidekicks (which they basically already are in the text, they talk and quibble and everything).

One of the noble maidens kidnapped by the Oni, who helps Momotarō to get into their stronghold, will be upgraded to love interest and will go home with Momotarō when he returns to his parents.

Like I said, for better or for worse. But with Japanese artists at the helm it might work!

#disney goggles #japanese folklore

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justforbooks · 7 months ago

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Roger Corman

American film director and producer who liked to describe himself as the ‘Orson Welles of the Z movie’

Although Roger Corman, who has died aged 98, directed more than 50 films, he will be remembered mainly as an influential producer and genial godfather to the New American Cinema of the 1970s. The list of his beneficiaries makes up a Who’s Who of contemporary American film. Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, and Jonathan Demme were all directing proteges of Corman.

“You can see right away that the guy’s a superior producer,” said Jack Nicholson, who appeared in five films directed by Corman. “He’s the best producer I’ve met in the business. The man carried me for seven years. I feel tremendously indebted to him.”

But to pre-70s cinemagoers, Corman was an auteur in his own right, describing himself as the “Orson Welles of the Z movie”. The schlocky titles of the majority of his films disguise the fact that Corman was an extremely cultured, elegant and well-spoken man, without the slightest hint about him of the rock’n’roll counterculture in which he played an important part. He also had cameo roles in about 30 films, including as an FBI director in Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and a senator in Coppola’s The Godfather Part II (1974).

Corman’s filmography as a director can be roughly divided into three groups: the quickies (1955-60), the adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1960-64), and the mainstream experiments (1966-70). In the first period, on a tiny budget and in rented studios, he produced and directed such Z movies as Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Teenage Caveman (1958) and She Gods of Shark Reef (1958). Science-fiction horror with tatty special effects, cut-price monsters and unknown casts, they were aimed at the drive-in movie youth market.

He would produce up to seven films a year, his fastest being The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), which was reputedly shot in two days and a night. It was filmed using the same sets as A Bucket of Blood (1959), a self-referential black comedy. Corman once joked he could make an epic about the fall of the Roman empire with two extras and a sagebrush.

In slight contrast was the Poe series, amusing shockers in widescreen and colour. These included House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Raven (1963), The Terror (1963) and, perhaps the best, The Masque of the Red Death (1964).

Greater commercial success came with such films as The St Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) and Bloody Mama (1970), but soon afterwards Corman retired as a director. His reasons were manifold: he had made around 26 films in 10 years and felt the need of a rest; he also complained that when he made cheap films nobody tinkered with them, but as a big-budget director everyone seemed to think they had the right to maul his work. “Specifically, a picture I made called Gas-s-s-s for AIP [American International Pictures], which was completely recut,” Corman said.

“It was a controversial kind of a comedy, and AIP cut all the funny stuff right out of the film, including the entire ending. The film was never shown anywhere as I shot it, and I felt, frankly, they emasculated the picture and destroyed any possibility of success.”

He was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, to William Corman, an engineer, and Anne (nee High). His paternal grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, and his mother was of German ancestry.

The family moved to California and Roger went to Beverly Hills high school before beginning an engineering degree at Stanford University. It was the middle of the second world war, and he spent two years as a navy cadet before finally graduating in 1947. He entered the movies at 20th Century-Fox as an errand boy, but then, under the GI Bill, took off to study English literature at Oxford University for six months, followed by six months in Paris.

In 1954, Corman sold a low-budget script to Allied Artists. It was released as Highway Dragnet, for which he insisted on an associate producer credit. But he was disappointed with the film and, believing that he could do a better job as a producer, scraped $12,000 together to make Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954), directed by Wyott Ordung.

After selling the film for a profit of $100,000, Corman scripted and produced The Fast and the Furious (1954). Shot in 10 days by the film’s star, John Ireland, it was distributed by a small new company, American Releasing Corporation, later renamed American International Pictures, with Corman as its house director.

In the early 60s, for AIP, he made his series of adaptations from Poe, a favourite writer of his since childhood. Using the team of the designer Daniel Haller, writer Richard Matheson and cameraman Floyd Crosby, he created garish, camp and amusing shockers, taking their tone from Vincent Price’s sibilant, ghoulish hamming.

They were sometimes referred to as “late wife” movies because, in most of them, Price had a deceased wife lying around a castle. Taking only 15 days to shoot, they contained scenes and sets interchangeable from one film to the next, but they were popular and gathered a cult following.

A departure from the horror genre of the period, and one of Corman’s favourites, was The Intruder (1961), a gritty social drama in which a rabble-rouser (William Shatner) arrives in a southern town to disrupt racial integration in the schools.

Corman’s taste for updated American Gothic was evident in the biker movie The Wild Angels (1966), which featured actual Hells Angels, and The Trip (1967), an indulgent plunge into psychedelia written by Nicholson. Both starred Peter Fonda, who went on to produce – and star in alongside Nicholson and Dennis Hopper – the Corman-influenced Easy Rider (1969).

Corman’s blood-splattered recreation of 1928 Chicago in The St Valentine’s Day Massacre was more tightly controlled and wordier than his usual product, with impeccable performances from Jason Robards as Al Capone and Ralph Meeker as Bugs Moran. In the cold-eyed and unromantic Bloody Mama, Shelley Winters let rip as Kate Barker, the murderous matriarch of a gang of outlaws, with an unknown Robert De Niro playing her son.

Corman followed up that success with a tale of another female gangster, Boxcar Bertha (1972), hiring a young Scorsese as director.

He gave up directing after The Red Baron (1971) nose-dived at the box office. Phony German accents were dubbed in against his wishes. However the dog fights, actually filmed in the air, gave the first world war flying sequences authenticity.

In 1970, he set up his own company, New World Pictures, and continued to produce formula films for the youth market, abiding by the profitable philosophy “make ’em quick, make ’em cheap and make ’em popular”. These included motorcycle movies (Angels Die Hard); sexploitation flicks (Night Call Nurses, Fly Me, Caged Heat!, the latter directed by Demme) and horror films (Night of the Cobra Woman), but the company also distributed films in the US at the opposite end of the creative scale, such as Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (1972) and Federico Fellini’s Amarcord (1973).

In 1990, Corman sat down in his director’s chair once more and made Frankenstein Unbound, with John Hurt and Raul Julia, which proved he could still spin a gory tale, though, alas, without the success of earlier years.

However, the title of his 1998 autobiography, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, still rang true. He continued to produce and executive produce films into his 90s. In 2009, he received a lifetime achievement Academy Award.

He is survived by his wife, Julie Halloran, a film producer, whom he married in 1970, and their four children, Roger, Brian, Mary and Catherine.

🔔 Roger William Corman, film director, producer and actor, born 5 April 1926; died 9 May 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #Roger Corman #in memoriam

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kimbapisnotsushi · 2 years ago

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sou !! hello !! this is also random and specific but i saw the datekou headcanon post and i was wondering. might you have any inarizaki road trip hcs?

i didn't until you asked me so LET'S GO

oh god you thought dateko was bad??? they were only stuck in the car for thirty minutes at MOST

(or something idk i haven't quite mapped out their geography yet but miyagi is a coastal prefecture and sendai isn't like SUPER far inland, so i'm just making assumptions out here)

but anyways. kurosu is driving obviously as much as he moans and groans about it

shoutout to the coaches btw they are CARRYING these headcanons

realistically i guess they'd road trip to another school for a training camp or like idk. maybe hot springs for some r&r bc inarizaki def has the budget for it but in my heart they road trip to suna's hometown during one of the breaks so suna can see his family <333

i guess it also kind of depends on WHERE in hyogo and aichi they are but we could get a solid 4-5 hours of driving if it was from, say, asago to tahara

kita makes a list of all the snacks everyone wants and rounds up aran, oomimi, and akagi to help him raid the market/convenience store like the old hunter-gatherer days

they end up with two massive tote bags of drinks, chips, cookies, and other miscellaneous snacks and one cooler for things like puddings and cakes and whatnot

oomimi sits shotgun because kurosu needed someone to help with directions and everyone else was on "make sure the miyas don't kill each other before we get there" duty

they all thought that kita was brilliant for making atsumu sit in the back and osamu up front because even tho they're separated the twins will NOT stop bickering and trying to throw random pieces of trash at each other. poor riseki gets caught in the crossfire the most often

they all converged to make one giant road trip playlist so you've got the weirdest mix of pop rock/bubblegum/k-pop/city pop, lofi, indie soft rock, show tunes and soundtracks, and more

(i named those genres with certain charas in mind so like. have fun figuring that out!)

nobody's willing to take a nap in fear of what the twins might do to each other when they're not looking

they play really stupid games like the alphabet-chain game and i spy and even try for a few rounds of truth or dare because, hey, there's nothing like being stuck in a car with your fellow teenagers for four hours to set the mood for emotionally vulnerable bonding time, right?

anyways. everyone learns that gin is afraid of heights and all sorts of horror movies, akagi would like to get his ears pierced some day, kosaku got rejected in middle school in front of his entire class and has refused to fall in love since, and suna takes pictures to capture the memory of a place he does not want to forget

(sorry i'm being emo about suna missing home again i'll stop)

kurosu is sweating BUCKETS in the front seat btw. "oh my god what do i do with this information am i supposed to talk to them i'm their TEACHER i'm supposed to guide them i do NOT get paid enough for this - "

a shame, really, considering inarizaki could definitely afford to give that man a raise

it's okay they get some really funny dares like daring gin to text his crush a totally random and weird question

(and thank god atsumu has his phone tucked away in his bag)

there's not a whole lot of dares they can do in the car tbh so they get really creative like daring osamu to eat this absolutely evil concoction of mixing tiramisu pudding into a bag of spicy chips and eating the whole thing

he does. nobody knows how he survived it

and then riseki dared both osamu AND atsumu to shut up and sit down and not even so much as GLANCE each other for the rest of the trip

this was at, like, the 1.5 hour mark btw

and okay he didn't say it EXACTLY like that because riseki is a sweet respectful underclassman but that WAS the closest to snapping he's ever gotten

they do stop occasionally here and there to get out and stretch their legs, but this makes their trip even longer bc it takes like thirty minutes each time to wrangle everyone and get them back in the van

also akagi is trying out his most terrible pickup lines. or antipickup lines. either one works

akagi: "are you lactose? because i can't tolerate you ;)" aran: "PLEASE, MAKE HIM STOP"

the only reason aran feels like he isn't completely suffering is because gin is sitting next to him and gin is kind of soothing like a cute pet would be. not that aran is thinking of gin as a pet nooooo ahahaha that would be weird

meanwhile gin is wondering why aran keeps trying to feed him crackers

they finally get to suna's hometown after being on the road for SIX AND A HALF HOURS

and while everyone is happy to be outside soaking up the sun and fresh air, they're all going to miss the bonding of being stuck in a van perhaps just a little bit

it's all right, they've got the return trip to look forward to

(made 100x worse when akagi busts out a drinking game and proclaims they should play with juice boxes, but that's a story for another time)

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faithinlouisfuture · 11 months ago

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Louies' 2023 Wrapped Tag Game

(Rules: Answer the questions below and tag at least 3 people!)

Thank you bestie @berlinini for tagging me 🤍 sorry i’m so late on this, work’s been kicking my ass, here we go though!

favorite walls song: this year; don’t let it break your heart

favorite fitf song: impossible to pick just one but right now; holding on to heartache (which is funny considering my fav off of Walls this year)

most played song on Spotify by Louis: Written All Over Your Face (ok whore)

favorite louis lyrics: that’s actually an impossible task because there’s WAY too many! but “there’s endless versions of the thing that keeps me drifting back to darkness” hits home in a way that i can’t explain in words

louis life lesson: it always remains the same; picking yourself back up after facing hardships, seeing the possibilities and positives in a difficult situation; basically strength & resilience

favorite louis outfit: oh that’s unfair, my little fashionista kills it 99% of the time so i have a list of favorite 50 outfits from 2023 but for the purpose of this game we’ll narrow it down to three (and it’s not even top three just three that i loved)

favorite tour show: there were so many good ones this year (Phoenix, Austin, Houston, LA, Philly, New York, Bologna, Paris, Antwerp, Vienna, Łódź, Sheffield, Cardiff, London) but the way that I felt physically ill after fitfwt: Columbus might need to be studied for science; the whiplash from the stark difference of him during the show and him post show was entirely TOO MUCH

favorite public appearance: has to be the RS Awards; the slutty custom-made fit, the main character energy throughout, the confidence, the glow, the ever present eloquence with which he spoke about his work and his successful af year, just him him him <3

favorite AOTV scene: once again there’s so many; that scene where louis’ recording Saturdays and we get some insight into his thinking and his process, the montage of louis with band and crew having an absolute blast while All This Time plays in the background, that one scene where JD is helping him put his hoodie on after he broke his elbow 👀 the last few minutes of the movie where we hear him say the words “i do feel like i deserve this” 🫶🏽🥹 and so so many more actually

favorite band or crew member: favorite three :p are Krystle, Steve & Joshua! special shout out to Joshua for going above and beyond this year honestly! that man carried lthq on his back!

favorite picture: another unfair question but i won’t cheat and post one of my absolute most favorites from this year because it’s like the energy of his shows captured in one moment (i found out on twitter that the hand in his hair belongs to a desi louie which was like the cherry on top)

something that you are looking forward to in 2024: the fitfwt latam shows!!! there is nothing else like the energy the latam crowds bring, which in turn brings out the absolute best (and most unhinged) in louis and his band too, so definitely looking forward to that! and the festivals!!! can’t wait to see him shine in front of the world <3 hope against hope to be a part of it if things work out 🤞🏽🕯️

one wish for Louis (or Louies) for 2024: 🍑🐧🎧 sighting! kidding (not really)! honestly though, growth

growth in this fandom’s level of maturity (with the addition of lots more people who are here for louis’ art and not his personal life), growth in the markets he’s able to capture, growth in the places he’s able and willing to tour *cough*ASIA*cough*, growth in the ability of his teams especially his social media and PR teams, growth from Louis himself in regards to him being open to trying new things

i don’t know who all has done this! but i’ll tag some people just in case (no pressure) @noraincsl @timidlouie @poekitty2020 @stormyhale @louveyous

#as usual i have rambled on and on #oops 😝#tag games #louies <3

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svankmajerbaby · 11 months ago

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ok i just watched the mina le video on movie musicals, and im still thinking about how movie musicals are marketed but most importantly to me, how theyre made

so bc musicals are "cringe", three movie musicals have been hiding the fact theyre not musicals in their trailers, and focused on selling, what else, nostalgia and the association with a previous intellectual property. in the actual context, its not a surprise, though it does mean theres a void of actual interesting movie musical projects. i personally think that the fact that we havent had a movie musical of the best original one made in years, hadestown, is a real shame... but considering that, even though its not a particularly hard musical to convert to screen, it would be extremely easy to fuck up through movie star casting and a bad choice of director who doesnt know their way around a musical number... still, i would like to see someone try.

but anyways.

what i personally have an issue with is the decision between movie actors who cant sing and stage actors who cant act in the way movie directors supposedly want. the choice to go with big movie actors the audiences are familiar with, and that also act like the audiences expect actors to act, is understandable. producers suppose actors can do anything if they try hard enough and they can carry a tune and do some dancing with the proper coaches and a month or two of rehearsals. but i personally am of the mind that a theater actor, a stage actor, is a much more valuable performer in a movie musical because they already know how to inhabit a musical character, how to move and interpret the overwhelming emotions a musical character needs to embody. besides, at least to me, the beauty of a musical is to see an amazing musical performance, that matches accordingly with a compelling story and characters. i wouldnt want to watch a billy elliot movie musical if it didnt have great dancing, for example. i wouldnt want to watch a wicked movie if the actors couldnt perform the songs perfectly in character. musicals are at their best, of course, when the music drives the story forward, and i feel like thats a skill that most directors dont have. the reason les mis didnt fully work for me is less because of the "realistic, flawed singing" (which did bother me at times, especially with the more action involved characters like valjean and javert) and because the cast was so badly directed and unbalanced. thats why something like west side story 2021 is so important to me: a movie with 99% musical theater actors, which are all well directed by a movie director who knows how to move the camera around the performers to instill a sense of dynamism and excitement. i maintain that choreographers in general should try directing movies. the in the heights movie, even if i didnt personally care for the music, was excellently directed because it was obvious the director had a sense of the rhythm the movie needed, and that the best way to convey that was through the camera. this is why i thought guy ritchie, an action director, would have been great for the aladdin live action remake –and then i was proven wrong. i keep blaming disney, though: watch the man from uncle and tell me ritchie wouldnt have been a pretty good movie musical director in other universe.

apart from the mean girls musical remake, which didnt even have that good a score in the first place, i do have faith in the future of movie musicals. if we need to go to already preexisting intellectual properties, and have five remakes to be able to have one original movie musical (even if that movie musical is something like la la land), it would have been worth it. i still dont understand why the entire cast of the west side story remake arent established cinema stars, apart from rachel zegler and ariana debose. or why there arent more opportunities for stage actors like amber gray and mike faist to make the jump to screen, or why tried and tested screen actors like amy adams and evan rachel wood who have proven that, given a score that allows for their specific voice types to shine, they can be great at performing movie musical roles. there isnt a bigger focus on the creativity i havent watched the color purple movie musical yet, but the fact that the director has worked with beyonce for her music videos immediately gives me hope that this is someone with the creativity and talent to know how to move the camera with the performers and the music. the wicked movie has the in the heights director, so even if the cast is half movie actors (i have little faith in jeff goldblum and michelle yeohs singing abilities tbh), i trust that at least it will be an entertaining watch. similarly, i try to have faith that, if the hercules live action remake gets out of preproduction, theyll have a strong set of muses actresses coming from stage musicals to carry the best songs, and that guy ritchie will be able to be more creative and take bigger risks –that is, if the evil mouse allows him to.

wonka was a decent, middle of the road movie that just works. to me, it didnt become the great musical it could have been because it didnt fully get the need for a stronger underlying darkness that makes the spirit of roald dahl, and because it kept tying itself with the mediocre 1971 movie. but i think it was a step in the right direction, with the right director and the right music, even if it relied too much on stunt casting.

#i like mina le though usually shes more of an opinion channel than actual hard information i think. but this one was interesting #les miserables 2012 #west side story 2021 #wonka 2023 #la la land 2016 #the color purple 2023 #in the heights 2021 #wicked 2024

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oaktaro · 2 months ago

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The Birth of the Horror Game Genre

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What was the first horror game?

Killer Shark – 1972? – Cabinet When the question of the first horror game comes up, the poorly kept, early history of video games as a whole becomes an obstacle. You can find conversations about what the first horror game is, bring up seemingly lost cabinets of uncertain construction, or a scene in the 1975 movie Jaws in which it cuts to gameplay of an arcade game called Killer Shark where the player is a deep sea diver, armed with a speargun, shooting said killer shark, who appears from the darkness of the deep ocean… The arcade cabinet has a Sega logo, with various websites sighting it as having a 1972 release in the U.S. with no month or day specified. There's also a flyer, circulating, that shows the machine with 2 play prices, whose currency implies a Japanese release that may have been simultaneous or prior, considering the space for its second coin slot still exists in all the pictures of the U.S. release. Both sensible information and interest in this game are sparse due to its stroboscopic disk approach to film being considered so primitive that it becomes divisive as to if people even consider it video, thus making its historical value as a horror game as divisive, causing the credit of the earliest known horror game to often be split between it and another 1972 game, Haunted House.

Haunted House – 1972, Aug-Oct? – Odyssey When attempting to create a variety of first-party games for their new home console, horror would join the likes of sports, education, and science fiction games, the Odyssey would see. While the creative mind behind the console would be against packing in games that required more than TV and controller to play, the console was under Magnavox, who would ultimately lean into the more board game design, relying on physical pieces in attempting to capture the family market. Released around September of ‘72, Haunted House would take advantage of the video game format by having a multiplayer game where one player is a ghost that can hide within things with the illumination of their body standing out while also blending in with the natural illumination of a CRT screen that lit the entire environment. The other player would be the detective, attempting to survive the mansion, with physical cards guiding the game without having to approach condensing text into hardware, which was meant to be cheap and thus simple. The game’s approach to horror relied on the tension of anticipating a failure state that allowed the player controlling the ghost to initiate a jump scare that would flash the screen white while they screamed “BOO!” Real scary, I know.

So what’s the earliest known survival horror game?

Hunt The Wumpus – 1973 – printed BASIC code After arcade and console players got their horror fix, the following year would see the release of a desktop computer horror game that would rely less on visuals and more on painting a picture through text like a horror novel. Gregory Yob found the output of the trend of hide and seek games published by People’s Computer Company to be… underwhelming considering what could be accomplished. He would avoid the easy grid pattern level design and have the player explore a cave system where a man-eating beast called the Wumpus was sleeping somewhere around. Also within the cave… were bottomless pits and bats—so great, they can carry a person right off! The player, armed with 5 crooked arrows, named for their… unrealistically generous movement through the air in the game’s dodecahedron-shaped world, would need to explore the cave system to hunt the Wumpus in complete darkness via their other senses like smell and feel, as light would alert the beast, and if you move too close to it, you’ll turn into it’s prey. Because of this, it’s retroactively referred to as the earliest known example of a survival horror game: exploring it’s cave system, managing your limited arrows, to hunt the monster while trying not to squander your limited inventory and become its prey. It was sold via mail order in 1973 and People’s Computer Company who advertised it as a possible tool to teach first grader’s math is credited as its publisher.

It became a franchise.

By 1975, multiple horror games were being released per year. Hunt the Wumpus’s source code was released in Creative Computing Magazine and became a series with ports, sequels, and custom alterations. Wumpus 2 would focus on re-playability. It’s new cave systems bringing changing difficulty and strategy, being described as “the same old Wumpus in a different setting, including those of your own design," referring to the ability to create your own cave system in this new entry. Wumpus 3 would advertise new hazards to the mix like earthquakes and bat migrations. Jack Emmerichs is credited with the creation of Super Wumpus, a more complex version of Wumpus where the beast would be aggressively active, while an Altair 8800 parody of the original, titled Wampus, would give players the option to primarily try to escape the cave and avoid confrontation all together.

What was the first video game adaptation of a horror movie? Could it have been inspired by:

Maneater – 1972 Mar? – Cabinet In 1975, Project Support Engineering released Maneater, advertising up to 2 players can indulge in it’s “video terror!” Controlling divers in shark-infested waters, players are to retrieve packages from the bottom and bring them to the surface, and this would be far from the last shark game…

Shark Jaws – 1975 Sep 25th – Cabinet Video game adaptations of other media predate Pong, and Pong’s company, Atari, would join on this, forming Horror Games, a front to take the bullet in case they were sued for their unlicensed adaptation, Shark Jaws, though keen eyes would recognize it using an Atari Tank II cabinet, and those who got inside might note its circuit board, marked "Atari," whose marketing VP is quoted as saying the company behind Jaws would find out Atari is behind Horror Games in only 3 days. Advertised as “exciting underwater video terror!” Shark Jaws had you swimming for fish in a third person while trying to avoid being shark food. It’s been praised for it’s sound design, using heavy reverb to emulate its setting, and despite claims of it selling thousands, tracking serial numbers have led to collectors finding it, more likely, only had 500 ever even made. Coincidentally, much like Killer Shark, it too would be used in a movie and 3 years after its release, to boot!

What was the first journalist attack on horror games?

DeathRace – 1976 April - Cabinet Games in the horror genre would, of course, eventually attract backlash. In December of 1975, Destruction Derby would release where the player, controlling a car, would attempt to ram into others. It was licensed to Chicago Coin by Exidy, who would clone the game to also profit from it without competing with their licensee. New hire, Howell Ivy, said the easy approach would be to replace the visuals, which was done by replacing the other cars with fleeing people! Allegedly titled Pedestrian before becoming Death Race 98 and then shortened to Death Race. The cabinet featured 2 Grim Reapers, driving cars, with the pedestrians being named Gremlins, who would scream before being run over. A reporter would see kids lined up to play Death Race and run a story in Seattle, beginning a snowball of media covering the controversial game about running over fleeing pedestrians. Becoming taboo, of course, caused the game’s sales to shoot from hundreds to thousands, with video game magazines reporting it in the top 10 highest grossing arcade games for 2 years!

How much of an arcade game is in the cabinet’s construction, itself?

Triple Hunt – 1977 April – Cabinet On the market in 1977 was a new 3 in 1 arcade cabinet by Atari, Triple Hunt: a collection of shooting games, featuring Raccoon Hunt, where you shoot raccoons before they get to the top of a tree; Hit the Bear, where you take aim at bears with attached targets that, because the sprites display horizontally stretched, look more like eyes; and a game called Witch Hunt, where you’re firing at a haunted mansion where a witch circles the sky. The game tracks the gun’s position on the screen via 2 potentiometers in the gun, while a display mask and a one-way mirror in front of the monitor let light through and reflect the game’s sprites, creating a sense of depth and allowing them to pass behind and in front of objects. This allows the game to advertise multiple 3D environments. The game’s creator, Owen Rubin, would explain that the more complex method of gun tracking was chosen over using a light-gun, sensing the sprites when they’re not behind objects out of fear that outside lights like fluorescents would get in the way. This cabinet’s construction is an example of how I think so much of the experience is often lost when trying to translate an arcade game to a 2D screen. So much of the experience is in the cabinet’s construction itself, which is often not even attempted to be replicated. The game’s spooky sound design came from a combination of the game’s microprocessor producing sound effects and an 8-track tape producing the ambient environmental noise. Witch Hunt would have the most tape and not be the only witch game of this error.

There’s a horror game of a city’s tourist attraction.

The House of Seven Gables - 1978 - Apple II, TRS-80, Sorcerer Perhaps the most well-known thing about Salem, Massachusetts, is the witch trials of the 1600s. During the time, stood the Turner house that would eventually sell to the family of Susanna Ingersoll, who would entertain her cousin there, telling him stories of its old history. The attic had bits of framing and plaster from former gables built in 1668. This cousin would make the house famous by being inspired to write the 1851 novel, The House of the Seven Gables. The house is now an icon of Salem, becoming a museum and one with a horror game. Greg Hassett’s 1978 text adventure, The House of Seven Gables, advertises you raid for valuables but must defeat the witch to escape… and said witch is not the only danger. Lurking the house are life-threatening ghouls who—you can throw chemicals in their face. A GHOST who also doesn’t want you to leave with valuables and can be life-threatening himself if you refuse to relinquish your plunder. There’s even a vampire who you can drive off with garlic found in the kitchen, but it won’t work forever… so you might want to prepare to combat it a different way.

Conclusion The number of horror games released was increasing every year, but what even constitutes a video game is divisive, from Killer Shark’s stroboscopic disk approach to Haunted House’s absence of memory or a processor to the House of Seven Gables’s absence of motion picture. The line of what is video and what are video games may be forever debated, and especially when a game lacks a stereotypically horror setting or characters, it can become as divisive to decipher which game’s creator’s intentions were horror or if that’s even what YOU define as a horror game. What is certain is the word "horror" can catch the interest of many people who previously enjoyed media described as such.

#horror #horror games #retro games #sega #atari #magnavox

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amberarmedheart · 5 months ago

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The Color Of Makeup

It had always been difficult for me to find the proper color of foundation that goes with my skin color. Whenever I used to go to the stores, back in the early 2000s when i started high school and I had learned the hard way how cruel the world can be, they never ever had my shade. One store after another, one counter after another, and I simply couldn't find them... in the usual markets, that is.

If I wanted more affordable, regular brands, they never carried my shade. But if I really, really wanted to match it, I had to go to an expensive department store to actually get the exact shade that didn't make me look ashy or weird.

And from the very first moment, I was fine with it. Why? Well, it is quite simple: I am pale as an uncooked flour tortillas and I am a Mexican living in Mexico.

It was obvious to me that the usual supermarkets didn't carry my shade, the percentage of the population that has my exact skin color is quite small, so of course it would be difficult for me to find it. My grandparents, after all, were a wild mix: Mexican, Spanish, Chinese, and French. Why the hell did the genetic lottery decide I was to be born with a white pale butt, I will never know. Yes, my dad was white, but my mother has brown skin, and so did two of my grandparents, and then there was my grandmother with a French last name and green eyes and platinum blonde hair.

What bothered me since I was a kid was the fact that I looked around and most people around me had brown skin and yet, whenever I looked at a magazine, an ad, a movie or a tv show, everyone there was white, nine times out of ten. It bothered me whenever some of my aunts would start describing someone as "oh she is so pretty, you know, she is white and blonde and..." and how some of my uncles would say "of course you wouldn't want your daughter to date a black man"... and every single time, those aunts and uncles with the most racist views ended up having dark skin themselves.

I don't know how, in the middle of such a harmful environment, both of my parents managed to have an entirely different perception of the world, but I am grateful for it. And yet, I know that a lot of the hate and anger that my extended family expressed towards other people due to the color of their skin had a lot to do with the messages that the media taught them since they were children. How difficult it must be for a child to grow loving the way they look when the tv and movies always say that dark skinned people are the bad ones and even the church will portrait angels as blonde.

And yet, the idea that "the others" are "scary, different, dangerous" is always perpetuated by major pieces of media: the most recent one, at least in my sphere of interests, is Genshin Impact, which recently released a teaser trailer for a new region called Natlan. This region has been mentioned as one that draws inspiration from Latin America and Africa... and the darkest skinned character in it looks like me after ten minutes under the desert sun.

"It is a fantasy game, why should it be accurate?" some person who knows exactly why asks in bad faith in social media, to which you and I both know that if there is a damned playable dog boy, they can add at least three more drops of brown to their palette.

"Why can't you empathize with characters that don't have the same skin color as you?" asks someone else with an ai generated profile picture and a cross and a flag emojis following their nickname, to which I say: why can't you? 99% of the characters portrayed in the media you consume are the exact same ethnicity as you, and every single time someone slightly different appears, you will scream "DEI! Woke! They are ruining everything!" The rest of the world has had to swallow every single "white savior" piece of media up to this day, why can't you stop spitting for once, there's half a child there you know, I thought you were against abortions.

"It is only being inspired!" someone else screams, red faced, into the void, to which I say that if you are taking name and surname from a deity to represent said deity and the color motifs and tattoos and even reference their powers but the only thing you don't take from them is their skin color, that's colorism.

Next thing I know, Hoyoverse will try to copyright the Mayans, you know, like Disney tried to copyright Dia De Muertos back before it released Coco.

I am old and exhausted about life as it is, I am tired of the constant cycle of fear that politicians and multinational companies use everywhere to divide the people, draw targets on each others' backs and then point and scream "they are the reason you are suffering, not me, never me!". I am tired of people swallowing it up because it is way easier to punch someone "different" to a pulp than recognize that both of us have the same enemy and the same source of suffering and that what we should do to fix this mess requires of a lot more effort than picking one color in a ballot every four years.

#amber writes something #genshin #open the gates i am ready

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genshoomf · 6 months ago

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i made a konni oc purely for gf and i's the boys au hi ✌ name: jason jacob taylor, gold rush

age: 32 (d.o.b july 1th, 1991) - graduated godU/contracted 2012 - 'retired' 2020, joins konni 2021 gender: cis man from: long beach, california personality: fairly easygoing and relaxed, social and active. far from stupid but a little naive and easily trusting. long fuse temper-wise and not super confrontational, but had a mean competitive streak beaten into him while at godolkin and from childhood competitions. easily stressed at the idea of not 'winning' or not living up to expectations but also easily mollified by praise/friendly behavior in others. a little spoiled from so much hero treatment i.e missing a lot of practical life skills. surprisingly deep well of metallurgy knowledge beyond just using his abilities. description: 6’2", white tanned/freckled, shaggy curly blonde with a lot of sun/ocean bleaching, blue-green eyes. pretty type handsome, big eyes, high cheekbones and pointed nose.

history:

powers manifested young, parents branded & marketed him before double digits but dad divorced and left ~10 due to no longer agreeing with the dosing and seeing his son be sold as a commodity. lots of kids surf competitions to solidify the cali boy thing. teen group + some early heroics put him on the map and made him recognizable.

went to godolkin on a scholarship at 18 and maintained a top 5 ranking after freshman year, and a top 3 until graduation. partied a decent bit but passed up more than a few social opportunities to actually maintain his crimefighting grades.

immediately contracted to his home city long beach and rebranded as 'gold rush'. used for typical vought branding on many things but mainly energy drinks, surfboards, and jewelry lines. relative to other supes he remained decently on the straight and narrow, enjoyed the fame and movies etc but lamented not having much time to actually surf anymore.

good public ratings for most of his career, actual good rescue stats/low collateral, bought pretty hard into the Being Heroes part of vought because he'd given them nearly his entire life and it was all he knew.

had two notable public relationships during his time as a contracted supe. first girlfriend from when he was 21-23, weather manipulator, made a lot of mistakes due to being young stupid and blinded by the fame

second gf from 25-28, plant manipulator, did a lot better with her to the point of planning on proposing but was dumped before his 29th birthday after being told he was fun but not husband material. deeply in his feelings about it for a while

2020, was told he should 'retire' because long beach wanted to contract a fresh godolkin graduate just like they'd done for him because he was getting "old". felt intensely betrayed by this but was strong-armed into leaving with grace or else vought would make his life very difficult, so he shut up and went through his farewell fame despite becoming violently disillusioned with vought during it.

turned quickly to resentment and was contacted by someone in konni's inner circle with the typical 'aren't you tired of being nice. don't you want to go apeshit' and joined soon after. part of the team that extracted makarov from vought confinement

abilities: flight (peak human lung capacity, aerial adaptation), metal manipulation (matter surfing, metal constructs, platform manipulation), enhanced condition (strength, reflexes, stamina, senses)

flight is it’s own ability and classified as pure gravity defiance - jason is essentially choosing at all times when to be affected by gravitational pull, which allows him to fly but also hover and walk on vertical surfaces just as easily as the ground. he’s capable of carrying anything within his capacity while in flight but they remain affected by gravity

maximum speed of flight clocks in at around 700 mph, subsonic. he’s unable to break the sound barrier but is faster than commercial jets

to withstand the effects of his flight, jason has an increased lung capacity, able to hold his breath for 30 minutes as high as the troposphere, and vastly decreased incriments past that - with the highest he can fly being the edge of the stratosphere with 1 minute of lung capacity

his body further adapts to high and low air pressure passively, allowing him to stay conscious and unharmed as long as he can still breathe. he’s also immune to the effects of g-force when under his own gravity defiance

jason’s control of metal is absolute - any metallic element, any alloy, any state of matter - and telekinetic based, aka coming from mental strength instead of physical. he can’t create matter from nothing but is capable of both ‘stretching’ a base material far past what could be done with it traditionally and turning raw materials (such as iron sand) into a solid mass to manipulate

this extends into being able to create his own unique alloys and change the chemical makeup of any lump metal into another, i.e classic lead into gold. he has complete control over the properties of such metals - alloys that are ultrahard but flexible, altering the color and reflective properties, conductivity, magnetism, solid/liquid state, temperature - and can store these arrangements of alloys to recreate in the future by simple memory

he can manipulate by touch, gesture, and telekinesis. touch allows for extremely intricate detail and fine control, thin wire, meshing etc. jason defaults to gestural which feels the most 'natural' but telekinetic control functions the same. this telekinetic control is fully usable on metal jason cannot see, but he can always ‘feel’ the shape and visualize it mentally

while capable of flight on his own, jason can carry himself or anything on metal constructs or platforms, and can reshape metal to allow himself to ‘skate’ or slide on his feet, along with using constructs to throw matter long distances

trying to manipulate weight beyond his capabilities puts immediate stress on his body, manifesting as immense pressure down his spine

with konni, jason further trains to control the trace metals as they appear in nearly everything, primarily the iron in blood, calcium in bones, and the potassium and sodium in cells. he’s also capable of shifting them into toxic metals alchemically, namely arsenic, lead, or mercury, to poison someone from the inside out

when given the time and focus, he can essentially control the human body like a puppet, but can’t replicate very dexterous tasks like writing or small buttons, etc

jason can interface with and manipulate most technology by triggering impulses in the mechanics like card readers, locks, and computers. he’s also capable of firing guns with telekinetic control, and can stop or redirect bullets if already fired

secondary/passive abilities: peak human durability, peak immune system, peak human regeneration, peak human reflexes, metal detection, advanced level “telekinesis” (usage of metal manipulation)

jason isn’t bulletproof and his skin is only marginally tougher than the average human but his bones, tissue, and organs are highly resistant. he can withstand falls/throws up to 200ft, getting hit by heavy cars, and having medium sized buildings collapse on top of him without breaking bones or suffering internal damage

higher resistance to cold and heat but weak to high voltage electricity

immune/highly resistant to most bloodborne pathogens and viruses, essentially anything that is contagious or can be caught, but still susceptible to things like cancers and organ failure

immune to the adverse effects of his own abilities or things caused by metals, i.e heavy metal poisoning, hemochromatosis, hyperkalemia, hypercalcemia, etc

jason’s regenerative healing factor is slightly quicker than the average supes, and if a wound manages to get past his durability he typically isn’t out of commission long. bone fractures heal within a week or two, and skin-level injuries like burns or large wounds within a few days. these wounds heal completely smooth and leave no scar tissue.

when aware, jason’s reflexes are quick enough that he can catch nearly anything thrown in his direction - including bullets, both physically or with his abilities. his reaction speed while fighting is very high and works in conjunction with manipulating the metal on his person, like shifting into spiked knuckles mid-punch or creating thicker protection against parts of his body to defend himself. it is very, very hard to sneak up on him or catch him unaware

at resting state, jason is aware of every trace of metal within 250ft of him at all times. jewelry, loose change, clothing zips/buckles, devices that contain metal, etc. he compares this sense to hearing, i.e that you hear everything around you always but most mundane noise fades to the background. he can ‘push’ this sense further to a maximum of 500ft, in any direction, with focus - to detect metals deeper underground or into buildings he isn’t in. he intrinsically knows the type of metal when sensing it and can ‘feel’ the shape like a sort of mental image

jason’s manipulation of metal is classified as telekinetic/psionic, coming from mental effort instead of physical (though can be used in conjunction) and therefor has a different lifting strength classification - class 50 compared to his physical class 10. this lifting strength can be anything from one very heavy object or up to 50 tons spread across multiple different constructs. the highly precise control means he can manipulate objects up to his weight limit but also extremely fine molecular-level traces. with extra focus and being ‘gentler’ he can manipulate anything attached to a metal as well. for example while he’s only actually controlling the traces of iron in blood, he can manipulate an entire organ by moving the metals as a whole, like a yolk suspended in the whites of an egg

#this is like 75% abt his abilities bc im a superhero media nerd #but heres my baby i fucking love him!!!!!!!!!!!!#jason

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knickynoo · 2 years ago

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Previous anon here. I fell victim of characters limit :( I don't know if you've adressed the subject before and if you have I am so sorry please ignore that it: Do you have headcanons about the relationship between Uncle Ned and Alex BEFORE THE SLAP (we know Alex was fangirling over his uncle but girl...your analyses give me life so i'll drink your hc like a dying man would the water of an oasis), and AFTER THE SLAP? Does Alex forgive ? Is it one more trauma to add to his long list ? Love you <3

You know, I've actually never done any Alex & Uncle Ned focused headcanons. A friend of mine requested I do an analysis post of the Uncle Ned episodes like 2 years ago, and I was like "Ok, sure!" and then never followed through, lol. (Also, don't apologize; even if I had gotten an ask like this in the past, I'd still be happy to add to my previous thoughts!)

Alex and Uncle Ned BTS (Before the Slap)

Alex was Uncle Ned's #1 fan from the time he was young. Since Ned knew much more about the business world than Steven and Elyse, visits from his uncle gave Alex the chance to gush about the subject with someone who was just as interested as he was.

The thing about Uncle Ned is that he's SUPER fun and silly and carefree, which is very opposite of how Alex is, but Ned also seems to "get" his nephew really well. Alex is sort of an outcast in his family, but he and Ned can connect intellectually, and I can see that as being important to Alex, especially as a little kid who's considered weird by his peers. His Uncle Ned serves as an example of how someone can take their interest in business and turn it into success.

Though they have fun with their serious conversations, Ned thinks it's important to encourage Alex to broaden his horizons. So, yeah, he'll sit around and talk the stock market and economics for a while, but then he tries to get his nephew to focus on something else. A game of baseball, discussions about movies or music, etc. Ned wants Alex to get out of his head every so often, and he's good at figuring out how to do that.

Alex definitely has a framed picture of Uncle Ned somewhere in his room. Maybe a picture in his wallet, too, to go along with the article about his uncle that he carries around. He takes it out to impress people. "Did you know my uncle is Junior Vice President of the Syntram Corporation? Here's an article and picture of him." Likewise, Ned definitely talks about Alex at his work. "You know what my brilliant nephew said the other day...?"

I'm pretty sure both Uncle Ned episodes contain scenes where Alex and Ned are in the kitchen eating late-night snacks after the rest of the family has gone to bed, and I'd like to headcanon that as being a pattern whenever he comes to visit. The two of them meet up and sit around the table, chatting and eating cereal or sandwiches while they chat about the goings on in their lives. It's Uncle Ned's chance to pick Alex's brain and get the inside scoop on his school and friends and such.

ATS (After the Slap) ☹️

I have a lot of conflicting thoughts regarding how things would play out in the aftermath of "Say Uncle." It really is a bummer that they drop Ned entirely from the show. I mean, the least they could've done is mention him in passing in another episode or something to let us know how he was doing? Like. That episode leaves SO MUCH unaddressed. Does Ned actually go to rehab? Does he get better? Mend the now broken relationship with his family and dear nephew who thought the world of him???

As far as headcanons go, I can go the depressing route or the optimistic route. Depressing route says that Ned tries rehab for a little but doesn't stick with it. The fact that his life has kind of fallen apart around him, coupled with his inability to take things seriously/his need to constantly goof off might lead him to be like, "Why bother with this?" If that's the case, he'd likely only spiral more into alcoholism and continue to wreck his own life. And, being ashamed of how he acted in front of his family, I could see him just running away from it all, going off the grid and cutting contact. Very much a bummer to think about. (And could explain why they never talk about him after that episode)

The optimistic route says that The Slap serves as Ned's firm wake up call that he needs to get his act together. He's horrified that he could do something so terrible, but it pushes him to get the help that he needs. He goes to rehab, gets sober, and puts the pieces of his life back together. With Elyse being established as such a protective, mother-hen type older sister, she keeps in contact and supports him. Eventually, the Keatons are able to get to a place of moving forward and starting a new chapter with Uncle Ned.

I'd really hope that Alex would be able to deal with what happened--talk things through with his parents and eventually Uncle Ned--and forgive Ned. It's clear that they have a special bond, and it's sad to think of Alex losing that. If Uncle Ned truly works on himself and changes, I think Alex would be able to forgive his uncle. In fact, I think Ned might have a harder time forgiving himself for what he'd done than Alex would have forgiving him.

Still, the whole event could end up being added to Alex's Trauma Pile, even if things work out. Having your favorite uncle in the whole world hit you so hard in a drunken rage that you go flying halfway across the room is not exactly something you just easily move on from. And our guy Alex already has a really hard time processing his emotions and tends to latch onto/obsess over things, so he'd probably need some help to work through that. Maybe he talked it over with his therapist at some point during "A, My Name is Alex."

Thanks for the ask! Your line about drinking my headcanons like a man in the desert is one of my favorite things I've ever gotten in an ask. Love you, too <3

#asks #family ties #alex p keaton #apk #there was so much potential in Uncle Ned #it bothers me when shows bring in great characters for just a few episodes & then never speak of them again #like. i know the whole point was probably just ''let's get Tom Hanks to do a couple episodes''#with no intention or ability to keep him as a regular but come on #they didnt even give us closure #*sigh*

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domestikhighway58 · 2 years ago

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Home, Alone

HOTCHREID

18+ Explicit

Not too explicit but IDK how this works on the Tumblr

WC: 1600

Hotch comes over for dinner and a movie after Spencer takes a day off. Dinner is heavy and the movie is relaxing but they still find a way to get down with the dirty-dirty, even if it is a little new.

YO--Go order the Hotchreid Zine if you haven't yet! Orders close in like 2 days or so. <3 This is for fun but also for that. <3

...

"Hey, yeah, come on up--chicken's done--hang on!"

BUZZ

Hotch shook his head with a tired smile and made his way up once the door to Reid's apartment building finally clicked open.

He had to tell the kid to get the code fixed so he could buzz himself up next time. Hotch had been there every night for nearly two months now. It was probably far past time but Spencer had never had a boyfriend before. This was all new.

Hotch let himself in and found Spencer bustling around his cramped kitchen in an old band t-shirt and a ragged pair of cords, barefoot for once.

"I roasted a chicken, an entire, organic, humanely sourced chicken I had to order from the Market and it only just got here--Aaron, it still had a few feathers in it, I tweezed it but--"

Aaron held up a hand while he shrugged his jacket off.

"Sorry, wait--Spencer, you tweezed the chicken?"

Spencer stared with a rapid blink as he stood up to his full height.

"Yes?" he asked with a wince just as the buzzer dinged again.

"Oh--shit, okay--is it--yes, that's brown enough right? I broiled it for the last little bit, the internal temperature read just at 175 degrees Fahrenheit--"

Hotch placed his hands on Spencer's hips just above the loose old cords. His fingers met warm skin and both men sighed at the subtle contact.

"Get it out and we'll taste test once it's rested. What else did you make on your rare day off?" Aaron breathed into Spencer's long hair.

Spencer shivered and batted him off.

He made quite a lot and he didn't feel like getting distracted yet again before they could actually eat.

Hotch stood back and chuckled, hands raised at the look his love shot him over his shoulder.

"Show me, Reid, I'll behave."

Spencer proceeded to outline in depth the meal he planned for hours that morning at 4 am when he realized he had to take a day off or risk it not carrying over to next year. He was still junior enough on the FBI payroll not to get rollover PTO. It was annoying, sure, but...

He rather enjoyed his random day at home, all alone. Waiting for Hotch to get back from a thankfully clear paperwork day.

They made it to the table this time without a bedroom detour. Spencer found he rather enjoyed the dinnertime banter, the perusal of flavors he found that day in the two dozen cookbooks he memorized, the way Hotch tried and loved his puffed pastry for dessert...

It was truly the first time they had to take time together since starting this secret thing they had.

When the dishes were finally done after a silly attempt at domesticity--Hotch deciding Spencer was far too clinical in his approach and Spencer deciding Hotch knew nothing of hygiene whatsoever--both of them were far too exhausted and full to consider their normal raucous romp.

Spencer leaned against the sink drying his hands with a towel before carefully tossing it in the little basket next to the door for immediate washing. Aaron nearly laughed but groaned instead when he remembered laughing hurt his ridiculously over-stuffed stomach.

"Remind me not to let you force seconds on me of every course, you're like my grandmother, Spencer, Christ, I could pass out right now," the older man lamented with a very content sigh. Spencer blushed and shrugged at him.

He grabbed Aaron's wrist to pull him along to the living room where the rest of their night home alone waited.

Spencer might have been envisioning this for a while. It was all going according to plan so far.

"I didn't forcefeed you, Hotch. But now that you mention it, I would just like to... um, relax? Together? We can have sex, but maybe... right now let's just... be?" he asked quietly with a nod to the couch. His lips twitched up in a hopeful smile and honestly, Hotch had never seen anything more perfect.

"That sounds pretty damn good, Reid. Movie?" he asked with a reciprocal smile.

Spencer sprawled out with a laugh on his couch and reached a hand up to pull Aaron down with him.

"Mhmm. Your choice."

Hotch grinned with a glint in his eye that had Spencer questioning his motives but he stuck by his offer to hand his partner the remote.

Forty-five minutes later found them both nearly catatonic on the couch staring open-mouthed as the fighter jets of Top Gun whizzed to and fro across Spencer's old TV.

Their feet rubbed against each other where they met perched on the coffee table but otherwise they kept to their respective sides out of comfort. Both of them assumed they'd start fucking within the first five minutes like they usually did when they sat down to "watch. a movie" but this time...

The comfort level was at an all time high. Sex could wait.

They both somewhat forgot where they were when the comfort level got a little higher than usual.

Spencer's hand was down his pants within ten minutes of the captivating movie. He was too tired to realize his old private passtime playing out beneath his cords. Simply touching and holding, nothing too crass. Maybe he'd be diverted enough eventually to focus on a fantasy and play it out til orgasm, maybe he'd just sit there touching himself until he fell asleep.

He never did know. Right now, it just felt natural.

Aaron took longer in the pursuit. It wasn't until he saw Spencer's hand moving beneath his pants with long, erratic little pumps that his own cock demanded the same attention. At first, he just watched Spencer just stare at the screen and touch himself like he was entirely alone. He waited for the man to look over and tease him with a grin, invite him over to join.

Then the movie caught his attention again somehow and before he knew what was happening, he was simply stroking his cock out of comfort, completely lost in the theatrics on screen.

They kept going like that until Spencer noticed for the first time with a yawn where his hand was. A glance at Aaron confirmed to him with a shock that they were both just lying there playing footsie absently while playing with themselves.

It was, perhaps, the most erotic moment of Spencer Reid's life.

His hand increased its tempo, sliding up and down his cock beneath his pants as he watched Aaron just fondle himself like that.

Spencer let a tiny moan escape. Aaron shook himself from the sleepy stupor to look over at him. Eyes on his face. On his crotch. The hand moving there.

"Hey," Spencer whispered while Top Gun played out loud in the background.

Aaron swallowed hard.

"Hey."

They both increased the tempo of their strokes.

Feet tangled with feet.

Spencer let hishead fall back against the couch. He pulled his cock out of his pants fully and let it all go, fast, furious strokes, the way Hotch always touched him. When he opened his eyes he saw Hotch had his out too, dragging his fist up and down slow, steady, just the way Spencer rode him.

Spencer felt himself building to that point the longer he watched Aaron touch himself like that.

"You know I... I touched myself every single night for years before you took me that first time... always thinking it was you...." he whispered with a tiny moan like he used to when he still held back.

Aaron nearly lost it when he heard that. Ever since they'd let it all go, ever since they went for it, he hadn't heard Spencer be anything but loud and wild.

Hearing that tiny whisper again...

It had him coming right then and there.

"Fuck--Spencer--baby--k-keep going--come on yourself for me--" he managed to choke out between the throbbing spasms of his cock into his own hand. Hotch didn't care that he came first that time.

It just meant he got to watch Spencer whine and whimper and need more--more Hotch would not be giving despite that desperate look. Their movie was ending. It was time for bed, no matter how much Spencer begged.

"A-Aaron... hmmm... not the same without you--fuck--"

Aaron couldn't help the gasping smirk as he waved his cum-covered cock at his boyfriend with a sleepy grin.

"I wanna see you come without this in your ass, Spence. Let's see it. Then maybe tomorrow, you can have it for breakfast."

Spencer's eyes got big and he nearly cried when he finally came all over his t-shirt, avidly imagining the next morning while he banged his feet against the table through the sensation.

"Good boy, Spencer.... god... dinner and a movie with you is never just dinner and a movie, is it?" Aaron muttered with satisfaction at the sight of Spencer shaking and covered in his own cum at the end of the couch.

Spencer laughed through the last shaky bit of his release and shook his head. When he opened his eyes it was to find Hotch standing with his shirt off, wiping the cum from his chest and belly like he did it every day.

"Here."

Spencer blushed gratefully and pulled his own cum-soaked tee off before cleaning up half-heartedly.

Why bother...

Aaron pulled him for a deep kiss while the credits rolled behind them. Spencer melted into it and he didn't care that they were both about to go to bed covered in cum without brushing their teeth.

Breakfast was bound to be messy.

#hotchreid #smut #18 +#criminal minds #fanfiction #hotchreid zine #discord fam #drabble turned whatever this is #aaron hotchner #spencer reid #dates

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