#those early days of superhero movies were so much fun

[sharkneto]

I just browsed through your anti-mcu tag and now am filled with fury (at disney ofc, not you)👍🏼

god it's so disappointing. i genuinely loved the mcu movies and all of that back in their heyday - captain america until... hmmm, antman? maybe? i was a big fan. yeah there were some clunkers in there, but overall they felt fun and i liked the characters.

and then they just ran it into the fucking ground. i feel like them introducing spiderman was the real turning point for me (tom holland is a great peter parker, i just don't like how they've written him/what they've done with the character and that's not his fault. why is he a tiny tony stark why did they do that put him back in his natural habitat of broke normal teen). i'm all for different interpretations of characters, but it felt like that was the point where i realized "oh, they don't care, do they". and then it was a long slide from there, with the final straw being goddamn Endgame (fuck that movie, it's so bad, i'm still angry about it).

the most frustrating thing is how avoidable the slide was. they got too greedy, reached to fast, were more worried about setting up their next movie than making the movie you're currently watching good. on top of that, their insane rate of release and how unplanned all their shit is exasperates how shit they treat their animators, plus their ridiculous fear of spoilers so they treat their actors like shit. if your movie is going to fall apart because of One Single Spoiler, maybe write a better movie???? just a suggestion

it's absolutely insane. marvel really should have been the cashcow that kept on giving forever, but they milked it too hard and still haven't stopped and we're all begging them to either give the cow a break or shoot the damn cow and put it out of its misery, but here we are getting a new marvel movie every month and people are still going to them and making them shitloads of money. it's exhausting

i'm willing to watch bad movies, i don't mind bad movies (Venom, my fucking beloved), but i'm not going to enjoy bad movies that don't have any passion to them and actively make people's lives worse. if you're exploiting people to this degree and you're still turning out shit, what's the fucking point

[morgan-tha-gorgan]

Something I don't see enough people talking about is how Deadpool and Wolverine isn't so much a starting point as it is a send off to an era of movies of which we will never see again.

I recently watched the first Xmen movie and it feels so completely different to what we have today. It was almost like it was embarrassed to call itself a superhero movie and instead was going for sleek action movie, which was quite popular in the late 90's and early 20-aughts. It felt like everyone was wearing black jumpsuits because they were afraid they wouldn't be taken seriously by mainstream movie goers. (Another common theme of the time period).

Jump to 24 years later and it is a very different world. Not only do we have grown people crying in theaters over Wolverine's classic yellow suit, but people went wild when he pulled on his mask...could you see people in 2000 having that kind of reaction to that mask? No. The movie would have been dead on arrival. Comic fans would have ate the shit up. But I don't think mainstream audiences were ready for that sincere of a choice in wardrobe. It took us 24 years to get to where Hugh Jackman could wear that suit, and I think it was worth the wait.

The credit scene clips from the past 25ish years of Xmen movies and other Fox productions made me cry, not just bc of the song choice (the universal song used to invoke nostalgia) but because you saw how much they loved making those movies. That they were always fun to make. And even though no one had yet cracked the formula on how to put superheros on film, they put their whole pussies into it. And some results were great and some we still kinda use as punchlines to this day. And yet, both were represented in Deadpool and Wolverine in a loving way. Electra was not nearly as beloved as Blade. But I still heard both characters getting a cheer when they appeared.

It is possible they will make a second Deadpool and Wolverine movie. But I don't think it was the intention. Ryan Reyolds and Hugh Jackman both met on the set of Xmen Origins: Wolverine. Ryan was so taken with his character he spent the next 7ish years trying to force it into existence. Whereas Hugh spent those same 7ish years playing the same character and was happy to put him to rest. It just so happens they both wanted to make this movie together. And bc they were some of the original actors from the beginning of the genre, the movie ended up being about their friendship, with some sendoffs to old favorites who maybe never got to be in the limelight the way they did.

This movie deftly mixes sincerity with humor. It doesn't make fun of the audience for what they like. Instead it respected our love for these characters and their stories. No matter how weird or ridiculous they may seem on the surface, there is a heart and a love there between writers, actors, and audience.

And they got that. Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman really got it. And so this movie was a love letter to all superhero movies: the ones we hold dear to our hearts regardless of how "succesful" they were.

It is like what Movies with Mikey says, "Every movie is a miracle," and Deadpool and Wolverine celebrate that.

[thatgirlwithasquid]

twomp week : day 7

NOSTALGIC MEDIA CROSSOVER TIME!!! I have been so looking forward to this prompt. as I first put it on the list I knew that I’d be doing the first one of these, but upon sitting down to draw it I decided to do some more for the fun of it which is why im so late lmao

so, here’s Argos and Mr Plant drawn in my best approximation of the artstyles of shows I grew up on. all of these meant so much to me at one point or another and I still hold so much fondness for them :)

Monster High

I cannot hazard a guess at how many times I watched Monster High growing up. I adored the webseries so much even though the episodes were only, what, two minutes long? and I watched pretty much all those original movies. you will never catch me watching the remakes cause you cannot improve on perfection.

anyway wouldn’t it be fun to see these guys at Monster High? I think Argos would thrive there. Mr Plant would probably murder so many of them for being overly friendly though. I also find the idea of him being Venus’ cousin or something so funny for no real reason.

Winx Club

it is an unfortunate truth that the guys in winx club just did not look as good. the girls all had their stunning fairy designs and each went through so many iterations of their powers and designs as they reached new levels and the specialists were just… the specialists. but i still had to draw Argos and Mr Plant in their style cause I was BESOTTED with this show for so so long.

I was so dedicated to watching this series that I woke up early on school mornings and annoyed my parents into letting me eat my soggy coco pops sitting on the sofa so that I could watch the episodes when they came on the telly. it was definitely worth it <3

X-Men

the abrupt shift from pretty cartoons aimed at preteen girls to X-Men is kinda funny to me but I was also in love with this series too. I’d watch it before bed most nights and I just loved it so much. I wanted to be Jubilee so badly (looking back on it now, as I am currently rewatching the series, uh… girlie was not having the best time but I just wanted to be around the X-Men who I adored and idolised) and had the BIGGEST crushes on Gambit, Storm and Wolverine (in that order). I’ve been saying Spiderman is my favourite superhero for years but I may have to change my mind to Wolverine looking back on things…

but yeah. Argos and Mr Plant. I can see them as mutants. I know the low-hanging fruit for Argos’ abilities is enhanced vision cause of all his eyes but I’m actually thinking he gives people visions or dreams (that can become obsessive) like the dream plant. as for Mr Plant, I am gonna be boring and just say plant-based powers cause it feels right for him.

[get-hamilton-on-your-side]

I've been seeing posts like these going around lately, and I don't want to start Discourse™️, but I do think it's an interesting conversation to be had.

OP mentions that this is a sentiment occurring in younger viewers, and I think there are lots of reasons for this response. I'm in my early twenties, and growing up, romance was pretty much guaranteed for any book/movie/TV series with a YA audience, even if it wasn't specifically in the romance genre. There were largely popular romance series, of course, (Twilight, The Selection, etc.), but romance was also integral to several series NOT centered around romance. The Series Which Shall Not Be Named ends in a hetero utopia, where basically every member of the original crew grows up, marries each other, and all have kids. Almost every main character of Rick Riordan's series experiences a committed romantic relationship, with the exception of Reyna, (although she's mostly a side character throughout HoO) and Meg (who is a god, and an actual child). The Hunger Games has fewer romantic pairings, but the marketing for those movies were very dedicated to the "love triangle" narrative between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.

The dedication to establishing romantic relationships does appear somewhat differently for male/masculine and female/feminine coded characters well. For example, I've seen multiple series have a sort of "7th wheel syndrome" where one member of a friend group is made fun of and/or left out in some way because they're the only one not in a relationship. Shows like The Big Bang Theory majorly have this problem, where every character's main goal in life is to fall in love and have a family. In TBBT, Raj has major dating troubles and actually ends up settling for an arranged marriage because his friends are all married and he doesn't want to end up alone. Riordan's HoO series, once again, paints Leo as a tragic figure for being the only single person on the Argo II, but his self worth is finally in tact by the end of the series when he saves the day and gets the girl. Fez in That 70s Show is regularly made fun of for his inability to get a girl. It's not lost on me that many of the male characters in these situations are POC.

While male characters are set up with a last-minute shoehorned romance, female characters (particularly white women) are often given a love interest planned from the beginning. I love Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles but I was kind of dumbfounded by the end because every one of the 8 major characters ends the series in a committed relationship. Every single Disney princess up until 2012 had a prince (although, this has since changed---the only princess post-2012 with a prince is Anna).

And then, of course, you have the plethora of sitcoms that end with every character (or at least every main character) happily in a relationship. New Girl, Parks and Rec, Friends, The Office, The Good Place, Ghosts (US). Even shows like Phineas and Ferb assure the audience that the couples stay together when they're grown up. Almost every Marvel and DC superhero has a love interest, and most action heroes have a girl to save.

Don't get me wrong, I think many of the romances in the media I've talked about so far are good, well-written, and well-established. But based on the previous track-record of shoehorned romances, that is a concern I have about shows like Stranger Things (I won't talk much about The Bear because I haven't seen that show). Stranger Things has highlighted friendship as a major theme in the show, but as the characters have grown older, they've explored various romantic relationships as well. Many people online have already discussed how they fear relationships will be shoehorned in at the end of Season 5, since it is the final season. Ships like stancy, where it's clear that they wouldn't really work well together. I agree with Maya Hawke's sentiment about delving deeper into her friendships. It has been established that she has a crush on Vickie, but we've barely seen them together, and in a show that has to balance SO many different characters, I'm not sure it would serve the show well to put Robin in a romantic relationship. (There is, of course, another conversation to be had about how minority characters are presented in romantic relationships in media. Lesbian relationships are less commonly found in media and they can be really important to some viewers. My agreeing with Hawke is just my 2 cents as an ace lesbian. Other users have also mentioned that when it comes to The Bear, it can be harmful to perpetuate that a Black woman character shouldn't be in a relationship with the main white guy. I haven't seen the show and I myself am not Black, so I won't weigh in on that aspect, but it is another thing to consider in this conversation).

With romance so prevalent in media, it makes sense that our generation is taking a steep turn in the other direction. We've been shown all our lives that romance and sex trumps friendship in importance, but that's not how many of us actually live. Younger people are having sex less. I'm 22 and I'd say half of my friends are not currently in a romantic relationship, and many of them aren't looking for one. I know plenty of adults as well who are happily single, not looking for any more romance in their lives. Even the way people are experiencing romantic and sexual relationships is vastly different from what is shown on TV as there are more openly queer individuals, queer platonic relationships, and polyamory is becoming more prevalent.

I'm not an expert by any means, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. This is all based on my own observation and there is still a lot of media out there that don't have romance as a focal point, media like The Lord of the Rings, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Letterkenny, Bob's Burgers, Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows, Derry Girls. Shows like Doctor Who have characters in romantic relationships, but the romance is never placed above friendship with the Doctor. The amount of romance in a piece of media also relies on the genre it's in. I've mainly been discussing comedies, science fiction, and action, but other media such as horror, for example, treats romance and sexuality differently.

Still, showing romance, sex, and innuendo in media isn't counterculture, as is suggested by that second Twitter post. It's almost everywhere you look (and lots of kid shows/movies even include those kinds of jokes, as is shown by the amount of videos I've seen titled "I Didn't Get This Joke as a Kid.") I know we're on the internet so people don't care if they hurt other people's feelings, but acting like people who want a little less romance are immature or stupid can be hurtful. There's room for all different types of relationships.

TL;DR, I think a lot of people are just tired of media treating romance and sex as the most important relationship you can have with a person. We're not saying no media should have romance or sexuality or innuendo in it. It's just that as media diversifies, I think it's important to diversify the types of relationships highlighted as well. There's room for romance, sex, and friendship in media, and I don't think people should judge others for wanting positive representation of friendship.

[simplyclary]

A Special Chapter Just For You

(Photo credits: Taylor on IG)

Believe it or not, I wrote this at 6am on a Monday morning. Ahhh, the things I do for you, my love.

I have been a fan of many things and people throughout my life, and people could say that it's a part-time job. I'm a simple girl and I'm quick to fall in love with things. Throughout the 24 years of my life, I have been a fan of many books, movies, series and people.

But currently, one shines brighter than the rest. He charmed his way into my life 7 months ago and I will forever be thankful to the universe for bringing me to him.

His name is Taylor Zakhar Perez.

I first knew him as the charming and compassionate Alex Claremont-Diaz, and dang, I wasn't immune to his charms. Those beautiful deer-like brown eyes, the gorgeous eyelashes that people are jealous of (even me), the physique meant for a superhero, his sweet soul that makes me swoon even more and a lot of other things. Gosh, I could talk about the things I love about him all day everyday!

This is just the introduction, and now I'll share with you the journey of being his fan.

For the past 7 months, I have felt many emotions across the spectrum of emotions. Happiness, sadness, frustration, longing and whatever else. One emotion I never felt though was anger. I mean, how could I be angry at Taylor? I could never be.

7 months is such a long time and it somehow just flew by. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. I've been having so much fun these past months, I mean, not all days were smooth-sailing, but positive days outnumber the negative days.

Being Taylor's fan changed my routine, I wake up early and screaming for Fashion Weeks and events, I stay up late just browsing his photos, I basically can't live without hearing the sound of his voice in a day. That may sound tragic, but to me, it's special. He's basically the one that makes me go through the day in a happy way.

Taylor has been making me so happy that these words are not enough to describe that feeling. He is truly my sunshine and my comfort person. I honestly have no idea what my current life would look like if I didn't know him.

Being his fan makes me happy because I get to join him on his journey to success. I get to be there with him in every step of his road to success and I get to watch him slowly but surely make his dreams come true! Another thing is that I leave compliments on his comment section every time he posts. I may not be noticed by him just yet, but my heart is contented in the fact that I got to leave some sweet words to him!

Another thing I cherish about being Taylor's fan is the family that it brought me. My dearest TZP Squad, my loves on the vast space of the internet. The family I stick with whenever I feel down or get affected by the hate and negativity Taylor is getting. They know how to cheer me up and I love them for that.

Now, a little message that I know he won't read (or he might, who knows):

Taylor, my love, know that I will always remember this chapter with you. I have loved for 7 months now, but I'll continue to love you for 7 more months and sure, 7 more years if that's what's gonna happen. One thing I know for sure is that this fan relationship between you and me is not gonna be a short one. I'm having the time of my life with you and I'm loving every second of it. I hope to meet you soon and get to tell you how much you mean to me and how much I love you.

This fan journey is far from over, and it could be a long chapter in my fandom life story, but it is a special chapter. It will be one of the chapters in my book of life that I may or may have written with so much love and appreciation.

[pluckyredhead]

"Barry is a character who was consciously designed to fit the zeitgeist of America and specifically the comics industry of the mid-1950s in the immediate aftermath of the Comics Code Authority (ask me about my theory on this!)" - here I am, asking (for real, I know next to nothing about Barry so I would be interested to hear more if you want to elaborate)

Yessss I would love to elaborate!

So apologies if this is stuff you already know, but the first Flash was Jay Garrick, who debuted in 1940, during what's called the Golden Age of Comics. There's no universal agreement on what the exact date range is for the Golden Age (or Silver, Bronze, etc.), but a range you'll often see is 1938 (the debut of Superman) to 1955.

However, with superhero comics, when we say Golden Age, we're really mostly talking about World War II, because after the war, superheroes became much less popular. At the time, monthly comics included lots of genres, like crime, horror, romance, humor, war, Westerns, sci-fi, etc., and crime and horror in particular became increasingly popular in the postwar years. Some of them also became increasingly violent, sexy, and edgy, in part to retain the audience of returning GIs from overseas, who had read comics to remind them of home during the war.

However, the primary audience for comics was children. Children who could easily buy a comic for a dime and read it without parental supervision. Children who could be turned into juvenile delinquents by reading comic books!

There was a massive backlash against comics in the late 40s and early 50s, led by parents and other "moral authorities" (teachers, librarians, churches) who thought comics were bad for kids. Most of you reading this will have seen similar parental backlash against whatever the target of the moment is: gangster movies, crooners, rock 'n' roll, rap, heavy metal, video games, Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter. (I'm not talking about JKR's wretched transphobia here but the fear in the late 90s that Harry Potter would turn kids into Satanists or whatever.)

There were boycotts. There were bonfires where all the kids in town would have to bring all their comics to be burned. There was Seduction of the Innocent, a book by psychologist Frederic Wertham where he claimed to have proven that comics turned kids into juvenile delinquents (he hadn't). Many people left the industry for good, and a lot of them later talked about those days with genuine trauma. I highly recommend the book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America for more on this, but it's fascinating, and necessary reading for those of y'all on this webbed site who think we need to bring back the Hays Code and its ilk.

This all culminated in Senate hearings in 1954 to determine whether comics were harmful to children. (Fun fact: these hearings began on the same day as the McCarthy hearings. Political repression and artistic repression always go hand in hand.) In the aftermath of these hearings, the comic book industry created the Comics Code Authority, because that way they could self-regulate instead of being regulated by the government.

The Comics Code was a list of what could and could not be in comics. It was mostly what you'd expect - no sex or violence - but also a lot of conservative 1950s censorship. Like: "Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority." That's...pretty totalitarian.

Comic book publishers would submit comics for approval to the CCA. If they passed, the comic would be published with a seal on the cover saying "Approved by the CCA." They didn't need the seal to publish, but if they didn't have the seal, most vendors wouldn't sell the comic. So most of them pretty much had to comply.

So what does this all have to do with Barry Allen?

As I said earlier, superheroes fell in popularity after WWII, and many books were canceled. Jay Garrick's last Golden Age appearance was in 1951, and he hung on longer than most. But after the CCA, the landscape of comics had changed, and DC decided to see if they couldn't make the superhero work in this brave new world.

So in 1956 they took the idea of the Flash - guy who runs fast - and changed everything else about him. The new Flash was named Barry Allen, and he was a police scientist with a snazzy new costume. He was an immediate hit, DC went on to revamp a number of other characters in similar fashion, and a new era was born. Literally: many scholars date the start of the Silver Age of Comics to Barry's debut.

It's worth noting, I think, that DC was staunchly behind the creation of the CCA. Their stock in trade was superheroes, who were mostly considered harmless. But the backlash against comics and the creation of the CCA seriously harmed a lot of their competitors, and eventually put the ultra-popular EC Comics, who specialized in horror and crime, out of business.

I'm not saying DC had Barry in mind already when they supported the formation of the CCA. But they saw that the field had been cleared and there was an opportunity to bring their main genre back to the forefront. And then they created a squeaky clean, incredibly white guy from the Midwest. Who is a scientist, because 1950s kids need to be inspired to go into science so that we can beat those Ruskies to the moon! But who is also a cop, because kids need to respect law and order, or else. (This was also an era in which former vigilantes Superman and Batman were officially deputized by their respective local police forces.)

None of this means that Barry is a bad character, or that his Silver Age comics aren't good, because they are actually extremely innovative and very fun. But it does mean that he was created as essentially copaganda for children during an era of intense political conservatism in the US and deep fear in the comic book industry. He worked well in the 50s and 60s (DC in the 60s was basically still living in the 50s, which is why everyone older than 10 switched to Marvel) but increasingly less well as the world around him changed, and DC's attempts to modernize him in the 70s and early 80s (killing off Iris so that he could be a swingin' bachelor living in...wait for it...an apartment building!!!) were just kind of embarrassing. Barry's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths is the most noble death I've ever read in comics, but it was also a mercy killing.

I think Barry could be updated for the 21st century in a way that is true to his roots but doesn't make him feel like a relic or a jerk. But so far, DC hasn't really bothered? Instead we get moments like Barry declaring that Hal is the only JLAer who really gets him because "we're both cops" or arresting a Black 12-year-old for graffiti-ing an already destroyed building. Oof, friends. Oof.

In conclusion, Barry was designed for major cultural and industry-wide changes of the mid-1950s but that was 70 years ago and the man desperately needs a makeover that is not putting on his nephew's personality like an ill-fitting suit and saying "How do you do, fellow kids?" The end.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

I dunno... talk about a small head.

Still, not bad, all things considered. I've been trying to draw stuff that looks more modern, with lighter penstrokes and a style that's a big closer to cartoon animation than to vintage comic and manga art.

I guess that stuff is more popular because comics and manga no longer have the limitations of printing technology that prevented the art from looking rougher and more dynamic - and avoided the "rubber stamp" look of thick lines and square panels.

But because so much of what I read is from that early era, I got used to it - or, even if it's a modern book, it's going for a nostalgic look like that.

But I'm tired of superheroes, anyway. This is the first summer in a long ass time I won't be watching any new Marvel movies. And, although it's understandable that people are sick of it, it's kind of a shame because it was interesting watching that type of worldbuilding evolvnig every year - and it was something that was carefully constructed, too.

Of course, in a way, what happened to Marvel movies is the same thing that happened to Marvel comics - they kept trying to keep things from stagnating and ended up with something that no longer had the charm of the early stuff.

And it doesn't help that a lot of older people were complaining about superhero franchises killing cinema. Although, really, the only real superhero franchise is the MCU. DC tried to copy the model with the Snyder movies, but those never really got a lot of traction, and the good DC movies were the ones that tossed the franchise idea out the window.

In many ways, the movies I'm excited about nowadays aren't so much part of a shared universe, but ones released by the same production companies - A24, Blumhouse, 2AM, Miramax, Focus and whatnot.

But, I still think that, 20 years from now, people will miss the Marvel model. It was fun going to the movies to see how the story developed, must've been what it was like to go watch Republic serials every month, like my grandpa used to do when he was a kid.

He was a big fan of Zorro Rides Again. They'd release one chapter a month, through the whole year, and kids would buy a ticket to "the movies" to check it out - meaning, they'd get a ticket to see five different things, running on a loop: A newsreel, a cartoon, an episode of the serial, an A-movie and a B-movie.

Must've made for quite an outing. It's hard to imagine, now, that anyone would have the time (or the patience) to be in a movie theater for like five freaking hours to see the whole thing. And it was really cheap, too.

But, lest I also turn into another of those old guys complaining about kids these days and their short attention spans, I'll just remind everyone that they can watch all those episodes at once, for free, thanks to the magic of Public Domain:

[quirkwizard]

How do you think Quirks impacted movies or fictional media in general? I mean I can see movies getting more dangerous with the stunts and even practical effects just because of the influx of radically different abilities granting them more freedom in their art.

Can I just say that I really like getting questions like these? It's so much fun to consider how things have changed outside of what we have been show and I would encourage more questions like this. Though for the sake of this, I will be sticking more to movies, since other mediums may have other changes.

The most important question to answer would be whether Quirks are even allowed to be used in movies. I've always been on the fence about people using Quirks outside of hero work, especially for any kind of professional work. One of the biggest factors in the story is that people can't use their Quirks unless they have hero license. Partially for safety reasons, since not everyone can control their Quirks, and partially for economic reasons, since Quirks offer such a huge advantage that no one else could really match them. That being said, it may not be as dogmatic in other countries with larger film industries, such as the United States. We were told that entertainers like Pop Step were able to perform thanks to the supervision of Captain Celebrity's agency. I could realistically see some committee being formed to monitor who does what and make sure things don't go too far. Like sure, the guy can regenerate, but that doesn't mean you can carve him up for your horror movie.

I think that heroes may delve into acting as well. Either doing bit roles to enhance their hero career or being a hero just to have an excuse to use their Quirk to support their acting career, like an action focused hero user enhanced physique for stunt work or All Might showing up for a cameo in a movie. Though I could see people trying to get around this by, say, hiring someone with a specific Mutant type Quirk to play the monster in their movie. Oh, typecasting is going to be way worse now. You've got the right look or Quirk, you are going to be picked for this role. It'd be just like Cats Don't Dance, but with Quirks. I could see some of the more fantastical genres, specifically things like monster movies and superhero films, going one of two ways. Because of how prevalent those aspects are in real life, they would either disappear or become even bigger genres. More independent productions would start popping up as well since you could use certain Quirks do some of the work for you.

Then again, a lot of things would have to change about the medium. Consider that every person on the planet has superpowers, you'd have to account for certain characters having certain Quirks, which could radically change how you have to approach any kind of story. Better be sure there isn't any precognitive characters in your detective story or empaths in your romantic comedies. Alternatively, you could give your hero or villain certain gimmicks and explain them away as Quirks. Whole movies have been made out of gimmicks like that, so now you have a universal reason for it. You'd have some other stories to tell with Quirks and about the world that they made, which would change how certain genres are tackled. I could see things like Mutant-spoliation films to tackle those kinds of issues happening in the world. Historical legal dramas about the early days of Quirks and their usage. A futuristic story about how the world may change with everyone's powers. There are a lot of potential ways you could look at that kind of stuff.

[qcomicsy]

I was going to reblog with a comment but that post is already super long. But so true ! Like the ninja assassin thing with Dick is a modern retcon something that would be a Tim Cass or Damian thing to do. But writing a flashback for an adult Dick in the 2000s would be weird. By the 1960s he was firmly in canon 18 and in college. How are you gonna go back to the era of goofy and be like this is Dick’s angsty teenage years involved getting turned into a vampire and fighting Bruce over dating Talia. It just doesn’t make sense with how Long comics keep going. 80 years of comics and he’s only what 28. Like it’s very hard to keep a consistent character when everyone wants to make Dick Jason and Bruce new characters every few decades

Absolutely!

My personal view about how they kept retconning Dick's personality as a child and his relationship with Bruce is that it's a mix of complex things and bullshit.

The complex things is yeah, Dick and Bruce had their share of problems when Dick was growing up. They did start bumping heads a lot, but it was more like "this kid is turning into a man and is starting to clash views with his father (who is already someone who's not easy to deal with)" and "that's the part where he starts to develop who he is as person" (I won't get much into that because I haven't read many comics regarding Dick transition from Robin from Batman & Robin to Robin from Titans until Nightwing in the pre-death of the family era.) than the borderline abusive and toxic relationship they started to introducing in the late 90's to early 2000's portrayals of them.

It's complex because after rebooting everything it's hard to introduce such a long and gradual process that took almost ten years of development that is Dick's emancipation not only from working with Bruce but also following his every step as boy wonder. Specially if we think about the huge fall out they had right after Jason died.

It's bullshit because they started with those retcons when we had that long and embarrassing period of Super-hero history (late 90's to early 2000's) where everyone was trying to make super-heroes popular again but following alongside with a palpable embarrassment and self-conscious shame regarding any silliness and/or whimsical side the superhero universe. Like "we're making superheroes stories but this is for adults, this ain't for children 😡😡". Nobody wanted to be the "60's Batman TV show everyone makes fun of" and everybody wanted to be Alan Moore.

We had all this writers who grow up reading "Death of the family", "The Killing Joke", "Batman Year one" add were dying to recreate the 80's dark period glory, even if they didn't had the same writing skills for that.

I mean hate the Killing Joke all you want (I know I do), it has a shit tone of good writing.

It's bullshit because everyone was still sore about how Batman turned into a joke in the 90's after that one movie and for some reason everyone blamed Robin. It's bullshit because comic books are always influenced by the popular media around them, and while 40's Batman had the American Way and American Family Values™ 🦅🦅🦅, 80's Batman has Scarface, Taxi Driver and long urban tragedies.... 90's have Die Hard and every extra power macho fantasy under the sun.

I mean... This was 90's Nightwing.

he's so big and so stupid and one day I'm gonna top h–*gunshots*

No one wanted to see "good father" Batman, hell no one wanted to see any emotional shit in comics? Emotions??? In my manly comics??? Miss me with that gay sit emotions is for girls 😡😡 I wanna see big buffy man making his enemies cry 🔥⛓️☠️💪☠️😡⛓️🪚🔧

So you reach early 2000, everyone kinda hates or is kinda embarrassed of Robin, Batman is a former shadow of the man and the father he used to be. But you still wanna introduce new readers to your character (Dick Grayson) that (for better or for worst) is loved but only by the people who already know him, you're still embarrassed of his silly origins and the whimsical part of it.

So what do you do?

Personally I think writers thought Dick had it too easy as Robin, personally I think they were obsessed about making it real, personally I think everyone was obssessed and trilled with the idea of being the next Tim Miller and making their one fresh real edge introduction of the boy wonder. Personally I think this is all the new 52 was absolutely on for the Batfamily.

Personally I believe (and this is more a optimistic take) some writers were creatively trying to tie Dick's anger issues as Nightwing to his origins as Robin.

You have this chance of one in million (at te time) to reintroduce Nightwing (reintroduce Robin), now you can make it as real as gritty and as edge as you want. You can make it Robin cool again, you can introduce in a way that will sell well the dark story you where preparing for this character. And you also can deny any father and son relationship he could had have with Bruce Wayne and keep the big beef strong man without feelings reputation that people have been manufacturing by choice into Batman from ten years by now.

And what is more dark and character building than an abusive father?

I think writers thought that making Bruce abusive towards Dick and Dick resentful towards Bruce was the best way to launch this new universe as realistic and grittier. Not only making Dick's Robin introduction (and origin) more "real" but also separating Bruce even more from a emotional and father like figure that for some reason some writers (and fans!) despised to much.

Killing so many birds with one stone might as well call yourself David from the Bible.

And they were so certain this direction would be a success that the just notice their mistake now.

Anyways... A load of bullshit.

I personally don't mind Dick's Robin having anger issues, I think it's a natural progression from his first real serious introduction from back in the 80's, I also think it adds more to his character tying up his first trauma along with a long life of others and the result of having to deal with a frustrating job (that is vigilantism is) since literally ever. I like the idea that the perfect Robin wasn't perfect all the time and he also had (and has) other side of his personality that isn't as nice or likeable as it should and that's a thing he consciously have to work on as a person since he was a child.

However I also think writers did took to far sometimes and Dick history and specially his relationship with Bruce suffered from it. And I also agree that if everyone tries to reboot, retcon and fucking "subvert" a character every fucking ten years you won't even have a fucking consistent character to begin with (gestures vaguely to Jason Todd, Deadpool and now poor fuckin Damian and their wreck of comic book history).

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Hello! Dropping into your inbox to ask you about your research for

"Lent From Tomorrow (today was too small for us)." You must have done a ton of historical research for it to get so many of those details. I think that sort of thing is a lot of fun, and I'm very curious to know if you came across anything especially cool/fascinating/weird during your writing research.

Ooh, thank you for the ask! How fun!

There's SO MUCH research in this fic, from the codebreaking to the science of how to defrost a supersoldier to what was on the radio on specific days in 1943. I've got a whole folder of just Lent From Tomorrow research, and the back half of my WIP document is just copy-pastes of quotes from soldiers, scientists, codebreakers, radio hosts, etc.

But, to be fair, I've been reading nonfiction about WWII codebreakers for like 20 years. It's one of my special interests~ and something that I just love learning about. WWII *battles*, I don't care about at all, but everything else about the time period is fascinating to me -- probably because of Molly McIntire, haha.

My FAVORITE little tidbit actually comes up in this coming week's chapter, so I'm not going to spoil it, but it's my favorite recollection in Code Girls by Liza Mundy. That was definitely the book that I used the most for this fic, since the main characters are basically all "code girls," or code omegas, whatever. I also used a lot from PBS Nova's The Mind of a Codebreaker, which I watched when it first came out in 1999 and it rewired my entire brain. I immediately did a report on the women of Bletchley Park in 7th grade (and another on the WASP/WAVE/WAC pilots, so I was really excited to be able to have Carol Danvers make a cameo in Lent!).

But I also looked up specifics for just about every scene -- the snippet of Quiz Kids that's on the wireless radio when Steve and the Asset are listening to the wireless is a quote and actually aired that day. The Torah portion that Steve hears when he goes to shul with the gals and Scott is the Torah portion from that particular Shabbat service in December 1942. The movie scene is the actual movie, newsreel, and cartoon that were shown together at a theater in Washington, DC, on that Friday in March 1943.

I leaned on a former-scientist friend of mine to point me in the right direction to find out how they would have frozen and defrosted the Asset, and also how The Arm might work in a way that isn't just "::shrug:: it's Superhero Science." Her husband is a mathematician, and she suggested some avenues that Steve might have written his big 1929 math paper about, too. And then I read a bunch of math papers from the 1920s and tried to understand them and it was. a lot.

I also did a lot of research into Steve's various disabilities and ailments and the treatments available by the early 1940s, particularly asthma and his childhood polio. (I'm forgetting whether the backstory of his polio experience has actually shown up in the fic yet or if it's coming up soon in a chapter? If it hasn't been posted yet, then spoiler, I guess, Steve had polio as a kid [although I *think* that's canon?]). Steve's experience of being disabled is really important to me, and I wanted it to matter and be a part of his life in this story (and any story I write about Steve).

There's a lot more specific stuff coming up in the back half of the fic, now that we've reached the midway point... Bucky's backstory requires a lot of research into things that I don't know as much about, just because I don't tend to look into actual battle/military histories, and because [redacted for spoilers].

[timaeuslover001]

‼️ THIS IS NOT TO BASH OR TRASH THE REVIEWWER! DONT GO HARASSING HIS PAGE‼️

I’m sinply adressing ONE thing he said:

I think he underestimated how popular Spider-Man actually was because I was born in the late 90s so I didn’t know or care too much about comic books or boy cartoons but I like got older and more into comics and more into cartoons and anime and the nerd world, I realized how popular Spider-Man was as well as X-Men. X-Men definitely gets more talked about and more celebrated but Spider-Man is definitely up there.

his animated series is a lot of fanboys clung to especially when they’re criticizing the films.

But Spider-Man was popular in the comic space as well and often referred to when a lot of fans are promoting or celebrating the Spider-Man comics which I think ultimate Spider-Man is safe to say one of the most beloved of the Spider-Man runs .

But the films only made him popular to non-comic book, loving people .

It’s funny when I would hear reviews of the movie now 20 years later that people would call it corny when back then all those decisions that were made for the film was actually considered very modern .

And not just because of the time. They chose to put it in, but how they shot it the stories they chose to tell how they told them. It was all very modern as well as delivery, because they had to reach an audience that wasn’t fans of the original product.

They were lucky to have the original product and understood the essence and wasn’t trying to change any of his for the most part as a whole .

All the characters remain true to their counterparts save you changes here or there, but those changes were necessary to make that characters for more depth and story telling.

Like Green Goblin or Doctor Octavius.

But majority of people and moviegoers are not fans of comic books or superheroes those films were made for them. And those films actually got a lot of people interested in comic books, as well as superheroes or least didn’t simply refer to them them as children’s media but see them really engaging and thoughtful, as well as exciting storytelling.

And just like how being a nerd got very mainstream over the past 10 years it invited a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t be interested in these characters to all of a sudden care.

But a lot of them have very superficial interest in that they’re only interested because everybody else’s is . Like if the hype were all of a sudden to die off and shut down, a lot of people would fall off and quite frankly I was hoping for that day to come because I genuinely love this stuff and I genuinely love the stories and the previous decade before mainstream nerd culture , those films were absolutely amazing and even though nerds criticize them a lot, undeserved criticism , they were a lot more well produced well written while casted well acted delivered and treated as a story and a film more than anything. Disney has touched in the recent decade.

But people are attracted to popularity right now, so if it’s popular, it has attention and people want to be a part so badly people want to join in so badly bad and different people just want to be part of the group .

But don’t get me wrong. The Disney Spider-Man films are trash, absolute pure garbage, but Spider-Man was very popular before even in mainstream because of Sam Ramimis films in the early 2000s! People remember those Spider-Man films, nerds and non-nerds because it was such a great film and such a fun experience.

[spider-xan]

Thinking about how I was in the LoEG comics fandom early enough (I think I got onboard while Vol. 2 was still being released as single issues) that it was obvious that the main appeal was the whole classic literary characters as superhero teams idea, so I must have read hundreds of people's ideas on fan forums for leagues from other past historical eras, countries, etc., and those were a lot of fun, and since this was the early 2000s, no surprises that the main character of the wizard book was on everyone's modern-day British leagues, which made the, uh, big Anti-Christ reveal at the end of Century (I completely checked out after Century, Vol. 1 though bc ofc there had to be more rape) and the reactions to it (this was before the terf revealed herself as being that much of a raging bigot) very interesting, anyone, my point earlier was that Moore was ahead of his time for very openly criticizing the wizard book at the height of its popularity on a very public and high profile platform, but I can't even be like yay lol bc he went about it in the worst possible way (including, you guessed it, more rape of women).

I think my other point was that he really dropped the ball with completely abandoning the literary superhero team concept for his weird Quatermain self-insert and Mina being some random woman and whatever was going on with Orlando, and getting rid of any semblance of adventure and mystery for like, going on weird personal screeds and showing off his pop culture knowledge, but yeah, wasted potential, even without the rape and edgelord fetish.

Anyway, the movie was still fun in a forerunner to Venom way with a very likable cast and characters who actually have a found family thing going on, and no rape or juvenile edgelord antics, I will die on this hill, it's a good time in spite of its many flaws!!

[crazycookiecrumbles]

Scream For Me

A/N: The product of me brainstorming with @stargazingcarol​ because I couldn’t settle on one idea.

Also, references to a certain popular TV show on Netflix...cough. cough.

Pairings: Shang-Chi x Avenger!Reader (Shaun x Reader, takes place before events of Shang-Chi movie)

Warnings: cursing, violence, angst, fighting

Summary:  He went from your Xbox buddy to the love of your life until the end.

Song Rec: Heaven’s Gate, Fall Out Boy

Masterlist

WC: 4,564

You came out of the blue and changed his life.

Shaun met you a few years ago, but the meeting wasn’t in person. You were playing Call of Duty and he happened to be in your party along with some other people that you were clearly friends with. Shaun was the odd-man out, but you guys didn’t grief him too badly, unless, of course, he had a really terrible game.

The two of you playing online together became a habit. You both lived in different time zones, so he knew that sometimes he just couldn’t have the chance to play with you. Whether you were busy with work, already asleep, or he himself had plans of his own. Although, sometimes, he’d leave his plans early after checking the app to see if you were still online. What could he say, really? He had fun gaming with you and your friends.

Well, that’s what he’d tell Katy and everyone else that asked. People insisted that you were something. They insisted that Shaun had a crush on you but he always denied it. You were friends. You gamed with him! He had his cringe phase where, admittedly, he thought there weren’t really girl gamers, much less ones that could be as good as him. His opinion changed very quickly when you destroyed him one day in a sniper contest.

And, again, when you went off on a tangent on how sexist and disgusting that sort of mindset was and talked about how soft men could be and feeble-minded they were.

And, again, when Katy caught some of this conversation and you two tag-teamed him. Really, he should’ve known better, given his friendship with Katy. The woman had apologized to you over the headset and said that she didn’t know where she failed along the way. She blamed it on his old online friends from high school, and you offered Shaun a chance to redeem himself and prove he was, at least, semi-decent for a guy.

Somewhere down the line, things changed, and it wasn’t just in the dynamic between the two of you. You went quiet for a little while, and Shaun figured you were busy — this happened, he was used to it. Your work took you away, but you always came back.

This time when you came back there was something distant about you. It was right after the Snap, and Shaun didn’t need to ask million questions to know that the reason must have been that you lost someone. You confessed that you lost several important people in your life — he knew that you had no biological family left. Your parents were gone, you had no siblings, and your work family became your found family, and with those people gone? It was hard.

You two would play a little less after that. Not at all, at first, then a little bit, and eventually it seemed like things were back to normal. You were absent again for awhile, a week or two, maybe more. He lost count. You told him that you had work obligations that took over and that you’d get back to him as soon as you could. To be honest, you weren’t even sure if you could get back to him.

When he hadn’t heard from you he was nervous. Suddenly people were coming back in the world after being gone for five years, and he found himself just a little suspicious of what you did for a living. It seemed that every time that you were gone, something astronomical happened in the world. Then again, how could you have time for gaming like you did and saving the world? There was no way Avengers and superheroes out there were playing video games in their downtime. Weren’t they too busy saving the world all of the time? There was no way.

Besides, it wasn’t like he’d ever know. He’d never seen what you looked like, nor had you seen what he looked like. Somehow, the two of you kept it strictly to online games. Of course, he did manage to hear some of your roommates, or whoever they were, in the background, whether they were playing with you or just in the room. 

For example, he learned that someone over there really, really liked pop tarts.

Then one day you sent him a message over Xbox Live, and he couldn’t believe it.

Hey, Shaun. I know I haven’t been online. Work’s been crazy. But I’ve got news! I’m changing coasts. Coworker of mine is heading back home to San Francisco, and I’ve decided I wanted to try living out there for awhile. Maybe we can meet up? If not, that’s totally cool, I’ll just see you online some time.

His heart did flip flops in his chest. He offered to pick you up from the airport the second you had landed, but you said you needed time to get settled in, first. Besides, you had come to San Francisco with a friend of yours, who let you stay with him until your apartment had been ready to live in.

But, fuck, he’d be lying if he didn’t finally admit how excited he was. He’d known so much, but so little about you. He knew your name, knew your job was important but you couldn’t discuss it, knew you didn’t have the best family life, but he knew your favorite movies, your favorite music, all the things you’d like to do, the quirks you had, the types of jokes and humor you enjoyed.

Ugh, Shaun had fallen in love with someone he’d never met before and it seemed pathetic to him. You were on the other side of the country and he was simping over someone who, for all he knew, used a voice changer and was messing with him in the long run. Katy was right, maybe he should’ve sent this to those people at Catfish. But, again, if this was his chance…he had to take it.

Finally, finally, finally, Shaun got a message saying you were ready to meet. You gave him an address to a place called Lux, and you told him to meet you there and tell you what he was wearing that day so you could spot him.

When Shaun arrived at Lux, with Katy in tow just in case things went sour —

“Dude, what if it’s some old pervert that wants to molest you or harvest your organs? I gotta keep my lil’ nerd safe,” Katy said as she squeezed his shoulders and shook him a bit.

Ah, how little she knew.

“Fine, fine, but it’s just — don’t be weird, okay? It’s casual.”

“Right, so casual,” Katy hummed. “That’s why you bought ten shirts tonight.”

Shaun shuffled in his seat, “Well, I obviously can’t afford to keep them all and I’m going to return them when you help me pick out what to wear tonight.”

Katy rolled her eyes, “That black one. It’s tight on your arms, if she likes men, she’ll be all over you.”

Shaun had never considered that.

Katy stared at him, “You fucking idiot. You’ve been talking to her for how long and don’t know what she’s interested in?!”

“I—I don’t know! I just assumed — “

“That is so dumb.”

“She barely talked about guys, or girls! Actually, not true, one time we were talking about how hot that lady from Stick It is.”

“You know what. I hope she doesn’t like men. I’m taking her from you. She deserves better.”

~*~

Shaun arrived at Lux during a musical performance. Katy immediately went to the bar to get drinks, and Shaun found himself leaning against the railing and watching the woman performing on stage. She was swaying from side to side and holding the microphone in both of her hands as she shut her eyes and let the music take over.

“Go out in the world to start over again and again

As many times as you can

And in the end if I don't make it on the list

Would you sneak me a wristband?

Woah, would you give me, give me, give me

Give me a boost

A boost over heaven's gate, yeah

Give me a boost over heaven's gate

I'm gonna need a boost

'Cause everything else is a substitute for your love

Give me a boost over heaven's gate”

Shaun was enamored with whoever was singing. There was something faintly familiar about this, the inflection on certain vowels, but he couldn’t quite place it. But he locked eyes with the singer, who shamelessly looked at him from the top of his head down to the tips of his shoes, and even Shaun felt a heat rising through his chest, his neck, and to the tips of his ears.

The song finished to an eruption of applause as the woman on stage thanked them for listening to her ‘cheesy, emo choice of the night’, and that was when Shaun realized that the singer was, in fact, you, and you picked him out of the crowd immediately.

Shaun frantically smoothed down his hair, fluffed it up, then turned to Katy for help. She gave him two thumbs up after quickly miming what he had to do. Shaun did as told, nodded to her, and turned around just in time to see you come face to face with him.

“Hi,” he breathed, “Hi, uh, (Y/N), right?”

You beamed, “That’s me. Hi, Shaun. It’s, it’s really nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Yeah, likewise,” he was breathing hard his nerves getting the best of him. “Wow, I didn’t know you could sing. You’re amazing.”

“It’s just something I do sometimes. Needed a job when I came out here and, well, they were hiring. Owner’s, like, suspiciously super nice.”

“Huh, good to know. Uh, can I buy you a drink, (Y/N)?” He asked, the combo of saying your name out loud and finally putting a face to the name making his heart dance in his chest.

Your eyes bright and beaming at him, “Definitely, Shaun. I’d love that.”

By the end of the night when the club was closing and people were going home, you and Shaun walked Katy home before he started to walk you, that way you two had even more time alone with one another.

“Shaun, I have something to confess,” you began as you approached your apartment’s front steps.

Oh, here it was. You weren’t into him. You were a lizard woman. You were an alien. Hell, you were so, so repulsed by him. It had to be one of those.

“Okay. I’m afraid to ask, but what’s up?”

“I moved here to get a new start,” you said with a nod. “Like I said. I just — everything that’s happened, the Blip, everyone returning, all of this — it made me realize I, I — well, work can wait, and I don’t want to miss my chances on something I really want.”

He nodded, “Okay —“

“I’m in love with you,” you blurted out. “I know, I know, it’s so, it’s so weird and strange because this is the first time we’re meeting, but all these years playing video games and just talking to you. God, you have no idea how much I looked forward to that. You were the best part of my day every time and all I knew was your voice, and along the way I just fell hopelessly, pathetically in love with you because even when I tried to repress those feelings because we’re friends, with all this scary alien shit happening, all I could think about was you.”

“(Y/N) — “

“And I just, I, I can’t lose my chance —“

“(Y/N) — “

“So I’m standing here basically risking our entire friendship because I —“

Shaun had enough. He grabbed your face, fingers spanning from the bottom of your jaw to just above the curves of your cheeks as he brought your face close and up to his, just enough for him to press his lips against yours. It was hasty and needy at first, teeth crashing into one another before you both melted into the kiss ,realizing how badly both of you had wanted this for so, so long. 

He pulled away dragging your bottom lip between his teeth as he panted and pressed his forehead against yours while he regained his breath, “I spent all this time telling people we were just friends, that I didn’t like you like that. But, fuck, (Y/N), I love you too. There is nothing I want right now more than this, more than you.”

You smiled, “You mean that?”

“(Y/N), my songbird,” he whispered. “If I could have nothing in this world but you, I would be the happiest man alive.”

~*~

From that night on you two (or three, I should say) were inseparable. Shaun and Katy were valets, and you were a singer at a club where the owner had his own shenanigans going on that you decided not to ask about. Honestly, him saying he was the devil was enough for you to not want to open that pandora’s box at the moment. But he was nice, and paid you well, and wasn’t a creep, so you really didn’t give a shit what his deal was.

What you did care about, though, was Shaun, and he cared about you. You two were an instant hit. Your lives translating from online to in person was smoother than anyone thought possible. Katy liked you, and she never made you feel like you weren’t welcome. You’d even met her family on a few occasions. 

This was a regular night out for the three of you. Shaun and Katy were singing to Hotel California while you were resting and enjoying the show. Your feet were up on the table and you were nursing your favorite cocktail as you watched the two of them sing their hearts out with shot glasses in their hands.

You excused yourself at one point to use the restroom. When you were washing your hands in the sink you felt your phone ringing. Seeing a friend’s name flash across the screen, you frowned and brought the phone up to your ear, held it to your shoulder, and kept washing your hands.

“What’s up, Sam?”

“Where are you?” He asked frantically.

“Out at a karaoke bar. Why?”

“You need to go home or go see if Scott’s not busy and get some backup.”

“Again, why?”

“There’s a hit on you,” Sam said quickly. “Bucky and I are trying to get rid of it —“

“WHAT?!” You shouted. “How the fuck is that possible? What the fuck are you two up to?”

“Uh,” Sam hesitated. “We uh, we kind of got pulled into some shit. It’s a long story.”

“Does this have to do with that new Cap running around?”

“Maybe.”

“Great,” you sighed and turned off the faucet, “And why am I stuck in this?”

“From what we got, some unfinished business between you and someone you pissed off a long time ago. Girl, I don’t even know where to begin. We’re stuck in some fucking place called Madripoor and we just found out about it. Now, obviously, we can’t be there for you, but —“

“Okay, okay. Got it. I’ll watch my back. Try to get rid of this sooner rather than later — and find out why, will you?”

“Be careful,” Sam warned you.

You sighed and ended the call. Great. You were doing so well for yourself, too. New life, new job, it was easy, and, you know what, after being stuck doing shady shit for what felt like your entire life, you were loving the easy life.

You shoved your phone into your pocket. Looking up and leaning over the sink, you realized there was a shadow behind you. Your hands quickly went up just as a garrote came around your neck from behind. A strangled noise left you as were yanked back, the back of your head pressing against this man’s shoulder as he attempted to strangle the life out of you.

Tugging against the garrote did nothing to help you. You reached up and jabbed your thumb into his eye until he was shouting in agony. His grip weakened and it was enough for you to finally yank the garrote away from you. You reached back, grabbed his shoulders, and threw your entire bodyweight down onto the ground and launched him over you.

Standing up again, you coughed violently and held your neck. The man started to get up again, and you quickly ran over and stomped on his head, ensuring that there was no way he was getting back up.

You stumbled out of the bathroom holding your neck. You could feel the imprint of the weapon and you knew you couldn’t hide this from Shaun and Katy. When you opened the door the room was quiet and it was just Shaun sitting there on his phone.

“Hey,” he began, not looking up. “Katy grabbed a cab to head home. She said she wasn’t feeling well, but also wanted to give us some alone time.”

When he finally looked up he saw how you looked. He jumped up and ran over to you, hands grabbing at your shoulders and neck to bring you into the light and see what was wrong, “Did someone just attack you? What happened? Where are they?”

“I can explain,” you rasped. “But we have to go, now.”

Shaun nodded and grabbed your jacket off the seat, “I’m taking you back to my place, come on.”

You had to tell him. You didn’t tell Shaun that you were an Avenger, you didn’t tell him that you were Siren, the chick that had a sonic scream that could rip the metal off a building, melt someone’s brains while in their skull, among other things.

Shaun was leading you out the building when a black van rolled up and screeched to a halt in front of him. Several men jumped out, and Shaun quickly reached back, grabbed your hip, and shoved you further behind him.

“We don’t want any trouble,” he said quickly as he looked at all of them.

Now, Shaun assumed these men were for him. His father’s men had finally come to take him, or kill him. This had to have been what was happening right now.

“Move, Kid. we just want the girl,” one told him.

You? What?

“Why?” Shaun said, “You’ve got the wrong girl, and no one’s going to lay a finger on her.”

This man was going to get himself killed trying to protect you, you thought. And you could not let that happen.

“Shaun,” You grabbed his shoulder and told him to move, “I got this.”

“No, I —“

“Move,” he was surprised by your strength when you shoved him back and away from the fight.

He was more surprised when you dodged out of the way of a lightning fast punch to the face, followed by another, and another until you grabbed a man’s arm, twisted it, and hit his elbow with such force it bent inward and left him screaming.

Shaun didn’t have to do anything. You were fighting at an expert skill-level that he would have never guessed came from you. Your kicks in particular were deadly as he heard a crack come from a man’s head after you kicked him. The way you jumped up and took a man down to the ground with your thighs was alarming, and Shaun realized something in that moment.

He had no idea who the fuck you really were.

Another black van came around the corner and it was speeding towards you. Before he could dive and get you out of the way, you opened your mouth and screamed, which sent the van hurtling backwards. It rolled over itself several times before coming to a stop on its roof.

You coughed a few times and turned to face Shaun. You expected fear across his face. Hell, you even expected shock, or enlightenment. Maybe he realized now you were Siren, but that wasn’t the case.

“Who the hell are you?” He seethed. “Did my father send you? What? To get close to me?”

“Pump the paranoia brakes there, Shaun,” You blurted out. “Your father? What the hell are you talking about?”

“What the hell was that?” He shouted. “I—you just — you took those men down like they were nothing! And what was that scream? Did you see what you just did to that car? Because I just saw what you did to that car, and no normal person can do that.”

“I mean, I am normal,” you muttered quietly. “I just — I — I’m a little, uh, different.”

“A little?”

“This isn’t the place to talk about this. Let’s just go back to your place or mine and I can explain everything to you.”

“Oh, and what’s that? What were you sent to spy on me?”

You raised an eyebrow and stepped back to stare at him, “You’re awfully full of yourself right now to think this is suddenly about you. It’s not. This has nothing to do with you.”

"So what’s going on here?”

“If you’d let me explain,” you snapped. “Shaun, I — I’m an Avenger.”

He stared at you for a good five seconds before he started laughing in disbelief, “No, no. What? No…you’re what?”

“I go by Siren,” you explained. “I’m an Avenger.”

“You’re an Avenger,” He muttered. “You’re an Avenger. Oh my god all these years I’ve been talking to an Avenger?!”

“Yes —“

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“What was I going to do? Say, oh, hey guy online. I’m an Avenger, by the way. So what gun are you using for this loadout?”

Shaun narrowed his eyes, “How about, ‘Hey, Shaun, guy I admitted to moving here for and saying that I’m in love with, I’m also a freaking superhero.’”

“I was going to….eventually. Soon. When the time was right —“

“And when would that have been? You already said you love me. What were you waiting for? After the wedding, honeymoon, kids?”

Now you were a little distracted, “Wait, have you thought about those things?”

Shaun was in disbelief. A choked laugh escaped from him as he looked around at the chaos, the people leaving the nearby bars and houses to check on what was going on outside, and the cops approaching the scene. “I can’t believe this. God, I, I really don’t know you.”

“Shaun —“

“I can’t do this,” he said quietly, throwing his hands in the air. “I can’t. I can’t do this right now. I can’t talk to you — fuck, I, I have no idea who you are.”

Shaun was walking away from you and you went to grab at him but he yanked his arm away before you could, “Shuan, please! Please just let me explain. I can explain!”

“You say that, but I haven’t heard an explanation,” Shaun looked around and saw all the cameras pointed at the two of you. “Looks like your fans are here. I, I’ve got to go. I can’t — I can’t talk to you right now, (Y/N).”

Shaun left you there, standing in a sea of people who were shouting that an Avenger was in San Francisco, as though they hadn’t heard of Ant-Man who had been living there for how long now? Shame.

You flashed your ID to the cops who approached you, and they quickly saw the Avenger status and were immediately much less hostile towards you. You were left to take care of the mess while thinking about how upset and betrayed Shaun looked.

~*~

Meanwhile, Shaun was at home with his head in his hands. What the fuck just happened tonight? One minute they’re all having fun, it’s a regular day. The next minute, his girlfriend was nearly choked to death, and here she was screaming and flipping cars and kicking more ass than he’d done in a long time. Shaun, genuinely, had no idea who you were. 

Sure, he toyed with the idea that maybe you were an avenger —but he was never serious about that. That was a complete and total joke to himself, something to be funny to think about, but this? 

You were actually an Avenger.

And here he was thinking you were some spy sent from his dad to fall in love with him, get close to him, and ultimately betray him. Your fighting certainly made it seem that way, but then you screamed and made that car flip down the block. When you told him what your other identity was, and he remembered the hero that screamed the armor off of a Leviathan during the Battle of Manhattan, he knew you were telling the truth.

And it was freaking him out.

The more he thought, the more Shaun realized he was no better. He slipped when he asked if his father had sent you to him, but everything was happening so fast that you didn’t seem to mention it or really hang on to it. Still, Shaun had his own secrets, and he really, truly was no better. How were you going to react to his truth?

Maybe he’d never have to tell it.

Wait. Men were after you. You were in danger.

Granted, you’d handled yourself extremely well — but, still, Shaun left you alone. Oh, this whole thing was an absolute shit show that he didn’t want to deal with. This was supposed to be the easy, simple life. Valet some cars, go to karaoke, live out his life with his best friend and the love of his life away from his dad’s reach, but now this? Fuck. This was a nightmare.

Shaun grabbed his jacket, again, and keys and went to see you. He wasn’t sure if he could even talk to you at this point, but he just needed to make sure you were okay.

~*~

When Shaun got to your apartment, he saw the door was slightly open. His heart sank to the floor as he dreaded over the possibilities of what could be happening. He pushed the door open and saw the apartment was destroyed. Hell, half your back wall and kitchen were gone and laying in the alley behind your house.

But there you were on the floor in the middle of the room. Your hand was up around your throat, and in the moonlight shining in from your new open-concept kitchen and living room, he saw blood covering your hand, throat, and your shirt. Shaun screamed your name as he ran towards you. He sank to the floor and pulled your lifeless body onto his lap. He moved your hand away that had gone limp trying to hold your throat, and he saw the gash that went across it, pulsing with blood oozing out at each pulse. Shaun grabbed your jacket as tears ran down his face.

Pressing the jacket against your wound, he screamed for someone to help him as he fumbled for his own phone to call for help. Shuan looked around in a panic. No one else was there, just you and him together in the apartment. The only other sound that could be heard was the sound of your phone vibrating against the floor with ‘SAMMY-BOY’ flashing across the screen.

(Part 2)

[emptymanuscript]

Alright :( no one is taking up my challenge so I'm going to add some more.

Earth 2, 1994, 1 Season. Available on the Internet Archive. A settler crew crashes on a new world and has to make a grand trek to their intended landing site where most of their stuff is. The people already on the planet may have opinions about that. The corporation that sent them may not be interested in other's opinions.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997, 7 seasons (and a sequel / tie-in series). Available for free on Roku. Available on Hulu. This is another smash hit phenomenon that you're cheating yourself if you haven't given it a try. The series has a lot of ups and downs with both campy fun and moments of real angst. It was made as a sequel/reboot to the 1992 movie of the same name because the show's creator didn't like how the movie came out. If you like Marvel movies, the dialogue style and humor will feel pretty familiar to you.

Dollhouse, 2009, 2 seasons. Available on Hulu. Same creator, new universe. Dollhouse never shies away from being a creepy dystopic sci-fi about how much it is permissible to use other people and what makes someone an individual when they are reduced to a non-autonomous plaything. Tragically, it didn't get its full time to develop, and it shows. It's meant to be a long simmer with lots of distraction each episode. It's a nice cross between modern shows with an overarching metaplot and old style shows where each episode could stand on its own.

Continuum, 2012, 4 Seasons. You'll have to use your wiles to get hold of this one. Continuum is a time traveling cop show. A "peacekeeper" from a totalitarian corporate dominated world is thrown back in time and is forced to get help from a present time police officer and the young man who will become the corporate overlord of her future.

Time Trax, 1993, 2 seasons. You'll have to search for this one, too. And it's also a time traveling cop show, just this cop came to the past on purpose. He volunteered to hunt down criminals who fled to the past to escape the consequences of their crimes. His weapon has stun, transport, and a holographic AI based on his memory of his mother. (For those interested, watch for another early inspiration for JJ). The largest difference between this and Continuum is the premise that the future is better than the present in Time Trax.

Seven Days, 1998, 3 seasons. Yeah, you'll have to search hard for this one. It's my third time traveling cop recommendation. Fun. Parker is exactly the person no one should let near a time machine. So, of course he's the only asshole who can fly it. His ship can hop back in time seven days and that's it. One speed only.

Quantum Leap, 1989, 5 seasons, free on Roku and Peacock. The big boy of time travel TV. Not a cop, just a do-gooder, Dr. Sam Becket is tossed without control from lifetime to lifetime to fix what once went wrong and make the world a better place. He never knows when or who he'll be. And his helper Al definitely doesn't have all the answers.

M.A.N.T.I.S., 1994, 1 Season. Available to rent or buy from prime. There was a brief surge of superhero tv shows in the 90's, spurred on by the success of the Batman movies. They never hit the mega position they're in now but they were there. M.A.N.T.I.S. follows Dr. Miles Hawkins, a brilliant scientist who gets paralyzed by being shot in the spine. He develops amazing technology to assist him in trying to tack back his life and the streets. M.A.N.T.I.S. is an old style no kill hero, haunted by his tragedy but refusing to inflict it on others.

Alias, 2001, 5 seasons. Free on Freevee. Before J.J. Abrams put red matter in Star Trek and molded the sequel trilogy of Star Wars, he made a drama called Felicity about a college girl. He joked it would be fun if the very normal Felicity turned out to actually be a CIA plant in the college. That idea became Alias, where Sydney Bristow is that normal seeming super spy trying to balance life, love, and black ops. Friendship, family, conspiracy, and betrayal make the balance impossible. Look for Carl Lumbly, Dr. Miles Hawkins in M.A.N.T.I.S. as Sydney's partner in Alias.

Twin Peaks, 1990, 2 Seasons and 1 follow up modern season. On Paramount+. Twin Peaks is a twisted trip through a small logging town falling apart from secrets, murder, and metaphysics. The essence of this show is that it was never meant to be solved, that was the whole point, that there could be no resolution, the trauma of this horror is eternal, no matter how hard FBI agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman try to bring justice. Better not to watch this one high. And it definitely requires sensitive viewers to beware.

The Twilight Zone, 1959, 5 seasons, free on freevee and Pluto. There's a new version on my to be watched list but the original is a brilliant anthology show. A mix of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror with tons of famous guest stars and skilled writers who would go on to create lots of great cinema. "The Road Less Traveled" s2e31 for example was written by George R.R. Martin and directed by Wes Craven.

Beauty and the Beast, 1987, 3 seasons. On Paramount+. Assistant DA Catherine Chandler finds her soulmate, Vincent, in the Manhattan sewer system where the homeless and outcast have formed a secret civilization where they are safe from the world above. They fall in love and they solve crimes.

Batman: The Animated Series, 1992, 4 seasons. On HBOmax. To round it out to another 13 and because solving crime seems to be a theme to this set I present the definitive Batman for much of my generation. This is the show that invented Harley Quinn and the gutteral growl of Batman's character. A gorgeous artwork of gothic art deco and old style comic book heroism. This is another one where if you haven't already seen it, or seen it again as an adult, you're missing a treat.

You know, I just saw a post supporting the writer's strike and saying there are plenty of old shows to watch... and it occurred to me that it might be good to share some shows we love just in case people haven't seen them yet.

Places that make it easy to find where to watch things: Reelgood and JustWatch. Check both, they sometimes conflict, get it wrong, etc.

My Recs (in hopes others will add) (admittedly the low hanging fruit):

The X-Files, 1993, 11 Seasons, free on freevee, available on Hulu, can rent or buy other places. If you haven't seen X-Files, you're missing out. It was a smash hit in the 90's for a good reason. Two detectives, a believer and a skeptic, try to solve unsolvable mysteries in the midst of grand conspiracy. And find, somehow, that as much as they annoy each other, they need each other.

Babylon 5, 1993 / 1994, 5 Seasons, free on Roku and Tubi. An Epic Space Opera that never quite got the success it deserved. It is one of those things whose influence is written all over modern sci-fi and fantasy without much acknowledgement. This is the interplay of empires and mythology, double dealing and political cruelty.

SPACE: 1999, 1975, 2 seasons, free on Crackle, Peacock, Fubo, Pluto, Freevee, Plex, Shout, and Roku. I dare you to listen to the theme song and not feel the groove of this classic campy space opera. When Earth's moon is ejected from orbit to hurtle through the galaxy, the people of Moonbase Alpha have to confront new alien weirdness every week. Part of what makes it so good is that the show takes itself completely seriously, there's no wink and nod in here.

Kindred: The Embraced, 1996, 1 Season, available as a slime tutorial. It's Vampire: The Masquerade as a cheesy soap opera. There are constant reminders of what the clans are like in the most pointed, ridiculous dialogue you can imagine. Had the lead actor not died, this show might have found its place in a couple of more seasons, as it is, it is deliciously campy and dumb. Days of our LARP.

Profit, 1996, 1 Season, available as a slime tutorial. What if the Antagonist was the Main Character. Profit was ahead of its time. It would be right at home in the modern streaming era but it absolutely didn't fit in its own day and age. Profit is dark and twisted (For people who follow me, see if you can find an early inspirations for JJ) with mature and uncomfortable themes. One of its benefits is that it was network televison, so it couldn't show all the gratuitous violence and sex that it would be given if it was made today. It's psychological violence and murder off screen, which, if you let yourself get into it, can grow into worse things than can be shown. Profit is about power, greed, and ruthlessness and what happens when someone even more ruthless and immoral than you shows up.

Farscape, 1999, 4 seasons and a TV movie, available for free on crackle, peacock, popcornflix, shout, freevee, pluto, roku, and tubi. In spite of my picture, this is live action space opera, but it is looney tunes, literally in one episode. This is what happens when the Jim Henson company decides to make a space opera as far away from Star Trek as possible. It's zany, over the top, sometimes hilarious, often creepy, and there's only one human who is far out of his depth.

Blake's 7, 1978, 4 seasons, available on BritBox, and you should be able to find all of it with a little searching on youtube. Like Farscape, this show focuses on escaped prisoners but when they find an advanced spacecraft, they decide to become freedom fighters against their fascist regime instead of just trying to escape. Darker than most of what you could find on US tv until fairly recently. These are wounded people in hostile space.

The Outer Limits, 1995, 7 seasons. Free on Roku. This is a sci-fi anthology series. Some episodes are more interesting and thought provoking than others but overall a lot of good stories.

There are now 12 series with 44 seasons between them totaling up to 880 episodes of Star Trek. That's about 3 months straight of 24 hour programming if you ran it back to back with no pauses at all. That's a lot of show. Mostly on Paramount+ but it's probably not terribly difficult to find the material less officially. It may not all be your cup of earl grey but there's a lot to try out to see if you like it.

1899, 2022, 1 season (cancelled), available on Netflix or wherever else one finds shows. This is my only modern show because I know it didn't get a lot of viewership in spite of being brilliantly twisty. 1899 is one of those shows that it is very hard to talk about without spoilers. I think it is however immediately obvious that the cruise ship Kerebos, en route to New York, is not at all in the situation it appears to be in. It is magnificently multilingual with the ability to communicate when you can't speak each other's language front and center in the narrative. It's sadly cancelled and the creators are on record that they don't want to finish it in another medium so we'll never know exactly what happened but there is wonder to be had from this first season.

Magnum P.I., 1980, 8 seasons. Free on freevee and Roku. 1 season available with Amazon Prime, rest for rent or purchase. Mix a lovable goofball naval vet with PTSD and a very stiff necked British curmudgeon vet with PTSD and you get a fun mystery every week in paradise. Magnum shrugs off most of his work and pawns it on to his friends getting by on charm and some wit.

Murder, She Wrote, 1984, 12 seasons. All available for free on Roku. 6 seasons available for free on freevee. Note that one of the primary writers for Murder, She Wrote was J. Michael Straczynski, this is the job that got him the ability to make Babylon 5. Jessica Fletcher is a charming and clever lady who has retired to the placid sea side village of Cabot Cove to write mystery novels but somehow always ends up at murder scenes. It has been estimated that if Cabot Cove was real, it would be the murder capital of the US.

Tales from the Crypt, 1989, 7 seasons, available as a slime tutorial. To get it to lucky number 13, I present another great anthology show. Every episode a different tale of the macabre or horrific. The crypt keeper is a charmingly gruesome host and there are a few episodes that have stuck with me since I first saw them in the 90's.

Hopefully one among these number can fulfill your needs and if not, hopefully someone else will tack on a few more. I know I left out plenty of my own favorites. There's lots to see while your current faves are on hiatus. There might be a brand new fandom waiting for you.

[soobadnoonecanstopher]

Touch it for Real, Part 9

Genre: Humor / Fluff / Angst / (Eventual) Smut 18+

Warnings: OMG they were roommates / slice of life / slow burn / mutual pining / crude humor / cursing / virgin!baek / idiots to lovers / unresolved sexual tension

Characters: Baekhyun X You/Female Reader

Description: You teach Baekhyun how to date. (Basically the Get You Alone M/V)

A/N: DO NOT YELL AT ME! It is going to be okay. 

Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7 , Part 8  , Part 9 , Part 10

You had a secret.

For such an abstract and shapeless thing you could sure feel it sitting in there.

It was pulsing.

Your secret felt like a splinter lodged just under a single taste bud that sat in the center of your tongue. You could feel your white blood cells attacking it, trying their best to push it up and push it out, but still it clung tight with its sharp barbs lodged within your cell walls. You brushed your tongue against your teeth.

The secret did not budge.

What you knew about them though, was that secrets did not like to stay hidden forever.

Your fork slipped and clanked noisily against the ceramic plate and the bright orange carrot ball rolled across the smooth white surface nearly sliding over the edge onto the white linen. Whoever decided that your steamed vegetables needed to be shaped into spheres simply for aesthetics should be forced to come out here and explain how you were supposed to spear one of these things while also avoiding the risk of it shooting across the table and hitting your date in the face.

Ben turned out to be very nice. If you were into tall, handsome, clean-looking, and responsible guys who drove their own cars and also had things like health insurance and retirement plans. When you first saw him, you were struck by the firmness you felt when he shook your hand and smiled brightly at you. He had all of his teeth and a head full of hair. He was definitely walking around on his real legs too. He looked like the kind of guy who didn’t let the clean laundry sit in the dryer for longer than a day and changed out his toothbrush every three months. You couldn't see a single fault.

You were trying your best to make a good first impression.

Really, you were.

Well, while also keeping an eye on Baekhyun who sat beside you with his focus down on his plate as he sliced his food into bite sized bits. His control of the fork and knife felt so careful and so exacting, it neared obsession. He had not ordered the steamed vegetables. None of his food rolled.

Across from him, looking just as cute in person as her online dating profile pictures conveyed, was Mia.

Mia was fine.

She was fine.

You didn't want to get into it.

Her clothes were fine. They were exactly the kinds of clothes you had expected she would wear.

Her hair was fine.

She actually had a hairstyle that reminded you of one of the characters in an anime you watched with Baekhyun once and you wondered about the upkeep costs of that particular shade of blue that streaked through her hair. You wondered if she had to switch to blue towels and blue pillow cases or if everything in her house was just stained forever.

Baekhyun’s cheeks blushed when he shook her hand and his smile was bashful, if not a bit tight when she complimented his glasses. Your mind briefly considered the plush, expensive white towels you both owned at home and a flash of horror overcame you for a split second when you imagined those towels streaked with a blue stain from the shower.

He bought those glasses at a store. Anyone can go to the store and buy glasses. Did such a superficial compliment really warrant such a deep shade of pink on his cheeks?

You took a sip of your glass of wine and the sweet, cool liquid had a tart aftertaste that lingered on your taste buds long after you swallowed and you stabbed roughly at the runaway carrot again, impaling it with the prongs of your fork.

Finally.

“I got it,” you said out loud to yourself with a wide smile and you held your prize up in front of your face for a second. Long enough for your eyes to drift across your table to meet Ben’s and you caught the soft amused chuckle that puffed from his nose.

You’d already gotten through the backstory. Starting with the curious question from Mia about how you and Baekhyun got to know each other and you took a quick glance toward Ben as Baekhyun explained that you and he had been roommates for a couple of years. You caught the slight smile on Ben’s lips as he looked down into his water glass and you wondered if he was pleased that he already knew the answer to this question as you had been quick to tell him this important detail about your life as you chatted with him during the last week or so.

Mia on the other hand simply let her eyes drift over from Baekhyun’s face to land on yours for a moment and you offered a disarming smile by way of explanation. Not that either of you had any explaining to do. You could live with whoever you wanted to live with. It took her ten seconds to return your smile, although you didn't quite believe it, or believe that she was done with her curiosities about this topic.

You couldn't really blame her although you’d given her nothing to be suspicious about. Not in the last 20 minutes since you’d all arrived and nibbled on shared appetizers, at least.

Hell, you hadn’t even touched him all day. From before you both arrived at this fancy restaurant and just relinquished your coats to some stranger simply because she held a hand out and sported a severe enough hairdo and manic look in her eyes that was too frightening to question. From the morning when you woke up and wandered into your kitchen to make toast for one and you ignored the sound of his feet shuffling in, half-asleep to grab a yogurt from the fridge. You hadn’t even helped him style his hair; which looked stunning, by the way, with the waves and the faded brown color that absolutely looked like something the perfect boyfriend would let you play with as he laid on your lap. He hadn’t even asked for your help picking out his outfit. He’d simply done it all on his own and waited for you by the front door wearing those jeans and smelling like that familiar scent that he bought for your date with him weeks back.

When had this all become so awkward? You’d never been afraid to touch Baekhyun before but now, well, the touches hadn’t ever concealed quite so much meaning before.

By the time the entrees arrived the conversations had moved on to hobbies and interests.

Ben was a movie buff, and his favorites were mostly mainstream blockbusters of the Marvel Superhero variety. He enjoyed many of the genres of films you’d mostly seen just the previews of. His top ten contained a bit more horror than you were comfortable with. One in particular, a prolific film based on a Steven King novel, had been the kind of psychologically terrifying film that made your chest rattle and you had spent most of the second half of that movie with your face buried in Baekhyun’s arm begging him to just describe to you what was happening and to tell you when the scary parts were over.

When he asked you what your favorite movie was you hesitated for a moment before pulling the movie Forrest Gump out of basically thin air. Yes you had enjoyed the movie. Yes it was something you’d seen more than once and if it was on television right now you would sit down and watch it from start to finish and you would enjoy it. It was a respectable favorite to have. It was the kind of favorite movie you would not be embarrassed to show to your grandmother.

But it wasn’t actually your favorite and you could feel the burden of Baekhyun’s eyes as he turned his head to look at your face when you said it.

Something about naming, out loud with your own lips — the light and fun, mindless guilty pleasure of the film that was actually your favorite movie that you’d watched hundreds of times and returned to watch again and again every time you felt even a little bit upset; something about saying it out loud to this table of people with countless of hours of media consumption under their belts and opinions about things like prolific directors, production companies, hefty CGI budgets, and overused, tired tropes that absolutely should be dropped in 2021, well it just felt too vulnerable for you to say out loud.

You swallowed a sip of your wine and refused to turn your head to look at Baekhyun until you heard the sound of his throat swallowing the ice water he sipped.

When Mia changed the topic to Anime you felt Baekhyun come alive beside you and Ben slinked back in his seat a little as the two of them got to talking about something that was highly anticipated and was slated to be released next year. Rumors about artists and directors with names you could not know flew easily from their lips and Mia mentioned the name of one previous work that you recognized.

In fact you had watched the entire thing last year with Baekhyun and you remembered talking excitedly about it with Mia during one of your early text conversations.

Your face lit up and you happily joined in, excited to finally know what in the world they were talking about when you accidentally let something slip when you reminded her of what she had said about the anime before. Luckily you stopped yourself before you could admit that you had actually been the one she had been chatting with at the time.

Still, she caught it. She was very quick and sharp and you watched her face as she registered that you’d referenced something that only Baekhyun should know about. Had you just fucked up?

“Ahh, we,” you raised your index finger and waved it lightly toward where Baekhyun had stiffened up in his seat beside you, “he told me about what you said.”

There was a moment when her eyes widened and she looked at Baekhyun briefly before returning her focus to you.

“He...told you about me?” She lifted a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, straightened her back and leaned forward with her forearms rested in front of her plate on the table. Her off-the-shoulders number dipped when she leaned in and you caught a bit of black lace and the bunch up of her impressive bosom.

She smiled a coy smile aimed across the table.

You followed the smile and your eyes reached Baekhyun. He’d been hit with the smile and had been too stunned to return it. Instead, he lifted a hand and rubbed it over the back of his neck twice before reaching the same hand forward to grab the ice water he’d been sipping all night as he pulled in a mouthful and puffed his cheeks before covering his lips with his flattened palm and swallowing noisily.

“I also mentioned you to my friend,” Mia said not quietly enough for it to be just for him and you dropped your eyes down to the half finished chicken on your plate.

She was fine. Mia was fine. She’d done absolutely nothing wrong. She was nice and she was probably a good person, but you kind of wanted her to die.

“So,” Ben interjected suddenly and you looked across the table at him as you tried to conceal the surprise on your face to find him sitting there.

You noticed he was done with his food and his plate had already been cleared away by the super attentive waitstaff.

The negligence of your own date weighed heavily on you and you angled your chest forward to face him directly for whatever questions he had for you.

He was pointing toward Baekhyun and Mia with his extended finger and raised eyebrows.

“You two work in computers?” It was a work question. He’d gathered this much from the brief introductions everyone had given and while you had failed to offer any insight as to what you did for a living, Baekhyun and Mia had both mentioned computers.

“He’s a software engineer, and I’m a programmer. Similar but not the same,” Mia explained. You weren't sure of any of the details or of how they were different. You hadn’t really put much thought into it. You knew Baekhyun worked the magic with the keyboard and could fix anything that you happened to break.

“I’m in advertising. Just got scouted by Comma Entertainment and I’ve accepted.” Ben had a hand raised to his chest and his eyebrows were up. This seemed important to him and you let your lips form into an impressed O shape as you raised your eyebrows. His tone and the way he said the name of his new employer seemed to warrant the excited reaction.

You weren't familiar at all with his industry but you knew how to react like you knew what he was talking about. He certainly seemed impressed by himself. Who were you to discourage his enthusiasm.

“You’ve heard of it?” You sold it too well. Baekhyun had leaned close to you and whispered an aside question and you shot him a tense look with your eyes as a warning, but you quickly pushed your smile wide for Ben who was, deservedly, very excited about his new position.

“Of course, who doesn’t know Comma for advertising. That’s a very big deal. Is that why you were so busy last week? We hardly got to talk.”

Your subject change was so slick. If you hadn’t been the one to do it, you’d have been impressed by it. The disappointed pout on your face sold it well.

“Actually I was at the bank a lot last week. It was so weird. I had a few accounts that seemed to be hacked but then it turned out to be nothing. Had to change all my passwords though, so that was annoying.”

“That sucks. They didn't take anything did they?” Mia spoke up from beside Ben; concern written all over her face.

“No. Whoever did it just seemed to access purchase histories mostly. Some loser of a hacker. Didn't even get any money.” Ben’s lips pulled wide and he was laughing with his head thrown back at his perceived victory over the hacker that had been messing around in his bank records.

“You can learn a remarkable amount of information about a person’s bad habits from their bank history, Ben. Sure utilities and rent; that’s boring. You can find out how often someone gets hammered at bars. How many of those bars are also strip clubs. How many maxed out credit cards they make minimum payments on each month just to keep their head above water. Their gambling losses and the motel rooms they book in the bad part of town…”

Baekhyun was speaking up beside you. You turned and you looked at his profile as he spoke so candidly and with what you could only describe as a certain smugness on his voice.

The only reason he’d stopped talking was to catch his breath. It was the most he had spoken all night and you honestly felt taken aback by the suddenness of his words and more, the topic he spoke on. It felt weirdly pointed. It just felt so detailed; almost accusatory.

“What?” You hissed the question; focused it hard and as under your breath as possible to the man seated beside you.

His lips closed up before his eyes turned to look at you and you caught a quick blink of his eyes that preceded a softening of his features that had no business looking that confrontational in the first place.

“I’m not saying any of that stuff applies to Ben.” Baekhyun lifted a slim dismissive hand to wave toward your date. “It’s just an example. For all we know Ben’s only weakness is eating fried chicken every day.”

Ben’s lips were pulled into a thin line on his face and his jaw unclenched when you looked back at him. Then he was smiling at you and it was bright and convincing. You smiled back at him and shook your head at your wacky roommate’s antics.

“Actually it’s pizza. You caught me buddy, I’m a hardcore pizza addict. Every night.”

“Well, not tonight.” Baekhyun shrugged with an odd smile landing on his lips.

Ben’s tight smile flattened and the two men seemed to be staring at each other for longer than you thought was polite for a shared first double-date.

“So what is it that you do?” It was Mia who ultimately broke the tension and you looked across the table into her eyes. She had a pleasant smile on her face and was still chewing on a piece of bread, clearly unbothered by the strange standoff that had just been going on between the two men at this table.

Surely you weren't the only one to notice how odd it had been. Had you just imagined the tightness in Baekhyun’s fist that laid over his thigh and the hard glare in Ben’s eyes?

With Mia’s question though, you felt your own lips pull closed and your eyes danced around the table to the other curious parties who also were now looking at you to answer the question.

You’d prepared well for this date. You’d made sure Baekhyun had the detailed first date topics, questions and answers for perfect small talk, even the section on table etiquette. You’d made sure he knew you’d be here to steer the conversations toward topics he was comfortable discussing and you’d even set up a safety signal he would use if he wanted to bail and just go home.

You’d planned it all out, down to the detailed progression of the evening and how at the end someone might even suggest going together for drinks. And should one of the dates wish to split off, it would be completely okay as long as the corresponding person felt comfortable. You’d even promised that under no circumstances would you abandon Baekhyun to do this on his own if he didn't want to. Not even at the behest of Ben, your date.

They were looking at you and you'd gone quiet. You’d been so busy preparing for this date that it never occurred to you that you were also actively involved and that someone might possibly ask a question about you and your work.

Your work. Well…

“Uhh...I don't really do anything worth mentioning.”

You felt it. It was a warmth that had pooled in the skin around your nose. Your cheeks felt warm and you felt just insignificant enough for it to take your undeserved confidence and throw it out the window.

Ben and Mia were watching you. You pulled your bottom lip in between your teeth and bit down on the dry chapped skin on the surface.

“Nothing?” Ben said and his eyes were wide with a look of confusion on his face.

“Well, not nothing.” You were not completely unemployed. You had been quite impressive before. You’d been working with the best publicists of an entertainment company and had been in charge of crafting and perfecting the asset sheets of many of your company's highest profile artists. You’d been the best at it and at one time had been highly sought out for your expertise. You had a way with it. You could work some real magic. You could make a dud of a raw potato sound like a five star course in a Michelin star restaurant. Losing your position in the spring of 2020 had really been a huge blow to your confidence. You looked back at how far you had fallen. Boring data entry jobs to make ends meet. Taking on weird side gigs so you could afford tiny luxuries like your favorite scented lotion or the name brand tampons instead of the store brand.

“I do have a job.” You added lamely. “It’s just not at all interesting.”

Ben dropped his eyes from yours and Mia shrugged her shoulders and stabbed a carrot ball expertly on the first try.

“Yeah but what is it?” Mia said as she chewed daintily. The heat in your cheeks spread and you let your eyes wander away from hers over the various dinner items that covered this table.

Beside you, Baekhyun’s movement caught your eye and you turned to see him place an elbow on the table in front of him and he leaned forward.

“She’s a dating coach. She’s really good at it, but much too modest when she talks about herself.”

Oh no. He wasn't about to spill the beans was he? This was definitely not something in the approved list of first date dinner topics. Wasn't this topic too incriminating? Wouldn't Mia put two and two together and figure out that you had been coaching Baekhyun all along? Also, wasn't this new profession of yours too brand new to start talking about so freely like this? What the hell was he doing?

“A dating coach? What’s that?”

Strangely, Mia didn't seem to be looking at Baekhyun with wheels turning and sirens blaring. She was looking at you with her mouth empty and hung open with a look of genuine interest in her eyes.

“Do you like, feed them what to say in an earpiece?” Ben was speaking up from the other side of Mia and you laughed at the absurdity of such a silly rom-com movie cliche.

“Well no. I’m not a pickup artist. I am a dating coach. Think about it like a sports coach. I am teaching my clients the skills to play the game. Skills to overcome dating anxiety, or I’m teaching them to identity and move away from self-sabotaging behaviors, limiting beliefs, or preconceptions that are detrimental to a healthy relationship.

I have clients that don't even know where to begin. My goal is to strategize with them and place them effectively within the dating scene so they stand the best chance. It’s incredibly hard to be objective about your own love life, but I provide an outside viewpoint. I step in and intervene when I see something that isn't in line with their relationship goals or the vision they have for dating.

I’m not teaching manipulation or just telling them what to say. There are no love spells to make someone fall in love with you. I’m changing the way they believe in themselves so they can present themselves to someone else in the absolute best way to begin a real relationship with someone.”

You’d been leaning in as you spoke animatedly with your hands. You felt the genuine excitement building with your words. You were surprised at how much of your previous profession’s language applied to this new exciting endeavor you were embarking on, but there really were tons of overlapping similarities between the two fields. The explanations just poured out of you.

You hadn’t said any of this out loud before to anyone but the more you talked about it, the more elated you felt about what you were doing with your life. With how much you had been helping Baekhyun and how much progress you had seen in just one day of helping your clients — Baekhyun’s friends Minseok and Sehun. Sehun had finally, finally sent you his first selfie that wasn’t taken from his lap after you’d sent him many examples of good selfies taken from different angles. Minseok was already halfway through the materials you’d sent him to study and had been working hard on identifying and changing the self-defeating language he’d used in his rough draft dating profile.

“She has an app.” Baekhyun piped up from beside you. He’d leaned back in his chair as you spoke.

Both Ben and Mia’s faces mirrored each other’s. Their eyes were wide and their mouths hung in amazement and you quickly closed up your own mouth and grabbed anxiously at your wine glass, feeling a little bit embarrassed about having talked so much. You couldn't resist the chance to smash their misconceptions about what your goals actually were with helping your clients. None of these people were unlovable. They were all worthy of finding someone and you were going to give it your all to help them see their own value.

“Not at all interesting?” Mia spoke up, “that’s super interesting. That’s really, really cool. Can—Can I have your contact info? I have a friend that would be interested in your services.”

“You have an app too? This is something we could advertise online. It would do extremely well on certain kinds of reddit forums and definitely in most online gaming communities.” Even Ben sounded excited, if not a bit overly judgmental, and you heard a quiet, but hostile scoff next to you.

You ticked your head toward the sound but did not turn to look at him. You knew that scoff well enough to hear the annoyance in his voice at whatever he thought Ben might be insinuating about online gamers and the connection to the incels that haunted the forums of reddit.

“I think it’s a bit premature to think about online advertising. I’m still only one person.”

Ben smiled and shrugged off your quick dismissal of his idea to partner up and advertise your business to the desperately lonely and pathetic gamers of the world. Hell, the more you thought about it, the less inappropriate Baekhyun’s annoyance was. Ben could use some coaching on choosing less insulting words.

Thankfully the dinner was over and the check had been taken care of. You looked away from the palpable awkwardness that slapped you across the face when Baekhyun waved away Ben’s card and paid for the entire bill with his own.

“You can get me next time, buddy.” He definitely said this word sarcastically. It was out of line and you simply could not find the right moment to pinch his leg under the table to get him to behave himself in a discrete enough way that would not get you caught by the other two people at this table.

You let it slide simply because you had no way to stop it. He was ignoring the way you waved your finger frantically at him down by your calf. You knew he could see you in his peripherals.

No, Baekhyun. Stop that. Be nice. Your hand was saying. He wouldn't even look at it.

The dinner was over and the movie was starting soon. You’d picked a restaurant that was close enough to the theatre that you could walk.

You paired off. It was far from natural. You actually caught Baekhyun’s eyes as you stepped quickly and walked ahead of him, falling into step beside Ben and you left behind Baekhyun and Mia to bring up the rear. It took every ounce of self control not to turn around and look behind you to see how closely they walked to each other. To see if Baekhyun kept his hands shoved securely in his pockets or if he swung his arms at his side as he walked, inching a hand closer and closer to Mia’s swinging hand in the hopes of a back of the hand brush of his warm skin against hers.

Your steps must have stalled. You’d reached the theatre and you looked up to locate Ben, only to find him at the box office purchasing four tickets for the movie you’d all agreed to watch days ago. For the life of you, you couldn't remember what you were seeing. You merely followed where you were led and found yourself seated in a center row of a movie house sandwiched between Ben and Baekhyun. You noticed the center armrests had been lifted when you arrived and simply did not bother to lower them since everyone was too full from dinner for any movie snacks or drinks.

The house was mostly empty and then lights dimmed as the movie began. You searched your brain and nearly pulled out your phone to check your chat logs for the name of the film but decided against shining a tiny bright light in a dark room.

The movie began and you were quickly drawn into the narrative. It was a dark film and as the soundtrack began to take on more sinister sounding tones you recognized that your heart was racing and you were feeling the tension all over your body. It was not a gorey horror film, but it was leaning more toward the psychological suspense thriller genre. Not really something you watched much of.

To your left, Ben sat completely still; focused only on the movie screen. He looked so calm and nearly unaffected by the terrifying things happening on the screen. He occasionally shifted in his seat but did not react to the jump scare that flashed before your eyes and made you flinch hard in your seat. You’d reached the point in the film when the main characters were in genuine danger and you began to wonder if anyone would make it out of this movie alive. Was this one of those films where everyone was doomed?

It happened again, another jump, another loud shocking sound and another noise startled you and you dove to your right, hiding your face in the warm shoulder of the man sitting beside you.

The realization was instantaneous. The second you felt the warmth of his arm, and the smell of him hit your nose, you pulled your head up and you straightened out your spine, mumbling a quiet apology to Baekhyun for using his arm to hide behind as you removed any and all contact points you had with his body. You angled your hips and your knees away from him and even went so far as to stick your hands well under your own thighs and keep them there so you didn't grab for him again. You had been doing so well by not touching him at all today. Why did it have to be a scary movie?

Things grew more frantic on the screen. You held your breath and tried your best to keep from reacting as much as you could. How long was this movie? How much longer did you have to endure this? You should have paid more attention to the details of this part of the date. This was your own fault. You were acting like a big baby because you couldn't handle a little frightening scenes in a movie.

It was coming again. You could feel it building. You closed your eyes and terrible sounds were erupting all over. You would just not look. You could make it through if you just didn't look. With your eyes closed the sounds felt louder than ever and when you thought you couldn't take it anymore you considered committing the enormous sin of getting up during the climax of the movie to use the bathroom just so you didn't have to sit through this anymore.

There was a shift beside you then. You felt warm fingers inching down your forearm, traveling the path your hand took that led below your thigh and someone was reaching for your hand and pulling it out from where you’d been sitting on it. Someone to your right was gripping your hand with his own warm hand and you opened your eyes to look down between the hidden space between your hip and Baekhyun’s hip. There, you saw the grip of his hand that wrapped securely around yours.

He squeezed down once and you followed the length of him up to catch a glimpse of the side of his face. He was looking up at the screen. His eyes were open and he did not flinch at all. He was so still aside from the occasional movement of his lips when he moistened them with his tongue.

You could handle this if he lent you a little bit of his strength like this. Your eyes returned to the screen but your mind wandered back down to the secure comfort you felt in his hand.

You felt your own secret throb.

It made you flinch just a little bit and Baekhyun’s hand shifted then. He moved, lifting the tight grip for a moment and you wondered if he was done, would he take his hand back and leave you cold and afraid again? The lift was for the shift of his fingers and you felt the push of each digit between yours. He pushed his fingers between yours; interlocking your hands together with his and his thumb moved lightly over your own thumb, brushing comforting strokes again and again through the loud and scary and shocking scenes that played over that screen.

This time the racing you felt in your chest had nothing to do with the scary movie. He was touching you. He was holding your hand in secret. It felt forbidden with his date sitting right beside him like she was and with your date seated right beside you like he was. All of your attention was down on the slow pressure you felt from his thumb as it traced the shape of your own thumb down from the very bottom up to the tip, around again. The simple up and down had a slow and sensual rhythm to it. When he lifted his hand his thumb moved and you held your breath to feel that same very slow touching trace the outline of the palm of your hand again and again. He drew absentminded shapes into your skin with the pointed tip of his thumb and your eyes drifted closed as the longing grew within you. He followed the paths of the creases in your skin like a palm reader. He did not even need light to see them, he simply felt them and traced along the paths.

You let him.

You felt bewitched.

You loved him.

The credits rolled on the screen and the lights switched on. The change was abrupt. You were taken by surprise and shocked by it like you were from the jump scares in the film.

His warmth left you. His wandering light touch, his deliberate and careful exploration of the lines that made up the palm of your hand vanished.

Everyone was standing and everyone was walking out of the theatre house and your mind felt clouded and dazed but you followed where their steps led and you found yourself standing outside of the exit doors with the three other people who you entered with.

Baekhyun stood beside Mia and Ben occupied the space of the sidewalk square that you also stood inside.

It was the end of a night. You felt an overwhelming urge for this evening to be done so you could go home and shower and maybe eat something sweet and distracting and maybe made out of chocolate.

“Well this was fun,” it was your own voice that ultimately called it.

Mia had been looking at Baekhyun who had been looking down at his own feet as he lightly tapped his foot on the concrete below. Three taps.

Tap, tap, tap.

You felt a jolt of realization. Baekhyun had just tapped his foot thrice on the floor below him well within your sight and you recognized what that meant. He was feeling done. He was done with all of this exhausting socializing and being out in public with so many people around and he wanted to go home now. This was him asking you for help now as he wasn't sure how to end the date but wanted it to be over.

“What about...grabbing some drinks, maybe...” Mia was talking only to Baekhyun as she looked at him, “if you aren't too tired.”

“Hey Baek, isn’t your grandmother coming over early tomorrow? Do you still have to get ready for that?” You interjected suddenly and Baekhyun looked up into your face with his mouth open and you watched his eyes move slowly over your face as he recognized what you were doing. You were giving him an out. Mia had asked him to go for drinks and you were giving him an excuse, should he need it.

You both knew his grandma came every other Sunday. You both vividly remembered the wonderful visit you had at the beginning of the week with her and she wasn’t due to arrive again until next Sunday.

He could simply correct you if he really did want to go with her. He could call you a dummy and tell you that you had the wrong week again and playfully tap you on the head to jog your brain back into functioning the right way as he often did when you got something mixed up.

“Oh, yeah she is,” Baekhyun grabbed your convenient reminder from the air and smiled a rueful smile directed at Mia. His smile widened with the wince on his face, “that’s too bad.” He added and Mia took it well.

She smiled and nodded her head and there were well wishes for a safe trip home all around as you all parted ways.

Ben said he would text you later. Baekhyun told Mia the same and you waited until they both walked away to follow Baekhyun back to his car for the quiet ride home.

The silence was heavy, but it was comfortable.

Baekhyun didn't speak at all and you could tell by the way he carried himself that he was tired. He wasn’t normally an extroverted person and found it very draining to carry on a full conversation with friends he knew well. Strangers like he had been with tonight, well, you could see the fatigue in his movements and you knew he needed something warm to drink and maybe some comfort with a familiar favorite tv show to zone out in front of.

You handled it better. You were used to having to go out of your home occasionally and you even enjoyed socializing with your coworkers on the few days you went in to the office for work. You felt a bit drained but mostly you were preoccupied with watching how he was handling it and you were also burning with curiosity to know how Baekhyun felt about the whole thing.

He’d wandered into the living room and he found the sofa. You followed him close behind and grabbed the remote, flipping to a familiar and funny cartoon that you often saw him playing in the background as he worked on things. He didn't usually watch it that closely but it was comforting enough to stay on and keep his mind occupied for a while.

You didn't speak. Everything you had to ask him could wait. Even the scolding you had for him about how he acted toward Ben could also wait. You’d let the man breathe a little first.

You busied yourself in the kitchen making two cups of hot tea and when you returned you found his head leaning against the back of the couch with his eyes still glued to the screen. He had a passive smile on his face and he reacted positively to the wacky scenarios the characters found themselves in. He would occasionally speak out loud, speaking along with a funny line he knew by heart and you found it impossible to resist saying the follow up joke. You knew this show as well as he did.

He accepted the tea with a smile and had a few sips and you set your mug on the coffee table in favorable of the comfortable side of the sofa, the side with the pillows that allowed you to rest your head comfortably as you watched the big tv.

You were feeling pretty good. Baekhyun had now officially gone on his first date with a real girl who wasn’t you and he’d had a nice time. You could see from where you laid your head down how relaxed his face was as he giggled at the show.

You stretched and you felt his warm thigh with your foot. This sofa was long enough for you to stretch out completely and you only barely reached where he sat at the other side. You wiggled your toes, unable to resist the light messing with him that you often gave in to and his hand reached down to grab ahold of your foot, which he held in place as he paid attention to the tv.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket and you sat up a little bit to pull it out.

You saw a text message from Ben.

From the preview you got the idea of what kind of text message the man would be sending you an hour after your first, and apparently your last date with him.

-Hey you seem like a super cool girl, but...

The preview showed you enough to know that he was dumping you before you’d even gotten anything started with him.

You opened the text. Your curiosity outweighed your sense of self preservation.

-...but whatever’s going on between you and your roommate, well it doesn’t really seem like there’s much room for me. I just don't think I can start something knowing I’ve already lost. Thanks for inviting me tonight. The movie was fun. Good luck with everything. - Ben

You felt the sting.

You couldn't help it. You’d spent all evening watching Baekhyun interact with Mia with every ounce of your self control devoted to not letting your jealousy show at all. At one point you’d been so damn engrossed in them that you forgot Ben was even there. What an unfair and shitty situation to have put him in. You quickly keyed out an apology for your crappy date etiquette and thanked him for going out with you tonight.

You couldn't even blame him for anything. He had been sweet and he had tried his best to be the perfect gentleman. What had you expected?

You sent the last message you would ever send to Ben and tossed your phone roughly toward the coffee table. It bounced but landed in the middle.

The racket called Baekhyun’s attention and he turned to look at you with his eyebrows raised in question.

“Ben just rejected me.”

Somehow saying this out loud to Baekhyun felt better than hiding it from him. It felt less miserable than keeping it inside of yourself and letting yourself suffer the sting of the rejection alone.

Baekhyun’s lips pulled into a small frown and he took out his cell phone from his pocket and tossed it roughly on the coffee table beside yours. It took a similar bounce and your eyes widened in surprise at the sudden gesture.

“No way, not Mia too,” you said in genuine fear and Baekhyun shook his head with his shrug still well in place.

“Nah, I just can't lay down with my phone in my pocket,” he said as he wiggled on the sofa trying to get comfortable, “though in hindsight I can see how you would think that, sorry. Mia hasn’t texted yet.”

He was wiggling, finding no comfort in all the positions he tried and you caught his wandering eyes for a second as you lightly tapped a hand over your belly.

This…

This would be fine. This was something you both did sometimes. Baekhyun said your belly was warm and comfy and made the best noises and he liked to use you as a pillow when he was just too tired to go to his own bed.

He moved right away at your invitation and you let your legs part around his chest as he laid his head down right on top of you. He turned his head to face the tv and didn't even squirm too much before he sighed out loud. His arms laid on either side of your waist and you felt the constriction as he lightly squeezed around you.

You really hadn’t gotten to touch him all day. Your fingers found their way into his hair and you felt a low moan from the back of his throat travel though your body as you raked your nails down the back of his head to his nape.

“Peanut,” you said softly, feeling every little bit of the annoying little tickle of that stupid secret sitting inside of you.

You could feel the heaviness of his body as he gave in and relaxed his muscles on you. You felt every breath he took and they seemed to be changing as you played with his hair and he gave in to the relaxing comfort you offered him.

“Hmm?” He replied after a long while. You angled your face and could see that his eyes were closed.

“How was the date? Was it nice?”

You had so many hopes for him. You were trying your best to ignore the pangs of your own selfish jealousy and get past it all to get to something good for him. Something that would make him understand how incredible he was. How beautiful he was inside and out and how precious of a human being he was.

“Mhmm, I liked it.” He said softly and he shifted and you felt him tighten his hold around your waist briefly before he relaxed again.

“Did you really? Do you think you liked Mia?” You kept your voice strong. You did not allow your fears to overcome your voice. You were okay with this if he was okay.

He did not answer right away. You’d stopped playing with his hair and you kept your hand rested over his head. He was so warm. He was so lovely.

“Do you want me to like Mia?”

No.

Mia would be so good to him.

You did not answer. Your answer would have been no. It would have been selfish. You’d just been dumped by your date, how dare his date have gone so well. You’d both been on the same date. You could still see the way she looked at him. She found him just as lovely as you did.

You felt a thickness at the back of your throat and you swallowed it down.

“I’m trying, Bug. She’s very nice to talk to. Do you think I should like her?”

Was this because of his mistrust of people? Was this his shyness about letting someone he didn't know very well in close?

You couldn't respond. You did not trust yourself to do the right thing.

“You should go rest if you’re sleepy,” you said, you know, like a coward.

It took him a few minutes of laying on top of you before he realized that you were right and he would be much more comfortable in his own bed. He nodded and pushed up with his arms, and his eyes stayed closed and his head stayed hung down as his feet shuffled and he made his way into his bedroom, leaving his door open you merely heard the loud sound of him plopping down on his bed.

You were stuck where he left you.

Stuck in about as crappy a mood as you’d ever found yourself.

You hated everything about this. You hated how much you loved him and you hated how receptive he was to the idea of dating Mia. You hated how she looked at him and giggled at his small jokes and you hated HATED the way his cheeks blushed and the shy smiles he gave her when she talked to him.

You laid there and you stewed in your mood for longer than was good for you and the only thing that made your it up was the simultaneous buzzing that brought both of your cell phones to life on the coffee table.

You reached for yours. It’s as your dating coach app. Baekhyun had received a new message from Mia. The feelings that surged through you were taking over your sense of what was good and what was right and what was proper behavior for someone like you to participate in.

You swiped to read the message.

-Hi Baekhyun. Sorry I couldn't wait until tomorrow to text you. I had an amazing time tonight and I was wondering if you would like to meet up tomorrow after your Grandmother’s visit for coffee? I have something I’d like to ask you.

You felt as if your body was on fire.

You could feel it deep inside your chest, deeper still inside your belly where his head had been resting moments before. You felt it in the palm of your hand where his thumb had traced the patterns of lines there. You felt it in your lips that he had kissed and in your tongue ached inside of your mouth from your stupid secret.

You reached for your phone. You opened the app for the power he’d given only to you and you responded to her message as if you were Baekhyun.

-Hi, Yeah, that sounds fine. I’ll meet you at 1pm.

Your hands moved on their own. You moved to the internal commands of your app and you deleted both of the messages from the chat history. When you picked up his phone you saw the notification for Mia’s message vanish before your eyes and when you unlocked it and accessed his chat log, there was no sign of the unimaginable and unforgivable sin you had just committed against him.

Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7 , Part 8  , Part 9 , Part 10

Tag list: @j-pping  @blahblahblah-boo  @his-mochi-cheeks  @amyeonzing@littleflowercrown13  @baekinmylife  @insta1010  @nana-banana  @f4ncyvelvet@bbhbeth  @totallynerdstuff  @byunbabybaek @maijinki @bbyunz@theclawofaraven @kingkushdealer  @uhobob @baekswifey​ @punchmebaekhyun @xlxbaekhyuneex

[letterboxd]

In Focus: The Mummy

Dominic Corry responds on behalf of Letterboxd to an impassioned plea to bump up the average rating of the 1999 version of The Mummy—and asks: where is the next great action adventure coming from?

We recently received the following email regarding the Stephen Sommers blockbuster The Mummy:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the nation, if not the entire globe, who frankly deserve better than this after months of suffering with the Covid pandemic.

I was recently made aware that the rating of The Mummy on your platform only stands at 3.3 stars out of five. … This, as I’m sure you’re aware, is simply unacceptable. The Mummy is, as a statement of fact, the greatest film ever made. It is simply fallacious that anyone should claim otherwise, or that the rating should fail to reflect this. This oversight cannot be allowed to stand.

I have my suspicions that this rating has been falsely allocated due to people with personal axes to grind against The Mummy, most likely other directors who are simply jealous that their own artistic oeuvres will never attain the zenith of perfection, nor indeed come close to approaching the quality or the cultural influence of The Mummy. There is, quite frankly, no other explanation. The Mummy is, objectively speaking, a five-star film (… I would argue that it in fact transcends the rating sytem used by us mere mortals). It would only be proper, as a matter of urgency, to remove all fake ratings (i.e. any ratings [below] five stars) and allow The Mummy’s rating to stand, as it should, at five stars, or perhaps to replace the rating altogether with a simple banner which reads “the greatest film of all time, objectively speaking”. I look forward to this grievous error being remedied.

Best, Anwen

Which of course: no, we would never do that. But the vigor Anwen expresses in her letter impressed us (we checked: she’s real, though is mostly a Letterboxd lurker due to a busy day-job in television production, “so finding time to watch anything that isn’t The Mummy is, frankly, impossible… not that there’s ever any need to watch anything else, of course.”).

So Letterboxd put me, Stephen Sommers fan, on the job of paying homage to the last great old-school action-adventure blockbuster, a film that straddles the end of one cinematic era and the beginning of the next one. And also to ask: where’s the next great action adventure coming from?

Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah in ‘The Mummy’ (1999).

When you delve into the Letterboxd reviews of The Mummy, it quickly becomes clear how widely beloved the film is, 3.3 average notwithstanding. Of more concern to the less youthful among us is how quaintly it is perceived, as if it harkens back to the dawn of cinema or something. “God, I miss good old-fashioned adventure movies,” bemoans Holly-Beth. “I have so many fond memories of watching this on TV with my family countless times growing up,” recalls Jess. “A childhood classic,” notes Simon.

As alarming as it is to see such wistful nostalgia for what was a cutting-edge, special-effects-laden contemporary popcorn hit, it has been twenty-one years since the film was released, so anyone currently in their early 30s would’ve encountered the film at just the right age for it to imprint deeply in their hearts. This has helped make it a Raiders of the Lost Ark for a specific Letterboxd demographic.

Sommers took plenty of inspiration from the Indiana Jones series for his take on The Mummy (the original 1932 film, also with a 3.3 average, is famously sedate), but for ten-year-olds in 1999, it may have been their only exposure to such pulpy derring-do. And when you consider that popcorn cinema would soon be taken over by interconnected on-screen universes populated by spandex-clad superheroes, the idea that The Mummy is an old-fashioned movie is easier to comprehend.

However, for all its throwbackiness, beholding The Mummy from the perspective of 2020 reveals it to have more to say about the future of cinema than the past. 1999 was a big year for movies, often considered one of the all-time best, but the legacy of The Mummy ties it most directly to two of that year’s other biggest hits: Star Wars: Episode One—The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. These three blockbusters represented a turning point for the biggest technological advancement to hit the cinematic art-form since the introduction of sound: computer-generated imagery, aka CGI. The technique had been widely used from 1989’s The Abyss onwards, and took significant leaps forward with movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997), but the three 1999 films mentioned above signified a move into the era when blockbusters began to be defined by their CGI.

A year before The Mummy, Sommers had creatively utilised CGI in his criminally underrated sci-fi action thriller Deep Rising (another film that deserves a higher average Letterboxd rating, just sayin’), and he took this approach to the next level with The Mummy. While some of the CGI in The Mummy doesn’t hold up as well as the technopunk visuals presented in The Matrix, The Mummy showed how effective the technique could be in an historical setting—the expansiveness of ancient Egypt depicted in the movie is magnificent, and the iconic rendering of Imhotep’s face in the sand storm proved to be an enduringly creepy image. Not to mention those scuttling scarab beetles.

George Lucas wanted to test the boundaries of the technique with his insanely anticipated new Star Wars film after dipping his toe in the digital water with the special editions of the original trilogy. Beyond set expansions and environments, a bunch of big creatures and cool spaceships, his biggest gambit was Jar Jar Binks, a major character rendered entirely through CGI. And we all know how that turned out.

A CGI-enhanced Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

Sommers arguably presented a much more effective CGI character in the slowly regenerating resurrected Imhotep. Jar Jar’s design was “bigger” than the actor playing him on set, Ahmed Best. Which is to say, Jar Jar took up more space on screen than Best. But with the zombie-ish Imhotep, Sommers (ably assisted by Industrial Light & Magic, who also worked on the Star Wars films) used CGI to create negative space, an effect impossible to achieve with practical make-up—large parts of the character were missing. It was an indelible visual concept that has been recreated many times since, but Sommers pioneered its usage here, and it contributed greatly to the popcorn horror threat posed by the character.

Sommers, generally an unfairly overlooked master of fun popcorn spectacle (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is good, guys), deserves more credit for how he creatively utilized CGI to elevate the storytelling in The Mummy. But CGI isn’t the main reason the film works—it’s a spry, light-on-its-feet adventure that presents an iconic horror property in an entertaining and adventurous new light. And it happens to feature a ridiculously attractive cast all captured just as their pulchritudinous powers were peaking.

Meme-worthy: “My sexual orientation is the cast of ‘The Mummy’ (1999).”

A rising star at the time, Brendan Fraser was mostly known for comedic performances, and although he’d proven himself very capable with his shirt off in George of the Jungle (1997), he wasn’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list for action-hero roles. But he is superlatively charming as dashing American adventurer Rick O’Connell. His fizzy chemistry with Weisz, playing the brilliant-but-clumsy Egyptologist Evie Carnahan, makes the film a legitimate romantic caper. The role proved to be a breakout for Weisz, then perhaps best known for playing opposite Keanu Reeves in the trouble-plagued action flop Chain Reaction, or for her supporting role in the Liv Tyler vehicle Stealing Beauty.

“90s Brendan Fraser is what Chris Pratt wishes he was,” argues Holly-Beth. “Please come back to us, Brendaddy. We need you.” begs Joshhh. “I’d like to thank Rachel Weisz for playing an integral role in my sexual awakening,” offers Sree.

Then there’s Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bey, a member of the Medjai, a sect dedicated to preventing Imhotep’s tomb from being discovered, and Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun, Imhotep’s cursed lover. Both stupidly good-looking. Heck, Imhotep himself (South African Arnold Vosloo, coming across as Billy Zane’s more rugged brother), is one of the hottest horror villains in the history of cinema.

“Remember when studio movies were sexy?” laments Colin McLaughlin. We do Colin, we do.

Sommers directed a somewhat bloated sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001, which featured the cinematic debut of one Dwayne Johnson. His character got a spin-off movie the following year (The Scorpion King), which generated a bunch of DTV sequels of its own, and is now the subject of a Johnson-produced reboot. Brendan Fraser came back for a third film in 2008, the Rob Cohen-directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Weisz declined to participate, and was replaced by Maria Bello.

Despite all the follow-ups, and the enduring love for the first Sommers film, there has been a sadly significant dearth of movies along these lines in the two decades since it was released. The less said about 2017 reboot The Mummy (which was supposed to kick-off a new Universal Monster shared cinematic universe, and took a contemporary, action-heavy approach to the property), the better.

The Rock in ‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001).

For a long time, adventure films were Hollywood’s bread and butter, but they’re surprisingly thin on the ground these days. So it makes a certain amount of sense that nostalgia for the 1999 The Mummy continues to grow. You could argue that many of the superhero films that dominate multiplexes count as adventure movies, but nobody really sees them that way—they are their own genre.

There are, however, a couple of films on the horizon that could help bring back old-school cinematic adventure. One is the long-planned—and finally actually shot—adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise, starring Tom Holland. The games borrow a lot from the Indiana Jones films, and it’ll be interesting to see how much that manifests in the adaptation.

Then there’s Letterboxd favorite David Lowery’s forever-upcoming medieval adventure drama The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander (who herself recently rebooted another video-game icon, Lara Croft). Plus they are still threatening to make another Indiana Jones movie, even if it no longer looks like Steven Spielberg will direct it.

While these are all exciting projects—and notwithstanding the current crisis in the multiplexes—it can’t help but feel like we may never again get a movie quite like The Mummy, with its unlikely combination of eye-popping CGI, old-fashioned adventure tropes and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of overflowing hotness. Long may love for it reign on Letterboxd—let’s see if we can’t get that average rating up, the old fashioned way. For Anwen.

Related content

How I Letterboxd with The Mummy fan Eve (“The first film I went out and bought memorabilia for… it was a Mummy action figure that included canopic jars”)

The Mummy (Universal) Collection

Every film featuring the Mummy (not mummies in general)

Follow Dom on Letterboxd