#unnamed dennys manager

[primaris-1]

Something silly! Swag Messiah (belonging to @azure-horizons) and part of his Party-Pirate crew! what buffoonery shall they get up to!?

[gayhoediaz]

my atlantis, we fall

G | 1.2k | 6.10 coda/6.11 spec | ao3

We were supposed to have more time.

The words echo through his brain, sharp with sadness. With loss. With grief.

But the words don’t echo in his head as he’s climbing up the ladder.

The words don’t echo as he lowers Buck down, nor as he - somehow - manages to bring his own feet back onto the ground.

The words don’t echo as he elbows his way to the gurney, or as Bobby grabs him and tells him with a sharp tone that he’s driving.

A tone that says; you can’t be in there with him. A tone that says; we all love him. Everyone is fighting for him.

A tone that says; It's different for you, though.

A tone that says; I see you.

A tone that says; I know.

The words don’t echo as the rain pours onto the windshield, and they don’t echo as he brings the engine to a stop in front of the hospital.

The words don’t echo in his head as he throws himself out and gets to Buck - they don’t echo in his head as they get his shirt open, and they don’t echo as he runs alongside the gurney, Buck’s ribs cracking and breaking beneath his hands as he fights heaven and earth, as he prays to someone beyond them both; prays - begs - for Buck to come back to him.

No. That’s all chaos.

Eddie is terrified, and frantic - but he’s not sad. There’s no time.

Even as he busts through the glass doors, and as he feels two different hands on him, one on either shoulder, keeping him back - keeping him steady - as Buck’s gurney disappears into the distance - he’s not sad.

Scared. Helpless.

Torn apart - yes.

Not sad.

Sad doesn’t even come hours later as he’s sinking down into the uncomfortable chair next to Buck’s hospital bed, nor as he allows his eyes to wander over his face.

So pale. So expressionless.

So dead.

He’s not.

He was, though. He was dead.

But he’s not.

Those are the words that do echo through Eddie’s head.

He’s not dead.

So Eddie is not sad because sad means grief and grieving means you lost something and Eddie hasn’t lost Buck.

Buck is not gone.

Buck is not dead.

Eddie is not sad.

Sad doesn’t come until about forty eight hours later.

Sad doesn’t come until Eddie is standing four and a half feet behind Christopher, his arms crossed over his chest to keep from reaching out for his son.

Not because he doesn’t want to - but because Christopher needs this. Needs to do this alone - even if Eddie is in the room.

Sad doesn’t come until he hears his son’s soft voice, his words far more mature and brave than any twelve year-old should ever be capable of.

‘You promised me, Buck. Remember? You promised me you’re not going anywhere. So you can’t. Because you’re not a liar. You have never lied to me, and I know you wouldn’t break a promise like that. So you’re coming back to us, I know you are.’

Chris has spent many of the past forty eight hours crying. Eddie has too. They have spent many hours crying. Together.

Chris is not crying now, though. At least not a lot.

And Eddie’s heart breaks over it. He wishes so badly that his son would scream and cry and thrash - that he wasn’t a veteran when it comes to losing people. No twelve year-old should know how to handle the pain of facing the possibility of having people torn away from them.

So sad finally arrives.

Eddie feels sad as he watches Chris’ small hand cup Buck’s, the contrast of the large, still fingers so incredibly kafkaesque in the cold, harsh light of the hospital room.

Eddie feels sad as he allows Chris’ voice to fade into a faint whisper, and Eddie feels sad as he watches the way in which Buck’s eyes move beneath his eyelids.

He’s trying. Fighting.

Eddie knows he is. Buck is fighting to come back to them. To Christopher. To Maddie. To Jee. To Chim, to Hen, to Bobby, to Athena, to Karen - probably even to Denny, and May, and Harry, and the unnamed fetus with his borrowed genetic material. To said fetus' biological grandparents who never deserved a fraction of Buck's beautiful heart (and never will - not that Eddie would ever necessarily steal himself the right to voice that thought out loud).

To people he hasn’t even met yet.

Buck is fighting to come home.

To all of them.

To him.

That's who he is.

Buck is never not going to fight.

Buck is not dead, and yet Eddie mourns.

Eddie mourns as he watches Buck’s chest move up and down, knowing full well that he’s not doing it on his own.

Eddie mourns as he watches Christopher squeeze Buck’s giant hand in his own.

Eddie mourns when Christopher turns to him, blonde hair covering half of his red-rimmed eyes as he looks up at him.

‘Dad, do you have your medal? My medal?’

Eddie does have it.

It’s been in his pocket for the past twenty four hours - since Bobby made him go home for a nap and a shower that never came to fruition.

He took it out of his nightstand, and he’s kept it in his fist.

He’s been clutching it with enough force that he thinks he can feel a permanent outline begin to form in the grasp of his palm.

He’s been clutching.

Praying.

Begging.

Pleading.

Eddie mourns as he takes it out, and pours the chain into Christopher’s open palm.

Eddie mourns as he watches his small, brave son take a step closer to the bed.

Eddie mourns as he watches Christopher fiddle with the clasp until he gets it open - as he watches him place it around Buck’s neck - close it, and adjust it slightly until the small charm rests in the hollow of his throat, the gold somehow stark against his pale skin.

So pale.

Dead.

No.

Not dead.

Not dead.

Buck is not dead, and Christopher is not seven anymore.

Christopher is not seven.

Eddie knows that his son does not believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

Eddie knows that his son doesn’t believe in ghosts, or psychics.

And as far as the one illusion that every child should be entitled to?

The illusion of immortality?

That was wiped away a long time ago.

The illusion of his own immortality.

The illusion of the immortality of the people who love him the most, the immortality of the people who make him feel safe.

The immortality of his heroes.

Gone.

Gone before Eddie thinks he ever even really got to have it.

Yet -

‘Dad says this kept him safe so that he could come home. You need it now. So that you can come home to us.’

And Eddie mourns.

Eddie mourns, and mourns, and mourns.

We were supposed to have more time.

All of us.

We're supposed to have more time.

[wreckitremy]

Grewnge - Treasure Planet

Mrs bluveridge - Muppet treasure island

The absorbalof- Doctor Who -tenth doctor

The silurians- Doctor Who 9th and 10th doctor

Fun land - The Sandman

Nancie - Sweet Tooth

Leneus - Percy Jackson

Camon- Mistborn

The trunchible - Matilda

Constance- Monster House

The Goblin King - The Hobbit

Leo Burns - Pushing Daisies

Gluttony - Full Metal Alchemist

General - Castle in the Sky

Dennis Nedry - Jurrasic Park

Muta - The Cat Returns

Stinky Pete - Toy Story 2

Gimbel's manager - Elf

Snow White - The Book of Lost things

Unnamed wife in supercalafragalisticexpalidotious - Mary Poppins

The Cook - Sucker Punch

Jumba - Lilo and Stitch

Tybalt - Gnomeo and Juliet

Gideon - Gravity Falls

Mayor Toadstool - Amphibia

Buzz - Home Alone

Tibbles - The Owl House

The Witch of the Waste - Howls moving castle

Sherrif of Nottingham - Disney's Robin Hood

Harold - Hey Arnold

Aunt Sponge - James and the giant Peach

Alvin - Paranorman

Foote - Homeward Bound

Sir Ector - The Sword and the Stone

Phil - Hercules

Frances - Fairly Odd Parents

Ratcliffe - Pocahontas

Ton - Aggretsuko

The chef - Little Nightmares

King Hubert - Disney's sleeping beauty

i've heard people say things like "even if fatphobia was real, I wouldn't have learned it from media"

so let's make a list of all the fat villains and a-hole characters in media to try and prove that representation (even bad representation) can heavily influence the culture it influences:

• Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

• The Mayor (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)

• Big Jack Horner (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)

• The Toad (Flushed Away)

• Vernon Dursley (Harry Potter)

• Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man 2)

• Stromboli (Pinocchio)

• Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

• Wario (Super Mario Brothers Franchise)

• The Matchmaker (Mulan)

• Jabba the Hut (Star Wars)

• Buford (Phineas and Ferb)

• Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck (Mr. Monk)

• Augustus Gloop (Willy Wonka)

[feel free to help me continue this list]

[tossacointoyourhotmess]

Dr. Ian Malcolm

Born: June 29th, 1955

Significant other: Unknown status. Several ex-wives

Children: Kelly Curtis Malcolm + four other unnamed children

Occupation: Chaotician

Portrayed by: Jeff Goldblum

Along with Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, Ian was invited by John Hammond to Isla Nublar as one of the specialists who was to sign off on the park, declaring it safe and ready to open for the public. Ian, however, had previously told Hammond of his many concerns regarding the park and believed that Hammond had invited him in order to try and prove him wrong.

Although continuing to express his concerns, he joined Alan and Ellie on the park tour along with lawyer Donald Gennaro and Hammond's grandchildren Lex and Tim. During this tour, the group came across a sick triceratops and abandoned the vehicles. Upon the arrival of a tropical storm the group, save Ellie, returned to the tour cars and began their journey back to the visitor centre.

While this was happening Dennis Nedry, the parks computer specialist and program designer, shut down the security systems in order to smuggle embryos out to a Biosyn operative. Due to the shut down, the tour behicles came to a stop outside the T-Rex paddock and the Rex was able to escape her enclosure due to the fences being unpowered.

The Rex attacked the car containing Lex and Tim, the same car that Gennaro had abandoned. In an effort to rescue the children, Ian was wounded by the Rex and knocked unconscious. He was later found by Ellie and game warden Robert Muldoon, and returned to the visitor centre where he received what minimal treatment that he could. When it was decided that they would completely shut down the parks remaining systems, Hammond ordered everyone to the emergency bunker while it was rebooted. It was in this emergency bunker that Ian spent the remainder of his time on the island until they were able to contact the mainland and have a helicopter sent for them.

After the incident on the island, things took a bad turn for Ian. After trying to go public with what had happened, Ian was discredited by Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow. Ludlow went to great lengths to make Ian appear insane which resulted in Ian losing his university tenure. His book only made matters worse as it was a direct violation of the non-disclose agreement he had signed after leaving the island. However, despite this, he managed to establish a relationship with Sarah Harding, an accomplished paleontologist.

Four years after the events on Nublar, Ian was contacted by Hammond who asked him to document the remaining dinosaurs living on Isla Sorna, Site B. Ian adamantly refused until he learned that Hammond had also contacted Sarah and that she was already on the island. Declaring it now a rescue mission, Ian began working with a team to prep for a journey to Sorna. It was during this time that his daughter Kelly was left in his care by her mother and, not wanting to be left behind, stowed away in the trailer.

After finding Sarah on the island, and discovering that Kelly had stowed away, his priority became removing the ones he loved from the island, fearing what would happen to them. The group, however, saw the arrival of another InGen group and discovered that Ludlow was rounding up dinosaurs for transport to the mainland so that they could appear in Jurassic Park San Diego. While he stayed in the trailer to contact a nearby boat, Sarah and fellow team member Nick Van Own went to free the captured dinosaurs and ended up bringing an injured baby T-Rex back to the trailer. This attracted the parents of the baby to the trailers and they attack the group, pushing the trailers off of the cliff and killing Eddie Carr. They are rescued by the InGen group who also found Kelly in the high-hide where Ian had hid her. The two teams teamed up to access an abandoned facility in the islands centre in order to contact the mainland.

After much difficulty Ian, Sarah, and Kelly reach the facility but are attacked by raptors. After fighting them off, they ran for the helicopter that had been called by Nick who had reached the facility before them. As they flew from the island, they saw the mother T-Rex sedated and loaded for transport to the mainland.

After reaching the mainland Ian and Sarah made their way to the docks to try and stop the arrival of the ship carrying the Rex. However they could not contact the ship due to all the crew members having been killed during the journey. The ship crashed into the dock releasing the Rex onto the San Diego streets. Realising that she was looking for her baby who was also in San Diego, Ian and Sarah learn from Ludlow that the baby was being held at the San Diego attraction. They go and retrieve the baby, using it to lure the mother Rex back to the boat and into the cargo hold before the authorities can kill her. Ludlow is killed by the baby T-Rex in the cargo hold. The ship is then escorted back to Isla Sorna where the Rex family live in peace.

Many years later, after the fall of Jurassic World and just before the imminent destruction of Isla Nublar by Mt Sibu, Ian appeared before the senate declaring his belief that the volcano eruption was a way of nature correcting itself, and that the remaining dinosaurs should be left to go extinct. After they were rescued and released onto the mainland, he appeared before the senate again declaring "welcome to Jurassic World."

By the events of Dominion, he is working as an in house philosopher for Biosyn. Sometime between the events of Isla Sorna and working for Biosyn, he had two more children.

Alan and Ellie bios coming soon

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

Cornley Lore

hello everyone. i was desperate to get a little bit more of an idea of what cornley is like as a town for fic purposes, so i analysed the tptgw and ppgw programs (provided by @cornleypolytechnicgoeswrong) until 3am to scour for as much information as i could (as well as a bit of other general stuff from tgws and stuff). i got a lot of info and thought it might be helpful for fanfic writers (although obviously none of this stuff you have to accept as canon) and anyone else who’s just curious. if anyone notices anything i missed, feel free to add on!

so without further ado, here you are — an overview of the locations, events, organisations and lesser known citizens of cornley.

Confirmed places in the Cornley Polytechnic

Cornley Polytechnic Gymnasium — due to a clerical error, the RSC's production of Equus was performed here, instead of The Murder At Haversham Manor, which managed to get to the Duccess Theatre in the West End

Cornley Polytechnic Quad — Nadia (the real-life crocodile originally brought in for Peter Pan) roamed the quad for four hours after escaping from her shipping crate. The Magic of Lisbon, a show by the CPDS, was set to perform here.

Cornley Halls of Residence — only info about this is that Dennis does not stay here, and instead commutes from his parent's house.

Cornley Science Block — where Nadia the crocodile was finally killed by police (RIP Nadia, you will be missed).

Cornley Canteen — there's a note from the canteen staff in Haversham Manor apologising to the people who ate the vegetarian lasagna, as it was actually just regular lasagna.

Places that are not confirmed to be part of the polytechnic, but I think possibly could be.

Cornley Football Fields — A CPDS production of The Snowman was to be performed here.

Cornley Upstairs Place — A production of it's just not cricket was performed here (Max played the role of Glen). I was thinking this possibly could be part of the pub (info below) as that seems to be common.

Other Locations

Cornley High Street — presumably the main street. The location of the Cornley Sunam Balti House (see below).

Cornley Sunam Balti House — located on the Cornley High Street. Sandra has a "successful modelling career" here. During the rehearsals for Haversham Manor, the CPDS came here to eat some vindaloo, causing everyone to feel discomfort from the spice, and even caused Dennis to be sick in the bathrooms.

Unnamed pub — Annie's uncle is the owner of this. The CPDS had to "take a room" from it so as to create the manor setting.

Unnamed church — a room (with an alter) was "taken" by the CPDS to create the manor setting (with the alter being used as the props table).

Cornley Public Park — Robert took 400 electric fans here to perform a show of Wind in the Willows. Two days later, he returned with the fans, as well as 400 pillows from the retirement home (see below) to put on a production of Wind in the Pillows.

Cornley Retirement Home — a day after Robert's production of Wind in the Willows, he came here with the fans to perform a production of Wind in the Widows.

Multiple mountain-biking tracks — Jonathan utilises these.

Unidentified place to kayak — also utilised by Jonathan.

The Student's Union — life drawing is held here on Tuesdays (Annie is the model)

Upper Cornley Primary School — students from here are part of the Cornley Youth Theatre (see below). Implies that this is where Lucy goes/went to.

Grange-over-Sands Primary School — where Sandra went to school. At age 6, she performed in the school's production of The Good Samaritan.

Unidentified theatre — this one wasn't in the program, but I'm assuming there has to be a theatre somewhere? It is implied that in the earlier years, CPDS shows were performed in areas around the polytechnic, but I'm assuming there is some sort of theatre. Maybe installed after those particular shows?

Unidentified studio — also my own addition. In Play of the Week, Chris says the episodes are being performed "here in Cornley", meaning there has to be some sort of studio.

Newspapers

The Cornley Student Gazette — reviewed the CPDS's production of Hamlet, saying "There's no question this was a production... from beginning to end". Most likely a newspaper run by the polytechnic.

The Cornley Coronet — reviewed Hamlet, saying "In all my years as a reviewer I've never seen anything else like it"

The Cornley Express — their reporter, Jason Matthews, only came to review Hamlet because he was told there would be cake. He is essentially kidnapped by the CPDS.

Events

Little Miss Cornley competition — Sandra won this in 1998

Cornley Christmas Lights — has since been cancelled because it caused a national blackout, hence causing a parliamentary legislation against Cornley.

Other groups/societies/organisations

Emote Theatre Company — another local theatre company that Jonathan has performed in. Their productions seem to be sports based (eg. A Midsummer Night's Stamina, where the cast pedalled exercise bikes for the whole 2 hour production).

Cornley Youth Theatre — an organisation that takes students from the Upper Cornley Primary School and gives them opportunities in acting. Robert is the head of the CYT, and Lucy is one of the actors (implying the character is a lot younger than Ellie Morris is, presumably still a student?)

Cornley Scout Group — Chris did a production of Strindberg's Dream Play with them (Jonathan was also in it, presumably because of his sportiness).

Sing Up Choir — the ASM's in the PPGW program (Jill Jones and Phil Phillips) are part of this.

Citizens of Cornley

Mr Harwood — head of Design Technology at Cornley Polytechnic. Described Haversham Manor as "very interesting". Was hospitalised after Nadia the crocodile injured him in her rampage.

Mr Greaves — chief of the Cornley Volunteer Police Force. Described Haversham Manor as "rather unsettling".

Jason Matthews — reporter for the Cornley Express. Was locked in after being promised cake and not finding any at Hamlet.

Ben McIntyre — member of the CYT that went missing on an excursion to New Forest after Robert failed to do a head count, along with his fellow member Sarah Cordell.

Sarah Cordell — see above

David Grimboard — local conservative ex-politician. Performed a one-man reading of Le Miserable (yes that's how they spell it in the program, don't get mad at me) for the CPDS.

The McIntyre and Cordell families — Robert apologised to them for the disappearance of their children.

Annie's uncle — owns the pub.

Presumably family members of the CPDS, although saying that Dennis commutes from his parents house implies that they might possibly live further away? We have a few canon names for some family members, but it is unconfirmed whether they actually live in Cornley.

[lea-andres]

Because I'm in a Denny's with my fiancé and thinking super hard about my lore (but not hard enough to keep writing When the Day Met the Night 😬) let's run through some of the more disastrous events of my (main) fic series. (@notquitejosh , we don't talk about the planned sequels to WtDMtN often, you might be interested in this.)

This got extremely long LMAO so it's in the read more.

- This is extremely minor, but I do want to bring up that Fang, Mina, and Bean absolutely destroy Mina's ex Manager's sports car. They don't exactly Street Fighter it, but they WRECK the thing. (When the Day Met the Night)

- Eggman kidnaps the winner of the fighting tournament to attempt to build robots based off of them, similar to the Android Shadows. This backfires when the winner gets substituted for someone else without his knowledge and the robots are rendered USELESS. (When the Day Met the Night)

- Eggman turns Triple S into Werehogs. They get loose, destroy his base, and escape into the world. (Unnamed Werehog fic)

- The Werehogs start destroying cities and attacking people. GUN wants to shoot them, the Restoration wants to capture them and cure them. (Unnamed Werehog fic)

- Jewel tries to set up a trap for Shadow where all the power characters jump the guy, and it failed, resulting in lots of broken bones for the power characters. (Unnamed Werehog fic.)

- Infinite is pardoned for his war crimes so he can get Shadow under control. (Unnamed Werehog fic.)

- Silver almost kills Espio while a Werehog. (Unnamed Werehog fic)

- Restoration HQ gets wrecked by Werehogs. (Unnamed Werehog fic)

- Eggman Nega attempts to conquer the Acorn Kingdom (which I stuck in the Sol Dimension because fuck Canon.), And the Sol Emeralds yoink all of the girls (and Infinite, LOL) and tosses them at Blaze to form a lesbian pirate crew with and stop Nega. (Unnamed Lesbian Pirates fic)

- Bark's Mom almost gets North Island destroyed by Eggman because she sucks. (Miserably Loving You)

- Infinite starts teaching Jewel how to be a bad bitch. Really ends up being disastrous for Bark's Mom more than anyone else, but Infinite had fun. (Miserably Loving You)

- I don't want to reveal the context of why this is disastrous, but Bean goes on a date with a girl. Yes, BEAN. (Miserably Loving You)

- Mephiles attempts to seize control of Espio's mind. (???)

- Mephiles tricks Sonic and Co into doing a thing that eliminates half of the life on the planet. (The Catalyst)

- Mephiles loses his powers and turns into a normal mortal hedgehog, and Silver starts dragging him around to make him fix this. (The Catalyst)

- Jewel breaks Mephiles's nose. Really only disastrous to Mephiles, but I personally love it so it makes the cut. (The Catalyst)

- INFINITE FUCKING DIES. DOES THE DOG DIE IN MY FIC VERSE YES IT DO. (The Catalyst)

- GUN takes Shadow and ???'s DNA (because I'm a bitch, I will say one person has correctly guessed who ??? Is. And @bitter-sweet-coffee knows, LOL) and makes a supersoldier kid (Chaos Specimen #91) they pump full of mind control serum to ensure they have 100% control of them constantly. (Project Chaos Specimen)

- Shadow finds out CS91 is his kid, and he and Omega level a GUN lab, take her, and go on the run. Shadow names her Maria, take a wild guess as to why you'll never get it. 😂 (Project Chaos Specimen)

- Maria, Rosella (Tails's kid, long story), and Briar (Whisper and Tangle's kid, they adopt him.) All meet. (Project Chaos Specimen)

- Briar steals and crashes the Marvelous Queen a couple of times. (Sequel to Project CS)

- The kids run away to bring Infinite back to life. (Sequel to Project CS)

That's all I can think of now, LOL.

[outoftowninac]

LUCKY STIFF

1988

Lucky Stiff is a musical by Stephen Flaherty with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens based upon the 1983 book The Man Who Broke the Bank in Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth. 

It was the first produced collaboration between Flaherty and Ahrens, who went on to great success with Ragtime (1998), Once on This Island (1990), Seussical (2000) and other hit shows. 

The musical takes place in England, Atlantic City and Monte Carlo. The time is now, or very recently.

Downtrodden English shoe salesman Harry receives the unexpected news that he has inherited a fortune from his late Uncle Anthony, on the condition that he takes Anthony’s dead body on a special trip to Monte Carlo. If Harry fails, the money will go to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. However, also hot on the tail of Uncle Anthony’s money is Rita, Anthony’s lover with whom he embezzled $6 million behind her husband’s back. And hot on Rita’s trail is her brother Vinnie, who has been blamed for the crime.

‘LUCKY’ PRODUCTION HISTORY

Lucky Stiff was created and first performed off-Broadway Playwrights Horizons  in April 1988, winning the Richard Rodgers Award. The show starred Stephen Stout, Julie White, Stuart Zagnit and Mary Testa.

The musical was next produced at Maryland’s Olney Theatre in May 1989, starring Evan Pappas, winning the 1990 Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical. 

A 1994 studio cast recording included Pappas, Judy Blazer, Testa, Jason Graae, Debbie Shapiro Gravitte, Paul Kandel and Patrick Quinn.

In 1994, the musical had its British debut in the midlands, and in 1997 it had a West End production starring Frances Ruffelle, Paul Baker, and Tracie Bennett.

In October 2003, it was presented as part of York Theatre's Musicals in Mufti concert series, starring Zagnit, Testa, Malcolm Gets, and Janet Metz.

A feature film version of Lucky Stiff premiered at the 2014 Montreal World Film Festival. It stars Dominic Marsh, Don Amendolia, Nikki M. James, Jason Alexande, Mary Birdsong, and Dennis Farina. 

THE ATLANTIC CITY CONNECTION

In a prologue, the chorus sets the scene in a song titled “Something Funny’s Going On”:

ALL (sung): Something funny’s going on And it isn’t very pretty.  This is how it all began, With the murder of a man.  Bang! RITA shoots HARRY (spoken): Oops! ALL (sung): In Atlantic City, New Jersey.

After opening scenes set in England, the action shifts to Atlantic City, New Jersey, home of Rita LaPorta, whose late husband was manager of an (unnamed) Atlantic City casino. 

SOLICITOR to HARRY: “Due to an unfortunate accident, your Uncle, Mr. Tony Hendon of Atlantic City, New Jersey, has passed on. Apparently, casino managers do quite well in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In US dollars, Mr.  Witherspoon, a currency I find highly distasteful, your Uncle left you...six millions dollars!” 

Rita is presented as the typical New Jersey Italian-American mob wife in the style of Carmella Soprano in “The Sopranos” or Angela DeMarco in Married to the Mob. Rita is extremely nearsighted, but luckily, her brother Vinny Di Ruzzio is an optometrist at Atlantic City Optometry. 

VINNIE to a PATIENT: “Is this your first visit to Atlantic City Optometry, Mr. Loomis?”

A production at University of Southern Oregon included a poster for the business. The poster gives the address as Baltic Avenue in Atlantic City. The real road was immortalized in the game Monopoly! Since it is the cheapest property on the board, we can assume Vinny’s practice is not exactly catering to an upscale cliental. 

Rita barges into her brother’s office brandishing a newspaper. In the film version, the newspaper masthead reads Atlantic City Bugle. This is a fictional newspaper. Atlantic City Press was (and is) the newspaper of record in the shore town. 

Rita enlists her brother’s help in tracking down the heart-shaped box of diamonds she stole.  Off they go to the south of France, leaving Atlantic City behind. The city by the sea is mentioned again during the play’s climactic ending. 

RITA, pointing a gun at ANNABEL: “Where is that heart-shaped box?” ANNABEL: “It’s...it’s in Atlantic City!” 

DEAD UNCLE TONY, confessing: “I knew that bullet that killed Luigi was meant for me. I owed the guy. So I came up with a plan, fast. I planted my own obituary in the Atlantic City papers so people would think I was dead.” 

‘LUCKY’ / AC NJ TRIVIA

Atlantic City was not included in the original book, which is set exclusively in Europe. It was the innovation of Lynn Ahrens to ground the show in the United States before moving the action to the Continent. Las Vegas being further afield, Atlantic City it was!  

Flaherty and Ahrens returned to Atlantic City as a setting in Ragtime. Click here to read about it!  

The film cast includes several prominent actors from New Jersey: Jason Alexander (Livingston) and Nikki James (Summit), as well as Don Amendolia (Woodbury), Mary Birdsong (Long Beach Island), and Wesley Taylor (Elizabeth). Stage performers from New Jersey include Stuart Zagnit (New Brunswick) and Judy Blazer (Dover). 

Although Lucky Stiff has not to date been performed on Broadway, it has had several New Jersey community, college, and high school productions. 

The first time the musical was heard at the Dramatists Guild workshop, the authors were told to start again from scratch. The original piece wasn't funny enough or silly enough. Stephen Flaherty says that there are basically two completely different scores for for the show; before, and after the workshop. Annie Golden played Annabelle in the workshop. 

Ahrens found her copy of Butterworth's novel at sale of old books from the Pierpont Morgan Library. Interestingly, the Morgan Library figures prominently in the climax of Ragtime, another F&A musical. 

The character of Annabelle Glick was originally named Annabelle Smith.  

The song "Times Like This" was written to replace another song called "I Wouldn't Waste My Time" that was deemed too sad. The song "Times Like This" is featured on Christiane Noll's album A Broadway Love Story.

[noxtms]

IN CHARACTER DATE : december 25th, 2020. TRIGGER WARNINGS : n / a.

( at first, nothing. )

a woman screams. she is crouched before the veil, supporting the non existent weight of a skeleton - no, no, a man, so naked and emaciated that he passes too well - both arms wrapped around him, pulling him, trying to force him to his feet even while she struggles to get her own beneath her. cloaked figures stagger forwards across ancient stone, just as disoriented, taking him from her so that she can rise, shakily, to her feet. 

( SUDDENLY : EVERYTHING. )

she lunges. looks as if she's about to fall. doesn't. she is desperately trying to reach for the items that lie before the archway, her fingers extending, the edge of a silvery wisp of fabric just barely within her grasp when a jagged jet of red light collides with her arm. another explodes against the ground. another. 

figures - uncloaked, eyes wide, ferocious, shoulders squared, wands drawn - flood the room and take it all in. the destruction. the sight of the others who are only now beginning to rise. bellatrix scrambles backwards, clutching her arm to her, unheard of fear tinging her expression. a tall man with a long, dirtied beard raises his wand again -

they disapparate. all of them. everyone dressed in black disappears, only one extending a hand to grab onto her shoulder and take her with him, the last scream of protest echoing in the chamber. the man is gone too. has been brought. he looked dead. 

( lungs fill - oh god, oh god, they might explode - everything feels red, raw, fire, burning - ) 

beyond the archway stands another man, his shoulders hunched, damp & ragged long hair covering one side of his face. he looks like someone. someone known, once. someone remembered. someone who never appeared on the other side like he was supposed to. they are so alike that it is jarring, sets teeth on edge, forces you to look desperately for just one difference, just the one to set them apart - if he smiled, it would light his face so differently. not charming. shy. it isn't him, but if it isn't, then who is it? 

he jolts when the others realize he's there, a deer caught in headlights. his chest rises and falls, rises as if he is gulping air for the first time in years, like a drowning man who has just stumbled from the grasp of murky waters, every exhale hurried so he can inhale again, sharply. 

not him. 

not sirius.

someone moves. does not brandish a wand, just makes as if they are going to move toward him, and then he is gone with a crack. just like the others.

( it is so hard to focus. it is so hard to see. everything hurts - everything blurs - everything twists inside - ) 

a shock of red hair. she's lying so still, again, slumped near to the items abandoned. another redhead on unsteady feet clambers the dais - does not care about these meaningless things the wild woman tried so hard to reach - and pulls her into his lap. "ginny, ginny, ginny-" his whole body shakes. she’s so pale.  

another's hand presses to her neck, and something blossoms in their expression, brightens a face that had turned a horrible shade of grey. "she has a pulse. she’s alive.” 

is she? is she, really? she doesn't look it. no one thinks it. murmurs of how it can't be, it can't be, it isn't possible. 

she doesn’t look it. maybe it isn’t. 

( a whimper slips past broken lips. ) 

"who..." 

( who? ) 

noticed with a gasp. the pounding of footsteps. someone falls to their knees and cold hands press against his skin and he flinches away from the touch because it is still too painful - it is a relief, but it is too much, his skin feels too fresh, and they don't know, or realize, because they are mirroring the action done already, pointlessly searching for a pulse that flutters too fast beneath their fingertips. 

they babble with senseless confusion and others loom above him and he cannot make their features out, cannot see through blurred vision, but they are... warm- familiar- they know him. he knows them. 

"harry-" 

a legacy. a life done before. a name forms on the tip of his tongue, the salve to undoing : 

harry potter.

ROUNDUP OF FATALITIES & INJURIES ( DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY ):

dennis creevey took a stunner to the back & was knocked unconscious. aside from some minor cuts and bruises, he's in perfect health.

aura hargate's knees will have to be put the right way around again, and this in combination with some unnamed curses cast upon her by thorfinn rowle spells a few days in st mungo's for her.

nellie diggory is badly shaken by her experience under the cruciatus, and some additional injury sustained in the chaos of the battle means she will have to spend at least 24 hours under observation on a ward in st mungo's.

alicia spinnet managed to break her ankle in the second tumble that she took, and has some cuts from the glass case that shattered in the elder wands room. her other injuries are fairly minor, sustained in battle, but she will have to take heavy doses of skele-gro for a few days.

luna lovegood is battered and bruised, though the worst injury she seems to have received is the long gash along her arm that rendered it unusable for the latter half of the battle. she won't have to go to st mungo's, so long as she promises to apply a healthy amount of essence of dittany.

hermione granger's cheek was sliced cleanly by an unknown spell, and she has a number of other injuries ranging in severity, including ones sustained from the explosion of glass in the wands chamber, including what may be a shard in the eye - the healers will take a closer look at st mungo's.

ron weasley is shaken up badly by his time under the cruciatus, and sustained a number of other injuries in the battle. some of his ribs were fractured in one of the dives he made to avoid numerous confringo's, and should rest up for a while.

cassia trelawney's right side is badly burned from her dress going up in flames. though they were able to be put out, the damage was quite severe - she'll need to spend an extended time in st mungo's as they work to repair it.

dean thomas will spend at least twenty four hours in an induced coma as mediwizards work to undue the curse placed upon his skull, and reduce it to its normal size. when he awakes, he'll have to spend a few days for observation. the rest of his injuries are mostly superficial.

ginny weasley died, so there's that, but sustained a gash to her head after being caught with a ribboning curse and has a large injury shoulder to torso that will require immediate medical attention. she's fairly battered and bruised, in general, but st mungo's will focus on the former.

percy weasley was tortured for a number of days. he will have to spend as much time as they can keep him in st mungo's to be treated for the injuries he received at the hands of the carrows in addition to the starvation and dehydration from what was withheld from him. the healers think he'll make a full recovery - physically.

ROUNDUP OF FATALITIES & INJURIES ( THE DEATH EATERS ):

mikaela karkaroff is generally fine, though she sustained some minor cuts and bruises in the battle.

niko karkaroff is also relatively okay, though his minor cuts and bruises pale to those his feet suffered following the loss of his shoes. that's what you get for being a death eater, i guess.

hazel graves suffered serious lacerations at the hands of nellie diggory, though a few days in a st mungo's ward having essence of dittany applied regularly to them should heal her right up.

alecto carrow has a concussion from being thrown across the room. she did not take part in the initial battle and would have escaped unscathed if not for this - her brothers nose is broken by the stunner that he took to the face.

antonin karkaroff fared well, but fractured a number of his ribs when he took a serious tumble. he needn't visit st mungo's provided he has a private healer he can trust to take care of him in this time.

helen buchanan was knocked unconscious in a fall and also will have suffered a concussion from it, however, she was unfortunately caught in a blast when one of the stone benches around her exploded. she will need to be treated professionally for these injuries.

WORTH NOTING:

apparition in and out of the department is impossible unless one is travelling with a member of said department, or has been given strict overriding permissions. the death eaters being able to apparate will likely be cause for suspicion, since the order of the phoenix were only able to apparate directly into the department of mysteries due to permission granted by the minister of magic himself. 

cho chang informed the order of what dumbledore’s army was planning as quickly as she could - it wasn’t quick enough to stop what happened, but she’s owed a great thanks for her concern. 

jo diggory & theodore nott, notably unpresent for the past five plot points, are alright. jo was left with cho at number twelve, grimmauld place, needing rest and recuperation to heal from the sectumsempra that hazel graves hit them with. theo was found soon after the battle and revived, and aside from being disoriented - and the use of an unforgivable curse upon him likely to be revisited later - was unharmed. 

OUT OF CHARACTER:

this marks the official end of NOXTMS : PLOT ONE. it’s been a great few months, but trust me - we’re in for some FUN over the next few months and phase ! individuals who had characters that took part in this event are welcome expand on their own re: the injuries sustained that aren’t specified, and we’ll discuss in the discord what our next steps as the dumbledore’s army group is. 

while nox remains at the masquerade, event wise, moving slowly forward through the night to eventually incorporate this - you’re very welcome to start private and public threads dealing with the aftermath if you’d like. all the more for fun ! 

applications for HARRY POTTER & REGULUS BLACK will not be accepted for at minimum seven days, as i don’t intend on letting it be a first come, first serve situation. lord voldemort is understandably joining the ranks as an npc.

THANK YOU SO MUCH ! i’m going to want to make a larger ... thank you speech, later. but thank you all so much for your engagement, and i hope you’ve enjoyed ! 

[ireadyabooks]

Point Paperbacks to Fall in Love With

Sometimes, all you need is to curl up with a romantic paperback! We have the perfect romantic recs for books from our Point Paperbacks line that will have you swooning this Valentine’s Day. 💞

K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee

When Candace secretly enters a global K-Pop competition, the last thing she expects is to actually get a coveted spot in a trainee program. Candace must perfect her performance skills, learn to speak Korean fluently, and navigate the complex hierarchies of her fellow trainees, all while following the strict rules of the industry. Rule number one? NO DATING, which becomes impossible to follow when she meets a dreamy boy trainee. And in the all-out battle to debut, Candace is in danger of planting herself in the middle of a scandal lighting up the K-pop fandom around the world. Is a spot in the most hyped K-pop girl group of all time really worth risking her friendships, her future, and everything she believes in? Start Reading!

Truly, Madly, Royally by Debbie Rigaud

Zora Emerson is not here to play. She’s enrolled in a prestigious summer program, and is ready to use what she’s learning to change the world. Zora’s not expecting to vibe with any of her super-privileged classmates. So she’s shocked to find she’s got chemistry with Owen Whittelsey, who is charming, funny, undeniably cute…and turns out to literally be a prince. As in, his parents are the king and queen of a small European country. What? Suddenly, Zora’s summer is looking a lot more complicated – especially when Owen asks her to be his date at his older brother’s wedding. Can her feelings for Owen, not to mention her sense of self, survive the royal chaos? Start reading!

Maybe This Time by Kasie West

Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas. Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn’t so bad after all. Start reading!

I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

Kimi Nakamura’s mother disapproves of her passion for fashion design, and when they get into an explosive fight, Kimi’s entire future seems on the verge of falling apart. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi’s estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life. And what begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies. Start reading!

The Night of Your Life by Lydia Sharp

All year, JJ’s been looking forward to going to prom with his best friend, Lucy. But nothing goes according to plan and the best night of their lives quickly turns into the worst. That is…until JJ wakes up the next day only to find that it’s prom night all over again. At first, JJ thinks he’s lucky to have the chance to get innumerable chances at perfecting the night of his life. But each day ends badly for him and Lucy, no matter what he does. Can he find a way to escape the time loop and move into the future with the girl he loves? Start reading!

It’s Not Me, It’s You by Stephanie Kate Strohm

Avery Dennis is a high school senior and one of the most popular girls in her class. But a majorly public breakup with the guy she’s been dating causes some disastrous waves. It is right before prom and Avery no longer has the perfect date. Post-breakup, Avery gets to thinking about all of the guys that she has ever dated. Avery decides to investigate: she tracks down all of the guys she’s ever dated, and uses that information, along with the thoughts of her friends, family, and even teachers to compile a total account of her dating history. Avery discovers some surprises about herself and the guys she’s spent time with just in time for prom night! Start reading!

Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West

When Kate’s best friend, Alana, convinces Kate to join their high school’s podcast, Kate is not expecting to be chosen as the host. But to Kate’s surprise, she turns out to be pretty good at the hosting gig. Then the podcast gets in a call from an anonymous guy, asking for advice about his unnamed crush. Kate is pretty sure that the caller is gorgeous Diego Martinez, and even surer that the girl in question is Alana. Kate is excited for her friend … until Kate herself starts to develop feelings for Diego. Suddenly, Kate finds that while doling out wisdom to others may be easy, asking for help is tougher than it looks, and following your own advice is even harder. Start reading!

Snow in Love by Melissa de la Cruz, Nic Stone, Aimee Friedman, and Kasie West

It’s still summer, but we’re already looking forward to the holidays and snuggling up with a mug of hot chocolate! So what’s better than one deliciously cozy, swoon-worthy holiday story? Four of them! Snow in Love is an adorable, wintry collection of four short stories about the romance of the holiday season, from some of today’s bestselling YA authors. Start reading!

[kimyoonmiauthor]

What Harry Potter Got Wrong about Orphans and Adoption.

So, given the TERF that terfed all terfs. And given that I don’t want to profit from a terf... I’m posting this essay I did on Rowling I intended to originally post for a Magazine on how to write adoptees and adoption, but it fell through. Maybe we can learn something?

BTW, written before she went off the deep end of TERFing. Like 2007-ish or earlier. So this was before she went off about Native American Gods. Before she TERFed. And before she did some weird retconning --what I now call a Rowling... BTW, if you’re looking for a roast fest--this isn’t it. Credit to my wonderful voluntary, unpaid, though I tried to pay her Writer’s Assistant for the Harry Potter quotes. I couldn’t have done this essay without her.

The top reason that writers put in adoption or orphans into stories is because they feel that it will simplify the story for them. When I asked two different group of writers, the answer was almost universally the same, they felt that putting in an orphan should simplify the story. This, too, was the case with Harry Potter. JK Rowling explained this in 1999 when she was writing Harry Potter still in a Guardian interview, "...but Harry HAD to be an orphan - so that he's a free agent, with no fear of letting down his parents, disappointing them?" But unlike the previous adoption stories, JK Rowling have a fair amount of adopted persons and orphans, mostly intrafamily adopted.

Harry falls into the writer trap of the closer the blood ties, the less likely there will be attachment problems between child and care giver. This tradition started out with Brothers Grimm who changed many of the parents to step-parents. (The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, Maria Tatar, p. 36) Also that in abuse, which is frequently associated with adoption, that it will make the orphan free to do what they like. However, this assumption is an error. Children by their nature want to please their caregivers no matter what relation they are. In the case of adding emotional and sometimes physical abuse that Harry endures, it does not free him from trying to please his guardians, the Dursleys. Being an orphan is not the key to being a "free agent" and the idea that adoption, in this case intrafamily adoption could simplify matters is in error. Harry Potter was an orphan left on the doorstep of his Aunt and Uncle's, the Dursleys by the Head Master of Hogwarts. This was after the sudden death of his parents. It is unlikely that the Dursleys would be automatically allowed to raise him and get guardianship, despite what the story says. On the British government website, it says that in order to adopt there has to be legal proceedings.

The steps of this include several visits from a social worker, at least three references with two outside references, preparation classes, a police check, and a full medical examination. They also have to register through an adoption agency and then apply for a court order which can take up to eight months. (https://www.gov.uk/child-adoption/adoption-assessment)

Even in the case where there is a step parent, the assessment still takes place for the family and consent has to be given. (https://www.gov.uk/child-adoption/adopting-a-stepchild)

This means the Potters, by no indication, had a will to give Harry up to the Dursleys, would make a far less likely that Harry would be placed in an abusive home. Add to that the fact that Harry's Aunt has a history of disliking her sister, they made Harry live below the stairs, and neither Mr. or Mrs Dursley have shown throughout the series to have any sort of patience with Harry, and the initial adoption looks even less likely.

Writing that one can be left on a doorstep disenfranchises the entire adoption community and the government who has tried hard to give a second chance to children like Harry. It ignores the parents that waited for those eight months, the feelings of abandonment that can manifest in some adopted people, as well as the care and thought that relinquishing parents may have for their child's welfare. Adoption is not a fictional object such as a dragon--it impacts real people and real lives.

However, this problem also continues because it ignores the fact that by adding two guardians to the story, there are more rather than less characters previously. Adding more characters is more, not less complex. There are Harry's parents, Harry's Aunt and Uncle and by proxy, his Aunt and Uncle's child. This means there were three characters added instead of the original three. This also means for each character there has to be at least a personality and background added for each character, if one is to be fair. This means in total, JK Rowling had to do more work rather than less work because now instead of three characters to work on she has six characters to work on, thus doubling her load.

Often adoption is combined with abuse in fiction and Harry Potter was no different.

Harry was abused emotionally.

“Now, you listen here, boy.” he snarled. “I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured – and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion – asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types – just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end-” Chapter 4 pg 46 (Uncle Vernon)

And he was abused physically through neglect.

"Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age." Chapter 2 Pg20

This continues such that the Dursleys treat Harry as he is not there once Harry gets the upper hand.

"Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun. True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything or shout at him- in fact, they didn't speak to him at all. Half- terrified, half-furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it was empty." Chapter 6 pg 67 The idea is that the adoption puts distance between the child and their caretakers, thus they must love them less. But this assumption talks about the amount of love based on title, rather than love is universal despite title, which would be a positive message for children to have--that title does not matter in the amount of love one can give or receive. In fact, this was one message I, personally, did receive from adoption, but I still see the myth continued, especially through fiction that title matters on quantity rather than the type or quality of love.

Abuse of a child, psychological, emotional or neglect does not mean that the child will become a free agent to decide what they want. Often children from such circumstances become overly compliant, withdrawn and passive. They can become hyper vigilant and have learning problems.

(https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/signs.cfm) This would make Harry, in the case of the systemic and relentless abuse of the Dursleys more dependent and less of a free agent as JK Rowling intended.

Despite this, credit does have to be given to Ms. Rowling in fixing the adoption issues in the last book of the series, though this does not completely turn the tide for the other six books. This most likely came about because Voldemort, the top villain of the book was also described as an orphan. So along with Voldemort, Ms. Rowling added Amy Benson, Dennis Bishop, Ted Lupin, Billy Stubbs, an unnamed Orphan and Eric Whaley. (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Orphans) Only Ted Lupin is fleshed out and talked about as having a happy intrafamily relationship, which is only reflected on by Harry at the end of the seventh Harry Potter book. This would make it pass the more than one orphan and the polarized orphan syndrome, but just barely and maybe barely doesn't really count if dropped in at the last minute.

This makes Harry the principal character with which adoption ideas are drawn from with the second character being Neville Longbottom, whose grandmother is very strict with him, which undermines his self-confidence initially. This makes both adopted people in the book someone to pity and built on false assumptions of how adoption works.

Neither character are really given a chance to show what a loving, supportive family would be like, which may actually make Harry more, rather than less of a free agent as JK Rowling initially stated. Harry's confidence would boost which would give him the power, as shown in the books, to try new things, dare to rise up and be more consistent for his character development. There would be less characters overall that would have to be mentioned.

This series does manage to avoid many of the traps of writing orphans, but only achieves this at the very last book in a sweeping last minute save, which is worth noting, however, that means that for the span the books were written the titular character of Harry and eventually Neville's home life influenced how orphans were viewed.

This goes to show that not only does adoption complicate the plot with the addition of characters, but it also does not make any character more or less of a free agent to do what they want when they want it. They are still beholden to their parents, alive or dead. And that abuse has nothing to do with adoption, so should not be combined as an excuse, especially if one wants to make the child free to make healthy decisions for themselves. *** Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept. Chapter 2 pg20Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. Chapter 2 Pg20

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug. Chapter 2 pg 22Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats – but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house,too. Chapter 2 pg.19

“I'm warning you,” he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, “I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.” Chapter 2 pg.23 ( Uncle Vernon)

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Chapter 2 pg27

“Get the post, Dudley,” said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. “Make Harry get it.” “Get the post, Harry.” “Make Dudley get it.” “Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley.” Chapter 3 Pgs 29-30

“I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?” Chapter 3 pg 31 (Uncle Vernon)

Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun – last year, the Dursleys had given a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. Chapter 3 pg 36 ( Harry Potter)

“Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as – as- abnormal – and then,, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!” (Aunt Petunia)

Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, “Blown up? You old me they died in a car crash!” Chapter 4 pg. 44

“Now, you listen here, boy.” he snarled. “I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured – and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion – asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types – just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end-” Chapter 4 pg 46

(Uncle Vernon)Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun. True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't' stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything or shout at him- in fact, they didn't speak to him at all. Half- terrified, half-furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it was empty. Chapter 6 pg 67

[theewrites-tf2]

(Kudos to @teamfortressaswell for the idea, OC REVIVAL FOR 2020!!!)

OC information of Theewrites, ENJOY Y’ALL!

WARNING: LONG, LOOOOOONG POST AHEAD! (And I info-dump alot, so be prepared for some heavy reading material)

(Also, not all of these backstories/OC canon’s are set in stone, and i’m still doing research on their respective characterizations/lifestyles/ect. they’re still in the editing/drafting process, but these are the basics of some of my older OC’s that you may know… and some of my NEW Oc’s that you may NOT know…. Yet, Mwhahaha!)

Regine: Eldest abandoned & disowned daughter of the RED Spy. Born in Marseilles, France, Parisian-raised until five years of age. Vanished suddenly for nearly a decade, resurfaced in Japan as an assassin prodigy at fifteen. Is totally not soft on her half-siblings, but is totally soft on her half-siblings. Cool, regal and calculated, plans to have the world in the palm of her hand before she hits 30. Long-time girlfriend of Matthias, identifies as pan. Has lost her temper one (1) time in her lifetime, immediately went to reapply lipstick afterwards like nothing happened. Definitely has night-terrors about her childhood, doesn’t discuss them with Matthias, and absolutely takes those nightmares to the grave.

Matthias: Unauthorized clone of the RED Medic, is physically near-identical to him with only minor changes and a stark age-reduction. Has considered bleaching/dying his hair to look more different than his predecessor. Expert in human biology and chemistry, experimented with his own blood cells so to transform them into a more… internal version of the components of the Medi-Gun, so as not to carry around clunky equipment. Is the low-key tired dad of the group. Probably designate roadtrips with the squad and immediately regrets it. Romantic-dork for his girl,  Best Supporting Boyfriend 197X.

Emma: Daughter of Ex-MannCo employee, Julia V. Henry and [REDACTED]. Legal goddaughter of Dell Congher. Child-genius, though deep-seated anger issues since childhood, potentially as a behavior coping tragedy. Built her first plane with her bare hands at twelve, can dismantle and rebuild a shotgun in exactly 63 seconds. Doesn’t wear helmets on motorcycle. Feels happiest flying in the air, alone. Absolutely, 100% adores kids, and will never admit it. Can’t go more than a minute without cursing. Also, though not information she shares immediately, she’s an elder twin. And she doesn’t like talking about it, so it’s best not to push her luck on the details.

Lui: Ultimate flower/pastel lesbian. Fluent in Japanese and English, though prefers her mother’s language, Hawaiian. Brings snacks to battle, often rehearses her battle catchphrases the night before. Makes friends with every animal she meets, owns a duck named Bartholomew. Reads teen fashion magazines, draws hearts around models she crushes on. Almost everything she owns has pink, no matter what shade, including her rocket launcher. Shares Emma’s love of the sky, is basically Emma’s favorite person. Infectious genuine smile, and will sing along to every new bop on the radio.

Tamela: The eldest out of the entire group, born in Nigeria, doesn’t know her parents. Considers her squad her family, Emma and Lui are her baby sisters, who can MORE than handle themselves but she still worries. Was gifted with abilities of fire-manipulation/telekinesis and heat resistance at a young age. Entire body, from knuckles to toes, is covered in jet-black flame tattoos. Demisexual, has not been in a romantic relationship as of yet, likely to change. Improvo leader, often first into battle and last to leave. Looks imposing and intense at first glance, is actually very warm (haha) and friendly personality-wise, but has a serious streak from having to grow up quickly.

Denny: Mute from birth, youngest of the group. Has never missed a shot in his life, expert target-shooter and excellent sniping protege. Definitely idolizes Annie Oakley, dressed up as her one year for Halloween.  Often corrects Emma’s sign-language, but appreciates her efforts. Like Tamela, see’s the group as his family, sticking together through thick and thin. Likes to hike, but also enjoys reading, keeping a raggy, decades-old copy of Sherlock Holmes in his knapsack, right next to his additional ammo.

Ricardo: Born Rosetta, the youngest of a fairly well-off hotel-chain family business throughout Tijuana, Mexico. Was often the forgotten one and left to his own devices, so he practiced running, dreaming of being an Olympic runner. Became Ricardo at 15, traveled to the US a year later. A bit boastful and chatty, though is often last to get a joke. Had a crush on Lui for sometime, before reconnecting with an old schoolmate, Maria, who he plans to move back to Mexico with after his job is done. Hasn’t given up on the dreams of the Olympics, often wakes up long before the sun rises to run laps around.

Sigríður Anja Dis Jóhannsson, or just Sig: Operational MannCo. Shipment Specialist Expert, has been on the payroll for only the last decade, but has become invaluable with the knowledge she has. Born in Iceland, has traveled the world on specialized shipment and cargo missions, even in more dangerous missions and item-requests. Has had to play poker for her own life, more than once. Single and childless, though she took care of her half-sisters children when she died suddenly, her niece and nephews now all grown up and located elsewhere. Sig is happy to travel alone on the open seas, though she’s had more than a fair amount of lovers around the world, men and women alike. Looks forward to retirement, hopefully with someone more long-term whose also ready to lean back, put away the balisong and let the kids take care of the damn gravel pit…

Jonathan Marks: Born Jane to wealthy stockbroker located in Manhattan, Jonathan is the promising CEO of Marks Enterprises, an international trading and environmental-studies. As the youngest CEO of his company, he’s expressing interest to making big changes, including looking into MannCo, hoping to form a co-ownership or eventually takeover, mostly for the sake of his own company, but the fact that MannCo seems to have a few secrets in the closet that seem suspicious… Jonathan knows Regine from childhood, as they both attended the same private school in Japan, prior to Jonathan’s transition. Very book-smart, often tries to lead by example, he’s persistent with getting a meeting with representatives of MannCo, growing more suspicious as time goes on with dodged replies, forcing him to contact a current employee for an opportunity of a private tour of their facilities, one Miss. Binyamin-M’laney

Angelita de los Reyes: Second-generation of Cuban immigrants, Angelita was considered one of the kindest, sweetest people while in school in New Jersey, unfortunately, her studies were often halted as she suffers from CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) leaving her exhausted before noon often times, though she managed to graduate with a specialty in painting. Though she turned mostly house-ridden after high school, she honestly enjoys spending her day painting and creating art to decorate the family-restaurant downstairs, and also sending her artwork to commissioners all over the state. It also gives her time to send plenty of letters to one of her oldest and closest friends from high-school. He was VERY much higher than her in energy, and could literally run blocks in minutes, but they practically grew up together, at least until he moved to New Mexico for work… Though, strangely enough, Angelita doesn’t get much information about Eric’s company Builders League United, even though he has a whole CONTRACT with them… Hm. How odd.

Sarai Binyamin-M’laney: Born in Tel Aviv as a Mizrahi Jewish woman, her parents sent her to vacation in California when she was six, in which they died suddenly, leaving her overseas with her relatives in Cambria, California. Book-smart and a lover of the beach and surfing, Sarai was popular throughout her younger years, especially with the ladies. Though she identified as bisexual, it wasn’t until she graduated college with a degree in human relations and psychology that she had her first, though admittedly short-lived relationship with an unnamed man in Vegas, returning to Cambria shortly after and finding out she was pregnant. A year later, Sarai suddenly expressed interest in the minute human-resources division in MannCo, relocating to New Mexico shortly after her employment. Quiet, smart and with a very private personal life, she was a perfect, though secretive employee, with a bit of a soft-heart, as seen with how concerned she is for her ‘niece’ and ‘nephew’ back in Cambria, and how quickly she snuck in Mr Marks into the private industries. Her personality, perhaps, is meant to be a more opposing to that of the father of her two children in Cambria. After all, though she lives mere miles from his work location, Sarai has yet to bring herself to walk over and face the red-suited mercenary over in the RED base, whom she still can’t help but remember from their time together in Vegas.

 I told y’all it was long as hell, Also it alludes to my OC-canon, which is INSANELY long and i’d hate to waste more of y’alls time on my stuff Xp

 Anyway, GO REVIVE THE OC COMMUNITY, PEOPLE HAVE SUCH AWESOME OC’S THAT NEED/DESERVE TO BE SHARED AROUND!!!

[tonysopranosfeverdreams]

31. “Can I kiss you?”thank u @hyruling 💖

“Mac,” he starts, slowly, like explaining something very complicated to a very small child“it’s the middle of August. It’s going to be warm. It’s North Dakota, not the North Pole. There is literally no reason for me to bring a jacket.”

***

Dennis exhales heavily  as he feels the muscles in his back relax slightly underneath the heavy stream of hot water. He had been on edge for the better part of the day, having woken up at barely 5 in the morning, short of breath and only half-remembering his dream. He thinks he had been playing with Brian Jr. in a park that Dennis vaguely remembers from his own childhood, from countless afternoons spent with Dee on a pair of rusty swings during the summer days that their mother would sleep away with a bottle of gin (or wine, or Valium, depending on the particular day) on her pristine designer couch, leaving the twins to find their own sources of entertainment.

In the dream, Dennis remembers hearing Brian’s  delighted laughter, chasing him around the perimeter of the bright red slide that used to be Dennis’s favorite, remembers the sun glaring down so painfully bright that Dennis could barely see, the scene sun-bleached and searing in front of his eyes. Remembers turning the corner where he expected to find Brian, only to find his son was nowhere to be seen.

After trying in vain to fall back asleep for at least another hour, Dennis had  resigned himself to consciousness, opening his eyes to see the curve of Mac’s slightly curved back, inches away from where Dennis himself was resting. Bathed in the gray morning light, Dennis thought he could make out dozens of patterns in the smattering of freckles that covered his strong back and shoulders. He had wondered, absently, why anyone considered them imperfections, even as he remembered always covering his own with a generous layer of foundation, whenever a stray freckle dared to make an appearance after he accidentally spent too long in the sun without his sunscreen.

 Looking down at his soft, wrinkled fingertips, Dennis sighs and steps out of the shower, using a towel to dry off before stepping into a soft pair of sweatpants and  a worn shirt from some High School Baseball team (it must have been Mac’s, he realizes), before emerging into his bedroom.

He is greeted by the sight of Mac, hunched over the bed, fussing with the contents of Dennis’s navy vinyl duffle bag. He raises an eyebrow.

“Dude,” Dennis deadpans “what am I looking at here? Is this, like, some weird panty raid situation? If you were looking for some action, all you had to do was ask.” He ended the sentence with a playful smirk, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.

Mac snorts, looking up at Dennis and grinning at him brightly for just a moment before quickly turning his attention back to the somewhat overstuffed suitcase, already filled with Dennis’s somewhat extensive collection of skincare products, along with all the other essentials  for a couple of weeks out of town. Normally, Mac would tease Dennis by saying that he needed at least three suitcases of his own just to hold his beauty regimen. Dennis, however, knew how Mac liked to watch him sometimes, when they were in the bathroom brushing their teeth for bed  or getting ready for the day, how his eyes would linger over Dennis’s reflection in the mirror as he lightly spread his night moisturizer over his face. Once, when Dennis had gotten really drunk at the bar, but refused to go to bed without finishing his skin care routine,  Mac had actually done it for him, sitting Dennis on the edge of the bathtub as he used the pad of one finger to softly, softly, dab his eye cream under his eyes. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Mac so concentrated, so still.

“In your dreams. Nah, man, it’s just I noticed that you didn’t pack a jacket yet, so I wanted to make sure you had one. I know you get like, cold, sometimes. So. You know.” Mac shrugged easily,  like it was the most natural thing in the world, although Dennis could see a patch of red coloring the tops of his ears. Mac cleared his throat and took out one of Dennis’s plaid button-downs, refolding it somewhat uselessly, before placing it back in the bag. Dennis furrows his brow.

“Mac,” he starts, slowly, like explaining something very complicated to a very small child“it’s the middle of August. It’s going to be warm. It’s North Dakota, not the North Pole. There is literally no reason for me to bring a jacket.”

“ You never know, dude,” Mac plows forward, stubbornly, placing his hands on his hips  as he fixes Dennis with  his most serious look. “I’ve been looking up a lot of weather forecasts for you and it’s like fucking russian roulette. One day it’s sunny, the next it’s snowing. I swear to God man, it’s like they don’t understand seasons out there or something. It’s fucked up.” He pats the neatly jacket lying at the top of the suitcase for emphasis.

Only then does Dennis realize Mac had packed one of his own leather jackets for him, which, although it does somewhat clash with Dennis’s own more elegant, refined fashion sensibilities, is bound to still have the scent of Mac’s cheap body wash and cologne lingering in the lining, and Dennis suddenly doesn’t feel so keen to press Mac further on the subject. Dennis raises his arms in mock surrender.

“Besides,” Mac continues, somehow managing to flatten out Dennis’s belongings enough to pull the zipper shut and flop himself down on the edge of the bed “you’re going to be out there for three weeks, so it’ll most likely be getting colder as time goes on. You’ll thank me later.”

Dennis sighs, sitting next to Mac at the edge of the bed. He didn’t appreciate the reminder of exactly how long he was going to be away. He knew, objectively, three weeks wasn’t a long time, and he had been the one to accept the invitation when Mandy had mentioned the possibility of  him maybe coming up for a few weeks to spend some time with Brian before he started preschool. Brian was his son, and he was charming, funny, and pretty fucking intelligent for a creature that who still wasn’t capable of putting his own shirt on right-side out. And Brian was kind. Even after it had gotten bad, and Dennis locked himself in his room all day, even after he had skipped every therapy appointment for the past three months, and come home at 4 in the morning reeking of alcohol and self-loathing, Brian, for some reason, still wanted to be near him. Brian  was probably one of the only people in the world who, no matter what kind of mood he was in, no matter what new extravagant way he managed to fuck up, still looked at him like he was one of his very favorite people in the world, like he knew that Dennis had something good inside of him still, even when Dennis couldn’t see it. He was the only person who had ever looked at him like that, except for-

“Hey,” Mac mutters, snapping Dennis out of his thoughts. He runs his fingers softly through Dennis’s hair, just pushing it back, before  lightly tapping the side of his brow with two fingers . “Everything okay in there?”

It’s hard for Dennis to put it into words. For the past few months, ever since he and Mac had crossed this unnameable, unmistakable line that they’d been hurtling toward for the past 25 years, Dennis has had a hard time articulating exactly what it is that he is thinking or feeling. The strangest part was how natural, how inevitable it all felt, waking up with some part of Mac’s body touching his, an arm flung over his torso, or his shoulder pressed against his chest;  Mac’s hand wrapping around his during their Lethal Weapon rewatches, thumb running soothingly over his knuckles. They don’t talk about it, and it’s not something they flaunt in public, simultaneously too different and too familiar for them to define, although Dennis suspects the rest of the gang must have picked up on it to some extent- must know them both too well not to have done. It would be easier to explain, comprehend, maybe if it had been more difficult, had come less easily to him.

That year he had been away, he had missed so much.

It’s hard for Dennis to put into words. So he lowers his forehead, resting it on Mac’s shoulder. For a few minutes they sit there in silence, Mac soothingly stroking through the hair at the back Dennis’s neck. Finally, Dennis lifts his head, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand. He’s hit with the sudden reality that the night is about to end, that this is the last time he’s going to get to be alone with Mac for weeks.

“Wanna watch a movie?” he asks, groggily.

Mac glances at the clock on his bedside table, which reads half past midnight. Late, too late for a movie, really, considering Dennis needs to be at the airport by 7 AM for Dennis to catch his flight. Mac looks back at Dennis, studying his face for a moment, considering.

“Sure.” He stands up, offering Dennis his hand and leading him to the living room where he pops in one of their DVDs, some generic 90s action flick. Dennis doesn’t mind. Dennis falls asleep, faced tucked against Mac’s shoulder, during the opening fight sequence.

***

Dennis jolts awake, heart fluttering and bile rising in his throat, remnants of the same dream from the night before floating around his mind; Brian’s laughter, the bright bright light, the incomparable panic, realizing he had vanished. On the other side of the bed, Mac sleeps soundly, his chest rising and falling in a peaceful rhythm. Not trusting himself to lie still, Dennis pads out of bed to the kitchen, where the  oven clock informs him it’s just turned 3. Only  a couple more hours until he has to be awake.

Dennis pours himself a glass of water, and gulps it down, paces as he regulates his breathing, trying to remind himself how to inhale and exhale in a normal fashion.

“Dennis?” a soft, groggy voice calls him from the bedroom doorway, where he sees Mac. Confused, sleep-ruffled, Mac, features softened somewhat from the moonlight pouring in through the bedroom window.

Dennis is still, waits for Mac  to walk over to him, wrap one gentle hand around his wrist.

“Okay,” Mac says.

Mac walks him back to the bedroom, pulling back the covers on Dennis’s side and waiting for him to crawl underneath before he climbs in beside him, folding one arm carefully around Dennis’s waist.

“Mac,” Dennis whispers, an edge of panic creeping into his voice. The arm around his waist tightens.

“Go to sleep, sweetheart.”

Eventually, he does.

***

This time, Dennis wakes to an alarm blaring, and to the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafting in from the kitchen. The other side of the bed is unusually empty, for a change (Mac would always swear to anyone who asked that if God had intended for man to be up before 10 am, he wouldn’t have made it so fucking miserable). He dresses quickly, and emerges to find Mac sitting across from a cup of coffee, presumably for Dennis, while yawning into his own. Mac had apparently snuck out early to  pick up blueberry muffins from the bakery down the street, and Dennis picked at it on their way to the airport, mostly to appease Mac, who was insisting that the only way to fight motion sickness was to fly on a full stomach, something about an article he had read somewhere. He kept one hand on the wheel, resting his others on top of Dennis’s where it lay on his knee.

They end up making it to the airport just in time for Dennis’s flight to board, which was quite honestly a miracle considering the amount of time that Mac had spent fretting over whether Dennis had forgotten anything in his suitcase, almost insisting they stop at a pharmacy to buy Dennis a travel toothpaste before Dennis managed to convince him that Mandy was, in fact, a human person, who almost certainly had toothpaste he could borrow at her place until he managed to get out and get his own.

Their hands stay linked on the long walk to the main entrance,  where Dennis instinctively drops Mac’s, noticing the small frown  cross his face, unable to quelch the slight pang of regret he feels at the sight. Dennis has never understood the rules, with this type of thing. Dennis has never had anything like this. Maybe someday, he will be better at it.

They make their way to the security checkpoint nearest to Dennis’s gate with relative ease, the airport filled mostly with business people in crisp suits, and families heading south to their beach houses for their last trip of the summer, desperate to savor the last few weeks of freedom before they return to the dull drone of their daily lives.

“All right, well, this is it,” Dennis coughs, lightly, the two of them standing there, facing each other, seemingly at a loss for words. “Thanks, man, for like. Driving me in and stuff. I’ll text you when I get in?”

Mac’s wringing his hands, and he’s got this look on his face as he gazes back at him, like he’s taking in as much of Dennis as humanly possible in case he doesn’t get another chance. It makes something in Dennis’s chest ache. He has to look away.

“Yeah, dude.” Mac chokes a little on his words, “Of course. Any time.” He tries to play it off as casual, but  his eyes are unmistakably sincere.

“Anyway, I’ll be seeing you soon? Don’t you guys get too used to life without me again.” Dennis grins, very slightly, seeing something in Mac’s posture change, soften, with the joke. Mac gives a small, startled, genuine laugh. Dennis would make Mac laugh like that everyday, if he could.

“Never, man.” He promises, joking at first, but tone turning surprisingly serious when he adds “Not even if we tried.”

Dennis nods, wiping his nose with the back of his hand as he turns to enter the checkpoint, only making it a few steps before he pauses for just a moment. He  turns back around, somewhat wildly, making his way back to a very confused Mac, who’s currently looking at him like he’s lost his goddamn mind.

“Dennis, you’re going to miss your flight! What the-”

“Can I kiss you?” Dennis blurts out, interrupting him, before continuing, deliriously, like he can’t help himself, can’t keep the words from rushing out. “I really want to kiss you right now. Can I?”

In the span of approximately 3 seconds, Dennis swears he  watches Mac’s face go through an abbreviated version of every phase of medical shock, and just when Dennis is about to slink away with his tail between his legs, and quite possibly begin a new life as a recluse in the woods where no one will ever be able to contact him again, he sees Mac’s expression change into something so reverent, so happy it’s like he’s looking at one of the 7 wonders of the goddamn world, and Dennis thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

Wordlessly, Mac nods, and the kiss is a quick, intense, thing, with Dennis clutching at Mac’s back like he’s the last thing anchoring him to this planet or else he’ll drift away.

Dennis boards the flight already dreaming about coming back home.

[gldengod-a2]

I want the K - BYBODYGUARDS / MAC.

dumb-dumb kiss-kiss meme.               //   @bybodyguards

7: Romantic Kiss + i’m not sure wtf a romantic kiss even is but I tried.

         Dennis can count the seconds going by in his head. Three-hundred and thirty-two minutes. Three-hundred and thirty-three minutes. At some point, all the numbers prancing about in skull become too much to manage, and Dennis opts for watching the news channel without the sound on. He doesn’t care that he can’t really tell what they’re talking about, all he knows is that it somehow helps drown out the nausea settled in the pit of his flat stomach. Neither, can he decipher why it feels like there’s something rancid and rotting between the tight spaces in his teeth. He recalls the time Mac fed him dog two years ago; it tasted something like chicken. As all unnamed meats do.

         He didn’t think he could loathe Mac more than he did in that moment. 

         He was wrong.

         In fact, Mac is in his room right now, probably on his hands-and-knees praying to the shoddy Virgin Mary figure on his bed-side table. It was ever-so hideous, her eyes too wide-apart, the thumb on her right hand had fallen clean-off with an almost perfect incision in its place. Till this day, neither of them could figure out how or why it happened. 

         This is how they co-existed. In a vicious, cathartic, cycle. They would get into fights. They would yell and scream at one another until their vocal chords burst and their throats were dry like sandpaper. When all was said and done, Mac would go to his room and pray out of guilt. Dennis habitually left the apartment, however today, he felt too numb to force himself out the door. Now, he watches the television without the voices to crowd his already cluttered thoughts. And perhaps, later he will lock himself in the bathroom for a good hour or two and pick an insignificant flaw to hyper-focus on, like a single gray hair or the slight unevenness of his collarbones. Then, he’ll slit his wrists to the tune of Rick Astley’s ‘Together Forever’ and he’ll finally know relief. For, ultimate perfection is far more obtainable in death than in life.

         Dennis shuts his eyes for a hot-second and the memory comes flooding back, lucid as ever. Mac and his preached ‘ I love you’s ’, the feeling of his rough hands on his waist and the desperation with which he hungrily kissed him, only to discover, Dennis’ eyes were wide open the entire time. 

         Mac cupped his face in either hand, his calloused thumbs angled to awkwardly stroke Dennis’ gaunt cheeks. He knows Mac wanted to cry like a baby in that very second, but he won’t allow himself. Somehow, Dennis finds himself indifferent to his plight, Mac’s years-long battle with upholding a proper mask of masculinity.

         He drops his palms silently, but Dennis doesn’t have to hear Mac say it to know a ‘why’ still lingers like a curse upon his lips. 

         Mac and Dennis don’t kiss very much anymore.

         He turns up the volume on the T.V., if only by a smidgen. 

[delstonejr]

This week, Mladen Rudman and I review "The Arbors," a monster movie that is not a monster movie.

“The Arbors” Starring Drew Matthews, Ryan Davenport, Sarah Cochrane and Alexandra Rose. Directed by Clayton Witmer. 1 hour, 59 minutes. Unrated. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi TV.

Del’s take

Ethan Duanes (Drew Matthews) has a problem.

His problem is life.

Ethan is a locksmith but he cannot unlock the secret to happiness. All he can do is remember an earlier time when his parents were still alive and his younger brother a constant companion. The world seemed much better then.

Now, the world isn’t better. His parents have passed away and his brother, Shane (Ryan Davenport), has started a family. The ancestral home, like Ethan, is slowly succumbing to rot and ruin, and the future seems as dark as the night shifts Ethan works.

One night, as Ethan is driving back to his rented house after a call, he comes across a dead deer in the road. He notices something moving inside the deer, a kind of insect or arachnid. He takes the carcass home, builds a container to hold the strange creature and lures it inside with cuts of meat. Then, he proceeds to care for it.

Until the creature breaks out. And people in the community begin to die.

That is the premise of “The Arbors,” a “monster movie” that isn’t a “monster movie.” It is less about things that go bump in the night as things that go bump in the heart.

“The Arbors” earns high marks for its layers and its obvious pathos. Ethan is a sympathetic loser to whom many people can relate: He is overwhelmed by life, fearful of change and nostalgic for the simpler times of the past. This theme of resistance to change operates throughout the movie – Ethan says it more than once by rhetorically asking, “Can’t this all be over?” His fidelity to the past is expressed in other ways, too. He is constantly sorting through photographs of him and his brother when they were kids. He gives his brother the gift of a toy soldier from a game they played as children called Out of Time! Ethan has kept the game; his brother absent-mindedly drops the toy soldier on the floor and before movie’s end it returns to Ethan’s possession. Ethan tells his young niece, Robin (Sarah Cochrane), he hopes to purchase the family home and restore it so that he may live there again. When Shane reveals he and his wife, Lynn (Alexandra Rose) are contemplating a move out of state, Ethan becomes agitated and for once, shows strong emotion.

Where “The Arbors” fails is its glacial pacing and the infuriating passivity of its viewpoint character. Ethan doesn’t simply miss the past; he is mired in it and will never escape. He rejects chance after chance to change his circumstances, at one point avoiding a former friend who has offered to take him away from his ennui and show him the world. In truth he doesn’t want to escape, and he would draw everybody around him into the tar pit of his inertia. This slow vortex of apathy oozes over both character and audience alike, preserving the misery in a sluggish and vapid shadowbox that never answers the question “Why?”

And when the “monster” kills people who have threatened Ethan’s attempt to restore the past to the present, “The Arbors” morphs into “Donnie Darko” and the audience is left with a new batch of questions.

What’s remarkable about “The Arbors” is that it was shot in the Winston-Salem, N.C., area in 25 days on a budget of $14,000, then finished for another $11,000.

Witmer deserves kudos for trying to rise above the meager expectations of the genre, but “The Arbors” has some deficiencies that outweigh its virtues. Still, it’s not a “bad” movie. Just slow, with unanswered questions and motivations. I expect Witmer will do better his next time out of the gate.

I grade “The Arbors” a C+.

Mladen’s take

Through much of “The Arbors” I kept telling myself, “Wow, the kid playing the principal misfit really looks like a young Dennis Quaid.”

That’s how I managed to stay entertained when “The Arbors” got batty or the story cryptic or incoherent, which wasn’t all the time. Just much of the time.

Delblew a lot of words summing the plot. I’ll do it for you with one, short sentence: Rogue nostalgia is a deadly when you’re connected to person-sized spider with a mammal-like mouth packing white shark teeth.

One of my biggest problems with the movie is that I have no idea how or why Ethan and pseudo-spider are telepathically linked. If I was the angry wayward mutant arachnid, I’d be pissed at Ethan for putting me in a cage when I was but a maggot or whatever. That would be reason enough to eat his eyeballs rather than serve as an executioner for the human.

And, who the hell where those guys in the white hazmat suits? And, why didn’t at least one of them have a gun for self-defense because they were chasing an aberration of nature?

I don’t mind that “The Arbors” portrays itself as horror but is really about shitty, navel-gazing stuff like hurt feelings. People, after all, are more frightening than zombie werewolves with rabies waving Trump is My President flags. But, at times, I felt like I was watching, I don’t know, “Kramer v. Kramer” or “Steel Magnolias.”

The problem is that the film seems to want to get good and then backs off. A scene of driving at night might be too long. Or there’s the crappy voice acting when Ethan is talking to someone on his flip phone. Yes, director, I get it that Ethan is stuck in a time that no longer exists. And, why the fuck does “Connie” care about Ethan? She didn’t even sign his high school yearbook. What proof is there that she let him feel her up when they were teenagers or that they went to prom together? She materializes, tries to get him to leave town, and then de-materializes.

On the plus side, “The Arbors” provides a holistic moodiness as the backdrop of life in an unnamed town somewhere in the foothills of the Appalachians. Everything seems afflicted by Ethan’s desperate unhappiness. I liked the score. It meshed nicely with the moodiness.

The movie gets a C- because it failed to meet its promise to me like life failed to meet its promise to Ethan. It didn’t allow him to stay 13 years old forever. And, the film failed to create a sympathetic, lonely man with control of a monster who I could like.

Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and author.

https://youtu.be/kQFq_T-wbgY

[onenettvchannel]

LATE-BREAKING FLASH REPORT: 2 of the Individual Male Casualties on a Shooting Incident was Gunned Down in Bayawan City

BAYAWAN, NEGROS ORIENTAL -- A single victim was killed, along with a companion was also shot a middle finger in an unnamed suspect on Thursday morning at 9am (Manila local time) at a nearest gas station of Petron in Rizal St., Brgy. Boyco, Bayawan City.

Bayawan PNP and a Former Barangay Captain in Minaba named Warlito Magdasal identifies 2 of the male casualties was identified to Reymon Carbajosa, which is now dead on the spot after a suspect was in point blank range within 20-30 meters of his Caliber .45 handgun. Not only he was shooting two of the victims, he was shot a first victim by a shoulder and a head. And the other secondary victim after that is a middle finger. Carbajosa was from a hometown of Brgy. Minaba at the same city, and the injured victim was named by a 37 y/o male Fernando Sandot Momer.

A radio reporter named Randy Luyas from 106.5mhz Radyo Bandera Sweet FM: Bawayan is on the crime scene from his personal Facebook LIVE in Brgy. Boyco & Brgy. Ubos separately. Both casualties are taking to a Bayawan District Hospital (BDH) in Zamora St., Brgy. Ubos, Bayawan City; leaving to it's coroner a dead victim to a later funeral point within a few days or so. The good news, an injured victim will remain in hospital for process a healing a right middle finger for a few to several months. Bayawan doctors will be on technical examination at the Healthcare Medical Laboratory (HML) at the same street, in front of Bayawan District Hospital for two of the casualties individually.

Speaking to an injured victim on a personal affiliated radio interview of RBS FM: Bayawan as Momer told OneNETnews at the Bayawan District Hospital (BDH) in Cebuano dialect, a local police receives a phone call from a concerned citizen informs about a shooting incident. Bayawan PNP was in flash response, they found a single victim lies down on the ground, leaving also a blood was leaked out entirely at the back for nothing. Although, he was just saw only an unnamed suspect was using a motorcycle of Honda TMX by only on this intersection near the Petron gas station.

Local Police are still conducting an ongoing investigation, immediately followed by a hot pursuit operation within a few hours afterwards for a possible identification of the suspect for killing two of the victims here in Brgy. Boyco, upon riding his motorcycle suspect alone for a certain motive of the crime.

SPECIAL THANKS to Dennis Sales & Alpha Omega Blanco for sending us individually a news tip & teaching in from the English and Science at Radyo Bandera Sweet FM: Dumaguete & West City Elementary School from the affiliation of Department of Education (DepEd).

SOURCE: *https://www.facebook.com/100012339552223/posts/1186167161804591 [RECORDED clip from a Facebook LIVE - Randy Luyas Bandera] *https://www.facebook.com/2109453856021871/posts/2605276713106247 [Referenced Spot Report #1 from RBSFM Dumaguete] *https://www.facebook.com/2109453856021871/posts/439779573963848 [Referenced Spot Report #2f from RBSFM Dumaguete during a news/talk radio show of 11MBPS] and *http://www.bayawancity.gov.ph/?mnu=1&flnk=13 [List of Barangays in Bayawan]

HONEST DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed for a Regional Police Report are not those from the 5K Broadcasting Network Inc. These victims will NOT be imitated in any matter. Furthermore, the assumptions of this Regional Police Report will NOT state, intervene or reflect those of our affiliates... The station, management, interwebs and the network. Thanks for reading, stay safe & may the Celestia blesses you. Cya!

-- OneNETnews Team

[digiandromeda]

I’m looking for Arc V doodle prompts

Send me anywhere from 1 to 2 people or a ship from the 1st & 2nd list below and a number (or 2) from the 3rd list and I’ll draw a quick doodle based on, or inspired by, the corresponding prompt(s)!

-I'm keeping all of the characters relationships Canon. Including characters I'm bringing in from past Yu-Gi-Oh's.

-Characters with an * by their names do not appear in Arc V but they are important people to at least one of their series respective Legacy Characters. So, I thought it would be fun to include them.

- Ships with a ^ by their name are ships that have heavy ship tease in canon and therefor don't make me feel like I'm going against it. (Also, they just seem interesting)

Characters:

Yuya, Yuzu, Yoko, Yusho, Gongenzaka, Ayu, Reira

Yuto, Ruri, Shun, Allen, Sayaka, Kaito, Haruto Tenjo*

Yugo, Rin, Jack, Crow, Carly Nagisa*

Yuri, Serena, Sora, Dennis, Edo, Asuka

Zarc, Ray

En, Core, Kilo, Watt, unnamed Cats (I'm calling them De and Light)

Ships:

Fruitshipping, Smileshipping

Appleshiping, Scoopshipping*(^?)

Fallenangleshipping, Sanctuaryshipping^

Predatorshipping, Sora x Asuka^ (I'm on the fence about how canon their ship tease is but this ship promises fun and interesting ways to showcase their character development)

Prompts:

1) Sunburn

2) fireflies

3) barbecue

4) Beach Umbrella

5) Light

6) Dark

7) Dream

8) Memory

9) Misfortune

10) Smile

(More Prompts under the cut)

11) Silence

12) Blood

13) Cat

14) Tears

15) Happiness

16) Under the Rain

17) Flowers

18) Night

19) Stars

20) Hold My Hand

21) Eyes

22) Water

23) Family

24) Childhood

25) Breaking the Rules

26) Keeping a Secret

27) Magic

28) Multitasking

29) Obsession

30) Mischief Managed

31) I Can't

32) Mirror

33) Broken Pieces

34) Drink

35) Heal

36) Out Cold

37) Spiral

38) Seeing Red

39) Food

40) Safety First

41) Puzzle

42) Solitude

43) Relaxation

44) Ice Cream

45) Vacation/Trip

46) Books

47) Cooking

48) Cleaning

49) Dog

50) Winter

51) Sleep

52) Music

53) Forgiveness

54) Stress