#verse: seal nolan

[littlewrensx]

smutty starter for @spiritusmuses from this meme.

#3- nolan/wren

He had only been gone three days, but Wren had wanted to make sure he missed her. Sending him sexy texts, racy photos here and there for him to open when he had the chance. She wanted to make sure he had something to look forward to when he got home. So it wasn't a huge surprise that when he finally did, he immediately had her pinned at the wall and touching her in all the right places. Her breathing started getting heavy as he teased her, barely able to make out any words to welcome him home. "You don't want to take this to the bedroom?"

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 10/16/20: SYNCHRONIC, FRENCH EXIT, TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, LOVE AND MONSTERS, HONEST THIEF, THE KID DETECTIVE and More!

After the last couple weeks, I really need a break, which is why I’m writing most of this in transit to Columbus, Ohio to see my mother, sister and all (or some) of the friends that I made during my sabbatical to the city seven years ago for cancer treatment.

On, and look... Variety wrote about the movie theater chains and NATO lobbying Governor Cuomo to reopen movie theaters, showing that there’s been no proof of any cases leading back to movie theaters. (And more from The Hollywood Reporter…) New York leads and the world follows? More like ED leads and the world follows. Been saying this shit for months now and putting up with all sorts of needless abuse for it.

This week’s “Featured Flick” is actually a movie coming to theaters on October 23, but since I’m not sure I’m writing a column next week, I’m gonna review it this week! Cool?  The movie is SYNCHRONIC (Well Go USA), and it’s the follow-up to Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson’s amazing sci-fi film The Endless from a few years back. This ome stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as parademics in New Orleans who have been coming across a series of bodies that have died in gruesome ways, all connected by a designer drug they were all taking.

I’ll just say right from the start that I loved almost everything about this movie from the amazing performances by Mackie and Dornan to the entire look and tone of the movie, which shows the duo taking huge steps forward as filmmakers, particularly Benson as a screenwriter. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what I can say about the movie and its plot without spoiling other’s enjoyment. I will say that it involves a designer drug and time travel and Mackie’s character has something odd about his brain that makes him better suited to figure out what is happening to the victims than others might be. Also, Dornan’s character Dennis has family issues, particularly with his daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides), who disappears mysteriously, but it’s so nice seeing Katie Aselton as Dennis’ wife, as well as in another movie out this week.

I’ll also say that people who watch this movie will inevitably make comparisons to the work of Alex Garland and maybe even the more-versed ones might see a little of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome in the film’s trippy nature. The thing is that the movie is super-smart, and it’s obvious that Moorehead and Benson must have done a lot of research to make every aspect of it feel authentic. It’s just amazing what this duo can do with a small fraction of the money that Christopher Nolan had to make Tenet, and yet, they can create a complex and unique premise that’s actually easy to understand. Things like the camerawork, the music and sound design all add to the amazing tone and the mood that the duo have created.

I also think it’s Mackie’s best role and performance in many years, maybe even going back to The Hurt Locker, so as a long-time fan, I’m glad he connected with Moorehead/Benson to show that he’s more than capable of leading a movie like this.

Again, Synchronic will be in movie theaters and drive-ins NEXT Friday, October 23, but I want to give you an advance heads up, because Synchronic is likely to be the most original sci-fi or genre film you see this year. If you can’t get to the drive-in and don’t feel comfortable going to a movie theater, then I’m sure it will be on digital soon enough, but you definitely shouldn’t miss it!

Next up is Aaron Sorkin’s THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO SEVEN, streaming on Netflix starting Friday and the movie I was most looking forward to seeing this week. I was such a huge fan of Brett Morgen’s Chicago 10 documentary, which opened Sundance in 2007, especially with how he recreated the court trials using animation and a talented roster of voice actors including Hank Azaria, Mark Ruffalo and Geoffrey Wright. Sorkin has just as an impressive list of actors for his version, including Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and many more.

If you don’t know about the protests outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago – you see, back in those days, the Democrats were the bad guys… how times have changed!! Those protests led to a number of arrests but a few years later, the federal government charged a number of individuals with inciting the riot. The accused include Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II from Aquaman and Watchmen, Abbie Hoffman (Cohen), FBI agent Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) and two more. The six white guys are defended by Mark Rylance’s William Kunstler, who faces the tough Judge Hoffman (Langella) who is not putting up with any guff from these young revolutionaries.

All of the characters are quickly introduced with a quick-cut opening montage with actual newsreel footage, but then we’re quickly moved to a meeting to the Attorney General (Keaton) with the trial’s prosecutor (Gordon-Levitt). From there, we’re right into the trial about 16 minutes into the movie, although Sorkin frequently cuts back to the actual day of the Chicago protest to recreate what happened as testimony is given. Probably the part that will have the most impact and resonance is the way Seale was mistreated compared to the others, getting so riled up at the judge that the judge orders him chained and gagged. The trial would end up taking place for almost 7 months even though the results were eventually overturned.

This really is perfect material for Sorkin, and maybe if I hadn’t seen Chicago 10 first, I would have been a lot more fascinated by the trial sequences, though Morgen did an equally great job working from the transcripts. Basically, what happened happened. Where Sorkin’s screenplay and film excels is showing what’s going on outside the courtroom, whether it’s the recreations or just conversations taking place between the plaintiffs.  As might be expected from Sorkin, the screenplay is great with lots of fast talking, making for a movie that moves at a kinetic pace for its two hours.

If I had to pick a few of the best performances, I’d probably focus on Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman, which is more than just an accent, he and Strong’s Rubin bantering back and forth like a seasoned Vaudeville act; Rylance’s Kunstler is spot-on, and Langella is just great as the crusty judge, the film’s only true antagonist. I also appreciated John Carroll Lynch and in fact, all the performances, although I felt that with so many characters, Sorkin wasn’t able to give Bobby Seale the time his story truly needed. Still, I would be shocked if this isn’t considered a SAG Ensemble frontrunner.

Ultimately, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a fine recreation of a certain moment in history that still feels relevant and timely fifty years later, even if it’s so heavy at times you either need to focus or, like me, watch it on Netflix in two sittings. I still liked Steve McQueen’s movie Mangrove that takes place in a similar era and also culminates in a trial just a little bit better.

Before we get to the rest of this week’s new movies, I have one last review from the New York Film Festival, and it’s the closing night film, FRENCH EXIT, from director Azazel Jacobs and writer Patrick Dewitt, who has adapted his own book. The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Frances Price, a Manhattan widow from wealth who discovers she has no more money, just as her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges with longer hair than usual) has decided to marry his girlfriend Susan (Imogen Poots) though he hasn’t told his mother that yet. With no other options, Francis takes her son on a ship to live in Paris for a while at the home of one Mme. Renard (Valarie Mahaffey), an elderly woman who is a genuine fan of Francis and welcomes them as her guests.

This is one of those ensemble character dramedies that I wouldn’t even be able to begin to tell you why you should see it unless you miss seeing Pfeiffer in a semi-decent performance, but one that doesn’t do much as the film itself is so boring and insufferably pretentious most of the time I’m not sure I can even recommend it for that.

Jacobs and Dewitt previous made the movie Teri maybe ten years ago, and I was never really a fan, so I’m not sure why I thought that Dewitt adapting his own book would bear better results.  Once Frances and Malcolm get to Paris, there’s just an influx of odd characters who show up, some who have more impact than others. I liked seeing Danielle Macdonald as a psychic medium the duo meet on the ship across the Atlantic who Malcolm bonks. She’s brought back when Frances wants her to conduct a séance to communicate with her late husband who she thinks is now inhabiting an omni-present cat. Like everything else, the relationship between Malcolm and Susan and how that’s affected by her meeting a new guy just never goes anywhere.

For the most part, the whole thing is just dull and uninteresting, and so pretentious it never really leads to anything even remotely memorable. I have no idea why the New York Film Festival would decide to close with this one. (Although the 58th NYFF is over, some of the movies will hit its Virtual Cinema soon, so keep an eye out! For instance, this Friday, FilmLinc begins a Pietro Marcello retrospective as well as showing his latest film Martin Eden in FilmLInc’s Virtual Cinema.)

Liam Neeson stars in Mark Williams’ HONEST THIEF (Open Road), a crime-thriller in which he plays Tom Carter, the uncaught robber behind 12 bank robberies who decides to settle down with Kate (Grey’s Anatomy) Walsh’s Annie Wilkins, who he meets while renting a storage space to hide all the money he’s stolen. After a year of things getting serious with Annie, Tom decides to retire so he calls the FBI and says he’s ready to give back the 9 million, but two crooked FBI agents (one played by Jai Courtenay, the other by Anthony Ramos) decide they’re going to take the money instead. Their plan to steal the money Tom’s trying to return leads to a number of deaths, including putting Annie in the hospital. When that happens, Tom has had enough, and honestly, there’s no one better at getting revenge than Neeson. (Did we mention that Carter is ex-Marine? I mean, of course he is!)

Many will go into Honest Thief expecting the typical Neeson action revenge flick ala Taken or maybe one of his high-concept thrillers, but Honest Thief isn’t nearly that exciting. It starts out fairly slow and dry with no real crime or action elements, although Williams does throw them in from time to time. The whole thing is pretty dry, and it’s a good 54 minutes before we get to the revenge aspect of the story and that’s after a lot of bad decisions being made across the board. Anyone who is still wondering how Jai Courtney has a career won’t be changing that decision by his turn as the villain, and it’s a lot odd when the movie tries to make a sympathetic character out of his partner, played by Ramos.

Regardless, any elements that make Honest Thief unique from other Neeson action movies are quickly tossed aside for the same usual cliches, and the action scenes aren’t even that great. While Honest Thief may not be an awful or unwatchable movie, it’s probably not the action movie you might be expecting from Neeson – more like a bargain basement The Fugitive with one plot decision that almost kills the whole movie.

Delayed a number of times and now dumped to PVOD (with minimal theatrical) is Paramount’s LOVE AND MONSTERS, which is written by the prolific Bryan Duffield (The Babysitter, Spontaneous), directed by Michael Matthews and produced by Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps Entertainment. In the movie, Dylan O’Brien plays Joel Dawson, a young man surviving the apocalypse with a small community after the government’s plot to blast a couple asteroids heading to earth backfires. Instead, it creates giant, carnivorous monsters out of the earth’s animals who eliminate 95% of the earth’s human population. (We learn all of this through a Zombieland-like animated prequel getting us up to speed.)  Before the earth fell into disarray, Joel was in love with Jessica Henwick’s Aimee, but they were separated by the fateful events. Seven years later, they’re reconnected via radio and Joel has sworn to travel the 85 miles across the creature-covered wasteland to reunite with her. Hence, the title “Love and Monsters.” Get it?

I actually didn’t hate this movie, although it’s not really a family film or one meant for young kids, because it’s PG-13 for a reason, including mild violence i.e. people being chomped by monsters, and some sexuality. Dylan O’Brien does a decent job carrying it, but it relies just as much on the other people he meets, particularly Michael Rooker’s Clyde and his young ward Minnow, played by Ariana Greenblatt, the latter who is such a scene-stealer that it’s disappointing they’re only in the movie for a small chunk. They’re probably the funniest part of the movie.

I like giant monsters and these ones are certainly … interesting. They seem to have been toned down a bit maybe to be more kid-friendly, more like the kid-friend Godzilla than the terror we’ve seen in recent incarnations. There are also a number of great action set-pieces, and some good post-Apocalyptic ideas we haven’t seen, especially when Duffield’s dark sense of humor is able to come out and keep things fun.

Still, Love and Monsters is not a kids’ movie, and there’s something about it that might make people wish the filmmaker just went full-on R, because going further towards PG would have made even the best parts quite painful to get through. As it is, Love and Monsters is a suitably fine boy and his dog adventure – oh, did I mention the dog? – that would make a perfectly fine streaming movie.

We’ll get back to some of the other theatrical releases in a bit, but I wanted to get to two movies that were pleasant surprises, maybe because I went into them with absolutely zero expectations.

I wasn’t really sure what to think about Cooper Raiff’s SH#!%HOUSE (IFC Films) at first, maybe because it’s title is a little off-putting and not really particularly representative of what the movie is. Raiff himself plays Alex Malmquist, a fairly new arrival at his college but already missing home and his mother (Amy Landecker) and not really adjusting to the crazy college lifestyle as exemplified by his roommate Sam (Logan Miller). After a party at a frat called “Shithouse” (hence the title), Alex meets and connects with his dorm’s R.A. Maggie (Dylan Gelula) and the two spend the night bonding and hanging out.

Obviously, someone at IFC Films loves these platonic indie two-handers about people meeting and hanging out over the course of a night, because Shithouse is the second such movie after Olympic Dreams earlier in the year. They also must know that I’m a sucker for these kinds of semi-rom-coms, because just like with that other movie, I totally ate up everything Raiff was trying to do and say with his movie. The chemistry between the two leads is undeniable, and maybe it won’t be a surprise that Gelula also appeared in Raiff’s previous movie.

As with any relationship, things do come to an end, and this one crashes and burns in a very sad way for Alex the very next day. Maggie starts to pretend she doesn’t even know him, and she ignores his incessant texts saying how much he enjoyed their night together. Boy, I have been there back in my reckless and romantic days of youth.

At first, I wasn’t that into Raiff as an actor – remember what I’ve said about filmmakers casting themselves? – but Alex definitely grew on me. Gelula is absolutely amazing, and frankly, I can see someone “discovering” her in ten years and becoming a new Parker Posey, Kate Lynn Sheil or other similar indie ingenue.

The combination of the two is what makes Shithouse such a special experience, since their situations are quite relatable and Raiff does a great job with the characterization in his writing to make this quite enjoyable to see how things will resolve themselves.

I also wasn’t quite prepared for how much I’d enjoy Steve Byrne’s THE OPENING ACT (RLJEfilms), maybe because I was unfamiliar with Byrne, and as usual, I didn’t read the description of the movie before sitting down to watch it. If I did, I would have known that Byrne is a stand-up comic and presumably this movie is somewhat based on situations that have happened to him. It stars Jimmy O. Yang from Crazy Rich Asians (a great comic in his own right) as Willy Chu, a young comic who has always dreamed of making it in stand-up but instead, has been stuck trying to get slots at an open mic night, while holding down a day job working at an insurance company. One day, his friend (Ken Jeong) sets him up for an MC gig in Pennsylvania at the Improv where his idol Billy G (Cedric the Entertainer) will be performing, so Willy quits his job to pursue his dream.

Much of Byrne’s movie deals with Billy’s “adventure” in Pennsylvania with the club’s womanizing featured act (played by SNL’s Alex Moffatt) and trying to face the struggles of stand-up in hopes of getting to the next level. There have been better movies about the subject, like Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk with You, but Byrne’s film is a nice addition, particularly because Yang plays such a likeable, benevolent character you want to see him do well even after he crashes and bombs on a Saturday night and is at risk of losing the Improv gig.

It’s obvious that Byrne pulled in a lot of favors from friends to get such a great cast of comics – even getting Whitney Cumming to make a cameo – but the likes of Bill Burr actually take on key roles, like Willy’s boss in that case. Moffatt is particularly hilarious expanding on some of his outrageous SNL characters to play a stand-up who actually does help Willy, even as he puts him in pretty awful situations. Cedric also gives another fantastic performance as Willy’s idol who gives him the cold shoulder at first but eventually comes around and offers him the mentoring that Willy needs.

The Opening Act isn’t anything particularly revelatory, but it is thoroughly entertaining, and a nice little indie that I hope people will discover for themselves, especially those who like (or perform) stand-up.

Edward James Olmos directs THE DEVIL HAS A NAME (Momentum Releasing) starring the great Oscar-nominated David Strathairn as almond farmer Fred Stern, who has been running his orchard for three decades with trusty second Santiago, played by Olmos himself. Things are going well until they notice that some of the trees are rotting. It turns out they’re being poisoned by the water that’s been sullied by crude oil run-off from the nearby Shore Oil rigs. Around the same time, an opportunist named Alex Gardner, played by Haley Joel Osment, offers Fred a very low-ball offer to buy the farm, though Fred suspects something is up, and sure enough, Shore Oil is responsible.

Another movie I didn’t know what to expect other than a few cursory elements is this movie “based on a true story” movie about the little farmer taking on “The Man.” In this case, Shore Oil is represented by Kate Bosworth’s Gigi Cutler, a tough exec. at the corporation who thinks their lawyers (one of them played by Katie Aselton!) can crush this local troublemaker. When Stern’s lawyer (Martin Sheen) sues the oil company for 2 billion, they need to start taking things seriously, bringing in a tough “fixer” played by Pablo Schreiber.

I’m not sure where to begin with this movie that certainly has noble intentions in telling this story but suffers from quite a few issues, mostly coming from the script. I was a little concerned once I knew the premise, because I was not a huge fan of Todd Haynes’ Dark Water from last year, although I did enjoy the Krasinski-Damon-Van Sant ecological venture, Promised Land. This one falls somewhere in between, and probably its biggest issue is that it tries to create some humor out of the erratic behavior of the characters played by Bosworth and Schreiber; both performances are so off-the-rails at times it regularly takes you out of Fred’s story. (Osment is also pretty crazy but at least he fits better into his role.) Strathairn is great and well-cast, and Olmos is equally good, and I imagine that it’s partially because many of their scenes are together, allowing Olmos to direct with his acting. Aselton and Sheen are also decent, especially in the courtroom scenes.

Oh, and did I mention that Alfred Molina plays the Big Boss, who is interrogating Cutler as a needless framing device? Yeah, there’s a lot of characters, and when you hold this up against something like The Trial of Chicago 7, it’s just obvious that the film has too many elements for any filmmaker to be able to juggle at once.

Because of this, The Devil Has A Name is an erratic real-life dramedy that’s too all over the place in terms of tone, it ends up shooting itself in the foot by trying (and failing) to be funny despite the serious subject matter.

Next up is 2 HEARTS (Silver Lion Films/ Freestyle Releasing), another movie based on a true story from the Hool Brothers, who I really wasn’t very familiar with. I assumed this was going to be a faith-based movie, and maybe in some ways it is, but not really. It essentially tells two stories set in different time periods that you assume will somehow be connected. Ooh, boy.

First, there’s Jacob Elordi of Euphoria and The Kissing Booth – neither of which I’ve seen, mind you – who plays Chris Gregory, a college kid who connects in a meet-cute way with Tiera Skovbye’s Sam. Before we get too far into their story, we cut back to what looks like Cuba in the ‘50s and 60s, and meet Jorge Bolivar (Adan Canto), the son of an alcohol magnate, a soccer player who suffers a serious lung issue that puts him in the hospital. Years later, Jorge is travelling to Miami when he meets Radha Mitchell’s Leslie working as a flight attendant.

Both guys are pretty suave smooth-talking pick-up artists, and the movie spends almost an hour cutting between two very corny and cheesy romance stories that really don’t offer much in terms of story. Instead, it keeps following Chris and Sam’s life as they have kids, taking forever to get to the connection between the stories. I was getting pretty bored of the movie, but I felt like I had to stick it out to see what happens.

When you call a movie “2 Hearts,” you kind of expect it to be about a heart transplant of some kind, right? But no, it’s actually about a dual lung transplant that Jorge receives. Want to take a wild guess who the donor is?  I certainly don’t want to spoil what happens, but for a movie that spends a good hour setting up the relationships between the two men and their pretty blondes with ups and downs that makes it seem like a Nicholas Sparks movie, it really throws a spanner into the fairy tale with all the melodrama that’s to come. It’s such a whiplash in terms of tone it pretty much destroys any chance of one enjoying the movie for what it is. It also loses a lot without Elordi, since the actors who play his family aren’t very good at all.

I had to actually look up the story to see how much if it was true, only to learn that Jorge was based on Jorge Bacardi who actually received a double lung transplant from one Christopher Gregory, inspiring him to create the Gabriel House of Care. The problem is that the time periods get so messed up by setting one story decades in the past. Using the same actors to play the people over that time with pretty shabby make-up just makes things that much more confusing. The big problem is that it spends so much time avoiding the actual plot and point of making the movie that by the time it gets to it, you just don’t care about the characters anymore.

The whole thing is very by the books and predictable, but ultimately, it’s hard to believe any of it, despite it being based on a true story. If you go into this movie expecting love and romance and all that kind of mushy stuff from the title, you’re likely to be disappointed when the movie finally gets to its point. (In other words, it could have used some giant monsters.)

Here’s another movie that I didn’t really know what to expect going in and that probably should have helped me enjoy it more… if it was anything resembling a good movie. Picked up at the Toronto Film Festival where it premiered last month, Evan Morgan’s THE KID DETECTIVE (Sony) stars Adam Brody as Abe Appelbaum, the “kid detective” of the titles, who as a child was one of those super-smart kids who have the deductive powers to help the people in his community, but as a 32-year-old, he just isn’t taken as seriously any more. When a high school girl named Caroline (Sophie Nélisse) comes to Abe to find out who murdered her boyfriend, Abe finally realizes that he has his first grown-up case, though he’s still obsessed with the disappearance of the mayor’s daughter (and his kid receptionist) Gracie many years earlier.

I’m sure there’s gonna be people out there who watch and appreciate The Kid Detective for what it is, a wry and slightly clever noir pastiche pseudo-comedy, but anyone who has seen Rian Johnson’s first film Brick or the underrated Mystery Team (starring Donald Glover very early in his career) might feel that this doesn’t live up to either. Besides the fact that Brody really hasn’t developed much personality as an actor, the film rolls along with a fairly flat, deadpan tone that just never gets remotely exciting. The humor is subdued and yet it feels like everyone is constantly trying too hard, particularly Morgan, while at the same time not really taking any chances. This is a movie that could have been edgier but instead, it milks its flimsy high-concept premise as long as possible before giving up.

Like Love and Monsters, Sony is releasing The Kid Detective into theaters on Friday, and hopefully parents will check that rating before assuming it’s a kid flick. Although there isn’t so much bad language or anything that wouldn’t warrant a PG… other than the fact that it’s not particularly funny or even entertaining and kids will be super-bored.

I can’t believe there’s still more! Amazon’s “Welcome to the Blumhouse” anthology series continues this week with two more movies in the series of eight, which you can now watch on Prime Video:

Easily my favorite of the four movies I’ve seen is Zu Quirke’s NOCTURNE (Amazon), which follows a pair of twins, Julie (Sidney Sweeney) and Vivian (Madison Iseman), who are both competitive concert pianists at the Lindberg Academy, although Vivian is clearly the better, as she’s heading off to Julliard while Julian is taking a gap year.

Before we meet them, we see a young violist jumping off the balcony to her death for some reason, and we learn that she was the finalist to play a concerto, so now that slot is open and both Julie and her sister desperately want it.

Nocturne is certainly more like the horror movies we expect from Blumhouse, which is both good and bad. The good is that it is indeed quite scary as Quirke’s team uses really eerie lighting effects and other things to create suspense. But there’s also an artiness to what Quirke does that elevates Nocturne above the normal high-concept horror-thriller.

Quirke, who also wrote the film, delivers all the characterization you expect from a good horror film so that you really care about the characters, and she’s put together such a fine cast, particularly Sweeney who has to run a gamut of emotions as Julie. I also like Rodney To as Julie’s tough instructor Wilkins

Again, I won’t say too much more about the actual plot, although if you can imagine a Faustian bargain and how that plays out for those around Julie, you can probably understand why a super-fan of The Omen might dig what Quirke did in this environment.

The fourth movie in the “Welcome to the Blumouse” series is EVIL EYE (Amazon), from Indo-American filmmakers Elan and Rajeev Dassani, a relatively innocuous thriller based around the relationship between Pallavi (Sunita Mani from last week’s Save Yourselves! and GLOW) and her mother Usha, played by Sarita Choudhury.  Pallavi is in her late 20s and single and her mother keeps wanting to get her set-up with a nice man, as a good Indian mother is wont to do.  When Pallavi meets Sandeep (Omar Maskati), things are going well since he has money and her mother thinks her daughter has hit the jackpot, until she realizes that Sandeep has a dark secret.

Here’s another thriller where it’s really tough to talk about the plot, because obviously the filmmakers want the story to unfold in the specific way it was written. Apparently, this one was once an Audible story, and the first thing I noticed was how amazing Sunita Mani looks from her fairly glammed down roles in other things. I think she’s just wearing make-up and has her styled different but I’m not sure I would have known it was the same actor in Save Yourselves! Because I had to do a double take.

The problem with Evil Eye, and it’s been a problem with some of the other “Welcome to the Blumhouse” movies, is that it isn’t necessarily what I’d consider horror. It really plays a lot more like a romantic drama, other than the fact that Pallavi’s mother has visions and believes in astrology enough to send her daughter trinkets to protect her from the “evil eye.” In fact, the movie just gets weirder and weirder, as it starts introducing supernatural elements, and without giving the big plot twist away, it does expect one to believe in reincarnation.

I wish I could have liked this more, but it really seems like it would be better suited for a show like “The Outer Limits” or “The Twilight Zone,” since the premise is stretched so think for about 30 minutes longer than necessary.  I think the filmmakers did perfectly fine with what they had to work with – the two main actresses are just fab – but I think I’d need to see some of their other work to see if the issues I had were just cause the story isn’t that interesting or by their limitations in making it.

(And I promise that I do have a feature on all the filmmakers from the first four “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series coming over at Below the Line, but it’s been a pretty tough piece to write.)

I reviewed Alex Gibney’s new doc Totally Under Control (Neon/Participant), co-directed with Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, in last week’s column but it’s now available to watch On Demand and then it will be on Hulu starting next Tuesday, October 20. Obviously, everyone wanted to get this out there and make sure people see it before they get too in-deep with the election.

I also reviewed David Byrne’s American Utopia (HBO), directed by Spike Lee, a few weeks back, but it will be on HBO and presumably HBO Max on Sunday night. Not as big an event as Disney+’s Hamilton but still worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of Byrne or his band the Talking Heads, because it actually acts as a nice counterpoint bookend to the late Jonathan Demme’s fantastic Stop Making Sense, one of the best concert documentaries ever made, or at least top 5. I’m bummed I missed Byrne’s show on Broadway, and it doesn’t sound like Broadway will be coming back anytime soon so I guess this HBO documentation is the best any of us can wish for.

Of the movies I didn’t have time to watch this week, the two that I’m hoping to still get to are two docs: Inna Blockhina’s SHE IS THE OCEAN (Blue Fox Entertainment) and Rick Korn’s HARRY CHAPIN: WHEN IN DOUBT, DO SOMETHING (Greenwich). She Is the Ocean explores the lives of nine women who all have a passion for the ocean. The Harry Chapin doc may be more self-explanatory, and I wish I was a bigger fan of Chapin, the famed singer/songwriter/activist, because maybe I would have watched this movie earlier. (But seriously, look at how many movies came out this week, when I was hoping it would be “slower”!) Also, I’m a little bit interested in the K-Pop doc #BlackPinkLightUpTheSky that will air on Netflix, just because, I dunno, I like adorable, young Asian women, so sue me?

Premiering on Disney+ this Friday is Justin Baldoni’s CLOUDS, starring Fin Argus as musician Zach Sobiech, who has only months to live when his cancer starts spreading, but he follows his dream to make an album and becomes a viral music phenomenon. I’m not sure if this is a true story but it certainly sounds a lot like a faith-based film called I Still Believe that hit theaters just before they all shut down due to the pandemic. Coincidence? I think not.

Also this week, the 32nd ANNUAL NEWFEST LGBTQ FILM FESTIVAL begins on Friday, running through October 27 with opening night being the well-regarded Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, but it will be done as a drive-in, so I’m out. Over in Los Angeles, the AFI FEST starts on Thursday and runs through October 22, and that’s also showing a lot of cool festival/awards films that I haven’t had a chance to watch yet like The Father, I’m Your Woman and more. I missed my chance to get press accreditation, so yeah, I guess I’ll be waiting on that.

And then we get to all the movies that I didn’t have time to see or didn’t receive a screener, so here we go. This week’s unfortunate dumping ground:

Lupin III: The First (GKIDS) (This anime film is being released as a Fathom event on Oct. 18 – dubbed, and Oct. 21 – subtitled)

Belly of the Beast (I’ve actually heard good things about Erika Cohn’s doc about illegal sterilizations being conducted in a woman’s prison.)

Don’t Look Back (Gravitas Ventures)

Rom Boys: 40 Years of Rad (101 Films)

The Antidote (Cinetic/Brand New Story)

Monochrome: The Chromism (Tempest)

J.R “Bob” Dobbs and the Church of the Subgenius (Uncork’d)

Monster Force Zero (WildEye Releasing)

Ghabe (GVN Releasing)

The Accidental President (Intervention)

In Case of Emergency (Kino Lorber)

I’m not sure how much of a column I’m gonna write next week since I won’t have nearly as much time to watch movies or write about them in the coming week, while I’m in Colmbus. There are a couple high profile movies I hope to get to, so we’ll see what happens.

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[gusenitsaa]

Whumpetition / @badthingshappenbingo prompt #5: outnumbered.  

(the latest in my growing collection of whumplets in the universe of ‘the darling affair’ verse by @icecubelotr44)  

1. I know you’re in there     2. Buried Alive     3. Ambulance Ride     4. Sadistic Choice    (All these whumplets are also in a collection on FF ) 

Liam Jones never drank more than two drinks while he was out, and only bottles he could open himself.  Killian called him paranoid with a teasing look.  The taunt rang even more hollow than usual when his little brother pulled the two glasses from his bag.  Open drinks,  prepared food,  even glassware was suspect. In their line of work, a little paranoia went a long way towards staying alive.  Fortunately, the bartender indulged their eccentricities and always gave them their bottles sealed.  

It hadn’t been much of night out at all really, but Killian had insisted on a drink after work before he went home to Emma.  He had news, as it turned out.  News that drove him to pack tumblers in his bag and half drag his older brother from his desk five minutes earlier than their agreed upon time. News that made his eyes light up in that peculiar way that had,  eventually,  made Liam adore Emma Swan nearly as much as his brother did.  

A child.  

To be named for their mother,  a secret he was to guard with his life until Emma worked up the nerve to tell the Nolans,  and he’d rarely guarded so precious a secret.  

Hadn’t it only been yesterday Killian had been hardly more than a child himself? And now…  Perhaps it was the news.  Or the drink. Or the light in Killian’s eyes but he shook his head, feeling a little giddy himself as they left the establishment.  He was going to be an Uncle.

The giddiness amplified though and his step faltered.  He hadn't eaten today,  hadn't had time,  but really... it was only one drink.   It only took one glance over at Killian for him to realize it wasn't his poor diet that had caused his world to spin.  Killian too looked glassy eyed and... damn... he texted a 911 to Scarlet and took Killian's arm, helping him to lean against the wall.  It seemed to have hit Killian faster,  perhaps due to his smaller size, already Killian was half-conscious leaning against the wall.   Liam’s vision was blurry but he placed himself between his brother and the street, straining to see the threat that must be coming.

The road remained empty for a moment and Liam risked a glance at Killian.  His eyes were glazed and distant and after only a moment or two longer he slumped against the wall, the drug too much for his smaller frame.  Killian sank, lifeless to the ground and Liam knelt next to him, trying to call out to him but the words came out garbled and unrecognizable, even to him.

A sudden light hit them and Liam spun,  two lights.  Spotlights.  His slow mind didn’t figure out the word headlights until several moments later.  Could Scarlet have gotten someone here so fast?  His vision was swimming and it was not until the men were within a few feet that he was confident these men were not his.

His words of "get the hell away from my brother"  sounded more menacing in his head than they did when they came out and one of the men laughed.  Then, suddenly there was blood on his hand and the laughing stopped. Without warning, the man was gone and there was a hard blow to his back that sent him careening to the floor.

Stupid, Liam,  stupid.  Count your adversaries first,  always.

He struggled to his feet, shaking his head and regretting it when the world only spun faster.   It was like trying to move in water... in molasses while intoxicated and by the time Liam got off the ground one of the forms was leaning over Killian’s body.  The sound he let was fairly indecipherable, but it made the man leaning over Killian pause and look back at him.  Not fast enough.  Liam charged,  slamming the man into the wall before someone was throwing him to the ground again.  He stilled when he heard the cock of a gun and looked up into the barrel of a...  his mind was distracted for a moment,  frustrated by not being able to remember the chamber capacity of a glock 17 before his mind finally comes around to it doesn't matter because now it's pointed at his little brother.

“Pick him up”  the voice behind the gun demanded.  “Or leave him behind as a smear on the wall.”  It must have taken Liam a moment to process the order because the man made a frustrated noise.  Liam moved to Killian’s side as quickly as he could, squatting to drape Killian over his shoulders.  He lost his balance though, and fell. He heard laughter again and the man nodded at one of the black clad forms who knelt and took something from Liam’s hip.  It wasn’t until much later that he'd realize he’d had his service weapon all this time and didn’t even remember it.

When Killian woke he was looking down at the floor of a… he stared for a moment at the pattern,  trying to determine what he was looking at.   Then the memories began to flicker back in and he bolted upright, his head pounding.   He didn’t make it far though,  his shoulders pulled back, shackled to something behind him and when he looked up to see what it was, he saw Liam.

Liam was on a bench on the other side of the… van?  truck… some kind of vehicle based on the vibration of movement.  His hands were behind him as well and he was slumped over, a steady trickle of blood from his temple pooling on the ground at his feet.

“Liam!”  Killian called,  tugging against the cuffs behind him futilely.  “LIAM!”

A tight panic curled in Killian’s chest when Liam didn’t answer.  He’s bleeding, Killian told himself, trying to abate the panic.  If he’s bleeding his heart is still beating.  He took inventory.  His service weapon was gone,  so was his backup.  His legs were immobile too but when he looked down he saw a simple rope knot holding his boots to the bench.

“Idiots”  he mumbled under his breath.  It was not exactly easy to slip his boot off of one foot but once he did the ropes around his ankles slip loose.

Folding his still booted foot up next to him on the bench he twisted until he could reach the sole of his boot and the lock picks hidden inside with his cuffed hands.  That done he was out of the cuffs in moments and moving instantly to his brother, reaching first to check for a pulse at his throat.  Steady if a bit slow.  He took Liam’s face in both hands; still warm,  still breathing.

“Come on Liam- Time to wake up, we have work to do-“  Liam's eyes flickered behind his eyelids and Killian noded, still holding his head up as Liam fought to rouse himself.  “That’s it,  comeon-“    He let Liam’s head fall to his shoulder as he did inventory for his brother as well.  No weapon.  No backup.  He reached behind Liam to work on his cuffs when suddenly the vehicle braked hard.  Killian’s body, missing the memo to stop,  hit the side of the wall with a crack that made him see stars.  then the back door was thrown open and men came pouring into the back of the vehicle.  Killian was overwhelmed before the spots in his vision cleared and before he could fight back his cuffs were back in place and his precious lock picks confiscated along with his boots.  “Just in case”, he heard one of the men grumble. (They were right.)

The truck began to move again and he cursed.  “How the devil did they know-“ Killian spat,  tugging against the new restraints in frustration.

“Killian-“  Liam’s voice was still bleary but he caught Killian’s eye. “At your 9.”  

Killian glanced in the indicated direction and almost missed it at first.  Then he saw it,  a tiny pinpoint camera on the wall.   He cursed again.  “Sorry, Liam,  I didn’t see it.”

“You alright?” Liam murmured.

“Fine, you?”

“Groggy,” Liam said, shaking his head and rubbing the blood from his face with his shoulder.  “Dizzy.  Otherwise fine.”

“Concussion?” Killian asked.

Liam considered for a moment.  Under normal circumstances he might say no to avoid worrying Killian, but like it or not they were now both in the field and Killian needed to know the state of his partner.

“Possibly,” Liam admitted, “How long?”

“I don’t know.  I just woke up myself. Who the hell are these guys?”

Liam shook his head, still looking at the floor.  His head ached and he was having trouble thinking clearly as he tried to remember the most recent intelligence reports-

“Liam?”

If anything had indicated a higher than usual threat assessment- surely not.  He would have noticed any threat to Killian or his family.

“Liam!?”

Movement of Killian’s enemies was strictly monitored and those reports came straight to him before the analysts even had a crack at th-

“LIAM!?”

Liam winced and started.  Killian was looking at him intently and he realized he’d gotten lost in his head for a moment. It had been too long since he’d done field work.

“I don’t know” Liam said worriedly after a moment.

“What?”

“I don’t know who they are.”

Killian’s eyebrows lifted and he gave a small shrug “Well whoever they are they sure as hell don’t like us.  And whatever they put in those drinks was damn fast.  I don’t even remember leaving the bar.”

He eyed Liam carefully,  hoping he was cognizant enough to recognize the question under the statement.  Had Liam sent a 911, because he hadn't

Liam’s head was spinning and leaned his head back against the wall of the truck hoping it would ease the wave of nausea. “I do-  I think…I think I tex-“  he stopped abruptly remembering the camera right before he informed their kidnappers who he’d texted by name.  “I think I texted home before I passed out.”

It was a poor recovery as things went but it conveyed what he needed Killian to hear.  JR Solutions knew already.

The truck turned and Killian could hear gravel under the tires,  Non paved streets probably meant their destination was nearby… Liam recognized the change as well and glanced up at Killian.

“Welcome to the other side”  Killian whispered,  a tentative smile on his lips.

“The other side?”

“My side.  And on my side there’s only two rules.  Don’t tell them anything and stay alive until backup arrives.”

Liam thinks there should be three rules.  “Don't needlessly antagonize your captors.”  But he knows Killian has never learned that rule and he doesn’t mention it.  Perhaps he should have.  Perhaps if he’d mentioned it Killian would not have deemed it necessary to knee the man who unshackled him from the bench in the gut so hard the man lost his lunch.  And when he was replaced by three others he found it entirely necessary to break a nose with his forehead.  

It doesn't help him escape.   But it sure as hell kept Liam from being the center of attention which was, more or less, the point.  It worked.  For all of 15 seconds.  After which Liam was charging the man that hit him like a damn bull.  They were outnumbered and Liam was already concussed, his head swimming, but the brothers Jones were still excellent at fighting back to back. It was more effort, and more bruises and pain than their captors expected to receive.

Liam's lack of recent field experience worked against him and he went down first, under a rain of blows from the captors he has now successfully angered.  A man with blood dripping from a freshly broken nose hit Liam hard in the knee and he stumbled, pain flaring and throwing him off balance long enough for someone else to manage a brutal blow to his side that knocked the wind from him and made him see stars. It didn't slow him long, but it was enough for one of the quicker thinkers to drag him forward, away from Killian.  Neither of them were truly down yet, but, no longer able to guard each other's back, it was only a very short matter of time.

Killian was better able to roll will the blows, long and recent practice in taking beatings had taught him how to come out of it with some unpleasant bruises, but it wasn't really so bad, by comparison.  Liam, he wasn’t as familiar at rolling with it. It had been a while since circumstances called for him to take a punch, and a lot longer since he had taken a real beating.  

Liam was on his side, the weight of several men pinning him uselessly to the dirt as he watched Killian fall too, curling up and taking the blows with no more than a grunt now and then.  When Killian was still they dragged him to his feet again.  His head lolled forward and Liam struggled harder when he didn't get his feet under him on his own. They dragged Killian’s limp body into a building and Liam stopped fighting, praying that they take him where they took Killian.

There was not much in the building in terms of decor. There was a desk in the room and a laptop. Killian was already half-standing half-hanging from his wrists in the middle of the room.  His own hands are wrenched above his head like his brother’s but Liam hardly noticed. his attention fixed on Killian as he shook his head and struggled to get his feet back under him.

Liam’s throat went dry at the familiarity.  He’d been here.  He’d seen this. In the horrifyingly brilliant resolution of a live stream in Ops.  Every time he watched that video he just wanted to reach through the screen. He told himself If he were there he’d have been able to stop it.

But now he’s here.  And he can’t stop it.

He’s going to watch them kill his brother.  

Again.  

But this time there will be no mistake. No camera dying at just the wrong moment. No chance of Killian fighting his way home long after Liam had given up. Just the cold body of his brother 10 feet away where he can’t even reach him...

“Liam...” Killian’s voice broke into Liam’s thoughts and Liam looked up to see Killian’s bright eyes boring into his. “Stay here with me. Don’t make it worse in your head.”

Liam expected them to ask questions next, but they don’t.  Most of the men vanished after the Jones brothers were chained up, clearly they’d known transport was going to be the hard part.  Only a few remain, inside.  one sits at the computer, Liam can see several more shadows passing by the door and he watches them move outside, memorizing the pattern until his focus is broken by a thud and a gasp.

“What no foreplay?” Killian asked when he could breathe again. “I thought we could play a name game or two, maybe do some trust falls.”

“Or I could cut your Achilles’ tendon and make you scream until your throat bleeds,” The man replied flatly. Not familiar, no distinguishable accent.

“Leave him alone,” Liam said quietly, “and tell us what the hell you want from us.” He didn’t hear anyone come up behind him, only felt the air rush from his lungs as someone hit him hard from behind.  Blows rained down quickly after that, though he couldn’t see his attacker after a blow to the back of his head made his world flip upside down and sideways.

He knew what they were doing. Softening up.  That’s what they called it. The questions would come later...

_____

Tagging the ‘competitors’ and the peanut gallery! @nothingimpossibleonlyimprobable @pirate-owl@icecubelotr44@hollyethecurious  @killian-whump @cocohook38

If you’d like to be added or removed from the tag list aka the peanut gallery! let me know

[hookedonapirate]

For the prompt thingy can you do “you’re being an awfully bad girl” or “you’re not the boss of me” in the Oh Daddy au verse? If you’re up for it of course. Please and thank you 💖🥰💖🥰💖

A/N: I am terribly sorry this so late, I’ve been so busy lately I actually forgot about it. I hope you can forgive me, anon :( 

“You’re being an awfully bad girl, and Daddy is going to punish you.”

A shiver runs down Emma’s spine, and she swallows looking forward to receiving her punishment from Daddy 

“Climb on the bed, love,” Killian orders, “and get on your knees.”

She quickly does as she’s told, sticking her ass out for Daddy.

She hears him growling from across the room and cranes her neck to catch the hunger in his eyes.

Those striking blues roam her naked body as he licks his lips. Her nipples are strained, core aching badly as a wetness pools between her thighs. She can’t wait to be fucked by Daddy.

“Such a naughty little girl, jerking me off in public,” he chides her playfully, a hint of a smirk pulling at his lips as he stalks towards her with a pair of handcuffs. “And in front of Mary Margaret and David nonetheless.”

Emma grins mischievously, unashamed. She had far too much fun stroking him through his jeans underneath the restaurant table on their double date with the Nolans, and making him cum. It was a good thing his slacks were black when Killian had to stand up and walk to the men’s room to wash himself off.

He handcuffs her to the bed and she pulls against the restraints for dramatic effect, but in reality her nectar is now running down her thighs, her clit throbbing in anticipation. Intent on tormenting her, Killian slowly strips his clothes while Emma watches, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling his pants off until he’s standing in naught but a pair of boxer briefs. She tries to stifle a moan, drinking in the sight of his hard muscles and soft chest hair which lead her eyes down a trail to his hidden treasure underneath. 

She can’t wait to be able to touch him.

Ever since they had met on the train, they’ve been unable to stay away from one another. In fact, Emma knew she’d have to introduce him to Mary Margaret sooner or later and tell her everything. The woman just about shit herself when she found out Emma had met CaptainHook in person. So, of course, Mary Margaret had insisted they make a double date out of the occasion to hear his voice in person and see what the fuss was all about. With Killian Jones, there is much to fuss about because good god the guy is the perfect specimen. What’s not to like?

Finally, Killian pulls down the last remaining piece of clothing so he’s stark naked, his rock hard cock springing free. Emma licks her lips, eyes shining with the lust burning in her gut.

“I am going to give you a good fucking,” Killian says gruffly as he moves to the side of the bed and reaches out a hand, gliding his fingers up the inside of her leg.

Emma shudders at his touch, biting her bottom lip as she stares at his long thick cock, looking forward to having him inside her. He slowly kisses along her jaw, his prickly scruff setting her sensitive skin ablaze as he moves his lips down her neck, and moves his hands to her breasts, gently fondling and squeezing the gentle weight in his hands. Emma moans softly at his touch.

“First, Daddy will fuck you with my fingers, then my cock, and I’m going to fuck you so hard, you won’t be able to walk for weeks.”

Emma moans as Killian slips a finger roughly into her heat, fucking her hard and deep. Soon he’s fucking her with two, and she’s crying out and moving her hips to ride his fingers. Bursts of pleasure explode through her body and she screams with a hard release, unable to think of a good reason to keep quiet as her face flushes red, and Killian continues fucking her with both fingers buried deep. It feels so incredible, it’s not long before her body’s shuddering once more as she falls apart again, her walls contracting around his digits. She gives a soft cry when she completely erupts, cumming hard and spilling her essence over his fingers.

Killian grins and laps her nectar off his fingers with his tongue as Emma catches her breath and slowly falls down from her high.

He joins her on the bed and takes her chin in his hand urging her to rise as far as she can go being handcuffed to the bed, and seals her lips with his, kissing her roughly. Emma moans, obediently parting her lips, allowing Daddy’s tongue to plunge into her mouth, taking her breath away once again as she tastes her orgasm on his tongue.

“Now, sit on my cock and ride Daddy,“ he commands, his voice completely shattered as he lays back on the bed.

Emma nods, breathless as she climbs atop him, rubbing her silky wet folds along his erection.

“Good girl,” he groans, placing both hands on her waist, “Now I want you to ride Daddy good and hard.”

A whimper spills from her lips, the anticipation coiling in her belly. She loves riding Daddy. Emma lifts her hips and he presses the tip of his cock into her entrance,p. She gasps at the invasion of his shaft in her wet pussy. He is not gentle, prodding her up and pulling her down roughly with his hands on her hips to sheath himself in her tight quim as she slides up and down his rock hard length. 

He smirks and looks up as he fucks her, and whenever she closes her eyes enjoying how perfectly and deliciously he stretches her walls, a hard smack on her ass reminds her to look at him as he takes her.

Killian reaches up, firmly taking her breasts in his hands, squeezing them and playing with her nipples. “Does my girl like when Daddy touches her breasts?”

“Oh yes, Daddy.”

“Does she love riling her Daddy up in public,” he demands, tweaking her nipples.

“God, yes.”

“And if we were to go out just the two of us, would you be opposed to riling me up then?” he asks, no longer speaking in the third person.

The question takes her off guard but she knows he’s being serious if the vulnerable look in his eyes is any indication.

Her lips pull into a slow grin. “No, Daddy,” she answers softly. 

Still massaging the gentle weight in his hands as she leans towards him to kiss his lips, Killian whispers gently “There’s my good girl.”

[shireness-says]

Have you ever thought about what protects our hearts?

Summary:  Emma's written for as long as she's had words in her head, but some songs she holds closer than others. When you've left a bit of your soul on the page, it's hard to let anyone in to read them. ~2.5K. Rated T for language. Also on AO3.

Previous Rockstar!Emma installments: Maybe I Won’t Die Alone, Second Verses and Happy Beginnings, Lullaby, Nobody’s Business

A/N: Another snippet in my Rockstar!Emma AU verse - definitely go read those first. This particular piece spiraled out from a passing reference in the original to Killian finding a box of piano ballads when he helps Emma move.

Super thanks to @snidgetsafan, my phenomenal beta. Honestly, she’s the best, even when I throw unexpected stuff like this at her when I’m supposed to be working on Playing the Part.

I listen to a LOT of Ingrid Michaelson music when writing this verse, and a lot of those lyrics have found their way into this fic. I obviously own nothing - I just get Emma feelings listening. The title is pulled from "Breakable"; lyrics in this fic pulled from (in order of appearance, and one song per section): "Men of Snow", "Sort of" "Are We There Yet", "The Chain", and "Overboard".

I also maybe possibly made a Spotify playlist of all the songs that I imagine in this series, like for the karaoke and stuff, and will post that if demanded.

Tagging those I know particularly enjoy this series: @kmomof4, @shady-swan-jones, @mythologicalmango, @onceuponaprincessworld, @effulgentcolors. Holler at me if you ever want to be tagged in stuff.

Without further ado, enjoy!

Emma’s written for as long as she’s had words in her head.

She doesn’t have any grand intended purpose for them, no dreams of becoming an author or a poet or whatever else one does with their words, but they’re there and they’re hers and true ownership of anything is hard to come by in the childhood she’s living. They morph from poetic phrases and fragments of stories to songs in middle school when a particularly kind music teacher instructs Emma in the basics of piano during study hall, and Emma finally has the format to match all those bits and pieces of language running through her head.

She’s not even particularly organized about it in those early days, pouring out her feelings onto tiny scraps of paper and the edges of notebook pages and napkins and whatever else is on hand when she needs an outlet, needs to turn all her feelings into verse before they eat her alive. Given enough time, all those scraps - well, at least the ones she saves, the ones she’s actually satisfied with for their own merit instead of as cathartic release - form a layer of creative detritus at the bottom of her backpack as she’s shuffled from family to group home and back again.

Ruth Nolan is something else, however, something Emma can recognize even at 15. Ruth seems to see everything, eyes almost too kind and understanding to be real. It shouldn’t really surprise Emma that her latest foster mother - a woman trying to live up to that title in more than just name - sees her little hobby, if you could call it that, as well.

One day you will go away…

The older woman shows up with a notebook and a hatbox, the latter carrying that particular smell Emma associates with the antique stores Ruth likes so much.

“I thought you might like someplace you could keep all your pieces together,” Ruth says in that tone of voice Emma’s learning means she’s afraid she’s overstepping Emma’s boundaries. “Only if you want, of course. And then a pretty notebook too, for your writing or journaling or just school, if you prefer. What girl doesn’t need a pretty notebook?”

Emma’s wary to accept the gift - gifts are easy to take back when she’s inevitably sent back, so there’s no sense in getting attached - but she thinks Ruth might mean it genuinely. “Thanks,” she says, attempting a smile. “That’s a good idea.” Even if she’s hesitant to accept the gift, Ruth’s too good to hurt her feelings, so Emma makes the effort all the same.

“Oh, it’s nothing, my girl,” Ruth excuses, cheeks pinking as she busily fusses with the pillows on Emma’s bed, almost like she didn’t expect even that small praise. After a few moments, she seems to run out of things to do in that direction, straightening with a sigh to meet Emma’s hesitant smile. “You’ll let me know if you need anything else, sweetie?”

It strikes Emma for the first time that Ruth may be just as nervous about this working out as she is, but is trying so hard all the same to make Emma feel like a part of something. “Yeah, I will,” she reassures, before taking it a brave step further. “I thought maybe I’d come down in a few, if you or David wanted to play a card game or something?”

“I’d love that,” Ruth beams, sending a little shoot of happiness and pride through Emma that she was able to do that. “No rush, sweetheart, you come down whenever you’re ready,” she assures on her way out.

Just one more line, Emma thinks, quickly finishing out her thought before putting her pen aside to join the Nolans downstairs.

It takes months and months, but Emma figures out that Ruth Nolan is a no-backsies kind of woman, both with her gifts and her love. The adoption papers are certainly proof of that sentiment, though Emma has moved all her snippets into the hatbox even before everything’s official. She’s finally found a place of her own in this world - it’s time her words do too.

———

My love’s too big for you my love…

The words are a release, a way to express everything she’s feeling when faced with her first real heartbreak at the hands of her cheating ex-boyfriend. They’re never meant to be seen by anyone - hell, Emma’s not sure that she herself wants to read them a second time, bear witness to that pure expression of pain again. Yes, she’s fucking pissed at Neal, and no, she doesn’t want to rekindle things or remotely regret their breakup after finding him in bed with another woman, but she loved him, in that awful, consuming, first-love kind of way. And that doesn’t go away instantly, even despite her anger, even when given the ample evidence that it should. Writing it all down, Emma’s long since learned, is the first step in processing and moving forward.

Tell me what to do to take away the you…

What she doesn’t plan on, however, is Belle spotting the words where Emma’s left them on her dorm room’s desk when the brunette swings by with an impromptu question about their creative writing assignment. It’s far too late to hide them - the time for that was before Belle knocked, honestly, and any efforts now will just make it look like Emma has something interesting to hide. Even if Belle is a sweet girl, one that Emma doesn’t think would pry if she just snatched the page back, there’s no closing the barn door after the horse has already escaped.

“Is this for class?” Belle asks, understandably confused. It’s fairly obviously not a school assignment, since they haven’t been asked to complete anything in verse.

“No, it’s… a personal project, I guess,” Emma half-heartedly explains. “Just a hobby.”

Belle raises her eyebrows at that. “It’s really good. Is it a song?”

“Could be,” Emma shrugs. “I mean, I kind of wrote it like that, but I’ve never actually sat down and figured out the music that goes with it, so…”

“Still, it’s impressive,” Belle comments. “I’d go see a band who was putting out stuff like this.”

“Thanks,” Emma mumbles, feeling her cheeks start to flush pink.

“Thanks for not snatching it out of my hand immediately,” Belle grins. “Do you have any others you’d be willing to share?”

Looking back, Emma thinks the band was born that night - or at least the idea for one. Either way, before the year is out, they’re practicing with two other acquaintances-turned-bandmates in university practice rooms, trying to put together sounds and words that people will actually want to listen to.

(The hatbox remains sealed, however; certain things are just too private to put in front of the world.)

———

They say that home is where the heart is

I guess I haven’t found my home…

She probably should have figured Killian would find the hatbox when she asked him to help her unpack the boxes in the office - a task she’s been putting off for an almost embarrassingly long time. If there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that Killian Jones is meticulous in everything he does, and helping Emma unpack her belongings and god-awful stacks of files is no exception.

“What’re these, then?” he teases, flashing Emma that grin that he thinks is charming (and Emma sometimes allows herself to find charming as well).

“Oh, you know. Just some stuff I’ve written,” she says, as vaguely as possible. It’s not that she wants to hide this box from him, or that she cares that he’s found all her scraps of songs, but there’s a lot of memories in that box, years of the feelings she hides so well behind her public facade, and they honestly don’t have the time to go through it all. Jury’s still out on whether Emma has the inclination to do so in the first place.

“I don’t recognize these,” he says, frowning in confusion as he scans the messy scrawl dancing across the pages. “Are they from the next album?” His face suddenly lights up with an excitement more characteristic of a young boy, not a grown-ass adult whose best friend will gladly give him a sneak peak of the drafts for the next album if he ever asks.

“No, God no,” she snorts. “Those will never see the light of day.”

“Whyever not?” he asks. The defensive part of Emma reads it as a demand, but her logic and ears at least are able to process his tone as actually pretty polite, though curious. “These are really good.”

Emma shrugs. “Not really our style. Those are meant to be just the piano and maybe an acoustic guitar.” They’re excuses, she realizes, and though Killian seems to be happy enough to take them at face value, Emma feels a twinge of guilt about not giving him more. He’s her best friend, after all; their trust is an implicit thing, strong in the knowledge that they’ll never judge one another. With that in mind, Emma scratches out a small hole in her walls to hand him more. “They’re… personal,” she elaborates, though that was probably already obvious. “I mean, those in the box were my emotional outlet for a while. They’re just too… close, if that makes sense? I don’t really want to share them with everyone.”

Killian drops the slips back into the box quickly, hastening to seal everything back up. “I’m sorry, love, I didn’t mean to pry,” he apologizes.

He really doesn’t need to. “Killian, it’s fine,” she smiles. “You’re not ‘everyone’. Or whatever. Something less corny.”

“Too late, Swan,” he replies, that smug look trying to creep across his face. “I’ll treasure those words forever.”

Emma rolls her eyes at him, but truthfully, she doesn’t particularly mind. She may have been hesitant to show Killian that little bit of herself, but it ultimately wasn’t nearly as hard or painful as she feared. Then again, things with Killian have always been easy - easy and comfortable.

She can’t help but think that maybe, now that they both live in the same city, they can finally explore that something that’s always been simmering just below the surface of their friendship.

They say you’re really not somebody

Until somebody else loves you

Well I am waiting to make somebody somebody soon…

———

Emma Swan isn’t, historically, a wallower, but it was a fucking stupid fight, and looking back, she’s entirely to blame. Or, at the very least, she can’t blame Killian for being frustrated - “her fault” makes it sound like she was out looking for an argument. But at the very least, she sees and understands why he was upset in the first place.

It’s so stupid in retrospect, the events that led to their fight. They’d run into an acquaintance of Emma’s, one of the sound techs that’s working with them on the next album, and it fell to Emma to make introductions - and she’d fumbled. Badly. To the tune of “This is my… this is Killian.” And yes, they were walking down the street with arms thrown around each other, and the techie totally knew that they were together, but still. Not a good thing that Emma’s still too screwed up to even call Killian her boyfriend.

“Don’t you think that hurts, Emma?” he asks later, begs later after she demands to know why he’s being so quiet. “We’ve been together for three and a half months, and I know you’re committed to this relationship - at least when it’s just us - but it’s like a little knife to the heart when you can’t or won’t let others in on that little secret, like this is something to be ashamed of.” He runs a hand over his face in frustration, before shaking his head and turning towards the door of her apartment. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do this tonight. I’ll call you later.” His hand is on the knob when he turns back for the last word. “Think about what you really want from this, Emma, because I won’t drag you into something you’re not 100% on board with.”

And then he leaves Emma to sort out the pain currently coursing through her chest.

I’ll never say that I’ll never love

But I don’t say a lot of things

(and you my love are gone)

Emma knows that she can’t fix herself overnight, can’t suddenly push past all the emotional scarring that’s caused all this blasted hesitance. But what she can do is try harder to show Killian how she feels, even if she can’t say the words yet.

With that in mind, she sits down to write another song, one whose words have just started popping into her head. The Lost Girls are planning to do a short surprise set at the Jolly Roger three weeks from now - maybe this can be added to the set list, this song just for Killian.

———

It’ll take more than just a breeze to make me…

Fall overboard just so you can catch me

“Writing me another love song, Swan?” Killian asks cheekily from where he leans in the doorway.

“You say that like you’ve been deprived,” Emma dryly shoots back. “And I know for a fact that’s not true.”

“Ah, well, a man can dream,” he teases, crossing the room to embrace Emma from behind, chin coming to rest on her head. “In all seriousness, what are you working on there?”

“Something for Ruby.”

Killian snorts at that pronouncement. “Oh, that seems premature. We just introduced her to Graham a few weeks ago, love.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a feeling,” Emma insists. “They really hit it off the other week, and they both seemed smitten.”

“Are you sure you’re alright, Emma? Or is this some kind of body swap with your sister-in-law?” her husband teases, jokingly feeling her forehead for a fever. “Quick, tell me something only Emma would know!”

“Very funny,” Emma deadpans. “Just you wait, I’ll be singing this at their reception one day.”

“Whatever you say, my love,” he placates, dropping a kiss to the crown of her head before tilting his own in curiosity. “I don’t think I’ve seen the hatbox in a good long while,” he observes.

“Haven’t needed it lately,” she shoots right back. “What can I say, I’m becoming more emotionally healthy, or something.” It’s a quip, for certain, but there’s a certain amount of truth to it; Emma hasn’t had to turn to the hatbox and pouring her emotions out into words no one will ever read because she has Killian instead, who’s always there to listen when she’s sad or frustrated. She likes to think she offers him the same in return.

“I don’t think you were ever so bad as you make it sound,” Killian says, trying to temper her words, “but I’m glad to hear that you don’t need to depend on that outlet so much anymore.”

“Only because of you, babe,” Emma replies cheekily, meaning every word despite her teasing tone.

Killian snorts a laugh all the same, before craning around to drop a smacking kiss on her lips. “You’ll have to write me a song to prove it!” he calls over his shoulder as he wanders back out into the living room.

And who knows? Maybe she just might.

And I never thought I’d be the type to fall, to fall…

[newbie-whumping]

Character descriptions

Since, you know, this is a response blog, I figured I should give you descriptions of the characters I’ll be using. I’m gonna warn you that there are some things here that could be triggers, so I’m inserting a read more, and the warnings are as follows:

Abuse, violence, victim blaming (kind of?)

Kat: Short for Katherine, also a pun because I’m like that. She’s three feet tall, 3'6" at max. She’s a cat monster, falling usually into the Underfell universe. She does differ from different universes, but most likely the version of her ill be using is the fell verse, and as such, she’s a chocolate colorpoint. She went through a lot of abuse growing up and, after trying to defend an older sibling, had her tongue cut out as a punishment. She has a twin as well as three other sisters and brothers for a total of eight children in the family, of which she’s the youngest. Each of them are a different color of point because it’s my au (technically I share it with one other person but that doesn’t make it any less mine) and I do what I want. If anyone recognizes her from my main blog then. Welp. Hi. How’s it goin.

Asriel: In the fell universe for my specific au, Asriel was able to become himself from being Flowey mostly through determination and accepting that he is himself no matter what. He does have a different appearance from any kind of canon: his horns are made of wood, he has a crown of small, golden flowers growing on his head, his skin has a slight green tinge, his eyes are green, and his fur has flecks of gold. It’s kind of a symbol that he is who he is and has always been himself. He accepts both sides of himself. That kind of stuff.

Kat’s siblings: 

Ky (short for Kylee) is her twin who was supposed to be born before her, but something went wrong and their Souls merged, causing Ky to essentially be a voice in Kat’s head for a good majority of her life. The actual length depends on what timeline I decide to go with, but at bare minimum, it’s 13 years. She also got the short gene as well as the chocolate pointing.

Noah is about 2 years older than the twins. He’s got lilac pointing. 

Keili is a little over five years older than the twins. She’s a blue point.

Nolan is a few months under seven years older than the twins. He’s a cream point, and Irish twins with Kelly, who has fawn pointing.

Neal is about ten years older than the twins. He is a seal point.

Kaylee, who, besides Ky, will likely be the most brought up, is just under twelve years older than the twins. She is a flame point and is basically all the younger siblings’ mom.

Should they come up, Kayla is their mother and is a cinnamon point, Nick is their father and is a blue point. And if you think that I specifically made them these colors so the kids can be whatever I want then you -

Are absolutely correct :3

[aimeraiwrites]

Phil, Jer, Nolan

(this is a trio where i CAN use all three in different pairings together but the idea of phil and jer not being together like. stabbed me in the heart. i sunk down a feelings hole about them)

Slow burn is such a phil/jer thing. 100% forever and always i’m willing to read 50k of them falling in love. if anyone writes them the slow burn they deserve lmk and i will Give You my soul, signed, sealed, delivered.

i’d sell my soul for fake dating always but uh. give me the ‘verse where zach is convinced phil and jer are together and TELLS THEIR FAMILY and now jer and phil have to pretend to be together when visiting over the summer and come to the realisation that ‘shit we really are dating already what the fuck’I feel like nico/nolan already sort of fits the enemies to lovers trope because everyone was pitting them against each other? 

that being said it would be really interesting to see the AU with a nolan/phil enemies to lovers just because: different sides of the country and francophone v anglophone and the 2nd overall v undrafted narrative. it would be super interesting to see the AU where they’re civil because of hockey but don’t like each other (for whatever reason) or one of them doesn’t like each other, but (considering how fragile they both are) the two of them are at PT/on IR together and slowly do start liking each other and then wake up one day like shitfuckFEELINGS. 

and now i’m like. somewhat invested in this au. fuck. how many more rarepair ships can I HAVE. 

[littlewrensx]

@spiritusmuses

Wren let out a breath as she pulled into her mom's driveway. She had only brought a man home once, and that was an epic fail. So to be bringing Nolan home to meet everyone, and having him meet her mom and siblings all at once was overwhelming. She had no doubt they would love him, especially when they saw how well he treated her. "Now are you sure you're ready? Because I could back this car right out and we tell my mom we're sick." She teased, shutting the car off.

[littlewrensx]

@spiritusmuses

"Morning." Tanya called to her best friend and her boyfriend as they came in. "Bring your Seal to work day? No one told me the memo. I would've kidnapped one." She teased the couple. Wren chuckled softly, moving behind the counter to turn on the ipad they used for their cash register. "He's dropping me off and bringing sweets to work." Luckily she'd actually be able to see him tonight for dinner. It was a nice feeling after living without him for three months. Tanya nodded, eyeing her best friend. There was something about her that seemed off, but she couldn't figure it out. "Wren? Are you okay?" She asked softly, putting her hand on her shoulder. Wren looked at her. "What? I'm fine." Turning to her man. "I'll be right back with those goods, babe." Sneaking out back to grab the day old pastries she promised he could bring to work for the team. Tanya watched Wren walk away, before turning to Nolan. "Why did you have to break her heart? She was so excited for you to come home so she could surprise you."

[littlewrensx]

Three months. It was the longest she had been without Nolan. The most she had to be without him was a week, maybe two. But he had been deployed over in Afghanistan. It was hard, not being able to see him or talk to him as often. They tried video chatting when they could, but since they were on different time zones it was hard to get that moment where they were both awake and not busy. Wren did leave him some video messages when she could.

Logging on to send him a message, Wren was having a slumber party with Tanya and had quite a few drinks in her. She couldn't remember a time she was this drunk. "Hi babe!" She said into the camera. "I'm here with Tanya, Tanya say hi!" She called to her best friend. "Hi Nolan! I'm sleeping in your bed with Wren tonight." Laughing, Wren shook her head and put her hand over her eyes. "Anyways, I might be a little drunk but I wanted to remind you that you come home in ONE WEEK. I am so excited, I miss you so much. I love you, and everything about you. And you want to know a secret? When you come home, I'm asking you to marry me." She giggled. "Oh! And my house sold! So I'm all yours now, baby. Anyways, I love you. I can't wait to see you." She hiccupped a little as she shut the video off, satisfied with her message to him. @spiritusmuses

[littlewrensx]

@spiritusmuses

Wren giggled to herself as she sneaked over to her new boyfriend's house. She knew he was on another mission, though this time wasn't a very long one. He was due back in just a couple of hours. She didn't have access inside his house, but she could at least surprise him by decorating the outside. Wrapping lights around his porch, she plugged them into the outdoor outlet and looked at them proudly. She then hammered a small nail into his front door to hang the wreath she had found for him. It wasn't the most, but she wanted him to come home and wonder what the hell happened to his house. With a few finishing touches, she gathered up all the evidence of her being there and hurried back over to her house to wait for him.

[littlewrensx]

Wren swung on the porch swing draping the blanket over her lap as she had her nightly wine. There was something more comforting being out in fresh air reading a book with a glass of cheap wine that honestly tasted more like juice with a kick. Her eyes getting distracted by headlights coming her way, she saw that Nolan's truck was coming down the street. "Fuck." Back from his mission, she assumed. The last time she talked to him she was the biggest loser in the world, made a huge fool of herself. Wren quickly looked back down at her book, swallowing thickly as she hoped he wouldn't notice her. @spiritusmuses

[littlewrensx]

Wren would never be one to hike in the woods. The idea of being in a wooded area, with mosquitos and well, exercise. But Nolan insisted that there was a spot she'd want to see. "I have to admit, I'm actually enjoying myself." She chuckled as they walked through the path in the woods. "I was skeptical, but it's actually nice to be out here." Fresh air, good weather, not too hot. It was probably the last good weekend of the Summer. @spiritusmuses

[littlewrensx]

@spiritusmuses from here.

She had slowly stopped groaning at the idea of going for a walk after dinner. It wasn't going to kill her to get exercise, and it was actually good for them to have a conversation without just falling into one of their beds. Now that the weather was getting nicer, it become enjoyable. The fresh air filled her lungs as they walked, the sky going darker. A silence fell over them, but not one that was awkward. They had just ran out of things to talk about. Looking over as he handed her the rose, she smiled as she took it and smelled it. "Thank you. Even though you definitely stole. A sweetie and a bad boy in one man." She teased, nudging him playfully.

[littlewrensx]

@spiritusmuses from here.

Wren wasn't sure what they were. It seemed on one hand they were just friends with benefits. Most nights were spent tangled in his sheets, or hers for that matter. But then it felt like they were something more than that. They had never labeled it, but maybe they should have. But now she felt she was in too deep to ruin it now by asking. Now they were christening her couch, her legs wrapped around his waist as he drove into her. Moaning his name, she laughed a little in between moans when he said he'd cook for her more. Pulling him down so she could kiss him, her nails moved to scratch down his back gently.

[littlewrensx]

@spiritusmuses

Wren: Hey…

Wren: Just checking in.

Wren: I hope you’re being safe on your mission.

Wren: Also I’ll be honest I hadn’t realized you left and thought you were avoiding me. 🙈