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mi6-cafe · 4 years ago

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WEEK 2 DRABBLES ARE HERE!

Now, let’s refresh your memory.

For the second week of LDWS, our true l- our writers were asked to write a drabble between 150 and 200 words, based on the word deck from the point of view of an outsider.

THEY DID SUCH A GREAT JOB!

(this is a purely illustrative gif of an outside observer of the goings on at Q’s flat, not a prompt)

READ THE DRABBLES AND VOTE!

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Read the drabbles & Pick three favourites!

Vote for them on this form!

Add some feedback for the writers!

That’s it! You have done your civic duty and voted!

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Read the drabbles below the line.

Title: Eulogy for the Aston Martin Author: Misha / artsytarts Warnings: Canon Typical Violence (mainly directed at vehicles) Summary: Around 007, life and death go hand in hand.

The moment I leave solid ground and fly, pointed directly at the deck of the ship, I know my life is forfeit.

I realize now why the other machines pitied me after I was assigned to the man they call 007. I see his blue eyes blazing as he concentrates, gripping my steering wheel. They say he’s careless, but judging from the few days I’ve carried him, I know different. He’s not careless. His destruction is calculated. Only once I was obsolete, once he depleted my ammunition, blew my doors off, and pushed my motor to breaking point did he make his decision: To use me as his missile.

I count the milliseconds as the deck rushes towards me. Without a word, 007 pushes the ejector button and I fling him out into the open air, out into safety and freedom.

I am to be his sacrifice.

Before I hit the ship to perish in a blaze, I decide: I have no use for resentment. Like so many machines before me, I have granted him life.

That must count for something.

Title: All In Author: sorion Warnings: none Summary: Bond is handy with cards, and Felix likes to watch.

There are few things as satisfying as watching James Bond clean a table in poker. Felix has learned that pretty much the moment he's met Bond, and the entertainment value hasn't changed in the years that have passed.

On the contrary: Felix has learned some of Bond's tells. Not the kind of tells that would let him win against the insufferably unbeatable agent, but Felix recognises the spark that lights up in Bond's eyes, only seconds before he wipes the confident smirk off an opponent's face with a winning hand.

Another thing he can see is whether Bond enjoys the game for its own sake or just really hates one of the other players. He knows it's the latter when the opponent asks for a rematch and offers the deed to a hotel in lieu of liquid funds, and Bond agrees, provided that they use a new, unopened deck of cards.

The opponent blanches near imperceptibly, and Felix smirks into his drink. Oh, yes. Very satisfying.

Title: Voyeuristic Displeasure Author: sunaddicted Warnings: none Summary: seeing everything is not so fun

Bond's hands were big and rough, stronger than they had any right to be.

He had been observing them with varying degrees of interest over the years, stuck behind his computers or out in the field - air straining in his lungs with the knowledge that the other's life depended on how fast and how smart he could be.

He watched Bond strut along the deck, hand poised low on someone's lower back, head tilted down in a way that suggested he was focusing on whatever he was being told, seemingly enraptured in them - Bond played the part well but he knew what signs to look for, to spot the seams of the almost perfect façade: he darted glances around, favoring his right side, trying to keep under the eye of the cameras that he knew to be in friendly hands.

The hand slipped lower, fingers teasingly dipping beneath the edge of the brightly colored bathing suit his companion was wearing - shameless.

Almost teasing.

He stood up with a weary sigh, empty mug held aloft: he was going to need a strongly brewed cup of tea, if he had to watch Bond flirt his way into another bed.

Title: International Man Of Mystery Author: Merc / moon_of_mercury Warnings: none Summary: Some players never make it to places like Casino Royale. Others... acquire nice cars on the way.

She has encountered many interesting characters in her career, some more remarkable than others. Poker tends to attract extraordinary people. It isn’t always easily definable: something about this man arrests her attention the moment he walks up to the table, asking to join the game even though she’s already cutting the deck.

He flashes a cocky smile at everyone, reads his opponents like a professional, and pleads with her to let the unlucky Mr. Dimitrios bet his car to win his money back. She complies, amused. Such self-sufficient arrogance would be offending if not for his friendly politeness. The way he eyes the man’s wife is not mere casual interest either. Those intense ice-blue eyes have already seen every opportunity. His body language may seem relaxed, but there’s an awareness in his movements that hints at explosive potential underneath the calm surface.

For an exhilarating moment, she revels in being a part of this man’s story. It’s as clear as day that he’s used to playing for much higher stakes. She wonders what the real prize here is.

Dimitrios has lost again even before this stranger shows his cards. Men like him bend luck to their will.

Title: Crossroads Author: Hexiva Warnings: None Summary: James Bond visits a fortune teller.

The man’s cold blue eyes look past Serenity as he steps into her fortune-telling tent, and she shivers. His aura is like ice, a vast glacier with life frozen deep down inside it. He reminds her of a mobster from some old movie, wealthy but brutal.

“What do you want to learn?” she asks.

“The future,” he says, distractedly. She follows his eyes to a bearded man standing at the high striker, speaking in Russian.

She shuffles her deck. “There are two paths before everyone,” she says. “This choice is yours.” She draws two. “First path - The Lovers, the Star. Companionship and connection bringing hope. Choose the Lovers' path, and you will find a new beginning. A second chance.”

“And the other?” he asks. His tone is flat and apathetic. He doesn't believe in hope.

She draws again. “The Emperor, the Hermit, both reversed. Rigidity and repression bringing isolation and misery. Choose the Emperor's path and you will end up alone.”

But the man is looking past her at the Russian, and he stands. “Thanks." A wry little smile. "But I think I already know what path I’m on.”

She watches him go. In his shadow, she sees the Emperor.

Title: Observation Deck Author: Anyawen Warnings: none Summary: Mallory and Tanner contemplate employee relations.

Mallory surveyed the scene before him, sipping his scotch and trying, fruitlessly, to tune out the horrid rendition of 'Deck the Halls' playing overhead.

"We should do something about that," Tanner said, coming to stand beside him.

"About what?"

"That," Tanner replied, gesturing in the direction of Bond and Q. "Them."

The Quartermaster, decked out in a horrible Christmas jumper, looked exasperated. Bond, naturally, looked smug. They appeared to have entirely forgotten the holiday party happening around them as they argued. Flirted. Whatever.

"Trying to stop that from happening would be an exercise in rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic," Mallory said with a bemused smile. "Utterly futile."

"I don't want to discourage them," Tanner protested as Q cracked an unwilling smile at something Bond said.

"What, then?"

"A little push? Mistletoe? Lock them in a closet?" Tanner suggested hopefully.

"That might be construed as stacking the deck in your favor," Mallory observed mildly.

"You know about the bet?" Tanner spluttered as Q stole Bond's champagne glass and drained it to Bond's mock outrage.

"Spy," Mallory explained succinctly.

Tanner nodded wry acknowledgement.

They continued their silent observations a few minutes more, then Tanner asked, "What day did you pick?"

"April first."

Title: Nighttime Invasion Author: SouffleGirl91 Warnings: vague references to blood, swearing Summary: Q’s cat is not impressed by 3am visitors

Thunk.

A crumpled heap hit the floor. She hissed, tail bushy, ready to pounce on the intruder.

“Oof!”

Gunpowder Man was invading her space.

Again.

“Q?” Gunpowder Man whisper-shouted. He sounded different. “Are you awake?”

Something dark dripped from his nose.

She sniffed cautiously. He stank of copper and salt. Still, it was better than the strong, sour reek of last time.

A light came on in Father’s bedroom.

Gunpowder Man lifted himself up and wobbled to the sofa. Walking on two legs seemed harder for him than usual.

“Bond?” Father came traipsing up behind him, making the room light up. “What the fuck? It’s 3 in the bloody morning. You couldn’t wait?”

“What, you’re not happy to see me?” Gunpowder Man used the false-happy tone Father used when he tricked her into The Basket.

Another dark drip.

“Don’t be stupid,” Father tsked, petting Gunpowder Man softly on the shoulder. That should help; Father gave the best pets. “Why don’t I put the - Christ, Bond! What happened to your nose?”

“It’s not broken. She hit me when I told her I was staying.”

“I thought psychologists were meant to keep their cool,” Father sighed. “Come on, let’s clean you up.”

Title: A confession of a deck Author: scarytheory Warnings: none Summary: James Bond would be lost without me.

I'd like to think that James and I are not just colleagues, but friends.

You know, we’ve been through a lot together. Cottages in forgotten lands, first-class casinos, important fights – I’d always been with him and helped him along the way.

But this game is different.

“That’s not fair, James,” the opponent says, watching his stack of cards.

“I’m not cheating, Q.”

The opponent snorts. “You may be the best player the MI6’s ever had, but even you can’t be THAT good, 007. Aces again? That’s not very subtle.”

“You were the one who said poker is just basic math and all about the art of reading people. So stop whinging and take off your shirt.”

Beg your pardon?

There is something disturbing in the air. I don’t think I want to give the good cards to James anymore. “Happy?”

The shirt falls to the floor.

“Immensely.”

The next round, Q loses his pants. I’m starting to think that this isn’t even about poker!

“I won.”

Finally, it’s over and I can relax again. Even though I’m not sure what this young lad can have that James Bond would be interested in�� oh.

Title: Camouflage Author: IrishWitch58 Warnings: None Summary: A certain agent and their partner are in the field. The local perspective.

Grace's eyes were drawn to her first customers on the deck overlooking the harbor. They were as unlike as could be but Grace would have known they were together with just a glance. The subtle leaning in, the eye contact, the briefest brush of a hand. Not honeymooners but the established kind of connection that took time and patience. The younger man was dark and slender and had a tan that was honey gold. The older one was broader and blond and that one sent tingles up her spine. Her brother and his military buddies were like that, poised and watchful. She didn't see a weapon but suspected he was armed. They'd arrived three days ago in a beautifully restored vintage sailboat, walking the less traveled portions of the island.

Passing Grace, Mimi muttered “Spies posing as tourists.”

Gracie scoffed at Mimi's imagination. What were they spying on here, conch recipes? Then a new boat dropped anchor. The blond saw it first and the dark haired one checked the tablet he always seemed to have before nodding and finishing his chowder.

The pretty sailboat pulled up anchor the next dawn and the new boat was found derelict two days later.

#10

Title: Missing Him Author: Nana-chan Warnings: Summary: Austen the cat watches as her human pines for the Blond One

From her perch on the living room sofa, Austen looks disapprovingly at her bespectacled human. He is out on the deck again, smoking and no doubt pining for the Blond One. He is a relatively new addition to the household and has been gone for several days now, as is his habit. Keats—that dummy—misses him, too, as he meows and gazes forlornly at the front door.

She herself is unsure of the Blond One, but she doesn’t like it when her human is all sad and distracted, reeking of cigarette smoke and unresponsive to feline overtures of comfort. She feels powerless to help him. How did one man become so essential to her human’s happiness?

Then a key turns, the door opens, and there he is. The Blond One dumps his bag in the foyer and heads straight for the deck, pausing only to give her a brief head scritch. She watches as he folds her human into his arms and starts grooming him in that strange way humans have, with their mouths fused.

She hears her human laugh, gladness and relief evident in his tones, and finally, she makes up her mind about the Blond One.

#11

Title: Origin of a Voyeur Author: stormofsharpthings Warnings: none Summary: There was a legitimate reason to start going through all the Q Branch security footage, dammit!

After the small accidental volcano destroyed lab 7b, no one could recall who’d last checked the fire suppression system. Exasperated, R pulled up the security videos in hopes of spotting someone. The recording of Q and 007 was entirely unrelated, but she just couldn’t look away.

Q had been helping Bond dress for some formal event, tuxedo carefully tailored to conceal the equipment Q was arranging around his body. The scene resembled a squire helping his knight, except...

R bit her lip at the way Q stroked his fingertips down the front of Bond’s suit to check the drape of the fabric, evading Bond’s hungry gaze with a sly little quirk to his mouth. Then Q leaned close, reaching around to run his hands over the back of the jacket, lingering a little over Bond’s well-proportioned backside before he sank to one knee and brushed along the sides of the trousers.

“There, all decked out,” Q murmured.

Bond reached down to cradle Q’s chin in his hand and Q looked up with a provocative lick of his lips, the heat almost visibly simmering between them. Bond took a deep breath, his fingers tightening, and Q ‘s eyes widened and then slid shut as he turned to brush his lips against Bond’s thumb. When Bond made a low rough sound, both Q and Rani swallowed at the same time.

Then the outer office door slammed and she hurriedly shut her computer down, blushing. But she saved a private copy first.

#12

Title: The Bet Author: Venstar Warnings: none Summary: Bets are made, there will be blood.

Oh, yes. It was going to happen. The tension was palpable in the room, yes he said palpable in his interior monologue. Just fucking get closer. Do it already. He was going to win that bet today by fuck. He leaned forward in anticipation, eyes locked on target. Yes. Yes….Keep going...almost….

*AH-OOH-GA!! AH-OOH-GAH!! AH-OOH-GAH!!*

Fuck, goddammit. Not again! He narrowed his eyes. There was no way another attack by water was happening. Dammit. Fake or not they were going to have to clear the god damned building. He sighed heavily as he turned sad eyes back to where 007 and Q had been quietly eyeing each other. They were gone. “What the fuck?” Where? There! The orange of Q’s cardigan turned a corner. He was not about to lose the 'THEY FINALLY MADE OUT DAY' be! He ignored the rest of Q’branch’s leads as they ordered the evacuation.

“Davis?”

Fuck. It was R.

“And just where are you going? Exit is that way.”

He turned with hunched shoulders to find R smiling at him. Her eyes flitted past him to where Q and 007 had disappeared to. “THAT bet will only be won when it’s officially my day.”

#13

Title: Specs and the Lady Author: solarmorrigan Warnings: None. Summary: Louis has been a bartender for a long time, but occasionally patrons can still surprise him.

The Friday night crowd seethes around the bar in waves, laughing and calling out their orders. Louis has been a bartender a long time, which means he can keep up with the steady roll of vodka-tonic-scotch-and-soda-bottle-bottle-pint and still keep an eye on the floor for trouble.

Trouble like the man in specs and a loud jumper bumping into an over-drunk man in a worn football jersey, spilling both their drinks.

Specs’ mouth forms the word ‘sorry,’ but Jersey isn’t having it. He grabs Specs’ jumper, but before Louis can even call for Paul—their unofficial bouncer-bartender—a lady slides in between them, curly hair and cunning eyes, and pulls Jersey’s hand away.

Jersey shoves the lady, and viper-quick, she decks him. Jersey goes down.

Louis lets out a surprised laugh. The lady looks quite pleased. Specs looks exasperated, though Louis doesn’t know why; if he had someone like that in his corner, all squared shoulders and terrifying heels, he’d be delighted. Then again, from Specs’ half-laughing attempt at chastisement that carries in the surprised lull in noise (“Really, Eve?”), this isn’t the first time it’s happened.

“Just take Jersey out,” Louis bids as Paul moves in, “Specs and the lady are fine.”

#14

Title: Eyes on You Author: oldestcharm Warnings: n/a Summary: The Quartermaster is enjoying his afternoon and Bond is far too concerned about his garden.

She's good at her job. So good, in fact, that she's currently hidden from sight with her scope right on MI6's Quartermaster himself. He's sitting on the deck of his house, enjoying the sunny weather with a girly drink in one hand and a laptop resting on his thighs. He's typing furiously, paying no attention to his surroundings. All she has to do is take one shot.

Then, the sprinklers turn on.

She does her best to not make a sound even as her phone buzzes.

4:27 pm:

There are over twenty cameras on the property.

4:28 pm:

I suggest you get out of my hydrangea bush. James worked rather hard on the garden and he won't be pleased to find you there.

A click behind her — probably a gun. "You've ruined my garden."

She turns around and finds herself face to face with the legendary agent. She cringes. "I'm... very sorry?"

Bond does not look amused. "You're fixing this before you leave."

"You're not going to kill me?" she asks, heart pounding.

"Q wants you for his team." Bond sighs, looking more annoyed than anything. "Either you accept or I'll shoot you."

Well, it's not exactly a choice.

#15

Title: Over It Author: MrKsan / starrboned Warnings: Canon-Typical language Summary: Tanner is nervous.

Ferrying through the maze of the Thames tunnels was often a nerve-wracking job. More so when his passengers were nervous. More so when it was the Chief of Staff who was sitting across from him, restless, tap-tap-tapping on his cardboard box.

Tanner gave Jack an awkward smile as they docked, climbing the narrow ladder just as the Quartermaster stormed into view.

“I’m going to skin the twat alive, Bill!“ he hissed, making Tanner stumble to a stop. “Didn’t even try to cover his tracks.”

Jack grinned. Only one man could piss Q off that much.

Tanner sighed, resigned. “I’ll inform M-”

“Already did,” Q huffed.

"Oh?"

"Not risking my career for him again, Bill."

Jack dared a peek at the couple; the conversation was taking an unexpected turn.

Tanner blinked, once, twice, before seeming to come to a decision. He shoved the cardboard box at Q.

“Thought we could share breakfast, since our dinner last night was interrupted? Bad timing, of course- ”

"Bill,” Q said, and Jack saw the silver of a smirk. "I would love to."

Pulling a crumpled cigarette from under his heavy coat, Jack couldn't help but grin to himself.

MI6 and their drama.

Go vote!

#james bond #james bond fanfiction #drabbles #00Q #rare pair #ldws2021 #ldws 2021 #ldws

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macgyvermedical · 5 years ago

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Hi! I'm sure you have many prompts already, but on the slight chance you don't, I've been wanting to read a fic from Matty's perspective of a couple of times Mac has been in danger and how much it affected her emotionally. I feel like she is a very soft person inside and would have mini panic attacks when Mac takes too long to answer comms or when she is told he is injured but has no idea how bad. ^_^

So technically this was prompt number 6, but as soon as I read it I knew it was the one. I love long-distance worry. The scene from Casino Royale where M is alerted that Bond’s been poisoned? The very archetype of my jam. I can’t honestly believe that I never thought about writing something similar for Matty. So thanks for that.

This is try #3 of a missing scene from “CD + Hoagie Foil”

Close Call + Background Noise

“Uuuh, Matty, we’ve got a problem.” Jack’s voice burst back through the comms. Matty had been waiting uneasily, knowing any radio-mediated communication could potentially tip off Chandra’s goons that something was afoot. She nearly jumped when she finally heard his voice after the nearly half hour of silence.

“Do you have the gas?” She asked immediately, urgently. Already she was thinking about routes between the water treatment plant and Grand Central, where she could cut off Chandra’s route to inciting a mass casualty incident. She motioned for Jill to look up the emergency number for the NYC transit authority.

“Not exactly according to plan, but yeah, the gas has been neutralized.” Matty let out a barely audible sigh of relief.

“So what’s the issue, Jack?”

“Chandra’s plan changed. Instead of Grand Central, she decided to dump both canisters into the NYC water supply.” Jack said. Matty picked up a little effort in his voice that put her on edge. If the situation was truly over, he should be as relieved as she was. Something wasn’t right. “Mac had to improvise. He managed to stop that from happening, and the NYC SWAT team is securing the area and taking all of Chandra’s people into custody as we speak.”

“Okay… and?”

“And in the process… Matty, Mac’s been exposed.”

“How bad?” She asked immediately. There was still a level of relief, that the lives of potentially thousands of New Yorkers would be spared, but the dread in Jack’s voice told her she should very much still be worried.

“There was a lot of it, Matty, it filled up the room he was in.” Matty policed her face, motioning Jill over.

“How fast can we get an ambulance to them?” She asked Jill in a whisper.

“I’ll find out.” Jill’s fingers wizzed across her tablet screen and she tapped her headset.

“How’s Mac doing?” Matty asked. It had been a while since she’d had to use any information on nerve agents besides ‘they’re deadly’ but they were always something she kept a foundational knowledge of in the back of her mind. They scared her more than just about any other substance her agents could come into contact with. Even before Jack could answer, she could hear someone coughing forcefully in the background.

“Mac, how you doing, buddy?” She heard Jack ask. There was a pause, more coughing, turning to a kind of pained croaking. “Mac!” The sound of gravel being pushed out of the way and someone falling against Jack. A pained intake of breath. “Matty, he’s breathing real bad.”

“Jill! Do you have that ambulance yet?” Matty asked urgently.

“There was supposed to be one there, but a SWAT officer was badly wounded in the firefight before they knew about Mac. Another ambulance is en-route but they’re pretty remote- its going to be 20 minutes before they’re on scene.”

“Make it half that. Mac’s not going to last that long.” Matty said.

“The hell you mean Mac’s not going to last that long?” Jack asked over the comms. “He said he had 18 hours!”

Matty looked quizzically at Jill, trying to contain her hope that she was wrong. “Does he have that long?”

“VX? Dermal exposure only, maybe he’d have that long.” Jill explained quickly. “But aerosolized in a confined space? If he breathed it in, he could suffocate in 10 minutes.”

“Shit, Mac.” Matty heard Jack say. “Okay, okay…What do we do? How do we save him?” Matty took a breath. “There’s gotta be something we can do, Mats, c’mon.” She could only imagine the panicked look on Mac’s face, and that was if he was still conscious. Really, the only thing going through her head was get the ambulance there faster. But no matter how much pressure she put on Jill she knew she couldn’t change the laws of physics. She looked at Riley.

“I’m trying to line up the traffic signals, but I don’t know how much time that’s actually going to buy us.” Riley chimed in.

“Do you still have the kit I put in Sam’s car?” Jill asked.

“No” Sam responded; her voice worried. “When I was captured earlier we lost the car.”

“What about Jack- do you still have your tac vest?”

“Yeah, why?” Jack asked hopefully.

“There’s a pouch on the front lower right panel. Is it still there?” Matty listened to the crunch of Velcro.

“Yeah.”

“Open it. There should be three auto-injectors inside.”

“Jill I could kiss you.”

“Please don’t.”

“Hello? Someone want to fill me in?” Matty asked urgently.

“When I found out this mission was going to involve VX I had oc health put together some antidote kits. We should have done a training on them before they left, but there wasn’t a lot of time.” A wave of relief washed over Matty. There was a chance. There was hope.

“Jack, were you ever trained on DuoDote?” Jill asked.

“A long time ago.”

“Okay, they’re easy, just take the auto-injector out of the tube, take the safety plug off and slam the green end into Mac’s thigh. Count to 5, then remove it.” In the background, there was the sound of someone fiddling with plastic. The sound of gravel moving under a knee pad. A click.

“One, two, three, four, five…” The silence was palpable. “Now what?” Jack’s voice asked.

“Is he breathing?” Matty asked.

“Barely, Matty, I don’t think it worked.” Jack was keeping his voice together but Matty could tell he was panicking. She let out her own slow breath.

“Give it a minute or so. The atropine needs to open his airway and that’s not always immediate. If it doesn’t happen in 5 minutes, give him a second dose.”

“Can he go that long without air?”

“I know what you’re thinking, Jack, but don’t give him rescue breaths unless you have a barrier.” Matty looked at Jill incredulously.

“We only have the 3 doses.” Jill explained. “If Jack gives Mac rescue breaths, that could expose him, and we don’t have enough antidote for both of them.”

“You know I don’t care about that.” Jack said.

“…Besides, Jack, until the atropine works, Mac’s airway is too narrow for the breaths to do much good.” Matty looked wary at this advice, but said nothing else about it.

“I…”

“Trust me, Jack.” There was a disappointed grunt on the end of the line, followed by long minutes of tense silence.

“I think it’s working.” Sam was the first to report. Matty let out a breath. In the background, the familiar but much more reassuring sound of coughing and choking filled the background noise. It was a lovely sound. “I’m putting him in recovery position, yeah?”

“Do that. EMS should be there in about 5 minutes. They have the hospital alerted and they’ll be able to provide decontamination when he arrives.” Jill reported.

“Jack and Sam, were either of you exposed? Did you touch Mac with bare skin or come into contact with the nerve agent in any way?” Matty asked.

“Yes.” Sam said hesitantly. “Both of us, when we helped him out of the building.” Matty went back on alert.

“Are either of you showing any symptoms? Nausea, blurred vision, eye pain, sweating, coughing, runny nose, anything like that?” There was a pause.

“Nope, neither of us.” Jack reported.

“Okay, I’m going to have the two of you go to the hospital with Mac. They’ll decon you there and you’ll stay for however long they want to watch you for, understood?”

“C’mon, Matty.”

“You heard me, Jack. I can’t have all three of you out of work. Keep me updated on any developments.”

She let the line go dead as the sound of sirens filled the background noise. It wasn’t always her fault, but it was never easy to make calls like that from a distance. She would have put her head down for a moment to try and clear it, but Riley and Jill were still in the room working, and it would look weird to kick them out now, before the situation was well and truly resolved. Instead, she allowed herself a long breath and a sip of coffee that had long since gone cold.

#fic #whump fic #macgyver #tag #CD + Hoagie Foil

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theineffablewhump · 5 years ago

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whump asks (ok i went a bit overboard, feel free to just pick a few): 3, 10, 11, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 35?

Nooo I love answering stuff!!

3: What Country do you live in?

United Kingdom, specifically London, England!

10: Name one character you would love to see/read whump of but can’t find any.

Skulduggery Pleasant!!! The book series of my heart and life and there’s very lil fanfic for it!!

11: Favourite Whump Trope?

Domestic/familial/relationship abuse! Especially ones that start out with emotional abuse and manipulation that then turn to violence. Weird thing, probably because of Trauma lol

17: When was the last time you got butterflies/experienced good whump? What was it?

Probably from re-reading Repossession again ahhh (I’m looking to write something else for it and ugh it’s beautifully painful every time) but honestly I read a lot of fanfiction, I’m never usually too starved for whump!

19: If you were a character in a whump scene, would you be the caretaker, the whumper, or the whumpee?

certainly whumpee, I wanna be taken care of! But also caretaker for certain characters (Aziraphale and Crowley mostly)

21: Does anyone around you know that you’re a whumper? If so, tell us the story of how it went when you told someone.

not really! It’s not something I advertise, though my pals that I write with certainly know I’m all about that pain and recovery.

22: When did you realize you were into whump?

when I was a kid, maybe 11 or 12, latched on super hard to the James Bond books and movies (god knows why), so much so that I was for a time number one in the uk for the James Bond category on QuizUp, and the first time I saw the Casino Royale torture scene I was just like “oh this shit be hitting different” and I used to watch it on YouTube and seek out other fiction that would give me that weird butterfly feeling, something I had no idea what to name until I discovered the whump community! I also read the same scene in the book of Casino Royale and it’s honestly one of the best written torture scenes I’ve read.

23: How did you find out about the whump community? When was it?

Probably a year or so ago now on tumblr? And like even though I’d spent years seeking out whump/angst/hc on ff.net and ao3, I never really knew there was such a big community for it!!

26: Give the episode/film title of that one whump scene you keep watching over and over again (don’t lie to us, we all have that scene)

sfhhxhsjjs okay honestly it’s probably still Casino Royale to an extent but also ! There was a season 2 episode of House (I’m so sorry I don’t remember the episode number) where his leg pain is particularly bad that I used to watch a lot, and now in Good Omens when Aziraphale is cornered and attacked by the archangels, and also the bookshop fire and bar reunion for that good good emotional whump

27: Do you write fics/create art? Is it whumpy? Give us a link if you feel like it.

I do! Here’s a link to my last piece (which is part of the Repossession au for Good Omens) and there’s some other lil things on my ao3 account! I have a lot of OC stuff that’s still firmly on my google drive, and some older works that have since been orphaned just bc they were poorly written and researched and I don’t necessarily feel comfortable being associated with them anymore!!

35: Defiant or Submissive?

Submissive, all the way. Or defiant and THEN submissive.

#whump #ask response #tw: abuse #skulduggery pleasant #good omens #james bond #casino royale #house md

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patronusofthepugs · 6 years ago

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The McCormicks Are On Their Way

“Fuck, Karen, who fought in the War of Roses again? Wasn’t it a bunch of pissy Englishmen?”

Kenny frowned and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the wobbly table. His history textbook and notes were spread out around him, a collage of scribbled writing and portraits of stuffy old men glaring at him from his textbook. Fucking bastards, he wished one of them would open their painted mouths and help him write this stupid history report.

Karen laughed from the living room. “Kenny, we’ve been over this! The War of Roses was between the House of York and……?

“…The Lannisters?”

“That’s Game of Thrones, moron, but you’re on the right track, it’s the House of Lancasters.”

Kenny groaned and buried his head into his arms. God, fuck this paper and fuck the British, especially their dumb fights and stupid names. He stood up and chucked his history book onto the floor with the rest of junk.

Eh, the paper could wait another day or two. Kenny ambled into the living room and threw himself onto the couch, sprawling next to Karen. She turned to look at him, smiling at Kenny’s pouty face.

“How’s the paper coming, Einstein?” she said teasingly.

Kenny sighed, “It would be going a lot better if the English would use different names instead of naming every bastard, George or Henry. Just once, couldn’t they have named a kid with a cooler name like Jason. But anyway, how the hell do you know so much about the British monarchy? You’re eleven, you weirdo kid” he said turning to squint at his sister.

Karen huffed and flicked his nose, “Uh, because the British monarchy is totally in right now! Haven’t you seen the newest reality show about Queen Elizabeth? God, she’s such a bad bitch, she flipped off like a whole bunch of reporters at her husband’s funeral and told everyone to kiss her royal ass. Now she’s traveling around London getting into pub fights and gambling away the family jewels. I hope I’m like her when I’m old and wrinkly.”

Kenny chuckled and shook his head, “’Sure Kiddo, when you’re old and wearing adult diapers, I’ll break you out of the nursing home and we’ll go to Las Vegas to rule the casino scene.”

Karen grinned and held out her pinky, “Promise?”

Kenny carefully hooked his pinky around hers, “I promise.”

The McCormick siblings grinned at each other in unison before flinching as the front door suddenly flew open. Kenny shot to his feet, his arm outstretched in front of Karen as he warily eyed his drunk parents stumbling into the house. Dad stood in the doorway, staring at them with bleary eyes and a tired frown while his Mom took off for the kitchen, stumbling and cursing over the trash on the floor.

“Alright Kare Bear, off to your room now. I’ll come and get you later for some ice cream,” Kenny whispered to his sister, gently tugging her up from the couch. Karen only nodded, her brown eyes glued nervously to the floor and her shoulders hunched forward as she slowly shuffled away from Kenny.

He waited until she had left the room before sitting back down onto the couch with a sigh and bringing his knees to his chest. Time to watch the fire works as always.

Dad squinted and sniffed the air nosily, “Bitch, the fuck is that smell? You burning something?”

Mom squawked from the kitchen and stumbled back into the living room, holding a joint in one hand and a beer can in the other. “I ain’t cooking anything asshole. Mind your own fucking business,” she snarled at him before taking a long drag and puffing a cloud of smoke into his direction.

He shook his head like a bull and clenched his fists, his cheeks were flushed pink as he took a step towards her. “What the fuck, did I say about getting into my stash! Get your own weed, bitch.”

His mom laughed, the grating sound like shards of glass flying into Kenny’s ear. Someone was going to end up with a black eye. “Try and take it from me, dickhead.”

Kenny instinctively ducked his head as his Dad launched himself over the couch in one long angry jump. He heard his Mom shriek and run back into the kitchen, where more sounds of broken glass and yells could be heard.

He hesitantly lifted his head to see his Dad running out of the kitchen like a bat out of hell and his Mom running after him with the coffee pot lifted over her head like she was going to smash out his brains with deluxe expresso beans. His mom launched the coffee pot with all the grace of an Olympic champion where it soared through the air, missing his dad entirely and nailing Kenny right in the face.

God fucking damn it, Kenny thought as he crashed to the floor, his hand instinctively going to cradle his aching face as the glass coffee pot bounced harmless onto the floor next to his head, surprisingly still intact. He could still hear his parent’s angry shrieks, but it was fainter now as if he was on a train getting farther away from his parent’s jeers and screams.

He blinked slowly up at the dingy ceiling, noting the many spiderwebs and grime that coated it. He should lay on the floor more often. Lots of interesting shapes in dust. One blob of dust by the ceiling fan looks just like Cartman’s fat ass. He laughed weakly and closed his throbbing eyes, his right side of his face felt like one giant pulsating bruise.

Kenny cracked open his eyes to see Karen’s pale face leaning over him, her long brown hair hung like a curtain of silk around them, shielding Kenny away from everything. He reached up to brush away her tears that had begun to fall.

“Shhh, don’t cry. Princesses shouldn’t cry,” he cooed and then promptly passed the fuck out in a very manly manner.

Kenny awoke hours late to the sensation of frozen peas being awkwardly smushed against his face and the sound of the Dr. Phil playing faintly in the background. His eyes fluttered open and he groaned as feeling once again came back to his face. Shit, his face felt like he’s been dragged along the highway attached to a semi-truck.

He slowly sat up, tossing the bag of half melting peas next to him and leaned against the couch. Kenny tilted his head back to look at Kevin, his older brother who was huffing away on cigarettes on the couch like a pissed off Thomas the Train.

“Sup bro,” Kenny mumbled running his hand through his hair.

Kevin was silent as he grind his cigarette into the overflowing ashtray and shook his head at Kenny. “What happened this time?” he asked quietly.

Kenny shrugged, “Same shit as usual except Mom tried to throw the coffee pot and her aim fucking sucks.”

Kevin sighed and clenched his fists, “You could have died.”

Kenny smiled, “I’ll survive. I always do, don’t I?”

Kevin shook his head again, “We can’t keep living like this. I had to leave work cause Karen thought they killed you. God, I thought you were dead when I saw you just lying there. I’m not waiting for one of them to kill you or Karen. I’m sick of this shit. We’re leaving tonight.”

Kenny stiffened, his smile dropping off his face and his eyes wide as he turned to look at his solemn older brother. Kevin’s brown hair was as untidy as ever and he had a scruffy beard beginning to creep up on him, but his eyes were dark and serious as he looked at his younger brother. Kevin was only nineteen, but he was as broad as a mountain with patience that ran a mile deep. He was usually placid and calm but this time he looked properly pissed off.

“Where would we go?” Kenny whispered, his heart beating frantically in his chest as he couldn’t even believe they were having this conversation. Running away had always been a dream between the McCormick siblings, but it was always just whispered conversations in pillow forts and late-night musings. Kenny had never taken them seriously until now.

Kevin leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees and laced his fingers together, “Four hours away from here is a little town called Nockfell. The price of living is real cheap over there and I can find work easy. I even have a place picked out for us, I talked to the owner while driving home and I’m going to place a deposit down. Ken, you, me, and Karen are leaving tonight.”

Kenny turned away from his brother’s hopeful face. He had a thousand of excuses and arguments, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. His brother had made up his mind. He thought of Karen and the way she was practically disappearing into herself. Poor kid didn’t even have any friends at school, just her reality TV shows.

Kenny was scared, probably more scared than he had ever been his entire life. South Park, even with his crappy parents has always meant home to him. To leave everything behind was like jumping into lake with an endless bottom. Who knows what else was out there. But still, he had to for Karen’s sake. Kenny turned back to look at Kevin and nodded.

“Okay, I’m in. Let’s do it.”

Kevin grinned, his brown eyes lighting up like fireworks. “Atta boy, I knew I can count on you. Go pack your stuff, I’ll help Karen pack her room. We leave in two hours.”

Kenny got to his feet with a groan and gave a mock salute. “Ay, Ay, Captain. Where’s our folks though?”

Kevin snorted, “They drove to Denny’s and started fighting the in the parking lot. Cops took them away and letting them sleep it off overnight in jail. They won’t miss a thing when they get out.”

Kenny rolled his eyes and laughed. Of course, why wasn’t he surprised. It didn’t take him very long and in two hours the McCormick siblings were packing their worldly possessions in Kevin’s beater car.

Kevin got into the driver’s seat and Karen and Kenny slid into the backseat. Karen gazed out the window at their house, her eyes soft and sad. Kenny slung his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close.

“We’re going on an adventure, Kare bear. It’ll be fun.”

Karen leaned against Kenny and sighed, “Well at least you don’t have to do your history paper now.”

Kenny laughed, “Fuck history. Hey how about when we get to the new place, I’ll watch that Queen Elizabeth show with you.”

Karen brightened up and she nodded excitedly. She began to chatter eagerly about the different members of the royal family. Kenny leaned his head against the window, letting his sister’s voice wash over him as he watched the rest of South Park get farther away.

He’ll have to email the guys when they get to their new place. Stan was at band practice, Kyle was at some debate tournament and who knows what the fuck Cartman was doing. But they’ll understand why he had to leave. At least probably. Ah, well fuck it, he’ll just probably be replaced. Like always. Kenny’s face began to ache, and he closed his eyes for a second.

“Wakey, Wakey, Sleepy Head! We’re here!” Karen sang loudly in Kenny’s ear.

His eyes shot open and he flinched, pushing away his laughing sister. “Alright, alright, I’m up, you banshee,” he grumbled unbuckling his seat belt and practically falling out of the car. Kenny looked up at their new home.

“Addison Apartments,” he read out loud before shrugging. Seemed alright to him. Just an ordinary apartment for their new ordinary life. No more crazy shit for them, just smooth sailing for now all. Kenny grabbed the handle of his duffel bag and hauled it over his shoulder.

As the McCormicks made their way up the sidewalk and into the building, Kenny felt a cold chill run through his spine as they stepped into the doorway. He shivered and looked around. He thought he had saw something black and shadowy sink into the walls but that was impossible. He was probably just tired. Or had a concussion.

He shook off the strange feeling of foreboding and followed his brother and sister. Everything was fine. Addison Apartments was going to be the best home that they ever had. He was sure of it.

#south park #sally face #kenny mccormick #sal fisher #crossover #karen mccormick #kevin mccormick #dark prophecy boys #au

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one-of-us-blog · 6 years ago

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We Have Always Lived in the Palace - Closing Thoughts on a Shared Experience

The time has come at last to provide my final verdict on The Golden Palace, the Goldenverse in general, and what the experience of updating this blog has meant to me. This has been a long, strange journey, but have I been converted to a full-fledged fanatic? Keep reading to find out…

This will be my final post for this project, and as such I have been somewhat reluctant to write it. Before I get started, let me tell Drew one last time that I adored your most recent recap! SPECTRE is a bit of a disappointment for me given the approach the writers took with its lead villain, and I wish you had been able to go out with a film more on par with Casino Royale or Skyfall, but c’est la vie. Still, you definitely went all out with a comprehensive and entertaining account of its events, and I had a fantastic time reading it. Hopefully I can convince you to accompany me to Bond 25 in 2020, because I’ve loved hearing your reactions (outside of this blog) to the newest season of Doctor Who! Oh, and just for the permanent record, here is Drew’s FINAL list of Bond franchise favorites (and thanks for letting me pester you for these, buddy):

Best Bond: Daniel Craig (Casino Royale) Best Villain: Raoul Silva (Skyfall) Best Henchman: May Day (A View to a Kill) Best Bond Girl: May Day (A View to a Kill) Best Gadget: Submersible Crocodile (Octopussy) Best Opening Scene: Casino Royale Best Song: For Your Eyes Only Best Title Sequence: Casino Royale

And now, on to business. I find myself unable to untangle the topics of The Golden Palace, its relationship to The Golden Girls, and my experience with One of Us! in general, so this post is likely to be a rambling mess. First, did I fall in love with The Golden Palace? Not really, truth be told, but I had already fallen in love with its three main characters during my time with The Golden Girls. The trio did their best with the material they had in this spin-off, and it definitely generated some hilarious and memorable moments, but given that only one season of the show was produced, I wasn’t exactly shocked that it didn’t quite reach the standards of its predecessor. Dorothy was my favorite character from The Golden Girls and the natural leader of the group, so her absence was definitely felt here outside of her guest appearance. I don’t want to be too down on the show though, because aside from some missteps (I’m looking at you, Oliver), I did consistently have a good time watching it and I grew to be rather fond of Roland and Chuy as sidekicks for the crew. I really hope that both Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin look back on this chapter in their careers fondly.

Honestly though, I don’t think the question of whether or not I became a huge fan of The Golden Palace is all that important, because I definitely became a fan of the Goldenverse overall and I would have wanted to check out its brief extension anyway. Despite the spin-off’s flaws, it carried forward the ideals of friendship and togetherness that made The Golden Girls such a joy to watch. And those ideals were perfectly suited to this project. I know that the output from Drew and myself slowed down quite a bit after a while, but I always leap at the chance to share experiences with my best friend and this one has been pretty special. Seeing both Doctor Who and the James Bond franchise through Drew’s eyes was always a delight, and knowing that I’d be able to share a love of Drew’s favorite show made my viewing experience very rewarding. By the way, just to make things absolutely clear, Drew had to put way more work into this endeavor than I did. Our posting schedules matched up perfectly, but that doesn’t change the fact that episodes of Doctor Who were twice as long as episodes of The Golden Girls, not to mention the full-length Bond movies and all the various bonus posts that Drew tackled. So thank you, friend, for putting so much time and effort into this silly (but not really all that silly) project. Your friendship means the world to me.

I don’t think there is much else to say. We have one more post from the man himself to enjoy, in which Drew will give us his final thoughts on the experience of being forced to endure the entirety of the Bond franchise, but my part in all of this is now complete. If someone out there has followed along with any of these posts, I hope you have found something enjoyable to take with you. If someone stumbles on this in the future (if Tumblr is still actually a thing), I hope that our words brought a smile to your face. But most of all, I hope you get to experience having someone (almost) as awesome as my pal Drew in your life. And as always, thank you for being a friend, and for being One of Us!

#golden palace #golden girls #one of us

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ohmytheon · 7 years ago

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heroes of the dark (10)

title: heroes of the dark

summary: Uraraka has spent almost a year grieving the loss of Deku, the greatest hero and her love, but life is slowly moving on. She’s got her job, her family, and even a strange friendship with Bakugou. Things are looking hopeful. Until Deku comes back and he’s not what he seems. Something is wrong with his mind, but Uraraka will be damned if she lets him fall again. (Villain!Deku)

– Chap 9: Kaminari’s rescue attempt blows up in everyone’s faces to unexpected proportions and things will never be the same.

notes: By sheer coincidence, this chapter was lined up to be posted right after yesterday’s new episode. There are references to the events in that chapter and it sort of ties into it in a way. This is a massive chapter. I couldn’t find a spot that felt good to break it in half ans basically just said, “fuck it,” and posted it as one. I’m talking an 8 pg fight scene here. It was insanity to write. I’m hoping it’s a good one! When I first pictured this scene, the ending was different, but then the characters took on a life of their own and this felt so natural and so much better (or worse, depending who you are). Buckle up, ya’ll. This is going to be a wild ride. Also @youseimanami has blessed me with this beautiful drawing of my Villain Deku and it is absolutely perfect. I’m legit that picture of Tom in Parks and Rec where he stares at that painting for 5 hours.

“History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.” ― Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

The block was too quiet. Uraraka watched Kaminari’s apartment building from what most would’ve considered a safe distance, but with Deku nearby, it was anything but safe. The light was still on in the apartment, but they weren’t for sure if Deku was still inside with Kaminari. For all they knew, he’d transferred them somewhere else. She hated not knowing -- hated wondering what was going on through Kaminari’s mind as he waited to be tortured by his old friend -- hated what Deku had turned into.

How could she possibly save him when he was like this? How could any of them forgive him? Uraraka knew that she was being soft, but she couldn’t help it. She had loved Deku with everything in her and she still did, but seeing him like this was twisting a knife in her heart. It made the world seem wrong and she had to fix it.

Tsu came back down from her trip to the roof in the office building they were in, pulling her goggles off her eyes to rest of the top of her head. “Eight people confirmed in Kaminari’s apartment.” The heat signature goggles she typically wore for her hero costume these days came in handy while out on the ocean when it was hard to see, but it also helped them here tonight. “If Kaminari is in there, that’s seven villains.”

“That’s assuming that all of them are hold up in that one spot,” Kirishima pointed out. “He could have more stationed throughout or outside the apartment.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t like this. We shouldn’t go in so blind.”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Bakugou said as he glared at the apartment heatedly. It was like he thought he could melt it down with his eyes alone. “We’re out of time.”

The end of the hour limit that Deku had given them was almost up. Uraraka glanced at the watch on her phone and chewed on her bottom lip. She kept picturing Kaminari tied up in his apartment, alone with a bunch of villains, watching the clock and counting down to a horrible death. They weren’t going to let that happen -- he had to know that -- but it was still terrifying. What if they hadn’t made it here in time? They’d managed to reach here with time to spare, but had then argued about whether to go in or not.

The truth was that they weren’t enough to take on Deku and a handful of other villains. Bakugou could deny it all he wanted, but even he couldn’t defeat seven high-powered villains at once. These weren’t every day villains. Besides, if there was one person that knew his fighting style in and out, it was Deku. He knew all of them well. He’d spent years watching them and documenting them for his own analysis. He knew her. It was frightening to know that the one person who had believed in all their strengths could now revel in their weaknesses.

A knock on the door pulled all of them except Bakugou away from the window. Kirishima answered and stood to the side as other pro heroes poured inside. Aizawa was first, looking livelier than she’d ever seen him, though perhaps it was because he was about to battle a former student. He also was the voice of reason, seeing as how Midnight and Endeavor follow after. It was hard not to get slightly overwhelmed by their old teachers and highly ranked pro heroes. Iida, Jirou, and Todoroki strode in as well.

Even though the battle hadn’t begun yet, relief bloomed in Uraraka’s heart as she took in everyone. Surely with all of them now, they could save Kaminari. They had more people in their favor now. She was grateful that they’d managed to convince Bakugou to wait. With so many heroes with incredibly strong quirks, the scales had to be tipped in their direction.

“I can’t believe that idiot got captured,” Jirou complained, although there was real worry in her eyes. Uraraka was surprised to see her at first, but then she did live close by. Jirou looked awkward standing in between Todoroki and Iida, both of whom were incredibly serious, her arms folded and a tense frown on her face.

“Deku knows us too well,” Uraraka told her. “He knew that Kaminari would be running point on communications.”

“Are we that predictable?” Jirou asked sullenly.

Uraraka bit her lip. “To Deku, maybe so.”

“Then I’ll just have to blow his expectations out of the water,” Bakugou growled, sounding like an attack dog.

“We can’t just burst in there and fight him head on,” Iida put in seriously. Bakugou rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that was obviously an insult, but Iida didn’t care. “We need to have a plan.”

“That’s what the adults are doing,” Aizawa said, giving them a look that suggested they were still kids. It made all of them bristle, but it did the job of shutting them up. Bakugou looked like he was ready to launch himself out the window, but he clenched his fists and stayed quiet. Even after being out of school for a few years, Aizawa still had that effect on them.

“Is anyone else coming?” Kirishima asked.

Bakugou shook his head. “We don’t have the time.”

And he was right. They didn’t. They had to make do with what they had; they had to work together with who they had. If Bakugou wasn’t complaining about having to work with others, then it was clearly a dire situation. He considered Deku to be that much of a threat. Then again, he had witnessed power like Deku’s up close before when he’d witnessed All Might battling All for One. If Deku was capable of that kind of power nowadays, they would need all the help they could get and more.

They moved through making a plan quick. When they were done, not wholly satisfied but unable to do much more, they all split up through the room.

Tsu rubbed her arms. “Do you really think we can do this, ribbit?”

“We have more people,” Iida said. “We have the advantage.”

“We don’t know that,” Todoroki pointed out. “More than likely there are other villains out there lying in wait. He did that when I fought him.”

The not knowing made Uraraka incredibly anxious. Her former classmates huddled together one last time before the night would go to hell. None of them really knew what would happen. They could stick to the plan and still be defeated or they could go off script and do something amazing. Anything could happen.

Uraraka glanced up at the apartment. What was going on up there? What was Deku doing? She pictured him sitting in Kaminari’s computer chair, looking out the window and waiting for them, but that wasn’t right. She bet he was talking. But about what? Would he just talk with Kaminari about how his life had been for the past eleven months? That sounded right. It was unsettling. He shouldn’t be able to do such casual things while hanging the threat of torture and death over a person.

When Uraraka’s phone rang, she jumped, completely forgetting that she had it on her. She pulled it out of a pouch and looked at the ID.

“Who is it?” Aizawa demanded. She held it out to show Kaminari’s caller ID. “It’s Midoriya.” He stared Uraraka down, making her question everything she had ever known about her life. “Answer it.”

Taking a deep breath, Uraraka swiped to accept the call and put it on speaker before setting it down on the table. Everyone crowded around the table, except for Bakugou and Todoroki, both of whom hung off to the side on opposite ends of the room but watched out of the corner of their eyes. “Hello?”

“It’s good to hear your voice, Ochako,” Deku responded on the other end. He sounded like he genuinely meant it, like he would when they were together and he was gone for hero business outside of the city. The late night phone calls had always meant so much to her, if only to hear him, even if it meant listening to him ramble.

“You too, Deku,” she replied softly.

“Kaminari says hi as well,” Deku said before there was a shuffling sound. “Say hi!”

“Don’t listen--”

There was a smack followed by a yelp and then Deku was sighing into the phone. “So much for being nice.” Yeah, he was threatening to kill one of his old friends by breaking all his bones. That didn’t sound like a nice thing to do. Uraraka didn’t comment on that though, not wanting to push Deku’s buttons any further. “Did you come like a good girl?”

Uraraka tried not to blush, as it wasn’t the appropriate response given the situation, but it was weird with everyone listening. “You know I did. I don’t want anything to happen to Kaminari.”

“Such a good friend,” Deku said. “I hope you didn’t come alone.”

“No, I--” Uraraka glanced up at the others, most of whom had their eyes on her. “Everyone you saw on the camera feed is here.”

“No Shoto?” Deku asked, disappointment evidence in his voice. In his corner, Todoroki stiffened, but said nothing out loud. It was more than evident to Uraraka now that she wasn’t the target for tonight. By him calling her, it made it appear as if he was focused on her, but his mentioning of Todoroki told her that they had wanted him to be here tonight. Maybe he should’ve stayed back, but no, Todoroki was as stubborn as she was and they needed him here besides. “I thought we were friends. Maybe he doesn’t care as much as I thought he did.”

Todoroki turned away from them completely, hiding his face in the shadows. She gazed at his back, reading all the tension in his body. He cared. He cared so much. This was tearing him apart. Everything that had brought Deku and Todoroki together was either gone or twisted into something awful. Just as Deku’s love for Uraraka had been turned into some sort of obsession, his love for Todoroki had changed as well. Into what, none of them could be sure, except Deku seemed unable to decide whether or not he wanted to kill Todoroki.

“Maybe if you gave us more time--”

“No, I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’ve probably been too accommodating as it stands.” Deku chuckled lightly to himself. “Can’t have the other guys thinking I’m going soft. After all I did to prove otherwise. I’d have to break a few things to prove my point again and, well, no one would enjoy that.”

Uraraka fought the urge to shiver. To think that Deku had actually injured other villains in order to prove that he was not to be questioned was a strange thing. Actions would always speak louder than words. He could tell them that he was no longer a hero only so many times before it became repetitive. Or he could show them just how cruel and cold he could be. Deku had always been good at proving what he believed in and who he was.

“Ochako?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m a little disappointed that you don’t think I still know you.” He did sound disappointed, like when you wanted it to be sunny but opened the door to find it raining.

His words caused Uraraka to furrow her brow. “What--?”

“Tell Shoto I’m sorry.”

Uraraka whipped her head around to look Todoroki, who had done the same to look at her. Their eyes met for a second, confusion written in both their gazes and their bodies equally tense, when a massive wall of blue fire exploded into the room and took Todoroki completely out of her sight. She didn’t even get the chance to scream out for him. The explosion was so intense that it knocked all of them off their feet. Uraraka went sailing back, crashing into Bakugou and then through a window. He managed to grab her so that he took the brunt of their fall when they landed, but then let go as both of them rolled about on the ground.

She hadn’t even come to a complete stop when she started scrambling to her feet and screamed, “Todoroki!” Her wide eyes took in the sight of half the building blown to pieces as blue flames ate greedily and flickered in the air. It didn’t look like it would stand for much longer, certainly not if another explosion hit it. To their right, Iida was setting Tsu back on her feet. He must’ve grabbed her and leapt out the other window. Everyone else was still inside. Uraraka felt sick. The blast had been huge. Was anyone still alive?

“Oh, was that rude? Should I have knocked?”

The smoke cleared a bit, showing Dabi standing beside the hole of the building. Of course she had known it was him -- those blue flames were as good as a signature -- but to see him just standing there, jacket billowing in the wind, his eyes glowing as blue as his flames, Uraraka couldn’t help but feel like she was on edge.

Before Uraraka could do anything though, Bakugou was flying himself toward Dabi with his explosive quirk at a rocket-like speed and screaming, “You bastard!” Both of them let off explosions at the same time, Bakugou’s orange colliding with Dabi’s blue, so strong that Uraraka was forced to throw an arm over her face and bend down to one knee to brace herself so that she wasn’t thrown back again. When she pulled her arm away, she saw that Bakugou had launched himself in the air with one hand at the last second to avoid Dabi’s flames while attacking with the other. He fell to the ground now, aiming like a bullet, directly towards Dabi, his eyes as red as fire.

“Uraraka, watch out!” Iida yelled.

So focused on Bakugou and Dabi and dazed from being thrown out the window, Uraraka had stopped paying attention to everything else. She spun around just in time to see a large chunk of the street flying towards her. She couldn’t dodge it, so she threw a hand out in hopes that she could tag it with her quirk before it smashed into her, but at the last second a wall of ice erupted in between her and the concrete. Ice shattered around her, but it did the job of shielding her from the rubble.

Todoroki hopped out of the window of the burning building, panting heavily and staggering for a moment. His costume was singed and he was bleeding over his forehead, but he was alive. He must have used the ice half of his quirk to shield himself from most of Dabi’s initial blast. Now he looked infuriated as he walked towards the villain who had appeared from the mouth of the alley.

Fire burst to life behind Todoroki as Endeavor joined Bakugou in fighting Dabi and she heard Dabi actually laugh, “Oh, you too!” So some of them had survived the initial attack. She shook her head. She couldn’t worry about that. She couldn’t be distracted during this fight. Their fears had been correct; the only villains in the area hadn’t been in Kaminari’s apartment. They hadn’t even gotten inside the building.

Iida and Todoroki started towards the villain, who pressed his hands to the ground. The street started to quake under their feet, as if alive, and then break into pieces. It threw Iida off track, taking away his footing. Tsu was able to leap from each chunk of concrete like it was a maze while Todoroki used his ice quirk to skate over the broken ground. The villain threw up more of the street in Todoroki’s way, forcing him to blast them with his fire, but it gave Uraraka an idea.

She ran forward, stumbling through the street as it shook and broke underneath her, slapping her hands on the large rubble as she did so. When she felt like she had enough, she rounded back to where she’d started and touched the large block of concrete that had been thrown at her initially. “Get out of the way!” she shouted. Todoroki slid to a halt and glanced back at her. He got the picture pretty quickly, throwing himself to the side right as she swung the debris like a bat so that she hit all the floating chunks of rabble as hard as she could. It rained on the villain like a hailstorm, too massive for him to dodge.

The victory was short-lived though as a shadow snaked its way through the cracked street and then wrapped itself around Uraraka’s ankle. She let out a yelp as she was jerked into the air upside down and then slammed into the ground like she was nothing but a ragdoll. She gasped as the air was stolen from her lungs and her head felt like it had been cracked despite wearing her helmet. Then, before she could be thrown again, Tsu’s tongue wrapped around her waist and pulled her to safety.

“Do you see him?” Iida questioned as they all looked around for the source of the shadows.

Instead of getting their questions answered, Dabi jumped back and said, “Your turn!” and shadows as black as ink burst onto the scene. They were so thick that they seemed to swallow Bakugou and Endeavor until nothing could be seen except pitch blackness. It was like they were gone, except that they could still be heard. Even one of Bakugou’s explosions sounded out, but only the darkness could be seen and they all gaped at it, not knowing what to do.

After only a moment’s hesitation, Iida shot forward, darting into the shadows and disappearing from sight. Seconds later, he appeared again, looking frazzled, but before he could get out of the mess completely, the shadows contracted, like water being sucked down a drain. The shadow caught hold of his leg like it had Uraraka’s ankle. When it was done, they could see the shadows were tightly wound over Bakugou and Endeavor as well, holding them in an anaconda-like grip in the air so that neither of them could move their hands. Explosions rattled out of Bakugou’s hands as he struggled in the painful grip, but they did nothing to hinder the shadows binding them.

When Uraraka and Todoroki took a step forward, Endeavor snapped, “Don’t come closer!”

“Smart choice,” Dabi mused before letting off another burst of fire. This time, it was aimed towards Tsu. She leaped out of the way as Todoroki shot a row of ice spikes at him.

With him distracted by counteracting Todoroki, Uraraka ran up behind Dabi. She was only a few inches away from slapping him on the back when a knife buried itself in the ground right at her feet. She gasped and pulled back, which caught Dabi’s attention. He threw a hand in her face and started to activate his quirk. Both of them seemed to realize what was about to happen at the same time and their eyes widened in surprise. He was going to hit her right in the face with his flames. Deku had sworn that if Dabi hurt Uraraka, he’d break Dabi in half and she had a gut feeling that Dabi had seen firsthand what happened to people that Deku didn’t like.

And then the fire winked out as if someone had blown on it so that she was left to gawk at Dabi’s hand an inch away from her face.

They stared at each other for a second, interrupted by a yell and then someone crashing into Dabi. Uraraka gasped when she saw that it was Kirishima. He was a little burnt, but otherwise uninjured. When the explosion hit, he must have hardened himself. Dabi’s flame had gone out suddenly too, which meant-- Uraraka looked over to see Aizawa carrying Jirou out of the nearly destroyed building. They both looked worse for wear, Jirou especially, but they were alive. He must have cancelled Dabi’s quirk right before Dabi let it off.

However, Uraraka didn’t get to bask in the relief of her friends’ lives when more knives started to rain down on her. She did her best to dodge them until one of them got her in the thigh and she went crashing to the ground.

“Not her, you idiot!” Dabi shouted as he jumped away of Kirishima’s swing. His nose was bleeding from where he must have been hit by Kirishima, but he’d gotten out of the hero’s grip.

“Stay still!” Kirishima growled.

Uraraka tried running in Aizawa’s direction, but was forced to come to a halt when a villain dropped down in between her and them. It was a woman, wearing an absurdly revealing outfit that seemed almost entirely made out of knives. The woman smiled and practically purred, “Oh, you must be the one he talks about so much.” Uraraka narrowed her eyes. “Strange. You don’t look like much.”

Once upon a time, talk about Deku might have gotten Uraraka’s mind off track. She was terribly messed up over this whole scenario, but she wasn’t about to let some villain knock her off her game and so she attacked. The woman was much more graceful than Uraraka and she pulled out a knife from around her leg, spinning it delicately on a finger before slashing at Uraraka with it. She managed to bend backwards out of its way, sliding under the woman’s outstretched arm and slamming a palm into her chest. With her quirk activated, it sent the woman careening backwards until she hit a wall.

“We got this!” Uraraka exclaimed as the knife villain and Dabi squared up together. “Help the others!”

If Aizawa managed to find the villain with that strange shadow quirk, it would free Bakugou, Endeavor, and Iida from his grasp. She could hear Bakugou exploding behind her in rage, Iida’s engines bursting at full speed to pull himself out, and Endeavor’s flames attempting to cut through the shadows to no avail. She couldn’t help them. She needed to get through these two villains so that she could get to Kaminari.

Todoroki seemed to be on the same page. “I’ll distract them and you and Tsuyu go.”

She knew that Todoroki could take them on, but she didn’t like the idea of leaving him alone, especially since Jirou was nearby almost completely out of commission.

“Froppy will stay back to help,” Midnight’s voice came from behind. The three younger heroes looked back to her. Besides Jirou, she looked to have suffered the worst of the blast. Her costume had so many burnt patches, along with her skin, and pink smoke seemed to leak out of those holes. “I will come with you. With Eraserhead busy, we’ll need my quirk if we have any hopes of subduing Midoriya.”

After taking the two gas masks that Midnight was holding out to her, Uraraka nodded her head tightly. This was a disaster. She was frightened. She didn’t want to confront Deku again, but knew that it was unavoidable. A part of her hoped that he wasn’t in there. They couldn’t fight him head on. It should’ve been Todoroki or Bakugou.

Using his vast power, Todoroki cut a line for them straight to the apartment building, blocking the two villains from attacking her or Midnight, and they bolted in that direction, Midnight slightly ahead. Once they reached the side of the building, she touched the other woman’s arm and threw her up in the air. Uraraka did the same thing to herself, pushing off the ground, when she saw the streak of shadow out of the corner of her eyes. She was five feet off the ground when it burst up like an arm reaching out for her. Right before it could do so, it disappeared and she knew Aizawa must have found the villain controlling the shadows.

There was no time to consider it though, not when Uraraka grabbed hold of the railing on Kaminari’s balcony and deactivated her quirk so she and Midnight could stand on it. Uraraka took her helmet off and slipped the gas mask over her face as a thick, pink fog began to seep from Midnight’s exposed skin and they jerked open the door, the air happily sucking in the sedative smoke.

Except the apartment was empty.

Uraraka bolted through the apartment, but there was no one inside. There were obvious signs of a brief struggle and it looked like someone had raided Kaminari’s fridge, but that was it. Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach as she realized that they had been tricked and she ripped the mask off and ran back onto the balcony.

“Where is he?” Bakugou screamed from below, ready to blast himself up to her level. Uraraka could only shake her head. She didn’t know.

“Up here, you guys!” came Deku’s excited voice. Uraraka leaned over the railing and twisted her neck so that she could look up towards the roof. Sure enough, there was Deku, one foot propped up on the edge while he rested his folded arms across his knee and leaned half his body over it. “There you are, Ochako. Safe and sound. I knew you’d be the one to come up for Kaminari.”

Uraraka’s heart seized in her chest. “Deku--”

“Stay there,” Deku told her as he straightened up. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Him ordering her around -- like he had any right to do so now -- angered her so much, but there was little she could do about it, especially when she realized what was about to happen. The others down below did as well and tried to brace for it, but when Deku jumped off the roof, they could only prepare so much for the impact. Using the strength of his quirk, Deku crash-landed in the middle of the fight like a meteor, smoke exploding everywhere, the impact so hard that it created a large crater and wrecked the street. The concrete shattered and more pieces of the building that Dabi had partially destroyed began to fall off in chunks. It created a shockwave that broke windows and set off car alarms. At the same time, Todoroki threw up a huge wall of ice and Bakugou let off a massive explosion to defend themselves and others.

It was way too much power. Uraraka had never seen Deku unleash so much unless it was to fight a villain, but now he was using it to just break things. Because he could. Because he was capable of such destruction and whoever was behind the scenes of this new League of Villains was just letting him go.

Uraraka didn’t wait for the smoke to settle. She threw herself over the balcony and did a free fall before activating her quirk on herself a few feet from the ground. The ground was uneven, like from an awful earthquake, and she skidded down a chunk of concrete before getting her balance. She shoved her way through the smoke towards the ice until she saw red flames to her right and she came to a stop. Had they come from Todoroki or Endeavor?

Chains shot towards her and wrapped themselves around her before she could react, writhing around her like snakes, and she fell sideways onto the cracked street. She gasped as they tightened around her and she couldn’t move her arms. A yelp slipped out of her as the chains began to drag her through the rubble towards whatever villain controlled them. She twisted her right wrist to a painful degree and stretched her fingers until she was able to brush her fingertips against the chains and then she tapped her thigh. The sudden change in gravity meant that she was jerked forward, but it must have startled the villain as well. She floated in the air and the chains loosened around her so that she was able to wiggle out of them.

Using an upturned part of the street as a base, Uraraka kicked off of it and floated through the fog like she was a part of it, shouts and explosions surrounding her, until she finally spotted two people. She released her quirk and landed next to Jirou and Iida, both of whom were covered in dust and blood. Iida was crouched down over Jirou, who was shoving him away so that she could sit up, even though it looked like she might tumble down again.

“Thank everything you’re alive,” Uraraka gasped.

Iida raised his eyes to her. “Uraraka, you came down here!” Of course she had. Had they expected her to listen to Deku’s order? “Help me with Jirou. She’s being stubborn. We need to get her out of here.”

“I’m fine,” Jirou snapped. She certainly didn’t look it, but Uraraka understood how she felt. “We’re blind right now anyways, so unless you want to walk right into a villain…” Iida gave them both uneasy looks. Taking a deep breath that looked uncomfortable, Jirou extended one of her earjacks into the ground and listened. Uraraka looked through the smoke. It was beginning to clear and she could see the telltale red streaks that came with Deku’s quirk. “Okay, there’s a clear path to our right, but we’ve gotta be quick.”

Luckily, quick was what Iida did, so she activated her quirk on Jirou so that he could pick her up with no issues and then climbed onto his back herself. She didn’t take away her own gravity, starting to feel the toll of using it on herself in the pit of her stomach. The last thing she needed to do was puke in the middle of a fight.

It was only when they stopped and Iida let them down did she notice that one of his engines was beginning to sputter. Iida caught her line of sight and admitted, “I had to overdo it in order to get Jirou away from the building when pieces started to fall off.”

Jirou practically fell down in a sitting position. “And I used my heartbeat speakers to blast most of the rubble away from me, but broke my left one. I think…” She struggled to move her leg, gritting through the pain that she could no longer hide. “I think my leg is broken.”

Behind them, Uraraka thought she heard Bakugou shouting something at Deku and she turned towards the sound of his voice, calling out like a beacon. With the smoke and dust mostly settled, the fight could be seen clearer now. Five villains, including Dabi, were on Aizawa and Endeavor while Todoroki and Bakugou were fighting with Deku. Tsu and Kirishima were nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t think about that.

At first, it looked as if the five villains were struggling with the two older pro heroes. With Aizawa cancelling their quirks left and right, it gave for easy picking for Endeavor, who was even more talented with his hellfire quirk than Todoroki was. The shadow villain was the most difficult to deal with, considering the versatility of his quirk, so Azawa was mostly focused on him, but then Dabi would let off a large burst of flames that forced Endeavor to counter with one of his instead of paying attention to the shadow villain. Endeavor was also forced to deal with a water controlling villain that worked alongside Dabi, which left him little opportunity to help Aizawa or consider the other fight going on.

The realization struck Uraraka: the villains weren’t fighting Aizawa and Endeavor; they were distracting them.

The real fight was between Deku, Todoroki, and Bakugou and the villains needed to ensure that the older heroes, especially Aizawa, were kept out of it. Deku’s quirk was overpowering. Now that he’d mastered it, he could take on multiple people at once. If Aizawa were to join in that fight, Deku would immediately go from one hundred to zero and Bakugou and Todoroki would be able to subdue him.

As of right now, Todoroki and Bakugou were trying to close in on Deku and keep him in one spot, but while they were fast, Deku was faster. He could punch a hole in Bakugou’s explosions and knock him back or shatter Todoroki’s ice with a kick that sent sharp ice flying everywhere.

Deku bolted in zigzag directions, leaping out of the way of Bakugou’s explosive reach to the side of a building, kicking off it to aim a punch at Todoroki. He managed to block Deku’s hit by using his fire to blow himself out of the way, but then Deku corrected himself swiftly by grabbing onto a piece of rubble, swinging around it and then launching it towards Bakugou. He blasted the rock with such a strong explosion that it turned the rubble into dust and bits of debris. Unfortunately, the rubble hid Deku who was coming up right behind it. Bakugou didn’t have time to let off a strong enough explosion to defend himself and he took a heavy hit from Deku, flying back at least fifteen feet and one of his grenade bracers breaking.

She couldn’t wait any longer. She had to make a decision on what to do and she had to do it now. “I’m going in.”

“Uraraka--” Iida started.

“Trust me, I’ll be fine,” she interrupted firmly. “I need you to look for Tsu and Kirishima.”

Iida didn’t look pleased, but he nodded his head in a determined fashion. He took off one way and Uraraka went off in the other in the direction of the fight between Aizawa and Endeavor and the five other villains. She activated her quirk on a large chunk of the street and then threw it like a frisbee in the direction of the shadow villain, whose back was to her. The ground villain saw her though and pulled up some more of the street to act as a shield. Still, it was enough to distract them and Aizawa was able to cancel the shadow villain’s quirk long enough to wrap him up in bindings and slam him hard enough on the ground to knock him unconscious.

The female knife villain let out a snarl and sent five blades in Uraraka’s direction, but then she was saved by Endeavor’s flames. With the fire as her cover, she was able to reach the knife villain and grab her by the wrist. Without gravity, Uraraka threw the woman into the sky, sending her floating practically into space, and then released her quirk so the knife villain fell at least fifteen stories from the air, a scream tearing from her throat as she fell. The villain with chains was able to snatch her out of the air and bring her safely to the ground.

Gasping for air, the woman shouted, “You little--” and threw at least a dozen large daggers at Uraraka. This time there was no Aizawa or Endeavor to save her and she let out a shout of fear.

Just as Uraraka hoped, Deku came to her rescue, letting out a gasp of, “Ochako!” and then shooting away from his fight with Todoroki. He was quicker than lightning, practically invisible to the naked eye. He snatched her up bridal style and carried her out of the way of the knives so fast that it was like a gust of wind blew through. Her hair settled as she took in a breath of air. Even Deku was breathing heavily. “Why would you be so reckless?”

Uraraka turned to face him, tears in her eyes, as she cradled his face in her hands. “I’m sorry, Deku.”

As soon as the words sunk in, Deku staggered as he began to float in the air and nearly dropped her. She peeled herself out of his arms and away from him, keeping his gaze as he clenched and unclenched his fists. His eyes flickered from her to his hands and then behind her. An awful, furious expression overcame his face when he realized that Aizawa had canceled his quirk and he had no hold on his gravity, leaving him to be an open target.

��DEKU!” Bakugou half growled/half roared as his explosions propelled him forward like a bat out of hell. He threw a hand out to snatch Deku, another explosion at the ready. Deku used a bit of debris to kick off the ground with his gravity zeroed out by Uraraka’s quirk to escape his grasp. She cancelled it quickly as Todoroki created a wall of ice from behind Deku to keep him from escaping. They had him. My god, they had him.

And then pitch black shadows and blue flames exploded at the same time, the shadows swallowing Deku and Bakugou while the fire forced everyone else back. It was like a line was cut in between them, severing them from each other.

“ENOUGH!” Deku raged from inside the darkness. There was a series of explosions as Bakugou set some off at random in an attempt to hit Deku, but then Uraraka saw the telltale signs of Deku’s power. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. The shadows shielding him didn’t seem to matter as red and green lightning streaked through it and into the sky. “This would be easier if you did your damn jobs!”

“Bakugou, get out of there!” Uraraka screamed.

The shadows retreated and they were all left to watch in horror as Deku slammed a fist into the ground. Simply speaking, it blew everyone out of the water, heroes and villains alike, the ground rippling like a tidal wave. Uraraka was thrown backwards, but hit some rubble so that she didn’t go far. It was still painful and hard. She hit her head and blacked out for who knew how long.

When she came to, Uraraka slowly opened her eyes and pushed herself up, her entire body screaming in pain, her ears ringing, and her head throbbing. She gingerly touched the back of her head and winced when she felt something sticky and wet, her fingers coming back with blood. No wonder her head hurt so much, but she couldn’t think about it for too long. It was difficult to focus her vision, much less her thoughts. When she tried to sit up further, her body protested and she fell back down again, her hands scraping on the debris.

Lying there on the ground with her head turned to the side, Uraraka blinked her eyes and tried to focus. As far as she could tell, nearly everyone else was down as well. She caught sight of Aizawa’s scarves, but he wasn’t moving and they looked stained with blood. There seemed to be a flicker of Endeavor’s flames near him, but they were barely there, as if he was coming in and out of consciousness. The whole place was destroyed, looking as if someone had dropped a bomb in the middle of the street. The building they’d been in earlier was gone, having collapsed in on itself. Where were the others? Had Iida been able to find Tsu and Kirishima? Had they been able to get out of the area?

Gods, where was Bakugou? He’d been so close to where Deku had exploded.

Movement to her left caught her eyes and she watched as Dabi and the ground villain appeared in the clearing of the smoke. The ground villain must have used his quirk to protect them both from the quake caused by Deku. Dabi was nudging something with his foot as he wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, his blue eyes glowing dimly in the light of the fires and a hint of interest on his otherwise cold face. She managed to scoot a little to get a glimpse of what Dabi was looking at and felt her breath stolen away when she saw that it was an unconscious Todoroki, his right half patchy with ice and steam coming from his left.

“There, there, stay still,” she heard Deku sigh in a calming but exhausted tone. With some difficulty, Uraraka pushed herself up so that she could get a better view of him. He was leaning over someone, a knee pressed deep into their back, an almost gentle look on his face. “I wouldn’t struggle if I was you. After taking a hit like that, even indirectly, you must be in a lot of pain, Kacchan.”

Bakugou. Deku was leaning over Bakugou. Uraraka’s heart jumped. She tried to get up, but it was a struggle. She couldn’t tell if she’d broken anything, but her head was so dizzy. His costume was burnt on his right leg, showing red and angry skin, where one of Bakugou’s explosions must have hit him, but he was the one still standing while Bakugou was on the ground.

“I-I’ll kill you, D-Deku,” Bakugou said through gritted teeth.

Deku tossed his head back and let out another sigh. His right arm was shaking slightly, so he used his left to grab Bakugou by his hair. “I know.” He slammed Bakugou’s face into the ground and Uraraka twitched. “And I know. I really should just kill you now.” He did it again, like that Nomu had done Aizawa during the USJ Incident their first year. “All those stories about how villains get caught because they couldn’t stop talking or let a personal grudge get the best of them?”

Blood spilled out of Bakugou’s nose and he spit out some more when Deku let go of his head. “Why d-don’t you just sh-shut up then?”

“Oh, Kacchan, you didn’t think this was just about Ochako, did you?” Deku asked in a voice that brought tears to Uraraka’s eyes. It wasn’t anger or disgust or anything like that. It was hurt. It was pain. It was all the awful things that Bakugou had done to Deku when they were kids before some sort of respect had been born. Even Bakugou stilled upon hearing that voice. “All those years, all those days, when I was just trying to be nice because I admired you and you were so strong. I wanted to be just like you -- but you were a monster.”

Uraraka clawed toward them, digging her way through the dirt and rubble, gathering more scrapes and bruises as she went along, the thin material of her outfit catching on rocks and tearing. She had to get to them. She wasn’t sure what she could do, but she had to do something. “Deku…”

“It amazes me,” Deku continued, his words taking on a disdainful tone, “the kind of trash they’ll let become heroes these days. You were a nightmare, Kacchan. Do you know how many times I had to go to the nurse’s office after getting a beating from you? How many burns I had to fix up on my own? How many outfits my mother had to either repair or just throw away because they were too destroyed?”

Bakugou was silent, as he should be. There was still anger in him, of course, but it bled into something else that she couldn’t read from where she was on the ground. The left side of his face was pressed into the ground and he stared up at Deku with one red eye, blood seeping over it from a cut over his eyebrow. He was still, the only movement coming from his chest as he struggled to breathe with Deku leaning on top of him.

“That quirk of yours… So strong, so destructive… You never once used it for good until UA. All you knew how to do was hurt and so that’s what you did. Now does sound like like a hero to you?” Deku leaned down closer to Bakugou and dug his knee further into Bakugou’s back when he didn’t answer. “Does it?”

“Screw you,” Bakugou gasped.

Deku pulled upright, a rather smug expression on his face, like he’d expected that response. “You’re only as strong as your quirk and I was nothing compared to you then. Look at us now!” He pulled something out of his boot and held it up in the air. Uraraka’s eyes widened when she saw the knife gleaming in the light of the fire. “Your quirk comes from secreting sweat from your palms, right? Have you ever wondered if you’d still have a quirk if you didn’t have hands?” He grinned in amusement. “I have. You know, I wondered how you’d feel if you were quirkless. Not so I could treat you as you did me, but so you could learn some humility. So you could understand what it truly means to be a hero.”

Oh god, no, oh god, no! Panic flared in Uraraka’s mind as she watched Deku spin the knife delicately between his fingers. Bakugou began to struggle again, but then Deku used his quirk to still him and Bakugou grunted in pain as he was shoved harder into the ground.

“I don’t think I’ll use my quirk for this. I deserve to take my time.”

“Deku!” Uraraka managed to cry out. “Deku, please!”

This was too much. She couldn’t handle it. There would be no going back.

Deku paused, the knife right over Bakugou’s right wrist. “You know what he did to me? You know what he said?” She didn’t reply, knowing that it was his time to talk. This was his moment. “The day that sludge villain attacked him and I jumped in to help him despite being weak and afraid, Kacchan told me to throw myself off the roof. He told me to kill myself.” His hand shook. “He probably would’ve laughed about it had I done it. What kind of hero does something like that?”

“They don’t,” Uraraka said. She pushed herself up, cringing as she did so, but then she grabbed onto some of the upturned street and got to her feet. “They don’t do this either.”

The knife was trembling a hair over Bakugou’s wrist. “He doesn’t deserve a quirk like this. He doesn’t deserve to be called a hero. He isn’t one.” Tears appeared in his eyes. So emotional, her Deku, he felt everything. He felt so much. He never hid how he felt either. “Kacchan might have been the hero in his story, but he was the villain in mine.”

He lifted the knife, ready to bring it back down, and Uraraka exclaimed, “You’re right!” and Deku halted. He turned to look at her. She took a shaky step towards him. “You’re right. He’s...terrible. He’s rude, selfish, and an arrogant bastard.” She didn’t look at Bakugou as she spoke, only at Deku, who stared back at her. She didn’t want to see the look on Bakugou’s face, whether it was shocked, confused, or nothing at all. She didn’t want to know. “But I don’t want to see you do this either.” She held out a hand. “Take me with you.”

Deku blinked. “What?”

“Take me with you,” Uraraka repeated, stronger this time.

Bakugou jerked from his spot on the ground and this time Deku didn’t push him down harder, just stayed in position. “Uraraka, don’t--”

“Shut up, Bakugou, this doesn’t concern you,” Uraraka interrupted, not unkindly. He went silent though. A small, tremulous smile appeared on Deku’s face. “I’m starting to get it now, I think. How can a society be good when they allow bad people to become heroes? It’s not fair. I...I don’t want that. But I don’t want this either. I’m still a hero to you, aren’t I?” He slowly nodded his head, almost mesmerized. Her hand started to shake the longer she held it out to him. “I’ll do whatever you want, Deku. Just don’t do this. Please, for me. Let’s just go. Take me away from here. Take me with you.”

It’s you. It’s always been you.

There was nothing but the crackle of fire around them and the wind until finally she watched as Deku sheathed the knife back in his boot and step up. Before Bakugou could attempt to get up, Deku hooked a foot underneath him and kicked him hard so that he flung to the side and smacked into a wall. He didn’t get back up or even move. Uraraka flinched, but she said nothing, just continued to hold out her hand. When Deku told a hold of it, she tried to breathe steadily.

“We’re done here,” Deku decided. He tugged her closer to him. He didn’t look just happy as he looked her in the eyes; he looked relieved. His eyes flickered behind her and he furrowed his brow. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Uraraka turned around and brought a hand to cover her mouth when she saw a warp gate appear and then Dabi lift an unconscious Todoroki over his shoulder in front of it. Todoroki was by no means small. He’d been fairly tall when Uraraka had first met him back when they were fifteen. But despite being thin, Dabi carried him like a sack of flour. Todoroki hung limp, his feet and hands swaying as Dabi moved and his hair hanging over his grey and blue eyes.

“You get your toy,” Dabi replied. “Why can’t I have mine?”

Deku huffed. “That wasn’t the plan. We’re supposed to kill him.” He didn’t sound angry, just worn down.

“What if we find a better use for him?” Dabi countered, a sly grin on his face. It looked eerie on him. “What if he’s better to us alive?” Deku tilted his head in thought. “You don’t really want to kill him, do you?”

“He could...come in handy…” Deku murmured.

Dabi hoisted Todoroki further on his shoulder. “I think it could turn into a new opportunity.” He jabbed a finger back where Endeavor was coming to. “Plus, it’ll really stick it to that bastard if we’ve got his precious, little Shoto.” He took a few steps back towards the warp gate. “C’mon, Midoriya, it’ll be fun. We’ll all be one big, happy family.”

Uraraka didn’t think that Todoroki would be happy about any of this. When he came to and found out that she had willingly gone with Deku, he was going to be infuriated. Still, she hadn’t known what else to do. She couldn’t let Deku freaking cut off Bakugou’s hand. Uraraka suddenly felt as if she’d overused her quirk and maybe she had and the adrenaline was just now wearing off. My gods, would Deku have really gone through that? How horrible had Bakugou been? Deku had talked about it some, but he’d always brushed it off in the end before.

“What are you going to do with Todoroki?” Uraraka asked in a quiet voice as Deku guided her towards the warp gate. She was almost too afraid to ask, but knew she had to even if she didn’t get an answer.

“It’ll be for his own good,” Deku insisted, though it wasn’t much of an answer. “I mean, I won’t lie. It’s going to hurt -- it did with me -- but this will be for the best.” He nodded his head enthusiastically, but his eyes were distant, like his mind was lost in thoughts again and she couldn’t really reach him. “Yeah, this is much better. I wasn’t really savoring the idea of killing him.”

He swung an arm around her and kissed her on the temple. She was still dizzy and weak from his last attack, so he was very nearly supporting her. She didn’t look back until the very end when they turned around. Bakugou was shoving himself to his feet with Kirishima’s help, but Uraraka couldn't feel relief at the redhead’s appearance from the way Bakugou was swaying dangerously and how damaged they both looked. When she and Bakugou connected eyes, the first thing she saw was rage -- but then behind it, clear as day, fear. She couldn’t remember seeing that in him ever before. She wondered if Deku could see the desperation in Bakugou as he tried to fire off a few pitiful explosions.

Maybe Deku had, but his warning goodbye, “Stay back, Kacchan,” and the protective way he held Uraraka against him had Bakugou freezing. The last thing she saw was Bakugou’s horrified face. Hopefully he saw her mouth the words and he believed her.

I’m sorry.

Gods, she was. She really was. She couldn't keep her promise to him.

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thelastspeecher · 7 years ago

Note

Number 7 with some Stangie playing poker :)

7. I’ve never seen anything like the way you handled that. I’m just so moved.

I am...still working on these. I sometimes take forever to write lmao. But yeah here’s Angie showing off her poker skills. Because Angie is actually really good at poker (Violynn and Harper taught her).

Send me a ship and a number and I’ll write a ficlet!

Someone tapped Stan on theshoulder.

“Look, buddy, I’m not gonna-”Stan started, turning around. Heblanched. “Oh, uh, I’m sure whatever youthink is wrong is just a big misunderstanding or-”

“No misunderstanding, sir,” theintimidating elf said.

“I mean, you look like a bounceror guard or whatever. I’ve never been toa magic casino before, though, so maybe I’m wrong.”

“No, I am a bouncer,” the elfconfirmed. He adjusted hisearpiece. “I noticed you’ve beenwatching the table over there.” The elfnodded his head at the poker table Ford and Angie were sitting at. Stan shrugged, trying to give off a casualair.

“I know ‘em. I’m just kinda curious about how much they’velost so far.”

“The man in the glasses has losteverything except for the clothes on his back.”

“Figures,” Stan muttered. He rolled his eyes. “I told Ford to not gamble in a casino run byelves.”

But oncehe found out about it, he couldn’t stop himself. I dunno how much “research” you’ll get outtalosing money in poker, Sixer.

“Well, he’s offered additionalcollateral to ensure the game can continue.”

“Sounds about right. Is he actually gonna bet his clothes?”

“No. You are to be the collateral.”

“Wait, what?”

“You are the collateral. Please walk over here.”

“Uh, no, Ford can’t just say I’mgonna be collateral,” Stan protested. The elf sighed tiredly.

“He’s the older twin, so,legally speaking, yes, he can.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Our laws dictate that theyounger twin must do what the elder commands,” the elf explained. Stan squinted at the elf’s name tag.

“Aerion? That’s your name?” The elf nodded. “Aerion, look, your laws might have that, buthumans laws don’t. And I dunno if you’venoticed, but I’m a human. I mean, Idon’t have pointy ears or bright green eyes or an otherworldly glow.”

“I’m well aware that you are ahuman. However, in our casino, youfollow our laws. Now come with me beforethis gets messy,” Aerion said in a clipped voice. Stan eyed the elf.

He’sgetting pretty pissed. Do I wanna causea scene?

“…Fine, I’ll come with,” Stangrumbled. He followed the elf over tothe poker table. Angie looked up. A smile appeared on her face.

“Oh, are ya goin’ to join us,Stan?” she asked cheerfully. Stan glaredat Ford.

“Only because Ford decided thatI’m worth as much to him as a handful of chips,” Stan ground out. Angie gasped and turned to Ford.

“Stanford!”

“Relax, Stanley, I’ll win youback before long,” Ford said calmly. “And you’re worth far more than a few chips. Not as much as if you were a magicalcreature, but still, nothing to sneeze at.”

“Stanford!” Angie repeated. “That is unacceptable!” She shook her head.

“Yeah, I don’t believe him. I’m gonna be stuck with these tall magicpeople that make my eyes hurt if I look at ‘em too long,” Stan muttered.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take over,”Angie said firmly. Stan grimaced.

“Don’t.”

“Stan taught me poker, I canhandle it,” Ford said.

“He clearly didn’t teach ya verywell,” Angie scoffed. “You’d have to goall in to win ‘im back!”

“Which I-”

“Should not do,” Angie finishedfor him. “Not when I’m goin’ to.” She smiled disarmingly and moved all herchips to the center of the table. “Allin.”

“All in,” Ford parroted, alsomoving his chips forward. The otherpeople playing at the table followed suit. Everyone flipped their cards over. Stan gaped at Angie’s hand.

“Royal flush is thehighest. Jackpot goes to the prettylady,” the dealer said. Angie smiledagain.

“And that includes thisstrappin’ young man over here?” Angie asked. The dealer nodded. “Excellent.” She grinned atStan. “We’d better cash in and getgoin’, darlin’.”

“How- how did-” Fordstarted. Angie shrugged.

“My poker teachers were better‘n yours, apparently.” She winked atStan.

“Where did you learn how to playpoker?” Stan asked.

“My older siblin’s taughtme. Don’t ask why. I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Standemanded. “We coulda been cleaning housein Vegas together!”

“Your date night sounds justwonderful, Stan,” Ford muttered.

“I’ve seen your date night, Sixer. Andyou gambled me away,” Stan saidimpatiently. “You don’t get to talk shitright now.”

“It just never came up,” Angiesaid with another shrug. She shot a grinin his direction. “And, if I’m bein’honest, I was holdin’ back a bit ‘til I could impress ya. Did it work?”

“Hell, yes,” Stanenthused. He grinned back at her. “That was awesome, babe.” Stan glanced over at Ford, who had wanderedaway from the table and was now carefully examining a slot machine. “We’d better get outta here before Ford triesto gamble me away again.”

#anyways I am sorry everyone that it's taking me forever to get to these prompts #as soon as these prompts are done #I'm gonna get back to work on my multichaps too #schoolwork and things can sometimes make writing difficult #I've got grand ideas but not enough time/motivation to get them written #Stangie #Stanley Pines #Stanford Pines #Angie McGucket #ficlet #my writing #writing meme #ask #darfichihrenhundstreicheln

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thechurchillreview · 7 years ago

Photo

I saw Atomic Blonde (2017) via Redbox this morn with a roommate. Quick thoughts about it. SPOILERS obviously.

Charlize Theron trained exceptionally hard to be the titular Lorraine Broughton. This was in fact a passion project for her. Her performance is top-notch. The action sequences she's in are stunning. Brutal. Inventive. Sometimes oddly beautiful. Musician/composer Tyler Bates adds yet another impressive score to his resume! Wowzers. The songs for the soundtrack are fantastic. They accompany memorable action sequences and a couple of good quieter moments.

But...

Atomic Blonde stars Charlize Theron as a spy in 1989 from a 2012 graphic novel (The Coldest City) written by a man (Antony Johnson) with artwork by a man (Sam Hart) with a screenplay penned by a man (Kurt Johnstad) with a director that is a man (John Wick originally uncredited co-director David Leitch, Atomic Blonde is his solo directing debut, he is attached to 2018's Deadpool 2 as director). Which explains a lot. *Sighs*

Her first appearance is in a bathtub so we can observe her battered bruised body, yet it continues by having her still nude form get out to have a drink and light a cigarette while standing in front of a mirror. At first, it didn't feel salacious then towards the end of the scene it did. Later on, in the protagonist's second totally needed (coughs) ice bath, the camera perspective comes off as completely gratuitous. Her contact James Percival (James McAvoy) is shown in bed with two topless women as a blanket hides his own genitalia: it is implied that the night before is why he's running late.

And during Lorraine's mission, in a nod to my least favorite stuff from James Bond films, she has sex with a French woman named Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella, Gazelle from 2014's Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Princess Ahmanet in 2017's The Mummy) to solely gain information from her. Initially, at least.

However, this part feels passionate. Real. Not a means to solely an end like Lorraine tells Delphine. That was my takeaway.

Earlier, the agent James Gascoigne that was killed appeared to have a physical relationship with Lorraine. Anyways, this indicates that Lorraine is likely bisexual! Which the movie doesn't make a big deal about and that is why it is noteworthy.

Better than declarations from Deadpool's director Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds that their lead is comic book accurate pansexual as his goal involves reconnecting romantically with Vanessa after securing the cure from Francis. The lyrics of his rap theme song Teamheadkick wrote heard in the flick reinforce his heterosexuality that promised to be more too. Yes, I remain livid about this.

“Hey goons, thugs and bosses, Guess what, I brought Colossus! Times up, better count your losses, Kickin' that ass as my girlfriend watches. Run away, you know that I'll chase, Every bad guy, but 'em right in their place, Revenge, I'm gonna give you a taste, I'm sexy as hell, but I cover my face.

About to take you all to school, with guns and knives, Deadpool... Tellin' jokes and breaking the rules, I came for the tacos. Deadpool... Playin' with the ladies and the family jewels to bust a nut, Deadpool.... 'Bout to throw down with all these fools, So come an' get some. Regenerate, because it's cool, When I fall off a ledge, Deadpool... The crazy ass guards all lookin' to duel, So click, click, boom! Deadpool... I don't believe in the golden rule, I came to get laid. Deadpool... Note to the ladies, I'm not a tool, I'm a sexy motherfucker.” 2016's Deadpool was written and directed by heterosexual men. No one remotely close to the representation Wade Wilson was meant to embody was clearly involved in the movie's creation. Even though they claimed Wade Wilson would be done right this time around.

Lorraine's spoken words of "You didn't have to kill her..." is a sentiment I too shared since, yep, Delphine, a LGBT woman of color and the only other prominent woman in the narrative, is of course killed. You took a positive and wrecked it y’all. Ugh! She manages to fight back then we’re forced to view her slowly being choked to death before Lorraine can arrive in time. It was heartrending to observe...

Said decision is likely another James Bondian callback. How most of the women James uses tend to die. For instance, there’s the golden dead body of Pussy Galore that was on several damn movie posters for Goldfinger (1964), Sean Connery’s debut as James Bond. It is on the Wikipedia for the flipping motion picture! Contessa Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo (Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg), a woman Roger Moore’s 007 marries in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) is murdered in the closing moments by Blofield and Bunt. 2006′s Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig’s Bond does this infuriatingly twice: once with Solange Dimitrios (Caterina Murino) and again towards the conclusion with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Additionally, this specific choice to remove Delphine in Atomic Blonde through this method painfully and angrily occurs often with both women and LGBT characters in the majority of media already.

Still, this echoes what actor Michelle Rodriguez said a few years ago about women in motion picture roles. I am paraphrasing what Michelle declared. Specifically how there needs to be more women in director and writing positions. How men emphasize making women sexy via outfits versus wearing practical clothing (Lorraine's heels, some of Lorraine's strange attire choices that wouldn’t work that well for fighting). There’s a line about what Lorraine should bloody wear to meet the Queen. As a juxtaposition, there’s a scene in the 1979 James Bond flick Moonraker in which he meets Her Majesty in the nude. *Rolls eyes* How the majority telling and orchestrating stories remain largely white men and they essentially write women as a love interest (or with someone) or they slay them during the story. There is a real imbalance in Hollywood regarding this. This has unfortunately infected Atomic Blonde.

Besides Lorraine and Delphine, there's the aforementioned topless nameless women and one other woman in the tale being told. The remainder are exclusively men. James even mocks women in one really aggravating scene that takes place!

What makes everything worse is that we've had women in similar action film roles done more justice. Less sexualized. Glamourized. Such as Beatrix Kiddo. Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games series. Judge Cassandra Anderson from 2012's Dredd. Ellen Ripley from Alien and Aliens. Heck, even Charlize Theron's own Imperator Furiosa in 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road! To list a few examples. It is true that the films they were in had men write their characters. Although in the case of Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a The Bride, she was created by both Uma Thurman and Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2 director/writer Quentin Tarantino.

On top of that Atomic Blonde’s pacing isn't great. I actually realized my eyes were getting heavy despite being wide awake at the start. The dialogue is functional or blase, at best (”You can’t un-fuck what’s been fucked”). Nada quote worthy. Boasts an uninteresting villain: I didn’t even include the character’s picture above because said individual is such a snore. The writing tries to be too clever at points and is ultimately confusing when all is said and done. My verdict is that Charlize Theron's transfixing acting and sterling action work alone cannot save Atomic Blonde. Neither can its presented aesthetic nor tone.

Atomic Blonde, is worth a rental, basically.

P.S. The soundtrack and score, as I typed earlier, are SUPERB. I don’t wish to spoil anything else about either. Give both a listen sometime.

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bansheefunk · 6 years ago

Text

Just watched: A bunch of pirated DVDs I found around the house.

8 nov '18, night I haven't watch a DVD in years but somehow this bulk found a way to my home, mostly from my sister, I think she saw these movies on her laptop but I didn't had a way to even play them. My sister ditched her old laptop, I took it, installed Windows 8.1 and I released that I can use it as a media player with ease, immediately these old DVDs came to my mind so I decided to actually watch them for the first time. Having physical media on my hands after so long feels super nostalgic. actually interacting with the movie as an object is an unique feeling we've lost, I've yearned for it and this has made me so happy.

The Baron of Arizona (1950) I have to admit I saw this movie last week but didn't feel like writing anything about it. My first thought was "This is the count of montecristo but backwards" because it's about a man who organizes a complex plot to better his life but as the movie goes on this persists showing that his well being is ruining the lives of other people. Is not a movie that challenges the viewer but it's a ruse so outlandish it makes for it.

The Steel Helmet (1951) I should point out these criterion movies I have are from a collection of the early films of Samuel Fuller, Who is Samuel Fuller? I don't know really. This movie was produced while the korea war was still gong on and you can tell they could not film on location. I'm very undecided if this movie is propaganda or not, it may even be sincere on it's language of support but if it's not then it fails terribly, it's too soft on its criticism and makes no attempt to show the worst parts of war or trying to humanize the enemy. This movie bothers me, I don't want to think it's sincere propaganda but offers really little out of it. After watching this movie I decided to write these impressions, it's trip worth going across.

15 nov 18, night I Shot Jesse James (1949) I didn't work!. my computer wasn't even able to read it! Cue Family Guy skit about the goodness of physical then it doesn't work.

Heat (1995) My first reaction was seeing this movie's play time and going all '3 fucking hours!' in disbelief. When I finally sat to watch it I was very surprised, all these big name actors, how come I never heard of this movie before? Possibly because it was never on TV because of '3 fucking hours!' Soon enough I was very charmed. this movie is well made and there is no other way to put it, everything from the photography to the performances everything deliverers the right point, like eating food at the exact temperature that you like adding more to the experience. When I first started watching I didn't release this movie was from 1995 and there is nothing in the movie that sets it on such year giving an authentic atemporal feeling. Still there is something grand about this movie, like if this was the top of what hollywood schlock could aspire to be, this is still a crime movie after all but a damn good one and I feel bad I never saw it before.

20 nov '18, night Skyfall (2012) I'm not the biggest James Bond fan, I've seen some of the movies when they're on TV, saw casino Royale on theaters and I'm familiar with the lore. I'm not a casual but I can't spout mindless trivia. The movie was quiet long, two and a half hours but it was so well photographed, why does this type of schlock always look so good? This entry tried to be a game changer for the franchise, we get new characters in the old roles, new offices for the M16 and they try to give Bond some character, it's all acknowledged and it's so strange because on the Bond films I've seen they don't pretend the new actors took over the previews one. Giving Bond some depth really disgusted me, Bond has mostly been like Tintin or Link, a blank slate for the viewer but now that Bond is a scotsman from a wealthy family and an orphan I don't like him so much but beside that I can't hate this movie, it's just schlock for those who like schlock and doesn't try to e anything but schlock and I respect that. I also want to complain that once I was done with this movie the plastic bag where it came from was nowhere to be found, I'm frustrated about having to look up a freaking plastic bag just for this.

26 nov '18, night Max Payne (2008) When I started to watch this movie I thought it was good, the right balance of style, action, drama and grit. When I sat to watch the second half the sound started to go off but I fixed it switching the language but this cycled continued and the audio laster shorter and shorter times until I hat to sit on front of the laptop and changing the language each minute, it was awful and by the end when I got a montage of what we saw 20 minutes ago but with different cuts felt offended, I felt like if the movie wanted to waste my time and overall any joy or good opinions I had were extinguished, maybe some other time I could had enjoyed this better but not I only feel a Family Guy gag mocking me for trusting a DVD that had lived in a plastic bag for years.

30 nov '18, night Serpico (1973) My first reaction to this movie was "What a fucking boomer and his boomer booms" but our main character grew on me and I started to empathize with him, he's a pure soul, too pure for this world but strong who fought for what he believed and for a better world, it's really a touching drama and hard to hate. A thing that fascinated me was the mise en scene, everything looks old, like if it was already old when the movie was shot but I know all that stuff was new I'm just used to see every prop after years and years of use. And I loved the way everything in the city looked, it felt like it had a sad story to tell. This is a good move that won me over after having a bad first impression.

5 nov '18, night Blue (1993) I started seeing this the night I finished Serpico, I thought I could watch the first 10 minutes but the dvd died before that, I thought I was set for another bad disc but few days later I tried again, skipped around and managed to get the movie running tho there are like 6 minutes missing at the beginning, I didn't mind them but as the movie went on I released that I missed something important stuff, I didn't got what it was supposed to be but the negative space stays with me. This movie is a damn good movie and there is no other way to put it, everything is too well done and the only thing I feel is left behind is the soundtrack but that is just me being tires of all soundtracks sounding the same but it's used so well it charms for different reasons. This is a very slow and thick character drama and examination, is the kind of movie I wish I could make, the kind of story I wish I could tell.

10 dic '18, night Red (1994) Is hard to talk about this movie, so many things go on yet it doesn't feel rushed or cramped, it a human story realistic but yet has that edge that reminds you it's pure fiction. Its a roller coaster of emotions but feels so serene. All honest I feel Blue is above Red but I can't wait to see white.

14 dic '18, past midnight White (1994) I don't have much to say about this one, it took me by surprise that most of it was in polish, I didn't expect one of these movie to be set in poland like this but still has ties to france. all the movies in this trilogy tell a human story that also has something that bents it and requires some suspension of disbelief, they're not fantasy but they're like a urban legend or a very distorted real account. Right now I think in order of quality they're Blue > White > Red which is also the order that came out, maybe watching them out of order really affected how do I think about them.

21 dic '18, night Cry baby (1990) When I saw the cover I expected a drama, a greaser crying just summoned he image of a post war hollywood drama like Blackboard Jungle, Picnic, The Lost Weekend or the obvious choice rebel Without A Cause. I pop the movie in and I'm greeted a a dumb comedy wrapped in some many layers of irony the core is completely lost, I can tell is a comedy but only one joke made me laugh, none of the songs stuck with me and overall the only thing the movie leaves on me is a slight ironic 50's nostalgia. When I was done with the film I told my sister about it (She own the DVD after all) and she said this movie was too tame for a John Waters film, the guy who made Pink Flamingos also made this and that was so shocking. This movie is just strange on the inside and the outside.

29 dic '18, night The Breed (2006) This movie is so bad it only survived by sharing a case with a good movie, I found this crap in the same case for two Clint Eastwood movie, I never heard about it before and after finally watching I can see why. Supposedly this is a horror movie but everything it sets out to be fails on its task, the first thing I found jarring was the photography, is very warm and mellow, in no point does this look like a horror movie and always looks like a romance or an R&B video. The second big issue are the dogs, the dogs are the monster of the movie and they just don't rub me in a bad way, the movie fails to show dogs in a scary or aggressive manner and some scenes that are supposed to be scary are actually kind of cute, these dogs are adorable no matter how much they bark, as the movie went on I released the dogs didn't stand a chance, tons of dogs get hurt or killed while we only get two humans dead and a third from an accident were a dog also died. This movie is bad, a legitimate 4/10, goddammit.

7 ene '18, night Unforgiven (1992) I can't say much about this movie beside that it's damn good, I'm unsure why but I think it has the right balance between, character development, action and drama but I may be wrong. Also the photography is very crispy I can't believe this movie is from 1992, I thought it was from 2002 the first time I popped the DVD in.

10 ene '19, night The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) Another really good movie. I'm very charmed by the sense of adventure, things happen out of nothing and some of them go away just like that, there is a sense of restlessness across the movie and that drives it, we feel the character's pathos and march with them without feeling the same danger and it's that chaotic feeling what makes this movie feel so human, things happen up and down like in life and not like in movies where things happen to move the story, the characters were the ones moving and things happened to them. Also both of the Clint Eastwood movies had several things in common, both start with Eastwood's characters as simple men who have to take arms for money and war respectively, both feature a younger sidekick who gets tired with the violence and an overall feeling that the violence we're seeing is not the way things should be, I'm sure these movies were packed together because of that and I really like that message. These are all the DVDs that are around the house, I should catch up with some cartoons now, I want to take a picture of the DVDs but as the moment I'm writing this I don't have a camera, it'll be a while before I can publish this.

#own post #review

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