#what other child in the league says 'i just try my best' re: cooking and means steak w crab & shrimp plus green beans and potatoes. hello???

[kitnita]

wyatt johnston on living in the moment   —   WCF 2023   —   05.17.23

Does Joe give you any chores at home? Um, a little bit. I mean, I just try my best to help out as much as I can. Um, yeah, try to have a small footprint around the house and um, yeah, I mean, help out as much as I can — help make dinner if I can, help clean up, just kinda do whatever I can to help out, to make it a bit easier for them.

Good cooking? Uh, me? Yeah. I’m alright, uh … cooked dinner last night, actually. What’d you make? Did some – it was a fancy dinner – did some steaks, got some crabs, some shrimp, potatoes, green beans. Uh, yeah, I mean, most of the time I’m just trying to help out. Not the best cook, but I try my best when I do it.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 245: The Second One

Previously on BnHA: We kicked off day one of New Internships with a fun-filled morning of shenanigans. Highlights included: (1) an old bearded man gallivanting around town telling everyone the world is going to end (and making a surprising amount of sense); (2) Bakugou and Deku attempting to rough up a group of impassioned hobos, only to have their thunder stolen from right underneath their noses; and (3) Hawks, the thunder-stealer himself, who proceeded to be all “what’s up fellas, hey Endeavor did you miss me?” Endeavor, who totally did miss him, pretended like he had not, and meanwhile Hawks introduced himself to Endeavor’s new trainees: Finger-Smashing Kid, Kid Who Used To Work For The Guy You Just Murdered, and Shouto (Just Shouto). Then he pulled out a copy of Re-Destro’s book and was all, “hey Endeavor have you heard of this book which was really important to the plot in the previous arc? I think you should read it, for reasons!!” and Endeavor just kind of stared at him, which wasn’t exactly inspiring. Anyways let’s see if these two idiots can manage to pull this off.

Today on BnHA: Hawks shoves the Liberation Army’s book into Endeavor’s hands while staring at him with the intensity of a thousand suns, and then, to avoid suspicion, proceeds to hand out another 500,000 copies of the book without even being asked. He then flies back to the PLF headquarters and is all “good news gentlemen, I gave out copies of the Army’s book to everyone in Japan!” and they’re all “that’s great, Hawks!” because somehow it turns out that this was actually a good plan. Back at the Endeavor Agency HQ, the kids meet Endeavor’s 30+ other sidekicks, who are all “now let’s all stand around and wait for Endeavor to tell us what to do.” Over in his office, Endeavor shrewdly deduces that Hawks was trying to tell him something, and pieces together the hidden code Hawks left in his book, which basically reads “IN FOUR MONTHS WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.” Back at the PLF, the League cheerfully discusses their plot to blow up the entire world come Springtime. Which apparently everyone is on board with. So, uh, does anyone else feel like they accidentally fell asleep during a really important part of the movie, because uh. What.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

okay so two things: (1) as I mentioned in a previous post, Caleb Cook reported that this chapter took him more than 4 times longer than usual to translate. so like, what does that mean?? guess we’re about to find out!

and (2) HAWKS’S REAL NAME. I started typing up this recap early just so I could liveblog my reaction, since it seems that the databook has leaked, and I figure I’m going to stumble across this sooner rather than later. so I’m just going to look it up now here goes!!

AHHHH TAKAMI KEIGO AHHHH

lol. I have no idea what that actually means. let me look up some more stuff about this

oooh thank you reddit!

ooh damn, I love it!? “hawk” + “vision” lolol HORIKOSHI BACK AT IT AGAIN. but “watchman” is a really nice bonus what with how it relates both to the whole spying biz, and in a more general sense toward what he is trying to do as a hero trying to protect society. plus the name “Keigo” just has a really nice sound to it in general. kind of a boyish, youthful sound. not too hard or soft. idk. I like it. that was my favorite character in Bleach too

also apparently both of the kanji used for “Keigo” mean “enlightenment” oooh. my god I could analyze this all day. this being Thursday night, I’ll have some time to ruminate before I read the chapter tomorrow, so if I have any epiphanies I will add them in later!

(ETA: no additional thoughts on this right now, but there is now a ton of other content out from Ultra Analysis, so let’s take a quick look at some of that!

Haagen Dazs’s gender:  I now feel vindicated in continuing to refer to him as a “he” even after the face reveal! let this be a lesson to everyone never to judge a shounen character solely by how pretty they are. not that it wouldn’t have been nice to have another female villain! anyways the important thing is that I still don’t have his name memorized and never will!

Thirteen’s gender?!: now this, I don’t really like. Thirteen was already in the previous databook IIRC and their gender was ambiguous. which to be frank was awesome. having a canon nonbinary character was sick. why you gotta do this now Horikoshi smdh.

Reason for Shouji’s mask: nooooo poor Shouji. people in quirk society are jerks! lol I get the arms being scary, but his face?? now I really want to see what he looks like though. it would be cool if he became more accepting of himself as a result of hanging with his chill classmates and decided to ditch the mask. anyways my boy needs a hug.

and there’s a lot of other stuff, including a whole series of cute segments showing the characters’ relationships with each other, but I think I’ll save those for another post because otherwise this would get way too off-track. but man, so far I’m really loving this.)

okay kiddos. it is now Friday, and time to take our horse to the hype town road. I have been waiting all fucking week for this shit so it had better not disappoint!

“Rising to Action” ooh, nice. guess this is not much of a “sit still” gang, here

okay so we’re picking off right where we left off, and guys, I just need to know, does anyone other than me find this kind of hilarious

like, I don’t know why but just. Endeavor’s face. omg. he just looks like he’s trying so hard to figure out what’s wrong. I think what it is is that this is the exact same bemused/perplexed expression that Shouto gets on his face all the freaking time, and it just tickles me to no end that the apple apparently doesn’t fall far from the tree. ahh Shouto I know you don’t want to hear this but damn boy you look like your dad

anyways. I think we can all agree Endeavor should not be looking this adorable and what the hell. let’s move on

LOOOOOOL

why is this so funny ahhhhhhh. they’re so fucking serious please stop. I mean, but of course they’re serious, though. the weird one is me, right? whatever!

so now here’s the handoff. between these two super-serious dudes

Endeavor you had better not do like me and be all “of course I’ll read it!” fully intending to follow through (really!) but then you never do and everyone is super disappointed and you start to read something else instead, all the while feeling incredible guilt! my point is, Endeavor, I hope you don’t have ADHD or we’re all fucking screwed omg

lol though thankfully we have a backup!

“oh boy!” clamors Deku, a gleam of excitement in his eye. “homework!”

OH MY GOD

WHO ARE YOU, OPRAH

ff now he’s just SLAPPING THEM INTO THEIR HANDS omg. this is amazing

love how Katsuki is keeping an extra 1.5 meters of space in between him and the others because cooties. or something

anyways! I really want them all to read it actually so this is awesome! KACCHAN YOU ESPECIALLY. I want you to read it and then give it a disgusted 1 star review on goodreads. show me how much you’ve grown kiddo

lmaooo

Todoroki Shouto. god’s perfect idiot. bless this child. someone explained Occam’s razor to him one day, and he just sat there nodding like “yes that makes perfect sense” and proceeded to apply it to every fucking thing in his life from there on out. “what’s Hawks doing carrying around 10,000 copies of The Book of PLF and just handing them out to strangers like an old lady on Halloween? processing... processing... oh I see, he probably just REALLY LIKES THE BOOK how keen”

this is what Hawks is up against. this squad of certified morons with two whole brain cells shared among them on a good day. boy literally brought three backup secret messages just in case Endeavor was too dense to figure this out, only to watch these kids exclaim, with perfect sincerity, “GOSH, HAWKS MUST REALLY LIKE THIS BOOK, HUH”

and meanwhile the best Endeavor can do is “............something.......... feels.... off.......” fml. we’re all gonna die. Hawks, I’m sorry. you tried!! next time give Momo your secret message instead!

so now he says that he’s actually recommending this book to all of his acquaintances omg. don’t tell me this handsome canary is actually going around handing out books to every single person he knows?? all to cover up this one action of giving Endeavor the book with the secret message highlighted in it?? okay guys help me decide: is this brilliance or stupidity? like, what is even going on inside Hawks’s head. “I’ll just fly around handing out copies of Atlas Fucking Shrugged to everyone I meet. that’ll seem really natural”

I s2g Endeavor if you don’t follow up on this...! THE WORLD IS COUNTING ON YOU YOU BIG MEATHEAD. GET TO READIN’. MAKE LEVAR PROUD

and now Hawks is flying away with his hands in his pockets

godspeed you dramatically casual bastard

now Deku is all “you know, he’s not much older than us, but he really seems like he’s got his shit together!” which, yeah. don’t you hate that? the truth is though it’s all an act, and he’s actually just as screwed up as the rest of you! the moral is: never trust any 22-year-old who seems like they’ve got their shit together. because, no. he sits on a throne of lies

Endeavor are you actually being thoughtful??!

oh my god. we may actually have a chance here. praise be

now we are cutting to the Endeavor agency! guys, fucking look at this fucking ‘E’, though

ngl that shit is dope. I’m mad. I would buy his merch just for the logo and I hate that about myself

holy shit

the... flaming hot... oh my god

holy shit there’s so many of them

(ETA: hold up -- “Bakugou” and “Shouto”? this is a crucial detail here; they’re using Bakugou’s last name, but Shouto’s given name. so either they’re calling him Shouto because they know his pop, or -- more likely -- they’re calling him “Shouto” because that’s his hero name. in which case, “Bakugou” most likely also refers to “Bakugou” as in the hero name, not his actual name. meaning that still is his hero name. meaning he is still undecided. fucking... Katsuki. honey. why.

ffff and the new databook seems to support this too. instead of a hero name, Horikoshi just wrote “XXX” indicating he still hasn’t made up his mind. welp. looks like it’s back on that slow burn character development train, folks. maybe by the end of this arc, though? please? Horikoshi? Horikoshi damn it look at me.)

so this is how the number one operates, huh. meanwhile All Might only ever had one sidekick, and reluctantly at that. he really was so far out ahead of everyone else that he was basically untouchable. crazy

anyways, yes! they don’t know anything about anything so please teach them!

good grief this girl says Endeavor has over thirty sidekicks?? lmao and her name is “Burnin’.” please tell me the missing g is an actual part of her name please I need this

wow, Burnin’ really went and tried to pick a fight with my famously hot-tempered son knowing full well what his personality is like. and just look at him keeping his cool and firing back though

oh, Katsuki. [hair ruffle] he will thrive here

damn these guys are passionate

Endeavor seriously picked these people as his sidekicks? that Endeavor? they didn’t annoy the shit out of him?? that man is an enigma

btw can we all just stop here for a moment and give a shoutout to this horse-looking dude because. look at him. amazing. new fave

anyway so now the mummy-looking guy is explaining how they organize their shift schedule

so professional. this really is the big leagues

yoooooo my boy is FIRED UP. READY TO SAVE SOME BITCHES! YESSSSS WIN AND RESCUE LET’S DO THIS

LET’S FUCKING GOOOO omg I love him so much. Kacchan you need to cool it or I’m going to spend this whole fucking chapter ruffling your hair

(ETA: incidentally, here’s something I neglected to point out earlier: in spite of being a belligerent asshole in general, Katsuki for the most part is actually surprisingly respectful to most adults, especially heroes. so it’s interesting then that so far, this doesn’t seem to apply to Hawks. he almost seems to consider him another rival rather than another mentor/teacher-type figure to learn from. I wonder if this is because -- as Deku pointed out earlier this chapter -- Hawks is much closer to them in age than the other heroes. it’s interesting that that was pointed out -- and that in the very next panel Katsuki was grumbling about how Hawks pisses him off, at that.

anyway. this BakuHawks rivalry seems to be an established thing now, so I’m very curious to see how this develops.)

lol now Mummy Guy is all “that’s great! now we just need to wait for Endeavor to tell us what to do!” and Kacchan is like “WHAT”

I mean, he’s got a point lol. “we’re so busy!” “great let’s get to work!” “actually we don’t have any work yet!” like, what a fucking tease. don’t worry Kacchan, they’re just waiting to make sure they assign you boys a job that’s plot-related so we don’t waste any time

ahhh, and now we finally come to the moment we’ve all been waiting for! the part that apparently took four hours to translate! ENDEAVOR READING A BOOK

yeah he was acting like he had a freaking gun to his head. why don’t heroes have secret code phrases they can use to let each other know some weird fucking shit is up? or maybe they do, but since he’s being recorded and since PLF has some heroes on roster who probably know those same codes (looking at you, Slidin’), Hawks didn’t want to risk one of them figuring it out. that makes sense

ahhh, here we go

don’t tell me Caleb tried to translate this whole thing. though I gotta admit I am hella curious

anyway. so the rest of this page is Endeavor metaing about Hawks, and it’s some good stuff, ngl

he really is fond of him, huh. look at all those pictures. how many mental snapshots did you take of this kid smiling?? he’s so adopted it hurts

and look at the concern in that last panel! “why is he acting so weird, that’s not like him, I’ve got to get to the bottom of this.” damn, Hawks really did put his trust in the exact right person and it’s paying off

ENDEAVOR STOP MAKING THESE SOFT WORRIED FACES ABOUT HAWKS RIGHT THIS INSTANT I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THESE FEELS

god damn!! I don’t know why, but I continue to be surprised and impressed at how the character development of Endeavor is actually a subscribe and save deal and not just a one-time purchase. fucking look at Todoroki Enji, proud annual recipient of a different “world’s worst dad” mug every Father’s Day, actually caring enough about another human being to notice the subtle changes in his behavior and realize something is wrong. bruh. good for you!! human compassion is a damn good look for you, negl. fucking growth right here and I’m here for it

anyways, on to the hidden code!

and here are all of the highlighted portions for your code-breaking pleasure

fucking feel like I’m reading Detective Conan right now. yeesh

oooh!

BINGPOT LOOOOOL WHY DID I GET SO EXCITED OKAY LET ME GO BACK AND READ!

“the” “enemy” “liberation” “army” ahhhhhh! HAWKS YOU SNEAKY SON OF A BITCH. GOOD JOB ENDEAVOR!

and now we’re cutting back to Hawks, nooooo I wanted to see Endeavor’s reaction! come on!

lmao although it’s worth it to see Hawks mentally roasting Endeavor exactly like I was mere pages ago omg

his fucking face omg. that’s right Hawks, he’s not the brightest crayon in the box. not the sharpest tack in the bulletin board. he’s a few fries short of a happy meal. the elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor

but give him some credit, though! because he did figure it out! not necessarily because he was clever, but because he knows you!

oh shit lol

OH SO YOU PLANNED THAT PART TOO. WELL OKAY THEN

goddamn. he really is a clever bastard. and okay but in all seriousness, I fucking love that he has enough faith in this weird connection between them that out of all the ploys he could have gone with, this is what he chose. he seriously put all his eggs in the “Endeavor will figure it out from my face” basket. and it fucking paid off. this is awesome

AHHHHHHHHHHHH HERE WE GO

LOOK AT HIS EYE OH MY GOD. YOU CAN SEE THE EXACT MOMENT WHEN HE REALIZES HOW SCREWED THEY ALL ARE, YES, FUCK, THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR OH GOD

and we’re cutting back to Hawks again! I’ll just assume the rest of his message went something like “we” “are” “boned” and Endeavor’s face was like :o

BACK AT THE OL’ VILLAIN HOTEL!!!

LOL WHAT IS THIS

THEY HAVE A FUCKING COUNCIL NOW

whose seat is that over on the left? Hawks’s? is Gigantomachia actually wearing a shirt?? AND SHOW US TOMURA’S FACE HORIKOSHI YOU COWARD

lmao oh my god are they really buying this shit

look at him. so trustworthy. nothing to suspect over here! just a 100% sincere born-again villain committed to the cause!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

NOOOOOO MY BABIES ARE EXPOSED. HORIKOSHI YOU BETTER PROTECT THEM I SWEAR TO GOD!!!

wow is the whole conversation just shifting over to the topic of Deku now, seriously?

oh my god oh my god oh my god. like. it’s been so long since the forest lodge and Kamino that I almost forgot that the League already knows these kids. they did fight Deku and Shouto briefly in the woods, and then they had an extended fight against Katsuki later on, although Dabi was unconscious for that part. anyways, shit. just like that they’re on their radar again I’m getting chills omgggg

(ETA: at least they’re underestimating them, though. “looks like he hasn’t gotten much stronger.” boy have you not heard about his bloop? that bloop will fuck you up just you wait!)

so now have some weird panels of Hawks walking through a door

(ETA: ohhhh you can see the door closing on the tip of his wing close-up! sneaky!)

ooh! wtf are you serious he can use his feathers to eavesdrop?!

(ETA: it only just clicked on my second read-through that Spinner of all people appears to be the mastermind behind this plan? like, am I reading this right? is he Tomura’s second-in-command now or what? damn, boy, good for you.)

okay, question. if he could do this the entire time, why did they even need him to pretend to join the League at all? I guess you never know when having a man on the inside who can possibly influence their decision-making will come in handy. but still, it seems to me like he could have easily done the spying bit without ever having to join up. ehhh but I guess there’s probably a range limit, and too much risk of the feathers getting caught and destroyed... eh, fine. I’ll allow it

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

WHAT THE FUCK WHAT EXCUSE ME WHAT?????

AND OF COURSE THAT’S THE END OF THE CHAPTER, LOL, FUCK. EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO STAND IN A CORNER AND SCREAM

lol “danger lurks” fucking you think?? what the hell! so they have an actual plan already, with the details outlined to the extent that they actually have a freaking timetable and everything? and the Liberation Army is on board with this whole thing too? the “destroying everything” part and all? this is too much to process all at once fuck me I can’t

okay! so four months from now is also when the kids will enter their second year! so that means Shinsou can get in on this action too. I’m trying to think of other significant plot things this could potentially imply, but none are coming to mind right now, other than it’ll be the anniversary of USJ. but that’s basically it. -- oh, wait, this also means that there’ll be a new first-year class of students at U.A. too! so that could be interesting. some potential new characters, and a chance for Deku and the others to be senpais. incidentally, to the best of my knowledge the kids will all stay in the same class and Aizawa will continue to be their homeroom teacher in year two. so nothing will change really aside from them becoming 2-A rather than 1-A. and Shinsou joining them, as mentioned. omg

anyway! let me see, any other stray thoughts before I wrap this up? I guess it’s worth noting that Toga’s eye is fine. the League has healed up pretty nicely in general actually. like, that’s seriously impressive for a group that doesn’t have Recovery Girl on staff. how long has it even been since Deika? a few weeks? this is almost ridiculous

and the “boom” -- is that literal? like they’re actually planning to blow everything up? or is that a metaphorical boom. fucking what kind of plan did they come up with where they actually think they can destroy THE ENTIRETY OF JAPAN all at once? is there a doomsday device?? what exactly is this “power” they’re talking about? HAWKS WHY DIDN’T YOU PUT THAT IN YOUR STUPID MESSAGE YOU BOOB

hahaha. anyways. it came down to the last two pages, but that certainly was a reveal worthy of all the hype. to sum: yikes

[raywritesthings]

In the Dead of Night 5/9

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Sara Lance, Nyssa al Ghul, John Diggle, Tommy Merlyn, Malcolm Merlyn, Thea Queen Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen (Eventual) Summary: Oliver Queen returns to Starling City after five years away, three years after Sara Lance was found and rescued by her mother. More troubling to him is Laurel’s abrupt and unexplained absence from the city for the same length of time that her sister’s been home. Three years into the past, Dinah Lance makes a terrible choice. *Can be read on my AO3 or FFN (links to both accounts are in bio)*

Three years ago

They arrived in Seoul, wearing regular clothes for the first time in months. Laurel didn’t get too excited about it, though; when Nyssa had given them to her to change, she had informed her they were part of the League’s general supplies and would be taken back when they returned to Nanda Parbat. Once they had set up in a hotel, Laurel was given the name, photo, and address of her target.

“You’re not coming with me?”

“This is your assignment. I am here to ensure your arrival and extraction, nothing more.”

Laurel changed into her uniform and left the hotel alone that night, sneaking to her target’s home in the Yongsan district. She kept her breathing even and her hands from shaking as she snuck past armed security up to the fifth floor, where a light remained on in an office. She picked the lock on the window and pushed it in, stepping through just as her target turned around.

He gave a gasp and dropped the phone in his hand. Laurel crushed it with the blunt end of her staff, and moved forward until he had backed into the wall. His hands were thrown up over his head, and the little she could understand of his speech was obviously begging for his life.

There was a knife in her belt. She was meant to take it out and finish the job. But she couldn’t. How could she? This wasn’t peace, this was murder.

“Go. Take whatever you can carry and leave this city. Don’t tell anyone.”

The man’s eyes went wide, and his lips moved as if to speak.

Laurel stepped forward and put as much menace in her voice as she could muster. “Go.”

He reached towards his desk, eyes on hers through the thin slit in her face covering. It was a briefcase he grabbed and hugged to his chest before inching along the wall to the door. With one last terrified look at her, he fled.

Laurel left out a breath and sagged in relief. The next instant she was hurrying to the window. It would be disaster for her to be caught here, especially after what she had just done. When she returned to the hotel, she didn’t say a word to Nyssa and merely climbed into her own bed.

This worked for her next three assignments, or so she thought. Laurel woke one night in their temporary lodging to moonlight streaming through the window as Nyssa re-entered the room. She shed her coat and quiver of arrows as Laurel sat up.

“Where were you?”

“Dispatching our assignment,” Nyssa answered in a clipped tone. “As I have done for the last three assignments. Did you really believe I was not watching, Taer al Aswad?”

The color drained from her face, and Laurel scrambled out of bed. “They’re all dead?”

“Of course they are. That is our mission, and if it was known that we had begun issuing pardons, the reputation of the League would be at stake and the whole world order would destabilize. My father would be furious.” She sent Laurel a cutting look. “You are letting your own sense of self blind you to your obligation to the League.”

She crossed her arms. “So why haven’t you reported me to your father?”

“Because I know the terms of your servitude as well as you. The destruction of an entire city for your disobedience seems unconscionable to me, and I would think you would feel the same.”

Laurel looked away. She knew what was at stake, but it just wasn’t fair. Why was she forced to compromise her morals, her very self, just to keep others alive? Others who would never know or care what she had prevented. If it was just her own survival at stake, there was no question that this nightmare would already be over, one way or another. She wished the thought horrified her more than it did.

“You did not join us of your own volition, and I question my father’s decision to bond someone whose loyalties will never lie with the League,” Nyssa continued. “But I have also known what it is to be an unfavored child.”

Laurel turned back to Nyssa in surprise. She had never considered what her teacher’s childhood must have been like, growing up surrounded by this cult. Whether she’d had siblings or a parent who cared for her. It was obvious Ra’s was dismissive at best.

“I’m sorry.”

Nyssa stiffened. “I did not tell you that for pity.”

“No.” Laurel took a step closer. “My failure on the assignments would mean your failure, right? I was ignoring what could happen to my city, but I also didn’t think about how my actions might affect you.”

Nyssa stared at her for a long moment. Then she glanced away. “You will have to do better on our next assignment.”

“I know.” Dread seeped into the pit of her stomach and she sat on the edge of her mattress. She would have to take a life, and not for her own protection.

“I was going to be a lawyer,” she said, and Nyssa looked over at her. “Yeah, I was entering my last year. My dad is a cop, too. He always used to say that no one needed to go outside the law to get justice.” A wry smile twisted her lips. “If he could see me now.”

“Laws are not a universal concept, nor are they absolute,” Nyssa remarked.

“Maybe not. Maybe it doesn’t matter. These people I’m assigned are going to die either way, aren’t they?” Laurel looked down at her hands lying in her lap. “But if I don’t do it, a lot more people are going to die. I wish I knew what the justice in that was.”

She turned away and climbed back into bed before Nyssa could answer.

In the morning, she still felt shame at having been caught, and also for making her and her city Nyssa’s responsibility. Laurel had undergone the League’s training in the belief that it was worth sparing all the innocent people back home; it was inevitable that she would have to carry through on that belief, and that wasn’t any more Nyssa’s fault than it was her fault she’d been forced into this situation. She rose early and took their rations to make breakfast. Since there was no actual cooking involved, she felt fairly confident she could manage it.

Nyssa rose just as she’d finished, and she walked over to the other’s bedside to hand it to her.

“Good morning.”

“You seem in an oddly better mood than I expected,” Nyssa remarked.

“I don’t know about better. Resigned, maybe,” Laurel admitted. “I wanted to thank you for covering for me. When I was first brought to the League, I thought you hated me. I guess I wish I’d realized I had a friend sooner.”

Nyssa stared at her food, and Laurel had a feeling the other woman didn’t know what to say.

They finished up, and she hefted her supply pack onto her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go back.”

---

Present day

Oliver felt himself shaken awake, and he clamped a hand down on the other person’s.

“Ollie, there’s someone in the bathroom,” Sara whispered.

He sat up. “What?”

“The door’s locked from the inside, and I can hear breathing in there.”

John was waking up across from him while Tommy snoozed on with his face against the window. Oliver exchanged a look with Digg and they both stood, heading to the back of the plane.

The door was locked as Sara had said, so he looked to John and nodded. His friend kicked the door in as Oliver prepared a stance.

“Ahhh!”

He froze. “Thea?”

His little sister scrambled up from where she’d squeezed herself in between the sink and the wall. “You couldn’t try just knocking first?”

Oliver gaped at her for a moment, then regained enough sense to demand, “What are you doing here?”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t sticking behind with mom this time. I’ve been through that before.”

“So you snuck onto a private plane?” Sara asked.

“Yeah. Stayed over at a friend’s last night and they gave me a lift to the tarmac first thing in the morning. So, where are we going?”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Oliver stated. “You are staying on this plane until we land back in Starling City.”

“Oh, so it’s fine for you to leave mom while she’s grieving and go have fun, but if I do it—”

“This is not for fun!”

“What’s going on?” Tommy had woken up, it seemed, and he walked over, stopping short at the sight of Oliver’s sister. “Uhh, that’s Thea.”

“Hey, Tommy.”

“...how’d she get here?”

“She snuck on before we boarded,” Sara said.

“Yeah, so where are we going? And what about it isn’t fun?”

Oliver could not believe this was happening. He’d accepted that he needed Tommy for the plane and Sara for directions, but Thea? He couldn’t explain the real purpose of this trip without revealing his identity as the Hood, but he needed to be able to get to Nanda Parbat. Oliver looked to Digg and Sara both for some kind of answer.

It was Tommy who did, however. “Well, Ollie’s making us hike mountains, so I’d say that qualifies as ‘not fun’.”

“Hiking?” Thea turned to him. “Since when did you hike?”

“The island,” he deadpanned. His sister had the grace to look sheepish.

“Look, why doesn’t everybody who doesn’t want to hike just stay down in one of the villages at the base of the mountain?” John suggested, and Oliver found himself in awe of that stroke of genius. “We’ll pick a meeting point and a time to be there, then head back to the plane.”

“That sounds perfect,” Oliver said. “Tommy, Thea, I’m gonna send Digg with you since you’ll be in the village.”

“Right, while you and Sara go on a hike together,” Thea continued for him with a roll of her eyes. She left the bathroom and brushed past him, going to sulk in one of the chairs.

“I’ll try talking with her,” Tommy muttered, and headed down the aisle after her.

Oliver took a deep breath in and out. The plan could still work. And truthfully, maybe having some familiar faces on the plane to greet Laurel wouldn’t be such a bad thing. If that was what she wanted. It was hard to know what to expect.

They touched down and everyone was happy to climb off the plane and breathe in the open air. Oliver and Sara went with the others as far as the village, then split off and headed up a dirt path into the hills at the foot of the mountain.

“After a certain point, the League starts stationing a guard. I’ll have to leave you there, because if they see me, they’ll consider that our family breaking the deal.”

“Right.”

“Ra’s is the leader, and he’s the one you need to release Laurel, but there’s also his daughter. Nyssa. She was the one that found me and saved my life. You could probably get her on your side.”

“Nyssa,” he repeated just to be sure. Sara nodded.

They fell silent as they climbed further. There was no real point to expending breath on talking. Especially when he didn’t know what to say.

On the one hand, he sympathized. She had experienced more horrors under Ivo’s capture than he could imagine. It would be hard to turn down any opportunity to put more suffering to an end. But on the other hand, it had been wrong. Neither of the Lance sisters deserved this situation, but to knowingly allow her mother to trade away Laurel’s freedom was inexcusable. Dinah should have left Nanda Parbat and sought help, not made a rash decision on the spot, one that had ruined both her daughters. He could see the toll the hike was taking on Sara; she hadn’t been taking care of herself the last three years, and she was tiring. But she pushed on.

With no warning, she reached out to grab his arm and tug him to a stop. “Once you round that boulder, they’ll be able to see you and hopefully they’ll come to talk.”

“If not?”

Sara grimaced. “They are assassins.”

“Right.”

“I’ll wait here.” She held on tighter when he started to walk away. “Ollie. Bring her back.”

“I will.”

He walked on alone, keeping his eyes peeled for any sudden movement. He noticed the guard the second before he emerged from hiding, landing in Oliver’s path and holding him at sword point. Even knowing it had been coming, it was hard not to flinch at the sight of the Dark Archer’s uniform; that defeat still sat heavy with him, and it fueled his desire to do better this time.

“You have trespassed on the land of the Demon Head.”

He had no weapons save the knife tucked into his boot, as Sara had said that would maximize his chances of not being killed on sight, so Oliver held up his hands. “I know.”

Behind his mask, the guard’s eyes narrowed. “Why have you come?”

“My name is Oliver Queen, and I seek an audience with Ra’s al Ghul.”

---

Thea walked along the village’s main road with Tommy at her side and Mr. Diggle trailing only a few paces behind them. Every so often, she glanced back, but there was no sign of Oliver or Sara. She frowned to herself. What was even going on there? She’d hoped when Oliver came back that he’d have learned from past mistakes.

The thing was, Thea had always liked Laurel. She was everything Thea had ever imagined a big sister could be. When the news had come out about the Gambit, Thea had been devastated not only to lose her brother and father, but to learn that her brother hadn’t been just a harmless troublemaker. He’d caused real hurt to people in their lives. Instead of being able to grieve together, Thea had been convinced Laurel would never want anything to do with their family ever again.

Yet Laurel had proved her wrong. Though she’d stopped coming by the house like she had been, whenever Thea happened to run into her out in the city, Laurel always had a kind word. She’d even used to send her a birthday text, the first two years after, anyway.

And then one day Laurel had just vanished. Thea didn’t know exactly when. Only that, when the news had reported Sara found alive, Laurel hadn’t been there. Sara had come to apologize to them at the house for not being able to tell them anything good about Oliver or her dad, and Thea, impetuous and nearly fifteen, had asked her if she’d apologized to her sister yet.

Sara had flinched. “Laurel’s not here anymore. And she wouldn’t want to see me right now, anyway.”

Sara had moved away with her mother after that, and Thea hadn’t missed her. It had been Oliver’s fault bringing her on the yacht in the first place, but why did the Lances get to have their prodigal daughter back while she and her mother had nothing?

Of course, Ollie had eventually come home. He’d been distant and sometimes explosive with his temper, nothing like what Thea remembered of the brother she’d lost. He wouldn’t open up to anyone, and wistfully she had had the thought that if he might to anybody...but there had been no point. Laurel had still remained away.

Then they had learned that wasn’t necessarily of her own choice. Thea had been at a loss. She’d been so consumed by the tragedy that had hit their family that she hadn’t even noticed the disappearance of another friend. Laurel didn’t deserve to be stolen away like that; she’d never done anything wrong to end up with all the heartbreak life had dealt her. Thea had felt much better back when she’d believed Laurel had simply decided to leave them all behind. She would have had every right.

And now Oliver was back and Sara was here, for some reason, and it just gave her a bad feeling. Was he really trying to start something with her again? Did he just see Sara as the next best thing since her sister was gone?

Thea was never very good at handling these things quietly, so she finally asked, “So, how long do you think it’s gonna take them to start screwing around up there?”

“I’m not sure it’s what you’re thinking, Speedy,” said Tommy. “Oliver didn’t actually want Sara to come along, and they both seem pretty tense around each other. They were arguing about something.”

“What, whether or not to just continue disrespecting Laurel’s memory?” She glanced over the contents of another vendor’s stall. “I’m not stupid. People don’t usually come back from years of being missing. We got lucky with Ollie and Sara, but — Tommy?”

She looked back to see he had frozen in place and was staring off into the distance. Mr. Diggle came up to his side.

“Something wrong?”

“No, it’s just — is that my dad?”

Thea turned and tried to follow his line of sight. Sure enough, Mr. Merlyn was cutting a path through the other end of town while wearing the strangest outfit. All black and sort of medieval-y. Yet weirdly familiar for some reason...

“What’s that on his back?” It almost looked as if he was carrying a quiver and bow. But that was crazy.

“He’s headed for the mountain,” said Mr. Diggle. He frowned and put a hand over where Thea knew he kept his gun. “You two head back to the plane. Now.”

“Wait, what?”

“No way,” Tommy argued. “If something’s going on with my dad, I need to know.”

Mr. Diggle frowned, his eyes darting to the path Mr. Merlyn was rapidly disappearing down. “You’ll stay behind me the whole time. And if I say to run, you do so.”

“You think it’s really dangerous?” Thea asked.

“I don’t know yet, Miss Queen. But I do know that he’s wearing the same clothes that Dark Archer had on at Christmas.”

It clicked in her head then, where she’d seen his strange attire before. Tommy was gaping, and she doubted she was faring much better.

Mr. Diggle started off at a quick walk, and they hurried to catch up. 

“What’s your dad doing here?”

“I don’t know. This doesn’t make sense. Why would he have followed us here?”

“Well, we’re the ones following him now,” she pointed out.

It was weird. Mr. Merlyn kind of always did give off a creepy vibe — if she was honest with herself, Thea had never liked the way he seemed to hang around her mom ever since her dad and Oliver had vanished out at sea. But stalking them to another country while dressed, if Mr. Diggle was right, as a crazed murderer? How was this happening? And why was it happening when they had no idea where Ollie and Sara were?

Thea stumbled over the rocky path once or twice — she really wished she’d known to wear sneakers or something more practical, but she’d been banking on Ollie running off to some ski lodge where she could rent boots — and Tommy took her arm to help her along. Mr. Diggle kept a steady pace, pausing occasionally to peer ahead, and Thea was reminded that her brother’s bodyguard had been to war. If he was this tense already, what were they walking into?

He raised a hand to signal they stop, and they all picked up Sara’s voice just over the next ridge.

“You can’t come through here, Mr. Merlyn.”

“You think you can stop me?” Mr. Merlyn asked, far more menace in his voice than she was used to hearing. Thea exchanged a wide-eyed look with Tommy.

“I can see you’re with the League. But this is the only chance I have to free my sister, so no one’s coming through here till Ollie gets back with her.”

Thea only just held in a cry of shock. This was about Laurel? And Oliver was getting her? What was going on?

“If Oliver thinks he can best Ra’s al Ghul, he’s a bigger fool than you are.”

Mr. Diggle charged up over the ridge, gun drawn and pointed. “She’s got backup. That’s more than I can say for you.”

Tommy scrambled up after him, and Thea was right on his heels. “Dad!”

Mr. Merlyn had an arrow drawn and pointed at Sara, but he turned his head back to them with a sharp hiss of, “Keep your voices down! They’ll hear you.”

“Who?” Thea demanded. “What the hell is going on, and where are Ollie and Laurel?”

Mr. Merlyn seemed to realize Mr. Diggle had him covered, for he lowered his bow and tucked the arrow back into his quiver. Then he walked over to them with his hands raised, beckoning to Sara to join them.

“We are only a stone’s throw from the first guard stationed to protect the fortress of Nanda Parbat,” he explained in a lowered voice. “So it would do all of us well to keep our voices down.”

“Fortress of what?” Tommy asked.

“Nanda Parbat,” Sara repeated. “It’s why we’re here.”

“I suspected as much when Oliver told me where you were going. I’m not a big believer in coincidences, and there were just too many lining up when it came to him and Starling’s new vigilante.”

“Wait, what?” Thea had to wonder if she wasn’t still asleep in that plane bathroom and dreaming up this bizarre situation. “You’re not saying—”

“The Hood’s arrival coincided with Oliver’s return. His hospitalization coincided with my encounter with the Hood. And now he has adventured here to the home of the League of Assassins,” Mr. Merlyn stated.

“But dad. You’re not — I mean, you wouldn’t just hold a bunch of people hostage at Christmas,” Tommy argued. “That’s crazy.”

“There’s a lot about me I haven’t told you, Tommy,” Mr. Merlyn replied. “A lot about the lengths I am willing to go.”

“Like traveling all the way to the Himalayas to put your rival in the ground?” Mr. Diggle guessed. He was still aiming at Tommy’s father, and given what they now knew, Thea was glad for it.

But Mr. Merlyn shook his head. “I didn’t come here to hurt Oliver. I came to save him. To stop him before he could reach the League.”

“The League of Assassins,” Thea repeated just to be sure. When that got a nod from three of their group, she threw her hands up in the air. “Why is there a League of Assassins? And why do we know about them?”

“And what do they have to do with Laurel?” Tommy added, to which Thea gave her own approving nod.

“The League is an old order. It’s been around for hundreds of years. When I left you after your mother was killed, Tommy, I wandered the Earth totally lost. And then I found my way here to Nanda Parbat, where I was taken in and trained. That is how I know of them and how I know that Oliver is in danger.”

“Then how do we help him?” Mr. Diggle asked.

“The only way we might hope to do that now is to infiltrate another way. The catacombs. Follow me.” Mr. Merlyn turned and took a path that led down into some brambles. Thea was thankful she’d at least worn long sleeves, though her hair was another matter as it got caught once or twice.

“So why the change of heart about the Hood?” Mr. Diggle was asking. He still eyed Mr. Merlyn suspiciously.

“I didn’t know who he was before. Now that I do, I hope to reconcile with Oliver and persuade him to my plan along with Moira.”

“What do you mean along with my mom?” Thea spoke up from near the back. “What plan?”

“My plan to save the city.”

“Why does it involve hostages?” Tommy asked.

“Look, does any of this matter right now?” Sara demanded harshly. “We can sort it out once we get in and out with Oliver and Laurel.”

“Yes, how did your sister become mixed up with the League?” Mr. Merlyn had brought them to what looked to be a rock wall, but he reached into a crevice and then one of the rocks slid aside to reveal a dark tunnel. How did that work? They were rocks. “Quietly, if you don’t mind.”

They all filed in while Mr. Merlyn took a torch from the wall and lit it, and it was silent for long enough that Thea wondered if Sara was ever planning to answer. At last, she muttered, “It was my fault.”

“Let’s leave it at that,” Mr. Diggle said before anyone could ask. “I don’t think everyone can be expected to keep quiet about the rest of it.”

Thea looked between the pair of them with curiosity that burned hotter than ever. Her brother was for some reason somehow the crazy vigilante everyone was talking about back home, Mr. Merlyn had beat him up over Christmas, and yet there was somehow still more she didn’t know. That shouldn’t have been possible.

But it was something about Laurel. And Sara seemed to think her sister was still alive. If there was one thing today that Thea wanted to be true, that was it.

Mr. Merlyn paused, and so did the rest of them. There was a faint sound somewhere over their heads, like a sort of clanging.

“We’re too late.”

“Dad, what do you mean? What about Oliver?”

“He’s engaged Ra’s,” was all Mr. Merlyn offered in explanation. “Nothing will save him now.”

Thea stood there, shivering in the chilled air of the tunnel, and willed herself to wake up. But it didn’t happen. This was real.

[moviegroovies]

oh god after last time i really did think i was done but i must have unlocked some new level of hell because here we go, here we go, lost boys hcs PART 3!!!!

so ummmmm michael... is sort of dumb. 

like, ok, specifically??? i think he’s got a higher than average emotional intelligence, but he’s just one of those kids who’s bad at school. there’s some hints of this in the movie: when michael is telling sam that he can’t tell lucy about the vampirism thing, sam’s line is that it’s “not like getting a D in school, mike!”, implying that hiding that kind of thing is something the two of them have been over before, and a deleted subplot has him repeatedly insisting to lucy that he’s going to drop out of school to get a job and help her pay for things.

tbh i think he’s got that classic “child of divorce” thing going on. he feels like a burden on sparse resources and can’t stand the thought of wasting his days in school, where he doesn’t even want to be. he wants to help his mom! he gets a job for he so he can do that! what a good, sweet boy!!!

hmmm. dyslexic michael, anyone? like, i was going to say that he was particularly vexed by math & science, but the more i think about it, the more i’m leaning toward him maybe just being disinterested in those subjects, even though they’re the ones he’s better at, while english and history (but particularly english) really piss him off because studying takes so goddamn long.

so he gets like, C+/B- in math and science, consistent C- in history, and wavers C- to D+ or even lower in english. 

he’s so polite to his teachers that they help him when they can though, especially because they know he’s trying so hard, but he’s just not entirely gifted at this sort of stuff. 

the worst is when he has to keep his grades up to stay eligible for sports--that pressure just makes everything seem so much worse.

i think michael plays some of everything. he’s like, some kind of guard on the football team, not particularly their star player or anything, but i think he’s also got a starter position on the basketball team, and he is the star pitcher on the baseball team. 

physical stuff just comes easier to him than academic stuff, you know?

his high school girlfriend was a cheerleader, but they weren’t that serious. she was a kind of preppy girl, a little vapid, and it felt to michael like they only really dated because they were supposed to. breaking up with her kind of led to michael’s attraction to star; he saw her on the boardwalk and she looked like she dressed for herself and she was outwardly enjoying her time at the concert--plus, you know, she’s really pretty.

he hates to admit it, but michael’s favorite classes in school were the home ec classes that his guidance counselor suggested he take. he took shop first, which was okay, but really, what he liked to do the most was the cooking and sewing shit. when he joins the lost boys, he kind of “takes over” these roles from star (who had been pressured into acting the mother for all these assholes who could be her great grandfathers, easily), and it turns out that he’s a lot better at that stuff than she is. 

guess he was always kind of training to be david’s bitch after all.

the guys stop ribbing on him once he shows them how he can fix their clothes and shit, though. goddamn assholes.

michael’s main circle of friends in highschool was made up of other jocks, and like with his girlfriend, they weren’t super close. he often got excluded from stuff because he would insist he couldn’t do something or other on account of his mom needing him home that night, or he would get pissed at them for making fun of sam. 

michael said family comes first, fuckers!

he did drink and smoke and shit like that back in phoenix when he knew he wouldn’t be missed at home, though. he’s not a goody two shoes, really, he just didn’t want to make things harder than they were for his mom. 

one day he did come home drunk, and he’ll never forget how upset lucy looked. he still doesn’t feel like he’s made that up to her. ouch.

one of the guys michael hung out with, probably the closest michael had to a “best friend” was a dude named declan who he’d known since elementary school. declan as the only one of the jock guys who didn’t really hold it against him when he’d skip out on stuff, and the only one he ever even thought about telling the divorce shit to, although in the end, he chickened out of actually doing it. 

like i said, they weren’t best friends or anything, but they could have been, y’know?

one of the less nice dudes in his group (probs one michael got in fights with often) started dating michael’s girlfriend about a week after he moved. michael wasn’t really pissed by the time he found out about that; he had way bigger problems to worry about by then.

there was a guy that michael saw around who was kind of a beatnik loner outcast and almost definitely a fag. he liked shakespeare and oscar wilde and probably drew pretty things in the margins of his notebook, and the guys that michael hung out with trashed on him pretty much constantly. michael himself, however, had kind of a thing for the guy: he thought he was cool and would ask when he could to see what he was working on.

you know how michael acted around star at the very beginning of their association? that’s pretty much how he was around this dude. local bi disaster is bi.

the guy (i was going to say fuck it and name him after the guy who i’m sort of basing him on from peggy sue got married, but guess what my fucking luck is, that dude’s name is michael. jfc. let’s call him charlie) thought michael was just there to make fun of him like the others did, but he eventually, he might have come around to trusting that mike really was just interested in his art. 

maybe they made out or something before charlie eventually pushed back against him because he didn’t want to get fucking murdered by michael’s friends for making him queer if they got caught 

michael always felt like he should have pushed harder to have some sort of relationship with charlie, but once he moves to santa carla, there’s no use in thinking about it anymore.

unlike michael, sam did have a close circle of friends at school, even though he wasn’t as classically “popular” as his brother. 

it was probs this reason that made him take the move a lot harder than his brother did.

sam, also unlike michael, was/is really good at school. he’s super skilled at memorizing dates & facts (just look at him rattle off semi-obscure superman trivia lol), and pretty talented at writing to boot. he doesn’t like math as much, but if he works at it, it comes to him pretty quickly. 

gifted kid perks™

being that everything came easy to sam, and that he didn’t do any sports like michael did, he had a lot of downtime to read books and comics, keep up w/ pop culture, and hang out with his nerdy friends who liked to do the same. he was even in a d&d group

his character was an elf rogue.

it’s about gay rights

re: sports, it’s not that sam couldn’t be athletic, just that he didn’t ever really want to be. he used to do little league to be like michael and as a concession to his father, but really, he was always put in the outfield, and at the end of the day he would just rather read or watch tv than stand out in the hot sun playing this game he didn’t care about.

when they were little, michael trained himself to get better at reading so that he could read stuff to sam when their parents were fighting or their mom was away. he remembered how his parents (in better times) had read to him, and he knew it made sam feel better, so he put aside his difficulties and discomfort to read to his brother before bed.

the easiest things to read for him were comic books (he had some batmans and supermans and even a few wonder womans, although it wasn’t all superhero stuff. he also had richie rich and, of course, archies), which kind of sparked sam’s love for them--they were something he shared with his brother. <3

i’m thinking sam’s nerd club was the prototypical “mostly boys who never talked to a girl in their lives” type thing, but at the same time i’d like to imagine that at least one of them had a pretty brash (and nerdy) sister who pushed her way into the club, winning their respect by doing what sam did to frog brothers, only with star wars lore.

also, i’m kind of picturing a shy girl from their school who sam takes under his wing when she’s getting bullied, only to find out that she’s really into that stuff too.

she’s part of their d&d campaign; she plays a badass orc barbarian woman and consistently has the best luck with the dice. 

the girl is almost definitely a lesbian, but sam asks her to homecoming and stuff like that so that they’ll both have dates; they’re basically each other’s beards. 

Gay Rights.

one of the only ways michael could ever really relate to his dad was when they played baseball and the dad taught him Sports™ things, so sam not being at all interested in that stuff made him kind of a disappointment. even still (or maybe for that reason), michael was always the mama’s boy, while sam spent a long time desperate for his dad’s approval.

maybe bc michael and lucy tried really hard to protect him from just how shitty their dad really was, to be honest.

speaking of michael and sam’s dad, i’ve been doing a lot of thinking about him, and now i’ve got Opinions. 

contrary to what i guess is the general fandom consensus (at least from what i’ve seen? but my scope might not be that big regarding this character, so if i’m wrong, i’m wrong lol) regarding the dad, i can’t see him being particularly abusive physically. 

however, given how sweet and agreeable lucy is, i get a sense that there must have been something REALLY insurmountable in their relationship to make her decide that divorce was the only option. the way i see it, michael and sam’s father started as one of those anti-establishment punks who eventually grew up and just... snapped back the other way entirely to end up as the establishment himself. 

main justification for this is that scene w/ michael and star; he doesn’t just refer to his mother being an ex-hippie, he refers to his folks. plus, i mean, there must have been something about the man that endeared him to lucy, right?

so, over the course of their marriage, the guy goes from being a radical dreamer type with maybe some kind punk rock aspirations to being like.... reagan’s “moral majority.” 

he starts totally stomping down his old dreams and, in the process, mocking lucy for holding onto anything from their past (you know how she told sam part of the reason she divorced him was that “he never believed in the closet monster”? that was a symptom tbh). i imagine that this, in itself, was soul crushing, but what was really the last straw was when he started in on michael and sam: getting mad and telling michael that he wasn’t going to make it in the MLB and that he had to get his shitty grades up if he wanted to amount to anything (only making him hate school even more lbr), and openly disliking sam’s rejection of sports and stuff in favor of his comic books and MTV.

before the end, i think michael got in a lot of fights with his dad when he’d make passive-aggressive comments at sam for not being enough of a man. 

who made you the fucking authority on that, huh?

if he was ever actually physically violent with anyone, it was probably michael during these fights, or mayyyybe even lucy when she’d step in.

eventually, something just tips lucy’s goddamn scales, and she snaps and goes out right then and there to file for divorce. they never saw the point in signing a prenup or anything back then, y’know, so without really fighting for it, lucy wasn’t going to get anything in the divorce. 

she doesn’t. they leave arizona with just about the clothes on their backs.

if anyone actually fought against the divorce proceedings, honestly i think it was the dad. he had this idea of his respectable nuclear family, and, even though he was basically an emotionally neglectful POS to his sons, he hated the idea of his wallstreet suit-type coworkers coming to know that his home life was anything less than perfect. 

as a last ditch effort, he probably tried to win lucy back at the very last minute, even twisting her arm in an attempt to get her to stay for the boys’ sake, but he clearly no longer knows what attracted her to him in the first place, and the “effort” just makes her sad.

in her mind, she’s already gone by then, you know?

finally, he just ives up and signs the divorce papers. for a hot second it really fucks him up; he goes in to work unshaven and haggard, he’s back to eating like a bachelor, his heart isn’t in what he’s doing. this isn’t about grief over losing his family, though, is the shitty thing. not really. instead, he’s just dealing with uncertainty over how to remake his image. 

unfortunately, that’s about as much karma as their dad gets. by the time lucy, sam, and michael are gone for good, he finds it’s easiest to just pretend that they never happened. lucy didn’t demand it, but he sends the occasional bare bones childcare check in the mail and feels like he’s the goddamn father of the year or something, and meanwhile, he remarries a woman that’s both younger and more conservative than lucy, sooner or later fathering a son with her.

lucy isn’t cruel; she doesn’t want the boys to be totally cut off from their father, and even though they both pretty clearly sided with her in the divorce she offers him visitation rights and partial custody (saying that they could stay with him at least every summer and for whatever other holidays he wanted), but he mostly rejects this. 

when the boys try to call him to ask, he gives them a noncommittal answer about them maybe visiting next summer, after they’ve all gotten settled in. 

they pretty much stop calling after that. 

remember how i said michael has an above-average emotional intelligence? he’s definitely the one who helps lucy through the divorce the most. he picks up on the signals she sends about when she needs help and when she needs space, and chides sam for pushing her too hard every now and then.

sam, on the other hand, is definitely a good kid who cares about his mom a lot, but he’s a little more selfish and has a harder time acting like he’s got no problem leaving phoenix for her. the only real fights the two of them get into before all the vampire mess are centered around sam not being sympathetic enough to lucy and michael getting onto him for it.

i think that their dad might end up being a much better father and husband for his new family, and when the eventually visit him long enough to realize this, michael and sam... aren’t sure what to think.

like, they’re glad he’s not repeating the same mistakes he made before, but it’s not fair, is it? to see your little half-brother get the father you always wanted but never got. 

their new stepmom is a sweet lady, though. she really does want to try and welcome sam and michael into the family. sam, michael, and their dad all try, but in the end they find it uncomfortable, and the boys know it’s just a facade on all sides to make her happy. 

everyone is a little bit relieved when the boys just give up and go back to santa carla. 

when michael meets the lost boys (& subsequently learns about dwayne’s past with jasper and, you know, the total boner david has for him, and oh yeah, the fact that these guys are kind of universally gay asf), his only experience with gay shit had been his closeted fumbling with charlie and like, negative stereotypes from media, so he’s kind of amazed by these totally queer dudes who just... take no shit. 

like, he gets challenged to a motorcycle race and their leader doesn’t back down at all from the fight michael tries to incite, they take him back to drink and hang out in a semi-nasty man cave. these dudes aren’t what he expects from fags at all (they’re not sissies, and that’s kind of the end of his knowledge about the gay community at that time lol), and he just doesn’t... know what to think about them.

he kind of wants to be them.

like, you know how immediately after seeing them for the first time, michael buys himself a leather jacket and goes to get his ear pierced? there’s a reason for that, babes!

in other news, michael is a cancer and there’s nothing y’all can do about it.

i mean, i have Evidence behind my theory but also i’m just right.

but like, going back to that scene with michael and star again, when he’s introducing himself, you know how he tells her that he was nearly named moonbeam or moonchild or something like that? well, another name for cancers that i’ve seen is moonchildren, after the way cancer is ruled by the moon (and bc the term “cancer” itself has some... other connotations).

in conclusion, lucy really was That Bitch sgdfhghdh

[things-with-teeth]

Hi! Okay, SO, the goats.

For someone who is a certified City Girl, I have spent a truly unlikely and borderline distressing amount of time living in the countryside, or in the woods, or in some terrifying mix of the two. I really have no actual objection to fresh air and green shit, but friends, there are so many spiders. The other living thing which such places tend to have in abundance are animals, namely animals of the farm variety. Sometimes, like when I was in Arizona, this meant actual farms with actual farm animals, and somewhere in there is the explanation for how I managed to spend several years shoveling horse poop on weekends in my teens while successfully dodging putting my tender, breakable body on top of a horse until I was in my twenties. (Look, chivalry was actually like 2% about how to treat the ladies and 98% about how not to kill people with your horse, and I know myself, I know my limits, and I have no desire to be unchivalrous, especially since the person most likely to die in any scenario involving a horse is me.)

In my current circumstances, “livestock” is a cunning misnomer for “outdoor pets,” because my landlord has a couple of acres of land and two children. In the ten years I’ve lived here, there have been:

Roughly two hundred dogs. I lost count at a certain point, but dogs are nice.

An Equal Number Of Cats, all of whom are technically indoor animals and none of whom got the memo.

Two ponies that think they are Big Dogs.

Small Dinosaurs, aka chickens.

A small and sweet chicken made of floof, too good and pure for this world, the only chicken without murder in its tiny bird heart, the only chicken I have ever loved.

The Antichrist Is A Bird (…the rooster.)

A turkey????

????a llama?????? I feel like there was a llama at one point, or maybe an alpaca, but honestly that might have been a fever dream.

Goats.

I actually really love the goats, but there are a few VERY IMPORTANT THINGS which one must remember about goats.

Goats are very clever.

Like, seriously, I have never met a paddock that can successfully, indefinitely hold a goat. 

I have legitimately lost track of the number of times I have walked out on my second story, gated porch only to have a goat make significant eye contact with me before pooping everywhere and/or trying to eat my cigarette butts.

Clever does not mean blessed with great foresight.

i.e., the paddock is where the food is and the local predators aren’t.

i.e., just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

At some point during my first couple years living here, my landlord mentioned that their goats had gone missing, and asked that I keep an eye out.

“All of them?” I asked.

“All of them.”

“Huh,” I said, and in retrospect, this should have been my first clue that the goats were not to be meddled with. I can barely muster the strength to crawl out of bed in the morning, they were staging daring midnight escapes in which No Goat Was Left Behind, the goats were clearly out of my league.

A week or so later, I was driving home around sunset when I spotted something by the side of the road about half a mile from the house. Short deer? Alarmingly large raccoons? Confused Sasquatch? No. Goats. Almost definitely my landlord’s goats, just standing there, chilling at the side of the road.

It was then that I made my first tactical error. In my defense, I’m pretty sure that I was in the middle of finals at the time, and therefore incapable of remembering how anything in life other than the coffee pot worked. Had that not been the case, it probably would have occurred to me that the best course of action was to get out of the car and phone my landlord while keeping an eye on the goats, and not do something silly like, say, drive home to tell him they had been spotted, operating under the deeply flawed assumption that the goats, who had already disappeared into the night once when there was a fence to stop them, would not, in fact, move in the time it took me to go home and collect my landlord and landlady.

Needless to say, the goats were no longer by the side of the road when we returned. 

My second tactical error was probably feeling guilty enough about my earlier lapse in judgement that I volunteered to stick around and help, which ultimately became the story of how I ended up alone in a ravine at eleven o’clock in the evening, shaking a mostly empty canister of stove-top oatmeal and yelling ridiculous goat names into the night.

(Thinking back, I don’t know if the goats were ever fed the oatmeal? It seems kind of unlikely, but then again, if there’s one thing I trust in this world, it’s a goat’s ability to figure out and/or assume that something is food, whether it actually is or not, and act accordingly. The oatmeal was probably a sound strategy.)

We had spent literal hours running around after the goats at that point. Sometimes one of us would spot a goat, only to have it evaporate into the all-encompassing shadows like a dream, or a ghost, or a confused Sasquatch. It was very dark, and very cold, and I was at that point feeling very much like That One Girl In The First Five Minutes Of A Horror Movie. I was walking through the woods in deeply inappropriate footwear at almost midnight, looking for a lost pet, and this was clearly not going to end well for me.

If you were wondering, cannibals seemed like the most likely scenario. Like, werewolves, maybe, if I was lucky, but realistically, cannibals.

The goats would probably have eaten what was left of me once the cannibals were done. Traitors.

You can  imagine about what my reaction was when two dudes in a pickup pulled up next to me as I walked along the side of the (dark, abandoned, completely devoid of streetlamps) road.

“Hey,” one of them said. “Hey.”

I considered running for the woods, but see above re: impractical footwear, and also I am a smoker and my lung capacity is not the best. I decided that if I was going to die, cooked into a stew by cannibals, as now seemed to be inevitable, I would die as I had lived: never having felt sufficiently motivated to move faster than a slow jog.

“Are you looking for some goats? They’re walking along the side of the road down the hill.”

I thanked the nice not-cannibals and went down the hill, where the goats were chewing placidly at the delicious side-of-the-road grass and very much acting like they hadn’t spent the last several hours playing hide-and-go-fuck-yourself in the woods. “Who, us????” they seemed to ask. “You must be thinking of some other goats?? We have been here the whole time, innocently gnawing on grass???????? Like goats do?”

I had learned my lesson. I stood with the goats and bellowed until someone came sprinting to my aid, as they would not have done had I been set upon by cannibals instead of finding their lost livestock. 

“Oh, R, she was such a nice girl,” they would have said later. “So brave, sacrificing her young body to those cannibals so that our goats might live. Alas.”

We got the goats bundled into the truck and drove home, which is when I made my third tactical error, which was staying in the truck with the last remaining baby goat, to like, keep him company or something, so he wouldn’t be lonely, I do not fucking know, it makes no sense, I did this to myself and I am aware that everything that happened afterward was a direct result of my own hideously poor judgement.

Some important things to note:

While my landlord’s kids were by then in their early teens, the truck still had child locks on it.

Being in his early teens, my landlord’s son did not have keys to the truck.

My landlady had locked the truck before they had taken the rest of the goats down to the paddock, presumably so that I would not become That One Girl In The Last Five Minutes Of A Horror Movie, who thinks that she’s safely home only for surprise!cannibals to come ‘round to set up the hook for the sequel.

My landlord’s son came around to collect the final goat. He pulled on the door handle. I pulled on the door handle. The door did not open, but the car alarm did start going off.

The goat, very understandably, started screaming. The goat remembered that there was actually another living thing trapped inside the noise box for it to scream at, turned to me, screamed some more, and then made significant eye contact immediately before peeing on me, and the truck, and the world.

When my landlady finally returned and released me from my loud and urine-soaked prison, I may have looked at her and asked, very seriously, “Have you considered animal sacrifice as a lifestyle choice?” I might have. Maybe. I don’t remember.

The goat was fine. I was forever changed, and also needed to change, because there was goat pee on my clothing. The end.

[networkingdefinition]

Leo Quotes

Official Website: Leo Quotes

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

Every drama requires a cast. The cast may be so huge, as in Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina,’ that the author or editor provides a list of characters to keep them straight. Or it may be an intimate cast of two. – Nancy Kress

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Leo', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_leo').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_leo img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

Give like the sun, and the whole world grows tall. – Atticus

Funny People is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it’s a comedy and there are serious moments, I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn’t feel like I was playing myself. Whether it’s a comedy or drama, I just try to make it as realistic as possible. – Jonah Hill

Here comes the sun. – The Beatles, Here Comes The Sun

I am a Leo, and I love to be active and creative. – Howie Dorough

I carry around this little lion named Leo, which I’ve had for as long as I can remember. – Shawn Mendes

I did imitations of anyone who came to my parents’ house, and that was my identity at school – if there were ten minutes to lunch, and the teacher was done with the lesson, he’d say, ‘Okay, Leo, get up there and do something.’ – Leonardo DiCaprio

I do wish everyone would call me Leo. It’s not that I don’t like Melissa. But the more I hear it called out, the worse it sounds. – Melissa Leo

I don’t believe that my first name is Leo or that my last name is Tolstoy. I’m a storyteller. – Robert Ludlum

I had a bulletin board in my bedroom with every picture of Leo ever taken – keep in mind, this was pre-‘Titanic’ and pre-Us Weekly, practically pre-Internet. I had to buy ‘The Leonardo DiCaprio Album’ and cut out my favorite pics. – Jenny Han

I have such an ego ’cause I’m a double Leo. I can’t let go of me, you know, so it’s very difficult for me to be somebody else and not me. I’m so into me. – Paul Mooney

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. He’s very original, very accurate and acute. – Helen Vendler

I listened to the veteran wrestlers that had tons of experience, like Leo Burke. I was never really alone. – Robert Maillet

I met Leo Fender, who is the guru of all amplifiers, and he gave me a Stratocaster. He became a second father to me. – Dick Dale

I read a book called ‘Transatlantic’, which is a history of the great shipping lines. Also, of course, I had read about the Titanic and saw Leo drowning at the end of the ‘Titanic’ movie and all that stuff. – Erik Larson

I really do not care that Messi isn’t scoring every match. Leo always produces match-changing moments. – Gerardo Martino

I thought back to my middle-school experience of having slumber parties and watching Romeo + Juliet and staring at Leo and thinking about my first kiss and what I wanted it to be like. And when you have your first real love, it’s an epiphany, you know? It’s like a whole new world. – Bonnie McKee

I would like to have an assortment of words, but what can I say about Leo? He is breaking all the records, and those he will still beat. He makes the public always expect something special from him, and he delivers it. – Ernesto Valverde

If Leo is at his level, it’s going to be very difficult to find a solution to stop him. – Luis Enrique

I’m a huge fan of Don Leo Jonathan. I love that era of wrestling. – Cesaro

I’m a leo, and damn proud of it. – Unknown

I’m a middle child, so I have middle-child syndrome. With a middle child, you always have to take in everything and adjust and maybe compromise a little bit so you’re able to see both sides of an issue. I’m also a Leo – I love astrology – so that affected me, just being a lion. – Jessica Williams

I’m Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, ‘Let’s execute.’ – Quincy Jones

In the summer of 1866, as Leo Tolstoy prepared for his serialized novel ‘War and Peace’ to be published as a single volume, he wrote to illustrator Mikhail Bashilov, hoping to commission drawings for the new edition of the novel, which he referred to by its original title,1805.- Alexander Chee

It is a pleasure to see Leo, an Argentine, as the top scorer in the Champions League. – Gerardo Martino

It is an honour and a pleasure to be able to play with Leo Messi. I want to learn. He is the best player in the world and in history. I am delighted to be able to share costumes. I want to learn a lot from him on and off the field. – Ousmane Dembele

It is best to be born in April or August when the life-giving Sun is in its exaltation sign Aries or Leo, its home, for then we enter the sea of life on the crest-wave and are backed in the battle of existence by an abundant fund of vim and energy. – Max Heindel

It would not be honest if I did a review, because I’ve worked with Leo Messi, whom I consider the best player I’ve seen. I cannot comment or compare with Cristiano Ronaldo because I have not worked with him. That is not to say that I do not have as much respect for Cristiano as a footballer. – Frank Rijkaard

It’s an incredible feeling when you look across the dressing room and see Andres, Leo, Luis and Sergio Busquets, and everyone else. They are players I used to watch on TV or play with on PlayStation, and now I am sharing the same dressing room. It’s incredible for me. – Philippe Coutinho

I’ve always heard Leo saying he is happy at Barcelona. I’ll take the message that he is very comfortable here. – Luis Enrique

I’ve never met a player like Leo Messi. Julen Lopetegui

Lauv comes from the Latvian word for lion, and my mom’s side of the family is from Latvia – it’s a place I’ve been probably 15 times or more. I’m also a Leo, and my real name, Ari, means lion. – Lauv

Leo admires and is admired, loves and is loved. – Linda Goodman

Leo Burke was an unbelievable trainer. Him and Tom Prichard. Tom Prichard was not a big guy. And I learned a lot from him. – Mark Henry

Leo couldn’t deliver Mr. Martin Scorsese his Oscar with ‘The Aviator’, but I will go on record to say I will do so in ‘The Departed’. – Anthony Anderson

Leo Durocher was our manager and he brought Willie up to me and said, ‘This is Willie Mays and he’s your new roommate.’ You could see right away that this young man was a natural. He had those real big hands, great power and speed and would catch everything hit in his direction. He’s the best center fielder that ever lived, no question. – Monte Irvin

Leo Hurwicz is the father of mechanism design theory and has inspired much of my work, and Roger Myerson is an old friend and collaborator and a tremendous economist. – Eric Maskin

Leo is the best player in the world; that is very clear. – Thiago Alcantara

Leo Messi is a little football God. I love playing alongside him. We understand each other without needing to talk. – Dani Alves

Leo would also be unstoppable if I played him at full-back. Messi is simply the best there is. – Luis Enrique

Leo, sadly, has Parkinson’s, but he used to cook all sorts of dazzling things. – Jilly Cooper

My father, Leo Henry Brown, really was talented – he could write. He had a gift, and he had a great, sly humor. – Angie Dickinson

My kids and I make pasta three days a week now. It’s not even so much about the eating of it; they just like the process. Benno is the stuffer, and Leo is the catcher. They’ve got their jobs down. – Mario Batali

My life as Mrs. Leo Durocher and baseball come first. – Laraine Day

My sign is Leo. A Leo has to walk with pride. When he takes a step, he has to put his foot down. You walk into a room and you want people to know your presence, without you doing anything. – Wesley Snipes

Norbert Leo Butz is a master class in energy. – Lauren Ambrose

Of course there is ‘Messidependence.’ It would exist in any team in the world, but when he is not there, we also have to play and try to win. Leo is fundamental for us and marks the style; it is well known that he is the best in the world for something. – Ernesto Valverde

One might say Leos possess a kind of instant passion. – Linda Goodman

Ronaldo leaving would seem to have ended the competition between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo because people rarely mention one without mentioning the other. A lot of people are interested – me, too – to see how it will affect Real Madrid’s football and what they might do in the transfer market. – Ernesto Valverde

So I think it was a good thing It was a little surreal watching Leo scream ‘I’m not going to die today!’ with our music playing – that was the last thing on my mind when I wrote the song. – Jon Crosby

The first time I met Leo Messi, I didn’t know who he was, only that I couldn’t believe the boots he was wearing. But he is like a brother to me. It was at the start of 2005, when I was with the Argentine under-17 squad and I saw him chatting with Ezequiel Garay and some other players about the boots he’d brought back from the U.S.A. – Sergio Aguero

The Kate Winslet thing has been a shocker. I was like, that is the most ridiculous claim. Amazing, obviously. She’s been my idol since I re-enacted ‘Titanic’ and fell in love with Leo. And it’s a privilege to be called the next anything. But I suppose to be the next you is all you can do. – Florence Pugh

The Leo contains the essence of royalty. – Linda Goodman

The vibration of Leo, ruled by the Sun itself, is almost tangible, a thing you can actually feel throughout your whole being in the presence of a Lion or Lioness. — Linda Goodman

There are no words to describe Leo. He continues to break records every time one is put in front of him. – Gerardo Martino

There is something fundamental about Leo in terms of what he transmits to the supporters and what he transmits to the opposition when he starts to run at you. And I speak from experience. – Ernesto Valverde

There’s no really signature Leo DiCaprio role, like Jack Nicholson is Jack Nicholson no matter what movie he’s in. – Dennis Christopher

What I’d most highlight about Leo Messi is his huge sense of responsibility for the team. It shows in every game in every competition. – Ernesto Valverde

When I played Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother, they liked that Leo had very hooded eyes and a rounded nose with a ball. They said, They look like they could be mother and son. – Ellen Barkin

When Leo takes the record from me, it will hurt a little. But it’s not just anyone taking it away. It’s not a normal person. A Martian is taking it from me. That makes me feel a little better. – Gabriel Batistuta

You know, I am a Leo. Lion is a giant part of me. – Patrick Swayze

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[equitiesstocks]

Leo Quotes

Official Website: Leo Quotes

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

Every drama requires a cast. The cast may be so huge, as in Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina,’ that the author or editor provides a list of characters to keep them straight. Or it may be an intimate cast of two. – Nancy Kress

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Leo', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_leo').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_leo img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

Give like the sun, and the whole world grows tall. – Atticus

Funny People is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it’s a comedy and there are serious moments, I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn’t feel like I was playing myself. Whether it’s a comedy or drama, I just try to make it as realistic as possible. – Jonah Hill

Here comes the sun. – The Beatles, Here Comes The Sun

I am a Leo, and I love to be active and creative. – Howie Dorough

I carry around this little lion named Leo, which I’ve had for as long as I can remember. – Shawn Mendes

I did imitations of anyone who came to my parents’ house, and that was my identity at school – if there were ten minutes to lunch, and the teacher was done with the lesson, he’d say, ‘Okay, Leo, get up there and do something.’ – Leonardo DiCaprio

I do wish everyone would call me Leo. It’s not that I don’t like Melissa. But the more I hear it called out, the worse it sounds. – Melissa Leo

I don’t believe that my first name is Leo or that my last name is Tolstoy. I’m a storyteller. – Robert Ludlum

I had a bulletin board in my bedroom with every picture of Leo ever taken – keep in mind, this was pre-‘Titanic’ and pre-Us Weekly, practically pre-Internet. I had to buy ‘The Leonardo DiCaprio Album’ and cut out my favorite pics. – Jenny Han

I have such an ego ’cause I’m a double Leo. I can’t let go of me, you know, so it’s very difficult for me to be somebody else and not me. I’m so into me. – Paul Mooney

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. He’s very original, very accurate and acute. – Helen Vendler

I listened to the veteran wrestlers that had tons of experience, like Leo Burke. I was never really alone. – Robert Maillet

I met Leo Fender, who is the guru of all amplifiers, and he gave me a Stratocaster. He became a second father to me. – Dick Dale

I read a book called ‘Transatlantic’, which is a history of the great shipping lines. Also, of course, I had read about the Titanic and saw Leo drowning at the end of the ‘Titanic’ movie and all that stuff. – Erik Larson

I really do not care that Messi isn’t scoring every match. Leo always produces match-changing moments. – Gerardo Martino

I thought back to my middle-school experience of having slumber parties and watching Romeo + Juliet and staring at Leo and thinking about my first kiss and what I wanted it to be like. And when you have your first real love, it’s an epiphany, you know? It’s like a whole new world. – Bonnie McKee

I would like to have an assortment of words, but what can I say about Leo? He is breaking all the records, and those he will still beat. He makes the public always expect something special from him, and he delivers it. – Ernesto Valverde

If Leo is at his level, it’s going to be very difficult to find a solution to stop him. – Luis Enrique

I’m a huge fan of Don Leo Jonathan. I love that era of wrestling. – Cesaro

I’m a leo, and damn proud of it. – Unknown

I’m a middle child, so I have middle-child syndrome. With a middle child, you always have to take in everything and adjust and maybe compromise a little bit so you’re able to see both sides of an issue. I’m also a Leo – I love astrology – so that affected me, just being a lion. – Jessica Williams

I’m Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, ‘Let’s execute.’ – Quincy Jones

In the summer of 1866, as Leo Tolstoy prepared for his serialized novel ‘War and Peace’ to be published as a single volume, he wrote to illustrator Mikhail Bashilov, hoping to commission drawings for the new edition of the novel, which he referred to by its original title,1805.- Alexander Chee

It is a pleasure to see Leo, an Argentine, as the top scorer in the Champions League. – Gerardo Martino

It is an honour and a pleasure to be able to play with Leo Messi. I want to learn. He is the best player in the world and in history. I am delighted to be able to share costumes. I want to learn a lot from him on and off the field. – Ousmane Dembele

It is best to be born in April or August when the life-giving Sun is in its exaltation sign Aries or Leo, its home, for then we enter the sea of life on the crest-wave and are backed in the battle of existence by an abundant fund of vim and energy. – Max Heindel

It would not be honest if I did a review, because I’ve worked with Leo Messi, whom I consider the best player I’ve seen. I cannot comment or compare with Cristiano Ronaldo because I have not worked with him. That is not to say that I do not have as much respect for Cristiano as a footballer. – Frank Rijkaard

It’s an incredible feeling when you look across the dressing room and see Andres, Leo, Luis and Sergio Busquets, and everyone else. They are players I used to watch on TV or play with on PlayStation, and now I am sharing the same dressing room. It’s incredible for me. – Philippe Coutinho

I’ve always heard Leo saying he is happy at Barcelona. I’ll take the message that he is very comfortable here. – Luis Enrique

I’ve never met a player like Leo Messi. Julen Lopetegui

Lauv comes from the Latvian word for lion, and my mom’s side of the family is from Latvia – it’s a place I’ve been probably 15 times or more. I’m also a Leo, and my real name, Ari, means lion. – Lauv

Leo admires and is admired, loves and is loved. – Linda Goodman

Leo Burke was an unbelievable trainer. Him and Tom Prichard. Tom Prichard was not a big guy. And I learned a lot from him. – Mark Henry

Leo couldn’t deliver Mr. Martin Scorsese his Oscar with ‘The Aviator’, but I will go on record to say I will do so in ‘The Departed’. – Anthony Anderson

Leo Durocher was our manager and he brought Willie up to me and said, ‘This is Willie Mays and he’s your new roommate.’ You could see right away that this young man was a natural. He had those real big hands, great power and speed and would catch everything hit in his direction. He’s the best center fielder that ever lived, no question. – Monte Irvin

Leo Hurwicz is the father of mechanism design theory and has inspired much of my work, and Roger Myerson is an old friend and collaborator and a tremendous economist. – Eric Maskin

Leo is the best player in the world; that is very clear. – Thiago Alcantara

Leo Messi is a little football God. I love playing alongside him. We understand each other without needing to talk. – Dani Alves

Leo would also be unstoppable if I played him at full-back. Messi is simply the best there is. – Luis Enrique

Leo, sadly, has Parkinson’s, but he used to cook all sorts of dazzling things. – Jilly Cooper

My father, Leo Henry Brown, really was talented – he could write. He had a gift, and he had a great, sly humor. – Angie Dickinson

My kids and I make pasta three days a week now. It’s not even so much about the eating of it; they just like the process. Benno is the stuffer, and Leo is the catcher. They’ve got their jobs down. – Mario Batali

My life as Mrs. Leo Durocher and baseball come first. – Laraine Day

My sign is Leo. A Leo has to walk with pride. When he takes a step, he has to put his foot down. You walk into a room and you want people to know your presence, without you doing anything. – Wesley Snipes

Norbert Leo Butz is a master class in energy. – Lauren Ambrose

Of course there is ‘Messidependence.’ It would exist in any team in the world, but when he is not there, we also have to play and try to win. Leo is fundamental for us and marks the style; it is well known that he is the best in the world for something. – Ernesto Valverde

One might say Leos possess a kind of instant passion. – Linda Goodman

Ronaldo leaving would seem to have ended the competition between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo because people rarely mention one without mentioning the other. A lot of people are interested – me, too – to see how it will affect Real Madrid’s football and what they might do in the transfer market. – Ernesto Valverde

So I think it was a good thing It was a little surreal watching Leo scream ‘I’m not going to die today!’ with our music playing – that was the last thing on my mind when I wrote the song. – Jon Crosby

The first time I met Leo Messi, I didn’t know who he was, only that I couldn’t believe the boots he was wearing. But he is like a brother to me. It was at the start of 2005, when I was with the Argentine under-17 squad and I saw him chatting with Ezequiel Garay and some other players about the boots he’d brought back from the U.S.A. – Sergio Aguero

The Kate Winslet thing has been a shocker. I was like, that is the most ridiculous claim. Amazing, obviously. She’s been my idol since I re-enacted ‘Titanic’ and fell in love with Leo. And it’s a privilege to be called the next anything. But I suppose to be the next you is all you can do. – Florence Pugh

The Leo contains the essence of royalty. – Linda Goodman

The vibration of Leo, ruled by the Sun itself, is almost tangible, a thing you can actually feel throughout your whole being in the presence of a Lion or Lioness. — Linda Goodman

There are no words to describe Leo. He continues to break records every time one is put in front of him. – Gerardo Martino

There is something fundamental about Leo in terms of what he transmits to the supporters and what he transmits to the opposition when he starts to run at you. And I speak from experience. – Ernesto Valverde

There’s no really signature Leo DiCaprio role, like Jack Nicholson is Jack Nicholson no matter what movie he’s in. – Dennis Christopher

What I’d most highlight about Leo Messi is his huge sense of responsibility for the team. It shows in every game in every competition. – Ernesto Valverde

When I played Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother, they liked that Leo had very hooded eyes and a rounded nose with a ball. They said, They look like they could be mother and son. – Ellen Barkin

When Leo takes the record from me, it will hurt a little. But it’s not just anyone taking it away. It’s not a normal person. A Martian is taking it from me. That makes me feel a little better. – Gabriel Batistuta

You know, I am a Leo. Lion is a giant part of me. – Patrick Swayze

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

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[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 226: Oh Shit We’re Caught Up

Previously on BnHA: The still-captured Giran warned Re-Des that the League wasn’t going to give a shit about rescuing him, and reminded him that if the League sicced a Noumu on the Army they were as good as dead. But Re-Des was all “nah they don’t have any Noumus to sic at the moment” and give an annoyingly thorough summary of his deductive reasoning. Meanwhile in the town, Kizuki, a.k.a. the Rita Skeeter of BnHA, pestered Toga for an interview. She seemed to have done her research, too -- she knew Toga’s age, and that she ran away from home after graduating middle school. None of Toga’s friends or family saw it coming, apparently, and Kizuki -- whose quirk allows her to turn anything she touches into a bomb -- wanted to know the deal. She allowed Toga to suck up some of her subordinates’ blood, then promptly exploded it. She then asked Toga why she’d abandoned her normal life. In response, Toga smiled one of her crazy smiles and was all “a normal life? what’s that?” Lol okay. Anyway, the last few pages were peppered with as-yet-unexplained flashback scenes, so I’m guessing we’re about to find out just what makes this girl tick at long last.

Today on BnHA: We explore Toga’s backstory in a series of flashbacks. Basically her quirk gave her a fascination for blood which her quirk counseling never properly addressed, and so one day she just snapped and killed a dude. But she was such a cute little kid though. Whatever Toga I still love you. Anyway, so back in the present, Kizuki tries to psychoanalyze Toga and makes her out to be a victim of a society that doesn’t have a place for her. Kizuki says that Toga will become a martyr for the Liberation Army’s cause. But Toga is all “fuck that” and breaks free of Kizuki’s clutches, transforming into Ochako using the last of the blood she took back during the forest arc. Kizuki mocks the seemingly useless transformation, stating that she knows Toga can only change her appearance on the outside. Unfortunately for Kizuki, this isn’t entirely the case, as it’s revealed that while transformed, Toga is able to use the quirks of whoever she turns into. She proceeds to float Kizuki way up into the air and then release her, splattering her onto the ground. Like, she’s definitely dead now, oh shit. Anyways so it’s pretty awesome, albeit grisly as all heck. Now to wait for the rest of the League to follow suit and kick some Liberation Army ass.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 226, which, wait, this is chapter 226. Oh shit lol. But I’m posting this a week after I first read the chapter so any ETAs will reflect that.)

okay so we’re opening with a flashback to a news story or something?

injured but didn’t kill? that doesn’t sound like the Toga we all know and love :’)

hey what the

is Toga not her real name??? didn’t we get confirmation from Gran Torino back during the Pizza Delivery mission? what’s up with that

(ETA: this is really weird, though. they never once refer to her by name during any of the flashback scenes. maybe this is just for stylistic purposes? I don’t think her name is supposed to be any sort of big secret but who knows?)

anyway so yeah

that just means she lub him, guys. that’s just how she is. poor Saito

(ETA: btw Caleb Cook pointed out on his Twitter that this looks to be the Deku lookalike from the previous chapter. so if he was one of AFO’s kids, that’s kind of interesting that AFO had no issue with Tomura hiring his son’s killer later on. I don’t personally think there was any AFO relation though.)

oh wow

rude. that’s my best girl you’re talking about. she’s just a little vampirish, what? Vlad King can make people’s blood fucking do tricks, and you don’t see anyone accusing *him* of being devil spawn. smh

awwwww

cats do this all the time and people fucking love cats! I’m telling you, these are double standards!

oh hey we’re back in the present

so Kizuki is all “so you think you’re living normally? lol you weirdo” basically

and she’s looking at the smiling blood-covered Toga and is all “so this is your ‘true face’“

she’s calling her “the very embodiment of the dark side of superhuman society.” girl what

okay look, I’m not saying Toga doesn’t have a screw or two loose. and yes, she is very fond of blood. but if we’re going to call someone the literal embodiment of the dark side of society then can I interest you in a few other choice candidates, though?? Toga is what we like to call Mostly Evil. there’s a big difference between Mostly Evil and All Evil! Mostly Evil is Slightly Good! whereas with All Evil, well, with All Evil there’s usually only one thing you can do. (accuse them of being the protagonist’s Secret Dad.)

anyways

nooooo my sweet demented child is coughing and teetering onto the ground

jesus it’s almost like she’s been FUCKING BLOWN UP FROM THE INSIDE OUT good grief

and now Kizuki is all “you poor thing.” hey Kizuki you can fuck off right now thanks

HEY

LADY UNLESS YOU WANT TO CATCH THESE HANDS YOU HAD BETTER STEP AWAY FROM MY POOR HURT CHILD AND STOP TOUCHING HER FUCKING FACE

-- oh shit, though!!

[flips open notebook; clicks pen] don’t mind me lady please continue

I mean, I would imagine one of the goals of the program would be to embrace the fact that you’re different. that’s hardly an isolating thing in a society like this one where everyone is so unique that the established word for their superpowers literally means “individuality”

(ETA: on a reread, it actually sounds like the program is intended to do just the opposite of that and the goal is to get everyone to fit in. how the hell they expect to accomplish that in a society where everyone has wacky abilities is beyond me! no wonder the program has issues if this really is the case though.)

but anyways I’m sorry to interrupt, please keep talking about quirk counseling and how it didn’t work for Toga while I sit here and quietly take my notes

you guys oh no she’s too damn cute. I can’t

oh boy

?? and why the hell not, though? sure it might freak some people out that she likes her steaks a little rarer than most, but I don’t see why they couldn’t have accommodated this the same as any other quirk. people donate blood all the time; couldn’t she have gotten a legal supply for her own medical needs? the live animals and such are a bit weird, true, but again, it’s not all that different from what your cat would get up to given half the chance. I feel like they could have found other outlets for her to channel some of that bloodlust, while helping to sate any physical cravings with the aforementioned donated blood supply. if you ask me, whoever counseled her dropped the ball honestly

(ETA: and her parents, too. this makes me want to rewatch the first season of Dexter actually. too bad Toga’s parents weren’t like Dexter’s dad.)

anyway let’s watch society fail poor Toga

well that didn’t take long

see this seriously doesn’t make any sense to me though. IT’S QUIRK SOCIETY, GUYS. NO ONE IS FUCKING NORMAL. WHY CAN’T YOU BE BETTER PARENTS. HOW ABOUT THAT ONE THOUGH

I honestly can’t decide if I’m glad we got more insight into Toga’s headspace, or annoyed that they went and gave her Secret Angst. the problem is I don’t think she needed Secret Angst in order to be a good character, or a likable one. I’m not so sure I really like the implication here that It’s Not Toga’s Fault, Because Society Failed Her. like, I’ve talked about my feelings on this kind of thing before. I prefer It Is Her Fault But She Owns It Though. just because I like when characters take responsibility for their own shit and it’s not just excused or handwaved

but on the other hand, Toga is the type of character who doesn’t need redemption so much as rehabilitation. so it is good to get some kind of an idea as to why she went off the rocker, in that respect. idk. I have mixed feelings, maybe by the time I post this recap I’ll have sorted it out more in my head lol

(ETA: yeah so after reflecting on it some more, it’s more like she was always the way she is, and was just repressing it, and then one day got tired of repressing it. being told she should act one way when she felt like her true self was someone totally different. so it’s not really “society fucked her up” so much as “she was already a little kooky and they just failed to properly address it until it was too late.” so that’s fine, I guess. it’s about what I expected. and hey, at least we got some cute Baby Toga scenes out of the bargain, so.)

anyway now Toga’s making to stab Kizuki and shouting at her to shut up. oh damn

OH DAMN

(ETA: oh you might want to be careful with that Detnerat merch though, lady. seems to be on par with Hammer Tech in terms of reliability.)

DID YOU BLOW UP TOGA’S FUCKING FACE HOLY FUCK

HOLY SHIT SHE REALLY DID

if that’s the case then why are you guys trying to kill her

oh for fuck’s

said sacred text will gloss over exactly how she died though, I suppose? you guys are such fucking hypocrites. you act like you’re the saviors of the world bringing freedom to everyone, but those ideals only seem to hold up so long as they’re convenient. “blah blah blah society is so evil and doesn’t care about people like you. meanwhile we will straight up murder your ass, but never fear, your death will help ensure that no one else has to endure the cruelty of this apathetic world”

like, imagine beating someone with a stick, while screaming at them about how society wants to beat them with a lot more sticks just like this, but not to worry though because their death will make sure no more people get beaten to death with sticks by society. I’m really bad with metaphors you guys, but do you feel me though? just, fuck these guys so hard

I like that Kizuki apparently seems to think Toga is actually dead, though, because honestly. she should be, lol

...or maybe she doesn’t think that, because now she’s asking Toga to correct her if she made any mistakes with her conjectures

and Toga is rolling out of her grasp and ducking off!

GO TOGA!! RUN LIKE THE WIND! I DON’T LIKE HER EITHER! EXACTLY, YOU’RE NOT UNFORTUNATE, THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING. she’s trying to make you out to be some helpless little victim, but it’s like, bitch, she chose to be evil in order to live her best life so go fuck yourself

TOGAAAAAA

THANK YOU!!! FUCK OFF WITH THAT SECRET ANGST BULLSHIT. STOP ACCUSING HER OF FAKING IT LIKE YOU KNOW HER SO DAMN WELL

she says that just as everyone else kisses people that they like, she sucks blood from the people she likes

EYYYYYYYYY

YESSSSSSSSS TOGA THIS IS WHY YOU’RE MY BEST GIRL

oh my god. okay so someone sent me an anon ask early Thursday afternoon (ETA: this was last Thursday April 25; I read the chapter on the 26th) to the effect of “the mystery has been solved; she CAN use quirks”, so I’m getting an inkling that we’re about to see Toga do some zero gravity bullshit and I’m here for it. but unfortunately I’m spoiled for it. please give me time to read the new chapters when they come out, guys. since I’m writing down my reactions, I’m not able to just read the manga on my phone as soon as chapters come out; the whole process takes me a good hour or two usually, and I prefer to read on my computer since the keyboard comes in handy when I’m typing out a novel in response to whatever bullshit is happening lol. so with work and everything, that usually means I don’t get around to it until the late afternoon/evening most of the time

anyways I know I probably sound bitchy but it’s not really a big deal. but I just wanted to bring this up now, because if and when Horikoshi finally reveals Kacchan’s hero name 17 years from now and I get spoiled on that before I read it, that’ll be a different story lol. I will rampage, guys. or more likely I’ll just learn to turn my asks off on Thursdays and Fridays until the chapter is read! anyways!

-- hold up, quick question, can Toga heal herself by transforming into someone else?? it just occurred to me, and I need to know right this instant

so Kizuki is all “I see, you keep a stock of blood!” and I was like “duh” but then I remembered Kizuki didn’t read the Basement arc. so

oh

well that answers that. shoot

-- except hold up, again! because Spoiled Me knows that’s not actually the case! she can use quirks too! so maybe it can heal her. I mean, this lady didn’t even know until one chapter ago that Toga used blood to transform, so I don’t know where she’s getting all this “I’m well aware!” bullshit from. you don’t know shit

so she’s laughing and mocking Toga and saying she probably just wanted to look cute when she dies

...I mean, I was about to get indignant, but in all honestly why did Toga transform into her though?

so basically she transformed into her because she envies her? is that why she listed her on her list of People She Officially Likes?

but her saying that she wants to get closer to the person she loves makes me think she hasn’t given up. if she’s anything like All Might (you know, because everyone is always comparing Toga to All Might), thinking about Izuku is probably helping motivate her to stay alive!

lol, yep

and oh shit I think the thing is happening!!

holy fucking shit, wait up. I was all “so what, she’s going to float her to death?” and then it all of a sudden occurred to me just how fucking deadly Ochako’s power actually is, which I never thought about before because this deadly power was safely in the hands of the sweetest, kindest girl in existence who’s never tried to use it for anything remotely sinister aside from that one time she tried to crush Bakugou with hundreds of rocks

but like, she could float her all the way out into space, if she wanted! but the much more likely option, especially given that this is a series where falling from things actually hurts, is that she could simply float her up and then fucking splatter her on the ground holy shit

aaaaaaand up she goes!

yeah that’s right lady. “only her appearance changes” my ass

holy shit

SHE’S ALREADY SO HIGH, HOLY FUCK THIS IS TERRIFYING SHE REALLY IS GOING TO DROP HER ISN’T SHE

now she’s running around and tagging all the rest of them too!

holy shit!!!! I can’t! my brain’s going like a mile a minute because not only did Toga just get 1000% deadlier, but Ochako did too, retroactively! and just, so much newfound respect and awe for my girls

HOLY SHIT

SHE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW??! you seriously never once realized this this entire time??

quirk counseling has failed her in more ways than one. she could have gone to U.A.! she could have made an amazing hero. honestly she still could aside from the fact that she doesn’t want to. (and also, y’know. the murders. and such)

ahhhh now she’s coughing up blood, so I guess that’s a no on the “can she heal” question then

honestly that makes no sense if it only transforms her on the outside. half of the outside is based off of what’s inside! if you’re changing appearances that should mean your entire body transforms. particularly if she can use quirks! it means her DNA is transforming too

but whatever, for the sake of enjoying the story I’ll just shut up about this now though

anyway so Kizuki is all “it can’t be”, just as thousands of villains have said before her, usually immediately after it was incontrovertibly proven to them that Yes It Can Be Though

she’s asking if Ochako’s quirk got stronger just now because of her fear of death

and Toga is all “nope”

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

SHE DID FUCKING SPLATTER HER, HOLY SHIT!? HORIKOSHI “LET’S CHOP OFF ALL FIVE OF HIS FINGERS!” KOUHEI STRIKES AGAIN

and fucking lol at Toga thinking she’s just like Izuku because her body is all beaten up and dying. :’D Deku you’re such a terrible role model

and so I guess she’s fully on board with Tomura’s whole “destroy everything” plan now, then. well shit. I wonder how quickly they’ll be able to heal her up. what with her being so absurdly powerful all of a sudden, I wonder if her injuries will have a lasting effect on her ability to use her quirk, similar to what happened to Aizawa after USJ. might be a good idea honestly

lastly, “cute is evil” makes absolutely no sense, but damned if I’m not 100% on board with that slogan. just something about it that I like. or maybe it’s just due to the context here, lol. whatever it is, I’d buy a coffee mug with that printed on it

and here we go. so that’s it for new chapters until May 10th or thereabouts. if only there was something coming out in the interim that could tide my superhero cravings over. like a new Avengers movie or some shit. lol

(ETA: I have to hand it to Endgame, it’s done its job distracting me and then some. I’ve seen it twice now and it’s just as devastating the second time! I’m just about finished working my way through the five stages of grief now though, so we’re good. but now that I’m done wallowing, I need my villain arc to come along and cheer me up again. come on Tomura. do your thing boy.)

[smokeybrand]

Smokey brand Movie Review: Boo-Yah!!

So i’ve had a day to process what i saw in Justice League and actually take in everything that kind of happened to me. I needed that time, and a second viewing, to actually process how i felt about this film. My conclusion? i don’t like it. I don’t know what it is but Warner Bros can’t make a good DC film to save their lives. I mean, Wonder Woman was pretty good but upon further viewings, it’s serviceable at best That ending was just terrible. And so was the ending in this one, too! but i’ll get to that.

The Good

There’s this bit about a janitor’s wife complain about her abducted husband getting anal probes and it was the best thing about this movie, hands down.

The opening scene with Diana savings those cats in the bank was the best representation of her powers i have seen set to film, yet. That Diana is the Wonder Woman i know.

Boo-Yah.

Batfleck is growing on me. I found his portrayal charming and true to the character. Good job, yo!

The overall tone of this flick is much brighter. There’s a lot of levity in this cut and i rather enjoyed that. I don’t much care for Snyder’s vision as a filmmaker so bringing in Whedon was a good look to kind of lighten up everything.

Cyborg was pretty legit. Ray Fisher did a helluva of job giving life to Vic Stone. I found myself wanting more, and as i understand it, there WAS much more but all those Whedon cuts kind of killed everything. Unfortunate.

I adored Ezra Miller’s Flash. He’s basically the quippiest of the lot a la Spider-Man and i  thought it was good fit for the team. I’ve read other reviews that think ol’ kid’s portrayal was heresy to the core of the Barry Allen character but i adored his take.

I also liked the interpretation of the Speed Force. Snyder did a good job visualizing Barry’s powers.

The best scene in this film is when Supes comes back and dog-walked the entire league and he sees the Flash in the speed force. That was a dope ass visual for real.

The post credit scenes were outstanding. I adored the Race scene but that Lex and Wade stinger was dope. Like, i adored seeing actual Lex Luthor but there are concerns raised with that little fan services extra.

I rather liked Steppenwolf as a character. I thought he was every bit the menace and scourge he was made out to be. Ciarán Hinds did a wonderful job. It’s too bad that...

The Bad

Steppenwolf was flaccid and inept as a villain. His whole shtick feels cowardly and doomed to fail. He was more a petulant child throwing a tantrum than an actual global threat. Doomsday from BvS felt like more of an issue that Steppewolf and his hit-n-run tactics.

The ending was ridiculous. The way Steppenwolf went out doesn’t make any sense. How do you have an army of these Parademons that feed on fear, turn on you because you’re scared? You’re f*cking Steppenwolf! Destroyer of Worlds. you lost ONE battle. One. This would be your second defeat. Why re you scared?? how are you not VIOLENTLY enraged by all of this?? How do you let your lackeys eat you like that?? How are they not slaves?? Sh*t doesn’t make any sense, manq.

Also, why did it take 5000 years for him to try again? why wouldn’t you come back in, like, 50? it took all the tribes of man, a green lantern, and literal gods to stop you the first time and you took, like, no damage. Why the f*ck would it take this long to get back to earth and finish what you started?? That sh*t doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Was it weird to anyone else that Cyborg’s pops was the ct from Cyberdyne systems that created Skynet?

Speaking of robots you can’t trust, when and where in this film was it established that cats couldn’t trust Cyborg like he was a sleeper enemy. The only time we saw that might be a thing was when he took that pot shot as Supes but Vic was a team player from the start.

Yo, i don’t know if this is jus me, but this film feels like it ws shot mad close. Like, intimate doesn’t describe how close you are to these characters.

The power scaling was all over the place. You’re telling me that this Superman is stronger than literal Gods this go around? You kind of see Heracles or Zeus dotting Stepenwolf’s eye before he was forced to retreat but Clark was just rag-dolling that cat. You saying Krypton was just full of motherf*ckers that could run Apokolips? Really?? Yo, Clark got murdered by a reanimated corpse.re you seriously telling me Zodsday was more of a threat than a New God??

How did Aquaman know where everyone was in the tunnels under Gotham bat or whatever? He wasn’t in contact with any of them and none of them were in water. How did he know any of that?

The f*ck was up with Mera? I liked Amber HEard’s portrayal and i thought she was legit badass but why was she even in this flick?

On that note, the f*ck was Aquaman doing there anyway? He, apparently, abandoned his throne to Mera and just disappeared. How is he suppose to be the protector of the sea when he doesn’t even sit on the Atlatean throne? The f*ck, man??

Going from Steppenwolf to the teased Legion of Doom/Justice League seems like a deescalation. It feels... soft. There are so may villains that pose a proper threat to solicit the nuclear option of the JL and Lex’s merry band of misfits is not one of them. Unless they translate that Justice League: War story line. That would be dope. Or bring over the Crime Syndicate but that wouldn't align with that stinger too well.

Bro, they re-shot this ENTIRE movie, yo. Next to nothing from the trailer made it into this film ad it sucks. There were some interactions i was looking forward to that just didn’t happen.

This movie is ugly. I hate the DCEU aesthetic with a passion but i felt that way about almost every other film release though. Except Wondy. They did good with Wondy. All of their costumes are disgusting looking. I feel the same way about these hero uniforms as i do about the first time i saw Bayformers.

but that  Superstache, tho.

The Ugly

They neutered the f*ck out of Lois. Amy Adams worked miracles wit the material she was given but that materiel was sh*t, man.

Yo, how is this movie not three hours long? Literally, this flick should have been three hours long instead of BvS. I mean, it’s ludicrous to think that two hours was enough time to tell this story. You can totally feel that rush.

It also doesn’t help that it’s VERY apparent there was more than one cook in the kitchen overall. The direction is all over the place, man. You can totally tell where Snyder was trying to go but was abruptly vetoed by Whedon and the WB executives.

This flick is wildly sexist. Watching this, after watching the excellent Wonder Woman, you are acutely aware of that male gaze, man. Literally every Amazon in this looks like they went shopping at the same place cats got their wardrobe for 300 from. If this was our first outing on Themyscira, then okay, but we watched Patty Jenkins create a world not a handful of months ago. Seeing them go from armored wars to armored bikinis was crazy jarring for me.

The overt sexualization of Diana was wildly troubling. I don’t know that EVERY character in this flick wanted in her pants, but it was still very apparent Whedon/Snyder oversexed her character. SO man plunging necklines and butt shots, not that i was complaining. Gal Gadot is a beautiful woman but coming of her solo flick where things like this weren’t an issue, it felt like an overall disservice to the character.

So much of this movie was left on the cutting room floor that it feels incomplete. There was a different movie shot before Whedon got his hands on this flick and i don’t know if it would have been better or not , but i kind of feel like it would have made more sense. Well, as much sense as you can make with this plot.

Yo, whoever wrote this is a goddamn quack. The plot of this film is hs*t and the Super-Resurrection was poorly executed. I get they had to do the best with what they had but, and i keep coming back to this, Wonder Woman was SO good! you’d think Snyder/Whedon could have delivered a similar narrative.

Bats and Supes never really address the Bat-Guilt that Bruce has for getting Clark killed. HE just buys Martha a house by buying a bank.

This is another circumstance where the trailers oversell a DCEU movie. They gotta stop that.

The Verdict

Overall, this was a bad film. I didn’t much care for it. I thought it was boring at points and really, really, ugly. The bonkers tone from being directed by two different people doesn’t do the paper thin narrative any favors. I hate the DCEU aesthetic so much but i will say this is the best film of that universe, after Wonder Woman. Objectively, Justice League isn’t the worst thing out there. It’s fun at points and wildly entertain most of the time, i think, because of the cast chemistry, but it just feels rushed and panicked. Like, you can tell WB wanted Avengers but they didn’t want to invest the time or energy to organically grow the brand. This is a cash grab and a poor one at best. It was pretty to watch though i guess. Ultimately, i’d say i was disappointed but my expectations are already so low because the DCEU is all trash. If you’re a DC fan or you’re into seeing a spectacle, check it out. It’s hard for me to reconcile whyit’s so bad when it was built up for so much success. Yo, check it out of you’re into cape films or if you’re a fan of that generic,blockbuster formula. You’ll have a good time. Just don’t go into this thing expecting Wonder Woman levels of dope. Justice League is decidedly not that.

[thegleerealworld-blog]

Welcome to The Real World house, SNII! We are very excited to have NICK DUVAL here at the Real World house. Don’t forget to send in your account within 24 hours and make sure to re-read the rules and check out the navigation so you know what tags to track! We can’t wait for you to join us.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Name: Snii. Age: 30. Timezone: CST. Activity Level: 8/10.  I do have a full time job, but I tend to lurk and am open to plots and headcanons even when I’m working. Previous Accounts: Removed for privacy. Triggers: Removed for privacy. Anything else?: Removed for privacy.

READY, SET, ACTION:

Character Name: Nick Duval. Connection: Blaine Anderson (went to the same private school for high school).  They weren’t particularly close, but did participate in the same Glee Club.   Date of Birth: December 23rd, 1990 (currently 26, will be 27 in December). Sexuality: Pansexual. Occupation: Chef/Food Critic. Current Location: Las Vegas, NV. Three Positive Traits: Friendly, Understanding, Open-Minded. Three Negative Traits: Impulsive, Obsessive, Over-critical.

Biography:

Born as the only son to wealthy, white-collar parents, Nicholas Duval had expectations to uphold.  Stay at the top of his class.  Do the best in his extra curricular activities.  Mingle with the ‘right’ crowd.  His father wanted him to take over the family business.  But even from a young age, Nick knew that law wasn’t for him.  He acted the part.  And damn, was he good at it.  But deep down, he wanted something more fulfilling.  Something flashier, something that was just his.  

Transferring to a private all-boys high school, was his concession to his parents’ expectations.  He’d receive the best education and have the best chance to get into any Ivy League school for law.  But at the school, he found more creative pursuits.  Singing, dancing and the Glee Club let him find that tiny hint of fulfillment he’d always wanted.  But it still didn’t seem quite right.  Nick always felt a little out of place, a little off compared to the other guys.  He was much less likely to speak up during a conflict, and was far more comfortable sitting in the background than he was standing in the spot light.  He wasn’t a 'star’ like the rest of the guys in the club.  Being a decent dancer and an okay singer suddenly didn’t cut it anymore.  Nick had to find something that fit just him.

Even the thought of going to culinary school didn’t hit him until the guys at his dorm kept asking him to cook for them.  The lunches in the cafeteria were good, but simple.  Not nearly filling enough for growing high school boys.  He found a calm joy in cooking whenever he got the chance.  Seeing everyone laughing and enjoying his food brought a smile to his face.  And he could still dance and sing as he cooked.  

His parents were upset at his choice, thinking it was a waste of his potential.  Bitter fights came and went, but eventually dissipated altogether.  Nick was nothing if not stalwart and stubborn once he made a choice.  He thrived in culinary school.  It wasn’t always easy, but it was always challenging.  That thing he’d been looking for, that passion, was finally set in his own heart.  

It didn’t take him long to make a name for himself straight out of culinary school.  He found a job as a prep cook at Mandalay Bay.  And there he stayed, loving the atmosphere and fiercely respecting the chefs above him.  They had fun with their job and obviously took pride in every aspect of it, even cleaning up after a long day’s work.  Nick took their work ethic and morphed it into his own.  And in just a few short years, he was competing for his own Michelin star.  He got it, too.  One of the youngest chefs to be awarded such a high honor.  And then… he plateaued.  He’d reached the highest heights.  Climbed the culinary mountain.  What was left?  He tried leaving the kitchen to see if his palate would work as a food critic.  And he did well there too.  But the fulfillment, that sense of belonging… was gone.  He was at the top.  With no one around him.  A lonely existence to say the least.  What was the phrase?  'It’s lonely at the top?’  

After years of immersing himself in his work, Nick needed a change.  An advertisement for The Real World flashed over his TV one night, and on a whim, a gut feeling, he applied.  He was sure nothing would come of it.  But if it did, at least it’d be something different.  Something that might work as an escape from his now lonely life.  

Para Sample: Removed for privacy.

YOUR FIRST CONFESSIONAL:

WHY ARE YOU AUDITIONING FOR THE REAL WORLD? I thought it would be fun!  I’ve been stuck in my own little world for the longest time, I figured it was time to branch out and try something different.  

WHAT AND WHO ARE YOU LEAVING BEHIND BACK HOME? I’m not really leaving anyone behind, thankfully.  I don’t have a significant other or any pets. My parents both passed away a few years ago.  And I was an only child.  

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GAIN IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS IN SAN FRANCISCO? A break from the monotony of my life for one.  I can only handle cooking the same dish over and over so many times.  And writing about the same types of 'chic, up-starting’ restaurants in Vegas is getting dull.  I’m also hoping to regain a bit of self-discovery too.  I think I’ve lost myself in my work, and I don’t know who I am beyond that just now.  

WHILE ON THE REAL WORLD, AMERICA IS WATCHING YOUR EVERY MOVE. WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU WANT TO SAY TO THE VIEWERS AT HOME? Well, 'hey’ for one!  Don’t worry.  I’m not like Gordon Ramsey.  I’m not the type to bite anyone’s head off if they burn something while cooking.  I swear!  I hope you have a good time watching the show, and that it provides the same break to you that it’s providing to me.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 218: Purse Pilferage and Mouse Murder

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan and Deku sparred in an attempt to draw out Deku’s mysterious new power once again, but to no avail. In a brief flashback, the OFA Scooby Squad (now including Bakugou!) discussed Deku’s recent visions and his multiple quirks. Kacchan pointed out that it was very similar to All for One’s power, which seems to be weighing on Deku’s mind some. That evening at the fanfic dorms, Shouto approached Deku asking if he had been hiding a second quirk. Deku assured him that the new quirk surprised him as much as everyone else, and fibbed that it was probably derived from his original quirk. Meanwhile the U.A. faculty accepted Shinsou into the hero course, and Aizawa acted all weird and cagey about someone from his past named “Shirakumo.” Later, Monoma met with Aizawa, Mirio, Deku, and Eri at the teachers’ dorms and unsuccessfully attempted to copy Eri’s quirk. Eri apologized for being so troublesome, and the others assured her that she wasn’t and Deku told her that even seemingly dangerous quirks can be used for good. It wasn’t lost on him that this applied to his own powers as well, and he resolved to keep working to master OFA.

Today on BnHA: Early one December morn, the kids of 1-A gather in their common room to watch some TV while they wait to hear if Bakugou and Todoroki passed their provisional license retest. The news is reporting on a company called Detnerat which has recently entered the hero equipment business. Their CEO is some Joker-looking dude who’s apparently a big fan of AFO’s old nemesis Destro of Meta Liberation Army fame. Destro’s book has recently been republished and is making the discussion rounds. DetCEO discusses it with his cute lil mouse subordinate Miyashita, but Miyashita isn’t really a fan. This proves unfortunate for Miyashita, as DetCEO is all “that’s too bad, guess I’m just gonna have to snap your neck then.” Like, for real though. Anyway so then DetCEO heads to a secret meeting of like-minded individuals who are apparently Destro’s descendants and are seeking to make his goals a reality. We then segue to a group of purse-snatchers led by someone who I really thought was Shirakumo for a hot minute, ngl. He’s not, though. Anyway so they’re wreaking some havoc and stealing people’s shit -- that is, until two good boys who just earned their provisional licenses after three months of hard work show up to spoil their fun.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 225, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

HOLY SHIT

BABY WE GOT OURSELVES SOME MOTHERFUCKING SNOW IN THE FANFIC DORMS!!!

holy shit. and it’s the weekend! ARE WE GONNA HAVE SOME ANTICSSSS YES PLEASE I REALLY NEED THIS SO BAD RIGHT NOW YOU HAVE NO IDEA

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

KIRISHIMA WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR CLOTHES OFF

I hope they get a ton! I WANT SNOWBALL FIGHTS AND SNOW FORTS AND TODOROKI TO LET IT GOOOOOO LET IT GOOOOOOO

ahh but apparently he and Bakugou are away right now

wow they even got that class on Sundays now, huh

also, who did Sero borrow the tankoubon from? because more likely than not it was Bakugou since I can’t even picture Shouto reading manga (unless he borrowed some volumes from Deku, maybe). so that means Bakugou is (a) a big ol’ manga-reading nerd who brought his manga to school with him, and (b) sharing with friends. both of which make me so, so happy

(ETA: Viz translated this as “I want to borrow the next volume of this manga from Todoroki,” but as far as I can tell, in the RAW version he doesn’t specify who he borrowed it from. I think Caleb Cook just doesn’t think Bakugou is capable of sharing. give him some credit, Caleb Cook.)

Deku says they should be back around six, and Iida says it’s apparently the last day of their provisional class!

OHMYGOSH. hold up. so that means that their re-test is in like a week, no? holy shit. oh my god I’m so hypppppped ahhhhhh

SDLFKHASLDFKJLK HOLY SHIT

IT’S TODAY!?!??

YOU CAN DO IT KIDS I BELIEVE IN YOU. YOU GOT THIS

KACCHAN ARE YOU READY TO OFFICIALLY BECOME KACCHAN THE HERO

(ETA: maybe we’ll actually get Kacchan’s hero name before I grow old. maybe.)

SDFKASLDHK AND LOOK AT THIS SETUP!? AHHHHHH PLEASE DON’T CUT AWAY FROM THIS. OH MY GOD

but snow antics though. oh my god I’m so torn lsdkjlk

anyways of fucking course we cut away, and I don’t really mind because I love cozy 1-A snow day dorm antics also. plus everyone is gossiping about Todo and Baku, and Satou is baking a cake like the Princess Peach he is

Kami is playfully lamenting the fact that he’s about to lose the one leg-up he had on those two, and flipping on the news

oh shit are we gonna get some Plot

I guess so. what is this

Detnerat?? is that a portmanteau of something? an acronym? or another Star Wars reference I failed to pick up on??

(ETA: yeah so it’s the word “talented” spelled backwards. except with an r instead of an l.)

so the news is showing some people with mutant quirks, including a four-armed lady, a jello child, and a walrus with a bowler hat

and the narration is talking about how people like this used to be a minority but now “their era arrived”

interesting. I guess there’s pretty much no such thing as “one size fits all” anymore these days huh. so does that mean there’s been a shift back to custom-made tailored items?

this pointy nose guy is extremely theatrical

calm down buddy

so he says his company has come all this way while building products that meet the needs of each of their customers individually

this is cool and all but I’m trying to figure out why this new arc is opening with an infomercial

I’m expecting things all right, but I think it’s a little too early to say if they’ll be great

and now we’re cutting to this guy’s office, where his employee is concluding his presentation. apparently he was showing his boss the finished commercial

and now they’re discussing the thus-far lukewarm reception to their recent announcement

(ETA: holy shit. famous last words. fuckin’ jinxed it Miyashita.)

are you guys... good guys? bad guys? how is this related to the plot?? a new arc all about stock holdings and market shares. Iida did you write this arc

so pointy nose says that they’ve been doing this on a much larger scale for a long time already, so he’s confident they’ll be successful

oh shit

it only just occurred to me that he used the word “superpowers” instead of quirks

AND LOOK AT THIS SHIT

IT’S THAT BOOK. THE ONE THAT WAS PROBABLY WRITTEN BY DESTRO OMG

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT WAS DESTRO. CALLED IT WOOP WOOP

Mishiwhatsa says he read the book too but “it’s a load of crap if you ask me”

he says that what the army was doing was nothing but terrorism at the expense of innocent people, and yet Destro “had the gall” to act like he was in the right

hot damn this guy really was Magneto. are we going full-on X-Men in this arc. I want the works. I want fucking sentinels and everything oh god please

oh shit I’m starting to worry about ol’ Mishi here

MIYASHITA, RUN

OH SHIT

IS HE GOING TO SNAP HIS FUCKING NECK!?? HOLY SHIT!??

holy fucking shitballs oh christ

this dude is straight up murdering his best employee, Nezu’s cousin, all because he didn’t agree with his favorite book!?

...

holy shit

fuck. I’m speechless

okay. okay shit. well. uh. Detnerat, huh

you have my attention, plot

hooooooooooly shit

holy shit holy shit holy shit

okay. calm down, self. let’s jot down some thoughts real quick

okay so one, that one shot of that guy with his hand on his hat has a decided Ian McKellen vibe to it. I’m telling you guys. X-Men references all over the damn place in this arc

two, the word “supremacy” was used. meaning this wasn’t just a “quirk rights” group, this was a quirk supremacist group. or is a quirk supremacist group, I should say. these people believe themselves to be the future of humankind. they don’t want liberation, they want control. and assuming we continue to follow the X-Men parallels here, they also believe themselves to be superior to those without superpowers and they’re looking to assert their authority over them

they clearly believe the current laws restricting the usage of quirks are a form of oppression and persecution and are looking to eradicate them

this seems like exactly the type of philosophy the League of Villains would be eager to spread, and I wouldn’t be surprised if another team-up is in the works here

lastly, if these guys are now in the business of making hero equipment, whoever buys from them had better be really careful, as I can easily see some sort of Iron Man 2 plotline going down in which there’s a secret command built into the coding of the new equipment which will sabotage its users once activated. or if you’d rather think of it in Star Wars terms rather than MCU, call it an “order 66” ploy

(ETA: well I partly called this one. still up in the air honestly, who knows.)

also: friendly reminder that Bakugou’s gauntlets were recently destroyed and he’s gonna be needing new ones! (:

so having said all that, let’s see how this pans out!

and right away, the prediction about them teaming up with the League is panning out. waste no time, huh

so Hooknose is telling him to do so at once

oh shit hold up

WELL I SURE GOT THAT BACKWARDS NOW DIDN’T I

lol oh shit. I totally forgot that AFO was the one who bombed the Army’s HQ all those decades and possibly centuries ago. I can’t believe these guys still remember that and know how AFO was connected to boot

also, is there a Rorschach thing going on here? I wonder if it’s a reference to the psychologist or to the comic book character from Watchmen. I’m betting the latter given the way they’re using the inkblots as masks, and also because this is a manga based on superhero comics after all

(ETA: yeah, Rorschach, Joker, and Magneto... drawing on a lot of classic villains and anti-heroes in this arc.)

ah so now we’re getting details on their new bid to enter the hero market

HOLD UP

WHAT THE FUCK THIS GUY LOOKS AWFULLY FUCKING FAMILIAR

IS THIS SHIRAKUMO??? AIZAWA WERE YOU NOT CONTENT WITH THE STRIKING SIMILARITY YOU ALREADY BORE TO KAKASHI? HAD TO GO AND ADD THE OLD FRIEND TURNED EVIL BACKSTORY TOO?? OR WHAT

given that this guy seems to have some sort of cloud-based power (look at what he’s riding! and now the people he just harassed and stole from are describing it as “carbonated water”), and kumo means “cloud”...

(ETA: nope, this is just good ol’ Soda Sam. Carbonation Carl.)

okay and now we’re cutting to a conversation between two as-yet-unknown parties that seem to be witnessing this robbery from a distance, and deciding whether or not to intervene

for a moment I entertained the idea that this might be Kacchan and Shouto with their hot-off-the-presses licenses, possibly talking to All Might? but none of this dialogue seems to have that Kacchan flair, and it also doesn’t make much sense for them to have attended the lesson accompanied by All Might and no one else. Aizawa’s been pretty good about making sure there’s always at least one other fighting pro accompanying them

so now this group of merry bandits is celebrating their new haul

OH SHITTTTTTT

ODDS OF THIS BEING BAKUGOU AND SHOUTO JUST SHOT WAAAAAAAAAY WAY UP OH MY GOD?!

OH MY GOD IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT?!

I SHOULD STOP DOUBTING MYSELF AND HORIKOSHI’S PROPENSITY FOR GIVING ME EXACTLY WHAT I WANT ALL OF THE TIME

motherfucker. you just know Kacchan spent that entire cab ride with his nose pressed to the window trying to sense danger and keeping his fingers crossed something like this would happen

(ETA: him and Shouto both, since the dialogue suggests it was Shouto that spotted it first! so basically one of them stationed at each window with All Might sandwiched in between wondering if he’s even going to survive this trip. the answer is yes, All Might, but not without it becoming Eventful.)

also, 30 minutes or 30 seconds, it hardly matters All Might. you know these two spent the last three months anticipating this moment every single minute of every day. they’re gonna go do reckless hero shit, All Might. THEY’RE JUST GONNA

oh my godddddddd

TodoBaku fighting against Aizawa’s possible friend-turned-villain in the snowwwwww having JUST EARNED THE SHIT OUT OF THEIR NEW LICENSES HELL YEAHHHHHHHHH

and it appears Kacchan does have a gauntlet. goddammit. make that propensity for giving me almost exactly what I want, most of the time

anyways, I don’t really care! life is good. life is fucking amazing, fam