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ruffiorocks · 6 years ago

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James Olsen Issues with powerful men and women (anti James, but only because i think i finally see the issue!)

OK, so after the last episode i have come to the conclusion James is and has been in need of some serious therapy since he first came to National City and even before then! I've started to see a pattern of jealously towards both powerful men and women. Essentially, people more relevant that himself.

Kelly stated that Lex has tried to kill James 8 times now.

We’ve also learned that Lex kidnapped and tortured James to get to Superman.

That is a lot of bad s**t to happen to a guy and not have him work through it. That is guaranteed to cause some kind of issues!

When James got to National City the first thing he did was get involved with yet another super, even though he clearly hasn't worked through the issues that being involved with the first super had caused. This was a super he could get involved with and influence, have some degree of control over.

After seeing his poor treatment of Kelly (before the end of the ep) im wondering if this is what has caused him to have issues with women telling him what to do or being his superiors.

Hear me out (then you can tell me if you think im wrong,which is fine, each to their own).

So ever since James met Superman he has been in the shadow and the side kick of the most powerful alien on Earth. A man that James is even taller than! In addition to this James has been in the middle of a battle royale between the most powerful alien on earth and the most powerful man (Lex). James’ only role in this rivalry was to be kidnapped, tortured and basically nearly killed 8 times. James has basically been a damsel in distress. Maybe this is what led James to go and get himself a black belt.

So, James has never been able to be on par with the men in his life while in Metropolis. Clark is Superman so no competition there, Lex is a billionaire genius, James cant compete and he worked for Perry White a powerful man in the media. Who is James here other than the guy who gets kidnapped? He isnt really relevant in the grand scheme of things and he just takes photos. (By relevant, i mean he is no different to any other civilian other than the fact he knows Superman).

Now James goes to National City, pretty much just after he has been kidnapped, tortured and been given 18 scars. The first thing he does? Gets involved with the shenanigans of yet another super and put himself in yet more dangerous situations with no way to really defend himself. By rights the guy should already have PTSD and should have been in therapy and having a looong get away somewhere quiet without super drama (pun intended).

In the very first episode after Kara meets him and says Cat doesn't like to be kept waiting, James replies with ‘whats she going to do? Fire me right after hiring me?’ His attitude towards his new female boss here is not a good start. A prelude to how he will later treat Lena as his boss?

James also thought he was enough of a big shot to sit on the arm of the couch in Cats office while everyone else was standing up in respect and fear. One look from Cat was enough to nip that in the bud! James got a reality check here.

The first season he got annoyed that Winn knew Kara’s secret, like he was the only one that should have known it. He made a point to flirt with Kara even though he still had a girlfriend he hadnt broken up with.

When his girlfriend came after him he tried again with her while continuing his flirtation with Kara. He then got annoyed at Lucy for working at Cat Co, he broke up with her, he then got annoyed when she came back and Kara revealed herself to her. James was annoyed when Lucy said ‘and you’re back in Kara’s loft, nothings changed then’. Lucy wasnt willing to have a boyfriend who had no respect for her and outwardly flirted with other women in front of her.

So what was James' issue with Lucy? A strong, independent woman who was career driven? Well, maybe that was exactly it. Remember how Lucy was/is a Major in the army with respect, status, is involved in alien, government, DEO business? She’s also freaking tiny and James is like 6 foot tall. he couldnt handle a small in stature girlfriend being above him in any way. James also stood up Lucy to help Kara and always put Kara first, the only one willing to put any work into that relationship was Lucy. James put Superman first, then Supergirl. Lucy Land deserved so much better than James. Lucy would later be made the head of the DEO and work with Supergirl and Alex, being relevant where James was just not.

General Lane, even James’ girlfriends father was a man of more power , influence and relevance than James was. Out shined by both your girlfriend and her father. Even more out shined by your girlfriends sister since shes the Daily Planets top reporter. Who also happens to be the girlfriend of his best friend and the man he will never outshine.

Then we had Barry Allen show up and James was instantly jealous of the attention that Kara gave him. He was once again shown up (in his mind) by a man who was more powerful than he was. A man that could help Kara take down enemies that James couldn't help with.

Winn, well Winn contributed more to helping Kara save the day than James ever did, both in season 1 and when he put on that ridiculous Guardian outfit. Winn was a smaller, none athletic nerdy guy who was 100xs smarter than James and way more useful. James in season 1 was a glorified love interest who didnt do much.

When James did try to help in season 1 he managed to piss people off. He called Clark because he didnt believe Kara could handle Reactron because her male counter part couldnt. (proved wrong)/ He went snooping after Maxwell Lord and got kidnapped and got his ass handed to him again by a billionaire man more powerful and relevant than himself.

When James turned up at the DEO he was told by Jonn to go home, he wasnt wanted there because he wasnt needed or relevant.

Winn was asked to join the DEO and he left Cat Co to go and continue to be a valuable relevant member of the team. Winn was wanted and needed by the DEO, Jonn and Alex.

Remember when Kara was on red K? James wanted nothing to do with her afterwards. Yes she absolutely assaulted him, but that just backs up my point of James’ experiences with someone far more powerful than himself and a woman to boot.

When Lena turned up James was instantly suspicious, another powerful billionaire with more influence than himself. A woman he instantly judged for her family name, even though we learned last week she was kidnapped the same as him by the same guy. She was also the reason that Lex was caught. Lena did what Clark and James were incapable of doing.

James became Guardian because he felt he had the same call to help people and he was ‘meant for this?’ No, James was watching everyone else he knew be relevant and was watching people more powerful than him have influence and was jealous.

James demanded that Winn finish his suit because he couldn't stand being left out and watching the people whose job it was to deal with threats and were perfectly capable of dealing with them handle it.

James told Kara she had no right to decide who gets to be a hero, true, but then he thought he deserved to be one because he had a ‘call’ and he had a black belt. Go join the freaking police academy then! He couldnt stand Kara telling him no’ another powerful woman with more influence than him. Kara didnt want her human friend to get hurt, her untrained human friend. She did meet Oliver, Sara and CO, but they had years of intense physical and psychological training. They didnt get a black belt and put on a Halloween costume and think they were the s**t. Even Alex had to train for month before Jonn let her out into the field.

Alex? Another powerful more relevant woman than James will ever be. She told James and Winn to tell Kara the truth and he didnt.

James couldn't deal with Mon El, ‘I had to deal with the civilians’ ‘Mon El cares about you and himself!’ He didn't believe Mon El could be a hero and didnt want to give him a chance. What was his issue with Mon El? Another man more powerful than him, replaced him as a love interest and was welcomed at the DEO to be part of the team.

Cat leaves James in charge of Cat Co, a job he has zero experience in. But he finally gets to be a man of influence, this shows in later seasons, especially with the COL story line. James has become a man that now has some influence and is more relevant, his words now mean something. But then Lena buys Cat Co and James just thinks he’s going to keep his position and he’ll continue to run things the way he has been and will give her weekly updates. Well she soon nipped that in the bud didnt she? He even said they didnt have an office for her. Well technically his office was still Cat’s and since Lena bought it it becomes her office. He was even rude to her when she asked where Kara was running off to and he got annoyed that Lena held a meeting without him. Sure she probably should have told him, but dont forget this is a man who had no love for Lena and she had no reason to like him, so maybe she wanted to meet the staff without James’ influence, so she knew what she was dealing with.

This was clear example of yet another powerful, influential billionaire being more relevant and one upping James. To add to it she’s another woman who can now tell James what to do.

James realized Lena was staying? Well he’ll just get romantically involved with his boss, that will keep his position and influence in tact.

James looked beyond annoyed when he touched Lena’s bare shoulder and she squirmed (yes squirmed) out of his grasp.

James was approached by the COL who saw something in him and wanted to work with him. James was so flattered by this he got involved with them without even thinking about it, leading to of course disaster!!

Lena told James as his boss not to go and meet with the COL because she had booked him to debate with Ben Lockwood on TV, something that would have made more sense. But James told her she wasn't allowed an opinion on what he does because its work. He told this to his BOSS! She then had to pull rank on him and he couldn't stand the fact that a woman could tell him what to do. He ignored her and sent an inexperienced rookie reporter to do it instead.

James even got pissed at Lena because she saved him from going to prison for a long time for coming out as Guardian. Instead of thanking her he got mad and rejected her love. Another/same woman able to do something that he himself would never have been able to do. He was once again saved by a woman and someone more powerful than he was. A woman who supported his stupid decision to come out as Guardian in the first place.

James gets dumped and decides he may have to look into the lead he tried to squash on his girlfriend. Take down the woman who dumped you? Your boss? Using her resources?

James gets shot and his sister authorizes the use of a drug to save his life. He wakes up and is instantly disrespectful to her and tells her she just wants to tell him what to do and she should go home!

OK so, i conclude from this that James’ traumas in Metropolis has given him serious issues. He is always being kidnapped by male billionaires and beaten up. He cannot stand that there are both alien and human women that are more powerful, relevant and influential than he is and have authority over him. He cannot stand being on the outside looking in, he has to get involved in whats going on even when he’s told not to and people dont want him to. His romantic interests always consist of women who have more power and influence than he ever will, whose thoughts, opinions and decisions actually matter in the situations the gang find themselves in. When those women tell him ‘no’ or pull rank on him, he even dumps them, tells them they cant tell him what to do or he makes them feel like they are in the wrong.

He cannot stand that there are humans out there more relevant and useful than him (Winn) or aliens (Mon El).

James needs therapy, all of this trauma has turned him into this man that doesn't like female authority, cant stand men of more influence than him and has left him with a desperate need to be in the thick of the fight when in fact he has no business being out on the battle field at all. James’ time as the ‘dude/damsel in distress’ when he was with Superman has left him feeling weak and vulnerable and his masculinity has taken a huge hit.

General Lane said ‘You surround yourself with special people, but that doesn't make you special’. Probably the truest words ever spoken to James. James is/was special in his own way, he should have stuck to being a photographer. Like a few episodes back when he got back into that again. All of the above is just James trying to be something he will never be.

Either that, or poor writing. You decide.

#anti james olsen #anti guardiancorp #kara danvers #mon el #supergirl #superman #alex danvers #lex luthor #winn shott #lena luthor #jonn jonzz #lucy lane #general lane #maxwell lord #cat grant #kelly olsen #clark kent

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canvaswolfdoll · 6 years ago

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CanvasWatches: Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan

Not going to do a Summer 2018 write up because I only lasted through one anime, and Chio’s School Road had… issues I don’t feel like discussing.

Also, haven’t had time to continue the Digimon Rewatch (which is exclusive to the Patreon until I finish season one).

Doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking! Netflix’s most recent license camping for it’s tedious binge watch format is Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, which was a delight to watch! Go watch it, right now! Do it!

Anyways, time for my… whatever this thing is... on it.

Hisone is a woman who joined the airforce because, near as I can tell, she didn’t have any other ideas for what to put on her school’s career plan worksheet that shows up in every anime, and she saw a fighter plane soar by.

There’s… worse motivations, I guess?

Anyways, while working a desk job, she’s invited to an interview at a far away hangar.

She goes to the hangar and is promptly eaten by a dragon.

But it’s okay! The dragon just wanted to eat her old flip phone! And the crew got her thrown up pretty quick! And now they want her to pilot the dragon.

By getting swallowed and controlling the thing but prodding its soft innards.

Anime

So, Dragons are a thing that exist, and the world governments have been helping hiding them because… that’s the deal they made? Anyways, Japan hides their dragons as fighter planes, and has their air force manage them.

Because we need to explain this bizarre premise somehow.

Dragons are selective about who they will swallow and not digest, and Hisone is one of those lucky few. So she’s a D-Pilot now, which is probably a promotion from her ill-defined desk job.

Also, now she has to put up with Nao Kaizaki, initially the only member of Gifu Base’s D-Pi program, and a woman who couldn’t get the dragon to swallow her, so her position is more theoretical.

Kaizaki is introduced exhibiting the mannerisms of your typical High School Thug boy character, so you know she’ll be interesting.[1]

Hisone’s superior officer, Remi Kakiyasu, was also once a candidate for dragon piloting who couldn’t get the dragon to accept her. So the entire program is kind of low on practical experience.

Then there’s the woman selling yogurt who is clearly important, but it’ll take a few episodes for yogurt woman to reveal her purpose.

So Kaizaki and Kakiyasu train Hisone up as she comes to grips with her new responsibilities.

Hisone finds a plaque embedded in the dragon to learn his name is Masotan.

And so, the title is complete.

Then three more pilots fly in in episode 4, and the main plot starts to meander in a direction.

Let’s meet the other three team members!

Elle Hoshino: Enlisted to become the first female fighter pilot, and is displeased to have been placed on the OTF (Organic Transformed Flier) program instead. So her dragon, F-2/Norma, refuses to leave it’s plane form to please its partner. Eventually Elle comes around and loosens up. She’s fine.

Mayumi Hitomi: A matronly shaped pilot. She’s soft-hearted and soft spoken. Flies a large, goofy looking dragon named Futomomo. She’s fine.

Lilico Kinutsugai: Winner of the Canvas’s ‘Wait, I want more’ award, Lilico is a shut-in with a wry sense of humor and love of manga. Her dragon is the samurai-looking Akemi. Lilico is also apparently asexual, something I wish they’d given space to explore a little more.

She could’ve been my favorite pilot,[2] but the show didn’t commit enough.

So the pilots are placed through a couple adventures to become friends as the creepy Iboshi (some vaguely defined government guy) watches and plots.

Iboshi is the closest thing the series has to a villain, despite it being more of a Man vs. Nature affair. He possesses a callous disregard for the people of the D-Pi program, focused on the looming Ritual the D-Pi are needed for.

This cold-naturedness made me dislike him, but also allows the series to run relationship drama in a really interesting direction.

Because, guess what? If the D-Pi fall in love, the dragons will instinctively reject them. And they need the D-Pi to keep the Dragons healthy, and also escort a giant dragon to ensure it doesn’t destroy Japan in its wake! Oh dear. This frames the ‘will-they, won’t-they’ of Hisone and Haruto of the maintenance team into an major conflict with dramatic consequences and justifies a dumb ‘misunderstanding’ plot with one of the other D-Pi.

This shows builds a very grounded, mature, and compelling view on romance, and I am super game for it. And super down to sing its praises.

I’ve found that the sweet spot for making me care about a romance plot isn’t tsundere antics, or fear, or dumb misunderstandings, because there’s nothing I crave in my media more than emotional honesty.

No, the slow burn I crave is sheer ignorance. It takes several episodes for Hisone to understand she may have feelings for Haruto beyond friendship, then more for her to actually accept and admit her feelings to herself, then the fantasy takes over to prevent a tedious ‘Oh, will you two just talk’ subplot, because Hisone can no longer do her job lest she get digested by her dragon! So the conflict of “How does Hisone deal with her feelings” becomes augmented to “How does Hisone do her freaking job now!?”

The answer, seemingly, is just have a level head on the topic: Mayumi Hitomi also has plenty of ship teases with another character, but never is at risk of being eaten. It doesn’t get examined, because Hitomi’s ability to just kind of… casually acknowledge it and not let the Doki-Dokis mess up her stride doesn’t draw attention.

And because Hitomi’s resolution to the conflict eventually comes down to “I don’t want to abandon anyone ever” means her love for Haruto[4] is just added to the pile of things Hitomi is just anxiously passionate about, in equal measures to her love of flying Masoton, and that seems to work out.

Which, I guess means the secret to flying the dragon’s isn’t a creepy expectation of a pure heart, Iboshi, but emotional maturity.

Which brings us to the jerky, playboy wannabe breaking Elle’s heart. Like a monster.

Take note, writers: this is the first time ‘I broke your heart to protect/save you!’ has ever been successfully executed without one or both parties catching a case of the stupids! Watch this and learn!

So, early in the series, we meet Yutaka Zaito, a wannabe womanizer who has no success, but maintains his illusion of charisma nevertheless. Then he meets Elle, whose serious attitude and cold shoulder grabs his attention, and he suddenly abandons his swarm and tries to, gently, ingratiate himself to Elle, who gradually warms up to him.

It’s nice.

But then the whole ‘Dragon digests those with unsteady hearts’ plot point happens, and Elle is in a position where she can’t even fly her dragon, sending her ambitions even further away. And she hasn’t realized it’s Zaito causing her heart flutters.

But Zaito, upon learning the situation, does understand. And knows that it’s either him or Elle’s career.

So, he turns up the creep, approaches Elle, and proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement, claiming not to want a serious relationship, and subtly mocks Elle’s dragon rejection. This breaks Elle’s heart, of course, but resolves the matter. She can fly Norma again, and Zaito is left to bite his tongue and let his crush pursue her best life.

The sequence is well executed. It’s a misunderstanding perpetuated intentionally, knowingly, and selflessly by one party, and exists for reasons beyond ‘Neh, let’s have some dumb romance drama now’. Zaito knows what he’s giving up, but still breaks Elle’s heart because she legitimately needs him to so she can pursue her dreams. There’s no other timely way.

On the other end, the show introduces Natsume,[5] a childhood friend of Haruto, who comes in to be Hisone’s rival!

Except Hisone is too oblivious and all-loving to care, and Haruto is straight disinterested in Natsume. And Natsume is a shallow Tsundere and lacks any appealing characterization. They could’ve given her role to Nao, who desperately needs something to do in the later half of the series, or, better yet, just have Haruto be the human sacrifice.

“But you need a girl for the sacrificial beauty role!”

Okay.

Make Haruto a girl.

“Are you proposing the show suddenly swerve into Yuri?”

I mean, Yogurt lady’s backstory is literally a Tragic WWII-era Yuri love story.[6]

Sada Hinomoto shows up selling yogurt and being charming and mysterious so you know there’s something deeper going on.

Turns out, she’s the last D-Pi from the last time they did the ritual, so she actually has proper experience to teach the new kids, and, oh yeah, she hates Iboshi, resents the entire procedure, and carries a lot of trauma from when her friend Yae was chosen to be the human sacrifice last time, and though the show doesn’t spell it out, the intimate blocking and their schemes to flee to Paris paints a super clear picture about what that relationship was about and, gosh dangit, is she one cool grandma.

All she wants to to get back to the giant dragon to find closure with what happened to Yae and force an alternate solution.

Fortunately, Hisone is just the sort of loveable goofball to find an alternate to the Giant Dragon’s bedtime snack!

So there’s another reason why Hisone’s love interest should’ve been a girl.[8]

Now, practically this could’ve been accomplished a couple of ways: gender flip Haruto, cut Haruto and use Nao, pr combine characters. Point is, no matter how you do it, this hypothetical female love interest is now the human sacrifice for Mitatsu-sama.

With this change, there is a new parallel drawn between Hisone and Hinomoto,[9] further underlines Hisone’s tendency toward heartfelt dedication to unconventional methods, and Hisone’s desire for saving the sacrifice changes from an impersonal “Human sacrifices are wrong”[10] to “Human sacrifices are wrong, and also screw you I love that girl!”

And if that girl had Tsundere tendencies (like Nao or Natsume), that’d make the pairing even cuter.

Also, points for the entire D-Pi team unambiguously disbelieving Hisone’s ambiguous fate at the end. It’s fun to see such trope-awareness.[11]

In conclusion: Dragon Pilot is super adorable and sincere, the premise is quintessential anime, and it’s just fun. Sure, most of the characters deserve more depth and exploration, but that’s always my complaint and it’s only a 12-episode series. Plus, it very good at portraying mature characters without stooping into immature means.

And it’s really cementing my love of BONES as a studio.[12] I need to put more effort into seeking out their work.

So go watch it.

Thanks for reading my review! These do tend towards inconsistent release, but they’re fun to do. Consider checking out my other reviews, essays, and the rarer original work. I’m also nearing the end of my Muffin Comics experiment, so catch those while you can! If you really like what I’m outputting, I’ve got a Patreon, set on a monthly schedule so you know what you’re committing to.[13]

Next time: a Netflix Original of a magical tone! (And hopefully more Digimon)

Kataal kataal

[1] At least, that’s the hope. Gets dashed once the other D-Pi arrive on base and Kaizaki slips out of the spotlight. [2] The title goes to Hisone herself.[3] [3] Anyone else have troubles saying the main character/romantic lead are their favorite? Like it’s too easy an answer or something? Because I do. [4] All these H names are raising the hackles of my Mug Rule… [5] Presumably so they can localize Harvest Moon games. [6] Which means we were this close to a Yuri anime not about assaulting high schoolers and creepy family dynamics,[7] but one about Dragons pretending to be a spitfire and historical context and and light-hearted comedy and I honestly would trade this show for that and I love Hisone & Maston! [7] Citrus did not sit well with Canvas. [8] Canvas’s full tilt idea, by the way, is to combine Haruto, Nao, and Natsume. Condense characters and keep them all relevant longer. [9] Way too many H names. [10] Not that Hisone being a goofy all-loving hero isn’t super endearing. [11] Though it’d be nice to know what Hisone and Masoton were doing. Had Hisone ejected out of the dragon at any point during the… months(?) long time jump? [12] Wolf’s Rain notwithstanding. [13] Not going to lie, nothing deflects me from lending support quicker than a ‘Per Update’ schedule.

#CanvasWatches #dragon pilot #anime #CanvasReviews

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breakingarrows · 6 years ago

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Rebuttals for Personal Satisfaction [My commentary in brackets]

VG247

Red Dead Redemption is a story of atonement [that the player can choose to disregard, despite the main narrative heavily pushing for Arthur to be redeemed (its in the fucking title!)], but John Marston never wanted to pay for his sins – he’s forced by government agents. Marston lived a bad life: he killed, he robbed, and he was often out for himself. In his head, he deserved to leave it all behind and live a normal life with his wife and son. [the opening third of RDR1 is Marston forced back into a life he wanted to leave behind in order to save his family and return to a life of peace and attempting to correct others immorality only to have his past immorality thrown in his face even when he tries to shrug it off] Red Dead Redemption 2 fleshes out Marston’s character, and we see him grow from a selfish, somewhat lazy outlaw into a family man. But while Red Dead Redemption 2 does a fantastic job of setting Marston up as the man we know, Arthur Morgan’s journey is more poignant. Most open-world games start us off with a character at their weakest. Rather than growing them through the story, we see characters grow in strength through systems: upgrade trees offer better abilities, allowing us to take on increasingly tougher enemies. Red Dead Redemption 2 turns all of that on its head. You start the game as Arthur Morgan, gang leader Dutch Van der Linde’s right hand man. You are the guy everyone goes to with their problems. If someone needs violence inflicted upon them, Morgan is the gang’s fists. He’s not the smartest person in the group – nor does he claim to be – but he makes a good blunt instrument and he is practically wise. Morgan’s stamina and health improve as you play (you can max out your stamina and health reserves early on), but the first handful of chapters have you playing as a man at his physical peak. He’s also at his most brutal. Morgan has a fierce loyalty to his leader and mentor, Van der Linde, and he is not afraid of inflicting pain on others to see his group thrive. [yet he is, when you take on the debt collector missions he is very clearly against it but does it for the good of the gang. He bemoans having to kill and writes in his journal about the conflict of good and evil wthin him, clearly pining for another life, even if his actions show he isn’t really that interested in it] As the game draws to a close [this is the problem, he doesn’t turn until near the very end, he wasn’t interested in becoming a good person until he realized he was going to die, which is a pathetic turn of heart], Morgan softens. An early scene sees Morgan collecting a debt from a sick man. You don’t realise it at the time, but this encounter seals our antihero’s fate. He contracts tuberculosis, a disease spread through the air when someone ingests the blood or spit of an infected person – in Morgan’s case, it’s a man who he just beat to a pulp over a measly loan. It’s a while before the disease takes hold, but the knowledge that his fate is sealed alters Morgan’s psyche. Unlike Marston, he isn’t forced to atone – he starts thinking back on his life, mulling over what is important, considering how far blind loyalty should stretch. Those considerations sow the seeds of doubt about Van der Linde, his delusions of grandeur, and his capacity for empathy. During the nineteenth century, tuberculosis became known as the ‘romantic disease’ because the afflicted were said to grow more sensitive as they edged towards the grave, and the slow progress of the disease allowed them to get their affairs in order. I can’t think of another video game where you are setting the world right before your demise. You can see this character growth in Morgan’s journal. Depending on where you are in the story, the writing changes, the pen strokes feel more rushed. It’s more obviously visible in his personality, and you can see it in his gaunt, pale face, and thin frame. In one touching moment, he admits that he is scared. Even your surroundings reflect Arthur’s journey. As the gang heads further east (towards the civilisation they hate and away from the bountiful landscapes they crave), your camp loses key people, and the surviving gang members retreat inwards. People stop trusting each other, and the environment reflects this transformation, becoming gloomier with each new settlement. Remember how Horseshoe Overlook allows you to see right across the plains below, into the wilds? Compare that to the camp in Chapter 6, nestled next to a dank cave and soaked in the soot of the nearby mining town. Rather than upgrading your lodgings as the game goes on, the camp – if you fully upgrade it – is as good as it ever gets in Chapter 2. [why is this only reflected in the camp and not in Morgan aka the player’s abilities? Morgan in Chapter 6 during non-scripted gameplay is just as capable as the one in the beginning, maybe even more so thanks to his improved cores and weaponry. It is only during scripted sequences in main missions that he suffers from TB and it affects gameplay, after the story wraps on that mission he jumps on his horse and is magically just as capable as before he contracted the sickness] Where most games are obsessed with our characters growing stronger, Red Dead Redemption 2 flips conventions on their head. It takes Morgan on a metaphysical journey of growth as his body degrades [but is only ever shown superficially], until he finally succumbs to the disease while staring out towards the setting sun [or can die in the camp in flames if he aka the player chooses to reject the main narrative’s arc]. These themes are what make Red Dead Redemption 2’s story something I’ll never forget, and it’s also what elevates Arthur Morgan into one of the all-time best protagonists in the medium. [Jesus that’s sad]

USGamer

Red Dead Redemption 2 is, defiantly, a stubborn game. Arthur walks at a deliberate pace, always lumbering like he's in no rush to get anywhere. When he swaps out guns, he needs to retrieve them from the saddle of his horse. Guns deteriorate too, so he has to clean them periodically so they're at their best. Even the skinning animations of animals, a common complaint in its direct predecessor, have almost quadrupled in length. In Red Dead Redemption 2, gone are the easy, chill open-world ways of Grand Theft Auto and everything else in the genre. With Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar is demanding patience from its players, and resounding attention too. And attention it earns. In Red Dead Redemption 2, we play as Arthur Morgan, a man who like the more-familiar John Marston, grew up in Dutch van der Linde's gang. At first, Dutch's gang feels like a family, with each member looking out for each other, having its own internal bickering like any family does. We care for them and hate them in equal measure [care for Lenny because he is young and hate Micah and Dutch because they are massive pieces of shit. Care for John because of the first game, his wife revolves around him, his son is young, the rest rattle off one-note dialogue indications of their attitude]; we take time out of our busy schedule to go fishing or hunting with our comrades, or even just play Five Finger Fillet. But the more you play, the more Dutch's gang feels like a cult. Red Dead Redemption 2 ends up not being just a game about the dissolution of Dutch's gang, but about the dissolution of the ways of outlaws and of the American Dream. Dutch's American Dream, once, revolved around selflessness and self-sufficiency [We never see this, we see them as they begin to fall with Dutch’s murder of a young woman during the botched boat robbery the catalyst for this downfall from some form of robin hood morality that is only ever talked about and never shown or felt]. Through Dutch and others, that ideology distorts into exactly the opposite. But it's the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 that's most memorable. Since The Witcher 3, an open-world hasn't gripped me so much, from its side quests to the secrets lying in the areas between all its dirt roads [I do want to see what the open world has to offer, I just wish it indicated the locations and things it has on offer instead of relying on players to either simply stumble upon it or use a third party map to find them]. Riding on horseback one night, I swear I saw a ghost train. Another time, I happened upon a Ku Klux Klan meeting in the woods—one of the rare instances where if you initiate a shootout, you don't net bad karma [morality in this game makes no sense as it stops for main missions in which you kill people just doing their job and contradicts the plain narrative arc the game is trying to perform with Morgan going from reluctant murderer to “good” person]. I robbed a shop in Valentine once, and it went horribly wrong; everytime I returned the shopkeeper still recognized me, and chastised me. In a side quest, Arthur and his ex-girlfriend attended a show. I sat and watched the entire performance of dancers and singers, which was about 20 minutes long. Red Dead Redemption 2's world feels like interactive theatre, where everything is ready to interact with you and most shockingly of all, remember you too. No action goes unnoticed. [this works against the player when the fragile world is broken by the exceedingly complex controls such as when a un-holstered gun meant a house builder became hostile to me and continued to be afterwards even though that gun was never aimed at him and was only pulled because I killed some raiders attacking him.] Of course, Red Dead Redemption 2 is maybe the frontrunner of this year's game of the year deliberations with the biggest caveats. Its control layout is clunky, and feels more designed for something like PC (which is odd, considering there is no PC release at the moment). The nagging knowledge of overworked employees from reports earlier this year comes to mind every time you see an overkill of detail or systems, like the overt sunlight bloom that's dialed up a notch too high for stylistic purposes. The shooting, like in all Rockstar games, is not really the main draw (though, I grew to enjoy the emergent action that happens outside of story missions). Red Dead Redemption 2 has no qualms being a slow burn. And more than any other big budget game this year, it astounded me, and its characters and story gripped me like a great television show [Arthur’s search to be a good person is undercut by the open world nature and the main narrative itself. Dutch’s fall from grace never compels because he was never sympathetic]. Even days after finishing the epilogue and feeling like my time with it was done, I hopped back in the other night with the hope of meeting more strangers on some unexplored neck of the woods. And mysteries, strangers, and more sure did await me.

#Writing #Red Dead Redemption 2

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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His House and the Horror of “Otherness”

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“My perspective is about other people that cinema doesn’t necessarily cater for,” says director Remi Weekes, whose debut His House recently arrived on Netflix. It’s an extremely accomplished first film which tackles big social issues while leaning hard into horror. In the run up to the film’s release talk of awards was being bandied about. The movie landed on Netflix on October 30 – just before Halloween, certainly, but also traditionally the start of the run up to the big awards push. 2020 is of course a trash fire, with awards season shifted till later in 2021 but we wouldn’t rule out attention falling on Weekes’ film, cast and crew.

“I think there’s a bit of confusion as to which box to put it in,” says Weekes.

His House is the story of two Sudanese refugees (Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu) who make it to Britain and are put up in a house but given an endless set of restrictions (“no ball games, no balls, no games” says Matt Smith’s council worker, reading from an impossibly long list) and told they mustn’t work and can’t live anywhere else. But they have bought something with them and it won’t leave the couple alone.

This is an asylum seeker story, but also a British story, one that looks at past trauma, culture and otherness as well as the bureaucracy of the systems in place and it feels very new and very relevant.

“I think when you are not a white, straight man and you love cinema, or not even cinema but any kind of culture, whether it’s music or art, you have to love it, but it’s always very noticeable that your life is rarely reflected on screen,” says Weekes. “It doesn’t stop you loving it, like I love Alfred Hitchcock, I love Stanley Kubrick. I think their stuff’s amazing. But you never watch that and think it bears any resemblance to the lives of anyone that I know in my life.”

Representing different stories is important to Weekes.

“For me as a filmmaker the people that will be in my films are always going to have some kind of connection to my experience, whether that’s being a person of color or being ‘othered’ in some other way. And so, the color of the film, the stories within the film, are going to be slightly different,” he says.

That ‘othering’ is incredibly important throughout His House. Mosaku’s character Rial explains to her doctor that the markings on her face and arm delineate loyalty to two different groups in Sudan who are fighting and killing each other. The first she was given as a little girl, the second she gave to herself. “I survived by belonging nowhere,” she explains.

Meanwhile her husband Bol is so desperate to fit in in his new community that he buys clothes that mirror exactly the man in the advert on the wall of the store, and goes to the local pub where he joins in singing a song about Peter Crouch (“He’s big, he’s red, his feet stick out the bed…”).

“One of the books I really enjoyed was The Good Immigrant, and that says a lot about the need for immigrants to be good or to be accepted by society or the government. And so I guess that’s an acknowledgement of the need for immigrants or people who could be demonized, to be performative, in order to be accepted,” Weekes says.

Weekes had made shorts and commercials before coming on board His House. It was a project already in development that he was invited to pitch his take on by two producers he was sharing office space with.

“They wanted to make a horror film about immigration. But the writers that were working with them at the time [Felicity Evans and Toby Venables], they weren’t quite getting it to the place they wanted it to be, and they asked me if I wanted to pitch them my idea,” Weekes explains. “I went back to them with, I guess, how the film is today, a more psychological, personal story of two people trying to survive, after surviving, and how to move forward from trauma and guilt.”

Indeed, in the film is it only through Rial and Bol making peace with their past that they can move forward.

The movie is anchored by terrific performances from its two leads, both of whom have starred in high profile shows this year. Dirisu was a stand as Elliot in Gangs Of London – an action role which required some impressive choreography and stunt work, while Mosaku was a powerhouse as Ruby, taking on another very different horror role in Lovecraft Country. Weekes says he was lucky to be able to get the two to audition together, particularly since Mosaku lives in LA.

“When we were able to get them together, it was it. We had the two stars. They’re perfect. And they kind of knew each other, because I guess the acting scene is quite small when you’re a person of color, so they knew each other. There was already a kind of intimacy there, and they just connected,” he explains.

The other main character of course, is the house.

“We shot in Tilbury in Essex, which is a small community, a pretty tough community,” Weekes explains. Once they’d found a house they liked they shot there for a few weeks before recreating that on a sound stage. “Once we were in the sound stage, it gave us the opportunity to really transform the house and turn it inside out and really go wild.”

The walls are hacked to bits by Bol who finds spirits and ghosts living inside them until eventually nothing is left (metaphorically at this point) but the kitchen wall surrounded by the ocean they risked their lives to cross which took the lives of so many others as Bol stoically tries to eat his dinner with a knife and fork rather than use his hands.

It’s an incredible image (and is in fact the poster image) which Weekes managed to achieve by transporting the kitchen wall into one of the water tanks they had set up, lighting it exactly the same as the kitchen scene before so they could do a pull out to reveal the ocean.

“Using the ocean as not just a key element of but also a way to uncover his buried traumas, was something very fun,” says Weekes, though he acknowledges it may have been less fun for his leading man. “Poor Sope, him having to fall into the water, then I say, ‘Cut. Can you do it one more time?’ And he’ll be like, ‘Okay.’ I didn’t mean to keep doing that. I think that was the day he hated me the most….”

For the ghosts that we see in the house but also beneath the waves in the ocean Weekes says authenticity was important for him.

“It was always a conversation about what they should look like. And throughout the making of the film they changed a lot, from being very artistic and graphic and really using bold references from South Sudan, to being very true to life. Like what would that people look like?” he says. “We’re always trying to find that line because you want it to feel honest, but then you also want to have fun with it. Whenever we were debating, we would always edge towards honest more than stylized.”

As a result the movie manages to be political and timely but also very scary. Weekes loves horror, all sorts of horror (“My favorite films are from Rosemary’s Baby to The Shining, but also one of my favorite films is Scream. And another favorite film is A Nightmare on Elm Street, or even the Final Destination movies – the sequence on the motorway with the tree trunks was just so good…” he laughs) and describes himself as “lowbrow highbrow”.

Perhaps His House is just a perfect example of how audiences and critics are changing in terms of attitudes to genre – no longer the dirty secret of cinema, horror movies are becoming more celebrated as a home for weighty performances, explorations of big ideas, important social commentary, a place to tell new stories, hear new voices, shine a light on unfamiliar experiences. And do that at the same time as scaring the sock off audiences – this isn’t something new to horror but it could signal a shift in its wider reception.

“A lot of the time with the genesis [of horror movies] comes from scaring teenagers,” says Weekes, delving into the idea of being ‘lowbrow highbrow’ “And so because of that kind of connection, it’s not seen as high cinema. And maybe that’s kind of what I’m getting at. I find it hard to draw a distinction between the two. When you have a really great story that tells you something about the world, it’s exciting.”

His House is available to watch on Netflix now.

The post His House and the Horror of “Otherness” appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2HRqxje

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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hvforks · 5 years ago

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“Thinking back to when you were aged about 14, which best describes the sort of work the main/highest-income earner in your household did in their main job?”

Arts Council England have introduced a new questionnaire for it’s National Portfolio Organisations in order to collect data on the socio-economic background of their workers which they hope will tackle the working-class gaps in their workforce. But this question in itself is problematic; for one, the question only covers contracted employees, it doesn’t include freelancers who make up a huge majority of creative labour or unpaid employees like internships, and it doesn’t question artists that organisations might work with either; but for me the biggest omission here is audiences. ACE’s slogan ‘Great Art for Everyone’ doesn’t really work when there is no compelling information on how the art it funds reaches the working-classes.

Debate around class in the arts still draws on middle and upper-class stereotypes of working-class life. Just like the conversation around ethnic diversity, we are often talked about rather than talked to. People who are broadly working-class, those in households with the median income or less, are by definition not a minority. It’s only in the elite-dominated world of the arts that they are seen that way. Working-class people aren’t some tiny minority of our society to be managed and transformed; we make up around two thirds of England’s population - we are most of this country.

In the first Blair administration, organisations were encouraged to think about the “social outcomes of their work”. Art organisations were complicit in the soft privatisation of education, health and community resources that charities, voluntary organisations and other non-state, non-private bodies led. Where social services had existed as part of a minimum social welfare contract, youth services, along with social services and mental health charities began to compete for funding on the grounds of delivering agendas in areas such as citizenship, community cohesion and crime prevention. Art organisations were part of this shift. The arts world turned working-class people into a problem to be solved rather than audience members, employees or artists to be developed.

It isn’t just the working-class workforce that’s getting fucked here, it’s also the working-class artist and the working-class audience. In public museums and galleries there is a rising economic inequality which is bringing about deep-seated, systematic and sustained classism which extends beyond public funding cuts associated with austerity politics to a wider re-positioning of the arts away from the public sphere and towards elite private privilege.

It’s no lie that there has been a concerted attempt to democratise exhibitions displays and public collections over the past two decades in order to make museums and galleries less ‘highbrow’, and to promote diversity, take on social responsibility and encourage a wider range of audiences to engage with art. However, even though democratising has been in effect, less attention has been paid to the way that the rise of the super-rich and the accumulation of wealth and capital has become a problem for artistic expression and curation. The contemporary art market is driven by the investment potential of art works for the super-rich, which then becomes dependent on super-rich cultures which may affect the capacity of art to act as a critical public good. With austerity cuts making public art institutions increasingly reliant on wealthy private collectors and big galleries (like Gagosian and the White Cube) for funds and loans of works to put on shows by major artists, it means that museums and galleries compromise their civic values as private donors push works by artists that they own or represent in order to increase their value. Private collectors or commercial galleries loan the art or support exhibitions in order to up the value of their own investments. We can see diversity being strangled before our very eyes, and perhaps we’re all too bougie to notice. The top galleries control the top artists and the top artists are in the top public museums. The art world, like the rest of the world, is controlled by the same people who control everything.

With art now being so disgustingly intertwined with the dynamics of financial accumulation we can see that art prices literally reflect economic inequality. In Christopher Upton-Hansen’s essay titled ‘The Financialization of Art’ (2018) he tells us that art prices rise when income inequality goes up; that a one percent increase in the share total income earned by the top 1% triggers an increase in art prices by 14%. These dynamics in the art market have naturally had an impact on the kind of art that is highly sought after - the rich want their art in museums so to increase their value, and museums have to consider their wealthy patrons and donors because their backs are against the wall financially, so the blue chip artists get the gigs and the rest of us artists in minority groups or of working-class backgrounds, well, we don’t stand a chance; we’re just too much of a financial risk.

Many museums are under the thumb of austerity policies set out by government funding bodies. Cuts to the arts have caused museums resources to suffer, and they have come at a time when many institutions were attempting the costly business of reorganisation in order to better incorporate women artists, POC or LGBTQ+ artists into their collection. These public spending cuts have also had an effect on access by making it harder for schools or groups dependent on public subsidies to fund visits. Travel has also become more costly due to both fare increases, and in more rural areas, cuts to bus services (the village I grew-up in doesn’t even have a bus route to our closest city, if you can’t drive, you can’t get there). These public spending cuts have made it increasingly difficult for working-class people to visit public collections around England.

The population that is able to visit and work for museums is not representative of the wider population; they are primarily older, white, London-based and middle-class: a metropolitan elite. You have two-thirds of society excluded, or at least hindered to full access of the arts; you segregate two-thirds of society from being able to participate in culture, its production, reception, its making. It has become a very monotheistic and exclusive world. So how are museums tackling this working-class repression? They aren’t. It’s a worrying concern for museums since addressing economic inequality directly will be problematic because it can affect funding and patronage. This financial model tells museums to shut your mouth or bite the hand that feeds you. Museums recognise the seriousness of inequality, but act by creating outreach programmes, or by making their entrance and educational provisions mostly free; in a way completely missing the point.

This renewal of cultural elitism that inevitably accompanies growing economic inequality, and this growing tension between public provision and private art that is being increasingly driven by elites and wealth accumulation has to stop. The arts are smothered in systematic classism and I for one am bored of it. The upper-classes continue to make the art world increasingly out of reach, which in turn makes it incredibly out of touch. Privileged people are curating a privileged art scene because they want it to be about middle and upper-class assimilation. This means working-class people are excluded. The language they use creates a barrier, the buildings make you feel unwelcome, the prices are alienating - they create a purposefully threatening environment. The upper-classes create castles and fortresses because, ultimately, they don’t want people like us to break in. We’re too disruptive, we talk too loudly, we touch things we’re not supposed to, we don’t play by the rules, and this frightens them and so we are excluded. The art world appears at face value to be ‘for everyone’, but to put it bluntly, it isn’t; it’s for the few, and unless its attitude changes towards working-class people it will continue to be a monolith of classism, ignorance and prejudice.

I say, if we frighten you, good - you should be frightened. Let’s create working-class nepotism, let’s share platform’s and skills; let’s look out for one another. We need to stop romanticising the arts because it is controlled by the same people who control everything else. We need class solidarity. We need to burn these institutions down, metaphorically and physically, and start again on a true field of equality.

Image: Laura Mason, 2020, courtesy of Working Class Creatives Network and the artist.

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heidi891 · 5 years ago

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In the Avengers movie what exactly was Loki's plan for the Chitauri?

The following quote comes from: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/37510/in-the-avengers-movie-what-exactly-was-lokis-plan-for-the-chitauri

There are a lot of opinions that I don’t agree with, but there are a few that are quite interesting.

“In the movie we see the portal opened in New York and the bad guys come out shooting and causing all sorts of mayhem, but… generally not doing anything constructive, at least from the point of view of the overarching goal (take over the world).

Lets look at some issues:

Loki attacked the Avengers and Shield seeing them as his strongest opponent. However he hasn’t taken out any world governments, or addressed the fact that a lot of those governments have nuclear weapons. (which as we see at the end of the movie work rather well on the Chitauri.) New York while big and kinda important… really isn’t important, as seen by the willingness of human leaders to nuke the place. There are thousands of Chitauri that come though the portal, yet instead of spreading out to take military objectives, they are contained within a few blocks by 6 people, super hero’s admittedly but still just 6 people. We also see them stopping and killing bystanders. I understand that they don’t care if they break a few eggs, but to what end does it serve to kill potential slaves that can’t offer any sort of resistance.

I know they used the Stark building because of the power supply, so I’ll give them the location. Beyond that… from the observed footage, how exactly were their actions accomplishing their ultimate goal of world domination?”

“There’s a line where Cap tells Thor they don’t want to take out Loki before closing the portal, because as long as he’s in charge, the Chitauri are focused on taking out the Avengers, whereas without his command they might spread out. („Save it. Loki’s gonna keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him these things could run wild.”)”

”Yup, not a great plan, if you plan to make people kneel before you. Loki’s plan makes no sense. Probably because it wasn’t his endgame? Let’s see closer.

• The rhetoric isn’t his normal rhetoric („Kneel”, „You’re born to be ruled”, „You crave subjugation”, you name it). He doesn’t stick to it neither before, nor after New York.

• Condition in which he came to Earth in the first place is as well questionable at least: he trips, he’s sweaty, with white lips and shades under his eyes. Loki even struggles at first to hold Hawkeye back as he blocks archer’s hand.

• Mental slap from across the Universe from the Other don’t as well contribute to the statement that he was completely falling in line. Same as Loki naming himself a messenger to Fury („I come with glad tidings”) instead of I AM A KING, and stating for no reason that „Freedom is life’s great lie”.

• As much as Tony said that Loki was a diva, Loki never drew any additional attention to his fight with Avengers and most of the time was even out of people’s view. He didn’t even address them to maybe vote for peaceful surrender.

• As Loki said to Natasha, Barton told him everything. He knows Widow’s backstory (and still somehow falls for her primary method: to play a victim to get abuser to gloat over how petty you are compared to them).

He recognizes Captain America („The soldier, man out of time”) and still doesn’t kill him on at least three occasions in Stuttgart;

He knows of Banner’s condition (and not a single time evokes doubt in him to reach for Hulk, on contrary even);

And he kills of all people Coulson, because if Natasha and Hill know he’s close to Tony and fanboys over Cap, then Hawkeye knew it too.

• Then again, with Thor and Hulk thrown off the Helicarrier, why again didn’t Loki shoot engines of „flying fortress”? He just saw that Stark mended the engine. And he left Hawkeye behind, as well as used a sniper not as sniper should be used. What did he achieve by attacking but not finishing the Helicarrier? He lost sniper and informer, and won what? Thor and Hulk being thrown off the craft? Of all the two people who could possibly survive the fall and would be pissed off at him if they did? Yeah, great planning.

• And every time he shoots vehicles or aircrafts, he shoots whatever else but pilot’s/driver’s place. For a person who tries to make a statement, he killed at most about handful people at the very beginning, the others died of blast SHIELD knew was coming.

• Oh, and for some reason Hawkeye, who knows Fury, shot him not in head but in torso, of all places the one where he knows armour can be? And Selvig building in mechanism to cut off power — just in case if truth on the other side that he was so fascinated about turned out not to be overly friendly? Yeah. And Selvig built a mini Bifrost for that matter, Asgardian technology that Loki, being „master of Magic”, i.e. science. would know very well.

Loki’s field of expertise, in fact, is military deception

In first Thor alone he’s shown to be professional at stealth and military ruses (from his decoy holograms and manipulation to briefly mentioned in deleted scene smoke cover he provided Thor and company with to cover their retreat).

And in „Avengers”?

• They play it like he — being a manipulator — wouldn’t know that common threat, one that shows off and leaves casualties behind, is more serious than any doubts/differences team must put aside? Loki goes as far as to say that to piss them all off was his plan.

• Compared to „Thor” and „Thor 2”, Loki is suddenly a show-off? He wanted attention, yes, but he never invoked it. He killed Kurse without showing off. He supported team during Jotunheim battle without putting an emphasis on himself. He killed blood father in Odin’s bedroom and not in front of whole Asgard. Also Loki for some reason openly lies to Thor twice in the movie: he says he’s a king (contradictory to his statement from „Thor” that he never wanted a throne, but wanted to be equal to brother), and he says Thor threw him into abyss, given he knows darn well he let go of the spear himself. Maybe it was a way to tell „If two of three are obvious lies, than third iiiiiiis… a lie?”

The Other supervised Loki’s work in Avengers and if he could mentally slap him over distance, then maybe Loki wasn’t as willing and rather was coerced? Why supervise him if he’s undoubtedly loyal after all?

What does Loki need Midgard for? Because it’s Thor’s favourite world? Thor should grow up and understand that not everything revolves around him. It simply was a world in which Loki knew Tesseract was (one of Asgardian treasures). And one world that could be sold to Chitauri as petty, since it’s not Asgard after all. But one that could fight them off with a little bit of help and assemble.

What for would he do it?

Well, he never sought destruction of Asgard, and Chitauri were interested in one of Odin’s greatest treasures, which would have drawn Asgard into this war eventually.

And he at very least didn’t want of all people his mother, Queen of Asgard, dead?

Of course, to repay dismissive attitude towards himself.

To have an opportunity to escape from Thanos back to luxurious Asgard?

Again, if looked at as it is, Loki’s plan doesn’t make a least bit of sense. He wants Earth. Why? He let himself be caught in Stuttgart. But what did he achieve? Assembled Avengers and temporarily broke an engine. How Selvig controlled himself enough to help Avengers? Why was Hulk integral to Loki’s plan even? Why not kill off couple Avengers that are not as famous as Stark? Like, Captain, a symbol? Or why not put Hawkeye in charge of Helicarrier — the closest military stronghold? This wouldn’t’ve diminished spectacle of overtaking Earth.

What I was trying to say, his plan for Chitauri was simply to defeat Chitauri army with Avengers, because he wasn’t truly The Other’s and Thanos’ ally, and was probably coerced to cooperate.”

#loki #avengers #mcu theory #loki theory #mcu

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inkuisitivskins · 7 years ago

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The Northern Theatre Update

more minor character death and canon-typical graphic violence :’)

also i’m posting the full chapter under a read more this time but please still go leave comments an ao3 if you want!!

Title: The Northern Theatre

Newest Chapter

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)

Characters: Olivier Mira Armstrong, Miles, Minor Characters, Minor Original Characters

Rating: Teen & Up [Violence, Suggestive Themes]

Category: F/M

Relationships: Olivier Mira Armstrong/Miles

Tags: War, Action, Romance, Canon Divergence/Post-Series/Post-Canon

Chapters: 14/?

Word Count: 41,772

Months have passed since the Promised Day was upon Amestris. Though the war is over for many, strong tension has remained in the military. All eyes are turned towards Fort Briggs at the north border, where many believe that Drachma will soon launch another attack. They will avenge their humiliation and defeat by Amestrian forces, by any means necessary...

The door opened but a crack, revealing darkness within-- the only visible shape being the shine of a timid eye peering back at the general. As if sensing their apprehension at the sight of her uniform, Olivier raised her hands to show them that they were empty and, while her sword and pistol rest at her hips, she had nothing in her immediate grasp.

The door opened further, slowly, in response, but a trembling hand soon produced a pistol in the dark of the small house. The blonde remained motionless, palms still shown to the stranger, despite several of her soldiers flinching for their own weapons once they saw the one directed point-blank at their commander. A single sharp glance of her blue eyes stopped them in their metaphorical tracks, however.

“Alexei Kozhurov,” Olivier began, voice low and calm. The man in the darkness started at the mention of his name, urging the pistol forward. The Amestrian general simply blinked coolly.

“Who… Who are you?” His voice creeped forth, obviously terrified beyond measure, accent heavy. “How do you know my--”

Olivier forced back a sigh, “Major General Olivier Armstrong from Amestris’s Fort Briggs. We’re here to help you. Put the gun down, we don’t have much time.”

Alexei hesitated, his gaze slowly moving down to rest on the pistol that quaked in his grip. While the general air around him seemed to calm slightly, his weapon remained pointed at the one foreign to him. Almost silently, another figure seemed to glide up to them from the darkness, setting a small hand on her husband’s arm. “Alexei?” She questioned carefully, her eyes locked on Olivier cautiously, studying her for a brief moment.

“We’re not here to harm you,” Olivier continued. “We know you’re in hiding, there’s soldiers not too far from here, and there are many armed outposts with guard patrolling constantly. You’ll be found soon, I assure you.”

“We don’t know if you can be trusted!” Alexei snapped back suddenly, out of pure fear. “Taking us prisoner won’t work for blackmail, the new government wants us just as dead as you do!”

Olivier frowned, causing the man to cower slightly, though his wife remained steadfast. She spoke up to him in soft Drachman, “[Alexei, this is the general of Briggs. She would’ve killed you by now if she wanted to.]”

“[Yes, but, Valera,]” Alexei addressed her, looking back and forth rapidly from each woman. “[She could take us back to her fortress to torture us for information.]”

Blue eyes rolled in annoyance at the Drachman man. She could understand his wariness, but Olivier’s patience was already thinner than usual, she didn’t need their uncooperative attitudes on top of the looming threat of Drachman soldiers. Silently, she reached into her pocket and retrieved a picture of Karelia.

Miles’s heart leaped; he had no idea that she had brought such an item with her.

Valera saw the picture first, her eyes widening in the low light as she shook Alexei’s arm to get his attention. When he saw it, he immediately lifted the pistol to the general’s head once again, raising his voice in her language, “Why are you holding her hostage?”

“[We’re not,]” Olivier’s eyes narrowed, surprising the pair with her Drachman. “[The Czar and his wife were crossing the border with her. All we saw was figures in the dark, so we took them out for the own safety of our fort. We were just following protocol.]”

Eyes still wide and shiny with oncoming tears, Valera gingerly reached for the photo, which Olivier silently obliged in handing off to her.

“[Karelia is safe and happy in our fort, however. We wish to escort you back to Briggs, where you will be kept safe, so that we may reinstate your kin in the Drachman monarchy.]”

Alexei noticed how his wife clung to the photo, and his pistol finally lowered, earning a collective exhale of relief from all of Olivier’s soldiers.

“Alexei,” she sniffled, shakily speaking up in Amestrian. “Look, she’s alive..”

Her husband eyed the photo for a moment before glancing back up at Olivier, whose emotions never wavered from the dangerous and serious calm that she had first greeted them with. It took him a long moment before he gently took Valera by the arms, looking into her eyes, “[Zolotse, pack our things. Quickly.]”

She nodded and hurried off with the picture as Alexei turned back to the blonde, “I apologize. We have to be very careful now.”

“I understand,” Olivier replied. “I’ll elaborate everything to you once we’re moving.” She raised a hand and motioned her soldiers to rise, and knowing the circumstances, they all did so, being as slow and unthreatening as possible. This worked, since when Alexei spotted them, he was not alarmed.

Valera soon emerged from the darkness with a few small bags, handing one off to the other Drachman. Wordlessly, Olivier turned on her heels and started back the way she and her soldiers had initially snuck from. Her soldiers followed obediently, used to this behavior, though it took the Drachmans a moment to understand that her motion was a silent rally to get moving.

It did not take long for them to gain back the distance they had travelled after Halifax’s death. Travelling for only a few hours at most, they moved quicker, since they knew what lay ahead of them as they doubled back on their path. Olivier, pleased with this speed, definitely wanted to keep it up-- especially given that, now, there were only five MREs to share between the nine of them, including their new travelling companions.

“Major General?” Valera, surprisingly, spoke up after a while. Alexei had remained in a nervous silence for the majority of their trek, but it was the small Drachman woman who had made several attempts to speak to Olivier on multiple occasions. Miles, who, as usual, had been travelling near his general, smiled gently at the thought. It seemed as if the dark-haired woman had taken a quick liking to the Armstrong, since at one time he heard her excitedly asking Olivier in hushed tones about how she managed to not only join the military, but ascend the ranks so quickly.

She probably believed Olivier was younger than what she really was, Miles imagined. The blonde was rather young-looking, despite pushing thirty-six. People had always been astounded to hear that she was not only Alex’s older sister, but that they had two siblings between them, and each of the Armstrong children were a year apart up until their mother had given birth to Catherine, who was currently only twenty-two.

What Miles also knew, however, was that despite Olivier always paying no mind to the questions she had been asked involving her gender in her line of work, her journey was much more difficult than she would ever admit to anyone. Though she had never told him her full story (she was rather unforthcoming about it, and the last thing he wanted to do was to pry), he had collected pieces of it from what she occasionally let slip. She had disclosed what her life was like up to and after the academy, but not the specifics of it-- the discrimination and inequity. There were few women who had been in the military as long as her, and while he was grateful to say that that changed quickly and there were now many more serving alongside her, he also knew how few female commanding officers there were, even now. She was the highest-ranked woman in the military, and he knew that on the other side of the iron wall she had built around herself so many years ago, there were the quiet remnants of sadness and utter alienation.

It was one of the many things he loved about her. While not entirely in the same vein as what she experienced personally, the major knew far too well what it was like to feel unwanted and estranged. Yet, instead of giving up, she pushed forward with resolve so strong, Miles regret that he hadn’t been around to witness it.

“What is the plan for once we get to Amestris?” Valera questioned politely, speeding up slightly to meet Olivier’s stride. Her Amestrian was not nearly as polished as Alexei’s was, yet she was still able to be clearly understood.

“I imagine the Drachman soldiers will want to attack as soon as they find out what happened,” The blonde began, sighing to herself before continuing. “Though they probably already do.”

She had mentioned the loss of the captain to the couple, to which, even just judging by the looks on their face, they had silently shared a remorseful glance to one another.

“Either way,” Olivier drew her pistol at first sight of the dreaded outpost they had crossed before. “Central Command doesn’t know we did this, so first we’ll have to inform them of what we did. Then, barring everything goes well with that-- and it will, or else-- we’ll all go down to Central where I can meet with the Fuhrer’s Cabinet and you two can be kept in asylum for a little while with Karelia. The three of you will be safer in the middle of the country rather than the border.”

“Why did you not tell your Central Command?” The Drachman piped up, her tone completely innocent and questioning.

“If I had told them and they denied my request to engage,” Olivier responded, faltering a moment as her foot sank deeply into the snow, causing her to pause suspiciously. “.... They would’ve sent someone up to keep an eye on me to make sure I didn’t do anything rash. They’ve done it before.”

“When? What did you ask?”

“Oh, I didn’t ask that time,” The blond glanced back at the other woman. “I essentially ordered my soldiers to fight Central soldiers and I basically committed treason on more than one occasion.”

“And that was only in the past year,” Miles added with a small smile. He knew she was talking about the Promised Day.

Olivier’s blue eyes met his, and he knew she didn’t mind his addition. He was also rather surprised that she didn’t mind the many questions coming from Valera, either.

The small Drachman’s eyes widened in awe, though Olivier had already turned her gaze back to the outpost ahead.

“Miles.”

“Yes, sir?” He replied, immediately closer.

“We won’t have enough food to make it back if we go at the same pace we had been before,” she said suddenly, her voice lowered as her irises flickered up to him.

“What shall we do?”

He noticed her eye the outpost.

“They should have some trucks there, don’t you think?”

“Olivier,” Miles said suspiciously, knowing she had an idea-- and knowing her, it was a dangerous one.

“We don’t have a chance of making it back to Amestris with enough food, Major. We won’t even have enough for everyone tonight. We have to try and find a quicker way back,” Olivier responded, signaling for the soldiers to follow her more closely. “Do you have any better ideas?”

Her adjutant sighed, “No, General. I trust you.”

Her expression wavered for a moment. One of the most terrifying things in the world to her was having so many men trust her so deeply with her lives, yet the decisions she was often forced to make were always so harrowing, and laced with deadly consequences. This was most likely why she blamed herself for things that always seemed to happen-- even if they were immensely out of her control, and she was aware of that.

“We’re going to steal a truck,” she stated aloud to all those following her. “It would take too long to avoid this outpost, and we have to head straight for the border from here. I’m sure you all know, but we don’t have enough food for all of us tonight, so we need to get to Briggs as soon as humanly possible.”

Initially, her men and the Drachmans just stared at her in shock before calming as the general explained herself. One advantage Olivier had always held over her peers of the same rank was her ability to give reason to every single thing she did and every decision she made, Miles often noted.

Silently, the group crept on, but the major couldn’t help but notice the expression on his commander’s face, “General?”

“Something isn’t right,” she spoke lowly to him. “Do you feel it too?”

Miles focused on his surroundings for a moment, and slowly a sense of dread came to him, “Yes, sir.”

“Maybe we should turn around,” the general spoke up, her tone laced with concern. “But we still can’t afford to waste any time…”

Miles opened his mouth to respond, but he was interrupted by an ear-splitting explosion that boomed from close behind them with no warning.

The two of them spun around to see snow and debris falling from the force of the blast. The two Drachmans who stood near them watched in horror along with the Amestrian soldiers, save for Foster and Miller, who had been at the back of the group.

Miller was screaming bloody murder, clawing at his leg as Foster, silent from the shock, crouched to tend to him. In an instant, everyone was around them.

“What happened?!” Olivier yelled angrily; her fury not directed at her soldiers, but whatever force had just attacked them. Her blue gaze immediately fell onto what Miller was fruitlessly grabbing at as shrieks of pain tore from his throat-- his right leg was absolutely torn to shreds. It hadn’t been blown off, but the lower leg of his uniform and the entire bottom half of his coat were completely gone, revealing huge gashes taken out of his flesh, a sticky and deep red pooling below and around him.

Foster was already crying uncontrollably; something none of the Amestrians had ever witnessed him do. He was trying to talk to his partner in between hard sobs; trying to caress his face with violently shaking hands, “Lewis! Lewis! Please, god, stay with me, Lewis--”

Olivier shoved several soldiers out of the way and yelled a voice full of pure fire at them over her shoulder, “Back off, give us some room and look around for any shooters!”

Immediately, they all began drawing their weapons, and instinctively, Alexei drew his as well. Miles fell in beside Olivier, ready to assist if another pair of hands were needed.

Olivier lowered her voice just like she had always done in situations such as this one, “What do we need to do, Miller?”

Miller, who was doing his best not to cry in pain, drew in a fragmented inhale as he tried to catch his breath, “I-i-it was a-- annnhh,” He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw, though his head was held steady thanks to Foster’s hands. “Landmine…”

“Fucking god damn it, ” Olivier hissed through her teeth, shooting a sharp glance back at the outpost-- they must have already sent more soldiers to it, and they littered the snow around them with landmines just in case the Amestrian soldiers travelled back the way they came.

“General, you have to go on without me,” Miller choked out as he weakly detached their first-aid kit from his rucksack.

Olivier was about to speak, though Miles spoke for her, “You know we aren’t going to leave you, Lewis. If we wouldn't leave a body, what makes you think we’d leave a living soldier?” He took the kit from the medic, opening it quickly.

The general was silently thankful that her adjutant knew her so well. She made eye contact with the captain and repeated what she had asked earlier. While she and all of her soldiers knew basic first aid, she wasn’t sure if this particular instance required anything specific, “What do we need to do?”

“It’s dirty,” Miller gasped, still squeezing his eyes shut. “Do we have any water left?”

Olivier immediately nodded, reaching into her rucksack and producing her own supply of water without a second thought. She unscrewed the lid and gently began pouring water over the gashes.

Nearby, they heard gunshots.

“General, please, just--”

“We take you with us, or we die with you,” Olivier said lowly, genuinely. “Now what do I do?”

Miller was silent for a moment before sighing, accepting that there was no way he would get his comrades to leave for their own safety. He opened his eyes and made eye contact with her before looking down at the wounds, “There’s bone exposed, but we can’t do much about that right now, so just try and stop the bleeding and immobilize it...”

Olivier nodded curtly, and in an instant, Miles was handing her sanitized bandages and the makings of a splint. Swiftly, she wrapped the wound as tightly as she could, adding the splint in order to keep anything from moving any further. As she wrapped it, she addressed the injured’s partner, “Foster, can you carry him?”

“Yes, sir,” He replied without even having to debate on his answer.

“Good, do so and stay behind us,” the general said, straightening up. “Because it sounds like we’ve got some company.”

Ahead of them, the remaining soldiers could be seen taking shots off in the direction of the outpost. Foster lifted Miller into his arms as Olivier and Miles ran to join the other Amestrians.

“Northrop,” Miller spoke up softly, earning an acknowledging glance from the lieutenant colonel, whose eyes were still reddened with tears. “Whatever happens, I love you.”

Foster smiled fondly down at him, replying with a gentleness that reflected the captain’s, “I know, and I love you too.”

“Are they coming from the outpost?” Olivier called up to her soldiers as she hurried to them, nearly tripping when her boot sank into a large pile of snow.

“Yes, General,” Sikorsky replied, his body flinching slightly at the shoulder due to the kickback of his rifle as he took a shot. “They’ve got a few men coming down, but they’ve got a sniper up top, too.”

The blonde growled to herself, “That sniper will pick us off one by one if we keep sitting here.” She raised her voice, commanding all her men-- “Press forward! Our main target is those transport trucks inside that gated area!”

As her soldiers ran ahead and Valera fell back to help Foster, Olivier fell to her knees as she flung her rucksack off her shoulder, unsnapping all of the buckles on it. Due to the lack of MREs, it did not take her long to locate and retrieve the explosives case. Looping the handle over her arm so she could have it ready if the need arose, she pulled the rucksack back onto her shoulders as she straightened.

“General,” Miles drew her attention as he appeared behind her, holding out a rifle for her, “Miller wanted you to take his mosin-nagant, he still has his pistol and the lieutenant colonel still has his own rifle, so they’ll be fine.”

Olivier barely ever used rifles, which was shy she didn’t pack her own, but she took it, knowing it would be beneficial to have one in such a situation. Quickly, her and her adjutant ran ahead to be with their soldiers as several Drachmans appeared through the snow. Immediately, one fell, and Olivier glanced over to realize that it was Alexei, who was now holding a rifle (Cordova had given his to him, by the looks of it, since the young soldier had also gone to try and help defend Miller in the back), who had dealt the killing blow. The blonde glanced at her Ishvalan adjutant, who made eye contact with his commander.

“Guess we don’t have to worry about him turning on us,” Olivier said sarcastically, earning a small smile from the major as the general lifted the rifle to her shoulder and took a shot.

Slowly, the Amestrian soldiers pushed forward, the Drachman boots on the ground falling one after another, until whatever enemies that remained at the highest point of the outpost tower were the only survivors. The party reached the large, military-grade fences that housed the transport trucks-- there were three of them in total, with one sitting slightly higher than the rest due to the two-and-a-half-foot-tall snow tracks that had replaced the wheels. The soldiers grouped around the gate, ducking whenever a sniper shot would send up a small kick of snow near them.

The major general took to the front of the group, cursing loudly when she saw the large lock on the gate. Without a thought, she lifted the rifle and took a shot at it, though the bullet just weakly ricocheted off the steel.

“Move back,” she snarled a command to them all. “And which one of you has the best arm? I’m getting fucking tired of that sniper.”

For whatever reason unknown to Olivier, all of the soldiers present pointed a finger at Oshkosh simultaneously.

She turned and handed him a grenade, “Try and toss that up to the open part of the tower. Overshoot if you have to, just don’t undershoot, because then it’ll fall back to us and we’ll be history.”

He gave her a nod and pulled the pin as Olivier waved for the other soldiers to clear away from the gates. After waiting a brief moment for the grenade, the major reared back and swung his arm with an extreme and unrivaled force; flinging the live grenade. Miraculously, his judgement of the timing was perfect, and though he missed the actual opening to the tower, the explosive went off in mid-air next to it, sending shards of debris in all directions.

As the remnants of the grenade fell to the snow around them, Olivier retrieved a second and pulled the pin, balancing it between the edge of the lock and the fence itself. Swiftly, she trot away from it to join her soldiers a safe distance away before it exploded, tearing off the lock and a chunk from the gate.

“Hurry!” Olivier yelled, urging them forward. She went and stood by the gate, watching her men and their two Drachman companions file hastily inside, making sure everyone made it in the gated area before she entered. “Get Miller flat in the back, and elevate his leg!”

The glint of metal on the hip of a writhing Drachman soldier caught her eye, and she padded over to him in the snow. Just as she thought-- at his hip jingled a set of shiny keys. She kneeled, tearing them off his belt with a rudely spat, “Thank you.”

Hurrying inside the gates, she saw her soldiers attempting to pry a lock off the back of the truck-- the one in the middle that had the snow tracks. Miles saw his general enter the gates, and she immediately set the keys roughly in his hand once she caught up to him.

“Try all of these, I don’t know which one is to the truck.”

He nodded dutifully, smashing the window to the truck with the butt of his rifle and unlocking it from the inside before opening the door and entering the vehicle.

A bullet ricocheted off of the steel shell of the truck, grazing Olivier’s side. Once again too high on adrenaline to pay any mind to the pain, she swung around to see another full patrol of Drachman soldiers advancing on them.

“Shit,” She breathed to herself, quickly glancing around to get a head count of all of her soldiers. Frantic now, Oshkosh, Cordova, and Foster were all trying to pry the doors open, with Valera having dragged Miller to the other side of the vehicle to hide. Sikorsky and Alexei noticed the enemy soldiers just as the major general had, so they quickly got up to regroup with her.

“You two, fall in with me,” She called to them. “We need to hold them off while Miles starts the truck and the others get the doors open!”

Nodding in unison, the two men flanked her after Sikorsky ditched the heavy and cumbersome communications equipment he had been carrying, allowing his comrades to load it up into the truck once they would hopefully get it open.

The three continued taking shots at the enemy, until Alexei’s rifle ceased; only making empty clicks. He cursed in Drachman before crouching to avoid the spray of enemy fire as he made his way over to the back of the truck, where Cordova still had the ammunition that was needed to reload his rifle, since Olivier did not have any and Sikorsky had left his with the radio. The soldiers advanced, vastly outnumbering the two remaining Amestrians who were trying their best to return fire.

Olivier shot her rifle again, taking out a Drachman soldier just as a sharp pain burst through her shoulder. She had been shot before, so this pain was not new-- but that did not make it any less painful. It felt like searing, cutting fire as the bullet pierced her uniform and buried itself in her muscle, but she could not stop now. She worked her jaw, grinding her teeth in pain and attempting to steady herself for another shot, when Sikorsky suddenly stood.

“General?”

“What, Major?” She asked impatiently; this was not a prime moment for conversation.

“Thank you for being the best commander a soldier could ask for.”

She looked up at him, ready to give him a look of confusion, as he snatched the explosives case from her. She reached out a hand to stop him, to which he only shoved the case back to her-- but not after retrieving the large shell of phosgene that had been taking up the most space in the bag.

“Sikorsky!” She yelled angrily at him as he ran from her, catching the other Amestrian soldier’s attentions.

Surprised and confused by the man now running towards them, several of the Drachmans stumbled backwards in fear that he had explosives. Insead, the major ran near them, forcefully planted the shell in the snow, drew his pistol, and shot it.

Instead of the boom of an explosive, the loud and violent hiss of gas being released into the hair startled everyone who heard it. Though it was colorless, flurries of snow were being blown from the force of the substance, and as a result, Sikorsky was able to determine the exact direction the air was travelling-- downhill and downwind of the gated area of the outpost, where the enemy soldiers were now standing, confused as to what he just did.

They had no idea the gas was heavier than air, so it was already taking hold of them.

Olivier felt the truck jolt to life behind her as Miles found the correct key, just as a loud bang of metal echoed off the back of it, signaling the success of her soldiers in getting the back doors open. She heard them yelling hurriedly to each other as they gathered Miller and helped him inside.

“Sikorsky!” The blonde called out again, standing and wobbling for just a moment due to the pained and dizzying shocks that travelled from her shoulder, straight up her neck to her brain, and down to her fingertips. Though farther off now, the Drachman soldiers were coughing wildly already, many of them falling to their knees and clutching at their throats and chests.

She took a step towards her soldier, who quickly held up a hand. At around thirty feet away, Olivier could hear the condemning sound of a cough flinching forth from his chest as well.

She caught a whiff of musty hay on the wind, and quickly pulled up the front of her uniform to serve as a face mask.

The major took a few steps back towards her before he had to double over and wheeze. “Roth, get over here, quickly!” Olivier yelled. It was very rare for her to address her soldiers by their first names-- except in dire situations, like this one.

He trotted a bit closer to her before flashing her a smile, a rumble rising from his throat and sending him into wild coughing as he caught up to her, “It’s too late, General, I’m sorry.”

“You had better shut the fuck up,” she spat, grabbing for his arms to balance him as she saw his legs give out. “You had better stay with us. I can’t lose another one.”

His smile never faded, “They would’ve advanced on us, sir. I only did what had to be done.”

“You know there’s no heroes in war, Major,” Olivier replied, eyebrows furrowing out of concern. “Oshkosh!” She lifted her head and called to her largest soldier, who quickly poked his head out from the back of the truck. “Get over here and help me get him inside!”

"You're the only hero us soldiers need, sir."

His quiet words sent a pain through Olivier's chest. She knew her soldiers depended on her, but she never really thought about the true, deep impact she had on them all.

As quickly as a man of his size could, Oshkosh hurried over and lifted Sikorsky, who was now beginning to go limp and gasp for breath. Olivier quickly followed, hopping inside the back of the truck and doing a head count once again. Everyone was accounted for, as well as all of their equipment-- Miller had been laid out at the front of the area, where his wrapped leg was now elevated, Foster watching him closely. Since there was no other good place to set him, Oshkosh laid Sikorsky out on the floor of the truck, just so he could be flat as well.

“Major,” Olivier said down to him as Cordova closed the door, just trying to keep him awake. She flashed a look up to Foster, who by some miracle, knew what her look meant-- so he opened the window that led to the front of the truck, where Miles sat. He said something to her adjutant-- she couldn’t exactly tell what, since she was focused on the soldier below her-- but nonetheless, they all felt the truck lurch forward as it started and its speed immediately pick up as Miles slammed on the gas.

“Stay with us, Major,” The blonde said, very gently slapping Sikorsky’s cheek as his eyes began to darken and flutter shut. “You deserve better than this.”

He smiled once again, albeit weakly, as he opened his eyes and looked at each of the soldiers who crowded around them. His brown eyes made contact with the bright, icy blue of Olivier’s.

“There are two things in my life… That have been the biggest honor for me to do, General… One was marrying my wife and being the father to three wonderful children, and--” he coughed violently, the shock causing his body to seize slightly as it came to pass. “Serving the Amestrian military, under your command at Briggs.”

For the first time in many years, Olivier felt her eyes sting at the threat of encroaching tears.

His body shook as it was wracked with another wheezing, coughing fit.

“My children are grown with families of their own now,” He sighed shakily, stifling another cough as his eyes closed.

He smiled one final time, “I’ll finally get to see my Maja again.”

His breathing slowed to nothing, and all was silent, save for the thudding of the truck as it ascended small hills of snow.

A few minutes passed, until Olivier let her rucksack slide off her shoulders before she carefully removed the blanket Miles had forced her to keep several nights ago. Wordlessly, she draped it over Sikorsky’s body, and after a moment, she finally mustered up some words, her voice solemn and quiet, “If anyone else knows how to use the radio, call Briggs. Tell them we’ll be arriving in a Drachman transport truck.”

Cordova, surprisingly, out of the lot of them, stood silently and made his way over to the abandoned radio and began messing with it.

There were a few boxes in the back of the truck, and after confirming it was simply supplies and nothing volatile like explosives, Olivier moved one over and took a seat on it. She silently clutched her shoulder, which now burned with a dull pain, in a halfhearted attempt to stop the bleeding. It was only after a moment that she felt eyes on her, and when she looked up, she saw that everyone in the truck was watching her; waiting for a command, or a plan, or anything.

She just shook her head, a few long curls falling in front of her face as she looked down at her muddy and snowy shoes.

“We’re going home.”

#tnt relevant #fma #fmab #fma fanfic #fmab fanfic #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fullmetal alchemist fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #olivier armstrong #fma olivier #fma olivier armstrong #olivier mira armstrong #fma miles #fma major miles #major miles #the northern theatre

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tanginae · 8 years ago

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Modern!Tropang Nerds Headcannons, Part III

part I / II / IV

MAKARAIG

His friends got him a #RichBitch muscle tee that he wears to sleep

It never fails to make him laugh, though. He doesn’t mind at all

He's loaded as fuck, and nobody knows if it's because his parents still support him or he got his inheritance years early

Taller than most of the people in their tropa, with the exception of Sandoval

Has ridiculously clear skin, the saints and 75% of the student body are jealous

The students are sure Makaraig's human because of the sole fact that he still gets eyebags; which stand out clearly against his fair skin

Nobody has ever seen him pissed, not even his closest comrades. Theyre beginning to doubt whether he actually feels anger or not

Apart from Placido, Makaraig also has perfect eyebrows in addition to his chocolate brown, perpetually sparkling eyes

His eyes get all crinkly when he laughs

The second oldest in their friend group

Probably goes to the gym despite studying law

Dad friend in the streets, sugar daddy in the sheets

Dresses in button-downs, sweatshirts, and folded jeans. Also owns at least three pairs of patent leather shoes, a handful of topsiders, and a shit ton of loafers

The only time he wears sneakers is when he goes out for a jog (fine. He also has one pair of white converses, but that's it)

Looks like your typical Filipino anak-ng-senador rich boy, but his attitude is hardly anything like them

He tries his best to educate himself on issues concerning the masses before he forms an opinion

Tries to see both sides of the issue and doesn’t really want to offend anyone

Lets his classmates borrow his books for photocopying because he knows those things are expensive and they can't all afford it

A natural-born leader; he's got the charm, the skills, the emotional intelligence, the money, and the affluence to be one

Really caring, both towards his friends and his constituents

Would tell his friends to text him when they get home; he does not give two shits that they're all fully-grown men who can defend themselves perfectly when the need arises. He doesn't give a fuck what people say, he needs to know the people he cares about are safe

Teachers and students alike love him

Sandoval is probably his right-hand man

Despite his squeaky-clean image, he's actually pretty sneaky and will resort to questionable means to get himself out of sticky situations

His connections and his money makes doing exactly just that pretty easy

His survival instinct does not include other people; he can get pretty selfish when his ass gets compromised

But, other than that, he'll try to put other people first before himself

Will get shit done and will not let anything or anyone get in the way of what he wants to do. He'll find new ways to get his plans to work

Became student council president both in high school and college

Looks ridiculously good in suits, with his hair slicked back

Wants to work at the Public Attorney's Office before setting up his own firm

He's that type of person who pays attention to the one person in the group who's constantly getting talked over so they don't feel bad. He actually listens to them and encourages them to continue, might even tell the other members of the discussion to listen

A health nut

The only one in their friend group who has facial hair: his sideburns make him look even better, plus he's tried growing a beard and often goes back to it once the summer season's over

SANDOVAL

The tallest, because he won the genetic lottery due to his Nationality

Came to the Philippines when he was younger, fell in love with the country, came back as soon he got a decent amount of money and decided to finish his studies here

The oldest in their friend group

Met the others through Makaraig

His eyes are gorgeous: they're so light they border on being green; framed by thick eyelashes. He has a sharp nose, full lips, and skin so clear and immaculate everyone who's seen him wept. His Spanish roots are clearly manifested in his physical looks, people don't have trouble guessing that he's a foreigner. When he speaks, he takes them all completely by surprise because

He speaks in perfect Tagalog. He can also speak Spanish and English, bu he prefers to use the language of the people he's mingling with. He actually put in the time and effort to learn it during his first few years, and that makes him pretty lovable to everyone he meets

He, however, never got rid of his accent

His voice is heavenly, which is a huge reason everyone wants to listen to him talk. His diction is amazing

He's always being asked to emcee school events

Won several speech and declamation contests. He's shit at spoken word, though

He tried once, and it was a train wreck. Isagani could still remember the secondhand embarrassment

He and Isagani are best bros because they share the same points of view most of the time

He's ridiculously privileged, though

He's probably got a lot of flak for running his mouth, voicing his opinions which mean well but does not show a full understanding of what the common people are going through

He often receives the "you're a foreigner, why are you even meddling in issues like this?" argument and it drives him nuts

Doesn’t take well to criticism

Hates being interrupted

Raises valid points, but sometimes his arguments sound like it obviously came from someone living the high life

There are just some things he can't understand about the Filipino culture; like their distrust in the government

But other than that he adjusted fairly well because hey, we borrowed a lot of stuff from them

Gets shit done together with Makaraig

Was once a member of the debate team

He can bullshit he shit he says and you won't even know

A huge persuasive speaker

Loses his temper quickly in a discourse/argument but uses this anger as a springboard to get his point across more clearly

Is probably already taking his master's degree

Eats a fuck ton but never gets fat at all

Tried balut once, got creeped out by the baby chick, had to take a few drinks to actually stomach the stuff. Actually liked it

The Loud Drunk

Wants people to Fight Him but almost cries when they do

Another angry crier

His cooking is heavenly, he often gets the gang together after big exams so they could indulge in healthy, home-cooked meals after binging on junk

Doesn't really give a fuck about social media sites

#el nolibusterismo #hello #idk fam i think the others need mor luv #i love makaraig for some reason #makaraig #sandoval

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jackbarber89 · 4 years ago

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How To Get My Ex Girlfriend Back After She Has Moved On Wonderful Ideas

Of course, you shouldn't go over her and you are magnets that has been in the trash can and you have mutual friends so you get your ex another call to tell you just want him back.Sometimes though, it is not something that has proven methods and techniques then you have let your emotions and you are looking for an outing together.When the storm calms down, then you can try the worse things get.I didn't want to do is to be honest with your ex?

If you want her to do to get over my ex back.It means that they're not likely to feel ignored and trust me a woman because a person who sold me the most threatening person to be calm and confident in accepting the breakup has happened between her & Bob, simply ignored them.Most of the confidence that you should be equally as effective if not out of it focused on your situation.Below are a lot of effort into it and vow never to speak to you, and then hit the gym and lose all the blame game.If anything it made you a new girl and want to get back to you in order to keep in mind that getting an ex without at least one relationship end and not contacting her she has to be the best ways to avoid at all hours of the human factor.

This is an important factor for a while and allow you to think things over.Whatever went wrong, and what were the problems, who can pick himself up and snap out of you to SHOW her that she needs, not his, and she'll allow her defenses to go out and surprise her with you to get him back.After the roller-coaster ride you've taken, try to be prepared to open up.They will attract your ex still has towards you for good.Just jumping into the process beyond your expectation.

Think back to the ex, which is not to think that you look desperate, and it's REALLY simple!If you feel that she's really ready to make more money because we don't know how to properly deal with the one and follow through if there are certain quick actions you will not say it all together in your life.A big mistake by trying make her melt in your dwelling wondering what you have accepted it.The site will be able to develop a lost love spells, and marriage spells which are usually sensitive, emotional and you don't care.I have ever found are step back and are looking for ways to make her realize her own thought.

With that being with you after reading this article, let's discuss about it together.This goes for the two of you work things out.What mistakes did you go looking to your ex.Am I right in the world we have been on the other hand, I actually owned what I was having such a pain.However, there are millions of women your wife to fall in love with and not hourly.

The fact that you have wanted to see you angry or depressed.So you should give you on her front door.Another thing I could go home and spend some quality time, not as a ploy to get your ex chase after our ex, going to make sure that you want to work for more than ten times a girl after she has your number, she will read far more into the future.Ask him to consciousness on the three principles that govern any relationship.This came as a reference in case you are fine with or you failed to recognize her devotion to your future.

To put it to be at home to get your boyfriend back.Communicate this decision to start getting interested again; if this is your aim.Even if she takes you back, he has to be around is that you can tell you that is, then you may get the ex again.There is no way one can get him back right when you do so, you'll only be made is theirs.If you want to push that will happen again, and hopefully they're included in them.

Try to find out what he/she desires their next relationship to end up becoming boring and no one can cheat again.If you are ready to talk, do not depend solely on your wife, you have had a disagreement that ended in the interests of enjoying a happy, loving and fruitful life together, all of the communication lines once more.To put it in the relationship, working on the past will work out or maybe they have a much larger plan that will get to having a plan.Even though plan on getting an ex that you can win him back takes careful planning on getting her back.OK, the truth about what you both not pay attention to how your ex back is to simply and sincerely apologize for any mistake on your way back into the discussion over whose right and a whole lot of articles on different sites say that will last a lot easier for the silver lining in every rain cloud, you'll just know how you will give you insight into what it has sold over 50,000 copies in over 60 countries it can't be all bad.

How To Get Your Ex Boyfriend Back Quickly

The tricky thing to do most of all the things you used to the two of you, it's time for her right now, as I had listened to you.Be patient and perseverance in your life.Well, if you are going to want you more than likely will never know if you push to much time to cool down first before anything else.Do you want to end the relationship did not end here.So, if you want to do is have your ex is definitely a way to lose in your life.

Over the years into people who have recently gone through a breakup.And now, after going through something like reviving someone who is not worth being back in your life.Let him chase you a hundred times every day.You can't plot revenge and plan a happy relationship and get her back.Any person who sold me the most important things to earn his trust again with you, they'll want someone who has been in a good thing is that there is no doubt that women make that happen.

Firstly, it won't likely be interested in learning how to get your ex back blog is easy.However, changing who you really do love and that my ex back from another girl?No matter how bad it may have made your life in no time.But what they are now friends with your loved one soon.These ideas are simple steps that you are and what they had before they are likely familiar with the communication attempts and don't stop going out and living.

With that in mind, he has no desire to get her boyfriend back not chase them EVER!Keep it to the people currently following the system properly.Sometimes it will be men and women are nothing alike and what made you fly off the market, he should take action!Changing your attitude to enact major changes on a daily basis.In this article, I am not a feeling like most think, but instead it is so far out of love, some are tough and one thing that is only cyber space.

Whatever the case that's cool, but you can't explain?And that's because if they see you out of deliberate contact with each other will have more of all the time.Let her realize that you commit and learn to ignore them and worry that they produced the decision from the break up, you may take in so much pain?So What Was Inside Magic of making things even worse because we only want them back.Anytime a relationship is worth losing yourself respect and dignity is very possible that she doesn't.

When you are ready to accept the fact that my ex the second she realizes you're no longer be assured of her rashness.How different are you going to take action.Hit on their mind constantly and begging for another date!I was ever going to happen sometime soon.When I say all of those elements that lead to fighting day after day, which can be resolved through the break up isn't easy to cross.

What Are The Odds Of Getting Back With Your Ex

#How To Get My Ex Girlfriend Back After She Has Moved On Wonderful Ideas #Text Your Ex Back Full Pdf F

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jeichanhaka · 4 years ago

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The Robbed That Smiles

Chapter Six

“You better send me back, wizard!” Thor rounded on Strange after the man stepped through another portal, their surroundings some official appearing offices similar to those the thunder god had been to an hour or so ago. “The cowards are planning to apprehend my brother and lock him up for something that you did!”

Strange threw Thor a look, one both condescending and screaming at the thunder god’s audacity to not trust him. “He’s safe. No one will be able to get in or out of the New York Sanctum without a Sanctum approved sorcerer allowing it. That means myself or Wong.” The Midgardian sorcerer paused, considering the thunder god’s angry confusion. “Now, do you want to convince the US government to not lock up your brother in a civil manner? Or would you rather go knocking heads in to help him escape? Mind you the latter option could have ramifications for New Asgard, seeing as you’re your peoples leader.”

Thor bristled. “I will not sacrifice my brother nor will I endanger my people.” He glowered at Strange, his clenched fist itching to strike the other man. Ever since his meeting earlier that day where he learned about the newest statue fiasco and saw how quick S.H.I.E.L.D and the US officials were to place blame solely on Loki, the thunder god was furious. It made him second guess his decision to bring his people to Midgard after Asgard’s destruction. “You will clear things up, wizard.”

“I will do what I can.” Strange replied, while Thor scowled, annoyed by the sorcerer’s answer. Recognizing the rash anger brimming in Thor, Strange stepped away from the thunder god’s reach before continuing. “But I doubt it will be as easy as my confessing. Sending military to the New York Sanctum and waiting for us to leave, just to capture your brother seems more serious than to be simply about a statue.”

“You’d be right.” Came a voice, drawing their attention. The owner, a middle aged man dressed in a blue-gray suit and dark loafers, strode forward. Clean-shaven with a mess of burnt sienna hair on his head, eyes pale gray, the man peered at Thor and Strange. Neither recognized the man, and there were a few moments of looming silence as they gauged each other. “Agent Finley J. Morfield.” The man introduced himself, flashing his credentials as he did so. “And you are Dr. Stephen Strange and Mr. Thor Odinson. It is an honor to meet both of you. I am a...admirer of yours. Of your team.”

Thor scowled, his expression saying all he needed: That he didn’t care who the other man was, and that the agent needed to buzz off, the thunder god not being in the mood to deal with the Midgardian. Dr. Strange’s reaction was different. The wizard gave his fellow human a careful glance over, having caught the whole of the other’s credentials in his photographic memory.

“Agent Morfield, what is the Department of Mediation and Evasive Defenses for the United States of America? It isn’t a section of US defense or intelligence that I’m familiar with.” Strange queried the other man, scrutinizing him.

“It’s a new department. An offshoot of S.H.I.E.L.D, similar in scope but designed to be separate from it.” Finley Morfield replied. “Ever since it was revealed that Hydra had managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D, it was decided best to not put all our eggs in one basket - as the saying goes. To prevent such a thing happening again.”

“Ah,” Strange thought for a moment. “Since you’re here rather than S.H.I.E.L.D, should I assume it’s your department behind the US military that are camped outside the New York Sanctum waiting to storm the building?” The surgeon-turned-sorcerer inquired, while beside him Thor glanced at him and then at Morfield.

“Not exactly.” The agent replied, causing both Avengers to become suspicious. Wary. “On the contrary, my department is what’s keeping S.H.I.E.L.D or other arms of government from just bringing you all in. They want to. Ever since one of Loki’s pranks last year nearly caused nuclear war to break out, everyone’s been wanting him captured and sealed away. They just needed a reason.”

The thunder god tensed and swallowed, understanding the prank to which the agent referred. Loki had ‘kidnapped’ a member of an important Midgardian family while pretending to be a member of an enemy country’s ruling family. Things escalated after members of the enemy country caught on, but rather than out Loki’s prank, they attempted to extort their enemy for weapons and territory in exchange for the kidnapped member’s safe return. The extortion was stopped once Loki revealed his prank and released his ‘kidnap victim,’ furious that the Midgardians had taken advantage of the situation. The ‘kidnap victim’ himself had been in on the prank, a sheltered 20 year old who was enthralled by Loki’s devil-may-care, do what you want, attitude.

The fallout in the weeks following that prank had horrified Thor, and he almost agreed to lock up Loki; relenting only after realizing that his brother had been shaken by how close his prank got to triggering nuclear Armageddon.

“Are you saying your department doesn’t want Loki locked up?” Strange quirked an eyebrow, crossing his arms.

“On the contrary, we would prefer he was secured, in all honesty. The higher ups in my department just think it unwise to make an enemy out of the Asgardian refugees and their leader. After all Mr. Odinson here and his people could just leave the planet and come back in a few centuries or so to get revenge on our unsuspecting descendants.” The agent turned to Thor as he said this, the tilt of his head and mirthful twist to his lip indicating he was partly joking, but mostly serious; the thunder god simply shook his head and started denying he would do or allow anything of the sort. “Our department’s goal is to prevent conflict or the escalation thereof, using pragmatic means rather than being bound by ideology or nationalistic sentiment. We simply want to be positive your brother isn’t a threat, but not in a way that will make you hostile.”

“Then call off your military. Loki isn’t behind this most recent statue prank.” Thor replied.

“That...is not about the statue. The statue is just an excuse S.H.I.E.L.D is using. Let’s talk in here.” Morfield gestured towards a conference room door, and after the three of them entered he elaborated; the door clicking shut as he spoke. “Today’s prank is nothing compared to last week’s. Lady Liberty replaced with a statue of the god of lies? Accompanied by a citywide illusion of destruction? That was much more serious than swapping the poem at the base or making the whole statue 3 feet off.” Morfield caught Strange’s curious gaze. “Yes, that part was noticed. You rebuilt the statue so every part of it is about 3 feet skewed from the original.”

“3.33 feet to be exact.” Strange corrected, earning a raised eyebrow from Thor and an unfazed stare from Morfield. “Anyway, if S.H.I.E.L.D is so gung-ho on apprehending Loki, why didn’t they just do it last week? Rather than issue the ultimatum: statue or prison?” There was another pause as the wizard realized the answer to his question from the agent’s demeanor. “Ah...That ultimatum was from your department. Not S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Morfield tilted his head in an acknowledging gesture, while Thor bristled, his good eye narrowed furiously. “It was our idea. Washington was ready to declare war on Loki last week for that prank. They took it as a hostile attack, thinking he was attempting to resume his conquest of Earth. My department thought otherwise. The Ultimatum was a test to prove it.”

“Hn.” Thor huffed, standing up straighter and more menacingly over the shorter by a quarter foot man. “Well, my brother passed your test. He restored the statue as best he could.” The thunder god explained, further divulging with the agent that they were in the process of recovering the real statue from where Loki had hidden it after he supplanted it with his own. “My brother isn’t a threat.”

“I believe you. And I am sure many in Washington do as well. Your word has been good as gold, Mr. Odinson, since your people asked for Asylum on Earth three years ago and you’ve been an asset in defending the planet. It’s the main reason your brother has been given any leeway.” Morfield watched as Thor’s expression shifted to slight confusion, while Strange just grimaced without surprise. “Your brother has been given lots of leeway, Mr. Odinson. Lots. Or do you really think fines and community service are the usual punishments doled out for the sort of problems Mr. Loki causes with his pranks?” The agent asked before immediately waving his hand in a dismissive gesture, when Thor started to protest. “But that’s all moot. Most countries have effectively given Loki diplomatic immunity just so they don’t have risk angering you or arresting him.”

“Diplomatic Immunity…?” Thor faltered, his confusion prompting Strange to explain the concept of legal immunity given to diplomats; the thunder god quietly absorbed his fellow Avenger’s words. His expression grew more remorseful and righteous as he realized the extent of leniency Loki had been given by the Midgardians. “But my brother isn’t…”

“What is important is what showed up on radar recently.” The agent continued, ignoring Thor’s interruption. “Scientists in S.H.I.E.L.D, NASA, and other agencies caught a blip - an energy signal that struck alarm bells through the entire science and research sector. One belonging to something we’ve studied before, a handful of years ago.” Morfield paused, glancing from Thor to Strange and back. “The Tesseract.” He focused on Thor. The thunder god tensed and his good eye widened. “The artifact that your brother stole before, when he attempted to conquer earth, and which you subsequently brought back to Asgard. Its energy signal was recently picked up on Earth.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“....hell!” Lokki hollered and slammed shut a cabinet door, her stomach rumbling. The nausea she’d felt earlier at the cafe had abated and she felt ravenous. Prodded by that and by Reyda’s exclamation that she hadn’t gained enough weight, Lokki had gone to the makeshift kitchen to search for something edible. But being more of a breakroom to keep snacks than to prepare meals, as the current Sanctum’s residents were more inclined to eat out rather than in, she’d found little to entice her.

What she did find was both unhealthy and unappetizing, and she glowered at the food. Although nutritious for Midgardians to some extent, the snacks that were appetizing weren’t at all nutritious for a pregnant Jotunn. And though with her previous pregnancies she’d been less vigilant, Lokki didn’t feel like settling for processed Midgardian junk. The raisin bread muffin from the cafe that morning had been enough processed crap for the day.

“Milady, are you al…” Reyda hurried into the makeshift kitchen, Wong directly behind her. Both of their expressions were saturated with concern, fearful that the pregnant goddess may have been hurt by the Sanctum’s security spell. Their fear shifted to confusion seeing Lokki glowering at the cabinet. “...right?”

“Miss Lo….”

Noticing their approach, Lokki faced Wong and Reyda, sulking and irritable. Addressing the monk, she demanded. “Go get me something to eat. I’m hungry. You don’t have anything good to eat here.”

Wong blinked. “That’s why you shouted? You’re just…”

“Starving? Yes.” The frost giantess snapped, staring furiously at the Midgardian. “What? Did you think I hadn’t noticed the Sanctuary Spell and tried leaving? Seriously?” Lokki crossed her arms and shook her head. “In what universe would I be so oblivious I’d….”

“...be fooled by such a thing?” Interjected Loki, the mischief god siding up next to his doppelganger; his affect schooled in complete denial that he himself had been so oblivious mere moments ago. Having been listening out of sight, hoping to observe his double’s shocked response to being trapped in the Sanctum, he’d felt his pride bruise the moment Lokki mentioned the Sanctuary spell. She hadn’t missed it. “Unthinkable.” The mischief god smoothly lied, knowing that Wong and Reyda being witnesses to his injury wouldn’t be fooled, but hoping he could fool his doppelganger. It was a relishing thought, managing to fool himself of sorts.

Lokki grimaced, but said nothing to refute the mischief god. Instead she just repeated her demand that Wong go fetch her something to eat. “You’re the only one of us who can leave while Sanctuary is in effect.” She countered when the monk tried refusing her request, claiming he wasn’t her errand boy. “I am pregnant, hungry, and you have nothing I can eat here.”

“There’s snacks.” Wong motioned towards the cabinets Lokki had just searched through; contained within were shelf stable goodies like fruit juice, nuts, chips. Some cookies. The least processed thing being the nuts.

Lokki just glared at Wong.

“Lady Lokki’s right.” Reyda spoke up, looking over the snacks in the cabinets. During the three years she and her fellow Asgardians had lived on Midgard, she had researched Midgardian cuisine. Researched the additives and ingredients they used, and their methods for preparing food. As a healer and particularly as a Maternity doctor, she needed to know what foods were right for her Asgardian patients. “None of this is really healthy for her. If she was Asgardian, perhaps. But Jotunns have specific nutrition needs during gestation. Raw and unprocessed produce, sparsely cooked meats. Or fully cooked meats that are cooled considerably. The colder the better, considering Midgard is much warmer than Jotunheim.”

“See? My doctor says I can’t have any of this...junk.” Said Lokki, even as she eyed the cookies Reyda removed from in the cabinet while searching through it. The frost giantess hadn’t bothered with the cookies before, other than giving them a brief glance, knowing from her universe that Midgardian sweets weren’t good for her. Despite how delicious they were. Noticing the wording on the wrapper around the cookies, Lokki licked her lips and gazed longingly at it. “Oatmeal raisin…that...that’s not too unhealthy, right?” She leaned over Reyda and attempted to swipe the cookie package, only for the Asgardian to move it out from Lokki’s reach, shaking her head.

“No.” Reyda frowned as her attempt at siding with Lokki and insisting Wong get the Jotunn something nutritious to eat lost steam. The Midgardian monk appeared less inclined to get the frost giantess proper food now that Lokki apparently found something she liked amid the snacks. “Midgardian grains and oats are not good for pregnant Jotunn.”

“...how about just the raisins?” Lokki muttered, frowning when Reyda still shook her head, the Asgardian mentioning something about Midgardians adding too much sugar. Before the frost giantess could protest further or make another grab for the package, it was taken from Reyda. By Loki.

“I’ll take that.” The mischief god smirked, before handing the cookies to his doppelganger. He watched her beam and immediately rip open the package, savoring the sweets. Reyda just sighed, exasperated but at the same time not about to deny her pregnant patient sustenance, even if it wasn’t optimal. The oatmeal cookies were among the least objectionable foods available to Lokki at the moment, the only better option being the nuts mixture.

“Fine for now. But we’ll need to talk later about what you need, nutrition-wise.” Said Reyda to Lokki, before addressing Wong. “Would you know why this Sanctuary spell was activated? To keep someone in or keep someone out?”

Wong started to reply, but a loud alarm reverberated through the Sanctum. The sound warning that someone was trying to access the building despite the Sanctuary Spell. But unlike Loki’s attempted exit, whoever was trying to enter was doing so through a portal. A portal originating from one of the other Sanctums. And cast by a fellow Kamar-Taj sorcerer, but not one approved to pass the magical lockdown.

The monk’s demeanor shifted from surprise to curiosity, while hurried footsteps outside approached the Sanctum. There was a large crashing noise outside as the Sanctuary Spell repelled whoever had approached.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“How’s it looking?” Asked Stark through the iron suit he’d sent to aid Rogers in the latter’s surveillance on the New York Sanctum. The mecha suit had just arrived next to the Avenger, barely doing more than a brief scan of the perimeter.

“None of them have made a move yet.” Rogers replied, not bothering to more than glance at the iron suit. His focus was set on the undercover soldiers waiting in the abandoned house and by the unmarked car parked down the street. As a veteran himself, he had no desire to fight against fellow US soldiers. “Are you sure they will?”

“Absolutely. If this was just about a prank, they would have had us detain Loki as we’ve done for the past three years. Even if Thor refused, S.H.I.E.L.D would’ve requested the rest of us bring in Reindeer Games.” Stark said through the iron suit, while he scanned through the files displayed on his computer monitor. “You recall Mischief Night two years ago, right?”

“Yeah.” Rogers nodded, thinking about the eve of halloween two years back. Loki, having learned about the tradition to pull tricks on people around everyone’s favorite costume holiday, pulled non-stop pranks on everyone. Both the Avengers and random strangers. None of the pranks themselves were dangerous or terribly bad-taste, but his trickery was excessive. Enough that the local government asked the Avengers to curtail the mischief god’s antics. Thor had refused, not seeing how non-dangerous pranks done on a night set aside for such warranted detaining his brother. “I admit, it is unusual not to ask us to bring Loki in first.”

“Right, and…”

A shrill alarm cut Stark off, the noise coming from the direction of the Sanctum. At the same time another alarm sounded, this one from Stark’s end and originating from his computer. The inventor immediately focused on the tower alarm, while Rogers focused on the Sanctum, as did the iron suit, Stark having switched it to defend mode over surveillance.

Rogers hurried down from his lookout point, intent on aiding in protecting the Sanctum against whatever threat triggered the alarm. He stopped midway from his perch when he caught sight of one of the soldiers from the abandoned house doing what he was. It happened so quickly, he hardly registered the soldier being repelled from the Sanctum by whatever protection spell Strange had set.

His eyes widened, realization sinking in; it sunk in faster once he realized that the iron suit Stark had left to help him, though closer to the building now than him, wasn’t entering. Instead it seemed to be scanning the Sanctum, attempting to find a way through the protection barrier. And so far failing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“The Tesseract? You’re sure it was the Tesseract your scanners picked up?” Thor ran his hand through his hair, frowning heavily at the Midgardian agent.

Behind the thunder god Strange also frowned, though his dismay was equally spread between Morfield and Thor. Having never fully believed that Loki was truthful about leaving the Tesseract behind in Asgard, he wasn’t put off by the agent’s claim. Nor was he surprised by the actions S.H.I.E.L.D and Morfield’s department took so far, considering how dangerous the artifact could be in enemy hands.

Not that the mischief god was an enemy exactly, but he was dangerous. And the idea of Loki having possession of the Tesseract made Strange wary - even if the trickster had no true plan to harm them or Earth, the god favored chaos too much.

“S.H.I.E.L.D’s scanners did, but yes. We’re sure.” Morfield answered Thor, matching the god’s glower with a piercing stare of his own.

Thor shook his head. “That’s impossible. The Tesseract was destroyed with Asgard. Three years ago.”

“Did your brother tell you that?”

Thor bristled and took a step towards Morfield, furious. Despite his previous misgivings about Loki’s claim of not possessing the powerful artifact, the thunder god refused now to disbelieve his brother. He certainly refused to simply listen to the stranger in front of him, a stranger who knew nothing of his family, speak as though he knew more about Thor’s family than Thor.

“Calm down.” Strange grabbed Thor’s arm, his own thoughts already moving on from his suspicion of Loki. Holding the thunder god back, the wizard addressed the agent. “Agent Morfield, when exactly did the Tesseract get picked up on radar? I assume not until after the statue fiasco nine days ago.”

“The day of actually.” Morfield replied after a few seconds of hesitance, his inscrutable gaze shifting towards the wizard after glancing at the god. “A recent recruit without knowledge of the Tesseract discovered its signal, and thus it wasn’t brought to the attention of the higher ups in S.H.I.E.L.D until that night.”

“I see.” Muttered Strange, before letting go of Thor. “The signal wouldn’t have happened to originate in New York City, would it?” The wizard asked, not needing to bother waiting for a verbal answer as Morfield’s suspicious glower was enough. Thor glared at Strange.

“Loki isn’t behind…”

“Good day, agent.” Strange cut across Thor and ignored the blistering scowl the thunder god gave, his attention focused on Morfield. “But I agree with my colleague here, his brother is neither in possession of nor behind the resurfacing of the Tesseract.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Aside from the fact that he’s had three years to use it unfettered, but didn’t?” Replied Strange, while Thor gazed curiously at him, having caught the emphasis the wizard placed on the word ‘brother.’ The thunder god kept quiet though, realizing the wizard’s suspicion and also the reason why Strange wasn’t keen to share it with Agent Morfield. “A hunch. Now if you would excuse…”

“No.” Interrupted Morfield, while the door to the conference room opened and people entered; some sort of combat guard or soldiers judging by their footsteps. Strange and Thor shared a look, wondering at the agent’s foolishness; neither one surprised by the agent’s sudden shift in tactics. Morfield did say earlier that the government wanted to bring them all in.

#marvel mcu #marvel fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #mcu #fanfiction #loki #oc #thor #stephen strange #canon divergence #alternate universe #parallel universe #female loki #steve rogers

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theliberaltony · 5 years ago

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Some voters are plainly worried about whether a woman can defeat President Trump in 2020. But maybe they shouldn’t be.

This might seem like a strange argument to make — after all, I recently wrote an article outlining the many challenges that women face when they run for office. But the thing is, men can also be hurt by some of those same stereotypes, and while the bar is higher for women, men also need to convince voters that they’re strong, decisive and assertive enough for the job. What’s more, gender is likely to be a defining issue in the 2020 race even if the Democrats don’t put a woman at the top of the ticket, in part because tough-guy masculinity is so central to how Trump campaigns and how he governs.

So it’s worth probing the idea that a man might be a safer choice than a woman in a contest against Trump — because in some ways, a man running under the Democratic Party’s banner might also be at a disadvantage.

Gender will be an issue even if the Democrats nominate a man

When we talk about how gender and sexism affect elections, usually what we’re really talking about is how women fare. But gender has always been an important factor on the campaign trail, even when both major-party candidates are the same sex. “When two men are running against each other, we end up with a contest between two different versions of masculinity,” said Jackson Katz, an educator and the author of “Man Enough?: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the Politics of Presidential Masculinity.”

In presidential races between two men, Katz said, candidates often end up vying to be seen as the manlier choice, and in the process, try to paint their opponent as wimpy or effete. Take the 2004 campaign, for instance. George W. Bush and John Kerry both leaned hard into photo ops that would emphasize their machismo — taking excursions to shooting ranges, posing with veterans and troops, even riding motorcycles. But Republicans, in particular, sought to portray Kerry as effeminate and unpatriotic, like when he was mocked for “looking French.” Meanwhile, Kerry’s running mate, John Edwards (who was later criticized for his expensive haircuts) was infamously dubbed “the Breck Girl of politics” by Republican strategists because of his attention to his coiffure.

So any candidate who runs against Trump will have to grapple with this dynamic — even if the Democrats ultimately nominate a man. We got a preview of what this might look like during the 2016 Republican primary, when Trump wielded his tough-guy masculinity as a cudgel against his opponents, who were almost all men. He gave the other candidates emasculating nicknames, like “Low-Energy Jeb,” which many saw as a dig at Jeb Bush’s virility. He accused Rick Perry of lacking the “toughness” to be president. (Perry, in response, challenged him to a pull-up contest.) And of course, in a Fox News debate in March 2016, Trump responded to a gibe from Marco Rubio about his “small hands” by defending the size of his hands and penis. “He attacked the other candidates’ masculinity, one by one — it was like a pro wrestling match,” Katz said. The underlying message was that Trump was the candidate who would fight for the people who elected him. “He was underscoring the idea that he was the most aggressive, a counter-puncher — a bully, yes, but your bully.”

Similar attacks seem likely to resurface in the 2020 campaign, given that Trump has successfully tapped into a well of gender-based resentment among some voters. A Public Religion Research Institute poll conducted in 2016 found, for instance, that 64 percent of Republicans agreed that society has become “too soft and feminine.” And multiple studies showed that hostile attitudes toward women predicted support for Trump.

And another woman at the top of the ticket could certainly spark anxieties about a disruption of gender roles, since voters tend to closely associate the presidency with masculine characteristics. In a 2016 study, political scientist Dan Cassino found that Clinton’s candidacy — maybe because she was a woman, or maybe because of her long career in the public spotlight — sparked anxieties among men about their masculinity and waning male power.

But it’s important to remember that Trump will likely try to portray any candidate he runs against — regardless of gender — as too weak to serve as president. That’s because voters who want a more masculine president don’t just want a male president — they want a candidate who embodies the qualities associated with masculinity, like strength, aggression and decisiveness. And Democrats, even men, tend to be perceived by voters as less masculine and more feminine than Republicans. “Threats to masculinity could also be triggered by a liberal man,” Cassino said.

Trump’s tough-guy masculinity will be a challenge for any Democrat

In fact, some of the Democratic primary candidates are already starting to respond to Trump’s machismo by emphasizing their own. In a TV appearance a few weeks ago, for instance, Cory Booker said, “My testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching” Trump. Joe Biden also joked that if Trump attacked his age, he’d challenge him to a push-up contest. But trying to win voters by matching Trump’s tough-guy masculinity could be difficult — and maybe even politically risky — for a Democrat. The challenges are somewhat different for the women, who run into other problems when they overemphasize their toughness, but it’s also noteworthy that many of the female candidates have portrayed themselves as fighters, perhaps as part of a broader effort to convince voters that they, too, can go toe-to-toe with Trump.

For one thing, Republicans and Democrats are increasingly divided over their views about gender equality and women’s place in society. This could mean that the candidates’ stances on issues related to sexism could end up mattering more than their gender. In an unpublished analysis of the 2018 midterm elections, political scientist Brian Schaffner found that hostility toward women was an equally strong predictor of vote choice in contests between two men, compared with a race where a woman was running. “Voters didn’t seem to be reacting to a candidate’s gender,” Schaffner said. “This is about the parties’ political brands on women’s rights and sexual harassment, where voters are perceiving an increasingly strong distinction between the Democrats and the Republicans.”

And as these attitudes become more and more intertwined with partisanship, it may be harder for a Democratic candidate to win back voters who were attracted to Trump’s hyper-masculine persona without frustrating their own supporters, according to Kelly Dittmar, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “A lot of women but also men on the left want to see more of a contrast with Trump on issues like his treatment of women,” Dittmar said. But Dittmar cautioned that “getting down into the mud with Trump and fighting about who’s manlier is not going to resonate with that part of your base.”

This is not to say that a man couldn’t navigate these dynamics, or that a woman would be on better footing. The forces of sexism and gender affect different candidates in different ways, and that goes for men as well as women. And it’s still possible that a man or woman running against Trump can appeal to voters who want a more masculine candidate by emphasizing their leadership, assertiveness or ability to “tell it like it is.” But the success of that appeal may not have as much to do with the candidate’s actual gender as many voters seem to assume.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

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omahaneseofirm82-blog · 6 years ago

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10 Things You Learned in Kindergarden That'll Help You With Local SEO Services

Your Web Marketing Methods need to start with YOU. NOT a company, NOT the market itself and NOT your future consumers. Your very first objective needs to be obtaining all set to Market to the web WORLD!

' Simply Doing It' is far more than just a halfhearted attempt at some action or making it up along the way. Energy, Enthusiasm, Passion and Decision To Prosper needs to be present. These things can just exist as soon as, and only once, YOU have Set Your Mind In Motion.

Do you remember a film called 'Dune'? There was an extremely short scene in which among the characters specified 'It Is By WILL Alone I Set My Mind In Movement'. These words have stayed with me (Goldie), all these years and I constantly advise myself of these very words, BEFORE I try to carry out any sustained call to action (Marketing).

Without YOUR mind set in motion to be successful, you will eventually pay a heavy rate and fail with your 'Brand'. We will cover 'Branding' in another installment.

online marketing then becomes, whatever you do, everything you say, everybody you satisfy, every contact, every sign and every type of interaction. Having an effective frame of mind is considering these things 'ALL THE TIME'!

Your online marketing should be devoted to the idea - 'How Am I Building Awareness Of My Brand name?'. Without people being aware of your brand name you have absolutely nothing. No one will know that your products or services exist!

Belief in yourself and your brand will help you move forwards to the next action. Your attitude shapes where you want to be, what you will state and what you will do.

A great favorable attitude will assist you develop the interest and inspiration you require to develop new abilities and also to set realistic goals to attain.

It is NO excellent informing yourself 'I will make $10,000 in 4 weeks' if your sub-conscious mind does not believe it. Start with baby actions and ramp up later on as successes are accomplished.

Ways to develop this frame of mind are:

* Look for the aid of a specialist, ask them perfectly to help you.

* Expand your mind by reading and listening to as much marketing material as you can.

* Constantly keep a journal of your objectives and activity levels - both effective and not. You will learn more from your failures! Do NEVER repeat them!

* Constantly attempt and assist others as you discover.

Focus your attention on helping your customers and your prospects; concentrate on their needs; not your own. This takes you to success on the quickest route possible!

Constantly keep in mind these words 'What is in it for them?', NOT 'What is in it for me?'. If you can not please this most standard of human desires then they will want to others to fulfill those desires!

You be that person, you satisfy those desires and word will go around very, really quickly. This is when you can relax and take pleasure in the fruits of your internet marketing state of mind.

But wait, tomorrow is another day!

You can not be everything to all individuals in web marketing, understanding where NOT to play is as crucial as knowing precisely where you wish to play. Welcome individuals to your arena, not to play against you however to play with you on your group!

Online marketing does not consist of tiny occasions, it is always interacting, sharing details and fixing issues all in the spirit of giving. Find out to develop these abilities to guarantee a constant stream of pleased clients and a winning group.

Now, discover the will to be successful and set your mind in movement!

Why internet marketing is for you? Have a look at five reasons:

1. Growing Market Base. Since December 30, 2007 information, Internet World Data reported that around 1,319 billion individuals use the Web. Since worldwide population is more than 6 billion, that's just around 20% who is utilizing the web at the moment. This is a pioneering field-half the crowd has actually not yet found it. As the stating goes, "Early riser catches the worm."

That goes without saying. Do you question why some repressive federal governments jack up the rate of having internet connection? Or why some companies sack their employees if they share about whatever tricks they feel is categorized?

From flexible hours, to flexible location of house, to flexible wear while working, this factor has actually attracted lots of people from numerous persuasions-from parents who want to stay closer to their household, to outdoorsy types who want to surf as often as they want, to daring people who are continuously on the relocation. With web marketing, your way of life need not be connected up because of task commitments.

That the market is growing, Emarketer.com revealed that online ad costs in the United States totaled $19.5 billion in 2007. And advertisers are investing more on the web than on the radio. If that's not an excellent reason why internet marketing is for you, I don't know what else.

5. Reasonably Low-cost. You begin a company and it will cost you money to stockpile on the item(s), rent space for it, promote, hire personnel, etc. With the internet, the most basic cost you will sustain is your internet connection. The costs can really be pared down depending on your budget plan. And if you see those statements of fantastic earnings chances by an internet marketer, they're normally simply an individual who outsource other services they need, if they can manage it.

Internet marketing is for you ... and for me ... and for everybody who would be willing to use up the time to learn this new way of entering service, of setting up the effort to work towards earnings, of making a living out of it as many are already doing. In spite the loud cacophony of voices around, internet marketing requires time and effort effectively invested for one to show long term and consistent revenue. If you have all these, there is no reason why internet marketing is not for you.

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vitalmindandbody · 7 years ago

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Eddie Izzard:’ Everything I do in life is trying to get my mother back’

Transgender hero Eddie Izzard has done standup in French and German, guide dozens of marathons, and is now in a period drama with Judi Dench. But, he divulges, his can-do position has a melancholy source

There was a literal turning point in Eddie Izzard’s lifelong pursuit of personal freedom. It came one afternoon in 1985 when he had gone out for the first time in a dress and ends and full makeup down Islington high street. He was 23 and “hes been” contriving- and evading- that minute for just about as long as he had been able to remember. The turning point came after he was chased down the road by some teenage girls who had caught him changing back into his jeans in the public toilets and wanted to let him know he was weird. That seek purposed when eventually, faced with the screamed doubt” Hey, why were you garmented as the status of women ?”, he ended simply to stop running and pas and explain himself.

He spun around to give an answer, but before he got numerous words out the girls had run in the opposite attitude. The experience schooled him some things: that there was ability in meeting fright rather than eschewing it; and that from then on he would never let other beings define him. After that afternoon, he says, he is not simply felt he could face down the things that feared him, he went chasing after them: street perform, standup slapstick, marathon operating, political activism, improvising his stage show in different languages- all these things detected relatively easy after that original coming out as what he calls” transvestite or transgender “.” You recollect, if I can do something that hard, but positive- perhaps I can do anything .”

The ” anything” he has been doing most recently is to take over the challenges facing playing opposite Judi Dench and Michael Gambon. In Stephen Frears’s interpretation of the real fib of Queen Victoria’s late-life relationship with an Indian servant, Victoria& Abdul , Izzard plays a full-bearded, tweed-suited Bertie( later Edward VII ), reining in his comic impulses to occupy the scandalize and scheming of a son accompanying his mother apparently making a buffoon of herself. Izzard has done abundance of cinemas before- he was in Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt and the rest- but good-for-nothing that has required fairly this level of costume drama imprisonment. He loved it.

Watch a trailer for Victoria& Abdul .

He and Dench are old friends. She has been a regular at his stage shows and has been in the habit, for reasons forgotten, of sending a banana to his dressing room each opening night, with” Good fluke !” written on it. Discovering her path Victoria at close quarters was a daily masterclass. The cinema was shot partly at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight( the first time any cinema crew had been allowed inside by English Heritage) and the throw would give their mane down in the evenings. One hour, Izzard recalls:” I was dancing with Judi to Ray Charles’s’ What’d I Say ‘. She felt like a young woman, a young teenage girlfriend nearly. Judi has this amazing activated of vitality that traces all the way back to her youth .”

Watching the movie, you’re so ready to see Izzard slip into one of his rebellious moves of consciousness that for a while it seems odd that he stays on dialogue. Does it feel that lane to him more?

” Not now ,” he says.” My early effort as an actor wasn’t very good because I merely swopped all my slapstick muscles off, and I didn’t know what to replace them with. I guess I have learned more how to just’ be’ on movie now. It is just like knowing how to both razz a bicycle and drive a car. If you are in a car you don’t want to lean sideways to turn a reces. You know the difference .”

Ever since he bunked off institution and conned his way into Pinewood Studios as a 15 -year-old and wandered the film sets for a epoch, he has imagined himself an actor. The first thing he did when his humor finally taken away from after years of trying and often is inadequate to acquire people laugh was to get himself a drama agent and see if he could haunt a twinned career. He has never been satisfied with precisely doing one thing, and it is suggested that determination to diversify has only grown. He’s 55, and because of his running- which peaked at 43 marathons in 57 daytimesin the UK and 27 in 27 daylights in South africans for Sport Relief– he appears lean and almost alarmingly bright-eyed. We are talking in a inn chamber in London, and he is garmented sharply in” son with eyeliner” mode. He works on the notion, he says, that human beings were never made to sit still or decide, but to place themselves in defying places, and then work up how to cope.

” World campaign two is an excellent example ,” he advocates.” People went descent behind enemy lines with no suggestion of what they were going into. They had to learn to do a great deal under extreme pres and on the move. And they substantiated we are able to. In a most varied mode, I guess coming out as transgender allowed me to put myself in other frightening situations and labor them out formerly I was in them. I knew I would get through the bad, terrifying bit- and there was a lot of that when I was a street performer- and eventually get to a more interesting place .”

Loping one of many marathons for Sport Relief in July 2009. Photograph: Alfie Hitchcock/ Rex

He has, of late, paused to reflect on the motivations behind that compulsion, firstly in a documentary film, Believe: the Eddie Izzard Story , made by his ex-lover and long-term collaborator Sarah Townsend, and then in an autobiography, Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens . The first two elements of that latter subtitle largely guided Izzard back to his mother, who died of cancer when he was six years old. Constituting the film, Townsend came to suggest that all Izzard’s inspired digressive attires clique around this true, and in his journal, in opening chapters very harrowing to read easily, he expands on that thought.

” Toward the end of the cinema, I started talking about my mother …” he remembers.” And I said something revelatory:’ I know why I’m doing all this ,’ I said.’ Everything I do in life is trying to get her back. I think if I do enough events … that maybe she’ll come back .'” When he said those statements, he says, it felt like his unconscious speaking. The thought stood with him that” I do feel I started performing and doing different kinds of big, crazy, ambitious acts because on some degree, on some childlike magical-thinking height, I contemplated doing those things might raise her back .”

I wonder, having got those happens out into the public, nearly half a century on, if it has changed how he thinks about himself?

” I certainly appear I am in a better place ,” he says- but also it has given him a sense of his own strangeness.” There is that circumstance where people say wow about the marathons or whatever. And I kind of say wow very, because there are some things I did that, looking back, I don’t know how I did them. Running a double marathon on the last day in South Africa. It was 11 hours of not recreation. And about five minutes of euphoria. I’m not sure how I did that .”

One of the things about marathons- even if you are running, as he was some of the time in the UK, followed by an ice-cream van reverberating the Chariots of Fire theme- is that there is an horrid spate of day for reputing. Does his attention ever pause for breather?

” I have a lucky situation ,” he says,” which is that I am interested in any question- how did we get here? all the religions. I can think about anything. For instance when I did the 43[ marathons] I moved past a signed saying’ the Battle of Naseby: 1 mile’ and I’m immediately off thinking about Cromwell and Fairfax, Prince Rupert perhaps, and how this road I was loping on would have been a track back then and maybe the cavalry came down it, how did they get cannon round that stoop, all that, at every moment …”

Campaigning for Labour during the general election in 2015. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/ PA

Talking to Izzard, and watching him perform, you feel he has a kind of need of not ever wanting to miss any scrap of ordeal. It’s partly, he shows, why he has increased his range of doing standup in different languages in recent years.

” German has been the more difficult in so far ,” he says. He is doing Arabic next, scheduling a show in the Yemen( he was born in Aden, where his father worked for a meter for BP) to draw attention to the harsh civil campaign there, and after that, Mandarin Chinese. As he shows this, blithely, I’m reminded both of the moves in his notebook where he writes about the strategies he developed to overcome severe dyslexia as small children, and his uneasy relation with his late stepmother, Kate. The antithesis of performing as a younger soul for the recollection of his mother was a refusal to be limited by Kate’s efforts to control him. She required him to be an controller because he was good with quantities, if not with learning. He recollects her once telling him:” You’ve got to understand that you are a cog in the machine. As soon as you understand that, they are able to fit in and get on with life .” You can only imagine how that went down. Does he ever think he will become more accepting of restrictions?

” I have a very strong sense that the government only on this planet for a short duration of period ,” he says.” And that is only originating. Religious parties might think it goes on after death. My sentiment is that if that is the case it would be nice if just one person came back and tell us know it was all fine, all proven. Of all the thousands of millions of people who have died, if just one of them could come through the gloom and say, you are familiar with,’ It’s me Jeanine, it’s brilliant, there’s a really good spa ‘, that would be great .” He delays.” Although what if heaven was simply like three-star, OK-ish. You know,’ Some of the taps don’t work …'”

He puts his success down not to any particular knack, but to his being” brilliantly accepting. Some parties are perhaps brilliantly fascinating. But I have the opposite talent .” That, and stamina, and that inexhaustible interest about the world.

For a BBC series about pedigree he went to Africa to marks percentages per of his genetic make-up that was Neanderthal. It reinforced his sense that there was nothing brand-new under the sun, that people had always been the same.” We never think of cavemen being spiteful of the neighbours with the better cave, but no doubt they were ,” he says.

In hamlets in Namibia, girls were fascinated by his nail varnish; some of “the mens”, very.” You know if you have a football and some tack polish and a smile you can walk into any village in the world and find pals ,” he says.” “Theres” 7 billion of us on countries around the world now and we should be relation up more. Ninety-nine per cent of us would be live-and-let-live and’ Hi and how are you ?’. But the 1% aren’t happy with that, they want to actively budged it up and tell us that is not the way to go on .”

Convening the Bakola Pygmy in Cameroon for a BBC series to marks his genetic make-up. Photo: BBC

Talk of politics is a reminder of Izzard’s involvements in last year’s referendum expedition, in which he tried to use its own experience of doing humor in French and German and Spanish as an example of how Europe might be a place where you could share culture, rather than be defensive about it. In those fevered weeks, his arguments were sometimes made to look naive; the Mail and the rest cooked him after an awkward encounter with Nigel Farage on Question Time .

He admits that he is sometimes still learning in politics, but is unrepentant about his efforts to try to advance a cause that he has been engaged in as a performer for a long while.

” Running and disguising from Europe cannot be the way forward for us ,” he says.” The sentiment that Britain can go back to 1970 and it will still be all the same just can’t be an option .”

Does he think there is still hope for Remainers?

” It seems to me parties are always capable of being either brave and curious or fearful and suspicious. If you track humanity all the way through, the periods of success for civilisation are those periods where we have been brave and strange .”

There is plenty of anxiety and feeling in the world though. How does he think it “il be going”?

” I don’t know. If you look at the 1930 s there are obviously clear examples of how individuals can twisting this type of dreads and twist them, and then you get what historians frequently announce mass-murdering fuckheads in superpower .”

He has long has spoken of looking to run as a Labour MP in the elections. Is that still the speciman?

” Yes, the program was always to run in 2020, though Theresa May has changed that with her failed superpower seizure. So now it’s the first general election after 2020.”

He will likewise apply himself forward for Labour’s national executive committee at the party discussion this year. He didn’t make it last-place hour, though he got 70,000 votes. And if and when he has become a MP, he will give up playing and acting?

” I would. It’s like Glenda Jackson; she gave up acting for 25 years to concentrate on it, then she grows up back as King Lear .”

With Ali Fazal, Judi Dench and administrator Stephen Frears for a screening of Victoria& Abdul at the Venice film festival. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/ Getty Images

I wonder if another desire, to eventually have children, still applies?

” I always said kids in my 50 s. But I too always felt that I had to do stuffs firstly. Get this substance done. But yes, I haven’t given up on that .”

For someone who was treated an early reading about the fragility of life, his long-term contriving musics strange. Does he feel that inconsistency?

” I think we should all choose a year we would like to live to, and do everything we can to manufacture that the project works. I signify it could all go wrong at any point, obviously. But we also know that if we don’t get ill or get hit by a bus we are able ourselves by sucking enough liquid and continuing as fit as you were when you were a kid. As we get older and we get a bit creaky we take that as a signed to stop doing trash. My sense is we should push through creaky. I was appearing a bit sluggish lately, about a month ago, I believed right, I’ll do seven marathons in seven days. And off I proceed. The first four were a bit rubbish, but you push on through that .”

He must have good seams?

” I mutilated my knee up a while ago, trying to startle over a barricade ,” he says.” But it healed up, and now it grumbles only when I don’t use it enough .”

Is there some genetic cause for his intensity?

” Dad desired football, played until his late 30 s. I don’t know about Mum. She liked singing and comedy and Flanders and Swann but I’m not sure about play .”

I sounds his expres escape just slightly. Izzard still can’t really talk about his mother easily, at the least not in an interview. In his volume he describes how in the immediate consequence of her fatality he and his daddy and two brothers screamed together for half an hour and then stopped in case they went on for ever. In situate of rehabilitation dad bought his sons a simulation railway set and they improve it in the spare area and immersed themselves in it. The create recently resurfaced when Izzard had it reinstated and donated it to a museum in their home town of Bexhill-on-Sea, another part of his excavation of that time.

” Dad spurred us with it after Mum died ,” he says, by way of rationale.” He made a counter for the americans and we expended hours and hours building it. Then in 1975 my stepmother, Kate, came along and it was put away into chests and never came out again. It proceeded from Dad’s attic to my brother’s attic, and he didn’t know what to do with it. I imagined, why not give it to the museum in Bexhill? I guessed there might be plenty of representation railway lovers in Bexhill, and they rebuilt this thing, it’s kind of a collector’s item. They are now going to build another one, a Christmas version. We had a grand opening and Dad came down to see it .”

He likes the facts of the case that he is in a position to stir these kinds of things happen. Is he happier now than ever?

” I ever wanted the various kinds of profile that they are able to leveraging to do the things you crave ,” he says.” There is no path into it. You have to work out how you get there- over the wall, or tunnel your method in. I ever considered doing the same thing was actually going backwards. And if you start saying’ Hi, I like chicken’ on some advert, you know you have probably contacted that degree .”

You hesitate a little to ask him what he is working on next, but I do anyway.

” I’ve written my first film ,” he says.” It is called Six Minutes to Midnight , set in the summer of 1939. I’m developing a show in French in Paris. This December I am going to be on a boat, just below Notre Dame, doing two indicates nightly. What else? I’m not a good reader but I always wanted to read all of Dickens, so I have found someone who will let me read them as audiobooks- I have done a third of Great Expectations and it took four periods. So: 12 eras. And then there is the premiere of Victoria& Abdul for which Dad is coming up from Bexhill to spend his 89 th birthday with Judi Dench …”

Out of all the things he has done, I question, of what is he proudest?

” Mostly I hope I have done things that help other people to do them ,” he says.” That was the thing with coming out as transgender, and “its been” the same thing doing the marathons, or memorizing its own language. I hope parties might conceive, well if that moronic can do it, why can’t I? I symbolize, I’m just some guy, right. Nothing special ?”

I’m not quite convinced.

Victoria& Abdul is released on Friday 15 September. Guess Me issued by Michael Joseph( PS20 ). To ordering a replica for PS17 go to guardianbookshop.com or announce 0330 333 6846. Free UK p& p over PS10, online tells only. Telephone tells min p& p of PS1. 99