#HI CAN YOU TELL I LOVE KERRIGAN
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how do you feel about kerrigan going super Saiyan in Legacy of the Void? what about the Amon plot in general?
(idk if you get notifications when a question is answered publicly, so @fall-warning hi, also THANKS FOR SENDING THIS. I LOVE ATTENTION I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY GIRL)
Oh, That Jean Grey ass Kerrigan transformation is half the reason my bio says "Starcraft 2 never happened, Metzen can suck my dick." *
*the other half is the Kerrinor Kiss, because on Official-zerg-fangirl, the running gag is I have an irrational hate for Raynor bcs I was one of Those middle school girls who would legit be jealous of a fictional character (I just didn't realize what i felt was jealousy bcs i didnt know i was gay)
I hate it! I HATE IT. IT SUCKS.
I am normally an extremely big fan of fire, and red, and phoenixes, and literal deities, and women being any or all of the above. But none of that should have been Kerrigan, and definitely not in the way it was handled. Fuck you, Blizzard. Fuck you for the insane bullshit happening behind the scenes, but also fuck you for what LotV did to my girl!
I refuse to play any part of LotV to this day! I don't fucking care! Sorry to the protoss stans, it's great that you got so much extra lore with Alarak or whatever, but absolutely FUCK what they did to my girl!
oh but I loved the amon plotline tho.
"m'am, why the fuck" it was validating it was powerful it is everything the character arc of the entire Zerg species was building up to and it turned Kerrigan into the antihero she was always meant to be, and LotV is probably great but that epilogue ruined it with a pointless second transformation.
[more deranged rambling below]
Look, Kerrigan's character arc in Brood War was top notch it was S tier it was great I wrote a literal essay about how I do sincerely believe Kerrigan in SC1 + Brood War had a heroic character arc, and I am of course correct, and the canon agrees, BUT WE WILL GET TO THAT,
now initially ofc i was like naw SC2 never happened. Obviously I've softened on that opinion (but saying it never happened is funny. so is acting like everyone is missing the point of Kerrigan except for me. this blog is the space where i get to play up an extremely cocky persona ok)
SC2's general insistence (at least that's my first impression) on treating her zergness like a boring corruption and "ooh Kerrigan was good before but she's evil now" bothers me. like they do this to her instead of, oh I don't know, she was abused and exploited as a child fucking soldier, she latched onto the guy who 'saved' her and was too wrapped up in the exhilaration of having someone who 'cared' about her that she couldn't recognize she was being used as literal fucking bait, and then he LEFT HER TO FUCKING GET EATEN BY ALIENS, and by the grace of fucking god, those aliens saw her value and potential in a way no one else ever could, they elevated her, made her stronger, gave her the means to break off the shackles implanted in her skull (remember the Amerigo mission???), and from that point on, all the anger she'd been harboring from all those years of abuse could run freely, so of fucking course she became impatient and vengeful!
Yes, Kerrigan was extremely destructive, spiteful, cruel,even! But you think someone who's only ever known violence and death and cruelty could ever be anything else? are we so naiive as to imagine a perfectly human Sarah Kerrigan would not become the Queen of Blades Her fatal flaw is wrath, you see how quick she is to anger when she fights Tassadar. To quote the man himself,
"So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy."
she is predictable because of her wrath. In her beginning as the Queen of Blades, she's too consumed by all her fury, by her newfound power that she can and will use to demolish everyone who's wronged her, and she hasn't yet learned the wisdom required to use said power. this is a flaw she overcomes in Brood War, wherein she delays her fury and rage to arrange a temporary alliance, to wait for just the right moment to have her vengeance and crush her enemies.
aaaaaand here's the Wings of Liberty campaign going like "Zerg turned her evil. yeah she's killing and infecting terrans bcs that's what zerg do. we need to redeem her by removing her zergyness."
like - no acknowledgement to the fact that the terrans are currently being commanded by the dude who used her and then fucking left her to die???? bro like of all people you'd think Raynor would understand why she's waging war on the Dominion HE'S LITERALLY DOING THE SAME THING, but Blizzard gonna Blizzard and the final boss is Kerrigan bcs Raynor's gotta work with the Dominion to neutralize the greater threat - which is somehow Kerrigan. Okay.
It just really rubbed me the wrong way. Can you tell that it rubbed me the wrong way?
but then it redeemed itself. Bcs the Amon plotline.
NO I AM NOT JOKING. FUCK YOU THE AMON PLOTLINE WAS GOOD.
"oh but it derails everything and now my simple slapfight between humans and two aliens has transformed into some sort of cosmic battle between good and evil" fuck no it doesn't it was foreshadowed back in Brood War did you forget Duran? the fuck you think that man was doing if NOT foreshadowing that some fucking hidden power beyond every race's leaders was controlling the situation specifically through the Zerg? Even BEFORE Brood War, the lore that the Zerg and Protoss were both created by the xel'naga and that the Zerg were specifically created with a mandate to assimilate the Protoss was right the fuck there. you know who said that shit? THE OVERMIND. Pay attention bro, Amon was there all along!
Could he have maybe been introduced in a less jarring way okay sure but he didn't derail shit, this WAS the rails, you just got too caught up in the surface level fighting to recognize what was happening!
also, the Amon plotline was (before that FUCKING EPILOGUE) so extremely validating to me, let me tell you a story about when i was playing HotS - no, even before HotS, whcih did a lot of good stuff, in fucking Wings of Liberty, a campaign I just spent a few paragraphs shitting on, it did one super good thing. it did the Zeratul missions. It did this shit:
oh I imagine a lot of Starcraft fans hated this cutscene bcs it was an out of nowhere messiah plotline delivered via literal exposition ghost, but, see, I'm smarter than your average Starcraft fan, I am a genius and I'm sexy, and I know my wife Kerrigan better than anyone, even the fucking Starcraft writers (suck my dick Metzen) and I see this cutscene at 7:33PM, April 29, 2021, and I ran into my friend's DMs and said "I FUCKING CALLED IT"
BECAUSE I WROTE A FANFIC (unfinished, novel-length, self-indulgent, OCxKerrigan, highly nsfw, no I haven't posted it anywhere I wanna finish it first I wanna perfect it).
AND IN THAT FANFIC I WROTE SOMETHING SO ABSOLUTELY DERANGED I FIGURED IT WAS JUST SELF INDULGENT ABSOLUTE SKEWERING OF THE CANON JUST TO RUN SHAMELESS ZERG APOLOGIA:
I wrote that the Overmind, before capturing Kerrigan at New Gettysburg, telepathically communicated with her, and very specifically said that her human psionic mind would resist control until the bitter end, that it would kill itself rather than accept forced subjugation into the zerg, and THUS he had to ask Kerrigan PERMISSION, that he couldn't and didn't want to strip her of her free will, and he specifically promised to her power, and purpose, and the potential to usurp his place as the leader of the Zerg, and he specifically welcomed that possibility-
and like that's stupid that's so fucking stupid, why would the zerg ever value free will why would the Overmind pursue to the ends of the earth a servant that he couldn't control, that he knew could and would one day usurp him? there's no way this is canon-compliant-
IT IS
AND NOT JUST CANON-COMPLIANT, IT'S FUCKING CANON. ACTUALLY LITERALLY CANON.
STRAIGHT FROM TASSADAR'S MOUTH, THE OVERMIND DID THAT SHIT. THE GODDAMN EYEMONSTER HAD PLANNED ALL ALONG FOR KERRIGAN TO HAVE FREE WILL AND THAT HE SPECIFICALLY VALUED HER FREEDOM.
The only reason I can't say I predicted the future is because I started writing this fic after WoL released, but I clearly had some sort of precognition I fucking knew I was on the wavelength my deranged apologia was canon I was right.
OH AND THIS AMON SHIT GIVES ME FULL JUSTIFICATION TO BE A GREATER APOLOGIST THAN I EVER COULD BEFORE. BEFORE IT WAS LIKE "c'mon the zerg aren't people, they're mindless demons of destruction" OHHH NO YOU DON'T MOTHERFUCKER! THEY ARE PEOPLE, THEY HAVE MINDS AND FEELINGS AND WILL AND THEY'RE BEING CONTROLLED BY THEIR CREATOR - NO, THEIR CORRUPTER, AGAINST THEIR BEST INTERESTS,
AND THE PRIMAL ZERG, THE PRIMAL ZERG! THEIR GLORIOUS PAST! ZERUS, THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE AMON'S MEDDLING, WHERE THERE IS NO CONTROL AND NO DESOLATION, ONLY THE RULE OF THE HUNT! HERE, WE SHALL FORGE A VISION OF THE LIBERATED SWARM, REUNITE WITH OUR PAST TO FORGE A BETTER FUTURE, AND OH LET'S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT THE PARALLELS BETWEEN WHAT AMON DID TO THE ZERG AND WHAT THE GHOST PROGRAM DID TO KERRIGAN,
BECAUSE THAT'S JUST IT, KERRIGAN IS THE SWARM, WHICH IS WHY SHE BELONGS IN THE SWARM.
SHE AND THE ZERG BOTH EXIST AS BEINGS OF INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL WHOSE FUTURES WERE STOLEN AND CORRUPTED FOR THE SAKE OF A HIGHER POWER'S TWISTED WAR GAME, TURNED INTO A LIVING WEAPON AND SET TOWARDS A CAUSE THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN, THEY ARE CHAINED AND THEY WILL ONLY ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST SELVES ONCE THOSE CHAINS ARE BROKEN,
and this entire fucking theme of subjugation and of being transformed into a living weapon was in Brood War, too! That was what the UED did to the Zerg! This is why Kerrigan is the hero of Brood War, an entire species was enslaved and her, with her human mind, was the only hope anyone had of not submitting to Earth's slave army! Amon is simply the greater master who enslaves the zerg more subtly, with chains that are harder to break because they permeate across the hive mind link itself,
And by the fucking WAY, the revelations of that xel'naga relic, Zeratul's visions, the insight given by Zurvan of the primal Zerg, all bring such a delicious context to the entire wings of liberty campaign, and they make that campaign good and make everything I complained about earlier just an extra spicy flavoring and a dash of gray to our terran heroes, THEY MADE ME ACTUALLY LIKE RAYNOR???
bcs you know what, fine, perhaps Raynor does see the Queen of Blades as nothing but pure evil, perhaps he does choose to ally with the Dominion to destroy her, that is his human perspective, as someone who loved Kerrigan but knew her so briefly, all he can truly see is the Zerg as he understands them, the mindless living weapon, the infested terrans that beg for death as they seek to tear you limb from limb. We are imperfect, we aren't omniscient, perhaps I should forgive Raynor for his short-sightedness. He cannot concieve of harmony with the zerg because of what he has seen, so of course his dear friend is corrupted, infested, controlled, and he has to free her, and maybe he can make this deal with the devil. From his eyes, this is the best route he can take. He even knows he should not kill her, he knows what she's meant to be, and he has no idea how she'll go from the monster he sees now to the savior of Zeratul's prophecy, so he does what he thinks is best.
and as we see in HotS (and i think also LotV a bit?), Raynor's choice to use the relic was a mistake, it robs the zerg of their salvation and feeds so much energy into Amon's greedy maw... but also, it wasn't a mistake.
See, Kerrigan's temporary severance from the swarm frees her of the influence of Amon on her mind (though I am adamant that her actions have been PRIMARILY motivated by rage and vengeance and spite!), and when she sheds her humanity once more and properly returns to the Swarm, it is in the sacred birthplace of all Zerg, on the planet that obeys the law of nature, where hardship and violence are tools to produce an ever-greater self, and all that she has suffered will become her strength,
AND KERRIGAN ASCENDS - NO, EVOLVES - INTO HER PRIMAL SELF IN ORDER TO FULLY REALIZE THE OVERMIND'S PLOT OF LIBERATION. I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG AND SHE WAS A HERO, THANK YOU HEART OF THE FUCKING SWARM YOU REDEEMED SC2.
which just makes the fucking fire lady 'oh shes not zerg anymore she's xel'naga heehee' feel all the more bullshit???? Like, i thought it was bullshit before I knew anything abt HotS but now its SUPER bullshit, bcs primal kerrigan WAS her perfected self. She didn't NEED to become xel'naga. SHE IS ZERG! SHE IS THE QUEEN OF BLADES!
It's just so pointless. Nothing you could do to Kerrigan in this literal final hour of the entire Starcraft franchise could possibly be as thematically powerful as the Zerus arc, and you should've just continued those themes. leave Kerrigan's character arc concluded. Stop fucking with it. You had something amazing and you fumbled the bag at the literal last second. seriously, what the fuck? THAT'S how you end the series? What happened in the writers' room- other than the creepy misogynist bullshit we already know was happening, of course?
anyways yeah I hope that satisfied your curiosity. :D i don't wanna know how many words this was, I just know it took me like 2h to write. maybe more. I don't have a good sense of time. it's the autism.
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What are you favorite childhood friends to lovers romances? I love the trope but I struggle to find books where it’s well executed.
I love this trope; it's an all time favorite of mine. However, it only really works for me if the characters are separated and then meet again as adults. My recs are:
Historical:
--A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean. Hero and heroine were friends and exchanged letters. Hero lost his entire estate gambling (he has a gambling problem) and went off the grid/stopped responding to her letters. Years later, when she's a spinster, he--now a rich self-made man--finds out that her father got a hold of his lands and added them to her dowry. So he compromises her and forces her to marry him. Angst supreme!!!
--The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne. Can't talk about the plot too much, but it does involve childhood friends.
--Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean. They were very much sweethearts, but children, and a major event drives them apart and makes them enemies. In fact, he fully thinks she's dead until the series begins; this is the last book, though it can stand alone. The book is a massive grovel.
--Ever Yours, Annabelle by Elisa Braden. He was her brother's best friend, but he would hang out with her a lot and she had a huge crush on him. Then she accidentally sort of causes an accident that severely injures him and changes his future. They meet up years later as adults when he's looking for a wife.
--A Scoundrel of Her Own by Stacy Reid. Hero and heroine spent like, this short period of time together as kids and were super tight, but her parents separated them because he was lower class. They meet again with her family having fallen on hard times and him a rich self-made man. She sings in a disguise at night, and he offers to be her patron.
--Rules for Engaging the Earl by Janna MacGregor. These two are childhood friends turned almost teen sweethearts, and then he goes off to war and she marries another man. Come to find out that her husband was a bigamist, and after he dies she realizes the marriage wasn't legal and asks the hero to marry her to give her unborn child a name. He complies.
--Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas. Hero was basically a servant in the heroine's household, but they grew up together and he was more a member of the family. Then she got really sick, and while she recovered was still frail. She makes a move, and he basically refuses her because he doesn't feel worthy and is worried about hurting her. She goes off to the continent for a couple years, comes back healthier and with a doctor who's interested in her, and the hero is VERKLEMPT. TW: Hero is half-Roma, and I don't feel like Kleypas handles this well. She definitely intends for it to be a positive thing, but it does veer into fetishizing at points imo. It's tough, because otherwise I do think this is one of her best in terms of plot and character development.
Paranormal:
Dark Skye by Kresley Cole. Hero is this like... angel/demon thing, heroine is a sorceress. His kind is meant to hunt her kind, but they meet when they're kids and his little mating bond thing instantly tells him ZING!!! It is her!!! They become friends, he brings her like, treats and folds her up in his wings, it's very cute. Then a huge thing happens and they become mortal enemies and he chases her for 500 years before finally GETTING HER. It is a very weird, very fun book.
Contemporary:
Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan. Hero and heroine are childhood best friends and grow up together, and just when they're on the brink of making the relationship romantic, their parents have a mysterious falling out and he moves away. They're reunited years later at a funeral, and shit is Complicated.
Variations--not quite, but may give similar vibes:
The Saint by Monica McCarty. Hero and heroine meet as teens (she's definitely too young to marry) and are instantly smitten but their families are in a blood feud, so they only meet a couple times a year during these medieval Scottish clan gatherings. He tries to propose to her as soon as she's of age, but her brother catches them and she doesn't have the courage to accept the proposal--so she ends up engaged to the guy who becomes his BEST FRIEND. Very angsty.
When the Duke Was Wicked by Lorraine Heath. A variation in that while the two grow up together and their families are super tight, he's nine years older so he's more of a big brother. But she is super infatuated and crushed when he marries. Fast forward a few years and his wife and kid die, he becomes a rake, and she approaches him to help her find a husband after her dad gives her a huge dowry.
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WIP Intro: Beast Among Men
I was wondering how to do these and realised: i already made one as part of my writing process, just written to future me who was writing it. Behold:
Okay, fucko:
Martial artsy resistance leader and his girlfriend in a fight with the government (sort out later). She’s a double agent playing both sides, he’s crazy powerful and has a super-powered evil side.
MC gets backstabbed, literally and metaphorically, and is nearly killed. Survives on grit alone. Resistance loses while he’s out of action, and comes back extra angry on the warpath. Kills his way through the government, getting higher and higher, then gets to his ex gf in the high-ups. He can’t do it. of course he can’t, how could he? Gets fucked up again and unleashes his beast. Beast rampages through the country during an internal (and sometimes external) battle for control, before reigning it in when it threatens his ex gf, who he still loves, somehow. Walk off into sunset, roll act 3. MC goes to find legendary hero of legend to seek guidance to deal with loss and betrayal. Hero accepts and teaches him over a long series of training things, exercises and lectures, and then tells him to complete training on his own. MC goes off to his old house and fixes the place up a bit, and learns over the time skip about how to deal with grief, but becomes numb from it. Ex gf finds him on a nostalgia trip a different man than the one she stabbed. A man who put himself back together again.
How 2:
Act 1 as it’s own story, ~15k words, with lots of time spent on scenery and environment, with some leeway for the audience.
Act 2 as it’s own story, etc, etc Act 3 the same.
Theme: Controlling emotion
Perspectives: good thing, neutral, don’t care, good in moderation, emotions exist to be exploited
Main Characters:
Red: (neutral)
living in the future in act 1, always about what will be, “it’ll be great when it’s finished.” “He will be a great warrior.” “When we win, the world will be at peace.” kinda deal. Never paying much mind to the now and the present before him. Act 2, stuck in the past, “I should’ve…” “why didn’t they…” etc. Act 3, finally returned to the present by training with his brother in arms.
Gimmicks: Kyokushin (lots of spinny kicks and swings), and the Beast (smokey, edgy Revenant looking deal. More Dark frost blade powerup tho)
Flaws: often rash, too emotionally-driven, super hard-headed
Avarice: (emotions exist to be exploited)
2 faced. Sometimes cheeky and joking, sometimes cold and callous, changing on a dime. Very manipulative, gaslighting, being tricksy, etc.
Spectre: (overkill)
Flitting back and forth between flashes of PTSD. Eg edgy mw2 ghost quotes, cynical, “people you know can hurt you the most.” Q: “You have a heart left in there?” A: “A cold, dead, rotting one.” Clearly lots of lore here, but minimise “back in my day” exposition dumps,
Gimmicks: Wrestling/C.Q.C., Runemaster. A million tattoos of runes all over him that serve different purposes and combine together.
Flaws: fears betrayal and connection
Maia: (don’t care)
Out of control loose cannon, a la Juri Han, with thiccness and fighting to match. Total party animal, often horny, acts on emotion all the time, no coordination, few shits given unless it directly concerns her. Gimmicks: Muy Thai, (lots of hard, fast impacts), immune to mind-reading and foresight because she doesn’t think, ever.
Flaws: fears connection
“Kez” Kerrigan: (the middle way)
Flat, not so horny lady, with minimal acting on emotion, but a good bit because oestrogen and plot convenience. Also, justified by being hereditary as Maia is her sister. Gimmicks: jiujitsu/judo/aikido, mind-reading
Flaws: too strong-willed and stubborn
Now, the all-important
Plot! (But blocked out pretty crudely)
No plot, no story
Act 1:
Introduce mc and gf being cute for a half-chapter, then cut to training scene with Spectre
Introduce supporting cast through the fight scene, showing off their personalities and tricks + beast
Whole chapter of talking about and strategising over a battle to come
The battle +a bit of the beast
Feast and seeds of doubt about gf
Big surprise counterattack from enemies + lots of beast
Standoff and backstab, beast unleashed
Act 2: sprinkle in snippets of the beast vs Red internal struggle at the end of each chapter
Beast and Spectre talk
Following gf now, introduce politicians over dinner
Start doing “snake trying to get ahead” things
Reported murders start coming in
Investigations
Murders get more brutal, and resistance emblem on wall
Pattern found, gf and new toy next on the hit-list
He can’t kill her, how could he?
Act 3: cut back to miserable gf resigning and going off to find red
Spectre and sad beast go to find the old resistance squad
Find maia fucking everything, resume search. Find Kez in temple near old base
Training begins, trying to build a perfect surfboard
Training 2: electric boogaloo, trying to climb a waterfall
Training 3: return of the king, trying to carve stone with water
Training almost done, kez gives lecture, sends off each to confront their demons
Spectre sent to gladiator ring from his past with maia, told to let them die
Red sent to his old house, told to rebuild it
Drawings of the characters:
All of them bar gf’s face, some dynamic poses, to hell with realistic proportions, don’t draw the fucking noses every time, don’t try too hard with hands ‘cause fists yeeeaaaah.
To draw: (ongoing list)
Spectre and Red fighting
Naomi stretch
Kez and naomi still
Spectre brooding (still)
Red and beast still
————————————————————-
And that’s the end of the intro. I could do one for my other WIP, the 32k word one, post my shorts that i did for school? Up to you losers.
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I, Tonya (2017)
They could make a hundred movies about Tonya Harding and there would never be another like I, Tonya. This stylish, sometimes exaggerated telling of the figure skater’s story may actually be more authentic than a real-life documentary could ever be.
Cruelly raised by her mother (Allison Janney), skating prodigy Tony Harding (Margot Robbie) suffered years of emotional and physical abuse but nevertheless emerged a champion. The film, based on contradicting testimonies from the Olympic skater, her mother, her no-good husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), his best friend/Tonya’s bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walter), and her skating coaches explain how it all went to pieces.
If you don’t know the Tonya Harding, you’ll probably be able to piece what’s going to happen to her career about 40 minutes in. That's not a flaw. This film is the rare instance where knowing how it ends actually makes the movie better. Director Craig Gillespie knows why the audience is tuning in. “Tonya Harding? Isn’t she the one who attacked Nancy Kerrigan and bashed her knee with a baton right before the olympics?” Some of that is right but not quite and even if you know what actually happened, this movie’s still got ya. It’s an outrageous tale you’d swear was fiction. I mean, come on. They made Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walter) into a moron whose head is so thick he’d have trouble getting out the house in one piece. There’s no way… oh wait. Is that a clip of the real-life guy? Well. I guess they nailed it then. The more you know, the more you realize how many stars had to alignn for this to happen the way it did. You’re ready to laugh, and you will… but then the movie’ll turn around to face you and damn if it doesn’t deliver a bombshell that’ll stop you dead in your tracks.
They don’t make movies like this. Whenever we see the words "based on a true story", you know you're in for an inspirational movie; it’s that one time the team caught lightning in a bottle or the one time the odds were beaten. I, Tonya is not that story. Tonya Harding was born into trash and the world never forgot to remind her of that. Every time she managed to claw her way up the cliffside of poverty, something or someone was there to knock her back down again. Frequently, it was her mother or her husband but more than once, it was the very sport she loved so much and maybe one time… it was even us. The movie gets downright savage but it’s also so outrageous, so funny you happily jump on for the ride. In every scene that breaks the fourth wall, director Craig Gillespie seems to suggest that no matter how bad things get - and they will get bad - it only makes sense to laugh a little. It’s not as if one person no matter how talented or determined can really change our destinies, after all.
Repeat viewings keep revealing fresh and tasty decisions made by the filmmakers. You get to fully appreciate the performances, for instance. Margot Robbie plays Tonya Harding from a teenager to a grown woman and you buy her all the way because she’s so utterly committed to the role. Allison Janey is so evil you expect her to turn up with a suit made of Dalmatians… but she’s too trashy even for that. Everyone we see is great.
I, Tonya hilarious and heartbreaking. The performances alone would make this movie great even if the story was boring, which it’s anything but. There’s just no other movie like this one out there. (June 7, 2019)
#I Tonya#movies#films#movie reviews#film reviews#Craig Gillespie#Steven Rogers#Margot Robbie#Sebastian Stan#Julianne Nicholson#Bobby Cannavale#Allison Janney#2017 movies#2017 films
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Little Book Review: Romance Round-Up (May-December 2022)
It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas (2005): In the second installment of Kleypas's influential Wallflower Quartet, outspoken American heiress Lillian Bowman is looking for a husband at stuffy Lord Westcliff's weeks-long house party. Lord Westcliff is decidedly not on the menu, thanks to the huge stick up his ass, but we all know how that goes. This novel was a little slow, but solid and sexy. I probably wouldn't have even minded the pace if I were a little more into uptight aristocrats or feisty American heiresses in romance. Also, say what you will about love triangles, but Lillian's flirtation with villain/future-hero Lord St. Vincent added some nice tension.
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas (2006): In the third Wallflower book, debilitatingly shy heiress Evangeline "Evie" Jenner is desperate to escape her abusive maternal relatives so she can be with her dying father, who runs a London gambling house, and also avoid being forced to marry her cousin. She offers marriage to ne'er-do-well Lord St. Vincent, who's rather short on cash because his dad cut him off. She doesn't have high expectations, given that he was a real piece of shit in the last book, but he's good in bed, he's nice to her dad, and he has some good ideas about how to manage her dad's gambling house. Based on largely anecdotal evidence, I believe this is one of the most beloved romance novels of the 2000s, and I can see why. St. Vincent is an engaging chaotic bitch hero and Evie is both endearing and proactive. It didn't hit me as hard as some villain-hero romances (like To Have and to Hold, Shadowheart, Duke of Sin, and A Lady's Code of Misconduct), but I enjoyed it a lot.
Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas (2006): In the fourth Wallflower book, Daisy Bowman, Lillian's fanciful younger sister, is issued an ultimatum by her dad to find a husband, or else marry the man of his choice. The man of his choice is Matthew Swift, an austere Bostonian entrepreneur whom Daisy finds soul-crushingly boring...but is her assessment fair or right? This is probably the least-loved Wallflower book, and I get why. It doesn't have a strong unifying concept or concrete stakes. Daisy's dad gives her a long timeline, she doesn't lack for acceptable prospects, and she can go live with her loving sister if worse comes to worse. Matthew, for his part, isn't actually on board with the ultimatum; he's in love with Daisy, but won't tell her because he's harboring a Dark Secret, plus he's not a mustache-twirling villain. So, most of the romance is them tentatively circling each other, forgetting more and more of the reasons they can't be together. And, honestly, I was so into it. Kleypas makes uncommonly excellent use of former protagonists as well. The three former couples, rather than being static and boring, are still going through struggles in the background despite being happily married. It's also really sweet how they come through for Matthew in his hour of need.
The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne (2015): Farah Mackenzie is a clerk for Scotland Yard who holds herself out as a respectable widow. Dorian Blackwell is a powerful underworld figure who kidnaps her out of the blue, claiming that he (a) knew her tragically dead young husband in prison and (b) wants to marry her as part of a byzantine plan to gain power in society. This book is an absolutely wild ride, with secret identities and marriages between ten-year-olds and romantic kidnappings. It does kind of lose steam after they leave the gorgeous kidnapping island, though.
Someone to Cherish by Mary Balogh (2021): Lydia Tavernor lived for years in the shadow of her husband, a magnetic and zealous vicar, and even after his heroic death (during which he saved a child from drowning), she's continued to be quiet and self-effacing. Then, at a small party, she finds herself feeling unexpectedly attracted to her amiable neighbor, Major Harry Westcott. Harry has suffered his own disappointments, namely losing the position in society he'd been raised for when his father's bigamy was revealed and suffering years of ill health due to horrific injuries sustained in the Napoleonic Wars. Although both are gun-shy due to their experiences, they crave intimacy and begin a no-strings-attached relationship. This romance had so much potential. I was invested in both characters and intrigued by the late husband's post-death effect on the characters' small community; I felt like there was going to be some exploration of how devotion to the memory of a good person (or maybe just a person who seemed to be good) can be twisted and make people act in cruel ways. Unfortunately, Balogh decided to go hard on demonizing an obviously troubled child character and having the hero and heroine bond over bullying him.
Jewel of the Sea by Susan Wiggs (1993): Roughly a decade after October Wind, which followed a bunch of characters in the several years leading up to Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas, a new crop of young people have to navigate life in both hemispheres. There's Armando, resentful son of the unethical Rafael/Catalina/Santiago throuple from the first book; Paloma, resourceful daughter of Spanish-nobleman-turned-Jewish-refugee Joseph and Taino wise woman Anacaona from the first book; Gabriella, lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon and daughter of troubled Mercedes; and Will, Jewish-Spanish-English musician and chronic simp. The sequel is an improvement over the first book, in the sense that Columbus and Queen Isabella aren't major characters, but the cast of original characters is a little weaker. October Wind had three great characters (Joseph, Santiago, and Catalina), one underused one (Anacaona), and one annoying one. Jewel of the Sea has one great character (Gabriella), one underused but interesting one (Paloma), one pleasant but not terribly fascinating one (Will), and one annoying one (Armando).
How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole (2021): Makeda Hicks, eternal people-pleaser, is forced to move back in with her hotel-owner grandma after losing her job and live-in girlfriend on the same day. Burdened by a childhood where she had to parent her own mother, who struggled with alcoholism and was obsessed with the possibility that she was a long-lost royal, Makeda isn't amused when Beznaria Chetchevaliere, a detective hired to find the lost royal heir to Ibarania, turns up on her doorstep. However, pressing financial obligations and Beznaria's unconventional charisma make her take a chance. This one didn't really work for me. Makeda's a terrific heroine, but Beznaria is cartoonish, the couple spends too much time on a cargo ship, and Cole apparently still can't write a well-paced ending.
#little book review#romance novels#lisa kleypas#it happened one autumn#devil in winter#scandal in spring#kerrigan byrne#the highwayman#mary balogh#someone to cherish#susan wiggs#jewel of the sea#alyssa cole#how to find a princess
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Watch "Kerrigan Kills Mengsk and Leaves Jim on Korhal (Starcraft 2 Ending | Ascension Cinematic 16:9)" on YouTube
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There's a moral to the story and there's a reason why they're saying this. They found out what he was doing and his plan and his plot was evil and still is and he is quite the moron and he accelerated when Mac was doing and it is not expected and he's very young and made a huge mistake
Yes this is my character and it gets a little confusing but my husband Jim is his character and it's also Jason and my character is also Lily and they are badass as you can see Jim is also a mutant and turns into a woman because he's questioning me and fooling around it's lots of fun but anyways that's how it goes it says it's Jason because she was Michael Myers but this is how it is when you're married
Hera
Oh my God
Zues
You shouldn't really say that but okay and yeah you know about it I make a lot of food that's really good and you're going to love it and you said I need a lot of food I think I'm going to be huge it just make bigger quantities it's kind of the same thing one day I hear you freaked me out you made a house for everything will scaled correctly and he said I think We shrunk down I said you're still muscular I said yeah but normal size and you said and I said I love you forever anyways and I looked outside and everything looks small answer laughing and laughing and we went outside in the house was huge and I said this is how it is anyways so I started laughing I said you're right about something I like it like this and believe it or not everything becomes normal even though we're bigger and you almost got sick and said then why get bigger and I started laughing and said because things will be lighter so you have to be huge for them to be lighter and we're arguing all the time and we're doing it now
Queen of blades they close the window a little bit really it stinks over here he says and I think it might be the canals emptying early and they said it might be the river went down and he thinks it suck the canals dry
Jim
Hah okay we have a couple weirdos and I'm laughing it is funny because it's kind of strange everything is the same size that you need it's just bigger but when you look at it it looks like it's made for bigger people and we can tell and he says I don't think so it's cuz you're bigger than other people and so we so it started laughing and said good so you know
Thor Freya
I've used those kettle balls they can be any size I've seen a whole bunch of tiny people come in and they're huge to them they thought I was lifting a million pounds they looked at the number and said I should be able to lift it and couldn't anyone embarrassed I didn't see them do it other people did so they bothering me and that's how it goes being big here I'm not even big it's really a nuisance they're so damn small pocket at this time
Zues Hera
Literally need this and we don't want to be huge it's too huge it looks like we're going to get kicked out and he says it's not the first time it's not very funny but it's true we have to get around to doing something it doesn't look like we're going to
The other Camilla
I'm going to publish now Olympus
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Chapter 3 is up!
Uhh, word count go brrr. I guess. Woops?
Anyway, quick summary, we get Melissa 'best girl' Shield introduced, she talks quirks with the girls, some set up for the future and a support exam with two other best girls.
We also get Adjutant installed in the UA campus as well as some other minor housekeeping done for future chapters.
Tags: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Dehaka/Izsha, Sarah Kerrigan, Yaoyorozu Momo Yaoyorozu, Momo's Parents, Dehaka (StarCraft), Izsha (StarCraft), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, starcraft elements in mha, changes to how the swarm works as a quirk, Quirk Shenanigans (My Hero Academia), Yaoyorozu Momo is a Good Friend, Ghost (Starcraft) Momo Yaoyorozu, Queen of Blades - Freeform
Momo and Sarah are lazing about the following Sunday in one of the lounge rooms in the estate house when they both receive a text from Izsha. 'Girls, please come to the entry, we've got a guest to meet today.'
Sarah perks up and tosses her book onto the couch as she nearly sprints from the room. "Momo lets go!"
Momo takes a more sedate pace and places her bookmark into her book before lightly setting it on the side-table. Murmuring as Sarah runs from the room. "So impatient."
Using her wings and tail to counterbalance as she runs through the halls Sarah arrives at the entry lounge shortly as Izsha shakes her head. "Sarah, how many times have I told you not to run in the house? Please tell me you didn't spike any of the walls with your wings again?" Verity giggles lightly from her couch as Izsha sits down next to her, placing a tray of tea on the coffee table.
Sarah huffs indignantly as she crosses her arms. "Why is everyone reminding me of dumb childhood mistakes, I was five mom."
Izsha and Verity laugh as Sarah pouts. "And it took a week to find all the little holes you poked with your wings dear." Verity says.
Momo comes in a few moments later as izsha calms down from teasing her daughter. "Sarah, I'm so proud of you, a full sprint and you didn't even scuff the walls this time."
"Oh not you too!" Sarah huffs again and flops onto the opposite couch as she pouts harder. "My family is so mean to me."
Dehaka knocks lightly as he opens the entry door and Sarah quickly schools her features back into a neutral face. Melissa Shield walks in wearing a red summer dress paired with black leggings and a lair of red converse hightops. "...And this is the entry lounge where Mrs. Verity Yaoyorozu, her daughter and my honorary niece Momo Yaoyorozu, as well as my wife Izhsa and my daughter Sarah should be at. Hello girls, may I introduce you to Melissa Shield. Shield-san will be staying on property in our guest bedroom while attending UA in exchange for workshop space here as well as assisting Sarah and Momo with their support gear needs. Shield-san, please grab a seat and we can all talk for a while as the staff sets up your room and then we can inspect the workshop later, sound good?"
Melissa smiles brightly as she enters the room. "That would be wonderful Mr. Kerrigan. Hello all, I'm Melissa Shield, please call me Melissa, it's lovely to make your acquaintance and I'm excited to see what gear we can get you both set up with." Melissa settles into a loveseat while Dehaka claims the chair-and-a-half seat to fit his larger frame.
Verity speaks up before Sarah can launch into any fangirl rambling. Izsha waved a hand lightly to calm her daughter. "It's lovely to meet you Melissa, just a few ground rules of the estate before we get started. Firstly this is private property and we have all of our qualifications for quirk and machine testing since both myself and Toto like to dabble in machining as well as Momo and Sarah work on their quirks quite often. Secondly there will be no quirk discrimination from anyone on the property, as both our security leads and Sarah have heavy mutations. So please do not feel worried over your quirk status here dear. Thirdly explosives are not to be tested before 7 am or after 8pm." Verity throws a sharp glance at Momo who pouts in response.
"You set off a single stick of dynamite one time…" Momo grumbles lightly as Sarah pats her on the back. "Not so funny being on the receiving end of the teasing is it momo?"
Momo huffs. "Yeah yeah. Anyway, it's nice to meet you Melissa, please call me Momo." She points at Sarah and she takes her cue. "Hi there Melissa, feel free to call me Sarah. I'm excited to work with you soon. By the time we're all attending, UA won't know what to do with the three of us."
Melissa smiles happily as the ground rules are explained and introductions are made. "I appreciate not being treated differently for being quirkless. It wasn't a big deal on I-Island, but I read it can be pretty bad here for the quirkless." She picks up her briefcase style laptop and settles it onto her lap, opening her notes function. "Could you both tell me about your quirks so we can draft up some ideas, we can get working on them soon."
Dehaka laughs as he stands. "Come on ladies, let's let the girls and Melissa chat for a bit. Girls, when you're done here, would you show Melissa her workshop?"
Sarah waves them off as their parents leave the room. "Sure dad, we'll see you at dinner."
"It was lovely meeting you Melissa, the girls can get you added to the estate's group chats and finish up your tour later for you. We'll see you three at 7 for dinner." Izsha says as she stands and makes her way out of the room, following Verity and Dehaka.
Sarah claps lightly as the parents leave. "Alright, so, quirks. Momo you go first."
Sighing at Sarah's antics. "Sure Sarah." She looks at Melissa, catching her eye and attention as she pops a larva plush figurine from her forearm and catches it. "Melissa, my quirk lets me create any item so long as I know the chemical and atomic makeup of the item. It's got sub-mutations that increase my intelligence to help me keep up with all of those items, and gives me super dense fat stores as the things I create are made using my lipids as fuel."
Melissa's rapid typing slows as she finishes her explanation. "That's fascinating, would you mind answering a few questions on your quirk before we get to Sarah?"
Momo looks to Sarah to confirm before nodding. "Sure."
"Cool, so for your creations, do you have a limit on the type of creations? Can you make organic materials? What's the biggest thing you've ever made?" She looks ready to keep rambling questions before quickly stopping herself and taking a deep breath. "Sorry, dad says I need to slow down sometimes."
Momo looks shocked for a moment during her ramble but adjusts quickly. "Let's see… in order, I can make just about anything you can make using atoms as long as I know the structure, but I'm not resistant to radiation, so no radioactive isotopes for example. Uhh, I can make organic materials like wood, but nothing alive, so even if I try to make a bonsai tree, it would be a dead tree even if it's shaped like a living one. Sarah, what's the biggest thing I made?" She looks at Sarah and shrugs.
Sarah furrows her brow in confusion. "I think you made that cubic meter block of aluminum to test it out, but isn't your scooter bigger than that?" Sarah gives up and shrugs. "Momo’s pretty good with making stuff so she could always pop a thing out in parts and then assemble it if she needs to. She can also swap construction pieces on the fly. Like gold plating her staff because it was funny."
"Really? Very cool." Melissa updates her notes and turns to Sarah. "What about yourself Sarah?"
Stammering slightly. "O-oh uh, my mutations give me my wings and tail, both of which are able to be moved at will and with decent strength. My chitinous plating in my torso is actually bulletproof for up to .45acp, and I won't ever need a bra which is nice." She smiles as she jokes, seeing Melissa's light blush. "Oh, and my actual quirk itself lets me spin essences from food I've eaten somewhat recently into creatures that I can summon into the world with different effects for each creature and I can show you some of them later. Oh, and I'm limited on 'supply' for each creature I make, usually around 10 'units' of supply on my own right now, but I just figured out how to make a creature that raises that for me slightly." Sarah throws air quotes for emphasis on her terms.
"Uh, I know that's kind of a lot, but we think my quirk might have hit singularity since mom and dad's families usually had kids young so I'm technically a 7th generation quirk." She looks a bit sheepish as she mentions her theory on why her quirk is complicated. "My Uh, best guess on why mine's so complicated is that instead of getting too powerful for human bodies, they're going to just get more and more complex, adding in facets of other quirks, like how my mutations would be on the level with a 3rd generation quirk on their own. Look at Momo's quirk, she's able to create anything from her fat cells, that's wildly more advanced than someone who's quirk is to change their hair color for example. And I'm rambling and you probably know all of this already." Sarah blushes and ducks her head.
Melissa has been typing rapidly while looking entranced the whole time Sarah has been talking. "Sarah, that's fascinating oh my goodness. I would love to see your creatures later! I finished my masters in biology and mechanical engineering while at I-tech during my high-school years since dad let me skip grades as a kid so I can't wait to see what stuff the three of us can make together. You both have definitely done a bunch of testing on your quirks. Sarah, I just have a couple of clarification questions on yours."
Sarah perks up. "Hmm?"
"How long do you hold essences for? Also when you summon something does it disappear after a set time?"
"So I can hold the essence of something for about a week, but once I make a creature with it I just need at least one component of that creature to be able to summon it. I also have the larva that don't really have a limit on them since I can summon stuff from larva without having eaten anything they were made from. The larva kind of just store the essences and then morph into the creature they are directed towards from there. And creatures don't disappear but they can die, and would need food after a while." Sarah furrows her brow a moment.
"Except maybe not since I think the queen's creep stuff makes bio-nutrients from whatever it comes in contact with and feeds the creatures of the swarm from that. I need to test queen's more since they're so recent." Sarah finishes up and looks at momo. "Remind me to grab my notebook to share with Melissa."
Momo nods and turns back to Melissa. "So, anything else about our quirks you wanted to ask?"
"No, anything else I come up with I can ask later. Would you mind showing me the workshop space?" Melissa folds her laptop back up and stands with Sarah and Momo.
Reaching the workshop Sarah opens the door with a flourish. "Ta-dah! This is your space, let us know if there's anything you're missing while working here and we can get it for you. Momo's dad basically gave you a nearly unlimited budget for tools and materials."
Melissa walks into the workshop space and has to catch her jaw before it hits the floor. The workshop has nearly every state of the art piece of machinery a full I-Island design space would have available. As she wanders the space she falls into a muttering spree over the tools. "...there's even a nanofab and bioprint system."
Eventually Melissa catches herself and sits at a workbench. "This is lovely, I don't know how to thank you or your parents for this opportunity."
Momo shrugs as she settles into an opposite stool. "It's no bother, My parents honestly have too much money that they don't know what to do with it all. I do know that Sarah and I are grateful for your assistance with our support gear and we look forward to hopefully being your friend as well."
"I think I'd like that." Melissa smiles softly at her new friends. "Anyway, let's get started drafting up those ideas for gear. Oh, and feel free to throw any ideas out while we brainstorm, we can look into other projects that aren't just support gear as well if you'd like."
A few hours of brainstorming and planning later and their phones ping with a text from Verity. 'Dinner in 15 in the main dining room.'
The three gather their things and get ready for dinner.
After the girls settle in at the table, Toto walks into the dining room while working on his phone before Verity places a hand on his arm lightly. "Dear, no work at the table."
"Right, right. Sorry dear." He startles lightly at the blonde addition to the table. "Oh right! Hi there miss Shield, it's lovely to meet you face to face. How are you liking your accommodations so far? Have the girls run you ragged yet?" He says with a knowing smile at his daughter and honorary niece.
"Oh, the workshop is lovely so far Mr. Yaoyorozu!" She throws in a light bow, still getting used to Japanese customs.
Waving her off. "Oh, none of that here. We all spent too much time in the states to care much for bowing or the whole last names thing, please call me Toto."
"Alright then, please call me Melissa."
"Wonderful! It's a bit early for prototypes, but have you and the girls come up with any ideas so far?"
As the food is set on the table by a butler and everyone starts making plates Melissa says. "We have, We're planning to make a suit of armor for momo that will let her use her quirk through the material, as well as hopefully implement a camouflage or invisibility aspect to the suit." She pauses a moment to take a bit of steak before continuing. "Sarah suggested giving Momo a gun for range since she was complaining about losing their sparring match yesterday, so I'm planning to make some changes to the C-15 rifle for Momo to use. It's likely I can set it up to fire different styles of bullets for capture, stunning with a taser, or even high explosive rounds for demolition work if needed. Papa had a similar gun built as a prototype, but it never saw use and was shelved."
Dehaka laughs from his place at the table. "Hear that Toto, Momo's getting a gun, We'll have to set up the range again so she can get her license and some practice with it." He smiles over at his friend before looking at Melissa again. "Any ideas for Sarah so far?"
"We're going to be workshopping some ideas for her to make different creatures soon once we can sort out what qualifies as essence for her quirk."
Sarah pipes up as Melissa finishes explaining. "Plus she's shared a couple of other project ideas with us as well which are super interesting. Melissa, what about the adjutant project?"
Melissa goes beet red. "It's a system-wide assistant still in the early testing phases right now." Dehaka and Toto both look intrigued at the notion.
"Would you mind going into more detail on that for me Melissa?" Izsha speaks up before the boys can jump to conclusions as she sets down her glass of wine.
"Yes ma'am. The adjutant is intended to be a non-sapient artificial intelligence utilized by building or facility administrators to monitor and assist with facility functions. It is based on the Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, or ATLAS systems in use on I-Island. The adjutant would be able to connect with all attached systems, alert for security risks, and could be connected to control a team of robotic defense forces as well." Melissa takes a pause on her explanation to eat while the others at the table digest the information dump.
"So it's a personal assistant for a building that doesn't have the gopher aspect?" Verity asks to clarify.
"I believe so, could you clarify what you mean by gopher for me?" Melissa asks with clear confusion.
Toto laughs and responds for Verity. "You know, go for that, go for this, gopher?"
Melissa nods. "Yes exactly, it could dispatch some robots to do things for you if they're connected to the system, but would be housed in a central location and available over a comms unit instead."
"Incredible. I look forward to your progress on this and please let me know if you want to bring any items to market under yaoyorozu industries. I'd be willing to offer you a 95/5 split of the profits on the sales of your creations as a family friend."
"Maybe we can discuss the terms of a sale like that at a later time, once I have a prototype available." Melissa said, already planning for future designs under that sales label as it would beat what the I-island companies could offer to her."
After dinner Melissa walks back to the Kerrigan household with her new housemates. Excited for her upcoming projects with her new friends Sarah and Momo.
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Six months later finds Melissa at the gates to UA, with Sarah at her side as an assistant for the day to help carry her prototype projects for the support practical exam. "Thanks again for tagging along Sarah, I appreciate it."
"Anytime Mel, it sucks that Momo got dragged into a conference with her dad though."
"Yeah, she should be free by the time we're done here though so we can grab lunch before heading back to the estate if you two want?"
"Cool, sounds good." Sarah lifts the last case along with her backpack."Alright, mule fully loaded, let's rock."
Melissa giggles lightly. "We're two hours early Sarah, take your time with the gear."
"Uh-huh. Still, I need to be moving soon or I'll be stuck in awe at the UA main building."
They set off and make their way through the halls and check in at the support registration tables with vlad king. "Good morning Mr. Vlad king, I'm Melissa Shield and this is my guest and assistant for the day Sarah Kerrigan. I'm here for the support practical exam."
Vlad checks through the roster for the day. "Yep, got you right here." He passes over a form and a pair of ID badges on lanyards. "Please sign the waiver and keep the lanyards on at all times, Nezu is tracking them all through the facility today and will take removal of your ID as an automatic failure."
After the girls sign and don their lanyards they follow Vlad's directions to their proctor room. As they walk in Sarah scans the room for Melissa's competition, taking note of an excited blond haired girl bouncing at her station in blue coveralls and an extremely tall blue and white fox girl with white hair who is standing awkwardly in the corner of the room with a large briefcase. There are a few other relatively unremarkable students in the room as well who have started going over their items again.
"Sarah stop daydreaming and help me set up at this table." Sarah snaps out of it and follows Melissa. Just then the large door at the front of the room opens and a taller woman with long spiky dark purple hair calls out. "Ippan Josei, please come in." She looks up from her clipboard as the tall fox girl makes her way to the door. "Oh dear, We'll get these doors and rooms updated for you if you get in hon, I apologize on behalf of UA for the inconvenience."
As she shuffles through the door the fox woman meekly responds. "It's alright, I know I'm a bit too tall."
They disappear behind the door as they continue talking, the dark haired woman reassuring the tall girl. Someone grumbles on the other side of the room about mutant quirks before Sarah shoots them a dirty look. Melissa's hand settles on her shoulder after a moment. "Sarah, don't pick fights because some people are assholes, it's unheroic."
Sarah sighs as she starts double checking Melissa's gear and readjusts the heavy backpack she's wearing. "Yeah, you're right. So glad I was homeschooled with Momo."
After a few more minutes the other blonde is called into the room. "Himiko Toga, please come in." She jumps up from where she had finally settled into her chair. "Ooh that's me! Thanks!" And rushes into the room followed by the suited woman laughing in a very familiar manner. "Melissa, does that lady seem familiar?"
"Who, the blonde? No, why?"
"No Mel, the lady in the suit. Her laugh seems super familiar. I'll just ask her later hopefully." Sarah shrugs as Melissa looks at her with a confused face. "Anyway, are you ready for this?"
A determined look crosses Melissa's face as she readies herself. "Hell yeah."
A few minutes later a whooping cheer can be heard from the other room. Melissa mumbles with a smile "Guess she got in." The door opens a moment later. "Melissa shield… and guest. Right this way please."
As Sarah follows Melissa into the room she makes the connection as they enter the next room and the door closes. "You're midnight! I love your work that promotes body positivity! You helped my aunt with her mutant quirk clothing line a few years ago, you're my favorite hero!"
The newly identified hero midnight laughs boisterously. "Good job young lady, hardly anyone recognizes me out of costume. We can talk more later though, I'd hate to keep your friend from her exam.
Blushing lightly Sarah nods. "Right, right. Sorry Melissa." Sarah hurries up and sets down the heavy carrying case on the table and starts to settle the hard shelled backpack on the table as well as the proctors step up to the display table and start asking Melissa questions.
"Good morning Miss Shield, my name is power loader, but you may call me Majima and to my right is pro hero Snipe, and on my left is Principal Nezu, we will have a few questions on your items today before we can offer or deny acceptance to UA's support courses. Will that be alright?"
"Yes sir, thank you for this opportunity." Melissa drops into a respectful bow as Sarah finishes settling the items on the table.
Snipe speaks up as Melissa opens the long briefcase. "Would you mind introducing your guest before we begin? We hardly ever have applicants bring additional assistance for their projects."
Melissa nods. "This is Sarah Kerrigan, she's assisting me with carrying these items in as some of these projects weigh upwards of 200lbs each and while I am strong from years of machining, Sarah has me beat by a league of her own. I also thought principal nezu might like to meet the person with one of the most interesting quirks in Japan."
Nezu perks up at this. "Oh, perhaps we can share a cup of tea once we are finished here, I'm more just a formality for these remaining interviews anyway, several of them have displayed quirkist behaviors in the last few minutes and will not be accepted to my school anyway."
Melissa and Sarah sweatdrop at this. "Right sir, shall we get started then? Please show us what your first item is." Majima brings the conversation back on topic to help diffuse the situation.
Melissa nods and gestures to the long briefcase as she removes the barrel and receiver assembly and begins reattaching them. "While I'm no John browning, I am quite happy with this design. This is the C-20A modified canister rifle, firing a 25mm cartridge that can be swapped between several options of bullet using the attached 12 round box magazine. Capable of accurately hitting a target at up to 3 km, with an auto adjust scope and self zeroing system, as well as attached suppressor to make this rifle near whisper silent even while firing at its maximum rate of 150 rounds per minute. While intended for long range villain capture or detainment using a variety of modified cartridges, it can fire standard NATO 25mm rounds for anti-material or in extreme cases anti-personnel situations." Melissa grimaces at her final statement before looking to the judges for questions.
Snipe whistles lightly as she explains the rifle. "Well done little lady, you've created quite the rifle here, I can see that you've forgone any picatinny rails and instead have this thin membrane around all but the optic and muzzle, any reason for that?"
"Would you mind if I gave a more practical demonstration for this part? I can leave the weapon unloaded and point it away if you would like?"
"That'd be fine, Miss Shield." Nezu speaks up, interested in what she's planning to show.
Sarah smirks as Melissa hands her the weapon and removes her blouse and skirt to show off the bodysuit underneath which looked to be leggings and an undershirt prior to being revealed. As Sarah hands the weapon back and Melissa flips a switch on her visor she and her rifle slip from the visible plane with only a light wisping haze in the air displaying where she is located as she speaks up.
"The C-20A rifle is designEd to be used in tandem with my next invention to display, underlayer to the full Hostile Environment Suit or skinsuit. It is a polymer light-refracting nano-fiber suit that I have designed in conjunction with Momo Yaoyorozu and Sarah Kerrigan which is intended to hide the user from view and allow for infiltration and dispatch of critical enemy encampments or fortifications." As she fades back into the visible spectrum with a slight hexagonal haze before she's fully revealed.
"Currently I'm just wearing the underlayer as I have not finalized my personal set of armor plates for this design, but we do have a set created for Momo Yaoyorozu based on Sarah's carapace mutation which can withstand up to a 12 gauge slug at point blank range, or a shot from the C-20A at a minimum of 100 meters and would assist with defense in close quarters or from long ranges if spotted as it would be camouflaged by the suit as well."
Majima's eyes are wide, and while Snipe's are hidden behind his mask are hidden from displaying his shock. "Young lady, we would be accepting you to this school based on these two inventions alone, however I do see that there is another case we have yet to see." Nezu is the first to recover and barely hides his excitement over having such a bright young woman in front of himself. "Would you mind displaying your remaining item for us?"
"Right, yes sir." She sets the rifle down on the table and opens the final case to display a robotic woman's torso and face that seems to lead into wires for her hair as well as appendages and lower torso. "This is the adjutant, she's a non-sapient artificial intelligence advisor and assistant."
"While currently she's offline, when connected to a building or facilities systems she acts as a system-wide administrator and personal assistant who can be connected and command up to 12,000 robotic units simultaneously to perform various functions ranging from as simple as fixing and retrieving a cup of coffee all the way up to performing simultaneous war games with participants or dispatching robots for base defense."
"Incredible work, have you noticed any issues or errors in her functions so far?" Nezu asks as Snipe and Majima go over the technical data booklets that Sarah has handed them.
"So far the only things of real note are that she will always refer to me as an administrator, and that her social skills are lower, similar to that of a human with Aspergers or in that range on the autism spectrum. While this could be considered a defect and corrected, I as well as Sarah and Momo felt that she’s fine just the way she is, as all other roles and functions perform optimally and adjusting her functions to improve socialization are uncomfortable trade-offs when considering her personality core."
"A fine deduction and I appreciate your care for a non-human entity, even if she is non sapient. Perhaps we can discuss installing her into the UA facility during your first term as a student here." He claps his hands as Melissa nods. "Wonderful, how about we adjourn for tea while Majima and Snipe finalize the last Few participants."
Snipe grumbles light-heartedly as his boss ditches him. "Midnight, would you mind handing Snipe your clipboard and coming with us for tea?" Nezu smiles as Snipe grumbles louder and reads over the names. "Boss, you just have these ones listed as all failing."
"Correct Snipe, they are lacking in the qualities that UA is looking for in our students, give them a cursory interview and wish them well in their next endeavors at another school system." Nezu climbs onto Midnight's shoulder as they exit the room, Sarah one again carrying Adjutant's case and the rifle's sealed case, a now dressed Melissa following them out of the room.
Once settled into Nezu's office for tea, Nezu asks as she pours everyone's cup. "So, we have a few things to discuss today based on your overwhelming qualifications to attend UA Miss Shield. Firstly we can go over your schedule, followed by the potential installation of an adjutant system, then finally we can discuss Miss Kerrigan's quirk. Does that sound agreeable, ladies?"
"It is Principal." Sarah nodded her head as Melissa responded.
"Wonderful! Now, Miss Shield, as we are both aware you have passed several college level courses and so this admission would act more as a transfer from your previous institution rather than a first time enrollment. In this case I would be happy to offer you the opportunity for dual enrollment in one of our other programs in your second year if you would like, as you would not need to participate in the general education courses that are required for the first two years of a degree here in our courses. How does that sound?"
Melissa smiles brightly at the principal and asks a question that Momo and Sarah have been pushing her towards based on her childhood dream. "That would be lovely sir, as I understand it your Heroics course does not have a restriction on quirkless students from applying, is that correct?"
"Why yes, we do accept quirkless applicants to the program, though we have yet to have an applicant under the updated policy. I would be happy to allow you to participate in the entrance exam for heroics next year if you would like. We have also updated the policies last year to allow support items built by the soley applicant and approved by majima and myself or approved by the board of directors and myself."
"Wonderful, I look forward to being your first quirkless hero student then."
Nezu laughs, nearly spilling his tea. "I am looking forward to it then. Now that we have that settled, I would like to install one of the adjutant systems in my school facilities, for this year we can set myself as the administrator and add my teachers at a later time if needed. As classes begin in three weeks, would you mind arriving in two weeks time to complete the installation? You will have all UA resources available to assist with getting this installed by the school year, and I am willing to pay for both the unit and rushed installation."
Melissa's eyes momentarily are blinded by dollar signs as she mentally plans the install. "Absolutely, we can discuss the pricing once it's installed, though I will take a bit off as I will be a required administrator in the systems as well. I can provide several of my own bot designs for Adjutant if you would like as well."
"You have a deal, Miss Shield. Finally, Miss Kerrigan, based on what Miss Shield has shared, may I presume that your quirk is just your mutation aspects?"
"That's correct sir, I believe my quirk has hit singularity as both of my parents possess complex 6th generation quirks and my quirk is too complex to be a simple quirk on its own. I believe that the quirk singularity theory is incorrect in the second half of its assumption. Rather than quirks becoming too powerful for the body of a human, the human will instead mutate and their body will adapt to be able to withstand their quirk, as well as quirks will become more and more complex as they evolve."
Nezu nods as Sarah continues. "My quirk has several aspects to it, I have my bone wings and tail which are both prehensile, my carapace is bullet resistant up to .45 acp rounds. My muscles are as strong as the average strength quirk. I can also summon creatures based on the essence collected from recently ingested foods, however I can mold and shape those essences into different creatures that can persist for an indefinite time-frame so long as they are fed and can have wildly different effects based on the essences selected for the creatures."
Nezu looks more and more intrigued as she continues. "Do you also plan to apply to UA's Heroics course next year?"
"That's correct Principal, I plan to create an agency that could rival All Might as the symbol of peace as Japan will not be ready for him to retire. He's been the number one hero for 15 years, and while his public age has not been shared, based on sports festival history and that he and Endeavor both began Heroics around the same time, All Might is likely to retire in the next five to ten years."
"I plan to introduce myself, Momo, and Sarah onto the heroics field as leaders in the Heroics industry, as well as some of our potential classmates during our UA years that we build a rapport with, to show the public that even when All Might retires, we will be here to shoulder the pillar he leaves behind." Sarah's eyes burn with determination as she finishes her impromptu speech.
"You are quite right that All Might may retire soon, however I do like your plan of creating more than one symbol of peace for the future. Perhaps a foundation of good heroes will be what Japan needs to safeguard the future. Regardless I believe we may have gotten off topic a bit, I look forward to having you attend UA in the coming years Miss Kerrigan. As for now, I believe we may end our discussion here for today. Congratulations again on your acceptance Miss Shield, I look forward to the great things you create here at my school. Miss Kerrigan, I look forward to your future in heroics alongside Miss Shield and Miss Yaoyorozu."
The two girls bow their heads before collecting their things and leaving the office. As the door closes behind them, Midnight speaks up. "Interesting girls, always nice to see such passionate youth." She huffs a laugh. "Still, her quirk sounds incredibly powerful."
"It is, and it's a good thing those two and their friend intend to be heroes, by the sounds of it and from recorded instances of her quirk, the singularity is likely happening as we speak for children and their quirks." He looks darkly into his tea."It's much sooner than expected. Perhaps there will only be a few singularity quirks this year, but soon we will start to see more and more of them."
"What is the quirk singularity anyway?" Midnight asks. "Like, I get that her quirk is powerful, but…" she trails off as nezu answers her. "The quirk singularity is a doomsday theory from a few generations ago, the assumption that as quirks grow stronger and stronger at the rapid pace they have been, they will become too strong for the human body and children will die as their quirks come in too powerful for their bodies"
"Well, hopefully her quirk isn't an outlier then, We'll have to see I guess."
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Two weeks later finds Melissa, Momo, and Sarah finalizing the installation on the adjutant system for UA.
Sarah wipes her brow as she says. "Alright Mel, that's the final power check done."
"Same for the connectors and cables." Momo says.
"Great, hitting the power now." Melissa flips the final breaker before closing and locking the case.
After a few moments of waiting several cords shake as the Adjutant's servos adjust and run self-checks before her eyes open and display bright blue irises. "Adjutant online, good afternoon, Mistress. All systems nominal and integration complete. How may I assist you today?" Adjutant says with a monotone feminine voice.
"Gods fucking damnit Sarah why did you and Momo force that to be my title?" Melissa mutters and shakes her head before addressing the Adjutant. "Good afternoon Adjutant, run full systems self check."
"Yes Mistress, System self check initiated…processing…complete, no major faults found, minor errors found… integrating deadman systems in all exterior facilities… minor errors corrected in two hours, ten minutes….potential error identified, no alternate administrators aside from Mistress. Would you like to add administrators now?"
The Adjutant twitches and shakes slightly while processing the self check before settling down and only lightly moving to help simulate a conversation. Melissa notes on her clipboard all adjustments and changes noted in the self check before responding. "Yes Adjutant, before we add those, download a copy of the self check log and email it to me in our secure system. Add administrator: name: Nezu. Username: Rat God. Set temporary password R4t_0verl0rd. Require password change upon first login. Prevent username change by user. Grant all other permissions except removal of myself as administrator."
"Completed Mistress. Are there any other tasks I may assist with at this time?"
Melissa shakes her head. "No, thank you Adjutant." Melissa collects her tools and helps Sarah off the floor as they make their way to the principal's office. Sarah and Momo split off to wait by the gate after confirming their lunch plans with Melissa.
At Nezu's office Melissa raises her hand to knock as Nezu opens the door just before her knuckles can land. "Well played Principal. Adjutant, Identify Nezu."
Adjutant's voice comes over the speaker above his desk. "Good afternoon Rat God. Please update your password to begin."
"She's all set up and connected to the facility, just ask for her and she'll respond to you and I right now, you can add any additional admins you would like later, and I would suggest running through her tutorials when you get a chance. Oh, and she installed a few deadman signals in the exterior facilities, so all admins will be notified should connection to a location be cut or limited. Just as a precaution. Anyway, Please let me know if you need anything that Adjutant can't fix for you."
"Thank you again for the quick installation Miss Shield, the payment for the Adjutant system will be in your account shortly. Enjoy your classes at UA and the rest of your day."
Melissa waves as she leaves. "A pleasure doing business with you Rat God."
"Hmmm." Nezu looks at the speakers above his desk. "Adjutant, please run a full tutorial for me."
"Yes Rat God. Beginning program tutorial_01."
Nezu sighs as a holographic loads on his desk. "Well played Miss Shield."
#Graphic Depictions Of Violence#Dehaka/Izsha#Sarah Kerrigan#Yaoyorozu Momo Yaoyorozu#Momo's Parents#Dehaka (StarCraft)#Izsha (StarCraft)#Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence#Crossover#starcraft elements in mha#changes to how the swarm works as a quirk#Quirk Shenanigans (My Hero Academia)#Yaoyorozu Momo is a Good Friend#Ghost (Starcraft) Momo Yaoyorozu#Queen of Blades - Freeform#my hero academia#mha#starcraft
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I don’t play WoW but I used to play Overwatch and Diablo and this touches on just the general issues that are inside of Activision Blizzard right now regarding the major decline of World of Warcraft and how they’re losing to Final Fantasy XIV, how if the latest WoW expansion or Overwatch 2 flop as they’re projected to do then Blizzard’s most definitely going to pivot almost entirely to mobile games, and how the differences in age demographics are actually dividing the company into multiple camps.
It’s important to note two things: 1) this could be fake but also 2) the link came from Grummz, a former team lead on WoW and producer on Diablo II and Starcraft. It still could be fake despite this, but if he’s sharing it then I feel like there’s at least some measure of truth in this.
Transcription below in case this gets deleted and/or you don’t wanna click the link. Warning, it’s fairly long.
“I’m dropping this here after getting chewed out for three hours over shit the chewee did at work so fuck it. Assume larp and let me vent.”
>Shadowlands is a shitshow. Critical response, Player drop off and just about every engagement metric outside of cash shop have been catastrophic. No higher up expected this because of their “we are too big to fail, if we built it they will come” mentality. They refuse to accept their focus on the world being a begrudged mechanic to funnel players to raiding is not appealing to the player base at large because it appeals to them. They have spent the last 4 months trying to course correct but there is no solid direction and the response to 9.1 has only made things worse.
>Sylvanas is planned to replace the Arbiter despite so many people in the company and god knows how many online saying this would be a total replication of Kerrigans storyline in Starcraft 2 that killed none competitive interest in the brand entirely and you can only go “no, no they WILL like it eventually” for so many real world years before its time to change course. Thus far that has not happened.
>The elephant in the room is FFXIV. To the people in charge they are acting like this came out of nowhere and don’t even seem to understand why its drawing players away in their tens of thousands. We have all tried to highlight things it is doing that are clearly appealing to an mmo audience and not, in my opinion, focussing more on mobile game style retention traps to keep MAU users and habit forming personalities logging in. Its not that they don’t care. They just seem so pig headed and digging their heels in with their fingers in their ears thinking all the problems will go away because WoW is “too big to fail”, there will never be real competition and “they will keep coming back”. But they aren’t coming back anymore. Not in the numbers they used to.
>The people making the spending choices know this. The new model for WoW is market the hell out of a expansion pack for a huge quarter then use 6 month lock ins to pad numbers for the quarters after that. Even if corona had not happened 9.1 still would have been dropping after the initial 6 month subs expired to “keep the chain holding”.
>The mood in the company is tense but also very much “its just a rough transition period”. Activision has been pushing hard for Blizzard to release more regular product and to generate more income per user. As far as i know this is going to be a transition over the next 5 years to a much larger mobile/tablet gaming focus. By all accounts not just WoW but Overwatch was intended to be the moneymaker in the interim but once again someone had the bright idea to kill a game casual players loved on the alter of e-sports hoping for another Brood War. From what i hear the “told you so’s” were loud and a lot of people walked beyond Kaplan.
>The sentiment that was shared quietly in private but being spoken more often is simply that the leadership at Blizzard are not bad people, nor incompetent people but people who had to fill seats left when the old guard jumped ship wether they were suited for it or not. Brack is a genuinely good man out of his depth, Ion is a fantastic raid designer put in charge of designing a virtual world he has no interest or real ideas for and so on. They have been taking form the roles they excel at to be put in positions where they get to do far less of that purely because there is nobody left with the experience to do so and the trickle down is a lack of concrete direction, ambition and focus.
>2021 has seen the playerbase, media and gaming at large “turn” on WoW to a degree i don’t think the leads in their “positivity dojo” bubble considered possible. Its gone from people going “This is how Blizz needs to fix WoW!” to “WoW is no longer salvageable, time for greener pastures” and i think on some level this was never considered as a possibility so there have never been any major plans beyond the usual “try and minimise player drop off by arranging releases around competitors launching updates/products”. The official forums being filled with talk of FFXIV and worse “why do we actually pay a sub?” hasn’t helped.
>There have been some testing the waters lately from certain higher ups if we can remove the line “No King Rules Forever”. Read into that what you will.
>There are still arguments going on about the Kael’thas Voice actor shitshow. I don’t know much about it but i know its heated, wouldn’t be the first time a knee jerk reaction only seemed to generate bad press. We lost a noticeable amount of pvp engagement after the Swifty thing.
>The Preach interview was treated as a disaster and there was talk of more strongly vetting interviewers for “bad actors” and only engaging with a list of questions Blizzard provides. Some pointed out that could just be used to create some form of Fireside Chat akin to the FFXIV “Live letters” but that fell on deaf ears.
>The two sentiments right now among the team are either “we really need a win” or “theres a dedicated cabal of internet trolls out to kill WoW”. Right now we are crunching hard to get 9.2 ready to wrap up the jailors storyline so we can get an expansion out early 2022. If that doesn’t happen there are talks of major shakeups coming down from Activision that have been threatened for a few years now. Its an all hands on deck feeling thats been around to some degree since the “Is this an out of season April Fools Joke” Blizzcon. A make or break deadline is coming closer and things like Diablo 4 were not planned before then. Blizzard needs a significant win not just in initial profit but consumer goodwill. Nobody likes working at what the public now seems to see as “the bad guy” of the mmo industry.
>This has also made new hires decline. Not significantly but the “you WANT Blizzard on your resume” line doesn’t seem to have the appeal it used to. This has lead to more hiring via friend of a friend, to some rumblings about nepotism, and people severely lacking in experience “because they get great twitter optics”.
>On the topic of Twitter we are not being told to “disengage” from it. Multiple employees like Nervig and Holisky publicly attacking paying customers because they got too heated and couldn’t keep quiet is bad press that could have been avoided. A email reminder has gone around more than once lately stating “if you are not customer relations you should not be representing the company to customers, especially if you cannot remain professional”.
>Lastly the biggest elephant in the room is “yo’ boy” Asmongold. The newer hires cannot stand him. They have used terms like “toxic masculinity” and “dogwhistles to dangerous males” while some of the oldest crowd still remaining have called him “based” or “telling it like it is” which has lead to friction to put it mildly. People are told not to talk about him and the recent FFXIV stuff only made it all worse. The idea that an outside element can have such an effect on the product genuinely upsets people. Like Zach is engaging in some malicious act of cyberwarfare. Many of us have point out the now famous quotes by Naoki Yoshida about understanding that players will drift and we need to make something worth coming back to because they want to but some people for lack of a better word see out customers -or “consumers” as they refer to them nowadays- as some kind of antagonistic relationship where the goal is not being an entertainer putting on a show for a crowd but some kind of game hunter trying to trap a large, profitable kill. I wish i could blame Activision but this is a sentiment from more of the younger crowd than the “tech boomers”. Which personal opinion is probably why so many folks like Metzen and Morheim left.
>Before you ask, yes the topic of “wokeness” has shown up in group talks. Its not all some grand sjw conspiracy, people really do want to feel welcome and represented. However the “we need everything veto’ed by people not working on it to see if its inoffensive and bland enough” rubs some of us the wrong way. Like anything in life you can take something too far and lose sight of the core ideals and with everything gone on since Blitzchung it feels like people are forming little factions to pull people in different directions to decide “What Blizzards identity is now” and how to appeal to new players. There has been some drop offs with “go woke go broke” as the only answer in the survey when unsubbing but honestly we are losing subs in unforseen numbers anyway and still making more money than ever through cash shop “heavy users” so it honestly doesn’t make an impact.
>All in all things are rough right now. Blizzard doesn’t have the love of the customers anymore, is no longer treated as an industry giant and while D4,D2R and Immortal aren’t going to kill Diablo even if they fail the sentiment for World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 are a lot more tense and stressful. The phrase “it might be good to brush up on your mobile development portfolio if we get another underperformer” has been doing the rounds a lot. If Shadowlands continues its stark decline and Overwatch 2 is looking to underperform like its current projections suggest i think the Blizzard of a few years from now will be imitating King a lot more than trying to learn any lessons from Square Enix’s mmo division.
#random#video games#Blizzard#Activision#WoW#World of Warcraft#Diablo#Overwatch#Starcraft#Activision Blizzard
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{Day 20} Run Away With Me | Suga x Reader
Pairing: Sugawara Koshi x Gn!Reader
Genre: fluff, chaotic, impulsive Suga
WC: 1k
Warnings: none :) I’m in love with this man :)
⍋⋆*❅｡. 25 days of fic-mas mlist .｡❅*⋆⍋
California dreams here we come,
Romeo is calling for Juliet,
ready, set....
— Run Away With Me; The Mad Ones (music and lyrics by Brian Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan)
The sharp, insistent rap on your front door startles you from your position on the couch.
When you open the door, your boyfriend stumbles through the threshold and straight past you into your front room, looking a little uncharacteristically disheveled.
“Suga!” you exclaim, perplexed but happy to see him. “What’re you doing here? I wasn’t expe–” he cuts you off with a firm kiss, your words dying in his mouth as his hand comes up to grasp your cheek. Warm breath whooshes against your lips and you find yourself wrapping your arms around his waist, prolonging the kiss. His lips are feverish, insistent against yours and you sense an urgency to them.
When Suga pulls away, your lips disconnecting with a sweet pop, he keeps his forehead pressed against yours and your entire body feels warm and fuzzy despite the way your heart had started to beat faster at the whirlwind of his appearance. You smile up at him but his chestnut eyes stay closed. His hands move up your sides and over your arms, coming to rest on the outsides of your shoulders, his thumbs rubbing shakily back and forth across your collarbone.
“Let me catch my breath,” he starts, eyes still closed. You disconnect your arms from his waist and wrap them around his neck instead, taking a deep breath with him.
“This is really hard,” his voice is soft, making your heart drop into your stomach. You swallow. What’s going on?
“Do you want to sit down?” you ask, your voice lower than you expect. He presses his lips together and nods, his mouth tense. You’ve never seen him quite like this before. You want to take his hand and lead him over to the couch but something about his posture dissuades you. Instead, you take hesitant steps back to your seat. The air feels tighter around you and you just want him to tell you what’s going on.
Suga sits down and faces you, tucking one foot under his knee as his other leg remains planted on the ground. He takes another deep breath and his hands find yours, comfortably resting between your adjacent knees. You feel some of the tension in your shoulders release at the touch of his soft fingers. You wait.
“Y/n,” he starts. His sepia-colored eyes are intently focused on your face and you almost find it hard to hold his gaze, tempted to glance down at your connected hands instead. “I don’t always have the perfect thing to say, but I want to try—I want you to know...what I’m thinking.”
“I do too,” you encourage, rubbing your thumb over the back of his knuckles. His thoughts are moving a thousand miles per hour and God, this should be so simple for him to say. It should be as easy as waking up, because though this impulse is new, he’s felt this way about you for so long now. He wants to move a hand up to cup your face, to bring you closer—maybe kiss you again—but the feeling of your hands in his grounds him a little, so he just squeezes your fingers a little tighter. He sucks in a deep breath, his eyes glistening.
“Run away with me,” he says abruptly, his body tensing as he leans forward to gauge your honest reaction. You blink twice, barely managing to keep your jaw from falling open.
“I wanna be your ride out of town,” he continues quickly, attempting to smooth over any of your doubts. “I’m serious, let’s just get out of here!” His grip on your hands is even tighter now, his eyes glassy.
“I—what—where??” you stutter, incredulously, unsure if this is all an elaborate joke just to see what you would say. You wouldn’t put it past him.
“Anywhere—it doesn’t matter—America, Texas, Germany—wherever we want!” he’s excited now, his eyes crinkling in the way you love. His smile always fills you with warmth and despite the insanity of his words, now is no exception.
“Let’s go,” he says with an emphatic shake of your hands, “just get on the road and drive. We can go anywhere. I’ll figure it all out baby, I just want you with me,” Suga’s heart races as he spills his dream to you, desperate to be anywhere you are, the idea of driving down an interstate, one hand on the wheel and one on your thigh as you listen to the radio is all he’s been able to think about the past few weeks.
“I know it’s fast, and yeah it sounds crazy but....God, I’m just so crazy for you, Y/n!” he practically gushes, bringing his other leg underneath him eagerly and shifting so he’s sitting on his knees. His chest seems to swell and he falls back onto the couch a little, shaking his head and smiling. “I just...” he exhales, gently tracing his fingertips up your forearm. “I can just see us...running away, and finding somewhere we wanna be, and building a little house there and just...baby I love you so much it makes me nuts,” he half-laughs through the last sentence, his eyes holding fast to yours, brimming with love. “C’mon, don’t you wanna run away with me? We can just get out of here!”
Your eyes must have been wide, because just as you open your mouth to try to formulate some semblance of a response, Suga jumps in again, which you are grateful for because your mouth had yet to catch up with your racing thoughts.
“I’m not trying to make you a wife or anything—yet—I mean, I don’t want to tie you down. I just want to try it. To up and leave and figure it out as we go and maybe make some new kind of life for ourselves.”
Suga pauses, giving you a chance to think. His body softens as he relaxes into the couch, feeling as though a weight has been lifted off his shoulders even though he hasn’t heard your answer yet.
“Say the word, and you know I’m already there, baby.” He brushes a strand of hair from your face. “Wherever it is, as long as I’m with you, I’ll be happy,” he assures you, his smile full of warmth.
“What do you think?” he asks.
A/n: this song makes me WEEEEEEPY and the idea of Suga singing it to me?? I haven’t been the same since. To be fully honest I don’t know a THING about the musical it’s from other than it’s about Samantha Brown. But God this song is just so expressive....Suga IS my comfort character and I DO imagine him singing this to me ALL the time. Good night folks.
taglist: @slutawara @musicgetsmeoutofbed @azo-musxas @tsumurai @ghostlydiamond135 @animeboysimppp @starshaped-raindrops @harokat
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“You’re such a dork.” for the emotional writing prompts! I don't know anything about critical role, really, so for TMA :)
I spy, with my little eye, Bryce’s attempts to shove her own interests into her fics. Anyways, I am an American in college so I was basing this on my own experiences oops. Enjoy!
Date night was Wednesday evenings. Jon and Martin both found it preferable for a variety of reasons; it was the most likely nights for happy hours at the pubs in town, guaranteeing a cheap drink, and keeping to a weekday night minimized the chance of Jon seeing one of his students out. He hated seeing his students. Not that he hated them of course, he really rather liked them…not that they would ever know that. Being a professor, of parapsychology of all things, was rather rewarding. He knew the content inside and out (it felt good, using the mark of The Eye to actively work against it, to pass along information instead of consuming). And they didn’t seem to mind him either.
That was the thing about university students. They really didn’t care about who he was or where he came from. The fact that he was a scrawny, scarred Englishman in a lecture hall in Scotland didn’t matter to them. In the classroom, all they cared was whether he taught the material well (he did) and was kind to those with late assignments (he was. He had been a university student once too; he remembered the anxiety and depression that took him and his mates in waves). He was a good professor; Jon knew that objectively in the marks his students received. But in the subjective? His student had decided they liked him.
This had dawned on him at the end of his first semester; when he was inundated with emails of sincere thank-you for a great semester, for being such a helpful teacher, for taking the time to help review, et cetera. Martin had grinned at him, poking a tongue out his mouth and making some remark about teacher’s pets coming full circle (Jon was never a teacher’s pet though. He had always asked too many questions. He welcomed those questions with open arms now, to be the teacher he hadn’t had.)
The next semester it had been more obvious that students liked him now that he knew where to look. It was in the open “good-mornings” and questions about his weekend plans, and in the fact that he had the best attendance records of his department. It was in the way they asked genuine questions about his material and the waitlists miles long to get into his sections. Later on, it was in the gentle ribbings about his looking tired and the grey hairs even as they celebrated his fortieth birthday with him, bringing in cupcakes and sneaking in between lectures to decorate his office and the sincere questions over his scars, his life, his relationship with Martin (his introductory lecture always featured Martin and Her Regency, their thick orange tabby). To make eight wonderful semesters short, he was familiar with his students, and they weren’t afraid to be familiar back. Which was wonderful in the classroom and all, but not when he was trying have a relaxing evening with his husband.
Which brings them back to Wednesdays. Wednesdays were the days least likely to have students out in town, he had learned from Dr. Kerrigan, the positive psych professor, because Thirsty Thursdays started off the weekend’s partying and drinking for the undergraduates. Wednesday was the day students, in theory, buckled down to finish homework and give themselves a free weekend.
So here they were, Martin in a collared shirt, printed with tiny flowers, and jeans, hair bleached white from the Lonely and curling softly at his temples; Jon in a slouchy ribbed turtleneck and high-waisted pants, his own thick curls half-piled atop his head. Jon was listening intently as Martin spoke animatedly, talking about his own day as a guidance counselor at the local primary school.
“…and I swear Jon, if it wasn’t bad enough that Kimmy has decided never to speak to Lawrence again, now Lawrence has confided in me that he is positively in love with her.”
“Did he say that verbatim? In love, I mean.”
“I mean, no, but he said he was willing to give her all his Squishmallows for a playdate. Squishmallows. That’s real eight-year-old commitment, right there.”
Jon barked out a laugh and put on a puppy-eyed expression, grinning all the while. “Martin Blackwood, do you hereby take Jonathan Sim’s stuffed animals, to have and to ho-”
A gentle swat to the knee with Martin’s shoe cut Jon off. “Oi! Respect my children. They may be fools but its not their faults their brains aren’t developed yet. And yes, I know, ‘they’re not developed ‘til twenty-five and you can argue that your students’ brains aren’t developed either.’ But it’s different. They’re babies.”
“And I’m the All-Knowing One,” Jon mused thoughtfully around a forkful of food, earning him another love-filled kick.
“Speaking of,” Martin pointed to Jon with his glass, eyeing him deliberately. “Midterms next week, yeah? How do you think it’ll go?”
Jon shrugged, scratching at the back of his neck. “Alright, I hope. First exam went well but could’ve been better. I’m worried about Avonni, honestly, he’s nodded off a few times in class and I’m not confident he has someone to get the material from.”
“He has you.” A pointed, snow-white eyebrow.
“Right, but sometimes students don’t want to ask for notes because they think I’ll say no. Maybe I should email him. Speaking of email! Did I tell you what Suzanne sent out?”
“Oh no, what?”
They carried on like this through their meal and into dessert, and not for the first time Jon was struck by the sheer normalcy of it all. His greatest concerns were Suzanne’s passive-aggressive emails and his students, not the inevitable destruction of reality as they knew it to be. They were scarred, inside and out, everyone who had escaped The Magnus Institute was, but they were safe and free and happy. In defiance of everything that had happened to and because of them.
“Dr. Sims!”
Uh oh. Spoke too soon.
Bite of lava cake halfway to his mouth, Jon squeezed his eyes shut, rolling his eyes back in his head and willing there to be another professor with the surname Sims in the restaurant. When he opened his eyes, Martin was valiantly trying to suppress a smile as he eyed something, someone, over his head. Jon twisted awkwardly in his seat to see—
“Parker. What a surprise.” His voice was warm but carefully measured, and the dark-skinned boy waved, shit-eating grin on his face. “I have told you that you can call me Jon.”
“Yeah, I know, but you earned that doctorate! And “Doctor Jon” sounds awful, like you should have your own show or something.”
He hadn’t earned that doctorate, actually, but Martin’s expertise in lying and the disastrous apocalypse that had left everyone disoriented meant it had been easy to exaggerate some of Jon’s CV and manufacture a fake diploma.
“I do have my own show. Monday and Wednesday mornings, where I teach a bunch of caffeinated undergrads parapsychology,” Jon replied easily. “You’re welcome to tune in.” He liked Parker; he was a bit of a class clown, liked to ask off-topic questions or pretend to sneak a look at Jon’s answer sheets, but he was sharp and knew his stuff. Jon respected that. He reminded Jon of someone he dearly missed.
But Parker had already turned his attention to Martin, who was watching the interaction with mirth in his eyes. “Hello sir! I’m Parker McMichael, Jon’s favorite student.” Martin shook the extended hand and nodded in mock seriousness.
“Of course. Pleasure to finally meet you. Are you the one with the essay on ESP or the one on psychokinesis?”
“Neither,” Parker shook his head proudly, short dreads swaying gently with the movement. “The Validity and Continuity of Near-Death Experiences,” he made a mock marquee with his hands, arching curved fingers to indicate the title hanging in the air. “Researching any consistencies in near-death experiences stories, whether they’re legitimate, and what they mean if they are. But-” Parker shook his head and turned his attention back to Jon. “That’s not why I’m interrupting.” He took his phone out of pocket idly as he spoke. “I’m afraid I’ve come to settle a dispute among the 11 a.m. section.”
Oh no.
The Ceaseless Watcher whispered to him, unbidden, the dispute in question. Jon generally knew how to suppress the powers, and they were weaker than they had been, once upon a time, but when he’s caught off guard with the desire to know, to Know, it could still overtake him.
“This you?” A blurry screenshot of a Youtube video is shoved under his nose, a part of a text chain titled Sim’s Spoopy Spirits, captioned by many text bubbles expressing disbelief and objections and a variety of emojis. Jon took the phone and examined it, the truth already sure in his chest. Yes, that was him, dressed in his Jonny d’Ville costume, eyeliner streaked and eyes closed, mid-ballad. God, he wished he could be rid of those Youtube videos.
Jon’s gaping silence must have been enough of an answer for Parker because he whooped a little too loudly for the restaurant they were in and pumped his fist to his chest before typing very quickly on his phone. “I knew it! Take that Sabina,” he was mumbling to himself, lost in his texts for a moment.
Martin took the opportunity to clear his throat. “Sorry, uh, no one’s asked so I will. How did you know to look for him-us-here?” Jon frowned, He hadn’t thought about that.
“Oh, a couple of my mates work here and mentioned seeing Dr. Sims and his husband here a lot on Wednesdays and I dunno about you so much, but Dr. Sims is pretty habitual. Figured it was as good a guess as any. Some things can’t wait til Monday.”
“..an email. Parker. You could’ve sent me an email.” Fingers ran over scarred face, as if he could wipe the irritation (and Martin’s poorly-hidden laugh) from existence.
“But then I couldn’t do this.” His phone was back up again, level with his own face and he twisted so both his own and Jon’s faces were in the shot. “I’m here at 7:02 pm on Wednesday the 26, here to make a very important announcement,” Parker spoke to the camera with confidence. “Dr. Sims just confirmed to me that he is the one, the only, Jonny d’Ville.” Parker held the camera to Jon’s voice. “Anything to say to your adoring fans?”
Jon sighed and tugged on an errant curl. “Don’t forget, reading due Monday.” He wasn’t genuinely upset with Parker, just filled with fond embarrassment.
Parker sent the video off and clapped the back of Jon’s chair. “Well, Dr. D’Ville, its been a pleasure. Everyone’s really excited to get a confirmation on your status of coolest teacher. Any plans for the evening?”
Jon sighed through his lower lip, stray curls framing his scalp flying upward in the sudden burst of wind. “Watching a documentary and trying to forget—wait. What?”
“Oh yeah no, everyone thinks it’s badass. You’ve got a super nice voice and the stories you told were really interesting, if a little buckwild.”
Jon felt his cheeks flush and Martin grinned slyly at him from across the table. “Y-Yes. I guess we were rather good.”
Parker gave his farewells and Jon’s shoulders sagged (he had immediately righted his posture on seeing Parker, his grandmother’s voice in his ear reminding him of his manners), turning his full attention back to his husband. Martin had maintained that grin and was eyeing him intensely, like he expected Jon to say something.
“What, Martin?”
“God, you’re such a dork.” The words were soft, expression fond, and Jon could feel the radiation of unadulterated love Martin gave off in his smile, the one only ever used for Jon. “You really love your students, don’t you? You know how much they love you, right?”
Jon grumbled, but he couldn’t quite sweep the smile off his face either as their waiter made his way over with their check.
“No comment. But we are switching to Tuesday date nights.”
#tma#tma fanfic#the magnus archives#prompts#date night#jmart#jonathan sims#martin blackwood#fanfic to a tea
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[ margot robbie, female, she/her ] — agnes street wouldn’t be the same today if it wasn’t for déjà vu night club . do you know that seneca rolfe works there as a performer? they are thirty and they look like the kind of person who has stolen from the bottle service at work more than once. , whenever i see them, plastic doll by lady gaga starts to play inside my head. maybe it is the vibe they give off, soft glam, insta baddie, cracked veneer ; you know ?
Hi all! I’m Payton (she/hers), 29, and excited to be here! No, Seneca isn’t a carbon copy of Harley Quinn, and yes, her character is based on a less resilient Nancy Kerrigan (also I created this character before I, Tonya came out...). I can’t wait to meet everyone!
Seneca Rolfe was born the only child to the Rolfe family, an affluent couple in the Northeast. Her parents valued discipline, excellence, and had specific ideas of who their daughter would become. This might have been a challenging set of circumstances had Seneca not entered the world with a certain idea of who she would become herself. At the young age of four, and with plenty of family income to spare on their daughter’s enrichment, Seneca announced with a certain sense of finality on the matter that she would become an ice skater. From the moment she laced up her first set of skates, she was a natural on the ice.
The young girl's natural proclivity on the ice quickly evolved to natural skill to excellence with a keen sense of competition. By her early teens, Seneca had gained a hard earned reputation in the sport by the time she began to compete on the national stage. With national title after national title, it became an expectation that her career would lead her to compete at the Olympic level, a dream that was realized in her late teens.
With a few years of preparation on the horizon before her Olympic debut, Seneca began to push herself harder and harder. The weight of her parents' expectations weighed more and more heavily on her shoulders as well. The few wells of friendships she had with peers outside of the sport dried up. An early, first love suffered a break up for a lack of free time to spend together. The half days of homeschooling turned into pressure just to take a GED test or find some other way to call high school a wrap in order to focus more and more time on training. For others, this may have been suffocating, but Seneca’s world along with those in her camp became more and more of a tunnel vision focused only on a gold medal.
This was probably why she wasn’t as honest with her trainers about injuries as she ought to have been. One wrong landing on its own is one thing, but one wrong landing on a hip suffering consistent overuse, under-rehabilitated injuries, and on the brink of ruin saw her initial Olympic dreams shattered. While the solution to the injury was simple, the amount of time she would need to spend off the ice was lengthy. There would be other years, she was told again and again, there would be years and years to come of future Olympic games, but the feeling of defeat for the young athlete was all-consuming.
While Seneca did manage to make a return to the ice, there was a marked difference in her ability to perform. Despite her trained discipline, her hours of practice, and dedication to the craft her former greatness seemed somehow out of reach. A spot on the next Olympic team eluded her, and for a young woman who lived a life of little outside of competition, lofty expectations, and a monolith of a goal, there was only one answer: practice harder.
Chronic pain became a regular entity in her life again, her former injuries inflamed and angry. But she had always been through to push through. She would be in her early twenties by the time she would qualify for the summer games, and knew it would be her last chance. Her ambition swallowed her whole. Seneca, who once used to listen to the advice of her doctors and coaches and mentors, ignored their advice in favor of what she saw as her last opportunity for greatness. In her blind fury of a fight for acclaim, she burned her body out, destroying the very asset that would have brought her to her dream.
A torn labrum ended her next Olympic fight and this time the injury required major surgery. Seneca knew what no one would tell her--her career was over. For a young woman who had sacrificed relationships, education, and most other pleasures in life, this reality was devastating.
The pain from recovering from the surgery was dulled by the painkillers provided during her recovery. They dulled the mourning in the back of her mind for her wasted potential as well. As she left the hospital, she found that the pain was constant, chronic. Her body ached constantly from overuse and years of ignored injuries and her mind struggled to claw its way out of a deep pit of depression and unfulfilled dreams. Alcohol and opioids continued to numb the pain.
The rest of her twenties passed in a blur of disappointments, black outs, and drugged out fuzzy edges. With little education and few other skills, she found that even if she refused to set foot on the ice--if she wasn’t the best, it wasn’t worth it--she could at least make a passable living dancing. Most of her nights were once spent at the clubs working a pole and attempting to scrub out the disappointment of her life with booze and pills until she made her move to Islesbury. While she still is largely a mess, she’s managed to pull herself together enough to be able to stop pole dancing as an adult entertainer and engage in more artistically satisfying arts such as the aerial hoop, silks, and burlesque at Déjà Vu Nightclub.
Seneca, while internally feeling sorry for herself, presents outwardly as confident, cocky, and with a biting sense of humor. Perpetually incapable of taking much of anything too seriously, she can be secretive, defensive, and reckless largely because she keeps a wall up to try and distance herself from others. Although it may seem she refuses to take accountability for herself or work for a better situation for herself, she has from time to time been self-sacrificing and generous to others. She is protective of her past, finding it would be humiliating for others to know what a high achiever she had been in the past compared to how she lives her life as a substance dependent, self-loathing performer.
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your opinion on... musical theatre being adapted for film? which shows do you think are successful (favorites??) and which ones do you think really need to be told in their original format? which ones have not been adapted but you think would make a great film adaptation? (-phantomoftheorpheum)
OH YOU REALLY WANT AN ESSAY YOU GOT IT
I’m gonna put a divide here because I’m about to be my wordy bitch self to answer the first question alone
I have so many conflicting thoughts on this. I had the absolutely incredible opportunity to work in New York theatre before and as everything shut down (that was an experience but that’s an entirely separate story), so I’ve been able to talk to people who are more closely affected by the situation, too.
Overall, I think musical theatre should be adapted for film. Theatre is an art form with an incredibly unique and undeniable power when performed and experienced live. But it is not accessible the way it needs to be.
A show on Broadway is expensive in itself, and most consumers on Broadway are not living in New York, so they’re also expected to spend money on travel, lodging, food, and transportation around the city, in addition to presumably having to take time off work or otherwise away from their lives to make the trip. Seeing shows on Broadway are some of the most incredible things I’ve ever experienced, but I am very fortunate and these experiences come at a great cost to most people. So many people who want to visit Broadway are not able to.
There are of course tours and that’s great. But similarly, they’re not usually cheap, and they’re not always close to you. I’ve encountered countless people who drove and even spent the night in another city to see a touring show that wasn’t coming anywhere closer to them. You can always find local shows, too, and those can be so wonderful. But the fact stands that a majority of the theatre world is based in an exclusive area. The Tony Awards are a nationally broadcast and celebrated event, but so many people watching have never had the chance to see the shows the same way you’ve had the chance to hear songs before the Grammys.
So I think shows being adapted to film widens the audience in a very necessary way. But there are two ways to adapt to film. The first is the way we know many movie musicals, as a true adaptation, like Mamma Mia, Into the Woods, The Sound of Music, Annie, Hairspray, Rent, and Les Mis. I actually do really love these versions. (West Side Story is also iconic but they basically forced their actors into brown face so there’s your not so fun fact of the day.) I think it’s fun to see the show told truly inside the world that otherwise is at least partially left to the imagination in most cases. And being adapted in this way typically means that it will interest more of a regular movie audience, which is really great to help get the stories out into the world and get more recognition of these shows and the industry.
The other way to adapt to film is the way Hamilton and Legally Blonde did it, where they released a professionally recorded version of the original stage production. I think this needs to happen more often. The original team of a show deserves for their work to be seen as the original form of the show.
For example, I’m so excited that The Prom is getting a movie, and I think the star-studded cast will help it get a lot more attention and therefore help the story reach a lot of people who need it, and that’s wonderful. This story needs to be told and these characters need to offer representation to people who have never had the chance to see themselves onscreen like this before. But the original team deserved to be able to tell the story they’d been telling it. They were the ones who introduced the story to the world and they deserve to introduce it to the world on this bigger scale.
It would be wonderful to normalize that kind of adaptation, maybe even in addition to the total remake adaptation format. I don’t want to get rid of one in favor of the other. Both have their place and their purpose. I suppose it wouldn’t be very sensible to create two movie versions of every show, to capture it in both full adaptation and stage-to-screen format, but I would honestly be all for that.
Some shows have such important, beautiful, intentional staging that it couldn’t be translated any way other than a professional recording. (Some examples below.) So some shows might lend themselves best to only a professional recording and not a total adaptation, but while I would love for anything to have a total adaptation that worked well in that format, I would want the original production, too, because it’s what they deserve.
I think especially now as we adapt so much to virtual formats, we’ve stepped into a new era of theatre potential. Theatre can be performed live virtually, or it can be recorded and shared to be watched over and over again just like our favorite TV shows and movies. There is nothing like the intense, electric feel of a live performance, but that should not limit us from sharing the art in other ways. The argument that being able to see a show as a movie would make people less likely to go see it has frankly been proven wrong time and time again. People want to see the show live more and will if they are able. Otherwise, we helped someone see a show who couldn’t see it any other way, and isn’t that the point of theatre? Making a difference in people’s lives? Connecting people?
As for shows that would make great film adaptations...
Hadestown is one of the most popular shows, so I feel like people would love to see that. The original team deserves to have their version of the show immortalized and shared with the world. But I would also love to see what an adaptation could do with the set for the Underworld.
I would love to see Come From Away as a movie. I think the show is so so so so so well done in its format, I can’t even really imagine it as an adaptation other than as a professional recording of the show.
Similarly, If/Then is a story I think everyone could use but I can’t even imagine it outside of its stage format so I vote for a professional recording.
Spring Awakening could really be a helpful show for a lot of people to see, but hot take I want it to be Deaf West’s Spring Awakening. Michael Arden is an absolute genius and the whole world needs to see his version of the story told through the phenomenal team.
The Lightning Thief deserved to be nominated at this year’s Tonys and they deserve a professional recording to be shared with the world. And I mean if someone wanted to make a better version of the movie with this group, I’d be down.
Bandstand deserves to be shared with the world and actually was available virtually for a little bit and I want that to be true again. I can’t imagine that in any other form, either, because the staging of trauma is so powerful.
Waitress was a movie first but I want the stage version immortalized because we need it.
Not Broadway but I want Kerrigan-Lowdermilk’s The Mad Ones to hit Broadway and then get a film adaptation, too.
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after stalking your recs like a mad person, I finally have the balls to ask something myself :)))) any enemy-to-lovers HR recs? I do apologise if you already answered this one before and I missed it. I know some might find the trope overdone or forced, but for me it’s like catnip. and yes, beligerant relationships like Lillian & Westcliff do count
I'm so glad you did! Honestly people, I can be pretty blunt with my opinions but I'm always happy to give recs. :)
I love enemies to lovers! And honestly I read a lot, so if you ask a question and then a few months later someone asks the same thing, I may have new recs.
A lot of HR has a "hate to love" dynamic at first, or belligerent sexual tension, but for me there's a big difference between a sustained enemies to lovers dynamic and something short term.
I'd recommend:
Wicked in His Arms by Stacy Reid. They hate each other basically at first sight, but they also are in intense lust at first sight, especially on his end. He's uptight and cold, she's vibrant and girlish. This one is super fun, and also quite hot.
A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare. A classic in the genre; he's a slutty rake, she's a resentful nerd who wears glasses and likes to study fossils. They go on a road trip together, and there's often only one bed...
I'm Only Wicked with You by Julie Anne Long. He's a rough American, she's a refined English rose with a rebellious side. Much of the first chunk of this book is them saying veiled things to get a rise out of one another in public and getting ridiculously turned on in front of her parents.
A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman. This whole series is about warring families and people falling in love, but I've only read this one. Another ice prince/rebellious miss pairing, but he's been lusting after her for years against his own will. Also, there's a sex deal if you're into that.
The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Shupe. The hero and heroine actually are in an arranged engagement set up by their fathers, but she gets PISSED when he tells her he has no intention of going through with it. One masked sex club incident later, and.... Extremely hot.
Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas. She's a proper governess, he's the rakish, recovering alcoholic employer who gets under her skin and makes her all hot and bothered. I've said this before, but the scene where he won't touch her until she specifically says she wants him touch her pussy is..... a lot.
Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt. The messy, slutty pleasure garden owner and the uptight sister of his patron who's trying to get him fired, basically. Then he starts teaching her about the ways of the secular flesh.
Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt. Proper high society girl hates her fiancé's rakish, scandalous brother--then they start fucking. A lot. Hatefully.
Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt. Enemies to lovers by way of cat and mouse, I'd say. The hero is a vigilante, and the heroine finds out his identity and threatens to expose him if he doesn't help free her brother from prison. Then. It's on.
The Scot Beds His Wife by Kerrigan Byrne. An American woman begins a land dispute with a Scottish lord, and she has SECRETS. Enemies to lovers that turns into marriage of convenience.
Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath. Read recently it's one of my favorite reads of the year thus far. Scoundrel gambling club owner with a dark past is told that he's the inheritor of a late duke's estate (and the guardian of his son) even though he barely knew the man. He moves in, which puts him up against (in more ways than one) the duke's proper widow, who hates him and his COARSE MANLINESS.
When A Rogue Meets His Match by Elizabeth Hoyt. A brutish mercenary threatens to quit before his boss gives him a deal--if he does one more job, his boss will let him marry the woman he's always wanted... his boss's niece. She hates him and totally plans on screwing him over, but now they're married oops.
The Return of the Duke by Lorraine Heath. The hero wants to get his dukedom back, which requires working with his dead father's mistress... who he's super attracted to. Naturally, he resents her and she hates him.
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“The Devil in Her Bed”, by Kerrigan Byrne
I read this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review
RELEASE DATE - MARCH 9TH, 2021
I’m giving it 4.5/5 stars
This is the third book of the “Devil You Know” series.
I love Kerrigan Byrne. She is one of my favorite romance writers and this book was incredible. I was thrilled when I was sent an eARC of “All Scot and Bothered” back in the day and I am thrilled now that I can talk to you about “The Devil in Her Bed” now. I loved this trilogy, I loved the previous books and I loved this one. However, there was one little thing towards the end I wasn’t satisfied with, and I can’t tell you about it because it’s spoilers, but all in all it was an amazing read.
Romance readers know that usually all of the books in a series are standalone. And in this case it is not so. It can be read as standalone and the reader would enjoy it all right anyway, but there is a plot that unites these books, a plot that starts in “How to Love a Duke in Ten Days”, continues in “All Scot and Bothered”, and comes to a conclusion in this book.
Twenty years ago Pippa Hargrave, the daughter of the butler in the Earl of Cavendish’s home, saw how a group of men killed all of the Earl’s family, the servants, her parents and the houseboy she was in love with, and set the house on fire, believing no one was alive to tell the story.
She had had a happy childhood, both Francesca and Ferdinand, the Earl’s twins, were her best friend and then there was this amazing boy of 13 who had captured her heart ever since he arrived in the house, orphaned and exhausted. But Declan Chandler was mesmerized with Francesca. Until the day the men came and Francesca had been killed while she was still holding Pippa’s hand. Then she ran to Chandler and they hide in the chimney until the house was on fire. It was Chandler who had taken a shot to the back after he hided her inside a tree. Everyone was dead but herself and Serana, the roma woman who was her mother’s companion. Serana tells her to go and plan her revenge of the men who murdered her family and the men who sent them.
Twenty years later a Francesca Cavendish is doing whatever it takes to get information on the secret society that was behind her family’s murder and also behind all of the crimes that her two friends were almost killed in. Even if it means to have the reputation of a whore; she takes the men to her bed but no one, not even said men, know that she drugs them before they lay a finger on her.
Little does Francesca know that someone under the nickname “The devil of Dorset”, a spy of the Secret Service of the Crown, is watching her from afar, and he is quite in lust with her even though he knows she is not who she claims to be. The devil of Dorset, too, is investigating the mysterious secret society but for his own personal reasons.
Francesca/Pippa is probably the bravest most magnificent female character I’ve ever encountered in a book. Actually it’s a trait she shares with the other two red rogues, Alexandra and Cecelia. She is strong, capable, smart, witty, she stands up for herself, she takes no nonsense and she’s fully aware of her capabilities and her intelligence being equal to any man’s.
There is a great revelation in chapter 5 that changes everything. It’s not something you don’t see coming. Actually it’s so obvious for the reader (not for the characters) that the smart move was to reveal it. But instead of spoiling the novel it adds, because now you know things. From the moment of this great revelation I wanted to keep reading just to see how all the drama would unfold. Because as a reader I knew things that they as characters didn’t know. I had the facts, I knew what had happened, I knew what was happening and in a way I could start making predictions as to what would happen in the future.
This is a book about second chances, with lies, deception, hidden identities and above all, pain and loss. But love conquers all and love always tells the truth of who we are.
#Romance novel review#Romance review#Book review#historical romance#Historical romance novels#romance novels#Victorian romance#victorian era#romance community#romance readers#romancelandia#Kerrigan Byrne#Devil you know#Review
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Wax poetry about their lifts please
On the very long, long, long list of things that vm do exceptionally well and better than anyone else, their lifts sit easily among the top three. I definitely think it’s part of the reason that they were/are set apart from the rest of the competition. For me, there are a few things that stand out which contribute to why their lifts are so iconic and so far above anyone else’s
Tessa and Scott’s lifts:
Get integrated seamlessly into the program
Are incredibly musical
Acrobatic, yet precise
Explore varying levels, positions, and shapes
Always in the character of the program
Have equal participation
Hardly ever get reused
Are constantly improving and pushing boundaries
In fact, for that second to last bullet point, the wonderful Tina (@bartowskis) made an entire gifset of different lifts that vm only every used once.
For the purposes of time and gif space, I’m only going to focus on their senior career, because that is when their lifts really began to emerge as something distinct and unique onto them.
Get integrated seamlessly into the program
One thing that has always bothered me about lifts in ice dance is that they are just used as tricks to make the audience gasp. Far too often I find they also get telegraphed, more pre-Gadbois days/pre-Canton days, it was very much skatingskating – and here’s a lift – and more skatingskatingskating and there was no rhyme or reason for the lift to be placed where it was, it just needed to be in the program. I think Tessa and Scott were really the first team to utilize lifts in a completely new and interesting way – they made their lifts part of the story of their programs, not just an element to be completed, and I think Valse Triste is one of the best examples of this.
I love the lifts in Valse Triste because they help so much to build the program; the music in this free program starts very slow and sweeping with the violin and the entire beginning of the free dance their movements are very purposeful, drawn out, extended, and sweeping, to match that music. When we get to the first lift, its almost the end of that first part and so they have this wonderful little straight line lift that you do not see coming, Tessa’s arm are lovely, the arch in her back, and the strong base from Scott creates such a lovely picture and creates with sort of “swooning” picture that fits the story they are trying to tell. It is just placed so perfectly, as soon as the lift ends, the music changes and it feels like the next part of the story is about to be told.
Incorporating lifts always ties in with musicality, because they are using the music to add little accents to the lifts. The combination lift is so quick in with Tessa just popping up, grabbing her leg and Scott holding that lovely edge before they go into the rotational aspect. Their rotational lift builds speed and momentum just as the music swells, and their final lift fits the theme so perfectly! They gain speed around the corner as the music becomes frenzied, Tessa lifts her arms into the air right when their is a small break in the music, she changes position, and Scott’s arm comes out as Tessa uses her core to balance right when the music stops and they get back on the ice as the music starts up again. So, as the music starts sweeping and simple, their lift matches, and as the music swells into a flurry, their lift matches, which helps to integrate the lifts and make the program seem like one complete movement and story, not a series of starts and stops and vignettes.
I think Valse Triste was a perfect little appetizer to what they were working towards and what was in store for their skating careers.
Are incredibly musical
Umbrellas was a whole different story – and their short dance that year had one of their one off lifts and a reused an old rotational lifts, and every. single. lift. in their free dance that year, was new. New and wonderfully musical.
The first lift I think especially is so unbelievably gorgeous. I have talked and ranted at length about how boring I find around the shoulder lifts because they always look labored, the man’s posture is terrible, and the lady’s position is awful…then there are these two, hitting this stunning lift right when the music swells triumphantly, they wait until the singer stops singing, and they hit this lift so quickly and so on time, it feels like the music was composed for the lift, not the other way around.
They are so fast into the first position, Tessa’s legs are extended, there is toe point and Scott is so strong to glide on one foot! And that is all only the first part of the lift, the rest of it is just as lovely and just as musical. The shapes they are creating and how seamlessly it is integrated into the program is just beautiful. This was the year they really started working with acrobats and cirque du soleil as well. And it certainly shows.
Once more, with their straight line lift – it comes right at the end of a piece of singing as the music swells so they are not only creating interesting shapes and adding to the story, they are using the music to make the story come alive and make the flow of the program match the flow of the music, as soon as the lift ends, the singing begins again. Just brilliant.
The last two lifts back to back at the end of the program during the din of the music are so wonderfully effective: how after a stunning step sequence where the singer is crooning “je t’aime je t’aime je t’aime” over and over again to have them choreograph to hug desperately, let go of each other then go into the lift that picks up right when the music does creates a wonderful moment that is only then compounded by the serpentine lift of Tessa standing on Scott’s leg and hitting her position right on the boom of the music and hitting her second position right when the music is beginning to soften – so the exultant position of Tessa standing tall fits the music just as the second position of Tessa upside down and lower fits the music just as well.
It is no wonder this was their breakout year, the lifts just contributed to the overall impression.
Acrobatic, yet precise
Now the next year, post surgery, Tessa and Scott still decided to put nothing but new lifts in the free dance yet again, like the legends they truly are. Must give a shoutout to the first iteration of the goose with Scott’s arms on his knees, that some honest to god ridiculousness and such a cool moment, such an interesting balance point. Of course the serpentine lift, The Serpentine Lift, is such an amazing moment, with Tessa literally just diving head first towards the ice as Scott catches her, the changes of position without getting messy, and the last part where they create of a sort of guitar looking shape to match their rock anthem free dance. That curve lift as well, is so interesting, the entrance and Tessa’s position along with Scott’s posture make such a wonderful impression on the ice.
What I especially love is that even though their lifts became more and more acrobatic, they didn’t loose any of their speed or precision, rather they worked to improve is constantly to the lifts would have even more of an impact.
Explore varying levels, positions, and shapes
What has always bothered me about lifts in ice dance is when they man holds a base and the lady just flips and flies into all these different positions without ever created a nice picture. To me, it points to a lack of core strength or a desire to hide a lack of extension and posture.
Tessa and Scott cannot relate.
I love that they always maintain a position, even in lifts with changes of positions, they are held long enough to create a gorgeous picture and wonderful effect on the ice. Special shout out to the Farrucas lift for being a perfect example of everything they do well in lifts: the quick, interesting, and acrobatic entrance, the gorgeous position and extension, Scott’s posture and strong base, in the character of the program with the Flamenco hands, right on the music and perfectly integrated. It’s just a masterclass in everything lifts can and should be. I love that Tessa has the core strength to get out of the lift by herself, her free leg doesn’t lose the extension and she just drops her leg and glides smoothly back to the ice.
I couldn’t make a waxing poetic post about their lifts without mentioning The Lift, the VM Lift: the Goose. I’m trying to think of any other team that has an official name of their lift, you have elements in singles named after skaters: the (brian boi)tano, the (adam) rippon, the (nancy) kerrigan spiral, etc. etc. But what other team has a lift so iconic, so recognizable, so unbelievable, as vm?
No one, that’s who.
As an aside, the fact that they learned the most iconic lift in ice dance post Tessa’s first surgery, when they weren’t on the best terms, and then continued to improve it constantly and consistently up until the olympics, makes me feel very soft and tender towards two young Canadian ice dancers. I remember reading, I think it was from their book, that they only started to really get back on terms and work together when they had to figure out a new exit of this lift, because lets not forget, originally, Tessa does a motherfucking half loop jump off of Scott’s thigh to land one footed on the ice, only to change it to maybe the only equally difficult and dangerous exit of Tessa just falling forward into Scott’s arms. I also love the little music lick that happens right when Tessa gets into and holds position, its just radiant ice dance.
The position they create is gorgeous, the parallel arms, the view for the judges where Tessa’s leg is hidden and she looks like she’s floating magically above Scott. Not the mention the exit itself creates a gorgeous position even though it lasts a half a second. I wish I had the words for the emotion this program gives me, but its completely ineffable.
Across all the lifts vm do in this free dance, they create wonderful shapes and move into varying levels perfectly. Whether Tessa is reaching her hands up to the heavens only to go upside down and right side up again in the rotational lift, or the expansive nature of the goose, the shapes are just gorgeous.
I especially love the stationary lift! This was during a time when stationary lifts were far more rare in ice dance than they are now, and this lift doesn’t even look like a lift, it just looks like a stunning and interesting transition until you realize the balance point. They get into it so seamlessly, Tessa’s extension and toe point is beautiful, her arm reaching up only to come down and wrap around Scott’s neck as if they aren’t defying gravity and physics, but are just in their own little world.
Always in the character of the program
Then we have the second surgery, and vm come back with, you guessed, all new lifts(-ish) in both their short dance (a one off lift) and their free dance – their straight line had the same position as the curve in Farrucas, but a different entry. I love the curve lift in Hip Hip Chin Chin, how it lasts for the entirety of the singer singing “temptaa-a-tion”, the lift itself fits the dance and the music change so well – Scott holds an amazing edge as Tessa winds herself around his body. The debut of the rotational lift that would serve them well in the olympics also appears here and the baby twist Tessa does into the lift is right out of Latin ballroom.
Shout out to Funny Face for having the most in character lifts, each one feels like it came out of an old movie. I especially love the curve lift and the combination lift, the curve lift is so in character, Scott is giving Fred Astaire face and Tessa’s positions are so interesting. The rotational lift, the entrance and the arch in Tessa’s back with her arms thrown out backwards is so triumphant and glorious. Not only are the lift positions in character, but vm stay in character during the lift itself. It’s always awkward to see ice dancers thinking in the middle of a lift, it takes you right out of the program. I love that Scott pulls Fred face in the middle of a lift, it makes the program come alive.
I also love that they will change and workshop lifts if they aren’t working, during the 2011-2012 season, they changed their short dance lift a couple times before settling, they don’t let a program or a lift become stagnant or rote, rather the lifts stay alive and engaging as the skaters themselves.
Have equal participation
Chaotic shoutout to Carmen for having the most sexual and gravity defying lifts. I’ve mentioned it before but I’m always annoyed by lifts that are clearly just the lady being dragged and thrown into different positions while she either hangs on for dear life or does the absolute least. With Tessa’s ballerina training and dancing experience, she knows how to hold herself, she is getting herself into position before Scott puts her there.
To be totally honest Scott and Tessa’s lifts are not really lifts because Tessa isn’t getting lifted, she is just already there. Their lifts would not be possible if were not for Tessa and her core. It supports her, it supports me, it supports us all.
(tiny shoutout to the seasons for being both their most underwhelming program with the most underwhelming lifts – underwhelming for vm, that is to say amazing for any other team, the first part of the rotational lift is stunning and the curve lift at the end is gorgeous, but they had the same exit for multiple lifts and because of the music cuts in the music the program didn’t feel harmonious and that feeling bled into their lifts as well)
Hardly ever get reused
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir said if we are going to do a comeback, we are going to comeback with new lifts.
And we are going to come back in style.
And did they ever.
God bless this curve lift, Scott’s strong squat and amazing edge quality giving them an amazing lean, Tessa’s core and strength letting her abandon herself into the lift, her arms gesturing expansively and expressively with the swell of the music and the tension in Prince’s voice during Purple Rain…I love the entrance because they get into it quick, Tessa’s leg kicks up SO high, the position and speed are wonderful, then the exit, so ridiculous if you realize the millisecond Tessa is in the air and completely flipping her body, Scott gets out of the squat and has to catch her, while she turns again and exits in a cool and amazing lunge right into their end pose.
Iconic.
Latch, just like with several others of their programs, they came in with all new lifts. The first position in the stationary lift is similar to the mahler stationary lift but Tessa’s leg is bent underneath her and her arms are around Scott’s neck, and the other positions create such amazing shapes, and they’ve done a similar position in the second part of the rotational lift as well, though they altered it. Let’s take a moment to appreciate that vm book ended Latch with similar yet different lifts, because I love it and it makes me happy inside.
I love the rotational lift so much, I love how musical it is, how Scott does a small jump right before the entrance, how quickly Tessa flips up into position, then she slides down Scott’s body just as the music cascades to match her. It’s just a lovely moment.
My favourite lift in Latch is without a doubt the straight line lift, for a few reasons: I love that they changed it from what it was originally, a lift that worked better in theory than in practice. So rather than keeping the lift they did at ACI and SC, they came up with a completely new lift between their first and second grand prix.
I love the entrance (similar to the entrance into the choreo lift from carmen, but so different as well). Tessa’s free leg does a complete circle from the entrance into the position she holds all while Scott changes direction and gets into a squat. The position she hits is so stunning, I see her make a full moon with her free leg then holding the position of a half moon during the lift. The arch in her back, her arms, her posture is gorgeous. The exit is just breathtaking, Tessa glides down Scott’s body so effortlessly she looks weightless, and to top it all off, Scott changes position again, turns on one foot (!!) and sets Tessa back on the ice.
It is just perfection.
Are constantly improving and pushing boundaries
Just as with everything else in their skating, they never remain stagnant and are always working to improve and sharpen their craft, which I appreciate so much. There is no complacency here.
Watching The Rotational lift from Carmen versus Moulin Rouge is so amazing, how much more speed they have into the lift, how much faster Tessa gets up and into position and the much more difficult position change. It is truly such a mark of greatness to be constantly and consistently wanting to grow and learn and improve. Let’s also not forget that they changed this lift for the team event only to change it back for the free dance. Just because they could. In the same vein, going from the rotational lift in 2011 Hip Hip Chin Chin to 2018 Sympathy for the Devil, the lift improved so much! The entrance was quicker, the position is better, they are much faster, and the exit is far more seamless. It’s wonderful and fascinating.
I love that for their curve lift, as they changed the music they also changed the lift in certain specific ways, Tessa’s arm movements changed to her powerful thrust up into the air and the exit became far more intense with Tessa jumping and twisting into Scott’s arms rather than gliding down his body, they shifted and improved the lift when they changed the program.
Like, let us never forget that this is what is happening mid lift: she is flying.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir invented stationary lifts.
As this gif set shows, one of these things is not like the others.
No one has entrances and exits like that, Tessa vaulting herself backwards blindly knowing Scott will stop at the right time in the right spot, going from a full stop to the momentum to turn, switch positions twice, all the while maintaining speed, staying centered, holding positions and even holding eye contact. It was the perfect beginning of the free dance and set the tone for the next four minutes.
Lifts can so easily be just an element to check off where ice dancers look into their repertoire and chose what fits best, I appreciate so much that Tessa and Scott refused to be complacent when it came to their lifts, that at the beginning of their senior career they were completely committed to making their lifts more difficult, more interesting, just more more more.
Their lifts go above and beyond what we think is possible, literally and figuratively.
#tisaqueen#konner talks skating#konner waxes poetic#okay#did i not say this ended up long#a bitch busted out the thesaurus for this okay?#djhfkasjdf#maria i hope you enjoy#im not gonna put anything under the cut#its just gonna be a long fucking psot#<3#anywho#:D#this was fun#there may be typos but i cant look at it anymore so im posting#i rewrote and reworked it like 3 times#hahahahah
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Historical movies can be very dry because the characters don’t speak in a manner that’s relatable and the monumental, earth-shattering events that changed the course of human history don’t resonate if they’re presented in a boring, academic way. The best historical movies are the ones that inject a healthy dose of entertainment — even if that means slightly fictionalizing the story.
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Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-winning gem The Favourite, starring Olivia Colman, is a prime example of a historical epic that isn’t dull, because it has a pitch-black comedic sensibility. A dark sense of humor is a great way to make history more interesting.
10 The Favourite (2018)
After exploring a dark near-future in The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos went back to the 1700s for The Favourite, a historical love triangle revolving around Queen Anne and the two women vying for the position of “Court favourite.”
Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz are all perfectly matched in the lead roles, while Robbie Ryan’s cinematography recalls the sumptuous visuals of Barry Lyndon.
9 The Death Of Stalin (2017)
Renowned political satirist Armando Iannucci turned his sights to Soviet history with 2017’s The Death of Stalin, a hysterical comedy about the power struggle following the 1953 death of Joseph Stalin.
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8 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
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While there are plenty of harrowing twists and turns along the way, Full Metal Jacket is filled with Kubrick’s signature dark humor — particularly in R. Lee Ermey’s scenes. In the role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Ermey was allowed to improvise (a rarity for a Kubrick movie), drawing on his own experiences as a drill sergeant to whip the cast into shape. The movie ends with the soldiers ironically singing the “Mickey Mouse March” as they leave the Battle of Huế.
7 Marie Antoinette (2006)
Sofia Coppola’s biopic of Queen Marie Antoinette in the lead-up to the French Revolution is shot in the cerebral style of Malick and Kubrick but written in the style of a teen comedy.
Kirsten Dunst gives one of her all-time most memorable performances in Marie Antoinette as the title character, while Rose Byrne, Jason Schwartzman, Molly Shannon, and Rip Torn all provide strong support.
6 Django Unchained (2012)
The subject matter of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained — American slavery — made its dark sense of humor a point of controversy when it first hit theaters in 2012.
Starring Jamie Foxx as a freed slave who becomes a bounty hunter killing white slavers for a living, Django Unchained is both a masterfully crafted spaghetti western and an incisive satire about the ugliest chapter in U.S. history.
5 I, Tonya (2017)
Margot Robbie starred as Tonya Harding in this darkly comic dramatization of the famous figure skater’s 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan. I, Tonya tells its story through mockumentary-style interviews with its unreliable narrators.
Sebastian Stan co-stars as Harding’s friend and later husband Jeff Gillooly, while Allison Janney won an Oscar for her turn as Harding’s abusive mother LaVona Golden.
4 Love And Death (1975)
Long before his disturbing scandal, Woody Allen’s Love and Death went over a lot of audiences’ heads back in 1975, because it’s predominantly a satire of Russian literature. It follows two Russians as they struggle through the Napoleonic Era.
Napoleon Bonaparte is played by James Tolkan, most renowned for playing Mr. Strickland in the Back to the Future trilogy, while Diane Keaton reprises her regular role as Allen’s comic foil.
3 Goodfellas (1990)
Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is primarily a drama, but it has more laughs than the average full-on comedy. Scenes like the “Funny how?” confrontation and a drunken Henry laughing hysterically at his mother-in-law make Goodfellas a hilarious movie.
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It’s also a poignant portrait of the mafia. This movie offers such an accurate portrayal of mob life that real-life gangsters have said it plays like a home movie.
2 BlacKkKlansman (2018)
John David Washington stars in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, the incredible true story of a Black cop who managed to become a member of the Ku Klux Klan over the phone and sent his Jewish colleague in his place to the KKK’s meetings. Since the story is so astounding and a Black man tricking the Klan is inherently comedic, Lee brought a healthy amount of humor to this movie.
Although it’s set in the ‘70s, Lee’s movie captured contemporary fears about the rise of neo-Nazism and white nationalism in present-day America.
1 Barry Lyndon (1975)
One of Kubrick’s more underrated works, Barry Lyndon tells the saga of a duelist who wins the love of a widow and takes the place of her deceased aristocratic husband.
From its surprisingly hilarious opening duel, Barry Lyndon positions itself firmly as a dark comedy, like most of Kubrick’s other movies.
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The Favourite & 9 Other Darkly Comedic Historical Epics from https://ift.tt/3r1ysdW
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