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therenlover · 3 years

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Therenlover’s Official Fanfic Glossary!

Hey hey hey! This is the place where you can find all my up-to-date fanfics linked nicely, read about what projects I have upcoming, and learn what requests I’m taking at the moment! Cheers!

This post is massive so, for the sake of your dash, everything is under the cut

A NOTE ABOUT REQUESTS!

I will do my best to fulfill any requests I get while my ask box/requests are open! That being said, I cannot promise every request will get done, and that if they do, they’ll be done in a timely manner. I’m currently working on a long-form project that needs a lot of time and energy to come out consistently, so unless I’m doing a writing event most of my writing juice will be focused on that. That being said, if you want something ask! The worst I can possibly do is direct you towards someone else who might be able to write what you want if I cant.

If I choose not to do your request based on personal preference (it makes me uncomfy/I don’t write for the character at that time/I don’t feel I can write what you want/etc.) I will do my best to contact you and let you know! That being said, if you think your ask got buried/forgotten, feel free to message me again and let me know, but please tell me when you message me if I should be looking for a prior request.

Characters/Fandoms I will write for currently

💙 = I’m Currently Super Inspired To Write For This Character

Marvel/X-Men

Bucky Barnes

Loki

Peter Maximoff 💙

Pietro Maximoff

Helmut Zemo 💙

Hank McCoy

Ralph Bohner 💙

Vision

American Horror Story

Tate Langdon

Kit Walker 💙

Kyle Spencer (Pre- and Post- Death)

Jimmy Darling 💙

James Patrick March 💙

Kai Anderson

Fallout 4

Nick Valentine

Hancock

Star Wars

Poe Dameron

Armitage Hux 💙

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo

Finn

Han Solo

Assorted/Random

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne - FGO

Cu Chulainn/Cu Alter - FGO

Warren Lipka - American Animals 💙

Enjolras - Les Miserables

Grantaire - Les Miserables

Gabriel - Supernatural

Imagines - REQUESTS CLOSED

Songs From Musicals Y/N Would Sing To The Evans

Characters: Tate Langdon, Kit Walker, Kyle Spencer, Jimmy Darling, James Patrick March, Kai Anderson, Peter Maximoff

Rating: T

How The Evans (+ Quicksilver) Would React To Yoplait’s New Gushers Yogurt

Characters: Tate Langdon, Kit Walker, Kyle Spencer, Jimmy Darling, James Patrick March, Rory Monahan, Kai Anderson, Peter Maximoff

Rating: T

Would The Danny Bunch Survive A Holiday With My Family?

Characters: Laszlo Kreizler, Alex Kerner, Niki Lauda, Andrea Marowski, Ernst Schmidt, Helmut Zemo

Rating: T

Headcanons - REQUESTS CLOSED

Modern! AU Armitage Hux Boyfriend Headcanons

Zemo With A Well Dress S/O Headcanons

Zemo Getting Jealous Headcanons

Oneshots - REQUESTS CLOSED

Marvel/X-Men

Helmut Zemo

One Last Night In Madripoor

Synopsis: Baron Helmut Zemo is a lonely, wanted man looking for some fun, you’re a piss-poor bounty hunter in search of a connection before leaving your life of crime behind, and fate has brought you together at a party the likes of which has never been seen before. You only have one night left in Madripoor, so why not take a chance?

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 4200~

Still Some Catching Up To Do

Synopsis: As a member of the criminal underworld, people walk out of your life all the time. Some are killed, others kill themselves, most get caught and only a couple get out of the life unscathed, disappearing into the world never to be seen again. Very few walk back in. So when your supposedly incarcerated ex-lover, the Winter Soldier, and the Falcon waltzed through your door and made you murder your boss, needless to say, you were surprised and more than a little bit pissed.

Rating: 16+

Word Count: 6800~

Nine Years Starved

Synopsis: It had been a little over nine years since Helmut Zemo lost his family, his country, and his sanity. Nine years since his last kiss. Nine years since he felt like a human man. Finally, he was ready to start over again, but first, he had to pay his penance back where it all began; Novi Grad. That’s when, by the grace of the fates, he met you.

Rating: G

Word Count: 7000~

Daddy Dearest

Synopsis: Not everyone gets lucky enough to go from being a broke college student in New York to being the sugar baby to literal royalty, but not everyone is you. Most people would be worried about messing things up or losing him to someone else, but you knew he would never find another baby just like you. Besides, you knew exactly what to do to keep him wrapped around your little finger. He may have been the daddy, but you pulled the reins.

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 8000~

In Fleeting Touches & Airy Sighs

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four

Synopsis: As a wanted man, Helmut Zemo spends most of his time jumping from place to place in the hopes of avoiding a trip back to prison. Unfortunately, that means he can’t always be home in your arms. When he is, though, in the rare moments of calm, you’re reminded of just how worth it it’s been to wait, even if that wait was only shortened by the arrival of your enemies.

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 35,700~

Two Bodies In The Rain

Synopsis: It was raining the day you finally had to admit your feelings to Helmut. You hated to tell him the way you did, under the grey skies as your blood pooled below you, but at least you knew, in the end, he had seen the real you, even just once. That was enough.

Rating: T

Word Count: 5600~

Rest

Synopsis: Living life on the lam with your escaped super-villain lover means things rarely slow down enough for a real rest. When the exhaustion starts to take its toll on you, though, he knows exactly what to do to ease the pain. He may not be a good man, but he’s a good husband when it counts.

Rating: T

Word Count: 3200~

American Horror Story

Jimmy Darling

Red Nights In Jupiter

Synopsis: At the end of another long day, you fall into bed with Jimmy Darling. The men you served throughout the day don’t matter then, nor do the coins in the mason jar by the door, or the women scheduled to attend Jimmy’s next Tupperware party. No, in that quiet darkness it’s just you and the man you love, bone-tired and happy to be home. Who could ask for more?

Rating: 16+

Word Count: 3000~

James Patrick March

Heartsick

Synopsis: When you fall ill, James is given a forceful awakening about how he’s been neglecting your needs and what he must do to prevent harm from befalling you again.

Rating: 16+

Word Count: 3700~

In Sickness And In Health

Synopsis: Normally people don’t have their wedding and funeral on the same day, but you and James don’t quite have a normal relationship, do you? Besides, you wouldn’t wanna go any other way.

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 5500~

Fallout 4

Currently Empty

Star Wars

Currently Empty

Assorted/Random

Currently Empty

Long Form Works/Series

Young Artist!Zemo AU

Chapter One: The Boy With The Easel

Synopsis: About a month into your first semester at Novi Grad’s top university, you finally meet the strange young man that you’ve taken to calling “easel boy” in the back of a bookshop. From a distance, he always seemed cold and aloof. As you get to know him, though, you realize things aren’t always what they seem.

Rating: T

Word Count: 7000~

Till Forever Falls Apart (A Peter Maximoff/Reader Series)

Chapter One: Welcome Home

Synopsis: As if getting thrown through the multiverse, trapped in an attic (albeit a cool one), mind-controlled to manipulate his grieving sister, and subsequently dragged out of Westview “for his own safety” by the FBI wasn’t enough, Peter Maximoff has now been shipped off to New York to live with a glorified baby sitter like some tragic orphan in a comic book until they find a way to get him back home. Things are not always as they seem, though, and this change might just be for the better.

Rating: T

Word Count: 2400~

Chapter Two: The Doctor Is In

Synopsis: Peter’s first few days in his new home are mostly uneventful, so he decides it’s the perfect time to dust off his running goggles and steal some shit. The building with the massive circular stained glass window seems like a great place to start! People with buildings that lavish are usually rich and weak, so what could possibly go wrong?

Rating: T

Word Count: 2800~

Chapter Three: It’s Always Been You

Synopsis: After a month of adapting to his new universe, Peter Maximoff can confidently say that he likes his new life more than his old one. Sure, he misses home sometimes, but he’s been far too busy flirting with his new roommate to spend time crying over the things he’s lost. Everything is smooth sailing until a strange journal in his roommate’s study leaves him with more questions than he knows what to do with. Now he’s on a mission to discover who he’s really living with before she has the chance to turn against him.

Rating: T

Word Count: 8600~

Chapter Four: Before You Go

Synopsis: Peter, after days of contemplation, has realized that part of him loves Y/N no matter what she is or what she’s been through. Unfortunately, he can’t find her anywhere. When she finally returns home with the intention of leaving again, Peter realizes it’s his last chance to tell her how he really feels. Will he succeed, or will he fail to be fast enough once again?

Rating: T

Word Count: 4000~

Chapter Four And A Half: Gimme Swayze

Synopsis: Now that the issue of Y/N leaving is out of the way, and Peter has finally kissed her, he falls into the motions of learning how to love someone for the first time. It’s easier than he thought it would be.

Rating: T

Word Count; 2600~

Cakes For The Evans: A Blogging And Baking Adventure!

Kai Anderson’s Disaster Cake

Hey you! If you’ve made it this far down the list, thanks for supporting me as an author! I’ll be linking my AO3 here. I post everything there shortly before I post it here, and there are some older fics there you might enjoy along the way! It’s also easier to drop comments over there and I keep them open for non-members, so give me a shout if you liked what I wrote!

I love you all, you make me so happy, and without you support I would never be motivated to write! Cheers!

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fighterkimburgess · 2 years

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Fun Meta Asks For Writers

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22 and 23

Oh this is gonna be long!

1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

I’m gonna divide this into the current multichapters I’m actively working on, as well as the oneshot that has invaded my brain (sorry Morgan!)

This Wasn’t Supposed To Happen - my Sylveride fic, where they’re raising Matt and Gabby’s son after their unfortunate deaths. I’m currently working on chapter 16, and we’re in angst central. It’s a lot of fun to write the angst. I love showing this what if, and getting to explore Sylvie dealing with this huge responsibility.

The Three Of Us - Burzek fluff. I’ve the epilogue half written, and if you think there was fluff this chapter just WAIT. It’s a fluff bomb.

Class of 2006 - this is a prequel to Thank God For Hometowns. It’s the high school years of Kim, Erin, Sarah, Jay, Kevin, and Kelly going from starting high school in 2002 and graduating in 2006. It starts with Kim and Erin saving Sarah from high school bullies their first day, and ends with Kim and Jay saying goodbye as he leaves for boot camp and she prepares to start college. It’s amazing finally getting these headcanons I’ve had for ages down on paper. I’m about halfway through chapter one.

Thank God For Hometowns - After Kim goes through a tragedy that means she’s lost almost everything she moved back to her hometown and in with her Aunt Trudy. When Jay’s too late to save his wife and the army tries covering it up he’s forced to retire with his best friend Mouse, and they move home. What happens? I’ve the fic fully plotted, and ridiculous parts of chapters written. There’s so much love and healing and I adore it. It’s the best idea I’ve ever had and I cant even apologise for that.

And on the oneshot front, I’m working on one called Sacred Child. Kim grew up in a cult, and she escaped the day she turned 18, leaving her best friend and the boy she was supposed to marry that day behind. When child abuse is reported from the cult - and Kim recognises the voice as Adam - she has to fight her demons to go undercover to save girls from going through what nearly happened to her. Even her own sisters.

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project.

There’s three big scenes in Thank God For Hometowns. The first is when Voight asks Kim to take over as Chief of Police in Appleton. The second is when Jay calls Kim out to a car crash and they discover the sole survivor is a six year old girl. And the final one is a really emotional one between Jay and Kim talking about the things they’ve recently lost in their personal lives.

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Oh god so many!!!! The biggest one is I’ve always had an idea of a fic with Kim and Trudy after the miscarriage. The way she was with Kim after the engagement ended? I think they definitely had a long conversation, and I’d love to write it. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to kill me to write.

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

The Sad Solo Adam Smut (this is completely explicit but I ADORE this paragraph so much.) from Fearless chapter 3.

Instead his tv was off as he undressed, his cock rising at the memory of the sex he could have had that night. He lay back, fisting himself slowly, images in his mind blurring together. Emma’s face morphed into Kim’s, and then he was lost in memories of their last night together, the night they’d made their child. He moved faster and faster, remembering the feel of her around him, her breathy moans and sighs as she bounced on him. Adam’s release hit him like a freight train, spurting onto his stomach and chest as he breathed out Kim’s name like a prayer. He got up and cleaned himself up, before lying back in his lonely bed and falling asleep to dreams of holding her.

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

Definitely. I love crackships taken seriously (I’m reading one fic that look I will take how much I love this ship TO MY GRAVE), I love angst, I love found family. It’s a thing.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

The way they write inner thoughts and surroundings. In particular @kim-ruzek’s ability to do inner monologues and @sylvies-chen’s ability to build a scene. I wish I could do that so well.

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Summaries. Titles I can usually get from song lyrics, but summaries are painful. I tend to do the good old fashioned three paragraph format for tradpub inquiry letters.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

So many. So, so many. I’m just gonna go with unintentional for this not even sorry.

Nadia was almost a boy.

Kim was going to transfer out of Intelligence when Jay was undercover instead of revealing the pregnancy. I had it plotted that she changed her number and moved before he got back and just ghosted him, and even wrote about 2,000 words of it.

It was originally supposed to be a joke that Will was Kim’s babydaddy because she wouldn’t reveal who he was.

Al wasn’t going to come back

Kim almost accepted Adam’s proposal

Originally Jay found out he was a dad because Kim got into a car crash and was unconscious. Which tells you how long I was plotting this fic for because it was before the Walton storyline even happened.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

TOO MANY COMMAS. I need to get better at not using them.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

I always try to put in foreshadowing. I’m not always great at doing it cleverly but in my multichapters there’s always something.

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

Yup! Mostly because there’s never enough Burzek fic around. There’s a lot I want to change, and I want to completely rewrite fearless, but overall I’m still so proud.

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

Prey. I came up with that…god? Maybe back in July? It’s been on the long finger for forever but I love it anyway and it’s getting worked on slowly.

#cíara answers

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falcor-thee-luck-dragon · 4 years

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What a Time to be Alive- Diego Hargreeves x reader Season I

Chapter 10- The White Violin Part 2

Summary: After a less then stellar time at the bowling alley, you and the Hargreeves must find a way to stop Vanya during her concert tonight, doing whatever it takes.

Masterlist - where all the other chapters are⚔️

Warning: Reader gets stabby again, enjoy

Tagged: @sambucky8 @white-wolf-buckaroo @2cuteforyourlies @la-vie-en-amour1 @fandomoverlord221 @thatfandombitcch @alonewolfsblog @starrrybarnes @winterboobear11

Maneuvering your way out of the ball gutter area, you stumble a bit while getting out, a steady pair of hands catching your waist before you can face plant into the concrete. “Y/N, you cant keep falling for me in front of my family, it’s getting embarrassing.” Quips Diego breathlessly, lifting you up to face him, “Hilarious.” You deadpan, pulling away and readjusting your blood spotted jacket. His face shifts to that of a concerned boyfriend in an instant, “You were shot...look...a bloody hole in your thigh.” He says pointing towards the damage, you feel the fabric of your black jeans. The small hole is indeed wet with your blood, you let out a snort, you never even felt it. “Huh..the bullet must have went straight through. Didn’t even know.” You whisper, shaking your head, how you managed to completely ignore the shot, still surprises you, but now is not the time to think about it.

“Shit! We gotta go!” You tell Diego as you start jogging down the hallway towards the exit. He follows close behind, as more bullets rickashay off the cement walls in the background.

——

It’s a short sprint to the Icarus Theater but fortunately the five of you make it. No personnel is waiting outside to take your tickets and the doors happen to be unlocked. Guess they weren’t expecting highly trained childhood superheroes to come barging into a theater to stop their sister from causing the apocalypse. It could have happened to anyone really.

You race up the marble staircase, the other Hargreeves rushing up behind you. The beautiful sounds of an orchestra are floating on the air and into your ears, you’d be thoroughly enjoying it, if not for the dire situation. Suddenly Allison puts a hand on Luther’s large chest, stopping him with what she just wrote down on her notepad. You halt in your tracks, Diego sidestepping you so he won’t crash into your back as he turns around as well. I need to go alone. Is what Allison wrote, Luther’s blinks in confusion, “Wha...Allison, I can’t let you do that, all right? She’s beyond reasoning.” He argues firmly, she stares at him defiantly.

“You hear the music? It’s started.” States Diego, implying everyone needs to hurry up and take action now. You can’t help yourself and snort, “Yeah...we got ears.” You whisper sarcastically, he just rolls his eyes at you while holding in a smile, probably not the best time to be a smart-ass but stressful situations and use of sarcasm is how you cope.

“Do you honestly think she’s gonna listen? After everything that’s happened?” Continues Luther, trying to reason with a pleading Allison who just wants to save Vanya from herself.

“We don’t have time for this.” Says Klaus nervously, Luther finally caves and off Allison goes, racing towards the doors to the concert. The four of you watch her bound up the carpeted steps, “You’re using her as a distraction, aren’t you?” Says Diego to Luther, already onto his plan.

“Our best chance to incapacitate Vanya.” Luther replies glancing at Diego. You cross your arms, “Maybe if we leave her alone she won’t do anything and after the concert we can sort this shit out. I highly doubt Vanya’s in the mood to see any one of us right now....Especially you, she hates you the most” You explain to them, Luther furrows his brow at you. “Thanks. But we can’t risk Vanya accidentally doing anything dangerous.” He tells you, you turn to him. “Now you sound like Reginald, great.” Luther gives you an offended look, before deciding otherwise in arguing further with you. He makes for the stairs, as Klaus follows behind, Diego nudging you to follow them. “So, what’s the plan?” Wonders Klaus, as Luther stops on the steps to answer him. “Uh, you wait out front.” He tells Klaus, as you and Diego walk through the open doorway, you don’t care enough to stick around and listen.

You follow Diego through hallways and finally you make it backstage, Luther appearing on the opposite side of you two from across the stage. “I’m just throwing leaves in the wind here, but how is this an honestly good plan?” You whisper yell at Diego, he stops to look at you, who’s to his left. Your face is glowing in the red stage lights, making you look like an alluring creature from another world, and for a second he’s lost in your beauty. You’ve unintentionally stunned him in the most inconvenient of places, his heart pounds with adrenaline. “Uh...um...it’s all we got.” He fumbles on his words, not truly sure what to say that would convince you. He already knows you’re not gun ho for this plan anyways, but what other options do you all have. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Or stupid measures thought up by a guy who’s half-monkey, never moved out of the Academy, and lived on the moon for four fucking years.

“God, she sounds amazing.” You mutter to no one in particular as you start to listen to Vanya’s solo, a second later Diego goes racing across the stage exactly when Luther does. “Wait! Diego, stop!” You yell at deaf ears, he’s already throwing himself at Vanya. She snaps around and whips a slash of white energy at him and Luther. Launching them into the screaming crowd, you make a break for it as the other instrumentalists stand up from their seating. She turns around once again to project another powerful wave of force into the orchestra, silently demanding them to sit. You’re unfortunately pushed roughly off stage, harshly tumbling into the theater chairs, you smack into a metal chair, falling to the floor with the wind knocked out of you. People rush past your injured body unaware to your gasping for breath, to concerned with getting the hell away from the weird glowing eyed lady on stage. You don’t blame them, none of them were clearly prepared for how their night just ended.

You stand up, hearing the shouts of Diego and Luther, as they attempt to direct traffic as orderly as possible. Within thirty more seconds the place is completely vacant, you dart for behind some chairs near where Diego and Luther are hiding. “She’s stronger than expected.” Breathes Diego, surprised from Vanya’s impressive display of power. “Yeah.” Agrees Luther, suddenly getting smacked in the face with Allison’s notepad. She throws him an agitated pout, you’re to her right, in the next row over. Shaking your head disapprovingly at him in a half-joking and half-serious way. “Yeah. We’re fine thanks for asking.” He jabs back before continuing, focusing on Allison, “Look, I almost lost you once, all right. I wasn’t about to lose you again.” He tells her earnestly.

“Wow that’s real fucking adorable...but now we’re in a load of shit thanks to you two dunderheads.” You snap at him, annoyed with how rapidly the nights events are terribly going. Luther gives you a defeated look as Diego speaks up, “Well, so much for the element of surprise. What else you got?” He asks Luther, Allison starts to quickly make a gesture of her playing a ghost violin.

“No shit Allison. Tell us something we don’t already know.” Diego grumbles sarcastically, you roll your eyes at him. “She’s referring to the violin dipshit, we need to take it from her.” You sass back, the rest of them glancing over the seats to watch Vanya play. You catch the sound of boots quietly making contact with the red carpeting of the theater. Then a moment later, gunfire blasts through the area, screaming into your eardrums. “Fucking hell.” You mutter through clenched teeth as you hold your hands to your ears, ducking lower to the floor.

“What the hell happened to Klaus? He’s supposed to be lookout!” Shouts Diego from the floor. “Yeah are you surprised.” Answers Luther, who’s attempting to sink to the ground as low as he possibly can. When you look up again you watch as a sudden bright flash of blue appears from out of nowhere, less then a nanosecond later arrives Five.

“What’s with all the lollygagging?” He wonders while walking down the wide isle, completely oblivious to the masked murderers. “Five get down!” Roars Luther as bullets rain down next to Five. He lets out a surprised gasp as he quickly ducks in between the smaller isles. “Five...wha...I thought you bailed on us?” Questions Luther.

“I had an errand to run.” He vaguely explains, looking around wide eyed at the current carnage, “This is not good.”

“You know these guys?” Inquires Diego, assuming this mess has something to do with Five and the wack shit he gets himself into, not to mention the rest of you.

“Yeah, I do.” He simply says.

“And?”

“Well...we’re screwed.” Five announces worriedly, while looking back up the isle at the approaching assassins. He then turns his head to find you who’s watching the masked gunmen slowly walking your way. “Y/N! If you could manage to get one of their guns...then maybe we’d have a chance.” Yells Five as Diego throws some of his knives directly into the chests of more Commission assassins.

“Great idea! Cause I would love to get shot through my fucking scull!” You scream back, sarcasm dripping through every word. You’re fast, but unfortunately there are a grand multitude of guys with automatic rifles who could give two shits if you die or not. You’d make it to your guy, but you’d also be dead before you could do anything destructive, and getting shot is not a very pleasant feeling by any means. But before Five has time to reply with his own ounce of sarcasm, Klaus comes bursting through the theater doors yelling about seeing Cha-Cha and that she’s apparently coming to kill us. Or something along those lines, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to hear as your ears are ringing with all this noise.

Scrunching up your eyes, you shake your head and cover your sensitive ears in a desperate attempt to collect your bearings once again. When you open your eyes ready to suck it up and take one for the team, you look over with wide eyes to the sight of ghost Ben, who’s releasing the tentacle monster from within himself and presently strangling and smashing the fuck out of the masked gunmen. You share a shocked glance with Diego, the both of you completely astounded as to how the hell Klaus is able to do whatever it is he’s currently doing.

Your nose catches the scent of something you’ve been hunting for the past week, head snapping to the stage, you scowl at the blooded assassin before you. Who’s giving you an equally nasty look that’s practically inviting you to take the bait. Without another thought, you stand up, racing down the wide isle to meet your foe. Ignoring the mumbled yells of Diego and the others, you’re solely focused on ending Cha-Cha once and for all. It takes you less then three seconds to reach her, before slamming her harshly into the cement wall at the back of the stage. She falls to the floor with a grunt, as you slowly walk over to her, eyeing up your prey like a she-wolf to an injured doe. She scrambles to pick herself up, jumping to her feet in an instant, fists clenched and ready to fight.

“You’re good at what you do, I’ll give you that.” You tell her casually, unawares to the fiery glow subconsciously emitting from your irises. She lets out a ragged cough, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion at your eyes color change.

“Yeah well, you’ll have your time to see how great I am at it, and then when I’m done with you, I’ll pay your boyfriend a little visit.” She snaps at you, her voice dripping with malice. You only chuckle at her sad attempt at holding any ground in the conversation.

“If I didn’t want you to suffer you’d be dead already...I’m not feeling particularly gracious this evening.” Your voice is calm and collected as you tilt your head to her, fully enjoying the growing fear emitting from her injured body, although she hides it well. “You’re already half dead. But I’ll oblige and see if you really do know how to kill someone who can’t be killed.” She bitterly sneers at you while you smirk at her, silently egging her on to do something. Your hopes answered as she lunges for you, it’s an easy dodge to the right, as you smash your fist into her left rib cage. She lets out a rasped breath at the sudden impact.

Cha-Cha turns around to let more fists fly violently in your direction, you bring your forearms up to block a hit to your left then your right, then your face and then to your vulnerable chest. You can tell she’s giving everything, as you’re just toying with her. Your fight turns into that of a dance, the both of you throwing jabs at each other as you waltz around the backstage of the Icarus Theater. Her foot cracks you in the side of your knee, sending a white hot pain throughout your body, as you drop to the floor from the sudden jolting impact. She then laughs while taking this golden opportunity to kick you savagely in the stomach. Your vision goes spotty as she beats into you, until you look up to find Diego, watching the two of you from the stage. That’s all the motivation you need, before reaching out your hand to promptly halt anymore of Cha-Cha’s violent advances.

You pull her down, letting go as you stand up to face her once again, a single red trickle of blood painting down the corner of your mouth. When she stands up to launch herself at you, you swing your leg up, effectively smashing her across the head. She stumbles to the floor, dazed at your quick attack. Your steps are fast, as your fists are on her once again, laying into her with all your pent up emotions, finally gushing out in an array of violent brutality. She’s underneath you, desperately holding her arms up to help cover her already bruised face.

You’re screaming with rage and anguish for your fallen friend Patch and everyone else who’s ever needlessly died at the hands of Cha-Cha. Your fists are raw and covered in blood as you rip open her jacket sleeves with each new hit, making way into her bloody arms and face. You don’t notice the tears streaming down your face, when a hand suddenly touches your shoulder. Your head whipping to the side, staring daggers at whoever dare stop you. It’s Diego, he looks at you with sad eyes, staring deep into your glowing orbs of hellfire. He shakes his head while giving you a pleading look, beckoning you to stop your vicious tirade on Cha-Cha and to follow him. You look back down at her through your bleary eyes, blood and purpled flesh adorning her miserable features as she slowly lets in and out shallowed breaths from her pathetic spot on the floor.

You raise yourself off of her, standing defiantly above her like a tired warrior after a long battle. She opens one eye to look pitifully up at your blood spotted face. You step to the side to then glare down at her, your burning eyes meeting her wretched grimace.

“Get up.”

The corners of her lips curl into a wicked grin, as she lets out a strained wheeze, her last attempt at a comprehensible laugh. To your great astonishment, Cha-Cha begins to begrudgingly peel her bloodied body off of the cement floor. Bringing herself onto her knees then to her feet, she’s breathing heavily and swaying slightly, dizzy from the ferocious beating you just gave her. She spits out a wad of blood as her good eye glances over to Diego, who hasn’t moved a muscle, praying that he’ll make you follow him and leave her in peace. You look from Diego then back to Cha-Cha, your face a mask of stone.

“Patch wouldn’t want me to kill you...you know. She’d tell me something wise and how we can be good, even when we are full of hate and rage towards the ones who’ve wronged us.” More tears fall from your conflicted face, running down to your chin as hot and angry little droplets, “I liked her...she was nice and smart, believed in people and was good at her job.....she was my friend...Eudora didn’t deserve a bullet through her chest, but you killed her anyways. Just like all the others.” Cha-Cha opens up her arms, giving you a defeated shrug, she has nothing else to say to you. You give her a weary nod, as Diego comes up to your side, touching your arm in an attempt at leading you away.

“I wish I could be like her...but I’m not.” You whisper truthfully, pulling out a spare dagger from Diego’s leather knife vest, only to plunge it directly into Cha-Cha’s windpipe. Her eyes shoot open at the sudden impact, her hands reaching up to try and pull you away. But your arm’s to quick, you pull the silver blade out of her neck as blood spurts from the opened wound. She tries desperately to cover the damage, but her attempts are wasted as she falls to her knees in despair. You watch her stare on wide eyed at your unflinching form, while she abruptly falls to the cold ground. Bleeding out before your very eyes, your emotions are all over the place and you feel like you’re about to cry or scream or both everything building up and up and up. Diego turns your shoulder to face him, “Y/N we gotta go save the world. Babe are you with me?” He tells you quietly, looking deeply into your tearfully glowing eyes. You part your lips, about to say something but nothing comes out but a heavy stressed huff of air. You’re not entirely sure if you’re about to lose it or not, you’re angry over Patch’s death, you just killed Cha-Cha, and the apocalypse is supposed to happen very soon. Wiping out your whole world, the Hargreeves, and Diego. The one person you can trust with your life, and the one person you’ve loved since you were a teenager. Honestly the only person you’ve ever truly loved.

“I’m with you. Ride or die remember.” You reply, wiping the wetness from your face and giving him back his knife. He gives you a lopsided smile, taking your shaking hand and swiftly leading you to the others.

——

“Oh, welcome back. Where were you two?” Questions Luther, the rest of the Hargreeves closely positioned around him, all of them watching as you and Diego walk closer into the group circle.

“Murder.” You answer bluntly. He makes a confused facial expression and nods, not sure what that was implying but then again with you, he doesn’t really wanna know.

“So how do you wanna end this thing?” Shouts Diego over the roaring sounds of white energy and Vanya’s violin playing.

“We surround her. All right? We come at her from all angles.” Instructs Luther as the rest of you lean in to hear better.

“So it’s a suicide mission.” Whispers Klaus sadly.

“Yeah, but one of us could get through. It’s the only chance we’ve got.” States Five setting up the actual plan, well at least the best one the group could come up with. Either way, things aren’t looking good whatsoever and you’re not 100% certain if you’ll actually survive.

“Are we all in?” Says Luther while glancing around the six of you. All of you nod as he continues to lead, pointing to Diego first, “Stage left.” Then to himself, “Stage right.”

“Allison?”

Diego turns around to race up the isle as Luther focuses his attention on the rest of you, “You guys take the front.” With everything to lose you leave Luther and Allison as you run through the smaller isles next to Klaus and Five, your heartbeat pounding with adrenaline and fear. While Klaus takes the left corner of the chairs and Five takes the right. You jump over a couple rows to bring your way to the front of the theater. Vanya plays on, oblivious to everything that’s going on around her, blissfully unaware in her moment of music and light. It hurts your sensitive ears and the pure light radiating from Vanya is no help either to your hyper-aware senses. You hear the yell or battle-cry of Luther instructing everyone to charge.

You don’t think twice as you jump to your feet, launching yourself over the edge of the stage and bracing yourself for impact when you take out Vanya. Everything happens so fast, a second later you feel like you’re being blinded as the floor and your boots appear to not be making contact anymore. Unless you were just teleported to a zero gravity room, things aren’t adding up. When you squint open your eyes once again, you’re surprised to find yourself and everyone else suspended in midair by Vanya’s energy tentacles. You’re placed in the center with the Hargreeves boys to your left and right. Their faces seem to contort into a pained expression as you notice how Vanya’s sucking their life force from each of you. But due to your rapid healing abilities it’s not affecting you as terribly, it feels like the wind is constantly being knocked out of you and it’s getting harder to breath by the second. Without warning you hear a piercing blast scream through the air, whatever it was, stopping Vanya from hurting you anymore.

The moment of peace short lived as you’re dropped to the thinly carpeted floor. You jolt to your feet once again as everyone races onto the stage to make sure Vanya and Allison are okay.

“Is she alive?” Rushes Luther worriedly as Allison holds an unconscious Vanya in her arms, the rest of you looking on in deep concern while Allison answers with a quick nod much to everyone’s relief. That and the normal rhythmic thumping of her heartbeat a solid indicator of her aliveness, not that they would be able to hear it though.

“We did it. We saved the world.” Smiles Luther with a relieved sigh, the others doing the same. Your stomach twists with the horrid sounds of something breaking from far away. You can’t place where it’s coming from until you turn your head to look up through the glass-less open theater dome. Your eyes widen at the bewildering sight of scattered pieces of the Moon racing towards earth. You slowly rise to your feet, Klaus catching your odd change in behavior, he turns to stand as well. His eyebrows raising in surprise, “Um. Guys? You see that big Moon rock coming towards us?” Asks Klaus, just making sure everyone’s on the same page.

“That’s not good.” States Luther matter-of-factly.

“So this is it, huh. So much for...saving the world.” Sighs Klaus sadly as he looks down at his dog-tags with longing and fond memories. Everyone is standing by now, except for Vanya and Allison who are still seated on the stage floor.

“If only Sir Reginald could see us right now, huh? The Umbrella Academy. A total failure.” Mutters Diego with a defeated tinge to his voice, you look over at him and then back at the destroyed Moon.

“I guess now I can finally see what it’s really like on the other side.” Diego turns his head to look at you, reaching his hand out for you to take, you interlock your fingers together as you smile at him sadly, “I hope it’s nice.”

“At least we’re together at the end. As a family.” Adds Luther, gaining the attention of Five.

“This doesn’t have to be the end.”

The four of you turn around to face him with equally confused faces, all of you doubtful in whatever Five’s about to tell you. “What? What are you saying, Five?”

“I think I have a way outta here. But you gotta trust me in this.” He pleads as Diego, Klaus, and Luther shake their heads and practically shrug him off, all of them extremely skeptical. “Well, then, we might as well accept our fate, because in less then a minute, we’re gonna be vaporized.”

“What do ya got Five. Cause if I’m being honest I don’t really have dying by flaming Moon chunks on my bucket list.” He looks at you with a new found determination and slight relief that someone is willing to listen. “We use my ability to time travel. But this time, I’ll take you all with me.”

“You can do that?” Wonders Diego.

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried it before.”

“What’s the worst that can happen?”

“You’re lookin’ at it. A 58-year-old man inside a child’s body, so there’s that.” Scoffs Five, still annoyed with how things turned out for him.

“Oh, what the hell? I’m in. You in Y/N?” Asks Diego while giving your hand a light squeeze.

“Let’s do this.”

“Yeah whatever. I’m in.” Adds Klaus.

“Me too. Allison?” Says Luther while looking down at Allison for an answer, she shakes her head in agreeance, it appears everyone’s on the same page, even Ben.

“Okay great. Luther, grab Vanya.” Instructs Five as the seven of you gather into a circle.

“Wait, should we be taking her? I mean, if she’s the cause of the apocalypse. Isn’t that like taking a bomb with us?”

“The apocalypse will always happen, and Vanya will always be the cause, unless we take her with us and fix her.” Explains Five to an unsure Luther, the rest of you nod in understanding.

“No man left behind. Now Five get us the fuck outta here.” You quickly add, as everyone joins together to hold hands while Five begins using his powers. Suddenly a bright blue light starts to appear right above everyone’s heads, indicating the opening of Five’s time portal. Diego squeezes your hand again, you returning the favor while giving him a hopeful smile.

“Ah.” Yells Five, working through the pain and exhaustion of bringing seven people into another decade or wherever you’re about to go. You can feel the tingling of electricity buzzing throughout the air as blue and white waves of energy begin surging all around you.

“Hold on! It’s gonna get messy!” He shouts over the loud wooshing sounds created by his time-traveling abilities, your own ears suffering along with it.

You take one last glance at Diego before your vision is taken over by the incredibly blinding lights of the blue portal. You can’t hear anyone anymore and your whole body feels like it’s in a zero gravity room, you feel for Diego or Klaus’ hand but to your panic you can’t feel them anymore. A second later the portal opens up, giving you a good view of a nearby trash can and solid concrete down below you as you’re spit out of the sky in rapid succession. You suddenly can’t see the blue energy of the portal anymore or feel the electricity around you as you free-fall straight into some discarded trash.

#the umbrella academy #diego hargreeves #diego hargreeves x reader #diego hargreeves x you #the umbrella academy x reader #what a time to be alive fic #falcor the luck dragon stories #number two #tua #tua season one

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4kyl0 · 4 years

Text

ache.

part ii.

pairing: ben solo x reader

summary: it had been one long grueling year since you last saw ben solo. during that period, you joined the resistance. ben on the other hand, was still the fearless supreme leader of the first order, kylo ren. now, an odd calling lead him back to varykino; revealing secrets and memories that were “meant” to stay hidden. (takes place in the midst of tros)

rating: sfw. more angst than fluff this time.

word count: 1.9k

a/n: sorry for the long wait! i’m finishing up school at the moment :)

“Supreme Leader, you cant just leave—”

“Enough.”

"A war is happening—"

"And your men will finish it." Kylo practically snarled, turning to the uptight general behind him.

Hux grew quiet, glaring daggers at him."Might I ask where you're going, Supreme Leader?" he spat, his lip quivering in anger.

"I'm not obligated to tell you about my whereabouts," Kylo was quick to retort. He felt as if his stomach were in knots.

Varykino had been calling him. He dreamt about it night after night, its memory prodding at the back of his mind everyday. He was unsure what it meant, but he would not rest until he understood. His stomach lurched if he even thought about acting on it. He wondered aimlessly if you were still there. Still alive and well. But he shielded those thoughts away, diminishing all feelings with it.

"I'll be gone for a week or less. nothing more. I expect full reports on everything when I return, General Hux," his modulated voice broke the uneasy silence between the two. Before Hux could respond, Kylo stormed off, his boots echoing throughout Starkiller Base.

***

You had left. Which was even more nerve wracking. The lake retreat was caked with dust, a few cracks in the foundation here and there. Only a year had passed, yet it was falling apart.

Kylo stopped in front of the villa. The pull was stronger than it was ever before. He didn't know why, but he took his leather gloves off, starting to walk towards the entrance now. Taking one of his calloused hands, he dragged it softly against one of the smooth, but cracked, walls. A sudden urge made him come to a halt once more.

Turning his gaze to the wall, the cracks glowed a vibrant light blue. His breath caught in his throat. A force essence, he thought. He had encountered a few before, when he was a padawan. But he never sought them out. What surprised him was that he had never seen one so luminous like now. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, he placed his hands on the crack, feeling him slip out of reality.

"I saw my mother," a young man spoke, his appearance showing that he was a Jedi padawan. "She is suffering badly," he added, turning to a woman behind him. she was young, like him. She had curly brown hair passing shoulder length. It looked like she was wearing a night gown and robe.

"I saw her as clearly as I see you now," he breathed, continuing to hold gaze with the woman. Lingering far too long, he turned his back to her again, walking a few steps forward. A sigh escaped him, "She is in pain." He turned to the woman once more, "I know I'm disobeying my mandate to protect you senator, but I have to go," the young padawan fretted, now taking a few steps towards the woman. "I have to help her." he whimpered, trembling a little.

She locked eyes with him, the emotion that had plastered itself on her face was unreadable. She hadn't spoke a word.

"I'll go with you," she assured; her voice smooth and calm.

"I'm sorry, I don't have a choice—"

Gasping, Kylo pushed off the wall harshly. His mind was spiraling. Who are they? He wondered, the two felt oddly familiar. He didn't know how exactly, neither his mother or father ever mention such people. He huffed, clenching is fists into tight balls. Eventually calming down, he continued to explore the what was once a grand lake house.

After what felt like days of searching out for anything, Kylo made it to the balcony; the last place he ever saw you. The memory felt fresh, as if it happened yesterday. Thinking of you made his shoulders sag, a huff passing through his lips. Even if you were upset, you were still beautiful. No, he thought, you hurt her. Sighing, the cloaked knight walked to the edge of the balcony, looking out on the view. It felt more dull; as if the scenery had lost an ounce of the bright colors it once had.

A flash of blue caught his eye. Turning his head, he saw a deep crack along the stone rail, the glow erupting from it more vibrant than ever. Like before, he took a deep breath, and let it go slowly. Lifting his hand, he placed it on top of the fracture, closing his eyes.

"I don't like sand." it was the padawan again, the woman from before beside him as well. "It's course and ruff and irritating—" he proceeded to fidget with stray pebbles along the rail "—and it gets everywhere." Dropping the pebbles, the young padawan looked out, "not like here, here everything is soft," his gaze averted to the senator. He bit his lip, hesitant, "and smooth." his hand rubbed against her own, and moved up her back. The young woman turned to look at him. They stared at each other quietly, the padawan even smiling a little.

Ever so slowly, he inched closer to her, their eyes still locked on each other. Closing the distance, they kissed. It was passionate, as if the two had longed for one another. As quickly as it happened, the senator pulled away, "no." she gasped, "I shouldn't have done that," she avoided his gaze.

"I'm sorry," he broke the short lived awkward silence. He lifted his head up, his eyes searching to look at anything but her. They both looked pained.

Yanking his hand from the stone rail, Kylo shuddered. The scene replayed in his head over and over again, making him groan aloud. I shouldn't have come here, his mind was buzzing, it was a mistake. Collecting himself, the cloaked knight let out a frustrated groan. It wasn't clear to what the Force was trying to tell him, but he didn't want to know either. For all he knew, it seemed like a distraught couple's spirits wallowing in the vacant structure. Yet, he felt strangely connected to them.

Turning around, Kylo took one step before going still. A signature in the Force practically knocked him off of his feet. It felt familiar; but it was strong, and not budging. Sucking air in through his nose and out, he clutched at his lightsaber, planting his feet firmly on the ground.

"You're quite loud," his modulated voice taunted, "projecting yourself? You lack of stealth and common sense." He closed his eyes, focusing on his surroundings through the Force.

As a twig snapped beside him, Kylo was quick to unsheathe his saber, pointing it intimidatingly at the shaded figure. He smirked, "come out into the light."

Complying, the figure walked out of the shadows, revealing you pointing a blaster at his chest.

His breath hitched, and his shoulders became more tense by the second. You changed; drastically so. You no longer wore fine dresses and headbands, in place of them was a leather jacket and combat boots. Your eyes failed to hold the brightness it once obtained; they were dull, and glassy.

"What are you doing here?" you barked, your tone low and harsh.

"I could ask you the same thing," Kylo retorted, his voice holding no emotion.

The both of you stood in silence, observing each other. It had only been a year, yet it felt like a thousand. Seeing you only brought back the feeling of being touch starved, and how much he craved intimacy with you. But things were different now, he knew he shouldn't feel this way.

"I see you haven't changed," your voice broke through the quiet. He didn't respond. "Still wearing that ridiculous helmet, too. I must say, you added flare to it with the little red streaks."

Oh, you were teasing him now. Anger bubbled up in his stomach, but he refused to lash out. He didn't want to scare you, but that angered him even more. He should feel the need to lash out at you, make you realize how miserable you made him felt.

Kylo huffed, "And I see that you've changed." Lowering his gaze, he practically growled. The Resistance symbol had been embroidered on the sleeve of your jacket, "a Resistance fighter."

You paused; your facial expression morphing into sadness. Your gaze flickered to him and the lake. You were nervous.

"Ben—" you hesitated, but continued, "she misses you," you mumbled. "I miss you," you managed to make eye contact with him as you spoke those words, even through his helmet.

Kylo hadn't noticed he stopped breathing. Ben, he thought; as if he had almost forgotten it. Ever since he had fought with you, the mere mention of his actual name made him nauseous. How much hurt was prominent in your voice when you cried it. How you were drowning in your own tears that day. He shivered.

"Her son—" he faltered as you did before,"—is dead." He felt like he was reciting a poem. "He was weak and foolish," his deep voice bellowed throughout the retreat, "so I killed him."

Your bottom lip quivered as your eyes glossed over. Returning your blaster to your holster, you slowly walked over to Kylo, now having to crane your neck to look up at him. His eyes darted to where his lightsaber should be, but it was on the floor, the intimidating red spark that once flared now dead.

"No," you shook your head, your hands reaching for the sides of his helmet. He didn't stop you, "he's not dead." With a hiss, you pulled the clunky piece of metal off of his head, tossing it to the far end of the balcony. As Ben's dark curls fell to frame his face, his gaze never left yours.

You held back a gasp. He was still unbelievably beautiful, even more so. "If anything, Ben Solo is alive, and he wants to be free," you proclaimed in a hushed tone, holding his face in your small hands.

Ben started to breathe harder and harder, the proximity of how close your faces were to each other caused you to feel the little puffs of air exit through his nose as he did so. He missed this. How you held his face, how you kissed him, how you embraced him. He could feel his face grow hot.

“Come with me,” you breathed, your eyes now half-lidded. “Please,” your voice dripped with longing.

“I—” the sound of an X-Wing flying by cut Ben off. Snapping his head up to the sky, he saw the orange paint streaked across the craft. His heart dropped to his stomach. “You called them here,” he snarled, his gaze returning to yours. All color had drained from your face.

“Ben—”

Holding his hand out to where his helmet was thrown, it instantly flew back in his palm. Yanking it over his head, he snatched his lightsaber from the ground. “If you follow me, I won’t hesitate to split you in half,” he fumed, now stomping away from the balcony.

There you stood. Shocked and hurt. Alone. Your bottom lip quivered, but you refused to recognize it.

Resistance fighters came piling in the broken structure, scouting the premises for Kylo Ren.

“Where did he go? Did you see him? Are you okay?” one asked, squeezing your shoulder softly.

You paused, in thought, “No,” you answered, all emotion vacant from your voice. “No, I didn’t see him.”

tag list:

@crazynocturnalkiki @star-marvel-fangirl @kiaoizz @reddieisrealbitches @jiminie-slytherin @moonprincess003 @heda-mikaelson

#star wars #star wars imagine #ben solo #ben solo imagine #ben solo x reader #kylo ren #kylo ren imagine #kylo ren x reader #adam driver #adam driver imagine #adam driver x reader #star wars tfa #star wars tlj #star wars tros #ben solo fluff #ben solo angst #kylo ren fluff #kylo ren angst

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xmalereader · 4 years

Text

Modern! Ben Solo X Sith! Male Reader

|| Masterlist ||

Requested: Hi! So I'm a huge fan of your modern!reader writings, and I was wondering if you would be interested in doing that, but the positions are reversed? Where Ben more or less is having a hard time just naturally fitting in on Earth and Reader somehow contacts him through the force and eventually convinces Ben to come with him?? Idk this has been kn my mind for a while.

Warnings: Slight angst, Modern Ben solo, reversed roles, dark lord reader, innocent Ben, slight fluff, Bi Ben.

@lea-the-foxe

“Supreme leader, we have arrived. Would you like us to prepare your ship?”

“Yes, please make sure that no one follows me and don’t send anyone unless I say.”

Hux gives his supreme leader a small bow. “Yes supreme leader.” He says as he exits the large room as y/n glanced outside, just a few miles away was Earth. A planet that took him months to find, it was a very well secured and hidden planet that y/n had to make sure that they scanned the whole galaxy to Just find this one planet.

He hasn’t heard about this, ‘earth’ but he does know that the population of humans don’t know anything about them so He order his people to make sure that they stayed hidden below radar, not wanting to cause any alarm on earth. “Make sure that everything is in control, I’m counting on you Hux.” He says through the force bond that he has created with Hux before leaving his own thrown and heading towards his chambers, getting himself ready before landing.

He’s made some research on earth, making sure the blend in well with the proper dressing and material he would be able to blend in with the crowds. He’s been sensing a force on earth and it has been calling out to him and he’s been trying to search for months but came up with nothing until now, he figured out about earth a while ago and has ordered his people to search everywhere in the galaxy. He’s been feeling this pull for awhile and now that he’s here he can finally search for the person responsible for this urgent tug.

As y/n finishes dressing up he gives himself one last look in the mirror, adjusting the black jacket and fixing up his hair, trying to make it look a little less nice and more modern looking. “Supreme leader.” He jolts in fright as he glares over at Hux who has re-entered his chambers. “Your ship is ready.”

“I’ve told you to knock several times.” He hisses out and ignores Hux. He grabs hsi saber and tucks it underneath his jacket before leaving his room, brushing past hux as he makes his way towards the shipping area. “While I am gone, I need you to make sure that no one is to disturb me, if we suddenly get pulled into danger then you send a holo.” He instructs as he climbs inside his ship and checks the controllers.

“I’ll make sure that nothing happens while you are gone, but for now focus on your own mission.” Said hux as y/n grins at him and closes the cockpit. He makes sure that he is ready to launch, strapping hismelf in as he sighs deeply and looks up ahead. “Lets do this.” He whispers to hismelf.

—

“Ben, you haven’t eaten anything since you’ve returned from your uncles.” Said Leia as she watches her son. Ben was sitting on the dining table as he stares out the window, he was looking at the sky with curiosity. “I’ve already eaten, uncle gave me some of his weird cooking.” He says as he turns his attention back to her.

Ben has been spending time with his uncle constiantly since his parents were still arguing with each other, reaching the point of Ben not being able to stand their bickering. His uncle was nice enough to Lend him a room, allowing him to stay as long as he wanted, but he knows that he would have to return back home and make sure that his parents haven’t killed each other.

“You’re Uncle isn’t feeding you properly.” She mutters out as Ben chuckles.

“Old man is lonely, he cant cook well but he’s learning.” He stands up from his seat, taking one last look outside before helping his mother clear the table. “How’s Rey by the way?” Ben freezes up at the mention of her name, walking towards the kitchen as he sets his plate inside the sink. “She uh—“

“She’s a very sweet girl.”

“Yeah about that,” he began to clean his dishes as he spoke. “We broke up a long time ago, I don’t think I’m ready for a serious relationship, you know? Just need time on my own and finding a new place for myself.” He shrugs a little as he turns off the sink water and cleans his hands with a dry rag.

He hears his mother shuffle close to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “That wasn’t the reason.” She whispers as Ben bites his lip. “You still hear them.”

Ben flinches away from her touch. “I haven’t been hearing it lately, it’s not bad and besides its going away so I’m fine.” His mother was talking about the voice that had been talking to him for awhile now, it’s been years, to be exact three. It started when he was at work, working on one of his big projects when he suddenly heard a soft whisper. He thought that it was one of his co-workers talking to him but when he turned around he saw no one. He thought it was his imagination until it happened again, but this time he heard it loud and clear, he thought he was going crazy at first.

But he had tried to ignore, blocking it out as he continues on with his life. But it only got worse as months went by so he had no choice but ot tell someone and that someone was his mother. He loved her so much that he wouldn’t do anything to upset her, so the day he told her—he expected her to freak out and send him to a therapist but instead she stood by his side and told him that it would all be over and to not listen, so he did that.

He’s been keeping it undercontrol, but he can’t help but feel a sudden tug in his chest. A feeling telling him that he didn’t belong here. He’s been struggling already with his own problem that he almost missed the times that his parents argued with each other and having to deal with a relationship that didn’t really feel real anymore. And his Job was only becoming stressful, the new interns were getting on his nerves, to the point where he would want to smash their face through a computer screen but he had to remain in control.

So he changed some things, he began to visit his parents separately and try to help fix their relationship while he visited his uncle Luke who he had tried to convince to help him out with his mother but his uncle refused to get involved, leaving him on his own. His break up with Rey didn’t end well, the two were out together when she suddenly brought up their future a topic that he hated talking about. He was polite to ask her to stop but she didn’t causing him to snap at her and dumping her on the spot.

He was already struggling to much, he just wanted a new start and far away from all of his problems.

“Ben you should really see a therapist about this or a doctor.”

“I said I was fine!” He slaps his mothers hand away from him as he grabs his coat and makes his way towards the door, leaving the house in a hurry, not wanting to get anymore upset with her.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

“Get out of my head.” He growls out in anger, walking a little faster as he heads towards an empty park.

“I can feel your anger, you’ve been angry for years now.”

“Shut up!” He grips his head, he can’t give in.

“It’s okay to be angry and upset, so let it all out no one is here to judge you.”

“What do you want with me?! You’ve been pestering me for years now! So tell me, what do you want!?” He circles around, checking his surroundings as he pants heavily. He can’t allow this voice in his head to mock him, “I just want you.” Gasping he turns around to see a strange man standing a few feet away from him. “Hello Ben, I’ve been waiting for you.” That voice, he recognizes that voice from his head.

“Who are you and how were you talking to me just now, in my head?” He asks as the other gives him a grin. “You don’t know do you?”

“Know what?!” He shouted back, expecting the other to get frightened from his anger but he doesn’t flinch nor does he move. “You see Ben, me and you are alike. You just don’t know it.”

“What—?”

The other approaches him slowly, causing Ben to stumble back. “Have you ever done something that was considered impossible?” He asks. “Have you ever felt another’s emotion or hav been so angry that you may or may not have moved an object, or maybe a voice in your head telling you what to do?” He cocks his head and smiles at Ben.

It wasn’t a warm smile but a wicked one.

“How do you know all of this?” Ben glares at the other as he sighs deeply. “Because I’ve been watching you, the force led me to you and it want me to take you in, to train you to make you stronger, wouldn’t it be nice to just start over? To learn something new?”

The offer sounded tempting to him but he couldn’t, his parents were here and hsi whole family, he can’t jus leave like this. “Who’re you?”

“I’m y/n, but where I’m from I prefer others to call me Supreme Leader, but if you agree to follow me then ill allow you to call me whatever you like.” He adjusts his hoodie and reaches under his hood to take out a cylinder like rod, it was black with a sigil on it.

He could feel a sudden tug on the object, like it was calling out for him. “You feel it don’t you?” Ben snaps his eyes to y/n as he holds out the object towards him. “go on, take it. I know you want too.” He whispers and takes a few steps forward, causing ben to realize that he was slightly taller than the other. By instinct he takes a step back, “Go on.” He hears y/n say again. “take it.”

Ben glances back down at the object, slowly reaching out to take it into his own hand. At the sudden touch he feels a strong powerful feeling, causing him to gasp and drop the object. But before it could hit the ground it froze in mid air, his eyes widening as the object slowly floats up and into the hands of the other. Y/n grips onto the saber and eyes Ben. “Shame you didn’t get to use it.” He says with a small pout, almost making it look like he was making fun of him.

Ben could only glare at him. “Don’t tease me.”

“Oh but I like teasing, its the only thing I’m really good at it.” Y/n admits as he clips the saber back on his belt and turns back to face the other. “I know you felt a strong force when you held it, it was calling out ot you. Telling you that you belonged somewhere else and not here.”

Ben breaths out nervously, he wasnt wrong. He’s been feeling unimportant around others that maybe disappearing wouldn’t matter to anyone.

“Join me, I know you want too.” Y/n extends his hand out, offering it towards ben.

Ben gives his hand a glance before looking back up to face the other. “I can train you, make you a better person. You can become someone a lot better—“ Ben inches closer as y/n slowly smiles. “I can take you away form everything.” He whispered out as Ben takes his hand, wrapping his fingers around his hand.

Y/n’s lips twitch up into a smirk as he tugs Ben forward, placing his other free hand against his forehead, showing him various visions before he falls asleep. Y/n uses the force to keep him from falling, reaching into his pocket he takes out a com, a holo of hux appearing as y/n speaks. “General, prepare an extra room, Will be having some company.”

#male reader #star wars x male reader #kylo ren x male reader #ben solo x male reader #kylo ren #ben solo #star wars tros #star wars tros x male reader #modern reader #modern fic

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stabbingandorbeingstabbed · 4 years

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2, 4, 28, 29, and 35 for the ask thing!!!!

2. Favorite song off Bullets?- oh early sunsets hands down i heard a music box version of it really early this morning/late last night and it full on brought me to tears and NOW i wanna get rich so i can commission a music box that plays that and has the demolition lovers dancing when you open it i thought a lot abt it last night lmao

4. Favorite song off Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge?- def jetset life followed closely by a tie between cemetery drive and fashion statement BUT jetset life fucks so much HARDER when you get the full transition between the end of ghost and the intro and spotify cuts that OFF so i went and bought the cd bc i havent owned it since my mom made me cut up my first copy in like 2005 and it has the full organ bit :-) lmao

28. Have you ever gotten noticed by any of them on social media? If they noticed you please elaborate.- that one time frank told me my boozey died scratching his balls

29. Favorite Gerard quote and or moment?- theres literally too many good things to name but i CAN tell you what my LEAST fav thing is Easily and that is This

35. Do you have any MCR tattoos? Or any tattoos for their solo projects?- yeah!!! i have the above boozey tattoo that frank drew for me at one of the fiatfv shows this year but my first was this revenge thigh piece that ive wanted since i was like 13 that i FINALLY got around this time last year (the lyrics are “you get what everyone else gets/you get a lifetime)

then the SECOND one i got was these frankenstein wrist stitches bc im fuckin frank iero trash and i just think theyre neat :-)

but the third is my Favorite and didnt even start out as an mcr tattoo AT ALL but i had seen another tattoo of joan of arc and thought that it looked cool and decided i wanted one of my own but WHILE I WAS WAITING for my appointment i learned abt gerards obsession with her and since i couldnt decide what her flag should be i decided it’d be fitting to make it a kinda tbp tattoo and thus this baby was dreamed up and ive. never seen anything like it and i cant BELIEVE shes mine :’-)

#i want MORE mcr tattoos my gf is like. Known for designing them lmao #cant WAIT til she's a tattoo artist and can just use me as a guinea pig lmao #Anonymous

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forcetouched-blog · 5 years

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❛ ( ADAM DRIVER ) ◈ dude, shut up ! KYLO REN / BEN SOLO from STAR WARS is on screen. their fans swear they’re just INTELLIGENT & TRAINED, but we’ve all seen their AGGRESSIVE & DARK side ! according to TRUMAN WIKIA, they’re THIRTY years old, HETEROSEXUAL, & identify as CISMALE ( HE/HIM ). they’re currently a LAWYER & are ANGRY about life in truman. luckily they have A LIGHTSABER, REASSEMBLED HELMET, AND DICE with them & can visit CHANDRILA whenever they want. penned by BILLY.

hello, it’s billy again! i love star wars so much, especially this new trilogy that comes to a close in december. i find kylo ren / ben solo to be such an interesting character and just had to apply for him. alright, let’s get on to his canon history!

C A N O N H I S T O R Y ―

he is the son of han solo and leia organa. nephew to luke skywalker. grandson to anakin skywalker and padme amidala. he was born on the day the galactic concordance was signed.

leia and han were often busy with their responsibilities. leia with her political career and han off being a smuggler. their busy lives often left ben with feelings of abandonment.

growing up, ben had no idea of his true heritage. leia kept the truth from ben but planned to tell him when he was older.

leia, noticing the similarities between her son and anakin skywalker, sent him to luke’s jedi academy in hopes that training could help him. (this didn’t help at all with ben’s feelings of abandonment, seemingly making it worse.)

he was targeted most of his life by an evil man -- snoke. he used ben’s feelings of abandonment as a tool to seduce him. snoke saw much potential in ben solo, and wanted the boy to become his apprentice.

the truth about leia’s parentage was revealed by her political enemies. she had yet to tell ben the truth, and worried about how he would react finding out about it in such a public way.

luke skywalker began to notice the darkside in ben. one night, he went to a sleeping ben and reached out with the force to find such evil and corruption influencing ben. he saw everything he loved being destroyed and for a brief second, luke ignited his lightsaber intending to kill his nephew but the desire vanished instantly and he was left with guilt and shame.

ben awoke to his uncle standing over him with a lightsaber. he ended up using the force to bring the whole building on top of luke. he believes that luke failed him.

he then begins to tear down everything that luke had created. ben massacred the other students and leaving the planet with a few students who had joined snoke, too.

ben took the name “kylo ren” and became the apprentice of snoke, and also was the master of the knights of ren. he was trained by snoke, and eventually became super powerful and also idolized darth vader.

kylo ren became invested in the first order, becoming an influential member.

years later, snoke and kylo ren realized that if luke skywalker and the jedi were ever to return that it would be a massive threat to all they were building with the first order. so, the search started for luke skywalker.

ending up finding poe dameron who had known about the map, and interrogated him and tortured him, basically. found that poe’s bb unit had the hidden map.

did a raid on takodana, where he tried to get the droid but it was saved by poe dameron. instead, he found a girl that had seen some of the map and decided to bring her with him instead. he brought her to starkiller base.

he probed her mind, and eventually rey proved to be able to use the force and instead probed his mind. she saw that he was afraid he’d never be as strong as darth vader. rey later on escapes the interrogation room.

han solo tries to reach for his son, but ben kills him (which weakens his spirit more. rendered unbalanced from the act.) and han drops into the abyss. chewie shoots ben, wounding him but not killing him.

he has a duel in the forest where he loses. and star killer is destroyed.

ends up having a force connection with rey, where they can feel each other’s feelings ? and memories ?. they start having some weird connection with each other, learning more about the other and rey believed he could turn to the light while he thought she could turn to the dark.

he kills snoke for her, they fight the praetorian guard together.

at the end, she asks him to stop the war and he proceeds to tell her to let the past die. she begs him not to go this way, but he’s not willing to change. they fight over the skywalker lightsaber which breaks in half and they both go unconscious. she wakes up before him, and leaves. doesn’t kill him.

he becomes supreme leader. follows the resistance to crait where they make their last stand against him and the first order.

he confronts luke who apologizes and they fight. kylo tries to kill him, but luke had been force projecting himself the whole time. luke had bought time for the resistance to make their escape.

he’s still searching for the resistance as of right now.

(cant wait for tros!!!)

if you want to read more about his history, you can just click on canon history and it will take you to a full run down of his history! i’ll also be posting connections for him as well. if anyone wants to plot, don’t be afraid to shoot me a message! i’d love all kinds of connections for him! now let’s get into his history on truman.

N O W ―

ben's fake life/fake memories still follows a dark path where he still ends up in snoke’s grasp. at fifteen he ran away from home, even trying to leave truman island but he doesn’t remember that since had had been zapped. after a few months of roaming around as far from his old neighborhood as he could get, he runs into snoke.

snoke, seeing potential in young ben solo but also knows their (canon) history, takes him under his wing and gives him a brand new life. one where ben leaves that identity behind and becomes a new man, kylo ren. snoke puts him through law school, and kylo becomes a criminal defense lawyer in snoke’s employment.

he’s still a bad guy, protecting bad people that live in truman. snoke is still manipulating him, albeit kylo doesn’t know their full history together. he hasn’t seen his family in years but sometimes he misses them -- a thought that he will quickly stomp out and maybe punch a wall until his knuckles bleed.

although, he’s still sort of conflicted. with his memories slowly coming back, everything in his life is starting to spin and spiral. he doesn’t know what to believe and he can still feel the light trying to wiggle through the broken cracks in his heart. is this really the life he wanted?

#truman:intro #violence tw #death tw

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letstalksymphogear · 5 years

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Symphogear, EP. 2 (Cont.)

Meanwhile...

A certain someone is having some flashbacks.

You’re going to see a lot of water symbolism around Kanade when Tsubasa is thinking about her. Feel free to use your imagination for that one.

“fuck yeah!”

“im so FUCKING MAD”

Hibiki’s B-Friend squad, known lovingly as the Anime Janai squad, ask Hibiki if she wants to go eat somewhere, which is the equivalent of asking a dog to play fetch. This is always guaranteed for a yes.

Unfortunately, she wants to look Responsible in front of her girlfriend. So she turns it down, with all the pain and gritted teeth anyone can muster in the most adorable fashion.

This is their running joke, and their aptitude for this is frightening. My theory is that they are passively the Gods of this world, and are perfectly aware that this is a work of fiction, but continue to live their lives gleefully to await the action that unfolds.

“i know bikki said no cause she luvs me and wants to be responsible but i wont lie i really wanted pancakes today”

More than you’ll ever know.

“you comin or what, we got pancakes ready, not that ill let you eat them. cause i ate them. all of em.”

“right i forgot- your opinion means jack diddly to me.”

And so she is arrested. Again. Sorta needlessly this time. I am pretty sure Tsubasa really just likes whipping out those handcuffs. Those things are like, comically huge. And that big buzzing noise is just funny.

“the test results are in! and you ARE the protagonist! whoops!”

“hey we’re gonna be relevant later right? i read the contract and we dont really get any lines until like next season and”

“speak another fucking word and i will rip your tongue out manually with my nails because i SWEAR to god i didnt do acting school for 15 years to blow this shot because of your bitching for fucks sa-”

They tell her aside from the first shock she’s fine but Hibiki ain’t having it. She wants to know why metal parts spring out of her like a bad Michael Bay movie.

“sit back. this is gonna be a long one.”

The show begins explaining the relics owned by each relic user, which so far have been two.

Sorry, my subs are broken. Tsubasa’s is Ame-no-Habakiri. Kanade’s, which is now Hibiki’s is Gungir. Relics are ancient technology from ancient times with ancient power capable of... ancient things. They use music and singing to activate. That’s all you really need to know. The relics are usually refined into amulets such as what Tsubasa wears, and they’re usually fragments of the original thing.

“all those years of karaoke are finally paying off”

Tsubasa points out, though, that using them isn’t as simple as singing a song and calling it a day.

You have to work hard to use them due to the nature of compatibility.

Hibiki asks the million dollar question. “I don’t have a relic, though.”

Naturally, she’s wrong. Back when Kanade accidentally impaled Hibiki, it left pieces of her relic embedded inside of her. This has been sitting there for years, and shockingly enough, no other doctor has noticed this and Hibiki has never felt any discomfort about this.

Tsubasa puts two and two together. Take a good look; this is the emotional equivalent of witnessing someone split an atom under a microscope.

The atom is officially split.

This is the face of someone who witnessed her girlfriend die to save a random person in her hands as she turned to dust, only to meet the survivor several years later and learn that she now owns the very thing that had her life saved in the first place, coming back to haunt her.

Naturally it’s not Hibiki’s fault but Tsubasa... let’s just say she could use a round of therapy or two. Or ten.

“i need to get her a pony.”

Hibiki, desperately wanting to cut the middleman of this needless growing angst between her and her girlfriend, keeps asking if she can tell someone about this. Literally just one person. They could probably just make whoever she wants to tell sign an NDA too, right?

“no”

Genjuro pulls the superhero secret identity motive. Others knowing means your friends and family may be at risk, since being a Symphogear is Serious Business.

“this is gonna suck”

Sam Reimi’s Spiderman strikes again.

Hibiki is successfully recruited into the 2nd Division ranks as a Symphogear, much to Tsubasa’s chagrin.

Sadbasa.

“cant believe she’s my teammate now to boot”

Hibiki tries to be nice and offers a friendly handshake, but unfortunately she hasn’t leveled their bonds enough to make it happen. Coincidentally, crisis strikes. It’s the Noise. It’s always the Noise.

Hibiki feels like joining Tsubasa, feeling as though she has a lot to prove. All of this has happened in the last 5-8 minutes.

“shes got guts, ill give her that”

An asskicking brews in the middle of the road. Tsubasa, naturally, fights like a pro. Hibiki... gets a good kick in.

It only pisses her off more. Tsubasa knows that Hibiki is using the gear wrong. There’s a fucking spear built into that thing, she thinks. You don’t need to fight hand-to-hand combat. What idiot would punch these things? I mean, I kick, but my kicks have swords on them. It’s not the same, damnit. It’s not the same!

Hibiki is a strange and special case. She has 0 idea she’s stepping into the shoes of someone else (or rather, a weak idea; she knows it belonged to someone else but she never genuinely met them), and she has no combat prowess and sorta fumbles everywhere. Tsubasa gets angrier because she’s projecting her own insecurities into Hibiki, because she thinks that Hibiki is trying to replace Kanade, when Hibiki is just trying to save lives, period. This is ironically what Kanade was inspired to do back when she was alive.

It’s one big case of emotional telephone that everyone is losing.

“fighting crime is fun!”

“MOOOOROOOOOOON”

Tsubasa fails her aspect of the trust fall, and thus Hibiki hurtles down to her doom unwittingly.

Solos the giant monster, like a True Gamer would.

Blows everything up, as stated in her contract. The explosions remind her of Kanade’s hair, you see. Big, red, and wild.

“did i do a good job? huh, tsubasa? did you see that kick? ive never kicked like that before! hey tsubasa! did i do good? was that good, tsubasa? this is my first time so i really dont know what im doing but i think that was good!”

“im not really good at stuff right now but i promise to improve and do better since i have literally only known combat for a few seconds, tops”

“...”

“you absolute motherfucker. first you show up to the concert me and my girlfriend hosted. your dumb ass doesn’t even LEAVE THE DAMN CONCERT HALL like everyone else did. it just stood and stared like an absolute moron, and my GIRLFRIEND had to SAVE YOUR DUMB ASS because your LACK OF BRAIN CELLS couldnt make your LEGS RUN. and she DIED FOR THAT. and now you not only come to the school I’M IN, to STALK ME for ANSWERS on WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED instead of MOVING ON WITH YOUR LIFE, you also WEAR MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND’S SUPERHERO OUTFIT, immediately MOVE IN TO GET IN HER POSITION, try to WORK WITH ME without knowing JACK SHIT about combat, and act as a GENERAL NUISIANCE SINCE DAY FUCKING ONE.”

“im going to fucking murder you.”

“hey wait okay maybe i did some mistakes but murder is not conducive to teamwork here okay lets just chill a moment and-”

It was at that moment that Tachibana Hibiki knew, she was in deep shit.

#symphogear #symphogear season 1 #recap #anime

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dustedmagazine · 5 years

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Year End 2018: Derek Taylor

Another year above ground. Another year salvaged in no small part through the solace of music. That may register as a Limbo-worthy low bar for measuring life satisfaction, not mention one hopelessly awash in hyperbole, but there’s a reason. The sobering sense of normalcy that’s come to characterize the daily insanity of the world writ large and small makes the railing and grousing about it through a laptop keyboard feel at once futile and arrogant. Many of us still have it pretty good, if not better. Able to move and think freely. Fortunate to readily find the time to spend sequestered with art, whatever the senses and thoughts it stimulates. Plenty of others can’t consistently say the same. That ever-widening disparity weighs on my mind with a regularity that makes the compiling and commentary of lists such as this seem both a luxury and a necessity. We’re all in it together and revitalizing music is as meaningful a reminder as any of that steadfast reality. If only the orange orangutan still soiling the Oval Office and the psyches of millions (if not billions) would swap the MAGA-emblazoned nonsense that’s his usual headgear for the Burnside brim pictured above and mean it!

No real ranking to the entries below other than the general order to which they visited me through contemplation and return engagement.

Eric Dolphy – Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Sessions (Resonance)

Released in haphazard, infrequent and incomplete editions, Eric Dolphy’s interstitial work (landing between his formative tenure at Prestige and his solitary masterpiece for Blue Note, Out to Lunch) under the aegis of producer Alan Douglas has never really received a fair shake from curators and critics alike. That long-standing slight was rectified this year with the Record Store Day release of Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Sessions on the Resonance label. Rescued, enhanced and appended with 85-minutes of previously unreleased music and a lavish 100-page book stocked with scholarly essays by the likes of flautists James Newton and Nicole Mitchell, Sonnys Rollins and Simmons, Han Bennink, Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake and others it’s an unprecedented boon on all fronts. The CD version of the set is slated for a 1/25 street date.

Barre Phillips

Octogenarian expatriate bassist Barre Phillips has sustained a relatively steady output in the 21st century, but End To End, a solo set (his purported last) for ECM, and a Oh My, Those Boys!, a timely reissue of his extended duets with Japanese confrere Motoharu Yoshizawa on the Lithuanian No Business label are aural confirmation of his consistency across decades. Alone and self-limited to the length of a LP he sculpts a somber soliloquy of intimate communion with his instrument. In the fast company of Yoshizawa, who fields a custom-made electric upright, the mood is much more frenetic in playful. Both settings are aurally transfixing.

Mingus – Jazz in Detroit/Strata Concert Gallery/46 Selden

Weighing in at a mighty five-discs, Jazz in Detroit/Strata Concert Gallery46 Selden dispenses with Christian name specifics and allows surname to suffice in announcing its bigger-than-life subject. Mingus’ instrumental faculties weren’t quite as consistent as the virtuosic powers that propelled him in youth (he had just over six years to live in the winter of 1974 when this material was captured), but any effects of advancing age fall away when he calls a tune, soloing with strength and at length and according his auspicious sidemen including drummer Roy Brooks who is ostensibly responsible for the recording’s survival. Retooled staples like “Pithecanthropus Erectus” and “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” join newer improvisational springboards like “The Man Who Never Sleeps” and “Noddin’ Ya Head Blues” to form a veritable smorgasbord of vibrant small group, stage-born jazz.

Peter Brötzmann

The venerable German road dog always has a place on this list. Now somewhat miraculously pushing eighty he’s still at it, crisscrossing the globe and breaking hearty musical bread with friends old and new. Three releases stood out to these ears: two recent duos and a welcome reissue of Hot Lotta, one of his early free jazz missives recorded almost five decades earlier with faithful countryman Kowald and the Finnish duo of Juhani Aaltonen and Edward Vesala. In the must-hear duo column reside, Ouroboros, a 2011 German club date with Chicago cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm on Astral Spirits, and Sparrow Nights on Trost, a wrenchingly intimate studio encounter with pedal steel phantasmagorist Heather Leigh, who ranks easily among Brötzmann’s most intriguing recent coconspirators.

Corbett vs. Dempsey

Keeping the Corbett vs. Dempsey count to just three for the year is a tough task as their usual prolificacy combined with a commensurate excellence. The reissue of Steve Lacy’s seminal Stamps, originally released in 1979 as his debut for the Swiss Hat Hut imprint narrowly edges out the equally edifying appearance of Milford Graves long-lost Bäbi if only because my spouse allows me to spin the cacophonously calorific latter platter only in her conspicuous absence. A decade was a long time to wait for Joe McPhee and Hamid Drake’s duo follow-up, Keep Going, this time trading stage for studio. But from the music to the mantra-ready title it’s a welcome inoculation against the forces of idiocy and ire globally arrayed against those with humanist allegiances.

Guy Lafitte

Last year it was Lucky Thompson. This year French tenorist Guy Lafitte got the Fresh Sound archival treatment with four full discs of material from his heyday as one of his country’s most popular indigenous purveyors of jazz. Each set delves into a different side of his folio from tight ensembles to modestly-sized orchestras, sometimes in the company of visiting guests, but more often plying his sound amongst a core crew of fellow believers. One of former, Michel de Villers, also earned a survey with The Complete Small Group Sessions 1949-1956 that shows him living up to the sobriquet of “Low Reed” at length on deftly deployed baritone saxophone.

Steeplechase

The Danish Steeplechase label always seems to slot in my yearly look back, mainly because of the consistency of both their roster and long-standing aesthetic. Sea changing surprises instigated by their records are exceedingly rare, but the odds of a stimulating listen are conversely high with virtually every release. Guitarist Pierre Dørge’s Soundscapes convenes a quintet with tenorist Stephen Riley and cornetist Kirk Knuffke in the service of the leader’s customarily open-ended compositions. Riley’s Hold ‘Em Joe is at once a canted tribute to Sonny Rollins and a welcome return to the piano-less trio format he first cut his teeth on for the label a decade ago. Baritonist Gary Smulyan’s Alternative Contrafacts yields winsome results with the instrumentation as well in a creative nod to the sort of extrapolations that were the fertile province of the Tristano School in the last century.

No Business/Chap Chap

A partnership between the No Business label and the Korean Chap Chap imprint continues to yield impressive reissues. All in circulation to date are worthy of consideration, but two bent my ears with pleasing consistency. Kang Tae Hwan’s Live at Café Amores offers an extended concert for solo saxophone that is equal measures Zen meditation and extended techniques master-class. Choi Sun Bae Quartet’s Arirang Fantasy teams a trio of Korean improvisers with visiting Japanese bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa for another café set that is ripe with cross-cultural creativity. Lastly, a reissue of sorely unsung vibraphonist Bobby Naughton’s 1976 masterstroke The Haunt with Leo Smith and the recently-deceased Perry Robinson (R.I.P.) in a setting of creative chamber jazz perfection.

Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland 50th Anniversary (Sony)

Repackaging of milestone rock albums is still the rage even as the compact disc as a physical musical format continues to wane with advance of other intangible digital formats. Hendrix has had his fair share of legacy parceled and promoted along these lines and it’s hard to fault the family for seeking to both cash-in and do right by his memory. Electric Ladyland 50th Anniversary does better than most past projects in this regard by hewing to a logical presentation and proffering some genuine value across three compact discs, a Blu-ray and a lavish LP-sized container replete hardcover tome covering all the minutiae of the original double-album phenomenon. And let’s face it, Hendrix fooling around with songs in their protean forms is more fun than sitting down with most rock musicians’ finished product.

Jack Sels – Minor Works (SDBAN)

Parts of Belgian Jack Sels biography read like Hollywood-ready bohemian melodrama with riches, rags, tragedy and triumph all sewn into the story of a saxophonist who spent much of his life trying to capture the magic of his American idols while remaining fiercely true to his European roots. That latter decision explains his relative anonymity today, but the expertly-curated if humbly-titled Minor Works is practically bursting with recovered music and anecdotal context that frames a vivid portrait of a player well-deserving of posthumous consideration.

Jon Irabagon

Irabagon’s a dues-payer, tireless and admirably selfless in his dedication to a revolving door of projects and regular gigs. A recent interview with clarinetist & podcaster Jeremiah Cymerman reveals just how cool and unflappable a customer the Filipino-American saxophonist can be as he relates exercising the patience of Job in the face of dunderheaded racism by erstwhile peers. On the aural front two specific contexts stuck with me as evidence of his indefatigability. Dr. Quixotic’s Traveling Exotics on his own Irabbagast imprint teams his quartet with veteran trumpeter Tim Hagans in a program that feels like a natural and more focused extension of earlier work in Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Dave Douglas’ Brazen Heart: Live at the Jazz Standard released on the trumpeter’s Greenleaf label explores one of Irabagon’s recurring sideman posts and at length over eight discs covering a four-night stand at the titular NYC club in 2015.

Roscoe Mitchell

Recent and nascent masterworks with nearly a half-century of revelatory activity between them, Ride the Wind (Nessa) and Sound (Delmark) represent two essential signposts in Roscoe Michell’s reliably iconoclastic career. Both center on the blurring the subjective boundaries between improvisation and composition. Whether adapting improvised solos to orchestral charts or atomizing ensemble interplay into a freeing malleable framework that can take participating musicians in a multiplicity of expressive directions, Mitchell’s courageous adherence to personal designs and investigations has always been the bedrock of his work.

Intakt

The Swiss Intakt imprint bridges the best aspects of a classic label construct (reliable stable, dependable production values, deep catalog, etc.) with a refreshing willingness to tweak the formula through a voracious ear for new talent. German altoist Angelica Niescer’s triumphant Berlin Concert and a pair of from Cuban pianist Auran Oritz, Live in Zurich with his working trio and Random Dances and (A)tonalities in the unexpected company of clarinetist Don Byron fit that latter bill. Globe Unity 50 Years celebrating the half-century longevity of Europe’s most influential improvising orchestra and Music for David Mossman by the equally indelible trio of Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Paul Lytton argue conclusively that the former end of Intakt’s endeavors is equally secure.

Clean Feed

Staunch loyalists to the tradition of improvisational album in physical form, Lisbon-based Clean Feed doesn’t just soldier on, it leads away with a release docket that reliably weds frequency with dependability. The sixteen discs that hit circulation in the span since January all have elements to recommend them, but two stuck to my ears and cranium more tenaciously than the others for both their audacity and intimacy. Vocalist Serpa’s Close Up is exactly that, a sans-net song forum with the stark support of Ingrid Laubrock’s saxophones and Erik Friedlander’s cello as the sum of sounding board. Similarly, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva’s All the Rivers situates her solitary horn in the unforgiving acoustics of the Panteão Nacional, a vast marble cathedral, for a recital rife with reverberating complexity.

Satoko Fuji – 12 for 60 Project

Year-long artist celebrations through output aren’t exactly common, but there’s certainly precedence (bassist Reuben Radding’s 12 in 2007 springs to mind). Already admirably prolific Japanese pianist Satoko Fuji decided to commemorate her 60th birthday on the planet by releasing a dozen albums on the Libra label over the course of the annum. As with her back catalog, many of them featured her kindred spirit Natsuki Tamura on trumpet as well as ensembles both familiar and freshly-minted. I’m still digesting the series in sum, but the standout so far is Aspiration, the core duo’s conclave with Wadada Leo Smith and electronicst Ikue Mori. Fuji has an admitted tendency to crowd the market and numb the senses with her productivity, but the focus and unity guiding these releases sets them apart.

Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris

In common with the intimation of its name, Dust to Digital is a label that takes its time in the laudable work of producing archival music collections that stand instantly apart in terms of quality, scope and expertly-examined context. Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris is a work of art from the packaging to the sounds (and sights) contained within. Incisively indexed into three categories (Blues, Gospel & Folk), the field recordings are immersive and often carry the mesmerizing magic of incantations. A fourth disc containing a DVD collection of Ferris’ hand-shot films evokes time, place and person even more vividly. Temporary antidotes to slowly normalizing nightmare we find ourselves in as a world abound on this list, but this the one I have probably returned to most since my first encounter. It’s that transportive.

V/A – Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Delights

Exotica was originally indicative a certain slice of commercial music expression, one inextricably entangled in associative issues of appropriation, exploitation and in many cases mollification of indigenous cultural capital. Sometimes it was a complete recontextualization entirely as Numero Group’s Technicolor Paradise explores over three discs and an associative booklet brimming with commentary. This sort of deep crate project is nothing new for the label, but it is gratifying to see them go at it with such gusto after an earlier and unexpected embrace by the label honchos of streaming as a means of revenue. Some selections tip irrevocably into bromidic kitsch, but the first disc especially, which focuses on guitar bands keeps a more even keel of interest.

Charlie McCoy – Real McCoy/Charlie McCoy/Good Time Charlie/Fastest Harp in the South

Jerry Reed – Jerry Reed Explores Guitar Country/Cookin’/Georgia Sunshine/Me & Jerry (w/ Chet Atkins)

Time was when a two-fer reissue was a common currency in the compact disc market place. BGO’s done that erstwhile staple two better maintaining a fearsome foursome reissue program. Sets by country mouth harp maestro Charlie McCoy and good old boy-turned-ace guitar picker-turned-movie star Jerry Reed. Both are dipped liberally in countrypolitan production values that only occasionally slide over into schmaltz and McCoy wisely avoids vocals in favor of instrumentals that often sound like they could serve as soundtrack snippets to The Rockford Files (not a bad thing). Reed by contrast had a decent set up pipes to complement his strings-slinging skills and the chutzpah to try his hand at dry humor like the hilariously off-the-cuff ode to inconsolable nicotine addiction, “Another Puff.”

V/A – The Beginning of the End: The Existential Psychodrama in Country Music 1956 to 1972 (Omni) V/A – Hillbillies in Hell: Country Music’s Tormented Testament (1952-1974) – The Resurrection (Omni) V/A – Hillbillies in Hell: Country Music’s Tormented Testament (1952-1974) – The Rapture (Omni)

After an unexplained although far from unnoticed hiatus several years ago, the Omni Recording Corporation out of Australia roared back to life with renewed reissue campaign. The schedule of new projects eschewed full album(s) + plus bonus tracks for keenly curated collections focusing on the wilder and more tortured sides of the vintage country and country/pop spectrum. The Beginning of the End details descents into madness committed to song while two volumes more of the ongoing Hillbillies in Hell series doubled the entries to date describing that region of idiom(s) devoted to Beelzebub and his myriad earthly incarnations. All three are archly edifying as they are fun.

Sun Ra

Sun Ra reissues are once again a semi-regularity now thanks to reissue operators like Modern Harmonic and Cosmic Myth, both of which have conscripted longtime Ra repository Michael D. Anderson in their noble endeavors. Cymbals/Symbol Sessions: New York 1973 covers ground previously mapped by an earlier set on the Evidence label pairing worthy material including the (16:33) John Gilmore tenor <I<tour de force “Thoughts Under a Dark Blue Light.” God is More Than Love Can Ever Be has singular status as the solitary piano, bass and drums trio album in the entirely of Ra’s omniversal oeuvre and largely lives up to the stated promise of that proposition.

25 more in no fixed order...

Tyshawn Sorey – Pillars (Pi)

Henry Threadgill – Dirt… And More Dirt (Pi)

Peter Kuhn Trio – Intention (FMR)

Dave Holland – Uncharted Territories (Dare2)

Devin Gray – Dirigo Rataplan II (Rataplan)

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Impulse!)

JD Allen – Love Stone (Savant)

Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFunk – Wet Robots (ESP-Disk)

A Pride of Lions – The Bridge Sessions 8

Michael Adkins – Flaneur (hatOLOGY)

Houston Person & Ron Carter – Remember Love (HighNote)

Spontaneous Music Ensemble – Karyobin (Emanem)

Cecil Taylor – Poschiavo (Black Sun)

Paul Rutherford – In Backwards Times (Emanem)

Mike Westbrook Concert Band – The Last Night at the Old Place (Cadillac)

Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar – Raga Yaman & Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani (Ideologic Organ)

Kitsos Harisiadis – Lament in a Deep Style: 1929 to 1931 (Third Man)

Asnakech Worku – Asnakech (Awesome Tapes from Africa)

V/A – African Scream Contest 2 (Analog Africa)

Mulatu – Afro-Latin Soul (Worthy/Strut)

V/A – Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central & East African Music (Dust to Digital)

V/A – Ocora – Le Monde Des Musiques Traditionelles (Ocora)

V/A – Music City Blues & Rhythm (Ace)

Professor Harold Boggs – Lord Give Me Strength: Early Recordings 1952-1964 (Nashboro/Gospel Friend)

Yuri Morozov – Strange Angels: Experimental & Electronic Music (Buried Treasure)

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watchonlinewds · 3 years

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Covid 19 coronavirus: Post-study work visa holders say they're suffering with closed borders

A couple stranded in Brazil are among migrants overseas who are continuing to work for their New Zealand employers - despite time zone challenges that mean clocking off in the middle of the night.

A company director says the remote working brought on by border closures has been frustrating for him and for his engineer, who has been stuck in China since travel restrictions started there at the beginning of last year.

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Janaina Wanderley has kept her job in marketing for an English language school in Auckland by working online from Sao Paulo, while her husband also works remotely in his job as a kitchen designer.

"I usually start working at 5pm Brazilian time so it's 8am in New Zealand," she said. "My husband goes until 2 in the morning working. So it's quite hard. The company values my position and experience, although the Government doesn't care at all. However, they want my money through the taxes I'm still paying."

As for getting another job, she said bureaucratic demands in other countries were different from New Zealand - she could not even apply for work or government funds because all her belongings and documents remained in Auckland.

Auckland University engineering graduate Zhongxin Wang has been locked out for 16 months.

He works for Everest Surveyors/Hollier Greig, which has kept him on because of the key role he plays in a skills shortage area - but he does not fit the criteria to return to New Zealand as a critical worker.

The easing of border restrictions announced so far do not include post-study work visa holders - unless they meet other criteria such as a high salary or working on government-prioritised infrastructure.

"We are working on projects in a number of Kāinga Ora neighbourhoods but predominantly we do private sector work to deliver housing across Auckland," said Wang's company director, Albert Herron.

"I have kept him on all of this time as I expected at some point the government would change their position on this, however they do not seem to be moving on it. Being in engineering, there is a skill shortage and we have already invested heavily in Zhongxin's training - however now I am at a cross-roads and it is very frustrating."

Time zones were also a challenge, he said, with his engineer starting at 2pm New Zealand time.

Herron said he empathised with his civil engineer.

"He has a house here that he's renting and a car, got friends and his life has been here, having finished study here and having lived here for a year post-study, so I think it's pretty frustrating for him. I feel for him as he really does want to be here and it is really impacting on his professional development."

Wang and his partner, who has completed her masters degree, had travelled to China to celebrate Chinese New Year with relatives.

Work challenges include accessing documents online from Beijing and not being able to visit sites, he said.

"I cannot go on-site to check what actually happened and I can only request my colleague to help me to take some photos, but sometimes the photos can't show everything so the start of the job is quite slow and quite hard."

Figures from March this year show 5685 post-study visa holders were still overseas.

Many employers have had to let their graduate workers go - or have kept their job open, but they cannot work remotely. The income from the one to three years of post-graduate work was in many cases meant to pay for the migrants' studies.

"I have a bank loan for which I have to pay a monthly instalment of $1000," said one woman. "Also, I have no income for a year now. I still have my job in New Zealand. They are waiting for me to come and join them. I'm suffering mentally, physically and emotionally because of New Zealand.

"Me and my family are having a real terrible time. I have taken all my parents' savings to New Zealand to pursue higher education and now it's my responsibility to return them, but it's not possible from India to do so."

In a statement, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said all individual requests for an exception to the border restrictions were considered against strict criteria.

"While Immigration New Zealand is empathetic to the situation some migrants find themselves in as a result of these border restrictions, INZ has no ability to apply discretion when considering requests for border exceptions," said border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg.

She confirmed Wang's application for an exemption in November under the "normally resident work visa holder" category was not successful because he held a post-study work visa. Only holders of three other temporary visas were eligible.

"Post-study work visas are just one immigration pathway, and former students with skills needed in New Zealand and a job offer may be eligible for other work visas once the border reopens.

"At this stage, we cannot provide any certainty on when current post-study work visa holders may be able to enter the country, and their current visa expiry remains in place."

For many migrants, that loss of time on their visa - and uncertainty about whether the government will extend their visas when the border re-opens - is adding to their pain.

"Neither the Prime Minister nor the Minister of Immigration has spoken about our [post-study] visas," said Janaina Wanderley, who had two humanitarian applications rejected.

"They included all work to residence visas but forgot to think about what they have sold to all of us in the past - invest your money in NZ education for at least a year and you'll be able to get one to three years of open work visa, which can help you with the residence process in the future. So we all did. I have already lost one year and three months of my visa, some lost their whole visa."

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traditional-with-a-twist · 6 years

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The Mission

Author’s note: The first part of Wingspan, an MCU fanfic about Hawkeye and everything he did off-screen between the first two Avengers films. Will stay as canon as possible, with one major exception.

“Barton, you requested this meeting, so you have the floor.” Maria Hill’s folded hands and upright posture revealed nothing, but he could see the challenge already in the arch of her brow.

“I reported myself cleared for field assignment three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I contacted your office to confirm that my file had been updated accordingly. I waited a week for confirmation then placed a request for a face-to-face with Director Fury.” He straightened his stance at attention as he says this last. Hill never appreciated his instinctive candor and familiarity as much as Fury did... or Coulson.

Hill’s face tightened despite his extra effort at formality. “Eight weeks you were coerced into aiding and abetting a violent invasion of New York City. Just try to convince me, Barton, that you are psychologically fit for field work.”

She leaned forward, canting her head to one side and raising her eyebrows. He wasn’t even tempted to rise to the bait. He got a meeting with her, didn’t he? That only would have happened if the battle were over.

“My psych reports are all in order. I’ve never spent more than a month out of the field, except in cases of recovery from physical injury.”

Hill sat back, “I’m aware. And so is Director Fury. For reasons beyond me, he has deemed that sufficient. You have been given a six month solo field assignment, details for your eyes only.” Lips pinched, she handed over the folder.

“You’re to depart in twenty-four hours or fewer. Priority level one.”

Something loosened inside him when he heard it. “Understood, ma’am.”

***

He was issued a stealth Quinjet and advised to bring only essentials for a deep cover assignment. Not his usual gig, but Natasha must have other work.

Clint reviewed his persona for the next sixteen hours, having already packed. He was a private security guard for high clearance research on vacation. When he looked for the location that requires such a simple and thin cover, he found the designations: secluded, low population, coordinates preset in autopilot. It didn’t look like Fury was taking it easy on him if he was going in with that little upfront info.

His quick workout the next day felt loose and refreshing. He was even hungry enough to get a real breakfast at the Triskelion cafeteria, though thankful that his departure time was close enough that he was justified in an eat-and-run. He was almost smiling when he boarded.

It only took three hours for him to realize Fury played him like a fiddle. He’d flown the route too many times to fool himself into believing that he was headed anywhere else for longer than that.

Clint signaled Fury on his private emergency line, almost glad that he was not piloting at the moment because he could hardly see straight.

“The shrinks cleared me!” he snapped without preamble when the line clicked. “Sir.”

“I would have straight up fired you if they hadn’t,” the Director replied. “I would hope that my best agents can beat a handful of expert clinical evaluations.

“Those reports were just a formality to keep the bureaucrats happy and cover your trail. I don’t need an evaluation because I know where your head is, Barton, and I know what you need.”

Clint set his jaw, not breaking his stare at the Director’s projected likeness. Fury met his gaze as he always had, as few other men could. It was that eye contact that drew him into SHIELD years ago and it quelled him now. “Officially, you’re on a six month deep cover op. No contact, no extraction.

“Go home, Barton. Take some time to remind yourself what you’re fighting for.”

#wingspan #Blackhawk #Clintasha #marvel cinematic universe #Clint Barton #Hawkeye #Nick Fury #Maria Hill #battlecrown

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evergloffpress · 4 years

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Bottle of Blog No.54

The Empire Strikes Back This Is Not or Rocking the Boat For Rock’s Sake

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm George Lucas was said to have presented his ideas for a sequel trilogy which we're promptly rejected. Perhaps the powers at Disney wanted to distance themselves from the creator of the Prequel trilogy and they're less than spectacular impact. Maybe the plots went against the ideas they had in mind. Whatever the reason could they of been any worse than what Rian Johnson presented us with Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi?

Rian Johnson made a name for himself with his films Brick and Looper. Enough so that he caught Disney's attention to put him in charge of Episode 8. In 2019 after directing the Last Jedi Johnson released his latest movie entitled Knives out. A who-dun-it movie turned on it's head. It was a fresh and ingenious take on the traditional tropes of a murder mystery and it worked. Sometimes taking a long-standing paradigm and turning them inside out can work in a creative field where almost everything has been done a thousand times before. Though not always. Rocking the boat just to feel it rock does not consistently work. Case in point Star Wars : The Last Jedi.

I'm just going to go straight to all my issues with this movie. For they are legion. I won't be nitpicking either....O.K, one nitpick. The phrase ”punch it” is used too many times for my taste. Think it was used at least twice. It still got irksome.

My first gripe is why was Han Solo's death completely ignored? I understand the movie pretty much starts right after episode 7 ends and they were fairly occupied so a funeral might not of been on the agenda. Could of been in the novelization for all I know but I elected not to read it. But Han's passing should of at least been on their minds some considering who decided to off him. It should of been especially on Leia's. Speaking of Leia what the holy Hoth Hell has her brother Luke Skywalker been doing all this time in self-imposed exile aside from squeezing the udders of lactating sea monsters? Also, he’s supposed to be the last Jedi. Isn't he being a tad selfish to wallow in self-pity and let the galaxy fall into the First Order’s clutches? Goes against who we thought Luke was. Even of he does blame the Jedis for allowing to Sith and the Empire to rise to power why not use the tools you have at your disposal to do what you can against them? You don’t have to go around calling your self a Jedi Knight but if you want to just edit the ”sacred” texts so than any written bureaucracy that would keep you from doing the most good is expunged. He was the last Jedi who was going to stop him? Even Yoda who popped up later knew how restrictive they were. It made no sense.

Why wouldn't the resistance high command share their plans with Poe after Leia was blown out into space and did her magic dance back to the ship?

The remanmants of the Resistance were panicking so why not reassure everyone that there was a plan and share that plan? Instead, Poe and company cook up this silly scheme that made no sense which screwed up the original secret plan by looking for a slicer on the Canto Bight More on Canto Bight in a minute. So Finn and friends figure out that they are being tracked through hyperspace by a device they cant possibly know exists and deduce that said device has to be on the Supremacy which is Supreme Leader Snoke’s ship. Also why was the tracking device on Snoke’s ship? Why didn't General Hux have it on his ship? They then formulate a plan based on a hypothesis which is flimsy at best from their perspective. Yes they were right but they had little to nothing to go on. Which brings us to Canto Bight. The pointless side trip that caused more trouble than they were already in. It's like the director wanted to have a scene take place in a space casino but had no real reason to be in a space casino. Finn and Rose go to to Canto Bight and park on the beach which apparently is illegal. A naturally they get arrested and meet a sleazy hacker in the jail who could have broken out whenever he wanted to but waited till he had an audience to do it in front of. They then hop on giant rabbit horses and ride away to the outskirts of town to freedom and an awaiting ship.

Most fans speculating on Rey’s lineage thought she might have been related to Obi-Wan or the product of a nightstand by Luke or something. Instead Kylo simply states that she is a nobody. Came from nobodies and is no one special. Rather anti-climatic considering how adept she is at using the Force. Then there is how Supreme Leader Snoke was so easily done in. Sliced in tow. Though it did lead a sweet team up between Rey and Kylo versus Snoke’s royal guards. But who was Snoke? How did he come to be? He was presented as the big bad of the sequel trilogy and he is tossed aside just rattle the narrative’s cage. No pay off from his introduction what so ever.

Finally we have the battle of Crait. It's where the Resistance managed to escape to while being chased by the First Order. The needlessly secret plan made worse by Poe and pals poorly thought out plot to save the fleet made things significantly worse. The sleazy jacket Finn and Rose brought in betrayed them and showed General Huz the fugitives’ escape plan which resulted in forty demise of most of them. Poe really really messed up. Also why was Admiral Ackbar allowed to die like he was wearing a red short on Star Trek. He should of flown that cruiser at light speed through Snoke’s ship at light speed and not Laura Dern’s character. Ackbar should of gone out a hero not a long side a random tech officer on the bridge. So they get on the surface of Craite which was a rebel base years ago. At first glance it looks like the ice planet Hoth but it turns out to be a salt planet. That doesn't stop the bad guys from pulling out the New At- At walkers. Gorilla walkers seem to be more accurate. So all of a sudden it turns out to be a reverse Empire Strikes back. At- At attack near the end. Yoda appears to Luke after he did his less than enthusiastic training routine on Rey. Like ESB the main characters go their separate ways to achieve separate goals. A faux revelation with Rey and the whole gang getting together in the end after getting their behinds handed to them. The concept of the Death Star was used again only this time as a cannon on the field of battle. Why could it not just of been just a cannon? Why income the Death Star yet again? So with that in mind what does the Resistance send against said Death Star cannon? Poorly armed and maneuverable skippers that were already falling apart. Why not just chuck xorngogs at them. None the less Finn goes right at it in some idiotic suicide run. What did he think he was going to achieve? Rose then crashes her skipper into the side of Finn’s ship in an attempt to save his life. Again she crashed her speeding metallic vehicle into His soeeding metallic vehicle on the middle of a battlefield right in front of a super laser cannon in an attempt to save his life. Then the real froaning begins when Rose implies to Finn she had feelings for him. That's right talk about your feelings while you are injured in a warzone with thousands of guns pointed right at you. Makes all the sense in the world.

The crowning WTF ingredient in this fustercluck of a film is Luke’s cop-out appearance at the Battle of Craite. He Force projects himself on to the planet from his xave island hideaway. Says good bye to Leia and distracts Kylo Ren while what's left of the Resistance escapes out the back end of the Rebel base. The strain of Luke projecting himself from so far away was too much for him and he dies. Disappearing into the ether. Metalic arm and all. That makes no sense. What of made more sense if the metallic arm would of just clanked in to the ground. So with Han dead and now Luke dead we are thoroughly cheated out of having the original cast share the screen one more time.

So the director shook things about hoping to come up with something many fans would consider worthy of Star Wars. Alas, I feel he missed the mark in trying to come up with something different yet remain familiar. Which is clearly hard to do. It seems each creator wrote their cliffhangers without taking into consideration who would pick up the threads next. Disney should have spent a little more time creating a cohesive storyline than rushing in to recoup their investment. That way the next film does not waste time explaining what didn't make sense before. This franchise was a guaranteed cash cow so they could have bided their time and let the story ferment a little more.

So much of this movie was infuriating and nonsensical. I was questioning settings, dialogue, and motivations far too many times throughout the film to enjoy whatever parts I did like. Be all that as it may I really did like the porgs. See? It's not all hate and bile but it mostly is.

Oliver Evergloff March 21st,2020

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