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#cos is a tragicomedy to me

wellntruly · 1 year

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M*A*S*H - Viewguide, S4

Are you interested in the long-running anti-war situation tragicomedy M*A*S*H (1972-1983), but there are simply so many asterisks and so many episodes?

Well I can’t help you with the asterisks, but nor can I help myself: I started watching all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, and bringing back for you my viewing selections, chosen for The Qualities.

— — —

In which we lose two of the three top billed cast members and gain two new ones, a couple of the regular writers and directors also seem to cycle out, and in the ensuing slightly confused flooding of our previously steady stream, Frank is sinking like one of those water-logged stumps, someone seems intent on trying to keep Margaret from also getting dragged down by him through the approach “she’s just not around again, idk,” Radar is somehow swimming up-stream and now seems several years younger than he was when we started, and Alan Alda is piping up more and more to point out the banks and steer us into deeper waters, and if he’s also maybe altering our course just a little, let him.

Meanwhile, TIMESCALE: we learn in the opening scene that the first three seasons have timelooped for "just over a year” :) elated with this data :))

And so we enter M*A*S*H, Part Two:

M*A*S*H - Season 4 Recommended sequence

4x01-02 ‘Welcome to Korea, Parts 1 and 2' - Acting CO Frank Burns really thought he was going to get to mold their new doctor Hunnicutt into a Mini Frank, but did not account for Hawkeye Pierce, on a desperate scramble to the airfield, to pick him up while still reeling and reckless from having just lost his best friend, and in this, one of the most riveting figures BJ has ever encountered. TOO LATE, he got his hands and damage all over him already! Anyway I helplessly detailed exactly what goes down in these if you are BJ Hunnicutt (BJ…Hunnicutt) in my increasingly disclosing notes, so stay tuned for that.

4x04 ‘It Happened One Night’ - Not to be a weirdo and skip to Colonel Potter already being here, but this one is really good. This is one of my quiet favorites of the season. And I think this works so much better as the one to follow the two-part premiere actually. Hawkeye and BJ aren’t quite in sync yet—this is accurate. Hawkeye and Margaret continue to get more in sync—this too is accurate. Lots of Klinger (LOTS of Klinger) (hirsute…), Radar being so irritated with the chaotic bumbling of the new private is so funny, and you’re still getting a good impression of our small, forthright new CO: regular Army, but you know what? Maybe…our regular Army. And that could rule actually. Oh: AND EVERYONE’S SO COOOLD. My fav-orite!

4x05 ‘The Late Captain Pierce’

BJ: “For he was a jolly good fellow…” Hawkeye: “I was much too young to die.”

A clerical error renders Hawkeye legally dead. M*A*S*H x Catch22 for real, murder me. And, five episodes into the new season of an episodic sitcom and they were still letting Hawkeye be torn up over those he’s lost, and have this wholly new emotional register with his new friend BJ, way longer for both than I’d thought they would let him have. But y’know, Alda got to direct this one.

4x09 ‘The Kids’ - Great TV show setup: learn things about the characters by how they read bedtime stories to dislocated orphans. If you guessed, “oh yeah, and that’s gonna create the moment where Hawkeye finally lets himself start to fall in love with BJ,” you are a better guesser than I!! But man what a good choice. Alda. (Back in the chair.)

4x10 ‘Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?’ - I just adoooore Dr. Sidney Freedman. Any scene with Sidney in it: a balm. Here he returns for the episode in which the 4077th gets a wounded soldier who says he’s Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, Radar is now twelve.

4x16 ‘The Price of Tomato Juice’ - I was trying to describe the format of these kinds of chain of wants & favors episodes to Jody and she was like, oh, you mean it’s like the Deep Space Nine where Nog explains The Great River of Commerce. Yes exactly.

4x19 ‘Hawkeye’ - They gave the rest of the regular cast the week off and just had Hawkeye monologue with a concussion for 25 minutes, ambling around a Korean family’s farmhouse with surprisingly disconcerting candy apple red syrup creeping from his temple, live-narrating his own self-diagnosis, doing snippets of musical numbers, and just generally rambling as he tries to keep from fainting before his rescue arrives. A lot of oscillating between being about to keel over and quashing down his fear to put on a blithe front for an audience who can't even understand him, and a beautiful cow. In short, crafted for me special! I actually made this meme to explain to a friend why I was so undone by The Fabelmans (dork alert), but the thing is, it always worked because it was also about what it's about:

4x21 ‘The Novocaine Mutiny’ - Frank brings Hawkeye to trial for mutiny. He could, wildly, literally hang for this, but most of all: you bet there’s a Rashomon (scream).

4x25 ‘Deluge’ - I don’t know what to call these exactly, but they tend to do a couple of them a season. Usually, not always, they’re letter writing shows, with the letter narration forming the framework instead of an overarching plot, letting them do just a sequence of scenes somewhat related. Bullet point stories. This one however the scenes are intercut not with something else from the world of M*A*S*H, but actual historic footage from the period, in easily the most artistically experimental episode they’ve done yet. It’s all jarring juxtapositions of a very long surgical run with what was on TV back at home in 1952, with a jarring editing rhythm to match, which wasn’t fully working for me and then soooo working for me. Bit of an ‘O.R.’ echo, but so much odder and dreamier, in like a David Lynch way, and I think the sensation is well worth the list.

4x26 ‘The Interview’ - Anndd then you do this one next, which follows on the previous one almost like a brief bit of serialized storytelling. It’s all black & white and everyone is just being interviewed by a TV journalist about how they are (not) getting through it. At one point I paused to write this and let out a shaky yelp at discovering I was only 9 minutes in. At another point I had to pause to create my own break where there would normally be one just to let out mooore shaky sounds at an image Father Mulcahy had just described that will be lodged in my mind for the rest of my actual, actual life. Happy Season 4 Finale!!

Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • To be continued

#M*A*S*H hours

#viewguides #M*A*S*H #M*A*S*H hours #Tarra watches

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sizzlingpatrolfox · 2 years

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Hello! I haven't seen the new commentary.

"It's a shitshow. It's almost tragicomedy at this point. Jikookers are the most annoying and selective blind, I'm a bit late but I see they inmediately started their pity parties and collective wound licking about how everyone hates jikook and their bond and everyone wants what they have and they hate them because they also see the undeniable lov- 😴😴😴😴😴😴😴 meanwhile nobody was saying a word about jikook and everyone was trashing only JIMIN left and right."

Is the ol' shipdom throwing a pity party because JK wasn't smiling supposedly because Jikook geys hate? Or is the pity party for something else?

I saw the not smiling pic as well. He definitely didn't look thrilled to be standing there. Which goes back to the highs and lows of moments for me. OMG he stood next to Jimin in the clip and possibly had his hand on Jimin's back. A couple hours later...Trio pic with JK looking done.

- no matter what jimin does, his antis always cry throw up and pull their hair and it’s so odd. I know jungkook isn’t necessarily responsible for how his fans act but sometimes I find myself releasing a breath I’ve been holding whenever I see jimin with other people having a great time

- I am annoyed as the next person for the hate jimin gets every time jikook share a space in any form, even if they're just mentioned in the same phrase, but to be fair, jk's expression isn't the problem here. If he was smiling they would say he was forced to anyway, there's literally no escape from this hell. I'm just happy jimin seemed in a good mood, enjoying his time happily but quietly, talking to people and being his usual cutie sexy lovely that he is.

---

Yeah, I don't care about Jungkook's face. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong about him not smiling. I know how willing and gleeful he looked in literally every other photo and the contrast with that one is... A lot. But it's just that, the contrast. If he hadn't looked happy in all the other photos, it would've been less ugly maybe but still ugly.

I meant jikookers pity parties because they always say the same thing about how everyone's "pressed" and they're crying because they're jealous when the truth is that taekookers were literally laughing and making fun of Jimin and writing eulogies for Jungkook who's just a victim. Nobody was seeing a couple in that photo, they weren't "pressed" because of them looking like good or happy.

This anon said it very clearly:

Jikookers cry because "jikook bond is being degraded" and then you see the actual comments people are making and it's all "free Jungkook, poor Jungkook this will be over soon, I hate that they're making him do this" and then "Jimin is such a leech" "Jimin getting gangfucked by bongo and co. so he can have a career" "sexual harasser" "

It really is not about jikook, it's about Jimin.

And then of course pjms end up saying shit about Jungkook too because shippers can't keep their mouth shut. Even then, the most hateful I've seen being said of Jungkook is probably that he's fake (which is something his own fans say literally everyday) or that he's queer baiting. I've never seen hate against Jungkook with as much malice as the one Jimin gets.

There was absolutely no need for jikookers to say that looked like a wedding photo. We all know it didn't look like a wedding photo at all. Sometimes it seriously is almost like they are asking for people to make fun of them and hate on Jimin while they're at it. The photo alone is kind of bad without jikookers turning it into something it's not.

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yesthatssadirichardslove · 1 year

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Spielberg wins big as Golden Globes make comeback

LOS ANGELES

Steven Spielberg claimed top honors including best drama at the Golden Globes on Tuesday for his deeply personal film "The Fabelmans," as Hollywood's A-list stars flocked to the first major awards show of the year despite a series of scandals swirling around its organizers.

The other top film award, best comedy or musical, went to "The Banshees of Inisherin" -- a tragicomedy about a shattered friendship on a remote Irish island that ended the night with the most movie prizes.

Spielberg, who also took home the award for best director, thanked his family including his late mother, who he said would be "up there kvelling about this right now."

"The Fabelmans" covers the troubled marriage of Spielberg's parents, anti-Semitic bullying, and the director's early efforts making zero-budget movies with his teenage friends.

"Everybody sees me as a success story, and everybody sees all of us the way they perceive us based on how they get the information," said the 76-year-old filmmaker. "But nobody really knows who we are until we're courageous enough to tell everyone who we are."

Spielberg said films like "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" had used elements from his real life, but he had "never had the courage to hit this story head on" until now.

Despite faring poorly at the box office, the film saw off last year's two biggest commercial hits -- James Cameron's sci-fi film "Avatar: The Way of Water," and "Top Gun: Maverick" -- to win the night's final prize.

"Inisherin" also earned a win for Colin Farrell for best comedy actor, boosting his Oscar hopes, and for writer-director Martin McDonagh for best screenplay.

The Globes, which kick off the annual film prize-giving season, have not had their usual glitz for the past two years, due to the pandemic and revelations about their organizers' lack of diversity and allegations of ethical lapses.

In particular, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the awards, was criticized for not having a single Black member, although it has recently expanded its ranks.

All eyes were on which A-listers would show up Tuesday, as NBC -- which scrapped its broadcast of the show last year -- brought back the 80th Golden Globe Awards on a one-off basis.

As it turned out, many heavy hitters were in attendance, including Spielberg, Rihanna and Brad Pitt.

Austin Butler, stepping into Elvis Presley's blue suede shoes for rock-and-roll biopic "Elvis," won best actor in a drama.

"You were an icon and a rebel and I love you so much," said Butler to the legendary singer, in an emotional speech in which he also praised Presley's family for their support.

Eddie Murphy accepted a career achievement award at the Beverly Hills gala, while Angela Bassett won best supporting actress for Marvel blockbuster "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."

But Cate Blanchett, who won best drama actress for "Tar," in which she plays a ruthless conductor navigating the cutthroat world of classical music, did not attend the gala.

Other prominent winners who didn't show included Kevin Costner ("Yellowstone"), Zendaya ("Euphoria") and Amanda Seyfried ("The Dropout").

Michelle Yeoh won best comedy actress for the surreal "Everything Everywhere All At Once."

Her co-star in the multiverse-hopping sci-fi film, Ke Huy Quan -- who shot to fame as a child star in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" almost four decades ago -- won best supporting actor.

Action-packed Indian blockbuster "RRR," which has become a huge word-of-mouth hit in Hollywood, added momentum to its awards season campaign by winning best song.

"Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" won best animated feature, while "Argentina, 1985" won best non-English language film.

On the television side, "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon" won best drama, and "Abbott Elementary" claimed best comedy series.

Success at the Globes is often seen as a potential bellwether for films hoping to win Oscars, which take place this year on March 12.

Academy voters will begin casting ballots for Oscar nominations on Thursday, just days after the Globes gala.

But recent controversies have muddied the waters.

Host Jerrod Carmichael, who struck a daring and edgy tone throughout the night, kicked the gala off with a monologue poking fun at the HFPA.

"I'll tell you why I'm here. I'm here because I'm Black," said Carmichael.

Most of the Globes' usual swanky after-parties -- where winners parade their trophies, and losers drown their sorrows with free champagne -- did not take place this year.

Nominee Brendan Fraser and Tom Cruise, the star and producer of "Top Gun: Maverick," notably did not attend.

But despite the controversy surrounding the Globes, "Avatar" director Cameron told AFP he "didn't really think about it that much."

"Obviously I did my research about what they had gone through, and I made sure that they had been responsive to the protests and complaints and all that, which I believe they have been," he said. "I think we should celebrate the fact that an organization does such radical changes."

#yesthatssadirichardslove

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ccsynan · 3 years

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Brazil lives in a Society

Did you watch The Dark Knight or Joker and think to yourself, “boy howdy, I sure do live in a society. But also the Joker is a literal psychopath and the people that obsess over him are cringe as all hell. I sure wish there was a film that let me explore my society-living-in-ness without delving into a bunch of clown bullshit. Also, why can't it be more funny?” Well then don't fret reader with super specific and rhetorically convenient desires, the director of 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has you covered.

Brazil is a 19895 neo-noir dystopian tragicomedy written and directed by Monty Python collaborator Terry Gilliam, and edited by Monty Python effects photographer Julian Doyle. If you don't know what Monty Python is than there is a piece of your life that is missing. Stop reading this, go to YouTube, start watching whatever clips you find. The internet may have perfected absurdist chaos humor, but it was Monty Python that started it back in the 70s. Suffice to say, they're very funny. Gilliam, though he only did their animations, is very funny. And that humor definitely carries over into Brazil.

A lot of people compare the Dystopia in Brazil to that in 1984. The difference being that while in 1984 the Dystopia comes from the ever present surveillance of the police state, in Brazil it's because their autocratic police state is drowning under so much paperwork that it's making it impossible for anyone to do their job. It's kind of a goofy way to establish a dystopia and that's the point. The world of Brazil is absurd in how over complicated and incompetent it is. Most of the humor comes from this absurdity, and it all serves to put us in the place of someone worn out by that absurdity, our protagonist, Sam Lowry.

Sam is a man looking for escape from his life, he's in a world over bearing bureaucracy and unparalleled cruelty. Unseen terrorists detonate bombs all about the decaying city, the goons at the Ministry of Information's Information Retrieval ruthlessly hunt down and torture them, all the while having to stick to and reinforce draconian and needlessly complicated procedure that only make things harder. Sam is not only worn out at this world, but everyone from his family and his colleges expect him to join Information Retrieval and participate it. Sam doesn't want this, he doesn't really know what he wants, all he knows is that escape is in their somewhere. He has dreams of someone that can take him far away from here, up into the very clouds. But how can he make this dream a reality?

The film excels at putting us in Sam's shoes. The visual design of the movie is imaginative and well directed to this task. The machines of this world, which feature heavily in the story, fell overgrown and sickly as they sputter and fail at their pointlessly complicated tasks. The environment fells appropriately grimy and dirty, is if built with far to much money, with non left over for maintenance. When Sam is dealing with something or someone, we can feel his pain, his fear, his frustration, all from the visual suggestions made from the camerawork, set design, and costumes.

The film does struggle with a few things though (spoiler warning for the next paragraph). The film drags whenever Sam is interacting with the love interest of the film. It feels like Gilliam struggled with her and there are sequences and ideas within the film that fall flat because of it. Overall she definitely suffers from being a goal for Sam to pursue first and a character second. Gilliam and his co-writers had enough skill in constructing her to avoid something that ruins the film entirely, but there's a good chance her writing will have to be something you have look past to enjoy the rest of the film.

Overall however, if you enjoy some surreal humor, some imaginative and pointed visual design, and want to lament the fact that you live in a society without painting you fact and making derogatory jokes about Jewish people, Brazil is a good fit for you. You can find it online on Amazon Prime, and if you still have your doubts about watching it, you can find the trailer on YouTube.

#movies #dc cinematic universe #joker #Brazil (1985)#terry gilliam #film #cinema #movie review #old movie #movie recommendation

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laufire · 3 years

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*chants* Ruby's Terror Twins, Ruby's Terror Twins for the AU meme

LMAOOO. That’s a gr10 official name for the WIP folder, thanks xD. I’m going to try to mention facts I have NOT told you about yet ^^U

(for those not in-the-know, this refers to a really weird dream I had about the tragicomedy it would’ve been if Ruby and Sam ended up having to co-parent in the show. I kind of want to write it, but it’d be kind of all over the place? And who knows what’s the genre because some of my headcanons are Peak Comedy and others are Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. So like the show, I guess?)

Like I did tell you, Ruby would magically link herself to the babies to have some measure of protection xDD (plus a few other things ofc, you can’t trust a hunter with a monster toddler). Dean, of course, would comment on how this makes her a terrible mother. Ruby would sweetly say that she’s only thinking of them, because she’s seen what the lack of a strong feminine presence does to growing kids 😔. That’s the closest Dean would come to lose it, like, nearly-kill-Ruby-with-his-teeth-if-necessary lose it.

I decided on one of the twins being kidnapped by Lucifer!Sam for the endverse timeline. Probably Angelica, so that Lucille is with Ruby. I’m undecided on what Ruby does in this case, because I believe that endverse!Dean would want to use Lucille’s powers against Lucifer, so there’s conflict there.

Sam hates them so much at first. So, so much. He’s still too conflicted and hurt over Ruby and her actions, but he can unabashedly hate their existence and feel even violated by it. He’d have to get past it so I can write the comedy parts lol, but it’d take a lot. Probably his time-travel visit to his parents would help along.

Soulless Sam. Now, Soulless Sam. I have Thoughts about Samruby with Soulless Sam and how she’d find him waaaaaay too unsettling. Now add the kids. I think Soulless Sam would actually have a much easier time with them after coming back. Like, he went to the Campbells in a Pack Animal mood once he decided to stay away from Dean, to hunt with them, but here I can see him wanting to be around Ruby & the twins for that. And Ruby progressively freaking out about his changes.

You contributed to making me want to think about Jack interacting with them lmfao (I knew him for one episode but I loved him). By then they’d be... a little less than 10yo, I think? I don’t have a good grasp on the timeline of this show lmfao. I can see one of them, say Lucille, wanting to dote on him and play with him, while the other, Angelica, would have a serious case of older sibling envy and also resent that he could just age himself up and be older than them xDD

Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.

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vostokovasmelina · 3 years

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henlo friend!!! congrats on 700!!!! I am so happy for you! Since i am a lil bitch for drama can you recommend me some movies to watch. both a happy and a sad ending work <3. thank you

thank you, fren!!

legit one of my favourite genres, so i collected a few of my favourites for you xx

1. phantom thread (2017) dir. paul thomas anderson

already talked about this movie about a hundred times

you can find my thoughts summed up here

god tier cinema

2. the social network (2010) dir. david fincher

also one of my favourite movies directed by one of my favourite directors and featuring one of my favourite actresses

a part of the a-man-gets-depressed-and-moody-after-his-break-up-with-rooney-mara cinematic universe

andrew garfield is so hot in this one

the only downside is that it has two more a*mie h*mmers in it than any film should (no, literally, he plays a set of twins)

if you ignore that, it is a masterpiece

m*rk z*ckerberg does not deserve this movie

3. kill your darlings (2013) dir. john krokidas

pretentious ass dark academia movie

but it’s stunning so–

gay™

daniel radcliffe is fucking gorgeous in this film wth

4. hereditary (2018) dir. ari aster

okay so this is one of the most terrifying horror movies i’ve ever seen and they usually don’t scare me

but it is also a very messy family drama

and one of the most original films i’ve ever seen?

if only ari aster weren’t ableist,,,,

5. stand by me (1986) dir. rob reiner

so before y’all (rightfully) accuse me of having a phobia of older movies, here you go

old ass adaptation of stephen king’s novella

but like, really good?

i first saw it as a kid and it changed me forever (meaning: it caused immense trauma)

it’s also kind of a lot of fun throughout but the bittersweet ending leaves you sad, so don’t fall into its trap

6. the death & life of john f. donovan (2018) dir. xavier dolan

controversial take

some people think it’s absolute garbage

but i believe they don’t fully understand this movie and honestly, good for them

but i felt seen watching this

this is my comfort movie and no one can change my mind about its absolute brilliance

7. the dressmaker (2015) dir. jocelyn moorhouse

my mum would let me watch literally anything as a kid/pre-teen,,,,

this movie is all kinds of crazy

it’s practically a tragicomedy with a good chunk of dark humour

so one of my favourite things ever!

you haven’t seen anything like this ever before

honestly, if you watch any movie on this list, let it be this one

i’m begging you

8. there will be blood (2007) dir. paul thomas anderson

lmao another film directed by paul thomas anderson and starring daniel day-lewis. we love to see it

i don’t know what to tell you other than to go and watch this absolute masterpiece

okay, maybe don’t rush it

get into the right mood cos this is a long and mostly character-driven ride

but it’ll be one of your favourite movies once you’re finished

or maybe not

but at least you’ll have seen it and that’s enough

#700 followers celebration #caelys #mutuals tag #movie recs

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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BUYING A DREAM, LUCILLE BALL’S GOAL

December 23, 1945

Below is an article by Philip K. Scheuer in the Los Angeles Times published on December 23, 1945, and reprinted verbatim. Except for the above headshot, photographs were added for editorial enhancement.

Philip K. Scheuer wrote about film for the Los Angeles Times from the 1920s until 1967.

Bold Italics indicate quotes by Lucille Ball. Footnotes (bolded numbers in parentheses) are added for historical perspective. Words in [brackets] are foul language used by Ball, but not published by the Times.

It was the first day of shooting on "The Dark Corner." Lucille Ball, playing secretary to Mark Stevens, sat at a typewriter, typing. The more-observant noted, with surprise, that she used the touch system. When Director Henry Hathaway called lunch, an alert member of the crew salvaged what Mark Stevens' secretary had written.

"Dear Mr. Hathaway," it read, "If you knew how [god damned] nervous I was today you wouldn't dare shoot the picture and you would call the whole thing off and then you wou--- " The line ended abruptly, and Miss Ball was off on a new tack.

"LUCY IS A SISSY," she snapped, three times.

First-Day Jitters

When she got back from lunch, the sheet of paper was again in her typewriter. With grateful surprise Miss Ball read "Dear Lucy: Would it help you to know that I'm nervous as hell myself?" The postscript was signed, "Love, H.H."

First-day jitters are common in Hollywood, even with hard-shelled veterans like Hathaway. To Lucille Ball, beginning her debut as a 20th Century Fox star, it must have been an occasion in which triumph was not unmixed with her trepidation.

More than a decade earlier, a Goldwyn Girl on loan, she had worked at the same studio in a "Bottoms Up" (1) number for $75 a week. Her pre-picture deal for "The Dark Corner", is reliably reported to call for a flat payment of $75,000.

Independence Earned

It is quite a come-up for a girl whose occupations are listed in prosaic type as “showgirl, soda jerker, stenographer, fashion and commercial model, extra, stock girl." Lucille earned her independence the hard way; but there is no evidence that the experience embittered her or caused her, in turn, to slap people around. She is honest, she is blunt, and she can talk tough - but no more so than when she was dialing Central Casting and being answered, “Nothing today."

Besides 20th, both R.K.O. and M.G.M., two of her alma maters, are begging her to sign contracts. "But frankly," she said, "I don't care when I do another picture. Desi is out of the Army and I want to be with him and I want to have a baby. In fact, twins."

Double Nursery

Desi is her husband, Desi Arnaz; they have been married five, years, more than three of which he spent in service. His wife is so sure it will be twins that she is planning a double nursery. Seems it runs in the family her grandmother was one of five sets. Lucille has even predicted their sexes: the boy will be Desi Jr. and the girl Susan (2) for good friend Susan Peters. She's buying that dream.

Besides the double nursery, the Arnazes are mapping other concessions to a rosy future: an enlarged playroom for their Northridge ranch, a helicopter (the landing field is already laid out); a modern electric kitchen in which Desi can indulge his penchant for Cuban dishes, and Lucille hers for American; and so I was calmly assured a PT boat "for going fishing." I had a quick mental picture of the Arnaz family dashing about spearing the finny tribe, but said nothing. It's none of my business.

Excellent Portrayal

Lucille Ball has given one fine, true performance on the screen. That was in Damon Runyon's "The Big Street" in 1942. It was a distinctive tragicomedy about the blind devotion of a busboy (Henry Fonda) to a selfish, shallow showgirl who is crippled in a fall and Miss Ball gave it everything she had. Playing the part largely in a wheelchair must have had a special meaning to her, for Lucille was herself injured in an auto accident and told she would never walk again. By gritting her teeth and persevering, she was on her feet again in three years and four months.

Laughton's Advice

"I've never had another part like that," she admitted. "It was Charles Laughton who advised me, 'If you're going to play a [bitch], play one!' and I did." She brightened. "In spite of his illness, Mr. Runyon has told friends he is writing another story for me. I only hope I will get the chance to play it!" (3) Last seen as the wisecracking companion of Keenan Wynn in "Without Love," Lucille still has three unreleased pictures at Metro. They are "Ziegfeld Follies," "Easy to Wed" and “Time for Two." (4) That should hold people for a while, she thinks; meanwhile there's Desi, and fun.

* * * * * * * *

FOOTNOTES

(1) In the Fox film "Bottoms Up" (1934) Lucille Ball was a Goldwyn Girl in the number "Waitin' at the Gate for Katy".

(2) Lucille Ball never had twins. Her second child was indeed a girl, but named Lucie (aka Little Lucy) not Susan. Susan Peters (1921-52) was a film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over twenty films over the course of her decade-long career. In January 1945 she was critically injured in a hunting accident that left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair. This is likely why Lucille wanted to name her daughter after her. She died in 1952 at age 31, just 15 month after the birth of Lucie Arnaz.

(3) Lucille Ball did indeed do another Damon Runyon story, “Sorrowful Jones” in 1949, but it was not written expressly for Lucy, but based on his 1932 story “Little Miss Marker,” which had previously been filmed in 1934. Damon Runyon died a year after this article was published, in December 1946.

(4) MGM’s “Time for Two” was renamed “Two Smart People” and premiered June 4, 1946. It co-starred John Hodiak and Lloyd Nolan.

#Lucille Ball #1945 #Two Smart People #The Big Street #Philip K. Scheuer #Los Angeles Times #Sorrowful Jones #Susan Peters #Bottoms Up #RKO #MGM #20th Century Fox #Goldwyn Girls #Desi Arnaz #The Dark Corner #Henry Hathaway #Damon Runyon #Charles Laughton #Hollywood

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fitzpirations · 4 years

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recently watched HBO’s Barry. It’s one that’s been on my list for a while and it did not disappoint. It hits on a lot of Jekyll and Hyde notes with the duality of it’s main character Barry, who is part hit man part actor in both seasons.

The strongest part of the series, in my opinion, is the writing. Bill Hader acts as the primary writer and director for the series, along with co-creator Alec Berg. It’s best described as a tragicomedy, often light and surprisingly humorous, but equally dark and gritty, unapologetic about the murders Barry must commit to maintain his lifestyle. So much of it plays into the LA notion of trying on faces and new identities, as Barry finds himself working a job there in the pilot episode, unsure about his path as a murderer-for-hire. Each episode oscillates between light and dark, the right decision and the wrong one, truth-telling and lying. It’s thrilling, with a cast full of hard-hitters from Bill Hader’s convincingly dramatic and complex Barry, to Henry Winkler’s role as the narcissistic acting coach Gene Cousineau, to Anthony Carrigan’s charming take on the Chechen mobster, NoHo Hank.

I’ve lost a bit of steam on why this show is good. But, essentially, it seems to me that it’s an environment the whole cast and crew thrives in, and that gives a great payoff for viewers. The plot is always twisting away from what one expects, some things that could take up a whole season are resolved in a matter of minutes, or vice versa. The jokes are delightful, and most importantly to me, believable in a natural conversation, and the acting is rock solid. Sarah Goldberg’s character Sally acts as one of the many positive foils to the negative energy on the show, acting as a spitfire in a rather (purposely) terrible group of actors in the acting class. The dream-team collaboration aspect I admire so much about the show-runners is described well in a panel I watched yesterday. In it, Hader touches on the real-life way he worked out a scene with Goldberg, as well as the overall energy of the show, all which lends to an excellent production.

Similar to Hader’s work with Seth Myers, Fred Armisen, and John Mulaney on both SNL and Documentary Now!, it is clear everyone is truly working hard on something great, and having a great time doing it. Barry has the heart of a passion project but the breakneck energy of some of the best HBO dramas that have graced screens in recent years. It’s light and fun, but also deeply thought-provoking and symbolic in many ways. It asks so many big questions to its characters; Who do I want to be? , Am I living a lie? , Am I making the right decisions? , Do I protect myself or the people I love?

Ultimately it’s fantastic, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s deeply inspiring. I suppose I have to say that, as I’ve been writing pseudo-reviews as of late, but it is. Also if you don’t think Bill Hader can pull off a dramatic role, you’re sorely mistaken.

#barry #barry hbo

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isabelletalkspictures · 5 years

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REVIEW: The Favourite (2018), dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

She did treat us by thanking ‘ma bitches’, but the fact that Olivia Colman didn’t indulge in her own personal brand of royalty at the Golden Globes by screeching ‘LOOK AT ME’ at the audience in her acceptance speech for Best Lead Actress in a Musical/Comedy is frankly a travesty.

Never has a lovely and seemingly-ordinary a Brit sparkled as brightly as Colman as the unstable, infirm and petulant Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ wickedly entertaining tragicomedy The Favourite.

Structured into chapters with titles such as ‘This Mud Stinks’ and ‘I Dreamt I Stabbed You in The Eye’, the plot triangulates between Anne and two women of court who compete for her affections: Sarah Churchill/Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), long-time close friend/carer/lover (don’t tell the Duke (Mark Gatiss)), and Abigail (Emma Stone), a former noblewoman who has suffered the misdeeds of a gambling late father and joins the court in search of restored aristocracy.

High stakes manipulation and power-plays ensue as relationships are poisoned, status usurped, cakes scoffed and library books used as missiles in the battle to dominate the English court – meanwhile politicians and dukes (including X-Men star Nicholas Hoult and Joe Alwyn) play at duck-racing.

I refuse to assign it the sole genre of comedy as per the Golden Globes: the film rollercoasters from violent humour to teasing cynicism back towards gleeful bawd, all underpinned by female defiance and sorrow. Colman is a tour de force; her unpredictability lends itself to comedy that has you half-shrieking before the laughter can leave your throat. That same laughter transfigures into a sob as her expression turns heartbreaking, particularly when the scene involves a birthday of one of her “little ones”, 17 rabbits that represent her 17 lost children.

Her co-stars, Stone and Weisz, are both sensational. Weisz ripples with restraint and determination, poised in her affectionate yet sinister manoeuvring of her pet Queen. Stone is charming, innocent, threatening, and relentless. Her character also transcends clear categorisation: is she youthful, or is she deadly? Is she benevolent? Is she (well, she certainy is) duplicitous?

There is no easy-to-spot weak link. The visuals are delicious, thanks in no small part to Sandy Powell’s sumptuous costume design and Robbie Ryan’s quirky yet spectacular cinematography. The performances are razor-sharp and characterful, and the script delightfully, shockingly witty.

With call-backs to the height of bawdy theatrical romps and an irrepressible skeleton of fierce womanhood, The Favourite is a straight-out-of-the-gate contender for the most unique film of 2019, and a milestone for Olivia Colman’s ascent as perhaps Britain’s most versatile actress.

(Originally published in The Mancunion, 10th January 2019)

#repost #the favourite #review #olivia colman #emma stone #rachel weisz #queen anne #yorgos lanthimos #award winner #best actress #best picture nominee #film criticism #film critique #film review #film reviewer #film critic #film blog #film tumblr

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wellntruly · 1 year

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M*A*S*H - Viewguide, S10

Are you interested in the long-running anti-war situation tragicomedy M*A*S*H (1972-1983), but there are simply so many asterisks and so many episodes?

Well I can’t help you with the asterisks, but nor can I help myself: I started watching all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, and bringing back for you my viewing selections, chosen for The Qualities.

— — —

Hiiiiiii guuuyys. So something new has happened, here in the tenth season. Her name is Karen Hall. Who is Karen Hall? Well I've looked into this: a young writer Alan Alda met in a workshop he was teaching, was like, uh, you rock totally, pulls a Daniel Craig on James Bond, and gets M*A*S*H to hire her for last season's ‘Father’s Day’ (none for Margaret's dad with left beef). This season, she’s got four more scripts, and her name is on every episode as the series' new story editor. I kept thinking I was seeing “Karen Han” and going, well of course Karen would freak this, and the thing is that sentence is still right: Karen freaks this. Season 10!!!! My favorite season since Season 6?? Itself my favorite since Seasons 2-3??

And just one more (!) after this, oh my gOD....

M*A*S*H - Season 10 Recommended sequence

10x01-02 ’That’s Show Biz: Parts 1 and 2’ - A U.S.O. troupe gets stuck at the MASH for a couple days, and unlike all the other two-parters they’ve done, this one really uses the pace of having a full hour, seeding so many elliptical details and unexplained behaviors that they are in no hurry to answer just yet. It gives these two an intriguing depth. Also: former burlesque dancer played by GWEN VERDON. Aah-aah-aaaah!!

10x06 ‘Wheelers and Dealers’ - I’m including this one for two reasons. 1) Rizzo, whom I don’t believe I’ve featured yet, and when he’s in the pocket, boy does this raspy Bayou weirdo make me laugh. And 2), I *think* this is gonna prove the last big blow-out finale of BJ being such a jerk to everyone over his family, and we definitely should go out with the bang that is Margaret tearing into him with a perfect diatribe that’s been two seasons coming. Cathartic! And then this seemingly clears the way to shift gears, or change roads, whatever episode-apt vehicle metaphor you want, and set us now humming along the rest of this season with pretty much exactly the BJ I would have expected we’d have at this point when I was in Season 5 or 6: tall mid-tempo California-goofy sweetie who mostly does actually like other people, including his Army-issued boyfriend.

10x07 ‘Communication Breakdown’ - Like, to wit: very next episode, BJ’s slow adorable amazed grin to the mess ceiling at Charles showing his whole ass over the PA (foreshadowing) had me, confusingly, going: [Trapper voice] Hawkeye, I think I’m in love. It’s another Karen/Alan co-pro, baby, and Season 10 is now really kicking OFF.

10x10 ‘’Twas the Day After Christmas’ - Two visiting Englishmen straight out of WWI Britfluence Colonel Potter into adopting their topsy-turvy Boxing Day tradition of having the enlisted ranks swap roles with the officers, and oho, are they also All SO COLD about it, and oho are they doing [short shaky exhale] this:

10x10 you mean 10/10?

10x11 ‘Follies of the Living - Concerns of the Dead’ - The ‘Written & Directed By Alan Alda’ contribution this season is this Distant Voices, Still Lives ass title (affectionate) heading the episode where Klinger has a fever and is seeing ghosts. HIGH degree of difficulty on this one, my good friend, and for the first part I was like, maybe?, and then we get to the dead soldier hanging out with Margaret in Furious & Marvelous mode, and then the best drinking scene this show has ever done. The pitchest black wry comedy, mostly just gutting. Mostly just exquisite.

10x12 ‘The Birthday Girls’ - Outrageously boyfriends Hawkeye & BJ are trying to become cow fathers, while Margaret & Klinger finally get their mandated bond in adverse conditions outside of camp arc and are like, we have been waiting for your call. Riotous and sweet with an ass script that won’t quit, it's Karen Hall’s ‘The Birthday Girls’, [opening locket meme] my Beloved. ❤️

10x13 ‘Blood and Guts’ - The fact that the villain is a misleading writer is honestly so tasty for this show to do.

10x14 ‘A Holy Mess’ - A riveting turn that features a sort of semantic legal battle around religious sanctuary (COOL), but above all, this is an episode about eggs. Talking about eggs, thinking about eggs, the consuming drama of how the eggs will prepared....this is what I meant about riveting.

10x17 ‘Where There’s a Will, There’s a War’ - Sorry to end a second season list in a row with an aid station episode (and third season I've done this overall), but just, my GOD, take this—

Charles: “I hope you manage to stay beautiful until Pierce gets back to see you.” BJ, sudden quiet dread: “Back from where?”

and go, go!!!!

Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 • Season 7 • Season 8 • Season 9 • Season 10 • To be continued

#M*A*S*H hours

#M*A*S*H #M*A*S*H hours #viewguides #Tarra watches

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 5 years

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Chapter 20: I can’t come up with a clever summary for this one that doesn’t ruin the surprise of the nonsense I’ve set loose, I’m sorry, I’m tired

[Beginning] [Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

Trucy has Christmas off from school – or maybe just takes it off, Apollo doesn’t ask these questions – but it is a weekday and the office is open, so Apollo spends it with her and Vera and Phoenix nowhere to be seen. “We would make a great investigation trio,” Trucy says, adjusting the Santa hat that she has moved from her head to Charley now to her wisp so that it, invisible beneath the hat, bobs about the office as some kind of strange holiday decor. “But I also hope no one comes in today, because – spending Christmas in jail because you’re accused of murder. Can you imagine?”

“Or being murdered on Christmas,” Apollo agrees.

Having said that, he still does like to get paid.

It’s cold, fae cold, like every Christmas Apollo has experienced in Los Angeles. (Like every Christmas Apollo has experienced; they didn’t celebrate it in Khura’in. They had their own holidays, things all dimmed down in his memories.) The dusting of snow across the sidewalk melts by afternoon between the bright sun and the foot traffic through the city, but the chill remains, making Apollo infinitely grateful for his Christmas presents from Trucy, a knitted beanie and scarf, even if the colors she chose for him are pink and limey green.

“I know you won’t really get cold,” Trucy had said to Vera, “but everyone should have cute scarves and hats, so you get one, too!” The knitwear she presented to Vera was pink and bright blue, colors that much better match her typical fashion – and her fae form, when she lets her glamour drop to hold the yarn against her skin. Trucy insists on a selfie with the three of them; right before she clicks the button, Vera washes away her watercolor skin, and grinning back from the photo are three apparent humans.

“Maybe shouldn’t have photo evidence that I’m not human,” Vera says quietly, but she is already reaching for her sketchpad and scribbling a tiny self-portrait, fae ears and all, in the corner of a page. She still takes a sketchbook everywhere with her but doesn’t keep it in hand at every moment, seeming a little more able and willing to express herself with words and either of her own faces.

Trucy tells them that she has also made Ema a scarf so that she can contribute to the scientific assessment that Trucy expects of Iris’ yarn. “Daddy says that humans who spend a long time in the fae world end up with kinds of glamours, too,” she explains to Vera, after catching her up on Iris. Apollo wonders who Phoenix learned this from; if he knew that, shouldn’t he have figured out what Klavier was sooner? Or is this another fact he’s only put together after that one realization? “So we’re all wondering what properties these might have. I expect you to take notes on anything strange while you’re wearing these. Like if people start telling you you’re more attractive.”

Apollo snorts. Trucy smacks him on the arm. “This is for science, Apollo!”

“How much do you talk to Ema, again?” He can’t say that he isn’t curious – could something like this be the origin of the infamous Magic Panties? – and he can’t say that he isn’t more curious than afraid nowadays, but he also can’t say that he’s not afraid of where this curiosity will take them. Everything Clay impressed upon him for thirteen years has collapsed in eight months.

(And Dhurke – well, maybe there was a nugget or two of advice Dhurke left him, half-forgotten, but he let Apollo and Nahyuta make their mistakes, and as far as that goes, Apollo is definitely making mistakes.)

Trucy is powerful, he’ll give her that. And if anyone can turn stage magic into entertainment in a city so full and wary of real magic, it would be her. (That seems to be her latest career aspiration, the latest turn of her Youtube channel after her stint as a cover artist, but she laments that it’s hard to really perform when she knows her audience could easily believe she’s just cleverly editing her videos.)

(If he really thinks about it, he wonders if she, like Klavier, has some innate glamour, if at least some part of her force of personality and charisma and likeability is magic.)

“I have two more very important things to tell you,” she says over a late lunch of Chinese, because Eldoon’s isn’t an option with Vera and he apparently takes some holidays off anyway.

“Uh-oh,” Apollo says.

The lights blink between two stages of brightness; Apollo still can’t really say he’s used to Mia’s rare laughter. “Excuse you!” Trucy says. “I object! I am having a New Years Eve party here and was going to tell you to come and invite your friends but now you are uninvited! Polly is, anyway. Vera you’re still good.”

“You can’t blame me!” Apollo says. “The amount of strange things that happen with Mr Wright, I never know if you’re just gonna tell me that he’s – I don’t know, got summoned back to the Twilight Realm for a stint and you need to crash on my couch – or whatever.”

“Oh, Daddy’s just over at Uncle Miles’ office today,” Trucy says. “Probably not actually doing work.”

“Uncle Miles?” Vera asks the question that Apollo was about to.

“Oh – Mr Prosecutor Edgeworth. Polly, you met him, right?”

“Prosecutor Edgeworth? I – yeah.” So he and Phoenix are close, close enough that Trucy calls him family. That’s probably important to know, another piece to Phoenix’s wide and varied social circle. “Well uh, I guess it’s good that he hasn’t been disappeared by the fae or something.”

“Oh, we’d be warned if something happened,” Trucy says. The cryptic vagueness of that statement seems fitting somehow. “There’s no need to worry!”

Apollo wouldn’t say he was worried; rather more of a neutral expectation he has that Phoenix is someday going to flake in some grander way than he did setting up the Jurist System.

“Anyway, New Years,” she continues. “I’m inviting a friend from school, and Ema, and a couple other people she and I know, and you can invite Clay if you want, and I need your phone for Prosecutor Gavin’s number to invite him.” She extends her hand, palm facing upward, to him.

“Erm,” Apollo says.

“Or you can invite him yourself,” Trucy says. She draws her hand back. “Do you think he’ll be more likely to say yeah to you or me? I mean, I’m cute but you already talk to him on the regular, so it could go either way.” She claps her hands together. “Okay, we’re decided: you invite him on my behalf!”

Apollo wouldn’t say that they actually decided it so much as Trucy decreed it, but sure, he’ll go with it. “I thought you and Ema didn’t know each other at all when we first met her,” he says. The tragicomedy of the white powder ordeal is still, and always will be, fresh in his mind when he thinks about Ema. “How do you have mutual friends?”

“Oh, y’know.” Trucy shrugs. Apollo does not know. “She knew Daddy and Uncle Miles back when, Uncle Miles knows other people who I know, then she meets them, then we meet – the usual. Everyone ends up working in the legal system.” She pauses. “Except me.”

“I think you count,” Vera says.

“You’re co-counsel,” Apollo says. “You definitely count.”

“I guess you’re right,” Trucy says. “Magic just keeps ending up hand-in-hand with the law.” She sits forward conspiratorial, steepling her fingers in front of her face. “Now,” she adds, unable to stop herself from grinning, “the second thing. This is top secret, invite-from-me-only stuff. It’s a secret family tradition that I’m only inviting the two of you and Ema and Kay’s tagging along because she’s like a superspy and found out about my conversation with Ema – anyway.” Leaving Apollo with little time to parse that sentence – does he know who Kay is? Has he heard that name before? He doesn’t think so – Trucy holds up a pointer finger. “You are both cordially invited to The Gourdyversary.��

“The what?” Apollo asks.

“The Gourdyversary,” Trucy repeats, sounding very serious but still grinning all the while. “The Gourdy Anniversary. It’s a very very secret Wright-Butz friendship tradition that is also very very important for the upkeep of Gourd Lake Park.”

“You’re losing me,” Apollo says. “Also, if it’s this secret, and you’re busting it open to everyone--”

“Not everyone! I thought Ema would be super interested, and Kay was being stalky, like I said, and then the two of you are super important parts other parts of the Wright-Butz social circle, so I was allowed to invite you!” Her eyes narrow in concentration. “Also,” she says, with an air of recollecting something, “Daddy mentioned you specifically, Polly, said that he’d like to see the look on your face because you always react a lot to finding out new magic stuff.”

“Great,” Apollo mutters. “I cordially decline your invitation.” He looks at Vera, who is just as confused as him, blinking her huge eyes owlishly at Trucy. “Wait,” he says. “‘Butz’? Who’s that?”

“You know – oh!” Trucy laughs and falls further back into the couch. “You don’t! That’s Uncle Larry’s other last name, the one he had first.”

On one hand, Apollo can’t really blame someone for wanting to be rid of that surname, especially in a profession where names are as important as they are to authors. On the other hand, there’s a certain expectation that Apollo has come to have. “Is this a fae thing in some way?”

Vera is the first to nod. “Deauxnim was one of the names his mentor used.” It appears thoughtless now, both the way she starts to raise her hand to her lips and the way she puts it back down. Is another incentive for her to break her habit of chewing her nails how strange the thought must be that she also has claws in a different form? Could it be possible for her to chew her claws off? “The last name she used before… before she died. She gave it to him.” She picks at the eraser on her pencil, clearly for something to do with her hands. “He – Mr Laurice offered it to me, too. If I want – if I want to sell my art someday and use it for my career, I could be…” She frowns at her sketchbook. “Vera Deauxnim.”

“I’d do it!” Trucy says. “It’s a good name, Uncle Larry says, and Uncle Valant always told me that it’s good to have spare names in case you really need to give one away.” She frowns, too. “But he only had one name. He was only ever ‘Gramarye’.”

“I know it’s a good name,” Vera says. “Mr Laurice says it’s lucky. But I have my name already, and it’s my dad’s. I shouldn’t – I shouldn’t give that up. Should I?”

“You’re not giving up anything!” Trucy says. “You’re Vera Misham and you can be Vera Deauxnim, like I’m Trucy Wright and then Trucy Gramarye on Youtube because that’s both my family and I can be both. Like Prosecutor Gavin said about different faces.” She spreads her hands wide in the air in front of her like she’s spreading something out for them to look at. “We contain multitudes!”

That pulls a grin onto Vera’s face.

“I must’ve missed when you started going by Gramarye again,” Apollo says. She’s called herself Trucy the Enigma, which he knows is a reference to her father’s name, and that was as far as he knew.

“Yeah,” she says, stretching herself out further on the half of the couch she has claimed. “It was sometime after we talked about just – me, and magic, in general, all that. And I thought, it’s my mom’s name too, I want to keep it for her. So I’ll make it mean something good, like I think it should be. Like I used to think it was.”

He wonders if when she holds the mitamah she hears something like he heard music; he wonders if he’d hear it again if he picked it back up. Sometimes he feels drawn to that drawer of Phoenix’s desk, a compulsion to understand who she was – is? A dead body with a bullet in it but a soul that is still here glowing? – that he stifles again and again. He opens his mouth to say something, anything, knowing how hard it all hit Trucy, knowing that she still can’t always find the light behind her eyes, but she forestalls him with a red-tinted grin. (A lie. Her smile is a lie, and it’s magic, a fae blessing, that tells him this.)

“Man, names are so complicated,” she says. And Apollo sees red and oh, this is the limit of it, isn’t it? Her smile is a lie but while he’s seeing that, any words she says might be true, might be a lie, and he’s already going to be stuck on her expression.

(Who was it that gave him Truth? Which one of them thought that was the most important gift? Dhurke? Datz? Nahyuta?)

“And they’d be this complicated even without all the magic,” Trucy continues. She cranes her neck to look at Vera’s sketchbook. “Ooh, nice!”

(Complicated, nonmagic, Apollo knows that too. On his birth certificate, a forgery, his father’s name is Jay Justice because his stage name was Jangly and they didn’t know his real name and even Datz who had the papers drawn up seemed to realize that they couldn’t put that down and just the initial J was a little sparse. His mother’s name they made up entirely. Dhurke named her Hera, because he always thought he was funny. Apollo had looked it up sometime in middle school. Hera wasn’t even the mythological Apollo’s mother.)

Vera has Trucy’s phone balanced up on the piano, showing off the selfie, and she is sketching from it but for herself, pointed ears and big eyes. “So what is the, um, Gourd… Gourdversary?”

“Gourdyversary,” Trucy repeats, as though she is teaching them an actual word that they might need to know. “You know Gourd Lake Park, maybe?” Vera shakes her head. Apollo nods. It was in the vague area of Apollo and Clay’s high school and a corner of the park was the popular hangout for stoners, which meant Apollo wasn’t surprised when a lake monster was sighted there. (He was surprised that tourists and not stoned kids who first made the claim.) In their senior year, he and Clay camped out in the abandoned, allegedly-haunted, boat shack, or tried to, made it to about midnight when Clay swore he heard a voice, and then later lied about it to their friends and Clay’s siblings to claim that they totally spent the whole night there and nothing happened. Every few years there were attempts to revitalize the park and make it a real community location. Those never worked.

“Well,” Trucy continues, “always sometime after Christmas, this year, it’ll be the 27th that, we go, before dawn, to the lake, to make the annual sacrifice.”

“I don’t like the sound of this in the slightest,” Apollo says.

“We don’t sacrifice people,” Trucy says. “C’mon, Polly. Really.”

“I hate that you know exactly what I was about to ask because it is actually a reasonable question in these circumstances.” Apollo smacks his head into the couch and stares at the ceiling. “Sacrifice what, then? To what? The lake?”

“You have to come along to know,” Trucy says smugly. “Exact time and meeting location will be disseminated only to true believers.”

“Believers of what?” Apollo demands.

Vera has folded her knees up onto the couch and has her sketchbook propped against them, her dark human eyes peering out from behind the top of it, darting between Trucy and Apollo.

“You’ll see,” Trucy says.

The next morning, Phoenix enters the office and asks for Apollo’s help getting the doors so that he can carry inside a heavy grocery bag filled with twelve-packs of hot dogs. “What is this for?” Apollo asks, when he’s followed Phoenix into the kitchen (not even asking why Mia wouldn’t get the doors because he knows the answer is going to be that she rightfully thinks whatever is going on is stupid) to watch him maneuver the contents into the refrigerator.

“The Gourdyversary,” Phoenix replies. He pushes the fridge door closed only for it to pop back open and six packs spill back to the floor.

“Is this a hazing ritual?” Apollo asks. “Like, am I getting hazed?”

“Apollo, I’m pretty sure the entire Kitaki case was the universe conducting a hazing ritual on you,” Phoenix says. “Why would I bother with anything else?” He winks. “See you bright and early tomorrow, huh?”

“I haven’t agreed to this ridiculous venture,” Apollo says.

Phoenix slams the refrigerator shut with more force this time. “But are you really going to disappoint Trucy?” He manages to take one step before, in defiance, the fridge spits some of its contents back out. “Come on, seriously?” he asks, turning about in a circle and gesturing helplessly to the room at large. “Just let us do our dumb shit, Mia, c’mon.”

Apollo leaves him to fight with the ghost of his mentor, only to find that Vera has definitively declined to join in on the Gourdyversary, and consequently, Trucy is pouting at him with the most pathetic puppy eyes he has ever seen from a person.

It isn’t that – he tells her, several times, it isn’t that – which gets him, and she, seeing Truth, should know that is the truth, but she keeps proclaiming victory for her powers of persuasion – “Powers of getting people to pity you, if anything” – when he acquiesces. It’s curiosity, purely and painfully, and if it’s only painful in the moment for everything required to make it to the main gates of Gourd Lake Park at 6 am, the chances are high that it’s going to be worse next time. And there’s going to be a next time, he’s sure of it: he’s come to feel at home in an office filled with the lingering wraith of a fae queen, followed Trucy and Klavier in pursuit of grimoires and faery rings, and he’s becoming desensitized, he’s sure of it. He’s on the road to becoming a missing persons report or a cautionary folktale for future generations.

But damn if he isn’t curious as to why Phoenix “cheapskate” Wright bought more than a dozen dozens of hot dogs.

Trucy’s gifts, the scarf and hat, seem to block out the wind better than any other he can recall owning, which Apollo tells her to note down for her experimental records when he reaches the park entrance. Twilight Realm yarn, helping him resist the fae’s cold snaps. The dead brown grass is dusted with snow and a few more errant flakes drift down from the dark sky. Whenever the sun finally rises, they probably won’t see it. Trucy is waiting when he arrives, bundled up in a heavy coat and matching blue knitted hat, scarf, and gloves, and talking with two women. One is Ema, recognizable by the crinkling snack bag in her hands – “Are you aware of the time?” “Yeah, it’s snack time.” – and the dead-eyed glare from over the pink scarf Trucy apparently saddled her with.

The other, Apollo has never seen, but when she spots him, she abandons her conversation and bounds over to him, grabbing his hand and shaking it enthusiastically. “Hi!” she chirps. “I’m Kay! Kay Faraday! Super glad to finally meet you, Apollo!”

Finally?

“Uh,” he says, allowing her to wrench his arm about, “I’m sorry, but I have no idea who you are.”

“That’s okay!” She lets go of his hand and strikes a pose, one hand in the air and the other on her hip. None of her clothing seems quite to match, a puffy pink coat with a huge dark scarf, gold hair accessories, and leather gloves that look more expensive than his life. “Kay Faraday, homicide detective, Great Thief and Mr Edgeworth’s first and best assistant, at your service.”

“You lost me at ‘thief’ right after ‘detective’,” Apollo says. He can already see why Trucy likes her, though.

“Get used to confusion,” Ema says dryly. “That’s all she does for you.”

“Rude,” Kay says. She skips back past Trucy and Ema and down the park path. “Let’s go get gourded out of our gourds already!”

“I don’t know what that means but I refuse to do that,” Ema says. She doesn’t move, watches Trucy race after Kay, and then holds out the Snackoos bag to Apollo. “Kay wasn’t even invited. She was just creeping around and was unrelenting in demanding to accompany me in finding out whatever Trucy’s on about.” Apollo declines the Snackoos and she shrugs and shoves a few more into her mouth. “That’s also how she makes friends so watch it or you’re next.”

“I see,” Apollo says, even though he isn’t sure that he does. “It sounds, uh, interesting down at the precinct.”

Ema snorts. “We’re like two steps away from being a coven at this point.”

“Prosecutor Edgeworth said something like that.”

She nods sagely. “He thinks he can stop it but I know it’s futile.” She stuffs the Snackoos into her jacket pocket and pulls her scarf up against the sudden onslaught of wind. “How’s Trucy doing?” she asks quietly, eyeing the distant backs of her and Kay. “Haven’t heard from her much since October and” – a pause, a search for a tactful phrasing that she doesn’t find – “all that shit.”

And it was, nothing but a bunch of shit, no more honest way Apollo can think to say it, Ema cutting back to the heart of the matter. “Better, I think,” he says. “We had a couple conversations about her family and er grandfather that seemed like – like she’s figuring it out.” Or just coping, but even that is harder than it sounds. “And Mr Wright is spending a lot of time looking into the mitamah thing trying to deal with that.”

“That’s good.” She sounds like she means it. “If anyone can find a way to fix it, it’ll be Mr Wright. I’m sure of it.” And on that she sounds so confident that Apollo almost believes her. Isn’t that how Trucy said magic works? And what must Phoenix have done for Ema that she still has such faith in him?

Trucy stands planted in the path ahead, fists on her hips, facing them. “Hurry up!” she calls.

“Bunch of snails!” Kay yells. Ema flips her off but above her scarf, her eyes squint up like she’s grinning.

“So clarify for me how you all know each other,” Apollo says when the four of them have reconvened. Along the edges of the path the trees thin out and he can see the dark glassy surface of the water. “Through Prosecutor Edgeworth?”

“Basically!” Kay says. “I first helped him investigate cases years ago – I saved him when he got kidnapped – then there were some international incidents – I got accused of arson once and murder twice – it was a ridiculous month. And we ran into Emmy” – Emmy? Apollo raises an eyebrow and Ema stares back with unchanging expression – “and she already knew Mr Edgeworth from stuff and she helped us out. And then later working with Mr Edgeworth, I met Mr Wright, and my little apprentice thief.” She throws her arm around Trucy’s shoulders and grins.

“I thought you were my assistant,” Trucy says.

“Anyway!” Kay barrels past that statement. Trucy sticks her tongue out at her. “Then Emmy came back to work at the precinct and hang with me again, and then she met you, and here we are!”

Apollo almost keeps pace with that. He has about half a dozen follow-up questions about the arson and murder, but they’ve come up to the biggest gathering area of the part, a few vendor’s stands unattended for the weather and time of day, and Phoenix and Larry waiting by the one bare tree in the area, the bag of hot dogs at their feet. “Hi, Mr Wright!” Kay shouts. “Hi, Mr Steel Samurai!”

“You’re never gonna let me live it down, are you?” Larry asks.

Kay swings a friendly punch at his shoulder. “Nah, but I don’t let Mr Edgeworth forget about it, either, if that helps.”

“It absolutely does,” Larry says.

“So are you gonna tell us what’s going on or drag out the mystery for a little longer?” Ema asks.

Phoenix and Larry look at each other. “I’m thinking we drag it out,” Larry says.

“I already have my reputation for being cryptic,” Phoenix says, turning his head to stare directly at Apollo, “so yeah, let’s torment the kids a little longer. And besides,” he adds, stooping and wincing as he hauls the bag back up into his arms, “we’ve still got a little further to walk. We’re heading back through the woods there – there’s a little outlet to the shore that’s a little more hidden.”

“The hot dogs are the sacrifice, right?” Apollo asks. Larry gives a thumbs-up. “So then you could just answer what we’re sacrificing to—”

“Wait.” Ema stops walking. “Trucy, you didn’t tell me there was ritual sacrifice involved. You just said ‘hey, there’s something you will want to see, scientifically speaking’ and I asked to make sure it wasn’t a hoax like the last time people said there was something cool at Gourd Lake—”

Phoenix and Larry glance at each other. Trucy looks up at them both. “No,” Ema says. “No, do not tell me that the lake monster is real.”

“You proved in court that it was a hoax,” Apollo says. “You proved that it wasn’t a real—”

“I thought I proved that,” Phoenix says, thankfully not taking any time to dwell on the fact that Apollo knows his cases well enough to know exactly when this happened. “I did prove that loud banging noises aren’t the hallmark of the monster, and that Larry was out on the lake looking for a bigass balloon he’d launched into orbit—”

“The balloon was also very real,” Larry supplies helpfully. “It was the Steel Samurai. It was pretty cool until I slipped up inflating it with the air canister. Launched that, too.”

“—but we were accidentally enlightened as to a little more, when was it – a couple days after the trial?”

“The day after,” Larry says. “And already you were moping about being lonely with Maya going back to Fairyland—”

“—so I went all the way to the bottom of my contacts list and came to hang out with you at your hot dog stand—”

“You had like, three people in your phone then. Don’t pretend like I was your last-ditch social reject friend! You’re my last-ditch reject friend!”

Ema coughs. Phoenix and Larry both clearly take the cue to continue the narrative. “We were about the only people in the park, hanging out back there.” Phoenix points back over his shoulder with his thumb. They are passing by the old boat shack now, its shattered windows and unstable rotting dock, and Apollo shudders. One step on that and it’s straight into the water. “And then, just, out of lake—” He waves vaguely and purses his lips together. “There she was.”

“And that’s why hot dogs?” Apollo asks. “Because he had a hot dog stand then?”

“Yeah.” Larry shoves his hands in his pockets. “Like hey, we didn’t know if it was gonna eat us, figured we’d throw some food that wasn’t us and hope that was enough.”

“And now we come back yearly with offerings to hopefully appease her and never find out why she was sealed away in the first place. Because as it turns out,” Phoenix continues, grinning broadly, far too amused for the fact that they are discussing the potential of some lake monster to eat people, “someone’s flyaway balloon got caught on a warding sigil and tore it off. Make a hoax monster while releasing the real monster.” His grin shrinks just a little. “We found the place where the seal originally was and went looking all over the park hoping to find it and put it back, but no such luck. Not like you can dig magic rocks out with a metal detector.”

“I cannot believe that Mr Edgeworth and I solved an entire murder conspiracy here at this lake and he never told me there’s a real monster in it!” Kay pouts. She does a good impression of a moody teenager, kicking a stray rock out of the way on the path, but she can only hold it for a few seconds.

Phoenix and Larry again exchange a look.

“He uh,” Kay says, her eyes narrowing, “does know about the lake monster, right?”

Phoenix sucks in a breath through gritted teeth. Larry elbows him in the ribs. “This one's all on you, buddy,” he says with a wicked grin. “You justify yourself.”

“Edgeworth does not know,” Phoenix says, sounding pained. Kay gasps exaggeratedly loudly. “Listen, we weren’t on as good of terms back then! He knew the part that came out in court about the hoax, and then I was not exactly sure that he would appreciate me reaching out to tell him no, there’s an entire fae monster actually there now.”

“And the ten years since then where you’ve been on very good terms?” Larry asks, still grinning.

“Fuck you,” Phoenix says to him. “I’d call it eight, also.”

“I think you should tell him,” Kay says. “He could stand to have his preconceptions shaken up every so often, that there’s more magic just chilling around than he thinks there is.”

“Yeah,” Phoenix says dryly, “until he asks me how long I’ve known and I have to figure out whether he’d believe it if I lied to him. Like logically I know the best thing to do, but at this point half of the fear of telling is the ‘why did you not mention that you knew this sooner?’ so I just drag it out even longer in the hopes that we’ll all live and die before Gourdy ever makes a situation where I’d have to mention it to him.”

“That is a very bad way of handling secrets, Daddy,” Trucy says.

“Oh, believe me, sweetheart, I know.” Phoenix frowns and sighs and shakes his head. “Though this isn’t just me covering my ass right now, but I think our new Chief Prosecutor has a lot more important things to deal with.”

The path they follow through the woods is almost overgrown with the tangled underbrush and buried beneath icy dead leaves. Phoenix and Larry, when they aren’t bickering, seem to confidently know the way, leading their small troupe out onto the saddest beach Apollo has ever seen. Sand and mud mix with snow for a slick surface that slopes straight down into the water, and an old weathered sign prohibiting camping is the only apparent clue that people come out here – though why anyone would want to camp here, Apollo has no idea.

Phoenix drops the bag into the wet ground. “Oi, Gourdy!” Larry calls. His voice doesn’t echo on the open lake but seems to be swallowed up by the white fog that has begun to swirl across the surface of the water. “We’ve got your yearly sacrifices!”

“Please don’t say it like that,” Apollo says. “That makes me think you’re going to throw us into the lake.”

“If I’m throwing anyone, it’d be Larry,” Phoenix says.

Larry, standing right at the edge of the water, flips him off over his shoulder. Through the fog, Apollo can see the water rippling, before it moves, pointedly, a long white wake pushing toward the shore. Larry scrambles backwards up the slope to Phoenix and the bag of hot dogs, grabbing an entire pack but not attempting to tear it open.

At first Apollo thinks that it’s a catfish, coming up strangely above the water. Then it keeps rising out of the water, far higher than a fish could, and he sees – he doesn’t know what he sees. It has a face like a catfish with the wide, gaping mouth, the barbels, and the beady eyes at the sides of its head; but past its eyes, it has small pointed ears and an otherwise horse-like body, its skin a slimy-looking brownish-green and its mane a long tangled curtain of seaweed. “Oh,” Kay says, very softly. “Oh, geez.”

Larry tosses the pack of hot dogs, plastic wrapping and all, in an underhand arc toward the creature. It stretches its neck out and catches the hot dogs in its wide mouth, throwing its head back and appearing to swallow the package whole. “You feed it plastic?” Ema asks. “It – her?”

“I call her ‘her’,” Phoenix says, “but that’s mostly because all the most powerful and terrifying fae I’ve known have been women, and not for any actual reason. But yeah, most of the fae and fae creatures I’ve known also have not been concerned with what humans do or don’t consider edible.”

“That sounds like some people I know,” Ema says. Kay pouts, but Ema isn’t looking in her direction. Her eyes are fixed, understandably, on the horse-catfish creature.

“S’good as far as keeping litter out of the lake,” Larry says. He grabs another package to throw. Phoenix hasn’t reached for the bag but is instead grinning at the stunned expressions on their three faces. “But yeah, we just show up, feed it a couple dozen hot dogs, and then do it again next year. Simple stuff.”

“So you really did just invite us to see the looks on our faces,” Apollo says. Phoenix’s grin does not waver. Trucy grabs two packs out of the bag and tosses them each at different sides of the creature – Gourdy, they call it Gourdy, a cute name for something that is frankly terrifying – and it swings its head about, inhaling one after the other.

“Worth,” Kay says, still wide-eyed.

“You weren’t even invited,” Ema says. She frowns, staring up at Gourdy from narrowed eyes. Is this how tall horses usually are? Did it get the size right when it took this nebulously horse-like shape? “I wonder,” she mutters, more to herself than anyone. “Do you think it always looked like this, or it tried to look like things that do exist in our world as a – disguise, I guess. An attempt at one?” She glances over to Phoenix. “Because you’ve said the fae in their true forms look sort-of but not quite like humans, but that they can’t really – alter their glamoured appearances very much?”

Phoenix nods. “It’s more innate,” he says. “What, say, Mia looked like is what Mia looked like. She didn’t just decide, oh, when I pretend to be human I want brown hair. But that’s just the fae, and fae animals are an entirely other barrel of catfish.” He reaches up to adjust his beanie. “Horses. Catfish-horses.”

“Someone who can’t really draw’s idea of a horse,” Apollo offers.

“Don’t be rude!” Trucy scolds. “She’s beautiful!”

Gourdy turns one tiny beady eye on Apollo. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but he decides that he’s not going to say anything that can be perceived as insult again – he doesn’t know how smart this thing is and if it’s fae it probably has very dangerous responses to insults.

“But it’s like…” Ema pulls her phone out of her pocket and starts frantically typing something. “Was it trying to look like natural wildlife? Is it coincidence? Convergent development? How long has it been sealed here and was that before horses were introduced to North America? I have questions!”

Phoenix chuckles and Ema lowers her phone, turning her furious glare on him. “Don’t laugh!” she snaps. “This is interesting! These are real questions!”

“I knew you’d think so,” Trucy says brightly, instantly diffusing the first bits of tension. “And since I dragged you and Polly out on... “ She sighs. “You know. So I thought I’d at least drag you out to some fun magic stuff!”

She thinks she owes them, to make up for the debacle of finding her mother’s soul. Or she was hoping for something like an adventure and wanted to bring them on that. Apollo isn’t sure whether he’d count this as fun, either, learning that there’s a catfish-horse that could probably kill all of them somehow in the lake, but Trucy seems happy.

“I promise I’m not laughing at you, Ema,” Phoenix says, holding his hands up in an attempt to placate her. Apollo doesn’t see that he’s lying. “It’s just nice to see you get a bit of your spark back.”

The angry huff of her cheeks deflates instantly. “I was probably real annoying as a kid, babbling like that the whole time while you were just trying to investigate, huh?”

“Not at all,” Phoenix says, and again, he isn’t lying. “I mean, I’ll admit to having been a little terrified that if I let you out of my sight you were gonna summon something or make a bad deal trying to get more tools for investigating, but I wasn’t annoyed.”

Ema pulls her scarf back up over her nose, but Apollo catches a glimpse of the sad smile on her face as she does. Then she steps forward and grabs a pack of hot dogs, extending it in her hand to Gourdy on approach. With about a foot between its mouth and her hand, she apparently decides not to risk having her arm be swallowed, and she gives the pack a little toss to get it to its destination. “Oh,” she says, “sort of related, Lana asked about you the other day, Mr Wright. Wanted to know how you’re doing.”

“Ah.” Phoenix rubs the back of his neck. “At least with the Jurist System you’ve got something to tell her more than ‘still sucks at playing the piano’.” His sheepish expression looks a little less when he reaches the part about the piano, and Trucy laughs. Apollo again wonders why he ever bothered to get a piano for the office. “Where is she now, anyway? She got out a year or two ago, right?”

“About two years now, yeah,” Ema says. There is a rhythm to them feeding Gourdy, now, Larry, Trucy, and Ema. Phoenix seems content to hang back, and while Kay bounds forward, Apollo has no inclination to join in on this part of it. “She’s out near Reno, just wanted to get away, and she’s talking moving out to London where we’ve got some family. She’s hesitating now that I’m back, or something, but I told her just get outta here, flee the continent, go somewhere that no one knows your name, y’know?”

“Oh yeah,” Phoenix says. “I’d – had that option, honestly, but—”

“But you didn’t do anything,” Ema interrupts. “And she kinda did… most of it.”

“Do you think Gourdy would let me pet her?” Kay asks.

“I would not try it,” Phoenix says. Kay’s shoulders slump.

“She was gushing about the Jurist System when we talked about it, though,” Ema continues, with only a brief roll of her eyes at Kay’s question.

“I can’t imagine her gushing,” Phoenix says.

Ema shrugs. “It’s – a big thing, y’know, to her. To all of us, but, she’d said – she’d said that maybe it could’ve helped stop Darke, put him away before even more people died and…” She looks from her phone down to the hot dog bag. Its contents are mostly depleted but she grabs one and hurls it with a surprising amount of force. “Good for cases like that. Common sense, no evidence, maybe now justice gets served.”

Apollo can’t say why the name Lana, Lana Skye, seems familiar, but he knows with the expression on Ema and Phoenix’s faces, he’s not about to ask.

Kay whispers something to Trucy and, both giggling, Kay hefts the bag and whatever remains in it onto her shoulder and flings the entire thing at Gourdy. Its mouth doesn’t look wide enough to take in the entire bag, but it does – the bag is there and then gone with a wet sucking sound in the time it takes Apollo to blink. He suddenly wonders if when Klavier complains about Vongole eating everything he has, he means everything, takeout containers and all.

“That’s, um…” Ema taps a finger against her chin. “That’s something. Kind of impressive. Kind of horrible!”

“And scientifically fascinating?” Kay prompts.

“Absolutely!”

“That’s all we’ve got,” Larry says to the beast, showing it his empty hands, like he’s sending off a dog that has gotten its share of treats but continues begging. “Good talk as always, Gourdy. See ya next year.”

Gourdy tilts its head, seeming to carefully survey Larry. It trots forward and for a horrible moment Apollo thinks someone is going to be eaten but Gourdy bumps its square fishy head into Larry’s face and makes an arc back into the water. Its tail is the same as its mane, stringy green and brown weeds with sand and grit tangled up in them. The water around it barely ripples as it enters, doesn’t splash when the creature goes from being half-visible to gone, and the wake moving away from them is weaker than the one that arrived. The arc of its hoofprints left in the snowy sand are backwards, like it left the water where it really just entered.

“Very slimy,” Larry says, wiping his face with his jacket sleeve. “Sticky, slimy, would not headbutt again.”

“But you’re friends now!” Trucy says. “Officially!”

“You never knew what its skin was like before?” Ema asks. She has her phone out again for notes. Kay peers over her shoulder. “Or beyond what you could see that yeah it’s probably fishy. How long have you been doing this again?”

“It’s… Shit.” Phoenix shakes his head, laughing again. “Ten years, now.”

“Plenty of time to have observed and thought about some of the questions on my list.” Ema lowers her phone and stares at Phoenix. “I have questions.”

“My answer is gonna be ‘I don’t know’ to most, but go for it,” Phoenix says.

“There’s gotta be somewhere open for breakfast, right?” Larry says. “Right? Who’s up for that?”

“Eldoon’s!” Trucy says brightly.

“Oh no, no no.” Larry holds up his hands and takes a step back from her. “Eldoon’s for breakfast reminds me of being broke as hell and I’m not about that.”

“That mean you’re paying wherever we go?” Phoenix asks dryly. “Since I got the hot dogs and you’re worth your weight in faery gold now.”

Apollo looks at Ema. Ema glances out of the corner of her eyes first at Larry, then Apollo, then Kay. Kay looks back and forth between Phoenix and Larry.

“Metaphorical gold,” Larry says, jabbing a finger at Phoenix. “You can not phrase it like that, so they” – he points a thumb toward Ema and Kay – “can not be terrified.”

“I’m super down for breakfast, if nobody else is gonna say anything,” Kay chirps.

“You not gonna eat garbage for once?” Trucy asks. She says it with a grin so big that Apollo would find it impossible to take offense if she directed those words or similar at him.

“Hey!” Kay protests. “It’s cheap! It’s cost-efficient!”

“Like you have to worry about that,” Ema says, elbowing her. “Like hell won’t be frozen before Mr Edgeworth lets anyone threaten your salary.” Kay elbows her back, apparently harder, because she staggers. “Anyway,” she adds, looking more at Larry and Phoenix again, “Interrogating you both over breakfast sounds great.”

“Do you ever worry that bringing more and more people in on these secrets makes them untenable?” Apollo asks Trucy. It’s probably a better question for Phoenix, but Ema has already begun the process of cornering him. “Just – showing off magic to us all?”

Trucy shrugs. “Maybe?” she offers. She hooks one arm through Apollo’s elbow and the other through Kay’s. “You and Ema already know so much other stuff.” For a moment her eyes are sad, downcast, and then she turns a sharp look on Kay. “You, though—”

“Guilty of whatever you say,” she laughs.

Trucy shrugs again, jostling Apollo’s shoulder too. “But also we’re like family, and family should get to know some of the weird fun secrets that we have.”

Again Apollo wonders at her definition of fun. But family. Or like family. Like-family is nice to have.

Phoenix, over Ema’s head, raises an eyebrow at her. “Hey Truce,” he says. “Does that mean you’re gonna run off and tell Edgeworth without warning me?”

“I might,” Kay says, snickering and nudging Trucy, who bumps Apollo with the force of it.

Phoenix snorts. “Yeah,” he says. “I know you would, but I’m not sure he’d believe you.”

#fic: the seelie of kurain #roddy fanfics

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yesthatssadirichardslove · 1 year

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