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thisizaraisu · 3 years

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Fall 2020 Superlatives

I definitely turned this season into a massive undertaking. After graduating college, I found a lot of free time on my hands, and in a season with 38 brand-new shows there were a good number of them that appealed to me. I started with 18 series on my docket and only ended up watching 11 of them the whole way through. Still, I ended up with plenty of options for this season’s Superlatives, so enjoy my terrible opinions as I hand out these awards.

Best OP

Most of the shows this season had OPs that were at least passable, but there were only a small handful that I felt were remarkable in any sense. In terms of visuals and tone-setting I think I Believe What You Said from Higurashi NEW is phenomenal, but there’s one thing that’s really holding it back and that’s the facial animations because they are REALLY bad. Literature from Majo no Tabitabi is also great from a visual standpoint but the song isn’t quite as breathtaking as the landscapes. There is ONE OP this season, however, that hit all the right notes... no pun intended.

Winner: “Dying Wish” - Moriarty the Patriot

Dying Wish immediately establishes Moriarty the Patriot as something special. It’s gritty and sinister, and the visuals reflect this tone perfectly. The ominous London backdrop complimented by the intense chorus and strings sent chills down my spine the first time I saw it. There’s knife fights, gun fights, Moriarty jumps off Big Ben and points a gun at his own head, it’s a great 90 second sequence that manages to be more tense than Higurashi NEW’s OP in part because of how grounded it is. This is one of those OPs that I just love everything about, and I had a strong feeling this would be my pick for Fall 2020′s best OP right after my first viewing.

Honorable Mentions: -”I Believe What You Said” - Higurashi NEW -”Higher’s High” - Warlords of Sigrdrifa -”Literature” - Majo no Tabitabi -”Needleknot” - Ikebukuro West Gate Park -”Kaikai Kitan” - Jujutsu Kaisen

Best ED

Winner: “Lost in Paradise” - Jujutsu Kaisen

Yeah I’m not even gonna bother with any build-up here. I mean, what else could it possibly be? Lost in Paradise is one of the greatest visual and auditory treats that I’ve ever seen not just in an anime, but in any form of media, and I can easily call it my favorite anime song of all time. Its visual style is just as fun as the song itself, it’s jazzy and upbeat and hits you with that perfect feeling of whiplash immediately after a tense conclusion to most episodes, setting things up perfectly for Juju Stroll. It’s just a perfect sequence in every sense of the word.

Honorable Mentions: -”Sayonara Namida” - Warlords of Sigrdrifa (Seriously in any other season this would have been an easy winner) -”Etoile” - Noblesse

Worst OP

This is an award that I probably won’t be handing out too often. Even the shows that I found more mediocre this season like Ikebukuro West Gate Park or Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear have really good OPs. That said, if you’ve been following the blog you know there’s one OP from this season that I absolutely detest.

Winner: “STEAL!!” - Akudama Drive

I love Akudama Drive, I think it’s a stylistically brilliant show with great fights and characters, as well as one of the most satisfying conclusions a single-season anime original could possibly offer. That being said, HOLY FUCK is this song terrible. Seriously, you have to actively TRY to make a song this bad. It’s essentially just the words “KISS ME” looped over and over, with constantly varying tempos and no effort to hit the right notes. It’s a shame too because like the rest of the show, the visuals are really cool, but it’s held back so much by just how god-awful the vocals are. My least favorite moment in the entire show is the bit towards the end of the finale where they play the OP in the background during the chase scene because I had to mute a goddamn chase scene. There aren’t many shows where I’ll always skip the OP no matter what mood I’m in, but Akudama Drive is definitely one of them. STEAL!! is ear-bleeding garbage and the one positive about Akudama Drive coming to a close is that I’ll never have to subject my ears to the screeching of KISS ME KISS ME KISS ME ever again.

Most Pleasant Surprise

I was going to make this a tie between two series originally, but as it turns out, they have a very common trait between them. What do I mean, you may ask?

Winner: A-1 Pictures

A-1 Pictures hit me with two shows this season that I absolutely love: Hypnosis Mic and Warlords of Sigrdrifa. Going into Fall 2020 and poring through every synopsis to see what shows would interest me, both of these were the two shows that really had me going back and forth, internally debating whether or not I should watch them. In the end, I decided to take a chance on them, thinking that if I didn’t enjoy them all that much I could say I tried and move on. What I ended up with were two of my top 5 shows this season, and shows that I would unironically give an 8/10 to. Hypnosis Mic was just a TON of fun to watch every week with stunningly well-implemented CG animation, diverse characters, great music and a lot of personality. Sigrdrifa is a much more serious, emotionally-charged series that baits you in with promises of cute anime girls only to expertly deliver themes of coping with failure and discovering who your true family is. A-1 Pictures absolutely KILLED it for me this season, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on their works for Winter 2021 in the hopes of finding another set of hidden gems.

Also the Sigrdrifa dub is pretty damn good too.

Biggest Disappointment

There were two strong contenders for this award, so I really had to sit and ask myself: which one gave me less to enjoy than the other? In the end the conclusion I reached was about what I expected.

Winner: Burn the Witch

I’ve already talked at-length about why I absolutely hate Burn the Witch. It’s a terrible excuse for a movie that’s completely dedicated to the idea of doing nothing with its characters (except Balgo who is the worst character I’ve seen in an anime), with an insultingly bad conclusion and the animation being the only PASSABLE aspect of it all. Even after dropping 7 shows this season, the only competition Burn the Witch really had was Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, but at the end of the day my disappointment with that show was based on my personal expectations (and love of BOFURI) vs reality. Burn the Witch is terrible on its own, and is completely deserving of this distinction.

Best Character

Winner: Satoru Gojo - Jujutsu Kaisen

I’ll be blunt, I don’t watch many shonen anime, so for me to really get into a shonen series, it needs a strong selling point. Obviously the shonen I have the most experience with is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and the selling point for that series was honestly the memes. Jujutsu Kaisen, on the other hand, had me sold on the strength of its characters. Itadori is a great lead, but Gojo stands tall above the rest. Jujutsu Kaisen perfectly balances his overpowered nature with his fantastic comedic relief potential, and I love every scene he’s in whether it’s a fight or a joke. I’m definitely excited to see what Gojo has to offer in Jujutsu Kaisen’s 11 remaining episodes.

Honorable mentions: -Syalis - Maoujou de Oyasumi -Swindler - Akudama Drive -Sonoka - Warlords of Sigrdrifa -Ramuda - Hypnosis Mic

Worst Character

Winner: Balgo - Burn the Witch

I HATE YOU. Not even gonna waste any more time on this one.

Honorable mentions: -Shimamura - Adachi and Shimamura

Best Scene

Winner: Brawler vs Executioner (Akudama Drive, episode 6)

HOW DO YOU CHOREOGRAPH A FIGHT THIS PERFECT? IN AN ANIME-ORIGINAL SERIES, NO LESS???

Everything about this fight is objectively perfect. The innovative uses of the setting, the incredible rain effects, the weight behind every punch, the emotional climax, every second, every blow, is just jaw-dropping perfection. The fact that there was no source material behind this scene to make it such a perfect sequence is baffling to me, and it was the scene that cemented Akudama Drive as something truly special to me.

Best Episode

Winner: A Deep Sorrow from the Past (Majo no Tabitabi)

Majo no Tabitabi has three episodes alone that were in contention for this award, but in the end, A Deep Sorrow from the Past hits harder than any other episode this season (figuratively not literally, read the paragraph above for the episode that literally hits hardest). For an episodic and often comedic show like Majo no Tabitabi to so perfectly present an emotional, legitimately horrifying story of betrayal, I was totally blindsided. There were many good episodes this season and I’m definitely gonna have a few honorable mentions here, but this still feels like an obvious award to give.

Honorable mentions: -”The Princess Without Subjects” - Majo no Tabitabi -”The Two Apprentices” - Majo no Tabitabi -”Tateyama Castle Swimsuit Skirmish!” - Warlords of Sigrdrifa -”BROTHER” - Akudama Drive -”Marriage” - Tonikaku Kawaii

Worst Episode

This award would be too easy to give to a show that I’ve dropped, so I’m going to set a rule right here and now, I can only give this award to a show I’ve watched all the way through.

Winner: The Day of Battling Tiles (The Day I Became a God)

Say what you will about The Day I Became a God, I definitely found it enjoyable for the most part and even found the ending to be rather satisfying. Episode 4, however, was definitely the biggest roadblock. Like most Jun Maeda shows, the comedy in the show’s opening half was rather stellar, but The Day of Battling Tiles didn’t make me laugh so much as scratch my head and wonder “What the hell were they thinking?” Like I don’t even hate Tengan but I just didn’t find the idea of a newswoman getting turned on by a minor because he made up some shit about mahjong that funny, and it isn’t even the moral aspect that bothers me so much as just how uncomfortable the whole thing feels as it drags on. Also I can’t decide if I’d like or dislike this episode more if I actually knew anything about Mahjong.

Anime of the Season

There were some phenomenal shows this season. Jujutsu Kaisen, Sigrdrifa, Hypnosis Mic, Moriarty and Tonikawa are all shows that are going to hold a place in my heart going forward, but you know damn well that there’s one that stands above the rest.

Winner: Akudama Drive

Akudama Drive is the best anime that I’ve actually watched on a weekly basis. I know I just talked shit about the OP but it’s literally the only thing I dislike about this show. Akudama Drive is the Suicide Squad premise done as right as possible, the cyberpunk aesthetic is incredible, the action is expertly choreographed with Brawler vs Executioner being the greatest fight I’ve seen in anime, the story is full of wild dystopian twists and turns while still making some sense in context, the characters are irredeemable as they should be, and the conclusion is satisfying to a degree that I did not anticipate. There’s seriously almost nothing to dislike here, and honestly I was ready to hand this award out by the end of episode 6. Thank you Studio Pierrot for this absolute gem of a show.

#anime #anime review #awards #fall 2020 #Seasonal anime

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mattbrothersscriptwriter · 4 years

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My Top 20 Films of 2019 - Part Two

I don’t think I’ve had a year where my top ten jostled and shifted as much as this one did - these really are the best of the best and my personal favourites of 2019.

10. Toy Story 4

I think we can all agree that Toy Story 3 was a pretty much perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy right? About as close as is likely to get, I’m sure. I shared the same trepidation when part four was announced, especially after some underwhelming sequels like Finding Dory and Cars 3 (though I do have a lot of time for Monsters University and Incredibles 2). So maybe it’s because the odds were so stacked against this being good but I thought it was wonderful. A truly existential nightmare of an epilogue that does away with Andy (and mostly kids altogether) to focus on the dreams and desires of the toys themselves - separate from their ‘duties’ as playthings to biological Gods. What is their purpose in life without an owner? Can they be their own person and carve their own path? In the case of breakout new character Forky (Tony Hale), what IS life? Big big questions for a cash grab kids films huh?

The animation is somehow yet another huge leap forward (that opening rainstorm!), Bo Peep’s return is excellently pitched and the series tradition of being unnervingly horrifying is back as well thanks to those creepy ventriloquist dolls! Keanu Reeves continues his ‘Keanuassaince‘ as the hilarious Duke Caboom and this time, hopefully, the ending at least feels finite. This series means so much to me: I think the first movie is possibly the tightest, most perfect script ever written, the third is one of my favourites of the decade and growing up with the franchise (I was 9 when the first came out, 13 for part two, 24 for part three and now 32 for this one), these characters are like old friends so of course it was great to see them again. All this film had to do was be good enough to justify its existence and while there are certainly those out there that don’t believe this one managed it, I think the fact that it went as far as it did showed that Pixar are still capable of pushing boundaries and exploring infinity and beyond when they really put their minds to it.

9. The Nightingale

Hoo boy. Already controversial with talk of mass walkouts (I witnessed a few when this screened at Sundance London), it’s not hard to see why but easy to understand. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is a truly fearless filmmaker following up her acclaimed suburban horror movie come grief allegory with a period revenge tale set in the Tasmanian wilderness during British colonial rule in the early 1800s. It’s rare to see the British depicted with the monstrous brutality for which they were known in the distant colonies and this unflinching drama sorely needed an Australian voice behind the camera to do it justice.

The film is front loaded with some genuinely upsetting, nasty scenes of cruel violence but its uncensored brutality and the almost casual nature of its depiction is entirely the point - this was normalised behaviour over there and by treating it so matter of factly, it doesn’t slip into gratuitous ‘movie violence’. It is what it is. And what it is is hard to watch. If anything, as Kent has often stated, it’s still toned down from the actual atrocities that occurred so it’s a delicate balance that I think Kent more than understands. Quoting from an excellent Vanity Fair interview she did about how she directs, Kent said “I think audiences have become very anaesthetised to violence on screen and it’s something I find disturbing... People say ‘these scenes are so shocking and disturbing’. Of course they are. We need to feel that. When we become so removed from violence on screen, this is a very irresponsible thing. So I wanted to put us right within the frame with that person experiencing the loss of everything they hold dear”.

Aisling Franciosi is next level here as a woman who has her whole life torn from her, leaving her as nothing but a raging husk out for vengeance. It would be so easy to fall into odd couple tropes once she teams up with reluctant native tracker Billy (an equally impressive newcomer, Baykali Ganambarr) but the film continues to stay true to the harsh racism of the era, unafraid to depict our heroine - our point of sympathy - as horrendously racist towards her own ally. Their partnership is not easily solidified but that makes it all the stronger when they star to trust each other. Sam Claflin is also career best here, weaponizing his usual charm into dangerous menace and even after cementing himself as the year’s most evil villain, he can still draw out the humanity in such a broken and corrupt man.

Gorgeously shot in the Academy ratio, the forest landscape here is oppressive and claustrophobic. Kent also steps back into her horror roots with some mesmerising, skin crawling dream scenes that amplify the woozy nightmarish tone and overbearing sense of dread. Once seen, never forgotten, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s fine) but when cinema can affect you on such a visceral level and be this powerful, reflective and honest about our own past, it’s hard to ignore. Stunning.

8. The Irishman

Aka Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus, I did manage to see this one in a cinema before the Netflix drop and absolutely loved it. I’ve watched 85 minute long movies that felt longer than this - Marty’s mastery of pace, energy and knowing when to let things play out in agonising detail is second to none. This epic tale of the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) really is the cinematic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too, allowing Scorsese to run through a greatest hits victory lap of mobster set pieces, alpha male arguments, a decades spanning life story and one (last?) truly great Joe Pesci performance before simply letting the story... continue... to a natural, depressing and tragic ending, reflecting the emptiness of a life built on violence and crime.

For a film this long, it’s impressive how much the smallest details make the biggest impacts. A stammering phone call from a man emotionally incapable of offering any sort of condolence. The cold refusal of forgiveness from a once loving daughter. A simple mirroring of a bowl of cereal or a door left slightly ajar. These are the parts of life that haunt us all and it’s what we notice the most in a deliberately lengthy biopic that shows how much these things matter when everything else is said and done. The violence explodes in sudden, sharp bursts, often capping off unbearably tense sequences filled with the everyday (a car ride, a conversation about fish, ice cream...) and this contrast between the whizz bang of classic Scorsese and the contemplative nature of Silence era Scorsese is what makes this film feel like such an accomplishment. De Niro is FINALLY back but it’s the memorably against type role for Pesci and an invigorated Al Pacino who steals this one, along with a roll call of fantastic cameos, with perhaps the most screentime given to the wonderfully petty Stephen Graham as Tony Pro, not to mention Anna Paquin’s near silent performance which says more than possibly anyone else.

Yes, the CG de-aging is misguided at best, distracting at worst (I never really knew how old anyone was meant to be at any given time... which is kinda a problem) but like how you get used to it really quickly when it’s used well, here I kinda got past it being bad in an equally fast amount of time and just went with it. Would it have been a different beast had they cast younger actors to play them in the past? Undoubtedly. But if this gives us over three hours of Hollywood’s finest giving it their all for the last real time together, then that’s a compromise I can live with.

7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Wow. I was in love with this film from the moving first trailer but then the film itself surpassed all expectations. This is a true indie film success story, with lead actor Jimmie Fails developing the idea with director Joe Talbot for years before Kickstarting a proof of concept and eventually getting into Sundance with short film American Paradise, which led to the backing of this debut feature through Plan B and A24. The deeply personal and poetic drama follows a fictionalised version of Jimmie, trying to buy back an old Victorian town house he claims was built by his grandfather, in an act of rebellion against the increasingly gentrified San Francisco that both he and director Talbot call home.

The film is many things - a story of male friendship, of solidarity within our community, of how our cities can change right from underneath us - it moves to the beat of it’s own drum, with painterly cinematography full of gorgeous autumnal colours and my favourite score of the year from Emile Mosseri. The performances, mostly by newcomers or locals outside of brilliant turns from Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover and Thora Birch, are wonderful and the whole thing is such a beautiful love letter to the city that it makes you ache for a strong sense of place in your own home, even if your relationship with it is fractured or strained. As Jimmie says, “you’re not allowed to hate it unless you love it”.

For me, last year’s Blindspotting (my favourite film of the year) tackled gentrification within California more succinctly but this much more lyrical piece of work ebbs and flows through a number of themes like identity, family, memory and time. It’s a big film living inside a small, personal one and it is not to be overlooked.

6. Little Women

I had neither read the book nor seen any prior adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel so to me, this is by default the definitive telling of this story. If from what I hear, the non linear structure is Greta Gerwig’s addition, then it’s a total slam dunk. It works so well in breaking up the narrative and by jumping from past to present, her screenplay highlights certain moments and decisions with a palpable sense of irony, emotional weight or knowing wink. Getting to see a statement made with sincere conviction and then paid off within seconds, can be both a joy and a surefire recipe for tears. Whether it’s the devastating contrast between scenes centred around Beth’s illness or the juxtaposition of character’s attitudes to one another, it’s a massive triumph. Watching Amy angrily tell Laurie how she’s been in love with him all her life and then cutting back to her childishly making a plaster cast of her foot for him (’to remind him how small her feet are’) is so funny.

Gerwig and her impeccable cast bring an electric energy to the period setting, capturing the big, messy realities of family life with a mix of overwhelming cross-chatter and the smallest of intimate gestures. It’s a testament to the film that every sister feels fully serviced and represented, from Beth’s quiet strength to Amy’s unforgivable sibling rivalry. Chris Cooper’s turn as a stoic man suffering almost imperceptible grief is a personal heartbreaking favourite.

The book’s (I’m assuming) most sweeping romantic statements are wonderfully delivered, full of urgent passion and relatable heartache, from Marmie’s (Laura Dern) “I’m angry nearly every day of my life” moment to Jo’s (Saoirse Ronan) painful defiance of feminine attributes not being enough to cure her loneliness. The sheer amount of heart and warmth in this is just remarkable and I can easily see it being a film I return to again and again.

5. Booksmart

2019 has been a banner year for female directors, making their exclusion from some of the early awards conversations all the more damning. From this list alone, we have Lulu Wang, Jennifer Kent and Greta Gerwig. Not to mention Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (Greener Grass), Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud - watch out for THIS one in 2020, it’s brilliant). Perhaps the most natural transition from in front of to behind the camera has been made by Olivia Wilde, who has created a borderline perfect teen comedy that can make you laugh till you cry, cry till you laugh and everything in-between.

Subverting the (usually male focused) ‘one last party before college’ tropes that fuel the likes of Superbad and it’s many inferior imitators, Booksmart follows two overachievers who, rather than go on a coming of age journey to get some booze or get laid, simply want to indulge in an insane night of teenage freedom after realising that all of the ‘cool kids’ who they assumed were dropouts, also managed to get a place in all of the big universities. It’s a subtly clever remix of an old favourite from the get go but the committed performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein put you firmly in their shoes for the whole ride.

It’s a genuine blast, with big laughs and a bigger heart, portraying a supportive female friendship that doesn’t rely on hokey contrivances to tear them apart, meaning that when certain repressed feelings do come to the surface, the fallout is heartbreaking. As I stated in a twitter rave after first seeing it back in May, every single character, no matter how much they might appear to be simply representing a stock role or genre trope, gets their moment to be humanised. This is an impeccably cast ensemble of young unknowns who constantly surprise and the script is a marvel - a watertight structure without a beat out of place, callbacks and payoffs to throwaway gags circle back to be hugely important and most of all, the approach taken to sexuality and representation feels so natural. I really think it is destined to be looked back on and represent 2019 the way Heathers does ‘88, Clueless ‘95 or Easy A 2010. A new high benchmark for crowd pleasing, indie comedy - teen or otherwise.

4. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors and one who, despite still being a huge A-lister even after 30 years in the game, never seems to get enough credit for the choices he makes, the movies he stars in and also the range of stories he helps produce through his company, Plan B. 2019 was something of a comeback year for Pitt as an actor with the insanely measured and controlled lead performance seen here in Ad Astra and the more charismatic and chaotic supporting role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

I love space movies, especially those that are more about broken people blasting themselves into the unknown to search for answers within themselves... which manages to sum up a lot of recent output in this weirdly specific sub-genre. First Man was a devastating look at grief characterised by a man who would rather go to a desolate rock than have to confront what he lost, all while being packaged as a heroic biopic with a stunning score. Gravity and The Martian both find their protagonists forced to rely on their own cunning and ingenuity to survive and Interstellar looked at the lengths we go to for those we love left behind. Smaller, arty character studies like High Life or Moon are also astounding. All of this is to say that Ad Astra takes these concepts and runs with them, challenging Pitt to cross the solar system to talk some sense into his long thought dead father (Tommy Lee Jones). But within all the ‘sad dad’ stuff, there’s another film in here just daring you to try and second guess it - one that kicks things off with a terrifying free fall from space, gives us a Mad Max style buggy chase on the moon and sidesteps into horror for one particular set-piece involving a rabid baboon in zero G! It manages to feel so completely nuts, so episodic in structure, that I understand why a lot of people were turned off - feeling that the overall film was too scattershot to land the drama or too pondering to have any fun with. I get the criticisms but for me, both elements worked in tandem, propelling Pitt on this (assumed) one way journey at a crazy pace whilst sitting back and languishing in the ‘bigger themes’ more associated with a Malik or Kubrick film. Something that Pitt can sell me on in his sleep by this point.

I loved the visuals from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar), loved the imagination and flair of the script from director James Gray and Ethan Gross and loved the score by Max Richter (with Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm) but most of all, loved Pitt, proving that sometimes a lot less, is a lot more. The sting of hearing the one thing he surely knew (but hoped he wouldn’t) be destined to hear from his absent father, acted almost entirely in his eyes during a third act confrontation, summed up the movie’s brilliance for me - so much so that I can forgive some of the more outlandish ‘Mr Hyde’ moments of this thing’s alter ego... like, say, riding a piece of damaged hull like a surfboard through a meteor debris field!

3. Avengers: Endgame

It’s no secret that I think Marvel, the MCU in particular, have been going from strength to strength in recent years, slowly but surely taking bigger risks with filmmakers (the bonkers Taika Waititi, the indie darlings of Ryan Coogler, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao) whilst also carefully crafting an entertaining, interconnected universe of characters and stories. But what is the point of building up any movie ‘universe’ if you’re not going to pay it off and Endgame is perhaps the strongest conclusion to eleven years of movie sequels that fans could have possibly hoped for.

Going into this thing, the hype was off the charts (and for good reason, with it now being the highest grossing film of all time) but I remember souring on the first entry of this two-parter, Infinity War, during the time between initial release and Endgame’s premiere. That film had a game-changing climax, killing off half the heroes (and indeed the universe’s population) and letting the credits role on the villain having achieved his ultimate goal. It was daring, especially for a mammoth summer blockbuster but obviously, we all knew the deaths would never be permanent, especially with so many already-announced sequels for now ‘dusted’ characters. However, it wasn’t just the feeling that everything would inevitably be alright in the end. For me, the characters themselves felt hugely under-serviced, with arguably the franchise’s main goody two shoes Captain America being little more than a beardy bloke who showed up to fight a little bit. Basically what I’m getting at is that I felt Endgame, perhaps emboldened by the giant runtime, managed to not only address these character slights but ALSO managed to deliver the most action packed, comic booky, ‘bashing your toys together’ final fight as well.

It’s a film of three parts, each pretty much broken up into one hour sections. There’s the genuinely new and interesting initial section following our heroes dealing with the fact that they lost... and it stuck. Thor angrily kills Thanos within the first fifteen minutes but it’s a meaningless action by this point - empty revenge. Cutting to five years later, we get to see how defeat has affected them, for better or worse, trying to come to terms with grief and acceptance. Cap tries to help the everyman, Black Widow is out leading an intergalactic mop up squad and Thor is wallowing in a depressive black hole. It’s a shocking and vibrantly compelling deconstruction of the whole superhero thing and it gives the actors some real meat to chew on, especially Robert Downy Jr here who goes from being utterly broken to fighting within himself to do the right thing despite now having a daughter he doesn’t want to lose too. Part two is the trip down memory lane, fan service-y time heist which is possibly the most fun section of any of these movies, paying tribute to the franchise’s past whilst teetering on a knife’s edge trying to pull off a genuine ‘mission impossible’. And then it explodes into the extended finale which pays everyone off, demonstrates some brilliantly imaginative action and sticks the landing better than it had any right to. In a year which saw the ending of a handful of massive geek properties, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars, it’s a miracle even one of them got it right at all. That Endgame managed to get it SO right is an extraordinary accomplishment and if anything, I think Marvel may have shot themselves in the foot as it’s hard to imagine anything they can give us in the future having the intense emotional weight and momentum of this huge finale.

2. Knives Out

Rian Johnson has been having a ball leaping into genre sandpits and stirring shit up, from his teen spin on noir in Brick to his quirky con man caper with The Brothers Bloom, his time travel thriller Looper and even his approach to the Star Wars mythos in The Last Jedi. Turning his attention to the relatively dead ‘whodunnit’ genre, Knives Out is a perfect example of how to celebrate everything that excites you about a genre whilst weaponizing it’s tropes against your audience’s baggage and preconceptions.

An impeccable cast have the time of their lives here, revelling in playing self obsessed narcissists who scramble to punt the blame around when the family’s patriarch, a successful crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), winds up dead. Of course there’s something fishy going on so Daniel Craig’s brilliantly dry southern detective Benoit Blanc is called in to investigate.There are plenty of standouts here, from Don Johnson’s ignorant alpha wannabe Richard to Michael Shannon’s ferocious eldest son Walt to Chris Evan’s sweater wearing jock Ransom, full of unchecked, white privilege swagger. But the surprise was the wholly sympathetic, meek, vomit prone Marta, played brilliantly by Ana de Armas, cast against her usual type of sultry bombshell (Knock Knock, Blade Runner 2049), to spearhead the biggest shake up of the genre conventions. To go into more detail would begin to tread into spoiler territory but by flipping the audience’s engagement with the detective, we’re suddenly on the receiving end of the scrutiny and the tension derived from this switcheroo is genius and opens up the second act of the story immensely.

The whole thing is so lovingly crafted and the script is one of the tightest I’ve seen in years. The amount of setup and payoff here is staggering and never not hugely satisfying, especially as it heads into it’s final stretch. It really gives you some hope that you could have such a dense, plotty, character driven idea for a story and that it could survive the transition from page to screen intact and for the finished product to work as well as it does. I really hope Johnson returns to tell another Benoit Blanc mystery and judging by the roaring box office success (currently over $200 million worldwide for a non IP original), I certainly believe he will.

1. Eighth Grade

My film of the year is another example of the power of cinema to put us in other people’s shoes and to discover the traits, fears, joys and insecurities that we all share irregardless. It may shock you to learn this but I have never been a 13 year old teenage girl trying to get by in the modern world of social media peer pressure and ‘influencer’ culture whilst crippled with personal anxiety. My school days almost literally could not have looked more different than this (less Instagram, more POGs) and yet, this is a film about struggling with oneself, with loneliness, with wanting more but not knowing how to get it without changing yourself and the careless way we treat those with our best interests at heart in our selfish attempt to impress peers and fit in. That is understandable. That is universal. And as I’m sure I’ve said a bunch of times in this list, movies that present the most specific worldview whilst tapping into universal themes are the ones that inevitably resonate the most.

Youtuber and comedian Bo Burnham has crafted an impeccable debut feature, somehow portraying a generation of teens at least a couple of generations below his own, with such laser focused insight and intimate detail. It’s no accident that this film has often been called a sort of social-horror, with cringe levels off the charts and recognisable trappings of anxiety and depression in every frame. The film’s style services this feeling at every turn, from it’s long takes and nauseous handheld camerawork to the sensory overload in it’s score (take a bow Anna Meredith) and the naturalistic performances from all involved. Burnham struck gold when he found Elsie Fisher, delivering the most painful and effortlessly real portrayal of a tweenager in crisis as Kayla. The way she glances around skittishly, the way she is completely lost in her phone, the way she talks, even the way she breathes all feeds into the illusion - the film is oftentimes less a studio style teen comedy and more a fly on the wall documentary.

This is a film that could have coasted on being a distant, social media based cousin to more standard fare like Sex Drive or Superbad or even Easy A but it goes much deeper, unafraid to let you lower your guard and suddenly hit you with the most terrifying scene of casually attempted sexual aggression or let you watch this pure, kindhearted girl falter and question herself in ways she shouldn’t even have to worry about. And at it’s core, there is another beautiful father/daughter relationship, with Josh Hamilton stuck on the outside looking in, desperate to help Kayla with every fibre of his being but knowing there are certain things she has to figure out for herself. It absolutely had me and their scene around a backyard campfire is one of the year’s most touching.

This is a truly remarkable film that I think everyone should seek out but I’m especially excited for all the actual teenage girls who will get to watch this and feel seen. This isn’t about the popular kid, it isn’t about the dork who hangs out with his or her own band of misfits. This is about the true loner, that person trying everything to get noticed and still ending up invisible, that person trying to connect through the most disconnected means there is - the internet - and everything that comes with it. Learning that the version of yourself you ‘portray’ on a Youtube channel may act like they have all the answers but if you’re kidding yourself then how do you grow?

When I saw this in the cinema, I watched a mother take her seat with her two daughters, aged probably at around nine and twelve. Possibly a touch young for this, I thought, and I admit I cringed a bit on their behalf during some very adult trailers but in the end, I’m glad their mum decided they were mature enough to see this because a) they had a total blast and b) life simply IS R rated for the most part, especially during our school years, and those girls being able to see someone like Kayla have her story told on the big screen felt like a huge win. I honestly can’t wait to see what Burnham or Fisher decide to do next. 2019 has absolutely been their year... and it’s been a hell of a year.

#top 20 #films of the year #films of 2019 #10-1 #toy story 4 #the nightingale #the irishman #the last black man in san francisco #little women #booksmart #ad astra #avengers endgame #knives out #eighth grade

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greenninjagal-blog · 5 years

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Waterspout

(whoops a spiderverse au)

Summary: Virgil finds himself stuck on the side of a building with an impending storm overhead and he’s helped by an annoying--admittedly attractive--guy.

Totally inspired by @sugarglider9603 ‘s Spiderverse Universe though I took a different spin with it.

Ship: Prinxiety

Warnings: mild language because Virgil.

Words: 4075

Virgil doesn’t even notice the breeze had picked up until he’s suddenly yanked in the wrong direction as useless as a puppet on a string. He has a total of one second to think the usual “Oh shi--” before his body slams into the sleek surface of an office building some twenty-thirty-forty stories into the air. The air in his chest splutters out, and his shoulder does this weird pop-pop thing that he’s sure its not supposed to do. His hands open on reflex and his web escapes his fingers in his panic-- a panic that nearly swallows him whole because he knew how high he was, and it had taken weeks to get the dropping of his stomach every time he left the solid ground. He scratches at the glass of the window before he manages to get his fingers to stick and stay stuck along with his left knee and his right foot.

Then when he can, he worries about inhaling. Then he worries about everything else.

Like the fact that he was a dizzying height in the air, which by the way, was tormented by a series of unexpected cold fronts. He doesn’t remember the forecast saying anything about rain, but the clouds are gathering and the thunder isn’t that much farther behind. The chill of the atmosphere crawls into Virgil’s suit, along with the flecks of teeny tiny suggestions of rain.

He lets out a curse (on the wind, on the height, on himself).

Okay, let’s start from the beginning: Virgil was an artistic introverted emo. A year ago he was bitten by a radioactive spider-- because honestly that’s just his luck-- and received epic superpowers that he really, really didn’t ask for. Since then, he’s been the one and only Recluse: a spider themed superhero/vigilante who does his best to save the normal people from the baddier people.

The rain starts several seconds later because the universe also hates him. The rain starts, and Virgil guesses he has about five minutes before the window he’s clinging to-- his only available perch-- becomes a slip-n-slide to his death.

For someone who has a spider sense that tells him when giant rocks, knives, or bullets are coming for him, Virgil feels like he was truly blindsided. By something as finicky as the freaking weather.

He hisses in pain as he tries to move his arm, the arm that had caught his entire body when he splattered on the window like some cartoon. Oh yeah, it hurt a lot, enough that his entire breath has to hiss out between his teeth and his bottom lip, and he’s pretty sure it shouldn’t be making that Pop-pop-popping sound when he tries to roll it. Spikes of pain shoot straight from his limb to the back of his eyes.

The rain picks up slowly: fatter, heavier drops, colder chills, sharper winds that slice around his body trying its best to unstick him from his purchase.

The truth of the situation hits him seconds later: there’s exactly no way he’s going to be able to swing out of here, not with his shoulder crying uncle at the thought of moving and the wind cutting the air in odd unpredictable sections. He’d have better luck trying to plaster his entire body against this window or another of the others and hope the water doesn’t wash him away.

(because until the popular nursery rhyme, Virgil was pretty sure if he got washed away Officer Dee would be finding his broken body on the roof of some poor saps car. There would be no sitting up from that, much less climbing back up here.)

Suddenly Virgil’s mask feels too tight, his limbs not strong enough, and his heart is beating far too fast. He knew becoming a superhero was a bad idea. Why did he do this? Dee had spent so long telling him all about how Recluse was “just a kid” who was “going to get himself killed one day”. It figured that he would be right about that--this. Virgil is going to get himself killed and he can’t even remember the last thing he said to Dee (though it was probably something along the lines of “I promise I’m not going to go graffiti the old subway station alleys again.”).

He’s so caught up in what he might have, or might not have said, and what his last words were going to be it takes him a moment to realize there’s another noise striking his senses. Really was this spidersense useful for anything--

The window next to him suddenly flicks open, despite the rain that was definitely pouring in. Virgil isn’t sure what to do when a head bravely sticks out into the open air.

“Hail!” The boy says all smug smiles that Virgil immediately loves hates. “You’re Recluse aren’t you?”

As if there was some other spider themed weirdo who clung to buildings in their free time.

“No,” Virgil says, because he can. What, the citizens of this town have had a year to know him, and they all knew his dislike of social interaction. (They did not know it was because his anxiety flared up, reminding him of how obvious it was that Virgil was Recluse already.)

The boy laughed. He folded his arms on the window sill, completely oblivious to the pouring rain that was matting his brown hair to his face and the spouts that were sure to be getting into his office. “Alright, alright. I guess I deserved that one. Can I ask a question?”

“You just did.”

The boy’s eyes narrow, his lips pursed together in a way that’s more comical than anything else. If Virgil had to venture a guess, he’d assume that this guy is his age, which does little to explain why he’s some forty floors up on a building Virgil is pretty sure is owned by the government.

“Wow the news was right about you being a smartass.” The boy says, “I was just wondering why you wear a sweatshirt over your suit. It really can’t be practical, and it looks terrible.”

Virgil takes back anything nice he’s thought about this guy. “Excuse me?”

“What?” He responds as if he can’t believe Virgil would be annoyed at him, “You have a whole edgy look about it! A hero can’t be edgy!”

“Yes they can!”

“Name one!”

“Batman!”

“Name two!”

Virgil shakes his head, rolling his eyes though the other can’t see at all. Flicks of water splatter off him, for all the good it does. He can feel his hands starting to tire from holding him up, and the water is slipping between his foot and the glass.

“Why do you care what I wear?” He snaps, “Shouldn’t you be asking why I’m just hanging out up here?”

The boy raises his eye brows as if the idea never occurred to him. He glances back in the office and then back out, with a mischievous smile “I don’t see an issue with you out here. I mean I got a great view through the window over. Anyone ever tell you, you’ve got great calves?”

Virgil unsticks his foot to kick at him. It’s a mistake, and he knows it the second he does it (which is the only reason why this asshole doesn’t taste the rubber of Virgil’s sole). Water runs over the slick surface of the window, thunder booms, and Virgil curses as knee looses its hold and he drops--fuck--until his fingers are the only thing holding him with overextended elbows and a shoulder screaming bloody murder.

“Oh fuck--” the boy half yells, and jumps back inside. Virgil clings to the idle hope that he’s running to get help. He’s disappointed when the window where he had been dangling flicks open and its only the boy there. He reaches out and catches Virgil’s wrists tightly, cementing them. The window howls. Somewhere not too far off lightning shoots between the clouds, and the resulting thunder shakes the building.

Or maybe that’s Virgil’s body threatening to give up on him. It would be really easy just to free fall to his death at this point. Far easier than trying to fight the agony in his shoulder.

“Hey!” The boy yells, “Hey, come on! I can’t pull you up by myself!”

“Then don’t,” Virgil forces between his gritted teeth. The boy doesn’t hear, and Virgil isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing. He kicks against the window pushing the balls of his feet into the glass and scraping upwards in a pseudo bunny hop.

The boy yanks his wrists at the same time, perfectly planned and yet not at all.

Virgil juts through the window, colliding face-to- chin with the boy. His rib cage scraps the window sill, and they fall to the floor in a weighty piles of limbs and soaked clothes.

Virgil curses again, rolling off the boy, and grabbing his shoulder with a twisted expression, “shit.” Because it was definitely going to need to be looked at by a professional, and Virgil hated lying. There wasn’t a good way to explain how he fucked up his shoulder, especially when the truth would get him grounded for life (probably literally).

It takes him another moment to recognize that the boy is laughing. At him.

“What?” Virgil snaps.

“I just saved Recluse,” He says as if that was some kind of accomplishment. “That makes me a hero!”

“It really doesn’t,” he responds just to make that stupid smug smile go away. He wishes the adrenaline would fade already because he can’t think when his heart is beating this fast.

“I’m Roman,” He says offering a hand, “I figured you should know, since were fellow heroes.”

“Saving me does not make you a hero.”

“Of course it does,” Roman says disregarding his sour tone with a flick of his hand. “You save people, I saved you, therefore I saved all those people too.”

“That’s not--” Virgil sucks in a breath and counted to ten like his old guidance counselor had told him to do. He punched evil guys in the face all the time, and yet this Roman character managed to get under his skin more than anyone else. He glances around at the office they’re in-- a cubical that looked pretty standard of some pencil pusher. It reminded him of Logan’s dorm room: all neat and orderly and so, so boring.

Minus the puddle that Virgil and Roman were creating in the center of the room. The rain pattered on the windowsill soaking some wastebasket and dripping onto the floor.

“Oh shit,” Virgil said, because he really didn’t need another reason for someone to hate him.

Roman looked down and then shrugged off the water. “whoops!” He grinned, getting up and closing the window. “Good thing this isn’t my place.”

“You’re place?” Virgil repeated. Water dribbles down his mask, distorting his view of Roman for a second.

Roman waves him off, “I’m here often enough that they gave me my own cubical, you know next door.” He smirks, “Still has a great view.”

Virgil fights his blush and fails, but it’s okay because Roman can’t see him anyway. He slowly pushes himself up to his knees and then manages to get himself standing without aggravating his shoulder anymore. If he’s lucky Patton will be asleep by the time Virgil climbs into the room again and he’ll have until tomorrow morning to figure out how to explain it to his best friend and roommate. (Because Virgil knew that both Logan and Patton would be against him doing anything superhero-ish so they had not been informed of where Virgil went on his daily trips out of the school.)

((Actually now that he thought about it, there was literally no one in his life that would approve of what he was doing. They would all tell him to stop before he got himself actually killed.))

“You work here?” Virgil asks.

“hm? Oh nah!” Roman laughs, “No way. This place would kill me.” He motions around the room to prove his point “So dreadfully boring. I was born for the stage!” He poses in what Virgil supposes is a dramatic pose.

He doesn’t say that Roman definitely looks like he was born for the stage. Because Virgil definitely doesn’t notice that his eyes are a fiery brown made so with a passion, that there are slight crinkles around his eyes from lots of laughter, that his laugh itself is loud and booming and Virgil feels his heart do a stutter at the sound of something so freaking perfect. He doesn’t look like a Prince swooping out of no where to save the day. He doesn’t.

“Whatever you say Princey.” Virgil tells him, and then panics because what the fuck Virgil.

“Princey?” Roman repeats with smug smirk, “Are you my damsel in distress then Recluse? I wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course you wouldn’t mind,” Virgil rolls his eyes so hard his head tilts enough for Roman to know what he was doing. “You don’t have a brain to mind with.”

Roman gasps offended. Virgil cheers himself on.

“How could you say something so mean to the person who just saved your life?”

“How could I not?” Virgil huffs, “You just pulled me into this building. Isn’t this owned by the Government? Don’t you need a clearance level to get in here?”

“Rules are meant to be broken!” Roman cries dramatically, then he shivers, visibly.

It’s then that Virgil realizes that they are both soaked to the core, standing in the middle of an air conditioned cubical. His own freaky spider healing ability was probably keeping him from totally freezing, but Roman was not as lucky.

“Oh man,” Virgil says lamely, “Do you have something dry to change into?”

Roman scoffs a laugh that’s nothing if not awkward. “What? Eager to see me undress, Recluse?”

Virgil is doing the blushy blotch thing that he hates he does when he’s flustered, but he’s pretty sure Roman’s ears are turning dark red so at least he’s not alone. Virgil splutters some series consonants and vowels that’s not actually English but close enough.

“Look, just--” Virgil grunts, turning away from him because he can’t speak when he’s looking at the wannabe actor. “I’m not going to be responsible for you getting a cold because of me!”

Roman shivers again, a thing that makes his entire frame jerk, and his shovels his hands under his arm pits and retains a copy of his smile. “Aw you care.”

“Shut up,” Virgil says without the heat he meant it to.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m part spider.”

“I’m part Italian.”

“What?”

They both stare at each other, and Virgil shakes his head when Roman ducks his. Their laughs mix somewhere in the middle. When Virgil looks back at him Roman is staring at him with some sort of unreadable expression on his face. His cheeks were definitely dusted pink now.

“What?” Virgil asks again.

“I was--you--uh--” Roman’s mouth opens and closes twice before he seems to find the words he’s looking for, “do you have a phone?”

Virgil isn’t sure what he was expecting. He’s also unsure why he isn’t running far, far away by now. He chalks it up to the exhaustion from the near death experience. “Why?”

“I, uh, think you’re a--uh-- rather dashing sort of fellow,” Roman says, “I was--hoping-- I could, presumably, uh, obtain your number.”

“Is this a joke?”

Roman stiffens with panicked look on his face, “No! NO! I would never! I mean it when I say I think you’re amazing, even if no one else thinks so! The way you save people all day and never ask for anything in return-- and even if you’re hard to approach and you make me doubt everything I say-- I still think you’re really cool. I’d like to be your friend.”

There are a million reasons for Virgil to say no. Most of them involve a certain amount of “it’s not safe” and “what if anyone ever found out”.

“I won’t tell if you don’t!” Roman says and Virgil has a hard time not believing him. He looks earnest, trustworthy. Virgil wonders if he hit his head when he slammed into the window or if he’s actually getting sick.

“I’m not telling you my real name.” Virgil warns him.

Roman has the decency to look embarrassed, “I didn’t expect you, too! It wouldn’t matter anyway.” He mutters the last part under his breath.

Virgil is about to ask what that means when there’s a resounding ding of elevator doors somewhere not far away. Roman’s eyes grow wide and his hisses a noise from his teeth.

“Hide!”

“What?” Virgil says.

“Roman?” Another voice makes the hair on the back of Virgil’s neck rise. He has just enough time to panic--he’s really good at panicking-- before the telltale click of heel on the tile floor catches up with them and a woman glances into their cubical. Her eyes fall on Roman, and then search the rest of the cubical, looking straight at Virgil and moving on.

“Roman,” She says, “What are you doing in here--and why are you all wet?”

Roman glances between Virgil and her for a second before his posture closes and he rubs the back of his neck with mock sheepishment. “The window was open, auntie. I came in here to close it and it was harder than I thought it would be.”

She doesn’t look convinced. “It was...open?” She glanced around the room again, “No came in right? You haven’t seen anyone?”

Roman laughs, and Virgil’s impressed by his acting ability, “Of course not. We’re on the forty third floor. Who would be climbing in this building this high?”

That seems to calm her down. “Sorry, its just that the technology we’re working on is highly classified. I just clocked out for the day, so we can go now.”

“Really?” Roman says.

“What’s wrong? Every other day you’re begging me to leave! Plus we need to get you in dry clothes and rested up for the big day tomorrow!”

Roman gives another look towards Virgil-- well through Virgil, because he can’t see something that’s invisible. It had been a private joke that Virgil had kept to himself: that he an introverted artist with anxiety was barely noticed in a crowd as it was and now he could literally turn invisible when he panicked.

“Yeah,” Roman says. He turns away and he exits the cubical. Virgil stays still long after his chattering has faded and he’s left he building. He wonders if he’s ever going to see him again. For a superhero was a secret identity and an introvert with anxiety, the answer is surprisingly disappointing.

“Seriously Virge!” Patton whines, “Skateboarding in the abandoned subway rails?” He looks at the dislocated shoulder that Virgil just had set by the school nurse. “Kiddo, you’re going to be the death of me!”

“Sorry Pat,” Virgil tells his roommate.

Patton sighs and tussles Virgil’s hair because that was the type of person Patton was. “I’m sorry too kiddo. I’m not mad, I just worry. A lot.”

Virgil knows this, because he had been Patton’s roommate since he had come to the Sanders Academy for the Gifted (which was funny because Virgil got in for his art and now he really is gifted-- with superpowers). Patton had luckily been asleep when Virgil had made it back into the room, long after the storm had cleared by doing a strange super dangerous swing with one arm and his webshooter.

“Oh shoot!” Patton exclaims looking at his watch, “We’re late!”

“Late?”

Patton blinks, “Logan’s new dorm-mate is moving in today! I promised we’d be there to help them get settled in!”

Virgil tugs the zipper of his jacket--which was still a little damp, but he was ignoring it. It wasn’t like anyone was going to recognize it. “Both of us?” He says quietly, which he knows sounds like a plea, and it is: a plea to Patton to let him skip out on meeting new people for the day.

Recluse could, because Recluse could just snarl at the people he didn’t like and swing away. Virgil could not.

Patton takes his hand off the zipper and links their fingers in a way that is brazenly lovingly-- because Pat had a lot of love to give to everyone. “I’ll be right here the entire time, I promise. We can just go say hi, and then we can go hang out in our room until class starts.”

Virgil is not a people person. But Patton is giving him the puppy dog eyes that haunts Virgil’s dreams. He hates denying Patton anything he wants. When he agrees the smile that lights up Patton’s face is almost enough to drown out the cannon ball sized dread in his stomach.

Logan’s room is right across from theirs anyway. It is a simple thing to duck out of anything that happens and both Patton and Logan are kind enough that they can explain Virgil’s in depth issues with--

The door to Logan’s room is open, but Patton knocks and enters anyway. Virgil stops short because there is no way that this is happening.

Logan is OCD, even if he denies it. His room is neat and orderly and perfect. Everything has its place and he starts to lose it when things aren’t where they belong. Virgil tries to avoid going in his room if he can help it, because he’s terrified of messing something up.

His new roommate appears to be the opposite, if just from the stacks of haphazardly placed boxes in the room. Its too much stuff, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Logan does and he looks absolutely terrible: as if he’s about to short circuit at any second. Virgil can relate.

Because standing in the middle of Logan’s room is Roman. Roman. The same Roman who had saved Virgil’s life yesterday night. The same Roman who had sat there and talked to him while they were soaked. The same Roman who had asked for his number.

Roman looks up from whatever he’s saying at Patton’s entrance with that smug smile that makes Virgil’s heart jump and this time he can’t blame it on the adrenaline.

“Hi!” Patton says.

“Greetings!” Roman booms, “I’m Roman, Actor!” He gives a bow to Patton that makes him giggle-- but he freezes when he sees Virgil standing there behind the glowing Patton.

“Roman?” Logan asks, worried despite his internally barely hidden frustration. He makes a motion like he’s about to unpack on of the boxes and just barely stops himself.

Roman doesn’t respond. Instead that stupid smile widens just a bit as he nods to Virgil, which makes no sense because he doesn’t know Virgil is Recluse, “That’s a terrible jacket. Completely impractical.”

Virgil can’t make a noise-- he really can’t. Because Roman shouldn’t be here, much less recognize him from this jacket of all things. And Roman does recognize him, because there’s a playful twinkle in his eyes and Virgil couldn’t get their conversation out of his head if he tried.

He doesn’t dare try.

“Excuse you!” Patton exclaims, “How dare you insult my--”

He trails off at the sound of laughter. Virgil is as surprised as he is to find its his own.

“Shut up, Princey.” Virgil manages, goes for intimidating but he knows he failed, “No one asked you.”

“This won’t do!” Roman says, “I’m going to have to save your fashion sense as well as your life!”

“Pardon,” Logan cuts in, fixing his glasses, “You two have met? Roman has saved your life Virgil?”

“Yes, just last night--”

“Skateboarding!” Virgil cuts in, a bit too loud, a bit too quickly, “I was skateboarding! In the subway alleys!”

Roman laughs slightly. Virgil is worried for just a second that he isn’t going to go with it, but its misplaced worry. “Right, Skateboarding. I happened to be walking along there as well. We talked for a bit. I don’t think I quite caught your number. Mind if we rectify that?”

Patton seems to burst with happiness. “Kiddo! You didn’t tell me you made a friend!” He wraps Virgil in a hug.

Logan looks less convinced.

Roman looks perfect.

Virgil realizes at this point Roman is a waterspout, and Virgil was completely unprepared for it. But Virgil thinks he doesn’t mind being washed away.

#spiderverse #spiderverse au #sanders sides virgil #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #deciet sanders #superhero

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ziamfanfiction · 6 years

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this week’s ziam ao3 feed

Hey y’all! welcome to the ao3 feed, this week we had some good updated works and new fics so go read them and remember to leave kudos and comments! Stay tune for next sunday for a new edition of the ao3 feed! :*

fics updated/posted from April 16th to the 22nd

A Growing Dysfunctional Family by the_less_i_know (wip)

I don't really know how to summarize this... but at its most basic the story is set in a world where humans and supernatural beings exist, except that humans of course are unaware of the supernatural world. It's a messy story where Liam and Zayn fall in love, but it's not solely focused on their relationship. This means that if you're just expecting to read about ziam only, then this story probably isn't for you. This story is not just about romantic love, but about friendship and family love too. It starts out with Normani, Zayn, and Louis, who kind of set the tone of the story and it all develops from there. Dinah is 27, Louis is 26, Zayn is 25, and Normani is 20. Liam and Niall are 23. Ally, Harry, and Lauren don't have any concrete ages so yeah.

Beauty Of Life by Larry_tattoos (wip)

"Look who we have here, the nerd of the school", I didn't need to turn around to see the face of the person mocking me cause i already knew him by just hearing his voice.

I wasn't even a nerd, the fact that i top my math class doesn't make me a nerd, I don't wear glasses, i don't wear funny looking shoes, i don't wear braces, i don't wear acne with pants up to my waist but in Zayn Malik's eyes i'm one.

I pretend to arrange my books in my satchel just not to have an eye contact with him, the truth was he terrified me. I could not imagine a day that i would not shiver just hearing his name.

"Wha- what do you wa- nt?", Him and his arrogant friends saw me struggle to form the words and i could hear them giggle.

Being bullied by the love of his life is not the worst pain for Liam, the worst pain is he has no way of erasing the love he feels.

So he let's destiny take his course until its gets too much and he is caught between letting the love go or holding onto it.

But what happens when the love of his life aka his bully starts to care?

Twelve Fic Outtakes/Deleted Scenes by watyonameisgurl (wip)

Pretty much exactly what the title says and what I've hinted at in numerous end notes of the main fic for like forever - a collection of outtakes/deleted scenes (and possibly even some eventual alternate scenarios if I feel up to exploring that) from the Twelve fic verse

[DO NOT READ if you haven't finished the first fic in the verse yet]

Part 3 of Twelve Verse

Intoxicate Me, Mesmerize Me, Obliterate Me by eternallyunleashed (wip)

There was a certain heat obtained from rebellion that even the actual throes of heat never sparked. Keeping up an image of perfection; being the good kid, the perfect son to the Mayor and Chief of Police, the city of Lincoln’s sweetheart omega, it was all taxing to Zayn. Walking the thin line of danger was exhilarating. Was it coincidental that this danger happened to be an attraction to a certain alpha who was none other than the leader of the South Side Vipers gang, who seemed to despise him and the part of town he came from? Probably not. But when had anything ever stopped Zayn?

Within You Without You by PersephoneJones (wip)

Liam started to swipe up to unlock his phone, and then paused, thumb hovering over the screen. He’d been angry at Zayn for a very long time. Probably still was, to be honest. It wasn’t even about him leaving the band. It was that Zayn hadn’t just walked away from his job. He’d walked away from their friendship. Five years of togetherness and camaraderie, and what Liam (and just about everyone else) had thought was a special bond.

Or, the one where Zayn dipped out, sank the Ziam ship, and didn't even bother to call. Can Liam forgive him? Does he want to? And just why have the two of them always been so cuddly with each other, anyway?

dRuNk/Like I Would/Let Me/Dusk Till Dawn by watyonameisgurl

“Happy birthday, I guess,” Zayn says, trying and failing to keep the bitterness out of his voice at the fact that this is his third call and Liam still hasn’t answered. At the fact that he’s with her. At a party that Zayn wasn’t invited to...

Or: A series of drabbles based on the themes of the aforementioned songs…basically my headcanons for the moments that inspired these songs (these aren’t songfics though)

Two Point 0 by watyonameisgurl (wip)

“Because healing is messy and ugly and slow and doesn’t just happen in a progressive line. Sometimes...sometimes it’s gonna feel like you’re going backwards or sideways or every direction but forward, and you might not ever feel the same as you were, you might always be different from the person you used to be, but sometimes that’s okay...”

Zayn looks out at the sea of faces staring back at him, fights down the anxiety still threatening to overwhelm him even though he’s almost through now. He’d known this wouldn’t be easy, but there’s so many of them, looking to him. And seeing all of them here, now, in front him—even if it still isn’t all of them—is a bit overwhelming. As he looks around though he catches sight of Liam in the sea of faces, smiling proudly, and that’s all it takes. He can already feel himself relaxing, powering through the last of what he wants and needs to say. Counting down the moments until he’s back by Liam’s side again, safe and sound and that’s what gets him through.

[Or: Zayn keeps healing, Liam does too. But it’s not easy when there are so many forces still so determined not to let them. And fighting them alone is one thing. But the problem is it’s not just Zayn's fight anymore.]

Part 2 of Twelve Verse

All the different kinds of flowers by Androgyne, ZoeRavenclaw28 (wip)

When Liam, the future Tsars right-hand man, meets Zayn, the son of an Emir, his world turns upside-down.

A story about late-night chess games, scents, herbs, and so so many flowers.

Part 2 of All The Different Kinds Of Flowers

Baby I'll Never Leave You (If You Keep Holding Me This Way) by CrazyMofos (wip)

It was 2015 I am Liam

The King Of Queens by LHSHIP (wip)

Zayn was just like every other fangirl, except he was a boy. To be exact, the only boy in a girls’ only world, the Liam Payne fandom. His internet friends - all girls of course - thought he should be referred to as "The King Of Queens" apparently being the only boy who openly drooled over singer Liam Payne. And he liked it, not only because it was his dad’s favorite TV show but also because he'd always called all of his girls “queens” to make them feel special.

So yes, he was one of those totally obsessed fans who basically spent all of their time on Twitter because of a super famous and successful celebrity who didn’t even know about their existence. And sometimes Zayn had to deal with his real life and real problems such as the upcoming class reunion and a missing date.

And maybe he was a just a tiny little bit of in love with Liam Payne...

Half Of The Stories by CamelotHarris (wip)

'Half Of The Stories'from Louis' Just Like You. These stories are about after Zayn left One Direction, five boys' life and what will they think of something about themselves . In the story there are part of the content is real. And will repeat some events about them . Now they are going through a lot of things, so I don't know when to end it.

iT's YoU by SpookyFaces (wip)

Popular, handsome and athletic Liam Payne has nothing in common with Zayn Malik, the bad-boy of the school, who wears leather jackets, combat boots and spends his lunch breaks with a cigarette and a sketchbook in his hands. There is something mysterious, something strange about him. Rumors say the half of his family has tragically died a few years ago. And there is something tragic about him. The way he walks alone in the hallways, the way he barely talks to anyone, except his stupid, curly friend.

Liam hates him. He hates his honey-colored eyes, his stupidly long eyelashes, his unbelievably long fingers, his raven-black hair and mesmerizing lips.

Yeah, he obviously hates him.

"Obviously" - Louis agrees, wiggling his eyebrows.

I remember every look upon your face by cpiklor (wip)

Zayn thought his summer break was going to be his most boring one yet - his new job was working him to levels he'd never experienced prior, which meant he rarely had free time away from the greasy deli kitchen to mentally prepare himself for his upcoming second year in college.

Until the deli got a new employee. Liam.

Liam was one of the hardest-working employees in the grocery store, Zayn could tell already. He listened intently to every instruction he was given, and nearly perfected everything - whether it be breading chicken, slicing cheese, or just chatting up the customers during lulls.

Liam was beautiful in every sense of the word - golden-brown hair with deep brown eyes, tall, slim, and fuck, he was toned. His biceps were noticeable even through their chunky cloth work shirts. He was ridiculously kind and hilarious, too. Everything made him laugh, and Zayn had yet to witness him in a bad mood.

The complete opposite of Liam, Zayn was broody and shy, with black hair, olive and a love for quiet spaces. He had a killer bitch face, which made him less approachable, and no wonder Liam wasn't sure about him. He could do better than someone like Zayn.

Zayn was fucked.

Beyond Words by StoryAnonGuy33 (wip)

"Some things are beyond words" Liam added lightly, Zayn laying back down on Liam's chest. "They are, aren't they?" He commented back, Liam smiling and kissing the top of his head. "You bet babe"

Or when Liam and Zayn attend the same college and with budding and cemented feelings between the two, will things turn out the way they want?

#lau speaks #ziam #ziam fanfiction #weekly ao3 feed

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deadmomjokes · 6 years

Text

So I finally got to watch the Extended Edition Lord of the Rings

And I have SO MANY THOUGHTS

First of all, I had no idea how rushed the theatricals felt until I saw what the Extendeds did for pacing and development. They felt like completely different films, and looking back on the theatricals (which I love/loved) I’m surprised things made sense given what the extendeds added.

(tons more under the cut, I have Too Many Thoughts and Feelings rn)

Second, there were some things I could have lived without:

-The Entwine scene was cute, I suppose, as was the food/pipeweed-finding scene, but I felt personally that it didn’t add too much in terms of development and narrative. Sure, it shows Merry and Pippin being funloving cousins together. But it just felt a bit off in terms of pacing and feel in the surrounding scenes.

-I was ambivalent on the extra scenes inside the Paths of the Dead. The skull avalanche was just... Ok? (I enjoyed the part immediately after they got out and saw the ships, that was fine.)

-I really didn’t appreciate or enjoy the scene of the Witchking shattering Gandalf’s staff, either; I get they were trying to give Gandalf reason to doubt himself and his judgement, but really? It makes ZERO sense for the Witchking to be stronger than Gandalf the White. They don’t bring it up later at all, or say why it’s so significant, and it throws off the timing. The Witchking flies off from Gandalf because he see’s Rohan’s approach; but then it takes another 10 minutes for him to show up at the battle and get Theoden? Did he take a Starbucks break? Who could have possibly delayed him, if he was so much stronger than Gandalf? Altogether a bad scene (and makes no sense because Gandalf is a reincarnated Angel at this point so... Yeah, not happy).

-The discussion with Saruman at Isengard was great, but the utter overkill of him impaling on the wheel was just bizarre. It was almost comical, and not in a way it should have been. Also, way, WAY overkill. Too much. In a film full of death, that was excessive. I loved having the talk with him, and him dying was fine, but the spiky wheel and subsequent drowning just seemed out of place.

-I also didn’t care for the additions to the battle action scenes (not the aftermath parts, those were stunning). For the most part, they felt a bit superfluous. The one exception to that was the battle of Pelennor, and all they added with Eowyn and Merry. Those were great!

Third, and more importantly, there were TONS of scenes I adored, aka everything else. And I am SO angry they took it all out. I would give up whole battles if they had left in these scenes. I mean REALLY, who decided which ones to cut, because they clearly didn’t see the same film I did. They cut all the best parts, all the best acting, things that made everything come together, and most importantly, scenes of massively important character building. Here are some of the ones I loved most, and why I’m angry they cut them:

-The one I’m most angry about, all the Faramir scenes. They chopped the one scene that explained literally EVERYTHING he did and why. That family scene not only developed Boromir posthumously, it showed why Faramir acted like such a jerk, and why he ultimately turned. That was not at all explained in the theatricals. In the theatricals, he’s a random, shallow jerk who turns for no reason. With just the 5 minutes that scene took, he is shown to be complex and a deeply damaged child of abuse who lost the one person who believed in him. And it also explains the “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show is quality” line. Which was odd without context. Also, the end scene of TT where Faramir talks to the hobbits and Gollum about their next steps. Dang that was good. I’m just angry that literally every good, important Faramir scene got cut.

-All the scenes in early Fellowship they cut. The bits showing Bilbo was acting out-of-character. Frodo is worried, Gandalf is worried, Bilbo has a panic attack over the ring. All great stuff that made things make more sense (if you aren’t going into it with background knowledge).

-The scenes they cut of Boromir acting like a normal person, making his betrayal more upsetting. In the theatricals, he is reduced to an annoying, prideful jerk who is taken by the Ring from day one. With the new scenes, he is shown to be a truly complex character who is really trying to do the right thing, but is just misguided and scared. Especially the scenes of him talking with Aragorn. I love the argument they have for another reason, too, which ties in with this next one

-Just that little bit of Galadriel showing Nenya to Frodo. It shows that she knows what it’s like being a Ringbearer. So Frodo is more likely to take her advice, and think she knows what’s best. She tells him he has to be alone, and that his presence will break the Fellowship and ruin the people he cares about. And then we see that stuff happening. Frodo tries to shut himself off from the others, but he can tell Sam is hurt by it. And then he hears Aragorn and Boromir arguing and the Fellowship starting to break. That cements his decision to go alone, especially after the previously kind Boromir attacks him and is clearly under the Ring’s influence.

-All the extra scenes of Frodo. It rounds him out even more, and shows how the Ring affects him emotionally as well as physically. Also all the early scenes make Frodo into a strong, caring, perceptive character; in the theatricals, he goes from happy party boy to depressed child in 3 scenes flat. All the new extended and added scenes show a more complex person, and smooth the transition in a way that makes it feel more organic. Also it showcases some of Elijah Wood’s best acting. I’m salty at how many truly great scenes they cut.

-The scenes that show more of how Aragorn is afraid to accept his destiny. The bit with his mom’s grave was especially powerful. It’s a beautiful arc, and it’s just not utilized that well (really at all) in the theatricals.

-The scene of Frodo and Sam in Mordor. Even while the Ring is actively trying to get found, and is doing everything it can to break Frodo, Frodo still has enough presence of mind to think his way out of the situation. It just underscores how dangerous the Ring is, and how truly strong Frodo is, making it all the more shocking and upsetting and heartbreaking when he ultimately gets taken by it. A lot of scenes showed how strong, smart, and deeply emotional Frodo was, but this one in particular just clinches it for me. I’m so mad they took it out.

-Eomer finding Eowyn. DANG talk about acting. Good grief that about killed me. Eomer doesn’t get much in the way of development (not everyone can), but that was next-level, and gave a lot to him in terms of rounding. Especially after that scene where he’s talking to Eowyn about Merry, but really meaning it for her because he knows her.

The more I think about everything I just witnessed, the harder it is getting to pick out exactly which scenes were most important and impactful for me, because they really make it a completely different experience. Certain arcs and themes are more fully developed (Aragorn becoming who he was born to be, Faramir escaping the toxic cycle that ultimately killed Boromir, Pippin finding his courage, Frodo clinging to hope with Gollum as his own sanity and health start slipping, Sam’s important position as an anchor for Frodo, Eowyn clinging to Aragorn and learning to pull herself away from her past fantasies and ideas of valor, Frodo remaining as strong as humanly/hobbitly possible even far into Mordor... All the things). There were very, VERY few scenes comparatively speaking that I wasn’t angry as heck about their removal. Every single scene with the exception of the few I mentioned at the beginning was, in my opinion, necessary for the full, complete story and experience. I am shocked at how I went this long without having the whole picture. I honestly don’t plan on watching the theatricals anymore. They’re just not complete to me now that I’ve seen everything else.

Also, a few highlights from this binge watch with the husband:

-Lots of pausing at every new scene and hollering about how mad we are that it was cut.

-Too many jokes about Weed.

-Smacking each other in the leg every time an extended or added scene comes on and going “OOH, NEW!!!”

-Choking on a croissant when Frodo asked Gandalf which direction Mordor was I DIE it was so cute!

-Being personally offended that they took out Boromir’s Lorien scenes.

-Having to get up and walk away when we heard the “show his quality” line in the TT scene with Faramir and Denathor. I literally went into the kitchen to scream into a dish towel.

-“Well Frodo just basically spends the whole third movie in a state of dissociation, and this is where it starts.” -My husband’s very astute analysis when they get to Osgiliath. Have dissociated, can confirm.

-Huddled together on the couch screeching loudly at Sam’s line to Faramir about showing his quality (we had Too Many Faramir Feels, y’all).

-Gasping so hard at Sam pulling Frodo out of a #Moment where he realizes he’s probably going to die that I gave myself an asthma attack

-Staying up til midnight last night griping over and over again at how they DARED TAKE THESE SCENES OUT I know I keep saying it but I am never going to be over it

-My husband recoiling in shock and both of us scooby-doo-style-clinging to each other when Eomer screams upon finding Eowyn.

-Going full-scale football-fan cheering and hollering when Aragorn goes to face down the Palantir and taunt Sauron. Followed quickly by panicked shrieking when the necklace shatters.

-Legit gagging at the Mouth of Sauron scene. Homeboy need some Ultrabrite and about 12 gallons of Listerine. I swear I could smell it. I see why they took it out, no theater worker deserves to clean up pools of patron vomit.

-Totally lost it at “Smeagol Lied.”

-I have not cried at these films in 15 years but dang if it didn’t get me this time around hoo boy

#long post #lotr #thoughts

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welllpthisishappening · 7 years

Text

Tripping Over the Blue Line (29/45)

It’s a transition. That’s what Emma’s calling it. She’s transitioning from one team to another, from one coast to another and she’s definitely not worried. Nope. She’s fine. Really. She’s promised Mary Margaret ten times already. So she got fired. Whatever. She’s fine, ready to settle into life with the New York Rangers. She’s got a job to do. And she doesn’t care about Killian Jones, captain of the New York Rangers. At all.

He’s done. One more season and he’s a free agent and he’s out. It’s win or nothing for Killian. He’s going to win a Stanley Cup and then he’s going to stop being the face of the franchise and he’s going to go play for some other garbage team where his name won’t be used as puns in New York Post headlines. That’s the plan. And Emma Swan, director of New York Rangers community relations isn’t going to change that. At all.

They are both horrible liars.

Rating: Mature Content Warnings: Swearing, eventual hockey-type violence AN: The theme of this chapter? Everyone is mad at Killian. Possibly no one more than Killian himself. But...with mimosas! That’ll make sense. I promise. As always I can’t thank you guys enough for reading all my words (of which there have just been a questionable amount of this week) and @laurnorder, @distant-rose & @beautiful-swan are the absolute best. Hanging out on Ao3, FF.net and tag’ed up on Tumblr.

“Arthur, if you break the whiteboard again they’re not going to give you another one.” “Shut the fuck up, Jones.” Killian glanced towards Robin, certain there’d be a smile on his face or at least something that resembled amusement in his eyes and there weren't either of those things – there was just frustration, the kind that almost rivaled Arthur’s in the middle of the Calgary visitor’s locker room.

Huh. He hadn’t been expecting that.

Robin had been quiet on the flight up, but so had Killian, mind racing with everything Emma had said – and maybe not said – in the alley outside the bar and they’d barely had time for much more than a quick bye when the fans left and they had two different flights to catch. He’d stared out the window of the plane, phone held loosely in his hand and tried to figure out exactly what to say.

He couldn’t come up with anything to say.

And he wasn’t really supposed to use his phone.

He texted Emma when they landed and fired off the first fact he could remember about Calgary – it’s Canada’s sunniest city and, of course, it was cloudy when Killian woke up the next day. Figured.

She texted back when they landed in New York, but there was no fact about the Flames and no update on the weather at home.

“We’re winning,” Killian pointed out, nodding towards the TV screen in the corner of the locker room and Arthur’s eyes, somehow, got even more narrow, tiny little slits of emotion that probably would have made him laugh if he weren’t his own mess of off-ice emotion as well.

And just like the distinct lack of sun in Canada’s sunniest city, grabbing a quick, two-goal lead in the first period of the first game after the All-Star break felt a bit like some sort of colossal joke. If Emma didn’t text back, if Emma thought it was better to listen to a good offer if he got one, Killian wasn’t certain anything else really mattered.

Melodramatic idiot.

“A two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in all of hockey, Jones,” Arthur snapped, throwing his whiteboard marker at Killian for good measure.

“Jeez, Arthur,” Robin muttered and that might have been the first time he’d spoken all day. “You’re going to give yourself an ulcer.” Will laughed or scoffed or made some sort of noise in the back of the room and Arthur turned his wrath on the recently-returned defenseman. “Something to add, Scarlet?” Arthur asked. “You’re even lucky to be on the ice. You know I thought about pulling you off your shift in that period?” “He’s barely got one leg,” Killian argued, throwing Will a supportive glance. Scarlet didn’t look impressed. And Killian wondered when he’d managed to offend him as well. “And he’s already blocked, like, four shots.” “Hurt like hell,” Will added, pressing the heel of his hand into his thigh like that, somehow, proved his point.

“He only blocked three shots,” Arthur said, but his voice lacked some of the bite it had at the start of intermission and he wasn’t clutching the whiteboard quite as hard anymore. His knuckles almost looked normal.

“Ah, well, he’s trying his best,” Killian laughed. Will’s expression didn’t change. Robin didn’t say anything.

Fuck.

They knew about the trade. Or the lack of a trade. He wasn’t going to leave New York. Maybe. If the Rangers would resign him.

The Rangers were totally going to resign him.

“I want faster line changes,” Arthur continued, ignoring whatever attempts at humor Killian was failing to hit. “And quicker moves up the ice and less turnovers in the neutral zone. If any of you turn the puck over in the goddamn neutral zone again, I’ll make you skate blue-to-blue sprints until you can’t even stand up.” No one said anything.

“Get back on the ice,” Arthur said and it sounded a bit like a command.

The box score claimed they finished with double-digit turnovers in the neutral zone and they gave up the two-goal lead in the opening minutes of the third period and Arthur had pulled Jefferson, but only after he snapped another whiteboard in half. They won anyway, still firmly cemented in that first Wild Card spot, and no one said anything to Killian when he walked into the locker room – second star with a distinctly silent cell phone sitting in his visitor’s locker.

“Jones,” Arthur shouted and Killian felt his head snap up automatically, eyes going wide when he saw the look on the man’s face.

He didn’t look angry. He looked disappointed.

Jesus Christ.

“Go,” Robin said, nodding towards the far end of the locker room. “We’ll save you some food.”

Will hummed in the back of his throat, fingers moving over the screen of his phone – which had barely stopped buzzing since Killian walked towards them.

“Yeah, ok, thanks,” Killian mumbled, hand in his hair and knot in his stomach and he should have texted more facts about Calgary. Or maybe apologized. Definitely apologized.

He moved across the locker room slowly, measured steps so he didn’t actually trip over the skates he still hadn’t taken off and Phillip glanced up when he moved past him. Disappointment – it was more disappointment and Killian had never quite felt like he did in that moment, like he’d, somehow, let down an entire NHL team.

He needed to get home.

He wouldn’t be home for another week.

“What’s going on, Arthur?” Killian asked when he came up in front in front of him. “We won the game.” Arthur didn’t say anything, just pushed a crumpled up and slightly-out-of-date sports section into Killian’s chest. He groaned, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling and he didn’t need it – he’d probably memorized every single line of the entire goddamn story at this point.

And he still couldn’t understand it, couldn’t understand why Gold had been quoted or what he was talking about when Killian was one-hundred percent certain no one from the entire Los Angeles Kings organization would even glance his direction.

He also might have texted Regina when they landed in Calgary, just to make sure. She’d called him every single variation of idiot that the English language allowed and after several lines of text message begging had, finally, told him in no unquestionable terms that the Kings were probably the last team in the league that would want to sign him next season.

“None of it’s true,” Killian said, flipping his wrist back towards Arthur as he tried to hand the paper back to him.

“Oh, I know,” Arthur answered. “If you don’t think I’ve been telling front office to offer you max since the start of the season then you’re even more stupid than you look.” “A charmer as always.” Arthur shrugged, crumpling the entire Los Angeles Times sports section in one hand and tossing it over his shoulder into a well-placed trash can. “Did you practice that?”

“I did play sports at one point, you know, I’ve got reflexes or something.” “Did you call me over here just to prove that?” Arthur laughed, arms crossed over his chest again and his tie was hanging loose around his neck – like he’d been tugging on it for the better part of the night. “No,” he said. “I didn’t, but feel free to be impressed.” Killian narrowed his eyes and Arthur didn’t say anything else. He tried not to look as frustrated as he was – he should have grabbed his phone. “I’d really like to shower at some point before we leave, Arthur, so if this conversation has a point…”

“Of course it’s got a point, Jones,” Arthur said irritably. “I want to sign you. The team wants to sign you and while I try to pay as little attention to your life off the ice as possible, I’m pretty sure your girlfriend wants you to sign too. So what I’m getting at is you should probably make sure your team realizes all of that – especially the guys on your line.” Killian glanced over his shoulder – Will sprawled out one of the benches, phone held above his head as he continued to answer Belle’s worried texts and Robin pressed into the far corner, phone propped against his ear – and neither one of them looked up when he turned towards them.

“You’re good on the ice, Jones,” Arthur continued, tone brisk and gruff as Killian snapped his head back around. “As good as we could get when we’re trying to make some sort of Cup run with our jobs on the line. And I’d want you on any team I coach, but you should tell your line what you’re doing. Scarlet had to stop Locksley from killing you during warmups.” Killian sighed and traced along one of the scars on the back of his hand. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

“Oh, I know you’re not, at least in theory. But those guys don’t. Talk to them and stop turning the puck over in the neutral zone. I don’t need any more postgame questions about you falling back into some kind of scoring skid. I’ve already got enough to worry about with Locksley’s drought and Scarlet’s leg.” “Yeah, ok,” Killian said, not quite sure what else he could contribute to this conversation.

“And take a shower, you look like shit.”

He did as instructed and things almost felt ok when he got on the plane, until Robin actually offered him the armrest in between the seats like that was something he normally did, instead of just throwing his forearm onto whatever material armrests were made of.

Plastic?

It was probably plastic.

“Nah,” Killian muttered. “You can have it.” “Ok,” Robin said and Killian wished he wasn’t actually sitting next to the window because it felt a bit like he was stuck.

“Will you guys shut up,” Will hissed from the other side of the aisle, leaning over a visibly perturbed Ariel. “Some of us are kind of exhausted.”

“God, Scarlet,” Ariel sighed, pushing against his shoulder and slapping at his jacket for good measure. “Will you get off me? You’re going to hurt yourself.” “Leaning over you is not going to somehow hurt my leg, A. And there’s no way you haven’t already gone through every possible test that I could have hurt my leg tonight. I am fine.” “Ok, first of all, we didn’t go through every test and you were the one who came to me complaining about how much your leg hurt as soon as you got off the ice.” “What?” Will snapped, sitting up and someone from the other end of the plane actually shushed him. “That’s not even remotely what happened,” he hissed, not quite reaching the appropriate level of whispering for a team flight from Calgary to Vancouver at some point after midnight.

“Will you shut up,” Robin muttered, but he sounded a bit like he did when he was disciplining Roland and Will’s jaw audibly snapped shut. Ariel looked a little pleased with herself. “Some of us are actually exhausted and didn’t get much sleep over the weekend.”

“Oh,” Will laughed, leaning back across Ariel. She used both of her fists to punch against his back. “What exactly was going on in LA, Locksley?”

Killian rolled his eyes and sighed when Robin glared across the aisle – Ariel’s punches coming just a bit harder and more frequently than they probably should have considering Will had only just been cleared to start skating again.

“Shut up, Scarlet,” Killian said, practically growling out the words from his window seat.

That talk about how he wanted to stay in New York and how he was going stay in New York and how dedicated he was to the team was going really well. He should probably apologize to them too.

He should make a list.

That was Emma’s job.

There weren’t any postgame text messages – just the usual from Liam and Elsa and Anna – and nothing but silence from the one person he wanted. He would have even taken a jab about the turnovers in the neutral zone or his plus-minus rating and he’d scored again – six-game streak now – but it didn’t really seem to mean anything if there weren’t postgame text messages.

“Sure, Cap,” Will said after a few moments. “Aye aye or whatever.” Robin didn’t say anything else for the rest of the flight, but Killian knew he hadn’t fallen asleep – no telltale signs of snoring or his arm inevitably falling off the armrest. He didn’t even use the armrest, hands crossed over his league-required jacket, and eyes straight ahead and neither one of them got the sleep they could probably use.

They landed at some indeterminate time in the middle of the night, stars dotting the sky when they were ushered off the plane and onto a team bus and into the team hotel and no one said anything about that story in the Los Angeles Times.

Robin threw his bag into the corner of the room, stepping on the heels of his shoes as he moved and Killian resisted the urge to start yelling.

Or maybe apologize.

Definitely apologize.

He texted Emma instead – We’re here, Swan. No turbulence or anything. Smooth sailing. He groaned when he read what he wrote, nearly punching a hole in the screen of his phone as he tried to hit delete as quickly as possible.

Landed and in the hotel and you’re probably asleep, but let me know how today went when you wake up, ok? It went fine, better than, I’m sure.

No, that wasn’t good either. Killian sank onto the edge of the bed, only dimly aware that Robin was talking to him.

“You want first dibs at the sink, Cap, or you good for a second?” he asked.

“Hmmm?” Killian mumbled, glancing up at Robin and the very distinct bags under his eyes. He hadn’t noticed that with a visor blocking his face before. “No, no, I’m fine. I’ve uh…” He trailed off, pointing towards the phone and Robin just hummed in agreement.

“Ok, cool.”

He was gone half a moment later, sink running behind the closed door and Killian exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

We’re in Vancouver. No game until tomorrow, which, obviously, you know. We’ve got walk-throughs in the afternoon, but nothing later, so maybe we can talk then? Let me know how today went. I love you, Swan.

He sent it before he could delete the whole, stupid thing again, throwing the phone into the corner of the bed for good measure.

The knock came just half a second before Killian was certain he was about to fall asleep – he hadn’t even taken his shoes off yet – and he ran a hand over his face when he moved towards the door.

Will and Ariel didn’t even wait for him to open it completely before they walked in, matching looks of determination on their face and something that almost looked like a bottle...of orange juice.

“What the hell are you doing?” Killian asked, stepping out the way just quickly enough that he didn’t get run over by either one of them.

“Taking matters into our own hands,” Will answered and Ariel nodded behind him. She was holding champagne.

“And what matters are those, exactly?” “We’re going to get you and dad back together.” “What?” Ariel rolled her eyes. “Please, Cap, it’s like watching divorced parents. It’s just depressing. And we’re not dealing with a whole western swing of this nonsense, so we’re nipping this in the bud right now.”

Will nodded – as if that settled that – and Ariel made quick work of the champagne bottle. It unscrewed. “Where are your glasses?” Will asked. “There’s got to be glasses in here, right?” “Oh maybe we should have brought glasses with us,” Ariel mused, but Will brushed her off just as quickly.

“If they’re not on the desk, they’re probably in the bathroom,” Killian muttered, still a bit too stunned by whatever was happening in front of him to really put up much of a fight. It was almost three in the morning.

“Locksley,” Will shouted, kicking on the still-closed bathroom door. “Open up, we need glasses.” Robin swung the door open a second later, team-branded sweatpants and t-shirt on and a toothbrush still held in his hand. “What the fuck are you doing here? This isn’t your room.” “We’re parent-trapping you.”

“What?” Robin glanced towards Killian, eyes wide and he just shrugged in response.

“I have no idea what that even means,” he said.

“Mom and dad are fighting,” Ariel explained, squeezing past Robin to grab the hotel-provided cups sitting on the corner of the vanity. “And Scarlet and I have decided that’s completely unacceptable at this point in the season. So we come bearing alcohol and you two are going to talk out your problems.” “There’s nothing to talk about,” Robin muttered at the same time Killian asked “Where did you even find champagne?” “There’s a 24-hour liquor store up the block,” Ariel said. “Breaking curfew, Red?”

Ariel shrugged. “I’m not actually on the team. I don’t think Arthur can cut my shifts or anything. Also Scarlet knew where it was, so take that into account before you go passing judgement.”

“You guys have to get out of here,” Robin said, finally walking out of the bathroom and crashing onto his designated bed. “It’s the middle of the night.” “Not until we fix this,” Will argued. “It’s all weird when you guys are fighting. I don’t like it.” “Ah, well, if Scarlet doesn’t like it,” Killian muttered, earning a glare for his sarcasm. Ariel pushed a glass into his hand, eyebrows raised and a very particular look on her face – one that practically screamed you owe me.

“Shut up, Cap.” Will hooked his foot around the leg of the one chair in the room, sinking onto it as Ariel perched on the edge of the desk behind him. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Killian didn’t answer at first, tapping his finger against the top of the hastily-made mimosas and he’d barely had time to register that they’d made mimosas in the middle of the night, parent-trapping them in a hotel room in Vancouver.

It was kind of overwhelming.

And the idea of even the possibility of leaving this stupid team was suddenly so absurd Killian could hardly believed he’d entertained the thought to begin with.

“Killian,” Ariel muttered, kicking out one of her legs towards him. “Come on, was any of that story true?”

“No,” he said. There was barely any orange juice in this mimosa. That was probably for the best. “None of it.” “He was quoted.” “I know he was.” “How’d that happen?” “If I had an answer for you, Red, I’d tell you.” “Probably to screw you over for other teams,” Robin said softly and Killian nearly dropped his champagne-heavy mimosa.

“What?” Robin shrugged. “That’s the first thing I thought of, is that not the first thing you thought of?” “No,” Killian admitted. “That’s…” “Insane?” Will suggested and Robin just shrugged again.

“Maybe,” he said. “But it’s not like it’s totally out of the realm of possibility. I mean, think about it, he tells a huge newspaper that he wants Cap and how great Cap is and that they’re totally interested and teams think they don’t have a chance." “I don’t know,” Killian sighed. “Gina said there were a lot of other teams who were interested.” “How many other teams?” Ariel asked and if it weren’t the middle of the night Killian might have been offended by the note of surprise in her voice.

He took a drink before he answered. “A lot.” “That’s not very specific.” Killian held his hand up in the air, but didn’t actually start going down the list. Or the teams that weren’t on the list. “Us?” Ariel continued. “I thought you weren’t on the team, Red.” “Shut up. Did they counter yet?” “There’s not anything to counter. No one’s actually offered yet and they probably won’t until the deadline.”

“So we haven’t actually made a move yet?” Will asked, eyes darting to a frozen Robin. “That’s nuts.” “Well, to be fair,” Killian sighed. “I didn’t really make much of a move either. Or tell Gina to. I was...uh, pretty convinced I wasn’t coming back.” The entire room went silent, drinks held tightly in respective hands and eyes staring at feet and Killian chewed on the inside of his lip, guilt and disappointment and nerves mixing with cheap champagne in the pit of his stomach.

“Why, though?” Robin asked and it felt like hours since any of them had spoken.

Killian lifted his head, turning completely to meet Robin’s gaze. “Why did I think I wasn’t coming back?” He downed the rest of the champagne, squeezing his eyes closed when it landed like a rock. “A lot of reasons.” “Us?” Ariel asked softly and the boulder of alcohol moved until it felt like it was stuck in the back of his throat.

“It sounds awfully immature when you say it out loud like that,” Killian said. “I just, I don’t know, we were supposed to win last year and we didn’t and then…” “You went to Colorado,” Robin finished. His champagne was also gone – walkthrough was going to be interesting tomorrow. Or later that afternoon. It was three in the morning. “And they’ve got a backyard there.” “How could you possibly know that?” “You barely said two words about being out there when you got back. Scarlet and I knew something was up.” “Is that weird? Should I be concerned that that’s weird?” Robin actually laughed. “I don’t know, maybe. Is that where you wanted to go, though?” “Yeah,” Killian said and sitting up was actually proving to be a bit of a challenge when Ariel refilled his glass without even asking. “El and Liam weren’t pleased.” “They both knew?” Will exclaimed, practically leaping off the chair. “That’s bullshit, Cap.” “I’m not disagreeing with you.” “What’d they say?” Ariel asked. She was the only one without a refilled glass and Killian was half certain this whole thing had been her idea. He’d probably have to thank her at some point. If he ever remembered how to stand up or didn’t collapse from exhaustion on the ice the next morning.

“Exactly what you’d think,” Killian started. “There were threats of violence and punching me in the face, but I think they both knew it wasn’t actually going to happen.” “It’s not?” Will sputtered, gaze darting around the room like the reason for that was suddenly going to materialize out of thin air.

Ariel groaned, resting her empty glass on the desk behind her, and stared at Will in disbelief. “Are you really that dumb or just pretending?” “What?” “Emma,” Robin said, sounding as if he were explaining the most obvious thing in the world. It kind of was.

Will’s eyes widened as soon as the words were out of Robin’s mouth and Killian fell back onto the bed, the glass in his hand shaking just a bit when he moved. His phone hadn’t made a sound since he’d thrown it in the corner and, really, he hadn’t expected it to – it was six in the morning in New York – but he thought, maybe…

No.

There was no maybe. There was just him – messing up and messing this up and fuck the entire Los Angeles Times. And whoever showed Emma that story.

“What’d she say, Killian?” Ariel asked, sinking onto the mattress as well. He pulled his head up slightly, the overtired muscles in his neck protesting at the movement, and tried to shrug. It didn’t work.

“Nothing,” he said.

It wasn’t really a lie. He’d played the whole scene in the alley over and over in his head, felt every single syllable of every single word as keenly then as he had the night before and he was almost surprised he’d managed to skate, let alone put the puck in the back of the net when his mind was still in downtown Los Angeles.

He knew he should have told her before, but he’d changed his mind – she’d changed his mind – and it shouldn’t have even been a problem.

There shouldn’t have been a story.

The Rangers should have made a move by now. Or at least the start of a move. This champagne was horrible.

Ariel lifted her eyebrows skeptically and Robin made some sort of disbelieving noise before tapping his glass meaningfully at Will. “Fill up Cap’s too,” he added.

“If I drink any more of your shit champagne I’m not going to be able to lace up my skates tomorrow,” Killian muttered.

“See, that’s just wrong,” Will objected. “We go out of our way to parent-trap you and Locksley and then you insult our champagne. Pickings are slim at three in the morning, you know.” “Out of curiosity, in this situation which one of us is which parent?” “Does it matter?” “I guess not.” Robin laughed again – and it almost sounded genuine, the smile on his face not nearly as forced as the impassive looks he’d been shooting Killian for the better part of the last twenty-four hours. “Gina’s thinking about suing the Times,” he chuckled. “For defamation.” Will nearly fell off the chair and Killian downed his third glass of mimosa before he could even consider all the reasons he shouldn’t.

“I think it’s called something else in print,” Ariel pointed out.

“Libel,” Will added. “It’s libel in print. And Cap doesn’t even fit into that spectrum because he’s a public figure. They can write about whatever they want as long as it’s remotely feasible. And him going to LA is, apparently, remotely feasible.” “How could you possibly know that?” “Not all of us went pro after freshman year. Some of us have degrees.” They laughed and the tension in the room seemed to fly out a window that absolutely wasn’t open. That was, of course, until Robin asked another question.

“She really didn’t say anything?” he murmured. “I mean with Los Angeles and everything.”

If you get a good offer you should consider it.

The words were practically tattooed on the back of his eyelids this point, flashing in front of his face every time he blinked and he was a selfish bastard because he wanted everything all at once. He absolutely didn’t deserve it.

He didn’t get the game and Emma.

The world just didn’t work that way.

“No,” Killian repeated and the lie didn’t even sound remotely convincing. Ariel rested her hand on his leg, staring at him with so much sympathy he was certain it couldn’t actually be her.

“What happens now?” she asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine. And probably better suited for Gina than me. She’s the one who talks to front office.” “She thinks it’s going to be fine,” Robbin added and Killian hadn’t expected that. “She finally gave up the truth last night after the story came out and, well, I was pissed at you for not telling any of us. Obviously. And then kind of mad at her for not telling me. Again, obviously. So she told me the truth and that you’d changed your mind.” “She didn’t tell you why?” “That one I figured out on my own. You noticed she tugs on the laces when she’s nervous?”

He shouldn't have had so much shitty champagne in such a short period of time because it wasn’t just sitting in his stomach or the back of his throat and Killian sat up before the room could actually start to spin.

He’d absolutely noticed.

And thought about that almost as much as the idea that Emma thought he should be looking at other teams.

“You should call her,” Ariel suggested.

“And say, what?” Will questioned, eyeing the now empty bottle of champagne critically. “I mean what’s he going to say that he hasn’t already?” “I don’t know. Tell her you love her an almost disgusting amount and she’s changed the whole world and you don’t know what you’d do without her.” “That’s laying it on a little thick isn’t it?” Robin cut in. “I mean that’s not really Cap’s style. He kind of broods.” “That’s just in front of us. Have you seen him look at Emma? He stares at her like she’s the center of the universe or something.”

“I’m sitting right here,” Killian muttered, words slurring just a bit and the room was spinning despite sitting up. Sitting up might have been a mistake. They drank a whole bottle of champagne in twenty minutes.

“And?” Ariel countered. “You look at Emma Swan like she’s the center of the universe. That’s just a fact.”

That was true. He did and she was and a slew of other sentimental nonsense that made a bit more sense several glasses of middle-of-the-night mimosa in. Killian could feel Robin’s stare on the side of his head and Ariel hadn’t actually moved her hand off his leg.

“Alright,” Robin announced and he was definitely the team dad. Killian tried not to laugh about that. “We’ve all made up, we’ve decided Killian is an idiot for even thinking about leaving New York and if he any of us get asked about his FA status, we just say we want him to come back here, agreed?”

Will and Ariel both nodded their head – which didn’t make much sense since no one was going to ask Ariel anything about his FA status, at least not in some sort of print or TV capacity – and she pulled her hand away from Killian’s leg to grab one of the pillows at the top of his bed.

“What are you doing?” Killian asked.

“If you think I’m walking back down the hallway to my room, you’ve got another thing coming. Come on, move over.”

Killian groaned, but that was as much of a fight as he was willing to put up, throwing another pillow in Will’s direction. Robin laughed again.

In the end, he found a spot on the floor, in between the two beds with promises from both Ariel and Robin that they wouldn’t actually step on him in the morning and Will stayed in the chair, mumbling something about not moving and it might have been the quickest Killian had fallen asleep – without Emma tucked against his side – in months.

He woke up before his phone – which was probably for the best since the three other people in the hotel room probably would have yelled if they heard his alarm before they had to – grabbing it from underneath the pillow he’d managed to commandeer the night before.

Well, a few hours before.

Killian had fallen asleep easily, but the champagne had been shitty and his head felt as if it was going to snap in half as soon as he opened his eyes to find no less than five text messages, two voicemails and one very wordy e-mail from Regina waiting for him.

He ignored the text messages and the voicemail – trying to also ignore whatever his stomach was doing at the sudden realization that there was nothing from Emma – and clicked on the e-mail. She’d sent that last and was clearly determined to make sure he knew she didn’t appreciate being ignored.

The actual coach of the Colorado Avalanche called me yesterday. On my phone. My cellphone. My actual cellphone. Not my work one. Don’t ask me how that happened, because I have no idea, but I just thought you should have some understanding of what I’m putting up with for you.

Because the actual coach of the Colorado Avalanche called my actual cellphone yesterday to ACTUALLY tell me how impressed he is with your game and that he thinks you can do a lot of good things in mountain air.

He used those words.

If that’s not enough to get you to want to stay as far away from the coach of the Colorado Avalanche then I don’t know what is. Anyway, they want to start throwing out some numbers and they’re serious – both in the idea of the number throwing and how big those numbers are. I don’t even know where Colorado is getting this kind of money.

I guess they’re willing to mortgage their entire team for you. Despite those garbage turnovers in the neutral zone last night. I hope Arthur yelled at you and then I hope Robin yelled at you too because he’s even more mad at you for all of this than I am.

And I, at least, get paid for it.

I need you to tell me what to say to Colorado. I tried to at least pretend like you were still interested in wasting your life with mountain air or whatever this coach was trying to sell me on, but if they come up with an even bigger number it might almost be something to consider. Maybe.

Also Ruby Lucas is going to kill you as soon as you get back to New York, so be prepared for that. - R

Killian read the message twice more before sighing softly and pushing off the floor. The door creaked slightly when he opened it, but it was still early and none of them moved when he pushed into the abandoned hallway, sinking onto the floor just outside the door.

He stared at his phone, eyes moving across the message again and his mind drifted back to the alley and Los Angeles and the way Emma’s eyes had ducked down when she’d tried to give him an out – If you get a good offer you should consider it.

The Avs would give him more than the Rangers could. He wasn’t front office, but he wasn’t an idiot either – no matter what Regina said.

He knew how cap space worked and what Robin had signed for last year and they’d probably want to get Phillip off his rookie deal if he kept setting up the rest of them the way he had been. There wasn’t that much money in New York.

There wasn’t that much money anywhere else in the league.

Killian sighed, resting his head against the wall as he tried to take a deep breath. But his lungs felt tight and his mouth was dry and he’d be willing to stay in New York for pennies now.

We.

She’d used the word we and he was holding onto that no matter what, even if she didn’t answer his text messages or offer up any unknown facts about the entire Vancouver Canucks organization.

He’d lied about plenty of things in the last few months – had lied about plenty of things even when plied with alcohol the night before – but he hadn’t lied about her and, well, Ariel was right. He absolutely looked at Emma like she was the center of the universe.

And his fingers were moving across his phone screen before he could stop himself, typing out a number he only vaguely realized he’d memorized weeks before.

It rang four times before it went to voicemail.

Hi, you’ve reached Emma Swan. I’m not here at the moment, but if you leave a message at the beep, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

“Swan,” Killian said, voice scratchy from sleep and shitty champagne. “I just...I know you’re swamped and you’ve probably got more meetings with Zelena today, but, well, I just, I wanted to talk to you. And this swing couldn’t have come at a worse time and I sleep like shit when you’re not here and I love you. More than anything. And, well, that’s it. Really. I love you. We’ve got walkthroughs, but I’ll be around….” The voicemail cut him off, asking if he was satisfied with his message and Killian hung up before he could even be tempted to delete it.

None of that had been a lie.

He hit reply on Regina’s e-mail, far too aware that he’d probably get more voicemails for responding to that and not her actual calls, thumb racing across the screen as he typed out his answer.

I’m not going Gina. Tell them that.

He tried not to think about it. Really. He did. It didn’t work very well – the weight of his silent phone and distinct lack of text messages practically making it all but impossible to move during walkthroughs and morning skate the next day.

Although that might have been the absolutely ridiculous amount of champagne he’d consumed in between games. Or maybe it was Robin’s constantly worried gaze, eyes lingering on Killian even after he’d skated to the other end of the ice and he could feel it even then, going through warmups in Vancouver without so much as anything from Emma.

And Killian wasn’t frustrated by that so much as he was disappointed in himself and how easily it had been to fuck everything up simply by trying to make sure he did the opposite.

Gina hadn’t responded to his e-mail, no update on on Colorado or New York or any of the dozen teams that, just a few weeks ago, had been willing to sign him well before the deadline.

It wasn’t just Robin staring at him either. Killian knew it would happen as soon as he got on the ice, was braced for the hit already, but that didn’t make him any less cautious when it came to lining up next to Humbert as soon as the puck dropped.

It didn’t make any of the hits hurt any less either – and there were a lot of them.

The first one made his breath catch, Humbert’s stick hitting just above the pads that covered his back and his shoulder blades, pushing Killian up against the boards in the corner of the zone. The second one hurt like hell – and got Humbert two minutes for slashing when the blade of his stick hit the one spot on Killian’s leg that didn’t have pads.

Humbert had been aiming for it. Killian didn’t blame him.

The third hit was absolutely going to leave a bruise, a cross-check that didn’t get called when Killian tried to move in front of the crease on a power play. Humbert didn’t stop hitting him, moving from his back down his thighs and then back up again for good measure, like he was trying to connect on a predetermined list of Killian’s less-padded body parts.

He probably was.

The whistle blew and Killian hadn’t even noticed that the puck had moved by his skate, finding its way past the Canucks goalie until the light when off and Humbert hit him again.

“Jesus Christ,” Killian sighed, spinning around so quickly he hit his own skates with ice. “Relax, I get the message.” Humbert shook his head and he was sweating, beads of moisture moving down his forehead towards the chin strap of his helmet and Killian nearly backed up under the force of his glare. “I honestly couldn’t care less,” Humbert hissed, knocking his stick against Killian’s ankle again.

“You’re going to get another penalty.” “Again. I don’t care.”

Killian groaned and one of the refs was blowing his whistle now, Phillip lingering just a few feet away by the faceoff circle. He tried to brush the rookie off, but that only seemed to draw him into the conversation.

“Everything ok, Cap?” Phillip asked, eyes falling on Humbert immediately. Humbert had, easily, five inches on Phillip.

“You got bodyguards now, Jones?” Humbert asked and the laughter in his voice made Killian’s grip tighten, eyes narrowing just a bit. “Where’s Scarlet? At least he’s got an almost threatening reputation.” “It’s fine, Rook,” Killian said. “Go change.” That one ref was still blowing his whistle shouting something that almost sounded like if you’re going to fight, go ahead and do it, there’s still a game here. Humbert lifted both his hands in the air, an unspoken challenge that Killian wasn’t particularly interested in.

“No,” Killian continued, shaking his head as he moved back towards his bench. “We’re not doing this. Back up Humbert.” “No, no, no,” Humbert argued quickly, tossing his stick to his side and the crowd actually ooooohed. Killian tried not to groan again. “We are absolutely doing this. Come on. Let’s go, you’ve got to take your gloves off, there are rules.” “I’m not fighting you, Humbert.” “Well, that’s too bad since I’m pretty certain I’m going to fight you.” He threw his gloves in the same direction as his stick and Killian closed his eyes, sighing softly – until he felt a fist collide with the side of his face. And then something kind of snapped. Fuck, that hurt.

Humbert had the front of his jersey in his hand, tugging on the laces until he pulled it away from Killian’s pads and he was actually shaking him, trying to get him off his skates before he could land another punch. Killian shook his right hand, glove falling onto the ice and the crowd, somehow, got louder.

His pulse thudded in his ears, or maybe that was just Humbert’s fist, and Killian felt his own fingers collide with a jaw, wincing slightly at the contact. He tried to avoid using his left hand – far too aware of what Ariel would say if he did – keeping it trained at his side and Humbert didn’t seem to care, simply intent on hitting Killian’s face as many times as possible before the refs intervened.

It took forever, far longer than any fight Killian had ever been involved in before and he landed a few more blows to Humbert’s chest before he heard the whistles and felt hands on the back of his jersey, tugging him towards the penalty box.

“Here,” the ref said, tossing Killian the one glove he’d managed to get off before the league official closed the door.

They both got five minutes and if Emma had been mad before, she was probably furious now – this seemed to decidedly fall into the realm of rescue. Killian slumped down slightly, earning a curious glance from the watcher in the box and even Humbert looked over at the sound.

“You alright?” he asked.

“You’re asking me that now? You just tried to take my head off.” “Nah, not really. It could have been a lot worse.” “Sure.” “I mean you’re not concussed or anything. And you absolutely deserved it. I saw the story.” “Everyone saw the story,” Killian muttered bitterly and Humbert chuckled softly under his breath. “I’m not going.” “Oh, I know that.” That caught him by surprise. He sat up a bit straighter, ignoring whatever the league guy was doing with his face, slightly scandalized that Killian and Humbert were talking in the middle of five-minute majors. “How?” Killian asked.

“Because you look at Emma like she’s the goddamn sun.”

They won again and Arthur didn’t actually break any whiteboards in another visitor’s locker room, but Killian had barely sat down, groaning softly to try and untie his laces before Ariel practically pulled him off the bench.

He hadn’t quite memorized the Canucks visitor’s locker room, but Ariel very clearly had a plan, muttering under her breath as she kept her hand trained on Killian’s back, pushing him down a short hallway and around a corner until he nearly collided with a table pressed up against the wall.

“Sit,” Ariel commanded, nodding towards the table and Killian hadn’t noticed she actually had a bag of ice in her other hand. She nearly threw the bag of ice at him, thrusting her hand forward, but she seemed to think twice before the bag collided with the bruise Killian was certain had blossomed just underneath his eye.

“It’s fine, Red,” he muttered. There was that word again.

“Sure it is. Did you know he was going to try and kill you?” “He didn’t.”

“Your face says otherwise.” She moved with a speed that almost impressed him, grabbing another roll of gauze and pushing his hand against his cheek until he hissed in air through his teeth, grimacing at the cold against the bruise. “Hand,” Ariel continued.

“Which one?” “Either one.” Killian held out his right hand and Ariel lifted one eyebrow, eyeing him critically, but she didn’t actually ask the question he knew she wanted to. He appreciated that. “He wasn’t trying to kill me,” Killian said. “You know that, right?” “Yeah,” Ariel admitted. “Still didn’t make it any less scary.” “You worried about me, Red?”

“No,” she said quickly, but she couldn’t quite look him in the eye either. “She ever call you back?” “Who?” “Killian!” He shook his head. “Nah, but she’s busy. She’s trying to save the game.” “I heard you did that. Got her a spot at the Piers.” “Who told you that?” “Gina. And told me that the Avs are ready to offer you a ridiculous amount of money to come out there. You tell El and Liam that?” “Gina needs to learn how to stop talking,” Killian said, shifting the ice against his cheek. God, this bruise was enormous.

“She’s worried too. And she didn’t tell Robin, that’s something.” “I guess,” he admitted. “And no, I didn’t tell El or Liam. I’m not going to Colorado. They don’t want me to go to Colorado.” “That’s not true at all.” Killian narrowed his eyes – as much as he could with a bag of ice pressed up against his face and Ariel groaned, tapping on his left hand once she’d finished wrapping up his right. “It’s not,” she said. “They just want you to be happy. And you are. Happier than I can remember seeing you ever.” The argument was on the tip of his tongue, the certainty that he’d messed up again and Emma hadn’t called back and Graham Humbert hitting him was nothing compared to what Ruby Lucas would do to him as soon as the team plane landed in New York next week.

He didn’t get a chance. His phone rang instead.

Emma.

He froze, eyes wide and ice practically pushing its way into his cheek painfully as he kept staring at his phone.

“God, Killian, answer her,” Ariel shouted. He nodded slowly, reaching out towards the phone and it kind of felt like he’d just drank another bottle of shitty champagne. Killian’s hand shook when he picked up the phone, far too aware of Ariel’s eyes on him and she muttered some excuse about checking on Will’s leg before she sprinted back towards the locker room.

“Swan?” he asked and his voice was shaking too.

“Hey,” she said softly, the sound of cars and maybe an ambulance in the background.

“Where are you? You’re not still at the Garden are you?” “It’s almost three in the morning here.” “That didn’t answer my question.” Emma laughed under her breath and he could nearly see the smile on her face. “No, I’m not. I almost left at a normal time actually.” “What’s normal in this situation?” “Before midnight.” “Swan.” “What? That’s an honest answer.” “Swan, what time?” “Like eight,” she said. “Eight thirty. Ish. I had to meet with Zelena to break down the schedule for everything at the Piers.” “Did that go alright?” Killian asked and Emma laughed again, humming in the back of her throat. A car honked and it was never that loud inside Mary Margaret’s loft. “Where are you, Swan? For real.” “I’m in the hallway.” “The hallway?” “It’s almost three in the morning,” she said again.

“Which would be a fair point if you were actually asleep,” Killian muttered, smiling in spite of himself when he heard Emma’s soft, frustrated sigh. He’d fallen back into rescue rather easily. “And you didn’t answer my question.” “Which one, there’s been so many.” “You’re the one who called me,” he pointed out, squeezing his eyes closed when he realized what he’d said. “That sounded worse than I wanted it to.” “No, no, I know what you meant.” “And?” “And what?” “And how did your meeting with Zelena go? Did Hopper give you the good rink?” She exhaled into the phone and Killian wondered if she’d been holding her breath too, his lungs were practically burning with the oxygen he was keeping in. “Zelena went fine,” Emma said. “She thinks the Piers are a good idea too.” “Do you?” “That’s another question.” “And one I’d love an answer to.” “Yeah,” Emma answered. “I do. It’s an incredible space and Hopper was more excited than just about anyone in the front office has been about any of it. He showed me your signed photos three different times.” “Jeez,” Killian sighed.

“It was nice. Bordering close to tooth-rottingly sweet.” “Is that why you called?” Emma made a noise, clicking her tongue and Killian pressed the ice against his cheek again. “Fuck,” he mumbled.

“That’s why,” Emma said.

“What was that, Swan?” “That’s why I called,” she explained and her voice didn’t shake, but he could hear the nerves there on the other side of a totally different country. “He shouldn’t have hit you. You didn’t want to fight him, I saw you shake your head.” “You watched the game?” He absolutely shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was.

“Of course. I...I watched the other night too. I just…” “I know, love,” Killian said, voice catching just before the nickname or the endearment or whatever they were calling it. Emma made a noise on the other end, a mix between a sigh and something that was very obviously disappointment.

“It was a good goal. Yesterday’s, I mean. Like a ridiculous shot, even with the turnovers in the neutral zone.” “You and Arthur should team up with your post-game speeches, Swan. He wasn’t very happy with the turnovers either.” “Good goal though and you totally screened on that power play, that’s why Phillip scored.” “Ah, it was a good shot.” “So self-deprecating. Seems a bit out of character” “No, Swan,” Killian argued. “Pretty par for the course if we’re being honest.” She made that disappointed noise again and Killian felt his grip loosen on the ice that, somehow, hadn’t started to melt yet. “Is your face ok though?” Emma asked. “And your hand?” “My face is fine if not just a bit purple and both of my hands are also fine. If not a little bruised as well.” “I’m sorry.” “For what?”

“This is my fault. Graham he...I mean he hated Neal and he couldn’t really beat him up and I didn't really even think about it…” “You shouldn’t have,” Killian said quickly, trying to erase that worry in her voice. “And you don’t. I’m fine. I knew it was going to happen before I got on the ice.” “Wait, what?” Fuck. Fuck and shit and then fuck again. The worry in Emma’s voice was gone, but it had been replaced by something else entirely – anger. He shouldn’t have said anything.

“Humbert may or may not have suggested he was ready to defend your honor over the weekend,” Killian said quickly, trying to rush over the words as fast as possible.

“Are you kidding me?” “No.” “I don’t need him to do that.” “Trust me, Swan, no one is more aware of that than I am.” “Is that why you didn’t want to fight him?” “No,” Killian answered immediately. “I didn’t want to fight him because I knew he was right.”

The phone went dead or maybe she hung up on him and Killian wasn’t certain which one was worse – he pulled the phone away glancing down at the screen and neither one was right. She just hadn’t answered him.

“Swan,” he said cautiously. “Are you ok?” “Fine.” “Emma.” He could hear her breath catch and she must have stood up because the floor creaked loudly in the background. She was pacing. “Don’t do that,” she whispered.

“What?”

“You never call me that. I hate it.” Killian bit his lip and, well, if his whole face was going to be bruised he might as well cut up his lip too. He groaned when he slumped forward, the bruises he hadn’t actually seen on his back and his chest protesting at the movement.

He didn’t care.

“Ok,” he said, not sure he remembered another word in the entire English language.

And he’d called her Emma when he meant something, when he couldn’t linger in nicknames and sarcasm and the bravado that she’d seen through from the very beginning. Every single one of his internal organs clenched at the idea that it didn’t mean quite as much as he thought it had.

“You’re really ok?” Emma asked. He could hear her key in the lock. “Did Ariel look at your hand, yet?” “Is that why you called, Swan?”

“I was worried.” That should have helped – his organs should have returned to their normal and slightly healthier positions, but they didn’t. They stayed as clenched as ever, Emma’s voice not quite ringing honest even several thousand miles away.

Killian closed his eyes and shifted the ice again as Mary Margaret’s door closed behind Emma. “I’ve got to go,” she said.

“Yeah, sure, Swan.” “The Piers are really good. It’s a great view and enough space. We’re going to send out official announcements later this week.” “I’m glad.” “Right,” she said, clicking her teeth on the final letter.

“It’s late.” He was just telling her facts now. She’d told him it was almost three in the morning twice already. She knew what time it was. And he couldn’t remember a single conversation, even that first one in the back corner of Eric’s restaurant, that was quite as difficult as this one. Goddamn western swing.

He wanted to go home.

He wanted to kiss Emma Swan.

He wanted a fucking contract extension.

“Also true,” Emma said, keeping her voice low with a presumably sleeping David and Mary Margaret just a few feet away. “You better go before Ariel attacks you in the middle of the Rogers.” “Already done. She was wrapping my hand when you called.” “You needed to get your hand wrapped?”

Killian was almost positive he didn’t mistake the change in tone, didn’t imagine the way her voice caught just a bit and maybe, maybe, he hadn’t messed this up completely. Hope was a strange feeling in the middle of the Rogers Arena.

Or it was until Emma spoke again.

She took a deep breath and she needed her own apartment if only because the couch in Mary Margaret’s was absolutely some sort of torture device, creaking loudly when Emma sat down. “I’ve got to go,” she said again.

“Ok,” Killian muttered.

“I’ll, um, safe flight to Edmonton.” “I’ll let you know when we land?” “You don’t have to do that. You’ll probably be busy.” “It’s ok, Swan. I want to.” “Whatever you want to do.” Killian sighed again and Ariel had reappeared at some point, something that looked a hell of a lot like pity in her expression. “I’ll talk to you later?” “Of course.” The line went dead and he didn’t throw his phone at the wall, which felt as much like a victory as the one he’d actually been a part of earlier that night.

“You ok?” Ariel asked, approaching him slowly and tugging the half-melted ice away from his cheek.

“Fine.”

She didn’t call him out for the lie it absolutely was and Killian didn’t argue when she wrapped up his left hand.

#cs ff #captain swan ff #ouat ff #cs #csbb #blue line #will scarlet and ariel teaming up to get their parents back together is my favorite #and maybe scarlet instagram'ed it #and maybe arthur got pissed about it #and maybe emma saw that #maybe i'll write it #MAYBE

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xoruffitup · 6 years

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TLJ: That Post-Fight Proposal

I originally wrote this meta on a post with a video clip of the “It’s time to let old things die … I want you to join me” scene that was since taken down… But I wanted to revisit it and repost it because I cannot stop going over this scene in my head.

I continue to find new angles tying it into the over-arching story. The more I think about it, the more it seems that this scene cements the future of the Rey/Kylo dynamic (romantic, platonic, or however interpreted) as the determinant of both balance in the Force and peace in the galaxy. Furthermore, the more convinced I am that in this scene, these two characters reached a place unknown to any SW characters previously: This moment of genuine attraction and draw between the two figures supposed to represent the opposite sides of an age-long conflict; When I was literally on the edge of my seat because I was right there at the precipice with them, painfully aware that together they might completely shatter all of the distinctions and laws that seemed to hold this world together… and nevertheless feeling an illogical desire for Rey to take his damn hand and let everything burn around them, just as Kylo proposed.

The recurring theme of the film has been the “last Jedi”/the end of the Jedi order as we know it, and the new grey area between the diametrically-opposed Light and Dark sides that might replace the polarity we’ve previously known. It will be up to the next generation of Force-users to build a new understanding of the Force, and maybe a new world around that which can finally escape the recurring cycle of Totalitarian Empire vs Freedom Fighting Rebels in which this world seems to be trapped.

Rey and Kylo are each other’s “equals” in the respective light and dark. Through their self-exploration of their own powers and the conflict between light and dark within themselves, they are tapping into the Force in ways which would have horrified their predecessors. Luke experienced that catastrophic moment of instinctive fear when he sensed the darkness lurking in Ben - And he reacted with similar shock when he helped Rey tap into the Force and she “went straight to the dark without even trying to stop herself.” By witnessing Luke’s reaction and his rebuff, Rey thought that darker side of her was something she needed to keep at bay and remain wary of.

Fast-forward to this scene: The aftermath of Rey and Kylo joining forces so completely and seamlessly, it was like watching a ballet of perfect precision and balance. Ben has broken all his existent laws, thrown aside everything he held dear and had clung to before he met Rey - In order to bring this moment and their union into fruition. He is operating completely in the grey area beyond what’s familiar and established in this world as we know it. For that short but so! incredibly! cathartic! scene of them fighting together, we saw what their joint potential could be: The true union and balance between the light and dark sides of the Force. As we see, it’s a power that might be great enough to finally do away with despots and enable a world without the existence of absolute, inhuman evil represented by the Sith.

This moment of total, unprecedented suspension where everything and anything could be possible is what the whole film has built up to. It’s possibly the single scariest, most challenging moment any Star Wars character has ever faced: The complete unknown. Ben clings to a guiding purpose. It’s the same purpose that propelled him to bring this moment into being - His all-powerful desire to protect and be with Rey, no matter what. That is what he clings to, and in this moment it is the only thing sacred to him. Forget the Jedi, forget the Sith, forget the Resistance - Their union is the only thing that matters. It is unprecedented in its transformative power, and in his eyes all else pales before it. I think it’s especially telling that he includes the Sith in the things to be left behind. He’s not asking Rey to join the dark side; He’s asking her to step out into the complete unknown with him to build something entirely new - Something only they can create together.

But Rey still holds attachments in the order she knows. She is such a naturally empathetic person, she cannot help her thoughts being split between Ben and her friends in the Resistance currently fighting for their lives. She cannot seriously consider building this new world with him, when that means abandoning an old world where her friends are relying on her. Ironically, because she is a stronger person than Ben (she has healthy relationships with others, she can keep her own emotions in control), she is unable to really see the vast new horizon calling to Ben in this scene. She doesn’t fully grasp the full meaning behind his words. In them she hears only destruction. Ben has not yet changed his ways enough for her to recognize an equal potential of creation. Skip to after this scene: Kylo basically loses it. He had been standing at the precipice of everything he had ever known, willing to leap into the dark void of the unknown, so long as she did it with him. He gave up everything that once guided him - for her. He feels that she refused to do the same. She backed down. But perhaps for good reason - She has not yet fully given up on the old order, like Ben has. To him, everything in it failed him. He already rejected it through his attempts to “kill the past.” But Rey, even after her own precipice moment when Ben makes her accept the fact that she comes from nothing, from parents who did not love her, even then she still believes in good in the world. And her belief is not in vain.

Luke and Yoda both recognized the time for the end of the Jedi Order as it has existed until now. In Rey, they seem to recognize someone who can bring much-needed balance to the Force, and thereby to the continuing opposition between good and evil in the galaxy. She and Kylo Ren, together, have the ability to bring this necessary new order into being. After all, it is only through her force-bond interactions with Kylo and the deep solace she finds in him that she musters the strength to face the darkest, hardest-to-swallow parts of herself and her past. Only Kylo has made her feel that she can go on after that acceptance, still at peace with herself. He has helped her recognize and accept the dark within her and incorporate it into herself - The same way I’m convinced she will eventually help him embrace the light within himself. And in the larger picture, the same way they each must find that gray-area balance point within themselves, they must find the balance point between destroying everything rotten and oppressive in their world, and preserving the sources of love, understanding, and peace. There certainly needs to be a major shake-up, but not simply for destruction’s sake. Like Rose says, remember we need to fight for what we love. Rey could not take Ben’s hand in this scene because this was NOT the balance point yet. Ben is still too focused on destruction - Rey too much on preservation. Perhaps Episode IX will advance their individual stories far enough for them to find that balance point together! All I know is that these two certainly covered a lot of uncharted ground in this film already, and Luke, along with the attention given to corruption and exploitation through Rose and Finn’s storyline, definitely seems to be pushing towards a major rebirth of the whole Star Wars world as we know it. This moment in Last Jedi was just a bit too early for such a big paradigm shift. Ben is still a little too lost in his inner turmoil (He MUST survive and find his redemption! He simply must!), and Rey perhaps isn’t ready yet to take on a role of such huge importance. But GOD do I have hope for these two!! I’m convinced they can achieve incredible things together. Including changing the world. :’)

#Star Wars #Star Wars TLJ #Reylo #Star Wars analysis #Star Wars meta #The Last Jedi

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andrewmrudd79 · 7 years

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$453k in 33 Days: A Guide to Launching on Kickstarter – Guest Post by John Lee Dumas

John Lee Dumas. You’ve probably heard the name since he has one of the most popular business podcasts in the world, Entrepreneurs on Fire. But did you know he has also led the sixth most funded publishing campaign and the second most funded journal on Kickstarter ever with his launch of The Freedom Journal? Amazing.

Because of the Kickstarter success John Lee Dumas has had, I knew that one day I’d ask him for advice on how he did all of that. Well, that day has come, and I’m excited to have John (and Kate too!) share their knowledge publicly here in a guest post on SPI to help me and anyone else thinking about going down the crowdfunding route with their new product idea. Take it away, John!

In January 2015, I had an idea.

But, as you know, entrepreneurs have a lot of ideas. This idea, however, was different. I knew this idea was different because my audience, Fire Nation, told me so. Fire Nation played a very critical role in the success of my idea, as you will see throughout this guide.

At the time I’m writing this, it’s been eighteen months since I launched my idea on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform for a vast range of projects. My Kickstarter campaign ran for thirty-three days, and since the launch I’ve made over $1 million in revenue.

What was my idea?

To create a hardcover journal called The Freedom Journal: Accomplish Your #1 Goal in 100 Days.

Why Launch on Kickstarter?

Typically people launch on Kickstarter for two reasons:

To prove their concept (they don’t have an existing audience to help with this part), and/or;

To generate revenue so they can create their concept (they don’t have funds to cover what it would cost to create it).

I already had both of these things: an audience and the funds to create The Freedom Journal on my own. But I knew there had to be more behind why one would choose to launch on Kickstarter.

After some research, I decided to launch on Kickstarter for the following reasons:

Trust

People trust the Kickstarter platform, and I know that, like Amazon, if backers are unhappy with their decision, they have a simple way to request and receive refunds directly through Kickstarter.

“Backers” are the individuals who support a project on Kickstarter.

Exposure

I knew Kickstarter’s reach would go way beyond what I could muster on my own.

Crowd-driven marketing

There are A LOT of people who would probably never find me or The Freedom Journal on their own. With the help of those who discovered The Freedom Journal on the Kickstarter platform, the campaign had a great opportunity to receive a lot of word-of-mouth marketing.

An event-like aspect I wanted this launch to be BIG.

Pledge levels and special rewards

Instead of re-creating the wheel with an entire product suite, I would be able to offer multiple things in one place.

Community

It wouldn’t just be me on this journey alone. Kickstarter provided a platform where I could create community around The Freedom Journal.

Here are a few stats that back up my research:

Fun Fact: I have accounted for .0023 percent of the total dollars pledged to Kickstarter projects.

Of all of these numbers, the one that really got me is the Repeat backers statistic: well over four million people revisit Kickstarter and pledge to multiple campaigns.

That’s a lot of people coming back to Kickstarter to search for campaigns. Turns out I was right about there being more behind why one would choose to launch on Kickstarter.

Each of the reasons why I chose to launch on Kickstarter contributed to $453k in revenue in thirty-three days and The Freedom Journal becoming the sixth most funded publishing campaign of all time.

How to Launch on Kickstarter

Throughout this post I’m going to share the step-by-step approach my team and I followed to launch The Freedom Journal on Kickstarter. That way, if you’re thinking about doing your own launch, you’ll know exactly what to do. You can think of this like your own guide to launching on Kickstarter!

But before we dive in, I want to be sure to make one thing crystal clear: launching on Kickstarter is no small feat. It takes time, planning, patience, and a lot of work. The great news is that it’s totally worth it!

As is true with any big project, breaking down the steps you need to take in order to accomplish your goal is important.

Let’s think of you launching on Kickstarter as your big project and end goal, and from there break it down into four phases:

The Idea Phase

The Brainstorming & Planning Phase

The Hiring Phase

The Marketing & Launch Phase

Here’s what should happen in each of these phases:

The Idea Phase

Every project—no matter how big or small—starts with an idea.

While this phase may seem like a minor one, it’s actually the most important: this is the foundation of your entire project and requires special attention. Get this phase wrong, and it’s going to be very difficult—and nearly impossible—to make your launch successful.

Successfully completing the Idea Phase includes the following steps:

Deciding what it is you want to create

Talking to others about your idea

Becoming crystal clear on your goal

Getting some type of proof of concept (typically in the form of money, but in my case it was through building an interest list)

Let’s do a deep dive into each of these steps.

Deciding What It Is You Want to Create

If you’re interested in learning more about launching on Kickstarter, chances are you already have an idea in mind. Whatever your idea may be, an important piece of the puzzle is making sure it’s something you’re passionate about.

As I mentioned earlier, launching on Kickstarter takes time, planning, patience, and a lot of work. So if you’re going to put a ton of work into launching your idea on Kickstarter, you want to make sure it’s not something you’re going to lose interest in six months or a year from now.

Granted, the way I approached my Kickstarter launch was a bit different from most. I essentially “did it backwards.”

But to give you an idea of the timeline, it took me about one year from the moment I had my idea to create The Freedom Journal to actually launching it on Kickstarter.

I’m going to be touching on each of these milestones in this guide, but here’s a sneak peek at my timeline:

Note: I used this image of my timeline on my actual Kickstarter page to help tell the story of The Freedom Journal and how it came to be. We’ll be getting into everything that’s required to create an engaging Kickstarter page later.

Your timeline will likely vary depending on how you’re approaching your launch on Kickstarter. For example, maybe you’re going at it in more of a traditional sense, meaning you aren’t going to actually create your concept until your campaign is done and it’s a success.

If that’s the case, I would still plan on your pre-launch period taking anywhere from three to four months.

There are A LOT of moving pieces! Once you’ve decided what it is you want to create, it’s time to dig in and confirm you’re on the right track.

Talking to Others About Your Idea

Whether it’s with your family, friends, an online community, or members of a networking group, talking about your idea will help with a few things:

It will make it real

It will, by default, solicit feedback

That feedback will encourage further research

I strongly believe there is power in putting your idea out into the world. It not only makes the idea real, but it cements accountability. Once others know about your idea, they’ll continue to ask about it, which can serve as important accountability for you along the way. When you know others will be asking you about your idea, you’re more likely to continue making progress.

Talking to others about your idea will also help you solicit feedback. Naturally, when you share an idea with people, they want to give you “their take.” Some of the feedback may not amount to much, but keep your ears open for recurring themes and any confusion that might come up over and over again.

The questions you receive from those who you’re sharing your idea with can result in clarity, which means you’ll be able to talk more clearly about your idea, your mission, and your end goal. But don’t just take the feedback you receive at face value. Actually use the feedback you receive to become more curious about your idea and how it fits into the marketplace or industry you’re in.

Some questions to ask yourself:

What other products already exist that are similar to my idea?

How do the creators market to, sell to, and engage their audience?

How will my idea stand out in a unique way?

Putting your idea out into the world is your stake in the ground. You’re making it real, you’re gaining valuable feedback, and you’re researching what else is out there. A combination of these things will result in a crystal clear understanding of your goal.

As a direct result of putting my idea out into the world, I not only accomplished everything above, but I also connected with three key team members who I couldn’t have launched on Kickstarter without—all just from talking about my idea.

But we’ll dive deeper into the Hiring Phase in just a minute.

Becoming Crystal Clear on Your Goal

It’s incredibly difficult to start taking steps toward accomplishing your goal if you’re not crystal clear on what that goal is.

You have your idea, and you’ve shared it with others, gathered feedback, and done some research. Now it’s time to write it out on paper.

Given everything you’ve learned about your idea and what it is you want to create, what is your S.M.A.R.T. goal that will help you make it happen?

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bound

Take fifteen to twenty minutes to actually write out your S.M.A.R.T. goal. Having this in place will serve you over and over again on your journey to launching on Kickstarter.

Getting Proof of Concept

You have your idea, you’ve gathered feedback and done your research, and you’ve formulated your S.M.A.R.T. goal. Now it’s time to get proof of concept.

In most cases, getting proof of concept means you’re sharing an idea and then asking your audience to pay you money for it. The saying, “people speak with their wallets” is SO TRUE.

However, depending on how you’re approaching your launch on Kickstarter, your strategy for getting proof of concept might vary. For me, getting proof of concept came in the form of an interest list.

Remember in the very beginning of this post when I said that Fire Nation played a very critical role in the success of my idea? Well, I say that because Fire Nation actually gave me my idea.

Let me explain.

I launched my podcast Entrepreneurs On Fire in September 2012. Since that day I’ve continued to provide my audience with free, valuable, and consistent content (to the tune of over 1,700 episodes published to date!).

As a result, I’ve grown an incredibly loyal audience, Fire Nation, who turns to me to ask questions, share their struggles, and celebrate their wins.

After about two years of intent listening, it hit me: one of the most commonly asked questions I get from Fire Nation is:

“What’s the one thing that sets the successful entrepreneurs who you interview apart from everyone else?”

My answer:

Their ability to set and accomplish goals.

Because I had heard this same question thousands of times, I knew the answer was incredibly valuable to my audience. Otherwise, that same question wouldn’t have come up over and over again.

That was my first proof of concept: my audience needed help when it came to setting and accomplishing goals. But I knew this first piece in and of itself wasn’t enough for me to go and invest thousands of dollars in such a huge project.

And so I set up a landing page where I shared my idea for The Freedom Journal with Fire Nation, and I asked them on that page to sign up for an interest list if they wanted to learn more. Nearly 10,000 individuals entered their email address, giving me a rather LARGE proof of concept— enough to call it ready to move forward.

That’s when I set my S.M.A.R.T. goal to launch The Freedom Journal on Kickstarter in January 2016 and to have 10,000 copies printed and ready to ship.

Sound like a familiar “idea validation” process?

That’s because it works, and countless successful entrepreneurs will back me up on this—Pat Flynn included.

But as Zig Ziglar says, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

Next up comes The Brainstorming & Planning Phase.

Whew! We know this is a lot of info to take in, and we’re just getting started! If you’re enjoying the content and interested in joining our free course on How to Launch on Kickstarter, be sure to grab your spot here.

The Brainstorming & Planning Phase

The Brainstorming & Planning Phase is where you’ll start to put the many moving pieces and steps you need to take together. As you create your plan, you’ll also be setting critical due dates to help you reach your goal.

The Brainstorming Process

The brainstorming part of this phase is pretty simple. Well, simple, but not easy. Here’s how it goes:

Take out of a piece of paper, and just start writing. Write out every step you know you need to take (or think you need to take) in order to accomplish your goal.

This not only involves brainstorming on your own, but also researching and reaching out to others who you know have already been where you want to go.

Here’s an example of my initial brainstorming, starting with the steps I knew I needed to take, and then also accounting for any research I’d need to do:

Sometimes all the steps you need to take to successfully finish a project or reach your goal won’t be completely clear, or even obvious. And sometimes you might think you have all the steps down, but then extra ones start popping up here and there—things you simply didn’t think about.

That’s okay!

The most important part of the brainstorming process is that you’re gaining as much knowledge and insight about the steps you need to take as possible. This will prevent you from being massively surprised along the way.

Now that you have at least some of your steps and ideas out on paper, continue on with your research and ask questions to those who have already been where you want to go.

Once complete, it’s time to start creating your project plan.

The Planning Process

Your project plan is at the core of everything. It will include individual deliverables, dependencies, and deadlines that will ultimately help you reach your goal on time.

This is also an important time to really dig into what your budget will be for your project.

Starting with all the knowledge and insights gained during your brainstorming process, begin to lay it all out. That might mean writing it out on paper, documenting it in an Excel or Google spreadsheet, or inputting it in your favorite project management software (I love Asana for this).

The goal is to get everything in one place, in a logical order, with due dates attached. Again, it’s okay if you don’t know ALL of the steps right now. In order to get started, you just have to know the first step.

Another critical part of the Brainstorming & Planning Phase is figuring out what type of help you’ll need along the way. Now that you have your plan laid out, you might see there are a lot of steps you’re not really sure how to execute.

Whether it’s that you’ve never done them before, it’s not in your “wheelhouse” to do them, or you simply don’t want to do them, there will be a number of things you’ll need to delegate. Now is the time to identify those things, because as you start to execute your plan, you’ll be moving quickly into The Hiring Phase.

The Hiring Phase

The Hiring Phase is where you get to step into your project manager role and start delegating! Perhaps you have someone else who is managing this project for you, and if so, they should pay close attention to this phase.

It is here that you (or your project manager) will be responsible for:

Identifying what you want and/or need to delegate

Reaching out to people you know or have been referred to for help

Setting expectations with your team so everyone is on the same page

Also, keep in mind there will likely be new steps that come up along the way, ones you didn’t anticipate or know about before.

Therefore, hiring your team may not be a single event, so be prepared to be fluid and quick on your feet if a new team member is necessary. Otherwise, your project could be delayed.

This is an EXCITING phase, because once you hire your team, it’s full speed ahead!

A Look Inside My Hiring Phase

My Hiring Phase ended up being very linear, and I was incredibly lucky to come in contact with the BEST of the best.

But it wasn’t easy. The Freedom Journal project started out strong with the help of my partner Kate, who took on the project manager role. Once I had Kate on board to help me oversee all the moving pieces, it was time to take the first step toward creation.

This is about the time we were introduced to Sutton Long, who took all my messy notes and sketches and put The Freedom Journal together for us. This introduction came as a result of me reaching out to those I knew in the industry who had recently published a book. Who better to ask about this step of the process than someone who had just been through it?

So while talking with my good friend Jonathan Fields one day, I simply made the ask:

“Who helped you format and put everything together?”

As Sutton was putting The Freedom Journal together, we quickly realized that illustrations and an actual book cover would be necessary. This is where our designer, Brandy Shea, who we have on retainer here at Entrepreneurs On Fire, came into the picture.

Note: if you do end up hiring externally for the design aspects of your project, be sure you’re explaining in detail exactly what it is you’re looking for.

If you find it difficult to describe, or you’re not really sure what you’re looking for, do some research. Find other examples and styles of products, pages, and layouts that you like, and share those with your designer.

Luckily, Brandy is very familiar with our brand.

Even still, Kate didn’t hold anything back when it came to explaining what we were looking for—in detail:

Once we had the design aspects of the project underway, Sutton started sending us final revisions of The Freedom Journal. It was at that point Whitney Henry, our editor, came into the picture.

What originally started out as a step we were going to manage in-house turned out to be a massive—and integral—piece to delegate. After all, we were printing 10,000 copies of The Freedom Journal, making a single mistake equal to 10,000 mistakes.

Here’s a look at just four of the pages that came back from Whitney with edits, (and The Freedom Journal is nearly 300 pages long!):

Luckily, we didn’t take the risk of editing in-house!

Now we had the journal put together, illustrated, and edited, it was time to find someone who could help us print it! Turns out I had recently interviewed Richie Norton on Entrepreneurs On Fire, who does product creation through his business Prouduct.

You can also check out Richie’s interview right here on Smart Passive Income.

As a result of our post-interview chat, Richie ended up being the guy behind the actual creation of the Journal—figuratively and literally:

As the creation fell into place, we turned our attention to finding team members who could help us market and launch it.

Tom Morkes, who helped us put together our entire outreach plan (a massive part of our marketing strategy), reached out to me after hearing me talk about The Freedom Journal on Entrepreneurs On Fire. With his expertise and background in helping others launch best-selling books, I was sold.

And Brandon T. Adams—our crowdfunding expert—was someone I found during my brainstorming. He proved priceless to the success of our launch given his knowledge and expertise with crowdfunding platforms.

But what if I don’t have the means to hire a team?

I’m glad you asked, because when you’re first getting started you don’t always have extra funds lying around. In this case, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and do the work!

If there’s a step in your plan you’re not sure how to execute on, there are a couple of options:

Turn to your community for help

While you may not have experience doing everything required to meet your launch goal, chances are others in your community do.

Jump into the Facebook Groups you’re a part of, or reach out to those who you’ve built relationships with in your industry or niche, and simply ask for help.

Something as simple as:

“Hey! I’m looking to publish a book. Do you happen to have any resources you can share on how I might manage the editing process?”

If you’ve been good about building your community and always providing value, you’ll have no trouble finding people who are willing to help—even if that means your friend reaching out to another friend for help.

Be resourceful

One of the greatest strengths you can have as an entrepreneur is being resourceful. Leverage the incredible access you have to the internet to do some research! Chances are there are articles or YouTube videos that can help you along the way with the steps you’re not too sure how to accomplish.

And if you get stuck—like there’s just no getting around a certain roadblock—find a way to go over it instead.

Some other things to consider if you’re managing your launch on Kickstarter solo: productivity, discipline, and FOCUS!

Yes, it is going to be a lot of work for one person to manage; and yes, it is possible.

How? By mastering productivity.

Once you have your plan and your team (even if that’s just yourself) in place, the only step left is to move into The Marketing & Launch Phase.

Let’s do this!

The Marketing & Launch Phase

The marketing strategies you choose and how you approach your launch will vary depending on what your current foundation (if any) looks like.

For example, if you don’t have an audience, reaching out to them wouldn’t be an option. Likewise, if you don’t have a big budget, advertising might not be a main focus for you.

During The Marketing & Launch Phase it’s important to follow these steps:

Set up shop on your launch platform (e.g., for me, that was Kickstarter).

Create a communications plan (i.e., how you’re going to get people there).

Start executing!

There are going to be a lot of moving pieces and important deadlines to hit during this phase, but there’s no time to panic. Keep your project plan close (and your project manager even closer).

Before I dive into some of the key marketing strategies used throughout The Freedom Journal campaign, let’s talk about how to setup your Kickstarter page.

How to Create an Engaging Kickstarter Page

As is the case with everything you create in your business, including your business itself, you have to be able to clearly talk about and present what it is you have to offer, who it’s for, and why they should care. This is critical to the success of your Kickstarter campaign, and it all happens on your Kickstarter page.

So, how do you do it?

“The best way to engage an audience and get them attracted to a Kickstarter campaign is by telling a great story through the video and the campaign page.”

This advice came straight from our crowdfunding expert Brandon.

Let’s break it down.

You know you need a great video, a great design and layout, and a great story to engage your visitor and make them want to learn more. But, of course, it’s not just as simple as slapping a few images together and talking on the mic about why you’re on Kickstarter in the first place.

Here’s the scoop.

The Story and Video

Telling a great story includes giving your audience an opportunity to identify with you, in addition to sharing a compelling reason why they should care. What can your idea do for them?

For me, that started with sharing the power of setting and accomplishing goals.

First, I hired a video guy, Caleb Wojcik, to create the video. Knowing how important this aspect of the Kickstarter page would be, I didn’t want to take any chances.

Caleb helped me storyboard the flow of the video, which quickly became our guide for the overall story we were going to share on The Freedom Journal Kickstarter page.

Once we had a storyboard to follow, it was time to press record. In the video I not only explained what The Freedom Journal is, I also shared where I was personally before and after setting and accomplishing one big goal.

I then made a promise to anyone who chose to back The Freedom Journal: The Freedom Journal won’t let you fail in setting and accomplishing your #1 goal.

Check out our Kickstarter video and notice how I give you an opportunity to identify with me as an individual, in addition to sharing a compelling reason why you should care (i.e., what The Freedom Journal can do for you).

You can also check out this behind-the-scenes video from Caleb where he talks about the process of creating the video for The Freedom Journal campaign.

So we had our video, which is incredibly powerful, but to take it a step further—so viewers weren’t just hearing the story from me—we also reached out to other industry experts and successful entrepreneurs and got their take. We asked them how setting and accomplishing goals has impacted their life and where they are today.

Each of the images below was clickable and led to a video of these individuals sharing their journey as it relates to goal-setting.

With the help of things like this image and the videos that accompanied it, every section of The Freedom Journal Kickstarter page shared another part of the story.

Remember to keep this in mind: once you have your story and your video, it’s time to implement layout and design of your Kickstarter page in a way that helps you continue to visually communicate that story.

The Layout and Design

First tip when it comes to the overall layout and design: make it easy for visitors to consume. Second tip: maximize the space available.

When I say make it easy for visitors to consume, I mean, instead of having long, chunky paragraphs and excessive and busy graphics—both of which will contribute to confusion, overwhelm, and a quick exit for your visitor—make the flow simple. This includes easy navigation down the page, which can be accomplished with a variety of content like:

Text

Images

Bullet points

Headings

In terms of maximizing your available space, you can play around with different layouts and collages that help you tell more of your story in less space.

For example, instead of using one large image to show your visitor what it is you’re creating, use multiple smaller images to help communicate what actually owning your product “looks like.”

Here, instead of just putting a single image of The Freedom Journal on the page, we’ve communicated a whole lifestyle that the visitor is now associating with owning the Journal.

And finally, a quick time-saving tip for your layout and design: mock up your design beforehand in a program like Photoshop so you can make tweaks and changes outside of the Kickstarter platform.

Once you’re happy with the overall layout and look, then you can format it in Kickstarter. This will make the implementation of your Kickstarter page design a lot easier—and quicker.

Now that you have your Kickstarter video and page created, you might be thinking:

Will I get featured by Kickstarter?

Of course the hope is YES! But you have to be realistic. There are thousands of campaigns launching on Kickstarter at all hours of the day, seven days a week. The chances of being featured are quite slim, and unfortunately there isn’t a guide on “how to get featured” (although there are certain things people suspect can help).

Case in point: we had a crowdfunding expert on our team and followed every step he recommended. Our trajectory and the consistency of our campaign was very good. Plus, we hit our funding goal of $25k in less than three hours.

But even with the success of The Freedom Journal campaign, we were never featured by Kickstarter.

Interestingly enough, one year later we launched another journal on Kickstarter called The Mastery Journal: Master Productivity, Discipline and Focus in 100 Days.

We were not only featured by Kickstarter and listed under “popular campaigns,” but we were also marked as a “Project We Love” for almost the entirety of our campaign.

Same exact process, different results.

Now that you have a beautifully crafted and engaging Kickstarter page with all the main elements, let’s talk about the strategies you can use to get people there!

Key Marketing Strategies

Here are some of the key marketing strategies I put in place leading up to and during The Freedom Journal launch:

The Ask to My Network

At the time, I had interviewed nearly 1,200 successful entrepreneurs, many of whom I went on to build great relationships with as a result of having them on my podcast.

My big ask to them?

“Will you share The Freedom Journal with your audience?”

My ask was of course a lot more detailed than this, but I essentially described what I was creating, gave them a “sneak peak” at the final product, and let them know how I felt this could benefit their audience.

To give you an idea of how seriously I took this ask, here are the stats on the emails sent, starting in early December 2015, and going all the way through February 2016:

Our 33-Day Push

This involved everything we were doing with our own content here at Entrepreneurs On Fire and included thirty-three days of Freedom Journal-focused interviews, blog posts, and emails.

That meant for every day The Freedom Journal campaign was live, Kate and I were producing multiple pieces of content directly related to The Freedom Journal and setting and accomplishing goals so we could lead people to the Kickstarter campaign.

Involving My Audience, Fire Nation

The interest campaign that helped me gain proof of concept proved to be an incredibly valuable asset during this phase, as it gave me a direct connection to those who had raised their hand and let me know they were interested. I wanted to make sure those who had expressed early interest were on this journey with me in real time—not just on the outside looking in.

In order to accomplish this, I sent out live updates around key milestones throughout our project and shared a ton of behind-the-scenes content around how the team was making it all happen.

A Partnership with Pencils of Promise

“From success to significance” is a saying I’m very passionate about, and The Freedom Journal launch was a perfect time to put it into practice.

Pencils of Promise (PoP) is an organization that helps build schools in developing countries, and I decided to partner with PoP in a special way. For every funding goal hit during our Kickstarter campaign, I personally donated $25k to PoP, which is the cost to build a school.

This partnership allowed backers to not only feel great about giving themselves the gift of The Freedom Journal, but also about helping give the gift of education to those less fortunate.

Social Media & Paid Advertising

Throughout the Kickstarter campaign I knew I wanted to run ads on social media in addition to our regular promotional efforts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

I chose Facebook as my main paid advertising channel because I felt that would give the highest return on investment (ROI).

Here’s a look at the numbers: I ran Facebook ads every day The Freedom Journal campaign was live on Kickstarter.

The total ad spend was $3,036, and the conversions from those ads resulted in over $17,000 for the campaign! That’s a 490 percent ROI!

Here are my top two performing Facebook ad images from the campaign:

The marketing strategy my team put together and executed resulted in a huge push. Remember, the more places you can be found—especially during your launch—the better.

To give you an idea of the reach of our marketing efforts, here’s what was created and published leading up to and during launch:

The Freedom Journal interest campaign (nearly 20 emails long)

A 30-day PDF giveaway (opt-in offer once we went live)

Your Goal Setting Guide giveaway (opt-in offer once we went live)

40 guest podcast appearances

11 guest blog posts

11 email updates sent out via Kickstarter

27 broadcast emails sent from Infusionsoft to our interest list

34 interviews on EOFire

10 episodes on Kate’s Take

All of this content being sent out, shared, and consumed over those thirty-three days kept us top of mind and visible in A LOT of different places.

Launch Day

Now that you have your marketing plan together, it’s time to focus on making your launch day an EVENT.

For us, that meant hosting an in-person launch party in San Diego, where we invited friends, family members, and followers to join us in celebrating the launch of The Freedom Journal.

The launch party not only generated added excitement around The Freedom Journal going live, it also gave us the opportunity to connect with some of our biggest fans and share the physical Journal with them.

John Lee Dumas/Kate Erickson launch their Freedom Journal in San Diego, CA at Co-mmunity Shared Workspace. Photo credit: Paul Gero.

This was a huge benefit for those who attended because they were the first to receive a physical copy of The Freedom Journal if they pledged at a certain level. This “open pledge” strategy at the launch party resulted in dozens of additional pledges, along with multiple up-pledges.

But that’s not all.

Once you make sure your launch day is an event, you then have to be prepared to keep your momentum going strong throughout your campaign. Otherwise, it could fizzle out fast.

Successfully keeping your momentum going is not easy; it will require a lot of creativity and time. But I can assure you (and I speak from personal experience) that much of the overall success of The Freedom Journal had to do with my dedication to Kickstarter communications and pushes throughout.

Keeping Your Kickstarter Momentum High

One strategy I used to keep the momentum going strong during The Freedom Journal campaign: The “Up Pledge” strategy. The “Up Pledge” strategy is just what it sounds like: I leveraged the access Kickstarter gave me to those who had already pledged to the campaign and gave them incentives if they upped their pledge.

For example, I might email every backer who already pledged at the one or two-pack level and tell them if they up their pledge within the next twenty-four hours to a four-pack, then I would send them a fifth copy of The Freedom Journal, for free, on the same day.

This strategy as a whole resulted in over 413 backers upping their pledges!

Another strategy I used throughout the campaign was introducing new pledge levels based on brainstorming sessions with my team and the feedback I was receiving from visitors (what people were emailing and asking me for that wasn’t already available).

I introduced a total of four new pledge levels during the campaign, and these four levels ended up bringing in an additional $33,000 in pledges.

Sometimes small tweaks can make a big difference!

Closing Out Strong

Anyone who is familiar with Kickstarter will tell you that the very beginning of a campaign and the very end of a campaign are the most important parts. This is where you either have added excitement or added urgency for people to take action.

So, as your campaign is coming to an end, think about ways you can leverage that urgency to get an even wider reach and more eyes on your campaign. For us, that was celebrating the final three hours of The Freedom Journal campaign with a worldwide audience on live stream.

The simplest way to do this would be starting a Facebook Live, and inviting people to join you so they can ask questions and chat about what has happened during the course of the campaign.

What Happens Next

Congratulations!

You’ve not only made it to the end of this guide, but you’ve also just learned exactly what it takes to go from idea to launch on Kickstarter.

Take a few minutes to visualize yourself at the end of your Kickstarter campaign, just having poured your blood, sweat and tears into an incredible project that now has a worldwide reach.

Doesn’t it feel amazing?

Hopefully you’re now onto the fulfillment stage, which is when you’ll figure out how to get your product created, perfected, and shipped to your backers!

Your journey has only just begun, and I can assure you it’s not only going to be an exciting one, it’ll also change your life. Launching The Freedom Journal on Kickstarter definitely changed my life, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

But not just because of its success:

Named 6th most funded publishing campaign of all time

Over $453k pledged

More than 7,000 backers

$50,000 donated to build two schools through Pencils of Promise

It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made because it has created the exact ripple effect I visualized when I was just starting my project. Since launch, countless individuals have reached out to me and shared that they found me and The Freedom Journal through Kickstarter.

They took a leap of faith. Even though they didn’t know who I was, they chose to back the campaign.

Now, they’ve gone on to accomplish their #1 goal in 100 days.

Our Freedom and Mastery Journal Facebook group has nearly 9,000 individuals who are sharing their journey with one another every single day.

Elizabeth Granados is one of them, and she reached out to me to tell me her story:

Minutes away from folding up shop and giving up on her entrepreneurial dreams, Elizabeth jumped on Kickstarter to research some successful projects to see if her idea might make it.

During her research, she came across The Freedom Journal. Skeptical and apprehensive, she clicked the pledge button. A month later, The Freedom Journal arrived on Elizabeth’s doorstep, and over the next 100 days she used her Freedom Journal to set and accomplish her #1 goal of launching her own Kickstarter campaign.

The result?

Elizabeth’s campaign for Little Nomad was funded in just three days.

You can check out Elizabeth’s full story here, or listen to her tell it herself on the Entrepreneurs On Fire podcast.

Our launch of The Freedom Journal on Kickstarter went far beyond what I ever could have imagined, and that’s the beauty of it. You can either spend a lot of time wondering what might happen if you actually launch your idea, or you can follow the proven steps I’ve shared here and just LAUNCH IT!

I decided to believe in my idea and trust the process, and because I just launched it, I’ve now had the amazing opportunity to impact tens of thousands of people worldwide.

Ready to set and accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days? Check out The Freedom Journal today and use promo code “PAT” for a special SPI discount.

$453k in 33 Days: A Guide to Launching on Kickstarter – Guest Post by John Lee Dumas originally posted at Homer’s Blog

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williamjharwick · 7 years