#have made this special absolutely fantastic I am so stoked for two more specials | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

allyvampirelass29 · 4 years

Text

The Besiege of Bruce Wayne McQueen

A NOS4A2 Review By: Allyssa J. Watkins

I didn't say you could get up I'll swing the hammer back Until you've had enough Your armor cracking, amidst your son's frantic call Tell me, Victoria Who's the Strongest Creative of them all? Bones breaking You cower before me shaking As I wield my blunt instrument without relent You've had your fun, Bad Mother I hope you've gallivanted to your heart's content I am the magic your beautiful boy has so long lacked Bruce Wayne best behave Or I'll break his mother's back Lost Boys belong in Neverland Consider me, his Peter Pan You don't care for him like I can Neglect and endangerment is the McQueen way, isn't it? You selfish fake C'mon Vic He's safer with his Uncle Manx You ungrateful Brat....... Just say THANKS!!!!

Three words. PULSE. POUNDING. PHENOMENAL!!!!!!! I write this wide-eyed and shell-shocked, a trembling wreck of electric emotion, the prevalent being pure, paralyzing BLISS!!!! DAMN, NOS4A2 you are SPOILING us!!!! Is it Christmas!? Last week I watched the glowing potential of the ascending firework disappear, and just as I lamented its predicted fizzle out, it SHATTERED the skies around me with an explosion of colours brighter and more vivid than anything I've ever seen, in a deafening ROAR!!!! HOLY SMASH!!! I LOVED THIS EPISODE, so much so, that I feel like I lived it, every death defying second, so ALIVE with the rawest emotion, the most terrifyingly beautiful villainy, my every sense heightened, and in this bloody besiege for one, Bruce Wayne McQueen, our spectacular cast shines BLINDING, giving their best, and most authentic performances of the series. Prepare yourselves for a Lake House excursion, you will NEVER forget!!!!

I LOVED how this episode sent us sprawling right into the action, and I was so so so wrong about the fantastic build-up of the suspense from last week going to waste, because it lit the fuse for one HELL of a firework display. Where last week didn't hit me quite hard enough, this episode STRUCK like LIGHTNING, electrifying every vein, and barely taken breath. The fight scene....... yes, you know the one, the all out, claws drawn, hammer wielding, haughty taunting, smoulder and slashing duel to the death was pure, screaming, POETRY!!! It's ART, the most electric, ENTHRALLING, aria of wit and savagery, it's the single most INTOXICATING scene, not just in an episode full of instant iconic images, but of the ENTIRE series.

Vic VS Manx, a faceoff fraught with revenge and raw energy, no special powers, no knives even, just hurling razor-edged words, fighting, grappling, scraping, nothing but an autopsy hammer between the two of them, was MESMERIZING!!! Charlie is a black, roiling wave of breathtaking rage, coming down on his worst enemy like hurricane thunder, with a ruthless, ferocity, such as we have never before seen. I loved every second, even as I fell apart at the seams, hand clasped over my mouth, trying not to scream. While some might say this head on collision lacked his usual finesse and refined showmanship, I must vehemently disagree. How clever of the writers to give us a Charlie driven to the verge, snapping, shaking off his gentleman's cape, to reveal his sharpest edge, and rawest fury, not to mention darkest intent. Charlie's done playing the game....... he's ready to win, to take the queen. Or in this case, the prince.

The juxtaposition of his elegantly brandished wit, and the brutality of his swiftly dealt blows, is pure, and utter genius, not to mention one hundred percent CHARLIE!!! I grinned like a lovesick schoolgirl when he told Vic, "I hope you have galivanted to your heart's content." I'm swooning, even as I write that, his dialogue was on point, as the kids say, as perfectly tailored to his elegant malevolence, his beautiful wickedness, as that magnificent chauffer's coat!!! Also, forgive me my shameless fawning, but can we TALK about his shiny, raven especially gorgeous HAIR during this episode!? Whether it's falling wild in his eyes, as he draws back his blood-thirsty hammer, or hanging in dark, feathery waves, as he smirks, leaning over his seemingly vanquished nemesis, Charlie's iconic silken strands were as deadly as his backswing, drawing my eye, and stoking my passion something fierce!

I loved how he laid it all out for her in his Malicious Manx Rhetoric, and one of the things I desperately love about Charlie, is how he can speak such vulnerable truth, even in the midst, of a rasping seethe. He explains it all, passes his sentence, this is why you don't deserve him, this is what I'm going to do, and why you can't stop me, even as he pounds the hammer against her back, oblivious to the protective armor, cleverly concealed in her biker jacket, due to some quick thinking, and a fun, surprising telepathic assist from the miniature McQueen. "No Mom, just play dead......" I loved all the nerves Charlie touched on, not just physical nerves, but the exposed, emotional ones as well. He knows how insecure Vic has felt, about the kind of mother she's been, her shortcomings, her fear about not being good for him, not able to love him like she should, provide for him, and Charlie exploits that to profound perfection. "You won't be able to ride away from your Beautiful Boy. He'll call you, sometimes, from Christmasland, and you will see...... He's BETTER with me!!!"

But the thing that shook me the most, was the bleeding truth of his words as he told her, "That's what you do, Victoria, you run. Even from the things that you LOVE!" WOW Charlie....... the depth, the piercing insight in that quote still gives me chills like mad, and it's a searing revelation. I also marveled at Charlie's outright admission of having been in love with Vic, which I'd always suspected, especially after Parnassus, but he's never just come out and said it, and definitely not to her face. "It's a dangerous game...... endeavoring to love Vic McQueen, I found that out myself with Craig, after you set us both on FIRE." I love how he snuck that in there, how he makes Craig and himself out to be HER victims, and I think Charlie's relationship status with Vic will always be, "It's Complicated," because while she holds a special fascination for him, most of her allure lies in the challenge. What he loves is the most about Vic is hating her. Hell hath no fury like Charlie Manx scorned.

You know what else, was just....... a THRILLING chill!? After giving her a good and proper thrashing, and tongue-lashing, Charlie's voice is a spiteful growl as he rasps furious, "Just say THANKS!!!" I could NOT breathe!! WOW........ What SPLENDID writing!!! It's not enough for Vic to lie there, and take her punishment, the punishment that in Charlie's eyes she so obviously deserves, but he demands her thanks as well, for taking her only child, reprimanding her wicked, wanton ways, sparing her from having to be a bad mother. "If you had a grateful bone in your body, you'd thank me......" Charlie has always seen himself as the hero of NOS4A2, saving children from their broken homes, and lonely lives, and if you told him point blank he was actually the villain, the antagonist, he'd scoff in your face. This idea that he's being generous, actually helping Vic, even as he enacts his ultimate revenge speaks volumes to that, and I loved it. He even tells her young son, with such soothe, "Don't worry........ She can never hurt you again."

That being said, I also loved how Vic fearlessly turned the tables on our handsome phantom, dropping the pretense of excruciating pain to strike hard, breaking Charlie's leg, and leaving a nasty gash across his lovely cheek, before reigning down hell on the Wraith. This was especially jaw-dropping for me, since I had written a scene eerily similar, over a YEAR ago, in my NOS4A2 Series, and it was such a giddy, breathless joy, to see it all play out, exactly as I had imagined it!!! I loved how Vic gives Charlie his insisted upon thank you, after making her move, even though, yes, I was a little heartsick, seeing that impossibly perfect face so drastically marred. The warm, happy, fuzzy feel of Wayne's childhood memories, interspersed with the impassioned violence was yet another INSPIRED, and poignant stroke of brilliance, and in my opinion made the scene even more powerful and intense. It also inspired a fascinating theory....... That Wayne is a Strong Creative, that can speak through his memories telepathically to his mother. There are several instances in, "Bruce Wayne McQueen," where our adorable title character floods his mother's mind with happier times, and words of wisdom. Yes, Vic is a powerful Creative, and this could very well be her own doing, but as she's never been one for sentiment before, something tells me Wayne is speaking to her, calming her down, keeping her safe.

This episode is a masterwork of action and suspense, a transformative audience EXPERIENCE. You're in the Wraith with Charlie and Wayne, sitting on the edge of the backseat, you're treading water, traumatized with Vic, as the bullets whizz past you under the surface, flinching with every shot Bing fires, and you're pressed up against the window with Wayne, hands on the glass, as his mother sobs her devastated goodbye, promising to find him, her stricken eyes so full of love, knowing she has to leave him, if ever she'll have the chance to fight again. It's so beautifully executed, every shot, drawing us into our creative heroes' journey with immersive cinematography. It's unique to any other episode that has come before, and stands out as a groundbreaking method of emotional storytelling.

I must say this though....... This episode was as close to achingly perfect as you can get, right up there with Sleigh House, a MAGIC that I never EVER thought anything in my natural life could touch, but as much enamour as I feel, there were a few slightly detracting flaws. I absolutely LOVED the shifts between different points of view, it may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought that was another daring risk, that definitely paid off. My issue however, lies in the repeated events from one person's point of view to the next. I felt that the needless repetition slowed down the breakneck action, throwing a kink in the timeline. There were more than a few times where I was like WAIT, did that happen before or after what we've just seen!? I appreciate that they were trying to give us a new vantage point to what we'd just witnessed, maybe even belabor the moment for dramatic effect, but it ate up valuable runtime, and undercut the flow in my opinion, as well as shortchanged the suspense, knowing full well what was going to happen, because we'd already seen it from another character's point of view! How much better to show a scene from one perspective, and then jump right into the consequent action with the change to the next? How much MORE would we have gotten to see!?!? Had they done that, then this episode would have surpassed even Sleigh House, my ultimate ideal.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy getting to see what happened in the car with the boys, during Vic's ride through the woods. I LOVED how Charlie, ever the paternal guardian, was so taxed by Wayne's vehement cries, and frantic banging on the windows, that he says, in true exhausted parent fashion, "Please Wayne, just a small nap......" There were times that the rewind worked, but most times, I just wanted to get on with the story. Another grievance....... What the HELL are the Wraith's windows made of!? Yes, I understand that this is a supernatural, sentient car, but SERIOUSLY!!!! No amount of force, be it from a swung wrench, or slammed autopsy hammer, or SPEEDING bullet, could shatter even one of the Wraith's windows. Yes, I know it added to the suspense, watching both parents try desperately, and still fail to free their son, but it detracted from the reality, suspending my suspension of disbelief. They should have been able to at least break ONE!!!

I was also a tad bit disappointed with The Hour Glass Man, how about you guys? The way Abe set him up to be this heavy hitter, this "Fixer," in the Dark Creative World, I was so excited to see his knife and how it worked!!! At the beginning of the episode, our calm, sharply-dressed secondary villain, uses an hour glass, not to stop time, not to rewind time, not to alter time, but....... to hypnotize the two feds long enough to assault the lake house, SHOOTING Chris McQueen in the leg, before turning the gun on themselves. Yes, it was only our first look, and I'm sure our man of unsolved mystery has more than a few tricks up his ironed sleeves, he isn't in high demand for nothing, but....... as he was supposed to be Charlie's ace in the hole, I had prepared myself for something truly mind-boggling, something more than just compulsion, an everyday occurrence on The Vampire Diaries. Even in his second go at Vic, he pulls a Manx, and just hits her with his far less supernatural SUV. I knew something was up, the way Charlie didn't veer, and try to run Vic off the road as she pursued him on her new motorcycle, firing shots into the driver side window. He let her ride alongside him, so calm, and I KNEW he was leading her into a trap, and leading me straight into my second disappointment with The Hour Glass Man. I don't know, even though it got the job done, and landed her in the hospital, him hitting her with the SUV just felt....... underwhelming, which this episode is definitely NOT.

The hidden hero of "Bruce Wayne McQueen," is by far Chris Freaking McQueen, who has redeemed himself in my eyes through his fearless fight, both to stay sober for his daughter, and to keep her from losing her son. Not gonna lie guys, I was HORRIFIED, when I thought the Feds killed him at the beginning of the episode, and for the longest time after he got shot I was like DON'T you dare FREAKING kill Chris, oh god, is Chris dead!? A question to which there is no answer until nearly the end of the episode. Vic, still treading water underneath the dock, shakes violently as she hears the gunshots go off a little too close, and I, myself, was scared as HELL, thinking Bing was firing straight down, having discovered her. A horrible moment, as the blood falls thick from between the wooden slats of the dock, directly onto Vic's forehead. And then....... Chris Freaking McQueen, like a gun wielding white knight charges the sick BASTARD, Bing Partridge, shooting him repeatedly, although, to our collective chagrin, does not kill him!!! Seriously. Somebody gut that Creepster Pervert like a fish!!! Chris even takes on Charlie all by himself, firing at the Wraith, as it speeds off to my complete and utter delight WITHOUT Bing Partridge leaving him behind, FINALLY!!! You GO, Charlie, time to sever ties with that obnoxious deadweight.

Where this episode uncovers Charlie in his most heightened, dangerous state, raw and intense, Bing is portrayed at his detestable WORST, and my hatred for this hulking henchman was infinite. I HATE the way he is with Wayne, it literally made me sick to my stomach. Charlie is so sweet and gentle, paternal, and patient with our dear little Bats, doting upon him, and you can tell how excited he is to be his father, how this particular child, Vic's only son, is the second most important entry into Christmasland, after his own daughter. I'm still dyyyying from the way he said, "You and I have been dreaming about each other, haven't we?" How PRECIOUS!!! In counterpart, Bing is disgustingly abusive, grabbing him up off the ground, dangling him by his arm, threatening to shoot him, bite him, calling Wayne a, "pretty girl," (GOD, YOU SICKO!!!!) and I just couldn't stand it, I was so damn furious, I couldn't see straight, and I'm DONE with Bing, I want to put a hit out on that lewd, child abusing, BASTARD!!! It would seem Charlie is done with him too, leaving him behind to die, and I especially enjoyed that cleverly veiled threat in the car, Bing droning on and on about what he wants to do when he gets to Christmasland, and Charlie smirking with a coy mention of a special feast. Yeah...... I see what you did there, Babe. It's time to hang a Partridge, swinging from a pear tree.

Another thing I particularly loved about this episode, was that it had the unique symmetry of beginning and ending in the hospital, and in both instances, Wayne's birth, and the aftermath of his abduction, Vic loses him. Even as a newborn, after a harrowing C-section, Vic knows something is wrong, crying out to the nurses, as they do CPR on the tender little babe, and after only just bringing him into the world, Vic already has to face the threat of one without him. That was beautifully mirrored in the final, heartbreaking scene, when Vic, seeing her boyfriend, and father in hospital beds from her own, but no Wayne, realizes, with abject terror, her son is gone. Her worst fear, the ONE man she'd fought for eight years to protect him from, has taken him. BEAUTIFUL, heart-wrenching, devastatingly good acting from Ashleigh, the desolate sobs, as her mother holds her in her arms, the hopelessness, and fear in her eyes. It shattered me.

An all time high for NOS4A2, "Bruce Wayne McQueen," holds all the emotional drama, and high risk of a proper Season Finale, and we're only FIVE episodes in!!!! If it's THIS good, this early in the story, I can't even imagine what lays in wait, as the Wraith races away with a very special boy in tow. Hold on, Strong Creatives....... Our WILDEST dreams are about to come true.........

#nos4a2 #nos4a2 review #charlie manx #vic mcqueen #bing partridge #chris mcqueen #the wraith #bruce wayne mcqueen

13 notes · View notes

amwritingmeta · 5 years

Text

JiB10

So, last year, for various reasons, I didn’t actually put down my experience of JiB, but are y’all ready to hear all about this year’s experiences and adventures?

Well, in condensed form. I mean, what is this - LiveJournal? (okay yeah kinda is but no not going into excruciating detail here just the best bits) (the choice cuts, as it were) (watch me go full butcher) (it’ll be entertaining I swear) :P

So, firstly, I’m a panel rat. I fucking love those panels. All the panels. It’s mainly why I get the Angel Pass, because the seats are so good and I’m all about them good seats, yeah?

I have friends who spend a whole lot of time in line for ops or for autos and I just… can’t… do that. Not when there’s talking happening and answering of questions and just that room being MAGIC, because the entire con feels so inclusive and filled with open-minded like-minded human beings who share in our love of this glorious show.

I started a JiB Log, but figured I’d get too distracted to actually update it regularly, because that’s what last year was like. When you’re not in a panel you’re either walking to grab something quick to eat (have to commend the little smoothie place at the airport, because they did good sandwiches and really good coffee at a reasonable price) or you’re heading to the hotel bar to get absolutely plast-… No, actually didn’t do that this year, so correction: or you’re heading to the hotel bar to see who’s there and catch up with people who have been to their ops and are still shaking with excitement.

(you can also comment on the wonderful imagination of strangers in the ladies’ room when you see them shaking with excitement and are dressed up in bridal gowns) (okay there was one lovely dressed up as a bride so maybe plural is the wrong way to go but the sentiment holds true) (JiBers - you are so fucking awesome and I LOVE YOU ALL)

Okay, so wanna know the most basic things I’ve learned about how to JiB? I mean… if you don’t, then stop reading, I guess, because imma tell ya. #fairwarning

Bring Snacks (you won’t regret it)

Bring Alcohol (you won’t regret it)

Good Footwear (you won’t regret it)

Clothes For Every Occasion (you may regret it if you overpack) (don’t overpack) (Google “packing tutorial by Jensen Ackles”) (worth it)

Choose Wisely (just general solid advice) (I mean, get your priorities straight) (panel rat or up close and personal kitty cat) (or both) (sidenote: I take it choosing to be both is quite stressful) (make sure that your stress sensors are up and that you don’t overdo it) (switching between rat and cat is bound to be internally messy) (okay that actually came out as not haha solid but actual solid advice so yeah) (be prepared that doing both is difficult!) (and having lots of ops and wanting to do all autos means probably missing a whole lot of panels for standing in line and waiting) (even the solo panels with the main players or - and I will question your sanity - the joint panels that close the weekend) (well not the very final panel) (nobody missed the J2M panel because all ops and autos had closed by then) (but yes prioritise wisely)

Be Open (because, no matter what, you are bound to meet someone you click with at this event) (most people) (actually every stranger I gave a throwaway comment to) (were so chill and happy to have a brief chat or share a moment with me) (so even if you’re traveling by yourself you are bound to feel embraced) *jazz hands rome magic*

Pinches of Salt (take everything you see and hear with healthy pinches of salt) (I briefly forgot about this on Monday morning and oh boy I could’ve saved myself a world of stupidity if I’d only remembered it yeah?)

MNC (get your sweet ass to the Monday Night Concert because both my years of JiBing it has been mind-blowing) (this year was better than last year honestly) (which I did not think could happen) (they are the bee’s bees and the bear’s bear) *throws all the love at them*

When it comes to impressions and memories made this particular trip, I feel like the whole week has been one long run of blessings. Sincerely, it’s been - oh what’s the word again? --> MAGIC.

I’m not going to go through all the boring personal moments of Holy Fuck *jazz hands rome magic* but I will just say that I think I stepped out of passport control with the widest smile, and it barely left my face for the entire weekend. The panels were wonderful this year. I’m still on a high. No, seriously. It’s almost a week later and I haven’t been hit by the JiB blues yet, and perhaps I won’t this year.

*prays I land a pass for next year* *GAH* *the nail-biting begins*

Confession time? (…when in Rome)

Confession 1 — I have such a crush on Rob. I mean, I’ve had it for years, but time to make it official, I guess. He just seems like the sweetest, loveliest human being and watching him sing is like… watching the stars light in the sky. He is such an amazing singer and performer. He made me cry. He sang Fare Thee Well and he made me cry at the Monday Night Concert.

*no I was NOT drunk* *though damn that G&T was strong* *oh btw the drinks in Rome are amazing and worth the money because extra alcoholic* *like damnnnnn* *just as an aside* *but also bring your own bourboun* *winks at @waywardliliana* *sup gurl?* *winks again* *winks some more* *can’t stop now* *licks lips* *yeah I know* *uncomfortable?* *licks lipssss againnnnn* *okay stopping now* *….or am I…….?*

Confession 2 — The panel-watching truly is a huge amount of fun. This year there were a lot of things said that made me want to jump up and down in my seat, because it gives me a lot of hope for season fifteen and Jensen provided most of it on the Saturday, and then Jared was pretty much agreeing with Jensen’s assessments of how the brothers’ journeys should end on the Sunday, and I was like GAH! *happy* And then Misha throws in his belief that there needs to be a sacrifice and tragedy and we all went NO! Also his fear that this family of ours will disperse and we all went NOOO! :) Anyway, these are all stated observations, but the confession is this:

As much as I love spending time in a space that is occupied by some of my favourite human beings on this planet (oh but they are), what makes JiB so truly, deeply, personally special is meeting up with friends who otherwise live too far away to see on the regular. All of us convening in this one place to share in this one great love is like electricity through your veins. It’s like… well, it’s like going to a place of worship, and I think you know what I mean. When you’re in a room with a group of peope who’s energy jives with yours, then your energies align, and resonate, and then — MAGIC.

It’s magical. It’s fucking magical. *jazz hands*

Shoutout to everyone I managed to see this year who have not yet been lip-licked at in this post (or real life), whether it was much too brief (so many of you were much too brief) or whether we spent quality time, seeing you all really made the trip sparkle:

@captainhaterade - who made such a fantastic and impromptu seat mate - thank you, Emily, for having me next to you for most of the weekend! :D

@eriquin - Meghan, it was so lovely to meet you and I’m thrilled you and Emily both enjoyed your first con, very happy I got to be a part of it! :)

@trickster-angel - my dear Chiara, it took us a few tries, but we finally got to sit down in the Corner (if you get to go next year then I think this may be where we’re all just convene from now on) (*suggestion*) *nobody puts us in a corner except us!* :P So good to meet you!

@inacatastrophicmind - Mara! We met much, much too briefly, but I’m so, so glad we did! See you around tumblr, my friend, and hopefully at JiB11! :)

@misskittyspuffy - aw man, Aurelie, we kept missing each other and I really wanted to sit down and have a proper lunch or dinner, but at least you and--

@assbuttboyfriends - hey, Claire, my dear, at least you and Aurelie aren’t that far away, right? Come visit me in London, I tell ya! :D Otherwise, proper plan-making for next year. xx

@bold-sartorial-statement - a brief hello was still a good hello! Hope you enjoyed the con! xx

@jenmdixon - it was good to say hello to you, my dear, and really hope you enjoyed the con (and didn’t die under those lights because it got HOT) (no wonder the actors are fan-addicts) :) xx

@purgatory-jar - Elena, it was, as ever, fantastic to see you and I’m stoked I got to have a proper lunch with you this time around. You have always been and will always be one of my absolute favourite artists in this fandom and, by extension, anywhere. Already a star, girl!

Shoutout to @northern-sparrow - I was sorry that I missed you at the bar, but there’s always next year. Hope you enjoyed the con and thanks for asking The Perfect Question. :D xx

Finally, @godshipsit -- Alessia, my friend, you are this calm, welcoming, very dear part of Rome and JiB for me (last year you supported me so much just by being there) and you are simply brilliant! *all the prettiest flowers at your door*

And to my two felines who are tumblring, but not very often: Laura and Steph, you wonderfuls! Thanks for all the laughs!!

*I now proceed to throw love at you all*

Confession 3 — I have a Favourite Moose. Nope, it’s not who you think it is. (girl, I almost put the hashtag on here but in the current climate) (I think I’d just better not) (especially since I wanna tag you) (hey, Moose!) (hey @natmoose!) (yes you!) (Nat-Blue!) :) #theconversationalists

Now, the highlights from this years con are too numerous for me to write them all down, really, but here’s a taster:

Ricky Whittle (the man is a genius comedian)

Rob talking about how his fandom experience has changed since he, for the first time, is seeing comments like “I hate your face” (the way he says “I hate your face”) (*giggle*) (also it’s such a question of tone because most of those “I hate your face”s are probably said with loads of love) (because Chuck going ultimate big bad toxic masculinity representative is fucking BRILLIANT) *love to hate his face*

Matt telling the airplane story

Alex reenacting different parts of the airplane story

Alex choosing Jasmine from Aladdin to put a spin on and making the twist that he’ll rob the wishes from Aladdin like -->

Alex: *sings* I can show you the world *interrupts* I’m just like yo, just give me these wishes. Don’t mess with me. How about this? I’ll show myself the world, okay?

I really, really very much like Alexander Calvert, okay?

Briana being distracted by herself on the stage monitor (she’s gorgeous and she knows it and is also open about how it costs her a lot of money and time and effort and how that’s not for everyone and real beauty runs so much deeper) (which is why she is the most gorgeous woman)

Jared telling us all to shut up during his Sunday morning solo panel (and basically all of his time on stage, but especially this half an hour of stage time, because my GOD he was in such a good mood)

Misha

Jensen going off on a minor rant about Game of Thrones S08E05 because yesssss

Jared doing that jump-and-a-skip at his panel with Misha

Jared’s panel with Misha

Jensen telling Misha he loves him and them hugging, only for Jensen to turn it into a joke and pretty effectively demonstrating how this is how they interact and they don’t mean anything by taking the piss out of each other because yesssss

sincerely, all the solo panels (especially Jensen’s, because he’s so sincere and open and honest about how seriously he takes his work and it’s gorgeous and inspiring and always has been and always will be and)

I mean, Jensen lying flat on his back on that stage and Misha saying You Sexy Bitch is very, very, very… overt. I side-eye. But with a whole lot of appreciation for the balls on those two. I’d venture that they know exactly what they’re doing, and I’ll forever wonder what the percentage is between performative and spur-of-the-moment. Sometimes I think you can tell, but… oh, they know what we like. Usually. :)

Jared bringing the dirty. I just love his filthy mind.

All of their filthy minds tbh.

Singing Carry On My Wayward Son in the hallway after the final panel is just… one of the best parts, and this year they all came out and high fived and gave hugs and… it was special

The Monday Night Concert surpassed last year’s and went on for nearly two hours and was deeply moving for many reasons and I wish to the good Heavens (…okay you know what I mean) that Jensen and Briana will record Shallow because I think their version beat the original (damn Briana’s voice is just… damn!) (and I can’t talk about Jensen singing please don’t make me talk about it) (…) (thank you)

Also Richard Speight Jr because Richard Speight Jr!!

Also just Jason Manns because Jason Manns!!

And The Four Cheese!!

See, there’s just tOO MuCH STuFF

And now it’s over and I’m still hopped up on the adrenaline and the happiness and Jensen talking about spreading happiness (I believe it was either during the opening panel with he and Jared on the Saturday or his solo panel later that afternoon) made me feel light as a feather, because he’s right. A healthy dose of real happiness builds you up from the inside out and makes you believe you’re worth it. All of it, yeah? And that, whatever comes your way, you can handle it. Oh, it can be a struggle, but if you only dare to be open, then good things, my peeps.

Good things do happen.

I hope to see you next year!!

#JiB10 #my stuff #jensen ackles #jared padalecki #misha collins #alexander calvert #briana buckmaster #rob benedict #richard speight jr #jason manns #ricky whittle #jibcon #rome magic #<3

63 notes · View notes

3rachatraingoeschoochoo · 4 years

Text

2012 Kpop

Now, let’s talk about K-pop groups you may or may not know about. 2012 brought a wave of awesome new groups. I was fairly new to the K-pop scene so I just went exploring and discovering new groups and boy am I glad I did that, because now I can tell you all about these hidden gems:

Debuts

So in this year, Gangnam Style happened, yeah everyone knows that bUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE HAPPENED??? YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT, B.A.P DEBUTED!!! They were amazing, ruthless, powerful, just wow, no wonder they became my ultimate group right away cause did you see their debut MV?? Bunny aliens that invade the earth to save their dying planet?! it was wild y’all Also you should definitely watch Bang&Zelo’s Never Give Up, although it was released in 2011 I’m still gonna mention it here, because it was that good.

Debut: Warrior - B.A.P

Another debut that many people may know is that of EXO. Before their real debut, they actually had released some mv’s like History (y’know “enjoy the mayo”). I don’t know what it is with aliens this year but they seem to like this concept because also EXO turned out to be aliens with special superpowers from a dying planet named EXOPlanet. Till this day I can still hear the iconic “When the skies an-”

Debut: Mama - EXO

Y’all know GOT7? Then y’all must have heard about JJ Project a.k.a JB and Junior!! Jaebum and Jinyoung appeared in the k-drama Dream High 2 just before their actual debut, and boy did I LOVE Dream High 2. So obviously I was sToKeD for their debut, and they didn’t let me down. You should definitely also listen to Hooked.

Debut: Bounce - JJ Project

Let’s talk about my humongous crush on Jung Ilhoon, shall we? That boy man entranced me from the very first beginning. BTOB’s debut was wow, ilhoon was wow, I was wow. I remember watching their MTV Diary late at night, I watched them all and my mom got mad lol but I was so so so into BTOB, and along with B.A.P, they were my ultimate favourites. (pssst.. MTV Diary BTOB is still one of the best reality shows out there, i’m not saying you should watch it but i think you should, they are absolute crackheads)

Debut: Insane - BTOB Wow - BTOB (!!)

VIXX debuted with Super Hero and they had a comeback the same year with Rock Ur Body. Both VERY good songs and that’s why I’m so mad it isn’t on Spotify, this was my jam y’all, why you gotta do this to me, just put in on Spotify please. They actually have more songs from their earlier days that aren’t on Spotify :((

Debut: Super Hero - VIXX

Okay, then AOA happened. I absolutely LOVE their debut song, 10/10, chef’s kiss, just listen. Till this day Elvis and Get Out are my favourite AOA songs.

Debut: Elvis - AOA

DO YOU KNOW C-CLOWN??? YOU SHOULD cause without this group we wouldn’t have that frickin’ handsome hot sexy Aussie dude named CHristian Yu, insta: @/dprian (thought i was gonna say Bang Chan or Felix? ¬‿¬) They debuted with Solo but you should rather watch Far Away Young Love, this mv is so good, the story line, the song, the boys… 12/10. Sadly they disbanded back in 2015 and all the members went their own way. Christian founded DPR, and “Maru” or simply Jaejun debuted again in 2019 with the group TREI (you should definitely watch their debut mv, i love it so much)

Debut: Solo - C-Clown

Let me tell you about a group that literally said in a song that they “f*ck like a p*rnstar”. Yes, it’s a South-Korean group from 2012 we’re talking about. Big Star. They are iconic, unapologetic, energetic, i freaking love them. They all went to the survival show ‘The Unit’ in 2017 and you may know Feeldog from that. “I rap like a monster and I f*ck like a p*rnstar….my rap always kills the track, at night I always kill the girl” yeah they did that

Debut: Hot Boy - Big Star (this debut is uhh… interesting)

Y’all, this group deserved so much better, I mean, their songs were absolute bops but I guess they were just ahead of their time. The Wonder Boyz! Wonder Boyz were being mistreated by the CEO of their agency, they were assaulted, verbally abused and the CEO allegedly also stole from them, it was horrible to hear this, they had so much potential. I liked how they made the songs theirs, matching it to their unique voices. So far I know they only have two mv’s. After their disbandment, they all went their own way and I’m happy to report that they are doing well. Young Boy changed his stage name into Roscoe, and is now part of DPR (we gang gang), K or Taehyun is now active as Owol (definitely listen to Why), Master One is now known as V-Hawk (Tokki mv) and I don’t really know what happened with Bak Chi Gi but some sites say he became an independent artist.

Debut: Tarzan - Wonder Boyz (This one’s really good i swear) Open the door - Wonder Boyz

More debuts worth mentioning:

Nu’est, the big brothers of Seventeen! Their debut song was a bop, really, and Ren was so beautiful. Also, I really digged their hair styles. Face - Nu’est

Y’all know the legendary female Park Jimin from ASC? Y’all know her beginnings with 15&? Y’all should watch these angels: I Dream - 15&

Ailee also starred in Dream High 2 and her debut song was so so so good, just listen. Heaven - Ailee

Lee Hi!!! Love this girl. All her songs are good man. 1, 2, 3, 4 - Lee Hi

100% They were just HOT. Bad boy - 100%

Lunafly yO these kings deserved better. I mean, an acoustic band singing in Korean, English ánd Spanish. If you don’t know them, you missed something good. Super Hero - Lunafly

GLAM said gay rights, just look up their lyrics. Do I need more things to prove that their debut was iconic? Party XXO - GLAM

D-UNIT 2012 was the year of the badboy aliens but let’s not forget the badgirls because they killed it. Luv me - D-UNIT

24K they debuted with Hurry up but their comeback U R So Cute is just so cutesy and very different from their debut concept, ngl that song is my guilty pleasure.

The year of the humble beginnings of EXID! Before Up&Down, there was Whoz that girl - EXID

Tiny-G you may know Min Do Hee from her acting in Reply 1994 and Gangnam Beauty. Their debut mv is soo cute Minimanimo - Tiny-G

A-Jax I remember being really intruiged by their mv’s, not really sure why but just take a look yourself: One 4 U - A-Jax, Hot Game - A-Jax

Mr. Mr. no not that song of Girl’s Generation. They have a whole history with members leaving and members being added but if you overlook that, they still have some good songs worth mentioning. I actually don’t recommend watching their debut song, just watch one of these: Do you feel me, Waiting for you

Comebacks

Big Bang’s legendary comeback: Fantastic Baby

G-dragon’s Crayon a.k.a my go-to shower song

Super Junior had a comeback and they were Sexy, Free and Single and ready to bingo ;)

Just Teen Top had a comeback with Be ma girl a.k.a the proper way to ask yo crush out

Beast (now Highlight) summer comeback: Beautiful Night

Block B’s released some really good content like Nillili Mambo and NalinA

Boyfriend as angel/demon princes !! Definitely a must-watch: Janus

B1A4 had a really good year, I loved all their comebacks: Baby Good Night, Baby I’m Sorry (you either love it, or hate it), Tried to walk

Shinee’s back with Sherlock a.k.a soy un dorito

Also the year f(x) swept us away with Electric Shock

Some more iconic things worth mentioning imo:

BTOB and B.A.P had a dance stage together and it was a-ma-zing

This 🤯 KMF 2012 really gave us the best performances

Teen Top on Weekly Idol doing random playdance and turning violent

B.A.P’s killing camp and Ta-Dah! It’s B.A.P and MTV Diary B.A.P I’m a sucker for B.A.P, is it obvious ?

Actually all MTV Diary’s from 2012 are top quality procrastination content (C-Clown, MyName, VIXX, JJ Project, BTOB, B.A.P)

This compilation pretty much sums up 2012′s vibes

2 notes · View notes

ladylaufeyson1 · 5 years

Text

Finally saw Endgame. (A Novel)

Extensive (badly written) thoughts under the cut…

As a disclaimer, this isn’t an invitation to a debate. These are my opinions. You don’t have to read them. You don’t have to agree with them. But if you try to diminish them or belittle me in any way, I will block your ass. Just putting that out there.

First things first, I am fucking STOKED that Loki got away. I had the biggest shit-eating grin on my face during that entire scene. I loved it. It was so cleverly done. He looked FANTASTIC. His expressions were perfect. Everything about that was hilarious and wonderful and great. And if the series stars 2012 Loki, well hell, that’s just peachy!

HOWEVER - the movie could’ve done with a LOT more of him. He was legit tortured by Thanos and that not being addressed even a little was pretty damn stupid. He had every flippin right to help the Avengers bring him down. I just think it was lazy ass writing. Maybe there wasn’t enough time. Still, I’m glad he’ll be off doing his own thing now, whatever that may be. And I’m HELLA glad he will be away from Thor for a while. Also, don’t understand everyone bitching about him being “dead”. He’s not fuckin dead. He literally GOT away (edited to say that I recognize the whole different timeline thing - and either way, if he stays in this timeline or another, he is STILL Loki! And different timeline only means he could possibly have a happier freakin life!). Also don’t understand the hatred towards Tom or the notion that he somehow “lied” to us. I don’t understand people on this stupid fucking site sometimes. Anyways.

Moving on to my next favorite thing - Frigga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And alllllll of the Dark World shots. That was SO REFRESHING after it was shit on in that abomination of a movie that shall not be named. I honestly wept because I was SO HAPPY to see her and Jane and all of that same beautiful scenery that I miss so, so much. She was perfect. And happy. And the way she handled StupidAssThor™ was amazing. Thank god there was continuity in that. Thank god. Not even he was capable of ruining it.

What bothered me was that Thor didn’t really try to save her. I feel like RealThor™ would’ve done something, even if it fucked with some timeline. He was always driven by his emotions. But then again, I know it’s not the same Thor anymore. I haven’t seen him since Ultron, and I know I will never see him again.

I had really odd moments in this movie where I cried in nearly every scene with him in it, because I realized how much I miss him. I saw more of old Thor in this movie than I have in the last two movies he’s been in. Yes, he looked ridiculous, but there were certain emotional moments and pained expressions that surprisingly got to me. I felt sorry for him, which I was actively trying to avoid. People were treating his blatant PTSD like a joke, which I found disturbing, but Chris didn’t exactly do a stellar job with taking it seriously so I don’t exactly blame the audience for not taking it seriously either. Anyways, I am exhausted from repeatedly mourning the death of this character, time and time again. I’m sad that Chris felt the need to change him so much. He used to be wonderful. I truly don’t enjoy Chris Hemsworth playing Chris Hemsworth. I’m afraid I will always miss RealThor™.

Going back a bit, I’m wondering if Frigga ultimately did survive, in one timeline or another. I wonder how much of a butterfly effect Loki’s escape had that we weren’t witness to. I always think about him being imprisoned in TDW, telling Kurse to “take the stairs to the left.” If he was never imprisoned, that never would’ve happened and perhaps Frigga would have survived. I don’t know. Maybe the series will address this. Maybe not. I have no idea. But I truly enjoyed her scenes, and feel very, very grateful for them. What a blessing.

Natasha’s death was, uh, completely awful. I know, I know. Hawkeye has a family and kids blah blah blah, but fuck, I couldn’t help but want it to be him instead. I’m assuming the Black Widow movie will be a prequel of types, but I really hope there is something in the works to bring her back. I doubt it, it all seemed pretty final. But perhaps they can magically resurrect her eventually rather than fuck with any timeline. Someone’s gotta come back and put Red Skull in his place anyway. I feel like he’s a growing menace. I doubt it’s the last we see of Vormir. I hate that place.

I feel sad for Black Widow. She really had no happiness. No nothing. She was this lonely, tortured character who always did everything to help everyone else, but no one ever did much for her. Sure, there was that weird ass BruceNat plot line once upon a time (another great disservice to her character) but I don’t feel like any one of them gave a real damn about her, except for Steve. And they didn’t even have a proper goodbye and they fucking should have.

That was a really sad, disturbing loss to me - one I don’t think I’ll be over anytime soon. Also, where the fuck was her memorial service? I was really tired of watching the sausage fest that ensued after she went. Her absence was greatly felt for the rest of the film. Also, Scarlett’s acting was top notch. I felt all of it. It shook me. She was great.

Tony’s death, while also extremely upsetting, was not as difficult to accept. While I didn’t exactly predict his death, it sort of made sense vs. Nat’s. Still, it was gut-wrenching and sad and awful. My biggest problem with it was that him and Cap had no real goodbye. I sort of wanted someone to shove Peter the fuck out of the way so that they could have words, but it didn’t happen. It was annoying. Idk if anyone felt the same way about this. I’m not even a “Stony” shipper. But they had a longstanding friendship, and it felt bad. At least Pepper talked to him. I thought she’d have to strangle Peter to get a frickin word in.

And then there was the one, perfect ending that I loved deeply, because it was something I had predicted a long time ago. Cap has been my favorite avenger since forever and I knew if time travel was involved he would go back and live his life out with Peggy. I was so glad this happened, so glad he had that happiness, because his story had always been greatly upsetting. I also love that he gave his shield to Sam!!! His ending was absolutely perfect. What a wonderful character, what a wonderful man. I love Chris Evans dearly and will miss Cap so, so much.

All in all, I thought it was pretty darn good. Way better than Infinity War, and all I really wanted was for Loki to be okay and for Cap to get that ending and all that I asked for was granted. I had zero hopes for Thor, but the Frigga and Dark World scenes were just soooo nice. Nat’s death left a really bad taste in my mouth and now I’m majorly depressed for Pepper. But I’m trying to stay positive.

I feel a creeping sadness and a sort of empty, void feeling. The MCU has, quite literally, saved me at very dark, difficult times in my life, and seeing this all come to a *sort of* close, at least with characters that I’ve grown fond of, was a bit harder than I thought it would be. This was something really special that, for better or for worse, I am happy to have been a part of.

Where the hell does this all go from here?

#avengers #avengers: endgame #avengers spoilers #endgame spoilers #avengers: endgame spoilers #loki #marvel #mcu

11 notes · View notes

agirlinhell-a · 5 years

Text

If Clementine Maria Jasmine Cree were to ever wed in an alternate universe, (as I am not quite certain how a wedding would go about in an apocalyptic world), I’d like to think that she would consider the traditiona white wedding dresses of Christianity, although beautiful, rather dull and plain, so she would go to her more traditional roots as a way of showing pride in her African heritage. She would wear the kaftan, a fashion style popular in Northern and Western Africa - more specifically in Morocco and Senegal - and many Middle Eastern countries, of Mesopotamian origin, and would wear beads and jewels from Nigeria, as the following pictures below.

The wedding itself most likely would be by the beach. Ideal honeymoon locations for her consist of Morocco, Venice, Paris, Madrid, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Hangzhou, Kyoto, Bali, Jaipur, Florida, New York or the Bahamas - somewhere new and exotic.

Clementine’s maid of honor would be Sarah and her bridesmaids would be Ruby, Brody, Mariana, Minerva, Sophie and (if she’s not being wed to her) Violet. She would carry a bouquet of roses and would wear butterflies and flowers in her hair, like the following pictures below:

The wedding playlist would consist of sweet ballads and several other music genres.

Since her parents would be alive in this verse, I can see her father leading her down the aisle, but if, for example, her father passed away or was sick, I can see Lee walking her down the aisle. Kenny, Katjaa, Omid, Christa, Ben, Lilly, the Cabin Group and AJ, James, and the rest of the Ericson’s kids, they’d all be there as guests, as I can easily see Clementine being in a class with the Ericson’s squad, Sarah, Ben, Duck and James. Jesus would be present to say the marriage rites.

The following are a few headcanons that I have for each ship that I have for Clementine - as follows: Louis, Violet, Brody, Marlon, Gabe, Mitch and James - four for each.

LOUIS & CLEMENTINE

-Louis was absolutely ecstatic but also really, really nervous. His best man was Marlon and his attendants were Aasim and Mitch.

-By the time the wedding vows were said and done, Louis picked her up bridal style and twirled her around - it was the most adorable thing ever.

-Louis made a song for Clementine for their wedding and he played it during the feast - it drove Clementine to tears because of how beautiful it was.

-They ended up going to Morocco in Africa. It was absolutely gorgeous and they had a fantastic time.

VIOLET & CLEMENTINE

-Violet was really happy at the prospect of marrying Clementine, especially since recently, same-sex marriage was legalized in the US.

-Violet worse a stunning purple dress. Her bridesmaids were Brody, Sophie and Minerva. She and Clementine looked absolutely stunning together. THIS is the dress she wore.

-On their wedding day, during their “first dance”, the whole room went dark and special effects were made to have lighting of the galaxies and nebulas light up the room as they danced.

-They went to Venice in Italy for their honeymoon. They admired the scenery and sailing on the boats, and they also went to the festival of the masks, they had a really awesome time there.

BRODY & CLEMENTINE

-Brody was delighted at the idea of wedding her girlfriend. Her bridesmaids were Ruby, Violet, Sophie and Minerva.

-Brody wore a blue dress to match her eyes, and she looked absolutely gorgeous in it. THIS is the dress she wore.

-Clementine and Brody took so many pictures together during their wedding that they put their pictures in a scrapbook they ended up making later in the year.

-The two lovely ladies went to Jaipur in India. They really loved the colorful architecture that the city possessed and it was really, really unique in comparison to America, but they enjoyed their stay nonetheless.

MARLON & CLEMENTINE

-Marlon was really stoked at the idea of marrying his highschool sweetheart. His best man was his long time best friend, Louis, and his attendants were Aasim and Mitch. Louis and Marlon did their secret handshake before the latter went out to do his duty in the ceremony.

-Marlon was excited that Rosie was able to come along, but only after the wedding vows were done. That was alright with him, as long as his favorite canine companion could be there, too.

-When Clementine walked down the aisle, he stared at her for, like, 46 minutes, astonished at how beautiful she was. Louis ended up snickering as quietly as he could because it was hilarious to see his best friend in that state.

-Marlon and Clementine ended up going to Paris in France for their honeymoon. They went to the Palace of Versailles and Marlon bought so many goddamn patisserie that Clementine actually found it amusing. Oh well, at least she wouldn’t be hungry.

GABRIEL & CLEMENTINE

-Gabe was super hyped and not to mention really excited that he was going to marry the girl of his dreams, but he also vowed to be a loving husband and not to make the same mistakes with his new wife that his father and mother made. His attendants were Louis, Aasim and Mitch.

-Javier, David and Kate were all present for the wedding. Mariana gave her brother a big hug and chocolates so that he and Clementine could share them.

-The music at the wedding consisted of ballads and songs both in English and in Spanish. Damn, the Garcias knew how to throw a good party.

-Gabe and Clementine ended up going to Madrid in Spain for their honeymoon - a lovely visit. Whenever they went to a fancy restaurant, Gabriel ended up doing most of the translations, as Clementine wasn’t fully fluent in Spanish.

MITCH & CLEMENTINE

-Mitch made a bunch of memes and Vines on how excited he was at the fact that he was marrying his badass girlfriend. His attendants were Willy, Marlon and Louis.

-A few months before the wedding, Mitch had created his own set of fireworks in top secret. When he lit them during the wedding day, and the fireworks were launched into the sky, a myriad of different colors lit up the sky and then a sentence made it’s way into the sky: Clem sets my heart alight.

-Willy and Mitch brofisted before the wedding processions began and Aasim had to be the one to tie his tie considering that he was a bit confused on how the whole thing worked, considering his father never taught him how.

-Mitch and Clem went to Las Vegas for their honeymoon. It was honestly one of the best moments of their relationship.

JAMES & CLEMENTINE

-James, although seeming rather quiet and shy about the whole arrangement, was nervous but also really happy that he was marrying his long-time girlfriend. He would do everything in his power to make her happy. His attendants were Louis, Aasim and Mitch.

-During the first dance, James had held Clementine closely and gently and hummed to her while they twirled around the room. Even on his wedding day, James was quiet, sweet and affectionate in his own way.

-During the feast, James ended up performing for his bride with his local indie band known as The Whisperers - and it was his first time singing in a public event, as well, so this was a big step for him. The crowd was shocked - no one save for Clementine had expected James to sing so nicely.

-They went to Hangzhou in China for their honeymoon. They spent much of their honeymoon in tranquility by the lake so known in history, as it was said by Marco Polo that the city of Hangzhou was the most beautiful city in the world.

#( HEADCANONS. )#it took me a while to write all these!! i hope you like them!!#more under the cut for length purposes!!

2 notes · View notes

centaurianthropology · 6 years

Text

The Magnus Archives ‘A Matter of Perspective’ (S03E26) Analysis

Melanie takes the reins for this outing, and we get a statement that has been hinted at since early season 3. After that, there are particularly fun revelations, then … well, then. The good times just can’t last on this show, can they?

Come on in to hear what I thought about ‘A Matter of Perspective.’

It’s interesting to contrast Melanie’s presentation style from Jon and Martin’s. She very much still has an entertainer’s training and instincts. She’s the only one who cues herself and gives a clap like she expects cutting and editing after. And yet she seems as gripped by the personality of the statement as they are. It’s hard to tell where her instinct for entertainment ends and the Archivist begins, but suffice to say she’s blurring the line. She’s not as deep into it as Martin and Jon, but she feels it.

The statement itself is a different perspective on the Daedalus Station, this time from the elusive Jan Kilbride, who has been referenced several times this season. He’s clearly someone touched by the Vast, and was picked for the mission quite specifically by ‘Mr Fairchild’, likely Simon Fairchild. So we’ve had the person picked by the Lukases (totally isolated, saw the Earth vanish), and the Fairchilds (got sent so far out from the Earth he perceived the Vast). That probably means that Manuela was chosen by the People’s Church of the Divine Host. One wonders what sort of experiment they requested of her.

I love that we got to see Simon Fairchild again, even if only for a moment. Of all the potential human monsters, I have a soft spot for this guy, who seems to me to be the horrific TMA version of a wacky wizard. He seems to focus on people who were already drawn to the Vast, and then he gives them far more of it than he could ever want. He’s always struck me as the sort of character who knows perfectly well that most people he throws at the Vast end up dead, but he can’t see why that should be a bad thing. He’s giving them what they want. It might not come in a palatable form, but they still did want it, at least at the beginning. Of all the parties in TMA, he often seems the most jovial in his perspective.

We know that he’s trying to find the Vast, and has been collecting pieces of it, experiences of its various facets. I have to wonder, then, if Kilbride wasn’t his greatest success. What Kilbride perceived between the stars, far out beyond our own solar system, seems as close as we’ve come to the whole of one of the great old ones. Something so vast his mind couldn’t even comprehend it, couldn’t pick out its edges or define it in any way besides its Vastness. Was this merely another aspect of the Vast, or did he touch the being itself? Could he touch the being itself?

I feel like he hit the nail on the head when he stated that we cannot truly perceive the great old ones, and they can’t really perceive us on any meaningful level. Their aspects interact with us, but more like we’d interact with ants or other very small insects we notice. We crush them or brush them aside or sometimes just move them away. Some of them we take a liking to for a brief moment, and we’re gentle with them, but we forget them soon. That’s the best analogy to the great old ones I can think of. The Vast is, in many ways, that enormous incomprehensibility made manifest.

Once the statement was done, it was also interesting to hear Melanie’s reaction to it. She seems startled that it’s done, but less so because she seems to be waking up from the sort of out-of-body experience that Jon and Martin go through. If anything, she seems more like season 1 Jon (and I think there’s a reason those two clash so often, as they are remarkably similar in some ways), wanting to dismiss Kilbride’s experiences, particularly as he didn’t describe ever returning to the Daedalus. She acknowledges the reality of the supernatural, yes, but without good evidence she has a hard time believing the statement.

Then Basira arrives, and their snarky chats are things I need a lot more of in my life. The two actresses have great chemistry, and through them we got some wonderful little revelations about the other characters and how they’re perceived by Melanie and Basira.

The first thing that happened was the confirmation that Martin’s little crush on Jon is not only canon, but has probably been noticed by everyone except Jon. Basira and Melanie both agree that Martin got rather hostile when he found out Jon was confiding in them rather than him, which is fantastic. I’ve read that sort of thing into so many shows, only to have them deny it later. To have it outright confirmed by the other characters that Martin has it bad for Jon, and that his crush explains a lot of his actions? Yeah, that’s awesome.

And the awesome kept coming with the following revelation, second-hand from Georgie, that Jon is asexual. Apparently not aromantic, as he and Georgie did date for a time, but asexual. It’s fantastic to see representations of various sexualities so seamlessly integrated into the show, and for each of them to fit the characters so well. As soon as they got confirmed, it felt like an ‘of course’ moment. Of course Tim is bisexual. Of course Martin is in love with Jon. Of course Jon is asexual. It just works.

I don’t know if they planned on dropping these revelations during Pride, but it’s really fun nonetheless. I feel like this is the best way to do LGBT representation: by simply integrating it when it seems appropriate to the character and the situation. By not making it some ‘very special episode’. We got confirmation about Martin and found out more about Jon just through some office gossip. It makes my heart happy (and, yes, the Dinghy shipper in me more than a bit pleased too). Like, seriously. Fucking solid job, TMA.

And then.

And then, Elias.

Fuck me, I wasn’t anticipating that poor Melanie’s dad was at Ivy Meadows, the nursing home taken over by John Amhurst and torn apart by the plague of insects and disease that accompanied him in ‘Taken Ill’. That remains one of the nastier episodes of TMA ever, and to know that Melanie lost a relative to that, and didn’t even know is horrible. Even more horrible was how she found out how her grandfather died, by Elias inflicting the information and possibly even some of the feelings he went through upon her.

His desire to maintain control over those around him, to maintain a true stranglehold on the Institute, is horrifying in its scope and ruthlessness. And we now know he can take information and plant it into the memories of those who weren’t there. Turning the truth into a weapon continues to be his cruelest trick, and I hate to think what he might do to Tim or to Martin if they tried to turn on him.

One thing’s for certain, I don’t think this is going to work out the way he wants it to. He thinks that this will break Melanie, but she has a core of rage that I think will only get stoked by this. She may well act cowed, but her mind is still her own. Elias can hear words and see actions, but so far as we can tell, he isn’t a mind-reader. So Melanie’s can and will still plan. She might not be able to directly research now, but that doesn’t stop her from plotting. If he wanted to convince her that he didn’t deserve to die, this sure as hell wasn’t the way. I think it’s fairly certain that Melanie will kill Elias, but the repercussions of that action … yeah, I worry.

Because Elias does use the truth as a weapon, so I have a tendency to believe him. He obfuscates, but he rarely outright lies to people. He gets too much satisfaction out of hurting them with the truth as he sees it. Do I think everyone will drop dead if he dies? No. But do I worry that whatever it is that is piggy-backing on Elias like the Archivist piggy-backs on Jon will jump to Melanie when she does it? Yes. And then Melanie would become Elias. Maybe not instantly, but slowly the woman we know would fade, and Miss King would take her place.

Conclusions

An interesting statement (it’s always fascinating when this series really leans into the cosmic part of cosmic horror) from someone I feel like will hold significance in the future. You don’t bring up a character several times and then drop him after a single statement.

But really, the real meat of this episode came after. We got confirmation that every single male character in the series is a flavor of queer, that Basira and Melanie’s friendship is excellent and good, and that Elias is 100% the scariest thing on this podcast right now. Hell of an ending to a good episode all around. This third season is of ridiculous quality, seriously.

And while so much horror is happening, and Elias is absolutely the worst, I am so very pleased with the level of queer representation we just got. It fits with all the characters, it came out when it felt appropriate for it to come out, and it made my Pride Month feel just a bit more awesome. Rock on, my very queer podcast. Rock the fuck on.

#The Magnus Archives #analysis

49 notes · View notes

rcrantz · 7 years

Text

Reviewing Doctor Who: What Have We Learned, Class?

Now that I’ve watched every Doctor Who there is to watch, you may be surprised to learn that I have some opinions! So, since you’re all here, I suppose I may as well share.

The Classic Era. You know that old cliche about the one constant characteristic of Doctor Who being change? It’s absolutely correct. It started its life as a low-budget show about a grumpy old man with a very inaccurate time machine and became . . . a lot of different things over the years. But it started to feel like Doctor Who pretty early on in its run--much like the character of the Doctor, the themes and faces change, but there is a core idea that never quite goes away.

As such, it’s hard to give the classic era one defining trait--each Doctor is very different from most of the others--but I think it’s safe to say that characters are handled differently. In the classic era, character arcs are less of a thing. We seldom meet the friends and family of our companions, and there are very few character-driven stories. That’s not to say there aren’t excellent characters and excellent character dynamics, but the focus is generally elsewhere. (There are, of course, exceptions.)

The interesting thing is how casual this makes some of the companions’ departures. Modern Who won’t let a companion leave without giving them a whole climactic episode (and Moffat won’t let a companion leave without having them pretend to leave six times, then have them seem to leave forever only to come back and travel through space and time with some random interstellar badass); in contrast, many of the companion departures in classic Who are fairly abrupt. The Doctor ditches Susan so she can get married to the dude she was hanging out with; he leaves Sarah Jane Smith in the wrong city because humans aren’t allowed on Gallifrey and he’s been summoned; Nyssa decides that she’d rather stay and help plague victims than keep traveling; and so on. Sometimes they decide to leave, sometimes the Doctor leaves them behind, but the show seldom dwells.

On the one hand, if you don’t like a companion this is fantastic. Classic Who relies much less on continuity (due, I think, largely to the format): if a character is gone, chances are we won’t hear about them again. But it does mean that some interesting character dynamics aren’t fully explored.

All told, I had a lot of fun with the classic era, and I think a lot of it is worth revisiting. Due to the episodic nature it’s pretty easy to just drop in wherever; you’ll probably figure out what’s going on without too much trouble. (I think Romana is the only companion who benefits from a bit of explanation, and even then all you need to say is “Romana is also a Time Lord.”)

The Davies Era. When I started watching, of course, Davies was all there was. I think I picked it up right after the End of Time had aired, before Moffat’s era started. Davies loves his character drama (see also my “rose is sad” tag), and lingers a lot on the effect the Doctor has on the lives he touches--and on the lives of their family and friends. Though this sometimes goes spectacularly badly (see: Father’s Day), for the most part I appreciate it. The companions feel more real, and it adds a layer of complexity to the Doctor’s character and his relationship with his companions.

He also likes big explosive finales where the fate of the world/universe is in balance, and meta-arcs which aren’t so much story arcs as they are a series of references that make you go “ah-ha” when you finally hit the finale. I actually like that, for the most part: if the finale is bad, you don’t feel that the whole arc is ruined; if it’s good, it adds a little bit of extra satisfaction to the resolution.

Early on in Davies’ run, the Doctor was usually an unknown character. He later starts running into people he’s encountered before, and of course the Daleks have a personal vendetta, but only once (during a Moffat-penned episode) during the Davies era does the Doctor save the day by just saying “I’m the Doctor, look me up.”

The Davies era is still firmly in the classic style: the Doctor and his companions live on the TARDIS. In the modern era they now visit their homes with some regularity, but they’re still primarily travelers. On some level, even if they’re expecting to be able to go home again, they give up their lives to travel with the Doctor.

The Moffat Era. I was actually pretty stoked to hear Moffat was the new showrunner when time rolled around, because his episodes thus far had all been top-notch. And while doing this rewatch I did not dislike it nearly as much as I’d remembered. So why was it frustrating my first time through?

I think most of it is that Moffat likes to set up interesting mysteries without having a good resolution in mind. Sometimes he simply fails to resolve them, sometimes the resolution is a cheap cop-out, and sometimes it’s just unsatisfying. And the seasons are now woven into the meta-plot to some degree or other, making it harder to extricate.

Moffat’s meta-plots are more involved than Davies’ were, which also means they’re less subtle. They will regularly feature brief segments, usually at the end of an episode, where the ongoing mystery happens: In Series 5, it would be a shot of a Crack in Time; in Series 8, we had Missy; etc., etc. I didn’t like most of these meta-plots, as you can probably see from the fact that I gave most of their conclusions relatively poor grades.

Moffat is also much more focused on the Doctor as a character, and especially early on it’s focused on the Doctor as the Most Important Being In The Universe. This leads to some really goofy situations (the Pandorica Opens), and there’s a lot more reliance on “I’m the Doctor, look me up” as a resolution to plot devices. (There’s also a lot more reliance on “time travel!!!” as a resolution, which Doctor Who actually usually tries to avoid, I think because it’s usually not as clever as Moffat thinks it is.) He tries to back away from this later on, but there are still some lingering traces. (He literally makes the Doctor the President of Earth. This is wrong on so many levels.)

It also seems Moffat does not particularly like two-part episodes. So, so many of these stories I’ve had the thought on initially watching them that “if this had a second part, it would have been great.” The pacing feels rushed. Worse, often when we do have two-parters, they frequently follow the “part one is a completely different story from part two” formula. This is fine occasionally, but often it makes it feel like, rather than resolving the cliffhanger from the previous episode, we’re just assuming that was resolved off camera and we’ve got a new, related story going on. 45-ish minutes is not a very long time to tell a good story; it’s doable, but many of the stories want us to care about characters we’ve hardly had time to get to know.

For some reason partway through Amy and Rory’s time on the TARDIS, Moffat decided that his companions now lived primarily at home, and the Doctor only stops by occasionally for Adventure Purposes. I don’t think this decision made anything better.

Still, though I have many critiques of the Moffat era, it’s still Doctor Who. It produced some fantastic episodes, and Twelve is probably my second favorite modern Doctor (despite a seriously rocky start).

Stray Thoughts. Doctor Who experiments. I think that’s at the heart of the show. Sometimes those experiments fall flat, and sometimes they accomplish great things, but despite being a show with a strong formula, it’s never afraid to innovate. It’s true we’d probably have missed out on some of the less enjoyable stories if the show had been more conservative, but we also wouldn’t have stories like Midnight. (Hell, we probably wouldn’t even be here. I don’t know if I would have made the decision to have the Doctor transform from a grumpy old man into a bumbling clown way back in the day, and I think that change, more than anything else, helped bring us to the modern era.) It’s a show with the spirit of an explorer, and even when it falls flat it doesn’t diminish the effort.

By the time this gets published, it’ll only be a few months til the Christmas special airs, which will be the end of the Moffat era and the end of Twelve, and very probably will be our first “official” glimpse at Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. The show’s about to change--that’s what it does. That’s why it’s still here, fifty-odd years later. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

#doctor who

3 notes · View notes

daleisgreat · 5 years

Text

2018-19 TV Season Recap

Previous TV Season Recaps - (2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18) 9-13-2019 Update: 2019 Summer TV Season Recap now online! Click here for recaps of latest seasons of GLOW, Veronica Mars & Jessica Jones! Greetings and welcome to my belated annual TV season recap! Got to this several weeks later than I wanted to, but glad to finally knock this out of the park! I will…attempt…to make this a little more concise than previous years so fingers crossed that I do not drone on forever! If you do have the time and want to check out my past year in TV breakdowns going back to 2013 please check out the links above! With that out of the way let us jump to the seasons of new TV I devoured from late summer/fall 2018 through spring 2019.

South Park – Like the past few seasons of South Park it features a season spanning arc, though it is not as prevalent as past seasons as the build up is for the town’s annual bike parade the kids are all stoked for. It was an interesting build up throughout to the payoff in the finale. A secondary, smaller season-spanning arc focusing on legalization of weed in South Park was a hokey plot thread to see touched on from time to time and had a payoff at the end I cracked up at. Other episodes were kind of a little lower fare than past seasons with the usual riffing on current events that South Park is known for with notable takes this season on the Roseanne Barr controversy conveyed through the return of Mr. Hankey and additionally ManBearPig making his deadly return and rampaging through South Park. Grade: B- The Conners – Previously known as Roseanne, but because of some ill-worded tweets from her last year lead to her removal of the show and being rebranded as The Conners. I am fine with how they wrote Roseanne out of the show by touching on her pill-addiction issues that were a focus in the first season. That said, I dug it more than its return season, primarily because the cast is gelling together far better now. Sarah Gilbert and Lecy Goransen both stepped up to fill the void with Barr's exit from the show. Darlene is the front and center star now, and she is nailing it holding the chaos at home down. It is good see DJ finally receive a marginal, but noticeable bump up in screen time this season after being an afterthought in a handful of episodes in the return season. I was glad to see an episode emphasize Dan dealing with Roseanne's storyline passing of the show. Also was fun to see cameos from recurring characters from the first run of the show throughout this season. Darlene finally gets a new gig at a newspaper and her boss there has tremendous chemistry with her character. A part of me still seems like that show is just not right with Roseanne not on there, but I understand why that is how it is and the cast is making the best out of a bad situation and are all bringing it with a pretty damn good second return season. Grade:B+

Orville – So I mentioned in last year’s TV recap I dropped off this show towards the end of the season because McFarlane’s humor felt a little too forced in an otherwise fine and occasionally pretty good modern take on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Eventually I revisited it and finished off last few episodes of the first season and I was glad I did because Orville stepped it up and dialed back McFarlane’s jokes and while still noticeable are better paced and not as nonstop as most of the first season was. The second season does a little cast swapping and position shifting around the Orville vessel much like the second season of TNG did. It leads to a better flowing second season with LaMarr now heading up engineering. I will miss Halston Sage’s kickass security character from the show, but Jessica Szohr proves to be a suitable replacement. Seeing the true nature of Isaac’s home planet was a two-part episode arc I will never forget that ranked near the top as my favorite TV all year and was highlighted by a huge CG-quality space dogfight of theatrical quality. As much as I loved this season there were still a couple head-scratcher episodes with one Bortus-themed episode that did not go over well with me, and another where Claire attempts to date Isaac in an intriguing arc, but eventually had a lackluster conclusion. Major props again to Seth McFarlane for restraining his humor which leads to the times when Seth does work in his jokes playing out far better and more memorable including a Twinkie joke ranking right up there with Twinkie references in UHF and Die Hard. Props also to Seth for portraying a pretty damn good captain too. Grade: A-

Castlevania - I cranked out both seasons of Netflix’s exclusive anime based on the hit videogame series at the beginning of this year. Both are really quick watches with the first season being four episodes and the second only eight episodes. I am not even going to attempt to elucidate the intricacies of the plot. Both seasons involve signature characters from the series such as Belmonts, Dracula and Alucard. Both seasons also have exquisite animation and all kinds of lusciously crafted gory medieval violence. I was not super huge into both seasons as the lore sometimes went right over my head, but both served as entertaining background noise to indulge. Grade: B Arrested Development - The second half of season five hit Netflix earlier this year. I consider it more-or-less season six since it launched about roughly a year after season five first started. It puts a nice bow on most of the Netflix-era arcs such as George Michael’s FakeBlock business, whether Joeb’s controversial magic trick really spelled the end of Tony Wonder, Michael’s repeated failed attempts at trying to save the family and yes it all wraps up with the breaking-ground ceremony for the Mexico/America border wall. For the most part I was a fan of this season although it is a victim of past Netflix-era seasons where they could not film with the entire ensemble cast present which leads to many odd camera angles and noticeable stand-ins present. I do not know if a future season is announced, but I am guessing not as this season had a nice sense of closure to it, and by that I mean in only the most pure, awkward nature possible that proved to be a worthy sendoff to Arrested Development. Grade: B+

Gotham - This was the fifth and final season of Gotham. FOX announced a year ahead of time they would be running a shortened final season of the show to give an opportunity to the creators and cast to wrap up all the story threads. Only problem was Gotham had a ton of threads and a huge cast. Season four’s theme was all about the ‘rise of the villain’ with Batman’s trademark wide range of antagonists coming into their own by season four. With the shortened season, several of those villains like Mr. Freeze and the…flamethrower girl do not appear whatsoever in the final seasons and some of my favorites like Poison Ivy and Zsasz are limited to only one or two episodes. Rest assured fan favorites Penguin and Riddler are featured throughout and both are awesome to follow along with in their constant love/hate relationship. This season-spanning arc features Gotham declared a DMZ and is ruled by gang warfare and Gordon is in charge of a resource-depleted Gotham PD constantly under siege throughout. Since the show presumably wrapped up three-to-five years early I understand the direction FOX went with having the final episode jump several years in the future so we can finally see Bruce Wayne’s destiny come to fruition and I loved the build to the memorable closing shot of the series. The final episode also has many other caps sealed to see how the rest of the fantastic cast evolved. While I could not help but get the feeling that this season was rushed, I felt the cast and crew did as best as they possibly could with the condensed season they were allotted to wrap it up. Grade: A- DC/CW ARROW-VERSE

Arrow - The seventh season of Arrow gets the distinction of being the only one of the four CW shows I started at their season premiere that I made it to the season finale of. Ollie’s compromise to serve time in jail at the end of season six had real consequences where he spends the first half of the season in prison and his journey to get out of there was an enticing ride that sees him making unlikely enemies and allies and having to go through the prison’s twisted underground fight club to stay in the warden’s good graces while Team Arrow looks through every nook and cranny to get his sentence repealed. I loved the flash forwards this season that focuses on the cast’s offspring coming together as future vigilantes to save Star City. The Arrow-verse crossover special this season, Elseworlds was another solid crossover and served as introducing the Batwoman character while CW primes up that show later this year. Seeing Barry and Oliver react to their introduction to Superman was priceless. The annual cameo of Tommy was the best yet this season, and I absolutely loved his final interaction with Oliver. The conclusion paved the way for what is announce to be Arrow’s final season debuting this fall. I was very saddened to hear one long-standing character will not be part of it, but loved the heartfelt way they were taken care of on the season finale.

Pen15 - This Hulu-exclusive show is a nostalgia trip for me. It focuses on two 13-year old girls in 1999 starting seventh grade. There is a lot of late-90s ‘extreme’ pop culture window dressing that I could not help but sink my teeth into since it is what I grew up with in high school. The episode dedicated to AOL Instant Messenger is spot-on and brought back so many memories. Pen15 focuses on all the craziness of middle school one could anticipate, including a few awkward pubescent encounters that got borderline uncomfortable to watch. For the most part though I am on board with following along with the adventures of Anna and Maya in future seasons. Grade: B+ Riverdale, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow - I dropped almost all of the CW shows I follow except for Arrow. Riverdale jumped the shark too many times this season and it seems like they are placing the Archie characters in some odd beast of a show that is a Warriors-Hunger Games-DnD hybrid that got progressively nuts-o by the week. I was initially on board with the new direction and twists on the Archie characters I grew up with, but as this seasons warred on it has gone off the deep end with a horrible intro thread that saw Archie in juvie and eventually on the run for the first half of the season and Veronica heading up a speakeasy underground at Pop’s. Without diving into too many spoilers I was not a fan of how Riverdale glorified certain things that rubbed me the wrong way and a few other characters overstayed their welcome who did not gel with the rest of the cast. The whole speakeasy scenes in the show never gelled, even with the new hard-edge drama this series has and finally when Cheryl ups and forms her Hunger Games tribute gang of archers was the line I finally went and threw my hands up and dropped Riverdale a few episodes after the winter break.

Flash was on a slow downward spiral of mediocrity past couple seasons and I could not take it anymore with new characters I could not get into and Flash looking like a buffoon every week. Chris Klein portrayed the season-long villain and I could not help but feel the producers had no idea how to implement him as he seemed like more of an afterthought. Legends of Tomorrow was my surprise favorite CW show last season, but this season gradually introduced a new character named Mona Wu that was a minor background annoyance at first, but grew into the major character to circle the season around and the character did not get any more affable and was still grating to endure and it also got to the point where I said no more! Like with Riverdale, I dropped both Flash and Legends of Tomorrow within a few episodes past their midseason break. Sorry CW, it is me, not you. Grade: Dropped MARVEL NETFLIX SERIES Punisher - People who know me, and if you have been following this blog long enough you know I am a huge Punisher fan, so obviously I am biased, but I still got to say I loved both seasons, and I will give the nudge slightly to season one. I loved the first setting the first few episodes of the second season takes place in to mix things up a bit from the other Marvel Netflix shows. The new love/hate sidekick, Amy took me awhile to warm up to, but I warmed up to her about halfway through and watching their relationship develop with Frank was a lot of fun and to see how some of their foreshadowing paid off later on in the season was pretty special. Curt's and Midani's interplay with Frank is still on the mark and they did not miss a beat in season two. The interplay with the therapist and Billy Russo could have been dialed back a little bit as I felt she was in one scene too many nearly every episode.

As with the first season, loved the action, loved the dialogue for nearly the entire cast and I thought they expertly handled the Punisher as a man of few words, but obviously they had to give him some dialogue to span an entire season, and Netflix got a ton out of his body language and cadence of the dialogue he does deliver throughout the season. I agree with many that John Berenthal is far and away the best actor to portray the Punisher, and I will forever remember all the little things he did to make him pop out and stand out among the rest as the way to play the Punisher. His final line of dialogue to close out the series is perfect! While I was saddened to see this get the inevitable cancellation announcement from Netflix along with the rest of its Marvel shows, I hope this one day gets picked up by Hulu or Disney+. Grade: A Iron Fist – I had no intentions of watching the second season of Iron Fist, but then I heard it got canned and after being a little optimistic for how he was portrayed in the episode of season two of Luke Cage he guest appeared in I decided to give it a shot. It is better than season one, but it still has a far way to go from being must-see. Finn Jones is far more entertaining this season as Danny Rand and is nowhere near as insufferable this season, although he does he have his moments on occasion. His Kun-Lun background is explored much more this season with some intriguing flashbacks. There is a new split personality character introduced this season who I became a big fan of by the end of the season. Ward and Joy are both more tolerable this season and by the end I was kind of won over by Ward with his whole NA/recovery arc. Davos returns as the main villain and with his background with Danny he winds up a more viable villain than Bakuto and the Hand. Also, no Hand this season!!!

The season loses points with me this season because Joy's arc was initially promising, but kind of falls apart by the end. Same with Colleen who was another character I was not big on, but won over this season...until the last couple of episodes anyway. Finally, Luke Cage’s Misty Knight is on several episodes of this season and I was never a fan of her before and she is equally unpleasing to endure here. If you got the time to kill and want to keep up with everything in the Marvel Netflix universe than I would say it is kind of barely worth it and is enough of a step up from the disastrous first season to check out. Grade: D+ (But a good D+ if there ever was a thing considering how big of an improvement this is from the first season) Daredevil - What a big step up from the disappointing previous season! Glad to see Kingpin as the forefront again as the antagonist this season and to see him go from prison to taking control of the reins of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ again was a delight! Also a delight was the evolution of newcomer Dex to the show into a certain favorite Marvel character of mine. The way Daredevil handled Dex could not have been done any better. Coming out of the Defenders team up season, I loved the opening episodes focusing on Matt going into isolation as he recovered and gradually worked his way back into the fray. As with Punisher, all the action and fights here are masterfully choreographed and I was glued to the screen once a fight kicked off. I cannot think of a single person that is mis-casted since everyone delivers sublime performances. Karen and Foggy are awesome supporting characters and I loved their angles this season with more background into Foggy’s family struggles while trying to save the Nelson & Murdoch firm and Karen taking insane risks in her journalistic endeavors.

My highest praise is I think this is probably the sole Marvel Netflix season that could have went an extra episode or two because it felt like they kind of had to rush through a few scenes that felt a little condensed in the final episode. Another similarity Daredevil shared with Punisher is that it also unfortunately was cancelled by Netflix and I am super-bummed to see it go after this redemption season. Here is hoping it too gets picked up on another streaming service or maybe even by some stroke of luck both Daredevil and Punisher get incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. FINISH!!! That wraps up this past year’s worth of TV coverage. I tip my hat to you if you somehow managed to stick with me all this way through! I do not know if I will do my annual bonus summer TV viewing follow-up or not. I know Netflix still has to unload the last season of Jessica Jones, but I thought it would have dropped within the last few months so who knows when it will hit. I know season three of GLOW will hit Netflix this summer and that will jump instant viewing right away because of how much I enjoyed the last two seasons. I keep telling myself I need to do a one week trial of HBO Now to binge watch the final season of Game of Thrones and get caught up on Ballers so I might go down that well later this summer too. I am also tempted to do a trial of ESPN+ to watch that highly rated Love & Basketball docu-series and get caught on the last several 30 for 30s I am behind on. Got other suggestions for what I should watch this summer? Feel free to tweet them away to me @Gruel Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

#conners #roseanne #south park #tv/web series #orville #pen15 #Arrested Development #castlevania #Gotham #arrow #Flash #legends of tomorrow #riverdale #Iron Fist #punisher #Daredevil

0 notes

makeover-blog1 · 5 years

Text

Wild Style Completionisms

via WordPress ift.tt/2IRIqOw

Stickup Kids: “A to the K?” “A to the mother fuckin Z.”

(feel free to click on any pic to zoom in)

Related to Elements: DJ, MC, B-Boying, Graffiti, Wild Style, Crate Digging

Of all the Old School Hip Hop movies, Wild Style is the absolute best. Billboard Magazine is even more flattering.

“#1 Hip-Hop movie of all time” – Billboard Magazine

That’s not too bold of a claim since it is essentially a fly on the wall view of the birth of the forthcoming worldwide cultural Hip Hop explosion. The tale is told from an insider’s perspective where you see the original 4 elements of Hip Hop all on equal footing. Even at the grand finale scene of the movie, the raw energy and talent doesn’t reach beyond the South Bronx’s Amphitheater. Nevertheless, this is where it all began, and the confidence and freshness factor of this movie’s real life players can’t be fucked with.

Now, 30 years down the line, you can pop in the DVD and it’s still as fresh now as it was back then. No other movie unidealistically touches the reality of early days of Hip Hop more than Wild Style.

Right, But What about the Music?

Various Wild Style Records, the OST CD and 30th Anniversary DVD

One of the very first records I ever bought was the Wild Style Soundtrack. When the mailman dropped it off on my stoop I was stoked and soon after unboxing it the stoked feeling turned to “Oh, wait, this is kinda flimsy.” Turns out I bought a “bootlegunofficial” copy. For all intensive purposes “Bootleg” and “Unofficial” are the same thing, but Discogs says it like that so I guess I better follow their lead. Still, I had the soundtrack and I was elated. I reluctantly realized it didn’t sound the best but, frankly, back then I was happy to have any classic Hip Hop record even if it was just a crappy boot. At some point I realized I wasn’t happy enough. It sounded like crap and I knew an original copy had to be out there. But back in those days that original OST went for 50-100 bucks on Ebay (which is incidentally why it had been bootlegged) and that was well out of my financial grasp. Luckily, the good people at Mr Bongo out of the UK had guys like me covered because they procured the rights to a legitimate and nicely pressed 2LP reissue with Bonus Tracks. Obviously I was all over that along with other various Wild Style records along the way… TLDR. Fast forward to today, I finally got the original copy and hell yeah, it was worth the wait. It sounds just as sweet as I hoped it would.

Various Wild Style Records (click to zoom in)

Wild Style Soundtrack: The Bootleg vs the Original

Other than tell-tale wear and tear the covers look the same

The covers may look the same but the original can be identified by extra printing on the back cover and on the record label.

If it doesn’t say “Jem” it’s fake. (click to zoom)

Look for the “Manufactured by Jem Records” writing on the back cover and on the record label.

Click to zoom in on the label of the “unofficial” Wild Style OST

Click to zoom in on the label of the Original Wild Style OST

The bootleg is the absolute worst sounding pressing so it should be avoided at all costs. The Mr Bongo 2LP pressing is fantastic and so is the OG. I personally like the OG best because of the way the songs are originally mixed. It’s almost like a DJ mix not unlike the style of mixing on the classic Street Sound’s Electro compilations. Mr Bongo’s (andor Beyongolia) versions are great pressings too but listening to it them has more of a compilation flow and “feel” to it.

The Wild Style Theme Rap 12″ (Animal) 1983

Wild Style Theme Rap 12″

The version on this twelve inch single is VERY different from the rap of the same name on the OST. This seems more electo-beat laced. It has thicker production and it’s a different beast of a classic altogether. I was a bit surprised to see how dope this was when I played it expecting the album version. Grandmaster Caz will always be the man, but back in 83 he was making undeniable moves on hot singles like this one.

“Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album” Origins

DJ Black Steel Presents: The Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album LP (Music of Life) 1990

During my early Wild Style collecting years I came across the “Original Wild Style Breakbeats”

the “Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album” record cover

OWSBBA back cover “Straight Outta the South Bronx”

OWSBBA record label

What’s the deal with this album? Who the hell is DJ Black Steel? I felt compelled to find out the origins. Apparently there is this rare record out there called the Wild Style Test Pressing and he was one of the insanely lucky dudes who had a copy.

Yeah, right! What kind of holy grail tall tale is this? Turns out it’s very true, let’s get it straight from the horse’s mouth… Check out what Freddy Fresh said on the matter.

“Taken from my book… ANIMAL RECORDS (Wild Style Soundtrack) This record was originally available through special screenings of the B Boy culture documentary of the film by the same name. At the end of screenings they would sell the album soundtrack of this film. I purchased my copy in 1983 at a screening of the film at the Bell Theater University of Minnesota. There were a handful of test pressings made of the instrumental versions of the songs as well, these were made for the DJ’s in the actual film to play and scratch with etc.. A few copies leaked out but almost NO ONE has an original test pressing of this record. (see test pressings, bootlegs etc..) see scan near end of book

6005 Wildstyle Soundtrack (Grand Wizard Theodore – Military Cut, Busy Bee Vs. Rodney C – MC Battle, Cold Crush Brothers vs. Fantastic Freaks – Basketball Throwdown, Fantastic Freaks at the Dixie, Grand Wizard Theodore – Subway Theme, Cold Crush Brothers at the Dixie, Double Trouble – Stoop Rap, Double Trouble at the Amphitheater, Busy Bee at the Amphitheater, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore – Gangbusters, Rammellzee & Shockwell at the Amphitheater) **** 1983 This album has been reissued through Beyongolia Records London England and includes 6 exclusive tracks not on the original Wildstyle album they are (Busy Bee’s –Limo Rap, Grandmaster Caz – South Bronx Subway Rap, Busy Bee – Street Rap, Fantastic Freaks at the Amphitheater, Fab 5 Freddy – Down By Law) 1998″

and

“Wild style inst. originally released as TEST PRESSING 20 copies or so is INVALUABLE. The Black Steel EP (Music OF LIFE) is the same thing basically and much more available.. also the BONGO cats in London re-released this and is fantastic pressing.” – Freddy Fresh (source: Oldschoolhiphop.forumco.com)

This info about this uber-rare Wild Style Test Pressing was in fact taken from his own book, Freddy Fresh’s Rap Records Volume 2…

Info from Rap Records Volume 2 on pages 31 and 637

Chalie Ahearn signed Wild Style Test Pressing pic courtesy of Rob at TSL

BTW, this book is an incredible crate diggers’ reference. Here is a link to Freddy Fresh’s Shop page with active links to buy it.

However, recently it has been brought to light that as many as 100 of these test pressings exist…

Quote from Sureshot La Rock Confirms 100 Test Pressings were made

Regardless, who am I kidding if I think I’ll land one of those hundred known blank white label test pressings? Let’s be realistic here. These Original Breakbeats Album and Mr Bongo’s Instrumental Beats album will have to suffice.

Mr Bongo’s and Beyongolia Wild Style Incarnations

Wild Style Original Soundtrack 2LP Version (Beyongolia) 1998

You’ve seen the cover… Back of Wild Style OST 2LP (zoom in for track list)

Wild Style OST 2LP shown in center with Gatefold Open, Nice shot of the Amphitheater. (zoomable)

The Wild Style OST 2LP pressing not only sounds good, but as already mentioned. it’s also got a few bonus tracks and a gatefold cover.

Wild Style Instrumental Beats LP (Beyongolia) 1998

Front cover of Wild Style Instrumental Beats

Track listing and back cover of Wild Style Instrumental Beats

As mentioned above these Wild Style Instrumental Beats are exactly that. A Wild Style Test Press for the rest of us kinda deal. Very similar to the “Wild Style Original Breakbeats” but different track lengths and a few different tracks altogether. Having both this Instrumental Beats and the Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album isn’t essential unless you are a completionist. Frankly, I should have two of both since they are screaming to be juggled.

Wild Style Instrumental Beats Record Label

Wild Style Lesson EP (Mr Bongo) 2007

Jumping on “the Lessons” bandwagon, Mr Bongo released the Wild Style Lesson EP on the 25th anniversary of the movie.

Wild Style Lesson EP in rotation

This Wild Style Lesson EP is a collection of a mega-mix, some alternate mixes, remixes and even a collection of “scratch tools” made from select movie dialogs and related Wild Style sound effects. This isn’t as corny as I thought it would be, it’s actually well-wicked and completely different from the OST.

Wild Style Lesson EP back cover (zoom in for track listing)

Grandmaster Caz & Chris Stein ‎– Wild Style Theme Rap 1 / Wild Style Subway Rap 12″ (Beyongolia) 1998

Grandmaster Caz & Chris Stein – Wild Style Theme Rap 12″ Front Cover

Grandmaster Caz & Chris Stein – Wild Style Theme Rap 12″ Back Cover

After synchronizing this Mr Bongo version with the original single on Animal Records it proved that this is essentially the same thing as the original 12″ release. However, to my ears at least, the original sounds much better at 45 RPM.

Discogs Link: Grandmaster Caz and Chris Stein – Wild Style Theme Rap 1 / Wild Style Subway Rap 12″ (Benongolia) 1998

Wild Style Original Soundtrack CD” (Rhino) 1997

Wild Style OST CD on Rhino Entertainment (back) (zoom for track listing)

There have been other CD versions of this, but really this is the only one that you need in for road trips. Manufactured at the high quality levels you’d expect from Rhino Entertainment, this disc is official and it sounds nice and loud. The tracks are unmixed unlike the original LP.

Wild Style 30th Anniversary DVD (Submarine Deluxe) 2013

Wild Style 30th Anniversary DVD (gate fold open) with Booklet

The movie was painstakingly remastered in a labor of love with this nice reissue by Submarine Deluxe. This comes with 2 Discs including the original movie and extra features including interviews of the cast and crew. A thorough book of some never before seen photos is a nice addition as well. Wanna know where they are now? Put in the second disc.

Great photos faithfully compiled within this booklet. (Zoom in for a peek)

Wanna see more iconic photos? Flip through the book or watch the visual slide show on the first disc. I’ve seen the film many times on good old VHS and I don’t even have to tell you that this obviously blows that out of the water. Even if you already have the DVD, hardcore fans of the movie should buy this for the added footage and valuable information within. I learned a lot from this DVD and book including a lot of interesting back stories.

What’s Missing From the so-called Completionist Collection?

Ok, you got me. I don’t have every single incarnation of the movie and it’s soundtracks, EPs or singles. For example I clearly don’t have the white label test pressing. I have learned to live with that and I suppose I can still die a happy man never even glimpsing it, knowing I at least have the music on vinyl.

Rare Wild Style Theme Rap Japanese 7″

Also, I don’t have the above shown seemingly impossible to find Japanese 7″ versions of Wild Style Theme Rap, nor do I have the promo version of this 7″ in a plain white sleeve.

BUT, I do have the 12″ version which I am assuming is a longer edit of the same song. Will I pay an arm and a leg to get this even though I already have the 12″? Don’t tempt me. I probably would. Incidentally if you have any leads on these please contact me here by posting on this blog and I’ll move heaven and earth if needed to get it. Not to mention there are other foreign pressings of the Wild Style Soundtrack. While I consider myself a completionist, I don’t feel the desire to get the same music with a simple “Made in France” sticker on it, that’s just silly. True, I got the collector sickness, but there is still a smidgen of common sense ruling my accumulation quirks.

So other than the test pressing (which won’t happen) and the 7″ (also, won’t happen) I am finally done buying Wild Style records. It only took me 18 years to feel some sense of finality, but alas, it’s finally over. Unless of course some new-jack label comes along and unearths a hidden chapter of Wild Style that doesn’t exist. In that case I’ll probably have to bite on that too.

DJ Black Steel & The 45 King ‎– 22 Wildstyle Beats 2CD (Music Station) 1995

Picture courtesy of Discogs

As per Discogs, this 2CD has the original DJ Black Steel Wildstyle Breakbeats untouched on disc one and disc two has the breaks mixed, looped, juggled, and extended by the incomparable 45 King. No doubt an unforgetable mixtape that I’m sleeping on but according to Discogs this has not been sold there so I’m guessing I’ll never see this in person either.

But You Forgot About These! (Update)

Since dropping this blog post on DWG Forums a few more omissions were brought to my attention. Some are promo versions of a few I already have, some have yet to be added to Discogs, and others are just amazing eye candy I cannot justify omitting from this blog post update. It goes without saying that I’m envious of the owners of these newly discovered holes in my soul.

DJ Black Steel Presents: The Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album LP (Music of Life) (Later Reissue)

Front Cover (Picture courtesy of Benjamin Hatton)

Factory Sticker and Label (Pictures courtesy of Benjamin Hatton)

This later (mid 2000’s) reissue on Music of Life is not listed on Discogs.

DJ Black Steel Presents: The Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album LP (Bootleg) (Music Station)

Music Station/Dancefloor Dist./Disc-stinct Bootleg (Photo courtesy of Manphat)

Apparently this bootleg has “extended versions” of the original original breakbeats.

Grandmaster Caz & Chris Stein ‎– Wild Style Theme Rap 1 / Wild Style Subway Rap 12″ (Beyongolia) 1998 (Signed Test Pressing)

Photo Courtesy of Cro

Signed by Grandmaster Caz! (Photo Courtesy of Cro)

Another Discogs omission… As if having the test pressing of this isn’t cool enough, Cro’s copy is signed by the man himself!

What, No Love for the Tapes?

Wild Style Movie (VHS) (Irish)

Photo courtesy of Jesper

Wild Style Movie (VHS) (Pyramid)

Photo Courtesy of Jesper

Then there’s the good old VHS release of the movie. Mine was a generic copy of a copy but luckily Jesper was kind enough to provide a few foreign copies of the movie. It’s something that you take for granted that there are countless variants of the video tape from countries all over the world.

And the cassettes too, there are numerous versions out there of the cassette that I haven’t accounted for.

Yet more Relics… Posters, Flyers, and original Tickets!

Flyer courtesy of Soul Safari

Original Poster! (photo courtesy of Sureshot La Rock)

Tickets to the filming. Be there to make history! Courtesy of Atilladahun

Front of Admissions Ticket (Courtesy of Atilladahun)

It’s not enough that they gotta taunt me with autographed test pressings of singles I never knew existed but then they gotta pour lemon juice all over my wounds with original admission tickets to the filming of the movie, movie posters from back in the day and even an original flyer! These are so cool and historical I certainly can’t blame them for pointing these out to a mezo-completionist such as myself. These are the kind of special pieces that true fans will never get rid of at any price. So I’ll have to live knowing that these are out there and maybe if I am lucky I’ll get to touch them some day.

As per DWG member Beattrooper via private message…

There’s 4 more Wildstyle bits out there.

Wildstyle Theme 12″ Japan issue from 83′ on Toshiba promo only (Thick Sleeve) Wildstyle Theme 12″ UK Test press 83′ Wildstyle Soundtrack vinyl LP with Obi strip and lyric sheet (1995?) Wildstyle Soundtrack Cassette with obi boxed like a VHS comes with a small booklet of photos again from 83′ (this is rarer then the 45!)

I guess I haven’t even scratched the surface of this iceberg. As more of these pieces come to light it’s becoming more and more apparent that I’ll never get a chance to become a true Wild Style completionist.

LBNL, Wild Style Comic Book Art

Here’s a late but worthy addition… Check out the Wild Style comic book! Some seriously enlightening reading for Wild Style fanatics.

Ed Piskor’s story behind the Wild Style story.

You can own these limited addition books while supplies last. Piskor is a hot Hip Hop specialty artist right now and the artwork in these pages is spectacular so who knows how long they’ll last. They are currently available at Fantagraphics Books.

Special Thanks to all the bonus information and pics from DWG members Chris, Sureshot La Rock, Cro, Atilladahun, Manphat, Benjamin Hatton, Jesper, Soul Safari, and Beattrooper and other members there. Thanks for keeping me on my toes!

-rchecka

Reference: Quick Links To Discogs Wild Style Related Records and CDs

Various – Wild Style Original Soundtrack LP (Animal) Unofficial/Bootleg

Various – Wild Style Soundtrack 2LP (Beyongolia) 1998

DJ Black Steel – The Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album LP (Music of Life) 1990 DJ Black Steel – The Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album LP Bootleg (Music Station) 1995 Various – Wild Style Instrumental Beats (Beyongolia) 1998 Grandmaster Caz and Chris Stein – Wild Style Theme Rap 1 / Wild Style Subway Rap 12″ (Benongolia) 1998 Various – Wild Style Lesson EP (Mr Bongo) 2007

Various – Wild Style CD (Rhino) 1997

DJ Black Steel & The 45 King – 22 Wildstyle Beats 2CD (Music Station) 1995

Known records missing from Discogs:

DJ Black Steel – The Original Wild Style Breakbeats Album LP (Music of Life) (Factory Stickered Reissue)

Grandmaster Caz and Chris Stein – Wild Style Theme Rap 12″ (Beyongolia) Test Press

Also allegedly missing from Discogs:

Grandmaster Caz and Chris Stein – Wildstyle Theme 12″ (Japan issue) 1983 on Toshiba promo only

Grandmaster Caz and Chris Stein – Wildstyle Theme 12″ (UK Test press) 1983

Various – Wildstyle Soundtrack vinyl LP (with Obi strip and lyric sheet) 1995(?)

Various – Wildstyle Soundtrack Cassette (with obi boxed like a VHS comes with a small booklet of photos) 1983

See Also:

Wild Style The Movie 30th Aniversary DVD (Submarine Deluxe)

DJ Skeme’s The Nostoglia King – Wild Style Autographed Poster Blog Post

Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style Era New York (Interview + Gallery)

An Original Amphitheatre Jam Poster (jpg)

The post Wild Style Completionisms appeared first on .

from WordPress http://www.richmegavideo.com/wild-style-completionisms/

#Hip Hop

0 notes

allyvampirelass29 · 4 years

Text

Blood Moon: Scene 3

A Vampire Diaries Special Edition Fanfiction By: Allyssa J. Watkins

Natalia's exhale was purely sensual, as it escaped her parted lips, her mouth open with unexpressed passion, her body aching for Klaus', gripping the buttons on his shirt, the heat in her blood still rising, even as the name left a chill on her skin.

"Wh- What did you just-?"

She moved in a wounded haze to pull away from him, but he snarled in protest, holding her tighter, lips raking hard down the nape of her neck, exhaling heavily into her curls, her thigh trembling beneath the heat of his palm.

"No...… You will listen..... Not a word. You will hear me now, you will feel me...…"

She murmured, breathless with the forceful affect of him, her body scarily quick to surrender, as though burning to act out the vivid scene Klaus had just painted, the Sire Bond not nearly as persuasive as his hands, especially when paired with the dulcet of his demand. That rapturous, capturing voice, that stung as it sweetened, like licking honey from thorns

"You and Damon would chase the other in your racing, reckless passions. If his blood ran hot, yours ran hotter, stirring each other up, edging each other on, moving against each other, faster and faster, until everything became a blur of naked flesh, and rushed pleasure........ That impudent boy in his haste, driven by his own selfish need, could not satisfy you...…. Did not satisfy you.

Natalia went to protest, but Klaus pressed his finger hard to her lips, and held it there, as his voice grew hushed. "Your soul, Darling. He couldn't satisfy your soul..... Although I'm sure even in the physical, he left much to be desired...…"

He smirked especially smug, tilting his head to the side, his sharp gaze softening, brushing his fingertip down her luscious lips. "The act of painting is so much more than the physical motion," He whispered in heightened ecstasy. "Any fool can SLATHER paint onto a canvas-" He growled the word in a hot seethe of breath, and deathly cold eyes, feeling her lips tremble against his pressed fingertip, as his other hand blurred fast against her inner thigh, disappearing under it, his palm pressed flush, and unyielding to the intimate skin, pulling down her other ruffled strap with his teeth in a predator's snarl. "But that act in of itself....... does not deem it art...…."

Klaus let his finger fall away from her lip, as Natalia struggled in desperation to catch her breath. "I assure you...… where your former lover was an unnuanced novice....…" Hissing the word into her skin, he pressed his lips deeply into the back of her neck, his mouth falling open, while his hold gentled against her thigh. "I am the Master...….."

He carefully splayed his fingers, drawing them torturously slow across her inner thigh, stroking it delicately, the severe contrast in sensations making her feel faint, her resolve unraveling with each brushed finger. "You have to have patience to be a painter...… You have to let the beauty bloom beneath your fingers, coax it from the canvas, and not get too hasty...… It takes such sublime devotion, bringing a masterpiece to....... completion." He breathed in, sinfully, his lips still pressing against the back of her neck, as his other hand whisked teasingly across the ruffled neckline of her dress, the tip of his finger, finding the skin just above the cleft, missing the sweeter spot on purpose. "I know how to place each and every brushstroke, Natalia, how to let the passion build to its palpable height before the final crescendo, and still...….." He felt the intensity in each breath, leaning into her, bowing his red blonde head, to kiss her neck tenderly, brushing his tongue lightly as he went, and she bit her lip, the faintest whisper of his hybrid fang tickling her sensitive skin. "...…. Delay the gratification, just long enough, letting the pleasure simmer into deafening intensity...…."

She shook violently in his hands now, as though he'd slyly undressed her with his words, still taking his time kissing her neck, his lips hot, feverish, and she jolted as he flicked his tongue against her ear, his mouth salivating with his next thought. "You had sex with Damon Salvatore, Darling, and though you may have loved him...… it was not expressed in the act of making it...… You've never made love, Tal, not really. You've never had love made to you, where your own pleasure was the entire purpose and focal point of the piece."

"Oh my God....." She whispered, her voice betraying her physical enthrallment, and his lips parted, dripping desire, tucking one defiant curl behind her ear. "You need...… the words, Tal. The words that paint not just physical love, but the metaphysical, the intimacy, you crave more than a man's body, you need the closeness to his naked soul. You need hands that are worthy of what it could create with your body. A Painter's Hands...…."

She turned into him, still clutching his buttons, fingers trembling, and he chuckled against her cheek, pressing his nose against it, taking her hand with such precarious adoration, and gently slipped it back into his shirt, between the gap, hand over the fine material, as he edged the warm, womanly fingers, over his relaxed muscles, to the faded scar on his heart. "You'll have me, Natalia," he rasped, even more aroused, now that she was touching him back, holding her hand against his naked chest. "You'll know me...… in every intimate sense, all of my sacred places, both scars and salacious counterparts, my body in whole, will combine in such splendor and riotous bliss with yours...…. but........ not now, not tonight........."

"Klaus-"

His name escaped her lips in a full-bodied ache that made his hands tremble, carrying with it almost no sound, more of a cry, then a call.

"Not finished, My Sweet Sin...…" He whispered, kissing her cheek. "I won't take you, not even now when the night is tender and opportune, and I am living in my fantastical ideal...… I won't take you, I'll deny you to myself, starve myself of you...… until at last, when I touch you...…." His breath was hot against her cheek, letting go of her hand, running his palm in retreat back down her thigh, to caress her knee, his other finger trailing down over the center of her chest, toying with the ruffle, to flit his palm just underneath the pleasing swell, hugging her closer, lips teasing her ear. "When I touch you, without you feeling him........ When you aren't remembering his hands, because you're here, now, with me, and mine alone create the sensations that romance you. When I can caress you without a trace of him, then, and only then will I take you...… Like I said," He smirked, with a mischievous tilt of his auburn curls, his blue eyes amused. "I'm not Damon Salvatore...…... And we have nothing but time...…."

He released her all at once, pulling viciously away, letting the night air fall over her skin in his stead, and watched her shiver, having been touched in places he'd never dared before. He knew........ that for this one fleeting, fiery moment, it was his fingerprints burning, emblazoned over Damon's, and that in time........ his would be the only etching.

"Thank God for that...…." She breathed, trying to calm herself down, her body whiplashed, going from being touched so much, too much, to not at all, and honestly she couldn't decide which was worse.

"What's wrong, Love? Did your mind stray to much more...….. scandalous inducement? Did you picture it?

"You're a-" He watched her breath catch in her chest, his gaze following the goosebumps as they crawled their way down her bare leg. "You're a tease, Klaus..... You know that, right?"

"Well, you know what they say about teases, Talia...…. One can only be teased by that which one secretly wants...…."

"I'm not going to say it...…. Get over yourself." She insisted, still chasing her breath, covering up her leg with the satin ruffle, and Klaus pouted, leaning over both of his wrists, adorably arching both eyebrows, and then grinned something evil.

"Oh believe me, My Sired, your entire body's spoken quite eloquently for you...….."

Natalia looked at him aghast, her mouth falling open. The ARROGANCE, The absolute NERVE!!!! But even as she tried to let the fire catch, punish him for his blatant invasion, she felt the radiated heat from his hands both soothe her and stoke her. She was the fire, but she burned with his heat, and he knew it. In one weak moment, Klaus owned her fire, and it answered to him alone. His to quell, his to conquer, his to let spread wild.

"I need a drink...…." She said in a breathless huff, running her hands through her wild curls, still a little uhhh....... excited. Damn him. Klaus smiled, satisfied, surrounded in the erratic pulsing of her heart, the red, burning her cheeks, and there was a quiver in her movements, a delicious toxin of unease. You want me, Tal. I MADE you want me. Deny it all you want, laugh in my face, but I have tasted it. There is no lie your tongue could tell that your body does not refute, so impassioned.

"As you wish...…." Klaus smirked again to Natalia's complete and utter confusion, as he reached his foot out, and nudged forth a crystal basin, seemingly carved from an actual glittering stone, laden with ice, two long stemmed glasses, and one tasty looking bottle of wine.

"You did NOT just- Oh my GOD, was that here the whole time!? How did you know I was a Red Girl?" She chuckled, delighted, and a little thrown. He'd planned it all so perfect, every delicious detail, down to what they'd taste together in this mystical place. Literally and..... not so literally. He'd used her body against her, and as chilling as the thought was, she hated him for stopping, wishing he'd lost that perfect control he was so damned proud of.

He gave her a knowing grin as he flicked his finger out, one of his hybrid claws emerging into a hooked nail. "Because you've always been the Girl in Red, Tal, even before this little midnight tryst ...… The Girl in the Red Dress, The Girl with the Red Hot Passion, The Girl Red With Fire...…"

He sunk his nail into the cork and popped it off effortlessly, looking at her victorious, a little flash of glowing gold in one eye, as he filled a glass with the dark red intoxication, and she watched mesmerized as the crimson nectar flowed smoothly against the curves of the crystal, something in her, beyond thirst heightening.

He handed it to her, with a genteel nod of his head, playing the perfect gentleman like he hadn't just had his hands all in her dress, disrobing her soul, and she took it, realizing he was both the Scheming Scoundrel and the Debonair Suitor.

She felt it again, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, something primal in her awakened. She brought the crystal glass to her nose, breathing in the craved scent, and Klaus watched her, as he poured his own glass, admiring the flutter of black veins around her dark, dazzling eyes, and how bloodlust looked more beautiful on her than any vampire woman he'd ever beheld. I intend to satisfy all of your blood desires, Talia.

"Is this...… blood or a Bordeaux?" She teased, her voice sounding sumptuous, and he watched intently as she brought it to her lips.

"Clever girl." He praised, bowing his head impressed. "Both, in fact. An excellent year laced deliciously with the divine blood of some sovereign or other. A sixteenth century Parisienne Princess, if I'm not mistaken."

"You spoil me," her voice trailed, sounding far more sincere than she wanted him to know, easing back her glass and sipping at the exquisite bloodwine blissfully, letting the scarlet silk tease her tongue, and warm her throat, losing herself in the ambrosiac taste.

"Dear Girl........ I haven't begun to spoil you. This..... all of the pageantry and poetry....... is nothing." He waited for her to lower her wine glass, and then blurred even closer, brushing his lips against hers in an almost kiss, tasting the blood and her cherry lipstick.

"Such an awful tease......." She said all in one breath, hand on his manicured beard, easing him backwards, taking a much deeper draught, and he watched her hungrily as he drank from his own, thinking he'd preferred to taste it warm on her lips, and that the cold curve of the glass was no substitute.

"In the art of wooing women, Klaus Mikaelson has no rival," she purred, and his fingers shook against the glass, as she haughtily licked her bottom lip.

"Why is it?" He mused, dabbing at her lip with his sleeve so she couldn't do that sneaky little trick again. "That you can say those lovely words in your sweetest voice, and make it sting like an insult.......?"

"You know why."

She sighed, clicking her red nails against her wine glass, before setting it down, looking right through his so called pageantry.

"I'm not Caroline, Klaus."

"Thank God for that...…." He teased, with a simpering raise of his eyebrow, playfully mirroring her words from earlier.

"I don't want to be your pretty, pretty Princess." Natalia quipped, tossing her hair back, her eyes glowing fierce in the dark. And it made him smile, thinking if there were any two unlike women it was Caroline and Natalia. A man could enjoy the blonde, laughing, sunlight for a day...… but it was the raven-haired mystery of the night that drew him from his bed, drove him mad with the wanting of it, hands pressed against the window.

"Neither as it turns out did she....... But what if I told you I'm through wooing reluctant Princesses, and seek instead the Majesty of a Queen at my side?"

Klaus dropped down to one knee, as she leapt to her feet, stunned, and he took her delicate hand with all the grace and reverence it deserved, bringing it leisurely to his lips. A king bows for no one, except his queen, and he wanted her to know, that though his was the voice that commanded her, hers was the hand that ruled his heart.

"What is this..... a proposal?" She shook her head, suspiciously, a little frightened, okay more like scared and confused as hell, and squeezed his hand tight, but it was more so to keep herself from falling over than anything else. WHAT is he DOING!?

Klaus smirked, still kneeling, and yet even standing over him, she still felt small as he held her hand like he'd never had before, like he was undeserving even to touch her, and yet touch her he had...…. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, his eyes shining and sly. "Why..... Are you accepting...…? He sneered. "Natalia Mikaelson, ahhh such a lovely ring to it, now if only I had a sparkly little something to put on that pretty finger."

Natalia felt all of the feeling in her legs go at once, and Klaus had to blur to catch her, one hand soft against her forearm, the other caressing her cheek.

"My, my, that bloodwine is powerful stuff then, isn't it? No need for all that, Tal, though I did intend to sweep you off your feet. He chuckled as she relaxed, speechless in his arms. "I am proposing, not marriage...… not yet...…. but this is a proposal."

He released her, and reached back behind him, feeling for the softly glowing black orchid, seemingly left forlorn during their moment of passion. He smiled at her triumphant, as his hand closed over it, capturing it like a firefly in his palm, holding the tender bloom, and teasing where the stem used to be with his other finger, twirling at something that was not there...…. until it was.

Natalia gasped as the wispy, delicate vine, dotted with the tiniest leaves, curled around Klaus finger, having been so lovingly coaxed, and he rounded it into a band, slowly bringing his eyes back to Talia's which sparkled in astonishment.

"I want things to change between us, Natalia. That is what I am proposing, a desirous change..... in our relationship." He smiled almost shyly as his lips formed around the word, his eyes still dancing, flickering with reflected firelight, taking her hand as he leaned closer. "I don't just want to be your Sire anymore, Tal, for there is a title I intend to pursue even harder...…. more fervent." His voice turned into a whisper, as he slipped the orchid ring on her finger, his lips almost brushing her cheek, the smirk in his words. "That of Suitor...…… I want to be your...… "

"Boyfriend." Tal finished for him, breathily.

"Consort," Klaus said at the same time, and they both laughed together softly. "No, oh, I like yours much better. Boyfriend. I am asking to be your boyfriend, not as your Sire, in that you have to comply, but as a besotted man, so very taken with you in the desperate hope that you might."

Natalia, who'd been fighting her smile, her overwhelmed feelings, lost hopelessly to them both. "Boyfriend, huh? I like the way you say that...…"

She giggled, in a very feminine, delicate way, and Klaus laughed too, feeling mad with something he almost didn't recognize. Happiness. That rare, indestructible kind.

"It's the accent, Love, it drives them all utterly MAD, a compulsion of its own. He arched an eyebrow, leaning down to her, struck dumb, as she smoothed the curls off his forehead. "Is that a yes?"

"You're CRAZY," She broke into an irresistible grin, tousling his hair, and he laughed joyously, spinning her around, and then catching her fast.

"You make me crazy, Natalia, Mi Reina...…" He whispered lovingly, kissing her temple. "Spare me this torment, and say yes."

"That's what tonight's been all about, isn't it?" She teased, and he closed his gentle blue eyes, as her ring finger stroked the tidy stubble on his cheek.

"Yes...…" He could barely say the word in his rasp, his eyes slowly opening into hers. "I cannot feign to guise my intentions for tonight any further. I needed to create this sphere, Tal, this palace of supernatural beauty, separate from the world, where we could exist as both Sire, Sired, and Lovers. I needed it to be perfect...… I needed to create magic for you...…. where better than this place where I was the happiest, to confess to the exquisite creature that makes me even happier than my tortured soul deserves. He gave her a knowing grin. "Besides, I couldn't exactly drawl it out in a drunken stupor, high on blood and Hennessy, after a kill, or during one of those little jam sessions at your house, hanging around like a twitterpaited driveling idiot.

Natalia giggled again, still touching his face, her brown eyes warm, and sincere. "Klaus-"

"You're going to say no, aren't you?" He pouted, his lip protruding. "I know, I know, we work together, we fight together, it'll change us, you don't want to be tied down, you're a free spirit, you think I'm just doing this to get at Damon, but I'm not, I'm-"

Natalia's ring finger curled around his cheek, his voice suffocated in the deep kiss, as she covered his mouth with hers, kissing him sweetly, and his lips froze at first, before they joined the dance rather timid. He looked pained as she broke away far too soon, his bottom lip quivering, terrified he had dreamed it.

"My GOD, Tal, that had better be a yes...…" His voice cracked as he whispered it.

He flinched as she brought both of her slender hands to either side of his face, her touch so soft against his scratchy cheek, and he felt the released breath, followed by some shocked tears as she whispered her answer.

"Yes."

All at once, the ghostly glow of the sheer white moonlight, bled red, the moon itself dipped in the most beautiful scarlet shade, casting its crimson light over the elegant ruins, and Klaus watched in a trance as it flowed over the cliffs, staining the fog, catching in Natalia's curls, edging them in so bold a sunset hue.

She gasped, whirling around to drink in the scene with even more marvel, and thirst than the regal bloodwine had afforded, and it was made all the more stunning by her looking at it, standing there, swathed in the crimson shine.

He came up behind her, one hand on her hip, the other drawing back the veil of red-black curls to whisper, teasingly in her ear, his voice unusually sweet.

"See now, why I didn't want you to be late...…." His smile curled up into a devious smirk, his voice turning from sweet to sinister in a single turn. "I told you we could make the moon blush...…."

"You knew...…. That's why- You wanted to surprise me!!! Oh Klaus, it's...… MAGIC," She spoke the word reverently, her face all awestruck wonder, as he rested his head atop the cool midnight silk of her curls.

"Do you know why they call it a Blood Moon?" Klaus smiled amused, still toying with her curls, his stroke affectionate, watching the crimson light dance from one curl to the next, as they fell through his fingers, the sinful shade striking against the dark shine.

"Please, don't kill the mood and say something snide about blood rituals...…" She teased, feeling the tremor in his hand on her hip, as she placed hers over his, soothed by his easeful caress, melting back into him, two bodies burning with one flame.

"You'd think it'd be something of that ilk," He chuckled, steeling his chest as her soft, half exposed back pressed against the still open slit of his dress shirt, meeting it in a rush of warm skin. "It has that foreboding, yet romantic sound that would suggest something ominous and archaic about vampires, doesn't it?" He breathed into her hair, overcome with the sensation of her, how it felt to hold her in the blushing moonlight, both of them drawing from the two young lovers that had once stood here, fearless in the love that even death could not threaten. We have it, Tal, that same desperate ache that kept Josie and Adam alive. Death has no power here, NOTHING can keep me from you, now that the veil's been lifted. Not Death..... nor Damon, he thought amused, breathing in the sweet, silken smoke. If we are to go up in flames, Tal, we shall burn together and set ablaze the world with us.

The curls fluttered from his fingers, falling soft against the curve of her cheek, as he reached over her shoulder, gesturing at the red haze of an enchanted sphere, the blood red glow weaving through his outstretched fingers, as he spoke.

"The Blood Moon outdates us both, Love, even me, and thus vampirism itself..…." Tal watched as though she'd been hypnotized by his fingers in their dancing sway, watching them break the radiant red beams. "That rich, gorgeous colour, the colour of blood, comes from something inexplicable...…. He leaned closer, his voice hushed, his breath hot on her ear. All the sunsets and sunrises, every time the sun has died and been reborn on the dawn, gather and bend around the moon's surface, and all the light dispersed, creates a ruby haze, drenching the world in such an astonishment of red splendor.

"That's- That's beautiful, I've never...…" Tal's voice trailed off, and she reached her slender hand up to let it caress the falling crimson light too, letting it run through her fingers, like Klaus had done, all of it, every whimsical detail about tonight, too perfect to be real. Vampires beneath a Blood Moon...… What could be more romantic? Klaus asking, on one knee no less, to be her boyfriend? It was surreal, it was a fleeting dream, and yet...…. it all had happened. What the full moon did for werewolves, the Blood Moon was ten times more affecting for vampires. Whatever had overcome her handsome hybrid, she wanted the spell to stay unbroken...….

"I've never seen one before, Klaus," She whispered, as their fingers accidently touched, and then purposefully met, the blood red glow eclipsed in their hands.

"They're exceedingly rare, three hundred years since last I beheld one with my siblings...…" His voice got even more quiet and un-Klaus like, making Natalia shiver. "I felt alone as I stood there atop that castle in Ireland, gleaming in the flooding blood red, thinking that if my condemned heart could love, this is how I would want it...…. her with me, drinking in the crimson light, watching it catch in her hair, caress her cheek, and we would marvel in such ethereal wonder together...…."

In a blur he spun her around to face him, hands soft on her bare shoulders, and he reached with intimate grace to cup her cheek in his palm, watching the scarlet shine in her dark ember eyes, and the tenderness he saw there in the mingling contrast of colour made him ache.

"The Blood Moon becomes you, Natalia...….This one made all the more sacred and incandescent than the last, for that broken man's lovelorn prayer, drowning in a sea of red, atop a stone fortress has been answered. There is no one I'd rather be here with...… than my heart's own burning desire, The Girl Red With Fire."

The tear escaping down Tal's cheek, was met with Klaus' loving caress, pressing his thumb to catch it, a raindrop on a ravishing red rose.

"Niklaus...….."

Klaus' breath caught shakily, and he bowed his head, his lips meeting in a long, lingering whisper against her forehead.

"No one's ever done anything like this for me before I- I've dated, yeah, been paid words that shine like bestowed favours, but I've never been...….

"Courted." Klaus finished for her, his brow gentle, his eyes steady, and yet soft in the cast crimson light, the shine almost purple as the blue blurred with red. "You've never been courted, Tal. You've never been romanced with tender intentions....."

"And are your intentions...… tender?" She asked in a frenzied single breath.

Klaus smirked, moving his thumb from the pressed tear on her cheek, to the middle of her scarlet lips, where the bloodwine had lingered, fighting the thirst for another almost taste.

"If they are...…. would you trust them? Trust us...… Tal?"

More tears glistened in Natalia's eyes, and Klaus cradled her in his arms, letting one cross over her back, as she rested her head on his shoulder, silent tears staining the dark red of his shirt.

"I want to...… I want to so badly...… You have no idea, Klaus, how much I want to pretend like I've never been broken. I can't- I can't love like that anymore, Sire Mine, I can't trust my own heart."

"Look at the moon, Tal," He whispered, something rare and hopeful in his voice as he stroked her hair again in comfort. "The most beautiful of natural wonders, and does it not still shine in pieces even more than it does in a perfect whole? Even now...… in her most majestic state, The Red Queen is resplendent in her glory, only because of the three centuries worth of days that have lived and died, so that she might stun heaven and earth for one night. We too have lived and died for centuries, My Lovely, and what it's all been for...…. all of it, the joys and the torments was to bring us here for this one divine night, and in it, I have not only lived such as I never have in a thousand years, Talia, but I have THRIVED."

They looked at each other then, eyes locked, another tear trapped in Natalia's stunned gaze, still wrapped in Klaus' arms.

"Tell me this is real, that it's not some spell that ends at midnight, like we're not just both going to wake up tomorrow and pretend none of it ever happened!" Her voice was racing and frantic, uncertain and desperate in a way Klaus had never heard it before, and he trembled with the sound.

"Tal-"

"Klaus, I can't do it, not again, and this- this time it would be so much worse, because- Tonight was the most romantic night of my life..... as both a human, and a vampire. I hate myself for saying it, for giving in, admitting it to you, but you have to know what it means, Klaus, because it can't be poisoned like all the others, not this one. The black orchids, the doomed lovers that prevailed death, the rapturous beauty of the Blood Moon...…. If it were tainted, if we lost it...… How could I survive that?"

Klaus' exhale was overwhelmed, and he seized her hand, forcing it to his lips, kissing her black orchid ring in a fever.

"I promise you!" His brow pulled back, fighting his own tears, his voice cracking with thunder. "Our midnight will be endless, Natalia, there is no ominous clock that waits to sound our mutual demise, My Red Cinderella. Where fairytales fail us...…… This story, our story, has no end. Ours is the only true ever after. Tonight will live forever untouched, perfect, I promise you. When the Blood Moon exists centuries hence as our most cherished memory, you'll not taste poison, it will be sweet in your mind, like the bloodwine upon your tongue. This is real, Tal." He hesitated, needing to say it even if it made her angry. "This.... This isn't Barcelona."

She shook her head as she pulled away from him, and he let his hold loosen, waiting to be burned, but her eyes did not catch fire like he'd expected.

"Barcelona...… How do you know about Barcelona? About...…. all of it?"

Klaus bit his lip, the guilt overtaking the glistening zeal of his own eyes. "Don't hate me...…."

"What did you do?" Natalia asked, nervously, and his eyes widened.

"Don't make me say it, Tal."

"No secrets....." She reminded him, the edge in her voice, the worry the mistrust, making him sick.

"I followed you," He said finally, lip trembling, his blue eyes apologetic, staring deeply into hers.

"You mean, you had me followed...…" Natalia smiled softly, with a little laugh, very much relieved. "Yeah, I kind of figured when you mentioned it earlier...… It's fine, I understand, you just didn't want me to get hurt."

"No!" He rasped shamefully, looking away from her, crestfallen. "I followed you, myself. I watched you. Like a fox on the hunt, I watched the whole week as that man enacted his own sly, partying, playboy brand of romance upon you. I watched you dance together in your hotel suite, the way you laughed and teased each other as you shopped in the Gothic Quarter, the lavish, romantic dinners, followed by the long night walks. Your day trip to the Sagrat Cor Cathedral, where he told you he was on top of the world, as you looked down from the dizzying heights above the city together, sharing a kiss."

Natalia stared back, speechless, another tear falling, as she tasted the stinging poison in each recounted memory, Damon's laugh, those stupid sunglasses he never took off...…. That last night...…..

"I watched you, caress his back as he slept. I watched you leave him, and I know why you did....."

She shook her head, pain in her eyes, and it was not for the want of Damon, or for her own silent suffering but for something else entirely. Something she didn't expect...…..

"You stayed...…. the whole week?" She looked at him incredulous, and he met her eyes, ashamed. "Yes, very nearly every moment, and I promise you..... I never did it again after that. I hate myself for it. I have punished myself for the violation, more than even you could have punished me, yourself, had you known. I'm a fool, Natalia. A scheming, distrustful, paranoia and suspicion ridden fool."

They stared at each other for a moment, neither moving, and he'd expected her fire to rise, expected her accusation, her outrage, even her disturbed horror. What actually happened however, that he did not expect...….

Natalia ran into his arms, her body colliding with his, hugging him tight, her fingers reaching, lingering on the curls nearest the nape of his neck. Klaus, froze, desperately confused, and then, trembling with trepidation, hugged her back, his chin resting atop her head, his strained mouth falling open with the shock of it. Her affection granted instead of her poised arrow.

"You stayed...… the whole week, watched as another man squired me around Spain, and you never said a word...…. You never tried to stop it. I can't- I can't even imagine how painful that was for you, Klaus...…. I had no idea, I-I can't believe you didn't interfere somehow, and yet I am proud of you for letting me have Barcelona, even if it broke my heart."

Klaus laughed, almost not trusting it, this gracious and forgiving reaction to his most heinous intrusion, and he was relieved, his embrace tightening, his smirk returned. "Don't be too proud of me, Tal, in my head I crashed in, and killed him about a thousand different ways, tempted to resurrect the Spanish Inquisition. It was a self-inflicted torture, My Sweet, and even in my agony, I could not ruin it for you...…. Just as I will never ever ruin this red, romantic dream I have thus crafted in such valiant effort for you...…"

He gestured to the red sheen of the surrounding skies, and she lifted her head from his chest, her eyes sweet and sincere, as she looked gently into his. "I believe you, Klaus..... I want to trust you, I want to trust...… us, that we aren't doomed to the same fate. One of us slipping away in the night......."

"My Darling, Tal....... Were we so romantically entangled, I could not tear myself away. Happily, I belong to the night, and the enticement of its Red Queen."

She blushed and sighed happily, with an almost shy laugh, as she noticed his shirt was still unbuttoned, and her fingers passed over them, before she moved to fasten them back up.

Klaus caught her fingers in a flash, his eyes intensified.

"Don't you dare...…."

"What would Elijah say, you being so ruffled and unkempt?" She teased, and he froze, as she undid another one instead, with a defiant tilt of her wildly curly head.

"He'd tell me to stay away from you...…." Klaus whispered scandalously, the attraction shameless in his eyes, kissing her ring again with unbridled fervor, his brow slanted wickedly forward, before leading her back to the white stone arch, setting her down, pouring her another glass of the bloodwine. "Lucky for you, I've made an era of NEVER listening to my brother."

"To the Blood Moon, and the things we never do," She quipped back, with an especially flirty smile, and he clinked his glass with hers, with a raised brow, his lips smug.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

#doms1kchallenge #xxwritemeastoryxx #undercover lovers #niklaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson x oc #tal #vampire diaries #blood moon #noirbloom

3 notes · View notes

terkaznebes · 6 years

Text

The devil, my friends and other forces of nature

Long time since I reported to you (all of my twelve readers) with an update on my fantastic life. Recently our flat was full of friends for six weeks straight. Sounds good, doesn’t work. When they were all gone after the month and a half, my wonderful man lovingly rewrote the sign on our black board saying: welcome nobody.

Luky left for homeland one day in October and Radek arrived a day later. We only managed one yoga class, dinner at a vegan restaurant and a tiny walk around a beautiful waterfall and Dominika landed at the Brisbane airport. She was really stoked when I took her on a 25km hike in the Lamington National Park. She complained, but was grateful that thanks to this, she basically had no jetlag. The hike was beautiful, full of waterfalls, flowers and small lagoons. Of course I didn’t expect that it was going to be 25km long so I was a little bit stressed for the pork that was in the slow cooker. Turns out, six hours on high temperature is just right for the perfect pulled pork and we had a feast. Much needed after the long walk.

I have organised a small trip to Tasmania so Dominika would see a little bit of Australia since she came all the way and Radek has decided to join us. We had to wake up around 4AM or even earlier to make it to Brisbane on time for our low cost flight. For this special occasion I have organised a lift offered on a FB group. He was a bit of a talker for AM hours and his car smelled a little bit, but overall seemed like an alright fella and drove us to the airport on time. We had an average overpriced airport breakfast and with a lot of laughs we boarded our first plane of the trip. Upon arrival to Hobart, we picked up our road trip vehicle and off we went to our first location on the GPS, it read: the best brunch in Hobart, and it was fantastic. Poached eggs on a crunchy sourdough bread, with perfectly fried button head mushrooms, spinach and bacon. As if that wasn’t fantastic, I was already in love when they brought me a locally roasted single origin filter coffee. Unfortunately while we enjoyed our first Tasmanian meal, the weather outside changed for the worst and we had to make our way to the car in rain and wind. Luckily it turns out the weather can change within minutes, as it happens on small islands, and when we arrived in Port Arthur it was sunny again. We dropped our bags and after a lengthy conversation with an overly chatty hotel owner we set out to explore the port. The historical site – prison for convicts from the Commonwealth countries was massive and pretty impressive. It also had a vast potential for the guides to tell us stories that would give us goose bumps and teach us something about the bloody history. However all three tours, including the overpriced ghost tour, sounded like an excerpt from a Wikipedia article. Either way, we still enjoyed the place and its atmosphere.

The next day we went to see the remarkable cave in our woolly hats because it was so cold and windy. But the views were beautiful and so was the walk around the old mining site where we were completely alone. We ate massive burgers for lunch, got caught in the rain in a desperate search for a good coffee. In the end we found it in a small chocolate making factory. Unfortunately the girl had a hard time pushing buttons of the coffee machine and tried to explain to us that she is new and that she’s only just learned how to make a cappuccino and does not know how to make a short black coffee. Reason behind this left us all puzzled, but we managed to get somewhere on the caffeine front eventually and also raided her “tasting” plate when she left to the factory.

After the coffee saga the sun came back out and we had the greatest pleasure of meeting some samples of the Tasmanian devil population and it was brilliant. If you ever find yourself at the end of the world that is Tasmania, I highly recommend visiting the Unzoo in Port Arthur. We got to see the Tasmanian devil rip into his lunch and were educated about their population, lives and eating habits by the friendly staff. We also got to make friends with the kangaroos and I was lucky enough to cuddle a baby kangaroo, which was the cutest thing in the whole zoo. It wasn’t the same like the time I got to hold a baby lion back in Argentina, but my happiness was real.

Finally we made our way to Wineglass Bay to the coldest accommodation ever. Despite the fact that we turned our heating to a maximum, we still slept in all of the clothes we brought with us. We also had a great pizza for dinner at a local newly opened restaurant where Dominika charmed the bartenders into giving us the wifi password that was intended for business use only.

The next day we were woken up by the freezing cold, we cooked breakfast and our breath slowly became less and less visible as we drank tea and ate our bacon with eggs. After the coffee debacle the day before we didn’t want to risk it so our first stop was the delicious restaurant from the day before where we enjoyed sipping our coffee outside in the sun. The wineglass bay walk was great. Not to sound like our overly active friend Martin, it would have been better to run it. The route was nice and easy and the weather was just perfect for it. The beach was great and all, but what was even better was what came after.

The Devil’s Corner, finally a piece of that famous delicious Tasmanian cuisine. In the middle of nowhere, nothing but an extensive vineyard, winery and two different food stalls. We had a pizza, oysters, salmon and fish and chips and of course the wine. I was absolutely in my element only wishing that Luky was there because he would have loved it too. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving through country roads, dodging wallabies and kangaroos on the road, stopping at a few sites and making our way to Launceston. The city was beautiful, our motel was not, but a glass of local Tasmanian wine made the room much more acceptable.

Early morning start, airport breakfast and before we knew it we were landing in Sydney. This was a surprise stopover for Dominika, which I have planned so she would see the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I know that first time I was there, it was a spectacular sight and I wanted the same for her. We only had time for a great meal at the Social Brew Café recommended by Karolina and off we went to walk right into Darling Harbour, under the Harbour Bridge and all the way to the Opera. We snapped a few photos and went straight back to the airport.

Unfortunately I had to work the rest of the time Dominika was here, but I think we still managed to enjoy our afternoons on the beach and a weekend trip to Byron Bay, our breakfast in the highest building of the Southern Hemisphere, yoga classes and dinners.

Radek moved out, Luky’s friend moved in and before we knew it Lucie arrived at the flat. Not before our friends from Noosa managed to stay the night in between. I was almost starting to feel like a low budget traveller’s inn, but Lucie was a great company. We enjoyed a few longboard rides, beer on tap and a balcony joint during the week and finally on the weekend we went for a road trip. Starting with Fingal Head beach where we climbed all the way to the rocks. The dolphins came to visit as they always do when we go to Fingal. We continued to Byron Bay and stopped at the Farm, which is definitely my favourite restaurant and a café venue in the area. We had some lunch and continued to the walk to the lighthouse and the easternmost point of Australia and we finished the day off at the marketta for some live music. Sunday started with my favourite Acai bowl and after we picked up Radek and Stepan we continued into Springbrook national park to dance under the waterfalls and it was excellent. Her short visit ended at a taco Tuesday in Mexicali where I managed to get tipsy on one margarita so it was Luky who had to drive her to the train station. Short but sweet. After all of this we went to sleep at 8PM. It’s not the entertaining and visits the drained my energy, the killer of everything is a full time job, eight hours every day.

We are back to normal with Luky now and we are enjoying our time and our place even more than before. If I ever felt constant waves of happiness it’s now. Every time we take a long time to eat breakfast and every time I wake up next to him. Only nine more days to go before my last day at my job. Only ten more days to go before we leave to Thailand. Only nineteen days to go before this year is over. What an incredible year. I will elaborate on that in my next blog. Also photos in the next post.

0 notes

superfitbabe · 6 years

Text

Guess who’s arrived home in Los Angeles?! Yep, this girl right here!

Well, technically I’m behind the screen, but you get the idea. Maybe look at the logo. Yep, that’s me!

Anyways, this year has been….WOW. Let’s just put it at that. I cannot even begin to describe the whirlwind of fiascos, accomplishments, lessons, discoveries, and new adoptions that this year has given me. I think I have transformed more drastically in this year alone than in the years one to eleven. Crazy how time flies!

Just today, I made a quick plan of what’s in store for the next month, big and small. December is my favorite month out of the year because it’s the month of my birthday, Christmas, winter, and when my family and friends and I can spend the most time together! There’s so much to come and I’m thrilled for everything. Enjoy!

TENTATIVE PLANS FOR THE WEEK

WEDNESDAY (12/6/17)

This morning, my family and I woke up to a major Ventura County wildfire emergency notification from the local news broadcast. Areas of mandatory evacuation included Brentwood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, South of Mulholland, and various boundaries of Highway 33 and Highway 150.

Luckily, the wind blew in the opposite direction from where we were, so our residence was safe from mandatory evacuation.

School for the rest of my sisters was cancelled due to wildfire complications.

I rushed to make cinnamon chia pancakes with Lakanto’s gluten free pancake mix. It’s an amazing mix that is high in fiber, probiotics, and low in carbs and sugar! I topped mine with a True Nutrition vegan salted caramel protein blend (had the rest of the protein on the side), pomegranate seeds, strawberries, a dark chocolate cherry Health Warrior chia bar, homemade muesli my sister made for me, and Lakanto monkfruit maple syrup.

My family and I ended up visiting the Westfield Topanga mall for the day and enjoying some delicious Vietnamese food! I got two orders of veggie spring rolls with tons of peanut sauce. No surprise.

We went to Home Goods to buy some Christmas presents for family and friends. I’ve officially completed my holiday shopping!

At the mall, all I bought were triple AAA batteries and some water. My family, on the other hand? Basically the entire stock of Nordstrom.

Traffic hit us HARD on the 101 S freeway for a while. We were afraid that the police blocked it off due to the early wildfire, but in reality, a car accident caused the delay.

Coming home, I found a REALLY special package waiting for me! Let’s just say there’s an exciting review in the works…

After unpacking our purchases, I was so ravenous that I whipped myself up a quick soybean soyaki noodle salad with carrots, butter lettuce, Nori, and sesame seeds. I piled on an extra head’s worth of butter lettuce and Sriracha after taking the picture!

Upon finishing the salad, I was still pretty hungry, so I made myself a large bowl of puffed kamut, Nature’s Path blueberry cinnamon flax cereal, and unsweetened almond milk. I mixed in some cinnamon and Stevia for extra flavor!

I wrapped my presents, wrote this post, and inserted the triple AAA batteries into our new Body Analyzer scale.

Last minute treat: I baked some of The Lion’s Choice snickerdoodle cookie dough! The results were fantastically delicious!

THURSDAY (12/7/17)

School’s cancelled for my sisters once again to give people time to evacuate from the wildfire.

Quick bodyweight exercise with a focus on legs.

My dad and I drove to Irwindale. Why? We visited the Huy Fong Foods Sriracha factory!

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Arrived unexpectedly early and re-organized my wardrobe.

I also tested out the Body Analyzer. It’s SO COOL!

Lunch was a swiftly put-together steamed butternut squash and pomegranate seed salad with spinach, seitan, and sweet chili sauce. I photographed my salad with coconut aminos, but sweet chili sauce ended up tasting better.

Afterwards, I had more puffed kamut, Nature’s Path cinnamon flax, and almond milk. YUM.

More unrelated-to-school fun.

Grocery shopping with the mother!

Dinner’s probably going to be leftover broccolini, soybean noodles, soyaki, and nori.

FRIDAY (12/8/17)

Early-early in the morning, exercise for an hour and a half to my favorite music and YouTube videos.

Get ready for the day while listening to different versions of the “Happy Birthday” song.

Bake a pound and a half of Japanese sweet potatoes, mash them in a bowl with maca powder and cinnamon, form a one-ingredient cake, and top it with sunflower seed butter, cocoa fig jam, and a caramel sea salt Health Warrior chia bar. Oh yeah, and some birthday candles (hopefully).

Eat that alongside some soyaki-marinated seitan (homemade recipe), a peanut butter and jelly Bobo’s Oat Bar, some vegan chocolate truffles I received from my roommate, and an entire jar of The Lion’s Pack iced gingerbread vegan edible cookie dough. Part of a complete breakfast.

Ride our indoor Spin bike while watching my favorite YouTube videos or Netflix movies. I was originally going to hike around Santa Monica, but the wind has blown in so many ashes and dust from the wildfires that the air is too unhealthy to consume.

Meet up with one of my best friends at 11:00 A.M. for some vegan donuts at Donut Friend and lunch at Sage Vegan Bistro!

Planned order at Donut Friend: Drive Like Jelly, Husker Blu, and a DIY gluten free donut filled with cookie butter, topped with maple syrup, graham cracker crumbs, and pistachios

Planned order at Sage Bistro: fried plantains with maple syrup and the 8-Wing Platter made of battered cauliflower in buffalo sauce, barbecue sauce, and sweet and sour sauce with celery, carrots, and vegan ranch. AAAAAAAND possible a vegan dessert to take home…

Come home to meet with my family after my sisters finish school (if it’s not cancelled again). This is also the time when I will probably open presents, if I do not open any presents prior to lunch.

Enjoy a healthy Vietnamese dinner before tucking into sixteen or thirty-two ounces worth of dairy free Carbolite and three giant scoops of vegan birthday cake, snickerdoodle, and peanut butter or brownie cookie dough.

If I’m not hungover from food already, I’ll bake vegan brownies. YUM.

Die from a food coma and NOT go on the scale the next morning.

SATURDAY (12/9/17)

Start the day off right with some extra pumped exercise from heaps of glycogen stores.

Open Christmas presents with my family and bask in the glory of being an amazing gift-giver or crawl into a hole of shame for being awful at it.

Meet with my cousin and his girlfriend and spend the day together, possibly around Sawtelle.

Arrive home late after an exhausting day of fun!

TRAVEL PLANS

Get your Konnichiwa on, because we’re flying to Japan on December 21st! You have NO IDEA how excited I am for this trip. Since turning 13, I have always adored Japanese culture, food, fashion, media, and general social and philosophical principles. Anime used to be my water and air, so it will be interesting re-watching some old favorites to learn some Japanese! Our specific destinations are Tokyo and Kyoto. Oh yes, Japanese sweet potatoes and kabocha squash will probably be ABUNDANT. I am absolutely stoked to also look at art museums, gardens, and even some traditional Japanese theater!

DIET UPDATE

In all honesty, my diet is not going to change almost at all over winter break. Sure, I will eat out more and indulge quite a bit when I go to Japan, but my eating habits will remain fluid throughout the break. I might emphasize a bit more on fruits and vegetables while I’m back home since I never really ate fruit in school. I still allot one day out of the week to enjoy one or two cheat meals, and maybe try out some new products and recipes.

FITNESS ROUTINE

Just two weeks ago, I started incorporating some more high-intensity training and strength training into my exercise regimen. However, instead of an hour and a half (sometimes even more) of exercise, I only train for an hour TOTAL. I have never realized that I have saved SO much time by reducing my time in the gym! Boy, do I miss the gym. I really do.

If you’re wondering whether this will affect my menstrual cycle or not, it might, but I have been experiencing more issues with my cycle. It’s gotten to the point where I may have to look into birth control. And I’m not looking forward to it. Sigh.

WINTER BREAK BUCKET LIST

Try all of the dairy free Halo Top flavors.

Hike all the way to Santa Monica.

Bake black bean brownies.

Choreograph some dances to my favorite songs.

Finish my blog’s secret project.

Solidify a proper plan for balancing out my hormones and cycle.

Master the Alphabet Aerobics song.

Sing on my YouTube channel or Instagram.

Publish my next Friday Friend Features by January 5th.

Learn basic Japanese greetings and social phrases.

Plans for Winter Break: Travel, Diet, Exercise + Lifestyle Guess who's arrived home in Los Angeles?! Yep, this girl right here! Well, technically I'm behind the screen, but you get the idea.

0 notes