#he’s got the most raw talent in the cast by far | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lihikainanea · 2 years

Note

All actors say that sex scenes isn't a big deal but I think that is just bullshit. Like, what if Bill was forced to do a really explicit sex scene wth a girl he doesn't like and it takes forever to film it and everyday he comes home to tiger and feels so dirty and used.

Ohhhhh how I love this concept.

I do think it is fairly mechanical. Scenes are usually shot in like, 15-20 second increments and you're really just surrounded by people and hot lights.

But the interesting twist here is like...what if Bill really isn't a fan of his co-star? There are indeed some actor sin Hollywood that he just doesn't jive with. But in the business, you keep that part buried deep down and you never speak of it--because you never know who you're going to end up working with.

Maybe Bill had never worked with this girl before but he had crossed paths with her at a few parties. She was everything he hated about Hollywood--cocky, arrogant, lived her life on social media. Boastful. Mean to crew. The girl has her phone permanently glued to her hand and even just in the few social situations, Bill had to duck out of the way just to not end up plastered on her social media.

He was cast first in the role, and as always, he had to do a few chemistry reads with some of the actresses in the running for being his co-star. And Bill, poor Bill, he nearly fell on the floor when this girl walked in. He choked on his coffee, stared at her, and it took him far too long to remember that this girl doesn't necessarily know that he harbours a rather strong distaste for her so he had to quickly get his wits about him when she extended her hand.

"Nice to finally meet you," she says.

"We've met," he says dryly.

And listen, Bill is no casting director. But as an actor he does pride himself on knowing when something clicks and there's chemistry between actors, and when there is most definitely not.

And there was most definitely not. The whole chemistry read was awkward, lacklustre. He didn't buy any of her lines nor the way she delivered them, he couldn't find a single thing to connect with her on, it was just...the most cringe-worthy 7 minutes of his life.

So imagine his surprise when he got the call that she had been cast as his love interest in the film. He had a hunch that it was mostly due to her name and the clout she could add to the film, rather than her actual talents--of which, he's rather adamant, she doesn't seem to have any.

I also like this whole concept that tiger has been working from home for the past two years--along with the rest of the world--so it doesn't really matter where "home" is and for the first time in their friendship, she's been able to just go with him everywhere. He has spent two years with her by his side on every film set he goes to, he has had her there waiting for him every night with a late dinner and a glass of scotch. She has cozied up every apartment he has rented all over the world, and it's been easily the best two years of his life.

But alright, so this nightmare of a costar gets cast and they're on set and it's the day he's been dreading--it's the sex scene day. Actually, its sex scene week because the scene is really long and it's going to take awhile to film. Bill is a professional, you know, especially when he's on set--he may have his own personal feelings but all of that gets tossed aside when it's go-time. And on set? halfway through shooting this feature? It's go-time.

He's a professional, but it doesn't mean that it's any easier.

The complete lack of chemistry he feels with his co-star can be masked amongst other things--the action of the scene, the performance she gives. But when it comes to sex scenes--and this one is supposed to be raw, passionate--the chemistry, or lack there of, is fucking palpable.

He tries his damndest. Once or twice he has to call for a break, because he feels like his disdain for the woman under him is starting to show a bit too much. It sounds harsh to say, but maybe he truly is a little repulsed by her--by what she stands for, just her entire personality. He's having a real hard time faking any kind of enjoyment in the scene.

For most of that week, Bill comes home cussing up a storm. Pissed off and angry--at himself, for not being able to overcome this and just perform the way he should, at her, for being such a fucking idiotic twat. At the casting director, who even thought for a second that this could work.

And tiger can empathize but she can't really relate, so mostly what she does is just listen. She just listens to him as he rants. She always has a glass of scotch waiting for him when he comes through the door; and if it's not too late she'll wrangle him into a bubble bath before a late dinner just so he can try and relax. But even with her back pressed against his chest, even with his long legs caging hers and bubbles surrounding them, he's still mad.

"She's just....I can't do it kid," he sighs, "I don't buy a word of it, and if I don't, there's no way the audience will. They'll be able to feel it. They'll be able to see it."

"Maybe not bud," she tries, "I don't know, I can't tell you a movie where I actually remarked that two actors had such awful chemistry."

"Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo," he deadpans, grabbing his tumbler of scotch and taking a gulp. Tiger thinks about it for a second.

"Okay, fair."

"Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst," he continues. Tiger bites her lip.

"Yeah alright, that one too."

"Tobey Maguire and basically anybody--"

She turns in the water briefly, presses a soft kiss to his lips.

"Alright, point made," she says. She smile softly at him, smoothes out the frown lines in his forehead from where his brows are pinched together.

"I can't make it work," he says, taking another swig, "Especially not when it comes to the sex stuff. It's a really intense scene, and I just...I can't."

Tiger still gets the heebie-jeebies thinking about him filming sex scenes but she tries to brush it off.

"Have you talked with the director?" she asks. He shakes his head, wraps his arms tight around her, "Maybe something can change?"

"It's an integral scene to the whole plot," he mumbles into her neck as he places soft kisses there. She pivots, turning gently in the water and straddling his lap. She grabs a loofah and a bar of soap, lathers it up and glides it across his chest. He sighs, closing his eyes in contentment.

"You're amazing at what you do Billy," she says, "Find a way, like you always do."

"I hate her," he mumbles.

"Hate is a strong word."

"I know," he cracks one eye open at her, a wry smile tilting one side of his lips up, "And I hate her."

Tiger smacks him lightly, and pulls on a lock of his hair so he'll look at her.

"Just go to your happy place," she tells him.

"This is my happy place."

"Then pretend it's me," she shrugs, and then she gets an idea. "Do you have the script with you?"

"Yeah," he eyes her, "It's in my bag."

She nods, a mischievous smile tilting her lips up. She rinses the soap off him and goes to rise from the tub but he pulls her back down.

"What are you up to, kid?" he asks suspiciously.

"We're going to do it," she proclaims, and kisses his nose.

"Do what?"

"The scene. We're going to do it tonight. Just like in the script," she says as she gets out the tub and grabs a towel, "That way, you're going to have a point of reference for this week."

"Tiger--" he makes grabby hands at her but she's already wrapped in a towel and halfway out the door.

"I'll need like an hour to study the lines," she says, "I'm no actress, but I don't need to be to fuck your brains out."

And then she's gone, and Bill hears the unzipping of his book bag.

"God help me," he murmurs, but his lips tilt up in a small smile.

#BFF!Bill #bill skarsgard #bill skarsgard drabble #bill skarsgard fanfiction #bill skarsgard fanfic #bill skarsgard fiction #bill skarsgard fic

44 notes · View notes

spaceorphan18 · 3 years

Note

have you ever read a detailed post about the glee cast’s singing voices? like all about their technique and stuff? reading your reaction to the ‘vocal coach reacts to glee’ video makes me want to know more!

Hmmmm, not really! Not from a professional vocalist POV, I don’t think. (That I’m aware of. This does remind me there was one vocal coach in fandom, and she hated Blaine, and I wasn’t too fond of her, or her analysis, so I won’t point you in that direction.)

My background is in music, but not in vocal performance. But I can give you a quick rundown of cast’s musical abilities if you like, though they won’t be huge on the technical side of it.

ETA: I started this a while ago before I started doing the music retrospective - I’ll probably try to explore a little more as I do those. If you guys want more conversation about one person in particular, let me know!

But for now...

Matthew Morrison: Is a classically trained musician with a very good voice. It’s a shame Will was such a tool, because Matthew Morrison was very talented, had the ability to do a lot of great things with his voice. People joke about his rapping -- but I think this stemmed from the issue that his background is in musical theater -- which teaches you a cleaner and more traditional way of singing -- opposed to a pop or rap style. He doesn’t have the grit that rap often has, which makes it a little too much like a Kid’s Bop version of something. When singing musical theater, though, he really shined.

A number that showcases ability: Make ‘Um Laugh

A number that isn’t so great: Ice Ice Baby

Lea Michele: Lea does have a very good and solid voice. She’s also been classically trained. The one drawback is that it hinders her a bit on pop music, she lacks some of the grittiness often needed on a lot of the pop songs. She also starts to lose some of her classic training as the show goes on (which I think is a shame) so that she can get some of the shine off her voice to make a transition to pop music.

She has one vocal tick that drives me crazy, though -- she has a tendency to slide into her notes instead of hitting them dead on, which gets worse as the show goes on, and it makes her sound a little screech-y at times. But for the most part -- she is really good.

A number that showcases ability: Don’t Rain on My Parade

A number that isn’t so great: Ooops...I Did It Again

Amber Riley: The cool thing about Amber is that you get to hear her grow as a musician as the show goes on. She had already started to get vocal lessons before the show started, but at the beginning, she was still a bit raw and unrefined in her technique. But you can tell she did practice, and her voice is developed beautifully as the show goes on. She was one of the best, well rounded vocalists on the show. She had a good handle on pop and R&B music, but she could sing musical theater rather clearly, too. She has great breath support - and can belt numbers out while still retaining the quality. Can’t say enough good thing about Amber’s voice.

A number that showcases ability: Someday We’ll Be Together

A number that isn’t so great: Sweet Transvestite (It’s not bad - but it’s my least favorite Mercedes solo.)

Cory Monteith: Cory wasn’t a vocalist. And, to be completely honest, I thought it was some kind of joke when they introduced him as some kind of hidden musical gem when Will hears him singing the showers. He did really well with classic rock that’s allows not only for a weaker voice - but is often not as technically hard. And I have to wonder if Cory got lessons, because he did get a lot better as the show went on, and I think his season 4 work is great!

I will say that sometimes they pushed his voice a little too far. A lot of times songs were either too high for his range and he often sounded like he was straining. (The most notable of which is A House is Not a Home - which is far too high for him.) That said - I think he did reasonably well along side Lea - mostly because often sang pop duets.

A number that showcases ability: I’ve Gotta Be Me

A number that isn’t so great: Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore

Chris Colfer: Chris is such an interesting study due to the uniqueness of his voice. He’s got a huge range both in terms of genre and literal range of voice. He can sing quite a few octaves. He’s got a great, clear sound, too, which is why he’s great with theater numbers. Interestingly, Chris’s voice did drop over the years, and while I know people love his higher range, he has a gorgeous lower range that wasn’t used as often (and is often my favorite.)

The one (nitpicky) issue was that Chris’s voice ended up getting pigeon-holed. I know singing Diva-Broadway songs was his schtick - but it would have been nice to hear him sing a bigger variety of songs. He wasn’t the strongest on non-ballad pop music, but they also didn’t give him that very often.

There’s also the fascinating unusualness in that, Chris could really sing duets very well with people -- but in group numbers, his voice sticks out like a sore thumb, and he was often left out of some of the more general songs because of it. His voice just doesn’t texture very well - which is why I get why they did what they did.

A number that showcases ability: Being Alive

A number that isn’t so great: I’ll Remember

Kevin McHale: I feel like people are often surprised when they sit down and think about it, but Kevin has a great voice. He has a solid range, and he’s able to do pop music very well (I believe it helps that he was in a professional boy band for years.) Not sure if people noticed - but he’s often the lead on group numbers that don’t need to be related to specific story or character points. Which is a bummer for Artie’s story - but if you’re a fan of Kevin’s voice, you get a lot to choose from.

Kevin was also able to handle a lot of the musical demands that I think some of the other males weren’t? He’s a much better singer than Cory - and could handle leading a full number. His voice isn’t as unique as Chris’s and can texture really well. In addition he was fairly versatile. He might have been the best rapper the show had, lol.

A number that showcases ability: For Once In My Life

A number that isn’t so great: Addicted to Love (personal taste choice - I just don’t like the song.)

Jenna Ushkowitz: Jenna is another one who is classically trained. She has a strong, solid voice, which was unfortunately not showcased all that well on the show, and because of that, I’m not sure how she does on a wide variety of music. I do think she sounds a little generic - but not helping is lack of being featured.

A number that showcases ability: I Don’t Know How To Love Him

A number that isn’t so great: Gangum Style (She does fine - but the fact that they made her do it in the first place...)

Dianna Agron: The interesting thing about Dianna is that she has a really nice low female voice. The fact that they never gave her any punk or harder rock was really a shame, because I think she would have done really well with that. The funny thing is that, more so in the beginning, they show tried to make her sing songs that fit her character - but weren’t necessarily great for her voice. I feel like it wasn’t until late season 2 did they start really using her voice for the better.

A number that showcases ability: Never Can Say Goodbye

A number that isn’t so great: It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World

Mark Salling: Mark had a really solid voice - that often lent itself well to folk and acoustic really well. He was good with softer pop and classic rock, and the show showcased that pretty well. I think, in general, Mark was a much better vocalist than actor, and the show often picked good music for him to sing - which helped with his character. I don’t have a whole lot to say, only that I think he was underrated as a vocalist, but I get it - with all the other baggage that comes with talking about Mark.

A number that showcases ability: No Surrender

A number that isn’t so great: Fight For Your Right (to Party) (I don’t think it’s bad - I just hate this song.)

Naya Rivera: Naya is a little tricky. I think she has a good, smoky sound to her voice that makes her excellent at things like pop and R and B. (Shame she didn’t have a good jazz number to do on the show - she would have been great at that.) I think she was really versatile, though, and handled her Broadway numbers really well. I do think she was somewhat pinched and nasal at times - and while I do think this was a stylistic choice, to me it’s not my favorite type of vocal sound. But I do think she was really good at the numbers she was given, and was one of the most talented female vocalists on the show.

A number that showcases ability: Back to Black

A number that isn’t so great: Alfie (I think I may dislike the song more than her singing on it.)

Heather Morris: Heather wasn’t a singer, and I do think it showed at times. She often had to have her voice autotuned more than anyone else on the show. That said - she did do Britney Spears really well, and I think she deserves credit for that.

A number that showcases ability: I’m a Slave 4 U

A number that isn’t so great: Dinosaur

Chord Overstreet: Chord’s background is in country - and that shows a bit through his singing - he’s got a bit of twang in his voice, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. He’s a fun singer. I don’t think the show knew exactly what to do with him (voice or character) but there’s a lightness to his singing that makes him easily adaptable to pretty much anything you throw at him.

A number that showcases ability: Red Solo Cup (You think I’m joking - but I think this is the most fun Chord has singing a song.)

A number that isn’t so great: Girls on Film (I think just by default of me liking everything else better.)

Darren Criss: Ah, Darren, where to even start. The thing about Darren is that he may not be the strongest singer, his voice is a little wobbly at times, and his range is somewhat limited, but his showmanship is just completely beyond nearly everyone else. Darren has the unique ability to draw you in with his singing and hold you captive. There are technically better singers on the show - but Darren just has this amazing ability to really sell a performance. And I do love his voice, even if there are some limitations to it. I really could gush about Darren’s performance abilities, but I’ll refrain...

A number that showcases ability: Teenage Dream (Both Versions)

A number that isn’t so great: Piano Man (Which isn’t bad - I just think the show had done it better, and it’s a rare time that felt like Darren was kind of phoning it in.)

A quick run down of others, but first a quick aside - as they started adding people in, vocal ability starts being a factor. I think a lot of the newer characters could sing better than they could act, which was both helpful and a hinderance. I think we began to get more solid musical numbers as the show went on, but sometimes acting wasn’t always top notch - and across the board, old and new, hitting a combo of acting and singing ability didn’t always happen.

Harry Shum Jr.: Not really a singer - but the show often played to his strengths, and his few songs played off the fact that he wasn’t a great singer to great aplomb.

Jane Lynch: Can hold a tune, even if her voice isn’t the best - is really great at musical comedy.

Jayma Mays: She has more singing ability than the show allowed to showcase, however, she’s another one whose voice was really unique, and doesn’t texture very well.

Damien McGinty: Is actually a very good singer. However, he’s very generic, too - which makes him a little on the bland side.

Sam Larsen: I think he was fine - I don’t think he sang enough on the show for me to make much of an impression one way or the other.

Alex Newel: Fucking Fantastic! Alex might be one of the strongest vocalists on the show - has great range, energy, and vocal control.

Melissa Benoist: Her voice tends to lean on the pop-ier side, but it’s a solid voice, and her work on the show was pretty good.

Jacob Artist: Has a strong voice, and could sing genres that weren’t often featured on the show (like hip-hop and R&B).

Blake Jenner: His voice is fine, but like Damien McGinty, it’s generic and a little bland.

Becca Tobin: She has a very quirky voice that brings in a different and unique sound. They didn’t use her much, though, so it’s hard to comment.

Noah Guthrie: An amazing singer, has a really unique sound, but is able to do blend in well with others.

Samantha Ware: Another amazing singer. She’s in full control and can do really great things with it.

Billy Lewis Jr: Has a good, solid voice. Not as strong as Guthrie, or some of the other guys, but he’s a lot of fun to watch.

Laura Dreyfuss: Like Becca Tobin - has a uniqueness to her vocal quality that makes it stand out a little, but she’s still a solid singer.

Marshall Williams: His vocal ability is okay. It’s better than his acting ability. I’m slightly confused how this dude got cast, tbh.

#Anonymous #if you guys want to me to elaborate on someone - please let me know!#it's hard to do everyone since there are so many #this post took forever to write up #that's how s.o. sees it

75 notes · View notes

palidoozy-art · 3 years

Note

Hi! I'm running Curse of Strahd rn (my players are currently sifting through Vallakian politics) and I love your art! I was curious, how did you change Rahadin and Patrina from their module-as-written incarnations?

Hello! Vallaki was a lot of fun, and one of the bummers of my campaign tbh is that the party did not at all get invested in Vallaki politics (they literally never even met the burgomaster. He died in the riot). Hopefully your party has a lot of fun (and by fun I probably mean mayhem)!

So I covered Rahadin more extensively here (at the bottom). But mechanically -- I made dusk elves take stats from shadar-kai rather than just wood elves, and they were also immortal. Their society was also expanded upon into a pretty brutal caste system, and all of these carried repercussions for every living dusk elf character, including Rahadin and Patrina. But I'll try not to ramble too much about that, haha.

ANYWAY RAMBLING UNDER THE CUT.

Patrina's biggest change, I think, was that her murder happened before Strahd became a vampire lord -- which culminated in the subsequent genocide of the Barovian dusk elf women. This was done to smooth out that entire arc, and to also signify to my players that -- no, Strahd didn't become a monster when he killed his brother. He was one prior to that.

Patrina in my game was born into the nobility/mage caste of dusk elf society -- one of the highest castes. She was given extensive magical training and education, and was exceptionally gifted and talented. Originally, she was ambitious on her own accord, happily absorbing knowledge just for the sake of learning. But after her mentor was executed for treason -- and all of his books and knowledge burned in the process -- she realized knowledge meant absolutely nothing without power, both physically and socially, to back it up. She became far more jaded, and started simply viewing society as a game to play. And she was very, very good at playing it.

Note: an important bit of lore I missed when I was first running the campaign, which I feel is pretty critical for Patrina as a character... good elves do not become banshees. Banshees are specifically, to quote RAW: the undead remnants of elves who, blessed with great beauty, failed to use their gift to bring joy to the world. Instead, they used their beauty to corrupt and control others. This is a pretty big hint into Patrina's actual motives behind getting Kasimir to resurrect her!

As for Rahadin -- I already covered a lot of what I changed from RAW above, so I won't go TOO big into that. But I gave him more reasons for hating the dusk elves and Patrina in particular.

He hates other dusk elves because he is convinced they all took part in his torture/attempted execution, or at the very least watched and did nothing. One of the reasons he was more than willing to help Strahd in his genocide was because he treated it more as enacting justice against (what he perceived as) his torturers. He perceived them as laughing at him in his most vulnerable moment.

In reality, he's fuckin' wrong -- his torture/attempted execution drew a small crowd, but certainly not "literally every single dusk elf" and they most certainly weren't laughing at it. But a 19-20 year old being brutally tortured PROBABLY isn't perceiving everything around them accurately, and he carried that trauma forward.

He hates Patrina because she was the one that sold him out to the kings, and enacted his torture in the first place. She also came back and taunted him about it after his execution (a comic I want to do but haven't drawn out yet). When Strahd and Patrina started dating, he was RIDICULOUSLY pissed off the entire time... but couldn't really do anything because I mean, Strahd lol.

He told Kasimir that stoning Patrina to death was "the best thing he ever did as a dusk elf leader" and got the shit kicked out of him, so there's that.

#palidoozy rambles #curse of strahd #curse of strahd spoilers #cos #d&d #dnd #rahadin #patrina

34 notes · View notes

demonslayedher · 3 years

Note

Who do you think had the potential to be as strong as yoriichi or maybe even surpass him.

Nobody.

Yoriichi is a character with a classic "lonely at the top" trope, by sheer fluke he is the exception to many natural limitations on mankind, and he can effortlessly tap into skills that take others years and years of dedicated practice before they might have a prayer of attaining them. He is unfairly skilled, and the tragedy is that even though he doesn't have any desire or interest in his abilities, they drive a wedge between him and most people he's ever known, and he's very sensitive to that. That's part of why Uta and the Kamado family were special to him, because even though they were rightly amazed by him, they did not harbor any jealously or desire to posess those skills themselves (in Sumiyoshi's case, he wanted to learn them for Yoriichi's sake, not to make a swordsman of himself).

But, Yoriichi optimistically expressed to his brother that doen the line, centuries later, swordsmen may come who blow them away in skill, so it doesn't matter much if he's around or not. Michikatsu, feeling the bitter sting of their powerful techniques disappearing from the world, seemed to disagree, and in general he wss proven right in the Corp's historical assessment of their swordsmen never quite reaching the skill level of that time period thereafter.

Still, we can consider some characters who had the best chances of coming close to Yoriichi's level:

1. Tsugikuni Michikatsu

Besides pulling from the same gene pool which might had made him inclined to Sun Breathing, so much so that he attained an identical mark, he still never got it and Moon Breathing (however comparible) would never be as powerful. This endlessly frustrated him, and even as a demon who had consumed many people facing Yoriichi in his 80s (the only known exception to the "everyone with a mark dies by 25" rule), he still could not beat him in swordsmanship.

2. Rengoku Shinjuro

Taking him as an example of lifelong swordsmen with access to records of Yoriichi's methods. Despite his dedication to his craft, he identified a huge gulf between his ultimate potential and the abilities of a naturally talented person like Yoriichi. Hoping to attain anything like that was futile, however much they might have strived to model Flame breathing on Sun Breathing.

3. Himejima Gyomei

Taking him as an example of the physically strongest of the Pillars, the strongest of the strong, as well as someone with years of experience and training. While he did attain the ability to see the see-through world like Yoriichi easily could since childhood, Himejima was still unable to escape the limitations of the mark (he and Kokushibo both seemed pretty sure he'd die the night it showed up), thereby limiting how far his training could had taken him.

4. Tokito Muichiro

Our Boy Genius of the Taisho era, and pulling from the same gene pool. However, Mist Breathing technique has already gotten a pretty far cry from Sun Breathing's style even if the core of it is the same, and Muichiro wasn't quite the same level of exceptional Yoriichi was born as. While he might had gotten closer after another decade of training (though I think he would had stayed pretty set in his Mist approach), his struggles against the Upper Moons show that he's still got a long, long way to go before he'd have the capability of taking on Muzan by himself.

5. Kamado Tanjiro

Our hero, who grew up learning Sun Breathing technique, and with only a few years of dedicated swordsmanship he climbs up the Corp ranks like mad as he picks up training and techniques from characters all around the cast, even got as close as anybody could to training with Yoriichi himself via inherited memories of Sumiyoshi observing Sun Breathing and via the battle doll in the Swordsmith Village.

But for as hard as he works and whatever natural inclination Tanjiro may have, he's no genius.

By the end of the series Tanjiro has not reached his full potential yet (even setting aside his retirement-worthy injuries). He was well on his way to being a Pillar, but there was still a huge gulf between them. We could still theorize all we want about his potential to exceed the 25-year-old limitation due to his mark, but even if Tanjiro could had reached heights that the Corp hasn't seen in decades or even centuries, he still would be very, very unlikely to face Muzan alone and live to tell the tale unscathed. (The fact that he lasted so long against him while the others were down goes to show just how powerful Sun Breathing is, even in its rough and imperfected form with a severely injured wielder.)

Ergo.

When it comes down to it, hard work should always be held in higher regard than natural talent, because talent will typically be wasted without polishing. At least, that is the case for the vast majority of us humans, and everyone can be a better version of themselves if they work hard.

But, for as remarkable as people may become in their respective crafts, something they dedicate their lives to perfecting and becoming the best at it, there's still the humbling knowledge or deep fear that raw talent will always provide a maddeningly unfair edge.

#tsugikuni yoriichi #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #tsugikuni michikatsu #kokushibo #rengoku Shinjuro #himejima gyomei #tokito muichiro #kamado Tanjiro

91 notes · View notes

whitherliliesbloom · 3 years

Text

your voice will save me

[ ffxivwrite2021 ] ★ [ masterlist ] ★ [ prompt #23 - soul ]

[ alphinaud/wol ] ★ [ 2,416 words ] ★ [ post-5.3 ]

a sequel to a fill i did from last year’s ffxivwrite. i had the idea for this fic for a whole year but never got to write it. aka, it took one year for me to finally give alphinaud closure.

soul- the spiritual part of a person that some people believe continues to exist in some form after their body has died

it’s a long time coming, but alphinaud thinks he should finally tell the warrior of light the words his soul has been yearning to say for thousands of years

Revenant’s Toll feels particularly cold with the nightly breeze, and it sends chills down Alphinaud’s spine as he casts his glance outwards to look upon Silvertear falls, watching as the sky, now free from miasma, is glimmering with a sea of swaying stars that casts distant reflections of light upon the lake where the wings of a great wyrm once stood vigil.

He shivers, grasping at his gloved hand to steady himself, counting his own breaths as he looks upon the tower of crystals with a pang of hurt that leaves his throat dry. The sight of the tower alone reminds him of skyscrapers and the sound of distant rain, and memories that were not his own flash, albeit briefly, through his head like a bolt that strikes at his very heart.

The boy barely manages to compose himself, steel himself with the resolve and cool that a distant, untarnished version of himself had once possessed. Even in the midst of falling stars, a rain of fire and rivers of blood that ran the streets, that man..... himself from an ancient time, Alphinaud acknowledges bitterly with bit lips, he would not allow his emotions to sway him so.

And yet when he hears a familiar voice call out to him from behind, call out to his very soul that has been aching since the beginning of time, he knew that the him of the present was incapable of being as cold and unfeeling as he had once been.

“Alphinaud?” his flower whispers a name into the night, his name. The name of his current form, one that he can barely hang on to as yet another brief flash of a blazing meteor shower tears through his focus. “You called for me?”

“Yes.” He holds his breath, turns around and gazes down at her with a muddied, dishonest smile upon his face. “I....I wanted to talk to you.” there’s hesitation as he speaks, pain laced in his tone, but Illya makes no remark on it as she moves to stand next to the man, crystal violet eyes cast skywards at the dead of the night. “I’m not bothering you am I?”

“You never bother me.” Illya responds swiftly, her fingers resting upon the stone railing and shivering a tad as she finds the surface cool to the touch.

He swallows the lump in his throat, eyes averting her own and body fidgety, restless as he attempts to find the words in him to even begin speaking - because heaven knows there are so many he wants to say to her.

Previous countless mental rehearsals are now forgotten, replaced with only the raw emotions of a flickering, barely visible light within him.

“I.... I just wanted... To call you out here to... Well... clarify some things... and... and to apologize for others...”

His voice is sheepish, timid, completely unlike the assured confidence of her beloved scholar who had been so eager and ready, eyes blazing with confidence during his fight against the specters of light, his magicks woven from his passion like bursts of fire and gusts of summer wind.

But her smile is still patient and kind as she watches him carelessly stumble upon his words, a hand raising up to tuck a long fluttering strand of hair behind her ear as it blew effortlessly in the lake breeze.

“I never did apologize... Well, there are a lot of things I have to apologize for but-” Alphinaud frowns, “I-I.. I could not well carry on without first trying to apologize to you for all of my transgressions.” Inhaling sharply, the elezen clenches his fist and casts his gaze down upon the stone under his feet. “I’m sorry for worrying you so much all the time, especially when my soul had been pulled to the first. I’m sorry for not being there for you when you struggled with yourself... I’m sorry for putting you through such heinous betrayal because of my incompetence as a commander of the Crystal Braves. I’m sorry for all the times I used you, doubted you, hurt you...”

His voice shakes with the sorrow worth many years of regret, of the guilt he’s pent up and swore to himself he’d make amends for. His heart is aching, the agony of his own past sins coming back to haunt a more mature, wiser, older form of himself now. But he knows it is nothing compared to what he has put her through.

“When we first arrived in Ishgard, I promised you that I would do better - be better for the sake of the others and you who I have wronged. I don’t know if I’ve gotten far enough yet to say I’ve fulfilled that promise... And for that too, I am truly sorry.”

lllya parts her lips to speak, but her voice is hushed, watching as what little shred of dignity has drained from Alphinaud’s navy blue eyes with a sea of cyan sadness washing through her own. And when she takes a step towards him, he holds his hand up and she swallows back her protests reluctantly, intent to listen to his heart until the end even if it killed her to do so.

“And... and also... I’m sorry for pushing you away.”

That statement applies to himself from six summers ago, but the distant glaze in his eyes as he attempts to recall memories of a long forgotten city tells the girl that he was referring to otherwise, and she casts him a confused tilt of her head before he finally speaks again.

“In a time long past... in a city of creation and innovation... That man, Apollo...” Alphinaud shakes his head. Saying another name that was not his own would be deflecting the blame, “the unsundered form of myself sought to reach distant heights that I believed not even the convocation could dream to match. And in my vain, egotistical pursuit for ideals that I wasn’t worthy of I...” He chokes back a sob, the thought of his sins against her too much for even himself to even recount. “I hurt you. I told you such blatant, awful lies. I let my jealousy and my own incompetence sweep me away. I-”

“Alphinaud.”

Her voice calls out his name. His name. The name of his current form - his present form. It is the only name Illya knows and will ever acknowledge.

And though her expression is stern, eyebrows furrowed and peach pink lips pressed into a tight line, she still says his name like melted caramel, unbearably sweet and warm in its tone.

“I can accept your apology for everything else. I forgive you. But you’re beginning to apologize for mistakes that aren’t your own.”

“But I am- I mean... it... is me.”

In a way, he acknowledges... Not fully, of course... but the revelations of what had been his past life is proof enough that he, even if a fourteenth fraction of what had once been the man named Apollo, he still must bear part of the responsibility.

He’s lucky enough as he is to have been granted a second chance, just as Apollo had begged and prayed to the heavens for. He cannot even fathom a world where he had not met Illya anymore.

His beloved smiles, hand raised up to press against her beating heart, as if to feel the essence of her twice rejoined soul. She searches for whispers of herself - of the perfection version of the woman she once was, feeling the bright amethyst constellation stone that bore the insignia of the blistering sun warm in her pocket. She hears no words, only a wave of emotions that cascade through her and almost sweeps her away - she has after all ever been the most sensitive with the voices of unseen beings.

But even with the two shards of a whole soul shone brightly within her, and she can almost envision the visage of a dusty, quiet library in her mind, there is not a trace of anger or hurt in her heart.

“I am Illya Skawi. And you are Alphinaud Leveilleur.” Her gentle tone belies the weak little tremble in her voice as her eyes swirl with an ocean of unfiltered emotions. “I am nowhere near as perfect as Chloris, I know I can never be.” Her hands clasp together tightly, held close to her chest as if to guard her heart. “I may inherit her will... but I will never be her.”

Where Chloris had bright, flawless sanguine pink eyes that morphed in hue to reflect her thoughts, Illya inherited a pair of more timid orbs of lavender twilight. Where Chloris had unmarred skin of a porcelain doll, Illya’s skin was covered with a map of the galaxy - the speckle of stars from bullet holes upon her thighs, the milky way that cut across her collar bone and the auroras taking the form of teeth marks all over her abdomen.

And where Chloris had an unparalleled talent for optimism, charisma and hope, what remained in Illya was only the painful, unreciprocated love she had for the world that would be the very bane of her mental stability for as long as she can remember.

Even with her soul reunited with Ardbert’s, she knows she is but a husk of what had once been the fourteenth member of the convocation - of azem... Emet-Selch at least wasn’t mistaken in spelling that fact out.

“And the woman that Apollo loved is not me - not this ugly, fragmented, weak little shard as I am.”

That’s absolute nonsense, Alphinaud wants to retort. Illya is anything but. It may not who Chloris had once been - but it is who the woman he loves is. Whole, beautiful and divine, her hair is woven from moonlight and her eyes are pressed from a bouquet blossomed flowers. Her voice a melody of a songbird, her skin a distant and unexplored, yet welcoming cosmos. She is a ray of hope, not just for him, but practically everyone else he knows... and he could think of no better personification of perfection than her.

The world may disagree, the ancients may cry in protest and the whole, unbroken version of him may think to question his judgement.

But Alphinaud knows, even if he is wrong about everything else and will continue to be as imperfect and sinfully tainted as he is, that he isn’t wrong about her.

“You’re not- You are not....ugly...” the words die at his throat, he’s lacking in the strength to debate as fervently as he is usually capable of doing. “Or weak for that matter. You’re...”

“I’m not Chloris. And you’re not Apollo, either. Perhaps we were once upon a time, but not now, not here.”

The breeze picks up and howls in his ears, carrying the chill of his doubts and guilt away into the night. And as the bearer of hopes and miracles flashes him a radiant smile, he feels his chest clenching with a warmth that he can barely contain.

Illya turns to look back over Silvertear falls, the light from the moon and the fields of crystals casting a halo over her hair as it fluttered like a veil in the wind. Her skin glows with color, warm against the backdrop of grey stone and dark blue sky.

“I did ponder over the circumstances of our meeting... If it was pure coincidence or a mechanism of fate bringing their souls... our souls together again.” Illya hums, fiddling with her fingers as she contemplates out loud. “And I wonder... if the other shards of Chloris and Apollo are so tightly wound together that they’d meet again in other worlds too...”

“They will.” He answers on impulse, as if his entire being already knew the answer. “I believe they will.”

It’s a naive and an impossibly idealistic wish... one with a hint of selfishness and ego too, perhaps... but those are the core of who he is- who his soul is. And if Apollo loved Chloris even half as much as he loved Illya, then he knows, is certain with all his heart that the thread that keeps their fourteen souls tied together for eternity will not be so easily severed.

There’s a quiet that looms over them, with only the sounds of the wind and the chirping of the crickets ringing in the air. Illya doesn’t turn to look back at him for a minute, lost in her own thought and drowning in a pool of her own emotions - thousands of years worth of them.

“That’s good. I’m glad...”

When the girl turns around, her violet eyes are wet with crystal clear tears, they catch the rays of moonlight and reflect off her face as they roll down her cheeks past upturned lips.

“Because Chloris loved Apollo, you know? She loved him very very much.”

Alphinaud hadn’t noticed when he’d started crying either, quiet sobs breaking out of him as he lets out a choked laugh, raising a gloved hand to feebly wipe away his tears.

“He did too. He loved her so much that it killed him.”

His heart is so full to the brim, spilling with unbearable adoration and devotion. When Illya spreads her arms out wordlessly, sniffling back her own trickling, glistening tears, he picks her up and wraps his arms tightly around her, feeling the beating of his heart match in tandem with her own.

In their warm, tender embrace, he hears the echoes of a distant past - yet another vision of a splitting star flashes in his mind. But he doesn’t flinch this time as he holds his entire world in his arms, afraid and determined to never let go.

“I love you. I love you.” Her declaration is all he hears, along with quiet whispers of his name. His real name.

Alphinaud. Alphinaud. Alphinaud. Alphinaud.

This love was hers to bear, and no one else’s - not Chloris, not Ardbert, not the twelve other flickering star blossoms that are out there, undoubtedly fighting with their entire being to reunite with their own other half. And no cry of ancient beings, no fracturing of worlds or falling of the moon or stars will stop her from loving him. Even until the sun sets, even until the end of times.

And though their souls may have been set adrift, he knew that his soul would always be destined to love hers in return.

“I love you too, Illya.”

#ffxiv #final fantasxy xiv #ffxivwrite2021 #ffxivwrite #kiwisffxivwrite2021 #illya skawi #alphinaud leveilleur #alphinaud #we've come so far #fanfic #mine #THIS IS A RESULT OF A WHOLE YEAR OF THINKING ABOUT THIS IDEA AND THEN THIS PROMPT CAME OUT #I actually wanted to write this RIGHT AFTER i wrote that fill from last year but #i got lazy hue... as usual #hey this turned out pretty good though so #I LOVE THEM SO MUCH GOD THEY DESERVE THE WHOLE WORLD AND MORE

18 notes · View notes

grailfinders · 4 years

Text

Fate and Phantasms #43: Charles-Henri Sanson

Welcome back to Fate and Phantasms, today we’re building French Royalty’s leading cause of death, Charles-Henri Sanson! Sanson is and Inquisitive Rogue with just a dash of Grave Cleric added in for a bit of healing. He also technically holds the record for having the most powerful single attack of any build so far, being able to drop every servant made so far in one hit, or even outright a majority of them through raw damage.

You can check out his spreadsheet over here, or read the level-by-level breakdown below the cut.

Race and Background

Sanson’s a human like most servants, giving him +1 to all stats. He’s also had to deal with the aftermath of his own profession, making him a Haunted One. This gives him proficiency in Arcana and Investigation, as well as giving him the feature Heart of Darkness. This makes commoners more polite to you (probably on account of your profession) and they may even take up arms in your defense.

Stats

You’re a doctor, so your Wisdom and Intelligence are naturally high. Your Dexterity is next, followed by your Constitution and Strength. Being an executioner doesn’t require you to be that physically fit, so these scores aren’t the highest or that low. We need dexterity the most and strength the least, hence the order. Finally, dump Charisma. You can’t help being French, after all.

Class Levels

1. Cleric 1: At first level, clerics get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as two cleric skills, yours are Medicine and History. You’re a doctor, and a list of your clientele reads like a history book. You also get Spellcasting at this level using your wisdom for its ability, as well as the features Circle of Mortality and Eyes of the Grave.

Your Circle of Mortality causes you to always maximize healing done on creatures at 0 HP, and you know Spare the Dying, which for you has a 30′ range and can be cast as a bonus action. This is great for you; it will maximize the small bit of healing you get for those who need it most.

The Eyes of the Grave lets you spend an action to detect any undead within 60′ of you a couple of times per long rest. You’re already pretty uncomfortable that a lot of your clients are walking around as servants-zombies would just be too much for you.

Finally, first level clerics gain three cantrips and the ability to prepare first level spells. You’ll get Toll the Dead for thematic purposes, Light to help your pitiful human eyes in most circumstances, and Mending to patch up any tears in your sweet jacket. You also get Bane and False Life as domain spells. You’re a doctor, so healing isn’t out of the ordinary for you, and you also know exactly how to hit a creature to weaken it, rather than kill.

2. Cleric 2: Second level clerics get two options for their Channel Divinity that replenishes every short rest: the standard Turn Undead that forces zombies away from you on a failed wisdom save, and the grave cleric’s Path to the Grave. This is an action you can use to curse a creature until the end of your next turn. The first time they take damage from you or an ally, they have vulnerability to that attack’s damage, effectively doubling its power. You don’t have too much attack power of your own right now, so it’s more of a support tool than anything.

3. Cleric 3: Third level clerics gain second level spells, including Gentle Repose and Ray of Enfeeblement. Like before, you know how to hamper a body as well as destroy it, and letting the dead find rest is the least you can do. Overall, I’d recommend preparing healing spells each day, your future levels will more than make up for damage.

4. Rogue 1: Switching into the rogue class, you gain one skill proficiency. Insight powers most of your features, so it’ll be smart to grab that. You also gain Expertise in Medicine and Insight. They’re both the same number now, so maybe you can talk your DM into letting you use medicine where your features say insight for the sake of flavor. Your knowledge of the human body also earns you a Sneak Attack, extra damage when you have advantage over another creature. We’re using a short sword for this build, since we need a finesse weapon to perform sneak attacks. I’m disappointed that we can’t give him a proper sword too, but honestly it’s going to be a very small part of your damage.

You also learn your Thieves’ Cant, which for you is your Doctor’s Script. Those things are impossible to read.

5. Rogue 2: At second level, you get a Cunning Action each turn: you can use your bonus action to dash, disengage, or hide. Sometimes being a doctor means you have to be in a lot of places at once, and this is as close as you’re going to get.

6. Rogue 3: Your sneak attack increases to 2d6, and you enter your roguish archetype, the Inquisitive. You get a lot of goodies when you first join: Ear for Deceit means your Insight check against people lying to you is always at least a roll of 8. Eye for Detail lets you use a bonus action to make perception checks to spot hidden things or uncover clues with an Investigation check. (You may have noticed that’s literally what those checks do anyway, but at least you can do it during combat now.) Those two aren’t that useful to this build, though you could flavor the Ear for Deceit as you knowing the physical signs of lying through your training as a doctor, if you really want to stretch it.

The real reason we’re here is your last feature at third level, Insightful Fighting. This lets you use a bonus action to make a Medicine (or Insight, if your DM’s a stickler) check vs a creature’s Deception check to uncover the exact points to strike them. On a success, you can use your sneak attack against them so long as you don’t have disadvantage. This lasts for a minute, or until you start focusing on another creature.

7. Rogue 4: For your first ASI, become a Healer. This means when you stabilize a creature with a healing kit, you’ll also heal them for one HP. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the difference between stabbing and not stabbing, so your fighter better appreciate it. You can also use a healing kit for (shocker) healing, which surprisingly you couldn’t before. Now you can heal somebody for 1d6+4 HP, plus their maximum number of hit dice. It’s not much more breathing room than the stabilizing feature, but every little bit helps. You can also only use that last part once per short rest per creature.

8. Rogue 5: Your sneak attack increases to 3d6, and you learn how to Uncanny Dodge, reacting to halve damage from a single attack. This is great for you, because rogues are not known for their copious amounts of health, and you’re probably already using your healing to keep your party alive.

9. Rogue 6: Another level, another round of Expertise. Most of your important skills are already taken care of, so let’s buff your History and Investigation for the heck of it.

10. Rogue 7: Your sneak attack increases again, and you get some Evasion. Now fireballs don’t really matter to you, so you can ignore enemy spellcasters and focus on preemptively healing your party by killing anything that would harm them.

11. Rogue 8: Your next ASI is going towards your Dexterity for better stabbing and better AC. Yeah, I know I gave him pretty low dexterity to start with, but do you really think we’re gonna keep him there?

12. Rogue 9: Another Sneak Attack buff! Now you can slap 5d6 onto a stab. You also learn how to keep a Steady Eye, giving you advantage on perception and investigation checks as long as you’re moving at half speed. You can also just move half your speed, make the check, and then keep on trucking. What’s the DM going to do, retroactively make you fail?

13. Rogue 10: One last ASI into Dexterity. It’s not maxed out, but we have other things to focus on. Honestly I’m not sure how dexterity and using a guillotine are related, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

14. Rogue 11: Your sneak attack grows once more, and you gain some Reliable Talent. Now any skill check you’re proficient in will always use a roll of at least 10, making your Ear for Deceit utterly worthless! You’re literally made of Arcana, Medicine, and History, so it all checks out.

15. Rogue 12: Now we’re spending your ASIs on Wisdom, for better spells, more prep, and a stronger Insightful Fighting style.

16. Rogue 13: Another sneak attack buff brings you up to 7d6, and you gain an Unerring Eye. You can use this as an action a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier to sense shapechangers and illusions around you. If you want to flavor it, only use it to check if people are real. You’ve spent so much time with bodies, you can notice fake ones right away.

17. Rogue 14: At 14th level, you gain Blindsense, allowing you to sense any hidden or invisible creatures within 10′ of you. Just handwave it with some nonsense about how you’ve “ended so many heartbeats, you’re more in tune with them” or something.

18. Rogue 15: At 15th level your sneak attack is adding 8d6 to your attacks, and you gain a Slippery Mind, which... gives you proficiency with wisdom saves. Whoops. Since we have nothing else to talk about at this level, let’s go over how you can do obscene amounts of burst damage. Insightful fighting frees you up to use sneak attacks a lot more frequently, so you can pile on the damage. Scoring a crit can effectively double your damage, and Path to the Grave, which we got all the way back at level 2, can double your damage again. So at this level, if you get very, very lucky (or hang out with someone like Merlin or [REDACTED]), you can get quadruple the damage on an already large sneak attack.

The fun thing about death mechanics in DnD is that when a PC is dropped to 0 hp, if there’s enough damage left over to drop them down to zero from full HP a second time, they just die instantly, no saves. At this point, one sneak attack deals 9d6+4 damage, so you can theoretically get 232 damage in one attack, or, you can flat out kill anything with 116 HP or less with no saves.

The downside to this is you have to call your shot ahead of time. Path to the Grave only lasts one turn, and for one attack. Also, setting all this up needs two actions, so you’ll either need someone to cast haste on you to get it done in one turn or a very understanding party.

19. Rogue 16: Max out your Wisdom with your final ASI. Your perception is absolute, every errant twitch of an enemy’s face on display like a neon billboard. You’re good at seeing things, is the point I’m trying to make. And also really good at medicine, but we’ve already got multiple ways for you to ignore most of the medicine checks you’ll have to make.

20. Rogue 17: At your capstone level, your sneak attack reaches 9d6, and you gain an Eye for Weakness. While you’re using your Insightful Fighting, you can add an extra 3d6 to your sneak attacks at will. You’re now dealing a frankly silly 13d6 per turn, a very thematic amount of damage for a guillotine.

Pros: You can do truly ridiculous amounts of damage with the right support or if the stars align, with enough cutting power behind your guillotine to kill a significant portion of the servants we’ve built so far in a single blow. Even if you don’t hit it out of the park with your Path to the Grave, you’re still doing 13d6 per round. Your super high wisdom also makes you very well suited to fighting creatures that rely on illusions. Finally, you have a small cache of healing abilities that can keep your party on the right side of the afterlife if your main healer’s busy.

Cons: All that damage is really tempting, but also really impractical. You require two turns and a crit to pull off that damage, and odds are an entire level 20 party can do more in that round than you’ll do off one attack. Also, you have emergency healing for your party, but you shouldn’t rely on that to keep them healthy in the first place. Finally, if you’re playing to be canon compliant, you don’t have much in the way of ranged or magical attacks, so unless you get lucky with weapon drops you’ll have to put up with a lot of resistance at high levels.

Next up: The guy JP just realized is actually kind of hot.

#Fate Grand Order #fgo #dnd 5e #Charles-Henri Sanson #Fate and Phantasms

72 notes · View notes

grigori77 · 3 years

Text

2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30. BODY CAM – in the face of the ongoing pandemic, viral outbreak cinema has become worryingly prescient of late, but as COVID led to civil unrest in some quarters there were a couple of 2020 films that REALLY seemed to put their finger on the pulse of another particularly shitty zeitgeist. Admittedly this first one highlights a problem that’s been around for a while now, but it came along at just the right time to gain particularly strong resonance, filtering its message into the most reliable form of allegorical social commentary – horror. The vengeful ghost trope has become pretty familiar since the Millennium, but by marrying it with the corrupt cop thriller veteran horror screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) has given it a nice fresh spin, and the end result is a real winner. Mary J. Blige plays troubled LAPD cop Renee Lomito-Smith, back on the beat after an extended hiatus following a particularly harrowing incident, just as fellow officers from her own precinct begin to die violent deaths under mysterious circumstances, and the only clues are weird, haunting camera footage that only Renee and her new partner, rookie Danny Holledge (Paper Towns and Death Note’s Nat Wolff), manage to see before it inexplicable wipes itself. Something supernatural is stalking the City of Angels at night, and it’s got a serious grudge against local cops as the increasingly disturbing investigation slowly brings an act of horrific police brutality to light, until Renee no longer knows who in her department she can trust. This is one of the most insidious scare-fests I enjoyed this past year, sophomore director Malik Vitthal (Imperial Dreams) weaving an effective atmosphere of pregnant dread and wire-taut suspense while delivering some impressively hair-raising shocks (the stunning minimart sequence is the film’s undeniable highlight), while the ghostly threat is cleverly thought-out and skilfully brought to “life”. Blige delivers another top-drawer performance, giving Renee a winning combination of wounded fragility and steely resolve that makes for a particularly compelling hero, while Wolff invests Danny with skittish uncertainty and vulnerability in one of his strongest performances to date, and Dexter star David Zayas brings interesting moral complexity to the role of their put-upon superior, Sergeant Kesper. In these times of heightened social awareness, when the police’s star has become particularly tarnished as unnecessary force, racial profiling and cover-ups have become major hot-button topics, the power and relevance of this particular slice of horror cinema cannot be denied.

29. BLOOD QUANTUM – 2020 certainly was a great year for horror (even if most of the high profile stuff did get shunted into 2021), and this compellingly fresh take on the zombie outbreak genre was a strong standout with a killer hook. Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) has always clung close to his Native American roots, and he brings strong social relevance to the intriguing early 80s Canadian setting as a really nasty zombie virus wreaks havoc in the Red Crow Indian Reservation and its neighbouring town. It soon becomes clear, however, that members of the local tribe are immune to the infection, a revelation with far-reaching consequences as the outbreak rages unchecked and society begins to crumble. Barnaby pulls off some impressive world-building and creates a compellingly grungy post-apocalyptic vibe as the story progresses, while the zombies themselves are a visceral, scuzzy bunch, and there’s plenty of cracking set-pieces and suitably full-blooded kills to keep the gore-hounds happy, while the horror has real intelligence behind it, the script posing interesting questions and delivering some uncomfortable answers. The characters, meanwhile, are a well-drawn, complex bunch, no black-and-white saviours among them, any one of them capable of some pretty inhuman horrors when the chips are down, and the cast, an interesting mix of seasoned talent and unknowns, all excel in their roles – Michael Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) are the closest things the film has to real heroes, the former a fallible everyman as Traylor, the small-town sheriff who’s just trying to do right by his family, the latter unsure of himself as his son, put-upon teenage father-to-be Joseph; Olivia Scriven, meanwhile is tough but vulnerable as his pregnant white girlfriend Charlie, Stonehorse Lone Goeman is a grizzled badass as tough-as-nails tribal elder Gisigu, and Kiowa Gordon (probably best known for playing a werewolf in the Twilight movies) really goes to the dark side as Joseph’s delinquent half-brother Lysol, while there’s another memorably subtle turn from Dead Man’s Gary Farmer as unpredictable loner Moon. This was definitely one of the year’s darkest films – largely playing the horror straight, it tightens the screws as the situation grows steadily worse, and almost makes a virtue of wallowing in its hopeless tone – but there’s a fatalistic charm to all the bleakness, even in the downbeat yet tentatively hopeful climax, while it’s hard to deny the ruthless efficiency of the violence on display. This definitely isn’t a horror movie for everyone, but those with a strong stomach and relatively hard heart will find much to enjoy here. Jeff Barnaby is definitely gonna be one to watch in the future …

28. THE MIDNIGHT SKY – Netflix’ big release for the festive season is a surprisingly understated and leisurely affair, a science fiction drama of big ideas which nonetheless doesn’t feel the need to shout about it. The latest feature in the decidedly eclectic directorial career of actor George Clooney, this adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, the debut novel of up-and-coming author Lily Brooks-Dalton, favours characterisation and emotion over big thrills and flashy sequences, but it’s certainly not lacking in spectacle, delivering a pleasingly ergonomically-designed view of the near future of space exploration that shares some DNA with The Martian but makes things far more sleek and user-friendly in the process. Aether, a NASA mission to explore K-23, a newly-discovered, potentially habitable moon of Jupiter, is on its return journey, but is experiencing baffling total communications blackouts from Earth. This is because a catastrophic global event has rendered life on the planet’s surface all but impossible, killing most of the population and driving the few survivors underground. K-23’s discoverer, professor Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney), is now alone at a small research post in the extreme cold of the Arctic, one of the only zones left that have not yet been fully effected by the cataclysm, refusing to leave his post after having discovered he’s dying from a serious illness, but before he goes he’s determined to contact the crew of Aether so he can warn them of the conditions down on Earth. Despite the ticking clock of the plot, Clooney has reigned the pace right in, allowing the story to unspool slowly as we’re introduced to the players who calmly unpack their troubles and work over the various individual crises with calm professionalism – that said, there are a few notable moments of sudden, fretful urgency, and these are executed with a palpable sense of chaotic tension that create interesting and exciting punctuation to the film’s usually stately momentum, reminding us that things could go suddenly, catastrophically wrong for these people at any moment. Clooney delivers a gloriously understated performance that perfectly grounds the film, while there are equally strong, frequently DAMN POWERFUL turns from a uniformly excellent cast, notably Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo as pregnant astronaut Dr. “Sully” Sullivan and her partner, mission Commander Adewole, and a surprisingly subtle, nuanced performance from newcomer Caoilinn Springall as Iris, a young girl mistakenly left behind at the outpost during the hasty evacuation, with whom Lofthouse develops a deeply affecting bond. The film has been criticised for its slowness, but I think in this age of BIGGER, LOUDER, MORE this is a refreshingly low-key escape from all the noise, and there’s a beautiful trade-off in the script’s palpable intelligence, strong character work and world-building (then again, the adaptation was by Mark L. Smith, who co-wrote The Revenant), while this is a visually stunning film, Clooney and cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Control, The Keeping Room) weaving an evocative visual tapestry that rewards the soul as much as the eye. Unapologetically smart, engrossingly played and overflowing with raw, emotional power, this is science fiction cinema at its most cerebral, and another top mark for a somewhat overlooked filmmaking talent which deserves to be considered alongside career highs such as Good Night & Good Luck and The Ides of March.

27. PALM SPRINGS – the summer’s comedy highlight kind of snuck in under the radar, becoming something of an on-demand secret weapon with all the cinemas closed, and it definitely deserves its swiftly growing cult status. You certainly can’t believe it’s the feature debut of director Max Barbakow, who shows the kind of sharp-witted, steady-handed control of his craft that’s usually the province of far more experienced talents … then again, much of the credit must surely go to seasoned TV comedy writer Andy Siara (Lodge 49), for whom this has been a real labour of love he’s been tending since his film student days. Certainly all that care, nurture and attention to detail is up there on the screen, the exceptional script singing its irresistible siren song from the start and providing fertile ground for its promising new director to spread his own creative wings. The premise may be instantly familiar – playing like a latter-day Saturday Night Live take on Groundhog Day (Siara admits it was a major influence), it follows the misadventures of Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Miliota), the black sheep maid of honour at her sweet little sister Tala’s (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes) wedding to seemingly perfect hunk Abe (the Arrowverse’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin), as she finds herself repeating the same high-stress day over and over again after becoming trapped in a mysterious cosmic time-loop along with slacker misanthrope Nyles (Brooklyn Nine Nine megastar Andy Samberg), who’s been stuck in this same situation for MUCH longer – but in Barbakow and Siara’s hands it feels fresh and intriguing, and goes in some surprising new directions before the well-worn central premise can outstay its welcome. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the cast are all excellent – Miliota is certainly the pounding emotional heart of the film, effortlessly lovable as she flounders against her lot, then learns to accept the unique possibilities it presents, before finally resolving to find a way out, while Samberg has rarely been THIS GOOD, truly endearing in his sardonic apathy as it becomes clear he’s been here for CENTURIES, and they make an enjoyably fiery couple with snipey chemistry to burn; meanwhile there’s top-notch support from Mendes and Hoechlin, The OC’s Peter Gallagher as Sarah and Tala’s straight-laced father, the ever-reliable Dale Dickey, a thoroughly adorable turn from Jena Freidman and, most notably, a full-blooded scene-stealing performance from the mighty J.K. Simmonds as Roy, Nyles’ nemesis, who he inadvertently trapped in the loop before Sarah and is, understandably, none too happy about it. This really is an absolute laugh-riot, today’s more post-modern sense of humour allowing the central pair (and their occasional enemy) to indulge in far more extreme consequence-free craziness than Bill Murray ever got away with back in the day, but like all the best comedies there’s also a strong emotional foundation under the humour, leading us to really care about these people and what happens to them, while the story throws moments of true heartfelt power at us, particularly in the deeply cathartic climax. Ultimately this was one of the year’s biggest surprises, a solid gold gem that I can’t recommend enough.

26. THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME – Body Cam’s fellow heavyweight Zeitgeist fondler is a deeply satirical chunk of speculative dystopian sci-fi clearly intended as a cinematic indictment of Trump’s broken America, but it became far more potent and prescient in these … ahem … troubled times. Adapted by screenwriter Karl Gadjusek (Oblivion, Stranger Things, The King’s Man) from the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini for underrated schlock-action cinema director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana, the last two Taken films), this Netflix original feature seemed like a fun way to kill a cinema-deprived Saturday night in the middle of the First Lockdown, but ultimately proved to have a lot more substance than expected. It’s powered by an intriguing premise – in a nearly lawless 2024, the US government is one week away from implementing a nationwide synaptic blocker signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which will prevent the public from being able to commit any kind of crime – and focuses on a strikingly colourful bunch of outlaw antiheroes with an audacious agenda – prodigious Detroit bank robber Bricke (Édgar Ramiréz) is enlisted by Kevin Cash (Funny Games and Hannibal’s Michael Carmen Pitt), a wayward scion of local crime family the Dumois, and his hacker fiancée Shelby Dupree (Material Girl’s Anna Brewster) to pull off what’s destined to be the last great crime in American history, a daring raid on the first night of the signal to steal over a billion dollars from the Motor City’s “money factory” and then escape across the border into Canada. From this deceptively simple premise a sprawling action epic was born, carried along by a razor sharp, twisty script and Megaton’s typically hyperbolic, showy auteur directing style and significant skill at crafting thrillingly explosive set-pieces, while the cast consistently deliver quality performances. Ever since Domino, Ramiréz has long been one of those actors I really love to watch, a gruff, quietly intense alpha male whose subtle understatement hides deep reserves of emotional intensity, while Dupree takes a character who could have been a thinly-drawn femme fetale and invests her with strong personal drive and steely resolve, and there’s strong support from Neil Blomkampf regulars Sharlto Copley and Brandon Auret as, respectively, emasculated beat cop Sawyer and brutal Mob enforcer Lonnie French, as well as a nearly unrecognisable Patrick Bergin as local kingpin (and Kevin’s father) Rossi Dumois; the film is roundly stolen, however, by Pitt, a phenomenal actor I’ve always thought we just don’t see enough of, here portraying a spectacularly sleazy, unpredictable force of nature who clearly has his own dark agenda, but whom we ultimately can’t help rooting for even as he stabs us in the back. This is a cracking film, a dark and dangerous thriller of rare style and compulsive verve that I happily consider to be Megaton’s best film to date BY FAR – needless to say it was a major hit for Netflix when it dropped, clearly resonating with its audience given what’s STILL going on in the real world, and while it may have been roundly panned in reviews I think, like some of the platform’s other glossier Original hits (Bright springs to mind), it’s destined for a major critical reappraisal and inevitable cult status before too long …

25. BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC – one of the year’s biggest surprise hits for me was also one I was really nervous about – the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its just-as-good sequel Bogus Journey have been personal favourites for years, pretty much part of my geeky developmental DNA during my youth, two gleefully dorky indulgences that have, against the odds, aged like fine wine for me over the years. I love Bill and Ted SO MUCH, so like many of the fans I’ve always wanted a third film, but I knew full well how easy it would have been for it to turn out to be a turd (second sequels can be tricky things, and we’ve seen SO MANY fail over the years). God bless Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves for never giving up on the possibilities, then, and for the original screenwriters, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, for writing something that does true justice and pays proper respect to what came before while fully realising how much times have changed in the TWENTY-NINE YEARS that have passed since Wyld Stallyns last graced our screens. Certainly times have moved on for our irrepressible pair – in spite of their convictions, driven by news from the distant future that their music would unite the world and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, Bill and Ted have spectacularly failed to achieve what was expected of them, and they’ve grown despondent even though they’re still happily married to the Princesses and now the fathers of two wonderful girls, Billie and Thea (Atypical’s Brigette Lundy-Paine and Ready Or Not’s Samara weaving). Then an emissary from the future arrives to inform them that if they don’t write the song that unites the world TODAY, the whole of reality will cease to exist. No pressure, then … it may have been almost three decades, but our boys are BACK in a riotous comedy adventure that delivers on all the promises the franchise ever made before. Winter and particularly Reeves may have both gone onto other things since, but they step back into their roles with such ease it’s like Bill and Ted have never been away, perfectly realising not only their characters today but also various future incarnations as they resolve to go forward in time to take the song from themselves AFTER they’ve already written it (a most triumphant and fool-proof plan, surely); Lundy-Paine and Weaving, meanwhile, are both absolutely FANTASTIC throughout, creating a pair of wonderfully oddball, eccentric and thoroughly adorable characters who would be PERFECT to carry the franchise forward in the future, while it’s an absolute joy to see William Sadler return as Bogus Journey’s fantastically neurotic incarnation of Death himself, and there are quality supporting turns from Flight of the Conchords’ Kristen Schaal, Anthony Carrigan, Holland Taylor and of course Hal Landon Jr., once again returning as Ted’s grouchy cop father Captain Logan. The plot is thoroughly bonkers and of course makes no logical sense, but then they’re never meant to in these movies – the whole point is just to have fun and GO WITH IT, and it’s unbelievably easy when the comedy hit rate is THIS HIGH – turns out third time really is the charm for Matheson and Solomon, who genuinely managed a hat trick with the whole trilogy, while there was no better choice of director to usher this into existence than Dean Parisot, the man who brought us Galaxy Quest. This is the perfect climax to a trilogy we’ve been waiting YEARS to see finally completed, but it’s also shown a perfect way to forge ahead in new and interesting ways with the next generation – altogether, then, this is another most excellent adventure …

24. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG – Justin Kurzel has been on my directors-to-watch list for a while now, each of his offerings impressing me more than the last (his home-grown Aussie debut, Snowtown, was a low key wallow in Outback nastiness, while his follow up, Macbeth, quickly became one of my favourite Shakespeare flicks, and I seem to be one of the frustrated few who actually genuinely loved his adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, considering it to be one the very best video game movies out there), and his latest is no exception – returning to his native Australia, he’s brought his trademark punky grit and fever-dream edginess to bear in his quest to bring his country’s most famous outlaw to the big screen in a biopic truly worthy of his name. Two actors bring infamous 19th Century bushranger Ned Kelly to life here, and they’re both exceptional – the first half of the film sees newcomer Orlando Schwerdt explode onto the screen as the child Ned, all righteous indignation and fiery stubbornness as he rails against the positions his family’s poverty continually put him in, then George MacKay (Sunshine On Leith, Captain Fantastic) delivers the best performance of his career in the second half, a barely restrained beast as Ned grown, his mercurial turn bringing the man’s inherent unpredictability to the fore. The Babadook’s Essie Davis, meanwhile, frequently steals the film from both of them as Ellen, the fearsome matriarch of the Kelly clan, and Nicholas Hoult is similarly impressive as Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned’s slimily duplicitous friend/nemesis, while there are quality supporting turns from Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe as two of the most important men of Ned’s formative years. In Kurzel’s hands, this account of Australia’s greatest true-life crime saga becomes one of the ultimate marmite movies – its glacial pace, grubby intensity and frequent brutality will turn some viewers off, but fans of more “alternative” cinema will find much to enjoy here. There’s a blasted beauty to its imagery (this is BY FAR the bleakest the Outback’s ever looked on film), while the screenplay from relative unknown Shaun Grant (adapting Peter Carey’s bestselling novel) is STRONG, delivering rich character development and sublime dialogue, and Kurzel delivers some brilliantly offbeat and inventive action beats in the latter half that are well worth the wait. Evocative, intense and undeniable, this has just the kind of irreverent punk aesthetic that I’m sure the real life Ned Kelly would have approved of …

23. MUST MERCY – more true-life cinema, this time presenting an altogether classier account of two idealists’ struggle to overturn horrific racial injustices in Alabama. Writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) brings heart, passion and honest nobility to the story of fresh-faced young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his personal crusade to free Walter “Johnny D” McMillan (Jamie Foxx), an African-American man wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman. His only ally is altruistic young paralegal Eva Ansley (Cretton’s regular screen muse Brie Larson), while the opposition arrayed against them is MAMMOTH – not only do they face the cruelly racist might of the Alabama legal system circa 1989, but a corrupt local police force determined to circumvent his efforts at every turn and a thoroughly disinterested prosecutor, Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), who’s far too concerned with his own personal political ambitions to be any help. The cast are uniformly excellent, Jordan and Foxx particularly impressing with career best performances that sear themselves deep into the memory, while there’s a truly harrowing supporting turn from Rob Morgan as Johnny D’s fellow Death Row inmate Herbert, whose own execution date is fast approaching. This is courtroom drama at its most gripping, Cretton keeping the inherent tension cranked up tight while tugging hard on our heartstrings for maximum effect, and the result is a timely, racially-charged throat-lumper of considerable power and emotional heft that guarantees there won’t be a single dry eye in the house by the time the credits roll. Further proof, then, that Destin Daniel Cretton is one of those rare talents of his generation – next up is his tour of duty in the MCU with Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, and while this seems like a strange leftfield turn given his previous track record, I nevertheless have the utmost confidence in him after seeing this …

22. UNDERWATER – at first glance, this probably seems like a strange choice for the year’s Top 30 – a much-maligned, commercially underperforming glorified B-movie creature-feature headlined by the former star of the Twilight franchise, there’s no way that could POSSIBLY be any good, surely? Well hold your horses, folks, because not only is this very much worth your time and a comprehensive suspension of your low expectations, but I can’t even consider this a guilty pleasure – as far as I’m concerned this is a GENUINELY GREAT FILM, without reservation. The man behind the camera is William Eubank, a director whose career I’ve been following with great interest since his feature debut Love (a decidedly odd but strangely beautiful little space movie) and its more high profile but still unapologetically INDIE follow-up The Signal, and this is the one where he finally delivers wholeheartedly on all that wonderful sci-fi potential. The plot is deceptively simple – an industrial conglomerate has established an instillation drilling right down to the very bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in our Earth’s oceans, only for an unknown disaster to leave six survivors from the operation’s permanent crew stranded miles below the surface with very few escape options left – but Eubank and writers Brian Duffield (Spontaneous, Love & Monsters, Jane Got a Gun, Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan) wring all the possible suspense and fraught, claustrophobic terror out of the premise to deliver a piano wire-tense horror thriller that grips from its sudden start to a wonderfully cathartic climax. The small but potent cast are all on top form, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick (Netflix’ Iron Fist) and John Gallagher Jr. (Hush, 10 Cloverfield Lane) particularly impressing, and even the decidedly hit-and-miss T.J. Miller delivers a surprisingly likeable turn here, but it’s that Twilight alumnus who REALLY sticks in your memory here – Kristen Stewart’s been doing a pretty good job lately distancing herself from the role that, unfortunately, both made her name and turned her into an object of (very unfair) derision for many years, but in my opinion THIS is the performance that REALLY separates her from Bella effing-Swan. Mechanical engineer Norah Price is tough, ingenious and fiercely determined, but with the right amount of vulnerability that we really root for her, and Stewart acts her little heart out in a turn sure to win over her strongest detractors. The creature effects are impressive too, the ultimate threat proving some of the nastiest, most repulsively icky creations I’ve seen committed to film, and the inspired design work and strong visual effects easily belie the film’s B-movie leanings. Those made uneasy by deep, dark open water or tight, enclosed spaces should take heed that this can be a tough watch, but anyone who likes being scared should find plenty to enjoy here. Altogether a MUCH better film than its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes rating makes it out to be …

21. PENINSULA – back in 2016, Korean director Yeon Sang-ho and writer Park Joo-suk took the tired old zombie outbreak trope and created something surprisingly fresh with their darkly satirical action horror Train to Busan. The film was, deservedly, a massive international smash hit and a major shot in the arm for the sub-genre on the big screen, so a sequel was inevitable, but when the time came for them to follow it up they did the smart thing and went in a very different direction. Jettisoning much of the humour to create something much darker and more intense, they also ramped the action quotient right up to eleven, creating a nightmarish post-apocalyptic version of Korea which has been quarantined from the rest of the world for the last four years, where the few uninfected survivors eke out a dangerous day-to-day existence amidst the burgeoning undead hordes, and the value of human life has plummeted dramatically. Into this hell-on-earth must venture a small band of Korean refugees, sent by a Hong Kong crime boss to retrieve a multi-million dollar payday in stolen loot that got left behind in the evacuation, led by former ROK Marine Corps Captain Jung-seok (Secret Reunion’s Gang Don-won), a man with a tragic past he has to make up for. Needless to say, nothing goes according to plan … Train to Busan was an unexpected masterpiece of the genre, but I was even more bowled over by this, particularly since I got to see this on the big screen on Halloween night itself, just before the UK cinemas closed down again for the Second Lockdown. This certainly is a film that NEEDS to be seen first on the big screen – the fully-realised hellscape of undead-overrun Seoul is spectacularly immersive, the perfect cinematic playground for the film’s most impressive set-pieces, two astounding, protracted high-speed chases with searchlight-and-flair-lit all-terrain vehicles racing through the dark streets pursued by tidal waves of feral zombies. Sure, the plot is predictable and the tone gets a little overblown and maudlin at times, while some of the characters are drawn in decidedly broad strokes, but the breathless pace rarely lets up throughout, and there are moments of genuine fiendish genius on offer here, particularly in a truly disturbing centrepiece sequence in which desperate human captives are set against slavering undead in a makeshift amphitheatre for sport, as well as a particularly ingenious use for radio-controlled cars. And the cast are brilliant, with Don-won providing a suitably robust but also pleasingly fallible, wounded hero, while Hope’s Lee Re and newcomer Lee Ye-won are irrepressibly feisty and thoroughly adorable as the young girls who rescue him from certain death among the ruins. Altogether, this is horror cinema writ large, played more for thrills than scares but knuckle-whitening and brutally effective nonetheless, and in a year where outbreak horror became all too real for us anyway it was nice to be able to enjoy something a little more escapist anyway – given the strength of its competition in 2020, this top-notch sequel to a true genre gem did very well indeed to place this high. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t say no to thirds …

#body cam #body cam movie #blood quantum #the midnight sky #Palm Springs #palm springs movie #the last days of american crime #bill and ted face the music #true history of the kelly gang #just mercy #underwater #underwater movie #underwater 2020 #peninsula #train to busan presents: peninsula #2020 in movies

21 notes · View notes

btschooseafic · 3 years

Text

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Aviva meets a 15 year old with a beautiful voice, Jungkook.

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts. [Masterlist]

Track 5: Enter, Jeon Jungkook

I Dare You- The Regrettes

“But you're a child, and it's kinda wild

How you're the one that brings the sun”

“It’s just… it was supposed to be a Hip Hop group,” Namjoon groaned, leaning his head on the table during Aviva’s lunch break. Aviva handed him half of her sandwich. He blinked at her. “You’re sure…?” She nodded. He took it and munched. “Thanks. It’s good.” Though they were both busier than ever, he still took the time to stop by and chat once and a while. These days were often filled with the subject of what ‘real hip hop’ was, and if Namjoon should be doing that, or sticking it out here. “Hunchul-hyung said it’s rougher, rawer stuff, and you can’t do that in the idol industry, that it’ll hold people like us back. Yoongi-hyung says he doesn’t give a fuck what real hip hop is. People can call his music whatever they want to, as long as they’re listening to it, as long as people are listening…”

“You’re never gonna get a complete consensus on what ‘real hip hop’ is,” she said bluntly. “People will argue until the end of time.”

“I know,” Namjoon said.

“So what matters here is your opinion,” Aviva said. “Since it’s the direction of your life we’re talking about.”

“…I think hip hop is truth. And maybe my truth isn’t rough or raw enough for some people, but I don’t hold back in my lyrics, and I don’t think Bang-PD is holding me back either.” He shook his head. “But… it hurts, seeing people I used to work with call me a sellout, and… worse.”

“You’ll prove them wrong,” she said confidently.

He grimaced. “Me and what army?”

“You’ve got me,” she pointed out. “And Hoseok-ah, and Yoongi-ssi, and Soonie was saying she could bind her chest and audition again as a boy—”

Namjoon snorted. “Please, no. I can’t handle that Soonyoung-ssi.”

“Most people can’t,” Aviva acknowledged.

“But, I know you’ve been working hard searching for members.” He smiled at her. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

She smiled back at him. “That’s nice of you to offer, Namjoon-ah.”

“Hey, I just want to get this lineup finalized so we can start rehearsing!” His smile turned serious. “Also, I don’t want all your hard work to go to waste, Aviva-yah.”

“You know…” She said thoughtfully. “Maybe there is something you can do with me.” Namjoon perked up.

“What’s that?”

“There’s a reality TV show audition coming up,” she told him. “Jungsook-sunbae said it would be a good place to check out. Maybe you can come with me, see if anyone stands out to you? I mean, I know your schedule is really busy, between school and training, but—”

“Sure! I’d be happy to—I mean, I’ll move some things around, just let me know when and where!”

“Slow down, Namjoon-ah!” Aviva rushed after him.

“Ah, sorry.” He grinned at her over his shoulder. “You’re so slow.”

“You’re too fast, your legs are too long,” she grumbled.

“I’m just excited,” he said. “I heard a lot of trainees get picked up at these kind of auditions. I’m hoping for a diamond in the rough today.”

“Yeah, me too…” She frowned. “Where are we going?” She pointed in the opposite direction. “All the people are that way.”

“Huh?” He stopped again and turned to look at her. “I thought you knew.”

“I was following you, you seemed so confident!”

He snorted. And then he looked up. “Do you hear that?” There was a soft, beautiful voice coming from around the corner. They followed the sound. The door to a dressing room was open. “Who is that?”

“Someone’s who about to get cast!” Aviva almost felt like crying. The voice was so smooth… She knocked on the open door. The boy inside jumped. “Excuse me, are you auditioning today?”

“I did… actually, I’ve just been eliminated.”

Aviva’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s silly of them. Your voice is beautiful.”

“Ah, thanks.” His face flushed. “I mean, I do fine when I’m practicing, but I always choke up at auditions. I mean, I have actually heard from a few companies…” He held out a pile of business cards. “But I will need a lot of practice before I’m any good, really.”

“If you find the right people to practice with, it could be more fun,” Aviva thought. “Here.” She handed him her card. “One more for the pile. I’m Chen Aviva, age 18, intern for Big Hit Entertainment.”

“Jeon Jungkook, age 15. Thank you for the offer!” He bowed slightly. He started to move around them.

“Wait!” Aviva said quickly. He turned to look at her. “We really would love to have you as part of our agency—what kind of people are you looking for to represent you? I’m also just starting out, so I can understand being nervous, but I think you have real talent, and I would love to work my hardest to show that talent to the world… um…” She glanced at Namjoon uncertainly.

“Hi.” Namjoon reached out his hand. “I’m Kim Namjoon, a trainee. I would love for you to join me at Big Hit.” Jungkook’s eyes widened.

“Wait… are you Kim Namjoon-hyung the rapper?” He smiled brightly, looking a little star struck. “I’ve seen all your videos! You signed with this company?”

Namjoon continued to text Aviva with updates on how the new trainees were getting along. Jungkook was incredibly talented, but also very shy. Namjoon was hopefully he would open up more as he got used to them.

‘Jinhoon is a great addition so far. He stays up all night to practice dance with Hobi, while Yoongi-hyung and I are working on songs. As for Jin-hyung, we don’t see him much outside of practice, since he isn’t living at the dorms, and instead commuting, but I can appreciate his efforts to make people laugh,’ Namjoon wrote. ‘In general, it is quieter around here than I’m used to. But there’s still a sense of anxiety under it all. As Bang-PD is has he is thinking of a smaller group now, the fact that he is still holding auditions is worrying.’

#bts #bts x oc #jeon jungkook #kim namjoon #jungkook x oc #namjoon x oc #bts predebut #bts world #manager!oc #idolverse #fanfiction #bts fanfiction #my fics #hey you what's your dream

10 notes · View notes

julies-butterflies · 3 years

Note

Honestly, your writing reminds me a lot of the buffyverse. Just the perfect balance of humor and sadness and romance and heart that just feels like a vivid window into the world you've created.

God the Body...the best forty minutes of television I may never watch again. I've rewatched Willow and Tara's kiss (because I'll adore them forever), but just...the weight of it. It took me a full month to work up the nerve to watch the episode, to be ready to cry that much.

What you said about not wanting people to suffer, because of your work...It's never once felt like that for me. And I've cried a LOT while reading your work. I'll try to explain it the best I can

Grief can be so isolating, and disorienting. Your world goes topsey-turvey, supports you took for granted go flying into the abyss and suddenly it's a minefield of those glass shards. And no one's grief is identical. No two circumstances are the same. It's not possible for anyone else to know exactly how you feel, because no two hearts break alike.

Sometimes, it's because people just don't understand. Sometime's it's because they no longer want to. But some days, that feeling of aloneness can be crushing.

Then one night, I stumbled upon Let These Shadows Fall Away Like Dust. That one hit me way harder than I was ever expecting. The question of how to grieve the living, the dilemma on when forgiveness is deserved...Alex's anger, his devestation, the rawness of it all....That's my broken glass. Those are concepts I've been struggling for over a year. I'm still picking up pieces every day.

I sobbed, because it was such a relief. To see the feelings that had been scrambled up in my mind just reflected there, on my screen. The reminder I had desperately needed, that I was not alone. That even though my circumstances were different, I was not the only one trying to unravel those messy emotions.

Then again, I also read your deathfic for fun, so maybe I'm not the best judge of this. I tend to like angst. I tend to get a lot of "WHY WOULD YOU MAKE IT THAT SAD" in group chats :D

Please don't feel any pressure to respond to me quickly or anything. I never mind the wait. I'm so sorry for the rough times. Wishing that you and your family gets whatever you need to help ease your storm. Sending love and support as well.

(sorry for all the metaphors. I'm super sleepy and apparently, I resort to purple prose when tired lol)

I know exactly what you mean about Emily. I understand why people don't like her, but I just love to see her written as such a grey character. It's just so much more powerful when the love is so clearly there.

I mean, that's what a tragedy is, really. Love cut short. Grieving a future that could have been everything, if fate had not been cruel. I don't know if you know musical theater, but I like to think about the Barber and His Wife, from Sweeney Todd: the whole tragedy of that show, is that they were happy all together, and then permanently broken. How their paths keep crossing, but they never connect to heal. Never lost, but never found.

And that's the tragedy of Luke and Emily: too stubborn and too late. You find that grey area, the messiness so well, and just bring it all out so wonderfully. You do the same with Bobby/Trevor, ESPECIALLY in the horror and the wild. God, that absolutely devestated me. I'm not a big fan of horror in general, and I haven't explored the genre that much but...if all horror is like yours then DAMN, I might just have to become a fan.

This got super long (lol) so I'll wrap it up now but! THE SIC FIC QUEENS TOGETHER???? When I tell you I lost it.... all too well Bobby and what you've lost reggie in the same story are killing me. I am hooked and incredibly hyped. Loved both updates so far, and cannot wait to see where the story goes!

Oh yeah and I forget: I have to ask, do you have a fan cast of the one, the only, the incredible Keith Richards? (and that goblin is so cute!!! I really want to pet the blood thirsty monster. So badly)

Love, your totally-not-undead-pen-pal, :D

-Vampire Anon

Know musicals? Vampire Anon my beloved, I am a musical theatre bitch. Take a look at my high school graduation cap! (Anastasia is my favorite musical... something about the themes of home, love, and family, the idea of always finding a place in the world even after enduring incredible hardship, that anything is survivable with faith and love in your heart... I'm also a Romanov history bitch, and Christy Altomare is such an incredible talent and human being.) Literally, talk to me about musicals anytime!

And yeah, I definitely see your metaphor... the tragedy of The Barber and his Wife was how close they came to each other throughout the whole show, existing within reach the entire time, after being separated for so long. But it wasn't the same; it never could be. Time and trauma had changed them both into something unrecognizeable, and when they came face-to-face, they could only hurt each other. At a certain point, the ghosts of your past are meant to stay ghosts. Sure, you might want them back more than anything --- but what would it mean? What would you truly be getting back?

Luke's "back", of course, and he comes home to visit his parents multiple times... but they're not the same people he left. They're older, greyer, changed by grief... while he's just the same. A snapshot forever frozen in time, a memory crystalized in amber. You can't hold memories in your hands. You can't pull them close and refuse to let them go. Eventually, they'll slip away... and to Mitch and Emily, a memory is all their son is, now. That's what's so heartrending about the situation we see in the show, especially --- so much love still exists between all of them, but it has no place to go.

Okay, sorry, it's 3am here and I'm rambling too, haha --- mentioning musical theatre was a mistake.

I'm so glad my stories have been able to connect with you, especially 'shadows' --- that one resonated with a lot of people, more than I ever realized it would. It's not the most personal story to me... but definitely one that needed to be told, and the emotion in it... hits home for a lot of people. It means so much to me knowing that story, and Alex's internal struggle, has made people feel less alone.

I think I'm going to have a hard time looking back on that one, though. We were staying at my aunt's house for the weekend where I wrote most of it; I read a few excerpts to her, and she said she liked it. She was always interested in my writing... I kind of wish I'd gotten the chance to share more of it with her.

Like you said. Grief's a funny thing. Disorienting, relentless, and crushing.

Please just remember, though --- whatever you're dealing with, you're not alone. You don't have to cut yourself on those broken pieces... one day, you'll wake up, and realize you feel whole again. It will never feel the same, and the pain will always be there... but healing around it is what makes us stronger. You don't owe anyone your forgiveness; it's okay to grieve when you've lost something, regardless of whether death has taken them from you. Grief doesn't have to be earned, it simply has to be felt.

You'll be stronger for it, in the end. I'm sorry you've been hurting so much.

Anyways! Oh gosh! On to lighter, happier topics! Please tell me...

What are your favorite fics? (Like, my fics, obviously, which fics of mine do you just go gaga over? Please praise me or else my ego will shrivel like a worm on hot pavement.) No, okay, I'm kidding --- what are your top fics for this fandom? Like, what are the ones that really resonate with you, that you could read over and over? The JATP fandom has so many greats, but I'm always drawn back to Some Killer Queen You Are by pearlcaddy (buffyverse meets jatp!! iconic!!), Lantern's Light by thefairhero (literally the SOFTEST reggie), the sky's not empty tonight by firefall (just... devastating and beautiful in a dozen ways), and literally anything by foundfamilyvevo.

How long have you been in the JATP fandom? Who are your favorite characters? What's your favorite JATP song?

And finally, most importantly... what are your favorite musicals?

(also... since u asked... behold keith richards and tremble)

#vampire anon my beloved #also... vampire anon... you're a writer #i can tell!! i can read it in your words #youre so eloquent and put things so beautifully #do you write fic?? have you posted any for jatp??

5 notes · View notes

crazyyfilmyfreak · 4 years

Text

The Devil All the Time ( 2020 )

OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS FREE REVIEW

"There's a lot of no-good sons of bitches out there"

Okay alright first of all

This is not your generic go-to netflix crime thriller if you are watching it with that intention everything is wrong with you

This Film is dark , not just dark but dark as hell which is filled with gore elements which also includes a multi layered story telling and the film is filled with a group of astonishing cast members and every one of them has a potential to carry the whole film on their shoulders with no hard work but just with grace and ease so these reasons altogether might have over hyped few people's expectations and i think that is the main reason why i am seeing some mixed reviews here and there online or maybe just because you started watching this film with a very wrong intent or wrong mind set like i said before and i am stressing this so much because of in my opinion this film is just perfect maybe there are flaws obviously every film will have flaws but i just couldn't see them ? Maybe because i am a big fan of tom holland i might be little biased but to me this film is top notch and this is a perfect film film

Now speaking about the cast & film overall

This is a very slow paced slow burning piece of art

It takes you to the places you can never think of mentally and it makes you feel completely lost in emotions by the end of the film making you numb

Antonio Campos is a fucking genius i love his way of story telling

He's honest , he knows what he is doing , he loves taking risks and he never fears when ever he goes out of the conventional film making style and i very much love how he connected every character in the film like i mean every character in the film is interconnected and if you remove any one character you will feel the void , disturbance and unbalance in the film.

Film lovers might argue with me or hate me for saying this but i feel this film is so much better than christine 👀🤝🏻 atleast to me ? And this is coming from a person who also loved it a lot

Now the cast

I cant speak about everyone in the film because this has such a long list of talented actors 😭 who rocked in the film i am only going to speak abt some of my favourite performances as of now i promise to speak about every other cast member and their performance in the later days coz i am very sure this is a film i am going to talk a lot from now and this is also a film that i am going to watch and enjoy in the future days

First TOM FUCKING HOLLAND

I have been seeing this dude's films even before the civil war where he played the spidey role and i always felt he was a very raw and potential actor since his childhood but after seeing him in civil war and spider man hoco its just impossible for me to not like him as an actor ? HE IS SO GOOD ON SCREEN and he makes you believe everything when ever he's on screen maybe its swinging from wall to wall or putting a donut or whatever into a guys mouth while kicking his ass and making it look bad ass af🔥 few might feel this are such a silly examples to say but to me this is about how tom brings a realistic approach to a scene and makes it good and i have always been a big fan of tom holland since spiderman hoco and this is nothing related to tdat but y'all might already know timothee was the second closest option of mcu to cast as spidey and tom grabbed that role ever since tom is just busy with mcu films and where as timothee had a incredible and unbelievable growth as an ACTOR for real to me that is stunning because he did it in such short of span and to me as fan of tom holland part of me was always loving him as spidey but a big heart of me felt a void and sad because tom is missing a lot of great opportunities which has a chance to showcase his real acting abilities which made me think what if timothee got the spidey role instead of tom? Maybe we would have seen a serious tom holland as an actor and this thought killed me everytime but everything happens for a reason and tom holland is undoubtedly the best spidey we have ever got and anyways when films like tdat happen many people realise and understand how great and how fucking incredible tom holland is as an actor and i love when everyone appreciate him for this !! It makes my heart very happy and this is the exact reason why this film is so personal and special to me

Sorry for completely deviating from the film but this is tumblr and i am not a serious film critic lol so forgive me.

And speaking about his performance in the film he is just surreal and outstanding . The character that he played is a very complicated one not many relate to that character but every one can understand his emotions, actions and intentions in the film and all the credit goes to tom for bringing a life to that character and playing it in such a beautiful way listen to me very carefully when i am saying this not many actors from this generation can bring bundle of emotions at the same time in a same scene but tom holland does that with such an ease and i stg i am not exaggerating if you watch the film you will know what i mean !! And i am very proud to say i am his big fan

Now Robbert pattinson

What the fuck should i talk about this asshole 😂🖕?

My dude's been killing it since remember me and as an actor like i said in the Tenet Review he has matured a lot as an actor since good time and he played a very powerful and sick role in the film i am not gonna spoil it for others just go and watch the fucking film atleast for him he did a great job and i dont understand how the women and gays are dealing with him? Seriously even as a straight guy its hard for me to concentrate on the film or scenes where ever he's present because this asshole is so fucking hot and sexy 👉👈 The directors should either deglamorise him by making him fat or bald or just hide his face with prosthetic make up or sth just like how directors hide tom hardy's face in every film he's in 🙄. Now coming back to his performance its really hard to dominate him when ever he's on screen dude just want all the attention towards him , such a selfish actor huh

Bill Skarsgard

He played a very important and crucial role in the film he maynot have big screen time but we can totally feel his presence through out the film i think this one sentence explains how important his character is to the film and how well he potrayed the role and he's the only guy in the film who got an incredible character growth throughout his journey in the film

Harry Melling

It would be very unfair if i dont speak about harry's performance in tdat

DUDE KILLED IT . HE SCARED ME WITH HIS EMOTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS . He didn't even a play a negative role but he just added a lot of depth not only to his character but also the film with his intimidating portrayal

Sebastian stan

This is the most honest and a very raw performance from Sebastian stan so far ( i am saying this based on the films that i have seen of his ) i just wish he had more screen time thats the only thing that i didnt like in the film also there are so many blanks that needs to be filled about his character

Eliza Scanlen

I dont remember her from any film or tv series that i have seen before but she's outstanding in the film , the character doesnt have much something new to offer so i can't speak a lot for her but as far as the character concerned she did her best and her performance is a impressive one and many people are gonna love her .

Riley Keough

Unlike the previous films & tv series she's been in

This film gave her a very challenging role and she's the only women in the film who's been through ups and downs and has a very complicated but a impressive character growth with minimal limitations and dimensions

She was fabulous and incredible . It just stuns me how the character has begin and how it ended at the end

And special mention to jason clarke and the old couple who played grandparents ( kind of ) to Arvin Russel and lenora . Not all heroes wear the cape.

Finally despite the mention of god several times in the film this is not really about god at all its about the DEVIL , The DEMON that carries and plays a very pivotal role in the film you cannot see it but you can sense it and feel it

Its about the blind faith, its about the irreversible & inescapable fate . I really love how Antonio Campos has connected all the dots by the end of the film with a very impressive film making and with a steady gothic theme running till the end internally and i haven't completely finished the book ( The devil all the time ) but if anyone really wants to completely bring the book life they cannot do it in a single film it will take you atleast 4 or 5 tv series to do so but Antonio Campos did it with a single film and added a very deep meaning to the core of the film w/o deviating from the roots of the book & even touched the aspects like duality of a man and some of you grateful fucks are complaining about him

OBVIOUSLY films ard subjective but you all need to be more open about this film

In simple words please fucking watch this film guys 🤗❤

This one is not for everyone but everyone will have atleast a small aspect in the film that y'all are going to like / love / hate / discuss about.

The devil all the time is violent , brutal , honest and perfect in every possible way atleast to me and i really want you all to watch it if you're into such type of stuff

Remember No country for old men ? Now make it 10 times more violent but add some meaning to it with a realistic approach but more slow burning drama and a little bit of darkness ... now that is what The Devil all the time is .

Gif credits : Milesgmorales

#tom holland #films #film #cinema #movies #movie #moviegifs #the devil all the time #robbert pattinson #bill skarsgård #sebastian stan #Riley Keough #harry melling #Mia Wasikowska #jake gyllenhaal #Eliza Scanlen #Antonio Campos

41 notes · View notes

chaotically-cas · 3 years

Text

Tombstone spoilers

- - -

Oh my god. This is my raw reaction (I’m posting in the morning) to finishing Tombstone at 3:30 am. I finished it less than a minute ago. I’m in shock. I’m still crying oh my god. Literally crying.

I did not expect to enjoy a western cowboy movie that fucking much???? But I did??? I don’t even know where to start. I’m not sure if the acting from Wyatt Earp’s actor was good or bad. I genuinely can’t tell. But I thought that Val Kilmer fucking carried that movie dear lord is he so beyond talented oh my god. He is so good in these kinds of roles (Jim Morrison) I swear I literally got goosebumps so so many times. I think he is an incredibly underrated actor & that movie is excited why. Jesus fuck he was incredible it felt so real. It was one of the best performances I’ve seen on that type of role from anyone I can’t. The acting overall was for the most part down right magnificent.

The absolute heart wrenching showing of tuberculosis too omg. Especially in lines as small as ‘forgive me if I don’t shake hands’ to his beautifully the makeup department & Val did with showing how physical the disease was. I’m not sure what else to complement besides the fact that ‘the dying man’ is such a common character but I don’t think you can really do much better at all in this case. Top marks.

& the way it was filmed & the shots were so beautiful. It was so timely & cinematic oh my god I can’t describe it. They used close up shots & far away shots both so beautifully & in such a meaningful way I wanna give the director I high five man.

Jesus even Johnny Ringo’s character was absolutely perfect. I don’t remember the actors name off the top of my head but he is absolutely brilliant as well as the rest of the cast. Including Russell who practically directed the entire thing. Jeez I think he was incredible in that role. Even Ike was a fantastic character I’m sorry but I can’t lie.

I could talk about the scene where Johnny Ringo & Doc Holliday first met forever I think. Not only did they but probably two of the best actors in the movie the same room together. But it’s probably one of the most well known scenes too. Just the belligerence & the absolute wit between the both of them, especially Holliday, is mesmerizing. I love the way he turns to his girlfriend & talks to himself over whether the fact he should hate him or not. & he ends up deciding to hate him because he reminds him of himself. Which is again brought up so fucking incredibly later on in the movie. I think it’s amazing they didn’t let that aspect of their characters fall though. I think that scene is just magnificent. The way Doc is so sly & coy with a simple shot glass. Just the way the own shots are mocking themselves as well as the characters in a way is just. God. It’s unmatched. & the way they bring back the ‘he’s drunk’ later in the movie too as such a juxtaposition is just. Shit man. It’s beyond brilliant.

The scene where they all were at a draw & then Doc just winks. & you can see the other actors face go from fear to anger. & then wyatt realizes. Good it’s just a greatly filmed & directed scene everything about it is perfect from the reactions to the shots.

Now. Here is where I might be getting a bit controversial. This movie is gay. It’s fucking gay.

It’s a love story between Earp & Holliday. I said it. From the very very beginning when they first see each other again I could tell that Holliday was pining, he was crushing. & Wyatt was too except he didn’t know it. It was in the ways he cared for his well being & if he needed anything. They both just supported each other & were such good friends throughout it all even in the small things. But the big gestures is where it gets me.

The first being the multiple times Holliday stood up & actually took a deadly fight for Earp. All whole literally dying himself. He was literally willing to do fucking anything for him he was in love idc. & the second being the scene where he is saying goodbye oh my god. & Earp gives him the fucking book ‘my friend Doc Holliday’ oh my god. That’s when I started crying. Cause it was Doc saying that if Wyatt really loved him he would have to let him go & be happy. & then he died clutching the little book his best friend gave him omg. I cried. & of course Wyatt had to fulfill his best friends last wish. That killed me.

There was even a deleted scene between Doc & his girl where she is asking him why he is leaving again. & she is like ‘it’s Wyatt, isn’t it? It’s always Wyatt’ or something to that effect. & dear god I wish that scene was included because it only further shows how close they were. Both did & his girl also went to the lengths of pushing at the fact that he could & wouldn’t mind dying from him. I just think that’s interesting. He literally would do anything for his friend & his girl knows it (as she called herself.)

But what strikes me most is both times Wyatt was walking away from Doc, thinking he would never see him again, he give him something. Like pretty important too. Idk it really got me in my feels & I’m kind of glad it was so subtextual as well as implied through the clearly more than friendly gestures. I don’t think they could have portrayed the fact that they were so sadly in love any better. In my opinion. God I cannot it’s so sad. & the fact that they stayed by each other. The. Whole. Time. Through literally everything. I can’t describe it. They deserved better but at the same time it was so perfectly heartbreaking.

The way he looked down at his feet at the end & laughs right before he died breaks my fucking heard. Because he thought he would be dying down the road or honestly anywhere else. With his boots on. With his friends. I can’t it just kills me. It’s such a small & missable detail but holy shit if you notice it it hurts like a bitch.

I just. I can’t. I really loved this movie. I didn’t expect to like it a bit. I expected to be bored. But the action sequences were amazing. Everything was beautifully filmed. The dialogue was amazing (see quotes below) & just. Overall it was a great movie. I can see why it’s so a-claimed. I understand Dean Winchester so naturally I have to watch the tombstone supernatural episode again. Ah.

I strongly suggest the movie. Obviously with consideration of heavy gun violence & death. But yea it was incredible. Val Kilmer is god I’m pretty sure. I will most definitely be watching this again & sobbing.

- - -

“There’s no normal life. Wyatt. Theres just life. Now get on with it.”

“Don’t know how.”

“Sure you do. Say goodbye to me.”

- - -

“Live Wyatt. Live for me. Wyatt if you were ever my friend. If you ever had the slightest feelin for me. Leave now. Please.”

- - -

“What does he need?”

“Revenge”

“For what?”

“Being born.”

- - -

“I was just foolin’ about.”

“I wasn’t.”

- - -

“Apparently Mr. Ringo is an educated man. Now I really hate him.”

- -

“You’re so drunk, in fact, you’re probably seeing double”

“I have two Guns. One for each of ya”

- - -

“Maybe pokers just not your game, Ike. I know. Let’s have a spelling contest.”

- - -

“You’re no daisy. You’re no daisy at all. Pour soul. You were just too high strung.”

- - -

“You’re a daisy if you do.”

- - -

“What you doing this for anyway?”

“Wyatt Earp is my friend”

“Hell, I got lots of friends.”

“I don’t.”

- - -

“I’m your huckleberry”

- - -

“Not me. I’m in my prime.”

- - -

God I could quote this whole movie.

But lastly y’all when they were playing cards on his death bed & Doc was like ‘I don’t wanna play anymore’. Yeah. That broke my heart. That scene is 10x more sad imo than Jack’s death in titanic.

& just the fact that his very very last moments alive were spent thinking about his friends future just shows how much they cared for each other. My heart hurts. Such a beautiful portrayal.

& yes I’m going on again about Val’s acting in this because he deserved a fucking Oscar. God. His sophisticated sarcastic & overall ugh everything of the role was absolutely perfection. It’s most definitely my favorite performance by him & maybe actually one of my top ever performances. He is so talented I cannot stress this enough.

I was tying fast. Ignore any typos.

#tombstone #cas spams #Cas talks about movies #pos #tw cursing

11 notes · View notes

crowleyellestair · 4 years

Text

More Than Ok- Jaskier Imagine (The Witcher)

My first shot at writing for this lot. I love this silly bard, so I thought I’d try!

If you like it and would want more (because I know there aren’t too many fics for him) please let me know.

Masterlist

Pain was all she had felt. The cut she had was just under her ribs and every heavy breath in was white hot fire. Her vision had been blurry, but not because of tears. She had travelled with Geralt enough to know the feeling of pain. It wasn’t even Geralt that had her coming along, it was his bard. She had felt a draw to him, so she had to come along. Unlike the bard, however, she could fight, and well. So anytime they had taken a job, Y/n was in the thick of it. Just like now, but it wasn’t a job that put her in this mess, nor was she near her boys.

But the draw she felt towards Jaskier was guiding her back to the camp they had set up the night prior. Her feet could barely keep up with the pace she set, and her legs wobbled more than the bard’s confidence. The dense forest wasn’t helping her get to her destination any faster, and since she was dragged so far, she started to wheeze. Y/n started to see the familiar tree pattern, and the hope filling her chest broke her strength.

Y/n fell through the brush, right into the opening of their camp. The two men had been fighting and left a couple hours from now, Jaskier following the brooding man to try and talk it out. Luckily for the gal, they had come back moments before, on edge seeing an empty camp. As she fell, Geralt quickly drew his sword, but upon seeing his injured friend faced down on the ground, he sheathed the weapon. Jaskier was quick to throw himself down by her side. He had grown very fond of the girl in front of him. Like her, he felt a draw. Y/n was like Geralt, but Jaskier believed whole heartedly in destiny. He didn’t want to chalk it up to that, but there was no explaining the raw electricity between them since the first time they met.

“Ugh. I mean, come on.” Jaskier stopped his jingle as he heard the hushed comment. The bard sat in front of the woman at the bar. He noticed her when he first walked in but never caught her face. Her figure never turned to meet anyone at the bar, but she was still pretty judgmental.

“This is the third comment you’ve made. You did think I’d notice, but I did.” The woman in front of him pulled down her hood to show him her shining eyes. A playful smile was evident, and it made his heart jump.

“A major fifth? You’ve been repeating the same four chords in the same major key for the past three minutes. All you’ve done is change the order in which you shift. Surely, you’re more talented than what you’ve shown. If not, and I were the Witcher, I would have dumped you ages ago.” Her smirk never left, even as she brought her pint of ale to her lips. She reveled in the shocked face that graced his beautiful features.

“Y-you know I’m with Geralt? You’ve heard of me?” She let our soft laugh.

“Well, there is only one bard that sings of the man, isn’t there?” Jaskier tried to recover from his starry-eyed gaze. He was quick to clear his throat and ask,

“Would I know you? I’ve heard tales of women with as much beauty as you before, but I have a feeling you’re special.” He smiled when she let out a hearty laugh.

“I doubt it, but I wouldn’t be opposed to you discovering something.” Her tone was joking, but something inside had ached to have him know her.

“Geralt. Geralt!?” He didn’t know what else to say. He started jostling her onto his lap, and looking up to the white-haired man. He felt a rush of water behind his eyes. He kept repeating the name, as it was one he usually yelled in times of trouble. The man in question walked over, looking down to the woman. Her face had blood coursing from her nose and mouth. An eye was swelling shut and her shirt was stained red. He could see the tare where a dagger must have cut through.

“Fuck.”

“W-what do we do? Geralt? Geralt, what do we-?” Geralt placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. Jaskier looked up to meet his eyes, a tear leaving him. He has never been an outstandingly brave man, but this is the first time Geralt had seen him cry. And though he can’t ‘feel emotions’, seeing his best friend like this struck a chord. And he was fairly fond of Y/n.

“I’ve got it.” He hastily walked to Roach, grabbing his bag. He knew that he couldn’t do much, but he could mend enough until they made it to the next town and find a real healer.

‘Hum’s and Ah’s’ start to fall exclusively from the bard. He wouldn’t be able to recall when, but he started to slowly remove the sweat soaked hair from her forehead. At some point, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish sweat from tears as he held her head to his chest.

“Stay. Please stay with me, Y/n.” Geralt had come back with his kit. Geralt silently ask for permission to remove the woman from Jaskier’s arms. He gently turned her so he could get at the wound.

After cleaning it, Geralt left to quickly pack the camp. Jaskier used all of his strength to bring the girl to their shared horse and hoist her up. It’s not that he wasn’t strong, but the adrenaline and fear pushed him to the max, allowing him to do it. He hoped up behind her as they almost always did, and asked,

“Which way?” Geralt pointed in the direction of the closest town.

“I’ll meet you.” A quick nod came from him and he willed the horse forward.

“It’ll be okay. It will, I promise.” Just like usual, he couldn’t stop speaking his mind. “You know, I wrote you a song. You have to stick around to hear it. It’s funny- I wrote it right under your nose.” And he had.

Every day he had his pad out, writing everything that came to mind. Usually, tunes would come to him, but he never forgot what she said to him upon first meeting. He would write down notes and chords over words, scribbling them out and replacing them. It was going to be his masterpiece. ‘Toss A Coin’ was a hit, but this wasn’t for the masses. This was for Y/n, the woman that had his heart completely. They would share her horse every day. Y/n would sit in front most of the time, and Jaskier would use her back as a writing place. They would usually switch come nightfall, Y/n resting against him and using him as a pillow.

Jaskier and Geralt had sat silently for a couple minutes now. They were trying to hypothesize what had happened in the hours they were gone. All they had known was that before they left, Y/n was trying to sleep, and they had cleared the perimeter before that. Geralt had tracked her path back to a body. Someone he recognized from a client a few jobs back. The large, gruff man had made passes at Y/n which she quickly shot down much to his displeasure. He was the client’s bodyguard. Was being emphasized seeing as the man lay dead in the forest now. His head was almost clean off. Almost.

Y/n woke up softly in the cot she had been in for an hour or so. She didn’t recognize her surroundings, but she knew she was safe. It was reassured when she looked down to find Jaskier’s jacket laying over her. It was her favorite one. The light blue color had always reminded her of his eyes. It had only been once or twice, but she had stolen it in the night, claiming it was to help keep her warm. Jaskier had stopped completely when it came to flirting with others when Y/n came into his life. He of course kept his loving nature towards others, and she had always seen that as flirting. She hadn’t known better. Because of this, she had never thought that he would reciprocate her feelings. So, she would make up tales to steal his jacket or hear one more verse.

A ghost of a smile came to her, but fell when she sat up. She lifted the jacket to find her shirt folded upwards, a green herbal treatment spilling out from bandages that wrapped around her torso. She stood, and tried to fold her shirt down, but found that it wasn’t folded, but cut all the way around. She huffed and decided to push her arm through the sleeves and pull the doublet closed. Walking out of the tent, she didn’t have time to look for the men before familiar arms wrapped around her gently. Jaskier’s face found a place in the crook of her neck for a moment before pulling back and looking at her.

“Y/n! My dearest, Y/n! I thought… How do you feel? Do you need some water? Maybe you should lay back down-.” Her hand quickly went to his chest and paused him.

“I’m ok, Jaskier. Thank you.” His eyes found hers quickly. She got lost in them quickly, somewhat forgetting the ache in her ribs.

“Are you sure?” A small smile came to her along with a nod. A hesitant hand cupped her cheek, and Jaskier’s lip got caught between his teeth for a moment. “I was worried.” She absent-mindedly leaned into the hand while saying,

“Well, I guess I had an obligation.” It was evident that Jaskier was confused. “I heard that I had a song to hear.” Y/n could see the blush quickly form and he casted his gaze to his feet.

“I didn’t think you could hear me.”

“I always hear you.” His eyes found hers again. Those blue eyes she so loved that matched the color of his jacket she wore. The eyes that seem to carry her pain away.

“Always? I think that may be impossible. Even if you did try, which, I don’t know why you would.” Her smile grew as she leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips.

“Dandi, I think you know why.” The two turned to Geralt, who chuckled at the name. He noticed the two looking at him.

“What?” A playful smile placed itself on Y/n.

“Did you not know his name is Dandelion?”

“No.” He looked to Jaskier, smiling. Jaskier’s mouth dropped wide open and looked between the two. He let go of Y/n to point at her.

“You little scamp. It is true, but- Geralt, don’t look at me like that. It’s not funny. Y/n, why would you do this?” She took a step back. The pain in her side became evident again and she threw a smile up before turning and going back into the tent.

Y/n could hear Jaskier spout to Geralt before clamoring into the tent. He turned to her and silently but quickly swaggered towards her. She turned in time to meet his lips. He pulled back and smiled.

“I assume that your kiss from before meant that you like me. The feeling is mutual. Though, I was planning on telling you through song, and not when you had your blood everywhere. That was, definitely not apart of that plan.” Her eyebrows rose.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been cut. You had a plan?” He laughed, spun and fell back on the cot.

“Of course I had a plan.” She looked at him stare at the tent ceiling. Y/n let go of the jacket, looking down to her bindings, and let the jacket fall from her shoulders. She started to make quick work of undoing them as she saw red. “It was filled with flowers and stars and music… and… magic. It was going to be perfect.” Y/n wiped of the herbs and picked up the fresh bandages she noticed lying on the table.

Y/n turned, about to ask for help but he was already standing in front of her. He grabbed them from her hand and started unfolding them.

“I thought it was ok, all things considered.”

“But you deserve better than ok.” She chuckled and looked down at his bent form that was binding her up again.

“You are better than ok.”

#jaskier imagine #jaskier x reader #witcher imagine #jaskier #geralt #geralt imagine

404 notes · View notes