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steadymongerbatscissors · 10 months

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Leo Valdez And His Mistreatment

Recently I have taken some time to go back to some books and reread them for the hell of it. One of these books being the Heroes of Olympus series. Now the Heroes of Olympus series has been my favorites series overall yeah I know people think its worse than the others but I just honestly prefer the multiple point of views. Of course some characters could do with some fleshing out like Jason,Piper,Frank,and Hazel. My personal favorite of all the characters was Leo Valdez mostly because I though his fire powers were cool and he was a surprisingly deep character compared to fellow new characters.

But while reading I noticed multiple facets of his character that I felt did not need to be added or needed to be expanded on and this post I will tell you them all.

His Powers

I’m starting with his powers because that was the main thing that drew me in and in my believe sort of made Leo the person he was in the books. I mean without his fire powers he wouldn’t have accidentally killed his mother therefore never being an orphan and meeting Jason and Piper. This all say nothing about his frayed mental state.

So there pretty important but while also being important they are pretty inconsistent.

What I mean is that when Leo first uses his powers he had been purposefully not using them since he was 8 years old. This gives off the impression that has major control over his fire powers to supremes them for so long. Yet when they are on the bridge to the Wind God’s palace in the sky he suddenly loses control even though he realistically should have not done that since he had already shown he has major control over his power and wouldn’t suddenly lose control just cause he got excited.

Another problem his powers have is that they are supposedly super dangerous yet the only thing he does is throw a couple fireballs towards monsters and that’s it. Well except for when he somehow learns to nuke Gaea with his fire powers.

Wait what?

He learns to nuke somebody!

You see how his powers are super inconsistent. Like how do we go from fireballs to fire nuking a primordial goddess.

This problem seems to only exist for Leo since we get see Hazel get over her tragedy and control her powers to a far more powerful degree,Piper gets to hone her charm-speak so when she makes Gaea go to sleep it makes sense,and finally Frank multiple times throughout the series get to show off his shape shifting and how strong it is. So why does Leo never get this treatment cause we never see him actually hone his power and develop new ability’s from it.

Like your telling me the guy whose dad is the god of fire never once threw Greek fire out of his hands even though he is supposed to be the special fire guy.

His Appearance

Allow me to read you this passage describing how Leo looks.

“Leo looked like a Latino Santa’s elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects. His long, nimble fingers wouldn’t stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Either the kid was naturally hyper or he was hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo”

To put the description simply he is described as ugly and extremely hyperactive.

I don’t understand why Rick wrote him that way because why does the outsider of the seven have to be the ugly and can’t sit still.

It’s not like any of the other characters are described as ugly unless their Frank before Mars blessing. Rick has Hazel literally think that Percy is a Greek God. Piper is the daughter of the goddess of love. Annabeth is described as a princess implying prettiness. Hell it’s not even kept to just the seven, Will Solace (the character with no personality trait aside from being a doctor and loving Nico) is described as being hot by Nico.

So like why does it seem that Leo Valdez is the only character described as ugly and hyperactive. Hell it doesn’t even make sense that Leo doesn’t have a little muscle considering he’s a mechanic and mechanics have to lift heavy shit all the time like realistically Leo would have a decent amount of muscle.

Note:Expanding on his hyper-activeness, we know that demigods ADHD helps them react to monster attack better and Annabeth describes Leo as extremely ADHD so wouldn’t that just mean that Leo would have like spider-sense and dodge extremely well.

His Character Connections

Why does everybody seem to hate Leo or at the very least try to avoid speaking with him. Like for real half way through the series Jason,and Piper completely stop hanging out with him. The only interaction they have after the Lost Hero is them going to Asclepius to make the Physician’s Cure.

Rick tried to have Hazel and Leo be friends because she knew his Grandfather or something but that is so flimsy. Frank hates Leo from the jump even though he started the beef by asking Leo if he was Sammy and getting mad every time Leo looked at Hazel. Yet there the ones he confides his whole plan to beat Gaea.

Percy is yet another person who doesn’t like Leo even though they are the basically the same person in different fonts. Annabeth seems to dislike having Leo aboard the Argo with the rest of the seven because she has no problem making fun of Leo in her mind by mocking him cause of his ADHD but then again that’s a bigger problem with Annabeth’s character than their relationship.

The only thing that seems to like having Leo around is Festus the dragon who Leo rebuilt after accidentally destroying him in their first quest.

I don’t care what you say just because Calypso insults Leo a little. It doesn’t mean that she hates him because she actually care like she really fucking cares.

So to recap Leo only has two people that genuinely like being around him and seven friends who put up with him and don’t really want him around.

Compares this to the main character of the last prophecy I.E Percy. Everybody likes Percy even people who realistically shouldn’t like him like him. Like your Reyna the girl who lost a home and was put on a pirate ship thanks to Percy had a crush on him just because he was a decent fighter. Yes right I call bullcrap.

Small Problem

Leo Valdez is a character who throughout the series has a lot of problems in his character. One problem is his treatment towards or more accurately why does Rick write Leo to be incredibly disrespectful even though he himself acknowledges how it was for his mom to get a good job just cause she is a women. One scene that I think emphasizes this problem is when the trio of the Lost Hero book meets the Hunters of Artemis. Now your expecting that since Leo himself saw how hard it was for mother just cause she was women would be extremely respectful towards the Hunters especially Jason’s sister Thalia. But nope he goes right up to Thalia and just says she’s hot to her face like come on Rick your contradicting yourself. Then in Trials of Apollo Rick has Reyna teach Leo about respecting women no like come on Leo since childhood should have know to respect women. I know you might be saying that’s just the persona he uses around people but like that doesn’t change the fact he should have already knew not to do that thanks to his mother.

Conclusion

In conclusion Leo Valdez is a character who could have been treated far better by the story,author,and the people inside the story. He is a wonderful character who in universe only has two people that genuinely want him around and deserved to have his powers explored more than just fireball. But sadly he is riddled with holes that shouldn’t be there if you actually look at his character.

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p0ssywhippedcream · 1 year

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ophe!!!! imagine dating jason (we ignore toa that isn't canon) and he's doing some kind of work and u wanna say hi!!! bc you haven't seen him in ages but he just tells u to go away :(((

“Knock, knock!” Your singsong voice fills the quiet room. You stride into Cabin 1 with a tray of breakfast food and a smile.

Jason is at his desk, like always, slumped over some design for a minor god’s statue and working the logistics.

“Jason?” Your voice is much closer now and your hand is on his upper back, “Wanna take a break? I brought your favorites.”

He greets you with a grunt and shakes his head.

“Baby, you’ve been at this for two days. It can wait, we have all the time in the world.”

“Go away, Y/n. I need to work.”

You look at him a moment, eyebrows drawn together. “I wanted to see you. I miss you in training.”

“Well, training can wait and you can wait,” He’s mocking you, voice a higher pitch than needed, “You know how important these dedications are, Y/n.”

The implicit Nothing matters more sits on the tip of his tongue and gets swallowed but you hear it anyway.

Your heart is clogged with wet paper towels. Your throat too because for a moment the only noise you can make is a squeak of a gulp.

You nod stiffly, ignoring the wetness on your checks and place the tray on his bed. You pluck the tea cup and drop it on his desk instead.

“Chamomile, one cube of sugar.” You hesitate for a second, meaning to leave but your feet won’t let you. You drop a kiss to his messy hair that he sighs about.

“I love you, Jason.” He makes a noncommittal noise in response and your eyes fill again, “Finish your pancakes quickly, while they’re still warm.”

Your hand runs down his back as you retreat, the only evidence of your growing hurt the sniffle you make as you walk out the door.

Jason stays hyper focused for five, ten, twenty minutes before he picks up his cup. Sipping from it, he comes back to the present at its lukewarm temperature.

He leans back in his chair and looks over at the previously-steaming pancakes that droop over each other like withering flowers. His stomach growls and he sets down his pencil, beginning to dig in the various options you’ve brought him.

With the taste of syrup on his tongue and food in his belly, his brain is running much smoother and he smiles to himself when he remembers how generous you are. He turns back to his work without another thought of his girlfriend, and without the knowledge that she sought Piper’s comfort in tears.

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drewtanakagf · 12 days

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So i was scrolling through the drew tanaka tag as one does and found this post by @curseofdelos that i was like !!!!! about, and i read through it and I was like. Yes, but also…

So this is my also. I suggest reading the post first as it does very well in explaining the issues with Piper and Drew’s writing and why that’s harmful.

But I’d like to take it a step further and extrapolate to the bigger picture of cabin 10.

What about the boys?

TL;DR: There are a lot of in-text and meta negotiations of masculinity versus femininity that occur in /influence PJO/HOO, and that leaves boys in the Aphrodite Cabin in an awkward limbo.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, I first want to establish that masculinity is not femininity. Which like, duh, but that means that anything that is not masculine can and will be considered feminine. Point blank, no nuance (There is a literature backing, but I think its a bit too much, so I’ll just put it at the end if you wanna find the article I’m referring to).

And that’s what Rick is operating on, while you can’t deny it is a spectrum, at the time of writing TLH and such, there was a general societal understanding of masculinity as being macho and strong and rejecting softness for hardcore or whatever. And this positioning is where femininity comes in, and where we can begin to talk about Cabin 10.

Rick writes Cabin 10 as inherently feminine, thus attaching “beauty” to this narrow idea; best shown through describing the cabin as a Barbie house and Piper's claiming ordeal. It is a place where there is nothing “masculine,” leading to the stereotype of Aphrodite kids not being able to fight, since war is masculine and thus out of their purview.

This does deconstruct with Silena and then Piper, but the existence of Drew proves that it is still upheld and important enough to the story.

I do believe that Rick tried to have his “oh you can still be feminine without being hyper feminine!” moment with Piper & Drew’s conflict, however, he failed to give Drew enough agency to make it seem like there was a genuine conflict rather than just “mean girl v girl-next-door.” (again, @curseofdelos explained it very well, go read!).

Now with the girls out of the way, the boys are kinda… lost in the sauce? The only Aphrodite boy we get is Mitchell and it is very telling that a lot of people hc him as gay… which again is the posturing of masculinity vs femininity and whatever is not masculine is therefore feminine. And being gay is being attracted to masculinity and this feminine etc etc (according to societal norms). The fact that he is the only male Aphrodite kid rep is again, telling and really affirms the inherent femininity of Cabin 10.

“Hey! He’s not the only ‘Aphrodite’ Kid! What about Michael!” And Michael just further proves my point! He’s the son of Venus, and Roman counterparts are considered as more “warlike” than their Greek ones. War being considered masculine and a rejection of femininity, as established earlier w/ Cabin 10 kids not being warriors. Now, Micheal exists as a (hyper) masculine counterpoint to Drew’s (hyper) feminine, making the Roman Venus a direct opposite as the Greek Aphrodite.

This is actually, kinda commendable in terms of plot, since it helps reinforce the differences between Greek and Roman and how extreme they were. Great storytelling device, bad everything else.

One more thing I want to touch on is the vilification of femininity, and why it must be rejected in the pjo/hoo. You can only fight if you adopt masculine traits, and therefore not fighting and still surviving means that you are doing something dishonorable like, abusing charmspeak (Drew) or using magic (Circe, Medea, etc) or even spying (Silena). Which is a very masculine idea, of how things should be solved by violence ( i mean, look at violence perpetrated by men compared to women in our society…) I think I’ve said this before, but in Piper’s arc, there needs to be an antagonist to prove how she doesn’t “fit in” at CHB, and create that tension of her either choosing to save her father and betray or continue the quest as is; and that antagonist ended up being Drew, and that makes sense bc Cabin 10 is against what Piper is characterized as, and she just is a rejection of that femininity.

Anyways, let me not get away from myself. Basically, within the story, there is no real opportunity for the characters to reject gender stereotypes without falling into others. And Rick wrote himself into that hole.

Literature Referenced: Shippers, Mimi. “Masculinity and Femininity, Theories of.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2016. Edited by Nancy A. Naples. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

#and again within the context of the cabin 10/aphrodite/venus #drew tanaka #michael kahale #riordanverse #pjo #hoo #pjo meta #piper mclean #while id love to talk more ab clarrise and her gender identity (talking strictly w/ how she negotiate gender roles)#I just don't have the wherewithal....

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disabledinwonderland · 6 months

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Hey, all so I am on a bit of a David Tennant binge, and I think that as an actor and a role model for me, there are a lot worse people I can be looking up to, but seeing the conversation around him, it’s an interesting thing to see the conversation and to realize that we don’t know him.

But this has article I found this when I couldn’t sleep and I now understand the assumptions about him as this article was a wild ride from start to finish we see that he is known as a very clean-cut, family guy, but we all know that wasn’t the case and that all of us have history’s with others and the one that got away and I have that and due to my disability I do have some other factors that I don’t have a significant other at the moment.

I also see that he has some amazing growth from Dr who to now and we would expect that of anyone, but GQ does its homework, and from watching his video diaries when he was filming Dr. Who, listening to the Confession podcast, and watching other interviews with him, and seeing Georga’s content with him we see that. There are a couple of things that we see that he has admitted before he was married.

He has Aspergers and I don’t know if this was a joke comment but with other comments, he has said it makes sense he would as he is honest to a fault has anxiety and struggles with imposter syndrome.

So, this is something that with the shoelaces incidents is a typical Aspergers/ ADHD due to sensory issues and we see that at comic cons and on camera he has talked about being over stimulated I know anyone can be over stimulated but the way he talks about it, it seems like he has had a diagnosis. When he received his honorary doctorate of Drama from his Drama college, we see that when they were reading out his academic achievements, they said that he was extremely above average academically and that they knew he was going to succeed in any chosen career.

We also see that he has a couple of hyper focuses this being Shakespeare and Dr. Who, we know that he has a passion for Shakespeare and that he is very passionate about it, we also see that he can cook and that they did show his flat in Cardiff that he rented out when he wasn’t filming Dr who.

But the one that stunned me and it does now make sense as Drama school would have taught him how to mask is that Billy Piper mentioned that he was well-known in the Cardiff gay scene, I know that there are some people who has picked up clues but I didn’t know that Billy piper essentially has let the world know he is Bi sexual, not just a flamboyant gay man, and that he

[i]

I know that this seen isn’t really gatekept, and it is a very discreet place but it now makes sense to a few comments and behaviours that he has and one endearing one that makes him more relatable to me is, his being at parties and award show’s and putting his foot in it, this is something that I find I do as well it as he has admitted it is imposter syndrome due the anxiety he battles.

I am also seeing and we need to be aware we only see a curated version of him this is where Georga’s saying when he purchases new clothing or he parades them around so this is a kind of performance and I when my housemates do it after about 3 days it does get tiring, but we see that, he has a bit of an old school showman's ship flair and that can come across as flamboyant, and I see that straight men are now getting interested in fashion and during the lock down he did have the extensions from filming but then grew his hair I am sure he would have had access over zoom to hair styles but he has mentioned he does like the longer length.

Also, I do see that he has a non-binary child there are a lot of links with non-binary, [ii]people who often are autistic and we know that there is a possibility that in his private life, he keeps secret that he might use non-binary pro nouns but with what is happening in the USA and the UK about gender-affirming clinics, we see that there is a bit of backlash for adults who support their children, but I am sure that others in his life that he would have got advice and Georgia has mentioned that they are following conservative advice.

But I have left the links below and let’s remember that he is a human and has made his decisions and that most couples do go through some rough patches in life and it’s how they handle them but in being in the gay seen it seems to me that his wife was very aware of that and being married to an actor and keeping family life happen is something she needed to be very aware of, as when the children where very young he went from being everywhere on social media to not having it at all, we see that he does have a smart phone from him playing wordle and that you need that linked to Facebook but you need an account but don’t have to post and he has mentioned that he would be constantly chasing the dopamine high, and he mentions he often gets either into a state of hyper focus or where he can’t concentrate due to anxiety and being wound up.

Also, him being so lanky yes, we know he keeps fit, but I do wonder if that is from taking medication for anxiety or stimulants for ADHD as we all have seen very ADHD traits and Aspergers/ Autism goes hand in glove with ADHD.

But putting this together and him playing gay and bi roles very well, yes, he is a trained actor but that’s a whole other blog post.

[i] https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/gq-tv-david-tennant-interview-doctor-who

[ii] Non-binary link to autism - Neuroscience News

#david tennant #lgbtqia #BBC #and he is not a child #internet culture #Tennant family #British tabloid's

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mollymauk-teafleak · 2 years

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its the fear and not the ghosts

Look, sometimes the hyper fixation demands a nine page rambling study of two characters who never interact in the actual movie.

Or another way of putting it is my wonderful gf @nb-fearne wrote an incredible fic that I have not stopped thinking about since and I had to write an offshoot of it.

Please consider reblogging and leaving a comment over on Ao3!

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Tom could tell when Maverick was hurting and trying to hide it.

He stood in the doorway to the porch, dressed and ready to go, scarf secured and coat buttoned, but hesitating all the same. Looking back into the living room, where Maverick sat, staring at a TV he wasn’t really watching to avoid Tom’s eye, so he wouldn’t see how damp they were. How damp they’d been since the text had arrived an hour ago.

Tom swallowed hard and tried to steady his voice. If Maverick could be brave, so could he.

“I won’t be long. Back before midnight, I promise,” he called, though he’d already said goodbye three times.

Mav lifted his hand in a wave, the other petting Piper’s lopsided ears a little more intensely than usual, a little too much like their dog was an anchor rather than just a collie pleased to be allowed up on the couch for once because papa was going out, “I won’t wait up. Hey, we’re not meant to be seeing each other tonight anyway, right?”

That gave Tom a real, genuine smile, in spite of the heaviness in his chest, “Well. We’ve never really played by the rules, have we?”

Maverick’s shoulders inched lower and he risked a glance over to him, blue green eyes shining, “Guess not…”

Tom’s chest clenched hard at the expression on his face, the pain he was trying so hard to keep in the set of his jaw and the lines around his eyes. Maverick wasn’t supposed to hide it with him, they’d never done that, not in the twenty five years they’d been together.

“Pete…” Tom murmured, feeling his resolve shake, widening the cracks already there.

But Maverick shook his head, cuddling Piper a little tighter because Tom was out of his reach. She thumped her tail at him reproachfully and he quickly busied himself with stroking her ruff in apology.

“Just…” he didn’t lift his eyes from her but Tom heard his voice thicken and saw his shoulders tense like he was waiting for a blow, “Just tell him I miss him, Ice. Please?”

The urge to run to him and take him in his arms was so powerful that it was instinctive, the same thing that told Tom to bank hard out of a jet wash or send his thumb moving to the trigger an instant before he needed to fire. But he had to stand his ground.

Because someone else needed him too.

“Of course I will. I’ll be back soon,” Tom said again, less brave than he had been before.

Maverick cleared his throat, “I know, baby…I love you.”

Tom gave him a watery smile, meaning the words more than he could say though he wished he could show it better as he made for the door, “I love you too, Mav.”

“Should hope so,” Maverick called after him, trying to end on a joke because he was the best damn man in the world, “Would make us getting married tomorrow a little awkward.”

For someone who didn’t really like bars, Tom liked The Hard Deck. He supposed at his age, it was meant to make him feel nostalgic for their own haunt back when they were at Top Gun but honestly, it just made him wince at how loud the music had been and how the floors had always been sticky. He much preferred this place, with its soft jukebox tunes, the walls full of trinkets Tom used to test his knowledge of squad patches, the sunset pooling in the hanging glasses and the sound of the sea just outside.

And, right now at least, the light, playful jazz coming from the piano in the far corner.

The bar was fairly quiet for a Friday night, though Tom still received some wide eyes and quick salutes from a few green looking khaki uniforms scattered at various tables. He chuckled and waved them off gently, wondering if anyone had warned them that Admiral Kazansky sometimes drifted in through the door. The ones who were used to it by now just gave him a wave.

Or, if they were Penny Benjamin, they came running around the bar to throw their arms around him.

“Evening, ma’am,” Tom grinned, hugging her back gladly.

“Aw, evening to you too, Admiral and congratulations!” she beamed brightly once she’d released him.

“You know the wedding’s not till tomorrow right?” Tom smiled teasingly, “You got the invitation?”

Penny swatted his arm lightly with a cloth as she went back behind the bar, starting to fix him the vodka on the rocks he’d ask for if she ever gave him the chance to order, “I know that, the receptions at my damn bar! I just wanted to take the chance to say it now, seeing as you’ll be too busy making eyes at Mav tomorrow.”

“Legally making eyes at my lawfully wedded husband,” he corrected, gratefully accepting the glass she slid towards him, “So perfectly allowed.”

Penny smirked though after a moment, the usual teasing brightness faded and her eyes softened, “You sound good, Tom.”

He didn’t. He sounded thick and rough and scratchy, like a record that wasn’t sitting in the turntable quite right and even after this short conversation he was having to reach for the handkerchief in his pocket. But he knew she meant it and that fact made him smile, if nothing else.

“Thanks, Penny,” he patted her hand where it rested on the bar.

She caught it and squeezed his fingers, “I’ll let you go. You know where to find him.”

Ice rapped his knuckles on the bar lightly, giving her a wink and moving off towards the corner. Off to the battered old piano and the man who sat at it, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and aviators even though he was indoors at ten pm.

He knew exactly where to find Bradley Bradshaw.

As he approached, sipping his drink, he watched the corner of Bradley’s mouth lift and those clever fingers dancing along the keys shifted and changed direction smoothly, the song dissolving into the wedding march.

Tom rolled his eyes and set his glass on top of the piano, “Knock that off and give your uncle a hug, Bradshaw.”

The grin that flashed up at him was as full of cheek as the first one Bradley Bradshaw had ever shown him, though the face around it had grown much older much quicker than he would have liked. Regardless, Tom melted just as fast. If Bradley hadn’t bounced up immediately to throw his arms around him, Tom would have gone down to him, bad back be damned. He just needed to have this boy in his arms again.

Tom had always needed to steady himself whenever Bradley hugged him, the kid was stronger than he realised. With how fiercely he embraced him now, he almost ended up on the deck.

“I missed you, Uncle Tom,” he murmured, voice thick either with emotion or because of how tight Tom was holding him.

“I missed you too, kid,” the words didn’t feel like enough, not for the yawning hole carved out of his chest, the one he could feel aching with how long it had been since he’d hugged Bradley.

They weren’t enough but they’d have to do.

Tom kept his hands on Bradley’s shoulders as they moved apart, not quite willing to let go of him yet.

“Sorry for texting you out of the blue, I didn’t know if you’d be busy…” Bradley looked apologetic.

“Not too busy for you,” Tom shook his head, steering him towards a table, “When have I ever complained about you texting me?”

“When I was drunk that one time?” Bradley offered with a lopsided smile, snagging a half drunk beer off the piano and following.

The memory made Tom chuckle, “I was three more texts off taking an F-18 straight to your dorm to put your ass in bed.”

Bradley slid into his seat, “I believe you would…”

Tom folded his arms, mentally cataloguing how Bradley’s facial hair was filling in, how his shoulders were that fraction broader, how the curls his mother gave him were following him into adulthood. Little details from the too long gap between now and the last time he’d seen him.

“So, how have you been, are you alright? How’s USNA, tell me everything?”

Bradley snorted, sliding the bottle between his hands, “You know most of it, Admiral. I’ve been following the rules, one phone call a fortnight.”

“That’s not the same as having you in front of me, telling me you’re okay,” Tom sipped his drink, the cold helping with the numbness that still prickled on his tongue.

“Well, I am. Promise.”

And there it was, the eyes flickering downwards and the shoulders tensing that Tom couldn’t see in the phone calls. The same ones he remembered from a younger Bradley, saying he had definitely finished all his homework, he had absolutely cleaned his room, he had no clue how a baseball had come sailing through the kitchen window.

So Tom did what he’d always done in those situations. He leaned back and he waited.

The tips of Bradley’s ears went red and he became very interested in picking the label off his bottle, “I mean, I like USNA. I like the classes, my grades are good. Still don’t love feeling like a senior citizen compared to everyone else but I’ve got a pretty nice group of friends.”

“How’s the flying?” Tom asked gently, a little afraid of the answer.

Bradley’s eyes cleared in that moment, as Tom knew they would, all the doubt fading. It was almost reverent, that look, a kind of bliss that he knew well.

“It’s just like you said, Uncle Tom. There’s nothing else like it, it’s…it’s freedom.”

Heart sinking, Tom smiled. There was no getting away from it then, not with that glint in his eye. He could have had Maverick himself sitting across from him. In his heart, Tom apologised to Carole, though he’d never known about the promise Mav made, not until it was too late.

Looking at Bradley now, it might have always been too late.

“That pilot of yours will be pleased to hear it,” he commented, a little more cautiously, “How is Jake?”

The shoulders came back up and those eyes closed off again, “Yeah, he’s…he’s good. We’re good.”

Tom gave a sigh, making sure Bradley heard it.

“Alright alright…” the young man squirmed across from him, loosening around the edges, enough for the words to slip past, “It’s…I mean, it’s shitty, not seeing him. At least when he was at flight school I knew where he was but now he’s deployed…he doesn’t even have time to call some nights.”

There was real pain in that voice, along with bitterness and jealousy. Tom knew Bradley wanted to be where his boyfriend was, that even the distance would feel easier if they were sharing the risk.

“It’s funny,” Bradley laughed with no humour, the label now turning to shreds between his fingers, “When being with me would have cost Jake his commission, he was right there and we could hardly touch. Now they say we’re allowed to be together but send him flying off God knows where.”

Tom’s chest clenched and he reached across the table to take Bradley’s hand. The first night young Bradley had crawled into his bed after lights out to talk, curled up in the dark where it was safe to tell him about the feelings he’d been having about other boys in his class, Tom had felt his eyes fill up for so many reasons. The sweet, uncomprehending innocence of it, the fact that Bradley trusted him in a way a younger Tom had never been able to trust, the chance to take all that hurt inside him and help someone he loved.

And fear. Fear for his Bradley, for all the pain on the way because of this thing they shared.

It broke Tom's heart to see it all come true, to see Bradley and this Lieutenant Seresin going through the same pain he and Maverick had, knowing he couldn’t protect them. He’d wanted the world to be better by the time they came along. Wanted but never hoped. He wasn’t that much of a fool

“It is shitty,” Tom agreed, knowing he didn’t have much more to offer than those words, “I get it.”

Bradley’s teeth caught his lower lip to stop the tremble in it, “He’s actually on leave right now. But he had to go see his family in Texas and they don’t, ah, they don't know about me. About him. About us.”

“I see,” Tom tightened his fingers, hating how familiar he was with the expression on Bradley’s face, “Kid…”

“I know, I know,” Bradley pushed his aviators up to scrub at his eyes, “It’s not his fault, I don’t blame Jake. It’s just fucking awful and I wish it was different for him. But I guess not everyone was lucky enough to have you, Uncle Tom.”

And your Uncle Maverick. I was only brave enough to be myself because he was, if it wasn’t for him I’d still be scared and angry and baring my teeth at the world.

“Anyway,” Bradley was clearly trying to veer away from that hot stovetop of a thought, “I’m rambling on about fucking grades and my goddamn love life when I should be asking you how your treatment’s going.”

Tom let him. He got to talk to Bradley face to face only a handful of times a year and he wasn’t going to make this painful for him if he could help it.

“All good news,” Tom dabbed at his lower lip, “It’s a lot to adjust to but all the scans are coming back clear and I’m feeling stronger than I have in a while.”

Bradley let a breath go that looked like it had been held for months. Tom knew his diagnosis had shattered the kid, telling him about it had been one of the lowest points in a time made up entirely of low points. It had started featuring in Tom’s nightmares, Bradley shaking and sobbing and clinging to him, his voice sounding so painfully young as he’d repeated over and over not you too.

It had become just another thing hurting Bradley that Tom couldn’t do a damn thing about.

“You’re looking good,” Bradley said hopefully.

Tom chuckled and tugged at the scarf around his neck, one of the many Maverick had got for him, “I’d look worse without this.”

Bradley pulled a face and shook his head, “You’re healthy. That’s all I care about.”

“Well,” Tom was too pleased not to grin at that, “I’ll try and stay that way.”

“You’ll do better than try, old man,” Bradley raised his eyebrows, “I need you around to bug for at least another two decades.”

Tom laughed at the stubborn look in his eyes, the stern face he’d been pulling since he was a toddler trying to convince him and Mav that ice cream was a breakfast food, “I don’t know. Marriage might finish me off.”

Bradley’s face softened with a pride that was strange to see on a young face, “You’ve been waiting for this a long time, huh?”

“A real fucking long time,” Tom admitted, a tiredly triumphant smile on his face.

“Bet you’ve been getting so into it,” Bradley teased, resting his chin on the mouth of the beer bottle and smirking, “I bet there’s mood boards and Excel sheets and action plans.”

“Shut up,” Tom muttered around his ice cubes, only annoyed because Bradley was right.

He rather felt he was allowed to be going over the top. For one, he had the chaotic factor of the other groom to contend with, there had been military operations he’d planned out with less nerves than getting Captain Maverick through a civil ceremony and a reception without any surprises. The proposal had been more than enough of a shock for Tom, that goddamn Righteous Brothers song with the whole of The Hard Deck joining in and Mav on one knee at the end the only thing that had kept Tom from bolting towards the door.

He’d never forgive his fiancé or Slider for that matter, luring him there under the promise of a quiet drink and a catch up so the trap could be sprung. Though Tom had gotten his revenge pretty quick by saddling his RIO with the additional duty of his best man.

Maverick, by contrast, would be standing up there alone tomorrow, until Tom could join him. That place at his left shoulder belonged to just one guy and no one else could fill it.

Apart from occasional heartbreaks like that, the careful sidestepping around people who should have been with them for this, it had been fun. The kind of giddy, slightly terrifying joy Tom had always thought he’d be denied, the stomach clenching, dizzying experience of shouting as loud as he could about how much he loved Pete Mitchell after decades of silence.

The kind of thing that made Tom wish he could go back and take himself at Bradley’s age by the shoulders, look him square in the eye and tell him the hurt would go away one day.

“With you at the helm, it’ll be perfect,” Bradley said with the perfect confidence of a child talking about someone they idolised, “It’ll be everything you want it to be, Uncle Tom.”

Tom wasn’t one for talking without thinking but in that moment, the weight pressed down so heavily it broke something deep inside and he couldn’t catch himself in time.

“You know it won’t be, Bradley,” he murmured, quiet but not quiet enough.

Instantly, Bradley’s eyes shifted, like clouds had passed over, and he winced like those words had been a physical blow.

Tom’s stomach dropped and he shook himself, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Shit. I’m sorry, I didn’t…I shouldn’t have said that…”

“No,” Bradley’s voice had shrunk and his restless hands had stilled, retreating to his lap, “You’re right. I’m the one who should be saying sorry. I’m the one who's hurting you.”

They’d sent Bradley and his Lieutenant an invitation, of course they had. The silence in return had been heartbreaking but unsurprising.

Bradley’s cheeks were reddening and his voice was thick, “I shouldn’t have come here, this was stupid, I didn’t think. I thought I could at least share a little bit of this with you, do something, but I should have known it would just make things worse. I’m sorry, Uncle Tom.”

He made to move away but even old, sick and blinking back tears, Tom was fast. He caught him by the wrist, not a hard grasp, not to hurt, just a firm, grounding hood.

“Bradley, the last thing I want is for you to walk away right now,” he said softly, under the low hum of the conversation around them, “You’re free to, if it’s what you need but please don’t think it’s what I want.”

He could see the argument happening behind Bradley’s eyes. Shut down and walk away or risk asking for help. Close himself off until he was as small as possible or reach out and take up space. Tom wondered how often Bradley had that fight happening inside himself, this kid who’d had so many people he was meant to rely on taken away.

But tonight at least, he made the right choice.

“Could we take a walk, Uncle Tom?”

Tom knew that voice, that small, scared little plea. Can I sleep in with you guys? Can you come pick me up? Can we talk, just you and me? He’d never ignored it when Bradley was young and he wouldn’t start now, that voice got straight to the heart of him.

“Of course,” Tom stood and shrugged back into his coat, keeping a steadying hand on Bradley’s arm as they moved towards the door.

Penny threw him a worried look from the taps as he left bills on the bar. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring look, making a note to explain sometime tomorrow.

The music gave way to the sound of the ocean as the door swung shut behind them. Full night had fallen, the only light being the moon in the sky and its twin on the surface of the water, swelling and fracturing as the waves rolled in and out. If not for the light of the bar behind them they might have been alone in the world.

Bradley wandered right up to the shore edge, hands in the pockets of his jeans, shoulders tight and tense like he was getting ready to run. Tom kept his hand on him, steadying, an anchor to the here and now.

“I know what you want,” Bradley said after a moment, voice pained, “I know what you deserve, Uncle Tom, but I can’t do it. I’m sorry. I can’t…I can’t be around him, I just can’t. Not even for you. I know I’m letting you down…”

“Hey now. Kid, look at me…”

Tom drew him in, placing one hand on his chest and the other on his shoulder, the way he’d always done when he could see Bradley slipping away from him, since he was small enough that Tom had to reach down and now they were on the same level.

“Forgiving Maverick is something you need to do on your own, I would never force that,” he watched as the tears Bradley tried to hold back in the bar now ran freely down his face, “I shouldn’t have said what I said but I’m not trying to make you feel bad. All I was trying to do was remind you I care. It matters to me that you won’t be there because you matter to me, Bradley. And I worry you forget that sometimes.”

Bradley opened his mouth but all that came out was a trembling lip.

Tom sighed, “Me and Maverick, we made things work and I love him to death. But I am in your corner, Bradshaw, one hundred percent, not his. Because you’re a good kid and I know you think there’s no one left backed up against the wall with you. But I am. I am and I always will be.”

Bradley’s shoulders shuddered as the sobs grew strong enough to break free of his chest, leaning down until his forehead hit Tom’s shoulder. All Tom did in return was stand back, hold fast, supporting Bradley while he couldn’t support himself.

It’s what he’d always done. And it’s what he’d always do.

Once Bradley had cried himself out enough to let go of Tom, he dashed back to the bar to pick up a couple of bottles and they sat on the sand, talking about small, safe things and listening to the waves. They talked about Bradley’s classes, they argued about which type of plane was best, they told the same jokes they’d always told. They acted like they had all the time in the world, until reality tapped them on the shoulder.

Bradley stood up, dusting sand off his jeans, “Well…I have a ridiculously timed flight back to Annapolis to catch but I guess that’s what happens when you book on a whim.”

He held out a much appreciated hand to Tom, pulling him onto his feet at only a minimal wince.

“Do you have everything you need?” he asked, just like he always did.

Bradley shook his head, “Nah, I’m good, Uncle Tom. Sorry for probably the shittiest bachelor party in history.”

Tom smiled and shook his head, nudging Bradley’s arm, “Oh I don’t know. Two drinks, only one other guest and mostly sitting down seems like my kind of party.”

Bradley managed a weak chuckle at that, looking grateful when Tom pulled him into a last hug, tight and safe and more than a little sad.

“You’ll be alright, kid,” Tom murmured, “You will.”

“You sure?” Bradley’s voice shook with what might have been a laugh and might have been a sob, half a joke and half a desperate plea.

“Dead sure,” Tom promised, drawing back so he could take him by the shoulders and look him in the eye.

“How do you know? How do you know I’ll be okay?”

Tom could only smile at him.

“Because I was, kid.”

#top gun #top gun 1986 #icemav #hangster #tom kazansky #iceman #bradley bradshaw #rooster #Pete mitchell #maverick #please consider leaving a comment!

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pen-of-roses · 11 months

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WHG 20-Prompt 5-Silver

WHG tag list: @ratracechronicler, @maple-writes, @concealeddarkness13 @drabbleitout, @grailfish, @forthesanityofsome, and @pied-piper-of-hamlet (let me know if you want to be added)

(Prompt 4 was combined between Din and Silver so read that before this if you missed it)

Under threat of being dragged out by the Peacekeepers, they’d emerged from their hiding spot after most of the search party had disappeared to another car.

And regretted immediately as the cacophony threatened to drag them under the instant they set foot off the train.

It’d be easy to slip away again. The Peacekeepers were trained, but for brutality and instilling fear, not for the survival that had been pressed into them. Their armor had a weakness at the neck. While the helmets protected their faces, they also created blindspots. One of their current guards was favoring a shoulder, easy to exploit. These were just more monsters, and human ones at that, so they could be beaten and pushed past just like—like—

The weight in their hand, taste of copper in their mouth, and battlecries of the long fallen slipped away with the memory and whatever nightmares they’d fought before. Probably for the better.

Besides, they’d gotten this far. Being alone in the heart of this abyssal damned place would probably be worse than the rigid rules prior to the Games. Not to mention they didn’t quite know what would happen to the District if its tribute fled prior to the Games.

So instead they bit their cheek and sat when prompted.

From there, the taste of copper became real as the true challenge of self control began as a group of people began to argue over them, about them, touch them, manipulate them however they wanted.

Their clothes were stripped, and discarded. clothes that had been borrowed from their family and mended by hand over the months. They managed to not break each finger of the hand that had done it.

Forced into a sweet smelling bath and scrubbed raw, the hot water was so similar to the heat from the vision from the train. That did result in a dislocated shoulder and a blackeye. Technically two, but theirs healed before they were dry.

A comb was taken to their hair, for it’s apparently Capitol-esque appearance, but also condemned for the tangled state of it, and the bone white horns underneath it. They forced down more gold-tinted memories of other hands doing the same and a voice in their ear.

The only benefit was no one was talking to them, and they weren’t expected to speak.

Wrapped in a towel and left to wait, they were hyper aware of every footstep outside the door, of every chant of magic in the air, of the sickly sweet perfume clinging to their skin, of the way all the metal shined in just the right light to look golden rather than silver, of where the camera was and how best to avoid it.

“Well, you certainly look more human than the animal the other’s described.” Someone said as he walked into the room and hung a bag off the door.

They bared their teeth, aware they were stained with blood from their cheek and signed “You’re the animals to me.”

“Oh so you can speak,” he signed back, and they blinked, rather taken aback as the strange man sat. “Perfect, that’ll make this so much easier on me. I’m your stylist for these wonderful things the Capitol calls Games. In short, my job is to make you look good so the lovely and ever gracious people out there will help keep you alive, if you wish them to. Or don’t, if that’s more to your liking. I’ll enjoy the show either way.” Crossing his arms, he sat back, raising one blonde eyebrow in challenge.

They squinted at him. He looked Capitol-esque alright, with a suit that looked almost like it was made of flowers, though the shape of them was unlike any they had seen. Calla had said the Capitol liked to genetically modify stuff, so maybe they were based off that. Or complete and inaccurate fabrications. His hair was covered with glitter, and purple makeup adorned his face in the same garish way they’d seen on the escorts and Capitolites. Yet he also seemed off. With his cocky smile, raised eyebrow, and head cocked, it seemed like he was sizing them up and judging.

Magic thrummed all around them, but whether he was the source of any was difficult to tell with all the different sounds.

Maybe not all of the Capitolites were as empty-headed and blind as the escort had made it seem. They would have to be more careful and observant.

“You didn’t give a name,” they signed.

“Nor did you, if you recall. Now, I have very little interest in wasting any more of our precious time, so if you’re willing, let’s get on with getting this over with.”

Reluctantly, they nodded.

Time passed too slowly after that, but the stylist kept the others from handling them too roughly this time around, even giving them privacy while they changed.

In the end, they were left in front of a mirror, focusing on the intricacy of the bark-like texture of the suit, and the leaves and flowers that had been woven into their hair. Pointedly, they did not look at the makeup that had been done, couldn’t risk seeing that face. But the rest, they felt comfortable saying was almost…nice. Wildly inaccurate and overdone. But nice.

Some of the “wood” even covered their ears so when they walked out, the noise wasn’t completely overwhelming. And looking at the other outfits, they’d probably have to thank the stylist if they saw him again.

Of course, whatever odd reprieve that had been couldn’t last terribly long as the chariots began. Two tributes raced off on the horses, which drew most of the crowd’s attention. But not all of it.

There were eyes watching them again, too many, and no place to hide or shrink away from it. Even with the padding, the noise from their cheering was too loud. Several of the other tributes were screaming of powerful magic, and that pull from earlier was back, threatening to drown them in the gold.

Overhead, someone spoke of peace and tradition

Behind their eyes, a voice whispered of safety and love and power over destiny.

A cruel smile watched above.

A kind smile flickered in and out of existence and the air smelled of blood.

#writeblr hunger games #whg #whg 20 #silver #*squints at stylist* how did you get in here #this got away from me #I don't know what it is #Silver deserved some nice #for what they're about to go through #some #a pinch

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twittercomfrnklin2001-blog · 6 months

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Five Nights at Freddy's

As film adaptations of video games go, Emma Tammi’s FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S (2023, Peacock) may seem like small change. There are no armies of kung fu fighters or naked Milla Jovoviches, no hyper-athletic Angelina Jolie. But I was surprised, given its tepid reviews, how far from monkey dump it is. Maybe it helps that I never played the game, so I wasn’t disappointed at how little the animatronic villain figures were used. Instead, I enjoyed the way the script — by the game’s creator, Scott Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback and Tammi — sets up elements in the first act that will pay off in the last. I also appreciated that they took the time to establish the main characters and their situation. Josh Hutcherson is trying to raise his emotionally withdrawn sister (Piper Rubio, who’s really quite good) and hold a job while coping with a lifetime of trauma initiated when his brother was kidnapped during a family outing. His career counselor (Matthew Lillard) sets him up as the single night watchman at an abandoned family pizza parlor with animatronic animals that turn out to be possessed. We see how deadly they can be early on when they take out the previous watchman and a group of vandals, but when Hucherson has to take his sister there one night, they become her playmates. There’s a brief utopian moment as the siblings and a friendly police officer (Elizabeth Lail) set up a play space for the group. It can’t stay that way, of course, but the unravelling is more satisfying than I had expected. Hutcherson has a hard job. He has to let us in while playing a character whose trauma makes it difficult for him to open up, yet his ability to connect with his sister and Lail provides just the window needed. Lillard is also quite good in his first scene, and there’s a funny performance by Michael P. Sullivan as the evil aunt’s (Mary Stuart Masterson, wasted) reluctant lawyer. The plot hinges on a rather large coincidence, but if you can swallow that, you should have a lot of fun.

#horror films #josh hutcherson #matthew lillard #elizabeth lail #video game movies

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etacarinea · 2 years

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No because that is literaly the face i have always pictured grover with holy shit. Did they genetically enginer him for this role?!?!

Also heres a more nuanced take on the annabeth casting(please read the whole thing before making a response. I mean no hate, please keep this civil)

I am attached to the image of blonde annabeth, as i am sure many of you are. For me, annabeth, and the percy jackson series helpped me reevaluate my internalized misogyny.

I’d been taught, primarily my father, to look down on hyper feminity. Particularly “dumb-blondes.” I have a clear memory of watching beauty and the beast with my family and my parents ridiculing the bimbetts as “cabesa-huecas” (empty headed) and telling me that i would get further in life than my blonde classmates because i had black hair. I had this same view point for a long time until i read percy jackson. For me, annabeth was the first heroine to be smart, and blonde and pretty. Her narration about being underestimated for being blonde really put many things into perspective and made me stop judging others based on appearances. It also made me realize that i too had associated blondeness with femininity and lack of intelligence. From there, and thanks to other characters like Selina and Piper, i began understand that you can be both beautiful and strong and grew beyond the “not like other girls” mentality. She was my Elle Woods

Its not to say that Rick is particularly good a writing feminity or any form of representation (hes a middle aged white man and these books are from the 2000’s/2010’s for crying out loud), but it was nonetheless a step in the right direction. As a character of her era, blonde princess hair annabeth, works. But the world has changed since then.

Now its the 2020’s, and there has been a revitalization and reclaiming of hyper feminity and the bimbo. Gen z and modern day feminism uplifts all forms of feminity. Everyone knows Legally Blonde and people have, for the most part, stopped using the term “dumb blonde” to degrade women.

Keeping Annabeth’s struggle with the dumb blonde stereotype will feel a bit out dated. It may even seem forced or confusing to some audiences. Which is why i think making Annabeth black is a perfect update for a modern adaptation.

I really suggest that people read up on misogynoir. Its what Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faced when she was nominated and during her confirmation. She is so eminently qualified for her position, yet many people insisted otherwise, tried to scrutinize everything to find some hint of incompetence. There have long been stereotypes of both black people and women being unintelligent, and black women got both and then some.

A black Annabeth would undoubtedly face similar, if not greater struggles as her counterpart in the book did. She will also be able to continue to help kids watching the show unlearn their biases, just as she did with me and many others.

Also she can just wear a wig and be both. Calm down.

#annabeth #annabeth chase #annabeth pjo #percy jackson #pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #grover underwood

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fuzzydreamin · 1 year

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What Pet/s I Think The Fo4 Companions Would Have

(Consider this a modern AU situation I guess, so they have access to all of these animals and their proper care).

Ada: Had a lot of trouble deciding what kind of pet/s she wanted. Exposed herself and learnt about all sorts of animals, hoping one would stick out to her but they all seemed so cool and neat. She eventually settled on keeping bugs and insects of all kinds. She often keeps their wings and exoskeletons and even taxidermies them if they are in good nick post-mortem.

Cait: A rabbit. It’s really hyper and either wants its space and will nip you to leave it alone, or will circle and hop and stomp to get your attention so that you pet it and keep petting it until the bunny is done with you and not the other way around.

Codsworth: Some type of small, fancy dog. It’s show quality and very well trained.

Curie: Mice! Multiple cages of them, seperated by sex and age and all sorts, just like a whole wall taken up by cages and stuff for their care. Yes they are lab mice and she runs tests on them but she is humane and she names them and plays with them and gives them loads of treats.

Danse: Failed K-9 unit. Just a good fluffy boi. He takes it on his morning runs and to play in the park every day. It may have flunked out but it still had quite a bit of training, and still alerts to Hancock when he’s around.

Deacon: Two or three very highly trained rats.

John Hancock: A sphynx cat of course. Yes it has a whole wardrobe for itself. Hancock does matching outfits and costumes with it.

Nick Valentine: An old dog he rescued from a shelter. He specifically wanted an older dog to give them a chance at a comfortable home at the end of their life, and he doesn’t need to worry so much about his work keeping him from being able to walk the old guy all the time since it doesn’t need it. He gets to scritch its head infront of the fire while he goes over cases.

Old Longfellow: A bully breed dog. It’s a chubby lapdog that toddles after him wherever he goes and he feeds it a lot of fish, which it loves.

Piper Wright: A grouchy old cat that she doesn’t seem to get along with. Honestly it’s more Nat’s pet than hers. It just walked in all scraggly from the street one day and they fed it and now it lives with them. She bad talks it all the time but she loves it and will give it treats and try to get it to play with toys even though it doesn’t seem to want to.

Porter Gage: Several snakes and lizards of all kinds. Particularly fond of his iguana and large boa.

Preston Garvey: A dove/pigeon. He found it injured outside and took it in to get it fixed up, found out they make fantastic pets and kept it. It's very social to people and coos along when he hums.

RJ MacCready: Recently got a puppy for Duncan, hasn’t owned a pet before and is tripping over himself learning about care and training and how to potty train it. Thinks he should have gone with a couple of guinea pigs instead, but it’s too late now, Duncan loves his dog.

Strong: Doesn’t own a pet himself but is carefully exposed to other peoples pets. He enjoys livestock / larger animals. Thinks the best pet would be the kind you could eat if you needed / wanted to.

X6-88: Multiple cats. He is the crazy cat goth. They just get him, okay. He has some sort of foster deal with a shelter, where he gets the excess cats they can’t fit. They all have stupid names because he doesn’t change what the shelter staff called them, so he has cats like ‘Mr Tiggles’ and ‘Isaac Mewton’ wandering around.

#fallout #fallout 4 #fallout 4 companions #ada #cait #codsworth #curie #paladin danse #deacon #john hancock #nick valentine #old longfellow #piper wright #porter gage #preston garvey #rj maccready #strong #x6-88 #fuzzy.post

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theperplexedpoet · 4 months

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Monday's bluer (keep it going)

Monday's bluer than the week hue is truer at its peak when it's newer not so bleak Monday's bluer than the week keep it going run it down no more slowing pay the pound and the piper for his song system's hyper play along keep it going run it down show you're growing come around pushing further paint it black life preserver final act Monday's bluer than the week hue is truer at its peak when it's newer not so bleak Monday's bluer than the week keep it going run it down seeds are sowing fertile ground finder's keepers seize the day wake your sleeper make your play keep it going run it down cards are showing play a round set the gambit wager strong make it habit break the dawn Monday's bluer than the week hue is truer at its peak when it's newer not so bleak Monday's bluer than the week keep it going run it down (1/15/24)

#poetry #melancholy & musings #blue monday #inspiration #keep it going

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musicblogwales · 9 months

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youtube

Swansea Sound announce new album 'Twentieth Century'

An album of sparkling pop-punk tunes from these lovable veterans of the indie scene, Featuring Hue (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia (Heavenly) deploying their fuzzed-up guitars and melodic wiles in a set of loud, energetic pop songs, an album, containing self-deprecating critiques of everything that was supposed to be great about the alternative culture of the Twentieth Century – and of the way that culture left its adherents totally ill-equipped to deal with the reality of the Twenty First.

Released on the 8th of September via Skep Wax Records, format's will include Vinyl LP CD and digital versions.

Swansea Sound Full Lineup includes

Hue Williams (The Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (both Talulah Gosh/Heavenly, The Catenary Wires), Bob Collins (The Dentists, The Treasures of Mexico), Ian Button, (Death in Vegas, with Louis Philippe, Pete Astor and Papernut Cambridge)

In Paradise, the first track, old-school futuristic synth-bleeps accompany Hue as he tries to establish some kind of relationship with a woman who only really exists on his screen. Like an early 80s Gary Numan aficionado, he spends most of his life in digital isolation. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in a coltan mine, using their bare hands to dig out the precious ore that will provide the raw materials for the manufacture of Hue’s smartphone, impoverished workers lose their lives: ‘servers hum/and miners die’ goes the chorus, as the woman Hue hopes to communicate with remains as elusive as ever.

In ‘Click It And Pay’, another cracked duet, Hue is the stressed-out home-worker doing some online shopping. Amelia is the girl in some distant hyper-warehouse who fulfils his requirements. They don’t get to meet – they will never meet - but they kind-of bond through CDs by The Police and Primal Scream that form part of his shopping list. Twenty-First Century romance amounts to no more than the purchase of music reissued from the Twentieth.

The Twentieth Century provided other rock prophets: more political than Gary Numan, these men wore combat gear and sang of revolution. In title track ‘Twentieth Century’ we meet a pseudo-punk singer in fatigues, a purveyor of radical anthems, cushioned by a major label deal, who wonders why he’s lost contact with his once-devoted fans. One of those disappointed fans crops up in ‘I Don’t Like Men In Uniform’: it’s 2023 now, and he’s still angry, still seething with pain – but he’s no longer robust enough to sink his fists, or his teeth, into the authority figures he hates. Meanwhile, in ‘Punish The Young’, an ageing rock icon and sometime rule-breaker curses the young people of 2023 who couldn’t care less about his heroic past, and despises them because they don’t want to work for shit wages on the trout farm that he bought with his royalties back in the 1980s

‘Greatest Hits Radio’ pulls focus, and suddenly we are looking at three centuries – the brutal Nineteenth Century slate mines of North Wales depicted alongside the digital corporations of the Twenty-First, extracting as much profit as they can from two things people need: shelter and entertainment. In the chorus, once again, we hear the voice of the young girl forced to work in the contemporary coltan mine - as downtrodden and as abused as the kids who toiled underground in Blaenau Ffestiniog to extract the slate two hundred years ago.

This sounds grim, and if you look at the Twenty First Century hard enough, it really is. So where is the hope? Well, the music on the album really is joyful, and it really will put a smile on your silly indie face. There’s a love song to Pete Shelley (‘Far Far Away’) - a tribute to a true Twentieth Century hero. And in the final track – ‘Pack The Van’ – the band make fleeting contact with the pure idealism of their early teenage years, remembering the beautiful beach on the South Wales coast that provided the backdrop to their passionate youth. Maybe if we could access that optimism again we might find a way forward...

Anyway. Swansea Sound themselves never pretend to be anything other than creatures of the Twentieth Century. They still celebrate the joy of cramming into a car with loads of mates to see a gig at a crappy indie venue in the small town where they live (‘Seven In The Car’). And they don’t see why that kind of joy needs to stop: in fact, it may be one of the important things we’ve got left.

Swansea sound will be recording a BBC6Music Riley & Coe session in September, and will be Hue Stephens’ album of the week on BBC Wales. They are touring the UK in September and October, then playing in the US and Japan in 2024.

Swansea Sound: a brief history.

Formed during lockdown, the band recorded three singles without actually meeting each other. Corporate Indie Band appeared as a cassette on specialist label Lavender Sweep. It got a lot of airplay, and the next releases were on 7” vinyl, including Indies Of the World, which made it into the UK vinyl Top 10. A debut album, Live At The Rum Puncheon, was released in 2021 to considerable critical acclaim:

‘The glorious sounds of C86 brought into the now.’ Thomas Patterson, Shindig.

‘Close to an indie pop miracle.’ Tim Sendra, All Music.

‘An essential broadcast from the forefront of the indiepop resistance.’ Andy Brown, Louder than War.

TRACKLIST:

PARADISE

SEVEN IN THE CAR

KEEP YOUR HEAD ON

CLICK IT AND PAY

I DON’T LIKE MEN IN UNIFORM

TWENTIETH CENTURY

I MADE A WORK OF ART

MARKIN’ IT DOWN

PUNISH THE YOUNG

FAR FAR AWAY

GREATEST HITS RADIO

PACK THE VAN

Swansea Sound will play a number of live dates in the Autumn.

09 Sep 2023: London, Rough Trade East, LP launch 14 Sep 2023: Manchester, The Talleyrand 15 Sep 2023: Cardiff, Moon Club 16 Sep 2023: Carmarthen, Cwrw 17 Sep 2023: Bristol, Rough Trade 29 Sep 2023: St Leonards, The Piper 30 Sep 2023: Paris, Popfest 13 Oct 2023: Leeds, Wharf Chambers 14 Oct 2023: Newcastle-On-Tyne, Cumberland Arms 27 Oct 2023: Brighton/Hove, The Brunswick 28 Oct 2023: London, The Water Rats

Music Blog Wales wish Swansea Sound all the best with the new release and all the tour dates, make sure you catch them live x

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eiiskonigin-a · 2 years

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GET TO KNOW THE MUN

— BASICS

(PEN)NAME: Missa

PRONOUNS: She/Her

ZODIAC: Scorpio Sun / Leo Moon / Cancer Rising

SINGLE / TAKEN: Happily in a relationship. uwu

— THREE FACTS

001. I am a huge metalhead, which occasionally takes people by surprise! I think it's the fact that I also love to be cute and "girly." Nothing is as annoying to me as when a guy finds out and pulls the faux impressed that "you're not like other girls." Gross. But yeah, if I ever make you a playlist, odds are there will be at least a little bit snuck in there! There’s even a lot of it on Winter’s playlist.

002. My family likes to say that I am, to borrow a phrase from my stepfather, "an endless fount of useless knowledge." While maybe not useless so much, I do tend to be the kind of person who has a lot of random fun facts about... some really random topics. Part of it is just stuff that I pick up, and part of it is things that I've done deep-dive research into. Want to talk about how the Pied Piper of Hamelin was a real person? Did you know luna moths all die of starvation because they don't have mouths? Have an ailment? I probably know an herb or a crystal that's supposed to help! Do you like video games? Talk to me about the Nintendo Virtual Boy and how it was totally ahead of its time -- even if it came out like two years too late! I love nerding out about silly things, so like... if you have a “weird” hyper-fixation, I want to hear about it. I love learning new things.

003. I am a huge Dungeons and Dragons nerd. Anyone who's hung around me for any amount of time will learn that pretty quickly. I'm currently playing a Level 5 swashbuckler rogue, Catiana Freespark, trying to find out what happened to her family and the ship they sail on, the Loreley. She's starting the journey now of multiclassing into a tempest cleric of Procan, after he has been coming to her in times of need -- including bringing her back from the dead in our last session. On top of that, a malevolent sea goddess is now looking for her mother. Huge mysteries keep popping up around her, and I can't wait to see where they're going. ( was this a cheat since it’s not really about me? perhaps )

— EXPERIENCE

001. I’ve been on this hellsite for over ten years now! That’s right, you wee youngin’s, I started back in 2011. I remember when you had to go to a whole other page in order to write a post, and everything looked like shit but at least Tumblr wasn’t constantly changing things for the worse! No post cutting! Massive gifs! Icons? Who is she? I’m a bit stuck in my ways and I’ve been here through like 300 trends and all that bs, but as bad as this site is, it’s my comfort place.

002. I’ve also done some writing on forums in the past, including LiveJournal very briefly. Back in yonder days I actually got started roleplaying online on the Neopets and Gaia Online forums. Yikes. It was... very cringey. These days, I’m not on any forums, ever since the one I was truly invested in closed.

003. I’ve been writing for practically my entire life. It’s always been something that brings me comfort. Growing up, I had... some less-than-ideals issues happening, so I tended to lean into creating fantasy worlds and situations as a form of escapism. I’ve never quite outgrown it!

— MUSE PREFERENCE

If you ask me, I can't quite explain it. Sometimes, your heart just reaches out to a character, latches on and goes "THAT ONE." That's the best way I can summarize it.

I love complex characters, characters that give me the room for interpretation. I'm sure Mal will point out that I love tsundere characters and that's probably because of I see my own behaviors in them. Generally, I choose canon characters to roleplay because I like having the set parameters. I've never been very good at creating OCs, though playing D&D has been improving my skills -- and honestly, if you look at my D&D characters, I think my love of the "edgy but also soft hearted" character type shows itself pretty well.

— SUB-GENRES

FLUFF: Honestly, my lifeblood. I love... soft interactions... And while it can't be everything, because some characters just can't allow themselves to be open in those vulnerable ways, I love writing it and reading it. Winter in particular shows her softness in unusual or downplayed ways, and I love getting to figure out those little things that she does.

SMUT: I love smut when it serves a purpose. Like, just smut rp for smut sake makes me feel uncomfortable and I'm not trying to shame anyone who really enjoys writing it, but for me... there needs to still be interaction to it. Commentary, reasons, character thoughts. Those deeper looks at characters when they are so exposed fascinate me.

ANGST: The good shit. So often in series, I feel like the traumatic moments are brushed aside for pacing and the like, so it's always interesting to explore those little glimpses that we get of characters and their coping mechanisms.

IN GENERAL: I love writing complex emotions. I love going from teasing to hurt and back again. I love writing characters that have human reactions to one another, and seeing the way that someone else's muse might react differently than how I and my muse expected. That's the whole game, right?

— PLOTS vs MEMES

I love plots! I'm just absolutely atrocious at coming up with them or approaching people. Memes are definitely a safe way to jump into things with me, because I'm likely to be 200 times less awkward about it. However, if you ever come at me with a plot like "hey I think x thing and y thing could happen between our muses," odds are I'll be hyped for it.

— TAGGED: @virmireisms && @caeloservare — TAGGING: anyone who wants to do it ;w;

#( games ) / ✦ i don't have time for your immature games .#( ooc ) / ✦ head of the winter schnee simp society .#long post tw

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