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jeannereames · 6 months

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Your top 5 Alexander the Great moments?

Top Five Alexander Moments

One issue with answering this is to figure out what events actually happened, especially when it comes to anecdotes! Here are four I find either significant to understanding his charisma and/or which explain how he functioned and why he was successful, plus one I like just because I’m a horse girl.

1) To my mind, the event that best illustrates why his men followed him to the edge of their known world occurred in the Gedrosian Desert. While I’m a bit dubious that this trek was as bad as it’s made out to be (reasons exist for exaggerating), it was still baaaad. One story relates that some of his men found some brackish water in a sad little excuse for a spring, gathered it in a helm, and brought it to him. Given his poor physical condition after the Malian siege wound, he no doubt needed it badly. He thanked them (most sincerely), then carried it out where all (or at least a lot) of his men could see, raised it overhead, and announced that until all of them could drink, he wouldn’t. Then he poured it onto the rocky ground.

That gesture exemplified his charisma. And it absolutely is not something the likes of a Donald tRump could even imagine doing—nor most dictators, tbh. They’d be blaming everybody else and calling for heads while drinking Diet Coke, not suffering alongside their people.

This wasn’t an isolated event of that type. While he almost certainly didn’t have time to engage along with his soldiers in every project, we’re told he would drop in from time-to-time, to inspire them and to offer a little friendly competition.

He also dressed like his men for everyday activities, especially early in the campaign. As time went on, some sources say he inserted more distance—probably necessary as his duties exploded—but he still seems to have found time to “just hang out” with his Macedonians on occasion. The claims that he was too high and mighty to do so appears to have been exaggeration (as such accusations often are) in order to forward a narrative that he was “going Asian.” Troop resentment over court changes was very genuine—I don’t want to underplay it (especially as I’ve written about it in a few chapters in this), but it tended to boil up during certain periods/events, then die back again. Alexander was trying to walk a very fine line of incorporating the conquered while not ticking off his own people.

2) Reportedly, he once threw a man out of line because he hadn’t bothered to secure the chin strap on his helm. I pick this one because it tells me a whole lot about how he saw himself as a commander, and what he expected of his men (and why he tended to consistently win).

On the surface, his reaction seems almost petty. It’s precisely the sort of mistake students whine about when professors ding them for it. It’s just a chin strap! I’d have tightened it before I went into battle! (It’s just a few typos; you knew what I meant! Or, Why does everything in the bibliography have to be exactly matching in style? Who cares? What a stupid thing to obsess about!) These objections are all of a piece. First, they’re lazy, and second, they indicate a disconcern with details. In battle, such disconcern can get a person killed. And on a larger scale, for a general, such disconcern loses battles.

One of the striking aspects of Alexander’s military operations was just how well his logistics worked. Consistently. We hear little about them precisely because they rarely fail. Food and water was there when they needed it, as were arrow replacements, wood to repair the spears, wool and leather for clothes and shoes, canvas for tents, etc., etc. All those little niggling (boring) details. If these are missing, soldiers become upset (and don’t fight well). Starting with Philip, the Macedonian military was a well-oiled machine. That’s WHY Gedrosia was such a shock: the logistics collapsed. Contra some historians, he did not do it to “punish” his men, nor to best Cyrus.* He had a sound reason—to scout a trade route.

Alexander understood that details matter. It starts with a loose chinstrap. (Or an unplanned-for storm and rebellion in his rear.) Everything else can unravel from that.

3) Alexander sends Hephaistion a little dish of small fish (probably smelts). He also helps an officer secure the lady of his dreams. And writes another on assignment (away from the army) that a mutual friend is recovering from an illness. While technically three “moments,” these are all of a piece. Alexander knows his men, and is concerned not only for their physical well-being, but also their mental state: that they’re happy. Granted, these are all elite officers, but it suggests he’s paying attention to people. I’ve always assumed he sent Hephaistion the fish because they were his friend’s favorite, and/or they were a special treat and he wanted to share. That he didn’t punish an officer for going AWOL to chase the mistress he wanted but offered advice, and even assistance, on how to court and secure her suggests the same care.

I don’t want to take away from what appears to be his serious anger management problems(!), but little details like those above strike me as the likeable side of Alexander—why his men were so devoted to him.

4) Then we have the encounter with Timokleia after the siege of Thebes. While probably a bit too precious to have occurred exactly as related, I think it may still hold a kernel of truth.

Alexander had a reputation of chivalry towards his (highborn) female captives. If some of that was likely either propaganda from his own time or philhellenic whitewashing later by Second Sophistic authors such as Plutarch (and Arrian), poor treatment of women is not something we hear attributed to him.

Ergo, while the meeting was probably doctored for a moral tail, he may well have freed Timokleia as an act of clemency to put a better face on a shocking destruction he knew wouldn’t sit well with the rest of Greece—who he both wanted to cow yet earn support from. (A difficult balancing act.) Also, if Timokleia hadn’t been high-born, she’d probably have been hauled off to one of the prisoner cages with little fanfare.

Nonetheless, I find his actions surprising given the casual misogyny of his era. If we can take the bare bones of the story as true, and it’s not all invented, Timokleia was raped as a matter of course during the sacking of Thebes, then managed to trick her rapist and kill him by pushing him down a well and dropping rocks on him. I assume this happened when his men weren’t there, but they found out soon enough and hauled her in front of Alexander to be punished for killing an officer. To the surprise of all, Alexander decided the man had earned it and freed Timokleia. One might be inclined to call this overly sentimental, but….

There’s a similar story that occurred much later in the Levant, when two of Parmenion’s men seduced/(raped?) the mistresses/wives of some mercenaries. Alexander instructed Parmenion to kill the Macedonians if they were found to be guilty.

In both cases, we have an affront against (respectable) women. In the latter case, Alexander was (no doubt) working to avoid conflict between hired soldiers and his own men, who—in typical Greek fashion—would have looked down on mercenaries as a matter of course. Some sort of conflict between Macedonians and Greek mercenaries up in Thrace had almost got Alexander’s father killed. Alexander saved him. No doubt that was on Alexander’s mind here.

Yet what both events illuminate is a willingness on Alexander’s part to punish his own men for affronts to honor/timē that involved women. Yes, this is clearly about discipline. But it also shows an unusual sensitivity to sex crimes in warfare: actions that would normally fall under the excuse of “boys will be boys” (especially when their blood is up).

I doubt he’d have felt the same about slaves or prostitutes; he was still a product of his time. Yet without overlooking his violence—sometimes extreme (the genocide of the Branchidai, for instance)—I find his reaction in these cases to be evidence of an atypical sympathy for women that I’d like to think isn’t wholly an invention of later Roman authors. And just might show the influence of his mother and sisters.

5) Last… the Boukephalas story…because who doesn’t love a good “a boy and his horse” tale? Obviously the Plutarchian version is tweaked to reflect that author’s later concern to contrast the Macedonian “barbarian” Philip with the properly Hellenized Alexander. Ignore the editorializing remarks, especially the “find a kingdom big enough for you” nonsense.

But the bare bones of the story seem likely: unmanageable horse, cocky kid, bet with dad, gotcha moment. You can imagine this was an anecdote Alexander retold a time or three, or twenty.

——

* His attempts to copy Cyrus may be imposition by later writers. In his own day, he may have cared more about the first Darius, for reasons Jenn Finn is going to explain in a forthcoming, very good article on the burning of Thebes and Persepolis.

#asks #Top Five Alexander the Great moments #Alexander the Great #Hephaistion #Hephaestion #Timoclea #Timoklea #Boukephalas #Bucephalas #Gedrosian Desert #ancient military logistics #Macedonian army #Alexander's logistics #Classics #ancient history #campaigns of Alexander the Great #tagamemnon

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hurtcomfortficstilltheend · 1 year

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Sometimes it´s just better (not to know).

Chapter one: The beginning of the end.

Lucy Carlyle x gn! Reader

Summary: When you get a gut feeling that something is targeting 35 Portland Row, and therefore your family; how far will you go to protect it?

Reader has Touch and the gift of premonition, and knows something is brewing. Lockwood is their traumatized cousin, Lucy their badass (and slightly confused) girlfriend, the relationship with George is a little rocky; but they would do anything to protect each other, as the family they are.

Warnings: angsty angstt, violence, a lot of nightmares and witchy stuff.

A/N: This will be a multichapter because I'm invested, reader is Anthony's cousin, and has the gift of precognition (and Touch).

Word count: 2.2k

Everything was quiet. Or your ears had stopped working. Maybe both.

There is no light, but you can perceive your surroundings. Ruins of something, a life maybe. It felt like the calm after the... or was it before the storm?

Something had happened. Something important, you guessed. Your body was spent, on the floor; your glazed eyes looking up at the sky. If not for the shallow movement of your chest, one would have thought you were dead.

You noticed that you were outside of your own body, watching from afar. Something had happened; something bad.

You saw when a figure put their knee, and with it their entire weight, onto the body’s chest. You weren’t inside it, but it still belonged to you. You knew how it could feel, but you were numb to the actual sensation.

A gasp was heard when the shadow brought out a dagger from somewhere in its clothing. The body lying on the floor hadn’t opened its mouth. There was a resignation written in its face as the eyes closed.

The blade made contact with the neck’s soft tissue. Grazing the skin, once, twice, three times, almost in a caressing motion. There was something unusual about the blood that oozed out. It seemed to float upwards in thin tendrils-

-the attitude of the aggressor changed. The air tested of ruthless violence when the figure held the weapon above its head.

The knife fell down in the middle of the victim's face. A gut-wrenching scream was heard. The body didn’t move. One would expect blood to appear, but it never did. Pitch black smoke came out of the wound, the eyes, the mouth…

…The murderer turned towards you. Not your body, but your omnipresent conscience, the part of you that wasn’t in the real plane of existence. Behind the black hood there was, once again, impenetrable black smoke.

Inky ghost fog comes out of the body -your body- covers the floor. You can’t see anything anymore.

The screaming continued, you noticed. Different voices, belonging to different people; it never stopped, and perhaps, never will.

“Love, wake up.” A helping hand through the black smoke. “Hey, hey. You’re here, you are safe.” A soft but sturdy grip in your arm, a subtle shake.

You open your eyes at last. There is no dead body, no attacker. Only the ceiling of your room in Portland Row’s attic and a familiar face. Trying to wake you up. You were asleep.

Slowly, you start catching up with reality. You are home. “Lucy?” Your voice comes out hoarse. Your throat is dry, you notice.

“It was just a dream darling, you were screaming.”

Oh. A dream. It was all a nightmare.

You incorporate, sit up and rest your back on the headboard. When you rub your face, you notice teartracks.

You stay like that for a while. Unfocused eyes staring blankly forward, you can feel your girlfriend’s concerned gaze on your side.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

You shake your head. You don’t have the energy to talk, or at all. This happens quite often, with the lives that you carry and the horrors you see on a daily basis, it isn't weird to get horrifying nightmares from time to time.

Still, this one felt different. Apart from your Touch; you inherited from your mother -and your ancestors way back, centuries before The Problem- the gift of precognition. Just like this dream, all the messages you get are sketchy and heavily symbolic. You would ask the Tarot cards in the morning.

If you could be honest with yourself, most of the time it doesn’t feel like a gift at all, knowing certain things takes a toll on you. It’s something heavy to carry.

Lucy reaches out to stroke your shoulder. You flinch and choke on air, jumping away from her. You didn’t mean to. Her hand retreats as if she’d touched a burning kettle, and the confused hurt in her face is evident.

“Sorry.” You take her hand in between yours and place it on your chest for a bit. “Can we just sleep?” Your voice cracks. You know she can tell, she always does.

“Okay.” She whispers. She seems to understand.

When you wake up again, at quarter to nine in the morning, you decide to make breakfast for the team.

The house is quiet, your footsteps make the old wooden floor squeak.

Having brushed your teeth and checked Lucy’s still asleep, you go downstairs as is, barefoot and on your pajamas. You check the fridge and decide on pancakes for you and a mix of savory stuff and biscuits for the rest. You don’t get how anyone could possibly eat lunch for breakfast, but who cares.

A ticking noise catches your attention. You stop stirring the eggs in the bowl, turn around. The house doesn’t have a clock, does it? You get a wave of deja vu. The dream you had last night comes rushing back to your mind. You should really dig a little into it…

The kitchen door opens loudly. You let out a shriek, the whisk that previously had been in your hand is now striking the wall, right next to-

-oh. Anthony.

“Good morning to you too, cuz.” He looks like he’s still asleep, his survival mode seems to not have been activated by the flying, egg covered, utensil.

You have a tendency to throw projectiles when threatened. Most agents do. Salt-bomb throwing training does that to people. “Sorry Ant. Shitty sleep.” He nods, as if saying it be like that sometimes and lets it go. “Eggs?” He nods once again.

You walk to the threshold with a rag, clean up the wall and retrieve the whisk, in one fell swoop. With your other hand you squeeze his shoulder as you pass by.

The others arrive not long later, and soon enough you’re all gathered around the table. You start scribbling on the thinking cloth with a random pen, alternating between munching on dry cereal and eating a pancake with milk caramel as a taco. “There isn’t a ticking clock in the house, right?”

Three pairs of half asleep eyes look at you, puzzled. “Nevermind.” Your loud cereal-eating ritual resumes. You gulp in one go what is left of your tea cup. “Remember that case we have scheduled for tonight?”

“The Geralds’ House?” George chips in, more alert, while stealing a pancake from your plate.

“Yeah, that one. I don’t think we should go.”

A moment of shock. A clatter of a fork hitting a plate.

“Why would we-?”

“We can’t cancel-!”

Lucy and George speak at the same time. The former rather confused, the latter downright defensive. Lockwood just stares at you. He lets out a breath, knows a quarrel is coming.

“I know we were all so excited about this one, but we can’t go. Not today at least, we have to postpone.” The back of your head starts to hurt, just like every time you are forced to change the company’s plans because of a gut feeling.

Anthony knows you very well, and knows not to doubt your judgment. He knows from experience your intuition never fails.

“You can’t just decide that for all of us!” George seems about ready to launch the table or something. If you didn’t know him as well as you do, you’d start running.

“If this is about last night’s nightmare-”

Your eyes lock on Lucy. Your cousin’s eyes lock on you. George is just fuming, and your girlfriend doesn’t know what she just unleashed.

“You had a nightmare?” Lockwood asks, you’re a deer caught in headlights. “Like a nightmare nightmare?” He sits straight up, suddenly very awake. You stare at your hands and start to fidget with your rings, leting out a quiet ‘yeah.’

“It’s settled, then. We do as they say. George, call John Gerald and inform him we have to delay the service by-” He looks at you expectantly.

“Two days, until I figure it out." Comes out of your lips.

“-two days. Lucy, you can go and check if your pet skull wants a cookie or something.” He seems energized -eager, even- but you can see right through him. He must be reliving the last time you had one of these nightmares, and the one before that; you knew you were. It never went well. For one reason or another, the times you had not been heard or taken seriously when stating things like this, it had always ended badly.

When everyone stands up, deeming the meal finished, Anthony takes you by the elbow and almost drags you to the library, you don’t even have time to explain yourself to your girlfriend. He closes the door behind him.

You settle into your designed armchair, and so does he. You stay quiet for a while, looking at each other's eyes, letting the news sink in. “I’ll bring the Tarot.”

You both know what happened last time you read the cards about a nightmare. You do general readings quite often, but at times like this, it feels like stepping into the coffin. This type of reading always seems to be much more explicit and terminal than any other. Sometimes you just wish you were ignorant.

A sudden vulnerability crosses Anthony’s face when he answers. “Yeah, we should… do that. Do you need me to light some incense?” You nod. It isn’t a necessity for divination, but you find that the smell helps to calm the energy somehow.

The library’s door is locked from the inside. With your deck on one hand, and the coffee table already set in front of you, you take a deep breath. You are sitting cross legged on the carpet, Anthony is right in front of you. Connecting with the cards is similar to using your Talent, but you get a sense of loneliness much greater. Even though visitors are not good company, they are there , and you find comfort in the knowledge that they were once human; with your readings it’s just you, and fate.

You start shuffling. Alternate between riffle and overhand shuffle, a few minutes pass until you feel that they are in the correct order. You leave the deck on the table, cut it three times, place the cards face down in a V shape. You turn them around.

The Tower.

The Chariot, upside down.

And Death .

Lockwood gasps. You try to keep your cool. This could mean anything, you know it. The meaning is not on the cards themselves -even less on their names- but their interaction and placement. You conjure your intuition. Against your will, your eyes blurry with tears, your head starts to pound.

A sudden change, a chaotic outcome; no way out, no direction or possibility of escape; a deep and irreparable loss.

No, it’s not going to go like that, I won’t let it.

A change in point of view, a new direction with an inimaginable outcome, a new beginning.

Too sugarcoated. Try again.

Something terrible, there’s no way to change it or make it better-

No.

“Anthony. Please shuffle.” You hand him the deck. He takes it, stares at you as he would a ghost. His hands start the movement as if in auto-pilot. “Take any card and put it wherever you see fit, don’t try to rationalize it.”

His hands seem clumsy, but he finally takes one and places it over The Chariot, he turns it: Six of Swords, upside down. It serves as clarification for the Major Arcana under it, the message sounds the same, no place to go, no way to run…

In the same motion, a card from the bottom falls into his lap. He goes to place it back to where it came from, but you gesture to the table. He leaves it right in the middle, above the new card. He doesn’t turn it.

You get a feeling of finality. That is the last piece of the reading. No more trying to change things or ask for clarification. Your hand is trembling, a shiver runs down your spine. A second before seeing it, you know you are not going to like it.

A lifeless body stares at you from the illustration, on the floor, impaled by Ten Swords.

That's you.

No, no, it can’t be so literal, it never is-

A sudden, awful turn of events; no way to run, it’s coming towards you, even if you try to stop it; an impending doom, deep and permanent loss; you are already dead .

You don’t let it sink in, don’t let it fester in your mind. In one swift motion, you place every card back in the deck, and the deck back into its linen drawstring bag.

You look up. Lockwood’s eyes are brimmed with tears. “What does it mean?”

“We can’t stop it.” You croak out, you are already crying.

“What was your nightmare about? Maybe we can figure it out together, or find a way…” He trails off when you shake your head repeatedly.

“It’s not even about the Geralds case- Hell, if George still wants to, we can get it done tonight!! This is much bigger and it can’t be stopped.” High pitched, strangled words come out. You let out a sob.

He starts crying too, scrambles to get around the coffee table and hug you. You are both trying to hold onto one another, crying for everything that has ever happened to you, your family, and whatever seems to be coming your way. You can’t help but feel a bitter guilt, sharing this with him, he shouldn’t have to carry the burden of knowing if he is able to just not .

“Why does this keep happening to us?” A broken whisper, followed by an honest:

“I don’t know.” Spoken just as softly.

Reblogs and comments are greatly appreciated! Tell me if you want to be added to the Lockwood and Co or Sometimes it's just better (not to know) taglist, feedback is welcome :D

I do Tarot readings and this might or might not be slightly based on personal experience.

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sciencelings-writes · 11 months

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All in Good Time

Day 1 of Zelink Week 2023 hosted by @zelinkcommunity

Prompt: Yearning

WC: 6072

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48491140

Part of my Fem!Zelink AU, this is also the only one (this week) that incorporates LU

Wild couldn’t sleep. Despite being in an insulated room inside of an actual house after weeks of dealing with rocky ground and late-night monster attacks, despite feeling like she was closer to home than she had been since she had left her own time, despite the chorus of deep even breaths and the occasional snore that would normally lull her into the comfortable darkness, she just couldn’t sleep.

The entire day had been wonderful, she had spent a good amount of it enjoying the luxuries of an actual kitchen with appliances rather than the simple fire she was used to dealing with. Cooking was one of the few typically feminine hobbies she found herself drawn to and she was sure that if she were born a man, she’d still like the activity just as much. It was far more pleasant than cleaning the sables and the cucco coops and hauling hay around all day.

Lon Lon Ranch felt so close to home, but at the same time, not nearly close enough. It had the same smells and ambiance as her home farming village of Hateno, she could so easily hear the mooing cows on the way to Purah’s lab and the clicking of horseshoes against the stone pathways. Even the melody Malon hummed absentmindedly to herself felt so familiar.

But it was missing the most important thing. Or, she supposed, the most important person.

It had been an ache she had felt since stepping through the first dark mysterious portal, every time she pulled out the Sheikah slate to take a picture of something that didn’t exist in their time, every time she spotted a frog or listened to Sky’s melancholy harp serenade, the emptiness in her chest intensified.

It was such a sappy thing to admit, but she missed Zelda with her entire heart. Every moment away was an unending physical pain that she never seemed to get used to. For years they’d snuck through the shadows to see each other, even if it was unlikely for anyone to figure out what had truly been going on between them. They’d already been separated for a century, Wild balancing on the very edge of death and her princess fighting to keep the embodiment of hatred from destroying the entire kingdom. Being thrown into another adventure had been reopening a wound that had only just started to heal to tear them apart once more.

Not even Warriors snoring was loud enough to drown out the thoughts she found herself being drawn towards. She tortured herself with imaginary sensations of her lover's fingers combing through her hair, commenting through a smile about how long it had gotten. How she never flinched away after touching the myriad of scars that branded her skin when the princess herself possessed nothing of the sort despite fighting for far longer. How her voice rang in Wild’s ears when reading a new book out loud, desperate to share her most recent fixation with the one person who was delighted to listen.

It was impossible to lure her thoughts away even when the backs of her eyes started to burn, no attempt at distracting herself would last for more than a few seconds and she very easily gave up on trying, but she knew that she couldn’t carry on her session of wallowing for much longer before there was going to be consequences. And though the rancher could sleep through Warriors snoring directly in his ear without a single issue, she was sure that Twilight would snap awake if she even sniffled. He seemed to have an extra sense for whenever someone was even mildly distressed.

Perhaps it was a good idea to get some fresh air.

Even though the room was pretty large and could fit eight heroes in it pretty easily, it didn’t leave a whole lot of floor space between them. The slight anxiety of tiptoeing between each slumbering body momentarily delayed her insomnia-fueled spiral of yearning, at this point, it would’ve been pretty inconvenient if Four woke up because of a slightly creaky wooden floorboard next to his head.

At least the door was quieter, as long as she turned the nob at an unbearably slow pace. She resisted the urge to rush her exit knowing it would make too much noise, but only barely.

The moment she was confident in her success, she padded over to a nearby tree, paying no mind to the fact that she was barefoot, only focusing on the chirping of the crickets hidden in the foliage. She leaned against its trunk and slid down until she had landed in a sitting position on the cool soft grass.

The sheikah slate flashed to life in her hands as she instinctually swiped to a familiar screen. Her gallery of photographs. She ignored the stunning landscapes and the, in her opinion, hilarious images, one of which was Wolfie trying to pick up a Stalnox bone that was far too large for his mouth. She tapped on a recent image that she always found herself being drawn to.

Zelda had just cut her hair, she couldn’t stop grinning about it. She had to agree with the Great Deku Tree on this one, her princess's smile was easily comparable to the sun. It almost blinded her but she never even considered looking away. She was blessed to witness it, and even more blessed to capture it in the memory of the slate, knowing that her own could be unreliable.

It was a beautiful image, but Wild didn’t spare a thought at the natural lighting of the sunny day, or the backdrop of the hills behind their home, not the spring flowers blooming all around her or the vibrant glimpse of blue from their pond. She could only see Zelda’s freckles, a feature she had developed since spending every daylight moment outside if she wasn’t holed up in Purah’s lab. Her sparkling green eyes that Wild swore had flakes of gold in the right lighting. How ethereally gold her hair was, as if she was forged by the most skilled Gerudo artisan.

Ever since she’d been freed from the Calamity, she’d resolved to abandon nearly every responsibility of royalty, becoming someone free from the burdens that had nearly drowned her before, knowing that even attempting to rebuild the empire that fell was not the job for a teenager who wasn’t even quite an adult yet. Perhaps that was something she could devote her time to later.

Wild could admit, the wind in her hair and the machine oil staining most of her clothes were far more charming than stuffy dresses and heavy jewelry. But it was really the fact that she smiled and laughed far more often that really made her appreciate the decision. It was easy to forget that though Link was the Hero of the Wild, her counterpart was also deserving of the title, it was where they both thrived after all.

Zelda would likely say something about how every action there was an equal and opposite reaction, which is what looking at the photograph while being so far away in time from the subject felt like. She loved her princess with such force that the, hopefully temporary, loss of her was just as debilitating. The perfectly warm soft memory of holding her princess in her arms was just as much a source of comfort as the lack of the action being unable to be repeated after months of wandering was soul-crushing.

She forced herself away from the image and back to the inventory screen. She tapped the icon for her beloved's favorite flower. In a flash of ancient swirling blue light, a silent princess appeared in her hand. She wiped a bit of moisture with her sleeve before it could escape her eyes, squeezing them together in a failed attempt to keep it all in.

She hoped that her exponentially building sobs were being drowned out by the lively nighttime sounds, but she was never that lucky.

The grass rustled with the nearing steps of someone she was definitely not expecting. Her head snapped up to the intruder, maybe Time had spotted her through his bedroom window, or she hadn’t been as successful at sneaking away as she had thought and Twilight had come to investigate, but it was neither of them. The pale light of the moon reflected off of a disheveled head of blonde hair with a distinctive streak of pink. It was easy to imagine him wearing a long floppy sleep cap, with an old brass candle holder that has a little handle only big enough for a single finger, on top of the nightgown he wore to sleep when they weren’t paranoid about the possibility of a midnight ambush.

“Champ? You okay?” The veteran’s groggy voice was only barely loud enough to be heard over the natural night sounds.

For a moment, she considered lying, dismissing his concern knowing that he was the least likely to pry into her mess of feelings. But she had been holding it in for far too long, and she knew for a fact that he would understand. Perhaps if it were in the daylight, when she could fully see his face, when she felt far more exposed, she wouldn’t have said anything. But the nuances of her expression were hidden in the darkness, and the exhaustion from the day wore on her judgment.

“I miss her.” She started simply but once she took the first step, she found herself tumbling down the metaphorical stairs. “I thought… after a hundred years, it would be over. We would be together and we wouldn’t have to hide anymore. We would get a chance to figure out what we wanted to be without the meddling of fate, but I guess I was being too optimistic. If dying couldn’t get destiny off my back then why would the defeat of some monster.”

“I know that it’s more likely than not that she’s safe and healthy and it’s far from accurate to say that I’ve lost her forever, it’s not like she’s dead or anything. She’s just so unimaginably far away that not even letters can reach, and I miss her. It feels silly to worry about that when there are mutated monsters trying to kill us at every turn, but no matter how much I try, my thoughts always return to her.” Wild continued, deliberately keeping her gaze away from Legends.

“For the record, I don’t think it’s silly,” He sat alongside her, joining her in resting his back against the tree, its curvature keeping them from having to look directly at each other, it was much more comfortable for both of them that way. “But if I knew how to help you I would probably be a lot more mentally healthy myself.”

“I wasn’t really expecting some uplifting pep talk, you’re not Twilight. I’m just tired of pretending that I’m fine all the time. It’s worse here, I didn’t expect to be jealous of the old man reuniting with his wife. They’re just too cute with each other, I can’t stand it.” A fraction of a smile found its way onto her face, though it had no correlation to how happy she was.

“I bet he’s cuddling her right now, the selfish bastard,” Legend spat, causing a surprised huff of laughter from his companion.

“How dare he, just look at the way he openly adores his wife! What an asshole!” Wild matched his mock outrage, folding her arms indignantly, the sheikah slate sat abandoned on her lap.

“The audacity of some people, honestly. Who gave him the right to be happily married within my view.”

“There should be laws against this. We should talk to his Zelda about it.”

“I’m sure she’d hear us out, I doubt they’re even less shameless in front of the queen. It’s probably annoying to her too,” The veteran reasoned.

“It is decided, I’ll write the proposal in the morning.” Wild slumped her head on Legend's shoulder as the exhaustion of the day left the stage of depressive spiraling and into actual weariness. The sensation of heaviness on her eyelids far outweighed the feeling of developing tears that had overcome them only minutes before.

She unfolded her arms and lifted up the glowing flower into her direct view again. The silent princess lazily spun between her fingers, its luminous pollen sprinkling off into the gentle breeze like fairy dust.

“Can you… not tell anyone about this? I don’t want to worry anyone,” The champion muttered after several minutes of blissful quiet.

“Just as long as you don’t tease me for being a softie again.”

“Then stop pretending that you don’t curl up and use Wolfie as a pillow every other night.”

“Shut up,”

In the morning they would be found unmoved from their spot under the tree, the silent princess would be braided into her hair, and the tears would’ve long since dried.

By the time Time awoke and would decide to check on his incarnations, and thinking of a fun way to wake them up, he would notice a blanket covering the separated duo, and he would decide to allow them a few more minutes of sleep. Though it wasn’t entirely out of the kindness of his heart, he knew they’d both complain about soreness when they woke up from sleeping in such an odd position.

It’ll serve them right for talking behind his back.

***

Sometimes it was easy to tell where the portals had taken them, they were a group of well-traveled heroes so there were many ways to determine when they had ended up. Whether that be from obvious landmarks or foliage only recognizable in one era or even just stumbling across people one of them knew directly. Hero-ing came with plenty of opportunities to network after all.

This was not one of those times.

Even if any of them could see further than a few feet ahead of them in the dense blizzard, it wouldn’t do much use. The snowy mountains all looked the same and not a single rock formation was enough for one to pinpoint their location.

Normally the group's goal would be to find civilization and ask about strange happenings, but right now, their main objective was to avoid freezing to death. Their resources were already spread thin, not all of them had been prepared for the extreme change in climate.

Four and Wind rode on Epona's back, accepting that the snow was far too deep for them to walk in without much in the way of protection from the elements. Legend and Hyrule had given up bundling themselves up separately and now shared both of their blankets in an attempt to retain whatever heat they could in the storm. Warriors scarf had migrated from his neck to being wrapped around his mouth and nose, and his hands were firmly being pressed under his armpits in an attempt to keep them from growing too cold. It turned out that fingerless gloves were only practical in more temperate environments.

Even Time had to forego his heavy armor in favor of as many layers as he could dig out from his pack, his jaw set stubbornly in place to keep them from chattering together in the unyielding chill of the wind. Unfortunately, it was a battle he would end up losing, though he put on a valiant effort.

Wild led them from the front of the group, as what naturally tended to occur when the world around them was treacherous and unknown. Though they were all seasoned adventurers, she had an instinct for wilderness survival that had saved their lives on many occasions.

For several hours she had feared that she had led them in circles, the eternal blinding fog from the storm made it feel as though they had stayed stationary the entire time. While they hadn’t made many turns it felt as though the boulder they had passed was the same one from an hour ago.

At first, they tried to spend the trek amusing themselves in one way or another, Wind tried to teach them a sailor shanty he had learned and was lucky enough not to understand the full meaning of, Hyrule started a very short game of i-spy that fizzled out once he realized that the only thing they could see was snow and the occasional tree. Four tried to quiz them on all sorts of knowledge but it turned out that what he knew was very different than what everyone else knew.

By the end of the day they traveled silently, quietly begging for even a hint that they had made any progress in their journey, and like a trail of light from the goddess herself, they were given something even better.

For a moment the blizzard eased up enough to see the valley they had just begun to enter. They were at the top of a familiar slope lined with balls of snow that had once been used to solve a puzzle. It took only a single glance for Wild’s hope to be reignited.

“Good news boys! I know where we are!” She forced more enthusiasm into her voice than she had energy left in her body, “There’s a cave at the bottom and it’s not even a boring one!”

Wild forced herself to slowly make her way down the valley to keep everyone in her sights, for the first few cautious slippery steps she was excited. She was home! She was finally in the same time period as Zelda, theoretically. Time travel could be weird but they never appeared just outside of anyone’s eras. Yet. So while recognizing a snow-covered slope wasn’t complete confirmation that Zelda was finally within arms reach, Wild decided to remain hopeful. Until she remembered how far away the hebra mountains were from Hateno. Or even just anywhere that her princess was likely to be. She couldn’t just expect that Zelda would remain stationary just because Wild wasn’t there to follow her around.

Her heart sank in parallel with the group's descent into the ice. She had no idea where Zelda would be, the shrines had been offline for a while, it was still several days hike to get to any form of civilization and it was more than unlikely that the first people they came across would just have happened to have seen the princess wandering by.

It was best to focus on her current task instead of letting herself hope like that. Get everyone to safety. Get out of the storm. Attempt to transfer all her useless emotional energy into something she can actually use, like cooking an astronomical amount of food, or hitting something really hard with her sword. She could pretend that exhausting herself in one way or another would help but knew deep down that it probably wouldn’t.

Soon the rectangular manmade opening was visible through the snow, Wild stayed at its edge to count each Link that made it there, hoping to Hylia that no one got lost in her haste to get to safety. Two on a horse, one leading the horse, two in a bundle of blankets, one trying to give his sailcloth to another who was shivering pretty hard, and one at the end making sure no one fell behind.

“Ready to see a really big skeleton?” Wild patted Time’s bicep as they entered the ice cave.

“Is it prone to reanimating?” The man grumbled, and the champion nearly laughed.

“Nope, it’s just a leviathan. Apparently, they used to be gods, but I think that anytime people see something big they say that.” Wild moved to help Wind off of Epona, normally he could jump off himself, but the ground was a little slick and it would not be fun to slam into it.

“That is a pretty big skeleton…” The old man's eye widened microscopically, for some reason, it was hard to impress him. She hoped to manage it someday.

“Link?” almost in unison the whole group turned their heads towards the voice, but none faster than Wild. She probably could’ve snapped her neck at the speed her head spun. If she had been holding anything, she would’ve dropped it without a thought.

Between them and the great skeleton was a modest campsite, only consisting of a fire and a bedroll, a little stool to hold a modest notebook while a white horse stood nearby, though it was none of those things that caught Wild’s attention.

Dressed in a mix of her royal wintery whites and insulating Rito fabrics, was the one person she had been yearning to see since the moment she left. Who, only moments ago she was mourning the lack of likelihood of being able to see again any time soon. Whose absence she had cried over and whose presence followed her wherever she went in the slate that sat at her hip.

Without making the conscious decision to, Wild was suddenly running, in moments that passed so quickly it was hard to tell if they happened at all, she had landed in her girlfriend's arms. The momentum caused them to stumble a bit but Wild somehow managed to keep standing, despite the weakness in her knees that wasn’t there a couple seconds before.

“Hey princess,” her voice was hoarse, and she was acutely unaware of the fact that she was surrounded by her brothers. It was like they had just disappeared and she hadn’t even noticed. She could only focus on the warmth in her arms and the smell of Zelda’s hair and nothing else existed or mattered.

“I hope you haven’t been getting into too much trouble,” Her princess teased quietly in her ear, Link could feel her smiling against her skin.

“I think you know better than to hope for that,” Wild backed away and loosened her hug, but only a little bit. Only enough for Zelda to squirm her arms to cradle her lover's face before pulling her in.

Her kiss was magic, or maybe it was just her. Link had spent so long holding onto the constant quiet sadness of missing her that it felt like a miracle when it evaporated from her being. She could hardly imagine knowing what sorrow was now. She could just be being dramatic, but her love for Zelda was enough to defeat a great beast made of hatred, it was a reasonable assumption to make that it was a powerful thing.

Link was so caught up in the euphoria of seeing her princess again that she had nearly forgotten that she hadn’t come alone. Thankfully when she was able to drag her eyes away from Zelda, her brothers had all made an attempt to give them some privacy. Some of them were better at pretending to set up camp than others, Twilight just stood at Epona’s side and smiled in the way he did that made her nervous about what stories he had in mind to embarrass her with.

At least while Hyrule was working on building a fire, he only let his curiosity draw his eyes toward them a couple of times. The others were somewhere on that spectrum of trying to give them a moment while also snooping with various rates of noticeability. Warriors was definitely just fidgeting with one of the bags on Epona’s back and not planning on actually unpacking. She could tell that Wind was just itching to meet Zelda and tease Wild about their obvious PDA.

She would’ve been nervous about their reactions, but she had hinted about her relationship for a while and they always seemed very casual about it. It had gone from agreeing with some of the others that girls were pretty, to practically stating outright that she was in a relationship with a woman. Though she never discussed it very in-depth, she still struggled with holding onto her emotions a little too tightly.

Wild took another lengthy moment to enjoy Zelda’s closeness before she’d have to start introductions and explanations, but for now, she was exactly where she wanted to be. Zelda’s gloved thumb whipped a tear from her face, with a look so fond she just might have gotten a cavity from it.

“You missed me that much, huh?” The princess's voice was borderline teasing but there wasn’t a hint of genuine malice in it.

“What can I say, I’m tired of being taken away from you. For some unimaginable, crazy reason, I’m just happier when you’re around.”

“It’s almost like you love me or something…”

“How absurd, it’s not like you’re the smartest, most beautiful, not to mention most strong and ambitious, princess in the history of forever. Now that I’ve done some time traveling, I can actually confirm that fact.” She tried to sound serious with her voice perfectly level but she was a little too high on emotions to have that kind of control. Thankfully Zelda didn’t seem to mind that she stumbled over her words a little or that her voice was a little hoarse.

“That’s not fair, you know I’m bad at taking compliments you…hero…” She patted Wild’s grinning cheek as a replacement for bumping her partner's shoulders or giving her a light playful punch to her perfectly solid biceps, but her limbs were being squeezed in a hug so the best she could do was pout and slap her cheek with only a few inches of built-up force behind it.

“You could also work on making up better insults for me, but I guess we both have our faults,” the hero laughed, her princess was easy to catch off guard when it came to sudden bouts of nice things being thrown her way, even more so when it was so clear to her how genuine Link consistently was about it. Zelda was trained to always search for someone trying to manipulate her or have ulterior motives, and it didn’t help that she spent so long without much kindness being granted to her at all.

“One of yours being that you’ve been ungracious to your travel companions,” the princess turned to the group of eavesdropping heroes, “I truly apologize on Link’s behalf, I’m sure she didn’t mean to neglect you all.” At the prompting, Wild loosened her embrace and allowed the princess to free herself, though she still kept an arm wrapped around her waist, it still felt too soon to completely let her go.

“Fine,” Wild rolled her eyes, “Princess, these are my spiritual predecessors, Link, Hylia’s first chosen hero,” She pointed at Sky, who managed a little wave, “Link, the small one,” She pointed at Four, “Link, the hero of time, I think it’s his dark counterpart that Kilton was obsessed with, I think he’s the only one with such dramatically middle parted bangs like that…” She gestured towards Time, who raised an eyebrow but stayed silent.

“Link, my favorite person to get lost with,” She pointed at Hyrule who smiled at his description, “Link, the pink one with too many titles and weird adventures so we just call him the Veteran,” She passed over to Legend.

“Link, the one whose horse I legally share custody of due to magic timeline weirdness,” She gestured toward Twilight, knowing that she would have to give her girlfriend much more information on that one, but it would have to be later. There were still secrets that should be kept.

��Link, the sailor who would be a pirate if he was less of a wuss and would let me peirce his ears,” Her smile towards Wind was not well received.

“Well, maybe if you wanted to do it with something other than the dagger you use to skin rabbits I’d be more interested!” He defended himself valiantly, but Wild just grinned as she moved on to their last member.

“Finally, we also have Link, the only one I don’t think we have records on but I’m still pretty sure he’s in the late era of myth.” Warriors performed a dramatic bow when Wild’s outstretched finger finally reached him. “Everyone, this is Zelda, the genius who is somehow crazy enough to put up with me. Now that that’s all dealt with, what do we want for dinner?”

***

For the first time in months, when Wild was able to settle down in her bedroll, she was fully at ease. She knew she would sleep easy and that she wouldn’t spend hours awake, desperately trying to lose consciousness. She was glad to not have to rely on pure exhaustion to get her to succumb to the darkness, that she wouldn’t have to find some quiet way to spend as much energy as she could whenever she wasn’t allowed to take first watch.

For once, she couldn’t wait to settle in and not be afraid of the potential nightmares that rejoiced in haunting her. Zelda had that kind of effect on her, erasing the recurring terror that refused to leave her mind, comforting her when no other person could. When normally she tried to hold out on sleeping as long as possible, she was nearly excited to lie down on a bed that was little more than a cocoon of cloth on a surface of ice and stone.

Zelda’s skin was smooth beneath her fingers, her hands had wedged themself between the soft warn tunic that she used as a nightshirt as if mere contact with her was a healing force. Though, Link supposed, it very well could have a power like that. It certainly felt like it.

The bedroll was large enough to fit both of them, just as long as they were cuddled tightly together, which would’ve only been a problem if they were stuck in Gerudo Desert or Death Mountain. But sharing heat was no issue, quite the opposite.

Their legs were intertwined like a messy braid, their bodies offset slightly so Wild’s head rested comfortably on her princess's chest. Short nails grazed through her hair in a calming rhythm that caused her to melt into Zelda’s form even more.

“I missed you Aryll.” her voice was soft, hushed enough to keep the name from reaching anyone else's ears. It was like a secret between them, her true name. It wasn’t as though she didn’t like the ones she was more openly called, Link or Wild, she was happy sharing a name with the heroes. She loved how it connected them and how it turned her from a person to a force of nature. It united them and showed that no matter how different they looked, they were the same in the ways that mattered.

But Aryll… that was the name that had long died off, that only a select few had the honor of knowing. It was who she was without the baggage of being the hero, free from the chains of fame, it was the name that wasn’t whispered among gossiping townspeople below the castle who scoffed at her accomplishments. There weren’t many people left who knew of her true name, a few Zora who still used the hero's name despite knowing she had another.

Link was the name of someone great, someone powerful and courageous that people would tell bedtime stories to their kids about, she was proud to be one of them, she wore the name like a badge of honor when it was once a row of chains. Link was the name of someone blessed by the love of the goddess and born to fight an impossible evil and even though it was a heavy burden, she knew that she could carry it and it was that name that led her to the one she loved most, whos breath she could feel rustling the hair on her scalp.

Aryll was a closely held secret, one she was reluctant to share with even the brothers she had grown so attached to. She trusted them, of course she trusted them with her life, but she already felt different from them, it was nice pretending that she was as much of a hero as they were. Deep down she knew she was separate from them, not just through her gender but through time and her failures, the name was just one more thing proving that she wasn’t really one of them.

She liked being one of them.

“I’ve missed you since the moment I left, it’s nice to be home.” Wild, Link, Aryll muttered into her princess's collarbone.

“We’re still pretty far from Hateno, nearly as far as we could get without leaving the kingdom,” Zelda commented.

“That’s just where our house is, as cliche as it is to admit, I feel more at home with you than some house I bought to keep from being demolished.”

“You’ve always been the sappy one, but I suppose home hasn’t been the same without you getting flour all over it. At least when I’m rambling at you, you usually hum or make some kind of noise to show that you’re at least pretending to listen. Hateno is a little lonely without your voice.” She uttered wistfully.

“That sounds pretty sappy to me. You know you don’t have to hide it, I bet there’s a journal full of poetry of your flowery words about me, I bet you could write about my countless clumsy trips down the stairs and make it sound like the kinds of songs Kass would sing. I know you have a magical way with words that have been lost with all of the bastards who poisoned the court. I’m sure you could make me do anything with those lips of yours.”

“Not in the same cave as your predecessors darling, you’re not very quiet on normal nights but this place has outstanding acoustics.” Zelda smiled slyly above Wild’s reddening ear.

“You know that’s not what I was trying to say… but I guess we should try to find some time alone at some point, I’m sure I could set the boys loose on Rito Village, I don’t think most of them have seen a Rito before. It’ll keep them busy for long enough for me to slip with you somewhere, just like old times.”

“I can’t say that I miss the paranoia of being caught, but I suppose there was a certain thrill that came with it. I’m sure we can find some dark corners to pull each other into.”

“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve also been looking forward to this, to being with you again.” Though she was weary from traveling and the months of yearning left her exhausted when she finally had no reason to do so anymore, though she had finally found an overwhelming sense of peace that weighed her down like a hefty worn blanket, she fought to stay awake, just a moment longer. It seemed like such a waste to spend her time with Zelda sleeping when she knew all too well that it would be limited.

“Close your eyes, my dear hero, I’ll still be here in the morning, if anything tries to take you away from me until then, they’ll be sorry.” Zelda seemed to read her mind, though it wasn’t as if this was the first time Link had remained awake in her lover's arms, as if they were about to lose each other at any moment. Perhaps she just wasn’t that hard to read.

“Hylia help any poor soul that tries to get in your way,” Link huffed a silent laugh, though she still took a moment of hesitation before closing her eyes. There was still a drop of uncertainty. There was still a chance that when she awoke, her princess would be gone. Whether it be because this whole miracle had been a dream, it surely felt like it, or because the pursuit of dark monsters required a more rushed investigation.

“Sleep Aryll, you know you won’t be able to resist for long anyway,” Zelda rested her chin on her swordswoman's head and tightened her grip around her shoulders just a little bit tighter.

Aryll enjoyed a slow deep inhale, relishing in her princess’s aroma that she had longed for, the only faint reminders lingered on the clothes she had brought with her but the scent had faded into nothingness. Now she was here, totally and completely consumed by it and her warmth once again.

She couldn’t imagine wanting a single thing more.

#zelink week 2023 #zelink week #yearning #zelink #fem!zelink #linked universe #lu wild #lu flora #lu legend #linked universe fic

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xoteajays · 7 months

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If you ever get blood on your clothes, use peroxide, soak the stains in peroxide before washing the clothes. That helps remove the blood for you. Just in case you need to remove blood from any of your clothes.

Exactly! Rocky is the only one who could convince Koo to do things if you needed someone to convince him about anything. And I could be able to see Koo not listening to Rocky's girlfriend either... But that will be until she convinces Rocky to convince Koo. Because I can see that happening between those three. Rocky would be the only one to even be able to convince Koo to dress up for Halloween on occasion. But it would only be for group costumes. No one else could do that. So I am sure Kizzy would complain about Koo a lot of the time when he never does what she says. Cue the bickering from the one sided argument.

I'm adding onto my sexual canons for Rocky.. I might have mentioned this before. I can't remember. So I could imagine Rocky incorporating food into sex. Mostly candy, fruits, creams, sauces, honey, all of that.

Well.. I just looked at the poll. Not a single person voted Rude Boys at all, even though there were people who said they'd really love to see a character affiliated with Rude. So I might still have her being affiliated with Rude Boys in some way while being affiliated with Rascals at the same time. I'm not sure how yet. But I'll think of something... I may be able to figure that out. I do like the Rude Boys. But I felt like not many ideas I had for her as Rude seemed interesting, her backstory actually seemed more fitting for someone in Rascals (even if she's not abused by anyone). White's natural hair color is that golden honey brown, just like how Takeshi's hair was in the show and first movie - so maybe the other characters would think they were related even though they may never have a blood relation. But she could be friends with Rude in the same way as Rascals (along with other gangs too). Maybe since she's friends with Rascals and Rude, she helped stop the war between any of these gangs with Kuryu was selling the redrum drugs. Because the gangs were ready to go to war over that - especially between Rascals, Rude and Sannoh mainly. And she could also be a witness to so many other events that happen around Rascals. And! Besides those almost wars between Rascals, Rude and Sannoh over the drug factories that were in Nameless City. She could also be witness to the a lot of shady secretive dealings with the Rocky's businesses, like the situation with Dan being framed by Lala and the bald man (before you'd find out his character is affiliated with Doubt). And there is also the fight between Rocky and Jesse too. Amongst many other situations that I can't ever think of at the moment for some reason. But those are my examples.

I can't think at the moment for many reasons. My mind is scattered in this moment. So between having a migraine and a slight panic attack from anxiety.. I'm just trying to regulate my breathing at the moment.

So her signature color is somewhere between white and green. Like a light green? Obviously she's technically my White character whenever we are talking about the gangs, but I would also like to give her colors that isn't only white though. Maybe there isn't much I can do with the color white as themes for her character.. I know that actually does not make sense to you, but it makes sense to me. I'm figuring things out.

And like I said.. White is someone who wants to help people who have been less fortunate in any way she can. So I do keep imagining her as one of my characters who actually wants to help Rude Boys in a lot of ways, in ways she can. Even if they're able to provide for themselves.

So I want to make her charitable but not too charitable. Because I will say that I don't want Rude to hate her for thinking that they can't ever provide for themselves, their friends and everyone else in the city too.

I don't know if White would have a romantic ship. I'm not sure. But! If I ever do give her a romantic ship, that person is not Rocky in any ways at all. Her relationship with the Rascals are just platonic. And maybe a familial relationship in a friend way with certain people (with Rocky as one of those people). He would be a close friend, even like her brother in some way. But I'm still figuring out her relationships with everyone.

And as for Blue. I don't know if she would have a romantic ship. But if she does, the only person I could actually possibly imagine her with in any way would be Murayama. And that is not because they happen to be the blue characters. Mostly because.. Orange's endgame ship with Cobra is most likely going to happen. And even though Rocky is not a man who discriminates any woman, I can't imagine Blue being even a little romantically involved as a couple - they're just friends. And I just can't imagine her with anyone in Sannoh in a romantic ship, same for the Amamiya brothers. Not sure about anyone in Rude Boys though. Murayama would probably be her romantic ship between that would be how I imagine them? She's introverted, he's extroverted. She's shy, and he's outgoing. He could be able to get her more out of her shell in a way, just like she could be able to slightly mellow out his energies. A typical opposites attract in that way. If Blue is romantically shipped to another character though. I'm not completely sure if she really will be.

White is born in 1995... So she is the 'middle sister' of the color coded characters. Red would be the eldest sister since she is the oldest one. Blue and Orange are the youngest, Orange would be the baby though since she was born months after Blue. They're sisterly to each other.

Yeah.. I can't remember. How many times a week they force people to play the games. Almost every day is a game, but I think they only ever participate if the actually need to. So imagine being intoxicated when going to these games. Have fun dying then. And they do mention this whole game of Borderlands does have duplicate cards.. I doubt that if there are people who accidently got the same card would comes ever come from the same exact game. If that game for that specific card's actually the same, that would be boring, but also very ease enough to beat then. At least of the most part. But that's up to you when writing your story though. I still wish they elaborated on those details for any person who would be curious about that though. But maybe if there's a chance that the games are the same game for duplicate cards, then I could see that working if people didn't already play that game if that makes sense. Panic attack made me tired so I'm not making sense.

Yeah. The only people you see wearing regular clothing would be only some of the militants. Wait.. When Aguni shoot Hatter in the building, was he wearing his swimsuit? I'm really not able think at the moment.

But Kuina really wear some regular clothes though.. Mostly jeans over her swimsuit whenever she leave the hotel, but sometimes she wears those jeans at the hotel too. And the executives always really seem to wear clothes too. But that is based on what I can remember though.

Let's say this is a scenario where Chishiya wasn't already a part of the Beach hotel. He's wearing clothes (more clothes before and after they were at the Beach hotel). Since he starts wearing clothes after Beach.

And he made his own weapons too. He had headphones so he can be able to listen to music, I know that isn't a weapon but he was still able to use those headphones. And he had his homemade taser that really was made up spare parts that he could find. So he can create his own weapons to protect himself. I doubt he could be able to at the Beach.

And if Chishiya only recently became a part of the Beach? That could have taken two to three weeks for him to become a very high ranking member of the counsels. Which is impressive in a short timing with a lot of that to have happened to and for his character then. So.. Yeah...

Aguni's like me.. He hates at first sight. So we'd have that in common.

Banda is definitely hearts.. Yaba would either be a hearts or diamonds person. They're not capable of clubs or spades for obvious reasons as they're both murderers. So hearts and diamonds for those two. But it is obvious that I would be stuck on what their level would be though.

Seeing color palettes swapped for the opposite person (or character) is a mind fuck. In a good and bad way. But it's interesting to see every different appearance out of curiosity though. I don't know why. But I'll always see difference appearances for them is very interesting to me.

- 💋

sorry this is late(and short) i had a shitty couple of days.

rocky is the only person koo listens to. that’s his boss and his bestie and he’s listening to literally no one else, and especially not kizzy - which you know annoys her. rocky can convince koo into costumes if it’s like, a duo costume.

i think mint green or olive green accents would look good if she’s connected to both rude and rascals. most of the rascals seem to accent with black, but there’s rocky’s red gloves. so it could work.

i always plan for romantic ships when i make characters, it just helps me develop them a bit more i think. sometimes i make characters just to fit in the world, but most of the time i’m planning for (usually romantic) dynamics between characters.

since the games are every night, i assumed they’re sending them out every night. and it looks like they were assigned to game locations as well, since they had papers telling them where they were being sent. and they can’t send them out to specific suits games since apparently they don’t know what kind of games they are until the registration is done, which i didn’t realise on my first watch but i’m not changing in my fics whatever fuck it agshdkdl.

i haven’t gotten up to that ep yet (been distracted writing), but i think he was? like i feel like i remember him wearing board shorts and the robe.

i don’t think kuina started wearing the jeans until the second season after the beach was done. since she was just in her bikini in the lightbulb game and in the witch hunt.

chishiya is very manipulative so i could see him endearing himself to hatter to land himself in a high position with the executives. i don’t think really any of the other members liked him much tho. like ann or mira, and especially aguni and niragi. i think kuzuryu might’ve found him interesting but i don’t remember much about the king of diamonds game.

looked at all those links!

#💋 anon #tj answers #long post //

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stefciastark · 3 years

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Peter Snaps ~ Webpril Day 14

A/N: WARNING! Major Character Death.

After five long years without Peter, Tony finally gets the kid back, but the universe can have such a sick sense of humour.

~Read it on AO3

~Read it on FFN

Tony looked up from where he lay prone on the dirt and stone beneath him. Moving his limbs took a monumental effort, and he didn't know how much longer he could go toe to toe against Thanos. The suit had begun to reflect light strangely, various scrapes and indentations distorting its silhouette. The helmet no longer covered his head, too damaged beyond repair to do its job anymore.

Peter was nothing more than a distant dark blur in the distance, weaving in between the multitudes of Thanos’ army. He was progressively moving closer, Stark-made Infinity Gauntlet in hand, and Tony wanted to cry out to him not to come any closer, to turn around and run as far and fast as his legs could take him. This was no place for a kid.

The sounds of distant gunfire and battle cries echoed in the distance but rapidly faded into nothing more than muffled noise. Five long years. Tony didn’t care if it made him look like an overprotective helicopter parent, but there was no way in hell he’d be letting Peter out of his sight ever again.

Peter’s breaths came in harsh exhales rhythmically each time his left foot hit the ground. Curled against his chest was the Gauntlet, half the size of his torso and awkward to carry. He was almost out of webs which was just as well; out in the open terrain, the only opportunities he had to swing were few and far between.

He saw Valkyrie soaring overhead on her - and Peter couldn’t believe he’d be able to say this, Ned wouldn’t believe it - winged horse, spear in hand. Peter saw her target: a nearby Leviathan he could smell from where he was, almost 2000-feet away.

Watching the spectacular display of warriorship, he grinned for a moment at the magnificence of it all. The spirit of the moment faded quickly however as just past where Valkyrie flew, he saw Tony’s form hunched over, one hand stabilising his weight on a nearby rocky outcrop. The distance between him and the large hulking figure of Thanos was rapidly closing, and Peter knew that there was only one way things would pan out… But, he thought, his legs hitting the ground increasing in speed, when you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.

The Titan strode towards Tony, hungering for the job to be finished - for Iron Man to be nothing more than powder and dust beneath his feet. His steps were almost lazy and dripping with sadistic intention.

Tony had barely recovered to a standing position when Thanos placed his boot atop his chest and pushed, the combination of Thanos’ sheer mass and strength sending him crashing to the ground once more. The air was knocked out of his lungs on impact, and it was only with deep measured breaths that he was able to draw in the oxygen his body was starving for.

“I’m going to enjoy this...very, very much.” Thanos loomed over him, tossing his double-edged sword to the side. He wanted to finish it with his own hands. Tony’s struggles were fruitless, blasts from the repulsors glancing off of the Titan’s armour, the suit and its wearer spent.

Thanos bent down briefly shifting his foot’s position on Tony’s chest, his right hand in an open cylindrical grasp aiming for the space surrounding Tony’s neck.

Feeling the pressure lift momentarily, Tony took in a shuddering breath before the pressure resumed in force, in that moment just hoping that when the end came that it would somehow be quick.

“Hey, you dropped something!”

No.

The side of Thanos’ double-edged blade - now covered in webs - greeted his face as he turned to locate the voice’s source. A thin stream of purple trickled down his temple, and lips curled inwards and nostrils flared in fury, Thanos turned to face Peter, dropping Tony from where he had held him feet above the ground.

Tony’s promise to himself to protect Peter was ultimately short-lived. For the life of him he couldn’t move. It turned out the universe had a sick sense of humour, and Tony had hoped he - and Peter for that matter - wouldn’t be the butt of the joke this time. His kid’s silhouette was dwarfed by the Titan, the Gauntlet no longer cradled against his chest but stuck in a tug of war that Peter couldn’t win.

Suddenly going slack and removing all of his resistance, Peter watched as the Gauntlet went flying to his left, tumbling down a small hill before laying still on its side, Infinity Stones twinkling faintly. Peter knew he wasn’t stronger than Thanos, but he sure as hell was faster.

He dove towards the Stones, feeling rough gravel scrape along his knees and arms. He quickly grasped it in his left hand, holding it above his right, watching as the device began to shift and change to match the size of its wearer.

Peter didn’t care if he made it out alive or not. That moment was larger than him. It was larger than Tony. It was larger than all of them.

The second the gauntlet closed around Peter’s hand he felt a pain that was like nothing else he had ever experienced in his life. Veins of light pulsed up his arm and into his jaw, and it was all he could see and feel. In one agonising combination, it felt like flames were progressively licking their way up and down his body and stretching its tendrils towards his chest, viciously incorporating the feeling of putting his body in a pool of water filled with ice. Starting from the tips of his fingers, everything burned and then went numb.

Locking eyes with Tony from across their small arena, Peter saw Tony’s eyes widening in abject horror, realising what he was about to do.

Mouthing ‘thank you’, Peter smiled faintly and snapped.

-----------------------------

The brightness blinded Tony as everything was bathed in a shower of white. Around him, Thanos’ forces crumbled, soon nothing more than dust in the wind. The desperate dictator was the last to fade.

Everything was quiet, except for the faint metallic clang of the Gauntlet hitting the dirt, and the scraping sound of fabric sliding down stone.

Adrenaline powered Tony to his feet as he put two and two together, and stumbled towards where the crumpled form of Peter sat, back against stone.

Peter looked small and fragile, so far from the larger-than-life kid from Queens. His eyes, usually so full of life, were unfocused, but as they found Tony’s, a faint twinkle of life returned to them. “Hey Mr Stark...did I do it?” It was barely a whisper.

“Hey kiddo...yeah, you did it.” Tony fell to his knees in front of Peter’s frail form, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly, corners of his mouth turning upwards in a sad smile.

The smile quickly faded as Peter’s head began to loll gently to the side, eyes losing their focus once more. Tony got a proper look at the price Peter paid. The right side of Peter’s face was covered in burns, the skin charred and caked in a mixture of dried and fresh blood. Eyes trailing down, the damage extended down the whole right half of Peter’s body.

Peter felt numb, everything around him existing in a faraway dreamlike state. He couldn’t feel much of anything except for the warmth on his shoulder where Tony’s hand still remained. His head was heavy, and he couldn’t quite get his lips to move. He felt a vague prickle of frustration in the back of his mind. Why couldn’t he move his lips? He had so much he wanted to say to Tony...

“Pete, don’t you go to sleep on me. You’re okay, just hold on for a bit, we’ll get you out of here, alright?” Tony’s hand shook on Peter’s shoulder but got no response. Tony knew the kid wasn’t going to make it. He felt rather than saw Pepper, Steve, and Rhodey land behind him.

Peter felt his field of vision going gray, the colours and light of life slowly fading from his surroundings. He was able to have one last good look at the man he now called his father as he was pulled in against Tony’s body.

“You’re okay, you’re okay…” Tony’s whispered reassurances were more for himself, trying and failing to convince himself that none of it was real. Peter would be taken to medical by Quinjet, and within a week he would be bounding with that endless energy Tony had come to love. Tony would make him a prosthetic if he needed one. Everything would be fine. Everything would work out exactly the way it was supposed to.

Cradling the boy’s head to his chest, Tony felt Peter’s last exhale before he went still.

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Catchy sparrow song goes 'viral' across Canada in continent-wide phenomenon

https://sciencespies.com/nature/catchy-sparrow-song-goes-viral-across-canada-in-continent-wide-phenomenon/

Catchy sparrow song goes 'viral' across Canada in continent-wide phenomenon

White-throated sparrows in British Columbia are whistling a new tune and it’s going viral across Canada.

What started as a minor change to a common song has now morphed into a continent-wide phenomenon before our very ears.

“As far as we know, it’s unprecedented,” says biologist Ken Otter from the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.

“We don’t know of any other study that has ever seen this sort of spread through cultural evolution of a song type.”

When Otter first moved to western Canada in the late 1990s, he heard the white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) singing an unusual tune. Instead of sticking to the species’ usual three-note finish, local sparrow populations were ending their tune on two notes.

youtube

Between 2000 and 2019, this small change has travelled over 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) from British Columbia (BC) to central Ontario, virtually wiping out a historic song ending that’s been around since the 1950s at least.

No one knows what’s so addictive about this new ending, or why it can’t exist alongside the three-note variant, but scientists are trying to figure it out.

Thanks to citizen scientists, researchers were able to analyse the songs of 1,785 male white-throated sparrows, which were recorded from the 1950s onwards.

While it’s not unusual for populations of sparrows and other birds to change their tunes, it usually remains a regional dialect. It certainly doesn’t spread like the one from BC.

And yet, from Alberta, to Saskatchewan, to Manitoba, this unique ending crossed Canada’s prairie provinces in record time.

“It could well be a “we haven’t noticed it before”,” admits Otter to ScienceAlert.

“Now that there is so many more songs from vast areas being uploaded each year, it is possible to start exploring whether this is a more general phenomenon in other species.”

In 2004, the data show Alberta’s sparrows were still trilling away with the triplet ending typical to the species. Ten years later, all the males in that region had shifted to a doublet ending.

By 2015, it had spread to central Ontario, completely supplanting the three-note ending in the northwest. By 2019, it had reached western Quebec, covering the entire western portion of the species’ geographic range.

Altogether, that’s a linear distance of nearly 3,300 kilometres.

“Within the regions where the doublet-ending song variant spread, it also completely replaced in the process,” the authors write.

“To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented rate of song-type transition in any species of birds.”

Using citizen science databases, like eBird and Xeno-Canto, the new study shows the songs heard on the wintering grounds tend to match up with where the sparrows are from.

“This concentration and intermingling of birds from large portions of the breeding range suggests that the spread of song variants among populations may be facilitated by song tutoring on the wintering grounds,” the authors write.

Incidentally, there are reports that the white-crowned sparrows (Z. leucophrys) sometimes incorporates elements of other dialects during winter singing.

To test this idea, researchers attached geolocators – or what Otter calls ‘tiny backpacks’ – to 50 male sparrows in British Columbia. They then recovered the devices after the animals had migrated, some to the west and others to the east.

Several crossed the Rocky Mountains and entered a new breeding region, which could have feasibly spread the song’s new ending to eastern populations.

“We know that birds sing on the wintering grounds, so juvenile males may be able to pick up new song types if they overwinter with birds from other dialect areas,” says Otter.

“This would allow males to learn new song types in the winter and take them to new locations when they return to breeding grounds, helping explain how the song type could spread.”

Why males end up adopting this new ending is still unclear. Otter says the ending might simply be compelling because it’s unusual and unique. Like many other bird songs, however, it could have to do with females and their preferences.

“In many previous studies, the females tend to prefer whatever the local song type is,” says Otter.

“But in white-throated sparrows, we might find a situation in which the females actually like songs that aren’t typical in their environment. If that’s the case, there’s a big advantage to any male who can sing a new song type.”

And it might be happening again. Researchers are currently watching a new song variant that has suddenly emerged in western sparrow populations and is rapidly spreading.

Perhaps this time, we can figure out why.

The study was published in Current Biology.

#Nature

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browniesarethebest · 5 years

Text

With Great Power Comes Great Problems

Sam knew that being God entailed all sorts of new abilities—many of which he would probably not be able to name until they manifested.

Sometimes, they showed up at very inopportune times.

Sam knew something was wrong as soon as awareness came to him.

Chirping birds.

Voices.

Too bright.

Breeze.

Bed too hard and...itchy?

Sam’s eyes shot open as he bolted upright, startling a pair of girls that were walking by him. A guy behind them laughed.

“You late for class, bro?”

“What the…?” Sam muttered as he stood up from the grass. A cursory glance told him exactly where he was—he’d recognize this place anywhere.

Stanford.

How the hell did he get here?

Sam’s thoughts raced. He and Dean were supposed to be in Iowa on a vampire hunt. They were still trying to figure out the location of the nest when they had gone to bed in their motel room that night. So how…?

Sam vaguely recalled a dream he had been having when he woke up on the ground. He didn’t have as many dreams (nightmares) about Stanford as he used to, but they still popped up every once in a while. This one had been a memory of Jess and him studying outside, taking advantage of the nice weather.

His thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone ringing. Seeing Dean’s name, Sam answered the phone with a relieved “Dean.”

“Sam, where the hell are you?”

Sam looked around again. “You might not believe me, but I’m at Stanford.”

Silence. “...What the fuck are you doing back there? And how did you get there so quickly?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“You think it has something to do with—”

Sam interrupted before Dean could finish. “Yeah, probably.” Sam looked around again. “Look, you think, uh, you could call Cas to pick me up?”

“Why can’t you do it, bitch?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Because he always answers you, jerk. Me? He—” Sam stopped, frowning. “I-I guess he would be more likely to answer me now, wouldn’t he?” Sam pulled the phone away from his ear and looked up at the sky. “Cas?”

“Yes, Father.” Sam looked down and found Cas kneeling in front of him, head bowed. He ended the call without a word to Dean and sighed. “Please stop kneeling.”

Cas immediately stood. “Yes, Father.”

Sam sighed again. “Cas, we talked about this.”

Cas frowned. “I apologize...Sam. It is hard to remember sometimes when I see…”

Sam slumped his shoulders. “Yeah, I know. As long as you’re trying. Anyways, I was wondering if you could give me a lift back to Dean?” He glanced around the quad. “I’m...not exactly sure how I got here, and I have no idea how to get back.”

“Of course.” Cas laid a hand on Sam’s shoulder, and they were gone.

Dean had described what it was like flying with Cas before—just suddenly appearing in a completely different place (as well as nausea and other weird side effects)—but it was so much more than that. Had Sam stayed human, he would never have been able to perceive the vast distance they were traveling. He could see everything down to the minute detail—from the snow sitting on the peaks of the Rockies to an acorn falling from a tree in the middle of a forest. When they reached the motel in Iowa, Sam felt himself become incorporeal before crossing through the wall and into his room. They solidified behind Dean, who seemed to be massaging his temples in an attempt to stave off a headache.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Mother—!” Dean spun around, grabbing at his heart. “What have I told you about doing that, man?”

“I apologize, Dean.” Cas grimaced.

“Yeah, well, I’ll believe it when you remember to not just pop in.” Dean stepped forward and clapped a hand on Sam’s free shoulder. “Thanks for bringing him back, though. How was your trip to Stanford?”

Sam scowled and shrugged Dean’s hand off. “Not fun. Have you figured out where the nest is?”

“Course I did. Just because you took an impromptu vacation from the case doesn’t mean I would.”

“I didn’t—” Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Nevermind.” He turned to Cas and gave him a small smile. “Thank you for bringing me back. I don’t think I would have been able to do it myself.”

“Of course.” Cas replied, his expression so serious it made Sam slightly uncomfortable. “Let me know if you need anything else, and I will come.”

With that said, Cas left, leaving the brothers to stare at the spot the angel had been before Dean grinned at his brother.

“Right. Well with that done, let’s get to that nest and gank some vampire ass.”

Sam randomly teleported (it had to be teleportation since he didn’t think he had wings) in his sleep a few more times after the first incident, inconveniently leaving his brother behind to work on hunts alone until he had woken up and called Cas to take him back.

He put his foot down, though, when he woke up in the middle of a snowstorm in Siberia.

“I think I need to learn how to control this before I end up stuck somewhere because you couldn’t come right away to bring me back.” Sam said to Cas before the angel could fly him back to Texas. “Besides, you’re probably getting pretty annoyed having to drop whatever you’re doing just to come help me.”

“I could never be annoyed by you asking for my aid. I will always come when you call, Father.” Cas glanced to the side before looking back at Sam. “I mean, Sam.”

Sam shifted, uncomfortable with the absolute devotion in Cas’s eyes. “Riiiight. It would be best for me to learn how to stop anyway. I don’t want Dean to worry about me because I’m not in the room when he wakes up. And what if I start accidentally doing it while I’m awake? What if I accidentally leave Dean while we’re fighting the latest monster?”

“Then this time you will try to go back without my help.” Cas answered. “Try to imagine where you want to be. You want to think specifically unless someone is praying to you, which you can follow to the source. Without a prayer to guide you, you must know exactly where you want to go, or you may end up hundreds of miles from your destination”

Sam nodded. “Right. Makes sense.” He closed his eyes and tried to picture the current motel room he and Dean were staying in. When he felt the wind and the cold abruptly disappear, he grinned in triumph. It quickly fell, his eyes shooting open, as someone screamed.

Instead of Dean, a middle-aged woman was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, screaming as she attempted to cover her naked body. Sam held his hands up and backed away.

“Sorry! Sorry! Wrong room! Cas!” Said angel appeared, and the woman fainted.

Sam cringed. “Could you, uh, make her forget this happened?

“Of course.” Cas crouched beside the woman and place two fingers on her temple. When Cas drew his hand back, Sam stepped forward and gently lifted the woman up. He laid her in her bed and covered her in the blanket.

“Hopefully she’ll just think she accidentally fell asleep.” Sam stepped away from the bed and looked at Cas. “You think you can take me to Dean? I don’t want to accidentally end up in someone else’s room again.”

Cas smiled and approached Sam, his hand already reaching out for the hunter’s shoulder. “Of course. However, you were very close. Your room is only two doors down.”

Sam sighed in relief as they reappeared in the correct room. Dean, who had been sitting at the table and cleaning the guns, stood up and leaned back against the table.

“So where’d you go this time?” Dean asked.

Sam glared back. “Siberia.”

Dean coughed in surprise. “Really?”

Sam’s glare deepened. “Really.” He turned to Cas. “Thank you again for bringing me back...and trying to help me learn how to get back myself.”

“Tried?” Dean’s eyebrow rose as he smirked. “Where’d you end up?”

Sam turned his head and snapped a “shut up” at Dean before turning back and smiling gratefully at Cas.

“After you finish the hunt, we can practice some more.” Cas said, smiling back.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Dean rolled his eyes and rose from the table. “All right, enough of the chick flick moment.” He reached behind and grabbed a gun and ammo from the table, bringing them in front of him and loading the weapon. “We got work to do, Sammy. Cas, you coming?”

Cas hesitated, eyes darting towards Sam before focusing back on Dean. “...If that is acceptable.”

Dean holstered the gun and strode to the door, slapping Cas on the back as he passed the angel. “Course. Let’s go gank some rawhead ass!”

Sam and Cas shared a look as they followed behind Dean. As they all climbed into the Impala, Sam mused about how they wouldn’t need to drive anymore when Sam learned to control his teleportation.

Dean turned the ignition, and the car roared to life. Sam turned to look out the window and smiled to himself. Even when he learned, they wouldn’t stop using the Impala—it was their home.

Dean cranked up the music, singing along loudly and slightly out of tune. Sam rolled his eyes.

Maybe teleporting once in a while would be fine.

#sam winchester #spn #spn fic #supernatural #dean winchester #castiel #supernatural fic #sam is god #sam winchester is god #lol i just realized i had Dean talk about ganking ass twice #oh well #i'm not gonna change it since it's already on ao3 #my fic #fic

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heathinator · 5 years

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Toy Story Human AU deets

I got an ask about a month ago concerning details from my human alternate universe, since I draw the toys as humans relatively often. I put it off until now since I was in the midst of college finals and losing my mind n’ all that. For like a year now I’ve been casually writing a web-comic style story that’d incorporate all of this stuff, and one day I really hope I can dedicate some time to actually drawing it out, but until then here’s what I’ve got:

The events take place in the 90′s, in a little county called Stanton (I’m so original I know...). It’s located in the Western US nestled in the Rockies. There’s a smaller town within Stanton where Woody Pride grew up.

Woody never knew his father, and his mother passed away when he was a teenager, so the town basically raised him. It’s always been his goal and passion to protect and be a leader over the people of Stanton, so naturally he’s been elected as sheriff for a few years and has every intention to remain so.

Bo also grew up in Stanton, and she’s known Woody since they’ve been kids. They’ve got an “It’s a Wonderful Life” George and Mary kind of relationship, where Bo’s probably been in love with him her whole life. She works as a teacher at the elementary school.

Buzz basically comes from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command universe. As part of a dangerous solo mission, Buzz infiltrated Zurg’s lair on planet Z to gain intel on a secret invention Zurg’s scientists had been creating that had the capability to wipe out entire planets. Buzz was not only able to get information on the weapon, but he also stole a vital part of the energy source, a rare material that Zurg had to steal to get in the first place. The plan was to rendezvous with Star Command with the new intel, but Buzz was discovered and pursued in his ship. Zurg’s henchmen were able to damage Buzz’s hyperdrive, thus causing it to malfunction and hurl him light years away in uncharted space, inadvertently landing him in the Milky Way and crashing on Earth.

Woody and Buzz’s first encounter together go about exactly how you’d think: not great. The town thinks he’s some sort of super cool secret agent from NASA, while Woody’s convinced Buzz is some crazed loony. Things get worse when the town is enamored by Buzz and his ability to deal with criminals, and think he’d make a great county sheriff. All the while Buzz is trying to figure out how to get off the planet and back to his primary mission of stopping Zurg.

It all comes to a head when the two get taken hostage by a notorious criminal in the county and have to work together to escape. Buzz has to come to terms with the fact that he may never be able to leave Earth, and Woody opens up to the idea of sharing the responsibility of taking care of Stanton, even after he learns the truth that Buzz really is an alien from another planet. Buzz joins on as deputy sheriff, although the two get to the point where they work so closely together that either could be sheriff. Buzz decides that it would be wise to keep the alien stuff a secret from everyone else in town.

About a year later, after tracking down another notorious criminal in the county, Woody and Buzz are able to catch him at last. Just as they’re wrapping up, a member from the criminal’s gang targets Woody, shooting him in his shoulder. In all the confusion not only does the shooter get away, but the criminal escapes as well. Woody turns out to be ok, (except for an arm he’s not supposed to use for awhile) but he feels guilty and inadequate, like maybe he’s not the best one for the job, or that with Buzz there Stanton may not actually need him anymore.

When sort of lamenting all of this, Woody is caught off guard and knocked out by a traveling salesman who takes him out of Stanton, where he finally learns about his father, who was a musician, performer, and TV star who passed away years ago. He meets Pete, a man who allegedly knew him and his father when Woody was very young, and Jessie Pride, the sister he never knew existed. Abandoned by their father when she was young, Pete became sort of a second father to her. He manipulated her and convinced her that nobody else could love her, so she stayed feeling utterly trapped with Pete. The performing troupe led by their father was popular back in the day, and they’d been trying to revive it after all of these years with little success, but were convinced that if Woody joined the troupe (who was the spitting image of his father) they’d get their big break, getting them out of the poor living condition they were in.

At first Woody had no intention of staying, but Pete manipulates Woody into believing that he’s no longer needed in Stanton and that he’ll be happier to start a new life with them. They get an offer to do a long term Woody’s Roundup revival in Japan, and prepare to leave. In the meantime, Buzz has been leading a search party for his friend and finds him, where of course he has to talk some sense into Woody and prevent him from leaving. Pete becomes furious and forcibly takes Woody and Jessie to the airport. Turns out Pete wasn’t really living the hard life after all, since becoming Jessie’s primary caregiver he had taken possession of all the money their father had left them after he died. But after discovering Woody’s existence and terrified he would somehow show up to take back the inheritance, Pete set up a ruse to kill both Pride siblings and leave the country. They manage to stop Pete, and jump off the plane before taking off, but Pete escapes custody.

Ideally this point in the story would be where I’d start my comic, beginning with Jessie’s adjustment to Stanton and their adventures between what would be the 2nd and 3rd movies. Jessie would become good friends with Bo, and eventually would decide to join Woody and Buzz in tackling crime in Stanton and the strange occurrences that seem to have started ever since Buzz landed on Earth. Jessie’s growth would come from her becoming her own person, and taking on Pete again as a recurring vengeful villain. Bo would have her own issues from a mysterious past that even Woody was unaware of, and her ability to grow stronger from it. Buzz would would still wrestle with his guilt of not being able to complete his mission, and trying to express his feelings towards Jessie with whom he is absolutely smitten. Woody would still be struggling to understand his worth and position over the people of Stanton, and that he can prove to himself that he can protect them. All the while members of Star Command and Zurg’s empire alike are looking desperately for Buzz and the stolen bit of the device, and they’re getting closer than Buzz ever thought they would...

Anyway holy cow this was way longer than I intended it to be. Like I said, hopefully one day I can actually get this dang comic started, but until then at least you know what’s going through my head when I’m drawing these guys. 😬

#toy story #human au #woody #buzz lightyear #jessie #bo peep #good grief this is long

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deathbyseventeen · 5 years

Text

From my story game...

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Alrighty - Good Love from NU’EST’s Aron for Joshua *I'm grooving to the song* shoutout if you can tell where incorporated parts of the song’s lyrics hehehe.

Anyways like I said before, I’m trying to get my sea legs back (my writing abilities) so my apologies if this ain’t it chiefs. (Also I didn’t tag you who requested this bc I didn’t know if it was alright to tag you....)

To start off let me just say this was making me groove so hard.

Alright, so this definitely a soft fantasy type of story. Lots of Romance with just a tinge of angst.

So let’s say this a world where life has moved onto plants far away from ours and because of this Earth can’t really control the life on those plants and they’ve gone rogue and independent, and somehow y’all have gone medieval. You, dear reader, are a member of the royal guard on your planet; and so is Joshua. However, the two of you are part of different teams, the two big teams that everyone wishes to be a part of. The teams’ citizens pit against each other. Just for fun lets call your team “Starlight” and Joshua’s team “Starbright”

So this is basically how it goes down “Starlight would totally kick Starbright’s ass.” “Would not!” “WOuld too! Starlight has Y/N!”

This plant y’all live on was discovered to be extremely green. And by green I mean it has Earth-like life -- plant life but to extremes. Plants can move now and grow exponentially. So where does our story begin?

The dear king of your plant calls both of y’alls teams down to his throne room and makes you each volunteer two people that will go on a mission. These two people, in the end, are you and Joshua because it was decided you both would be the least likely to go at each other's throat.

Your mission? Figure out what’s been causing the plant to have these extreme tremors. On the other side of the plant.

So you take off, all geared up with your swords and stuff. Capes and all.

But do you guys want to hear a little secret? Joshua likes you. And you like Joshua. But... every time he asks you out...you keep saying no. WTH

Traveling through the dense forests Joshua doesn’t bring it up. But when you guys reach your first stop, a little village a day’s away from the main kingdom.

You guys are trying to conduct interviews, seeing if anything is out of the ordinary. But, people are avoiding you guys. they see you guys and they turn the other way and one guy even ran away. But one kid, one freaking kid decided he’s got nothing to lose and ends up telling you guys that a weird man had been setting things under the ground and threatened the entire village to stay quiet or he would return and kill them all. WoW, Evil.

Anyways, no one wants to give you guys a room to sleep in and spend the night. So Joshua suggests sleeping in a barn. What other option do you have? And there’s no escaping his flirting. His coddling. His scooting closer to you and enveloping you in his arms because “it’s winter, Nights are colder than ice. WE need to preserve HEAT.” When all he really wants is to cuddle and take you into a really long kiss. And you’re almost asleep when he-- “Y/n?” “Hm?” “Go on a date with me.” “No.” “But why not?” “Because I don’t..like you?” “Y/N.” But that’s where it ends. ALways, And it keeps happening at every stop you make. Now even sometimes when your traveling in the forest.

(but let's be real here. He doesn’t give up because you actually do reciprocate the flirting he does every now and then)

And then it seems you reach one village that is in the midst of a festival. You guys pause your search for clues as to what the hell the man has been planting underground. You say it’s because this village hasn’t been touched...but really it’s because the villagers have coaxed you both to enjoy their moonlight festival. Long story short-- you end up dancing with Joshua and under all the pretty lights that have been strung across the village. You’re finding it really hard to resist Joshua’s advances. Y’all are dancing when Joshua has the guts to ask you out again and this time you can’t seem to say no but you don't say yes either. Both of you are leaning in getting closer and closer. Your eyes are starting to close and you can feel his breath fanning over your face. You can almost feel the ghost of his lips. They’re brushing over yours when a scream rips through the air and hell is set loose.

“I warned you what would happen if you didn’t do as I said.” A dude is floating over the festival, getting closer to the people wishing they could sink into the ground. Wait. Is that dude riding a cloud? What the--

You and Joshua pull out your swords and face the man when he notices you guys.

“It seems I have come at the wrong time. No matter, this will teach you all a lesson about disobeying.” He charges at you and somehow you can't seem to move. The entire moment is just overwhelming. The dude is manipulating elements. And just as he's about to grab you, Joshua jumps in front of you. Lightning strikes him and he’s hauled away.

The villagers are coming up to you screaming. They’re telling you everything and I mean EVERYTHING. Even where to find him.

You don’t know what to do. can you face this man alone? You need your team! But there’s no time to head back, the man’s hideout is a week’s journey away. So you set off alone. Battling the beasts and deadly plants that pop up along the way. Then you reach the place. This lair is hidden within the structure of these rocky mountains. You haven’t rested, you’re running on pure adrenaline. Your about to set off up the mountain when someone tackles you.

“What the hell, Y/N?!” It’s your team...and Joshua’s team, all dressed up and ready to go. Oh, and they are going off on you. They know you haven't slept. And you didn’t even send a messenger to tell them what was going on.

But they’re on your side too, it’s time to get Joshua back. Y’all set off and infiltrate the place. It’s strangely empty. Everyone’s splitting up trying to find Joshua.

You’re on the brink of tears. Your heart’s pounding. Blood is rushing to your ears. Then you find him, deep underground, at a low level. Keys were conveniently left by the side of the door.

And when you finally reach Joshua, oh geez, he’s been tortured and stripped of all his gear and armor, left in only his underwear (boxers). He’s a bloody mess on the floor, cuts, and bruises literally everywhere. You’re a mess too, not caring about the noise you’re about to make as you run to him and throw anything and everything in your way away.

“Joshua?! JoSHua?!” You’re crying, pulling him onto your lap and using your hands to wipe some blood away from his cheeks. “Joshua wake up! Wake up!”

You can just barely hear him say your name. “Joshua,” you cry.

“I need...”

“What? WHat?” You full on sobbing.

“I need your love.” ....that effig flirt. Really? Right now?

“Joshua, you idiot.” You cry. You’re trying to stand up and pull him with you when you notice that he has chains attached to his arms. You’re unsheathing your sword, pulling it out to break the chains. You’re so engrossed in getting him out you don't realize there’s someone behind you, and it’s the evil dude! With his own freaking sword.

Luckily he’s only able to lodge the sword in your shoulder before your teams are running swords at the ready. Jeonghan, one of the members of Joshua’s team gets him before he can kill you.

but sadly you’re losing a lot of blood, and you’re sleep deprived....and really you didn’t each either on your journey here. My my you aren’t getting past this one.

You black out. The blood loss is enough. The last thing you see is the floor getting closer, but on the bright side so is Joshua.

The next time you wake up you’re in the royal infirmary and you’re all patched up! You’ve been ordered bed rest though. But Joshua’s still in the infirmary too and like hell, you’re about to leave. So you sneak off to his cot and just sit there. At one point you reach out to run a hand over a cut he has on his cheek.

“I’m sorry. Please wake up. I do like you. But our teams--”

Joshua stirs awake. He mumbles something. ‘

“Josh--”

“When I’m with you everything is special.” Bam! He opens his beautiful brown eyes TT

“Wha--”

“I need--”

“What? What do you need?”

“Your love.” He smiles and it hurts! Because you can see it hurts him to smile.

“Stop smiling you idiot.” You say. He chuckles and you can’t help but bend down to nuzzle his cheek and press a kiss there. But he isn’t having any of that! He’s been waiting for that kiss! So moves his head and pulls you into a kiss, that slow and passionate kiss that oh dear...he’s been waiting so long for.

On another note - Neither your team nor his were opposed to the both of you. Jeonghan told them all. Joshua had told him how long he had been in love with you before so....

THE END

SEND IN A FIC TITLE, MEMBER, AND A GENRE AND I’LL TELL YOU WHAT I IMAGINE. OR A SONG AND MEMBER! (GENRE TOO WITH THIS IF YA WANT).

#Seventeen Imagines #Seventeen AU #Seventeen Fanfiction #Seventeen Quick Imagine #Seventeen Joshua Imagine #Seventeen Joshua Imagines #Joshua Hong Imagines #Joshua Hong AU #Seventeen Joshua AU #DeathbySeventeen #Requested #Inbox

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moistwithgender · 5 years

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Monthly Media Roundup (May 2019)

The march of time inexorably proceeds beyond my grasp and so I must write another post. I’ve been a bit burned out, just focusing on one diversion (it was Zelda, you know it was Zelda), but after finishing it I recovered enough energy to get a few more things done in the last half of the month. I didn’t watch any anime or read any manga in May, though I did read some 70s Marvel, which I liveblog in my “curry reads comics” tag. Last time I did an actual capital-P Post about my Marvel reading was a year ago after marathoning a full(ish) decade. If people are interested in more of that I could work at making posts for each year of issues I read, recapping the developments and my thoughts on them (which will become more relevant as Events become more common, I imagine). I’ve just got a few games to talk about this month, but I imagine I have a lot to say about at least one of them.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch): 2 years ago I did something I extremely rarely do: stood in line at a Best Buy at midnight for the release of the Switch so that I could buy it with BotW. BotW was also out on Wii U, which I had, but the promotional material for BotW had struck such a chord in me that it justified making the jump for the new console (this would eventually become troublesome when the first model of joycons failed, but, well). I got home, put some ten odd hours into it, and then put it down for two years. I’ve always had a problem where, struck with the intuition that I will end up forming a deep relationship with a work, I will put it off for years. I put off Persona 3 for five years after buying it at launch, and it eventually became the most personal game experience I would have, even seven years onward. I think the two factors that pushed me to finally play through BotW was wanting to watch a friend stream it (but also not wanting it spoiled for me), and needing a distraction for when I was taking care of my cat.

It’s been about two months now since he passed away, and I finally finished the game at 215+ hours about half a month ago. So, I was playing this game as a coping method while preparing for loss, and in dealing with loss. It’s appropriate that the game is effectively both a fantasy about reclaiming at least part of what you have lost, and a colossal exercise in coping. The game is as much about getting distracted from your responsibilities and fucking off to snowboard in the mountains as it is about being aware of the world around you. The Zelda games have frequently used themes of Shintoism to portray harmony in nature and in civilization. I’m currently replaying Ocarina of Time and the cosmogony myth (is it a myth if a talking tree explains it to you?) specifically words the goddesses as “[giving] the spirit of law to the world” and “[producing] all life forms who would uphold the law.” When I was younger (see: early 20s) I didn’t scrutinize the text much but now I figure it’s reasonable to read “law” as “natural order”. It should be noted that for an N64 game, OoT has remarkably good prose. BotW, in transitioning the series in what may be its third main genre (as opposed to the genres of Zelda 1 and OoT), has taken that Shintoist aesthetic and incorporated it into the entire philosophy of the game’s design. More than just being a game whose narrative concerns an imbalanced world, BotW embraces the trends of open worlds and immersive sims to create an immense, varied space where the coded laws of physics are always impacting the experience. Thunderstorms make metal equipment a liability, while rain covers the sounds of footsteps. Wind can sweep away items, fire and high temperatures affect flammable objects (including yourself), and aforementioned metallic items can conduct electricity, which can be used to solve puzzles in unintended ways. Weather changes regularly based on the region and changes the world in tandem. Rain doesn’t just fall, it actively collects, and ponds become bigger, and surfaces become slicker. Each systemic element (pun not intended) that was incorporated affected everything else in the world, and in interviews there were mentions that changing the volume of wind in one area had a butterfly effect on another, causing pots to fly off of patios in a village. It’s no wonder the game took five years to make, considering how rarely glitches occur in the game (and most that I know of have to be deliberately recreated for exploitation). You’re engaging with enemies as much as you are with the environment, and at times even with your own body, creating and consuming food and drink for the purpose of staving off sunstroke or frostbite. As a result, BotW’s Hyrule is immensely palpable, and easy to lose oneself in from how livable it feels.

When I first started playing at release, I was a bit disappointed to discover that villages existed in-game, as early promotional material and the state of the Great Plateau you start on painted a picture of a lonely world. In the end, the soundtrack and vast amount of uncolonized land does give an understated sense of melancholy that defines the game, though the fact that every five steps you’ll find a Korok micropuzzle waiting to YA HA HA and fanfare at you betrays that a bit (I still love those Koroks and their puzzles, don’t @ me). The NPCs in this are numerous, though, from the occupants of the villages to wandering traders, and their personalities are all distinct and charming, and probably the best I’ve ever seen in a game, or at least in a long time. If this game wasn’t railroading the Link/Zelda relationship so hard, I would have liked a Dragon’s Dogma-style “date any NPC (within reason)” mechanic. I’m just going to have to start a “NPCs you should marry” side-tumblr.

Another defining aspect of the gameplay, and easily what makes the game surpass arguably every other Zelda, is how Nintendo heard the decade or so of complaints about the linear Zelda lock-and-key formula being reiterated to the point of stagnation, and, after great success with A Link Between Worlds’ item rental subversion, just decided to make everything optional. You do the tutorial on the Great Plateau, and, if you feel especially gutsy, you can beeline it straight to Ganon. He’s in horse-riding distance, or running distance, if you’re tenacious. Will you make it to him, survive the hordes of enemies, and take him down? If it’s your first time playing the game and you haven’t learned the systems, probably not. Is it possible? Absolutely. Much like how the monthly cycle of a Persona game is a proverbial Rocky training montage of preparing for The Big Fight, everything you do in BotW is in preparation. A lot of open world games can feel dissonant in that you’re incentivized to be distracted as a player and make your own fun, meanwhile the protagonist keeps saying “I’m gonna get bloody revenge on the mafia boss!” during bowling matches. There is still, unavoidably, a sense of urgency played up for narrative sake in BotW, since Impa insists Zelda is waiting and can’t hold Ganon back forever, but it’s all much more narratively justifiable, if you want that. You know, because Zelda is for hardcore roleplaying.

I couldn’t resist a second playthrough, even after logging 215+ hours, so I went ahead and started a separate file on Master Mode, Nintendo’s weird in-house, in-franchise rebranding of, uh, a hard mode. Previously it was called Hero Mode. Why do you--well, okay, I know why they do it. They’re likely trying to distinguish it from a “we just tweaked the numbers” hard mode, and also want to make it feel less threatening than something labeled hard mode. If they’re going to go to the trouble to make it a distinct form of play, they want to try and appeal to everyone. And it is fairly distinct. All enemies are bumped up one rank, so a red bokoblin is blue, and a blue bokoblin is black, and so on. There is a new strongest rank of enemy, though in my run I did not seek them out. There are enemies (and treasure chests!) perched on flying rafts, which can be one-shot with proper bow aiming, but also carry dangerous elemental arrows, and can alert all other enemies in the area. Stealth is much more difficult, and pointless early in. All enemies regenerate up to a third of their health, including bosses! Though, that can be temporarily interrupted by inflicting any amount of damage on them, so it behooves you to be on the offense. Less autosave slots! This wasn’t a problem for me. Guardians randomly delay the firing of their beams! This was absolutely a problem for me and I avoided them entirely in my run. In the beginning when tools and resources are scare, particularly on the Great Plateau, Master Mode is at its hardest, and its most thrilling. Rather than aimlessly exploring, I was pressured to decide where I knew things were, and beeline it to them. Sometime in-between two of the four main optional dungeons, I had amassed enough valuable resources that the game had settled back into the same kind of difficulty as normal mode. Bosses were a little harder due to regen and my resources being somewhat scarcer, but they were manageable. Competently performing flurry attacks (upon successfully dodging attacks at the last second) was extremely valuable to me, but I imagine with enough food in my inventory, I could have brute forced my way through a lot of the fights (though, uh, obviously thou wouldst like to live deliciously (please hate me for this phrasing)). I chose to forego the Master Sword for the sake of challenge, and beat Master Mode with only seven hearts, in around 25 hours. You should play Master Mode, it’s fun.

Here’s a little gameplay SPOILER:

Something I haven’t done, but would like to eventually do, is avoid the main dungeons and just head straight to Ganon. When I played Master Mode, I wasn’t totally confident, and did the dungeons for the resources. After watching some speedruns I learned that if you skip the dungeons, and therefore the main bosses, you have to fight them all at once immediately before the fight with Ganon, without breaks.

That. Sounds. Great.

Wandersong (PC/Steam): Have you heard about Homestuck?

Okay, wait. Wait. Come back, wait. Stop leaving. PLEASE.

Okay, I got the most inflammatory sentence out of the way. Now that we’re eased into that: Wandersong is unignorably influenced by Homestuck. Homestuck conjured a lot of baggage, from having a really difficult, pretentious, arrogant author (I should know, I gave him the benefit of the doubt for way too long), to having some unfortunate narrative turns, to being a billion words long. Wandersong invokes the vaster-than-God scope, the minute and personal perspective of the heroes, and its inclinations toward emotional intelligence (it still surprises me Homestuck had these moments given the author’s deeply unsympathetic sense of humor), and… condenses it! It also makes it a light puzzle-platformer and is about performing music (note: not rhythm, you don’t have to have ANY rhythm), and looks like a Paper Mario game. It is very charming, very funny, very optimistic, and most surprisingly, uncompromising at times. Wandersong says that you, despite your role, are capable of great things, especially self growth and change, as long as you commit to it. If, faced with the consequences of your bad decisions, you choose to double down and keep at it, you will reap what you sow. This is distinctly different from Undertale’s brand of pacifism route optimism, where “no one has to die!” This brand of optimism is a measured but enthusiastic “you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, but you can save the rest” and I think that’s a uniquely valuable message.

I was a little confused about the resolution of the communist uprising chapter, but I recall the game bringing my cynicism into question, and the most important thing a work can do is make you question yourself.

(Also, if any of my mutuals are low on funds but interested, I do have a drm-free version I can share.)

Minit (PC/Steam): I don’t think I actually have a lot to say about Minit! It’s very fun and curious and short. You play a little… duck… thing, and you pick up a cursed sword which kills you in one minute. Then you wake up the next day, and die in a minute. Then you wake up the next day. Having only sixty seconds of vitality, you have to optimize your exploration. There’s a slow-speaking old man who you will die listening to, but the hint he gives at the end of his sentence will lead you to something valuable. There’s a guy in a bar angry about the lack of music. If you change the music, he will probably dislike it. If you keep changing the music, you might live to see him like it. There’s a boat ride to a tropical island you have to grit your teeth and wait through. Not all of the events are slow, some are quick bouts of hurried exploration. Most of it is, given the time limit. I’d say more, but given the overall length (it took me about an hour to finish), I’d risk spoiling a sizable fraction of the experience. It’s about $10, though I got mine in a Humble Bundle Monthly subscription. The spec requirements are very low, so your laptop can likely run it.

A Hat in Time (PC/Steam): Heads up, I’m gonna get into a lot of spoilers for this game, including endgame spoilers, but also heads up, the story isn’t really the point in this game. This is a game about tone and platforming. That said, I’m gonna be talking exclusively about the weird ideas in this game, and if you want those weird ideas to be a surprise, then just skip ahead until I put up big letters.

I’m somewhat hesitant to be critical of A Hat in Time because despite a number of weird Things about it, I recognize that it’s quite popular with a lot of people, and that always makes me pause and want to figure out what it is that makes it pass the bar for others. My guess at this point is that it invokes nostalgia through its unmitigated imitation of games that came before. The games it chooses to ape are all your childhood’s Greatest Hits, Wind Waker (which it most resembled in its earliest development), Super Mario Sunshine/Galaxy (which it most resembles now), Banjo-Kazooie, Psychonauts, etc. It never really surpasses those games, for me, and at times cribs from them to the degree that it obscures the game’s own identity. After all, what you enjoy may help define you, but you wouldn’t say it’s your personality. Well. Unless you kin the Gamecube. I guess. There are bonus levels to the game’s different “worlds” (I thought they were different planets, since your hub area is a spaceship, and you access them via different telescopes, but it turns out it’s just one planet?), and you can collect photographs, which sequentially tell a story about the residents of that “world”. Psychonauts did this because each level took place in the mind of a character, and the photos together told a story about the character that fundamentally changed the way you thought about them, and made the whole game feel richer as a result. I collected the photos for all but the DLC levels in AHiT (those are Really Hard), and of those five or so worlds, none of those bonus photos told me anything that changed how I thought about the characters. There’s a dock town run by a mafia (s-sorta) led by a chef, but did you know they all used to work at a processing factory before going there? There are two manipulative bird directors who are fighting over the same studio to produce their own film and win an award, but did you know they… wanted to be directors since they were kids? There’s a devil analogue who steals people’s souls if they wander into his forest, but did you know he was a prince, and the princess was mad he talked to another girl (it was a flower girl, he was getting flowers for the princess), and imprisoned him until they both the prince and princess turned into evil ghosts? That’s the only one that comes close to being an “oh” moment, but I don’t think it does for the reasons the writer was hoping for. In general, these are prologues without substance.

Speaking of substance, the game has a bit of an issue with theming. At least, it does at first. The first town is the previously mentioned dock town, run by a mafia. By “mafia”, I mean a bunch of meatheads who talk about how they like punching people, and refer to themselves individually, in the third person, as Mafia. Mafia loves to punch the poor and the birds. Mafia is a one-dimensional character copy-pasted across 20% of the game. Mafia laughs. They’re run by a chef, but also they can’t cook, so there’s a cat chef in hiding who routinely swaps out their food with his so no one has to eat bad food. I don’t know why, when the town has maybe three non-Mafia character. He does eventually leave and board your ship, so maybe he’s just looking for something to do. The leader of the mafia also boards your ship, for a joke and to sell you an upgrade. The mafia are also afraid of mud monsters, or aliens, or something. There’s a girl with a moustache named Moustache Girl who wants to use your Time Macguffins to overthrow organized crime, and Hat Girl decides that’s a no-go. There are giant faucets around the town that replace all the water with lava. You might be noticing these things have little to no connection. You might be suspecting this level was made first when the dev was inexperienced. I might be suspecting this. It’s fine.

Later worlds do a much better job of theming. There’s the movie studio split between two birds. One of them a penguin, who prefers science fiction, the other a…

...hmmm. I suspect this guy, The Conductor, is an OC the director has had for a while, maybe since childhood, that they just decided Is A Bird, and carried it into the game, since the game occasionally is like... bird?? Alternatively, it’s some sort of corruption of Woodstock from Peanuts. Possibly both. Anyway, this guy just wants to make movies that take place on wild western trains. He has a strong fake Scottish accent, and the penguin, named DJ Grooves, is some sort of disco Elvis. They’ve both hired owls as actors, and some crows have snuck onto the train set (the crows are so obviously the G-Men from Psychonauts’ Milkman level it bothers me a bit). This is already a little busy, but it’s okay! Birds, movies, two distinct genres, and you trapped in-between them, just trying to collect your macguffins. It works. You take part in both of their movies, and your performance in both determines the winner, when suddenly… CORRUPTION WAS AFOOT, and you have to explore the depths of the studio and engage in a showdown.

Another world is a spooky forest where your access is restricted by completing certain contracts for the devilish character. Sometimes it’s murder (reasonable), exploring a haunted mansion in survival horror format (ooh!), fixing the plumbing in a well (wait, what), and doing mail delivery (back up back up). Half of that works. The finale of the forest makes up for it, though. This game insists on most of its bosses having like 4-5 phases and breaks for dialogue and the gall required to get away with that honestly earned my respect. They’re pretty fun times.

The best level to play is, unsurprisingly, the first DLC. I say unsurprising because it’s clear the dev is learning as they go, and the level design improves as they go along. Aside from bonus levels, the first DLC takes place on a massive cruise liner titled the SS Literally Can’t Sink. Ha ha. It’s split into three parts. The first part has you exploring the many interconnected rooms of the ship to find broken shards of a macguffin, the second part has you taking that mental map and using it to frantically complete multiple timed fetch quests at once, and the third part, now that you understand the ship pretty intimately, capsizes the ship, requiring you to traverse frigid waters and overturned scenery to retrieve babies and the ship’s incompetent but adorable baby seal crew (the seals speak in hewwo talk, the game is unforgivably loaded with memes but let me have this). This progression is my favorite in the game, and while I haven’t bought the Nyakuza Metro DLC, I’m looking forward to it.

The ending level had me a bit bewildered at first because in the beginning when Hat Kid refuses to use time powers to stop organized crime, I saw it as a hamfisted way to create tension between Hat Kid and Moustache Girl. Apparently it was working up towards the moral of the story. In the final level, Moustache Girl has stolen all the macguffins, and possessing ultimate power, becomes corrupted ultimately, and summons everyone in the world to her Bowser castle to be judged and die. On first glance, I thought “well, sure, that’s sensible,” but when Hat Kid finds the support of all the villains in the game, I was a little confused. The villains sacrifice themselves to give you infinite health, explicitly stating that they’ll just come back through time magic if you win so who cares (cool stakes), and you overcome authoritarianism with the support of corrupt hollywood, organized crime, and the literal devil. This would be fine if at some point Hat Kid, you know, took them on a Zuko Quest to face turn all of them, but that doesn’t happen. They just all decide “hey yeah, fuck this girl! Also we don’t have time for the nuance this might require!” After all is said and done and you collect all your macguffins, you’re given the choice of leaving the defeated Moustache Girl a single macguffin so she can defeat the mafia (whose side are we on) or just saying nahhh. Neither appears to make a difference, but maybe in a year or two we’ll get a DLC that makes you regret your words and deeds. You try to fly your ship to your home planet, and the villains all grab on to your ship, which is in space, begging you not to leave. I seriously suspect they intended to incorporate face-turn scenes and just couldn’t find the time, because nothing but physical proximity implies these guys would have any emotional attachment to Hat Kid, and that’s a bit of a stretch. Anyway, Hat Kid brooms them off the ship to plummet down to earth and flies away. Sheds a tear about the whole thing. In the end, the moral was that Order good, but too much Order bad, except if you are Hat Kid, in which case Chaos good. Or maybe…

After finishing the game I decided to look into any left over secrets, since my completion score was in the 80s of percents. Turns out that if you use the camera badge to finagle the free look feature into a marginally open armoire somewhere on your spaceship, you can find a shrine to Hat Kid with a couple skulls, a bunch of blurry photos, and some strange symbols. If you doing this while wearing the mask that lets you see the secrets of the dead (for platforming and puzzle purposes, of course), there’s a bunch of alien text you can decode. And then there’s some youtube channels. And a twitter account. All sharing more of those decodable ciphers, all talking about vague dreamy apocalyptic histories and dark betrayals. Or something. That’s right, this game’s got a fucking ARG. I cut things off there. If the developer Gears for Breakfast is gonna make an occultist grimdark sequel to A Hat in Time, they can put up a trailer for it.

OKAY I’M DONE TALKING ABOUT A HAT IN TIME, the short of it is that I had a lot of mixed feelings but had fun.

How did I end up talking more about A Hat in Time than Breath of the Wild? What are my priorities?

Well, that’s everything I finished in May! Will I get back to anime and manga in June? Guess we’ll see! Again, let me know if you want me to do year-recap Marvel posts, since my liveblogging is mostly just shitposts, and the occasional attempt at thoughtfulness among those posts feels kind of out of place. Honestly, I’m probably gonna do that anyway, but it’s nice to see interest. If you read all this, thanks a lot! Go play Breath of the Wild and Wandersong.

#curry plays games

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lostinthe-pines-blog · 5 years

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Beginnings - Chris pt. 2

This is a set of stories about the past and events that brought everyones Hartfeld favorites together. Once all parts have been told I hope to incorporate them into a slightly altered storyline about the Hartfeld gang. Though I will not get to far ahead of myself. This first story brings us into Chris’s origins, how his parents met and how he came to be. Some names have been changed to fit with in my story line.

All character rights belong to PixelBerry and their Choices stories The Freshman, The Sophomore, The Junior and The Senior. TAG LIST: ( this is a tag list from all of my pervious Freshman related fics. Please let me know if you’d like to be added or removed)

@jared2612 @katurrade @annekebbphotography @emerald-bijou @jellybean-marshmellow @jollybouquetangel

Chris was a “growing boy” as his mother put it. At 9 years he’d grown into his own personality and had picked up a vocabulary far beyond most of the other 4rd graders. He’d just welcomed a new baby sister named Josephine who joined himself and his 3-year-old brother Kyle. Chris resembled his father in almost every way, his piercing icy blue eyes and defined bone structure were Powell traits without a doubt. His brother resembled neither parent but more his grandmother on Barbra’s side with dark brown hair and rounder features. And Josephine was following the following her eldest brother in showcasing those strong Powell jeans. Lately his head was always on the patch of grass in the back-yard tossing footballs back and forth with his father, and never on the studies of the page in front of him. Barbra was beginning to notice him falling behind.

Every evening after dinner his father would take him outside and they’d practice for their own personal “Super Bowl.” Tossing his worn and deflating football back and forth. Chris idolized his father, his first word was ‘Dad’, when he was old enough, he’d only pick out clothes to match his dad, and when Josephine was born he suggested the name Frankie for her instead. The events of that winter would mark the young boy for the rest of his life. As hard as his mother would try, he would completely change after this.

But something was different about this cold winter night, and Barbra had even felt different for the weeks before. She was finding her daily list of things to do longer and longer, it didn’t take her to much time to figure out Frank had stopped helping out around the house. She’d begun to notice him coming home later and later, and she feared that if she asked him about it she’d get an answer she wouldn’t like. She knew her husband inside and out, she hadn’t see disappointment like this on his face since his mother died. Something was eating at him, but he refused to talk. She hoping giving him time would let the situation cool down. She loved him still, with everything she had. But she began to believe that the changing of the years was something they wouldn’t survive.

Frank picked up Chris from the neighbors house and instead of taking him outside for their daily “superbowl” his father put on Star Wars Episode II -the movie he’d received for Christmas- on the Television in his parents large bedroom and asked him to look after his siblings. Chris had never been entrusted with his siblings before, and he wasn’t sure why he would now. But he’d always done what his father asked without question, and it wasn’t often he got to lay in his parents huge king size bed.

As Barbra cleaned the kitchen of their small home she listened to the baby monitor, detecting her daughter upstairs. The sounds of the brothers acting out the film they were watching distracted her from the sounds behind her. Frank Powell was leaving, over the earlier weeks he had been slowly packing the items he needed intending on leaving the rest behind. The self doubt he’d carried all his life had simply become to much for him. He’d decided that their lives would be better with out him, that he couldn’t continue to disappoint if he wasn’t there. He’d made the choice to leave only a few weeks after Josephine was born, knowing he was clueless when it came to raising a daughter. As he stole one last glance at the beautiful girl he’d once loved she turned, catching him in this weak moment. “Frank?” she questioned with half a smile on her face “What are the suitcases for?” she wondered as the smile wiped from her cheeks. She hoped it was not what she thought it was for, but she inevitably would be correct. “I’m sorry..” he whispered hoping he would have been able to sneak out and avoid this conversation forever. “Frank!” she yelled now dropping the wet dishrag wondering what was the correct next move to make as Frank moved toward the door. Shaking with anger and fear swelling inside her she raced infront of the door. “Do not be a coward Frank!” she screamed at him but he gave no response. Barbra was unmoving, she would not let him go not if she had a say in it. But her actions angered him and the already frustrated man bore new colors in those moments. “What do I tell Chris… My parents, Sheila and Rocky. What do I tell them! Why would you do this to us. Why!” she demanded not letting a single tear leave her body. But for the first time in her life she saw in him hatred. “Tell them whatever you want.” He snarled, he wasn’t thinking clearly and the signs she’d been ignoring for months became clear. He was drunk and he had been since the birth of their daughter. “They need you Frank, I need you.” Barbra pleaded on last time before her deepest fears became a reality. Franks firm hands grasped her shoulders tightly. “Stop!” she yelled “Ouch, Frank stop!” she tried to fight back but he held her arms tightly before tossing her to the side as if she meant nothing as if their years together were nothing. When she finally got back on her feet again he was gone and her heart was shattered. He’d never touched her like that before and it left her completely broken. She didn’t know where to go from there.

Chris fell behind in school that coming spring and while it was only third grade that’s not how his principal saw it; and he was ordered to repeat the year again. And the kids he thought were his friends mocked him endlessly. Chris began to find his new best friend after that, his mother. But being with her he was starting to grow up too fast. Being her support, and helping her with everything. But while he carried the handsome looks of his father, he held close the traits of his mother that he learned in those venerable years.

In 2006 the finances of Pennsylvania became too much and Barbra moved her small family back to her hometown. Downsizing from a house to a 3 bedroom apartment where Chris and Kyle would share a room. In what inevitably became a divorce Barbra had claimed all guardianship, and all friendships. Rocky and Sheila, now with kids of their own, assisted in their move.

“Barb” Shelia spoke her her long time friend just moments before the sent off the moving van. “I wouldn’t have anything I have now with out you, you are still an incredible force, and you don’t need a husband to see that.” Sheila wrapped her friend in a tight hug as Rocky approached.

“Have you head from him?” Barbra asked sheepishly to Rocky. Even after all these year she couldn’t find the power to fully move on.

“No” Rocky sighed “I’ve tried, I’ve been trying for years but I’ve seen and heard nothing since he signed the papers” Rocky wished he could help the woman crossed from his that he’d always remember as the vibrant 18 year old. “I’m sorry Barbra for everything you’ve been through”

“I’m not” Barbra stood tall, “I’m coming out on top of all of this, I know it.” she sighed “I can’t thank you both enough” her voice began to crack.

“We are always here for you Barbra” Rocky noted as he joined hands with Sheila who had tears forming in her eyes for her college friend. See only a year or two after Frank and Barbra has moved to Philadelphia, Rocky and Sheila joined them. After Frank was gone they knew it wouldn’t be long before Barbra would leave too.

“Please call me, weekly, daily even!” Sheila cheered with sadness in her tone.

“I will Shell, I will” Barbra offered the best smile she could as she took a deep breath and climbed into the moving van.

In 2010 Chris the now 16 year old football player would experience “love” for the first time when he began seeing the a perky blonde cheerleader named Nicole at Cherryfield High School. Barbra feared for the mental damage that could be done to her son, but she knew she needed to let him be a teenager. That she couldn’t judge his young love just because hers and turned sour. She held her tongue through his entire relationship with Nicole Patterson, ironically the daughter of the boy Barbra had attended her own Junior Prom with.

Chris gave every kindness his mother had passed on to him to the blonde girl. But she accepted none of it back, she was cruel in all the kindest ways. Chris was falling in love and she was using it to her advantage. Nicole was not Chris’s first kiss, that would forever belong to Julie Morris in Pennsylvania. But Nicole did take Chris’s virginity, though he did not take hers. Creating a stronger attachment to her after their intimate night Chris couldn’t see the error in her ways no matter how much his friends warned him that she was “evil.” She’d used him in every-way she could until the spring of their senior year as college acceptance letters filled the conversations of his friend group, the truth of who Nicole was, came out.

“Read it out loud again!” the sweet sound of Barbra’s voice flowed through the air of the same small three-bedroom apartment her family had called home since early 2006. “Welcome to Hartfeld!” Chris’s laugh flows through his voice again as he reads the news he never thought would come “It is with great enthusiasm that I write to congratulate you on your admission to Hartfeld University!” Chris continues as his mom bounces on the balls of her feet. Hartfeld was Chris’s last hope, the four other schools he’d applied to had denied his acceptance mostly for his juvenile misdemeanor from his middle school years. A mistake he regretted and was finally paying the consequences for. But it seemed that now Hartfeld was the only choice. In this moment of joy shared with his mother he began to worry. “Hartfeld is the farthest from here… it wasn’t my first choice.” Chris explained. He was worried about leaving his mother behind. He’d been helping her pay rent since the Lobster Shack hired him at 15 years old. Now he’d not only be taking that income away, he would also be adding a mountain of student debt to it as well. His fair skinned and sandy blonde mother didn’t seem to have a worry or care in her in this moment. She was merely happy for her strong but worry some son. Barbra sighed placing one hand over her oldest sons. “Christopher” she offers a comforting grin. “This is not the time to worry… this is the time to celebrate. So that’s what we are doing, dinner tonight at Lobster Shack I’ll call Old Joe see if we can have our normal booth.” She speaks while wrapping Chris into a tight hug. “Today is about you, not your mistakes, but your future. It will be a bright one I’m certain.” Chris nods pulling away from the hug, “Mom do you care if I invite Nicole?” he asks as his mother pulls out her phone to call the restaurant just down the street. “I don’t mind at all!” she chimes event though she truly despised the girl her son had taken liking too. Chris slides his phone out of his pocket looking quickly at the lock screen image of him and the vibrant blonde cheerleader at his final football game of his High School career. Moving quickly to his messages he texts the same girl in the photo as quickly as his fingers can move. After sending his invite it’s only a moment before she responds.

CHRIS: Babe! I got accepted to Hartfeld! Celebrating at the shack tonight. You down?? NICOLE: I’ll be there.

That evening Old Joe the man who’d helped the struggling Powell family all these years, and the owner of the Lobster Shack was there to serve them himself. Approaching the family first he offered a nod to Chris. “All that hard work is finally paying off!” Joe’s gravel filled yet pleasant voice exclaimed loudly. “We’ll miss you around the shack come fall, but we are all extremely proud of you.” “Thanks Joe, really… I couldn’t have made it all these years with out you” Chris nods in response while reaching his hand under the table to meet Nicole’s next to him. To his surprise her hand pulls away. Doing his best to hide the rejection on his face he places his order after the rest of his family. “Nicole” Kyle speaks up, the 14 year old with thick square glasses and the looks of his mother was very opposite from his older brother. “Are you going to Hartfeld too?” he questions innocently. “Actually!” Nicole hides a secret behind her nervous smile “I just got my letter for George Town early admission last week!” “Last week?” Chris looks to her quickly. “Congrats babe.. I, I wish I’d known” he says feeling guilty for her communication mistake. Barbra feeling the tension between them changes the subject as the dinner begins to come to a close. As Chris’s mother pays the bill and Nicole looks to Chris with harsh eyes and he knows something is wrong. “Walk me home? Please?” she asks sharply “Of course.”

The spring time breeze fills the night air in Cherryfield Maine as Chris is about to learn again how much love can hurt. “Thank You for coming tonight, I couldn’t imagine celebrating with out you.” He speaks trying again to reach for her hand, and again she pulls away. “Chris.” Nicole speaks stopping in her tracks “Look… You got into your 4th choice school I’m not sure that’s a reason to celebrate.” “Ouch…” he says acknowledging the direct jab at his education. “I’m going off to my top choice school early admit in June. And while this head cheerleader-quarterback dynamic has been straight out of the movies. I think it’s time for the credits to roll, don’t you?” She explains Chris pauses before speaking, the only thing he is thinking is ‘is she breaking up with me, with a movie metaphor?’ but being polite as he had always been to her he nods softly. “I get it, we will be far away from each other…” “No.” she interrupts him “Chris after graduation I’m leaving this place behind. Goodbye Cherryfield forever, and I just don’t need anyone keeping me here.” “Got it.” Chris says as his mind begins to shut down. Nicole sighs deeply. “Well… I guess this is it Powell. Thanks for a good run.” Chris watches Nicole walk away so strongly as if this entire conversation meant nothing to her, as if the entire relationship meant nothing to her. From that moment forward Chris vowed no more girls, no more commitment, and not more love for anything other than his family, his academics and his sports career. Though leaving his family behind in Cherryfield would be hard, he could not wait for the fall to come.

#Chris Powell #choices #choices fan fiction #xoempine

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND June 28, 2019 - YESTERDAY, ANNABELLE COMES HOME, MAIDEN

I’m going to do things a little different again this week, because while I normally would begin with the bigger movie of the weekend, I actually have a lot of stuff about ANNABELLE COMES HOME (New Line/WB) over at The Beat, as you can see below, so instead, I’m going to put a little more focus on Danny Boyle’s YESTERDAY (Universal), because... well, read on...

It’s not often a movie comes along that combines all of my favorite things into a completely unexpected movie that works, but Yesterday, written by Love, Actually’s Richard Curtis and directed by Danny Boyle, does just that. It takes a fairly high concept premise of a world without knowledge of the Beatles and their music and turns it into a hilarious comedy about fame and love and plenty of other things. Maybe that’s to be expected when it comes from a writer who has helped define British comedy and one of my favorite directors, but that doesn’t always mean that it will always work.

We meet Himesh Patel’s Jack Malik as he’s doing his regular busking around Sussex at any gig his best friend and manager Ellie (Lily James) can get for him, but it’s not going well and Jack is ready to give up. One night, after coming back from one such bad gig, the lights go out across the globe for 12 seconds and in that 12 seconds, Jack’s bike is hit by a bus. He ends up in the hospital with two missing teeth but when he gets out he starts playing “Yesterday” on an acoustic guitar bought for him as a gift by Ellie, and realizes that none of his friends realize who the Beatles are. Jack immediately realizes that it’s up to him to preserve the songs so he tries to remember them and incorporates them into his shows, at which point he suddenly starts getting more attention.

The first thing about Yesterday that’s immediately apparent is the talent and charm of Himesh Patel who really carries the film and has you constantly rooting for him. I’ve long been a fan of Lily James, especially after her turn in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, but I feel like the role of Ellie allows her to be more of herself than some of her other ones.

There are quite a few other levels to the humor, the first one being when Ed Sheeran, played by the real Ed Sheeran, contacts Jack Malik about his music and becomes involved in his story. The next level is when Kate McKinnon enters the picture as Sheeran’s manager who wants to turn Jack into a money-making superstar ala Sheeran. Sheeran ably makes fun of himself and his own talent as a singer/songwriter, but McKinnon takes her character so far into the world of sleaze that she’s hysterical (especially to someone who has worked in the music biz and has seen this first-hand). It’s also good to mention Joel Fry as Jack’s bumbleheaded friend/roadie Rocky and Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal as his parents, all who bring even more laughs to the movie.

Probably the most interesting turn is when Ellie is ready to say bye to Jack as he heads off to L.A., and she suddenly realizes that she’s in love with him though those feelings aren’t reciprocated. As Jack tries to navigate the music business with his sleazy new manager, he realizes that he has to go to Liverpool if he wants to remember the last of the Beatles songs, and once there, he reconnects with Ellie as they try to sort out their feelings.

That’s all I’m going to say because the last act is so full of surprises that really helps bring the whole thing home. And then on top of all that, you have the music of the Beatles, which still gives me goosebumps as performed by the talented Patel. (Once I buy this soundtrack, it will be the second record this year I’ve bought of an actor performing classic pop/rock songs and selling them as well as the original artist(s).)

I don’t think you have to be a Beatles fan to appreciate what Curtis and Boyle done with this premise, and maybe it’s because I’ve been in Ellie’s shoes, falling in love with a friend who just sees me as a friend that I really connected with the romantic angle of the film, one that really pays off.

Yesterday is just wonderful, and it’s easily one of my favorite movies of the year.

Rating: 9/10

Interview with Writer Richard Curtis over at The Beat

Getting back to Annabelle Comes Home, I’m sure that New Line’s latest entry into the ConjuringVerse is going to prove popular, especially with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Larraine and Ed Warren. It’s screenwriter Gary Dauberman’s directorial debut and it stars the amazing McKenna Grace (Gifted) as the Warrens’ daughter Judy, as it shows what happens when the Annabelle doll is released in the artifact room, drawing a gaggle of malevolent spirits to the Warren home as Judy and her babysitter (and friends) fight them off and try to figure out how to stop them.

My Review over at The Beat

Interview with Writer/Director Gary Dauberman at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

Another movie I’m really excited for people to finally see, one which I saw way back in January around when it premiered at Sundance is Alex Holmes’ doc MAIDEN (Sony Pictures Classics), which tells the amazing story about how Tracy Edwards put together an all-woman sailing team to race in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race despite all the odds against them. I loved this movie, not only because it’s an amazing story but also I’m a sailing enthusiast who sadly has not been able to get out and go sailing as much as I’ve hoped. But Edwards’ story and what she and hew crew

Over a year since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley stars as OPHELIA (IFC Films) in Claire McCarthy’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamletwith Ophelia taking center stage as the lady-in-waiting to Queen Gertrude, played by Naomi Watts. George MacKay from Captain Fantastic plays Prince Hamlet, and the movie will open at the IFC Center as well as select theaters across the country.

Also opening at the IFC Center on Friday (and then in L.A. on July 12) is Jan Zabelle’s Three Peaks (Greenwich Entertainment), starring Alexander Fehling and Bérénice Bejo (The Artist). Fehling plays Aaron who wants to be a family with his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in the Italian Dolomites, but has trouble gaining the boy’s acceptance.

Opening in select cities is Mitch Davis’ THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN 2: FIRE OF FAITH (Artaffects), a sequel to the 2001 faith-based film which grossed $4.7 million. Christopher Gorman returns as the missionary John H. Grober who returns to Tonga with his wife and five daughters, where they have a sixth child who is suffering an illness.

Opening at New York’s Film Forum is Lila Avilés’ The Chambermaid, set in a deluxe Mexico City hotel where chambermaid Eva spends her days making beds and dealing with needy clients, partially inspired by Sophie Calle’s The Hotel.

Opening at Film at Lincoln Center is James N. Kienitz Wilkins and Robin Schavoir’s experimental film The Plagiarists (KimStim) starring Lucy Kaminsky and Eamon Monaghan as a couple stranded by a snowstorm while visiting a friend in upstate New York and are put up for the night by a strange guy named Clip (Michael Payne from Parliament) only to discover that his hospitality was not what it seems. The filmmakers will be on hand for QnAs after the screenings Friday and Saturday night.

Opening at the Quad Friday is Eddie Mensore’s Mine 9 (EmphatiCinema/Levey Distribution)about nine coal miners in West Virginia trapped underground after a methane explosion.

Also opening at the Quad (and at the JCC Manhattan) is Avi Nesher’s Israeli film The Other Story (Strand Releasing) about two rebellious young women from Jerusalem who clash in unexpected ways.

From China comes Derek Tsang’s thriller Better Days (Well GO USA), opening Thursday in select cities, about a female student preparing for the important “gaokao” college entrance exam tests, who teams with a small-time criminal named Bei when she’s being bullied over a classmate who committed suicide. (NOTE: I just read that Better Days was pulled from Chinese release a few days ago, so I’m wondering if maybe it’s U.S. release will be delayed accordingly, as well.)

Alicia Vikander and Eva Green star in Swedish filmmaker Lisa Langseth’s English-language debut Euphoria (Freestyle Releasing) as two sisters travelling to a mystery destination in Europe. It also stars Charles Dance and Charlotte Rampling and opens in select cities.

Last, there’s Martin Owen’s Killers Anonymous (Grindstone Entertainment) about a support group for killers, which stars Gary Oldman, Jessica Alba and Suki Waterhouse. This is probably a mostly VOD movie that might be released into a few theaters.s

LOCAL FESTIVALS

I had to omit this section last week due to time constraints, but this weekend begins one of my favorite annual New York film festivals, and that is the New York Asian Film Festival, mostly taking place at Film at Lincoln Center and then the SVA Theater. This is the 18thannual festival, dubbed “Still Too Young to Die,” and I have to admit that over the past few years, I’ve been somewhat neglect in my attendance and coverage of the festival. I hope to change that as there are definitely some things I’m hoping to catch. You have to remember that many of the films that play this festival NEVER receive U.S. distribution so NYAFF is the only chance to see some of them.

This year’s festival opens with Bernard Rose’s Samurai Marathon, a period piece set in the 1850s with an all-star cast and a Philip Glass score. This year’s centerpiece is

Eguchi Kan’s The Fable, adapting the Manga about a Yakuza hit man trying to lead a “normal life.” For a third year in a row, NYAFF has a competition for the Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film with seven films from different Asian countries in competition, many having their North American premieres: Moon Sung-ho’s 5 Million Dollar Life, Kim Yoon-seok’s Another Child, Huang Chao-liang’s Han Dan, Nojiri Katsumi’s Lying to Mom, Kenneth Lim Dagatan’s Ma, Yi Ok-seop’s Maggie and Wu Nan’s Push and Shove.

Legendary martial arts choreographer and director Yuen Woo-ping will be receiving the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award, and they should be showing some of his best work at this year’s festival including Donnie Yen’s Iron Monkey, The Miracle Fighters and more.

This year’s festival will run until July 14, although the Closing Night film has yet to be announced.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Streaming on Netflix starting Friday is Paul Thomas Anderson’s musical short Anima, starring and scored by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

REPERTORY

Before we get to the individual theaters, be aware that Spike Lee’s all-time classic Do the Right Thing will be receiving a 30th anniversary rerelease both in a new 4k digital restoration and in some cases, on an archival 35mm print. Check your local theaters to see if it’s playing near you, and if you haven’t seen it yet after 30 years, then you have no excuse not to go see it this week.

METROGRAPH (NYC):

When it comes to music docs, Les Blank is one of the pioneers and thankfully, Les Blank Films (along with Argot Pictures) is issuing two restorations of the ‘70s films he was involved with including Chulas Fronteras (1976) and Del Mero Corazon (1979) that look into the amazing music crossing the border between Mexico and Texas. Chulas, translated as “Beautiful Borders,” is a fascinating hour-long film that uses the music as a backdrop to show the everyday lives of those who live on the boarder. Del Mero (“Straight from the Heart”), co-directed with Maureen Gosling (who will be on hand Friday and Saturday night), Guillermo Hernandez & Chris Strachwitz is a shorter film mostly about the romantic songs from Mexico. Honestly, as someone who frequently has to listen to Mexican “mariachi” music on the subway while I’m trying to relax and listen to my own music, I wasn’t sure whether and if I’d connect with either film and while Chulas is definitely a stronger overall film, they both offer some great insights into the Tex-Mex music and musicians that have paved the way for others.

The Metrograph joins other New York arthouse in closing off Pride Month with Films of Pride and Protest: Stonewall at 50 with two series of films by various filmmakers documenting the groundbreaking rallies and protests that have helped the LGBTQ movement get to where it is today.

This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph screening is the Safdie Brothers’ Heaven Knows What (2015) while the Playtime: Family Matinees offering is Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid (1921) in 35mm!

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

This week’s Weds. matinee is Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz from 1969 – I guess the new Bev is still going through the movies of the late ‘60s, a running theme the last couple weeks. Weds and Thursday’s double feature is Krakatoa, East of Java and The Boston Strangler (from 1969 and 1968, continuing that theme); Friday and Saturday sees a double feature of Steve McQueen’s Bullitt (1968) and George Sheppard’s Pendulum (1969); and then the Sunday/Monday double feature is Liza Minnelli’s The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) with 3 in the Attic (1968; in 16mm, no less!). The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is another Steve McQueen movie, The Reivers, also from 1969, and then the midnight movies are Tarantion’s Inglourious Basterds on Friday night and Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant(1969) on Saturday night. Chris Nolan’s Inception (not from 1968 or 1969!) will screen as a matinee on Monday and then next Wednesday’s matinee is the James Bond film From Russia With Love (1963).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

On Friday, the Film Forum begins screening the Coen Brothers’ 1998 comedy classic The Big Lebowski for a week for no particular reason… but who needs a reason to catch up with Jeff Bridges’ The Dude and friends? It will also screen Elaine May’s classic bomb Ishtar, starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, again for no particular reason. Maybe because it’s summer? This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the 1982 John Huston musical Annie, and then on Sunday, the Forum will screen Otto Preminger’s 1954 film Carmen Jones, introduced by Donald Goble.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Cinematic Void presents a double feature of Ti West’s The House of the Devil(2009) and Wolf’s Hole (1987) on Thursday and then on Friday, the Egyptian goes further into the Czech New Wave with The Anarchic Cinema of Vera Chytilova, a double feature of Daisies (1966) and Fruit of Paradise (1970) as well as a couple shorts by the Czech director. The series continues on Sunday with a double feature of Panelstory and The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun. I honestly don’t know much about the Czech New Wave (or actually, nothing) but it certainly seems to be back in style. Also Sunday is a Barbara Stanwyk double feature as part of The Style of Sin, showing Ladies of Leisure (1930) and Baby Face (1933).

AERO (LA):

Thursday, there’s a screening of the new The Doors: The Final Cutwith director Oliver Stone and Val Kilmer in person, and it isn’t sold out, as of this writing! Friday is a screening of Charles Shyer’s Irreconcilable Differences (1984) with special guests and then the weekend is all about one of my favorite filmmakers, Lynn Shelton! After a preview of her excellent new movie Sword of Trust on Saturday, there’s a TRIPLE feature of Your Sister’s Sister (2011) on 35mm, Touchy Feely (2013) and We Go Way Back (2006) on Saturday and then a triple feature of Humpday (2009) on 35mm and 2017’s Outside In.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad continues to show its 2k restoration of Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg’s Before Stonewall (1984) through the weekend

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

On Wednesday, the Roxy is screening Humphrey Bogart’s classic Casablanca on a 35mm print, then Thursday, it’s showing the 2002 dark comedy The Rules of Attraction. Getting into the Pride spirit, Saturday sees a 35mm screening of the 2000 lesbian comedy But I’m a Cheerleader, presented in conjunction with Flaming Classics, as well as a 35mm print of the 1969 doc Portrait of Jason about black, gay sex worker Jason Holliday, which will screen one time on Saturday and Sunday.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: Parental Guidance wraps up with Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie (1976), Weekend Classics: LoveMom and Dad is Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata (1978) while the Late Night Favorites: Spring concludes with David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001). The IFC Center will be one of the theaters showing Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing on an archival 35mm print, but only for the 7pm showtimes for the next week. Also in celebration of Stonewall (just a few blocks away), the IFC Center is premiering a 4k restoration of Frank Simon’s 1968 film The Queen (a Cannes selection), which looks at the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, organized by LGBTQ icon Flawless Sabrina with judges including Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers and Terry Southern. It will be shown with the 1967 short Queens at Heart.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Thursday, BAM and FAB Flicks will show the 1961 musical classic West Side Story outdoors at the Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center. On Friday, BAM joins the celebration of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing with a 30thanniversary rerelease. The Beyond the Canon series continues on Saturday with a double feature of Dibril Diop Mambety’s 1973 film Touki Bouki with Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960)

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

Astoria, Queens’ premiere arthouse continues its Grit and Glitter: Before and After Stonewall series this weekend with John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs (1970) on Friday, Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975)and Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) on Saturday. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2004 film Tropical Malady will screen on 35mm on both Saturday and Sunday. The See it Big! Action series will screen Pam Grier’s Coffy (1973) in 35mm on Saturday and Sunday.

FILM OF LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Lincoln Center’s 50thanniversary celebration continues with 50th Mixtape: Free Double Features with Agnes Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady (1996) on Thursday night.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

This Friday’s midnight movie is Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997)… subtitled!

Next week, it’s the extended 4thof July weekend and Sony’s seventh Spider-Man movie Spider-Man: Far from Home will go up against Ari Aster’s sophomore effort, Midsommar.

#Yesterday AnnabelleCOmesHome Maiden Movies Reviews WhatToWatchThisWeekend TheWeekendWarrior

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xoteajays · 9 months

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Exactly! Regardless of the character's personality, lots of characters I love can fight or kill if they need to. Because who doesn't love fighters like those characters? Everyone always has their reasons for fighting.

Intelligent characters too.. Because I always love when they're able to outsmart the other characters through strategic planning in ways any one else is too stupid to understand. Chishiya, Tommy and Vincenzo.

I forgot that you mentioned that. That's my fault. Anyway.. I'm usually so opened minded to horror movies, but only if the movie (or show) is interesting enough for me to watch. I won't watch my time if anything I've seen didn't catch my attention in any way. So that really depends.

That's what I thought.. Because I only saw Joong-ki listed as a cameo for one episode, and I know Wi-Ha Joon only in some episodes. So if I do watch the show, then it might be a while. But I may eventually end up watching it. Maybe after Halloween? I don't know. So it's a maybe.

How the fuck is Joong-ki nearly forty years old? This man.. He always looks half his age! He's like the type of attractive person who has tried to be sexy (based on Vincenzo), but always ends up being cute about his appearance. He's so adorable. Don't know why that came to mind.

And, of course, some of Joong-ki's work is on Netflix. So I'll be able to watch more of his work. But there are some shows and movies that is only available in certain countries, so hopefully those are listed on the sites we use. Same with Do-hwan and Sang-yi's work too. I hate that.

Yes! Masters Of Horror should be on Tubi because that's where I have watched the series. I wish they still kept the show on tv. And I actually don't remember why the show was cancelled either.. Because when it was aired on tv, that was usually around Halloween time - around that time in the season. And there will be some actors you'll recognize too.

My only complaint about the Tubi app is that it's not in high quality so hopefully you'll still enjoy shows and movies on there, especially for in the Halloween season. I just prefer high definition over low definition.. It has better quality in my opinion. Maybe because I'm used to it now.

That's kinda what I thought about Shion's situation. Smoky's dead by this point in time, they lost a lot of people during the explosions - way before Smoky was killed. So I can (possibly) see them forgiving Shion after some time. And who knows if he may actually make any attempt to kill Nikaido, if Nikaido isn't already in prison with the most of Kuryu by then. But that's how I could possibly see this situation happening.

Everyone has different reactions to writing the Strawberry Girls, from what I have noticed anyway. Some people want to try fleshing out the characters to make them interesting in their stories, and other people do not seem to care enough about their characters to even try writing them well enough in the stories. I still haven't decided for myself yet.

Weird.. Their initials are the same. Kinda. Orange Girl, Ojou Girl, so it's OG now. But that's until names (my names) are figured out though.

I love how we've already figured out characters like Rocky Murayama, also Hyuga too, because they are the easiest to figure out. But Cobra! This fucker is pissing me off. I still can't figure him out half the time.

If you used Ayaka as a face claim, which visuals would you use for her character? Like Ann in Alice In Borderland? Or from different roles?

True. I know Asian schools are strict about uniforms so that really just doesn't surprise me. So their clothing would be like in Oya's? Because the full timers (like Todoroki) wear their whole uniform but part timers (like Murayama) incorporate casual any clothing with school uniform. Like flannel shirts and headbands, jewelry, clothes and accessories in these schools that shouldn't be permitted. At least in Asian schools.

Stop it! The more we talk about creating characters, then more I'm so tempting to create even more characters. I already have a lot of them for High&Low. So stop tempting me with something like this now.

If you used pink for your Ojou school, just use different shading of the pink then. Purple is rarely used in H&L. Indigo? Bluish purple shades... Blue and indigo are the shades of blue I use for my blue character in a traditional sense. I don't know how similar Oya and Ojou are though.

That's the different between Orange and Yui then. Even if Orange and Cobra do end up together romantically, she's rarely - if ever - shy with Cobra. But that's because they have been childhood friends though.

But that's something Orange and Yui have in common. Orange.. She's not a hateful person (unless you truly did horrible things in her eyes in a way that warranted her hatred like Kuryu). But I can't see her hating any of the Strawberry Girls, she might be friendly towards them since they have the same group of friends. Though at the same time, I have imagined Junko being jealous of Orange. Because Orange is this very confident woman who is always true to herself, she doesn't act much differently than normal, she's just herself. And Cobra (along with a lot of everyone else in Sannoh) pays attention to her. So Junko's always a girl comparing herself to Orange, also trying to make herself cooler in Cobra's eyes. Except his attention is towards Orange if they'll actually end up romantically involved. Junko is jealous. Still thinking that over. But yeah. That's another thing that have thought of, mostly because I don't care that much about these girls to care what happens to them.

Murayama and Yui sounds like bickering siblings trying to get Cobra's attention. That's what came to mind when I read it. Don't know why.

i love a character who can fight. but there’s also a handful of characters i like that are just plain bad at fighting and are just kind of. totally hopeless.

i also love a total himbo. like obviously i loved chishiya and a bunch of other smart characters, but i love an idiot.

duality of my character loves.

wi ha joon is the main male lead, and i think he’s supposed to be the main love interest but the leas pair don’t actually get together which is so frustrating because they have excellent chemistry. i’ve noticed he doesn’t seem to have a lot of romantic roles, which is a shame because he’s. So Pretty.

yea ive seen that descendants of the sun on netflix and heard its pretty good. and space sweepers. i’ve just not watched either because they kind of fall into genres im not really into. like military/war stuff and space-y/sci-fi aren’t really my thing.

also - idk if it’s just new in australia - but once upon a crime with takanori iwata is on netflix now. and ive also been thinking of watching informa with reo sano.

the other bad thing about tubi is the ads. like i dont wanna watch like 12 ads across a movie. it’s nice that it’s free, but i hate. ads.

nikaido should be watching his back if he’s not in prison. because if the remaining rude boys find out he was behind smokey’s death, they’ll likely be coming for him and nikaido doesn’t have the defence of kuryu’s fighters anymore.

that’s kind of the original writers’ faults i think. they didn’t really develop them and they didn’t exactly make any of them compelling in the scenes they were in. like naomi was only in a few scenes, but she was fleshed out and way more interesting than any of the strawberries.

also i just realised ive stolen two of the strawberries’ crushes for my ocs. murayama from oshiage for ryuko, and cobra from junko for yui.

luckily we can kind of dodge any mix up with that, i think. since i’ve named her now. so your’s can stay og until you figure out names and mine’ll switch over to yui.

i’ve decided on both the new girls’ names now actually: yui sakuragi and shizuka ibaraki. (the surnames are similar on purpose).

i’m still trying to figure out cobra too! i need to watch a bunch of his scenes again so i can try and get a feel. maybe read some fics or other people’s headcanons about him and see what i agree with. cobra! stop being complicated!

i don’t know exactly what role, but i have one pic of her that is extremely in-character for shizuka. i’ll have to send it to you! it’s very tomboy-ish, casual chic.

more characters! i’m an enabler!

if i use purple, i was thinking maybe a more red-lean purples as opposed to blue-purples. oya and ojou are pretty similar, though ojou puts up more of a ‘good school’ front and is a bit tidier; but there are still rumours about ojou’s fights and the brawler students.

yui is not usually shy, but she also hasn’t had a lot of crushes in her life. then she meets cobra and it’s very. different. she’s still got a bit of bite about her, bits of her usual confident attitude coming through, but she’s also quieter, kinda fumbling. she cannot flirt. she comes back from meeting cobra, all blushy about him it, and shizuka teases her.

yui is kind of indifferent towards the strawberries. she kind of views them as a gang in aesthetic only because they wear the outfits but don’t? really do anything? she’s just not really giving them any thoughts. junko thinks they’re rivals though. yui’s like ‘do you want to fight then?’ and then junko never does, so yui just … ignores her.

i can see junko being jealous and making excuses that they - orange and yui - only get attention for their looks and completely ignores the fact that they’re being true to themselves and not trying to act like someone they think other people (read: cobra) would like.

murayama and yui just on either side of cobra, pulling on his arms like two kids fighting over a teddy. cobra likes both of them (in different ways) but he’s also like ‘someone help’.

since i haven’t mentioned her much. lemme talk about shizuka a bit.

she’s a year or two older than yui and the two have something of a sisterly relationship. shizuka never wanted to be leader of ojou, but she respected yui for never giving up (since yui didn’t make leader her first try and had to work through a few losses) and ended up befriending her. she’s a big romance fan. where yui is very ‘women don’t need protection from men, girls can fight too!’ (she’s a lil snippy with the rascals getting in her way in a fight), shizuka thinks it’s romantic when men step in to protect the girl they like. she’s more relaxed than yui but also more confident around the men she likes. her and hiroto probably get together before yui and cobra because she has little issue whenever it comes to confessing her feelings.

#tj answers #long post //#long post anon

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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Skam season 3, episode 5 reaction (1/2)

I don’t tend to think of Skam in episodes so much as clips, but this is easily one of the strongest overall episodes of the series, and it feels like a turning point in the season in terms of complexity. Watching it in real time was an emotional roller coaster. We also have the script for this episode with some of Julie’s comments so we can compare the two. I split this reaction into two parts because of the length, sorry if that’s annoying. It’s one of the longer episodes of the season. Second half will be up in a day or so.

SEASON THREE, EPISODE 5 - “At the same time in a completely different place”

Clip 1 - The softest scene you will see in your entire life

Lordag 15:15 for anyone keeping track

I mentioned in my episode 4 recap that the pool scene was the first scene I got to see in real time. After that first kiss, I was dying to know what came next for Isak and Even. I thought it was likely that we’d get more relationship rockiness, because that’s usually what happens in TV shows, right? Isak was going to freak out, Even might run back to his girlfriend, and maybe they’d pretend it didn’t happen and it would get all awkward between them. Because that’s what I expect from most TV shows, more dramaaaa.

Instead, I slept in the day after the pool scene, woke up, immediately checked the Skam website to watch the pool scene again, and instead saw that there was a new clip. This clip, which is one of the most iconic moments in all of Skam, and which should be prescribed by doctors as a means of lowering blood pressure.

I mean this is the image that greeted me when I opened the Skam website that day. Julie Andem did a detox on my soul with this scene.

This scene is so special. It’s different thinking about it now because Skam went on to bless us with tons of Evak physical affection, but at the time I was stunned, because gay couples in media rarely get these types of blatantly romantic, lovey-dovey scenes. I’m pretty sure this clip is a huge part of why Skam suddenly took off internationally, because people saw gifs of this scene and had a similar reaction to all the cuddling. What the hell is that? I need to check it out.

Frankly, I’d say romantic couples in media, regardless of orientation, rarely get these types of introspective, slow-paced scenes where the characters can just breathe and be together as long as Isak and Even do here. Typically if a TV show gives us a scene resembling this one, there’s some other reason it’s there; the scene is there to facilitate the plot, or usher in some drama, or carry some exposition. But rarely do we see couples just lying together and talking in this intimate way, with room for pauses, room for silence, room for the characters to just touch and look at each other. And we sure as hell don’t get them between LGBT pairings that often.

We saw long cuddle scenes with Noora and William last season, and a few with Jonas and Eva in S1, and I’m so glad that Julie didn’t have any reservations about showing Isak and Even in similar positions. Think of other shows you’ve seen with canon gay ships. A lot of them contain noticeable double standards as to the level of physical intimacy and affection the gay ships show versus the canon het ships. Sometimes the het couples can get full-on sex scenes while the gay couples can barely kiss. Granted, much of that discrepancy probably comes from people at the top, and showrunners may have to fight just to include gay characters in the first place if the network executives are cowards, let alone show them being affectionate. So I’m aware that Skam is in a unique position to depict these types of scenes between two boys. The format and distribution of the show also allows for the creative freedom to have these long quiet scenes without needing to account for commercial breaks or time restrictions or anything like that. But damn, this simple scene ends up feeling downright revolutionary because of how it commits to show these two boys falling in love with each other, without compromise.

The song choice of “I’m Not in Love” is perfect. I know some people took it literally (thinking that one or both of the boys were not in love and this wasn’t a very deep relationship, or it was evidence that Even was just messing around with Isak for fun rather than real feelings) (yes, I remember reading this) but the whole premise behind “I’m Not in Love” is that the speaker is in love, and all of the protestations he’s not in love are flimsy as hell. Oh, I call you and come to see you but don’t read too much into it. Oh, I have your picture on my wall but it’s just because it covers up a stain. NBD.

Here’s an explanation of the story behind the song from Wikipedia:

(Eric) Stewart came up with the idea for the song after his wife, to whom he had been married for eight years at that point, asked him why he didn't say "I love you" more often to her. Stewart said, "I had this crazy idea in my mind that repeating those words would somehow degrade the meaning, so I told her, 'Well, if I say every day "I love you, darling, I love you, blah, blah, blah", it's not gonna mean anything eventually'. That statement led me to try to figure out another way of saying it, and the result was that I chose to say 'I'm not in love with you', while subtly giving all the reasons throughout the song why I could never let go of this relationship."

Stewart’s description is a perfect fit for Skam’s depiction of Isak and Even’s relationship. I can name a ton of TV shows where the characters rush into saying “I love you” and throw it around in every scene even though the sentiment feels unearned. The words are just hollow and used as a shorthand for writers to say the characters feel deeply for each other, without coming up with creative, emotionally resonant ways to show these feelings of love. Skam is actually pretty restrained on having Isak and Even make a lot of dramatic statements of their feelings to each other. Instead of going for overwritten or showy speeches, Julie writes shorter lines that leave more to subtext and fit the context of the situation and characters better. There’s never a conventional “I love you” scene between Isak and Even and yet I didn’t need it because their actions constantly showed how much they loved each other.

And the lyrics can reflect Isak’s attitude at this point. He has feelings for Even but is still in the closet, still dealing with internalized homophobia. There’s still uncertainty around this relationship and where it’s headed. You can take “I’m Not in Love” as a layer of protection, downplaying this relationship to others and maybe to himself, but of course any protests from Isak are going to be as weak as the singer’s. Dude. We can see the way you’re looking at each other.

Onto this montage of smoking, kissing, and cuddling. Dreamy sigh. Isn’t this how everyone wants to imagine being in love? Comfort and safety mixed with passion and affection. This is the exploratory period, where you’re with a new person, and you can see Isak and Even testing out new kisses, new cuddles, new affectionate gestures. They’re enamored with each other and there’s still so much more to learn about each other.

Even’s smile when Isak initiates the nose rub = murder me. I still think Isak did it to make the gesture theirs after seeing Even do it to Sonja at the neon pre-drink. Thinking about it from a directing standpoint, I am dying to know if Julie was giving the actors instructions on things to try or if they were told to improv and Tarjei did the nose rub and caught Henrik by surprise, basically how this little detail came to be. Because it’s not in the script and yet it became such an iconic Evak gesture, it was incorporated throughout their scenes as a way they not only express affection but show comfort and solidarity with each other. It is theirs.

Evak having certain gestures they come back to, such as the nose rub, makes this relationship seem more real and textured. Their relationship is very specific, with its own history and inside jokes and consistencies throughout the series, and it’s one reason why it’s stuck with me so long.

The timeline is pretty ambiguous in this montage. We know that they obviously spent Saturday together, but this montage doesn’t designate a clear linear path, it jumps between their different positions and activities - smoking, laughing, making out, looking into each other’s eyes. There are also parts in some of the editing where we have Even or Isak talking but their mouths aren’t moving, giving this scene a dreamy feel. It’s almost like they’re outside of time, in their little bubble. “Can I stay in here with you forever?” seems like a real possibility.

In part of the opening montage you can see the same kiss from the end of the clip, which could just be Julie reusing footage for whatever reason, but I like it because it’s almost like a loop between the start and end of the clip. Time is irrelevant in their bubble. Everything that’s going to happen, will happen, and it’s happening now.

Tarjei and Henrik deserve so much praise for their acting in this scene. Not just because there’s no skittishness or #nohomo bullshit that you sometimes see from actors playing gay couples, but because they sell the utter adoration between their characters better than a lot of A-listers, honestly. The looks on their faces … wow. So much fond! So much love!

Henrik does a lot of fantastic physical acting throughout this scene, because Even never lets up touching Isak - tracing or rubbing his back, stroking his face. Expressing his feelings through touch. Can you imagine how much Isak is soaking all of this up?

Speaking of Isak, this is by far the softest, gentlest, and happiest we have seen Isak in this season so far, and the whole series to this point. He’s like a completely different person in this scene. Tarjei really lets down Isak’s walls.

Even is wearing the traveling Jesus shirt which is appropriate after a scene where he just played God. You can imagine Isak throwing it to him for that reason. Not because of complex Biblical symbolism and rebirth metaphors, more to be a little shit. Hey God, I found a shirt with your son on it!

I love how Even looks super charmed by Isak blowing smoke in his face.

By the way, I know I’ve said this before somewhere, but this scene always makes me think of a commercial for fabric softener, with that nice soapy clean clothes smell. In reality, though, Isak’s bedroom would have smelled like weed, boy farts, unwashed sheets, and possibly chlorine from the pool.

Eternal mysteries: What is the Nicolas Cage movie where he doesn’t overact??? Nicolas Cage has made some respectable movies, it’s not all The Wicker Man and the Kirk Cameron-less Left Behind, but I don’t know if he’s ever been subtle. What’s a movie that Isak would have seen and Even wouldn’t? Unless they have differing opinions on overacting. This is going to bug me for eternity. (On a non-Skam note: I fell into a Wikipedia hole and while I knew Nicolas Cage was related to the Coppolas, I didn’t know he was a cousin of Jason Schwartzman?)

On a similar note, this doesn’t bother me too much since I’m too enchanted with their acting and the writing, but yeah, that one strand of hair just chillin’ under Tarjei’s chin in this scene… once you see it, you can’t un-notice it. (There’s also the mic that’s visible in the opening montage.)

This scene has no pressing plot, no obvious “point” in terms of communicating exposition or advancing the storyline, but it turns out to be vitally important as a whole bunch of motifs and themes are established, we get insight into both characters, and there’s a ton of foreshadowing.

“I actually think life is like a movie. That you can be the director of your own life.” As we know, Even has a cinematic mind and sometimes takes his advice very literally, aka staging underwater kisses in random people’s houses. But it’s interesting that Even feels this way since bipolar disorder would seem to be something that makes him feel less in control. I feel like he tries to live this way deliberately as a way to handle his mental illness.

Isak being impressed by infinity, thinking about the fact of being insignificant compared to all the universes out there, though - that’s kind of surprising! Even wants to maintain some control over his life, perhaps due to having this mental illness that makes him feel out of control, but Isak just thinks out there, everything is happening to him, and he’s OK with that. He’s more fascinated by the idea and not like ... struck down with existential dread.

What’s lovely is that when Isak disagrees with Even’s point, Even is eager to hear what Isak says. They both look happy to be having debates like this. They can disagree on certain topics but it’s OK because they love to hear the other’s POV. This is such a great foundation for a relationship, that they’re not all about physical attraction and desire, but they genuinely enjoy having conversations with each other about big topics.

Have we heard Isak talk at all about Big Ideas like this, with anyone else? I can certainly believe he’s had conversations like this with Jonas, but there’s something really intimate about putting aside all the mundane topics of daily conversation and diving into the bigger, more abstract discussions, things that really reveal a lot about who you are as a person and how you process the world.

And I mean, yes, I know that they’re both stoned right now and that’s helping Isak to open up. Still!

Oh my God, do I love, LOVE, the shot of Even and Isak lying overhead as Isak says, “There’s probably a parallel universe where an Isak and an Even are lying like this…” Because that’s exactly what it is in that moment! A parallel universe! Well, maybe. You can also interpret it as a non-linear moment, since we have Isak’s voiceover (where he was clearly just talking on screen) over a shot where Isak’s mouth clearly is not moving, to a cut back to Isak talking. But I also like the idea that this shot of Isak and Even lying silently together, Even tracing Isak’s back, is from one of those parallel universes that Isak is referring to, and that’s what the AU Isak and Even are doing right at that moment.

Also, nice editing from Julie, because Even moves his head to look directly at Isak as a way to link the two shots and it’s happening in both universes, Isak talking and Isak not talking.

Plus apart from the time/parallel universe stuff, it’s honestly just a beautiful shot, where both Isak and Even are deep in contemplation, and you can imagine all that is on their minds, but they’re not voicing it at this time. Just Even rubbing Isak’s back. Just them lying together.

Both Isak and Even memorized this entire conversation, because it was that important to them, and ended up storing a whole bunch of its references in the Evak museum. Parallel universes, yellow curtains, the boy who couldn’t hold his breath underwater...

Uhhh, that soft little noise Even makes after talking about the yellow curtains? End me.

Even is pretty vulnerable during this part of the conversation, giving his thoughts on parallel universes. I guess this is heading into personal territory, but this is the scene where I first started to think Even might have depression, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the same for a lot of other viewers. Not just the bit where Even says the only way to escape your thoughts is by dying, though Even saying that was a huge red flag and made me think Even was suicidal, or had attempted suicide in the past. But also when he mentions how thinking about all the different universes feels lonely. And that might be a reach because surely non-depressed people can feel similarly overwhelmed by the idea of being small and insignificant in an infinite number of universes, but it just pinged me (as someone with depression) as immediately recognizable. I can’t even put it into words, it just resonated in an unsettling way. Being alone, with just you and your thoughts, is terrifying when you have depression, because your mind starts to come up with some scary things.

I think that also accounts for why Isak might not understand why Even is freaked out by the idea. While Isak’s mental health has suffered as a result of his family life and his internalized homophobia - the insomnia is a noticeable effect, for one - I don’t think he’s been suicidal, and I don’t think, even with all his stress and inner struggles, that he realizes how bad one’s thoughts can get.

The only time the camera strays from Isak and Even in bed, during this entire scene of almost seven minutes, is when Eskild knocks and talks to Isak through the door. Because that’s an interruption of the bubble. Eskild is the outside world at this point, Eskild is the reminder that people do exist beside Isak and Even. Bless Eskild, but he’s an intruder here. His sudden presence also causes Isak to come up with a lie, saying that Even’s shoes are Jonas’ shoes, reverting to his habit of lying because he’s not ready to state the truth.

By the way, if you were watching in real time and were in the fandom at the time, you’ll remember that there was a theory that actually it was Jonas talking to Isak through the door, and therefore he would catch on to those not being his shoes. Which seems kind of silly now, because Jonas and Eskild don’t sound the same, but fandom sure loved its wild theories. I miss the bonkers shit people would come up with when you’re getting canon in 3-4 minutes increments day by day and are in constant speculation mode.

I love how Even is so charmed by Isak being a brat to Eskild. And that he seems happy at Eskild’s mention of Isak staying in his room all day (because hell yeah, why not, stay in here with me, Isak). And his tightening grip on Isak’s shoulder? My heart.

Also, Even’s gaze is more on Isak’s reactions to Eskild than looking to the door toward the voice, like … he is so enamored of everything Isak does and can barely take his eyes away. (That’s the boy he’s noticed since the first day of school!!! And he’s here, he’s finally here!!)

Isak complaining that Eskild is a babysitter is totally borrowed from what Even said the night before, when he told Sonja to stop monitoring him. Isak absolutely absorbs a lot of what Even says and does and ends up imitating him.

So we finally get the explanation for how Isak met Eskild and came to live in the flat in this scene. I wasn’t watching from S2 but this would have been a dangling topic since the S2 finale, at least.

In the script it’s mentioned specifically that Isak had a fight with his father before going out and getting drunk, which breaks my heart. Isak’s dad really let all of them down. What kind of a father leaves his teenage son alone with a mentally ill mother he is not prepared to care for? All because the dad couldn’t deal with the mom’s mental illness? What the fuck is a 16/17-year-old supposed to do? Not to get too personal again, but I have been a caretaker to a mentally ill parent (and one who had some drastic issues but whose sense of reality mostly wasn’t impaired like with Isak’s mother) and I could not imagine doing it without the help of my other parent. It’s just outrageously selfish to bail like that.

Isak not being able to remember whether Eskild tried to pick him up is … alarming. And sad. And it’s very good that Eskild found him when he was that out of it instead of someone else with less noble intentions.

Looking at Even’s POV, I doubt he thinks there’s anything going on between Isak and Eskild but Isak living on his own with another gay man, a non-relative, is a bag of unanswered questions, such as - is Isak out to anyone? Where’s Isak’s family? Was he kicked out for being gay? Like this is his way of prodding out some sensitive information. Later when he asks how Isak’s parents will react if they start dating, you can imagine this information is on his mind.

Again, Even’s eyes never leave Isak’s face during this conversation, and he keeps rubbing his thumb along Isak’s shoulder. And he doesn’t ask too many questions, he just lets Isak talk. Isak opens up more than we’ve seen him do in this season so far, but when stuff starts to get too heavy then he plays it off and Even allows it and doesn’t push.

As cute as it is, there’s something a little sad about Isak saying that Even can have his story and make a movie out of it? Like he’s clearly trying to play down how much it really affects him. Oh Even, just turn my sad family history into one of your tragic films, ha ha except not really.

“I am going to make a movie about you!” AHHHHHHHH. So glad we got our S4 YouTube masterpiece because when hearing this line mid-s3 I totally figured it would be foreshadowing and Even would like, confess some feelings to Isak via stop motion Barbie adventures. And I mean, the rest of S3 is so amazing that I didn’t miss not getting any Ken doll smooching, but I’m glad Julie came through with the promised cinematic ode to Isak Valtersen.

When Even’s phone starts ringing they both keep joking and laughing until they can no longer ignore it. Another intrusion to the bubble.

Even stroking back Isak’s hair and pressing his face to Isak’s forehead - some A+ intimacy.

I have to single out their acting again. Henrik is fantastic with all the touches and affection he’s giving, and Tarjei does such a lovely job with the slight shyness and sweetness from Isak. Like this is all new to Isak! It’s a ton of romantic attention and affection from a boy! You can see his curiosity and exploration. Then when they have to deal with the reality of what’s waiting for them outside the bubble, Even is so blatantly unhappy and Isak is just deflating in his subdued way. The actors manage these emotions so well.

Man, you can see how quietly happy Isak gets when Even asks to stay in there with him forever. He’s almost glowing. And it makes sense that this, specifically, is what Even asks him, because that’s what they want at the moment - not just to be together, but to stay inside the bubble away from all outside complications.

This final kiss as we close out the clip is just. The sweetest thing ever. With Isak lifting up his head to ask for it and Even kissing Isak’s forehead and cheek and their hands on the other’s face and neck. Imagine Isak’s growing confidence in asking for the kiss and Even’s generosity in giving Isak more than what he asks.

I don’t necessarily put a timeline as to when these two definitely fell in love (as opposed to liking each other/having a crush/whatever), or realized that they were in love, but tbh this feels like when it might have been it for Even. The act of breaking up with Sonja and asking Isak to be his boyfriend had to be huge for Even, in light of everything he had been through, and realizing he was in love with Isak here was big enough to take a chance, end his stifling but stable relationship, and pursue something new and unknown.

You know when you listen to a song you enjoy so much that you start to hear it and you don’t really love it anymore, it’s more like the memory of loving it? Or a book you read so many times that it’s more that you remember the emotions it used to provoke in you, rather than feeling them in the moment? Sometimes I fear that season three of Skam will get worn out for me like that. After all, I’ve seen it who knows how many times by now, and the show ended more than a year ago - eventually watching it will just be about the memories of how it felt to watch the first time, and not feeling scenes in themselves, right?

Watching this scene again still feels like the first time.

Clip 2 - Morning after

There has been discussion over whether Isak and Even went further than makeouts during their cozy weekend and I’m 95% in the camp that they did not. I mean, by all means, headcanon otherwise, but I don’t think sex happened at this point for the following reasons:

Narratively it would have been a huge deal, both in the progress of their relationship and of Isak’s personal development, and I tend to think Julie would have shown it or hinted at it more strongly if anything sexual had happened. It seems too important not to make more obvious. If you think about it, the parallel universe conversation could have happened while they were in a state of undress (or something to indicate that they’d gone further than makeouts) but instead she had them talk while in oversized hoodies and sweats. So I think she wanted the main takeaway from this snuggly Saturday to be them talking about their lives and personal philosophies.

Like I said, it would have been a big deal for Isak, going from his first kiss with a boy to being sexual with a boy within a day or so, and since Isak is still dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia, I’d say he wouldn’t progress that fast? It’s true that he seems willing to jump into things with Even pretty quickly, but it also makes more sense to me as a step after he’d come out to his friends and gained a little more self-acceptance. “They’re teenagers and therefore driven by hormones” isn’t convincing enough of a reason enough for me to think they went that far. I mean, Noora and William are also shown waking up in bed in their underwear in the next clip after their first kiss, and it’s immediately established that they have not yet had sex. (Which is why I don’t think Isak waking up in his boxers is proof, either.)

Just personal preference but Even is already cheating on Sonja by making out and snuggling with Isak. I’d rather he didn’t do anything blatantly sexual with him on top of that.

The only thing that gives me some doubt is the crumpled tissue on Isak’s nightstand, because we all know Skam loves to be cheeky about Isak’s toilet paper, lmao.

We’ve seen Isak struggle with insomnia but here he appears to have slept pretty well, and we get the first hint that Even also has trouble sleeping. “I don’t sleep cuz sleep is the cousin to death” is waaaaay more loaded as a lyric than it might seem at first. It’s also quite ominous as we kept getting casual mentions of death around Even. Feels like the Grim Reaper is always trailing him.

Even frequently calling Isak hot/attractive, as he does on his sketch, is so good for Isak to hear. Isak has trouble vocalizing his attraction to men (well I GUESS that guy on Grindr is handsome, Eskild) but for Even, talking about his attraction to Isak is as normal as breathing. Even just does not give a fuck, in a lot of ways, about some of the hangups that Isak currently struggles with - talking about men being attractive, dealing with generalizations, liking “gay”/stereotypically un-masculine things. And that’s really good for Isak to be around, because he thinks the world of Even, and if Even can be like that or say this or do that, then maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world for Isak to admit he finds boys attractive. Even normalizes some of this behavior for him.

Also, it’s just so nice for Isak’s first real love (a boy!!!) to make him feel adored and shower him with compliments. Sincere ones, at that! Even isn’t faking any of this as some people predicted; he’s completely smitten with Isak.

I find it so endearing that cartoon Isak wears a snapback underwater.

I forgot, who did the drawings for Even? Some random on the production team? Julie? Imagine keeping that as a souvenir from the set.

Even has already internalized what Isak said about parallel universes. This one is just a silly joke comic, but later these sketches are going to be something like a coping mechanism for him.

Lmao, Eskild and Noora. Noora is randomly cleaning walls as a way to either alleviate William-related stress, satiate Isak-related curiosity, or both. Both? Both. Julie had to delete a William-related line in the script because it didn’t fit in right here, but by the Looks she gives Isak once Eskild steps in, she wants all the gossip.

You know, not that I condone turning Isak’s sexuality into a fun speculative game, but I so wonder how the girl squad side of Nissen was reacting to the developing Evak relationship from the outside? You know Noora was probably giving Eva updates on everything, Vilde was clueless for a while, Sana was just complaining about Isak forgetting his biology notes, and Chris was like, “Damn, the spirits weren’t smoking crack after all.”

Don’t you wish you could’ve seen the Even-Eskild interaction in the bathroom that morning? Especially when Eskild encounters a random dude in the flat wearing the Jesus shirt. Was Even still wearing the shirt when he left, or did he return Isak’s clothes and go home in his Halloween costume?

Eskild is just. The best. He knows that Isak is most likely gay, and he wants Isak to open up to him, and he’s probably like “it’s finally happening!!!” once he spies Even in the bathroom. But he’s trying to be “casual” and positive about it. Oh, that Even guy was super cool! It’s cool that you had a cool guy over, Isak, we’re all cool with it.

Alas, Isak was Not in the mood to talk about this. As soon as he steps out of his bubble, he gets confronted with questions about Even and has to retreat. But the bubble just isn’t the same alone.

Clip 3 - Isak on the outskirts of the boy squad

Poor Isak just wants to find out what’s going on with Even, to the point of waiting outside his classroom. But he has no idea that what Even’s going through is way more serious than he could have realized.

Isak doesn’t waste a single second in bailing from Emma, lmao.

This scene with the boys is so well done. The tension is evident. Tarjei’s acting is terrific. He rolls up to the boys ready to be bro Isak, friend Isak, and you can see him present a better mood (or faking a better mood) only for the shock to sink in when he realizes he fucked up by forgetting Magnus’ birthday.

When Isak strolls up to the boys, none of them pause to acknowledge his presence, they don’t even know he arrives until Isak starts apologizing. That’s how out of the loop he is.

To be fair, as much as I understand why Isak would lose track of anything except lying in Even’s arms - with someone looking at you and cuddling you like that, who wouldn’t - but he did blow off his friend’s birthday after talking about it with his friends and discussing tentative plans, and ignored their texts to alert him. That’s the problem with the bubble: you’re cut off from the outside world, both bad and good. Isak needs to learn how to bring his two worlds together and not aggressively shut them off from each other.

Not to mention that this is the third week in a row where Isak has lied or canceled plans, after the Emma pre-drink he randomly canceled and the kosegruppa pre-drink he didn’t tell the boys about. Isak’s lie about his family party is just half-hearted. Jonas and Mahdi see right through it and aren’t falling for this BS. Even Jonas, the best friend ever, is getting done with Isak’s shit.

Lol forever at Julie’s script being like “Isak gives (Magnus) a hug or high-five or whatever, how the fuck am I supposed to know what 17 year old boys do.” It’s hilarious but also indicates that she probably asked Tarjei and David what gesture would fit in the context of this scene for their characters, and they went with the hug. Awwww.

The other boys do some good acting in this scene, too. David does a nice job of being a little friendlier than the other two, but in a muted way. Magnus is the most cheerful and good-natured of the boys, the one who doesn’t really get upset, and so he doesn’t shut out Isak to the degree that Jonas and Mahdi do (they both seem mega-annoyed with him) but I think Magnus was actually hurt by Isak forgetting his birthday? I mean, I doubt he went home and cried in his pillow. But it would sting that Isak just completely bailed with no warning, no text message that he wasn’t going to make it. He just totally forgot.

Isak tries to work his way back into the circle, being enthusiastic, wanting to know what happened, but he’s so blatantly on the outside. The other boys don’t even try to tell the story to him (and Jonas is the one who says this so you know it’s got an extra sting). You can see Isak visibly dim when he realizes he can’t just jump back into the squad - again, great acting from Tarjei.

Also, once the boys have made it clear that Isak can’t hop into their conversation like everything’s normal, we don’t get any more closeup shots of their faces. It’s all on Isak’s reaction. When the boys keep talking among each other, it’s like something happening at the edge of the frame, they move in and out of it, but we’re not able to engage with it fully … we the viewers don’t feel like we’re part of the discussion, either. We’re there with Isak.

So this story the boys tell, about the girl with the facial hair, was not in the script and must have been improvised by the actors or prompted by Julie later. However, it’s an example of how S3 was firing on all cylinders. The boys could have been talking about anything. They could be telling some wacky story about Magnus, a can of beer, and a saxophone. Any anecdote that’s complicated and something Isak can’t be part of, anything where you just had to be there to understand. But it’s not just any story. The incident they’re talking about involves a girl with a facial hair and Magnus almost kissing her. And how this was gross, you don’t want to kiss someone like your father. And what did Isak do on Saturday, instead of going to Magnus’ birthday party? He was kissing a boy. And lol, Even isn’t the most hirsute dude out there, but you have to imagine he has some stubble. But in any case, the message of what they’re saying is clear: kissing people with stubble is gross. Something I doubt a gay guy would think. These are straight dudes who don’t want to kiss girls who remind them of boys. Meanwhile Isak has been kissing an actual boy and found it to be pretty damn amazing, way more satisfying to him than kissing a girl. It’s just another way he’s locked out of the group - not only was he not there for this particular incident, he can’t even relate to the feelings behind the story at all. Julie and the cast are basically multi-tasking here by adding an extra layer of isolation that’s thematically relevant to Isak’s internal struggles. A ton of S3 is layered like this, which is part of why it’s lingered with its fans. And why I wanted to write tl;dr meta about it, lol.

#skam reactions #skam season 3 #skam #isak valtersen #evak

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tiawritesgood · 6 years

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Jurassic: The New World, Chapter One

*** This story takes place one month after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and contains spoilers ***

Chapter One

This is docket O-20183904 in the case of Owen Grady and Claire Dearing vs. International Genetics Incorporated for the custody of Maisie Lockwood.

Claire squeezed her fists under the table and forced herself not to run her sweaty palms over her sleek black skirt. The last time I dressed this nice, I was almost eaten by a dinosaur, she thought as she took a second to glance down at her outfit. Their court hearing required something a bit fancier than the casual pants and t-shirts she started wearing after Jurassic World went to hell.

“I’ll admit, this is an unusual case,” the judge said, bringing Claire out of her daydream. Owen stood tall beside her. She was glad to have him there. Her hand creeped to the right until it met his and held on tight. Claire was still getting used to the idea that she could hold his hand now that they’d decided to give coupledom a third try. Going through another traumatic incident together solidified their rocky relationship. “There is no precedent for the custody of a… well, of a clone. I suppose this is the world we live in now.”

Owen squeezed Claire’s hand beneath the table. After Lockwood’s death and the incident at his estate, all of his assets were seized. This included the information surrounding Maisie’s existence. As soon as it was out, there was no putting it back in the box. Owen and Claire new they’d have to fight to keep Maisie, they just didn’t think it would be against InGen.

“Your honor, InGen has proprietary ownership over the science used to create the clone sitting before you. It is imperative that they are given custody of the child,” the leach defending InGen told the judge. If Owen hadn’t been standing between her and the plaintiff, Claire would have jumped across the room to claw out his eyes. How dare he talk about Maisie like she’s some kind of science experiment? She’s a child!

“We would like to enter into evidence the sequence required to clone a human being which was developed by InGen thirty years ago.”

The judge accepted the pile of papers with disinterest. “This means nothing to me. I’m a judge, not a geneticist.”

The lawyer looked smug. “We have brought one of the world’s most respected geneticists along to explain the information in that folder. Dr. Henry Wu is actually responsible for much of the cloning done by InGen.”

Owen and Claire shared a look. The last thing they expected was for Dr. Wu to testify against them. He was supposed to be hiding out until the dust settled and humans got used to dinosaurs roaming the streets of the United States. A month had passed since the incident at the Lockwood Estate, but the US population had not yet learned how to cohabitate with the de-extinct creatures. Neither Owen nor Claire were sure they ever would.

Dr. Wu was sworn in and allowed to describe his scientific discoveries. He avoided eye contact with Owen, Claire, and Maisie seated quietly behind them. What was he so worried about? That if he allowed himself to look at the faces of the people he ruined, he might suddenly grow a conscience? Not likely.

After the testimony, the judge looked slightly less disinterested than before. “Your Honor, Maisie Lockwood is a clone of Mr. Lockwood’s late daughter. We are not here to dispute this fact. However, does that mean she should be subjected to scientific experimentation?”

“Objection!” the vile lawyer from the other side yelled out. “Conjecture. The defense has no way of knowing what InGen plans to do with Maisie.”

The judge all but rolled her eyes. “InGen just had a scientist explain to the court how Maisie was created. I think it’s safe to assume we all know what the company plans on doing with the young girl. Overruled.”

Claire stepped just a bit closer to Owen. Was it possible this was going their way? They’d had to scrape together their non-existent savings to afford a mediocre lawyer. Compared to InGen’s still thriving money pit, they were sure they’d lose before the proceedings began.

“Your Honor, Maisie deserves to be with people who love her, not with people who are going to treat her like an experiment. Further, the defense would like to enter into evidence documents pertaining to Maisie’s birth. Though Lockwood was an early part in creating InGen, he had already severed ties with the company when Maisie was born. Lockwood used his own facilities on his personal estate to bring Maisie into the world. InGen has no grounds for taking her from the people who have been caring for her for the last month.”

The judge took the documents and read them over. Claire felt tears pooling in her eyes. Their lawyer was careful not to talk about Maisie the way InGen’s lawyer did, like she was just another one of their experiments and not a living, breathing little girl. It was how Claire had treated the dinosaurs for her first few years at Jurassic World. Her behavior towards those beautiful creatures was what led her to found the Dinosaur Protection Group in the first place. It may have taken her a long time to figure it out, but she finally understood that dinosaurs were animals and they deserved rights, too. Just like Maisie.

“Does the defense have any witnesses they’d like to call?”

This was their moment. “Yes, Your Honor. We would like to call Iris to the stand.”

Iris stood slowly and made her way to the wooden box beside the judge. Once she was sworn in, she was allowed to testify.

“I raised Maisie,” she explained to the judge. “And I raised Mr. Lockwood’s daughter before that. I know what Maisie is like. She’s a rambunctious little girl who likes to wander and play practical jokes. She simply cannot be placed into a facility to be tested. She needs to be with a family who loves her. I believe Mr. Grady and Ms. Dearing are perfect to care for Maisie. They are familiar with her background and they treat her like the child she is. She will live an incredible life with this couple. I urge you to send her with them.”

Claire allowed the tears to fall readily. She hadn’t known what Iris might say about them, but her testimony was perfect. Claire remembered the first time she saw Maisie. She’d been lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce. Iris’s description was spot on.

“Thank you, Iris,” the judge said. Iris returned to her seat and waited primly for the judge to make her final decision. It was a family court, because for all intents and purposes it was a custody hearing. No jury would hear the testimonies. The judge would decide Maisie’s fate.

Owen wrapped his arm around Claire’s back and pulled her flush against his side. Whatever happened, they’d have each other. That was important for both of them to remember.

“As I said when we began this hearing, this is a unique case. We are setting the precedent with this decision, and I believe the decision is clear. Maisie Lockwood may be a clone, but she is also a child and she deserves a stable home with people who will care for her as a human, not an experiment. I rule in favor of Mr. Owen Grady and Ms. Claire Dearing. You now have sole custody of Maisie Lockwood. We release her to your care and will be following up to ensure she is properly looked after.”

The judge said more, but Owen and Claire couldn’t hear it. They were too busy hugging each other and Maisie. They were going to be a family. After everything they went through on the island and at the estate, it was about time they got some good news.

“I’ve never had a Mom or a Dad before,” Maisie said quietly. “I’m not sure I’ll be any good at being a daughter.”

Claire wiped a tear from the girl’s eye. “We’ve never had a daughter before,” she told Maisie. “We’ll be learning together.”

“As a family,” Owen added. He took in the two most important girls in his life and fought back tears of his own. He wasn’t sure how to be a father, but he knew he wanted to love and protect both Claire and Maisie for as long as he lived. Attachments are hard and they get complicated, but for the first time in his life, Owen wanted them. He had been attached to Claire for longer than he cared to admit, and with Maisie added to the mix he felt whole. He only hoped nothing would take that away from him.

Iris joined them as soon as their group hug finished. She put her hands on Maisie’s shoulders and smiled. “I’m getting older, girl. I would have taken you myself if I thought I could keep up with you.”

Maisie giggled. “You’ll come to visit, won’t you Iris? Owen is building a cabin in the woods where we’ll live. You can come and make sure I always take my bath!”

Iris smiled at the girl’s pronunciation of the word ‘bath.’ As hard as she tried, the Queen’s English never stuck. “Of course, I’ll visit. You can’t keep me away.”

Maisie surprised Iris with a bone-crunching hug. “I love you, Iris.”

“I love you, too, girl. Now, you’d best be getting on to your new home. First, I have something to discuss with your parents. Would you give us a moment?”

“Of course, Iris,” Maisie said. She took a seat in the audience, far enough away that she wouldn’t overhear the adult’s conversation.

“What is it, Iris?” Claire asked. Her stomach bubbled with nerves. Was she going to try and take Maisie from them?

The woman took a deep breath. “Mr. Lockwood was afraid something of this sort would happen upon his death. He was even more worried that the courts would rule against any money he left to Maisie, so he left part of his fortune to Mr. Mills and the rest to me. He was unsure what Mills might do with the money, but he knew I would spend mine on Maisie.”

“What are you saying?” Owen asked.

“I have inherited quite a bit of money. After the reparations, which were limited due to the general sleaziness of those injured or killed in the incident, it still adds up to a large sum. Because of Mr. Mills’s death, all of Lockwood’s money is now mine to do as I wish. I must keep some for myself, though I hate to do so. It will serve me through my retirement. The rest, though, is yours. I encourage you to spend some on a college fund for Maisie. She’s a brilliant girl. Besides that, it is up to you what you do with the money. Just promise me Maisie will have a good life.”

Claire held tightly to Owen who could no longer hold back his tears. They had no idea how they’d afford a child, but now they wouldn’t have to worry. “We love Maisie and we will be the best parents we know how to be,” Owen promised Iris.

“Thank you. I will have the lawyer transfer the money to you right away.”

“Thank you, Iris,” Claire blubbered. “You have no idea what this means to us.”

“I do, dear. I do. I hope you know what it means to me that Maisie has found a mother and a father who will care for her as if she were their own.”

“We do.”

The three hugged and Iris made her exit, stopping to chat with the lawyer first. He promised her that the funds would be available to Claire and Owen the next day. First on the agenda was to take Maisie shopping for new summer clothes. They bought her a few spring outfits, but hotter weather was coming and she would need tank tops and shorts. Claire’s sister already planned on bringing her son, Gray, to play with Maisie as often as possible. Though six years apart in age, both Karen and Claire hoped the two would become close friends. They have a lot in common, including their love for dinosaurs. Claire was glad Gray hadn’t stopped researching the animals even after the Jurassic World incident, and that Maisie hadn’t given up on dinosaurs after what happened at the estate.

Maisie joined her guardians as soon as Iris left. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Better than okay,” Owen explained. “Your grandfather made sure you’d be taken care of.”

The young girl’s face fell. “I miss him,” she admitted. “He was the only parent I ever knew, besides Iris of course.”

“We know, honey,” Claire said, patting Maisie’s hair. “Why don’t we head home, okay? It’s been a long day for all of us.

Maisie nodded. “Yes, lets. I can’t wait for the cabin to be finished so we have a real home.”

Claire laughed. “Me, neither. How about it, Owen? How much longer until our real home is finished?”

“Well, I should be able to hire a couple guys to get things moving faster. Hopefully in the next few months it’ll be ready to move in.”

“Perfect!” Maisie said. “And I get my own room?”

“Of course you do,” Owen said. “Let’s get going, shall we?”

They piled into Owen’s van and drove the thirty minutes to their secluded home in the woods. The cabin sat unfinished with a small trailer beside it for sleeping. The three of them had been sharing the trailer for a month since Owen and Claire were given immediate temporary custody of Maisie after the Lockwood Estate incident. It was only when they arrived at the trailer again after the hearing that it felt real. Though the home was temporary, the family was permanent.

It was after eight at night when they got home after a fast food dinner. A small group of Compsognathus, tiny dinosaurs that pack an unexpected punch, waited outside the trailer door. Owen kept a locked box of food behind the trailer for this purpose. He tossed a few freeze-dried lizards towards the dense forest to distract the little creatures. While they ate, Maisie patted one on the head.

“Maisie!” Owen called. “Don’t touch them.”

The young girl shrugged. “I would pet a squirrel if it let me. These dinosaurs are harmless.”

Owen and Claire remembered an incident on Sorna many years earlier when a little girl was injured by Compsognathus, but they didn’t want to scare Maisie. It was better that she wasn’t afraid of dinosaurs, even after what they went through on the estate. Now that the dinosaurs are free to roam North America, they knew they’d be seeing more and more of them.

“Come on, Maisie,” Claire said. “It’s time for bed.”

Owen opened the door to the trailer and the three climbed inside. After changing into her pajamas and brushing her teeth, Maisie settled into her bed, which doubled as the kitchen table when flipped open.

“Goodnight… Mom and Dad,” she said before closing her eyes.

Claire cried happy tears into Owen’s shoulder. “Goodnight, sweetheart,” she whispered.

Though relatively early, Claire and Owen were exhausted. It had taken a lot to prepare for what amounted to a couple of hours in court. The work was worth it now that Maisie was home for good.

“Goodnight,” Owen whispered in Claire’s ear when they climbed into the larger bed at the head of the trailer. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They drifted off to sleep quickly and deeply. For the first time in years, Claire didn’t have a single dinosaur fueled nightmare. When she awoke before the sun in desperate need for the bathroom, she felt genuinely relaxed.

Until she noticed the empty bed where Maisie had been asleep.

“Maisie?” Claire called out. She opened the trailer door and listened, but everything was quiet. “Maisie? Where are you?”

No one responded.

“Owen!” Claire screamed. She shook her sleeping boyfriend until he blinked away the grogginess from his eyes. “Owen, wake up.”

“I’m up, what’s going on? What time is it?”

“I don’t know,” Claire cried. “But Maisie’s missing.”

Owen sat up straight. “What did you say?”

“Maisie’s missing!” Claire yelled.

“What?” Owen jumped out of bed and flung open the trailer door. He yelled Maisie’s name just as Claire did, then flipped on the outside light. It had rained during the night leaving mud where dry grass and dirt had been.

Outside the front door, Owen noticed something strange. He jumped down to get a closer look and sure enough there were footprints in the mud approaching and leaving the trailer.

“I don’t think Maisie’s missing,” Owen said.

Claire joined him outside the trailer. “What do you mean? Then where is she?”

“I don’t know,” he told her. He met her eyes. “But I think she’s been kidnapped.”

#jurassic world #jurassic world fallen kingdom #spoilers #jurassic park #fanfiction #fanfic #owen grady #claire dearing #claire #owen #clowen #ff #maisie #lockwood #jurassic #dinosaurs #mystery #scifi #iris

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