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urmomsmainbitch · 3 years

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wonder woman

requested: yes / no

pairing: max mayfield x fem!reader

warnings: pining, angst, swearing, mentions of death, mentions of school, omg the writing is shit i’m so sorry

a/n: i love lucas so much (based off of i wish you liked girls by abbey glover)

i grew pretty attached to you, like a dog on a lead / thought you were everything i could have ever dreamed of, and more than i could ever need

The phone was cool against her ear, ringing for the third time as she twisted your fingers into the cord, tapping her foot impatiently. This was the second time that she had tried Max that evening; once before dinner, and now once after. She’s probably still eating, one part of her said. No, she’s probably off making out with Lucas, the other said. Nibbling on her lip, Y/N leaned into the doorframe, letting her entire body slump against the wall as she slid down, before landing on the cold hardwood floor. Max had only started taking this long to answer recently – once she and Lucas had become official, and more serious. Ever since high school started, you never saw Lucas without Max, and Max without Lucas.

“C’mon, Maxie,” Y/N murmured, tapping her finger and trying the girl again, looking at the watch on her wrist. She’d even waited half an hour after Max normally ate dinner, hoping to catch her so they could talk to each other. They hadn’t been doing that as often, the redhead never wanting to spend a waking moment away from her boyfriend. Y/N saw it, she supposed, Lucas wasn’t a bad looking guy, and he was nice. But he was nice. That was it. He wasn’t smart, or funny, or entertaining. He was just there. Just a phase, she kept telling herself, Lucas is just a phase. But what after Lucas? What happened when Max finally took notice of Matt Donahue in her math class, who’s always making googly eyes at her? Or, what if she just happened to meet Sam Davis’ eyes in English? What then? Lucas would be forgotten, sure, but he’d be replaced in nearly no time.

On her third attempt, she hung up the phone, slamming it into the receiver. That was the second time this week.

always thought you looked at me differently than any other you’d see / thought you were aching to see me at any, any possibility

��So, what should we do?” Max asked her, bright eyes looking between her and El, who was sitting on the other end of the bed, laying on her stomach as she flipped through a comic book. El didn’t used to come to their sleepovers. Come to think of it, Y/N couldn’t think of the most recent time that she had a sleepover with Max alone. They used to have them all of the time: giggling under the covers into the early hours of the morning, leaning on one another as they flipped through those comic books. Max’s loved copy of Wonder Woman, which used to rotate between her and Y/N’s houses, was now sitting on Lucas’ shelf. “We haven’t seen each other in forever. Especially not you, El!”

Y/N frowned. She saw El last week. She hadn’t spoken to her in two weeks. What happened to the whole, ‘I’m your best friend and you’re mine, Y/N/N!’ and the ‘I love you so much, and we’re best friends! I’d do anything for you, Y/N!’

“I’ve just been so busy, it’s crazy! I haven’t had any time with field hockey and band and everything like that.” Max laughed. Her face got all crinkled up, her freckles blending into one another as her blue eyes teared up with joy. It would have been gorgeous, had it not been a lie. Max used to frequently skip hockey practices to hang out, and since she hadn’t gotten team captain, her practices had decreased. Max used to see her whenever she could, but of course, now she’d spend her time with Lucas, or with El, or with anybody other than her. Max used to put her on a pedestal, but now, it looks like anybody who shows her any attention at all gets all of hers.

i could be your bitch and tell you a million reasons why being with me would be much better than with any other guy / i could tell you I’ll treat you right and never wrong / tell you in my arms is where you belong / but I know that you can’t change someone / so I’ll just leave you alone

The next Friday, Max was back in Y/N’s bed, flipping through a magazine while music played through the radio. Her beautiful red hair was falling into strands in front of her face, framing her gorgeous freckled pale skin, blue eyes piercing through the dimmed overhead lights. She looked like a goddess, her entire lanky body stretched out over the covers in a way that she could stare at for hours – watching the way that her face crinkled up when she read a funny entry, or seeing the way she nibbled on her bottom lip when she was interested.

“I don’t know what I should do for Lucas for our second anniversary.”

Y/N’s heart stopped. Of course she’d talk about Lucas. “Well, what does he like?”

“You know,” she smiled, folding her magazine and sitting up to look at the other girl. Y/N was walking out of the bathroom, tucking her hair behind her ear as she put Max’s next day outfit on the chair, folded neatly. “You know as much as I do about him. We both see him everyday.”

“Yeah, but you see him more than I do,” Y/N grimaced. “I don’t see him that much anymore, and I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I feel like a shitty girlfriend.” Max avoided her statement. I haven’t seen you in forever – she’d even said it outright and then got ignored! You never talk to me anymore, and it’s always ‘Lucas this and Lucas that! I’m here, too!’

“You’re never a shitty girlfriend.”

“I turned him down to hang out tonight. The weekend of our anniversary, Y/N. You can’t even lie and tell me that’s a good look,” Max said, looking unbelieving. Her brows furrowed together. “I turn him down all of the time when I hang out with you and El. It makes me feel so terrible, especially because I see you so much.”

Y/N knew that she should shut up. She knew that she shouldn’t have said what she did, and she knew that there was absolutely no reason to do what she did. The words came out faster than she ever thought that they ever could, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into a pit and die once the words left her lips. But,a part of her wanted to scream it from the rooftops, a part of her wanting to shout it again and again. It’d been bottled up for months and months, and it was twenty three months, three weeks, and five days after it had happened in the first place that she realized that it needed to be said sooner or later. “That’s a fucking lie, and we both know it. Don’t bullshit me, Max.”

“I’m not bullshitting you?” It was phrased like a question, and Max looked like she had just been accused of something much worse. “I see you all the time–”

“Yeah, see, that’s what the lie is,” Y/N chuckled, sitting down, putting the pile on her lap. The feeling of rejection that had been sitting in the pit of ehr stomach for nearly two years now was bubbling up and up, and the words were spilling out of her mouth before she could stop them. “He’s just a stupid boy! He’s not funny, he’s not smart, he’s not entertaining, and he’s not worth it! You’ve been blowing me off for months, Max, and I’m so sick and tired of pretending like I don’t notice everything!”

Y/N kept going.

“You ignore me again and again, and we both know that anybody would be so much better than Lucas of all people!”

“Like who?! Lucas is so much better–”

“Like me!” Max finally fell silent, the color draining from her face as she dropped her magazine on the bedspread. Her hands trembled, and her eyes glassed in only a few moments. The ugly monster that had been hiding under the bed, in the closet, and behind her in her own shadow had finally come out; shrouding the entire room in a thick and uncomfortable silence. Every word broke a deeper part of Y/N, and cracked a part of Max. She almost stopped, but at this rate, who knew when she would finally be left alone with her long enough to dare say them again? “Me, Max! You act so insightful, wise one, and then you fucking shit all over anything I say and do, and it hurts me every fucking day that I fall morw and more in love with you when all you do is ignore my fucking existence for some guy who doesn’t even know who Jane Austen is!” Her voice trembled with every word, and as the house fell quieter and quieter, the sheer stupidity of the whole idea grew and grew.

The room remained silent as Max gathered her things. She didn’t bother to take her new change of clothes, now on the floor. They would go in a shoebox in the closet, along with the pictures and notebooks and comics. She ignored the new friendship journal that was sitting on the vanity, untouched and unused by them. It never would be – it would be sold at a yardsale. Y/N met her eyes as Max picked up the Wonder Woman copy that was sitting on the bed, pleading her not to take it. Don’t take this, she begged, please don’t take this. Leave me this, please. Max picked it up, and put it in her bag.

That would be the Mayfield-Sinclair children’s first comic book – the one that would sit in their library until their perfect little house on the cul-de-sac sold.

and i know you don’t swing that way, but that won’t take my feelings away / oh i wish you liked girls; oh i wish you liked girls / girls like me

#max mayfield fanfiction #max mayfield x reader #max mayfield angst #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things x reader #stranger things x y/n #stranger things x you #max mayfield #maxine mayfield #stranger things season 2 #lucas sinclair #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #via.writing

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ins0mnia-an0nym0us-au · 2 years

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my thoughts on The Eternals - spoilers will be marked

first off - this film will not be for everyone. it’s a thinker film compared to other marvel movies. so younger kids? they’re gonna get bored. anyone who wants a fast-paced film? bored.

there was a sex scene in the first bit of the movie. i wanna say first 30-45m. it wasn’t explicit but it was obvious what was happening. it also wasn’t long. it was more on the romantic side than erotic side. you could tell both members were nude but no bits were showing. also sand? why would you do it on sand? or otherwise grainy textures? bad bad idea.

the way the overall timeline of the Eternals was explored made complete sense. they did not pull a witcher and forget to explain when things were. it also was very obvious due to clothing & locations. when they jumped backward in time for flashbacks was never jarring either.

personally i was able to tell what the “major” plot-twist was right from the beginning but it didn’t ruin the film for me. it was a gorgeous film. filled with stunning visuals. some of the CGI could’ve been a bit better (especially in the after-credit scenes) and it makes me wish for more practical effects tbh in the marvel universe.

alright that’s the end of the non-spoiler bit. below will be full of spoilers.

lemme just be clear. i am enjoying the hell out of Phase Four of the mcu purely because it feels like they are letting the directors & writers take risks. they are letting them stray from the mcu format. as much as i enjoyed the first Three Phases of the mcu - they were formulaic. occasionally we’d get a movie with a little splash of something flavorful in it (CA:WS, Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok) but they were still strictly within that marvel genre of “mcu movie”

do i think that this film is for everyone? no. because the mcu formula is basically a formula of “for everyone” & this is a film that has bits of that formula but is a large chunk of it’s own thing. which for me? big happy dance. i want more of this.

it was easy to tell from the beginning that Ikarus was the one who killed Ajak - at least in my opinion. if you didn’t figure that out - no shame in that. the way my brain works just put it all together. from the trailers having shown Ikarus talking with Ajak & then the way he acted when they found her body. i saw it coming.

this was a long movie & it had to be. they had a lot of stuff to introduce - explain - explore - move away from. which didn’t work well in some cases. for most of it though it was fine. i know that a lot of people are gonna be disappointed in how little of the movie Kit Harrington is in but they are for sure setting him up for greatness.

the Deviants were... rough. a very rough adaption that were honestly unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. in the comics the Celestials take the ancestors of the humans (Homo erectus) & mess around with their DNA. creating the Deviants but also the Eternals. the biggest problem for me with the Deviants aren’t that they weren’t made from humans (the Eternals weren’t either in the film). but rather that they decided for some reason to make them beast-like instead of humanoid like in the comics.

correction: they are creatures in the comics. they are deformed. ugly. some have no intelligence at all. some have higher intelligence. the point of the Deviants is that there is very little control over the outcome of the experiments that The Celestials did. thus they were deemed failed results. but they are very similar to the randomness of Mutants but with the added factor of randomized appearance that can be very unsettling to look at. the important bit is that they are all sentient. some much duller than others but all with thought.

the Deviants in the film seem to have evolved to suck the Eternals powers out & with it the ‘alpha’ continues to take form into a human-esque shape. but still. it’s the biggest failure of this film - adaption-wise anyway.

because they had to cover so much within such a short time there were things that i personally wish could’ve been touched on more. but weren’t able to be kept at the forefront or got pushed aside to keep things moving.

Ikarus being one of them. what his thoughts & feelings were like. because the actor played it well. his inner turmoil. his love for Sersi. but overall it’s not like I was rooting for him and Sersi to get back together? even if I hadn’t guessed the fact he killed Ajack - the fact he never explained why he left or apologized for it. etc. little things that kept me from rooting for him.

Sprite’s eternal youth. it gets hinted at here & there. we see it briefly in places. it isn’t until the finale that we see the actual effect it has on her though. which is cut short by a comedic brush to keep the end going. but how do you confront that topic in a marvel movie that needs to be family friendly?

Thena’s entire trauma??? there just wasn’t enough of confronting that???

again. i am not saying this was a bad movie. no. Phase Four? off to a great start. these are just critiques. the things i loved in this movie far outweigh the things i disliked.

visuals? stunning. this film just felt like art. marvel movies don’t do that. they feel like marvel movies. this movie? nah. it felt like art.

diversity - we actually got a diverse marvel cast. not all white. not all black. not all asian. no actually diverse? there was white, black, indian, asian, fuckin all over the world diversity! it was great. they spoke different languages too. including sign language because there was a deaf actress playing a deaf character.

lgbtq+ rep in my marvel (disney) movie??? *le gasp* and it wasn’t even implied but confirmed later. it was full on kissed on the lips gay men with a son!

if a celestial ever popped into the fucking sky like they did at the end of this movie. i would just die. i’m not putting up with that shit. that shit was terrifying. or if a celestial starts birthing itself from the core of our earth??? those fucking giant fingers breaking through the CRUST OF THE EARTH??? i wanted scream in the theater at the site of that. it was so badass. they really were like “y’all. here’s the cosmic threat level but... physically”

overall. i’m happy that marvel is experimenting. i’m happy with this film.

but i still liked Shang-Chi better.

#marvel #eternals #the eternals #review #movie review #my thoughts #spoilers #spoiler #mcu

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theowlhouseheadcanons · 4 years

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Hey, do you think the Grom Tree will be used to make Luz's staff and palisman? Maybe they will even use the Grom Tree to make Amity's too, so that their palismans will be "siblings born by the love of their creators"? And which animal do you think would be the palisman for each of them? I accept suggestions from mythological creatures or common animals!

"siblings born by the love of their creators" got me:

I LOVE THAT CONCEPT

I've never thought about that before, but it would be really inspiring if it ever came to this.

Instead of answering it as technical analysis, allow me to present my ideas on this:

Years later, the stoic tree stands by that cliff, her leaves flicking under the sunlight, so peacefully only the ones who witnessed the moment would believe the nightmare that preceded it.

The evergreen energy used to conceive her still flowing richly through the branches, her roots impregnated with the pure and curious excitement of young love's blossoming. The breeze around it smells like nostalgia, the colossal tree an eternal milestone of those two girls' bound: The Prom Queens, the first of their titles.

Now they stand there, the memory vivid in their minds, both knowing exactly what the other is thinking through the exchange of smiles and affectionate glances.

They're no longer those little girls, discovering the world around and inside them, but grown-up women. Yes, they still young, as 18 isn't a magic number for adulthood, but it's a noticeable start. There are still so much to explore, so much to learn, and "certainty" doesn't sound right when paired with "future".

But, as everything in life has an exception, in their case it happened when both declared, at the same time, they were ready to make their staff. Eyes widening with the shook, voices chuckling with the coincidence, Luz and Amity didn't need to ask what wood they would be using. Getting up they stroll, in comfortable silence, to the Grom tree. Their tree.

The way is as familiar as their own thoughts, and they fill the air with sweet memories – countless picnics, friendly sport matches and dates they've had under that tree's shadow – inhaling the honey like scenarios and exhaling the bittersweet ache the recollection left in their hearts.

Although that, there's no remorse or regret. They're happy for keeping the past as it is, and grateful they stand where they are now. Witches, with complete degree and all. Just like they dreamed. No, better than I dreamed, they realize, as Luz feels the softening warm of Amity's fingers entangling around the refreshing coolness of hers.

They're not even looking at each other, the gesture taking almost the same effort one does to breath. How long have we come, huh?

Luz still remember how flustered Amity used to be around her, babbling and exchanging words and meanings she awkwardly rushed to fix. She could feel the Blight's skin tingling under the slightest touch, and more than often Luz had to hold her urge to raise an eyebrow. She had to, but not to spare Amity some sort of judgement, but to avoid bringing up her own feelings.

The way Amity's laugh – the real, giggling one – tingled in her stomach, making her want to hear it more and more; or how deep Amity's gold eyes could be, like a maze of silk she found herself slipping into and getting lost rather easily, rather willfully; The magnetic effect the Blight girl had, putting Luz through an internal battle to avoid her hands to obey those curious thoughts that invaded her mind – to hug Amity in greeting, to bring her face up whenever she dropped it, to place her hand in hers when they sat next to each other...

Now all the ankward moments serves as good laugh during supper, and both agree they would do everything again, just the same. Well, maybe a few alterations in their first kiss, but that is a story for another time.

In that moment, facing the colossal trunk of the magical tree, they had choices to make.

***

Okay so I have a couple of ideas for their Palisman, but all those suggestions will be based on their actual character + some speculations of my own about their future selves.

(it's really hard to get to any conclusion, as there's just to much to happen yet! And plot twists are more than likely to happen... But that's the fun!)

Amity is a layered character and that's why we love her. She's the kind of person that wears a distant and indifferent mask, but deep down, she feels and cares a lot. She lived through a series of traumas that pushed her deeper inside that shell, sharpening her edges on the exterior and opening a lonely room on the inside – but she knew well to deceive that image from people's mind and play the Little Miss Perfect role. It will demand a lot of effort to confront her fears, to raise her voice to defend what she wants and who she is, but eventually, she'll break free and finally brave her own path.

With such a journey of self-reinvention, I couldn't run away from the cliche of a butterfly which I don't like because it's cliche, but for Amity, I also thought: spiders (specially the ones that will cause fear even though they doesn't harm humans) deers (their majestic appearance and inferred strength, more associated to her mature phase) and swans (we all know about the ugly duckling tale and how it overcomes that confuse part of their life and assume their true, elegant and free self. Plus, they're mostly pacific, but will attack if they feel their territory, their mates or themselves are being threatened)

For Luz, the automatic was Otter! (And going through some research, they end up being the perfect choice for Luz: they're not just cute, but intelligent, crafty animals that like to play and knows how to have some fun in their habitat. Also, they might seem adorable, which they are, but can cause some good harm if provoked or threatened! Plus, they're a social species, and you can consider them very "touchy" with their mates)

Apart from it, I thought about some bird species – major influences from Eda and her whole concept of freedom – and the most likely are Jays (energetic and capable of making choices according to how they'll feel in the future) Macaws (loving and comical personalities, advanced social intelligence) and Kea (crafty parrots with an inclination to cause havoc, being known as "Clown of the Alps", true troublemakers)

And those are my guesses! What do you guys think?

#loved the ask #I'll might draw the staffs in the future #who knows #toh #the owl house #the owl house headcanons #amity blight #the owl house luz #lumity #luz noceda #the owl house amity #edalyn clawthorne

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icannotreadcursive · 3 years

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Sometimes, people have different--very different--sets of headcanons and sets of ships etc for a given piece of media and cast of characters because they have basically different understandings of who those characters are.

A lot of times, that’s just because every fan as their own unique life experience to apply when engaging with and interpreting a work, so they see different things reflected back.

But when it comes to what I call Legacy Characters--characters that have had their story told and retold, adapted and readapted, reinvested and reset time and again; such as comic book characters--a huge part of who a fan understands a character to be is determined by what versions of that character they’re familiar with, what aspects of different versions have coalesced in their brain to form their sense of that character in general. Usually, the biggest influence there is which version of a character that fan encountered first.

I see both knock-down drag-out fights and casual disrespectful disparaging comments within some fandoms--especially big comics fandoms like Marvel--that on the surface of them are more of the typical dumb “my interpretation is the only right one and anyone who disagrees is wrong and Doesn’t Understand The Media” stuff, but that I am SO SURE mostly boils down to this issue of having very different but all equally legitimate senses of the characters from having familiarity with different appearances of the character, or in a different order.

For instance--using what I find to be the most glaring case as an example--the Marvel shipping wars amongst Steve/Bucky, Steve/Tony, Sam/Steve, Bucky/Natasha, and (increasingly) Sam/Bucky shippers. Sometimes the Pepper/Tony, Pepper/Natasha, and Bruce/Tony shippers join the fray.

These conflicts get so nasty. Even a lot of the more chill shippers, when prompted, have very ugly things to say about ships other than their own and the people who support them. Allegations of racism, misogyny, fetishization, and general toxicity run rampant and are often talked about as though they are the only possible reasons someone could ever have for shipping or not shipping a given pair.

I want to make it clear that I personally do ship or have shipped several of the above, including ones that mutually exclude each other. There’s a few I’m neutral on up there, and one that kinda squicks me--we’ll get to that later.

Every single one of them is a perfectly good ship. None of them are inherently fucked up in any way and I will not hear any argument to the contrary.

Do some supporters of these ships get overzealous and obnoxious? Yes, that’s kinda why we’re talking about it, but that’s not a problem with any of the ships themselves.

I’ve noticed some patterns around people being into particular ones of these ships and their personal histories with various Marvel media.

Steve/Tony: mostly comics fans at this point, either were into the comics before the MCU became a thing or the early days of the MCU got them into the comics and they’re now more into the comics than the films. Because there’s a LOT of material in the comics to support the ship! There’s so much! Including the fact that in one comics reality where Tony is a woman, she and Steve get married!

Now, there was a ton of this’ere Stony fic that got churned out in the early days of the MCU, a lot of it from fans getting into this world for the first time through the phase 1 movies, at which point other potential partners for these guys either hadn’t been introduced as characters yet, or hadn’t been fleshed out. A lot of film-main (as opposed to comics-main) Stony shippers moved away from the pairing as the MCU continued, Bucky became the counterpoint of Steve’s Character arc, Sam got brought in, Pepper and Bruce each got more screen time, and the dynamic between Steve and Tony in the films got increasingly adversarial in a way that’s less sexy more fucked up.

The battle cry against Stony from other factions, especially from the Steve/Bucky camp is usually “but they’re so toxic!” and, I mean, yeah--if your sense of these characters is primarily based on how they are in the MCU, they are. But in my experience, even if they’re working MCU events and settings, the Steve and Tony being imagined by Stony shippers aren’t really that Steve and Tony.

Steve/Bucky: look, Stucky is an MCU thing. Articles have been written and published about the fact that the dynamic between Steve and Bucky in the MCU follows the beats of an epic romance to a T. The basis for this ship is all there on screen--throw in a little bit of history nerd mojo and you’re in deep.

By my observation and estimation, most new or formerly-very-casual Marvel fans who came in via the films and remained film-mains, and who are inclined to not-strictly-heteronormative shipping at all went the Stucky route. Folks who initially shipped Stony then switched to Stucky are pretty common. People starting with Stucky and then switching to any other ship with Steve to the exclusion of Stucky? Very rare. And while for a lot of people Stucky is their OTP in the strictest sense, I do see a lot of Stucky shippers who are here for other ships as well, either in an alternate realities kinda way or an amicable exes/polyamory kinda way.

The only people I’ve seen who have a problem with Stucky as a ship (other than “my ship is a different ship, therefore this one is bad and wrong”) are comics-mains whose sense of Steve and Bucky is heavily informed by runs of the comics in which Bucky is significantly younger than Steve and kid sidekick type figure. For them, the dynamic between the general forms of these characters leans mentor/student or protector/charge, so the inclination is to read the MCU relationship as fraternal, because it being romantic is squicky based on their sense of the characters.

Sam/Steve: comics-mains, film-mains with significant comics familiarity, film-mains who just aren’t into Stucky for one reason or another, or film-mains who are just really into Anthony Mackey which is a perfectly valid reason to get behind a ship. People who know Falcon from the comics seem much more likely to be into this ship and also more invested in this ship. I’m not qualified to say much about support for this ship from the comics themselves because my personal familiarity with Marvel comics doesn’t include much of Sam Wilson at all, but I am absolutely qualified to say there’s support from the films, especially CA:WS.

The worst vitriol against this ship tends to come from overzealous Stucky OTP shippers who really need to remember that fandom is supposed to be fun, and flat out racists. That must be acknowledged and needs to be addressed. Fandom racism in general, and against Sam in particular is a thing and it can absolutely be a factor in shipping.

However it’s not inherently racist to just not ship Sam/Steve because you see them as bros, or because Stucky is your OTP, or because you ship Sam with someone else, or whatever. Worthwhile to take a minute to examine why you don’t ship it, if you don’t, and check that for racial bias in how you view and treat Sam as a character, especially if you’re white.

Sam/Steve and Stucky are the two ships I see coexist the most! A lot of people ship both of them separately and exclusive from one another, but a lot of people also go ether the OT3 or the “Steve and Sam were definitely a thing for while there but now they’re not” route.

Bucky/Natasha: comics-mains or film-mains with significant comics familiarity, particularly for the comics worlds in which Bucky and Natasha are a couple, which seems self explanatory as to why that correlates. Not a lot for it in the films, Nat and Buck don’t interact much in the films that we see, and they’re kinda trying to kill each other in much of what we do see. But, like I said, they’re a thing in some of the comics so there we have that.

This is the one that squicks me. Clearly it’s a super valid ship; depending on the canon it’s a canon ship. Frankly, they make sense together, canon or not--their individual backgrounds as spysassins and with brainwashing etc means they’d be able to understand one another in ways no one else around them really can. But my personal amalgamation of these characters from the films and what comics I’m familiar with has Bucky having been Natasha’s teacher when she was a kid in Red Room. So I cannot ship it, I can’t do it.

The fact that I personally am squeaked by it has absolutely no impact on the fact that it’s a good ship, and the fact that it’s a good ship cannot and does not negate the fact that it squicks me.

Bucky/Sam: okay, there’s not a lot of this out there yet, but what there is seems to mostly be coming from film-mains who either don’t ship or co-ship Stucky and/or Sam/Steve, and who really liked the dynamic between these two in Civil War, and I guarantee you we’re about to get so much more of this ship with Falcon and Winter Soldier premiering. I’ve already seen some hate directed at this ship from the same places Sam/Steve gets hate. I predict, though, that this one will also get co-shipped alongside Stucky by the less strictly OTP of those shippers and I’m curious to see what the dynamic ends up being between Bucky/Sam shippers and Sam/Steve shippers as this camp grows.

In conclusion, I guess, note that not shipping a ship doesn’t have to mean attacking that ship (and it shouldn’tI) and not liking a ship, even being deeply uncomfortable with a ship for your own reasons doesn’t mean that ship is bad. We’ve all got our own individual sets of experiences both in life and with the characters in our fandoms that can dramatically change how we see those characters and their relationships to one another. This gets especially complicated and diverse with Legacy Characters like those from sprawling long-running comics multiverses. Someone’s understanding and interpretation being different from yours does not make either of you wrong!

As long as no one is an asshole about it it, it’s actually really interesting and cool to compare interpretations and see how your understandings overlap and differ, to think about what bits of canon have been formative for you and what personal experience may have made you inclined to interpret certain things certain ways.

Fandom is supposed to be fun. Shipping is supposed to be fun. You can and should hype up and express love for your own ships without tearing down others.

#long post #meta #fandom etiquette #marvel #shipping #stucky #stony #sam/steve #bucky/nat #bucky/sam #squick is a useful word #don't be an asshole

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taglegend · 3 years

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Tag Fact #3 - I’ve come to realize I’ve always been a fan artist more than I thought. so here is a timeline of influences that shaped my childhood to now. from nostalgic times, to sad changes, to great loss, to strange rises to fame and phases, to stepping stones and finally a laughing place. all the things that make up your favorite fan artist Tag.

1. Rayman (bumped into this in the year of 1999) was actually the first fandom (with crossovers) I bumped into when I was 9. although the internet wasn’t available at the time it was still fun to dwell in home amusements. I remember the storylines and the OC’s I made but they’re kind of embarrassing and it’s probably a good thing there was no internet. I’ve done fanart and comic crossovers of Rayman with Calvin and Hobbs and Nights Into Dreams, spinoffs of Sonic the Hedgehog OC’s, Yoshi with Pikachu, and the Pokemon/Digimon craze with OC’s and other Nintendo comic shorts. but the drawings and comics are long gone and disappeared in the garage in a backpack due to suspecting my sister’s dad accidentally throwing them away. years later towards the year 2018 (now 28), we decided to move to North Carolina and it was my chance to find them again. unfortunately the backpack was gone just like I suspected (my main stuff), but for some reason I found my Pokemon/Digimon fanart, a good batch of Super Mario drawings (vaguely remember doing these), my sister’s drawings and some other neighborhood kids’ drawings in a dirty box. I was partially happy I found something at least but it was the backpack I wanted the most. sometimes I regret not looking for the backpack (’cause I was too busy being a kid) but it’s alright, noone needs to see that shit anyway, ha ha. anyways, I recall being a fan of Rayman from 1999 ‘til 2002.

2. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (bumped into this in the year of 2003) my second fandom I bumped into when I was 12 going on 13. at the time, my sister and I both liked the Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise based on the Battle remake and ended up making our own secret fanart club that consisted of only us two members. she liked Sonic (and that was her boyfriend, ha ha) and I liked Knuckles (and he was my boyfriend, ha ha) and we were crazy in love about Shadow’s backstory. we listened to the game’s soundtracks as we drew fanart and comics after school and man, those were good times. however, as we grew older towards the year of 2005, we ended up having separate rooms and I believe it played a part in disconnecting on the same interest. then one day, I asked her why she wasn’t into Sonic anymore and she replied, “Because I grew up.” I was sad after that and slowly observed that she was influenced by the emo culture and the new friends she’s made. I was the only member of our little club for a little longer...but eventually I moved on too. I still have some surviving fanart we did together but it doesn’t mean shit anymore since she turned out to be an abusive mother from the last I’ve heard of her.

3. Gorillaz (bumped into this in the year of 2006). as the Sonic years were at its end, I first heard the song “Feel Good Inc” on Music Choice and seeing the first image of them as displayed on this post (except the fan-made background doesn’t count since I can’t find the original artwork). this was my third fandom and later had proper access to the internet to the website I still currently use called DeviantArt. at first I liked 2D but eventually fell for Murdoc and developed a spiritual connection towards the character as obviously seen in my old fanart and rare photos of my devotion shrines on Valentine’s Day and his birthday every year. for the longest time since being a permanent fan from 2006-2017 (11 1/2 years) I had no knowledge that it was a political propaganda band and other realizations I don’t want to talk about. I only followed them because it was a cartoon and not the bullshit behind the musical project. the world I’ve built and support for them for all those 11 1/2 years shattered the fuck out of me and I just wanted to be left alone to find myself again, somehow. activity stopped on all my profiles, the flow of fanart stopped since I now cringe from the fan service and felt I was used for my talent. I didn’t want to be reminded of it all so I took down all my Gorillaz fanart and archived them for old followers’ nostalgia but also in the hopes they’ll be forgotten in my timeline. I ceased to exist in the fandom for huge personal reasons but it’s best to not say why. I know for sure that the fandom wonders what happened but it’s none of their business. THE END.

4. Waluigi (although I knew he’s been around since 2000 during childhood, I took deep interest once I revisited the character again in the year of December 2013). as silly as this sounds, when I revisited him again, the character was so bizarre that I ended up staying up 3 nights and 3 days in a row just looking all over the internet on everything about him and the questionable “hush-hush” absence of a backstory. despite there being no backstory he slowly gained a cult following and in many ways it’s a good thing. however, since the early 2010′s tension has been building up between Nintendo and its fans about him starring in a main game but everyone hasn’t fully gotten it in their heads that it’s not gonna happen. as long as Nintendo is in control of that, the fandom will not win, I’m sorry to say. on the other hand, if it’s going to be this way, then that’s what fanart and comic projects are for. as for me, I am doing my very best to get my comic project “Waluigi Land” going. again, I apologize if it’s taking very long to get Chapter 2 going if you’ve been keeping track but aha moments need to develop before I start permanent drawing (since concepts, character design and storyline needed improvement badly). as of right now I am still a Waluigi fan and I will not quit on him.

5. Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph (although it debuted in 2012, I watched the movie two years later into the year 2014). for some bizarro reason, I had an unhealthy obsession with this character to the point where I dressed up as him for Halloween 2014. only 2 fanarts of him and the Turbo Twins exist on my profiles, mainly because my mind was more focused on just ‘thinking about him’ or ‘being him’ rather than drawing physical drawings. luckily, this supposed alleged fandom didn’t last long a little after Halloween so I chalk it up as a very short phase. to this day I don’t know what has gotten over me about him. the only thing I can think of now is that I think it’s because the character had yellow eyes and teeth but I don’t know. now that I think of it, that little fucker was ugly as hell and I STILL don’t know what had gotten over me. one day, my brother mentioned what that was about, and I said to him, “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

6. Undertale (although it debuted in 2015, I later took interest in it in 2016). It was all about Sans and Papyrus. I couldn’t get enough of the skeleton bros. eventually Toriel and Mettaton EX became my favorites but it took a long time to draw more of all 4 of them because I had other important things to do in my life plus I was still waiting for the next Gorillaz album to revive my imaginative juices (or so I thought). I really want to have this as one of my frequent fandoms but I just don’t have time for it anymore. it’s still in the back of my head to want to draw them but at this point I still have other better interests to be in. and besides, I’m lazy just like Sans.

7. Cuphead (June 28th, 2017 was the official day I called quits on the British-based band Gorillaz due to the bullshit behind it. since that date I was lost, had no inspiration to look forward to and no cartoon guy to make me smile...but lo and behold of the same year, I took an interest in playing the game Cuphead and man...that shit was a frightening exaggerated metaphor for being on that one drug (forgot the name though) and having sex at the same time but man that was the best fun I’ve had in years. I mean, it’s like, enemies are just so happy to murder you and that scared the shit outta me. and the facial exaggeration?....I think I should stop, ha ha. anyways, the Moldenhauers saved my ass from spiraling down, they have no clue. anyways, eventually I became a permanent fan of their work so to ease the hurt and erase my past from the G-fandom I had to re-wire my brain into a different cartoon category that’s a rather more American, so anything Toon related like Roger Rabbit, Felix the Cat or another favorite that’s a western-based cartoon makes me feel better, especially my new man .......King Dice <3 <3<3<3. however, there was something about this new fandom category I still didn’t quite understand until the date March 14th, 2020. I finally understood what it was but I feel I shouldn’t bring it up. anyways, Cuphead and anything western or rubber hose is my last stop in inspiration for the remaining years of my life. many say never say never but I believe I’ve found my laughing place and that’s all that matters.

#tag facts #influences from cartoons #likes and dislikes #thoughts i have about characters #toons #rayman #sonic the hedgehog #gorillaz #waluigi #turbo #wreck it ralph #undertale #cuphead

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Hulu New Releases: September 2021

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September usually means the beginning of the traditional fall TV season. As such, Hulu’s list of new releases for September 2021 contains some impressive TV swings.

For starters, all of ABC and Fox’s (both now united under the Disney banner alongside Hulu) fall season offerings will be made available to stream on Hulu the next day. More impressively, however, two FX on Hulu originals make their way to the streaming world this month.

The first is the long-awaited adaptation of the classic comic Y: The Last Man. The story of a virus that destroys every mammal with a Y-chromosome (save for one escape artist and his monkey) is set to premiere on September 13. Shortly after that, the B.J. Novak-produced anthology series The Premise arrives on September 16. Even those who are fatigued from timely anthology concepts will want to check this one out.

How Y: The Last Man Updates Its Story for the Modern Era

By Alec Bojalad

Nine Perfect Strangers Review: Hulu Series Achieves Wellness

By Erin Qualey

There aren’t any original movies of note coming to Hulu in September but that’s alright as the library titles are uncommonly compelling. Edward Scissorhands, Gattaca, The Interview, Office Space, and Raising Arizona are just some of the library films this month.

Here is everything else coming to Hulu this month.

Hulu New Releases – September 2021

September 1 50/50 (2011) A Fish Called Wanda (1988) Anaconda (1997) Angel Unchained (1970) The Apparition (2012) At the Earth’s Core (1976) Blue City (1986) Bull Durham (1988) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Cannon For Cordoba (1970) Cellar Dweller (1988) Cold Creek Manor (2003) Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) Crazy Heart (2009) The Dunwich Horror (1970) Edward Scissorhands (1990) El Dorado (1967) Election (1999) Exterminator 2 (1984) Free Willy (1993) Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995) Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997) Free Willy: Escape From Pirate’s Cove (2010) Friday the 13th – Part III (1982) Friday the 13th – Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984) Fright Night (1985) Gattaca (1997) Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) The Glass House (2001) Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) Hoosiers (1986) I Spit On Your Grave (2010) I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013) I Spit On Your Grave 3 (2015) Internal Affairs (1990) The Interview (2014) Jacob’s Ladder (1990) Just Between Friends (1986) The Killer Elite (1975) Kiss the Girls (1997) The Last Castle (2001) Magic Mike (2012) The Manchurian Candidate (2004) The Mexican (2001) McLintock! (Producer’s Cut) (1963) Miss You Already (2015) Mommy (2015) Mosquito Squadron (1970) Mr. North (1988) Much Ado About Nothing (2013) New Year’s Eve (2011) Nixon (1995) Office Space (1999) The Omen (1976) The Patsy (1964) Phase IV (1974) The Possession (2012) Priest (2011) Raising Arizona (1987) The Ring (2002) Road to Perdition (2002) Salvador (1986) Secret Admirer (1985) Shaun The Sheep Movie (2015) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Solace (2016) Stephen King’s It (1990) Sucker Punch (2011) Tears Of The Sun (2003) The Tenant (1976) Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys (2008) Under Fire (1983) Vantage Point (2008) Volcano (1997) The Wedding Plan (2016) The Wrestler (2008) The X-Files (1998)

September 2 Trolls: TrollsTopia: Complete Season 4 (Hulu Original) Death in Texas (2021) The Unthinkable (2021)

September 3 The D’Amelio Show: Complete Season 1 (Hulu Original) What We Do in the Shadows: Season 3 Premiere (FX) Bolden (2019) Undine (2021)

September 4 Flower (2017)

September 8 Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Season 2 Premiere (Hulu Original) La La Land (2016)

September 10 The Killing of Two Lovers (2020) Transporter 3 (2008)

September 11 High Ground (2021)

September 13 Y: The Last Man: Three-Episode Series Premiere (FX on Hulu) Colette (2018)

September 15 Dark Side of the Ring: Season 3A (Vice) Joseph: King Of Dreams (2000) Love, Simon (2018) Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

September 16 The Premise: Series Premiere (FX on Hulu) Stalker (2021) On Chesil Beach (2018) Riders of Justice (2021)

September 18 Dark Side of Football: Complete Season 1 (Vice)

September 20 Grown Ups (2010)

September 21 9-1-1: Season 5 Premiere (FOX) The Big Leap: Series Premiere (FOX) Dancing with the Stars: Season 20 Premiere (ABC) Ordinary Joe: Series Premiere (NBC) The Voice: Season 21 Premiere (NBC)

September 22 New Amsterdam: Season 4 Premiere (NBC) Our Kind of People: Series Premiere (FOX) The Resident: Season 5 Premiere (FOX)

September 23 A Million Little Things: Season 4 Premiere (ABC) Alter Ego: Series Premiere (FOX) Chicago Fire: Season 10 Premiere (NBC) Chicago Med: Season 7 Premiere (NBC) Chicago P.D.: Season 9 Premiere (NBC) The Conners: Season 4 Premiere (ABC) The Goldbergs: Season 9 Premiere (ABC) Home Economics: Season 2 Premiere (ABC) The Masked Singer: Season 6 Premiere (FOX) The Wonder Years: Series Premiere (ABC) The Eric Andre Show: Complete Season 5 (Turner Networks) Funhouse (2021)

September 24 Law & Order: Organized Crime: Season 2 Premiere (NBC) Law & Order: SVU: Season 23 Premiere (NBC) An American Haunting (2006)

September 25 Gemini (2018)

September 27 Bob’s Burgers: Season 12 Premiere (FOX) Celebrity Wheel of Fortune: Season 2 Premiere (ABC) Family Guy: Season 20 Premiere (FOX) The Great North: Season 2 Premiere (FOX) The Rookie: Season 4 Premiere (ABC) The Simpsons: Season 33 Premiere (FOX) Supermarket Sweep: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)

September 28 The Good Doctor: Season 4 Premiere (ABC) Felix and the Hidden Treasure (2021) Home Run (2013)

September 29 La Brea: Series Premiere (NBC) Minor Premise (2021)

September 30 New Order (2021)

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Leaving Hulu – September 2021

September 1 The Iron Lady (2011) Our Family Wedding (2009) Young Adult (2011)

September 2 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)

September 23 An American Haunting (2006)

September 29 Destination Wedding (2018) Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006) Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) One For The Money (2012)

September 30 2012 (2009) 50/50 (2011) A Fish Called Wanda (1988) A Hard Day (2014) A Perfect Day (2006) The Adventures of Tintin (2011) Anaconda (1997) Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008) Anacondas: Trail Of Blood (2009) Angel Unchained (1970) The Assassin (2015) At the Earth’s Core (1976) Australia (2008) Bad Teacher (2011) Beasts Clawing At Straws (2020) Better Living Through Chemistry (2014) Big Fish (2003) Black And White (2000) BOY (2010) Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Breakdown (1997) Bruno (2009) Bull Durham (1988) Burning (2018) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Caddyshack (1980) Caddyshack II (1988) Cannon For Cordoba (1970) Cellar Dweller (1988) Charles and Diana: 1983 (2020) Charlotte’s Web (1973) The Chumscrubber (2005) The Condemned (2007) Contagion (2011) Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) Coyote Ugly (2000) Dangerous Minds (1995) Daredevil (2003) Desperate Measures (1998) Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018) Don’t Think Twice (2016) Dumb & Dumber (1994) Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003) The Dunwich Horror (1970) Eliminators (2016) Exterminator 2 (1984) Fired Up! (2009) Foxfire (1996) Fred Claus (2007) Fright Night (1985) From Paris with Love (2010) Galaxy Quest (1999) Grandma (2015) Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) The Grudge (2004) Gundala (2019) Hard Romanticker (2011) Hideaway (1995) Himalaya (1991) House of the Dead (2003) House of the Dead 2 (2006) Housesitter (1992) I Do…Until I Don’t (2017) I Wish I Knew (2010) Ice Age (2002) In The Cut (2003) Indignation (2016) Intolerable Cruelty (2003) It’s Kind Of A Funny Story (2010) Jacob’s Ladder (1990) Johnny English (2003) Just Between Friends (1986) The Killer Elite (1975) Knowing (2009) Lady Vengeance (2005) Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018) Lost in Hong Kong (2015) Machines (2016) The Man From Nowhere (2010) Maximum Risk (1996) Mercury Rising (1998) Mosquito Squadron (1970) Mountains May Depart (2015) Mr. North (1988) The Nightingale (2013) Nixon (1995) Old Stone (2016) The Omen (1976) Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) Open Water (2004) Open Water 2: Adrift (2006) Places In The Heart (1984) The Polar Express (2004) Pop Aye (2017) R.L. Stine: Mostly Ghostly (2008) R.L. Stine’s Monsterville: The Cabinet Of Souls (2015) R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? (2014) R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: One Night In Doom House (2016) R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (2007) Raising Arizona (1987) Reno 911!: Miami: The Movie (2007) The Ring (2002) Rookie of the Year (1993) Salvador (1986) Scent of Green Papayas (1993) Secret Admirer (1985) Sk8 Dawg (2018) Sleeping With The Enemy (1991) Sleepwalkers (1992) The Soloist (2009) Somewhere (2010) Sorority Row (2009) Space Jam (1996) The Stepfather (2009) Sunshine (2005) Super Troopers (2002) Sweet Bean (2015) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Take Shelter (2011) Taken (2009) This Means War (2010) Thunderheart (1992) Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) Tokyo Rising (2020) Tooth Fairy (2008) Train to Busan (2016) Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys (2008) Under Fire (1983) Universal Soldier (1992) Virtuosity (1995) The Wailing (2016) Whip It (2009) Wilde (1998) Wings Of Courage (1995) The Woman Who Left (2016) Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

The post Hulu New Releases: September 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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sanderssidesfanfiction · 3 years

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If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Thirty Four

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

July 4th, 1998

Emile watched the scene unfold in front of him in slow motion. Faith had told one of the bullies that she wasn’t going to take anything else they wanted to dish out, and the guy pushed her backwards. She stumbled back a step, but rushed forward, pushing back just as hard, and the bully staggered backwards two steps. He turned red, bringing his fist back to swing.

Faith reacted quickly, bringing her shin up to the guy’s crotch. Emile couldn’t even step in to try and break it up, he was in so much shock. He felt so utterly powerless. Not only to help, but to stop the fight from happening in the first place.

May 26th, 2001

Emile felt completely powerless. There he was, five feet away from his boyfriend who was in the middle of a panic attack, and Remy’s mother, the bitch, was trying to get Remy to come with her. Emile wanted to move forward, to comfort Remy, to change his mind, but his feet felt glued to the asphalt he was standing on. He felt like he might cry, or like his heart might shatter and he would never recover.

Remy was looking at his mom with a mix of fear and hope, like she could somehow save him or wave away all his trauma. The blood roared in Emile’s ears as slowly Remy stood on shaky legs, and hugged his mother. She walked over to Emile, and Emile just stood there, looking her over. She frowned at him. “I need to get Remington’s things,” she informed him.

“And clearly I need to get off this bad acid trip,” Emile said. “Because I’ve never known Remy to hug people he’s afraid of before. Ever.”

“Remy isn’t afraid of me,” Remy’s mother scoffed. “If anything, he’s learning where he fits in the family. It took him long enough, but he’s coming around.”

It was Emile’s turn to scoff. “Right. Because he would clearly tell you how he feels about you if it was anything remotely negative. Of course. There would be no backlash for that, I’m sure.”

“Of course not, I encourage all my kids to be honest with me,” Remy’s mother said.

“Bullshit,” Emile growled. “I bet the second they come to you with a problem you either make it their fault for not doing what you wanted them to do, or you guilt trip them into taking whatever they said back. Remy, how close am I?”

Remy was shaking and glaring at Emile. “Let it go, Emile,” Remy warned.

“You know me, Rem. I never let anything go until I feel like it’s been fixed. And this is not a solution. At best, it’s a band-aid over a bullet wound,” Emile said.

Remy’s mother tried to forcibly move Emile to the side, but Emile just stood in place, a smile slowly growing on his face. “You’re not getting Remy’s things, not if I have a say in it,” Emile said.

“You don’t have a say in it,” Remy’s mother snarled.

“Don’t I?” Emile asked.

“You don’t,” Remy said, voice sharp and angry. “Let it go, Emile. Let me go.”

“No,” Emile said. “Even if you leave with your mother, I will never stop thinking about you. I’ll never stop trying to write, to find you, to show you that I love you. I love you more than anything else in the world, Rem. And whether or not we’re just friends, or something more, we’ll always have a certain connection between us. And I, for one, am not willing to give that up.”

Remy’s mother sneered at him. “You’re going to burn in Hell,” she informed him.

“Hell will be fabulous, covered in glitter, and I’ll have any guy I could possibly want,” Emile replied without missing a beat. “Although, considering I’m Catholic, you know, I might actually be going to Heaven. I don’t think just being gay will land you in Hell. Purgatory, maybe. Maybe I’ll spend a little longer in Purgatory than I would have otherwise, but you know what? That’s completely worth it.”

“Emile,” Remy said. “Please, stop.”

“Why should I?” Emile challenged.

“Because I asked you to,” Remy said. “I’m not comfortable in this situation. I’m calling it.”

Remy’s mother turned to Remy. “Since when do you talk about your feelings?” she asked. “That sort of thing is completely unnecessary.”

“Wow, I see where he gets that from,” Emile muttered.

“What?” Remy’s mother asked, turning back to Emile. “What is that supposed to mean?!”

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Emile said with a wave of his hand. “After all, I’ll respect Remy’s decision to not want to talk about it.”

“You’ll tell me what that meant, right now!” Remy’s mother demanded.

An idea formed in Emile’s mind and he widened his eyes with false innocence. “But ma’am, if I did that, I’d be considering you more important than Remy.”

“Remington answers to me,” Remy’s mother spat. “He listens to what I and his father have to say, and he can make his own choices once he’s listened to what we want him to do. He’s free to do whatever he wants, so long as it’s within our plans for him.”

“And there it is,” Emile said, feeling completely vindicated. “Remy is a second-class citizen in your eyes. You come first, and he comes second. Maybe third, or fourth, depending on what his siblings say, isn’t that right?”

“Children are to listen to their parents,” Remy’s mother growled.

“Yeah, when they’re twelve,” Emile said. “Remy is, to use his own words, a ‘grown-ass man.’ He’s old enough to make his own choices about his life, and you’re stripping that right from him. Children have to listen to their parents when they are still children, because their parents generally keep them from doing something stupid that would hurt the kids. But once that child is eighteen, they’re a legal adult, and they’re allowed—no, they’re encouraged to make their own decisions. If Remy makes the choice to go back to you, that’s his choice. But if you strip him of his ability to make his own choices, then you are the one in the wrong.”

“And yet you were trying to take away my choice earlier by saying I couldn’t go back to my mom and dad,” Remy said. “You’re a hypocrite.”

“Yeah? Well, at least I’ll admit to my mistakes, unlike someone in this parking lot,” Emile said, glowering at Remy’s mother.

“When did you admit you were wrong?” Remy scoffed.

Emile looked at Remy. “Every time I’ve yelled, or moved too fast, or made a sudden noise that scared you. When I tried to figure out the logistics of getting a giant sofa into the apartment and you informed me it would never fit through the door.”

“But not when it comes to my family,” Remy said. “You never say you’re wrong when it comes to my family.”

“I’m...not wrong when it comes to your family,” Emile said.

Remy made an offended noise. “You’re not even open to constructive criticism when it comes to your opinions on...virtually anything. Especially cartoons and my family, though.”

“Well, you hardly give evidence to support your claim that your family isn’t as bad as you claim, and you just get mean when you insult cartoons,” Emile said, crossing his arms. “And no, providing you with food and shelter doesn’t mean that your parents were good. That’s a requirement of being a parent. Not something optional you get when you behave, or because your parents feel ‘generous.’”

Remy’s mother snarled, “Move out of the way so I can get my son’s things and we can leave!”

Emile stared down his nose at Remy’s mother. “Ma’am, I say this with as much respect as I can muster, but go to Hell.”

“Emile!” Mom snapped at him. “You can’t say that to anyone!”

“Well, what am I supposed to say?!” Emile asked. “Should I give her a customer service smile and let her hurt Remy?!”

“Once again, you’re hurting me more than she ever has!” Remy exclaimed.

Remy’s mother turned, shocked, to Remy. “You don’t genuinely believe I’ve hurt you?”

“Wha—no! That’s the point!” Remy said, but Emile could see Remy’s tells, and he was definitely lying. And his surprise meant that he wasn’t doing it as well as he usually did. “You haven’t hurt me at all, and he’s hurt me plenty of times!”

“You know I can tell when you’re lying, Remington?” Remy’s mother said. “You’ve always had the exact same face when you lie, from back when you were four years old to now.”

“Okay, so maybe you’ve made me feel bad once or twice, but—”

“When?!” his mother asked. “When have I hurt you?!”

Remy looked like a deer in headlights. “At the coffee shop?” he said. “You scared me out of my wits. And at Thanksgiving, trying to get me to change my major—”

His mother cut him off again. “I was helping you!”

“No, mom. You weren’t,” Remy said, before clapping a hand over his mouth.

His mother was eerily still, and Emile knew that whatever happened next was going to get ugly. “Oh, I see,” she said. “I’m the villain, here. After all these years, you’re still ungrateful for everything I’ve done for you. I made sure you were happy, and that you would fit in with others your age! All those times you were upset when I might take some childish thing away from you, it only took you the next day to recover and it was like nothing ever happened! Do you want to be like your ‘friend’ here and be stuck in the past, watching children’s shows for the rest of your life? I was so relieved when you outgrew your comics phase. You would never have had friends if you had kept that up.”

Emile was ready to strangle Remy’s mother. Not even over insulting his love of cartoons, but for her blatant disregard of Remy’s feelings. It was completely unfair and cruel. Remy removed his hand from his mouth, but his eyes were glassy.

His mother scoffed. “Crocodile tears don’t work on me, Remington, and besides, no one likes a crybaby. They’ll train that out of you in the military.”

Remy was shaking all over, and he muttered, “So that’s where I am. A rock and a hard place. Fantastic.”

“Why are you even entertaining these people?” his mother asked. “We can get you new clothes, you don’t need anything in that suitcase of yours, anyway. Let’s go.”

Remy didn’t move.

“Remington,” his mother prompted. “We’re leaving.”

“I thought...” Remy cleared his throat. “I thought you said you’d be proud of me. Well, I’m doing what you wanted. Why are you still treating me the same as always?”

His mother scoffed. “You don’t get special treatment over your brother or sister. This is the way your father and I treat them, and so it’s how we treat you. Just because you make us proud doesn’t mean your place in this family moves.”

Remy blinked repeatedly. “But...but you always treated me like I was a problem child. If I listen to you, I’m not a problem anymore. I get my own spot at the table when we make decisions.”

“Remy, you clearly don’t know what’s best for you on your own. I’m glad you came to your senses and decided to listen to me, but you can’t be trusted to know what’s best for you. Toby and Vanessa barely know what’s best for themselves, after all these years. They get their opinions considered, but you have to work a while before you get to that point,” his mother explained.

Emile stayed silent, and didn’t move, even though he wanted nothing more than to kill Remy’s mom then and there. Remy was staring at her with hurt, and shock, and betrayal. “Even if you’re proud of me...you get the final say in my life? That’s what you’re saying?”

“Yes, you’re finally beginning to understand!” Remy’s mother exclaimed.

Remy looked down, before looking back up, saying, “No, Mom, I don’t understand. I don’t understand why you get the final say in my life.”

“Because I know you best!” his mother exclaimed.

Remy laughed. “Mom, you don’t even know that I can cook. You set me in front of the stove and said I was old enough to make my own food, and I found I had a knack for making meals, but you never once thought to ask how it was going. If you ever saw me eating something I made you accused me of ordering take-out, because there was no way I’d be able to make something like that, of course. You don’t know me. At all, I’d say. Why should you get to control my life when you don’t even know me?”

“Remington, don’t you dare backtalk,” his mother said.

Remy bit his tongue, pulling a face. “Yeah. No,” he said. “Misses Thomas, I’m sorry for having you drive me all the way out here. Clearly, this was a mistake.”

Emile’s heart soared with hope. “Does this mean you’re staying with us?”

“It means we’ll be having a very. Long. Talk,” Remy warned. “But if I’m not going to be respected at home, then I’m not going home. Sorry, Mom.”

#if there's a place i could be #sanders sides fanfiction #remile #emile picani #ts sleep

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Level Up, Chapter Seven (Branjie) - Holtzmanns

“Mom, I’m not going on a date with your financial advisor.” Vanessa has to resist the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that her mom won’t hesitate to rip her a new one for it if she catches her.

“He’s young and tall and wears a suit.” Vanessa’s mom points the spatula in her hand in her direction. “Don’t you wanna date a suit?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s you that wants to date a suit.” Vanessa raises an eyebrow as she hops onto the counter, her legs dangling.

AN: New chapter time - thank you guys for being so patient and waiting for this one. Writing is going a bit slow for me these days, which means slower updates. To anyone who’s left a review on this story, hi I love you, thanks for being great and giving me even more motivation to write. Seeing people are actually reading and enjoying a fic because they say so is a good kick in the butt for any author’s muse. Let me know what you think of this chapter, too. As always, thank you writ for betaing <3

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not, he’s cute! And polite too, you know how much I like that.”

“He’s young and tall and wears a suit.” Vanessa’s mom points the spatula in her hand in her direction. “Don’t you wanna date a suit?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s you that wants to date a suit.” Vanessa raises an eyebrow as she hops onto the counter, her legs dangling.

Vanessa’s mom shrugs her shoulders. “Just tryna help you out, baby. You haven’t dated anyone in a while, have you? Who was the last one? That ugly looking-”

“No need to roast my exes.” Vanessa makes a face when her mom snickers.

Vanessa appreciates her mom’s intentions, but sometimes they’re a little off the mark. Or a lot off the mark, from the guys that she’s tried to set Vanessa up with lately.

It’s not as if Vanessa isn’t out to her mom. She is, or rather, has tried to be. Multiple times. The first time was in high school, when Vanessa had kissed her best friend and cried about it to her mom after her friend had started to avoid her, and her mom had told her that it was a phase that she’d grow out of. And then there was college, where Vanessa’s mom would meet her various girlfriends with brightly coloured hair and piercings and eclectic fashion senses, only to call them her close friends. It’s the difference in how Vanessa’s mom has treated her ex-boyfriends versus ex-girlfriends, paying way more attention to the boys even when they hadn’t been anything to write home about.

Vanessa’s tried. But it’s hard to make the point stick when her mom laughs off the idea of having a girlfriend, changing the subject a little too quickly. But hey, it’s better than her mom wanting to disown her. Vanessa will take it.

A knock on the door gets Vanessa out of her head and she hops off the counter to pull it open, as her mom sets the dishes on the table. The pastry box in Alexis’ hands makes Vanessa light up and she grabs it, bringing it to the table while Alexis follows her inside.

“Nice to see you, too, Vanj.” Alexis sits down across from her, sticking out her tongue.

Vanessa sticks hers out right back. “I saw you earlier today at our place, chill. Didn’t even have time to miss ya.”

Their mom, at the head of the table between them both, waves her hands. “Shh. Don’t ruin the family dinner ambiance.”

Alexis snickers. “As if we don’t get into at least two arguments every time we all have dinner together.”

The monthly dinners remind Vanessa of a simpler time when the three of them were always under one roof. Her mom would make an extra effort to get home from work on time, cook them something that they could all eat together rather than something for Alexis and Vanessa to reheat when they got home from school. It’s nice that no matter how old they get, the dinners have stayed the same. The dishes are the ones that Vanessa’s enjoyed since being a kid, ones that she’s tried to replicate in her own kitchen with little success. But at least she still gets to enjoy them now, as an adult, at her mom’s.

“Pass me the rice.” Alexis holds her hands out, wiggling her fingers, and Vanessa’s about to reach for the corningware before noticing the glinting on Alexis’ wrist.

“Where’s that bracelet from? Damn, Rob splurged. Good for him.” Vanessa has to admit, Rob doesn’t have bad taste. The bracelet on Alexis’ wrist is delicate, the stones on it sparkling under the light.

“It’s from dad.” The nonchalant tone of Alexis’ voice makes Vanessa’s fork clang harder on her plate than she intends it to.

She has to resist the urge to roll her eyes. “Really? He’s buying your love now? That’s what it’s come to?”

“Don’t be jealous that he’s buying me gifts and not you.” Alexis sniffs, before taking another sip of her drink. “At least I’m making an effort with him.”

“I’m not jeal-”

“Stubbornness doesn’t get you anywhere. He says he misses you, ‘cept you won’t give him the time of the day.” Alexis shrugs, and Vanessa can feel her hands balling into fists.

“‘Cause he doesn’t deserve it, that’s why.”

“Not that he’d want you around with that attitude anyway.” Alexis raises her eyebrows, and Vanessa’s seeing red, she really is, because fuck her sister-

Vanessa’s mom’s hand is up at her shoulders, blocking her from standing up before she can do so. “Don’t punch your sister.”

“I’m going.” Vanessa growls out, trying to scoot her chair back because she hates it, the smugness radiating off of Alexis for absolutely no reason. When she has nothing to be proud about.

“No you’re not. Sit down and eat your food.” Their mom looks tired as she takes a drink of her wine, nearly draining the glass.

Vanessa scowls. “How do you not care about this? Doesn’t it bother you?”

Because heaven knows, it bothers Vanessa. It doesn’t make sense, their dad wanting to connect now after not giving a shit for so long, and why is Alexis playing right into it? Why should their dad just get whatever he wants whenever it’s convenient for him?

Their mom sighs. “Because I am an adult, and so is Alexis. And so are you, if you’d mature a bit. It’s not a bad idea to give people second chances.”

“He’s not buying my affection back. Fuck that.” Vanessa crosses her arms. “How’d he even afford that bracelet, anyway? He’s never been the type to be financially stable.”

“If you’d ever talked with him, you’d know he’s turning his life around. He’s doing better.” Alexis’ smug tone is nauseating, enough to make Vanessa’s skin crawl.

It all sounds so fake, so put on. Like their dad’s trying hard to impress them and the fact that Alexis is buying into it? Pathetic, in Vanessa’s opinion.

She can do better. They all can. Not that Alexis seems to want to do so.

Vanessa’s brain feels like it’s floating inside of a dark cloud as she leaves her mother’s apartment with Alexis. The subway is only a few blocks away, but it feels so much longer to Vanessa while trying not to talk to her sister, as to not give her the satisfaction she wants. Because she knows Alexis thinks she’s in the right, and that she always is, as the older one. That Vanessa’s eventually going to give in and follow her advice.

Her phone buzzes as they wait at a busy intersection, and Vanessa almost misses the signal to cross when she sees the picture that pops up on her screen.

It’s a cat so fluffy that it’s reminiscent of a mountain lion, and Vanessa can’t help but squeal. Brooke’s mentioned her cats before but Vanessa’s never seen pictures of them, because she’d definitely remember such a sight.

The cat in the picture is stretched out on a couch, his paws up in the air as he sleeps. Vanessa hits the text notification that follows, trying to ignore the smile growing on her own face.

BLH: Henry’s as excited for our practice tomorrow as we are. His hands are already protecting his face.

VVM: WHY IS YOUR CAT SO CUTE

VVM: sorry no caps lock

VVM: but also yes caps lock

BLH: You should meet him and his brother sometime!

VVM: PLEASE

“Alexis? We should get a cat.” Vanessa nudges her sister as they descend the steps towards the subway.

Alexis rolls her eyes. “Oh, so you’re talking to me now?”

Vanessa doesn’t respond right away, in favour of looking at the second picture that pops up on her phone, the grey cat sleeping on Brooke’s coffee table. “Bet Rob would like one.”

“He already gets enough p-”

“Don’t complete that sentence, ew!” Vanessa pretends to dry heave as her sister cracks up, the ice that has been building up between them the entire evening breaking into pieces.

Vanessa knows Alexis and her will be fine because they always are, for how much they bicker. It would just be easier if neither of them were so stubborn. Not that Vanessa’s going to be the one to give in this time.

Brooke’s already in the gym when Vanessa pushes her way in the next morning, trying to hide the yawn behind her hand that betrays the fact that it’s 6:45 and the sun still hasn’t risen outside. Vanessa’s eyebrows push together when Brooke spins almost comically to face her, coffee in one hand and breakfast burrito in the other.

“Why are you so perky this morning?” Vanessa herself isn’t, that’s for sure. Not when she’s used to pressing snooze on her alarms until the last possible moment before she has to get up for work.

Brooke shrugs, though her energy is nervous, her foot tapping on the floor. “This is our first training session.”

“You’ve been training me for months.” Vanessa replies, raising an eyebrow as she does, and Brooke shrugs.

“Yeah, but this is the first actual session. I’m coaching you. Trying to get things into your brain.”

“You’ve done that plenty with your terrible singing. There’s no way I can get that belting out of my brain, ever.” Vanessa snickers, reaching out to pat Brooke’s shoulder as she pouts. “Kidding.”

“I’m a great singer. I got the gumption,” Brooke sniffs, “I can’t help it when Celine is on.”

“Is that why your workout playlist has so many ballads?”

Vanessa ducks out of the way when Brooke grumbles, reaching over to shove her shoulder. “Tell me why I should coach you again?”

“‘Cause I’m a delight, and you know it.” Vanessa grins, batting her eyelashes, and Brooke rolls her eyes.

“Go get changed, you delight. We have stuff to do.”

Vanessa pauses at the locker room doors once she’s in her workout clothes at the sight in front of her. There’s a mosaic of pages ripped out of notebooks scattered along the floor, interspersed with diagrams drawn on chart paper, all neatly arranged while Brooke sits in the middle.

“Wanna explain?” Vanessa’s not sure if Brooke hears her at first, from the way she’s furiously scribbling on the page in her lap, but then Brooke’s head comically bobs up as her fingers tap on her knee.

Brooke shifts in place. “Okay, so I didn’t exactly know where to start. I mean, I was thinking I could try and think back to how my dad used to coach me but that’s not a box worth opening right now, y’know? I mean I could, but repression is way more tempting. So then I was looking up coaching methods and what works for one person may not work for another, and then I started thinking about how I really didn’t know what style worked for you best and what would be the most effective way for us to collaborate and…” Brooke cuts herself off as she takes a breath, weakly pointing to the mess around her. “So we have this.”

Vanessa whistles, crouches down beside Brooke while trying not to rustle any of the papers. “There’s a lot to untangle here.”

“We can’t go wrong with being too prepared, right? At least we can try everything and then maybe one thing is going to work and I’ll actually be useful as a coach.” Brooke shrugs sheepishly.

“What are you out here talking about, useful as a coach? You’re plenty useful. Look at how much I’ve improved over the last few months.” Vanessa throws a look at Brooke, who for once, looks slightly self conscious, from the way she fiddles with her sleeves. “You’re telling me our practices together haven’t made a difference in my fighting skills?”

“Maybe a little,” Brooke admits, “but how do you know any of it was me? You’re taking classes at the same time, you’re building that muscle memory. That plays a big part.”

“And how would I build muscle memory if it wasn’t for our practices?” Brooke looks unconvinced, so Vanessa carries on. “Look. I ain’t asking you ‘cause I think you’re an Olympic champion boxer, or anything like that. I’m asking you ‘cause you know your shit and you can handle me in the gym and know how to get me to cool down. I need that.”

Vanessa thinks back to their last practice, when all Brooke had to do was hand Vanessa a granola bar to give her some sugar and Vanessa found herself able to focus, less frustrated during their drills. It’s almost like Brooke is learning the little parts of her that don’t necessarily come up in conversation, more so the ones that only become obvious when you truly pay attention.

She nudges Brooke’s side. “I don’t care if you haven’t coached before. I’ve never been a boxer before any of this shit. You think I know what I’m doing? I don’t care if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Okay, but I really, really, don’t know what I’m doing-”

Vanessa shrugs. “Well then, we make a good team. If we’re gonna do this blindly, at least we’ve got each other for the journey.”

Brooke gathers up some of the papers around her, holding them out in front of Vanessa. “We won’t be doing it completely blindly, though, I was thinking we could try out methods that are evidence based and see what works the best and what leads to carryover-”

“I don’t know why you’re bringing up some academic shit right now, in a gym of all places, but what we’re gonna do is try shit until something sticks.” Vanessa grabs the pile of papers in Brooke’s hands, smoothes them out.

Brooke snorts. “That’s basically what I said.”

“Be less boring about it, then.”

It’s enough to get Brooke smiling, though, reducing the nervous energy that is radiating off of her in waves. “Get your gear on. We’re going to get to work.”

“That’s more like it.”

And so it begins. Vanessa’s alarm clock is set an hour and a half earlier every morning, the sun rising in tandem with her body heat during her first workout of each day. Brooke doesn’t pull any punches with the conditioning routines that she drafts every morning - Vanessa had thought in the past that Kameron was bad with the cardio and strength outside of the ring, but Brooke’s making her feel like she’s a beginner again, from how much her muscles are complaining with every move she makes.

Take today, for example. The circuit that Brooke’s written out on her clipboard is torturous, positively torturous, and Vanessa knows that she has to get through it eight times, but she’s only on her third round and she’s already about to collapse, never to get up again. She wipes the sweat off of her forehead before resting her hands on her knees, bending over in half to try and catch her breath, before Brooke’s voice behind her rings like a bell.

“Mountain climbers, let’s go! No stopping.”

“Bitch, do you want me to die?” Vanessa pants out as she gets on all fours nonetheless, her arms shaking as she presses her palms into the ground.

“No. But what I don’t want is for your endurance to putter out during a match at the worst time. You’re gonna have to build it, and not only that, but learn to push through when it feels like you can’t.”

Maybe if Vanessa wasn’t currently dripping sweat onto the mats below her, her arms about to give out, then she’d be moved by the almost poetic words. But she’s too out of breath to care, especially when all she can focus on as she stands back up is the way her legs feel like jelly and her arms like anchors that are about to break off.

Brooke’s look is sympathetic as Vanessa rolls out her shoulders, preparing to do her set of burpees next. “It’s not always going to be this difficult. Your body is going to build and build and build that strength and endurance and soon, you’ll be able to do all of it without breaking a sweat.”

Vanessa has to pause as she crouches down to shoot Brooke a look. “See, I’d believe that, pants on fire, if you weren’t making the circuits longer and more intense every damn session. How’s it gonna get easier if you keep upping the difficulty?”

“You haven’t died yet, have you?” Brooke sips on her iced coffee almost languidly, not a hair out of place, and Vanessa has to hold back a grumble.

She’s going to kill Brooke one of these days, she really is, if Brooke doesn’t kill her with these workouts first.

But Vanessa does trust Brooke, and so keeps pushing herself, follows each routine as best as she can and not skipping reps if she can help it. Sure, she can’t move her muscles without pain, and Silky and A’keria look at her funny even though she swears that her waddling isn’t because she’s getting some good dick, she’s just working out, that’s all, but…it’s worth it. It has to be worth it, Vanessa isn’t going to allow herself to believe anything else. She’s pushing her body to the limit for a purpose, and that purpose is to kick some ass in a boxing ring and feel good about it.

That’s what Vanessa tells herself at least, as more and more of her hours not spent at work become dedicated to training, going for massages for her sore muscles, and watching old boxing matches instead of Netflix whenever Brooke gives her boxers to research. It doesn’t feel like it’s a drastic change because it’s still fun to Vanessa, pushing her in ways that she’s never expected.

A’keria gives Vanessa an apprehensive look, though, when she hides one too many yawns behind her palm one day at work. She’s not necessarily falling asleep as she does the client’s makeup, but her morning workout today had been more grueling than usual, and having to stand for hours on end at the moment isn’t doing her sore limbs any favours.

“Can I ask you something, Vanj?” A’keria’s eyes remain on the client in front of her, the comb in between her fingers expertly parting the woman’s hair.

Vanessa squints her eyes as she blends the shadows on her client’s crease, trying to get both eyes to match. “Yeah, what?”

“Why are you doing all of this? The boxing, the gym?” A’keria looks up at Vanessa, the motions of her hands stalled. “What’s the point?”

“Didn’t I tell you at the beginning? Alexis made me so I’d stop blowing up in her face.” It may be the short answer, Vanessa knows, but it works for now.

A’keria sighs, and her eyes are too knowing, too willing to look into Vanessa’s soul. “Sure, I get a couple of classes here and there. But you’re running yourself ragged.”

Vanessa scoffs. “Am not.”

Because she’s not. It’s just what she needs to do, and how’s she going to get anywhere if she doesn’t? The next tournament is coming up soon, and if she does well in this one at the higher level then hey, maybe she can compete even more regularly and maybe have a proper match and-

“Just promise me that you’re taking care of yourself. And I don’t want an empty promise of you just nodding your head and saying yes, Kiki, I will, I want an actual promise that you’re gonna put yourself first.” A’keria points her comb towards Vanessa and she feels like she’s five, being reprimanded by her kindergarten teacher.

“I am putting myself first. Have you seen my guns? That’s self love, baby.” Vanessa flexes her bicep, pretends to give it a kiss and it’s worth it when the client in front of Vanessa lets out a giggle, and even more so when A’keria rolls her eyes.

“Tell me why I still care about your stupid ass.”

Vanessa doesn’t miss a beat. “‘Cause you love me.”

“Somehow.” A’keria mutters, turning back towards her model. “But if you don’t take care of yourself while doing this boxing nonsense, I’m gonna have to whoop your ass.”

“Duly noted.” Vanessa snickers, and it’s enough for A’keria, whose frown lines smooth out between her eyebrows. “Didn’t know you were so worried ‘bout me.”

A’keria shoots her a look. “Why wouldn’t I be? You’re one of my best friends. And who else would listen to me griping about my man? You think Silky pays any attention to anything but Jerry Springer on the TV?”

“You’ve got a point there. So, update me,” Vanessa leans towards A’keria, a conspiratorial tone in her voice, “are y’all back together yet? Or are you still leaving him on read for exactly seventy two hours before texting him back? Which, by the way, makes no sense as a strategy.”

“It’s kept him for this long, hasn’t it?” A’keria shrugs her shoulders, a proud smile playing on her lips. “He always comes back. It’s like I have him on a rubber band that always snaps back into place. Never fails.”

“That makes no damn sense, and you know it. But men never do.”

Vanessa’s glad she’s not with a guy for now. She’s always found it so confusing, with the games and the signals that inevitably get crossed and the misunderstandings and it’s much easier, really, hearing about it secondhand from her friends.

Not that being interested in girls can be any better, from what she notices at their next practice before the next tournament. Vanessa had her session with Brooke in the morning and she’s back now hours later in the gym, a place that she feels like she never leaves anymore, curled up on a bench in the locker room and watching the scene that’s unfolding in front of her.

To any ordinary bystander, this scenario would be representative of any millennials - a girl swiping through Tinder with her friends providing commentary beside her. But what Vanessa really sees is Monique showing off the various pictures that pop up on her phone, while remaining completely oblivious to Monet sulking on the bench that is perpendicular to her. Sulking may be a stretch, but Vanessa can tell that the force with which Monet tugs on the zipper of her gym bag isn’t typical - it’s a sign that she’s unhappy with the situation.

“What about this girl? She put a quote from Shark Tale in her bio. And she lives on the east side. Imma swipe right.” Monique holds up her phone, and the brunette on her screen is cute, yes, but Monet’s shoulders slump a little and it becomes just a little bit harder to react in a blase way.

“Uh, yeah. Super cute. Love that.” Vanessa gives Monet a thumbs up, and she can feel Asia’s elbow in her side because of how unconvincing she is but hey, she’s trying.

She scoots down slightly on the bench, leans over to whisper. “What do you expect me to even say?”

“I dunno, but flashing a thumbs up ain’t gonna do the trick.” Asia mutters under her breath, jerking her head towards Monet, who’s begun to braid her hair with a scowl on her face.

Vanessa shrugs her shoulders, trying to keep her voice from exploding as much as it wants to. “So what the hell do we do?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? We don’t do anything because they’re adults, and they can sort it out themselves.” Asia’s look is pointed, one that Vanessa delicately chooses to ignore.

“We can’t do that. They’ll be miserable. Neither of them even realizes how much they like each other, and they’ll just keep doing this stupid dance.” Vanessa chances a glance towards Monique, who’s slowly lowering her phone back towards herself after Monet turns away with a curt nod. “This is ridiculous.”

Asia sighs. “You think they’re gonna hear a word we say? Hey, dumbasses, you both have a crush on your best friend, spoiler alert, it’s each other. They’re gonna tell us that we’re being silly and they’ll be in even more denial.”

Vanessa bites her lip, because the jealousy that’s radiating off of Monet is hard to miss, except apparently for Monique, who shuts off her phone and sighs as she stands up. “Ugh. You’re right. Doesn’t make this shit easier to watch.”

Vanessa keeps an eye on them throughout the class, nearly catching a jab in the face from Asia in the process. Monet and Monique seem to be back to their normal selves, bickering as they practice their drills but Vanessa doesn’t miss the lingering glance from Monet as Monique fills up her water bottle, or the way that Monique opens up her mouth to say something, eyes wide, as they finish an exercise before abruptly closing it. Vanessa feels like she’s watching a movie where she just wants to yell at the main characters to kiss already, except it’s two of her friends who should be together but are only now beginning to realize how much they like each other.

“Don’t do it.” Brooke’s holding back a smile at her desk when Vanessa falls into the chair across from her once the class is over, after regaling Brooke with Monique and Monet’s situation.

“Not doing anything. But I want to.” Vanessa slouches in her seat, resting her cheek on her palm. “Those two clowns are perfect for each other. Hell, I thought they were already together when I first started here.”

It’s not a lie. Vanessa remembers the way that Monique and Monet would always finish each other’s sentences, and be holding on to each other in some form or another. They still do, though Vanessa does notice more hesitancy lately in the way they reach out, more tentativeness in their words.

Brooke shakes her head, leaning forward on her desk. “You have to let them work it out themselves. Forcing something between them when neither of them seems fully ready is only going to lead to a mess.”

“You say that as if we’re all not already a mess.”

Brooke snorts. “True. You most of all.”

“Rude-”

“Kidding.”

“Good, you better be.” Vanessa sniffs, though she can’t keep a straight face for long, not when Brooke’s already holding back a laugh.

Brooke shrugs, thumbing through a pile of papers on the corner of her desk before pulling one from the stack, turning it towards Vanessa. The flyer for the upcoming tournament is a bit of an eyesore with the neon colours, but Vanessa tries to ignore the attempts at graphic design as Brooke points at the upcoming date. “Isn’t the tournament that you all signed up for coming up soon, anyway? It’s at least a three hour drive to get there. Maybe the two of them will talk it out during the ride.”

“Or they’ll ignore the huge elephant in the room and just pretend like absolutely nothing is going on.” Vanessa shrugs. “I feel like it could go either way.”

“Sooner or later, they’ll reach a point where they have no choice but to confront it. And when they do, they’ll see what’s been in front of them this whole time.” Brooke leans back in her own seat, and Vanessa can’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“That’s somehow the sappiest thing I’ve ever heard you say. Are you a secret romantic?”

Brooke makes a face. “Most definitely not. I’ll take a comedy over watching something like The Notebook any day.”

Vanessa’s mouth drops open. “You take that back. That’s my favourite movie!”

“The Notebook? Really? You can’t call me sappy if that’s your favourite. Do you cry every time you watch it, too?”

“Maybe?” Vanessa raises her hands in surrender. “I can’t help it! It just tugs on the heartstrings.”

“Why watch it if it just makes you sad?” Brooke has confusion written across her face, and Vanessa has to pause while she thinks of an answer.

“I dunno. It’s sad but it’s a good sad, y’know? The kind that makes you feel something ‘cause even if there’s loss they still had so much love, and those moments are the ones that make everything else worth going through.”

Vanessa can’t help the longing in her voice because as silly as it sounds, she wants something like that. Something worth fighting for. Maybe it’s cliche, maybe it’s the thoughts of a teenage Vanessa from all those years ago who’d watched the movie for the very first time, but she still wants that feeling.

But who knows. Teenage Vanessa had also wanted a perm back in the day, and that had been a mess that had taken years to grow out.

“You’re the secret romantic between the two of us.” Brooke tilts her head and Vanessa shrugs, because she can’t deny it, not really.

“Who said it was a secret? I got taste between the two of us.” Vanessa can’t help but snicker at Brooke’s mock offended face.

“Just for that, we’re starting half an hour earlier tomorrow for training.”

Vanessa though, is unperturbed. “Liar. You hate waking up early as it is. I know you too well.”

“Maybe.” But the way Brooke’s eyes are glimmering, the way she has a grin of her own, somehow makes Vanessa want to know her even more.

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #lesbian au #level up #holtzmanns

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I thought about the MCU (Phase Two)

Sorry this didn’t come out sooner. Disney+ needed to be paid, and that is the only way I can possibly watch most of these movies. Anways, here’s the continued ranking:

6th place: Thor: The Dark World (4/10)

The final fight is cool, and Loki is still a ton of fun. There. That's all I like about Thor: The Dark World. Other than that, it is easily the weakest MCU film. It's boring. It's ugly. A large percentage of the characters are flat and dull. And Christopher Eccleston's Malekith is arguably the worst villain yet. His goal? Plunge the world in darkness. Yeah, been there, done that, at least have a hammy personality if your plans are as uninteresting as vanilla ice cream. If you love this movie, more power to you. I just cannot get into it.

5th place: Ant-Man (6/10)

I won't lie, I will fully understand if you don't like this movie. The rules behind how the shrinking works are inconsistent, the majority of the characters are flat, it's almost hilarious with how bad Corey Stoll's Yellowjacket is, and the racial and cultural stereotypes can come off as really annoying...and a tad bit offensive. Not to mention that it is downright CRIMINAL to not let Edgar Wright go all out with this movie! So I won't blame you if you hate Ant-Man...but I still kinda like it. Some jokes are funny, it's a spectacle to see the world when the characters shrink, and Paul Rudd's Ant-Man is a fun and heartwarming character who gets better with each movie he's in. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this movie for the first time and I still enjoy it every other time. So while I understand if Ant-Man isn't your cup of tea, I'll always get a kick out of it.

4th place: Iron Man 3 (8/10)

Yup, this is my favorite Iron Man movie. Mostly for the same reason why Captain America: The First Avenger is my favorite Captain America movie. Iron Man 3 has everything that I think of when I think of Iron Man: A character who is reckless, impulsive and is kind of an a**hole, but he's still charismatic and highly intelligent. Throughout the movie, Tony goes on an adventure without his suit, and while most people complain about that, I see it as the film's best feature. It forces him to use his brains to outthink his enemies while also charming the pants out of strangers to help him out on occasion, proving that it isn't the suit that makes Iron Man, but the man inside. Plus, it leads to some exciting action set pieces. Probably the best ones in the MCU. But I will admit that there are some issues that I kinda agree with. The big reveal of The Mandarin, while funny at points, is pretty disappointing. Plus, while Guy Pierce's character has formidable powers, he still lacks any motivation or charm that makes me enjoy that same character. Still, Iron Man 3 is easily my favorite. Because while it has issues, the cooler elements more than makeup for it.

3rd place: Avengers: Age of Ultron (8/10)

...Man...this was way uglier than I remember. Seriously, someone both needed to turn up the color gradient and polish out the CGI because this movie is hideous...still a ton of fun, though.

Don't get me wrong, there are some complaints that I sort of agree with. The majority of quips, while funny sometimes, feel out of place, and half the time, I'm thinking, "This character wouldn't say that." And while I enjoy James Spader's Ultron being written as an evil Tony Stark, charm and all, the character does pale in comparison to his comic book counterpart. With that said, everything this movie does wrong, it does the most important job right: Make likable characters. The Avengers are still a ton of fun, and it's always a blast seeing them work off of each other. Even trying to one-up one another at times. For example, that scene where everyone tries to lift Thor's hammer is the best because it shows how much these unstoppable heroes are still people. It may not be the best, but as long as people have fun in the end, what's the harm in that?

2nd place: Captian America: The Winter Soldier (9/10)

What? While I did say that Captain America: The First Avenger is my favorite, I also acknowledged that the other movies are better. Case in point, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is easily the best one. The action is stellar, the story is tighter, the characters are more dynamic, and some legit good political commentary got sprinkled in this movie. I could nitpick all the things that it does wrong, or I could be a logical person and say, "Screw it. It's good, so why should I bother." While I still consider The First Avenger my favorite, I can acknowledge that The Winter Soldier is objectively better.

1st place: Guardians of the Galaxy (9/10)

This movie has no right to be as good as it is. It really doesn't. Because if I were to tell you in 2014 that the best movie you were going to see was a movie with a dopey blue villain, a talking raccoon, with classic pop music as the soundtrack, you would most certainly laugh in my face. And yet, despite how ridiculous it sounds, Guardians of the Galaxy is easily a top tier movie in the MCU. Not only is it funny as hell, but unlike Avengers: Age of Ultron, it understands that comedy comes from character. Everyone in Guardians of the Galaxy has a unique way of being funny (Drax takings metaphors literally and Rocket's cynical one-liners, for example). It also helps that the main cast is all identifiable and memorable, too. Plus, as hilarious as this movie is, it can also have some compelling drama at times. This movie, with a talking raccoon, has compelling drama. Explain that to me!

Guardians of the Galaxy is a stupid movie, and that's why I love it so much. It leans into the nonsense of its concept and earning serious moments while also never taking itself too seriously. It's a ton of fun, and in my opinion, is the best movie in phase two.

And that’s it for now. I’ll see you next time for phase three, which will hopefully come sooner rather than later.

#marvel cinematic universe #mcu #iron man #thor #captain america #guardians of the galaxy #the avengers #ant-man #mcu review #what i thought about

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