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knuffled · 5 years ago

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just practice - chapter eleven

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Ambrosia was Annabeth’s favorite coffee shop in the city. It was a quaint affair, tucked behind an alleyway, cozily decorated with clusters of polished cherry wood tables surrounded by plush purple chairs. There weren’t many drinks on the menu, but what the cafe lacked in quantity, it more than made up for with quality. Although she wasn’t a coffee connoisseur or anything, Annabeth could easily tell the coffee at Ambrosia tasted far richer than anything at Starbucks.

Annabeth drummed her fingers on her window-side table and twirled a strand of hair around her index finger, trying not to feel too nervous as she sipped her espresso. Inviting Reyna out for coffee so she could get relationship advice after turning her down a month prior was quite possibly one of the worst ideas she’d ever had. The thing was, she had no other options. All her friends were also friends with Percy, which made confiding in them impossible. She could only imagine the ensuing chaos if she were to come out and say that she had only pretending to go out with Percy.

Still, that didn’t make her feel any better about her current situation. In fact, Annabeth was nearly on the verge of sending her a text to cancel the whole thing under the pretense of not feeling well when Reyna walked into the cafe. She looked around until she spotted Annabeth and made her way over to the table, a dark look on her face.

“You sure picked an absolute bitch of a place to find,” Reyna said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Google Maps had a fucking aneurysm trying to give me directions.”

“Nice to see you again too,” Annabeth said, smiling despite herself.

Reyna rolled her eyes and plopped down in the seat opposite her. “This better be the best goddamn coffee I’ve had in my entire life,” she grumbled.

Annabeth slid her a menu and tried not to laugh at the disgruntled look that spread across Reyna’s face as she surveyed the prices. Annabeth raised her palms up in surrender when Reyna looked at her with an immaculately raised eyebrow.

“It’s worth it, I swear!” Annabeth promised.

Reyna pursed her lips and nodded in a clipped fashion before studying the menu again. After a few seconds, Reyna set the menu aside with a sigh and looked at Annabeth again, a tired look on her face.

“I have no idea what to get,” Reyna muttered. “What’s good here?”

Annabeth shrugged and said, “Pretty much everything. I really like their espressos, but their cappuccinos are great too.”

Reyna pulled a face before mumbling under her breath, “Hazelnut latte it is then.”

“Funny, I would have pegged you for a ‘black coffee’ kind of girl,” Annabeth said, grinning.

For the first since she’d met her, Reyna blushed and twirled a strand of dark hair around her finger, refusing to meet Annabeth’s eyes.

“I’m just bad with bitter stuff,” Reyna muttered.

“I had no idea your tastes were so basic,” Annabeth teased.

Reyna scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I am not basic.”

Hearing Reyna sound genuinely offended by the implication only made delighted Annabeth instead of deterring her.

“Uh huh, sure,” Annabeth drawled.

Reyna narrowed her eyes and said, “You’re on thin fucking ice, Chase.”

Annabeth held her palms up in surrender and tried to suppress the grin threatening to split across her face.

“Ok, sorry, I’ll stop,” Annabeth said. “Go treat yourself to a hazelnut latte.”

The glare Reyna gave her before she made her way to the front counter to order could have withered flowers with its intensity. Annabeth allowed herself to smile once Reyna left the table and noticed she felt significantly calmer than she had before Reyna’s arrival. Thankfully, it seemed that things weren’t awkward between them, despite the fact that she had rejected Reyna last time they’d spoken.

When Reyna returned with her drink, Annabeth watched with avid interest as she blew into the lid of the cup and took her hesitant sip. Her eyes widened in surprise momentarily before returning to normal, but it only made Annabeth’s smirk grow larger.

“So how’s your drink?” Annabeth asked innocently.

Reyna cleared her throat and said, “It’s passable.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “That’s high praise.”

Reyna’s lips quirked upwards in a smile. “Don’t be such an ass. It’s good, okay?”

“Worth the drive?”

“Hardly,” Reyna said, snorting.

“That’s a win in my book,” Annabeth said, shrugging.

Reyna scoffed and took another sip before saying, “So why did you call me out here today? I assume it wasn’t just to make fun of my choice of beverages.”

“Tempting but unfortunately not the case,” Annabeth said. “I wanted your advice on something.”

“About tall, dark, and handsome, you mean?”

Annabeth blinked. “What?”

Reyna rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about your ‘friend’, Percy.”

“Oh,” Annabeth said stupidly. “I uh- I just wasn’t expecting you to refer to him that way.”

“I may be gay, but I have eyes,” Reyna said, giving her a significant look.

Annabeth laughed despite herself. “Yeah, you’re right. I wanted to ask about Percy.”

“It’s kind of a dick move to ask someone you turned down for romantic advice,” Reyna noted.

“Sorry,” Annabeth said, looking down at her lap. “It’s just not something I can talk about with my other friends.”

“It’s whatever,” Reyna said, shrugging. “Besides, I can’t help respecting that you had the audacity to ask me anyways, so kudos to you. Now tell me what’s going on.”

Annabeth began telling Reyna everything that had happened since the school year began, starting with Clarisse’s comment and the fake dating proposal to Percy’s sudden penchant for speaking in riddles to the Kara incident to what Percy had said as they descended Aspen Peak and finally her conversation with Sally after Thanksgiving. It took her a little over a half hour to explain everything, which was longer than Annabeth had been expecting, but Reyna listened intently the entire time. On occasion, she would ask a clarifying question, but for the most part she was content to listen silently.

When Annabeth was done, Reyna said, “Well, I think I get the gist of the situation now. I’m just not sure what you need advice about.”

“I want to figure out what’s going on with Percy. I’ve given him enough time and space to come forward and talk to me on his own, but it’s clear that he’s not going to do that. Usually, I’d be fine with that, but I can’t help feeling like there’s something going on here, something I can’t just ignore,” Annabeth said.

Reyna snorted. “I mean, it’s pretty obvious that he’s just being emotionally constipated about his feelings like men always are when it comes to displaying anything more than the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

Annabeth shook her head. “Percy isn’t like that.”

Reyna raised an eyebrow and said, “No offense, but I find that hard to believe. Judging from your story just now, he is exactly like that.”

“Percy has no problem talking about emotions,” Annabeth argued. “Trust me, I’d know.”

“Talking about other people’s emotions maybe, sure, but not when it comes to himself.”

Reyna’s statement gave Annabeth momentary pause. Although her immediate instinct was to argue with her, the more she thought about it, the more Annabeth found herself wondering how she had never picked up on that. Even though so many of their conversations strayed into their personal feelings, it had only just dawned on Annabeth how the overwhelming majority of those conversations tended to be about her own feelings, not Percy’s.

Of course, that wasn’t to say Percy never shared how he was feeling. Their conversation atop Aspen Peak and the conversation where he told her that he had gotten recruited by USC were examples of that. However, there were still clearly some things that Percy just never really talked to her about. An obvious example being how she knew practically nothing about any of his previous relationships.

It was difficult to tell but she could detect that there was a pattern of Percy deliberately hiding things from her if they were painful for him to talk about. Yet, Annabeth had never gotten the impression that those repressed feelings would someday inevitably explode out of him, demanding to be released. Whenever she bottled her own feelings, despite her best efforts, they were destined to burst at some point, only ever prolonging the inevitable, but in Percy’s case, it was like they were swallowed by a black hole, leaving no evidence of their existence.

“I can’t believe I never noticed,” Annabeth whispered.

Reyna shrugged and said, “Don’t blame yourself. Men are just like that.”

Annabeth shook her head. “Percy’s different. It’s not like he’s so out of touch with his own feelings that he can’t talk about them. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s not like what you’re thinking.”

“Maybe you’re just giving him too much credit,” Reyna said lightly.

Annabeth bristled despite herself. “What’s your deal with him? You haven’t liked him since you met him and you don’t even know a single thing about him.”

Reyna was quiet for a while before she said, “I don’t know. It’s hard to explain, but when I look at him, all I see is a fake.”

“A fake?”

“He reeks of lies. Lies about how he feels, what he thinks, what he wants. I’ll take your word about him being a good person or whatever, but that doesn’t change anything in my eyes. I can’t trust someone who is constantly pretending to be someone else,” Reyna said.

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest. “That seems like a huge stretch to me. Like I said, you barely know-”

Reyna held up a hand, stopping her. “I can tell. I can’t explain why, but I just know. I’ve been able to since I was a kid, and I have never been wrong.”

Annabeth paused and considered her words for a moment. It was certainly believable that Reyna could be someone with incredibly good instincts, but at the same time, Annabeth couldn’t accept that she was making judgments about her best friend without knowing a single thing about him. Yet, for whatever reason, Annabeth couldn’t bring herself to immediately reject what Reyna had said. There was something about the conviction in her voice and eyes that gave her pause.

“Was there something you noticed? Something you saw him do that made you think about him like this?” Annabeth asked.

Reyna thought for a moment before sighing. “It’s not like there was a specific thing about him that made me realize. It’s like his overall vibe.”

“His vibe?” Annabeth said, trying not to sound skeptical.

“Let’s just say, I’ve met men like that before. Men who look kind on the outside, but are monsters on the inside. It’s hard for me to not feel hostile towards them,” Reyna said tersely.

Annabeth couldn’t help immediately repeating: “Percy’s not like that.”

“I hope he isn’t,” Reyna said simply.

A silence filled the space around them, charging the air with a vague sense of unease, until Reyna sighed and spoke again.

“I’ll just say this: he might not be a monster, but he is still pretending to be someone he’s not. If I were you, I would do well not to forget that.”

:::

It was Piper’s fault. She had made it sound so wonderful when she had pitched the idea to Annabeth: ice skating on the night of New Year’s Eve. Even a cynic like Annabeth couldn’t deny that there was an inherent romantic appeal to that. Unfortunately, it just so happened that New Year’s Eve was the coldest day of the year. And, of course, the rink that Piper had chosen happened to be outdoors. That obviously went without saying.

Annabeth tried not to wallow in too much self-pity on the walk from her car to the chalet, but she couldn’t help indulging herself. After all, it was freezing outside. She buried her hands in her coat pockets and hid her nose behind her scarf to keep it from turning red, but the horrible faux-wool material felt like sandpaper against her skin. She fantasized about turning around and leaving before anyone noticed her and spending the night buried beneath a mound of blankets, but she arrived at the chalet before she could decide.

Unfortunately, the chalet would offer no reprieve. The first thing that assailed her was the heat - a dry, stuffy heat, the kind that made it hard to breathe. The second was the smell. The stench of sweat clung to the linoleum peeling off the walls, and the slight give of the vomit-colored carpet underfoot made it feel like it had seeped into the fabric too.

It was time to leave, Annabeth decided brightly, but Piper noticed her and waved her over before she could make her escape. Annabeth sighed and headed towards the benches where Piper was sitting and hoped she wouldn’t contract hepatitis from sitting down.

On her way there, she was somewhat late to arrive. Frank and Leo were at the front desk, renting their skates, and Piper and Jason had already finished lacing their skates. Jason offered her a small smile when she sat down across from them, but her lips were so chapped that they would probably start bleeding if she tried to smile so she settled for a nod.

“Someone looks grumpy.”

“Bite me.”

“Don’t antagonize her, Piper.”

Annabeth nodded and pointed to Jason. “Listen to your boyfriend. He seems to be the smart one.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Rude.”

“I think I’m entitled to a little rudeness,” Annabeth said, sitting back. “I could be in bed right now, covered in blankets.”

“This might be our last New Year’s Eve together,” Piper said. “You really sure you want to spend it hiding in your bedroom?”

Annabeth hummed. “Remind me again how you chose this wonderful establishment?”

Piper had the decency to look sheepish. “It was the only place open on New Year’s Eve.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Annabeth said.

“You should go get your skates, Annabeth,” Jason interrupted tactfully. “It looks like Frank and Leo are done.”

Annabeth stood up and sent an I’m-watching-you gesture in Piper’s direction, but Piper just opted to flick her off. Charming.

Thankfully, there was no one waiting at the front desk when Annabeth made her way there. The balding man behind the counter asked for her shoe size before disappearing behind the shelves, stocked to the brim with skates, and it didn’t take long for him to return with a pair of white skates and set them on the counter. Annabeth was in the process of fishing for spare change when the door to the chalet opened, letting in a gust of cold air.

Rachel stepped inside, her freckled cheeks pink from the cold, and waved to Annabeth enthusiastically with a grin. Percy stood behind her, rubbing his palms together to warm his hands, looking cold for once in his life. They both made their way up to the front desk as Annabeth tucked the skates under her arm.

Percy turned to her smiling while Rachel spoke with the store-owner. “Happy New Year.”

“It’s still New Year’s Eve.”

“Only for four more hours,” Percy said, shrugging.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Happy New Year’s Eve to you too.”

“You’re always so grumpy when you’re cold,” Percy said fondly. “Aren’t white people supposed to be good with the cold?”

“Oh my God, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white.”

Not a beat passed before Percy answered: “Boo, you whore.”

Annabeth bit back a laugh and pushed him towards the counter. “Alright, alright, you can terrorize me after you get your skates, you dork.”

Percy did his best seal-eyes impression, but Annabeth stuck out her tongue at him and followed Rachel back to the benches. Once they sat down, Rachel finished lacing her skates with practiced ease and watched Annabeth struggle with hers with avid interest. Annabeth wondered how long it would take for her to swallow her pride and ask Rachel for help, but Rachel volunteered before she could, crouching in front of her and deftly tying her skates in seconds.

“You’re good at that,” Annabeth said.

Rachel stood up and shrugged. “My parents forced me take figure skating lessons for like six years, so I have a lot of practice.”

“I think the last time I went skating was in like second grade,” Annabeth mused.

“Do you even remember how to skate?” Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I guess we’ll both find out very soon.”

“I could teach you, if you’d like,” Rachel offered.

Annabeth rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Thank you, but I think I can figure it out. I mean, how hard could it be?”

:::

It turned out to be plenty hard.

Annabeth managed all of three steps on the ice before falling backwards, arms flailing. Percy caught her before she hit the ground thankfully, his hand curled around her hip. Annabeth felt her face heat up when he raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at his lips, but he helped her upright without commenting on it. Unfortunately, it only took two more steps for her to slip again. He caught her by the arm before she fell any further and shook with barely suppressed laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, asshole,” Annabeth grumbled.

“Weren’t you just telling Rachel something about how skating didn’t seem all that hard?” Percy asked innocently.

Annabeth bit the inside of her cheek. “I think you just have an overactive imagination.”

“First the cold, and now this,” Percy said solemnly. “Looks like your Scandinavian roots have failed you in more ways than one.”

“This is reverse-racism.”

That tore a laugh out him, but he quickly held his palms in surrender. “Sorry, sorry, just give me a minute.”

Annabeth flicked him off and retreated to the wall circling the rink to steady herself. She looked at the rink, hoping she wasn’t alone in her embarrassment, but it seemed like everyone else seemed to be faring much better than her. Frank was her only comrade in arms, arms stretched and teetering, a mortified look on his face, while Leo stood next to him, not even trying to hide his laughter. Hazel scowled and swatted him before going to help Frank maintain his balance. Rachel breezed around the rink with an effortless grace and fluidity, seemingly in her own world, while Piper and Jason held hands and made slow, leisurely circuits around the rink.

Percy moved towards her and said, “C’mon, I’ll help you.”

“Can’t I just go home?” Annabeth whined.

Percy’s lips quirked upwards. “It’s not that hard, trust me. It’s just like riding a bike.”

“Something tells me I’m just going to spend the next few hours falling on my ass and making a fool of myself.”

“I’ll catch you before you do,” Percy promised.

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest. “And if I take you down with me?”

“I’m willing to risk it,” Percy said, shrugging.

Annabeth was silent for a while before she shut her eyes and sighed. “God, I hate you. Fine, let’s get this over with.”

Percy took her by the hands and helped her away from the wall. “That’s the spirit.”

Annabeth glared at him before lacing her fingers between his. She couldn’t help noticing how warm his hands were, but she didn’t have long to dwell on it because being back on the ice put the fear of god back in her real fast. Percy tried to help her make a lap around the rink, but it was a grueling journey. She spent most of it crushing his hands and teetering on the brink of embarrassment: legs outstretched, knees turned inwards, feeling like an absolute idiot. The concentration needed to maintain her footing was exhausting and demanded every ounce of focus she could muster. But, with Percy’s help, Annabeth managed three laps around the rink over the span of ninety minutes without falling a single time.

At the start of the fourth lap, Percy untangled his fingers from hers, striking a bolt of fear through her. Annabeth reached for him desperately, eyes wide with panic, but he caught her by the wrists and gave her a stern look.

“I’m going to let go of you now, okay?” Percy said. “I promise, I won’t let you fall.”

“I need more time,” Annabeth said frantically. “I-I’m not ready yet.”

“You can do this,” Percy said, firmly not unkindly. “Trust me.”

Annabeth licked her horribly chapped lips and nodded uneasily. The conviction in his words made her want to believe him, but it did nothing to dispel the terror inside her.

“Okay, here goes,” Percy said.

Annabeth bit the inside of her cheek and watched Percy slowly release her and step away. She stood there for a few seconds before Percy skated backwards, still facing towards her, and beckoned for her to follow him.

Her heart thundered in her chest. It was the moment of truth.

She took one step. Then another. Then another.

With her eyes locked on Percy, she used every atom in her body to keep herself steady. She kept waiting to fall as they slowly made their way around the rink, but she managed to somehow make it the halfway around without falling.

Annabeth looked up at him with an incredulous laugh. “Holy shit! I-I’m doing it! I’m actually doing it!”

A smile crossed Percy’s face, equal parts proud and fond, but Annabeth couldn’t help thinking it looked a bit sad too.

“You are,” Percy said softly. “I knew you could.”

“You have way too much faith in me,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “It’s a miracle that I didn’t fall.”

“It’s not faith,” Percy said. “I just know you.”

Annabeth stilled for a moment and locked eyes with him. His words were light, like he had spoken them without thinking, but it made a lump form in her throat all the same.

“Yeah, yeah you do,” she said softly.

Before the moment had a chance to establish itself, Annabeth’s legs both decided it was an excellent time to give out. She only had time to emit a short yelp before she fell on her ass and Percy rushed in.

He helped her up with a laugh. “Okay, looks like someone needs a break.”

Annabeth’s face was beet red and it had nothing to do with the cold. “Uh, yeah, I think I’ll go to the chalet and sit down a bit.”

Percy nodded and moved to help her, but she shook her head. “I’ll be fine. You’ve been babysitting me this whole time, so go enjoy yourself.”

He paused for a moment before reluctantly nodding and skating away. Annabeth watched him go before making a beeline for the chalet. After nearly two hours of constant terror, even the stuffy, pungent air in the chalet was a welcome change. She took off her hat to let her hair loose, but some sweat-soaked strands lay matted against her forehead.

An overwhelming need to take a nap washed through her, and she was so tired that she didn’t bother resisting it.

It was hard to say how long she was asleep but she started when Jason sat down beside her, holding two styrofoam cups of hot chocolate. Annabeth accepted a cup from him and took a sip. It was so watery that she could hardly taste the chocolate, but at least it was hot going down her throat.

Annabeth wiped her lips with the back of her hand. “Where did you get this?”

“There’s a machine by the bathroom,” Jason said.

“Ah, that certainly explains things.”

Jason nudged her with his elbow. “I know you’re not thrilled to be here, but Piper really tried her best to get this whole thing together.”

Annabeth sighed and said, “Yeah, sorry, I’m just indulging in a little pettiness.”

“I know,” Jason said, smiling. “Just be aware of your limits.”

“I feel like you’re one step away from going full Dad and being like, ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’.”

Jason laughed and said, “I suppose I deserve that.”

There was a pause before Annabeth gave him a tentative look. “Is she mad at me?”

Jason shook his head. “Nah, she knows you well enough to know you don’t mean it.”

Annabeth cleared her throat and nodded before staring at her cup pensively. “How are you both doing?”

“We’re good,” he said, sighing. “Just trying to make the most out of the rest of the year. Piper’s really worried about leaving behind regrets, so she’s going a little overboard, but her heart is in the right place.”

“That’s a mood,” Annabeth said. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.”

“It’s hard not to,” Jason admitted. “I mean our lives are going to change pretty drastically in a few months, after all.”

There was a pause before Annabeth said, “That doesn’t ever scare you or anything, that things might not be the same?”

“I know they won’t be the same,” Jason said. “But the way I see it, if it’s inevitable anyways, there’s no point worrying about it. The only thing you can do is to enjoy things while they last.”

“That’s a very lonely way of looking at things,” Annabeth said quietly.

“You might be right, but I don’t want to waste the time I have left with Piper and you and everyone else being stressed and miserable,” Jason said, shrugging. “If the time we have left is limited, I want to choose to spend it being happy.”

She paused for a moment to stare at him. “Honestly, sometimes I can’t help feeling like you’re an eighty year old stuck in the body of an eighteen year old.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but thanks.”

Annabeth leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. “The idea that nothing lasts terrifies me.”

“I don’t know, there’s something strangely beautiful about it too,” Jason mused.

She gave him a sidelong glance. “In what way?”

Jason shrugged. “Things are precious to us because we can’t take them for granted. You have to pay attention and appreciate them while you can, or you’ll miss it and never have it back. I’m sure you’ve felt it too: those moments that you wish you could live in forever, even though you know it’s impossible, so you try your best to savor them and burn them into your memory so you don’t ever forget. There’s just a special kind of beauty about that. At least, that’s how I feel.”

Memories flashed in her mind with an almost desperate urgency, so quickly that she couldn’t register their contents, only the lingering impressions they left in their wake. The cold touch of steel beneath her palms lying on Percy’s car, staring up at the night sky, and the warmth of the sweatshirt he’d draped across her shoulders. Dappled sunlight filtered through half-drawn blinds, flour stuck in her hair, the smell of cookies baking in the oven, and the sound of laughter. The untraversable distance between his hand in hers, his heat searing through her skin ever so gently, and the lazy circuit of his thumb brushing her knuckles with a tenderness she didn’t deserve.

Annabeth couldn’t help thinking that “beautiful” was too small a word. The feeling was beautiful, yes, but the word alone could not capture the fact that it was also deep and gentle and tinged with melancholy, but all the more exquisite for it.

A lump formed in her throat. “I-I think I get what you mean.”

Jason offered her a soft smile and squeezed her hand. “There’s a phrase for that in Japanese, you know? They call it mono no aware: the bittersweet, wistful appreciation of the impermanence of things.”

There was a pause before Annabeth said tightly, “I’m glad there’s a word for it.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jason said, still smiling.

They sat there for a while in silence before Jason stood up and stretched. “We should probably back. They must be wondering where we are.”

Annabeth nodded but made no move to stand up. Jason looked at her for a while before sighing and showing her his wristwatch.

“It’s almost midnight,” he said. “C’mon, everyone’s waiting for us.”

That was enough to get her out of her seat, but she still couldn’t help sighing. She followed him back to the rink and noticed that they had it to themselves. Earlier, there had been a few other couples and families, but they must have left while she’d been asleep.

The light of the full moon reflected off the ice, casting a milky-silver glow. She stepped onto the ice with Jason and skated towards their friends. They were sitting down at the center of the rink and talking amongst themselves until they noticed her arrival.

“She’s alive!” Jason announced. “She was just sleeping.”

“Percy was worried sick about you,” Leo said, smirking.

Percy scowled and said, “I wasn’t that worried.”

“You kind of were,” Rachel said. “You should’ve seen him fretting like a mother hen.”

“I would apologize, but I can take care of myself,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes.

“You were gone for like two hours, Annabeth,” Hazel said. “I don’t think it was that weird for him to worry.”

“Again, you guys are all exaggerating way too much,” Percy protested.

“You guys should sit down,” Frank said. “We can spread out a bit to make extra space.”

Once the circle expanded, Annabeth sat down between Percy and Rachel, and Jason sat close to Piper and wrapped an arm around her, tucking her into his side. Rachel continued a story that she must have been telling prior to Annabeth’s arrival, so she couldn’t follow it at all. She tried to listen for a few minutes before getting bored and turning to Percy.

“I know you’re protective of me and all, but don’t worry so much,” Annabeth whispered firmly.

Percy lowered his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “I know, but sometimes, I just can’t help it.

“You have to try,” Annabeth said. “What are you going to do when we leave for college?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

Annabeth sighed and said, “I’m not trying to be mean or anything. I’m just scared you’ll burn yourself out for no reason. We both know that I can handle things on my own.”

“That’s not the point,” Percy muttered.

“Then what is the point?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t doubt your ability to take care of yourself,” Percy said slowly. “It’s just that I care about you, so I can’t help worrying.”

“I care about you too, but I can worry about you without feeling the need to step in and get involved.”

At this, Percy was silent, so Annabeth continued. “When you get involved, it kind of feels like you’re babying me.”

“I’m not trying to baby you,” Percy said, frowning.

“Then trust me to come to you when I need your help, okay?”

Percy paused for a moment before nodding hesitantly. “Okay.”

Annabeth offered a small smile. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

The look on his face was inscrutable, but he nodded again all the same. Annabeth tapped a finger on the ice and rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. She’d said her piece. The rest was up to Percy now.

She had another reason for wanting him to understand this, although she hadn’t said so aloud. Percy’s worry and need to help her made it all too easy for her to rely on him too much. Sometimes, she had to catch herself before immediately going to him anytime she had even a trivial problem. It hadn’t always been that way, but over the years, she had come to depend on him far too much. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, apart from Percy, she didn’t have any experience relying on anyone else but herself, so she had no concept of moderation when it came to depending on him.

She didn’t know how to let someone in halfway. It had always been all or nothing.

“There’s only two minutes left till midnight,” Frank said, looking at his watch.

“We should try to find a stream of the ball drop,” Hazel suggested.

“Already on it,” Leo said, typing furiously on his phone.

Once he found a stream, Leo turned the volume up on his phone and slid it to the center of the ring. His phone was old, so the volume was feeble but it was still audible for the most part. Anderson Cooper was talking to some celebrity or other about how excited the crowd was in Times Square and pointed out how there seemed to be more couples in attendance this year compared to other ones.

“Aw man, that’s right,” Leo complained. “Now, there’s another couple I gotta see kiss on New Year’s Eve.”

Hazel pulled a face. “Don’t ruin things for Annabeth and Percy, Leo.”

“Yeah, Leo, fuck off,” Piper said, flipping him off.

At first, Annabeth didn’t know what they were talking about, but then she immediately looked down at her lap, her face burning.

That was right, the New Year’s kiss was a thing. She’d totally forgotten about that.

Discreetly, she looked at Percy out of the corner of her eye, wondering if he was going to kiss her or not. After all, it would look kind of strange if they didn’t, considering they were supposed to be a couple now. Annabeth was certain their friends would notice and comment about it.

He was staring off in the distance with a clenched jaw, shifting uneasily beside her, which only made her growing anxiety worsen. She picked at the fraying wool on her peacoat and wished they had some time to at least discuss a plan of action, but there was only thirty seconds before the ball drop.

For the last ten seconds, they all chanted along with the crowd, but Annabeth could barely make a sound.

10.

Percy shifted again.

Annabeth could feel his eyes on her, so she looked up at him.

Percy moved closer to her, blocking out the full moon. It cast a silver halo around his head, reflecting off his obsidian hair and bathing him in an ethereal glow.

Her throat was bone dry.

She barely registered the conflicted gleam in his eyes as he leaned in to her or the featherlike touch of his fingers, tilting her chin upwards.

Annabeth felt his breath on her face and the scent of his cologne. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the thundering of her heart pounding in her chest, parting her lips.

Distantly, she could hear her friends yelling “Happy New Year” but her entire world was reduced down to a singularity. She waited, her heart stuck in her throat.

Christ, her lips were so chapped.

Then she felt the brush of his lips, but not against her own like she’d expected. By the time she noticed the lingering warmth on her cheek, Percy was already pulling away. She opened her eyes and caught the look in his eyes. The emotion shining in them was too complicated for her to describe in words, but she couldn’t help thinking that he looked almost tortured.

“Happy New Year,” Percy whispered, voice raw.

Annabeth blinked and cleared her throat. “Um, yeah, Happy New Year.”

The conflicted look on his face didn’t disappear until Hazel gave him a one-armed hug and wished him a happy new year. Annabeth couldn’t dwell on it for long either before Rachel tackled her in a hug and wished her as well. The carousel of wishing each of her friends was oddly annoying even though it shouldn’t have been. A single emotion burned in the pit of her stomach, predominating her field of awareness, but it only served to bewilder her. She tried stealing looks at Percy in the hope that it would offer some insight, but the more she looked to him, the more intensely it gnawed at her.

Moonlit snowflakes fell through the dark as Annabeth struggled to make sense of the overwhelmingly empty feeling in the hollow of her chest and why it felt so much like disappointment.

#just practice #percabeth fanfic #percabeth #hope people enjoy this

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mcfanely · 5 years ago

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Ivory and Gold

With Ninjago finally falling into a state of calm again, the Ninja finally find a chance to take a well deserved break after the whole Prime Empire debacle. What better to have time off than to visit the Kingdom of Shintaro upon official invite of King Vangelis, for his daughters birthday celebration. Only, Cole can’t help but feel that he’d already been to the ivory city before. The name at least rung a deeply hidden bell in his mind, the only issue was that he couldn’t place the memory. 4518 words

It wasn't every day that being a ninja coincided with celebration and relaxation, but sometimes karmic justice did work in their favour.

Though it did always seem that whenever they donned their gis, it was for anything but a normal day. That the action of pulling on their masks, making sure all their weapons and armour were in place, checking the fit of the clothes and the tightness of their belts to prevent any mishaps during possible battles. It inherently meant danger. It meant that something had gone wrong with the world again, that there was another big bad on the horizon and it was their job as protectors to prevent the world from plunging into the hands of whatever evil and dark force had decided to try and play their hand and take over.

Yet this time, things had been a little different. Generally, the kingdoms within Ninjago kept to themselves, as much as everyone else did. They interacted, yes, traded goods and services, but that was as far as anything really went. It was a state of harmony, a working relationship.

Cole had heard about the Ivory City of Shintaro a while back, he didn't specifically remember who had mentioned it initially but the information was stored somewhere in his mind. He'd seen it too, or at least he'd felt he had. Stood on the deck of the Bounty, staring in astonishment as they descended amidst the towering structures that made up the city. Turrets that reached high into the sky, made to look even more vast due to the peak of the mountain that the kingdom already resided upon.

Their duties as ninja was to protect life, maintain a visage of hope. Be people to look up to, and to be relieved to see.

Sometimes, it also included showing face. It included being given opportunities and experiences that Cole would never have expected to have should he have led a normal and mundane life like anybody else. Such as being invited to a generally fairly closed off kingdom to celebrate the birthday of one of the heirs to the throne. Princess Vania, it wasn't a name Cole was very familiar with.

Honestly, he wasn't familiar with anything there. Even as they docked and promptly met with and escorted through the complex and winding hallways of the kingdom's palace by a guide with wings no less. Golden sheets that almost looked like silk flowing in an invisible wind, and it looked as though any form of flight with them seemed impossible. Yet still, the man floated gracefully above the ground.

Nothing about the kingdom was ringing any bells other than the distant inkling that this wasn't the first time he'd been there, or that he'd heard of it. Faces, names, they were all completely foreign, but the feeling the place provided…

It was so familiar, right on the tip of his tongue.

"Earth to Cole," came a voice, and Cole promptly snapped back to reality with Jay's face far too close to his own. "You're thinking pretty hard."

He took a short step back to place some distance between the two of them before answering. "Yeah, I guess." Cole took a brief second to actually take in where they had ended up in the castle. The floor they were walking on was polished to perfection that it almost felt like sacrilege to be walking across it. Patterned with gold lines that stretched as far as Cole could see, turning corners as the floor did, glinting and glimmering in the sun as it passed through the windowed walls. "Just, you know, taking everything in." And he was. He may have been distracted, but he was taking in the splendor of the kingdom.

"Awesome, isn't it?" Jay said in a wistful tone, his pupils practically blown wide. They both slowed down in their pace just slightly. They were still following along behind their winged guide and their friends, just a little bit further back. "It's not every day that we get invited to anything to do with royalty--."

"Well, I mean, we have." Cole shrugged loosely, not going into much more detail on the subject. He didn't need to anyway, since Jay just gave a slow nod, his eyes briefly tracking over to Lloyd, who seemed to be sharing a conversation between Kai and their winged companion.

"That was, you know, ninja stuff." The lightning ninja replied, in time that strongly implied the idiom of 'water under the bridge'. "We were there to do a job. But here, it's to have fun." He seemed fairly ecstatic about that fact.

They'd all been told of the reason for the trip not long before they'd actually set off. No real precursor, more of a 'pack your bags, we're heading off the following morning'. The invitation had been carefully constructed, a cream envelope with gold embossing announcing that the contents were for all of them to read.

You have been cordially invited to the Shintaro Kingdom to partake in the birthday celebrations of the crowned Princess Vania.

It had read funny, and Jay had mentioned that it sounded portentous.

An engagement that included all the ninja. It wasn't a battle to fight, it was a party to attend. Down time that they all agreed they needed and deserved.

"Finally, something that's not stressful." Sighed Jay as the group came to a flight of stairs, which led up briefly to a huge standing white door, arched with golden and near cerulean blue tones that made the white stand out even more, if that was even possible. At this point, their guide turned back with a bit more of a measured expression. It was calm, but also the face of a man doing his job.

"You are about to be introduced to the King of the Kingdom of Shintaro. He's been looking forward to your arrival." the man said with a smile, "We've all heard of the great deeds you've done. It's a pleasure to have you here. Now, King Vangelis awaits."

The man turned back to the door, flying a little higher to its centre, "It is with great honour," He began, the booming voice resonating around the now open throne room. Cole's mouth dropped at the magnitude, and it's beauty. It seemed to be an expression shared by everyone as they stepped forwards.

"That I present the famed Ninja!"

To say the day was busy would be an understatement, but Cole knew that the following day, the day of the actual birthday celebration would be a whole lot more hectic and exciting. They'd been given a proper tour of the castle after they'd met with King Vangelis, followed promptly by a walk around the city with the same royal guard as before guiding them through streets that were all filled with people setting up for the following days celebrations. There was a sense of calm to the place, a nice warmth and camaraderie that was displayed by anyone they had met. Everyone worked together, shared tasks and helped out in order to have everything done before the sun had dropped behind the horizon. Between walking through thin streets, sidestepping people walking down the paths with arms full of colourful bunting, Cole had spent a good portion of the day lost in thought.

It was always a problem when he noticed something he couldn't quite put his finger on; and this kingdom just made him feel weird. The foreign familiarity of everything, the cleanliness of the air he breathed in struck a chord in his lungs, the way the sun dipped down below the halo of clouds that circled the peak of the mountain, below the city limits. How the orange colour still glowed from underneath the blanket before it finally disappeared behind the horizon line for the day. It was incredible.

Déjà vu inducing, but incredible.

Eventually, they were all guided to their rooms for the night. Guest rooms in the Palace of all places, an entire hallway dedicated to bedrooms specifically for visitors to the kingdom. As rooms went, they were lavish. Four poster beds adorned each one, huge amounts of room space, closets and cabinets that would go unused in their brief stay in the sleeping quarters, but it was more than what Cole had anticipated. What with going from sharing a room both at the monastery and shared living spaces in the reduced size of the Bounty, to finally getting his own place to sleep when they'd remodeled and rebuilt the burnt down shell of their old training ground, it was nice to have that privacy maintained. Anyway, if Cole needed anyone then he could just head to the room to the left or right of him and find one of his friends to talk to. Privacy didn't mean constantly staying alone.

Yet, Cole was alone with his thoughts. Laid out on top of the beds quilt, the light from the day now faded fully into the din of the night, it was a time when he was meant to be winding down, not letting his mind run wild.

He just couldn't stop thinking.

It was one thing, to have a minor inkling at familiarity, but it was another thing to be so sure that he'd heard of a place before to such an extent that somewhere, deep down, he'd seen this place before. He'd seen the climbing walls of ivory white, the buildings topped with cladding of the best blue and the most perfect gold that gave such an ethereal quality to everything. It was such a unique place. Anyone who'd ever set eyes on a kingdom like Shintaro would forever have the place branded into their memories. There was nothing like it in the whole of Ninjago, yet there Cole was with one arm draped over his eyes in an effort to bring sleep to him even in his energised state, sifting through his memories for anything that would help him make sense of the feeling that had planted itself in his chest.

It brought with it warmth, a softness, the sensation almost tinted with rose in the best way.

There was something that Cole was missing. Forgetting.

However the darkened room, the softness of the mattress beneath him, the calming silence that the night always brought about; even plagued with an active mind, sleep was never really far away.

Cole fell into it, the comforting and restful silence.

For what felt like a blink.

He felt his eyes crack open far too soon, though he must have been asleep. His legs were now tangled with the bed covers and he'd migrated over onto his chest, hair falling in his face and what looked like a less than glamorous drool spot just beside his pillow. He had been sleeping.

The dim blue light of the early early morning fizzled through the windows, providing a bit of light into the previously darkened room.

Cole could go back to sleep easily, all he had to do was let his eyes slip closed.

Then a noise met his ears. It was faint, the sound of shuffling almost. Enough to make his brow furrow and get him to sit up in bed, though a short glance around his room didn't reveal anything to him other than that his vision was still blurry from sleep.

Then the noise happened again. Much clearer this time. Distinct, even, enough that Cole's eyes were open and alert in an instant.

He wasn't sure how he'd missed it, but Cole was sure that barely a second ago he had been alone in his room.

Now…

Well, now he was staring into the eyes of… Something. It was short, purple skinned and had a mouth of sharpened teeth. A hood was pulled low over its head but it seemed as equally shocked to see Cole awake as Cole was to see the nightly visitor.

Everything happened so quickly after that. The intruder started to make their escape, but even in the dregs of sleep, the earth master was quicker. Barely two steps away from the bed and the creature was laid out on the floor with Cole standing above him.

He was about to speak, to question the reason behind why this… thing was lurking in his room. Where he'd even come from?

Before a tiny glint of gold caught his eye.

Cole's eyes flicked briefly down to the locket around the intruders neck, clicked open in their brief struggle. It held two pictures inside, and before he realised it, Cole was reaching for the small piece of metal. Tugging it from the other person's neck, the chain breaking at the clasp, the pictures that were held reverently inside froze him to the spot. Half stood up, clothes still crinkled from sleep, the creature on its back just at his feet going all but forgotten as he stared at the faces that looked back from the black and white images.

On the left side, the unmistakable face of his father. A small smile on his face, as he was looking over the expanse between the open locket, over to the picture that was held in the opposing side.

A face that Cole had feared would fade from his mind for years. Being left with nothing much other than fond memories, though they were few and far between. Context and details lost over time, fading as many old memories did. The visage of his mother looked back up at him, as beautiful as she'd been the last time he'd ever seen her. He couldn't have asked for anyone better to have helped raise him.

Then, puzzle pieces began to slowly slot together, and a memory that had never even crossed his mind for a second was now pushed to the forefront.

It was clear, scarily so, for how buried it had been.

"What do you mean you're leaving." Came a high voice, almost whiny and temperamental. Small hands reached up and grabbed onto the closest thing they could reach, that being the bottom of the woman's shirt. The material was soon balled up in the child's palms, fabric stretching as it was pulled down .

There was a quiet sigh, and arms reached down beneath the young boy's arms, scooping him up as if he weighed absolutely nothing. Dark hair, in vast need of a haircut dangled in front of his eyes, it was fluffed up and looked like he'd been rolling around on the grass, or messing around in some undergrowth if the twigs and loose pieces of foliage tangled in the strands were anything to go by.

Lilly looked down at her son with a soft smile, then leaned forwards, pressing a prolonged kiss to the cheek of the boy in her arms.

Cole squealed in retaliation, voice high and arms flailing as he failed to free himself from his mother's unrelenting grip. Still, the kiss went on until eventually, finally, she pulled back. Only to dot smaller briefer ones over his cheeks and nose.

"I already told you yesterday, sweetie." Her voice was soft, but measured, as though they'd had this conversation a few times before. She crouched down, placing Cole back onto solid ground, then ruffled his hair even with all the earthly mess accumulated in it.

"But you're going to be gone for so long." Cole crossed his arms over his chest, his face dropping into a sulk.

Lilly crouched down more to her son's height, even though her toddler was still quite on the shorter side than his peers. "Only four days, Cole. I'll be back before you know it. It's only a short trip to Shintaro, your grandfather needs a little bit of help with something and he needs me there."

Cole looked up, brow furrowed in far too much suspicion for someone so young. "Because you're strong?"

"Yes, honey, because I'm strong."

"And- and," He paused, his fingers looping into a couple of the torn holes in the hem of his shirt, picking at the loose threads there. "And, you'll be okay? You'll be back? Because, you know, you're--" The words were muffled as he brought his hands up to his mouth, the sleeves of his jumper blocking the words.

Dutifully, Lilly leaned forwards further until Cole could move closer to her ear to spill his small secret.

"Because you're more fun than dad…" He whispered, and she pulled back with a wide smile and silently shaking shoulders.

"We'll keep that between the two of us." The words sounded like she'd gained some type of achievement. "But I promise, I'll be back. And whilst I'm gone, you're in charge?"

Cole's eyes only widened, "Really?" He grinned.

"Really, sweetie. Really. I need to have my little man looking out for my other older man."

Cole slowly came back to reality, still stood stock still in the centre of his bedroom, the locket held reverently in his grip as the blurred sleepy feeling that had overtaken his vision was replaced with a slight sting which could only mean the onset of tears.

He shook his head, drew one sleeve over his eyes to catch any stray droplets, before his attention shot immediately down to the floor.

The empty floor.

Cole cursed.

He'd been so caught off guard, so caught up in memory he was surprised he even remembered that whoever the intruder was, they'd disappeared as promptly as they had so suddenly appeared. The floor was bare, no inch or indicator that there had even been anyone there in the first place, or if Cole had just been dreaming.

The locket in his hands stated otherwise.

He stared down at it, his feet moving him back over to the edge of the bed in autopilot, where he slumped down and kept staring.

He'd always been told he looked a lot like Lilly. By anyone that had known her, the comparison was always drawn. Or at least, they did draw it. They looked at him, old family friends, long time neighbours. They all reverently stated that he was just like his mother.

Until any comment like that slowly came to a stop.

Cole hadn't heard it much at all, following her passing at least.

His fingers traced their way over the image, moving with the contours of her face, captured and frozen in an everlasting expression of peace and contentment.

It was the exact way he remembered her, that small smile that was always there. The warmth in her expression, even towards the end.

Cole hadn't been allowed to see her as she'd only gotten sicker and sicker, but he remembered her laid in bed at home. He'd spent most of his time there, sat quietly with a book or sharing headphones and music with her to keep her company. He could never have imagined that one day he'd leave that room and he'd never see her again.

"That same song again?"

The words came out of nowhere, an internal and forgotten dialogue that dragged sharply at Cole's heartstrings.

"Well, if you want to change the song, you can be in charge of the music," He was sitting on the right side of her bed. His mother was laid just under the covers, her back propped up with a couple pillows and her hair was pulled back from her face with a hair-tie. Even around the usual expression on her face, she was clearly sickly. Her skin was paler, a grey tone permeating the darker tone. There were bags under her eyes, ones had just got deeper and deeper with each passing day. Cole was sat cross-legged on top of the covers, music player held in his hand and a single earphone hanging from one ear. His mother had the other one.

She held up one hand to stop him, "No, no, the technology is far too complicated."

He closed his eyes, before holding the player up to her, "You literally just press this arrow button--"

"As I said, sweetie, far too complicated."

"You grew up with this tech as much as I did, mom."

That seemed to catch her out for a second, but she just chuckled and shook her head. "No, no, I didn't. This is, why you're holding the music box--"

"Player."

"And I'm just listening to it." Lilly said plainly, then rested one hand on her son's knee afterwards, squeezing lightly. "Though you don't need to be sitting there flicking through songs for me, don't you have homework? Or friends to write letters to."

At that point, Cole knew that she was just trying to make him laugh. Phones were a thing and she was fully aware of that factor, if the grin that split apart her previously stoney facade meant anything.

Cole laughed, resting his head back against the headboard. "I'm spending today with you. I'll get my homework done tomorrow, I promise."

"You'd better." Lilly smiled, threading a hand through his hair. He just paused for a second, allowing his eyes to slip closed at the contact, "Otherwise we'll have to tell your dad that you did it and then rush to get it done last minute, all the while trying not to get caught in the lie."

Cole just grinned even more, "You're words, mom, not mine." He held up his hands in mock surrender. "I'll sit in here tomorrow and do my work. Deal?"

"Or," She spread her hands, as if she was going to impart a revelation upon the world. "You could sit outside, because it's been sunny the past few days and you've been cooped up with me." Lilly pointed to the window of the room. The curtains were drawn, they always were. It kept the room dim, the light from getting too harsh, but there was a warm glow from the sun permeating the material.

Cole sighed. He could sit outside, he could sit in the middle of the flower beds. Sure, it would frustrate his dad and track mud back into the house, but with the sun shining down on everything, the colours and the smell floating in the air around him; it would be worth it to get his school work done outside. Yet, there was also the fact that he wanted to sit and spend time with his mother. He wasn't a child, he wasn't sheltered from the world. His mom had been sick for a while and she only ever seemed to get worse and not better.

He could see how it affected family life too. It was rare that Lilly got up out of bed anymore, and with his dad out working it left Cole with the lion's share of chores and jobs to get done. He didn't mind, how could he? It kept everything clean, his mom didn't get worried and his dad wasn't stressed over the unfinished tasks when he came back home from a performance or rehearsal. But it was clear that what was happening to Lilly was affecting everyone. Smiling was hard to come by whenever he left her bedroom, he was always partially focused on a task along with wondering if his mom was okay.

Which was why it made it easier sitting with her and getting stuff done. If he was worried, all he had to do was look to his left and see that she was fine.

It made the day easier to handle.

"Cole, you're going to sit outside tomorrow, right? Have a quiet day, leave chores alone for a while. Go on a walk or something." Lilly offered with a tilted head, "No rush to get things done."

"Other than homework."

She nodded in agreement, "Other than homework. Which you will do--"

"Outside." They said in unison.

Cole smiled and leant over to press a kiss to his mom's forehead, "I'll have a quiet day tomorrow then, mom."

"You'd better."

That night, he'd walked out of her room like he did every other day. The following day he'd brought her breakfast, then walked out into the middle of the bed of chrysanthemums with a maths textbook slung under his arms. The day had been far too unassuming for it to be anything but normal.

Cole hadn't thought that the final memory he shared with his mother would be something so mundane. She deteriorated rapidly afterwards. He was kept away from it, prevented from going into her room. He knew the reason behind it, the attempt to shield him from what must have been the last few days of his mother's life.

But staring down at the picture in the locket, a face that he hadn't seen, hadn't thought about properly for years, it brought everything crashing back. Every birthday, every small conversation. Every night spent with his dad's old record player spinning in the corner of the room, his small hands in her sure grip, his feet - donned in fluffy socks - were stood on top of hers as she danced her way around the living room of his childhood home, guiding Cole's movements.

She'd been to Shintaro, she may have even walked the same halls he'd walked that morning. He may have literally followed in her footsteps.

Though that realisation fell into the background as the first of the tears dripped slowly down his cheek and landed as a dark mark on the bed covers. More only continued to follow as he looked at her picture in his hand. One of his dad, the other of his mom; their family back together again in a way that Cole had never imagined, or expected to happen.

The tears wouldn't stop flowing, the hiccuped breathing that came with crying was silenced by his own hand clamped over his mouth.

He'd just had someone in his room, but he didn't care about it during the moment. He'd found his mother's locket around said creature's neck, but that fact moved to the outer reaches of his awareness as Cole sat on the edge of his bed, head and shoulders slumped forwards as if acting as a barrier between the world around him and the precious memory held in his hands.

Even with his found family in rooms both to the left and right of his own, he stayed where he was. Tears falling slowly and silently, shoulders shaking minutely. The rising sun had begun to show itself now, a line of hazy orange flowing warmly into his room. Cole could get up, he honestly should go and get someone and tell them about what had taken place.

He just found he couldn't move. He didn't want to move, he didn't want anyone to see him in the state he was in.

Crying over memories that were so far in the past, long forgotten until that one moment. The warmth and happiness of his mother's smile, her soft voice yet foreboding and stoic demeanor.

Cole could wait until everyone else was awake before he mentioned what had happened.

For now, he was content to sit in the comfort of the memories of his mom, his palm closing as he clicked the locket shut.

AO3

Thank you, @existentiallyrandom, you’re so galaxy brained!

#ninjago #lego ninjago #lego #cole #cole brookstone #cole ninjago #jay walker #jay #kai #lloyd #cole's mother #lilly ninjago #ninjago season 13 #ns13

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spearxwind · 5 years ago

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Hey Windy, I've been struggling lately with artblock/fatigue, and I was wondering; how do you go from idea to art, even with like little scribbles? Do you have like a mental list of ideas for drawings already, or do you just sit down to draw and have it come to you then? Do you ever have to force yourself to draw something? What would be your advice to someone who is trying to draw more frequently, but is struggling with ideas/things to draw?

well, that’s funny because I have ALSO been going through some bad artblock/fatigue lately

I rarely RARELY have an idea come to me when im facing the canvas, I cant just sit down and wait for an idea to slap me in the face. usually when i try to do that i just end up either scrolling through social media or just looking at a blank canvas for hours and hours without doing anything

most of my ideas I get either through friends or through music! I talk a lot about ocs with my friends, and we think about interactions with each other or send each other memes that remind us of our characters, and sometimes we do that (even though we DO talk about cool, more aesthetic ideas) but shitposts are a effort-cheap and easy way to draw stuff or break out of art block

With music I just let it play and let my mind go nuts with oc AMV scenarios. Like not to be cringe on main or whatever but imagining your ocs doing crazy shit to edgy music?? absolutely fucking rules and I think everyone should do it. I really like making different playlists for my characters and playing them depending on who i want to think about, since i end up associating the songs to each character whenever i hear them my brain goes hey!! think about this bitch now!!!�� I’m not sure if you yourself have characters, but if you DONT then making playlists for general vibes works just as well. want to draw something dark and gloomy? make a dark ambience playlist. want to draw smth dynamic and actiony? bam, playlist with songs with a high bpm. this doesnt ALWAYS work, but it helps me enormously! I only have singular oc playlists for like 6 of them (my main ones) even though i have many characters, because its actually very hard for me to associate songs to a character, the rest of my oc lists are general story/universe vibe lists. My bf though has a playlist for each of their characters its incredible idk how they do it

sometimes I will have ideas while listening to music but i cant act on them until weeks later, for whatever reason, so a lot of times i will make a WIP file (i have a folder specifically for WIPS) and pick it up whenever in the future i feel like it (or maybe never) or if i cant get to my laptop ill make a note of the idea wherever I can so I can remember about it (for example that pic of alex shredding a guitar i did for tapas? that one actually sat as a single line of text on my sketchbook for like 2+ months)

speaking of, having a sketchbook is also great! just a small little notebook where I draw... random crap. very low effort nonsense, with pencils and pens and dollar store markers. its a cheap sketchbook too, it doesnt have to be anything fancy either, but it helps for drawing out ideas/thumbnails (that you may or may not polish later), just drawing things to get them out of your system (with the least effort required) and keeping notes for overall stuff (i have... so much extinction crap written down on these its so disorganized oh god)

I hope this helps! at the end of the day there’s not a guaranteed-to-work solution, but you could try other things in the meantime a lot of people also just tell you to plow through an art block by forcing out art which is horrible advice. unless art is your work you shouldnt HAVE to force it. youre doing it for fun! it’s ok to put it down and focus on other things. it might take a couple days, or over a week, but sometime you’ll think ‘oh shit i want to draw’ again and youll get back to it :3

#wow i wrote the fucking bible 2 wwoogghh #if you read it all youre braver than any US marine #advice #ask

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animebw · 5 years ago

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Banana Fish: Series Reflection

As the years have gone on, I’ve found myself falling more and more in love with studio Mappa. Yes, their body of work is uneven to say the least, and their incredible ambition ends up shooting them in the foot more often than not. But there are very few studios working today willing to take such gigantic risks on such a regular basis. A low-key, mature coming-of-age tale surrounding music, a heady, atmospheric exploration of terrorism, a bizarre zombie idol anime that merges sappy storytelling with goofy body horror, a gay figure-skating show that tries telling almost its entire story on the ice, an absolute smorgasboard of sakuga that packs more lavishly animated fight scenes into every episode than many shows get across their entire run, and now they’re taking up the final season of one of the most popular, high-maintenance anime ever after their previous studio burned themselves out on it. There are a lot of words you could use to describe this studio, but “safe” is not one of them. Whatever Mappa does, they always swing for the fences, and even when they fall short, the effort on display is always so commendable you almost want to give it a pass. We need more anime studios willing to take the kind of risks Mappa does on a regular basis. We need more studios with their courage.

And honestly? I think Banana Fish is their best show yet.

In a lot of ways, Banana Fish is the platonic ideal of the stuff Mappa does best. It’s an adaptation of a classic manga given a sleek update for the modern day, brought to life with razor-sharp precision for a modern audience without sacrifice the core of its value. It’s a bold, trailblazing source material that tackles heavy, difficult themes in a striking way, unapologetically adult while still accessible to most audiences. It’s utterly original, tightly constructed, unapologetically gay, and jam-packed with excellent animation and direction with almost none of their usual unsteadiness. It’s bursting with talent around every corner, from Hiroko Utsumi’s direction to Seko Hiroshi’s script (fun fact, he was also the writer for Deca-Dence!) to everyone on the animation team. The action scenes are kickass, the dialogue is snappy and driving, the plot spirals in a million different directions without getting tangled up in complexity, and despite how emotionally draining it can be, the whole thing’s just a blast to watch. This is the kind of plot-driven show you don’t get much of nowadays, let alone pulled off with this level of polish and moxie. I can’t think anyone but Mappa who could’ve pulled this off so well.

And thank god they did, because Banana Fish is a story well worth telling with this much passion. It’s a story of trauma, abuse and healing, a tale of a man grappling with his inner demons and fighting back against the world that saddled him with them. Ash is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, badass and vulnerable, determined and terrified, and the way his pain spills out over the course of this show gripped me by the heart and refused to let go. I cheered every time he struck back against Dino and his goons, I gasped every time he was dragged back into his worst nightmares, I felt for every difficult, damaged step he took along this complicated, heavy path. And his relationship with Eiji, naive and stubborn and far braver than even he gave himself credit for, is wonderful from start to finish. This is a show that can kick you in the balls one moment and have you pumping the air in triumph the next, where happiness and sorrow and pain and relief are stacked so close together it’s sometimes hard to tell them apart. And it makes for an exhilarating ride from start to finish, sometimes funny, sometimes gut-wrenching, always with such incredible tenderness for the pain of trauma and the importance of letting yourself live, no matter how hard it may seem.

It’s not a perfect ride, to be sure. The story feels like it’s rushing at a couple points, some unfinished animation is still present, and it’s an open question how well its more dated tropes still hold up. But as a total package, Banana Fish is a damn great show, one that constantly offers up new things to love the more you dig into it. And I give it a score of:

8.5/10

Well done, Mappa. Here’s hoping you do the finale of Attack on Titan justice too. Thanks for joining me on this ride! If you’ve enjoyed my analysis and want more of me, be sure to ask for an invite to my Discord where you can hang out and chat about the shows I’m watching with me and fellow anime fans. And I hope you’ll stick around for the show that will take its place:

Fantastic Children

This is gonna be a fascinating one. See you next time for the start of a new adventure!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #banana fish

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kingofthewilderwest · 7 years ago

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Hey just so you know your art is really shitty. I am talking about the one you did about book hiccup.

Oh you sweet, sweet summer chiiiiild!!! <3 This is actually hilarious and naive - thanks for making me laugh over your complete ignorance!

I was drawing “shit” like this when I was sixteen - ten years ago! Ten years ago, and I could draw like this!

So why would I care what someone thinks of a small, five minute, no-erase doodle of mine? ^.^

Honestly, I’m in the middle of an artistic euphoria phase right now. Like, I’m legit having so much fun with visual arts - more than I have for years - and I’m delighted. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to talk about this latest exciting experience in my life! Maybe this’ll inspire some others as well? Art has been a highlight of the last few months, and even getting going on the topic now, chatting with you, is getting me happy and inspired and ready to tear out the next sheet of paper for a new bout of creativity. I’m trying my best not to start drawing NOW because of the topic you’ve brought up!

I’m working on proportions and muscle groups and more dynamic poses and figuring out digital art and testing new traditional art mediums and it’s just been a BLAST of creativity and exploration. I’m trying to figure out new styles for myself, branching WAY beyond my childhood focus of photorealism, into everything down to anime-style personalities. I’ve even checked out 3D modeling, dudes! I’m planning on exploring with cityscapes and character design and shape and color and... guys... guys... it’s literally such an exciting time for me right now.

Art is AMAZING fun!!! What a blessing it is to create something wholly new, with the stamp of our personality, out of complete nothingness? I turned the nothingness of a piece of paper into my personality and a work of creativity. DUDE THAT IS SO AWESOME!!! Humans are so amazing in our ability to endlessly create. I think creating is one of the greatest powers and blessings our species has to offer.

Being a visual artist by hobby isn’t about improving. It isn’t even about being good. It’s about having fun. My wonderful dragon-loving friends, don’t for a second think that your artwork needs to be to some sort of quality, because it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. If you want to improve, that’s awesome, and I’m rooting for you to have some exciting experiences of self-discovery and growth. That can be an exciting time, to go through growth, and it’s well-worth your commendable, diligent efforts. But it’s also 100% fair if you go into a hobby without desiring to improve. You don’t need to improve - you’re not in some competition where your rent’s pay hinges on drawing - you just need to enjoy yourself. There is nothing shameful about “shitty” art - it’s in fact one of the coolest things you can do, because it engages your mind and your creativity and your own unique stamp of human beauty that no other soul can give. And if you share it, you’re sharing a part of yourself, and we get to see the beautiful treasure you and your mind are!

Some of my favorite things I’ve ever seen are stick people. DRAW your stick people! Do it all!!!

I’m so thankful for everyone who shares their art on tumblr in the fandom community. Not just the people who do polished digital work, but everyone. People who are starting to figure out what a tablet is. People who haven’t touched a colored pencil in ten years. People who draw five minute scratches. People who spend thirty-seven hours on a painting. You contribute to the world of fandom, the beautiful world of fandom. Together we celebrate what it is we mutually love about our fandoms, and make this a community in which creativity and celebration and positivity is resplendent. It’s because of people like you - ALL of you - that you build this incredible environment.

I’m in the middle of a phase where I think I’m going to be making rapid advances in my artwork soon. Maybe if there’s something really cool I’ll share it with ya’ll! There’s a 50% chance I might be getting a new art tablet soon, which will unfetter all the struggles I’ve had with digital art preventing me from improving there. And there’s so many ideas I have! Guys, there’s so many ideas! So much art to put down and explore and hgghghghhhh! I’m excited.

Of course this is all on top of my other hobbies. I love being a jack of all trades and master of none. Every day’s something new to explore. I’m a conlanger and I make my own languages. I’m a creative writer and I’m planning on charging deep into a single original novel that I hope I can publish. I’m a chronic worldbuilder who loves thinking about everything from the geographic history of the world to the culture’s technology to what the cities look like to the individual culture’s elements - be it gestures, taboo language, courting rituals, what have you! I’m a music composer and I even got a Bachelor’s of Music in Composition; I’ve learned how to play over a dozen instruments; I’m itching to make covers and suites of material I love. I used to make gifs and I still miss it - maybe I’ll get back into the swing of it sometime? I made one AMV and maybe I’ll make another - I’ve always loved video editing (I did Lego stop motion stuff in the junior high, after all). And of course I want to keep writing fandom meta for all the stories that have touched my heart, be it Fullmetal Alchemist or How to Train Your Dragon or Voltron: Legendary Defender or Mass Effect or anything else. I’m hoping that I’ll get some good bursts of activity on cosplay, too! I need to work on my sewing - 2019 shall be the perfect year for it, don’t you think?

Life’s so exciting and rich and beautiful. There’s so much creativity to be had. So much to do. So much to explore.

And who gives a flipping rat’s fart if I’m not The Best(TM) of the universe? XD That’s not the true reason to create ANYTHING!

I’ve got a fuckton of weaknesses in my artistic pursuits and that doesn’t make me an ounce less awesome. Having weaknesses makes my artistic life BETTER. I honestly believe it; they make me happy. I’m excited that I have weaknesses in my visual arts abilities because it means I’m going through this period of growth. Where would be my fun if I were perfect already? I’m having a blast not because my art is perfect, but because it’s IMPERFECT. I both like what I can do already and I know ALL the areas where it needs improving - allowing me new areas to dive further and reach new goals. It’s giving me life goals, trajectory, and celebrations every time I draw something new and better than what I made last month.

A childish, petty, and honestly rather uncreative insult isn’t going to make me blink. I know how amazing I am. I’m a powerhouse, powerfully creative, Renaissance man level talented bonfire who can do everything from advanced level linguistic scientific study to composing contemporary classical art music. I know what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are. I’ve got great weaknesses, and that’s totally chill!

I’m sorry, friend, but the only thing your message does is show how much of a naive child you are. You ignorantly think that a laughably uninteresting, child-level insult is going to affect an adult who is confident and grown in themselves. You don’t know your audience. Even if you were right that my art is shit - which it’s not - it doesn’t matter to me. My identity is more than one cute doodle with Hiccup and Toothless. It’s a shame because I’m sure you have so much positive beauty you could contribute to this world. Why waste your time with this, when it literally could not be more of a waste of your time?

What positive creativity have you done?

I encourage us all to contribute to the beauty of our community. Let’s take this moment to be an inspiration point. Let’s create together. Let’s give people reasons to smile. Let’s share posts we love and talk about why we love them. Let’s draw and write and sing and dance our way through what we love. Let’s give positive feedback on the fanfiction people wrote for us for free. Let’s send compliments to one another - that’s a legitimate form of creation and it’s one of the best. Let’s let our personalities sparkle. Kindness is so awesome. You all are so awesome.

I’m so thankful to live in a community like this, where every day I’m bombarded with incredible magic - the magic you all have created.

As for my Hiccup drawing, the HTTYD book community has a cool event going on celebrating the Twelve Days of Doomsday. I encourage you all to participate and enjoy Cressida Cowell’s works with me!!!

Who knows? Maybe I’ll have time for a few more Hiccup doodles in the next dozen days!

#blabbing Haddock #long post #ask #ask me #awesome anonymous friend #troll #httyd fandom #let's make hate mail backfire into inspiration!!!!!#we rock fandom #we rock #you all rock #and you're all beautiful!#I love your creativity and it's such a blessing to be here #Anonymous

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kickdownthewalls · 7 years ago

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TOP 20 ROCK/METAL ALBUMS OF 2018

This has been a year of surprises and disappointments in pretty equal measure. Judas Priest blew me away with their latest record (and tour) and Immortal made one of the most triumphant comebacks in metal history. On the other hand, Voivod’s new one felt strangely by-the-numbers, as did the latest from Riot V and Monster Magnet. Still, the sheer amount of releases out there, just in the traditional metal and thrash scenes, is somewhat mind-boggling, and there were plenty of excellent albums to be found.

(Countries represented this year: Italy, UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Portugal, and Denmark).

20. BURNING WITCHES - Hexenhammer

Switzerland is a tiny nation, but they have given the world some of the most creative and diverse bands over the years, from Krokus to Celtic Frost to Samael and beyond. Burning Witches combine elements of melodic thrash and classic heavy metal for a sound that works quite well and is perfectly suited to Seraina Telli’s powerful vocal delivery. The album has its ups and downs but the title track and “Open Your Mind” are both flat-out brilliant.

19. PERPETRATÖR - Altered Beast

This is how I like my thrash metal: fast, evil, dirty, but still well-played and composed. Perpetratör hail from Portugal and this is only their second full album, but it is a scorcher. Songs like “Extreme Barbarity” and “Terminal Possession” are brutally fast in the vein of the early Germans, but the band explore some more mid-tempo riffs here and there as well. Like all my favorite thrash bands, these guys sound like they are playing just on the edge of what they can get away with and the effect is electric.

18. ARTILLERY - The Face of Fear

These Danish thrashers are one of those bands that has always had consistently quality releases but, for whatever reason, never really made the impact others in the genre have over the years. While the line-up has changed over time, the current incarnation has done three albums together now and sounds quite comfortable here. The drum sound is a bit ‘bonky’ for my tastes, but the quality of the tunes rises above it. Bonus points for the variety of songs on offer, too, from speedy, complex thrash, to power ballads to straight-ahead heavy metal.

17. LUCIFER - II

Lucifer’s brand of retro doom rock is both obvious in its influences and original in its assembly of said influences. The jazzier side of early Sabbath is the most prevalent element at work here, with riffs that range from heavy and evil to mournful and atmospheric. Despite some line-up changes, the sound is pretty consistent with the excellent debut from 2015, with perhaps a bit more clarity in the production (though nowhere near polished-sounding, fear not).

16. WITCHING HOUR - ...And Silent Grief Shadows the Passing Moon

The number of excellent bands with ‘witch’ in their name is strangely high this year and Germany’s Witching Hour are another to add to that list. This is their third full-length and displays a great deal of maturity and talent for writing complex yet compelling songs. Elements of black and thrash metal abound, but there is a lot of other stuff going on here, too, and lots of melody. The bass playing is particularly impressive and really adds a whole extra dimension to the music, while the vocals are a potent mix of plaintive and grim and complement the dark, intricate songs beautifully. This was a late-year release and, given some more spins, it will likely rise on this list.

15. SATAN - Cruel Magic

It is rare that a band can pull together their classic line-up the way that Satan did in 2013, let alone one that can then proceed to release three albums back-to-back that fall right in line with their old material. Cruel Magic is the latest of these and has all the hallmarks that made Satan great: finely-crafted heavy metal that is speedy and complex, organic production, and an overall sound that is truly their own. They may have only caught the tail-end of the NWOBHM but damn if they weren’t one of the scene’s best and it is heart-warming to see and hear them continuing the legacy 35 years later.

14. ABYSMAL GRIEF - Blasphema Secta

Abysmal Grief are Italian doom masters that create a sound that is heavy, gothic, creepy, and relentless all at once. Most songs are in the 8-9 minute range and are usually centered around a few core riffs, but the way the band build them up and vary them throughout really pulls the listener in. Keyboards are used quite a bit and to great effect, while the vocals range from mournful to menacing. The band has kept a very consistent style since day one, with only the production getting a little better with each release, and Blasphema Secta sounds both heavier and cleaner than anything prior.

13. STRIKER - Play to Win

Been following these stalwart Canucks since their debut EP a decade ago and I’m glad to see that they have continued to evolve and refine their sound with each new album. Play to Win is probably the most ‘commercial’ release to date, with tons of melody and big choruses, but there is still plenty of heaviness on tracks like “Heart of Lies” and “Summoner” to keep a nice balance. Striker has gotten really good at writing distinctive songs that aren’t just a collection of riffs but actual, well-constructed tunes.

12. BULLET - Dust to Gold

This Swedish quintet has been bashing it out for 15+ years and still manages to release an invigorating collection of hard rockin’ metal tunes. Stylistically, Dust to Gold covers a fair amount of ground, from heavy metal in the vein of Accept and Grave Digger to more upbeat rockers ala Krokus and AC/DC. The common denominator throughout is a sense of fun that is missing from entirely too many albums these days.

11. LEATHER - II

Leather’s powerful voice was always the thing that raised Chastain from a good band to a great one and I’m pleased to report that she sounds just as good in 2018 as she did in 1988. The opening track “Juggernaut” is one of the best speed metal songs I have heard in a while and the rest of the album is consistently good, too. Shades of Dio and Priest color the wide range of tunes here and the band turn in some excellent, spirited performances. Glad to see Leather back on the scene and, as much as I enjoyed the Chastain reunion records, I think this one is even better.

10. HAUNT - Burst Into Flame

Although I enjoyed the first Haunt EP, the full-length debut really takes it up a notch. This is classic, old-school heavy metal that reminds me a bit of the first couple of Cauldron albums, with some wonderful dual-guitar work thrown in for good measure. The vocals are clean but remarkably restrained compared to some of the screamers out there, making for a nice change of pace. Songs “Reflectors” and “Burst Into Flame” have a haunting (ahem) timelessness to them and the album flows really well from start to finish.

9. THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA - Sometimes the World Ain't Enough

Despite featuring members of Soilwork and Arch Enemy, this is a long, long way from death metal, melodic or otherwise. Although the band’s first effort had a distinctly late-70s hard rock vibe to it, each record since has taken the listener deeper into the world of 80s AOR. Unlike a lot of the sterile, radio-friendly acts from that actual era, NFO bring a warmth and heartfelt approach that really brings the music alive. This is the band’s fourth album and probably their weakest, but it still stands well above the average album of 2018. Songs like “Turn To Miami” and “Pretty Thing Closing In” are immediate, timeless classics.

8. THE CROWN - Cobra Speed Venom

Although Deathrace King is still one of my top 5 death metal records of all time, The Crown never really were able to duplicate its genius. Cobra Speed Venom, however, comes damn close. It has all the brutality that the band is known for but brings back a lot of the punky/thrash energy and memorable riffs that have been missing for a while. The first three songs might be the best start to any album this year; just relentless, mayhemic brilliance. Top it off with one of the coolest and most original album covers I’ve seen in a while, along with three bonus tracks that are actually worth adding, and you have one hell of a return to form.

7. SAXON - Thunderbolt

Saxon certainly made some missteps in the late 80s, but I can’t think of another band that has remained as true to form over the years, while also consistently putting out quality albums and touring relentlessly. Thunderbolt is no Wheels of Steel or even Call To Arms, but it is still a solid record that is as good or better than the last couple. From the melodic timelessness of “The Secret of Flight” to the moody “Nosferatu (The Vampire’s Waltz)” to the raging “They Played Rock and Roll,” there is also a diversity rivaled only by Priest on this list.

6. BLACK OATH - Behold the Abyss

When it comes to true, epic, soul-crushing doom metal, Black Oath have become true masters. I have been following this band since the Portrait of the Dead single back in 2010 and am pleased to say they just keep going from strength to strength. Behold the Abyss balances a lush production, clean vocals, and plenty of melody, with dreadnought riffage and blissfully dark, esoteric lyrics. A rich, dynamic work of black art.

5. SIGN OF THE JACKAL - Breaking the Spell

This amazing Italian band has created a style that is equal parts early 80s Warlock and late 80s Judas Priest. Great, driving metal tunes that sometimes border on speed metal with plenty of screaming solos and hooky choruses. The recording, the mix, the energy, everything about this record is incredibly old-school and authentic, right down to the 32-minute running time.

4. AUDREY HORNE - Blackout

Ever since these Norwegian rockers abandoned all pretense and went full-on retro with their Youngblood album, I have been hooked. They compose hard-hitting rock tunes with tons of hooks and Lizzy-esque harmonies that give a nod to metal and punk without really being either. The first three songs - “This is War,” “Audrevolution,” and “Blackout” - are all perfectly built and give a great cross-section of the band’s diverse sound. Toschie’s vocals are as unique as his fashion sense and, as much as I loved the last two records, I think this one may be their best yet.

3. BRAINSTORM - Midnight Ghost

Brainstorm has long since perfected their style (as far back as Soul Temptation, some fifteen years ago), and each new release is really just varying levels of execution. As good as Scary Creatures was a couple years back, Midnight Ghost is truly brilliant and may possibly take the title as my favorite Brainstorm outing. All of the usual plusses are in place - great production, top-notch musicianship, catchy tunes - but the songs themselves are just a tad bit more finely honed and memorable. “Ravenous Minds” and “When Pain Becomes Real” in particular are killer and there is nary a dull moment here.

2. IMMORTAL - Northern Chaos Gods

My first Immortal record was At the Heart of Winter and it is still my favorite black metal album, hands down. The combination of raw, icy riffs with the mind-blowing drumming and just enough melody to keep it all together was/is intoxicating. Immortal has never done a bad album, but some are definitely better than others and Northern Chaos Gods is one of the best ones. The ferocity is up there with Pure Holocaust and Demonaz’s vocals, while not quite as distinctive as Abbath’s, fit the music perfectly. The band wisely took their time to put this record together and the results speak for themselves.

1. JUDAS PRIEST - Firepower

Priest has been one of my favorite metal bands since I first got into them back in ’82 and they are still right up there with Sabbath, Accept, and Mercyful Fate, with a catalog that is as diverse as it is brilliant. After the disappointing Nostradamus and good-but-not-great Redeemer of Souls, it was a real pleasure to hear Firepower, a true, all-guns-blazing Priest record. The production is 1000% better than anything they have released in the last two decades and the material is both diverse and top-notch. Songs like “Firepower,” “Never the Heroes,” “Children of the Sun,” and “No Surrender” have such a classic sound to them and Rob has not sounded this good since Painkiller. Even the weakest tracks (“Lone Wolf” and “Sea of Red”) have grown on me a bit, so I am confident that Firepower will go down in history as one of the band’s crowning achievements.

I must also mention some very impressive EPs, demos, and singles that were released this year, namely those from CIRITH UNGOL, ROUGH SPELLS, ÜLTRA RAPTÖR, PULVER, SIGNIFICANT POINT, TENTATION, ANCIENT SÉANCE, SABÏRE, and OCCULT BURIAL. If you aren’t familiar with any of these bands or haven’t heard their latest, I highly recommend getting acquainted immediately.

As usual, my list could have gone on much longer, but here are the bands that just missed the top 20: AMORPHIS, AURA NOIR, BEHEMOTH, BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB, BLACK VIPER, BLADE KILLER, CAULDRON, DIMMU BORGIR, DREAM CHILD, GOAT WORSHIP, GRAHAM BONNETT BAND, IRON ANGEL, KHEMMIS, KRISIUN, NIGHT VIPER, PRIMAL FEAR, PROFESSOR BLACK, RIOT V, SABOTER, SKULL FIST, SUBSTRATUM, TAD MOROSE, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS, VULCAIN, WHITE WIZZARD, WITCHFYRE, and WYTCH HAZEL.

What is on the horizon for 2019? Well, I am already psyched about the new ones from CANDLEMASS, DELAIN, ROCK GODDESS, FLOTSAM & JETSAM, CHAINBREAKER, SOILWORK, WITHIN TEMPTATION, MORTAL SCEPTER, HAMMERFALL, and TYTUS, plus possible releases from SACRED REICH, DEATH ANGEL, and EXCITER all have me really looking forward to the coming twelve months. The world is crumbling around us, but at least the metal scene is stronger than ever!

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osakaso5 · 7 years ago

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Mitsuki Izumi 12 SONGS GIFT Rabbit Chat Part 4: Tell Us, All Stars! 2

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

Tsumugi: Iori-san, do you have enough battery now?

Iori: I do.

Tsumugi: What about everyone else? Have you heard from them, Mitsuki-san?

Choices/outcomes:

1. I heard some noise just earlier...

Mitsuki: So did I! Turns out Yaotome was doing a handstand for Riku, and then he bumped into the wall. Apparently he was practicing for my surprise! lol

2. I heard a scream just earlier...

Mitsuki: So did I! Turns out they found a bug while cleaning Tamaki's room! lol Momo-san ran over to save them!

3. I heard roaring laughter just earlier...

Mitsuki: So did I! Turns out Anesagi-san was painting Sogo and Tsunashi-san's nails orange for my surprise, and some of the nail polish got on their faces! lol

Tsumugi: Everyone is so lively!

Mitsuki: I'm glad they're making so much noise, it really feels like a birthday party!

Tsumugi: Let's resume our group chat! Yuki-san is up next!

Yuki: What I like about myself

Yuki: The first thing that comes to mind is that I've been singing for over 10 years now

Yuki: I never stopped, even when I was going through hard times. It's all thanks to Momo, Ban, and Okarin, though

Momo: It's because you treasured music and worked hard! You're so handsome, darling!

Yuki: Thanks, honey. It's because you were by my side ^^

Mitsuki: Can you guys please stop the casual flirting!?

Yuki: Sorry

Yuki: What I like about Mitsuki-kun is that he sings with great care.

Yuki: It shows in your singing when you like a song and feel warmly about it, after all

Mitsuki: Huh... I wasn't expecting you to praise my singing, but I'm really happy...

Yuki: I look forward to your solo ^^

Tsumugi: Thank you for the kind comment! Next up is Momo-san!

Momo: Here I go!!

Momo: What I like about myself is that I've got guts and stamina!

Momo: Though I guess you could also say that I'm too persistent...

Banri: There's no need to put yourself down. Everyone here respects how much of a hard worker you are, myself included!

Momo: Thank you, Ban-san!

Yuki: He's right. I wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't worked as hard as you do.

Momo: Yuki...

Yuki: Momo...

Mitsuki: Um, excuse me! Can you guys stop making up reasons to keep flirting!?

Momo: Sorry!! (*´Д`)o

Momo: There's a ton of stuff I like about Mitsuki, but I gotta go with his MC skills here!

Mitsuki: Seriously!?!?

Momo: Seriously!! I mean, when I do it, I need to watch the situation really carefully so I know how to act, but it comes naturally to you! You've got a real knack for that stuff!

Momo: I look forward to seeing you become one of my most formidable rivals!! o(`・ω・´)o

Yamato: Good for you, Mitsu. That's some high praise!

Nagi: Mitsuki, congratulations!

Iori: Nii-san?

Mitsuki: Aaah, sorry, I was just talking to Momo-san!!

Mitsuki: I'm just so happy

Yamato: Let me guess: you started crying

Mitsuki: Of course I did! I'm really happy right now

Mitsuki: I've never been told that I'm a natural at something...

Momo: You're so cute! Mitsuki, marry me *ﾟ｡+(n´v`n)+｡ﾟ*

Yuki: You cheater ^^

Momo: Wait, wait, wait!!! Darling, don't leave me!!!

Mitsuki:

Tsumugi: Thank you!!

Tsumugi: As his manager, I'm happy to hear that, too! Tsunashi-san, you're next!

Ryunosuke: Yeah!

Ryunosuke: I thought about this a lot, and I think what I like about myself the most is that I'm a part of TRIGGER.

Ryunosuke: I used to think of it as a burden sometimes, but now it's my favorite thing about myself.

Gaku: Ryu... Don't make me get emotional all of a sudden...

Tenn: I'm happy to hear that, Ryu.

Kaoru: So am I! You've really grown up, Ryu!

Ryunosuke: What I like about Mitsuki-kun is how he's like a big brother to everyone!

Ryunosuke: Part of it is probably because Yamato-kun looks after him a lot as the group's leader, but I feel like Mitsuki-kun is the one pushing IDOLiSH7 forward.

Ryunosuke: Gaku fills that role for us, but I'll need to work harder too, since I'm more of a big brother type myself!

Mitsuki: I'm really happy to hear that from you, Tsunashi-san! Thank you!

Tsumugi: Mitsuki-san really does act like he’s IDOLiSH7's big brother! Yaotome-san, go ahead!

Gaku: What I like about myself is everything.

Yamato: You're so dazzling, Yaotome...

Tamaki: Gakkun, you're so cool...

Ryunosuke: Gaku, you're so cool...

Gaku: Don't get me wrong, I'm no narcissist. I just have a hard time dealing with self-hatred, so I try to like myself as much as possible. Nobody enjoys hating themselves, right?

Gaku: I'm sure there's people out there who hate me, but I'll still make the effort to like myself.

Tenn: I really respect that about you, Gaku.

Mitsuki: Yeah, same here...

Gaku: What I like about Izumi Senior is his chivalry. He's got a good sense of ethics, and he's empathetic. I think that's really fascinating and cool.

Mitsuki: It's especially touching to hear you call me cool, Yaotome... Thanks!

Tsumugi: You're both chivalrous! Moving on, it's Yamato-san's turn!

Yamato: What I like about myself is that I'm not competitive, I guess? Personally, I thought that was a flaw, but our members praised me for it.

Mitsuki: I like that you're not greedy, since I definitely am!

Yamato: Thanks.

Yamato: There's a ton of stuff I like about Mitsu, but if I have to pick one, it's that he never gives up.

Yamato: Even when he gets hurt, he doesn't let it get him down or corrupt him. He doesn't let it change him, he just overcomes it as his own self. And that's really cool.

Mitsuki: Thank you, Yamato-san. It's pretty embarrassing to hear that again, but I'm glad you think so!

Tsumugi: I expected no less from you, Yamato-san! Next up is Sogo-san!

Sogo: Yes.

Sogo: I wasn't sure what I liked about myself...

Sogo: But I think it's that there are so many things I care about. My fellow members, my friends from work, my favorite songs, my concert memories.

Sogo: I like how happy I am when I'm surrounded by the things I love.

Mitsuki: I never thought you'd say something like that... I'm happy that you think that way about yourself! I love that part of you too, Sogo!

Sogo: Thank you.

Sogo: What I like about Mitsuki-san is his decisiveness. I tend to have trouble making choices, after all.

Sogo: I'm sure Mitsuki-san also worries, but I aspire to stick to my decisions like he does.

Tsumugi: I know what you mean! Mitsuki-san's confidence is reassuring!

Tsumugi: Nagi-san, you're next!

Nagi: :-)))

Nagi: Before I start, are you alright with it taking the entire night for me to list everything I like about myself and Mitsuki?

Tsumugi: T-the entire night is a little much...

Nagi: Very well. In that case, I will keep it short.

Nagi: I like how blessed I am. Mitsuki is a necessary part of that bliss. And I presume the same goes for him.

Mitsuki: You're so confident in yourself that it's embarrassing...

Nagi: Am I mistaken?

Mitsuki: No, I guess you're right...

Mitsuki: Yeah, you are.

Nagi: We met under God's grace, and are bound together by a love unlike any other.

Nagi: That, is what I like about myself and Mitsuki.

Nagi: I love you more than there are stars in the sky, my dear friend. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Mitsuki: Tha

Mitsuki: Thanks a lot...

Iori: You really have no shame, Rokuya-san...

Tenn: That was incredible, Nagi Rokuya.

Kaoru: How wonderful...

Momo: What are we gonna do, Yuki!? They're even more of a married couple than we are!! Σ(・ω・;|||

Yuki: Yep, I definitely can't say stuff like that.

Nagi: Did I get my point across? Or would you rather hear the longer version?

Tsumugi: That was more than enough! Thank you, Nagi-san!

Tsumugi: Kujo-san, go ahead.

Tenn: You're kidding, right? That speech is impossible to live up to.

Riku: You're cool too, Tenn-nii! You can say cool stuff!!

Iori: You're putting even more pressure on him... Kujo-san's brow is furrowed with worry right now.

Tenn: Shut up.

Tenn: What I like about myself is that I can make my fans happy, and that I give my all to do so.

Tenn: What I like about Mitsuki Izumi is that he cares for his younger brother dearly.

Tenn: That is all.

Mitsuki: I feel like you didn't give me any time to comment... But I get it.

Mitsuki: Thanks!!

Tenn: You're welcome.

Tsumugi: Thank you for your own unique comment, Kujo-san! Riku-san, go ahead!

Riku: Yeah!

Riku: I like that I'm honest! Because everyone says I am!

Mitsuki: You sure are.

Iori: He sure is.

Riku: What I like about Mitsuki is that he takes me to all kinds of places! Even when we get lost and tired, it's fun to be with him!

Riku: Thanks for everything, Mitsuki! I love you!

Mitsuki: Thanks, Riku!

Tsumugi: You two go out together a lot, after all! Thank you for your unique message, Riku-san!

Tsumugi: Iori-san, you're up next!

Iori: Nii-san, happy birthday.

Iori: What I like about myself is how calm and analytical I can be.

Iori: There are plenty of things I like about Nii-san, but the fact that he is loved by many is my favorite. He's always had lots of friends, and he makes new ones easily.

Iori: I've always been proud to see him surrounded by people. Though sometimes it's made me feel lonely, as well...

Mitsuki: Iori...

Iori: Now, it makes me happy from the bottom of my heart. Congratulations, Nii-san.

Mitsuki: Thank you. I'm proud of you too, Iori!

Tsumugi: Only his real brother could've written a message as affectionate as you, Iori-san! Thank you!

Tsumugi: Last but not least, it's Tamaki-san's turn!

Tamaki: Yeah!

Tamaki: What I like about me is that I'm big and strong. Because it means I can help people when they're in trouble.

Mitsuki: That's true! Good for you, Tamaki.

Tamaki: What I like about Mikki is that he's strong, even though he's small.

Tamaki: He's way stronger and scarier than me, and he helps out more people, too.

Tamaki: I think he's really amazing and cool.

Tamaki: Congrats, Mikki.

Mitsuki: Thanks a lot, Tamaki... I think I'm getting a little teary over here.

Tamaki:

Mitsuki:

Tsumugi: Thank you for the lovely messages, everyone! Happy birthday again, Mitsuki-san!

Mitsuki: Thank you!

Yamato: How bout we get together in the livong rom

Mitsuki: You're already drunk, old man!!!

Riku: Yaaay! Let's celebrate!

Momo: We're all gonna have a party!

Mitsuki: Thanks!!

Mitsuki: You guys better look forward to my 12 SONGS GIFT solo live, too!

#idolish7 #mitsuki izumi #12 songs gift #translation #i7 #rabbit chat

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biscuitreviews · 7 years ago

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Biscuit Reviews Assassin’s Creed

I have quite a history with the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I’ve kept up with all of the main line entries and even a couple of the mobile spinoffs. Even though the series has become controversial in some aspects, I find enjoyment in the protagonists, the historical settings, and the whole First Civilization lore. It’s gotten crazier and more outrageous as the years progressed for the series but I think that’s part of charm.

With my wife wanting to see more of the series after playing through Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, I introduced her to some of the previous past entries in the franchise as they’re a lot more polished in the gameplay department. So with that I figured I would go back to the older titles, to see how they have have fared in the passage of time. What better way to view this than playing the original Assassin’s Creed.

I had a lot of fun doing a series overview on Kingdom Hearts, so with ignitied interest of Assassin’s Creed with my homelife I figured I’d go back and do the same for the Assassin’s Creed franchise as well.

I’m going to take it on like I did with Kingdom Hearts, tackle the series in small sprints, rather than all at once.

As for my memories with the original Assassin’s Creed, I remember liking a lot of the ideas of the original. Assassin’s Creed was even the first game I ever wrote a review for and I still have the original copy of that review to this day. Looking back at it now it’s quite a mess and a bit embarrassing but I also gave it a score of an “8 out of 10.” which would translate as a 4 out of 5 in the scale I currently use.

Ok, that’s a fairly high score. Let’s see if I still think that when I revisit the start of the Assassin’s Creed series.

You are Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, an Assassin during the Third Crusades tasked with killing 9 Templars as they are the 9 that know the secret of a powerful artifact that the Assassin’s Order acquired. Although the bulk of the story is experienced during this historical event, you are actually reliving the past. This past is actually part of a simulation in the world of Assassin’s Creed. A man named Desmond is experiencing this past through the Animus, a device that allows the user to witness the lives of their ancestors. Desmond has been captured by a mega corporation known as Abstergo, who is looking for this powerful artifact, known as the Apple of Eden. Abstergo believes that Desmond’s ancestor is the key to finding the Apple of Eden as well as other artifacts left by the First Civilization.

The gameplay for Assassin’s Creed will have Altaïr traveling between three different cities, Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem to hunt down his targets. Once he reaches this city he will then need to report to the Assassin’s Bureau within that city to get some possible leads on where he can find information on his target. Once acquired, Altair will partake in a series of tasks to learn more about his target. These tasks involve, Eavesdropping, Interrogation, Pickpocketing, and Informant Missions.

You’ll need to complete these tasks to learn more about your target such as their location, recent events they’ve done, assassination opportunities, guard activities, and entry and exit points from the area your target will be in. Although these tasks can feel repetitive, It is awesome that you have to learn about your target and the surrounding area making you feel like an Assassin with a plan. After you commit the Assassination, you then have to escape from the area and return to the Bureau. This was my favorite aspect of original Assassin’s Creed. It’s that rush of having to escape and lose the guards chasing you that can make for some interesting ways to lose them.

Originally the repetition was the only issue that I had with the game so after replaying this game are there any other issues that I might have with game after the series itself has evolved? Yeah, quite a few actually. First, is the way Altaïr moves. He moves incredibly slow and clunky. Even climbing up buildings he’s slow. I understand what Ubisoft was going for at the time, have an Assassin that’s a blade in the crowd to where he is inconspicuous and doesn’t raise suspicion, but when it comes to some of those escape sequences I was talking about earlier, it can be a pain when trying to lose guards on the ground level and trying to get to the rooftops to traverse the city more quickly.

This next issue is rather a personal nitpick of mine, but it’s still something I figured is worth mentioning. There are no subtitles. When I play game I usually like to have subtitles on because there’s a few instances where the VO might say something that I don’t quite catch or pick up. Although there’s no standard or mandate that subtitles need to be present in a game, this was something that was a bit of an issue with me, especially since Assassin's Creed does have fluctuating audio levels. Sometimes you can hear the characters just fine and can understand them no problem, other times, they’re speaking so low and softly that it’s really hard to understand what they’re saying.

Speaking of the audio perspective of this game, Nolan North voices both Desmond and Altaïr in this title and his performance is...not good. He sounds bored when he’s portraying Desmond and when he’s portraying Altaïr, well he sounds like he’s bored but with an edge, he’s edgy bored. Even Kristen Bell who plays Lucy, a woman who tries to help Desmond out, sounds bored with her performance. The only voice actors that sound like they’re giving an effort are Phil Proctor, who voices Warren Vidic, Haaz Sleiman, who voices Malik Al-Sayf, and Peter Renaday, who voices Al-Mualim.

Also the whole, be a blade in crowd aspect, it’s not really present in this one. Sure there are crowds and you’ll have to navigate your way through them sometimes, but you can’t really use the crowd as cover. Instead, it’s more like you’re trying to overcome an obstacle to get to the target. The only time you can hide in the crowd is if you find a group of priests that are praying and that’s it. Even then they’re mostly used to enter places.

Now, I’m not sure if this was a game issue or an Xbox One Backwards Play issue, but I did notice that building walls would occasionally flicker. I don’t remember this ever happening on the Xbox 360 and I wasn’t able to go back to check on this due to the disk tray on my 360 no longer working. I do know that some titles using the Xbox One Backwards Play do have issues so that’s why I’m willing to bet it’s an issue with backwards compatibility rather than the game itself. It’s not game breaking or anything, but can be distracting in some cutscenes.

As for how the game has stood against the test of time, it has not aged very well. The sequels are much faster and various entries made improvements in their own ways which I’ll discuss when I get to those titles. However, if you’re interested in seeing the beginnings of the franchise as well as learn how the science of the Animus works, then it’s definitely worth a visit, just don’t expect much action as this game wasn’t as action focused as any of the sequels. The slowness might be a turnoff for some and that’s understandable, but if you power through it you’ll pick up on some interesting stuff on how this game laid the foundation for the overall lore of the franchise. If you were a fan of the series and haven’t played the original one in awhile I do recommend that you do back to it, you just might be surprised on some of the lore details you pick up on now that the story of Assassin’s Creed has been fleshed out more in the sequels. If you came into the series in one of sequels, my recommendation would be to slowly work back to this title or just simply read up on a plot synopsis online.

Looking back now I don’t quite think it’s that 8 out of 10 my past self gave it in 2007. Honestly, it’s more like a 2 or maybe a 3 out of 5, both scores which I can see.

I can see the 2 because of how rough the gameplay is and how slow and repetitive it is as well as some of the technical issues. However, I can also see a 3 because at it’s time it was a cool unique idea on how to approach the open world genre. Especially with the mark it made on the genre. Some would argue that Assassin’s Creed II left a more lasting impact, and I would agree, but the impact that second game left, would not have been possible, without the first steps of the original title.

As for overall score, I’m going to go for the higher end because I do have a soft spot for this game. I’ll whole heartedly admit that it’s the nostalgia and my fondness for some of the gameplay elements in this game that has me giving it that score. I feel that’s how it is with some of these reviews, especially when critics review a media from their past. There’s going to be that looming essence of nostalgia there and sometimes it can be hard to separate when reviewing these past pieces of media. But, I think if you’re able to admit and see the flaws, it could have you appreciate something from the past more, as well as what has come from those beginnings.

Assassin’s Creed receives a 3 out of 5 (with justification of a 2 out of 5).

#Assassin's Creed #AC #Ubisoft #Altair #xbox #ps #pc #video games #gaming #games #video game review #games review #gaming review #game review #biscuit reviews

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elizas-writing · 7 years ago

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Movie Reviews: Venom

**Mild Spoilers for Content Warnings**

This film includes scenes with bright flashing lights, high pitched sounds, and vomiting. While brief, they’re not so great if you’re photo and/or sound sensitive or squeamish. So when...

Eddie goes to take pictures in the dark facility

Eddie eats out of a garbage can

Eddie is in/near the MRI machine

Venom is on top of a building

And the big climatic showdown.... those are your cues to turn away and/or cover your ears.

On with the review!

I can’t remember the last time I saw such a mixed-bag of a movie in every sense of the phrase like Venom. The shared rights between Sony and Disney with Spider-Man in film is confusing enough as is, especially with the former starting universes completely unrelated to MCU. But at the same time, given the titular character’s embarrassing portrayal in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, it’s long overdue to do justice and give something better than....

... that.

With spooky, gritty trailers promising a dark character study to ring in October, it definitely pays off in ways I did and didn’t expect. However, despite some of the mindless enjoyment of the film and character, Venom also seems like it’s holding back from doing something greater to stand out among the likes of MCU and DCEU. But at what point does that really matter?

Tom Hardy plays investigative journalist, Eddie Brock, who built a hell of a career uncovering corruption throughout San Francisco but often gets in trouble for his bluntness and means to get the story. His next lead is the bioengineering startup company, the Life Foundation, after one of their rockets suddenly crashes on Earth after a mission to find habitable life in space. Going against his boss’s warnings and even snooping through his fiancee’s emails with her law firm defending the company, Eddie pressures the CEO, Carlton Drake, to answer about the crash and numerous mysterious deaths surrounding their pharmaceutical tests. Not only is he forcibly removed from the facility, but he also loses his job and fiancee when she finds out what he did.

Six months pass, and Eddie, down on his luck to find work and mental stability, meets a doctor working for the Life Foundation who reveals the secrets of their experiments. When the rocket crashed, it was carrying alien specimens which Drake calls symbiotes, and he believes by giving these creatures human hosts, it’ll unlock secrets for humanity to survive outside of Earth. But, as you do, these experiments are killing all his human subjects, so Eddie goes to further investigate. One of the symbiotes escapes and latches onto Eddie, giving him superhuman strength, hyper-acute senses, and an insatiable hunger. The symbiote reveals himself to Eddie and offers his aide to keep him safe from Drake (mainly by tapping into Eddie’s impulses). But the two have bigger problems on their hands when another escaped symbiote wants to use Drake technology to bring back more of their kind to take over the Earth, and this unlikely pair will have to work together before further disaster strikes.

The film has all the right pieces to create a better than average film, and when they’re done well, they really shine. Tom Hardy is a great actor choice for this rendition of Eddie Brock. He fancies himself a bad boy with the black clothes and motorcycle, but he always wants to do right for society in calling corruption where he sees it. But with his life spiraling out of control and a symbiote latched to him, he’s constantly on edge and struggles to maintain his morality. Hardy is also spectacular lending his voice to Venom with the help of some killer editing where you can hardly recognize him. Of course, he’s incredibly threatening and you never know what’s on his mind and what he has to gain out of all this. But there’s also this odd, buddy-comedy vibe the longer Venom and Eddie get to know each other. Venom is really more like a curious, impulsive five-year-old who grows a soft spot for Eddie and life on Earth.

It’s really fun to see Eddie and Venom figure out a balance as an anti-hero between doing the right thing and using any destructive means necessary to get the job done. And I really wish more of the film was like this.

I know audiences are miffed by the critics’ harshness, but despite how much I liked Venom, I can’t totally disagree that it’s so choppily edited together and some of the tonal dissonance is a bit distracting. The trailers and exposition build up a deep, dark study of Eddie’s character as he becomes more desperate to get the truth, breaks his fiancee’s trust, self-sabotages major chunks of his life, and passes the blame to Carlton Drake. But all that potential drama is wrapped up too quickly just to get to the action scenes, show off Venom’s powers, and Eddie going twitchy. Don’t get me wrong; I love some mindless action and Tom Hardy being silly, and Venom has a wonderfully aggressive fighting style. But the exposition drags when the built up themes around corruption, being an anti-hero, and the limitations of science just go no where.

I honestly have no idea what Riz Ahmed is doing as Carlton Drake. He’s somewhere between a stereotypical cartoon-y villain, but also wants to be taken seriously as a corrupt scientist without regards to morals. It’s one of the bits of tonal dissonance which just doesn’t work because sometimes you can’t tell when you’re supposed to be scared of him or laugh at him (especially when he lapses in logic like how his massive facility has only two inept security guards and no cameras). It’s hilarious to see him pull the cliches, and Ahmed’s working the best he can with the given material. But at the same time, you’re not sure what the hell the intention was behind this portrayal or if it suffered from the choppy edits. Again, it’s build up with no pay off, which sucks because the whole power and responsibility dynamic is super fun to see in Spider-Man villains.

The fight scenes suffer some of the worst edits as some of the CGI looks a bit too rushed out and plastic-y (though thankfully it doesn’t look like a video game which is more than I can say for Spider-Man 3). It’s also super obvious this was meant to be an R-rated film, but for some reason, they backed out and made it PG-13 at the last second and cut the decapitations. Given the rest of the film’s excess violence and adult themes, they honestly should’ve just gone all out. Screw the kids; just commit to a gritty, but funny anti-hero film.

And that’s the film’s biggest problem is its lack of commitment to one solid vision. It almost wants to follow the Deadpool formula minus the satire, but never goes full force in its ideas except for the two main characters’ interactions. It rushes over the character drama to get to all the action and big climax, and then it just ends. They definitely had another 10-20 minutes of content to squeeze in, but that was all cut just to get something out after over a decade in-and-out of pre-production. I can’t totally blame the studio since it was probably a bitch to work out the rights once Disney got a hold of Spider-Man and if this would technically be an MCU film. There is a dedicated team doing their damnedest to deliver something great with all their limitations, and the effort shows when you know where to look. And to its credit, it’s nowhere near the same level of dumpster fire like Suicide Squad or Justice League where they shoved so much shit in without rhyme or reason where I can’t even laugh at some of the bad stuff.

For all its flaws, it’s hard for me to hate Venom. The foundation is solid enough and if they commit to sequels, I hope they can learn from their mistakes to strengthen this new universe. I love Eddie and Venom’s interactions and their unique brand of anti-hero. The action is super fun and intense when it’s not too choppily edit. I love the little twist of comedy in an otherwise dark story. Hell, it’s one of the few instances I have an Eminem song playing on repeat. Those moments are definitely worth toughing out the slower and more ludicrous moments (especially the two end credits scenes). I’ll take “turd in the wind” over...

... that... any day.

If you’re looking for a super polished film and that great adaptation of a Venom origin story, this is probably not for you. But if you want to just shut your brain off to the Rotten Tomatoes scores and find another mindless guilty pleasure to enjoy, you’ll definitely get some great moments worth at least one viewing. Pick your poison, and see what you take away from it.

If you enjoyed this review and what I do here, consider buying me a ko-fi to show your support!

#venom #venom movie #venom marvel #eddie brock #marvel venom #marvel #sony #movie #movie review #movie reviews #review #reviews #my writing

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reddhoodie · 8 years ago

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I sometimes reread my own fics and find random bits I really like. So I decided to do a big post featuring all of my personal favorite fic moments from 2017!

(here’s my A03 if you want to browse my other fics not featured here!)

It would be really cool if other writers would do this too, it’s fun to see what authors enjoy about their own writing and I think it’s a really positive way to look at your own work. ^^ Feel free to tag me if you decide to post your own!

This got pretty long so it’s all under the cut~

1. “Lois frowned over her book while Clark lunged for Tim, who was sitting on a pool noodle like it was a horse and frantically trying to paddle away.

“This seems a little unfair. I mean, Clark has super hearing.”

Bruce grunted. “They cheat anyway so it evens out somewhat.”

“Hm.”

Dick leaned against the side of the pool, laughing. “Tim...Tim get off the noodle!” He gasped.

“Never! Ol' blue rides eternal!” Tim cried, paddling with one hand, the other fist raised to the sky in triumph.

Clark lunged and grabbed the noodle, yanking Tim close, and wrapped him in tight, one-armed hug. “Gotcha!”

“I told you!” Dick laughed.

“You need to rethink your noodle-boat building strategy, Tim.” Jason sighed. “Learn something from Damian over here.”

Damian was laying on his stomach on three noodles, his feet free to kick at the water behind him. “Observe and be humbled, Drake.””

From Supersunned. I love writing family fluff (the worst kept secret ever), and rereading all the nonsense in this fic makes me smile.

2. “Bruce doesn't remember making the choice to leap off his perch, to land among the officers and grab the man by the shirt collar. He doesn't remember flinging him to the ground, or slamming the handcuffed man's head against the concrete. Doesn't realize what he's doing until there's blood all over the sidewalk and the police are about to shoot and Nightwing is dragging him back by his cape and one arm.”

From Little Absences, a rare foray into angst territory for me. While I was at work one day I started thinking about how when you lose someone you love, the most random things can bring up that aching emptiness. I imagined that Bruce felt that a lot about Jason, and couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. So here it is, a collection of Bruce’s grief.

3. “A fresh wave of embarrassment washed over Tim, and he felt his face go an even deeper red than the crying had already turned it.

He took the box from Dick’s hand and refused to meet his gaze, mopping at his eyes with a tissue while even more tears spilled over. He just wanted to cover himself with the cot’s thin sheets and never come out again, never face Bruce or Alfred or especially Dick ever again. Forget this ever happened. Maybe he could just stay there until he died.

Dick walked away and for a moment Tim was relieved, until he came back with a towel and sat on the cot beside him.

Tim shook with the sobs he was trying to stifle.

Dick draped the towel over the younger boy’s head and scrubbed at his sopping wet hair.”

From Robins In The Dead of Night, a requested fic I still love. Writing the boys during their time as Robin is always interesting, and writing Robin!Tim just made it even better. ;3

4. “He turned, and there stood Elaina, almost completely changed out of her Lone Wolf costume. It was an odd sight, her wearing an oversized sweatshirt, shorts, her mask, and one knee-high boot. Wearing only one shoe meant her approach was lopsided and awkward, and Alfred had to put effort into not smiling, since he guessed from the way what he could see of her face was scrunched that she was not in a pleasant mood.

“I’m gonna riot.” She announced, the statement many-voiced and ominous through her mask.

“Is something the matter?””

From Let’s Start A Riot, one of the few stories I’ve posted featuring my and my friends’ self-insert OCs. I’ve posted a few stories with them but it’s only a small fraction out of the ones I’ve written. I want to post more but it’s just...I dunno. Part of me likes keeping them between us. Also I know most people don’t care about them so I tend to only post canon-character stuff. ANYWAY this fic actually has a lot of my favorite moments but I limited myself to one.

5. “< No...did you lose him? Is he loose? >

Dick smiled bitterly at the three red siren emoji’s Tim sent to accompany his message.

< Not lost. Just...misplaced. >

< That’s not comforting at all. I’m locking my windows. >”

From Feverbird, aka more brother fluff. Sick fics are my jam.

6. “She was strapped by seatbelts and an old chrome lap bar into the front seat of a roller coaster train. The black leather seats were faded and cracked, the bar rusty and dirty. The seatbelts, however, looked brand new. The front of the train was faded, and had once displayed the name of the ride this had once been. Now, however, something new was painted over it neatly. A playing card. A Joker card.

Crow’s heart immediately sped up, her blood running cold. She squirmed in her seat, but the straps were so tight around her waist and hips that she felt the slight tingle of restricted blood flow in her feet. When she reached for her belt to try and grab something to cut them with, she found the entire belt missing entirely. Her comm was missing too. She cursed into the night air and then sighed, glancing around for anything useful.

The disused boarding station was falling apart, rotting where it stood among overgrown vegetation. Trees and bushes reached into the open window spaces and the holes smashed through the old wooden boards. An old sign swung from a single rusting screw on the wall.

Please remain seated, and keep your arms and legs inside the train at all times!

Crow snorted.”

This one is actually from a fic I haven’t finished yet, and haven’t posted, about my OCs and the batkids being trapped in various parts of an abandoned amusement park by Joker. I really love how I wrote the first chapter and I really should get working on the rest...maybe I’ll post it on my a03? Maybe.

7. “Glancing beyond Temperance, she spotted Jason again. He'd split off from the group he'd been talking to and was at the banquet table, picking at what was left now that the night was nearly over. While she watched he picked up a pastry, which promptly dropped a glob of red jelly right onto his nice dress shirt.

Becca practically cheered. Instead she smiled politely at the other women and nodded towards Jason. "Well, this was fun, but I think Jason needs someone to clean him up." She gulped the last of her drink and placed the empty glass gently on a passing waiter's tray. "A woman's work is never done, right?"

The women laughed at her comment and she hurried away, rolling her eyes once they were all behind her back. She gathered her fluffy skirt into her hands to allow herself to move more quickly, her heels clicking on the polished ballroom floor.”

From another unposted OC fic, full of incredibly self indulgent fluff. It’s short and a little cheesy but it turned out exactly how I wanted and that makes me love it.

And I think I’ll leave it at that! I can’t wait to write even more fics in 2018 (along with some original stuff too, hopefully)! Thanks for following me and my rambles, and I hope you enjoy!

#fanfiction #batfam #batfamily #batfamily fanfiction #my writing #my ocs #bruce wayne #batdad #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #becca/crow #elaina/lone wolf #fic recs

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