#( it was so hard for me to find a good picture of 1987 April )

[mariegreen-2000]

Random question For the tmnt fans

What are your favorite adaptations of April O’Neill

( you can also mention the other one that are not in the list )

[we-rate-tmnt]

Give us the Donatellos!

Donnie is my favorite so Imma be super biased on this one. Maybe I like smart guys or maybe purple is my favorite color, you’ll never know!

Up first, the og ‘hehe turgle’

Donatello (1987)

Yeah I’m sorry for making this 

First of all, not the biggest fan of his voice. It has a bit of a whiny quality to it, and I’m not about all that jazz. His gismo’s look pretty lame a lot of the times, either it’s a grey box with some buttons, dials and flashing lights or looks like it was pulled directly from Lost in Space. Still a cute design but he felt pretty bland and seemed to be used for plot convenience most of the time. To put it simply, he was cute and essential but kinda bland. I’m always really harsh on this version because it’s so painfully dated and cheesy, which ain’t my cup of tea, but what can I say be hehe turgle.

5/10

I had a crush on this Donnie so you know that this is not remotely close to a fair rating but eh, I love him and yall do too

Don (2003)

His voice, such a huge improvement. I’m really sound-oriented and I often like to play a game of ‘I’ve heard the VA before, but which role?’ when I watch cartoons and I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty good at it. So when I heard that soft, caring voice, ten year old me was head over heels. Which is one quality I love about him. His heart is so huge, like I can think back to a bunch of side characters and most of them were introduced through Don helping or knowing them. The Atlantians and the homeless in the show owe so much to Don, but he goes out of his way to make sure that they are alright. In the last season (which everyone hated but I actually really liked so fuck me I guess), Splinter is lost into tiny pieces across the web and Don blames himself and goes without sleep and food for days to bring him back. It broke my heart, and I’m pretty sure a lot of others, to see him like that.

On a lighter note, I vaguely remember this one scene where the triceration dude is like ‘you did this!’ and Don’s like ‘I did? Good for me then.’ and had a very pleased grin on his face right after. I don’t know why, but that killed me. Bless Don and his rare, but excellent, comebacks.

He really does so much and there were quite a few episodes focused on him. He also had quite a bit of character development, not as much as Leo, but whoever gets any more development whatsoever besides Leo?

I love him he’s amazing protect him/10

Next up is the Donnie that helped me love my old gap tooth.

Donnie (2012)

Voiced by the very talented Rob Paulson, this Donnie goes back and forth from really great character to eh. The whole April thing was just kinda strange to me and I don’t really think it added anything other than some interesting Casey and Donnie banter. His crush was really strong the first two seasons and came off as stalkerish almost. Although I’m guilty of having a picture of a crush as my lock screen once as well, so I can’t judge that much. I really liked that they actually addressed this when Bigfoot had a crush on Donnie and he realized how April felt. Yeah, that episode was weird and just didn’t make any sense, but it really helped Donnie gain a new perspective and made him go from super crush to (mostly) hidden pining. He has a nice design as well, especially with the gap tooth. I used to have one and was really embarrassed of it but whenever I saw that Donnie had one, I thought it looked neat and I started to see myself in a more positive light. It’s closed up now, but I can still spray water between the little bit that’s left as a parlor trick. But seriously, what the FUCK was up with Don visiososoos whatever tf his name I I don’t understnad my tiny brain don’t understand why my purple boy tried to kill this dude who looked like he should’ve been wearing a red jumpsuit in the background of a pixar robot love story. Anyway, my tall gap tooth son, ily.

7/10

Then, the barely changed but fantastic

Donnie (Heroes in a Half Shell: Blast to the Past)

Baby but Bastard at the same time purely because of the ‘Anyone who bothers me, ejector seat button’s right there’ line. 

10/10

Now this version has one of my favorite designs out of all the Donatello’s!

Donatello (2014/2016)

They put a lot of thought into his design psychically, the long body, the near-constant look of surprise and curiosity in his features, the gadgets made of common objects, the wraps on his arms, I would love to be able to think of and make those kinds of details! It was all really well thought out and he stood out since he wasn’t as bulky as the rest of the turtles. I really like the little lines and the actor did a fantastic job on the delivery and really made the character come to life. Some favorites: ‘Ohmygod, they have guns’, the little awed, snorty chuckle when he flips a car over with his bo staff, ‘doitdoitoitdoit im not gonna stop til you do it doditdoit’ and when he straight up yeets himself out of a plane. He has a genuine curiosity in everything he does and I think he might be my favorite version. It’s hard to choose when it comes to Donnie because he varies so wildly. But for detail, voice and writing alone, definitely the 2014 Donnie.

8.5/10

Next up is God himself

Donnie (2018)

Chaotic as all hell, like I can’t think of a more chaotic character from ANY of the versions other than this Donnie. I have a lot of thoughts about his character in general, from design, to psychology and complexes. First and foremost, Donnie is a softshell turtle, meaning he has a DOPE battle shell and overall looks pretty damn neat. Although, I think that just the fact he’s biologically weaker has caused him to put up a lot of boundaries between him and his family and friends. He can’t be incredibly strong like Raph, agile like Leo or fast like Mikey and even though he brags about being smart, he feels almost beneath his brothers and strives to outdo them in any way he can. He wants to show them that he’s just as, if not more so, talented and feels overlooked because his inventions become ‘too smart’ or ‘too over the top’ and even the ones that work out incredibly well are written off for flashier projects. 

He depends on technology and feels like that's all he has, and (ironically enough) he’s built up a shield around him. He acts confident and narcissistic and has an almost nihilistic outlook, but he’s frustrated and feels inferior and wants validation more than anything. I came up with this theory when I saw the episode Turtle Dega Nights. I know that the scene was meant for Donnie to express how he feels about Splinter lying about the event and believe that he didn’t genuinely want to hang out with his sons, but that kind of thing feels like it’s been built up over time, like he’s been lied to before about the true meaning behind something. Something like, oh idk, how great his inventions are? Or how helpful he really is? Or how talented he is? Just sayin. Also ngl I might be self projecting a bit, but mmm. Also he has so much purple on him and it’s wayyy more accurate compared to just a purple bandanna bc people who like purple GO ALL OUT. A friend told me this and I thought ‘nah thats not true I like purple’ but then I looked down to find my dyed purple jeans, purple vans and my favorite hoodie, also purple. A really chaotic version but he seriously needs a hug.

9/10

Storytime: One time my friend dressed up as Donnie the same year I was dressing as April O’ Neal and we didn’t even plan it. It was fantastic.

Thank you so much for sending this in! Sorry it’s taking me so long to get around to these! I’m so glad you guys are liking my blog and my opinions!

[andrewrosswatson1987]

REVISIT: GREAT WHITE WERE …TWICE SHY THIS DAY IN 1989

Great White released their fourth album, …Twice Shy, which came out today (April 12) in 1989, released via label, Capitol. It contained the biggest hits of their career, a cover of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” by Ian Hunter and “The Angel Song”, which reached No. 5 and No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Another single, “House Of Broken Love”, was inspired by the painful relationship break-ups that lead vocalist, Jack Russell, and guitarist, Mark Kendall, had recently gone through.  United in grief, as close as brothers, this would be far removed from the chasm between the two in subsequent years. Two separate camps, different bands but the same music.  Thankfully, united they still had a couple of classics in them yet, 1991’s Hooked and 1992’s Psycho City. Anyway, by this point in time for the band, Great White had parted ways with longstanding bassist, Lorne Black, and replaced him, making ...Twice Shy the first album to feature new bassist, Tony Montana (Tony Cardenas). …Twice Shy was certified Double Platinum in September 1989.  At one point, they received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance, too.

This album’s artwork featured, from left to right, Bobbie Brown, who also appeared in the video for “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, and Tracy Martinson who was featured on the front cover of their previous album, Once Bitten (1987).

Singles for this album were “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, “The Angel Song”, “Heart The Hunter” and “House Of Broken Love”. First track, “Move It”, rolls in quite calm and sedate, the drama escalating incrementally.  Tasteful licks on the guitar are adjoined by gradually building bass, descending like a Led Zeppelin classic.  “I got so twisted, tryin’ to make it right/Don’t you know we’ve wasted half the night” akin to the building frustration conveyed in the instrumentation.  Driving and ever so slightly screwed loose.  Midway it pares back, again.  The guitar then finally breaks out, losing its temper.  The closing moments of the guitar really amped up before becoming calm and sedate, once again. “Heart The Hunter” is arresting hard rock. Something familiar about the riff, somehow.  Blues rock territory.  With, “…’cos ya know me by name” definitely a lady killer vibe going on.  “It goes to show, it’s always somethin’ that I felt when I met ya” quite cold and only sexually inclined.  The solo section suitably wailing passionate.  A late middle section pulses with the heartbeat of bass and drum. Intermittent, moody guitar broods over its top. “Hiway Nights” rolls in for the introduction, kicking drums properly beginning proceedings.  Frantic bass and muted guitar adding to the soundscape.  “I’ve travelled miles from nowhere, where suns never rise/Looking to find a meaning, now open your eyes” tells a story, a story of a band on the road.  The chorus in some serious emotional pain, emphatic.  “Is it a dream to fade in the light” a question quite poetic.  The solo section, pinched and eloquent, details this sadness.  Drums building in cacophonic end. Then comes from above in “The Angel Song”.  This one opens with tragedy personified on the piano.  “Fallen angel, ripped and bruised” telling a story painting many a picture.  The hook does as it should, though grabbing you in a way unlike most other Great White choruses.  “Far away from mad desire” quite bold but sung, nonetheless, quite calmly.  Animation builds for the gnarly guitar solo, with just enough to not get totally carried away.  “The streets are hard/They’re mean and scarred” in turn personifies the concrete streets and roads. “Mista Bone” grooves with just one pounding, syncopated note on bass and drum.  Then intrigue and guitar proper lands and it goes off tangent enough to surprise.  Sparse without being spaced out, just letting said groove permeate moodily.  Licks of wah-wah guitar like ferocious growls of wildcat.  Beat of the bass drum cues more, “When she wants it rude/She grooves with Mista Bone, if she’s in the mood”. It threatens to reach new territory before ending abruptly. Then there’s that burning passion of “Baby’s On Fire”.  Drums open this one, occasional scratches of guitar hold off from wading in, entirely. The moment comes and it’s another slice of hard, blues rock.  “Go down to town, get some reaction/Gotta go down ‘cos I need a distraction/I’ve been tryin’ it on with everyone in sight/She’s been waitin’ so long for me t’come tonight” quite satisfying and the chorus hasn’t even hit, yet.  Some tasty, meaty lead playing. Beyond halfway and this gets more so, ramped up.  “Baby’s on fire and I’m burnin’ up/Sparks been flyin’ I can’t get enough” and, indeed, baby’s on fire. The end cruelly cut, quite abruptly out. “House Of Broken Love” is the band turning down the volume, a little bit. The expressive lead playing a monument to many tears.  “Come the mornin’ don’t ya wake me/I’ll be dreamin’ that I’m free/Come the daybreak don’t ya shake me” like living in a house of broken love, a rift in a deep, now troubled relationship.  The vocals as equally expressive, you could say: “I’m stealin’ with the devil; through the house of broken love”. Then, “There were signs I should have recognised” hints at the first indication of trouble.  “If you don’t want to lose my lovin’, use it constantly if it’s going to be lies/Suspicious eyes” is like realisation, losing the mind, packing your bags and leaving for good.  No turning back.  The closing minute grooves moodily, brooding with too much on your mind but trying to hold back on going ballistic. Expending your energy all at once in an effort to seem balanced after the fact. “She’s Only” starts acoustic, full of meaning and melancholy.  This like the morning after the prior track.  Perhaps sad things are over, maybe even pining and full of regret for calling it quits.  The lead guitar, when it comes, is quite sedate but you definitely sense it’s full of feeling.  It fades into the closing minute, notes plucked as if lightly from the air.  A dreamscape, you could say, it evokes. Finale, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, has blues rock written all over it, an Ian Hunter cover.  “You didn’t know that rock and roll burned/So you bought a candle and you lived and you learned” somewhat points towards naiveté, a barbed remark made towards any potential rock and roll groupie.  The solo, emphatic of wah-wah, keeps the party burning but never learning from countless mistakes made to occupy more than just one lifetime. Highlights on this album are “Move It”, “Heart The Hunter”, “Hiway Nights”, “The Angel Song”, “Mista Bone”, “Baby’s On Fire”, “House Of Broken Love” and “She’s Only”.  These populate all beginning, middle and end, in fact only one track, the closer, is omitted from this selection. However, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” is one of their most famous tracks, and a cover at that. Being a bit of a diehard Great White fan, this track’s simply far too blues rock for me. This Great White album is a mixture of the more metallic material they’d released prior, plus more blues rock centred stuff.  Considering this reviewer thought the band not to be firing on all cylinders for this album, yet still omitting just one track from the considered highlights is testament to the release’s strength.  Great White’s …Twice Shy can be bought on iTunes, here.

[cyrelia-j]

[fic preview] Wheel Cage (original)

Based off of Tim Ransom’s John Dunn character [super loosely since it’s only a 5 minute scene] the following is a preview prologue of a 2nd person POV story I couldn’t resist starting. You may recall a story idea I mentioned from the spotlight on that character so this is that fleshed out!

Title: Wheel Cage

Genre: Drama/Suspense/Romance/Horror

Summary: With the world well on its way to a zombie filled hell, retired ATF agent Ed Miller is cashing out early. That is, with a little help from his son Isaac, the two of them figure on securing a little safety net he and his old team stashed away. Under the guise of an accidental [non zombie related] death, Ed cashes out his insurance policy, knowing that his last living team mate, John Dunham wouldn’t waste time in going to grab the hidden stash.

And that leaves Izzy to catch that same armored Greyhound from El Paso to NYC to seduce the old bugger and filch his key to the lock boxes along with the rest. Easy enough, right?

Notes: in the prologue a warning for offensive language (swearing and homophobic/sexist) but no other warnings. 2nd person POV and a trans male character. Big 80s references and aesthetic and age gap. Any feedback super welcome :)

---

“John huh? I like that. They call me Izzy. You ready to take a trip around the world with me?...”

           For as long as you can remember it’s always been you and your old man against everyone. Ever since his old lady (you haven’t called her “mom” since you were five) served him up the divorce papers with a slice of birthday cake and you said you weren’t leaving your cousins and your collection of baseball cards, it’s just been the two of you. She hightailed it with your older sister - who you haven’t spoken to either since she refused to stop calling you “Jenny” some seven years back - and so the both of you just up and said fuck everyone else.

 So when your old man made the proposition, you didn’t think twice before agreeing.

           Here’s the situation. You found out your old man wasn’t as Dudley Do Right as he’d have led you to believe. Seems he and his old narc buddies made some big bust back in the day, back before the strung out zombies were actual fucking zombies and they didn’t exactly tell the Feds and the rest the whole of their haul. Got his picture in the paper like a real hero and all ‘cept Mr. All American Hero made it with a cool couple million and disappeared it like Houdini.

 Course you didn’t exactly grow up in luxury and he sure as shit didn’t lose it in the divorce like he did the house. Trying to make off with all that dough woulda set off every agent in the country asking questions so the four of them made a gentleman’s agreement: they stashed it away in some series of lockers up north ‘til enough time passed and sure enough old Dan and Bill kicked it getting caught in Atlanta leaving just your old man and John Dunham. Dunham being an old desk jockey who’d probably live forever and while your old man never had a bad thing to say about “good old John”, your old man didn’t figure on splitting the pot when he was so close to taking the whole kit n caboodle for himself.

 He also figured with the whole world well on its way to some Romero zombie hell better now than never while south of the border was free and clear.

 You didn’t exactly blame him either and the both of you figured it’d be easy enough to live like kings south of the border. Course he couldn’t exactly walk into the fucker’s office and whack him. Well… seeing as how as of today, April 1st 1987, the whole world thinks your old man died in a car accident six months ago, he probably could. But while your old man may be a lot of things, a killer ain’t one of them. Thief? Sure. Liar? What man isn’t? (And if his ex old lady’s to be believed a wife beater too, but the only time you ever seen him raise a hand was to block her throwing a lamp at his head when he said your sister “Miss Priss” Priscilla might be going with her - likely not being his anyway - but he’d be damned if she made off with his Izzy.)

 Well maybe he didn’t call you Izzy back then but your memory, your rules.

 And here’s where you come into the whole scheme.

             You’re not a killer neither but you also may be just a bit of a thief yourself, and more than that you’ve got a certain charm about you that your old man says you inherited from him. Your old man also says he doesn’t know why he paid all that money for you to lop your tits off and change your name to Isaac if you’re still gonna prance around wearing makeup like a “goddamn fairy”. You like to remind him that’s exactly what you are loud and proud and if makeup is good enough for Alice Cooper and all the hot new glam bands he can just shut his hole or find himself a new honeypot.

             Course you’re not exactly the traditional va va voom vamp but that’s only gonna keep the suspicion off you a hell of a lot better than coming on like some boozy lot lizard, and if your old man hadn’t fallen asleep ten minutes into Murphy’s Law then maybe he’d know that those middle aged straight lace types seem to have a thing for cute and lovable punks half their age. He conceded (as big a Bronson fan that he is) you might be onto something and that settled the matter there, you hanging up the payphone outside the shithole apartment where you’ve been crashing, tucking the number back into your wallet.

             You’d been crashing on your pal Stevie's couch, helping out with the rent from a few “odd jobs”, and while you hated lying to her, you sure couldn’t tell her the real reason you were headed up north where they got shit locked down a hell of a lot harder cause of the “mess”. So far as she knew, you took your old man’s “death” hard and on top of that come to find his half a mil insurance policy was a bust to boot leaving you with a big fat nothing and in need of a place to stay. Wasn’t a far stretch seeing as how the insurance companies were finding it all too easy nowadays to call any claim they didn’t’ want to pay “ineligible” living dead shit. It wasn’t a lie exactly anyway, seeing as how you’d followed your old man’s instructions to the letter and made sure he got every untraceable dollar coming to him.

 Alright, so you kept a couple thousand for necessary expenses helping out Stevie (and getting your ticket and some new kicks) but it wasn’t like you pissed it away at the arcade.

             Stevie refused to buy your ticket though, saying you were crazy to go up north with some guy you met at a bar and chatted up on the phone and she didn’t care how good of a screw he was. Course you couldn’t tell her it was your old man you’d been plotting with so you just packed up when she left for work at Sid’s, left another hundred dollars, and swore in the note sitting next to it that you’d call after you were settled, sure she’d bawl you out a good one but you know the less anyone knows the better. You ended up paying some wino looking about to turn any second twenty bucks to buy your ticket and an extra dose of the anti Z Juice to keep quiet if anyone came ‘round asking any questions on the matter. You promised him you weren’t killing no one, just leaving a shit situation.

             It’s simple, you think as you shoulder your duffle bag, ticket out of El Paso ticket in hand. Blow the old fuck ‘til his eyes roll back into his head and swap the four bum keys for his. Nick his wallet once you get to NYC so you get a head start, and meet your old man’s contact in Jersey once you’ve secured the money. You got his old piece, his thirty nine and you can’t say as you’re a shot up to his standard but you don’t know a man to have ever missed jamming the muzzle of a gun into someone’s gut either so you’re none too worried about that part of it.

 Bullets don’t work none too well on them other fucking things if you ain’t a crack shot but you got your Dynaco L-Rod for that.

             You make sure to smile nice as you approach the benches where everyone’s waiting to start boarding. First impressions and all that and ain’t no need for either piece here between the shock fences and the scans. Nah, you’re rocking your ripped black jeans just tight enough and your favorite half threadbare Dokken shirt neckline stretched out not quite off your shoulder, and your choppy brown hair is streaked with red same as your lips. You look pretty damn dynamite with your black leather boots up to your knees and a swagger in your step sure you catch a few eyes wondering if staring at your ass makes ‘em bent or not when they see the slight bulge of your crotch and your lack of tits.

 Yeah, fucking putty, you think with a wink to a straight laced dope in a polo shirt and khakis, strutting over to Mr. Paper Pusher Dunham, counting dollar signs in the whorl of his thick black - has to be a dye job pushing fifty five like that - hair and grey Garanimals button down.

 Only one thing you didn’t figure on as you take a seat next to him and get ready to charm…

 ...And that’s fucking John Dunham.

[laketaj24]

The Arrangement Pt. 7

WARNINGS: SMUT. DubCon/Definite NonCon. 

Hey!!! SMUTTY SUNDAY!!!! This is Dark!Ubbe and this fic could make some people uncomfortable. I have put the trigger warnings in the tags and also in the Warning section! Other than that, for those of you who do decide to take a gander below the break… If you would like to be ADDED/Removed from the taglist! Let me know! Enjoy!

Catch up Here!!! 

There was not such thing as open with him. You’d figured this out through his lack of communication and though he liked to talk, he rambled and the conversation other than moment you two were in, had no meaning.

“I’m going to the store.” Ubbe peaks into the room you two shared.

Your stretched across the California King bed with the first good book you’ve read since high school. “Okay.”

“Do you want something?”

“No, thanks.”

He says nothing once he leaves, just closes the door. You listen as he hits the steps and then the door. The car engine starts and you’re up. You climb out of the bed and head downstairs. He spent most of his time in his study. He never allowed you in there, you assumed because he counted over one million dollars and hid in the room one night, but at this point money was not what you desired from him. You wanted to feel human with him. It’s easy to pick the lock. Bending down you slide the hair pin into the lock fiddling until you hear it click and the door pops opens. You check outside again, making sure he’s still gone.

The office is warm, not just in temperature but colors. Like Ubbe’s clothing it was all black with dark mahogany wood like his bedroom. There is a picture of a woman and four kids. You recognize the faces of his brothers and the woman must be his mother, he never talked about her. You admirable the past Ubbe. His smile was wide and innocent. There in the picture he’d half hugged his mother and there was none of the dark bleakness you’d seen over the past few months.

You move past the picture to the desk with the large safe. Out of curiosity you lean down turning the knob to zero. You put your ear to the safe and beginning turning it. You’d done this so many times it seemed to come naturally. After five minutes the safe is unlocked and you open the heavy chrome door. It’s no surprise that there is a stack of money as high as the safe itself. All 100-dollar bills and all banded and organized. The old you would have taken the money and hauled ass to a plane but this new you… had a thing for this demon. You look at the back of the safe and see a picture. Carefully you slide the picture from the safe realizing it wasn’t a picture but an obituary.

Modesto Lucero-Lothbrok born, April 18th, 1987 in Long Beach California died at the age of twenty-five.  You skim down the obituary skipping little things and then you see it. Modesto is survived by her husband Ubbe Lothbrok and a host of other friends and family.

It made sense. You shake you head sliding down to the ground. He was guarded because he’d already experienced the worst life had to offer. You place the obituary down, and you’re tempted to take a stack and leave because there is no way that he will ever be able to open up to you. This little relationship you’d developed with him is likely the best that it gets.

A hand bunches your hair tugging you up to your feet. Your pushed chest down against the desk, shaking. “I wasn’t stealing.” You plead.

“No you were being nosey.” Ivar sneers in your ear. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He chuckles. He spreads your legs. “Now what would Ubbe say if I told him you were in here stealing from him, again?” He nips at your ear, grazing his teeth and then biting down hard. He pushes your dress up. “Can I taste what all the rave is about?”

“Please, I just wanted to see what…”

“Answer my fucking question, Y/N?” It doesn’t matter what you say for it’s too late. His thick finger prods into you once and then twice and your body fails you as you become wet. Fear and arousal were one in the same for you now. He drags his finger across your swollen clit and leans closer to you. “You’re always fucking ready aren’t you.” You feel him pressed against your thigh, thick and hard. “No wonder he wanted to keep you tied up.” He pumps his fingers into you faster and you find yourself panting. You swat at his hand and like a vice grip he pins your hands above your head with one hand. “I could fuck you right here…” He threatens.

“Ivar.” You feel the wave of pleasure starting to flow. “I’m his…”

“Do you think I give a damn?” He laughs feeling you come around his fingers. “You dirty slut, you.” Your body spasms lightly, making you feel a hit of guilt and you shouldn’t. His fingers leave you and he turns you around to face him. “You’re only alive because I okayed it. Remember that when you think you want to tell him about this. And stay out of his shit. Get out.” He pushes you to the door.

Ubbe returns with a few groceries and clothes for you. He liked to shop, that you liked. There wasn’t an amount of soap that could get the feel of guilt off you. You’d showered over an hour locking yourself in the room until you heard Ubbe’s voice.

“I got food.” He smirks. “Why are you already showered?” Ubbe opens the fridge tossing in the food. You go behind him fixing the food.

“I just got tired.”

“You’ve been reading that trash all day.” He chuckled. “We can do something if you want?”

“Whatever you want,” You can’t fake a smile as Ivar strolls in the room looking you up and down. You’re rigid. “I’ll leave you two.”

“Ivar’s leaving…” Ubbe adds grabbing your arm for you to stay in the room. “He wants to talk about the heist. Go ahead and tell her, we have shit to do.”

“Next week you are meeting with Marcus.” Ivar bites into the apple staring at you with an arrogance you can’t stand. “You sure you can handle being alone with him?”

Your eyes widened and Ubbe steps in pushing him out of the kitchen. “Go, we will see you later.” Ubbe closes the door behind him returning to the kitchen staring at you. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing?”

“You were happier earlier.” He said plainly. “Am I boring you?”

“No.” You answer quickly. “You’re not.”

“Okay.” He steps closer to you and he leans against the counter across from you, folding his arms across his chest. “I am not good at this shit… I haven’t been in a relationship in a while. And my last,” He pauses. “I was a different person from who I am now.”

“Who were you then?”

“Someone who was weak and unguarded.  I allowed things to happen that shouldn’t have in my life and it cost me some things I can’t get back. So, no I can’t express my feelings to you, Y/N. I don’t even know what they are really.”

“So, why did you even offer me a deal?” You touch his face hesitantly and he doesn’t move as your finger flows down the Xs on his face. He closes his eyes. “Why not make me another x?”

“Because.” He doesn’t answer.

“Was the arrangement you little fucked up way of a first date?”

Ubbe’s face actually softens and turns a pretty shade of pink. “Likely.”

“A simple steak and fuck would have sufficed.”

“I can offer you the fuck now, if you cook the steaks I bought later?”

“I can handle this arrangement,” You tug him closer to you knowing that it would be the only dominant thing you got to do. Ubbe tosses you over his shoulder and carries you down stairs to the torture room which had grown from your worst nightmare to your favorite room in the house. He strapped you into the manacles and left you hanging there naked and anticipating.

The cool air flows from the vents, hitting your chest, making your brown nipples become erect. Ubbe’s stands before you, admiring for a moment. He grabs the small silver clip clamping them down on your breast. You squirm for a moment as he tightens them and then steps back returning to his drawer. He returns with a small chrome rolling pin with small spikes coming from it. Your eyes grow large and he gives you that demon like smile.

“What?”

“What is that?”

“It’s not wax.”

“It looks like a murder weapon.” You say jokingly.

“I haven’t killed anyone with it.” He adds. He is in front of you and then he squats rolling the pin up your thighs. The sensation is odd but enjoyed as he traces your inner thighs and then up your stomach. He stands and pulls of the clamps from your breast. It sends a rush of pain and then pleasure through your body and he rolls the pin over it. The ecstasy from the sensation makes your mouth water and your panting grows shallower. He pulls the other and repeats it dropping the pin to the ground. He pushes a finger inside of you, then two and then three. He pumps until your nearly there and the turns you around on the manacles. He reaches for the roller again and sends the picks over your cheeks. “I want your ass.” He whispers. His finger circles your rim and he pushes in gently. It’s unfamiliar and tense. He leaves you and returns again and you feel the small plug slide into you. Its cold foreign but your body conform around it as he moves it in and out. He leaves it and turns you back to face him. “Not today though.” He smirks. You watch as he lines himself and then lowers the manacles down from the ceiling. He starts to fuck you, deep and hard. This feeling of being consumed by him is tantalizingly dangerous. His hands travel up your back pulling you down to meet him with each thrust. Ubbe locks eyes with you and for the first time you see something under all that darkness and all you want to scream is that you won’t break his heart.

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[toughguywithbossygirlfriend]

Romance history in the comics ? WonderBat vs BatCat ?

Not so long ago, a BatCat fan cross tagged one of her post about Rebirth Batman #40, surely as a result of the WonderBat development in both Issues #39 and #40 ...

I made a comment about BatCat being from an historical stand point more like a “War/Sex/Hate” kind of relationship rather than a real “Love Story” and of course it unleashed “War/Hate” ...

Over the time I’ve read numerous comments about how much BatCat “love” you can find in the history of Batman and Catwoman , how old their “Love story” is, and thus I was kind of confused with what I could remember from my own youth or recent history ... but I had really a hard time to see any signs of such an old and strong love story. 

So I decided to check the comics for real legit history, rather than just reading another post from other people, who read themselves from other posts, that resume other posts, written out of informations from other posts ...

But DC Comics has a wast History ... and I don’t really have access to all the comics ever published ... so what do you do ? and where do you start ?

I couldn’t and I didn’t go extensively into oldtimers as far as the 40′s, the 50′s, the 60′s or the 70′s ... but usually people agree that prior to the 80′s Catwoman was just one of many villains and any romance was impossible because of that. 

In an Issue from April 1968 of “the Brave and the Bold”, Wonder Woman falls in love for real with Batman after faking it first. A year later Steve Trevor Dies in her arms in a WW Issue of 1969. Later in another Brave and the Bold Issue 1978 Batman puts himself on purpose in danger of death to push Wonder Woman to surpass herself and break the chains that kept her prisoner earlier... it seems she cared enough... Meanwhile Catwoman, no matter the outfit, just wanted to get him into a coffin...

Still I was wrong and there is no point in denying that there are stories were he had a “love story” with Selina Kyle like the one below in the Batman (1940) Serie, but she was always a repentant criminal :

(Bruce and Selina - #308, #317, # 326 from 1981 to 1982)

Unlike the Catwoman in “Rebirth Batman”, the Selina in the Bronze era decided to turn her back on her criminal activities in #308 and that enabled the starting of a relationship with Bruce Wayne in # 317. Bruce knew about her Catwoman identity but he didn’t tell her that he was Batman. Even though she sincerely stopped her criminal activities, he didn’t trust his Girlfriend and she broke up the relationship because of that in #326. After that she had to put again the Catwoman mask and learned later that he was the Batman, she even became his “sidekick” in #392 a few Issues before the end of Bronze Age Batman.

Warning : If You “keep reading”, note that I cover mainly the Modern Age of DC Comics (around 1987 until now). I try to focus on the Batman and Catwoman relationship but parallel it with some important WonderBat moments to get a better overview. This may end up “pro-WonderBat” but it is not “anti-Catwoman”. And you should not judge Selina too quickly or too hard, even if she looks quite messed up. She did go through quite a bad twisted history as well as Bruce, but she didn’t have a caring butler, she wasn’t bathed in limitless wealth, securely sheltered in a great mansion, and for a girl/woman, the corrupted and evil streets of Gotham are a lot worse than for a boy/man ... 

Before the modern age  ... this was a time were between the different series Batman, Detective Comics, the Brave and the Bold,  Bruce had an average rate of one Girlfriend (or Love interests) every 10 Issues ... Julie Madison, Selina Kyle, Linda Page, Vicki Vale, Kathy Kane (Batwoman, no joke !), Patricia Powell, Marcia Monroe, Poison Ivy, Silver St-cloud, Lina Muller, Talia Al Guhl, Nocturna(Natalia Mitternacht), Julia Remarques, ... even Diana Prince and Barbara Gordon fall for him... Some fell in love with Bruce, some with Batman and some for the combination ...

(A few kisses ... but you can find much much more of course)

I always wondered were his Playboy persona did come from ... now I know !... the Bronze Age era. Even James Bond will find it hard to beat the duo Batman/Bruce Wayne ...

Even if there are a lot of older History and more BatCat stuff then WondeBat, you can resume it for Selina Kyle with : “No criminal activities”/”Love story works” vs “Criminal activities”/“no Love story”.

However “Rebirth Batman” is not part of the Bronze Age but of the Modern Age, thus I wanted to check out the last 30 years of WonderBat and BatCat relationships, platonic or not. Compared to the Bronze era Batman the Girlfriend renewal rate of the Modern Age of DC comics has dramatically dropped, surely because mentalities changed and today that kind of behavior would be considered disrespectful to women ... building up a strong love affair with the Princess of the Amazons would have been hard with a guy who changes Girlfriends like shirts ... Bruce Wayne evolved strongly from real Playboy, to ... Single Dad and Family man faking a playboy persona... more suitable to the job but still keeping his charm intact.

Checking out every comic more or less related to these three (Batman, Wonder Woman and Catwoman), would have already taken far too much time, even if I didn’t digg into stuff older than then “Batman Year One” (February to May 1987)

I didn’t really feel like checking out every alternate world or elseworld because I am pretty sure the “Batman who laughts” from “Dark nights: Metal” would have a lot to tell about WonderBat in these worlds ... so lets keep it mainstream.

I had a relative good Idea, even if not exhaustive, about WonderBat, but I needed more Infos on BatCat. I figured that there was less to read about Catwoman then Batman, and anyway if there was gonna be some romance stuff it would be easier to pick it up on the more emotional Catwoman then with the unreadable Dark Knight.

That’s why I decided to focus mainly on the Catwoman series and started with a mini-serie from 1989 and going on from there ... trying to cover these last 30+ years.

(Catwoman Mini-Serie - February to May 1989)

With this mini-serie I was glad to rediscovered something covering quite well, the things that I remembered from my own comic youth...

I would dare to say “the Title speaks for itself”, No ?!

So she kills a bad guy, while the knight in batsuit saves the girl she couldn’t protect ... then she wants to kill a second one... Batman steps in the middle and she just doesn’t want to listen...  

“It’s to be a War between us” ... Hey, don’t look at me ... I didn’t say anything ... Batman said it ... Just then, she rubs her breasts on him ... and of course they kiss ... Sorry people, don’t throw the stone at Batman he didn’t start the teasing ... she did ! ... She has a beautiful body ... she wants it right there... He is single, may not have had his fix for some time now and I am pretty sure his blood is already boiling ... Dammit, its a guy ..what did you expect ?? Tea time ?? ... of course he gives in ... quit being naive.

Bang !!! That didn’t last long ... as usual,.. Oh, and just for the record he didn’t start the fight either ... but nothing easier to get a guy lower his defense then teasing him with the perspective of Sex ... Selina uses her sexuality as a tool all the time to create distraction, to regain the initiative, (and definitively not only with Batman) ... just like Batman uses fear. Over the years to come it gets obvious that Selina has a problem with males, and she surely has more reason to hate them, than the Amazons, but the constant Support and Righteousness of Batman slowly attracts her to him.

“Lover” ... Is that why every one seems to think this has anything to do with love ??? ... sure I feel the Love, Bats too, i guess ...

So If you think “sex” is “love” or even “implied love” .. I’d hate to break it to anyone but you can “pay for sex” since the beginning of humanity, both sexes used sexual intercourse to gain favors, and in modern times, “One night stands” or “booty calls” are surely things you’ve already heard about, ... and none of this has anything to do with real Love. Even though Sex is usually a part of a Loving relationship. OK maybe you could put “Friendship with benefits” into the “loving” category ... your choice ...

Lets take a time jump to the next serie a few years later...

It is a Serie of 94 Issues ... I confess I am not going through the whole Serie Just look at a few Issues at the beginning starting in August 1993 and a few Issues at the end in July 2001... If there is a positive evolution in their relationship it is to expect that it gets to its peak at the end ...

(Catwoman Serie 1993 -Issue #1 from 1993)

This is a young blond girl named Arizona, and adopted by Catwoman, talking about Selina (the dark haired woman in blue). Selina starts as a “sweet girl” who kicks law enforcement’s asses, works for Bane, and kills bad guys again ... Worst enemy of Batman?, Greatest enemy ?, most deadly enemy ?, you choose ...  BatCat Love ? not in the picture ...

(Catwoman - 1993 -Issue #94 from July 2001)

So, at the end of the serie, 8 years later, with surely quite some rooftop “war between sexes” in between... OK, Yeah it ends with a kiss again,... that she initiated again, ... but if you take a look at his face would you consider that he returns the kiss ? ... Obviously she always considers that there is something between them and he reminds her that they “had this conversation before” ... but i take it I’m supposed to consider “you know that can never happen” to be a clear sign of love... right ?

(JLA 1997 - #46 from Oct 2000 - The tower of Babel)

A little earlier Batman got expulsed from the Justice league and Wonder Woman was kind of really angry at him after years of strong friendship. She surely felt hurt more than anyone. So it wasn’t really “WonderBat” that prevented him from running away having a good time in Sao Paulo (see below)... Diana regrets it because she likes his skills, his warrior spirit, his intelligence, his dedication, his compassion, nearly everything about him but she’s totally into truth, so Bats secrecy and secret identity was a hindrance so far. The Amazon doesn't give up her unconditional trust to a man that easily ... and she feels hurt ...

(Catwoman - 1993 -Issue #94 from July 2001)

It is obvious that Selina doesn’t know Bruce Wayne, but she wants to know him ... so far, IF she’s “in love” with someone it would be with “the Batman”, but is it “true love” for the man below that she doesn’t know or “groupie love” for the symbol ? she’s quite adamant in this last Issue about what made her put on the mask herself : seeing Batman of “Year one” ... Bruce/Batman cares for her but much like in Bronze Age : Criminal activities = No love story

2001 is also the time where Batman reveals to Diana and the JLA that he is Bruce Wayne ... Now Diana can see the real him ... and it is even better than she expected because as a filthily rich he still chooses to put his life on the line to protect others ... you can add generosity, modesty, and others qualities to the guy .. and there is a broken boy inside of him that compels her motherly instincts, or compassion if you prefer ... and a good father that doesn't go unnoticed by the woman in her ... I guess he just added a lot to his “sex appeal”.

For Bats, things started to get a lot better with the Amazon from that point ... If Doomsday Clock rewinds time prior to that period it may erase WonderBat as well.

While Selina still has, lets say ... some heavy Issues with males and relationships ...

(Nightwing 1996 - #52 from 2001)

She dreams to marry Batman, then she kills him in the same dream’s wedding night ... so much for the love story ... then she wakes up in her bed ...

... looks out for some diamonds, trips over Nightwing  and tries to seduce him ... the son of Batman ... yeah, smart move ... maybe she loves him too, he would be her “son in law” after all if she ever got to marry Batman ... then she tries mischievously to push Nightwing to tell Batman hoping the latter gets Jealous ... But by the reaction of Nightwing you can tell Bruce isn’t on the same page as Selina. Why would she do that ? out of “true Love” ? This story makes her look like a slut ... but I think it is not that ... her time in the dark streets of Gotham has ruined her vision of love and sex ... we’ll get a better (darker) picture in the coming Post-Flashpoint Catwoman serie  ... and with the “Gentle Man” in Batman Rebirth #39 and #40 she’s gonna discover the difference between Love and Sex or even Marriage.

A little Jump to the next Catwoman Serie

2002, Catwoman returns (from Sao Paulo ;) ) in a new serie that goes on until 2010 and from the first Issue I would say their relationship is more peaceful, friendly...

(Catwoman - 2002 -Issue #01 from 2001)

It at least looks like a friendship... But you could say that at least her feelings for Batman may be beyond that ... maybe ... 

Still the same rules apply her territory is “In between right and wrong” and ... its a no go for the Crusader of Justice !...

Ironically, the character definition of DC Rebirth for Catwoman and Batman reveals the same rift that is resumed in the above pics... Somehow Tom King seems to ignore that... why ?

But what about Bruce and Diana during that same period ?

That happened during the “Obsidian Age” ...

They kiss !! ... Ok, I can hear you shout “That’s no proof that they Love each other, because Selina kisses him all the time !! ” .. OK, that’s correct, but do they Die together hand in hand ? (obviously Bruce grabbed Diana’s hand and not the reverse)

Not enough ? OK, I’ll take the Challenge ... What about : “Love conquers all ? ... even Powerful Old Magic” is that better ?

Diana is about to be Sacrificed and all her Teammates, including Bruce, have been set asleep by a very powerful sorcerer using powerful Old Magic ... a magical sleep NO MAN should be able to awaken from ... but nonetheless the imminent Danger to Diana causes one, and only one, to awaken and save her ... Bruce ... and Diana knows how old magic works ...

So it wasn’t only Batman’s “will power” that enabled him to beat the Magic ?... could it be that the only other thing that can beat Old and Powerful Magic is the Power of Love ? Pretty sure that if Friendship was enough Clark would have woken up as well ... but he didn’t.

Clearly Bruce roots hard for the Amazon ... and not for the Cat ... and a few Issues after that, in JLA#90, it is obvious that Diana has surrendered her heart to Bruce as well.

(Bruce and Diana - JLA 1997 -  #90 from Jan 2004)

But neither Diana nor Bruce are willing to take a risk with their way too precious friendship. They choose not to act on their, now unquestionable, feelings for each other ...

(Catwoman serie 2002 - #82 in 2008)

At the end of this Catwoman serie: Of course Batman runs after Catwoman ... he is gentle, he tries to help, but says one wrong word ... and she gets crazy, he goes from Ally to Enemy. But he is Batman and she gets cornered ... again as usual when Option “A” and “B” won’t work she uses “C”.

But again she uses the kiss as a tool .. this time to diffuse the situation and she explains in the end that if she could she would stop all that ... with Helena she wouldn’t need the Batman/Catwoman “rush” thing ... isn’t Helena about her real love here ? ... She always has a Girl/Woman (Arizona, Helena, Holly, ...) that means much more to her than “the Batman” ... At least now she knows his real name “Bruce”.

Deep down she knows, that what she shares with Batman isn’t Love its a substitute to fill her empty heart (at the end of the Catwoman 1993 Serie she tells him pretty much the same). Selina is much more messed up than Bruce Wayne. Bruce had Alfred, his Robins, Diana and his Friends from the JL. Selina was alone ... and that is the reason why he tries to help her like he already said it in the first Issue of that Serie : “I believe that deep down, you’re a good person”... 

(Blakest Night : Wonder Woman - #2 from March 2010)

Unlike Selina who would have given up Bruce “Batman” Wayne for Helena if she wasn’t that screwed up ... Diana loves Bruce even more than before, or as a matter of fact more than her mother Hippolyta or closest amazon sisters (Cassie and Donna), ... I think with that level of “Love” between two partners, we can easily agree to qualify them as “Soulmates” ... and I have no doubt that the Bruce didn’t move on either ... trying to help criminals like Selina and give them a second chance is what he does every time it is possible (recently : clayface, killer frost, lobo, ...) ... doesn’t mean he is in love with them ... 

To make it short : Over the past 20 years (1989 - 2011) all three characters evolutions make sense and it doesn't point out to “True Love” between Selina and Bruce unlike with Diana and Bruce. Bruce and Selina just share regular “One night stands” to comfort each other while Bruce and Diana torture themselves by refraining their Love out of fear of screwing up their friendship if they give into their feelings ...

Sorry, but so far obviously no true BatCat Love Story !!! but WonderBat “true deep Love” is canon ... just no sex, no dating, no usual relationship stuff ...

Comes “Flashpoint” during 2011... the Cosmic MOAB

Starting with that event the continuity gets "kind of” thrown out of the Window for WonderBat romance ... but not entirely. 

In the new Catwoman Serie starting Nov 2011 Catwoman did forget Batmans real identity and Wondy suddenly roots for Supes ... Eww ! ... not to mention Steve Trevor returns from the dead again, I think he could compete with Catwoman about his number of lives but I didn’t count ...

In this serie you get from the start a pretty good look at the ordeal Selina must have lived while she grow up... Like I said, Compared to Selina, Bruce was a “Lucky” child with a stable childhood ...

(Catwoman - 2011 - Issue #01 from Nov 2011)

No wonder your relationship Compass spins around like crazy if you were raised in such an environment. Sex is a job, Violence the way to settle differences, Women are Sextoys or beaten to death if not shot by the local dirtbags, and Men are worthless and heartless monsters... Gotham’s darkest side as playground for a young Girl ... She nonetheless keeps a Good heart ... the Dark Knight cannot hold back his need to help her in anyway possible ... She is a really good soul, heavily messed up, but good ... 

Selina doesn’t really care about the Guy under the mask, he protects her in exchange for Sex, ... at least that is what she thinks this is about...

In the last Issue of Catwoman 2011 - Issue 52 from Jul 2016 we learn that in that reality she had a real love years ago.  He was named David, not Bruce,  and he turned out a Bad Guy after faking her his death ... She doesn’t trust any man ... except maybe Batman.

(Forever Evil - July 2014)

SuperWonder era ... Superman and Wonder Woman are together for over a year now but Batman is still in love with Diana like prior to Flashpoint and thus can use Diana’s lasso ... surely the real reason why “There can’t be” nothing else ... even if she was a “Good Girl”. Honestly you feel really bad for the girl...

(Rebirth Justice League - #14 from April 2017)

Diana still mourns SuperWonder ...

Then comes DC Rebirth Superman #20 “Reborn” erasing SuperWonder from continuity setting Diana’s heart free from that ... 

(Rebirth Wonder Woman - #25 from August 2017)

Diana Sleeps with Trevor ...

(Rebirth Batman - #32)

Selina answers “Yes” to Bruce’s proposal ... but she stays a thief... and that was a no go for the last 78 years !??...

One of Batman’s Bronze Age Lovers, Nocturna, had an interesting theory about Batman’s Lovers :

This alone explains why Diana is his greatest problem if he wants to keep his heart safe from “Love”... She has her own way of being very “Dark and Dangerous” but every thing in her drives her to avoid doing the king of “Dark and Dangerous” things that could push him away from her in the way Nocturna or Selina do ...

(Rebirth Batman #39 and #40) 

“WonderBat Love” in “the Realm”

Obviously whatever the Power that is messing up with the Heroes history (Doomsday Clock storyline) is looking for, it seems at least to want to avoid WonderBat at all costs ... first SuperWonder then WonderTrev and BatCat, and now in Justice League #38: Bruce Wayne/Jessica Cruz ?!?...

[brendancorris]

The Rise of the TMNT First Thoughts

Being that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has always been, what I consider, my biggest fandom, I feel it’s only natural I leave my two cents on what we know so far of their upcoming 4th animated series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and what everybody’s been saying about it recently.

So the official designs were finally release, and of course, everybody’s mad, freaking out, and acting as if all hope for humanity is gone. I’ll be honest, the character designs are not immediately appealing to me, but something needs to be clarified first...

The most common complaint I see is “the art style sucks”. Now, it’s fair to say that the style doesn’t appeal to you personally, but discrediting these obviously talented artists and their extremely expressive and lively style is just a lie and/or lack of any real knowledge of artistic skill. Is it an appropriate style for the TMNT? That’s up to you to decide for yourself, but saying it is bad artwork is just ignorant. 

Now, just to make things clear, I myself am not super into these designs, and feel the style isn’t the best representation of what TMNT is, but I’ll never say it’s bad, and will continue to stay optimistic. Let’s not forget that most of us, myself included, were hating on the 2012 series hardcore after its initial debut. While I still don’t find the art style choice or designs to be the most appealing in the 2012 series, there’s no denying it is an amazing series - arguably the best writing the franchise has ever had. While it isn’t MY Turtles, which will always be the 87 Turtles, it’s a damn good version, and one I’m proud to see younger generations grow up with.

But when we heard April and Casey were teens, saw the Turtle designs, saw how huge Splinter was, we all wrote off the 2012 series with having never see it. Once we saw it, then we had to eat our words. Let’s not walk into the same trap over and over again. In this day and age everybody’s so quick to give a severe black and white, night and day opinion on something before even knowing much about it. You’d think we’d get sick of constantly having to apologizing for judging something based on a picture reveal when it comes out. Not saying this in particular will turn out to be great. It might suck. But we can’t possibly know that yet, so let’s stay optimistic and at least happy that our favorite franchises are being kept alive and given consistent love through the generations. The age of the self-entitled, crabby, whiny man-baby/woman-baby nerds has to end. 

As for those concerned about the story changes, I get your concern. But, again, it isn’t the first time the team was completely re-worked. April and Casey Jones as teenage kids was already a crazy enough change in the 2012 series, but then take into account April was also part mutant which gave her psychic powers, and she discovered a gem she wore around her neck that brought out evil in her and strengthened her powers to be Thanos-level is a REALLY huge departure from the prior iterations, and a seemingly stupid as hell direction on paper. Hell, Irma was a teenager revealed to be a robot body for a Krang spy. They REALLY took their liberties in the 2012 series. Even one of the most popular additions, Don’s crush on April, was completely new for that series. 

My inner TMNT-fanchild does get a bit ticked when he hears that now Raph will be the leader and Leo will be cool and narcissistic, but we gotta remember what this is. Not only a new retelling for a new generation, but a retelling of a franchise that has been retold and severely altered dozens of times. No two Turtles stories add up. Also, this is being targeted strongly at little kids. Raph has always been the most marketable Turtle, the most iconic and widely referenced/recognized, and most popular among children, so making him the leader isn’t too shocking too me. Hell, even Partners in Kryme didn’t know Raph was’t the leader back in 1990 in the official film.

One thing I’ve heard a lot of hate for is the fact that April O’Neil is African American in the new series. It’s a difficult topic to touch upon, but I feel there’s good and bad points to it. The good is obviously getting more diverse representation in lovable, iconic roles in media, especially those for younger audiences. The bad, however, is like Stan Lee once said in regards to race-bending characters. Getting diversity in media is wonderful, but changing a pre-existing, well-established and celebrated character’s ethnicity simply to meet the quota is sort of a cheap shot. April, in all animated forms, has been a red-headed Irish girl I(hence the last name). It’s just as iconic to her as the fact that Leonardo wears blue and wields katana. Ethnicity, while a touchy subject, is a part of somebody. If they want diversity, they should add new characters of diverse backgrounds, or at least change lesser supporting roles, or at least that’s how I feel. Again, it’s a touchy subject, so I can totally understand somebody disagreeing, and that’s fine to do so.

Ultimately I feel everybody just needs to cool their jets on this. We see this happen SO often with franchises these days. The internet has sadly contributed towards heightening the selfishness of fandoms, and exaggerated opinions on everything. Every fan likes to think that their version is the definitive version, and that they are superior for liking the version they do. Everybody’s free to like what they like, and even if something you don’t care for comes out, it doesn’t take your version away from you. Each TMNT series ran for years. Whichever version you prefer, there is more than enough to watch to feed your hunger. 

So how do I feel? Hard to say. I never regularly watched episodes of any TMNT animated series outside of the 87 series, but I always give each show many viewings before judging it. While this is surely not my TMNT, nor do I predict it become a fandom of mine, I’m still hyped for it, staying optimistic, and impressed by the artwork, for the most part. This art style looks like it could really make way for some great action scenes. There are some changes I’m not sold on, like some of the altered weapons and personalities, but, again, there’s 30 years worth of TMNT content with the old weapons and personalities, and I’m still giving this show the benefit of the doubt before really seeing it. I’m actually really curious to see the villain designs. Shredder could look awesome in this style. And if they bring in Bebop and Rocksteady I’ll be pretty darrn happy. At the very least, this series is once again making me excited to see which of my childhood characters will return. Mondo Gecko? Rat King? Wyrm? Mona Lisa? Slash? The Neutrinos? I’d love to see how this unique re-imagining could put a new spin on  old favorites, and breathe new life into my favorite cast of mutants since 1987.

Here’s staying positive, and let’s not make the pre-release Sonic Boom mistake twice. That cartoon turned out to be comedy GOLD (and actually my favorite Sonic cartoon to date).

And PLEASE, let’s remember there are far greater wrongs being done in the world than cartoon characters being redesigned.

[roadtripwiththewinchesters-blog]

S1E2 - Wendigo (Chapter 2)

A/N:

We’re back with the next part of Wendigo. I have so much fun writing these, I hope you enjoy them x

*All GIFs I use are credited at the bottom*

Word count: 1987

Summary: You meet up with Sam and Dean in a bar and inform them of the case you’ve found in Blackwater Ridge, a string of missing campers brushed off as bear attacks. The three of you go to talk to Mr Shaw, the only known survivor of an attack in the fifties. Sam and Dean disagree on what to do next.

10th Nov, 2005

Sam’s skin was golden brown from the Californian sun, his hair longer than I had ever seen it, a tangled mop that he had to brush out of his eyes. He still smelled the same. People were watching us embrace but I didn’t care. It had been an entire year.

“Hey,” my voice came out as less than a whisper.

“Hey.”

“Where’s Dean?” I breathed into his shoulder.

“Parking the Impala.”

“I’m so sorry, Sam” I rasped. I pulled away only to read his expression. He gave me a small smile for effort. We both knew there was nothing I could say, even as his best friend.

“Thanks for being here.”

“I should have come as soon as Dean called-” I began.

“Hey,” he stopped me. “You don’t have to explain, you’ve got your own life.” And you had yours, I thought. Dean had told me he’d missed his law school interview. What was he planning to do now? He had given up too much to go to Stanford for it to result to nothing, but that was a conversation for another time.

My eyes wandered over his shoulder to the door, where his brother had just walked in. Sam cleared his throat and stepped aside for Dean to greet me.

I supressed a smile as a grin spread across his face. “Hey.”

“Hey Kid,” Dean chuckled, pulling me into him eagerly. I knew he meant well but I bit my lip at his term of endearment for me, he may as well have ruffled my hair and offered me a lollipop. “I owe you one for coming so soon,” he said in my ear.

“You don’t owe me anything,” I assured him. “I wanted to come. If anything…” I said sitting down across from them, “I think I owe you a beer for St. Louis.” I reminded him, sliding them both a bottle across the table, sipping my own generously.

“Ah, the pool game,” he nodded, remembering. I had only seen Dean look at waitresses the way he looked at that beer, practically drooling as he cracked it open. “Your debt is paid.”

We sat there for a moment sipping.

“So, anything?” Dean asked, ready to talk business.

I sighed, and shook my head. “It’s not what you want to hear.”

Sam placed his father’s journal out on the table, my eyes widened at the sight of John’s prized possession.

“He gave that to you?” I hissed, propping myself up on my elbows. I had only seen the journal a handful of times, I had never dared asked John to take a look.

Dean shook his head in a grave sort of way. “We found it at the motel in Jericho.”

I exhaled, sitting back in my chair. “He just left it there? No call? No note?”

“Only the message about “being careful”, but other than that,” Dean confirmed. “Nada. Just the coordinates of this place.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” I concluded, tying my hair back. “I’ve been poking around here for days. I don’t think he’s ever stepped foot in Lost Creek.”

“Well, what are we still doing here then?” Dean asked, clasping his beer.

I smacked a stack of newspapers on the table, my eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know how your dad knew, but there’s definitely something in this town,” I confirmed. “Blackwater Ridge doesn't exactly get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found.” Both Winchesters listened intently as I continued. “I thought that was weird, but I didn’t think it was our kinda gig until I did some more digging,” spinning the paper around for them to see the headline.

“It happened before in 1982,” Sam deducted as he skimmed the page. “Eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack.”

I put paper after paper in front of them. “And again in ‘59 and again before that in 1936.”

Dean scan-read the page, running a hand over his mouth in thought.

“Every twenty-three years,” I shook my head, not knowing what to make of my observation. “Just like clockwork. First, I thought spirit, but all those bodies vanishing? And what kind of creature works on a schedule?”

I was stumped. I needed their help.

“I went to see a girl - Haley Collins – her brother Tommy is one of the missing campers. She said he hasn’t checked in for three days.” Dean was about to open his mouth so I added. “He has a satellite phone.” He shut it abruptly.

“He sends her pictures, videos every day,” I eyed the two brothers. “Their parents are gone so they keep close tabs on each other. Check your emails, Sam. I forwarded you one of the videos.” He was already pulling it up on his laptop. He played it through once.

Tommy was in his tent, recording by lamplight. “Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow.” I watched Sam’s reaction carefully, seeing if he would notice what I had. The shadow ran across the screen for a split second, and Sam glanced at me nervously.

“Slow it down,” I told him.

He restarted the clip, clicking through the frames. The quality wasn’t great but the dark shadow, long and gangly, was unmistakable as it passed behind Tommy’s tent.

“That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second,” Sam remarked. The hairs on my arms stood up like they had the first time I had seen it. “Whatever that thing is, it can move.”

“We have another problem,” I said. I was in neck deep. “Haley’s hired a guy to take her out there tomorrow morning, she’s set on finding Tommy herself.”

“We’ll do what we have to,” Sam said. I nodded but Dean glanced at his brother.

“Good news is, we have a lead,” I said, turning the paper over. “In fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive.” Dean looked between Sam and me, “Is there a name?”

“Look, ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this,” Mr Shaw said, muffled with a cigarette between his lips. I followed behind Sam and Dean into the old man’s apartment, ignoring the scent of smoke and mold. “It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—

“Grizzly?” Sam finished for him. “That’s what attacked them?”

Mr Shaw faced us, drawing hard on the cigar and nodding slowly.

“The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?” Dean questioned, approaching him in his armchair. “What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?”

“Dean,” I said, reminding him to be tactful. This wasn’t an interrogation. The man had been through a lot, regardless of how long ago it was. You could see how it had affected the rest of his life just by the state of his apartment.

“If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it,” Dean tried again.

“I seriously doubt that,” Shaw said. I could see why he would think that about us, we didn’t exactly look like rangers. “Anyway, I don't see what difference it would make. You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did.”

I tried my hand at coaxing his story out, sitting across from him. I offered him the smallest of smiles. “Please, Sir. Tell us what you saw.”

He paused. “Nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard.”

“It came at night?” I asked.

Sam sat beside me, clinging to his every word. “Got inside your tent?”

“It got inside our cabin,” Shaw corrected him. “I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming.”

“It killed them?” I exhaled regretfully.

“Dragged them off into the night,” he confirmed. I glanced at Sam, who looked as sick as I felt.

“It left me with this-” Shaw reached for his collar but glanced at me, apprehensive. “I’m not sure you would want to see this,” he warned me. People often tried to tell me what I could and couldn’t handle, I had a stronger stomach that people credited me for.

“Please,” I said, giving him a nod of assurance. He reluctantly pulled down the neck of his shirt revealing four grotesque scars down his chest. I gulped but otherwise didn’t react out of courtesy. Sam and Dean studied them from a distance, and Shaw slowly adjusted his shirt. I could have sworn the old man looked ashamed. I found myself leaning closer, my expression softening when suddenly he reached forward and snatched my arm. I stifled a gasp. Dean and Sam lurched out of instinct but I gestured for them to relax. I wasn’t afraid of him, he just took me by surprise.

“There’s something evil in those woods. Some sort of demon,” the old man warned me. “You be careful.”

We navigated our way out of the grey maze of his apartment building, I walked in front, my cheeks involuntarily warm with embarrassment. Fortunately, we had more important things to worry about.

“Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls,” Dean noted.

“So it's probably something else,” Sam concluded. “Something corporeal.”

Dean stopped walking, “Corporeal? Excuse me, professor.”

“Shut up,” Sam rolled his eyes. “So what do you think?”

“The claws, the speed that it moves...could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog,” Dean suggested.

“Hm, I don’t know Dean,” I said as we found ourselves outside in the cool night air. “Skinwalker maybe, it could’ve unlocked the door in its human form.”

“Whatever we're talking about, it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it.”

My truck was parked around the block beside the Impala. Dean made his way around to the trunk and propped open the weapons box with a shotgun.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked, leaning against the side door.

“We cannot let that Haley girl go out there,” Sam decided.

“Oh yeah?” Dean raised an eyebrow, shoving some ammo into his duffel bag. “What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?”

“Yeah,” Sam said. Dean went still, staring at his brother. “If we have to,” I agreed with the younger Winchester, directing Dean’s stare to me. It might be the only way to keep her safe. “I could try to talk to her, I think she trusts me.”

“Her brother's missing. I don’t think there’s anything you can say, Y/N,” Dean said, his eyes skimming over his own brother. “She's not gonna just sit this out. No. We go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend.”

Dean swung the duffel bag over his shoulder, walking around the car. I was content to go along with the eldest Winchester, my own forte being ghosts, and vengeful spirits.

But suddenly, Sam was raising his voice, “Finding dad’s not enough?” He slammed the trunk shut, glaring at his brother. “Now we gotta babysit too?”

I remained where I was, watching both of them, quickly feeling as if I was invading something private.

Dean stared right back at him, deciding what his problem was.

“What?” Sam said defensively.

“Nothing.” Dean shrugged, throwing his duffel at him before turning to me. “Coming?”

“Yeah, I’m right behind you,” I said. Sam scoffed as Dean walked away contently. That was one thing I had forgotten from my time apart from the Winchester brothers, they tended to disagree on an awful lot. I didn’t want to take sides, but I muttered, “You can ride with me if you want.”

GIF CREDITS:

1. @lancetucker​

2. @demondetoxmanual​

[k-hiphop-trash]

AOMG facts

AOMG is an independent R&B and Hip Hop records label created by Jay Park

Jay offered to Simon the coCEO position and he is named the coCEO after a couple of months

AOMG stands for Above Ordinary Music Group or Always On My Grind

The name originally comes from the “Art of Movement (AOM)”. The “Art of Movement” is a Seattle-based B-Boying group which Jay Park joined in 2003 with members such as Dial Tone, Junior, and Cha Cha Malone

In January 2016, CJ E&M acquired some shares on AOMG, allowing the latter to have access to CJ E&M’s distribution channels, marketing resources and international connections

As of October 2016, CJ E&M is the exclusive distributor of AOMG’s releases excluding those of Loco, handled by LOEN Entertainment

AOMG has had multiple collaborations with dance crews and studios including 1MILLION Dance Studio, Prepix and PURPLOW

They have done several tours in Asia and the U.S.

The ‘6′ in A6OVE relates to both Seoul and Seattle area codes

The creation of AOMG is celebrated on October 10th

JAY PARK

PERSONAL FACTS

Name: Park Jaebom ( 박재범) / Jay Park

He was born April 25th 1987 in Edmonds (Washington, US)

He is from Seattle (Korean-American)

He is 170 cm and 60 kg (Although he said in a SNL cut that he was 1 cm taller than Ssam D. so he would be 171 (Not sure if he was kidding though)

His Blood type is A

His religion is Christianism

He has a younger brother, called Jehan

He attended Edmonds Woodway High School

He started writing raps during high school

He attended Dankook University

He likes basketball

He has been learning Chinese

His favourtire group is 2NE1

He respects BigBang a lot because they’re really talented

He loves drawings that fans give him

He likes cool, laid-back girls with a nice smile.

He always wanted to prove people that he can rap in Korean, but he also likes doing R&B

His favourite colour is blue

His favourite cereals are Lucky Charms

He visits fancafes and reads what fans say about him

He wears clothers that fans give him as gifts

On the last episode of 2PM’s Idol Army, as the top member Jay won 70 GB of porn on DVD (this was mentioned in Weekly Idol)

He doesn’t get embarrased a lot because he feels that “life goes on”

In an interview for I-D, they asked him what was his everyday personality, and he answered: 

 In general, when you’re talking about life, I’m just a regular guy, I just ate a Shake Shack burger, like, now I need to do 100 sit-ups. But I’ve always been sort of rebellious, when someone says: “You have to do this,” it never makes sense for me to do it. Like, why can’t a K-Pop person swear, why can’t they have half-naked ladies in a music video. It’s just a music video, why not? I’m a nice guy when it comes to daily life, but when it comes to society and how people think things should be a certain way, I have to challenge those invisible rules.

His favourite artists are Eminem, Usher, Musiq Soulchild, Drake and Method Man. Usher, Michael Jackson and Chris Brown influence him and are an inspiration for him 

His ideal type is Bora

He has two dachshunds, called Pj (whose name stands for Peatry Jr) and Oscar (their IG is @pjxoscaraomg)

He writes and composes his own songs, produces his albums, chooses the people he wants to work with, and participates in the mastering and mixing of his songs

He  writes songs both in English and Korean. He admits that he is more at ease when writing songs in English than in Korean, as he started learning Korean in his late teens. 

Having grown up listening to music of American artists, he admits his music sounds more “American” than Korean 

His musical process starts by listening to a lot of beats sent by various producers, while thinking of what kind of song he wants to write, and eventually short-listing a selection of potential beats to work with. Then, he works on the melody of the song, along with ideas and lyrics. He writes the hook of the song first, and finally the verses. He is inspired by everything when writing songs : “just listening to good songs, seeing a good live performance, having good conversations with people. Just everyday life”. 

Some songs he wrote are influenced by songs from other artists

He has the same hairdresser as Zion.T, Simon D,Gray and Crush

He prefers being called ‘oppa’

His favourite alcoholic beverage is champagne

He can’t drink tequila because he gets drunk very fast

Whenever they find a good girl around them, Jay plays a bad guy on purpose to make Simon D look like a good guy. And then, Jay leaves quickly with a wink at Simon D

He does cleaning in the AOMG office

He doesn’t like muscular or skinny girls. He prefers girls that are slightly chubby. He also likes girls taller than him

He is interested in mixed martial arts

Zico and Crushed revealed that whenever they go out to eat, Jay always pays the bill

If he had to choose between love or friendship, he would give up on both of them, because he wouldn’t be able to decide

His first kiss was with a Vietnamese girl

He doesn’t wear cologne

He considered signing with YG but he decided to create his own label

He cried when he watched Toy Sotry 3

He loves buying things for the people he loves

He would like to spend his honeymoon in Hawaii

When he was younger his dream was to study animals and become a scientist. He wanted to go to Africa and Australia and hide to take pictures of animals

He drools while sleeping

His favourtire Korean male and female artists are Crush and Tasha

His favourite female singer is Beyonce

He doesn’t like playing loud music when he’s driving and he get’s nervous when his friends make noise

After posting or tweeting something he always reads the comments

When he is drunk he’s unable to reject a person and tends to become very friendly

He is scared of heights

He dreams in both Korean and English depending on who appears in his dream

His favorite season of the year is summer

His brother Jehan looks after Cafe Dudart

Jay has stated that when he first went to Korea, he couldn’t converse with all the new people he met, due to not being able to speak the language very well, and he didn’t know what to eat. He says he cried every day for the first two weeks he was in Korea, but decided to work hard even though he wanted to go back home, to not disappoint his parents

The name of his fanclub is J-Effect and his fans are called Jwalkerz (he has jwalkerz tattoed on his back because “fans always got my back”). Its pose represents his roots as a b-boy and its official colours are black and yellow When he signs someone for AOMG, he looks not only at their music, but at what they talk about, how they perform, their image, and how they are as a person. He says: “ They can be the greatest rapper in the world but if they’re an asshole I don’t want to work with them, they don’t have to be at AOMG”

PROFESSIONAL FACTS

He is founder and co-CEO of AOMG, along with Simon Dominic (although Jay owns more percentage of the company)

He has recently created H1GHR MUSIC RECORDS with Cha Cha Malone

He is a singer, rapper, songwriter, producer, actor, dancer,  b-boy, model, choreographer and entrepreneur

In 2003, he joined Art of Movement (AOM), a Seattle-based B-boying group 

In 2004, Jay’s mother suggested him to audition for the Korea-based company JYP Entertainment, which brought him to Korea in January 2005 to receive further training in dancing, rapping, singing, and the Korean language After passing an audition in the US, he signed a contract with JYP Entertaiment and moved to South Korea to be a trainee

He practiced singing and Korean for 4 years and eventually debuted as leader of 2PM in 2008. After a controversy about some messages he wrote on his personal Myspace back in 2005 when he was still a trainee, he was forced to leave 2PM. He wrote messages about how bad was South Korea (He was in a foreign country, he didn’t knew the language nor the culture, he had no friends or family there. He was going trough a lot). Although outraged protesters demanded that Park should be removed from 2PM, JYP Entertainment’s CEO, Park Jin-young, stated on September 7, 2009, that he was going to continue as a part of the groupThe following day, Jay announced on his official fancafe that he would be leaving the group to calm the situation and return to his hometown, Seattle. He also apologized to the other 2PM members

He went back to Seattle in 2009

His vocals weren’t removed from the older songs he promoted with 2PM 

Through their acceptance speeches at end-of-year award shows for “Again & Again”, the members of  2PM thanked Jay and reiterated their wish for his return. At the Mnet Asian Music Awards, the group paid homage to him during their performance of “Again & Again” with a spotlight shown over his usual position in the dance formation and his lines left unsung. However, some 2PM fans said that the members used to insult Jay after his departure

After returning to Seattle Jay worked at a local tire shop, because he didn’t want to rely on his parents

Soon after Jay returned to the United States, the South Korean public changed their perspective on the matter when they realised that his Myspace messages had been severely mistranslated and taken out of context, in addition to strong fan support for Jay’s return

On February 25, with Jay’s comeback looking more and more likely, JYP suddenly announced that Jay Park’s contract with them had been terminated, citing a separate “personal mistake” that Park had made in 2009. JYP would make reference to this unknown event several times in 2010, but would never elaborate on any details

“It’s not illegal, but it will be a very big scandal socially. We cannot reveal it for the sake of Jay Park. Even Sidus was curious and released articles of asking us to tell the reason. But we have to keep it a secret for Jay Park. He committed the act during AAA promotion without letting his members know. As soon as the members found out, they stated that they could not promote with him as a group anymore.”

This termination had been agreed by all 6 members of 2PM and led to fan boycotts on 2PM-endorsed products. Protests for Jay’s return to the group began to take place, not only in South Korea, but internationally as well. Various Jay Park-dedicated forums and fansites all over the world organized silent protests and flash dance mobs. Fans also hired a plane with a banner showing "J, what time is it now?” to fly over Seattle, and was broadcast on Seattle-based radio stations

On June 15, 2010, B.o.B released “Nothin’ on You” featuring Jay Park, in South Korea, where he replaces Bruno Mars’ vocals. His YouTube cover helped contribute to much of the song’s success in Korea, with more than 5 million copies sold. He subsequently thanked his fans for their support and continued to urge them not to hate remaining 2PM members

Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney Ned Sherman, CEO of Digital Media Wire, announced on May 28 that he was representing Jay as his legal representative. Sherman and his wife Tinzar reached out to Park, after seeing Jay’s story and feeling bad about what happened to him during the MySpace controversy. The Shermans and Jay worked on a lot of projects together, including his movie deal for Hype Nation, an endorsement deal with dENiZEN, Levi Strauss & Co.’s new brand, and others

SidusHQ defended Jay against claims made by Park Jin Young…

“We hope that Park Jaebeom will no longer be wounded by his former company and will be allowed to actively promote himself. We would like to express our gratitude towards the people that continue to support and regard him with warm eyes. We greet you once more with a better image. Thank you.“

In March 2010, he uploaded a cover video of B.o.B’s ”Nothin’ on You“, with his own rap and lyrics, to YouTube, which went viral and reached over 2,000,000 views in less than 24 hours

He debuted in 2010 as a solo artist, under the name Jay Park, with his EP “Count on me (믿어줄래)”He returned to South Korea in June 2010 for the filming of Hype Nation

He became the first ever artist crowned winner on a debut stage by winning on KBS’Music Bank with "Abandoned”, and was the only solo artist to win “Record of the Year” at the 2011 Golden Disk Awards

His English mixtape ,Fresh air: Breath it, which became the first mixtape by an Asian artist to have gold status by surpassing 100,000 downloads on DatPiffIn 2011, he was chosen to be the sole opener for Ne-Yo in his first concert in Seoul. He also cooperated with Ne-Yo for a charity event for children dreaming to become musicians

In 2012, several songs composed and written by Park for other artists were released

Also in 2012, he became a fixed panel member on MBC's Come to Play

In May 2012,  it was revealed that he would be participating in the soundtrack of After Earth, after having been personally contacted by Will Smith and Jaden Smith. The song, titled “I Like 2 Party”, is written and composed by Jay himself. He attended red carpet premiere in Korea along with Will and Jaden Smith

In 2013, he started his own records label, AOMG

He participated in the drama Vampire Idol and in the movies Mr. Idol and Hype Nation

He was producer in SMTM4 and Unpretty Rapstar season 2

He was part of the SNL permanent cast between 2013 and 2015

He participated in shows like Inmortal Songs 2 and Dancing 9 season 2

He has collaborated with artists like Dok2, Swings and Dumbfoundead

He is producer in SMTM6, along with Dok2 

He tried to join Illionaire before founding AOMG, but Dok2 and The Quiett rejected him (they are really good friends though)

He has won a lot of music awards

He has recently signed under Roc Nation

SIMON DOMINIC

PERSONAL FACTS

Name:  Simon Dominic (사이먼 도미닉) / Simon D. (사이먼 디) / Ssam D. (쌈 디)

Real name:  Jung Ki Seok (정기석)

He was born March 09th 1984 in Busan (South Korea)

He is 170 cm 

His blood type is AB

He has a younger brother

He attended  Namsan High School (Busan) and Gyeongju University

He attended the same High School as CNBLUE’s Yonghwa with whom he is good friends

He is good friends with B2ST Kikwang. One night, Kikwang asked Sam to tell him about his girlfriends, and Sam was about 5 hours talking.

He is friends with Miss A’s Min

He is in a group of friends called “Chocoball”(artists with type blood AB)  , which includes Kim Heechul, Mitra Jin, Hongki and some others

He was in a relationship with Lady Jane for 6 years (they broke up in 2013)

He did not really have a comfortable life during his debut days and used to be financially troubled

He was exempt from military service after losing the retina of his left eye. He said he came to AOMG mainly because of Gray, since he thinks Gray is a genious producing music)

He likes fashion

He met Jay at a club

On a broadcast of  JTBC’s ‘Witch Hunt, Simon told that his first sexual experience was with a girl 6 years older. He also said: “It’s weird. I think even these things my girlfriend do are cute. I haven’t farted before in front of her. But one day my girlfriend suddenly rushed into the bathroom. Even though she turned on the water, I heard everything. It wasn’t dirty. One time I opened the toilet lid to look at her waste and noticed that she hadn’t flushed. It smelled but I didn’t dislike it. I think it’s because I loved her." 

In E-Sens trial for using marijuana, he stated: “I feel some responsibility for the fact that E-Sens has become like this.” He adds, “While we were working together, I was busy because I was also doing solo work at the same time and trying to make a living.”“I feel sorry because I think I didn’t do my duty as his hyung,” he continues. “I am now more available, both in terms of time and emotionally. I’ll be close by his side, even if it’s not often, and I’ll do my best to look after him even more than I would if he was my real younger brother.” He was involved in a diss battle involving Swings and other rappers On ’Radio Star,’ Swings appeared and talked about Simon D. He said: ”I heard that Simon D came out on 'Radio Star’ and said that he originally had no intention to take part in the diss battle until I provoked him.  Honestly, that put me in a bad mood.After hearing that, I called him up first to personally tell him that it made me feel bad. Simon D is a bit sly, right?  He told me, 'We could make a great picture,’ so I met up with him and talked to him, and we had a good discussion,“  ”You guys do a lot of video messages, right?  Can I just send him a video message?“  ”Simon D.  A lot happened between us … Things became awkward between us, but I miss you.  Do well.“

He and Gray have a ship name, Simon choose the name himself: SimG

PROFESIONAL FACTS

His stage name is a combination of Simon, Wesley Snipes’ character from the movie Demolition Man, and Dominic, his baptismal name

He is co-CEO of AOMG 

He first appeared in the Korean underground Hip-Hop scene under the name K-Outa

He was leader of Illest konfusion crew

He participated in the drama Standby

He participated in TV shows like Running Man, Immortal Songs 2 and Mix & Match

He was producer in SMTM 5 along with Gray and they won with BewhY 

He appeared in Jay Park’s Mommae MV

He has collaborated with artists like Epik High, Lessang, Dumbfoundead and Vasco

He won the 2010 MBC Broadcasting Entertainment Awards: Variety

On "Sunny’s FM Date”, Simon D made some sexual remarks as jokes.  that made listeners uncomfortable and he had to apologise

He is one of the funniest people in the industry and is known for both his skills and his comedy

His rapping origins begin in his early school days 

He is a former member of Hip-Hop duo Supreme Team along with E-Sens

Supreme Team won several awards during their career, including Best New Male Group at the 2009 Mnet Asian Music Awards and the Hip Hop Award at the 2010 Golden Disk Awards. 

Supreme Team broke up in 2013 when E-Sens left to pursue a solo career

In March 2014, it was confirmed that he would leave Amoeba Culture and become co-CEO of AOMG, along with Jay Park

At his leaving, Amoeba Culture stated  

 "He’s leaving Amoeba, but all of us will continue to support him. He is a loyal and trustworthy friend who will be able to progress and mature in both his music and other pursuits in the entertainment industry.“

And he twitted:

"My contractual obligations with Amoeba Culture ends on January 31st, 2014. I like to thank each and every member of Amoeba Culture for their unending support of me, and I ask that my fans continue their gracious support of me." 

His pre-release single, "Simon Dominic”, achieved a Certified All-Kill on the charts three days after its release and reached #2 on the weekly Gaon Digital Chart

His song “Confortable” with One and Gray (SMTM5) reached  #1 on the weekly Gaon Digital Chart

He appered in King of Masked Singer as a contestant, and he surprised evryone with his enormous skills

He appeared as host in the episode number 154 of SNL Korea

He was cast member in  School Variety 100 Points Out of 100 and Hot Brothers (2010-2011) and in MAPS (2015)

GRAY

Hangeul:  그레이

Real name: Lee SungHwa (이성화)

He was born December 08th 1986 in Seoul

He is producer, rapper and singer

He is 168 cm

His blood type is A

He debuted as a singer with his maxi-single “Call me Gray” under AOMG

As a producer, he has worked with artists like Dok2 and Beenzino

He appeared in Mix & Match and 4 Thing Show

He was producer in SMTM5, along with Simon D.

He plays the piano and the guitar, instruments that he uses for composing

His song “Confortable” with One and Simon D. (SMTM5) reached  #1 on the weekly Gaon Digital Chart

He is part of the VV:D (pronounced VIVID) crew, along with Zion T. (leader), Loco, Elo and Crush

He appeared in Zion T’s “Babay” MV, along with the VV:D members

He collaborated in Jay Park’s “Metronome” and “Drive”

He produced Gary’s “Showe later”

He produced several songs by Swings

His ideal type is someone kind, with beauty eyes and beauty smile

He has a tattoo above his left elbow, 4 Chinese characters representing the members of his family: his father, his mother, his sister and him

He participated in the mini web-dama “Love is…”

He appeared on ep. 154 of SNL Korea

He appeared on K-POP Planet, along with Loco and in Radio Star

He likes fashion and loves bying clothes and shoes (but not a Dok2′s level, he said)

He is the type who saves money

He once vomited in front of the girl he liked

10002 in Gray’s Dangerous actually means ‘a lot’. 10000 (만 man) + 2 (이 ee) = a lot. It also sound like “many” in English

He writes his own lyrics but usually just does the beat for other artists

He worked with a team which produced kpop and idol music and there he learned skills to be an engineer. In early 2012, the team disbanded and he decided to do his own music

His ideal type is Park Bo Young

His major was computer science at Hongik University  but he didn’t graduate from university. He applied for a leave of absence after 3 semesters. He then decided to pursue music

He confirmed on Radio Star that he is among the 10 highest earner producers for copyrights

He taught Zion T. how to take selfies

He is close friends with Jessi

He likes girls with neat teeth when smiling and are shorter than him 

He started to compose when he was in grade 1 and debuted when he was 27

He had a mind to start doing music in earnest in 2010 after he was discharged from the military service

The voice of Gray’s producer tag is Zion T’s voice

He chose Gray has his artist name because gray it’s not black neither white and it has a lot of shades, just like him

He had another artist name previously, but he doesn’t want to say it

He joined the team which was making Kpop and idol music. He didn’t feel the need to have a stage name at that time and making idol music wasn’t what he liked to do, but he thought there were many things he could learn from the teammates. He leaned skills to be an ‘engineer’ step by step there, not to be an artist. He thinks he learned a lot there and it was a good experience to him. In early 2012, the team disbanded and he decided to do his own music he wanted to do and he made a new start as Gray

When he was asked about Elo’s sexually explicit lyrics, he said Elo tends to be abnormally obsessed with it and thinking he should be sexy. Gray thinks it should be done sophisticatedly to be sexy. If not, people will think it dirty

He used to use sampling a lot, because he couldn’t play keyboard, now , he makes songs playing instruments 

After releasing Swings’ ‘A Real Lady’, 5 or 6 companies (both KHH and KPOP) contacted him in a week and asked him to join them

When he was asked why he had chosen AOMG, he answered:

First, I liked him {Jay Park] very much. I could trust him. I chose him because we were chasing the same thing about music. Moreover, I felt we fit together in many points besides music. Definitely I pursue original and (American) native color in many ways, and Jay was definitely showing native color. We, VVD crew’s goal is to be competitive when we are compared to the (American) native artists, so we’ve been thinking highly of him. I was not so close with him in person, but you know, there’s some feeling that we can feel when we meet someone. I was 28 years old last year, I was not too young. I thought he was humane when I first saw him, and he looked very cool with a great mind and his move has been great so far. I think he has contributed a lot (to hiphop). He brought his fandom to this (hiphop) scence and I think he and Illonaire were a win-win relationship. So I didn’t have anything to agonize in many ways. I am not the person who only raps and I do both hiphop and R&B so I thought AOMG would be perfet for me because there would be many things I could do there.

He thinks that AOMG was the company that could support him without interfere, and that they could grow together

He  has a ship name with Simon, Simon choose the name himself: SimG

He has his own studio, GrayGround

He and Loco went to the same univertsity (Hongik University)  and got close because of that

Jwalkerz from Korea called him 'Soray’ because all he knows to do is working and working (So is cow in Korean )

LOCO

Hangeul:  로꼬

Real name: Kwon Hyuk Woo (권혁우)

He was born December 25th 1989 in Seoul

He is 175 cm 

His nickname is Gochoo

He studied Economics in Hongik University 

He speaks English

In College he would drink a lot before shows and people would call him crazy, that’s why he chose his stage name, “Loco”, which means “crazy” in Spanish

Gray and him went to the same university (Hongik Unviersity) and got close because of that

His stage name used to be Demaine, which Gray chose  for him.  However, he thought it was too plain and simple, and he also thought his personality was also plain and simple, so he changed it 

He used to stutter when he was younger and it became a serious problem for him while growing up. At that time he came to know hip hop and he found it amazing how rappers express their inner thoughts freely

He was inspired by Kanye West and CB Mass, whom he listened to with his friends

He and his friends decided that they also wanted to compose and they formed a group called “Satgotbong” (which is why his instagram is “Satgotloco”), this was the name of the sauna that was located in their neighborhood. They all had the idea that if they were to do shows like any other rapper, it would be boring, so they decided to wear those particular clothes that they used in the saunas while making their shows

He debuted on Sept 4, 2012 with the single “See the Light”

He went through a fake contract before participating in SMTM

He won the first season of Show Me The Money

At the time of participating in Show Me The Money, he had little experience due to his young age and didn’t have much to talk about but, after wining the show, he went through lots of things which helped to discover more about himself, find a right tone and write more lyrics

He appeared in Happy Together and SNL Korea

He was producer, along with Jay park, in Show Me The Money 4

He is part of the VV:D crew, along with Crush, Elo, Zion T. and Gray

He auditioned to be part of BTS, but he wasn’t chosen

He appears in Jay Park’s Mommae MV

He appears in Zico’s Tough Cookie MV

He has collaborated with artists such as Jay Park, Elo and Gray, Dean, DPR Live and Crucial Star

He appeared in Immortal Songs Season 2

He released his mini album, Locomotive, in November 28.2014

He has recently released an album, ‘Bleached’

He won a Melon Music Award in the “Best OST” category for his track “Spring Is Gone by Chance,” which was on “The Girl Who Sees Smells” OST

Loco has previously said that he lost eight Kilograms of fat because when he had taken a photo with Jay Park and a few others behind the scenes at a Jay Park concert, he thought he looked like a pig and that inspired him to lose weight

His song ‘Hold Me Tight’ was supposed to be Jay’s song, but he gave it to Loco 

‘Thinking About You’ was supposed to be a title track of Jay’s album but Jay handed it over to Loco because he thought the song would fit better on Locomotive 

He has  done his enlistment

He is part of an anti smoking campaign, along with Jay

In 2014, he got in a controversy after using the Islamic prayer (azan) in ‘Act Serious’.  On November 28, LOCO re-tweeted an apology from producer WallE and apologized himself for any offense he had caused. The producer also apologized to the rapper, stating that LOCO was not even aware of the azan sample being used in the track

He explained that after he won the first season of Mnet′s Show Me The Money, he signed with a new label that didn′t have the means to support him. Though he desired to leave the label, the penalty for breaking the contract was 200 million won

 "That′s when I met Jay Park, and Jay Park said that if I agreed to join AOMG, he would pay the penalty. And my first track with AOMG ′Hold Me Tight′ did so well that I was able to pay my debt back to him in full.“ 

He likes Descendants of the Sun

When Jay was asked if he had been influenced by Gray when he decided to contact Loco for AOMG, Jay answered: 

When we started, there were only me, Gray, Jeongoon and Chacha. Jeongoon and Chacha are composers, so there were only two artists, me and Gray. So I was observing Loco with interest. I have heard about him a lot from Gray, and I asked Dok2 how he was. In fact, Dok2 rarely praises anyone, but he told me Loco was good, so I thought he might be good. I met him often with Gray and I thought it would be good to be with him

CHA CHA MALONE

Hangeul: 차차말론

Real name: Chase Vincent Malone

He was born May 25th 1987 in Seattle

He is a  singer, producer, songwriter and composer

He is half Filipino and half African American

He was raised only by his single mother

His first passions were art and illustration

He started playing the piano by ear at 7

He was influenced by his mother who used to write songs and sing in a band

He used to write rap verses in third grade

He has participated in online beat battles at Rocbattle

In 2005 he appeared in episode of MTV’s Made

He graduated from The Art Institute of Seattle in 2009, earning a B.F.A. in Media Arts and Animation 

He is part of AOMG and co-CEO of H1GHR MUSIC

He started doing b-boying when he was 12 with his friends at the Seattle-based b-boy crew Art of Movement (AOM)

He is  is widely known for his work with Jay Park

His producer tag is “ I need a Cha Cha Beat Boy”

In 2009, he sent friend and fellow Art of Movement member, Jay Park, who had recently returned to Seattle from South Korea, a folder of beats to see if he was interested in collaborating

Since then, both formed a strong partnership into the producing music and writing songs

In 2011, he released an EP, Breakthrough, through iTunes and Bandicamp

Also in 2011,he produced four of the seven tracks  on Jay’s EP, ‘Take A Deeper Look’, which went on to win a Golden Disk Award

He also released "Single Life”, which featured Jay Park, as a free download in September 2011

In 2012, he   became a member of production team, Iconic Sounds LLC

He has produced and worked with many other artists, like Red Velvet, U-Kiss, Dok2, The Quiett and Beenzino

The voice on Woogie’s producer tag ’ Woogie on and on’ is Cha Cha’s

The voice of his producer tag, ’ I need a Cha Cha beat boy’, is Vivian, who’s friends with some of the members of AOMG

UGLY DUCK

Hangeul:  어글리덕

Real name: Sun Ju Kyung (선주경)

He was born January 19th 1991 in Gwangju

He started as an underground rapper in Buckwilds Crew when he was 20 (in 2011) 

He is also part of the Do’Main crew

He joined AOMG in 2014, along with Dj Wegun

He has collaborated with artists like Andup, Giriboi, Okasian, Dok2 and Cjamm

He started writing hip hop lyrics when he entered in high school 

He used to play clarinet at high school’s band, which helped him to improve his breathing and vocalization for rapping

He used to have another stage name but he changed it

Although his artistic name is “Ugly Duck”, he says he isn’t concern about his looks and he likes the way he is

It has a lot of meanings. If you translate it literally, well, it means an ugly duck. Of course, it relates somewhat to my appearance as well. Despite the word “ugly” connoting something negative, I wanted to twist that into giving off the ambience of “I’m still better than you even if I’m ugly.” This is also why I wrote down the lyrics, “I don’t care about being a swan. I like being like this.” But the biggest reason behind this name is that I wanted to rap “ugly.” There’s the phrase, “Ugly truth” and if you reverse it, it becomes “Truth is ugly” meaning I’m the truth! I guess I just felt compelled to the word “ugly” and thought of it as cool. Of course, I still think it’s cool to this day. I like it because it feels like hip hop. I started going by this…well, I had another penname before this one but at the time, I didn’t really have the determination to dive into rapping but once I did, I went by this (Ugly Duck) name.

He has a lot of tattos in his arms

He released his debut album ‘Scene Stealers’, with Jay Park, on July 2016

He is good friends with Zico

He likes to be a DJ

He released his first mixtape named ‘Ugly Shit’ November 2011

‘Ugly Boy’ is his favourite song by himself

He doesn’t have a role model

HOODY

Hanguel:  후디

Real Name: Kim Hyun Jung (김현정)

She was born February 11th 1990

She is 173 cm

She is a R&B singer

She debuted in 2013 with “My Ride” 

She joined AOMG in 2015, and she still is the only female artist in the label

She writes her own songs and also participates in the production and  arrangement 

She is a member of an all female underground crew called Amourette (AMRT) along with KittiB

She dated Coke Jazz

She participated in the Follow The Movement tour in 2016

She appeared in Sukira Kiss the Radio in December 2016

She has a SoundCloud profile

She has collaborated with artists like Loco and Jay Park

She got the offer to sign with AOMG because of Elo (they had worked together)

It was announced that she was a new member of AOMG at the second anniversairy party

ELO

Hangeul:  엘로

Real name: Oh Min Taek  (오민택)

He was born February 11th 1991 in Ansan (South Korea)

He is 176 cm

His blood type is A

He is an R&B singer

He debuted in 2005

He has collaborated with artists like Swings, Sik-K and Owen Ovadoz

His favourite artists are Mayer Hawthorne and Jessie J

R.Kelly and Frank Ocean are influences for him

He is part of the VV:D crew, along with Gray, Loco, Zion T. and Crush

He has a girlfriend

He has the word ‘mono’ tattoed on his ear becauase of an medical problem (he cant hear with on of his ear)

He did an European tour in 2017 with Dj Pumki

He has also done his entlistment

He likes football and always plays with his friends

DJ PUMKIN

Hangeul:  펌킨

Real name: Kim Soohyuk (김수혁)

He was born July 29th 1982

He is DJ and producer

He is part of Back&Forth since 2011 along with others like DJ Wegun and Primary

He was in Amoeba Culture

He joined AOMG in 2014

He did an European tour in 2017 with Elo

DJ WEGUN

Hangeul:  DJ 웨건

Ral name: Kim Myung Jun (김명준)  

He was born September 24th 1986 in Seoul

He is 170cm

He is a DJ and producer

He joined Seoul Company in 2004 and released two EPs (’Wheel of Steel’ and ‘School of Dummies’)

In 2010, the company shut down due to lack of revenue

He is part of Back&Forth since 2011

He is part of FreshAvenue and Buckwilds

He joined AOMG, along with Ugly Duck, in 2014

He has collaborated with artists like Zico, Rhythm Powr, Crucial Star and The Quiett

HEP

He is AOMG’s graphic designer

He is part of AOM

He was born July, 17 1989

WOO WON JAE

His stage name is Munch (뭉크).

His real name is 우원재 (Woo WonJae).

He was born on 26th December 1996.

He is 1,69cm.

He participated in Show Me The Money 6. He was passed by Tiger JK and continued to impress the judges due to his lyrics and rap style.

He was in team Tiger JK & Bizzy in SMTM6.

He was third place in SMTM6.

He was eliminated before he could perform “We Are” with Loco and Gray. The song is available worldwide in many platforms such as iTunes and Spotify.

He is part of the street art crew Plutonic Seoul.

He attends Hongik University.

He met Loco and Gray (AOMG) at Hongik University and all three of them were part of a crew called “Brainswords”.

Gray used to tutor him and said he is a hardworking student who always finishes his homework.

He has a few tattoos: a skeleton on his hand, that same arm tattooed, and a branch on his neck. The neck tattoo was done by the same artist that tattooed Dean, C.Jamm and Zelo.

His trademark beanie style became a trend after he appeared in SMTM6.

His lyrics are about his life experiences and personal situation.

He is good friends with Olltii.

He was called a demon rapper during SMTM by the other contestants, and was compared to Ignito, the rapper he chose for the 1vs1 battle.

He started rapping 1 year prior to SMTM6.

He stated that he chose rap above other music styles because is the one that adapts the most to what he wants to tell.

He was portrayed as someone without a lot of expression during SMTM, but he himself said that he actually smiles quite often, although he also said that he is not very good at celebrating things.

2PM’s rumours regarding Jay (and others):

http://playlikearainbow.tumblr.com/post/11310876063/2pms-dirty-little-secrets-as-told-by-their-loyal

https://forums.soompi.com/en/topic/248306-shocking-translated-2pms-sasaeng-fan-accounts/

http://taecyonie.tumblr.com/post/68694062091/2pm-sasaeng-accounts-fake-exclusive-detective

https://baconbaekhonbaekhyun.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/sasaeng-fans-started-a-rumor-nichkhun-and-jaebeom-2pm-was-bullied-by-the-other-members/

http://kpopunited.blogspot.com.es/2010/03/2pm-ugly-truth.html

http://kpopselca.com/forum/k-pop/where-does-the-assumption-that-2pm-are-douchebags-come-from-t23546/page15.html

Jay talks about 2PM and JYP:

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2016/03/jay-park-answers-what-he-thinks-of-jy-park-and-whether-he-keeps-in-touch-with-2pm-members

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2011/05/jay-park-opens-up-about-his-current-relationship-with-2pm

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2017/02/jay-park-talks-about-trainees-getting-hit-when-they-made-mistakes-his-past-myspace-controversy

http://kpopkfans.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/jay-park-mentions-jyp-and-2pm-in-his.html

http://aminomail.com/page/k-pop/9443522/get-to-know-loco-aomg-artist

It took a while, but here you are!

PD: It feels so wrong having so much information about Jay and so littleabout the others… But I can’t do anything Y.Y I tried my best

Sources: 

Wikidrama, Wikipedia, IG, SNL, Youtube, The Cut, Kpopstarz, Allkpop, Amino Apps, Kpopeurope, kprofiles.com, 

http://fy-loco.tumblr.com/profile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOMG

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2015/09/simon-d-admits-his-first-sexual-experience-was-with-a-girl-six-years-older

http://ssam-d.tumblr.com/facts

http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/simon-d-apologizes-for-making-sexual.html

http://kprofiles.com/loco-profile-facts/

http://jayparkquotes.tumblr.com/archive

http://www.kpopeurope.eu/en-exclusive-interview-with-gray-part-1/?lang=en

Thx to @aomgworldwide and those lovely anons

Facts in italics are those I’m not sure about

In case something is incorrect or you have any more facts don’t doubt to tell me!

[ghostbustermelanieking]

snow in april (chapter 6 of 8)

deadalive au, casefile

one /// two /// three /// four /// five

warning for general eeriness, discussion/slight depiction of death, temporary death of a child

They didn't get very far. Of course they didn't, that would be too easy. There was a roadblock and scattered members of the police department were there. “Can't let you go any further,” the officer who stopped them told them regretfully.

“And why is that?” Scully said coldly.

The officer flicked his eyes over to the passenger seat, the woman in it, and gulped. “Roads too bad,” he said.

“We'll take our chances,” Mulder snapped, reaching for the gear shift.

“I-I can't let you do that, sir,” the man stammered. “Sheriff's orders.”

“We're FBI.” Scully presented her badge.

A man with a gargantuan mustache who was wearing the sheriff's badge came up to the car. “Ma'am, I'm afraid it doesn't matter who you are. You can't leave.”

“Where's Deputy Haswell?” Mulder demanded. “I want to speak to Deputy Haswell.”

“She's out. Resigned,” the awkward officer said. The sheriff shot him a look, and he slunk off, quietly.

“Hey, Sheriff, I know these guys,” said a man who Mulder recognized as the friend Haswell had called in, the one who had said it wasn't Calvert. Jeff something - Renner, maybe. Funny, he thought darkly, he's acknowledging us more than he did at Haswell’s. “Agents… Mulder and Sully, right?”

“Scully,” Scully corrected him sharply. Her voice was colder than the temperature outside.

“Right.” Jeff leaned on the car like they were old buddies, an apologetic look on his face. “Listen, guys, I'm sure you're real anxious to get home, but I'm afraid we can't let you through. You could crash, get killed, and I'm sure you don't want that with a little one on the way.”

“We're not concerned about crashing, I've had plenty of experience driving in the snow,” Mulder said shortly. “Besides, won't the weather be warmer further down the mountain? It's April.”

Jeff shrugged, a picture of innocence. “Don't know what to tell you.”

“There must be another road,” Scully said.

The sheriff shook his head. “This here's the only way out, unless you want to walk.”

“You can't keep us here,” she hissed, fierce and furious. “That's unlawful imprisonment.”

“No one's being imprisoned,” the sheriff said, his voice taking on a menacing tone. “Not yet, at least.” He lifted his jacket, just slightly, so that Mulder could clearly see his gun.

A wave of nausea rolled over Mulder, and he shifted the car into reverse. “Good decision, Agent Mulder,” Jeff said cheerfully. “Everyone will be safer this way.”

Somehow I doubt that, Mulder thought viciously, turning the car around. As he turned, he saw Calvert in a look.black winter coat, standing near the road block. He offered Mulder a small smile. Mulder looked away.

“What are we going to do?” Scully whispered as soon as the window was up and they were driving the other way, back towards Calvert Pass. “We can't stay here, and we can't walk.”

“We need help,” Mulder said, clutching the wheel tightly so his hands wouldn't shake. “We need to go to Haswell's, I think she's our best option for getting out of here.”

“I don't know that we can trust Haswell.”

“I don't know that we have a choice,” he said. Scully bit her lip and nodded. “I think you should call Doggett. At the very least, he could come up with backup, right?”

Scully nodded again, jaw clenched. Her hands were pressed together in her lap. “Hey,” he said softly, letting go of the wheel with one hand to brush her shoulder. “It's going to be okay.”

Scully turned to look at him. Her face was grave, hands pressed to her stomach in a way that could only be described as protective. “I have a bad feeling, Mulder,” she said. “I don't know how to describe it, but I do.”

---

They got to Haswell's quickly. Mulder came around the door to help Scully, and she made a face at him, and he said, “Please, Scully,” quietly, and she sighed and grabbed his arm to walk up to the porch.

Haswell looked a little surprised to see them. Actually, she looked kind of frazzled in general - in pajama bottoms and a ragged band t-shirt, hair in a frizzing ponytail, eyes a little wild. “Agents,” she said, opening the door a little wider.

“My field trip got canceled,” Lyla announced when they came in the door. She was sitting on the stairs with a book balanced on her lap. “Because of the stupid snow. That's why Anna’s at school and I'm not.”

“We need your help,” Scully was saying to Haswell, frantic.

“It was to the water treatment plant,” Lyla said. “I had to do a stupid report. It was established in 1974.”

“They won't let us leave town. We saw something last night, it came in our house looking for Mulder, and we tried to leave town but they wouldn’t let us,” Scully said, her hand tightening around his arm.

Haswell closed her eyes in misery. “I was afraid of something like this,” she muttered. “I knew this would happen, it's goddamn inevitable.”

“What do you mean?” Mulder said sharply. (It seemed clear to him, in the moment, that Scully was right about Haswell being suspicious, and he should've seen it from the beginning. He'd made wrong choice after wrong choice after wrong choice, and now they were in danger because of it.)

Haswell turned to look at her daughter, who was staring at them with interest. “Lyla, go to your room and play,” she said. The little girl's eyes widened and she scrambled to her feet and ran up the stairs. “Come into the kitchen,” Haswell said to Scully and Mulder, motioning them forward. They didn't have any choice, it seemed, but to follow.

In the kitchen, Haswell paced back and forth. She grabbed an egg-smeared pan from the stove and started scrubbing it over the sink. “I wasn't going to get you involved in this, you know,” she said, scrubbing furiously.

Mulder and Scully sat down at the table. He reached for her hand underneath it, and she slid her fingers into his seamlessly.

“I've always felt guilty when these things happen, because who the hell wouldn't. I'm a cop who doesn't save people.” She turned on the water, a hard spray. “But I've learned to let it go. Take the statement and move on. Have a good life with my daughters. I was never interested in their damn agenda, and I didn't know what they'd do to me if I tried to stop it.”

“Mari…” Scully started, warily, squeezing his hand.

The pan hit the bottom of the sink, soapy water splattering the countertop, and Haswell turned to them. Her face was slightly softer than before. “I know you don't trust me right now,” she said. “You have the right. But you have to understand how long I've been living with this. Since 1987. That's a lot of guilt, you know. I go away to school, to become a police officer, and I come back and learn what my town has come to. It's a hard thing to live with. I couldn't leave before because my parents were here and they were dying, and then I couldn't leave because I had two little girls established here and my husband buried here. So I've been trying to figure out how to deal with it for years. Because I know someday they'll try to recruit my daughters for their little club, and I don't want that for them. I want to save all those nice people who shouldn't have to die. Again.”

Mulder shuddered, his fingers tightening around Scully's. She knew from the beginning, she'd been playing them. “Haswell, just tell us the truth,” he said. “What the hell is going on here?”

“You want to know the truth?” Haswell snapped. “I've been trying to protect you. I thought maybe if you dug enough you'd put the pieces together, but it's too dangerous and this is bigger than the two of you. I thought if I played dumb and gave you Calvert as a starting point that you'd eventually figure it all out, find out what they were doing, but that didn't happen because you made yourself a fucking target. You want the goddamn truth?”

It's out there, Mulder wanted to crack, but thought better of it. He always had the absurd instinct to make jokes in dire situations and they never went down well.

“The truth is that people die in this town, and it's no accident. And everyone knows about it and never does a damn thing. The truth is that the person who killed Cara and Kyle Roberts was trying to bring them back to life,” Haswell hissed.

Mulder froze, heart in his throat. Scully's fingernails dug into his jacket. Of course, he thought. Of course I find a case and it's goddamn necromancy. Just his fucking luck.

“It never works,” Haswell said. “It never fucking works and the responsible party never learns, they're like goddamn children. They keep killing and killing and hoping for a different result, but they never get it. And no one can say a thing to them about it because they all think they're doing the right thing for this town.”

“Mari,” Scully said softly. She still had a firm grip on his sleeve. “Who's involved? How far up does this go?”

“Stay here,” Haswell growled. “I'll fix this, I'll tell them you were faking at your appointment, Agent Mulder, and then maybe they'll let you go. Then maybe you can send someone back to fix this godforsaken town. Stay here and watch my kid - Anna's at school, she’s going home with a friend, so you don't have to worry about her - and I'll be back.” She turned and stormed out the door before either of them could protest.

Mulder gulped. The lump in his throat was growing larger, suffocating, and he felt like he was going to be sick. “I wasn't faking,” he whispered.

---

They tried to put together the pieces. Mulder got out a pad of paper and scribbled down everything they knew - the victim's names and dates of death (including the original three outliers), details of their encounters with the scarecrows, everything Haswell had said before she left. It wasn't much, not enough to make a comprehensive theory. “Haswell claimed that people have been killing tourists in an attempt to bring them back to life,” Scully said, hunching over the paper. “And everyone just… knows about it and does nothing?”

“Calvert has to be involved,” said Mulder. “Because Haswell said she'd hoped we'd put the pieces together starting with Calvert, so he has to be involved.”

“A cult? A group of people in the town who believe they can bring people back to life? This could be a necromancy version of Dudley, Arkansas,” Scully muttered.

There did seem to be several similarities. Mulder suddenly remembered her face washed out in firelight, her mouth taped and her eyes filled with fear, and he shuddered. “Something similar to a cult would make sense,” he said out loud. “Haswell didn't want to be involved in it, but she also couldn't get away from it or report it because these are the townspeople she's lived around forever. And she possibly can't leave because they won't let her.”

“She might’ve resigned in an attempt to get away,” Scully pointed out.

“I think this is the last straw and she hoped that we'd be able to get her out with our credentials, bring some justice to this fucked up place. She probably just didn't expect one of us to fit the M.O.”

“So they lure people here… either through Calvert’s counseling service, or the blackout, or both… and they kill these people who have recently died and come back to life, in the hopes that… what, that it'll happen again?” Scully sounded slightly disgusted.

“And the scarecrows is where they go when they don't come back to life,” Mulder said. “It's like Anna said - he traps the souls of his patients forever.”

Scully didn't point out how ridiculous that sounded. She just said, “Mulder, there are more than seventeen scarecrows.”

He was surprised she had counted; he'd been too busy being generally terrified by them. “Maybe there's more than seventeen victims. They started with uninvolved townspeople… maybe they kept going.”

“Or maybe the extras are for future victims,” Scully said softly. She was looking at him.

Some slight nausea overtook him. You can’t escape this, Cara Roberts had said. You have to come back to the ground. But he would escape it; he had to.

Haswell didn't come back for a couple hours. “I think we should be worried,” Scully said. “If the bits and pieces of her story are true, then we can assume the townspeople will be hostile if she goes against them.”

“And if she was trying to trick us, was working against us, then she probably wouldn't have left us babysitting her kid,” said Mulder. He got up from the table, digging into his pocket for his keys. “I'm going after her.”

“No, you're not. You have no idea where she went, and besides that, we have Lyla here.”

“You stay with Lyla. I'll go.”

“You are not going alone,” she hissed angrily. “You have no idea what you're facing, and we only have one gun between us."

He sat back down; he wasn't going to argue, and he wasn't going to put Scully in danger, or Haswell’s kid.

Scully called The New Partner. “Agent Doggett? It's Scully,” she said, and Mulder was ridiculously happy she referred to him as Agent. “No, I'm fine, we both are. For now. But I don't know how much longer we'll be that way.” She paused uncertainly. “Listen, we ended up in a town in North Carolina called Calvert Pass. We were trapped here by the snow, and now the townspeople won't let us leave. We… Agent Doggett?”

Mulder tugged her sleeve. “What happened, did he hang up?”

“Agent Doggett? Doggett, are you there?” Scully spoke frantically into the phone, clutching it tightly in her hand like a lifeline. (It was a lifeline: theirs.) Even pressed against her ear, he could hear the crackle of static. “Doggett!” She groaned with frustration suddenly, letting the phone drop onto the table. “Call got cut off,” she lamented. She grabbed the phone and started punching in buttons. “It's dead,” she confirmed.

“Try Haswell's, I'll change your batteries,” Mulder directed. But a battery change didn't do anything, and Haswell's  cell was dormant as well. There was no way to reach anyone on the outside.

“Can they do this? Control our phones like this?” Scully whispered, horrified. Neither of them knew.

There didn't seem to be anything left to do but make lunch for Lyla. She came down, asking where her mom was, and Mulder lied and told her work, and Scully offered her lunch. She spread peanut butter over bread and cut it into triangles. Mulder watched in a mesmerized kind of way, tried to imagine her doing that with her kid. (No, wait, their kid.) She's going to get out of here, he told himself. No matter what happens to me, she will get out of here.

“When will Mommy be back?” Lyla asked softly when Scully put her plate in front of her.

“I don't know, sweetie. I'm sure it'll be soon,” Scully said.

The kid nodded, looking down at her plate in dejection and poking at her sandwich. Mulder thought of a distraction, a way to take their minds off of it all, and said, “Hey, you said you had to write a report, right? For the field trip you didn't go on?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You wanna show us the report? Scully… Dana’s a teacher, she could give you some pointers.” Apparently, Scully got his drift and nodded, smiling down at Lyla.

Lyla shrugged her shoulders, but she got to her feet and went back to her room, reappearing a few minutes later with a couple of sheets of large-lined notebook paper stapled together. She read her report seriously, in a voice that trembled with the obvious fear she had for her mother. When she was finished, they offered their compliments, and Lyla offered her a wobbly smile before heading off to watch television.

“You're pretty good with kids,” Mulder said when she was gone. It was the kind of thing he'd always thought and never said, because her daughter was dead and the IVF didn't work. But she was pregnant now and he could say that. (And nothing was going to happen to her, even now, so he really could say that.)

Scully murmured something like thanks, her head leaning against his shoulder.

Guilt was choking him, building thickly in his chest. “I'm sorry, Scully,” he mumbled into her hair. “I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I got involved in this, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, that I put you in danger…”

“Mulder…”

“I'm sorry I left you. I'm sorry I walked into that fucking light because I was curious about what was on the other side. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was dying.” He was on a role, had eight years of stuff to apologize for.

“Mulder.” Her hand pressed into his chest, and he stopped. “You didn't know,” she said softly. “You couldn't have known. They lured you here, so we would've been in danger either way. You probably saved us by digging into the Roberts murders, made us more aware of the possibilities.”

“Still,” he said softly. “It was stupid.”

“It was,” she replied, turning her face into his neck. “I won't deny you did some dumb things, and I want to talk about it later. But I was unfair these past few days. I haven't been considering what you've been going through as much as I should have and I was too harsh the other night.”

“You were telling the truth,” he said. “You're entitled to your feelings, Scully, most of the time you don't even let me know how you feel about things…”

“Hush.” She pulled away to look in the eye, cupped his cheek. “We need to talk, and we will. But there's no sense in starting an argument now. We're going to get out of here.”

His hand moved up to cover hers. “And you're going to be a mom.”

She swallowed, turned her hand over in his and took it. “We're going to be parents,” she said, squeezing it. “If that's what you want.”

It was what he'd wanted since the IVF, since she'd awkwardly asked him to be the donor. He leaned in, resting his chin against her hair, not letting go of her hand. “It's what I want,” he whispered, and she pulled their hands up to her mouth and kissed the back of his.

They would get out of here, and so would the Haswells. They had to.

---

It was freezing outside, and Anna was walking home alone.

Her friend’s father had been upset at dinner, something about the roadblock and the “goddamn FBI agents”. Penny and her little brother had been staring at him like they didn’t know him, and Penny’s mother had touched him on the arm and said, “Dear, not at the table… or in front of guests,” with a pointed look at Anna.

And Anna had thought about her mom, her request to move, her strange dream last night. Her dream-dad’s order for her to run. And she’d felt the need to get home right away, an unexplainable need crawling around under her skin. “I have to go,” she’d said, standing and walking quickly to the coat rack by the door. She didn’t even bother with getting her bag, just bundled up and ran. And now she was walking home alone.

The woods were almost absurdly dark, like something out of that stupid Robert Frost poem she had to memorize for school. Lovely, dark and deep, or whatever. Anna shivered, shoving her hands further into her pockets. And then she heard a strange voice, low and whispering: “Anna…”

Anna turned, startled, looking around. “Penny?” she demanded. No answer.

It had definitely been a woman’s voice. “Mom?” she called. “Lyla?” No answer. Must’ve been just the wind, she thought furiously, even though it was a horror movie cliche, and started running.

“Anna Rose Haswell…”

Anna ducked behind a tree, heart pounding. She pressed her shoulder against it, trying to catch her breath. Don't let them see you, is what everyone says. If they see you, it's over. She held her breath, pressing herself against the bark, trying to shrink into herself. Something silver stuck up out of the snow: a lighter. She snatched it up, the closest thing to an actual weapon she had; it was cold in her hand.

A very distinct sound echoed in her ears, she knew it from watching the scarecrows walk a dozen times. It was the sound of a straw hand scraping against the bark of the tree. She pressed her back against the tree, shutting her eyes, and tried not to scream.

More scraping, more rustling. Breathe in, breathe out, Anna instructed herself, trying to stay calm. And then the voice again: “Anna?”

She opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by the scarecrows. Blank button eyes, beaked nose, stitched smile. She screamed. One stepped towards her, and her fingers fumbled on the lighter until they found the right spot and a tiny flame popped up. She thrust it forward, onto the straw hand.

The scarecrow made an inhuman sound and stumbled backwards, waving its flaming arm. It brushed up against another scarecrow’s arm and that one went up in flames. The cycle repeated itself, several others going up. Anna turned, frantic, and thrust the flame at a few others. As more went up in flames, she ran, past them towards her house, dropping the lighter in the snow.

“Anna?”

She froze, boots skidding in the snow. This voice was different, familiar. She whirled around, tears falling, looking for the source. “Anna Banana?” the voice said again.

She turned and found the scarecrow that the voice was coming from. It wasn't burning yet, and it was looking at her. Not malevolently. She sniffled. It couldn't be. It couldn't be, but it had to be. “Daddy?”

“I have to show you something, baby,” he said. “I'm sorry.” And Anna's vision went fuzzy at the edges.

Her father was hunched over a limp little girl - her - on the banks of a river. Please, you have to help me, you have to save her, he begged, and Anna saw Dr. Calvert all of a sudden, standing behind him with his hands in his pockets, a grave look on his face.

I can't, he said sadly. I'm not allowed.

Please. He was crying, cradling the girl who was Anna in his lap. You can't do this, she's my daughter.

I can't, Calvert said again. I can't help you.

Her dad sobbed, hunching over her. He was whispering - No, no, no - and stroking her hair. Calvert looked away, like it was hard to watch. They stood there on the banks for a minute before Calvert stepped forward, putting a hand on her father's shoulder. Calm down, take a deep breath, he said. Here, drink some water. He handed her father a canister.

Goddamnit, I don't want water, her dad hissed. My daughter is dead… god, please. He was rocking her back and forth.

Robert, Calvert said quietly. He sat beside them on the bank. Just drink some water. It'll make you feel better.

Her dad made a terrible face, snatched the cannister from his hands and gulped a few mouthfuls before throwing it aside. There. Are you fucking happy now, Terrence? He hugged her - Anna - close, kissing her head. It won't bring my little girl back.

But it would; a minute later, Anna started moving. She bucked in her father's arms, coughing up the water harshly. Calvert scrambled back in surprise; her dad smoothed her wet hair back. Anna took raspy, trembling breaths, finally whispering, Daddy?

Her dad gathered his daughter up in his arms, hugging her tightly. Oh, baby, it's okay, he whispered. Just breathe, Anna, just breathe.

The scene shifted. The same place, different people. Calvert stood to the side. She was sitting on the bench seat of a picnic table with a beach towel around her shoulders, a young Jeff beside her. The reverend, younger, standing in front of her dad. Confronting him. Just tell me what happened and this will all be over.

I can't tell you what happened because I don't know! I'm not a part of your goddamn cult, Reverend, I don't know how I saved her. She was dead and then she was alive. Her father was agitated, turning away from the reverend towards Anna.

You don't know what happened. The reverend's voice was dangerous.

I don't.

The reverend moved forward and shoved him to the ground in one swift move. You have to know! he roared, leaning over her dad. Tell me what happened, tell me how you did it. It's not fair that my wife gets to stay dead and your daughter gets to come back!

Daddy? Anna called from a distance away. Jeff looked concerned; he pulled her onto his lap, covering her eyes.

What the hell, Sam? Let me the fuck up! her dad shouted. I don't know how it happened and I don't care! You're all crazy, this should've ended years ago!

The reverend groped for something, his hand landing on a rock. He raised it over his head. Jeff lifted Anna and turned her away, You don't need to see this, squirt, and the reverend looked down at him. Tell me, he said quietly.

Her dad's eyes widened. Don't do anything stupid, Sam, I told you I don't know…

The reverend’s hand descended.

Anna screamed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, sobbing hard, her eyes screwed shut. “I'm so sorry, baby,” her father said through the scarecrow. “I'm sorry, but I had to do that, you had to remember. Your mom is in danger. She's in Calvert’s house. You need to go get help for her, and then you need to leave town.”

“Mom's in trouble?” she whimpered, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.

“Yes, sweetie. I'm sorry to tell you this way. Just go get help and it'll be okay.”

She looked at the ground, didn't want to look at the thing that was talking for her father. “Okay,” she said. “I will. I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, sweetie.” When she looked up, the scarecrow was walking away. She turned and ran the other way, wiping tears from her face.

---

By dinnertime, Haswell still hadn’t come back. It was getting dark, and Mulder and Scully were sitting in the living room with Lyla, watching another rerun of I Love Lucy. Lyla was coloring on the floor, laughing halfheartedly and occasionally at the TV. Scully was quiet, half-napping with her head on Mulder's shoulder. And then they heard the scream; a piercing, screeching scream.

Scully jolted up beside him. “Mulder, what was that?”

“I don't know, I don't know,” he said frantically. Lyla was looking up at them with wide, teary eyes. Please don't let it be Haswell, he thought.

“That's what Anna sounds like when she screams,” Lyla said, voice shifting towards tears. “I've heard it.” She hugged a throw pillow like a stuffed animal, terrified.

“Oh my god,” Scully breathed, turning to look at him. “Mulder…”

“Stay here, I'll go check,” he said, getting to his feet. Worry passed over Scully’s face, and he said, “It'll be fine, I promise.” He was talking to both of them, and he hoped it was true.

It felt like the temperature had dropped another twenty degrees outside - the temperature hit him like a ton of bricks. He shivered and grabbed his coat from the coat rack, wrapping it around him. “Anna!” he shouted into the cold and wind. There was no answer.

He picked his way down the frozen front path, past their car and to the main road, looking it up and down. “Anna?” he shouted. His voice came echoing back to him from the trees. Down the road, by an empty fence where the line of scarecrows should be, a small, dark-headed figure turned her head before ducking behind the fence.

Against his better judgement, likely, Mulder took off running. His feet slipped a few times on the snow and ice, but he managed not to fall. He reached Calvert’s house within the space of a few minutes. All the lights were off; the glass panels in the door to Calvert’s makeshift waiting room had paper taped over it.

The fence looked too empty; he tried not to dwell on where the scarecrows were. He shoved at the gate. Anna was crouched between a tree and the fence, somewhat out of sight of the house. “Anna?” he hissed, going to where she’d be in earshot.

“My mom’s in there,” Anna said darkly, urgently. “I have to save her.”

“What?”

“They murdered my dad! They murdered my dad and now they have my mom…” Her voice cracked and she wiped her eyes with the pads of her fingers.

“Whoa, slow down.” Mulder held up a hand, trying to calm her down. “Take some deep breaths and tell me what happened. It's okay.”

“It is not okay,” she said fiercely. “I remember now. I remember the day my father died. The reverend bashed his head in with a rock from the river. Reverend Greene, I've always hated him but I didn't know why. Jeff was watching. He picked me up and carried me away so I wouldn't have to watch.”

Reverend Greene. He recognized the name, and suddenly realized why: the first victim, Matilda Greene, had been found and called in by her husband, Samuel Greene, the local reverend. There were blocky chunks of text blacked out in the file, the same as in the file for the second and third victims. And the second and third victims had been found by one and the same: Samuel Greene.

“My dad, my dad, he… told me. Through the scarecrows. I set them on fire,” Anna hiccupped, and she pointed towards the woods where a faint glow was coming. “He showed me, I saw it. And he told me they had my mom in here. I have to save her. Right now, I have to save her.”

Mulder's mind was racing, but he didn't have time to dwell. “Anna, listen. Listen to me.” His tone was unusually stern, and she turned to him in surprise. “I’ll go in. I’ll get your mom. I'll save her. You need to go back to the house where it’s safe. My partner, Scully, is there with Lyla, she'll protect you. You need to be there for your sister. I'll bring your mom home.”

Stunned into silence, Anna nodded. Her eyes were wide and watering, her cheeks red from the cold and aggressive wind.

“Go on,” Mulder said. “Run and don’t look back.”

She started to turn, stopped. “Promise you'll bring her home?”

He gulped. “I promise.”

She nodded, wiping her eyes. She slid under the fence and took off running without looking back.

Mulder breathed a small sigh of relief and began creeping towards Calvert’s without a second thought.

The house stayed silent, the scarecrows stayed still. He went to the front door, directly, and grabbed the doorknob. The door swung inwards effortlessly. Okay, Mulder thought. This is basically the beginning of a horror movie. And because he’d always basically been a victim in a horror movie who’d managed to survive the films, he kept going.

The halls were dark, darker than the time he’d snuck around in the house before. Mulder fumbled in his coat for his penlight and found it somewhere in an inside pocket. The tiny beam didn’t do much to ward off the dark; he moved it from item to item to try and gage his surroundings, moved forward quietly. He reached for his gun for his free hand before he remembered he didn't have it. Scully has the gun, he thought. She'll be able to protect herself and the girls. That seemed more important than anything.

He kept going down the dark hallway, the tiny light enveloped in his palm. He passed the table with the book on it, and froze when he saw it was open.

The same scrawl was on the new page: FBI agent, claims to have drowned while being waterboarded by drug dealers that held him captive for three months and was resuscitated by his partner. Researching into him to confirm. Something different about him. From Alexandria, claims no immediate family. Claimed staying in town with aunt, really staying in cabins with pregnant woman (aforementioned partner pictured above). And above the words was the picture, the one of him and Scully at a crime scene that had been featured in the article done on them a few years ago. Press for the stupid fucking movie, Federman had sent reporters sniffing around for a straight week. The picture he’d cut out and pinned up in their office. The only picture of them together in existence, as far as he knew.

Mulder felt nauseous. The weight of it all almost brought him to his knees. Scully. They knew she was here, they must’ve known what she meant to him. And that put her in danger. Fuck, why had he brought them here? He’d probably never forgive himself for that if they got out of here. (When, he corrected himself furiously, because they always got out. They'd get away this time, too.)

He forced himself to keep going, the pen light obscured in his shaking palm. Finding Haswell and getting out was the most important thing at the moment. He went up the stairs, floorboards creaking under his feet. He heard a muffled moan from behind a door. “Haswell?” he whispered, moving the pen light towards the noise.

The moan grew louder, along with several hard kicks to the door. He fumbled for the doorknob and yanked it open, revealed Haswell bound to a chair inside, her mouth taped shut.

“My god,” he muttered, dropping down to free her. He had to pull her out of the room - closet, really - because there was no extra space inside. He pulled the tape off as gently as he could. “Haswell… Mari… are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said impatiently, voice wobbly. “The girls, Mulder… are the girls okay? I heard Anna screaming...”

“They’re fine, they’re fine,” he said, undoing the knots at her ankles. “They’re both back at the house, Scully’s with them. Anna had a run-in with the scarecrows, she says, but she's fine… she said that the reverend killed her father, she said the scarecrows showed her…”

Haswell made a choking sound. “They killed my husband,” she whispered. “I heard them talking about it. And I never knew, never thought to look…”

“It’s okay.” His fingers slipped uselessly at the ropes around her wrists, and he kept working at loosening them. “Once we get out of here, we’ll send people in. They won’t get away with this.”

“They’re targeting you, Mulder,” she whispered. The ropes fell to the ground in a coil. He stood and helped her to her feet. She was gazing at him seriously in the dark. “It’s not safe…”

“I know, I know,” he said. “We’re going to get out of here. Is there anyone in the house?”

“I don’t know.”

They turned together towards the staircase and started cautiously downstairs. “What happened?” he whispered.

“I went to Jeff’s to try and talk things over with him. He drugged me, and I woke up here, in the closet. I don’t know who all’s been here, I’ve just heard people talking. My asshole reverend, the one who murdered my husband. Jeff. Calvert. They mentioned you a lot.”

“Who's involved in this?” They hit the bottom floor, Haswell stumbling a little; Mulder steadied her.

“I don't know, I never went to the meetings because I didn't believe in the cause. Dozens and dozens, but… I never knew how many people in my personal life… my doctor, my kid’s elementary school teachers…”

“What is the cause, Mari? What's going on here?”

She turned to face him, dark eyes dead serious in the absence of light. “A long time ago, the people of this town had powers,” she said seriously. “In my lifetime, even. I used to make things float across the room, make it stop raining if I wanted to play outside…  Those powers started fading out of nowhere, after hundreds of years; people who already had them were weakened, my kids don't have them at all. Some have stayed around, weakly, the telekinesis and the weather stayed, but necromancy has faded completely. It was always the strongest and the hardest to use. They wanted to bring it back, they… They've been killing people who've had NDEs to try and bring them back to life, find out how to restore the power.”

Mulder's jaw clenched. “I lied,” he said. There was a burst of pain along his skull and he staggered, woozy. “I was dead a week ago.”

Haswell's eyes widened. And somewhere behind them, a floorboard creaked under a shoe.

Go! Haswell mouthed, motioning him wildly towards the exit. She was running, faster than him; he tried to keep up but his head was spinning, his gait wobbly. He felt a little like he was going to faint. Powers, he remembered Haswell saying. Some have stayed around, weakly. He had to get out of there.

The door swung open, exposing the night and stars and chilling wind. Haswell stepped out on the step and turned back to see him. It was so close, he was almost there, almost there…

The door slammed shut.

Mulder turned, dizzy, and saw Jeff standing behind him. His hand was up, aimed towards the door. Telekinesis, he thought distantly.

“I'm sorry, Agent Mulder,” Jeff said, as the floor came up to meet him. “But I think you really do have a better chance than the rest.”

Everything went black.

---

Dr. Tom Henderson was a man of simple needs. He was old-fashioned, he liked to smoke a pipe in the evenings. He always shared dinner with his wife, Lucinda. They watched Jeopardy every single night that he was home. On the nights he wasn't, Lucinda would watch without him and write down the questions she hadn't known the answers to and quiz him over breakfast the next morning. It was the simplest existence possible, he thought. Aside from some shadowy candle-lit nights and a few major surgeries (and one snowy night years ago, with a man taking his last breaths as he held his hands out before him, his heartbeats in his ears), there was no excitement in his life.

No one called during dinner. So when the phone rang over roast chicken, they both knew what it was. Dr. Henderson went to answer, and said simply, “I'll be there immediately,” before hanging up.

“Again?” Lucinda lamented, looking at him over her spectacles. “The last one wasn't even a week ago!”

“What can I say except it looks like it's going to be a good year.” He scooped up his plate from the table.

“They never happen in sequence like this,” she noted.

“It's an unusual situation, Lu. It happens.” He set his plate in the sink, paused before continuing. “But I've heard it's different this time.”

“Oh? How so?”

“The guy was dead for a lot longer than any of the others. Heard he was buried, even. So that should increase the chances of a successful resurrection.”

“Oh. And who's turn is it this time?” Lucinda said mildly.

“That kid Renner. He's invested in the cause, but has always followed the rules. Old-timers first, those who spent years with their powers.” Dr. Henderson kissed his wife on the cheek. “Dinner was delicious, sweetheart. I wish you'd come with me.”

“I don't have the stomach for that stuff. You know that.” She pushed her peas around her plate. “You have a good time, though. And be careful.”

[gemturtle]

The Ninja Turtles and the Louds (TMNT/TLH Crossover) - Summary and Ideas

Hello everyone, this is gemturtle here saying that what I'm planning to do here is a TMNT and Loud House crossover series called "The Ninja Turtles and the Louds". Here's the summary:

In this AU, the Loud Family have moved over from Michigan to New York about 3 months ago. Lincoln Loud, who is the only boy in a family of 10 sisters, is feeling very stressed and uneasy about his new life in Manhattan and having new friends like Clyde and April. But one day while being chased by purple dragons, he was saved by 4 weird strangers who turn out to be 4 giant talking mutated turtles who can do ninjitsu! With these new friends/brothers, Lincoln, his sisters, April and the turtles will embark on living with the difficulties of normal life and going on numerous adventures and battling against ninja, mutant, alien, and mystical threats, all while remembering the importance of family. This is a crossover series that shows the bonding between 2 unusual families.

Major TMNT Characters: Leo, Mikey, Donnie, Raph, April, Casey, Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Shredder, Irma, Karai, Kimiko, Ice Cream Kitty, Tiger Claw, Hun, Leatherhead, Old Hob, Krang, Eric Sacks, Bebop, Rocksteady, etc.

Major TLH Characters: Lincoln, Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, Lily, Clyde, Lynn Sr., Rita, Howard, Harold, Bobby, Ronnie Anne, Mr. Grouse, Agnes Johnson, etc.

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Martial Arts, Coming-of-Age, Slice of Life, Friendship, Family.

Rating: T (For drama, dark violence, blood, etc.)

Pairings: Leo/Karai, Lincoln/Ronnie Anne, Lori/Bobby, Splinter/Tang Shen, Lucy/Rocky, Rita/Lynn Sr., Howard/Harold, onesided Lori/Clyde, onesided Lincoln/April etc.

Author's Notes:

- The idea to make this crossover series was influenced by MiniJen's Universe Falls story, which is a crossover series between Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. Just like her story, it also takes place in another universe where the 2 series co-exist with one another. I first thought of this idea when I saw the LH episode "One of the Boys" (Hated that episode btw) where the oldest brothers had the voices of the turtles and plus, they all love PIZZA! So I thought to myself, what if Lincoln and his sisters actually met the turtles? At first I wanted to be a simple one-time crossover, but I just wanted them to interact as much as possible and see how well they work off one another. I could picture Lincoln seeing the turtles as the coolest "brothers" with them being pretty much like superheroes, and they would most likely have the same interest (Reading comics, playing video games, watching cartoons, etc.), and I also picture the Loud sisters being jealous of the turtles for spending a lot of time with their only brother. But the more the sisters spend time with the turtles, the more they see that they're not so different. I want to see the Loud Siblings trying help out on the turtles' adventures in fighting evil while interacting with each other in various 'slice of life' situations, which it's a hard thing for the turtles since they have to remain in the shadows. So I thought about doing something similar to Universe Falls and came up with this idea. Plus they're both properties of NICKELODEON, so it's possible we might actually see a crossover with these 2 someday. But for now, I would like to create this series.

- I figured what's going o be different from this series between TMNT and the Loud House is that instead of Royal Woods in Michigan, the LH characters will all live in New York since it is a important setting for the TMNT characters.

- Just like Universe Falls, this series will be divided into arcs with about 10-12 stories each instead of being 26 episodes each per season like TMNT. I plan to adapt some stories from the Loud House into my series and actually re-write them so that way they would have more of an accurate continuity unlike the actual show and hope not to add so much "Lincoln Torture" since I want to make this less mean-spirited and more genuine, I also plan to reduce the amount of toilet-humor (I mostly dislike that trope). So there will be some I won't do that I mostly dislike (Such as Making the Case, The Green House, Brawl in the Family, No Such Luck, etc.). As for the TMNT side of things, what will be very interesting about this crossover I won't be using any previous TMNT incarnations (Mirage, 1987, 2003, 2012, etc.) but to make it a brand new incarnation, so I can create my own version of the TMNT characters to interact with TLH characters. Now I don't know how many arcs will be created, it all depends on how long the TLH show can go or how many TMNT stories I can adapt.

- I have a lot of ideas I want to use and some that I'm not sure of; for one, I asked a DeviantArt user LeaderinBlue84 if I could borrow some of his TMNT ideas to use for this series.

- Leo in this series will be more influenced by his 2012 counterpart, but he is also an extreme anime lover, mostly listens to classic music, creates fan art with his username LeaderInBlue84. He would kinda be like the "Star-Lord" of the TMNT series, so he and Luna would get along well. Also, he will also have a wonderful bromance with Lincoln, as he would likely look up to Leo as his personal hero and a genuine role model and Leo would look up to him for never giving up for a child his age.

- Mikey is also the same goofball prankster we all know and love, and will be the most open-minded character in the series. He would give names to new mutants and bad guys and collect stickers to put on his shell.

- Raph will be the same sarcastic hot-headed bad ass he's always been, but he does have a soft and friendlier side for Lincoln and April.

- Donnie would be the lovable nerd with a big brain. For him, I figured he would be a little smarter than Lisa but would more of a nervous wreck and a clean freak like Double D from Ed, Edd, n Eddy. I also think would could also have gynophobia (Fear of females) from a traumatic experience. While he will be used to April, it would give him a hard time with Lincoln's sisters.

- April would be a teenager like her 2012 counterpart as well, she will be at the age of 15. Unlike meeting them like in previous incarnations she would have met the turtles at the age of 10 and is an orphan girl that is taken in by Splinter. She would also have developed some training as a kunoichi. She would also have a pretty developed busty chest for her age amking her socially insecure and making some of the Loud sisters jealous, but she would still be friends with them. And instead of Cristina, I was thinking Lincoln would have a unrequited crush on April for the first few episodes, until he hooks up with Ronnie Anne.

- Casey for the beginning of the series will be a juvenile delinquent and working for the Purple Dragons like Danny from the 1990 movie, but will soon quit and become a vigilante against them.

- I'm still wondering whether to make Splinter Yoshi who was mutated into a rat or have Yoshi and his sons be reincarnated into turtles and a rat like in the IDW comics, as well as Shredder's origin. Splinter will also not just bring wisdom to the turtles, but also to Lincoln and his sisters.

- There will be some street violence, blood, and intense battles in this crossover.

- And just like most of the fandom, I hope to actually make Luna and Leni be Lincoln's closest sisters being more of motherly figures to him so it is said that they have the closest relationship.

- As the romance for this series will go, I really don't mind Anthro/Human relationships like Leo/Karai. As long as the relationship is developed like Goliath/Elisa from Gargoyles. I want to try taking a crack at having Raph/April in this series, and I figure that maybe she and Casey would date only for a while. I was also thinking of one of the turtles hook up with one of the Loud sisters, I won't say who but it might be the most ironic relationship.

- I will also have some loud siblings to have a close relationship with each turtle: Leonardo (Lincoln, Lori, Luna), Michelangelo (Luan, Lana, and Lily), Donatello (Leni and Lisa), and Raphael (Lynn, Lucy, and Lola).

- I was also thinking of having Lincoln and April keeping the turtles a secret from his sisters until the end of the first arc and the parents wouldn't find out until the second.

- I figured Lincoln would be trained by Splinter to become a ninja, and MAYBE some of his sisters, specifically Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy.

- Like I said before, there will be some stories I will adapt from TMNT; like I plan to do the Search for Splinter arc but differently. Instead, April and the turtles will live with the Louds until they find Splinter.

- I also want to do multiple crossovers in the future as well; such as Ghostbusters, Batman, Usagi Yojimbo, etc.

So that's basically it. What are your thoughts on this? Think this might be a good idea? How do you think the Loud siblings will react to meeting the turtles? How will they're interactions be? What TMNT characters would you like to see in this crossover? Could you see Splinter giving the Louds wisdom? How will Rita and Lynn Sr. react to the turtles? What kind of stories would you like to see? Let me know in the reviews.

[infolibrary]

7 Brain Traps That Allow the Media to Manipulate Our Opinions

New Post has been published on http://www.infolibrary.net/7-brain-traps-that-allow-the-media-to-manipulate-our-opinions/

7 Brain Traps That Allow the Media to Manipulate Our Opinions

Do you believe that television and other media regularly lie to us and manipulate our opinions? Maybe. But there is even worse news: our brain works together with them. It is so difficult for the brain to sort through the immense amount of information coming at it every day, that it is ready to just put up with the many misconceptions. And, as strange as it sounds, smart and well-educated people make even more cognitive mistakes that those who are less intelligent.

Bright Side found out which psychological effects the media uses in order to convince us of something or to influence our decisions. You will learn how to tell the truth from lies.

Sleeper effect

The effect: A persuasive message that is accompanied by a discounting cue seems more accurate over time.

Imagine that you hear a piece of information that seems true to you. For example, the production of a famous confectionery brand contains the chemicals that are dangerous to human health. But soon after this, you hear some information that makes you doubt that it was true. For example, someone tells you that the source of information was not reliable or that the news was fabricated by a competitor. As a reasonable person, you will most likely think that the original information was fake and you will try to forget it. But some time later, (the so-called sleeper time) you will go back to thinking that it was true. And you will never buy products from this brand again.

The sleeper effect appears only when these conditions are followed:

The information seems persuasive.

There is a following piece of information that makes you doubt the original.

There is enough time between the moment you receive the information and the moment you have to make a decision.

Framing effect

The effect: By changing the phrase, you can change its perception.

The way an idea is worded affects the way we perceive it. By highlighting the necessary part, you can make a person a hero or a villain. Compare: “3 out of 10 people remained hostages because of how terribly slow the police crew was” and “thanks to how well-thought-out their plan was, the police crew freed 7 out of 10 hostages.”

The thing is, we judge certain events of things not on their own, but based on their context. Usually this context (frame) determines the decision we will end up making.

And people are more likely to avoid losses than to try to win something. Also, with age, this effect becomes more powerful: elderly people pay more attention to the negative aspects of everything and are more likely to avoid their losses than to try and see the real advantages of an offer.

Here are some more examples of this effect:

People are more likely to react to the word “overpayment” than the word “discount.” 93% of people check in for a flight earlier when they know they have to pay more for checking in later. And only 67% check in earlier when there is a discount for early check-in. But the amount of money was the same.

You are more likely to buy 80%-lean beef that the same piece of meat that says it contains 20% fat.

In our everyday lives we also create our own reality, choosing words in order to describe a thing or an event. If you have an old wardrobe that you inherited from your grandmother, you can be a happy owner of a family relic or an owner of a piece of old junk. Mistakes at work can be a useful experience or trouble.

Semmelweis reflex

The effect: I see only what I want to see.

Of the many facts there are out there, our brain only chooses the ones that comply with our expectations and ideas. At the same time, it refuses to accept new knowledge and new facts that contradict our stereotypes (Semmelweis reflex).

This is why we prefer to watch the same TV and YouTube channels and go to the same websites. And this is also why we believe news programs so easily — because they comply with our opinion and they are easy to digest. If you are sure that GMO is dangerous, you will easily believe even the most unprofessional article on this topic and ignore the articles with the opposite opinion from serious journals.

The same happens to our attitude toward public people: haters usually only pay attention to their flaws and mistakes, and fans will ignore even the most obvious mistakes.

Identifiable victim effect

President Bush holds Jessica McClure.

The effect: “The death of one person is a tragedy and a million deaths is statistics.”

Across the world, thousands of people go missing and die of famine, but we rarely hear about this in the media. And the story of one person who was raped becomes the most-discussed topic for many months all over social media and the press.

This happens because a message about one specific person sounds more persuasive than statistical data, it creates a feeling like you know this person and it makes you feel an emotional response. This not only affects the audience, but also the government structures. Specific people receive help more often than groups of people.

The story of baby Jessica, who fell into a well in 1987, was shown live. After 58 hours of work on the part of the rescue team, the little girl was saved. As a result, the amount of donated money was about $800,000. At the same time, every year, 830,000 children die from accidental injuries and many of these deaths could have been prevented. But there is never enough money for prevention.

Anchoring

The effect: We take the picture of an event, cut out a piece of it, and show the fragment as the whole event.

This is a method where only one side of an object or an event if discussed and the other sides are either accidentally or intentionally ignored. This prevents you from understanding what actually happened and what decision you should make.

For example, the media is discussing the advantages of a new chemical fertilizer that allows us to get several times more harvest. But they never mention the ingredients of the fertilizer and how the fruit and vegetables grown with it will affect the human body.

Third-person effect

The effect: Everyone falls victim to propaganda, but not me.

We are prone to underestimating the power and influence of social media on ourselves and overestimate it when it comes to other people. This way, we separate ourselves from people who can be influenced and increase our own self-esteem. This effect is very evident when a person receives a piece of negative information (violence on tv, porn, reading some racist or sexist articles).

The third-person effect is directly linked to the theory of attribution. We are more likely to justify our own actions by the situation and when others do something wrong, it’s because they are bad people. (About ourselves: “I yelled at my child not because I’m irritable and angry, but because he made me angry when he spilled juice on the table.” About others, “She’s a bad mother because she can’t put a hat on her child’s head the right way.”)

Parasocial interaction

The effect: We feel very close to our favorite characters from talk shows.

When we watch TV programs, movies, or cartoons, we start to interact with the characters as if we are in a regular human relationship with them. Obviously, in such a close “relationship,” we can’t avoid inheriting some of their behavioral aspects and fall prey to their influence. This effect is very powerful when it comes to children and teenagers who are forming their own identity and trying to imitate their favorite video game, movie, and cartoon characters.

There’s something that’s known as the “Angelina Jolie” effect: just 15 days after the actress talked about having done a mastectomy, the number of women who had the test for the BRCA genes, which are responsible for the development of breast cancer, grew by 64%. And in 1987, when Princess Diana took her glove off and shook hands with an HIV-patient, thousands of people in Great Britain and the US stopped believing that this virus could be transmitted by touch. And before that, the scary articles in the media made 50% of Americans think that complete isolation of these patients was a good idea.

Princess Diana holding the child of an HIV patient at the London Lighthouse, 1996

It’s hard to tell reality from lies

Most news programs start with the anchor saying “Good evening” and then they explain why it’s not really a good evening. And if you watch TV programs often enough, the frame of everyday negativity doesn’t allow you to estimate the pros and cons of ordinary situations rationally. Spend more time on your hobbies and communicate with your friends — this will help you to avoid a negative mindset.

Try to be more critical of the news on social media: it’s there that fake news is spread 6 times faster than true information. This is mostly true for politics-related news. And fake news is much more “durable” because it continues to circulate long after it’s been proven false.

Here are some more ways to protect yourself from lies and make the right decision:

Try to find more trustworthy information. When you look at a problem from different angles, it is easier to make the right decision.

If you speak a foreign language well enough, try to think about the situation in it. This will allow you to keep a clear mind and not be influenced by emotions.

Don’t come to any conclusions about how things are by just using one example.

Take a break from information: when your brain is overloaded, it can’t think clearly.

Look at the statistical number correctly: If a commercial says that 85% of plastic surgeries are successful, it means there is a 15% chance of having a negative surgical outcome.

Use special resources to verify facts, for example, truthorfiction.com or hoax-slayer.com.

Bonus: Flying penguins

On April 1, BBC edited a funny video where they claimed to have found a new species of King Penguins that didn’t just fly, but could also migrate to hot tropic islands. 6 million views and 21,000 likes only prove the fact that fake information is spread at lightning speed.

Do you have your own methods that help you tell the difference between the truth and a lie? Which piece of news on social media or in newspapers looked completely fake or like nonsense to you?

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[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND April 26, 2019  - AVENGERS: ENDGAME!!!

This is the big one, the start of the summer movie season – like last year, one week early – but also a singularly movie that is likely to crush pretty much everything still playing in theaters, and that is…

AVENGERS: ENDGAME!!

What’s being promoted as the finale of storylines that have been set-up over ten years of Marvel movies finally hits theaters one year after the fateful ending of Infinity War. Sadly, I won’t be seeing this until early next week, since I’ll be busy attending the Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend. (See more details about that below.)

Still, it’s hard to deny the draw of a sequel to last year’s Avengers: Endgame, which had such an astounding cliffhanger ending that few will want to wait to see this one, mainly to see how the surviving heroes deal with Thanos and get their friends and colleagues back.

I guess that’s all I have to say about the movie (other than my box office analysis at The Beat), until I see it so let’s get straight to the…

LIMITED RELEASES

If you live in New York, I beseech you to go see Pamela Green’s doc BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ  (Zeitgeist Films), narrated by Jodi Foster, when it opens in New York on Friday. It will open at the IFC Center in New York plus a few other cities as it slowly expands to other cities. It’s an amazing story about the first-ever female filmmaker who was around during the earliest days of cinema in France.

Ralph Fiennes’ directs and co-stars in THE WHITE CROW (Sony Pictures Classics), an amazing film starring Oleg Ivenko as ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who travelled to Paris with his ballet company, ended up meeting and falling in love with Clara Saint (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and defecting. Fiennes plays Nureyev’s early teacher, but it’s a fairly small role as he allows his younger cast to shine in a terrific story that covers much of Nureyev’s early life before defecting. It’s a fantastic film, regardless of whether you’re into ballet or not. The White Crowopens in New York and L.A. on Friday.

Not quite as amazing (but a movie I had been looking forward to seeing since Toronto last year) is Justin Kelly’s  JT LEROY (Universal Home Entertainment), which stars Kristen Stewart as Savannah Knoop, the young woman who pretended to be author J.T. Leroy, an abused transgender young man, who was duped by actual author Laura Albert (played by Laura Dern) to help fulfill the ruse for the press and other celebrities. Jim Sturgess plays Geoffrey Knoop, Laura’s boyfriend and Savannah’s brother while Diane Kruger plays Eva, a character clearly meant to be Asia Argento, who made The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things based on “Leroy’s” novel. I was very interested in this film, partially because I interviewed Argento for that film without knowing the story until seeing Jeff Feurzeig’s doc Author: The JT Leroy Story. The movie, co-written by Knoop and Kelly from her own book documenting events, is okay, but I feel that the screenplay could have been a lot more interesting if adapted by a better writer, and I’ve generally been mixed about Kelly’s work as a director, as well.  I guess if you’re interested in this story, you can check this out in select cities or On Demand.

Josh Lobo’s thriller I TRAPPED THE DEVIL (IFC Midnight) stars Scott Poythress as Steve, a man who is holding a man hostage in his basement who he believes is the Devil himself. When his brother (AJ Bowen) and wife (Susan Burke) arrive for the Christmas season, they discover Steve’s secret and begin wondering if the man is in fact the Devil.  I liked the movie’s premise more than the execution, as I didn’t think too much about the cast.

Roxanne Benjamin made her directorial debut as part of the horror anthology Southbound. She also had a segment in the XX anthology, and she now makes her feature film debut with BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK (Magnet Releasing). It follows a young woman who is working as a summer employee at a state park, but who takes a wrong turn and ends up in a crime scene with no communication to the outside world. Bravely, she must spend the night in the wilderness protecting the crime scene on her own.


Opening on Wednesday at Film Forum is Carmine Street Guitars (Abramorama), Ron Mann’s documentary about Rick Kelly’s West Village guitar shop that’s been where he and his apprentice Cindy Hulej design and build custom guitars for the musical superstars. Some of the guitarists who pop in and are captured on camera include Charlie Sexton, Marc Ribot, Lenny Kaye and Bill Frisell with a special appearance by Jim Jarmusch. If you’re into music or are a guitar player, you’ll want to check this out.

Maia Wechsler’s doc If the Dancer Dances (Monument Releasing) goes into the dance studio of Stephen Petronio as they try to breathe new life into Merce Cunningham’s 1968 piece “RainForest.” The movie is being released in conjunction with Cunningham’s centennial, opening Friday in New York at the Quadand in L.A. at the Laemmle Music Hall.

A Thousand Thoughts

LOCAL FESTIVALS

The big festival starting on Wednesday is the17thAnnual TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL, which kicks off on Wednesday with Life, Animated director Roger Ross Williams’ new documentary The Apollo, which is having it World premiere AT the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Other special events held at the Beacon Theater, also far north of Tribeca, include the 35thAnniversary of This is Spinal Tap and 40th Anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, a special talk between Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro and his longtime director Martin Scorsese, as well as special concerts/talks following docs about the Wu Tang Clan (Wu Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men) and Phish frontman Trey Anastasio (Between Me and My Mind).  

I’m not sure why, but I tend to gravitate more to the docs at Tribeca than the narratives, maybe because there have been maybe a dozen narratives at the festival that I truly loved. On the other hand, the festival has become renowned for so many amazing docs, and this year, there are goods ones about Stones bassist Bill Wyman (The Quiet One), Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation, Maiden (about the first all-woman around-the-world sailing team), another one about movie sound (Making Waves) and one about a Ohio factory that shuts down but then is resuscitated by a Chinese company that offers the community new hope (American Factory). I’m also looking forward to seeing the doc Other Music, about New York’s indie record store which recently shut its doors. Add to that other music docs like Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice and Mystify: Michael Hutchence, and there’s quite a bit that I’m going to want to check out. 

Some of the narratives that I’m interested include The Kill Team, starring Nat Wolff and Alexander Skarsgard, and Kevin McMullin’s Low Tide, which has its World Premiere. Also, soon-to-be-released movies like Mary (American Psycho) Harron’s Charlie Says, starring Mat Smith as Charles Manson, and Joe Berlinger’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy, will screen at Tribeca before their respective releases on May 10.

Hopefully, I’ll find some more hidden gems as the festival progresses.

Up in Toronto, Canada, one of my favorite cities, this year’s Hot Docs begins on Thursday. As the name might imply, this is a documentary film festival with an amazing array of docs, many getting their world premieres. I’m a little busy with Tribeca to go through all that is being offered, but if you live in Toronto, then you should be able to find some interesting subjects covered.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Metrograph Pictures’ second release is a restored rerelease of Djibril Diop Mambety’s Hyenas (1992), a comic adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play “The Visit” about a rich woman who is visiting a small African village with enough money to back the man running for mayor of the town. Instead, she reveals that he got her pregnant and abandoned her with child, leading her to a life of misery before coming into money. She offers a bounty to kill the man who did this to her, and the village needs to decide whether they like the mayoral candidate, a popular shopkeeper, as much as they need the money being offered. It’s a pretty fascinating film, beautifully shot, and it’s nice to see the Metrograph reviving it through their distribution arm. On top of that, the retrospective of Brazilian filmmaker Nelson Pereira Dos Santos continues through Sunday, including a few repeat showings. Late Nites at Metrograph  offers Gaspar Noe’s recent Climax, as well as Evangelion 1.0 and Evangelion 2.0for the Anime fans.  Playtime: Family Matinees ends the month with a classic Kurt Russell Disney movie, The Barefoot Executive  (1971).

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds. afternoon is a screening of Melville’s 1956 film Bob Le Flambeur, while a double feature of Sydney Pollack’s The Yakuza  (1974) and John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow II  (1987) runs Weds. and Thursday. The Extended Version of Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee  (1965), starring Charlton Heston, screens on Friday and Saturday, followed by the double feature of Peter Sellers’ 1966 film After the Fox and Elaine May’s The Hearbreak Kid on Sunday and Monday. Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and the 1983 comedy Doctor Detroit are the Friday and Saturday midnight movies, respectably. This weekend’s KIDEE MATINEE is Lord and Miller’s animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, while Monday’s matinee is David Fincher’s Fight Club.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

The “Trilogies” series continues this weekend with Andrzej Wajda’s “War Trilogy” (A Generation, Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds) on Wednesday, Jean Cocteau’s “Orphic Trilogy” (Blood of a Poet, Orpheus and Testament of Orpheus) on Thursday. Ingmar Bergman’s “God and Man Trilogy” (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence) screens on Friday, and then Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy begins on Friday then continues on Saturday, April 27, and the third part on May 4. (Trust me, this is not an easy series to watch in one sitting.) Also, Marcel Pagnol’s “Marseilles Trilogy” will screen on Sunday. Film Forum Jr. shows Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955), which is also part of Ray’s “Apu Trilogy” for the “Trilogies” series. See how that works?

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

BAM is killing it this week with a number of releases including a restored rerelease of Nina Menkes’ 1991 film Queen of Diamond with Menkes present for a QnA on Friday night and a panel on Saturday night. Set in Vegas, it deals with a disaffected blackjack dealer who drifts through a series of encounters. On Wednesday, BAM’s “Screen Epiphanies” series continues with Vanity Faircritic K. Austin Collins presenting Brian De Palma’s thriller Femme Fatale, starring Rebecca Romjin. Lastly, on Sunday, the “Beyond the Canon” series continues with a double feature of Charles Lane’s Sidewalk Stories  (1989) with Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid (1921).

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

The Egyptian gets in on Aero’s Classic Movie ClownsThursday with a Marx Brothers double feature of A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races  (1937) with authors Robert Bader and Josh Frank signing their book. Friday sees a Stanley Donen tribute with a screening of Singin’ in the Rain  (1952), plus there will be an encore screening of the 7-hour War and Peace  (1967) on Sunday and Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964) on Sunday with a panel in conjunction with the Art Directors Guild Film Society.

AERO  (LA):

A new series called “Cowboys and Samurai” begins this week, and it’s little surprise that most of the samurai movies are from Akira Kurosawa. It begins on Thursday with a double feature of Rashomon (1950)and High Noon, then continues Friday with The Searchers (1956) and The Hidden Fortress (1958) and Seven Samurai (1954) and The Wild Bunch  (1969) on Saturday. Sunday’s double feature is Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) and the 1962 film Harakiri (1962) (not directed by Kurosawa!). Sunday is also a rescheduled screening of the musical Annie (1982), as part of the Albert Finney remembrance.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: Parental Guidance  continues with Poltergeist  (1982), Weekend Classics: Love Mom and Dad screens Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid  (1921), while Late Night Favorites: Spring shows Jodorowsky’s El Topo (1970).

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall will show 1956’s Written on the Windon Weds, How to Marry a Millionaire  (1953) Thursday and then end the series on Friday with a reshowing of Vincent Minelli’s Designing Woman  (1957).

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

The museum’s See it Big! Action series continues with two screenings of William Friedkin’s The French Connection 1971) on Friday and Saturday, Bullitt  (1968) on Saturday and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road on Sunday. There will also be a showing of William Lustig’s 1980 horror film Maniacwith Lustig in attendance as part of its Disreputable Cinema series. This weekend is the first I’ve ever wished I lived out in Astoria, Queens.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Wild Things: The Ferocious Films of Nelly Kaplan ends Thursday, but I don’t have any information for the weekend as of yet.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This Friday’s midnight movie is John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), also starring Kurt Russell.

That’s it for this week. Next week: Four new wide releases that aren’t Avengers: Endgame!