#(don't be a dick to other cultures challenge right?)

[buckybabesonly]

Can An Old Man Do This?

Summary: Watching Twilight with Bucky leads to to sex. Sounds about right.

Pairing: Bucky x Female!reader

Warnings: Degradation kink, dirty talk, facials

Genre: Smut

Word Count: 2k

Watching the Twilight movies with your boyfriend was surely a rite of passage. 16 year old you would be squealing if she knew that one day, you’d be dating someone as broody and stoic as your favorite fictional vampire, Edward Cullen.

You had managed to convince Bucky to curl up and bed and watch the first movie with you, telling him it was essential for his ever-growing knowledge of pop culture.

“Okay, this is too weird,” Bucky concluded as Edward and Bella danced on-screen at her prom. “This whole movie is flawed. Why would a vampire family feel the need to go to high school?”

“To blend in,” you said simply. You were sat with your back against the headboard with Bucky lying with his head resting against your bare thighs - you hadn't even bothered to change out of your pajama tank top and shorts. He was in a pair of gray sweatpants and an unbuttoned shirt, the epitome of a lazy Sunday as his fingernails grazed softly against the flesh of your leg.

He tilted his head back to look at you, rolling his eyes. “And going to high school is the way to do that? They could be doing literally anything else.”

“Don’t think too hard about the logic behind it,” you said, your fingers toying with locks of his hair.

“And Edward is over 100 years old? Going after a 17 year old? Something’s not right with that.”

You snorted, amused by Bucky’s dissection of the movie.

“How old are you again?”

“It’s not the same,” Bucky shot back.

“C’mon,” you teased, “what’s an old man doing going after a much younger woman?”

Bucky sat up then, the muscles in his abdomen rippling and flexing. He hit pause on the movie and knocked the laptop aside, rolling on top of you so that his knees were between yours, easing your legs apart.

“What did you just call me?” He challenged, hands reaching for your hips and tugging down sharply so that you slid down onto your back with a gasp.

You knew exactly what direction this was heading in as Bucky’s lips moved to your neck, his teeth softly scraping against the surface like he wanted to bite. The smell of his cologne was intoxicating, and you moaned softly as his teeth nibbled on your skin.

"Bucky..."

"Say it again," he murmured, his hands sliding up beneath your shirt to cup your breast. Your nipple hardened as he played with it, and he chuckled. "You like being felt up by this old man, huh?"

"Nuh-uh," you spluttered unconvincingly as Bucky's other hand reached down to palm your crotch, applying pressure to your clit. Arousal was flooding through every nerve ending, and you resisted the urge to grind up into his hand for more.

"I think you do," Bucky disagreed. "I think you like being used by me. Being fucked senseless by me."

He sat back and you mewled involuntarily at the loss of his touch against your body, but was quickly silenced when Bucky shrugged off his shirt and tossed it aside. You reached forward to tug at his sweatpants, but his hands shot out to pin your arms above your head.

"Not so fast, sweetheart," he said, though you could see how hard he was already. He just loved to see you squirm.

"Please, Bucky," you said, knowing exactly what he liked to hear. "Don't you think I deserve your cock? Don't you want to fuck my mouth?"

Bucky groaned then, placing his fingers inside your mouth for you to lick hungrily.

"You really think you deserve to suck my dick?" He grunted, though he was already peeling off his sweatpants like his life depended on it. He lay back and easily maneuvered you like a doll so that you were on top, gesturing to his groin.

"Show me what that pretty mouth can do, my love."

You complied eagerly, easing down his boxer briefs and releasing his cock in all its glory. It sprang to attention, red and stiff and oh-so-thick, waiting to be plunged into your mouth.

Giving Bucky blowjobs was one of your favorite things in the world. You loved looking up at his expression as you delivered pleasure with your tongue - it was thrilling knowing that you were the one to elicit such noises from his mouth.

You licked the length of his shaft slowly, teasingly, massaging his balls with one hand as you reached the tip of his dick. You flicked the head of it with your tongue before taking as much of it as you could into your mouth. You loved how heavy it felt, the weight of his cock on your tongue. It made you unbelievably wet, and you could feel yourself soaking through your panties as Bucky threaded his hands through your hair, gently helping you bob up and down.

You pulled off long enough to quickly gasp, "Use me, Bucky." It was more of a plea than an order, and it made his expression darken with arousal.

His fingers tightened - not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make you moan around his cock - as he pushed your head down so that you were forced to take it to the root, almost choking on it. He knew you loved it.

Bucky continued to pull you on and off his cock, throwing his head back with a guttural moan. If you continued on like this, he knew he could definitely cum without a problem. But right now, he needed to get inside you.

"I need your pussy," he grunted as you pulled his cock out of your mouth with a pop, gasping for air. Tears were coming out of the corners of your eyes, and he loved how disheveled you looked.

You were obedient, crawling up towards him and positioning yourself over his length. You could barely hold in your shivers of anticipation as he lined himself up with your entrance and moved his hands to your waist, guiding you as you slowly sank down onto him.

The moment the tip of his dick breached his entrance was one of your favorite feelings. There wasn't anything else quite like it. You loved how it felt when he stretched you open, making your mouth open into a silent scream.

He let you still for a moment as you settled down onto his cock, letting yourself get used to fullness of it. He studied your face carefully, eyes roving down to your breasts, your thighs.

"You okay, baby?" He asked gently, resisting the urge to thrust up inside you.

"I'm okay," you said breathlessly. You began to roll your hips, grinding on his cock whilst you watched Bucky's eyes practically roll back into their sockets.

"Oh fuck. Yes - that's it, you pretty little slut," he groaned. Those words were all it took to get you going, and you began bouncing on his cock like a bunny, wanting to drive him crazy.

"Oh God. You feel so good inside me," you moaned, somehow wanting Bucky to go deeper.

"You like it, hm? You're just my little cockslut, aren't you? Serving me so well, doing your duties," he grunted, his hands slapping your ass hard.

"Yes, yes, yes," you chanted, your brain unable to string together a coherent thought. "Bucky - be mean to me," you mewled, wanting him to be rougher, to make you scream.

"Be mean to you?" He repeated teasingly with a smirk on his lips. He pulled you off his cock, sitting up and motioning for you to get on your knees. He loved fucking you doggy-style, and you eagerly presented yourself to him as he knelt behind you.

You felt him slap his cock against your entrance a few times, covering himself with your slick.

"How hard do you want me to fuck your tight little cunt?" He asked.

"As hard as you can," you begged.

"Hmmm." He pretended to ponder, before suddenly sheathing himself inside you, making you grip the pillows hard with both your hands.

"Oh - Bucky!" Your voice was pitchy and weak as he thrust into you, his hand on the back of your neck to press you down. His other hand landed strike after strike on your ass cheeks, turning them red.

"Tell me, can an old man fuck you like this? Turn you into a trembling mess?"

"N-no," you spluttered as he moved his hands to your hips instead and began pulling you onto his cock, hard.

"God, you feel so good. Can't wait to cum inside you, mark you as mine," he grunted, throwing his head back at the pleasure of it.

"Want you - to cum - on my face," you gasped, your sentence faltering with each snap of Bucky's hips.

"Want me to cum on your face?" Bucky repeated mockingly, pulling out and ordering you to turn around to face him. You did so obediently, rolling over and barely able to prepare yourself before Bucky slid inside you again, eyes locked on yours.

"Are you sure you don't want me to cum inside your pussy? On your tits? In your ass?" He was toying with your frustrations, knowing how much you loved the feeling of him releasing on your face, the absolute debauchery of it.

"Please, Bucky. Want you on my face," you panted.

Bucky felt like he could go on fucking you for hours, but with the way you were behaving now, he knew he wouldn't last long. He latched onto your nipple with his mouth, sucking and flicking it with his tongue as you moaned at the over stimulation, his other hand reaching down to rub at your clit.

"I'm gonna cum, Bucky!" He knew exactly the right amount of pressure to apply as he continue to roll his thumb over the bundle of nerves. He released your breast to kiss your mouth inside, his tongue plunging into yours as he groaned.

"Cum for me, baby. Cum on my fat cock, you pretty little whore."

You felt yourself reach the climax all too suddenly, your body shuddering as it sparked through every inch of you like an electric shock, sending chills down your spine. You clamped a hand over your mouth to muffle your screams, Bucky continuing to thrust his cock inside you to carry you through the waves.

"Oh God - Bucky - too - too sensitive," you said, pushing his hand away from your pulsating clit as he continue to fuck you senselessly.

"Fuck, I'm going to cum," he grunted, gritting his teeth as he quickly pulled out of you. His hand stroked up and down his own cock as he knelt above you, sending thick ropes of his cum onto your face, into your open mouth. It was so warm and wet, splashing onto the pillow beneath your head and even onto the headboard.

He stroked his cock several more times, making sure to milk his dick of every last drop of cum, painting your skin with it. His knees eventually buckled and he fell on top of you, gasping.

"Oh God, that was fucking good," he said as he planted butterfly kissed all over your neck and collarbone. He looked at your face, covered in white ropes, making his softening cock twitch. "You look so pretty like that."

You were still trying to catch your breath even as Bucky gently rolled off you and quickly retrieved some tissues from the nightstand, wiping the evidence off your face as you blushed deeply. He was always so sweet after fucking you so roughly, looking after you and cleaning you up.

After you'd had a solid ten minutes to recover, he kissed your forehead sweetly, tendering stroking your cheek.

"Let's shower together, then I'll make you lunch?" He asked, making you pout.

“We haven’t finished the Twilight series yet,” you said.

“There’s more?”

“Four more.”

“I’m telling you, Nat. The Twilight movies are an aphrodisiac.”

[bonchobrick]

Duke and Danny bestie fic im co-authoring with some cool people for Patrol Partners! :D

A fic where Duke knows a lot about Gotham’s new problem, ghosts. The Waynes think the worst and assume he’s had some terrible experience with ghosts in the past (in reality is just very happy to talk about his best friends culture and doesnt realize how odd it is that he knows all this stuff)

Or

Duke is pretty much just vibing, the bats are having a meltdown, and Danny is having a blast!

—-

Then Duke pops the question

“So, what are you guys researching?” He asks raising a brow to the papers littered all over the room

Collectively the entire room groans as Duke absentmindedly picks up a paper on the table with the failed, static over-run image.

“We don't know!” Steph bemoans frustrated

Tim starts, “There are new entities–”

“Creatures.” Bruce corrects

Tim casts a piercing glance at his father, “I am pretty sure those are entities. Eye witness reports state that they look fairly human-like–”

Bruce challenges him right back, “Eye witness reports were also very likely to be unfactual, they seemed partially intoxicated. It’s more likely they are some kind of mutated animal.”

His son’s teeth grit, “Even so we still can’t rule out–”

“Oh right, the ghosts are back in town,” Duke's comments, gaze absorbed in the static image

Silence drowns the room as their weary eyes blink at Duke, processing what he had just said.

Then it clicks

“R-repeat that?” Tim stares intensely at Duke

“Um, the ghosts are back? That's what these are.” Duke nervously replies confused, “It’s been a bit since they visited Gotham

Tim opens and closes his mouth, immensely struggling to find any words to say. It seems like the rest of his family is fairing no better, some of them letting out noises of surprise and shock with others trying to hear if they heard that sentence right.

“There used to be ghosts in Gotham?” Bruce says incredulously

“Yeah?” Duke tilts his head, “I mean they don’t like living here with the corrupt ectoplasm but I’m friends with a few ghosts?”

Jason springs on him with wide eyes, “What are ghosts like, personality-wise?”

Duke thinks and responds with the first thought that comes to mind, “Fickle, they can be super friendly or super destructive. They do whatever they’re in the mood to.”

“Are they aggressive?”

“Sure? Sometimes?” Duke blinks at them bewildered before a petty smile crosses his lips, “They can be, hmm, commanding.”

Dicks eyes turn cold and protective, “What–”

“Listen guys,” Duke backs away from the discussion going with his internal task list in mind, “I gotta go wrap up putting together all my documents for my topic on my science fair project so uh, see-ya!”

The second youngest bounces out of the cave and the rest of the family stare dumbstruck at him.

New entities (ghosts?) pop up in Gotham + Duke describes them as fickle and commanding =

Duke is being made to do things for Ghosts who can be kind and cruel which =

= Duke is being bullied by Ghosts?!

Not on their Bat-watch!

Damian is already sharpening his ‘not murder tools’, Tim has sprung into research on the bat computer and the rest of the family have already dipped into Gotham ready to search for these perps!

Paranoid Family #1 will help Duke’s ghost problem starting now!

( pssst heres the fic :)

[scarlet--wiccan]

I know you’re a Marvel person, but what are your thoughts on Zatanna from DC?

I really haven't read much about her. I find her to be one of those elusive characters who is very different in every continuity reboot and adaptation-- which is my biggest challenge with DC in general. So I can't really speak that much to her characterization or her storylines.

I do think that the concept of a stage magician who does real magic is super fun and I appreciate that her aesthetic and visual style are so distinct among super heroes and, specifically, among magic characters. She is a very unique character, and I get the appeal.

I'm not really a big fan of the homo magi concept. On the one hand, it provides a more cohesive and functional framework for magic in the larger superhero setting than what Marvel has. On the other hand, it tends to scrub out the uniqueness of cultural magic practices and overshadow ancient religions and mythologies, which are usually afforded a lot of gravity and power in the Marvel world. You can probably imagine which approach I prefer.

I know that there have been indications of Zatanna having Romani ancestry, but I've had a hard time tracking down specific instances. From what I understand, they're pretty few and far between, and don't often amount to more than vague stereotyping and racist language. Dick Grayson has a similar problem, where his heritage (which was retroactively established several decades into his publication history) was only seriously featured in one poorly executed storyline and is otherwise just gestured at in a manner that usually comes off pretty problematic. In both cases, Romani heritage exists only to lend exoticism to their magical nature or sexuality.

The Grayson and Zatara families both come from showman and performer backgrounds, which are traditional occupations in many Romani communities. In comic books and related media, we're mostly represented as fortune tellers, witches, and itinerant workers who live in caravans. Exploring showman culture would be a refreshing change of pace, and the stage magician aesthetic would be cool subversion of the Romani witch archetypes, but it would certainly take a lot of careful work to get it right.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like writers are actually interested in showcasing either Dick or Zatanna's heritage in those contexts. I've read both The Lost Carnival and Jewel of Gravesend-- standalone graphic novels that retell Dick and Zatanna's early lives in modern settings. Both of those books would have been perfect opportunities to incorporate Romani visibility into their family lives and performer lifestyle, but that's not what happened, and honestly, I was pretty disappointed. That pretty much sums up my feelings about both Dick and Zatanna-- I'd really like for them to be fully realized Romani characters, but their representation has been very minimal and largely offensive. I think they'd both need a major overhaul-- Zatanna especially-- to bring it to a place of authenticity.

[namorslutfanfiction]

Can i get #4 and #8 with Namor with the reader being the one to say "I'll kill you". Pretty please with sprinkles on top.

Ok here is 4

You watched from a distance as the other female warriors fawned over Namor. You felt your brow twitch as one of them grabbed onto his arm and pushed her chest against his bicep. You engaged the warrior you were sparring with ferociously. You could see from your peripherals as the mob and Namor made their way to the edge of the sparring ring you were fighting in.

You ended your match with such a close blow to your opponent that those watching screamed in surprise. You stumbled back, surprised at your own viciousness. You bowed to your opponent and headed for the edge of the ring.

"Well you seem to be in a mood. If that were a real fight he would have been dead four times over," Namor joked. You eyed the King as he shook off the women on his arms. You scoffed and began walking away, taking a towel that was offered to you by one of the assistants to the side of the ring. You scrubbed at your sweat roughly.

"Be more gentle or you'll scrub your skin off," Namor chimed in as he caught up with you. You turned and glared at him making him raise his hands.

"Oh shut up, go have fun with your fan club," You sat down on one of the benches and looked out at the training field. It was a gathering of mutants and warriors, a conference of battle and training that Wakanda and Talokan had arranged. It was supposed to be fun and a grand cultural exchange. But right now you were annoyed.

"Fan club? Oh those warriors? They just wanted to talk about different flying techniques. We all have wings just different kinds," Namor explained as he took a seat next to you.

You shrugged, not looking at him as he put an arm around your shoulders and tried to nuzzle your cheek, "Get off me and go hang out with those whores."

"Oh you're very annoyed right now," Namor chuckled, amused at your attitude.

"You're such a dick," You stood up and grabbed a weapon from the table, getting ready for another fight.

"You're so jealous. It's like how you say you love me without saying it," The King stood, smiling, and stole a kiss on your cheek. He dodged a jab of the spear in your hands.

"I'll kill you!" You yelled as you gave chase, ignoring the butterflies that had erupted in your chest when he kissed you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is 8

"Alright, one more time," Namor commanded as he oversaw the group of warriors that were training. It was tradition for the King to watch the last day of training of the newest recruits before they were promoted. This was also a personal tradition for the King, the day he would once more spar with you.

As the celebrations continued after the promotion ceremony the King cornered you, "There you are. You're not trying to skip out on our annual battle, are you?"

You scoffed, "Unlike you, your majesty, I had a very busy day today and had many people to talk to. Not all of us can just stand there and look pretty."

"Don't be evasive. Meet me at the south training room. I will beat you this year," Namor commanded with a cheeky smile on his face. You chuckled at the challenge.

Before long you were both wrestling for dominance, weapons cast aside and relying on brute strength and agility. It was a close fight but you had won 4 years in a row and you were not planning on losing your streak. You couldn't help but notice that he had picked up some new moves and blamed it on the training he did with the Wakandans.

Namor was able to flip you onto your back and let out a laugh of triumph, "I told you, I would win this year!"

You paused and measured the weight of the king on top of you, "It's not over yet."

With a twist of your hips you had him on the ground, pinned by his wrists with you straddling his chest. The surprise on his face was short lived as he shifted and then had you chest first on the ground.

"Yield," Namor commanded, holding your arm behind your back.

"Not done yet," You smirked to yourself before making a sweeping movement with your arm and once again you were on top of him with his arms pinned to the ground.

Namor was now getting frustrated as he pulled another new move and it ended with both of you rolling around the floor. Once more some grunting, struggling, and playful banter took over. Then you had him pinned by his writs again, straddling his chest. He was exhausted now and finally relaxed his muscles.

You smiled down, panting, "Didn't know you liked being pinned to the ground this much, my king."

"Oh hush you! I yield," He sighed, though a smile still played across his face.

~~~~~~

That was fun to write! These little exercises are really getting my brain moving. Thank you!

[churchkey]

i know webgott isn't exactly the ship you primarily write for but GOD i love the way you write modern david webster in maximum volume (and i love his raport with nix it reminds me so much of my own queer friend group in ways i've yet to articulate properly) and i was wondering if you have any headcanons about their coupling and/or their interactions with their friend group (as a couple or individually)?

Haha oh my god, thank you! That's so nice of you to say! I based them loosely on my cousin and his boyfriend, who used to have epic Halloween parties before they got old and decided it was too much work, and if everyone loved it so much, they could damn well volunteer to host it themselves. Alas, no one did.

But David and Joe are still young and fun so let's talk about them. I feel like you should win a prize or something because this is officially the FIRST Webgott ask I've ever received. I do have a few headcanons about them, which did not make it into the fic because I mean, for christ's sake, the thing is already way too long. Anyway, if you'll just follow me...

Even though they knew and liked each other in high school, I don't think they got together until later. Like one time in college they bumped into each other on campus and it was like "I always had a crush on you" - "same" and then they were inseparable. They got married kinda young, around 24 or 25 (I imagined them right around 30 in the fic) and their families were like "... are you SURE you don't want to wait a little longer?" But they don't listen to anyone else, naturally, because what the hell do they know?

I also envisioned them as having gone on some long bike-camping trip up the coast on a tandem bike just before they decided to get married, and something very profound happened on this trip, maybe it just challenged them in ways they'd never been tested before, and they met and overcame those obstacles together and it sort of cemented their bond as a couple. Because if you can successfully ride a tandem with your partner, you can probably weather any storm.

They used to have threesomes with George back in the day but they don't anymore. David and George are good buddies (I've always felt strongly about this, based solely on how George was kind of nice to Webster in that episode when he comes back from the hospital and is just being such a clueless dick). They go see bands together and to see midnight showings of cult movies and stuff like that. Joe actually thinks that if David weren't with him, he and George would be a good couple.

David still has a little teeny tiny crush on Mr. Winters. He wished he knew he was gay when he actually had him as a teacher, but he totally understands why he wasn't out at work.

As mentioned in Ch. 1, they're both journalists. Joe is a sports writer for the major metro daily, David writes for a local news/arts/culture blog. This means they're always out somewhere covering a game or event or whatever, which works for them because the true secret to their success as a couple is their own selfish pursuits of what makes them happy as individuals. They're good at giving each other space to do whatever the fuck they want, knowing that at the end of the day, they don't want anything else as much as they want each other.

Everyone assumes they're about one big blow up away from divorce, but they're actually surprisingly stable. They truly enjoy each other's company and are just as content tending to their flower beds together as they are going to a party or out to the bars with their friends. They worship their cats. They have a Sunday ritual (h/t @anthrobrat) of reading the entire Sunday paper, section by section, David reading the gossip page out loud and being appalled at the list prices of houses in the Real Estate section and saving the Food section because they might actually try one of the recipes this week (they never do). At their core, they're basically just a couple of old queens sliding comfortably into middle age, though their friends would be shocked to see this side of them.

Idk... this is honestly the most I've ever thought about them so I hope it fits with what you were thinking, or at least makes sense with their little cameos in the story. Thanks for the ask, it's always fun to explore and imagine. And thank you so much for reading my stuff! I appreciate you and everyone else who takes the time to read my work so very much. Take care 😍❤️

[fierceawakening]

Estoy Confundide

Okay, so. My suspicion here is that my boss is a dick, but a specific Other White Person who I'm going to dub Jim has "helpfully" researched "Latinx Business Culture" and decided I'm the asshole as my boss is Latina and I'm failing at cultural competency.

Boss frequently makes decisions I do not think are great. For example, we have four teams all of which serve different jurisdictions, but this morning we were all required to attend an info session on the services of Specific County, which only one team serves. I was able to gather afterward that this was apparently because the whole department supposedly needed a refresher on how social services agencies in general work (news to me), and instead of tailoring a training to each, this was deemed close enough.

I tend to ask questions like "Why are we all going?" This has never been a problem before. (In previous environments, I would ask and everyone would roll their eyes and say "because we have no money or time for real training," and we'd all laugh and nod sagely and go.)

It is a problem now. I mentioned in our group Whatsapp chat that a particular person was calling a lot, trying to say I'm working on it but what's wrong is that another agency is dilly dallying about letting her know if she's eligible for services and she's panicking, and that while I get this I don't think returning every call is productive until we have an answer. (As I assumed we would, we got one. A day later than all this brouhaha, the bill is paid.)

Boss "gently reminded" me that I must answer every call. I said that I understood that, but that I also understood that our policy was to try to serve X number of people (I'd been told in the past by the same boss that I focus on each case too much, and my compassion is cute but we don't want to lose grants), and so I was at an impasse.

Boss sent back a lengthy message saying that the chat was not the place to ask for clarity on policy, and reminding me of meetings we had with our grantors, and saying I should no longer have questions anyway.

I think Boss was: 1) assuming I was being lazy and enjoying making me look bad, but then 2) too embarrassed to take it back when I had a reasonable explanation, and therefore 3) asserted I should know everything anyway.

Jim is convinced Boss is not at all an asshole, and that "Latino Business Culture" is that you don't question authority and do as you're told. Therefore questions I have about what the most productive thing to do is are perceived as challenges to what she's already decided it is, therefore I am insufferable and going to get in trouble.

He may be right that I'm going to get in trouble--I'm really bad at not asking why things work the way they do--but is he on to something about me acting too white?

Or is he just being, as I suspect, weird and racist for thinking it's impossible for Latinx people to notice and get annoyed at bosses making mistakes?

[princeescaluswords]

It’s always interested me, that there are these two responses in fandom (not the only two, but these two are what interests me) where there’s one side who think people with critiques and criticisms should keep them to themselves so as to not ruin the fun. And then there’s this other side, who only want to critique and criticize based on superficial and usually bigoted aspects.

I see it w/ the new LotR show, and it’s fascinating. Some who are going hard on hating the show for casting people of color, and in particular black actors, but also those who are enraged by actors not having the right hair length or they aren’t pretty enough or what have you. And then you see people lumping those views with legitimate criticism of the writing and effects, or just a/mazon, because it’s all just ‘ruining the fun’.

It’s exhausting and pathetic.

Whenever I see people attack an adaptation for making a change that's influenced by modern cultural trends, I want to ask them a simple question:

Have you ever read Moby Dick?

Published in 1851, Herman Melville's story of obsession, whaling, and the struggle between humanity and nature (including their own natures) is considered a classic of United States literature. It can be a challenging read, of course. I found it hard for me because interwoven throughout the narrative are chapters on cetology -- the study of whales. These includes discourses on ecology, commercial fishing, among various other topics. The last chapter has the protagonist of the novel discussing the representation of whales in art.

I wasn't a fan, but I kept an open mind. Upon investigation, there are different analyses of the purpose those cetology chapters serve. I came to think of it as a means by which Melville drew his readers into the work by providing them with the information that his fictional characters would already have. He needed to do this because, after all, there wasn't a Wikipedia back then and there were very, very few public libraries. Most people wanting to read his story wouldn't have access to an exhaustive knowledge of whales and whaling.

Regardless of the reason behind his choices, very little of those chapters have made it into any of the adaptations I have seen, and I don't remember anyone complaining about it. I propose that it is because it's been recognized that the original novel and the movies and the mini-series were intended for different audiences. What worked for the book buyer in 1851 wouldn't work for the television viewer in 2011. This seems like common sense.

I hope you see where I'm going with this. United States culture has evolved to the point where we understand, as an audience, that we've excluded non-white characters from narratives or placed them in very specific roles which often contradict the very themes of the story we're reading. As the audience has evolved, so must the adaptations, and while we don't want to change the emotional and narrative centers of the story, changing details to reflect that evolution seems, to me, very similar to leaving the cetology chapters out.

In Tolkien's descriptions of elves, how long was their hair? I'm pretty sure that Tolkien didn't bother to talk about it that much, because that wasn't really his point about them. Jackson, in his adaption, went for a certain aesthetic for his characters because he was telling a visual story and wanted to highlight the differences between the race of elves and others, something Tolkien did but not with hair length. So when this new series doesn't make everyone's hair the same length as Jackson's movie, does that mean they've betrayed the spirit of the original work? It's hard to see how -- elves and men and dwarves are still different creatures, but they represent this through different means.

It's the same process with characters of color. Tolkien lived among a very privileged culture which didn't spend much time thinking about race and representation. Would he really be upset that the heroic Arondir or Princess Disa were played by black people? I think he would be more interested in how these characters embodied his visions of elves and dwarves, which they do -- in my opinion -- very well. Would he be upset that the orcs following Adar no longer adhere to a dark color scheme or that the Southlanders are racially diverse? I don't think so. The orcs are still perversions of the elves, twisted by evil, and the essential changeability of men -- their curse and their blessing -- remains the same. The themes present in the Lord of the the Rings are still present: a rejection of totalitarianism, rampaging capitalism, and rootless modernism. I think he'd be pleased with these new stories set in his world and barely notice the aesthetic changes that drive others to distraction.

This modern resistance comes, I believe, from how people remember reading the Lord of the Rings or watching Jackson's movies and taking possession of them by integrating them into their experiences. It's "ruining their fun" as you put it because part of the fun is that the Lord of the Rings belongs to them. They should be able to enjoy it in the way they enjoyed it twenty years ago or forty years ago, like dragons perched on a hoard.

But the story doesn't belong to them. The new adaptation is not made in 2001 but in 2021. The audience has changed even since the beginning of the millennium, and change always encounters resistance. Storytellers are no longer content to exclude parts of the general population, and that's uncomfortable to some people. So, instead of understanding that Moby Dick adaptations don't need the cetology chapters anymore, they rage against the "woke" (a term so distorted that it's lost all meaning) like a greedy Sackville-Baggins upset that they won't get to keep Bag End or a Denethor afraid of the return of the king and what that means.

[locustheologicus]

"And you get this straight shitkicker, don't you go mistaking me for some whole other body. You got your brains in your dick if you think we're just gonna fade away. We're gonna be here till this thing's finished."

- Gene Hackmen (Agent Anderson) Mississippi Burning.

This is a line from the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning. It is an old movie about the killing of 3 civil rights activists in Mississippi in the early 1960's. It is a powerful story that is still worth raising every now and then.

I am raising this quote right now because I find Gene Hackmen's character, agent Anderson, very meaningful for me as I consider how to respond to these times. Anderson is an FBI agent who is involved with Agent Ward (William DeFoe) in finding the whereabouts of the three missing civil rights workers in Mississippi. As they unpack the levels of systemic racism and discrimination, they become aware of the challenge they face in promoting racial justice.

Agent Anderson depicts the type of person who is willing to stretch the rules in order to achieve righteousness. This has always been a model for me as I look to promote what is right and just no matter what the cost. The ends justify the means is very much in play with Agent Anderson. Eventually, Agent Ward agrees to Anderson's methods.

As I get older (FYI, I am now 51 yrs old), I feel conflicted as my zeal for social justice gets tempered with faith and hope. It is a struggle to do what is right, but the lessons that many of us learn are that there is a limit where our own ideological pursuits could destroy our character. Our Catholic faith tradition does not permit us to cross these lines. The Star Wars series "Andor" does an excellent job exploring this, and I offered a post based on this lesson.

But in the face of emerging social injustices, I feel that we need to morally reflect on our role in balancing justice/righteousness with faith/hope. I feel that the young can be supported in their pursuit of social justice, and we, the elders, can mentor them in this process. Our own experience and wisdom can bring balance and steady their own perspective while bringing a dose of humility and gratitude as needed. But in the end I think we will need to continue making a firm prophetic stance on social issues where the youth can appreciate that there are social values that must be protected and respected. There will be times when we have to grab the shitkicker by the balls and lay out a basis for what us right and just. I still feel all warm and fuzzy when I see Agent Anderson take the stance that he is forced to take against the KKK as he confronts them in their own "social club."

In reading the 8th century prophets, the psalms, and even Jesus' engagement with the Syrophoenician woman, I have appreciated the different ways the prophetic message may need to be communicated. These messages are often strong, at time they need to sting. On a few occasions, the message may need to crass and thought-provoking. All this is with the intention of educating the community. But as Agent Anderson demonstrates, there may even be times when the prophetic message needs to give way to prophetic action. When the cause forces us to act and prophetically evangelize through our actions.

One way I will continue being prophetic is by offering messages that remind folks that certain issues are not acceptable. We do have a tradition of prophetic action, which we should never forget. If the Conservative Confederates feel empowered by their own cultural self-interest, to say "the south will rise again," then perhaps the Progressive Unionist should also feel emboldened enough to prophetically declare that "the north will never die." This t-shirt is the latest way that I can continue promoting social justice and raise the memory of our prophetic action.

[vroenis]

The Last Sunday

You certainly look like you have your life together and that's not facetious, I know tone is rough on the internet - sincerity is scary after all (note from the next day: oh-ho-hoooo what a foreshadowing!).

If there's one thing I've become by whatever means, internal or otherwise, it's become more sincere. I have a lot of confidence which is odd. Confidence in some specific things, things I'm fairly sure I know the shape of. The rest - what I'm supposed to do, what I'm able to do, I've no idea. I don't have a template for that and I suspect I know the immediate response to that but I have good excuses, in that they're actually debilitating, not figuratively.

Somewhere back along the road my thoughts have taken tonight was a further meditation on intimacy and ownership, or perhaps the vernacular around it, taxonomy even.

I thought about the love songs I've struck from my collection, the ones I hear that immediately set me on edge;

"... make you mine..."

"... I belong to you..."

"... give myself / yourself..." etc. which is a particularly strange one. The act of giving is meaningful and I'll say in a cursory sense for now, not harmful, but that's not really the application in romantic works.

This sense of possession - and that it's key, important, normal, empowered, central. Etcetera.

I'm not interested in owning anyone. I'm not interested in bring owned. The initial association would be to blunt dimensions of slavery and there's a decent element of truth in that. There's nothing good about enslaving and being enslaved.

Nor is this a "we're all free lol I can fuck who I want" and everything that comes loaded with the concept of monogamy at least how it's most commonly understood and applied. I've not really spent a lot of time in a polyamorous relation but I've high contact with a decent handful of folks who do it full time and they're great, close friends, seem to get on fine with their own challenges no doubt. For purely practical (more or less medical) reasons I don't think I have the energy and bandwidth for it myself so I'm pretty exclusive - also for many other reasons.

But ownership is weird. Utilising it in language as a banner of pride is weird. I don't know, maybe for folks it's normal and maybe that's a significant part of why I don't like it. I've not had a normal life. I've not had access to the same things, the same assumptions as normal folks. Let's be blunt - white cis-het neurotypical folks. Hey it's no slight against any of you and again I'm being sincere - it absolutely isn't your fault that you fit in nicely with the societal norms we've constructed over tone as humans, and today isn't the day for hashing that particular facet of culture our, and what you can do about it etc. You're good. I don't hate the straights.

I believe I continue to struggle with relating to people. This is an odd thing for me to say at this specific time of writing (October 2022) given I'm currently experiencing a rapid but I think firm expansion of my social circle. Nevertheless I do think it's tied to the way I position myself when considering romantic intimacy. I pretty much begin from the same position;

- - assume I'm not welcome, will not be treated with generosity and difference, make no assumption of mutual intention, diminish my presence as much as possible...

... unless the other person makes an effort to clearly communicate and display affirmative behaviour and intent - -

Is that an Autistic thing? Is it a queer thing? Bipolar? The combination thereof? Is it a defensive position taken up by being an outsider regardless of why?

I don't know what signals I'm supposed to be sending romantically. Something about that doesn't sit right with me. Decletations or even suggestions, uninvited and not mutually initiated feel entitled and intrusive. I'm demonstrating my intentions on the assumptions not only that they're welcome, but that they're reciprocated. What a fucken dick move, honestly. I don't understand how that's kind, respecting, mutual and empowered in any way.

So I operate platonic friendships much the same way scaled back from there. If you don't demonstrate to me that you want my time, I assume you don't... which is fine and very normal. I figure most friends I make happen more or less mutually by us displaying and demonstrating an interest in one another, on casual levels first, then with increasing intimacy. Slowly sharing more interpersonal and intersocial elements of our lives, remembering, taking particular note of, and displaying knowledge of one another - treating with difference.

Scaling back up, for most of my life that's been my developing understanding of romantic intimacy, how I understand it. There's no withholding, there's no provocation of risk, there's no game, there simple is or is not engaged and either state is fine.

Ownership/possession seems to disempower that.

Assuming that I have rights regardless of mutual consent, is to me a horrifying concept. Giving someone rights and privileges to the extent of diminishing autonomy is equally as horrifying.

My understanding of how I love, and how I'm interested in being loved, what I want - what I expect - is that it's a choice. A set of actions, behaviours, access and privileges granted with mutual empowerment, that any one person can freely withdraw from at any time.

Sure, there are some really good social structures like respect we can load onto that, as in, when you want to leave, you hopefully respect the other person enough to declare what's happening... by the same token, if the other person is abusive, you hopefully respect yourself enough to know you don't owe them anything and you take care of yourself in the safest way possible (I know, heaps to unpack about that but there's a lot of great writing around if you look for it and much better than I could discuss here).

A while back I wrote that happy endings were for straight, neurotypical people and I stand by that. I know the shape of things that make me happy when I'm on my own but shared happiness is something I've decided has value and it's incredibly rare. When I'm in the midst of a depressive cycle, I deploy a frame that states "I don't know what happiness is // I don't remember what happiness is" and in the place where I am, it's very true.

I have more to say but it's late and I'm tired.

[olderthannetfic]

[This is for a person with whom I have quite a contrary opinion. And I want to get it off my chest]

You. Have. No. Idea. What. Fanfic. Is.

For you, quality literature has to have the qualities you demand of it. Yes, I agree that you need a minimum of quality in all areas, but a lot of fanfic is written by people who spend their time (for free) to give you a story with characters you already know and want to read in that context.

"But you shouldn't write about real people." You're missing the point of fanfic.

"But you shouldn't use non-LGBTQ+ people/characters for LGBTQ+ stories." You're missing the point of fanfic.

"Sex scenes with real people are disgusting". For you, but not for everyone.

"I hope one day the 14 year old girls who read this kind of fanfic will realise that writing about real people is wrong and move away from the dark and toxic side of fandom." Don't say what people can read or not.

"I hope you grow up and leave your fanfic era to read worthwhile literature." Honey, I can read fanfic and I can read books that were Nobel Prize winners, one thing doesn't take away from the other. Oh, again, you're missing the point of the fanfic.

So please, stop throwing all the bad stuff at fanfic writers and thinking you're mature for reading Stephen King (I guess he can talk about Beverly's boobs because it's not fanfic). And I hope you never leave Wattpad, because if you go on ao3, first you'll faint and then you'll cry about the "atrocities".

You're good at giving writing advice and encouraging new writers, but stop talking about a subject you don't understand and don't want to understand. If I vent here it's because I know that if I write it in your comment box, I'll be the hater and I don't want arguing with people.

[Sorry if I made a mistake. English isn't my first language and I'm really upset right now]

--

There's an interesting thing I read as a kid about language acquisition. It was specifically about vocabulary acquisition among native speakers. The researchers observed that parents, teachers, etc. thought kids should read "good" books that "challenged" them because this would improve vocabulary and comprehension...

But in fact, the thing that most improved reading skills was reading books that were just barely hard. They might have learned only one new word per crappy Nancy Drew, but they read thousands of them and learned thousands of words. The kids reading "good" literature that was much too hard for them learned much less.

Needless to say, I waved this in my mother's face and went back to reading Nancy Drew.

Mom absolutely suffered from Buy The Child Boring And Depressing Literature syndrome, like many intellectual adults. Also, she was terrible at judging a book from the cover blurb and was always buying things she thought would be fun pictures of some cultural moment that were actually about the horrors of war and teenagers fleeing their countries.

I find it hilarious that this person is a Stephen King fan. Nothing wrong with King! He's rightly beloved and famous. But in the minds of Real Literature snobs, he's also fun trash, not Serious Books For Serious People.

That's the danger of snobbery: there's always someone who can show you up.

The only way to win this game is to be completely secure in your own tastes to the point that you don't even care about defending them when people attack.

For me personally, fic made all the difference in my writing ability. I was surprised a few years ago to realize I'd turned into someone who could write the kinds of things I actually want to read. I never used to reread my own work, and I never used to be able to live up to my own standards. Lack of revision was part of it, but that wasn't most of it: I just wasn't very experienced and thus I wasn't very good.

After a decade of writing Yuletide fic and the occasional other thing as the mood struck me, I apparently gained enough experience while not paying attention to level up.

Those 14-year-olds dicking around with Jungkook readerfic or Taekook or Minecraft dumbass RPF or whatever has this person's panties in a twist will probably turn into good writers one day if they just keep writing.

It's a question of stamina as much as anything, and nothing kills stamina faster than elitism.

[your-dads-top]

modern genderism bs aside, what do you think are the biggest issues of the gay male cmmunity/culture? like the kind of thing gay men often dismiss, refuse to adress or improve but you think would make a better community?

Unprotected sex and the overreliance on PrEP. We absolutely need to reduce rates of other STIs and our reliance on Big Pharma because it is going to gouge us in the end.

The lack of low/no cost spaces that we can use as community centers and support groups. Additionally, the fact that we need to have age staggered spaces and need to maintain those boundaries- no, a 50 year old shouldn't be popping up at college night at a bar or bathhouse. We also need to put a major focus on teaching younger gay men about financial responsibility and investing because we have a tendency to be overeducated but underemployed (massive reason for all the OnlyFans gays).

Our unseen housing crisis. All of us being able to 'host' would be game changing in terms of the promotion of stable same-sex relationships. We need to focus on creating resources for gay men to team up on housing so we don't have years of our lives locked into lease after lease being fucked over by straight people whose idea of "gay-friendly" is watching reality shows and getting wine drunk while we pay half their rent and support them in their endeavors to create stable opposite-sex relationships while not receiving the same.

(technically 3A) This is also a big reason why many younger guys hook up with older men. You cannot go for long periods of time not being touched (by someone you can consent to) without it negatively affecting your physical and mental health. If all that's available to you is Cialis dick, you're going to take it.

Our substance abuse issues: 40% of us are smokers and I don't know the stats on meth or coke or any other party drug. Drugs in the bar have led to the shut down of many former spaces because the owners cannot afford to lose their licenses. Additionally, it is shit for our health.

Improving youth spaces so they don't become revolving doors/pipelines to entering adult spaces as a minor, although a big part of this right now has to do with the gendie nonsense. We need to make sure that there is at least one gay man who is responsible and vetted at the helm of these things to knock back any stupid ideas or to challenge these kids whenever they suggest doing something stupid such as downloading Grindr when they aren't even 18. We also need to make sure that they aren't being run as 14-24 because why the fuck should someone old enough to be a kid's teacher be considered as a peer to them.

[a-dragons-journal]

Yes, they were almost a horde in their own right! Our nests were made to be large enough to have two (or large enough to fit everyone if it was polyamorous. We don't judge). We would make them out of grasses, branches, moss, fur from challenging beasts, and all the things we developed as we built our civilization. We would show our nest to the party of interest, and shower them in shows of strength! Cooking, fighting, singing/poetry, dancing, flight, whatever you were best at. You would consumate the acceptance of the courthood by sleeping together in the nest (not in a sexual way. Just sleeping in the nest together, genuinely.) We would also build houses together when enough time had passed, it was almost our proposal to ask to build a house together. We would move the nest into the house first and the village would watch and celebrate.

Meanwhile my partner's culture was a bit similar in shows of strength- but also had that pursuer pursued thing. I had to be taught his culture to understand he was trying to court me, LMAO. I was wondering 'why is this man bringing me the biggest fish in the lake? Is he showing off? Dick.'

He also gifted me proposal jewelry and forgot to tell me that it was proposal jewelry. I found this out in this life by talking with a member of the other species. I would have said yes. but he assumed I had been taught that.

Sorry, I love talking about courting technique differences and the stupid interspecies romantic comedy that was my life.

That's so interesting! And makes a lot of sense to me, on pretty much all counts. It sounds pretty similar to my kind in theory, even if the application is different - look at these things I've done, look at these things I can do, look at the proof of my ability to protect, aren't I attractive? wouldn't I be a good partner? (To put it very bluntly xD)

And gods, interspecies romance is hilarious and definitely one of the funnier things that's a semi-unique experience to otherkin - just one of the many joys of being a nonhuman in a human society xD You are definitely not the only ones I've heard of who've had trips and falls because the courtship methods of the respective partners each flew past the other's head.

[ralbeleren]

Stole this from @xagan (🤩)

Day 1: Your Favorite BL

Let's first talk about the absolute big dick energy of the creator of this challenge to put favorite overall right at the top. That's capstone level shit and probably the most difficult one to answer (for me.) SPOILERS AHEAD, BEWARE!

That being said... my pick for favorite BL would be A Tale of A Thousand Stars!

There's a lot to be said about how much I loved this so I'm going to try an articulate it in a way that isn't too rambling or ridiculous.

Story: I felt like this was such a beautiful love story and it surprised me in the way it handled it. Reading the summary on mydramalist versus actually watching the show was something of a revelation. The summary on MDL makes it seem almost like the fact that Tian is in possession of Torfun's heart is the reason that he develops feelings for Phupha and vice versa. Watching it, I don't feel as though that's necessarily true. (Mostly because canonically Phupha does not have romantic feelings for Torfun, so it's a non-factor.)

That being said-- the pacing and slow burn of the story I felt was done in a really refreshing way. I liked how it didn't suffer from a lot of the pitfalls other BLs do where a lot of the conflict is sexuality confusion based and it was interesting to see a romantic conflict more rooted in class and cultural differences.

I felt like it was all handled quite well and I enjoyed the conflicts and pitfalls that the two main characters faced, especially as it felt like a realistic conflict for people from two different worlds to face. (10/10)

Acting/Cast: All things being equal, I think I first got interested in the series because I'd just come off watching Tonhon Chonlatee and wanted to consume everything I could with Khaotung in it, whom I thought was amazing, and he didn't disappoint in this either. (Shoutout to Longtae.)

The acting and cast in this was absolutely stunning, imo. It had a lot of people I already liked in it (Nammon and Khaotung and Earth and White) as well as people I would come to later have more of an appreciation of as I continued watching more things.

Honestly, I felt the acting in this came across as incredibly genuine, nothing really felt forced, the chemistry between the leads was absolutely stellar and the relationships between everyone came across as very sincere. You really believe the setting through the characters. (10/10)

Music: This is probably the one thing across BLs I don't really have an opinion on. Usually I think it's fitting and helps evoke the right mood and and feeling but it's not something I hugely pay attention to. (?/10)

Rewatch Value: I think this has a lot of rewatch value mostly because I think everything does. Sometimes knowing the "twists" can make it interesting to frame the series again knowing what you know now. That being said this feels like one of those eternal love stories that has almost a fairy tale quality to it that you can just sink into again and again.

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 26: Rocky V

(previous notes: Rocky IV)

A fifth Rocky movie if you can believe it! I saw this in the theater when it came out in 1990. My movie appreciation had become exponentially more sophisticated since the previous movie, but I remember thinking that they were going for something less formulaic when they came out with this. They even brought back the Oscar-winning director of the original Rocky, John Avildson. And surely this character was way too old to still be able to win fights against professional boxers, right? I must say, I don't remember what the story of this movie is.

The intro does a brief throwback to the original name-scroll-plus-fanfare, but now we're showing a recap of the previous movie's final fight during the credits, which promise an appearance by no less than Burgess Meredith.

Do you think there was a conversation where Sylvester Stallone condescendingly told Avildson, "hey, trust me, start the movie with three and a half minutes that is just the end of the last picture, easy money baby, cha-ching ya know?"

The story begins immediately after the Battle of Cold War Symbolism, and we see that he is experiencing physical trauma as a result of Soviet Boxing Technology.

Then we see that they had the idea to introduce a Don King-type character, a really irritating boxing promoter blindsiding him in public to get on his case about a new challenger. Do you think the promoter character will have a nuanced arc.

After a chill father-son catch-up chat, there's an awkwardly-blocked expository scene about how Paulie made some stupid mistake and got tricked into signing away millions of Rocky dollars to a sinister accountant. And then he goes to the doctor who tells him he has irreversible punch damage and can't fight any more. Conflict is looking dire. Do you think Robot Character will arrive soon to cheer us all up.

After selling all of their possessions at an auction, Rocky goes to his old hangouts. He leaves the corner bar looking defeated. They don't show how he was defeated in the bar, but that bar clearly humiliated him.

Then he goes to the old gym, and here's where we have a flashback scene of Burgess Meredith giving him a pep talk. It's kinda nice. But it still feels like we're at the point in the story right before the tide turns and suddenly Rocky is inspired to become supernaturally good at boxing once again. But that's not gonna happen; we're just twenty minutes into the movie.

Rocky has to move back into his old neighborhood. It's dirty and run down, and people gawk.

0:32:00 - For the third time in this movie, Rocky tries to charm his family with a LOOK WHAT I PULLED OUT OF YOUR EAR gag. The characters are barely charmed by this gag. We, the audience, are way way way less charmed.

Fake Don King is buzzing around a lot. He is a dick and he is annoying to every single person alive. It's effective at driving the conflict because he is so persistent at needling Rocky into maybe fighting. But the acting is cringey. Kinda the point, though, right?

Just like that, the old gym where we saw the flashback, which was abandoned and run down, is open for business and full of people. How did that happen?

0:43:30 - Okay now it is me - Zawmer! - who is about to be an unappealing bad guy because I must now report how little tolerance I have for this scene with two child actors. Rocky's son, who got bullied at school earlier, is having his first maybe-we-fancy-each-other conversation with a girl. The dialogue has no chemistry with these kid actors.

I should mention that there is a character named Tommy Gunn. He is a spirited young boxer who has found Rocky and wants Rocky to help him. He is bemulleted and earnest and good-punch-y.

Rocky is going to manage Tommy, but his son wants some attention. Feels like an artificially manufactured conflict. Plus the dumb bullies at school beat him up again. It is hard being the newly-poor child of Rocky Balboa.

0:53:25 - I probably wouldn't have caught this if I hadn't watched the first movie kind of recently, but we cut to a fight, Tommy is fighting someone and it's in the same church that started the first movie. He wins that fight and it becomes a montage of Tommy becoming increasingly successful under Rocky's coaching, plus there is evidence that Rocky's son is trying to get his dad's attention by using some of the gym equipment.

It does seem like it would be fun to make boxing-improvement montages.

Oh, the kid learning boxing was so he could get back at the bullies. Mission accomplished but he clearly thinks his dad was supposed to be even nicer about that, even though he was kind of nice. But he was in the middle of something with Tommy, I mean, come on!

Ooh, and that was just a brief interruption in the boxing-improvement montage, it keeps going. This movie is pretty generous with fun montages.

The falling out scene between Rocky and Kid is not better than a similar scene in an after school special. And it's way worse than that one anti-drugs commercial we all remember, "I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU"

Oh, but then Kid runs away and starts hanging out with Ivan Drago! Drago starts teaching him how to beat up his dad, and says something about "If he die, he die". No. No he doesn't. That doesn't happen. I was just getting a little bored there. What's true here, what's actually true, is that Kid's increasingly rebellious personality has yielded a very, very stupid looking ear chain. It is an earring… with a chain hanging off it at the exact perfect length for no human being to think it looks good. The length of that chain is the chain-length equivalent of the amount of time that Talia Shire closes her eyes that one time.

A new conflict emerges where Tommy is going to sign with Fake Don King. It turns out Rocky had no interest in making any money. You can't blame him really. Rocky's all "don't sell out". But. Dude.

Okay so Tommy Gunn, having divorced Rocky and married Fake Don King, wins the title fight and becomes the new champion. The crowd boos, and they also cheer "Rocky". Rocky is not there. Rocky is watching the fight on TV in the basement and also punching a thing because he can't help it, but the crowd at the fight is like "Rocky" and "boo". I don't quite get it.

This press conference is kind of clearing it up, see, no one thinks it was a legitimate fight, it seemed fakey. There is pandemonium and insultation! It is clearly building to some silly insistence that he, Tommy, should fight Rocky.

Tommy shows up at the bar and he's hopping mad because he ain't nobody's robot and will you accept my challenge Rocky! Fake Don King thought this would turn into an actual arena event, but it's turning into just a back-alley fight like in that Fight-y movie about that Club.

It escalates thusly. As Rocky endures cinematically beautiful flashbacks to fights from earlier movies, they punch each other beneath rumbling trains. I sound mocking but some of it is pretty visually interesting.

Interesting enough to serve as an abstract explanation for how, once again, Rocky is supernaturally good at punch-game. It may be a street brawl this time, and we may have to do without Adrian closing her eyes Just So, but once again the Rocky movie ends with him winning the fight and everyone being very very excited about that. He punches Fake Don King because of how smarmy he is, and even the priest is delighted.

There is a denouement of Rocky and Kid bonding genially by the famous steps, and then the credits roll in front of touching stills from all five movies, and an Elton John song that didn't have as much cultural impact as some other songs we've heard recently.

I guess I like the montages and the quick cinematic choices that are to be found here and there in these movies, but mostly when I think back on them it seems like they are arrangements of familiar modules. In this one, the modules were held together with more flimsy material. I was wrong to think that this movie would be less formulaic. Soon I am done with this project. Soon. SOON.

[firefrightfic]

1/2 I've been feeling a bit if nostalgia for your wolf!Dick/hunter!Jason fic so I read it again to refresh my memory, and now I can't stop thinking about all the stuff that was implied about their future together, so if I can ask for a little update on their life now if you don't mind?

2/2 I suppose Jason has made the obvious decision to officially accepted Dick as his wolf boyfriend/mate, so how is their relationship going so far? What does their life look like now thar they're a couple? Are there perhaps any challenges rhat they have to deal with in their relationship? And most importantly, do they finally have little pups together? I love the idea of them being one cute furry family with tiny doggos that look like Dick and Jason causing trouble all around😭

Aww, totally! I love that verse, but it is one of those stories I feel so satisfied with that (at least for now) I have no plans of doing a sequel to it, so I don’t mind talking about their future a bit here.

Jason definitely ends up accepting Dick’s courtship and agrees to be his mate (as weird as that terminology is to him), though it comes after a good few months of reevaluating their relationship and learning not to think of Dick as his enemy. Which Dick of course takes as a challenge to prove himself further, both with gifts and continued attempts to be more understanding of human norms and culture. He also insists on being much more present in Jason’s life at all times, which includes shifting to human form to accompany him into settlements. Probably with a few incidents along the way where he’s just weird enough to make people suspicious and they have to make a hasty exit most likely because Dick really does not understand the concept of money and paying for things XD

I think the biggest challenges they have are in the differences between their species when it comes to things like relationships and sex. Jason thinks Dick is moving too fast while Dick can’t understand while Jason is taking so long to say yes. Also why is he so shy about being naked? Why doesn’t he want to have sex out in the open? Why Jason, why? But eventually, after enough talking, stubbornness and compromise on both their parts, they will find their equilibrium.

As for having children... yes, I definitely like to think they find a way between magic and Dick’s shapeshifting abilities. Possibly with Talia’s help, since she’s the only sorceress Jason knows and Dick nudges him enough to accept he needs to ask for her assistance (Another thing Dick doesn’t understand. Why Jason doesn’t want pups right away after they mate).

All in all, I like to think they have a very good future filled with fighting monsters and other shenanigans before settling down together in a nice territory Dick finds and wins for them, where Jason builds himself a cabin no, a cave is not a good enough den for a human, Dick and they have a family together.