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zeta-in-de-walls · 2 years

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TommyInnit Times article

Hey, so Tommy apparently did an Interview for the Times. I’m copy and pasting the whole Times article for those who can’t access it. It’s a nice read. Enjoy!

If you’ve never heard of Tom Simons — aka TommyInnit — your children most definitely have. The 18-year-old gamer from Nottingham is one of the world’s most successful online streamers, with 40 million followers across all social platforms hanging on his every (loud) word and anarchic in-joke. You know, the kind of shouty Minecraft-related banter that tweens and teens find hilarious but leaves their parents baffled.

There’s no doubt he’s a master of his craft, with Guinness world records for most viewers of a Minecraft livestream on Twitch, the gamers’ platform, and most followed Minecraft channel. His net worth is estimated to be $10 million. His live show in July at the Brighton Dome sold out within 24 hours and he had a book published this week. Not many gamers make that crossover, or have their first interview in The Times come to that.

Simons must be one of the richest self-made 18-year-olds in the country and has a running joke with his subscribers that he’s a billionaire. (It’s presumably a joke, but he won’t be drawn.) “It’s cool I’m set up for life, but it doesn’t feel relevant to who I am. I don’t spend very much,” he says. “It hasn’t changed how pissed off I was when they upped the cost of the bus fare by 10p to £1.30.” He seems to mean it. This summer he visited fellow YouTube millionaires in their mansions and on private jets in LA, but he’s content living in the two-bedroom flat in Brighton he bought from his landlord, and his mum still orders him a Tesco shop occasionally.

He’s definitely got one over on the kids at his secondary school in Nottingham who made fun of him after they discovered Channelnutpig, the first gaming channel he set up on YouTube aged 11. He was mortified and took it down immediately. “You want to fit in and make friends, and in year 7 you’re beginning to understand that girls exist,” he says. “So it wasn’t that cool shouting, ‘Hello everyone, it’s me, Tom!’ on my channel every week and have people play that back in front of you.”

Two years later he migrated to Twitch, again streaming Minecraft videos and filming banter with his online friends, and at 14 began the TommyInnit YouTube channel that now has 11.8 million subscribers. This time he kept it secret. “Every time we’d be in a science lesson and they’d show an educational video my eyes would be glued to the ‘recommended’ on YouTube in case I popped up and people found out. I kept that secret for so long. I had 100,000 subscribers when people started finding out. “When I got to 100,000 there was this weird new respect everyone had for me. I’d walk through the hallway and they would still glare at me, but no one would shove me. It was like I had a force field around me. It was so strange. I remember a week before someone getting me in a headlock and shoving me around. I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve levelled up!’ ”

Was he bullied at school? He pauses. “Just normal arseholes, not anything more than anyone else. I was quite quiet. I just teetered on the edge of being funny enough that people wouldn’t beat me up. If someone was shoving me around I’d just make jokes and they’d leave me alone. But also funny enough that no one thought I was cool. At all. Which is the exact place I’m in now really.”

Simons is more quiet, thoughtful and endearing in person than he is on his channels or in the book, a collection of silly quotes and zany ramblings. He’s a self-confessed nerd (“My dad and I are massive nerds”) and says that his audience are mostly “the people I would hang out with at school, who were awkward like me”. He adds, “I’m quite anxious in real life, but I’ve always been very social on the internet. If you message someone and they ignore you, who cares? It’s not real life.”

He believes that most of his fans are aged between 14 and 20, but he knows that a lot of younger kids tune in for the Minecraft banter (or possibly the swearing). A year ago he started a YouTube channel under his own name to make real-life videos that now has 5.6 million followers. It’s free to subscribe — his earnings come from the advertising. He recently spent a month in New York vlogging his daily antics, such as I’m literally Spider-Man, in which he dressed up as the superhero, and Making 100 Friends in 1 Day.

Why does he think he’s so successful when there are others creating content along the same lines? He’s perceptive in his answer. “I think it’s the loud funniness — me having fun with my friends. But there’s also this element of warmness. It’s welcoming and safe,” he says. “It’s never toxic or preying on other people. Nothing is at the expense of anyone else. It’s better for the world not to say the easy, rude joke or the put-downs. There’s so much of that on YouTube.”

He says that his parents have always been supportive. His dad, Iain, was in the gaming industry, owning an arcade in Nottingham before setting up the GameCity festival. He now works with his son.

Simons’s mum, Sarah, is an actor-turned-English teacher for adults with disabilities who set up the further education group, UKFEchat on Twitter. “She was on Twitter long before I was,” he says. “Now she has a cool internet personality advising people how to keep safe online.”

She was less cool, he admits, when his GCSEs were approaching in 2020. “She sat me down and said, ‘Right, you have 100,000 subscribers and that’s really good, but you need to take school seriously. I know you’re not revising and your grades are dropping.’ She was right — I was getting grade 3s in science. Then that week we went into a global pandemic and I didn’t do a minute of revision as the exams were cancelled.” He ended up with a very respectable collection of GCSEs, including a 9 (the top grade) in English language. “It was the perfect amount of ‘mum points’ I needed to spend the [lockdowns] in my bedroom making videos.”

He then went to college to study for a BTEC in film and TV. By now he was vlogging and would spend time out filming. “Near the start of the second year I remember saying to my tutor, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t make it in very much.’ He said, ‘Listen, I shouldn’t say this, but we’re teaching you the thing you’re already doing so if I were you I would drop out.’ So I did. I started college with a million [subscribers] and ended it with ten million.”

When his schoolfriends were studying for their A-levels this summer, Simons already had his own flat in Brighton, renting then buying it. However, he says: “A lot of people want to live a lavish life and I just don’t. Mum still orders me a Tesco shop occasionally and will say, ‘I knew you needed groceries.’ I’ll say, ‘How on earth did you know that from Nottingham?’ ”

He says that his parents were no pushovers when he was younger and his dad refused to let him play Grand Theft Auto 5, even though his friends were allowed. “He said: ‘It’s got strippers in; you murder in that game. You’re 12, you can’t look at that, I’m sorry.’ They were really on top of it because they understood [gaming] and they communicated with me about it. When it turned into a career, they said, ‘OK, it’s important. We get it.’ But they’d still make sure I didn’t stay in my room all day. I’d still have to walk the dogs and [we’d] have dinner as a family.”

Simons doesn’t know how his career will unfold. He’s also getting used to being recognised. “Walking through Brighton I can hear my name being whispered all around me. It was a big adjustment. I became a bit scared of people after being inside for a year [during the pandemic]. I forgot how big the world was beyond my screen, but I’m loving it now.”

TommyInnit Says . . . The Quote Book by Tom Simons, curated and edited by Wilbur Soot, is published by Quercus, £14.99

#tommyinnit #it wants you to subscribe to see it online so here:

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attorneys-against-court-violence · 2 months

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You know you've written an effective & terrifying villain when he's scarier OUTSIDE the court than in.

In court, while Manfred does end up bending a lot of the rules, there are still rules when working behind the bench. The Judge still has enough power to refuse his demands/objections (even if he's too intimidated to try most of the time). He plays the game well and you've seen him do it twice, both of them requiring Maya or Larry to save Phoenix's ass and the latter getting a Guilty verdict before the Judge retracts his decision. But Manfred is still beholden to the rules of the game and not even he has total control over what said rules are.

Out of court? No such luck, buddy. No one's going to kick him out the room for being in contempt or anything so petty. He can get away with anything provided he isn't caught. You know what he's willing to stoop to when he's limited by the rules of the game and even techinically won at one point - just what is he willing to do when there are no such restrictions?

That initial terror is followed by an insulting deflation; he doesn't even remember your name. You, the lawyer who managed to put up a fight against him for two days and dodged a Guilty verdict, yet he doesn't even recognise you when you're both face-to-face. All that hard work? All those last-second narrow triumphs? Those were nothing to him. Edgeworth is going to be convicted for Hammond's death or DL-6, no matter how hard some mere defense attorney and his assistant fight against it. Why even acknowledge their existence when they're practically redundant? Manfred has 40 years of precident on his side and you just have a short string of lucky breaks. You're challenging a god with a pointy twig. Good luck with that!

It helps that he's an absolute unit; the mere physical presence is enough to assure you that you aren't winning any altercation with him if it ever comes to it. He just stands there at attention, facing directly towards you with his eyes locked into yours the whole time (though not calling attention to it as much as Gant's infamous stare). There's just no way around it; you have to look this undefeatable giant dead in the eye in the single worst place you could have bumped into him and give him every reason under the sun to stop you in your tracks.

All of that manages to make him pulling out a NON-LETHAL weapon meant for self-defense a dreadful turn. What's more, it plays into his cunning and foresight as well; there won't be a track of evidence that he attacked anyone in the evidence room so there's no point in trying to press him on it or - heaven forbid - try to get that evidence back. The letter especially he could easily destroy without a trace. The only reason he could even be taken down was Maya snatching the bullet from him without his notice - a clue that doesn't hold any relevance until she nudges Phoenix to make the then grand leap of logic towards accusing Manfred of the murder, which requires an unorthodox explaination of where the second bullet went and an even wilder way of proving its existence.

The encounter with Manfred in the police records room sticks out in my mind for how it sets a man who's terrifying when restrained into a place where anything - from being punched with bourgey knuckle-dusters to being surrounded by mafiosos - could happen to you. It's the most intimidating the living legend had ever been in that case. Other villains will later surpass him by threatening us from inside detention or even beyond the grave, but Manfred's simple yet effective method of shaking you to your core is too memorable to discount because later villains get more elaborate with their schemes.

#ace attorney #manfred von karma #turnabout goodbyes #ace attorney spoilers

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soolarity · 2 years

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Five Hargreeves SFW Alphabet

Five Hargreeves x gn!Reader - 5.6k words

Warnings: general spoilers for season 3, mild violence, food mentions, pretty angsty stuff five went through

Summary: An alphabetic collection of Five Hargreeves headcanons before, during, and after the apocalypse with you.

Here's my Masterlist!

A/n: Another work in the same month?? what a shock! This is sort of redemption for the sheer angst of my first five fic; out of time. I had so much fun writing this! But I’m also drained because holy fuck it’s a lot of headcanons. If you do want to know more headcanons though about five, feel free to send a request or an ask in my inbox! I’ll be more than happy to write short Five headcanons because he’s just so fun to write. Anyways, enjoy and please leave comments<3

A – Affection

“how do they give or show affection?”

He would definitely be closed off and distant at first and especially around other people. It would take a long while, possibly even years to gain his affection. But once he does, he shows it through acts of service, small yet still important. Maybe he’d make you another cup of coffee or your preferred beverage, or he’d remember small details and interests about you that he’d bring up later on. He would also bring with souvenirs from wherever he goes, pushing it into your hands and grumbling that he had it and didn’t want it even though he actually bought it specifically for you. Behind doors, he would occasionally show physical affection especially when he’s stressed or jittery and needs someone to ground him to reality.

B – Beauty

“what would they find beautiful in their s/o?”

He would definitely find intellect beautiful. It doesn’t matter if you’re academically gifted or more street smarts, he would just love an s/o that is smart and knowledgeable about their passions even if it didn’t exactly align with his. Although he would appreciate it if he had someone to talk and debate about math equations and physics to, he also appreciates someone who listens to him madly rambling and add input into his ideas, no matter how relevant or not.

C – Comfort

“how would they comfort them? how would they like to be comforted?”

Five spent his entire childhood homeschooled in the academy and his adulthood in the isolating apocalypse so needless to say his empathy and comforting skills aren’t the greatest. He would be a listener, maybe not the best because he would interrupt to give (well-meant) solutions to your problems. He wouldn’t know how to act through physical comfort at first, instead he’d hover around you and sit beside you like a cat. After a long, long while he would be open to hugs but you’d usually have to initiate it. He’d grumble about how your tears would ruin his shirt but he doesn’t move away.

would have a hard time accepting comfort from others at first since he had to basically deal with the apocalypse by himself for more than 40 years and then the whole commission spiel. He gets antsy with any kind acts at first, expecting it to be fueled by a deeper nefarious motive. Once he does actually accept comfort, he’d appreciate someone who listens to him earnestly because most of the things he says sounds surreal to other people and he isn’t often taken seriously. He would be averse to physical comfort at first, nearly going to fight mode the first time he receives a hug, but later on he wouldn’t mind a hand on his shoulder or in his own hand, especially during difficult apocalypse flashbacks because it grounds him to reality.

D - Dance

“do they like to dance? how would they dance?”

Five would absolutely know how to dance, after all, Reginald forced them to learn how to formally dance in their rigorous training. Would he like to dance though? Definitely not sober, he’d have to at least be halfway through blackout drunk to even consider dancing. Or at the end of the world, seeing as how he had both at Sloane and Luther’s wedding. Once he has enough liquor in his system to make a regular person barely upright, he’d be pulling out the moves left and right. 50’s rock n’ roll, salsa, waltz, you call it he’ll dance it. Well, before he throws up from dizziness and passes out in an elevator. Outside of drunk dancing, I think he’d only dance if it’s required in the mission to blend in with the crowd or if he truly feels safe and in a sappy mood, he’d slowly sway with you once the apocalypse is finally over and his family and you are safe.

E - Excitement

“how do they act when they’re excited?”

He would vibrate at a volatile speed and a single poke to him would send him bouncing around the walls—I’m kidding. He would definitely be jittery though, bouncing his leg nonstop and grinning happily that’s slightly also unnerving due to the menacing glint in his eyes. He had lost hope countless of times during the apocalypse so he learned to stop hoping and being excited, but once he could finally be excited about something, he would stop at nothing to achieve it.

F – Future

“what are their plans in the future?”

13-year-old him would have probably planned to successfully implement time travel and become the world’s greatest professor or physicist in a prestigious university but 58-year-old Five wants nothing more than to retire. For the past 41 years, his future plans had just been to survive, figure out the equation, and go back home, he didn’t think about the rest. Now once the apocalypse is finally resolved, he’d plan to retire from it all. He’d love to travel around and do road trips with you while also nagging every time about any inconvenience like an old man (because he is). He doesn’t see himself settling down and having a child, mostly because he think’s he’s quite old to have a child and the unresolved family trauma still haunts him every time. He wouldn’t mind getting married, he’d love the tax benefits. Maybe the two of you would be the constantly traveling relatives of Claire, giving her cool presents and souvenirs from your travels together. And after a year of travelling around the world, he would want a suburban house with a picket fence and a nice wide garden. He’d have a field day gardening, planting flowers, and maybe even building a koi pond in the corner.

G – Gifts

“what gifts would they give you?”

He’d give you things you randomly said you needed or wanted some days ago and hand it over to you without a word. It could be a hobby gift or a handy item for your job or maybe something related to your interests. He’d also give you things that he likes and just pass it off as a gift even though he’d probably use it more than you would. He would also gift you acts of service like teleporting to get an item you missed or doing a chore you’ve been procrastinating to do without you asking.

H – Hold

“how would they hold you? how would they like to be held?”

He usually keeps his distance towards others, respecting their boundaries and at minimum only touching them to push or pull them in a certain direction out of frustration. He had done a lot of fucked up shit with his hands so he isn’t the type to give pats or hugs in affection. Although a scenario where he would be most likely to hold you would be if either of you were in a near-death encounter. It can be almost getting shot by commission agents or the impending apocalypse but he would roam over you with his hands, checking frantically for any injuries before holding you desperately. He’d grasp the back of your shirt tightly and slump over you in relief and desperation that you were alive and whole. After retiring from the apocalypse, there would be more fleeting touches such as a brush of hands or a protective hand on your back.

As to how he would like to be held, he definitely wouldn’t want to be treated like fragile glass. He’s a 58-year-old assassin, he doesn’t need pity or caution (or at least that’s what he’d say). Five would appreciate a solid hold, one that isn’t hesitant or scared that they might break him into pieces. He wants someone to hold him together and tether him to the ground on the occasion he jumps too far. He’d appreciate hand holding and the occasional hug when things get too much. As for cuddling, Five doesn’t have the time to cuddle in the midst of the apocalypse, but after successfully retiring without another apocalypse or the Commission hunting him down he’d be more open to the idea. The years of isolation definitely made him touch starved so the first time the two of you cuddled he’d toss and turn to adjust to the new sensation of being held. He’d like to be the big spoon but when he gets nightmares (which are frequent) he secretly craves to be the little spoon. He’d also cling to your side like a koala in his sleep with his face in the crook of your neck but vehemently denies cuddling you once he wakes up.

I – Ideal

“what’s their ideal date like?”

Due to the apocalypse, he has no time to consider planning any dates with an s/o, but after he retires, he would plan a simple yet cheesy dinner date under candle light. He doesn’t have much ideas about dating and courting due to being stuck in the apocalypse since the start of his teenagerhood but he distantly remembers having small dinner dates with his previous wife Delores whenever he’d scavenged a particularly good wine or food in the rubble. Now that he’s with you, he’d definitely struggle a bit with the whole dating thing but just give him a nudge in the right direction and he would quickly pick it up. He'd like private dates such as dinners or movie marathons at home to catch up on all the media he couldn’t enjoy before. He would be less open to public dates such as museum dates or zoo outings or pottery and painting classes, since he would always be hypervigilant and on the look out for any Commission goons despite being retired, or he’d pick a fight with the museum curator or art instructor. It's a flaw he works to fix but Five feels most at ease with only you in the safety of your home.

J – jealousy

“do they get jealous easily?”

Five would have an immense amount of trust for his s/o to the point where he’d consider you his close confidant, best friend, and partner, so he wouldn’t get jealous easily. He trusts that whoever you interact with that it’s just platonic and just in case the other person did indeed have other motives such as flirting with your or something, he would trust you to put a stop to it or walk away from it. If by chance you were oblivious to the other person’s advances, he would step in civilly and bluntly tell the other person that you’re taken, not out of jealousy but more out of concern for your safety. If by the smallest chances you actually flirt back (which is a dumb decision honestly) he would just immediately cut to the chase and tell you ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ Depending on whether it was just your accidental over friendliness or something other he would either tell you that he didn’t like it and it seemed like you were actually interested in the other person or he would break the relationship with you if you weren’t actually faithful to him.

K – Kisses

“how would they kiss you? how frequently?”

Five isn’t really comfortable with PDA so kisses weren’t frequent, especially with the threat of the apocalypse onto them. At most he’d kiss your temple or forehead quickly as a habit before turning back to whatever equations he’d be solving. Although if Five was drunk, that was a completely different story. Five is an unpredictable drunk, but most often than not he’d toss all of his pride out of the window and show affection openly to you even in front of all of his siblings. Behind closed doors, he would be more comfortable kissing you. He’d be fond of temple and forehead kisses or if you were taller than him, he would do hand kisses, especially on your palms if he was feeling extra sentimental (which was a rare occurrence).

As for you kissing him, he would turn tomato red if you ever tried to kiss him in front of others and grumble or yell in embarrassment. Don’t take it to heart though, as much as he’d love to keep up his cold and unaffectionate act around others, he’d melt into a puddle when no one’s looking.

L - Love language

“how would they show that they love you? what love language do they enjoy to receive?”

Five’s language would be acts of service. Usually, he considers his time very precious and he always tries to make the most out of everything, discarding anything else that wasn’t relevant to his mission. For you though he would take time out of his day to check up on you and your well-being, especially in grueling times like running from an apocalypse. He’d also use his powers to fetch items for you and always arrive on time whenever you asked.

For receiving love language, he likes it when you spend quality time with him. It doesn’t matter if its brainstorming the next plan or frantically scribbling formulas on walls or drinking coffee in the morning in the kitchen. Five really treasures small quiet moments where there is nothing he can do but sit down with you and accompany each other in silence or soft conversation. It’s a rare break from the bumbling chaotic tornado that was his family.

M - Melt

“what are the things you do that makes them melt?”

He’s a tough person to get through and crack, but one thing that makes him melt every time is watching you fight. The reason why he would have you as an s/o in the first place is because he trusts you enough with his secrets, his heart, and his mind. He is constantly worrying about whether his family was alive or not and whether they could live beyond a few days, so seeing you fight and defend yourself puts his mind at ease and reassures him that he chose the right person to trust. Five also melts whenever he sees you interact with anyone of his siblings, whether you’re entertaining Klaus’ insane tangents, bond with Luther over his records collection or softly chatting with Viktor about anything, he adores it when you get along with his siblings and he definitely sees you as a part of the umbrella family now.

Another much more niche sight that makes his cold walls fall down and his insides uncharacteristically gooey is watching you stand in front a wall full of complex equations with your back turned from him. He doesn’t know specifically why the sight of you frowning in confusion at the lines of numbers affected him much but it took him a while to recover and stop looking at you with adoration. Although you might have not understood the complex formulas he’s written out, you try as you roam your eyes throughout the whole surface. It was like as if he exposed his entire heart and mind to you in a tangled-up ball of equations and you’re trying to untangle it, which made it even more complicated and caught you within the threads. Five often thinks back to it with a fond smile before frowning again once Klaus asks him what he’s smiling about.

N – Nickname

“what would they call you? what would they like to be called?”

Five has always been blunt in refusing any other name ever since Grace gave them ‘regular’ names when they were children. For some reason Five sticked to him and he refused to change it. He wasn’t even that hung up on the whole ranking system either, he couldn’t care less who was the leader or number 1 among them. Five just had a certain ring to it. So, he’d be generally opposed to any over-the-top nicknames like ‘baby’ or ‘sweetheart’ and hearing ‘darling’ gives him flashbacks to the Handler and he’d rather not relive the things that woman did to him. He unwillingly has nicknames from Klaus, always unamused at whatever new name the séance would create for him. Although after a long time of being with him and possibly in retirement he wouldn’t mind ‘honey’ or ‘hon’. It was sweet but not overly and he responded to it whenever you say it from a room in your shared home. Once though when you accidentally slipped up and called him honey in front of his siblings his ears turned firetruck red in embarrassment but teleported to you nevertheless. Allison and Lila never let him live it down.

O – Obvious

“how obvious would they make their love for you?”

To the untrained eye, it was subtle, almost silent. He’d casually brush arms with you or hand you an item when you asked. He’d steal glances at you but he was a trained assassin so he was sneaky. To his siblings who know him and his habits well though, it is more obvious than Five would like it to be. Diego would catch Five’s eyes sometimes lingering a bit longer than usual on you. Viktor often saw Five prepare coffee exactly for two people. Lila once barged in a room searching for Stanley to catch the two of you talking in soft voices and softer looks, she had never once seen Five so un-hostile before. The entire family watched in a mix of fondness, shock, and slight disgust (lovingly) as Five became softer and more considerate around you.

P – Pets

“would they want pets? what pets would they have?”

Five hasn’t really though about adopting a pet before because he was so preoccupied with apocalypse after apocalypse after another apocalypse. When he finally retires though, having a pet wouldn’t be his top priority but he wouldn’t be entirely against it either. He would be the type to have unusual pets such as reptiles or maybe fish (although with Carmichael, maybe not fish). In the comics, Five has a small dog named Mr. Pennycrumb so he would most likely adopt a small dog, maybe a senior dog, and it would be the exact opposite of Five. There’s just something about seeing Five, the greatest assassin in the entire timeline, with a tiny hyperactive dog that couldn’t weigh more than 18 pounds. He is neutral towards animals but he would absolutely have a soft spot for Mr. Pennycrumb and let him run around his garden even though a flower will be uprooted by the excited tornado that is Mr. Pennycrumb. Five would carry Mr. Pennycrumb often and reluctantly let him back to the ground once he realized he needed his hands to do something. A favorite past time of Mr. Pennycrumb and Five is teleport-chase where Mr. Pennycrumb would chase Five as he teleports around the house until the both of them wear each other out.

The Hargreeves family would definitely get whiplash when you bring Mr. Pennycrumb to any holiday family gatherings. Klaus would rub his eyes repeatedly, questioning whether the dog was real or another hallucination, Luther first thought it was a stray dog that randomly waltzed into the mansion and try to adopt Mr. Pennycrumb before being heavily threatened by Five. Allison would just stare in shock while Claire would adore Mr. Pennycrumb, spoiling the dog with endless pets and belly rubs.

Q – Quiet

“how are quiet moments with them?”

Quiet moments are rare when all Hargreeves siblings are gathered together, some mischief or argument would always spiral into a rambunctious event. Fortunately, Five had the power to teleport anywhere he pleases which made it much easier to sneak away from Diego and Klaus fighting over a donut and into a much calmer place. If it was outside, you and Five would sit beside each other in silence, he would drink in his surroundings, bask at the intact buildings and sulfur-free blue sky, and mostly you, alive and breathing. Indoors, he would have some sort of physical contact with you, whether it be a hug, holding hands, or laying his head on your lap. Your presence away from other prying eyes made Five more relaxed and less likely to bounce around and wear himself out by thinking too much about everything. Your scent and your touch would silence every anxious intrusive thought that dared to interrupt his moment of peace.

R – Romantic

“how romantic are they?”

Five isn’t a romantic, he doesn’t know shit about modern dating and pet names and PDA, the closest he’s ever had to romance was his previous wife Delores but she was a coping mechanism he formed to keep himself from going insane in the apocalypse, and she was a mannequin. So, Five isn’t the most romantic, sappy, sentimental person, that title goes to Luther, but he when he loves, he loves the deepest and most intensely. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone for you, hell he won’t hesitate to die for you. When Five Hargreeves loves, he loves them with everything he has, even if it meant little to nothing but himself and his weary hands. He would risk everything to make sure you’re alive and safe and he wouldn’t know how to function if something happened to you. Although he isn’t the most perfect romantic partner, he would get the sun and moon and every star in the sky for the person he loves.

S – Safe

“how safe would they feel around you?”

Five was overly cautious to the point of being almost paranoid constantly and for a good reason. He had to fight ever since he was a child and endure the tortuous training from Reginald, survive by himself in an apocalypse for the other half of his life, then kill for a shady organization he had no choice but to join in. Now he was back with his family but constantly under threat of some sort of apocalypse and the Commission at the same time, he hadn’t had a second to relax and feel safe. Whenever Five was around you, as much as he’d like to say he’s comfortable around you, there is always a part of his mind overworking in the background for any threats or surprises. It would take him a while after the apocalypse to fully relax, but luckily with you by his side, he willed himself to ease into life without constantly looking behind him for a bullet or a knife. He would feel safe whenever your hand is in his, giving him comfort despite running away from enemies. He would feel safe when your arms are around him, fully trusting you not to stab him in the back like so many others did before. He would feel safe together with you in your shared home with Mr. Pennycrumb after the apocalypse. It almost felt too good to be true, almost like a dream or a figment of his imagination before you’d show him it was reality by squeezing his hand and pecking his cheek.

T – Take care

“how would they take care of you if you’re injured or sick? how would you take care of them?”

He’d immediately nag you about not taking care of yourself, which is bold considering he has been running for 45 years on nothing but caffeine, adrenaline, and sheer spite. He’d immediately wrestle you to bed, confining you until you get better and you know that there’s no way you could sneak out of the door without him immediately teleporting in front of you and bringing you back to bed arrest. Five would rush immediately to patch you up or place a cooling towel on your forehead. Even though his actions might be a bit rough, the concern and care bleeds through his actions and you don’t mind if he dabs antiseptic a little bit too hard or if he covers you with a blanket a little bit too tightly.

Due to the Hargreeves’ enhanced physiology, they rarely get sick. Oftentimes it would only be a small cough that would last less than a day but once a year they fall with the worst cold known to man. Five has it the worst, especially with how the stubbornly pushes himself to the limit until his eventual crash and burn. It would be difficult to take care of Five, he constantly tries to teleport himself out of bed until he falls from exhaustion. Luckily in retirement he has all the time in the world to recover and heal, even though you have to remind him more often than not. As a child he was picky with food whenever he was sick, often being forced to eat Grace’s chicken soup after numerous futile attempts to reject it. Now with you, Five eats whatever soup you make without hesitation, thankful that he had you to take care of himself even though he found it hard sometimes to accept it. Five would be torn in being extra clingy and wanting to cuddle with you and wanting to stay 50 miles away from you because he’d be scared that you’d catch the cold that he had and also become sick because of him. Until eventually he gives in and surrenders to the cuddling (you fall ill after a few days like how he predicted and he returns the favor of nursing you back to health).

U – Unique

“what is a trait that is unique to them?”

He is an absolute neat freak. He loves having all of his items in order and would dust everything until not a single spec of dust was left. When the Hargreeves’ visited your shared home (much to Five’s dismay), they were impressed by the sheer cleanliness and organization of the place, almost resembling an Ikea display house more than an actual lived-in home. Ever since Five was a child he was one if not the most organized of the umbrella children. His childhood room was immaculate every time, not even a single physics text book out of place. You would have assumed for it to be an adult’s room if it weren’t for the toy airplane model hung on the ceiling and the small twin sized bed. Since the apocalypse, his cleaning habits have gone to possibly concerning levels. He had to survive in a desolate apocalypse, anything sanitary or clean of rubble was a luxury Five rarely encountered. So, once he was able to retire with you and have his own home, he made sure to take care of everything and never once take the intact house for granted. The only times Five would be caught with scattered items or a messy environment was when he was under extreme stress. Five would be too preoccupied in stopping the apocalypse to care about cleaning any mess and would just start scribbling on the walls frantically. Luckily you picked up on the habit and only stocked up on washable or whiteboard markers in your home, just in case Five needed to go on another math marathon.

W – Wish

“what is their greatest wish?”

Five’s greatest wish is for his family to live long, healthy, and happy lives. It was what kept him going through all those years, to have the opportunity to warn his siblings about the future and save them from their deaths. As much as he loves to complain about his brothers or roll his eyes at his sister, he would sacrifice anything for them, and he technically already did. Five’s survival instincts were held together by the glue that was the thoughts of his family, it had been a long 41 years and it would be more than impressive if he hadn’t thought about giving up at least once, but he kept on running back against the tide of time to save the ones he loves.

X – Xmas

“how would they spend their holidays with you?”

Five’s memory of his childhood was foggy, it was impressive he even remembered bits and pieces of it considering his age and the trauma from his childhood, but Five never once remembered celebrating Christmas as a child in the Umbrella Academy. Reginald was a man (or monster) of logic and thought that holidays based off of religion and culture was unnecessary and stupid so he just remembered spending Decembers with his siblings looking wistfully at strangers decorating across the street or walking with gifts in hand.

In the apocalypse, Five had no reason to celebrate holidays, he barely even knew what day it was half of the time. He tried to keep track of time through clocks and calendars but no other calendars went beyond 2019 and most clocks were broken or eventually stopped working. Five didn’t want to waste resources celebrating alone in the apocalypse, so he eventually forgot of it entirely.

After retiring, Five had to adjust to normal life again, but not alone. You had introduced him to celebrating milestones and holidays. You made hot coco (although Five found it too sweet and swapped it out with coffee with a festive whipped cream), you watched cheesy hallmark movies, and you decorated your home. You had also convinced the Hargreeves siblings to arrange another gathering despite the horrors that might unleash having all Hargreeves siblings in the same place once more. Five and you were finally the ones decorating their house across the street and walking home with heavy bags filled to the brim with gifts. Five surprisingly was an amazing gift giver. He had a talent in knowing exactly what the other person wished for, whether the gift was an item said in a passing conversation or something useful to them. In the celebration Five was lovingly suffocated (Five’s wording) by his siblings for his gifts and most importantly his presence that brought the group together as a family.

Y – Yearn

“what do they do when they miss you?”

Five was bitterly familiar with the feeling of yearning, he had a whole 45 years to be friends with it in the apocalypse and in the Commission. He had a love-hate relationship with it, if you will. With that many years of yearning for his family and his past, Five had developed a system to overcome it. Was it a healthy one? Probably not. He would toss himself into his work, figuring out equations or assassinating targets to distract himself from the aching pain of longing. For you, Five surprisingly hasn’t had much opportunities to yearn yet. Although Five doesn’t look like he’s clingy, he most definitely is. Wherever you are, he also appears. He cannot be further than a 4-meter distance away from you. When in the rare case that he is, he tosses his entire focus onto his work and his mission again, frantically finding the quickest way back to you. Once you finally return from what you had to go to, he’d visibly slump in relief. He would casually ask you how it went before checking if you had been injured in any way, but internally he would be so relieved that he wouldn’t have to yearn for you to come back because you were back and you were with him.

Z – Zzz

“how do they sleep?”

He has two sleep modes, A. He sleeps with basically his eyes open and even the smallest noise will immediately send him to fight or flight mode, or B. He sleeps like an old man and is dead to the world until 6am when he punctually wakes up every single time.

The first sleeping habit wasn’t fully there during his academy training childhood but it fully hammered into him once he worked as the Commission’s temporal assassin. He had to be ready at any moment and never let his guard slip, but if often lead him to be more worn out and tired. In his more youthful days, he would’ve turned sloppy and could have been almost overpowered by his opponent, but now he has trained himself to work with even the smallest amount of energy just for survival.

The second sleeping habit was from when he was truly a child, before the grueling missions and training. He was always the last of the siblings to wake up and would have been the last ones to arrive at the table if it wasn’t for his teleportation abilities. After retiring it would take him a while but eventually, he started sleeping like that again. He could finally rest easy with him clinging onto you like a koala and not be woken even by Luther’s heavy footsteps. His habit of waking up precisely at 6am came from his age, (well mental not physical) he woke up exactly at the same time the sun rose.

Although he was an insomniac due to going for days without sleep to try and stop the apocalypse, now that he was retired, he had no reason to skip sleep, he had all the time in the world. He also surprisingly isn’t a night person despite his insomnia, he would much rather sleep at 9pm after reading for a bit and wake up bright and early (which is very old man of him). If you were a morning person, he’d spend a few minutes in bed with you, basking at the new sunshine before shuffling the both of you to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. If you weren’t a morning person, he would wake up first and stare at your sleeping self with so much love and adoration that Five would rather die than be caught in the act. You would wake up to an empty bed in slight panic but the smell of pancakes and the clanking of pans in the kitchen would quell your anxieties as you go to the kitchen to greet a cooking Five good morning. :)

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iamumbra195 · 4 months

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!Spoilers for pretty much all of Teenage Mercenary!

I just need to get my facts down about some of the things going on in the background cause it's confusing to me and I have shitty memory. This is pretty much how I've interpreted everything that is going on, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

Iron is the head of the whole organization that Camp and Forest were a part of. They take in jobs and send them down as orders to either Camp or Forest. Forest was formed after camp and considered inferior to the numbers

None of the numbers know where these orders are coming from and they are currently investigating

They are likely the ones who killed those 26 numbers Ijin disabled during his escape, ordering someone from Forest to do it or directly ordering a traitor number (my theory) to do it because Mad Dog didn't seem to know who killed them that day. They probably killed them because they were becoming too uncontrollable and there was no real leverage they had over them to keep them working for them the way they were doing to Alice with her little brother and Ijin's escape was their best bet to get rid of them all as they were incapacitated and unable to protect themselves

The Camp has completely dissolved at this point in the story and of the 14 still living, we only know 9 so one of the missing five is likely a traitor. Maybe all five of them are and they've been integrated into Forest. 002 doesn't seem to care much about them so it's possible. Or maybe they just died. Who knows?

SW is one of Iron's competitors and is growing relevant in the world of weapons export and war. When Jiye's brother reached out to them to kill Jiye, they were more than happy to do so as that would be a blow to their competitor and would give them a way to destroy SW from the inside if the brother signed a contract with him like he initially wanted to. Ijin obviously ruined this.

The Vorrei Family (which consists of Sophia the blond girl, her brother, and Chairman Andrew) is currently in a contract with Iron but is heavily considering signing a contract with SW and their subsidiary SW defence and whether or not this happens will help with the growth of their weapons export business

This obviously angered Iron and they sent Anna to kidnap Sophia and her brother under the care of SW which would of course ruin the relationship between Chairman Andrew and SW but Ijin ruined this. This created a very good relationship between the Vorrei Family and SW

Alice has infiltrated SW because Iron wants insider information on SW so they could effectively ruin them from the inside, however the mess with the numbers and 004 being a presumptuous little prick (I love him regardless lmao) ruined everything for them

Now the timeline of Ijin's backstory

The plane crashed ten years ago when he was nine (Korean age so technically he was eight and is currently eighteen)

The Camp picked him up from the plane crash and patched him up, forcing him to join the whole training with no memory of himself or his past while speaking in a foreign language. He was trainee #982 out of the initial 1000 ppl that were at the Camp

He met 005 almost immediately after joining

Inhumane training and missions had to have continued at least until he was twelve or thirteen before the initial 1000 was whittled down to a measly group of 40.

During that training, he constantly went against the Camp's teachings, never leaving behind anyone who was injured and taking those who were dying to a peaceful area for them to pass away in rather than dying in the middle of a battlefield. He was punished for it a lot but it made most of the other trainees trust him and see him as their leader. Some of them admired 002 and regarded him as the leader and were later upset when they saw that Ijin was granted the number 001 but 002 was fine with it and followed Ijin's instructions

At some point, Mad Dog assigned him as leader of the numbers and went to kill 016 because he collapsed during a roll call of some kind but Ijin got in his way. They got into a fight and that's when Ijin gave Mad Dog his scar. Mad Dog has hated him since

He remained at camp until he was fourteen and at some point, he had killed a mother and daughter, a memory which stuck with him and traumatized him in a certain way. I believe it also provoked his 'betrayal'.

He disobeyed orders from Camp and Mad Dog sent most of the numbers after him. He incapacitated 26 and some of the other numbers like 006 turned a blind eye to let him escape however they became angry when they were told that he killed the 26 numbers even though he didn't

He was heavily injured and passed out in a river where he was found by Lucas, the mercenary village chief.

All the stuff in the village and the looters (Immortal and his gang) happened and then he became Jin for the next five years. He briefly ran into 018 and that one girl who tried to kidnap Jiye during this time and saved Sophia from her kidnapper. Saving Evelyn and her mother also helped jog his memory and remember his mother telling him "--Jin, I love you" and while the plane was crashing with an oxygen mask on his face, his parents hugged him and told him "--Jin, Mommy and Daddy love you very much." I love the fact that he started to remember after he saved Evelyn and her mom, it's such a nice detail man.

Also, someone thank Grandpa Lucas for trying to protect Ijin from the horrors of being a mercenary despite already knowing he was a child soldier. He bandaged him up after he got injured and told him to take better care of himself, gave him a lot of food and practically raised Ijin for a good chunk of his teenage years. His last message to Ijin (Chp. 163) and Ijin crying for the very first time hit me right in the feels

Ijin met Yeona's dad during his time as Jin and after the dad died, word got back to the Head of SW about Ijin.

Major Kang was attacked six months before canon and because he was Jiye's fiance and this was clearly an opportunity to meet his son's savior (and a potential asset for his developing weapons subsidiary but that's another topic -__-), he hired Jin to save the Major and his troop

I do believe SW was involved in finding Ijin's family both in order to fulfill Yeona's dad's last wish to get Ijin out of the warzone he lived in and because Grandpa Shin is shady af and probably wants to use Ijin. I don't think he's a bad person but he doesn't really have Ijin's best interests in mind. He's a businessman, after all. Good men don't make good businessmen.

Ijin being there has also brought him a ton of opportunities and prevented him from losing his granddaughters and a fuck ton of opportunities if Ijin hadn't been there to save the day so it makes sense that he and Jiye as well, are so adamant about keeping him by their side

But anyway, that pretty much concludes my info dump with a mix of my personal interpretations for now. Like I said before feel free to correct me if I've said something wrong

Now take this random badass panel of my children :)

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unreliablesnake · 1 year

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I shouldn't love you, yet here we are (Joel Miller x reader) - part 1

Summary: Years after your fruitless “Joel phase”, Tommy shows interest in you, and the playful flirting shifts into your first date. Joel isn't too fond of the idea of you dating his brother.

Note: This is gonna be a series with shorter and longer chapters. There's Tommy x reader stuff, but they won't last. Especially with Joel around. / I take full responsibility for mistakes and typos and stuff. I didn't proofread it. I'm so bad. / If you want to know when I post new stuff, follow @unreliablesnakefics and hit the get notifications button. I don't have a taglist.

Part 2

Warnings: afab!reader (will be relevant in later chapters), dbf!Joel, age gap (reader is around 30, Joel is in his early 40s), no outbreak, I fucked with time and this takes place a few years after the beginning of the game, not the series. (So it's the mid/late-2010s)

Despite moving out to an apartment in downtown Austin a few years ago, you still visited your parents every weekend, sometimes staying over in your room for the night if they invited some people over and you had fun. This was one of those Saturdays when your dad turned on the grill and held a good old barbecue party in his home for a few friends, some you hadn’t seen in months.

The Millers came over too, of course. Joel and Sarah lived a few houses down the street, while Tommy usually tagged along because why not. Your father loved them, especially the older Miller, but you were more interested in his brother with whom you had been flirting with back and forth for months now.

“I swear your dad’s burgers are the best in town,” he said with his mouth full. He wasn’t wrong; your dad was a chef in a very good restaurant so he definitely knew what he was doing. “You sure you’re not hungry? I’ll give you a bite if you want,” he offered.

“He tested a new recipe on me for lunch. I’m full, trust me,” you replied with a laugh as you sat down next to him on the sofa, sitting so close that your thighs brushed.

Tommy didn’t even flinch. It was oh-so-natural for the two of you by now, like you had already been dating for a long time. But it wasn’t the case, for some reason he hadn’t asked you out yet. It hurt your pride, sure, but you assumed he just wasn’t sure if that’s what you wanted. You were giving him the signs to make him understand you were ready, but he just wasn’t picking up on them.

Out of the corner of your eye you noticed Joel talking to your dad, and for a moment the both of them turned their attention to you. While your father flashed a smile at you, there was a look on Joel’s face that you couldn’t quite decipher. It was as if he disapproved of what was happening between you and his brother, but at the same time there was something else, something closer to disappointment. Not the kind when you’re disappointed in a certain someone, more like when you’re disappointed in a situation.

If it even made sense, that is.

Taking a deep breath, you tore your gaze away from them and turned to Tommy instead. “What are you doing tomorrow?” you asked, hoping he would finally get the hint.

“We’re taking Sarah to the zoo,” he replied without hesitation.

“Oh,” you said disappointedly.

But then he put down his now empty plate and turned to look at you. “Why?”

“I just thought you should come over. You know, we could order something to eat and watch a movie or something.”

Or something. As in him finally making a move on you and the two of you getting stuck in your bedroom for the rest of the night. That would make you feel good, especially since you hadn’t slept with anyone since this flirting with Tommy began. Whether he was seeing women during this time was a mystery, but you sure as hell didn’t want to complicate things in case he suddenly admitted his feelings for you.

He watched you for a while in silence, the gears in his head clearly turning as he thought about your suggestion. Then he stood up and your heart sank. Was he leaving you behind like this? Did you say something wrong?

But he smiled down at you eventually. “I’ll check with Joel and Sarah if they can manage without me,” he said with a wink.

With a laugh you waved him goodbye and wished him luck, then watched as he caught his brother and niece who were talking to your parents. They were out of earshot, so you had no idea what they were saying, but at one point your mom said something to Tommy that made him put his hand on the back of his neck nervously, and you didn’t miss the way Joel’s jaw tightened all of a sudden as he glanced over at you.

Your mom had noticed the flirting between you and Tommy a month or two ago, and she had been supportive since the beginning. “He’s such a nice guy,” she said happily. So this is why you wouldn’t be surprised–and be totally mortified–if she had suggested it would be a date. That would explain the younger Miller’s reaction, but Joel’s? Not so much.

A few years ago you would have given everything to be noticed by him. He was the gold standard; a nice and hardworking man who was also a dedicated and good father. Your dad had once made a comment that you should date someone like him, not some idiot who was only thinking about partying.

But despite your best efforts to get his attention, Joel always kept his distance. You were hurt a bit, but soon accepted that he just wasn’t interested in you. Hell, as far as you knew from snippets of your parents’ conversations, he hadn’t really been interested in anyone since the divorce.

Years passed and lately Tommy took an interest in you apparently. You didn’t mind the attention, in fact you found it flattering, you just wished he would finally man up and tell you exactly what he wanted from you. Was it just innocent flirting? Or did he have other intentions?

So you waited and kept playing this game with him, hoping he would come around at one point.

“When should I arrive?” Tommy asked with a grin when he returned to you.

The two of you discussed the details, then you left to help your mom with a few things in the kitchen. She was watching you with a wide grin as she rested her hips against the counter. You raised an eyebrow, silently asking what she wanted to tell you.

“I’m so happy for you, sweetheart,” she said, earning a surprised look from you. “The date. Finally!”

“It’s not a date, mom.”

Laughing, she waved her hand and picked up a half-empty bottle of wine. “Well, after I planted the seed with an innocent comment, he sure believes it is,” she explained as she read the label on the bottle. “You’re welcome,” she added as she glanced at you for a moment.

A part of you was mad at her for meddling in your private life, but at the same time another part was happy she made him realize what he wanted. In the end the latter part won and you hugged her tightly while saying thank you over and over again. She laughed at this as she rubbed your back with her hand.

In the rest of the evening you chatted with other guests, happy to meet some people you hadn’t seen since you graduated from college. Your mom’s friend from high school, the one who moved to Seattle a few years back, said you were glowing, and you told her it was because you were truly happy with your life right now.

As the guests began to go home, Tommy and Sarah also lined up to leave, much to your disappointment. But Sarah had to wake up early the next day for some reason, and his uncle offered to take her home and keep her safe until your dad and Joel talked some more in private.

You flashed a sad smile at Tommy, who pulled you into a hug and placed a soft kiss on the crown of your head. “See you tomorrow,” he whispered. “There’s one thing, though, a change in the plan. We’re going to the Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio with Joel and Sarah, so we’re leaving early in the morning. It’s gonna be fun,” he added with a playful smile.

No, it wouldn’t be fun. You didn’t tell this to him, of course, but this is how you felt. Did you love these places? Sure. Did you wanna go there with him? Of course, that would sound like fun. Would having other two people joining you on your date make it more fun? Absolutely not. You loved them, but you wanted to be alone with him.

“Sounds great,” you lied with a forced smile when you leaned back to look him in the eye.

They left, and as you were heading upstairs to hit the shower and get in bed, you bumped into Joel at the top of the stairs. It seemed like he tensed up when he noticed you, and for some reason you felt like you had done something wrong. Where was the nice Joel you had known so well? The one who would crack a terrible joke to start a conversation?

“Going to bed already?” he asked you, his brown eyes moving to his watch as he spoke. You nodded, deliberately not saying a word. “I’m glad you’re coming with us tomorrow.”

I’m not, you wanted to say. “Sounds like fun,” you lied once again. The corners of his lips curled into a smile as he carefully studied your face, but he remained silent, as if he was waiting for you to say something, to finally break the ice. “Why did you change the plan? When Tommy went to ask you if it would be okay if he came over to my place instead of being with you, the plan was going to the zoo, not to fucking San Antonio.”

Joel took a deep breath as he rubbed his face with his hand almost guiltily. “You two aren’t glued to me and Sarah, and it’s a big park,” he replied, knowing full well what he had done with his suggestion. “I’m sorry if I screwed up your plans, okay?”

“You’re right, it’s a big enough place for the four of us,” you said with a nod. “Good night, Joel.”

But when you wanted to walk past him, he grabbed your wrist and pulled you back. “Why him?” he asked quietly with a weird glint in his eyes. “You know what he’s like with women, I’m sure you don’t want things to be awkward once he gets bored of you,” he said with brutal honesty.

This was something you had already considered. Yes, Tommy was known for being a charmer who often looked for new challenges, but maybe you could change him. And even if you couldn’t, you were adults, you were sure you could handle it. “I’ll take the risk,” you replied quietly.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt, sweetheart,” he told you softly.

Feelings from six years ago emerged at his tone and the pet name. That was the first and last time he had talked to you like this, being this warm and nice and caring. That was the day you began to yearn for him, when you decided to try and get him no matter how bad it would be considering his friendship with your dad.

*********

It was after a friend’s birthday party. You were still living at home at the time, and you got home early in the morning, around three or maybe four. You were drunk, and completely forgot that Joel stayed with you for a few days because of some bug situation in their house. Tommy’s place at the time was too small for the three of them, that’s why only Sarah stayed there with her uncle.

You barely made it past the door when you felt like throwing up, so you quickly rushed to the kitchen and let the contents of your stomach end up in the sink. Your high heels were a little too loud, and Joel woke up to the sound, probably hearing you puke as well. Before you knew it, he was leaning against the counter next to you with his arms folded over his chest.

“You okay?”

“Does it look like I’m okay?” you asked, sounding a little ruder than intended. “Sorry, I just feel like shit.”

With a sigh, Joel reached over to pull your hair back when you threw up again. It was embarrassing and you wished you could just crawl into a hole and die. But you were here, and the older Miller was doing his best to help. When you reached for a glass to get some water, he was quick to stop you.

“Only take one sip every once in a while, okay?” he asked as he poured you some water. “You don’t wanna end up vomiting again.”

“Thanks,” you said as you took the glass from him.

“Did you have fun?”

You nodded without hesitation. It was a great party, and you told Joel some fun stories that probably didn’t sound so fun to an outsider. He wasn’t there, he didn’t know your friends, so he probably didn’t even care. But he listened, and it felt good to tell someone about your evening, knowing your parents would rather not hear your party stories.

There was something about the look in Joel’s eyes that you didn’t understand. Despite being drunk as hell, you could have sworn there was longing in there, something you definitely wasn’t expecting to see. But now that you took a good look at him, you noted once again how handsome he looked in the middle of the night.

“Go to bed,” he told you hoarsely before clearing his throat. “Can you get upstairs on your own?” When you nodded, he leaned over to place a soft kiss on your temple, then turned around to go back to sleep on the couch.

You remained there for a minute or two, wondering what this was all about. But then you felt your legs slowly giving in, so you went to your bedroom and slipped under the covers to get a few hours of sleep. Sleep with dreams that were full of Joel fucking Miller.

#joel miller x reader #joel miller #tommy miller x reader #tommy miller #the last of us #tlou #joel miller x you

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its-your-mind · 2 months

Text

A compilation of things we know:

the OIAR used to work with a security company called Rightforce International, previously called Diligence Security Systems

the Magnus Institute burned down 24 Dec 1999

the OIAR separated from a company called Starkwall Protection Services on 3 Jan 2000

Starkwall had something to do with a “magnus protocol,” and information related to this is above the level of access of the OIAR team members

Gerry Kaey was a Magnus kid

there is no evidence that there were files in the basement of The Magnus Institute when it burned

The basement of The Magnus Institute was the Archives in the TMA World Line

Also in the TMA World Line, Gertrude Robinson was the Archivist for ~40 years, starting in the 80s

She frequently worked with Adelard Decker to thwart the machinations of the Entities and their avatars

Later, she worked with Gerard Kaey, who had intentionally aligned himself with the Eye in order to see when people were being stalked by one of the Powers and help them

He was also a firebug

Also known firebug: Agnes Montague, who had been bonded to Gertrude via a ritual by followers of the Web - a bond Gertrude used to protect herself from the Cult of the Lightless Flame

An unnamed security company saved Dianne Margolis from a shop on Hilltop Road in Oxford that was filled with supernatural shit and subsequently set on fire

FR3-D1 should NOT work like this considering the technology it runs on

FR3-D1 appears to have complete access to any files transmitted via the Internet, no matter how secure or buried they are, for the sole purpose of categorization

there (is? used to be?) some sort of Response Department, that is still enough a part of the OIAR’s operations that Sam gets paperwork on his desk about it after checking a box marked “Response 121” on his onboarding paperwork

Klaus learned things that he believed put him in danger and subsequently disappeared via Lena’s intervention

Colin believes there is Something watching and/or listening via any technology with cameras or microphones

Lena answers to some sort of authority that none of the other workers know about

The Entities exist in this world, just in a different form than we’re used to (in-depth meta on this here)

okay those are all the relevant facts time for:

CRACK THEORY TIME

Gertrude and Decker are co-founders of Starkwall né Rightforce né Diligence

They kept changing the name to keep off the radar of any avatars

Gerry was Youngest Recruit In History

He was recruited while he was a Magnus kid to be their INSIDE OPERATIVE

He got to help set the fire

He swept the archives and stole all the relevant files because he is still an Eye-aligned bitch who wants to figure shit out

Agnes is also in on it

Bc she fuckin DESERVES IT

also look at all the fire shit

She and Gertrude are lovers

Bc I fuckin deserve it

that eldrich bond should be good for something and that something is LESBIANISM

(*speaking in a voice crushed with disappointment but with a Touch of hopefulness* here’s how agnes montague can still win?)

Anyway back to Starkwall

Their whole thing is basically scorched earth policy when it comes to Fears shit (see: MAGP 07 statement of fire at Hilltop Road)

Feeding the Desolation by ^ and the Eye by collecting info on the activities of other fears (whatever slightly warped version of the Fears exist in this world)

Used to work with? under? the OIAR as part of the “Response Department”

FR3-D1 is like EXPLICITLY Eye-based system set up to collect info for Starkwall to go after (Eye is a silly stupid entity who just wants to gobble up the fear and is bad at planning, so doesn’t notice/care how its people use the info gathered)

a significant part of Jon Martin and (probable) Jonah got schlorped up by FR3-D1 when they got here bc their voices reading out Statements for the Eye were the conduits for the Fears to travel, and FR3-D1 had INTENSE EYE GRAVITY that was Specifically Tuned to gulp up supernatural stories from the interwebs

unfortunately the Intense Eye Beams coming off him DOES tend to place FR3-D1’s IT workers directly into a position to get Eyed into intense paranoia and fear of being watched (rip Klaus, stay strong Colin)

this did not happen when Starkwell used to work with them bc they knew how to handle FR3-D1 but alas once the Eye folks all fucked off it left Klaus (and now Colin) open to both paranoia attacks and possible Consequences for asking too many questions

Speaking of which

the Web (or an analog (jonny and alex drop titles for entities in this world if smirke didn’t make up the same ones challenge)) took notice of what was goin on and got operatives into the OIAR

Lena is one, or else she works for one. (Insert here’s how annabelle caine can still win theories here)

Klaus figured out too much and got in the way of Machinations and thus the whole *gestures*

Gertrude and Decker noticed and separated from the OIAR as soon as they were able to bc they realized that shit had gone South but are still out there doin the good work

Alice ALSO done got recruited from out of the Magnus program as a child

The reason she keeps pushing people away from the sus stuff and seems to know more than she claims to is bc she is their PLANT still working for the OIAR

She got Sam hired bc he’s still got eldritch eyes (in general, but maybe also Eyes) on him and she wants him somewhere she can keep an eye on him AND keep him inside a spooky space so it’s less likely an unknown actor would come after him

#tmagp #tmagp theory #the magnus protocol #the magnus protocol spoilers #tmagp meta #tma spoilers #the magnus archives spoilers #starkwall protection services #FR3-D1 #OIAR #IM SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS SHOW Y’ALL DONT WORRY BOUT ME

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doctor-badadvice · 5 months

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This man has not updated his wardrobe since 1947

There's already a few posts discussing outfits and symbolism and while I found them very interesting, I'm a person of strong opinions now writing two characters with chess related names. So here's my two cents (or should I say, nickels) about Bishop's appearance throughout the 2003 show and what tells us about the specific moment of his life that's being portrayed. The focus will be mainly on the palette, but also on whatever influences are behind the designs.

So let's get started!

1815 — Battle of New Orleans

Here's the first disclaimer. I know next to nothing about US history past what little school required me to learn and generically speaking, I've never been interested in the nuances of how people come together to kill each other. History classes were far more interesting to me when we talked about society and culture. So take what I'll say with a grain of salt. My military expertise here is a couple Wikipedia pages.

As far as Bishop's uniform goes, I have no idea what's going on. I read that uniforms were supposedly mainly blue with whatever color corresponded to what the unit's duty was, with the exception of musicians who had their colors swapped. If that's true, Bishop here could have been a musician having a not so great day at work. But the field medics later in the flashback are wearing the same color so it's probably just a choice to keep the color palette consistent.

Other than that, the belt would suggest he had some kind of rank. Though I don't think they were trying to be accurate past the bare minimum. I'm not going to guess what Bishop was up to in his mortal days.

Also, a special mention goes to Bishop's facial hair. He must have been popular in his time.

1870 — Creation of EPF

This is where colors start being relevant but first, another disclaimer. I appreciate the work wiki editors do, but it would be nice to have sources to whatever's stated on a given page, especially if you're providing estimated dates. I can't say I disagree, but it'd be nice to know where the information comes from.

So the wiki says that Bishop was supposedly born in 1776. It means that at the time of EPF's foundation he was nearing his hundredth birthday. No wonder he's dressing in all black. The average life expectancy at the time was about 40 years old. It's very possible Bishop had already outlived most, if not everyone he knew and it's probably something one would struggle to come to terms with.

Design wise, turtlenecks were nothing new at the time. Medieval knights wore garments in a similar shape under their armors well before the 15th century. And yes, I guess that's more of a coat than the average tactical turtleneck, but it still gives him a hitman, or even hunter vibe which is more or less what he was up to at the time.

1947 Roswell. New Mexico/present times

I can finally explain the title now. But first, let’s take a step back!

Bishop’s default outfit is the secret agent outfit™ we’re all well accustomed to. Specifically, I think the closest he takes inspiration from is Agent Smith from the Matrix movies (as I previously mentioned here). Guy in a black suit with shades, apparently impeccable self control and a distinctive way of talking that compels you to listen to him.

There’s so much to say about motivations and themes these two share, but let's focus on the aesthetic side.

These two fools are men in black. Yes, like the movies. The whole trope originates from some old conspiracy theories about the US government hiding aliens. These theories date all the way back to 1947 from some guy named Harold Dahl claiming a man in a dark suit told him not to tell anyone about some UFO sightings. Various fellow ufologists made similar claims over the years, making it a staple of their general paranoia.

Because of the second flashback, it’s possible that Bishop himself was one of these men in black, if not the one the rumors started from. It's a funny thought and I feel like Bishop would also find it amusing to watch people lose their minds about his fashion choices for decades.

Color wise, white has been added to the mix. It’s been a while now since the creation of EPF and Bishop has found some kind of balance in his life. He’s still dead set in his hatred for aliens and clearly enjoys inflicting pain on creatures he sees as undeserving of basic human decency, but he now has some purpose other than looking at the sky for something to shoot down. He leads an elite task force with men and funding devoted to developing a proper defense of the planet. He’s a foe not to be underestimated and a formidable fighter who can and will take on multiple opponents. But he’s also a very scared man who doesn’t wish what happened to him on anyone.

I often praise the show because Bishop can survive getting impaled but he still remains human. He will react with sheer violence to aggression and reform his ways when shown kindness. He will happily stick his hands in turtle soup for some DNA, but also be the best man at his friend's wedding and even attempt dressing up for the occasion despite having been deprived of normal human interactions for more than a century.

(I know it's a little cluttered in this point but I can't just leave out Casual Friday Bishop)

Design wise, I like just how an otherwise elegant attire works during the fight scenes and this detail specifically.

This man’s power is stored in the leggy.

Interlude

So this pic above is me right now.

For context, I usually consider the episodes of the staged alien invasion to the outbreak as part of the same arc. The entire situation is absolutely absurd from Bishop dragging the president into his fanfiction in response to budget cuts, to Baxter's bodily misadventures, to Bishop making a deal with a random ghost over the phone while New York is turning into yet another Umbrella Corp mishap.

But anyways we're here to judge this man's fashion taste and we have two outfits to talk about.

First off, a special mention goes to the catsuit and this pose specifically.

The sass is off the charts.

Though I find this one kind of depressing. There isn't a lot to read in it either other than Baxter grabbing the most generic tactical turtleneck for the sake of keeping Bishop from walking around bare chested (and the scene before this pic clearly shows Bishop isn't afraid to show some titty). But seeing him in all black right after moving to a new body kinda points out that Agent Bishop, leader of the EPF, is kinda on par with a piece of military equipment (and the president probably sees him as much to an extent). He's the mold for an army of supersoldiers for crying out loud.

But he switches back to the usual suit afterwards and what matters here is the supersuit.

S3 onward

Imagine being an alien, member of the starfleet of your planet and senior officer of the invading force tasked with taking over Earth. You have trained hard, wargamed the whole operation a bunch of times and concluded that it will be piss easy to conquer this underdeveloped planet.

You reach the surface, get into formation and then this nerd rolls up.

The best way to describe this suit is "hostile". It's hostile to the animators and to whoever has to stare at this eyesore before Bishop shoots at them.

And I love it. There's nothing quite like a black and red suit of armor with various cybernetics and lights to say that you mean business. It goes very well with how the stakes just start steadily rising from this point of the show onwards and seeing as the suit was ready during the staged invasion, we know that Bishop never really planned to retire after unleashing his army of clones.

It adds that extra bit of cyberpunk that I like to see and it shows that Bishop never truly gives up on anything since we have actually seen this design before.

Bishop was so proud of his Slayer he just stuck with him in spirit.

Couple that with a new coat to take off for extra dramatic effect and— maybe the president was right about not trusting him with unlimited budget.

2105 — New York apparently

Another century has passed and Bishop is still alive and kicking. Well, he doesn't kick as much anymore as it would be unbecoming if the beloved president of the Pan-Galactic Alliance were to go around kicking alien butt.

Jokes aside, you can disagree with Bishop's portrayal in Fast Forward, but they were still trying to do something meaningful with him. The idea of the turtles having to work with him when they were trying to kill each other just the other day is surprisingly deep for a season that felt the need to have the most unfunny robobutler ever.

They were clearly attempting a chess joke switching the palette to white with black streaks. Bishop has completely turned his life around and it even shows in the way he presents himself. It's nice to see just how much he managed to accomplish as well, even though it would have been very interesting to see him have a gradual change of mind, rather than selling us the concept through timeskip magic.

Does the design still hold up then?

Well, Bishop is clearly making an effort to look the least intimidating. He is fairly more patient when others don't immediately do as he says, even asking for help rather than blackmailing, and is still commendably dedicated to his job. He still asserts dominance by showing leggy (seriously, Mr President, that slit doesn't have to go this hard) and he's still deep down, at all times, ready to throw hands.

That's Bishop alright and it's no coincidence that he starts running around shooting aliens the second Baxter shows up in his life again. I'm not much of a fan of his new armor though. I think they were going for a futuristic design but it's the blandest they could think of. It reminds me of Obi-Wan Kenobi's armor in The Clone Wars but it just kinda comes out of nowhere. It would have been cooler if his tunic turned into a set of armor kinda like what the turtles got.

In any case, if you really want to see reformed Bishop really shine, you should check out @adenthemage / @violetvulpini 's art. You will not be disappointed.

#tmnt 2003 #agent bishop #oof #this was one hell of a ride #I haven't discussed anything in this length since uni #Tumblr also decided to complain about the number of pics I was adding #hopefully it won't be as much of a pain when I come around to talk about his fighting style

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oneatlatime · 9 months

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The Siege of the North Part 1

I'll be watching parts 1 & 2 separately.

Once again, audio commentary is off. Saving that as a treat for rewatches.

Hey look! A giant breach in an otherwise impenetrable wall! Bet that's plot relevant.

This episode has already won. It's already perfect. This face is the last thing the patriarchy sees before death. Katara has so earned this.

And then they pan to the casualty line as well! This opening would have had me hollering at the screen if I had seen this as a kid. Doing my Spice Girls Girl Power pose and everything.

Pakku is still Poophead. At least his writing is consistent.

This is what Aang's all about. This is who Aang is. Just a goofy kid indeed.

Try Off.

Yue! Sweetheart! You're allowed to be confused but you're pushing this mixed signals stuff a little far. "This is wrong; I'm engaged!" *Does the bison-riding equivalent of the yawn and stretch like two minutes later.* I get it and I'm sorry, but you can't literally put the moves on a boy you've explicitly stated it's wrong for you to see. Excellent recovery from Sokka though. Totally not awkward at all.

Given the isolation of the Northern water tribe, are the Gaang the only ones who know what the black snow means?

Zhao the asshole's ego has been turned up for the season finale. And since when can he order Iroh around?

"Do you have a plan?" "I'm working on it Uncle." Translation: Nope!

I get it. She's under the massive pressure of her whole society's expectations and traditions and she just wants to be happy for a bit. But seriously, hot, to cold, to hot, to cold, in five minutes of run time? Not to mention last episode's flip flops too. At what point does it go from teenage angst to stringing the poor guy along?

"I like you too much. It's too confusing to be around you." Ouch. Talk about a no-win situation.

"You don't understand. I have duties to my father, to my tribe. I have to do this." AHEM

These two should sit down and really talk to each other instead of making googoo eyes. I think they would find they had a surprising amount in common.

RIP eleven arctic foxes.

When the chief talks about faces disappearing from the tribe, it pans to Yue, Poophead and some guy with a large amount of chin. Foreshadowing?

Is this the total population of the Northern Water Tribe? Why is the Fire Nation bothering to attack? All they have to do is wait 40 years and the isolationism will do the job for them.

I've been ragging on the Sokka x Yue Knots Landing melodrama, but this is just sad. Real talk, it's ouchy.

"The stillness before battle is unbearable." How would you know? Haven't you been behind your walls for decades? I guess it's set up for Aang's line, but it's a bit clunky.

One fireball just displaced their entire defending force. That inspires confidence. These guys are going to get flattened, aren't they.

One man army Aang is back!

The hammers used to trigger these catapults are making inches deep dents in the catapults' frames. That metal is way too soft. There's no way these things wouldn't tear themselves apart under the stress of operation.

Tying the catapults to the ship and to each other is clever. I wouldn't have thought of that.

OH MY GOD

Hang on what's her name

Jojo Siwa works for the Fire Nation ?!?!?

Appa murdered Jojo Siwa?!?!?

Math time! There are five waterbenders in each boat, five boats on this side, and judging by the ice spikes on the other side of the ship, five boats on that side too. That makes ten boats of five waterbenders, which makes 50 waterbenders, one Appa, and one Avatar to take out one fire nation ship.

Not the clearest shot, but I see 117 ships. So it's going to take 117 Appas, 117 Avatars, and 5850 waterbenders to take out this force. I bet they're regretting not training their female benders now.

You and me both Sokka. The Chief praises Sokka and calls Han on his behaviour twice in this scene. Makes me think that he knows that Han is an ass. Which makes me wonder why he's letting him marry Yue? I was ambivalent about the Chief until now, but if he's knowingly shackling his daughter to that, then I think the Chief is a jerk.

More math time! I count nine waterbenders here. This includes Poophead, who's apparently good enough to teach the Avatar, so let's round up and call it ten. Ten waterbenders per fireball.

Jojo Siwa's ship has five catapults. Assuming that all 117 ships have five catapults each (which is a big assumption, because some of them must be support ships), then that's 585 fireballs without reloading. At ten waterbenders each, they're going to need an additional 5850 waterbenders behind the walls to catch incoming fireballs. I bet they're really regretting not teaching women how to bend now. And with the fireballs, how many of the healers have already been pancaked?

Interesting exposition from Iroh. Waterbenders are werewolves.

It's the problem from a century ago in The Storm episode again! The world needs a fully realised Avatar; the best Aang can do is just one (goofy) kid.

Ooof. Zuko is far from my favourite character, but the dynamic between these two is so comfortable, so well-worn. They feel like they've had no one but each other for years, which has made sense from Zuko's side of things since The Storm, but apparently Iroh has a dead kid (?!!?) and suddenly his side of things makes sense too.

"Remember your breath of fire." "Put your hood up." "Pack a lunch." "Bring a sweater." "Listen to your teacher, learn lots, have fun!" "Call me when you get home" "Eat your vegetables" "Call your uncle. He misses you already."

Han is so well liked that when the guards see him getting attacked, they all collectively decide not to do anything about it. "Should we interfere?" "Nah, it's been a long time coming. He deserves it."

Zuko approaching the wall is accompanied by Blue Spirit music, but he's not wearing his Blue Spirit costume. Thoughts?

HYBRID ANIMALS!!!!! HYBRID ANIMALS!!!!! HYBRID ANIMALS!!!!!

Zuko is such a dumb smart guy. He can figure out that the turtle seals are coming up for air, but he can't figure out that marine mammals and humans might have drastically different lung capacities. Then again, if what the deserter says is correct and firebending is all about breathing, then firebenders probably have training on the kind of breath control that lets you hold you breath for extended periods. On the other hand, they probably learned that in water that wasn't so cold that it made you gasp involuntarily, so we're right back to dumb smart guy.

Does the Avatar world's moon cycle not work like ours? Our moon is out pretty often during the day, but Katara's waterbending is stronger at night. So the Avatar world's moon only appears at night?

Is there a connection between the spirit world and bamboo? The giant panda grew bamboo in the village gate, now we see a gate with bamboo behind it.

Strange face. Do not like.

You smack turtleseal? You smack turtleseal like a football?

Thought that was a palm tree for a sec.

Couldn't the Chief have reassigned Sokka in a way that didn't embarass him in front of all the other warriors?

Zuko's got some crazy swimming skills. He's also frozen to death at least three times by now.

"SHADDUP!" -Aang.

Avatar hypnotised by fish, more at 11.

How does Katara know that Aang's body can't be moved? Last time he went to the spirit world, she was sitting in a village gate cradling her brother's boomerang and Aang was ragdolling into a giant panda statue.

Might want to check your ego there Katara. You may be crazy skilled now but there's nothing wrong with backup.

Zuko having the same problem as Sokka and Aang with announcing his sneak strikes.

I love that when Zuko shows up Yue's just like Biyee!!! I wish I could make that into a gif. She ZOOMS.

It's a good thing that Katara knocked Zuko unconscious because otherwise there's nothing permanent she can do to stop him. Ice cage? Melt it. Water cage? Turn it to steam. Fire always undoes water.

Firebenders are powered by photosynthesis. Zuko one shots Katara here. Even powered by a full moon it took Katara a whole lot of moves to incapacitate him, then he gets one sunbeam and knocks her out with the recoil of one blast. Katara may be the best student Poophead's ever had but Zuko's got years on her.

Clever use of the otherwise counterintuitive ship doors: combination battering ram and landing ramp. Neat.

I normally don't agree with Zhao on anything, but my math shows that inevitable is the right word for the outcome of this battle.

"Where did they go?" How about up the giant very obvious path that is the only way out of the oasis that isn't through a city full of waterbenders on high alert?

Verry cool image to end on, but wasn't the fact that it was brilliantly sunny two minutes ago actually an important plot point?

That's it?

Well. Ok. That's a bit of a cliff hanger.

Final Thoughts

This one's really an obligate two parter huh?

How long has the Gaang spent in the Northern Water Tribe? It feels like maybe a week? Zuko couldn't remain undetected indefinitely on Zhao's ship, so it can't have been too long. I feel like Katara's amazing skills would make sense even after just a week, because we've seen how she progresses quickly when she has the opportunity (the waterbending scroll really did work, loathe as I am to admit it). But I feel like Sokka and Yue's story arc, particularly Yue's changes of heart, would work a lot better if it was established that they'd been around each other for a while. They're both aware she's engaged, but they both make the resolution to just be friends, and before they know it they've spent countless hours together and fallen into horribly deep love and now they're in too far and they have to quit cold turkey but they just keep pulling each other back in like their love is inevitable and before either of them know it, they can't stop loving each other. Yue panics and the scene on the steps of the palace as soot falls happens. They both know that maybe it's wisest to stop seeing each other, but then the Chief assigns Sokka to protect Yue and now they're unavoidably thrown together and they're right back where they started and they can no longer even pretend to deny their feelings and the sheer strength of their love acknowledged wipes out the entirety of the fire nation fleet and when the firelord hears the news he has a heart attack and dies so the war's over and Aang goes into the jewellery business and everyone lives happily ever after and Aang and Katara get married when they're both 35 and Sokka and Yue rule over a joint north-south water tribe matriarchy.

Seriously. Yue is giving me Eowyn vibes. I am WORRIED.

I have my suspicions about the Chief. He'd rather a stranger from the southern tribe guard his daughter than her fiance? I wonder if Han was the politically powerful choice. I guess having only a daughter in a patriarchal society doesn't make for a firm power base. I wonder if the Chief's council or whatever picked Han, and the Chief didn't have the power to refuse. So instead he sends Han on a suicide mission and arranges it so that Sokka can spend time with Yue. Is the Chief aware of Yue's feelings for Sokka and trying to help sneakily? If that's the case, I rescind calling him a jerk. Maybe he has to be seen to favour Han in public, so he takes Sokka off the mission when he and Han fight with an audience, but assigns Sokka to his daughter when it's only Sokka in the room. Maybe the Chief ships them as much as I do?

Anyways...

The Northern Water Tribe have been staying out of the war completely, so why are the Fire Nation even bothering to waste resources on them? Their mandate is to capture the Avatar alive, so a full-scale indiscriminate assault on where he's staying feels dumb.

Zuko's one-sided banter with Katara recalled their interactions in the Waterbending Scroll with the pirates. Kind of off-putting, kind of insulting, kind of creepy.

Aang had a neat fight scene, but not much beyond that. I have a feeling he'll be the star of the next episode. Congrats to Appa on the murderous assist. Air nomads may have been pacifists but their bison sure weren't.

This episode set up a lot of dominoes. The next one is going to have to do a lot of things very quickly.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the siege of the north part 1 #it is physically impossible to spell siege correctly on the first try #seige #segie #seage #ceeej #avatar the last airbender

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faintingheroine · 5 months

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A Comprehensive List of The Evidence That Ibrahim Might Have Loved Nigar

Much thanks to @zeldaxxi , @ohhmichelettoohh and @desmoonl for making this list possible

Disclaimer: Everything on this list can be argued against. Everything here is up to interpretation. And none of the points prove much on their own, they are relevant when they come together. I think this particular aspect of the show is vague enough to allow for multiple interpretations. I don’t think that my interpretation is less valid than anyone else’s.

1) Ibrahim consoles Nigar quite admirably and familiarly in Episode 21.

2) He is arguably jealous of her corresponding with Leo in Episode 23.

3) He is very touchy-feely with her in general.

4) His weird joy at finding her a servant at his house and the way he looks at her in Episode 27.

5) Ibrahim knows that Nigar has a crush on him at this point and he clearly enjoys the fact.

6) Them having sex in Episode 35. Yes, she comes to his room, but he does initiate the sexual activity.

7) He is very angry at her and is not indifferent to her between Episodes 35-44. This might be just him feeling guilty, but it could also be him still being attracted to her. The fact that he later had an affair with her points to it being latter.

8) He understands that she came by her scent in Episode 40.

9) He has Matrakçı divorce her on their wedding night. @zeldaxxi pointed out that it would be more convenient if they stayed married. He didn’t want Nigar to be a married woman. He accords her some value, and wants her solely to himself. He isn’t just horny and he isn’t just using her to avenge himself on Hatice.

10) He is tender and sweet to her throughout their affair. Yes, Nigar calls him “my Pasha” and generally satisfies his ego, but he is consistently sweet and tender until breaking up with her.

11) The massage scene in Episode 46. The passion.

12) The scene where they are discovered by Daye in Episode 50. He calls her “my beautiful woman” and you have to watch how he says it. He also wants to send a doctor for her when he learns that she is sick.

13) He does consistently call her beautiful, so no, he didn’t find her unattractive.

14) He does actually say that he loves Nigar to his brother in Episode 51 and he definitely believes it based on the acting:

15) He does say that she made him addicted to her in Episode 54 after Nigar does something sneaky.

Their eyes genuinely smile while they are looking at each other.

16) Again in Episode 54, Nigar complains to him about feeling alone at nights while they are in bed, and Ibrahim says “I will stay then”. And he stays, at great risk to himself and his relationship with Hatice.

17) He wishes for a daughter who looks like Nigar in Episode 56. He actually lists the physical attributes he likes in Nigar and wants in their daughter.

18) He has to break up with Nigar in Episode 56 because Hatice is onto him, but caresses her cheek while he is breaking up with her and says that he will never forget her.

19) In general, he had an affair with her for three years at great risk to his life, career and marriage.

20) He gained nothing from this affair except for being with Nigar. He did use Nigar’s crush to his advantage before their affair started but never during it. Nigar didn’t provide Ibrahim with any scheming advantage between the episodes 44-57 (their affair). Actually Ibrahim was generally softer to Hürrem than usual during these episodes, didn’t do much except burning her letter in Episode 48.

He also didn’t have sex with his wife after the affair with Nigar started. He was still having sex with Hatice even after her insult, but not after he started the affair with Nigar.

21) He revitalizes his love for Hatice in Episode 57 through pure nostalgia for their Season 1 selves. He never actually thinks of any scene he had with Hatice since Episode 19 (he learned of Nigar’s crush in Episode 21).

22) He wants Matrakçı to protect and provide for Nigar even when he is intending to break up with her permanently.

23) He was going to send Nigar to his brother and would probably be in communication with her.

24) He is legitimately offended that Nigar thought that he would kill her in Episode 59. Him killing her would solve a lot of his problems at that point and he has no qualms about killing other people so that the affair wouldn’t get out, yet he is offended and stricken that she would expect him to kill her. And he doesn’t know about her pregnancy yet.

25) He does try to save her in Episode 64. Hatice already intends to let the child live, but she is going to execute Nigar. He does try to save her. Is it a bit half-assed? Yeah. But he cared on some level.

(He does say to Matrakçı that he will perhaps never see his child so this one admittedly might be about the child as well. But you can read more into it. Maybe he also subconsciously doesn’t want Nigar to die).

26) When he returns he tries to avoid Nigar. Sure it is because it is dangerous for them to be in the same room but he also might be fearful that he might catch feelings again.

27) He is legitimately offended that she is seemingly on Hürrem’s side now and feels betrayed. Watch their argument in Episode 72.

28) When in the above scene Nigar asks him whether he ever loved her, he blinks repeatedly and leaves.

29) Nigar asks him to marry her to Rüstem as a last favor at the end of the scene, he seems somewhat angry.

30) When he first meets Esmanur, he repeats the “almond-shaped eyes, shapely-nose, silken hands” line he said to Nigar at her.

31) He informs Nigar of her daughter’s existence and lets her have a place in their daughter’s life. Nigar didn’t know that their daughter existed. He could have never told her. But he did. Yes, perhaps he wanted a mother for his daughter but Nigar was married with Ibo’s archenemy at this point. Yet he still went out of his way to inform her.

32) He does tell Matrakçı that he would prefer Esmanur to live with Nigar at the house he provided for them, but unfortunately Nigar is married now.

33) When at the pub Matrakçı tells him that Rüstem didn’t want to marry Nigar, Ibrahim says “that part is not obvious at all but it is not our concern”, in a tone of voice that indicates that he did think about this more than he lets on.

34) When Nigar belatedly informs him of the attempt on his life in Episode 79, he dismisses her concern for him as her trying to see Esmanur. He then says that she perhaps works for Hürrem and Rüstem. It is clear from the acting that he believes this to be a real possibility and is angry.

35) He does relent and shows Esmanur to Nigar in Episode 80.

36) He does tell her that Esmanur will never forget her and that she will see her daughter again in the future in Episode 81. The implication is that he will continue to tell Esmanur about her mother.

37) He seems vaguely thoughtful at her last declaration of love to him. Nigar herself makes a point of telling him that her heart is with him despite her being next to Rüstem.

38) In Ibrahim and Esmanur’s last scene in Episode 82, Esmanur says that she wants to go to her mother twice, and Ibrahim seems legitimately sad and thoughtful when he says that “the mother has gone far away”. It can be interpreted as him merely being sad that his daughter can’t see her mother, but it can also definitely be interpreted as something deeper.

***

None of these things are a smoking gun by themselves. I am not arguing that Ibrahim was passionately in love with Nigar to the end of his life, of course not.

But all in all, I think it is very hard to say that Ibrahim didn’t care about Nigar at all, that she was just an ego satisfaction or a fleeting fancy, that he could cheat on his wife with any woman. This list does mean something for a person as cruel, as violent, as selfish and careless-with-human-life and narcissistic as Ibrahim is. Ibrahim did care about Nigar, and loved her in his own very flawed way. Maybe he didn’t love her the most, but he did love her. He ruined her life, mistreated her. He definitely cared about his career and life more than he cared about her. But he still did care about her on a level that is somewhat surprising for him.

#magnificent century #muhteşem yüzyıl #nigar kalfa #ibrahim pasha #ibrahim paşa #nigar x ibrahim #esmanur

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riaaanna · 6 months

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OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:

"When the machines take over. It ain’t no place for rock and roll” 'MACHINES' (OR BACK TO HUMANS)

Jaw-dropping show opener of The Rhapsody Tour to be released November 10 as new QUEEN digital single.

A thrilling collision of sound and vision dubbed “a masterclass” by USA Today, the Queen and Adam Lambert ‘Rhapsody' show opens with the juddering industrial beat and vocal harmonies of Machines (or Back To Humans) - a new reworking of the cult favourite track that opened the second side of The Works album in 1984.

While immersive staging pulls the audience into a dystopian world of spinning cogs and hissing pistons, a battalion of CGI robots march across the giant video screens to the sound of “Machines” and look down on the crowd with unforgiving brimstone eyes – only to be vanquished with the assistance of a virtual Freddie vocal, the band then launching into a techno-infused but highly human Radio Ga Ga, which kicks off a two-hours-plus roller coaster of the band’s legacy catalogue.

In the opening of the new ‘Rhapsody' production, the audience hears Freddie Mercury and Brian May’s duetting lead vocals from behind, raising the alarm (originally in 1984!) that The Machines are about to take over. Set against this, the robotic voices are provided by Roger Taylor’s vocoded vocals advocating the Machines’ point of view. The theme of this conflict bursts back in at various points later in the set.

Brian May, co-creator (with Roger Taylor) of the Machines song, and advocate of the new theme, says: “The Robot Horde provide a narrative thread to our new show. In these days of Artificial Intelligence beginning to invade our whole lives, these mechanical guys personify Robotic Insurgence. In our still-developing current show, Back to Humans - is the soundtrack to us as humans reclaiming our control. Machines and Radio Ga Ga actually have a common ancestor, the beginnings of a collaboration between myself and Roger in the sessions for the Works album in 1984. But we had different ideas of how it should develop, and the track split into two songs going in opposite directions … Roger piloting Radio Gaga to completion and into a worldwide hit, and me taking the route of making “Machines” into a kind of unending battle. Putting the new show together, it hit me that ‘Machines' was more relevant than ever. So the idea came about of theming the show with a 21st-century version of this battle - and, incidentally, bringing Ga Ga and Machines fittingly back together once again. And this stands very well with our long-standing belief that a rock show should be live and dangerous rather than performed to clicks and electronic backings."

Adds Roger Taylor: “Machines” was born out of the electronica we originally explored on ‘Radio Ga Ga’ to create this sense of the battle between the electric side and the human side. Now at a time when it’s increasingly becoming a machines world and we’re all just trying to keep up, we felt it the perfect time to revive this idea of basically going back to humans.”

Reintroduced to the Queen setlist for the band’s current US tour, the feverish live reaction to Machines (Or Back To Humans) has now prompted the band to release the original track as a digital single becoming available November 10.

Roger Taylor says, "Basically, it starts off where everything is electronic – electronic drums, everything, And what you have is the ‘human’ rock band sort of crashing in. What you wind up with is a battle between the two.”

Originally written by Brian and Roger almost 40 years ago and today holding a core position in the band’s current spectacular live production, “Machines” is undisputedly now even more of its time than ever.

#queen band #brian may #roger taylor #queen + adam lambert #Machines RIGHTS #Spotify

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roguestorm · 9 months

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Okay. So it’s really very simple.

In the Golden Age (starting publication in the 1940s), Hawkman and Hawkwoman were heroes with the Justice Society. They were Carter and Shiera Hall, they were archaeologists, and they were the reincarnations of an Egyptian pharaoh and his lover.

In the Silver Age (starting publication in the 1960s), so still pre-Crisis, Hawkman and Hawkwoman were reinvented. Katar Hol and Shayera Thal were cops from Thanagar. This was a publication redo, so there was no need to explain in universe the relationship between this Hawkman and Hawkwoman and the old ones.

We call the Silver Age version Earth-One and the Golden Age version Earth-Two.

Then comes Crisis. This gets a little wiggly but basically, Crisis fuses the worlds together and now Carter and Shiera were heroes in the 40s with JSA and then when Katar and Shayera came to Earth, they took the names Hawkman and Hawkwoman as the next generation of those heroes. Fusing together the two storylines in a way that seems more or less satisfactory. 👍

(It gets a little wiggly bc they don’t figure out the details of Katar Hol’s backstory for a couple of years, so there may be two different Katar Hols. Ignore that, it’s not relevant.)

In Zero Hour, many Hawk champions - including Katar and Carter - merge into one single person, the avatar of the Hawkgod. This is mostly Katar but with other people's souls also and with a connection to the Hawkgod; some issues later, he carries himself and all the other souls into the Hawkgod's dimension, effectively dying. Meanwhile, Shiera's soul is reborn in the body of her teenage niece, Kendra.

Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders, reincarnation of Shiera) uses her connection to Carter Hall to bring him back. He comes back with some of Katar's attributes and memories, but this is Carter. Hawkwoman (Shayera Thal) is still around for now, although she later dies in a war.

Ok, Flashpoint time! The first Hawkman after the reboot is Katar Hol, a former Thanagarian cop and a retired superhero who is on Earth using the name Carter Hall. Shayera Thal is another Thanagarian cop, who is trying to track Katar down but then seemingly gives her life so he can escape. We will find out later that she is still alive. Hawkman goes on being Hawkman until 2017, when he dies on Thanagar.

Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall (really Carter, not Katar using his name) first show up in 2017. Kendra joins the Justice League and Carter goes on a journey of self-discovery.

The upshot of his journey of self-discovery is that the Thanagarians Katar and Shayera and the Earthlings Carter and Kendra are reincarnations of the same people. Importantly, their reincarnations can overlap. Their first lives were as an angel and a deathbringer, and they have been reincarnating over and over so that Ktar could atone. The one who accompanies Carter on this journey is Shayera, the Thanagarian. Carter and Shayera die in the present day, and God asks them where they want to be reincarnated. They say Earth in the 1940s, as Carter and Shiera Hall. (Presumably, this is a different Carter Hall than the one Carter was born as.) However, Carter and Shiera are very long-lived and are still alive well into the 40th century, so they are probably still alive in present-day comics.

Okay, so current whereabouts of each Hawk:

Katar Hol (Thanagarian) - Dead. Died in 2017, briefly resurrected by Shayera during her time as Empress of Thanagar, now dead again.

Shayera Thal (Thanagarian) - Living as Shiera Hall, has been living in her life since the 1940s, will never reincarnate again but is very long-lived.

Carter Hall (Earthling) - Living as Carter Hall, has been living in his life since the 1940s, will never reincarnate again but is very long-lived.

Kenda Saunders (Earthling) - Alive, and starring in her own limited series. The one of the Hawks that it is most possible to do stuff with at this point.

#m.txt #katar hol #shayera thal #carter hall #kendra saunders #dc #i. i can't say this is WORSE than the losh timeline but it requires more explaining

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justforbooks · 1 year

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In a spoof obituary written while he was still in his 40s, Barry Humphries, who has died aged 89, described himself as “an ancient comic” who had long since become “a self-indulgent and inaudible has-been” with no sense of progressive social relevance.

The Republic of Australia’s Art Squad had, he said, banned Humphries’ work in his native land. He had endured his last years of “exile and obloquy” in the tarnished splendour of “a Lusitanian spa”, where he occasionally gave clandestine performances to his dwindling, reactionary and hard-of-hearing followers. He was survived, the obituary concluded, “by innumerable wives, great-grandchildren and creditors”. It was a generally appropriate death notice of a satirist who delighted in guying both himself and his critics.

Never a genial humorist, there was always a whiff of sulphur in his comedy. “What is there to say about me?” he would gull his interviewers. “I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I am Church of England – I wash my car on Sundays. There must be some way you can jazz me up.” This was Humphries disguised as a candid interviewee. Being oneself, he would add, is a form of disguise.

There were many other disguises. One minute he would be a monocled Edwardian dandy or a mad scientist or a sad, sexless suburbanite. The next he would assume the mask of a beach bum or a shady art dealer or an embittered intellectual. But the most famous masks of all were his hellcat, the housewife megastar Dame Edna Everage, and his alcoholic political freeloader, professional adulterer and family man Sir Les Patterson.

Humphries grew up in suburban Melbourne, the son of Louisa (nee Brown) and Eric Humphries, a prosperous builder. He was an old boy of an exclusive school (or as he put it: “self-educated; attended Melbourne grammar”) and was briefly a student at Melbourne University. He began his extraordinary career on the back of an arts council bus touring the country towns of Victoria in 1954. It was his first professional role – the lovesick Duke Orsino to Zoe Caldwell’s Viola in Twelfth Night.

At each town, a patron of the arts, often the lady mayoress, would welcome the company over refreshments. Later, to help pass the time on the bus, Humphries invented a character to lampoon these municipal occasions. She was a drab, mousey and relentless hostess, simply named Edna.

The character was thought amusing enough to try out on stage in a Christmas revue in Melbourne. So it came about, on 13 December 1955, that Mrs (as she then was) Edna Everage made her stage debut – a volunteer hostess for the Melbourne Olympics, six feet tall, with brown basilisk eyes and a large chartreuse cabbage rose pinned on her charcoal suit. Her family – husband Norm, son Kenny, daughter Valmai, and mother (in a twilight home) – were given honourable mention, although their miserable fates in Edna’s triumphal backwash were not yet evident. Humphries, then as always, wrote the script.

The sketch was only a moderate success, but enough to point Humphries away from dramatic acting and towards the revue, music hall or cabaret. Also in 1955 he married Brenda Wright, and the following year they moved to Sydney to join a London-inspired theatre of “intimate revue”. He had found his metier, although Sydney satire was still too bland and self-congratulatory to satisfy his dandiacal rage. What Australia still needed, he said, was not mild satire, but a heroic act of espionage.

He finally found it playing the anguished Estragon in a 1958 production of Waiting for Godot. Humphries tramped the streets of Sydney in a sandwich board advertising the play, stuck Godot stickers on posts and windows, and scoured the scrap yards for trash with which he designed the stage sets. The audiences received the play with overwhelming indifference, but Humphries said it changed his life.

When he returned to revue, it was a new Humphries and a new Edna. She became at last a fully ad-libbing monologuiste, teasing if not insulting her audience. This was Edna’s breakthrough. She never looked back.

Australian theatre, however, remained in the doldrums. One critic said there was better theatre in a march-past of lifesavers on Bondi beach. In London, meanwhile, Beckett, Brecht, Osborne and Pinter were leading “the great uprising” from Sloane Square to Stratford East. Humphries found it irresistible.

His first marriage having come to an end after a couple of years, in 1959 Humphries married the ballet dancer Rosalind Tong, took a steamer to London – and into a decade of obscurity (and deepening alcoholism). He found some small parts, notably the undertaker in the original production of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! (1960). But his future fame lay with the one-man shows which at that point only his faithful Australian audiences would even contemplate. Three years after arriving in London, he returned to Melbourne and staged, in mid-1962, A Nice Night’s Entertainment, in which he again paraded Edna and her family, along with some of his other creations, from a tortured, expatriate-hating journalist to a nose-picking, guitar-toting beatnik.

The popular success of the show emboldened Humphries to try out his characters in London – at the Establishment Club in May 1963. It was a flop (or as he put it, “a highly successful five-minute season”). He returned to small roles, notably in Frank Norman’s A Kayf Up West, at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Royal, Stratford East (1964). He also created for Private Eye the randy hobbledehoy Barry (“Bazza”) McKenzie, whose boozing, vomiting, urinating adventures, narrated in comic-strip form in a largely invented vernacular, reflected and mocked Humphries’ life in the swinging 60s. A film based on the character, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, was released in 1972, and a sequel, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, two years later, with Humphries taking several small roles in each; in the latter, the Australian prime minister of the time, Gough Whitlam, apparently invests Edna as a dame.

Humphries did two more Australian tours before testing the water in London again. The first – in 1965 – was the triumphant Excuse I, which filled huge Australian theatres for weeks on end. No one-man show had ever done such business in Australia. It was on this tour that Humphries introduced the gladioli-hurling finale. The next tour – the 1968 Just a Show – introduced further variations. Edna now abandoned her dowdy appearance and came on stage smiling like a shark in a red Thai silk coat over a green dress. (“Am I overdressed?” she asked, looking around. “No, I don’t think so.”) She also began entering from the stalls chatting to her “possums”.

The enormous success of Just a Show encouraged him to try again in London – at the Fortune theatre. Once again the show was a flop. Harold Hobson dismissed it in one devastating sentence: “Most of Barry Humphries’ Just a Show will give pleasure to most Australians in London.”

The great turning point in Humphries’ career came in 1970 when he collapsed, an alcoholic wreck. That June, he was arrested in the streets of Melbourne’s leafy, affluent Camberwell and charged with being drunk and disorderly. A sensible magistrate adjourned the case for six months, ordering that charges be withdrawn if there were no further “incidents”. Humphries booked into a private hospital specialising in alcoholism. The man who for more than 10 years had started the day with a “grappling hook” (brandy and port) became an abstainer – and one of the great comedians of his age.

Still he had not yet conquered London. His Australian shows of the early 1970s (A Load of Old Stuffe, in 1971, and At Least You Can Say You’ve Seen It, in 1974) further refined Edna. She was now a name-dropping predator of radical views and treacly-trendy sentimentality, wearing glittering scarlet hotpants split to the groin. Soon critics were ransacking the dictionary for adjectives to describe her: psychotic, hysteric, Dionysiac, Amazonian, crypto-fascist, anally obsessed, a piranha, a hectoring Medusa, a blue-rinsed beast of Belsen, the Australian daughter of Torquemada.

As her curtain raiser, and to incarnate his disgust with alcoholism, Humphries also created a new character, half Sir Toby Belch, half Apeneck Sweeney – exuberant clown and revolting drunk, the cultural attache Sir Les Patterson. Staggering down the aisle, whisky in hand, he would invite his audience to give Edna the clap she so richly deserved.

In 1976 had come yet another assault on the West End, this time succeeding sensationally when Housewife-Superstar opened at the Apollo. It ran to packed houses for four months and almost 500,000 people saw it.

This was the first of Humphries’ enormously popular one-man shows in London, which included A Night With Dame Edna (1978-79) and Back With a Vengeance (for a number of seasons 1987-89 and 2005-07). Critics now acclaimed him as the greatest one-man showman since Charles Dickens and perhaps in the history of theatre.

He reached an even wider audience on British television, including two series of The Dame Edna Experience (1987-89) for LWT, a highly successful comedy chatshow in which Dame Edna interviewed celebrities – or delivered monologues interrupted by total strangers, as she herself described it. On both stage and screen a silent, doleful background presence was provided by her “New Zealand bridesmaid” Madge Allsop, played from 1987 to 2003 by Emily Perry.

The US took longer to conquer. In 1977, Humphries presented Housewife-Superstar at West 55th Street, off Broadway, where the critics dismissed it as “abysmal”, “pointless” and “like the litter on 42nd Street, something worth missing”. It was to be 20 years before the New York critics submitted to the Humphriesian tornado. In 2000, he was awarded a special Tony for the “theatrical event” of the year – a category invented for the occasion since his show, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour, was neither play nor musical. His success led to subsequent US tours, and a role in the TV comedy drama Ally McBeal in 2002.

In March 2012, Humphries announced a farewell stage show, Eat Pray Laugh!, which toured Australia, the UK and the US. It featured his best-known characters – Dame Edna, the stoic old convalescent Sandy Stone, and Sir Les Patterson (with a bit part for his brother, Gerard, a paedophile priest). But in an eerie finale, there were glimpses of other unforgettable creations: among them Lance Boyle, the trade union racketeer; Brian Graham, the 1960s Sydney executive and closet homosexual in navy blue shorts and long white socks; and Phil Philby, the lefty experimental film-maker.

Before the final curtain, Humphries himself took the stage, thanked the packed house, and ambiguously urged them to come to his final “farewell”. In a wave of emotion while the band belted out “Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye”, his tearful fans delivered a standing ovation.

In 2015, Humphries was artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret festival, where, with characteristic panache, he announced that he had banned the use of the word “fuck”, which too many comedians, including some good ones, use in a desperate attempt to get a laugh. (Humphries himself had often done so.) The patrons, he said, would be relieved and delighted by his new espousal of censorship.

As intended, the resulting controversy generated enormous publicity for the festival, but nonetheless he continued “to defend to the ultimate my right to give deep and profound offence”. Remarks of his on transgenderism – including dismissing it as a fashion – led in 2019 to the Melbourne international comedy festival dropping his name from its major prize, the Barry award.

Perceptions of what was considered either cutting edge or decadent in the jazz-infused music of Germany of the 1920s and 30s had fascinated him since finding a bundle of sheet music in Melbourne. In Australia in 2013 and in London seasons in 2016 and 2018, he explored it in the show Weimar Cabaret, with the chanteuse Meow Meow.

Humphries was based permanently in London from the late 1960s, although he visited Australia frequently, maintaining good relations with fans, friends and family. “To live permanently in Australia,” he would say, “is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one’s mother.” He collected art and books, describing himself as a “compulsive bibliomaniac”, and owned 25,000 volumes.

Over the years, he made recordings, wrote books, a novel and a volume of verse, and in 2007 he held an exhibition of his paintings in Melbourne. He had roles in several films, including Finding Nemo (2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). He dismissed most his books as trifles and promotions, but not his autobiography More Please (1992), which is less a comic story of an actor’s life than a de profundis or an alcoholic’s almanac; it is also noteworthy for its piety towards his family. It won the JR Ackerley prize for autobiography in 1993. Humphries was the subject of several biographies, including John Lahr’s Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation (1991), One Man Show (2010), by Anne Pender, and my own book, published in 1991, The Real Barry Humphries.

He was appointed OA in 1982 and CBE in 2007.

From his marriage to Rosalind, Humphries had two daughters, Tessa and Emily. In 1979, he married the artist Diane Millstead, and they had two sons, Rupert and Oscar. Following his third divorce, in 1990 he married Lizzie Spender, daughter of the poet Stephen Spender. She survives him, along with his four children.

🔔 John Barry Humphries, comic actor and scriptwriter, born 17 February 1934; died 22 April 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Barry Humphries #in memoriam

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