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dustedmagazine · 3 years

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Music for Films, Vol. II: Chick Habit

For good and for ill, Quentin Tarantino’s movies have been strongly associated with postmodern pop culture — particularly by folks whose reactions to the word “postmodern” tend toward pursed lips and school-marmishly wagged fingers. There for a while, reading David Denby on Tarantino was similar to reading Michiko Kakutani on Thomas Pynchon: almost always the same review, the same complaints about characters lacking “psychological depth,” the same handwringing over an ostensible moral insipidness. Truth be told, Tarantino’s pranksome delight with flashy surfaces and stylistic flourishes that are ends in themselves gives tentative credence to some of the caviling. Critics have raised related concerns over the superficiality of Tarantino’s tendency toward stunt casting, especially his resurrections of aging actors relegated to the film industry’s commercial margins: John Travolta, Pam Grier, Robert Forster, David Carradine, Darryl Hannah, Don Johnson and so on. There might be a measure of cynicism in the accompanying cinematic nudging and winking, but it’s also the case that a number of the performances have been terrific.

The writer-director brings a similar sensibility to his sound-tracking choices, demonstrating the cooler-than-thou, deep-catalog knowledge of an obsessive crate-digger. Tarantino thematized that knowledge in his break-through feature, Reservoir Dogs (1992). Throughout the film, the characters tune in to Steven Wright deadpanning as the deejay of “K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the Seventies”; like the characters, the viewer transforms into a listener, treated to such fare as the George Baker Selection’s “Little Green Bag” (1970) and Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” (1971). As with the above-mentioned actors, Tarantino has sifted pop culture’s castoffs and detritus, unearthing songs and delivering experiences of renewed value — and thereby proving the keenness of his instincts and aesthetic wit. “Listen to (or look at) this!” he seems to say, with his cockeyed, faux-incredulous grin. “Can you believe you were just going to throw this out?” And mostly, it works. If the Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” (1974) has become a sort of semi-ironized accompaniment to hipsterish good times, that resonance has a lot more to do with Tim Roth, Harvey Keitel and Co. cruising L.A. in a hulking American sedan than with the Disney Co.’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

In Death Proof (2007), Tarantino’s seventh film and unaccountably his least favorite, soundtrack and screen are both full to bursting with the flotsam and jetsam of “entertainment” conceived as an industry.

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In just the opening minutes, we see outmoded moviehouse announcements, complete with cigarette-burn cue dots; big posters of Brigitte Bardot from Les Bijoutiers du claire de lune (1958) and of Ralph Nelson’s Soldier Blue (1970) bedecking the apartment of Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier); the tee shirt worn by Shanna (Jordan Ladd), which bears the image of Tura Satana; and strutting under all of it are the brassy cadences of Jack Nitzsche’s “The Last Race,” taken from his soundtrack for the teensploitation flick Village of the Giants (1965). Bibs and bobs, bits and pieces of low- and middle-brow cinema are cut up and reconstructed into a fulsome swirl of signs. And there’s an unpleasant edge to it; the cuts are echoed by the action of the camera, which has been busily cleaving the bodies of the women on screen into fragments and parts. First the feet of Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), propped up on a dashboard; then Julia, all ass and gams; then Arlene’s lower half again, chopped into slices by the stairs she dashes up (“I gotta take the world’s biggest fucking piss!”) and by the close-up that settles on her belly and pelvis, her hand shoved awkwardly into her crotch.

As often happens in Tarantino’s movies, furiously busy meta-discursive play collapses the images’ problematic content under multiple levels of reference and pastiche. The film is one half of Grindhouse (2007), Tarantino’s collaboration with his buddy Robert Rodriguez, an old-fashioned double-feature comprising the men’s love letters to the exploitation cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. In those thousands of movies — mondo, beach-cutie, nudie-cutie, women in prison, early slasher, rape-revenge, biker gang, chop-socky, Spaghetti Western and muscle-car-worship flicks (and we could add more subgenres to the list) — symbolic violence inflicted on women’s bodies was de rigueur, and frequently the principal draw. Tarantino shot Death Proof himself, so he is (more than usually) directly responsible for all the framing and focusing — and he’s far too canny a filmmaker not to know precisely what he’s doing with and to those bodies. The excessive, camera-mediated gashing and trimming is a knowing, perhaps deprecating nod to all that previous, gratuitous T&A. His sound-tracking choice of “The Last Race” metaphorically underscores the point: in Bert I. Gordon’s Village of the Giants, bikini-clad teens find and consume an experimental growth serum, which causes them to expand to massive proportions. Really big boobs, actual acres of ass. Get it?

Of course, all the implied japing and judging is deeply embedded in the film’s matrix of esoteric references and fleeting allusions. You’d have to be very well versed in the history of exploitation cinema to pick up on the indirect homage to Gordon’s goofy movie. But as in Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino doesn’t just gesture, he dramatizes, folding an authoritative geekdom into the action of Death Proof. In the set-up to Death Proof’s notorious car crash scene, Julia is on the phone, instructing one of her fellow deejays to play “Hold Tight!” (1966) by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Don’t recognize the names? “For your information,” Julia snorts, Pete Townsend briefly considered abandoning the Who, and he thought about joining the now-obscure beat band, to make it “Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, Tich & Pete. And if you ask me, he should have.”

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It’s among the most gruesomely violent sequences in Tarantino’s films (which do not run short on graphic bloodshed), and Julia receives its most spectacular punishment. Those legs and that rump, upon which the camera has lavished so much attention, are torn apart. Her right leg flips, flies and slaps the pavement, a hunk of suddenly flaccid meat. Again, Tarantino proves himself an adept arranger of image, sign and significance. Want to accuse him of fetishizing Julia’s legs? He’ll materialize the move, reducing the limb to a manipulable fragment, and he’ll invest the moment with all of the intrinsic violence of the fetish. He’ll even do you one better — he’ll make that violence visible. Want to watch? You better buckle up and hold tight.

Hold on a second. “Hold Tight”? The soundtrack has passed over from intertextual in-joke to cruel punchline. It doesn’t help that the song is so much fun, and that it’s fun watching the girls groove along to it, just before Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) obliterates them, again and again and again. The awful insistence of the repetition is another set-up, establishing the film’s narrative logic: the repeated pattern and libidinal charge-and-release of Stuntman Mike’s vehicular predations. It is, indeed, “a sex thing,” as Sheriff Earl McGraw (Michael Parks) informs us in his cartoonish, redneck lawman’s drawl. Soon the sexually charged repetitions pile up: see Abernathy’s (Rosario Dawson) feet hanging out of Kim’s (Tracie Thom) 1972 Mustang, in a visual echo of Arlene’s, and of Julia’s. Then listen to Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) belt out some of Smith’s cover of “Baby It’s You” (1969), which we most recently heard 44 minutes before, as Julia danced ecstatically by the Texas Chili Bar’s jukebox. Then watch Abernathy as she sees Stuntman Mike’s tricked-out ’71 Nova, a vibrating hunk of metallic machismo — just like Arlene saw it, idling menacingly back in Austin, with another snatch of “Baby It’s You” wisping through that moment’s portent.

For a certain kind of viewer, the Nova’s low-slung, growling charms are hard to resist, as is the sleazy snarl of Willy DeVille’s “It’s So Easy” (1980; and we might note that Jack Nitzsche produced a couple of Mink DeVille’s early records, connecting another couple strands in the web) on the Nova’s car stereo. Those prospective pleasures raise the question of just who the film is for. That may seem obvious: the same folks — dudes, mostly — who find pleasure in exploitation movies like Vanishing Point (1971), Satan’s Sadists (1969) or The Big Doll House (1971). But there are a few other things to account for, like how Death Proof repeatedly passes the Bechdel Test, and how long those scenes of conversation among women go on, and on. Most notable is the eight-minute diner scene, a single take featuring Abernathy, Kim, Lee and Zoë (Zoë Bell, doing a cinematic rendition of her fabulous self, an instance of stunt casting that literalizes the “stunt” part). Among other things, the women discuss their careers in film, the merits of gun ownership and Kim and Zoë’s love of (you guessed it) car chase movies like Vanishing Point. One could read that as a liberatory move, a suggestion that cinema of all kinds is open to all comers. All that’s required is a willingness to watch. But watching the diner scene becomes increasing claustrophobic. The camera circles the women’s table incessantly, and on the periphery of the shot, sitting at the diner’s counter, is Stuntman Mike. The circling becomes predatory, the threat seems pervasive.

If you’ve seen the film, you know how that plays out: Zoë and Kim play “ship’s mast” on a white 1970 Dodge Challenger (the Vanishing Point car); Stuntman Mike shows up and terrorizes them mercilessly; but then Abernathy, Zoë and Kim chase him down and beat the living shit out of him, likely fatally. In another sharply conceived cinematic maneuver, Tarantino executes a climactic sequence that inverts the diner scene: the women surround Stuntman Mike, abject and pleading, and punch and kick him as he bounces from one of them to another. The camera zips from vantage to vantage within the circle, deliriously tracking the action. All the jump cuts intensify the violence, and they provide another contrast to the diner’s scene’s silky, unbroken shot. The sounds and the impact of the blows verge on slapstick, and our identification with the women makes it a giddily gross good time.

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So, an inversion seeks to undo repetition. Certainly, Stuntman Mike’s intent to repeat the car-crash-kill-thrill is undone, and predator becomes prey. But, as is inevitable with Tarantino’s cinema, there are complications, other echoes and patterns to suss out. For instance: as the women stride toward the wrecked Nova, while Stuntman Mike pathetically wails, the camera zooms in on their asses. Bad asses? Nice asses? What’s the right nomenclature? To make sure we can put the shot together with Julia’s first appearance in the film, Abernathy has hiked up her skirt, revealing a lot of leg. Repetition reasserts itself. In an exacerbating circumstance, Harvey Weinstein’s grubby fingerprints are smeared onto the film. Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios is credited with production of Grindhouse, but Dimension Films, a Weinstein Brothers company, handled distribution.

When the film cuts to its end titles, we hear April March’s “Chick Habit” (1995), with its spot-on lyric: “Hang up the chick habit / Hang it up, daddy / Or you’ll never get another fix.” And so on. Even here, where the girl-power vibe feels strongest (cue Abernathy burying a bootheel in Stuntman Mike’s face), there are echoes, patterns. Note how the striding bassline of “Chick Habit” strongly recalls the pulse beating through Nitzsche’s “The Last Race.” Note that March’s song is a cover, of “Laisse tomber les filles,” originally recorded by yé-yé girl France Gall. The song was penned by Serge Gainsbourg, pop provocateur and notorious womanizer. The two collaborated again, releasing “Les Sucettes,” a tune about a teeny-bopper who really likes sucking on lollipops, when Gall was barely 18; the accompanying scandal nearly torpedoed her career. Gall refused to ever sing another song by Gainsbourg, and disavowed her hits.

Again, that’s all deeply embedded, somewhere in the film’s complicated play of pop irony and double-entendre and the sudden explosions of delight and disgust that intermittently reveal and conceal. Again, you’d have to know your pop history really well to catch up with the complications, and Death Proof moves so fast that there’s always another reference or allusion demanding your attention as the cars growl and the blood spurts. Too many signs to track, too many signals to decipher — that’s the postmodern. But perhaps we have become too glib, assuming that all signs are somehow equivalent. Death Proof insists otherwise. Much has been made of the film’s strange relation to digital filmmaking, of the sort that Rodriguez has made a career out of. Part of Grindhouse’s shtick is its goofball applications of CGI, all the scratches and skips and flaws that the filmmakers lovingly applied. They are digital effects, masquerading as damaged celluloid. Tarantino cut back against that grain, filming as much of the car chase’s maniacal stuntwork in meatspace as he safely could. Purposeful practical filmmaking, for a digitally enhanced cinematic experience, attempting to mimic the ways real film interacts with the physical environment and its manifold histories. Is that clever, or just more cultural clutter?

Amid all the clutter that crowds the characters onscreen, and their conversations in the film’s field of sound, it can be easy to lose track of the distinctions between appearances and the traces of the real bodies that worked to bring Death Proof to life. Which is why Tarantino’s inclusion of Bell is so crucial. She provides another inversion: Instead of masking her individual presence, doing stunts for other actresses in their clothes and hair (for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess, or for Uma Thurman in Tarantino’s Kill Bill films), Bell is herself, doing what she does best, projecting the technical elements of filmmaking — usually meant to bleed seamlessly into illusion — right onto the surface of the screen. And instead of allowing one group of girls to slip into a repeated pattern, bodies easily exchanged for other bodies, Bell’s presence and its implicit insistence on her particularity (who else can move like she does?) breaks up the superficial logic of cinema’s market for the feminine. She disrupts its chick habit. There’s only one woman like her.

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Jonathan Shaw

#music for films #chick habit #jonathan shaw #dusted magazine #death proof #quentin tarantino #reservoir dogs #grindhouse #Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich

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softspokenaesthetic · 4 years

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Slightly new updated sfw headcannons for slashers

I gotta get back into the swing of things so here we go darlings. Nsfw will be done soon.

Sfw Slasher headcannons

Jason Voorhees.

Walks in the woods is a must. No exceptions, unless it's cold then you don't have to join.

Loves to sit by the lake with you, the comfort and beauty from the lake and you makes him happy.

He enjoys baking even if he isn't the greatest, and would be estatic if you joined.

Would like to get an animal of any type to take care of, dog, cat, bunny ect.

Leaves the cabin you two share for hours, probably getting some teens on the property, or hunting.

After leaving for hours, he'll come back tired and wanting cuddles or some warm drinks and a hug to relax.

Jason is a big spoon, fight him on that, not actually but please let him be the big spoon

Michael Myers.

Soft? Only sometimes, rarely, maybe. He won't show it though, good luck (not that hard sometimes.)

After some time he does feel safer with you, and will let you touch him, not a lot but, it's progress.

Since he doesn't talk, he'll respond with head tilts, or maybe respond with certain ways he'll touch you, like a tap or head rub.

After hours of killing and coming back home, he'll just come inside your shared home, if your in the living room or bedroom, he'll just come in blood soaked.

Don't bother asking him to clean up himself at this point. Because you'll only get a head tilt at your response.

This is one of the many times the legendary Michael Myers is soft, cuddles after a long day. Mess with his hair and scratch his scalp, he will be like puddy in your hands.

Don't talk about it though, or you'll get a glare you can feel through the mask.

Thomas Hewitt

Since he's busy a lot, he'll feel so bad not being able spend time with you. And feel even more bad if you have to be with him during his 'work' in the basement.

He loves spending time with you when he can, and will help you with anything, like the chores you are given by Luda May during the day if you struggle with it

Luda May definitely talks to you about wanting grandkids, which makes Thomas embarrassed because he doesn't want that to be forced on you without consent.

Loves when you give him hugs from behind, especially when he's working and stressed from it.

The only mini fights you'll have is when he doesn't eat or drink anything while working, so you'll have to at least give him a water or sandwich so he can have something to eat and or drink for the day.

Gets exhausted a lot, you'll also have to drag him to sleep with you sometimes so he doesn't overwork himself 24/7.

Vincent Sinclair.

One of the touch starved boys, he can't help it though.

Just like Thomas he works a lot, always drawing or making things out of wax, and feels bad for you loving him sometimes because he works so much.

Please love him with touches, but at the same time don't, unless he really needs it and it's obvious from his aura, especially after working on things.

He loves when after he's done working, to feel your comforting touch, and cuddle while sleeping. He loves you so much.

He hates it when Bo makes comments towards you in any way that isn't nice, especially with how Bo is, he isn't the nicest at times. They get in arguments a lot due to comments he makes towards you or him.

Loves having those comfort and close times with you, like sketching you while you look so beautiful to him in a certain pose, like when your napping, or sitting by a window watching the rain, he can't get enough of you.

Billy and Stu

You 3 have the relationship of, messing around with eachother and pranking one another, you also call eachother nerds and stuff.

Movie marathons are a thing that will happen a lot, the weekends, after school, after a long day. They love to watch movies with you.

You found out about them being the 'Ghostface' but you were okay with it, and they loved you more for that. So you tag along and help screw around with the victims they want to get.

You all are touchy with eachother, you will be touching in some way, hugs, hand holding, grabbing from behind, legs touching while sitting down, ect.

Messing around in school is also something you guys do, it makes it more fun and less stressful, and they love to spook you when they see you in the hall, or classes.

Dates and going to parties will happen a good bit of the time, for the dates it will be depending how you feel that day, if you wanna stay in or if you wanna go out and see a movie or something, up to you. For the parties you usually go to them for fun and to get drunk, or to get new victims.

Cuddles all together will be a thing, and you will like it, also you will always be in the middle sorry, they like to feel you between them, gives them some type of comfort while sleeping.

Well I hope you enjoyed this slight update stuff, work has been annoying so I'm sorry, I'll try to update more (:.

-love Soft

#michael myers x reader #slashers x reader #ghostface x reader #jason voorhees x reader #leatherface x reader

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ionalottabookmarks · 3 years

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Just finished rewatching the 80s/90s Batman movies, and I have Thoughts:

Jack Nicholson Joker is definitely best live action Joker: both evil and crazy without the implication that being crazy caused or somehow excuses being evil, and wholeheartedly devoted to the clown gimmick (if you call yourself the Joker, but you never kill a man with a handshake buzzer, are you really the Joker? Also, if you haven’t fallen in an acid pit and aren’t killing people with evil laughing gas, what, exactly, distinguishes you from a two pit gangster with a weird aesthetic?)

Catwoman and Penguin are both terrible representations of their comic characters and it’s a much worse movie than I remembered

I would have liked to see Two-Face’s origin

Where did the whole “Riddler steals brain waves” thing come from?

Introducing Dick to Bruce in his late teens seriously changes their dynamic and I don’t love it

If I were watching this for the first time at this stage in my life I would definitely think Chase Meridian was being set up to be a villain (really interested in Batman before even meeting him, kind of aggressive about it, whole relationship seems rushed, in the career with the highest supervillain production rate in Gotham)

Seriously why not just replace the Riddler with the Mad Hatter? Did he pose a single riddle in this movie?

Arnold Schwarzenegger did a surprisingly good job as Mr. Freeze, and I gotta appreciate the attempt to squeeze an entire redemption arc into the last five minutes of the movie

Not enjoying the whole Poison Ivy crushing on Mr. Freeze thing

I was able to buy Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer as playing the same Batman, but George Clooney - he wasn’t a bad Batman. He was just a distinctly different character and if they wanted him to be Batman they shouldn’t have tried to shoehorn that movie into the previous series

I don’t know that I’d call these good movies exactly, but I tried watching Batman Begins next and was significantly less entertained. Decided I wasn’t interested in keeping on through The Dark Knight, and switched to one of the cartoons instead.

Overall thoughts on these 4 Batman movies vs. the next trilogy: everyone wants Batman to be all dark and edgy, but there’s 80+ years of history to draw on, and over that time I think Batman has spent more time being Ridiculous than Dark and Serious, and with the source material you have to work with, it’s really better if you don’t try to take yourself too seriously. Just have fun with it! Batman doesn’t have to be serious and depressing. Batman is fun! Let us have fun again!

#Batman

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manga-and-stuff · 4 years

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Interview with Makoto Yukimura, the Mangaka behind Vinland Saga

REALQ: What kind of child were you? Yukimura: I was a laid back kid, who took a very, very long time to come to a decision. I'd be late to dinner because I was thinking about something or other. Once, while I was alternately touching the right and left eyes of a snail, I became aware that night had fallen. I wondered why my group of friends were always in such a hurry. I would focus on something and lose the ability to tell if time was passing quickly or slowly.

REALQ: When did you first encounter manga? Yukimura: I was five-years-old and the manga was Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump. I remember thinking the cover art was cool. When I was little, I used to think that the cover art and the story inside were drawn by different people. [Laughs] But I watched the Dr. Slump anime before I read the manga. Later, someone told me that there was a manga that the anime was based on and I found the weekly magazine where it was serialized. In the beginning, I was dubious. I didn't see why there needed to be both a manga and an anime. Like, why do the same thing twice? How-ever, after I saw them both it made sense because each had its own idiosyncracies. REALQ: Did your parents say anything to you about reading manga? Yukimura: No, they never said anything. They came from a generation who said reading manga made you an idiot, but they didn't say any-thing. They didn't say anything when I told them at 16 that I wanted to draw manga, either.

REALQ: Was there anything that your parents, siblings, or people around you would say to you often?

Yukimura: There certainly must have been various things, but I don't remember because I was probably concentrating on something else at the time and didn't hear them. However, one thing I do remember is being told to watch out for cars. Like, at the very least, try not to die. [Laughs] Nevertheless, I really did get into a traffic accident. Once, on my way to the park to play with my friends, I ran out into the street and got hit on the side by a sedan. I rolled over the top of the car—the hood, wind-shield, top, rear window, then the trunk. Strangely, I wasn't seriously injured and played in the park afterwards. Actually, there was also another incident. My sister and I were riding together in a car. It was just the two of us and as we were going down a hill, a car suddenly appeared and we hit its side. I was sitting in the backseat and was launched forward like a catapult. My sister was so surprised she called out, "Mako, you're flying!" Strangely, I wasn't injured that time either, and we decided not to tell our mother. [Laughs] REALQ: Did your way of thinking change after the accident? Yukimura: I think that if it did change, I wasn't conscious of it. Despite being a near-death experience, it was a miracle I wasn't injured. My mother getting angry at me afterward was more frightening. [Laughs] In terms of my "way of thinking," I'm a little different. Like something in me is lacking. It's often the case that for some reason I don't fully comprehend a conversation even if I'm really trying to concentrate on what the other person is saying. What's the reason? If I'm honest about it, it's because I'll start thinking about something else, even if it's just for a moment. REALQ: Did you also have trouble paying attention during class at school? Yukimura: Yeah. Especially classes that didn't interest me. I continued to have this problem in high school, where I'd often be sitting in class and before I realized it, the bell would ring. However, my notebook would have stuff drawn in it...manga. REALQ: Didn't teachers or friends say anything?

Yukimura: In high school, I didn't have much of a social life, so nobody said anything. I went to reasonably academic schools [REALQ Editor's note: Yukimura graduated from Chuo University and Suginami High School] and my peers studied quite hard. The feeling that I was so different from most of the people around me had a big effect on me. I didn't fit in. I lived in my own world.

REALQ: Did student life give you anxiety? Yukimura: Anxiety was the only thing I really felt. In a way, isn't school a microcosm for society? Despite it being a microcosm, there's this feeling of being left behind. That made me really anxious and sad. But as a result of suffering in this way, I realized that society existed out-side of this microcosm—a kind of society that I had never experienced inside the microcosm of school.

REALQ :What lead you to have this epiphany? Yukimura: It occurred to me out of the blue one day when I was feeling totally devastated. I was 16. One autumn day after school I thought to myself, "I'll finish high school because if I don't, it will make my parents sad. But participating in a society reflected in this kind of microcosm will be impossible." It was just like that moment when a cup is filled to the brim with water and suddenly the surface tension breaks and it overflows. However, thinking this made me feel better. Until that point, the "ruler" for determining success since the first year of high school had been getting good grades, getting into a good college, and then finding a job with a good company. This ruler contained within it a system of values for how one should live their life. When I decided that this was not the ruler I wanted to use to measure my own life, things became a lot easier for me. I used to get burnt out worrying so much about getting decent enough grades that would allow me to get into university. Like, "please let me just graduate!" Realizing that there was another way to live was a lifesaver.

Of course, I think it made my parents nervous. In that era, there was still a deeply rooted notion that one's academic background was im-portant and working for a good company made you a good person. Back then, this was like saying, "Your child is the type of kid who won't find their way in the world." It was like throwing away the most important ruler and replacing it with a new ruler that was a little bent and covered with indecipherable markings. [Laughs] REALQ: Was there anyone from your high school days who had an influence on you? Yukimura: A teacher who taught classical literature. He was apparently a teacher with quite bizarre interpretations of the material. More than anything else, what left the greatest impression on me was when he used class time to talk about how wonderful Michael Ende was [REALQ Editor's note: a German writer of children's fiction]. He introduced me to The Never Ending Story. Once I knew about Michael Ende, he became an influence on me. It was the first book I knew of in which someone wrote a book because he had a sense of obligation and a goal in relation to society and the world. I thought that someone who wrote a book because he felt that it was something he had to do was a rather beautiful thing to wish for. REALQ: Next up... Yukimura discusses the connection between himself and Thorfinn Karlsefni, the protagonist of his Vinland Saga. Is there anything that makes you hesitate when you draw your manuscripts?

Yukimura: For characters, it's probably the hands. Hands take time to do well. The strength of a character's grip on a sword, for example. Male and female hands are hard to differentiate, too. Hands are the most expressive part of a character, after the face.

I've heard that you can tell a person's personality from their hands, so I always look at them. [Laughs] You can fake a facial expression, but your hands will show how hard you work or how hard you don't. If you show the character's life in their hands, you'll get a good result. REALQ: When did you start paying attention to how you drew hands? Yukimura: Since I was young. But I still find it difficult now. When I look at the work of other manga artists, sometimes the faces are well drawn, but the hands are not. To put it bluntly, if I were to choose among artists, I would choose them by how they draw their hands. REALQ: Is there anyone whose work you reference? Yukimura: I'm especially influenced by artists with high amounts of realism. When it comes to hands, it's gotta be Katsuhiro Otomo.

It's not just his hands, though. It's everything. [Laughs]

Also, the young, up-and-coming artists are all quite good. Their hands are pretty, but you can see the structure clearly as well. REALQ: Any thoughts on these hands? [While looking at Sigurd's hands in the manuscript] Yukimura: Yes. These hands are drawn fairly well. In Sigurd's case, de-spite the muscularity, his hands are not rough. That's because he has his underlings do the tough work. In Thorfinn's case, he has many small cuts, and there is more cracked and peeling skin.

REALQ: Are there any scenes in Vinland Saga strongly influenced by your own experience? Yukimura: When Thorfinn is on his knees, apologizing. [Laughs] The part where he says, "Please. I won't ask you to forgive me, but allow me to live a bit longer." I've been drawing manga for 20 years. There's always a shadow of guilt that hangs over me. I'm sorry for being so selfish. So, I feel I have to, at the very least, draw something that readers will love... I'm nothing without that. Thorfinn is a young viking from medieval Europe. Since his teens, he's pillaged, fought in wars, and done many other terrible things. His feelings change as he grows, and he starts to feel guilt for his past actions. The ghosts of those he killed appears in his dreams, and he is ravaged by nightmares. I am only here today because of the care of those around me. I am truly thankful. If anything about Thorfinn comes from my experiences, it has to be this. In his current state, the protagonist has no right to convict anyone else. No matter what kind of scoundrel he meets, Thorfinn always feels that he has done something worse in the past. I think it's good this way.

REALQ: Did you know from the beginning that Thorfinn would become the way he did? Yukimura: Yeah. The story began with the premise that the protagonist is fated to have done many terrible things. He goes from being the oppressor to being the oppressed, and in doing so, he learns many things and becomes an adult. He then departs, saying, "I will go to a new land beyond the sea and build a peaceful country." That is an escape from the values that dominated European society. They do not feel that it is bad to wage war and plunder other countries. And, although their opponents are human beings, they believe they have the right to make the weak into slaves and kill them if they need be. In the society of that time, such things were seen as good things. Thorfinn experiences—and hates—both. But he is powerless to change the system... So he decides to leave. There will be terrible bloodshed if he decides to change the world. So he leaves it to Canute. Because Canute has the power and the shorter path. "I am different," he says. "I will live in a different way." When I put it into words, it seems like a lot of what I think is reflected in my work. [Laughs]

REALQ: From your childhood experiences and your writing process, I get the feeling you are a perfectionist who doesn't com-promise when it comes to goals or ideals. Do the people around you feel the same way?

Yukimura: I think I am a perfectionist. In the past, my seniors and teachers would say, "If 100 points is amazing work and 0 points is nothing, it's easy to get to 80 points. However, each point beyond that is incredibly difficult. Past 90, it's so rough that you'll start spitting blood. And nobody gets to 100." I don't know if, by absolute standards, my work is at 80 points. But, for my own standards, I care a lot about each of those 1 or 2 points beyond 80. I care so much that others see the changes I make and say, "He pushed back the deadline for this? What's changed?" [Laughs] I've even rewritten an entire manuscript before. REALQ: Is it really rough when you have to throw out a whole manuscript? Yukimura: It's sad that to know the work won't produce results, but the worst possible thing for me is to feel regret afterwards. If I can choose to suffer for a brief moment as I draw, then I'll do it. The regrets afterward stay around much longer... REALQ: Are you happy about the reactions of your overseas readers? Yukimura: Yeah. It's encouraging to know they like my work. Especially when I heard some of them were reading Vinland Saga side-by-side with a dictionary. I forgot which language they were translating from and into, though. [Laughs]

REALQ: Let me change the subject: Advice from adults to children... Do you think it's important to emphasize the importance of having dreams? Should we tell kids to have dreams and tell them their dreams will come true? Yukimura: I used to think dreams were just desires. However, I was a good-for-nothing back then, so I think I was being resentful. [Laughs] At the very least, I don't think doing whatever you want to do is a beautiful thing. That's just you doing what you want to do. The truly beautiful things are helping others, volunteering, things like that... Finding a home for a stray dog, or doing things that no other person wants to do—that's beautiful. This includes me, but to do what you want to do is simply selfishness. I received my role in society, but I couldn't carry it out. I wasn't a modest enough person for that. I said such things because I thought I would do what I wanted to do no matter what other people said to me. It's the same for everyone, I think. Those who do what they want and succeed are simply the ones who ended up with a place in society. It's a miracle. After all, what some people want is to carry out meaningless terrorism... But it's the same thing. Both are "dreams." REALQ: If you could give an hour of advice to your younger self, what would you say? Yukimura: I'd say, reflexively, to be 3 times as careful of oncoming traffic. [Laughs] More seriously, I'd say, "You're worried that you're inferior to others. But don't worry." I'd tell myself that there isn't only one ruler to mea-sure yourself by. "Humans come in all sorts," I'd say. "There's not a single number line that we all stand on." Text by Shuta Miura

#Vinland Saga #Makoto Yukimura #behind the scenes #Interview #Manga and Stuff #Manga Cap #Manga #Art

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tmabigbang · 4 years

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From the Depth of the Spiral

Synopsis:

Michael has no idea what’s going on. He suddenly woke up in the tunnels under the Magnus Institute with no memories of the past 7 years after that fateful trip to Sannikov Land. Watch as he slowly spirals into madness regaining his memories while strengthening his bond with the Distortion along the way. Can he hide all this from the other Archival Assistants? What will happen when Jon wakes up from his coma? And what does the newly crowned Distortion Avatar, Helen, have to do with all this? Find out what happens and more when we uncover the truth From the Depth of the Spiral.

Rating: Teen

Pairings: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood and Melanie King/Georgie Barker

Author Intro:

@trickstergod14 : I started listening to TMA back in January of this year, it was the first podcast I had ever listened to. My favorite person recommended it. This story is dedicated to them.

Artist Intros:

@jarchivist-s1ms : you gotta love a funky spiral boy you just gotta

@vinegarwaffles : hi im beetle and i can do coin tricks

@rubytalon03 : Local jester here to draw Mr spiral. Fun fact, I really want to do some cool crimes.

Beta Intros:

@drowsy-salamander : Hiya, I’m Sal. I’m a hot mess, but I do know grammar

@drumkonwords : My friends call me a jester and a fool. No one else calls me.

@frogburt : first bang!

#tma big bang 2020 #tma bang 2020 fic intros #the magnus archives #tma #tma fic rec #tma fic #georgie barker #martin blackwood #melanie king #jonathan sims

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salmonthestoryteller · 4 years

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Mostly Non-Romantic Angst

(Some creeps in, but the main goal is more Sibling & Found Family Angst fics. I’m on a Gen fic kick, what can I say? Also, I’m a day late and apologize)

First you get hurt, then you feel sorry max and isobel have a talk about max being the one who was screaming and drawing on the walls at the group home. set sometime between episodes 2x09 and 2x12. EDIT: second chapter added!! max and michael talk. EDIT: third chapter added!!!! max and his mom talk. (Max confessing what he learned very dramatically is just… so Max. I'm still waiting for this conversation in show, but in the meantime there is this wonderful fic)

Bitter Pill Michael spares a moment of honesty. Isobel does exactly what he expected (Isobel's protective streak is warming even though the fic itself is painful.)

Let Me See When Max sees bruises on Michael's arm, he discovers something new about himself (Another young Max healing Michael fic, with it being the first time he heals any of them! Gotta love some Baby alien angst!)

i've got you, brother The system hasn't been kind to Michael, and Max struggles with things he cannot change and how to be there for his brother. Set in the pod squad's high school years, a few months before prom & the events of Rosa's death. (Teen Max and Michael angst. This hurts, but alien sibling feels are worth it.)

Tell me a story "After we left with our parents, it was three years, nine months and eight days before we saw Michael again." Liz is keeping Max company in the cave with Isobel, and asks him to tell her a story. (Max walking down Pod Squad memory lane while Izzy is in the Pod in S1 makes for a lot of feels.)

The Moon Points to The Sun They don't do apologies, Max and Michael. If they started, they'd never stop. (Cuz there will never be enough Max and Michael have a proper conversation fics. Ever.)

if you need me, better hurry cause i'm leaving soon There is a grave. That was one thing Liz had insisted on. (Michael ranting at a grave set up secretly for Max set during the time skips of early s2. This one goes right for the heart.)

easy to come undone my emotions got to me; blindness all i couldn’t see; now i feel anything but grief (Kyle getting some much needed support when his mother is shot. I was thrilled to find a fic that was pure Kyle feels.)

when you're gone Hello Rosa, After the accident, I had a vision of you sitting next to Liz and Maria on a bench. They both looked older while you looked the same. I knew then that you would be alright. There have been more visions in the years since which only confirm that you will return to us but I still don’t know how. What I do know is you will be okay, and they will be okay because of it. I told Maria to email you when she missed you, when she wanted to talk to you. I told her to tell Liz and Alex and your father the same thing. I don’t know if they did but I hope so. You are so greatly missed, by all of us. I hope to see you soon. Love, Mimi When Rosa accesses her old email account she finds out just how much she was missed. (Everyone writing Rosa during the ten year gap and Rosa's current day feelings on the matter? Yeah, this fic will make you smile, laugh AND cry, and it's so worth it.)

#rnmcreate2020 #roswell new mexico #fic recs #angst

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quillreflections · 4 years

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Title: Strawberry Avalanche

Chapter: 6

Series: Yugioh Zexal

Pairing: Trey Arclight/reader

Disclaimer: I started this when I was younger so the early chapters are kinda shitty lmao

If you were a beautiful sound in the echoes all around, then I’d be your harmony.

He should be sleeping, and he very much knew it. It would be ridiculous to get up now and get started. You weren't going to be here until noon, and it wasn't even 6 am. His sleepy green eyes focused on the bedside clock as best they could, watching the second hand tick ever so slowly, in time with the heartbeat he could hear throbbing in his ears and feel pounding in his chest. It was just a school assignment. And it's not like he'd never hung out with you before; heck, you'd been super close when the two of you were younger. And you'd repaired that friendship, and were just as close now as you ever had been. Nonetheless, he was absolutely thrilled and terrified. The clock finally ticked its way over to 6 am, and Trey leaped out of bed, completely unable to wait any longer. He didn't even go to get dressed; instead, he simply pulled his socks up and slid into the hallway. Being careful not to slip, he scrambled down the stairs and into the kitchen. Now to start cooking. ☆☆☆ Three hours later and Trey was still in the kitchen, pulling the macaron shells out of the oven. He glanced over at the counter- . . . hadn't he left the filling over there? Where did it go? A groggy voice piped up from behind him, startling the youngest Arclight into almost dropping the sweets. "Michaaael, you can't go cooking without us around to sample this stuff. . ." Trey turned, and yep; Quattro was leaning in the doorway, filling and a spoon in his hand. Trey sighed. "Thomas, these are for {Name}. Give that back." "Nah." "Oh, come on! I'll make some for you later!" Quattro stuck a heaping spoonful in his mouth, nearly gagging at the taste. "W-what the hell is this?! It's too sweet!" Michael almost snickered at his brother's disgust., but instead, he just shrugged. "{Name} likes the rose flavored ones." Quattro sneered as he tossed the bowl at his brother, who scrambled to not drop it on the floor. "I'm gonna hold you to that promise, since this batch might've given me diabetes." ☆☆☆ Oddly enough, Quattro continued to get in the way all morning. After Trey swept the entry hall, Quattro felt the need to track his muddy boots that way. Once the throw blankets on the couch were folded and the pillows arranged neatly, Quattro decided it was the perfect time to build a fort out of them. The magazines Trey had found the other day were stacked on the kitchen table; Quattro decided to "help" clean and put them back where they'd come from, in every corner of the house, completely out of sight. Now the two stood in the living room, Trey staring his older brother down as he refolded the blankets. Quattro smirked, eyes not wavering. The tension between them was almost palpable. Usually Trey wouldn't let his brother get under his skin, but. . . This was important. He really didn't want to deal with this right now. Quattro opened his sneering mouth to say something, but the doorbell interrupted him. Trey's eyes shot to the clock- noon, on the dot! He raced to the door, ignoring his brothers' cries for his attention. He stopped just in front of the door, straightening his hair and taking a deep breath. Okay, this was it! . . . N-not that it was really that important, but still! Okay, no more stalling. He reached out and yanked the door open, completely unable to stop the smile crashing across his face. "Hi, {Name}!" You smiled back at him excitedly, but then your eyes traveled a bit downwards and you couldn't help but laugh. "Michael, you're still in your PJs!" ☆☆☆ Although he'd gotten dressed immediately, Michael's face was still red an hour later, when the two of you were up in his room. The floor was littered with notebooks and sketchbooks, and he'd regathered the magazines to go through them for ideas. You were sprawled on the plush red carpet, sketching absentmindedly as Michael flipped through one of the books. He couldn't quite bring himself to look at you; it really shouldn't have been that embarrassing, but oh man, it absolutely was. "S-so, {Name}? Where should we start?" Your eyes darted up from your paper, glancing quickly at the page he'd left open. "We. . . should probably start with a list of the people we'd like to use as models. If we're trying to match people's personalities, we need personalities to match." Michael reached for an empty notebook, grabbing a pencil off the floor too. "We. . . we could probably use my brothers, I'm sure they'd be willing." He chuckled quietly to himself. "I'm quite sure Quattro would love to have you brushing something over his bare ch-" "We could also ask Shark!" You cut him off, face flushing. He nodded, as if he hadn't been just about to say- "Fwah, why would you ever wanna ask him anything? He's your typical emo teen, you won't get anywhere with him." Quattro strode into the room, almost as if you'd summoned him. He was holding the second batch of macarons that Trey'd made earlier, munching happily on the strawberry cheesecake-flavored treats. A brief sparkle of annoyance flashed through Michael's eyes, but he quickly covered it with a small smile. "We do need people of all kinds for this, you know." You nodded in agreement, and Quattro just shrugged, sitting a bit too close to you for Michael's comfort. Their eyes met for a heartbeat, and Thomas smirked at his younger brother, who huffed in return. W-whatever he was doing, it wasn't going to work! "Anyway, {Name}, tell me what you guys're working on!" Thomas kept his gaze on his brother, even as he leaned closer to you. You leaned in to grab some magazines and begin talking about the project that you were so, so excited for; to anyone else watching, it was blatantly obvious that neither of the brothers was listening to your ramblings. Instead, they were locked in a fierce staring competition once more, the tension in their gazes weighing heavy in the air. "Thomas. Michael." From the doorway, Quinton's voice interrupted your own, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room. You glanced at the boys on the floor with you, not quite sure why Christopher would be using such a stern tone. Trey and Quattro shifted awkwardly, throwing nervous smiles and glances at each other. Were they in trouble? ". . . which one of you took the macarons?" ☆☆☆ After easing the tension in the room [you still weren't quite sure what had happened. . .], Quinton took a seat on the carpet too, joining you and the younger brothers as he popped some of the macarons in his mouth. [why. . . why were all the boys so fidgety?] As you and Michael began to get ideas rolling, Quattro kept trying to make subtle moves. He almost draped his arm around your shoulder, but Trey snagged your attention, and you leaned out of Quattro's reach. Michael ended up resting his hand on your thigh, but Thomas made a move for your hand, and he couldn't let that happen, so he tossed a magazine in his brother's direction. Thomas flailed to catch it, almost knocking Quinton's snack tray over. The oldest Arclight glared, and the temperature in the room dropped by about twenty degrees. Even if you didn't know what was going on, you knew it was weird. Your eyes wandered to the clock on Trey's bedside; you'd been here awhile, and they seemed to be having. . . issues, so you could probably make an excuse to get away and leave them to their own devices. You stood abruptly, interrupting another staring contest between the three boys. "Sorry guys, but I've gotta go! I have some other things to do." The younger brothers both frowned, and Trey stood up with you while Quattro reached out to grab your shirt hem. "C'mon {Naaaaaaame}, just chill out here with us for awhile longer!" "Thomas, let her go! If she has somewhere to be, then she has somewhere to be!" "Quattro-" Okay, okay, this was too much. You yanked your shirt from Thomas' grip and smiled awkwardly as you stuffed your things into your bag. "Sorry, guys, but I really have to go. Michael, just. . . just text me, okay?" And before any of them could utter another word, you swung your bag over your shoulder and made for the door. The three boys stared awkwardly at each other; Quinton's face was completely blank, and Quattro was vaguely irritated, but it was apparent that Trey had embarrassed tears welling in his eyes. Trying to hide his embarrassment, he turned to glare at the middle brother for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "Thomas! Why couldn't you just leave her alone?!" With a huff, Quattro stared at the youngest of the three. A surprisingly serious look settled across his face. "You're not making any moves at all. And you're certainly not stopping me from doing it, either." His well-known fanservice grin crossed his lips, a challenging tone entering his voice. "You'd better step it up, brother- before she decides she likes me better."

#strawberry avalanche #trey arclight #yugioh #Zexal

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praphit · 5 years

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The X-People: DP Degrees of BS

Frickin Phoenix!

(What does that even mean? “Every hero has a DARK side?” She kills people! Are all of our heroes murderers? - but I’ll get to that later.)

I'm mad! That's right, people! I'm mad at MYSELF! Why? Well, I could have taken the kids to go see "The Secret Life of Pets 2", so we could laugh our asses off (Idk what kids I'm talkin about - just randomly picking kids up off the streets and taking them to see movies... prob best I didn't do that).

I could have seen something cultured like "Late Night" or "THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANSISCO"; which I admit is a stupid title, but it seems like it's a good movie. But, no, people! My comic book geekiness would not allow it!

Instead I went to see this bullshit right here - “X-Men: Dark Phoenix”.

Don't look at me that way, Sansa! You know dag gon well this movie is some ol' bullshit!

You know! The rest of your acting squad knows, the director knows, the writers know - I knew from the first trailer! I knew from the first time they announced that they were taking another crack at a cinematic Phoenix story. Why?? Cuz we've done this before! Yep!

There it is! - and it was terrible!

What’s going on with that poster? Apparently, they didn’t have any confidence in that movie either. Why is Wolverine running at me like Sonic the Hedgehog?

I tried to find a better poster, but...

Here they look like they’re posing in some 80′s rock video. TAKE THAT STAND:)

I was mad back then with the first trailer, because I knew that this moment would come. And I actually really liked the first two movies of these particular X-Men. It was Apocalypse that ruined everything.

People thought that movie was so bad, that it erased all the good that this franchised has done (even going back to the older X-Men):

The ground-breaking 1st movie (tho it prob doesn't hold up),

(Creepy old Magneto is coming for dat ass!)

Wolverine

(it's hard to imagine anyone playing him better than Hugh Jackman. And he should have won an award for how cut he got... and he was so modest. If I ever end up looking like that, WHEW! - ladies look out:),

I loved Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender's intense hot & frigid bromance (though we never got our make-out seen:), Quicksilver (man, I wish we could get more of him), "Logan" (excellent comic book movie), and I'm not sure if we'd have Deadpool without them ruining that first Wolverine movie. Not to mention that they marketed the hell out of this movie franchise and made so much money! But, then this guy showed up and effed it all to hell!

("Everything they built will FALL... ")

- you ain't lyin, jack!

And while that movie was terrible, it wasn't as bad as everyone said. Bullshit sure, but... there are different degrees of bullshit. Apocalypse was forgettable BS, sometimes there's BS that makes us laugh, or think, or cry - what type of bullshit will Dark Phoenix be? - Let's take a look:

This movie kicks off with the X-Men in space. Yep! SPACE! Since when are the X-Men astronauts? Which movie did they get training for any of that? How did they build an X-Jet for space travel? Did they learn it on YouTube? And even if that were the case, how's the government allowing this? If a group of talented minorities built a functional space craft, do you think President Trump would allow them to come and go as they please? Shiiiiiii In the movie they don't even test it first. Xavier just says that they'll be fine, and sends the kids off.

I think that there needs to be an investigation. Prof. X is trying to kill these kids. He keeps sending them on missions that they shouldn't come back from:

X-Men: "But, professor, we don't know how to disarm a bomb!"

Xavier: "You'll be fine."

X-Men: "But, professor, the X Jet isn't built for deep sea exploration, we don't even know where we're going!"

Xavier: "Y'all will figure it out."

Then, as they come back, he's counting to see if they all made it - "Ten kids left, and coming back, I count... ten DAMMIT! But, wait, one is injured... doesn't look like he'll pull through. YES! (as he drinks some bourbon - which he does at an alarming rate in this movie... prob to block out all the kids he has killed).

While we're on the topic of him - did the movie "Split" ruin James McAvoy's take on Prof X for anybody else? This is all I kept seeing when he was on camera.

But, as you know, cuz they did this exact plot in "X-Men: Last Stand" Jean Grey gets possessed by some space entity while they're up there, and becomes Phoenix.

Jean (played by Sophie Turner, who actually does a good job) is found to have done something horrible. Xavier (and this is no spoiler, cuz again X-Men: Last Stand") blocks out the bad stuff she has done to try to protect her, this eventually wears off, and now we get DARK

...wait, sorry.

Now we get DARK PHOENIX!

There we go!

(”Where’s my money?!”)

Now, Jessica Chastain is in this as well seen here, experimenting with bleach,

who's leading a group of aliens to manipulate Jean (I'll get to them later). But, if JC is in the house, you can be sure that a women's rights message will be in there somewhere (#drinkinggame) And BOOM, there it was - "Don't let some MAN in a chair tell you what you are? - what you can and can not be! Don't let him controoool you!"

I'm all for girl power, buuuuuut she HAS been on a bit of a carnage streak, and she has been killing people, annnnnnd isn't Jessica Chastain also trying to control her? But, imma let all that go... what do I know?? :)

I gotta be honest, I was digging the first half of this movie. They were capturing everything I love about the X-Men: social issues, political issues, teen struggles. They have lots of real drama going on amongst themselves. There are times when you'll cheer the X-Men on and times when you'll agree with some of the humans that THEY GOTZ TO GO! I love the flaws of the X-Men; it makes them relatable. I even love the struggle with having so much power, and yet having to try to walk a line of morality - which they suck at btw.

The professor sucks at it the most, which made me kinda sad, actually. BUT, to be fair, he has the power to control people's minds... would any of us with that power be able to consistently resist certain temptations?? Def not giving him a pass though. He does a lot of messed up stuff (some things they draw attention to, and others that they don't). Some things that made me cringe, even though MOST of what he was doing was out of love. I can't depend on none of my fave leaders anymore - not even the fictional ones.

We were getting into some deep stuff! BUT, then it was as if some big shot walked on the set and reminded them that they have a "Blow shit up" quota to meet, and that the plot points were slowing them down. Soooooooo, they burn the script and start blowing things up. Some people might say "Praphit, this is a comic book movie, how much script can you expect?" If this were 20 years ago, I'd agree.

Plus, it's more the fact that nothing makes any sense at this point.

Magneto (who's always the voice of reality in these movies, in my opinion) wants to kill Jean (for very good reasons), but he knows that he can't take Phoenix by himself, so why is he trying? He's a smart dude; why not come up with a better plan? Prof X wants to talk to Jean, to reason with her... the problem with that is that they just tried that a few days ago, and that couldn't have gone any more terribly than it did. The aliens in this movie (which lack all personality btw), who's objective is to control Jean, also know that they can't really do that or take her out (which was plan B), so... what the hell are we doing? The aliens are supposed to be the smart ones!

Prof X should have just controlled everyone's minds, and played a big game of immoral chess to take Jean out - that would have been a cool movie. But, this (though the effects are VERY COOL:) simply became a shoot-out! Not to mention, that right before all of this awesome, but confusing damage takes place, they have a big speech about restraint and not doing harm. Literally, a minute later, the X-Men are blowing buses up!

But, all of that is not even what makes this movie bullshit (grade: D+ btw). What makes this movie bullshit is the fact that it's the last one before Disney takes over.

You'd think that they would have given it their best, so that they can go out making us miss them! But, it felt like half way through the movie the team was told that this is all over, and that Mickey Mouse is coming to collect, but instead of going out with their best, they said to themselves "bleep it" and mailed-it-in.

The way that the final battle scene ends doesn't make any sense. It's one of those scenarios where "If you could do that... why didn't you do that earlier and save more destruction?" and a lil bit of "Well, if you had THAT much power, then none of these other altercations should have even been close."

The way it ends after that too! Man! It's like they just fast forwarded through the parts they didn't feel like acting out. This is the last one, people! Just lazy!

Yeah you!

I've got a spoiler, sooooo if you don't want it, skip through the text after Patrick Stewart - and start reading again when you see his handsome face again:)

(this is back when I learned to love this man)

So, Jean is... gone (possibly dead), and the X-Men name the school after her "Institute of Jean Grey" or something like that. Also, Prof X steps down (maybe due to guilt of his misatkes with Jean, who knows for sure, cuz they didn't act it out), and leaves Beast in charge in with the other teen X-Men to instruct the 'young kids at the school. "Other TEEN X-Men" Did they just make these kids professors? And what qualifies Beast (at this stage in his life) to run the school? Plus, Jean Grey was kind of a murderer wasn't she (and this wasn't a secret from the rest of the world)? Come on,kids, let me sign you up for "Ted Bundy's School for gifted youngsters" Would you be onboard for that? Hell no!

(Here’s PS fresh off a bender. “I promise, Timmy, I’ll try to think about never touching the sauce again, but this hair says that I will.”)

So... I'd say, entertaining bullshit. The effects (especially) at the end are great! But, the rest... and to go out like this... ugh.

There's a cool quote in here from Mystique (played by J.Law) who clearly didn't want to be there. It was a quote about how the women in the X-Men seem to be sticking their necks out and saving the day way more than the men, and that maybe Xavier should change their name to “The X-Women”. I thought that was not only funny, but a damned good point. I say do it!

I'd love it if you had a a big strong manly man of the team go ahead of the action and stand up to the enemy, and when asked "Who are you?" he replies

"We're the X-Women."

#x-men: dark phoenix #x-men #john praphit #praphitproductions.com #wolverine #jennifer lawrence #sophie turner #praphit #Movie Reviews #Marvel Comics #disney #Fox #Patrick Stewart

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sebeth · 5 years

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Young Justice #3

Young Justice #3 by Brian Michael Bendis and Patrick Gleason

The issue opens with the adorable and heartwarming reunion between Conner and Bart.

Bart is so small compared to Conner! It makes sense as Conner is clearly growing into his Kryptonian physique – he’s not quite at Geoff Johns-Teen Titans level but he’s on his way.

Conner informs Bart that they are on Gemworld and “I top to bottom love it here.”

“Are you – are you…a farmer?”

“I’m a Kent. I’ve always been a farmer. Well, half of me.”

So Conner is aware of both sides of his heritage – will Clark and Lois remember him?

The reunion is cut short by the arrival of Carnelian of the Royal Court.

Bart is ordered away from “that Gem farmer”. Does Carnelian seriously not recognize the “S” symbol?

Carnelian accuses Bart of trespassing, and “by the word and law of the great Dark Lord Opal, you will come with us”.

Bart reminds Carnelian of the recent invasion of Earth and, as King of Earth, he’s placing Carnelian under arrest.

A flustered Carnelian is quite confused by Bart’s taunting. Bart’s ready to throw down but Conner surrenders?! Bart is tazed into unconsciousness.

We flashback to “New Mexico. S.T.A.R. Labs Secret Laboratory Complex. The Constellation. Then.”

Conner, in the traditional jeans and black t-shirt combo, battles a creature.

STAR Labs invites Conner inside for a de-brief but he returns to Smallville – school is in session.

Instead of listening to the teacher, Conner is searching for news on the alien creature.

The teacher mentions “madness” and Conner agrees: “It’s madness that I’m sitting here when there’s so much other stuff that needs to be done. I’m only here because half of my DNA was – well, I see it now. It’s crazy! But hey! It’s what I had to do to get to this point. Now that I’m here though…I gotta go. It’s been an absolute pleasure. You are completely kick-ass at your job and everyone here says it. Stacy, I’ll text you. You know, if I can.”

Stacy is a girl in the class with an obvious crush on Conner.

Conner leaves the class and flies(!) off in plain sight of the teacher and students.

Um, I’m pretty sure Conner would be more cautious about flying in sight of the school. He is living with Ma and Pa Kent, who have no super-powers to protect themselves if it becomes known to the general population that young Kents = Kryptonians.

Conner returns to STAR Labs and demands answers. Dr. Glory says “no can do” and reminds him to “respect the law of the land”.

Conner announces “It just so happens that today was the day I decided I don’t care about all the rules.”

Conner proceeds to storm into the lab, encountering an energy beam that transports him to Gemworld.

Conner may be perceived as acting like a punk for rampaging through STAR Labs but Bendis did remind readers of Conner being the product of mad scientists. I’m sure he has empathy for other creatures being created/contained in labs.

We’re back in the present – Carnelian asks Conner why “the confused, sparkling earth boy” thought Conner would be “a concern”. He wants to know if Conner is an Earthen, a Kryptonian, or both?

Conner’s explanation is interrupted by the arrival of his wife and son?!

Bart: “First the beard, now this!”

Bart speaks for us all!

I’m not quite sure how marrying Conner and giving him a child goes along with the “de-aged/back to the basics” approach of Young Justice.

Honestly, I wouldn’t get too attached to the wife or son. The odds aren’t good they’ll be around after the initial arc.

The wife and son do explain why Conner wasn’t throwing himself into the earlier fight – not a good idea to draw attention to yourself when you have civilian dependents.

How long has Conner been on Gemworld?

The rest of Young Justice – minus Conner and Bart – are in the prison pits of the Castle Opal.

Robin does a status check on his teammates. Cassie states the Teen Lantern is “nine years old”? Maybe they should call her “Child Lantern”?

Ginny is rather salty about the situation. I can’t blame her.

Cassie apologizes to the group, blaming her loss of control on their current predicament. Tim states no one is to blame. Ginny and Amethyst violently disagree: “Reality itself is falling apart, I’m the only one who knows or can do anything about it, and I’m stuck down here. I totally blame her.”

Another excellent issue. For every answer, we receive more questions. Still no TimKon reunion. Boo!

Loved the Conner flashback section – it reminded me of his Metropolis Kid/Hawaii days. As for the wife and child…if they survive past the initial arc, I will be shocked!

I’ve said in previous issues that I wasn’t sure what Jinny brought to the table that Tim didn’t, and I’ve finally discovered what it is: very salty snark!

#Young Justice #Superboy #Conner Kent #Kon-El #Bart Allen #Tim Drake #Ginny Hex #Amethyst #Cassandra Sandsmark #Gemworld

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 5 years

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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Montenegro to Eurovision with 6 young souls

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(this is a pre-vamp review so take this whole thing as “something I wanted to publish but my schedule was withholding until it was specifically time for them to be reviewed”, therefore, this is a bit of a retrospective review. Will tackle on its revamp later!)

Montevizija, which finally has an official Twitter account (we all should forget the times some dude named Vasilije pretended to having made one), offered us another batch of 5 songs for another year, actually revealing all of them beforehand this time and not just the snippets! Joy to the world I guess.

You gotta love Montevizija for it being the most underrated ex-Yugoslavian national final btw. Granted, it only lasted for 2 editions as of now, and it will take years to grow bigger as a thing, but so far, for us the NFs that are ingrained to our brains more are Dora, EMA and Beovizija (and even Skopje Fest when THAT was used to pick an act and not just served as a festival like it originally was meant to be), therefore Montevizija seems more shunned. But what do you expect when the lineup of 5 for two years in a row is not exactly as stellar as hoped for? Well, there are gems here and there, but they haven’t really won on either years (or at least not on the 2nd year if you call Vanja’s song a gem too), and yet somehow they find someone who call them great. But for me this Montenegrin entry is not. :L

And who is up there to be colossally blamed for its existence? None other than this group of 6 refering to themselves as D mol (with “mol” decapitalized for whatever reason... they used to have hyphen separating the ‘D’ and ‘mol’, but now they scrapped it altogether, an anime death I’ll never forget). Worth noting that I, as a 19 year old, have this particularly ugly feeling I must get rid of, and that’s the one of “feeling old”, already at my age. And this is how I felt seeing that the band whose song I am not fond of today is made up by members that are of 16-17 to 21-ish years old!!! So my heart insists that I shouldn’t go too hard on these poor younglings, even if this is just me, currently tackling the brethren of my age. Prepare as I’ll go to shred their composition they’re going to Tel Aviv with, “Heaven”, to bits.

Although, what I call “shredding to bits” is merely just nitpicking the reasons the original version (keep bearing in mind that I haven’t heard the revamp yet) sucks imo, and idk, the new “Heaven” miiiiiiight just grow on me, but I heavily doubt about it because I never cared for it in the first place (youhouuu, they were my last in Montevizija ‘19 for a reason), and I’m rather looking forward for the new faves from the 8 songs I haven’t listened to yet rather than those that were already chosen. And even the Eurofans were not quite fond on the revamp, as some think the additional ethno sounds made it sound worse (and of course there are some that kinda like it or think of the song as their guilty pleasure). So why shouldn’t I? :O

Anyway, old “Heaven”. The first sounds on here to grace my ears on this song consist of one light piano note being tapped to an exact rhythm and a confused baby girl stuttering. And I’d’ve maybe enjoyed this more ironically at some point if it weren’t for the latter sound effect being re(ab)used later in the song!! Ugh I hate it. The lyrics are fine I guess... though isn’t it ironic the only English song in Montevizija’s lineup this year won?? It’s like the Montenegrin people were openly cringing when being the only ones to understand Vanja comparing his life to cat’s and mouse’s and calling his heart “the most expensive toy” in his song and then they were like “you know what? Let’s let the WHOLE Europe understand how terrible our lyrics are! ^_^” (no but for real, who still uses “I’m in heaven, falling straight into your heart” as a pick-up line? Did they travel through time from 1998 to 2019 or something???)

Speaking of the 90s, the whole song smells like a dated cliché of that period. You know, the kind of “the high school prom song from that 90s teen sitcom’s who you’re forced to watch when your elderly aunt is in the house with you and there’s nothing else on TV” dated. Dated even more than “Chain of Lights”. Seriously though! It includes the pathetic “wah wah” bassline, mid-tempo beats, the boy/girl-group harmonies... catch me puking sugar-coated cheese to this, no thanks. Oh and if you already read my “Zero Gravity” review (which you probably never even bothered to after seeing how much text would you have to read), I definitely mentioned that I’m not a fan of those “two verses-two choruses” songs, and especially those kind of ones that aren’t sounding like something suited for radio (e.g.: Poland 2018, “Light Me Up”)... this obviously sounds like something from the radio of the times the at-the-time senior highschoolers are currently over 30 or slightly over 40, and that should be 4 and a half minutes long. These verses could just not be more ridiculously dragged out for the choruses to prevail and get stuck in our brains... fucking welp [sic] me already.

Well, if there are any brownie points I could give this, it’s pleasant, it’s harmless if I don’t take into account the cheese vibes this emits, and all this bunch are made up by up-and-coming talented singers that clearly deserved a better song...

And the staging concept in their NF was cool tho (illustrating their power of D mol), and I applaud the couple chemistry I guess

Oh and this below is one of the most underappreciated memes this Euroseason:

*stares into your soul in Montenegrin*

So yeah. Oh and the Rizo(tto) guy who is self-aware of his hotness and the hotness of the much older Eurovision guys this year, but he’s not doing it for me so that I could be in heaven falling, so he’s getting a hard pass.

All in all - a nostalgia cash-in made to appease the housewives from Podgorica to Skopje, from Novi Sad to Štúrovo, and nothing quite else, sung by a cool bunch of people that if anything are deemed this year’s "great people with an unfortunately too dated song and a shitty draw” by me. I don’t know much of their personalities but I do believe that even if they like what they’re singing, they’d be much better off doing a better sounding throwback, at least. So that even the disappointed-by-”Heaven” Eurofans could at least call it “so dated but a BOP!”. And hey, I’m aware of those fans that will likely be pissed at me for not bopping along to this, but I said what I said about it and yet again, if revamp changes my mind, I will change my opinion, but right now I’d not prefer to. Grumpy Adio.

Approval factor: Hell with the no. I would like Vanja back instead. At least he made himself a somebody to be cared about even if the Eurofans didn’t quite adapt to his song in return.

Follow-up factor: somehow, both “Inje” and “Heaven” were/are seen by the masses as instant NQs, so it somehow doesn’t sound like Montenegro is following a great path so far. And after this year anything that audience favours and wins can be seen as a way better follow up after something meh coming after something wrose.

Qualification factor: For the n-th time, I’m yet to check the revamp out to state where this will actually go, but being put 2nd in the draw is a massive stab in the knee, as demonstrated by even the national finals this year (Electric Fields in Australia Decides, Aly Ryan in Unser Lied für Israel, Lisa Ajax in Melodifestivalen final... the only glaring exception is ZENA in Eurofest but is it me or these producers did this just so they could be all like “heeeey we put a winning song on 2nd just to show that a NF song can win from ANY draw! ANY DRAW!!!” lol nope), and from it only a few lucky souls have crawled out victorious (Nathan Trent for example, the draw might have pushed him down in the semi but he got up again!). D mol, for as young and developing in talent as they are, don’t seem to be such. You can be young and pitied for your personality, but you always can at the same time have a song that completely crushes your chances to do well and sweeps up the last shards of hope right in front of your eyes despite being an angel worthy of protection (Ari Ólafsson, anyone?). Unless the D molians work all their magic and the random ethnic vibes into their favour for some reason, but for now it ain’t gonna work.

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

And even then, what was so interesting about Montevizija 2019?? Let’s see...

• First off, let’s address one meme of the beginning of 2019 that Facebook may or may have not used purposefully to upgrade their automatic “facial recognition” skills - the 10 years challenge. Our first one of this season is the sassy maneater who spent her ESC stint by trying to unlove a guy so hard that he just couldn’t oblige - Andrea Demirović. Her decade-later A-game happened to be this one song she sang in her mother-tongue: “Ja sam ti san” (I am your dream). Now, I wasn’t particularly into it - I enjoy some electro tracks out there (like hello, “Igranka” is one of my favourite Montenegrin entries, and 2013 entries overall as well) but this one just ended up being the right amount of cool AND overbearingly unsettling for me to not really fancy it. Kinda like “Red” by HyunA - I can only bop to this if I don’t care about the fact I actually hate it, oops. (Or maybe it is just because Andrea once again used a composition done by one of those “rent-a-NF-songwriter” people. Which is at least better than collabing Ralph Siegel who’s stopped being relevant ever since starting to work with San Marino, or even since the hilarious attempt of a peace song sung by the original common framework, six4One. But since Michael James Down has co-contributed to one of the better Montevizija songs last year, I will not allow myself to think it’s thanks to those kind of songwriters.) Nevertheless, the Eurofans actualy kind of loved this song, but sadly, Montenegrins and the international jury did quite not, and she didn’t land on to the superfinal 2 (as opposed to a superfinal 3 last year, to which she could have easily qualified if it still were a 3). Here’s her song to y’all anyways (and the performance too, which just needed to include some random monster dudes dancing around... why? Because Eurovision! ^^):

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• Speaking of Andrea, during the results part there was this one shot of hers where she was pictured just casually chilling on her phone, not giving a damn that she’s being underrated on the scoreboard. Not only she was badly rated, but this moment was such an universal #mood!

• In between the finally final results announcement (which I didn’t really know when exactly was it taking place because the winner wasn’t really said out loud before the event I will describe next was taking place??) there was this lottery going on of who would be the lucky two audience observers that’d win tickets to Tel Aviv... hilariously enough though, it somehow malfunctioned and there were some sort of errors regarding the announcement of the RIGHT winner <3 but the winners happened and I hope they’re getting to go to Tel Aviv at some point during the Eurovision events! Hope they don’t feel startled by the lack of taken seats this year.

• Unlike Eesti Laul, Montevizija this year took up the job of showcasing tweets of Eurofans, and somehow this fellow fella ended up seen by a handful of Montenegrins AND international viewers. Take a wild guess which of them know what a daddy Serhat is.

• And who could not forget the magic flying envelope for to announce the winner of the NF:

there must have been some Harry Potter magic in there :O

As for what touches the other songs, well there’s the last year’s fan fave Nina Petković with another song, but it’s no “Dišem”, so don’t even bother. Or bother, but imo it’s just okay-sounding, nothing that groundbreaking or pleasant enough to be competitive. The other few songs were also nice but I’d like not to make this longer as my other write-ups, to be fair. Sucked to be Mr. Kállay-Saunders who, as the international juror chosen for this national final, had to rank its songs... as that NF happened right on the same day his second A Dal 2019 performance was taking off. Not that the international jurors were supposed to be present in Montenegro on the day of this NF, anyways...

Anyway, despite all this goddamn criticism (that could’ve flown more smooth had my computer not restarted in the middle of me doing paragraphs for this review), I’m fare welling the D mol-ians and would like to wish them a heavenly Eurovision experience. ^_^

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #montenegro 2019 #d mol #heaven #montenegro

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that-70s-show-slasher · 6 years

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That 70s slasher

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Chapter Six: Locked up.

Eric Forman’s driveway

Eric watched the cop car leave the driveway with his Best friend in the back. “Hyde didn’t- they’ve got something wrong, they’ve gotten something wrong they had to, right?” he turned to look at Buddy who was just as confused as Eric, everything was happening so fast, which meant that maybe the killer would be caught just as quick.

Eric turned and ran in to the house to get his father, who he found in the living room, sitting in his olive green chair, reading the Newspaper. “Dad” Eric said excitedly as he busted in to the room. “Hyde’s been arrested” He came to a stop in front of the chair as he finished talking, waiting for his dad to reply.

“Arrested? For what” Red laid his Newspaper down and sat up. “What did he get himself in to?” Red spoke in an annoyed tone.

“They think he killed Kelso” Eric’s voice cracked and Red stood up and made his way to the door, grabbing the keys to the Toyota from his pocket. “Stay here, I’m gonna go talk to them” Eric followed his dad out to the car. “Dad wait, let me come, I can help”

Red looked at his son and shook his head. “If they want you to come in I will call, for now it’s best if you just stay here and wait”

Eric stood still as his dad drove off to go take care of the situation, everything was getting worse, it was like a disgusting nightmare and Eric felt like he was never gonna wake up, he knew he never would because this wasn’t a nightmare, it was real life.

He jumped at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder; he turned to see Buddy standing behind him. “Hey, I know how everything is going right now, and I believe that Hyde is innocent, we just gotta wait.” Buddy gave his friend a reassuring smile and Eric nodded, stuffing his hands in to the pockets of his jeans. “We should probably go down and tell Donna what happened” he sighed and Buddy agreed, following the scrawny teen towards the basement door.

Donna turned her head as the two boys entered from the outside door, when Hyde didn’t enter behind them she sat up a bit more in confusion. “Hey guys” she waited a moment more just in case, but when the two sat down and Hyde still hadn’t followed she decided to ask.

“Where’s Hyde?” she didn’t wanna sound worried so she kept her voice fairly upbeat.

“That’s actually what we came down here to talk about” Eric said and Buddy nodded. “Hyde was just arrested” he spoke again and Donna’s eyes widened.

“Arrested? For what- hold on… Eric, are you being serious?” Donna’s concern rose in her tone.

“They think he’s the killer” this time Buddy spoke up and Donna started shaking her head. “No- no that’s not right, Hyde can’t be- he isn’t the killer” Donna was actively worried at this point.

“Yeah- we know that, and my dad is currently headed to the police station to work this out… but what we believe isn’t gonna hold up to what they think, they’re the cops.” Eric leaned back beside Donna and tried to think of what to say.

Donna sat in silence trying to think of how they could prove that Hyde wasn’t the killer then it hit her. “What about the suicide letter” the two boys turned their heads to look at her in confusion. “Guys if that letter was written by the killer it could prove it’s not Hyde because it wouldn’t be in his handwriting!” Donna said excitedly.

“Donna that’s a great idea” “Great thinking Donna”

Eric and Buddy spoke at the same time but Donna understood them as if they had spoken separately. “We need to call Jackie, tell her that note could have a huge play in whether Hyde gets out of jail or not”

“Jackie doesn’t even know that Hyde has been arrested, maybe we should tell her first” Eric spoke and Donna agreed “Right, I didn’t think of that”

A moment of talking later and the three decided it would be best to tell Jackie in person, so they all got up and headed outside, deciding to take the Trans AM, as it was already facing the road and ready to go. It wasn’t the best for three people but they did all fit and it got them too Jackie’s house quick enough.

When they arrived they tried to walk up to the door as calmly as possible, they didn’t wanna make this situation any worse than it already was. Eric knocked and after a moment of waiting Jackie answered and looked at her friends, and Buddy.

“Hey, what are- all of you, doing here?” Jackie asked, mainly curious about Buddy, but also a little curious about Eric and Donna.

“Jackie” Donna spoke first.

“Hyde was just arrested, they think he’s the killer” Eric explained what was going on and waited for Jackie to say something.

Jackie blinked at the two. “No way- Steven would never—“ Eric cut her off. “We know he wouldn’t that’s why we need you to try extra hard to see if your dad can get that note, it could prove Hyde’s innocence.”

Jackie rubbed her arm and nodded. “Of course, right. I haven’t talked to him yet but as soon as he gets home from work I’ll try my best to get that letter, so much has already happened to us, to Steven, and he doesn’t need to be locked up falsely” everyone agreed that what she was saying was true, because it was. so many horrible things had already happened and Hyde being in jail wasn’t something anyone needed.

While the four friends talked about what was going on, Fez was held up in his room, in bed as he had been for awhile, he was unaware that his friend Kelso, had passed away, thus all of his emotions were still sadness from Laurie’s death and annoyance with his host parents for not letting him see his friends.

While he was sulking away he heard the slight murmur of the television in the living room down stairs, he couldn’t hear it well but it was playing loud enough that he caught a few words. “Sad” “hanging” and “Death of” quickly he threw the blankets off of himself and ran down the stairs, nearly slipping on the way down, he was scared, had someone else been murdered? Was it someone he knew?

He stumbled in to the living room where he saw a picture of his dear friend, Michael Kelso. His eyes began to fill with tears as the news reporter talked about the supposed suicide of the teenager, Fez couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but there it was. Kelso had committed suicide, but why? Didn’t he just invite them to the water tower a few hours ago? Was this why? He couldn’t figure it out, why would his friend want everyone to find his body like that.

He stood still in the middle of the room just staring at the T.V even after the News had already moved on from the story, he couldn’t bring himself to move until he nearly fell over, catching himself and bringing his mind back to reality, no longer frozen in shock he took a step back, pushing his hands up through his hair slowly, he was falling apart, his life was falling apart and both of his host parents just- watched, as if his friends death didn’t matter, as if his feelings didn’t matter. He watched them stare blankly before turning and running back towards the stairs, he felt so afraid, and alone.

As he was hurrying up the stairs he tripped, hitting his elbow which struck pain throughout his entire body but took his mind off of his sadness, was that possible, adding physical pain to lessen mental pain? He got back to his feet and finished his trek towards his room, locking the door when he got there. The bruise on his elbow still stung when he touched it, so he touched it over and over, a bit harder each time, sending a shiver of pain through him and making him forget the pain he was feeling from seeing the News story.

After awhile the pain of jabbing the bruise started to fade and he felt his throat close and his chest tighten, he was back to thinking about Kelso’s death, he had to find some way to suppress that again, a way to feel a different kind of pain, so he started rummaging through his draws and closet, trying to find something, to no avail he sat down on his bed, then laid on his side and curled up, trying not to cry but failing as tears poured from his eyes.

Nearly a full 3 minutes of straight crying and fez finally stopped, sniffling and noticing the pocket knife laying on his night stand, it was one Kelso had left one day a few weeks ago, when everything was normal… slowly he reached out and grabbed the knife, sitting up and opening it, looking at his reflection in the chrome blade, he sniffled again as he remembered the day that Kelso had left it, that was such a happy day but now it made him sad, that horrible tightening of the chest was back so he did what he hoped would help, he took the blade of the knife and poked his finger, drawing blood. “Aye!” he regretted the decision but it helped ease the feeling in his chest so he did it again, on a different finger, drawing another drop of blood and another yelp, then again, until all of the fingers on his left hand were dripping. He swapped hands and began to poke each finger on his right hand, he was used to the pain now, it still hurt but he could bare it, no more yelps, just little winces as the tip of the blade punctured the skin.

It hurt, but it made him stop thinking about what was happening so he accepted the pain. Finally all of his fingers had been pricked and he didn’t have any more to stab, he had to try something else, the thought of Kelso was creeping back up and he had to stop it, so he took the knife, set the blade against his upper forearm and drug it across, creating a small cut. He winced and clenched his teeth as the thought of Kelso dissolved back in to the void. He did it again, running the sharp edge a bit lower and creating another line of crimson.

He went on like this for a few more minutes, creating small cuts up and down his arm and watching the blood trickle out. It was so painful yet calming in a sense. After awhile he stopped, he had created enough marks for the time being and was no longer nearly as sad as he was before he hit his elbow, it was unusual how much peace the pain brought, but it worked.

He knew he couldn’t leave the blood so he grabbed an old towel from his hamper and wiped the crimson fluid off of his arm and the knife. after the knife was clean he closed it and stuck it in a drawer then went back to wiping his arm, eventually he made his way to the bedroom and washed the cuts off, dabbing them with the towel again to finish cleaning, next he pulled a button up shirt on to hide the wounds so nobody would ask about them, he knew everyone, especially his host parents, wouldn’t be happy with what he was doing, even if it helped him stay calm, though it was a new way of dealing with things, he would probably be using the method much more from this point on.

He thought about the cuts, the bruise, the small pricks on each finger tip, they all hurt, in a good way, putting the vinyl on the player caused his finger tips to sting and laying down in his bed cause his bruise and cuts to ache but he didn’t care, he just pulled the blanket up to his head and let the music drag him away from everything.

Eric, Donna, and Buddy all headed back to Eric’s house to wait, Jackie’s dad had arrived and they figured it would be best to let Jackie and her father have time to talk, it might give Jackie a better chance at convincing her dad to help them get that note.

On the way back Buddy noticed something was off about his car but it wasn’t affecting the driving so he decided to wait to check on it until later when he didn’t have Donna and Eric with him, the car seemed fine for the moment and probably just needed a fluid check.

When Red arrived at the police station he got out and made his way in, looking around as he got up to the front desk. “I need to speak to whoever thought Steven Hyde murdered those kids” Red spoke sternly and the guy looked up at him. “Sir we all think that, it’s pretty obvious he did it” he half chuckled and started to look back down at what he was doing when red grabbed him by the collar causing a few people to look. “Who issued the arrest warrant, dumbass. I’ve known that boy since he was little, he didn’t kill anybody” Red let go of the man’s collar, letting him drop back in to his seat.

“Right, okay um” he got up and made his way in to a back office, leaving Red to wait. When he got back the sheriff was with him. “Red” the sheriff spoke and motioned for him to come back to his office, Red followed and they sat down across from each other at the desk.

It was quiet other than the sheriff shuffling some papers in to place. “We have evidence that Steven killed, or assisted in the killing of Michael Kelso” he broke the silence and intertwined his fingers while he looked at Red. “I know that must be hard to hear, my men have had many run-ins with him and we know how close he and your son Eric are.” The sheriff sighed

“Listen here, I know what this may look like, but I also know that Steven wouldn’t kill one of his best friends” Red laid his hand on the table. “What evidence is it you have to go on exactly?”

“We found his finger Prints on the paint can” that was the easiest and most reliable source they had, so they were going with it.

“That’s your proof?” Red said with an annoyed tone. “those dumbass’s were always using those spray cans, you can probably find Eric’s prints there too, almost every time they steal stuff it’s from my garage so you could probably even find my prints if you looked hard enough”

“Steven Hyde and Michael Kelso’s sprints were the freshest on the can, and considering Michael is the one we had to pull down its safe to assume Steven had the can last.” The Sheriff moved one hand up to scratch his head. “If he isn’t the killer, we will know in due time” he looked at Red. “Another body will eventually show up and Steven will be let free, or nothing will happen and he will be proven guilty” he gestured his hands outward and shrugged.

“So you are gonna let another teenager get murdered, just so you can know if Steven is innocent or not?” Red was about ready to punch the man sitting in front of him but getting himself put away with Steven wasn’t going to help anybody.

“We’re still keeping an eye out, keeping men on patrol, but right now we’re near positive that we have the killer locked up, now, are we done here?” he grabbed some papers from the side of his desk, waiting for Red to reply.

Red put his hands on his knees and sighed. “I wanna bail him out”

“I’m sorry Red, we can’t do that. And even if we could, I know your family. And you couldn’t afford it” He wrote something down and looked at Red with a stupid smile that made Red wanna start yelling.

“Can’t afford it? I’ll tell you what I can’t afford! My foot-“ the sheriff slammed his fist on the desk and cut red off. “I’m gonna stop you right there, you wouldn’t want me to throw you in the cell right next to the boy, would you?” Red didn’t say anything else as the sheriff spoke, then stood up. “Now, I’m gonna let you off with a warning because I know times are tough right now, both deaths have been very close to home for you, you’re on edge” he drug his hand down his face, leaving it on his chin for a moment, sighing before speaking again. “But because of that little outburst just now, this conversation is over and I’m going to have to ask you to please leave my office and go home, I don’t wanna complicate things so don’t force me to put you in cuffs”

Red grunted and walked out of the office and towards his car, everyone in Point Place was a dumbass, but these particular Dumbass’s were gonna get someone else killed all while locking up an innocent man.

When Red got back to his house he went straight for the kitchen to grab a beer. When he got the beer he closed the door to the fridge and turned around to see Eric standing in the doorway.

“Well?” Eric asked and took a seat at the breakfast table. “What did they say?” Red took a seat across from his son and sighed. “They won’t let him go” Red brought the beer to his lips and took a sip. “The sheriff is willing to risk another death to test if Steven is innocent or not”

Eric sat up. “That’s crazy, any one of us could die and all they care about is holding Hyde?” Eric was filled with fear and rage. “Dad there’s gotta be something we can do”

“I already tried bailing him out, they won’t let me, we just gotta wait a few days and hope they come to their senses” Red sipped the beer again and leaned back.

Eric stood up and pushed his hair back before making his way back down to the basement without saying anything else, he needed to talk to his friends about what was happening.

“Eric hey, did Red get Hyde out?” Donna turned to her boyfriend and he shook his head, sitting on the back of the couch. “They won’t give up on the idea that Hyde did it” Eric sighed. “Red told me that the sheriff said they were waiting to see if any more people got killed to truly know if Hyde is the killer”

“That’s Insane, it could be one of us- it could be one of his kids next and he’s gonna risk that?” Donna was furious. “Hyde didn’t kill anyone and now he’s locked up while some crazy person is out there waiting to take his next victim”

Eric nodded and listened to Donna rant until Buddy spoke and they both turned their heads towards him. “He’s safe at least” he stopped sucking at the Popsicle to speak. “The killer’s not gonna go in to the police station to kill someone so, let’s look on the bright side right? Hyde is protected.” While none of them wanted Hyde in jail. Buddy had a point.

“Yeah, that’s actually a good way of thinking…” Donna was starting to calm down, but not by much. “He’s still locked up though, and it’s a lose-lose situation, Either no one dies and they use that as proof or someone does die, and both are horrible outcomes” Donna looked at her feet and Eric moved to sit beside her, wrapping his arm around the redhead to reassure her, they all just needed to wait.

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spncanonbigbang · 7 years

Text

Masterpost 2017

Under the read more you’ll find the list of all the mini and big bangs from this year’s event. Enjoy and see you next year!

| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020

MiniBangs

Shut Up and Dance, Dean Winchester by Ailuromatron | art by emmatheslayer 8,3k; Teen and Up Audiences; Castiel/Dean Winchester

Dean is not going to think about the way Cas’ sudden withdrawal overlaps with the mental feedback Dean’s been experiencing here. He wouldn’t know what to make of it anyway, whether it’d be ironic or fitting or what. But if Castiel shutting him out turned out to be because Dean is loosening up, letting ideas form in his head more clearly than before—that would burn like a hot blade, and it just doesn’t bear looking too closely. It’s not the only thing tonight that doesn’t bear close inspection for the sake of Dean’s sanity. He damn near trips over his own feet when confronted by the south side of a north-facing Cas—seriously, when and where did he get that pair of ink-black jeans and in what universe is the way they fit his thighs not illegal?—and he’s pathetically grateful for the excuse of a rough patch of asphalt to blame it on when the others turn back to see what happened to him.

Misery & Solace by theackles | art by thruterryseyes 5k; General Audiences; Dean Winchester/Castiel

It’s been a week. One long, painfully numb week. The days went by one by one until Dean didn’t know what day it was anymore. Dean can feel the ache in his bones. He can’t move, he can barely think. He’s gotta get Cas back, even if it means working with Rowena and (almost) killing himself in the process.

A Lesson in Adapting by distortedrain | art by emotionallyunstabl 5,6k; Teen and Up Audiences; Castiel/Dean Winchester

The Winchesters settle into the Bunker and learn to hunt a little less a live a little more.

Fin ad Infinitum (The End Evermore) by AmberAnnh | art by lux-tuli 8,5k; PG-13; Gen

In “The End” Dean got the chance to see the future, zapped to a 2014 where the consequences of his choices had played out. Now, it’s Sam’s turn. Transported from 2009 to 2014, he must grapple with a demonic virus from his past, angels using the remnants of humanity as disposable vessels, the devil in his nightmares, and—perhaps worst of all—why Dean said “yes” to Michael.

If These Rooms Have Memories by KelpietheThundergod | art by malallory 12k; Mature; implied Castiel/Dean Winchester

Sudden light and sound make him flinch, but then, oh—cartoons! Awesome. Except then, the tall man comes over and takes the button-thingie out of his hand and shuts the cartoons off. “Dean, listen. The witches are gone, and they’ve got the Grimoire. We’re gonna do a spell to slow down the curse to buy some time, and then—” The man cuts himself off and his serious expression turns into one of exasperation. “You forgot again, didn’t you?”

Something Special by Durenjtmusings | art by Busy Squirrel 11,3k; General Audiences; Gen

What makes something special? Special enough for people to pay any price, beyond even their lives? Welcome to Lost and Found, Ltd., experts in finding very, very special things. Things that can be yours if you are willing to trade something very special in return. Well, and often even if you aren’t. [Canon-compliant possible backstory for both characters and objects in Supernatural: Dean, Sam, Bobby, Ruby, Jimmy Novak, Daniel Elkins, the Impala, Ruby’s knife, Dean’s Colt, Sam’s Taurus, the Samulet and The Colt.]

Exit: Light by hexmaniacchoco | art by quiescentcastiel 22,5k; Teen and Up Audiences; Gen

Dean, Sam, and Cas are relaxing in the bunker when Sam finds them a case involving three college students who’ve gotten themselves into trouble while playing a summoning game they found online, resulting in a nearly fatal incident. After investigating and figuring out what people are summoning into their homes, they decide to summon it as well in order to kill it. However, things aren’t quite what they seem at first, and a misjudgement of the situation finds TFW with the disadvantage as they walk around a pitch-black bunker trying to search out the creature they’re hunting without mistaking each other for it instead.

Mirror, Mirror by Jerksarehot | art by emmatheslayer 10,6k; Explicit; Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester

A witch with a taste for human souls reveals a secret to Dean before escaping with a promise to return. The boys recruit some help from Bobby to find a way to track and kill her. Dean must now decide if he should tell Sam the truth and risk losing him, or keep his dark secret and risk Sam’s life and his own soul.

The Night Goes By by indigoneutrino | art by Loracine 8,3k; Mature; Gen

It’s a long night when Sam and Dean first arrive at the prison, separated from each other to be strip searched, manhandled and humiliated before being thrown into cramped concrete cells. The nights that follow are longer.

Some Kind Of Monster by Hermit9 | art by Dmsilvisart 6,8k; Teen and Up Audiences; Gen

After leaving the Bunker and the Winchesters, Castiel attempts to earn his penance (again) by tracking down the escaped Lucifer. Crowley tagging along is both a blessing and a curse, the silver-tongued devil an asset during the investigations. If only he didn’t drive Castiel out of his mind. Set during and around “American Nightmare” up to “Rock Never dies”

A Mother’s Love by Leahlisabeth | art by kuwlshadow 5,2k; Teen and Up Audiences; Gen

Mary loves her boys, really she does, but she can’t quite seem to click with Sam. She’ll need to figure it out when a mother’s love is the only thing that can save him from a witches curse.

BigBangs

Always Stuck In Second Gear by ThayerKerbasy | art by dmsilvisart 29k; Teen and Up Audiences; Gen

After Wendy Vincente spilled the location of her brother’s secret cabin, Agents Beyoncé and Jay-Z had a lead to follow. Tracking Lucifer while confined to a pickup truck wasn’t exactly Crowley’s preferred modus operandi, but at least he was in good company.

and by me, i mean us by puckity | art by winchesterchola 16,5k; Explicit; Sam Winchester/Dean Winchester; Very Light Sam Winchester/Castiel

After what they think was just a routine case, Sam starts feelings things that he can’t quite put a name to. Things that aren’t really his but aren’t not his either. So he does what he always does: runs some tests, collects the data, and starts drawing conclusions. And then Dean does what he always does–comes in and tangles everything, including Sam, up. Timelined in early Season 12, prior to “First Blood” (12.09).

Blue Moon Rising by Treefrogie84 | art by Mayalaen 56,1k; Mature; Dean/Castiel, Dean/Lisa Braeden, Castiel/Dean/Lisa Braeden

Dean promised Sam that he would walk away from hunting, walk away from his family, and live some normal apple-pie life with Lisa. He did his best to do that– pulled the weapons out of the trunk, turned his back on Cas and Bobby, started spending his evenings with Lisa and Ben at Little League practice. But monsters don’t stop hurting folks, Hell doesn’t stop being Hell, and Heaven doesn’t start caring about humanity just because Dean’s retired.

Thunder on the Mountain by Skitty | art by kuwlshadow 23k; PB-13; Gen

A string of strange and seemingly unrelated tragedies are plaguing the Appalachian region. Children disappear. Men go insane. Hikers are mauled by large animals. And always…traveling Northward. Sam and Dean pick up the hunt in a small town outside the national forest. The creature they’re hunting is one of legend, feared by the native tribes that once populated the area centuries ago. With the unexpected aide of a strange woman also appearing to hunt the creature, the boys must attempt to bring it down before they lose their minds completely.

An Even Trade by PaperAnn | art by GlitchedWings 42,7k; Explicit; Sam Winchester/Gabriel

You’d think being relentlessly pursued by a tall, dark and handsome hunter would be an exciting game of chase. Until it wasn’t. Gabriel was growing bored of Sam Winchester’s constant tailing, still obsessed with getting his brother back, even though the Trickster was doing the kid a favor by offing Dean, thank you very much. He had to make this entertaining again, this new merciless killing-machine-Sam was no fun. They entered into a deal: Sam would work a case under the guise of a Trickster to see the reason behind the mischief by serving up a case of Just Desserts. If Sam won? He got Dean back. If he lost…well, Sam wasn’t going to lose, no matter the cost. Except, seven days of living on top of one another made Sam see beyond the monster who ruined him and back to the witty, cute janitor he met at Crawford Hall. There was also the problem of the two men, who were clearly attracted to each other, alone in a motel room for a full week. It was an accident waiting to happen. The puzzle was, neither knew who was manipulating who, if it was all a ploy or real emotions were coming out to play. The only thing both men recognized was something real was happening. And they were running out of time.

Lock & Key by MyShipWillNeverSink | art by Gabedrawz 18k; Explicit; Dean Winchester/Castiel

Canon divergent from 9x03. Dean and Cas set off on a hunt as a distraction from the guilt Dean feels for betraying his brother’s trust (again). Things go awry when Castiel falls through a frozen river, and things aren’t at all what they seem.

Build a Home by domesticadventures | art by myukur 20k; Teen and Up Audiences; Dean/Cas; background Sam/Eileen and Krissy/Josephine

After they save the world, Dean expects Cas to come back to the bunker with them. He doesn’t.

What Went Wrong Yesterday by cinnamonanddean | art by stormbrite 16,2k; Explicit; Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester

With Broward County in their rearview and a new case in their laps, Sam struggles to come to terms with the six months he spent alone after Dean’s death - and the fact that it never happened at all. And on top of it all, he now has to deal with the feelings for his brother that have been dragged to the surface.

The Heart of Ophelia by anyrei and mugglerock | art by nonexistenz 39k; Explicit; Dean Winchester/Castiel

Always throwing himself in harm’s way for the Winchesters, Castiel ends up getting hit with a love curse. Under the influence of fabricated emotions, Castiel learns just how dangerous unrequited love can be. And Dean learns what it means to doubt everything he’s ever believed. They have a week to find a way to lift the curse, otherwise the intoxication of “love” will kill Castiel. Literally.

When Words Fade, Music Speaks by Pinkmink | art by Dreymart 16,9k; Explicit; Dean Winchester/Castiel

The Brits have Dean running ragged all across the country. When Cas returns from his not-so-brief time in Heaven, Dean finds them a case in New Orleans. It’s supposed to feel like a Winchester version of vacation - voodoo, good food and a simple salt and burn. But the trip turns out to be a far more cathartic release than he bargained for.

Fight or Flight by ellispark | art by emotionallyunstabl 23k; Mature; Dean Winchester/Castiel, Sam Winchester/Eileen Leahy

Just when Dean’s started to feel good about his life — the end is not nigh, and his brother and his angel are safe in the bunker — Sam and Cas start keeping secrets from him. It’s not a big deal, at least not at first. Everyone needs to play some things close to the chest. But when Dean finds out what they’ve been hiding, the bubble of carefree happiness he’s carefully placed around his family finally bursts.

Long Distance by grey2510 | art by Marsjay 18,9k; Teen and Up Audiences; Jody Mills/Asa Fox, Dean Winchester/Castiel, Sam Winchester/Eileen Leahy

Losing someone is never easy, nor is having them far away, no matter how often it happens in a hunter’s life. When Jody, Sam, and Dean travel up to Canada for the wake and funeral of Asa Fox, each is forced to confront some truths about family and who is really important in their lives.

Entwined Souls by sweet-sammy-kisses | art by lux-tuli 16,3k; Teen and Up Audiences; Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester

Sam was all prepared to spend eternity in the cage trapped at the mercy of Lucifer and Michael if it meant that Dean would be safe. What no one counted on was Chuck to come back or turn out to be God. With Ellen, Ash and Jo brought back as a thank you gift for all the boys have done Dean and Sam are at a loss of what to do when Chuck announces he is taking the angels back to heaven and closing the gates of hell up. There is one thing the boys both want and that is the one thing they are afraid to go after, each other. But after almost losing each other one too many times they decide to take a chance and now the life of retirement is discovering the next step in their relationship.

Humanity's Angels by Ami Rose | art by sevenspirals 94k; Explicit; Dean Winchester/Castiel, Background Sam Winchester/Eileen Leahy, Background Original Characters OT3

To get their minds off of Kelly Kline, Lucifer, and the BMOL, Dean and Sam take a case in Northern Arizona where a rogue angel was seen flashing his wings at a film festival and ranting about blasphemy. They quickly realize that there might be more to this case than they’d initially thought. The angel fits all the characteristics of being a ghost—EMF readings, see-through body, air chilling ability, and all. A local man is found with his eyes burned out like he was the victim of a smiting keeps them in town after salting and burning the angel’s buried vessel in hopes of dispelling his ghost.

Between all of this, Dean is finding it hard to keep his feelings for Cas under wraps. Especially when everywhere he looks and everyone he talks to reminds him of how much energy he’s spent hiding his sexuality from his family over the years.

Will watching the ghost angel’s grieving best friend mourn the loss of the angel he’d loved spur Dean into confessing his own feelings before it’s too late? Will an angel from Cas’s past be able to succeed where Ishim failed? Who the hell has Sam been texting? Will someone please tell Mary what the hell is going on with her sons? Will any of Team Free Will learn to use their damn words?

#supernatural #supernatural fanfic #spn family #spn #fanfic masterpost #masterpost 2017 #masterpost

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bananashemmo · 7 years

Text

Dangerous Woman

Pairing: Agent!Y/N/!Military!Michael

Rating: All

Request: No

Words: 2.500+

Summary: Living the double life, Agent Y/N and military Michael are married together but do not know know they secretly beat each other’s asses every single night.

“Hey honey. I won’t be home tonight, there’s leftover lasagna on the kitchen counter in case you’re hungry and if you need me just leave a leave a text.”

Your phone was pressed between your shoulder and ear but even if your attention was supposed to be put on the phone, your eyes were glaring somewhere else.

Your boots were echoing in the dark hallway and you had to squeeze your eyes to find the only source of light. It was far away and streaking under a door that was closed and most probably locked.

“I love you. See ya.” You lifted up to take the phone away from your ear and hung up with one press with your thumb.

“It’s showtime.” You whispered and ran your hand through your hair to pull it up into a high ponytail.

There was nothing that was gonna prevent you from finishing the mission that was set for tonight.

Noises were loud once you came inside of the large building, it definitely wasn’t the quiet zone. You reached down to grab the gun that was attached to your belt and with one second turned around by the sounds of people approaching you.

“Woah, watch out with that Agent Y/L/N you’re aiming it at the wrong person.”

An award winning smile came to your face when you realized who it was and with a hurried placed the gun back in its place.

“Agent Capp, Agent White, what a pleasure to meet you again.” You said as if it wasn’t just last night you had been going through the exact same thing as today.

It was like meeting your second family, seeing all the others standing prepared for the activities that were going to happen. It was amusing to all of you, you loved the danger and every single thing that came with it in the package.

You were standing on the top of a balcony, most probably one that had been used many years ago. The place didn’t look well cared and the silence indicated a storm was about to happen.

“How many will there be?” You asked and placed your hands on the top of the rack, black dust appearing on your hands but you brushed it away.

“We don’t know yet.” Agent White responded with furrowed eyebrows and looked between your colleagues.

“They say around 10 but you can never be too sure. This is a part of the military government and they can never fully be trusted.”

A shiver ran up your spine but it was in full excitement. The military was the best ones to fight, it was the ones you loved because it was never a boring fight. No one was ready to surrender already.

Since you were a little kid you had been a part of this. Your family was raised in the shadows of agents and what so ever, you had your own family but also spread between colleagues and bosses.

You had never actually been a fully part of the group as your parents wanted you to attend school. They said it would be for the better so you could make a greater career than they had done.

But it seemed as the apple didn’t fall high from the tree.

You could hold and control a gun already at the age of five and you witnessed your first battle at the age of seven. There was nothing you were scared up, on the contrary. You loved every single bit of the danger you constantly put yourself through.

It was all about trusting your people. Knowing that as long as you put your heads together you would all manage to survive and win.

When you were a teen it was officially where it started. Your parents didn’t have much to say as they still wanted you to be in school but they could tell your passion was set to be somewhere else.

It just had to be passed by in the family and you enjoyed every single bit of it.

At day you would be working at a coffee house as barista. The money was cut low and you didn’t get much out of it besides spilling coffee on boring teenage girls with lack of trust because of their social media addictions and skills.

Most of the time you just wished to be somewhere else. You could be standing behind the cashier thinking of how many ways you could blow the standing person in front of you’s head.

Not the most caring thoughts but you hated your job. If you could you would have done the exact same thing as you did at night but it wasn’t the slightest possible.

You were forced to live the double life.

It wasn’t that you were the full on innocent, you did have a big mouth. But you were ten times more lowkey when being in public and being a normal person. You didn’t want to stand out from the public and it was the reason why you had taken such a standard job.

You took a few extra classes here and there when you had the time but nothing of it could compare to the afterlife.

Once you were finally home you could relax but not for long. No matter where you went life would always be a secret, even for your closest ones.

It wasn’t until you were standing in the crowd of people surrounded by guns you could feel like you were yourself 100%. They all knew your secrets, there was nothing to explain and you didn’t need to kill someone afterwards.

“For how long?” You asked with a low voice and looked down at Agent White with a suspicious look on your face.

Voices had quiet down and you could tell something was about to come up. You knew what was waiting behind that old rusty wooden door that was situated right under the balcony you were standing on.

“It’s time.” Agent Capp whispered when he heard the faints sound of feet walking.

“We just gotta prepare then.” You said in a singing tone and leaned down to grab your gun. This was where the fun part of the night started.

“Two down, one per each person and promise me one thing.” Agent White announced to everyone right before the sound of the door opened.

“Don’t hesitate to either shoot or kill.”

You smiled widely and looked between everyone as the queue started. With one loud banging you could hear the vibrations coming from the door beneath and you moved down to the rack to point the gun between the fences.

Inside came a group of ten but you knew they were much more than that. Not something you weren’t ready to handle, the less the boring. This was just what you needed to cheer up and feel like living.

The green military colors stood out from the dull house and it was obvious to tell that they were armed. Some liked to fight with bare hands while others thought they could hide behind a machine gun.

“They want the thing before we do. They think they’re alone so this is gonna be the best surprise they’ve had in a very long time.”

Agent Capp leaned down in his pocket and took out a small grenade. Just by the sight of it everyone knew what was supposed to happen, it wasn’t something that was going to harm you just a little something to shock the enemies for a few five minutes.

“Surprise the government, isn’t that what we always say?” You asked with concentration in your voice but the smirk was growing.

Being unaware of the events happening above your gun was pointed right towards the head of a blond haired boy. Frame was tall and precisely in your reach but you waited just a bit to make sure you wouldn’t draw attention just from that.

“To the shitty government thinking they’re better than us.” Agent White nodded his head in agreement and everyone else nodded as well.

“To the government.” Agent Capp whispered below his breath as he let the grenade fall from the balcony and within a second the whole place was filled with smoke.

It was only a mix of a few chemicals here and there that created the smoke, nothing to harm but just to cause confusion and troubles with the sight.

You still had your eyes fixed on the blond haired guy as they all reacted with bending down to the floor. It was a surprise they didn’t expect anything because every time you were up against each other things like this would happen.

Only once they’d surprise you. It was a second of death you had almost pictured because if you had been standing centimeters from where you were your head would have been blown off.

“Sweet dreams, pretty boy.” You whispered and were ready to trigger the gun but that was when he moved around fast by everyone else, his shadows disappearing into the smoke.

“Dammit!” You cursed below your breath, when the victim was found you weren’t supposed to hesitate.

“I’ll take the floor. Just keep continuing.” You yelled over the loud sounds of gunshots and brought along two others to attack the floors.

You were sprinting down the stairs that were rotten and most probably not supposed to be used by the circumstances it had but god how you could care less.

If you had to fall through the floor it would be more successful than finding a victim and actually blow their heads off.

“Is that a girl?” Someone said as if it was supposed to surprise them that another gender was among them.

“I prefer the word woman.” You smiled like he didn’t bother you at all and with one swift movement hit him square in the face and let him fall to the floor.

“Idiot.” You rolled your eyes and that was when you spotted that blond hair that stuck out from beneath the thing he was wearing on his head.

“Success.” You smiled and looked over your shoulder to make movements with your hands and show where you were headed at.

“Cover me in case something fails.” You yelled and hurried around the mob of idiots that didn’t seem to understand what was going on. The smoke was still there but to a point where you could see the shadows of each other.

There was no doubt you wanted revenge after the last time you had stumbled upon this dude. You hadn’t been the one to pay fully attention and with one push he had managed to make a cut in your uniform.

“What a pleasure to see you. Not dead yet?” You greeted over the loud noises as if it wasn’t a huge thing that people were getting killed behind you.

“The pleasure is the same. Got a new uniform?” He yelled back but his mouth was muffled in the fabric he was wearing.

“No, but you wished, didn’t you?” You said as your final words before the fight actually started.

You didn’t need guns to beat each other asses no you loved the fact that a punch gave much more and were much more humiliating for a guy like him.

“Well let’s just say that should be the last thing to worry about.” He laughed when you forced your foot towards his unrecognizable face but missed.

“Exciting.” You spoke as the last word and used one of his military men to pull him in front of you as he forced his fist towards you.

“Oh I’m sorry,” You laughed when the guy you had grabbed was hit square in the face, “Seems as if you missed.”

“Not for now.” He replied back in a temper tone, he didn’t like when things were going as it planned and it was the reason why you always seemed to be drawn to each other.

No matter how many times you fought, you never seemed to actually end each other. It was like you enjoyed the battles it was with that and the verbal discussions you had during the act that kept you together.

“Aw you’re gonna spare me like you did the last time. It’s almost as if you don’t enjoy seeing me in pain.”

“Don’t be too cocky about that princess,” He said through gritted teeth, “Pain is my middle name.”

“Well you must enjoy it from a woman very much then.” You dryly laughed and pushed the guy out of your hands to continue the fight.

You leaned over to pull a wooden piece from the stairs and broke it into two pieces. It was only if it was really needed that you would use the gun and since Agent Capp and the others were on their way to get what you were trying to protect all you really needed was to distract the militaries.

He was aware of your action and rolled over a table to make sure you wouldn’t hit him square in the face. It wouldn’t be long from now until you could leave because the smoke was starting to clear.

“I only enjoy beating yours.” He spoke and bent down twice as you forced the wood towards his face but his reaction skills were just as fast as yours.

It was almost as if you were the same person.

“Oh yes, the only difference is tonight I’m not the one getting my clothes ruined.” You said and with a fast hand forced the wood towards his stomach, not in the way that you forced it inside but it gave a large cut.

His hand came down fast in reaction to the sudden wound and blood was starting to leak out from where the cut in his military suit had been.

“We have it! Get out!” Agent Capp yelled from above the balcony and you didn’t hesitate to throw the wooden piece from your hands with a laugh.

“Until we see each other again pretty boy.” You grinned and pushed past him to get out where you had arrived from.

It looked like a bloody mess and he definitely wasn’t the first one to be injured. Some were a lot more injured than he was, his only looked like a simple cut but it wasn’t what made him this mad.

“Michael, are you okay?” The first one was to yell once you were all out of the building and not ready to harm.

“Please.” Michael spat and removed the cover from his face.

“I’m fine, Ashton.”

“It doesn’t look like it.” Ashton commented and removed his hair through his curly sweaty hair.

Michael looked up at him scolding by his question, it wasn’t his wound that hurt. It was the fact he had almost gotten his ass beaten once again that never seemed to not impress. God how he hated it.

“That woman.” He spat again and ran a hand through his hair frustrated. He lacked concentration already and now he suddenly had to take care of a wound.

“She’s dangerous.” Ashton replied with a smirk, no doubt that he was just as impressed as Michael. He was just louder about it.

“Let’s get out of here before she blows up the building.”

Michael nodded his head in agreement and bit his lip not wanting to focus on the pain, how the hell would he be able to cover this up once he got home to his wife Y/N?

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shima-draws · 7 years

Text

I Took the Stars from My Eyes

...and then I made a map And I knew that somehow, I would find my way back...

Thanks to the brilliant @monsterunderthefedora for writing a couple of fics for my Timeloop AU, they inspired me to actually contribute more to my own AU lmfao so. Here I am c: (And thanks AGAIN for the awesome fics, bruh!! I really really appreciate and treasure and love them with all my heart so. You could say this is my return gift to you ^^)

Also I’m gonna put this up on Archive and FFNet in a bit, so please keep an eye out for it over there too! (It’ll be under the user Shima2112, just an FYI!)

As usual I’m a little shit who sucks at keeping things short so. You’re welcome, I guess. This is 4k words. Kill me now. Also hey, if you have no idea what the heck is going on in this fic, check out my Timeloop AU tag on this blog! Things will make a little bit more sense. Though I do sum it up pretty well in the fic too, your choice.

And, a brief summary: "Stop, s-stop it, please," Michael begs, crying heavily. "There's no point, Jer—you can't save me! Just leave me here. It's okay." "Shut the fuck up," Jeremy snaps, furious. "Don't ever talk like that. We're going to make it through this. And when we do, I'm going to kiss the hell out of you, Michael Mell." That's what does it. Michael's cheeks immediately flush with a bright pink color, enough to touch the tips of his ears. "Wh-what?" "One, two, three, go!"

This is based off the conversation I had with @monsterunderthefedora earlier over IM. I suggested a little something, and now I’ve gone and written about it...from my perspective of things! I hope you guys enjoy! And please don’t hate me for doing this to Michael //throws confetti

Footsteps thud loudly against the floor. Gasps heave out of his throat as he runs, breathless. The only reassuring thought he has is that his best friend is close behind, right at his heels. Having him here is more reassuring than anything.

"How much further?!"

"Down the hall, to the left! It's just outside the corridor!"

Jeremy finally skids around the corner, almost colliding into Chloe's back. Michael manages to stop right next to him, looking visibly shaken, his favorite hoodie drenched in sweat, blood and dirt. Jeremy is sure he looks equally as awful, if not worse. The circles under his eyes are the result of countless time loops before this, loops of running into dead ends, shattering windows and hungry flames devouring them all alive.

He's lost count of how many times he's been here, at Jake's house on the night of Halloween. The party had begun smoothly; it always does, but what soon comes to follow has caused him to relive the night over and over, stuck on repeat.

Most of the time, Rich is the cause of the fire. Sometimes, he isn't. But either way, it's a fated event. Something that always happens, no matter what the circumstance, even if Jeremy tries to prevent it from even starting. By now he's learned to stop wasting time worrying about when the fire is going to start, and more on how to get everyone out safely.

He hasn't succeeded with that. Yet. Hence why he's gone through so many timelines.

He should feel blessed that he's been given a second chance to save his friends from a burning doom—and a third chance, and a fourth, and a fifth, and all the way up until now. But he's sick of this, sick of seeing them die, sick of hearing them cry out for help or sacrifice themselves for somebody else.

He just wants to go home. Maybe curl up in bed with Michael and bury his nose into that faded red hoodie.

He's come to understand, over many time loops and endless conversations with his other half, that he is hopelessly and absolutely in love with Michael Mell. However, in the midst of all of this insanity, he hasn't really been in the mood to confess his feelings. It's always too hectic to say the words, too crazy and chaotic. It's never been a good time.

"What are you standing there for?! We have to keep moving!" He snaps, giving Chloe a shove.

The girl stumbles forward and swears at him. Well, at least that tactic worked. He's not here to babysit these guys; he tried that once already and it didn't end well. Knives got involved. Don't ask him how, he doesn't like remembering.

Suddenly the house lets out a horrible groaning sound, as loud as a freight train. Jeremy's eyes dart around in fear, looking for the source of the noise. What now? He can't remember what happens next, he's gone through this too many times to keep track. Events change in every timeline, leading to an infinite amount of possibilities of the ways the house can kill them.

"Shit!"

The cry comes from Michael, who is staring at the ceiling, mouth taut.

Jeremy doesn't have time to respond as the teen suddenly shoots towards him.

"Jeremy, look out!"

He feels a weight slam into his side, sending him sprawling across the floor. An enormous crash sounds from the ceiling, and he watches in horror as it collapses on top of Michael, showering him in wooden debris and bits of furniture from upstairs.

"Michael! No!" He shrieks, his voice cracking in the middle.

Immediately he's on his feet again, throwing apart pieces of wood and broken glass.

"Oh fuck," Rich breathes from several paces in front of him. The rest of the group turn around and race over to help, digging through the remains of the ceiling.

"Michael!" Jeremy cries out, shaking. "Michael, Michael, answer me! Michael!"

This can't be happening. He doesn't want to start over again. He doesn't want to rewind time and reset it all again!

"Jeremy, over here!"

He kicks up dirt as he goes, scrambling over to Brooke. She has uncovered a portion of the wreckage, revealing a red piece of clothing decorated with dust.

"Michael!" He screams, giving all he has to clear the rest of it away. Christine and Jake lean over to help, tossing broken pieces of houseware over their shoulders.

Finally a face appears amongst the mess, and Jeremy chokes on a gasp.

"M!"

Within moments he's in the taller boy's arms, his head cradled against Jeremy's chest.

"Michael," Jeremy whispers, rubbing dirt off his cheek with a sleeve. Probably not that affective since Jeremy's shirt is also covered in grime.

"...He's not answering," Jenna whimpers, shaking.

"Michael." The brunette tries again, withholding a sob. "Hey, c-come on, you knucklehead. Wake up. We gotta go."

"Jeremy..." Christine reaches out to him, her eyes full of sadness.

"No, no, no," Jeremy slaps her hand away, shaking his head. "He's fine. He's okay. He—he has to be..."

"Come on, you guys." Rich beckons them all away, to give them a little privacy. The others stand up and follow, silent and melancholy.

"Michael," Jeremy cries, shaking his friend. "Michael, Michael, wake up. I need you, M. I need my player one, come on, please..."

He lowers his head until it's resting on Michael's chest, bawling. It can't be over already. Not like this. How many times has it been, now? How many times has he seen Michael die like this?

Suddenly Michael's chest moves, slowly but surely. His breathing makes Jeremy's head go up and down. And then, like a miracle, he releases a quiet cough.

Jeremy shoots up, eyes wide.

"Michael?!"

"Ugh," Michael groans, his voice a low croak.

The brunette releases a yell of joy and tackles his friend, squeezing him tightly. His call alerts the rest of the gang, who come rushing over.

"Ohhh, Michael! Thank god! You scared the absolute shit out of me!"

"S'rry," comes a mumbled response. Jeremy looks up to see the shorter boy shooting him a crooked grin, his eyes-half lidded.

"Never do anything like that ever again, you asshole," he demands, reaching up to pinch Michael's cheeks playfully.

"Yeah, yeah...”

Jeremy sits up and helps Michael do the same, watching warily as he looks around, disoriented. There's something wrong with the way his eyes wander, almost lost, and there is a weird sense of panic emanating from him. But there isn't time to think about that, they have to get moving. So Jeremy hurries on to the more important questions.

"Are you okay? Is anything broken?"

Michael's eyebrows draw together and he slowly starts wiggling parts of his body cautiously. Finally he puffs out a breath, sounding a bit wheezy.

"No, don' think so," he manages to mumble, wincing. "'M definitely bruised though. And I hit my head real hard."

Jeremy frowns and brushes his hand against Michael's temple, making a noise of concern when something sticky and warm coats his fingers.

"You're bleeding," he observes, leaning over to inspect the damage better. It looks like there's a lot of blood, but Michael is awake and coherent, so it can't be that bad, right? He desperately hopes so.

"Jeremy, we gotta go," Brooke pleads, her eyes wide and her hair frazzled as she peers around anxiously.

"Right, okay," he nods, moving to help Michael stand. Rich comes over to assist, and both of them manage to stand the shaky boy up on his feet. The injured teen groans but steadies himself, shaking the dizziness off.

"You okay, M?" Jeremy murmurs, wrapping an arm around his best friend's shoulder for support as the group finally starts to move. Embers lick at their feet as they stumble amongst the debris of the fallen ceiling, looking for the next closest exit.

"Uhh," Michael swallows, his fingers clamping tightly down on Jeremy's shoulder. Terror flashes across his face for a split second and then he's grinning, albeit with a grimace. "Y-yeah. Just hurts a lil'. I'm fine."

Jeremy notices the slur in his words and chews his lip. Clearly he isn't as fine as he says, if the glazed look in his eyes have anything to do with it. But they don't have time to worry about that—they can fret over Michael once they're out. Or, if something happens and Jeremy's forced to reset the timeline again, there's no need to worry at all. He really hopes it doesn't come to that, though, even though that's the most probable outcome, as usual.

"Jeremy!"

Jeremy hurries his pace, Michael barely managing to keep up with him, and pales when he realizes that half of the floor is gone. The others are looking at him worriedly, their bodies slack with exhaustion, their eyes full of despair. They look about ready to give up.

But he isn't going to let that happen. They've come this far, they can make it this time! He's sure of it.

"We'll jump across," he says firmly, determined. "Jake, can you see a solid place to land that won't collapse?"

Jake looks somewhat surprised at being addressed, but he takes a moment to look across the gap and nod.

"Yeah. See that stretch of tile over there? That should be enough to hold us."

"Okay, good," Jeremy releases Michael after making sure he can stand on his own, and then walks to the edge of the chasm in the floor. Below is a sea of swirling flames, a death sentence to anyone who'd fall in. He gulps and starts to hype himself up. If he hesitates, even for a second, it's the end.

"I need one of you to jump over first," he turns to Jake and Rich, and almost laughs at the way they look terrified. If the situation were any different, he probably would laugh.

"Come on," the brunette urges, beckoning them forward. "One of you needs to get over there first to catch the rest of us."

"Why don't you do it?" Rich mumbles weakly.

"Do I look strong enough to catch you?" Jeremy deadpans, holding out his sorry excuse for arms. They look more like pool noodles, if he's being honest.

"Yeah, alright, I'll go," Jake sighs, his shoulders tending up.

Christine almost steps forward to grab his arm, but she holds herself back, waiting.

"C-can you make it?!" Chloe squeaks, chewing on her fingernails as she stands close to Brooke. Jenna is behind her, shockingly silent for once. She looks tired.

Jake shoots her a cocky smile, but it's half-hearted at best. "Course I can. Just watch."

"Be careful," Brooke whispers, trembling.

Jake nods and blows out an exhale. Then, he backs up, crouching low. Jeremy holds his breath.

Jake darts forward and leaps, flying across the gap. For a moment it looks like he's going to fall, but he clears the space easily, landing several feet beyond the edge of the hole. He holds himself still for a couple seconds, and then he straightens out, all of the tension in his muscles dissolving.

He turns around and gives the group a large, shaky grin. His face is white as a sheet.

"Made it!" He calls over.

"Okay, who's next?"

Jeremy looks at the rest of the group, and they all avoid his eyes, fear clearly written across their faces. He sighs and rubs his temples. He can understand how frightened they are, but now really isn't the time to be hesitant. They don't exactly have all the time in the world to stand here deciding whether to jump or not. The flames devour the walls around them, threatening to bring the whole house down, and if they don't go now they'll be caught in it. Michael had almost been taken out by the house before.

"Come on, you guys. The hardest part is over. Jake's over there to catch you. Unless you'd rather turn around?" He knows he shouldn't be so harsh, but if this is the only way to snap them to attention he will.

Christine takes a brave step forward but before she can get far Chloe pushes her out of the way, her heels clicking across the floor. She looks absolutely terrified, but she tries to hide it with a fierce expression.

"You'd better catch me, Jake!" She shouts, her hands shaking at her sides.

"I will," Jake says honestly.

Seeing that he's being genuine, Chloe takes a deep breath. Brooke covers her eyes, whispering, "I can't look," and Jenna shifts her feet from side to side, visibly anxious.

Chloe jumps, a frightened scream tearing out of her throat. Jake lunges forward and snatches her out of the air, his arms wrapping firmly around her waist.

They stand there awkwardly for a moment before he sets her down, eyes full of relief. Chloe throws her head up and huffs, announcing, "That was so easy!" But it isn't difficult to see just how scared she was as she distances herself from the hole, not wanting to be near it.

"I'll head over next," Rich says, and Jeremy nods.

The rest of them watch nervously as he makes his leap across the gap, skidding to a stop on the other side. He gives them a thumbs up, mouth stretched wide in a grin.

"Okay, Brooke, your turn," Jeremy coaxes her gently, his eyes flickering to the oncoming wall of fire behind them. "Hurry, now."

Brooke stays in place and shakes her head, tears gathering in her eyes. "I can't. I'm too scared!"

"Hey, hey," Jeremy places a comforting hand on her shoulder, trying to seem reassuring.

"It's gonna be just fine, Brooke. They won't let you fall. They'll catch you."

The blonde sobs and buries her head in her hands, trembling. "B-but what if I do fall? What if—"

"Just don't think about it." He says firmly, cutting her off. "Run and jump. Don't even think about the "what ifs". If you do, you'll just psyche yourself out."

She peers at him through the gaps in her fingers, sniffling.

"Will you help me?"

He nods, his hand sliding down to her back to guide her forward. "Yeah. I'll be right here, okay?"

Brooke rubs her arms and gazes across the pit, managing a nervous smile at Chloe, who waves at her from the other side.

"That's it. You can do it. Alright, on the count of three. One...two...three...jump!"

Brooke springs into the air, soaring across. Her hair whips wildly out behind her. Simultaneously Rich and Jake reach out to catch her. A horrible second passes and Jeremy's stomach clenches, watching as Brooke falls closer to the edge...

The boys both grab an arm and haul her up, and she embraces them both, crying. Jeremy breathes out a sigh of relief. Now there's only four of them left, and time isn't really on their side at the moment. The fire is fast approaching, creeping slowly across the wooden floorboards, mere yards away from Michael's back.

Jenna goes next, and it's so strange not to see her upbeat and hyper as she usually is. Her face is solemn as she locks eyes with the others from far away. She pumps herself up before taking flight, landing safely on the opposite end.

Jeremy turns to Christine, who gives him a silent nod. It seems she has readied herself while the others were traveling over to the other side. She makes it over in one piece as well, almost tripping as she touches down on the floor.

"Okay, Michael," Jeremy hurries over to his friend, who is staring blankly ahead, his vision unfocused.

Jeremy notices this and regards him worriedly. "Michael?"

"Hmm?" Michael tilts his head towards the taller teen, and his eyes seem to look right through him.

"Are you okay? You look really spaced out," Jeremy whispers, even though he knows the others are too far away to hear.

The bespectacled boy nods slowly, biting his lip. "Mm. Yeah. Jus'...still a lil' out of it, I think."

"Shit, how hard did you hit your head?"

And Jeremy reaches over and smooths Michael's bangs back, flaring in alarm when he realizes the other teen is very, very warm.

"Jer," Michael murmurs, searching for his sleeve. Once he finds it he grabs on, fingers clenching. "Jer, I don' feel so good."

For some reason, hearing this makes Jeremy want to cry. "I—I know, M. Just...just a little longer, okay? Once we get out of here we'll get you checked out. As soon as we make it over this hole—"

Michael shakes his head, preventing him from finishing. He has a look of sad acceptance on his face, his hand falling to his side.

"You go on without me, Jer. I don' think 'm gonna make it."

Fear shoots up Jeremy's spine like lightning, and suddenly he can't breathe—and that's not because of the choking smoke in the air. He releases a pathetic whimper and latches on to Michael's arm, tugging him along.

"No, no, don't say that, Michael," he whines, pulling him away from the oncoming fire.

"We—we have to make it out. We're going, we're going together."

Michael halts, gently moving his arm out of the brunette's grip.

"This's it for me," he continues softly, as if he's trying to soothe Jeremy. "You'll havta beat the game without me, J."

"No!" Jeremy shouts, tears already beginning to slide down his cheeks, making tracks through the dirt on his face.

"I'm not leaving without you! I won't do it!"

"Please, just go. There's no time—"

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, you're coming with me and that's final! Don't you dare—" He heaves out a sob, voice breaking. "D-don't you dare give up, M-Michael. Don't you d-dare leave me again..."

Michael regards him sadly, tears clinging to his own eyelashes.

"Just...just c-come on. Why can't you do it? You can jump, r-right? Or is there something wrong with your legs...?" At this, the boy in the red hoodie glances away, looking pale.

And then it hits him.

"No...no way," he mutters, backing away. He tosses his head from side to side, clenching his teeth.

"No way...no...! No, that can't be—!"

"That's why I can't go," Michael admits, his voice more small and timid than Jeremy has ever heard it before.

The way his eyes look so lost and distant, the way they can't focus on anything, even the way he stumbled through the house, holding onto Jeremy's arm for support.

He's blind.

The impact from the ceiling falling on top of him had taken its toll. Severe head trauma, combined with a limited amount of oxygen—yes, that was enough to rob somebody of their sight and render them helpless. Jeremy had no idea if it was permanent or only temporary, but it was enough. Enough to prevent Michael from escaping. Enough to make Jeremy have to rewind time again...

No. No. I won't. I won't restart, not this time!

"We're going," he says firmly, looping his arm around Michael's. The other boy's face becomes panic-stricken.

"Wh...what are you doing?! Are you insane?!"

"Yes," Jeremy responds without any hesitation. He's been through so many time loops now, he'd honestly be more surprised if he was still sane. "I'm getting you over there even if it means I kill myself in the process."

And it's these words that make Michael start to struggle, batting his free hand against him in an attempt to break free.

"No! Let me go! Jeremy—you'll die!"

"We won't know until we try! And I'd rather die trying than give up and be burned to death." He hisses severely, backing up. They're going to have to make a run for it. Luckily the path ahead of them is clear of any debris, so Michael doesn't have to worry about tripping on something he can't see.

"Stop, s-stop it, please," Michael begs, crying heavily. "There's no point, Jer—you can't save me! Just leave me here. It's okay."

"Shut the fuck up," Jeremy snaps, furious. "Don't ever talk like that. We're going to make it through this. And when we do, I'm going to kiss the hell out of you, Michael Mell."

That's what does it. Michael's cheeks immediately flush with a bright pink color, enough to touch the tips of his ears.

"Wh-what?"

"One, two, three, go!"

With his shout the two of them dash forward, putting all they have into their legs. Michael lets out a terrified wail, and then they're airborne, weightless. Jeremy can feel the intensity of the heat right below him, can feel the flames touching the soles of his sneakers—he can hear Michael yelling from next to him, his arm holding him so tightly that he can feel his bones creaking—he sees the other end of the floor, rapidly approaching, sees Rich and Jake and Jenna as well hold their arms out wide.

He and Michael crash headfirst into the three of them, and it's enough to make them topple over in a heap. Christine, Brooke and Chloe gather around them, shrieking worriedly, and help them to their feet.

"Jesus Christ, Jeremy, that was the craziest shit I've ever seen you do," Jake gasps, standing up with Jenna's assistance.

"Why the hell did you two jump at the same time?!" Chloe exclaims, looking more scared than angry.

But Jeremy pays them no mind. Instead he rolls over and flops on top of Michael, whose sightless gaze is fixed on the ceiling. He seems to be in shock, and a little winded.

"I told you we'd make it," Jeremy murmurs, and then he kisses him fully on the mouth.

Gasps erupt from the other members of the group, and he's almost sure he can hear the sound of a camera shutter going off in the background. He's too far gone to really care, lost in the scent of his favorite person, even though it's masked by smoke and dust and burnt wood.

It takes a moment, but Michael finally responds, groaning happily into Jeremy's mouth. Even though their world as they know it is falling apart at the seams, even though the roof might crash on their heads at any moment—they drown in each other, teeth clacking, tongues tussling. It's messy and it's sweet and in the midst of all this chaos it's the most wonderful thing in existence.

Eventually the boys break away, completely breathless. However they look livelier than they have in a forever, across countless time loops. Jeremy has never felt more alive than he does right now.

They stagger to their feet, dizzy, elated. The remainder of the teens' expressions show something Jeremy hasn't seen in a while: happiness. And hope, too. And maybe a bit of amusement as well.

"That was hot," Brooke comments offhandedly, squealing when Chloe elbows her in the side.

"Well..."

Christine smiles and starts to walk ahead, being careful of the hanging wood up above. The rest of them chuckle and start to follow her, picking their way through the mess.

"Hold my hand," Jeremy whispers, reaching over to interlock his fingers with Michael's. The other boy squeezes his hand, his expression showing nothing but utmost love and trust. Jeremy is his guide now, his escape, his sight, his freedom.

"Don't let go. Stay with me."

They follow the gang further into the smog. Their future is so uncertain. They may not even get to see the light of day. They might have to start all over from the beginning, in a new timeline. And if they do make it out, Michael might stay blind forever. But for now, they hold on to each other, and they will for their hope and their love to carry on into the future—whether it be their own, or them from another time—and take a step forward.

"Always."

Da da daaaaah, and that’s the end!!

I hope you all enjoyed that angsty fluffy sappy mess! It was fun to write~

Also, a couple of things:

*Jake’s house is three stories. I figure he probably has rich parents. Or, ya know, HAD. So in this fic they’re on the ground floor--so it’s possible for the ceiling to cave in and the floor to collapse as well. Just to clear that up if it was confusing!

*I have NO IDEA about blindness and if it can really be caused by a ceiling falling on your head. I’m sure it would hurt though. I did a little research and it is possible to go blind from a severe head injury. Combined with all the smoke Michael had been inhaling, he lost a lot of oxygen, so it’s probably possible an accident like that and the oxygen deprivation could take away his sight, even temporarily. But don’t quote me on that. It’s fiction, I’m allowed to bend the rules a little, right?

*I have a lot more ideas for this AU I might write in the future, who knows. But...if you guys are interested, and if you want to come and talk to me about your own ideas--please do! The possibilities of what could happen in all the different timelines are endless, so come and suggest stuff! I’m totally open to chatting about all the different tragedies these kids could go through--//shot (And hell, I already have such awesome support already, from the person who wrote me short fics about this AU--which are also under my Timeloop AU tag here, so please be sure to read them they’re so awesome!!)

Okey thank you for your time, have a great day, I hope I didn’t completely destroy your hearts and souls with this. IT HAD A HAPPY ENDING. I have a legit excuse hhh

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