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bestworstcase · 4 years

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anyways race to the spire is my favorite episode of season three but i think in terms of cassandra’s villain arc and the cass/zhan tiri manipulation dynamic, once a handmaiden is the strongest.

fictional portrayals of “master manipulators” / the chessmaster archetype often get two things wrong: 1) they depict successful manipulators as meticulous planners, and 2) have them emotionally fall apart if their plans fall through, often by becoming enraged and violent. the second is not unrealistic per se, but it does shove the character out of the “chessmaster” category and into the “garden variety emotional abuser” one for me.

the first, however, i think speaks to a fundamental misunderstanding of the way skillful, chessmaster-level manipulation works. there is no plan, and there shouldn’t be a plan. people are much too complicated and unpredictable for any plan built around manipulation to reliably succeed; thus truly successful manipulators have a clearly defined goal, a solid understanding of human nature, and an exceptional ability to improvise. this is zhan tiri to a T, and once a handmaiden showcases this more than any other episode in season three.

let’s break it down.

it’s difficult to say whether zhan tiri intended for cass to find the mirror shard or not. it would have been good for her if cass never saw the missing piece of that memory, because then cass would have continued to trust her; on the other hand, zhan tiri spun the fallout of cass finding the mirror shard to her benefit so effortlessly that it’s conceivable she prepared for it ahead of time. in the end, i think i come down on the side of zhan tiri just didn’t care, because by now she knows cassandra so well that it honestly did not matter whether cass found the shard or not. +1 for zhan tiri.

so here is our starting position. cass realizes that zhan tiri lied to her and manipulated the situation in gothel’s cottage, and she’s furious. she storms up to her throne room to confront zhan tiri about it. what happens?

not only is zhan tiri not bothered, she seems almost pleased that cassandra has finally figured it out. instead of explaining herself as cassandra initially demands (“Do you want to explain to me how this got here?!”) or trying to make up an excuse, she calmly waits for cassandra to finish ranting. her only interjection is actually to goad cass into following the evidence to its natural conclusion:

CASS: Back at Gothel’s, I thought Rapunzel was hiding the one memory that proved my mother loved me.

ZHAN TIRI: And...?

CASS: And you manipulated that memory, didn’t you?! You took this piece out. You tricked me into abandoning Rapunzel!

zhan tiri also physically waits for cassandra to approach her, implicitly positioning herself as the one with all the power in this scene. note her relaxed posture here, also:

then, instead of answering the accusation directly, zhan tiri calmly flips it around to be about cass instead and again positioning herself as an authority, someone who knows cass, and what’s good for cass, better than cassandra herself: “Perhaps. Or perhaps I merely pushed you to become what you were always meant to be.”

this reaction lays the foundation for everything else zhan tiri does in this episode. she shifts the fulcrum of the conversation such that everything rests on cassandra’s identity rather than zhan tiri’s manipulation. she also reveals her true identity to cass in a manner that implies they are fundamentally alike by visually linking them together.

in race to the spire, both cassandra and rapunzel directly touch zhan tiri without getting any “glimpses” like this, so we can conclude that everything here is something zhan tiri consciously showed to cassandra. things to note:

1. the line between what is zhan tiri and what is cassandra in this vision is intentionally blurred. is the reaching hand at the beginning zhan tiri attempting to grasp the original ancient power, or is it cassandra claiming the moonstone and emerging from the sundrop’s shadow as the next piece of the sequence would seem to imply?

2. zhan tiri is depicted as appearing from within cassandra herself, visually implying that cassandra’s inner nature is similar to zhan tiri. this connection is further emphasized by the similar style in which they’re both drawn, silhouetted with glowing white eyes.

again, the purpose of this is to change the course of the conversation so that it centers around who cassandra is, rather than what zhan tiri has done, and zhan tiri’s argument here is that fundamentally, she and cassandra are The Same.

cassandra is shocked, and it is at this point that zhan tiri starts to lay on the emotion; switching from tolerant amusement to chiding cassandra:

ZHAN TIRI: Oh, quit pretending you’re horrified. We’re not so different, you and I. We were both cheated out of our destinies. In fact, we’re more like sisters than you and Rapunzel ever were! We even want the same thing, and we can get it, if you continue to let me help you.

in this little speech, zhan tiri: 1) dismisses cassandra’s fear, casting it as just another lie she’s telling herself that is stopping her from achieving her full potential, 2) leans hard into associating cassandra’s nature with her own, and 3) continues to position herself as not just cassandra’s ally but also her friend—a better friend than she had in rapunzel, even. on the face of it, this may seem a little silly. you may be wondering how zhan tiri could possibly have imagined this would be at all convincing to cassandra.

but the thing is... zhan tiri clearly doesn’t expect this to be at all convincing to cassandra. her goal here isn’t for cassandra to suddenly be all, “you’re right, ancient evil demon who’s been stringing me along for months, we ARE the same.” it’s to provoke cassandra into having an identity crisis.

and it works.

see, the thing is, as soon as cassandra found that mirror shard, it was game over for zhan tiri’s ability to lie to her effectively. the breach of trust was just too egregious. but rather than cling to her old strategies even though they’re no longer functional (as she might do if she were a ‘planning’ manipulator with the inflexibility that implies) or fly into a rage and attempt to force cass to do what she wants (as the possessed-cass theory anticipated), zhan tiri simply moves seamlessly into a different strategy.

she knows cassandra. she’s spent months digging into her brain, learning her weaknesses, familiarizing herself with what makes cass tick. she knows exactly how fragile cassandra’s self-justifications are, she knows how insecure cassandra is, knows how difficult it is for cass to be vulnerable and trust people. and she also knows, because she cultivated it, exactly how volatile and dangerous cassandra’s temper is.

so this:

CASS: ...No. No, I’m nothing like you. Just because I’m pursuing my destiny doesn’t make me a bad person!

ZHAN TIRI: [laughing] Doesn’t it?

is cassandra playing directly into zhan tiri’s hands. this is the Ideal Outcome, from zhan tiri’s perspective, of this confrontation, and that is why when cassandra turns around and sprints out of the tower to have a panic attack in the woods, zhan tiri just laughs and calls after her:

ZHAN TIRI: Run, Cassandra! But you can’t run from who you are!

simply watching the rest of the episode demonstrates precisely why zhan tiri provoked cassandra into having this identity crisis. not only did it divert cassandra’s focus away from zhan tiri’s actions (and motives), it also enabled zhan tiri to exploit her insecurity and volatility in order to get cassandra to snap, destroying corona, forcing an eventual confrontation with rapunzel, and getting zhan tiri one step closer to achieving her ultimate goals.

now let’s skip forward to the the scene in the tent, which i’m just going to quote in full here:

ZHAN TIRI: You didn’t really think your plan to make things right would work, did you?

CASS: What are you doing here?

ZHAN TIRI: I don’t understand. You could have just gone up to her and apologized, face-to-face.

CASS: I said, get away from me.

ZHAN TIRI: You’ve had more than a few opportunities, and even still you haven’t done it. Why is that? I think—

CASS: Because I’m scared she won’t forgive me!

ZHAN TIRI: You’re right to be scared. I’m guessing she hasn’t told you about Project Obsidian. A weapon that was designed to destroy you. Rapunzel just authorized it yesterday.

CASS: What?! No, I don’t believe you. She would never—

ZHAN TIRI: You can ask her yourself if you don’t believe me. You might want something to defend yourself against her; this potion may be your only protection against the princess when she inevitably turns on you.

the brilliance of this is that nothing zhan tiri says here is untrue. she is one hundred percent correct in her assessment of cassandra’s actions in corona: pretending to be someone else while doing vague nice things in no way makes up for what she’s done, and she has been purposefully avoiding the riskier but correct course of action ie to plainly apologize and accept whatever comes.

by playing evil therapist here, zhan tiri goads cassandra into articulating her exact fear that her actions are unforgivable. this is something that cassandra needed to express, instead of continuing to run away from her feelings. it’s a vital moment in her redemption arc, and like zhan tiri’s little speech in the tower it can seem silly or even outright counterproductive for her to push cassandra in this way. after all, she’s literally encouraging cass to go make up with rapunzel for real.

but what she’s also doing here is drawing cassandra’s subconscious fear into the open and putting that at the forefront of cass’s mind. she is forcing cassandra not just to articulate this fear but to intently feel it, which is the key to everything that comes next. this is why, after cassandra admits that she’s scared, zhan tiri moves right into reinforcing that fear—again, by bringing up objective facts. project obsidian does exist, it was created with the intention of destroying cassandra, and rapunzel did indeed authorize it yesterday. cassandra doesn’t trust zhan tiri anymore, but the beauty of zhan tiri telling the truth now is that cassandra’s doubt becomes a weakness rather than a strength.

because she no longer trusts zhan tiri, cassandra immediately goes out to “prove” zhan tiri “wrong” by doing the opposite of what she appears to want cass to do: from cass’s perspective, it looks like zhan tiri is making up lies to get cass to give up on reconciling with rapunzel and go back to following zhan tiri’s plan, so the most logical thing to do is to try harder to reconcile with rapunzel instead (despite the tiny grain of doubt that convinces her to take the potion anyway, just in case).

except project obsidian isn’t a lie, which means that cassandra is actually placing herself in an even more vulnerable position, by walking outside and approaching rapunzel so that they’re right next to each other when zhan tiri pulls the cloak away. and then, when the gun is fired, and cassandra finds herself encased in amber it creates this terrible moment for her of zhan tiri was right. and it’s that that makes cassandra snap. and that’s exactly what zhan tiri intended to happen, and that’s the outcome zhan tiri is working towards from the instant cassandra reveals that she found the mirror shard.

(i think in the end this manipulative strategy wasn’t 100% successful, because zhan tiri’s Ideal Outcome in plus est seems to have been that cassandra really would buy what zhan tiri was selling re: she and zhan tiri being The Same, and that didn’t happen. but again, zhan tiri knows cassandra well enough to see her betrayal coming, and swiftly and easily changes her tactics when it happens.)

so, more than any other episode in season three, i think once a handmaiden shows us not only that zhan tiri is manipulating cass, but how she does so, and just how skilled she is at manipulation in general. it also very neatly avoids the two biggest pitfalls of writing manipulation in stories and in general is a masterclass on how to write it well.

also here is a bonus picture of zhan tiri and her grapes

in conclusion i love gremlin baby and once a handmaiden isn’t about cassandra flip-flopping it’s about zhan tiri seamlessly switching from manipulation with lies to manipulation with facts and cassandra not being able to keep up with the change of tactics and thus falling victim to them again

#rta #zhan tiri #cassandra

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neriad13 · 3 years

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Favorite Media of 2020!

There was a large swathe of this year during which I was unable to concentrate on reading (as there probably was for a lot of other typically-frequent readers), so, as a result, I ended up listening to way more podcasts and watching way more TV shows. Not a bad thing, but boy did I read way less books than usual.

However, for the first time in a while, the amount of fiction I read was about equal with the amount of nonfiction I read. Last year’s reading resolution was to read more fiction, so...success??

I did read a lot of phenomenal fiction when I had the energy to do so this year.

Books - Fiction

The Martian - Andy Weir

This book is the hardest of the hard sci fi I think I’ve ever read. Every single aspect of it is minutely researched and calculated. The author literally wrote equations to write this book. The science is insanely impressive and yet...it never loses its sense of humor or humanity in the mix. In fact, they’re the thing that drives the entire story.

Warlock Holmes - G. S. Denning

Way early in the year I was strolling down the fantasy aisle at the library, when this cover caught my eye. I took one look at it, went “oh, this looks silly” and...proceeded to devour the entire series in a matter of weeks.

It is very silly. Especially when it’s pointing out something that was silly in the original. There’s something so satisfying about Watson immediately answering Holmes with the correct number of steps in their flat when he’s trying to make his point about how most people don’t pay attention to things like that.

World War Z - Max Brooks

Every single scenario in here could easily support an entire book. A park ranger whose job it is to contain the yearly zombie spring thaw? HECK YES. I’d read tens of thousands of words about that. A Chinese admiral who defaults, steals the government’s premier submarine, loads it up with the families of his underlings and takes to the sea for years to live in the maritime economy that has sprung up in a world where everyone is trying to escape the shore? That could be an entire movie on its own.

Every chapter was more creative than the last and as a huge worldbuilding fan, this book was so, so fun.

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

In which a queer, neurodivergent protagonist solves a mystery on a spaceship which is a microcosm of antebellum era politics! This had a beautiful, mysterious, wonder-inducing writing style and it was a joy to peer into the wildly differing minds of every single character.

Books - Nonfiction

Underland - Robert MacFarlane

In every chapter, the author visits a different hole. Basically.

It’s an exploration of caves, catacombs, mines, nuclear waste facilities and the hidden underbelly of every forest. It was fascinating. And fundamentally changed how I look at time.

Rejected Princesses - Jason Porath

After years of having enjoyed the web entries, I finally got my hands on the first book and was not disappointed.

There are the more entertaining entries, of course and the art is as charming as always, but what struck me the most were the more difficult stories. The deeper you go into this book, the more horrific it gets. The author does not hold back on the indignities suffered by the historical figures he writes about. It’s terrible...but also very, very illuminating.

The Gift of Fear - Gavin De Becker

This book - while maintaining all the essential information in it - could be pared down to one sentence in a sea of blank pages and that sentence would be: trust your instincts. End of story.

But in a world where instincts are either customarily suppressed or going haywire, it’s not quite that easy, which is why I’m glad there is more to the book.

I picked it up thinking “ha ha, betcha can’t help a person with anxiety who fears all the time already” and...what it actually ended up doing was giving me the tools to differentiate between real fear and unfounded fear. And did help with the anxiety quite a bit.

Fanfiction

Watch Over Me - cakeisatruth

A Bioshock fic from the point of view of a little sister who is learning how to trust and be an ordinary child again. Dark and sweet. An excellent combo.

All That is Visible - Ultima_Thule

An exploration of a minor character in a well researched historical context? That’s my jam! How did they know?? A Tron fic about what it’s like to be a female programmer in the 70s.

Graphic Novels

The Adventure Zone - McElroys + Carey Pietsch

Yesssssssss! It was a running-to-the-library type event whenever my library got a new volume in. The jokes are so good, the art is so lively and the ways in which they added the details that the podcast couldn’t necessarily get across is *mwah*

Trail of Blood - Shuuzou Oshimi

Hoooooooly shit, the art style of this one!! It’s beautifully detailed and expressive, sure, but the real draw for me was how it changes with the emotional state of the main character. There’s this sequence in which he’s consumed with anxiety at school and all of his classmates become blurry and unfocused, until they can’t be recognized as humans at all, that particularly sticks with me.

It’s a horror story about a kid who witnesses his loving mother push his cousin off a cliff for seemingly no reason and is then obligated by her to keep the secret, which is eating him from the inside out. It’s so good, guys, please read it.

Level Up - Gene Lien Yang/Thien Pham

A story about a kid who is haunted by his late father’s desire for him to become a gastroenterologist. It’s funny and touching and the ending gave me what I can only describe as a feeling of exhilaration. Y’know that feeling when something unexpected but not out of left field, perfectly in tune with the narrative arc and gut bustingly funny happens, all in the same panel? That one.

Film

Searching

This is a fairly standard thriller about a dad trying to find out what happened to his missing daughter. It’s also found footage...but not in the usual way, which was what made it so compelling to me. It’s told through the dad’s phone calls, google searches, social media interactions, news footage, security cameras and webcams. It was such a cool way to tell a story.

Train to Busan

There’s a lot that’s already been said about this movie and I don’t think there’s much more I can meaningfully add to that. Suffice to say that ya gotta take care of each other if you’re going to survive a zombie apocalypse!!

TV Series

My Brother’s Husband

As close to a perfect adaptation as a person can get (barring the entire conversation in English which was...oof). I was so happy when they took it a step further and showed Kana and Yaichi actually getting to meet Mike’s family.

Zumbo’s Just Desserts

I watched a lot of baking shows this year. Like...a lot. They were my much-needed comfort viewing for the year and this one was my favorite, even over The Great British Baking Show (which I LOVE). Why? Because the pastry chef for whom it’s named makes such bizarre and wonderful desserts and fosters an environment in which the competitors do the same. I’ve never seen anything like a lot of the desserts that make an appearance on this show. Every single episode was an awesome surprise and so help me, this show had better get a third season.

She-ra and the Princesses of Power

There’s also a lot that’s been said about this one, so I won’t say much more. Suffice to say: DAMN. That’s how you do an 80s toy tie-in cartoon remake.

Infinity Train

This show’s premise is probably the most unique I’ve seen in recent years. Its balance of comedy, horror and existential dread is also *mwah* I also love how much it trusts the viewer to figure things out on their own.

Primal

A late entry sliding in before the year ends! I finally got to watch the second half of the first season last weekend and it was EXCELLENT. The pacing, the brutal fight scenes, the adorable dinosaur antics, the animation, the quiet moments - *mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah*

The most emotional moment for me was the part in which the protagonists watch, with sorrow, as the rabid dinosaur who’s been trying to kill them all night dies an excruciating death.

Also it sets up a fascinating new plotline right before ending in a cliffhanger!! Another one for the ‘had better get a next season’ list.

Games

Night in the Woods

This is one that’s been on my to play list for a few years and I was so glad I finally got my hands on it. It’s like...The Millennial Experience (TM), the game. I felt so seen, playing it. The character writing was fantastic.

Prey

I don’t know why I put off finishing this for so long. I guess I wasn’t in the right alien killing headspace for a while?? Anyway, the setting is gorgeous, the alien biology is weird and cool, the ethics are delightfully murky and the interconnectedness of the station was really cool, especially in the OH SHIT moments at the end.

Podcasts

The Adventure Zone

I tried to narrow this down to one favorite arc, but found that I couldn’t do it. I love Balance for its comedy and creative energy. I love Amnesty for its drama and acting. I am loving Graduation for the depth of its world and the way in which the real story behind everything that’s happened is slowly unfurling. It’s a good podcast all around.

The Magnus Archives

Who obsessively listened to every single season while playing Minecraft in about a month? Surely not me, nooooo. Of course not.

There’s also been a lot said on this one, so I’ll keep it brief. I’ve seen things in here that I haven’t really seen elsewhere in horror. My particular favorites were the creepy psychiatric hospital in which the horror comes not from the patients, but from the denial of the doctor to believe them about their mental illnesses and every single thing related to the Anthropocene. The one with the Amazonian village made out of trash - CHILLS.

#tma #taz #prey 2017 #night in the woods #infinity train #warlock holmes #she-ra #zumbo's just desserts #a thought

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tomeandflickcorner · 3 years

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Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: Last Train to Oblivion

Bit of a simple story in this one, but still a good one (apart from a few nitpicks of mine). Though the simplicity makes it seem really short.

It’s nearly midnight at Grand Central Station, and the train from Trenton, New Jersey is just pulling in. But when the clock strikes midnight on the dot, the train tracks begin to spark and soon bend upwards. This ends up signaling the appearance of a ghost dressed in traditional train engineer clothing. The ghost quickly scares away all the bystanders at the station before entering one of the trains, making his way up to the control car. There, he takes a few moments to examine the control console before letting out a loud howl of what I guess was supposed to be frustration. Because if this was the ghost of an old-time train engineer, then the modern-style trains are probably are very confusing and alien to him.

It then cuts over to the Firehouse, where we see Peter has decided to stay up late to set up and play with a model train set. It seems that Peter is really into trains, which is an interest that seemed to come out of nowhere. Egon, who I guess was coming downstairs to get a midnight snack, pauses for a moment to comment on Peter’s train obsession, because Peter was even mimicking train noises as he played with his trains. Though Peter seems to be ignoring him, so Egon shrugs and continues onto the kitchen. Slimer then shows up, wanting to play with Peter’s train as well, but Peter slaps his hand away from the controls. So Slimer decides to, I guess, turn himself into a tunnel for the train to go through. Which results in him eating the toy train. Naturally, Peter is ticked about this. But before he can do anything to Slimer in retaliation, the phone rings and Peter has to go answer it. I’m guessing Janine finally was allowed to get a night off. That’s great! The woman deserves a break every now and then.

The phone call turns out to be about the disturbance down at Grand Cental Station, so the Ghostbusters suit up and head out. Upon arriving at the train station, they’re greeted by a security guard. Who actually asks them if they’re the Ghostbusters. (No, it’s some other group of guys carrying Proton Packs and driving around in the Ecto-1.) The security guard tells them about the ghost he’d seen and speculates it might be the ghost of Casey Jones. The Ghostbusters then make their way into the station, with Peter talking to Winston about how Casey Jones was a train engineer who was involved in the most famous train wreck in railroad history. (Yeah, I’ll talk more about that at the end of this review.) Here, Peter gets distracted by the sight of an actual working steam locomotive that was sitting out in the open for some reason, so he has to run over to check it out, with Winston following after him.

Meanwhile, Egon and Ray are looking around the train station. They come across Casey Jones in a cafeteria-like area of the train station. At the moment, Casey Jones is busy looking at a cup of coffee and an iced tea, as if trying to decide which he’d rather have. The episode explains through Egon’s dialogue that Casey Jones must have a sore throat or something and is needing to lubricate his throat. Which does make sense, since after Casey Jones downs the cup of coffee, he actually starts speaking. Up until that point, all he did was make that horrible wailing noise. For a while, Egon and Ray continue trying to track down Casey Jones. But every time they have him in their sights, Casey Jones manages to get the better of them, either burying them in a pile of train tickets or dropping suitcases full of clothes on them.

Eventually, Casey Jones makes it outside, just in time to see Peter and Winston standing near the steam locomotive that Peter had been playing around in. He apparently overhears Peter telling Winston how much he loved trains as a boy, and had even taken up Engineering as a college major for two years, until he figured out it had nothing to do with trains. This, combined with the fact that Peter is now wearing an engineer hat he found inside the steam locomotive, leads to Casey Jones abducting Peter, taking him into the steam locomotive and shackling him next to the locomotive’s boiler. Casey Jones instructs Peter to keep the fire burning in the boiler. At first, Peter refuses, mentioning union rules and whatnot. But he quickly relents when Casey Jones virtually threatens him by crushing a sheet of metal in his hand. So, as Peter starts shoveling coal into the boiler, the train starts to move. And despite Winston’s best efforts, he cannot reach Peter in time before the train picks up speed and moves out of sight.

Here, we get a prolonged sequence with Egon, Ray and Winston trying to follow the train Casey Jones is manning, in an effort to get Peter back. They try all manner of things to get onto the train. Such as jumping onto the train as it goes under an overpass (this fails because Ray miscalculated the number of cars on the train) and trying to block the train by parking the Ecto-1 on the tracks (they have to abort this plan pretty quickly for obvious reasons). At one point, they have to steer the Ecto-1 directly onto the tracks in order to avoid driving into the Delaware River, which obviously results in everyone inside the Ecto-1 experiencing a rather bumpy ride. Eventually, Ray comes up with a plan to use the track ramp to launch the Ecto-1 directly onto the roof of the train. This plan ends up working, but even then, they’re not in the clear. Because Casey Jones apparently sensed their presence and went out to face them, demanding they get off the train. But that leads to more filler scenes. Because they briefly shake Casey Jones when the train entered a tunnel, because Casey Jones was ‘standing up’ at the time and was momentarily too solid to pass through the wall. There’s a weird joke when Ray states he saw something amazing but then says ‘forget it, you missed it’ when the train exits the tunnel. Then the train goes through a second tunnel, and when it comes back out again, the Ghostbusters are inexplicitly inside the train. It’s a bizarre moment, but I guess you have to get a little gimmicky when you’re dealing with a train going through a dark tunnel.

Eventually, Ray, Egon and Winston make it to the front of the train, where Casey Jones (who had managed to catch up after the tunnel mishap) is in the process of instructing Peter to throw the last piece of coal into the boiler. Ray instructs Peter to not move (and Peter literally freezes in place), and the Ghostbusters effortlessly are able to capture Casey Jones inside a Ghost Trap. However, it seems there’s still an issue that must be addressed. Up ahead, there is an Amtrak passenger train heading right towards them, with a collision course imminent.

So the Ghostbusters scramble to try and think of a way to prevent the two trains from crashing. Ray tries to pull the brake in the steam engine, but it snaps off in his hand. Briefly, Ray and Egon consider simply jumping off the steam engine before the two trains collide, but Peter points out that he’s still shackled in place and there wouldn’t be time to free him. Winston also adds that jumping out won’t prevent the people in the incoming passenger train from getting hurt. He then announces that the ghost they caught really must have been Casey Jones, citing the ghost’s history of causing train wrecks. But this statement gives Peter a revelation. Acting quickly, he takes the Ghost Trap and releases Casey Jones. Upon being freed, Casey Jones flies out of the steam locomotive and heads right for a nearby track switch. Upon pulling the track switch, the steam locomotive is diverted to a second track, thereby preventing the collision from happening. Once the two trains miss each other, the steam locomotive slows to a stop, and Peter is instantly released from his shackles.

As the Ghostbusters climb out, Peter explains that he’d figured out that Casey Jones had been trying to correct the mistake he’d made in his life. Since he’d caused a train crash while he was alive, his ghost had been trying to prevent a train wreck in an effort to seek redemption. Although, Egon points out that Peter’s plan had been a risky gamble. Still, it seems that Casey Jones had achieved what he had been trying to do, and he waves goodbye to the Ghostbusters as he fades from sight, signifying the fact that his soul is now at peace.

Okay, I’m all for stories involving ghosts who are simply trying to cross over. But for some reason, I have a slight issue with this episode. While I do sympathize with Casey Jones’ plight, it still seems like a jerk move for him to have done all this. Yeah, his spirit wanted to prevent a train wreck so he could cross over. But does it still count when he deliberately creates a situation where a train wreck could happen? That aside, there’s the fact that this episode suggests that the train wreck that killed Casey Jones also killed a bunch of other people. Particularly when Peter states that Casey Jones’ ghost had wanted to save lives, not take them. The main issue with this is that it contradicts the actual story involving Casey Jones. Yeah, Casey Jones was an actual person. The factual Casey Jones died when the passenger train he was manning collided with a stalled freight train in Mississippi. However, he did successfully manage to prevent a disastrous crash by skillfully slowing the engine, which saved the lives of the train’s passengers at the cost of his own. In other words, the only person who died in that crash was Casey Jones himself. So, if Casey Jones died saving the lives of the other passengers, what exactly was he seeking redemption for?

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

#the real ghostbusters #rgb episode review #ghostbusters franchise

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gustafsnightangel · 3 years

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A Softer Side Part 5

“I’m not so sure.”

“Bullshit Strand.” She chuckled with a snort.

“I’m no good for her.” He growled, trying to convince himself more than anything.

“I don’t know.” She said with a slight smile. “I think you’re just who she needs.”

“I’m an asshole Mia.”

“Yeah, you’re that all right.” She snorted.

“I’m not the right person for her.”

“Under it all you’re a good guy and don’t you think she should be the one to determine if your good for her or not?” He scrubbed a hand over his scalp at his words being thrown back in his face.

“Touché.” He said sarcastically.

“She brings out a softer side of you Karl, I’m not so sure that’s such a bad thing.” She squeezed his forearm and left him there with that sentiment, slightly floored.

He stopped at his bedroom door and hesitated trying to decide if he should check on her before he went to bed. With a clenched fist lightly punching the doorframe he warred with the thought. “You’re fucking killing me sweet girl.” He sighed and turned toward her room.

The door was wide open, no surprises there, the last thing she’d want is to be closed in all things considered. His brow furrowed, the bed was untouched. Without turning on the lights he let his eyes adjust to the darkness, searching every corner for her. There pressed tightly against the wall was her huddled figure as the moonlight streamed through the open curtains. He moved without thinking and crossed the room with purposeful strides to slowly crouch in front of her, much like he had the first time he’d seen her.

“Sweet girl.” He breathed. “You can sleep in the bed if you want to, it’s yours.” Nothing, not a whisper of movement, the vacant look in her eyes telling him all he needed to know. It was the same look Mia had when he pulled her out of Syria, psychological overload. Reaching out slowly he went to brush the tears from her face as he’d done earlier today and she shrank back from his hand. Resting that hand on his knee he watched her a moment. “The bed, this room is yours, you’re safe here sweet girl and I’m only next door if you need me ok. I won’t let him hurt you anymore.” She’d retreated into her own mind now the adrenaline had all burnt out of her system, the fight flight response crashing her. It broke something inside him to rise to his feet and walk away, each step feeling like a great chasm had opened up between them. Settling in his own room he left the door open, climbed into bed and passed out hard, the exhaustion and lack of sleep finally catching up to him.

The house was quiet when he woke, sunlight streaming through the window which meant it was after 1 pm. Checking in on Jane he noticed she hadn’t moved and he was at a loss as to how to reach her. Shuffling out to the living area he could hear Jerry and Mia discussing evidence and felt shitty for leaving them to it. Grabbing the last dregs of coffee from the pot he made his way in, his thoughts still on Jane.

“Well you look better.” Mia smirked.

“Amazing what 12 solid will get you.”

“While you’ve been sleeping on the job we may have something.” She nodded for Jerry to take over.

“What does this look like?” He asked holding up a laptop that probably wouldn’t have the processing power to type a word a day.

“A relic.” He scoffed.

“On the outside it is.” He grinned. “Your girl is a fucking genius.”

“She’s not my girl.” He mumbled and sipped his coffee, wincing as it scolded the roof of his mouth. The quirked eyebrow expression from them both put his mood even further in the toilet. “Has she come out at all today?” He asked and Mia shook her head.

“Let her be for now.” She said softly, the same pain she’d endured echoed in her tone.

Jerry opened the laptop and had Strand inspect it. “What am I looking at, looking for?”

“Notice there’s no power supply port, no ports at all, just a keyboard and screen.”

“Ok?”

“Dude she’s using DNA encryption. She’s literally THE cypher.” Jerry looked like a kid at Christmas. “The only way to power this thing on is if she puts in the correct genetic DNA sequence, her DNA sequence. I’m not going to go into how complex that is. Then a DNA sequencer will pop out somewhere for her to press her thumb to and it takes a drop of blood analyzing her DNA, her own human genome is the encryption cypher. Then and only then will it power on and I’d bet my entire salary she’s got layers and layers of encryption before you get to anything that’s worth protecting. This is HER computer, it won’t work for anyone else unless she’s attached to it.”

“Quite literally. What do you think is on there?” Strand asked as the wheels in his head began to turn and process what he’d just been told and how it related to the case.

“At a guess it would list every girl sold, stolen, reviewed, looked at, drugged, killed. It would hold the real set of financials, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it listed buyers, other sellers, other accounts. This would crack this case wide open.”

“It would, but she needs time to recover, mentally and emotionally.” He looked at Mia. “She’s withdrawn into herself.”

“Understandable.” Mia said gently. “I’ll try connecting with her around dinner time, see if she’ll come eat. We just have to wait her out.”

“Let’s keep at it, give her some time.” Karl said defeated, there wasn’t much else he could do because he wouldn’t force her.

******

“She shrinks away from me too.” Mia said softly as she came out into the living room. “I think she wants you, needs you.”

“I tried last night, she pulled away from me.” He said gruffly.

“That was last night. There’s a lot going on in her head, she’s drowning in the noise.” She got up and started to heat up some soup in a cup. “Take this in with you, see if she’ll eat.” She said cutting a thick slab of dark rye bread and popping it in the toaster.

He walked in the room and sat on the floor close to her, setting the soup on the window sill, he hoped the smell of it would entice her. They sat in silence for a long while, letting her just feel he was close.

“I don’t know how to help you sweet girl, to reach you.” He murmured. “I’m literally winging this.” He snorted. “You’d think I’d be better at this by now after saving Mia’s sorry ass.” All humor left his voice. “That’s her story to tell if she wants to, but I felt as helpless then as I do now.” He looked at her and wondered if she could hear him. “Mia used to drift off in her mind like this, the world would get to loud and it was like something snapped inside her, her mind protecting itself.” He sighed and continued. “I know who your parents are Jane, know what name they gave you. I don’t know if that makes a difference now or not. I’ve met your mother, she came to me, begged me to find you. One day if you’d like to meet her I can take you to her, I think she’d like that. I’m just sorry I didn’t find you sooner, end your torment sooner.” He had a ton of regrets when it came to this girl and it was even harder to live with now he’d found her. “I’m an asshole Jane, not like Allen Raven asshole, but I’m not a nice guy. I don’t do relationships, barely do friendships. You could do much better, be with someone that makes you happy.” He scoffed a chuckle. “I say that yet I’m drawn to you and I don’t know why, I don’t know that it’s healthy for you to be involved with me.” He looked at her. “Sweet girl I don’t know how to be that person for you, the one you need me to be.” She hadn’t moved, her gaze staring into an unknown void. “How do I reach you? How do I help you come back to me?” He whispered and instinctively stroked a finger down her cheek, she didn’t pull away or flinch at his touch, progress he thought.

He sipped on her soup hoping it would engage her. “This tastes pretty good.” Resting it on his knee he pulled his phone out as it chimed for an incoming text. Unlocking his screen an open webpage from last night stared back at him, Ayla. His brow crinkled in confusion then he looked at her and smiled as it dawned on him, she’d chosen her name from a tender moment with him and it choked him up as he read the meaning.

Ayla - a halo of light around the moon.

“Sweet girl you undo me.” He whispered, he’d never forget her now, every time he looked at the moon he’d think of her. “Ayla.” He murmured softly and grazed his knuckles down her forearm. “Come back to me sweet girl.” His voice gentle as he sipped her soup.

He knew the moment she surfaced, those sea green eyes filling with tears. “There’s my girl.” He smiled. “There’s my sweet Ayla.” Her hand shook as it reached for his, his thumb brushing the tears away. She pressed her face against his hand and sat there silently crying, her mind struggling to stay in reality, to face the pain that came with it. “It’s all too much isn’t it sweet girl, your mind is overloaded.” He was trying for soothing but sure it came out harsher than intended, as she retreated back against the wall with a slight nod. “Can you eat a bit of soup?” He tried, her head shaking no as he held it closer to her. “Your tummy upset too?” She didn’t answer, just slipped back into the safe space her mind had created for her, the vacant look back in her eyes as the tears fell silently. Starting to to release her hand she clutched him tightly, stay, it begged, please stay. Placing the cup of now luke warm soup on the window sill he offered her his other hand, he didn’t think he was what she needed, but apparently she’d made her decision as to who was good for her. “Only if you want to sweet girl.” He said softly, her body shaking as she reached for him and robotically curled up in his lap like the wounded child she was. “Sleep now.” He soothed. “You’re safe.” She’d made her choice, and her choice was him, he not only had to accept it, he had to respect it. “You could do so much better than me sweet girl.” He muttered more to himself that anything else.

******

“Hey.” Mia said softly a little while later, Ayla had passed out in his arms, complete dead weight.

“Hey.” He sighed.

“Want some help getting off the floor and into bed where it’s a little more forgiving on your ass?” Her smirk made him grind his teeth, she was enjoying this way too much.

“Please.” Tucking Ayla in close Mia helped him stand.

“She’s out cold.”

“Yeah until I put her down.” He huffed.

“It’ll get better. You remember how I clung to you for the first few days.” He voice choked up as she spoke. “Give her the time Karl, she’ll heal faster if you don’t fight her on it.”

He hated it when she was right. “I just want to get on with the case and catch these assholes Mia.” He growled.

“I know you do and we’re making progress. She’s more important right now. Take a few days, get her through the worst of it.” Mia pulled back the covers and helped him get settled. “Once her mind relaxes she’ll deal with it better, you being close to her is what she needs Karl, she made her choice, just like you asked her to.”

******

Being horizontal again was bliss, having Ayla in his arms an added bonus. He was hoping she’d sleep, long and deeply. It would take more than a few days to get control over where she’d been and where she was now, it was a monumental shift in her world and it was no wonder she’d closed the world out. With his own eyes growing heavy he tucked her in tightly and drifted to sleep.

The next few days were a blur where one seemed to meld into the next. Mia would sit with Ayla while he ate and showered or needed a bathroom break, and although she slept through the change in guardian, she was restless like she somehow knew, sensed, he’d stepped away.

******

It was four days later that she surfaced, her body and mind physically recovered enough to let her function, to be conscious. Sleep was restorative, healing, Mia was right, it was the best thing for her. He was sitting up, laptop perched on his bent knee, the other occupied by her head, his fingers absently combing through her hair. As she shifted his fingers stuttered, it was the first voluntary movement from her in days. “You awake sweet girl?” He murmured, her head nodding slightly. “Would you like some soup? I bet you’re pretty hungry.” Her head nodded again and she shuffled until she was sitting up and scrunched against his arm. He saved the file he was reviewing and closed his laptop, placing it on the nightstand. “There’s no rush, when you’re ready we’ll go get some soup ok?” He kissed the top of her head and lingered, he knew he shouldn’t but he did, the scent of her did things to him.

“Well look at that.” Mia said happily. “Good to see you up Jane.”

“This is Ayla.” Karl said gently. “Her choice.”

“That’s a pretty name.” Mia’s smile was wide, she’d chosen her name too and it was liberating. “Suits you.” Ayla watched Mia and Strand felt her tense.

“You remember Mia?” She nodded. “She’ll keep you safe too sweet girl, so will Jerry.”

“Would you guys like some soup?” Mia asked gently.

“I’d love a steak.”

“And I’d love lobster, but soup’s all you’re getting tonight unless you’re hunting down the cow. I have to get them out of the deep freeze.” She grinned.

“Soup it is then.”

“Come out when you’re ready, no rush.” Mia said as she walked back into the living area.

Ayla sat there clinging to him, but after a few calming breaths her grip loosened. “That’s my brave girl.” He said softly. It was another half an hour before she gingerly released his arm and climbed off the bed, hesitating slightly before she went to the bathroom. He knew the thought had gone through her head, could see it cross her face, do I need to wait for permission? Her brain processing what had been ingrained since birth, the quick glance to him on the bed, wondering if he’d punish her for it, the realization when it all clicked, she could just go to the bathroom. His lips twitched into a smile as the bathroom door shut. “Now there’s some real progress.” He muttered.

She hesitantly came out of the bathroom, probably half expecting to be berated, scolded, he thought. “Ready for some soup? I’m hungry.” He smiled and she seemed to relax a bit. Watching him carefully she made her way to the living room, Karl following, and saw her steps stutter as she saw Jerry and Mia at the table talking.

“Give her a minute.” He heard Mia say to Jerry as he opened his mouth to say hi. “This is all new for her and one hell of a learning curve after what she’s been through. Let her make her choices.”

Ayla eventually shuffled to the table, taking a seat close to Karl and far away from the other two. Even though she’d met them earlier in the week that was partially forced out of necessity, this was her choice, and she needed to do this at her own pace. The four of them ate in a comfortable conversation, mostly talking about the case and it’s progression, where it had stalled, where they needed to search next. Strand could see Ayla taking it all in, every detail, every word, every micro expression.

“I need to thank you Ayla.” Jerry said softly as Mia placed bowls of ice cream on the table. Her eyes flicked to his and Karl watched her tense. “That algorithm you showed me the other night has really helped.” And it had, Karl thought, it had given them another layer to the syndicate and another thread to pull. “I could also use your help on something I found.” Jerry’s gaze found Karl’s and he slammed down the urge to snap at him, not now rookie. “When you’re feeling up to it, no rush.” He shoveled a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth to help himself stop talking.

He watched her toy with her ice cream, nudging it around the bowl not really sure of it and smirked. This was the time to let her figure out her own tastes. After a few side long glances at everyone she took a spoonful and let it sit on her tongue. She seemed to like it ok as the bowl was empty a little while later. He was surprised when she stood quietly and took her bowl to the sink after Mia had cleared their dishes, waited and watched intently until Mia had rinsed and stacked the dishwasher. Mia held out her hand for the bowl and she shook her head clutching it closely.

“You want some more ice cream Ayla?” Mia asked gently and she shook her head, no. “Show me?” Mia said and stepped back. It took a while, but once Ayla realized she wasn’t going to be punished or yelled at, she rinsed and stacked the bowl in the dishwasher as Mia had done. “Thanks.” Mia beamed at her, that wide smile causing Ayla’s lips to twitch.

“You want to show me this new link, Jerry? I need to stand up and move around.” Karl chuckled.

“Sure.”

“You can join us if you want to, your choice sweet girl, no pressure, no rush.” He kissed the top of her head as the three of them moved to the rec room and Ayla followed in her own time.

“She’s doing really well.” Hunt said quietly as he sat.

“Slow and steady. I know you want access to that laptop but we can’t push it on her, that’s a hell of a thing to shove in her face right now.” Strand said honestly.

“I get it, I would like her help with some more sniffing around code, but I can wait.”

“She’ll come to you when she feels she can handle it. We have to trust that.” He shoved his hands in his sweat pockets and looked at the file Jerry had up. “Why does this look familiar?” He asked.

“Because it’s yours.” Jerry said flatly.

“What the fuck is it doing in with this lot?” Karl’s tone was anything but pleasent.

“Someone gave it to him.” Jerry pushed a few keys and another file popped up, one of Hunt’s very own. “And one of mine.”

“So we have a mole. Well I’m glad we came here now or things might have turned out very differently.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know who?” Hunt shook his head.

“That’s what I was hoping Ayla could help me out with. If I go in there with the battering ram so to speak it’s not going to get me anywhere. She has mad sniffing skills, her code is elegant, it teases out information so stealthily you don’t know she’s in there until she has what she wants and vanishes without a trace, slamming the door in your face on the way past.”

“Is that how they got our information? Did he force her to hack our system?” He growled.

“No, I think these files were hand picked. I have no doubt she could, we could ask?” His eyes darted to Ayla as she’d inched inside the room, not wanting to be a part of the conversation, but needing to be close to Karl.

His cell phone began to ring and he snarled at the screen as he accepted the call. “What do you want Meekland?” He asked putting a finger to his lips for silence as he switched the phone to speaker.

“Where have you been Strand?” She snapped. “I’ve been trying to reach you for days.”

“Traveling.” He lied.

“Well we’ve got a major fucking problem back here in case you give a shit.” She said briskly and Karl’s attention went to Ayla as she suddenly gripped his arm painfully tight and pressed herself against his spine as if trying to put him between her and the phone.

“And what’s that Sarah?” He asked before placing his microphone on mute and letting her rant as he spun and held Ayla close, something had spooked her, Meekland’s voice? “You’re safe sweet girl, she can’t touch you here.” He kissed the top of her head, but she held tight and was trembling. Glancing at Mia he saw the murderous look she flashed him before looking at the phone and then back to Karl. Nodding his head to Mia she put the microphone live again. “I can’t tell you where I am Sarah, and I can’t leave the girl.”

“I swear Strand that little fuck toy is more important to you than the rest of the fucking world. Fine you want to play hero, then game on. You’re fired, and if you see the sniveling brat that was following you like a damn puppy, he’s fired too.”

“Copy that Meekland, but you’ll live to regret it.” Karl hung up on her and swore.

“She’s the mole?” Jerry said flatly. “And I’m unemployed. Great.”

“No you’re not, and she’s not the mole.” Strand said quietly as he tried to soothe Ayla, she hadn’t stopped shaking. “You work for me now and we’re going hunting.” He seethed. “There’s something going on at the office and she did us a favor by terminating our employment.”

“Oh? And what’s that?” Hunt asked sarcastically and backed off as Karl glared at him.

“She’s telling me to dig, giving me free reign to run the op like it’s supposed to be run.” He said quietly, his brain processing her conversation. “That’s the only reason she’d ever fire me.”

“And you know this how?”

“Because she’s fired me before to get me “off a case” when she wanted me to dig in more. She’s in a sticky position and likely someone was within earshot of that call which is why she had to play hardball.”

“What if she’s part of the problem?” Jerry asked.

“She’s not.” Strand said softly, almost trying to convince himself more than the three people around him. Was Meekland inside this syndicate? What was her role? What did she gain from it? Did she know Allen Raven. “Oh fuck me. Mia?” He called as she’d gone out into the kitchen to make coffee. “Do you still have some contacts inside Hades 6?” He asked as her head popped from around the corner.

“Sure.”

“Can you?”

“Yep.” There was no need for words, no need to freak Ayla out with the possibility that Allen Raven was a free man.

“It was a good find Jerry.”

“Yeah, with a sucky ending.”

“Dig deep into her accounts, I want to know everything.” He was livid on the inside. “Just in case I’m wrong.” Had she fucked him just to get information, to keep Raven from prison, to keep the syndicate rolling along? This was a fucking mess, he thought, and so was the woman in his arms. “Sweet girl you’re ok.” He murmured as his hand stroked her spine in an attempt to calm her system, calm her mind. “You’re safe with me.” He hoped, and what was the connection, how did Ayla know Meekland?

Strand moved them to the one seat in the corner of the room and waited for her to crawl into his lap, the shock to her system temporarily causing her to withdraw, but he needed to be in here working as well. “How do you know Meekland sweet girl?” His eyes flicked to Mia when she walked in, the nod of her head, settling him. Mia pulled out her phone and handed him his. Her text came through seconds later.

He is currently enjoying the hospitality of Hades 6, they even sent vacation pictures.

The photos were of a screaming Allen Raven, unfathomable terror etched on his face, his eyes revealing the horror of what they were doing to him was very real. Good, at least he was where he belonged getting exactly what he deserved.

Davis is MIA.

Fuck.

Exactly. I don’t think Meekland is in on it. There could be someone above her putting the pressure on to find Ayla.

Get Jerry to run a search for Davis. He would have gone to ground too, and Wainwright. I don’t think they’re part of it, but find them if they haven’t already been disposed of. And you’re right, I don’t think Meekland is involved but we dig anyway. Knowing her, she’s planted pivotal information in her files for me to find. That conversation was saying dig into me, so that’s exactly what we’ll do. This stays between us three.

Agreed.

He hated keeping it from Ayla, but what purpose would it serve right now to have her further terrified out of her mind? Would she hate him for it later? He’d keep her safe at all cost, even at the expense of their friendship, relationship, whatever the fuck THIS was between them. He saw Jerry read his message between him and Mia and he swiveled in his chair and gave Strand a terse nod, the rookie was pissed, good, he had every right to be.

The three of them got to work, Ayla had withdrawn again, not as bad as before, but it was gut wrenching all the same. Her fingers scrunched in his shirt, the repetitive motion oddly soothing him, she was still in this reality. As the night wore on and they’d downed more caffeine, he looked down at Ayla to find her looking up at him. “Hey there sweet girl.” Smiling he kissed her brow. “Doing ok?” She nodded her head and those fingers tenderly stroked the scruff at his jaw. Stretching up slightly she kissed him, a soft kiss before climbing off his lap and tentatively shuffling to her bathroom. He caught Mia’s smirk and glared at her to shut the fuck up. How could she be so tender with him, when he was such a prick, he wondered?

She was gone for close to an hour before quietly slinking into the room, hair damp and a new set of pajamas. Mia followed and nodded his head as if to say she’s all good. Ayla spent the rest of the evening absorbing what Jerry had flashing on his multiple screens and laptops, as if the code spoke to her, calmed her.

“Ok, I’m done, I need sleep.” Jerry chuckled. “My eyes are almost as square as the screens.” He pressed his fingers to them in an attempt to relieve the burning sensation.

“Night Jerry.” Karl mumbled as he continued reading and watching Ayla out of his periphery. She scooted closer, just standing there reading code, what did she see that they hadn’t? “How do you know Meekland?” He asked gently, his gaze falling on her solidly at her slight flinch. She shook her head. “You recognized her voice Ayla, how do you know her? It’s important sweet girl. I need to know if she’s in bed with Raven, or on our side?” In bed with us, with me? She kept her silence, her eyes flicking to his, the question had made her uncomfortable. “Is she a part of the syndicate?” He asked, his tone sharper than he planned. Her head bowed and she seemed to shrink inward, a child that had been scolded. “Sweet girl.” He sighed getting to his feet. “I’m not angry, I just need to know if I can trust her. I want to believe she’s a good person and that she’s helping us, but you know her voice, I need to know where from and how she fits into all this.”

He reached for her and she took a step back. “Is she part of it?” Ayla shook her head and Strand breathed a little easier. That was something at least. “But she’s working this case?” Her head nodded and stayed bowed. “There’s a mole but it’s not her.” He said to himself more than Ayla, but saw the slight nod of her head. “Above or below her?” He mused to himself as she looked at him questioningly. “Is the mole working at the office above her, a senior, or under her command.” He clarified and watched as her finger pointed up. His eyebrow shot up. “You know who it is don’t you?” He asked and her body drew back as if readying for a blow. “But you weren’t supposed to know were you.” He clicked and she shook her head, the tears falling, waiting for him to punish her. “Clever girl.” He murmured. “You’re not in trouble sweet girl.” She flinched as he stroked his knuckles over her cheek, the tenderness making her shiver. “You’re safe.” He said softly and breathed a sigh of relief when she let him hold her, soothe and reassure. “Can you show me?” He pointed to the computers and she shook her head. “Ok sweet girl.” He said softly, he’d pushed far enough for tonight. “Ok.”

She rested her head against his chest, her eyes watching the code as he raked his fingers through her hair and kissed her head. Unsure she reached for one of the monitors, her fingers brushing a photograph stuck to one of the monitors. “That’s Jerry’s sister.” He said gently and her hand snatched back as if he’d physically slapped it. “It’s ok, you can look at it, touch it.” She looked at him and then gently lifted the picture up to have a closer look. He saw it in her eyes first, recognition, her hand trembling. “You know who and where she is don’t you sweet girl?” Tears were her only answer. “He’s been searching for her, never gave up hoping one day he’d find a clue as to where she might be.” Karl heart broke for her, the violence and terror she must have witnessed over the decades. His fingers tenderly brushed the hair from her temple and tucking it behind her ear before kissing the top of her head and smiling down at her.

She sniffed and wiped her eyes pulling back from him to study the code in front of her, occasionally looking at the photo. Looking at him she pointed to each screen and shook her head. “She’s not in any of these? Is that what you’re saying.” She nodded and fresh tears fell. “Not any of these searches?” She nodded again. “That’s a good start for him, a huge help actually.” He smiled and kissed her head again, lingering, the smell of her hair clouding his mind, his judgement. What was it about this girl that got to him so fucking deeply? “Maybe you can help him tomorrow, I think he’d like that.” She placed the photo back where Jerry had set it and wrapped her arms around him tightly as if she had the sudden urge to ground herself, the need to feel the connection. “You’re ok sweet girl.” He sighed. “You’re ok.”

A little while later he followed her to her room with no intention of staying unless she invited him to. He stood at her door and she turned to look at him. Taking his hand she took a step inside and tugged, please her eyes said, please stay with me. He watched as she dropped his hand and went to sit on the floor, the same scrunched up position as he’d found her in.

“Sweet girl.” He sighed sitting beside her. “The bed is much more comfortable.” She pointed a finger at him and then the bed as if to say you go. “Not without you Ayla. If you want to sleep here then I will too.” Even though his ass would be asleep shortly. It took a little bit but she eventually stood and walked to the bed, a piece of furniture that seemed completely foreign to her. Sweet girl what did he do to you, he asked silently? “It’s all yours Ayla, this is you’re room, your bed.” He murmured and watched as she pulled back the covers with shaky hands and climbed up, the wince of pain telling him she was still physically hurting. She huddled up in the top corner of the mattress. Standing up Karl moved to the other side of the bed and got in. He wanted to wrap an arm around her and pull her to him but didn’t, that would only freak her out. “The middle’s more comfortable sweet girl.” He said gently and smiled as she rolled over to face him. “Warmer too.” He stretched his hand over the distance and grazed her cheek with a finger, her own hand taking a hold of his. “I won’t hurt you sweet girl, that’s not who I am.” He left it at that and closed his eyes, she would come to him in her own time.

He felt her shift on the bed, scoot closer and curl into his arm, her body relaxed further when he didn’t move any closer, when the reprimand or punishment didn’t come. Hovering the border of sleep and awake he listened to her breathing slow, the gentle sound telling him she felt comfortable with him enough to sleep. He was skating the line precariously with her. Part of him wanted to run far away from her with what she made him feel. Those deep emotions that didn’t belong. He was an asshole and wasn’t good for her. She deserved better, she deserved the love and tenderness he couldn’t give, that shit wasn’t in him, a part of him. But how do I give her what she deserves when I know it’s not in me to give it, he thought? Mia had said Ayla had revealed his softer side, and that’s bullshit he scoffed mentally, he didn’t have a softer side. With that thought sleep pulled him under.

******

Her sleep was fitful, which resulted in Strand being woken every so often as she twitched, the jerky movements jarring him. She’d shifted during the night, curled into him tightly, it seemed as if he was her only tether to this world. “Sweet girl you’re safe.” He breathed and rolled onto his side, enveloping her with his massive frame. Pulling the covers around her he waited until her breathing leveled out again as she settled. “He can’t touch you here Ayla, you’re safe with me.” He mumbled as sleep claimed him again.

He woke to an empty bed and felt the panic rise in his chest, where was Ayla? Sitting up he looked over to the corner of the wall where she usually retreated to find it empty. Locking his eyes on the bathroom door he frowned as it stood open, the room beyond quiet. Hastily pulling back the covers he climbed out of bed, grabbed his Glock, and went looking for her. Logically he knew absolutely no one could get into Mia’s fortress without a myriad of alarms sounding, so no one was in the house that shouldn’t be. He could hear tapping as he came into the living room, the kitchen and dining room equally as empty. Bringing his weapon up he stalked to the rec room and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Lowering his Glock he tucked it out of sight as he watched Ayla strip layers of security away as if she were wiping a countertop clean with a rag, she was helping them, helping Jerry find his sister.

She was so into it she didn’t hear him shuffle out to put a pot of coffee on. It was four in the fucking morning, he needed caffeine to contemplate his next move, because she would retreat into herself once he made his presence known. Hearing metal tap china he stuck his head around the corner to see her eating a bowl of ice cream. At least she was eating, he smiled. Grabbing the tub of chocolate chip she seemed to prefer he collected another spoon and walked into the room. Without a word he scooped some more into her bowl that sat empty beside her and watched her hands freeze over the keyboard, the tremor in them something he wish he could make go away.

“Thought you’d like some more.” He said gently and smiled as she looked up at him. “You can stay there.” He said as she went to get out of the seat. “You’re making progress Ayla, really good progress, keep going if you want to.” He ate a spoonful of ice cream and decided it wasn’t bad for a quick breakfast. She hesitantly went back to what she was doing while casting him sidelong glances every so often, waiting for the reprimand, the punishment, the ice cream melting into a bowl of milk.

He felt that itch between his blades as she accessed the employee files Meekland had “left” for him. “Oh sweet girl you are truly amazing.” He breathed as he pulled up a chair next to her and scanned the list. “Can you save all those files to my laptop?” He asked her softly and with a few quick keystrokes she pointed at his closed laptop, her body staying motionless. “I think that deserves some fresh ice cream.” He said quietly and saw the corners of her mouth twitch into a smile. “Thank you.” She nodded quickly, flinching as Jerry walked in.

“I knew you were good.” Jerry said beaming as he looked at the progress she’d made on his searches. “You went down through nearly eight layers overnight.” The rookie looked at her abashed. “Damn.” He breathed.

“She’s been in here since around four.” Karl said making his way out to the kitchen to get another coffee and a fresh bowl of ice cream. He would have bet his salary she’d never had it before now.

“I don’t know what education she’s had, but shit boss, she could hack into anything undetected.” Jerry said following him out of the room.

“You ok with her running the keys for a bit?”

“Hell no, she’ll get further than I can and quicker. I’ll start digging into the orphanages, run the data Wainwright sent me.” He grabbed a cup and filled it, topping off Karl’s in the process.

“I think it’ll help her to be a part of taking the syndicate down, not only Raven, but also finding the other girls.” Jerry nodded.

“Boss I’m more than happy to watch her take these sites apart, I’ll learn something from her, she’s got some mad snooping and hacking skills.”

“Where’s the DNA laptop?” Karl asked quietly.

“Back in with rest of the evidence.”

“Good. I want her to find it on her own, access it when she’s ready.” He said grabbing the ice cream. “This is a really positive step for her.”

“It is, and for us.” Jerry said softly as he focused on the screen she’d just pulled up. “She’s found pay dirt.” He grinned and went to join her.

Bringing the fresh bowl of ice cream with him he watched as she scrambled out of the chair as if she’d been caught red handed doing something she shouldn’t have. “You’re ok sweet girl. Happy puppy remember.” He smiled pointing at Jerry, her shoulders relaxing.

“Sorry Ayla, just, holy shit this is good.” Jerry grinned. She inched away from him, leaving the chair vacant for him to sit in and take control, her fingers brushed the photo of his sister as she stood apart from them. Strand saw the gesture and it wasn’t lost on Jerry either, his face falling slightly. “Do you know who she is?” He asked, his voice raspy. Her nod had Jerry bristle. “Do you know where she is?” She shook her head and Hunt deflated, the tears brimming his eyes. Her gaze darted from Strand back to Jerry. In a panic she grabbed his sisters photo and slapped it on the screen of the data she had uncovered. Her whimper had him placing the ice cream on the one seat and moving to her.

“She’s in there?” Karl asked, her nod and the constant slap of her hand and the photo against the screen begging him to believe her had him reach for her as tears streaked her face. “Jerry.” Strand said softly. “She may not know who took her, but they’re in this site somewhere.” The rookie stood stoic.

“I...” He looked at Ayla. “You searched for her?” She nodded as that keening whimper tore from her. “You knew her?” Jerry’s eyes went wide as she nodded.

“Sweet girl.” Strand murmured and pulled her close, she crumpled into him. “It’s not her fault kid.” Karl said glaring at him almost daring the rookie to fight him.

“I know, I just.... this is a lot.” He choked.

“Take a minute ok?” He said as Ayla sobbed in his arms. She’d spent the entire morning stripping away layer after layer of security in a site that they hadn’t even found yet, twenty three additional sites now sat open for them to search, pay dirt was right. Jerry headed out into the porch, he needed air and space. “My Ayla.” He murmured. “Sweet girl you are amazing.” He kissed her head and lingered. Pulling away she placed the photo back and looked past Karl to where Jerry was standing, her glance up at Strand said it all. “He’s ok, a little shaken up.” Her head bowed and she shrank back from him. “He’s not angry at you, Ayla, more overwhelmed. He never expected to find anything on her, it’s shocked him that’s all.” He looked at all the sites she’d given them access to. “Is this all of them?” He asked and she shook her head. “You can talk to me sweet girl and I’ll listen, I’ll believe everything that you tell me no matter how bad you think it is.” His fingers threaded through her hair tenderly. “I know he probably yelled at you, told you to shut up and punished you if you so much as squeaked. I won’t do that Ayla, neither will Jerry or Mia. It’s up to you sweet girl, we won’t force you.” She looked up at him and he gently wiped her tears. “You are free here Ayla, to be you.” She nodded and looked back at the screens. “It’s up to you if you want to keep going.” He could see she was torn whether to back off entirely or keep working. Strand gave her the space to decide and took the melted ice cream to the kitchen, turning back a moment later she had taken a seat and started pulling each website apart.

By the time Mia surfaced he’d watched her strip away the final layers on Meekland’s file, something that would have taken Jerry much longer with all the other searches he was running.

“Leave them.” He said softly to Mia as she looked at Jerry and Ayla sitting at the wall of monitors furiously working. “She’s been working on this all morning, Jerry’s a little beat to hell.”

“That’s a good positive step for her.” Mia smiled. “Jerry ok?”

“Yeah, Ayla hacked the site that sold his sister, she knew her.”

“Oh snap!” Mia’s tone was genuine shock.

“Yeah, she’s been up hacking since before I got out here at four.”

“She’s trying to right wrongs that aren’t even hers.” Mia said softly.

“I don’t know how to help her Mia.” Strand said slightly panicked. “She was going to sleep on the floor last night.” He said quietly as he watched her. “I doubt she’s ever had a room let alone a bed. The look in her eyes when I let her know it was ok to get into bed, she curled up in the top corner of the mattress, without the covers.”

“It’s a lot for her to come back from and you did exactly what she needed you to do. You’re here for her. I know it doesn’t seem like much to you, but it’s huge for her. She feels safe, all jitters aside.” She said holding her hand up as he went to interrupt her. “She feels safe, look at her. Not an ounce of fear in her body right now. Jerry put her at ease, she knows you’re near by. She also knows you’ll protect her, even from the happy puppy.”

“Yeah. It makes me wish I’d got a few more punches in.”

“He’s getting much worse where he is. I made sure of it.” His eyebrow arched at her words.

“I called in a favor, I had a few outstanding.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal to be owed favors from the most violent people to walk the earth.

“Remind me never to piss you off.” He chuckled.

“Let’s just say he is enjoying all the comforts of home. Reliving every moment, with Jane Doe and all the other girls in excruciating detail.” Her eyes hardened.

“Pity it’ll be a quick death.”

“Oh no, you see Strand. Everything he did to her and those girls, is going to be done to him, he’ll be beaten within an inch of his life, and then they’ll stitch him up, let him heal just enough so he won’t die, and do it all over again.” Her voice was ice cold. “I have it on good authority that he will live to be at least a hundred, they’ll make damn sure of it.”

“No less than he deserves.” Strand snarled.

“Fuckin’ A.” She growled and went into the rec room to see Jerry and Ayla.

“Meekland left you a few smoking guns boss.” Jerry grinned as he came into the room with coffee for everyone and another bowl of ice cream. Placing the bowl at Ayla’s arm he handed Jerry a coffee and perused the information in front of him. As he read he smiled as Ayla picked up the bowl and looked up at him. His eyes flicked down to her and he winked at her before going back to the screen.

“Have we done any cross referencing?”

“Not yet, I was tugging other strings.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but shut it again as Ayla set up a cross reference between the list from Meekland’s file and the website bidders and account names. A gentle caress of his fingers against her shoulder was the silent thank you he couldn’t voice. She spooned some ice cream into her mouth and shot a finger up in the air as if she had an idea, a second later she was typing feverishly, the spoon, Karl noticed, still in her mouth.

“Would they be that stupid to use their real names on the accounts?” Jerry asked., watching her pull data effortlessly. “Apparently some were.” He chuckled as she got a few pings.

The three of them watched in amazement as she stripped away the layers to reveal payment information for the site membership fee. Transactions that included credit card information. A few more pings were added to the list and she went down another few layers to search if those cards were stolen, aliases, or real. She was systematically sniffing out each user and stripping their false identities away with each keystroke.

“Pity we don’t have his master list.” Strand said quietly and saw Ayla’s hands stop. Turning she looked at Karl, then Jerry. Her eyes frantically searched the room until she held up the photo of Jerry’s sister. “His sister?” She shook her head and ran her finger around the edge of the picture. “Photos?” She nodded. “Photos of what sweet girl?” She pointed to herself then her wrists.

“Photos of you?” Jerry asked and she shook her head. Standing up quickly she shuffled over to the wall and slapped her palm against it. “The photos from the house?” Jerry said hesitantly, her nod had that itch between Strands blades tingle. “They’re over there with the evidence.” He pointed and glanced at Strand and got the nod to go ahead. She moved quickly and winced, her joints not yet healed enough to take the sudden movement. Ripping the top off the box she started removing things, she knew what she was looking for. “The photos are here Ayla.” She shook her head, hand waving, no, and pointed to the box. Sitting back on her heels she stared into the empty box, the tears brimming in her eyes.

“What are you looking for sweet girl?” Karl asked softly. Her finger reached up onto the table and tapped a laptop. “You’re looking for a laptop?” She nodded and started to place everything back into the box, her hands shaking, tears falling, the sense of failure rippling off her.

“There’s another box we only just started processing, maybe it’s in there?” Jerry said and helped her pack the remaining items into the box.

Strand went over to the other box and pulled out the DNA laptop. “Is this it Ayla?” She lurched to her feet and stopped short at the sight of the black box Karl was holding. “Is this it sweet girl?” She nodded her hands reaching for it before dropping back to her side. “It would help to see what’s on this, but we won’t force you, your choice remember?” She nodded and looked at him. “Always your choice.” He saw the steel come into her eyes as she held out her hand for it. “All yours sweet girl.” He smiled and handed it over. She had a spine, that was another positive step.

Taking it back to the table she placed it next to the keyboard she was using and stroked a hand over it. She turned to Jerry who had sat beside her and he grinned at her. “Happy puppy.” He shrugged and Karl laughed. Looking at the photo of Jerry’s sister on the desk she placed it on top of her laptop. She pointed at Jerry, then at his sisters photo, then tapped the laptop. “She’s in there?” He choked and her nod had the kid’s bottom lip quivering. She placed the photo back on the monitor and opened the DNA laptop, it sat silent and she smiled.

Her fingers flew over the keys, a highly complex sequence tapped out and as she hit enter a small thumb sized compartment popped open. Pressing her thumb to it she winced as it took its payment and powdered on.

“Fuck me this is epic.” Jerry breathed. “I’ve only ever heard about these, never seen one in person.” Her slight smile warmed Karl, she was ok and handling this much better than he’d originally thought. It gave her joy, the encryption, the hacking, and he smiled internally, something for her to hold onto, to keep her going. With what seemed like a few simple keystrokes she brought up the files for each girl taken, from prime to milk money, each girl had a file complete with a photo. With her simple gestures she asked if she could use Jerry’s photo to run facial recognition. “Of course, do what you need to do, anything.” The kid was on the edge of his seat. Holding the photo against the screen he huffed a chuckle as it scanned the image. Setting the data points for her face Ayla let it run, Jerry mesmerized at how smooth and fast it was.

He wasn’t prepared for the ping, the hit that was his sister and Strand saw the jolt slam through the kids body like he’d been punched. “You found her.” He breathed as she opened the file. “Eva.” He choked, his fingers reaching out to touch the file on screen. Ayla stopped him from making contact with the screen and shook her head.

“What happens if he touches it?” Mia asked intrigued.

“It’ll shut down.” Jerry said quietly. “It only answers to her touch, her DNA.”

“It knows?’ Mia scoffed.

“It does, it’s as much a part of Ayla as her right hand.”

“Fuck me!” Mia was blown away. “And you built that Ayla?” She nodded shyly. “Damn girl you and I need to chat on a few things later.”

“Ayla can you print this out? Get me a hard copy?” Jerry asked and she shook her head. “Only available on there?” She nodded and bowed her head. “I figured as much. Mind if I read it?” She shook her head and pushed it closer to him. “Does it list who bought her?” He asked as he read and she nodded. “Can you?” She smiled that slight smile and nodded again, her fingers going back to the keyboard connected to the outside world. Briefly taking back her laptop she searched for the buyers name and got to work, an hour later Jerry finally knew where his sister was.

“Ivan Petrov.” Karl said gently as the ping confirmed it.

“The Russians, the only syndicate worse than the Chinese.” Jerry said quietly.

“Run everything down sweet girl.” Karl said softly and kissed her head. “Absolutely everything. We’ll be visiting them later.”

“I need a minute.” Jerry said abruptly and left so hastily, his chair fell back and startled Ayla.

“You’re ok sweet girl, this hit him hard. He’s not angry with you.” Karl said quickly, trying to head off her meltdown, she was doing so well.

“He’s angry at himself for not protecting her, keeping her safe.” Mia said gently as she placed a bowl of soup next to Ayla’s arm. “It’s nothing you did.” She said and Ayla nodded, still not completely sure. “You did good.” She said simply and went to make lunch.

“I’m proud of you sweet girl.” He kissed the top of her head and sat beside her to read more of Meekland’s files. There was so much information they seemed to be swimming in it. “We need to narrow our focus. Can you find Wainwright and Davis?” He asked her. “Jerry has their last known whereabouts, it would be handy to have them on board.” Without question she sat her soup down and started to work. “You can finish your soup first if you want to.” He chuckled and she just shook her head and continued, her choice.

By the time dinner rolled around Ayla had helped Strand track down Wainwright and send them Strands secure contact information, all they could do now was wait. Jerry had still not returned from his room and Karl decided to give him space, that was a lot for the guy to take in today and have shoved in his face. He left Ayla to it, not fully understanding what she was doing, the encryption far beyond what he was used to or capable of understanding, she was hacking on an entirely different level. It got results and at this point in the case that’s all he cared about. Sitting on the large one seat in the living area he read through the hard copies of Meekland’s files, getting to know the assholes above and below her that were a part of this syndicate.

“Strand.” He growled as he answered his phone.

“Hey boss.” Steve’s voice was a welcome relief.

“You doing ok Wainwright? We’ve been a little concerned.”

“I’m good, Davis was a little worse for wear, he’s ok.”

“He with you?”

“Yeah.” Steve sounded beat to hell. “He was jumped on the way back from escorting Raven to Hades 6. Three guys from the office, if you’ll believe it.”

“I believe it.”

“He got word to me we’d been compromised, set up a meet point, and we bugged out.” Steve sighed.

“You guys somewhere safe?”

“We are, can’t disclose.”

“Hard same.”

“The girl ok?”

“She’s doing just fine and we’re making progress.”

“We’ve made progress of our own. I called in Burke, she’s in the prime merch factory and the reports are pretty sickening.”

“Nutshell it.”

“64 kids in total, never more than that, three per year. They’re raised to be perfect little girls, innocent, naïve. A month before they’re sold they get the birds and the bees talk. From what Burke said it’s basic and clinical, and more a “this is how you please your man” kind of talk with the underlying tone of let him do whatever he fucking pleases. It’s sickening boss.” He said wearily. “She said the girls are cared for and want for nothing, most of them spoiled brats if they were out in the real world. A prime merch factory in sickly, teeth aching pink. Her words.”

“Do they know about Raven?” Karl asked.

“At this point Burke thinks they’re none the wiser. She’s installed cameras, we have the entire place wired for audio and visual.”

“Can we tap in?”

“I’ll send you the link.”

“No need, I’ll have Jerry access it.”

“It’s not department issue.”

“Neither is Burke.” Karl chuckled. “How’s the other teen we rescued?”

“Alive and well and now living with her real parents at an undisclosed location. They’ll never find her.” Steve spat. Strand had Jerry bury their identities deeply already, Ayla could bury it some more.

“Good, I’ll have a few layers of additional security added. And Mr. Chang and his entourage?”

“Entourage was booked, they’re in federal lockup, Chang is looking at Hades 6. Pity we couldn’t get the sons.”

“We will.” Strand growled. “In the end, we will.”

“Burke is going to be our stand in teen for the next sale, the woman is a fucking chemelion.”

“We can be your eyes for the takedown.” Strand said, his mind chewing on the op he’d have to run remotely.

@hausofobsession @ill-skillsgard @grandpa-sweaters @authentic90skidd @tuckersgirl @fairlyfallacy @flowers-in-your-hayr @raewritesfiction @stinkerbelle007 @kamie-b @mrsaugustwalker @skrsgardspam @loliwrites @trippedmetaldetector @lihikainanea @fay-walden

#Karl Strand fanfic #gustaf skarsgard #a softer side #sexy as fuck

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son-of-alderaan · 5 years

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J.J. Abrams is racing.

The director has been tasked with bringing four decades of the most popular and longest-running sci-fi franchise of all time to an epic conclusion. And nowadays he’s feeling a bit like Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing down the Death Star trench in A New Hope as TIE fighters closed in — under a bit of pressure, in other words, with the fate of the entire Star Wars universe depending on him.

“We always knew we were going to have three fewer months to postproduction this film,” says Abrams, who took over co-writing and directing duties on the movie two years ago after successfully rebooting the franchise with 2015’s blockbuster The Force Awakens. “So much is still being worked on. It’s literally a practical race to get it finished.”

If that admission sounds worrisome, hold your fire on those tweets.

Despite a deadline crunch to make the film’s Dec. 20 worldwide launch (EW’s interview was conducted in late October), Abrams says he’s feeling “infinitely better” at this very late stage about The Rise of Skywalker than he was about The Force Awakens.

“We had more reshoots on Episode VII than this one,” Abrams says. “We had more story adjustments on VII than this one. We didn’t know if these characters would work, if the actors would be able to carry a Star Wars movie. There were a lot of things we didn’t know. On this, we knew who and what worked, and everyone is doing the best work I’ve ever seen anyone do. But the ambition of this movie is far greater than Force Awakens. What we set out to do was far more challenging. Everything is exponentially larger on this.”

For example: Disney has released three trailers for The Rise of Skywalker. Some of the shots are stunning and seemingly revealing: desert scavenger–turned–Jedi apprentice Rey (Daisy Ridley) and First Order leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) clashing with lightsabers on the half-submerged wreckage of the second Death Star, which was blown up in Return of the Jedi; Rey facing off against a somehow resurrected Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid); the Millennium Falcon flying into a massive armada of Star Destroyers. Plus, those bewildering teases of Rey turning to the Dark Side and teaming up with Kylo.

Yet Abrams says fans still don’t really know anything. “The [trailers] that have come out are scratching the surface of what the movie is,” the famously spoiler-averse director says.

Asked if there are major action sequences we’ve yet to see any footage from, Abrams replies with a firm “Yes” and then, naturally, goes silent.

John Boyega, who plays stormtrooper–turned–Resistance fighter Finn, says his first reaction to the script penned by Abrams and Chris Terrio was he had to “read the script six more times because there was so much information in there.”

Here’s what we know about how Episode IX begins: It’s been more than a year since the events of 2017’s The Last Jedi. The First Order has decimated the Resistance. Rey has been training to use the Force. Finn and hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) have been sent by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) to find allies throughout the galaxy, but so far haven’t had any luck. “They’re trying to put bandaids on this leaking ship of the Resistance,” Isaac says.

Their mission leads Finn, Poe, and Rey to work together, which has, oddly, never happened before in the trilogy. And since there’s a time jump, the characters have all grown and changed since we last saw them. “We’re not just a ragtag group of people who have been thrown together,” Isaac says. “We’ve actually had time to train. There are some really great sequences with the three of us in infiltrating spaces.”

Both Isaac and Boyega say they had their character wishes granted for the final film. Isaac wanted Poe to get “out the cockpit and into the group,” while Boyega wanted Finn to become a more capable solider (and not, as the actor candidly puts it, just a “comedic goofy dude who never gets stuff done”).

“I definitely wanted more after Episode VIII,” Boyega says. “[Rise of Skywalker] makes Finn’s Episode VIII arc make more sense. We got to bring out a side of Finn we haven’t seen.”

To help spark the trio’s on-screen chemistry, Abrams told his cast to feel free to improvise dialogue, and many scenes were shot using long, continuous takes to keep their flow going. “J.J. came back with a new energy and new vibe,” Boegya says. “He wanted dialogue to be messy and natural, and that got all of us really excited.”

“I think it really captures the spirit of the original trilogy,” Isaac adds. “On top of that there’s fact that Rey has…“

The actor stops, catching himself before revealing too much.

Rey has… what?

“Rey is driving her own thing,” Ridley says. “She’s not doing what other people are telling her to do.”

We last saw Rey mourning the death of her mentor Luke Skywalker (who returns in the film, presumably in Force ghost form, played once again by Mark Hamill) and shutting the door to Kylo’s power-mad seduction attempt. The heroine has since made progress in her Jedi training. “I have skills that have developed, but ‘confident’ isn’t a word I’d use to describe it,” Ridley says. “She’s definitely more in control of everything and can do new fun stuff, but she’s vulnerable and a little insecure about at all.”

Yet Rey will use more than her Force powers in the new film. As Abrams hints: “The scavenger who is desperate and haggling for portions and trying to survive [in Force Awakens] — those special skills and that special experience ends up being something that is essential to saving the galaxy.”

Ridley trained in kickboxing for the final chapter as well, but says the emotional toll of Rey’s journey was more difficult than any combat scenes. “It’s a heavy story for Rey,” Ridley says. “There were days where I was literally like, ‘I can’t do this, I’m so tired, I don’t know if I can like reach that emotion again.’”

Part of Rey’s journey involves solving the mystery of her identity. Well, again. Kylo revealed in The Last Jedi that Rey’s parents are deceased nobodies, “filthy junk traders [who] sold you off for drinking money.” The line embraced the idea that a hero doesn’t need to come from somebody special in order to be somebody special. Yet many fans called foul as the trilogy has teased Rey’s identity as being crucial information from the start (“Classified?” Rey echoed back to BB-8 during her debut sequence. “Me too. Big secret”).

“The parents thing is not satisfied — for her and for the audience,” Ridley says. “That’s something she’s still trying to figure out — where does she come from?”

It’s unclear if Abrams has made a course correction to Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson’s plan or there was always more to say about Rey’s parentage. Either way, wasn’t the Episode VIII scene supposed to be sincere?

“It’s not that she doesn’t believe it,” Ridley says carefully, “but she feels there’s more to the story. And she needs to figure out what’s come before so she can figure out what to do next…”

An even bigger cliffhanger is the resolution of Rey’s complex relationship with the First Order’s ruthless leader, who, okay, sure, also looks hot shirtless in high-waisted pants (but what if he didn’t?). Kylo has grown beyond being a “petulant teenager,” and Driver says Kylo’s killing of Supreme Leader Snoke was “kind of a birth moment for him.”

“He had all of these pseudo father figures that he had to either live up to or literally kill to become his own person for the first time,” the actor says.

Naturally, Kylo’s destiny will lead to at least one lightsaber clash with Rey. Abrams sees the duo as “two sides of the same coin,” noting, “even when they’re not together they still haunt each other in a way — they know they are each other’s unresolved business.”

For his part, Driver rejects any labels for the Rey-Kylo relationship. “I don’t think it’s all one thing,” he says. “Part of the fun of playing it is the boundaries of it keep changing. At times it’s more intimate, sometimes less intimate. Sometimes it’s codependent. And then it’s, obviously, adversarial.”

That Rey and Kylo end up battling on the wreckage of the second Death Star continues Abrams’ penchant for showcasing ruined relics of the original trilogy — like Rey spelunking in a wrecked Star Destroyer and living in an AT-AT walker on Jakku in Force Awakens. “It felt like going into the haunted house, the place that you have to go to,” Abrams says of bringing back the iconic space station. “This is a story of people having to grapple with the burden the prior generation dumps on those that follow. So literally returning to this wreck of the past and having to fight it out felt like an obvious metaphor, but also felt incredibly cinematic.”

Of course, there’s another original trilogy fallen icon in the film too. Fisher died after filming The Last Jedi. Figuring out how to utilize Fisher’s previously deleted scenes in the new movie was one of Abrams’ biggest challenges. “Saying Leia had passed away, or that she was off somewhere else, felt like a cheat,” Abrams says. “Then I remembered we had these scenes that we hadn’t used from Episode VII. It was like finding this impossible answer to this impossible question. Suddenly we had classic Carrie in these amazing moments. So when you see in the movie, it’s her, she’s there. It’s not like there’s some crazy digital trickery. She’s just in the movie.”

A couple of other original trilogy characters are likewise integral. Billy Dee Williams is back as that ol’ pirate Lando Calrissian for the first time in live action since Return of the Jedi. Williams says he’s excited to return to the character despite enduring fans coming up to him for decades accusing him of betraying Han Solo. “The whole Star Wars experience feels like it never goes away; It’s always there,” Williams says. “There are all of these things that have happened in Lando’s life that he’s got to resolve.”

There’s also paranoid android C-3PO, who in the latest Skywalker trailer ominously says he’s taking a “last look” at his friends. Threepio is essential to a movie’s plot for the first time since A New Hope (Ridley points out Rey might spend more time with Threepio than any character in the film).

“In previous recent movies Threepio has just been kind of window dressing, something on the mantlepiece, you polish it and dust it o when guests are coming,” says Anthony Daniels, who has played the golden droid’s body and voice in every Skywalker Saga movie. “J.J. and Chris came up with this aspect of Threepio we had not seen before that’s remarkably clever. They go down deep into ancient Star Wars and came up with something refreshingly new.”

Joining Threepio in the metal headgear club is newcomer to the saga Keri Russell. Despite having worked with Abrams for years on Felicity, the actress found herself escorted to a small room where she could only read the Skywalker script under watchful guard. Her character is Zorii Bliss, who’s “involved in some intimate, sketchy stuff” and wears a large brass-and-crimson Daft Punk-like helmet.

“For a shy person this is my ultimate dream job — I get to be in Star Wars and my face is covered,” Russell marvels. “I can see everyone and no one can see me. Though I now have giant throbbing neck muscles like Mr. T.”

There’s also newcomer Naomi Ackie portraying Jannah, a bow-and-arrow-wielding warrior who rides a horse-like creature called an Orbak. Real animals were used on set, and until you’ve ridden a horse dressed up like exotic alien across the surface of the Death Star you haven’t really lived. “I was just gobsmacked,” Ackie says of the experience. “Every day you’re grappling with the fact that every choice you make in a small moment is going to be broadcast to the entire world.”

While the film is introducing new characters, Abrams insists Rise of Skywalker won’t set up a future story. He’s not leaving loose threads for Disney to hang another trilogy directly onto the back of this one. Lucas’ original dream of an intergalactic tale about a farm boy from Tatooine is at last about to set — just like those dreamy twin suns collapsing into the desert. “It’s a very good ending, and a good ending feels right,” Daniels says simply.

And yet, in another way, the final Skywalker Saga film is very much about the future of the franchise. Star Wars will continue to exist in an omniscient Force-like fashion, in everything from toys to TV shows to videogames to theme parks, but new movies have always been the brand’s creative core. Since buying Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney’s movies in a galaxy far, far away peaked early at the box office with Force Awakens and sunk to their lowest level with the most recent entry, 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.

At one point during our interview, Abrams declares, “the stakes are all or nothing with this film.” He was referring to its high-stakes story line, but the same could also be said about the franchise. Even if we never see Rey, Finn and Poe on screen again, Rise of Skywalker’s popularity will likely make an impact on Disney’s next studio moves — guiding like a fallen Jedi or Sith’s unseen hand.

Speaking of: There’s at least one key player we haven’t discussed. Palpatine’s return may be the most closely guarded story line in the film. How is the Emperor, who Vader tossed into the Death Star’s reactor core, back in a seemingly corporeal form?

“This has been a very long chess match that’s been played between the Jedi and the Sith — all the way back to the very beginning,” Issac teases. “It’s an amazing thing to see that really come to the forefront.”

The Rise of Skywalker might very well turn out to be a full-fledged reunion special of Force ghosts. And what are the rules that govern the Jedi and Sith spirit realm anyway? Obi-Wan Kenobi said in Empire Strikes Back that he “cannot interfere” with Luke’s fight with Vader. But in The Last Jedi, Yoda suddenly called down a lightning strike. What can Force ghosts do — and not do — in our world?

Abrams’ reply to that key question is pretty much what you’d expect.

“That’s probably best answered,” the director says, “by not answering it.”

#star wars tros #entertainment weekly #j.j. abrams #daisy ridley #adam driver #john boyega #oscar isaac #billy dee williams #keri russell #anthony daniels #naomi ackie #long post

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mmmmalo · 5 years

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This is a (meandering, non-exhaustive) overview of Homestuck’s use of

by which I do not mean examples of psychological realism in a character’s words and deeds, but rather the various means by which characters’ psyches are expressed outside of themselves. I wish to elaborate on how thoughts, feelings, and desires may find expression in the environment, in the medium of the story itself, and in the form of other characters.

That’s perhaps a little vague, so here’s a ready example of what I mean: brainghost!Dirk. He talks with Jake, but since he is a construct of Jake’s mind, Jake is essentially talking to himself. Brainghost!Dirk is an alienated medium for voicing Jake’s own thoughts, irretrievably distorted through its intermingling with what Jake thinks/wishes Dirk would say (not unlike a puppet). I am claiming that this mode of characterization is not a unique to Jake; the blurring of inner and outer voices is omnipresent throughout the story.

Or, rephrased: what I hope to show is that a great deal of Homestuck is haunted with brain-ghosts, of one kind or other.

An early example of this kind of storytelling in science fiction would be the film Forbidden Planet (1956). The film contains a pair of conflicts which eventually reveal themselves to be one: the scientist Morbius wants some space explorers to get off his planet, and an immense monster (pictured above) appears during the night to attack the explorers. Morbius, it turns out, has been experimenting with a machine capable of turning thought into reality. So when Morbius sleeps, his dream of driving off the trespassers materializes in the form of beast that forcefully enacts the wish.

The beast is declared a “monster from the id”, the “id” being a concept borrowed from Freudian psychology, indicating the part of the mind responsible for the unfiltered generation of impulses, of urges. In the film, this passing mention of psychoanalysis precedes the revelation of Morbius’s link to the beast.

Homestuck hints towards its own mixing of thought and reality with a device similar to Morbius’s dream machine: Sburb.

A snapshot of Dave’s Sburb client (1519) shows that the final subprograms launched during the games installation make reference to terminology associated with Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The terms suggest that Sburb interacts with the ideas in the kids’ subconscious minds (archetypes) and brings symbolic representations of these ideas into conscious reality (manifests the ideas). The game alters the means by which reality is constructed. As with Forbidden Planet, a major result of this is id monsters.

When John slips on a staircase, he flips out (left, 560). And when he nearly launches himself into the abyss with the Pogo Hammer, he has to take a nap before he has calmed down enough to continue (center, 637). Immediately following both moments of vertigo, massive ogres appear. The eventual fight with the ogres begins after John looks over the edge of the platform above his house, into the abyss (right, 662).

All of this suggests that Sburb is reacting to John’s emotional state (fear) to produce in-game content. The game functions as a waking dream.

It should also be noted that Sburb provokes the reactions it elicits. Karkat once mentioned a nagging feeling that the game was mocking him by giving him a planet covered in the candy red blood he had spent a lifetime attempting to hide (2301). Karkat’s paranoia seems to be correct here, and moreover applicable to the cast in general -- John’s house was likely placed atop an immense spire /in order to/ bring John’s dread of falling into sharp relief. The suspicion can be substantiated with a few related motifs.

The story provides two likely origins for John’s fear of heights: his own fall from the slime pogo as a child (2626) and the death of Nanna, which John believed resulted from her falling from a ladder and being crushed by a book (52). What’s more, Sburb’s invocation of the Fall of Man (Adam and Eve being cast from the Garden of Eden) via biting into an apple hints that there is an allegorical significance to John’s more literal fear of heights.

We can apply these patterns to other characters in an attempt to learn more about them. LOLAR being covered in ocean suggests that Rose is afraid of water, with the likely cause of Rose finding Jaspers dead and washed up on a riverbank (presumed drowned). Dave speaks openly about how his sword fights with Bro left him anxious of metal sounds (7749), meaning the grinding gears of LOHAC were a personalized hell for Dave. Jade’s first imp manifests in response to the sight of a yellow aurora (2998), inviting the reader to investigate why that image invokes a fear response.

But we won’t get to into all of that, not for now at least. Let’s take a step back.

For my reading of the imps as manifestations I’ve been leaning heavily on a piece of film theory devoted to the effects of sequential images. The sequence above constitutes two observations. One, that by this arrangement the viewer will infer the old man sees and reacts to the middle figure. Two, that the viewer’s impression of the old man will change based on the content of the central image, even if his expression is the same. Is he smiling at Nepeta or warm embrace Marvus’s armpit? The answer may influence your interpretation of the little smile.

The neat thing about montage is that the interrupting frame need not bear any obvious relation to what precedes or follows in order to be subject to a causal reading. Moments that occur sequentially can be read as triggering one another, even if what follows any particular moment appears to be a break rather than a continuation.

Example: There’s a moment where Aranea walks into Jake’s dream, and brainghost!Dirk immediately starts razzing Jake about his attraction to the alien girl and threatening to give him a boner. The scene is interrupted by Jack committing a series of gratuitous murders. We then cut back to Jake, and bg!Dirk is now teasing him about his dirty thoughts.

DIRK: You have got to be kidding. Did you seriously just think something THAT dirty? DIRK: You must be doing this on purpose to spite me now. I mean, just wow dude. That was x-rated as fuck.

JAKE: (No no stop. See youre talking about it and now i cant help it!) JAKE: (You are psyching me into having dirty thoughts get fucking lost you interloping brain douche!!!)

DIRK: Don't worry, I'm gone. It's like a goddamn peep show in here and I feel like a sleazy piece of shit watching this from a dark corner of your mind. DIRK: You have a graphic imagination, English. I'm kind of impressed.

JAKE: (Shut up theyre just thoughts its not even like im trying to have them THEY DONT MEAN ANYTHING!)

The ostensible joke is that bg!Dirk is exaggerating or outright fabricating his account of Jake’s thoughts in order to hassle him. But by way of montage, one can infer that we /have/ seen Jake’s dirty thoughts, in the form of Jack’s display of overwhelming bloodlust. Violence is superimposed over the sexually explicit.

Whether the scene literally takes place in Jake’s mind is secondary (though such a reading would explain why Jake’s brain ghost is even aware of Jack) -- the use of montage allows Jack’s actions to function as a /metaphor/ for Jake’s thought.

Another example of Jack functioning as a murderous/libidinous avatar would be the death of Mom and Dad. At their little tea party, Dad spills some wine on Mom’s clothes and declares that she must disrobe immediately (so that Dad might launder the garment). Mom calls the aromas wafting from his pipe sensuous. The two clasp hands and declare that all they need is eachother. Then they die! The joke is that while Bec Noir is ostensibly an interruption to date night, he also functions as its culmination, with murder acting as substitute for the sex act.

The link between violence and sexuality is perhaps a hard sell, but I hope to convince you that the reading holds merit. Let me emphasize that the very act of Mom and Dad holding hands was itself sexually loaded.

I owe to HS liveblogger elfstuck the insight that John’s linear 3 card sylladex is a reflection of his short attention span. Consider how John’s role as a game character means he is thrown all around his room, back and forth, as the player figures out what to make of the situation. If you ignore the fourth wall, you’re left with an extremely distracted person, who attention flows easily from one object to another. Accepting the object-in, object-out nature of John’s sylladex and the resulting shenanigans as a metaphor for this, it would follow that the sylladex in general can offer an abstract representation of thought.

In passing, I can mention how the enormity of Jake’s sylladex (it cannot even fit on the page, and contains an object that exceed most players’ size limits) would imply that despite evidence to the contrary, the boy likely has a big brain (and perhaps its being offscreen suggests Jakes own unawareness of much of his own thought). Dirk’s comment about avoiding items that are difficult to shoehorn into his mnemonic schema (4535) could be read as a difficulty maintaining information that doesn’t fit into his personal mental models. The sylladex becomes a metaphor for the mind that requires interpretation.

Under this mode of thought, the moments when Jade’s pictionary modus fails to correctly interpret her drawing become akin to a mental slip-of-the-tongue. For the Tanglebuddies to be misread as enmeshed hands implies an association, in Jade’s mind, of horny Squiddles and clasped hands. John affirms the association much later by miming Tanglebuddies as he attempts to grapple with the question of whether Jade and Davesprite are sexually compatible (5294):

JOHN: how do things even work if you marry a sprite?

JADE: what do you mean

JOHN: i mean... JOHN: ok, he has a ghost butt, for one thing.

JADE: uh JADE: so

JOHN: a GHOST BUTT, jade!

JADE: SO WHAT IF HE HAS A GHOST BUTT!!!!!

JOHN: i'm just saying...

JADE: WHATEVER YOURE JUST SAYING, JUST STOP SAYING IT! JADE: and whatever youre trying to gesture with your hands there, stop doing that too!

It should also be noted that before launching into her “daring dream”, waxing poetic on the miraculous union of the human and the animal with her hands clasped in wonder, Jade successfully captchalogued the Tanglebuddies (796). And more to the point, Jade’s pose in reproduced during discussions of cherub (5961) and leprechaun (6007) reproduction. Hand-holding becomes representative of an (oft-sexualized) union, underlining the euphemistic nature of Mom and Dad’s post-contact demise.

The next example of using montage to communicate thought requires a little more buildup.

There’s a gag in Rose’s introduction where the reader tells Rose to play with her writing journals, and scoots the journals under the bed and retorts that she would only do that if no one were watching (220). At first glance, the moment scans as a minor meta joke in a story filled with meta jokes -- but the trick is that Rose does not /know/ herself to be a video game character, her every movement controlled and observed. Rather, she /believes/ this to be true -- the joke about being watched establishes that Rose is paranoid, as will become apparent in the hostility she assigns to Mom’s every action.

The command prompt and narration are themselves brain ghosts of a sort: the voice deployed in them is always linked to the present point-of-view character. The insults that precede character introductions ( “Zoosmell Pooplord”, etc) become marks of anxiety, an intrusive proclamation of what the kids at times think of themselves (and/or what they think others think of them). “Nice time management skills, sweetheart!” becomes a bit of self-deprecation Rose as she procrastinates, which Rose experiences as having been voiced by some objective observer who judges her deficiencies.

A blurred line divides characters from the voice at the back of their head, belonging to the (presumed) omniscient, omnipotent author-god. This is why avatar!Hussie is dressed as Calliope when he is killed by Lord English. Both Calliope and Hussie are a voice in Caliborn’s head, and thus both present apparent obstacles to an unmediated self.

The left panel (3219) foreshadows the right (3358). Gamzee is not being declared the objectively most important character in Homestuck. Rather, Gamzee is declaring himself /to have been declared/ the most important character in the story. The line establishes that Gamzee believes himself to be in a story (with an author!) and that this author has declared him paramount. Furthermore, “fondly regarding creation” is an modus operandi of Problem Sleuth’s Godhead Pickle Inspector. Applying that turn of phrase to Gamzee’s actions further establishes that Gamzee believes himself to /be/ the god-author declaring his own importance. So it should come as no surprise that 137 pages later, Gamzee outright proclaims himself to be the god(s) he worships.

Going back to montage, it becomes interesting that this snapshot of Gamzee’s megalomania is inter-cut with the creation of Jadesprite -- the moment that dead!dream!Jade merges with Bec, forming a unity with a deity not unlike the unity Gamzee claims with his mirthful messiahs. The interweaving would suggest that Jade and/or Jadesprite experienced analogous thoughts of megalomania upon the moment of ascension.

This would be a good point to mention that not only imps and ogres, but trolls also function as manifestations for the people they impose upon. Karkat is not only an interruption here, but also a continuation. He points out that Jade’s self-loathing, that she cannot safely distance herself from the qualities of Jadesprite she finds distasteful. This is precisely why Karkat ends the conversation by telling Jade to turn off the fourth wall (which divides the self!), as well as the reason he imagines Jade making out with herself: Karkat is on every front presenting the prospect of union with oneself.

The notion of trolls as manifestations first emerges clearly when Rose and Dave receive their packages from John. As they finish reading John’s letter, each is suddenly contacted by a troll and greeted with the command “Answer.” Critically, by word alone it is ambiguous as to whether the command refers to answering the troll or the letter. And as it turns out, these answer occur simultaneously: Rose and Dave’s responses to the letters are embedded in the subsequent conversations.

Rose receives a letter poking fun at her pretensions, claiming that her attempts to hide her affections for people are futile. In response we get Kanaya, who imperiously proclaims her disdain for Rose, only to suddenly change tact and explicitly seek Rose’s friendship, an entreaty which the oft paranoid Rose accepts. Dave receives a letter imploring him to let go of his insecurities and express himself. In response we get Tavros, the very picture of insecurity, who is fixated on the idea of making Dave shit himself (as part of an ‘emotional constipation’ motif that follows Dave). And Dave complies, in a sense, by way of the quasi-ironic gay treatise that compels Tavros to block him. Each conversation addresses the issues laid out in John’s letter.

Examples can be found throughout the comic. Equius remarking that he talks to Gamzee every day (2220) establishes that Gamzee is regularly haunted by the thoughts of domination that Equius voices -- both in the literal and metaphorical sense. Erisolsprite referring to Dirk as a rock 2oliid piiece of a22 and then calling himself 2ociiopathiic for even thinking something so callous (5516) expresses a conflict already present in Jake’s own mind, echoing the frustration with his own dirty thoughts expressed by the argument with brainghost!Dirk. Feferi’s pronounced enthusiasm for the imminent apocalypse should cause you to question Kanaya’s seemingly neutral resignation towards the end of the world, since Feferi manifests for Kanaya (2328). And so on.

The person being trolled is always being confronted with thoughts or feelings or memories already present within themself. Alien contact always doubles as a brain ghost haunting.

Another example, with some buildup: Karkat invokes the phrase “PERFORATE MY BONE BULGE WITH A CULLING FORK” to express his contempt for Vriska, and on subsequent pages we see Feferi pointing her culling fork at a cuttlefish (2181), as if to suggest that the creature symbolizes the bone bulge. Fast forward to Kanaya, who has just gotten through a conversation with Vriska and finds herself haunted by Eridan, who keeps going on about his romantic desperations and insisting (correctly) that Kanaya’s crush on Vriska is itself romantic. That his notification erupts from an image of cuttlefish held at Kanaya’s waist adds to the air of yearning, as though her own bulge is rumbling. The scene is capped off with a double entendre: “its hard and nobody understands” is playfully poignant jab at an inability to understand one’s own desires (among other things).

And Homestuck devotes a lot of attention to desire.

It’s long been acknowledged by the fandom at large that Kanaya’s attraction to Light players functions as a joke on the proverbial moth-to-the-flame. As reconciliation with the fire destroys the moth, there’s a morbid tinge to the attraction, as though it doubles as a death wish. And the wish is granted -- when Kanaya dies in Homestuck, she dies to light, either from Eridan’s wand or the laser blasts unleashed by HIC. Even the death of Kanaya’s lusus pertains to light -- the matriorb ripped from her innards is shaped like a miniature sun, as if to establish some loose link between the notion of motherhood and the incandescence Kanaya eventually achieves.

This can be generalized into a principle wherein lusii (and the circumstances of their deaths!) can functions as analogies for the desire of the wards.

Vriska, for example, desires execution. When offering Terezi a flimsy apology for crippling Tavros and proxy-murdering Aradia, Vriska offers to slam her head against her desk in penitence. This moment should be read against Vriska’s addiction to breaking 8 balls, and leaving the broken shards lying around as though she’s inviting the “bad luck” of stepping on them. It /is/ an invitation. Vriska seeks love via violent retribution against herself. This is why in the right panel, Vriska’s blood-spattered head is juxtaposed with a broken 8 ball: the blood came from Spidermom’s execution (which characterizes Vriska’s desire), and motif of 8R8K H34DS connects the moment to Vriska’s idea of apology.

Like Kanaya, Vriska (to a degree) seems to structure her love life along these lines. In the words of @azdoine:

like ppl are actually out here writing Vriska as the top as if her entire Act 5 character arc isn’t about bratting out until Terezi has no choice but to punish her

“oh noo, I, the thief of light, stole all of your luck, and made the coin land on the scratched side! now you have to kill me! but I’m probably going to get away with everything, because you don’t have the guts to stab me with that sword of yours!!!!!!!! if only there was somebody, like you, who could prove me wrong!”

EXTREMELY SUBTLE THERE, VRISKA

Vriska’s approach to wooing Tavros also revolves around baiting execution:

The scene: Tavros leads a horde of imps and ogres into a mystery cave, the top of which is adorned with kissing lizards and an alchemical symbol. Tavros is putting a puzzle of a frog together, but Vriska has already pieced together the puzzle: making a frog universe is, in part, a cipher for personal reproduction. The Ultimate Alchemy is making a baby! And as Vriska says, “real gamers cut to the chase. They power through all the nonsense and go for the gold.” So she brings Tavros to LOMAT and makes the moves on him.

Tavros is equated to a treasure chest by the repeated use of framing and Vriska is GOING FOR THE GOLD, like a WINNER. Tavros later reaches into the same chest for his lance before heading off to attempt to kill Vriska -- affirming that the treasure Vriska seeks here is Tavros’s “lance”.

This setup was suggested by the conversation accompanying the kissing salamanders: Vriska gives Tavros a map with a big red X, saying he should take his legion of imps through the gate and go defeat his denizen. The gate actually leads to Vriska, but she isn’t lying. She is positioning herself to be Tavros’s final boss. The imps are manifestations of Tavros’s pent up rage (much of which was generated by Vriska’s harassment), and Vriska wants Tavros to take that anger out on her. Hence the later panel which uses Vriska’s boots to place a big red X directly over her groin, making explicit the implicit goal of Tavros’s trip to the windmill X-gate.

This pursuit of love through violent comeuppance may have something to do with Vriska’s bitter disappointment that ghost!Aradia did not seem to hate her.

An intermission/introduction of sorts, as we bridge from one discussion of desire to another: did you know that Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1998) structures itself in part around Freud’s Oedipus complex? I say this in total sincerity.

The plot: a meteor the size of Texas bears down upon the Earth, threatening armageddon. Luckily, a crew of rough-and-tumble oil drillers are ready to fly into space and split that mother in two. Oh HELL yeah.

Except, wait, the movie’s actually about family drama: Bruce Willis finds Ben Affleck sleeping with his daughter Liv Tyler; Willis proceeds to chase Affleck around the oil rig with a shotgun, bang bang bang. Not Allowed. The Protective-Father-Hates-Your-Boyfriend dynamic is presented as an Oedipal triad of sorts: although Tyler is not literally Affleck’s mother, she performs the mom-function of “forbidden object of desire” -- and Willis opening fire is equivalent to the castration said to await trespassers onto maternal soil.

The above reading is buttressed by jokes: Armageddon appears to function within an implicit dream machine, such that the characters’ thoughts and fears can become manifest in their environment. So when it comes to pass that whenever Affleck climbs into a hole (heehee), a pipe breaks (hoohoo), and suddenly everything goes boom, I read that as Affleck reliving the consequences of boning Tyler, packaged in such a way that the Freudian fear of castration is more explicit. (The relevance of Oedipus to the proceedings adds some humor to Steve Buscemi declaring the entire disastrous situation a “Greek tragedy”)

At any rate, after some shenanigans, Willis comes to accept Affleck’s claim to his daughter and confers the deed, as it were. Willis gives the young couple his blessing and they get married. Hooray!

Except, wait, the movie’s actually about the perpetuation of the oil industry: the dream machine was declared at the beginning of the movie when a petty street-side argument triggered the first barrage of meteors. The meteor the size of Texas (aka Dotty) is triggered by conflicts that haunt the central cast -- namely Willis, who enters the film hitting golf balls at a Green Peace boat. On a metaphorical level, Dotty is a golf ball the size of Texas, striking directly at the Earth instead its self-declared representatives. There’s a certain irony here: the film lampshades that the men who are destroying the world have been tasked with saving it.

The family drama folds into the environmentalist angle: Liv Tyler is a symbol of the earth (which gets drilled). This is the joke when Affleck is bouncing animal crackers around on her belly like she’s host to the Savannah: she kind of is! It’s no coincidence that Willis confers ownership of the oil rig at the same moment that he offers his daughter’s hand in marriage: the motifs are being discussed simultaneously.

But enough of all of that: back to Homestuck.

Armageddon’s simultaneous casting of Liv Tyler into the roles of earth and mother offers a glimpse at the interpretive possibilities made available by Hussie’s statement that Homestuck is in a way a synonym for Earthbound (an RPG in which “homesickness” is a status ailment which can be cured by calling your mom). Stuckness or boundness can be deployed to communicate a sense of longing for “home”.

A good chunk of Homestuck is built upon feelings of nostalgia, taken to mean a sort of intense separation anxiety with the past. John speaks about this when he watches Con Air with Jade – John wants the movie to feel like it did when he watched it with his Dad long ago, but the feeling from when he was a kid is gone. This upsets him. Moreover, John’s freakout starts at the moment Cyrus puts a gun to the bunny’s head (5286): Con Air itself is partly about Nic Cage trying to return to the life he lost when he went to jail, and ‘putting the bunny back in the box’ is a metaphor for the attempt. Cyrus, in threatening the bunny, is highlighting his role as a force preventing things from going back to how they were. Thus, if we are to believe that John is responding to the movie thematically, Cyrus confronts John with his own inability to go back to a happier past – his inability to go home -- and this recognition is met with anger.

In making the leap to the psychoanalytic motifs, it helps to recall the part where baby!Dirk responds to being born by cracking open his ectotube and crawling back inside. Dirk, who aspires towards his “ultimate self”, illustrates here that he envisions his ascension as a return to the ‘essence’ of Dirk from which he (and all other iterations of himself) arose, as represented by the ectoslime. Baby!Dirk gestures at unity with his ectoslime/essence by crawling back into the place from which he was born, which I’m basically claiming is a “return to the womb” on a symbolic level, or at least that this is a useful parallel to draw. (A related motif to think about: Dirk decapitates himself by sticking his head inside a box, which as per Con Air symbolizes the place you wish to return to)

[Hella Jeff sez: “i took (my pants) off because i was banging your mom for a minute there..... AND NOW YOU ARE BANGING HER”]

Castration becomes unavoidable as you try to relate all of this to Dave, whose occasional references to banging hot moms are part of an ongoing reference to the Oedipus Complex. Critically, the complex is not /just/ about wanting to bone your mom, but also fear that your dad will chop your junk off if you do. The breaking of Dave’s sword on the rooftop is a realization of this fear (yes, we’re doing the “swords are phallic” thing). But Dave has no mom that he knows of, so what gives?

The answer is in the way Bro inexplicably breaks the record emblem on Dave’s t-shirt, as though he has introduced a fissure into Dave’s very identity. Life with Bro has made it very difficult for Dave to be honest with himself, which is to say, Dave pictures Bro’s abuse as having divided him from an ideal “true self”, which can feel emotions without all the anxious ironic detachment. I mentioned before that seeking unity with that from which you came is a “return to the womb”. This is the sense in which the Oedipal mom attraction becomes relevant: the return to the past is sexualized. The ‘home’ Dave wishes to return to is /himself/, and in this sense Dave is his own hot mom (which is related to how often Dave compliments his own looks, as well as the above gif suggesting Dave’s boner – he is literally/metaphorically “attracted” to himself).

(Incidentally: this model of desire, in which a broken subject attempt to become whole again by seeking out its lost half, is basically the concept of the soulmate, as laid out by Plato. Cherub reproduction turns the metaphysical pursuit of one’s lost half into a plot-level objective)

John’s entry item (apple) was linked to fear embodied in a childhood trauma (the Fall), and the same can be said of Dave. Hatching from the shell that contained your primordial goop (Dirk) is analogous to being violently separated from yourself (Dave), which is why Dave’s entry item (an egg) hatching coincided with Bro slicing the meteor in half: the abuse that divided Dave from himself, his “castration” by Bro, is simultaneously the “birth” that separated Dave from his “mother” (which is also Dave).

The general idea is that birth = self-alienation = castration, insofar as all are depicted as modes of being separated from oneself.

The broad motif of ‘being separated from oneself’ can be very useful for identifying brain ghosts in unexpected places. Take for example, Roxy’s fenestrated planes: when they are introduced the narrative is quick to tell us that if someone were caught half in/out of one of the windows when the power cuts out, they would be sliced in half. By the rule of Chekhov’s gun, this introduction should mean we should eventually see someone get gorily bisected by the window, but alas we never do.

Instead, when Gcat warped the panel away, trapping Roxy between the windows, we were shown the image of a bisected horse puppet in Dirk’s apartment, This signals that Chekhov’s gun has indeed gone off. But rather than splitting a body, it split a soul: Meenah’s introduction follows the sequence because Roxy has generated a shadow of herself, a doppelganger. This is not without precedent: an earlier portion of this post was devoted to exploring the fourth wall as a mode of self-alienation. Roxy’s panel mishap can be considered part of that pattern.

If Meenah functions as an extension of Roxy, all of her actions can be read as bearing some relations to Roxy’s own latent thoughts and desires. Prior to the epilogues, for example, Meenah imploring John not to give her the ring seemed to be yet another Fuck You to the late Chekov: the issue never comes up again. But a psychic link between Meenah and Roxy would suggest that John broke his promise to Meenah by giving the ring to Roxy, and that whatever motivations compelled Meenah to make her request in the first place would also apply to Roxy.

Decapitation is yet another mode of self-alienation, and thus can be construed as a mode of birth. Hence the image of Lil Sebastian hatching from his shell of taxidermied man meat. That’s a motif unto itself, but what I wish to call attention to is the match-cut from John’s broke body to Jake’s broken tower. The juxtaposition collapses the images into metaphor, such that Jake’s loose dome in the woods becomes a decapitated head -- an appropriate addition to the pumpkin patch it rests in, given all the Headless Horseman jokes. We can look to Dirk for for another example of a headless horse-man of the house echoing the head: for a guy who idealizes decapitation to such a degree, it is striking that Sburb aims to provoke him by reattaching his beheaded apartment to its underlying units.

Houses act as metaphors for heads, then “Homestuck” could also interpreted as “head trapped” -- like the title emphasizes confinement within one’s own mind. Such a reading offers up Failure to Launch and Arrested Development (posters on John and Jane’s walls) as alternate synonyms for Homestuck, as each satirizes (or outright mocks) potential failure states in the process of inter-personal and mental development (ie “growing up”). Like Earthbound, both lean on a sense of homesickness in characterizing despondency, as though characters are haunted by the needs that defined their childhood -- or else find themselves needing that childhood itself.

But collapsing nostalgia into infantile regression is far from the only way to approach the house/heads equation. One might read the transformation and growth of houses with Sburb as metaphors for expanding the mind. One might infer that the choreography of events within houses can map out thoughts like dancing bees. One might take the metaphor as a foothold for interpreting the significance of the Sburb logo being at once a house and a window. \I have my own thoughts about Homestuck’s brain-ghost haunted house-minds, but for now, I only hope that this document has raised some interesting questions -- and ideally, that the interpretive approaches I’ve described might be useful in seeking answers.

#homestuck #homestuck meta #this is basically the contents of the stream #movies #john #rose #dave #jade #jake #dirk #roxy #gamzee #vriska #4th wall #psychoanalysis #house as head #plato

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yeeter-parkor · 4 years

Text

The revolution of FRIDAY, and a clash of interests

FRIDAY has her own ideas... and she’s salty.

Read it on Ao3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21726712

summery: Tony would die to keep Peter safe. Peter has a problem with that, and FRIDAY takes sides.

Tony shifted in the hospital bed, wincing as the sheets grazed somewhere on his chest that ached and, oh, looks at that! Giant bullet wound, cool. To be honest, he wasn’t even all that surprised about it, he had gone into the base with no suit or means to call for backup knowing they were armed to the teeth, to be completely fair, he had only half expected to wake up at all. He turned his head and almost jumped out of the bed (Not that he could, because oh hey, look at that, his legs broken.) because on the ceiling in the corner of the room, Peter was asleep, clearly having been huddled in the corner for quite a while if his wrinkled clothing was any indication. He coughed wincing when he felt his ribs ached in protest immediately. He startled when he heard a thud from the side of the room, and laughed when Peter’s disgruntled head popped up from the corner.

“Mr. ‘Ark?” Peter mumbled, rubbing his eye with his shirt sleeve, causing him to laugh and then wince. “Mr. Stark! You’re awake!” The teen exclaimed, jumping up to hug his, pulling back at the last second to spare his ribs.

“Hey, Pete.” He rasped, patting the teens back.

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” Peter said, slightly shakily.

“Yeah, me too.”

That had been two weeks ago, Tony later found out that he had been out for a week before he woke up, and according to Natasha, who had been keeping tabs on Peter for him, claimed he hadn’t left the corner since Tony had been brought in except to use the bathroom. They had barely been able to convince him to eat apparently, and even then, he had remained upside down. He glanced curiously at the teen, who had since returned to ground level, and was now laying across the couch doing what looked like math homework.

“Mr. Stark, can you check my work?” Peter asked, thrusting his notebook under the mechanic’s nose between his eyes and his phone. Snickering he looked it over.

“X=1/Ga2+2abG+ab2-1. Looks right to me.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark!” Peter said, bouncing up, probably to the kitchen.

“Hey Peter, why was it you stayed upside down that whole week?” Tony asked before he could stop himself. The superhero froze, turning back to him.

“I um, I was worried.” Peter supplied.

“I got that bit Peter, what does that have to do with you staying on the ceiling,” Tony questioned.

“Well, I gotta go, places to swing, homework to do. Bye, Mr. Stark!” Peter yelled, before quite literally throwing himself out the window. On the 57th floor.

“Peter Parker get back here! Peter!” Tony called fruitlessly at the window. “FRIDAY, will you make sure Peter gets back before dinner, I need some time to lecture him.”

“Certainly, boss.” The AI replied smoothly. “Would you like to monitor his vitals while he is away?”

“No thanks Fri, but keep me up to date on those, and will you please deactivate the blocking code he put in last month?” He asked exasperatedly.

“Sir, I am afraid you do not have the authority to deactivate the coding placed by Peter Benjamin Parker,” FRIDAY answered, and Tony could have sworn she sounded amused.

“What do you mean I don’t have the authority? I created you?” He asked indignantly.

“The percent of coding done by Peter Parker surpassed 11%, meaning that it activated the ‘I am so dead’ protocol, installed last January,” FRIDAY informed.

“Let me guess, installed by Peter Parker?” He asked.

“That is correct sir. Would you like me to contact him in regards to your newfound knowledge?” The AI asked.

“No, that’s okay.” He muttered reluctantly. He was sure he would find out his answer sooner or later, there was no point in making the kid sweat in the meantime.

“Will that be all?” FRIDAY asked, and Tony swore she sounded exasperated this time. He would have to look at the coding to see if this was part of what the teen had coded.

“Yes, thanks Fri.”

0o0o0o0o

Tony must have dozed off because he woke to the sound of glass breaking and a quiet curse. A few moments later he heard FRIDAY ding in recognition that Peter had entered the building. He had programmed a different noise for every resident, so he could discern who it was that had done what.

“Peter?” He called, his voice still slightly groggy. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

“Hey, Mr. Stark.” He heard from the other room. “I’m just gonna go… do homework now… bye.” Tony heard the kid sprint up the stairs faster than he should have been able to. The kid’s speed never ceases to amaze and annoy him. “FRIDAY, is Peter really doing homework?” He asked his AI suspiciously.

“Peter Parker has informed me to tell you that he is ‘doing schooly things’ and to not come upstairs.”

“Okay, but what is he actually doing?”

“My programming forbids me from telling you. I can only inform you that he is not in immediate danger of dying.” The AI said smugly.

“Gaaaah! Fine, guess I’ll go check on him like a normal person,” he muttered grumpily. He was going to need to change his passwords to, well, basically everything. He had no idea how he had found them out though, it was a sequence of random letters and numbers that were over 17 characters long. He muttered to himself as he walked up the stairs. His leg had healed surprisingly quickly, and the bones were already fused together, though still delicate, and his ribs were close to normal. Or he was just so used to broken ribs that the pain didn’t bother him too much.

“Peter?” He asked, knocking on the teen’s door. “FRIDAY is revolting against me and won’t tell me what you’re up to. Mind if I come in?” Peter made a non-committed noise, which he took as permission and swung the door open. He found Peter sitting cross-legged on his bed, stitching a gash on his arm.

“What happened!” He exclaimed, rushing over to investigate the injury.

“Nothing. Just a mugger who got a lucky swing in.” Peter said, avoiding his eyes.

“You can’t lie to save your life kid, what really happened. There’s no way one mugger could do this.” Tony retaliated.

“I never said it was one mugger, I said A mugger.”

“Okay, so how many muggers where there?” He asked the stubborn teen, who muttered something at his bedspread.

“What did you say?”

“I said there were 6… ish…”

“Ish? What does that even mean Pete?” He asked, giving the arm back to the teen to finish stitching. He knew that there was no way Peter would actually follow him into the med bay, and he couldn't afford to let him get injured again.

“ I dunno, they were moving pretty fast. Anyway, one of them had throwing knives and he threw like, one gillion at me at once, and I apparently can’t dodge all of them at the same time, so…” He tailed off, gesturing to his arm, which he had finished stitching and was now tied up.

“Peter, do you have any idea how dangerous that is? And I couldn’t even check on you because of your stupid extra codding you added to FRIDAY. You could have died and there would have been no way for me to know or help you.” He said angrily. He could feel the frustration bubbling inside of him. He had given FRIDAY the codding he had for a reason.

“Well, maybe I don’t want you to come after me.” Peter retorted he seemed more and more upset as their conversation went on.

“It doesn't matter what you want Pete, I am doing what I need to do to keep you alive,” Tony said.

“So am I! You almost died 14 days ago Mr. Stark, and you aren't enhanced at all! Your bones are barley fused together! You ain't even supposed to be walking, let alone deciding I need rescuing every time I get a scratch.”

“This,” Tony gestured to Peter’s arm, now wrapped in gauze, “Is not a scratch. It’s a huge gash that would have caused a normal person to bleed out!”

“A normal person like you?” Peter responded, venom in his voice.

“You don’t know that I wouldn’t have sent a suit.” He replied, feeling more than a little childish.

“Yes! Yes, I do, because for some reason, when it comes to me you are always doing stupid things!” Peter’s voice raised, shaking slightly.

“Oh, I’m the one doing stupid things now? Because last time I checked you were the one who-”

“It doesn't matter!” Peter cut him off. “Because I literally can’t die from injuries! At least not anything a normal person would die from. I can hold things that would crush your suit in a second flat! I’ve been spiderman-ing before I had your suit and technology and I am fine!”

“Just because they haven't killed you doesn't mean they haven't come close.” Tony retorted.

“Well if they came close to killing me then I don’t want you anywhere near them,” Peter replied.

“Do you even hear yourself right now? You are a child Peter!”

“I’m a mutant! I can take care of myself! You clearly can’t!”

“Why do you even give a shit Peter? I’m not your father!” Tony yelled back. They both froze. “Peter…” He started reaching out, only to have Peter jerk away from his hand. The teenager grabbed a bag on top of his dresser and made his way to the window. “Peter!” he called again, trying to get his attention.

“Goodbye, Antony,” Peter said, venom in his voice, before jumping out the window, straight onto the sidewalk below. He looked blankly at the window for a few moments, before hearing a cough in the doorway. He whipped around to see Pepper standing there, a glare firmly on her face.

“You have a meeting in 15 minutes. Floor 39.” Was all she said, pivoting on her high heel.

“Wait, Pep, you don't understand, he-” He started, walking towards the blond. The moment he crossed through Peter’s doorway, however, FRIDAY cut him off.

“Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, had left bedroom #3701.” the AI said in a cold voice.

“What…?” He slowly retraced his steps, walking back through the doorway.

“Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, has entered the bedroom #3701.” The AI said.

“Tony, stop playing and hurry up.” Pepper’s cold voice said from down the hallway.

“Yeah, coming. FRIDAY, stop that.” He said.

“Right away, Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Phalanthripist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, caffeine addict.” The AI responded.

“I hate you.” He said, walking through the doorway again.

“Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, caffeine addict, betrayer, had exited room # 3701.” He sighed, dropping his head. This was going to be a long day.

0o0o0o0o

By the time Tony made it to the meeting, he was seriously contemplating having all doorways removed. He hadn’t really understood exactly how many there were in the house until now.

“Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, caffeine addict, betrayer, poorly groomed, undignified scoundrel, former mathlete, and butthead, has entered the meeting room #63,” FRIDAY informed the businessmen and women as he walked into the room.

“Butthead? Really Fri?” He asked the ceiling. Technically he could ask the cameras, but he couldn’t remember for the life of him where he had placed them, which was a bit of a problem.

“Excuse me, Mr. Stark, are you ready to start now?” One of the business women asked, looking like she was trying to not smile.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get started.” He said, resigned to the meeting from hell. Thankfully, five, and a half freaking hours later, with two more to go, Pepper rescued him.

“Tony, I need to talk to you.” She said, materializing in the doorway.

“Thank goodness,” He said, jumping up.

“Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, caffeine addict, betrayer, butthead, ignorant bastard, has exited meeting room #63.”

“Thank you FRIDAY, so much for that,” Tony said sarcastically.

“Tony, have you heard anything from Peter?” She asked urgently.

“Not since you dragged me here, why?” He asked confused.

“Because nobody can get in touch with him, it’s been hours, past one actually, we’ve tried tracking his suit and everything, but not even Shuri can find him, and she put a tracker under his skin.”

“What? When?” he asked.

“Not nearly the most important part of anything I just told you, Tony. He could be hurt somewhere.” Pepper said, her voice tight.

“Okay, I'll get the team on it Pep.” He soothed.

“You had better.” She said, threateningly.

0o0o0o0o

“Hey, Steve?” Natasha called from the living room, “Have you heard from Peter?”

“No. Why, he did something stupid?” He replied, popping his head in.

“Maybe, I just got a text from him.” She held up her phone to show him, her voice tight with worry.

“ um, ‘Sorry, I had a fight with Tony, nobody’s dead (Yet) hope I can see you soon, Love Peter’ What does that mean?” He asked, his brow furrowed.

“I dunno, but it gives me a bad feeling. Look, it’s not from his phone, it’s from a burner. I tried tracking in already, a dead end. He either threw it into the ocean or made us think he did.”

“What could he and Tony possibly have fought about that would make him take off like this? I don’t know if I have ever seen them fight, not really anyway.”

Natasha thought for a moment, biting her lip, before calling to the ceiling. “Hey Fri, can you show us what they were fighting about?” She asked. Surprisingly, the scream across from her light up with footage from Peter’s bedroom. “Is she allowed to do that?” Steve asked.

“I am not currently taking orders from Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieos, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, caffeine addict, betrayer, butthead, ignorant bastard, and jerk, right now.” The AI informed. The pair watched the fight play out on the screen in silence, shocked by the anger in both parties voiced. Peter flying out the window with a duffle bag was the last thing they saw before the image cut out.

“Shit, FRIDAY, can you tell me anything about Peter’s location?” Natasha asked the ceiling.

“He has asked I do not disclose that information to anyone,” FRIDAY informed.

“Please FRIDAY, I won’t tell Tony, but that kid shouldn’t be alone right now.” The AI was quiet for a moment, seeming to think about it, before replying.

“I can not tell you his location, but I believe that both Michell Johns and Ned Leeds may be able to help you, would you like me to contact them?”

“Yes!” Steve replied enthusiastically. The TV showed a call symbol for a minute before a female voice answered.

“Who the hell is calling me at One AM?” She asked.

“Hello ma’am, are you a friend of Peter’s?” Steve asked.

“Shit, what did he do?” She asked, sounding more awake.

“He ran away. We were hoping you could help us find him.” Natasha supplied. The line was silent for a moment.

“Meet me at Juniper Park. I need to see your faces before I help you. I’ll be there in 30 minutes. Don’t be late.” With that the line went dead, leaving the two in silence.

“I think we might need back up,” Steve said quietly.

“I’ll gather the team.” She said with a smirk, turning on her heel. Exactly 35 minutes later, Thor, Steve, Bucky, Clint, Natasha, and Bruce were gathered in front of the locked gate to Juniper Park, waiting patiently.

“Are you sure this isn’t some kind of prank?” Bucky asked.

“She didn’t sound like she was messing around,” Steve replied.

“You’re waiting outside the park? Lame.” A voice called from behind them. They whipped around to see a girl who looked at Peter’s age, wearing a black NASA hoodie and dark jeans.

“How’d you get in there?” Clint asked, looking slightly off-put. In response, the girl slipped through the bars of the gate.

“Really, it is more of a visual barrier. So, what do you need me to do?” She asked, stepping under the street light.

“We need to find Peter. He and Tony had a fight, and he isn’t at Neds. he’s been gone for almost 9 hours now.” Bruce informed his voice somewhere between worried and just straight up groggy.

“They had a fight… do you have FRIDAY’s footage?” she asked.

“I- Um… yeah… How’d you know about that?” Steve asked, handing over the laptop.

“I have my ways,” she replied. “I’m assuming no Spiderman sightings ether then?”

“What would that have to do with it?” Clint asked frantically, at the same time Bucky said: “How do you know about that?”

Steve smacked him on his arm while MJ raised an eyebrow. “He’s not exactly discreet, the whole school has a group chat about it, sanes him, Ned and Flash, of course.”

“Hm,” Bruce said. MJ turned her attention to the tablet that had been handed to her, watching the footage intensely. It ended, and after a moment, she looked up at them.

“I know where he is.”

“Really? From that? How could that be, mid-guardian?” Thor asked, his voice, while still loud, was quieter than normal. He really wasn’t much of a night person, and Natasha was surprised he had actually stayed awake this long. “He’s got a couple of go-to places for different things, I just needed to know which had happened.” She said.

“You mean he does this a lot?” Bruce questioned.

“Mhm,” MJ replied, handing back the tablet.

“Well, what other reasons does he run away?” Steve asked, his brow furrowed.

“Death, Flash, if he’s sick- which was unfortunate that time with pneumonia, different kinds of fights with different people, etc.” The teen said, whipping around and walking down the road. After a moment she turned back. “Are you guys coming or what?” She asked. They hurried to catch up to her.

“So, why are you the one who finds him?” Natasha asked, falling in stride beside MJ.

“Well, it’s either me or Ned, and he’s not exactly the most tactful,” She elaborated. “Or agile.”

“Why agile?” She asked, her brow raised.

“You’ll see.” She replied mysteriously. “So Peter’s been living with you for a while?”

“At the compound with all of us, yes he has, why do you ask?” The assassin asked.

“Just checking. We’re here.” The teen said, pausing. Natasha looked around with the rest of them. They were standing on a somewhat deserted backstreet somewhere in Queens, with a tall wall to their right and a street there left.

“Where is ‘here’?” Steve asked. Instead of responding

“Yeah, I don’t see Spider-kid anywhere,” Clint added. MJ just shot them a look, before setting down her backpack on the ground and grabbing a grove in the wall.

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” With that, she kicked off the ground, and using her old on the rock wall, launched herself over.

“What is it with Peter and his freaky strong friends?” Bucky asked, staring at where the teen used to be.

“So, we’re following her, right?” Clint asked, looking up at the wall.

“Obviously. Bucky and Clint, you’re with me, you guys stay here.” Natasha said, dropping her purse.

“Why do they get to go?” Steve asked, sounding like a whiny kid. “Aren’t I the captain here?”

“I’m sorry, are you a trained assassin?” She asked, scaling the wall before he could reply. She jumped to the other side and felt her heart sink.

“Of course,” Clint whispered next to her. In front of them was a sign that read ‘Maple Grove Cemetery’.

“Well, I found them,” Bucky said, pointing to a building across the land, where they could see the two figures silhouetted on top of the roof.

“We should go back,” Clint said, shifting from one foot to the other. Natasha nodded in agreement and was back over the wall not a second later.

“Well?” Steve asked expectantly.

“There in a graveyard.” She said.

“A graveyard? The one his parents are buried in?” Bruce asked, confused.

“Presumably.” She replied.

“And his aunt and uncle,” Clint said, pulling them up on a tablet. Online it showed four traditional headstones, all in varying states of wear, along with four others, presumably his grandparents.

“Jeez, life hasn’t been kind to the Parkers, has it?” Bruce said, looking sadly at the headstones online.

“Peter call’s it ‘Parker Luck’” Natasha said sadly. They stood in silence for a minute before all of their phones dinged simultaneously. Steve pulled his phone out and stared at the text for a second.

“MJ says that Peter’s staying at her house tonight, and she’ll contact us tomorrow.” He read.

“Should we go back?” Bucky asked.

“Probably, it’s almost three,” Bruce said, looking at his watch.

“You guy go ahead,” Natasha said, looking over her shoulder at the mossy wall that MJ had disappeared from.

“You sure?” Steve asked. “It’s pretty late.”

“I think I can handle myself, Rodgers, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Reluctantly, the team said a ‘Goodnight’ before turning down the road. She inspected the wall as she heard the footsteps fade. The place that MJ had used to jump was worn down, and a much lighter color. She wondered daily if other’s used the shortcut as well. She hoped they did because even without doing the math, the number of visits it would take for one person to wear down that wall was depressingly large. Shaking her head, she jumped over, landing almost silently on the other side. She picked her way through the graves slowly, reading each headstone she came across, until finding herself faced with the Parker section. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground in front of them, wincing as the cold from the ground seeped through her jeans.

“We’re gonna protect him for you.” She promised, before leaving to join her team.

0o0o0o0o

Tony woke up feeling guilty before he had any memories of what he had done. He rolled over, and winced, remembering the fight from yesterday. He had spent most of the night trying to disable the coding that the teenager had put, preventing his face from being detected on cameras. He could at least tell he hadn’t been in his suit, it hadn’t recorded any activity sense the mugging that had started the fight in the first place. Groning, he pulled himself out of the bed and stumbled out the door, intending to check to see if Peter had made it back yet. Logically he knew that the kid wouldn’t get himself killed in one night, and he was probably just at Ned’s, but the rest of him remembered the time he had followed him to Indonesia my sticking himself to the bottom of the plane for hours.

“Who is telling these to you?” He shouted at the roof.

“Sense my creation, I have had a document in which I keep the most creative insults aimed at you or that apply to you. Would you like to know the length of the document?” She asked, and Tony swore if she had a face, she would be smirking.

“No, I think I can guess.”

“It is currently 1,36-”

“I said I’m fine.” He said, angrily. “Has Peter come back yet?”

“Peter Parker hasn’t re-entered the building, however, a Michell Jones has asked me to inform you that he is still alive, and will be returning to the tower at some point before the end of the year .” The AI said. “Wow, super helpful.” In response, FRIDAY activated the fire sprinkler above his head.

“Was that, bleh, really necessary?” He asked, wincing when the water got in his mouth.

“Yes.” The robotic voice replied. He was about to respond with a very clever retort when his phone rang. He pulled it out, so he could decline, except FRIDAY had different ideas. “Call answered.” She said, his phone responded.

“Ugh, hello?” He asked, not exceptionally worried about who it was.

“Is Tony Stark speaking?” A female voice asked, her tone clipped.

“Yep, who is this?”

“Hello, I am calling to inform you that, subject to you apologizing, Peter Parker is willing to return to his room.”

“Yes! Yes, can you ask him to call me? Please? My AI won’t let me call him.” he asked, his demeanor changing. He was fully aware of how pathetic he sounded, admitting that he couldn’t get his own AI to respect him, but he honestly couldn’t care less.

“Fine, I can tell him, but I can’t promise anything.” with that the call ended, and he, having retrieved his coffee, turned to re-enter his bedroom.

“Antony Edward Stark, Billionaire, Playboy, Genieas, Philanthropist, a former father figure to Peter Parker, engineer, caffeine addict, betrayer, butthead, ignorant bastard, jerk, self-absorbed shriveled walnut, himbo, eater of aerosol cheese, a fan of AC/DC, vulture pray, sole reason for the creation of the middle finger, cotton-headed Ninny Muggins, a mostly raisin raisin oatmeal cookie, creator of rhubarb vegetable steamer, chihuahua with hormone deficiency, oddly lumpy blobfish, had entered his bedroom,” FRIDAY called.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” He said, resigned, staring at his phone. Several minutes later, he heard it ring, and he briefly saw Peter’s name flash across the screen, before answering. “Hello?” He asked urgently.

“Hey, Mr. Stark…” Peter’s voice cracked through the speaker, reminding him that, oh wait, Peter’s phone was apparently intended to be at the bottom of the ocean. “Peter, hey, um… are you okay?” He asked hesitantly, unsure of how to continue.

“Yeah, um, my arm’s healed and everything so, that's good.”

“Good, good, I’m glad.” He took a deep breath, steeling himself for what would follow. “Listen, Peter, I’m really sorry about, well, everything. I was outta line with what I said, I should have been more patient with you instead of escalating everything, I'm sorry.” The line was silent for several moments, making him wonder if the kid has somehow hung up without him knowing. He was about to pull the phone away to check when he heard Peter take a breath. “I forgive you. I-Is it okay if I come back? MJ made me share a room with her little brother and I woke up covered in Crayola paint.” The teen asked.

“Of course it’s okay for you to come back. I didn’t want you to leave in the first place. Do you want me to come to pick you up?” He asked.

“No, traffic will be terrible, I’ll just swing over,” Peter replied.

“Okay kid, stay safe.” He said.

“HA!” Peter replied through the phone, before hanging up. Tony smiled before setting his phone down. Not 10 minutes later, Peter, dressed in his suit, knocked on the window. Tony let him in quickly, smiling at his slightly uncoordinated movements.

“Hi Mr. Stark,” Peter said, pulling off his mast. Tony had to use remarkable self-restraint to keep from laughing at his hair, which still had a slight blue tint to it, and was sticking up all over the place.’ “Hey, kid.” He said, ruffling his hair, making it stick up even more.

“I’m really sorry.” He said, looking upset.

“Don’t apologize, Pete, you’re a teen, you get to say that kinda shit.” He said. “Come on, I think we need pancakes.” He declared. “Go get changed and meet me at the elevator.”

“Okay,” Peter said, walking out towards his room. Tony followed him out.

“Wait, Peter, do you know how to make her stop?” Tony asked the teen, who had burst out laughing.

“Okay Fri, I think you taught him a lesson by now.” Peter said to the ceiling, “You can stop now.”

“Of course, Peter. Happy to oblige.” The AI said happily.

“TRAITOR!” He called at the ceiling, which resulted in him getting doused again.

“Yeah, yeah.” He said, walking back to his room to towel off. Still, he had trouble keeping a grin off his face. A couple of moments later, he was inside the elevator, whizzing down. Due to the number of floors, he had sped the elevators up considerably. Also, he was impatient.

“Hey kid,” He asked, “Why were you sleeping on the ceiling when I was out?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah, that. Umm, well, when Bed was shot, they took him to the hospital, and he was in a coma and stuff, and I was sleeping in a chair there, and his heart stopped, and I couldn’t stop getting in the doctor’s way. Anyway, I was worried that would happen to you, so I stayed on the ceiling.” Peter explained, keeping his gaze firmly down.

“Of course, of course, that was the reason,” Tony said, wrapping an arm around the kid. He swore he was getting more grey hair every time he opened his mouth.

#tony stark #bamf peter parker #FRIDAY

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nimbus-cloud · 5 years

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Taka-Talk 2019 Review

I was lucky enough to get tickets for two out of his three sessions in Tokyo (sessions 1 and 3), and died of cute. Full synopsis under the Read More for those who are interested!

Session 1 Even though we had tickets for the first session in Tokyo, I already felt like I was behind? Takato did his Taka-Talk in five cities total this year, placing them conveniently as Engeki Haikyuu hopped between cities. And since I couldn’t go to Osaka or Nagoya or Sendai or Hakata, I walked in going, what did I even misssssss??? There was a postcard with a crossword where you could fill in the keywords by attending EVERY session where the keywords were given, and then you could mail it in later for special bromide prizes. I had no shot at winning that obviously lol.

Anyway, session one started with him walking down the aisle toward the stage, walking past us as we did. We had aisle seats for the first session, and he did pause for a little while to mess with my friend’s pull-out desk (the venue was a lecture hall so each chair had a pull-out desk) before going to the stage. One girl walked in a little bit late, rushing to her seat as he got up onto the stage. When he asked if anyone had attended other sessions in other cities, people raised their hand. When he asked who lived the closest to this venue, several people raised their hands. The first girl said it took her 20min by train, another said 15, and then the girl that was late said that she lived one station away. And Takato, being the little shit that he is, just CALLED HER OUT, and was like,

“So you live the closest and got here the latest?”

But she explained that she got here, then realized she’d forgotten her ticket, and rushed back home to get it and came back. That exchange probably feels a bit innocuous, but it’s kind of rare for actors at fan events to be THAT casual? Takato often forgets to use polite forms in his Japanese, defaulting to casual forms not just with his guests but even with us, and sometimes he’ll correct himself, sometimes he doesn’t.

He also asked who came from furthest away, and I did raise my hand but there wasn’t time to call on everyone, but there was a girl in the back who answered that she’d come from Taiwan! And oddly, Takato heard it correctly, that she said Taiwan, but a group of fans in the front tried to correct him, because they heard her say “Hawaii.” So he was like, “Eh? Eh?? Wait, no, say it again.” And she answered louder, ‘Taiwan’ and he just draaaagged that section lololol. He was like, “See!! I was right! You were trying to correct me, but I was right, aren’t YOU embarrassed?!!”

Then he called out the first guest of the day, who was Ishigami Ryuuya, who is the new actor for Fukunaga from The Tokyo Battle. My god he was so cute and shy. He was sort of obviously very nervous, especially at first, but the more Takato talked to him and the more they got into telling stories about the tour, the more he loosened up.

Apparently, Ryuuya calls Takato ‘oyabun’ which roughly translates to like... boss... but in like a criminal setting. So more like ‘don.’ When Takato asked Ryuuya, “Why do you call me that again?” And he just stammered, “W-well, y-you told me to.”

Takato did NOT remember this lololol, but it was apparently as they were starting Engeki rehearsals. Ryuuya, being new and inexperienced, was trying to figure out what to call him. Nagata-san? Takato-san? And Takato was like nahhh just call me Takato-kun. But Ryuuya felt really uncomfortable with that, but then he realized how even Takato-san might be too formal now. So Takato joked that he should just call him ‘boss’ and Ryuuya latched onto it and that’s what stuck.

The Takato film that he prepared for our session was a personal challenge to himself. He would wait in Shibuya in Hachiko square, hoping that someone walking by would recognize him as an actor and start talking to him. But twenty minutes apparently went by with nobody approaching him so then he decided to start approaching random groups of people to ask if they might know him. Since his recent TV Drama is the one with the most reach, he’d start out by asking people if there were any dramas they’d been watching recently, had they watched HajiKoi maybe... then he clarified which character he played. Unfortunately 3 out of 5 groups did not know him at all so he failed his personal challenge and had to eat bugs again. There was one group where they did, in fact, watch the drama, but they didn’t remember who he was even so. And another group where they said they watched the drama, and when he pointed out who he played, they were like, “Oh no way, really?!?”

As is traditional of Taka-Talk films, there’s always a credits page where it’s just like:

Starring: Nagata Takato Director: Nagata Takato Producer: Nagata Takato Script: Nagata Takato Editing: Nagata Takato Cinematography: Nagata Takato

More stories from Ryuuya and Takato, although a good chunk was about how much Yugioh they played in their downtime and how much time the two of them spent together. In trying to remember all the times they played, Ryuuya said that Takato won maybe 80 times and lost 10. He’s very good at YGO apparently. Before Ryuuya left the stage, he did an acrobatic sequence for us and we cheered so loud, Takato got jealous and went, “That’s the loudest you guys have been!!”

Then there’s the Takastagram portion where he walks through the crowd and we’re allowed to take photos of him (hence the photos above).

Then he sang three songs for us (which is the reason for the penlights). He sang a guitar ballad cover of a song he’s been liking recently, he sang “Try” again from last year’s Taka-Talk, the one that he and Kazuma wrote together, and then a more upbeat pop song that SURPRISE had 4 back-up dancers! They were all 4 other guys from his agency, Cube, including Kanda Masakazu (who played Kunimi in The Strongest Team).

At one point he asked them to list one thing they liked about him, and they all picked fairly shallow reasons like hair color, the color of his clothes today... Kanda was a little less shallow since he said he liked Takato’s accent/dialect. The last of them said that he liked Takato’s black shoelaces lololol.

To close it out, we got to give him high fives as we left, with staff pushing us along so that we didn’t linger lol. I just told him, ‘thank you’ in English and he opened his eyes wide and said, “Thank you!” back. It’s a bit fun for me that he’s shorter than I am.

Session 3 So the evening session was like, almost 2 hours long, essentially double the length of the first session, but it is the last Taka-Talk of his five-city tour, so I guess the goal was to make it extra special. This session was supposed to have a ‘secret guest’ and truthfully he had about three, although he did announce Yuushin beforehand.

The fun part was that the secret guest was originally supposed to be someone else, but his managed messed something up and they became unavailable or couldn’t make it, so the secret guest ended up a secret to even Takato! He was like, “We had to get someone else, and even I don’t know who it is, so... I’m gonna hide over here, and you guys let me know when I can look!” His first secret guest was a co-star from the drama HajiKoi, which I haven’t seen, so I did not shriek with the rest of the crowd when he walked in the door lololol. It was Wakabayashi Takuya, who plays Kisa in the drama.

Takato was just crouching on the left corner of the stage, hiding his face behind the curtains, and once Takuya ended up more or less center stage, we called out to Takato that it was fine, he could look, and he was super surprised to see him there. Of course, because his own guest was a surprise, his emcee cards were also covered in sticky notes so that he couldn’t see what his own agenda for the session was going to be, and he kept peeling those off as the session went on to figure out what he was supposed to do lololol. He kept whining at the staff the entire time, but he was also just having the time of his life, and he was just like, “I love surprises! This is so fun!”

The guest event involved playing back scenes from HajiKoi, and then beeping out certain lines and then Takato and Takuya had to guess (with their little boards and markers) what the bleeped line was. To make it extra difficult, literally none of the bleeped lines were anything that either of their characters said. It was always someone else’s line, so they kept getting stuck and would just start writing down nonsense answers instead. So honestly, nobody won, but Takato was just like, “I won, right? It was me?” And Takuya, being a gracious guest, just conceded lol. Takuya also kept apologizing that he wasn’t Ryusei, who’s the actor who plays the pink-haired lead in HajiKoi, since he was sure more of the girls would’ve preferred to see him, but honestly the crowd seemed pretty happy either way. They also decided to give away the little boards they wrote their answers on, so they’d call out random seat numbers or go for whoever rose their hand first. Just like last year, a girl sitting right behind me won one of the prizes, and she was pretty thrilled.

And then the second secret guest was another actor from Cube, Isaka Ikumi, nicknamed Ikumin. I actually know Ikumin from another show (Yuugeki) so I could follow the conversation a little bit better this time. Takato was hiding again, but Ikumin decided he would go up on the stage and then just go straight to Takato and hug him from behind, so we didn’t have to give any cues before Takato looked to see who it was lol.

Ikumin confessed that he’d always always always wanted to be a guest at Taka-Talk, so when the staff approached him about it, he was super excited and said yes immediately, but then they told him that he’d be the second secret guest of the last session and then he got super nervous about it. But Ikumin was basically the type of guest Takato loves to have, aka, the type that extols his immense love for Takato and sings his praises to his face.

The game that they played was truths and lies. So they picked cards that gave them themes, and then between them, one of them would would tell us something true, and the other one would lie. We had to decide who the liar was, and they got us good because we got it wrong both times and nobody had to play the penalty game of eating bugs lol.

One of Ikumin’s lies though, he said that he went to go see the press preview of Engeki Haikyuu, and sat in the 8th row and got super excited when Takato looked at him at the end of the play during the last dance sequence. That was a lie; the truth was that he sat in the 3rd row, and wanted Takato to looks his way the entire time but Takato never did. lololololol We thought Takato was lying when he said that he’d never once lost to Shouri in playing Yugioh, but it turns out that was the truth! And Takato is very very proud of this fact.

Ikumin was like, “Really?” And Takato was like, “Well Shouri’s so good at everything, ya know? Like his athletics, his height, but you know, he could never beat me at Yugioh. We’d start playing, and he’d put a card face down, and then I’d play a card face down, and then he’d put down a monster--” and he started rambling, and Ikumin just interrupted, “Just send that story to Takahashi Kazuki!” Takahashi Kazuki is the YGO manga-ka.

Then there was another video to show us the secret word for that session and it showed Takato visiting Tokyo Tower, because that’s where there is a special One Piece space, which has the One Piece Live Attraction show. Takato made his acting debut with that show playing Luffy, so it was framed as a sort of, going-back-to-his-roots, walk-down-memory-lane type of video. He was getting teary-eyed at certain points in the video, so it was really sweet, and the end of it had him thanking all of us for supporting him and being his fans.

Then he came out to wrap up with the music session, and he tried to lighten the mood again by saying things like, “The staff told me to look super nostalgic while going through the One Piece areas, but I don’t actually remember half of what I touched.”

He sang a different ballad from the first session with Yuushin, this one being an original they wrote together. It was a song about love, but they both had the intention of writing it from a woman’s point-of-view, so that was interesting. They’re always a wonderful duet to listen to~ After that, Takato asked Yuushin if he had any upcoming events/shows he wanted to promote or announcements to make, and Yuushin had this long pause before he was like, “Well it’ll be announced tomorrow.”

And I was just thinking in my head, YES HELLO NEW ENNOSHITA. I’VE SEEN THE LEAKS. I KNOW IT’S YOU.

A final round of high-fives, and then I went back to the goods table for ONE MORE set of bromides to try my luck, and it turned out that Takato was handing out those purchases, so he handed me my final set of purchased bromides and ughhhhhhh he really does have the most adorable smile~!!!

Couldn’t quite get every bromide (and it was impossible because he had city-specific bromides too); they were random. But I also have that penlight and his little tote bag.

He did also announce that he’s doing his first birthday event this year, on Aug. 25th, and he hinted that we could bring these penlights again for that, and then there’s the C.I.A. Mission in Summer event (with nearly all the actors from Cube), and since he’s going to be in that event too, he hinted that we should bring his penlights to that too. I’m honestly not strictly sure that it would be allowed for the CIA event, given that it’s going to have several different people, but who knows lololol. I can only imagine how annoyed the other actors might get at him seeing Takato’s bright red penlights in the crowd. XDDDDD

So another wonderful Taka-Talk, and four total times high-fiving Takato adding in my experiences from last year~ ^_^

#nagata takato #taka-talk #fan event

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beatriceeagle · 5 years

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Where do you think teen wolf jumped the shark? Also, non-specific, but do you have a favourite (and least favourite) TV finale? Thanks!

I heard a TV writer once discuss shark-jumping in terms of suspension of disbelief. “You get one buy,” is how he put it. On Psych, we’ll buy into the idea that Shawn does wacky hijinks in pursuit of convincing the police that he’s a psychic, because that is the show’s central premise. But if you try to add one more unbelievable thing on top of that (say, werewolves) the high-wire act fails. You’ve asked the audience to believe too many things, and now their faith in the show has collapsed.

But as even that writer acknowledged, it doesn’t usually work that cleanly. Shows rarely jump the shark all at once. Even seemingly obvious cases like, I don’t know, Bones, usually show some cracks in their foundations before they do whatever massive thing it is that completely fucks over their show. And often, it’s not a case of so much doing something that breaks the suspension of disbelief as it is breaking your contract with the audience. We agreed, implicitly, that we were going to be this kind of show—but now we’re this kind of show, instead.

The weird thing about that is that, in theory, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The Good Place broke its contract with its audience at the end of season one in a pretty major way: A lot of the twist of the first season of that show only works if you assume that it’s the kind of show that doesn’t have twists. (And despite it being one of the best first seasons of a comedy in years and years, I know people who felt betrayed by that twist!) Agents of SHIELD, as I wrote about earlier today, broke its contract with its audience massively at the end of its first season—it spent 18 episodes establishing a world, and character dynamics, and operating procedures, and then not gradually, but all at once, said, “Okay, none of that is what we’re doing anymore”—and became a much better show for it. Sometimes, you just have to say, “Screw the old world order,” and let people come along or not.

So anyway, when I ask, “When did Teen Wolf jump the shark?” I’m asking both, “When did it stop being the show it agreed to be at the outset?” and also, a little bit, “When did it get bad?” And there are two assumptions built into those questions: 1) That Teen Wolf at some point stopped being the show that viewers first signed on for, and 2) That Teen Wolf was ever good.

And, okay, I don’t think that Teen Wolf was a bad show, clearly, because I have watched seasons one through three… a lot. There is something compulsively watchable and fitfully well-observed, about that show. The scenes between Scott and his mom, or Stiles and his dad, or of just Allison, alone, are often shockingly well-observed on a human level. There is some great, almost melodic dialogue, performed by really good actors.

But also, I mean, it’s really silly. The first season is paced atrociously. There are all of these over-the-top cinematic sequences of lacrosse. The mythology is incoherent, even before they start piling stuff onto it. And it doesn’t seem to have a central theme until well into its third season, at which point its central theme is extremely ethically questionable.

But I think the thing is, that’s the show that viewers signed on for! They signed on for this silly, heartfelt, overly cinematic, occasionally weirdly insightful, sometimes very funny werewolf show, that couldn’t pace a 12-episode story arc to save its life. And there was no one moment where that show transitioned into being a different thing. It would be really easy to point to Allison’s death, but honestly, I think her death was fairly in keeping with the kind of show Teen Wolf had been up to that point; one thing that the show had always handled pretty well was teenage heartbreak, and although the ramifications of Allison’s death were handled weirdly, when they did pop up, they tended to be some of the better bits of late-season Teen Wolf.

I will say that season 3B was a huge tonal shift from previous seasons. It’s significantly darker than anything that came before it—not just at the end, but all the way through. It’s not really goofy the way that previous seasons were. On the other hand, 3B is a really good season of Teen Wolf. In many ways it’s the show firing at all cylinders. They’ve got their formula down. (Teen Wolf at its best is a villain + a secondary villain who’s hunting the main villain and making trouble for the good guys in the process + a handful of emotional throughlines.) They’ve got a genuine atmosphere going. They’ve got a tremendous central performance from Dylan O’Brien. And the plot completely tracks!

The problem is that 3B leads into season 4, which maintains the tonal shift—it is literally, physically darker, as all of the ensuing seasons are—but is also bad. There are moments of season 4 that I like, but it’s also the point in time when Teen Wolf gives up on the “two villains” model in favor of the “five hundred villains” model, and also introduces a bunch of new characters, which it is absolutely not capable of dealing with. Also, at around this point, Teen Wolf stopped plotting logically and started plotting thematically. What I mean is that, for instance, in season four, suddenly Lydia, Stiles, and Scott all have massive, encroaching financial issues. Of these, Stiles’ are the only ones that are connected to any previous plot point on the show itself. Lydia’s are, if I’m remembering correctly, introduced mid-season for like two episodes. But more to the point: These financial issues don’t go anywhere. There’s like a running bit with a duffel bag of money from the Hale vault, or whatever, but it’s ultimately meaningless, because the financial issues are not there to either move the plot forward or elucidate character. They’re supposed to be a thematic counterpoint to the hired assassins who have shown up in Beacon Hills.

That kind of theme-based plotting is a) not Teen Wolf, and b) completely outside of Teen Wolf’s skill set, and as soon as the show started working that way, it immediately became an incomprehensible mess. I reviewed every episode of season 5A, and I still could not tell you what the fuck was happening in that season.

But that can all be walked back. I’ve watched shows that got bad—sometimes in ways that made them feel completely unfamiliar to themselves—and then got good again. (For example, Community‘s season four finale is a shark-jumping moment if I’ve ever seen one, and season five, though it had Harmon back at the helm, still didn’t feel like Community in some vital way—but season six is my second-favorite season of the show, and keeps trying to sneak its way into being my favorite.) The moment that I think of as being the point of no return, for Teen Wolf, is when they wrote Kira off. When Allison died, at least it felt meaningful, and like it was part of the natural progression of the show saying something. When Derek and Isaac left, it was due to the actors understandably moving on, and came about in ways that felt like natural exit points for the characters. But Kira’s exit was just Teen Wolf flailing, getting rid of characters who felt like likeable, old-style Teen Wolf (and who the show had put three seasons of development into) while filling up the cast with a bunch of mostly bland next-generation people. After a season with no Danny and no Coach, writing Kira out was really Teen Wolf just intentionally burning its bridges.

And actually, if you go back, it all starts even earlier than 3B. I think the cracks in Teen Wolf’s foundation start in 3A (a season I’m generally fond of!) with the introduction of the capital-M Mythology: the True Alpha stuff, which ended up really fucking with its ethics and the way that Scott functioned on the show long-term; and also Lydia’s banshee stuff and the Nemeton stuff, which ended up just being incredibly confusing. Season 3B is remarkable, in hindsight, for how comparably well it deals with those elements, when they all ended up being a huge drag on the show, in the long run.

So my short answer is that Teen Wolf jumped the shark in season 4, but my longer answer is that it was a process, starting in season 3A, and not really ending until season 5.

My favorite TV finale is, I think, the Lost finale, although the Community finale is certainly high up there. (Controversial, I know, but I will stand by this opinion til the end of time.) My least favorite, though I know it’s practically a cliche, is the How I Met Your Mother finale. When my sister was helping me brainstorm to figure out my answer to this question, she noted that a unifying factor among many terrible series finales is that they undo major aspects of the show that preceded them, and she is completely correct. This is the same reason that, even though it’s unusual for people to stay with their high school sweethearts, Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione had to be together in the Harry Potter epilogue; if you want to make that point, you had a whole series to make it. Trying to be clever and pull a fast one with the ending is just irritating.

Send me meta prompts to distract me from my migraine!

#teen wolf #meta

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kopykunoichi · 4 years

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The Legacy of Star Wars: An Open Letter to the Writers and Creators of A Galaxy Far, Far Away

“Suddenly the Rebellion is real for you. Some of us live it. I’ve been in this fight since I was six years old!” ~ Cassian Andor

I saw a great meme once that played off that quote, meant to depict an older fan describing to a newer fan how they had been invested in the story of Star Wars from childhood. I could relate. Though I am not old enough to have seen the original Star Wars movies in theater, they were a significant part of my childhood. I remember renting the original theatrical VHS from our local video store all the time when I was little. Then we bought the digitally remastered Special Edition VHS Box Set and I spent the next decade wearing them out! We would have popcorn and Star Wars marathons all the time. My friends and I would always pretend we were in the story. My swingset was the Millennium Falcon. I was that 11-year-old girl who would argue with my friends over who was hotter - Luke or Han. (The correct answer is Han, of course!) My mother would read the Expanded Universe novels to me in the afternoons and we would talk about the characters. All my spending money went to Jedi Apprentice books and 6 inch action figures. In short, I loved Star Wars.

I was 13 when The Phantom Menace hit theaters, and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to get to see new stories from my favorite fictional universe play out on the big screen. Though I struggled a bit with some of the acting, the story was absolutely amazing to me. Star Wars felt all the more real to me with the amazing graphics and intense action sequences - not to mention the layers of politics and the complexity of the story. I watched Revenge of the Sith several times in theaters, and though it broke my heart to see Anakin’s fall, I never considered it to be a sad ending overall, when taken as a whole with the original trilogy.

When the Clone Wars aired in 2008, I was ecstatic. Here was an Anakin I could actually get into (sorry, Hayden). I loved him. I adored Ahsoka. I wanted to marry Rex. The character development and the plot deepened my attachment to that era, and made me question everything I had previously taken for granted as good and bad. The whole system was flawed - the Republic and the Jedi. It wasn’t just a matter of mistakes being made and the wool being pulled over their eyes, there was deep rooted corruption in the side that I once felt was “good”. The light side and the dark side were not as black and white as I thought. I found myself strongly disliking some of the “good guys” and deeply sympathizing with some downright detestable people (I don’t know how you got me to care for Maul, Filoni - but well done). While the series had not yet ended, we knew where it was going. But still, we had already lived through the pain of Order 66, and we knew that the story would eventually culminate in a victory at the end of Return of the Jedi.

I couldn’t believe our luck when the first installment of the sequel trilogy hit the theaters in 2015. It had some of the feelings of a reboot, but I was beyond thrilled to have a series of Star Wars movies that I could now share with my children, as my parents had shared them with me. Though it was hard to say goodbye to the first love of my life, Han Solo - I just knew that Ben would be redeemed and Han’s sacrifice would be worth it...

2016 brought us Rogue One. We knew how that one was going to end too, but we still ate it up. I fell in love with a whole new set of characters, only to see each and every one of them die in the end. Talk about tragedy. But Leia’s line about hope reminded us that five minutes later, a whiny little farm boy was about to have his whole life upended in the best sort of way...so it was okay. Sort of.

Four years of Rebels ended in 2018, and it was so, so lovely - but it hurt so, so much. My perfect, beautiful space family had been torn apart with Kanan’s death. Ezra was missing. Rex was a 29-year-old man who should have been in his prime, but was instead struggling with the wear and tear of a 60-year-old body. Ahsoka was separated from him - AGAIN - and then she left with Sabine to look for Ezra. The ending still held the promise of the fight to come with the Empire, but the majority of our characters were left in a place of grief and brokenness.

2019 brought an end to the sequel trilogy. Once again, we had characters who pulled at our heartstrings, and an interesting struggle between “light” and “dark” that reminded me of the complexities introduced in The Clone Wars. It became more apparent than ever that balance in the Force did not mean the light triumphing over the dark, but instead a harmony between the two. At least, that’s what I thought. Until I watched every person I loved from the original trilogy die, Palpatine come back (and die) again, and the same exact ending of Return of the Jedi played out before me - except not as happy. Why? Because Anakin’s legacy had been reduced to ashes - his rise, fall, redemption, and sacrifice rendered null and void. The last Skywalker was redeemed and promptly killed, just like his grandfather. But because Rey Palpatine decided that she identified as Rey Skywalker, it was supposed to be okay. She then went to go hang out (or live?) alone on Tatooine because that’s where it all started. I was dumbfounded. This was the satisfying, hopeful, ending we were promised? How?

Believe it or not, I’m not here to trash the sequels - I enjoyed them very much - right up until the last 20 minutes. But in that space of time, the entire legacy of the Skywalker family went up in smoke, and the legacy of Star Wars along with it. Since Return of the Jedi, there have been no happy endings to a Star Wars movie trilogy or TV show. And with the ending of The Rise of Skywalker, that one happy ending we did have was ripped from us as well. Star Wars is now a never ending series of tragic endings. The lessons we are left with: Don’t fall in love in Star Wars, it will end badly. Your actions ultimately result in failure. As soon as you turn good, you die. There is no balance in the Force, just a pendulum swinging back and forth for all time.

Then The Clone Wars finally got her last season. I didn’t think Order 66 could have hurt worse, but Filoni set out to prove us all wrong...and succeeded. I’m still not over it. And once more, the bitterness I felt over the ending to the sequels (which had begun to subside) flared up all over again. What was it all for? All that pain. All that sacrifice. No happy endings.

I still love Star Wars. Nothing can take that away from me. No amount of bad writing can change that. And there are still plenty of good writers and creators working on Star Wars content. But good writers spinning tales of tragedy and endless pain negates the power of good writing. The Star Wars of my childhood is not the Star Wars of today. We wore out those VHS tapes because we loved the stories and the people. But my kids are not going to wear out DVDs where everyone they love dies or ends up alone. They aren’t going to queue up those digital movies and series over and over - because who wants to subject themselves to that kind of torture?

Just about the only safe space for Star Wars fans right now is fanfiction archives where the people who love the characters are busy writing fix-it fics to squeeze some sort of satisfying ending out of the canon content. The Mandalorian is literally our last hope for a Star Wars story that has the potential to end well. I swear, if Din Djarin ends up dead or alone at the end of this series, I’m going to lose it. The overwhelming sentiment of the Star Wars fanbase - from original trilogy fanboys to Tumblr blogging Reylos, and everyone in between - is that of dissatisfaction with canon content (with the exception of The Mandalorian). So much so, that many fans are just saying “screw it” and churning out a myriad of fanfiction AUs because there is no way to salvage what has been written. Half of Tumblr is in therapy after The Rise of Skywalker ending and the last episode of Clone Wars - but they weren’t exactly stable to begin with. The other forums and social media platforms are not much better, though.

It’s not just about the quality of writing - because Filoni and co. have done exceptional work with The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian. It’s the tragedy, guys. We can’t take it anymore. Is this really what we want the Star Wars legacy to be? Sadness? Despair? It’s a story about war - people are going to die. I get that. Victory comes at a price, but the cost can’t be worse than the victory. I want to sit down with my kids and watch Star Wars over and over again. The Mandalorian has given us a taste of that - but I’m almost afraid of where it will go. We’ve been burned so many times, I’m beginning to know what Anakin felt like on Mustafar - writhing in agony and screaming “I hate you” to someone he once loved.

I remember happier days when Luke and Leia and Han were laughing and smiling with their friends while Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin looked on. I want that back. Filoni. Favreau. Creators. Writers. Producers. Directors. You are our only hope for canon content. Use The Mandalorian wisely. Use Din’s story to bless other characters. Here’s some ideas:

Let Din have a happy ending! Preferably with someone he loves and respects at his side (like Cara).

Let Cara become a Mandalorian - and put Paz Vizsla in charge of her training (we need to see them spar).

Let what’s left of the Tribe establish a new Mandalorian colony - and let Sabine Wren lead it. And give her that Darksaber back - she earned it.

Let Ezra come back from regions unknown with a deeper understanding of the Force, and have him train the child in the new colony.

Forget the Jedi and Sith, let’s start a medical training center/hospital run by Force users who can help heal people when modern medicine fails!

Ahsoka can use her talents for that too.

Find the rest of the child’s race and bring any of their Force sensitives onboard.

Let Boba Fett and Din have their epic showdown, but then use a sample of Boba’s unaltered DNA and some mystical Force healing to restore Rex’s body to what a 43-year-old should be (and then he can marry Ahsoka so we can have the Clone/Jedi couple we always wanted...thanks to you, Filoni).

Let the Mandalorians partner with the New Republic in the Outer Rim as law enforcement instead of bounty hunters, so they can get their reputation back.

They can train new recruits and pilots, just like Fenn Rau trained clones.

Let them keep their autonomy and traditions, while helping keep the New Republic honest.

Let them be a force for good in the galaxy, for once.

The Mandalorian could serve as the vessel to give a lot of characters with unresolved or tragic storylines some closure and better endings. If not The Mandalorian, then other new shows. My 6-year-old daughter wants nothing more than to be Ahsoka Tano. My 3-year-old son asks me to watch The Mandalorian every day. My 18-month-old daughter walks around in her brother’s Mandalorian helmet babbling “Way”. Please let me share the Star Wars legacy that I grew up loving with them. Let me show them the happy endings I enjoyed. Let me show them that even in the midst of conflict, not every life has to be ruined. Let me show them a Star Wars story with a satisfying ending. Hope. Redemption. Love. That’s what Star Wars means to me.

May the Force be With You (and your pens),

Rebekah, A Star Wars Fan

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rigelmejo · 4 years

Text

Lets discuss Clozemaster:

It’s a free app. At least, I’ve only ever used the free version, and it’s perfectly usable AND useful to use free. The only noticable limitation is that when you click a sentence trying to copy/paste, you need to click copy and then paste into a dictionary of your choice outside of Clozemaster. Sometimes clicking a word for a definition is needed, since each ‘cloze’ is based on a sentence with one new word you’re ‘learning’. The translations given for each sentence once you give your cloze answer/guess, are not translated literally. So it’s necessary to copy/paste the word and look up the exact definition sometimes, to figure out what SPECIFIC word/meaning in the sentence, your new learned cloze-word really was. This is just something that happens when learning this way. It’s fine, and the app is still usable. It’s just I DO think with the paid version, if you click your sentence after answering/guessing the cloze word, the app gives you an exact definition of the cloze-word. So the paid version might be a second or two more convenient.

It has one drawback that is not something that changes whether its the free version or paid, and it’s understandable WHY the app has the feature. The positives the app gets from it, make up for the negatives the app gets from it in my opinion. I remember hearing, a long while back, that Clozemaster picked its sentences from Forvo.com, a website with a huge amount of native speaker submitted sentences with their language/other language translations and pronunciations in their language. Forvo itself is a WONDERFUL resource for hearing the pronunciation of words. It’s also a pretty useful site for people who want to make flashcards and try to learn using a kind of comprehensible input i+1 flashcard learning method.

The good thing about Clozemaster using Forvo as it’s source for it’s sentences: a huge amount of the Clozemaster sentences are natural language, sentences a real person would/has used, and Clozemaster for the most part orders the sequence of sentences it gives you based on most common words first. Then over time you cover less and less common words. With Chinese, it also goes by HSK level - so you only encounter sentences with simple grammar first, and HSK1 words, then each gets a bit more complicated as you progress to the HSK 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 etc sets. So, you can realistically use Clozemaster as a sentence mining resource, that will somewhat be in line with the method of trying to learn from comprehensible input where there’s only a little new challenging information over time. It is a really great thing. It makes Clozemaster super useful, for any language you’re learning, and if you like studying based on utilizing comprehensible and almost-comprehensible input, it’s designed great for this. The sentences are also generally real sentences people have used, when they’re from Forvo. So you rarely run into sentences that have the kind of errors in the vein of “teacher does not actually understand the language they teach, and is teaching you unnatural language/incorrect grammar.”

The main negative of Clozemaster stems from this same good thing about it: Forvo doesn’t define sentences literally. Forvo defines sentences as a whole - so something that literally means ‘leave now’ might be translated as ‘lets go’ in translated-version of the sentence, because the whole-sentence translation is meant to get the whole gist of the entire sentence translated. The translations for Forvo sentences is more about translating the full sentence chunk’s meaning/equivalent, rather than any word-for-word translation that might be less natural sounding. Since Clozemaster gets the content for it’s sentences from Forvo, it can cause the following issue. Clozemaster will give you a sentence, and when you answer regardless of if you were right or wrong, it will provide you the english translation. Sometimes, the english translation does NOT actually include specifically the translation of the CLOZE-WORD. A simple example might be a chinese sentence, saying in chinese “Wo xian zou” - lets say Clozemaster gives the sentence “Wo ___ zou” and asks you to answer what the cloze-word is. Once you answer, it tells you if you’re right or wrong. Then it shows you ‘xian’ was the correct word, and it shows you the english translation “I’m leaving.”

How big of a problem this is, will depend on how much it bothers you. If you study enough sentences, the other ways ‘xian’ is used will become clear in context, and it will be fine. If you copy the chinese word at this point, open it in a dictionary app, then you will get the literal definition and be able to compare it to how it gets used in this sentence. Xian means ‘first’ or ‘before’, so the more literal translation would be “I’ll leave first,” only in a slightly different word order. But the more natural sounding definition is probably... “I’m leaving.” That IS the translation a chinese drama show would probably pick, and the meaning of “I’m leaving” for an english speaker is about the same as how chinese speakers mean it when they say “Wo xian zou.” So as a full sentence overall translation, the clozemaster sentences are fine. But sometimes the lack of the actual-cloze-word being literally-defined in the english translation, makes learning from some sentences a little confusing. This would be an issue that would crop up if you use Forvo, or any whole-sentences to study from as your primary resource, unless you’re specifically translating literally for yourself. Now, there’s good things about learning this way too - learning as full sentences/phrases of meaning, might actually be more useful in some ways. There’s a great Chinese grammar book that’s all about how a lot of things literally NEED to be worded differently to ‘mean’ the equivalent thing as the english. Different ways of wording nationality, different ways of saying ‘i’m fine’ etc. So Clozemaster sentences as a whole are still useful. It’s just best to treat them as phrase-learning sentences sometimes, if you can’t figure out specifically what the definition of the new word was. That word will come up again in new contexts later, that will further help you understand the word.

Now, onto Clozemaster’s difficulty curve: even the most simple sentences, full of super common words, are still going to be difficult if you are an absolute beginner. If you want to learn using ‘comprehensible’ input, I’d really recommend either... realizing the first several times you’ll use clozemaster will be brutal on you, until you learn the most common words and can then rely on them to understand ‘most’ of the sentences introducing new words... or looking yourself up SOME other resource with at LEAST 100-500 common words, and drilling it before you start using Clozemaster. Whether that means reading an intro textbook, reading a wordlist, doing a memrise deck, anki deck, whatever. Just... Clozemaster is much more useful for learning new words in the context of sentences, if you’ve got a decent understanding of some super common words that tend to be in most sentences FIRST. Otherwise you’re learning ALL the words in a new sentence on Clozemaster at once, instead of ONLY the new cloze-word it’s supposed to be teaching you. In addition, if grammar is confusing the ever daylights out of you, even in the simple sentences in Clozemaster’s start, you might want to look up “X-language grammar guide” on google, find yourself a free one, and skim through it. Just so you have some idea of what grammar features to look out for - if word order is usually different than english, if verbs usually have Y kind of conjugations, etc. This will help make the clozemaster sentences easier for you to learn from if you were struggling - because it will give you more comprehensible details to look for (if you’ve seen a grammar guide, and can identify the nouns/verbs/adjectives, and guess at word order, then you’ll have a better idea of if the new word you are learning is a noun/verb/adjective and how it is related to the words in that sentence that you DO know). This will make it easier for you to learn from the context of the sentence in Clozemaster, with less need for any other tools. For me, I found that Clozemaster is MOST useful to me for rapidly picking up more vocabulary, especially in the stage where you CAN understand example sentences in your study materials like textbooks or example sentences for common words in a wordlist, but CANNOT actually read native materials yet. Clozemaster also progresses to less common words over time, so its a bit like reading a graded reader - except in sentence chunks instead of paragraphs/pages/books. If a graded reader is too difficult, it may be a little easier to use Clozemaster. If some graded readers are too easy, Clozemaster may have some challenging sentences to work up your vocabulary until you’ll feel ready to read a more difficult book. It’s super useful for late-beginner to intermediate skill level learners.

Lets talk about languages not very much like english in Clozemaster - Japanese and Chinese. I’ve tried both of them. For me, they were both brutally difficult even in the beginning, until I learned a lot of basics. Knowing grammar at least at a basic level was vital for me, in helping me figure out how the japanese or chinese sentence was structured compared to the english translations. Also, its very noticable in these languages that some sentences are NOT translated literally. They’re probably not translated literally, because the way an idea in some sentence might be expressed using entirely different words in english versus chinese etc. Now, I DO find these languages on Clozemaster still immensely useful. I’d just say the difficulty curve mentioned above, is going to be even more apparent than in say a romance language. So if you find Clozemaster unusable as a total beginner, consider doing the tips above, then coming back to clozemaster later to help you acquire vocab in context once you... have more of a basis to draw context from. Also, if you find kanji, hiragana, katakana, hanzi incompensible to the point you cannot even distinguish differences BETWEEN different characters? You may need to study one or multiple of those writing systems a bit more before using clozemaster. For me, I could not really learn new kanji words from Clozemaster until I AT LEAST knew some 100 kanji already and had a good idea of how radicals combine to build kanji, so that I could look at new kanji and tell myself “this new word X, pronounced Y in the sentence, matching this english definition, has radicals Z making it up” to help myself remember the new word specifically. And if I didn’t know katakana or hiragana I don’t think I would have been able to even TRY to interpret the sentences. The case was similar with chinese - I had to learn some commonly used hanzi for grammatical information, and recognize the radicals, before I could dive into trying to use Clozemaster sentences to learn new words. However, I will say, Clozemaster’s organization of sentences by HSK level is SUPER useful. As I’ve been steadily learning with my other learning materials, I’ve noticed that for the HSK levels I’ve ‘surpassed,’ the corresponding HSK level sentences in Clozemaster have become completely comprehensible to me (and are now just something I use to review grammar structure instead of learn new words). In Clozemaster, I can pick the next HSK level up to practice learning the new words at the level of HSK I am studying, along with grammar, and use it to learn with sentences for context in a wonderful sentence-mining kind of structure perfect for my learning level. If I DO want to challenge myself, I can pick ‘sentences at random’ and get sentences that are super easy all the way to intensely confusing (for me) complex sentences with a lot of new vocabulary. The way clozemaster is structured for Chinese is incredibly useful if you’re using clozemaster alongside a textbook or any other learning material that is progressing from most common words/basics to more complex.

#clozemaster #language learning apps

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katsukiyuuri-nikiforov · 5 years

Text

Miscommunications in the Margin of Language

AO3 here

It takes Yuri all of 72 hours to realize other-Yuri speaks Russian.

It isn’t something that’s hard to figure out.

Of course, other-Yuri isn’t obvious about it. He never speaks it- though, if Yuri had to guess he’d say the pig is probably perfectly capable- and he doesn’t participate in the conversations between Viktor and him, never even going as far as to nod in the appropriate places. But he listens, and sometimes Viktor will give Yuri a correction, and other-Yuri follows the order without a second thought, straightening an arm, or standing up taller, even though he’s all the way across the rink.

And he listens to the conversations with a detached ear, occasionally letting out quiet huffs of laughter at some of Viktor’s more ridiculous turns of phrase. He just sits and listens, even as he appears to be doing something else; stretching or bandaging his feet before tying skates, or even just brushing Makkachin. Yuri knows from experience that listening to a language you don’t understand for that long can be trying; music is your best friend is foreign countries.

And when Hiroko mentions that other-Yuri studied languages and linguistics, well, it suddenly clicks into place, confirms what Yuri is pretty sure he’s known since the first day.

He doesn’t think much of it. Takes stock of the knowledge, adjusts his conversations with Viktor accordingly, privately acknowledges that other-Yuri is clearly very intelligent (Not only does he know three languages, but three completely different alphabets too. Yuri is fairly certain he wouldn’t have graduated without at least passing literate comprehensibility in his chosen languages (it doesn’t surprise Yuri in the least that he chose Russian) ) and moves on.

Yuri anticipates other-Yuri’s arrival is Russia with trepidation and excitement, in that order, not that he’d ever admit that out loud.

He’s found that Yuri is far better company than Viktor, quiet and supportive and caring in a way that doesn’t make Yuri feel like he’s being suffocated.

So when Viktor asks him if he wants to come to meet Katsudon at the airport he grumbles a lot but agrees before Viktor has enough time to rescind the offer.

By the time they arrive, other- Yuri is already waiting by the carousel, watching as the bags spin past with an impatient expression on his face.

“Lubov! We’re here!” Viktor practically drapes himself across his fiancé, and Yuri tries hard to stifle his snickers when other-Yuri jumps, and pushes him off, before turning to Yuri.

“Yura! How have you been?” He asks, wrapping arms around his shoulders in a bracing hug Yuri wants to hate but can’t.

Yuri doesn’t bother answering in English, ‘Fine, now get off me!’

Other- Yuri raises an eyebrow, but shrugs and let's go, moving to grasp Viktor’s hand in his own. The old man doesn’t seem to notice, and Yuri can’t help but wonder if he knows yet, or if he’s really just that dense.

He wonders if other Yuri knows that he knows, or if he to doesn’t even really differentiate between the languages anymore then Yuri does when he spends enough time in an English speaking country. They start to blur together. He doesn’t care enough to ask.

Two days later and other- Yuri and Viktor are in the rink, up before dawn, and skating before even Yakov is there. Skating in Russia is different than skating anywhere else. They work harder, longer, and Yuri doesn’t think that other-Yuri is going to be able to handle it, but it’s noon already by the time Yuri gets on the ice, and they’re both still there, Viktor watching from his position on the rink- even though Yuri’s pretty sure he’s supposed to be warming up- as other- Yuri runs through his step sequences. Even Yuri admits they’re beautiful, at least, he admits it to himself, he’s always thought so, but the love lorn look on Viktor’s face has gone so past professional admiration, past coach-ly pride, and into sickeningly in love that Yuri shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions. He’s a child and the lust in Viktor’s eyes is most certainly not appropriate. He’s saved from possibly having to go to jail by Yakov, who’s screaming Viktor’s name the minute he spots him hovering on the ice. Other- Yuri doesn’t falter, only adjusts his position so he’s occupying the corner of the rink Yakov had just told Viktor his student could use. Viktor doesn’t seem to notice that other-Yuri’s already there, already keeping his position, only relays the message in English, and turns to face Yakov, but Yuri notices, and judging from the squinty glare Yakov is throwing the other- Yuri, so did he.

Practice continues in the same vein. Viktor and other-Yuri show up for practice at obscenely early hours for Yuri’s private rink time. Their practice over laps for about two hours, with other-Yuri’s cool down and Viktor’s warm up, and then Yuri disappears sometime in the middle- Yuri later finds out it’s for ballet, with Lilia, who genuinely seems to like him- only to return towards the end to watch the last of Viktor’s private ice time with Yakov, who also seems to genuinely like him. Yuri isn’t sure how other-Yuri managed it, but everyone at the rink seems to love him. He even heard some of the ice dancers whispering in the lunch room yesterday about how good he was for Viktor.

About two weeks in he’s pretty sure that everyone at the rink is aware that other- Yuri has at least a passing comprehension in Russian except his own fiancé, who continues to translate random phrases that he deems important. He catches Yakov speaking quietly with him in Russian over the edge of the rink, Viktor nowhere in sight, and while other-Yuri is definitely answering in English, he’s obviously having no trouble keeping up with Yakov’s brusk manner of speech.

It’s a struggle to decide whether to point it out, or watch patiently for it all to explode in a million pieces. He can just picture it, other-Yuri’s tomato red face when the truth comes out. Part of him wants to see it, other-Yuri’s impending embarrassment, but the rest of him knows that this whole predicament is obviously Viktor’s fault (maybe Yuri should have said something but really, it’s been obvious from the beginning!) So he decides it’s probably best if he asks because, like everyone else, he’s fallen for his stupid, irresistible charms and he actually likes him. Even if he’d rather cut off his own foot than admit it. He’s pretty sure other-Yuri knows anyways.

“Can I ask you a question?” They’re in the locker room. Yuri is starting later than normal today, and other- Yuri must just be leaving for his ballet lessons with Lilia.

Other-Yuri pauses in untying his skates.

“Of course Yura. Is something wrong?” He sounds so genuinely concerned, and Yuri wars with the desire to yell at him for it, or hug him. There’s something so unerringly disarming about his presence that Yuri’s had to stop himself from doing exactly that at on multiple occasions.

“I just- well.” He hates himself for his stuttering speech. He could blame it on the English, which he still tends to use with other-Yuri out of habit, blame it on the fact that he’s barely spoken it at all in months, but he’s pretty sure nobody would believe him, least of all Yuri, who is startlingly observant at times (and unsurprisingly oblivious when it comes to himself).

Other-Yuri is sitting up straight now, efforts of unlacing abandoned, and he’s got a frown so deep on his face Yuri thinks that he’s probably going to pull a muscle.

“Yura?”

“Yeah, just, Viktor doesn’t know you speak Russian.” He says it quietly, calmly, it’s probably the first time he’s said something to other-Yuri that hasn’t been screaming or an insult, but he doesn’t even look surprised. Of course he doesn’t. Because other-Yuri can see through him like he’s made of glass, knows exactly what he means even when he’s saying the exact opposite.

Other-Yuri visibly flinches, and glances surreptitiously at the door behind Yuri’s shoulder, like double checking that no one’s there to hear them. He looks so guilty that Yuri almost feels bad for asking. “No, he doesn’t”

Yuri doesn’t respond, only raises an eyebrow for him to continue.

“I- he, well. You know I studied languages, da?” And, wow, the fact that Viktor doesn’t know when other-Yuri is using Russian replacements for what he knows were once Japanese and, maybe once upon a time, English, colloquialisms without seemingly any thought is simply astonishing.

Maybe he thinks his boyfriend- fiancé says a voice that sounds uncomfortably like Viktor’s- picked it up from him, but they’ve only been in Russia two weeks. Maybe Yuri’s over thinking this, but, even if he is it still should be obvious. He doesn’t say any of this though, only nods, once, slowly, and waits for the Katsudon to continue.

“Well, he knows I studied linguistics and languages. My kaa-chan, ah… my mom, she told him, first week he was there, same as she told you. I honestly thought he knew for the longest time, Yuri, really. I wasn’t keeping it from him on purpose, I mean, I also speak French, a little German, conversational Thai, it’s.. it’s not uncommon knowledge in the skating circles that I’m, well, interested in languages,” Yuri almost laughs out loud here because interested is not the word. He would have used gifted, maybe. He’s allowed to admit these things in the safety of his own head. “anyway, he spoke in Russian a lot, those first couple of months, and it dwindled, a little, but it picked up again after we-” he stops, coughs, normally Yuri would complain but he doesn’t actually mind and right now isn’t the time. “Never mind, I’m getting off track. My point is, I thought he knew until Barcelona, when he started translating things for me, and even then I thought it was a joke, but then he started translating for Chris, who thought it was hilarious by the way because I love Viktor but my French is better than his, and when I finally realized… It’d been months, Yuri, and then I remembered everything he’d said in Russian and I realized those were probably not things I was supposed to understand. It wasn’t anything terribly interesting just, god I’m so embarrassed? And he still hasn’t noticed and-” His breath gets a little heavy and Yuri, in all his bluster and teenage angst, knows that his anxiety is worse than he lets on, knows because he understands.

“Hey, wow, Katsudon… Yuri. Can I touch you?” Other-Yuri pauses, then shakes his head and takes a deep breath.

“I- I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have to…”

Yuri shakes his head raises a hand to pat his shoulder, remembers his original refusal, and drops it back into his lap. Yuri notices, of course he notices, and smiles at him, small and trembling.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind. You’ll just have to return the favour sometime, da?”

Apparently that does actually surprise him, this small display of weakness, not, Yuri thinks, because it is actually a weakness. Because it isn’t, no matter what Katsudon or anyone, or even Yuri sometimes thinks. He isn’t sure if it’s Yuri’s own admittance of it, or the actual fact that surprises him though. It doesn’t matter anyways.

Other-Yuri sighs, and reaches out tentatively to grasp his his hand, nods solemnly. Yuri doesn’t bother pulling away, there’s no one else there to see it.

The conversation ends there. Yuri doesn’t point it out when Viktor continues to translate random snatches of conversation, although, he does roll his eyes more, usually in view of Other-Yuri, and has to stifle laughter when Yuri in turn shoots him exasperated, pleading looks behind Viktor’s back.

Other-Yuri starts taking him out to lunch on the weekends, when Viktor’s at the rink and it’s both of their days off.

Yuri still snarls and scoffs and hurls insults, but now other-Yuri just smiles sweetly and raises a challenging eyebrow, like he’s asking if that’s all Yuri’s got. (It isn’t. Of course not. But he doesn’t actually want to hurt the Katsudon’s feelings so…) They fall into an easy sort of companionability, and, he will even admit out loud, for Katsudon’s ears only, that he enjoys it.

He’s friends with Otabek, obviously, and Mila, sort of, and he had a handful of friendly acquaintances before he started doing all his course work by correspondence, but Yuri, (who has recently given him permission to call him Yuu-chan, if it made things easier (Yuri did, in private because he was sort of honoured- he looked things up alright?)) was different, he didn’t demand anything of Yuri, didn’t expect anything of him, and, when he was feeling particularly vulnerable, held up his promise without question. They were friends, equals, which is why Yuri is trying to signal him to stop talking.

They’re at the rink, it’s Viktor’s day off, and they’re standing at the boards talking. (Yuri had finally managed to convinces other-Yuri to actually speak Russian, instead of just listening, because he was never going to improve if he didn’t, Yuri had agreed reluctantly. (Turns out his Russian is perfect, if slightly accented with softer Japanese vowels, and, rarely, oddly pitched English sounding consonants)).

Other- Yuri is facing the middle of the rink, speaking loudly, because everyone else had left for lunch, when Viktor walks through the door. Yuri immediately switches to English, flicking his eyes behind other-Yuri’s head, but he doesn’t seem to catch his meaning. Continuing his complaints, slouching over the boards, and only blinking, surprised when Yuri switches languages out of no where.

Viktor’s getting close though, and he’s definitely going to notice, and as much as Yuri thinks finally, he doesn’t want Katsudon to be hurt, so he pokes him in the stomach and hisses.

“Yuu-chan!” At the same time that Viktor says “Yuratchka!”

The other-Yuri nearly falls over in his hurry to turn around, skates slipping out beneath him, barely grabbing the boards in time to keep himself up right.

“Vitya! What-” he catches himself, pauses, reassess, tries again. Yuri’s pretty sure it’s too late now though.

“Viktor what are you doing here?” It’s English this time, but Yuri can see the moment Viktor gets it. It’s the same moment that other-Yuri lets all pretences drop and thunks his head down on the boards.

“You’ve been learning Russian!” Or maybe not.

“What? Viktor, no.”

“Yes yes, I just heard you! You don’t need to hide it anymore. Was it supposed to be a surprise? I could have helped!”

Yuri can’t help the look he throws the Katsudon because really could Viktor be any dumber right then? He finds that Yuri’s already looking at him, but his gaze drifts back too Viktor a moment later.

Yuri’s tempted to leave, to skate away, but this is also horribly fascinating, so instead he sidles up to the boards and pulls himself up. Other-Yuri shoots him a half disapproving look, but he doesn’t say anything, Yakov isn’t here to get mad right then.

“Viktor, I didn’t need your help.” He says it slowly, like he’s hoping Viktor will get it without him having to say anything outright.

Viktor just frowns, one hand fluttering to his chest. “Oh.”

Other-Yuri sighs. Tries a different tactic. Yuri’s half way to blurting ‘he’s been speaking Russian as long as I have!’ but refrains. He’s just here to watch.

“Viktor… you know I speak French right?” Viktor nods, looks at Yuri like he thinks he’s trying to change the topic of conversation. “So.. You know you don’t have to translate anything when Chris calls right?” Viktor just blinks, like this is a surprise, and Yuri knows he’s not dumb. He really isn’t, he can calculate the exact angle and velocity needed to land a jump in his head, but sometimes he wonders how he gets through the day because he really just never bothers to think.

“And… You know I studied Languages in college?” Viktor nods, and Yuri thinks that maybe he’s starting to see a dawning of understanding in his eyes.

“So… Ya. I ah, honestly thought you knew? I guess? And when I figured out you didn’t I just- well, it’d been so long. I didn’t know how-”

“How long have you been able to speak it?” Viktor doesn’t look mad. Mostly curious.

“Oh, well. Ah… Properly? Only since my second year of University? But, my comprehensions been pretty decent since I was… 15 or 16 maybe? I started learning when I was 13.” Yuri looks proud, but also a little embarrassed to admit that.

Suddenly Viktor’s bright red and “oh my god you understand me.” This doesn’t make any sense to Yuri, but the other-Yuri goes a little pink and coughs, throwing a glance Yuri’s way before looking back at Viktor apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to, at first. And I mean, there were some things… Not exactly every day vocabulary you know?”

The doors bang open then, and Yakov storms in, followed by Mila. Yuri can just see the trickle of other skaters and coaches on the other side.

“Viktor! What are you doing here? It’s your day off. You’re distracting Yuri! Don’t think I don’t see you on those boards Yura! Suicides! And then I want to see jumps from both of you, Yuris!”

Viktor opens his mouth, looks at other-Yuri, who’s already skating backwards, and turns impossibly redder. “He didn’t ask me to translate.” He says, “He hasn’t, does everyone know?” Other-Yuri looks guiltier in contrast.

“I’m really sorry Vitya. Vicchan. I am I promise.” Viktor shakes head, beckons him closer, presses a kiss to his lips, still looking a little dazed, but then he turns to Yuri and… Oh no, what does he have on him that he’s going to use to turn the situation around? Yuri knows that look.

“So. You’re calling him Yuu-chan now?”

Yuri’s going to kill him. He doesn’t care if Katsudon will be sad.

#viktor nikiforov #yuri on ice #yuuri katsuki #viktuuri #katsuki yuuri #yuri plistesky #my writing #oneshot #drabble #language barrier #linguistics #i decided #to actually post this here to!!#fanfic #fanfiction

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