#Mandi Clerk

[yogenderthakur]

District and Sessions Judge, Mandi Clerk, Peon & Other Posts Recruitment 2022

District and Sessions Judge, Mandi Clerk, Peon & Other Posts Recruitment 2022

District and Sessions Judge, Mandi Clerk, Peon & Other Posts Recruitment 2022 District and Sessions Judge, Mandi Clerk, Peon & Other Posts Recruitment 2022 | District and Sessions Judge, Mandi Clerk ,Peon & Other Posts Jobs Notification & Online Application form 2022 District and Sessions Judge, Mandi Clerk, Peon & Other Posts Recruitment 2022: Applications in prescribed format are invited from…

[geoledgy]

oh my god i love your art so much! what are some of your biggest inspirations?

Hi! Thank you so much :D It makes me so soooo happy to hear that!

I have a few inspirations for different things. In regards to backgrounds, my 3 big ones are all artists who worked on Hanna-Barbera cartoons (examples shown below, respectively in each row): Bob Gentle, Art Lozzi, and Monte (Fernando Montealegre)

I also really like Samurai Jack backgrounds, I am unsure of who all the artists that worked on the show art, but I can identify Scott Wills' works (he has a site btw)

Also the bg art style of My Life as a Teenage Robot (I don't know who the artists are for these though)

Character designs, I am heavily inspired by various character designs of Stephen Silver (mainly Clerks & Kim Possible)

Also My Life as a Teenage Robot, Clone High, Total Drama, Dexter's Lab, & Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy are some big ones for character design inspiration as well. (Also Hanna-Barbera designs)

My biggest inspiration in regards to my art as a whole and my principle on making art is pretty much just mid-century art (approx. 40s - 70s), which if you google, there is no single main style. There's similar style trends (simple, abstract, geometric shapes) but every artist is just experimenting with different tools and techniques which makes it really fun for me, with not having to worry about having a "consistent style" or whatever. Animation wise, I also like UPA's style but my pet peeve is everyone grouping mid-century styles as "UPA". School House Rock is another good one. Also various Soviet cartoons too.

I really like the works of mid century illustrators/graphic designers: Bernice Myers, Aurelius Battaglia, Jim Flora, Mary Blair, and Lou Peters among others.

Also love the works of Saul Bass, Alvin Lustig, and Paul Rand.

There's also these 2 illustrations in particular that I'm a huge fan of but am unsure who made it (unfortunately a lot of graphic artists during this time are uncredited or I can hardly find anything about them/other examples of their works):

I also like travel posters (David Klein in particular) and National Park posters made by the WPA

Thanks for asking! I always love to share my inspirations.

[sharpth1ng]

hey!! just wanted to say that i love debaser and wave of mutilation and one thing i love is all the horror references and how they’re not always like super mainstream horror (aka when you mentioned stuff like giallo movies, guinea pig 2, and faces of death) so i was wondering, what are some horror movies you think stu and billy would enjoy? because to me they have pretty different tastes sometimes in horror , like i see billy liking older horror and much more serious stuff, while stu would love horror comedies (this is a little inspired by of that one scene where u can see the movie clerks on his vcr, so i know that in scream he liked comedy movies as well) but what are some movies that you think they would both enjoy?

Yeah I agree I think Stu goes for silly, over the top stuff more than Billy does. Billy on the other hand is a bit more of a film snob, like the movies he references directly are things like Silence of the lambs, Psycho, and The Exorcist all movies with slower, more serious plots, careful cinematography, a focus on psychodrama. I think Stu likes those three movies as well by the way, but I do think some of the other, slower shit Billy likes would be hard for him to focus on. That said, if its horny Stu's attention span increases.

The other thing is that Billy likes gore, and sometimes the craziest, most awesome looking gore shows up in some pretty silly movies. I also think that he likes the predictable formula of a slasher movie and the creativity of good kills, so I think there's also some sillier movies that he'd be into for those reasons. I also think both of them like a good Cronenberg.

All that explanation aside, here's a non-exhaustive list of movies I think they both like:

*not including super obvious stuff like Halloween and The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise

Intruder

The Hitcher

Re-animator & Bride of Re-animator

Brain Damage

Peices

Aquarius/ Stage Fright

Videodrome

Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters

Slumber party massacre

Bonus newer stuff:

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

One Cut of The Dead

Creep 1&2

Mandy

Slither

These lists could go on a lot longer but yeah, here’s a general idea of the kind of stuff I think they’re both up for. That said, I think that Stu will pretty much watch whatever Billy wants to put on. He just wants to watch a movie with his man.

[monsterfm]

welcome to new salem , LEN FREDERIK BECKER , SON 'ROSE' JANG-MI , SANTIAGO CORONA , JADE MERSINI , WINONA MANN ! » we're so eerily excited to have you . please take a look at the check list & send in your account within 24 hours . DAMIAN HARDUNG , BAE SUZY , XOLO MARIDUENA , DUA LIPA , AMBER MIDTHUNDER is now taken .

( DAMIAN HARDUNG . 25. CIS MAN . HE / HIM . ) we’ve got the spirits , how ‘about you ?! it looks like ( len frederik becker ) just got their acceptance letter to monster university . i hope the ( dhampir ) has their bags packed so they can move into ( dreadful dorms )  ! i’ve heard they can be ( cocky ) and ( rebellious ) but also  ( selfless ) and ( outgoing ) . monster university is the perfect time to explore who they want to be . did you hear they’ve got a job as a ( cashier ) at ( black cat bakery ) . good luck and remember to be yourself , be unique , be monster ! * io, 25 , they / she , cet.

 ( BAE SUZY . THIRTY. CIS WOMAN . SHE/HER . ) we’ve got the spirits , how ‘about you ?! it looks like ( SON "ROSE" JANG-MI ) just got their job offer at monster university . i heard that the ( DRAGON ) is residing at ( AFTERLIFE ARPARTMENTS )  ! i’ve heard they can be ( SARDONIC ) and ( VAIN ) but also  ( CHARMING ) and ( INTELLIGENT ) . monster university is the perfect place to keep up with the ghoul kids . did you hear they’ve got a job as a ( PROFESSOR OF MUSIC & THEATRE ) at monster university . good luck and remember to be yourself , be unique , be monster ! * mandi , 27 , she/her , pst .

( XOLO MARIDUENA . TWENTY-TWO. CIS MAN . HE/HIM . ) we’ve got the spirits , how ‘about you ?! it looks like ( SANTIAGO CORONA ) just got their acceptance letter to monster university . i hope the ( SKELETON ) has their bags packed so they can move into ( HEX HALL ) ! i’ve heard they can be ( NAIVE ) and ( HOT-HEADED ) but also ( COMEDIC ) and ( ENDEARING ) . monster university is the perfect time to explore who they want to be . did you hear they’ve got a job as a ( JUNIOR BAKER ) at ( BLACK CAT BAKERY ) . good luck and remember to be yourself , be unique , be monster ! mandi , 27 , she/her , pst

( DUA LIPA . TWENTY-FOUR . CIS WOMAN . SHE / HER. ) we’ve got the spirits , how ‘about you ?! it looks like ( JADE MERSINI ) just got their acceptance letter to monster university . i hope the ( VAMPIRE ) has their bags packed so they can move into ( HEX HALL ) ! i’ve heard they can be ( - PETULANT ) and ( - CHAOTIC ) but also  ( + MAGNETIC ) and ( + A VIRTUOSO ) . monster university is the perfect time to explore who they want to be . did you hear they’ve got a job as a ( RECORD STORE CLERK ) at ( GHOULISH GROOVES ) . good luck and remember to be yourself , be unique , be monster ! * jess , 27 , she/her , bst/gmt .

( AMBER MIDTHUNDER . TWENTYFOUR. CIS WOMAN . SHE/HER . ) we’ve got the spirits , how ‘about you ?! it looks like ( WINONA MANN ) just got their acceptance letter to monster university . i hope the ( CRYPTID/MOTHMAN - DAUGHTER OF MOTHMAN ) has their bags packed so they can move into ( HEX HALL )  ! i’ve heard they can be ( - AIRY ) and ( - FLIGHTY ) but also  ( + SPIRITED ) and ( + FRIENDLY) . monster university is the perfect time to explore who they want to be . did you hear they’ve got a job as a ( BARTENDER ) at ( BOOS N BOOZE ) . good luck and remember to be yourself , be unique , be monster ! * lis , 30 , she/her , est .

[tru-neutral-good]

@notyouraveragedickgrayson darling Mandy gets another found sibling for dick

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It wasn't really everyday that the library had visitors. Most of his time was directing people to the right place or person, some people had known this library was a bit magical, some people didn't.

He was working the graveyard shift after spending most of his day at university when he got the call to see the supreme. Going upstairs to make sure the supreme on duty was awake, put the kettle on, and went back to the clerks desk at the base of the stairs and waited.

Elliot didn't really bat an eye at the vigilantes that showed up, just merely closed his textbook and stood. His world was big enough, weird enough that masked men and women trained to fight crime wasn't exactly 'odd'. "This way to the supreme, please."

"The supreme will only allow one person in their office, so prepare for that." It was a rule for the supreme's safety to be honest, Since someone attacked the library a few years back she never let more than two people enter the office, to keep the odds in her favor.

[cartoonfanaticmonsterrobotalien]

My Bio

Age: In my early twenties

Name: Can’t tell you

Birth Date: December 14, 2002

Favorite Adult Animation Shows: Solar Opposites, Robotomy, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, South Park, Regular Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Triptank, Lucy, Disenchantment, Futurama, The Simpsons, The Brak Show, Metalpacolypse, Soace Ghost Ciast to Coast, Central Park, Bob’s Burgers, American Dad, Clerks, Duncanville, Great North, Housebroken

Favorite Superhero Shows: Invincible, Villains of Valley View, Koala Man, Miraculous, Lab Rats, PPG ‘98, Hamster and Gretel, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Danny Phantom, Super Friends, Justice League ‘01, DC Super Girls ‘18, Static Shock, Horrorbots, Spider-Man ‘17, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, Kim Possible

Favorite Cartoon Network Shows: Amazing World of Gumball, Camp Lazlo, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, Time Squad

Favorite Nickelodeon Shows: SpongeBob SquarePants, Santo Bugito, Invader Zim, My Life as a Teenage Robot, El Tigre, Wonder Park, Modern Life, ICarly, Victorious, Kenan and Kel, All That

Favorite Disney Shows: Amphibia, Owl House, Ghost and Molly McGee, Hailey’s On It, Kiff, Star Darlings, Phineas and Ferb, Milo Murphy’s Law, Hannah Montana, Good Luck Charlie, Kickin It, Lab Rats

Favorite Discovery Family Shows: MLP ‘10, Aquabats Super Show

Favorite Streaming Shows: Centuarworld, Glitter Force Doki Doki

Favorite Food: Steak, Fries, Burgers, Chicken fingers, doughnuts, pancakes, bacon, fruit pastries, French toasts, fried chicken, turkey, duck, baked potatoes, hash browns, tacos, burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, pork chops, ribs, Korean BBQ, Japanese chicken, steak fillet, Doritos, Ruffles, Cheetos, CC’s Chips, banana bread, Cheez-It’s Snaps, Goldfish

Favorite Sweets: Ice Cream, Hershey’s Chocolate, Reese’s, KitKat, Toffee, Cake, Cupcakes, Ice Cream Cakes, Skittles, Starburst, Cookies, Crumble, Cookie sandwiches, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream pops, animation character ice cream pops, sundaes, Nestle’s chocolate, Oreos

Favorite Fruits and Veggies: Asparagus, Carrots, broccoli, potatoes, strawberry, raspberry, lemon, like, grapes, apples, lettuce, cherry, bananas, coconut

Favorite drinks: Mountain Dew, Water, milk, root beer, coca-cola, tab’s, Mr. Pibbs, Pepsi, Dole’s juice brand, Fanta, Crush, Dr. Pepper, soda floats, Nesquick, smoothies

Favorite Actors: Patton Oswalt, Dan Stevens, Thomas Middleditch, John Gemberling, Will Forte, Charlie Day, Mike Sinterniklaass, Roger Craig Smith, Dan Mintz, Josh Gad, Dee Bradley Baker, Rob Schrab, Nate Corddry, Rob Corddry, Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Brian O’Halloran, Justin Feilbinger, John DiMaggio, Billy West, Oded Fehr, Michael Cusack, Zach Hadel, Phil LaMarr, Robbie Daymond, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Matthew Lillard, Kevin Michael Richardson, John Mulaney, Antanio Banderas, Richard Steven Horvitz, Brandon Rogers, Sam Riegel, Jon Heder, Andy Daly, Zeno Robinson, James Marsden, Dana Snyder, Fred Tatasciore, Rob Paulsen

Favorite Actresses: Felicia Day, Mary Mack, Lacey Chabert, Brenda Song, Stephanie Sheh, Kate MiCucci, Riki Lindhome, Kari Wahlgren, Grey DeLisle, Jenny McCarthy, Melissa Fahn, Cristina Vee, Lana Condor, Sandra Oh, Odette Anaboe, Edie Mirman, Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, EG Daily, Olivia Olsen, Hynden Walch, Christina Hendricks, Libe Barer, Marieve Harrington, Sarah Nicole Robles, Kimberly Brooks, Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Vannessa Hudgens, Tika Sumpter, Reba Buhr, Erica Lindbeck, Vivian Nixon

Favorite Music Genres: Rock, Classic, Pop, orchestra, country, funk, techno, dubstep, heavy metal, Christian

Favorite Band: Ice Nine Kills, Adelitas Way, Bowling For Soup, Hansen, Disturbed, Slipknot, System of a Down, Hollywood Undead, Kiss, Queen, A Day to Remember, Thousand Foot Krunch, Nightwish, Evanescence, Seether, Imagine Dragons, Skillet, Newsboys, Simple Plan, Play, Nickelback, BTS, Blackpink, aespa, Black Eyes Peas

Favorite Singer: Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, P!nk, Katy Perry, David Quetta, Jennifer Lopez, Sia, Halsey, Kelsey Belleriny, AJ Michalka, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, China Ann McClain, Ashley Tisdale, Avicci, Kelly Prickler, Aloe Blaccc, Lil Naxx, Post Malone, Eminem, Kelli Monologue, Paul Simon

Favorite Tv Genres: Animation Drama, dramedy, slapstick, comedy, animation, sci-if, romance, buddy, superhero animation, manga, anime

Favorite Movies: Hulk ‘03, Sky High, Kim Possible: So The Drama, Clerks, Incredibles, Ruby Gillman, Boy Who Cried Werewolf, Ratatouille, Alvin and the Chipmunk ‘07, Muppets in Space, Kickass, Belle, Elemental, Madagascar, Rugrats Go Wild, Wild Thorn Berrys Movie, Peanuts Franchise, Turning Red, Encanto, Emoji Movie, Ice Age Franchise (but not the Buck Wild one), G-Force, PPG Movie, Ben 10 2008 movie live action, South Park The Movie, PeeWee’s Big Adventure, Captain Underpants, Napoleon Dynamite, Jay and Silent Bob, Mallrats, Finding Nemo, Frozen, Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mitchells vs. Machines, Veggietales, Cars, 102 Dalmations, Romeo + Juliet, Small Soldiers, Godzilla vs King Kong, Godzilla: World of Monsters, Van Helsing, Hotel Transylvania, Secret Life of Pets, Sing 2

Favorite Wen Series: Annoying Orange, SMG4, Sunset Paradise, Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, Meta Runner, Amazing Digital Circus, Eddsworld, Murder Drones, Most Popular Girls in School, Summer Camp, Summer Camp Island, Villanos

My Skills: Typing

My Weakness: I can’t draw

Favorite Monsters: Aliens, Kaijus, wereanimals, Kaijus weremonsters, robots, werewolves, vampires, mutants, giant beasts

[reubenmr]

✽  . ˚   &.  「   MANDY PATINKIN.  SEVENTY.  CIS MAN.  HE/HIM.  」reuben  maier  occupies  level  two:  #205.  you'll  know  the  taurus  is  home  if  you  hear  lemon tree  by  peter  paul  &  mary  blasting  through  their  speakers.  the  owner  of  arcane  comics  has  been  living  in  wisteria  for  seven  years.  since  then  they've  built  a  reputation  for  being  friendly  and  jaded  ,  typical  for  the  bibliophile.

&.     statistics

full  name  :  reuben  maier

nickname/s  :  n/a

age  :  seventy

date  of  birth  :  eleventh  of  may  ,  nineteen  fifty  two

place  of  birth  :  new  york  city

gender  :  cis  man

pronouns  :  he  /  him

orientation  :  bisexual

&.     biography

born  1952  in  nyc  to  a  devout  jewish  couple  ,  reuben  was  always  an  avid  reader  of  anything  fantasy  or  sci-fi  ,  especially  comics  .  his  first  job  was  as  a  shop  clerk  for  the  bookstore  around  the  corner  from  his  childhood  home  ,  where  he  more  often  than  not  spent  at  least  half  his  paycheck  on  the  latest  editions  of  his  favourite  series  .

after  completing  high  school  ,  he  got  an  apprenticeship  with  an  electrician  .  not  the  most  interesting  of  careers  ,  but  certainly  fairly  lucrative  .  once  he  was  fully  trained  ,  reuben  moved  to  california  to  start  his  own  business  ,  wanting  a  change  of  scene  (  and  a  warmer  climate  )  .

he  retired  from  being  an  electrician  at  fifty  ,  once  he  had  amassed  enough  savings  to  be  able  to  do  what   he  really  wanted  —  start  a  comics  shop  .  he  bought  a  small  retail  space  in  downtown  l.a.  and  called  it  arcane  comics  .

since  then  ,  the  shop  has  grown  ,  moving  into  a  larger  space  and  expanding  into  different  styles  of  comics  ,  manga  and  comic  -  adjacent  items  .

reuben  usually  leaves  the  day  -  to  -  day  running  of  the  shop  to  his  staff  ,  though  he  drops  by  on  occasion  to  chat  to  customers  and  hand  out  surprise  discounts  ,  much  to  the  accountant’s  dismay  .  he  loves  hearing  about  what  other  people  are  interested  in  .

happily  married  for  the  last  thirty-seven  years  ,  with  two  kids  who  are  now  all  grown  up  and  off  doing  their  own  thing  .

[cleanfm]

WELCOME TO NEW YORK , APRIL WINSLOW ! i absolutely cannot get over how much you look like barbara palvin . you have twenty - four hours to get your account in ( if you need more time , pls message the main ) . see you around !

( barbara palvin , twenty-six , cis woman , she/her ) ⎮ would ya look who it is , april winslow in the flesh ! dude , i heard they were a record store clerk at rhiannon’s . yeah , no , they’re the one that’s really spirited and compelling but my buddy said they’re super restless and a bit directionless too . i wonder what they’re doing over here though ? c'mon let’s go back to my place and i can show you their myspace profile , it autoplays when it’s over by sugar ray when it boots up , it’s great . ⎮ ( ⏤ written by mandy , 28 , pst , she/her , & none )

[pakjobscareer]

Latest and New Clerk required at Army Public School Qadirabad Jobs in Mandi Bahauddin Pakistan Nov,2022

Latest and New Clerk required at Army Public School Qadirabad Jobs in Mandi Bahauddin Pakistan Nov,2022

  Latest Jobs 2022 in Army Public School jobs advertisement dated about 25 November 2022 in daily Dunya Newspaper invites application for the vacant post of clerk in Mandi Bahauddin, mandi bahauddin Punjab Pakistan. Persons with Bachelor etc. education can apply.Army Public School latest Government Admin Clerical jobs and others can be applied till December 3, 2022 or as per closing date in…

[leighlim]

I'm tempted to say that this is the funniest episode of the show...but I don't think I'm going to be fair by saying that.

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(Hopefully by this point you’ve finished the first five seasons of ‘The Good Fight’, the kind of person who isn’t bothered by spoilers, or are just deciding if you still want to keep watching.)

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I thought it was interesting that I came across an episode from 'Plum Radio' talking about abolishing Silicon Valley (TBA link to my tweet), and yet Cord is talking about revolutionising Justice.

I think this is an interesting thing that people seem to miss about disruption hubs. The actual disruptors are eclipsed by the money to be made.

PS: I actually didn't expect that the defendant would be costumed too!

PPS: I don't know why I laughed harder when Hal was detailing what the lawyers had to do...compared to showing it. I mean...was it a manipulated photo!? Or was he outing the lawyer as someone who actually wears diapers and nothing else?

-----------

HIGHLIGHT:

INT. STR LAURIE (MEETING ROOM) - DAY

LIZ is standing before six HR staff.

LIZ

Thank you for your concern up here in Human Resources. We appreciate it, but I---I just want to insist, alright, this---this was just a bunch of lawyers blowing off steam and satirising the sensitivity of...

She corrects herself. No need to further attack these people.

LIZ

...the justifiable sensitivity of corporate culture. Nobody complained about being the butt of a joke because, as you can see...

The cards she brought are held up.

LIZ

...everyone was the butt of a joke.

Looking through the cards.

LIZ

Because everybody had a card.

Spreading each of them in front of her.

LIZ

Everybody was being made fun of.

Some of the listeners look on curiously towards the cards.

Liz picks one.

LIZ

Look, look, there's even a card wit my name on it...

She shows it to them.

LIZ

...that someone from the mail room used to tell a joke about how far a stick up was up my ass.

LIZ laughs in a dismissing way. No big deal HR people!

KATHERINE gets her pen in the ready.

KATHERINE

Who in the mail room?

LIZ's smile falters.

LIZ

No.

KATHERINE

We-we just want to talk to him.

LIZ

No. No. I was the butt of that joke, and then I got to say a joke about them.

She gives KATHERINE a pointed look. Still being respectful instead of antagonistic. Hopeful that the point would be picked up.

LIZ

So, no. You're not going to review this.

KATHERINE

We can go upstairs.

LIZ

There is no upstairs.

LIZ gathers up the cards.

KATHERINE

There's always upstairs.

LIZ

OK, um...You know what?

She sifts through the cards in her hand.

LIZ

Uh...let's see.

Finding one.

LIZ

Here you go.

Discarding the rest back onto the desk. Leaning over to KATHERINE to put the card within her reach.

KATHERINE picks it up.

LIZ

Alright. You have a card that says: 'Black boss.'

INSERT: KATHERINE's POV. We see what is written on the card: "GOOD FOR 1 JOKE ABOUT: BLACK BOSS"

LIZ

I'm Black...

KATHERINE nods as she looks at the card and listens to LIZ. A smile back on her face. Ready to take a punch.

LIZ

...and I'm a boss. So, go ahead.

KATHERINE shakes her head. Not at all willing to take part.

LIZ

Okay. Hold on.

She consults the other cards once again.

LIZ

I have one that says: "Human Resources".

LIZ brandishes it.

LIZ

I get to tell a joke about you. You get to tell a joke about me.

KATHERINE

Why would I do that?

LIZ

Because we're human.

She looks around. Some shift uncomfortably but consider what LIZ is saying.

KATHERINE just stares at LIZ.

LIZ

OK. Here I go.

She slaps the cards on one hand.

LIZ

How many Human Resources people does it take to screw in a light bulb?

She nods and smiles at them expectantly.

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My verdict of the episode: 9/10 – I got a nice belly laugh when the first costumed witness walked past Hal.

Link to the timestamp commentary: YES!! TBA once it is up on my Steemit feed!

A Formal Review of the episode: None

My Thoughts about the comedy of the show: Find the essay as an entry in Comedy To Watch

More of my comments about the show: None planned (You can definitely request though!)

Instagram Entries: TBA? (I’ll have to review my feed to find out which ones have a link to TGF)

[needham-comics]

"Girl Challenges Herself To Draw A Self-Portrait In 50 Cartoon Styles" https://www.boredpanda.com/different-cartoon-style-challen…/ I've been doing this since high school. #StyleChallenge

[depressedstressedlemonzest]

I have a little prompt idea! When Mickey is in Prison and Ian tells Mandy he misses him she suggests he go visit him. Ian doesn’t think Mickey wants to see him but Mandy convinces him. Mickey is super happy and tells Ian to come back as often as he wants because seeing him brightens his day always. Lots of fluff!!!

Yes thank you for this prompt and I love you for making it nice and fluffy. Mickey in prison is always so damn depressing.

*Also I’m writing this bit as I do the flashback scene fucking crying as I do so, THIS HURTS*.

*And now writing the other dialogue from the show I’m crying again*

"Since you're not going to ask, no I haven't seen Mickey in a couple weeks, but when I talk to him on the phone he sounds alright. Well as alright as you can be in fucking prison."

Ian winced as Mandy uppercut him on screen and his character's jaw broke taking the rest of the remaining life juice he had.

He sighed, "I'm glad he's sounding alright at least. I haven't gotten any calls from him."

Mandy fixed him with a look and arched a perfectly sculpted brow, must be Milkovich genes, her eyes looking eerily like her brother's.

"Do you blame him?" She asked pointedly.

Ian felt his face heat with shame and embarrassment.

"No, I don't." he murmured softly.

"He carved your name into his chest and you haven't even visited or written in what? Months? Years?." Her voice was soft, but it was firmly attaching the weight and blame of the conversation onto him.

"It’s been....too long, I know." He said his voice full of misery as he dropped his head, his gaze falling to his lap.

He remembered Mickey's eyes, the look on his face as he hung up the phone on the other side of the glass, his eyes tearful and lip quivering.

Ian had been numb then, off of his meds, Monica's misspoken parental advice chiming in his head like a record on repeat. He had no one, Mickey was locked up, Mandy wasn't in town, Lip was in rehab. He had been alone.

Now Mandy was back, had broken up with Kenyatta and was trying to renovate the Milkovich home since she had it all to herself now, get her name made in home décor. She had recruited Ian one day when she saw him bussing tables at Patsy's and he hadn't looked back since.

One day after finding him aiming a hammer at his own hand she dragged his ass to the hospital. She wasn't as easy to evade as his sister, he had been prescribed a new cocktail of medications and they had actually helped.

Now he wasn't numb.

He felt Mandy's hand on his shoulder and he looked up. Her brows tilted up in earnest,

"You should go see him." 

Read on Ao3 here

Ian's eyes widened a moment then he shook his head, "I don't think he'd want to see me. Not after what I did to him."

He felt a smack on his shoulder and he jerked his head back to Mandy whose hand was up and cocked to whack him again.

"Ian Gallagher, Mickey got locked up for your ass, the least you could do is fucking visit him. Especially since you got your meds sorted out and can think clearly now. He loves you, he may be sad or may be pissed, but that doesn't change the fact that he loves you."

Ian's lips pulled into a thin line, "Does he still love me?" he asked, his voice soft.

Mandy shrugged, "I don't know, but even if he doesn't now, he did before. You need to see him. I'll go with you because i need to see him too. But you are gonna have some private time too."

Ian knew that fighting her on this would be pointless. Like Mickey she was stubborn as fuck.

"Alright alright. When do you want to go?" he asked.

"Tomorrow, I'll call up there and put us on the visitation list." Mandy grabbed her cell off of the coffee table and tapped in a number.

As she talked with the clerk at the prison Ian could feel the nerves beginning to coil inside him.

Ian could barely sleep that night, so he had researched things that he could bring for Mickey as a care package. He had gone to the 24 hour Walmart and used his last paycheck from Patsy's and had picked up as many approved things as he could afford with it.

A bag of foam earplugs, a couple pairs of flip flops, several different magazines, a couple of paperback books, sudoku puzzles, a sketchbook and charcoal, Irish Spring soap along with some shampoo and toothpaste that he knew Mickey liked.

As he walked through the aisles he was assaulted with memories of when Mickey had been in juvie and he had visited then, religiously every chance he got. Mickey had complained about the food, about the cold, about the lack of comfort when he slept.

Ian pushed the cart to the bedding aisles, checking the prison website of approved things he grabbed a body pillow and blanket then had aimed his cart to the clothing department and grabbed some thermals and a pack of socks.

As he made his way to the grocery department he lingered by the electronics, he knew that prisoners were allowed pictures. He sighed and grabbed a photo kiosk and started picking things off of his phone to print out for him, some funny memes that Ian had saved, a picture of Mandy taking a sledgehammer to one of the walls of the Milkovich home. Ian's breath hitched when he made it to pictures of him and Mickey, trying not to cry he picked his five favorite, plus one of Ian that he knew Mickey liked, and printed that too.

Without looking at them he shoved the pictures in his pocket and continued to go to the foods. He checked the approved list and grabbed things that Mickey used to steal from Kash and Grab, laughing through tears as he put different tubes of pringles, little debbies, ice blue gatorade, and slim jims, he grabbed all the bags of mini snickers they had on the shelf, which was only four, but it counted. Then he went to grab several packs of tuna, pop tarts, chex mix, every flavor of ramen, different condiment packs, a pack of tortillas, iced honey buns, pepperoni beef sticks, and a couple boxes of water flavoring packets.

Ian carefully reviewed the icare websites care packages to make sure the brands he was buying were acceptable for inmates.

Ian made one more stop and went to the card department, surprisingly it was pretty hard to find a "I'm sorry you're in prison but I love you so much and I'm so sorry" section from Hallmark. He ended up snatching a card with a blank inside, the front having a sleeping pair of cats on it.

It was two AM when Ian made it back from Walmart, lugging all the shit he bought back home he realized he may have overdone it. But, he needed to do something to make Mickey's time locked up easier.

Once he was home he searched for a box big enough to pack everything in, finally finding one not being used for anything, and he carefully packed everything inside making sure that he was following the rules for packing it into the box. The body pillow being the only exception and he had to roll it tightly into a roll, like a sleeping bag, and then he wrapped it up in the blanket, tying it in a knot to keep them both in place. Just enough space left to fit everything else in.

He labelled all of Mickey's new belongings, his last name and inmate number written in sharpie and then painted over with clear nail polish to help keep the ink there. For each picture he flipped it over on the back and labelled them each like the website recommended.

Before taping up the box Ian went up to his room and looked before chickening out of it, grabbed his favorite shirt, and a watch he used to wear when he and Mickey first got together and labelled them and tossed them into the box on top of everything else. Taping it closed before he lost his nerve and took out the more personal things he had included.

He felt drained, exhausted he dragged himself up the stairs and crawled into bed pulling the blankets up over his head, trying to ignore the thoughts of doubt dancing in his mind.

Much more sooner than he expected Mandy was calling him telling him to get ready. He quickly took a shower and grabbed a pair of nicer jeans along with his dark colored tshirt and green button up. He hurried down the stairs and downed his meds and drank a glass of milk and ate a couple bananas as Mandy pulled up to the Gallagher house, his phone chiming to let him know she was there.

Ian hefted up the care package and walked out the front door, his steps thudding on the porch as he descended.

"What the hell Ian?" Mandy squawked as she came out of the car and opened the back door for him to put the box inside.

"I uh, wanted to bring him a care package." Ian felt his cheeks heat, and felt a flood of embarrassment at the look of pity Mandy gave him.

"Ian, you can't buy his love back." She said gently.

"I know that, I just, I wanted to make as many things easier for him as I could."

She nodded sadly and she slid back into the driver's seat of the car. Ian following behind her and going into the passenger's side.

The closer they got to the prison the harder Ian's heart pounded and the more his stomach coiled. Mandy was even picking up on his nerves, "Dammit Ian you're making me nervous calm the fuck down, it's just Mickey."

Just Mickey, just Mickey, Ian repeated the phrase in his head, but each time he did a different image of Mickey popped in his mind from over the years. Each image filling him with longing and pain, love and sadness, hope and fear.

"Finally we're fucking here." Mandy muttered as they pulled into the gravel drive where the visitors entrance was.

Once Mandy had parked Ian unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed the care package from the back seat then fell into step beside Mandy.

As the gravel crunched under their feet Ian's heart beat pounded harder and harder in his chest.

"Cook County Department of Corrections, have you made prior visitation arrangements?" The officer behind the desk asked glancing at Ian and Mandy as they reached the front of the line.

"Yes, Mandy Milkovich and Ian Gallagher for Mickey Milkovich, inmate number C7215-J." Mandy rattled off.

The officer slid a clipboard to them and eyed Ian, "Is that a care package for the inmate?"

"Yes sir." Ian replied adjusting his grip on the box.

"It will need to be left here and searched before it can be given to the inmate. As long as there is nothing against regulations inside then he can have it."

Ian sighed, "Alright, well I made a list of everything in here, and I triple checked everything against the rules of acceptable things allowed, so it should be fine. Everything is also already labelled with his name and inmate number." He placed the box onto the counter as he spoke.

"Alright Sparky chill out. I didn't say you packed him a box of contraband. I'm just saying it needs checked before getting to him. If you'd like you can add money onto his commissary account that will hit by the end of the day." His voice was bored as he took the box and added it to a stack of different sized care packages behind him at the desk.

"I'll do that too." Ian nodded his head.

"Me too." Mandy added reaching for the next clipboard the officer was sliding onto the counter top.

"Alright, fill out the forms and I'll add the amounts to his account. Who is visiting first? Only one of you is allowed at a time."

"I'll go first." Mandy answered quickly, Ian shot her a look.

"Alright, both of you take a seat and when it's your turn you'll come to the door and then go through the metal detector and be searched for contraband, once it's sure you don't have any then you can go in the room to see Inmate Milkovich. When visiting you will be separated by a thick bulletproof glass, there are phones on either side to communicate with. You each have an hour of visitation before your time is up. Any questions?" The officer rattled this off in a bored tone, he probably made the same speech a hundred times a day.

Mandy and Ian shook their heads and went to sit in the waiting area.

There was only one other person there waiting to visit someone and they had a couple of kids with them. Ian flashed to the last time he was here, Yev was with him and Svet.

He sighed, Mandy looked at him, "Do you want me to tell him that you're here too?"

Ian shook his head, he didn't want Mandy to tell Mickey, just in case he couldn't bring himself to actually do it.

"Visitor for Milkovich?"

Another officer opened a door and called out reading off of a clipboard. Mandy rose from her seat and looked at Ian warily, "I'll be back Ian, remember it's just Mickey."

Ian watched as Mandy walked with the officer back into the other room . Then Ian was left alone with his racing mind and heart.

He tried to keep his mind occupied as he waited, he hadn't been allowed to bring his phone in, so he was sitting there alone with the thoughts that had plagued him all this morning, all last night, all the last couple of years, the last images of Mickey, the last conversation with Mickey playing on repeat again and again.

Mickey had looked at him with a small smile, edged with nerves, edged with fear as he approached the chair and sat grabbing the phone.

“Thanks for coming back” Mickey had said smiling, happy to see Ian even under the circumstances, his tone light but laced with trepidation.

Ian’s eyes were listless, no light, no shine, his voice an echo of his usual tone, “Yeah, Svetlana paid me.” He had said, his heart clenched knowing that saying this was a knife in both of their guts, a reminder to both of the conversation they had had right before Mickey had been arrested.

Mickey’s smile flickered, dulling, the knife landing right where Ian had pointed it. And he felt a sprinkling of regret at his words, but he didn’t take them back.

Mickey’s tongue traced the corner of his lower lip, his starlit eyes flashing in pain.

Ian looked away, he couldn’t keep looking at those eyes, he would take back everything he said before, just to hurt him again.

Mickey’s eyes searched Ian’s face, Ian could feel them like a touch through the glass.

“You look good.” Mickey’s voice rumbled in the ear piece of the crackly prison phone. Ian’s eyes looked everywhere but at Mickey’s face, looked at the crude etchings on the stainless steel tabletop, the cold tile, the dirty glass where Svetlana had left a lipstick kiss, picking up God knows what disease.

“Got a new tattoo.” Mickey’s words pulled Ian’s gaze to his face, a small upward quirk of his plump lips told Ian that that had been his intention with those words.

“Did it myself, hurt like a sonofabitch.” Mickey’s voice faded slightly as he placed the phone on it’s side on the tabletop and brought his hands up to the neck of his hideous orange jumpsuit, his white tank to reveal the rough reddened skin, dark letters etched there reading Ian Galager.

Mickey grinned at Ian as he took in the new mark, his face showing the first real signs of emotions since sitting across from Mickey. A surprised grin, eyebrows raised, then green eyes blinking in disbelief, a furrowed brow as he looked concerned at Mickey’s chest.

“It looks fucking infected.” His nose wrinkled slightly.

Mickey shrugged, “It’s hard to round up a clean needle in here.”

Ian’s eyebrows tilted, “And Gallagher is spelled with two L’s.”

Mickey’s eyes widened and his smile slipped from his face, “No it’s fuckin not.” He pulled his jumpsuit and tank down again looking at the name forever etched in his skin. Ian couldn’t help the laugh that came bubbling up through his lips as Mickey muttered a “Fuck.”

Ian tried to wipe the smile from his lips with his hand before Mickey could see it, failing, like he had been failing everything. Ian dropped his gaze back to the tabletop, he could feel Mickey’s eyes on him again, could hear the smile in his voice as he gently murmured, “Been thinkin about you.”

Ian’s eyes couldn’t stop the pull that brought them meeting the hopeful blue across from him, the soft expression, his lips parted, he wetted them, “You ever think of me?”

Ian blinked rapidly, swallowed hard, he couldn’t speak, he didn’t want to say yes and make Mickey hopeful, but he didn’t want to deny that he had and hurt his heart any more than he already had. To suppress his words he rocked back and forth a bit.

Mickey’s gaze dropped, his smile flickered, then he looked back up to Ian, “Will you wait for me?”

The words snapped Ian back to him, his eyes softened again, the smile widening slightly, “You’re here for fifteen years.” Ian could feel the words drop between them like a heavy stone. Mickey’s smile wavered for a fraction of a second.

“Well eight with overcrowding, so...” His response left the ever thin strand of hope binding them thicken.

Ian’s eyes shifted side to side, trying to think of something, anything to say.

“You tried to kill my sister.” He said lamely.

Mickey’s face twitched in a scoff, “Half sister, one.” His brows furrowed, “Two, like you give a shit, bitch had it coming for callin the fuckin MPs on you.”

Ian gave a noncommittal head tilt, he didn’t want to agree but he honestly did. He looked up at Mickey again, his brows had softened, he was looking at him again, his blue eyes dancing with amusement. Reminding Ian of years ago when they had been looking at each other between bulletproof glass, only he had been in a blue jumpsuit then, scared to smile at Ian, Ian wanting to reach out and touch Mickey through the glass.

“So will you?” Mickey’s voice, present Mickey’s voice sounding in Ian’s ear, he looked at him, “wait?” Mickey added as if to remind him of what he had been asking.

Ian’s eyes shifted side to side, an announcement over the intercom sounded, Ian didn’t hear it, all he could hear was Mickey’s words hanging in the air between them, his question, his own heart pounding, threatening to burst out of his chest and tell Mickey that yes, he would wait a lifetime for him, a thousand lifetimes, a thousand diagnoses, a thousand shards of glass in his veins, he would do anything for him.

He looked behind Mickey’s either shoulder seeing the other prisoners standing, hanging their phones up.

Mikey sniffed and shifted in his seat looking away for the first time, his middle finger stroking the outer edge of his dark brow, a flash of grief on his face for the first time, “Lie,” He stuttered a moment, before a forced smile came back onto his lips, his eyes coming back to Ian, “if you have to, eight years is a long time.”

Ian felt his face pull in sorrow before the dullness thickened itself back into place, felt his vision go slightly glazed, he looked back up at Mickey, who seemed like he was scared to hear what Ian would say.

Ian gulped, then looked down at the tabletop as he spoke, knowing that Mickey could read the lies on his face as he spoke, “Yeah,” 

He looked back up, knowing deep inside that he wasn’t really lying, he just wished he was, “Yeah, I’ll wait.”

Mickey’s lips parted as if he was going to say more, inhaling sharply, the worry lines between his brows appearing, his eyes watering, threatening to roll over. Ian couldn’t bear another moment of the turmoil inside of him and he looked away, hanging up the phone as he stood from the seat and walked away. Leaving Mickey sitting on the other side of the glass, still holding the phone, his eyes dimming with realization.

“Visitor for Milkovich?”

Ian blinked rapidly, the memories fading around him and he started realizing it was his turn.

He knew that he was going to go now, he at least had to apologize for last time.

He jumped out of his seat and raised his hand, “Me, I’m here for Milkovich.”

Mandy walked out from behind the guard seeing Ian raising his hand, she smiled, “I’ll wait here.” She said nodding at the seats.

“How was he?” Ian asked, maybe he could prepare himself.

“See for yourself.” Mandy said with a nod that said ‘go on.’

Ian gulped and nodded, falling into step behind the guard as he led him out of the waiting room. 

As Ian followed the guard he noticed that they passed the route he remembered last time with Svet, he could see the line of cubicles and phones through the thick windowed door they passed.

“Where are we going?” Ian asked confused, was Mickey sick? Was he in a different ward now? Was he shackled to a barred cell?

“Milkovich has earned the right for contact visitation, we’re going to that room.”

Contact visitation?

“Contact visitation? Like, we can...” Ian started not knowing where to start.

The guard didn’t answer as he opened a door, Ian stuttered in his steps as he was faced with a bright room, five round tables evenly spaced apart, inmates in blue jumpsuits sitting across from different people visiting them. Ian could see them all in different forms of touch, a hug, holding hands, a pair were even kissing.

Ian’s eyes searched until they landed on Mickey, he was sitting with his fingers slotted together hands resting on the table in front of him. His hair was a little longer than it had been last time, reminding him of a younger Mickey whose hair was always wild and spiked up. Though now it was just hanging in his eyes slightly, a few strands, a slight curl by his ears.

Ian noticed the exact moment when Mickey recognized him, he wanted to look away in fear of his reaction, but he forced himself to keep eye contact.

Mickey’s eyes blinked rapidly and his mouth pulled into a beaming smile that took up his entire face. He detangled his hands from one another and placed them flat on the table, making a move to push himself up, he hesitated a moment and looked up at the guard standing at the wall.

“Can I stand up sir?” Mickey asked looking at the guard walking with Ian and his eyes flickering to Ian, as if disbelieving he was there.

The guard stopped at the table side with Ian next to him, looking at Mickey intently, “Inmate Milkovich you have a visitor, same rules apply as they did for the last, you may stand at the beginning and end of visit, for physical contact things that are allowed are a hand shake, an embrace lasting no more than five seconds, a kiss lasting no more than two seconds. No touching of any sexual nature, that includes above the pants touches. If you violate the rules you will be reprimanded only once, then the visitation is revoked. Understood?”

The guard looked between Mickey and Ian as he rattled off the rules, Ian only able to look at Mickey, Mickey only able to look at Ian, until the guard asked if they understood.

“Yes sir.” They said in unison, Ian’s face flickered to Mickey, who met him with a matching grin.

The guard turned walking back the way he had came in with Ian.

Ian turned to Mickey, who had stood from his seat and stepped to the side of the table.

Ian’s breath caught in his chest as he took in the sight of Mickey standing there in front of him, no glass between them to separate them, no handcuffs to restrain them, nothing to keep them apart.

“You gonna stand there starin all day?” Mickey asked with a teasing grin, his eyebrows waggling.

The breath Ian had been holding came out in a whoosh and he smiled at Mickey, taking a step towards him, uncertain if Mickey would let him give him a hug, he didn’t know how it was for outed guys in prison.

Before he could brace himself Mickey had taken a step towards Ian and wrapped his arms around him tightly, squeezing what little breath he had out of him. His arms thicker and more coiled with muscles, his chest harder than before. His soft hair tickled Ian’s face and Ian inhaled deeply, underneath the smell of generic antibacterial soap, was a scent he had missed so much that it made his knees weak to smell it now. 

It was Mickey.

Ian slipped his arms underneath Mickey’s and around his torso squeezing him back, matching his tight embrace. Trying to make up in this hug everything he had neglected over the last several years.

“Five seconds is up inmate.” Ian heard a gruff guard say, before the last word was spoken Mickey had released Ian from his embrace and taken a step back.

The smile on Mickey’s face lit the room more than the sun streaming in from the windows, more than the fluorescent lights, more than the plain white walls.

A couple strands of inky hair fell into his face as he nodded to the table, Ian took slid onto the cool seat, resting his hands on the table, wanting to reach for Mickey’s hands.

Mickey’s hands, his small gentle hands, waited on the other side of the table, the faded ink dark against his pale skin, his fingernails short, a few cuticles looked a bit bitten down, but they were still his hands.

Hands that had cradled Ian, had protected Ian, had pushed Ian, had held Ian.

Ian’s hands slid further onto the table, not quite crossing onto Mickey’s side of the table. Ian’s hands froze, then he looked up at Mickey, his eyes questioning.

Mickey’s smile only grew and he gave a small nod, Ian slid his hands as far as he could reach and silently he placed them over Mickey’s.

Mickey chuckled at Ian stretched fully over the table and, showing a small mercy slid his hands to where they met in the middle. Ian’s long fingers wrapped around Mickey’s and he traced his knuckles with his thumbs.

“Hi.” Ian breathed.

“Hi.” Mickey replied softly, his eyes soft, crinkling at the corners.

Ian’s eyes searched over Mickey’s face, over his neck, his chest, his shoulders, cataloguing everything to memory. 

“You, got a new jumpsuit.” Ian immediately berated himself internally for such a stupid comment.

“Yeah, means I have a lower classification score, get more privileges and stuff.” Mickey shrugged.

“I like it better than the orange.” Ian mumbled, he liked the way this jumpsuit brought out Mickey’s eyes.

“Yeah me too, I’m almost at the lowest classification which would give me a green jumpsuit, once I hit that I can do some work apprenticing stuff to ‘learn a trade’ that would be good in a future career field.” Mickey shrugged the sarcasm dripping from his tone slightly.

There was a slight lull, it wasn’t awkward, just silent.

“You look good, better than good.” Ian’s voice was low and gentle.

A tinge of pink lightened Mickey’s cheeks, “Nothin to do but work out in the joint.” An echo of words long ago. 

They both chuckled at the memory, then smiled, pleased that they both were taken back to that same conversation, that same night.

“How many pullups you up to now?” Ian asked teasingly.

Mickey laughed, “Dunno, fifty maybe? I don’t really keep track, I just do it til I’m bored and ready for something new. Been trying my hand at, well at yoga actually.”

Ian looked at him surprised, he lowered his voice slightly and slid a bit closer in his chair conspiratorially, “You’re doing yoga?” 

Mickey looked away self consciously, “It’s a mental health thing as much as a physical health thing. Helps me relax and think about things with a clear mind, suggestion of my case manager.”

Ian nodded, “That’s good, those are both really good things Mick.” his nickname rolling off his tongue like no time had passed between them.

Mickey’s eyes met Ian’s, and his lips pulled up, “I’m, tryin. Wanna get out of here as soon as I can, and participating in shit, and making efforts to watch that helps get me brownie points. Even got into a G.E.D program.” he said with a little shrug trying to brush it off like it wasn’t a big deal, when it all was.

“I-I’m glad you’re doing those things, that’s all great, good to hear.” Ian stumbled over his words.

Mickey’s lips parted and he wetted them, “You’re lookin good too, real good.”

Ian felt his cheeks warm, “Thanks, I uh, I started to see a therapist a couple times a month and got some new meds. Been regulated on them for about nine months now.” He glanced down at the table.

“That’s great to hear man,” Mickey tilted his head down and caught Ian’s eye, “That’s real good to hear. I’ve-I’ve been wor- wonderin how that was, how you were doing.”

Mickey stumbled over his words now, making Ian feel a pang of guilt.

“Mickey, I’m sor-” He started.

Mickey’s hand slid out from under Ian’s, “No, none of that shit.” Mickey stopped him, his hand held up firmly.

“Mick, I owe you-” Ian started.

“Ian,” his name on Mickey’s lips made him stop.

He looked at Mickey, whose face was calm, “You don’t have to do that, not right now. I’m just really happy that you’re here.” His voice cracked and he sniffed, one hand reaching up and swiping at his face.

Ian sat there watching as Mickey blinked back hard until whatever dam that had threatened to break hardened again.

“Mickey, I’d like to, please?” Ian asked gently.

Mickey’s eyes looked over Ian’s face, “Stubborn mother fucker.” He muttered, a small smirk playing over his lips.

Ian turned his hands over and held them palms up, waiting for Mickey. Who after a moment reached his hands over the table, back into Ian’s grasp, looking up at him with uptilted brows.

“Mickey, I am so beyond sorry, about everything. From the last time we talked before you got arrested, from the last time I was here. I’m sorry for all of it, for not visiting...” Ian trailed off for a moment, it didn’t seem like his words were enough to wash away the sins he had committed.

Mickey gave a small shrug, “I get it, the not visiting thing, or the, the not takin my calls thing.” 

Ian huffed, “I should have at least done that fuck. But comin here, knowing I’d have to leave you again. That thought killed me, knowing that I couldn’t take you home, but I should have fucking dealt with it, and I’ll do that now.”

Mickey gave a little nod of acknowledgement of what Ian had said, “I’m really glad to see you, and Mands today. Hopefully, you can both come again.”

Ian nodded, “Yeah, we will, hell I can even bring other people. Want to see Iggy? or Colin? Fuck I could bring Kev and Vee, or or Fiona or any of my siblings, and Franny! You haven’t met Franny yet.” 

Mickey chuckled, “I’m surprised I haven’t seen Iggy or Colin in here yet, if they wanna show they can. Kev and Vee,” Mickey shrugged, “If they want, I know they got shit goin on more important than visiting my ass. As for your siblings, a friendly face is a friendly face. At least here I won’t be tempted to knock the smirk off of Lip’s. And who is Franny?” Mickey’s brow furrowed.

“Debbie’s daughter, she’s just a baby, close to a year, not quite walking yet. But she babbles and jabbers, little redhead.” Ian grinned.

Mickey smirked, “Another Ginger Gallagher, not sure the world can handle that.” He laughed.

Ian grinned, then his smile fell, “Before Sami showed up, on the porch...” Ian started.

Mickey opened his mouth to say something, but Ian gave his head a small shake, he wasn’t done yet, “Talking with Monica before that, before I came back, before you found me there, it got my head in a worse place than it had been already. Now that I’m on some meds I understand what she was getting at, but then it was all jumbled.” 

Ian took a breath, “She was getting at that I wasn’t broken just because of my diagnosis, and that there would be people always trying to fix me, but that there would also be people that would me in spite of it. But you weren’t trying to fix me or change me,” His eyes fixed on Mickey’s, “you were just trying to keep me whole, keep me from breaking.”

Mickey’s eyes were watering, and his lips twitched in a small smile, “Wouldn’t want to change you, just wanted to keep you. Don’t love you ‘in spite’ of anything, just love you, Ian, all of you, all the versions that you are.” His voice was thick with emotion that threatened to spill over, one tear sliding down his cheek.

Ian felt his own eyes brimming with tears and he sniffed, turning his head to wipe the moisture onto his shoulder, his hands gripping Mickey’s tighter, weaving his fingers in the spaces between Mickey’s, wishing for anything that he could just wrap himself around his heart and stay nestled there forever, until he could come out, come home. He could hide there with him.

Ian detangled his hand from Mickey and tentatively reached up, glancing at the guard who wasn’t looking their way. He gingerly cradled Mickey’s face in his hand, wiping the single tear with his thumb, caressing his cheek.

Mickey’s breath shuddered and he closed his eyes a moment trying to gather all the strength he had not to launch himself into Ian’s full embrace, reminding himself on a loop in his mind that if he did he could lose this. The privilege of being able to see him without a thick panel between them, touch him in any way even if there was a time limit.

His shimmering blue eyes opened again, his lashes fluttering wetly, his eyes searching Ian’s face. Ian’s eyes flitting between Mickey’s and looking where the guard was standing, finally dropping his hand from Mickey’s face when the guard turned their way again.

Ian cleared his throat, “Brought a- brought a surprise for you, the officer at the desk said you could have it after it’s been inspected, wants to make sure I didn’t slip you a shiv or somethin.” Ian forced a laugh to surface.

Mickey grinned, “A surprise huh? Wonder what it could be...” He brought a hand to his lips and twittered his fingers there as if he were thinking hard.

“Oh it’s one of those erotic cakes, had a special mold taken and design job done on it and everything.” Ian could barely keep his face straight as he gave Mickey the fabricated response.

A burst of laughter slipped from Mickey’s lips, “Lemme guess Carrot Cake?” He teased giving Ian’s hand a squeeze.

Ian couldn’t counter his guess he was laughing so hard, Mickey joining in, their laughter making their chests tight, their sides stitch, taking them back to the way things had been.

“Inmate, your hour is up.” 

Ian’s eyes opened to see a guard there at the table and his heart sank. He looked to Mickey whose pale face had lost the humor and turned into a solemn pallette.

“Yes sir.” Mickey replied, his hands loosening from Ian’s and sliding back to his lap.

“Say your farewells then you follow me.” the guard said giving Ian a nod before he went to wait at the door.

Ian looked from the guard to Mickey who was biting his lower lip.

“Can, can I see you again?” He asked, looking up at Ian, the tears brimming in his eyes threatening to spill once again.

Ian didn’t hesitate and he took two quick steps to reach Mickey and wrapped his arms around him, “I’ll never leave you again.” He breathed into Mickey’s neck, his arms squeezing Mickey tightly.

He felt Mickey snake his arms around him and felt him squeeze him hard in an echo of his embrace.

“I love you Mick.” Ian murmured, his arms constricting even tighter.

“I love you too Red.” Mickey’s thick voice sniffed as his arms squeezed his torso.

“Inmate, your five seconds are up.” The guard gruffed.

They pulled apart for a moment, then Ian lowered his head, Mickey tilting his chin up, their lips meeting, feeling like it was the first time in forever, begging through touch as if they were the only things anchoring one another to the Earth.

“Inmate your three seconds is up.”

Their lips pulled apart, and they each took a step back as not to test their luck, Ian glanced at the guard who tilted his chin up at him.

Ian looked back at Mickey, “I’ll be back on the next visiting day Mick.”

Mickey nodded, his eyes wide trying to reabsorb the tears there, “I’ll,” he struggled over the thickness of his voice, “I’ll be countin the days Gallagher.” A smile finally flitting onto his lips again.

Ian’s face pulled into a sad smile and he turned to walk towards the guard that was waiting for him, “I’ll see you soon Mickey.” he promised turning to look at him one last time before he had to leave.

Mickey’s lips pulled up, “See you soon Ian.”

The guard finally done waiting gave Ian another head jerk and led him out of the visiting room and down the winding way back to the waiting room.

Mandy had fallen asleep waiting and he gently shook her shoulder, “Let’s go Mandy.” he said softly.

Mandy stretched and rose from her chair, as they strode to the door Ian stopped at the desk and arranged the soonest visit he could, which was in a week.

He grinned as they left, his heart hurting, but knowing he would be able to see Mickey again soon.

“So how was he for you?” Mandy asked as they climbed into the car.

Ian shrugged, “Oh you know, he was just...” he trailed off a moment, “Just Mickey.” his lips pulled in a smile, and he could tell by her face, that Mandy knew what he meant.

[bravo-four-seal-team]

Where the Sea meets the Sky (and Land connects the Hearts)

Summary:

Eric Blackburn and Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell used to date in the academy, it was kept a secret by their friends Goose and Adam, until one tragic day. Goose was killed in a training accident. Maverick ended things on a sour note, blaming the other man for being a distraction. Now Bravo team being led by Eric Blackburn has been called in to help located a Top Gun captain who was taken hostage after his plane went down and he bailed out.

How will everyone cope with seeing each other again?

CHAPTER TWO

If there was one thing Eric Blackburn hated, it was rainy Monday mornings. He'd grown accustomed to the calm weather in Virginia Beach, but dreary grey clouds and constant rain weren’t his idea of a good start into the week. He took a sip of his coffee and looked up when someone knocked on the door.

“Enter!”

"Commander Blackburn? Admiral Simmons is here to see you", the admin clerk told him.

An admiral? Why? “Thank you, Thompson.”

As the admiral entered, Eric dutifully saluted him and stood at attention. He didn’t miss the wings pinned to the man’s uniform lapel or the signs of stress and fatigue in the lines of his face. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.

“At ease, Commander”, Admiral Simmons said with a nod. “I’ve been told your SEAL team is the best there is. We have an emergency.”

This was not how Eric expected his Monday to begin. As the Admiral handed over a file, he sighed softly, pressing the shortcut on his phone to send a mass text to Bravo with the simple message: Briefing asap .

“Your intelligence officer has already been briefed”, Simmons told him as they headed to the briefing room. “The mission has been approved, but it is top secret.”

While waiting for Bravo to join them, Eric opened the file. His heart dropped.

Oh God.

The door opened and Bravo filed into the room, chatting quietly amongst themselves. They must have read something in Eric’s expression because they sobered up and quickly sat down.

"Alright, listen up”, Eric said as soon as the door closed, “this mission is an urgent one. Agent Ellis?"

He was glad to let Mandy take point on this briefing, and not just because it was nice to have her back. He could have sworn his heart missed a few beats when the picture of their objective came on screen. From his vantage point off to the side, he could see Clay do a double take, blue eyes going wide.

"A naval aviator, Captain Pete Mitchell, was shot down 48 hours ago over enemy territory”, Mandy began. “His canopy was spotted by members of his squadron and primary rescue was launched. However, the rescue crew was intercepted by enemy aircraft and had to retreat. Tangos on the ground were seen dragging Mitchell off, but we are still waiting on satellite and aerial images of the area."

Admiral Simmons stepped forward to address the team. "Gentlemen, this is one of the best Top Gun graduates and one of, if not the best pilot the Navy has. Alive or dead, we want him back."

"Pararescue is out of the question, they can’t get anywhere near, that's why we are called in”, Blackburn spoke up, noting the silent question on some of his men’s faces. “Wheels up in an hour, boys. We're going sailing."

"This is bullshit!" Struggling out of his gear, Rooster scowled. "Mav needs us!"

Phoenix looked at him, her brows furrowed. "I only saw his chute deploy, Roos…", she said softly. "There’s no telling if he even survived the bail out.”

Bob, her backseater, had his eyes closed and his head down. "They probably wouldn't have kept him alive for long either.”

“You don’t know that”, Rooster argued.

Glances were exchanged across the room, but nobody knew what to say or how to handle this situation.

"I agree with Bradshaw”, Hangman said with a sigh.

Rooster’s head jerked up, confusion flickering over the worry and pain in his expression.

Hangman continued: “Maverick is still out there and he needs us. We need to get back out there and do something ."

Coyote nodded. Fanboy muttered an agreement.

They all jumped when the door opened and Warlock entered. He looked at them. “NAVSOC has green-lit a rescue mission for Maverick”, he told them solemnly. “DEVGRU assets have been briefed.”

“We’ll be part of the rescue, right?” Rooster’s hands were clenched tight around his parachute pack.

Warlock gave him a sympathetic look. “That’s out of our hands.”

"Blackburn, you good?", Jason asked as the helo dipped slightly, the thump-thump of the rotor blades slicing through the air getting louder for a moment as the pilot adjusted their course.

The commander snapped out of his thoughts. "Fine." The closer they were getting to the carrier, the more his stomach churned. It had been ages since he’d last seen Maverick. More than 30 years. A lifetime.

Ray leaned forward. "How do you know him?”

I don’t. I thought I did, once upon a time. Blackburn sighed. "Old friends”, he offered and briefly considered leaving it at that. He didn’t. “The picture beside Adam’s in the Bulkhead. The aviator?"

"What about it?", came the question from Sonny.

Blackburn really didn’t want to have this conversation, not here, not now, not anytime soon if he could have his way. But there was no taking it back now, so he explained: “That’s Lieutenant Nick Bradshaw, callsign Goose. Adam and I met him when we were in the Academy. He flew with Maverick, was his RIO and best friend. He was killed in a training accident, Adam and I put his image up since he lived out in VA Beach at times… Maverick cut us off after Goose’s death. Never heard from him again."

As the helo descended on final approach to the carrier, Eric heard Clay murmur “I had no idea”.

Climbing out of the helo, Bravo quickly made their way off the landing pad. Following Admiral Simmons inside, they pretend not to notice that people are staring at them.

“They’re looking at us like we’re the most interesting thing on this ship”, Sonny muttered.

“We probably are”, Trent joked drily.

“Shame Metal isn’t here”, Brock chimed in, adjusting his hold on Pepper’s leash as she excitedly sniffed around. “That would’ve made things more interesting.”

A beat passed as they all thought of their lost brother. It had been a year, but they still missed him.

“You mean he’d be having a staring contest with every single one of those people”, Clay said with a lopsided grin, making them all chuckle.

Dagger Squadron was on its way to the cafeteria after debrief when they saw the group of newcomers, led by Cyclone himself.

Bob interrupted himself mid-sentence to tell Phoenix: “Look at that dog, isn’t it cute?”, to which Coyote responded: “Cute? Bob, have you seen those teeth?”

Phoenix snorted and backed up her WSO. The dog really was cute.

They heard snatches of conversation over the ambient noise of the carrier, the rustle of tactical gear and the clattering of dog paws. Cyclone and the commander appeared to be talking about logistics and responsibilities, the two men behind them were holding a conversation with telling glances alone. The other four men lagged a few paces behind and while the man with the dog and the guy next to him didn’t say much either, they seemed highly amused by the other two: One of the men – a Texan, from the sound of it – was passionately griping about being on a ship, about hating the ocean and something about jellyfish and Elle Woods. The other was egging him on with a gleeful smirk.

“At least there’s no GOPLATs for you to swan-dive off of, Peter Pan”, the Texan commented.

The aviators blinked, traded puzzled looks.

The blond just laughed.

Rooster nearly tripped over a knee-knocker and bumped into Hangman. He was vaguely aware of his teammate saying something, but he didn’t understand a word of it, his ears still ringing with the sound of that laughter. He’d recognise that laugh anywhere.

Bradley is laughing as he watches his mother dance in the kitchen with Clay, the 3-year-old boy giggling and laughing.

The young boy could easily pass as his biological brother, or even as Uncle Ice’s son. He waves to Clay, who has the biggest smile on his face, before his blue eyes snap to the door and he starts shouting “Uncle Mav, Uncle Mav!”.

Uncle Mav is followed by Uncle Adam, who looks exhausted and promptly collapses on the couch, muttering things about idiots and the teams.

“Rooster!”

He jerked, coming back to himself.

“The hell is the matter with you?”, Hangman snapped.

“Sorry, thought I saw someone.”

[wildfangz]

Felix isn’t having much luck as far as grades are concerned. I wanted to play the initial rounds w/ aging off, and it took me way too long to figure out teens can’t progress without it on.

He’s been pouring some time into learning how to take care of himself though, unlike some people

Puberty was going to hit him hard at some point, though

Not like this wasn’t expected, he’s a bright boy. Not exactly Jared, 19. but what a shame when he has his (heart) eyes on a classmate.

Meanwhile, Mandy is continuing to pursue her passions!

And once her brother and father left for school, Maritza was happy to have the house to herself.

Blissfully Unaware

Eventually, she invited Isaiah over, not just to mess around for once.

She used her first few paychecks for a styling chair. She’s got dreams, y’know. And since her and Isaiah are official now, she couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate. (Well, she could, but this way gives her progress towards her first talent badge.)

It took a little bit of convincing, and Isaiah was unsure at first. After all, he’s the mayor. Appearances are important.

But he’d do anything for her, so he took a risk. How bad could it be?

Not at all, apparently! though I forgot to add his freckles back on. I fixed that later, I believe.

Anyway, Isaiah’s new look called for a celebration.

So, y’know.

They’re so incredibly sweet together

Too bad her coworker just walked in to ruin the moment

:/

Bit of an awkward morning, but they bonded eventually.

Maritza gave a makeover to Callum

And Felix hung out with his new friend at the park.

Also...

She finally popped!

By the end of the round, she was in her second trimester (Or was it third?) and she might’ve gave her Dad’s new gal a bad makeover. Oops

Round Done! Accomplishments and events:

Maritza got a job in the culinary career

And was promoted to a drive through clerk

Woohooed with Isaiah. Twice

And got pregnant!

She also gave 5 sims makeovers

Felix befriended the local evil witch. no big deal

And eventually worked his way up to a B

Emilio mainly napped and watched sports. But he has got him some action so there’s that. I feel so bad tho I can’t remember her name LMAO

[popculturebuffet]

Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “ 

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III.                                                        Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe. 

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big  companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers. 

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point. 

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while  in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing.  This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome. 

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast. 

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list. 

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend. 

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome. 

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows. 

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again. 

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up. 

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4. 

So with our major players out of the way,  let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming  story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands.  Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off.  Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain. 

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a  kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more.  The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself  this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have.  This show is just great  at costume design. 

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback. 

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious. 

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working.  Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant.  Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time. 

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up.  F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly. 

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly.  At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in. 

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do. 

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense. 

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room. 

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda. 

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian. 

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go. 

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it. 

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior. 

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances. 

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included. 

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her.  It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag. 

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you. 

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him.  Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t.  It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to.  So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight. 

However at home Virgil points out it was  Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow. 

[dtrhwithalex]

TV | The Good Fight (503)

503: AND THE COURT HAD A CLERK...

D: TYNE RAFAELI. W: WILLIAM FINKELSTEIN. Original Air Date: 08 July 2021.

Non-spoiler-free recap and review of episode three of CBS' THE GOOD FIGHT (2017-) season five.

RECAP

Thanks to her success with Rivi, Carmen is personally chosen as representation by another high-profile client, Craig Wolfe-Coleman, an accused rapist. DAVID LEE (ZACH GRENIER), who is currently in charge of STR Laurie which Reddick & Lockhart is a subsidiary of, is at first confused about the demand for Carmen but is quick to recognise a profit to be made.

While Carmen is busy taking on this new client, Marissa is left to deal with menial paperwork older associates deem to be below them. Frustrated with being ignored and being denied actually valuable work, Marissa finds herself returning to Judge Wackner's copy-shop court 9 3/4. Wackner is delighted to see her and, after aiding him in deciding on a case about fanfiction copyright, offers her a job as a law clerk with him. Unsure at first -- because this is, after all, not a real court -- Marissa eventually accepts the offer.

Marissa's career at Wackner's court is seemingly cut short after Diane discovers what she is doing, because a client sent her hundreds of Build-A-Bears after she helped them. Diane doesn't want Marissa's activities to get the firm in trouble, so she tells her if she wants to keep working at R&L she needs to stop going to Wackner's court. However, Wackner seeks out Diane and decides to hire the firm for their consultation services -- thus effectively hiring Marissa in a more official manner which is acceptable to Diane.

At the same time, Diane is dealing with a personal matter as well. Her husband KURT (GARY COLE) discovers that he recognises one of the people on the FBI's wanted poster regarding the Capital riots of January 06. Finding out about this, Diane asks him about it, but he refuses to name names. However, with what he discloses and Jay's investigatory talent, Diane eventually has a name and decides to anonymously report it.

FBI's MADELINE STARKEY (JANE LYNCH) investigates the report and visits Kurt at his job to ask him about the names of the other veterans belonging to the same group he was teaching at the shooting range. Kurt, of course, refuses. As Kurt tells Diane more, she decides to take matters into her own hands and represent him legally. Meeting with Starkey, they find out that the man Kurt recognises has now, in his statement, made Kurt part of the whole conspiracy. Throughout, Diane is conflicted between her love and support for her husband, and the justice she wants to have served against the people involved in the Capital riot.

While Diane is engaged in personal matters, Liz is handling a defamation case against a small bike store owner who lost his business because a neighbour spread rumours online about him grooming and molesting young boys. Although the representing lawyers meet to decide on a settlement in favour of Liz's client, it turns out that the neighbour is bankrupt and cannot even pay her lawyer.

Liz is then approached by DAVID CORD (STEPHEN LANG) who offers the firm 12 million dollars if they continue the defamation suit, but go after Section 230 -- which protects online platforms and social media from being sued, unlike what can happen to newspapers -- and sue the online platform ChumHum where the rumours have been circulated instead. Taking on Julius as her second because their sponsor does not take well to Democrats (he's a GOP operative), Liz continues working on the case. And although they, arguably, win the case in the eyes of JUDGE CLAUDIA FRIEND (BEBE NEUWIRTH), she cannot legally rule in their favour because of Section 230. Their sponsor is, however, interested to continue the case for as long as possible.

REVIEW

There was a lot going on this episode, but as always I've quite enjoyed it. I don't know what it is about this show exactly, but I really dig it. It's so far out of my usual tv watching pattern, but for some reason I am always super invested while watching this.

I am still a huge fan of Mandy Patinkin's copy-shop court. I've always enjoyed him as an actor, and he is just magnificent here. I am so happy that we will likely see a lot of him this season, especially with Marissa now working for him. I think he is delightful and I cannot wait to see where that plot line is going exactly. I love the story he tells to Diane to convince her that him hiring the firm so he can keep Marissa is a good idea. And I was glad that she accepted.

I am still very suspicious about Carmen. There is so much hidden depth in that character and I want to know more. I loved Liz's line: "I have no idea what I am about you." Carmen is an enigma, a puzzle, and I can't wait to learn more about her. There has got to be something behind that cool, confident exterior.

The whole Kurt dilemma is going to be big drama, I suspect. But I am very happy we have Jane Lynch back with her terrible office. Agent Starkey is such a great character. But yeah, I smell a lot of tension in the Lockhart-McVeigh household coming up about this whole Capital riots thing.

Also, uhm? Shout-out to the return of AARON TVEIT's lawyer character SPENCER ZSCHAU? I forgot he was in this show before, to be honest. But yay, Aaron! We love him here.

And of course, lest I forget, we had another wonderful musical short explaining Section 230 this episode! Those musical shorts are one of the fantastic things about this show, and I am glad we have them back this season too.

Anyway, I really quite enjoyed this episode. Looking forward to next week!

[still image taken from vulture's recap article of this episode]