#and he got arrested in college and lost his scholarship and got kicked off the football team and out of rotc

[livvyofthelake]

also. movie that takes place in virginiaaaaa <3 ok it only takes place in va because it was based on a true story but still. that's my state :)

[thornfield13713]

since you're on an Ace Attorney kick right now, Phoenix or Edgeworth?

...why don't I do both?

Phoenix Wright

While he does have living parents, Phoenix is estranged from his family, and they have not spoken since he left for college. They are aware of his subsequent career, but have made no attempts to contact him, and it seems unlikely they ever will. Phoenix is...not entirely fine with this, but it’s been the way things are for his entire adult life, and he’s built up a new family anyway, so it doesn’t weigh on him as much as it did when he was younger.

He really, really loves Shakespeare in any form, and wanted to be a Shakespearean actor while in college. He can still do a pretty good rendition of quite a few major speeches, though his teachers considered him rather one-note, as an actor, usually preferring to play earnest young heroes rather than more complicated characters. He does, however, credit his early years as a performing arts student with a lot of his ability to present himself credibly in a court of law. (EDIT: I have not yet played Apollo Justice...but I have now watched Youtube playthroughs of it, and would thus like to revise my statement. Phoenix was a phenomenal actor, and many of his professors were immensely upset and disappointed that he chose to waste his talents by going into law instead of theatre, because holy shit, this man could pretend friendship with the person who destroyed his life for seven years so credibly that the guy didn’t even realise Phoenix suspected him until after Phoenix got him arrested for murder. That takes a hell of a lot of skill and talent, all of it lost to the stage forever.)

His bad back in the later games is partially due to spondylolisthesis, caused by his fall into the Eagle River in ‘Bridge to the Turnabout’, but not picked up on until much later, as the trauma of hitting the water caused one of his vertebrae to slip out of alignment.

Nothing will ever convince Phoenix to take cold medication again so long as he lives. He would rather sniffle and sneeze his way through a trial than touch the stuff, despite knowing that it is vanishingly unlikely that anyone will ever try and poison him that way again.

He can cook, and cook quite well, although in a fairly slapdash, improvisational fashion. He’s not the person you go to for meticulously-prepared holiday dinners with every dish in place, but when it comes to whipping up something tasty, filling and reasonably nutritious from whatever odds and ends happen to be lying around the kitchen, Phoenix is more than competent.

He still privately resents Klavier Gavin. He knows it isn’t especially fair, that Klavier was as taken in by his brother as everyone else, and that the plan wouldn’t have worked if Phoenix hadn’t used unverified evidence in court in the first place...but some part of him can’t quite forget that it was Klavier who was his opposition in the trial that destroyed his life, or stop interpreting everything about Klavier in the worst possible light as a result, even if he tries not to let it get in the way of his judgement.

He first learnt how to hustle poker in his early twenties, paying for college. He got into Ivy University on scholarship, but it was only enough to cover his tuition and the bare minimum of living expenses, and having an extra source of funds came in handy. As his scholarship was for the arts, his law school career was almost entirely funded by this sideline, which is something Phoenix keeps very, very close to his chest right up until after his reinstatement, at which point his involvement with illegal gambling during the disbarment years is a matter of court record anyway.

His favourite film is Legally Blonde, but he gets very offended if anyone ever suggests that this might have something to do with his life decisions. After all, the guy he went off to become a lawyer for, thus changing his whole path in life, was not nearly as much of an arsehole as Warner, and Phoenix actually pulled off getting him to change his mind in the end. Somehow, this does not convince anyone to stop making the comparisons.

He had a slight crush on Mia Fey, mostly out of hero-worship for her having saved him, and then because she gave him a chance and a job when he wasn’t sure anyone would. Not many defence attorneys would bring in a junior partner whose only previous experience of the courtroom was as the defendant in a murder case, and he desperately wanted to prove to Mia that she hadn’t made a mistake taking a chance on him. He never really expected it to go anywhere, though, and honestly, that was something of a relief, after the way his first and only relationship to date had ended.

He has a tendency to hum while doing paperwork that drives everyone trying to work in the same room as him absolutely spare. And, unfortunately, between major cases, most of what he does is paperwork. He’s got an eclectic range of favourites that range from showtunes to old jazz standards to bubblegum pop with no apparent rhyme or reason to them, and is almost always at least a little bit off-key.

 Miles Edgeworth

His middle name is ‘Atticus’, because Gregory Edgeworth seems to have lived his whole life in Atticus Finch cosplay and I want to believe that that was a deliberate in-universe choice that would lead to him naming his son after his favourite fictional character.

He doesn’t acquire his dog Pess until around the Dual Destinies era, after moving back to live full-time in Japanifornia, since it didn’t seem fair to get a dog when he had previously spent so long moving around Europe, living out of hotels and short-term rentals and never putting down any real roots. Pess is a rescue dog, of no particular breed, but is very large and fluffy and looks like she might have a bit of borzoi in her ancestry just because she looks a bit like a photograph that has been vertically stretched. (EDIT: I have since been made aware of the existence of the marvellous beast called the Sheltie, and this is now my only headcanon for Pess’s breed.)

Even after seeing it proven in court that spirit channelling is a real and potent thing, Miles could never bring himself to try and contact his father that way again and try to get an explanation for what Gregory said during the first attempt to contact him, mostly because he really, really cannot face the thought of seeing his father again and having to tell Gregory Edgeworth what his son ended up doing with his life as Von Karma’s protégé, no matter how much good work he has since done to make up for it.

His mother’s name was Audrey. She was a journalist, and quite a formidable one, with a knack for ferreting out unusual details, which was how she met Gregory Edgeworth, as they were both snooping around the same crime scene and got into a whispered argument about who had more right to be there. They kept on running into each other at crime scenes for quite a while before one of them - they could never quite agree who - suggested they just save time and go on a proper date. She died of lung cancer the year before Miles and his father moved and Miles was enrolled in the same school as Phoenix Wright.

He’s gay and demisexual, but grew up under Manfred Von Karma’s thumb in an oppressively homophobic household. He still figured himself out relatively young, admittedly, but resigned himself in his teens to the fact that he was probably going to remain closeted...at least for the rest of Von Karma’s life, as the consequences of doing otherwise would be deeply unpleasant and, since his demisexuality meant it very rarely became relevant anyway, he didn’t think it was worth the pain of dealing with Manfred’s reaction for something that seemed entirely hypothetical to become known.

His nightmares ease, somewhat, after learning that he was not the one who killed Gregory Edgeworth, but they never entirely go away, especially in December, around the anniversary of his father’s death. At this point, he’s not sure they’ll ever completely go away, and no amount of knowing rationally that he wasn’t guilty makes the nightmares any less terrifying while they’re happening.

He writes fanfiction for Steel Samurai on AO3, and is known for being something of a fandom cryptid, only updating once in a blue moon, but always with well-written, often long and very plot-heavy chapters that are noted for their exacting ‘original flavour’ tone and characterisation. He admittedly mostly writes gen, but after a few years starts cautiously dipping his toes into the Magisteel (Steel Samurai/Evil Magistrate) fandom. He is, however, somewhat notorious for having nothing but bile towards the Nickel Samurai spinoff and all things connected to it.

He absolutely did not mean for ‘Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death’ to be metaphorical when he wrote it. He had just found out he’d been party to falsifying evidence after all, the one thing he’d always held as the line he’d never cross. He was already in a poor state after everything that happened with Von Karma, and increasingly plagued with doubts about the corruption of the justice system and just how many innocent lives he had undoubtedly destroyed during his time as the ‘Demon Prosecutor’. He had a plan in mind - jumping off a bridge due to an irreconcilable moral crisis might be very Les Miserables, but it’s a classic for a reason and nobody ever said Miles wasn’t dramatic - but...somehow he couldn’t make himself go through with it.

He is probably always going to feel that he let Phoenix down during the disbarment years. It’s not especially rational - it’s probably largely due to Miles’ influence that Phoenix was allowed to work on the jury system in the first place, and they were keeping their continued association a dead secret from Kristoph Gavin the whole time - but...somehow, he can’t help but feel that he could’ve done more, been more present, done more to help, even if Phoenix’s pride wouldn’t let him accept everything Miles wanted to give him.

He started needing glasses for reading in his late twenties, but didn’t realise until his mid-thirties how much they made him look like his father, and then only when it was pointed out to him. It’s led to a few painful moments when he’s looked in the mirror and seen Gregory Edgeworth’s face looking back at him, especially as time goes on, and he grows older than his father ever lived to be.

[irnwoman]

THIS  IS  MY  OWN  BIO  FOR  PEPPER  POTTS;  based  on  mcu  &  personal  head canons.  CONTENT  INCLUDES:  family  death.  this  is  purely  based  on  my  default  / canon  verse.

DO  NOT  REBLOG  !!!

Childhood

Virginia “Pepper” Elizabeth Potts, youngest of daughter of Gina Potts & Norman Potts, was born in Philadelphia on February 11th, 1972. She was raised alongside older brother Toby & older half-brother Sean, often going by the nickname of Ginny. During her younger years, Pepper was active in Swimming & Gymnastics - which she loved; as well as baseball - which she wasn’t so fond of as a kid, but she was often dragged to go with her dad & brothers as her mom was busy working anyways, so she was enrolled in teams until her pre-teens. Her mother was a reporter for a media conglomerate, & often traveled. The kids were half-Jewish on their father’s side, & when her parents were together, they actively celebrated both Jewish & Christian holidays.

When Pepper was nine, Gina’s constant travel had caused a great rift in her parents marriage & ultimately caused the pair to split up. Norman taking custody of the children as Gina’s work kept her from providing a stable home. Unable to afford their home, Norman packed them up & moved the kids with him to Bandon, Oregon where they moved in with Pepper’s Uncle, Morgan Potts. Norman began working with his brother at the docks, & taking temporary work at the factory in the winter. Gina’s visits became more & more sporadic, broken promises & working during visits, eventually leading to the occasional visit once a year & gifts at holidays.

As the kids grew older, Pepper often found herself taking over the domestics at home. Her brother Sean working to help them make ends meet while the two of them tried to keep up with school. Struggles made worse when Norman was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. Sean eventually graduated college with a scholarship to Harvard, one he almost denied in order to help take care of his family - until Norman & Morgan threatened to kick him out if he was going to be that foolish & waste an opportunity.

Toby felt pressure on him in Sean’s absence, & acted out. Ultimately dropping out of school & leaving home after a big fight between Morgan & him. Pepper tried to talk sense into him, telling him he was wasting his potential & only screwing himself over instead. The two fought, & Toby left with his relationships to his family in shambles. Pepper reached Senior Year by some miracle, her social life near non-existent as her only way to afford college would be through scholarships. She knew she needed to be able to make a career out of whatever she studied, so she chose business & account financing as math & budgeting had always come natural to her. Graduating top of her class, Pepper received a scholarship to school in California.

Career

Half way through her first year, she was called home due to her father’s passing. Sean & Toby coming home as well, providing the first reunion of the siblings in years - as well as a lot of tension between them all. The trip ended with the brothers fighting, and Toby walking off & disowning them all for good. Although Pepper & Sean had always been on good terms, the tragedy wore at them & they eventually lost contact with each other other than obligatory holiday cards & birthday messages.

Pepper had begun a new life in California, She graduated college with honors & began interning & temping at companies. For four years, Pepper was in and out of firms. Taking work wherever she could, eventually landing a job at a firm for the latter half  of that time at a small accounting firm that she hated due to mismanagement & poor workplace behaviour.  It was during this time she first met Aldrich Killian, an intelligent but overly persistent man who couldn’t quite take a hint at a firm she was working at, before she landed a low rung job at Stark Industries. She worked accounting for a few years. Promoting through he ranks until she became the Managerial Assistant in her department. A position which led to the fateful day that she spied a grievous error on a report by CEO, Tony Stark. The error, if unchecked, would wind up costing the company millions of dollars. When brought up to her superior, she was rudely shut down & told to mind her own business. Debating for a moment to let it be, Pepper ignored her co-workers advice and bust into the conference room, in the commotion of trying to stop them before the money was lost & being hauled out by security, but not without first threatening to be carrying pepper spray ( a bold faced lie ). Pepper was taken away & brought to security where her boss tore a strip off of her for her behaviour, firing her on the spot.

Believing her career ruined by the stunt, Pepper comforted herself by the knowledge that she had been right & her sexist boss was now in deep trouble for failing to catch such a huge error. On her way out of the building, Security caught up to her once more & told that one of the board members wished to speak to her in regards to the incident. Fearing legal action or worse, Pepper entered an office with a stiff lip, only to find herself in the company of Tony Stark. Amused by her display & how unabashedly she had addressed him during the scene out of dedication to her work & how she was a horrible liar - he wound up giving her the offer of a lifetime. The Position of Tony Stark’s Personal Assistant. Facing unemployment & stunned that she wasn’t having charges pressed for threatening his bodyguard with Pepper spray ( an move that seemed to amuse him a ) - she accepted, earning the new moniker Pepper in the process.

In 2002, Pepper worried briefly about how her job would be affected once word that her brother Toby had been arrested for getting in with some bad men & caught committing corporate espionage & embezzlement. Instinct was to go & try to clean up his mess like always, but she couldn’t.  Not only was she too publicised  (  the idea of Tony’s PA being connected to someone like that was a scandal in the making ) but more importantly, Pepper realised she had nothing more to do with or say to him. He had decided himself to be on his own, so that’s how she would leave him. Pepper ultimately only went to hear the final verdict, confronting her mother and learning that her journalism investigation had been what discovered him in the first place.

The Iron Man 

Pepper had grown comfortable in her job, even if it had wound up taking over her life - she didn’t mind. Despite his eccentric & playboy ways, Tony was brilliant & when unguarded, very sweet. While she definitely wasn’t immune to his charm, she also wasn’t blind & happily kept things in a work-friendship area. Everything was going well, until she got the call. Tony had gone missing, kidnapped by terrorists - possibly dead. Pepper used as much authority as she held to aid search efforts on the home front, but ultimately was powerless. However, she never lost faith & when the call came in that Tony was alive, Pepper had made sure she was one of the first to greet him. The announcement of shutting down the weapons division had been momentous. It was hard to understand Tony’s mindset, even more so as he shut himself away in his workshop. Pepper grew worried as she tried to put out the P.R, fire around him, only to find herself in over her head to discover that the Mystery Iron Man on the news was in fact Tony. In a moment of panic & fear, Pepper threatened to quit as she couldn’t standby to let Tony kill himself in result of some Trauma or for Stunt - only relenting & agreeing to help him once he leveled with her & gave his explanation. Helping him take back his company and stop the man behind his kidnapping from selling their weapons to terrorists.

CEO

As Iron Man began to play a larger role on their lives, Pepper began to become a mix of concerned and irritated as Tony became more impulsive & erratic. She knew that his new, self-imposed, Iron Man duties would change things but after time went on she became convinced that there was more than just stress going on. While trying to confront him about his negligence of duties, Pepper’s tirade was interrupted by Tony’s startling decision to make her CEO of Stark Industries ( as she was already doing the job in his stead already ). Her anger momentarily subsided as she was deeply honoured & grateful for such a surprising turn of events. She attempted to step in as smoothly as she could, but trouble was not far behind as Tony’s antics in Monaco got caused him to not only almost die ( and her and Happy along with him in attempts to help ), but also put the company & herself under fire as duplicated technology of the iron man suit was used in the attack. Pepper continued to try to stop Tony’s spiral, attempting once more to find out what was going on with him, but was ultimately forced to let him be after the incident occurring at his birthday party, where he got drunk in the suit & began having a destructive brawl that brought down half the house. Faith in Tony temporarily revoked, when he came to seek forgiveness but offered no real explanation for what happened. It hurt to do so, but he had proven himself to be destructive & dangerous. She had to do what was best for her safety. However, the events that unfurled at the Stark Expo gave Pepper not only the chance to show her skill & leadership as CEO, but also provided Tony a chance to show his improved self & reveal that he had been dying from Palladium poisoning in the arc reactor, which had since been rectified, & acting recklessly to make his loss easier for others. While she wasn’t very thrilled by this discovery, she ultimately forgave him & with his more stable self, the two began a romantic relationship.

Escalation

Pepper & Tony continued to work together, assisting in the construction of STARK TOWER in New York City. Supporting Tony as he contributed side consultation for S.H.E.I.L.D. & finally settling into a new form of normal. However, the world had different plans. For starters, her estranged mother decided to reach out to her, having settled down in Long Island & wanting a chance to atone for her mistakes. Pepper was resistant, claiming that she had never been there before, so she had no reason to believe her now. However, they parted by leaving the door open should she ever feel ready to give her a chance. Her personal drama worsened with the formation of the Avengers & the attack in New York. Forced to watch helplessly as Tony took what should have been a no-return trip into space to save them, & by miracle alone being saved. Followed not too long with the aftermath, returning to California but neither of them the same. Tony’s PTSD causing him trouble, & prompting him to emotionally pick a fight with a terrorist & broadcasting their address to the world. Eventually leading to an attack of their house & the near death of herself & the almost death of Tony too. Separated & trying to find more information out to discover the man after them, Pepper was betrayed & kidnapped by former Colleague, Aldrich Killian from her post-grad days. Being kept as bait & his personal trophy, Pepper was subjected to experiments known as the Extremis process & mutated against her will. While her mutated abilities wound up saving the day in the end, Pepper was traumatised by the whole thing. Her own fear, or other strong emotions, putting her at risk of overheating & becoming ( literally ) explosive.

Taking A Break

While the process was eventually reversed, the final straw was Sokovia. The massive damage, the loss of life, the temporarily being M.I.A. It was making her physically ill & anxiety attacks were becoming frequent, much like Tony’s. The danger & apparent recklessness of the Avengers actions was too much & after a particularly nasty attack, Additionally, the Extremis incident still shook her. As much as she tried to move past it, she wasn’t dealing with it & things were getting bad because of it. Pepper told him that they needed some space. She loved him so much, & it killed her to leave, but Pepper had spent her life taking care of others. Right now, she needed to tend to herself. Collecting her stuff from both L.A, & New York, Pepper realised she had no place to call home again. Taking a few weeks vacation, Pepper went back home to Oregon to visit her Uncle Morgan for a bit. Detox far away from any of the mayhem, considering handing over her position as CEO. Her uncle supporting the idea of her staying on, but also telling her that whatever she did he’d back just as much. Before leaving, Pepper used the phone number her mother left her to trace to an address. Allowing her mother a chance to be there for her now, & let her stay for a bit while she found a place of her own. Slowly beginning to repair the damage of their relationship. Pepper knew things would never be perfect, too much had happened; but at least now she could maybe get some closure. Ultimately they end up on a  ‘semi-regular texts & visits on major holidays’ basis.

Reunion

The aftershocks of Civil War almost made Pepper give up on Tony altogether. The information available to her made it sound like more super powered violence that didn’t need to reach that level. It was only when her duties made her visit Tony personally for some spec approvals & she saw the broken man left after the battles that she began to believe there was more to the story. While she wasn’t entirely in agreement with either side of the battle, she saw that he was trying to be better. Trying to find his way, & Pepper realised that what they both really needed right now was a friend. It was a bit awkward for a short period, but ultimately making the transition to friendship again was remarkably easy. Eventually culminating into a place where they both felt confident & comfortable being together once more.

The Uncertain Future

Tony’s proposal was unorthodox, but really by now she expected nothing less. Agreeing to the initial one genuinely, she still made him do it properly in private later. To which she properly accepted. The two began making plans for the future, when the world decided to shake things up. While talking together about Tony’s wish to start a family soon, they were sidetracked by a strange invasion leading to Tony, along with Peter Parker ( aka Spider-Man ) and the strange wizard to blast off into space with no sign of returning. Leaving Pepper alone on earth to watch as people she knew & loved simply vanished from existence. Left waiting, wondering if Tony was among the fallen...

[burnouts3s3]

Let’s Talk About: Eric Forman

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.

"Let's Talk About" is a series of articles focused on individual character or characters and their development and commentary throughout the work in question. THIS IS NOT A REVIEW OF THE WORK, but rather what the character says about the world around them.  If you wish to read a strict review, please click on the link to read it. My reviews focus more on the purely technical aspects of the work. There are bad characters with good messages. There are good characters with bad messages and so on and so forth. Thank you.)

Let’s Talk About: Eric Forman

When writing about That 70’s show, I kept going back and found myself charmed with how much the characters and the drama drew me in. While the show’s humor was its main selling point, it became apparent there was much more going on and that the serious moments kept me watching.

Eric Forman was the show’s main character, a high school boy living with his Korean War veteran father, Red, and his smothering mother, Kitty, while having to battle with his slut sister, Laurie, when she visited from College. Eric was a skinny, pale introvert save for a close group of six friends who often hung out at Eric’s basement, where they would smoke marijuana and grouse about their daily lives. The show took place during the late 1970’s in Point Place, Wisconsin, a suburb just modern enough without feeling like a city but far away from cities to be considered intimate.

In some ways, Eric was the perfect protagonist, at least for That 70’s show. As a character, Eric’s not really that interesting. He’s a whiny, neurotic, paranoid person who overreacts to non-important and petty situations but deep down does care, even if he’s a bit too obsessed with things like girls, high school, GI Joe and most of all, Star Wars, to notice it at first. It makes him the perfect character to bounce off the wacky personalities for the other cast members such as Stephen Hyde, the conspiracy theorist and delinquent, Michael Kelso, the dumb friend who’s ready to physically injure himself and sex seeker, Fez, a Foreign Exchange Student unfamiliar with American customs, Jackie Burkhart, a shallow rich girl and Donna, tomboy and love interest.

Eric is essentially the audience avatar; too much of a weakling to do anything against a backdrop of characters. But as the show went on, Eric’s character grow, developed and changed as we saw his transition from boy to boy who lives with his parents to man.  I would argue that Eric, while not that different from sitcom stereotypes, defied expectations and eventually became the show’s emotional core and his plight was compelling (even if said plight was from the perspective of a white working class male with a mother and father figure).

The first 4 seasons of the show were basic high school antics. It depicted Eric living day by day through the late 70’s dealing with high school, his growing on and off relationship with Donna, his butting heads between his need for independence and his role as a son in his family and other mundane topics. This wasn’t exactly compelling stuff but it did hit a note. Eric was essentially us, a child living with his parents and not sure where to go in life but getting through things like a post-Vietnam world with his friends.

What really sold the show was the chemistry between the characters. Getting a group of character actors like Kurtwood Smith, Danny Masterson, Wilmer Valderama and discoveries of genuine talents such as Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis solidified the show as a syndication mainstay. But it was really Topher Grace that brought the show together. To be fair, Topher Grace is not a very diverse actor with a big range. But he had a toned down sardonic wit that made him relatable enough to laugh at but humble enough to bond with.

Then Season 5 came to a close. The gang had graduated from High School. Eric and Donna were ready to leave for College. And everyone else was ready to move on with their lives.

But, there came a complication. After being arrested, Fez realizes that his student Visa expires when he graduates and he will be deported. (Fans of the show have pointed out the continuity error that during his trip to Canada, Fez has a green card thus making him legal to stay). But, just before the gang leaves, Laurie makes an announcement: She’ll be marrying Fez so he can stay in the country.

This causes Red to have a heart attack. Red survives but cannot work and in need of special care. With Red unable to work, Kitty has to take double shifts at the hospital to make ends meet. All the while, Eric realizes that his dream of going to college gets further and further away.

Again, this was an obvious stunt by the showrunners. They wanted the gang to graduate high school but they also wanted them to stay at the Forman’s basement since they wouldn’t have to build another set.

Then comes the most emotional moment of Season 6.

“I have to go!” Eric cries, desperate to convince Donna and himself. Then after a moment of silence, Eric says “I have to stay”.

It’s a big moment. Obviously, the show producers want to keep Topher Grace, Eric’s actor, around for another season. But here, it’s made into a big moment. What was the American Idea, a child leaving his adolescent home to pursue higher education is focused through the lens of economic strife and reality. With Eric, the idea of being stuck under his parent’s roof and having to live there is almost a nightmare to him. But he chooses to stay to help his family in this time of crisis, during a time when Laurie is having a sham marriage with Fez while partying like she’s still in college without him. (Behind the scenes, Laurie had to be written out. Her original actress, Lisa Robin Kelly, was dealing with drug abuse and was kicked off the show and replaced with a different actress. The fans of the show didn’t care for the new actress so Laurie eventually disappeared without a trace. The last reference is when Kitty asks “Has anybody seen Laurie?” during the series finale. Lisa Robin Kelly would tragically pass away from her drug addiction).

And thus, it’s the crux of his character: Eric wants to leave not only his childhood home but Point Place, the very place where he grew up.

As such, the show’s conflict also became a meta statement: How long can the characters, and by proxy the actors, keep doing this? How long can they keep meeting up in the Formans’ basement? How long can Kelso keep being an immature man-child with no thought other than having sex with the next girl he meets? And how long can Eric still be a child under his parents? And how long can Topher Grace, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and the other actors keep in the comfortable work that is a sitcom without advancing their careers?

Season 6 continued. Eric got a job as a dog food coupon dispenser, before Bob and Joanne broke up. Eric then became waiter at a restaurant to help out at the house. Donna decided to stay as well, putting off college for a year to support Eric.

Eric and Donna even planned to get married during Season 6. However, at the last moment, just when we’re finally ready to see these 2 characters we’ve been following for 6 seasons tie the knot, Eric gets cold feet and doesn’t show up to the wedding. He comes back to Donna’s room while she’s sleeping. Donna wakes up, hits him but just tells him to stay.

This is also a commentary on Eric’s character and the nature of the series. Eric says he ‘wants’ to change but can’t commit to it. Much like the familiarity of a sitcom needing to stay the same, Eric needs the familiarity of not being married to Donna but still having a relationship to her. It’s a sign of immaturity. Eric isn’t doing anything with his life, whether it’d be financially, socially and even romantically. He, like the series, was running in place.

Season 7 came around and Eric is completely lost in his direction in life. When he started Season 6, Eric was planning to leave for college. But after refusing to marry his one true love, Eric has eventually regressed into a state of adolescence and decides to take ‘a year off’. This was done out of uncertainty from the producer’s part. The show had lasted for longer than they had anticipated and no one was sure who was going to come back next season.

Both Eric and Red were locked in nostalgia, though for different generations. Red Forman’s nostalgia was for an ideal 1950’s America with white picket fences, a nuclear family, with him bringing home the money from his manufacturing job and his wife is a homemaker and his daughter is sweet and pure and his son is a football player so good he can get a sports scholarship for college. Eric’s nostalgia is his high school years continuing on forever, where he could just hang out in his parent’s basement, his friends would always be there and he would have a carefree sex-ready relationship with Donna without any consequences.

It wasn’t until Eric met a man named Stu, another adult male concerned with little more than reading comic books and lounging around without a care in the world. Eric, enchanted by this idea, befriends Stu and wants to become him. It’s not until Eric visits Stu’s home that he realizes that Stu still lives with his mother and has done nothing with his life. When Stu’s mother coddles him and offers Eric a cookie in the shape of an X-Wing, Eric realizes he will become Stu if Eric doesn’t change right now.

And at the core of season 7 was the message: change. For Eric’s desire and stubbornness for everything to stay the same, it simply can’t. Social Movements like Civil Rights and Feminism make an appearance. More and more persons of color are being introduced into the group. Eric wants the show to stay 1979 forever, but it just can’t. Time marches on. Childhood doesn’t last forever. People change. Life changes. And Eric, as hesitant and painful it is to take the first step, must change as well.

Eric’s plan to take a year off turns out to have huge ramifications, even going so far as quitting his job. (This was probably intentional on the producers’ part as they probably didn’t want to have the restaurant as a set anymore). His friends all end up getting jobs and getting on with their lives. Hyde, the rebellious conspiracy nut, becomes part of the corporate machine he so much despises, Jackie becomes a newscaster and Fez becomes a shampoo boy at a local salon. Even Kelso, the moron of the group, finds a career in law enforcement as well as a daughter he had out of wedlock.

In some ways, Eric Forman is the evolution of stay at home children, such as Bud Bundy from Married with Children. But whereas Bud’s situation was often played for laughs and satire, Eric’s is played up more for dramatic purposes. And it some ways, it reflects the situation of arrested development. Obviously, this was unintentional on the producers’ part; they had no idea that their sitcom would run for 8 seasons and thus set the first episode in 1976 (such as to get the Star Wars reference in). But, just as the back end of the Vista Cruiser never went beyond 1979, so did Eric.

Then came an opportunity. Eric, after an awkward talk with his guidance counselor, finds a path. If Eric goes to Africa to help out, he can get payment for college. Obviously, Kitty and Donna do not take this news well. Donna is furious with Eric, stating how selfish he is for asking her to put on life on hold for him. Eric and Donna make up and Eric prepares himself to leave Point

In the background, Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher decided to go on with their careers. Ashton, having gained fame from his reality show Punk’d, decided to make a go at Hollywood along with Topher Grace left the show to pursue a movie career, starting with playing Eddie Brock in Spider-man 3. (Yeah… Didn’t work out so well, though he has found other parts in other movies).

And after 7 seasons, with Bob’s Polka band playing him off, Eric rides his Vista Cruiser to the airport finally saying “So Long, Point Place!”.

In Eric’s absence, the show didn’t really have a thematic crux. They just had their biggest turning moment and dramatic finish to the series. Originally, this was the series finale only for the show to still be popular and incur another season to make.

Say whatever you will about Topher Grace’s range (or lack there of) as an actor, his character, Eric, played a vital balance to the cast of wacky characters. Without him as the Straight Man, Hyde’s cynicism, Fez’s innocence, Jackie’s shallowness, Red’s anger and Kitty’s smothering had nowhere to essentially go. It’s not that the actors couldn’t bounce off each other but without an Eric character to balance all the chaos, the show became sort of a mess.

To replace Eric, the producers introduced Charlie, a son of Red’s War buddy, back in Season 7. Charlie is also a meek, unsure waif and honestly, I feel like he would’ve made a fine addition to the show. But, there was a complication. The real life actor who played Charlie was contacted by Fox to star in his own live action sitcom and couldn’t return. So at the start of Season 8, Charlie is killed off by falling off the water tower. Instead, the show picked Randy, an old friend of Donna’s to be in the group.

Randy sucks. Or rather, the idea of Randy sucks. He was an obvious attempt by the producers to replace Eric and Kelso by combining them into essentially one person. But, it didn’t work. Fans of the show hated him and it felt like a betrayal. Plus, it didn’t help that Randy had no chemistry with the rest of the cast. Or, maybe that’s just a symptom. Watching these 6 friends interact for 7 seasons only to lose 2 of them and replace them with this guy feels really cynical and cold in terms of marketing.

Just as well, the departure of both Kelso and Eric made the ratings tank and forced the show to end. (There’s an ongoing fan theory that the producers ‘sabotaged’ the show so they could finish production and didn’t force it to go on). Ratings got so bad, the show forced an endless amount of guest stars and even got Ashton Kutcher to come back.

The series finale was on New Year’s Day and Donna is worried Eric won’t come back from Africa. But, in those final moments, Eric returns to Pont Place, confesses his love for Donna, has one last circle with the gang and proceeds to go upstairs, leaving the basement empty. And finally, after 8 seasons and 200 episodes, that 70’s show ended, the sticker of the Vista Cruiser showing a 80’s stick, signaling the show to turn into 1980.

That 70’s show was a show that was a lot smarter than people took it credit for. What started as a blatant attempt to get ad space and another live action sitcom for the Fox Network transformed into a running commentary about family, friendship and high times.  And in the center of the show was Eric, the boy who grew up during this period.

And as much as the characters wanted things to stay the same, much like Red feeling uneasy to depressed to ready to change after losing his manufacturing jobs, finding a new job to finding a place to support his family alongside his wife, so did the rest of the cast.

Thank you, Eric Forman. Thank you for everything.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Countless Roads - Chapter 13

Fic: Countless Roads - Chapter 13 - Ao3

Fandom: Flash, Legends Pairing: Gen, Mick Rory/Leonard Snart, others

Summary: Due to a family curse (which some call a gift), Leonard Snart has more life than he knows what to do with – and that gives him the ability to see, speak to, and even share with the various ghosts that are always surrounding him.

Sure, said curse also means he’s going to die sooner rather than later, just like his mother, but in the meantime Len has no intention of letting superheroes, time travelers, a surprisingly charming pyromaniac, and a lot of ghosts get in the way of him having a nice, successful career as a professional thief.

———————————————————————————

Mick has been driving himself spare trying to investigate the attempts to kill Len of the past few months, and it’s starting to show in the way he broods over the topic any time there’s a moment to do so.

"At least whoever’s behind it haven't made any new tries recently," Len offers on the drive home from STAR Labs, where they’d dropped Jax off for a day of what Team Flash called ‘orientation’ and Len called ‘Caitlin running baseline tests while Cisco shows off their cool villain archives and tries to think of a decent villain name while Barry is at work’. Jax finally managed to finish the extended summer hours he promised to put in at the autoshop this week, so he’s ready to start getting involved in the Rogues at last. Besides, the delay meant that Len’s leg is fully healed by now. "The last one was all the way back on Black Hole Day. That’s something, ain’t it?"

"People don't order assassins – "

"Amateur assassins at best – "

"People don't order any type of assassins and then stop, Len," Mick replies. "There's something we're missing."

"I'm sure," Len says. "But we’ve been over it half a dozen times. I don’t know what else you think we can do.”

“If we sent out the ghosts –”

“To do what?” Len asks practically. “The ghosts are useful, but only to a certain degree, and only when they’re given orders. You know most of them aren’t stable enough to focus on a serious search like this.”

“I know, I know. S’why I’ve only been using the good ones. But –”

“Mick. If there was something I could think of, some angle, I would. But I don’t know why they started, and I don’t know why they stopped, either – and I don’t know why they shifted over to wanting me alive, either.”

“Assuming they didn’t always,” Mick grumbles. “Goddamn amateurs. I went back and double-checked, by the way – they were using Santini guns and bullets, every single time. Even that usher in the theater; I checked the bullet casings and there’s no doubt.”

“So we're back to thinking it was a frame-up job?”

“Guess it has to be. Why someone intent on framing a Family would only hire amateurs, though, I don’t know.”

“Maybe the goal is to have us go up against the Santinis, cause them trouble?”

“Nah. Even the Santinis have been answering our questions since we explained the whole hired killer thing; the Dons seem to be taking it as a personal insult that someone’s been handing out their guns.”

“Of course that’s what they care about,” Len says, shaking his head. From his perspective, he’s worried about the issue enough; there's nothing good ruminating on it further would do. They just have to wait for the next attempt, and that's that. “Anyway, to change the subject, I was thinking, for the Rogues, might be worth it to have a good getaway man."

"Thought that's why we had Jax?"

"He's only one guy, and you don't let me drive anymore," Len reminds Mick.

Mick shrugs. "If the unquiet dead attack you one more time while you’re behind the wheel, you'll lose your license for epilepsy anyway. I'm just preempting it."

"My license is fake, Mick."

"Consider me your DMV, then. How many people in your family history do you want to bet died of falling off their horses, huh?"

"Horses – "

"Don't knock horses. Horses are scary."

“Mick. Why are we talking about horses?” Len asks, because honestly he has no idea when that happened. It’s not that he disagrees – there was an incident when he was younger, when Lisa got it in her head that she wanted to go horseback riding and they’d been scared off by the sheer size of the beasts – but seriously, how had the horses entered the conversation?

“Because you won’t tell me the real reason you want to recruit someone new.”

Len groans. "I want someone else on the Rogues that's closer to Jax's age. You happy now?"

"See, that's a good reason. Who were you thinking?"

"Webber. He could use the money, and he's a speed demon."

Mick hums thoughtfully, then turns on the wrong exit to go home, but the right exit to take them over to Keystone – and the drag racing tracks.

"I'll take that as a yes," Len says, satisfied.

They find Webber counting up his cash at the end of a race, no car in sight, and looking anxious, which isn't an uncommon sight these days.

"Hey, WWW," Len says, leaning out of the car window. "How's the mom?"

Webber looks up, with a wry smile. "Still sick," he says. "But better. Not so much nausea anymore. Tell me you've got a won't-go-wrong job that needs a driver."

"Better," Len says. "How do you feel about trying to out-race a speedster through skill alone?"

Webber's eyes all but glow with excitement. "I can't afford to get arrested for it," he warns, because he sometimes remembers to be level-headed. "And I need money, not just speed."

"Cut of our profits or a flat fee each time, whatever's bigger," Len says. "You wear a mask, and the Flash has promised to make sure you don't get tossed in the clink if you obey a certain set of rules – no killing people, best efforts to hurt anyone, pick the targets carefully, that sort of thing. I run the show and you listen to me."

"The Flash promises? Man, I don't know what con you're running, but I want in."

"Adrenaline hog," Len says fondly. It takes one to know one. "Hop in, we'll give you a lift since you lost your keys."

"That obvious, huh? Jonesy’s crew won my ride, but I'm gonna buy it back."

"Wait till tomorrow," Mick advises. "He'll think you're not as desperate and drop the price a bit to make sure you buy it."

Webber climbs into the car. "True," he says. "But without you guys, I wouldn't have a way home otherwise, so I was desperate. Anyway, doesn’t matter now. Tell me about your newest scam."

"It's not a scam," Len objects. "It's – media managing, s'all. The real game goes on."

Webber arches his eyebrows.

"The way it works is this – "

It turns out that Jax has finished Team Flash orientation and is waiting for them back at what they’re currently using as the Rogues safehouse, which makes everything easier.

"Jax, meet Webber," Len says. "You'll be our go-to car guys, so bond. Learn each other's tricks. I want a well-oiled machine out of the two of you. Proper pumping engine."

"He knows literally nothing about cars," Webber tells Jax.

"No kidding," Jax says with a snort. "He doesn't even drive."

"I drive!" Len protests.

"Barely," both young men chorus, then smile at each other.

Len rolls his eyes. "I'm conceding the point only to encourage team morale."

"Wait, that works?" Mick asks. "I've got some other points for you to concede on – it'd certainly raise my morale – "

"No."

"My name's Jefferson Jackson," Jax tells Webber, ignoring Mick and Len. "Everyone calls me Jax."

"I think I remember you," Webber says. "Football QB for Bradley High, right? You kicked the Bobcats' ass up and down the field."

"You were a Bobcat?"

"Not on the team, but the school, yeah. I'll just apologize in advance."

"Nah, man, I'll apologize to you. That's the rowdiest school in the whole district – unless you count Holy Angels, and – "

"— no one ever counts Holy Angels," they conclude in unison with identical smirks.

Len shares bewildered glances with Mick. High school drama is something Len will never get. Real sports, even college ball, sure, but high school?

Webber sticks out a hand. "Wally West," he says. Jax shakes his hand, smiling.

"Webber, your real name is Wall-E?" Len says dubiously. "Like the robot movie?"

"No, you dweeb of a supervillain," Webber says, rolling his eyes. "As in, short for Wallace."

"Why do they call you Webber?" Jax asks.

"It's one of my racing handles in Keystone," Webber says, shaking his head. "See, my full name's actually Wallace Wickham West..."

"It is?" Len says, not without some real horror. "And here I thought Snart was bad."

"Snart is bad," Mick says, pulling out a beer from the fridge.

"I get it," Jax says, laughing. "World Wide Web, huh? WWW?"

"And from that, Webber," Webber says. "Either that or Wally’s fine. What brings you to these crazy bastards?"

"College tuition. You?"

"Mom's medical bills. I'm still hoping to scholarship my way into college."

"Tough road, man. Sorry about your mom. It bad?"

"Yeah, cancer."

"Shit. Let me tell my mom, she'll probably want to drop off a casserole. Or ten."

Webber cracks another grin. "Yeah, my mom used to do that, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah. That'd be good. A bunch of mom's friends ditched when she started getting really sick, and my dad’s not in the picture. She could use some company."

"I'll tell my mom tonight," Jax promises.

"And when you're done with that," Len says, "maybe you could go try out the cars out back and see if you think they need to be tuned up for the heist we're pulling on Friday."

"Friday? Short notice."

"Need to get the Rogues plan into action," Len says firmly. “No reason for delay.”

"Also, he's invited the Flash and Co. over for a potluck on Saturday to celebrate our new supervillain-superhero alliance and just realized how much money feeding a speedster's gonna cost," Mick says dryly. "Well. I realized, since I'm gonna be doing the feeding."

"I can't wait to actually meet the Flash," Jax says, bouncing a little, Webber nodding along.

"He's just a nerd in a red costume," Len warns them, but that doesn't seem to dim their enthusiasm one bit.

Especially not after he promises that after a few months of successful heists they’d be able to pick their own villain themes, with Cisco’s assistance.

The heist goes well enough – they get lots of publicity right next to the awful tenements near old McFeely Park, Flash lets them get away with about half the cash they'd lifted – the physical form of a wire transfer, Monsanto money being shipped in from the local farmers, and the farmers' obligations being done once they paid meant the loss was all on the corporation – and the potluck goes well, too.

Jax brings casseroles for everyone. "I have another three out back," he says to Webber, who'd brought soda. "You don’t want to know. Even my Great Aunt Josephine got in on the action when she heard the words 'speedster metabolism'. Your mom's gonna be descended on by an army, just warning you."

"She could use an army," Webber says, eyes suspiciously wet. "Thanks."

Barry brought pizza. Twenty-seven boxes of pizza.

"You're a crazy person," Webber tells him, opening one of the boxes which has the weirdest pizza toppings Len's ever seen. "But you've got great taste."

"You're all crazy," Len says. "Barry, this here's Webber – or Wally, whatever – and he's gonna be a junior Rogue, too."

"Nice to meet you," Barry says, shaking Webber's hand. "This is Caitlin Snow, her husband Ronnie Raymond, Cisco Ramon, Iris West, and my ghost-mom, Nora Allen."

"Ghost-mom?" Webber asks.

"Did Len not tell you about the ghost thing?" Iris asks. "It's a hell of a story."

"No, I just know the basics – hey, wait, you said your last name is West?"

"Yeah, Iris West."

"Cool," Webber says. "I'm Wally West."

"Nice! Last name bros!"

"Maybe we're related," Webber says. "Cousins or something. That'd be awesome – god, this is gonna be so awkward for first time meeting conversation, but my mom's sick – cancer – she needs a bone marrow transplant and I'm not compatible, so we’ve been asking people – "

"I'd be happy to get tested," Iris says immediately. "Absolutely. My mom died when I was a kid, when I was too young to really remember, so – yeah. Happy to help."

"You're awesome," Webber says happily. "I'll ask her about maybe-cousins when I next see her."

"My dad's working tonight – he's a cop and he doesn't want to officially come to hang out with criminals – but I'll ask him, too. That would be so cool; I've always wanted a little cousin!"

“Cop, huh? He come down hard on drag racing?”

“Nah,” Iris says, laughing. “He doesn’t really care; says it’s better than drugs. My fiancé – also a cop, also not attending – says it’s a bad habit, but that he’ll only arrest you if you’re racing somewhere there could be collateral casualties.”

“No problem, then. That’s not my scene…”

"Food's almost ready," Mick calls from the kitchen. "Ghosts are laying it out as we speak."

"Kind of rude not to invite them to eat if they're serving, isn't it?" Cisco asks Len.

"I'm not made of life energy," Len snipes back, then pauses. "Well, technically – "

Cisco snickers. "Wish I'd known about the ghost stuff when I named you."

"The 'Captain' bit kinda covers the 'having a group to order about' stuff. Also, how would you fit it in with the cold theme? Don’t say Chillbones."

"Don’t be so down on it, it’s a good name! Maybe – Ghost Cold?"

"Sounds like a disease."

"Yeah, I’m not feeling it. Let me think about it a bit more."

"Don't waste your brainpower. Let's discuss what we’ll be naming our Little League Rogue Squad..."

"The food looks fantastic," Caitlin tells Mick.

"Thanks," he replies. "Say, you're the doc, right?"

"Uh, yes."

"Great. I'd like to talk to you about getting some updated scans of Len's brain -"

"He's had another attack?"

"We fought it off before it got severe, but the unquiet dead are causing more problems – there's been more and more of them coming to Central as Len's power increases and since friendlies are more likely to pass on eventually, the proportion’s getting worse."

"Yes, I see the problem. When was the last time he got scanned..?"

"So you're Firestorm, huh?" Jax asks Ronnie. "That's pretty neat. You and – what's his name, the grey-haired professor?"

"We're actually hoping to find another Firestorm," Ronnie tells him. "Right now, my partner, Martin Stein – he couldn't be here tonight; his wife was attending a dinner and he went with her – he and I are bound together."

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, there's a mild psychic component, but the principal thing is that we need to merge on a semi-regular basis or else, boom. But if we had a third Firestorm – not even a third one in the actual merge, just someone else capable of doing it – we think that could lighten the load. Basically, we think that might mean we could stabilize it further meaning that we wouldn't have to merge all the time – "

"I think I get it," Jax says. "Triads are more stable than pair-bonds."

"Exactly! You're into chemistry?"

"Hoping to be a mechanical engineer, actually."

"That was my major! What program were you thinking? CCU?"

"Nearest and cheapest."

"The engineering program's not shabby at all, actually; it cleans up pretty good nation-wide. Were you thinking of any specializations? Professor Babasijibomi is great – "

“I haven’t even started thinking about that, but that’s good to know…”

Len looks around the room, ghosts floating in with grins as they watch the bickering, living people chattering and eating, Cisco talking to Lisa over Skype –

All in all, things are going pretty well.

“Never ask me for another favor ever again,” Len tells Barry a month or so later. "Ever."

“You think I’m happy about this?” Barry asks, making a face. “They’re my parents. Besides, you have no place to talk, you also regularly sleep with a dead guy!”

“I’ve never given anyone life so they can have ‘released from prison’ sex,” Len says. “I feel dirty now.”

“You’re a thief.”

“This is worse.”

“…yeah,” Barry concedes, shaking his head. “So, what do you think? About Zoom and the breaches?”

“I think you’re a lot more tolerable now that you’ve stopped blaming yourself for it,” Len replies, willing to take any conversation shift away from what he just empowered Nora to do. Also, he’s right.

Barry rolls his eyes. “I still think it’s kind of my fault, since I did cause the singularity by powering up the Accelerator before deciding against going into the past, but I have accepted – how did you call it – my role as a pawn in Wells’ scheme, and now I’m working on internalizing the idea. That wasn’t what I meant, though. Jay says –”

“I don’t like him.”

“Thank you! I don’t either but everyone’s just saying that I’m being too suspicious because of the whole thing with Wells.”

“You’re being reasonable,” Len says. “Listen, at your age, a lot of people look for a mentor, and there’s a lot of people willing to take advantage of that – especially if they have access to your powers as a result.”

“Jay doesn’t need it, though,” Barry says reluctantly. “He’s the Flash on his own world.”

“So he’s a speedster?”

“…no, he lost his powers when Zoom threw him through the breach.”

Len arches his eyebrows. “A speedster who lost his speedster powers, who now wants to mentor you? Sounds a bit familiar, don’t it?”

Barry makes a face. “What do I do, though? There’s definitely an Earth-2, and this Zoom guy is definitely sending metas through to our world with orders to kill me.”

“I’ll have Mick send some of my better ghosts with you as guards,” Len decides. “Pick one to be your go-to ghost, whichever one you like best, and they can monitor the others, maybe help you keep track of this Jay guy, see what he gets up to on his own, if you know what I mean. He doesn’t know about the ghost thing yet, so that’s an advantage we have.”

Barry nods. “Thanks,” he says. “That’ll help a lot. And can’t I just use Mom?”

“If your mom keeps getting everything she’s ever wanted, she’s going to have no regrets in no time, at which point she passes on,” Len reminds Barry. “And that’s a good thing. You want her to pass on.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Barry sighs. “I’ll pick someone, then, and have Mom train them up; that’ll give us a bit more time with her.”

“She worries about you,” Len says. “But passing on is really the best thing for ghosts. They all seem to really like it, even the unquiet ones.”

“So we’ll keep an eye on Jay,” Barry says. “That makes me feel better already, actually. Trust but verify.”

“I’m also going to assign the Junior Squad to cover you with these new metas,” Len decides. “A few minor confrontations the next few weeks – they can plan them out themselves with you over texts – give you some eyes on the outside.”

Barry nods. “What about you? Any word on the Santini thing?”

“Not a peep, but then again, no new murder attempts, either. I’m taking it as a win.”

“Mick isn’t,” Barry says knowingly.

Len sighs. “Yeah, well, can’t have everything. You go figure out this Zoom business. Say, have you considered checking this Garrick’s story?”

“Checking it? What do you mean?”

“Set Cisco and Stein on figuring out a way to get you to Earth-2 and back and check the guy’s story. You know, credentials, birth certificate, shit like that. And while you’re there, well, maybe you can find Zoom before he finds you.”

“They’re already working on stabilizing the breaches to get Jay home,” Barry says, brightening. “And if I take the fight to Zoom –”

“Less collateral damage here,” Len says, nodding. “Let me know if you need help; we can team up to fight off the outsider.” He taps his cold gun. “I specialize in speedsters, after all.”

“Thanks,” Barry says sincerely, hopping up. “I’ll let you know.”

With a crackle of lightning and a gust of wind, he’s gone.

Shaking his head in amusement, Len texts the new instructions to Jax and Wally – they’ve done a handful of heists with him now, they should be ready to strike out on their own, especially with Barry’s willing assistance – and contemplates, for the first time in quite a while, a more or less entirely free weekend.

More or less.

“Hey, boss,” Mick says, coming through the door. “We still hitting the cashier’s cage at the racetrack tomorrow?”

“Indeed we are,” Len says. “Let’s go pick up Lisa at the train station, treat her to dinner. Tomorrow’s going to be back to the basics, family only.”

“Good,” Mick says. “We could use something nice and simple.”

Maybe they were just tempting fate, saying something like that, because the cashier’s cage went sweet and easy, no problem, but a parked van’s doors snapping open and people in dark masks swinging batons and smashing them down on their heads is an entirely unexpected twist.

Len sees Lisa go down, hears Mick yelling, and lunges forward, only to hear a crackle of electricity – similar, yet subtly different from the Flash’s – and then everything goes dark.

Len hates tasers.

He wakes up –

He’s not sure where he is. The trunk of a car, judging by the way he’s been stuffed inside and the bumping and shaking as they drive. A car, not the van from earlier.

It’s strangely quiet.

All of his joints hurt, electricity having done them no good, and his head hurts, too. His head especially, actually; the back of the skull feels like he got bashed instead of shocked.

He’s not bound, which is perhaps the most surprising part.

It’s quiet.

Len’s not sure why he keeps thinking that. The road keeps rattling, there’s a ringing in his ears…

It’s still too quiet.

The car shudders to a halt.

There’s a slammed door.

Footsteps.

Len tenses, waiting to see what would greet him when the trunk opened – to make the split-second decision whether to leap out aggressively or to hang back, make a few snide remarks, and find out what whoever-it-is knows and wants before attacking.

The trunk is popped open.

And then –

All of Len’s muscles seize up at once, the memory of old terrors hitting him straight in the gut.

“Hello, son,” Lewis says.

[textsfromumbridge]

Can you do the second reunited au with the singer for Enjonine? :D

“this is so unfair there’s this song getting popular and the singer sounds like you and all these lyrics almost sound like they could be about me but you’re singing about lost love and you weren’t in love with me wait I’m watching the music video and crying and hey that’s definitely you wtf” au

(for you, always, even doing this TWICE because my laptop fucked up and closed the wrong thing and made me lose EVERYTHING)

…

Her arms are held tightly behind her back by a burly security guard, while his comrade talks into a walkie. It leaves her free to kick at him, but she doesn’t appear to be doing much damage to him, seeing as he’s a head taller and about three or four times her weight. 

“This is a violation of my rights,” she hollers as loudly as she possibly can. “I didn’t do anything and then mister Gorilla just grabbed me.”

How she ended up like this? Well, that is quite a story. 

This whole thing started back in freshman year of high school, when she had a stupid crush on her old neighbor Marius. He’d just always been nice to her even when everything went to shit. 

Not the point. 

So, to make him notice her, she started hanging out with his friends, all guys and most of them pretty damn cute. And she figured, why not make Marius jealous by hanging out with these boys and talking to them and maybe doing a little flirting?!

Well, it only worked with one guy. The only times Marius ever got annoyed was when she talked to Gabriel, the friend Marius only referred to as Enjolras. 

The first time she backed Gabriel up in a discussion, Marius about had a coronary before dragging Eponine off to lecture her about how Enjolras was a bad influence and she should not be hanging out with him. 

These guys were surprisingly hostile towards each other for people who were considered friends. They yelled at each other about most everything, from general political theory to popular culture to the merits of Napoleon. Gabriel usually made more sense than Marius, but she was never going to say that to her stupid crush. 

So she continued to side with Gabriel (when he wasn’t blatantly wrong about everything), figuring that Marius would soon figure out that he was just jealous of Eponine’s support and attention. She continued to think that until Marius showed up with a pretty blonde girlfriend Eponine recognized from a girl she’d been in a group home with after the first time her parents got arrested. 

She didn’t get along with the little bird then, and she knew that was not going to change - Marius was already lost to her. 

But by then she’d actually started to like Gabriel as a person. He was her friend, even though he was the epitome of a rich, privileged white boy and there was no way their worlds were supposed to collide like this. 

Still, he made sure to listen to her point of view, and he did not try to force any charity on her and her siblings. Most of the kind things he tried to do for them were framed as being a part of a decent friendship, and she let him do that - because there had been many a time when she’d hidden him from a debutant his parents were desperate to set him up with. 

His parents were terrible elitist snobs and she occasionally wondered how they even managed to spawn such a sincere son - until she realized what a terrifying force of nature Gabriel could be. All for the sake of a better world, of course. 

The friendship lasted all through high school, but by senior year her now best friend started keeping secrets and keeping his distance from her. Clearly he’d figured out that she’d started having not so platonic feelings for him and was trying to let her down gently and with her dignity intact. 

When they went to colleges on opposite sides of the country, the damage was already done. He’d helped her so much with applications and scholarships, but they couldn’t manage to bring their friendship back to where it used to be. 

She hadn’t seen him in six years, not since that dreadful Thanksgiving sophomore year of college, and while she did miss the boy he used to be quite terribly, she’d managed without him. Even though that stupid crush had never quite gone away completely. 

That and her college friend Chetta, while amazing, could not quite replace her Gabe. And he was hers, in a lot of the ways that mattered - that nickname was hers and hers alone. But now, after six years? There was no telling how many boys and girls would have been allowed to call him that over the years. 

Even though she definitely worked with a big part of their target demographic, she’d barely heard of Les Amis de L’ABC - only to understand the French pun inherent in their name (her high school fosters had taught her that language). But they were obviously a boyband, so she hadn’t actually bothered with the band members or the songs. 

Until fourteen year old Claire, one of her favorite clients and a big fan of the Amis, had a terrible day and all she wanted was to listen to her favorite band with her social worker. Eponine figured she could tune out for most of it - she’d put herself through a lot if it helped her kids. 

And then Claire played the first song, the latest single “The First To Fall”. It seemed slightly different than the average boyband fair, but it was obviously still a love song - it had to be. 

When the lead singer started to sing, Eponine just about choked on air. It sounded like him, like that time in junior year when he revealed that he was actually quite the singer and he made her blush by crooning a classic in the secrecy of her bedroom. 

“Is something wrong?” Claire was always astute. 

“Just a bit of a cough,” Eponine tried really hard to sound casual. “Just start again at the beginning.” 

Claire listened well, for once, and Eponine steeled herself. She just had to get through this one song without choking on the memories of a high school crush and her first real love. She could do that. 

Until she heard the lyrics to the chorus: “I was the first to fall / you built your barricade / I fight here in your name / feelings won’t be betrayed”. 

Feelings? How did this song sound so much like him, like them? How did this singer manage to sing her high school experience back to her?

It couldn’t be! 

“So, what did you think?” Claire asked. 

“Not bad for a boyband,” Eponine shrugged. 

Of course, Claire considered that very high praise from her usually so stoic social worker, and pulled up the music video, just to torture Eponine some more. Oh, she wasn’t doing it on purpose, but Eponine really did start to believe in karma at that point. 

She obviously deserved this pain. 

Ferre was the first one she recognized, dorky glasses exchanged for a model that was a little more hip, and his pin straight hair styled into a messy just out of bed look. He’d come a long way from the geek he was in high school, unlike Courf, who looked basically the same as he did back then. 

And then the screen was filled with Gabriel Enjolras himself.

That and a single ticket to an almost sold-out concert is what led her to this point, being held by Burly Security Dude right at the entrance to the backstage area. 

“I just need to talk to Gabriel,” she is trying to explain to Walkie Guy. “I went to high school with these idiots. You can just tell him Eponine is here.” 

Burly Guy continues to have a tight hold on her hands, and she knows that there will be bruises. She is not a fangirl, but clearly they think she is out here for nefarious reasons. 

It should make her happy that Gabe and the boys are so well-protected, but right now she just sees it as a giant annoyance. She is someone they actually know, and someone Gabe will actually want to see - or so she hopes. 

“I promise to leave if he won’t see me,” she vows. “I’d cross my heart and hope to die but I’m losing feeling in my hands.” 

That finally loosens Burly’s grip, and he actually appears to look a little guilty as he sees the state of her wrists. She would feel triumphant if she wasn’t exhausted and in pain, but at least Walkie is finally trying to get in touch with Gabriel for her. 

She waits for only a minute or so, but it feels like three days. 

“Apparently she’s cool,” Walkie only seems slightly skeptical. “You can follow the PA and he’ll take you straight to Mr. Enjolras.” 

With some muttering about how he isn’t aware Mr. Enjolras even has a first name, Burly holds the door open for her. The PA boy - is he even old enough to buy his artists alcohol? - is already waiting for her, motioning for her to follow him down a partly lit hallway. 

There’s a door at the end of the hall, and just like the last one it is opened for her. The PA waits for her to enter the room before closing it behind her, leaving her in a dressing room with just… Gabe!

“Eponine,” his voice is deeper than it used to be as it wraps around her name. 

His blond hair is longer than the spikier look he had in high school - he looks more like Danny Zuko now than he did in their version of the musical. There are hints of laughter lines around his bright eyes, and it looks like he finally filled out his formerly gangly form. 

But his bright smile is somehow exactly the same - it even has the same butterfly-inducing effect. 

“Gabe,” she almost whispers. 

He hears her, judging by how his smile gets impossibly wider. He’s pretty much giving the Joker a run for his money at this point. 

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he breathes. 

Before she can say another word, he pulls her in close for a hug that isn’t quite like the ones they used to share. The smell she breathes in is similar but not quite the same, but her head still ends up snuggling into his neck business. 

Oh, she still remembers that ridiculous rant fondly. 

Just when she relaxes in his arms, her arms having rediscovered their old familiar place around his waist, he pulls away slightly. They are no longer hugging, but he still pulls her into his side. 

“I missed you,” he is somehow still smiling. 

Can they really just slip right back into a friendship after six years of nothing, and does she even want that? Sure, she’d be lucky if he still wants to be her friend, but after that song she’s wondering if maybe, just maybe, there is more still in the cards for them. 

“You were in love with me?” she has to ask about the song. 

It’s been going through her head ever since she heard that damn song - he did have feelings for her then. Unless it’s all for the song, but she doubts that. He never used to be that kind of guy. 

Gabe has always been open and genuine about his feelings - except for senior year. She thought it had been about her crush - but maybe not. 

“You didn’t know?” Gabe appears stunned. 

“Of course I didn’t know you felt the same way,” she is exhausted and the words just slip out. 

He freezes briefly, and then he presses a soft kiss into her hair. 

“We’re idiots,” he mutters. 

“Not so much anymore,” she grins as she finally pulls him down to kiss her. 

[fantasiesromancechicklits]

In Depth Thomas Doherty interview

TWO things hit home immediately on meeting Scotland’s Disney star Thomas Doherty; the first is he has the arresting good looks normally associated with boy band members, or those young men you see on giant posters on the wall of a trendy clothes shop, wearing nice tops. When Doherty later informs he has over a million Instagram followers it’s not hard to see why.

The second thing is his ankle tattoo, an inscription of sorts, but although I’m sitting a yard away I can’t make the words out. Some foreign language I’ve never come across? We talk about the tattoo puzzle later, meantime the young man from Edinburgh chats about his new Disney role.

Doherty, who is also one of the stars of Disney Channel musical, The Lodge, now stars as Harry Hook in Descendants 2, a sequel to the international TV franchise featuring the adventures of the teen offsprings of the great Disney villains such as Cruella de Vil and Maleficent.

He explains why he’s wild about Harry. “I love playing him,” says the actor who hopes his pirate Son of Hook will be the most evil villain of the past 100 years, badder than old King Kong, and meaner than a junkyard dog, (to lift from the late American songwriter Jim Croce.)

“He can be very hostile and intimidating and unpredictable, but at the same time he has a charming quality. It’s easy to see why people love him – but hate to love him at the same time. He’s such good fun to play. And his character brings a lot to the rest of the film.

Doherty seems to have natural warmth and to be entirely unassuming. As he tells of playing Captain Hook’s wicked progeny, it’s with an endearing sense of incredulity; the actor’s voice has a questioning air, wondering how he can, at just 22, be part of this worldwide franchise, be part of the offspring of the Disney parents who gave the world Miley Cyrus and Britney Selena Gomez.

He later reveals however he isn’t an innocent abroad. But for the moment we continue talk of Harry Hook. Did he channel anyone in particular when he became bad boy Harry? “I did,” he offers. “I thought of Heath Ledger when he played the Joker in Batman. His performance was amazing. He showed how you can totally immerse himself in this huge character, yet make him truthful. It’s such a shame we’ve lost him.

“When I play Harry I want that sort of truth.” He adds: “There’s a real dichotomy about him and it’s important to understand he’s still a kid, which means there’s a lot of teenage angst and frustration in the mix.

“You forget he’s the son of Hook, and don’t think about the pirate ship. What I want to come across is he’s a young man with a lot of problems – peer pressure, father pressures, and loss in his life. And this manifests itself in anger and aggression.” He laughs: ���But it’s all good fun.”

Doherty clearly brings an intelligence to the role (his mother, who works in a bank – his dad is a financial adviser – made sure he finished his Highers before she agreed on him taking off to musical theatre college) but you discover there’s also an innate toughness about him which the model looks don’t suggest initially.

“I grew up hoping to become a professional footballer,” he says, revealing a world far removed from fairy princesses and camp.

His talent was such it led to professional trials with the likes of Berwick Rangers, but not quite enough to land the big leagues. “My brother was also a footballer and went to America on a footballing scholarship, so I guess I was following in his footsteps.”

Yet, while Doherty tackled and twisted his way over East Lothian grass he kept a dark, or rather a colourful, secret from many of his school chums.

“While I was seen as a football player, no-one was aware I also did musical theatre,” he says in mock conspiratorial voice. “I’d have my books and packed lunch at the top of my bag but at the bottom I’d hide my tap shoes.

“On Saturdays, for example, I’d go to musical theatre from nine ‘till one and then rush off to the game.” He adds, laughing: “Then during the week I’d turn up for musical theatre with my knees all cut and bruised. It was all a bit Billy Elliott. But I loved both.”

His very close friends accepted his leanings: “Yes, but any 13-year-old boy who wears leotard and tights two days a week is going to get slagged off,” he says, grinning. “Young boys were wary of acting. There was a sense it was all a bit effeminate. And I’d get teased. but it’s part of the banter. And my friends were fantastic and so supportive when it came to seeing my shows.”

Doherty had been attending a local drama group from a young age, but aged 13 he “really began to enjoy it". When the football dream was kicked out of the park, he decided to focus on performing and applied to the Academy of Performing Arts to study musical theatre. “I always wanted to work in TV and film but didn’t feel I was mature enough to go to acting school. And I could sing a bit, and dance as well because I had already done a lot of musical theatre shows.”

At the end of his three years, he performed his showcase and landed an agent. Now, landing representation is every young performer’s dream. But when you coax it out of Doherty there’s a realisation agents were almost queueing around the block to sign him up.

You would imagine they saw him as a cert for a role in EastEnders, a teen heartbreaker shoe-in for Hollyoaks?

“Yes, I met a few agents and some of them suggested they would get me into the likes of Hollyoaks. But it didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel passionate about the idea and felt I would be cheating a little bit.”

What happened was he worked in theatre for a short time, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in a play about the Black Death, boils and all. Then he landed some film work in the likes of Hercules before being cast in teen musical The Lodge as Sean, filming in Northern Ireland.

He switches conversational channels to offer a bigger picture. “I don’t thinking living two steps ahead in life as being in any way productive. I like to live in the moment. That’s why there isn’t a big career plan mapped out.

“In the six months before leaving college I had the idea I’d get an agent and move to Hollywood and land films and do the red carpet thing. And then I got a little taste of it and I realised I was trying to fill my life with stuff. But I also realised if that was my intent it would never really be filled.”

What? These days actors talk of career moves as if it were a board game strategy. What made Doherty so different? What happened to bring about this epiphany?

Seems he has gone down the way of modelling after all.

“While I was doing The Lodge I was also meeting these modelling agencies, and at the same time I was going to acting auditions. But I wasn’t really thinking about the auditions; I was thinking about what the auditions would bring me. Then I went to LA and did the photo shoot for Teen Vogue and came back and thought ‘That was so much fun’ and people were saying to me it was amazing, yet at the same time it all felt very hollow, a bit vacuous.”

Doherty realised he was being judged for his looks alone. It didn’t sit well. “Old friends or people who didn’t know me were giving lots of attention, and it was weird when girls would scream or ask for photos but it wasn’t fulfilling.”

He felt lost, unsure of the road to take. “I began reading Eckhart Tolle a lot, (the spiritual teacher and author of books such as The Power Of Now) who has been asking why we are trying to fill our lives with stuff. You know; you get the car or the big house or whatever and then you ask yourself what you did to deserve it.

“You wonder if life is all about getting two million followers on social media.”

He has in fact just a million. The actor grins and then takes on a serious look: “But the thing is it doesn’t mean anything, except that ... well, it doesn’t define me.”

It’s quite unusual to find a young man aged just 22 who has been self-aware enough to examine the very point of his being. He could have gone the Bieber route and created minor drugs/alcohol mayhem. But of course, he’s also contained to a certain extent by the demands of Disney. The corporation Disney expects a lot of its young stars, in terms of how they represent themselves to the public, displaying a clean cut wholesomeness.

So how does Doherty balance out the Disney deal with the need to be a young man and have fun – and take a few risks? “Just don’t get caught,” he says, grinning. “But what you don’t do is overthink your status and let it get into your head because it will be a bit restrictive. What you have to do is just see yourself as a you are, which is a normal 22-year-old boy. And don’t let a couple of screaming girls sway you in any way.”

Does he read the tabloid tales of those who have lost the plot? Clearly he’s aware that celebrity is the mask that eats from within. Just think Heath Ledger.

“Yes, and I’m aware if you don’t be careful you crash and burn. Jim Carey once said he wished everyone could spend a week being rich and famous, to see what it’s really like. Attention can bring problems. But I’ve got it under control.”

What helps, apart from Eckhart Tolle and a few pages of natural common sense, is Doherty has a regular girlfriend, who happens to be his Descendants 2 co-star. “Her name is Dove Cameron and she lives in Los Angeles.” His voice becomes more animated as he expands: “She was here for the Edinburgh Festival for the first time and she loved it. She’s great. She’s like my pal, and a really good laugh. The plan is I’m going to head over to LA to live. We’re going to get a place together and live on Venice Beach.”

You tell him he’ll love it. And you’re sick with envy. “Thanks,” he says, smiling. “I think I’m making the right move. London’s great, and so is Edinburgh but it’s too cold.”

Doherty is relaxed about the future. He may be doing another season of The Lodge, and “hopefully a Descendants 3". But thanks to his Instagram success he has a regular income stream, independent of what he earns from acting. “I want to test the water,” he says of work possibilities in Tinseltown.

But gently.

“It’s good to have goals and a career and all the rest of it, but at the same time I want to enjoy life.”

He means it. The actor becomes truly animated when I tell of a young Scots actor, Declan Laird, currently making his way in Hollywood, who plays for a showbiz football team. Declan will get him a game.

“That sounds fantastic,” he says, breaking into a wide smile. “Although I’ll have to watch I don’t get kicked. But of course I won’t tell anyone I’m playing.”

We say goodbyes, but the ankle tattoo questions has to be answered. What the hell language is that? “It’s Elvish,” he declares, as if I should have known it’s Tolkien tongue.

“I’m a huge Lord Of The Rings fan, and it’s a quote from Gandalf: ‘All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that’s given to us.’ Good, eh?”

Perfect line, Thomas. Just perfect.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/15597316.Hook_lines_and_thinker__meet_the_rising_Scottish_film_star/

[lilydawsonfield]

Yesterday I felt strangely calm. I remembered who I'd been before. Before my trauma which happened in Utah my 2nd year of college.

I found an apartment with a boy, Herman, a studio apartment in the foothills of Salt Lake City. The bed folded out of the wall and the iron latticed picture window overlooked the whole valley.

I believed we were meant for each other because of several strange synchronicities and congruencies and happenings. The very first time I saw him, I felt like he was my destiny. He was a tennis player from San Francisco from a wealthy family on a full ride tennis scholarship. His beauty was breathtaking. Everywhere he went people looked. Everywhere he went, people tried to pick him up. Herman was a loner like me. He was decidedly unusual. I'll never forget when we were walking along and he said that he used to think shadows were real and life was the shadow.

I lived with him in the studio apt. for one and a half years with no telephone. I became isolated.

He remolded me, by non-stop criticism and control. But I thought it was all for my good. I had previously had lots of friends, but I very soon had none. He told me they were all losers. He worked me hard. I was soon a non-drinker, non-smoker who played tennis every day. I trained like he did, running every day up into the foothills for miles. I had 2 ballet classes/day. I worked hard at my engineering major classes.

Herman and I hitchhiked everywhere. I hitchhiked everywhere by myself too, including up the canyons to ski by myself at Alta after classes. Herman and I stole things everywhere we went. There were some truly terrible incidents with him. Getting arrested (he ditched me so I was the only one who got caught). ....But worst of all were his temper tantrums. He flew into blind rages over very unpredictable minor offenses such as not lining up the bacon on the grill neatly. He then smashed everything in the apartment with his tennis racket, including me.

When our lease was up, we had to find another place to live. We started looking at other apartments. I realized if I continued living with him, if I married him, he would hurt the kids. Oh and meanwhile, the voices in my head had started. I was so young, only 18 when I moved in with him, I didn't understand how mentally ill I had become or what had happened to me in this process. I loved him so much. He had re-molded me into a person who people were impressed by. My old friends really looked like scumbags. I felt superior. My lifestyle with Herman involved tennis tours through the northwest United States. Watching him play tennis was incredible. He was nationally ranked and U of U was #1 in the nation. His family in San Francisco, which we'd hitchhiked out to, were very wealthy. Their San Anselmo location was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen.

I had to escape him and I deceived him with a plan which involved moving back into the dorms to save money. He had been kicked off the tennis team and lost his scholarship when we were caught stealing a stereo from the tennis club at one of his tennis matches. And although his dad was rich, he was totally stingy with him and weirdly perverse. Oh, and I had learned along the way, that as a teen, Herman had been lured by William Ball who was the founder of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco into paid sex. Of which he felt honored to have been chosen by such a prestigious and cool and prominent person.

William Ball (director)

[flauntpage]

Your Monday Morning Roundup

It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.

The Eagles earned a sloppy 33-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers in less than ideal conditions yesterday. With the victory, the Birds improved to 7-1 and extended their win streak to six games, both of which are best in the NFL right now. Go through the win again with our live-thread.

Also, see how the CB staff did with their predictions for the contest.

Carson Wentz and Alshon Jeffery connected for the first time this season the way everyone envisioned in the off-season:

WR1 TD! http://pic.twitter.com/Swo2lPGQWV

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) October 29, 2017

And that prompted another baseball celebration afterwards:

In Ertz's defense, Alshon was crowding the plate. #FlyEaglesFly http://pic.twitter.com/ifrTMJxe8W

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 29, 2017

Also, it was the first time Brent Celek has faced his little brother, who is on the 49ers, in an NFL game.

For those of you who watched the game at home, your heart stopped for a few seconds when the feed suddenly changed to FXX.

Stay locked to CB all day today for the best day-after Eagles coverage around.

The Birds host the Broncos next week. It’s slated for a 1pm kick-off and is on CBS.

Let’s go.

But first, a word from our sponsors:

Legal. Check out Krasno, Krasno and Onwudinjo when you need a workers’ compensation or social security attorney.

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  The Roundup:

The Redskins and Cowboys battled in torrential downpours with Dallas emerging victorious. The loss severely hurt Washington’s playoff chances this season. The New York Giants were on a bye.

Elsewhere around the NFL, all except for a few Texans kneeled during the national anthem in response to their owner’s remarks during the week:

http://pic.twitter.com/XeBcrrgqtO

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 29, 2017

They blew a late lead to the Seahawks.

The Patriots defeated the Chargers, 21-13, and Bill Bellichek was his usual self afterwards:

Belichick just ate this guy's heart. His "Ellis from Die Hard" manner didn't help his cause. #NEvsLAC #Patriots http://pic.twitter.com/CGsgMaqQiv

— Tom Shattuck (@tomshattuck) October 29, 2017

—

From the gridiron to the diamond…Game 5 of the World Series was won last night by the Astros, 13-12.

The Sixers were there:

.@sixers @mlbworld_series in Houston! http://pic.twitter.com/MMCcizfgaE

— Tom McGinnis (@McGinnisThomas) October 29, 2017

Joel Embiid was scouting the talent:

#76ers center Joel Embiid is a #Dodgers fan. Who knew? http://pic.twitter.com/Cce2S50E4z

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) October 29, 2017

Safe to say Embiid was enjoying the game as well:

Joel Embiid was all of us watching that game!

(: @JoelEmbiid) http://pic.twitter.com/0lN5XxFa3C

— SB Nation (@SBNation) October 30, 2017

Game 6 is slated for Halloween Night at 8:20pm in LA.

Hopefully by then this baseball-gate will be figured out:

Pitchers and coaches from both the Dodgers and Astros complained Saturday night about the World Series baseballs—and this time the controversy is not just about liveliness. They say there is a new problem: the baseballs used in the World Series are slicker than the ones used in the regular season because of a difference in the grain of the leather. The slicker World Series balls particularly make it hard to throw a good slider, they claim.

—

Perhaps Gabe Kapler could hitch a ride back to Philly with the Sixers as Kapler will become the next Phillies manager. It’s safe to say the Phillies will have the hottest manager in baseball.

—

More not-so-good, but not-so-unexpected news came down on Sunday afternoon regarding Markelle Fultz and his shoulder:

A team source confirms that Fultz has now seen three specialists, all of whom have concluded that there’s no structural damage. From the sounds of it, Fultz should be eligible to return sometime after three weeks, presumably once he’s brought back up to speed and has time to practice with the team after his follow-up visit. I would also imagine that sitting Fultz has a lot to do with his mental state as well. Playing through an injury while limited as an established player is one thing, doing so as a rookie is another. It does no one any good to for Fultz to have his confidence further eroded playing with an injury.

Without the top draft pick, the Sixers earned a nice, road win over Nerlens Noel and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night. Our Kevin Kinkead compiled his takeaways.

The Sixers visit the Rockets tonight at 8pm.

—

The Flyers defeated the Maple Leafs over the weekend, but suffered a big loss. From Anthony SanFilippo’s takeaways:

He [Gostisbehere] was a victim of an unnecessary hit by Leafs center Leo Komorov that drove him into the boards face first, resulting in a probable concussion.

It’s the second head injury this month for Gostisbehere, who was in danger of missing the season opener after a similar hit in the Flyers’ final preseason game, but he played and prospect defenseman Sam Morin sat in the press box for the first four games of the season before being sent back to the Phantoms.

With Andrew MacDonald already sidelined for at least a month with a knee injury, the Flyers defense could be in dire straits if Gostisbehere has to miss any extended time.

The Flyers return to the ice tonight at home against the Arizona Coyotes. Puck drops at 7pm.

—

In college football, Penn State was upset by Ohio State as the Nittany Lions blew an 18-point lead, twice. Also, surging Iowa State upset then fourth-ranked TCU.

Penn State wasn’t the the only one getting tripped up at the Horseshoe:

that freaking stair…. #GoBucks http://pic.twitter.com/Jjg3PonZW9

— abby grau (@abby_grau13) October 29, 2017

The result dropped PSU in the latest Associated Press Top 25 and catapulted the Buckeyes. Here is the new top 10:

Alabama

Georgia

Ohio State

Wisconsin

Notre Dame

Clemson

Penn State

Oklahoma

Miami

TCU

Those rankings lose meaning a bit starting this week with the first College Football Playoff Rankings of the season set to be released on Tuesday night.

Locally, Temple fell to Army in overtime, but had a feel-good moment late last week. I love these videos:

"He is EVERYTHING that this program is all about."-@CoachCollins

Pretty great morning for Rob Ritrovato… Who is now on full scholarship http://pic.twitter.com/D7I6QP9aiY

— Temple Football (@Temple_FB) October 27, 2017

In the Arizona State-USC game, the officials needed to get the teams from the locker room to finish the first half.

Also, Florida and head coach Jim McElwain parted ways on Sunday. Butch Jones and Tennessee may follow suit soon. Who could replace Jones? Potentially Jon Gruden:

Sources have confirmed to The Read Optional reports from elsewhere that Tennessee has offered over $10 million a year to Jon Gruden.

This was kind of awkward:

He cut me 5 times before the age of 25, but look at us now…Just 2 best friends sharing an ESPN desk! #Eagles http://pic.twitter.com/Kon4z5YfEm

— Emmanuel Acho (@thEMANacho) October 28, 2017

—

In somewhat sports news, Shooter McGavin was arrested for DWI.

—

The latest Crossing BroadCast dropped this morning talking Eagles-Niners.

—

In non-sports news…

Philadelphia is in contention for Amazon’s HQ2, by many people’s opinion.

Chik-Fil-A is testing spicy chicken strips in Philly.

First indictments in the Mueller investigation are set to come today.

And lastly, an Apple engineer lost his job because his daughter vlogged iPhone X:

Your Monday Morning Roundup published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[itsiotrecords-blog]

http://ift.tt/2h5dYlU

General George S. Patton once said, “The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” No one embodies that more than the 10 people on this list. They’re a group of people who were at rock bottom, yet worked hard and eventually became immensely successful. They showed that when things look their worst, the only way left is up.

#1 From Homeless to Harvard Liz was born in New York City in 1980 to drug addicted parents. Things hit an all time low in 1995 when Liz’s mother died due to complications from AIDS. Liz’s father, who was also HIV positive, was forced to move into a homeless shelter, which left both Liz and her sister homeless. The girls slept on 24-hour subway trains or park benches. Despite lacking a home, Liz enrolled in the prestigious Humanities Preparatory Academy in Chelsea, Manhattan. She enrolled late but still excelled, finishing high school in two years. She won a New York Times scholarship, was accepted into Harvard, attended in 1999 and then returned in 2006 and graduated in 2009. Liz Murray plans on going back again for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Her struggle with adversity became the subject of a Lifetime made-for-TV movie, From Homeless to Harvard. Her memoir, Breaking Night, was published in 2010 and was a New York Times Bestseller.

#2 From Flophouses to Coffee Houses When Frank was 13 he discovered a love of alcohol. By the time he was 21 he was a full-blown alcoholic, and his family kicked him out of their Toronto home. He was able to get different jobs, but lost many of them due to his drinking. He eventually found himself living in flophouses or sleeping on park benches. It didn’t really matter to him, as long as he was drunk. He occasionally worked at a store, and if the weather were nice he’d hit the street and ask people for change until he had enough for a bottle of wine. One day while at the store he heard a radio ad for an alcohol support group. While he didn’t immediately go, the ad stuck with him and just before Christmas, 1971, he had a moment of clarity about his life. He started going to the support group, found it helpful and was able to get himself sober. Frank continued to get his life together, and three years later at the age of 29 he was selling construction equipment and volunteering in a political campaign. During the campaign, he met another volunteer named Tom Culligan and they found they had chemistry working together. They teamed up, and in 1975 they opened up their first coffee shop, Second Cup. Frank O’Dea eventually left the business, but the company he started is currently the second biggest Canadian coffee chain. After leaving the company, Frank O’Dea has become a motivational speaker and has started many charities, including Renascent Treatment Foundation and Street Kids International.

#3 From Living in Her Car to Weight Loss System Guru Dani had a rough upbringing due in large part to her abusive, drug addicted parents. She said she hated drugs, but somehow found herself addicted to cocaine as a young adult. Living in Hawaii, she worked as a cocktail waitress and wasn’t making enough money. At one point she tried to commit suicide by overdosing on cocaine. Luckily, she survived and decided it was time to turn her life around. Dani knew that saving up $4500 for an apartment would take her four months. She wasn’t sure if she could live four months in her car, and while looking around her car for inspiration she saw a booklet for a weight loss program and thought she might try selling them. Not having much to lose, Dani drew up posters advertising the program. She worked out of a phone booth, and when her first attempt at a sale failed she adjusted her strategy and made sales to the next 24 customers she called. There was one problem — in order to send the weight loss programs, the company needed an address. She was able to convince a liquor store to let her use their address, in what we hope was billed as an unusual cross-promotion where customers could get two kinds of six packs. In her first year, Dani Johnson made $250,000. In less than two years she made her first million dollars. From there she expanded her sales, bought a weight loss center and then produced her own weight loss products. Today, Dani is a millionaire from her weight loss products and is also a motivational speaker.

#4 From the Streets to the NFL Born in Memphis, Tennessee to an alcoholic and crack-addicted mother, Michael was one of 12 children. His father wasn’t around much, because he was in and out of prison. This left Michael with very few options — he’d be put in foster care, only to run away and live on the streets. In his first 11 years of schooling he went to nine different schools and had to repeat the first and second grade. His luck changed when he started playing football in public school. He was a very talented player, and when he applied for enrollment in a private Christian school he was accepted based on his notable football skills. Once in the school, Michael kept bouncing around foster homes before the Tuohy family took him in. Understanding his difficult childhood, they hired a tutor and treated Michael like he was one of the family. He raised his GPA so he could attend the University of Mississippi, which he chose because it was his adopted family’s alma mater. Michael became one of the best offensive linemen in the NCAA. He was drafted 23rd overall by the Baltimore Ravens, signed a $13.8 million, five year contract and helped them win Super Bowl XLVII. In 2014 he signed a $20 million, four year contract with the Tennessee Titans. Michael is, of course, Michael Oher, the subject of the book and Academy Award winning film The Blind Side.

#5 From Shelters to Wall Street Chris was a bright young man who, after putting in four years of service in the Navy, got a job as a lab assistant from a doctor he had met while serving. Eventually he was able to run his own lab, despite not having a college education. After his son was born, Chris needed a better paying job, so he was hired as a salesman for a medical equipment business. However, Chris decided that what he really wanted to do was be a stockbroker. He was able to get a training position at a brokerage, but that job fell through. Then he was arrested for not being able to pay $1200 in parking tickets and was put in jail for 10 days. When he got home, he found his apartment was empty. He had nothing except the clothes on his back. He was able to get another internship, but it didn’t pay. Yet he came in early and stayed late while selling medical equipment on the side. He was barely scraping by, but his hard work was starting to pay off and Bear Stearns & Company in San Francisco recruited him. He moved and was able to rent a flophouse with his small salary. Things got even more complicated when Chris’ estranged wife dropped off their son with him.He couldn’t afford a place to live while also paying for daycare so he could continue to work. So they moved around a lot, eating in soup kitchens and sleeping where they could; his office, the airport and even public washrooms. They were eventually able to save up for an apartment, and in 1987, Chris started his own brokerage firm and is currently worth $60 million. If this story sounds familiar, it’s because Chris Gardner is the basis for the Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness.

#6 From Sleeping in His Car to Financial Services Celebrity Jim seemed to be on the track to success. He went to Harvard, became Editor-in-Chief for The Harvard Crimson and graduated with a B.A. in government. It was a promising start, and he was able to land a few entry-level journalism jobs. The most prominent was covering the Ted Bundy case in Tallahassee for the Tallahassee Democrat. However, Jim met with hard luck when his apartment was broken into and his checking account was emptied. Broke, Jim found himself living in his Ford Fairmont for the next seven months. Jim finally landed a job at American Lawyer magazine in 1979, but still didn’t have a home and was sleeping on his sister’s floor. He decided to go to law school, where he became obsessed with the stock market and started investing what money he did have. He became so obsessed that he left stock tips on the outgoing message for his answering machine. One person who listened to the answering machine was Martin Peretz, a Harvard professor who owned the magazine New Republic. He gave Jim $500,000 to invest. After graduating, Jim worked for three months at Goldman Sachs before starting a very successful hedge fund. Peretz and Jim founded the equally successful financial news service TheStreet.com in 1996. In 2005, Jim Cramer began hosting Mad Money on CNBC. He is currently worth about $100 million, but still has his old pay stub from his days at the Tallahassee Democrat in his wallet.

#7 From Living in his Car to Entertainment Tycoon Tyler was born into a dysfunctional family with an abusive father. If that wasn’t bad enough, four men also sexually abused him as a child. Needless to say, Tyler was a troubled teenager. One particular outburst got him kicked out of school, although he eventually did get his GED. Tyler took refuge in writing, the only thing he’d ever found solace in. He decided to take a gamble and moved to Atlanta to launch his play, I Know I’ve Been Changed. The play bombed, but Tyler didn’t quit. He tried to launch the play six times and it was never successful. The costs left Tyler living in his car, but in 1998 the play finally took off and launched his career. Tyler Perry is now one of the highest paid men in the entertainment business, where he writes, produces, directs and stars in numerous movies and television shows.

#8 From Sleeping in the Bed of His Truck to Cultural Icon As we’ve already seen on this list, artists will go to great lengths in order to make it in their industry. However, “making it” doesn’t always ensure success. In the late 50s, William moved from his native Canada to make it as an actor in the United States. He had success landing roles on Broadway, before making his way to Hollywood and nabbing a few supporting roles in movies and television shows. In 1965 he was cast in the lead role of a legal procedure drama, but it was cancelled after a season. Next he landed the lead role on a science fiction show that aired on NBC. The show struggled to find a large following, but it did have a small, devoted fan-base. It was also cancelled, this time after three seasons. William was out of work, which coincided with his divorce and child support payments for his three children. William was desperate, so he moved back east and worked in a traveling theater. He slept in the bed of his pickup truck under a hard cover. Luckily for William, the sci-fi show he starred in was of course called Star Trek and was tremendously popular in re-runs. It was made into an animated series in 1973, a film in 1979 and is now one of the biggest multimedia franchises on the planet. Today, William Shatner is one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world. He’s written books, hosted television shows and even won an Emmy for his role on Boston Legal.

#9 From Being Homeless Twice to Multi-Billionaire Growing up in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, John’s family got by but were fairly poor. He had to help support his family, starting at the age of nine, by selling Christmas cards. As a teenager, he got caught up with street gangs and did lousy in school. One of his teachers said he was “least likely to succeed.” When he was 22 he found himself homeless and collecting pop bottles for refunds for money. He finally found some steady work at a haircare product company. In 1988, he and a hair stylist named Paul planned to launch their own line of haircare products. Meanwhile, John and his wife hit a rough patch. John decided to give his wife all his money and move out. A backer was going to give John and Paul $500,000 for their product line, but the money never came and again, John found himself homeless — he lived in his car for the next two weeks. John and Paul were able to get a $700 loan and started selling their hair products door-to-door. Today, Paul Mitchell Systems brings in $100 billion a year. John Paul DeJoria also started Patrón Spirits as a hobby in 1989. Patrón is one of the best selling top-shelf tequilas in the world. Through both of his businesses, John Paul DeJoria now has a personal value of $4 billion.

#10 From Living in his Car to Comedy Legend In his 30s, Steve decided to follow his dream and become a comedian. The problem was that Steve had just split up with his wife and was giving 75% of his paycheck to her for child support. Also, this was the late ’80s and he was making $75 a week (about $150 in 2014 value). That forced Steve to live out of his 1976 Ford Tempo for three full years. He showered and washed in gas station restrooms, pool showers and hotel bathrooms. If he was lucky he could land a gig where he they would put him up into a hotel room, but after that it was back in his car where he slept in the reclining front seat. Eventually, he started to get steady work in stand up clubs. His big break came when he performed on Showtime at the Apollo, and he’s been on TV ever since. Today, Steve Harvey is a beloved comedian, best selling author, radio personality and the host of Family Feud, which found renewed life with Harvey as the host. Harvey is now considered to have a net worth of $100 million.

Source: TopTenz