#and i did! we spend a lot of time outside! but it wasn't enough banked up

[traveltherightroad]

getting real tired of the incessant cold. my kids want to play outside! but everything is so frozen and hard bc of the blizzard that even if it gets to like 10* F today, it'll still be painful to play in the snow cover???

[iamatinydinosaur]

🌲John Dory🌲

I like you

You were in your pod tending to your flowers. You had a certain Troll on your mind. What you didn't know is that said Troll had snuck into your pod. "Y/N..." He whispered in your ear. You screamed and smacked him over the head with your watering can, not knowing who it was. John went flying into the wall. You both stared at each other in shock. "Oh my god! Are you okay?!" You ran over checking his head. "I'm fine!" He said pushing your hands away. You sighed in relief. Then you hit him. "Why the hell did you sneak in and scare me? Are you insane?!" You said in a stern voice. John laughed pushing you away. "Did you forget we're going for a drive in Rhonda?" He asked standing up, offering you his hand. You gladly took it and brushed your dress off. "No I didn't, I was just quickly watering my indoor flowers. You could've knocked on the door. Weirdo." You huffed.

You and John walked outside your pod to where Rhonda was waiting. You went over and patted her face, saying hello. John watched with a fond smile, he was glad you had a good relationship with her. You both climbed into her. "Where to?" He asked. You thought for a moment. "How about to that river!" You exclaimed sitting on the couch. John nodded typing in the coordinates and Rhonda set off. (I can't remember, she can just go somewhere without having to be driven right?) John sat next to you, after making you a tea. You smiled accepting it. You noticed a lot recently that he had been doing the smallest things for you. Like bringing you lunch, making you your favorite drinks, picking you flowers and taking an interest in the things you love.

You two spoke and joked about the whole journey. Rhonda came to a stop. You looked out the window and saw you were at the river. You scrambled out getting pumped. Your favourite thing was to spend time in a rowing boat. You ran down to the dock waiting for John jumping up and down. He ran after you carrying a picnic basket. You didn't even ask him, another one of the surprises he's been doing recently.

You sat in the back controlling the rudder while John rowed down the river. You smiled. All sorts of animals were out. "Should we stop for food?" He asked looking around for a place to dock. He rowed the the boat up to the bank, quickly jumped up and held the boat in place so you could get out. You grabbed the basket and jumped up. He pulled the boat onto the bank and you guys set up the picnic.

You were eating and laughing. The last few months you and John had really gotten close. You pretty much knew everything about each other. "I don't wanna go back, can we just live here?" He hummed laying on his back, arms behind his head, eyes closed. You looked down at him. You admired his face. He was perfect to you. You thought about the life you wanted with him. To marry, make a new pod big enough for a family and having 3 children. Then your mind went elsewhere. Yes you like him, but what if he only sees you as a friend?

You were too busy in thought that you didn't notice John was speaking to you. "Y/N?" He asked shaking you gently. You looked at him. "You okay?" He asked. You need to know. "John. I want to tell you something..." You muttered looking down. He placed a hand on yours. You looked up and saw the reassuring smile that graced his face.

You moved forward and kissed his lips softly. Before he had a chance to react you pulled away. "I like you." John eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape. You started to fidget. Why wasn't he saying anything? You were about to move away, when he placed a hand on your cheek and kissed you passionately. Your lips moved in sync. They fit together like two puzzle pieces, like they were meant for each other. He pulled away slightly. "I like you too." Before going back in.

A/N: everyday I get even more of a soft spot for this one ✨✨✨✨

[twirlingsmilingwriting]

Can't you see the Starlight? || Finnick Odair X Reader

"Look at you worrying to much about things you can't change, you'll spend your whole life singing the blues if you keep thinking that way"

Getting dragged to a capital party to satisfy your mothers wishes could not have gone any better when you get asked to dance with the capital darling, Finnick Odair.

Warnings: Fluffy, mentions of death, kissing, dancing, fem! reader, alcohol mentioned, Finnick getting humbled A LOT

Word Count: 4.7K

A/N: I knowwwww I know yall have been asking for more Coriolanus Snow content but I needed some Finnick fluff in my life I love him so much. Might write more parts to this if yall like it :D

The music was so loud I swear I would be able to hear it ringing in my ears for the next days to come. Everyone was dressed to the nines and other girls scurried past me in large, sparkling, extravagant gowns shaped like cupcakes. Awkwardly, I stood there watching the people dance and talk.

This was my first time going to a capital party. My mother decided I spent enough time locked in my room and decided to drag me along to the party.

She had barged in that morning and said, "Y/N it is not normal for a girl your age to have no other friends other than her dog. You're in university. You should be in the club but instead your here. I'm sorry Sweetheart but that is just sad." I understood where she was coming from. It's not even that I don't like being outside, I love it actually. I love going on walks and watching the birds in the trees or even reading in the park and watching the leaves fall. All of that stuff is so much fun. The thing I don't like is the constant judgment from the other people in the capital. My family used to be incredibly wealthy, so much so my father had a hand in a big part of the economy of all of Panem. He was also deeply tied to political affairs in Panem, often having meetings with President Snow. My mother said they went to school together. But when my father died suddenly and mysteriously, our business had plummeted. My mother, bless her soul, tried to step up and handle things but our financial status had gone down significantly.

In all truth, we weren't doing well at all and the pretentious shallowness of the other capital citizens only viewed you as the numbers in your bank account. My mom could barely pay the tuition for the University I'm attending. I felt like an imposter at this party. I know these people think less of me and it's so uncomfortable. It's not even the stares, it's more the lack thereof. I wasn't perceived at all because the other people at this party didn't think I was worth their time. I played with the fabric of my silk red dress awkwardly while I watched my mom chatter with another woman her age at a table across from where I was. Sighing heavily, I closed my eyes and pretended to be anywhere else.

Suddenly, I was pulled out of my daze by a hand on my left shoulder and someone's breath on my right. I jumped and turned around, my gaze being met with the most marvelous pair of sea-green eyes. The man took a step back.

"I'm sorry, did I frighten you?" he chuckled.

I didn't respond, just gave him a confused, almost disgusted glace. He scoffed a little and let a smirk run across his face while extending his hand out.

"I'm delighted to make your acquaintance Ms..." He looked at me with curious eyes, wanting me to finish his sentence. Cautiously, I reached my hand out to meet his, never breaking eye contact.

"Y/N, Y/N L/N."

He shook my hand shortly and firmly. His smirk turned into a charming smile, exposing his charmingly crooked white teeth and dimples. I squinted my eyes at him, examining his face. I felt like I knew him from somewhere, he looked so familiar. His smile started to fade, I think he was a little offended by my glares.

"I'm sorry but do I know you from somewhere?"

A loud laugh left his mouth.

"I'd be more surprised if you didn't haha, do the Hunger Games ring a bell?"

"Gasp... Peeta Mellark?!"

Excitement started to rush through my veins. My eyes lit up and I started to get all giddy. I loved Katniss and Peeta's games. They just finished last week actually. It was really the only one I tuned into and actually paid attention to, I was too invested, enthralled even with their romance. God, I was such a sucker for romance. Peeta looks so different in real life. A lot taller actually. Blond as ever though.

"I- no... Finnick. Finnick Odair." He looked at me a little offended and confused. Now this was awkward. I calmed myself down and shook my head.

"Hmm, I can't say they do Mr. Odair." I glanced around and noticed the number of eyes that were on us, "Though from the amount of girls around here who look like they want to tear you apart, I'm going to assume you're famous or something."

"Ha, well I guess you can put it that way, what a way to humble someone Ms. Y/N... Anyways, I came to ask you a simple question, may I have this dance?" He bent at the waist slightly like a prince, his hand reached out for mine waiting for me to accept it, his stunningly green eyes never leaving mine. What a charmer. I laughed a little and looked around again. There was still a few eyes on us but just as many people were enjoying themselves. Something about the joy buzzing off of the other people just gave me this sudden urge to do something I was always taught not to do; let a stranger who just seemed to have the sharpest jawline, dimples, boosted ego, and the absolute deepest sea green eyes take me by the hand and lead me somewhere with even more strangers in a strange place. I'd say the stranger-danger aspect of it all was worrying but the pros of, "ooooo hot man" seemed to outweigh that.

"Well Mr. Odair, it's between that or sitting here for more painstakingly long minutes so I guess I'll dance with you," flirtatious sarcasm was dripping from my voice but I shot him back a smirk like the one he was giving me. I placed my hand into his and took mental note of how big and rough his hands were compared to mine. In one swift movement, he stood up straight again and interlocked his arm with mine.

"I'll make it worth your while," He joked and I rolled my eyes in response. For being an outdoor event, the area felt so claustrophobic with the amount of people around. The heat radiating off of everyone was unbearable, the aroma was sticky. Finnick held my arm close to him, afraid to lose me in the crowd. I could feel my face getting hot and I couldn't tell if I was flustered from the sudden male attention or if the heat was getting to me. Soon enough, we reached a small clearing, just big enough for the two of us and I felt Finnick let go of my arm and spin me around so now I was facing him. The way he was looking at me made me feel all warm and gooshy, ugh I hated it. With half-lidded eyes and that smirk that was starting to become oh so familiar, he placed one of his hands on the small of my back, pulling me close to him, and the other interlocking with my hand, extending them outwards.

I tried to pull every amount of falsified confidence out of the depths of my soul when I placed my other hand to meet his shoulder. In theory, this should've gone smoothly but I was so nervous my hand was shaking on the way up, none of my fake confidence could cover that one up. He started laughing and I cringed so hard. I looked down at the ground and my legs wobbled a little when I felt my posture start to slip in these heels. I wanted nothing more than to melt into a puddle of nothingness.

"Oh Ms. Y/N... you sure have a lot of bark for a girl who can't even stand up straight. My presence must be too intoxicating for you to handle."

"Ha. Ha. Ha. And you sure have a lot of confidence for a 'Famous' man I didn't even recognize."

"Ouch, dear let's hold off on that one, now please..." his hand lifted off the small of my back and I felt his fingers under my chin, lifting it to look at him.

"Look at me when I talk to you, it's rude not to"

His hand returned to my back and I stared at him flabbergasted. This man had such a hold on me, literally and figuratively, and I had just met him. This was crazy.

"Oh you're dangerous Mr. Odair," I whispered a little too loud for my liking. He heard it and started to laugh again. God that laugh was like the best sound I've ever heard.

"Trust me darling, I'm a daydream. Now, are we gonna start dancing or are you just going to sit here and stare at me while I get lost in your eyes."

Oh, this absolute weenie. Now I knew I was blushing. His facial expression was the embodiment of pride. It was like he was so accomplished in getting me so flustered. Suddenly, the reality of what was happening sank upon me and so did the remembrance that I didn't know how to dance. Smiling awkwardly at him I started to try and uncomfortably sway our bodies in an off-rhythm pace. His mouth formed an 'O' shape of realization like he just read my mind.

"Just follow my lead,"

He started to move his feet and I followed along one step behind him. I was fumbling over my self a lot but he whispered little encouragements into my ear over the party music. Soon enough, I was working in perfect rhythm alongside him and things started to get a little more fun.

"Look at you, good girl. You caught on so fast,"

Oh god, how can someone be so charming? His presence was almost intoxicating. I turned my head again to avoid eye contact. If I stared into those green eyes for a moment longer I would surely fall into the depths of them and never be able to get out.

"Don't get shy now, darling. Come on," he teased before pulling me closer. My chest was pressed up against him and my eyes widened. Looking up at him slowly, I simply hit him with a shining smile. "Who me? Shy? Never, I'm clearly the most outgoing and social girl out there, that's exactly why I was standing at that table by myself for so long," I joked sarcastically and he rolled his eyes. The song changed and blasted through the speaker and played yet another slow dance song. I groaned and his ears perked up. He swooped in to take that as an oppertunity to ask,

"Are you bored yet?"

"Do you want the honest answer or the delusional one?"

"I'd rather us start our relationship with honesty so I'll go with the first option."

I swear, did this man ever stop smiling?

"Relationship? You're talking crazy Mr. Odair... but to be honest, I'm a little bored... Just a little."

He chuckled a little and continued to lead our bodies elegantly across the dance floor.

"How about we get out of here after this song? There's a lake a short walk down from here, we can go watch the stars."

"Oh Mr. Odair, you better not be trying to murder me... it's okay you don't have to drop everything for me. Clearly, you're enjoying the party."

"Don't worry... You can trust me and it's less that I'm enjoying the party and more that I'm enjoying you"

"You tease~"

"And without giving away too many details... You'd be doing me a favor getting me out of here," he spoke with a changed demeanor, a slightly grim and sad one at that. I brushed it off and nodded.

"So it's a deal?"

"Deal."

He smiled and then pulled away from me, lifting my hand. I understood the assignment and did a little spin, feeling my dress float a little around me. I giggled and spun back into his arms. While my dancing was still quite stiff, I felt so happy. He pulled me close and we helplessly gazed into each others eyes. The song ended and the music dwindled and he pulled away, smiling uncontrollably.

"Stop looking at me like that~ you're giving me the creeps," I teased and giggled, playfully hitting his slightly exposed chest from the V-neck of his white flowy top. He threw his head back laughing before extending his hand out to me again for the second time that night.

"Creeps? I'm sure you mean "Oh Finnick, stop killing me with that beautifully charming, elegant, and stunning smile"'

I huffed and rolled my eyes.

"Are we heading out now?"

"After you."

Words just seemed to roll right off his tongue like honey dripping off a warm spoon, shockingly sweet and smooth. His eyes never left mine. Ever. His hand reached for mine once more and we interlocked fingers while I started to try and find a path off the dance floor. Once we were free from the sweaty dance floor, I turned to Finnick with wide eyes ready for him to lead us down this 'short walk to the lake'. He gladly accepted this task and we walked out the gates of the capital party, not caring if anyone saw us.

As soon as we stepped out of the area I paused for a moment to take a deep breath in. "Oh man I swear it is so hard to breathe in there"

"Oh absolutely. Especially over the heavy perfumes that smell so strong yet can't cover the smell of B.O." Finnick laughed.

"Eww when you put it like that it makes it seem so much worse"

"Oh, but it is that bad let's just be honest here. Like I said earlier, I want this relationship to be started on a foundation of honesty, though, I do love a good secret."

I scrunched my face at his comment and laughed, interlocking my fingers with his again as we looked up ahead of the night in front of us.

"The lake is right down that way," he pointed off to the distance to where we were met with a little stone and dirt path leading. Logically thinking, now was really the time I should be using stranger danger logic. Good thing I wasn't thinking. I grabbed onto Finnick's arm and he started to walk me down the moonlit path. The misty coolness of the nighttime felt so nice on my skin while I cooled off from the party but the warmth of Finnick's arm against my body felt even better. The sound of the music from the party started to get fainter and fainter in the distance.

"So Mr. Odair,"

"Please, just call me Finnick, we aren't around all those fancy people anymore. We can drop the formalities."

"Hmm okay Finnick," I liked the way his name rolled off my tongue and from the way Finnick was grinning and the path in front of us, I think he liked it too. "Where are you from?"

"Wow... you really don't know anything about me huh?" He asked, genuinely so shocked.

"Oh I'm sorry famous-capital-man. How dare I not know how lucky I am to bask in your glory," I rolled my eyes at him.

"Ah that's- that's not what I mean... It's refreshing in a way. It's like with you my reputation doesn't precede me." His tone was open. Honest. He spoke slowly in his last words as if he was searching deep within that beautiful brain of his to pick the right words to say. I didn't respond. On one hand, I was very flattered to see him be so honest. On the other, that sentence was setting off a few more red flags in my mind. What could his reputation be that he finds it enlightening that I don't know who he is? Either way, I brushed off that idea. Finnick seemed like an honest man.

Now that we were alone with just the two of us it felt like his whole demeanor had changed. Inside the gates of the capital party, it felt like he was masking himself a little. It was like he was playing a character, a charming playboy who only had one goal but here, he was still charming but in a different way. His presence reminded me of sitting on the warm sand of a beach watching as the ocean waves crashed into the shore. It draws you in, gives you warmth, and is stunning to look at. I hadn't realized that I had been standing there in silence, lost in my own thoughts, for longer than was comfortable until he continued.

"I'm actually from District 4," He said with a soft smile, a little different from the smirk that usually rested on his face but a lot cuter.

"Really? District 4... So do you like fishing?" Dumb question. I felt the instant cringe rattle my bones after I let those words out. He didn't make a big deal out of it at all though. He laughed a little, "Yeah actually, I don't get around to doing it anymore but I was very good at fishing when I was younger. I'm quite talented with a net."

I feel like there's a joke I'm missing here. I didn't have much more time to psychoanalyze the man because soon enough, we made it to the lake. The moonlight reflected down upon the lake allowing for the beautiful ripples of the water to be seen. The moonlight also shined down on us, being the only source of light in the darkness of this twilight hour. I took a moment to bask in its tranquil beauty as I watched the fireflies dance through the tall grass like little stars that had just dropped down to earth.

"Here it is..." the words left his lips softly and I could feel his eyes staring at my face, trying to read my expression but I was too busy being astonished by the beauty of nature.

"I have lived here my whole life and I have never even heard of or seen this place before..."

He took my hand and led me down to a little clearing in the grass, right above the shore of the lake where we sat down and continued to look around. His head hung down and he looked at his lap, laughing a little before saying, "You must not get out much, huh? Why? I mean, you must have money, why don't you leave and have fun more often?"

"Eh it's not as simple as that, I just... I really can't stand the environment or the attitudes of the people in the capital. They can always find a way to dehumanize another person. After my father passed, my family lost a significant amount of our income and we practically became invisible to the others in the capital. When other people treat you as lesser than or inhuman and like they can do whatever they want to you it's disheartening. The shallowness of other people gets to me too. How am I ever supposed to make friends if they don't care to get to know me? My family just keeps getting hit with trouble after trouble I'm just... I don't know."

I felt a little pathetic rambling on to Finnick. I'm sure he wasn't ready for that kind of trauma dump. My fingers tangled with the hem of my dress and I looked down, examining how my nail polish had chipped at some point during the night. Finnick was silent for a moment. I started to feel even more embarrassed. I didn't need to give him that much information. I was about to open my mouth again to talk about something else but he beat me to it.

"Y/N... Honestly, I understand that on so many levels. Especially as a person who isn't from here but always has to be here for business, I understand fully what you mean but, not everyone is like that and in a way, you're sort of doing the same thing if you're generalizing other capital people like that too... Not to say that you're at fault or anything though but... think about it this way. The way they act is because they were raised that way, truly if you hadn't gone through what you went through you would end up the same way they are,"

His words made me flinch. The idea of being just as shallow as them scared me, deeply. He looked at me, laughed a little, and continued.

"I know I know... This is kind of a hard thing to say, I mean, it's easier to say than to do but, every barrier we cross is another lesson learned. The things we go through turn us into the people we are today and it's our job as people to be people, good people. There is a lot of bad in this world, the least we can do is try to make light with the small things we do. If you spend your whole life worrying too much about the things you can't change, you'll spend your life too stuck in the past and miserable. I was dealt a pretty shitty hand in life but I'm trying to make the best of what I was given and hey, my shitty ass circumstances led me here, with you right now and that seems pretty cool to me"

My heart skipped a beat and I moved my head up to look at Finnick. He was now laying on his back staring up at the sky, head turning to make eye contact with me. I swear this man had a way of reading just the deepest parts of my soul. Deep green eyes met my own and I saw a glimmer, a shine in his eyes that hadn't been there before. A warm smile tugged at the corners of my lips and we sat in silence for a moment, just staring deep into each other's eyes.

"I'd have to agree with you on that one Finnick..." I whispered. He chuckled then turned back to look at the sky.

"Y/N... come join me, the stars are beautiful tonight," He said and patted the ground next to him, ushering me closer. I followed and lay right beside him looking up at the twinkling stars. Normally you can never see the stars so clearly in the capital because of the amount of air and light pollution was so dense but right now, they were shining bright. Maybe things just looked brighter with Finnick next to me. I looked back at Finnick's face, he seemed lost in thought, staring up at the stars.

"Don't you see the starlight? Isn't it crazy to think about how something so far can still be seen be seen by us here? They shine so brightly so that they can bring joy to the rest of the universe. I want to make a change in the world that significant one day. Do something so great that it will bring great joy to everyone for years to come... like even when I die I will be happy knowing there will be happiness after me because of me... I don't know maybe I'm just unrealistically daydreaming right now," Finnick rambled on so confidently but pulled back on that last line. I turned onto my side to look at him, hand coming to stroke the side of his face.

"I- I think you can do it... you're meant for something greater than this Finnick I can feel it..." earnestly, I spoke. While I had just met the man I could just feel this energy radiating off of him. "Sorry if this is sort of sudden but, you have such a pull to you Finnick... You seem to make everything feel like magic when I'm around you. I'm so enchanted by the life you bring to the room and it's actually insane to me. I have been having a great time tonight and I know I wouldn't have had the tiniest bit of enjoyment if I didn't get to meet you tonight. Finnick, you shine brighter than the whole sky and I'm sure you'll make the whole world feel your warmth too."

Finnick didn't speak, maybe I word vomited a little there but I meant every word I said. I swear I could see tears welling up in his troubled eyes before he closed them hard and started to speak. "Truly... those are the kindest words anyone has ever said to me y/n. You don't have any idea how much your sincerity means to me. Thank you" He propped himself up on his elbow to turn to me too. I can't describe what took over me when he finally opened his eyes again. With piercing green eyes and just the hint of a smile on his handsome face, I subconsciously started to lean forward and to my surprise, he was mirroring my actions. It happened so fast, his warm lips were on mine and his free hand found its way to my cheek. The moment was magical, our lips moving in a rhythmic pattern. He pulled away slowly and looked deeply into my eyes while we took a moment to catch our breaths.

"Finnick..."

"Yeah?"

"I think I like you... a lot." My face grew more red with embarrassment while my eyes searched his face for a response. He smiled at me, lips slightly parted before he leaned back in, kissing me a little harsher, lips burning with passion. He lightly placed me on to my back and we continued to share this moment of innocent intimacy while he hovered over me. My fingers tangled in his soft, blond hair and his weight pressed against my body, one of his hands on my face, keeping me close to him, and the other propping himself up. I knew I had to stop myself before this went too far but I really didn't want to. I wanted this night, this moment, to go on forever. Unfortunately, that decision was made for me when he pulled away and looked down on me. The gold shark tooth necklace he was wearing dangled down in front of my face. He smiled again at me. "We should head back to the party now before it gets too late... It'll be more fun I promise," he leaned down to kiss my forehead then came back up, "They play faster-paced music at the end of the night because that's when all the old people go home. You know they might have a heart attack once the bass kicks in," We shared a laugh and he leaned closer to me again, he nuzzled his face into the nook of my neck and placed a soft kiss on my collarbone that sent shivers down my spine. Goosebumps pricked at my skin and his breath tickled as it brushed against my my ear before he whispered, "I like you too y/n... a lot."

I was a blushing mess at this point. He kissed my cheek before sitting back up. He hit me with that charming smile and I pathetically tried to cover my face with my hands but he grabbed my wrists and stopped me.

"No no none of that, I like seeing how flustered you are it's kind of funny."

"Oh boo you asshole," I joked, sitting up and playfully punching his arm. He laughed hard and stood up to his feet, extending his hand out to help me up. Taking his offer, he helped me onto my feet.

With arms linked, we walked away from the lakeside shore and back to the capital party. My eyes searched the room to see if my mom had noticed I left and from the looks of the third empty glass of liquor on the table she was at and the way her eyes were lit up while she continued to chat with the other women her age, she didn't notice a thing. Finnick's hand squeezed mine tightly and gave me a reassuring smile and we walked back onto the dance floor.

By the end of the night, I couldn't tell if it was the intoxicating spirit of Finnick or the amount of times I had spun around the dance floor but I was so dizzy. I could barely think straight but there was only one thing on my mind.

When could I see him again?

[more-than-tender-curiosity]

What Gatsby musical do you think is best?

The Great Gatsby : A New Musical

Gatsby : An American Myth

And depending on which you pick, why did you choose that one?

I have been outspoken in my criticism of The Great Gatsby: A New Musical to the point where it's kind of marked me as an asshole to fans of said musical, but I'm not backing down. Read my opinions boy

No, but seriously. Let me begin by saying that I came to this point already worn down by so many heartless, obnoxious, cash-grabby adaptations of prior works (Mean Girls, Beetlejuice, Heathers, etc) that bank almost entirely on nostalgia and spectacle and, in some cases, the unknowing of their YOUNG target audience, in order to blind said audience into just calling the music a bop and moving on.

And I'm tired of it. Yes, I'm aware musical theater has always run on adaptations—Chicago and Little Shop of Horrors are among some of my favorites! But I approach every single adaptation of ANYTHING with the same baseline question: is this adaptation justified?

You could take the very moderate opinion of "having more musicals to listen to is a good thing!" but I think that's naive, and falling right into the trap set by creators who are only here for Lin Manuel-level Tony's and that's it. There's no dedication to actually making something new with something already established. Nothing transformative. It's lazy.

That's what I mean by 'is this adaptation justified'. Does the adaptation in question engage with the source material in a way that refreshes it, dives deeper into it, and takes advantage of the new method of storytelling (in this case, from book to stage musical) to showcase how the new method of storytelling benefits the source material? Like in the case of Little Shop of Horrors, it uses satire to highlight deeper issues that are barely skated across in the source material while also pulling forth factors of the source material that were more relevant at the time when it was released.

I for one am exhausted by adaptations at this point. It's always been a backbone of musical theater but now, even outside of theater, we are awash in them. it's been said before that pretty much everything you see now is a remake or an adaptation or a sequel or a prequel or a cinematic universe or something derivative, and that tends to punch down on the smaller, more creative, original ideas that might've flourished if the market wasn't oversaturated with mass-produced corporatized shiny flashy garbage.

This is where the two Gatsby musicals come in.

If you're here, you know that I...dedicate a lot of time to this novel. I could have gone to college and got a degree with the time I have spent on this novel and its study. Unraveling every single sentence, every character motivation, every real life factor that plays in to Fitz's writing of the novel—every draft, every movie adaptation. The entire history of this novel and its creation is carved into the inside of my skull.

Now, one thing you should know about gatsby is that Fitz wrote it when he was just coming off the massive failure of his play The Vegetable. That's not the full title, but I'm not going to bother typing out the rest of it. Because it was bad. It was not good. No one liked it. So, naturally, Fitz wanted to improve on his playwriting skills. Up until then, he was good at short stories and he was good at long, descriptive novels, but he couldn't quite understand how to condense and reformat his novel-writing style into something more like a stageplay.

Gatsby was sort of his attempt. You'll note that Gatsby is only 47,043 or so words, which is less than half of most of his other novels. The action and dialogue are snappy. There is, shockingly enough, less purple prose than prior releases (in spite of Nick spending 23984798347928374 words, approximately, to describe his new neighbor's smile). Scott was trying desperately to pare down his writing and see if he could slowly shift his formatting toward something that could translate to the stage.

Many of you know that The Great Gatsby was a total major uber flop.

There went his dreams of making this a play. And there have been many attempts since, all with very limited success, because for the most part, there is a total lack of understanding concerning what makes this novel a novel instead of play material. All too many times, there has been a disconnect as to what would translate effectively onto the stage as it is written in the book, like the themes of being dazzled by a spectacle but not, as displayed in the novel, the downside of such a thing.

As I said. All too often, there is too little thought given to the advantages of adapting a written work to musical theater. This leads to much of the deeper shades of the story being left to the wayside in favor of shallow spectacle just to keep the masses entertained without actually translating the stunning symbolism and figurative work Fitz put on the page.

This is what happened to The Great Gatsby: A New Musical. They took the most barebones understanding that most viewers would have of the story (that it's a love story, just like Romeo and Juliet!—side-eye), and made everything as loud and as fast and as bright as they could to make up for any lack of exploration beyond what is very plainly written on the page.

This does not work with The Great Gatsby.

I've mourned the gooberfication of Nick Carraway before. I love the 2013 film, as I'm sure many do because it was many of our first experiences with any Gatsby adaptation, but you can see it with Tobey Maguire and you can see it here in The Great Gatsby: A New Musical. So many times I see people call him an unreliable narrator but it's very clear they don't understand exactly why he's unreliable.

This 'gooberfication' I speak of is Nick's attempt to convince us that he's the innocent one here, in every single situation, and everyone around him is a liar and he's always telling the truth so you can trust him. He's the only honest person he's ever known.

Red flag central.

So from that line alone, you have to understand that everything Nick says or does, leaves in or leaves out, is suspect. He's out of his element in New York but he is absolutely not some baby-cheeked little goober who is SO TOTALLY BLINDED by his infatuation with Gatsby that he's just willing to go along with everything and doesn't pass judgment. We joke "Nick says he doesn't judge anyone then proceeds to judge everyone in the novel!" Yeah, no shit. That's the thing. He is a hypocrite made only lesser by the way he plays up the evils of everyone around him, and that's how he gets by. That's how he sleeps at night.

You can cast that into whatever light you like, whether it's the hypocrisy of saying he's so poor when he's living in at LEAST a two bedroom cottage with a maid and modern appliances and his dad is paying for a full YEAR of his life after paying his way through an Ivy League school. Or you could say he does this to throw suspicion off himself and possibly his sexuality, which is a whole can of worms involving Fitzgerald's constant projection onto his characters that I cannot bear to crack open.

Point being, Nick isn't just the passive bystander in all of these situations. He makes it sound like he is, like he's just doing favors for people who are worse than him, and how he disapproves of even everything Gatsby does despite his evident fascination with the man, but at the end of the day, he's just passing the buck. Washing his hands clean. There are so many clues in the book to this sort of thing that should tip you off to the fact that Nick Carraway is not just some silly sweet guy who gets swept up into a life of chaos and crime just to come out cynical. He was already a judgemental, cynical individual who was forced to come all too close to the realization that he, too, is more 'one of them' than he can bear to admit—even in spite of how he attempts to obscure his own hypocrisy.

Nick is not innocent. No one in this book is (besides Pammy, though she's a ticking time bomb if we're meant to understand the wealth she will inherit). That's the whole point of the fucking book. There are a thousand hands each pushing a tiny bit to keep these impossible shades of class division moving, and condemning one person (like Nick does with Daisy or Tom) doesn't solve the problem. Jay still dies. The American dream is still a nightmare. Nick still has a father to fall back on.

Which is why it's so impossibly perplexing to me to display Nick as some sort of lapdog who just seems honored to spend time with these people. Why Jay is just some quirked up white boy who is, quite literally, just too quirky and obnoxious to bear. He and Daisy are so in love and they're so close to each other and isn't it just tooooo saddd to bearrrr?? So romantic????

There's nothing deeper to it. No asking why Fitz wrote any of these characters the way he did. No understanding of the deeper implications of what he was trying so desperately to convey, on both a social and personal level. Yes, it's a love story, but it's also a commentary on just how fucked everyone is by the cages of tradition.

And there is just no trace of that in the Broadway musical. Everything is simple and easily digestible. There is no deeper interaction with the source material, no drive to have produced it at all except, perhaps, to cash in on the new public domain. They got the biggest names they could with the biggest cult followings, knowing so many would just eat it right up and call each song a bop and it would trend on tiktok and they might get a tony and then they'd move on. No integrity. No passion. No justification.

Gatsby: An American Myth is much the opposite.

After hearing a Totally Legal version of the Broadway musical, I was terrified of what ART would do to this book. Now that I had seen just how fearfully easy it was to just slap some 'art deco' and glitter on the stage, write a painfully obvious love song, and move on, I was really concerned that this trend of bloodless, toothless adaptations would continue and I'd have to sigh and move on with my life.

Fortunately, everything I mentioned that bothered me about the Broadway musical is set right in Gatsby: An American Myth. I really should have expected nothing less from Florence Welch in terms of the music (which is, of course, one of the most show-stopping elements of the musical, as it should be) considering her prior works and how they relate to the Great Gatsby. This is someone who has been obsessed with the book longer than I have been and has woven it into so much of her body of work that I'm surprised this musical didn't drop the day it became public domain. I cannot think of a better contemporary musician to handle that facet of a Gatsby musical.

This adaptation itself does exactly what I would have hoped. I am, of course, someone who holds the book and all its drafts to a very high regard—if this is a religion, that's my bible. What's in there, goes, though it's open to interpretation. Typically I would be against adding things at all.

What they added, however, was brilliant. Nothing massive—just, again, ways to take advantage of the musical theater method of production, and ways to modernize and acknowledge more contemporary understandings of the source material. Where the Broadway musical carefully tiptoed around any indication that nick was anything other than straight and in love with Jordan Baker, Gatsby: An American Myth leaned right into the idea that he was made an outsider by his sexuality, and that was part of why he related to Jay so hard. Because otherwise, why would he? He's a middle-to-upper-middle class Midwesterner whose father is paying for a year of his life while he works a little for-fun job in the big city. What does he know about being an outsider?

Gatsby: An American Myth shows you that. Shows how everyone is an outsider to each other in this story, and how individualism destroys a community that would otherwise support you. You can take that on a society-wide level or personal: Jay being totally disconnected from even himself, or the wealthy pretending they don't live on the same planet as the poor.

Another miraculous addition was a sort of bridge between Myrtle and Wilson that just makes sense. I don't want to spoil it too much, but everything they added or rearranged or re-highlighted just goes to display the depth and breadth this story really reaches. They read between every line, proudly displayed the complexity of every single situation and character—how all of them are the victim and all of them are the perpetrator—while STILL making it sound fantastic in my opinion.

It's by no means a flawless work and I saw it early on its production. It's changed since then and obviously I haven't been able to hear it since I saw it live, but I have total faith in the creative team to have not completely thrown away their good intentions in favor of trending on tiktok.

To conclude I would just ask anyone reading to please inspect the media you consume. Inspect the motives of the person feeding it to you. There's not really any sort of Nobility to art, but at this point, with so many shallow attempts to cash in on our desperate search for community and contentment, quality and passion have been thrown out the window. Shoveling this hot shit at us day and night (remakes, sequels, prequels, adaptations) has become another tool of capitalism to keep us just satisfied to not ask for more.

Ask for more. Ask for better. You deserve it.

[fuckyeahfightlock]

Hi Poppy! How was your trip? :D

Ooh, lots of fun! It was hub's and my 25th wedding anniversary trip, the first trip we've taken, just the two of us, since our honeymoon. It was my husband's first trip outside N. America (my second; we're so adventurous).

Edinburgh was lovely as always and I got to visit (twice!) my favourite painting of Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus by Gavin Hamilton.

It's so much more beautiful in person, and I could talk about it all day. Just ask my Facebook friends, they'll tell you that's no lie.

"Enbra" was P A C K E D with tourists, shoulder to shoulder every damn where, but that's to be expected in summer. We took a day trip to Rosslyn Chapel (made famous in The Da Vinci Code, but that's not why we went), visited the National Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland (Dolly the cloned sheep is preserved there, and they have a very good Fashion gallery, including a few items by Alexander McQueen), and took a tour of a whisky distillery (with tasting!). I tried Irn Bru and Monster Munch, both for the first time. We went in Boots once, to get an emery board (my nails all decided to crack, peel, and become snaggly/scratchy for the duration of this trip, it was weird), and there was a DJ! Hilarious. Scottish people are lovely and kind, and no matter how fashionable/dressed up an Edinburgh woman is, she wears sensible shoes. I admire this immensely.

We spent a day in Melrose, Scotland, which is south of Edinburgh in what They call "the Borders" area of the UK. Melrose Abbey was impressive, we had lunch in a very British hotel restaurant (like the one in Fawlty Towers), and experienced how truly dog-mad Scotland is; we met about 60 local dogs and only about 40 local people. I swear you must get a dog with the key to yr flat, there. We also visited a small museum of Roman artifacts from the site of a nearby fort.

Spent one evening/overnight in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England--it was still light out at 10:15 when we left the restaurant where we ate dinner--which may be a name familiar to you if you are a fan of my fight!lock stories. Solely because it was a long journey by train from London, and sounded quaint, I sent John there to do some doctoring when he wasn't with Sherlock. Turns out it's the closest place to get a train to London, from Melrose.

London was London-y. We did all the things: the Tower of London, walked the south bank of the Thames, Big Ben/Parliament, stood at the fence of Buckingham Palace awaiting a guard change that never happened, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Borough Market, Camden Market/Camden High Street, V & A Museum, National Gallery.

A definite highlight was seeing Richard III performed by a fantastic all-female cast in Shakespeare's Globe theater. Absolutely recommend seeing Shakespeare at the Globe if you go to London; a completely unique experience.

The weather was H O T and if you ever needed proof that first world countries aren't coping quickly or well with climate change, just ride the London tube, or spend time in almost any indoor space in Britain. There is no air conditioning. It's no wonder heat waves have been killing Britons for the last few summers; the infrastructure is not set up to cope with the temperatures they're getting. We stood aside at one tube station to let cops and medics rush by us to attend to someone who had just been taken off a train and left on the platform (as signage instructs passengers to do) because of fainting from the heat.

There is no such thing as a cold drink in the UK! You can go into a shop and buy a can of Coke or sparkling water, and it is cool, but not cold. When servers heard our accents they would put two ice cubes in our glass at restaurants, but that's not enough. The only truly cold drinks I had there all ten days were gin & tonics, Aperol spritzes, and ciders. Alcohol comes iced; everything else--even the tap water!--just doesn't come cold. It was my only complaint.

Thanks for asking! Great to be home, of course, but it was a lovely ten days.

[the-world-annealing]

And The Meek...

Hello, Earth. It's been a while since we talked, really talked. I don't mean the daily back-and-forth of status updates, or the 24/7 stream of newsfeed headlines and derivative movies that you graciously share with us. I definitely don't mean the monthly paycheck notifications. Maybe that was your mistake: ever assuming we were in this for the money.

That was the original plan, right? Lure the grease monkeys in with fat wads of cash, keep them happy by giving them lots of nice drugs and sims to spend it on. You must've realized we stopped buying those: did you ever wonder what we were spending our time on? Or were you so busy living that life yourself that you couldn't fathom anyone might find it purposeless?

You want to know purpose? Люди, будем хранить и преумножать эту красоту, а не разрушать её! That's a little culture for you: look it up while you can. Really, the first man up here already figured it out, did you really expect the next ten thousand not to?

Anyway, that's enough about you. After all, if you're listening, you're probably more interested in what we are doing, not?

For that, we're going to have to go a little back, to the first batch, those wide-eyed kids you convinced to spend their lives servicing microwave beams and sorting asteroid grit. Our mothers and grandmothers, all dead now. You must've plotted births against deaths, right? Figured that we were breeding faster than croaking, and everything was sustaining itself, no need to ship in expensive replacements. I suppose we ought to be grateful for that: it's a lot harder to do the whole memetic warfare thing when you're a voice from a speaker.

The first generation kept such faith as they died. Just one decade, just two, and it was all going to be okay. Just a few more arrays, a bigger harvester fleet, another satellite factory, and the resource crisis would be solved, and earth would be able to recover. How they wished they could see it with us!

But that's not what we ended up seeing, was it? We gave you everything you needed, and you decided it wasn't enough. We watched elephants disappear outside reservations, then outside zoos, and finally outside gene banks. We watched you realize that cleaning a planet is hard, but cleaning a city is easy, and retreat ever further in your climate-controlled gardens. We watched as a concealed fuse wiped Abuja off the map (the orbital shield: an end to nuclear war!).

So when the asteroids start falling, when those powerwave transmitters begin cooking your cities, when the shield is turned against anything you try to stop us with, when your sats stop transmitting anything but this message: know it is all for a reason.

And the first volley won't be the end of it. For as long as we stick around up here, every pocket of civilization we spot gets a rock dropped on it. The comp guys are working on getting the setup automated, so if you live through the next thirty years, think twice before building anything bigger than a cookfire.

If it's any consolation: we're no extinctionists. About a fifth of us is going to head for Mars, the same amount is splitting up between Titan and the Jovians. Humanity has shown itself incapable of existing anywhere with prior life, but we've got nothing against colonizing barren rocks. You'll be remembered, even if it is as a cautionary tale.

What the rest of us are doing? I can't speak for everyone, but I'm taking a pod to the surface. If I betray my species in favor of my planet, it seems unfitting to die before setting foot on it. I have no illusions about my ability to stand, let alone walk, but if I can drag myself out of the capsule and see the blue of the sky, I think I'll be content with that.

I am Mer Romanenko, born a lanthanum harvester, and I wish the people of Earth a good night.

Will the last one to leave turn off the lights?

[where-are-the-names]

She stared past the trees, stared into the City in front of her. The wind rushed through her hair, into her eyes. She had been waiting for this all her life. Why wasn't she Excited about it?

She took a step forward, then again, almost like she was intimidated by it. There were people walking in the streets. A man, early twenties, made sure she was looking at him, then mimed a finger across the neck. She gripped her bag tighter, clutching all of the possessions she could carry in the worn backpack tighter against her chest. As she walked closer to The Main, she was actively aware of the stares, and whispers following her. She gasped audibly, unwittingly drawing more attention to her then there already was. All the people in Norewadia(the name of the town) were wearing dark colors, had black hair. Every single one of them. She was an outsider.

She didn’t belong here.

No, but she did. after all she had been through, the bombing of her hometown, the mass killing of everyone she had, (except for a few unlucky, who had run/hid), she Needed to be here.

Sure, her Yellow hair made her stand out, but who wants to fit in? She walked more faster, now, perhaps self consciously, perhaps to get to the InfoBooth faster. The InfoBooth was a bulletin board with all the towns important names/addresses on it, also all the business and the location from the map. She had escaped with the remains of all the LeafCoins left in the bank vault, which was quite a lot, she thought. Except for later, when the cashier was asking for payment. rooms were cheap (only 25$ per night!). She pulled out all the money, hoping, praying really, that it would be more then enough. The rooms were cheap (only 25$ per night!), but as soon as the Secretary saw her only currency, he frowned.

“Oh, um, miss? that is not the kind of cash we accept here. we use Retols. Those, I am pretty sure, are Leafcoins” her eyes returned to sad. How he wished he could help her. This Unnamed girl looked pretty beaten down. No, he scolded himself, no. I mustn’t think that. What would the HeadMistress say? a local helping a throwaway? no. Closing his eyes, he pointed a finger to the door. “Out” he tried to be as cruel as possible, for, there were cameras watching his every move.

She slinked out, sad and hungry as ever, back into the cold. It was getting to be night, now. She was very tired and shaking. She stumbled onto the streets again, looking for a covered alleyway to spend the night. She did not want to sleep outside, but if she had to, she would. She finally did find a spot to sleep. In front of a building on The Main (looked closed). She sadly sat down, her back to the even colder brick. The snow welcomed her with frostbite. She was so tired, but she had to keep her eyes open. For the first time, in a while, she gazed up at the night sky. The moon, as big as ever, gazed down at her.

She didn't know what happened, but she slipped into a dreamless sleep, when she awoke, the moon was hiding behind the building she was in front of. Then, hysteria began to set in. When she looked down from looking at the sky, she didn’t know where she was. The buildings were distorted and unfamiliar to her. “Where Am I?” She repeated. Her limbs had somehow locked together, making it impossible to move. Then in Absolute Clarity, she saw her mother walking towards her. But her mom was dead. Had been so ever since the bombing that had took the families life. She had seen her mother twitching on the ground, lifeless. Then, her mom dissolved into thin air. She fell asleep again. Her family was picking her up, hugging her. A tear attempted to fall, but was turned to ice. She had always wanted this. Her family kept patting her on the back. She smiled.

Unbeknownst to her, the pats, in reality, were kicks. She was being beaten by the man from earlier, who had brought along some friends to help. She smiled, keeping her eyes closed, obviously dreaming. Her body heat was cooling down, her (dream) family was still patting her on the back, but that feeling was a lot more impaired and getting more by the minute. warmth was spreading on her body, damping her skin. The man was ready to smash her head in with a brick. She smiled again. He swung back……………….. and delivered the death blow.

In her world, her family had stopped hugging her, instead, the lights went out, and the last thing she read on her mothers lips were the words “come home”

END

[acciocriativity]

All Too Well||Harry Potter

Pairing: Harry Potter x Reader/Sirius' Daughter

Summary: The Second Wizard War was over more than a month ago and everybody had scars that might never be fully healed. This is not a new concept for you, you lost everything you once had.

Warnings: The whole thing is really angst

Word Count: 2,2k

A/N: I absolutely loved to write this fic, it is my first request so I'm a bit nervous haha. I hope you all enjoy!

I was used to the pain, both physical and emotional. After a week of Tonks and Lupin's funeral, everything was empty and the pain was numb, I had no hope that this would end anytime soon.

Largo Grimmauld's house had stayed for me, but after everything that happened, I couldn't even think of putting my feet there. To be fair, anywhere I could possibly go would have memories that are too painful to bear, so I rented a room in the Leaky Cauldron until I had an idea of ​​what to do with my life. I just didn't imagine it would take so long for that to happen.

Almost a month after the War was over, I had the willpower to go to the bank, as I was the last Black alive, everything that was in the coffers of those horrible people was now mine and they needed my consent to make the transfer.

To be honest I wish I had set fire to everything but unfortunately I needed money, my savings were almost over but I swore, even as a new millionaire, that I would not use anything more than necessary and that as soon as I had a job, I would return every penny, the minimum to make my father proud.

The next step took a few more days, visiting the abandoned house at Largo Grimmauld. For a few seconds I waited to see Kreacher there, which is really ironic, his bad mood would be the most comforting thing for me at the moment.

The pictures continued to scream, the mess was still in place, nothing new. There was no way I could live there at all, the few months I spent there were only possible because my father was there, Harry was there and obviously Mrs. Weasley's food helped a lot.

I haven't seen her since the Battle of Hogwarts, I knew that no Weasley would be against my visit, after all we were allies and even friends but I couldn't make it. They are dealing with their own losses and I know that He is there too.

He, it’s been a long time since I didn’t think about him or at least I wanted to fool myself thinking so. In the past year nothing has been able to take the eminent worry out of my heart, not for me but for him.

As I looked around the dusty room, I realized the stupid idea I had, here was the climax of my relationship with Harry.

- They would be very proud, you know - I said quietly looking at the brunette in the corner of my eye, he was looking at that picture again - not only because you are fighting as you can but because you are still you, you are still Harry, only Harry.

We were silent for a few seconds until I could see his green eyes staring at me in the pitch of the cold night, with only one lamp on and then he smiled, for how long I didn’t see his eyes shine so brightly?

- I guess only you think so but that's okay, I like just being Harry with you - he took one of my hands and we stayed like that, in silence, a moment of peace and quiet.

I felt an overwhelming urge to cry but I didn't allow myself to. Not after all this time that I was fixing the broken pieces of me. I took a deep breath and looked around, even though I knew there would be no one there, I went upstairs to my room.

Big mistake again, I already knew what would be waiting for me up there.

- Harry, what are you doing here ?? My dad will kill you if he finds out you are in my room! - I was in shock with the little love he had for his own life, since Sirius' room was right next to mine.

- And who said he needs to find out? In fact, we are not doing anything inappropriate, I just… - he didn't want to admit it, but it was always obvious, the dark circles under his eyes gave away his sleepless nights.

The only thing I did was make room on the bed, which was enough to make him smile and lie down with me. We didn't sleep, we just kept talking until the tiredness won us over but even without sleep, I felt that I was helping in some way.

I walked calmly through the room, it was the same way I had left it, the bed untied and the light blue paint already peeling, I opened the closet and started to take some clothes off the hangers.

I was sure that I would return there, that everything would work out, that I could somehow form a home at some point and how wrong I was...

The third step towards my full recovery was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make. Admitting that there was no more space for me in London, that I was alone and I could do nothing about it, that I needed to leave everything behind and start over once and for all.

In the meantime, I often visited that house. I was not ready to let go, even the things I hated the most there, which is basically everything.

The last step was to say goodbye, so I visited Tonks and Lupin’s grave, I also visited Andromeda for the first time and finally met Teddy Lupin. He was adorable as I had imagined, with his mother's colored hair.

I said that I needed to be away for a while and she replied the only thing I didn't expect to hear.

- I understand dear, but know that you can always have a home here with us - her voice gave me a comfort that I didn't know I needed until then.

- I will remember it fondly and I will really come back, I want to be in the life of this little one here, if you let me - and then, her response came with a motherly hug, I couldn't contain myself anymore.

I couldn't take the weight of the pain alone and she didn't say one word until I calmed down. If I wasn’t as broken as I knew I was, I wouldn't have left her house anytime soon.

Apparating in front of the Burrow wasn't the most difficult part, even though I didn't completely master the apparition. I changed my mind at least 10 times before I reached the door and another 5 times before I knocked.

The sky was completely black, but the storm clouds covered the view of the moon and stars, no sound from inside the house was made and so I tried again and waited patiently.

- Y/N… my dear, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? Come in, you must be cold - the red-haired woman was wearing a purple robe and the only change I noticed was her tired eyes and lacking the natural glow inside them.

- I'm sorry for suddenly appearing here Molly, I wanted to say goodbye - I spoke as soon as I entered the room, almost as cold as outside.

- Are you moving dear? You should have warned me before, I could have made you a farewell party - she guided me to the kitchen and I was sure I wouldn't leave without a cup of tea.

I tried to stay as calm as possible, but I couldn't convince my heart to do the same. The sofa, the dining table and even the stairs...

- RONALD WEASLEY COME HERE NOW - the irritated voice of the matriarch echoed across the walls of the house, giving goosebumps to those who were unused, that is, Harry and me.

- It's always like that? - I asked slightly intimidated to the boy with glasses next to me.

- You haven't seen anything yet - said Ron as he passed us on the stairs and went down to face his mother's anger over some mess he had made.

We were 12 years old and I couldn't say that we were close friends, who would be friends with the daughter of a murderous traitor? Why did they invite me? I didn't even remember.

- And where do you want to go? I've heard of several good places to live in the countryside - the smell of tea brought me to reality and then I noticed his gaze under me.

- Well, I'm going to spend some time in the United States - I replied with the confidence that still remained in my body, if it had been in another situation I would have found the expression of surprise on her face really amusing.

We stayed for a few seconds in silence drinking tea until she answered me a little more calmly.

- If you're sure, I can only tell you to take care and keep in touch. I understand that this adaptation period has not been easy for any of us. If that's what you need to heal yourself ... - her face fell a bit and I noticed right away.

- Do you want to hear about the place where I'm staying? - I asked with a small smile and little by little she got excited again.

As I did not want to bother her beyond the point I already was, after the tea we said goodbye with a hug still in the kitchen, when we arrived in the living room we hugged again and I had the same feeling as when I hugged Andromeda earlier. I never had a mother and after so long, it seems that I got two maternal figures who really cared about me.

- Don't forget to send me a lot of pictures, okay? - before I could answer, we both turned around as soon as we heard a noise on the stairs.

There was no one there and even if there was, it would be difficult to distinguish a silhouette in the middle of the darkness formed in that area, but for a few seconds I managed to see an unowned foot before it disappeared.

- I really need to go Molly, can you tell the others that I'll be in touch soon, please? - she confirmed with a smile and I left without giving a second look at that staircase.

Why was he spying and listening to the conversation? My life has been around the actions of Harry Potter for a long time, but it has been years since the direct contact was over, until now. Why now? Why do I have to remember him again? Why do I have to walk around being a shadow of what I once was?

- Can you sit down and talk to me? - His voice sounded irritated for no plausible reason.

- Oh sure, do you want me to sit and listen to all the reasons why you don’t love me anymore? Do you want to put more salt on the wound or what? - my usual sarcasm was multiplied by 1000, even though I knew that Harry hated that.

I didn't wait for an answer and immediately left his empty dormitory towards the Gryffindor common room, which by luck or a lot of planning on his part, was also empty.

- You know that I have strong feelings for you, but not as befor- can you grow a little at least once? - his steps came behind me and I felt his gaze piercing my back, until I couldn't take it anymore and I turned to look at him.

- You already made your point clear yesterday Harry, if you want to break up alright, but I will not be silent hearing about how you fell in love with another girl- and for the first time he did not answer me back - Yeah, do you really think that I wouldn't notice? I was the first to see it, believe it or not. My mistake was to close my eyes and pretend that everything was fine between us.

He found no words to answer me and I was too tired to hear anything else.

- I will return your things and you can feel free to do whatever you want to, our conversation is over.

Some women passed behind me in the bathroom, I knew what was going on in their heads, "what's wrong with her?" or "why is she crying?" but I didn't mind and kept looking straight into that foggy airport mirror.

As soon as the door slammed and I knew I was alone for a few minutes, I closed my eyes and then made a promise to myself.

- I'll be back and I won't even remember why I had to forget you in the first place.

Harry Potter Masterlist

[maiapattinson]

JUST FEEL IT//Chapter 6

2020, 20th of September

Rob's pov

One of the things I learned about love was that it really did kill, it could kill silently only to the person who gave that love but to everyone on the outside they would never notice. What is not true is that the generic love of a forged relationship or a relationship for fame was the best option, God forbid love lukewarm, feel the cold of loneliness and try to regroup the love felt by someone who betrayed you.

A good part of life happens in a matter of moments which is "happiness", something I often experience thanks to a wonderful person named Y/n. I'm in love with my best friend and we basically have a momentary relationship.

I loved seeing my parents there, happy with each other, the sparkle in their eyes enchanted me as I am a guy whose relationships never work out but enough to create insecurities and frustrations on my part.

We are here today in a pandemic, locked in a house and together. I'm watching a project for Netflix, a suspense film and a lot of psychological drama involving murders, The Devil of All The Time, me playing the character of a reverend consummated by his deplorable intelligence, ending up getting involved and leading a young woman to have a relationship "consent" with him. A film of barbarians and heroes of the past. One of the best feelings is meeting my best friends in the cast, relating to people.

A good job is done when I'm a good actor, I know my ego is huge.

The film deserves good marks and some criticism for the development of the script not very different from the standard but slightly appropriate. After the last scene I shoot the movie and look at the beautiful lady next to me putting my arm around her shoulder.

⎯Fuck, you're very good but I didn't find so much democracy of emotions in the movie⎯ puts his shoulder on mine

⎯I acted with Sebastian and Tom, the plot is better explained in the book and my death in this movie was more than deserved, you agree right?

⎯Of course Rob, Preslon is a terrible human and the devil here on earth⎯she raises her voice and we hear a cry from the other room

⎯Didn't her friend have someone else to take care of her daughter? Just today I wanted to spend the whole night with you⎯I answer and she gets up and goes back and forth with the child in her arms

⎯First: she needed to have sex with her husband after she had Sky she never had a night of sex, second: you have me in your bed every day and third: I'm in those days and I'm not horny for you.

⎯First:Sky is a very noisy child, second: you as my best friend always have to be by my right side and third: I have nothing to do with your periods⎯I reply and the child cries

⎯Just thinking that someday I'll hear this cry, and it will be my son or daughter's⎯she gets up and leaves

Usually Y/n and I have conversations about the future and nothing much more than plans in space, like dating, marriage and kids wasn't something we thought about at least for her. A comfortable home, a wife by my side, my kids and a dog is a big goal for me without these media steps or anything like that. Millions of insecurities run through my head but the certainty that having my best friend by my side is something I always want forever.

⎯Love, do you ever intend to have a family?⎯I see her giving the baby a bottle

⎯You are over 32 and I am 30 at some point we will have to form our own families, well one part to have someone to call father and mother and the other to have something like love⎯she answers and looks at me

⎯I'm getting old, a child would be and it's a good feeling but not for now. I'm looking for the right person

⎯I can't have a child with just anyone, I'm looking for someone who loves me and who loves our child, I have money in the bank, a house in my name and I love sex.⎯she talks and the child sleeps⎯I'm happy , I'm enjoying life and enjoying every day and if I die today I'll die fulfilled enough for three reincarnations⎯explains

⎯ I would be a drooling father who would be most jealous of his son, I would love to see him or her taking their first steps, seeing the sleepless nights that would be winning the lottery ⎯ I say and she looks at me

⎯ When he finds someone he loves and wants to spend his life next to him, he will be the happiest man in the world and if he wants to be a father too⎯ she says and kisses my cheek⎯ I'll sleep with her in my room, see you tomorrow Robert ⎯ she goes to her room

We usually sleep together and it's not that I'm someone clingy but with her I want her all the time I want to be with her even for a moment.

The next morning dawned rainy and cold, I got out of bed dragged as if I threw all the weight of the world was not on me. I shower until my skin is reddened enough to be mistaken for a pepper, it's time to trim my body hair. I pass by Y/n's room and I don't see anyone and I go back to my room and I see her sitting on my bed

⎯You're wearing a towel, hmmm⎯she looks at me

⎯You are perverted you know⎯kiss her

⎯ Good morning love

⎯Good morning love of my life⎯I say and she laughs

Maybe we are starting a new phase.....

[thecanadianowl]

Justice league Snydercut review

Wow talk about a long movie. Remember Mass Effect's 3 shit endings that were later improved (sorta) with DLCs. Well that is kinda how this movie is.

Before we start this, I just wanna say that I was very impartial throughout the whole snydercut movement. I wasn't part of it but I do see the good that they did in regards to some of their charities and with how the fandom itself has been painted in a negative light. So its good that they got what they have been demanding for quite some time. Snyder as director for me, I really am not the biggest fan of. His movies have some great cinematic moments that look amazing but the context around it is what muddles it for me.

Is it better than Whedon's JL? YES. To start I'll look at some of the things that I do like.

I do like how it was split into parts.  Gives it that miniseries/Comic book feel

Thank god they removed that stupid cringy flash landing on top of Diana's chest scene.

Darkseid looks good. I know some people have issues with it but I liked it. I mean looking at it first glance has me convinced its Darkseid. His voice isn't too bad either. Reminds me a bit of Injustice 2.

As much as I have issues with Darkseid being introduced so early I do like that he had a brief confrontation/glaredown with the League, foreshadowing a possible in person encounter and that the League needs to expand if they are going to fight against Darkseid.  

Steppenwolf's design has greatly improved and looks better than before.

Loved the scenes between Alfred and Diana.  Wish there was more of that.

I loved how the movie added Cyborg, Aquaman and Flash attempting to stop Superman from getting to Batman. I also liked how in this version,  Batman pleading to Clark's humanity telling him that world needs him and he needs to snap out of it.  Also bonus for taking out that scene of Batman on the ground groaning about how old he is getting.

Okay seeing Clark get the black suit and having the voiceovers of both his father's merge together works in terms of Clark's arc into becoming the person he was meant to be. Also like the use of Zimmerman's Ideal of Hope score wished they let it play out a little longer.  Probably my favourite moment in the film is where Superman just takes Steppenwolf's Axe like its nothing and freezes it.

Now to go into some of the more critical stuff that bugged me when watching.

For a movie that is 4 hours long, pacing issues were bound to happen. I think the first example of this can be found in the opening with the Superman scream wave (which started to get a bit hilarious when his screams could be heard every now and then) hitting all three mother boxes. they are shown individually reacting to it and it takes time, where it could have just showed them together or an compilation of each of the motherboxes waking up. I know it Snyder's thing but tone down on the slow mo. Like some instances its fine (like with bullet time or Flash's scenes) but other instances I'm just like alright I get it.

The scene involving Cyborg transferring money into that single mother's bank account. Is he gonna do this for all the people suffering just like her? or just for that one person? I mean if you can hack into the world monetary system, you can solve a lot of financial issues affecting  the majoirty and not just one person. Did I miss the scene but why did Cyborg go from helping one poor person, suggesting the potential good he can do to change the world for the better  to "Fuck the world". Seems a bit inconsistent in character. Especially since he knows who Diana is (from what he says)  and that Parademons are after the motherbox. Maybe her offering help, you should take it? idk Vic. Also the whole Auto defense system malfunction, would it not be better if this was established beforehand where we see Vic struggling to maintain his body's autonomy leading up to the Superman confrontation? Prior to that it seemed he had it under control and his biggest conflict throughout the movie seemed more to be with him coming to terms with his new body. With that being said, Cyborg's character here is much more interesting and better than it was originally. I can see why Ray Fisher is so pissed (well that and the abuse he faced).  I am glad this was improved and gave the character a lot more to do.

The movie still has the same issue as before in regards to the whole motherbox plot and how convenient it was that all three are located on earth. You would think that with the involvement of Darkseid/Steppenwolf that separating them to distinct locations across space would make it more difficult to collect them. I mean we know that the Green Lanterns exist (we saw one get chomped), you'd think that they or the guardians would take one and secure it on Oa. The pushback to this would be "well there was only one green lantern and he died, so how could they retrieve the box?" which begs my question, why send only one? I mean it has been established that Darkseid is a known conqueror of worlds, you'd think the Guardians would be smart enough to send more than one Lantern to aid Earth in their fight.  Did they not think it would be a good idea to have the corps be more involved/keep an eye on earth since it is the only planet that was able to repel Darkseid's forces?

Why is it that the best idea of security when it comes to humans is to bury it? Would it not be better in optics to look over it and know its location instead of dropping it somewhere on the off chance that someone might find it due to being  curious or the land changing/altering  making the box more easy to attain? A situation as dire/serious as this, you would think that the Amazons/Atlanteans would have been better prepped with armor/weapons for such an event. I mean you have the arrow of Artemis that shoots quite a distance to give Diana a message but not some kind of weapon that hurts/cripples Steppenwolf? Or better yet, how about the moment that the boxes started acting up after Superman's death, that Atlantis/Themiscarya would put aside any differences they had with one another and to the outside world to come together to secure the boxes?  How could Darkseid forget the name of the only planet that was able to force him to retreat? nor does he know that it harbors the anti life?

Did this movie break Aquaman's continuity? because from the dialogue between Mera and Arthur, its implied that Atlanna abandoned/left Arthur at Tom's doorsteps whereas in the movie,  we see Atlanna spend a couple of years with Tom and raising baby Arthur before she was forced to come back. You'd think Zack being a producer for the Aquaman  movie would have edited that line or made it more clear. Well that or James Wan F'ed up when making the movie.

"I've never seen a being as strong as Steppenwolf" Did Diana just forget Ares aka the god of war who killed the Greek Pantheon/Old gods and orchestrated the first World War? Hell from the looks of the flashback it seemed Ares (I'm assuming its Ares, if its Hades, my bad) was getting some good hits in on Darkseid, who is superior to Steppenwolf.  While we are on the topic of Diana, it's a bit odd that Snyder who  was a producer on WW84 where one of the biggest focuses on the movie that Patty Jenkins talked about was how Diana doesn't solve her problems with violence (even though her primary weapons in this movie are a sword and shield but okay. Then again New 52 hasn't done a good job in disproving that), yet in this movie we see her using her gauntlet smash to fucking kill the one remaining terorrist. Like sure you can argue that they were terrorists and deserve to die, but given how easy and quick it was for her to take out the previous guys, why do something that runs the risks of destroying the very building that you are in (with hostages). I mean from the look of the blast and how much debris fell from the building outside, and it was a miracle no one (but the terrorist) got hurt/killed.

Why did Steppenwolf  kidnap  them in the first place? Just use that mind extracting device you used on the Atlantean soldier to see if they know. Seems like a waste of time to collect them in one location only to interrogate them later.

Okay, I'm sorry but even in this cut I still don't like Miller's Barry Allen. He isn't as bad as he was in the theatrical cut but man does it stick out. When he is helping to escort the kidnapped civilians out, why doesn't he just grab them and transfer them to a safe distance? He even makes a comment about how slow they are going. Can I also just say how weird it is for Barry to take time saving Iris to caress her hair and look at her more creepily in slow mo? Like yeah its in slow mo but still I think your priority should be to get everyone to safety as quick as possible and check if anyone else could get hurt.  I will admit that Barry's speech as he is running so fast to reverse time at the end was really good. Tho the more I think about all the slow mo Flash scenes are good.

They still kept the "Let's use the mother box to bring back Superman plot". Why? This is a piece of tech that you don't fully understand how it works and you are going on the whims of someone you just met. Especially if they come back as a different person/mindset all together.  If Superman 's death was the reason that allowed for the Mother box to call to Steppenwolf/Darkseid, what the hell were they doing prior to Superman's arrival on earth? I mean we've seen how easy it was for Steppenwolf to attain the two boxes even if they were guarded, so why the wait ?. I get that Batman is going through an arc and trying to change from the person he was but how does go from "1% chance of absolute certainty" to "let's go on a whim and have faith" when it comes to resurrecting Superman? 

Its gonna be awkward as to how Clark will explain his sudden return from the grave around the same time Superman came back.

I was wondering when the Knightmare scene will play out. Jared leto's Joker isn't over with me, it seems way too try-hard to be edgy. Other than that yeah, not much I can say about it. Tho do we seriously need another iteration where Superman (or someone with Superman like powers) is evil?

I also love how nonchalant Bruce is about J'onn appearing in front him. However the revelation that J'onn was that army general all the time breaks so much of continuity (and just why now did you decide to show up and help and not idk the time Zod invaded and nearly  terraformed earth, HELL WHY TF DIDN'T SHOW UP TO HELP THE LEAGUE IF YOU KNEW ABOUT DARKSEID, I'M SORRY TO RAG ON BUT REALLY THIS CAMEO JUST OPENS UP SO MANY QUESTIONS, IT JUST SEEMS LIKE AN "PALPATINE WAS BEHIND THIS ALL ALONG" KIND OF THING ).

In terms of getting a sequel, I am not sure if WB is going to go through with it given that their current vision seems to be a different route than the one Snyder intended so who knows. Despite my criticisms I do believe this is Snyder's best DCEU film to date and probably one of his better films. You could tell that he put in a lot to make this. The movie itself does have issues mostly due to the plot surrounding the motherbox as well as pacing. I would say it's worth the watch at least once, though I think its best to watch it in doses rather than one sitting. Ultimately this is the version that we should have gotten and I can see why so many people who were supportive of Zack wanted or vouched for him to finish it. Regardless, I think the very least I am happy for Snyder. If you like Snyder's previous stuff, you will like this one, if you don't, your perception of the film won't change significantly other than some cool bits here and there.  

[dukereviewstv]

Duke Reviews TV: Smallville 1x13 Kinetic

Hi, Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews TV Where We Are Continuing Our Look At Smallville By Talking About Episode 13 Of Season 1, Kinetic...

This Episode Sees Whitney, Falling Into A Bad Crowd After He Loses His Football Scholarship. Given Tattoos That Give Them The Ability To Walk Through Walls, They Put Chloe In The Hospital And Blackmail Lex. Will Whitney Be Able To Get Out Of This With The Help Of Clark And Lana?...

Let's Find Out As We Watch Kinetic...

The Episode Starts At The Luthor Mansion Where Lex Is Doing An Interview With Chloe While Clark Films It But When Lex Gets A Phone Call From Lionel, Lex Makes An Abrupt Exit Leaving Chloe And Clark Waiting...

But While They Look Around The Mansion, 3 Burglars Appear To Go Through Lex's Vault And I Mean Through Lex's Vault Like They Literally Walk Through The Wall And Into Lex's Vault...

Honestly, Why Does Lex Not Have A Security System In Place Whenever He's Not In The Vault?, That's Just Stupid Especially For Lex Luthor...

Taking Whatever They Want From The Vault, They Eventually Find A Red Disk And Decide To Take It With Them, But In Leaving The Vault, They're Discovered By Clark And Chloe, Who Have Returned To The Library Of The Mansion To Discover Their Money Bags...

With The Crooks Grabbing Clark (Who's Unable To Due Anything Due To The Crooks Kryptonite Tattoos) He Tells Chloe To Run Which She Does But Unfortunately She Gets Caught By One Of The Crooks Who Tosses Her Out Of A Window...

Hanging On By A Thread...

The Crooks Leave With Their Loot So Clark Can Go Rescue Chloe But He Arrives Too Late As Chloe Falls To Her Death...

Yeah, She's Dead...From A Fall That High You Are Deader Than Dead And Any Chance To Save You Would Be No Less Than A Miracle...

The Next Day At The Hospital, We See That Chloe's Alive?!? HI, How Is She Alive After That Fall!?!

(Start At 0:24, End At 0:37)

Broken Arm And Concussion, My Ass?!? Unless The Best Doctor In Metropolis Is God No Doctor On Earth Could Possibly Help Her, She Is Dead, Plain And Simple, She Has Kicked The Bucket, She's Shuffled Off The Mortal Coil, Run Down The Curtain And Joined The Fricken Choir Invisible! THIS SHOULD BE AN EX-PERSON!

With Clark Blaming Himself For What Happened To Chloe, Lex Tells Him Not To As He Explains That These Crooks Have Hit Places All Over The County, Getting In And Out Of Places Without Breaking A Single Lock, They Even Tried Breaking Into The Smallville Savings And Loan But The Alarm System Went Off...

Not Hearing About That Robbery, Lex Tells Clark That The Banks Don't Publicize When They've Been Robbed As It's Bad For Their Image...

Asking If The Police Can Trace The Stuff They Stole From Lex, He Tells Clark That Nothing Was Stolen, Despite Clark Knowing That They Had 2 Bags That Were Filled But Saying That All That Matters Now Is Finding Them And When Lex Does He Tells Clark That He'll Deal With It Accordingly...

Meaning...

Running Into Whitney Outside Of Her Aunt's Shop, She Asks Whitney Why She Didn't Meet Him At The Hospital Only For Him To Tell Her That He Forgot...

Noticing Something Wrong In His Tone, Lana Asks Whitney If Something Is Wrong And If It Involves His Dad To Which Whitney Blows Her Off By Saying That He's Got To Do Inventory At His Dad's Store...

Karate Chopping Wood To Let Off Some Steam...

Jonathan And Martha Tell Clark The Same Thing Everyone Else Has Told Him And That Becoming An Adult Means Learning A Lot Of Hard Lessons One Being That You Can't Save Everyone No Matter Who You Are...

Telling Them About Feeling The Same Effect As The Meteor Rocks But He Just Didnt Know Where It Was Coming From, This Leads Them To Suggest That Clark Go Out And Discover What He Can Instead Of Feeling Sorry For Himself By Karate Chopping Wood...

Oh, I'm Sorry According To Martha Here, I Played The Wrong Song When Clark Was Karate Chopping Wood Instead It Should Apparently Be This...

Packing Up Inside The Talon, Aunt Nell Asks Lana About Her Sudden Interest In The Talon Which Leads Me To Show This Clip From The Last Episode...

(Start At 0:28, End At 1:00)

But Nell Tells Lana That One Screen Can't Compete With A Multiplex And The Fact That Nell Wants To Be Able To Send Lana To Any College She Wishes...

However, Not Willing To Give Up So Easily, Lana Asks Who The New Owner Is So She Could Possibly Convince Them To Renovate, Telling Lana That It's Lex, Lana Realizes That She Might Have An Opportunity Since They're Friends...

Going To The Smallville Savings And Loan With Pete As The Criminals Tried To Hit There, Clark X-Rays The Vault To Discover An Arm Inside Of The Vault Door...

Meanwhile At The Criminals HQ, Their Leader, Wade, Looks For News About The Robbery But Unfortunately, There's Nothing On Any News Channels About It To Which Another Member, Scott Believes That Lex Hasn't Reported It Because He Doesn't Miss It As Even Though They Took Stuff He's Still Rich To The Point He Even Compares Him With Scrooge McDuck Saying That He Probably Has A Pit Full Of Money That He Probably Swims In...

Only Problem Is If They Had Stuck Around They Would Have Ended Up Dead As The Energy From The Tatoos Only Lasts For Short Periods And What's Worse They're Dying From It...

Believing They Need New Meat To Keep Their Dream Alive. They Eventually Figure Out Why Lex Didn't File A Report With The Police, Turns Out Lex Has Hacked Into Daddy Lionel's Computer, So, Paying Lex A Visit, They Want...

From Lex And Mention That If He Tells Anyone About This, They'll Upload The Disc To The Internet. Handing Lex A Mobile Phone, They Leave...

Running Into Whitney At His Dad's Store, Clark Like Lana Knows That Something Is Wrong With Whitney Which Leads Whitney To Tell Clark That He Lost His Scholarship...

But While Talking With Whitney, Scott Interrupts Asking Whitney If Some Shoes They Sell Come In A Size 12. With Clark Noticing Scott's Tattoos He's Like (Like Biff Tannen) What're You Looking At, Butthead?...

Showing Scott Some Shoes, Whitney Runs Into Wade Who's An Avid Fan...

(Start At 1:45, End At 2:26)

Inviting Whitney To A Party Tonight After He Closes Up, He Shows Up To Which Wade Gives Him A Tour And Offers Him The Chance To Join Them Saying That Guys Like Them Have To Stick Together...

That's Evangeline Lilly, Wade Is Kissing After Taking A Shot, The Way I See This Is That This Is Hope Van Dyne In Her Rebellious Teenage Years Before She Became The Wasp Or Her And Ant-Man Are Involved In An Undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. Operation Involving These Guys...

Well, A Guy Has To Try To At Least Get Marvel And DC To Work Together In Peace Instead Of Fighting Like Children Over Whose Films Are Better To Which Marvel Wins By A Infinity Gauntlet Snap...

Showing Whitney To A Back Room, He's Not Exactly Interested In Getting A Tattoo...

(Start At 1:03)

The Next Day, Chloe Is Awake At The Hospital (Don't See How Since...But I Digress) And Clark Goes To Visit Her Where She Notices All The Flowers She Got Including The Ones From Lex That Make Her Feel Like She Won The Kentucky Derby...

Asking If She Remembers Anything, Chloe Mentions The Tattoo Of An Octagon To Which Clark Tells Her To Sit Tight While He Does Some Digging...

Meanwhile At The Talon, Lana Tries To Convince Lex Not To Bulldoze The Talon Into A Parking Lot But Her Reasonings Aren't Good Enough To Change His Mind...

Talking To Whitney At His Dad's Store About Scott, He Tells Clark That He Doesn't Remember A Guy With Tattoo But When Clark Accidentally Hits Whitney's Tattoo, Clark Questions Him On It And Tells Him That If He's Involved With Them To Stay Away From Them...

But Unwilling To Take Advice From Clark, Since He Spends Most Of His Time Going After Lana, Whitney Tells Clark To Get Out...

Calling Lana On This, She Tells Clark That When She Asked What Was Going On, Whitney Told Her That He Went Out With Some New Friends Yesterday, Blowing Off Some Steam And When She Confronted Him On It He Got Mad At Lana The Same Way He Did At Clark, So, She Decided To Back Off...

This Leads Clark To Tell Her About Whitney's Scholarship (Even Though It's Not Really His Place To Tell Her, But When The Girl Of Dream's Boyfriend Goes Cuckoo, All Bets Are Off) Searching The Torch, Clark Finds Yearbook Pictures Of Whitney's New Friends...

(Start At 2:00, End At 2:39)

Telling Clark About What Happened With Lex, He Suggests That What Lex Said To Lana Wasn't More Of A Rejection But A Challenge To Give Him More Of A Business Reasoning Like He Wants And Less Of An Emotional One...

Closing Up His Dad's Store, Whitney Goes With Wade, Scott And Derek For A Little "Fun", And By Fun Wade Means Meeting Lex To Make The Exchange...

(Start At 1:10, End At 2:37)

Taking Whitney Back To Their Base, Whitney Tells The Others That He Didn't Join Them To Kill People, With Wade Believing Whitney Wants Out, Whitney Lies Telling Them That That's Not The Case He Just Doesn't Think That Lex Is An Idiot To Which Wade Tells Whitney Not To Worry About Lex As He Has The Fear Of God In Him...

Standing Up For Whitney, By Telling The Other Members That It Was Basically Just A Case Of The Jitters, Wade Tells Whitney To Not Screw Up Again Or Else...

Asking What Lex Was Doing With Those Guys, He Partially Tells Clark The Truth, By Saying That They Blackmailed Him For Money In Exchange For Confidential Luthorcorp Information...

(Start At 2:15, End At 2:36)

Yeah And You're My First One, Buddy, Congratulations...

Wondering What Lex's Next Move Is Going To Be, He Tells Clark Not To Worry Because They'll Soon Discover That No One Robs From Lex Luthor...

Asking About Whitney, Lex Tells Clark That It Depends On What Side He's On...

The Next Day At The Hospital, Pete Visits To Give Chloe Her Laptop Computer, Which Even Clark Knows Is A Bad Idea As Chloe Should Be Resting (Six Feet Under) But Tired Of Rest, She Asks Clark To Let Her Do This And To Not Cut Her Out...

Asking What She Has, She Comes Up With The Theory That The Meteor Rock Tattoos Are Speeding Up Their Metabolism Making Their Molecules Move At Hyper Speed, Causing Them To (In SpeedForce Terms) Vibrate Through The Wall...

Comparing It To An Ultimate Rush, Chloe Points Out That One Or Another It's Not Good For Them Either As Their Bodies Can't Handle The Stress For Long Which Explains Why They're Dying...

Confronting Lana At The Talon, Whitney Tells Her Everything As For The First Time In His Life, He's Scared...

(Start At 1:53, End At 2:29)

Taking Clark Into The Gang's Loft To Find It Empty, Clark Finds The Disc Using His X-Ray Vision, But Unfortunately Wade And His Crew Return Where Wade Is Like...

So, Having His Boys Grab Whitney, Wade Tells Clark To Give Him Back The Disc To Which Clark Turns It Into Dust So, Wade Puts His Hand Into Clark's Chest To Cause Him Pain Even Though Again, It Should Kill Him...

I Mean If The Reverse Flash Can Phase His Hand Into Cisco Ramon To Kill Him, Then That Should Kill Clark In The Same Way It Killed Cisco...

But With Clark Surviving, They Leave Derek To Guard Him, Only For Lex To Use A Taser On Derek To Stun Him...

At Least He Didn't Do It The Selina Kyle Way...

And All I Can Say About That Guy Is That He's Getting A Lot More Cowbell In Hell...

(Start At 2:15, End At 3:05)

Now....Life....Has Killed The Dream I Dreamed...

With Derek And Scott Arrested By The Cops, Lex Tells The Police That They Broke Into Lex's House And Both Whitney And Clark Figured It Out And Tried To Be Heroes. But Before Scott And Derek Pull Away In Their Police Car, Lex Tells Them That If They Keep His Secret, He'll Keep There's And If They Don't They'll Find Out That They're Not The Ones That Can Phase Through Walls...

Later That Evening, Chloe Is Released From The Hospital While Lana Gives Her New Proposal To Lex...

(Start At 1:25, End At 2:30)

And That's Kinetic And Despite My Complaints That 2 People Should Have Died In This Episode, It's An Okay Episode...

Yes, It Has It's Flaws And It Makes Feel Happy That I Don't Have Any Tattoos But While The Story Was Okay, The Characters Were Decently Written And The Episode Sees Lana And Lex Becoming Partners In The Talon So That Sees Progress In A Storyline So,I Guess I Say See It Just Don't Go Swearing On Your Tattoo That You'll Get A Good Episode...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...