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revchainsaw · 3 years

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Bumblebee (2018)

Good Evening worshippers, and welcome! Today the Cult of Cult goes a little more mainstream than usual. It's been a while since i've tackled a big Hollywood superhero film. But I do believe that these sorts of films will be remembered fondly my small groups of people in the future, especially the smaller films that are being overshadowed by the big bad MCU, films like 2018s Bumblebee.

The Messsage

Bumblebee was originally released as a prequel to the Transformers franchise that had started all the way back in 2007. However, reboots had really hit the market as a way to breath new life into struggling franchises, and the Transformers series had already gone to just about every absurd extreme you could imagine. No changes were made to the movie as it was released, but with it's more childish and heartfelt tone, and a new aesthetic that was softer, smoother, and all around just generally more pleasing to the eye, I think it was a wise choice to rebrand Bumblebee as a new beginning.

Our story is of two friends from two very different worlds and how they came together. Our first character is Bumblebee, then known as B- number sign/it doesn't really matter. Not yet Bumblebee is a soldier set with securing a safe location for the Autobots to regroup and make their home as they suffer a pretty serious defeat on cybertron at the hands of the tyrannical Decepticons. Optimus Prime, here again voiced by Peter Cullen and looking so much more like himself, assigns this task to Bumblebee promising him that they will meet him there when the time comes. Then Optimus fucks off for the rest of the run time making way for our little hero.

Bumblebee lands on Earth and is immediately set upon by John Cena and his military goon squad. It probably would have been wise for Bumblebee to avoid John Cena but in his defense, he couldn't see him. Hardy har har. In his attempt to flee his voice box is damaged, he seeks sanctuary by taking the form of a run down little VW bug, and suffers from amnesia.

Then we have Charlie. Charlie is not like other girls. She likes cars, all the retro music, which wasn't retro when the movie takes place, so I'm supposed to just think she's a rocker but it kinda seems like she'll listen to just about anything. I think in 2018 liking Motorhead and The Smiths (who are used ad nauseum in this movie) is perfectly common, but I feel like in the 80s that was a much different and much older attitude to take.

Anyway Charlie's poor family lives in a super fucking nice house and are poor because the dialogue keeps insisting they are so it must be true despite all the shit they have that actually poor people would sell blood and teeth to attain, but hell, this is Hollywood and Hollywood poor is like regular people upper middle class. Charlies family is so poor that instead of giving her a one time graduation/birthday present to buy a part for a car she already has, they just give her a moped, She also spends all her time at a pull apart where the manager (who might be her uncle that wasn't super clear) is willing to just give her a Volkswagen so I don't understand why she didn't already have the project car up and running. Whatever, it's a plot contrivance. All you need to know is that Charlie is tenacious and hard around the edges cuz her dad is dead and she's not yet mature enough to process that in a healthy way. Maybe her character arch will teach her to let others in, we'll have to find out.

There's also a wacky nerd named Memo, and some bad guys, and John Cena. They are all also pretty archetypal and contrived and don't really do anything of note that isn't just filling a beat that this kind of movie needs to walk. Charlie starts Bumblebee up, discovers he's a robot and the two begin to bond. Charlie learns to make a friend, and bumblebee is learning about himself. They get into hijinks and get revenge on a bully girl who makes Regina George look like a saint, she pretty much only picks on Charlie exclusively for having a dead dad.

The moment Bumblebee is woken back up, some technology goof em up that both he and Charlie are unaware of brings two Decepticon baddies into the picture. I don't remember their names, but since I love The Venture Brothers let's say they can be "Jet Boy and Jet Girl". Jet Boy and Jet Girl are sometimes cars, sometimes various flying military vehicles, and they make friends with the deep state and plan to get all the adrenochrome from all the orphans, or just to go find Bumblebee and beat his ass good cuz their bad guys. Let me tell y'all though, Jet Boy and Jet Girl are so bad that they don't even care that the government is listening when they reveal that they are planning on bringing a Decepticon Invasion and after they rough up Bumblebee real good they are going to destroy all life on this planet. So they start by killing a military scientist.

John Cena is after Bumblebee and he's homies with Jet Boy and Jet Girl until the military scientist butt dials him and he hears the evil plan. John Cena goes from heel to face and helps Bumblebee and Charlie save the day. It's a giant CG clusterfuck climax a la any superhero film in the last 10 years and I basically stopped watching. BumbleBee pulls a Hellraiser on Jet Boy, and then he hits Jet Girl with a freaking boat. Charlie uses her diving skills do dive down and save him, but he's a Giant Robot and he was okay and it was literally pointless for her to to except as a way to show that her character has completed her arch by doing the thing that was representative of her connection with her lost father.

Bumblebee turns into the Camaro from the first movie, meets up with Optimus prime, and the stage is set for this prequel to squeeze more prequels out. So it wasn't very creative, but was it bad? Let's find out.

Please Stand to receive the Benediction.

Best Aspect: Transform the Franchise

Bumblebee was directed by Travis Knight of Laika fame and it shows. This movie marks a stylistic change in the transformers franchise, as in it doesn't look like utter dog shit, but it also represents in many ways a tonal shift. It does hold on to a lot of gross sleaze that has unfortunately been forcibly jammed into the DNA of the franchise but it also attempts to be a more heartfelt entry. The characters of Bumblebee might all be sort of a waste of time, but at least they are doing something with emotions, even if the emotions of the characters are only explored as deeply as a children's cartoon I'm glad they are there. In the previous installments the only thing the characters did between running from action piece to seizure inducing action piece was drool over underage girls like a bunch of chimpanzees at the facility where they test experimental E.D. meds. It was nice to see that at least somewhat tampered. This transformers movie feels more like it's for kids and young teenagers, and strangely that more friendly tone makes for a much less juvenile product.

Worst Aspect: Remember I Love the 80s from the 2000s

I hope you really like Stranger Things. I do, but because Stranger Things was so successful it' s going to be everywhere. Not true Stranger Things just 80s nostalgia porn. This 80s nostalgia is going to be forced on you whether you like it or not, and it's not going to be fun. It's gonna be in your shows, in your music, in your Sunday like Bacon in 2010. It's that or Marvel Franchise Brand Whedonisms. Bumblebee is that brave movie that says, "Why not both?" It would seem fitting that a property as quintessentially 80s as Transformers should feel completely comfortable doing a period piece set in the 80's but it's so fucking half hearted it's depressing. It wasn't done to appreciate the roots of the IP, it was done to cash in on a trend and it feels it. All they did was throw up a date and insufferably force an 80s soundtrack down your throat as if that was enough to convince you that this movie needed to be set during this time. Other than that you could have told me this film was set in 2007 and I couldn't tell you any different.

Best Character: Charlie's an Angel

I liked Charlie. Sure her Arc is predictable, her taste is dumb, and she isn't exactly a master of her own destiny to any degree. But at least she is a woman in a transformers movie who's got something going on. Sure she's defined entirely by grief, but that sure is better than pretending that being able to work on cars is a feminist character trait instead of a weird fetish thing. They certainly do that thing with Charlie, but at least it's not the only thing they throw at the wall. Bumblebee is by no means out of the woods in this department, but it garners a lot of goodwill for trying. Like a racist uncle who just started his journey out of ignorance, but hasn't yet realized he has to stop asking mortifying questions to the barista at Starbucks. Okay, maybe that's an extreme metaphor. I'm saying that perhaps Charlie is not a great character but she's a great character for a Transfomers movie.

Worst Character: It's JOOOOHHHNNNN CEEEENA!!!!

Why is John Cena in this movie? I don't hate the guy, but his character seems pointless. You could remove him from the movie completely and replace him with any one of the random military goons at any point and it changes nothing. What was with that dumb salute at the end? It seems like they put him in this movie in post and it was just to pump up cast list. I wish he was given anything to work with. I can't remember his characters name, and it's not like John Cena did a bad job, I was just annoyed every time they kept giving him hero shots. I felt like I was watching a trailer for a different movie.

Best Actor: Optimal Primo!

Every time Peter Cullen speaks I want to listen. There's a reason they haven't had Chris Pratt or somebody with a bigger name come in and take over the role at this point. He's why the audience keep coming back. Peter Cullen IS Optimus Prime, and there's no changing that. He also wins twice. He's the best actor in the movie AND he's barely in the movie. Good call Peter.

Worst Actor: Mean Girls 2, Meaner and Girlier

I don't want to be cruel so I'm not going to go into to much detail, but there's an actress in this film who's performance is so mustache twirlingly evil and stupid that it ruined my suspension of disbelief when i knew going in that i was about to endure a 2 hour toy commercial about robots that turn into cars. Beldar Conehead was a more convincing human being than Tina.

Best Effect: Goo Be Gone

I really appreciated when the bad guys shot the government nerd into a blast of snot. That was pretty fun for me. Best part of the movie hands down.

Worst Effect: Live Action?

Bumblebee is a cartoon. It's a great looking cartoon but it doesn't sell itself that way. If we were doing a Roger Rabbit thing I'd have no gripes. However, I think CG is just getting worse. I'm criticizing this and it's still lightyears better than the previous entry's on the franchise. No transformation or fight sequence in Bumble Bee had me straining to make sense of what I was looking at. I think it was a great idea to start using some basic shapes and outlines to these characters, and return somewhat to their 80s designs. But at certain points, especially when there were no humans in the shot, i was pretty convinced I was watching Clone Wars. There may not be anyway around this, as the Transformers concept might not be able to be pulled off in any more effective manner. It's a minor gripe, but I just didn't think it looked like anything other than a very expensive cartoon, and in this franchise that's a compliment, because it least it looked like SOMETHING!

Best Scene: Space Opera

I am not a Transformers fan. I missed the boat on the cartoon as a kid. I would sometimes catch it at friends houses but I was more into Batman, Star Wars, and Ninja Turtles. By the time I came onto the scene the world had moved on to Beast Wars. I did one day arbitrarily decide that my favorite Transformer was Sound Wave. He looked great in this. I am a big fan of the return to form with a lot of the character designs in this. They really did keep the things that worked from the other adaptations, and they are steadily removing the things that didn't. For this reason, the scenes on Cybertron, particularly the battle with Soundwave (i prefer for personal reasons) looked great and were exciting to watch. I remember thinking Cybertron used to look like a Marilyn Manson shot a music video from inside to dumpster. This is so much better.

Worst Scene: Blocking the Box

There's a scene in Bumblebee where Charlie's family decides the best way to save their daughter was to cause a pile up of vehicles in an intersection, and it's pure contrived writing that saved any character in that sequence from being killed in a horrific traffic accident. It was stupid, played for laughs, and it wasn't exciting as much as it was anxiety inducing. I also thought that there was no reason the covert military group covering up extraterrestrial life wouldn't just disappear this family of fucking morons in their little piece of shit car. The logic of the scene was just so childish like, "No they won't hit me, I'm a good person."

Summary

Bumblebee may be remembered fondly in a decade. I think especially if the Transformers franchise were to end here. It didn't get the publicity of the other films, and that really is a shame. For my money, this was the best Transformers movie so far. I was very tempted to give Bumblebee a C, it does just enough to right what was wrong from the other movies to make me appreciate all that work. This movie has heart, and if you are at all into Transformers then l think you should see it. It's still pretty stupid, and pretty basic. It's not offering anything new to the genre, and it feels like a commercial for more movies. I really wish we could just get movies that want to tell a story. I thought it over and decided that it wasn't fair not to grade Bumblebee on it's own merits. Bumblebee is substantially better than the films that preceded it, but that's not saying a lot, when the films that preceded it are joyless exercises in self abuse.

Overall Grade: D

#Transformers #Bumblebee #Optimus Prime #Action #Adventure #Car #Super Hero #Robot #Scifi #Grade D #D #Grade: D #2018 #2010s #(D)

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asweethistory · 4 years

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Laika

Lemon Thyme & Vodka Ice Cream with Freeze-Dried Raspberries and Candied Lemon Peel

Laika’s life began on the streets of Moscow, yet ended 2,000 miles away vertically in the USSR’s Sputnik II in 1957. Laika was a stray dog (Husky-Spitz mix), and Sputnik II was a Soviet space ship with the mission of learning the limits of human experience in space flight. Sputnik II’s launch was a rushed one as Premier Krushchev decided he wanted a space fight to happen on the 40th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. So without time for blueprints, engineers created a ship that would accommodate a dog, making Laika the first living creature to be shot into space. Sputnik I, just a month earlier, earned the title of the first man-made object to orbit the Earth.

A female dog was picked because they were believed to be more obedient and the right small size. A stray was chosen because scientists assumed that dogs on the streets of Moscow were accustomed to tough conditions. The dog who came to be known by the public as Laika (which translates to barker), went by the nicknames Limonchik (little lemon) and Kudryavka (little curly). Laika and her back-up, Albina, were implanted with medical devices that would monitor essential functions like blood pressure and heart rate.

It was known from the beginning that the dog that the scientists chose to go up would not come down because the USSR simply did not have the technology to return the dog safely back through Earth’s atmosphere. But the scientists had estimated that the dog would pass away easily due to oxygen deprivation. Instead, Laika overheated quickly, a fact that the Soviets covered up, continuing to claim for years that she had made it several days before oxygen ran out.

Of course, animal rights activists bashed the Soviets for allowing this experiment to happen (although animal activism was not as intense as it is today). Before take off, though, some of the scientists tried to show compassion to Laika by taking her to their home for the night and going against protocol to feed her before take off. Laika’s story is tragic, but her legacy ensured the future of space travel, proving ironically that space travel was possible for humans. She lives on in rock songs, films, graphic novels, and animal rights magazines.

#laika #space dog #space race #lemon thyme #candied lemon peel #freeze dried #raspberries #vodka #russian history #space history

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quinquinis · 5 years

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I really love your fic of Saito with his Navi X! Can you do a blurb/fic of Saito and X meeting Netto and Mega?

I smiled when I saw this message because guess what I was planning to post today? The second part of the What if: Saito was the Operator and Netto was the Navi? I wrote the first part ages ago and have been slowly writing and editing the second part where Netto and Saito meet (because I love stuff like that).

Here’s a link to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18944065/chapters/47124802

And a link to fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13294159/2/What-if-Saito-was-the-Operator-and-Netto-the-navi

And the chapter underneath a ‘read more’ which I hope works (plus the link break took seems to be missing? so enjoy having little dashes thrown in to break up the scenes):

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"Have you boys ever heard of 'Beyondard?'"

The brown haired navi and the brown-haired operator looked at each other. Even with a screen between them, they knew each other's answer was the same before they spoke.

"No?" they said questioningly.

"What is it?" Saito asked, curiously. The navi, X, stared out at them with curious purple eyes.

"It's another world, beyond ours. Your grandfather was researching it."

X's eyes lit up. "Wow! Do you think there'll be strong navis in this Beyondard?"

"Why are you telling us this?" Saito asked.

Dr Hikari sighed. "While looking for an explanation for the quakes we've been seeing in the net, I found the research. And it seems to be pointing to Beyondard being the cause. Something on the other side is reaching out to here."

"And you want us to go there?" Saito questioned.

"You and your brother have taken down WWW and Nebula. Commissioner Kifune has put you two forward as investigators. However, you can back out if you don't want to do it."

"Why wouldn't we want to?" X questioned in shock. He was eager to explore this new world, rolling back and forth on his rollerblades.

"It'll be dangerous, won't it?" Saito said. "Is there anyone else?"

Dr Hikari hesitated. While his son was sensible, that sense was thrown out the window when other people were in danger. "We'll be looking at the other Netsaviours. Enzan and Laika are next in line."

"Won't they be coming anyway?" X pouted. It was difficult to tell if he wanted them there or not.

"We'll go with them," Saito said. He stared at Dr Hikari the way he always did in situations like this, with determined eyes.

"Yes!" X cheered, becoming a blur of orange and blue light as he rushed around the net. "I'll contact them now!"

"X-" And he was gone. Saito closed his mouth mid-call, staring at where his navi had been standing a moment before.

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Laika stared at the large gateway. It was going to be their portal to Beyondard.

"This seems dangerous," he said.

The speaker crackled and Dr Hikari's voice rang out, "I assure you, it's perfectly safe."

'Perfectly safe,' Saito mouthed to his navi, causing them both to giggle. Enzan glared at them but Saito didn't see.

"The gateway will hold a dimensional area which we will use to connect Beyondard to us. The new program installed in your PETs will allow you to contact us."

"So that's what it does," X said in wonder. Blues turned to stare at his rival.

"You should listen to this quietly," he said.

X shook his head and shrugged. "Nah. That doesn't work either. Besides, Saito will remember it."

"Remembering things is your role," Blues pointed out, eyes unreadable behind his dark visor.

"Are you going to start fighting?" Searchman questioned, coming up between them. It was surprising that his camo design somehow allowed him to hide his presence on the net, which was devoid of bushes and trees. "Blues, you do remember how the last battle went?"

Blues turned away, long hair swishing around. "No." He didn't look at them as he spoke.

X smirked. Blues totally remembered! He and Saito had wiped the floor with the red samurai navi. X had been fast enough to get behind Blues to hit him and even vaulted over Blue's ready sword with his rollerblades at one point. His rollerblades were made to take a beating.

"Are we ready?" Dr Hikari asked the group.

Saito looked to Laika and then Enzan, who both nodded. Only then did he answer, "we're ready."

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The portal came to life with a crackle and a hum.

"We're going through that?" X questioned in amazement. "Awesome!"

Saito would not have called it that. He thought the portal looked terrifying. They were going to walk through it with no idea about what was on the other side.

"Let's go," Enzan said, giving Saito a nudge. Saito stumbled forward, took a deep breath and jumped through the portal.

The hair on his skin stood up, charged by the air around him. The first step felt slowed down but also too quick. As he stepped onto solid ground on the other side, he was almost pulled to the ground by an invisible force.

X gave a little cry. Not even looking around, Saito pulled out his PET.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Fine," X said. Although he was wincing a little. "Just got a shock to the system. Literally."

"Ha ha," Enzan grumbled. "Have you noticed what we walked into yet?"

Saito had not. He looked up to see a group of scientists looking very shocked.

"Um, hi?" he said. "Sorry about interrupting your experiment."

When he didn't continue, Laika stepped forward. He was the best at dealing with other people.

"Is there a Dr Hikari here that we could speak to?"

A man with his hair sleeked up and back gave them a look up and down. His glasses looked a little more like goggles and somehow stopped them from seeing his eyes.

"That could be arranged," he said, rubbing his chin. One of the other scientists run off, presumably to do that.

"Are you Mr. Meijin?" Saito asked.

Meijin flinched. "It's not 'Mr'!"

"But it is Meijin right?" X said, appearing as a little hologram on Saito's shoulder.

"That's right." Meijin did a double take as he took in X's form. "You're an interesting navi." He leaned in closer. "What's your name?"

"X! And that's Saito!"

Meijin nodded a greeting to Saito before going back to his navi. "Would you mind if I took a look at you?"

"I would mind," X said. "Papa's the only one allowed to look at me. And Saito but he's not skilled enough yet."

Saito hung his head in shame. Not being able to look after the programming of his own navi was a sore point. He was the son of Dr Hikari and yet he didn't understand programming. Meijin smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. You'll get there."

"Don't touch him," Enzan said. "And you," he said to Saito, "stop trusting everyone we come across. We don't know what he's like."

"But, there's a Meijin on our side," Saito mused. "And they seem similar enough."

"It's the little differences we have to watch out for," Laika reminded them.

"I heard we had guests?" Dr Hikari said, walking in.

The room froze as the kids followed him behind him. There was Laika and Enzan and another kid they had never seen before. He looked a little like Saito, if Saito didn't keep his hair parted neatly and instead just tied a bandanna around it.

"Wow," Saito commented under his breath. "I'm guessing that's you two."

"They look exactly like us," this world's Laika commented.

"We can see that," this world's Enzan said. He stared his double. "What are you doing here?"

"Heh. Enzan is Enzan, even in Beyondard."

Both Enzans glared at Saito. Dr Hikari nodded, as if this made perfect sense. Saito's comment allowed him to figure out that the three boys where from another world.

"If you could join me in my office. Netto and both versions of Laika and Enzan can join us."

Saito fell into line, following beside Netto.

"Who are you?" he asked. Netto answered and Saito was so thrown off that he stumbled and almost hit the ground. "What did you say?"

"How?" X demanded to know.

"I'm assuming by the lack of Netto that there's some differences between this world and your own?" this world's Laika said to Saito and Netto.

Saito nodded furiously. Even Netto was a little disturbed but he hid it with his mischievous grin.

"It's not our first time dealing with a Beyondard," this world's Enzan said. "But, your world does seem to be closer to ours than the other Beyondard was."

"The other Beyondard had an experiment go wrong that merged the virtual and physical worlds together."

"That's crazy," Saito mused. "You mean I would get to be in the same world as X?"

"Yep! Rockman and I have shared the same world before! It's awesome!" Netto said happily.

"Rockman, huh?" X mused, looking over at the blue helmeted navi. He waved and Rockman waved back. "Pretty nifty. Saito and I shared a world once, when Regal set off a machine that turned the physical world into the net. But we spent most of the time in Full Synchro so we couldn't really enjoy it."

"Yeah. It always seems like something big is going on when I can hug Netto," Rockman agreed with a sigh.

"So Dr Regal is also a bad guy in your world?"

Saito nodded. "Does your world have a Dr Wily?"

Netto laughed. "Of course! You're not asking because he's a good guy in your world, right? Because he's a wanted criminal here."

"And yet he still hasn't been caught," both Enzans complained in unison. Netto and Saito shared a look before laughing silently together.

"This is so weird," Saito's Laika commented as Dr Hikari closed the door to his office. "Please tell me we can go home soon?"

Dr Hikari's eyes widened in surprise. "I assumed you had a way to return."

"X does. But he'll need to charge first," Saito explained.

Dr Hikari nodded in understanding. "That's good. We don't have the technology here to send you back safely."

"You know what? Before we go back, I want to know where this world's Saito is," Enzan commented. "Is he anything like our version?"

"What about your version of Netto?" Enzan asked himself. "Why didn't he come with you?"

Dr Hikari tensed. He hadn't wanted to explain this and had hoped that the kids wouldn't notice. However, a glance at Saito and Netto told him that the two had realised. Saito was looking everywhere but at them and Netto was scratching the lower back of his head. A glance at the computer showed their navis reacting in a similar way. Rockman wasn't meeting anyone's eyes while X was rubbing the back of his neck.

"Come to think of it, you mentioned another Beyondard," X said, suddenly perking up. "What was Netto or Saito like in that world?"

The group was silent as they thought back.

"No clue," Netto shrugged.

"If Netto existed in that world, then we didn't meet him."

"Considering that the only Hikari we knew about was Dr Tadashi Hikari, who knows if you even existed."

"No Papa?" X questioned with a shudder.

"It's certainly strange to think of," Saito said with his voice shaking a little.

"Good thing you came here then!" Netto said brightly.

"That's for sure," Netto's Enzan muttered, recalling having to raid abandoned supermarkets for food and trekking across virus infested deserts.

"Does this mean that there's no Saito in this world, like how there's no Netto in ours?" Laika asked everyone.

"Exactly!" Netto interrupted before anyone else could comment.

"Netto!" Rockman scolded. X snickered and Saito breathed a sigh of relief.

"How long until X is ready to take us back?" Enzan asked Saito.

Saito looked to X whose gaze went unfocused as he accessed the program. His expression dropped.

"Uh... do you really want to know?"

Enzan clicked his tongue in annoyance. He wouldn't have asked if he didn't want to know.

"It'll be at least 7 hours."

"That's almost midnight here," Dr Hikari informed them. "It'd be better to stay the night."

"Stay the night where?" Saito asked suspiciously.

"Saito," X sighed. His brother could be a little more trusting. Saito tended to question everyone's motives. If it wasn't for X, he would let his worries and doubts get the best of him and not do anything for those he didn't fully trust.

"We should stay here," Saito's Laika said. "There's no need to make any special arrangements."

"But where will you sleep?" Netto asked. Dr Hikari quietened the kids and informed them that he could have sleeping bags brought in.

"A camp," X's Searchman commented approvingly.

Saito seemed nervous about the idea, looking around like he wanted to bolt for an exit. And he would make it too, having been on the track team at school for a number of years. Laika placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him from enacting his fantasy.

"Cool! We can all stay together!" Netto and X said in unison. Saito quickly covered his PET speakers, hoping that no one caught the unified moment between this otherworldly version of his brother and his navi.

"You have a house to return to," Netto's Enzan pointed out.

"I don't know, keeping watch over these... people seems like a good idea," Laika commented.

Netto grinned at Enzan. "See, Laika agrees with my plan."

"You can make it mission 'get to know Beyondard duplicates;', if that makes you feel better about it," Saito commented with a smug smile. He knew that if this Enzan was like his own, he would find the joke naming of this event annoying.

"Not everything needs a name, Saito," Saito's Enzan said for what felt like the 100th time. "Especially not 'mission' when it's not an assigned mission."

"Ah, Enzan is Enzan in any world," Netto said calmly with Saito nodding serenely in agreement.

"What's that supposed to mean!" both versions of Enzan demanded to know.

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X looked at up at the small smile Saito was sporting. It was good that his operator had found a way to enjoy this little trip but, at the same time, it was a little sad that part of the smile could be attributed to Netto.

What was so great about being in the physical world anyway? He tapped his fingers on his arm, waiting out the discussion.

"It kind of hurts to see them getting along," Rockman commented with a wistful and sad tone to his voice.

"Don't I know it?" X huffed. "But Saito doesn't really get comfortable around strangers easily so I guess this isn't too bad." Or so he'd keep telling himself.

"Really?" Rockman questioned in surprise. "Netto gets too friendly around strangers. I keep having to warn him not to blindly trust people."

X barked a laugh. "And I have to keep reminding Saito that not every person has an ulterior motive." X glanced up to see Saito looking at him with a smug expression. "What?"

"You're getting along. Actually, I'm surprise that neither of you have brought up netbattling yet. It was the first thing out of X's mouth when he met Gutsman."

Everyone else was looking at the two similar looking kids and their navis with curious eyes.

"Is anyone else thinking they're seeing double?" Netto's Enzan commented.

"We're all doubled. It's just that they're different enough to be unnerving," Saito's Laika commented.

"Why are they the only ones different?" Saito's Enzan mused.

"Maybe there's some kind of butterfly effect going on? Something small is different between our worlds, something that affects Netto but not us?" Netto's Enzan theorised.

"It's the best theory we've got," Netto's Laika commented before walking over to Saito and Netto. "Are we staying the night here as well?"

"If you wish," Dr Hikari said.

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Morning came and Netto was sprawled out on the sleeping bag. Or was it Saito? Saito's hair was messed up from sleeping and Netto hadn't worn his iconic bandanna to bed so the two looked even more identical than they had the previous day.

"If they were from the same world, I'd say they were twins," Saito's Laika commented while Netto's Enzan took a photo.

"Not a bad idea," Saito's Enzan said, also taking a photo.

"Do you think they're the same person, just with a different name?" Netto's Enzan added a new theory.

"Do you guys have anything better to do than gossiping about others?" Saito questioned, waking up. He rubbed at his eyes, yawning tiredly as he stumbled to his feet. "I need to go get dressed."

X appeared on the PET screen. "Ah, Saito!" he tried to stop his operator. With a bang, Saito walked right into the doorframe instead of the doorway. At the sound, Netto woke in surprise.

"Ow," Saito stated blandly. He was fine, just embarrassed and now very awake. X just sighed and went back to sleep.

Netto snickered from the sleeping bags before dropping back down into them, as if to go back to sleep.

Netto's Enzan wasn't having any of it. "Get up," he said, literally dragging the sleeping bag out from under Netto.

"Netto!" Rockman called out. "You should wake up!"

"Ugh, fine," Netto huffed, climbing out of the sleeping bag. Saito walked back in as Netto walked out to get dressed.

"Saito, where did X go?" Rockman asked, curious.

"Back to sleep. He usually doesn't wake up until later," Saito responded kindly as he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Rockman nodded his understanding as he knew who X had probably been based off. However, both Enzans looked confused about this. They shared a look and Netto's Enzan motioned for Saito's to speak to him.

"You let your navi... sleep in?" Saito's Enzan questioned.

"Sleep is not a requirement," Blues pointed out.

"I know that," Saito responded. Really, did they forget that it was research from his father and grandfather made navis possible? "X is special."

"And awake," X complained, appearing in his PET. His eyes had tired circles underneath. "The speed I use means I require more time to charge."

"Or you just like to sleep in," Rockman commented in an amused voice. X glared at the other navi before stalking off. "Did I say something wrong?"

"He's just grumpy in the morning," Saito said as he put his PET away. He refrained from adding that Rockman had just said something that Saito himself had also teased Rockman about. Who knew the orange and blue navi was so sensitive?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr Hikari greeted the children as they all gathered in the same room Saito and the others from his world had appeared the previous day.

"I'm sorry but X isn't fully awake yet," Saito said. He knew that Dr Hikari would know the reason why X wasn't the same as other navis and why it was important for them to wait until X was awake.

Or maybe not. "Do you mind if I look at your navi?"

"A little," Saito answered honestly. "X is special and I protect him."

Dr HIkari smiled and held out his hand. "I promise to look after him. I just want to check his programming against Rockman's."

The other netsaviours were confused, except Netto and Rockman. Rockman seemed a little worried but Netto looked excited.

"Do you think it'll be the same?" he asked his father and Saito.

Saito shrugged. There was a good chance. They were supposed to be twins after all.

"I suspect the programming on these two will be almost the same. There will be small differences, like fingerprints for humans, but I suspect their core programming to be the same."

"Cool!" Netto was glowing as he handed Rockman over.

"This is a pointless test," Laika commented. "We should be getting home."

"Have you thought about what it might mean if two navis share core programming but seem to be different in personality and appearance?" Saito asked.

Netto couldn't tell if their silence was a yes or a no. If navis could be affected by the environment they interacted with, it would generate new discussions on just how independent navis had become.

The kids had breakfast while Dr Hikari fiddled with the two PETs in his lab. When they returned he smiled as he handed the PETs back to their owners.

The result of his experiment? "There are subtle differences."

X glared at the scientist. "And you used me to contact Papa."

"Papa?" Netto questioned.

"Our Papa?"

X nodded and Saito was upset that he forgot about that feature. "Papa explained the whole thing about how something in this world was pulling at ours."

"We believe it may have been the result of the kids' exploration into a different Beyondard. There may have been waves out into other universes."

"This is giving me a headache," Netto whined.

"So your universe accidentally called ours?" Enzan huffed.

Dr Hikari nodded. "Although it did allow for some interesting research for me and my counterpart."

"I still don't get what comparing Rockman's to X's programming does," Netto's Enzan said.

"In all honest, as the person who programmed Rockman in our world and my counterpart having programmed X in the other world, I can account for the differences between Rockman's and X's core programming. It's circumstances unique to them but proposes and interesting direction for debates around navi autonomy."

"I can account for it as well and I didn't have to look at their programming," Netto said.

"That's just a guess without any evidence though," Saito pointed out.

"Okay, you two. Stop talking and let's just go," X said.

"I thought you weren't awake enough?" Netto's Enzan questioned suspiciously.

"I'm awake enough now."

Netto's Enzan felt a shiver down his back as X gave him a cocky smirk. There was something unnervingly familiar about it. The same as Saito's determination as he shuffled his team into a space where they could head back. Maybe Saito was someone else in this world and the same for Netto on their side. Saito wasn't Netto, that much felt obvious, but maybe someone else was.

"Okay, thanks for having us!" he said, right before X activated the program to send them back. For a moment, Netto's Enzan felt he had it. But whatever the familiar feeling was, it was gone with the three familiar strangers from Beyondard.

So much for explaining some of the odd behaviour between Netto and Rockman.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So much for explaining some of the odd behaviour between Saito and X. Saito's Enzan felt he had been onto something without consciously having an idea of what that something might be.

Their Dr Hikari looked excited and relieved as they returned. "You were gone for almost a day. How was it?"

"Let's never do that again," X said, his energy depleted.

"I don't know. I think it was interesting." To Dr Hikari, he explained, "we met other versions of ourselves on the other side. The other Papa was still Papa."

"I did notice that during the quick conversation with my Beyondard counterpart."

"Except Saito was replaced by some kid called Netto," Laika pointed out. Dr Hikari visibly stiffened before he agreed with X that this experiment was one that they probably didn't need to repeat.

Saito smiled at little at how quickly their father changed his mind, although he understood it. The whole ideal opened up the thoughts of 'what if'. What if he had been the twin born with HBD and died from it? Saito hadn't ever imagined it but he now had the image of Rockman in his head, alongside the image of a living Netto.

"AH! We forgot to have a netbattle!" X whined from inside the PET.

"Ah." Saito had forgotten about that. They really should have battled Netto and Rockman. X would have finally had an opponent he could go full power with. "Oops."

"Saito!" X whined.

"There's nothing we can do. Let's get you charged and then we can go onto the net at home."

X sighed but reluctantly agreed that sounded like a plan.

#please let my formatting stay #rockman.exe #megaman.exe #Saito Hikari #Netto Hikari #Hub Hikari #Lan Hikari #role swap au

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laarvanblaar · 6 years

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On 3 November 1957 Laika, a Russian street mongrel, became the first living creature to orbit the earth.

After the success of Sputnik 1 the Soviet leader, Khrushchev, wanted another spacecraft to be launched into space and he wanted it to be launched on the 40th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (7 November).

Laika had already been in training for space exploration and was supposed to come home again after her orbit was completed, but the new deadline meant that scientist only has four weeks to complete a spacecraft that would be able to send her into space. There was enough time to build this spacecraft, but not enough time to build one that would be capable of bringing her back home.

Her death was unavoidable but the Soviets decided to go ahead with the mission, saying that “this has to be done not for the sake of cruelty but for the benefit of humanity.”

Laika had been trained in cruel conditions. The spacecraft that she would be launched in was no bigger than a washing machine and there wasn’t even enough space inside for her to turn around. She was only able to sit or lie down. The spacecraft only carried a single (poisoned) meal for her which would be given to her to euthanise her before her oxygen supply ran out. This however never happened.

For years the public was told that the mission was carried out successfully and that Laika had eaten the poisoned food. But in 2002 scientist Malashenkov revealed that Laika had died within seven hours due to heat exhaustion from the malfunctioning spacecraft.

Many people view Laika as a hero who proved that a living thing could survive in space and she contributed so much to the imagination for space travel. But that which is not said, speaks more. Scientists did not learn much from Laika’s space mission and one of the scientists on the team stated that they did not learn enough from her mission to justify the death of an innocent dog.

The scientists’ conscious decision that was made to not bring her back was a huge burden to carry and a Polish scientist called her death “undoubtedly a great loss for science.”

The Soviet team’s attitude and hostility towards Laika made me question human ethics in science and had me thinking if it would have made a difference if we had never sacrificed Laika’s life.

Ethics for research on humans are based upon respect, justice and benevolence, but these are completely disregarded when it comes to research on animals. Why must they be viewed as lesser than us?

If I could change one even in history I would choose the change the use of animals for experimentation. I believe that it is unethical to use them as test subjects because they cannot volunteer or refuse to be experimented on, instead we get to decide for them. And not only Laika but many other stray dogs and animals were used as experiments for space missions. Even in today’s time, they are still being used as test subjects for cosmetics and other research. I believe that it is wrong to view them as lesser than us humans.

So how would I have liked to change this historical event? I would have chosen to send a human subject to space. Although this might sound even more unethical I believe that it could be possible through two methods:

1. The human subject could be a volunteer.

2. The human subject could be a convict facing the death penalty (which was still a form of punishment in Russian in 1957. Capital punishment is no longer allowed in Russian since 1996).

If this still sounds cruel just take a moment to think about all the possible serial killers, rapists and poacher who you would have liked to send to their deaths as their last chance to redeem themselves.

I believe that by preventing Laika’s death and all other tests and experiments on animals we could have been in a better place than we are today. If we were more respectful towards animals back in 1957 and regarded their lives as valuble as ours we could have prevented thousands of deaths of animals in the cosmetics testing industry and various others. We could have lived in a 2019 where there would be no more animal testing at all and no more need for an organisation like PETA. Our ethics in science wouldn’t be crumbling and maybe we would be more considerate towards volunteering humans being used as test subjects (which is a whole topic on its own) and be more mindful towards others in general.

Laika will always be remembered as a hero who paved the way for future space explorations.

#space #space travel #sputnik #laika #russia #dt210

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namtanfilm · 7 years

Photo

maia roberts and the soviet space dogs — a simonmaiajace story. (ao3 link).

happy birthday popa @madzie-bane i hope you like this very long, very rushed crack-fic. sending you starpup vibes, ily have a good one!!!

MAIA. It started out as a joke. A few posts shitting on the soviet space program; nothing that would stick. Except...it sort of did. Somewhere in between one of her history classes and her journey through wikipedia’s soviet space dogs pages, it stopped being a joke. Jokes became heated rants: three notes became three-hundred.

‘’Dogs!’’ She had exclaimed to Luke. ‘’They sent dogs to space. Sweet, innocent, blindly-trusting and blissfully unaware dogs!’’

Maia’s furious arm movements more than almost spilled out Luke’s coffee, and eventually he put it down; giving up on trying to drink it. ‘’What kind of monsters do that?’’

‘’I don’t know Maia, but I really don’t think spilling my coffee is going to bring them back.’’

No - Maia knows she can’t bring the dogs back. Laika died 60 years ago, a few years old and scared and alone, and every other dog who has ever been to space is dead now too, maybe a few off-springs are still out there. But it isn’t fair. They were just harmless, sweet dogs who trusted their trainers. And then they sent them into space to die.

Maia closes her eyes. She has to do something.

So...she did. The joke of a tumblr blog she made titled laikanthrope became the new home of her rants - instead of taking them at the breakfast table with Luke - and an audience of activists and other anger-filled young adults came about.

laikanthrope: the only somewhat happy thing i can draw from all the dead space dogs, is the fact that they’re all up there together...giving the paw to every scientist and employee at the soviet space program who betrayed their trust...you’re doing great up there pups i love you

‘’Keep em’ coming.’’

Maia stares at the man in front of her, squinting. ‘’You know that’s only a thing they say in movies, right? I’m not actually allowed to keep serving you if you’re too drunk.’’

He’s blonde, clothed in a leather jacket that looks too warm for the bar, and his eyes don’t share the same color. He’s cute, by Maia’s definition, asshole cute.

He’s also annoying, something Maia has come to know about him in the limited time he’s been sitting on the bar stool. In the last thirty minutes, he has informed her that his mother is a bit of a bitch; that his brother needs to get laid, that his father just packed up the last bit of his stuff and left - for good, he had informed her that his mother had told him, but he himself wasn’t so sure - and that his boyfriend is currently avoiding him in favour of a homework session.

And he’s drunk. And a day drinker.

Maia has a limited amount of patience for day drinkers.

‘’Rude,’’ he huffs. ‘’Is that one of the requirements to work here?’’

Maia nods. ‘’Yes, I didn’t get the job till I had passed a rudeness test actually.’’

‘’I’m sure that must have been a real challenge for you.’’

‘’If that’s your attempt at flattery,’’ she says, leaning against the back shelf, gracefully scooping the towel out of the glass she’s been cleaning. ‘’I’d seriously suggest you try again.’’

‘’Eh,’’ he shrugs, downing the last bit of his vodka. ‘’Maybe some other time.’’

With astonishment and exhaustion, Maia watches him get out of the bar stool and stumble his way across the floor, in the direction of the bathroom. Maia mourns the perfectly clean bathroom stalls in the men’s room, and fishes out her phone to text Meliorn the good news.

maiarobrts: gift for you melly, blond dude with heterochromia puking in the men’s room

meliornelms: where do i return it

maiarobrts: nice try, got it on sale, no returns

Twenty-six minutes and seven seconds later, the blond boy comes staggering out of the bathroom, face wet and shirt half stained with water. Meliorn sends her a death-challenging glare before he opens the door to the men’s room, and Maia watches with amusement as the blond boy returns to his bar stool.

‘’You don’t by any chance have a phone I can borrow? I think I flushed mine down the toilet.’’

SIMON. The Cold War, Simon had concluded with the little information he had gathered in the past thirty minutes, very cold indeed. Not only was that the only thing that had stuck after the forty three articles he had read; it was also completely useless and unrelated to his paper.

The United States and the Soviet Union were at each other’s throats after the second world war; he remembers that much from high school. Political differences. The fall of the Berlin Wall. Pepperoni Pizza.

Simon blinks, throws his head in his hands and sighs. It’s definitely been too long since he’s eaten, and Jace’s mom always tells him that studying is useless on an empty stomach. Now that he’s thinking about it, Maryse’s enchiladas sounds utterly delicious right now, as does his mom’s chocolate cake. Both of which are things that he can’t have at this very moment. All he has is a luke-warm bottle of water and a blueberry energy bar from two weeks ago, resting somewhere at the bottom of his backpack.

College is rough.

The corner of the library he’s sitting in is quiet, nothing but the clicking of computer keyboards sounding in the distance. Usually, Simon gets all his work done when he sits in the library, but today his concentration is elsewhere. Actually, it’s not with him at all. In fact, Simon is pretty sure it packed its bags earlier and up and left.

Concentration, motivation. It’s all the same, Simon thinks, scrolling down the google page. Five facts you didn’t know about JFK during the Cold War. Scroll. JFK and America’s role in the Cold War. Scroll. Random Kennedy facts. Simon hovers over the link, before sighing and clicking. ‘’Let’s see what you have, JFK,’’ He mumbles.

‘’DID YOU KNOW: During the Cold War, JFK was gifted one puppy from the Soviet space dog Strelka’s first puppy litter. The puppy later went on to have puppies with JFK’s own dog. JFK nicknamed these dogs pupniks, a word play of the name of the ship that carried the dog Laika, first dog sent into orbit, Sputnik 2.’’

Pupniks. A smile spreads on Simon’s lips.

Simon recalls learning about Laika in school, how she was the first of many brave dogs sent into orbit, and how she was the first step towards human space travel. Back then, the thought of a dog in space seemed magical; space seemed magical. But now Simon just thinks it sounds sad, and terrifying.

Outer space is, in the words of NASA, like, really, really big.

Dogs shouldn’t be in big, scary space all alone. That is inhumane.

A quick google search tells Simon that Laika died under six hours after take-off, and that she barely even made it into orbit before passing from overheating and stress. Simon blinks. They didn’t teach him this in seventh grade science.

Moments later, after several failed attempts at calling up Jace to complain about the sheer inhumanity of the Russians during the 1950s, Simon finds himself scrolling through the soviet space dog tag on tumblr.

laikanthrope: i understand that what the soviet space program did when they sent dogs into orbit was for the greater good of humanity, and that it helped get us to the point of space travel, doesn’t mean i have to accept or be cool with it. the lives of those dogs deserved to be prioritized. space was not safe for them. they were terrified

Simon’s fingers quickly move across the keyboard as he types out the message.

capmurica: i just spent an hour reading about the space dogs instead of studying and i am, outraged. i hope russia feels guilty

laikanthrope: i’m so sorry you had to endure such pain at such a bad time. russia better feel guilty, i’ve cried too many tears about this for them not to be

capmurica: this is outrageous. who condoned this????

laikanthrope: i don’t know, all i know is that they were evil

capmurica: laika deserved better than this. who sends dogs to space?????!

laikanthrope: they all deserved better...rip those poor wonderful angels...humanity didn’t deserve you

capmurica: i am crying

laikanthrope: i’m sorry, we can cry together

laikanthrope: i’m maia btw

capmurica: thank you, comforting to know i’m not alone

capmurica: simon! wish we’d met under less sad circumstances

laikanthrope: what can you do

‘’Pst,’’ Jace calls, ‘’Simon.’’

Simon glances up from his phone screen. ‘’Huh?’’

‘’Put the phone down. We have customers, remember?’’

‘’Oh,’’ Simon says, ‘’yes. Right.’’

He slides the iPhone into his back pocket, and heads for the registry.

All week, he’s been messaging Maia from the space dog blog. Mostly, they’ve just been sending each other different articles from the last five years, involving results from recent studies and long, in-depth interviews with people who worked for the Soviet space program at the time.

It’s interesting. Far too interesting than his school work, or work, and as it seems - more interesting than Jace.

(Okay, that is not entirely true. He definitely wasn’t thinking about the space dogs last night).

Jace is still the most distracting thing in Simon’s life, but the space dogs articles have a way of getting to his head at night, and the injustice tears at him like the claws of those dogs when they wanted out of their pod.

Simon shakes his head. Coffee. Make coffee. You can make coffee. Laika probably never got to smell the scent of coffee…

‘’Hi! Welcome to Java Jace, how can I help you?’’

The girl in front of him cracks a half-smile. ‘’Just two black coffees to go, please.’’

Dark curls dance around her shoulders as she moves her head to glance around her surroundings, while the pulled-up hem of her shirt falls back down to her wrist. ‘’Two black coffees, coming right up.’’

Here is the thing about working in a coffee shop: it doesn’t really take a lot of effort. He makes coffee everyday, talks to customers, whips out a few jokes here and there. Out of all the major things in Simon’s life, Java Jace is probably the least challenging one. He doesn’t mind doing extra complicated orders or making ten cups of coffee with different creamers, just because an intern is doing a coffee run - because it’s, in a very odd way, fun.

It fulfills this strange aesthetic - brewing coffee all day, eavesdropping on people’s conversations about their friends getting married, or their chemistry professor being a dick all semester. Even the rude customers, or the not-so-nice ones that drop by every now and then and drink their coffee in the corner while they furiously type out words on their laptops.

Sure - washing dirty coffee mugs and plates isn’t exactly Simon’s idea of a fun time, but it’s a small price to pay for the enjoyment every other aspect of the job brings him. Jace, on the other hand, feels differently.

To Jace, the job that is so conveniently named after him due to it being a Lightwood-owned business, is hell on earth. Even when the customers are nice and tip him for his flirting (that Simon totally doesn’t mind, not even a little tiny bit), he still reeks of boredom and dis-encouraging energy.

(Simon once told him that; Jace told him to never say those words again. Simon told him the same thing again three minutes later).

Simon enjoys his job; Jace hates it. So it is a strange occurrence that Jace isn’t the one deeply inside his phone, instead of present by the counter - even more so that it’s Simon in his place, and not Duncan or Raj. Not that Simon imagines Jace thinks much of it; it’s still turning his mind around that the reason for all this, is a collection of stupid decisions made by a Soviet space program over 60 years ago.

(Jace asked him yesterday if it was someone else. It would have been easier if it was someone else).

MAIA. ‘’What about this one? It’s pink!’’

Maia glances at the photo. Nasa’s logo, Laika drawn in the middle. Aline is right; it is pink, but Maia feels like she’s seen the same drawing five hundred times, all in different kinds of pastels. ‘’Eh,’’ Maia shrugs, ‘’it’s not very original.’’

Aline pouts. ‘’It really is not my fault that you are picky, Maia.’’

Maia smiles up at her. ‘’No, I believe that blame does not lie on you.’’

‘’Speaking of which,’’ Aline says, ‘’how is the cop dad?’’

Rolling her eyes, Maia turns around to lie on her back. ‘’Wouldn’t you like to know?’’

‘’Yes, I would actually. I haven’t seen him in ages, is he good? Still a cop?’’

Maia licks her lips. ‘’Still a cop, yes.’’

Aline stares at her for a moment, before she sighs and throws a pillow her way. ‘’I’m still a lesbian, worry not,’’ she tells her best friend, ‘’dumbass.’’

Since the day Maia moved to Brooklyn to live with Luke and met Aline outside the chinese restaurant down the street of their house, the pair have been inseparable. Correction: when Maia crashed into Aline, who was carrying two boxes of newly delivered plates, outside of her family’s restaurant, they were forced to help each other with both of their messes and became sort-of friends in the process. Maia didn’t like Aline at first; too much of everything, especially energetic in the morning. But Aline knew exactly how to find the person in Maia that would like her, and by the end of their junior year, Maia couldn’t imagine her life without Aline.

‘’Oh so I’m the dumbass?’’ Maia throws the pillow back at her, and braces for the return.

Aline nods. ‘’If you think I’d go hetero for you dad, yeah. I mean, he’s good looking and all, but definitely not my type.’’

‘’Uh,’’ Maia says, ‘’wrong answer.

The pillow lands across the room, instead of where Aline aimed it; at Maia on the floor.

‘’And,’’ she sighs, ‘’he’s your dad, of course. But I thought it was self-explanatory that I wouldn’t do any parent of yours, regardless. Guess I was wrong about you, Roberts.’’

Maia sticks her tongue out at her. ‘’Guess you were.’’

capmurica: how does this sound; two space dog enthusiasts looking for third member of their rebellion gang

Maia smiles. She’s been talking to this Simon guy for a week now, and it’s been the most fun she’s had with her space dog blog in months. He’s funny, and he has some expert ideas on how to cope with the overwhelming sadness that comes with browsing Laika articles. Just yesterday, he suggested she bake a space dog cake, in Laika’s honor. (Except he called it cakeniks, and told her to email a picture of it to NASA instead of eating it).

laikanthrope: good, needs some work though. it needs to be catchy

capmurica: i don’t think i can make it rhyme in a way that makes sense...what about a song?

laikanthrope: you mean, make a video?

capmurica: yeah! what’s better than a space dog rebellion theme song?

laikanthrope: well, pizza makes the list but other than that…

capmurica: not what i meant m

laikanthrope: must have missed the point, my apologies

capmurica: you’re forgiven...for now

capmurica: but ok, question

capmurica: what would a space dog rebellion even entail

capmurica: i mean, it isn’t much of a cause to fight for anymore, since it happened over 60 years ago and i don’t think they’re still sending dogs to space

laikanthrope: i don’t know...we could cater it towards wanting a genuine, major apology?

capmurica: that seems very far fetched, but also not an unreasonable request

capmurica: #justiceforthespacedogs

laikanthrope: #laikadeservedbetter

‘’Hey,’’ Aline says, tearing Maia out of her thoughts. She looks away from the screen and up at her best friend. Aline’s laptop is closed in front of her, and Maia suddenly feels bad for not noticing she was packing up. ‘’Do you mind if I stay here tonight?’’

Maia raises an eyebrow. ‘’Yeah, I mean, sure, you can stay as long as you want. But,’’ she says, biting her bottom lip, ‘’I have to work tonight.’’

‘’That’s okay!’’ Aline smiles. ‘’I can come with, annoy you till you ban me to a corner of the bar.’’

‘’You’re not that annoying,’’ Maia tells her.

‘’And you,’’ Aline says, ‘’are a terrible liar.’’

capmurica: is it totally pouring by you? brooklyn is like, one big water park today, i sat in class completely soaked today

Brooklyn? Maia didn’t know Simon was from Brooklyn. There is a lot she doesn’t know about Simon, of course, but if he lives in Brooklyn...he’s close.

laikanthrope: it hasn’t stopped since this morning

capmurica: same here! where are you, if i’m allowed to ask?

laikanthrope: brooklyn, actually. i guess we have a lot of things in common

capmurica: no way! for real? that’s crazy

laikanthrope: well, it is a small world

capmurica: can’t argue with that!

laikanthrope: hey, i have to get ready for work. talk to you later?

capmurica: oh yeah, yeah sure! enjoy work

laikanthrope: you’re crazy

There are a few things Maia only sees once or twice in a blue moon; her dad dancing is one of them, and so is seeing her adoptive mother, who lives across the country. But the strangest rarity, is seeing Aline drunk.

Even when they were college freshmen, Aline rarely swallowed any drops of alcohol. And if she did, it was when she mistakenly sipped from Maia’s cups instead of her own. Aline Penhallow doesn’t do extremely drunk; she hates the way alcohol makes her feel, and she can’t stand the taste.

Except...now she’s dancing by the pool table, post-whiskey shots and swinging her hips to the music; seemingly not giving a damn about the headache she will have in the morning, or the rules of tomorrow.

It’s new, and strange, and kind of wonderful to see a smile so big on Aline’s lips.

‘’Who’s your friend?’’

Meliorn weighs himself onto the bar stool, folding his arms together over the counter, his chin plopped on top, looking up at Maia. He points to the vodka bottle behind her, and winks at her with tired eyes.

Maia nods; smirking. ‘’Her name is Aline,’’ Maia says, placing the glass in front of him. She fills up the glass half full, before moving it two centimeters towards him with her fingers.

‘’College friends?’’ Meliorn wonders, before drowning half the glass.

Maia shakes her head. ‘’High school. We met the year I moved here.’’

‘’Huh,’’ he mumbles. ‘’good friends? Girlfriends?’’

Smiling, Maia mumbles a low no. ‘’It’s not that she’s a girl, I couldn’t care less, I just - she’s my best friend, I don’t like her like that.’’

Meliorn smiles at her, nodding. ‘’I get it. I have a few of those. Sure they’re attractive, but they’re my friends. I could never date them.’’

‘’Are you talking about Raphael? Because you could date him. I know a boy in love when I see one, Elms.’’

‘’You know, it really is not fair that you’re so good at hiding your crushes. Will I ever get the opportunity to tease you about love?’’ He wonders, swallowing the last of his drink.

Maia shrugs. ‘’Hard to tell.’’

When the bell rings, Maia looks up, expecting a new group of college bachelors wanting a clan of jello shots. (Finals week is near, and every campus bar in the area is crowded with people wanting to make the best of their last few weeks of freedom, before potentially dying while cramming for exams). Instead - much to Meliorn’s dismay - it’s the blond day drinker from last week, and a brown haired boy in a denim jacket.

‘’I am not cleaning up after him again,’’ Meliorn mumbles, shaking his head.

Maia rolls her eyes. ‘’Hey, flushed-phone-down-the-toilet-guy. Over here.’’

The brunette with him looks mortified, and Maia holds down the pressing need to laugh. Furrowed brows, brown eyes wide and mouth half open; the blond just looks at him and shrugs.

‘’Sorry about that,’’ he says, ‘’I’m not the most functioning when hammered.’’

‘’No,’’ Meliorn says, ‘’that is for sure. A tip, buddy? Stick to water tonight.’’

He disappears behind the bar before Maia manages to tell him that advising potentially paying customers not to buy anything, doesn’t get up their tips very much. ‘’Ignore him,’’ she says instead. ‘’He’s just pissy about his job.’’

‘’Hey,’’ the brunette says, ‘’if I was cleaning puked-down toilets for a living, I too would be pissy.’’

Maia smiles. ‘’Someone has to do that too.’’

When Maia checks her phone later that night, she has three unread texts from Simon.

capmurica: hey, so, this is werid and random and i know we’ve only known each other for like, a week but, i was wondering if we could maybe meet?

capmurica: i get it if you don’t want to!! totally fine

capmurica: i was just thinking, if you did want to, i’m totally down, and my boyfriend keeps asking who i’m texting all the time so i thought maybe, if you’re cool, it’d be nice to put a face to the name anyways just let me know

SIMON. Okay - so maybe texting Maia so late at night about meeting wasn’t such a great idea, but Simon had done it. Jace had asked about it, and Simon felt a gut-wrenching guilt sneak up on him when all he could say was that it was some girl he met online. A friend.

He did it. Done.

And Maia had said yes. She had even asked if she could bring a friend.

Everything is fine. Maia is fine, Jace is fine, Maia’s friend is fine. But Simon is still pacing down the hallway of his apartment building, biting on the inside of his bottom lip, his thoughts rapidly racing through his head.

He had called Clary earlier, trying to talk it out but only ending in having to hang up because all he did was ramble. And now he can’t stand still.

‘’Simon,’’ Jace calls behind him. ‘’Hey.’’

‘’This is a bad idea. Do you think it’s a bad idea? I feel like it’s a bad idea.’’

Jace’s hand cups Simon’s cheeks, and Jace keeps them there, steadily. ‘’Simon,’’ he says, ‘’please calm down. It’s not a bad idea. A bit sudden, but not a bad idea.’’

Simon lets out a deep breath, and leans his head into Jace’s right palm. ‘’I just,’’ Simon says, ‘’what if she’s a serial killer? I mean, that would be a very tragic way to go.’’

Jace rolls his eyes, and leans in to kiss Simon’s forehead. ‘’I don’t think she’s a serial killer, Simon. Besides, it would be cooler than dying of old age.’’

Simon shakes his head furiously. ‘’No. No. Absolutely not. There is nothing cool about being murdered by a serial killer Jace, what’s wrong with you?’’

Jace laughs, and Simon feels his heart racing. Sometimes, when they’re sharing these moments, it dawns on Simon exactly why he fell in love with him. It’s not just the laugh that sounds heaven-sent, or the reassuring shoulder squeezes that say ‘’hey, you’re safe, it’s fine’’, it’s much more than that.

It’s Jace. Everything that he is, everything that he does.

‘’Please don’t attract a serial killer,’’ Simon mumbles.

Jace looks at him. ‘’I’ll try.’’

laikanthrope: hey! we’re here, aline ordered too much coffee for her own good. i hope you like caffeine!

capmurica: like? i’d marry it if possible

The Sweet Planet smells different than Java Jace.

Whereas Java Jace smells of burnt coffee and caramel, the Sweet Planet reeks of fresh bagels and a sweeter coffee smell. Unlike Java Jace, it isn’t just forty couches pushed into one room; vintage couches and polished tables, spread evenly across the venue; clean windows that aren’t in a dire need of a serious wash, and the additional smell of the baked goods coming from the kitchen.

Then again, the Sweet Planet pays their employees more and don’t make them work from four in the morning. (At least, not their baristas. Simon figures the chefs never sleep).

‘’Jace,’’ Alec calls. Tall, and dressed in his work uniform, he greets them both with a slight smile. ‘’Simon,’’ he nods.

‘’Hey Alec,’’ Simon says.

Java Jace was left in Jace’s name after his birth parents passed, and his grandmother had expressed no interest in running their going-nowhere business. But Jace was ten when they died, and Imogen didn’t have the heart to sell the only thing he had left from his parents. So, when he was adopted by the Lightwoods, she took it upon herself to make Java Jace her life’s work for her grandson; even if he barely knew who she was at the time.

Alec was offered a job there when he was fifteen, but declined respectfully when the Sweet Planet wanted him instead. Simon understood it - Java Jace is a family thing, and Alec loves his brother to pieces, but it doesn’t pay nearly enough to put Alec through college. Imogen spent three very long months being visibly upset over the matter, before Jace promised her he would come work with her part-time, if only to shut her up.

Imogen was pleased, Jace was not. Years later, Jace is still a barista at Java Jace, and Alec still at the Sweet Planet.

‘’No work today?’’ Alec wonders.

Jace shakes his head. ‘’I told you that when I left this morning. Tuesdays off, remember? Or are you getting old?’’

‘’Ha-ha,’’ Alec replies, rolling his eyes. ‘’Give it a few years, you’ll catch up to me in no time.’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Jace says. ‘’ ‘Cause you’re immortal.’’

Alec nods. ‘’Exactly that.’’

A hand touches Simon’s shoulder, and he spins around; almost tripping in the process. The bartender girl from last night stands before him, with a shy smile on her lips. ‘’Oh,’’ she says, ‘’sorry, I thought maybe, wait...Are you Simon?’’

Simon swallows. ‘’Uh - yeah. I am. Lewis. Simon Lewis.’’

The smile on her mouth grows into a grin. ‘’It is a small world indeed. I’m Maia! Roberts.’’

Jace hovers over Simon’s shoulder, and yells something about laundry to Alec before he disappears. ‘’Did you find her? Oh - wait, I know you! You’re the mean bartender.’’

Simon just stares at the two of them, eyes wide open, mouth slightly pulled up in a smile.

‘’I prefer Maia,’’ she says, ‘’but I’ll take it.’’

Another girl appears by her side, grinning from ear to ear. ‘’Hello! Are these the guys we’re meeting? I’m Aline, Maia’s friend. It’s so nice to meet you both. I would say I’ve heard a lot about you, but Maia doesn’t talk about anything do you know-’’ ‘’Aline,’’ Maia begs, ‘’please.’’

They huddle around the corner table Aline and Maia had occupied upon their arrival, and the immediate awkwardness quickly dissolves into natural conversation about absolutely nothing, and everything in its entirety.

capmurica: discussing the injustice of space dogs with good friends over hot cups of coffee rb if you agree

MAIA. Maia thinks she’s going crazy.

It’s been three weeks since she met Simon and Jace - his apparently not alcoholic boyfriend - and ever since, her life has been a collection of a thousand messy thoughts. Granted - not because of Jace and Simon, well, a little bit because of Simon.

In their living room, on the wall above the fireplace, there is this old picture from Clary’s first year in high school; she’s smiling into the camera, with a boy on her side. His hair is brown, and his eyes the very same shade of dark, and he has his arms wrapped around her, grinning.

Maia has never noticed it much; it’s been there since before she moved in, and after Clary and Jocelyn left. Maia and Clary aren’t very close, nor were they back then, so if Maia ever wondered who the boy was, she never cared enough to ask. But ever since meeting Simon three weeks ago, the picture has almost been screaming at her.

Because here is the thing: the boy in the picture looks terrifyingly a lot like Simon.

She could ask Luke; Luke probably knows who the boy is. He’s known Clary all her life, ever since her biological father bailed on Jocelyn while she was pregnant with her, Luke has been there. If he was someone important to Clary, Luke should know who he is.

They’re watching TV together; it’s friday, a storm is blowing up outside in the cold November weather, and they just shared a large pepperoni pizza. They do this most Fridays, unless Maia has to work or Luke suddenly gets called in to work on a case.

Recently, it’s been both.

‘’What’s on your mind, kiddo?’’

Maia looks at her father; she’s curled up in the corner of the couch, covered in a sea of blankets and pillow. She flashes him a tired smile; nothing, she says.

‘’I don’t buy that for one second,’’ Luke tells her, reaching for the remote to turn the TV volume down. ‘’What’s the tea?’’

Maia chuckles. ‘’Did you just ask for the tea?’’

‘’I’m a cop, I have to keep up with the times when I work with younger witnesses. Hey! Don’t laugh at your dad. That’s not nice.’’

Smiles turns to laughter, and low laughter turns to loud tears of joy. ‘’It’s nothing,’’ Maia mumbles, ‘’I just, I met someone recently. A friend. And, I feel like I’ve seen him before.’’

‘’Well,’’ Luke says, ‘’is he from Brooklyn? It’s very possible you might have seen him around.’’

‘’No, I mean he is, but it’s not that.’’ Maia glances at the picture; it must have been taken in August, just before school started. The sun is shining in it, and behind them the trees are green and growing. It was taken in their backyard; Maia recognizes the bench.

‘’That picture,’’ Maia says, pointing.

‘’Hm?’’ Luke says. ‘’The one of Clary and Simon?’’

Maia’s eyes widen. ‘’Is that his name?’’

Confused, Luke looks at his daughter. ‘’Yeah, Simon Lewis. He’s been Clary’s best friend since kindergarten.’’

Maia doesn’t respond, she just sits there, tugging at the hem of her shirt.

‘’Maia? Are you okay?’’ Luke asks, concern growing in his eyes.

Maia is up on her feet, halfway out the room, nodding. ‘’Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I just uh, remembered I had homework plans with Aline. Catch you later?’’

She doesn’t wait for an answer before she rushes into her room. Her fingers fly across her phone screen, desperately pulling up Simon’s number.

maiarobrts: hey, can we meet up?

slewis: hey! yeah, sure, we kind of have guests but you can come over if you want. is everything okay?

Everything is okay. Simon knowing Clary isn’t a big deal, Maia just...feels left out. And a bit stupid.

maiarobrts: i’ll be there in twenty

The Lewis house is bigger than Maia had imagined - walls, filled with pictures and various decorations. Bookshelves full of books, old, new; photo-books, war history, anything, it seems like.

Elaine leads her into the living room, where Jace, Simon and a few others she doesn’t recognize are spread out on the floor, all eyes glued to the TV screen. Elaine clears her throat; the dark haired girl lets out a yelp, Simon almost loses the popcorn bowl and everyone else turns around.

‘’Simon,’’ Elaine smiles, ‘’company.’’

‘’Maia!’’ Simon exclaims. ‘’Hey.’’

‘’Everybody,’’ he says, once he gets to his feet, ‘’this is Maia. Maia, this is everybody.’’

Maia steps further into the room. ‘’Does everybody have a name or do you just prefer number one and two?’’ She asks, a small smile tugging on her lips.

The dark haired girl - the only other girl in the room - gets to her feet and appears in front of her. ‘’She’s funny. I like her,’’ she says, offering her hand for Maia to shake. ‘’I’m Isabelle, but most people call me Izzy.’’

The two remaining guys introduces themselves as Alec and Magnus, and after thirty minutes of spending time with them, Maia quickly realizes that they’re a couple. A movie continues playing, but few pay enough attention to the screen to know what’s going on. They’re all too busy talking; about school, the plans of tomorrow, everything that isn’t Star Wars, seemingly.

‘’Did you read the article I sent you?’’ Simon asks, sitting down beside her.

Maia angles her body so that she’s facing him. ‘’The one with all the songs inspired by Laika?’’

Simon nods. ‘’Yes,’’ she says, ‘’and I listened to all of them on repeat all night. You really couldn’t find a better hour to send me that?’’

‘’I’M SORRY OKAY! I didn’t think you’d be awake to see it that late. You know, it really isn’t my fault that your sleeping schedule is messed up, just saying.’’

Maia throws her head back, laughing. ‘’Not yet. But keep this up and it might just become your problem.’’

Simon pouts. ‘’Rude.’’

‘’You know me,’’ Maia laughs.

laikanthrope: goodnight laika. i hope the storm isn’t keeping you awake. i love u

SIMON. Early mornings and sunlight should not be allowed to exist at the same time, Simon decides, as he’s reaching for his ringing phone in the early hours of the morning.

The caller ID can be the same, Simon just wants the damn phone to stop ringing immediately so he can go back to sleep.

With a sleep-ridden voice and tired eyes, he puts the phone to his ear. ‘’Hello?’’

‘’Simon!’’

Simon pauses, slowly opening his eyes. ‘’Maia?’’

‘’Do you remember that e-mail I sent to the old project leader at the Soviet space program? The one who approved all the dogs being sent into orbit?’’

‘’The Ivan guy?’’

‘’Yeah, him. He sort of e-mailed me back last night. He attached an audio file - I’m guessing it’s either him yelling angrily in russian, or an apology.’’

Simon is wide awake now, sitting upright in his bed. ‘’What do you mean you’re guessing? Have you not listened to it yet?!’’

‘’I was going to wait for you!’’

‘’No need!’’ Simon places his phone on his dresser, speaker on. ‘’I will be there as soon as I can.’’

Before he hangs up, Maia hears the mumbles of Simon’s voice yelling out for coffee and simultaneously waking Jace up in the background. ‘’Si, what the hell?’’

Thirty minutes, two coffee cups and one annoyed boyfriend later, Simon dials Maia’s number.

Half way there, Simon had realized that he didn’t actually know where there was. He knew Maia didn’t live far from campus, but he had never bothered to ask for an address. Now, it seems kind of crucial.

‘’Hey Maia, I um, sort of forgot I don’t have your address,’’ he murmurs into the phone in a hushed voice; not wanting Jace to hear him admit to it. He usually isn’t this forgetful, but it’s six in the morning, and even though Jace doesn’t agree with him, Simon feels like it should be law that he can’t be mean to him this early.

On the other end of the line, Maia laughs. ‘’I know. Are you at the station?’’

‘’Just outside, yes.’’

‘’It’s just 100 meters up, then to the right. You’ll recognize the door.’’

And he does. Because it’s Clary’s door. Or, the door to what used to be her house, before she moved to California. ‘’Why are we at Clary’s?’’ Jace wonders from behind him, taking the words directly out of Simon’s mouth.

‘’I don’t know,’’ Simon says, staring up at the door, ‘’but this is the only door near and I don’t-’’ ‘’Hey, Maia!’’

Standing in the doorway, Maia is wearing pink PJ pants with tiny pandas printed on them, and a t-shirt that Simon is sure is three sizes too big. Shyly, she smiles. ‘’Morning.’’

‘’I assume you know where everything is,’’ Maia says, when she closes the door behind them. ‘’Dad- uh, Luke, is in the kitchen making breakfast, if you’re interested.’’

Jace folds his arms over his chest. ‘’As hungry as I am, and as wonderful as that coffee smells,’’ He says, ‘’I’m sort of more interested in why you’re calling Luke dad.’’

‘’Adoption papers,’’ Maia snaps back immediately, not giving the question time to linger.

Simon remembers Maia being adopted being mentioned in passing; a thoughtless statement, one that no one thought to ask about. Perhaps no one expected her father to be someone they all knew very well. Simon didn’t expect it at least, and he doubts Jace did either.

Jace rolls his eyes. ‘’Yeah, thanks.’’

Maia smiles at him, nose crinkling. ‘’So, breakfast or should we just go listen to the potential Russian yelling at us?’’

Maia’s room is the one next to Clary’s - the one Simon always thought was empty, that turned out to be just a bedroom, the same size as Clary’s. In every other aspect, it doesn’t look anything like Clary’s. Every wall has a bookshelf on it, and they’re all full of classics and old books Simon doesn’t recognize.

All the pictures are of her and Luke, or Aline, or her co-workers at the bar. And it’s clean; Clary’s room was never clean. Clothes were always all over the floor, and the window rarely open. The air inside Maia’s room is fresh, and the clothing bin has actual clothes in it.

‘’What else did the email say?’’ Simon wonders.

Maia shrugs. ‘’Not much. It was an automated email; apparently, they get many of these.’’

‘’Here,’’ she says, and then she looks at Simon. He has that look in his eyes; the one that says now or never, the one that makes you feel like you’re ready for anything. ‘’Moment of truth.’’

laikanthrope: i got an email from russia today. figured everyone else could use the comfort. link.

MAIA. ‘’Are you done with space dogs now?’’

Maia sighs. ‘’Aline, I’m at work.’’

‘’Still,’’ Aline pouts.

Maia lets the wash cloth in her hands fall onto the counter, and meets Aline’s eyes. ‘’One can never be done with space dogs, Aline, that’s impossible. But it’s been so long, it’s just...time.’’

‘’That’s what I told myself before I came out to my mother,’’ Aline says, ‘’spoiler alert: it wasn’t.’’

‘’Wouldn’t you maybe say the two situations share a significant amount of differences?’’ Maia asks.

Aline ponders it for a minute, biting her bottom lip. ‘’Suppose I would, it still doesn’t change anything. Either it is time, or it isn’t. And I,’’ she points to herself, ‘’do not believe it is time for you to give up space dogs.’’

‘’Hey Aline?’’

‘’Yeah?’’

‘’Do you remember that time, a month ago when I told you you weren’t that annoying?’’

Aline nods.

‘’I take that back.’’

‘’Why are you so mean?’’ Aline wines. ‘’Did you swallow five bitter pills this morning?’’

‘’Probably,’’ Meliorn chimes in, dropping the empty wash bucket on the ground. ‘’That, or she skipped the coffee.’’

Coffee isn’t the problem; the lack of sleep is. Finals are just about over, and Christmas is right around the corner, and sleep is the last thing on Maia’s mind when she still has a long list of remaining Christmas gifts to buy.

And then there is the Jace and Simon thing...which is weird. The whole situation strikes her as strange, and she isn’t entirely sure what to do about it.

After she told them about her adoption, and her life before, she quickly detected a change in their relationship. It was subtle; a mere shift in the air, nothing but a breath of something else. And yet...Maia can’t shake the feeling that something is different.

laikanthrope: merry almost christmas! especially to the pups

When Simon invited her to the Lightwoods’ annual Christmas party, Maia didn’t expect everything to be so...traditional. The big, green tree full of christmas lights and too many ornaments, the perfectly wrapped gifts and those that were big and bulky; the many cookies in different shapes and sizes. Especially not when it was Simon who invited her.

It’s over now, and Maia’s sitting on the couch, in the low light of the sparkling tree, listening to the sweet melodies coming from the stereo. She closes her eyes. and leans her head back.

Clary sits down beside her. ‘’You know,’’ Maia murmurs, ‘’if I knew this is where you go every year, I might actually have come with you earlier.’’

Clary chuckles. ‘’You never asked.’’

‘’True,’’ Maia says, ‘’but still. I can’t believe I missed out on this for years.’’

‘’There are many things you wouldn’t believe about the world, aren’t there?’’

Maia meets her eyes, blue and vibrant, smiling at her slightly. Maia squints at her. ‘’You know something.’’

Clary shakes her head. ‘’No,’’ she says, ‘’I’m just musing.’’

They sit in silence for a while; listening to the remains of the party, devouring their own thoughts. She danced with them both tonight; Simon first, then Jace, and then they all three danced together and laughed into each other’s arms.

For the first time in a very long time, Maia felt like everything was right. Because it was - it was so utterly right, and Maia doesn’t want to feel wrong again, when she knows right exists there, just beneath her nose.

After dinner, they ended up in a corner, all three soaked in wine and good food, too caught up in the moment to care. Simon looked at Jace for a very long time, as if words weren’t good enough, and that looks were the only thing that could convey the words he wanted to say. At first, Maia thought she was witnessing a confession of love moment - but then Jace started talking, and words became meaningless, and then they made sense again, and Maia felt numb.

‘’This may be the alcohol talking, but we both want you to know that,’’ Simon stops, unsure of where to go next. ‘’We like you. Collectively. That’s sort of weird, we know. (...).’’ Jace falls into a long speech, but Maia has long tuned out.

‘’You don’t know,’’ Maia says, ‘’but I do.’’

‘’You do?’’

Slurring her words, Maia nods. ‘’Question is, do we know the same thing? Probably not. But that’s the beauty of it, I won’t remember this conversation tomorrow morning, but I will still know. That’s both wonderful, and utter crap.’’

‘’Wow,’’ Clary laughs. ‘’Drunk Maia is on fire.’’

‘’No, I’m smoke.’’

laikanthrope: im drunk and i lovvveeee you laika merry christmas happy new years

JACE. ‘’I like what you’ve done with the place.’’

‘’Maia,’’ Jace smiles. Simon let’s out a shaky sigh.

‘’Hey,’’ she says, relief sounding in her voice.

January marks itself outside the window of Java Jace; snow covers the ground everywhere, a layer of white lighting up the whole of the city. The inside is lit up by new dimmed lights, and a wooden wall, draped in a mustard yellow.

‘’The chairs don’t make that sound anymore,’’ Maia muses, smiling. ‘’And I like the walls. Refreshing.’’

‘’Courtesy of Simon,’’ Jace nods towards his boyfriend. ‘’He’s the brain behind the change.’’

A rosy red color spreads itself to the apples of Simon’s cheeks, and Jace recognizes the wholesome feeling in his chest as nothing but utter happiness.

‘’So,’’ Maia says. ‘’I need a favour. I know this is challenging for the both of you, but I’m going to need you to not talk for a minute, okay?’’

‘’We can do that,’’ Simon says. ‘’I’m very good at shutting up. Being quiet is like, one of my top five qualities and-’’ ‘’Right, sorry. Go on.’’

Maia chuckles. ‘’I uh, I’ve been thinking about the party. And about what you said. And...I like you too. And it is a bit weird, because I don’t know what this all means, I wish I did, and I’ve never been in something like this before but I...would like to try. If that’s something you would like too.’’

‘’You can talk now,’’ Maia mumbles in one breath, smiling slightly.

They both look at her, gratefulness written in their eyes, happiness carved into their faces.

It’s Simon who talks first, sharing a nervous look with Jace. ‘’I just wanted to apologize, for, you know, springing that on you so suddenly. We shouldn’t have done that.’’

‘’No,’’ Maia agrees, ‘’you shouldn’t have. But you did, and I’m glad.’’

‘’Really?’’ Simon frowns. ‘’Because I would be pissed, I think.’’

‘’I was at first, but I was also drunk, and when I woke up, I was mostly just confused. It wasn’t cool of you to drop it like that, but maybe it was for the best.’’

Jace shakes his head. ‘’The world worked in our favour for once.’’

‘’The world is always working in our favour, we’re just choosing other paths.’’

And there, in the cold snowy weather, within the warm walls of Java Jace, something clicked. Maia didn’t know what; Jace didn’t know why, and Simon didn’t know how, but in that moment, they knew it would work.

laikanthrope: space pup vibes

capmurica: definitely space pup vibes

jclights: the what now

again, happy birthday and i am so sorry for this mess i hope you liked it!!!!

#dailyjimon #dailyjaia #jace x maia x simon #shadowhunters #jimon #jaia #userpopa #my writings #simon lewis #jace herondale #jace lightwood #maia roberts #saia #simonmaia #jace x maia #this is a crackfic i don't know how it became 7k words #also theres like....a ton of developements that should have been in here but i finished this thing in two days and im tired

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beingnish · 7 years

Text

Sad Song Recommendations: Man’s Best Friend in Space

“They sealed your steel sarcophagus;

they made no plans to bring you home.

(Perhaps they thought you Anubis.)

They sealed your steel sarcophagus

and let you burn – like Sirius,

the other dogstar in the dome.

They sealed your steel sarcophagus.

They made no plans to bring you home.”

Triolet for Laika

“not really, Neil” by jabberholic on deviantart

On November 3rd 1957, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow was launched in Sputnik 2, thus becoming the first animal in space, or that’s what I was taught by my 3rd standard general knowledge textbook anyway. What it failed to teach me was that its survival was never expected, the technology to de-orbit had not yet developed. It was a suicide mission.

What’s worse is for decades, Soviet officials lied about her death, claiming that she passed away painlessly several days after the launch. But in 2002, Soviet scientist put the rumors to rest by admitting Laika died on her fourth circuit around the Earth, about five to seven hours after launch. The plan was to euthanize her with poisoned dog food after several days of tests, but instead, a malfunction in the temperature control system resulted in her dying from stress and overheating.

Throughout all of this, Laika was absolutely terrified. Her heart was beating at triple its normal rate during the launch. With no handlers to comfort her—as they had after tests—it took much longer than usual for her to calm down. No sooner had the stress of the launch receded than Laika was exposed to the spiraling heat and humidity, in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, that would end up killing her.

It's heart-breaking that she so enthusiastically trusted her caretakers, completely oblivious to their ultimate plans for her. Mission scientist Vladimir Yazdovsky, for example, took her home to play with his children before the launch. "I wanted to do something nice for her," Yazdovsky later said. "She had so little time left to live”. Laika died in space, alone & scared.

Here are some music recommendations which might make you tear up a little (read: A LOT)

Jonathan Coulton - Space Doggity

“I don’t think I want to be a good dog anymore”

Wil Wagner - Laika

“And I know I will die, but that is fine

Cause in some way I am helping mankind

And I don't understand, cause I'm not as smart as them

But even a parachute would have shown that they cared”

Sticky Fingers - Laika

“Master, why'd you have to leave me?

Didn't have to deceive me, we were friends”

“Release” by Andoledius on deviantart

At a Moscow press conference in 1998 Oleg Gazenko, a senior Soviet scientist involved in the project, stated "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog...".

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years

Text

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND April 12, 2019 - HELLBOY, LITTLE, MISSING LINK, AFTER

We’re almost midway through April (already?) but that also means that we’re one week closer to Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, which is probably the only movie everyone is really waiting for anyway, going by advance ticket sales.

For those who can’t wait for more super-heroics, Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY (Lionsgate) gets another go in theaters, this time played by David Harbour (Stranger Things) and directed by Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones). I wish I could say I was looking forward to seeing this, but frankly, I loved Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy: The Golden Army, and I have secretly wished for the last ten years that he would be able to continue that story with Ron Perlman, Doug Jones and the rest. This one has some interesting casting including Ian McShane, Milla Jovovich as the main baddie, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim. I guess with that cast, maybe it won’t be so bad? I expect the movie will be more geared towards the fanboys and girls rather than the mainstream audiences that have been flocking to other comic movies. (My review is now over at The Beat… and I hated it!)

Universal and Will Packer Productions are offering some interesting counter-programming to Hellboy in the comedy remake (of sorts) LITTLE, written and directed by Tina Gordon and starring Regina Hall, Issa Rae and Marsai Martin (from ABC’s Black-ish). This is the type of body-swapping comedy that’s delivered some great laughs in movies like both Freaky Friday, Tom Hanks’ Bigand others like Jennifer Garner’s 13 Going on 30. I mean, there’s still so much that can be done with this sort of thing as seen by Shazam!, and this sort of high-concept premise is also fairly easy to sell audiences. I missed the press screening of this, but if I have a few moments in April (it might happen!) I’d go check it out.

The other movie I saw that’s opening this weekend is LAIKA’s new stop-motion animated film MISSING LINK (Annapurna/UA Releasing), featuring the voices of Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana and Zach Galifianakis. I’m not going to review the movie even though I generally liked it, mainly since it’s been a minute since I watched it, but if you like some of LAIKA’s other films (particularly director Chris Butler’s earlier film ParaNorman) then you should enjoy this one, and like with all of LAIKA’s movies, I

Lastly, there’s Aviron’s AFTER, another teen romance drama, this one based on Anna Todd’s fan fiction that pairs Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Ralph’s nephew) and Josephine Langford in the type of Y.A. romantic drama that has had mixed results in recent years. Sure, the recent Five Feet Apartdid fine but others, like last year’s Midnight Sun, released by the defunct Global Road, barely made $10 million. Since I haven’t seen the movie – honestly, I haven’t even watched a trailer -- I’m not really sure what the appeal of this is going to be except that some younger women may not have much interest on other options this weekend.

LIMITED RELEASES

Well, I totally screwed up last week… including one movie that was delayed until this week and neglecting a movie which I thought opened this week. (This is why you need to keep me apprised on date changes, publicists!)

Actor Max Minghella makes his directorial debut with TEEN SPIRIT (Bleecker Street), starring Elle Fanning as Violet, a young woman from the Isle of Wight who hopes to get out of her smalltown blues by performing on a popular talent television show called “Teen Spirit.” Helping her out is the scraggly Vlad (Croatian actor Zlatko Burik, who starred in Nicolas Refn’s Pusher trilogy) who was an opera singer in Croatia and offers to manage Violet and help her get to the finals of the show. While Elle is no Aretha Franklin, I was truly impressed with her singing voice as well as Minghella’s screenplay and direction of the film which has a distinctive look and tone but is also a movie with quite a lot of mainstream appeal. If you like television shows like The Voice and American Idol, you might be interested in seeing one contestant’s (fictional) journey to get onto one of those shows.

You can read my interview with writer/director Max Minghella over at the Beat.

The movie I left out of last week’s column is HIGH LIFE (A24), the new movie and first in English from French auteur Claire Denis, which stars Robert Pattinson, André Benjamin, Juliette Binoche and Mia Goth. I saw the movie at the New York Film Festival last year, but I guess I never got around to writing about it, but I wish I did. Not that I particularly liked the movie, but if I wrote about it, at least I could remember what it was about. I know it takes place on a spaceship with a bunch of astronauts including Pattinson and his young daughter, all of them trying to survive.

But my absolutely favorite new movie of the weekend is Alex Ross Perry’s HER SMELL (Gunpowder and Sky), starring Elisabeth Moss as Becky Something, the lead singer of an all-girl punk band who have hit the big time but are about to implode due to Becky’s addictions and eccentricities. Becky also has a baby daughter who she is constantly neglecting and her bandmates (Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin) and everyone is worried about her. I’ve liked some of Perry’s past work, but something about this one really connected, maybe because I spent a couple decades working in the music business, so I can relate to the frustrated engineer in the recording studio section of the film. Moss, obviously, is amazing as Becky, a role that puts her through all the highs and lows of success and fame, but I also liked the cast around her, actors like Cara Delevigne and Amber Heard who I barely could recognize in their respective wigs. I actually saw this at the New York Film Festival, and I liked it even more when I watched it again recently. It opens in New York on Friday and in L.A. and other cities next Friday, and I hope to have an interview with Perry, probably over at NextBigPicture by next week some time.

A movie that I hoped would play the Toronto Film Festival in 2017, but instead got up in the Harvey Weinstein scandal was Garth Davis’ MARY MAGDALENE (IFC Films), the follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film Lion. It stars Rooney Mara as the title character and her real-life boyfriend Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus… and just hat last part gets me worried just because I remember Rodrigo Garcia’s Last Days in the Desert a few years back, starring Ewan McGregor as Jesus. This is being released this weekend into about 50 theaters in select cities after playing in just about every other country in the world last year as it sought out a new U.S. distributor.

Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone of Gamorrah fame returns with DOGMAN (Magnolia), a crime thriller set in a small seaside village where a dog groomer named Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is being coerced into committing petty crimes by an ex-boxer bully named Simoncino. Apparently, this is based on true events, and I generally liked it, particularly the performance of Fonte. It opens at the Film Forum and at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Friday, as well as the Landmark Nuart in L.A. It will expand to more California theaters on April 19.

Martial arts fans will want to check out master fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping’s latest The Ip Man Legacy: Master Z (Well GO USA), starring Max Zhang as Cheung Tin Chi, who is trying to make a life in Hong Kong with his young son after being defeated by Master Ip. The movie also stars the legendary Michelle Yeoh (in a great sequence with Zhang), Tony Jaa (ditto) and Dave Bautista… yeah, well I guess two out of three isn’t bad, but Bautista is pretty terrible, and the movie is disjointed in its storytelling. But the action is cool, so there’s that! It opens in select theaters this weekend.

Eva Husson’s Girls of the Sun (Cohen Media Group) stars Golshifteh Farahan (Pasterson) as Bahar, commander of the “Girls of the Sun” battalion, who are set to free their hometown from extremists, while also freeing her son. Emmanuelle Bercot (My King) plays a French journalist who is embedded with the warriors during the mission. Husson’s film opens at the Quad,Landmark 57and the FIAF Florence Gould Hall (now showing first-run films) on Friday, as well as the Laemmle Monica Film Center in L.A.

A movie I sadly had to miss at this year’s Oxford Film Festival is V. Scott Balcerek’s doc Satan & Adam (Cargo), a movie that took twenty years to make, as Balcerek pulls together two decades of documentary footage of the blues duo that were a fixture in Harlem in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. “Satan” is Sterling Magee, who played with so many greats but felt exploited so he walked away from the music scene, before being joined by Adam Gussow, an Ivy league scholar…but then Magee vanished, and the film follows what happened after that.

I had heard great things about Kaili Blues director BiGan’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (Kino Lorber), when it played a number of film festivals last year. It follows a man, played by Huang Jue, who is haunted by a woman from his post who he goes looking for her. And it includes a substantial single shot in 3D… for no particular reason that I could ascertain. To call the movie a “slog” would be an insult to actual slogs, and I barely could stay awake while watching it. It’s playing at the Metrograph and Film Society of Lincoln Center starting Friday.

Also now playing at Film Forum is Camille Vidal-Naquet’s debut feature drama Sauvage/Wild (Strand Releasing) following a gay sex worker, played by Felix Maritaud from BPM (Beats Per Minute).

Tim Disney’s William, opening at New York’s Cinema Village and L.A.’s Laemmle Monica Film Center, is a love story between two scientists who fall in love while trying to clone a Neanderthal from ancient DNA creating William, the first Neanderthal to walk the earth in 35,000 years. The film stars Will Brittain, Waleed Zuaiter, Maria Dizzia and Beth Grant.

Gilles de Maistre’s Mia and the White Lion (Ledafilms Entertainment Group) is an ambitious film about a ten-year-old named Mia whose family moves to Africa to manage a lion farm, bonding with a white lion she names Charlie. The film was shot over three years, so that the film’s young starsDaniah De Villiers and Ryan Mac Lennan could bond with their lion co-stars. The film also stars Melanie Laurent and Langley Kirkood, and it opens in select cities.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

I’m finally shifting my gaze over to Chicago where the 21stAnnual EBERTFEST kicked off yesterday with Alan Elliot’s Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace, as well as a special showing of the Wachowski’s Bound with special guests Jennifer Tilly and Gena Gershon. It continues through the weekend with showings of recent and older movies, including Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married and more.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Late Nites at Metrographwill screen Werner Herzog’s Bad Liuetenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring the inimitable Nicolas Cage, while the Playtime: Family Matineesthis weekend is Danny Kaye as Hans Christian Anderson. Although I forgot to include it last week, Michael Blackwood’s 1968 docs Monk and Monk in Europe(as in Thelonious Monk) will continue for the next week, as does King Hu’s The Fate of Lee Khan from 1973. This Saturday night, the Metrograph is presenting a cast and crew reunion for Sidney Lumet’s 1988 movie Running on Emptywith Christine Lahti, screenwriter Naomi Foner and producers Amy Robinson and Griffin Dunne

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

L.A.’s hottest newish rep theater will show Michael Ritchie’s 1975 film Smile as well as his 1992 film Diggstownon Weds and Thursday (and apparently, Bruce Dern appeared in person on Weds!), Friday and Saturday are Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry (1971) and Escape from Alcatraz (1978), while Sunday and Monday screens David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). This weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, while the midnight offerings are The Hateful Eight on Friday and The Blues Brothers (1980) on Saturday. On Monday afternoon, there’s a screening Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

On Saturday, Film Forum will screen Jaime Chávarri’s 1976 documentary El Desecanto, introduced by author Aaron Shulman, who wrote a book about the Spanish literary family, the Paneros, on which the movie is based. (FYI, Chávarri’s film was never released in the States, and there is only one screening on Saturday.) Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) will screen Saturday and Sunday as part of Film Forum Jr, and Francesco Rossi’s 1973 film Lucky Lucianowill screen a 4k restoration for a single screening on Sunday afternoon.

AERO (LA):

The late Luke Perry gets a tribute with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) shown on Thursday, and then the Aero is doing its own Claire Denis tribute (cause everyone else is doing i!) with Salt, Sweat and Sunshine: The Cinema of Claire Denis with a double feature of her debut Chocolat (1988) and White Material (2009) on Friday, a screening of Beau Travail (1999) on Saturday, Nenette and Boni (1996) and 35 Shots of Rum (2008) on Saturday, and then Trouble Every Day (2001)and Let the Sunshine In (2017) on Sunday. Most of those will be showing on 35mm and Denis will be there, at least for the first two nights.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall continues with 1948’s Key Largo on Thursday and Jonathan Glazer’s Birth (2004) on Friday. The What Price Hollywood series will screen George Cukor’s Sylvia Scarlett (1935) and John Waters’ Female Trouble (1974) on Thursday, Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place (1950) and Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess (1973) on Friday, Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight (1939), Clarence Brown’s 1931 film A Free Soul and George Cukor’s What Price Hollywood (1932) on Saturday and Fritz Lang’s Clash By Night (1952) and Joseph Lewis’ Gun Crazy (1950) on Sunday.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad begins its new series Wild Things: The Ferocious Films of Nelly Kaplan, a tribute retrospective to a pivotal filmmaker in the French New Wave, which I know next to nothing about, so I won’t even try. Just click on the title to see the movies playing.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

This week’s series is The Anarchic Cinema of Věra Chytilová, a celebration of the filmmaker who emerged during the Czech New Wave, which I know even less about than the French New Wave. Just click on the link if you know who she is.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

This Friday’s midnight screening is the ‘70s classic Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), starring Peter Fonda and Susan George. I’m not sure when was the last time I had a chance to see this movie but if I were in L.A., this is where I would be on Friday night.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Streaming on Netflix starting Wednesday is THE SILENCE, the new apocalyptic thriller from director John R. Leonetti (Annabelle), starring Stanley Tucci, Kiernan Shipka and Miranda Otto. In this twist on Netflix’s hit Bird Box (and rip-off of A Quiet Place?), this one involves a world being terrorized by primeval beings with acute hearing and a family trying to survive. Also streaming Friday is the high concept teen rom-com The Perfect Date, starring Noah Centineo as a guy who is payed to take a friend’s cousin to the prom.

Next week, another horror movie in New Line’s The Curse of La Llorona, plus the faith-based drama Breakthrough from Fox and DisneyNature’s Penguins.

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