#blade of the immoral movie

[merry-andrews]

This smoll doodle for 'Blade Of The Immortal' movie :>

[polkadotjohnson]

Because I'm greedy and I just watched something I hadn't previously, I decided I want more. So I'm gonna post two lists, one of the things I've watched in case you haven't watched some of it and I can help, and one of the things I'm missing so maybe you can help me! Please help me feed my obsession its hungreee

Stuff I've watched (most from the imdb list, other things found in the wild) excluding interviews, podcasts making ofs and red carpets:

Early Edition (tv)

The Dark Knight (movie)

ER (tv)

Horsemen (movie)

Last Seen Wearing (short)

Virgin Alexander (movie)

Gateway (short)

Love is an Elevator (short)

Sushi Girl (movie)

Brutal (movie)

The League (tv)

The Cross (short)

The Assassination of Chicago's Mayor (short)

Saving Lincoln (movie)

The Employer (movie)

Ray Donovan (tv)

Heavy (short)

Prisoners (movie)

After Thought (short)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (tv)

Animals (movie)

AVGN: The Movie (movie)

Intruders (tv)

CSI: Cyber (tv)

Chronic (movie)

A Killer of Men (short)

Ant-Man (movie)

12 Monkeys (tv)

A Quiet Kind of Love (short)

The Belko Experiment (movie)

Be Good (short)

Gotham (tv)

Twin Peaks: The Return (tv)

Blade Runner 2049 (movie)

Galaktikon: Nightmare (music video)

Relaxer (movie)

Ant-Man and the Wasp (movie)

The Domestics (movie)

A Million Little Pieces (movie)

Making Love (short)

All Creatures Here Below (movie)

Bird Box (movie)

Neurotica/Eureka! (short)

Madness in the Method (movie)

Teacher (movie)

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (movie)

Reprisal (tv)

Lacrimosa (short)

MacGyver (tv)

The Flash (tv)

The Suicide Squad (movie)

Dune (movie)

Immoral Compass (tv)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (movie)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (movie)

Boston Strangler (movie)

The Boogeyman (movie)

Miracle Workers (tv)

Oppenheimer (movie)

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (movie)

The Rookie (tv)

Late Night With the Devil (movie)

Shortcake (short) (thanks again @thepurpleprince)

Others (?)

Keep Painting, Mom (short/archive)

The Balcony (short)

Elton & Jean’s 9th Grade Biology Project (short)

Failure - Dark Speed (music video)

Iceage - Catch it (music video)

Iron & Wine - Everyone's Summer of '95 (music video)

Ken Andrews - Sword and Shield (music video)

Passion Pit - Constant Conversations (music video)

Puddles Pity Party - Obsession (music video)

X.X.T. - Steve Jobs (music video)

Annabel Lee (reading)

2021/2022/2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards

Premature (show)

Awkward Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Conversations (special)

Svengoolie - The Wolf Man (cameo)

Svengoolie - Inner Sanctum (cameo)

Svengoolie - War of the Colossal Beast (didn't see him in it)

The Boulet Brothers Halfway to Halloween Special

The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time (documentary)

In Search of Darkness 3 (documentary)

I Am Not a Flopper (narration)

CCARS - Fire (um… music… video?)

Mermaid - a Short Film (short)

If you haven't seen any of these let me know and I'll give you the link or upload it somewhere or something

Now all the mysterious stuff I can't seem to find anywhere:

Arc of a Bird (saw a clip on Vimeo) (short)

Credits (short)

Head Case (short)

Band (short)

Keen (short)

Double Black (short)

Say When (short) <- doesn't fucking exist (still mad about it)

Tweet Me in NY (short)

Singled Out (tv pilot?) <- watched it

Sketchy (tv) <- watched it

Cass (movie) <- watched it

Under the Pyramid (movie) <- watched it

Cora (short, unreleased 😢) (hehehehehe)

Girls Will Be Girls 2012 (also unreleased)

The Pandora Experiment (also also unreleased)

All the Pretty Girls (??? prob unreleased)

A bunch of other stuff probably. Any help would be immensely appreciated.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 142 thoughts!

HEADS UP: In this review I discuss fictional depictions of sibling incest as well as a brief reference to both fictional and a real life suicide. As usual, feel free to skip if you're not in the right zone and I'll see you next time.

thank you for the kind words from everyone when i was still in the Slime Era of feeling sick lol. i'm like 80% back to full power now!

I'm gonna be totally up front and say I really think this is one of the worst chapters we've gotten in a while but here's the twist: it's not for the reasons you probably think!

We're following up basically right off the back of last chapter and immediately I am kind of mad at how shitty the series is continuing to do Miyako with regards to the movie arc. She was a total non-factor in the RBKN conflict and now that Aqua and Ruby are being pressured into doing something they have both verbalized that they don't want to do she's just like well gosh i feel complicated but what can i do :(. Having the setup almost 20 full chapters ago of Miyako expressing that she wants to step up and do more for Aqua and Ruby as their mother and then having her completely failing to intervene on their behalf here is just wild.

In general, the way everything is being set up to force this kiss feels so… well, forced. Even if Kaburagi (as the story says) insisted there be a kiss scene, there are a million ways to fake a kiss that doesn't involve actors actually kissing. Body doubles! Camera angles! Putting your thumbs in the way! Unless Kaburagi said "I want 20 full seconds of Kamiki sticking his tongue down Ai's throat center frame", there is absolutely no reason "a kiss scene" needs to mean "these two blood related twin sibling actors actually kiss". The whole thing is just so incredibly contrived.

And honestly? The fact that both Ruby and Aqua have expressed a 'no' and are being forced to do this anyway is the part of this chapter making me the most actively insane. It is absolutely mind boggling to have spent half of last chapter on a Miyako monologue about how immoral and unethical it is when people's ability to give informed and sincere consent is compromised by the entertainment industry and to then follow it with a whole chapter of basically every character we're supposed to like flaunting a total lack of respect for Aqua's comfort and consent in this regard, up to and including the completely insane scene of two adult women lecturing Aqua about how he isn't allowed to have boundaries. What the fuck is going on here!!!

This is especially frustrating because I actually really like a lot of things about the scene with Yoriko and Abiko… even if there's some stuff that really kind of broke me lol. Like uh, wasn't it a really huge plot point in Tokyo Blade that a mangaka couldn't be expected to turn out an entertaining theater script because those are two entirely different kinds of storytelling…??? But whatever.

Off the bat, I have really mixed-leaning-negative feelings about the reveal that the KamiAi romance scenes we'd gotten were entirely fictional. On the one hand, I actually feel pretty validated - I had guessed that the full-immersion-flashback presentation was a hint that we were being presented with a falsehood and it implicitly confirms something I've been saying from the start that 15 Year Lie's version of events has to be taken with a grain of salt, both because it contradicts known events and facts and because so many other people have interfered with it. Having that made textual and being able to confidently say it helps a lot in discussing what this means for the story.

But like… that means we wasted a whole bunch of time on shit that was made up and didn't matter! Like, thematically speaking, I think this is potentially interesting but I just keep getting stuck on the fact that we were given a super interesting scene finally fleshing out and giving us info about both a character and a relationship we've been absolutely starved for details about, only for the story to turn around not two chapters later and go "and my source? i made it the fuck up". It just totally dashes all the enthusiasm I was feeling and it also makes it way less rewarding to try and dig into what 15YL is doing when at any time, all of this potentially interesting character work could be revealed to be total piss in the wind.

Stepping back from that… in total isolation from everything else, I do think this talk with Abiko and Yoriko about what it means to write stories is interesting from a lot of angles. While I don't think these two are the 1-to-1 author avatars for Aka and Mengo fandom treats them as, they nevertheless clearly serve as reflections of the two's experiences and viewpoints about the manga industry and specific and the art of storytelling in general, allowing the story to play around in the quasi-metafictional space it does sometimes, where it uses in-universe fiction as a method of commenting on itself.

In that sense, I think Yoriko can be understood as speaking for Akasaka here and discussing some of his feelings as a storyteller of Oshi no Ko specifically. OnK has never made a secret of the fact that it's drawing on Akasaka's real experiences in the entertainment industry but perhaps less obvious to overseas fans is the inspiration it takes from real life issues in contemporary Japanese pop culture, too. Infamously, Akane's arc very transparent drew inspiration - if it wasn't reconstructed entirely - from the suicide of Hana Kimura, not even six full months after Kimura's death. When the anime aired, Kimura's surviving mother (imo, rightfully and deservedly) lambasted the series for using her daughter's death as the fodder for entertainment without consulting her surviving family. It wasn't even that she disagreed with what the series was saying - she just wanted someone to have some consideration.

This is what Yoriko means when she talks about the responsibility a writer has to their stories. When you write a piece of fiction as highly visible as Oshi no Ko currently is, it is your responsibility to consider the impact your words will have on the world. No, fiction does not directly impact the real world in a physical, tangible way but if we are careless with our stories, we can regurgitate and perpetuate dominant cultural narratives that very much do cause real, tangible harm to marginalized people. Hikaru Kamiki isn't a real person, but there are undoubtedly people in OnK's readerbase who see their experiences mirrored in him. Airi Himekawa isn't real, but people like her exist. Akane Kurokawa isn't real but Hana Kimura was.

This discussion also serves as an interesting warning to Aqua himself, though maybe not quite in the sense Yoriko intended. Aqua's revenge has always been something treated, in-universe, as a sort of fiction in of itself; Aqua calls it his 'revenge play' and his primary method of pursuing it is to become an actor. It's a retribution narrative about real people and Aqua is its author. But as Yoriko reminds him… stories can kill. Especially ones featuring real people. Aqua has been telling himself a comfortable lie for years that only he will be hurt by his own inevitable self destruction but Yoriko reminds him that he isn't the only person involved here and that he is inevitably going to cause great pain to the people he loves if her continues down this path.

That's why this chapter is so frustrating. This is all good, meaty character work with some great thematic overtones… and it's all in service of contriving this scenario where Aqua has no choice but to tongue his sister on camera and for some reason, nobody is pointing out the million and one alternatives to this deranged scenario.

But anyway. Enough beating around the bush: let's talk about That Scene. And despite what everything I've said this post might lead you to believe… I actually really like it.

I don't know exactly what activated to make her go sicko mode but Mengo has been really on fucking fire with her art on the series lately. It really jumped out to me in 137 but she's honestly been cooking since the very start of the movie arc. It stands out especially strongly in Aqua and Ruby's talk on the balcony in ways I really vibed with. The whole scene feels like Ruby's shoujo brainrot and the cold reality of what she's tiptoeing around suggesting to Aqua are battling out for dominance over the framing. Ruby's stubbornness is such a force to be reckoned with that it almost wins entirely but there are moments where the lens cracks and we see things as they are. Aqua's discomfort practically radiates off the page this entire conversation.

Not only that but… jesus christ, Ruby. Just look at how she's framed when she first enters the scene.

That oppressive silhouette, her shaded eyes and that sinister smile… I probably don't need to tell you that's NOT how you typically frame a romantic heroine. She honestly almost looks more like a villain.

But Ruby quickly reasserts control over the framing. Or rather, what she's suggesting is such a sugary shoujo fantasy, the framing has no other option but to comply. At last, Ruby steps out of the shallow channel of plausible deniability and puts into concrete words what she has been thinking and longing for these last twenty chapters: for her to retake her role as Sarina Tendoji and for Aqua, in turn, to play Gorou for her once again. More than that - she pushes him for a concrete response to her love at last, not as Ruby but as Sarina; not only does the paneling repeatedly cover the eye with her star but in the final panel where she unambiguously propositions Aqua, the star is completely gone. This is what Ruby is offering: to completely sever her connection to Ai and the new life she has built on that foundation and to return to being Sarina, if that is what the doctor she loves wants.

This is SUCH an incredibly effective scene. It's excellently done and the art is fantastic. It finally draws out and makes explicit the underlying disconcerting subtext that has been swimming under the twins' relationship since 123. It works fantastically well… in isolation. But when taken into the context of the rest of the story it just feels so… unearned.

For the last 20 chapters, we have had absolutely no serious insight into Ruby's feelings re: the reveal of Gorou's new identity as Aqua. We didn't see her grapple with it or have to adjust to it at all. It was like a switch flipped in her brain and she was suddenly a 2010s fanservice imouto splooging about her oniichan. Her interiority in this regard is completely absent. Whenever the subject is addressed at all, it is made into a joke with Ruby as the punchline. There has been no serious build up to this moment or any meaningful time spent on Ruby's feelings about Aqua and as such, being asked to take it seriously now feels so incredibly jarring.

I've said this over and over in other places but I'll make this clear here: the handling of Ruby's feelings is not bad because Incest Is Morally Bad or whatever. At the end of the day, OnK is fiction and fiction is a space that allows us to explore ideas and scenarios that would be unpleasant, dangerous or even downright immoral to try and interrogate in real life with real people. Not only that, but AQRB's situation is so far removed from anything any real person could experience there's very little risk of it acting as a harmful reflection of a real person's life. But because OnK had the space to do just about anything with this idea, I'm so incredibly baffled that it chose to do all of nothing. This is a plot point that has been cooking since the literal first chapter of the entire series and now, just under four years and over 140 chapters past our starting point… and this is the best Akasaka can do? Dated brocon humor that reduces Ruby to a shallow gag character, denying her the opportunity to have deeper, more complex and ugly feelings and denying her the respect of examining those feelings with honesty?

It sucks. This whole thing really sucks. As someone who loves Ruby so, so much… this really just feels like an insulting way to have handled what should have been one of the most interesting and engaging parts of her series long arc.

I do think this chapter is the beginning of the end of AquRuby's time in the endgame couple race, if it was ever seriously in the running to begin with. Ruby embracing Aqua with a proposition in those final two panels echoes Akane doing the same in chapter 72 and the fact that this cliffhanger ends on the proposition and not a kiss implies to me, structurally speaking, that we are heading for a rejection. On top of that, we're pretty far away from the manga's ending still and Kana's romantic resolution with Aqua hasn't gotten its time to shine. All those factors together makes me feel pretty certain that this is the final nail in the coffin and we're just waiting to see how Aka sticks the landing.

After all - Ruby is asking for his response as Sarina. And if this is Sarina asking for his love one last time… we already know how Gorou's going to respond.

[autisticlancemcclain]

Shiro has seen Mean Girls so many times it’s actually disgusting. He quotes the movie in his sleep. (He didn’t believe that when Adam initially told him, but then he woke up one morning to Adam shoving a video of dead-asleep him muttering “Boo, you whore,” before rolling over and accidentally smacking Adam’s face with a flailing arm, and he could deny it no further.)

Because he’s seen the movie so many truly horrifying times, when he hears a constant, unbroken, furious scream echo through the castle, his brain immediately assumes he’s at home, mouthing along to Regina George’s tantrum as Adam sighs (fondly, although he’s rather snort powdered arsenic than admit it) at him from beside the couch, so it takes him a couple minutes to shake that off and react.

“Who is yelling?” he asks, as soon as he’s oriented. Everyone working in the briefing room with him — Pidge, Coran, Lance, and Hunk — offer some sort of murmured confusion.

“Is it maybe a burst pipe? Those sometimes sound really shrill,” Pidge suggests.

“I don’t think so,” Shiro says. “That sounds…angry, almost? As if —”

He’s interrupted by someone kicking — no, literally kicking — the door clean off it’s hinges. Allura storms in, still screaming, Keith following behind her several dozen healthy steps away.

“I hate it here!” she shouts.

“Do you,” Pidge mutters sarcastically, forgetting about Altean superhearing, and then immediately cowers behind Hunk upon Allura’s terrifying reminder (in the form of shifting some fangs into her mouth and literally hissing at Pidge. Yikes).

“What’s wrong, dear?” Coran tries, much warier and gentler.

Allura just yells again and stomps over to the chair Lance has pulled out for her.

“It’s that asshole Empire general we have in custody,” Keith pipes up, still a very safe distance away from Allura. “We did everything we could think of to make him talk, and it isn’t working.”

“He doesn’t believe us at all!” Allura shouts, throwing her hands up. “He calls our bluff every quiznacking time, and we can’t get a single thing out of him! And he is so smug, believe me, if I could wipe that look off his face —”

She cuts herself off as she takes a sip of water, looking gratefully as Lance, who must have gotten her a glass.

“He’s lucky I have morals and won’t gut him,” she says darkly, glowering at the space in front of her. (Shiro imagines that she’s thinking about all the possible ways she could, in fact, gut him.)

“I mean, none of us are you going to be particularly upset if you gut him,” Hunk says. “Like, he sucks, right? Experimented on children? I don’t actually think it’s all that immoral if you gut him.”

Allura growls and says nothing, curling up as tight as she can and continuing to glare at the wall.

Keith speaks on her behalf after it becomes clear she’s done. “We need information from him, unfortunately. A lot of it, at that. So killing him wouldn’t exactly help us.”

“And so we’re at a bit of on impasse,” Shiro surmises.

“Yep. The Blade has… resources, to force information, but they’re currently going through a system’s update and are unreachable, for at least the next couple of days. And the longer we hold this guy the better his chances of escaping, so.”

“I’ve been trying for hours,” Allura says, and for the first time she starts to look more upset than angry. “I can’t do this anymore. He just — he keeps bragging, about every horrible thing he’s done. I can’t listen anymore.”

Lance, having procured a blanket from what must have been thin air (since they are in the briefing room, which has no blankets or pillows or anything, and he was definitely not holding a blanket when he came into the room — how did he do that?), wraps it around her shoulders and squeezes them gently.

“Don’t worry, ‘Llura. You’re done. We’ll get him to talk, okay?”

“How?” Allura asks miserably. “The only thing he’s afraid of is dying, and we can’t kill him.”

Lance grins.

Shiro would not call it comforting.

“Oh, don’t worry. If death is what he’s afraid of, I’ll get him talking. “

Keith raises an eyebrow. “What’re you gonna do, torture him?”

Lance shrugs. “Not, like, technically.”

“You’re not going to torture him,” Pidge says. “I call bullshit.”

Lance hums. He reaches over to pat Allura on the head, then unclips his bayard from his belt. He closes his eyes, concentrating, and then the bayard is enveloped with a familiar, neon-blue light. When the light fades, a shiny revolver is left behi —

Wait.

A revolver?

Shiro blinks. The revolver remains where it is, so it’s no figment of his imagination. And it’s not even white and blue, like his other bayard forms. This just looks like a human revolver — shiny silver, with a wooden handle worn smooth, fitting seamlessly into Lance’s thin hands.

“What the fuck is that,” Hunk says, voicing what everyone is thinking.

“A gun,” Lance says cheerily.

Coran’s eyebrows furrow. “It looks a little… different, from your usual forms, lad.”

“Yep! My other bayard forms are all Altean, so they’ve all got the laser shots. I needed bullets.”

“That… should not be possible.”

Lance looks at Coran in confusion. “What do you mean? I do it all the time! The bayard is supposed to manifest into into whatever weapon you need most, right? I summoned a bronze spear last week. Why would this be any different?”

“You made a spear?”

“Uh, yeah? I was fighting a new level in training and I let the gladiator get too close, so long range wasn’t going to work, but I’m not great at sword fighting yet so I had to adapt. I didn’t beat the level, though.”

Lance looks dejected. As if the fact that he didn’t beat a training level somehow negates the fact that he’s unlocked more than one bayard form, and many of them aren’t even Altean.

“Sometimes I forget that the rules of the universe don’t seem to apply to you,” Shiro says, because that’s the only sentence he can think to say that would adequately voice his complete bewilderment.

“That’s what I’ve been fucking saying!” Hunk cries, startling everyone in the room with his intensity. “I swear to God! He does things because he decides he should be able to, physics be damned!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lance says loftily. “I’m normal.”

Everyone speaks at the same time.

“No, you’re not.”

“And we love you for it, dear,” Coran adds.

Everyone nods hastily (Keith also blushes, which is hilarious and absolutely something Shiro is going to mock him for later).

Lance goes a little red. “Stop being mushy,” he complains. “I’m about to go threaten to shoot somebody. You’re going to knock me off my game.”

“Deepest apologies, Mr. Mafioso,” Hunk teases. “Lead the way.”

Grumbling, Lance does, and everyone follows. (Even Allura, who explained that while she is tired of hearing the asshole speak, she has complete faith in Lance and will not miss him scaring him into spilling. She admits, however, that she has no idea what the hell Lance has planned. Shiro is as curious as he is apprehensive.)

“Okay, all of you go away now,” Lance says as they reach the doors of the holding cell. “You can still watch, or whatever, but no one can come in with me.”

Endlessly inquisitive, the team piles into the tiny observation room attached to the cell, looking through the one-way glass.

Their prisoner sits, bored, handcuffed to the chair he’s sitting on. He stares at the ceiling, eyes vacant.

Shiro thinks about how he smiled as he tortured children, babies, for his own intellectual pleasure, and feels his heart harden.

Lance walks into the room calmly, which isn’t what Shiro expected. He’s not sure what he was expecting, but it surely wasn’t Lance, completely expressionless, walking quietly into the room to stare at the general wordlessly.

After several minutes of careful assessment, the general snorts.

“I have just been threatened violently for hours by an Altean royal and a half-Galra Blade,” he says, amused. “And it did nothing. So now they send a scrawny human?” He sneers, voice turning taunting. “How do you expect to break me, runt? Am I meant to laugh myself into looser lips, so you can earn insight into the fraction of the information I hold? No common jester will make me speak, boy. In fact it is a mockery for you to try.”

Without even blinking, Lance raises an arm, aims his gun at the general’s face, and shoots.

The deafening bang of the gun hides any noise the general may have made, but his face clouds in terror before it narrows into rage. He attempts to raise his hand to the side of his head, but the handcuffs keep them firmly below his knees.

“You shot me!” he yells.

“You’re welcome,” Lance says, tilting his head. His expression remains unchanged — terrifyingly blank.

“You insect! You mite! You speak of dirt beneath my heel! Why would I lower myself to thank you for anything, especially an attempt on my life?”

“That was no attempt on your life.”

“You have carved a wound into my skull with a bullet!”

Lance inclines his head. “Yes. And you are alive to speak of it. I have shown you mercy. You will thank me.”

The general spits on the ground in front of Lance.

“I will do no such thing.”

“Okay,” Lance says evenly. “I will warn you again.”

Before anyone can process, he raises his arm again, and shoots.

This time, it takes less time for the general to react.

“I am remarkably resilient to pain,” he snarls. “No matter how many times you graze me with a bullet, I will not tell you anything.”

Lance nods again. “You’re right. How foolish of me.”

The general spits again. “Yes, you picture of insolence.”

“I waited a long time for access to you,” Lance continues, as if the general had not spoken.

The general actually looks confused, which is a welcome change from his insufferable smugness, even though Shiro’s not sure how it’s helpful.

“I am not Allura. Nor am I Keith. They are very noble, and are so endlessly enthusiastic about positive change to the universe. They are too determined to cut their losses and find other ways to gain information.”

For the first time, Lance grins. It can only be described as shark-like.

Cruel, even. Shiro has never thought Lance cruel, before, and it’s startling.

“I have no such reservations. You have no use to me, and I will not waste the Coalition’s resources.”

He opens the chamber of his revolver, delicately removes one bullet, and then shakes the whole gun upside down. The rest of the bullets fall to the floor with a clatter.

For the briefest moment, fear flashes across the general’s face, before it’s replaced by a snarl.

“Your games don’t frighten me.”

Lance shrugs, spinning the bullet chamber before slamming it closed, and re-aiming.

This time, he aims right in between the general’s eyes.

“It’s not meant to frighten you. It’s meant to amuse me.”

Pidge inhales sharply. “Is he actually going to fucking kill him? We need that information!”

“Have some faith,” Keith says breathlessly, eye transfixed on the scene in front of him. “When Lance says he’ll do something, he will, yeah?”

“Fair,” Hunk murmurs.

Each of them startles when the first shot rings through the cell.

A blank.

“You will get nothing from me,” the general hisses.

Lance doesn’t respond.

Another bang.

“I do not —”

Another bang. Then another, before the general can even open his mouth.

He is no longer trying to mask his fear. His terror is as plain on his face as it was on each of his victim’s faces, as they begged him to stop and return them home.

Lance laughs. The sound echoes, sending shivers down Shiro’s spine.

Another bang. Another blank.

A revolver only has six chambers.

No more blanks.

“Enjoy your final breath,” he taunts, and curls his finger around the trigger.

“Wait!”

Lance pauses. “Why should I?”

“I’ll talk,” the general begs. “I’ll talk. All the information I have. It’s yours.”

Lance hums consideringly, tapping the — loaded, Jesus fucking Christ — gun against his chin.

“No,” he decides, after a moment, re-aiming the gun. “I don’t care.”

“What is he doing,” Pidge hisses again, and this time Shiro is inclined to agree with her. He turns slightly to the door.

“Maybe we should stop —”

“Have some faith,” Keith repeats firmly.

Shiro swallows and forces himself away from the doorknob.

“Please, please, anything.”

Shiro doesn’t think he’s ever seen anyone look as desperate as the prisoner does now.

“Any information you need. I have more than you know.”

“Ooooooh,” Lance coos. “Now we’re getting somewhere. A trade?”

“My information for my life,” the general agrees hastily.

Lance pouts. “Aw, I guess I have to. Even though I was really looking forward to seeing your brains decorate the wall.” He sighs, petulant. “I guess you get to live. Start talking.”

The prisoner slumps forward, sweat and tears alike dripping from his face.

“Thank you,” he weeps. “Thank you for your mercy.”

Lance wrinkles his nose. “The more pitiful you look the less inclined I am to keep you alive,” he says, and the prisoner sobers up quickly. He immediately starts talking — he spills everything. Communication secrets, everything from trickle-down orders to secret projects organized by Haggar herself. By the time he finishes — hours later — they have more information than they have ever had in one place.

All because Lance isn’t afraid to get messy with a gun, apparently.

“Thank you,” Lance says when the prisoner’s stream of information trickles to a stop.

The prisoner swallows. “What now? Do I await trial?”

“Tell me,” Lance says sweetly, “how many children did you free, after you finished them? After they gave you everything they could? After you stole everything they had? How many of your experiments —” he spits the word, falsely saccharine tone dissipating to genuine fury — “did you show mercy to?”

Terror once again makes the general’s face grotesque.

“Please,” he says quietly. “I was only following orders.”

Lance does not hesitate. “I don’t care.”

No one stops him from shooting the prisoner point-blank. Even if they could, they don’t think they would. After spending the last several hours hearing what he had done… there’s no sympathy left for him.

Lance leaves the holding cells as neatly as he entered it, without a backwards glance at the body slumped behind him.

The team rushes out to meet him.

“That was horrifying,” Pidge says enthusiastically. “I’ll be real, you had me nervous at the beginning. But, damn. You got where you needed to go. I didn’t know you had that in you.”

“Neither did I,” Keith mutters, ears red, and somehow Shiro thinks he and Pidge are thinking two vastly different things.

Lance shrugs. “Me either! I wasn’t even sure if it was going to work, but I saw it in a T.V. show a while back so I thought I’d give it a whirl.”

Despite the literal execution he just witnessed and the splatter of dark blood on Lance’s forehead, Shiro can’t help the laughter bubbling up his throat.

“You are full of surprises,” he says, and Lance beams.

[kae-luna]

//WIP Intro Post: Ultra Drive//

Art by Computerizer

//Title: Ultra Drive

//Progress: Writing early chapters, planning for whole (hopefully) series out of order

//Genres: Sci-fi, cyberpunk, dystopian, biopunk, post-apocalyptic, action, LGBTQIA2S+, drama, psychological

//Links: Wattpad | Tapas (Coming Soon)

//Rating: 16+ for violence, blood, possible gore, swearing, and suggestive content

//Content warnings: death, pandemic, sickness, bigotry in general???, war, fascism

//POV: Third person First person. AlexiKa's POV.

//Setting: In the city of Venicula on the island of Arasai and surrounding areas. Takes place in the future.

//Premise: AlexiKa's world was changed forever the day her family was forced to immigrate to the imperial city of Venicula after the Ebony Plague - caused by mysterious spores - infected her home town.

~(Continued under the cut)~

Now a young adult, she works as a courier (and secretly an anti-corporation activist). When going on a delivery for the all powerful Gaia Corporation, she accidentally uncovers dark secrets and ends up infected with the same Ebony Plague that haunted her hometown as a child. But when she survives the illness and instead develops superhuman abilities, she joins a mutant resistance group - who call themselves Ultras - to fight against the Veniculan Empire, the Gaia Corporation, and other mutants with immoral goals.

//Aesthetic: neon and pastel architecture, holograms, dyed hair, tech gear, infrastructure in derelict conditions, overgrown plants, eco-friendly technology

//Tropes + themes: anti-capitalism, equality, probably found family, female empowerment, globalization, super powers, POC characters, LGBTQIA2S+ characters

//Inspiration: Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind, Ultraviolet (2006), Aeon Flux (show + movie), Alita: Battle Angel (movie, OVA, + manga), Ghost in The Shell (anime), Fallout (games), 86 (anime), The Last Of Us (games), Blade Runner, The Matrix, 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s in general, vaporwave art, the United States of 'Merica, Sims 4 eco lifestyle

//Characters:

AlexiKa: A young woman with fiery passion and an even more fiery temper, AlexiKa - AKA Lexi - fights for her family's survival in the rough city of Venicula. She hates authority and will gladly fight for you, despite the odds.

Yuki Raiden: Lexi's mom. Japanese. Super sweet and tries to keep the mood positive, even in dark times.

Alessandro: Lexi's dad. An Italian himbo who loves to tinker.

Ellie: Lexi's childhood friend. Super sweet, but a bit cheeky as well. Pacifist. They might have some gay tension.

Empress Vox: Rules the city of Venicula. Politician who does weird parasocial crap over VR/AR. Definitely a good person.

Donovan Vox: Brother of the Veniculan president. CEO of Gaia Corporation.

LaKellan Ramirez: Leader of the Ultra Resistance. Calm and may seem cold, but is actually just a bit awkward and emotionally constipated.

(More coming soon probably-)

//Tags: Ultra Drive, aesthetic, xxx, xxx, xxx...

//Tag list: @digital-chance

//Pinterest boards: Aesthetic inspo | Character inspo

//Playlists: Scenic/Chill - Used for imagining scenery and for calmer scenes.| Edgy - Lots of industrial, trip-hop, metal, and rock beats for angsty, intense, action scenes. Some songs may include explicit content.

//Changelogs:

1.0: Initial Post.

1.2: Added more tags. Added playlist. Added Pinterest board links.

[sarazanmai]

I just watched Ex Machina and its very good. I'll be honest as much as I love scifi I really hate the Guy Wants to Fuck Robot style of narrative, I blame Chobits for this. Reading that manga in middle school caused a negative chemical response. I think given the direction this goes in it does a great job at keeping it from feeling too much like that. I mean when Ava started telling him not to trust Nathan I was already thinking it would be great if she was just playing him. In all due honesty Nathan doesn't do anything wrong. Despite where the plot goes it still feels like the movie is asking me if its immoral to rearrange, deactivate, and reprogram a creation of your's that has a consciousness. And I will tell you no. Its all artificial, sorry I have a hard time seeing it another way. But I think the film still wants to tell you this is cruel, uh sorry I don't agree. And I love a lot of scifi about cyborgs and androids like Metropolis (both versions) and Blade Runner and ultimately those films feel smarter in their approach to their subject matter. I also think having Kyoko be silent throughout the movie, despite understanding its narrative purpose, doesn't sit well with me. But anyway, acting. I don't actually GET why we made Alicia Vikander an it girl for a minute off of this movie. Any conventionally attractive woman could play Ava. There isn't anything about her performance that feels special and this does run the risk of sounding mean, but I find her very plain given her beauty was a driving force in her stardom. I know I've been really into Oscar Isaac lately, but I swear it isn't just lust, I seriously think he's amazing in this and doing the best of the cast. Knowing he based Nathan off of Stanley Kubrick also made me realize...I've never heard old Stan's voice. To me he existed in still photos. Domhnall Gleeson is good here, way better than SW allowed him to be, but it is Oscar who's owning the movie. And I'm happy that dance scene exists. Overall Ex Machina is an imperfect, but still enjoyable movie with great special effects and a great performance in Oscar Isaac.

[wildandsmile]

K͓̽i͓̽n͓̽k͓̽t͓̽o͓̽b͓̽e͓̽r͓̽ a͓̽n͓̽d͓̽ M͓̽a͓̽s͓̽t͓̽e͓̽r͓̽l͓̽i͓̽s͓̽t͓̽

🍎we don’t know about y’all, but pea and i are beyond ready for spooky season! nothing is better than having an apple spice candle burning by the windowsill while you make pumpkin muffins. of course, with great vibes come great orgasms ;) 🎃

🔥pea and i collectively agreed to begin prep for kinktober now because neither of us work very well under pressure. that being said, it’s an open house! i’m going to leave a list of kinks below. to request, simply choose the number corresponding with the kink, and then tell us who you want it to be for. example: “one, tanjiro komado”. you can also add your own tidbits like tropes, setting, etc. have fun with it! Then once everyone has thrown out their character for that day me and Pea will pick one to write about for that day this way it fair and fun.🔥

🔪to make this fair for us and avoid confusion with you all, i’ll also leave a list of the fandoms we write for below. don’t be afraid to suggest spooky movie characters too! (i.e ghost face, brahms, venom, etc.) y’know, the typical monster / slasher men you’d want to get down with. 🔪

🚫Be aware that we will NOT write for real killers!!! (ted bundy, the menendez brothers, jeffrey dahmer, etc.) not only is it immoral, it’s disrespectful to the victims and the victims’ families. so don’t ask🚫

❤️ other than that, happy requesting! there are 31 spots open, we’ll choose the ideas we think are the most creative / freaky / etc. happy halloween!<3 ❤️

𝐯𝐚𝐥’𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐬 —

a court of thorns and roses

sally face

haikyuu

ice breaker

diary of a wimpy kid (rodrick)

call of duty

avatar: the way of water

criminal minds

alice in borderland

venom / eddie

stranger things (NOOO eddie munson. 😾)

brahms

ghost face

the last of us

Etc

𝐩𝐞𝐚’𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐬 —

jujutsu kaisen

haikyuu

call of duty

tokyo revengers

hunter x hunter

blue lock

my hero academia

genshin impact

resident evil

persona

honkai star rail

spider-man: into the spider-verse.

Etc

𝟑𝟏 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐲 —

knife / gun play - Sanzu

choking - Miguel O ‘ Hara

spanking / impact play - Kage

degradation / dumbification - Blade

pet play - Upper Moons

psychological manipulation - Gojo

tears / overstimulation - Notes

consensual non consent

bondage - Gaara

temperature play

Breeding

phone sex

dirty talk - Bakugou Squad

mirror sex - Leon

cam girl - Link

hate sex -Ristto

cucking

exhibitionism - Itto

voyuerism

sex toys

marijuana + sex

forbidden love

orgasm denial - Connie

electrostimulation - Ryuji

oral (giving + receiving) - Sanji

hair pulling + collars kiss

remote control vibrator - Itoshi Rin

spitting - Ghost

Sir - Reo

master

humiliation

💀happy requesting, also make sure to like and reblog for your favorite writers<3 💀

[bedlamsbard]

not sure why my brain has recently decided to fixate on “things people have said to me in comments” but also thinking about the times I’ve been accused of being too self-indulgent -- the two past scenes that come to mind are the Obi-Wan v. Obi-Wan duel in Gambit and the introduction of the Lake House in Backbone.  I almost cut the blade dance in Yonder 7 because I’m pretty sure it’s in the same category and...getting ”this is too self-indulgent,” as a comment, weighs on me, especially as a writer who primarily writes plot.  in some ways it weighs on me worse than the batshit stuff, because I guess it’s...I don’t know, “you’ve betrayed your craft,” I guess, in a way that “threesomes are immoral” isn’t.  maybe on about the same level for me as “you don’t actually know canon,” since I do also see that as a “you’ve betrayed your craft” comment -- one of the things that’s inherent to fanfic as a genre.

(You’ll note that I’ll sometimes put caveats in my author’s notes about why I’m making one decision or another, or choosing to follow one movie over another when the canon presents contradictory information, and I always kind of wince when someone tries to argue it with me in the comments because hello, I just laid out my logic for my choice, it’s not an invitation for a debate; it is in fact designed to head off someone trying to argue it with me.  Especially because I don’t answer comments 99% of the time.)

okay that’s enough maundering tonight about Things People Have Said To Me That Have Given Me A Complex! gonna reblog some pretty things now.

[hawopro]

Thoughts of a rare soul who enjoyed DMBJ’s Time Raiders 2016 adaptation (1/2)

[SPOILERS]

So I got into DMBJ bc of Reboot Zhu Yilong’s Wu Xie, I’ve been comparing all the Wu Xie, and came to check out Luhan’s. I just didn’t expect to fall in love with Jing Boran’s ZQL/MYP and catch feels for Pingxie?? Once again falling into niche fandom life??

Apparently within the niche DMBJ fandom, there’s a tinier, almost nonexistent niche for Time Raiders, so I have to rant about it.

Incredibly long post, so here’s a summary:

Action, A-Ning’s insole blade

My favorite Wu Xie adaptation

MYP whump and his damned smiles

A-Ning & PangZi + Badass tomb-raiding crews

Questionables things, prop & plot

Pingxie + 2/2

Foremost, this is an action movie. The action sequences are very nice, even with the occasional flying/floating people/objects in cdrama. As an action movie nerd, I approved and gave it 6.5/10 (and my standard is The Old Guard okay.) There’s everything--swords, guns, grenades, A-Ning’s insole blade. I particularly enjoyed ZQL vs Da Kui & Pan Zi, and ZQL vs A-Ning cut.

Characters are pretty fleshed out for a movie, motives and development are clearly established. 

I really like this Wu Xie, personally I think he came closest to what I imagined to be novel’s WX. He is inexperienced, incredibly curious, and daring, but knowledgeable, he thinks outside the box and pulls his own weight, even aiding the crew. He’s BABY, naive, kind, and cheeky af. Refer to How to make friends--a guide by Wu Xie.

But by the end, you know that he matured, he’d seen deaths, hell, he broke his promise to take care of MYP, he grew up. STILL, he made me so protective over him, I finally understand how the entire Reboot casts feel about ZYL’s WX now.

Zhang Qiling/Men You Ping is still mysterious, indifferent; he’s very lost in life, has a goal but almost no will to live. Still OP af, but the WHUMP--so much ZQL whumps with bloody mouth, self-sacrificing tendency and everything. But he appreciates his experience more after knowing WX, like even without shipper eyes, you can tell he cares for WX--the first person who insisted to be his friend, who told him ‘I’d take care of you.’

I like drama MYP but, I completely fell in love with this angsty boy who needs some good sleep. Also probably bc of HIS DAMNED SMILES!! I’m a sucker for poker-face characters who can smile/laugh naturally. Bonus that he only did so with WX! Refer to ZQL smiling at Wu Xie.

I also dedicated an entire gifset on him because uhh I accidentally got attached?? LOOK AT HIM HE’S BEAUTIFUL

ANYWAY 

Here is our favorite forced-to-cooperate gang again. Sadly, the Iron Triangle dynamic isn’t developed in here at all. 

A-Ning has a bigger role than Pangzi, she’s still freaking competent, badass af, almost equal to ZQL. She is not so heartless at the end, obviously cares for her men, somewhat for WX. Seems to have a mild connection with ZQL over their fighting prowess LOL, and somehow bonds with PZ. 

Pangzi is still comedic relief, unfortunately, has little motives and developments. His interactions with WX are hilarious though. They’re dorks together. Although, I found an easter egg: PZ wearing pot on his head again.

I appreciate the side characters in this movie a lot (especially Pan Zi with his kickass martial art). I think they made very badass tomb-raiding crews, both San Shu’s and A-Ning’s; it's clear that (some of) these men know what they were doing, and they aren’t afraid to die. 

Also the props in here, holy cow, elaborated af. CGI is better than drama, but can always be improved... 

BUT the time period is confusing as hell? This looks like old-school vibes, but they had incredibly high tech, drones and holograms? Uhh okay. Xie Yu Hua’s people used drones in The Lost Tomb 2, but this is a whole new level of sci-fi blue-screen computer stuff. And it’s probably very historically inaccurate, bc what queen back in the day had steampunk technology installed in her tomb?? The coiled machinery-ness bothers me. Ignore it if you can. 

English is only better than The Lost Tomb 2’s English hahaha, but not so unbearable that I had to give up the movie. What hit me out of the left field is WX’s flute ability?? LMAO he pulled a Wei Wuxian bc what the heck? How does that even work? But I let it slide.

The plot is very basic: heroes go on quest, heroes face typical mastermind villain and powerful endgame monster. Featuring not-immoral-enough-to-destroy-humanity Hendrix, also known as, can’t-say-no-to-WX-baby-face Hendrix. And final boss: worms-queen with armors and tentacles and everything.

There are plot holes, but it’s an action movie, come on, nobody watches action movies for the plot.

But if you're a shipper, you should watch this movie for the SOFT AND WHOLESOME Pingxie content! 

I didn’t expect it. I honestly didn’t watch the movie for Pingxie because I didn’t even ship Pingxie prior to this. I knew it existed, I liked the idea of it and I would read fic of it, but I didn’t feel a lot for it until now. 

And then BAM, pokerface MYP with a very visible soft spot for WX? Hell yes. Worried and protective MYP who will catch WX when he falls? Also there.

MYP telling WX about his existential crisis of forgetting who he is? “If I totally lost myself one day, there’s still someone who would remember me.” WX insisting on being MYP's friends, and walking around recording memories for him with his little camera?“You won’t be lost.” YEP.

MYP and WX saving each other? “I said I’d take care of you.” Oh, for sure. Not to forget my standard for (b)romance: prolonged eye contact, smiles, so much smiles, and HANDS! They're all there!

Now, there are even more subtle things that told Pingxie’s story on a deeper level, which I talked about in continuation post 2/2 here.

Anyway, I know Time Raiders isn’t related to the main story aside from the characters and certain tropes. BUT as someone who just dipped their toes in DMBJ, out of everything I’ve seen--Lost Tomb 1, 2, Reboot, I’m in the middle of reading Book 3-- this installment is my favorite, barely beat out Lost Tomb 2 and only below the novel. 

[zwiezraczek]

6 + 1 Underground [Four x OC/reader] Chapter 1

SUMMARY: Sasha is a Polish girl, with a strange past. She has various skills, driving amongst others. So she becomes Eight. And you know that Four plus Four is Eight...

CHAPTER 1: Eight is Born - CHAPTER 2

WORDS: 2.3k

Sasha instantly opened her eyes, taking the gun from under her pillow and pointing it at the black figure that stood in front of the window of her apartment. Her blond messy hair was all over her face as she tried to focus on the intruder, waiting for them to move, to put their arms up, to surrender. But they didn't. They stood immobile, there, in between the airy curtains moved by the breeze.

“Got me,” the man said with a warm tone, just as if he was smiling, “you're quick as hell.”

“Shut the fuck up and turn on the lights motherfucker,” she barked still pointing at him. Her eyes were focused on the man moving slowly towards the little lamp in the right corner, as she moved herself on her bed. But he took his time, and she didn't like it. “Don't you fucking play with me or I'll fucking kill you.”

“So many swear words coming from the mouth of a young and delicate lady,” the stranger teased just before switching on the light.

The scene could have been embarrassing if Sasha was the shy type of girl, but she wasn't. Her large white t-shirt barely covered her panties as she was on her knees over her sheets, eyes focused on her target. Her blue pearly eyes looked at him, she had the face of an angel. This was why they chose her.

When her mother died, she lost everything, even her father, who spiraled down into immorality more than he did before. So she decided to go all illegal, no strings attached in this Polish city, Sasha and her pretty face coming right into the Polish mafia. They told her that the best she could be was a whore for them, maybe even the boss if she was lucky enough, but Sasha was so much more than she looked. She was Kubica. That was how her mother used to call her when she was behind the steering wheel. She was reckless, she was bold, she could be a danger for the people driving around her and to tone this down, her mother made her take some ballet classes. Discipline and recklessness, everything Sasha was made of. From pseudo whore to mafia's chef, Piotr's, driver.

“Fuck you, don't you dare telling me what I should be or not, you fucker,” she dangerously whispered as the man casually stood next to the lamp, arms crossed. “What do you want from me?”

“Why don't you run from me?” the stranger continued still looking at her. She felt disoriented, making a small head tilt as he said these words. “Fucking millennials, when you try to be like them they go “No, I don't get you old man, tbh sorry”,” he continued, a little bit deceived by what he just witnessed. “Billie Eilish, or whatever? Doesn't ring a bell?”

“I won't repeat myself,” she warned, her index ready to pull the trigger. “You don't talk, you won't live.”

“Okay, okay, let's chill a bit. I'm not here to kill you or whatever, but more to... Allow you to be free?” She rose an eyebrow, not putting down her gun. This man was stranger than she had expected, it would have been easier if he just wanted to kill her. She would have pulled the trigger. Boom, no problem. “Well, you know, I know you very well Sasha.”

“Ho the fuck do you know my name?” her words were sharper than a blade. Nobody in the mafia world knew her by her real name, she was Kubica. No Sasha, just Kubica, the driver.

“I know many things about you Sasha... Damn, that's so uncomfortable to stand, I'll sit if you don't mind,” he concluded before sitting on a small stool near the lamp. “So, I was saying. I know many things about you, that you're a ballerina...”

“Was,” she corrected angrily.

“Yeah, dancing stays dancing,” he brushed the subject off as soon as he spoke about it, “you work for that mafia for a long time because your father is an asshole that let you down when your mother died...”

“Don't you dare talking about my mother, understood?”

“Wow, relax. Promise. Wow, taboo. Okay, I'll remember that. So,” he pursued after a small pause, “your dad does some bad shit, you didn't like that shit so you started to do your own shit and your ways are parted now, Kubica.”

“My mom used to call me like that,” she whispered, body slowly becoming less and less tense. “Who are you?”

“Guardian angel, wanker, asshole billionaire... Names are countless, depends of the people you're asking. But mostly, I'm a ghost.”

“You fucking kidding me,” she erected while looking at him from head to toe.

“Well, technically, in the records, I'm dead. But, really, I'm not. Can you believe how simple it is to fake your own death?”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Exactly,” he said as if she cared. “And then comes the fun part of being dead: you can do whatever you want. Heard about the big Coup, Murat Alimov, Rovach Alimov?” She only nodded. “Our job. We did it.”

“We? I thought you were alone.”

“We'll make the introductions later if you don't mind Sasha. But, well, we have another touchy touchy mission and we'd need a good driver so...”

“I'm working for Piotr,” she interrupted him harshly. “I'm loyal.”

“I know, discipline and shit but like... We really need you? Pretty please?”

“You have plenty of drivers in the sea, go and fish for them.”

“No many drivers are Kubica and look like an angel.”

“I said I'm loyal. Now leave or I'll blow your head.”

“Wouldn't you like to piss your father off even a tiny bit little more? Imagine him learning that you're dead, and you know, he's a motherfucker basically, he fucks around now... You'll be able to do some nasty things to that immoral motherfucker without being punished for it. Total freedom. Piotr can't guarantee that, but I can.”

He got her.

“I'll listen to you.”

She became Eight. She died in a car accident, suicide as the media said. She drove directly into the Odra, from the golden bridge right into it. Big scandal for the media, as they found the big Polish billionaire's daughter dead – in fact they never found her body, only the car – after years of searching for her. Daddy was very concerned, he cried his eyes out during the funeral. From afar, she saw Piotr attending the funeral, along with some of her mafia's friends. Magda stood next to Piotr, holding his hand, while she sobbed with puffy eyes. Sasha's heart was ready to stop as she saw this girl crying for her, she would cry for her too if it was her funeral. But now, Sasha was dead. Eight was born.

“No shit, your dad's a fucking actor,” One commented, standing next to her in the snow.

Already January. Snow fell during Christmas Eve, the day she spent with Maga watching stupid Polish movies and drinking cheap wine from the shop around the corner. Her last Christmas. The bare trees carried now a large amount of snow on their branches, sometimes falling off. Anna liked snow, she would miss it in California. She would miss her country, she would miss the food, she would miss everything. She would miss her language. But she should be able to make it, for her mom right?

“My father's a fucking asshole who knows how to cover up his fucking deeds,” she replied. “I don't wanna see this masquerade or whatever, we should go.”

“Wow, the last time somebody told me that they wanted to go and not watch their own funeral was... Right now,” he admitted. “Even Two wanted to watch it until the end. But fine, we'll have plenty of time to discuss our next move with the Ghosts.”

“Let's go then. I hope you have nice cars in the US.”

He smiled, not answering. That was a yes.

She slept during half of the flight, they arrived around noon, time to sleep in Poland, still early in the morning. She rubbed her eyes, siting next to One in the pilot's cabin. The engine was still roaring as they landed safely on the yellowish sand. This was too early for any shit like this, she thought as she grabbed her sport bag in which all her belongings were stuffed. Some comfy clothes, the keys of the cars that died with her and a picture of her mom and her, hidden between all these matters. One forbid taking too personal stuff, he agreed for the keys though, but she needed her mother with her. Just to feel like home.

She instantly regretted putting on a sweater when she stepped outside the engine. She felt drops of sweat run on her back, she knew she was absolutely sweaty right now; the only thing that reassured her was that she put a tank top under all of this. Life saver. She followed One's steps in the sand, sleepy as hell, wishing for a bed and a shower just to function properly. They landed in the middle of abandoned planes, in the middle of nowhere, in a Californian desert. Great, she was dead and lost. Was it all worth it, she asked herself as she followed one into one of the planes with a large ghost imprinted on it.

There were the others, the five others. They didn't even flinch when she entered the room with One, doing what they had to do. She looked all around her, the atmosphere was oppressive because of the lack of lighting, some neon green lights escaped from the monitors some of them worked on, stale smell spread all around the “room”. One clapped and all their heads rose, all eyes on Sasha, Eight, now. They scrutinized her, and she scrutinized them as they all gathered around them. It was like a cult welcoming a new member. She got shivers down her spine, tightening her grip around her bag. A short brunette holding folders against her chest was now standing in front of them, next to her a black man with a gun in his hand; a cold blonde looked at them and slowly made her way up to them, next to a man sitting on a chair in front of a computer. And the last one,a  blond man with a hoodie jumped over the table to find himself near, standing now next to the brunette. Great picture, the Power Rangers, she thought.

“Please welcome Eight, our new driver,” One said the group as they all looked at her. “No hugs, no kisses, she's a Kubica, no paparazzi or whatever.”

“Kubica,” the blond man whispered, catching Sasha's attention before the man sitting stood up and interrupted him.

“Welcome Eight, I'm Three. Was a hitman, now I'm a good hitman,” he precised with a finger up as the blonde who was standing next to him rolled her eyes.

“Shut up”, she cut him off as he looked offended.

“Ay, mami why are you so nasty with me?”

“I'm Two, former French FBI agent,” she pursued ignoring the man's whining.

“Clear and precise,” Sasha commented under her breath, already amazed by the woman. “Nice to meet you.”

“Five, former doctor in a Mexican hospital,” the brunette said with a welcoming smile. “It will always be a pleasure to heal your wound. Hope you won't move as much as Two when I try to do my magic.”

“Shut up,” Two groaned.

“Seven, sniper,” the black man introduced himself after putting the gun on the table and coming to shake her hand. “Hope you drive smoothly so I can give head shots from the car window.”

“I'll try my best,” she shyly answered while knowing she could do it. She actually did it sometimes as Piotr's men were having a hard time.

“Four, skywalker,” the hooded man said looking at her with his green eyes. “If you wanna watch a movie or something like that, just hit me up,” he continued as he ran his hand through his hair after putting down his hoodie. His curly blond hair was all messy, was he trying to comb it with his fingers?

“Thanks,” Sasha replied with a little smile. “So, I'm Eight, mafia's driver.”

“Liar,” Three commented, “not with this pretty face of yours.”

“You'd be surprised,” One interrupted as he patted Three's shoulder. “That girl has exceptional skills.”

“Six had exceptional skills too,” Two remarked, arms crossed now. “Didn't prevent his death.”

“Will we wallow for a long time, mourn and stuff like this,” One asked while looking at her. “He died a hero, that's it. We all knew what the mission was about and accepted possible death. Period as millennials say.”

“Period,” Two asked. “That's not the women's thing?”

“Dot if you prefer,” Sasha could hear One's sigh as he answered, but Two wasn't convinced. “Whatever, Eight's our new driver and that's it.”

“He promised some nice cars,” Sasha tried to say, but only Five seemed to listen to her.

“He's a liar, we had a horrible car in Hong Kong, not practical at all,” the brunette told her, as she seemed to bite her lip.

“Not practical,” Three added almost yelling.

“Whose fault? Whose,” One reproached him. “Okay, now we're finished with our complaints, Five, take Eight to her trailer please, it's the one next to yours. And Eight, make yourself at home.”

[kinnaman-smorgasbord]

Esquire Singapore Dec 2019 - Joel Kinnaman Interview

OBSERVERVABLE ACTS

Editor-in-Chief: Norman Tan Photography: Michael Schwartz Stylist: Chloe Hartstein Groomer: Kristan Serafino Story: Wayne Cheong

Instead of a rooftop shoot that we had planned, we’re indoors at Dune Studios on Water Street. Outside, the weather is every writer’s dream: “It is an ash-streaked sky that portents a downpour.” “Like a warning, steel wool hangs overhead.” “A dishevelled blanket of grey that drifts languidly like detritus in a muddied pond.” A wet weather doth not a good shoot make.

When Joel Kinnaman arrives, the first thing you notice is how large he is. Bigger than life, broad-chested, he sometimes stands astride, like he’s about to break the spirit of a wild stallion. Then, there’s that presence; a sort of aura that’s quiet but still strong-arms you for your attention.

Just as the fashion shoot is about to start, Kinnaman asks if he could put on his own playlist for the shoot. He brings up his Spotify playlist, titled ‘For some of mankind’. ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’ by Jimmy Ruffin plays.

“The playlists are just for fun,” Kinnaman tells me. “I’ve made a playlist for every project that I’ve been in.”

The project that this particular playlist was made for is For All Mankind, now playing on Apple TV+. It’s a show that puts forth the idea: what if America lost the space race to Russia?

Created and written by Ronald D Moore, the visionary behind the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and Outlander, For All Mankind stars Kinnaman as Edward Baldwin, a NASA astronaut who works alongside Buzz Aldrin (Chris Agos) and Neil Armstrong (Jeff Branson). Kinnaman’s character isn’t based on a particular historical figure, instead he is a composite or a representative of the ‘all-American’ astronauts of that era.

“I’m half-American and half-Swedish,” Kinnaman says. “I’ve lived in Sweden and America so, in a way, I’ve a split identity. My favourite part of the American spirit is not giving up. If they get knocked down, it is a national honour in getting back up and continuing the fight. In reality, when the US got to the moon, it concluded the space race. We didn’t get the continuation in space exploration that everyone was promised.”

Kinnaman is drawn to the science-fiction genre, fantasising of what could have been (though it can be said that the broad field of fiction can also put forward, ‘ what if’). Growing up, he watched the Star Wars movies, he loved the cyberpunk feel when he shot Altered Carbon. He is a fan of Blade Runner due to its dystopian future.

Do you think that sci-fi’s dystopian trope is becoming a reality? Kinnaman muses on that. “We’ve a president who is a national and international embarrassment. He’s immoral, a compulsive liar, a narcissist who doesn’t respect or appreciate democracy. I pray and hope that this nightmare would soon come to an end.

“But I believe we have the potential to overcome this. If we change paths and realign our focus in coming together as a human family, we can solve whatever problems that come our way together.”

This sentiment is echoed in For All Mankind, although the loss wasn’t the be-all and end-all for America. According to Moore, in losing the space race, America ends up the winner in the long run because of the continual effort into space exploration.

“Art can be a little lazy in pointing out the negatives. In many instances, the role that art and the artist play is showing us what’s wrong: that’s important but showcasing the positives is equally important. For All Mankind shows us how we should be operating if we are guided by our better angels.”

Physicist and theoretical biologist, Erwin Schrödinger, came up with a thought experiment. Imagine, if you will, a cat that’s sealed in a box. And inside that box is a device that might or might not kill the cat. Quantum theory states that quantum particles can exist in a superposition of states at the same time. Some even theorise that the quantum particles will collapse to a single state when it’s observed. When applied to Schrödinger’s cat, the feline is both dead and alive until you open the box.

Schrödinger came up with this thought experiment to explain that “misinterpreted simplification of quantum theory can lead to absurd results which don’t match real world quantum physics”. In the real world, it’s absurd that the cat is both dead and alive at the same time.

But one can also see this as an example of how the scientific theory works. Nobody really knows if a theory is right or wrong until it can be tested and proved. It’s like asking someone out on a date, you don’t know if that cute girl or guy will go out with you until you ask; the possibilities of rejection and acceptance remain in co-existence.

That is before you open the box.

Observe: Joel Kinnaman wouldn’t have existed if his father, Steve, had not defected from the US Army. An Indianapolis native, the elder Kinnaman was drafted and stationed in Bangkok, Thailand during the Vietnam War. While he was there, he started spending time with European backpackers, who have a different perspective of the war. A seed was planted. It finally blossomed when he attended a friend’s wedding in Laos. “It turned out that the woman’s family was half Laotian and half Vietnamese,” Kinnaman says. “It was an emotional moment for my dad. He asked himself if these were the people that he was going to kill.”

Still reeling from the love he had witnessed, the elder Kinnaman returned to his base. It was then that he was given the news that he was being reassigned to the battlefront in Vietnam.

In the history of war, the common punishment for desertion is death. According to the US Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 85, it is meted out “by death of other such punishment as a court-martial may direct”. (Since the Civil War, only one American serviceman was executed for desertion: Private Eddie Slovik in 1945.)

Knowing the penalties for desertion, the elder Kinnaman made the decision that night to leave camp. He hitchhiked his way up into northern Thailand and into Laos. He burned his passport, changed his name and passed off as Canadian. For the next four years, he lived life among the Laotians doing odd jobs. Then, he found out that Sweden grants asylum to Vietnam deserters. Since moving to Sweden, President Jimmy Carter eventually issued an amnesty in 1977. The elder Kinnaman continues to reside in Sweden. After his first marriage ended, he was involved with Bitte, a therapist. This relationship yielded Joel.

“I’ve been working on the script about his life,” Kinnaman says. “The idea would be that I’d play my dad but I’m getting a little old.” It’s a story to be told, one about the dangers of blind patriotism; a tool that’s often exploited by governments. “We need to be critical individuals who should make up our own minds.”

Observe: Kinnaman had his first taste of acting when he was 10. He played Felix Lundström on Storstad, a soap opera that looks at the lives of the residents living in the fictional town of Malmtorget. Back then, Sweden had only two TV channels so even if it’s a secondary or even tertiary role on an ensemble piece, people will recognise you. “I didn’t understand it,” Kinnaman says. “There was something thrilling about being famous but there was something I didn’t like about it either.” His whole experience as a child actor was underwhelming.

In fact, taking a page from ‘history repeating itself ’, observe as Kinnaman could have been a soldier in the Swedish army.

“It was mandatory for the men to be conscripted for a year in the army and it was during my time when the rules for enlistment started to relax,” Kinnaman says. “If you didn’t want to enlist, all you have to do is purposely fail the proficiency tests.”

Alas, Kinnaman was so caught up in the competition that he aced it. His results showed potential to be a company leader. He was enlisted and assigned to an 18-month tour in the Arctic Circle but Kinnaman plum forgot about it. When he moved to Oslo, Norway, to be a bartender, he received a call from his mother, informing him that there was a government notice stating that he was supposed to enlist in three days.

He called the army to tell them that he was no longer in the country. “They said, this is a serious offence and I could get prison time for this. But if I were to write a letter to explain the situation, I could get out of this.” And then he forgot to write the letter. Kinnaman continued working odd jobs but he was always haunted by the thought that if he were ever to be arrested by the police for anything, they might discover his draft dodge from his records and he would be sent to prison.

“I ended up at this fight outside a night club and got taken in by the police.” Kinnaman says. Observe: Kinnaman could have ended up serving his sentence for draft dodging but nothing came of it.

Acting was calling out to him once more. His friend, Gustaf Skarsgård (famously known for his role as Floki in History Channel’s Vikings), was on track to becoming an actor and advised Kinnaman to apply for theatre school. After several applications, Kinnaman finally got into what he describes as “Sweden’s second-best acting school” and would go on to film two movies during his enrolment.

After graduation, he continued acting in Sweden before moving to America. He kept himself busy. He made an appearance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; starred as Governor Will Conway in House of Cards; made people notice with his portrayal as the homicide detective, Stephen Holder; scored the lead role in the Robocop remake; was cast as Rick Flag in Suicide Squad.

The one genre that Kinnaman can’t seem to appear in is comedy. Yes, he has a stern demeanour but the man is also funny. “Sometimes, Hollywood sees you in a certain way and it’s much easier to get cast for it. And the next is similar to that and so on. I haven’t made an effort to dissuade people’s opinion. The lighter side is probably more me.”

The closest he has gotten to doing comedy is the shooting of the Suicide Squad sequel. Helmed by James Gunn, Kinnaman said in another interview that it feels like he’s “shooting his first comedy”.

“I’ve been around tough people with issues before,” Kinnaman continues. “I’ve had some bad times so those kind of environments were natural to be in. It’s a survival mechanism too. A way for me to cope as I grew up. At the time, you’re figuring out about your identity. I felt insecure, powerless and didn’t know what to do in life.

“It was a period of my life that was pretty negative. But one of the beauties of acting is that those dark periods become a mother lode that you can mine from. Maybe I’ve drawn a little bit too much from it by playing too many tough guys.”

In May 2016, Kinnaman was one of the delegates and personalities from Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Sweden who was invited to one of President Obama’s final state dinners. Kinnaman, dressed in a sharp tuxedo, attended the dinner with his then-wife, Cleo Wattenström.

He overheard that the Obamas were fans of House of Cards and was looking forward to being introduced to them. At the reception, he and the other representatives stood in a row as President Obama made his way down the line, shaking hands and posing for a photo op. By Kinnaman’s admission, his mind wandered as he imagined what he’d say when President Obama came up to him. “Maybe I’d say, ‘Mr President’, and then he’ll say ‘Governor Conway’, and then we’ll laugh. And we’ll end it with a cool handshake.”

And all of a sudden, the president stood before him and Kinnaman muttered, “Mr President…” There was an awkward pause. Kinnaman would recount that it’s very possible that either the Obamas hadn’t watched the episode that he was in or if they did, his presence made zero impact. Before the silence could prolong, Kinnaman ended with, “thanks… for everything”. President Obama said something along the lines of, “Surely but surely, we cannot lose hope” and Kinnaman was ushered off.

He would retell this story when he introduced President Obama at Brilliant Minds, a conference of creative individuals who embody the forward-thinking spirit of Sweden, in June 2019. After the introduction, he returned backstage, where President Obama was waiting for his cue to go up. “He had this huge smile on his face and he said to me, ‘bring it in for a cool handshake.’ We hugged, we talked for about five minutes. He was super friendly. I’ll always remember that moment.”

Kinnaman isn’t shy about his politics. He voiced support for the #metoo movement; he had championed the environmental cause by one of his fellow Swedes, Greta Thunberg; he does not hide his disdain for the Trump administration.

“I think the last UN report stated that we have about eight years to turn back our carbon expenditure into the atmosphere,” Kinnaman says about where we’re heading as a species. “You don’t have to be a prophet to see that the world is heading towards the wrong direction. The oceans are heating up, the glaciers are melting. These natural disasters will be more frequent and that’s gonna lead to more tensions among countries.

“Politically, we’re moving towards a more nativist direction; people are pulling away from international cooperation. There’s the rise in disinformation campaigns, which will threaten democracy.”

But Kinnaman, ever the optimist, still believes in the human spirit, that we can innovate our way out of this quagmire.

Observe: Kinnaman, who was born with pectus excavatum, chose to correct the disorder instead of living with it.

Pectus excavatum is a chest-wall deformity that affects roughly one in 400. Instead of the breastbone being flush against the chest, it sinks in. Measured on a scale called the Haller index, anything above an index of 3.2 is considered severe. Kinnaman’s index was a seven or an eight.

“It’s something that’s survivable,” Kinnaman explains. “But it’s a condition that grows worse over time: your posture becomes worse; your stamina worsens as your heart is not given room to pump. By correcting it you can add years to your life.”

For a condition this severe, doctors had to insert two curved metal bars across his chest. Then the bars are turned to force the chest out and then the bars are wired to his ribs. The operation changed his life for the better. He doesn’t feel self-conscious whenever he removes his top. Six weeks after his surgery, he had to do reshoots for Suicide Squad. It was a fight sequence but Kinnaman sucked it up. “Would you like to feel it?” He asked.

He raised his arm like an invitation. I reached out and felt the spot, where the metal bars are, beneath the fabric and skin.

That’s an interesting party trick, I say. Kinnaman could only chuckle in response.

“It’s funny, if you ask me to say a line from a movie that I’ve been in before, I can’t. Not one line from any movie that I’ve done but I once did a monologue that was one hour and 30 minutes and I knew it by heart after 10 days.”

Kinnaman used to opine that as a Swedish American, growing up with dual cultures gives him a better perspective of the world but that also left him feeling like he doesn’t belong. He jumps from place to place, leading a nomadic existence.

“But I think,” he says as though he had stumbled upon some great truth a long time back, “I don’t wanna travel so much any more. Home. That’s where I’d like to be. I have two bases: one in Venice, LA and the other, an hour outside Stockholm.

“Growing up, my family didn’t have any money. We lived in this tiny little cottage that was in the middle of the woods. Now, I have this piece of land, where my family lives. This past midsummer was the first midsummer that we all spent together.

“That’s my new happy place.”

Joel Kinnaman looks like a man who has placed the final piece in that mystery of his life. He has stopped worrying about how he’s perceived by the public. He has exorcised people who have “struggled with jealousy, who don’t have a natural inclination towards generosity”. He has zero tolerance against bullshit. He likes how his career is shaping up—aside from Suicide Squad 2, For All Mankind is now filming a second season, and Kinnaman has three films coming out: The Informer; The Sound of Philadelphia and The Secrets We Keep; the last two, he avers, are his best work. “People who have watched me for a long time, it will remind them of my early career and for people who recently followed me, they will see a new side of me.

“I have goals that I’d like to achieve. Actor awards are such bullshit… until you get one. But yeah, that would be great. In future, I’d definitely want to be in a producing role and at some point, I’d like to also direct.

“I’ve said that I’d direct in five years time for about 10 years now.” That might change. His life is still a long and open road ahead.

Schrodinger’s cat posits two states that the creature can be in—dead or alive. But what if there’s a third option. That within the confines of the box, the cat is not there. It’s escaped. Unburdened from the stipulations of a thought experiment, free to do what it wants.

[captain-courteous]

Afraid, gore, witch and zombie (Halloween asks)

Afraid: What's something you're no longer scared of?

Eventhough I have already answered this question before, I'd be happy to answer it again. When I was younger, I used to have a bit of anxiety over what others thought about me, but as I've gotten older and have been able to voice my opinions on certain things which I'm aware of, I've kinda gotten over that fear.

Gore: Are you squeamish?

🤨 Well I can sit through something like Saw, if you catch my drift. Now wouldn't somebody who has no other choice but to see the sight of blood several times a day be pretty much comfortable with it? But then again, I personally don't value my comfort, I personally don't see it as that important. And when it comes to something like a horror movie, there's a bit of artistry to how they get it looking that good.

Witch: How long is your hair?

It's pretty long, last time I checked it was past my shoulder blades. But I'm pretty sure you know that I kinda like it that way. 😁

Zombie: Do you believe in an afterlife?

Okay, you know what, I'll be honest, this question has really been wracking my mind for the longest time, and I appreciate you asking me for my input on this hun, but please do forgive me for my biased opinion and take it with a grain of salt. From my perspective, the belief in some metaphysical plane of existence that we go to when we die, in my opinion quite frankly, is inconsequential. Personally, I prefer to talk about things that actually do exist, that comes to the perspective of my art as well, it's all essentially based in reality. And I kinda have quite a bit of criticisms against faiths which do utilize that belief for their own gains, and then indoctrinate others into participating in it as well. That's kinda brainwashing and is kinda immoral. And yes, I get that it helps some people to behave ethically, but when people get into wild speculation about this belief or that belief, well look at a place like the Middle East and you'll see the result of that being taken way too far. I really find that pretty bad and very impractical for everyone's benefit. I really don't care what happens when I die, so long as I'm giving those who I do care about a good now, I couldn't really ask for more.

Anyway, thanks for the ask hun, and sorry for the long book, but I really wanted to really express how I feel on things like this. Anyway, have a safe and happy Halloween! 🍁🎃😸

[hoochy-coo]

this might be a random question but what are your favourite speeches from films (monologues, dialogues, anything)? i'm assisting in teaching an english conversation practice class (for adults) and we'll be listening to them/discussing it. doesn't have to be something profound or even Serious Films. i'm asking everyone, and you probably have the best movie knowledge of anyone i ever met haha

Hmm...if you want more serious ones then I feel like you can’t go wrong with the ‘tears in the rain’ speech in 1982 Blade Runner. There’s a lot to dissect there. Another classic that’s popular to analyze is 12 Angry Men - Henry Fonda as Juror 8 gives plenty of amazing speeches about justice and the legal system in that movie. 

If you want to do something more fun that will still encourage conversation then I suggest looking at dialogues from Howard Hawk films? His dialogues are usually very sharp and quick and a lot of it tends to fly over your head when you watch his film for the first time, but there’s actually tons there to discuss. For example, in ‘His Girl Friday’ the character Bruce got very few lines in the film but you can tell with that one conversation he had with Walter that they’re polar opposites because the dialogues frame them to be opposites. A lot of the dialogues also generates debates over the battle of the sexes. 

Film noirs, also, is a good genre to have a look at. The dialogues in these films tell you a lot about the time and how it breeds cynicism in the characters (a lot of film noirs are setting during the great depression and WWII). There’s also a lot of ‘slangs’ there that could be fun to talk about and there’s so much existentialism there that you could probably discuss if all men are immoral at their core and the circumstances just bring it out of them. Some movies that you might be interested in having a look at: Maltese Falcon 1941 (“We didn’t exactly believe your story, Miss O’Shaughnessy. We believed your two hundred dollars. I mean, you paid us more than if you’d been telling us the truth, and enough more to make it all right.”), Laura 1944 ("I can afford a blemish on my character, but not on my clothes."), the Killing 1956 (”You like money. You've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart.”) and Brute Force 1947

Gallagher: "It’ll only make things tougher for everybody else." Collins: "I don’t care about everybody else." Gallagher: "That’s cemetery talk." Collins: "Why not? We’re buried, ain’t we? The only thing is, we ain’t dead."

Also, good luck with the class. I hope that I was some help to you x

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Outside Influences ch.5

Summary: The Fell brothers have a disagreement.

Tags:  Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Off-Screen Sexual Assault, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Aftermath of Violence, Pre-Spicyhoney, Blood and Injury, Injury Recovery, Aftermath of Sexual Assault

Please read the warnings on this one!!

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four 

~~*~~

Read Chapter Five on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

Before they’d come to Snowdin, before their well-protected house with locks on the door and wards layered over every barred window and entrance, Edge spent most of his life sleeping outside. Curled up in the alleyways of New Home behind trash bins, hidden in filthy pockets dug out from trash heaps in the dump.

His first memory of sleeping in a bed was in this house, and he still slept lightly. Wary of any XP seekers creeping up on him, ones too immoral to take heed of a striped shirt despite the punishment of death if they were caught. Depending on LV-maddened Monsters to be rational wouldn’t bring one back from dust; his own first LV came from such an attack, sending a needle-sharp bone into the eye of his would-be murderer and sometimes Edge still remembered the screams.

He summoned such a bone now, small and hidden in his hand before opening his sockets to see where the weight of the stare he could feel was coming from.

By the bedside, Red stood looking down at them, his expression unreadable. It cleared Edge’s mind to see him, instinct allowing rationality and memory to return.

He was in his own bed, that much he remembered. He didn’t remember sinking down from his sitting position at the headboard, nor did he remember allowing Rus to curl up closer to him, all his slim weight pressed against Edge. Currently, Rus was more on top of him than not, his skull snugged into Edge’s shoulder. One long leg was slung over both Edge’s and they each had their arms around the other in a messy tangle of limbs. Edge's free hand had somehow worked itself beneath Rus's shirt, his fingers circling the strong line of his spine almost possessively. Edge let go hastily, but Rus didn’t seem to have Edge’s sense of awareness; he only slept on, his breathing soft and even. One of his hands was curled up loosely on Edge’s chest, his sleeve pushed up and even in the dimness Edge could see the darkened bruise circling his wrist, a stark reminder of why Rus was here.

The harsh gleam of Red’s eye lights was starker, prickling sharp. He jerked his head towards the door, walking off without waiting for Edge.

With a clench of his fist, Edge dismissed the attack and went to work at detangling himself from Rus. It was a more difficult task than he’d expected; Rus clung like one of the parasitic vines that curled up the pine trees in Snowdin forest, making a low, unhappy sound as Edge carefully loosened his grip and slipped free. He still didn’t wake, sighing softly as Edge drew the blankets back over him, tucking in the soft folds. Edge lingered a moment, absently tracing one of his coronal sutures, following the curve of Rus’s skull. Then he turned away.

His bare bone feet were silent on the carpet as he went after his brother, but the moment he closed the door behind him, Edge jerked to feel harsh pressure on his soul, the soft, audible ting as it turned blue.

“What—” the fuck. The words were bitten off, unspoken, as he was yanked forward, dragged forcibly down the stairs to land painfully on his knees at his brother’s feet, hard enough to knock off a couple of HP points.

With some effort, Edge lifted his chin enough to look up at Red, who glared down at him with one darkened socket, the other filled with blazing crimson fury. The fingers of his raised hand curled fractionally and Edge choked, struggling to breathe for one beat, two, and then Red’s grip relaxed enough to let him drag in one harsh inhale.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Red snarled. It should be disturbing to see that raw anger directed at him and what did it say that some part of Edge was ruthlessly pleased to see his brother’s protective instincts so roused for Rus, even if it was against him. He’d watched Red fight other Monsters so many times before, that razor-grin of his recklessly wild as he easily sidestepped their attacks, dragging their HP down to one before leaving them to bleed out, kicking their dust off his shoes without a backwards glance.

Red was pitilessly efficient, his anger only tempered now by who Edge was, protective instincts warring against each other. He knew his brother, knew how deeply buried the fragments of Red’s caring were, and wondered dimly if part of his anger was because they’d been unearthed and brought to light.

Edge only panted, struggling to breathe around the pressure still heavy on his soul, shaking his head, "There was nothing untoward going on."

"oh, no, nothing untoward,” Red said, saccharine sweet, contrasting with the blaze of his fury. That crazed strobe of his eye light increased to a seizure-inducing pulse. “two pals curled up all cozy, was that it?”

"He asked me to stay!"

"oh, he asked for it, did he. think that’s what those other fuckers told themselves?”

Crimson was the shade of magic and anger to Edge, but in that moment, rage flared white-hot, his own magic rousing in sharp warning. It was too close to what Rus accused him of before, the memory of Rus offering sex to him, his desperation and fear. Bad enough from Rus, but at least understandable, twisted in confusion as he was. That his own brother would even consider he would do such a thing…! Edge pushed back against Red’s phantom grip with a pulse of his own, the laws of gravity slippery between them as he snarled out, "Don't you even insinuate that I would take advantage of him! Don’t you dare!"

For one brief, eternal moment, they glared at each other with their magic straining against control, violence trembling on the brittle edge of tipping over. Then Red dropped his hand and stepped back, allowing Edge to struggle to his feet.

He fell back to lean against the banister, still panting. Shook himself like a wet dog, sloughing off the dregs of his brother’s intent. It was more difficult to wrench in his own magic, dragging it sullenly inward when it was eager to be used, sitting pulsing and ready since the moment he’d found Rus.

Red only stepped back, putting necessary space between them as he stripped off his jacket. He tossed it carelessly on the coffee table, one sleeve trailing along the floor. His shoes followed, this time placed properly on the mat even though a trail of wet footprints were visible on the carpet, leading up the stairs, but not down. By the time he turned back to Edge, his eye lights were their normal crimson.

"sorry ‘bout that,” Red said, finally, with rare sincerity, “i don’t think you would, bro. not on purpose. but he's confused as all fuck right now and i know how you feel about the honey bun."

"What?" Edge pushed himself upright to look at his brother blankly, the remains of his anger draining into confusion. "How I feel?”

That confusion only worsened at his brother’s skeptical look. It morphed slowly into dark, sardonic amusement, his permanent grin widening with a flash of sharp teeth. "really, bro?” Red shook his head. “we’re really gonna go here. okay, what’s his favorite movie?”

“What?” The non-sequitur only threw Edge off even more.

“movie,” Red repeated impatiently, sharp fingertips tapping.

“I suppose it’s that wretched one with those ghost hunters.”

“uh huh. how does he take his coffee?”

“With enough sugar and milk to turn it to mud, what are you—"

“favorite brekkie?”

“Pancakes drowning in honey,” Edge snapped irritably, “Enough! What are you getting at?”

Red only looked at him with blatant disappointment, as he might if Edge stupidly allowed mercy only to be attacked the moment his back was turned. “bro,” Red said, deliberately, “you know an awful lot about a guy you don’t like. c’mon, you two argue like advanced foreplay. me and sans have been making bets on how long it takes for you two to sack up for weeks. personally, i figured you’d give in by now, but you always were a stubborn shit.”

It was one of the more ridiculous assumptions he’d ever heard. Edge stalked over to sit down on the sofa that Rus kept avoiding, kicking Red’s jacket aside to brace a bare foot against the coffee table. He propped his chin on one hand and asked with mocking politeness, “And when were you go to mention this absurd theory of yours?”

“what, and ruin this prime entertainment?" Red grinned wolfishly. But it faded quickly into uncommon seriousness, "but the game is postponed for rain, kiddo. he’s not in a good place. you don’t watch yourself, you’re gonna fuck this up.” He stalked over and poked a sharp fingertip painfully into Edge’s sternum hard enough to scrape a bead of marrow. “better think long and hard about what you're doing." Red grimaced. “okay, that's a pun even i don't like, scratch it."

“There’s nothing to think about,” Edge said, coldly. He pushed back to his feet, “from now on, keep your idiocy between you and Sans.” He started back up the stairs, wary of letting Rus wake on his own after what happened the last time.

“do you even get how deep you’re digging yourself?” Red called out, each word tipped with razor intent. “you don’t have your head on any kind of straight over this! wanna know why i was even in your room, little brother? you didn’t lock the front door. storm's over, the buns are out clearing the roads and you were sound asleep, all ready for a knife in the back!”

The words drove in between his shoulder blades and Edge hunched as if they were a knife, stabbing deep. The locks were saturated with magic as was the door and while they couldn’t keep out a determined opponent, they would at least provide enough warning for them to wake and defend themselves.

Unless the door wasn’t locked.

They were useless bits of metal if the bolts weren’t thrown, leaving the house and its occupants unshielded and vulnerable to anyone bold enough to simply turn the doorknob.

Blue had slammed the door closed when he left, Red had shortcutted after him and Edge hadn’t locked the door because he’d been worried about Rus, worried about his reaction to his brother’s unexpected denials. Too worried, enough to cloud his judgement. Red was right, always fucking right, and what else was he right about?

He liked to think he was self-aware and his sudden clarity was unpleasant. Edge didn't hide from anything, not even unwelcome realizations. If he looked inward, he could see that perhaps there were moments of absurd fondness for Rus even in the midst of their past arguments, his exasperation tempered with something else entirely. Rus had been abrasive and rude from the start and Edge gave it back in spades, but didn’t he always return for more, wasn’t there a certain thrill to a perfect insult given or received?

Unwillingly, Edge thought of the kiss that Rus had forced on him. How would it have been if they'd both actually wanted it, that remembered sweetness eager instead of angry. Only Rus was so hurt right now, lost, and—

Red sighed, breaking through his circling thoughts, “he could be good for you, bro. maybe you’d be good for each other. work on getting a collar on him and you can find out. but not now. let’s work on getting this problem taken care of and then maybe.”

There was a sound of movement and they both looked up to see the light showing from beneath Edge’s door. But the door remained closed and Edge exhaled slowly, asking with deliberate softness, “What happened with Blue?”

From the scoffing sound Red made, he wasn’t fooled by the subject change, but he let it drop, “eh, the blueberry skulked around town for a while then went home. He was in the kitchen when i left, taking his bad mood out on some veggies. least the kid can handle a knife. when our sugar skull is feeling well enough to head for home, he’ll have something to snack on.”

The thought of Rus going back to Underswap to face his brother alone made sourness rise in the back of Edge’s throat. He managed to swallow it down and nodded curtly, starting back up the stairs. Through the creak of wood, he heard his brother say under his breath, “keep it in your pants, boss.”

Edge ignored him. His pants weren’t the problem when it came to Rus.

~~*~~

Read Chapter 6

[simply-ellas-stuff]

For someone who loves Vampire movies/Tv Shows

[Underworld(2003-2016, Van Helsing(2004), The Gates(2010), Interview With The Vampire(1994), Bram Stoker's Dracula(1992), Angel(1999-2004), Buffy The Vampire Slayer(1997-2003), Blade(1998), Twilight(2008-2012), The Vampire Diaries(2009-2017), The Originals(2013-2018), Legacies(2018-?), & Others I can't think of right now]

I fucking HATE the idea of immorality.

Living forever and losing everyone you love over time? Nah bitch.

[apotelesmaa]

Is there an official source about the black mask thing because last I saw it was just some gossip source and no official news site

We Got This Covered is the only one who originally claimed this - due to it not having explicit sources, I was willing to give DC the benefit of the doubt. (WGTC is rotten tomatoes accredited, but still. Hard sources would be nice.)

However, several other news sites (Pink News, Towelroad, Washington Blade, Bounding Into Comics) have also picked this up. I’m more inclined to believe it now because lbr i don’t think that many sites would pick it up if there wasn’t *some* truth to it.

I’ll take the L and say that if Birds of Prey is released and this just turned out to be WGTC being a bitch and releasing untrue information, and Black Mask is actually super straight in the movie then my anger was undue. But if he IS confirmed to be gay in the movie, or at least stereotypically gay, then yeah I’m gonna be pretty pissed off because I’m extremely tired of the “horrible super villain is gay coded because we can portray being gay as something tied to being evil and immoral” (@ the power puff girls (also transphobia. HIM is just a fuckin mess), LITERALLY EVERY DISNEY MOVIE VILLAIN but esp Ursula and Hades).