#dictator-class-captain

[nytb]

Hero At A Price

Click Here first <3

Alexia's injury hit Fc Barcelona at the worst possible time, heck it was the only player that they couldn't afford to lose. The team took a hit, a position was left to fill and the objective for the season remained the same - win everything.

Luckily, the team had a gem producing academy. Y/N Y/L/Y was one of the youngsters that had come through la Masia, but a stacked first team gave the future star no other choice, she had to leave.

After leaving Barcelona, Y/N established herself in the German league. The first season was rough, Eintracht Frankfurt fought to be one of the top sides, but as previous seasons dictated, they remained a stuck in mid table. That season was all it took to get Y/N familiarised with the style, the cold, the people. Now - Frankfurt had been fighting the top dogs two seasons in a row. They comfortably occupied the third position. Her connection with Laura Freigang and Géraldine Reuteler made them rise to the top of the goal and assist leaderboards.

Her unending run of form prompted Frankfurt to offer their star a new contract. Everything Y/N wanted, she got. The club was at her heels, they couldn't let their star go.

Her Barcelona past was known, Y/N was a la Masia graduate, she bled blaugrana. Throughout the years, Frankfurt carved their own little spot in the midfielders heart. She was now one of their own.

Before season-end, the Euros took place. The stacked up National team didn't let the Frankfurt star shine as she should - she wasn't even called up. To Spain's dismay, Alexia's injury hit them hard. Their star was out for the foreseeable future. Now Spain and Fc Barcelona were left scrambling, they needed the perfect replacement.

The past Y/N and Xavi Puig - now the sporting director at Fc Barcelona - shared prompted the man to seek out her services.

Xavi was Y/N's loyalest follower. He watched the Catalonian rise through the ranks, and as he didn't occupy a position within the club at the time, he watched how Y/N was forced out - his hands were tied. He kept watching Y/N grow, but this time from a distance.

Despite Frankfurts unwillingness to let their midfielder go, Xavi wasn't going to let his star go - not again. He moved hell on earth and got the German club to sign on the dotted line. A one year loan with an option to buy, a record signing fee attached to Y/N's name.

Now, Xavi only needed to break the news; "I've been trying to get you home" An unexpected call during Y/N's holiday with an unimaginable opportunity. The sporting director explained the ins and outs of the deal to his star.

Frankfurt Eintracht fans hearts were broken that day. The heir to the captain's band had switched sides. For most of them, hope dictated the return of their star; she wouldn't leave them stranded.

Returning to Barcelona, Y/N was hit with a wave of nostalgia. The blue sky, her old teammates, the Johan. Y/N was home.

The now Fc Barcelona midfielder was welcomed with open arms. Every training session had the academy players in the stands, the sporting director and captain joined in. Y/N was the talk of the town. Her precision on the ball, the technique, her utter class - Y/N was born to wear the Fc Barcelona badge on her chest.

Her statistics portrayed just that, leading the assist leaderboard - Y/N was an essential piece in Jonathan's XI. Her name rang everywhere. Frankfurt's local newspapers kept a reserved spot on their weekly issue for their star. She wasn't forgotten by her beloved club - something that Fc Barcelona had done way back when they let her go.

"They are in love with you" Mapi informed the midfielder as they returned to the dressing room post-match "Have you heard their chants?" Patri enquired further before Jana interjected "They're almost as loud as Mapi's" the defender laughed "I'm happy for you Y/N" she took the midfielder under her arm "You deserve this"

Jana and Y/N had risen through the ranks together, this made Jana's words that much meaningful for the Catalonian.

The conversations in the dressing room soon changed, the international break was imminent and everyone knew it. Y/N's name was amongst the possible call ups for Spain.

As per usual, Alexia joined in on the post-match celebrations in the dressing room and as it died down, she made her way to Fc Barcelona's new star - Y/N. "So, you're going" Alexia assumed the worst, the new midfielder would surely take advantage of the hole the 15 had left in the national team. It was the perfect opportunity to make herself an unquestionable starter, even if some of the 15 decided to return further down the line.

The captain's words cut deep. In Y/N's mind, Alexia had become a close friend, a role model. In her defence, Putellas didn't know where Y/N stood in the 15 vs Federation matter. "Well actually, I just asked my representative to put out a statement" the words left Y/N's lips without hesitation. The 24 year old was ready to make her opinion on the matter known.

Alexia's eyes shone brighter than ever. The possible jealousy, the anger, the sadness, the disappointment - it all went away. "They will retaliate" the captain warned Y/N before the midfielder made a further declaration "Let them come, I'm not scared" Y/N expressed nonchalantly as she made her way out of the dressing room, heading home after the match. Mapi, who was now left celebrating Y/N's words, was quick to verbalise how she felt "I told you, she's not here to mess around" the defender was beyond proud of Y/N's words "Y/N will change Spanish football - mark my words"

Y/N's statement hit the internet, followed by words of encouragement from her Barcelona teammates - but this time, the whole world echoed them. Frankfurt Eintracht had put out a statement of their own; they backed their star. Y/N was going up against the Spanish Federation and the whole world was watching.

Giving interviews to international news outlets, her words spread like wildfire. Y/N had the Spanish Federation scrambling. The National team's sponsors applying unimaginable pressure. For a long time, nobody wondered how the 15's fight switched the narrative and ended up on the winning side. They turned the "capricious" narrative upside down.

Vilda's mask fell. The whole world saw what the Spanish players had endured for years. Unprofessional treatment, lack of support from their federation, inadequate preparation.

Meanwhile, Y/N was seen attending Germany's games. Wearing her best friend's jersey - Y/N celebrated Freigang's call up. In the stadium, the Germans love and support for their Frankfurt stars was vocalised. After the game, not only Laura was praised. German fans approached Y/N, asking for pictures, autographs; they applauded Y/N's fight against the Spanish Federation. The midfielders heart was now divided. Not many people knew, but Eintracht Frankfurt's support in the matter came at a price.

The German club had soon realised that Fc Barcelona would gather the money for the transfer. The Catalan team wasn't going to let their star slip from their hands for a second time - so the German team proposed the only thing they could offer. A possibility to switch the narrative; make the Spanish Federations lies known. They fought Vildas statements to the nail. Every move they made, the German's came up with the perfect counter. Using all their contacts and influence, they directed Rubiales to a solution: fire Vilda and reinstate the 15. The so call blacklist had to be ripped to shreds.

The war had been won, but only the German club, the Spanish Federation and Y/N's close circle knew how.

For the rest of the season, Y/N's loyalties were shown. The midfielder traveled to watch every possible Eintracht Frankfurt game she could. Showing the German team her dedication and love for them.

Back in Barcelona, nobody seemed to understand what was going on. The dressing room was questioning Y/N's motives. How could an academy player, a blaugrana bleeding Fc Barcelona player stop fighting to stay. Nobody dared to enquire on the matter, not until Jana was fed up with the silence.

Fc Barcelona had lifted the Supercopa trophy, they had won the league before it even ended, they reached the Champions league final and were on their way to the Copa de la Reina final. "Spit it out" the defender confronted Y/N "You can win everything here, you can make our childhood dreams come true. Why don't you want to stay?" Jana's enquiry left Y/N speechless. The whole dressing room was watching - silence struck.

Alexia Putellas was silently watching, seeing how Y/N was lost for words - she soon realised what had happened months prior. There was no way that a 24 year old had managed to win a war against the Spanish Federation all by herself.

Y/N's love for the blaugrana club was big - but the midfielders desire to fight for what's right won.

The dressing room; Jana, were left without an answer. It wasn't for a lack of trying, every time anybody brought up Y/N's possible departure up, Y/N fled the scene.

That same week, Fc Barcelona were up against Wolfsburg in the Champions league final. A hard fought match, but Fc Barcelona came out victorious. Y/N's performance against the German team left everyone speechless. The midfielder became Wolfburgs nightmare, ending the match with a goal and a hat trick of assists.

Her performance in the Copa de la Reina final - what would be Y/N's last match with Fc Barcelona - had her leaving with the trophy and the MOTM award. Celebrating it with tears in her eyes, Y/N's short stay at her beloved club was coming to an end.

The very next day, Y/N made her way to the Ciutat Deportiva. Everyone on the team was given a day off, even Y/N; but that didn't matter. This was Y/N's final week with Fc Barcelona.

Alexia Putellas, the captain, didn't take days off; today wasn't an exception. The Catalonian made her way onto the training field, sitting herself down next to Y/N "Thank you" the Spaniard had been looped in, she knew what Y/N had done.

The ultimate sacrifice; Frankfurt's help was a quid pro quo. If the 15 were to win, Y/N had to lose - she had to return to them.

[testingthewatersss]

Are you my Captain? Trigger warnings for PTSD, mentions of war, arguing, etc. Protective Steve is lowkey an asshole. Bucky Barnes x F Reader Chapter 3 2555 words fluff, angst, tension, comfort. 18+ MDNI

You each tell your own friends. That was the deal you made with Bucky when you finally got together. A year later and he's finally figuring out why you'd been so sure that you'd gotten the better part of the deal with Tony.

“Why are you fighting, love?” she wonders, voice like honey, “..Sleep..”

Bucky hums noncommittally, gaze not wavering as his fingers flex across her waist.

“I’ve missed you” is the response he settles on, not caring how pathetic the excuse sounds as he makes it, “It’s been awhile since we’ve been alone like this…”

“Bucky” she coos softly, leaning in to press a kiss against his brow, “I’ve missed you too”

He beams at her, and even though the hollows under his eyes are so deep that they look like bruises now, she thinks he’s the most beautiful thing in the world.

“God, doll—“ he drawls, “—are you trying to distract me or somethin’?”

“No” she chuckles, before catching her own lie, “— maybe a little?” she amends, “The main aim was catching you up on the attention you’ve so clearly been starved of while I’ve been workin, but, I suppose if it doubles as a distraction too, then I’m not mad it…”

He seems like that response. The creases by his eyes deepen as he beams at her a little wider, anyway. She takes that as a win.

“Do you think they’re still fightin’?”

“That depends… Are we classing Romanoff scolding Steve as fighting?”

“No” he allows, “Not if he’s not replying.”

“Then no” she murmurs, “You know he doesn’t have the stamina to keep up with her when she’s pissed, and she has been begging me to let her hash this out with him for weeks.”

He scoffs quietly before keening back into her knuckles as they drift over the curve of his cheek.

“She’s protective” Y/N feels the need to explain, “but she won’t be too hard on him… she cares about him too…”

“Maybe he needs a little hard” he counters, trying to make his tone sound harsher.

His attempt doesn’t work well. He sounds almost like a child, and his partner can’t help but laugh at the frustrated crease between his brow.

“He loves you, Bucky” is what she decides to reply with, “He’s worried that I’m taking advantage… that I’m charming you into fighting for SHEILD—“

“You’re charmin’ me alright” he mumbles, blushing scarlet, “But I’ve been askin’ to help out for months and you’ve been real firm about saying no.”

“Maybe you should try charmin’ me?” she teases, rolling her eyes, “You’re a lover, not a fighter, sweetheart— and you’ve already been drafted once. I’m not going to let you get wrapped up in another war, not when I can help it.”

“It’s the same war” he counters, “and it’s not being drafted if I’m volunteering.”

“Now you sound like Steve—”

“—He’s not always wrong.”

“No” she agrees, “but, it doesn’t matter anyway.”

“because?” he prompts, an edge of resignation to his voice.

“because I am the acting director, which means wether either of you like it or not, it’s my opinion that counts”

“That sounds more like a dictator than a director” he murmurs, playful tone of voice offsetting the possible accusation in his words, “I thought I was free to do whatever I wanted?”

“You are” she purrs, stroking his jaw with her thumb, “Baby boy, you can do anythin’ you want, anythin’ at all… and if I really believed for one second that fighting was what would make you happy then I’d have a suit made up for you by the mornin’—”

“It’s not fighting I want to do” he says, knowing that they’ve had this talk before, and it always ends up the same way, “It’s helping you”

“And you do help me” she says with a smile, “You help me every day… You’re not an asset anymore, sweetheart. You don’t have to be completing missions to be useful…”

Bucky feels himself keening out to her, nose brushing her cheek as he flushes red again.

“I can be useful like that, though” he whispers, “If… If you ever need my help, doll, promise… promise me you’ll ask—“

“If” she replies, matching his tone, “If I ever think we need your help like that, then I promise we’ll talk it over, okay? I’m not going to ask you do anythin’ because you’re terrible at sayin’ no to me— but, I swear— I’m open to discussion.”

He can live with that.

He can more than live with that, really.

“Natasha isn’t the only one who’s protective” he mumbles, voice thick and drowsy now, “Y/N/N, you’re just as bad”

“No” she counters, stroking his hair back gently, “No, I’m much, much, worse.”

Bucky beams at that. At how insanely protected he feels, tucked up against her side, with her arms around him and her whole being seemingly being devoted to keeping him safe.

He doesn’t think there are enough words in the world for him to be able to explain how grateful he is for her. For how she looks after him so thoroughly, and for the way that she has never, ever, asked him to do something he might regret, even when he’s asked her too.

He settles on saying “I love you” and finally letting his eyes close.

It’s nice to surrender, especially when he hears her telling him that she loves him too.

Yeah, he thinks, There are definitely worse things to submit to than this—

Y/N watches him for awhile, even when she’s pretty certain that he’s sleeping.

She lets her gaze linger on his face, on the gentle curve of his jaw and the soft pout of lower lip as he breathes in, and out in a rhythm that is almost mechanical.

It’s a pleasant change to see him so unguarded.

She really has missed him too, even if she’d been too preoccupied to dwell on the ache in her chest that his absence breeds.

And then, without ever deciding to close her eyes, she’s asleep too.

The sky outside the window goes from black, to pink, to blue before either of the couple begin to stir, both too settled within their embrace to be roused by anything external.

Unsurprisingly, it’s Bucky who eventually comes round first, his body startling itself awake in the aftershock of some, strange memory that he forgets the details of as soon as he blinks his eyes open.

Instinct makes him pull Y/N closer. Panic response making his pulse race as he buries his face against her chest.

It’s a primal attempt at calming himself down.

It’s involuntary and desperate and it happens in the space of a second—

and then Y/N stirs, too.

Her body responding to his by curling impossibly closer around him, and exhaling long and slow to soothe him;

“Sorry” he bursts, voice still a whisper, “Sorry, I- I didn’t… I- I- don’t…“

“It’s okay” she yawns, shaking her head and orientating herself with being awake, “You’re alright…”

“I didn’t mean to wake you up” Bucky tells her, less quietly now,

“You didn’t” she lies, “I was just restin’ my eyes”

He scoffs at that, reaching up with metal fingers to paw at his eyes.

The brightness of the room jars him a little. It’s been so long since he’s slept through the night that he’s unused to waking up to sunlight coming in through the windows.

Y/N is looking at him now, and she thinks the muddled expression he’s sporting is awfully sweet, even if she suspects the cause is mildly depressing;

“It’s a little after 9” she reports, looking at the holographic display on the bedside, “Weathers’ going to be nice from the look of things— A little cold in the shade.”

He nods absentmindedly, thoughts already drifting back to Steve.

To the ‘almost argument’ they’d had last night, and the ‘actual argument’ he’d gotten himself into with Romanoff.

“I’m sure he’s fine” Y/N says, correctly guessing the reason for the furrowing of his brow, “Nat would’ve messaged me if something serious had happened. She knows I don’t like to be surprised with things like that.”

That’s true.

She would’ve messaged Y/N with a warning had the outcome of their discussion been anything worthy of a report.

He’s not sure if that’s good or not;

He’s not sure how much more of Steve acting the way he is he can take before he snaps on him himself, and if he’s honest- it’s been so long since he’s been able to snap on anyway that he’s not sure what that would look like.

“You’re worrying too much” Y/N says, reaching out to stroke his cheek, “I promise, it’s all going to be fine”

He surrenders, leaning into her touch and nodding.

She’s acutely aware of the way he’s not looking at her though. That isn’t quite normal for him, that means he’s trying to hide something;

“What are you scared of, love?”

Her tone is softer now.

It’s so soft that he looks at her instantly, and then, she sees that she was right.

Fear is plain on his face;

“I don’t want to do somethin’ I’ll regret” he admits, “If he keeps pushin’ me I might— I- I don’t know if I’ll able to not go too far—”

“You” she sighs, “You, would never hurt him, you know that.”

“Physically” he agrees, “but if I- If I snap and say —“

“Say what?” she cuts in dryly, “Baby what could you possibly say? That he’s being an asshole? That he’s smothering you? none of that’s —“

“That he didn’t spend a lifetime being tortured by Russians in the snow, so he doesn’t get to tell me how I’m supposed to be acting now that I’m not- That even some of the handlers I had questioned me less and at least they didn’t pretend to be worried about me when they were demanding I answer their questions”

That outburst takes Y/N totally by surprise.

It’s abundantly clear from his tone that it’s not something that has just suddenly come from nowhere. That’s it’s a cumulation of resentment that’s been building for awhile.

The tint of venom doesn’t suit the usual lilt of his voice.

The crease of anger doesn’t seem to sit well on his brow either.

It looks like a mask, like a layer of something to cover the hurt that has been so visible recently.

Silence has been in the air for a beat too long now. Y/N knows that, so she breaks it, drawing in a breath and deciding what to address first;

“He’s not pretending to care…” she says gently, “…I’m not saying that he’s dealing with this well—“ she adds quickly, not wanting to provoke him, “he’s not— obviously he’s not— but, he does love you—”

“You don’t understand” Bucky mumbles, cheeks burning red.

“No” she agrees, “do you want to help me?”

His eyes are trained on her now. At least he doesn’t look scared anymore, she thinks, he looks a little embarrassed, maybe a little ashamed of himself for his outburst, but definitely not scared.

“I was so sure he was goin’ to come and save me in the beginning, Y/N/N”

That confession doesn’t help clarify much, so, Y/N just waits, expression patient, for him to expand on his own;

“When they first woke me up I- I was so certain that Steve was going to come and get me out like he did the first time— In that camp— I didn’t believe them when they said he wasn’t going too- I thought they were just trying to break me quicker y’know? and then- then I heard that he was dead and it… it was- it was too much for me, on- on top of everything else. He thinks that it was just him who lost someone- but- I- I lost him too and I- I didn’t have anythin’ else…”

Oh, god- that… that’s sadder than anything else he could’ve said.

“Everything else they did to me, everything hurt so much, but I was hangin’ on… waiting for him- even- even after the first few wipes— It was only when- when they told me that he was gone I was… that I stopped fightin’ — it… it was the last straw— it- it was over for me after that and he- he acts like it was only him who lost me and not the other way around”

Okay.

That makes sense.

She nods to show that gets it. That she understands now, and then, she sighs, slow and soft because she can tell from the look that’s settled on his face that he feels awfully guilty for saying it out-loud.

“Come on…” she instructs, opening her arms to receive him, “…Come here, sweetheart…”

“I worry about him too” he mumbles, trying to justify himself, “when he disappears for days at a time and won’t talk about where he’s been- I don’t corner his friends and demand to know what he’s working on— I’ve never even asked you about what he does for SHEILD—“

He’s right, she realises, he’s never asked about Steve’s roll, not even once—

“I know” He hears her agree, “I’m not sure I would’ve been able to answer even if you had, but he’s safe, okay? I can tell you that much- You’re both safe.”

“That’s not the point” he grumbles, pulling back to look at her again, “Y/N/N, the point is that I trust him to keep himself that way— Even when we were kids, he’d get himself into all these scrapes and I still had to trust that he could handle it— I’d help when I could— but I never tried to stop him from doing what he wanted. I never made him feel like he wasn’t allowed to go off on his own.”

Her mouth is set. Expression considerate as she strokes his cheek.

She’s suddenly very proud of him. For telling her all of this when it’s clearly not easy for him to put into words. For opening up, and for holding himself together so well while he does so. She definitely doesn’t want to discourage him from speaking, so, she waits, letting her fingers curl across his jaw, until it’s obvious that he’s done.

and then, she nods.

“You’ve got history” Y/N decides, “it’s messy, and complicated— but you’re family, Buck. You care about each other, and this is all going to be okay.”

His eyes are glued on hers as he swallows, thick and nervous.

“You don’t think you could talk to him about this?”

No. No, the way that his face falls at the mere suggestion of that is a blatant enough answer.

“It’d kill him, Y/N/N.”

That hadn’t been the explanation she’d been expecting.

Her surprise must’ve been easy to read, because he offers her a tight lipped smile and turns to peck at her palm.

“He feels bad enough about the whole thing” he murmurs, “I can’t tell him about how I was waitin’ on him to save me… about how hard I took it when he— when it turned out that he couldn’t…he’d… he’d never get over it, doll. He’d blame himself for the rest of his life— I couldn’t do that to the kid, no matter how difficult he’s bein’ right now.”

Fine, that’s understandable.

“Did talking to me about it make you feel better?”

He chuckles at that, before smiling more surely and nodding.

“It did, actually.”

“Good” she replies, “I’m glad— hopefully Nat got through to him about the stalking.”

1 | 2 | x

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

Re 718: I am the 4-point counter argument anon. I saw a few comments and reblogs and wanted to say my final thoughts. Feel free to not publish :-)

I cannot speak for everyone who feels that Spock is unfairly targeted by McCoy. I can only speak for myself as a minority, who is “an only one of a kind” surrounded by majority, just like Spock is. I experience what Spock experiences from otherwise well meaning, intelligent, caring people in my life.

As I see it, we are not judging the writers who wrote this during the 60s. We understand that those were different times and that we have progressed since then. We are judging the characters on the screen as they are but using today’s standards. By today’s standards, I hope that we see that McCoy is exhibiting behaviors that are racist in nature. Just as by today’s standards, we see almost everyone in TOS has sexist behavior. Including Spock. I adore Spock, but if someone were to point out the way he has behaved towards females in canon, I would have to accept that yes, his behavior is awful and sexist.

I ask the same thing from those who are defending McCoy - Are you willing to consider the possibility that he as a white human male, in a position of authority ( highest authority actually because he can overrule Jim), in a ship full of humans, behaves towards the only non-human in a way that can be seen as racist?

McCoy represents the oppressors. And as such he bears the responsibility to self-examine. Just as any male today must listen to any female who is expressing the discomfort of being harassed. Just as any white today must listen to a poc who is not feeling respected and treated fairly. If they don’t, they perpetuate the wrongdoings of their predecessors. It is the responsibility of the historically privileged class to bear because otherwise we cannot heal as a species and move forward.

Spock is a character, whether you like it or not, represents a huge variety of minorities who have historically been marginalized - he is dear to those who are autistic, poc, asexual, biracial, immigrant, gay, and so on.

McCoy’s insults towards Spock hurt many of these identities above. So, in closing, I ask you to pause and consider and listen to those of us who are expressing our pain. I, in turn, promise that next time someone throws a micro agreement at me, I will give them the benefit of doubt and see them through the McCoy lens.

We are the star trek fandom after all. We believe in a better, just, fair, hopeful future. LLAP.

This response is ok to go but I'd like to point out that McCoy being in a position of authority over Kirk and Spock is mostly incorrect. CMOs have medical authority over superior officers, meaning this authority can be imposed only if it concerns the medical sphere and nothing else. A CMO cannot overrule a Captain or any other superior officer unless they believe that not doing so would endanger their safety and/or that of the crew, and even then only after scrupulous examination, as we see in The Doomsday Machine.

Hierarchically, Spock has authority over McCoy, as seen in The Empath where McCoy sedating Kirk almost gives Spock the chance to take control of the situation as he's second in command, and only McCoy sedating him too stops him. These, as much as they are a heartbreaking sacrifice dictated by friendship, are nonetheless two act of insubordination.

McCoy uses speciesist language against Spock who is his superior officer and a member of a minority on Earth and inside the Enterprise, and who in turn often uses speciesist language himself (and actually uses such language with human officers of rank inferior to his, unlike McCoy) only more suavely and less irritably, which is a big reason why it's often written off as funny.

Personally, I mostly find it all rather silly and a fun dynamic between the two but I also recognize and understand anyone who observes and comments on the race analogies.

[hamethyst]

Name: Aurivyan Likirum

Race: Mephistopheles Tiefling

Age: 34 (Born Kythorn 18, 1456)

Homeland: Veltalar, Aglarond

Primary Class: Storm Sorcerer

Background: Guild Artisan

Alignment: Neutral good/chaotic good

Themes/motifs: Rebel princess, secret shame/hidden treasure

Aesthetics: light reflections on water, aurorae, frothing shorelines, tropical flowers, coral reefs, sun showers, storm clouds on the horizon, purple lightning

Origin: Born to a prominent merchant family situated along Aglarond’s rich coast, Aurivyan entertained dreams of joining the powerful Simbarch’s Council, magical elite and rulers of Aglarond, from a young age; an exceptionally high-reaching goal, given her devilish inheritance, but one she believed she could achieve with enough dedication and her inborn gift for magic. Despite her mother’s attempts to provide a normal, contented life for her daughter, Ivy spent her early years hidden from the majority of Aglarond’s populace for fear of retribution for her existence. She spent those years locked in equal parts study and prayer, hoping for the Council’s - and subsequently, Mystra’s - acceptance, all whilst seeking to tame the tempestuous magic ever tingling like static at her fingertips, fantasizing of the moment her patience, determination, and faith would be rewarded.

It wasn’t long before Ivy realized, however, that for all the privileges and magical prowess boasted by the students of one of Mystra Herself’s Chosen, the benefits they offered would never cure her of the difficulties inherent to her background. Eventually, that truth - and her dissatisfaction with it - reached its peak; at odds with her family and sick of the Council’s silent critique, a teenaged Ivy ran from home in a fit.

Instinct and her magic’s inclination led her to Veltalar’s docks, and a fateful encounter with a kindly sea captain and his crew, with whom Ivy found her outlook and priorities forever changed. She abandoned the path on which she had so dedicated herself, and distanced herself as best she could from the watchful eyes and influence of the Council. In exchange, she took up new lessons and new teachers: those of her mercantile matriarch mother, her hedonistic aunt, as well as the aforementioned captain and, subsequently, his crew. Through them, she learned to seek greatness beyond that as dictated by the Council: that is, greatness on her own terms; to embrace both her hellish inheritance and the storm ever roiling in her blood; and to pursue true happiness, rather than the mere safety and comfort the title of “simbarch” would supposedly provide.

The choice proved fruitful; Ivy blossomed amidst the adversity of proving herself above the judgement of her family, her peers, and the public. She forsook the safety of her home and began showing herself amongst the general populace, particularly Aglarond’s various ports, and subsequently garnered quite the public reputation. In time, she came to be known as much for her charm, verve, and audaciousness as she was her horns, fangs, and eyes, as well as her arcane prowess, which she used often to the benefit of the sailors who first inspired her.

The Council, of course, continued to monitor her progress, and met her growth with both wariness and a grudging respect, heretical as some saw it. Ironically, it was only when she renounced the dream of simbarch that Ivy, in their eyes, began showing the makings of one, and it was this acknowledgement that led them to eventually approach her with a proposition. It regarded concerns about recent happenings to the west, specifically the city-state of Baldur's Gate; they desired information on these events, and considered her particularly suited to the task.

They considered it an opportunity: in exchange for her service, Ivy's once-upon-a-dream would be realized: the coveted title of simbarch, and all the benefits it entailed. It would be a test of everything Ivy had cultivated over the years: her charm and cunning, her arcane prowess, as well as the mercantile expertise taught by her mother and aunt, as the latter would serve as her cover once she made landfall in the city.

The attempt at manipulation was obvious, and yet Ivy acknowledged the merits of their offer; content as she was, after all, the promise of power and privilege was ever tempting. In the end, for reasons even she was hesitant to contemplate too deeply, she chose to embrace the challenge, as she had every other in her life. Mere weeks after entertaining the Council's request, Ivy was crossing the Sea of Stars for the first time, the lands to the west her destination...

[it-is-i-zim]

May I ask you about n°22 -"your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores" for Captain Boomerang?

In short? His whole ass existence is ignored. He's my boy and he's often put in a dumpster and then that dumpster is set on fire and that on fire dumpster is then thrown onto a desert island and that desert island is full of demons that eat on fire dumpsters.

This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to his comic counterpart. No one even wants to look in his direction unless they're a hater. For 2 years I've been fighting for my life about this man because everyone *cough cough* Tim Drake fans* couch cough* wanted to talk shit on him.

All I ever hear about is Kill the Justice League Boomerang. Don't get me wrong, I love him. He's everything I wish Comic Boomerang was, but it's only Kill the Justice League Boomerang right now. Up until like 2021, it was pretty much only Jai Courtney Boomerang, who I'm not particularly fond of btw. He literally does not even look like Captain Boomerang at all.

But in all seriousness, what the fandom likes to ignore is that he's a former Flash Rogue. For me there was always this sort of complex morality that I liked when it came to the Rogues, but because Captain Boomerang is most often Suicide Squad member, if he shows up at all honestly, that part of him is ignored in both canon and fanon. Canon writers want him to be a mercenary or an assassin so bad but it just doesn't fit him. And fanon doesn't want to touch him at all unless their a Tim Drake fan. Then they'll go overboard with the murder and the stabbiness.

Like... Captain Boomerang is not a killer unless put in extreme circumstances. That's how Rogues work. They aren't going around and killing innocent people and everyone acts like that's what Boomer does because he's killing people (usually fascist dictators btw. Not usually random people) for the US government. Not even of his own free will. He's got a bomb in his head and if he doesn't murder these people he's killed.

Even the game fucks this up btw, using Mirror Master and Top as examples of Rogues that'll be mad that Boomer killed the Flash. Like... If this is Evan McCulloch specifically... Do I need to remind the class he dressed up as Pied Piper to kill Pied Piper's parents to accuse Pied Piper of murdering his own parents? I know that's when he was one of Blacksmith's Rogues, but he's still a Rogue. And with Top... He tried to start a war between Rogues so Captain Cold, who literally made the no killing rule and is a stickler for the rules, murdered the Top. And if I learned anything from the story where Walter West as Dark Flash nearly kills Captain Boomerang... The Rogues can and will have the intention to kill a Flash if they're legitimately a danger to their safety. And Kill the Justice League Flash would have for sure killed countless people if not for the Squad killing him so honestly I don't think the Rogues would actually care at all. They just probably don't want to hear Boomerang brag about it constantly.

Also I would like if they elaborated on the giant humanoid snake people with prehensile tongues that live in the Australian Outback. What the hell I'm intrigued.

[ultraericthered]

Who are Maleficent's allies for the KH Divergence saga, and what is the story behind Pandemoniac Heartless Parade?

In my KH4, Maleficent has summoned all remnants of her old minions from Enchanted Dominion to assist her and the Heartless in their big magical science project with the relics of power from the ancient age and date from the Book of Prophecies (I'm not remotely kidding here, Maleficent goes full Arcane Hextech in this story!). In addition, she still has Pete and the Gullwings (Yuna, Rikku, and Paine) around, and Pete's called up the Beagle Boys to help too.

Y'know, these guys:

After KH4, however, Maleficent has been rendered powerless and with only two flunkies to carry out her plans for her - Pete, and the newly introduced Mortimer Mouse, a Duke from Disney Town who always wanted the king's throne and a Keyblade but could never have either, so he turned traitor back in the Disney Town/Castle segment of KH4. From the powers of darkness, Mortimer forged a faux-Keyblade that can slay Demi-Deterged and freeze hearts in place, but cannot actually unlock anything or set any hearts free. The duo of Pete and Mortimer would be set up in The Missing Links, but they don't get particularly active as a menace to the worlds until KH5.

Pandemoniac Heartless Parade? Oh, that is a fun one. The idea for that spinoff would be that it's a reality where Maleficent won in KH4 rather than get defeated and depowered. Her plan to submerge the existing World in darkness while she rules and dictates the course for the newly recreated "Ye Olde World" succeeded, so now she schemes to gain access to the real Kingdom Hearts via the false one that was a built-in thing for this Olde World. Said Olde World now sits atop the ruins of the previous World (like Piltover and Zaun, more Arcane shit there!) and rather than be split into different "worlds", it splits off into different "sectors", each ruled over by a Disney Villain who command their own forces. Within this setup, you create an OC to serve Maleficent and work alongside Pete and Mortimer (and other allies like the Gullwings and the Beagle Boys) in keeping things in check. The "story" comes as an Excuse Plot to intermingle with the Disney Villains and various enemies: all this World's Heartless, out of nowhere, start turning on each other and creating feuds between different classes of enemy and different villains who command them. Like there's OG Darkling Heartless VS Emblem Heartless, Colorful Heartless VS Dark Heartless, Humanoid Heartless VS Beastial Heartless, Organic Heartless VS Manufactured Thing Heartless, Heartless VS Unversed VS Nobodies VS Nightmares VS Demi-Deterged, etc. Obviously this creates a panic from Pete and Mortimer as they fear Maleficent's authority will be undermined this way, and SPOILERS: it turns out that's the whole idea, as Hades is behind all this and has been out to usurp Maleficent's rule from the start, and he's conspired with newcomer villain Cruella De VIl to put this scheme in motion. It's on your character to unravel the conspiracy and stop it so that...Maleficent can stay in power and ultimately unlock the way to Kingdom Hearts. You are playing as a baddie!

The villains that'd be featured aside from Maleficent and co.:

Madame Mim (villainous counterpart to Merlin) Cruella De Vil Hades, Pain & Panic, and the Titans Ursula, Flotsam & Jetsam Oogie Boogie, Lock, Shock, & Barrel Captain Hook & Mr. Smee Jafar Shan Yu Scar & the Hyenas Gaston & LeFou Dr. Hamsterveil, Jumba Jookiba, Captain Gantu & Reuben John Worhington Foulfellow & Gideon Dr. Facilier Mother Gothel Prince Hans of the Southern Isles Prince John, Sir Hiss, and the Sheriff of Nottingham Yzma & Kronk King Candy/Turbo and Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz

'Twould be so much fun, I so wish it was real!

[amuseoffyre]

4, 7, and 8! ❤️

4. say something nice about a ship you don't ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual's OTP, etc)

I love seeing some of the art from Steddyhands artists. I don't read much fic and when I do, it's primarily gentlebeard, but I do appreciate a well done art :D

7. your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

*bangs table with both fists* CLASS ISSUES CLASS ISSUES CLASS ISSUES. You know you're reading something of mine if there are class issues in there :D Not necessarily front and centre, but I love the undercurrent that it can bring to a story. OFMD gave so many layers of it and the layers in between as well, with the different strata and different kinds of working class and the intersection of race with class and the experiences reflected by said characters and how they operate differently within a world dictated by a specific upper-crust white elite.

Like Frenchie's knowledge of interacting within an upper crust environment is 100% different from Olu's, but they are both dealing with the automatic racist prejudice of their very rich and very white guests in the party ship and Frenchie knows how to use it, while Olu very quickly realises that he's gonna have fun on this ride.

Or Izzy and Stede's dynamic because Izzy is the epitome of northern English working class, all grit and tenacity, while Stede - as landed gentry, aka someone who is living off the profits of the labour of others while sitting on his arse and doing nothing - and buying his way into the rank of captain is everything Izzy hates. The gentry came from trade and made their money using people like Izzy, and he Does Not Care For It. (Izzy and Christopher Eccleston would get on like a house on fire)

There's just so much happening. Like the Badmintons - they're upper crust but they're younger sons (firstborns inherited, the spares tended to military service or the church). They get nothing for their inheritance and then there's Stede, heir to a fortune that his trader daddy made. Not even aristocracy but worth more than them. They would hate it.

So. Much. Tasty. Class. Stuff.

Also gender stuff. Om nom nom nom.

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

The music. Good grief the music this season has been staggeringly well used. The recurring motifs and themes, the flip of the Gnossienne to the Sad Love theme. The different songs they used in different moments. The choices of instruments on certain themes. The subtle echo of "Be a Lighthouse" in "Return to the Revenge" when the crew work together to escape. IT IS ALL AAAAAAA

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, 113 (Jan. 23, 1988) - “Angel One”

Written by: Patrick Barry Directed by: Michael Rhodes

The Breakdown

The Enterprise picks up on a distress signal from a freighter called ‘The Odin’ that went missing a few years back, so they decide to check out the nearest M-Class planet (ie, capable of sustaining life) to see if the survivors made it that far.  It turns out they did, but the problem is the survivors all happened to be men, and the planet they landed on is run by a matriarchal oligarchy that objectifies the males, and believes they should accept their place as slutty-play-things-without-rights.  Naturally the Odin survivors (being enlightened federation folk) take issue with this on-the-nose-metaphor, and go public with their opinions, resulting in a social justice movement (which we are told about but never actually see). 

Beata (The ‘Elected-one’ aka the ruler), agrees to let the Odin survivors go, since that would silence the dissenters, but not before getting Riker to spend the night with her, which he’s all-too-happy to oblige (she may be a misandrist, but Riker will not pass up on some perfectly good… diplomatic relations).  While Riker flounces around in a pretty little get up (all an essential part of the diplomacy), Tasha and Deanna talk to the survivors who refuse to leave since they have families now.  Their unwillingness to leave results in a death sentence, to which Riker is like, “Fuck this, lets just beam everyone out of here”.  Unfortunately the Enterprise is having it's own issues.

Back on the ship, a nasty virus has broken out, which has incapacitated most of the crew  (There’s also some stuff about Romulans, but none of that really amounts to anything) Anyways, since beaming everyone to the Ship is out of the question, and the executions are imminent, Riker makes a nice little speech to Beata about how “evolving world views are necessary for any civilization and maybe don’t be so mean to your men?” Somehow that works, and Beata decides to stay the executions on the condition that the survivors-and-their-families all go far away to a less pleasant continent (where they’ll be too busy surviving to worry about human rights). She reasons that if she can’t stop change at least she can slow it to a crawl, and everyone is like “Yay, what a progressive sentiment.” The end.

The Verdict

I’m not sure sure where to start with this episode, but I guess I’d have to say that the script just seems clueless. We’re shown a sexist matriarchy that is seemingly meant to mimic our own patriarchy, but it’s so broad that it fails to capture any nuance whatsoever. It’s also pretty telling that the feminine coded men of Angel One are all written as vapid, jealous, emotional, and devoid of any real agency; not unlike most of the women characters from this season so far. It’s well known that the women cast struggled with how their characters were portrayed, especially during the earlier seasons. I don’t know if ‘Angel One’ was one of the offending episodes, but it certainly throws its weight towards confirming the pattern.

1 star (out of 5)

Stray observations

Remember folks. It’s okay to hook up with a brazenly sexist dictator if they’re hot.

Tasha thinks Riker looks sexy in his skimpy-frilly-outfit and states it outright. Now I’m not one for kink shaming, but that’s not a very professional thing to say to your commanding officer.

Geordie gets to sit in the Captains chair. Nice.

Season-one-Worf is kind of adorable, like a pitbull. He’s big and strong looking, but just a teddy bear deep down. His scenes with Geordie on the bridge are so wholesome.

The prime directive sure is confusing. I thought the rule was that any pre-warp society is off limits, but Angel One is said to be equivalent to our mid-to-late 20th century. Apparently, the federation made contact with them 60 years ago, and that was okay because it didn’t involve a starship? I feel like the Prime Directive must have been a concept the writers were still figuring out. Then again, the Federation does seem to have some fairly arbitrary rules.

[januarygale]

Random observation: The colony that January flees to is called "Tharsis", which sounds very similar to "Tarsus" (at least to my non-native speaker ears).

In the original Star Trek series (the one from the 60s) it's established that Captain James T. Kirk lived on a colony planet called "Tarsus IV" as a teenager. He almost died there because they had some kind of famine and the colony's dictator had half the population killed so that the other half could live on the meager rations they had. He decided who might live and who might not on the basis of his own eugenic theories.

There probably isn't any connection but we'll see, I guess. Since the book is about class divisions and privilege (quoting the website with the excerpt on it), and of course about Earthstrongs as second-class citizens in Mars' society, maybe we'll see some parallels? But maybe Pulley just watched TOS and took the name as inspiration. Or maybe it's random.

[dzthenerd490]

File: Beyond: Two Souls

SCP#: AGT

Code Name: Agent Jodie Holmes of PENTAGRAM/ Agent Jaden Holmes of the Foundation

Object Class: Prodosa Thaumiel

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-AGT is under the unfortunate custody and protection of Group of Interest: PENTAGRAM. As such the Foundation has no means of implementing containment procedures. To do so would result in potential conflict with the Global Occult Coalition and by extension the rest of the ACPA.

Update 2014 - SCP-AGT has escaped PENTAGRAM and has been captured by the Foundation. After a long talk with Captain Wells of Mobile Task Force Alpha-9 "Last Hope" he has agreed to join the Foundation under the condition that the Foundation guarantees protection for his four friends and their newborn child. The Foundation has agreed and given them all housing within Nx-AD: Archios as well as giving SCP-AGT a room at Site-AR.

His room stands 8x8 meters with all the proper accommodations, furniture, and appliances for the common room with a few luxurious additions. He is assigned to Site-AR because he works as security for the Department of Technology, Alchemy, Science, Magic, and Warfare. He has been assigned to and is given training under Mobile Task Force Hecate-Alpha "Real Magic" Division "Sorcerer's Staff". 

Update 2017 - SCP-AGT has completed his training and is now an official member of Mobile Task Force Hecate-Alpha "Real Magic" Division "Sorcerer's Staff". He is now to be known as Agent Jodie Jaden Holmes.

Update 2020 - SCP-AGT has requested Dr. Zeek perform a transitioning operation. It has been completed with 100% success, SCP-AGT is now to be known as Agent Jaden Holmes. He is still living at Site-AR within his 8x8 meter personal room and is allowed to visit his friends and their child who are living in Nexus Point-AB: New Marais.

Description: SCP-AGT is a male humanoid anomaly that is of Caucasian descent, has brown hair, and brown eyes. Originally SCP-AGT had the anomalous property of being connected to a wandering soul. This soul is labeled as SCP-AGT-Soul but is named Aiden by SCP-AGT. Both SCP-AGT and SCP-AGT-Soul have the same psychic abilities, but SCP-AGT-Soul's abilities are much stronger and without limits. Because SCP-AGT-Soul is a ghost class anomaly it is impossible for it to get tired and can stay awake essentially forever. 

SCP-AGT-Soul also has the ability to have SCP-AGT see whatever it does and can possess other people quite easily. Naturally being a Ghost class anomaly hacking technology and manipulating energy to small degrees is quite easy. SCP-AGT-Soul is able to fully interact with other ghost class anomalies and can banish them back into their original afterlife. When SCP-AGT and SCP-AGT-Soul work together their psychic power is increased allowing them to communicate with ghost class anomalies, allow them to communicate with the living, heal the injured, and control energy to massive degrees. 

SCP-AGT was discovered in 1998 when he was only 9 years old. He was taken into the research division of PENTAGRAM in the hopes of understanding and one day utilizing his powers. However, because PENTAGRAM is a US organization SCP-AGT was often used in military and CIA operations. One such operation was the assassination of a president of a small East African country back in 2012. He was told they were a dictator but in reality, they were a president determined to bring stability to the area. He ran away from PENTAGRAM and went on the run for at least two years before he was captured again by the Group of Interest. 

They tried having him believe that he was only there for one final mission, to ensure they were the only organization that can create a portal to the afterlife by destroying the portal owned by Republic of Kazakhstan Army. The mission to take down the machine creating the portal was a massive success however it was not enough for PENSTAGRAM. By the time the operation was done the entirety of the ACPA knew of the experiments on the afterlife PENSTAGRAM had been conducting and were furious. To save face they tried to get rid of any and all outside evidence including SCP-AGT and SCP-AGT-Soul. The planned on killing him while erasing all information of the portals existence. However, the main facility where the portal was made ended up being destroyed after a rouge agent released all the ghost class anomalies. 

It's unclear what happened afterwards but the machine powering the portal was eventually shut down and SCP-AGT managed to escape. Later on, he met with four homeless people named [data expunged], who recently got out of poverty after getting jobs. Meanwhile, the Foundation and the rest of the ACPA were busy punishing PENSTAGRAM and the rest of the US Government for once again conducting experiments outside of their control. Though the issue was resolved within a month and with the GOC's backing, PENSTAGRAM was allowed to continue existing. 

Afterwards the Foundation devoted it's time to finding all evidence of PENSTAGRAM's research including SCP-AGT himself. Though by the time the Foundation found him, his connection with SCP-AGT-Soul was severed, though the spirit chose to stay with him regardless. The Foundation discovered this the hard way when agents were deployed to contain him back in 2015. They were taken out by SCP-AGT-Soul without SCP-AGT himself knowing about it. As a response Mobile Task Force Alpha-9 "Last Hope" was called to action with Captain Wells being the sole agent in the mission as per her request. It was thanks to her power that she got passed SCP-AGT-Soul but also her experience and compassion that helped her connect with SCP-AGT and convince him to come to Foundation custody. Please see Addendum X-45 for details. 

***

Addendum X-45

The following is a recording between Captain Wells and SCP-AGT during the first negotiation talks to have SCP-AGT. The conversation takes place on the roof of the apartment building where SCP-AGT and his friends lived.

Being Recording

Captain Wells had just landed on the rooftop and saw SCP-AGT walk up from the stair to get some fresh air. 

Captain Wells: Nice view huh? 

SCP-AGT is visibly spooked when he noticed Captain Wells, causing her to giggle. 

SCP-AGT: Ah! who- who are you? 

Captain Wells: Charlie Wells! You and I area actually a lot alike.

Captain Wells then floated down using her magnetism powers to get her down safely. 

Captain Wells: In more ways than one. 

SCP-AGT: ... I ... I thought me and Aiden were the only ones.

Captain Wells: Oh, well technically you are. Okay look, you and I were both made by a science experiment that started off with our parents and ended up with us that much is true. Though you ended up not only with psychic powers but also a ghost twin. Me on the other hand...

Captain Wells raised her arm and fire manifested in the palm of her hand. 

Captain Wells: I got a different kind of gift. 

SCP-AGT: Woah, that's... that's actually pretty cool.

Captain Wells: Right? 

SCP-AGT: But I don't understand how can you do that?

Captain Wells: Something I inherited after the scientists experimented with my parents. I ended up being born with these powers entirely by accident. No one can really explain them they just... are. I can also sometimes see into the future which is an absolute pain in the ass, but it has its moments. 

SCP-AGT: I see. 

Captain Wells: Yeah I... 

SCP-AGT: ... Uh, you okay?

Captain Wells seems to be frozen for a moment but suddenly she releases a burst of energy around her temporarily revealing SCP-AGT-Soul.

Captain Wells: There you are! 

Captain Wells then entraps SCP-AGT-Soul within an energy bubble. Thanks to her physical contact with SCP-AGT-Soul she is able to make the wavelength of the energy the same ensuring SCP-AGT-Soul is imprisoned. 

SCP-AGT: Wha-! Aiden! What are you doing to him?!

Captain Wells: Ah! So, this is the guy who's been keeping us from finding you. 

SCP-AGT: What?! You've been looking for me.

Captain Wells: Ugh, yeah I was hoping to ease into this but... Look I came here to get you to uh... join our crew. 

SCP-AGT: Okay! Okay, whatever! I'll listen to whatever you have to say but please! Let Aiden go! 

Captain Wells: Right, right sorry.

Captain Wells released the bubble though Aiden for a moment shined in a faint red light of anger. 

Captain Wells: Yeah, yeah, you're the one who attacked me first punk. Don't be so huffy about it. Self-defense, asshole. 

SCP-AGT: You- You can understand him?

Captain Wells: No, but it's obvious he's still mad at me. 

SCP-AGT: So about that joining thing... are you what, going to recruit me into like the justice league or something.

Captain Wells: Oh man I loved those comics as a kid. But uh no, I actually work as a MTF Captain for the SCP Foundation.

SCP-AGT: ... I- I think I heard of that somewhere... No- No! You're not taking me back to PENTAGRAM! 

Captain Wells: Woah, woah! Take it easy! PENTAGRAM is already in deep shit for experimenting with the afterlife, so you don't need to worry about them. 

SCP-AGT: ... But you said you were here to here to get me to join something? From what I remember about PENTAGRAM they don't take no for an answer, so why should I expect the SCP Foundation to be any different? 

Captain Wells: Because I'll be willing to vouch for you.

SCP-AGT: Why- Why would you do that? 

Captain Wells: Because us anomalous humanoids have to stick together. Besides the Foundation knows better than to piss me off or any of the others so they make sure to do everything in their power to make us comfortable. 

SCP-AGT: I don't want to be comfortable I want to be free. 

Captain Wells: ... Be honest with me, does freedom really exist? Even if the SCP Foundation, PENTAGRAM, and the Global Occult Coalition were destroyed new anomalous organizations would show up. And that's just half of the problem, there are anomalies like us everywhere, and a lot, I mean A LOT of them are nowhere near as friendly as I am. 

SCP-AGT: Anomalous? You mean entities?

Captain Wells: ... You don't even know the half of it. Monsters, nightmares, gods, dimensional terrorists, cult powered capitalists, even literal demons form hell. Everything they put on those insane conspiracy websites are real. 

SCP-AGT: I... are you kidding me? 

Captain Wells: I wish.

SCP-AGT: So, what, no matter what I do there will always be monsters trying to kill me and those I love. As well as organizations trying to weaponize me. 

Captain Wells: ... Yeah. I know it sucks... no that's not the right word its fucking torture but... that's the anomalous life unfortunately. We don't get to choose, we're just stuck with it. But I'll tell you one thing, it's going to be a lot easier with friends.

Captain Wells then extended her hand to SCP-AGT and smiled.

Captain Wells: And you'll find no shortage of friends within the Foundation. Don't get me wrong there are the occasional asshole but, well... Just tell me their names and I'll set their asses on fire.

SCP-AGT smiled but looked back at the stairs to show his worry about the others. 

SCP-AGT: ... You said your willing to vouch for me?

Captain Wells: Anything you want, darling.

SCP-AGT: ... I want a good life and good jobs for my friends. All four of them! I want them to never have to worry about money again.

Captain Wells: Hah! Done and done, you don't even need me to vouch for you on that one, The Foundation is anti-capitalist. They are willing to give both essential and non-essential items to make sure everyone is alive and doing well. No money required just do your part and you'll be fine. 

SCP-AGT: Really, that's- that's already so much better than PENTAGRAM.

Captain Wells: Told ya!

SCP-AGT: Ha... Oh, but the baby too! Yeah, they have a baby and I want her to get into a good school as well. 

Captain Wells: Oh, we got one of the best schools in New Marais! She'll love it! 

SCP-AGT: New Marais? Isn't that the Louisiana town that got destroyed in that freak accident? 

Captain Wells: Yeah, the Foundation had to put that front to make it seem like that. It's actually one of the few places in the world where anomalous humanoids like us can be free to do whatever we want there. So long as it's not illegal of course. 

SCP-AGT: ... Woah...

Captain Wells: Yup, trust me, it's going to take a while to get used to, but this is going to be the best decision in your life. 

SCP-AGT: You can really guarantee that? You're not brainwashed or something?

Captain Wells: Brainwashed? Me?! Pfft! They couldn't even brainwash Iris! That girl may living her best life, but she will never let the Foundation forget how much she hates it. The Foundation sucks in a lot of ways but they never forget they can't keep the place running without us. 

SCP-AGT: ... Thank you.

Captain Wells: For what?

SCP-AGT: For coming here yourself, I don't think I would have trusted anyone else. 

Captain Wells: Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you, I wasn't the first choice. Your boyfriend here got rid of the other guys who tried to recruit you. 

SCP-AGT: Okay, first of all gross, he's my brother. Second of all, Aiden! Seriously?!

Captain Wells: It's okay, I mean- They died but they weren't exactly known to be nice. 

SCP-AGT: You're not mad their dead?

Captain Wells: They weren't my friends so no. I know it sounds cold hearted but after I lost my parents, I made sure to reserve my compassion for only those that are really worth caring for. Otherwise... my heart probably wouldn't be able to take it. 

SCP-AGT: ... I know that feeling. So, the Foundation is willing to hear my requests?

Captain Wells: And accept them with smiling faces! 

SCP-AGT: Thank you, I'll tell the others. 

Captain Wells: Take all the time you need, I'm sure it's going to be a lot to process.

SCP-AGT: Yeah, I know what that's like. Still thank you. 

Recording Ends

***

SCP-AGT terms were accepted with ease and no complications were made. Despite the fact that SCP-AGT and SCP-AGT-Soul were separated, they stay rather close to one another. Furthermore SCP-AGT has retained a small amount of his anomalous abilities. Because of this, when processed by the Anomalous Employment Division, The Department of Technology, Alchemy, Science, Magic, and Warfare offered him a position within Mobile Task Force Hecate-Alpha "Real Magic". His training would be conducted at Site-AR where he will work within Division "Sorcerer's Staff" as a part of on-site security. Despite his training not being complete yet, everyone is to refer to him as Jodie Jaden Holmes under the authority of the AED. 

Side Note - SCP-AGT claims to be suffering nightmares of a future where a rift to the afterlife will be opened forever causing an K Class Apocalyptic Scenario on earth forever. When this will happen is unknown, but it is suspected to happen when [data expunged] becomes of age. SCP-AGT claims she will be the savior of the new world, as such she will undergo training when she reaches the age of 12 and be tested for the possibility of having anomalous abilities. 

Update 2020 - SCP-AGT has transitioned into a male. With respect for his identity as well as Protocol “Anomalous Lives Matter” taken into consideration, this document will be edited to his current pronouns and his dead name shall be redacted. The AED would like to remind everyone that there has been no change to Protocol “United We Stand” any and all staff that show discrimination for any reason will be considered a liability to the Foundation and suffer heavy consequences, REGARDLESS of the severity of the crime. 

Side Note: [data expunged] has reached the age of 12, her training to become a future MTF unit as well as the possible savior of humanity begins now. 

.

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

[evita-shelby]

Rules: Share your OC's full name and the meaning/origins behind it. Then (If you'd like) inculde any insights or symbolic meanings about their name you wish to share, or just your reasons for giving them the name that you did!

No pressure tags: @zablife @raincoffeeandfandoms @call-sign-shark @thegreatdragonfruta @red-riding-wood @runnning-outof-time @arcielee @assortedseaglass

Eva Leonor Smith Riley

Cw: use of a slur, mentions of suicide

For oc names i go with how the parents would name them given the society they live in and vibe. Eva was no different.

Eva gets two lastnames because of naming conventions in mexico, so its her father's surname followed by mother's maiden name.

So first name and middle name:

Eva: is the latin spelling of the hebrew words Chava/Hava meaning life or life giver.

While i could lie and say Eva’s name was chosen of the symbolism that she helps Tommy heal and grow into a better man, she is named Eva after Evita Peron, first lady of Argentina who after her dictator husband was overthrown.

She was rather influentian and there was a myth taht where her body was hidden(it was exhumed and stolen) flowers would appear there.

Eva's name also comes from a 1917 femme fatale played by Mimi Derba in La Tigeresa named Eva who pretended to be a poor woman to win the heart of a lower class man and then broke up with him, faked her death which drove him insane only for her (now married to a rich man) to visit the institution he was in for charity and he kills her in his mad rage.

While the femme fatale is more in line with s1 Grace , Eva reveals in Of Gods and Witches she seduced the president's son and when he discovered his father was gonna have her assassinated while under house arrest he commits suicide ala Antigone and Haemon. This all happened while she was secretly dating her best friend and cousin’s secret girlfriend, Antonia.

But in the fic, Eva is named Eva because her mother, Isabel, schemed to make herself go into labor in the Sistine Chapel(right ubder God's Creation of Eve)to get the current Pope (Benedict XV) attend the baptism and his successor the future Pope Pius XI to be her godfather because the archbishop of mexico refused to go to her family's estate to baptize Eva’s older brother Gabriel.

Leonor: is the portuguese and spanish variant of Eleanor meaning Torch, light and/or sun ray.

Leonor was the name of her great grandmother who descends from Emperor Moctezuma, the last Aztec ruler, through his son Juan Moctezuma who was made a spanish noble. Leonor Moctezuma, Eva’s great grandmother, was born to a member of the Moctezuma family and a Nahua secretary in Mexico City.

Last Names:

Smith: anglo-saxon 'to hit or strike' possibly related to a person who was a metal worker.

So Smith is a common English surname and the surname of a romani traveller king named Absalom Smith in the early 19th century. He died in 1826 with the title of king of the gypsies (please excuse the slur)and had been elected so in the early 19th century according to the Mamchester Times. He was a fiddler and his daughter Beatte Smith was so beautiful there is portrait of her in Belvoir Castle, Manchester.

The Smiths were apparently an important Romani family like the Boswells who the Shelbys claim descendance from and the Welsh Romani woman Tommy seeks to see if the sapphire was cursed is also a Boswell. Eva was originally going to be a Boswell but that would've made her a relative of Tommy and i decided against it.

Riley: anglicized irish last name meaning rye-clearing.

So Eva’s grandfather Patrick Riley was an Irish immigrant and oc nephew to John Patrick Riley, Captain of the Saint Patrick's Battalion who were composed Catholic Irish, Scotsmen. Freed slaves and men of color tired of the racism they dealt with in the US and defected to Mexico right before the Mexican American War in the 1850s.

John Riley immigrated to the US due to the Great Famine and despute being known for his great strength of character and morality died alone and penniless in Veracruz as the torture and defeat of his battalion at the hands of the americans left him with very severe trauma and teh letters D on both sides of his face branded onto his skin for desertion even though he deserted before the war.

It provides as to why Eva is of mixed race and how her grandmother who is old money ended up having red haired children and show how diverse Mexico actually is

[unitedbydevils]

Match Review: Manchester United 4-3 Liverpool (AET)

My heart. I can't. United are off to Wembley, and I'm off to hospital because I think i'm dying.

BRACE FOR A LOAD OF TWEET REFERENCES TOO.

United struck early at Old Trafford and it FELT like it would be our day. We were playing free flowing football, not that Liverpool weren't at the races, but we looked like a rival not an underdog.

Mainoo class, Rashford sharp, Garnacho drawing defenders, Hojlund holding up the ball, Bruno dictating play, McTominay... being saucey... and then bang he scores. SCENES.

This pressure lasted til around the 40th minute and then United fell apart and conceded 2. Classic.

Freddy here queries the focus, but as the image below shows, United without a proper no6 like Casemiro (because McSauce ain't that) are just two disconnected attack/defence units and it's pants.

Mainoo should be an 8. Bruno IS a 10. McTominay is a 10. Mount is an 8. Maybe Amrabat wouldn't have been the right choice, but he would have filled this pocket.

It's tricky for Ten Hag though. McTominay is an ENGINE and evidently committed, and scores important goals, even if he isn't an ideal fit. It's tricky to not pick deserving players.

The hope had faded at the end of the first half, and things were a bit sour. United looked knackered, were showing the cracks of this season all over again, and that frustration was coming out in the form of Captain Bruno's petulence.

I don't personally thing Erik Ten Hag wants United to be so disconnected. I just also think his team NEEDS a ball-playing CB (we only have Martinez) and a proper 6 (ageing Case, unfancied Amra). Two crucial positions to be filled, and that's ignoring the zero depth at CF and the issues form or injury issues at RW/LB.

Second half saw a second chance for United, and none other than substitute Antony scored the equaliser. What.

ETH went full Ranieri tinkerman mode too.

Antony LB, Bruno quarterback, Eriksen deep, Amad on, Mount on later... a full madness occurred and it was amazing.

Praise came through from the fans too - even amidst the tension. Onana had a very good game, Garnacho was everywhere, Mainoo so classy on the ball... hard to call out anyone being poor.

Then of course United conceded yet another deflected goal...

But before that 2-3 position, United COULD have won it at the death in normal time if Rashford had finished - and it wasn't his only missed chance.

The storyline loves a twist and turn though. 3-3 Rashford.

United are on adrenaline now. Buzzing. The Old Trafford atmosphere is fever pitch. Everyone's knackered, cramping, puffing like old dogs, but still both sides battled on. A proper cup showdown.

Fans on both sides were beginning to feel sick.

At 3 all, everyone feared the worst: penalties. You can't deny though that today's game was the pinnacle of a mad weekend of FA Cup football. City Newcastle aside, we had the shock turnaround of Coventry beating Wolves, Chelsea Leicester going the distance, and now United Liverpool. Sensational viewing.

As the end of extra time loomed, Liverpool's attack was broken down and the counter was on. Garnacho - who it felt like had sprinted all game long - and Amad alongside. Two kids against the world, tearing it down the pitch. Shit pass from Alejandro, recovered well by Amad, slight feint, step, weasels it past Kelleher and gently in off the inside of the right post like a snooker finish.

That's all in slow motion, but the crowd and the explosion of noise was like we'd just won at life. Volume. Kids crying with joy. Amad sent off for taking his shirt off to celebrate. Amad-ness. Amazing.

And lo, United did win 4-3 at the death at home to book a semi final at Wembley against Coventry. Not that lower teams have been easier (hi Newport) but I also have more faith in Chelsea of the 3 of us to hurt City.

So yeah, Klopp's hopes of a fairytale season ending are over. I love shit like that. Ruining the party is part of the fun of it all.

We're all knackered, but we're all buzzing. This weekend has been mint, and how often can you say that about a United game eh? Up the fucking reds, and on to Wembley!

[familyabolisher]

[image description: nine tumblr users asking me to talk about triangle of sadness. /end]

SO glad you all asked, completely unprompted. anyway, triangle of sadness is about, in short, a luxury cruise ship sinking and leaving a handful of guests and staff stranded on an island. its principle driving force is this mostly-untapped, vague little handwave towards an ‘eat the rich’-type affect; a lot of its humour relies on moderately exaggerating and satirising (or, god, attempting to satirise) the behaviours of rich people—absurdity, hollowness, vacuity, whatever. you have a guest who insists on all the staff members going for a swim, and one who repeatedly complains that the sails are dirty (despite, as we later learn, the ship not having any sails). this sort of thing is very mid-tier satire. it’s not especially imaginative or cutting, and it doesn’t say very much besides, like, the idea that money makes you alienated and entitled. which … is not enough to carry a film on, lol.

the problem is that the film draws these incredibly broad, clumsy strokes around class politics, and never really puts in the effort to actually take them in a direction that says anything. the greatest heights it ever achieves are ones where it manages to say that some socialists are hypocrites and wealthy people are ridiculous. again—so what? there’s a scene where a russian millionaire and the wealthy marxist ship’s captain (“a russian capitalist and an american communist,” as the joke goes) try to talk about politics but just google quotes from their respective political heroes and repeat them back to one another, which says very little beyond the idea that wealth makes political ideology shallow and performative. this is worthless to me; this is not creative or original commentary. (this is, like … this was the ethos of knives out? cmon.) or like, there’s a wealthy british couple who inform us that they made their wealth ‘bringing democracy,’ which they then clarify to mean that they worked in weapons manufacturing—which was, honestly, insultingly heavyhanded. it’s not an especially clever joke; it’s patronising. (there were a lot of attempts at wit in this film. none of them landed.) in a similar vein, there’s a bit where the marxist captain talks over the intercom about the US’ invasion and installation of puppet dictators in latin american countries. this + the ‘we brought democracy [to the global south] through weapons development, har har har’ part didn’t at all feel like the kind of sharp commentary that the film wanted it to be; it just felt insulting to cast the spectre of imperialist violence in a film that had absolutely nothing to say about it. to use imperialist violence in the global south as a cheap conduit for irritating jokes or very poor efforts at ‘commentary’ on, idk, isn’t this wealthy captain a bad socialist (and isn’t this such a salient thing to say about communism) is just … gross. and betrays the film’s major failing: that it can’t take its own political imaginary seriously enough to give itself any meat at all.

(the weapons manufacturers later get blown up by one of their own weapons, btw. which, lol. it’s not bad but it would’ve been more satisfying if the film hadn’t been so transparently smug about how Great its politics were.)

[content warning for emetophobia, also just unsanitary in general] about halfway through, there’s a sequence that’s literally about twenty minutes long which just consists of the guests getting food poisoning and graphically vomiting and shitting themselves on-screen. this sequence includes, for example, footage of god knows how much diarrhoea spewing out of a septic tank, close-ups on guests vomiting, shots of people on the toilet, and so on, with the apparent aim of this scene being … you know, humiliate rich people by making them shit and vomit everywhere, i guess? it’s toilet humour. it invites the audience to laugh at the rich people, at least in part due to the way the film wants you to imagine them to have brought it on themselves—by fine dining, by the implication that the food poisoning was caused by food being left to spoil when the crew were made to go for a swim, whatever—but it’s, again, devoid of really mobilising anything. after spending twenty minutes watching rich people get ill (which is a cheap shot for humiliation anyway, btw—i do think jokes about incontinence are ableist, besides just being humour for seven year olds) and being expected to laugh at it, the film hasn’t so much as made a dent in unspooling some commentary on their wealth in the first place. it’s not intelligent or thoughtful satire. ‘what if rich people shat themselves onscreen’ is not an interesting thought. [end content warning]

the only truly compelling character the film has to offer is abigail, a cleaner whose survival skills after the shipwreck allow her to take command of the other survivors and demand that she be referred to as ‘captain.’ at the end, once they’ve found potential rescuers, one of the former guests (yaya, an ‘influencer,’ because influencers are lowball for Mocking Rich People—ohhh they’re so vapid and self-absorbed and obsessed with their phones etc etc. this is frankly about as salient and thoughtful as this film’s political commentary manages to get. lol) offers her a job as her assistant, and abigail is implied to kill her with a rock—in response to that request but also seemingly to prevent a return to the old order by which she was underclassed. unfortunately, abigail barely gets any fucking time to develop on the screen, largely due to the aforementioned twenty minute sequence. the pacing of the film is horrible, and the third act feels so rushed that anything actually compelling that could’ve been eked out of abigail’s character gets glossed over and collapsed. 

the film even had threads it could’ve picked up to say something of substance about capitalism, imperialism, whatever—abigail was filipina and a subordinate to paula, her white superior, but the racial element of her underclassing is never addressed and you don’t exactly get the sense that the film thinks about it. one of the other survivors is Black; again, no effort to think about how racialisation affects his relationship with the wealthy white clientele save for a stupid joke about him thinking that people are being racist towards him. one of the wealthy survivors is disabled—the film is very happy to align her with the other Rich People™ rather than taking the opportunity to interrogate how disability disadvantages her in maintaining her class position. it’s a film that wants to be interested in class, capitalism, maybe at a stretch even imperialism, but has no sense of how to say anything thoughtful and worthwhile about it, so has to fall back on boring fucking narratives of power as corruptive and (literal) toilet humour. it’s shallow. i felt patronised the whole way through.

i really just kept thinking—who is this for? what do we actually get out of making a spectacle of rich people for a bit? what’s been said? at the end of the day, what has this actually tried to push me to think about? and it’s: nothing! completely pneumatic spineless worthless film. <3

[primnroses]

If you ever wrote a Naruto fanfic what would your fanfic be about

I would write about Sakura of course. And it's funny because the type of "fanon" I want to see has actually happened or can actually happen if the story progressed in her favor.

There's a few ideas that have been stuck in my mind for a long time and that would be perfect filler material if the studio didn't have such a bias against Sakura.

If I had the talent I would write about Slug Sage Mode (there's a story I'm trying to read about it actually) because I'm really passionate about the concept. And it's actually canon that Sakura can train to be a sage so it's not so fanon.

I'm also a fan of Sakura's development as a kunoichi in taijutsu and medical ninjutsu. I would endlessly write about Sakura's new medical ninjutsu techniques, her path to becoming the best medic-ninja in the world, the bond with Tsunade, Shizune and all her lessons, her first patient and her first death, her first surgery... And all her first fights with Tsunade, her first accident while training, the missions she was given while training and the Chunin Exams. I'd be so interested in writing about the third stage of the exams and her victory in a solo fight to become a chunin.

What I'm invested on the most right now is the time Sakura was promoted to jonin. I know Shikamaru and her were promoted together so I'd write about how it went, her reaction, Naruto and Sasuke's proud smiles, Tsunade and Kakashi actually recommending her for that (imagine two Hokage's recognizing your value) and her first S-rank solo mission. I true dream for me.

Her first genin team would be Naruto and Sasuke. I really want to write jonin captain Sakura going on a mission with her still genin teammates and being in charge. Sasuke and Naruto being stronger but obeying her orders would be so funny, especially since Sasuke doesn't follow orders, he dictates them. It would be a funny dynamic and even funnier to write.

Of course, I want to know Sakura's most inner and personal feelings about her Therapy Center. There's a general idea and introduction but I wanted to see more of that. Sakura working with the hospital staff to open the ward, choosing and training the personnel herself, giving speeches about what exactly she wants to do, traveling to Kumogakure, Iwagakure and other cities to build the same system. I'd like to write about mental health pioneer and best medic-ninja Haruno Sakura.

For the cherry on top, I would want to write about Sakura's promotion to Head of the Medical Department. She would have great responsibility for being in charge of one of the 3 government systems of Konoha and the only one not being under the supervision of the Hokage. It's such a big deal since it's responsible for budget allocations and other important matters. I envision Kakashi honoring her with such a title, a few years after she came back from her journey with Sasuke.

And not only that, Sakura would becomes director of Konoha Hospital so it's double responsibility. I imagine Shizune being so proud of her little student, who now happens to be her boss! Her juniors at the hospital going from Sakura-san to Sakura-sama or sensei.

Also Sakura is a teacher so I'd write about her teachings of first aid or basic medical ninjutsu to the students at the Academy, her medical ninjutsu classes for those that actually want to pursue a career in the field, her own students, etc.

I really want to read or write about Sakura's growth as a professional, as a medic, as a boss and as a mentor. I'm more interested about her path of saving lives than anything else.

[theprofessionalscompass]

From Defeat to Victory: A Journey of Leadership and Resilience

Hello, cherished readers! Today, I'd like to encourage you to travel on a journey that captures the essence of The Professional's Compass: a personal voyage that is a story of aspirations, tenacity, and endurance.

Since my first days of school, I have been in awe of the senior students who are chosen to serve as captains and head boys/head girls. Their leadership made a lasting impression on me and inspired a passionate desire in me to one day assume that role. I was resolved to take charge and serve as a change agent in my school's community.

I gave everything I had to every duty from the moment I took on the position of Monitor/Prefect in first grade and gave everything I had to school activities. I improved my leadership abilities with every year that went by, learning how to uplift and encourage my colleagues. By the time I was in class nine, I was more than prepared to submit my name for consideration for the Assembly Committee, which consisted of professors who chose students based on their abilities and commitment.

I was chosen to serve on the Assembly Committee with unshakeable commitment and a dash of divine grace. My desire to climb the leadership ladder was further stoked by the acknowledgement and sense of accomplishment.

Then came class 10, which was crucial since it was the first time I was able to run for council. As I decided to run for the coveted title of Agni House Vice Captain, excitement sprang within me. The road to success was not without challenges, though. I experienced an unanticipated tsunami of hatred and animosity during the campaign. I yet clung to the hope that I would triumph despite the obstacles.

My heart raced in anticipation as the election results were announced. However, my aspirations collapsed as I realized I had lost. The hit was crushing, and I started to doubt my skills and worry about other people's opinions of me. It appeared as though my aspirations of leadership were vanishing in that depressing moment.

But there was a glimmer of resiliency inside of me—a resolve not to let hardship dictate my path. I decided to pull back, give myself some time to recover, and consider what I might acquire from this experience.

I recommitted to school activities in the couple of months that followed, wanting to learn and develop. To improve my strategy, I acknowledged instances where I could use feedback from peers and mentors. I gradually but steadily turned my attention away from the defeat's disappointment and towards my goal of achieving the title of the Head Girl, the highest position in terms of management in my school.

The epidemic that affected every part of our existence, including school elections, in class 11 presented unforeseen difficulties. Despite the failure, I remained determined to succeed. I remained tenacious, maintained my desire, and patiently awaited the right time to pursue my dream.

I knew it was time to jump again as class 12 approached, bringing with it fresh challenges and chances. I started my campaign with an unflinching commitment, hoping to get the support of my classmates.

The battle to win was a steep one. I held onto my vision and my confidence in myself despite the doubts and worries that threatened to keep me back. I came to see that being a leader wasn't merely about a title but rather about motivating others and having a good impact with each conversation and connection.

The election results were declared at a crucial moment. My palms were clammy with anticipation as my heart raced. Then it happened: I was chosen to serve as Lakshmipat Singhania Academy's Head Girl! Waves of happiness, relief, and appreciation swept over me. This victory wasn't only for me; it was also a symbol of the strength that comes from resiliency, tenacity, and steadfast faith.

In hindsight, this experience offered me priceless lessons. I discovered that failure doesn't mean the end but rather a chance for development. Setbacks can be transformed into stepping stones on the path to success with the help of peers, mentors, and an optimistic outlook.

I hope that my tale encourages you, my readers, to embrace resiliency and unshakeable faith in your unique potential as you travel your path in the areas of leadership, integrity, and personal development. Let The Professional's Compass serve as your compass, pointing you in the direction of success and harmony in your personal and professional lives.

May you have the courage to dream, to fail, and to ascend even higher. In the end, the transforming journey we take to realize our full potential—rather than the final destination—defines who we are. Thank you for coming along with me on this life-changing journey as we set sail for a time when visionaries will dream big and make a difference in the world.

[nicklloydnow]

“That a certain segment of the internet would be so hungry for even a fleeting glimpse of Malick is not surprising. The director is as famous for his closely guarded privacy as his output. He has not given an on-the-record interview in nearly four decades. From 1978, when Paramount released Malick’s second film, the Panhandle-set Days of Heaven, until 1998, when his World War II epic, The Thin Red Line, premiered, Malick more or less vanished. Rumors circulated around Hollywood that he was living in a garage, that he was teaching philosophy at the Sorbonne, that he was working as a hairdresser. Even as he returned to filmmaking, was nominated for Oscars, won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palm d’Or, and doubled down on his experimental style (cinephiles will never stop debating his decision to punctuate a fifties Texas family drama with CGI dinosaurs in The Tree of Life), Malick continued to maintain his silence.

(…)

Malick was born in Illinois in 1943 and spent his boyhood mostly in Waco and Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the eldest of three brothers. His mother, Irene, was a homemaker who had grown up on a farm near Chicago; his father, Emil, was the son of Assyrian Christians from Urmia, in what is now modern-day Iran, and staked out a career as an executive with the Phillips Petroleum Company. Emil was aggressively accomplished, a multi-patent-holding geologist who played professional-level church organ and served as a choir director, and he pushed the young Malick to succeed on all fronts from an early age. (A Waco Tribune-Herald news brief from 1952 noted that “eight-year-old Terry” had “surprised his classmates at Lake Waco Elementary School by presenting a 43-page paper on planets.”) But Emil could be a stern taskmaster, and he and Malick often butted heads. “They had some conflicts over the years,” Jim Lynch, a close friend of Malick’s since high school, told me. “That’s one reason Terry came to St. Stephen’s.”

St. Stephen’s is known as the Hill, both for its steep topography and its aspiration to be an enlightened beacon (as in the biblical “city on a hill”), and Malick thrived in a culture that emphasized spirituality, intellectualism, and rugged individualism. “When I first got there, it was made known that he was the local genius,” Lynch told me. Malick had the highest standing in the class his junior and senior years, served in student leadership positions like dorm council, played forward on the basketball team, and, with Romberg, co-captained the football team, playing both offensive and defensive tackle, an accomplishment of which he’s still proud. (“He says that in football he was ‘the sixty-minute man,’ ” Linklater told me. “Ecky says that the only time he boasts is when he talks about his high school athletic prowess.”)

None of Malick’s peers—or, it would seem, Malick—had any inkling that he would stake out a career as a filmmaker, but he was already exploring many of the ideas that would animate his work. Students at St. Stephen’s went to chapel twice a day, and the spiritual education there was both rigorous and open-minded, with The Catcher in the Rye taught alongside more traditional religious texts in the school’s Christian ethics class. “It was religious in a broad humanities sense,” Lynch said, a conception that Malick embraced. “Terry doesn’t like anything sectarian or dogmatic,” Lynch added. “His grounding is more in a philosophical sense of wonder.”

(…)

After Harvard and a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, Malick began experimenting with more-white-collar careers. He worked for a short time as a globe-trotting magazine journalist, interviewing Haitian dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier and spending four months in Bolivia reporting for the New Yorker on the trial of the French philosopher Régis Debray, who had been accused of supporting Che Guevara and his Marxist revolutionary forces. (Malick never completed the piece.) Then there was a year as a philosophy lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during which Malick concluded that he “didn’t have the sort of edge” required to be a good teacher. And finally, he moved to Hollywood, where he studied at the American Film Institute and quickly became an in-demand screenwriter, working on an early version of Dirty Harry, writing the script for the forgotten Paul Newman–Lee Marvin western Pocket Money, and making powerful friends like Bonnie and Clyde director Arthur Penn and AFI founder George Stevens Jr.

But Malick wanted to make his own film, and he found a story he wanted to tell in the late-fifties murder spree of Charles Starkweather. Though Malick had never directed a feature, he insisted on total freedom and had few qualms about scrapping the production schedule when he became inspired to shoot a different scene or location, exasperating many in the crew. But when Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, opened at the New York Film Festival in 1973, Malick became an instant sensation. The New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it a “cool, sometimes brilliant, always ferociously American film” and wrote that the 29-year-old Malick had “immense talent.” (The Times also reported that getting Malick to talk about Badlands was “about as easy as getting Garbo to gab.”)

Soon, Malick began production on his follow-up, Days of Heaven, a tragic love story starring Richard Gere, Sam Shepard, and Brooke Adams set in the North Texas wheat fields where Malick had worked after high school. Badlands hadn’t been an easy shoot, but on Days of Heaven, Malick’s unorthodox approach had the crew on the brink of mutiny, and when the film finally came out, in 1978, the reviews were decidedly mixed, sometimes within the same review. “It is full of elegant and striking photography; and it is an intolerably artsy, artificial film,” wrote Harold C. Schonberg in the New York Times.

Days of Heaven won an Academy Award for best cinematography, and it is now widely regarded as a masterpiece. (Roger Ebert, delighting in the stunning magic-hour photography and the poetic tone, would judge it “one of the most beautiful films ever made.”) But the experience of making the film had been so grueling for Malick that, according to Badlands producer Ed Pressman, “he just didn’t want to direct anymore.” The year after Days of Heaven premiered, Malick abandoned production on his next project, a wildly ambitious movie called Qasida that he’d hoped would tell the story of the evolution of Earth and the cosmos, and informed friends and colleagues that he was relocating full-time to Paris.

(…)

There is only one publicly available recording of Malick’s voice. Around halfway through Badlands, he makes the single on-screen cameo of his career, engaging in a brief, tense exchange with Kit Carruthers, the Charles Starkweather–like killer played by Martin Sheen. Malick speaks in a slow, soft, higher-pitched drawl. He is unfailingly polite, a little retiring, and warm without being chummy. Malick has one of those voices that lends itself to imitation—broad and regional and distinctive—and when I spoke with his friends and colleagues, I heard several versions of it. They all sounded like the Malick we see in Badlands.

Malick’s friends describe him as a generous and humble man with a capacious intellect and a child’s insatiable curiosity. He likes going deep on birding, cosmological events, and the interconnectedness of the natural world. (“You’ll be talking to him about butterflies in the Barton Creek watershed, and then he’ll start talking about the soil and all the soil insects,” said filmmaker Laura Dunn.) He enjoys discussing the fundamental questions that drive religious and philosophical inquiry and has a deep knowledge of the Bible. (Lynch remembers that after seeing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Malick—a fluent French speaker, with conversational German and Spanish—mentioned that he understood the film’s spoken Aramaic, because he’d grown up hearing it from his paternal grandparents.) And yet, as in high school, Malick can be just as down-to-earth as high-minded. He’ll show up for lunch at an unfussy cafe wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt and talk about football or gush about pop-culture schlock like the genetically-modified-shark movie Deep Blue Sea or drop a quote from Ben Stiller’s Zoolander. (After hearing that Malick was a fan, Stiller made an in-character happy-birthday video for the director.)

(…)

Malick is even more buttoned-up about his work. He politely shrugs off compliments about his films—which, in the old Hollywood style, he calls “pictures”—seemingly agonizing over flaws, missed opportunities, and bad memories of the production. “I’ll mention something like, ‘Hey, I heard there were some seventy-millimeter prints of Days of Heaven. And he’ll say, ‘Oh, gosh, when that opened, I was out of the country,’ ” Linklater said. “I think talking about his work takes him back emotionally.”

Laura Dunn, whom Malick recruited to direct The Unforeseen, a documentary about Austin’s development boom and the pollution of Barton Springs, told me that Malick finds it difficult to watch movies from start to finish. “He’s the kind of artist who seems almost tormented by his need to keep working on something,” she said. “If he’s sitting in a dark room, watching a movie all the way through, he’s restless because he’ll still be editing one of his own movies, or he’ll think about all the things he did that he regrets and wants to go back and change.”

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Malick takes years to finish his films, hiring teams of editors to put together different cuts, and finding and discarding entire story lines during the post-production process. In the final cut of The Tree of Life, Malick resolves the drama at the center of the film by having his young protagonist’s family move away from his boyhood home. There’s a bittersweet sense of a chapter closing and an uncertain future lying ahead. But in an earlier, unreleased version of the film, the story of the protagonist, Jack, ends not with his family’s departure from Waco but on a more triumphant note: he arrives as a boarding student at St. Stephen’s. It doesn’t take a deep familiarity with Malick’s life story to see the parallels between the family in the film and Malick’s own. Jack bridles under the discipline of his stern, accomplished, and ultimately loving father. He worships his angelic mother. He and his two younger brothers turn to each other for support. The film is framed around the premature death of the middle brother. (Malick’s brother Larry took his own life as a young man.)

(…)

Malick’s silence has always seemed, in part, a way to resist such a reading. When Lynch mentioned to Malick that he saw the director’s last three features—The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, and Knight of Cups—as an “autobiographical trilogy,” Malick took umbrage. “He didn’t like me labeling them that way,” Lynch said. “He didn’t want people thinking that he was just making movies about himself. He was making movies about broader issues.” Malick might very well say the same of Song to Song, but nevertheless, it’s tempting to see his latest work as an extension of that discarded Tree of Life ending—the aging director offering a raucous love letter to the city that offered him inspiration as a boy and has sustained him ever since.”