#disaster detective nora

[inlocusmads]

more of disaster detective nora

Because I just want them to thrive on chaos and be proud that they got at least 0.3% of the work done.

lots of scarpering, running and just being like super hyper when she's made a crack in the case

chugging concentration pills like food until she just goes "beh, they don't work" because Nora here thinks she can win her war against sleep

ends up sleeping over a whole mess of files, waking up to find half of them gone because she left the window open fuck

chugs coffee by the metric ton

walks around interrogating people with tired bags under her eyes and just bloodshot pupils, shoving her ID up people's faces and going "TELL ME EVERYTHING." and it's like the scariest shit ever

getting distracted like seven times and sidetracked fourteen times

can't do math. No. No conception of time or space or basic calculations to get a godforsaken doughnut so she's like "hi ok just put it on my card PLEASE I can't do with change"

wearing the same pair of denim trousers five days in a row with perfume

coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee

existential crisis which involves at least three plaguing pieces of doubt in her head

reconsidering her career and going all full disappointed Asian parent "why couldn't I have been a doctor instead?"

Getting sidetracked because there's a magazine and everyone looks like they're having a fest and a half and she's just lowkey jealous but highkey finds them super pretty

Spending a lot of time thinking if she should get a tie because it'll go with her outfit

Thinking if she should splurge on those disco boots and just shave her hair and go absolutely insane and hit mid life crisis at age 32

Remembers she's a responsible adult and does responsible work for two minutes before getting in another hour of nap time, only to wake up at fuckin 9pm at night

Ruby's gone

Luke's gone

Heck even Mafalda has gone after sticking a sticky note on her face, telling her she should get going or else

m o r e. c o f f e e . extra bitter because she hates herself

going through like five depressive episodes because she made like only one decent break in the case and nothing else

Sad-listens to ABBA for a whole hour.

Sad-works and rushes everything up by 12am

Goes back home

Gets yelled at by Uncle Tommy

Doesn't sleep at all. Still thinking about the case. Gets a jolt of LIGHTNING and continues to work on other pending shit at like 3 in the morning

Never sleeps at all

Wakes up at 4, decides to be healthy and goes back to sleep. Wakes up at 5, decides "okay you were in the NYPD for god's sake build up those muscles" and goes back to bed

It's eight. She's late.

Fuuuuuck catch three buses, wait for like fifteen cabs and Ubers, shit, Run Nora, Run! Running, just sprinting across like an absolute mad person.

Finally makes it only for this to repeat over and over and over and over again.

bonus: + trystan's reactions

"Nora seriously, STOP! TELL ME WHERE WE ARE GOING! okay we're -- I thought this guy was in the other street!"

"you need food" "no i-" "actual PROPER breakfast, this is an insult to me and my entire home country" *goes on this passionate slavic rant about how cuisine brought them all together* "and that's why you need proper food!"

"Get a cot." "No, I quite like the desk actually." "You literally have a keypad print on your face. Are you okay."

"Drakovian coffee is better. This American swill is nothing but water mildly flavoured- I SAID WHAT I SAID, DETECTIVE!"

*talking to an annoying witness* "okay I promise my partner here is not dangerous. She's a prominent private--" "AND I'LL TELL YOU ONE MORE THING, YOUR MOTHER-" "detective, you're really not helping your case."

"that is enough Wikipedia for one day, you do not need to know about tectonic plates for now."

"I'm not American and I know how to add cents and dollars!" "I've got this figured out!! It's three-- hold on, three -- what's three plus --" "Seventeen. I've paid for it. Keep the change. Detective, seriously, this is primary school maths! We're cracking open the books now."

"is that the same jeans you wore yesterday?" "No, i have multiple pairs of the same thing." "There's a lollipop stuck to it that's been there since Monday."

"DRAKOVIAN COFFEE IS BETTER." "FUCK YOU."

"you deserve all happiness, Nora."

"you are an excellent private detective and I could not have done anything without-"

"THAT IS ENOUGH VOGUE - oh wait, is that -- my, that is a wonderful piece! Hold on, I'm not finished with this page - this is absolutely breathtaking -- why must people be so wonderful-looking?"

"get a tie." "But I don't want to." "Then don't." "But I want to."

"no." "But disco boots." "As a fashion connoisseur, I forbid you from hitting that button." "Sparkly shit, cmon man." "No."

"YES you are responsible! Finally! We're back on track and--"

"too soon?" "Too soon." "Hold on I died again at this Flappy Bird game, this is STUPID!"

"you're still here?" (Groggy) "of course I am."

"HOW AREN'T YOU ASLEEP" "I WAS" "IN YOUR PENTHOUSE!" "I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE YOU ALONE" "I'LL BE FINE" *more squabbling*

"DRAKOVIAN COFFEE" "Trystan I swear to fucking God I will punch you-"

"it's okay, we'll get back to this" "it's NOT okay!"

"Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight --"

"you'd better get your eight hours worth' of rest." "Yes sir." "No because I might just personally threaten you." "Ha your threats don't work - holy shit okay fine you can stare, glare, I get it fine, FINE."

*More midnight squabbling. Trystan's yelling the importance of sleep at her in Drakovian. Nora's yelling back in Chinese. Both are stupidly sleep deprived to even talk in English.*

"FINALLY, it's eight o'clock! How are you late?" "How are you early?" "Easy, I sleep. And also I got you Drakovian coffee which-" "TRYSTAN THORNE I WILL KILL YOU."

They're just disasters who are openly disastrous only to the other lmao. Nora's like super cool with her aura of mystery and swagger but inside she's like a violent tornado child who shouldn't be left alone for five seconds because she's already wandered off to watch cool explosions and Trystan's the same, except he's the one starting those explosions.

[fictionfromafar]

Unmissable International Crime Fiction Novels from April 2021 onwards

1 April

The Untamable by Guillermo Arriaga

MacLehose Press

A gripping coming of age thriller of vengeance and destiny set between Mexico City's murderous 1960s underworld and the bleak tundras of Canada's most remote province. By the BAFTA-winning screenwriter of Amores Perros.

Yukon, Canada's far north. A young man tracks a wolf through the wilderness. In Mexico City, Juan Guillermo has pledged vengeance.

1 April

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Marissa

Harvill Secker

Five killers find themselves on a bullet train from Tokyo competing for a suitcase full of money. Who will make it to the last station? A bestseller in Japan, Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller which fizzes with an incredible energy as its complex net of double-crosses and twists unwinds to the last station.

15 April

Silenced by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates

Corylus Books

After a turbulent few years, Guðgeir Fransson is back with the Reykjavík police force and is called on to look into the suspicious suicide of a young woman in a cell at the Hólmsheiði prison. On the surface, it looks like a straightforward investigation. As he digs into the dead woman’s past, he unearths links to a man’s disappearance more than twenty years ago.

My review of The Fox:

15 April

We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day by Ivana Bodrožić, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac

Penguin Random House

Nora is a journalist assigned to do a puff piece on the perpetrator of a crime of passion–a Croatian high school teacher who fell in love with one of her students, a Serb, and is now in prison for having murdered her husband. But Nora herself is the daughter of a man who was murdered years earlier under mysterious circumstances. And she wants, if not to avenge her father, at least to bring to justice whoever committed the crime.

15 April

How To Betray Your Country by James Wolff

Bitter Lemon Press

Following on from the acclaimed debut novel Beside the Syrian Sea, this is the second title in a planned trilogy about loyalty and betrayal in the modern world. An authentic thriller about the thin line between following your conscience and following orders. James Wolff is the pseudonym of a young English novelist who “has been working for the British government for the last ten years”.

22 April

Trap for Cinderella by Sebastien Japrisot

Gallic Books

A beach house at a French resort is gutted by fire. Trapped inside are two women - one rich and the other poor. Only one of them survives, burnt beyond recognition and in a state of total amnesia. Who is she, the heiress or her penniless friend? A killer, or an intended victim?

29 April

Geiger by Gustaf Skordeman

Zaffre

The landline rings as Agneta is waving off her grandchildren. Just one word comes out of the receiver: 'Geiger'. For decades, Agneta has always known that this moment would come, but she is shaken. She knows what it means. Retrieving her weapon from its hiding place, she attaches the silencer and creeps up behind her husband before pressing the barrel to his temple.

29 April

Facets of Death by Michael Stanley

Orenda Books

Detective Kubu, renowned international detective, has faced off with death more times than he can count... But what was the case that established him as a force to be reckoned with? In Facets of Death, a prequel to the acclaimed Detective Kubu series, the fresh-faced cop gets ensnared in an international web of danger—can he get out before disaster strikes?

29 April

The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson

Michael Joseph

Una knows she is struggling to deal with her father's sudden, tragic suicide. She spends her nights drinking alone in Reykjavik, stricken with thoughts that she might one day follow in his footsteps.

So when she sees an advert seeking a teacher for two girls in the tiny village of Skálar - population of ten - on the storm-battered north coast of the island, she sees it as a chance to escape.

13 May

Seat 7a by Sebastian Fitzek, translated by Jamie Bulloch

Head of Zeus

Psychiatrist Mats Krüger knows that his irrational fear of flying is just that – irrational. He knows that flying is nineteen times safer than driving. He also knows that if something does happen on a plane, the worst place to be is seat 7A. That's why on his first plane journey in 20 years – to be with his only daughter as she gives birth – he's booked seat 7A, so no one else can sit there. If no one is sat there, surely nothing will go wrong.

My review of Passenger 23 :

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/643950323513311232/passenger-23-by-sebastian-fitzek-passenger-23-by

13 May

The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl, translated by Don Bartlett

Orenda Books

Oslo, 1938. When a woman turns up at the office of police-turned-private investigator Ludvig Paaske, has accepted a routine case to find evidence of a cheating husband but soon enough his assistant Jack Rivers has been accused of murder. Rivers is no angel, and Paaske must dig deep to find out what’s going on. The secrets he uncovers go all the way back to 1920s Norway when smugglers, pimps and racketeers ruled the Oslo underworld.

20 May

Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored by Philippe Georget, Translated by Steven Rendall

Europa Editions

It’s the middle of a long hot summer on the French Mediterranean shore and the town is full of tourists. Sebag and Molina, two tired cops who are being slowly devoured by dull routine and family worries, deal with the day’s misdemeanors and petty complaints at the Perpignan police headquarters without a trace of enthusiasm. Out of the blue a young Dutch woman is brutally murdered on a beach at Argelès, and another disappears without a trace in the alleys of the city. A serial killer obsessed with Dutch women?

20 May

Oxygen by Sacha Naspini, Translated by Clarissa Botsford

Europa Editions

Laura disappeared into thin air in 1999, at eight years old. She was found in a metal container, fourteen years later.

Luca is having dinner with his father dinner when they are interrupted by a visit from the carabinieri, who take his father away. Luca can only watch the scene unfold, helpless. The charges brought against esteemed anthropologist Carlo Maria Balestri are extremely grave: multiple counts of abduction, torture, murder, and concealing his victims’ bodies.

27 May

The Waiter by Ajay Chowdhury

Harvill Secker

Disgraced detective Kamil Rahman moves from Kolkata to London to start afresh as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. But the day he caters a birthday party for his boss's friend on Millionaire's Row, his simple new life becomes rather complicated. The event is a success, the food is delicious, but later that evening the host, Rakesh, is found dead in his swimming pool.

27 May

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

Viking

Mahmood Mattan is a fixture in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, 1952, which bustles with Somali and West Indian sailors, Maltese businessmen and Jewish families. He is a father, chancer, some-time petty thief. He is many things, in fact, but he is not a murderer.

So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all eyes fall on him, Mahmood isn't too worried. It is true that he has been getting into trouble more often since his Welsh wife Laura left him. But Mahmood is secure in his innocence in a country where, he thinks, justice is served.

10 June

In the Shadow of the Fire by Herve Le Corre, translated by Tina Kover

Europa Editions

The Paris Commune’s “bloody week” sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering of young women takes “suggestive” photos to sell to a particular clientele. Young women begin disappearing, and when Caroline, a seamstress who volunteers at a first aid station, is counted among the missing, her fiancé Nicolas, a member of the Commune’s National Guard, and Communal security officer Antoine, sets off independently in search of her.

10 June

The All Human Wisdom by Pierre Lemaitre

MacLehose Press

In 1927, the great and the good of Paris gather at the funeral of the wealthy banker, Marcel Péricourt. His daughter, Madeleine, is poised to take over his financial empire (although, unfortunately, she knows next to nothing about banking). More unfortunately still, when Madeleine's seven-year-old son, Paul, tumbles from a second floor window of the Péricourt mansion on the day of his grandfather's funeral, and suffers life-changing injuries, his fall sets off a chain of events that will reduce Madeleine to destitution and ruin in a matter of months.

15 June

The Transparency Of Time, Leonardo Padura, translated by Anna Kushner,

Bitter Lemon Press

Mario Conde is facing down his sixtieth birthday. What does he have to show for his decades on the planet? A failing body, a slower mind, and a decrepit country, in which both the ideals and failures of the Cuban Revolution are being swept away in favor of a new and newly cosmopolitan worship of money. Rescue comes in the form of a new case: an old Marxist turned flamboyant practitioner of Santería appears on the scene to engage Conde to track down a stolen statue of the Virgen de Regla—a black Madonna. This sets Conde on a quest that spans twenty-first century Havana as well as the distant past to uncover the true provenance of the statue.

My review of Havana Fever:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/631759758177746944/havana-fever-written-by-leonardo-padura

24 June

The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi, translated by Alfred Birnbaum

MacLehose Press

In a nod to Raymond Chandler, The Wrong Goodbye pits homicide detective Eiji Futamura against a shady Chinese business empire and U.S. military intelligence in the docklands of recession hit Japan. After the frozen corpse of immigrant barman Tran Binh Long washes up in midsummer near Yokosuka U.S. Navy Base, Futamura meets a strange customer from Tran’s bar. Vietnam vet pilot Billy Lou Bonney talks Futamura into hauling three suitcases of “goods” to Yokota US Air Base late at night and flies off leaving a dead woman behind. My review:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/641412317374988288/the-wrong-goodbye

24 June

Sleepless by Romy Haussmann, translated by Jamie Bulloch

Quercus

It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven - free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss - kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to be able to refuse.

29 June

Black Ice by Carin Gerhardsen

Scarlet

January in Gotland. The days are short, the air is cold, and all the roads are covered in snow. On a deserted, icy backroad, these wintery conditions will soon bring together a group of strangers with a force devastating enough to change their lives forever when, in the midst of a brief period, a deadly accident and two separate crimes leave victims in their wake.

1st July

The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason

Harvill Secker

A woman approaches Konrad with new information and progress can finally be made. But as Konrad starts to look back at the case and secrets of the past, he is forced to come face to face with his own dark side. In What the Darkness Knows, the master of Icelandic crime writing reunites readers with Konrad, the unforgettable retired detective from The Shadow District.

1 July

Resilience by Bogdan Hrib, translated by Marina Sofia

Corylus Books

Stelian Munteanu has had enough of being an international man of mystery: all he wants to do is make the long-distance relationship with his wife Sofia work. But when the notorious Romanian businessman Pavel Coman asks him to investigate the death of his daughter in the north of England, he reluctantly gets involved once more in what proves to be a tangled web of shady business dealings and political conspiracies. Moving rapidly between London, Newcastle, Bucharest and Iasi, this novel shows just how easy it is to fall prey to fake news and social media manipulation.

8 July

The Therapist by Helene Flood, translated by Alison McCulloch

MacLehose Press

A voicemail from her husband tells Sara he's arrived at the holiday cabin. Then a call from his friend confirms he never did. She tries to carry on as normal, teasing out her clients' deepest fears, but as the hours stretch out, her own begin to surface. And when the police finally take an interest, they want to know why Sara deleted that voicemail.

13 July

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro translated by Frances Riddle

Charco Press

After Rita is found dead in a church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.

My review of Betty Boo:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/633225446612484096/

15 July

The Basel Killings

Hansjörg Schneider

Bitter Lemon Press

It the end of October, the city of Basel is grey and wet. It could be December. It is just after midnight when Police Inspector Peter Hunkeler, on his way home and slightly worse for wear, spots old man Hardy sitting on a bench under a street light. He wants to smoke a cigarette with him, but the usually very loquacious Hardy is silent—his throat a gaping wound. Turns out he was first strangled, then his left earlobe slit, his diamond stud stolen. The media and the police come quickly to the same conclusion: Hardy’s murder was the work of a gang of Albanian drug smugglers. But for Hunkeler that seems too obvious.

20 July

The Double Mother by Michel Bussi, translated by Sam Taylor

W&N

Already shown as a serial on Channel4’s Walter Presents (as The Other Mother), four-year-old Malone Moulin is haunted by nightmares of being handed over to a complete stranger and begins claiming his mother is not his real mother. His teachers at school say that it is all in his imagination as his mother has a birth certificate, photos of him as a child and even the pediatrician confirms Malone is her son. The school psychologist, Vasily, believes otherwise as the child vividly describes an exchange between two women.

22 July

Girls Who Lie Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

Orenda

When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life … until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

My Review of A Creak On The Stairs:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/631717704661942273/

22nd July

The Doll Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Hodder & Stoughton

It was meant to be a quiet family fishing trip, a chance for mother and daughter to talk. But it changes the course of their lives forever. They catch nothing except a broken doll that gets tangled in the net. After years in the ocean, the doll a terrifying sight and the mother's first instinct is to throw it back, but she relents when her daughter pleads to keep it. This simple act of kindness proves fatal. That evening, the mother posts a picture of the doll on social media. By the morning, she is dead and the doll has disappeared.

5 August

The Soul Breaker by Sebastian Fitzek, translated by Jamie Bulloch

Head Of Zeus

He doesn't kill them, or mutilate them. But he leaves them completely dead inside, paralysed and catatonic. His only trace a note left in their hands. There are three known victims when suddenly the abductions stop. The Soul Breaker has tired of his game, it seems. Meanwhile, a man has been found in the snow outside an exclusive psychiatric clinic. He has no recollection of who he is, or why he is there. Unable to match him to any of the police's missing people, the nurses call him Casper.

12 August

Cold Sun by Anita Sivakumaran

Dialogue Books

Bangalore. Three high-profile women murdered, their bodies draped in identical red saris. When the killer targets the British Foreign Minister's ex-wife, Scotland Yard sends the troubled, brilliant DI Vijay Patel to lend his expertise to the Indian police investigation. Stranger in a strange land, ex-professional cricketer Patel must battle local resentment and his own ignorance of his ancestral country, while trying to save his failing relationship back home.

August date TBC

Skin Deep by Antonia Lassa, translated by Jacky Collins

Corylus Books

The corpse of an elderly millionaire is discovered brutally scarred with acid burns. Her young lover is the chief suspect but the authorities admit they are baffled. It will take the intervention of private detective Albert Larten to explore all the complexities of desire, and ultimately reveal the truth.

19 August

Come Hell Or High Water by Christian Unge

MacLehose Press

The first in a new Swedish crime series featuring Tekla Berg – a fearless doctor with a remarkable photographic memory

With 85% per cent burns to his body and a 115% risk of dying, it’s a miracle the patient is still alive. That he made it this far is thanks to Tekla Berg, an emergency physician whose unorthodox methods and photographic memory are often the difference between life and death.

30 September

Night Hunters by Oliver Bottini

MacLehose Press

The fourth in the Black Forest Investigations - by the four-time winner of the German Crime Fiction Award. Over the course of several days one hot summer, a female student from Freiburg disappears, a father is murdered in a brutal attack, a teenage boy drowns in the Rhine in suspicious circumstances. It soon becomes evident to Chief Inspector Louise Boni and her colleagues at Freiburg's criminal police that the three cases are connected - and that others are now in terrible danger. Including Boni herself.

07 October

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun

House Of Zeus

Focusing on the unsolved murder of teenage girl, this literary crime novel offers insights into gender, class and privilege in Seoul, and marks the English-language debut for award-winning Korean author, Kwon Yeo-sun.

In the summer of 2002, my big sister Hae-on was murdered. She was beautiful, intelligent, and only nineteen years old. Two boys were questioned, but the case was never solved. Her killer still walks free.

12 October

Bread: The Bastards of Pizzofalcone

by Maurizio de Giovanni

Europa Editions

Sometimes it takes facing a formidable adversary to truly know one’s worth. The Bastards of Pizzofalcone may have found just that: when the brutal murder of a baker rattles the city, they are ready to investigate. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to prove themselves to their community. But this time the police are divided: for the special anti-mob branch, the local mafia is doubtlessly responsible for the crime, but the Bastards are not so sure and think there may be another reason for the murder of the renowned artisan, whose traditionally baked bread attracted customers from far and wide. A rivalry between the policeman and the magistrate is formed, one that, in the end, will extend to more than just their work lives.

12 October

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock

Crooked Lane Books

It's early September in Copenhagen, the rain has been coming down for weeks, and 36-year-old journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. And then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and ominous letters from an alleged killer.

28 October

Inertia by Camilla Grebe

Zaffre

Inertia is an eerie psychological thriller from the award-winning Swedish bestselling author Camilla Grebe. When 18-year old Samuel finds himself at the centre of a drug deal gone wrong, he is forced to go underground to escape the police and an infamous drug lord.

October date TBC

The Commandments by Oskar Gudmundsson

Corylus Books

On a cold winter morning in 1995, Anton, a 19-year-old boy, met a priest outside Glerárkirkja in Akureyri. After that, he was never seen again. Two decades later a priest is found murdered in the church in Grenivík. When the police investigate the case, they finds that a deacon has also been executed inside Akureyri.

28 October

Cold as Hell by Lilja Sigurdardottir

Orenda Books

Icelandic sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries and aren‘t on speaking terms, but when their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to find her sister. But she soon realizes that her sister isn’t avoiding her … she has disappeared, without trace.

As she confonts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn, and begins to probe her sister’s reclusive neighbours – who have their own reasons for staying out of sight – leads Áróra into an ever darker web of intrigue and manipulation.

28 October

The Rabbit Factor by Antti Toumainen

Orenda Books

What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.

And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.

2 November

Bricklayers

Selva Almada

Charco Press

Oscar Tamai and Elvio Miranda, the patriarchs of two families of brickmakers, have for years nursed a mutual hatred, but their teenage sons, Pájaro and Ángelito, somehow fell in love. Brickmakers begins as Pájaro and Marciano, Ángelito’s older brother, lie dying in the mud at the base of a Ferris wheel. Inhabiting a dreamlike state between life and death, they recall the events that forced them to pay the price of their fathers’ petty feud.

My review of Dead Girls:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/642554449326489600/dead-girls-charco-press

4 November

The Night Will Be Long

Santiago Gamboa

Europa Editions

When a horribly violent confrontation occurs outside of Cauca, Colombia, only a young boy is around to witness it. But no sooner does the violence happen than it disappears, vanished without a trace. Nobody claims to have seen anything. Nobody claims to have heard anything. That is, until an anonymous accusation catalyzes a dangerous investigation into the deep underbelly of the Christian churches present today in Latin America. The Night Will Be Long is a dark, twisting thriller filled with moments of humor and pain--a story that will stick with readers long after they turn the last page.

11 November

The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee

Harvill Secker

When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, the city is on the brink of all-out religious war. Can officers of the Imperial Police Force, Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath? Set at a time of heightened political tension, beginning in atmospheric Calcutta and taking the detectives all the way to bustling Bombay, the latest instalment in this 'unmissable' (The Times) series presents Wyndham and Banerjee with an unprecedented challenge.

[bssaz97]

Rowan’s Trip To Beacon (...Sorta) #2

-Beacon Academy (Volume 2 Time)-

Rowan: So do you all believe me when I say that I’m Ruby and Jaune’s future son?

Ren: Well given how you have been able to back up all of your claims, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t trust you.

Weiss: I’ll have to agree. Despite the complexity of it all...what you’ve said so far is true.

Rowan: Great! Now could we go see Headmistress Goodwitch?

Blake: Actually that’s something I want to ask you about. Why do you want to speak to Goodwitch of all people? Wouldn’t you want to speak to Headmaster Ozpin?

Rowan: Yeeeeeaaaah no. I don’t personally have anything against the headmaster but he may try to, well, interrogate me.

Yang: ....And you think Goodwitch won’t?

Rowan: Don’t worry it’ll be fine. I know Miss Goodwitch, she’s one of the nicest people out there. *innocently smiles*

RWBYJNPR: .....

Nora: Are you sure about that?

Rowan: Yep. In fact here she comes right now. *points behind them*

The two teams look behind them and to their horror they do in fact see Professor Goodwitch walking straight towards them. Her expression was anything but welcoming though.

Rowan: Welp. We should probably go see if we can talk to her- Whoa!

Yang grabs the young boy and throws him into a bush hedge to avoid detection from the absolute livid Headmistress. She wasn’t sure why she did that, perhaps it was her familial instinct kicking in. Also they would have an easier time explaining ‘how their leaders destroyed the courtyard’ instead of ‘how their leaders destroyed the courtyard AND transported their future son to the present.’ It felt weird to think how Ruby managed to get married and have children before her, was SHE even married in Rowan’s time? Questions for later, right now they had to face the “Wicked Witch of Beacon”.

Glynda: *stops in front of them* Mr. Arc and Miss Rose, why am I not surprised by the fact that both of your teams are present at the scene of disaster?Perhaps you could care to explain what transpired in the time between now and the sound of a Bomb exploding the main courtyard! *She exclaimed irritably*

Ruby: Um...w-well...you see...w-what happened was-*figets under Goodwitch’s gaze*

Jaune: It’s my fault Professor! I was showing Ruby an experiment that I made in Dust Studies but it got out of hand. I’m really sorry!

Ruby: Wha-? Jaune what are you doing?! *whispers*

Jaune: Do you really want Goodwitch to know you snuck a possible bomb to Beacon? *whispers*

Ruby: No but I don’t want you to take all the blame! *whispers*

Jaune: Just trying to be a good friend. *whispers*

Goodwitch: You students should know, whispering is more effective when the person you are whispering about can’t hear you. *leans in*

Ruby/Jaune: .....crud.

WBYNPR: *facepalm*

Glynda: Well then, since Mr. Arc admitted to both of your involvement in all of this, I believe it’s only fair that you share in the consequences as well Miss Rose. Your honesty is much appreciated Mr. Arc.

Ruby: Yeah. Thanks Jaune. *sarcastically*

Jaune: Sorry. *hangs head*

Glynda: Now about your punishment. I believe since this is all your doing, you two will spend the remainder of this semester in detention. Along with this, you will have to write ten thousand word essay on the dangers of Dust misusage and why students should not think of it as toys. The essay shall be hand written, work cited by the library, and then turned into me personally during my office hours before the end of the month. Also this will be apart of both of your grades in my class. Am I to be understood?

Ruby/Jaune: Yes mam...

Glynda: Good. Now then you both should get started soon, as there are only two weeks left in the-

Rowan: Hello! *popping from out of the bushes*

Glynda: Good Gods! I mean-‘cough’ Can I help you?

Rowan: Actually you can. You see I was taking a tour with my dad who works as a janitor here but I lost track of him. Could you help me call him for me please? *takes out his scroll with his best innocent face*

Glynda: ...I suppose I don’t see any harm in it. Although I should let you know that your father will have a stern talking with me about leaving children unattended at this school. Also that taking ‘tours’ without my or the Headmaster’s consent is highly frowned upon.

Goodwitch takes Rowan’s scroll, when she takes a look at the device she gains a confused face.

Glynda: Strange... I wasn’t made aware that they were making new models for Scrolls.

Rowan: Actually this a prototype I won in a contest. I’m supposed to be beta testing this one before they announce the new models later on.

Glynda: Oh I see. *nods* Although could you tell me how to select the Call function, this new design is very... foreign to me.

Rowan: Sure thing. *Gets it front of her and puts on some shades* Just hold down that red icon and let go after three seconds.

Glynda: Thank you. You’re quite a polite young man if I do say so-

*FLASH! (Neuralizer Sound FX)*

Both teams saw that a bright light flashed in Professor Goodwitch’s face, and now she had a blank expression on her face. Rowan then takes off his shades to pockets them and then gently takes the scroll from her grasp.

Rowan: Boy that was crazy Miss Goodwitch! We just got done doing a late class experiment outside in the courtyard but things sorta got out of control when a fault box of SDC Dust was sent to the school. Luckily nobody was hurt so that’s a plus... but not so much for the courtyard. Although you’re just happy nobody was hurt and remember I’m a visiting student that won a contest to tour the school for the weekend and teams RWBY and JNPR are assigned to look after me. Also there’s no homework or for the weekend.

Glynda: *blinks* ....oh. Yes of course the contest I do recall. I apologize you had to experience that Rowan, our dust shipments are usually more careful about this. Mr. Arc, Miss Rose could you please escort this young man back to the dormitories, I believe we’ve had enough excitement for today.

Ruby: .....Uh ok? *looks confusedly at Goodwitch*

Jaune: Yeah Rowan...let’s get back to the dorms. *starts walking back towards the campus*

Weiss: Wait a minute. What about their essay?

Glynda: Essay? Miss Schnee, I understand your desire for academic success but I have not assigned any homework for this weekend. You all should take time to make preparation for the Vtyal Festival coming up instead of focusing so much on your grades. *she chastised*

Yang: Yeah Weiss-cream let’s back to the dorm so we can get ready for the weekend! *places her hand on Weiss’ mouth and pushes her forward*

Weiss: Mmphf!

-Team RWBY’s Dorm-

Ruby: What the heck did you do to Miss Goodwitch?!

Yang: Yeah one second she’s turning Rubes and Vomit Boy’s into chop liver and the next she leaves them off scot-free?

Weiss: Now she believes your some tourist at the school.

Rowan: Yeah I kinda figured you all wanted an explanation for that. Well to put it simply, I erased a portion of her memory.

Blake: You erased her memory?!

Rowan: Not all of it... just the last 25 minutes to be exact. More than enough time to cover over the incident that Mom and Dad caused and give her a new one to fill in the gap. So now Goodwitch is not mad at you guys, Mom and Dad don’t have write an essay and I can roam around without a second thought.

Weiss: .....you know I’m actually starting to believe that you have spent time with my brother.

Rowan: Ok to be fair it was Mr. Whitley’s idea to add the neuralyzer to my scroll. I didn’t consent or anything, just said if I was ever in a fix to use it sparingly. Plus I only can use it three times to per day otherwise it has to recharge.

Pyrrha: And you’re completely ok with erasing a poor woman’s memory?

Rowan: Not really, I try to avoid using it if I can but I kinda wanted to help Mom and Dad out of a tough situation. But you don’t have worry about that, she’ll be fine. The neuralyzer doesn’t cause any lasting damage..... I think.

RWBYJNPR: .....

Rowan: But in any case, I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future, or at least until someone from my time tethers me back. So in the meantime we should probably spend some time to relax and hang out. *lays down on Weiss’ bed*

Yang: I’m starting to like this kid.

Jaune: But before we do anything, there’s something we should probably establish before we have you go walking around. First, you should keep the part about being our kid a secret.

Rowan: Ok. Sounds like a good idea Dad. *nods*

Jaune: Also, you should probably stop calling us ‘Mom’and ‘Dad’. It’s gonna lead to a lot of weird questions.

Rowan: Ohhhh yeah, you’re probably right. Ok, anything else.

Jaune: Yeah the less we know about our future, the better. So nobody, and I mean EVERYONE in this room, should ask you serious questions about the future.

Rowan: *nods* Yeah I don’t wanna pull a Back to the Future and blip out of existence.

Ruby: Wait you know what Back to the Future is?

Rowan: Yep. You and Auntie Yang made it a point to watch Classic Movies when me and Summer grew up.

Ruby: ...who?

Rowan: Oh right I didn’t say. My sister’s name is Summer P- Rose 2nd. You named her after grandma.

Ruby: I.....wow. That’s...I don’t know what to say.

Rowan: *raises his hands* It’s ok, you don’t have to say anything yet. You still have A LOT of time before you even think about stuff like that.

Jaune: Ok you see this? *points at both of them* This is what I’m talking about. None of this ok, we don’t want to make anything more weird than it needs to be.

Rowan: Ok so keep my mouth shut. Got it! *gives a thumbs up*

Blake: Do you mind if I do ask something real quick?

Jaune: Wha-? Blake, we just established no asking about our future!

Blake: This isn’t a personal question. I don’t need to have my future told to me.

Jaune: ‘sigh’ Fine. Ask away.

Blake: Rowan, do the White Fang ever succeed in their mission of invading Vale?

RWY: BLAKE!

Jaune: The hell?! That’s not any better!

Blake: You said to not ask personal questions. This is a situational question, therefore it won’t effect my personal life. So Rowan, what happens?

Rowan: ... I’m not gonna tell you that. *serious tone*

Blake: What? Why?!

Rowan: Oh I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to find out about future events that may transpire now or later. So I’m sorry but no I’m telling you anything more than what I need to.

Blake: Rowan, this could be life or death!

Rowan: And if I did tell you, you would want to stop it. But what you don’t realize is that if I were to tell you any information regarding that, not only would that jeopardize my future but everyone else’s future also. Time is NOT something you want to mess around with, because things could get a lot worse by just changing the smallest thing about the timeline.

Blake: *looks away* ...I-I’m sorry Rowan I didn’t think-

Rowan: It’s ok. I get where you’re coming from, but trust me it’s better off this way.

Blake: Ok...

Jaune: Ok so does everyone agree not to ask too many questions about the future?

RWBYNPR: *nods*

Jaune: Great. Now then, Rowan why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself. You don’t need to go into many details, just your likes, dislikes and hobbies.

Rowan: S-Sure thing Da-Sorry! I mean Jaune. Um.... let’s see. *holds his chin in contemplation* Well as far as my likes go: I like to read comics, spend time with my family and friends, and hear stories about-well, both of your teams adventures. Which I guess hasn’t really started yet hehe.

Yang: Well I guess hero worship just runs in the family then. *looks at both Jaune and Ruby*

Rowan: Well you did tell me most of those stories Auntie Yang, so you are partially to blame. *laughs*

Ren: You mentioned wanting to become a huntsman before, any particular reason?

Rowan: Well to put it simply, I always looked up to huntsmen as role models for me. Not because they’re flashy or cool, well not completely. I decided to train to become a huntsman because they serve as beacons of hope for humanity and keep the dark forces of the Grimm at bay. So if I can help in that, if I can make sure that I can protect even one person and keep them smiling then it would be worth it.

Ren: *nods*

Nora: *gets up close* I just have one question for you and it means life or death.....pancakes or waffles?

Rowan: Pancakes duh? You made sure of that Auntie Nora.

Nora: *ruffles his hair* Yep he’s good!

Rowan: Anything else on your minds?

Ruby: Oh I got one! What’s your best memory with ‘Dad’ here? *points at Jaune*

Jaune: Really Ruby, didn’t we just established no calling us his parents?

Ruby: What you said nothing about his personal life.

Jaune: ‘sigh’ Fine. You get a pass, Rowan what’s your best memory of us?

Rowan: ......... *blank stare*

Ruby: Uh Rowan?

Rowan: Oh I’m sorry! I was just thinking, Hahahaha! Wow, best memory with Dad? Um, wow I-I mean there’s...so many memories I have of him it’s kinda hard to tell! Um.......uh......best m-memory? Uh, you know what it was probably that one time that me and him went to an amusement park and he took me on a roller coaster for the first time! Yep that was a great memory! *scratches the underside of his jaw*

Ruby: Oh...well that’s cool.

Rowan: Yeah it was awesome! Say do any of you know if the mess hall is still open because I’m starving actually! Guess time travel can make a kid hungry! *laughs nervously*

Nora: Yeah they should still be open. Ren you’re and I can take you if you want? *gestures to Ren*

Ren: Yes we wouldn’t mind taking you there.

Rowan: Cool! Sounds like a plan! Well... I’ll see the rest of you in a bit!

Yang: Hey Rowan, mind if I tag along?

Rowan: Sure I don’t mind. Anyone’s happy to come along if they want.

RWBJP: We’re fine.

Rowan: That’s ok! We’ll see you later!

The group of four leave to go to the mess hall to find something for the young boy to eat, leaving behind a silence in the room among them.

Weiss: I’m going to assume that we all know that he was lying about that last question.

Jaune/Ruby: Yup. *they nod*

Pyrrha: But that just begs the question. Why would he lie about something concerning Jaune? From his demeanor before, he seemed to have a close relationship with his parents. So why lie?

Jaune: That’s something I hope we can find out?

-Fin of #2-

Hope you all enjoy this next piece! Getting back into the groove of things, so I’ll start getting back to writing regularly. Thanks for all the support and hope you all have a great day! Stay safe and stay smart out there!

Also here’s the sound FX if you guys were wondering:

https://youtu.be/czI4d8ziaPA

[igotublue]

Some thoughts(tm) i forgot to add:

- tbh I didn’t figure Mona was gonna stay on for that long anyway but if that was, in fact, her leaving it felt really... abrupt? sure you could argue she wasn’t there for that long to begin with and didn’t form as much of a lasting bond with some of them as the others have but even Nate got a going away party and he didn’t even leave. (maybe its just me, no disrespect to Nate i adore him)

- I. am. going. to. miss. Rebecca. “you were my favorite” i am in tears.

- Sara being vulnerable always wrecks me 

- Ray “there was a demon inside me” Palmer i would’ve made so so many jokes i respect the self-control 

- I am so pumped to see the different dynamics Ava is gonna have with the other legends now that they’re all living together its gonna be a beautiful disaster 

(Mick and Ava already being a duo is what i like to see)

- Nate “yes i absolutely am gonna let Rasputin hypnotize me and you can’t stop me” Heywood

- Nora really said “yeah ok Gary i’ll let you be with your boyfriend if you promise to leave me alone” iconic

- i am going to be absolutely DEVASTATED when Ray and Nora leave 

- the dynamic with Behrad and Sara is already so good, i had my doubts at first because of Zari but oh my god. Absolutely zero impulse control together unless they want to.

- Detective Beebo implies a whole genre/Beebo universe: games, a tv show, movies, theme song and all (as a massive pokemon nerd i approve)

Sidenote: if anyone wants to scream at me/with me about legends feel free

[chiseler]

Myrna Loy: Keeping Cool

If an actor is said to be “underplaying,” what does that mean exactly? It might mean not doing the obvious thing and not displaying the obvious emotion. Or it might mean feeling various emotions but holding them back and only sharing a tiny portion of them. This is a risky strategy, because most audiences might just think you can’t “act,” at least not in the expected way. When Myrna Loy made The Rains Came (1939), she was thirty-four years old and an established star. The film is what used to be called a “well-mounted” production, filled with dramatic incident and exotic settings and lots of extras and love crises and natural disasters. The role of Lady Edwina Esketh, a dissolute, promiscuous noblewoman who redeems herself through sacrifice and love, would seem to provide a juicy opportunity for showboating. It’s easy to imagine Bette Davis in the role, her eyes popping with restless desire. Whereas Loy had the kind of eyes that always seemed half-closed even when they weren’t.

Loy’s playing of Lady Esketh is cool, modest, almost non-committal, and this approach can seem alienating at first, but if you focus closely on what she’s doing, her under-the-radar work starts to pay dividends. The film’s producer Darryl Zanuck called her into his office midway through the shooting and complained about her performance, but Loy stuck to her own interpretation. She was known for her dry handling of light comedy, high comedy, even farce, and she refuses to play Lady Esketh full out as temperamental or mercurial, as practically any other actress of her time would have done. Instead, Loy keeps her cards close to her vest and lets her knowing attitude do the rest. Her expressive voice is light and almost fey, but very grounded, with ringing intonations, and this makes it different from a huskier yet more vacillating voice like Jean Arthur’s.

Even when Lady Esketh changes her tune, Loy doesn’t go all Noble. In fact, underneath the self-sacrifice her Lady Esketh seems to be as flip and above-it-all as ever, somehow, and this works well for the film. “I hate scenes,” she tells her lover George Brent, and this would be a laugh line for a Davis or a Joan Crawford, but Loy is an actress who actually does hate “scenes” or drama. She’s basically detached, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have feelings. It’s just that she doesn’t parade them around as other performers do.

This instinct Loy had for underplaying didn’t always work out so well. In Parnell (1937), Loy and Clark Gable do a lot of walking around and talking quietly to each other, and they come off like zombies in period dress. But her moderation in many other films was so unusual and original that Loy fashioned her very own type of screen character. She was almost never a working girl, but more usually a wife, a mistress, a lady with money and time for play, so fetching that she got away with lots of nose wrinkling and eyelash fluttering without ever seeming coy.

As a young girl, Loy had seen Eleonora Duse on the stage, and she had admired the restraint of that fabled actress. “Oh, I could have cried all over the place in many of my films, but it just didn’t feel right,” she said in her charming 1987 memoir, Being and Becoming. “The audience loses respect for the character. It seems that instinctively I’ve done this kind of underplaying a good deal in my work. That brand of acting had impressed me since first seeing Duse. She had an inner light, you see; you’ve got to have it…You can’t be thinking about how many people you’re having for dinner.” According to Loy in her book, nearly all of her leading men and many of the other men she met developed crushes on her, and that’s understandable. She had the damndest nose, turned up at the end and elaborately structured, and that reserved, hard-to-get manner that promised the deepest bliss if you could melt some of her reserve.

Loy was born in Montana, and she began her career early as a dancer in live prologues for silent films. She was an extra in the original Ben-Hur (1925), and for the next nine years she made eighty-odd movies, mostly in bits. As a maid in Ernst Lubitsch’s So This Is Paris (1926), Loy just walks across a room. She’s a lady in waiting to Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (1926) and a chorus girl in the first talking movie, The Jazz Singer (1927), and she was continually cast as vamps and tramps, often of Chinese, Latin or all-purpose “foreign” extraction.

In her first full talkie, The Desert Song (1929), Loy plays Azuri: “That name means tiger claws!” she informs us, in a hilariously BEEG! accent that she came up with herself. She’s very sexy in that movie, but she’s also making a kind of joke of sex, and this campy attitude also informs her Yasmini in John Ford’s The Black Watch (1929) and her gypsy temptress Nubi in The Squall (1929). Loy is enjoyably over the top in these roles and in some of her other vamp parts of this time, and she worked so often in this exaggerated fashion that maybe she was just all tired-out by the time she became a star in 1934 with The Thin Man, and so she made a low-key style out of this tiredness.

Loy is a hoot in The Truth About Youth (1930) as a gold-digging singer with a temper, and she was time-stoppingly lovely in her brief role in Ford’s Arrowsmith (1931). She had one promising scene with Robert Young in New Morals for Old (1932), but then the film drops her entirely. Loy steals Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight (1932) with just a couple of naughty lines, socking them home in an attention-getting way that’s rather far removed from her later laidback delivery, but she was still being cast as vixens in racist concoctions like The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), where her Fah Lo See delights in having men whipped, and Thirteen Women (1932), where her hypnotic half-caste takes methodical revenge on a bunch of sorority girls who spurned her. It must have taken much stamina and patience to wait out all these years and all these small and unworthy parts. She had a lead in a modern dress version of Vanity Fair (1932), which was shot in ten days at a poverty row studio, sometimes from 4AM to 4AM. Loy does an intriguingly subdued Becky Sharp, but maybe she was too exhausted to play it any other way.

The speedy director W.S. Van Dyke took her in hand in 1933 at MGM, and her parts began to improve. She thrived with John Barrymore in the sophisticated comedy Topaze (1933), and she fell in with her best partner, William Powell, in Manhattan Melodrama (1934), where she also tussled with Clark Gable. The Thin Man was made by Van Dyke in sixteen days, and it set up a long-running formula for Powell and Loy that proved irresistible. As Nick and Nora Charles, a private detective and his heiress wife, Powell and Loy struck up a bantering attitude with each other that still feels like a fresh and attainable ideal of marriage.

The mystery plots of their six Thin Man films were usually perfunctory, but that didn’t matter because audiences really came to see Nick and Nora verbally jousting and keeping each other entertained. Just listening to them is a pleasure: Powell with his deep, plummy voice and Loy with her bright, high, tinkling one. “They hit that wonderful note because he always did a wee bit too much and she underdid it, creating a grace, a charm, a chemistry,” observed George Cukor.

Nick and Nora are party people, and the running gag in their films is that they always want to get a rest or take a break but they never seem to, and that suits Loy’s Nora just fine. She married Nick for excitement and great sex and teasing that always goes right up to the edge of being dangerous but never topples over into hurt feelings (it did just one time, in After the Thin Man (1936), when Nick drunkenly mentions making a mistake and Nora for a brief moment thinks he means he was mistaken in marrying her because her family is so stuffy). Nora can be slightly dizzy, but she is also flexible and tough. “There’s a girl with hair on her chest!” says a cop in The Thin Man, after Nick and Nora have just gotten out of a scary scrape with a gunman and she comes out blithely crying for more action.

As she watches Nick shooting the ornaments off their Christmas tree in The Thin Man, Loy shoots Powell an only semi-loving “You are beyond belief” look, a very modern kind of juicily sarcastic look that is also in some sense unreadable. Nora’s love for Nick is a private and multi-leveled thing, and Loy will only reveal a small bit of it. They both see the fun or absurdity in practically any situation, even things that would irritate most of us. “We were married three years before he told me he loved me,” Nora says in The Thin Man Goes Home (1944), and she relates this in an admiring way, because they both like to avoid the obvious, or look askance at it.

The seven or so other films Loy made with Powell were often ordinary, but they were always redeemed by their give-and-take, their rapport, his two-drinks-in silliness and her quizzical, nearly deadpan reaction to him. Loy is at her peak in Libeled Lady (1936), playing a quasi-bitch in the first half but then softening beautifully when she falls for Powell. It’s clear that she’s a former dancer because she always moves gracefully, and distinctively: there’s a difference between the louche posture of her call girl in Penthouse (1933) and the ramrod straight posture of her rich playgirl in Libeled Lady, which suffers from unimaginative direction from Jack Conway. Loy too seldom worked with top directors. She’s at her womanly best in Test Pilot (1938) with Gable and Spencer Tracy, and she brought all of her tenderness to the smallish role of the wife in her most famous movie, William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), but it seems a shame that she never worked at length for Lubitsch, or Preston Sturges, or Howard Hawks.

As an older woman, Loy concentrated on progressive politics as her career wound down. She played one hilariously timed scene where she fussily picks paint colors in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), but she had little chemistry with Cary Grant, who needed a more extreme woman to react to. Loy was a mother and feminist heroine in Belles on Their Toes (1952) and she worked in a more histrionic vein in Lonelyhearts (1959) and From the Terrace (1960), proving that she could play this way if she wanted to, but it isn’t much fun seeing her argue with a nasty Robert Ryan or stumble around drunk as Paul Newman’s mother, so far from her usual context.

She worked on stage and bowed out gracefully with Summer Solstice (1981), a short teleplay about an aged married couple where she was still teasing and fun loving with her mate, Henry Fonda. They called Loy the perfect wife, but her own four marriages didn’t work out, and the second one, to rental car heir John Hertz, Jr., was particularly bad. Hertz gave her a black eye once, and surely there is a special place reserved in hell for the man who gave Myrna Loy a black eye. As so often with these stars, real life did not live up to screen life, and she herself did not get enough of the pleasure that she gave to us.

Loy was one of the rare stars who seems to have been much like the person we see on screen: tolerant, sophisticated, nice without being sugary, dignified without being rigid, treating life with amused sang-froid. She was the sexiest and smartest of role models, all the more attractive and suggestive for keeping so many things to herself.

by Dan Callahan

[katrinakenyon]

Nora and Gary working together to get to the bottom of a Bureau conspiracy?! Yes! 100% would watch a cop dramedy about these two, where Gary is the total goofball detective that no one wants to partner with because he’s kind of a human disaster. He gets all the shitty, lowbrow cases that no one cares about and somehow manages to solve a high percentage of them, not that anyone notices or cares.

Nora is the wicked smart rookie detective that everyone in the precinct avoids because of her mob boss father. She gets partnered with Detective Green her first day because everyone is scared and/or suspicious of her, but seriously no one hates her dad more than she does. Detective Green is just as much of a disaster as everyone says, but the man’s a freakin’ energizer bunny. He never gives up. He chases down every single lead until he comes up with something. His solve rate is actually kind of high? Which is weird becuase the guy set his desk on fire twice last week. Twice!

After working together for a few weeks, Gary literally stumbles into some evidence that could tie Damien Darhk to a drug trafficing ring and some major illegal arms deals. The case gets handed off to the precinct’s star detectives, Sharpe and Lance, but Nora keeps working the case on the downlow because its personal. Gary finds out and they end up working togother. Partner solidarity or whatever. Its kind of a mess, but at this point Nora’s used to it. She hacks, Gary snoops around her dad’s businesses and almost gets kidnapped twice. Twice! He also somehow manages to set her desk on fire? Anyway, they manage to catch her dad in the middle of an illegal arms deal with an up and coming gang. They make the arrest and get the glory and finally get some respect in the precinct.

Anyways, I want a Gary and Nora friendship. That’s all.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Magia Record 4 | Uchitama 3 - 5 | Eizouken 5 | Iruma-kun 17 - 18 | BnHA 76 - 79 | ID: Invaded 5 - 7

Magia Record 4

There’s a fish behind Iroha. Also, I was confused about the ketchup cake thing Jenn mentiond in one of her posts until I saw it here.(On a related note, ketchup cake seems to really exist…but only in Canada.)

Ah! Tsuruno. I’ve heard of her from reading around about this mobage.

The coding of the episode went funny again…

I feel like despite this being everything Madoka was, this seems to have lost some of the charm somehow. I’ve been reading that others are having similar experiences, though. Update: I think I know why now…although there are magical girl events fuelling the entire thing, the show is currently more bent on being a CGDCT. That’s why I’m not so happy with it…I dunno about others, though.

I suspected Séance Shrine was Mizuna Shrine…I mean, it was right behind Iroha and co.

Who was that blonde girl…?

I thought I just saw face-stealing aliens swoop in (i.e. someone didn’t bother drawing in the girls’ faces). I thought that was just a Bones thing exclusive to BSD.

“Olibe oil” (sic). Also, there are creepy blue (green?) figures walking the aisles…

I notice Iroha needed an extra bounce to get over the gate.

What’s that orange marking on the girls’ faces…? Update: Reading the wiki reveals it’s the Witch’s Kiss, or something similar to it.

Uchitama 3

Well, it says “chome” but gets translated to “street”…which is a bit weird. A chome is a city district, which functions much like a street but isn’t the same.

I just realised the title card has a dog’s face on it. Maybe next time it’ll be a cat’s face…

Oh my gosh, it’s a Yu-Gi-Oh duel! Teenager-ness…(?) What is that (LOL)?! *squints at screen* Oh, chuunibyou. That makes sense.

They even materialised the (Gon’s) chair! (LOL)

At least this matchup isn’t Bull vs. Momo…thank goodness(!)

I seriously love how much skin they make Bull show…(LOL…?)

Well, if the race to the top is exciting then the race to the bottom should be humiliating, no? That’s how these things work.

LOL, just seeing a badass dude that’s meant to represent a wolf howling like one is hilarious. (But seriously, are any of these neighbourhood dogs a Bad Enough Dude, to paraphrase an old game meme?)

Don’t Naruto run, Pochi! It’s dangerous!

Ahhhhhhh, so that’s why people call Pochi “Shiro” and feed him tofu…

The video got encoded funny again…

Uchitama 4

This is like Wakasa all over again…

The “My Name is Gon” title is a reference to “I Am a Cat” (Wahagai wa Neko de Aru). It actually doesn’t have the word for “name” in there, which is a bit weird…Update: It’s about the day-to-day introspection and life of a cat and the wagahai suggests the cat thinks rather highly of himself, so I’d assume the former (applied to a dog of course), if not both of those things to be part of this.

The fact that Gon doesn’t move his mouth while telling us weird things (such as how Bull’s sweater reminds him of an old lady in Osaka) is hilarious. It’s almost like a play with Gon as narrator.

See? That titlecard has a different dog’s face now! (I believe it’s Kuro’s, actually.)

This series is actually really informative about cats and dogs!

The Detective Conan parody cat is pretty interesting in regards to how the series wants to play with the human/animal dichotomy.

Now the titlecard has a cat’s face.

This song is so energetic! The banners are pretty funny too – I mean, “trying to get a ripped body” is impossible for a dog, right?

Yyyyyyyyup, Ume is singing this song (Sanchome no Hoshi* or The Star of 3rd District*)! I’m being spoilt!

Eizouken 5

Iron Giant…I thought the name sounded familiar. Turns out it’s a Brad Bird-directed movie.

This episode is very Scott...LOL.

I like how they showed the back of the guy to correspond with the back of the robot.

Iruma 17

Gap = sukima, as you might know from a post I made re: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun puns.

“Yes, boss!” in English.

Why do people being questioned  at a koban always have katsudhum? (Hataraku Maousama reference)

Ooh, this long-haired demon from the Game or New Magic battler is hot!!!

That's the 1st time Acchan and Bakemi appear...

I'd assume the ga in Gabuko means gakkou (school).

Now it's ki su ma...(instead of sukima)

Iruma 18

Aw, Kiriwo's so cute...

...and he's now a sadist. (Good job, me...I don't like sadists much.)

The cyclops girl's name is Dosanko, huh?

Hanabi are "fire flowers" (translating somewhat literally), which is why they "bloom" in the translation.

Update: Oh, I accidentally skipped ep. 17. I was wondering how Sabro got to hold up Comecome's stall…

BnHA 76

I’m not sure how the subbers got “Go entropy! Plus Chaos!”, although it might have something to do with Saikou da! (which I made out from listening to the audio).

Okay, now you can hear them say “Plus Chaos”.

Note Overhaul’s eyecatch background is purple, which contrasts Deku’s green. By the way, the eyecatch says that Overhaul belongs to the Shie Hassaikai and not the League…the guy’s always been picky about not being associated with the League.

The one time I turn the volume off, I don’t need it (LOL).

Dame da is closer to “It’s useless” or “You’re useless” than “Naughty girl”, subbers.

The coronavirus has taught me that masks make people seem less human, especially those with weird mouths like Overhaul’s plague doctor/bird one.

BnHA 77

In one of the Discord servers where Mudamaid appears, I decided to take Chronostasis. Why? He isn’t that bad-looking when he hasn’t got his mask on, to be real with you.

Froppy uses “senpai”, not Tamaki’s hero name.

I believe Tamaki calls Tsuyu “Kero-chan”, hence “Miss Ribbit”.

I wanna cry…I know Nighteye won’t see All Might again until All Might himself dies…(and this is because I’ve read the manga – thanks Viz and Shonen Jump for doing that!)

Shigaraki makes me beg the question…where do those hands of his come from??? Update: Ewwwwwwwww, those hands come from individuals affected by Tomura’s Quirk! (I think that’s a spoiler though…)

I almost got to the point of crying. I mean, I knew it would happen, but seeing it animated…makes it worse, y’know??? (Also, I accidentally might’ve stuck my finger in my eye when I was trying to wipe away tears, so either way, I teared up.)

BnHA 78

Huh? This OP is awfully cheerful after Nighteye’s death…I think it’s called Star Maker? Update: Star Marker by Kana Boon.

Well, you do realise I don’t know about anything after this point…all over again. So your surprise will be mine too.

LOL , it’s a Titan! (Apparently – according to the wiki pages I read – Gigantomachia is based on the Titans of lore, so…that’s true in more than one sense when you take into account Attack on Titan.)

The birbs are so cute!

That was just a few solid minutes of recap. Not as bad as Detective Conan where they frontend it, but still bad.

Hmm? I thought I saw black hair on Kurogiri…?

“He’s a walking disaster.” – That’s what I’d say about Bakugou, LOL.

Shouto “Daddy Issues” Todoroki taking the stage again…not that I mind, but…isn’t this Midoriya’s story?

I think I saw a Funko Pop All Might in the ED…?

You can see someone with a red wing Quirk. Based on what I’ve read around, that guy is Hawks.

Deku’s shirt at the end says “sheets”, not “shirt” (it’s missing a small ya).

BnHA 79

“…and I like udon better!” - *facepalm* That’s not how you make friends, Yoarashi.

Gang Orca’s like the Gordon Ramsay of heroes…with much less swearing.

*laughs behind hands as kids spill out the door* Welp, this is going to be real good.

This blonde kid is basically Monoma ver. 2!!! I hate him already!!!

Oh…that’s surprisingly strategic, Bakugou…*shows image of kid being dangled by a rope* Uh…or maybe not.

Who’s this guy with the bolo tie, anyway…?

Uchitama 5

I seriously thought this cat was Nora…(Sakura)

Does “big sister” refer to Lilly or another cat…?

Oh, I was wondering why Sakura didn’t have a cat tail…turns out she’s a pig. (Huh. It reminds me of a kinder version of the Africa Salaryman mixer joke.)

I like how open the series is in regards to interspecies love. Then again,…bestiality is an absolute no-no in my books, so maybe not.

Is it just me, or is there a slight bruise around Nora’s left eye…?

It’s like a Boueibu reunion! Shirai and Ume at the baths! Yay~!

There’s something absolutely silly about seeing anime boys hide in cupboards like cats. It puts a stupid smile on my face, like Eizouken does.

“I told you to get in the bath already!” – Gaddammit, Koma!

How do Gon’s glasses not fog up in the bath? (MST3K mantra required)

Oh, Nora does have a bruise around his eye! What’s it from, though?

Way to upsell Koma’s services, Kuro. (partially sarcastic…?)

“Can I say we’re having a doggone good time?” – Remind me to check what that sounds like in Japanese later. Update: Kuro says something that sounds lik izoizo in the line beforehand and then matches it in this line. In order to match the puns, there’s a pun in the English translation too.

ID: Invaded 5

Matsuoka’s glasses thing reminds me of Kanamori (Eizouken)…

“hole experience” – Is that a pun…?

Never ask a woman her age.

Hmm…”maidenly innocence”…

Why do some people believe “never mind” is one word???

I just noticed there’s a differently coloured bar on the title card…maybe that’s how far into the episode you should be. Also, is this well a pun on “falling for you”?

I noticed the blood had a weird texture to it. Also, I noticed the woman had heterochromia bfore it was pointed out she’s not real.

I have a theory. See, John(nie) Walker is an alcohol (sake) brand, right? This is Sakaido (as opposed to Anaido, who’s the Perforator and ana = hole). It’s the same character, so (I suspect) Sakaido’s crime has to do with alcohol…

Hmm…this ain’t gonna pass the Bechdel test after all…

Oh! Post-credits segment! Keep watching.

ID: Invaded 6

“Matsuoka was injured” – Er, he still has the knife in him…?

Ohhhhhh…this has gotta be Hondomachi!

I predict Hondomachi and Sakaido are going to go head-to-head someday. Update: Or those two vs. Johnnie Walker.

There was a cut-off footprint…

Isn’t it possible for a person to kill someone without knowing their name?

*cries* Sakaido! I’ve never seen you so emotional before…!

ID: Invaded 7

So Narihisago did look like Sakaido at one point…when his daughter was murdered.

The thing that reads cognition particles has “Back ground. Rad. Lev.” on the bottom of its screen.

I don’t have the sound on right now, so I dunno what Matsuoka was reacting to specifically…(aside from the guy owning up to whatever was done.)

Interestingly, Katsuyama has the character for “win” in his name. However, this is the only link I’ve found between the serial killers and their names.

There’s a character which appears in both the word for “martial arts” and one of the (dead) professional fighters – Takehiko Fujita. It means stuff like “war” and “military power”.

Oh! There’s a bar on the titlecard and this one is up to 900 of 1200…I wonder what that means? Is that an indication of time, perhaps? Also in the bottom left, “CAM 025”.

Miyo Hijiriido?! Oh my gosh! This is new, indeed!

Okay, so the characters for Miyo look like this: 聖井戸 御代 The first character in “Miyo” is the same one that denotes “go” in goryoushin (formal way to denote “parents”) and similar words in keigo. The characters which aren’t “well” (water well) are the character for “saint/holy” and “age” (as in the period of time, alternatively “generation”), aside from the one I’ve already discussed. Therefore, I’d suggest Miyo is actually “the great detective [who ushers in a new] age” or “the great detective [of the current] age”. Update: Apparently Miyo means “age of a ruler”, as in the period of their reign (specifically referring to the emperor if it needs to be). I’ve heard there’s specific words in the Japanese language used only to refer to the imperial family…this is probably one of them. That specific name combo (as “odai”) is also a very polite way to refer to spare change, although that doesn’t seem very useful to know.

What’s that thing on Tamotsu’s wrist…? (A watch? Wouldn’t that be illegal in a prison like this?)

Interestingly, all other killers wear white. Narihisago is the only one in black (or brown…or whatever colour that is).

What would Miyo need a key for? The key to the mystery, or a physical key?

I don’t think you can see Narihisago’s face in any of the pics he has of Muku or his wife.

Ooh…Sakaido’s pretty ripped. (Me likey…not that I would like a killer…)

Why is Sakaido…or I should say Narihisago…dead in his own imagination, huh?

Hmm…Miyo wears a black singlet or sleeveless top of some sort under that cape...poncho…Holmes cosplay thing. She still has a gun in her detective form, too.

Notably, no detective wears a skirt in this world…*sigh* So much for Nancy Drew and Miss Marple…

Muku has smiley faces on her hair decs.

Does that mean you’ve met the real Muku…? (I think this is Momoki speaking about Muku.) Update: It might be Habutae, actually. I never really got a grasp on the names of the peanut gallery.

Hondomachi’s never seen the cockpit in real life, right?

Well-ception! (It’s a bit of a joke that when there’s something in something, I call it [X]ception as a homage to Inception.)

Table flip! That meme hasn’t been around for a while, come to think of it…

I find it interesting that they point to the circles of the roof when talking about pi. As you know, the circle and pi are related.

Hmm? I don’t remember seing the quote “Let us try to make this world a better place” in this episode…

[robininthelabyrinth]

Inspiration send: in a world where Barry is the green arrow not the flash, how does this translate with Coldwave? Badly, can you even imagine Ray of sunshine arrow, it's a disaster.

Honestly, while I only saw, like, one or two seasons of Arrow, I kind of love the idea?

Like. Barry is just tempermentally unsuited to be dark and dramatic Arrow. And if Len and Mick found out that someone was planning to do to their slums what Merlyn and his lot were planning to do/did to the Glades, they’d go anti-hero at once.

Much easier to team up with an obvious motive than, well, “Wells is bad we’d like to stop him plz help”.

Ahhh, I have so many questions about how it happened, though! Did Barry go on a boat and somehow get stuck in Lian Yu? Because if he did, Slade is totally his bff now. Sorry, those are the rules, Barry makes dumb decisions too but unlike certain other people he's A+ at making friends (sorry Oliver), he’s going to come back to Central City with a big burly ex-assassin friend to keep him company. Slade likes Len and Mick at once and advocates for them to join the team on a more long-term basis and they don’t want to but he’s very convincing, what with all the sharp weaponry.

As for Coldwave itself, I don’t think that would change much - Len still likes the adrenaline rush of fighting a superhero, Mick still likes fighting, period, and fighting by Len’s side more, and Barry’d still be shit at actually killing people. Unless we want to give them powers/backstory like some of the miscellaneous Team Arrow, I think they’d be very comfortable in a sort of anti-hero role, occasionally helping out the team take down bad guys that pissed them off.

Especially since Barry really can’t call them out on the thieving, what with his MURDER SPREE.

…I feel like Cisco and Iris are both Felicity in this story, though. Cisco for the tech side, Iris for the love interest. Unless Iris is also Laurel, which I’d be okay with, though I can’t really see Barry cheating on her if they were together. Just not going to happen, ever, in any universe. Iris would make such a badass lawyer, though!

Though now that I think about it, Iris and Laurel both got to be the person who was lied to and gaslighted in their first season, so yeah, Iris = Laurel makes sense. Hopefully without the alcoholism. And definitely without the getting killed in a stupid way.

(I’m okay with a Barry/Iris/Cisco love triangle, but only because I feel like they’d be infinitely more willing to solve things with polyamory or at least taking turns than the Oliver fiasco. Does that mean Caitlin is Diggle? That’s hilarious. “I’m hiring you a personal doctor and that’s that, Barry, so stop ditching her!”)

Also, is Barry’s mom still dead/dad in prison? I can’t see Henry and Nora Allen being evil the way Oliver’s parents were, so I kind of like the idea that he has the same sort of background but just things happened and now he’s an Arrow-based superhero, sorry Wells. But if that’s the case, how did Barry get involved, even remotely, in the Glades conspiracy thing anyway? How did he get the list of names for the whole “You Failed This City”? Did he just find it or something?

Ooooooh, extra points for Barry still being a CSI and using his CSI skills to figure out whodunit. God, I would be so here for Barry-as-the-Arrow being the set up for a more detective-style approach.

(Also, let’s talk Team Oliver as metas! Killer Frost!Sara Lance, anyone??? Vibe!Felicity who can’t even say her own superhero name without snickering and innuendo? Diggle is still just Diggle, but someone needs to be the Joe West of the group, sorry Diggle. Also, Oliver Queen would totally use Flash powers to continue his playboy lifestyle SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVELY, “look I’m totally in two places at once, just a few seconds difference” - except his mom is still evil and all that, so he still has to deal with that weirdness. Except unlike in canon she doesn’t die because she was a pretty cool character and also fridging moms sucks.)

Honestly, so much of this AU will be a blast, depending on how much they swap up. I don’t expect the show will do a great job with it, not really, but I’m definitely up to see what they do and how we as a fandom can make it EVEN BETTER.

[cfroyharper]

I would absolutely love to get some new threads going for some of my kids so please COMMENT HERE with who you would like a starter with & which character of yours: roy harper, dick grayson, itsuaki akihiro, adrianne rayner, tobias osborn allan, apollo west, nadir dane summers, thomas curry II, t’charra, uriah fries, eli rasputin, elana dent, natasha romanoff, coralie beaubier jinadu, or ronen haller

Info on each below the cut:

roy harper - fc: domhnall gleeson, 45, he/him, archer, weapon specialist

archer, formerly speedy, formerly red arrow, former addict, now arsenal & archery instructor, giant dork, dresses like he’s camping 24/7, full of quips and sarcastic jokes, tinkerer, creates weapons, whatever gadgets come to mind, ‘rockabilly genius’, loving father godfather and uncle, engaged to jason todd

dick grayson - fc: adam rodriguez, 45, he/him, acrobat, expert hand to hand combat, highly skilled detective

acrobat, the first Robin, ‘boy wonder’, former circus kid turned billionaire’s first son, now nightwing & gymnastics teacher , high rises, daring jumps, overdramatic, very openly a giant dork, big heart, loves his family, too much trauma, genius level intellect, fashion disaster, adores his family, would die for his children

itsuaki akihiro - fc: ryan potter, 22, he/him, son of Daken Akihiro, bone adamantium claws, accelerated healing, pheromone control/manipulation

not quite a villain but not a hero either, traveled with his father until he was 15, never knew his mother, more shadows than light, more friends than he realises, expert fighter, skeptical and cynical, loves soft things more than he cares to admit, hot drinks and nights in, has more aunts and uncles than he can count

adrianne rayner - fc: cierra ramirez, 19, she/her, daughter of Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu (biological), green lantern ring

green lantern, space baby, part alien, yellow eyes & pointed ears, grew up on Oa, trained and skilled fighter, ray of sunshine, loves exploring, travelling, optimistic to a fault, serious mother issues, artist, paints and watercolour, always has a sketchbook in her bag, wild imagination but wildly innocent, a little naive, loves learning but hates school

tobias osborn allan - fc: francisco lachowski, 23, he/him, son of Liz Allan and Harry Osborn (biological), goblin serum enhanced

normal kid turned rich, enhanced with advanced goblin serum, former party boy, law student, avid studier, loves music written by his boyfriend, gym addict, genius level intellect for business and law, loves exploring, learning, experiencing as much as possible, reading, studying, lazy afternoons in parks with books and snacks, huge hopeless romantic, way too charming for his own good, knows he’s hot and he’s not sorry about it

apollo west - fc: cameron monaghan, 26, he/him, son of Wally West (biological) and Artemis Crock (adoptive), conduit of the speedforce

speedster, twin, police officer, kid flash, future flash, terrified of death, terrified of failure, full of energy, desperate to be a hero, runs and runs and runs, being outdoors, visiting city upon city in a day, loves going home to central city or keystone, adores his family

nadir ezra dane summers - fc: avan jogia, he/him, 22, son of lorna dane & alex summers (biological), light manipulation

mutant, twin, full of light literally, childhood trauma, quite days in, movies and books, more for observation than talking, small groups over large crowds, psychology student, late nights and bad sleep, old books, music blaring through headphones, mutant rallies, suppressed memories

thomas curry II - fc: keahu kahuanui, 27, he/him, son of arthur curry & mera (biological), aquatic telepathy, superhuman enhancements, hydrokenisis

part atlantean, eldest living son, heir to the throne, honour and duty, determined to bring land and sea together, currently aqualad, future aquaman & king of atlantis, travelling, learning, growing, genius intellect, determined to learn as much as possible about both of his worlds, will always love the sea the most, swimming, beach days, big waves, road trips

t’charra - fc: chris o’neal, 20, he/him, son of t’charra & nakia (bioligical)

party boy, disaster, reckless, late nights, strong drinks, VIP, tech nerd, science geek, future head of science and information exchange in wakanda, youngest prince, father issues, self-destructive, hangovers, sunglasses, nightowl, too smart for his own good but no where near clever enough, one night stands, long days in labs

uriah fries - fc: jordan fisher, 27, he/him/they/them, son of nora & victor fries (biological), weaponry & combat, freeze technology

future doctor, mob connections, shades of grey, long days and double shifts, raised by the rogues, so much coffee, ballet dancer, long practices & pointe shoes, hopeless romantic, falls hard and fast, affinity for the cold, never quite a villain, dramatic gestures, mask of charm & suave

eli rasputin - fc: james reid, 24, he/him, son of illyana rasputin (adoptive), mario falcone (biological, unaware), wind manipulation

v soft, mutant, filled with hope, giant bookworm, loves his cat more than he loves most people, english lit ta, huge nerd; named his cat matilda after the character, you can find him in the library most of the time, loves his baby brother more than anything, always has a book in his hands or in his bag, will always use his powers for fun before fighting

elana dent - fc: nathalie emmanuel, 24, she/her, daughter of harvey dent (adoptive), highly skilled thief & advanced combat

all sharp smirks and charm, does absolutely everything with reckless abandon, loves a challenge - just to prove you wrong, mask of manipulation, huge abandonment issues, constantly channeling her inner selina kyle, master thief in training, entirely dedicated to her big brother ; terrified of losing him, late nights full of adventure, great wall of china built high around her heart

natasha romanoff - fc: jamie chung, appears 30 (biologically 90), she/her, black widow, highly skilled spy & ballet teacher

espionage, extreme ballet routines, tough but fair, pointe shoes & messy buns, oversizes sweaters probably stolen from Clint, highly protective of all of the avengers kids, still in mourning for her own baby, will do anything for family, highly perceptive, giant dork, probably knows more pop culture references than you, always good for a hug

coralie beaubier-jinadu - fc: alisha wainwright, 26, they/them, child of jean paul beaubier & kyle jinadu (adoptive), winged flight & empathic healing

glowing marks on their skin, brown wings (think maleficent style), highly empathic, loves children, midwifery is their calling, broken hearted high school sweetheart situation, crazy hair, big smiles, protective big sibling complex, will always put you before themselves, photography nut, loves to fly as often as possible, endless optimism even in the face of the worst

ronen haller - fc: suraj sharma, 20, he/him, child of david haller & jonathan starsmore (adoptive), gabriel summers (biological, unknown), energy manipulation

explosive & emotional, naive to a fault, reckless & ready to dive into anything, looking for the next learning curve, ridiculously attached to his dad, hates enclosed spaces, cold rooms & examination tables make up most of his childhood, constantly fighting for control of his powers, deep purple energy, late nights and early mornings, aspires to make his fathers proud one day, socially awkward pretty much always

noah rogers - fc: toni mahfud, 28, he/him, son of Steve Rogers (adoptive), enhanced vision, skilled assassin

raised by the league of assassins until 14, arrogant and cocky to no end, cool calm and collected, very guarded, not a good guy, charming to a fault, will manipulate you for his own ends, widowed father to an 18 month old son, do not touch his child, freelance assassin graphic designer, trusts very few people but will use anyone he can to get what he needs

[inlocusmads]

In lieu of the new chapter (ch 7 if im not wrong) of book 2 I decided to jot down what Nora would have thought in the form of a very convenient headcanon:

dancing dancing dancing dancing okay seriously what is he supposed to accomplish with this. Trystan Thorne as king deserves to only know two things probably - nuclear codes and how to work a FUCKING COFFEE MACHINE BECAUSE WHY WAS HE PRETENTIOUSLY HAND BREWING EVERYTHING FIVE WEEKS AGO.

five weeks dang, that's how long I've known this idiot? Nah, it must've been at least 3 months.

Holy shit 3 months holy shit mags is talking to me, holy shit murder okay okay hyperfocus time

*focuses on Nadja, Juliana and comes up with like the most idiosyncratic theory because Nora is running on three hours of sleep*

Oh shit mags okay we're getting a dress? W H Y can I just get the suit please just fit shit into? Why. Are. Suits. Not. Okay. Please. Please.

mags, you're great but can I just stick to suits please thanks - they're versatile - okay great this suit works awesome

okay coronation time wtf why is he (Trystan) dressed like an absolute idiot, like what even is that -- thing? you might as well drape a sash around him and call him "new king!!!1!" with the "1"

this party sucks, Luke's right. There's not even a sketchy underground dealer guy handing you weird cocktails to try, what even are gloves?

Kidding, they're posh and the occasion calls for it! It's reasonable!

the food is .. fine.

okay the alcohol is STIFF yes. STIFF. *Sniffs aggressively*

Holy shit these are some pretty people. I'm just gonna go look mysterious in this corner and why is my hair so weird,, can't I have one decent hair day and HOLY SHIT these suits have pockets all right!

Okay, who's -- who in this place? Guy with crown, guy without crown, guy, guy, guy, okay. Not the killer. not the killer. Not the killer. Not the killer. No. No. No. No. No.

*extreme focused detective work*

[Princess Jia walks in] HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT SHE'S PRETTY OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY NORA, calm down, calm down, serious what the fuck, okay, okay what the fuck not trying to be *spits rainbows* okay, okay, okay, Nora seriously, what the fuck?

[Olivia crushes her into a hug] I am dead. I'm literally dead. This is pretty people party. Me who? Detective? What's that even about? I REPEAT THE BI HAS BEEN CRISESED. Jesus fuckin Christ can someone just give me a goddamn break without whisking me away, I don't want to do this okay??????????? can I please just.. stay in a corner and not do anything

I don't even want murders, I just wanna go home and sleep by 9:30 IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK.

Secret meeting secret meeting secret meeting secret meeting secret meeting

*Olivia saying important stuff* yo the bush looks weird and why tf is Astrid there anyway okay, we need to be wary because we're smart but wtf Olivia looks great, she's washed up, is that a new necklace

SHE'S PULLING OUT THE DAGGERS, MARRY ME PLEASE.

okay seriously stfu Nora, it's done. The conversation is over.

Need to be very covert in telling Trystan about the information, oh he's good at this dancing stuff! Better than when he bumped into five umbrella cases back in the days.

Oh no, "back in the days"

Fuuuuck

Okay okay no panic no panic, y'know he'll be back anyway. It's all a sham. It's a sham coronation, sham trial, sham murder, shammy wammy timey wimey thing.

Dancing. We're dancing. I'm panicking over the time window and he's dancing.

Okay he's actually good at this. What even is that move? How did his spinal cords - yknow what we're not even going to ask.

He's an idiot. He might run this country to the ground.

No wait, he's smart. He's an idiot which is a very covert mask to conceal his true intentions and he's good at this because *insert 10-page essay here* and that's precisely why Trystan Thorne is the best thing to have ever happened to everyone.

Why do I like people with knives so much, I need to talk to that therapist girlie again? Becky? Madeline?

Okay seriously my guy, you cannot accomplish that very complicated dance in that godforsaken suit - holy shit he did it, that mfer did it. I'm actually baffled. The physics is just.. out of the charts. Okay no, Trystan seriously, we have an actual murder here, can we tone down the dancing

Where did the files go? Oh hey okay let's look at Juliana's again.

[Trystan expressing his heartfelt concern over the fact that he's being coronated in the room, pacing around and using profound words] yo the mirrors weird.

Holy shit Emika what are they talking about, Holy shit evidence stolen? Wtf? Okay okay Nora calm, seriously, WHY AREN'T YOU CALM, STOP DOING THIS TO YOURSELF seriously GET A FUCKING HERBAL SOOTHER OR SOME SHIT!!

okay okay I need meds, MEDS NOW AND COFFEE. MUST WORK TRYSTAN SERIOUSLY MY GUY, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC WHY AM I PANICKING

*internal screaming*

Okay here's what we're going to do, we're going to *insert elaborate plan here* [Trystan: "Erm, Nora, you look quite--" Nora: "The thing! It's the thing! Let's go go go go go!!"]

[vulpixelates]

My OCs: The Master List

Guild Wars 2

Kaia Darkbrand - norn thief/daredevil, disaster bisexual

Ingunn Wildslayer - norn ranger/druid, valkyrie goddess

Isoldra of Dawn - sylvari guardian, sunshine plant mom

Sajaa Eren - human revenant, magical girl chic

Rune Valiante - human elemental, big bitch/bush energy

Mass Effect

Ro Shepard - Vanguard, Spacer, Sole Survivor, Renegon - ♡ pansexual, Garrus & Aria - canon

Letha Shepard - Adept, Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Paragon - ♡ queer, Liara

Ben Shepard - Sentinel, Earthborn, War Hero, Paragon - ♡ straight, Tali

Sara Ryder - Casual, Emotional, Vanguard - ♡ pansexual, Liam & Peebee - canon

Quinn Ryder - Professional, Emotional, Infiltrator - ♡ pansexual, TBD

Dragon Age

Luce Cousland - Noble rogue - ♡ bisexual, Alistair

Aden Brosca - Dwarf rogue - ♡ bisexual, TBD

Amatia Amell - Human mage - ♡ pansexual, Morrigan - canon

Nora Hawke - Mage - ♡ demisexual lesbian, Isabela - canon

Leven Hawke - Rogue - ♡ bisexual, Merrill

Ioren Lavellan - Dalish elf mage - ♡ bisexual, Blackwall & Alistair - canon

Julien Trevelyan - Human rogue - ♡ bisexual, Dorian

Elera Lavellan - Dalish elf - ♡ heteroromantic & asexual, Solas

Hessa Adaar - Qunari rogue - ♡ lesbian, Sera

D&D

Elen Arel - chaotic good, half-elf, arcane trickster, smuggler - ♡ bisexual, Kilgore - retired

Arrora - rebel good, half-elf, circle of the moon druid, outlander - ♡ demisexual lesbian - retired

Caerellia Asperanas - chaotic good, aboleth tiefling, wild magic sorcerer - ♡ queer, Volusena & Mahraz & Lilith - active

Kara Avasdottir - lawful good, valkyrie paladin -  ♡ lesbian, Leira - played

Leda Damaris - chaotic good, Tiamat tiefling, fist of the forest druid -  ♡ queer, Faeruit - retired

Gadget Qirie - chaotic good, orc/gnome/elf arcane engineer -  ♡ queer - active

Medal “Whit” Whitforge - rebel good, mountain dwarf artificer, revolutionist -  ♡ bisexual- played

Thea - neutral good, forest nymph godkin, druid/monk, folk hero - ♡ pansexual  - to be played

Rhialla Stormhaven - chaotic good, aasimar champion, haunted one -  ♡ queer - retired

Ryla Anzar - neutral good, tiefling of the Morrigan, witch, spirit medium - ♡ pansexual - active

Wynrie Iathromi - neutral good, orc/elf, fist of the forest druid - ♡ queer, Reima Agaestil - played

Lodden Rhithron - chaotic good, sea nymph, swashbuckler pirate - ♡ bisexual, Aelius Evenwind & Eila Vorasil - played

Elixaris Iloeni - chaotic neutral, changeling, rogue mastermind - ♡ bisexual - played

Ru Evenwind - neutral good, half-elf/half-gnome, hermetic mage - ♡ lesbian, Kaza - played

Rowan Orda - chaotic good, half-elf/forest gnome fate cleric, acolyte -  ♡ clueless bisexual, Qadri - on hold

Aja Sky-Bearer - neutral good, elf/aasimar, order of the immortal mystic, hermit and herbalist -  ♡ panromantic demisexual - on hold

Ubati Rahazur - neutral good, orc/goliath ranger, monster hunter - ♡ lesbian, Cleo Eronette  - on hold

Cosima Colwycke - chaotic good, aasimar arcane trickster, noble -  ♡ lesbian, Alys Keenseeker - on hold

Canary “Ary” Longshot - chaotic good, gloom stalker ranger, war deserter - ♡ queer, Cybil Winddriver - for one shots

Brigh Orlaith - neutral good, wild fey sidhe bard, sapphic poet -  ♡ lesbian, Hera - on hold

Verna - chaotic neutral, half-elf, illusion wizard, archaeologist - ♡ queer, Sigrun - retired

Ellywick “Wick” Coppercrank III - neutral good, rock gnome gunsmith/hexgun warlock, astronomer -  ♡ bisexual - on hold

Ashes Orra - chaotic good, infernal tiefling ill-rigger turned retribution cleric -  ♡ lesbian, Theodora Conyver - to be played

Erasmia Diagoras - chaotic neutral, reincarnated eladrin sorcerer, revolutionist - ♡ queer, Nisea Minos - to be played

Aaliyah Rahal - neutral, aasimar tattoed temple monk/rogue, tomb raider - ♡ pansexual, Andrea Colwycke - played

Vanja Velikova - chaotic good, fetchling shadow sorcerer/grave cleric, charlatan -  ♡ bisexual - for one shots

Stranger Still (RPG)

Poppy Harris - strange forest ranger - ♡ pansexual, Callie Hayworth  - active

Renna “neuralc0re” Hezal - amnesiac space hacker, punk ass rebel - ♡ lesbian, ET - active

Lo Mistrel - chosen one ghost whisperer -  ♡ bisexual, Tula Chochokpi - active

Kit Wright - private detective, conspiracy nerd - ♡ bisexual, Neya - on hold

Vela Warders - jack of all trades scientist, mutant - ♡ pansexual, Cy & Vier - on hold

Margeaux Darkeaux - possessed tattoo artist, wannabe chosen -  ♡ lesbian, Jude Jinx - on hold

Audre Amador-Ripley - nosy journalist and witch - ♡ bisexual, Violet & Vivienne - active

Sable Calabar - cursed witch, seer -  ♡ lesbian, Harriet Still - active

Ramona Beaumont - engineer and future chosen  -  ♡ lesbian, Alex - for one shots

Leilani Palmer - mystic witch, sculptor - ♡ pansexual, Demetria Garza - played

Priya Goodspeed - artificer witch, video game dev -  ♡ lesbian, Nyla Fuentes - played

Valerie Flores - witch, paralegal, secret superhero -  ♡ queer, Noor Rahmanzai -  played

Fallon Escamilla-Tao - alteration witch, social worker, enchanting bard - ♡ lesbian, Hadley Escamilla-Tao - played

Juniper Rosegrove - transmutation witch, writer, nature lover - ♡ bisexual, Rafi - played

Liere Pilar - witch, tattoo artist, liberator and rebel - ♡ lesbian - to be played

Imani Jelan - abjuration witch, occupational therapist, wellness enthusiast- ♡ pansexual, Olivia Flores - to be played

[pinkletterday]

The Flash 5x4!!!

I am HYPED, you guys! FINALLY WE FIND OUT WHAT'S UP WITH MOMMA AND BABY.

Whatever it is Im going to deeply empathize with and love both of them.

Idk who this stupid af bitch is running straight into a blazing hail of fireballs and trying to take selfies but I hate her.

Iris. Iris. Baby. Hahahahaha Nora knows what a disaster her Mom is in the kitchen. I love you sfm Iris.

Hey Nora this version of your Mom just met you so hold back on the teenage sass, okay?

Ok this isnt funny anymore my heart is aching for Iris.

Young lady sit back down and eat that breakfast your Mom made for you.

"Make you a banana" lmaoooo this is why Barry does all the cooking. Gawd I love the domesticity.

I love that Iris can't cook. It just adds to her perfection. I guess I really am a fool in love, huh?

Oh God this guy. Shut up shut up shut up. Did this buffoon just call Cisco Ramon not brave???

I wish Ralph would take the lead here. That's right, I like Ralph now. This season is magic.

I would find this softball thing adorkable and hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that Barry is literally the Flash. It doesn't make a lick of sense. Would have been much more interesting if Barry had turned into a star athlete overnight and everyone just boggled.

Otoh it provides an interesting (read: hilarious) look at their dynamic growing up. Their different dorknesses cancel each other out.

I am irked. Why is the Flash a hopeless athlete? HE CATCHES KNIVES OUT OF THE AIR. How does he just switch off his co-ordination?

Kinda nice seeing all the ladies together like that though. Cecile is a gift.

NORA IS A GAY THIS IS NOT A DRILL WE HAVE A BABY QUEER IN THE HOUSE aaaaaand you are seriously trying my patience here. Be rude to your mother one more time. See how that goes.

Oooh Momma Bear is on the case! *hearteyes*

See, Baby Giraffe is already better at this than The Fraudulent Frenchie.

I hate to say it but based on that lumberjane chic I think we have another queer in the house. But this one we don't want.

Loool "like her size extra small". I hate to say it but thats a way better reason for her codename than "excess" ugh.

No it was different because she never knowingly put the people she was writing about in danger you asshat. God I wish you weren't so pretty.

Another black man wrongly accused. What up, America.

...Joe what. You guys. Jesse Martin looks bad. IS HE OKAY I AM SERIOUSLY CONCERNED.

Momma coaching Baby through speedster things! Because Barry taught her that one time she was a speedster. I can't handle this. My heart.

She FINALLY thanked her! Iris's smile.

My girls. I can't.

OMG SOMEONE REMEMBERS EARLY EDITION! I loved that show!

Also. Iris West, ace reporter, always better than fake hoes. Watch and learn, padawan.

Am sad we're not getting any Cisco Ramon. I hope Carlos is enjoying his mini-vacay. Otoh, I really like that Caitlin is included in the West-Allen circle this ep.

I wonder why Nora doesnt call Cait and Cisco Aunt and Uncle. They must be the godparents.

It's okay Ralph. Some leads don't pan out. If Shitloque was an actual detective he'd know that.

But I love that the heroes of Central City can walk around in public and interact freely. Oliver's team would need to break in and scare the bejesus out of some poor unsuspecting sod.

NORA IS A DISASTER LESBIAN CONFIRMED. Or probably a disaster bi like her Dad. I AM LOVIN' THIS.

THAT MOMENT WHEN THE PENNY DROPS FOR BARRY THAT HIS DAUGHTER IS A GAY LMAOOO

Fuck I love that Iris never even blinked when Nora said Spencer was cute. She probably sussed it way before. I love you Momma West-Allen.

Oh no oh no I was right. Iris pulled a Joe West. Goddamn it. I mean I get why, I get how traumatized and scared she must have been but IRIS NO YOU DON'T LIE TO YOUR CHILDREN TO PROTECT THEM. Remember how you felt when your Dad did that to you?

I am legit heartbroken, you guys. I really wanted to be wrong. I blame Joe West's goddamn patriarchal shitty parenting for perpetuating this cycle of lies.

I swear to God if this show tries to justify lying and manipulating your kid again I'm going to give up on it. It's triggering as all fuck (I still havent recovered from S1 and 2) and I need Iris to be held accountable when she fucks up, not let her turn into another Fefe who can do no wrong.

Jesus Christ Iris, trying to force a conversation with Nora by invading her privacy and ignoring her need for space is not okay. BOUNDARIES, girl.

Oh okay but she's holding herself accountable thank fuck. I mean, Barry's right she can't be blamed for what she might do in the future but IT'S STILL WRONG.

I was actually shaking. Friendly reminder that survivors of parental abuse and manipulation are also watching this show, some of us with CPTSD.

"What if my Dad did something like that to you"?? Er. Iris? Remember when he lied to you for twenty years about your mother being dead and you didn't talk to him for six months?

Oh here we go. You've stood there like a gormless beanpole for three episodes without so much as trying to intervene Barry and this is how you choose to comfort your wife. Not "yes, it's a bad thing and we can't know what led you to the choices future you made but in the here and now you know not to. We can learn from the future and make different choices, Iris."

PUNCH HIM IN THE THROAT, CAITLIN.

...I just meant for frightening Caitlin, but he actually wants to be punched?

Ooooh that was satisfying! Pretty sure her form was all wrong but can't argue with the results.

I love how fucking competent Iris is??? She knows how to use the entire STAR Labs tech arsenal. Although that Vibe device kinda defeats the whole purpose of breechers. It's like if they had a device lying around that could give just anyone super speed.

Not sure how Spencer thinks XS can kill Flash. One's a n00b and the other is veteran.

Wait, Baby Flash can do what now?

I don't like that they had to dumb Barry down so much to give Iris a chance to shine. A couple can both be competent at the same time! It's called being a power couple! Not one-half Idiot Ball couple!

So her phone got powers? Huh??

Ah yes. Dark Matter. More multi-purpose than Quantum.

Okay cool Ralph is getting his due. "Less right" LOL

"That puts meta-human powers in the hands of anyone" kinda like having a Breeching device, no?

We have meta-humans, meta-phones, meta-daggers (a tech dagger??) HOLY SHIT WHAT IF THE DARK MATTER HIT A HOME DEPOT?? How many people now have meta-vacuum cleaners? Meta-dishwashers?? Meta-can openers??

Oh God. No. Not this.

No. You do not lie and manipulate your kids to protect them. You do not do that. Love is no justification.

Don't Barry don't. Stop stop.

I can't watch this. FUCK YOU.

FOR GOD'S SAKE SHE'S CRYING AND SHAKING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO COMFORT HER AND MAKE HER FEEL SAFE NOT STAND ON YOUR PILE OF BULLSHIT WITHOUT GIVING A FLYING FUCK.

No, cry all you want. I have no sympathy for either one of you callous asshats. You fucking destroyed that girl. Fuck Joe West for having raised you to think this way.

Yeah no Joe West is not who you want to go to in these matters, Nora.

I don't even care about Cicada anymore.

I should have known this show would never get any less gross.

Look, I was fully prepared to be sympathetic to Iris, traumatized, alone and single mother to a meta-child in a dangerous world to have made some bad decisions. And I do empathize. But I wasn't prepared for present-day Barry and Iris to justify and rationalize that shit. I thought they were going to say "That was a bad thing your Mom did. I'm sure she thought she was protecting you but she may have lost sight of how much it hurts to have your choices taken away from you. But I'm not that woman, Nora. I know I could never bear to see you hurting like this. I can still make better choices. Please give me a chance?"

Not "No I am your Mom and everything I do is right and good because I love you, I'm sorry if you feel hurt about it but them's the facts."

They did this when Barry and Joe lied to Iris all through S1, when Joe lied to Iris about her mother. This show is still all about apologia for lying and manipulation because LOVE AND GOOD INTENTIONS AND TO PROTECT YOU BY DISRESPECTING THE FUCK OUT OF YOU AND TAKING AWAY YOUR AGENCY.

Parental love is not a justification. Most abuse takes place at the hands of parents who really believe they're doing it for their children's protection. Please never say "your parents have every right to hurt you to protect you because they love you". Do you even care at all.

I'm not okay. Gonna take a break from fandom for a while. Can't deal with people taking Iris's side to protect their Westallen feels. Fuck both of them.

I'm posting this but please don't engage me to argue about it. Massively triggered.

[takingtea-and-tellingtales]

thoughts while re-watching ep. 2x12 of Gotham

*ice puns intensify*

wow harvey, interrogating jim gordon at this trial is a little two-faced of you (i will never stop)

drink for “someone tries to say ‘oswald cobblepot’ and with gravitas” 

(and then drink like nine more times for the rest of the scene)

i watched a crack-vid that played “love crime” from the finale of Hannibal over Jim and Oswald killing Galavan and now I can’t unhear it???? i also can’t find it again to leave a link here???? 

“detective, did you have anything to do with the murder of theo galavan?” “what? no. what? who’s galavan. never heard of him. is it hot in here? maybe you killed him, didja ever think of that???” BE A BETTER LIAR, JAMES

prosecutor voice: “jim gordon, is there perhaps a small shaky mobster being tortured in arkham for a crime YOU committed?” (yeah, yeah, oswald has committed upwards of 50 murders at this point i’m AWARE but he didn’t do this one)

okay, friends, let’s TALK about SOME THINGS: 

(1) I SEE YOU, JOKER-CULT SPRAY PAINT

CALLED. OUT. 

(2) This:

i should clarify. i know i’m generally very excited about pretty much everything oswald wears because he is STYLISH AF at all times. but this is different. everyone get out your shipper goggles and strap in, this is going to be a ride...

these are not oswald’s clothes. 

i know this for a few reasons

(1) oswald is a much better dresser than this

(2) oswald is a much less practical dresser than this

(3) that coat is too big for him

(i know this because @tigerinkangel and i spent way way way too long looking at the few shots of oswald in this coat in the episode and we determined that the coat is made for someone taller and with broader shoulders... gee. who was oswald just staying with who is taller and has broader shoulders? i wonder.)

these are ed’s clothes 

ed has given oswald not just a coat but THREE LAYERS OF CLOTHES so he DOESN’T GET COLD including a little checked scarf (that surely would match ed’s fab red coat from later this season) and a knitted toque (a hat for all you non-Canadians) 

this is PRECIOUS

i want you all to image how this went down:

“i have to go, ed, they’ll find me and you’ll get into trouble too”

“where will you go?”

“just lay low for a while”

“where?”

“around”

“you’re going to be cold and, frankly, recognizable in that getup” 

“i can’t exactly go back home and change now, can i?”

“well then you’ll take some of my clothes”

“your clothes?” 

“yes. i think i have some sweaters...” 

*cut of ed forcing ugly knit sweaters over oswald’s head as the grumpy little murder-bird complains the whole damn time*

*cut to ed making sure he has a walking stick because the umbrella is a dead giveaway but he needs something for his leg*

*smash-cut to me being trash. oh wait. that’s all the time.”

alright. rant kind of over for now. 

i am HERE FOR the moment in the lab where Ed has the police scanner running and he hears news of Oswald and drops the thing (tooth?) he is holding in his tweezers and stares at the radio. I AM HERE FOR IT. 

i’m slightly less here for butch’s drill-bit arm though it does give him a nice bond-villain vibe

otp: strangely enough i am kind of fond of you 

(Tabitha is me trying to flirt: “you don’t suck i guess whatever”)

come on, Mr. Fries, be cool 

chill out, Mr. Fries, no need for such a... frosty reception 

Harvey Bullock saying “you don’t deserve these lips” is now my preferred method of rejection

“froze her?” “told you it was weird” - oh my sweet summer child you don’t even KNOW how weird this is going to get

(when will there be live penguins wearing tiny rockets you cowards?????)

okay there’s a ton to unpack in this ed-explains-the-roses-and-liquid-nitrogen scene but i’m not going to unpack any of it because i spend a whole chapter doing that in my very long fanfic and i don’t want to spoil it for y’all... i promise it’s super extra, though, and very shippy. you’re welcome. 

i will, however, take a tiny moment to FREAK OUT about ed shattering the rose and saying “i don’t like being called names, detective” through gritted teeth because DAMN that’s a good moment

also harvey looking at ed in this scene is harvey staring into the void and the void staring back - i like to think he saw the riddler in that moment. i just really love it it’s super powerful okay??? 

jim: “what is your relationship with oswald cobblepot?” ed: “i believe the kids today refer to it as “endgame”? i admit the terminology is a little fuzzy...”

(i’m not sorry)

“saying the word ‘Cobblepot’ with gravitas: Ed Nygma edition” 

penguin looks so tiny being dragged through the GCPD bullpen in a coat that’s too big for him. 

also ed watching oswald get thrown in the holding cell #hearteyes

i LOVE this interrogation scene. oswald is beat up, cold, arrested, wearing borrowed clothes and he still has all the power in the scene. 

HOWEVER - why does he cover for jim, here? honest question. is he still kinda infatuated with jim? his he hoping this will pay off in the long run? what’s his game here? 

victor, your research is cold comfort in this hard time of illness (#i’llneverstop)

dear victor, being able to freeze someone without bringing them back is just murdering them more slowly. delayed-murder. 

hey it’s me, shipper trash, back again to talk about the scene where ed and oswald chat through the bars of the holding cell. 

first - the overhead shot of ed pretending to look through files and oswald sitting in the cell is awesome. just... awesome

“you doing okay? you look kind of funky” - ED STAHP he’s the head of the gotham mob - ugh he’s too cute i mean, normal things. i’m fine

sub-point: oswald’s tiny smile and laugh tell me that my above freakout is also his internal monologue

ed just wants to helpppppp they LOVE EACH OTHER (i’m FINE)

i wish we had a scene of ed leaving flowers on Gertrud’s grave that would have been nice i think

gee, i wish ed had gone to visit ed in Arkham so i didn’t have to write 100k of fanfic fixing that (jokes, i loved writing it)

Lucius Fox explaining cryogenics to Harvey is the epitome of patience. he is a better soul than any in Arkham

oh this scene in Arkham is so cringey i feel so bad for oswald (yes i know he killed lots of people just let me be sad about this)

“my name is oswald cobblepot” is gotham’s “harriet jones, prime minister”

*dalek voice* “we. know. who. you. are.”

Victor’s a cool customer in this tense lab experiment. #i’mhilarious

i’m having Fringe flashbacks watching this body melt and not in a good way

any fellow Fringe fans out there? yes? no? 

why the hell isn’t there a refill order on Nora’s medication? how did that happen? 

Alright let’s take a moment to appreciate the hell out of BD Wong as Hugo Strange because holy shit he knocks it out of the park. 

remember how i said earlier that oswald still has all the power in the scene with barnes? yeah this scene where he shakes hands with strange you can just see all the power gather around strange like - i was immediately genuinely afraid for oswald’s safety

he’s got to stand toe-to-toe with the worst of the worst in gotham and still have the upper hand and his presence on screen makes that happen from moment 1

those pink glasses are awesome and i love them 

i really like Mr. Freeze’s homemade outfit it’s adorable 

why is Freeze bothering to hide the bodies at this point? like he really should just run - he has the meds and doesn’t need the bodies

back to BD Wong because i love him

he’s so creepy i love the way he chuckles through the word “yes” 

he’s just got this low, rumbling voice - never yelling, never talking faster - that you absolutely have to listen to whenever he talks. such a great contrast to ozzie’s scream-crying 

oswald’s freckles are very cute in this scene which is a weird thing to focus on i realize but we don’t really see them much in other scenes and they are cute

the little power-play with the tea cup - i love it. oswald pouring tea for himself, hugo taking it away. so. much. intensity. and. passive. aggression. i. love. it. 

now, after all this time, nora finds the murder-basement - freaks out, then just sits there staring at the body. 

harvey and jim arguing over the name is pure though i love them they are absolute disasters. 

while conceptually i’m aware i’m supposed to be invested in victor fries as a character i’m just not - it was a good call to push him mostly to the background after this. 

jfc the guy in arkham gouging out his own eyes i forgot about that. did i mention i LOVE all the arkham plots it is my favourite setting in gotham 

ed doing a little crouch to check for the missing dead body under the table then just going “huh” is like... peak gotham. ed’s got the hang of this city 

“also seems to have had a rather unhealthy relationship with his deceased mother” - hugo strange, not afraid to tell the truth we all try not to talk about

everytime the newspapers give someone a nickname i headcanon it’s valerie vale, living her best life, naming literally every batman villain 

... alright folks i know it’s been a year since i finished one of these but i’m back at it on the regular now so, stay tuned if you enjoy this sort of nonsense. 

[karazor--el]

'Supernatural's Osric Chau Joins 'Crisis' Crossover — Is This the New Atom? Let the theories begin now! TV Insider has learned exclusively that Osric Chau has been cast the recurring role of Ryan Choi for this winter's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover between Arrow, The Flash, Batwoman, Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Described as "physics professor at Ivy Town University," Ryan is "a normal guy who learns that he has a pivotal role to play in the coming crisis on infinite earths." Of course, comic-book fans recognize the name Ryan Choi as the teen genius who assumed the mantle of The Atom and joined the Justice League after Ray Palmer vanished into the microverse during DC Comics' Rebirth storyline. The character has also appeared as The Atom in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, as well as several DCU animated movies, the Injustice 2 video game, and reportedly, the Zack Snyder cut of the Justice League film. Osric Chau on Supernatural (The CW) The Vancouver-born Chau appeared for six seasons of Supernatural as prophet Kevin Tran before joining the BBC America series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. For disaster-movie buffs, Chau also played one of the Tibetan monks who made it on to the ark in the end-of-the-world flick, 2012. Julianna Harkavy, Kat McNamara & Katie Cassidy to Star in Female-Led 'Arrow' Spinoff Julianna Harkavy, Kat McNamara & Katie Cassidy to Star in Female-Led 'Arrow' Spinoff Laurel, Mia and Dinah...oh my! The CW has announced a new series in development. So does this explain why Brandon Routh, who currently plays Ray Palmer on Legends, is actually appearing as the "Kingdom Come" version of Superman in the Crisis event? Are they setting us up for a new Atom to replace Routh when he exits Legends this season (along with wife Courtney Ford, who plays Nora Dahrk)? Let us know what you think in the comments below! Crisis on Infinite Earths Arrowverse Crossover, December 2019 and January 2020, The CW TV Insider. https://www.instagram.com/p/B26v9r7CZZk/?igshid=yzv9ht4rksd2

[tiffanyunscripted]

7 Earth Disaster Films You Should Rent from DVD Netflix

2012 (2009)

The year 2012 created worldwide hysteria for those who believed the world would end on December 21, 2012. There were reports of people giving all of their money away to strangers and more bizarre acts. Roland Emmerich, a director, screenwriter, and producer, explored this subject as a story for a film. His main character was a struggling writer, who was fighting to keep his family alive during the cataclysmic events. He hears about the ark program that was made of specially designed ships to weather the destruction but is only available to those who donated or are selected. The film was a box office hit earning.

Geostorm (2017)

Several unprecedented natural disasters plaque Earth and threatens the planet's survival. World leaders come together to create a network of satellites to control the weather. They believe this will protect the Earth and its inhabitants.  When the system goes wrong and begins attacking the Earth, a sinister plot is revealed and its a race against time to save humanity.

Armageddon (1998)

NASA hires renowned driller Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis), to drill into an asteroid's surface and detonate a nuclear bomb before it reaches Earth and destroy it. The dangerous mission causes events that will alter everyone's way of life.

Oceans Rising (2017)

Another film that features an ark is produced. This time an Earth destroying flood is detected by a scientist. While everyone believes he's a quack, he builds an ark to save as many people as he can. It's not until the threat is realized that people start to believe. They turn to him and his ark to save humanity.

The Wave (2015)

A massive tidal wave threatens to cause a deadly landslide.  Norwegian geologist  (Kristoffer Joner) and his family (Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro)  fight for survival. They must avoid the 250-foot tidal wave.

Desperate Hours (1990)

Psychotic killer Michael Bosworth (Mickey Rourke) escapes prison. He goes on the lam with his brother (Elias Koteas) and his crime partner (David Morse). They invade the home a distraught couple Tim (Anthony Hopkins) and Nora Cornell (Mimi Rogers) on the brink of divorce. The couple must put the differences aside and fight to stay alive. Will they be able to heal their marriage and save themselves?

Aftershock (2012)

The Chilean-American disaster film is a must-watch. As three travelers, Gringo, Ariel, and Pollo travel through Chile, they live the life of partying and clubbing. They meet Hungarian sisters Monica and Kylie, and their Russian friend Irina. When they form a travel group and visit Valparaiso. As the party continues at a club in Valparaiso, an earthquake strikes, killing several clubgoers and trapping some under debris. Everyone struggles to survive the earthquake and unsavory characters.

You can watch these films with your family over a huge bowl of popcorn. Rent them from DVD Netflix via dvd.netflix.com. Add them to your queue today. If you don’t have an account, you can sign-up for a free month. If you decide to keep the membership, pay as little as $7.99 per month to enjoy DVD Netflix’s massive database of blockbusters, documentaries, independent films, and more.

Disclaimer: As a DVD Nation Director, for introducing the DVD Netflix service to you, as well as writing about some awesome movies to rent that can be challenging to find anywhere else, I’m rewarded and always happy to share awesome movies with you.  #dvd20 #dvdnation #ad

[wannabelovespizza]

Shoot Romcom Reimaginings

Just playing around, I can’t seem to watch any romcom now without imagining my favorite duo Root and Shaw. Just a silly scene remake from the movie ‘When Harry Met Sally’ – one can not improve upon Nora Ephron (well except for maybe gaying it up). Happy Shoot Week!

Shaw and Carter practiced their batting with coin activated pitching machines at a local borough park. A line of kids waited to use the machines after the ‘old ladies’ finished, the kids kept whispering and getting mean looks from Shaw and Carter.

Carter got ready for the first pitch from the machine, “I don’t understand this relationship you’ve got with Root.

“What do you mean?” asked Shaw with a confused look on her face to her friend and colleague.

“You enjoy being with her?” Carter swung and knocked the ball out of the stadium, if there had been a stadium; as it was a batting cage the ball slammed with a huge boom against the back wall.

“Yah.” Shaw swung her arms around and moved her shoulders up and down getting ready for her next pitch.

“You find her attractive?” asked Carter cautiously, knowing how her friend tended to blow up at slightly datey stuff or remotely relationship talk.

“Yah.” Shaw begrudgingly shrugged her shoulders. Okay, so Root was hot Shaw admitted to herself sometimes; and maybe from the very first time they met. Actually, sometimes too damn hot for her own good. Luckily, she annoyed the shit of the Persian detective so most of the time the hotness factor wore off.

“And you’re not sleeping with her,” Carter said this as stating a fact, yet her voice still kind of delivered it as a question.

“Nope. Gawd no,” Shaw scowled back at her fellow detective. Okay, she might have played ‘the lady doth protest to much card’ because the thought had crossed her mind a few times, or a lot of times of sleeping with Root. And in the beginning Root flirted shamelessly with her which was hard to turn down, yet she always managed to do so.

“You’re afraid to let yourself be happy,” Carter hit another home run and then stared intensely at Shaw, confident in her theory on her friend.

“Why can’t you give me credit for this? This is a big thing for me. I don’t have many friendships with women that don’t involve sex,” Shaw whacked her baseball pitch fiercely hard sending it smashing against the back wall with a loud thud.

“Or men,” Carter smirked at Shaw.

Shaw didn’t do feelings well, sex was a way to get close to someone sometimes without having to actually talk to them; and yes she knew now that always backfired even with men. She decided she had to take a new approach in trying to relate people. “I feel like I’m growing,” Shaw paused and looked at Carter.

“You never slept with me,” Carter shot back at Shaw and the ball just pitched to her; which she might have hit too hard to prove a point.

“I don’t ever remember you offering or being interested,” Shaw replied back quickly.

“I was drunk that one time and you turned me down. Did you grow that night?” Carter stared and did a head tilt towards her friend.

Shaw sighed. She didn’t know exactly why she never slept with Carter, she thought maybe because the woman reminded her of a cool, big sister. The main reason she thought probably why she never slept with her because she had been one of the few people in her life she could talk to about some stuff. Carter was practically the only woman she had met in her life she liked hanging out with, she didn’t want to ruin that with sex. Same thing went for Root. The annoying computer programmer was mostly tolerable, she didn’t like overly girly stuff and she seemed to loved having verbal insults hurled at her. She had met both of them in college but lost touch with Root for over ten years ago; only reconnecting in the last few months. Still, when she met both of them and put them in the no sex zone in her head back then, that status stayed in her head.

Shaw paused for a moment to stare at Carter again to get her point across, “I feel like I’m growing.”

Suddenly, one of the kids was getting impatient with the less batting the two ‘old ladies’ were doing and all the talking so they started getting rowdy and mouthy.

“You finish yet lady?” shouted one tall lanky kid.

Shaw looked over with a scowl and growled at the kids, “Hey, I got a whole stack of quarters and I was here first.”

“Were not,” the kid yelled back on the verge of sticking his tongue out at the short ‘old lady.’

“Was too,” Shaw walked over closer to the fence where the tall lanky kid was standing, she was shorter than the kid so at first he wasn’t overly intimidated by her.

“Were not!” Once again the kid yelled back.

“Was too!” Shaw yelled back this time raising her voice. The look in her eyes slightly scared the kid and he stepped back from the fence to go sit on the bench near by until the two ‘old ladies’ were done hitting balls and talking about their boring love lives

“Stupid jerk,” the kid mumbled from the bench.

“Little creep,” Shaw mumbled back to the kid, then turned her head back to Carter, “Where was I?”

“You were growing,” Carter said with a slightly flabbergasted face watching her friend go from getting into a fight with a little kid to also watching her friend try for the second time in her life to make a connection, a real connection with someone. This was big for Shaw, she didn’t have many friends, she scared most people off. There were a few people that were tough and stupid enough to stick around the Persian firecracker like her and Fusco but not many. Shaw’s newfound friendship with long lost one-time road trip companion Root was something different. Carter wanted to support this new platonic friendship because as much as she loved Shaw, her dear friend was not only a dating disaster she was an extreme introvert and maybe something else. She worried if Shaw might ever find someone to settle down with; especially after her breakup with Tomas. The one time Shaw took a chance on a relationship and the asshole cheated on her.

“Yeah. It’s very freeing with Root. I can say anything to her,” Shaw was focused once again on hitting balls, working on perfecting her swing.

“Are you saying you can say things to her you can’t say to me?” Carter hoped she didn’t let a tinge of jealously seep through her voice.

“Nah it’s just different. It’s a whole new perspective. I get the nerd’s point of view on things. Like you she tells me about some of her dates, all women of course.” Shaw smacked another ball, so far she had hit non-stop home runs.

“You tell her about your dates or shall I say, hook-ups…they’re not really dates are they?” Carter teased Shaw.

“Tease if you will, but my three-night rule works mighty fine. Like the other night. I hooked up with this guy, I took him to a place that wasn’t even human. He actually meowed,” Shaw glanced over to Carter with an extreme smug look on her face.

“You made a guy meow?” Carter stopped hitting balls and stared at Shaw dumbfounded.

“Yah. That’s the point, I can say these things to Root you know like I do to you. And the great thing is, I don’t have to lie because I’m not always thinking about how to get her into bed. At first she was always trying to get me into bed, but now I can just be myself,” Shaw was oblivious to Carter still standing motionless in her cage with balls whizzing past her.

“You made a guy meow?” Carter asked again.