#everyone around them is trying to *not* live like that. From the crew adapting to the 'safe' ship again

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Izzy 'Pirating? Well... this is a pirate ship and I'm a pirate, so, yeah... I'm good with it' Hands

Ed 'if i'm honest, i've never killed another man since. not personally' Teach

[the-soliloquies-of-sadists]

This is a direct follow up to Story #387, Story #389, and Story #394. It is strongly advised that you read those stories first.

#400

“There he is!  Timothy Stone, get on up here!...  Welcome aboard!  Welcome to the Zelus.  I see you are impressed with my tiny tugboat.  Ha! Ha!  I love looking at reactions of new passengers.  You ever been on a yacht this big?

“It’s sixty-nine feet, and enough power to get us around the entire Bahamas and back here to West Palm Beach.  It has four staterooms and two crew quarters.  You get one of them.  Sorry, with the entire executive team here each of us will get our own stateroom. 

“Let me text Lloyd to take us out of the marina.  All of us have been here for some time.  No, don’t worry about it.  I told you to be here at three, and it’s five ‘til three.  No, we’ve been having fun with our new faggot we got tied up….

“You want a drink?...  I have this cognac that I was given in Vegas the other day by a potential client.  I haven’t tried it yet.

“Ahh we are moving.  We should be out of the marina in a few minutes.

“Here you go….  Cheers!  …Ahhh!  Smooth.  I’m not a fan of cognac, but this is pretty good.  It should be.  Courvoisier Mizunara is supposed to be one of the best out there.  On the shelves it’s worth $2,500.  But shit, I couldn’t tell that from a $100 bottle.  Bourbon is more my thing. 

“Growing up in Tennessee, my Uncle Jimmy used to make his own.  Everyone in a five-mile radius of his home had a bottle of his bourbon.  I used to help him out in his garage in the evening when his son went off to college.  Uncle Jimmy showed me everything, but we always wound-up drinking.  I was sixteen at the time.  I’d plow his ass at the end of the night.  After a few times, he didn’t even wait until we started drinking.  He had one of the best pieces of ass I ever had.

“His bourbon lives on with my cousin once my uncle passed.  I have a bottle of it here.  I may break it out sometime during this trip.  My cousin fucked it up when he went ran the company.  It’s definitely not as good as it was before.  Some boys just don’t have a mind for business.

“Speaking of boys in business, your son Michael is doing great.  From what Lloyd was telling me, he’s really taking to his new role as intern.  I know he finds it a challenge, but Lloyd, Ben, and Gary think he’s handling it better than anyone they have seen in a long time.  Apparently, he has a gift for adapting, kinda rolling with the punches.

“What I like about him—I met him this morning—is his ability to take directions without complaints.  That is such a difficult characteristic to find in boys these days.  Lloyd and Gary were indicating they want to keep him around after his initial internship.  I left him earlier working hard trying to impress me.

“…Oh you hear that cabin tone?  That’s Lloyd telling everyone that we’ve cleared the marina and are out at sea.  This is your first time on the Zelus.  When we are in open water, we strip naked.  All of us.

“I told you the other day when we were talking about promoting you to lead our European expansion, that we are a close group of men—of four gay men.  We share our conquests, our lusts, our dark needs with each other.  I trust these men like I would trust my brother, if not more.  We have been in countless gang bangs tearing up some faggot’s cunt.  I have seen their cocks and asses so much that it’s awkward to see them clothed.  The other two on board are faggots.  Naturally those two are going to be kept naked.

“So strip.  This is not an option.  You can jump overboard and swim back to shore if you would like.

“Good.

“You can leave them on the couch.  Ben’s boy will put them in your cabin.  If you go out on deck you can keep your sunglasses and baseball cap on.

“You have got to realize that the four of us have known each other for years.  Lloyd and I go back to our time in the Corps.  What connects us is our love for using and abusing faggots. 

“Right now, as I was saying there are two faggots on board.  One is Ben’s boy.  While Ben has taken him on as a partner of sorts, he’s still a faggot at heart.

“…I guess I should ask, do you know the difference between a gay man and a faggot?  A faggot is a gay man who has a need, an urge, a longing to submit to the whims of superior men.  The more humiliating, degrading, cruel the better.  Faggots live for the cum of its superiors.  It loves to degrade itself in order for the man to be elevated.  It needs the beatings, the piss, the bondage, the punishment to feel complete.

“I don’t know why you were hesitating about stripping.  You have a great body, average sized dick, nice long foreskin, and holy shit… Those balls are huge!  Let me hold on to them….

“Hey don’t hesitate.  We are all physical with each other as well.  Look, I’m standing here in front of you naked.  I already saw you check out my dick.  Yes, it’s very fat.  If you want to touch it, go right ahead.

“You know, as a man who says he bisexual, you certainly seem apprehensive….  Or is it the fact that I’m your boss telling you to take a hold of my cock.  I get it.  If you are going to be a part of this team, you are going to have to drop those pretenses.  When you walk around you should let those low hangers swing free and guide your every step.

“Let me check out your ass.  Hey, what can I say?  I’m an ass man.  I’m going to see it anyways, might as well be now.

“Solid and meaty, just as I would have guessed.  Nice and hairy.  Faggots seem to love licking a hairy crack.  You ever have your ass eaten out?...  There may be some ass eating ahead.

“Speaking of which, right now that faggot is down below.  It is tied down, blindfolded with a noise cancelling headset on, ass up.  The four of us have already bred it.  You will be up next.

“Your cock doesn’t seem like it wants to get hard….  Do you need something?  We have Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Muse, Tri-mix.  Well, I need a shot of Tri-Mix.  After this morning’s big load, I don’t think I could get hard again until tomorrow.

“You ever do Tri-Mix?  I use it when I want to fuck for a long time.  It keeps me boned up for a few hours.  You want to try it?  After a few minutes have passed you will be rock, and I mean rock hard.

“If you are nervous, this being your first time with me on the Zelus, just do it.  Let me get it.  It’s kept cold.  Don’t worry, I have a doctor that gives me whatever I want.

“Just stand right there.  Don’t worry.  I’ve done this many times.  Yes it’s an injectable.  And it’s injected into the shaft.  Aww, don’t turn into a pussy on me.

“I brought two syringes.  Let me do it to myself.  Here watch….  It goes in, I plunge, and it comes out.  Like that.  It’s over quick.  Now a few tugs and I can already feel it working.  I’m not going to get completely rigid for about 15-20 minutes.

“Look, you say you are bisexual, but I’m thinking that you are making up the gay side of it because you want to impress us.  You want this promotion so fucking bad you are willing to fuck some faggot in front of us.  You wouldn’t be the first straight man to shoot up his cock to fuck fags.  There’s a whole term for it: gay-for-pay.

“You want to be part of this team, you are going to need to learn to love using faggots, that includes dumping a load into them.  To do that you need to get hard.  This injection will do that for you.

“Here feel my cock again.  Grab a hold of it….  Feel that?  It’s harder than a few minutes ago.  Here let me inject you.

“Come here.  Just look up.  On the count of three.  One!  See, it went in….  And now you are done.  Give it a few tugs and you will start to feel it.

“You’ll be hard for the rest of the night.  Lots of fucking in your future tonight. 

“When we had our conversation in Vegas, I told you that I was pissed off at your skimming the profits but was very intrigued at the process you used to do so.  It took some serious creativity to pull that off.  I was impressed.  The guys too.  We set this cruise out to a remote island in the Bahamas to get to know you—to get to know you as a fag fucker.  Besides, the shit we do… man, we wouldn’t take on anyone who had a shred of decency.

“Do you feel your cock getting larger?  I can see it growing.  Yeah, once we go downstairs into the media room that doubles as a dungeon, you will see the faggot cunt secured to the sling or fuck bench.  Your cock will slide into its cunt.  And it should be silky smooth.  Better than any woman’s pussy.

“We have been training this faggot for a couple of weeks.  Lloyd secured him about the time when you and I went to Vegas.  He was an easy target.  What you probably don’t realize being essentially straight is that there are faggots out there that will do just about anything to serve men like us—brutal men like us.  Lloyd has a good talent for reading a potential faggot.  He says things that just seems to work on getting that faggot to be collared.

“Once that happens then it’s only a matter of time that they submit to whatever we want to do to them.  And all it took was this.  See this little fob?  This is the tool we use.  Here, press the number one button.

“Do it again.  And again.  What you did, is you sent a shock to the faggot down below.  The collar we put on him is wired up, like a collar for a dog to get it to stop barking.  Once they feel that, total submission is almost immediate.  With this particular faggot, he turned into a whipping post for Ben and toilet paper for Gary in no time. 

“Where we keep the faggot is wired up for numerous cameras.  So we can see what the faggot is doing and send a shock from anywhere in the world.  I even sent one from Vegas when you were looking up some number from some report.

“Look at your cock.  It’s starting to get rigid.  Damn!  You are a grower! 

“You know, let’s go see the faggot.  The guys will be down there.  We are certainly far from shore so Lloyd will have the autopilot on.

“This way….  Doesn’t it feel right to be walking around buck naked?  Trust me you’ll get used to it, and soon enough you’ll be naked pretty much all the time.  If you need to piss and you don’t have a faggot nearby, just aim off the side and go.  The one thing you’ll learn is pissing with a hard-on will take some time, which is great for loading up a faggot’s toilet cunt.

“And here we are.  Before we go in, I want to point out that you can see the men are enjoying themselves.  In general, we casually use faggots’ holes.  It’s about pleasure and not so much about busting a nut, although busting a nut happens a lot.

“Look at how the men are enjoying what’s going on.  Ben is balls deep in his boy, while the boy is tongue fucking Gary’s shitter.  Lloyd is pile driving the faggot over on the fuck bench, stirring up the cum stew. 

“This is the life we created.  This is what you are coming into.  Let’s go in.

“Gentlemen!  I got Timothy here.  His cock has been shot up and he’s ready to fuck.

“Damn Tim!  You really are a grower.  I should have expected that when I saw your long foreskin.  Now only the tip shows.  Skin it back; I want to see how big your head is.

“Shit!  Do you ever clean that thing?  Look at that dick cheese….  Come here.  Stick your dickhead in the faggot’s mouth.  He’ll clean you off. 

“The faggot is blindfolded and has noise canceling headset under his hood.  He won’t know what to do until you use the handle on his hood to pull his head back.  Then just shove your dick in his mouth.  The faggot knows to clean off dick cheese; I’m sure Gary made sure of that. 

“There you go….  I see that smile.  Feels good, doesn’t it?  Better than any woman.  A well-trained faggot is better than anything a woman can do. 

“Well you got Gary and Ben to stop and watch you.

“Oh you see his welts.  Yeah, a well-trained faggot also takes a beating.  We punish faggot slaves appropriately, but they also are made to understand that sometimes the beatings are for our enjoyment.  Ben and Lloyd certainly like to have their fun.

“This faggot has been trained to do so much.  He’s going to fetch us a good price.  Yeah, we plan on selling him.  There are men around the world that pay top dollar for a well-trained faggot slave.

“Pull out.  I said pull out.  I told you that you will enjoy this.

“Lloyd, move the faggot to the sling.  I think Tim here is ready to fuck.

“While he’s doing that, care for another drink?  Or would you like a cigar?  No?  Ok.

“Boy.  Go upstairs and pour Tim here a glass of the Courvoisier Mizunara cognac.  The bottle should be sitting out.  Hell, bring the whole bottle down.

“That’ll help you adapt and sink into everything to come.  So have you ever been to a gang bang, or fucked a woman who has several loads in her?  The feeling on your cock is amazing.  Yes it’s sloppy, but it also feels silky smooth.

“That’s a sight, isn’t it?  That cunt has been trained to take cock after cock and still remain tight to give pleasure and loose enough to not cause your dick to struggle to fuck.

“Here’s your cognac.  Might as well down it.

“Now go on.  Step up.  Slide it in.  Trust me, this is going to be a fuck you will never forget. 

“…Good.  You ready? 

“There you go!  There’s the smile.  Now FUCK!

“Give that faggot what he deserves.  Slam into him.  Faggots were made to be fucked not made love to.

“Hell yes!  Look, we are all stroking our dicks for you.  You have no idea how hot this is….

“Guys, gather around.  You should see this up close.

“…Go for it!  Don’t hold back.  Breed the faggot. 

“FUCK YEAH!  FUCK!

“…You did it!  In record time!  Well done!  Don’t pull out yet.  Let the rest of your body calm down first.  Savor the feeling.  Savor the moment. 

“You did good.  Now, I need for you to pull out slowly.  The faggot is trained to clamp down.  Good.  Good!

“Look at that slime on your cock.  That’s all our juices.  How do you feel?  I know.  Words elude you?... Ha!

“Get on your knees….  You heard me.  I want you to look at this faggot’s cunt. 

“Gary, pull apart the fag’s cheeks.  Let’s really see that cunt hole.

“On your knees….  There you go.

“Ben.  Lloyd.  Now.

“…They move fast, don’t they?  You have the same shock collar on you as the faggot does.  Now pay attention.  This is a level one zap. 

“…Hurts like a motherfucker, right?  There are ten settings, and you had the weakest.  I don’t think another demonstration is needed.  Do you understand your situation?

“…Shut up.  I don’t want to hear your babble.  That was a ‘Yes Sir’/’No Sir’ question…. 

“OK.  You really thought you could skim money from us and be rewarded with a promotion?  Please!  You need some sort of punishment.  That begins with your lips kissing the faggot’s cunt lips.  Go on!  Lean in. 

“…That was level two….  There you go! 

“Now keep your mouth open.  The faggot may be wearing a noise cancelling headset, but we can speak to him.  He’s going to be told to shit some of his cunt slop into your mouth.  Do not swallow it.  Nod if you understand.  Good.

“Whew!  That was a messy fart!  Remember don’t swallow.  Now pull back.  Look up at us.  Show us the load.  Now gargle it.  Like mouthwash! 

“Two minutes ago, you were a man, but now you are a gargler of cum gobs.  Now don’t swallow.  Stop gargling.

“Get up and go share that in the faggot’s mouth.  Get up….  You know I hate having to repeat myself.  If I have to do it again, you will experience level three.  Now go and have a deep passionate kiss with the faggot.

“Hold his head and swap spit.  Pretend he’s a woman.  Hell, pretend it’s your son Michael’s mother.  I don’t care.

“Fuck yeah!  I didn’t realize that you are an excellent kisser.  Pull off.  There will be more kissing.  Get back to kneeling at the faggot’s cunt. 

“You are going to repeat the process exactly the same, except for the gargling.  You can skip that.  Any hesitation will be met with level three for triple the length.  You understand.  Just nod.

“Good.  Oh, I forgot to tell you one thing.  You need to hear it before you go back to eating another splatter fart out of your son’s ass….

“…Oh yeah!  The faggot here is your son Michael.  This is the internship we set him up with.  Oh yeah.  Your son was a faggot before us.  It was easy for us to pluck him.

“Now, remember level 3.  You are to do the exact same thing with the same level of passion.... I'm fucking serious.  Go!

“…Damn!  That was close.  A split second longer in hesitating and you would have been shocked.  Keep licking.  While you wait to receive your gift from your son’s cunt, Lloyd here is removing your son’s hood.  He still has his blindfold and headset on.  We will be removing those shortly.  You probably won’t recognize him initially because Ben had removed all this body hair even on his head.

“Did you hear that?  Gary just busted a nut watching you felch out our loads from your son’s cunt.

“Pull off when your mouth is full.  Good.  Now go French kiss your son. 

“Just like before.  Go on now….  Fuck yeah!

“This is so hot.

“Now go back to his cunt.  But this time remain standing.

“Stick  your slime covered cock back into your boy’s cunt.  And fuck him.  That Tri-mix I injected you with should keep you hard for a long time.  You’ve already fucked a load into him.  Now just fuck.

“You really should see yourself.  Oh wait, you can.  Look over at that TV.  Yes, we have been filming you.  See your face.  There’s panic, fear, guilt, regret, and even a little disgust.  All the good emotions.  And over on the TV to your right, you can see how your son became a faggot with each of us.  Oh yeah, he wasn’t coerced into being a faggot like you were.  No, he was totally into sperm burping and pole riding.  The fear you had that he might be gay turned out to be true in the most glorious way.

“DO NOT STOP FUCKING.

“And now, we get to see shame you have in him and in yourself, by taking the headset off first. 

“Faggot, it is imperative that you do not say a word.  If either you or the shithead fucking you say one word, you both will get shocked at level 3.  This includes screaming.  I want both of you to nod that you understand.

“Good.  Now Tim, remove the blindfold. 

“Look into your son’s eyes.  Let him see just how much your fuck up has cost him.  All this is because you had arrogance and ambition.  You tried to fuck us over, you tried to steal from us, and you believed that we would be ok with it and promote you as well?  Fuck that!

“Are you crying?  You are!...  Do not stop fucking your son.

“Faggots!  That was level 3.  Yes!  The both of you got shocked.  That’s how punishments will be going forward.  One fucks up, then both gets shocked.

“Now get back to fucking your son.

“Here’s the situation.  We still have about four hours to go.  And you have a hard on that will last another three to six.  You will be fucking him non-stop until we get to where we are going.  Until then, you will not say one word to each other.  Remember those shock collars we have padlocked on you were meant for barking dogs.  If you say one thing, the sensors will register sounds and you two will be shocked.  Also, that sling has a sensor that will monitor for movement.  If that movement stops or even slows down—say due to stopping fucking—you two will be shocked.  Tim, if your collar should go more than 6 feet away from your faggot son’s collar, you two will be shocked.  If any one of us bring up one of our video feeds and see that your cock is not inside your faggot son’s cunt, you two will be shocked.  I will free the faggot’s hands.  I want the two of you to enjoy playing with each other’s chest.  What can I say?  I’m a nice guy.

“That’s a lot of fucking between the two of you between now and when we reach the island.  But here’s one thing before we leave you both to go have dinner.  That island is a small private island, about two to three acres.  There’s a small dock and a metal shed to shield from the elements.  The owner of the island always has a box stocked with water bottles and something to eat.  Last time we sold a faggot there, they put in a hammock between two of the four trees on the island.

“Faggot, you will be left on the dock.  The island owners will send carriers to pick you up either tomorrow or the next day.  From there, they will arrange delivery to your new owners.

“Until then you are free to roam the small island.  Swim.  Whatever.  If you want to swim to the next island, it’s about 7 miles in open ocean, and that island is about ten times larger, but still uninhabited.

“So that’s the life your dad has caused you to have.  Look at him.  He’s a failure, and he knows it. 

“Well Tim.  While you cry, keep fucking your son.  This will be the last few hours with him.  What do you have to say?  Oh, let me turn off your noise sensor….

“…No we can’t simply forget all this.  You stole a lot of money from us, it needs to be paid.  We paid a lot in fuel to get us out here.  We paid for a pick up on the island.  They expect a faggot.  Now, if you want to switch places with your son, that can be arranged.

“You want to do that?  You want to be sold into sex slavery instead of your faggot son?...

“…Well fuck!  I wasn’t expecting that!  You didn’t waste any time in shaking your head no.

“Faggot, did you see how fast your dad just gave you up?  Shit! 

“These past weeks have been carefully planned.  Every word, every detail.  From the Vegas trip where we had our talk, to Lloyd convincing faggot here to sign up to be our intern, to the strip club dancer I paid to have sex with you so that a potential buyer could see you in action, to the tri-mix dose on hand, to the video feeds cued up, and to me handing the shock remote to dear old dad to get him to shock his son three times.  The one thing I was expecting you to do was the fatherly thing and offer to go instead of your son.

“Nope.  You chose to sacrifice your son.  Didn’t even think twice.  That’s fucking brutal.  Just when I think you can’t be more of a piece of shit, you surprise me.

“No YOU are going to be sold, not your faggot son.  Your new owner saw you fuck that stripper, and he wanted you.  He’s into hairy middle-aged straight men as his sex slaves.  He doesn’t want your hairless faggot son.

“So you are going to be sold.  But I wonder.  Hmm.  I’m going to contact your new owner and see if he’s interested in the pair of you two as a set.  Yeah, that is a great idea, to sell your son into slavery as well.  If you had just offered yourself up instead of your son, he would have been spared.  But no. 

“If you have anything to say, save it.  I just put your noise sensor back on.  Get back to fucking your son.

“Gentlemen let’s go have some dinner.  Ben, I see your boy is gone.  To start cooking I presume.  You are one step ahead, as always.  Let’s leave these two have some private time.  They have lots to talk about, too bad they can’t say anything.  Lloyd, I know you have been eying that cognac.  Go ahead and grab it.  It’s yours for all the hard work you put in.  Actually, you all did good.  I’m proud of you all.  That was fun.”

[tizzyizzy]

Seen some talk around the interwebs about how Izzy is a totally different, or his arc happened too fast, whatever. He is my argument to the contrary.

There are three major factors driving the change in Izzy's behavior.

Default Pirate Culture → Gentleman Pirate Culture

Izzy spent his entire pirate career before Stede acting like, well, a pirate. There wasn't room for softness. Being tough was expected. Blackbeard's crew's culture in particular discouraged weakness to such an extent crew were expected to kill their pets before joining.

In S1, Izzy's relationship to the crews and captains was ambiguous. Was he training the Revenge crew to be proper pirates? Was he in charge when the captains weren't on board? Was Ed planning on killing Stede and everyone aboard, or not? So it's unsurprising Izzy held himself away from Stede's crew instead of becoming part of it, and tried without success to make the Revenge crew follow his lead.

In S2, Izzy ends up in Stede's crew, and Izzy isn't in a place emotionally or socially to try to push to change the culture of the ship. He's outnumbered. Izzy has to adapt. At the very least, all of the expectations he has been living up to his entire pirating career are gone.

Taking Care of Ed → No More Ed

Izzy said he'd been cleaning up Ed's messes his whole life. Scenes from S1 and S2 suggest that is the case. In S1, Izzy is dealing with Ed making strange choices on his search for meaning, which requires him to manage restless crew members and deal with the risky spots Ed puts them all in. Once Stede arrives on the scene, Ed is contradictory and non-communitive, leaving Izzy to wonder if the plan to kill Stede and the promised captaincy were bullshit (they were).

And because Izzy has no emotional intelligence, he thinks that Stede is seducing Ed into losing everything, and he desperately tries to pry the pair ppart.

I mean, we all know what happened in the early S2 episodes. Emotional, off-the-rails Ed trying to himself and everyone else while Izzy desperately tried to protect Ed and the crew, until he was forced to give up on Ed.

After breaking up with Ed via bullet, though, Ed is officially Not Izzy's Problem. Ed isn't a threat to the crew. Stede is incompetent, but was clever and brave enough to escape Zheng's ship and rescue them. Izzy is free to have a drunken breakdown. After, well, he gets to do whatever he wants.

What does Izzy want? Well, he's finding out.

No Trust → Trust

The major reason pirates put on such a tough facade is to protect themselves. Being tough keeps enemies from messing with you. It keeps your crew too afraid to mutiny. It's easy to recognize that Ed puts on a persona of Blackbeard, but Izzy put on a persona too. A weak link can be targeted and broken.

Just look at the scene where Izzy finally breaks down and is comforted by the crew. Izzy doesn't make the choice to be emotionally vulnerable. He is behaving the same way he always with crew who question his orders. He yells, he curses, he commands. It is only the level of his emotional distress and the crew's acknowledgement of it that make him incapable of hiding his pain.

I think it's safe to say that has been hiding grief, frustration, confusion, sadness, etc. behind the "Get back to work!" facade for years. It only crumbled under extreme pressure.

But when Izzy breaks, and is at his most pathetic and vulnerable, the crew have his back. Under Blackbeard, they comfort him, hide him away, and treat his injuries at the risk of the captain's wrath. Under Stede, when he's at his most pathetic, the crew make him a new leg and accept him into the crew without judgement.

There's almost nothing Izzy could do in front of the crew now that would make him look more weak than he was when he was crawling across the floor drunk and repeating "You're born alone, you die alone" over and over. He hit rock bottom and there was a pillow there to catch him.

So, Izzy is in the "talk it through" culture of Stede's Revenge. He is free from obsessing about Ed as a man and as a captain. He is surrounded by people who saw him at his worst and showed him compassion.

Izzy's worst behaviors in S1 were motivated by fear. Fear of the new, fear Ed was losing it, fear of what would happen if he showed weakness. In a "safe space", where he has nothing to worry about? Of course Izzy calms way down. This is the Izzy that swaggered up to Stede on the island and at Spanish Jackie's in S1. Dry, sarcastic, sassy. Some flair for the dramatic with the swordplay.

It is because Izzy feels so safe that he can put on that makeup and perform. Wee John is doing it, and Wee John wouldn't let him do anything embarrassing. He's clearly got confidence in his ability to sing.

He's still Izzy. He says fuck constantly. He's kind of a dick. He offers good advice. He's a dramatic, whether he's cutting his name into someone's shirt or singing in French from a balcony. He's just an Izzy that can be whatever he wants without fear.

[intoxicated-chan]

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 ✾ ❝𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐲 𝐁𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝❜𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝❞

© 2023 Intoxicated-Chan, I do not allow my work to be copied, translated, modified, adapted, or put on any other platform without permission. Any photos used do not belong to me!

(A/n) ➳ What do guys think of the first chapter? I’m hoping that you guys enjoy it and feedback is greatly appreciated!!

Word Count ➳ 1.1k

Content Warnings ➳ Alcohol use, small use of force, mentions of smoking…

Series Masterlist

You engulfed your brother in a tight hug as he easily lifted you off the ground, giving a little spin as well. The two of you laugh together as it has been years since you two saw each other, and since you both have different kinds of lives.

“Thanks for the invite!” Shanks smiled as he let you down, “Didn’t think you chose to give up being a pirate.”

“Eh… Well, I found this-” Gesturing to the island you both stand on, “More fun.”

“You’re not wrong about that.” He chuckled and followed you into town where the rest of the crew were sitting inside a bar.

All of them were chattering amongst themselves, enjoying the food and drinks, “I was also surprised to hear from you. Didn’t think inviting a pirate crew was a good choice.”

“I thought this festival would be a good way to catch up.” You take a seat at the bar, next to your brother who is ordering his food and drink, “This island is known for its partying.”

Shanks lifted an eyebrow at your statement, “Really?”

“Yep, just a couple of days ago, we just finished up a party that lasted half a year.”

“Were there any special occasions?”

You shake your head, “The people just like partying.” You said it with a wide smile, your eyes lighting up with joy as you remember the endless partying.

“Seems you haven’t changed.” Shanks smiled as well, thanking the bartender for being his meal, “It’s been a while since we were able to let loose.” He takes a swing of his ale, “Think I could crash at your place?”

If your smile couldn’t get any wider… “I’ll set up your room.” You hopped off the barstool and hurried back to your little home. It was probably big enough to fit a group of four, maybe five.

Shanks sets down his drink and turns to the crew, his gaze fixed on his crew, “Listen up men!” He began. His usually fun tone was gone and all that was left was a deep and commanding voice that was rarely used, “I’ve got something to say.”

He paused, giving his crew a moment to calm down and become quiet, “Everyone here knows my sister, I, of course, talked about her. She’s family and during our stay…” He took another glance, his eyes connecting with his right-hand man’s, “No matter who you are, not a single one of you is allowed to do anything to her. No expectations.”

Everyone exchanged looks, they all knew one thing, not to say anything back, no excuses, nothing.

“Now…” Shanks lifted his mug in the air and his usual smile returned to his face, “Let’s party until we drop!”

It wasn’t hours later until drinks were poured, music played, and laughter was heard. No matter how many times the island threw parties, they never seemed to tire from it.

The sun wasn’t even down yet and people were already drinking heavily.

Various smells of different kinds of foods filled your nostrils, and you dragged your drunk brother around the stalls, trying the food to keep him happy and still standing on his feet.

“Try this!” You bring the food to his lips, letting him take a bite.

He chewed a couple of times before swallowing, “Not bad.” He slurred, taking the meat skewer from your hands.

You grab another one for yourself, “See?” A single skewer of the delicious meat and devouring it in a couple of bites.

You couldn’t help but watch Shanks as he was drunk but he was enjoying himself. His stupidly infectious drunken laughter as he tried even more dishes.

“You and your crew sure know how to party.” You comment, looking towards his crew where all of them are crowded together, singing to the music being played, “And you haven’t lost your appetite.”

Shanks grinned, “What can I say? Food is life’s greatest pleasure.” He takes a large bite from the skewer. Once he finished, he tossed the wooden pick in the nearest trash can.

A playful shout caught his ears, Shanks turned to see a group of children engaged in a game of chase or a game of tag. With a mischievous glint in his eyes, he nudged your arm, “Care to play a game, sis?”

And you see where’s pointing with his only hand, “You’re on!”

Instantly, you ran away, not before smacking his arm. You dashed through the crowds, carefully not to bump or hit people on the way.

You could hear your brother laughing along. You took various turns to lose him as excitement filled your body. You finally felt relaxed as it felt like you both were back to being children before the two of you decided to split ways.

And even after he decided to form his crew, the two of you rarely saw each other…

You sprinted around a corner, looking over your shoulder to see if Shanks was behind you. You collided with a tall figure, you stumbled back and the stranger grabbed your arm.

Startled and heavily breathing, you found yourself against the wall with your heart racing, “Easy there.” Benn’s voice was focused and low, “And who are you running from?”

“B-Benn! It’s me.” You quickly whispered, hearing your brother’s giggles running past the alleyway.

It was lightened up by a touch hanging off the wall. At the end of the wall, there were some stairs leading up to the second floor.

You could see his eyes soften and his grip loosens immediately as he recognizes your voice, “(Y/n)...” Benn tilts his head slightly, his eyes squinting in the dim light, “What are you doing far from the party?”

You let out a sigh of relief as Benn took a couple of steps back, “Well…” Unsure how to explain.

The tense silence was in the air, so thick that you could cut it with a knife. The joyful festival was pushed to the back of your head as it felt awkward.

Benn looked over at the stairs at the end of the alleyway, he then looked back at you.

“...Care to join me for a smoke?”

» » YOU’RE HERE « « ⊰ Next Part ⊰

[marymary-diva17]

new home (2)

Jake x avatar reader x Neytiri

Being allowed to seek refuge with the metkayian was a blessing, but getting use to a new home was something that took time to get use to. Life for the sully family had changed since their arrival here yesterday, as they had to learn fast but they were not the only ones learning fast even the adults had to learn. Everyone was doing their own duty in their new home as they were learning to adapt to their new home and new life as well.

y/n " ......." it has been a while since you and your family have arrived at the metkayian village. There were some difficulties and success when it came to learning the ways of the reef navi. You had been placed under the mentorship of ronal with mo'at and neytiri. ronal was very impress by the healing ways and how well you seem to be getting use to your new home as well.

kiri " hey mama I'm going to wonder around" it was a off day today in the village and everyone seem to be doing their own thing. It mostly seem like everyone was trying to find something to do that will keep them entertained or busy for the day.

y/n " okay be safe out there"

kiri " yes mama" kiri soon kissed hugged your before she left leaving you at the home, alone that was until tuk came running into the home. Kiri, lo'ak and spider had been coming to you lately speaking of their problems of their new home and life here.

tuk " mama"

y/n " yes little one"

tuk " some of the kids here ask me to come play with them can I"

y/n " sure you cna but be home for supper time im understood"

tuk " yes mama"

y/n " okay go have fun" Tuk smiles as you soon saw her run off with some younger kids of the village, you are happy the children had been able to find some happiness while living here. The children were having a hard time here but soon were able to find some fun in their new home.

Elsewhere in the village

kiri " ......" kiri was looking at the sand underwater as a small creature was making holes in the sand, kiri had always been inspired by the ways of eywa and you had encouraged her to explore and understand the world.

Ao'nung " what is she doing"

bully 1 " I don't know"

ao'nung " she just looking at the sand" aonung comment had gotten a laughter out of his friends

kiri " huh what you say"

ao'nung " are you some kind of freak "

bully 1 " he asked if you are a freak"

kiri " no" kiri shakes her head and soon started walking awat from the bullies she didn't have time for them.

ao'nung " are you sure you are not even real navi .... look at these hands" aonung and tried to grab kiri hand, only to have her pull them away.

????? " hey" soon lo'ak had shown up he is very mad at aonung right now.

lo'ak " back off fish lips"

aonung " aww another four finger freak" aonung was back up as lo'ak was walking near him.

bully 1 " aww look at his litle baby tail"

lo'ak " don't touch me" soon the bullies had started picking on lo'ak and pulling his tail.

kiri " leave us alone" soon neteyam and made his way over he was mad, but he was not alone spider was with him.

neteyam " you heard what they said leave them alone"

bully 2 " aww big brother coming ..." the bully was cut off by aonung as spider was comforting kiri and lo'ak.

neteyam " back off now .. smart choice and from on I need you to respect my sister" one of the bullies had hissed at the four teens as they all stood there glaring at each other.

neteyam " good let go"

ao'nung " look at them their whole family is bunch of freaks, even their dear mama" all four teens had stoped in their tracks did they hear aonung right.

lo'ak " ......" lo'ak soon turned around and stared making his way back to aonung and his crew.

lo'ak " look I know my hand look funny im a freak and alien, but it can do something really cool watch" lo'ak soon started punching aonung sending him falling into and the sand.

lo'ak " don't you ever touch my sister again and don't you ever talk bad about my mama again" soon a whole fight had broken out Neteyam and spider ran in to join, the fight against the metkayain boys as kiri tried to break it up but ended up laughing.

y/n " Jake welcome home what ... kids what happen" you saw you son come home and they were hurt, you soon dropped everything and rush to their aid.

Jake " what was the one thing I told you"

neteyam " stay out of trouble"

Jake " stay out of trouble"

netayam " it was my fault .... mama"

y/n " stop moving boy"

Jake " you need to stop taking the blame for this knuckle head"

lo'ak " aonung was picking on kiri and he insult mama as well ... he called them freaks" you soon stopped what you were doing and looked at your kids, and husband.

Jake " go apology to aonung"

loak " what"

Jake " he the chief son dont you understand ... I don't care how you do it"

y/n " Jake"

lo'ak " no mama dad is right I will go apologize to him" soon lo'ak had walked away from the family and home, leaving you standing there with neteyam and Jake.

Jake " hey what did the other guys look like"

neteyam " worst "

Jake " that good"

neteyam " alot worst" neteyam and Jake shared a smile befor neteyam was dismissed from the home, you were now looking at Jake.

Jake " look I know what I did was wrong but we need to be on good terms here if we are going to get the whole clan here"

y/n " ......"

Jake " I'm sorry loak will be fine y/n he will say sorry and become friends with Aonung, and it will all be good"

y/n " I;m trust you Jake but I wish you will understand our son more as well" you soon looked out as you saw lo'ak on his IIu leave the boy waved toward you, and you waved back with a smile on your face. You knew lo'ak meant well for his actions to stay up for his family, but you really dislike how it was handle afterwards as well.

Jake " you taught him some of those punches did you" Jake soon puled you into an embrace.

y/n " someone had to teach him so moves he can't always be learning from you and neytiri" jake smiled towards you he knew you are good mother and the only reason their family still strong.

Later on that day

Neytiri " what the matter" kiri was helping you and neytiri with some cooking but the girl who mood had changed since the fight.

kiri " I'm fine"

y/n " sweetie what bothering you"

kiri " why can't I bee like the rest mama why I'm so different"

neytiri " aww kiri" neytiri had touched kiri trying to comfort her only to get the girl to move away from her a bit, you had signal for neytiri to leave kiri be for a moment. later that night your found kiri alone on a pier you soon went to join her.

y/n " hey honey"

kiri " hey mama" you said nothing was you pulled kiri close to you, and kissed her forehead making her smile.

Jake " mind if I join" Jake soon made himself know to the mother and daughter he soon sat down next to kiri.

Jake " so tell us what the matter baby girl"

kiri " I can feel and hear her dad"

Jake " feel who"

kiri " eywa" you and Jake looked at each other trying to understand what was going on right now.

Jake " so what does eywa sound like"

y/n " yes tell use honey we want to know"

kiri " she sounds mighty" before anymore words could be spoke Neteyam had come over with aonung and he was mad, you soon stood up knowing something was wrong.

netayam " go on tell my dad and mama what you did .. tell them what you told me" soon panic set in and fear as lo'ak was missing your baby boy was missing. you felt your heart racing race, he was gone and your couldn't find him. A party had been made to look for loak once the news was shared with everyone else.

neteyam " mama I'm sorry I should of stayed with him"

y/n "it okay it none of your fault "

warrior " the boy the sully boy has bene found" you soon took off running towards the docks to see your son, you soon reach there and saw Jake checking him over.

y/n " loak"

lo'ak " mama" you soon reach him as Jake and step aside checking him over and over again.

y/n " you are okay you are okay"

neytiri " lo'ak" neytiri soon reach the boy and was checking him over as well.

neytiri " I pray for the strength that I dont punish my youngest son"

y/n " you will do no such thing neytiri" neytiri seem shcoec by you tone so did everyone else, you were nothing to mess with when you become mother bear mode.

tonowari "no my son knows better to take outsiders... the blame is his"

Jake " okay lets go"

lo'ak " no this is not among fault ... this was mine idea aonung tried to talk me out of it" you know loak was lying you can always tell when him or the kids lie.

neytiri " lo'ak"

lo'ak " im sorry"

Jake" I will dela with this" soon the fmaily started walking away, you could hear aonung getting scolded by his parents maybe that was your son reason for taking the blame.

lo'ak " dad you told me to make friends with these kids and that what I did"

Jake " no I don't want to hear you have brought shame to this family"

y/n " Jake"

lo'ak " it okay mama"

Jake " any more trouble I will jerk a tail in your tail you read me"

loak " yes sir understood sir can I go now"

Jake " go" lo'ak soon walked awya you were going to head after him when you heard something else.

neytiri " where were you"

Jake "yes were you .... you were suppose to look after your brother"

y/n " enough both of you leave neteyam alone"

neteyam " mama it okay"

y/n " no neteyam not to blame for losing his brother after you asked Loak to say sorry for a fight, and now you tell him he bring shame to the family"

Jake " y/n I ...."

y/n " now you two ... I don't have the words right now kids come we are going home" you soon walked away from Jake and neytiri with the kids following. You soon spotted loak and aonung talking you want to interfere but saw they were being friendly towards each other, soon leaving the boys alone. When lo'ak got home that night he was keep his distance from Jake and neytiri, but he was spending time with you and the rest of the family. You had given a some looks towards Jake and Neytiri but spoke no words towards them. It seem like this new home was still going to have some hardships for everyone.

[anonymousboxcar]

More Stanley (RWS) Headcanons

CW: non-graphic discussions of war, abandonment, smoking

——————————

-I like to think that Stanley had his MSR crew in his corner. In my mind, both were also veterans of WWI. They understood his struggles to adapt civilian life (albeit to a lesser extent, since they weren’t “born” into war as he was). And they did their best to support him during that transition phase they knew too well.

-Whenever he derailed, his crew didn’t give him any grief. They instead chatted and joked with him, trying to keep him from feeling embarrassed. They would also defend him to other crews and to MSR management. Again and again, they demanded that he be reguaged a second time.

-In return, Stanley grew to respect and care for his crew. He wafted warm steam on them in bitter winter months. He listened to them talk about their families, asking after them with an air of affected boredom. He tried his hardest to keep them safe in a derailment. He let them — and only them — call him Stan.

-When Stanley went behind the shed, he didn’t blame his crew. He knew they did all they could for him. He told them so, when they snuck over during their lunch breaks. They didn’t reply, sitting on the brick wall while scrubbing off all of his soot they could reach.

-He didn’t see them during his years in the mine. The site security was much higher; there was no chance of them sneaking in. He stopped letting himself wonder about them after the mine flooded.

-His fireman and driver worked on the MSR and other railways before retiring and moving to the same assisted living home. In my AU, they saw the newspaper articles about the successful restoration of an ex-pumping engine in the early ‘80s. Both of them were in shock: like everyone else, they heard that the mining company scrapped Stanley. But once they got over their shock, they recruited their grandchildren to take them to the Skarloey Railway, ASAP.

-Stanley, for his part, assumed his old crew weren’t around anymore. He came back to the sheds one day to find two older men there. He didn’t recognize them at first, even when they turned to face him. But he got there in the end.

(“‘Ello, Stan,” one said, offering a shaky smile.

All the air rushed out of Stanley’s firebox, his flame guttering. “That name ain’t yours to use. That’s…”

He stopped. He looked closer at them. One had the thin white scar on his forehead, enfolded in his wrinkles. The other had the mole on his left wrist, a soft brown hill on blue, veiny ridges of skin.

“…that’s for Fred and Paul.”

“Got it in one, Stan. Just like old times.”

“Not like old times.” Stanley‘s eyes burned. “A hell of a lot better, now that you finally showed up,” he laughed, watery and overflowing.)

-Fred and Paul paid Stanley many more visits, both on the SR and at the rail museum. They brought their children and grandchildren, who were eager to meet this storied American engine and friend. Stanley reciprocated this warmth, glad to see people he’d heard so much about.

-The end result was Stanley becoming a fast honorary member of the family. He cherished them as much as the engine family he made at the rail museum and on the SR.

(-The most recent family potluck took place at the rail museum, rented out for a Saturday afternoon. Some ambitious relatives asked Stanley if they could try cooking their food in his firebox. “Y’know, so you can taste it too?” asked one, hands in their pockets with a sheepish smile.

Stanley didn’t think of museum rules. He thought of the cigar an army officer lit in his firebox. He thought of all the smoke he tasted over the years — tobacco, gunpowder, and coal. He thought of new and old ash mingling, smudging together under shovels and his steady fire.

The food wound up burnt and caked with soot. Nobody minded, but everyone laughed and made it another story to tell.)

[polyhexian]

I like how the eventually AU gives Camila the opportunity to get another adult's perspective on Luz and the Boiling Isles during the human realm stay. Like, no offense to the kids, but when you're a parent and you're trying to determine if your child is in an okay situation, you're going to put a bit more value on the insights of a fellow adult than those of a bunch of teenagers. Let alone when the situation is that your kid had a secret summer-long stay in another dimension.

So I'm imagining one of the rare moments they get to talk when there's no kids around cuz they're all out trying to build a portal door or something, and it's like

Camila: I've just been so worried about Luz, she's always had trouble fitting in, she's never had any real friends, her teachers don't like her, it's hard for her to focus on things she's not interested in and she has trouble applying herself, I know she's smart but her grades are all over the place, she'd rather think about her fantasy worlds instead of do anything to engage with or prepare for living in the real one - except it turns out she's found a REAL fantasy world? And I'm not sure if that makes things better or worse.

Jasper: Uh, your daughter has made several very close friends and is generally accepted by the entire student body, she rediscovered an ancient type of magic usage that everyone forgot about ages ago, her teachers love her, she successfully convinced her principal to LET students study multiple tracks despite wild magic having been forbidden for fifty years, she's handled every adventure and scrape she's ever gotten into beautifully, she routinely surprises and impresses her mentor Eda the Owl Lady who was up until recently one of the most powerful people on the Isles, she broke Amity free of her parents' toxic influence and successfully deprogrammed my son out of a cult, she's friendly and creative and brilliant and everyone who knows her is extremely grateful to have her in their life.

Camila: …

Jasper: …

Both: Are we talking about the same kid?

Which is GREAT

what I love so much about Luz is how much she blossomed in this world and how much her old one stunted her. Makes me crazy that she finished human high school for whatever reason before moving permanently to the isles. I like to think Camila would see that her daughter belonged where she was happy, that the right place for her was, as much as it hurt, not here. And she would rather her be happy than be with her. Obviously she still sees her all the time but like. Luz is herself, all the way, without apology, in the world she found, and she is loved there and understood there. I think vee and Luz make such awesome- foils? Parallels? In that way. Both were brought up in these worlds that suffocated them and stepped into a place where they blossomed, where they could be genuinely truly happy. Vee had only lived in the human realm a few months when the rest of the crew showed up but she'd already fully adapted to human realm stuff! The same way Luz immediately just adapted to everything witchy. Amity and Willow panic at the sight of an alarm clock. Vee is already so familiar with this world she knows how fire extinguishers work, what human food is supposed to taste like, how to speak Spanish and use a cell phone and alarm clocks. The way Luz is like oh NO teenagers but vee just happily sits down and talks to them. These people are like her. They aren't like Luz. Luz is an outsider in the world she was born in and so was vee and it is so much better for them both that they found somewhere they could actually BE.

Anyway yeah lol this timeline Camila can really get the full perspective on how incredibly well Luz has done. From Camila's perspective her daughter ran away from home and when she came back she was wounded, traumatized and seriously depressed. She didn't see how genuinely happy and at peace Luz was there. She is totally reasonable in suspecting this place was Bad For Her.

But while Luz is unwilling to talk too much because she's depressed and all the kids have limited perspectives and probably aren't comfortable talking about luz to her mom anyway- jasper can fully be like yeah no dude you have no idea. She's a bright star people flock to. She's so confident and happy and optimistic and kind. She literally deprogrammed my child soldier son and rescued him from a cult. Won't lie to you ma'am, your daughter has put her life at risk many times and many people have tried to kill her- but they all failed because she is so strong and so loved that he is never alone. Luz is legitimately a hero.

What a wild thing to hear about your child. Both the danger she has been in but also... How much she has flourished within that danger. Your fifteen year old daughter's passion is in saving people from shark attacks or something. It's not just that she's happy, it's that she's strong, fulfilled, passionate, she's filled with a LIFE she never was before.

[duckielover151]

The One Piece Diaries

Episode Count: 450

Holy shit, guys... I'm back. I took another several months-long hiatus from One Piece... Mostly unintentionally... (I've been bouncing between a lot of other fandoms these past few months but have been brought back by the live action.) Where to start...

We've been in Impel Down for most of the last 40 or so episodes since my last update post. And not to go off on a tangent, but you know... I've noticed One Piece lumped in as one of the shows that's swamped with filler. And that really hasn't been my experience so far.

What I have noticed is that, around this point, the pacing gets pretty atrocious. There's a lot that happens in the journey to try and break Ace out of Impel Down... But is there 40 episodes worth of stuff? I have to argue no. It gets to the point where the first third of the episode is all recap, and barely anything is actually getting accomplished each episode. So that is a little off-putting.

But! There is a lot of good to be found in this arc too!

Okay, admittedly... Buggy was never my favorite... (outside of some brilliantly written fanfiction by stereden on AO3) And I would have been content to never see Mr. 3 again... But it is really cool to meet back up with so many of the old villains who only met their downfall and ended up here because of Luffy and to have them be on our side now. Really puts into perspective the morality of it all. Luffy's always fighting for the right things... but in the eyes of the government and greater world, he's a villain as well.

I've finally met Jimbei... (Jinbe? Jinbei? I've seen all 3, but Crunchyroll's subtitles use the 'm' spelling, so that's what I'm going with.) I haven't seen a lot of him yet, but I like him so far. He's tough, clearly, but also almost goofily polite, in a way that really complements Luffy's general blunt insensitiveness. I think it's still a while before he joins up as the last member of the crew, but I'm looking forward to getting to know him better.

This arc makes it really clear how Bon Clay came to be as beloved in the fandom as he is. And there's a lot that could be said about Ivankov... A lot that would very quickly derail this update and which I'm not totally, personally qualified to weigh in on...

Listen, One Piece's portrayal of queerness isn't perfect. But it's a hell of a lot better than the way so many other shows handle it, especially given the time this aired. (The Impel Down arc was originally adapted throughout late 2009-early 2010. Frankly, the 90s often included more and better handled LGBT+ characters than the 2000s era anime did, up until pretty recently.) Just the fact alone that this group is so out and proud about it and undeniably allied with and wholeheartedly accepted by the main protagonist is a fucking statement all on its own. It's beautiful. I can't underplay that by nitpicking the places the representation fell short by today's standards in a storyline that's 15 years old now. (I know there's a lot of shit in the future that goes down with Sanji in particular... So I may have less generous things to say later, but that's where we stand right now.)

And as for the arc's villains... Magellan's okay. This last episode particularly, the venom demon attack was pretty badass. (That image of the mushrooming skulls as it formed it was so good.)

And Hannyabal... Okay, there were some early moments that made me laugh. The gag about how he's clearly lusting for the warden's job and not great about hiding it could be pretty funny. But by the time he's defeated... and the anime starts in on a dramatic backstory for this asshole, trying to make him sympathetic... All I could say was, 'You've gotta be fucking kidding me...' I know it's kind of One Piece's thing to try and redeem everyone, but I was so bogged down by the pacing at that point... I did not have the patience for it. Good riddance to that dude in particular.

Episode 450 ends with our ragtag group officially making it out... And man, it's cool to see some of these older characters again, but I already miss our crew so much... Especially knowing what's coming...

I'm sure I've already mentioned that I know the bigger Marineford spoilers... But I'm still not sure I'm ready to see it firsthand.

Wish me luck.

[thesoftboiledegg]

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about "I Know What You Did Last Xmas" because the holiday episodes were some of my least favorites from the original run. They're not bad; I just didn't care for them and figured this would be Evil Santa Part 3. But nope--this is easily my favorite Futurama Christmas episode.

What first struck me was this episode's cuteness. The whole crew getting their own stockings with tiny stockings for Amy's kids and Nibbler's worms was cute. The Planet Express armor making the building look like a gingerbread house was cute. Fry sitting with Amy's kids and looking at Amy and Kif with teary eyes was adorable, and showing his childlike nature is a good contrast to the "Haha, this guy is so dumb" jokes.

When everyone left for the holidays, I thought "Really? Fry just forgot about Bender?" But then I thought "Well, this is still Futurama, the characters are going to be a little dismissive of each other."

Nope, that wasn't the case. Fry and Leela realized their mistake, and the whole crew came back to Planet Express to surprise Bender and Zoidberg.

The Fox and Comedy Central runs could be cynical and mean-spirited--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the popularity of wholesome shows, such as Bob's Burgers and Ted Lasso, shows that audiences are tired of "edgy" TV. People want to see characters being nice to each other.

So, the Futurama writers adapted to the times. The series still has dark humor so that it doesn't get cutesy, but the Planet Express crew isn't a group of coworkers as much as it's a found family. Leela helps Amy raise her kids and Fry hangs out with them; Fry, Leela and Bender all live together; the whole crew is sad when they think Nibbler's about to lose his intelligence; even Bender and Zoidberg start liking each other.

One thing I liked about the Comedy Central run was the unusual pairings (Bender and Hermes, Amy and Nibbler), so I enjoyed seeing Bender and Zoidberg getting in trouble together. I never thought about the fact that neither of them has a biological family. That and the fact that they're both "losers" (one a sad loser, the other an angry loser) gave them something to bond over.

Their personalities blend together so well that I'm surprised it took them this long to team up. I loved their crazy schemes to get rid of Evil Santa's body, like trying to flush him down the toilet--yeah, good luck with that one.

I also LOVED the Disenchantment cameo. I don't get all the lukewarm reviews, but that's another story. It's the freshest show I've seen in a while.

Overall, this is one of Futurama's best "feel good" episodes. The characters still argue and tease each other, but the writing hits emotional notes even while Bender and Zoidberg are killing Robot Santa and trying to hide the body. Bender let his guard down around Zoidberg of all people. If he can do that, maybe the rest of the crew can be a little more open and affectionate, too.

[choccyhearts]

90's!Eddie Headcanons

Note: I always like imagining how Eddie would adapt with the 90's since it is lowkey very different from the 80's, so here's some random thoughts ^_^

CW:

Cut his hair around the beginning of the decade

I really couldn't tell you why my brain won't let this go, but I really believe that he would've thought that The Blair Witch Project was real (like not for a suuuper long time, but maybe before seeing it he would)

(But he would NOT have made that mistake again with Paranormal Activity in the 00's...totallyyyy...)

He prepared for Y2K "just in case"

He told the others that it was stupid and that people were all worked up over nothing

But did drag along a case of beans, beer and a first-aid kit with him to Steve's New Year's Eve party "just in case"

(He left his other favorite belongings in his van)

His precious van did sadly break down but that was okay cause he ended up just getting a new one instead :)

He refuses to not drive a van, honestly

Would maybe depart from that though if he had access to hearse

Despite being the rough around the edges metalhead he is, he would find a love for Britney Spears

Like ya know how today there's a collection of metalheads who love Carly Rae Jepsen and see her as their emotional support pop girly? That's what Britney is for him

Thought Scream was a masterpiece and forced the others to dress up as the characters with him for Halloween (you can take your guess as to who he was...)

(Stu, duh.)

Speaking of Halloween costumes, the older gang would also dress up as the Friends characters (because c'mon, these are yt ppl..) (He was Joey because he refused to be anyone else) (Yes him and Steve argued over it resulting in a coin toss to make the decision) (Steve was Ross)

He's def a Seinfeld>Friends kinda guy

He's also a Simpsons>Family Guy kinda guy

Fuckin' loves DunkAroos

Got lost at a Nirvana concert (this applies to both Rockstar!Eddie or regular Eddie)

Rockstar!Eddie and Corroded Coffin went on SNL

Eddie told Mike Myers he was hilarious but kept calling him "Michael" to be "respectful" (also cause he thought it was hilarious)

Got Adam Sandler's autograph for Steve

Isn't a fan of ICP or juggalos but can accept them from afar

(Is highkey thankful he went to high school in the 80's because otherwise he would've had some juggalos sitting at the Hellfire table)

Celebrated the beginning of his 30's with a bottle of champagne and a pack of DunkAroos

Would also mourn his 20s but not entirely

His first time using the Internet, he looked up porn

Not cause he was in the mood or anything, but just to see what was there

He's not allowed to use Steve's computer anymore

Embraced the younger ones' new phases :

Lucas styling himself after Will Smith in Fresh Prince (which btw not an Eddie hc but Lucas and Max dressed as Men in Black for Halloween on year, okay bye)

Max definitely embraced the grunge style of dress

El loving riot grrrl bands due to their boldness and unabashed expression of emotions (Eddie thinks it's badass)

The boys' love for video games surging due to history being made before their very eyes (Sonic, Crash, Super Mario 64, etc.)

Eddie gets high and watches Kevin Smith movies

Misses his long hair after watching Jay & Silent Bob :(

Likes Goosebumps books and collects them for his future children

The whole crew went to go see Space Jam expecting it to be really dumb and dopey

Everyone left with their lives changed

Forced Steve and Lucas to teach him basketball

It went exactly how you'd expect it go

Fell asleep watching Titanic at movie night

Freaked TFFF out when he got high and watched the Truman Show

Then let his fear subside and would make jokes

"Steve, move out of the way, you're blocking my good angle" *is staring at a plant pot*

Wants smoke with the Chucky doll

Tried growing out a small beard towards the end of the decade

Didn't really feel it, will try again in his 40s

Rockstar!Eddie bought Wayne a house in '95

Made sure the kitchen had lots of cupboard space

Eddie didn't cry until he was leaving after moving Wayne in

Wayne didn't cry until he started putting up picture frames of Eddie through out the years

Mechanic!Eddie saved up for a house for the two of them to rent

Either version Eddie got Wayne a black labrador

Wayne was your typical "I don't need a dog to worry about, messing up my furniture" type of man

They're attached at the hip after one day

"This Green Day isn't half bad"

Despite knowing that it isn't his first actual drink, Eddie is psyched to take Dustin out for his 21st birthday, just the two of them

Steve tracks them down, upset he wasn't the one to buy Dustin his first drink

Dustin doesn't even care as long as he isn't the one paying

This would be the decade that Eddie properly settles down with someone

Gets married early in the decade

Decides to have kids towards the end of the decade/early 00s

I'm gonna cap it here ^_^

[annikasevenshots]

Star Trek Picard: Season 3 Episode 6 Reaction (spoilers!)

OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD

THE SHRIKE???????????

Vadic!!!

"UNITY AGAIN" IDK YALL SOUNDS PRETTY BORG TO ME

72 HOURS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON TO HAPPEN?????

awwww jack's parents parenting 🥺

TERMINAL DIAGNOSIS?????????? EXCUSE ME?????????????? GOODBYE

IRUMONIC SYNDROME? GOODBYE I WANT TO LAUNCH MYSELF IN THE SUN

"please don't spend time burdening yourself when you can unburden him"

"I don't suppose you have any of my size" JACK STOP BEING SO FUNNYYYYY

HANSWTHEYRE HERE

THEYRE HERE THEYRE HERE

REUNION DAY REUNION DAY REUNION DAY REUNION DAY REUNION DAY

THERE SHE IS!!!!!!!!!! THAT'S MY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG SEVEN IS ACTUALLY SMILEY I WANT TO DIE

awww bev hugging worf 🥺

lmao everyone hating on picard's wine 😭😭😭

"hey, you" I SCREECHED OUT LOUD OH MY GOD

HEY YOU

OH MY GOD I THINK I JUST UNLOCKED A NEW CORE MEMORY

EVERYONE IM ACTUALLY CRYING SO HARD

THEY TALKED TO EACH OTHER

"One that adapts" IM THINKING IM THINKING

SEVEN SMILING BEING LIKE IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN

OHHHHH NY GOD SHSHSHABHASUHA

EZCHSE ME DHSIJshsjskshhshdhd

"it's good to be seen" FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

"i have gone into battle with lovers countless times" WORF OH MY GOD

THEY ARE KILLING ME

sorry passed out for a bit. Sec31?????????

"James T Kirk"????

ATTACK TRIBBLE HAHAHHA THEYRE SO FUNNY SOMETIMES

RAVEN

THAT IS A RAVEN

RAVEN

WE BEEN KNEW HOLY FUCK

"Like from my nightmares" ALSO FROM SEVENS NIGHTMARES

Moriarty's theme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the worst use of "I think therefore I am", signed, a philosophy

SEVEN BEING HERE BEFORE!!!!!!!

We will see the Voyager?????????

Sidney La Forge being "uhhhh dont answer the call from my dad"

MORE HUGS <3 <3 <3

HEY SIS 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

i love this sister duo already

Oh Sidney 🥺

"Turn fatherhood into an intergalactic incident" LAUGHING

Why is Alandra his PA lowkey

THE SHIPS TALK TO EACH OTHER? SOUNDS VERY B-WORD TO ME

RAFFI USING SEVEN'S PHASER YAYYYYYYYYYYY

OMG POP GOES THE WEASEL

someone called it on tumblr!!!!!!!!!

Oh Raffi is so pretty

LORE.

alandra!!!! alandra trying to help!!!!!!!!!

Oh so alandra is the fave

SEVEN KNOWS.

Seven being "off :/" when Jack tries out the captain chair 😂😂😂

She hasn't been here for so long only for a pasty white man to take her place 😂

Defiant

OH THEYRE EDGING US

OMG THE MUSIC SHUT THE FUCK UP

OH SEVEN. SEVEN. SEVEN IS GOING TO BRING US TO

TURNING THIS ONE UP

THE VOYAGER. HELLO

THE MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE VOYAGER THEME

I WAS REBORN THERE HER CREW WERE MY FAMILY

THE VOYAGER THEME GOING INTO THE FAMILY THEME ARE YOU KIDDING ME IM ACTUALLY GOING TO LAUNCH MYSELF IN THE SUN

SEVEN BEING SMILEY AND LAUGHEY KILLING MYSELF

oh the music this episode.

the family theme again!!! when laforge talks about sidney!!!!!!

"Not the way I fear for hers" oh Sidney 🥺🥺🥺

SEVEN DID A SPINNY I SEE YOUUUUUUUUUU

SIDNEY IS MAKING ME CRY

why is shaw just like sleeping lmaooooooo why is he never ever around

Awwww the next next generation making friends 🥺

hahahahaha shaw being a fanboy!!!!!!

OMFG "Jack" "Sidney" 💀

THEY ARE SETTING THEM UP SO HARDDDDDDD

"Stay away from my daughter" PLEASEEEE

"Tell your mom we won't be home for dinner" awwww

RIKER NO!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Worf's theme

OH MY GOD DAFORGE LIVES

bring my boi homeeeeeeee oh will riker 🥺

"Why do you think i crashed so many speeders as a kid? So i can spend time with you fixing them" crying so hard

sidney i love you so so much you can do no wrong

data seeing geordi first out of everyone!!!!!!! daforge crumbs!!!!!!!!

CHANGELINGS STOLE PICARDS BODY???????? THEY ARE SO UNSERIOUS RN

SHRIKE. RIKER.

VADIC GOING HI HAHAHAHAHA

Deanna??????????????

In conclusion,

[bethaven]

#12 Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Plot: A sassy, independent woman in 1920's Melbourne mixes jazzclubs and men with solving murders. Phryne Fisher is, at first, an unwelcomed element for detective inspector Jack Robinson and the others at the Police station. Though, as time goes by she's proven to be an invaluable resorce - for the Police force, professionally - and for Jack, personally.

Years: 2012-2015

Seasons: 3

My story: One weekend back in early 2020 me and my platonic wife did what we do best - sat on the couch and watched series for an entire weekend. Then and there she showed me Miss Fisher for the first time, and it's a love that lasted. I fell hard for the strong, feisty woman that is Phryne, and not the least as the sappy romantic I am, the will-they-won't-they relationship between Phryne and Jack. Shortly after, I discovered a beutiful fandom with people of all ages, from all over the world.

Teachable moments: Phryne is a role model for everyone and shows us that norms and expectations are bullshit. Be yourself and live your life and don't forget to contribute to a better world along the way.

Best character: This might be the obvious choice but it has to be Phryne. As I've already stated, she's a huge inspiration for everyone and I try to have a little Phryne with me everyday.

Best episode: "Game, set & murder" (S3E7). A classic episode which not only hosts amazing old fashioned tennis-costumes and a spider-frightened Phryne but also a whole bunch of drama and emotions.

Best quote: -"She has no respect for the rules" -"That's because they tend to be written by men" (Lofty and Phryne). To be fair this one's from the movie, but it's so good!

Fun fact: A Miss Fisher Con is held every year in the US, where fans get together, have workshops and parties with visits from cast and crew.

If you like this you might also like: In 2020 the movie Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears premiered. It was supposed to be the first of at least three movies following the series, but for different reasons there won't be more. During 2019-2020 a spinoff called Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries aired, where we follow Phryne's niece Peregrine in the 60's. Around the same time a Chinese adaptation, called Miss S, was released and aired for one season. Others you might like are Downton Abbey, Bridgerton, Miss Marple, Vera and Midsummer Murders.

The series is an adaptation of Kerry Greenwood's books, at the moment 22 of them, and counting.

[coll2mitts]

#15 A Star is Born (1954)

When life unfortunately imitates art.

A Star is Born is a tale of addiction and fame that has four film adaptations that have nothing to do with the fact it's clear Oscar bait (although Judy did famously lose this one to Grace Kelly).  Did you guys know the entertainment industry changes and exploits people?  I surely didn't realize this until now, and that's why the academy has consistently rewarded movies that talk about how weird Hollywood is.  Y'know.  Cause there's so few of them.

I'm being glib, as this movie is probably one of the more sympathetic views of the big studio system, for all its flaws.  It focuses on Esther Blodgett, a singer in a touring band, and how her encounter and subsequent relationship with big-star actor Norman Maine changed her career, and thus her life.  This film is 3 hours long (it used to be both shorter and longer, for reasons explained later), and it *feels* that long.  For every moment of levity there are 30 minutes of pain, and while this feels tedious sometimes, it does a great job of illustrating the highs and lows of caring for someone struggling with addiction.  They burn so brightly in those small moments when everything is spectacular that it's almost worth slogging through the periods of grim instability that does nothing but foreshadow a bleak future.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story I will give a rundown below.  If you're curious how this 1954 version differs from the other three films, Be Kind Rewind has an excellent video that you should watch after reading this.  Seriously though, check out her channel, it's incredibly informative.

Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) and the Glenn Williams Orchestra, lead by her buddy Danny McGuire (the adorable Tommy Noonan, who will forever be Gus in my eyes) have booked a gig during a benefit concert.  Norman Maine, a famous Hollywood actor, is supposed to perform as well, but he shows up drunk as a skunk and is having much more fun harassing the cast and crew than he is preparing to go on stage.  While his PR agent Matt Libby has correctly identified Norman is in no position to be in front of people, he tries to distract him by sending him to the dressing rooms to be interviewed.  This works for about 5 minutes until he hulks out and joins Esther and the gang on stage just for funsies.

In the sprit of 'fuck it, we'll do it live', Esther succeeds in getting Norman involved with the act as comedic relief, he gets the positive attention he craves from the audience, and everyone laughs like this isn't a big disaster played out in public.

Norman tries to thank Esther for saving him from looking even more like an ass by trying to get her to go to a second location with him.  Even though Esther finds this strangely sweet, Danny wisely helps her escape to their next gig and Libby takes Norman home to sleep it off.  That would be the end of it if Norman didn't arise from the grave like a vampire at 2:30am to hunt down Esther like she's his prey.  He finds her at a club on Sunset where her and her friends are rehearsing, and oh my god, it's so glorious.

I love Judy's voice; I get goosebumps every time I hear her.  She's such a powerhouse.

Also, FUN FACT: The composer of this song, Harold Arlen, scored Gay Purr-ee, so if you also think "The Man That Got Away" bares a striking resemblance to "Paris is a Lonely Town", there's a legitimate reason for that.

A now-sober Norman bombards Esther with metaphors about her excellence and gradually isolates her from the group by physically dragging her around.  Danny tries to separate them, but Esther leaves with Norman all the same to go back to her place and discuss her career goals.  When she reveals she wants to get a #1 record on Hit Parade, Norman retorts that Esther's dream is not big enough and she's wasting her time paling around with undignified gig musicians.  Esther is only slightly insulted by Norman's blatant disregard of the work she's already put in to get where she is, but buys into his promise to snag her a screen test.  Esther then breaks Danny's heart by quitting the band and asking them to move on to San Francisco without her.  Danny tries to change her mind by suggesting she might not want to trust a flake (no matter how charming he is), but Esther believes Norman sees potential in her nobody else has, igniting her desire to aim higher.

Of course Norman gets loaded after leaving Esther's house and his late night call to the head of the studio, Oliver Niles, is completely blown off as Norman trying to impress some broad he likes.  Instead, the studio ships Norman out to work on his next picture, completely abandoning Esther for 5-6 weeks.  Esther, never hearing back from Norman, moves into a cheaper place and gets a job as a roller skating waitress in an attempt to make ends meet while she attends auditions.  She manages to book a VO gig singing in a shampoo commercial, which helps Norman locate her upon his return because he recognizes her distinct voice on the television.  After tracking Esther down at the boarding house she's slumming in, Norman finally follows through with his promise and lands her a screen test.

This montage of Esther and Norman separating and reuniting is particularly bizarre as it is presented as pages in Esther's scrapbook - still sepia-tinted images with the character's dialogue dubbed over it.  It didn't feel intentional, as some of the scenes are live action, like a car or a bus pulling away from a building, or a shot of a woman's hand dipping into shampoo.  I initially assumed this artistic decision was to cut down the film's length, but the dialogue was still there, so it wasn't succeeding if that were the goal.  I later discovered the version of the film I was watching was the "restored" director's version, as the original wide-release had 30 minutes removed by order of the studio in an effort to cut down its considerable runtime.  Unfortunately, when Ron Haver, the film curator at the L.A. County Museum of Art, attempted to find the lost footage for the film's 1983 re-release, he discovered these scenes were truly lost to time (literally, as they could not find the original film reels).  Their "remedy" included displaying production stills with VO from the audio tapes they were able to locate.  Honestly, I think all of this particular section could have stayed on the cutting room floor, as it's a 30-minute detour that ends with Norman getting Esther the screen test, anyway.  I'm assuming these scenes were included as a way to show Norman struggling to help Esther despite his alcoholism, and Esther's new commitment to become famous.  We get those impressions through their initial interactions, so this not-so-little side-quest truly feels redundant. Later lost scenes, however, such as (spoiler alert) Norman's marriage proposal to Vicki, are pretty baffling omissions. I don't think the cuts robbed Judy of her Oscar win like Lorna Luft does, but it does fuck up the movie's continuity.

Upon Esther's first visit to the studio, the makeup department completely change her look after going into great detail about her flaws.  Norman hates the outcome and redoes her makeup to restore Esther's natural beauty.  Although Esther is nervous, she nails the audition and starts to book small parts, like those that require putting on a full face of makeup only to wave out the window of a train.  They even yell at her when they see her face, which is as blatant of a metaphor for being a woman in showbusiness if I ever saw one.  After the studio changes Esther's name to Vicki Lester, Norman convinces Oliver to cast Vicki as the lead in a new picture after their previous one bailed.  Upon release, the film becomes a wild success, and Vicki Lester's star quickly rises.

Y'know, I really want to take a tally of the percentage of the musicals on this list that feature their white stars in blackface or parody other racial stereotypes, cause it's more than I thought it would be.  Judy's daughter Lorna has mentioned Judy's foray into impersonating other races was "of its time", but I'm finding it incredibly exhausting and lazy that blackface is consistently used as shorthand for being poor or othered.

While the first half of this movie isn't necessarily incredibly upbeat, the rest of it goes downhill from here.  While Norman's newly released movie is getting terrible reviews, everyone is now obsessed with Vicki.  Feeling as though he's done what he could to introduce Esther to the world, Norman tries to leave her, citing he's an too-old disaster that will only drag her down.  Esther responds to this by confessing her love to him, and instead of Norman bailing, they quickly get engaged in the creepiest eavesdropping-est way on the back of the promise that Norman will quit drinking.

The pair first run to the head of the studio because apparently they need his permission to move forward with this doomed marriage.  Oliver gives his approval hoping that Vicki will be the positive influence that helps Norman stay on the straight and narrow. While Libby feels as if they're setting a trap for Vicki, he agrees to spin the story for the positive in order to give Norman some much needed good press.  Of course they exhaust any temporary good-will Libby was extending to them when the embarrassingly-named Mr. Earnest Sydney Gubbins and Esther Blodgett elope to a tiny courthouse to get married in secret.  When they reach their roadside motel honeymoon destination, Vicki hears her new song "It's a New World" on the radio as it reaches #1 on Hit Parade, implying that all of Esther's dreams have now come true.

They start their new life by purchasing an expensive house on a ocean-side cliff, only for Oliver to break the news to Norman that the studio has decided to let him go because of his inconsistent behavior.  Libby publicly plays it off like Norman is pursuing other opportunities, while in reality he's relegated to a house husband, making sandwiches, taking messages, and pensively putting golf balls.  While Norman seems generally supportive of Vicki's budding career, a delivery man calls him Mr. Lester and the bruise to Norman's ego sends him into a bender.  This starts to jeopardize Vicki's career when Norman decides to crash her Oscar acceptance speech by stumbling on stage and publicly declaring he needs a job. 

3 months later, Norman is in rehab and Vicki is on set filming her latest movie.  When Oliver comes to check on her, Vicki breaks down to one of the few people that understand her predicament, as she's both frustrated and scared by Norman's behavior.

Judy serves a heartbreaking performance during this monologue, with many speculating that this particular story hit too close to home.  Judy's life somewhat mimicked Norman's, as she was fired from MGM because of her inconsistent behavior as a result of her own addictions.  She was forced into the entertainment industry before she turned 3 years old, and even as a child was given amphetamines to keep her working and skinny. As she got older those habits became harder to break, especially when barbiturates were added to the mix to help her sleep. Most of her life had been spent earning money to provide for her parents, and then her own family, without the ability to choose if she could keep her pregnancies, or take time off after she was allowed to have Liza, in order to keep the checks rolling in for the studio. After years of constantly working with the help of prescription drugs, Judy struggled with mental health issues that the studio went through great lengths to hide, and the press was ecstatic to exploit.

Judy's husband at this time, Sid Luft, produced A Star is Born in order to cast Judy in this role and make the movie a musical.  Filming was difficult, but both Judy and James gave outstanding performances, as you feel the love between them while the heartbreak of addiction takes a toll on their marriage. Judy and Sid's relationship similarly didn't work out, as Sid confessed it was too difficult being with her.  Judy hated him toward the end of her life as custody battles kept her from her children. If you've listened to any interview with Judy or her kids, she was incredibly loving and supportive of them, valuing her family over everything else. She ended her life completely disillusioned with the same industry that lifted her up, because they were even more gleeful in knocking her down by depriving her of her own voice.

Judy is mostly remembered as a young girl belting out "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", or bounding around with Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire in romantic comedies, but this movie (specifically this scene) shows how underrated as a dramatic actress she was. The end scene of this movie between Esther and Danny legitimately scared the director, as Judy had never screamed on camera before. During Judy's eulogy, James Mason said "she could wring tears out of hearts of rock," and he's not wrong.

Upon Norman's release, he runs into Libby, who lashes out at him in frustration, leading to a physical altercation that Norman follows up with another bender.  After several days of no-contact, Oscar and Esther find him in jail on a drunk and disorderly charge after he crashes his car, and Esther begs the judge to let him come home with her so she can take care of him.  She puts Norman to bed and confides in Oliver she's quitting the business to take care of her husband and give his sobriety a fighting chance.  She has forced herself to believe that love will now be enough, and that Norman can be fixed if she can devote her time to him.  When Oliver protests because Norman's career is through, Esther reiterates she wouldn't have her career without Norman's connections and encouragement.  Unfortunately Norman overhears this conversation from the other room, and takes it upon himself to release Esther from the burden of being his wife by wading into the ocean and drowning.

As much as Esther wants to process her grief in her own time, her good friend Danny pushes her to rejoin the land of the living by attending the same benefit concert she performed at a year ago when she met Norman.  Norman was incredibly proud of the fact he discovered Vicki, and Danny posits he would be disappointed if she threw it all away because of him.  Vicki decides to show up at the shrine, and when she takes the stage to introduce herself as Mrs. Norman Maine, the crowd goes wild.  While they were dismissive of Norman and his disease while he was alive, they revere him and support Vicki after his death.

This is not a movie I would revisit often, as it emotionally takes a toll, but this is an absolute must-watch. Judy's performance proves why she's considered a legend - she's funny, flirty, hopeful, frustrated, heartbroken, and devastated, and all-the-while her voice is a goddamn masterpiece. James Mason similarly does a splendid job at portraying a charismatic and caring, but flawed and proud protagonist. I'm fairly uninterested in seeing the other versions, as I could easily be happy with this being the definitive telling of this story. Judy is absolutely everything, I don't know why anybody else would even try competing with her performance.

Thanks for reading!  If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider helping me fund this project by donating to my ko-fi :)

[jeanmoreaux]

It’s never anything personal against actors because it’s their job to simply act out the role they got but

As a fan of certain characters, especially pre-established ones from existing sources like books or games—I would appreciate if they actually looked like (or at least tried!!) who they’re trying to play. It helps us as the audience as well (at least that’s how I feel)

….a thick thorn is stuck in my shoulder about some sab cast members because it just jolts me, as I don’t see them as the character at all 🫣

GAHAHA I’m sorry it’s usually TGT characters 😭 especially Patrick, he’s not my Nikolai, he looks too old and that hairline isn’t it 😫 And Nikolai was literally the only one I liked from that first part of Leigh’s work. He wasn’t even disguised during his Sturmhond travels? Like why 😭 that’s just the younger prince gallivanting around then! 😭😭😭

i think when it comes to views on character-actor matches you'll always find every opinion under the sun. it's such a personal thing, and preferences and expectations are so different for everyone. personally, when it comes to adaptations of written media, i don't have an issue with an actor looking different from the book version as long as they manage to capture the essence of the character. (can't speak on adaptations of visual media like video games, but i can imagine that changes might be more jarring). ngl initially, i had my reservations about patrick's casting when it was announced, but i got over them pretty quickly. in my opinion he did a great job portraying nikolai, i think he embodied the spirit of the character as much as the script let him. now, the sturmhond thing, that's just the writers being idiots. you're right, it doesn't make any sense for nikolai to go live that privateer life with his princely face on full display. there must be enough portraits of him around for people to know what he looks like. it makes sense for him to use a tailor and disguise him—for his own and his crew's safety. i have no clue why the writers changed that detail, especially when they were planning to have mal take over as sturmhond................... if sturmhond were a person totally separable from nikolai with his own face and all, a switch could even work. how the show handled it, though, nikolai's face is so closely tied to sturmhond's identity that mal taking over the role doesn't make any sense. he can take on captain duties, sure, but he cannot take over the sturmhond reputation nikolai painstakingly build looking like himself over the years. everyone will know mal's not THEE sturmhond. it's just so stupid, really.

[binsofchaos]

The Magic of Moosewood

I was intimidated the first time I sat down to eat at Moosewood. The restaurant, founded in 1973 in Ithaca, N.Y., by a collective of like-minded friends, was one of the country’s first to champion vegetarian and pescatarian dining. I was dabbling in vegetarianism at the time, in 2001, and saw Moosewood as a sort of temple to crunchy granola, with longtime practitioners who knew so much more about food than I did.

Back then I was in college, trying to pick a major and living, with around 18 others, at Triphammer Cooperative, a house on Cornell’s campus. I was in charge of meal planning for the residents, and that job taught me a lot. It was a crash course in vegetarian and vegan nutritional guidelines — the house was strictly vegetarian and included several vegans — but I also learned how to cost individual meals, the variability in people’s cooking styles and the importance of efficiency in the kitchen.

Here’s how it worked: As a condition of living at Triphammer, you had to sign up to cook and clean. Cooking was a group activity — three or four of us tackled each meal, and then another small crew cleaned up afterward. I was responsible for choosing recipes, scaling them up to feed 20 and working with another resident to order the food in bulk from wholesale purveyors.

Fortunately, the kitchen was fairly large, with a commercial-size, two-door fridge, separate freezer, six-burner stove, double sink and industrial dishwasher. My favorite spot in that space was the cookbook cupboard, which was packed with books like “Diet for a Small Planet” by Frances Moore Lappé, “The Vegetarian Epicure” by Anna Thomas, “Vegetariana: A Rich Harvest of Wit, Lore, & Recipes” by Nava Atlas and “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone” by Deborah Madison. Most of the books were falling apart at the binding, but the most-loved cookbook, the one where the cover had fallen entirely off and the pages were full of cook’s notes and food stains? That would be the original 1977 edition of “Moosewood Cookbook” by Mollie Katzen.

Everyone in the house loved cooking from that book. Katzen, a former art student, wrote the whole thing out by hand, including little drawings, calligrams and instructive illustrations that offered step-by-step guidance for more complicated dishes, such as egg rolls, shish-kebabs and savory broccoli-and-cheese strudel. That hand-drawn touch gave the book charm and approachability. There are no full-bleed photographs of carefully styled dishes. Rather than push aspirational perfectionism, the book promoted a fun DIY attitude that, in my experience, encouraged even the most skittish cooks to dive in and get their hands dirty. (Katzen would write a few more Moosewood books before the Moosewood Collective took over and published over a dozen of their own. The original remains one of the best-selling cookbooks of all time.)

We cooked every single recipe from that book. There was vegetable chowder and split pea soup in the winter and chilled cucumber yogurt soup and gazpacho in the spring. Turkish-style stuffed zucchini, cauliflower-cheese pie, lentil-walnut burgers and mushroom moussaka — one of the dishes Moosewood Restaurant made on its opening night — graced Triphammer’s long dining table more than once.

I taught many people how to handle phyllo dough when we got to the section on savory strudels. My favorite was the one filled with broccoli and sharp cheddar cheese. The filling gets bulked up with breadcrumbs, and seasoned with lemon juice and black pepper, before it’s stuffed into buttered phyllo and rolled up like a big burrito. Baked until crisp, sliced and served with a side salad, it makes a meal that reminds me of the magic of Moosewood.

G. Daniela Galarza

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/broccoli-cheese-strudel/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9

Broccoli Cheese Strudel

A simple, cheesy broccoli mixture fills this crisp strudel. The recipe, adapted from “The Moosewood Cookbook” by Mollie Katzen makes a fine appetizer. To serve it as a main course, pair it with a side salad. Feel free to make additions to the filling, such as garlic, chile flakes or chopped herbs.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 small yellow onion (3 ounces), diced

2 cups (6 ounces) broccoli, chopped

1/8 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

3/4 cup (3 ounces) plain breadcrumbs

1 cup (5 ounces) grated cheddar cheese, preferably extra-sharp

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)

Freshly cracked black pepper

8 ounces (13-by-18-inch) sheets phyllo dough, defrosted

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and divided

Directions

Active: 30 mins|Total: 1 hour

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until it shimmers. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the broccoli and salt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still bright green, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the breadcrumbs, cheese and lemon juice. Taste, and season with pepper and additional salt, if desired. Let cool while you prepare the phyllo.

On a large, clean surface unroll the phyllo and cover it with a damp kitchen towel so it doesn’t dry out. Working quickly, pull two sheets off the stack, lay them so the wider side is facing you, and gently brush them with melted butter.

Lay another two sheets on top, and brush them with melted butter. Repeat with the remaining 4 sheets.

Using a large spoon, scoop the broccoli mixture into a line lengthwise near the edge of the phyllo closest to you, leaving an approximately 1-inch border on each end. Fold the short sides of the phyllo in and over the filling, and then roll the filling up in the phyllo, forming a 3-by-12-inch log.

Place the log, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the top and sides of the strudel with more melted butter and, using a sharp knife, cut four diagonal slits into the top of the strudel to allow steam to escape. Bake for 30 minutes, or until deep golden brown and crisp. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before slicing and serving.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Adapted from “The Moosewood Cookbook” by Mollie Katzen (Ten Speed, 1977).