#he’s the hinge of troy’s survival

[battlinghurricanes]

Hektor is irreplaceable to Troy, he is their greatest warrior and last defense, he’s the hinge on which Troy’s survival hangs, and he hates this. He is invaluable when, in truth, he wants nothing more than to be replaceable. Hektor holds bitterness and resentment for how heavily his city relies on him. Yes, he will stop at nothing to defend them, yes, he is unyielding and relentless at the cost of his own health, but he doesn’t want it to be that way. Even as he overextends himself time and time again, Hektor is aware that it takes a heavy toll on him, after all, he feels the cost more sharply than anyone. He knows it’s unsustainable, but every time, he finds it more important to sustain Troy than to sustain himself. Even so, his earnest desires are elsewhere. Hektor would rather stay in bed with Andromache when he wakes up exhausted, he’d rather take some time to let his wounds heal and not fight through blistering pain, he’d rather stay in the stay inside the city and look after Scamandrius, guiding him as he grows, than anything else.

When Hektor returns to Troy to ask Hecuba to make an offering to Athena, he refuses to remain- three times. Clearly, Hektor will not let himself rest because he leaves Troy, but clearly, he still longs to rest because he pauses. He takes a moment with Andromache and Scamandrius because he wants to, so desperately, and when he sees his baby, Hektor beams. He stops to comfort his beloved Andromache in her grief, and he takes his helmet off to bounce Scamandrius in his arms. For a moment he sets aside those things he needs to fight so he can be with them. What he believes he must do is not the same as what he wants to do. Hektor leaves, but Hektor lingers.

But he leaves because he is needed and deep in his heart he begrudges that. His own insistent drive to push himself to his limits would be difficult enough to temper on its own, but Troy’s desperate dependence on him on top of that is damning. How could they rely on him so heavily and yet have no one that might take his place if he can’t go on? And he’s never allowed to forget. Repeatedly they call him the lone defense of Troy, so much that he feels the weight of it, so much that they call his infant son ‘Astyanax’- Lord of the City- because of it and how dare they, how dare they, how dare they?

How dare they do that to him when he’s still so young? How dare they do that to Hektor, who already can’t help but relentlessly expend himself at every turn for them, and then they reward him by hitching their anxious hopes and expectations on his precious little son...?

And it makes such an elegant contrast with Achilles. Achilles, the Achaeans’ greatest warrior, irreplaceable on the battlefield, who adores and thrives on that fact. Achilles who, by his nature, is so proud and entitled that he’ll stop fighting and let them die to remind the Achaeans just how desperately they need him. As opposed to Hektor, who loathes being irreplaceable, but by his nature, is so stubborn and dogged that he will never stop fighting, at the cost of everything.

[scaryman-fancam]

REVENANT - misc - how Revenant behaves during a crush - implied violence/canon typical behavior

- Revenant would never tell you he has feelings for you. Likely you’d draw your own assumption based on the instances you’d caught him following you, a silent chase you’d chosen to ignore as it never ended in your demise. You had caught him one night, but didn’t want him to know you’d seen him. How would you escape him otherwise? You play it cool, deciding to extend your walk home to 30 minutes, avoiding heading directly home, or to anyplace you would be cornered. 30 minutes came and gone, and he still followed. The longer you were out, the less people you saw, and he was still following. If he were to kill you… why hadn’t he yet? Was he toying with you? You give up and hurry home, hiding in your home and waiting for his ambush, but you survive another day. The next few nights are the same. It almost becomes routine to watch for his reflection behind yours in shop windows across the street out of the corner of your eye, or to listen to the eerily soothing sound of his quiet footfalls some distance away. He mimicked your step pattern, hoping you’d believe it was an echo, but by now you’d grown fond of the quiet metal scraping that shadowed your own steps. He’s like a guard dog, in a way.

- If you were a fellow legend, you’d be extremely aware of this emotional affliction of his, whether you were certain it was positive or negative though, is really a toss up. Many of the other legends worry about your safety. They had never seen Revenant behave so strangely, so they assume he’s got some grudge against you. On the field he’s either right up against you, observing you a little too closely, those glowing eyes burning into the back of your head as you try to ignore him and focus on the game, or he’s criticizing and questioning your every move.

- This may just be Revenant’s first ‘crush’ since becoming a simulacrum. He doesn’t understand it quite yet, so instead of being nervous around you, he feels agitated. Everything to do with you makes him feel… funny. You must be messing with his programming, or something, or at least that’s what he assures himself. So starting off he is more aggressive, chastising you for getting too close or being too chatty, and even chasing to interrogate you when he witnesses you hanging around coworkers like Crypto, Loba, or Caustic. Are you teaming up with the hacker to do something nefarious to him? Or have you formed a pack with Caustic to weaken his defenses and dissect him once in for all? He does manage to realize his feelings once he discovers he’d be more upset by a third option: you are simply getting to be ‘closer’ with any of them.

- He definitely throws tantrums, and they aren’t pretty. He is usually an unreadable person, especially because he can’t make facial expressions, but when he’s jealous? He’s still unreadable but just frighteningly so. He sulks away after seeing Elliott “innocently” talking to you about a “mirage a trois,” his hands extended fully as he drags the claws along the ground, the walls, the doors, the windows; pulling up carpet, scraping paint off the walls, and pulling doors a little too hard, leaving them hanging crooked off of their hinges. Once he finally has a moment of peace and solitude, whether that be in the training grounds or in his quarters, he destroys EVERYTHING in his path. Its not until there’s so much gunshot residue on his hands that it’s making his metal joints stick that he finally gives it a rest, jamming the gun through one of the dummies as a final “fuck you” to the substitute for the object of his current hatred. You wouldn’t see him for a few days, that’s for sure. He’d try not to hold it against you, but if he finds that you’re not on his team, he’ll use the opportunity to satiate his grudge against you, and to feel needlessly close to you again.

[border-spam]

Does troy really have a split jaw or is that fanon?

It's total fanon!

The design of the split lines across his cheekbones and chin coupled with the cheek clips and v shaped hinge outline next to his ears lead to a lot of people coming to that same outcome, that there is something up with his mouth from a prosthetic/mod standpoint.

So much of his design is never mentioned once or referenced in any way (hightech spinal rig with tattoos under it, neuro connector, mech arm that's much older and doesn't seem related to the spine and neuroport, implants on bicep, face mod etc) that like Tyreen's scars and possible lower body Siren markings, fandom took over when it came to coming up with logical explanations for 'em.

This actually touches ground with some Ao3 comments I wanted to share as they are all Leech Lord compliant, so I'll list them here alongside links to the fics they were related to (note warnings!)

You leave no avenue for characterization unexplored. Troy's facial prostheses finally receiving backstory is amazing

- Maw (Gore/Bodyhorror)

I LOVE the idea of it being not just decorative shit on his face, but my MO for any content I make is always based around asking why, over and over, and trying to make sense of what material I'm using in the first place. The modded mouth is a popular piece of fanon but you know... why? Why would he do that shit to himself. WHY would he want to be grotesque, why would he be chasing the reaction people would have to it when canonically he seems to really not be interested in fan attention the same way Tyreen is, what's the difference to him between being adored as his persona or being lusted after as a monster, etc. I just love deep-diving into the logic behind character and world building? It's what adds meat to the bone for me.

Big 'ol character and worldbuilding / lore responses list under the cut -

He could afford better robots but these ones UNDERSTAND Ty, don't you get it?

- Good night in (tooth rotting fluff)

Hey just because it's mangled and broken, and can't perform its intended function to a degree expected of it by everyone around it... and it's got rusty sharp bits it accidentally hurts you with sometimes... and it's cranky but it doesn't mean it... and sometimes it errors out in a way that's mildly disturbing in a way you can't place.. uh.. doesn't mean you should just GIVE UP ON IT you know? He can fix them :) They will be fine :) No one should just throw away something that's trying so hard just because it's damaged... haha... :')

It's so hard seeing how much they tear each other down when they're the only thing they have left. And what a poor self-image Tyreen has beyond all that glitter and bluster...

- Wolf in sheep's clothing

The twins function well enough as a unit till tensions rise, and I was trying to seed in The Leech's influence on them in earlier work like this too - towards anyone else Ty would become MORE aggressively confident, more assured in her complete and utter dominance of the situation, her flawlessness, but against Troy who see's her for what she is, it turns inwards and eats at her instead of lashing outwards. He switches from relatively submissive around her to almost surgical levels of dissection, he knows exactly how to go for the jugular with words, and doesn't hold back. She's The Leech's mouth but he's its eyes and it's only when they lose control emotionally enough for it to claw to the surface of their psyches that you get an idea of how much it really affects them individually. GB had an absolute goldmine on their hands here of cosmic/body horror and the concept of toxic family when all you have is each other, there's so much to work with, and I figure it's a factor in why some people still really enjoy messing around with Calypso content.

I like how you allow Troy to be a disabled character, how his congenital defects and prosthetics colour his outlook and appear in ways big and small in all these vignettes. It's easy, I think, to see him as largely untroubled by his health apart from when he needs a charge from Tyreen in the game, but you allow him to struggle with his weakness.

- Chronic (Drug use)

I'm really glad to hear that's coming through in the writing because it's something I noticed a lot too. Very often when Troy, or other characters canonically disabled / chronically unwell are written it's "told" and not "shown". Chronic pain, illness, it's not something that is just a little tickbox in a life or some descriptive terms added to a character synopsis, it's something you live and deal with. There are bad days. There are times it is a negative that has to be worked around or faced in ways that aren't pleasant. It doesn't make you lesser or weak to have times where illness does leave you unable to function to a level you want to, it's not a failure for you to be unable to perform tasks when a disability or flair up means it's not viable. I feel personally that by showing scenes like this where his health and body issues do have a very visceral and impossible to ignore the effect on his ability to function, and going through his mental processes of dealing with and managing them, it brings the character across as stronger than if he never seemed to be shown dealing with symptoms or weaknesses. People are more than their disabilities and conditions, those aren't just kinda taglines to add onto a character's description and then never address. I feel like doing that in a way undermines what people deal with who manage chronic illness, pain, and who have disabilities that affect their daily lives negatively. Appreciating the effort it takes to manage them is important.

What I really like about these is that you can really understand as a reader how their dynamic must have evolved. How even before Leda's death Tyreen would have felt demonized while Troy got the attention because of his condition, because he was less willful.

- Starlight, Moonbright

Ah man, absolutely - and that shit stayed with them. It wasn't his fault and he never wanted it, but of course their parents would have had their extremely ill child at the forefront of their thoughts, especially during weeks when he was.. bad. Tyreen by nature even without The Leech's influence is a little attention seeker, she'd be the life of any party and she BLOSSOMS if she's got the spotlight, but as a little kid who's got literally no one but her parents and her brother, and who all three of which can't give her nearly as much time as she deserved? That's rough. That's really unfair. That coupled with The Leech's warping effect on their egos as they grew up and the bitterness and resentment they harbored in different ways created a reverse dynamic. She'd never be out of the Galaxy's attention again, and he'd have no choice but to take his rightful place in her shadow.

I love how you illustrate both how much more, and yet how much less Troy is now. How the blameless child, full of potential, is inextricably linked to the brutal, larger-than-life avatar he fashions.

- DeLeon ( Graphic Violence / Gore / Hallucinations)

He's molded the monster he is now out of the bones of the man he should have been - there's no going back really. There's nothing left to go back to. He broke Troy DeLeon apart to build the persona that acts like an iron lung now, suffocating him breath by breath while forcing him to still take them. That life is over, he killed it before it had a chance, but the idea of it is still there in his subconscious. Somewhere in the absolute trainwreck of Troy's brain is the tiny, flickering belief that maaaaaybe one day this will all be over and he can shuck off the bracer and spines, peel off all the shit he's covered his skin with, and just go back to not being Calypso. DeLeon here isn't some aspect of his mental state or his sins haunting him - it's The Leech, spitting venom at a host it loathes in something that's not sound or comprehensible language. His subconscious has just translated it into something it can understand - his greatest regret.

On if Borderlands Humans originated on Earth -

There's a really tenuous link between BL verse and rEarth, but it's there and can't be ignored. The cultures, accents, terminologies, so many are Earth specific despite these people being spread across galaxies, so hell yes - Earth as an emergence point makes total sense. The next question then, is why is it never mentioned - and you can cover for that with a lot of things like say, tt was so long ago that it's not relevant to anything that would ever be discussed, or it could be a mass evacuation from a catastrophe there is little record of now. I like to go with something along those lines, that the first human Siren host emergence on earth just absolutely decimated the planet. Like, we were doing fine till this random woman somewhere in the ass-end of nowhere develops weird markings overnight, then goes apocalyptic. The first Leech maybe, not understanding her powers and having them rip across continents in a spread of crackling electric death that only left husked shells of plants and animals in its wake, or the first Firehawk who went nuclear and burned the sky, or the first Voidgrasp who lost control and began to collapse the planet's core - some extreme shit that had humans fleeing en masse with barely any preparation and HUGE swathes of history and knowledge left behind. That would cover so many social things surviving into the BL verse, cultures, accents, cooking, that shit comes with us regardless of what we were able to throw into escape ships. Like so much data would be stored on any tech and data arrays within the vessels people would use to leave a dying planet even in an insane rush, but that shit waters down over time - if you're farming barely edible plants on some planet that smells like farts, are you really gonna be that stressed about teaching your kids history from a lost planet when your current concerns are not being eaten by something with 19 legs and 4 buttholes? Don't think so.

On if the other Siren entities are as influential to their hosts as The Leech -

I touch on it a wee bit throughout LL, but the others are FAR more passive and meld more to their host's whims. The Firehawk Siren wouldn't.. like.. care? If the host was burning down a planet or fighting off an evil corporation? They are removed from any nonsense happening on this side, they might not even really be able to tell, it's like asking an amoeba or a collection of sentient atomic particles what its opinion is on Brexit. That's not really its priority. The Leech is so aggressive in its control of the twins and desperation to drive them towards an outcome it desires only cause it's split, broken, removed from the song, and completely lost. We're talking a caged, half-mad animal removed from its natural environment and left totally isolated from its own kind for millennia. It's in pain, it's confused, it wants to find its way back to the song and the others and where it belongs, but it's stopped by a barrier it can't comprehend ( the twins and being ripped between them), so in its impotent rage it feeds back that hatred onto them. It's not really sentient in the way we would describe functional intelligence, but it wants, and craves, and FEELS. And it feels very, very angry.

Big thanks to @undergoingcalibrations for talking through so much of this with me!

Asks are Open!

[mcsdiamonds]

More Choices opinions

Troy is actually not that bad. I am not a VIP player, so my latest chapter was 10 Another World, and it's honestly taken me until his diamond scene in this chapter to warm up to him.

To me he fell into PBs flirtatious goofball archetype, which I never find myself attracted to. They're never smooth enough to overcome the goofiness, even when PB tries to give them some tragic backstory. But something about Troy's diamond scene was written juuuuuust well enough to square that circle of "being the comic relief" and "being a viable love interest."

In particular I kind of compare him to Mal from Blades and Maxwell from TRR, but there's so many like "funny best friend who is also your LI" characters that the role has kind of become an instant no for me. Maxwell has his place in my heart for various reasons (I should make a Maxwell post.....❤️), but by the time Mal came around I was burnt out on the trope because, as I said, the circles never squared. If you're a goofball dork whose only function is to make pop culture references, in what context should I find you sexy?

Troy's diamond scene made me see his character different. If I hadn't played it, I would still see him as just another one of those archetypes, a character whose whole spot in the narrative hinges on having known you before the plot took off and whose actions barely justify being present. And someone whose humor is said to be covering up for something but for whom there's not really a dark enough background to be covering up for?? Idk, I feel like there's a lot of those.

But actually, everyone has lost someone in this apocalypse, so the humor is a good mask for coping. And actually Troy noticed something was up way before you did and was planning to leave the Tower the same night you did regardless of your plot unfolding.

(I sat there while playing through his explanation and thought, hey wait, that's actually interesting. Why didn't they have him leave before us and then we got in trouble for being close to a deserter and that's when our sister saw our name on the list, why did they write it to be so coincidental, why were we put on that list for such a bullshit unrealistic reason. You could have met him on the outside, either having found Eli first or just surviving on his own and having to explain himself to you, it could have even been like 1 or 2 chapters difference so it didn't seem so drawn out and it would have made him a way more interesting character off the bat and fixed the "mc is a dumbass" vibe, because the current problem of "wow even the comic relief saw it coming" solves itself. It makes him more cunning and us more Innocent instead of circumstance making us both look Dumb. Why does PB have such loose writing when things could be done so tightly with more grip jfc.)

And yeah, that makes him seem a lot more sly than he did before. In my version of things he comes off as even more resourceful, but you know, Pixelberry isn't perfect because they don't have me on their staff :) But, all things considered, he was at least way more aware than I gave him credit for because the original scene where he pops up on you in the woods like hours after you escape was just eye-rollingly coincidental. Of course you survived, I was able to romance you, you weren't going anywhere and I question why you just weren't part of the escaping group in the first place. Loose writing, very loose writing.

What wasn't loose writing was how he didn't miss a beat when you told him he didn't have to deflect everything with humor. He said something to the effect of "I don't know what you're talking about 🙃", which, okay. Mal from Blades had this moment too, but I honestly don't feel like Mal thought his situation was shit. Maxwell has also had a moment or two like this, but he's much more like Lily from Blood Bound where it's like, no this is just how they are? There is no mask they are just happy people, it's possible to be happy people. (Maxwell could have been more mask-y, but honestly the writing is just not behind it. When I rewrite TRR it will be there, but in canon it's much more his personality than a mask.) But Troy knows his situation is shit. It made me realize just how many dangerous situations he has been in and why he had that mask in the first place. I think it's because it's balanced out by a seriousness here, the ever-present danger and constantly fearing for your life, like just being in this abandoned park felt like a risk (seriously why were there no zombies im this loud as fuck park, the whole thing felt so suspicious), so of course he is going to try to keep up group cohesion with humor, he needs that cohesion to SURVIVE. Like these kind of characters need to be shown being serious about SOMETHING, and that was well on display here.

Honestly, the whole book is elevated by the setting, it's why I hate how many modern-era books they make. PB, you know your fantasy series are in a completely different league, can you stop pussyfooting around and actually commit to quality over quantity already. Oh what's that, your only fantasy series in now on hiatus and the most anticipated sequel has been pushed back ANOTHER year? Oh okay, guess you DON'T want my money.

Back to Troy: So in addition to being a lot more cunning and deep than I previously gave him credit for, he was actually SMOOTH in this chapter! He so far has not been super flirtatious with me as I have this thing about picking dialogue that I actually feel a human being would say, and shoehorning in how hot you find someone every conversation is definitely not how normal human beings talk. This chapter was my first or second romance decision with him, and I chose, "you're lucky you're pretty" because that's how I felt a friend would actually mock you if you have nasty taste in food. Because of this I feel like he's been pretty subdued; the game assumes if I am not throwing myself at him I am not interested, which is fine. I went into his diamond choice expecting to choose all the friend options and be done with it but he surprised me and the moment was written as such that I actually felt it was right to kiss him despite not choosing romance options for him in the past.

He also does that wall lean over you at one point and says something flirty, but also like relevant to the situation at hand, and I felt my mcs brain short circuit. That's hot. Why don't more choices characters act more subtly hot, why is it always extremely aggressive flirting, have PB staff never been flirted with before? Usually if a character is to suavely lean over you they'll give you the dialogue equivalent of "Are you from Tennessee? ;)" and you're supposed to act like that was a natural conversation progression and not just virgins writing pickup lines or harried clean up writers desperately trying to get the scene to work. Whoever wrote this scene actually knows what successful come ons actually entail, because this was it.

And it's really sad that I might have missed this if I hadn't been buying all the scenes for the Sanctuary bonuses. Regular people should know that Troy is actually hot!! It's totally unfair. Do you hear me, regular people??? He's hot!! He's HO—

[officialleehadan]

The Speed of History

“I have questions, but most of them can wait,” Owen said when Helena stepped into his space. He smelled like gunpowder and vampire dust. Neither were pleasing smells, but Helena tucked her face into the curve of his neck and wrapped her arms around his shoulders anyway. Many humans would flinch at having a vampire so close to their throat after such a massacre, but Own just wrapped his arm around her and held her close. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she assured him honestly. It was true. She might grieve for the wasted lives of her own kind, but she had taken many lives before theirs, and regretted some of them more. Teucer was by the door, and was no doubt listening to the battle around them. If there was trouble, he would know before anyone else. “But always sad to put down frenzied fledglings. They did not choose this fate, and yet it fell to us to deliver it to them. What are your questions?”

“Is now the time?”

“I would rather be distracted from my own thoughts. Teucer is checking on my Coven. He will tell me if we are needed.”

“Right. Really only one pressing question that’s been eating me since I heard him call you by your old name. Teucer called you his youngest?”

It was not the most distressing question she expected him to offer, and Helena was relieved. After such a brutal fight, she did not want to answer hard questions.

“I turned her,” Teucer said from the door. When Helena looked over at him, it was to the sight of him carefully cleaning blood off his bronze sword with a silken handkerchief. “In… oh, which century was it, Heléne? They get away from me. It was in England, I’m sure.”

“1348, and yes, England,” she supplied with a faint smile for her sire, who winked. The old faker. He never forgot a thing, but the little ruse helped to put Owen at ease, here in the heart of their enemy’s compound where they might need his trust to keep them all from a bad death. “We should start moving. Victore will need us soon.”

“I enjoyed the thirteen-hundreds. Good music. Interesting food,” Teucer mused. Owen stared between them, heart a little fast again, but not panicked. He was taking the revelation better than most. Helena wasn’t surprised. There wasn’t much that truly startled him. “But I was born, and died, several thousand years before.”

“Is it rude to ask how old you are?”

“Only if you make me do the arithmetic myself. The proper year of my birth is lost to time, but I sailed with my brother, Ajax, when he went to war with Troy.”

Owen made an odd choking noise that was somewhere between a snort and a sputter. Helena smiled faintly despite the seriousness of their situation. That reaction, at least, was not uncommon. Teucer was one of the oldest vampires living, and yet so few of their kind had ever seen his face, and fewer yet knew who he once was. “You were in the Trojan War?”

“For a while,” Teucer said with an ancient light in his eyes. They came to a metal blast door, and he waved them back so he could handle it. Helena left him to his work. He enjoyed destroying doors. “I survived it, unlike many, although my mortal life ended only a single short year after the war did.”

Before Owen could comment, Teucer settled his feet on the cheap laminate floor, and put all his impossible strength onto a powerful punch that left a deep dent in the steel. He frowned at it, and hit it twice more before it screeched off its hinges and crashed to the floor.

“That one was better-made than the last one,” he noted, and frowned, sniffing warily. “Heléne, I smell gas.”

Helena took a deep breath in and hissed furiously as she let it out, the smell of gas heavy on her tongue and harsh in her nose. It was pure luck that she and Teucre were the ones to find it. They could catch the scent before any of her Coven. “They’re getting ready to blow the compound. It’s a trap. Children, evacuate!”

Victore, somewhere across the compound, heard her and blew two short blasts, and a third long one. The reaction was instantaneous as all of Helena’s Coven scattered for the exits. Content that her Coven were on their way out, she turned to Owen.

“You can’t keep up with us,” she told him quietly. He was practical, but no man wanted to be carried about like a doll. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure how else to get him clear. He certainly couldn’t match the speed of two elder vampires as he was now. “How do you wish to be carried?”

To her surprise, Owen smiled and pulled a charm from his belt. It was made of glass, and contained a single drop of mercury inside. The outside was inscribed with Faerie runes.

“You didn’t think I relied on dashing good looks and my pretty face all the time, did you?” he said roguishly, and smashed the charm under his boot. The mercury vanished into smoke that sank through his skin and left the illusion of feathers under his skin. “Lead the way. I have four minutes of speed.”

“Best not to delay,” Teucer said, and slid his sword into the scabbard on his hip. “Stay close, children. We are not yet free of this enemy’s grasp, and he may have more surprises in store.”

+++

HGE - Blood and Passion:

Helena is one of the most powerful Elder Vampires in the city, and known for fairness, and ruthlessness in equal measure.

She did not expect a bleeding Hunter to seek her out as his last, best hope.

Feeding Frenzy

White Marble

First Negotiation

Blood Summit

Blood Claim

CovenHold

Wolf Club

Blood-Traitor

Shared Blood

Long Past

In the Ring (Subscriber Only)

Ancient Ballroom (Subscriber Only)

A Weapon of the Old Age

Lightning Axe

A Gift of Old

Impressionism in Blood (Subscriber Only)

Taken In Hand (Subscriber Only)

+++

More Stories!

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[nothingunrealistic]

be more chill, august 4, 2019

Cast: Troy Iwata as Rich, OBC otherwise

More Than Survive

“girls! …boys!” is still in the show! Jeremy Heere: Not Cishet

there’s a drawing of a tesseract on the blackboard in the classroom. what are they teaching these kids?

there are posters advertising several school clubs, including chess club and Spanish club. (those were the only ones I could make out.)

Jeremy doesn’t even look at Christine when she’s telling him there’s something written on his backpack.

for most of Michael’s solo, Jeremy just looks frustrated with Michael for not listening to him, rather than relieved to see him.

as Michael and Jeremy are harmonizing on “Christiiiine,” Christine (having already signed up for the play) runs around them in circles. Naruto running, to be specific.

I Love Play Rehearsal

Michael physically shoves Jeremy into rehearsal as he’s verbally hyping himself up to go in.

when Jeremy asks if this is where to meet for the play, Christine looks around in disbelief and gestures to the podium when telling him it’s actually where to meet for the swim team, and Jeremy goes “what??” and spins around looking equally disbelieving.

after telling Jeremy that play rehearsal is “fun,” Christine shuts herself up — and then very gradually turns around to look back at Jeremy, and sees he’s still listening attentively, which gives her the courage to say more.

the few times Jeremy speaks in this scene, his speech is even more stilted than in the first scene, and he practically doubles over from nerves at some points — most notably when Christine comes VERY close to kissing him and then pulls away to Scream. 

Jeremy anticipates Christine saying that play rehearsal is starting “now,” and starts to form the word “now” just as she says “soon” instead.

Jeremy gets shoved off his chair by Rich and ends up on the floor, as do most of the characters.

Jeremy’s expressions throughout Jake and Christine’s conversation epitomize “looking into the camera like you’re on The Office,” especially after Jake describes Juliet as “that girl who died.” when Jake is telling Christine about the pressure he always feels, he not-so-subtly flexes his arm muscles, and Jeremy looks at his own arm with disappointment.

Christine leans on the podium in an obvious attempt to look Cool And Casual while Jake is talking to her, though she’s clearly nervous, and surprised when Jake tells her he’s doing the play for her.

the other ninety percent of this post is under the cut (with pictures!)

The Squip Song

I’ve seen Gerard’s Rich described as trying to fight/resist his SQUIP throughout this song and clearly not wanting to tell Jeremy what he’s telling him. Troy’s Rich isn’t anything like that — other than smacking himself to snap out of lisping, he doesn’t seem to be having an issue with his SQUIP at all.

Jeremy, on the other hand, spends the whole song flinching away from Rich — on Rich’s string of “then then then then then…” Jeremy is continually backing away from him, until he’s backed all the way into the proscenium and Rich is RIGHT in front of him.

on the “blip” of “on the school social map you’re just a blip!” Rich boops Jeremy’s nose, which would be adorable if Jeremy weren’t terrified.

in his reprise of the song, Jeremy attempts the hand choreography that Rich was doing in telling him about the SQUIP, and fails miserably.

Two-Player Game 

Michael is drinking the Crystal Pepsi that he’s comparing Jeremy to. that can’t be safe.

when Mr. Heere enters, Michael is curled up on the floor, so only his back and feet are visible to Mr. Heere — no wonder he didn’t recognize Michael.

Mr. Heere and Michael exchange Understanding looks behind Jeremy’s back after “that’s why most people aren’t your father.”

The Squip Enters

the Scary Stockboy communicates exclusively in grunts for several lines. think Tim Allen on Home Improvement.

Jake, Christine, and Jenna are looking on in confusion as Jeremy is first talking to his SQUIP, and he gestures to Christine that he’s okay.

Be More Chill, Pt. 1

Jeremy has fun following the SQUIP’s instructions at first — he goes over the top with arching his back, puffing out his chest, and walking with Swagger, looking cheerful all the while. he doesn’t look unhappy until the SQUIP tells him that “all your nerdiness is ugly,” which it does while physically moving his head/face around with its hands to look at him better. (it does that to him a couple other times too.)

after “everything about you makes me want to die,” Jeremy mutters “oh God, oh no” repeatedly, in addition to breathing hard and fast. in this song, and throughout the first act, he mouths “what?” and other phrases to himself in reaction to everything happening around him.

Troy plays a mall employee in the mall scenes, rather than whatever character Gerard plays.

the mall people get Right up in Jeremy’s face when telling him he sucks.

the girl’s shirt Jeremy picks out is the shirt Chloe’s holding in this picture, which is nothing like what I would have expected.

Do You Wanna Ride?

Brooke’s attempts at seduction involve twirling around the straw from her can of La Croix (which sprays some in Chloe’s eye), crawling on the floor, and shoving the can into Jeremy’s chest. oh, Brooke.

Brooke also emphasizes the “ex” when telling Jeremy about her ex-boyfriend.

Be More Chill, Pt. 2

“I can… access the mall security cameras” is clearly a hasty lie from the SQUIP.

Jeremy falls asleep sideways on his bed once he gets home, and the SQUIP makes him tuck himself in — possibly the first instance of it controlling Jeremy’s body?

Sync Up

while opening his laptop, Jeremy makes beeping noises to the melody of More Than Survive, which is also playing in the background at that moment.

“I was just going to check my email” was delivered angrily rather than defensively. 

Jeremy’s “ooooh” in response to his vision being fixed is also Tim Allen-esque.

as Jake passes by, the SQUIP tells Jeremy to “make a fist,” just in time for Jake to do an elaborate handshake/fist bump with Jeremy.

while the SQUIP is telling Jeremy about Chloe’s obsession with status, Chloe is leaning against the side of a bank of lockers, trying to collect herself and calm down.

Brooke reads the French phrase she’s using to try to impress Jeremy off of her hand.

during various instrumental breaks, Jeremy does the Squip Song hand choreography in sync with Rich and later the SQUIP, and cycles through greeting all the other students (bumping hips with and high fiving people, taking a selfie with Jenna, etc). it’s a great illustration of the “good hand-eye coordination” allegedly required for success in life and for how the SQUIP is helping Jeremy already, and also just really cool to watch. the lack of an applause break after the song was disappointing because I desperately wanted to clap for all that.

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into

Brooke is hovering over Chloe’s shoulder while Chloe is confronting Christine about Jake, even twirling her hair in time with Chloe doing the same. 

the curtains part on the school’s stage to reveal Rich twerking. he immediately scurries off.

most of Jenna’s Midsummer lines are delivered in a normal voice, but “one thousand years ago this midsummer” is in the most over-the-top Shakespearean voice imaginable.

Jeremy starts coughing the moment the SQUIP stops delivering his monologue through him, and looks shocked that it happened at all.

Christine is carrying the box of prop hearts when complimenting Jeremy on how Into This he is. wonderful visual symbolism.

as previously mentioned, the extended bowling ball dialogue (all occurring while the SQUIP looks on in confusion and disgust):

Christine: …and at the end, I give birth to the bowling ball! Jeremy [clapping]: That sounds awesome! And very… theatrical! Christine: Well, thank you. If you don’t mind — [hands over the bowling ball] Jeremy: Oh, yeah — Christine: Just for a moment… [both cooing over the “baby”] Christine: Don’t cry, you’re just a BALL! [takes it from Jeremy’s arms and rolls it offstage; both laughing] Christine: Ten! Jeremy: Win!

the other students pass back and forth behind the partly open curtains with the prop hearts (which are hinged in the middle) before passing between Jeremy and Christine with them.

Christine gets very close to Jeremy’s face, as if to kiss him, again, before revealing that the guy that she’d kinda be into is Jake.

Upgrade

Brooke sits on the ground and clings to/wraps herself around Jeremy’s legs while telling him about Eminem’s death; she slides onto Jeremy’s lap from a higher row of the bleachers to kiss him, and when the scene cuts back to them he fully gets up and off the bleachers to ask why she likes him.

Britton Smith’s vibrato. end of note.

during the overlapping “I’m tired of being the person that everyone thinks that I am,” the teens repeatedly cross the stage, finally arranging themselves in a V behind Jeremy until he jumps back onto the bleachers, telling the SQUIP that “this is way too intense!”

Loser Geek Whatever 

exact words from my notes: “Will Fucking Roland did THAT” 

he spends the first verse and chorus sitting on the top row of the bleachers, only standing and walking down the bleachers in the second verse.

the act still ends with the SQUIP ominously reaching for Jeremy just as the lights go down.

Halloween

Jenna arrives wearing a mask as part of her clown costume — not quite like the clown from IT, but in that same vein of creepiness.

some new dialogue between Brooke and Jeremy after he compliments her costume:

Jeremy: I mean… it’s amazing. You’re amazing. Brooke: That’s what I like about Halloween. It’s the one night I get to be something I’m not. Jeremy: What’s wrong with the way you are? Brooke: You’re sweet, Jeremy. You need a drink.

Christine vanishes after Jake tells her that “the keg’s over there” and walks away.

Chloe is talking to Jeremy on the couch at one point before they both leave, presumably telling him about Brooke’s “surprise.”

Do You Wanna Hang? 

the best way I can describe the choreography/staging of this song is that, like Brooke, Chloe has wildly inaccurate ideas about what “sexy,” is, and less like Brooke, she has wildly inaccurate ideas of what constitutes consent. (this post explains it well.)

the SQUIP makes Jeremy walk over to Chloe (in an extremely jerky/robotic fashion) while he’s expressing surprise that she’s jealous of Brooke. to which she responds “obviously, I am NOT” while obviously crying.

Brooke shows up after Chloe tells Jeremy that “I’m bored of you anyway,” and Jake soon follows, yelling that they’d better not be having sex on his parents’ bed because “I specifically told everyone that was off limits!” 

after Jake chases Jeremy out, Brooke stays behind to ask Chloe “how could you?” Chloe’s response, delivered so drunkenly that is isn’t even an answer to the question: “I’m so wasted right now.”

Michael In The Bathroom

“what’s not on the Internet?” got a lot of laughter.

Michael and Jeremy’s argument isn’t about luck, but about who’s looking out for Jeremy:

Michael: Think, man! We’re talking an insanely powerful supercomputer! And you’re using it to, what, get laid? Did it ever occur to you that there could be consequences? That you’re messing with something you don’t understand? Jeremy: You’re the one who said technology isn’t dangerous. Michael: Yeah, unless you use it like you. Jeremy: And I thought Chloe was jealous. Michael: I’m trying to look out for you. Jeremy: Oh, really? Because I think you’re pissed that I have one and you don’t.  Michael: Oh, come on, man. Jeremy: I’m looking out for myself, for the first time in my life. With my history, I think I deserve that. 

the jack-o’-lanterns hanging overhead flash in time with the “knock knock knock knock/clang clang clang clang/[etc.]” lines.

they really do take the bathtub away like in the rehearsal videos! bizarre choice if you ask me, but I’m not Stephen Brackett, so they didn’t ask me. 

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into (Reprise)

Brooke enters in the background just as Jeremy is sitting on the couch with Christine, stops to look at him sadly, and then leaves without saying anything; he doesn’t notice her at all.

Christine now tells Jeremy that Jake is upstairs fighting with Chloe, rather than having makeup sex, and that she dumped him because “I know he seems like this confident guy on the outside, but… under that he had this whole other layer, he was sensitive and sweet. And then the third layer was like, this underlying total jerk layer.”

at this particular show, Jeremy and Christine’s mutual weird noises were just full-throated screaming. 

Christine advises Gingivitis to “drink water!” as he stumbles offstage.

over the course of them making weird noises at each other, Jeremy ends up lying on the couch with his legs hanging over the armrest, a pose I’d seen before in at least one piece of fanart but hadn’t realized was actually in the show.

Christine no longer gives any explanation of why she can’t date Jeremy — she just apologizes and runs off. the SQUIP’s return moments later is met with a very morose “look who decided to show up.”

The Smartphone Hour (Rich Set A Fire)

Brooke has a pair of earbuds that she briefly poses with (holding them taut overhead) before tossing them away just like her banana.

The Pants Song

at the SQUIP’s advice, Jeremy “disengages” from the conversation with his dad about the party; Mr. Heere says not to “hide behind [his] phone,” but Jeremy doesn’t look up until his mom is mentioned.

Jeremy’s rant about how his dad can’t act like a father and just keeps waiting for his mom to come back ends with “No wonder she’s gone.”

upon seeing Mr. Heere, Michael hides whatever it is he’s using to smoke (I don’t think it’s a bong but I have no idea what it actually is) among a bunch of garden gnomes.

“do you love him?” is followed by a record scratch (or maybe shredding on a string instrument?) and the music completely stopping long enough for Michael to respond.

Michael straightens/tugs down his boxer briefs during the second chorus.

“somewhat reluctantly” is followed by a recorder trill that’s not in the album recording.

Mr. Heere opens up his robe on “real literal pants” and shows off his distinct lack of pants to the audience before Michael urges him to put all that away.

The Pitiful Children

when Jeremy arrives at school, Chloe and Jake are arguing about who’s worse off:

Jake: No, no, no. You were messing around with Jeremy in my parents’ room! Chloe: You dumped me for a theatre girl! Jake: Hey, come on, Chlo. I broke my legs! Chloe: You broke my heart. Jake: Well, my house burned down! Chloe [furiously]: You had it coming! Jenna: Oh my God, guys, did you see me on TV? Chloe, Jake, and Brooke: Not now, Jenna!

Brooke’s confrontation of Jeremy now mentions her ex:

Jeremy: Hey, it’s so crazy, right, with Rich and the fire — Brooke: You knew my last boyfriend cheated on me. And you did it anyway. Did you even like me? Or were you just using me to get to someone else? Jeremy: No —  Brooke: I am not a sexy dog you can kick, Jeremy. I am a person. [cue Chloe calling her like a dog]

Christine says “I guess I’ll just do theatre” with heavy irony — she realizes that doing theatre won’t fix anything that she’s upset about.

on the first chorus, all the teens (who had left the stage) walk back through again, as if to remind Jeremy of who exactly the pitiful children in question are.

Jeremy adds Mountain Dew to the beaker first, followed by a few SQUIPs, which frankly seems like the worst order to do that in.

Jeremy sounds more stilted again (more like in act 1) when offering Jenna the excuse about preparing Pansy Serum. he still asks Jenna “how are you feeling today?” but doesn’t immediately interrupt her to offer her a SQUIP:

Jenna: No one’s ever asked me that before. I know everything about everyone at this school, but no one ever wants to know me. SQUIP: You can help her. Offer her a drink. Jeremy: I can’t trick her into drinking a pill! SQUIP: She would do anything to feel like she belonged. Jenna: I would do anything to feel like I belong. Jeremy: Then would you maybe want to… drink this? Jenna: What’s in it? Jeremy: A supercomputer from Japan that’ll solve all your problems. Oh, and Mountain Dew. Jenna [cheerfully]: Okay!

the same blue screens/user agreement that appeared in the projections during The Squip Enters appear again behind Jenna, during her singing to the melody of The Smartphone Hour, suggesting that that’s the moment when her SQUIP fully activates.

by the end of the song, Jeremy has joined in on the choreography with the SQUIP ensemble. at times the SQUIP guides him through it by standing right behind him and placing its arms under his, a gesture that returns in The Play.

The Play 

after Jeremy’s attempt to convince Christine to get a SQUIP totally fails, his SQUIP enters from above, being gradually lowered from the ceiling onto the stage.

Mr. Reyes gives Brooke the Pansy Serum onstage (as in, on the stage of A Midsummer Nightmare About Zombies) and she drinks it through a straw. (how did the SQUIP even get through it?)

the SQUIP explains its reasoning behind taking over more than just the student body:

SQUIP [over building music]: And why stop with the school? There’s an entire world of suffering people who need my help! It’s the glorious destiny for which I was programmed! And I never would have discovered it without… you.  [music cuts out] Jeremy: …Oh, shit.

Rich physically shows up and yells “I NEED MOUNTAIN DEW RED!” when Jeremy is remembering him doing just that at the party. I tried to describe the staging but couldn’t put it into words so here’s a picture

Jeremy glitches even more than is on the cast recording, from the moment he first tries to say “I’m sorry,” and the lights in the set itself flash in time with his glitching; when he isn’t talking or being forced to hit Michael, he’s clutching his neck/throat and bending over in pain.

Jeremy knocks Michael to the floor with a punch, which was met with gasps and silence until Michael said “then why are you hitting me?” (an understatement, really.)

Jake pours the Mountain Dew Red either down a sink or into a laundry bin (either way, it’s not just onto the floor.) after telling Jeremy and Michael that his SQUIP blocked his pain receptors, he jumps a few times and says, “Now I don’t hurt anymore… here… or here,” first gesturing to his legs and then putting his hands over his heart.

when telling Jeremy they’re no longer mad at him, Brooke clings to Jeremy’s legs like she did in Upgrade, while Chloe wraps her arms around his neck and head; once they realize they see and like one another, they physically toss him aside.

the SQUIP urges Jeremy to “look how happy everyone is when they just get with the program!”

Michael tosses the bottle of Mountain Dew Red to Jeremy just before being knocked out and taken away by the SQUIP zombies.

the SQUIP zombies all bow to Christine when she appears. Christine gets VERY close to Jeremy during her solo, putting her hands on his chest and just generally being all over him.

once Christine’s finished singing, Jeremy is standing and watching her, the SQUIP telling him he can’t possibly drink the last drops, the hand that he’s holding the bottle with shaking uncontrollably as he tries to fight the SQUIP’s control… and then! his hand stops shaking as he gains the strength to physically knock the SQUIP back — and gives the bottle to Christine. 

Michael explains about the links between the SQUIPs that means destroying one will destroy them all, AS the deactivation sequence is happening. good for him for figuring it out so quickly, I suppose? it does mess a bit with the flow of the scene though.

Voices In My Head 

Rich’s “totally bi now” on Michael’s entrance is sung, sounding a lot like like “technically I’m homeless!” 

Michael tells Jeremy that after everyone at the play passed out, “the audience went totally crazy… they’re saying it’s the best school play in years.”

since Michael’s already explained the linking between the SQUIPs, his and Jeremy’s conversation now focuses on how Jeremy knew that destroying one would destroy them all (he didn’t — he “was just trying to save Christine”) and why Michael came to help him:

Jeremy: After everything I did, you were still there for me.  Michael: Oh, I was fully prepared to watch you suffer. Jeremy: Wow. Michael: But then someone reminded me, when you love someone, you…  [Mr. Heere enters] Michael: …it sounds better when he says it.

Michael fixes Jeremy’s sweatshirt while saying it’s reassuring that Jeremy still needs them.

after Rich suggests that Jeremy tell Christine that she “excites you sexually,” Jeremy points at Rich as if to say “is that right?” and Michael and Mr. Heere make frantic gestures to the effect of “NO IT ISN’T.”

Brooke tells Jeremy that she’s still mad at him, but also over him, and Jenna’s arm is on her shoulder the whole time. considering that Chloe and Jake are being similarly affectionate in that scene, it certainly suggests that Brooke and Jenna are a couple now.

Jake dabs after offering his own advice, and Jeremy dabs in response.

Christine revealing that Ruth Bader Ginsberg was her SQUIP also got a big laugh.

instead of Jeremy bending down to kiss Christine, he kneels down in a sort of lunging position, and Christine runs into his arms to kiss him.

the repetition of “the loudest one is mine!” is accompanied by all the teens hugging and high fiving one another and dancing together. they’re all in love… 

Stage door

Troy Iwata was the first to come out and sign things, and someone standing near me shouted “Troy’s our boy!”

George Salazar came out second, not long after Troy and first went around posing for selfies with everyone before going around a second time to actually sign things.

after a while of waiting, the band came out — no idea if they signed anything, but they got cheers, especially the theremin player.

[stilwaterskeeter]

If Lin Survived...

Because Lin is my very favorite character from the games and I think it’s incredibly ridiculous how she died, I’ve decided to spend my free time working Lin into the other games in the Saints Row series...because that’s what being productive is like for me

It’ll be split into 4 parts, one for each game (duh), with the first game being the smallest since she’s already in that one and there’s very little else to be altered for this and the third will likely be the largest. Because the first game is the shortest, I’m putting the readmore between that one and the 2nd game

Saints Row:

Obviously Lin survives, this entire posts hinges on her survival in “Liberation”

The Playa pulls her out of the water with them and calls an ambulance once on shore.

The Playa probably also tried to give Lin CPR themself until the ambulance arrives, they then continue on with the mission “No Time to Mourn” where they hunt down and kill William Sharp for revenge

They’re unsure if Lin survives until a few days later when Julius tells them he finally heard word that she’s alive in the hospital still treating other injuries they found and currently in an induced coma they put her in that ultimately only lasts for a few days, a week at the most

There’s an additional mission between the events of “Liberation” & “No Time to Mourn” and the final Westside Rollerz mission, “Semi-Charmed Life”

It’s a similar mission as “Visiting Hours” in Saints Row 2 where you escort an injured Johnny out of the hospital while being attacked by Ronin

Julius has a few Saints stationed at the hospital to make sure no Rollerz show up to finish the job and kill Lin themselves for the deceased Sharp and angry Price

Lin wakes up when The Playa’s shift is active, and decides herself that she’s spent enough time hospitalized and takes The Playa with her so they can leave

It’s a “stealth” mission (term used incredibly loosely) where you’re taking out and avoiding security/cops and then driving to the church to see Julius

Queue Lin being incredibly angry that she didn’t get to personally take William Sharp out but also surprised and thoroughly impressed with The Playa for doing it, especially so soon after they were dumped into the waterways

This also means she gets to pop her head into other mission arcs and crap, mostly just to give Dex or Johnny a hard time but she’s there and gets a little more depth to her character as a result

Instead of the scene of Donnie looking at a picture of Lin during “Battlefield Promotion,” it’s a scene of Lin showing up at his garage and surprising him because you can tear their relationship (platonic or romantic) out of my cold dead hands

Saints Row 2:

The Boss asks Johnny about her when Johnny’s talking about where everyone is but he admits that he’s not entirely sure because she didn’t really keep up with him while he was in prison, not on her end at least

With an added “I mean it’s not like she never showed up but I think it was mostly just to make sure I wasn’t dead yet. She’s tough but I don’t think she could handle anymore of us going out after what happened with you and that damn boat and then everyone else scattering to the wind and backstabbing us.”

Johnny also mentions that last he heard of what she was actually up to, was that she was still hanging around with Donnie and street racing, but otherwise he’s as much in the dark as The Boss is at the moment

Lin ends up seeking out The Boss herself, rather than waiting around for them to find her

She shows up during the cutscene after “Down Payment” when Johnny is complaining that they need to start recruiting again

Johnny makes a wisecrack at her timing of course “Oh, look who decided to finally show up, you’re just in time to clean up since you missed all the festivities”

And of course she shoots back, “Shut the fuck up, Gat. I got here as fast as I could, it’s not like you two assholes sent me an invite. I had to stop by Aisha’s and ask where you were.”

She’s wearing a unique version of one of those leather vests members of The Brotherhood wear that’s all red and has her name patched on, she probably also has a unique patch on the back since she’s not actually a Brotherhood member, she wouldn’t have any of their affiliation patches aside from the colors of the vest

Johnny immediately calls her out for flying their flags, he uses it as a moment to give The Boss a rundown of who the Brotherhood is, “They’re these tatted up, leather wearing freaks that drive around in big loud trucks. If you ask me, I think they’re compensating for somethin’”

Lin just rolls her eyes “I’m not in The Brotherhood, Johnny. Donnie is.”

“Oh, so that makes it better? You’re not affiliated with those assholes, just your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend! And what was I supposed to do? You’re dumbass got yourself put on deathrow when you botched the plan to take out Troy,” Lin points to The Boss, “And you’re dumbass got fucking laid out in a fucking boat explosion! I couldn’t exactly run the Saints on my own when half our crew got busted and the other half dropped their flags as soon as everyone else ditched us.”

She then offers to help them with The Brotherhood, which starts another argument with Johnny and ends with Lin revealing that aside from Donnie, none of the other Brotherhood members should know that she was a former lieutenant in the Saints

Which Johnny also has something to say about how Donnie struggles to keep his mouth shut, and Lin responds with that he’s gotten better with that and that he’s got more incentive to keep her secret since he’s too worried about her getting hurt or killed for something like that after what happened with the Rollerz

Lin works with Carlos a lot since she’s a source of inside information for the Brotherhood

They end up having an older sister-younger brother relationship because she offers to show him the ropes while The Boss is busy with all the miscellaneous other missions and activities

She also gets upset at The Boss for threatening Donnie and almost getting him killed by Maero, and later again for roughing him up trying to find Carlos

When she’s chewing them out for when they fought Donnie to find Carlos, The Boss mentions what happened and why

It’s a really somber scene

“He could have died, Boss! He’s already on thin ice for the stunt you pulled with the cars, he’ll be lucky if The Brotherhood doesn’t kill him themselves now! I told you to keep him out of it this time!”

“Carlos is dead, Lin. Jessica chained him up to the back of some truck and drove around the fucking docks, dragging him behind it.”

“He’s what?”

“I had to fucking put a bullet in his head, Lin. He’s fucking dead! I really couldn’t give a single fuck if Donnie’s okay because he’s part of the reason one of our own people are dead now.”

Later there’s a cutscene where she’s hanging out with Donnie at her place and she brings up the Saints and admits to him that she’s working with them again and tells him about Carlos

Donnie apologizes about what happened with Carlos

Maero ends up busting in with some other members, revealing that they know Lin is a Saint and believing that Donnie has also actively been working with them and that the crap about being threatened and roughed up was just a cover.

Lin groans because “Not this fucking shit again” and pulls Donnie with her into cover behind the counter and pulls out a gun she had stashed in one of the kitchen drawers

She gives Donnie a kitchen knife and pulls out her phone between shooting at The Brotherhood members to call The Boss

She gives Donnie her phone as she covers him so they can run out the back door and get in her car and drive off, so Donnie has to relay her messages to The Boss, Pierce, and Shaundi back at the hideout

Ultimately they make it to Donnie’s garage and The Boss and Pierce meet them there with Shaundi staying back at the hideout “in case brotherhood try raiding there while they’re gone”

When they show up to the garage, they find out that Lin got shot in the side and you have to protect Lin from a few waves of Brotherhood with Pierce while Donnie tries to patch Lin up 

Afterwards, Lin and Donnie spend their time hanging out at the hideout now

Because Donnie’s sticking it out at the hideout currently, much to Johnny and The Boss’ dismay at first, to keep him safe from the Brotherhood, there’s a few comedic moments when The Boss and the others are trying to plan their next moves and look to Donnie hoping he might have some helpful information by some miracle

Spoiler he never does, he just gets Real Frightened because he’s so use to them just beating information out of him

Lin ends up being The Boss’ ride off of the weapons shipment in “The Enemy of My Enemy”

Queue a comedic conversation about how The Boss is shocked she can not only drive cars damn good but can apparently drive boats too

Lin remarks with how she can’t be “the best racer to ever come out of Chinatown” if she’s only good at racing cars, implying she’s also skilled flying as well as watercrafts simply because she wanted to be the best racer across all fronts

During the end of the epilogue mission arc, after the fight with Dane Vogel, she’s on the bridge with Johnny fighting off the cops on the bridge

Saints Row the Third:

Lin isn’t part of the crew staging the bank robbery at the beginning of the game, in fact, for the most part, she stays behind on a lot of stunts like that and is kind of like the 2nd in command after Johnny with the Saints

Because while Johnny is always busy being the face of the Saints now and going out to wreak havoc and rob banks and shit with The Boss, someone has to stay behind and run things at Stilwater

Lin is the one running things in Stilwater because she’s not interested in all the fame and publicity the Saints are otherwise working with now, and prefers to stick to their roots and do a lot of the nitty gritty work that the others don’t have the time for anymore while they’re busy filming or doing various other things to keep up their image

She shows up with Pierce at the end of “We’re Going to Need Guns”

She’s actually the one driving the helicopter and Pierce is hanging out the side with an annihilator rpg

After The Luchadores raid Johnny’s funeral, she offers to try and join one of the crews as a means to get inside information because “It’s what I always do, I go undercover, I help you ruin their sorry lives, they find out, I get hurt, and then I get to sit back and relax while you deal with the rest of their crap.”

The Boss elaborates that he doesn’t think her plan would work any because 1. These aren’t street gangs like the Rollerz or the Brotherhood, she wouldn’t blend in as well and 2. She’s a Saint, there’s no way she’d be able to go under the radar let alone work as a double agent for them

Lin probably has a comment like “God, we really did ruin our reputation if we’re fighting corporate assholes like Dane on the regular now.”

You can also pry wlw Lin from my cold dead hands so:

She absolutely makes passes at Kinzie and later on Viola in their idle banter when you have them both as homies

Kinzie responds back with a comment that implies she would be interested but also referencing one of her,,,very many kinks like she does

Lin is taken aback by her forwardness but takes it as a challenge

And Lin never turns down a challenge

Viola is a lot less into Lin’s flirting, wanting to keep their relationship strictly professional and generally not approving of Lin’s headstrong and sarcastic personality and her general distaste for all the popularity and “corporate bullshit” the Saints are involved in now

Lin then does of course let up on the flirting since Viola’s made it clear she wasn’t interested

Viola then has a comment about how Lin stopped

It’s a very tsundere type banter of Lin being cocky and Viola adamantly denying caring about it at all, just that she didn’t expect Lin to give up so easily

There’s also a banter with both Shaundi and Lin as homies that reveals that they had a brief stint where they were sort-of-dating and that Lin had also appeared on Shaundi’s show at one point

They make a few comments that leave why they stopped seeing each other pretty vague and open-ended

Shaundi says something about how it was fun and she enjoyed it a lot and she doesn’t really understand why they ever stopped

Lin follows up with some vague reply about how Shaundi was just too busy with the show and all the fame stuff and she was too busy running the gang in Stilwater so they just stopped eventually

She responds pretty hostile to The Boss letting Matt go at first because she doesn’t trust him not to come back for their skins

She does relent pretty quickly though when someone mentions that Matt’s only 16

During Threeway, she attempts to go do whatever The Boss doesn’t choose

So if The Boss goes to save Shaundi, Viola, and Burt; Lin takes Angel and attempts to stop Killbane from escaping, ultimately failing to do so though

And if The Boss goes to kill Killbane, Lin tries to go save Shaundi, Viola, and Burt, but doesn’t make it in time

She’s really fucking pissed at The Boss in this ending

During the cutscene introducing the Daedalus when the Saints are throwing a party, she’s just in the background with a drink in her hand, she refuses to toast with the others

Saints Row IV:

Personally, I think this would work best if she replaced Gat’s recruitment in the story, but I’m gonna write that part sorta vaguely so it works with or without Gat

Just like in SRTT, Lin for the most part is uninvolved with the Big Plans that the boss is getting up to, instead still hanging around Stilwater and running the gang operations there while The Boss and the rest of the crew works at everything else

She is however for the most part, having worked past her grudge against the Saints moving up in the world and has settled that it’s possible to have the best of both worlds in this case with The Boss doing all the Big publicity and movie shit and herself handling all the gang’s Actual gang business

During Zinyak’s invasion, she calls The Boss to ask him what the fuck is going on and stuff

The call cuts out when she’s mid-sentence and later on it’s assumed she died when Zinyak blew up Earth

Eventually, Kinzie finds her pod on the Zin’s ship along with Donnie’s

This prompts The Boss to go and save both of them from their respective nightmares

Lin’s nightmare is all about William Sharp kidnapping her and torturing her and ultimately attempting to kill her in the waterways

Donnie’s is reliving the SR2 Brotherhood mission when Maero attacked him and Lin and Lin got shot during the firefight and they weren’t sure if The Boss was gonna make it in time and she might die

Lin’s loyalty mission is driving around and fighting off enemies while she steals car parts to build herself a racing car in the simulation for the fun of it and for old time’s sake

I have a few ideas for a super outfit but I figured since a lot of the super outfits reference other characters and games and stuff, I’d make her’s a reference to a character known for racing?

I figured Speed Racer would be a pretty neat reference to use? Idk I almost suggested Penelope Pitstop so I think this is a much better option

The blue of the shirt and the yellow gloves are replaced with purple versions of them and the red neckerchief and socks are replaced with yellow. And fuck helmet safety because that part of the outfit is just omitted here

[flightfoot]

A Convergence of Apollos Chapter 2

I studied Hoodie Apollo’s face as we all ran out of Central Park. He looked guilty and bitter, though I wasn’t sure why. Because he sent us on this quest alone last time? At least, assuming he was right about being a mortal Apollo sent back in time by some method (note to self: ask how that happened). I didn’t think he was lying. The emotions he showed were too raw and genuine for that, plus there was God Apollo’s reaction to consider. But I still had a hard time believing it. A lot of strange things had happened to me since I became a demigod, but this would DEFINITELY go in my top ten.

“So where’s the Celedon?” Meg asked as we exited. Apollo thought for a moment, slowing down as a look of embarrassment swept over his face.

“I... uh... I... don’t know,” he admitted sheepishly. “Percy and Grover found her last time, I didn’t care enough to ask about it.” A bitter tone tinged the last part of that sentence. I was beginning to worry about this guy, whoever he was. He really seemed to hate his past self, or at least who he believed was his past self.  “But they found, stopped her, and brought her back to Central Park by sundown, so it can’t have taken TOO long. So, uh...? Percy, Grover... where do you think we should look?”

I blinked, caught off-guard. I’d been looking forwards to not having to lead the quest. Oh well. At least I had more help than I originally thought I would.

A diva who wanted to make a name for herself singing to the largest crowd she could...

“Times Square,” I said after a minute. “It’s in the theater district and is full of tourists just walking around, able to hear her singing.”

Apollo smiled at me and nodded appreciatively. “That makes a lot of sense. It’s where I’d go, if I was a Celedon. To Times Square it is!” He walked authoritatively for a few yards in one direction, then stopped. “Er... how do we get there again? Normally I’d just fly over there in my Sun Chariot, but right now...”

Meg sniggered. “Come on, Oh Great God of Getting Lost. I’ll show you how to use the subway.”

Apollo shot Meg a slightly annoyed look, which she ignored. He huffed and started after her, Grover and myself close behind.

As we rode the subway, I glanced at the dead-turtle-lyre God Apollo had forced onto Grover. “Hey, Grover? Do you know how to use that thing?”

“Well, uh... kind of? I learned the basics, and us satyrs have a natural affinity for music, so hopefully that’ll be enough?”

“I can play it,” Apollo chimed in.

I nearly smacked myself. OF COURSE Apollo could play his own lyre, mortal or not. Though if he was mortal...

“Hey Apollo?” I asked. “Does the lyre have any powers of its own? Will it still work if the musician is mortal?”

“Oh yes,” he said, looking like Annabeth does when someone brings up architecture around her. “This is the lyre I used the first time I was turned mortal, in fact. I helped build the walls of Troy using this lyre.”

Huh?

Did he use the lyre as some sort of divine brick-laying tool?

I mean, I’d seen stranger improvisations (I will always savor Rachel hitting Kronos in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush), but it still seemed weird.

My confusion must have been evident on my face because Apollo continued explaining. “This lyre conjures up items based on the music you play. Back then, that meant bricks. Lots and lots of bricks. But it can summon other things too.”

“Like a cage for the Celedon?”

“Yes, like that,” he agreed.

Grover handed the lyre over to Apollo, but he hesitated a bit as he slowly held it out to Apollo, as if struck by a nervous thought.

“Er... Apollo?” he asked nervously, starting to chew his shirt in his anxiety. (He’s a satyr, he does things like that. One time he got so nervous and hungry he had eaten massive holes in his shirt before he’d realized it was even in his mouth. It couldn’t be salvaged, so he took it off and ate the rest of it.)

“Just... be careful not to scratch it, okay? Please? Apollo - er-  the OTHER Apollo said he’d incinerate me if I did, and he’s really freaked out right now so I don’t know WHAT he’d do if it was damaged.”

“Incinerate..?” he said disbelievingly, his voice squeaking at the end. “I... said that?”

“if you damage it, I’ll incinerate you,” I recalled. “That’s what he said.”

“I...” the guy looked close to tears. “I... I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have even considered it. Your lives are worth more than a musical instrument. Plus you were doing a favor for ME. It was WRONG.”

He took in a shaky breath. “Grover, I know you’re not friends with me now, in this timeline. And considering how I acted, I’m surprised your counterpart is friends with ME in my timeline,” he said with a wry smile. “But I still consider you to be one of my friends, and I wouldn’t hurt you no matter HOW annoyed I was at you, even if you DO like Walt Whitman.” (I was confused at this, but Grover seemed to recognize the name at least). “I won’t allow you to be hurt either, not while I have the power to stop it.” his eyes gleamed softly, and for a moment I thought they were glowing. It was gone so quickly, I wasn’t sure whether it was a trick of the light. “If my past self gives you trouble, I’ll handle him.”

“Thanks,” Grover replied. “I thought with this quest that this would be a pretty bad birthday, but meeting you had made it less-bad than I thought.”

“It’s your birthday?” Apollo asked, looking surprised.

“Really, Apollo? You did this on Grover’s birthday?” Meg chimed in, sounding annoyed.

“I didn’t...” he closed his eyes for his moments and furrowed his brow. “I... thought it was Percy’s birthday?” he muttered to himself, eyes still closed. “Wait, but Percy’s next birthday he was turning sixteen, the Great Prophecy hinged on that, I KNEW this wasn’t his birthday...” he trailed off and opened his eyes.

He took in a deep breath and left it out, then took turns looking Grover and I each in the eyes.

“I didn’t care,” he muttered, his voice tinged with bitterness and self-hatred. “It didn’t matter to me whose birthday it was, or what you were already doing. Because I was a god, I was more important, my needs were more important than yours. So why should I bother remembering that it was Grover’s birthday? It had no effect on me, and I was the only one who mattered.”

“Then I was turned mortal again, and had to live with you, amongst you, as one of you, AS EQUALS. And I cared.”

“I don’t know what made the difference this time, exactly. I didn’t care the last two times I was turned mortal. But then again, those times, I stayed separate from most mortals and their struggles. I didn’t experience what they did. And I was still partially divine, I still looked like myself, I still had ichor in my veins. Or maybe because this time, I was with people who needed me. Not because I was a god, but for who I was.”

His eyes shimmered with unreleased tears. “My children...” he whispered. “I barely knew them, but they did everything they could to make me comfortable at Camp Half-Blood, even though I just wanted to sulk. They embraced me as family. I’d only appeared in their dreams every now-and-then. They acted more like family towards me in those few days I spent at Camp Half-Blood, than I had towards them in their entire lives. I couldn’t even REMEMBER the last time anyone had cared about me that much, AS A PERSON. I didn’t deserve them. I DON’T deserve them. I’m their father, and yet THEY took care of ME. I can’t... I can’t think of myself as their father. Not really. I haven’t earned the title. But they’re my family, and I will protect... them...”

His eyes grew wide. “MICHAEL!” he shouted, startling the other passengers.

“Huh?” I said, confused. A nauseous feeling broiled in my stomach. Why would Apollo look so frantic about his oldest son? At least the oldest one at Camp.

“He... he died. In the Battle of New York City. I... I don’t know how. I and the other gods were busy fighting Typhon at the time. I don’t know if you can change anything. I don’t know if anything that happens now can change fate. But... still, please. Look after him?”

I looked at his pleading face, remembering the last time someone had asked me to look after their family. She had died a few days later. But...

“I’ll try,” I promised. I hesitated. “You know that I don’t have a great track record with keeping people from dying though, right? I promised Nico that I’d try to keep Bianca safe. I failed.”

“I don’t have the best track record with keeping people safe either,” he admitted. “I promised Thalia I’d check in on Jason, on her little brother. He went on a quest with me to help defeat one of the emperors, Caligula. He’d gotten a prophecy a few months before that said that if he and Piper helped me, one of them would die. He could have refused to help. No one could have stopped him. I certainly couldn’t compel him too, the way I am now. But he helped anyway, because more people would die if we didn’t help take Caligula down.”

He took a shaky breath as the tears ran down his face, unable to hold them in anymore. “The... the prophecy said that it could’ve been either of them. He decided that he would be the one to die. He couldn’t bear the thought of Piper dying. I... I said that we’d succeed without either of them dying. He just smiled and made a joke. But he... he asked me to make a promise. To.. to take the designs for some shrines he’d been working on back to Camp after he died, and... and  to remember... to remember what it’s like to be human.” He let out a choking sob. 

“Even then, even as he was about to march to his death, he was worried about his fellow demigods, OUR FAMILY, who we’ve mistreated so, SO badly. Because they were more important to him than his own life. He was a hero.”

His puffy and bloodshot eyes took on a steely glint. “I’m keeping that promise. I WILL remember this if I survive, if I regain my godhood. And I WILL make things better. I promise.”

This guy... he’d been through so much. He had so much self-loathing and self-hatred for what he’d done, and for what he’d failed to do. He recognized his mistakes and was trying to fix them. Because he CARED. 

I pulled Apollo into another hug. He stopped holding back his tears, letting out huge sobs.

“He would be proud of you,” I told him. “You’re trying. That’s enough. He wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up endlessly.” I didn’t KNOW Jason, but based on what he’d told me, I was fairly confident I was right. “Just try. That’s the best any of us humans can do.”

Apollo smiled as he pulled away, breaking my hug. “Thanks.”

As we pulled into our stop, I took another look at Apollo. He looked nothing like the god I had seen earlier. He didn’t glow when upset. Yet right now, as he stared determinedly at the doors, ready to help capture the Celedon, to make sure she didn’t harm any innocent mortals, I thought that he’d never shone brighter.

[cartoonfangirl1218]

Winner’s Curse Ch. 5

“We’re going to barge in and tell him? But he won’t have any idea how to fix this.” Jay protested running backwards as Aziz and Jordan desperately ran towards Ben’s room.

“Well he has to know! He’s King. Adam may not want him overwhelmed but Ben’s King. If he gets stressed, he’ll have to suck it up and fix it. He can’t do nothing while villains attack.” Aziz said, echoing all the frantic thoughts swirling in her head at the moment.

Aziz slowed down to a brisker pace and turned toward her, “Too bad for Calix. His mom is definitely one of the bad guys now.”

Jordan had to search her memory for why the hell Aziz was bringing up Calix at a moment like this when she remembered the list of who was in the Coven.

Circe.

Calix was the son of the aforementioned Circe and one of her best friends since preschool.

Their moms went way back to the 600 B.C. and they spent almost every break together. He was one of the few non-family members that she would trust with her life and her lamp. He wasn’t interested in her wishes, he knew better than that. If he did she would find some loophole and blast him out to the middle of the desert. They went on adventures, they fought, and they kissed more times than she could count.

Aziz and others always teased that they should already marry because of the “obvious sexual tension” but Jordan knew that would never happen. She planned to be emotionally unavailable until she turned 50,000 so she could focus on her career and Calix was a complete commitment-phobe.

Plus if they ever got married, they would kill each other for being so annoying. Well she would kill him since she wasn’t unable to die and that was just unfair advantage. They knew each other better than anyone including how to press each other’s buttons.

Calix’s mom had been deported to the Isle shortly after Cotillion. Apparently Auradonians had been getting riled up by all the Vk invasions from the likes of CJ and Zevon and Uma’s attack was the last straw.

Even though the VKs came from the Isle and not within Auradon, people felt people with dubious pasts were encouraging VKs to get in. You know, ignoring how because Auradon was so “good” that they had the most lax security system ever.

Ignoring all common sense, the Auradonians wanted all reformed criminals and thieves to leave.

Sadira had been one of the people on the list for all the times she had tried to use magic to steal Aladdin away from Jasmine and for joining the Sand Witch coven. Same with Cassim for his stint as the leader of the Forty Thieves.

Even though people had been granted full pardons years ago, they still had to endure an awful week of trials and interviews before it was allowed for Sadira and Cassim to stay. Though Jordan was pretty sure the final decision hinged on the fact that the two were officially part of the Agrabah Royal Family. What with Cassim being Aladdin’s father and Sadira being Zahir’s mom thus making her Zahrat’s mother in law and grandmother to the newest royal family member.

Circe wasn’t so lucky. Even though prominent figures like Hercules and Helen of Troy vouched that Circe was completely reformed from her seductive and anthropomorphizing-men-who-disagreed-with-her ways, they deported her anyway.

Thankfully, the jury was merciful enough not to send Calix away to the Isle with her. He was currently staying with Helen of Troy and handling the whole situation as well enough as he could. 

Jordan had been slacking in the texting department. It was just that Calix hated technology, he much preferred talking face to face so she hadn’t been there to support as much as she should have. She would have to call him later.

She didn’t know exactly how he would react to Circe being part of a Coven that was trying to take over Auradon. She supposed he would be crushed, but then again he might see this Coven as Circe’s way of trying to get back to Auradon and him.

“Whose Calix?” Jay asked curiously, stopping his backward run to turn around as they entered the dorm building.

“A friend. Circe’s son. You would know that if you ever visited Agrabah with us, he always visits Jordan.” Aziz answered with an edge.

Jordan smacked his butt and mouthed, “Not the time!”

Aziz was incredibly loyal to those he loved and tended to take insults to his family as an insult to himself. Since Aladdin had been disappointed by Jay’s lack of interest in visiting, Aziz was picking up the slack in the anger department.

It was usually an endearing trait but she knew that this time Aziz’s passive aggressiveness was not coming from family pride but that he was just venting residual annoyance from the fact that his ego was still stung by Jay’s lack of faith in his air duct navigation capabilities.

“It’s true.” Aziz mouthed back furiously.

“World at stake.” Jordan was trying to mouth her words carefully despite the running when she crashed into Jay’s broad, solid chest causing she and Aziz to fall backwards like dominos.

Jay looked amusedly at them. “I can’t believe Audrey thinks you’re secretly dating. You fight like siblings.”

“Well we practically are siblings.” Jordan huffed, wiping the dust off her midriff, “And I would never date Aziz. I’ve was there when they were potty training him. He will never be cute.”

“And I was there holding back her hair when she got some weird genie illness and she exploded from both ends.” Aziz glared as Jordan scowled at him.

“Jerk.” Jordan snapped. 

“Train wreck.” 

“Uh hello?”

The three teens turned and saw Ben’s face poking out his door, drawn out by the noise they had been making outside his room.

“Ben!” They yelled and crowded the door while trying to explain everything they had heard.

“Calm down, where’s the fire?” Ben lead them toward the spacious bed in his room and made them sit. “What is it?”

“Okay, so we were eavesdropping on a meeting FG was having because of my parents which is a different story altogether but what we found out was that somehow the villains on the Isle have their magic back and have created a Coven, even though Covens are so 17th century but then again some of them are from the 17th century so that makes sense, anyway, they created a Coven and are trying to break the Isle from the inside. Your dad didn’t tell you because he didn’t want to overwhelm you but hello, you’re king you should know about impending doom so that’s why we’re telling you. Oh, and your dad wanted FG to fix this somehow with breaking the Magic Ban which is ridiculous because you can’t fight dark magic without magic. Maleficent will just freeze everyone again if we sent an army to the Isle or Ursula will put them under mind control. You get the picture. So that’s the situation.” Jordan babbled rapidly.

Somehow Ben was able to understand the basics of the situation and went into decision-making mode. He bit the end of his pencil and kept shuffling and reshuffling what looked like applicant profiles before he looked back at them with his eyes lit up with inspiration.

“You’re right. We can only fight magic with magic. I need you to go to the Isle and stop them from within.” Ben said solemnly.

“WHAT!! Are you crazy? No no no no! I can’t do that. I mean just no! I-what how would that even work. I would stand out like a sore thumb. I can’t survive the Isle. I mean Freddie thinks I’m the closest thing to a Vk in Auradon but that is compared to you people. It doesn’t mean I can go up against actual VKs! And villains, I cannot go toe to toe with villains! I may have phenomenal cosmic powers but I don’t have the experience. I need people to wish things from me, I can’t do it myself. And I’m not going to do it either. No. No. No! I’m not trained, I’m not qualified, I’m-“ Jordan screeched when she felt Aziz shaking her shoulder.

“English, Jordan, English.”

Jordan looked between the blank, confused faces of Ben and Jay and realized she must have slipped into Arabic in the middle of her freak out.

“Sorry, I tend to forget English when I’m horrified. You know horrified that my King has gone crazy. You don’t actually think your idea will actually work, do you?” Jordan stammered.

“My parents thought my Vk reformation program would fail and it has actually expanded so we are going to bring all VKs to Auradon so don’t say it will fail before it actually begins.” Ben started slowly, eyeing her cautiously for another meltdown, “And I’m not saying you should go today or by yourself. You will need a team to help you. It’s tough navigating the Isle by yourself, I should know. But first, will you do it?”

Jordan looked at Ben’s hopeful, optimistic face and gave the only answer she could.

“I’ll think about it.”

[border-spam]

Typhon

Typhon has only ever meant well.

The white lies, the sprinklings of exaggeration in his stories? Well, that just made people laugh, made ‘em happy. The bravado and bad jokes? Leda liked those, made her smile, and if Leda was happy then what else mattered?

Nothing.

Till she was killed.

Everything that built up to that night had been soul crushing, days of tears and rage as they screamed at each other and the undeniable end that approached.

Troy was dying.

8 years they’d managed to play pretend - a makeshift little family unit on a forgotten star -  that everything would be ok, when they all knew there was no way the boy would reach adulthood. Even Tyreen, too young to even really comprehend death, knew deep in her core some way.

They’d gotten 8 years, but they wouldn’t get another. Typhon sat on that rickety little bed he’d carved from Nekro-wood when the twins were born, sat for what felt like days now next to his exhausted wife, and waited. Waiting was all there was left to do, but they shouldn’t have expected an 8 year old to understand that.

They shouldn’t have ignored Tyreen’s outbursts, clearly confused and lashing out for attention while the back of her mind screamed how wrong her twin looked in his frail little body, eyes closed and chest barely moving. He knows now they shouldn’t have done that, how much it hurt her and why it lead to what it did.

But Typhon has only ever meant well.

When he passed out to Troy’s screaming and the crack of Leda’s stone skin as Ty wrenched her crushed fist from it’s grip, there was no expectation of anything bar dread. His last slipping thought as he blacked out, unable to process the horror he’d just witnessed, was the grim humour that tomorrow he’d be burying his son and his wife.

Waking up to a flushed, confused Troy asking where Leda was as he carefully sat up in bed while his twin curled around him, was like a blow to the skull.

He was alive. He was awake. It was a miracle. It had to be a miracle, what else could it have been? Whatever had.. had happened to Leda.. she must have done something, must be watching down on them from the heavens and healed their boy, that was it. That had to be it, and Typhon had sobbed with his twins, hugging their little bodies to his chest and promising he’d make sure they stayed safe, he promised Leda that day.

Typhon has only ever meant well, but Tyreen would choke him to death with her bare hands if she didn’t know Troy would turn on her like a switchblade.

He’d tried so hard to do what he’d promised, to keep them safe, but he’d never actually listened to Tyreen despite coddling her to a suffocating level. She’d tried to explain so many times, tried to tell him about the “bad feeling” in her stomach as The Leech wracked hunger pains through her tiny system that were too inhuman for her to be able to describe in terms he could comprehend.

She’d told him she wanted to leave, that there were people out there who needed her and Troy’s help, that there were so many lost souls she could reach out to and give belonging, but he’d just laugh and shake his head. Tell her that would be a terrible idea, that “the people out dere” would skin them both alive and sell their bodies to “da corporations” before they’d manage to say hello, and she’d hated him. The Leech squirmed in rage within her ribcage as it’s lure to Pandora was denied over and over while years passed, and Tyreen was forced to remain on Nekrotafeyo for far longer than she could bear.

Typhon has only ever meant well, but the looks he gave his daughter, the fear in his eyes and nervousness in his words only added to the dread she’d begun to understand as she got older. The realisation that her father thought she was a monster, and it might be true. He’d kept her trapped on a planet with nothing she hungered for, and the great maw swallowed pieces of Tyreen instead.

Troy was just forgotten.

Typhon hadn’t meant it, he’d not purposefully relegated his son to a provider that kept their larder stocked and bots functional, but it had happened anyway.

Tyreen was the one who needed attention, Tyreen was the one he needed to watch and keep close, she was the troublemaker. Troy was just.. Troy was just there, a lanky shape in the side of vision that was hyperfocused on his flighty twin, and it happened so slowly neither of them really noticed.

Troy was quiet, Troy was easy to manage, Troy didn’t complain or pout or have tantrums, he’d just do as you asked. Troy would scurry up rock-faces till twilight set and he couldn’t see clearly anymore, then limp back to camp with scraped knees and bloody knuckles and beam at being thanked for bringing back some Manta eggs

Troy would disappear for 10 hours and arrive home with a sack of glow pods, even though there were none for miles around, all just to see the smile light across his sister’s face as she leeched the plants and hummed their deliciousness.

Typhon has only ever meant well, but Troy was so easy to raise that his father stopped even seeing him.

It took about a year on Pandora for the rose tinted lenses to begin to clear for Troy about how things had been at home.

He was at Tyreens neck about it at any opportunity till then, jumped at any chance to remind her she made him come here and lied, to rub it in and make sure she was perfectly aware how much he wanted to leave, but it died down as he began to really see the truth of things.

Tyreen didn’t change, shed always wanted off Nekro from the moment The Leech sowed its seeds of influence through whispers in the back of her mind after what happened to Leda. She hated Typhon, but Troy didn’t, and still doesn’t years later despite having a far more realistic view of how poor a father he’d been to them. Can’t bring himself to want to cut him off completely when he knows how easy it is to make mistakes that hurt other people…

Typhon has only ever meant well, but the twins had been starving on that planet.

Tyreen in spirit, no life source more complex than animals to feed from meant The Leech constantly gnawed at the back of her mind demanding she leave, but Troy physically.

It hadn’t been so bad before, when he was younger. He and Typhon could easily hunt more than enough food together even if Troy mostly ended up carrying small loads and helping his dad as a kid, but by the time Typhon’s loss and fear had left him too concerned about Tyreen to let her accompany Troy and too paranoid to leave camp with him, things were bad.

They were very bad.

The twins are two sides of the same ravenous hunger. Tyreen’s ate her soul, but Troy’s decimated his body.

He’d take Grouse on long trips, the bots ability to carry a life saver even if he was too loud to actually help with the hunt itself, but there was just never enough food.

The animals on Nekrotafeyo were more energy than flesh, there wasn’t much on them in the first place, and coupling that with vegetation humans absolutely hadn’t evolved to eat, survival became a harder struggle every year that passed and bigger he grew.

Typhon was half his size and seemed to never pick up how much Troy was flagging, but that’s just how things were.

That was life, that’s how it is. Right?

Troy had believed that was the case till Pandora, and him actually getting to see how other people lived.

He’d been so proud of the few kilos he put on in those 6 months on Seifa’s ship.

She’d been insistent on eating way more often than he was used to and oddly grateful in a way he didn’t understand when he’d finish a meal, but when the first medic he’d let near him at Sol’s insistence when they’d entered their business partnership told him he was dangerously underweight, it had been a slap to the face.

He wasn’t, he’d put on weight. He was bigger than he’d ever been, you could pinch his skin now, so what were they fucking talking about?

Ranting at Ty afterwards had left a shitty taste in his mouth. She’d looked almost sad as she’d listened, told him he needed to actually trust her for once, that she wasn’t wrong about dad. That dad had been a fucking monster.

He couldn’t agree, wouldn’t. Stormed back to his room in their tiny studio space and brooded for hours - gnawing at his nails as Pandora’s night air turned frigid.

No one looked like he had when he came here. Dad had never said anything about him being thin. He was normal. He was normal, wasn’t he? He’d had no one to compare to, but…

No one here looked like he had.

He’d not seen anyone that thin, skeletal structure that visible. Hadn’t seen anyone yet who was normal and had cheekbone ridges you could see a jaw hinge through as it moved.

That hadn’t been normal, had it. He didn’t know and dad hadn’t said anything, acted like nothing was wrong for years.

He’d been starving, hadn’t he, and Typhon had slapped him on the back and thanked him for dinner every night instead of even hinting at worry. He’d been starving and the only person who could have helped him understand how sick he was had cared more about keeping his children by his side, than if one dropped dead.

So he stops bringing up wanting to go home. He stops defending Typhon if Tyreen needs to rage against her past in a monologue at night to help her shrug off the anger and get some rest.

He’s weird about food.

He won’t stand for waste when the Slums are hungry.

Neither can forgive their father for the childhood he caused.

Typhon has only ever meant well, but his children won’t speak of him at all.

[momscookingthebooks]

Welcome to the Release of Hinged by Char Sharp

Hinged by Char Sharp is #LIVE!

Hinged is the second book in The Soul Mate Rescued Series.

#Romance #Suspense #Mystery #Thriller

About the Book:

She can’t remember him.

He’ll never forget her.

When Robin Finch is abducted and tortured by an evil cybercriminal, her salvation comes in an unlikely hero, Dr. Ramsey Gunn. Gunn, a medical doctor and a computer genius, carried a long-festering secret love for Robin from afar, which placed her dead center on the enemy’s radar. Developing amnesia after enduring her captor’s sadistic torture and a blow to her head, Robin has no memory of her previous life. Dr. Gunn rescues Robin away from their captor and goes off the grid to keep her safe for years. But Dr. Ramsey Gunn may not be the savior he claims to be.

Upon his return from deployment, Navy SEAL Cooper Baron discovers his fiancé missing and presumed dead. Not believing she’s dead and hell-bent on discovering the truth about Robin’s disappearance, he will stop at nothing until she is back in his arms. Through the long years, searching for her in every woman’s face, he’s determined to locate the woman he lost. But finding Robin may put her in more danger than she’s ever faced before. Can Cooper’s love help her restore her memories without forcing her to confront the horrific reality of her abduction?

Once the reality is known, can their love survive the truth?

Purchase Today:

Amazon Universal: http://bit.ly/2mLtFR7

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Add to Goodreads TBR: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27778632-hinged

Author Bio:

Char Sharp lives and writes in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia USA with her husband and a spoiled Ragdoll cat named Purrcy. Her main objective is to entertain and enthrall her readers by writing emotionally romantic suspense stories with protective alpha heroes and strong heroines. A romantic at heart, she believes that love can be a true healer.

She started writing poems in college and graduated to business writing and sales in the transport delivery system and computer industries. In retirement, writing morphed into her true passion—novels. She studied music and business at Troy University, and with her love of music, she enjoys weaving a little music into her writing. She is a member of Romance Writers of America.

Char and her husband are the proud parents and grandparents of three grown children and five grandsons. She’s a coffee and chocolate caramel addict, enjoys a little red wine in the evening, and is delighted to have more time to write books and play with her grandsons.

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[tediousoscars]

2016

Predict-o-meter: This year: 7/8; Total: 87/103 (84%)

It is not that unusual for a movie to get nominated that I had absolutely no interest in seeing and so have to drag myself to. It doesn’t happen every year, but typically no more that 3 or 4 years go by without it happening. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and end up loving the film (“The Social Network”), but more typically my worst fears are confirmed (“War Horse,” almost everything by Scorsese). However, I can’t recall a single year in which TWO movies were nominated that elicited not the slightest interest in me. Until this year. This year there were THREE. And while one of them did prove to be a pleasant surprise, the other two decidedly did not. I won’t say which ones, but see if you can tell from the reviews.

But before we get started we have to stop for a moment to give a shout out to Janelle Monáe and Mahershala Ali, who appear together in not one, but TWO films nominated for Best Picture: “Hidden Figures” and “Moonlight.” And while Mahershala was nominated for his strong work in “Moonlight,” it was Janelle who almost stole the show in “Hidden Figures.” Kudos!

Now let’s get to it.

- THE CONTENDERS -

Fences. Two towering performances from Denzel Washington and Viola Davis (both nominated - though how Davis’ role could be construed as Supporting rather than Leading is beyond me) are the pillars holding this wonderful film aloft. Set in 1950s Pittsburgh, “Fences” is the story of Troy Maxson (Washington), who is an extremely complicated man. Wracked by guilt over surviving on a pension his brother receives after suffering a head wound in the war that left him severely mentally challenged, frustrated over being a baseball star in the Negro Leagues just a few years before Jackie Robinson, and infuriated over the racism that holds a black ex-con down, there is a hardness about him that is undeniable. He says that the only good thing that ever happened to him was his wife Rose (Davis). But he is also an entertainingly loquacious storyteller, whom his best friend says must have a bit of Uncle Remus in him. Troy is an emotional storm with gale-force winds and churning seas. But Rose is the steadfast lighthouse, unflinching in the face of the tumult, always providing a beacon. Washington, who was also nominated for his directing, nicely captures the claustrophobia of the stage-play source material. Most of the action occurs in the two small downstairs rooms of their modest home, or in the backyard that is little more than a patio. We are exploring inner landscapes here. Troy’s snappy patter is entertaining enough to justify the price of admission, but the nuanced exploration of life and love, human strength and weakness, desire and motivation make this a masterpiece.

Hell or High Water. Part modern-day Western, part caper movie, part film noir, this movie is rollicking good fun. The Howard brothers are on a bank-robbing spree. With a purpose. They are robbing very specific banks to raise a very specific amount of money for a very specific reason. Because they only clear a few thousand dollars each time, and all of the banks are in the same state (Texas) the Feds have no interest in the case. So it falls to crusty old Marcus Hamilton, a Texas Ranger stereotypically weeks from retirement, and his half-Mexican, half-Indian partner Alberto Parker to run them to ground. Sounds simple, right? And it could have been, but Taylor Sheridan’s (nominated) screenplay is too smart for that. Ben Foster is sublime in the role of Tanner Howard, the ne’er-do-well, hell-raising ex-con brawn to brother Toby Howard’s brains. Tanner is a fuck up, and he knows it, but he is addicted to the adrenaline rush of the outlaw lifestyle. He sees this caper as his last chance to do something good (while still raising hell) by helping brother Toby (played by Chris Pine) save their father’s ranch and the newly-discovered oil there-under. Jeff Bridges was nominated for his role as Ranger Hamilton, which is essentially a reprisal of his role in “True Grit.” In fact, it is easy to imagine that Ranger Hamilton is the great grandson of Rooster Cogburn. The brothers’ scheme is ingenious, and hinges upon an epic (if not heroic) last stand by Tanner, and the coda in which Bridges’ Hamilton confronts Pine’s Toby to say that he knows Toby did it, but can’t prove it is pure bridled machismo.

Hidden Figures. There was a time, not that long ago, when the word ‘computer’ referred to a person, as in ‘someone who computes.’ During the early days of the space race, as an increasingly nervous America watched as Russia put first a satellite, then a dog, then a man into space, NASA employed quite a number of computers to check and re-check the calculations needed to determine the trajectories of spacecraft. These computers tended to be women, who today would be engineers, but at the time had no such option. And amongst these women were a cadre of ~20-30 black women stationed at Langley in Virginia, which at the time in the early 60s was still a segregated state. “Hidden Figures” is the triumphant story of these women and the incredible obstacles they had to overcome. The film focuses on three real-life figures: Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monáe), a budding engineer, Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer in a nominated roled), who became an early specialist in the machines we now call computers, and particularly Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji Henson). The Space Task Group is charged with properly calculating the launch and (crucially) re-entry parameters for orbital human spaceflight. It is a pressure cooker run by a demanding taskmaster with a reputation of burning through computers on an almost weekly basis. When a need arises for an expertise in analytic geometry the East Area Computers (the white girls) have no suitable candidate, so they ask the ‘colored’ girls of the West Area Computers for help. Enter Katherine Johnson. She takes on the job with a brilliant mind and an indomitable spirit. She is clearly the smartest person in the room, and yet she has to run a half-mile across campus back to the West Area to use the bathroom because that’s the only place that has ‘colored’ rest rooms. In a bit of poetic justice near the end of the film, a white male engineer must make the same sprint to find her because John Glenn has demanded that Katherine personally verify the re-entry calculations after the IBM machine that replaced her delivered inconsistent results. This movie has indomitable human spirit, unbridled American patriotism (that refreshingly has nothing to do with war), and, of course, sharp lessons on Civil Rights history all wrapped up in a package that is just good, clean fun. You should really stop whatever it is you are doing right now and go see this film.

Lion. Like all little brothers, 5yo Saroo idolizes his older brother Gudu. They eke out a hardscrabble existence with their mother and baby sister in the back of beyond of rural India. They are desperately poor, and they know it, but they have a loving family and are generally happy. While trying to tag along with Gudu on his night job, Saroo becomes locked in an empty passenger car on a train being relocated cross country without stopping. Two days and 750 miles later, he is in the urban bustle of Calcutta, which might as well be a different planet since few people speak his native Hindi. After some harrowing adventures he winds up in an orphanage where he is adopted by a loving and earnest middle-class couple in Tasmania. Fast-forward 25 years, and the adult Saroo is seemingly well-adjusted and integrated into his adopted culture. While at a party at the house of some Indian friends he happens across a plate of jalebis, a dessert he had craved as a child but could never afford. This triggers a flood of memories from his lost childhood and launches him on an all-consuming and ultimately successful quest to find his birth mother. “Lion” is a wonderful film based on an amazing true story. And while it could have been a simple, manipulative tear-jerker, director Garth Davis delivers a film with impressive emotional complexity. Sunny Pawar is amazing as the young Saroo, and Dev Patel was nominated for his role as the adult Saroo, as was Nicole Kidman - in her native accent! - for her role as Sue, Saroo’s adoptive Australian mother. You’ll enjoy this long, harrowing journey, but keep your hanky handy for the eventual reunion between mother and son.

Moonlight. This is a coming-of-age story set in a world that John Hughes never imagined. If you had to sum up Chiron (aka “Little,” aka “Black”) in one word, that word would be ‘awkward.’ Growing up in a rough part of Miami with a missing father and a (literal) crack whore mother (Naomie Harris in a nominated role), bullied at school and unwelcome at home, 9yo Little’s life is characterized by constant fear, stress, and uncertainty. Little is sullen and withdrawn; the only kid who seems to understand him is Kevin, a breezy charmer, and the only remotely positive father figure he has is Juan (Mahershala Ali, also nominated), a crack dealer with a kind girlfriend who sort of unofficially adopts him. Fast-forward to the painfully awkward high school teen years: he now tries to go by his given name, Chiron, but has been dubbed Black by Kevin. Juan has been killed (though his girlfriend Teresa still lets Chiron crash when his mother has “company”), and the bullies are still omnipresent. To this point the film is not characterized so much by action, but rather by the seething, building tension associated with trying to constantly avoid action. Something’s gotta give. After a fumbling (dare I say awkward?) sexual encounter with Kevin the bullies force Kevin to beat Chiron up. This is the catalyst that causes Chiron to snap, leading to the sort of violent retributive outburst that makes movie audiences cheer, but lands young black men in jail. Fast-forward a decade. Now an adult, he has emerged from prison, moved to Atlanta, and adopted the persona – and the pimped-out ride – of Juan, and embraced Kevin’s nickname for him, Black. We see him making the rounds to check on his subordinate pushers and working out to maintain his thug life body. He is still sullen and withdrawn, but hard. This all changes with an unexpected phone call from Kevin, whom he hasn’t heard from since leaving Miami. In a truly breath-taking piece of acting, Trevante Rhodes – as the adult Black – brilliantly captures the mannerisms and even the intonations of the younger actors who play Little (Alex R. Hibbert) and Chiron (Ashton Sanders). We see a hardened criminal pick up the phone, but as soon as he hears Kevin’s voice subtle changes sweep over his face and he reverts – unconsciously and unintentionally – to the troubled, awkward youth he was. It is an Oscar-worthy performance, but unfortunately he does not get enough screen time to warrant a nomination. Overall this is a difficult film, but it is finely crafted, almost painfully heartfelt, and presents such a unique perspective that it is definitely worth the investment.

- THE PRETENDERS -

Arrival. This is a refreshing new take on the “alien invasion” genre. What is most unique is the aliens’ motivation behind their arrival, which I won’t give away but is fascinating. In fact, it’s difficult to discuss the plot at all without spoilers, but I will say that it’s timey wimey enough for the most ardent Doctor Who fan. Most of this movie is very well done. The aliens are extremely alien (Director Denis Villeneuve (nominated) understands that your imagination is always more frightening than reality, so he keeps his aliens shrouded in a thick fog and only fleetingly, partially visible) while the humans are annoyingly human (there’s a pretty standard schism between the “let’s talk to them” faction and the “blow them up” faction). An overall tone of realism is maintained so that the disbelief that must be willingly suspended is minimized, and the always-wonderful Amy Adams departs from her quirky, perky safezone to deliver a solid performance as a serious scientist. I do have a quibble, however. The entire plot of the film revolves around the written language of the aliens, which is so complex it seems almost magical. But the way in which the humans decipher it is given short shrift. There is boundless opportunity here for dramatic tension with the scientists making furtive steps, false starts, and brilliant breakthroughs, but it just sort of … happens. There’s not even a montage of long hours hunched over a computer or scribbling on a white board. Though this seems like a tragically missed opportunity it should not prevent you from enjoying this film that breathes new life into a fairly tired old genre.

Hacksaw Ridge. This is an extremely mediocre movie about an extremely fascinating and compelling true story. Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield in a nominated role) was the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts as an unarmed medic during the battle of Okinawa in WWII. After confronting his drunken father (who was beating his mother) with a pistol, Desmond makes a promise to God to never touch a gun again. This conviction is challenged when his patriotism compels Desmond to enlist after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite his intentions of being a medic his superior officers try to force Desmond to train with a rifle during basic training. His steadfast refusal leads to hazing, beatings, and nearly lands him in prison. He is eventually allowed to serve, and after his battalion is chased off the titular ridge Doss remains behind alone and drags 75 wounded men to safety while constantly dodging enemy soldiers. The problem with the film is that every aspect is hyper-romanticized, from the rough-housing of the Doss brothers as boys, to the too-cute-by-half courtship of Desmond and his wife-to-be. Even the drunken excesses of his father seem cliche and rote. The Japanese are depicted as unstoppable killing machines with neither souls nor honor (who knew director Mel Gibson (nominated) had issues with racial stereotypes?) and the battle scenes are shot in operatic slow motion in which even the blood and the mud are made to look Just Right. Garfield’s turn as Doss is strong, but I’m not sure it’s Oscar-worthy, and there are also a couple strong performances by actors playing against type: Hugo Weaving is convincingly tortured as the drunken father, and Vince Vaughn is surprisingly good as the obligatory tough-as-nails sergeant. Overall the film is watchable and the story is almost strong enough to overcome the directorial flaws. But not quite.

La La Land. This is a starry-eyed love letter to Los Angeles, both the physical city and the dreams of success and stardom that inhabit it. The story is engaging and well-crafted, the sumptuous cinematography makes it look as though the entire film was shot during the Golden Hour, and the acting is superb. The scenes in which Emma Stone – as struggling actress Mia – auditions for various roles are tours de force. The film is also an adoring homage to the MGM musicals of the 50s, and herein lies the problem: Stone and co-star Ryan Gosling can’t sing or dance. I mean, they’re not tone deaf and club-footed or anything, but neither of them could make the chorus line of the worst show on Broadway. The singing is at the level of a high school musical (no, not “High School Musical”), and as for dancing, if they were on Dancing with the Stars they would not be expected to survive past the third episode. But no one seems to care! I even read one review that claimed that this was a clever choice because their characters aren’t stars … yet! Excuse me, but generally talent leads to fame, not the other way around. It’s a shame because there really is a lot to love about this movie. If you can overlook this (glaring, obvious) flaw you will really enjoy it. But that thumping sound you’ll hear is Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers whirling dervishly in their graves.

Manchester by the Sea. We are introduced to Lee Chandler as a socially-maladapted loaner with anger management issues. Severe anger management issues. As the story unfolds we learn through flashbacks that Lee - played with understated intensity by Casey Affleck (nominated) - was once the epitome of the happily-married, blue-collar father, until tragedy struck. Unimaginable, life-shattering tragedy. That is the past, which informs the present, but the current tragedy is the sudden - but not totally unexpected - death of Lee’s brother Joe from a congenital heart condition. This leaves Lee as the guardian of his 16yo nephew, Patrick, a role for which (he is self-aware enough to understand) he is completely unsuited. What follows is an hour or so of stressful bickering as two guys who have suffered loss and who have feelings that they can’t comprehend, much less express, try to live together. In the end Lee manages to extract himself from the situation more or less gracefully, and return to his previous life. Still socially-maladapted, still a loner, but perhaps with slightly less severe anger management issues. The film is well acted, director Kenneth Lonergan (nominated) manages the pacing and the flashbacks skillfully, and the muted lighting captures the quiet desperation of New England in winter perfectly. But Lee’s character does not move an inch through the narrative: he is exactly the same person at the beginning and end of the film. And the film’s central tenet - that blue-collar guys in New England are not in touch with their feelings - is hardly revelatory.

So which SHOULD win?

I really loved all of the films in the Contenders category above, but Hidden Figures stands out as the one that not only elicited the most complex emotional response, but also the only one that I really want to watch again. Seriously go see it.

But which WILL win?

Though it boggles my mind, La La Land looks like a shoo-in for Best Picture. I really just don’t get it. Moonlight is a dark horse here, but is running a very distant second.

Best Actress - Emma Stone for La La Land. Note that it isn’t for Best Singer.

Best Actor - This is an interesting race between Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea and Denzel Washington for Fences. In my mind Denzel gave a much stronger performance with much greater emotional range, but I think Casey Affleck will win.

Best Supporting Actress - Viola Davis wins going away for Fences. Well deserved.

Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali for Moonlight.

Best Director - Damien Chazelle for La La Land. I mean, the DIRECTION didn’t suck.

Best Adapted Screenplay - Look for Moonlight to squeak in here.

Best Cinematography - La La Land. This is probably the only category that it actually deserves to win. It is gorgeous.

And that’s all I have time for because I am so late! Until next year …

[momscookingthebooks]

Welcome to the Release of Hinged by Char Sharp

Hinged by Char Sharp is #LIVE!

Hinged is the second book in The Soul Mate Rescued Series.

#Romance #Suspense #Mystery #Thriller

About the Book:

She can’t remember him.

He’ll never forget her.

When Robin Finch is abducted and tortured by an evil cybercriminal, her salvation comes in an unlikely hero, Dr. Ramsey Gunn. Gunn, a medical doctor and a computer genius, carried a long-festering secret love for Robin from afar, which placed her dead center on the enemy’s radar. Developing amnesia after enduring her captor’s sadistic torture and a blow to her head, Robin has no memory of her previous life. Dr. Gunn rescues Robin away from their captor and goes off the grid to keep her safe for years. But Dr. Ramsey Gunn may not be the savior he claims to be.

Upon his return from deployment, Navy SEAL Cooper Baron discovers his fiancé missing and presumed dead. Not believing she’s dead and hell-bent on discovering the truth about Robin’s disappearance, he will stop at nothing until she is back in his arms. Through the long years, searching for her in every woman’s face, he’s determined to locate the woman he lost. But finding Robin may put her in more danger than she’s ever faced before. Can Cooper’s love help her restore her memories without forcing her to confront the horrific reality of her abduction?

Once the reality is known, can their love survive the truth?

Purchase Today:

Amazon Universal: http://bit.ly/2mLtFR7

B&N: http://bit.ly/2njvdhG

iTunes: http://apple.co/2no3Q61

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2mLv1ey

Add to Goodreads TBR: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27778632-hinged

Author Bio:

Char Sharp lives and writes in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia USA with her husband and a spoiled Ragdoll cat named Purrcy. Her main objective is to entertain and enthrall her readers by writing emotionally romantic suspense stories with protective alpha heroes and strong heroines. A romantic at heart, she believes that love can be a true healer.

She started writing poems in college and graduated to business writing and sales in the transport delivery system and computer industries. In retirement, writing morphed into her true passion—novels. She studied music and business at Troy University, and with her love of music, she enjoys weaving a little music into her writing. She is a member of Romance Writers of America.

Char and her husband are the proud parents and grandparents of three grown children and five grandsons. She’s a coffee and chocolate caramel addict, enjoys a little red wine in the evening, and is delighted to have more time to write books and play with her grandsons.

Author Links:

Website: www.charsharp.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Charsharp1

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