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theepisceswriter · 3 years

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Jealous!Reader with AOT characters pt.2 (Porco, Bertholdt, Pieck, Zeke)

A/N: y’all really liked the first one I made here, so here’s a pt.2 with different characters

TW: none really apply, sort of suggestive for Zeke, Modern AU, GN!reader

PORCO GALLIARD

I am a firm believer that in a modern AU, Porco and Reiner would be the type of people to go to sport restaurants like Hooters, Buffalo Wild Wings, or Twin Peaks. They give me that macho man type of vibe. Of course though, Porco would make you tag along with him almost every time he went. He feels that it’s a very nice way for the two of you to bond. Which honestly it is.

You have a deep sense of security within yourself and enough trust in Porco to not be bothered by the waitresses there, as you should, knowing that it’s only their job to be enticing like that. Hell, you even enjoy it when the waitresses would flirt with you sometimes or you’d get the really pretty ones who look like they’re straight off of a magazine. Not to mention that you visit places like this often, so most of them know you and know that you and Porco are in a relationship together.

They all respect your boundaries and don’t try to push at them at all.....until this one waitress comes around. You can quite obviously tell that her flirting is different from the “trained” flirting that the other girls often do. She lingers at your table a little longer than she should be trying to talk to Porco to the point where other waitresses have to tell her to go check on other tables and she’s disregarding you completely, asking Porco questions that should be aimed at you and being very rude in general.

Porco is hardly paying her any mind, too focused on the game to really pay attention to what’s going on, but any piece of attention he gives to her she latches on too it. But still, you remain cordial and calm on the inside. Not wanting to come off as one of those significant others and cause a scene that doesn’t need to be caused. If someone looked at you for too long they might notice an eye twitch or two coming from you.

Really it’s Porco’s hand holding underneath the table that’s keeping you sane and reminding you of how secure your position in your relationship is. You almost calm down entirely, but of course the waitress has to come back and try desperately to get his attention again. At one point he zones out into the game and to try and get his attention she attempts to tap him on his shoulder.

Strong on the attempt because you grabbed her wrist before she could even brush her fingers against his shirt and gave her a stern “Aht! Aht! That is not going to be happening tonight and definitely not in front of me.”

And Porco, this menace to society, finally speaks up like, “I was wondering when you were finally going to say something. I was getting afraid that I didn’t mean anything to you anymore.” He would’ve eventually intervened himself though if she was actually successful in touching him.

The waitress gets the hint for the rest of the night, but just incase she doesn’t he holds you close to his side with his arm draped over your shoulders.

BERTHOLDT HOOVER

Despite his soft spoken nature and personality that sometimes falls on the shy part of the spectrum, Bertholdt is actually an easy person to come up to and start a conversation with. Of course, you have to be the one to start the conversation, but after that it’s like he can’t shut up, likes he’s compelled to answer back to everything and keep a conversation going.

It’s a trait of his that you’ve come to love, but also come to hate on days when you’re out in public with him and can just see the twinkle in a girl’s eyes when she’s getting ready to come over to him to flirt. It’s usually in awkward situations too like when you’re out shopping and he’s standing off to the side because he has no business looking at what you’re shopping for, so the fact that he’s kind of alienated from you and doesn’t know how to respond to flirting all that well in the first place really has him in an awkward chokehold.

He’ll get asked for his number and instead of saying flat out no, because he doesn’t want to be harsh, he struggles to let words out at all as he tries to think of what to say. And people really prey on his shyness and don’t even give him the chance to respond before they’re forcing themselves on him more, handing their phone out to him just waiting to input a number.

Imagine the shock and anger on your face when you turn around from your shopping happy ready to show Bertholdt what you got and instead you see a girl trying to get his number! You’re over there in an instant, legs carrying you as fast as they can and a scold on your face as you go over there and the first thing you do is push that phone as far away from him as you can.

“I know my BOYFRIEND and something tells me that he is not interested in the direction this conversation is going with you whatsoever, so I suggest you leave him alone before I make you 😤” The girl leaves like immediately after that.

Bert is just behind you the whole time with a ☺️ look on his face like “Yes, that is indeed my significant other!” Which is so funny because he’s like 6’3 and towering over you, but you’re the feisty one!

He does feel kinda guilty for not cutting off the interaction before it got that far, so he wraps his arms around you and nuzzle his face into your neck all like, “I’m sorry baby 🥺🥺 you know I don’t like anyone else but you 🥺🥺 I was trying to tell them no thank you but it wouldn’t come out 🥺🥺”

You couldn’t stay mad at him even if you wanted to, that’s all it takes for you to forget about it altogether.

PIECK FINGER

It’s almost impossible to see someone as fine looking as Pieck and not shoot your shot. If I saw Pieck out in public the first thing I would do is shoot my shot.

It happens allll the time whenever you two go out. Out at the mall shopping for clothes? Someone’s going to come up to you two and try to hit on Pieck. At the club minding each other’s business and trying to have a good time? Some guy is going to come over and try to ruin that for you too.

At first it was like a bragging rights thing for you. Everyone noticed your hot girlfriend was hot but you were the one who went home to her everyday and not them, but at some point it switched from a bragging right to down right annoying. It’s like you can’t leave her alone for more than a couple of seconds because here comes someone breathing down her neck being a weirdo!

Poor Pieck doesn’t even know what’s going on half of the time because she be baked out of her mind, thinking about nothing but how some ruffles and ice cream can really hit right now. So she’s just going along with the conversation like “mhm, yeah ☺️” every ten seconds hoping that they’d get the hint that she’s not thinking about them at all and to leave her alone. But, of course, they don’t.

Her body language becomes stressed out and agitated, not knowing what to do because you’re in the gas station buying snacks for the two of you while she’s far away at the gas pumps doing her best to get an ending with this weirdo where they don’t kidnap her.

Luckily, just on time you exit out the gas station and even before you get any closer to Pieck you’re already pissed off at the fact that someone is probably hitting on her, but after you see her do that awkward little shuffle with her feet signifying that she’s uncomfortable? You’re over there in a heartbeat.

See, maybe you would’ve been a bit nicer if her body language didn’t tell you that they had been pestering her for a while despite how everything about her screamed ‘not interested.’

So what do you do? You take the bottle of sprite you bought and bop them on the head with it. Head empty no thoughts just ‘protect my stoner girlfriend.’

Pieck is so messy too, she’s in the background like “Ohhhhh shit *giggle* fight! Fight! Fight!” You were ready to rumble too, but if you were so ready to hit them in the head with a sprite bottle the other person definitely didn’t want to know what else you were confident with doing. So they recuperated from their sprite bottle hit and went running to their car.

This was a proud girlfriend moment for Pieck the whole drive home. She could not stop talking about how much of a badass you were and how she loved that you would do anything for her.

ZEKE JAEGER

I wrote soft Zeke already, so now it’s time for me to give y’all the menace Zeke y’all have been waiting for.

Zeke is the type of significant other who’s big on teasing and messing with his partner is general. There’s something about seeing them all flustered after he does something to embarrass them, like fake propose to them in public or something, that really cracks him up. That being said, he’s not opposed to flirting with someone in front of you to get you riled up and see your reaction.

Let’s set the scene; He drags you to Sam Ash with him, because we’ve all just collectively decided that modern day Zeke is a music pretentious asshole, to go get something for his guitar or at least that’s what you assume he was complaining about. You weren’t even listening, just excited to go and mess with the drums and guitars there. It’s the first thing you do once you get there and Zeke sees this as his opportunity to finally mess with you.

He goes over to the drum set display you’re playing on and calls over and employee with “inquiries” about the set you’re playing on. He pretends to ask a few genuine questions at first but eventually he’s able to get the conversation to shift to something a little more personal. Which isn’t terrible, but once he starts throwing out lines like “Oh you like (said band)? I’ve always found myself gravitating towards people who like them. They’re always the most attractive people, I’ve found 😏.” Is when you start getting agitated.

You’re just trying to play We Will Rock You on the drums and here he goes killing your vibe immensely. And it’s hard to ignore when they’re standing right on the side of you. Not to mention how the employee is eating all of this up, blushing and all. It’s at the first mention of numbers being exchanged that you’ve decided you’ve had enough. Without a word to Zeke you get up and storm out of the store.

Was this a dick move on his end? Absolutely, but you’re a couple who’s relationship is filled with debating and bickering, bickering especially, so part of him thought you would play along with his little game and be like “Whatever. I don’t care.” But instead, you were genuinely upset. You didn’t even know where you were going but you were going somewhere. And that somewhere was the outside of the Sam Ash store because you realized you really didn’t have a choice.

Sorry guys, but I have to switch over to soft Zeke now.

He comes running after you, “y/n! Y/n it was a joke!” But that just makes you even more mad and oops, a year drops down your face and he feels terrible.

Kisses all over your face, words of assurance spilling out his lips, and a tight ass beat hug.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m such a dick I know. I didn’t mean to make you this upset though.” He would get down on his knees if he had to!

I guess you can forgive him just this once, but only on the terms that you get Sub!Zeke tonight and get to act as a pillow princess/prince cause he has a lot of making up to do.

#sorry if there are any typos i was kinda rushing #aot x reader #attack on titan x reader #porco galliard x reader #bertholdt hoover x reader #pieck finger x reader #zeke yeager x reader #zeke jaeger x reader #aot imagines

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beautifultypewriter · 3 years

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Stage Door ~ Sean Wallace

Requested: No

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2,062

Pairing: Sean Wallace x fem!oc

Summary: When Sean is dragged to the theatre with his family the last thing he expects is to meet a young woman who captures his attention so brilliantly.

A/N: I have so much to say, so please bear with me. First of all, since Gangs of London is now on AMC, I am able to watch it and honestly I have missed seeing Joe Cole on my tv screen. Like I don’t completely understand what’s happening on this show (I’m only on episode 6 - I am behind), but I dig it and mostly because of him. This is written with my OC. I use her name, but there’s no description of her other than the mention that she is Irish, so I’m gonna tag it the way I’m gonna tag it. I doubt anyone is even going to read this. Also it’s written in 3rd person instead of my usual 2nd. Also it takes place before any of the events from the show.

The theatre was the absolute last place that Sean wanted to be that night, but his father had gotten the tickets as a way to make his mother happy, so he couldn’t say no. Sean couldn’t say no to his father about anything really. Going to the theatre on a Friday night was the least of his worries. The lights flickered and Sean looked up, wondering how a fancy theatre in the West End would have flickering lights, but then he noticed everyone else sitting in their seats and ending their idle chatter. Then the lights turned off completely and the curtain rose, the orchestra beginning a slow but strong tune. Sean wasn’t entirely sure what this play was supposed to be about, but his mother had raved about how great it was, so he figured he would try to pay attention.

Paying attention was easier said than done. There was so much going on in just the beginning and Sean was having trouble keeping the different characters straight. All the singing wasn’t really helping either. He desperately wanted to close his eyes, but his mother was right next to him and he didn’t want to disappoint her. When he was sure he could get away with it, he let his head roll back just a bit and he squeezed his eyes shut. This had to be over soon. Sean felt someone squeeze his arm and just as quickly as he closed his eyes, his attention was back on the stage.

And there she was. A simple dress and a timid look on her face as the other actors on the stage surrounded her and sang at her with threatening tones. Sean couldn’t pull his eyes away from her. He watched her fall apart on stage, the scene changing to some shady alleyway and new actors replacing the others, but still just as menacing towards the woman. The timidness that had been on her face previously had melted away to fear to exhaustion to hopelessness. And for the first time since the show had started, the chaos of the stage slowed, and everyone moved away to the wings… everyone except for her. She was alone, still in her simple dress, crumpled on the floor in the middle of the stage. The music carried lightly through the space as she lifted herself up, her arms wrapping loosely around her frame and her voice small as she sang. Sean watched her every move. His eyes trailed over her form, gliding over each and every tiny movement of her head, the rise and fall of her chest as her voice gained power and the music swelled. Sean could feel himself sliding forward in his seat, wanting to be as close to her as he could be. The woman’s voice flooded his senses, and he was finding it difficult to breathe. His chest tightened at the pain in her voice and he briefly wondered how she was able to do all this.

And then it all stopped. Her voice faded out and Sean could breathe again as she stared out into the audience without really seeing them. Everyone around him was applauding, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. He just stared.

The story carried on and her character died, and Sean found himself losing interest now that she was no longer on the stage. It wasn’t until later, at the very end of the production that she came back. He straightened up as she glided onto the stage, still in a simple dress, but this one white, and a serene smile on her face. Her voice was soft and comforting now and if Sean had been different then he may have cried at the feeling she was pulling from his chest.

The curtain fell shut and everyone was on their feet, applauding. Sean stood slowly as he clapped along with the crowd. The curtain rose again, and the cast came out to take their final bows. He searched for her and he found her nestled between her castmates, a small smile on her face as they stepped forward and clasped hands, bowing until the curtain fell on them again. Sean stared at the spot where she had been as everyone filed out around him, his own family lingering by their seats for a moment until his father was approached by a man. He had missed most of the conversation, but snapped to attention when Jac looped her arm with his and started pulling him after Billy and their parents. He leaned down to his sister, “Where are we going?”

She shook her head, a quiet laugh on her lips, “Backstage tour,” she rolled her eyes, “only the best for the Wallace family.”

Sean had never cared much for the theatre, but he was honestly impressed with the backstage. The mechanics of the curtain and the different set pieces was something that did interest him, and he reached out to touch one of the ropes, but stopped when the man’s voice sounded from in front of him,

“Ah and here we have our own Fantine,” he held his arms out and she was there. Sean tensed as he looked her over. She was still in her white dress, and she was still smiling, only now she looked almost shy. The man motioned her forward, “May I present Imogen O’Connor.” She gave a small wave as she looked over each member of the Wallace family. The man continued, “Imogen, this is Finn Wallace, a very influential businessman here in London.”

She held her hand out and Sean’s father kissed her knuckles briefly as he smiled at her, “I have my family here with me.” He turned to the rest of them and motioned to his wife, “My wife, Marian,” then he turned to the children, “my daughter Jacqueline, and my sons, Billy,” Sean’s brother gave her a small smile and a wave, “and Sean.” Her eyes landed on him, and Sean couldn’t breathe again.

She smiled at him before turning to the group again, a familiar lilt to her voice as she addressed them all, “It’s a pleasure to meet you and thank you for coming to the show.” Her eyes fell on Sean again, “I do hope you enjoyed it.” He wanted to open his mouth and tell her that yes, he enjoyed her very much, but her attention was stolen by his mother.

Marian had beamed at the woman, “It was a lovely show, and your performance was spectacular.”

Imogen smiled as she looked down to her feet, “Thank you, that’s kind of you to say.”

His father stepped forward again, “From up North then?”

“Aye, Cavan.” Sean looked between the three as they made small talk, wanting to interject, but having no cause to do so.

His father smiled wistfully, “Oh? Cavan’s beautiful, I hear.”

She nodded, “Yes, sir, it is. Nothing like London.” The two of them laughed and Sean caught her eye again, causing her to look down.

His mother smiled, “How long have you been in London?”

Imogen shrugged as she looked around, “Oh, not long. A couple of months.” She nodded as she looked behind her for a brief moment then turned back to his mother, “Still trying to get used to the big city.” She smiled at them all again, “I’m terribly sorry, but I’ve got to be goin’. It was a pleasure to meet you all and thank you again.” There were a few mumbled goodbyes and Sean watched her walk away from their group. She turned back once to smile at him and he managed a small wave in her direction.

It was only a few nights later that Imogen found herself backstage after another successful performance, a few of the other girls around her as she stared into a mirror, wiping off her makeup. The week had been a long one and she was glad for the day off tomorrow.

“Imogen, you’ve got an admirer.” The Cavan girl turned to her castmate to see her pointing over her shoulder towards the door to their dressing room.

Imogen shook her head, “Catch yourself on, Sam. Who’d be waitin’ out there for me?”

Samantha shrugged as she smiled, “I don’t know. All I know is that a fit lad is out there asking for you and he’s got a big bouquet of flowers in his hand.” Imogen could feel her body heat up. She truly didn’t know anyone in the city, so who could possibly be bringing her flowers? She didn’t have any more time to dwell on the question though because she was being gently shoved towards the door, Samantha’s quiet laughter ringing in her ears.

Imogen stumbled out into the hallway; the dressing room door swinging shut behind her. She cleared her throat as she hesitantly looked up to see her “admirer.” A smile broke out on her face when her eyes met those of the young man from the other night, “Mr. Wallace.”

Sean’s face twisted as he shook his head, “Please, just Sean.”

She nodded to him, her smile growing smaller, “Sean.”

He seemed to relax as his shoulders dropped and he smiled at her, “Miss O’Connor.” Imogen pursed her lips as she folded her arms over her chest and Sean laughed, glancing down and back up quickly, “Imogen.” She smiled again, tucking some hair behind her ear as she looked down at his shoes. He cleared his throat, gaining her attention, and held out a bouquet of pink lilies towards her, “These are for you.” Reaching out, she gently took the flowers in both her hands, looking them over. She looked up at him, but before she could get a word out, he was speaking again, “That was an amazing performance.” He pointed over his shoulder, towards the stage, nodding his head.

She smiled, “Thank you and thank you for the flowers,” she looked down at the bouquet again, “they’re beautiful.” Imogen looked up to Sean again, quickly glancing behind him, “Here alone tonight?” She gave him a knowing smile and he nodded.

“Thought I might treat myself to a night at the theatre.” Before she could stop herself, Imogen let out a laugh, which she then tried to cover up by pulling the flowers up to her nose. Sean looked offended as he placed his hand over his chest, “Do I not look like the type of man to enjoy the arts?”

Trying to control her smile, Imogen lowered the flowers, “Truthfully?” Sean nodded and she bit her lip, his eyes darting to the movement as she shook her head, “No, not really.”

He scoffed, a smile threatening to break loose, “What kind of man do I look like then?”

Tilting her head from side to side, Imogen narrowed her eyes and brought her index finger to rest against her chin. Sean grinned as he held his arms out to the side, his head tilted slightly as he waited for her to finish her assessment. She smiled, “You look the type of man who does his honest day’s work and then goes down the pub for a drink with his mates, watches whatever game is on the telly.” Sean nodded and she chuckled.

He stepped closer to her, “If we’re being truthful then the reason I came down to the show tonight was because I wanted to see you again and I thought that, if you had the time, then I could show you around London,” he shrugged one shoulder, “help you get used to the place.” Imogen tightened her grip on the lilies as Sean’s words rattled around in her brain.

Then she smiled at him, “I’ve a free day tomorrow and no plans.” Her eyes moved down to the floor again as she cleared her throat.

Slowly, Sean placed his fingers under her chin and lifted until their eyes met and then he smiled, “Tomorrow it is then.” She nodded at him, moving quickly to peck his cheek before she stepped back from him, waving as she slipped back into the dressing room. The door was ajar and he could hear a few voices whispering to each other as he stood waiting, rocking back on his heels. The whispering ended abruptly and Imogen was in front of him again.

She held out a slip of paper as she smiled, “Tomorrow.”

#sean wallace x reader #sean wallace x oc #sean wallace imagine #gangs of london imagine

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konako · 2 years

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yes tell me about snows leg scar i’m in redsnow feels

*BREATHES IN* Let me take you on a little tour to show you how things get made over here in the server

We were talking about a scenario where Ruby had been trapped and controlled in her wolf form, to the point where she became aggressive and needed to be stopped, or else she'd hurt her friends. She was that out of control. The way to stop her, (Kat, the menace, decided—) was to throw a SILVER NET on top of her.

Naturally, it hurt like a motherfucker, the wolf was stopped somewhat "successfully" (if you can call a cacophony of whines and cries of agony "successful"), and Ruby eventually regained her control. She was terribly, horribly hurt. Snow felt sick with pain, just by looking at her.

Snow had to tend to her wounds, (Ruby's entire back was one huge scar. In fact, here), and there was this overwhelming all-consuming guilt attached to that sight, because it was Snow who threw the net, Snow who hurt Ruby, Snow who scarred her body. Ruby understood the necessity of that situation and never once blamed Snow for any of it. But the angst remained: a scar made by the lover's hand in a moment of desperation.

Going off of that idea, we landed on a different 'verse, where the situation was reversed, and Snow was the one to end up injured and scarred. (FOR ONCE, RUBY WAS NOT AT THE RECEIVING END OF THE PHYSICAL PAIN. That was rare for us, it hasn't happened again ever since.)

It started like this:

Kat (@lovecanbesostrange) : okay, so the beach day was fun and all, but I have been thinking in the center of it all was Snow needing to hurt Ruby to stop her and Ruby being okay with that. Now, what if we put it in reverse. What if Snow goes a bit of the deep end again. Staring down the edge of darkness with murder in her eyes. Ruby knows it almost destroyed her and she needs to stop her. At. All. Cost. What if Snow - for whatever reason, please help me out with details - just keeps going, fights off Ruby even, maybe fights dirty (repels her by drawing a silver dagger "don't make me use this") and this is where Ruby knows, to save Snow from herself, drastic measures need to be taken. And here we are. She turns into a wolf. And she will push Snow down. And before she can use that dagger, she will bite her. (The pain might even release whatever spell is upon her? Who knows)

Then we bounced ideas off each other until we decided that:

konako (me!): Okay so, aside from self-sacrifice, what else makes Ruby go all out and break out the fangs and claws? When she needs to protect someone. Murdered her mother to keep Snow safe. Maybe Snow is the offender here, and Ruby is trying to protect the other person. That is being framed for the act causing Snow's rage.

[...]

So Ruby has motive to protect and try and talk some sense into Snow (who may also be under a spells influence for an added tragedy) And Snow doesn't want to hurt Ruby, she wants to murder the person shielded BEHIND Ruby. But Ruby is not moving. Snow takes out the dagger. Ouch. Low blow. Ruby is hurt just by the sight of it, and all that it implies. It gets heated. The dagger barely touches Ruby and it burns, but it quickly gets kicked away. It was just to make it clear that Snow is not playing around, she wants blood.

Kat: so it has to be a good person, because this isn't just saving Snow from her own action, this is about protecting someone

konako: Yeah yeah, a very good person That Ruby is willing to oppose Snow for

And we went through a bunch of characters and decided on: Granny.

Kat: "I killed my mom for you, you can't have Granny." yeah, who would want a dead Granny on their conscience

And then the question: why was Snow trying to hurt Granny in the first place? Revenge? Um. No. What about... a dark influence clouding their thoughts, making them hostile to each other? That will do.

konako: What if it's someone trying to break up Snow and Red, because they're too strong together And they're using Granny to do it Poisoned Snow's heart with some magic whisper or something idk Then pointed her in the direction of Granny, knowing Red would stand in her way They just wanted to watch shit go down

Kat: mission accomplished Ruby will hate herself so much for this, even though it was to save Granny's life and Snow will be so shocked she was used like that and also, after all these years, of trusting Ruby so fully, when she sees the wolf next? there is a tremor she can't stop

After sitting on it for a bit, Kat came back with the fully baked goods:

Kat: I still have no exact clue about who is doing all these horrible things and how exactly, maybe something a bit similar to the shattered sight spell, or where one dark thought gets pulled up, a deep hurting truth spoken out loud turned into the want on acting on it UH!! I GOT IT! so, Red and Snow have been a thing since forever. Can't be separated really. Friendship grew into love, loyalty tested on all levels. They feel so much for each other and so deep. Yes, good stuff. They also know each other's pain. Red understands why Snow craves Regina's forgiveness, how she will admit she ruined her life. And Snow takes one look at Red and sees the pain her dual nature can cause her, has caused her by not knowing. And now we have this misty dark magic in town, that seeks its victims for pure chaos. Ruby and Snow lie in bed, playing with hair, light caresses on the body, feeling close, yet there is something melancholic in the air. Calendars don't match, but maybe this is the day Ruby sorta matched to back when they met, which means it's Peter's death day. Or for some other reason, he is on her mind. And Snow says "I wish Granny had told you the truth sooner. It would have kept you from so much pain." And the dark spell works its magic, this thought creeping deep, deep, deeeee~p into Snow as "Granny is the cause for Ruby's pain, Granny needs to pay". And here we are. The spell might have manifested in different ways with different people, so they know that it is going around, but they don't know enough yet. It is clear that it has gotten to Snow and she knows that Snow doesn't actually wanna kill Granny, but in this state she will. [...]

konako: Is Granny affected TOO??????? And she turns against Snow for encouraging Red to this "dark horrible path of accepting the wolf", or even "taking her granddaughter from her"

Kat: Granny and Snow pitted against each other and Ruby in the middle

konako: Having to keep them apart

Kat: so Snow wanted to kill Granny with that silver dagger for effect

konako: AND SHE POINTED AT RED AT SOME POINT, which hurt

Kat: "I don't want to hurt you with this. I just want to slit her throat with it. Out of my way!"

konako: Okay but then the obstacle is, why Ruby decided to stop Snow only, and not reason with Granny too Does Granny manage to break out of it earlier because of wolf thing idk

Kat: Ruby is literally between the two and she manages to disarm Granny. You know what, she fucking breaks her crossbow!! that will distract Granny let's make it worse Granny is the one to pull Ruby's cloak off that's why she transforms

[konako loses her mind...]

and Kat delivers the final blow:

Kat: and she is distracted for a moment that Snow will use to lunge at Granny and Ruby has this second to think on how to get them from killing each other. She bites into Snow's leg, pulls her away forcefully The sight of it all paralyzes Granny Ruby pulls a screaming Snow away, trying to hold on to something, fingers sliding over the floor, Ruby is so angry for a moment and now she has the taste of blood (Snow's blood!) on her tongue and she needs all her strength to not rip out flesh Snow is physically hurt (and the sight of the wolf will trigger her the next time) ✓ Granny is shocked because in a way she saw the nightmare turn real; also faced with her own mortality ✓ Ruby will hate herself so much for giving into the aggression for a second ✓ Ruby also has to deal with the closest family she has being at each other's throats for her and that sucks. She has forgiven Granny, even though there is truth in the accusation. And yes, she followed Snow into a war she didn't comprehend. Poor girl is torn in all directions. Always. tada

So that was the beginning of it. And like we often do, we then milked the angst out of it, jumping from scene to scene, abstractly, exploring their feelings afterwards.

Ruby being ruined by guilt, literally tasting Snow's blood in her mouth, too disgusted with herself to eat anything after that. Snow not being able to walk properly for a good time after that, needing physical therapy. Ruby not being able to look at her, too afraid to touch her. Snow wanting to reconnect and touch Red, but knowing that her pain and guilt is too great at the moment. Snow wanting to give Red time, Red never wanting to hurt Snow ever again in any way.

It is a delicious mess of confusing feelings, longing and regret.

And I LOVE IT!!!

#Snow's leg scar

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pynkhues · 3 years

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.... any succession fic recs? 👀

Yes!! I haven't read a lot for it yet, but some of the stuff I've read has been staggeringly good. I'm generally more into gen fic in this particular fandom, but have enjoyed some Stewy x Kendall, Gerri x Roman and Naomi x Tabitha too.

A few recs under the cut!

“I wanted to get out. From under all this. Take the money and run.”

Kendall tells Stewy even though he knows he’ll never get it, not like Naomi does. He’ll never understand the crush of it, the heart-stopping head-fucking fear of failing a tyrant. Kendall’s been ignoring the shape of it for a long time, putting pieces of it together in the back of his mind in total darkness like a blindfolded man. It doesn’t matter that one day his dad will die. It doesn’t matter about the money or the hostile takeover or the stolen files or any of it. There’s no running. Kendall’s Logan Roy lives inside his head.

Stewy laughs. Stewy laughs for a long time.

“There is no out, Ken, what the fuck are you talking about? You were born this and you’ll die this. You are what you are, and what you are is a fucking Roy.”

Kendall hates him, for a moment. Lightning-strike furious. What the fuck does he know about any of it, about his dad’s swinging dinner plate-sized hands, about getting 24% name recognition in reliable international polling, about puking every time you think about a car swerving off the road in the rain. About finding out that you can do something unthinkably, unimaginably terrible, and it doesn’t matter to anyone you know but you. There’s a scar on his arm that no one else who hasn’t already been told how it got there can ever know about, and he’s sick of it, and it’s not fair. He hates Stewy for a moment because Stewy’s right.

“I wanted to do the right thing, Stewy, for once in my fucking life.”

Stewy laughs again, more briefly, and the predator flash of his eyes in the neon of the motel sign is a torture all its own.

‘There is no right and wrong, Ken. How the fuck do you not know that yet? Not for people like you. Like us. There’s shit you get caught doing and there’s shit you don’t.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You really, really fucking don’t,” says Ken, and fuck, there it is. The road less travelled, that only he has ever driven on. The path he’s down where Stewy can’t follow. That place beyond Stewy Hosseini where he never thought he could go.

“You’re not telling me something, and when I find out what that is, and I will find out what it is, Kendall, don’t you think I won’t, so I am warning you that when I do find out I am going to be righteously fucking pissed,” says Stewy, and if Kendall thought those were a predator’s eyes before—

“Yeah, you will,” says Kendall, because he knows exactly how perceptive Stewy is. Exactly how weak he is. Exactly, precisely what both of them are.

And treat this night like it’ll happen again by postcardmystery. 8k words. Kendall x Stewy. Post s2. (CW: internalised homophobia, some homophobic language)

I tried to pick a shorter excerpt, but I literally couldn’t, this fic is so. good. The voices are pitch perfect, and it’s got this incredible build to it overall that goes back and forth between time and point of views and just rips your heart out. The premise itself is pretty simple – after the press conference at the end of 2.10, Kendall calls Stewy, and they drive through rural America while Kendall has a breakdown, and it’s just - - unspeakably good. I love it so so so much, I have no words.

r/roysucks Connor’s gf just posted on Instagram (instagram.com) submitted two months ago by webbedscrum_2279 23 comments share save hide report

[–] DM_ME_SAMESMAIL 40 points two months ago I too like to escape to my yacht in the Mediterranean when my family and I are on trial for covering up rape and murder. permalink embed save report reply

AITA for accusing my father of multiple crimes on his own news station? By amleth 3k words. Gen fic. Post s2.

And now for something completely different – epistolary fic which is just reddit news threads of the Roy family drama. I love an epistolary fic and this is just totally charming, and made me laugh a lot out loud.

“You’re quiet,” she observes. “That’s a first.”

“Yeah, well, the Turks beat it out of me. Gave you a run for their money.” He waggles his eyebrows. “So what is this? Whips and chains? Are we doing the whole boat-sex thing? I heard Shiv and Tom are looking for a third —“

Gerri finds what she’s looking for: a black leather binder. She drops it on the bed and begins paging through it, and Roman cranes his neck enough to recognize that it’s just full of documents, not like, dick pics. “I’ve given some thought to what you proposed a few weeks ago, and I agree that we should make things official in some way,” she says, and he blinks.

“Uh,” he says. “Which — what part of it?”

“Take a look.”

Gerri closes the folio and hands it over. It’s deceptively heavy, and the print on these pages is way too fucking fine, he thinks, paging through it. “Is this some kind of, like, Fifty Shades of Roy sex contract? Because it’s not that I’m not into it, but I think there’s a strong argument for going paperless —”

“Strictly speaking, this isn’t legally binding,” Gerri says. “Just something I threw together with regard to our business arrangement going forward. But with no respect to the family — the past few weeks have really illustrated that no one should take anyone at their word right now. Give me a little more than your word.”

Evacuation strategies for a yacht on fire by devourthemoon. 11k words. Gerri x Roman. Post s2. Explicit.

After the events of s2, Roman and Gerri fake being married as a professional alliance, only, y’know, maybe it’s not so fake. This fic is just so, so much fun, and messy in the best possible way. The author nails all the character voices, and the sex scenes are just the right amount of hot and ridiculous, and I just love it all a lot too.

Kendall estimates it will take an hour for the first articles to go up. Some rapid-fire blog without oversight—the New York Post, maybe, or wherever those Vaulter hippies have skulked off to—will slap a catchy headline on it and report his words verbatim. Give or take a gif of his face when he switches to script number two. New York Times, Washington Post, AP, those fuckers take longer. They like to bleed the story like Middle Ages plague doctors for its marrow, fact-check and add context and analysis and as many backlinks as their servers can handle. Still, a couple of hours, and his face will be plastered on every major news outlet. His voice will play over the nightly talk shows. He’ll trend on Twitter. A few more days, and he’ll be the star of analysis segments, podcasts, weekly briefings. Maybe, fuck it, maybe he’ll trend on Twitter again.

It’s been years since Kendall read Shakespeare. But that shit sticks with you, gets under your skin and emerges when you least expect it, like eczema or Keynesian economics. He knows how the media will spin this. Kendall Roy Attacks CEO Logan for Years of Corruption. Prodigal Son Disrupts Family Legacy to Restore Credibility. That’s how Hamlet ends, right? And Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, even Titus fucking Andronicus. The spilled blood sinks into the ground, the seedlings sprout forth from the soil, and a new castle is built on the bones. Order out of chaos, or at least close enough an approximation that the tabloids will buy it.

Legacy for profit by owlinaminor Post-2.10. Kendall Roy. Kendall through Shakespeare analogies – just - - ooooof. It's a beautiful, lyrical character study that weaves through Roy family history and teases at a future none of them are even sure they want. It's gorgeous writing.

For the next few days Shiv would have to keep the pressure on Kira like an open wound because there were other women, victims that Nate’s people were going to find one by one as soon as that phone call disconnected. Mo was her father’s friend, good friend, for a long, long time. Nate and Gil, Sandy and Stewy, too many sharks in the water and the share price probably dipped to a new low but she would never check a stock ticker. Her husband’s nerves fraying at the edges on national television. She had promised a woman she’d never met before that she would kill roughly one third of the top male executives of her family’s company. Her company.

The last look Rhea gave her before she shut the car door was concern close to fear—no longer the same woman who heard their pitch in the safe room, who laughed with her at Argestes. Rhea had only looked into the abyss; she got cold feet and she didn’t even know what it’s like to grow up in it.

Her family’s company is hers, will be hers. Even from a whale fall, new life would spring.

Feed his flesh to wayward daughters by reogulus. 2k words. Shiv Roy. Set during 2.09.

This entire fic is set around Shiv bribing Kira not to testify, and god, it is so good. It’s bleak and rough, and really hones in on the complex ground Shiv walks as a character. It's another brilliant study of what it takes to be a Roy, and the way they make the awful choices in order to fulfill this legacy that they don't even know they want.

Kendall sets down his fork. “So. Tell me. Is it everything you wanted? Is it what you thought it would be?”

Roman stills. He never does that. He’s constantly a menace in motion, slouching and fidgeting, worse even than Kendall at his amphetamine peak. “What? The view from the tippy-tippy-top?”

“His regard.” Kendall wipes his mouth with the edge of the white cloth napkin. It comes away pink from the steak. “Dad. He’s all yours now.”

Roman still hasn’t moved. Finally, he lurches, like corroded machinery come uncertainly to life. “Yeah, man. It’s fucking tight as hell. I love every beautiful daddy and me moment I was a good enough little boy to earn.” He snorts. “Fuck you.” His face goes curiously slack then, like something Kendall’s own face would do. An intermission in the performance, an energy cut. Something genuine finding its way to the surface. “Why don’t you tell me. When you got everything you wanted, how the fuck did that make you feel?”

Nauseous, is the first word that springs to mind. Sick. Scared. I’ve never had everything I wanted, there’s that. I’ve never once had a single fucking thing I wanted. There’s that, too.

Interim leadership by arbitrarily 2k words. Roman + Kendall. Post s2.

I love Roman and Kendall scenes generally, but this one which features Kendall and Roman meeting for the first time a few months after the press conference in 2.10 is just a bit magic. The push pull dynamic that's just inherent to them mixed with the genuine affection and brotherly love is really special, and arbitrarily embraces both in equal measure. It's a great little fic.

There are lots more of course, and I'd also recommend checking out other works by these authors, but I hope this is a good place to start! :-)

#hbo succession #succession fic #fic recs #welcome to my ama #kendall x stewy #gerri x roman

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mst3kproject · 3 years

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Godmonster of Indian Flats

If I had a dollar for every movie I’ve seen about a bloodthirsty mutant sheep, I would have... two dollars.

I was entirely willing to feature Godmonster of Indian Flats based on its strangeness alone, but it does have one connection to MST3K in that actress Peggy Browne was also in Avalanche. Another performer here, Kerrigan Prescott, also had a part in previous Episode that Never Was Fiend Without a Face, so hey, close enough!

Dr. Clemens and his assistant Mariposa discover a mutant lamb on Eddie the Rancher’s sheep farm, and take it up to a secret lab at Indian Flats for study. This seems somewhat outside of Clemens’ claimed purview as an anthropologist, but whatever, I’m just here to watch the movies. While the monster grows to maturity in a tank, the mayor of a local tourist town, Mr. Silverdale, is refusing to sell land to a Mr. Barnstable, who is interested in the mining rights. We soon get the idea that Silverdale is less interested in tourism than he is in having his own private Wild West LARP, and the townsfolk have an almost cult-like reverence for him. Eventually, their increasingly violent attempts to run Barnstable out of town cross paths with Dr. Clemens’ pet mutant, and all hell breaks loose!

Well, maybe not all hell. This movie hasn’t got the money for all hell. Rest assured, though, that they unleash all the hell they could afford.

The hell in question takes the form of a lumpy hunchbacked sheep creature with a rubbery sock puppet head, one long dangling arm, and a huge Kim Kardashian ass. It interrupts a picnic, and blows up a gas station by knocking over a pump with its bubble butt. It may or may not understand English, and it breathes poisonous gas when injured. The puppet is pretty weird and scary-looking in the darkness of Clemens' secret lab, but out in the full light of day it is ridiculous.

Any movie with a mutant sheep monster is going to be weird, and the monster is the weirdest thing in the movie, but make no mistake – Godmonster of Indian Flats sans monster would still be a weird fucking movie. The other story going on here, Silverdale vs Barnstable, is thoroughly bizarre in itself.

Apparently it's not enough for Silverdale and the townspeople to simply refuse to sell Barnstable their mining rights. Instead, they have to totally ruin his career and both his physical and mental health! First of all, they invite him to their 'Bonanza Days' and have him take part in a shooting contest, where the whole town conspires to make it look like he accidentally shot the sheriff's dog. Then they hold a funeral for the dog as if it were a person. The whole time the dog is fine – it was just playing dead, and afterwards the sheriff sends it to live with a friend.

When Barnstable still doesn't leave town after this, Silverdale's toady Phil whacks him over the head with a bottle, then shoots himself in the shoulder and puts the gun in the unconscious man's hand. Barnstable wakes up in jail and demands a lawyer, but everybody ignores him. Eddie and Mariposa help him escape, and the sheriff then forms a posse to hunt him down and lynch him! At the end of the movie Silverdale triumphantly tells Barnstable that he's going to lose his job because his boss is embarrassed by all these goings-on. At this point Barnstable also has a cracked skull and a broken arm. He's a PTSD-ridden shell of a man and yet Silverdale is still yelling “I've beaten you, Barnstable!” as the end credits roll.

All of this might become a little less weird (but way more horrible) when I mention that Barnstable is the only black character with dialogue. And yet, none of it is ever overtly framed as racist. Nobody ever uses a slur – in fact, Barnstable's race is never once referenced in dialogue, not even obliquely. You could cast a white actor in this part and nothing would have to be changed. What Barnstable seems to represent, and what Silverdale and the townspeople claim to be fighting against (Silverdale declares that he is 'the custodian of an era'), is decadence and capitalism, concepts traditionally associated with a white elite.

This in itself should be read as a commentary on race. It's notable that Barnstable is playing by white rules. He's a smooth businessman representing the interests of his presumably white boss. When Silverdale invites him to Bonanza Days, he is happy to step into that role, too. He dresses the part and takes up the six-shooter, and does a pretty good job with it. Barnstable is a 'model minority' figure, a black man with the trappings of white success... and in spite of that, he is still abused. Hard as he tries to fit into the white people's world, he is not welcome there.

I don't think that's actually what Barnstable is supposed to represent to the viewer, however. The people of this town are described in the opening as 'living in the past' and we see that they're very dedicated to it. Silverdale dresses the part of a nineteenth century gentleman even when he's at home. Everybody dresses up in period costumes for occasions like parties and church, and the town's status as a tourist attraction requires many people to play such a role full-time. There's a dark underbelly to this quaint little world, as we see in the opening when a barmaid steals Eddie's casino winnings, but even that fits their chosen period.

Barnstable intrudes into this world as a representative of modernity and reality. If you're paying attention, you soon realize that the 'past' the townsfolk are living in isn't like the real past at all. The real history of this little mining town would have involved filthy, back-breaking work in the mines, and saloons full of drunks, prostitutes, and crime. The modern town has adopted the pretty trappings of the 19th century – the clothes, the horses, and nice little shows of piety like the dog funeral – while sweeping the dirt and violence under the rug. The latter are only to be turned on outsiders.

This fantasy version of the old west is also very, very white. In the real world, history is always more diverse than we usually think it was – one of the historical figures who inspired the character the Lone Ranger, for example, was Bass Reeves, the first black US Marshall in the west. The people in Silverdale's town have no interest in that. There is not a single Native American character in the movie, and I've already mentioned the lack of other people of colour, except for a couple of background tourists. This is an essential part of throwing away the ugly parts of the past – race brings conflict, and Silverdale and his followers want none of that. Barnstable's race makes his status as an outsider all the more obvious, both visually and as a reminder that the world these people are trying to live in never really existed.

This puts Barnstable in a very strange place in this movie. He's definitely a victim, but never a hero – in fact, Godmonster of Indian Flats is yet another movie that doesn't have a hero – yet he is not a villain, either. He's just some poor bastard who wandered into a horror movie and now he can't find his way out of it.

So... what does any of this have to do with a mutant sheep monster?

I dunno. There seem to have been mutants in this area for a long time, since Clemens talks about legends of a 'mine monster' and even shows off weird fossils he's found, but how does that tie into the theme of clinging to the past? Maybe it's supposed to be about history repeating itself, since new monsters are being born just as the mines are about to re-open? I have no idea.

Does the monster die at the end? I cannot tell you. I think it dies when the truck it was caged in blows up? The movie ends with an angry mob pushing the truck over a steep slope where they dump their garbage, while Eddie, Clemens, and Mariposa try to reveal Silverdale's own land-grab scheme. This all degenerates into chaos and people tumbling down the hill and shooting each other, while Silverdale stands there yelling about how violence controls the masses and how he's beaten Barnstable. It's an ending that seems calculated to leave the audience going, “... huh?”.

Why is it a God monster? Now this, I do have a theory about. I don't think the sheep is actually the godmonster – I think the titular menace is actually Mr. Silverdale! He wields a god-like authority within the town, even when his evil scheme is apparently exposed at the end, and uses it to do monstrous things! If that's not what they were going for... then I have no idea.

I mentioned in the opening that I've seen two movies about mutant sheep monsters. The other is Black Sheep, which is one of those off-the-wall movies they make in New Zealand when they're not doing Tolkien-related stuff. Black Sheep was apparently inspired by Godmonster of Indian Flats, but it throws out the race relations stuff and runs with the 'mutant sheep' thing to make on of the most perfect dark comedies I've ever seen. I would recommend it to the strong-stomached in the same way I recommended The Valley of Gwangi to anyone disappointed by Beast of Hollow Mountain – it is everything the older film should have been but was not.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #godmonster of indian flats #70s #just fuckin weird #allow me to recommend a better movie

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tossawary · 3 years

Text

Chapter 25: “Home Sweet Home” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” quotes and commentary. Not a full list of favorite quotes or full commentary.

Anyway, Shang Qinghua makes himself so fucking sincerely annoying that the Huan Hua Palace Sect cultivators can’t figure out how to politely tell him to fuck off fast enough. Shang Qinghua makes outlandish assumptions about how many thieves there are (at least a dozen, he’s sure, probably twice that) and what methods they might be using (special invisibility talismans, he suspects); Shang Qinghua repeatedly apologizes for being too busy with important things for Cultivator O.B.B. at the last Immortal Alliance Conference, then tries to commiserate with the man about having to get important things done without getting any respect for it; Shang Qinghua also anxiously wonders if they should all go to Zhao Hua Temple Sect to report what happened here, since there’s a troublesome demon and also some sneaky rogue cultivator thieves on the loose out here! He gets turned down immediately, but assures everyone that he’ll at least let Yue Qingyuan know everything that happened here right away!

Liu Qingge pretty much just stands there scowling silently the entire time - he’s no Shen Qingqiu for sheer menacing "I can and I will ruin your entire life" glares, but he’s still pretty intimidating. He does a great job! No notes!

Shang Qinghua nearly pats himself on the back as he and Liu Qingge leave less than an hour after he arrives. “Holy shit, I’m good,” he thinks, a little giddy with the successful extraction. “That’s a skill that good ol’ Liu-Shidi will never have!”

AN: Of course this has a high chance of backfiring. Is Shang Qinghua going to weave webs of lies anyway? Of course.

Love the fact that Shang Qinghua can shamelessly act like a total pushover, while actually manipulating someone so that he gets the results he wanted. Some snobby sect leader walks into a negotiation room, prepared to use SQH as a doormat, and Shang Qinghua is probably internally like, “Bro, me and my jelly spine welcome you to hell.”

He gives them the rundown on what happened, but, to his complete lack of surprise, that doesn’t seem to satisfy interrogators like his little sister-in-law and his fellow transmigrator. They have so many questions! And Shang Qinghua doesn’t have enough answers for them!

No, he doesn’t know what Huan Hua Palace Sect knows or thinks they know. No, he doesn’t know how they knew about that place. No, he doesn’t know whether the monster was just a local opportunist preying on distracted cultivators or something more sinister. No, he’s not experimenting with the creepy special item or discussing it at length here. No, Luo Fanli and Peerless Cucumber are not allowed to poke at the creepy special item!

Why the fuck would he ever let them do that?!

All Shang Qinghua knows is that Luo Fanli and Peerless Cucumber should eat their vegetables and then go to bed! Because they all have a long journey back to the sect in the morning! And also that words cannot describe how painfully old he feels as soon as he says this.

AN: I’ve been thinking about a Demon Trio fanfic in which Mobei-Jun finds himself in a similar position with Luo Binghe and Sha Hualing.

Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua are, like, bare minimum twice the age of Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan. Like, yes, neither Mobei-Jun nor Shang Qinghua are old old by the standard of the PIDW world. Yes, MBJ and SQH are stunted as all get out. But the fact that they have bare minimum 2x the life experience as Bingqiu is, in my opinion, funny as hell and severely underused in fanfiction.

Like, imagine Mobei-Jun unintentionally dadding new demon LBH in SVSSS. Mobei-Jun being like, “Don’t eat the meat from this monster. It makes you hallucinate.” Or being like, “These people aren’t politically important enough to be shown this kind of respect. Look down on them properly and go sleep, or no one will ever respect you again in demon politics.”

MBJ looking at SVSSS LBH and SHL like, “Damn, who raised you?”

Because, like, I love to joke about Mobei-Jun being an oblivious fool, but that’s in regards to human culture. Mobei-Jun operating on demonic culture + his level of arrogance in regards to how he’s handling SQH suggests that MBJ can be politically savvy among demons when he wants to be. Also, the mental picture of MBJ being like, “Eat your weird demon vegetables, there’s nothing wrong with them, you picky half-breed brat,” is extremely funny.

I’ll probably turn this into a separate post.

Shang Qinghua does not miss the man’s unconcealed “oh, great, some of my favorite problem people are back, probably with bad news” expression when they arrive. The man is not at all impressed to hear about the drugged-up Shadow Cave Wolf Spiders or the evil, murderous, madness-inducing plant they fought on their mission, but the Qian Cao Peak Lord is reluctantly, partially placated by the jar of three-eyed skeleton tears Shang Qinghua super thoughtfully brought back for his inspection. Mu Qingfang really likes his research projects!

Shang Qinghua lets himself feel kind of good about this gift - he’s the man who gets things and gets things done - and ignores the Weeper’s Eye whispering in his head, “He has resigned himself to the untimely deaths of everyone he knows.”

(Wow. Oh, Shang Qinghua knows that feeling!)

AN: Mu Qingfang doesn’t think that everyone around him is inevitably going to die, he’s just extremely aware of how dangerous the world is and how reckless cultivators can be. Also, for many years, he was fairly certain that Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu were headed for bad ends.

This felt like a good place to insert some optimism back into the sect in general. Luo Fanli has been cured and is willingly going to visit her sister, Liu Qingge has got a hold on his self-destructive tendencies, Mu Qingfang thinks things are getting better, Shen Qingqiu’s health problems have been essentially fixed, Qijiu might actually work their shit out, Shen Yuan shares his real name with Shang Qinghua, and so on and so forth.

It felt like a good contrast with and buildup towards Luo Binghe’s Skinner mistake (not everything is rosy yet, there are still growing problems), the secret basement, and the encounter with Bing-Ge.

Only to flip that around and then bring some surprise Moshang into things!

“I have now been informed that, after learning that you had returned and, at the very least, completing the duties that were intended to have him reflect on his actions, he has disappeared yet again,” Shen Qingqiu continues. “This second disappearance has set some of the other junior disciples into a renewed panic, which has concerned some of the senior disciples, which was, apparently, cause to alert me.”

“Ah,” Shang Qinghua says.

AN: Shen Jiu should not be in charge of a bunch of children, but it is funny to imagine him going through the same “be a less shit person” adoption process as Shang Qinghua. Like, oh, it would be so easy for him to be cruel about this situation, but fuck you if he’s going to be outdone in the recovery and redemption process by Shang Qinghua of all people.

Shang Qinghua: *grows into a kind of decent person*

Shen Jiu: “Fuck you. That’s not allowed.”

Shen Jiu: “...”

Shen Jiu: “Well, if THAT FUCKER of all people can do it...”

Shang Qinghua doesn’t have to look long or far to find his nephew. He finds the young protagonist sitting despondently on the doorstep of his own Leisure House, sniffling into his sleeve. Peerless Cucumber of all people is sitting beside him and keeping him company.

“Focusing on other people’s lives is easier than looking at his own.”

“-think a drowning man first has to save himself… or else he’s only going to bring down the people he’s trying to save,” Peerless Cucumber is saying.

Binghe nods.

AN: Going by, like, the everything of SVSSS, Shen Yuan really is the asshole going, “I’ll die before I look inwards to recognize and deal with my own emotions.” Also, going, “Yes, I’m a hypocrite who won’t take my own advice. And what about it?” What a repressed nerd.

Shang Qinghua clears his throat to get their attention. Both kids (well, teenager and young adult, but still... kids) look up and then stand up quickly. Luo Binghe takes a forgetful step forward, before he wobbles into an appropriate respectful bow instead.

“Shang-Shishu!”

“How dearly this boy is loved!” the Weeper’s Eye declares, in its soft way inside Shang Qinghua’s head. “More than life itself! More than death itself!”

“Ah, never mind all that,” Shang Qinghua says, and steps forward to wrap his nephew in a quick hug instead, keeping the creepy talking eye oriented away from his nephew. “You’re a little too late to talk to me about your mission before your shizun did.”

Binghe, who was just relaxing into the unexpected hug, freezes.

Shang Qinghua knowingly pats the poor young protagonist on the back.

“Oh, shit” is right!

AN: Uncle Shang really is adorable. Still kind of knocks me for a loop writing it, though, given that the SVSSS SQH and LBH relationship is... nothing like this whatsoever. Look upon the field of SQH and LBH content and see that it is relatively barren except for the stubborn motherfuckers with excellent taste in character exploration.

“Ahhh, well, I’ll be there too for this potential family reunion, bro,” Shang Qinghua assures him. “Maybe we can finally get to the bottom of where this ‘Shen Yuan’ name came from.”

Peerless Cucumber makes a strange expression.

“What?”

“...It’s my name.”

“What?” Shang Qinghua repeats.

“It’s my name,” Peerless Cucumber says again, quietly. “It’s my real name.”

“Oh.”

“Huh,” Shang Qinghua thinks, having been operating on the assumption that the System made the name up for its mysterious backstory. Well, that gives new dimensions to Peerless Cucumber’s criticism of the scum villain!

“You can use it,” Peerless Cucumber says, with an air of determined nonchalance. “Everyone else is doing it.”

“Ah, alright. Thanks.”

AN: This is probably the part where I would have made Shang Qinghua reveal his original name in turn... IF HE HAD ONE. It drives me... kind of wild that we get the Airplane Extras and we STILL don’t get 1) Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky’s original name, and 2) MOBEI-JUN’s name.

Which actually makes things a little more interesting here, in my opinion, even though not having those names gets a little frustrating in terms of fanfiction writing. With Mobei-Jun, you get to explore the fucked up possibilities of him not having a name outside of his identity as the future Northern King. With Shang Qinghua, you get to explore him being a squirrelly little fuck who refuses to let anyone into his life.

So, because we don’t have Airplane’s name, we actually get this mildly interesting dynamic in which Shang Qinghua doesn’t even really think to reveal it to Shen Yuan. We don’t see this part, but Shen Yuan is actually a little miffed by this degree of secrecy, which is going to come up later. (Shen Yuan doesn’t like the fact that Shang Qinghua has as much power over him as he does.)

I personally do not hold the headcanon that Airplane’s name was “Shang Qinghua”. It’s a little too on the nose for me. At that point, the only reaction to transmigrating into SQH kind of has to be, “Ah, well, I was asking for that!” Maybe Airplane projected his worst qualities onto Shang Qinghua, but I don’t think he went so far as to give the character his own name.

Airplane’s main identity when he died appears to have been Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky, and we know that he wasn’t particularly close to his divorced parents and any step- or half-siblings. So, the only names that are really relevant post-transmigration are “Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky” and “Shang Qinghua”. By the time that SY gets here, he’s firmly entrenched in those identities, and his original name is completely irrelevant. I could honestly believe that Airplane just doesn’t think it matters anymore.

Shang Qinghua’s nephew, in the way of a true young protagonist or fucking cannon fodder, got the bright fucking idea to slip away to speak with the concubine called Butterfly privately.

“I thought: what if she didn’t want to speak in front of that lecherous old man? What if she wanted to get away from him?” Binghe confesses.

“She was the demon,” Shang Qinghua guesses.

Binghe nods, voice breaking. “It was… I was really, really stupid, Uncle.”

“Well, at least you know that,” Shang Qinghua sighs, and pats his sniffly nephew on the back again.

Oh, he can see why Shen Qingqiu was pissed the fuck off now. Shang Qinghua kind of wants to start yelling! Or maybe just screaming, coherently or otherwise!

Except yelling isn’t going to help much right now.

Shang Qinghua listens as Luo Binghe recounts being captured by the demon and then waking up bound by Immortal Binding Cables - of being so terrified that he could barely breathe with it. His only hope was Ning Yingying and Ming Fan tattling on his disappearance and a senior disciple tracking him down on time. The skinner demon apparently nearly killed Binghe, crooning over his young and beautiful skin, except a flash of warm light intervened and dropped an unstable part of the ceiling in on them before they could hurt the captured protagonist.

“Fu-Shijie and Shizun arrived after that and k-killed it,” Binghe says. “Uncle, it was all stupid luck! Shizun said I should have been dead and that, between my efforts and the demon’s, he had no idea how I wasn't! And he was right! It was so close! If the ceiling hadn’t fallen in like that-! Fu-Shijie suggested the ropes might be faulty and it could have been an unconscious use of spiritual energy, but I didn’t do anything! It wasn’t me!”

It sounds like the System to Shang Qinghua, intervening again at a crucial moment to prevent the premature death of the protagonist. Just thinking about how close his nephew came to dying without him knowing is nearly enough to inspire a cold sweat! Shang Qinghua can’t speak about the System, so all he can really do is keep hugging! Keep holding on for dear life and saying soothing nothings to his crying nephew!

AN: I wanted to include the Skinner mission, but I didn’t want to redo it onscreen because that’s been done in many fanfictions before and I felt that there was really no good reason for Shang Qinghua to be a part of it. The reason I wanted to include it is to show how the plot is off the track of the SVSSS (and PIDW) stories, with the changed LBH and the changed Original SQQ.

LBH wants to be a hero, but he’s not there yet.

“...Don’t put yourself above him… or below him. Tell him what you want and listen to what he wants, and don’t be surprised if things don’t change all at once,” Shang Qinghua advises and, at Yue Qingyuan’s look, quickly raises his hands. “Ahhh, not my business, I know! Not my business! I just… I hope it works out! I hope you two get something better out of this mess! Aha, make the sect meetings a little less awkward and… things.”

“He has never known what better looks like. He will always be Yue Qi, the slave boy. No matter what he does.”

“...Thank you,” Yue Qingyuan says finally, thoughtfully. “I appreciate your… restraint in this matter… in recent months.”

Aha, yikes.

AN: I know that some people wanted more stomping on Yue Qingyuan, but... like... this man is as or nearly as traumatized as Shen Qingqiu. His childhood fucking sucked. He broke his own soul trying to save Shen Jiu and failed. He made some shit decisions where Shen Qingqiu was concerned, but the logic and trauma he’s operating on are pretty obvious. He was trying.

Part of the theme around the Qijiu and Moshang arcs has also been “an eye for an eye”. Like, are you guys really going to keep on not communicating with each other and then fucking up and then taking chunks out of each other? How many misunderstandings and upset over misunderstandings are you going to throw at each other? Where do you put your foot down and say, “I don’t want to live like this forever. We can be better than this. I want better than this.”

Like, it can’t just be hurting each other back and forth (this applies to Qijiu more than Moshang, in which MBJ definitely carries the weight of this fuck-up). It can’t just be privately nursing hurt feelings forever. The options here are “fix it” or “live like this forever”. Fixing it won’t happen immediately, but the other option fucking sucks, so every little step helps.

So Shang Qinghua here is just like, “Bro, I’m tired. My anger has cooled a lot. I just want all our lives to suck less. I hope things work out for you.”

#tossawary svsss #tossawary commentary #pride is not the word

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the-witty-pen-name · 3 years

Text

Rest Pt. 1

Mando x F!Morellian! Reader

Word Count: 3k

Summary: 3rd person; When the Mandolorian is searching for parts on Arvala-7, he encounters someone who may be able to help him on his journey.

Warnings: none/mentions of injury and brief mention of character death; 18+ in later chapters

A/N: This was meant to be a one shot but this probably going to be 3 parts. I also ignored canon for this one. I tried my best to research Morellians for this fic to make sure its accurate, but it may not be perfectly accurate to canon. I just wrote this up cause I wanted to write today, but take a break from Deadbeat, even though you can expect Part 7 very soon!

If I miss something that I should include as a warning, please let me know!

This is also unedited!

Tags and Requests are OPEN

He was so tired, all the time. It was such a constant feeling that he had forgotten what it felt like getting a good night’s rest. He’d allow himself to sleep a few hours here and there, but his normal was pushing his body constantly until he was exhausted and then some.

It was caused by many things- the nature of his job, his own paranoia, and even just the sheer uncomfortableness of his small bunk on the Crest. Now, there was the Child. The little green creature taking his free moments of rest more and more. In his mind, it was never a debate- the kid always came first. He didn’t give a second thought to how he was sacrificing his own wellness, and frankly if he did ever think about it, he’d come to the conclusion that he wouldn’t care.

His ability to sleep had gotten worse, with his inability to stop worrying about the Child. He would now force himself to stay awake for several days on end, too worried about if something would happen while he was asleep and his guard was down. The Child would sleep through the night, and Mando would sit up on his bunk, just watching the little creature’s breaths rise and fall, and he would have his eyes glued to the closed door of his bunk prepared for a threat that never came.

When the pair reached Arvala-7, he was in a zombie like state from lack of sleep. His body was on autopilot as his feet dragged across the planet’s surface, the Child securely following behind in his floating pram. The Mandolorian was very hyperaware of the heaviness of his armor, and the way the helmet irritated his skin more than normal. From his outward appearance, no one would know just how close he was to falling over from exhaustion. For the sake of the Child, he kept pushing himself forward, always making false promises of rest if he could just make it to the next location.

“You need rest,” Kuiil declared as he observed the Mandolorian walk towards him.

“I’m fine,” Mando deflected, a little annoyed at how well the Ugnaught could read him, even hidden under his armor.

“I have spoken.” Mando sighed, the exhale of air distorted by the modulator of his helmet. He walks past his friend and walks into his small domicile, with the baby not far behind him.

“I shall watch the Child,” Kuiil states affirmatively before Mando can object. Mando nods, defeated, finally realizing he will rest whether he wants to or not. “I will feed him and wake you when it is time,” he continues.

Mando doesn’t even remember falling asleep. He didn’t dream and he wakes up with a terrible crick in his neck. He doesn’t feel rested, just stressed and his body is still tense. He stirs from his spot and walks back out. He’s panicked because Kuiil and the Child are no where in sight. He only relaxes when he sees the two of them outside, Kuiil tinkering on a project and the Child playing with some parts Kuiil had discarded on the ground.

“You must rest,” Kuiil reiterated. Mando shook his head. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep for but he imagined it was long enough. “It hasn’t been even twenty minutes.”

“I just needed a power nap,” Mando says, not letting his friend talk him into another nap. He was fine. He just needed to work on the ship and he’d rest when they were back on course. “I need to work on the ship, I need to go get some parts,” he states. “Please watch him, I will be back tonight.”

Kuiil doesn’t say anything, just nods, knowing that no matter what he says the Mandolorian was too stubborn for his own good. He borrows Kuiil’s land speeder, and heads to the very small almost abandoned town that’s a decent trek away from Kuiil’s moisture farm. The air is very heavy, and the heat was weighing heavy on his eyelids. He felt like there was a pressure around him that was pushing him to sleep, but he was successful in avoiding it.

He looks over and sees there’s one establishment that looks like its open. He decides to wander in and see if anyone knows where he can buy the parts he needs. As the door to the establishment slides open, he realizes that it is some sort of cantina, with low lights and low music playing from a live band in the corner of the room.

There’s a circular bar in the center of the space, and he approaches the bartender. His mind his hazy, and he almost forgets why he’s there in the first place. Fortunately, his outer appearance makes him look more menacing than he feels in this moment. Customers at the bar speak in hushed tones as he approaches. He doesn’t even notice, the fogginess caused by his lack of sleep is affecting his power of observation.

“Where can I go to get ship parts?” he asks.

“Jawas,” the man chuckles sarcastically, like the question itself was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

“There’s no where else?” He asks, frustrated.

“Not anywhere you can travel to in a day,” the man replies. Mando sighs, realizing he’d have to return to the ship empty handed. He can’t let it go another day. He needed to get off this planet.

“Give me directions.”

“There’s no where besides here that can offer you lodging, you can’t make it there on a speeder without stopping.”

“Directions.”

The man sighs and reluctantly gives the Mandolorian the coordinates he needs. With a gruff thank you, the Mandolorian leaves the bar, and gets back to the speeder. Kuiil would understand. Kuiil probably already knew the journey ahead of him and Mando was too stubborn to take his friend’s advice before leaving.

If he didn’t stop to rest, Mando figured he could get to the location by the next day if he drove fast. It seemed like a good idea to him at the time. It was the most time effective option he had. It was entirely different in practice, driving alone in the dark and his eyes becoming more and more heavy. He also never anticipated the wear it would cause the speeder, and he cursed as the thing was gradually slowing down until it came to a complete stop.

It was too dark to try to work on fixing it, even though he tried anyways. Even with his visor aiding his vision in the darkness, it was fruitless. He’d have to wait it out. He couldn’t allow himself to sleep. What if he was found by Jawas and they’d strip the speeder, or maybe they would steal his armor. It wasn’t something that he was willing to risk. So, he stupidly decided to work on the speeder without being able to see properly and assess his surroundings.

His thoughts were only on the Child and returning to him as quickly as possible. It made his actions irrational and careless. Which is why he scraps his arm on the metal of the speeder as he tinkered. The cut is deep, and it stings. He curses at his own stupidity and desperately tries to just apply pressure to his arm with his other hand. The material was old, dirty and rusted and it caused a deep wound.

He sits down on the ground, trying to make himself a tourniquet by ripping at his underclothes. He’s breathing heavy, and he knows that he is losing blood and he had no way to clean out the wound. He’s stranded and he can only think about the Child. Needing to just stay conscious long enough to think himself a plan out of this situation, and that’s the last thing he remembers.

He thrashes when he awakes, taking in his new unknown surroundings. It was a similar abode to Kuiil’s but it was obviously not the farm he was familiar with. He looks down at his arm, seeing the wound has been bandaged and treated, and his glove, and other pieces of his armor that needed to be removed to treat the injury sat on the floor waiting for him. He felt lighter, and more aware. Hell, he felt awake for the first time in a while. He felt rested. If it weren’t for the worry of waking up in a strange place, he’d feel good.

Before he was able to decide if he wanted to venture out of this bedroom, his thoughts were interrupted when another figure walked in. They were moving quietly, and Mando knew they were moving so that they wouldn’t disturb him. He sat up, letting them know he was awake and then he turned to look at them.

The young woman was standing holding a tray of food. She was nervous, but not scared of him, Mando was able to observe. It had also been a long time since he was in the presence of someone so easy on the eyes, and it made him nervous as well. She was very pretty, and easily one of the best things he’s got to see in a long time. He wasn’t sure what to say, not wanting to scare her off, so he waited for her to speak first.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” she said apologizing. “But I wanted to bring you this.” She leaves the tray on a small table next to the bed.

“T-thanks,” he stuttered, not sure what questions he could think to ask first.

“You were passed out next to your speeder,” she explained. “I found you early this morning. Your speeder is outside. You’ve been asleep here for about twelve hours… I don’t know how long you were outside before that.”

He nods, trying to still wrap his head around the situation.

“I’m sorry for taking off the armor,” she continues, “I didn’t take off your helmet! I know Mandolorians keep those on, I wasn’t sure if it was okay that I took off the pieces I needed to get to your cut.”

“That’s fine,” he said softly, “Thank you. It is really just the helmet that I can’t take off.”

“All of your stuff is there,” she points to where his bag and pieces of armor sit on the floor in a neat pile. He nods.

“Um, that’s pretty much it,” she says awkwardly trying to remember if there was something else that she needed to tell him. “You’re wound is fine, once it was cleaned up it wasn’t as bad as I thought. You really were just exhausted over anything else; I think. I’ll let you eat, I promise I won’t come back in until you tell me, so you can take off your helmet… There’s no one else here but me so you’re safe- you can even lock yourself in if you want. I don’t mind.”

“You’re being really accommodating,” he says suspiciously, not use to the hospitality. It worried him.

“Oh,” she exclaimed, his words reminding her of what she forgot, “I had contacted by Kuiil- told me to look out for you, that a friend of his- a Mandolorian would be coming my way in need of lodging. When you never came, that’s when I went looking for you.”

“You know Kuiil?” he asks, relieved he wasn’t completely with a stranger. He was, obviously, but he was at ease knowing he was with someone Kuiil trusted.

She nodded. “You can stay as long as you need. He said your son can stay with him as long as you need. I’ll let you eat,” she said, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

He was taken aback at how kind she was towards him. She was so trusting and just let him into her home and helped him. Granted, it was because he was vouched for by Kuiil, but still. He also was flushed at how attractive she was. It made him nervous, he was so used to being along that he didn’t know how to handle himself around a woman- especially one that he thought was just so- so nice to look at. He felt foolish, and he was so confused at how easily that girl flustered him. It was just that she was kind, he tries to reason with himself. He’s just not use to the hospitality. He wasn’t flustered cause she was pretty, no absolutely not.

He took a moment and then resolved it was safe to take off his helmet so he could eat. He usually rushed through meals, just so he could get the helmet secured back on his head. But he felt comfortable here, and he allowed himself the luxury of taking his time, enjoying the unfiltered air. He looked around the room, and it was mostly bare, which isn’t surprising. The bed was comfortable, much better than his bunk on the Crest and better than the little spot in Kuiil’s dwelling.

He just felt guilty. He shouldn’t be resting when the Child is waiting for his return, and he still hasn’t retrieved parts for the ship. And here he was getting comfortable like was on some vacation. He quickly finished his food and put on his armor, ignoring the sting putting it on affected the cut under the bandages. He placed his helmet on and then left the bedroom.

“They’ll be here soon,” she announces when he emerges from the room. It stops him dead in his tracks. He didn’t know what you meant.

“Who?”

“Kuiil and your son,” she explains, “I just reached out to Kuiil, letting you know you were awake. He insisted he’d bring the kid to you. He thought you’d leave and strain yourself trying to get back too early. They’ll be here tomorrow.”

He chuckles, and is astonished at how well his friend seems to be able to anticipate his every move. “He’s right,” he sighed, sitting down across from her at the small dining table.

“He’s very wise,” she agrees. There are a few minutes of silence that cause an awkward tension to arise between the two of them.

“I’m (y/n),” she says. “Just realized I never introduced myself,” she says sheepishly.

“You can call me Mando,” he replies. She nods. There’s a mutual understanding between the two that says there’s no need for small talk.

“Is your child also a Mandolorian?” she asks curiously.

“No, he’s not,” he responds. He’s used to people pestering him with questions but he usually gets annoyed. He actually this time was happy that she wanted to know about him, and he was asking about the kid. For some reason, it felt different. There was no judgement or fear, just her genuine curiosity. She doesn’t press him to elaborate, which puts his mind at ease, and he’s relaxed.

“Are you married?” she asks next.

“No- no,” he says hurriedly. He feels foolish for how the question flusters him. It’s a perfectly reasonable question. It was just the natural assumption when she knows he has a kid, but not the context of how he’s a father. He also feels embarrassed at the desire to let her know he’s single. It’s stupid, he chastises himself. He was being ridiculous.

“He’s a foundling,” he explains simply. “He’s not actually mine. I’m not married.”

“Can Mandolorians get married?” she follows up.

“Yes, of course,” he says. She nods, and gets up from her seat.

“I have to check on the vaporators,” she announces. “I suggest you try to get more rest, but if you want to follow, you’re more than welcome to.”

When she moves, he notices the odd, cylindrical weapon fixed on the side of her hip. He trusts her, so it doesn’t worry him, but it is something he wants to ask her about.

“What is that?” he asks, following her out of her house and out into the dry air. She looks to where the gaze of his visor is fixated.

“It’s my light saber,” she says simply, not expanding on her answer much like how he did.

“Are- are you a Jedi?” he asks, his head tilting.

“I’m a moisture farmer,” she chuckles.

“I thought all the Jedi were gone,” he says, his eyes following her.

“They are,” you explained simply, “I’m not a Jedi anymore.”

“Did you fight in the war?” he asks. She looked young, and he was incredibly puzzled. Maybe her species was humanoid, but she aged slowly, like the Child.

“Clone Wars,” she states, confirming his suspicion. She was older than him, but she looked younger. “I’m Morellian. We don’t age the same as humans.”

“How old are you?”

“Forties? I don’t know. I haven’t really done the math in a while,” she shrugs. He chuckles, he felt the same way about his own age. He hadn’t thought about it in a long time, but he was fairly certain that they were roughly the same age, even though his signs of aging showed on his skin more than her.

“How long have you been here?” He asks.

“How long has it been since the end of the Clone Wars?”

“That long?”

“All the Jedi needed to go into hiding,” she states.

“Are you the only one?”

“I don’t know. The only man I knew I heard died, killed by Vadar,” she says solemnly. “Supposedly, he took on a new apprentice, but I don’t know where I could find him if I wanted to.”

“Can you use the Force?” he asks, thinking now about his own task that lays before him with the Child.

“Yes,” she replies simply, holding back a smile and a sarcastic comment.

“The Child- my son,” he says, a little overwhelmed how easily he stumbled upon you. “I’m supposed to bring him to a Jedi- bring him back to his people.”

“You need to bring him to a Jedi?” she asks skeptically. He nods.

“He has- these, um, powers,” he tries to explain, “Moving things that are physically impossible, healing- it’s nothing I have ever seen.”

“I’ll help you.”

“You said you aren’t a Jedi.”

“But I’m probably the closest you’ll find.”

Part Two

#mando x reader #the mandolorian #mandolorian imagine #mando x you #mando x y/n #mandolorian one shot #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin x y/n #pedro pascal imagine #pedro pascal characters #x reader #star wars imagine #star wars one shot

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choccos-aaart · 3 years

Text

Close enough to 10 mintues of “Ms Axel is a Goon”

Screw it. I'm posting it here, too. *NOTE: This is 100% fictitious and not going to happen*

Final Assignment Script Writing, Winter School 2021 ONE-PAGE PITCH

TITLE: Ms Axel is a Goon

GENRE: Action, comedy, sci-fi, family

LOGLINE: In the humid city of Dasmus, Mei Axel is a former goon who's just escaped captivity. Since her escape, she's been trying to better her life with her new found passion for music, but she quickly learns that the entire country wants to trade her name and face for a price.

FORMAT: Full-length animated film

MAJOR AND RECURRING CHARACTERS: Mei Axel – A wanted fugitive. Mid 20s. Despite her physical competence, she's mostly a foolish, plucky girl who steals a guitar one day.

Alicia Vonarb – CEO of a liquor company. Late 30s. The last boss to hire Axel to do her sneaky business work. Confident and vain, but does everything in spite of her mother. Wants to capture Axel because she doesn't want to get ratted out.

Kannie Orma – An old gadgeteer friend of Axel’s. Mid 50s. Also a “lame uncle” sort of figure to Axel. Their friendship must remain secret because his work is also involved with Vonarb.

O. Miho - Axel’s former coworker from when she was working for Vonarb. Early 30s. His current assignment is to capture Axel. Smug and thinks he's funny.

K. Claymont – Axel’s other former coworker. Late 20s. Works together with Miho. A kind man, but only most of the time.

SYNOPSIS: Mei Axel. She's a goon that's been caught and jailed. Eventually enough, she makes a successful escape and ventures outside. Not much happens afterwards other than stealing a guitar, and once discovering that she's got a passion for music, now she aims to live up that dream. But while attempting to live her new life, her face still reads as an incompetent menace to her former friends and foes, as well as to the majority of the country – they all seem to want to trade in her face for a cash reward. Now, aside from escaping the hands of everyone that wants to hand her over to the government, it is now up to Ms Axel to figure out how she is going to be able to pursue her new life goal that heavily conflicts with her current place among her people. This first follows the story of a wanted fugitive who sets off on a quest for redemption which, unfortunately, never works out. The story ends when Axel eventually escapes the country. She finally acknowledges that she can never truly change the way she's perceived, as well as never fully experience the life that she wants. However, she still performs under a low profile, happily living a drifter's lifestyle.

RATIONALE: This is a story about someone whose wrongdoings and nurture had shaped the way that others view them. Our protagonist is Mei Axel who had been built up to become a significantly infamous member of society, but once discovering a part of herself that showed her potential in a more respected position, being a musician, she starts wanting to better herself. A problem with this scenario is that her past actions prevent her from fully achieving that dream. She can relate to audiences who want to change aspects of their past, particularly their mistakes or the wrong ways they've been brought up, but can't.

MARKET: Children ranging from 11-16, particularly those that are interested in scenes that involve action-packed chases and fighting between individuals. The [film] will present itself through retro-futuristic aesthetics in its city setting. Rock is also a prevalent music genre for the soundtrack, which may interest audiences who particularly like the genre.

The Script

EXT. BUILDINGTOP – NIGHT

Axel checks out the guitar from every angle with a grin, having a feel of its neck, strings and body. She sits it on her lap as if to play it.

AXEL

Oh... I hope those lessons never went to waste...

She wobbly plays a C major scale while slightly wincing through every second. She runs over the same scale again, but this time it flows a bit more smoothly. She smiles a little.

MONTAGE OF AXEL PRACTISING GUITAR

- Axel goes over the same scale a couple of times and with every run, her playing gets smoother.

- She then moves on to a different key and practises that scale

- She then moves on to another key and practises that scale

- She plays some chords now, beginning with the I IV V I progression

MONTAGE END

Axel continues strumming. A light turns on from a nearby building.

DWELLER

Who is playing that garbage?!

Axel stops strumming. Silence.

AXEL

(Breathes in)

I'll get the hang of it.

She slings the guitar over her back and runs into the shadows. Eventually, she disappears into the dark.

EXT. MARKETPLACE – DAY

A view of a cranny on a roof between two walls. Axel sleeps there resting her guitar on her lap. Waking up, she yawns and then lazily sits up.

CUT TO:

A view of the market grounds. Axel smugly and excitedly, yet discreetly scurries out of an alley between a bakery and a liquor store, with a paper doughnut bag in one hand and a small bottle of liquor in the other.

She sits by a cafe playing some instrumental reggae rock music through a speaker. Axel hums along to the melody of the soundtrack while tipsily bouncing her finger to the beat. She then quickly strums a few chords for a brief moment, all which clash with the song's key signature, until right on the chorus, where she strums a chord that matches the root note of the song.

AXEL

Ooh, it's a G song. God, why do they always gotta be G songs? (Giggles)

She strums along with the music, landing every chord. Her smile grows and she gradually plays more confidently. She whistles the melody, then proceeds to hum. A TEENAGE BOY chucks a coin in front of her. Axel looks up and grins. She finger guns at him as he skids away to his friends, laughing. Axel stands up and plays more purposefully. The background starts dimming down.

DAYDREAM

Soon the marketplace around her blends into a stage. An abstractly drawn audience watches her perform and cheer her on. The chorus section of the song finishes.

AXEL

(Laughs)

I'm going to be known! I'll make myself the talk of the town! Everybody's gonna love me!

Axel starts strumming along to the background music again. Suddenly, a MAN with a large, muscular build grabs onto her shoulder.

END DAYDREAM

The stage fades back into the marketplace. Axel is still strumming.

MAN

You got that last part wrong.

AXEL

And who are you?

The man bats Axel with a club.

OVER BLACK.

SFX: Walking footsteps.

EXT. DESOLATE CITY AREA – DAY

In an alleyway, the man carries a bag containing Axel's body, also with Axel's guitar strapped around his back. After some time, Axel can be seen moving inside of the bag.

MAN

Huh? Hey. You keep still down there, would you?

Axel still moves inside of the bag.

MAN (CONT'D)

Look, this is goin'a be a long walk. That means you better cooperate with me, you hear that, Girlie? (Pause) You don't want to make me hurt you, now--

Axel falls out of a hole the bag with a shank in one hand and one of her boots on the other.

MAN

What the?!

The man looks behind himself while Axel stands up in front of him, holding her boot in both hands. She sends a finishing blow at the back of man's head and he falls to the floor. Axel cautiously looks at the man for a brief moment.

The man lies motionlessly on the ground. Axel drops her boot and fixes her shank back inside her pocket, then dusts off her hands before then squatting down next to him.

AXEL

Gosh, they really never hired me for nothing, huh... But I ain't into that stuff anymore. Say, can I have my guitar back?

The man does not respond. Axel lifts one of the man's eyelids and learns that he's out cold. Axel sighs with a slight chuckle. She lifts up the man and, with a struggle, unstraps the guitar from his body, before eventually slinging it over her own. Once fitting her boot back on, she then stands up and slowly walks over to the edge of the alley, whistling a chipper tune – the same melody she was playing earlier - on her way there. At the edge of the alleyway, her eyes look up. Then they widen.

INSERT – ELECTRONIC POSTER

containing Axel's mugshot and in large writing, "WANTED". Below is a list of details including Axel's height, approximate age, gender, race and the time and location of where she was last seen, “18:50, Southwest of Dasmus City”. There is also a cash prize.

INSERT – ELECTRONIC POSTER

containing the same contents as the previous poster, except the location which reads, “Southern markets of Dasmus City at 15:47, drunkenly playing a red Phenver brand guitar”.

A view of Axel between the alley's walls. All around are copies of the same two posters, both in electronic and printed forms. A mildly shocked expression crosses her face.

INT. TOILETS – DAY

A view of a row of toilet stalls. None of the stalls' doors are closed, except for the one in the centre. Axel's guitar leans on a nearby wall. Her feet can be seen in the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Axel kicks the wall.

AXEL

Damn it! I'm such an idiot! What was I thinking?! Me? A musician? That's just one way to draw attention!

VONARB (O.S)

Axel? Is that you?

AXEL (CONT'D)

I can't b-- (Pause) Ms Vonarb?

Axel immediately opens her stall's door and looks in the direction of ALICIA VONARB'S voice. Vonarb walks towards Axel.

VONARB

And to think I'd meet you here of all places?

AXEL

I never expected to see you here, either.

VONARB

Well, isn't this quite the reunion?

AXEL

Eh. Not really.

VONARB

I'm surprised you got clever enough to get yourself out of prison.

Axel exits her stall.

AXEL

So, is that to say you're impressed with me?

VONARB

Nope. How'd you think I found you here so easily?

AXEL

Easily? That was easy?

VONARB

Anyway... Don't think I came trying to find you for no reason, now.

AXEL

Oh yeah! Coincidentally, I'm a bit short on cash. You don't happen to want to hire me again, don't you?

VONARB

(Laughs)

What? After getting yourself thrown in jail?

AXEL

Oh... (Pause) What are you even here for, anyway?

VONARB

Well. First of all... (Clears throat) Whatever you do, please don't take this the wrong way.

AXEL

Huh?

Silence. The two stare at each other. Axel tilts her head in confusion. Eventually, O MIHO and K CLAYMONT enter the room. Miho holds a taser while Claymont holds a bag.

CLAYMONT

Now, I don't mean to spread any panic or alarm--

AXEL

(Gasps)

You gotta be kidding me!

VONARB

I just said to not take it the wrong way--

AXEL

I knew it! You are as easy to see through as a window! It's 'cause of my “WANTED” sign, isn't it, Vonarb?

VONARB

Wrong!

AXEL

Huh?

VONARB

You see, we're here to keep you away from those authorities. And knowing you, you're probably so incompetent that you'd just wind up stuck in prison again! So, since you're with us, you're going nowhere.

AXEL

What? Why?

VONARB

You're pretty infamous now. And I've got my business to worry about, too. So, if it didn't all add up in that brain of yours, let's just say, I don't want to risk you ratting me out.

AXEL

Yeah, I'm not doing that!

Grabbing her guitar, Axel jumps on the sinks and runs along them. Miho runs to tase her. Axel whacks him with her guitar and then heads right out the door. Claymont follows.

CLAYMONT (O.S)

I got it!

EXT. CITY STREETS – DAY

A view of the front of a pub. There is people scattered everywhere. Suddenly, the door swings right open and Axel sprints outside with her guitar now strapped over her back. She continues along the street. Claymont chases right after.

#OC #Chocco's writing #Characters I may never use again #Chocco's scripts #Uni stuff

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pascal-istheway · 3 years

Text

Bounty Flaw - Chapter 2: The Future

Read it here on ao3

Fandom: The Mandalorian, Star Wars

Rating: Not Rated

Characters: Din Djarin x F Reader

MASTERLIST

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So it turns out she was none of them. She didn’t run, bargain, or fight. At least not in the beginning. Whatever happened back there - there’s just something unexplainable that I can’t shake. What the hell is wrong with me? I’ve never once offered not to carbonite a bounty. Now, here I am, offering up a pretty sweet deal with this girl. All because the kid did some magic back there. And that’s another thing - what the fuck was that?

I’d known there was something different about the little guy, that much had been obvious from the start. I just wasn’t sure why he was so special to them but now I know. His… abilities made him special. I will never be sure of the full extent of them, hell, I don’t think he even knows the full extent of them. But whatever he did wiped him out for a while.

I don’t know what I was thinking. There was just something in those terrified eyes that made me turn soft for a moment. I just couldn’t bring myself to be cruel to her. After watching the kid heal her, something inside me just snapped. I have never seen him do that for… anyone. Not a single one of my bounties. Most of the time he didn’t even look at them. What’s so special about her?

------

When you finally are able to open your eyes, they are heavy as lead. You lay there for a few minutes trying to assess your surroundings, taking in the metallic surfaces around you. Maker, it’s so hard to open your eyes. You are completely and utterly exhausted.

You try to move your body and find it is very stiff, your limbs refusing to move. You uncurl your fingers and flex them once or twice before you decide to test your legs. It doesn’t actually register with you that you’re in the Mandalorian’s ship.

When you reach out, feeling the metal walls surrounding you on all sides, you realize “ something doesn’t feel right” ... then, it hits you. In rapid succession, you sit up, the blanket sliding off your shoulders, and immediately whack your head on a metal structure hanging above you giving, what you’re sure will be a nasty concussion or, at the very least, a gnarly looking bruise.

You rub your head, cursing under your breath “ dank farrik-”, your pulse begins to slow as your eyes adjust to your surroundings. All the memories of the past few days hit you instantly. The escape, the infection… The Mandalorian... Your vision comes into focus as you look down and see yourself inside some type of bed carved into the far wall of his ship.

You don’t remember getting into this bed. It isn’t very comfortable. In fact, your back really hurts. You groan, moving your shoulder around and rubbing the side of your neck as you stretch. How long have you been out? It feels like it has at least been over a day because your body is so stiff and locked up. You notice how dark it is in here. Where are the lights? The only thing you can see is a few, very small red and green lights, illuminating along with parts of the ship indicating working machinery in the hull.

Scooting forward, you cautiously step down onto the floor and work your way off the cot. As soon as you place all your weight onto your legs, you almost topple over. Your hand instantly reaches down to your leg, searching for your wound. To your surprise, you feel nothing. The bacta shot has completely closed the gash on your leg, not even leaving a trace of it ever being there. This brings you to the next question, your clothes. They are not the ones you remember wearing when you arrived …

In fact, you don’t recognize these clothes at all. The shirt is about two sizes too big for you and the pants, despite having a drawstring, still hang off your hips with room to spare. You sigh, knowing you need to find this guy so you make your way forward, feeling your way around in the dark by putting your hands out and waving them around in front of you before you step. The steps are slow and cautious in an attempt to find your way to some sort of light source. He might’ve put you in some warm socks at least? The ground was freezing...

You turn your body slightly to the right and feel around, looking for something to grab hold of. Suddenly you feel a sharp pain stub shoot up your foot as you begin hurtling towards the ground. You throw your hands out in hopes of catching yourself, but you are too late. You let out a helpless yelp as your face smashes into the cold, metal surface.

“Dank fucking farrik!” you yelp.

You lay there for a few minutes, rubbing your foot while trying to regain your bearings when a bright light bursts into the hull from above making you squint painfully away. You hear metal clanking against metal as someone descends down the ladder. A pair of boots slam to the floor close to where you are lying, then silence.

“Are you always this clumsy?” A modulated voice cuts the silence.

Your cheeks flush a bright red as you try to shuffle your way up. Yes, you are indeed very clumsy, but he doesn’t have to point that out. In fact, you almost feel insulted that you just need to reply in your pure sassy form.

“Are you always so friendly and charming?” you shoot back in a high-pitched tone. He just stands there like a statue, making no sounds and remaining impossibly still.

He is a little intimidating , you would never admit that, though. The way he just stands there in complete silence, towering over you. It’s unnerving , you think to yourself. You stare back, puffing your chest out in hopes you at least look somewhat menacing to him.

The silence seems to drag out forever, neither of you wanting to be the first to break it. Finally, he clears his throat.

“How is your leg?” he asks, pointing to your now completely healed wound under your baggy pant leg.

“It’s fine… thanks.” You shoot back, lifting the sagging fabric to show him. There’s a slight scar, but you’re impressed at how far the bacta goes to heal wounds.

As you let the pant leg fall down, you suddenly remembered that these clothes were not yours.

“Did you put these clothes on me?” you asked with a fit of annoyed anger rising in your voice.

“Your other clothes were destroyed,” he said simply, “they were ripped up, covered in blood and who knows what else. Did you expect me to just leave you in them? Of course, I put those clothes on you. Who else would have?” he throws his hands up as he asks you, mirroring your agitated state.

Your cheeks begin to flush when you realize he had, in fact, seen you naked. You both stand there in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before he lets out a loud sigh.

“I don’t know what else you would’ve expected me to do in this situation…”

You adjust the shirt at your waist, trying to get comfortable in his presence. “I just wasn’t expecting to wake up in something different. It was a shock, that’s all,” you tone down the sass in an attempt to be grateful. Because you really should be grateful for them. That was the truth of the matter, you were out of credits, and only packed one extra set of clothes because that’s all you could carry, which reminded you, “where did you put my old clothes, speaking of.”

“Compactor… where else would you put them?” He said it so casually it made your head spin.

“I only have one spare!! I could’ve repaired them!” you yell at him, “what the fuck were you - oh Maker, never mind!” you throw your hands up in exasperation.

“I was only trying to help you,” he stood there with his hands crossed over his chest, “ and need I remind you that I am being kind enough as it is not throwing you into carbonite. You. Are. A. Bounty. I have no reason to offer you kindness.” He shoots back at you. You can see him recede a little as soon as the words leave his mouth.

He lets out a long, exasperated sigh.

“Look, you’re going to have to cut me some slack here. The trip will be a lot less painful for both of us if we can stop being so hostile with each other. I need you to work with me. Just make the best out of the situation.” He lowers his voice in a poor attempt to make his last statement seem less aggressive.

You stand there for a few seconds before you try to relax your face. He is right. He didn’t throw you into carbonite. He also was only trying to help. The anger inside you slowly starts to leave your body as you take a few deep breaths.

“Look, I am sorry. I just… this isn’t the most wonderful situation to be in. Maybe you should cut me some slack,” you come back at him, “you’ve forced me onto your ship to take me back to my worst nightmare. Just please… try to understand why I am so pissed.” You reply softly in hopes of diffusing the situation. The last thing you want is to end up in carbonite next to the other bounties he’s collected. There is no chance of you escaping if that were to happen.

“Thank you… really… for all your help” you continued hoping you sounded sincere. He stands there for a few seconds more in silence before speaking.

“Taking you back to…” he pauses, approaching the question with caution, “your nightmare?” he asks. “What do you mean?”

This guy probably doesn’t want to hear your entire backstory. He probably doesn’t even care, so what’s the point? You sigh, frustrated that you even have to explain.

“It doesn’t matter...don’t worry about it” you reply abruptly.

Din lets out yet another sigh. “I’ll be up in the cockpit. I don’t trust you to leave you alone down here. If you’re going to be out of carbonite, you’re going to be within my sight at all times until we get to Nevarro, understand?�� he asks harshly.

“Whatever you say tin foil” you mumble under your breath. You meant to say it so low he couldn’t hear you, but the quick snap of his helmet back in your direction affirmed that he had heard you. “ This is going to be just fucking great ,” you think to yourself sarcastically.

A few hours later, you are still sitting in the co-pilot seat of the cockpit. You and Mando haven’t spoken a single word to each other. As soon as you followed him up here, he had demanded you sit in the seat and not move. You had crossed your arms over your chest, like a child , and plopped down in the seat with an angry look across your face. You weren't giving him the satisfaction of having you obey his every command without protest.

You sat there, sulking for a few seconds before you were distracted by something. Your eyes shot up to the windshield of the Crest to take in the beautiful scenery before you, hyperspace. You had never been in hyperspace before. It was more beautiful than you could have ever imagined. Your mouth had dropped open without you realizing it. The stars dazzling across your face were the most magnificent thing you think you’d ever seen.

“Close your mouth before you catch bugs in there”. Mando had exclaimed.

That was enough to make you realize you never wanted to talk to him again unless you needed to. He was so annoying .

So here you sit, hours later, still sulking with your arms crossed in the co-pilot seat of the Crest. You start searching your mind for ways that you can get out of this very shitty situation. The only way you see yourself even having a slight chance at escape is by running when you land. You knew you wouldn’t get far unless there was some type of distraction. He was good, so the distraction was going to have to be great. Your thoughts are interrupted by the sound of something shuffling behind you.

You turn your chair around, slightly startled, only to see two big black eyes staring up at you. The kid . You had almost forgotten about him. He is just about the cutest creature you have ever seen. You looked him over from the soft pink color on the inside of his ears to the wisps of hair that dotted along with the wrinkles across his forehead. He looked almost old in ways you couldn’t quite explain or put your finger on. You hesitate to ask, thinking better of it.

The kid lets out a quiet babble as you see him raise his little hands up in your direction. Does he… does he want you to pick him up? You start to soften as he brings up his other hand making a grabby motion with his fingertips. You scoot forward to the edge of your seat before you are interrupted by a menacing, modulated voice.

“Don’t even think about touching him,” the Mandalorian says flatly without even turning around to see the child motioning so sweetly to you.

“He’s asking politely,” you respond, ignoring him and grabbing the small creature under the arms and lifting him. The Mandalorian swivels his chair around and grabs the child from your grasp which sends him into an uncontrollable fit. Well, serves him right. He tucks him into his lap, ignoring his cries and takes a small knob from a shifter to his right, and unscrews it, handing it to the small child. This perks him up slightly as he plays with it but eventually, he just throws it on the floor and makes more grabby hands towards you.

“I don’t mind holding him while you drive… or fly… er, whatever it is you do here,” you roll your eyes at him.

He groans and bows his head, looking at the child, before sighing in defeat and turning around to face you. “This is a one-time deal. Don’t go getting any ideas in your head,” he slowly hands him over to you as you tuck him into your lap. He instantly cheers up, clearly appreciating the change of scenery. The Mandalorian gets up and grabs the small silver knob from where it rolled on the floor and hands it to him, patting him once on the head before taking his seat again and falling back into that uncomfortable silence.

The entire ride to Nevarro stays like that. From your spot behind him, you’re able to really watch and examine him. You watch the subtle twitch in his hand against the steering column - this rhythmic tapping he does almost like he’s thinking. The child has fallen asleep in your arms at this point, so you sit there, slowly letting your eyes drop as you watch this metal man tap away on his console. Before long, you feel the jolt of the ship dropping out of hyperspace and dropping into the atmosphere of Nevarro.

“Wake up,” is the only warning you get from him as he starts flipping switches and pushing buttons, preparing for a landing.

“Good morning to you too,” you reply, stretching your arms over your head. Panicked in the realization that the child is no longer in your lap, you look around, searching for the little green guy.

“He’s already where he’s supposed to be. You guys took quite the nap together,” he explained. You sagged back into the seat, sighing in relief.

“So what’s the plan,” you fidget with your hands in your lap. It occurred to you previously in the trip that you’d need to come up with some kind of plan between now and when you landed but you hadn’t expected to sleep through the entire thing. This really wasn’t beneficial for making plans. A slight sheen of sweat brushed against your brow as you quickly flipped through your exit strategies and realized, you really didn’t have one.

You’d never been off Tatooine and you had no clue where to go from here. No credits that could help you out. Shit. This was really not fucking ideal.

Your thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a little screech coming from below your chair. You jump so hard you almost fall out of your chair. You look down to see that the kid has returned from wherever the Mandalorian had stuffed him away. He is standing at the base of your chair raising his hands toward you wanting you to pick him up again. How can you resist such a cute gesture?

“What did I tell you, kid?” The Mandalorian exclaims. He lets out a frustrated sigh. “It’s nap time.” He begins to get up from his seat and reach for the kid. You swoop him up as quickly as you can before he has the chance to take him.

“Oh for fuck’s sake. Leave him alone! Why does it bother you so much that he wants me to hold him?” You shoot back. The Mandalorian freezes in his position, arms stretched out towards him, without offering you another word.

“That’s what I thought, shiny. You have no reason.” You exclaim with triumph in your voice. He doesn’t have to be so damn grumpy. You look down at the kid with adoration. He is just about the cutest creature you have ever seen.

He brings his little hand up slowly, making a sweet little noise as his fingers connect with your left cheek. You almost melt from how cute it is. Damn, he really seems to like you. If the situation were different, you might actually want to keep him for yourself.

Suddenly, a bright light is flashing over your vision. You almost scream out in shock… until you see him . Your brother. It’s the strangest thing you have ever seen, it’s like you are watching him on a holographic screen. You see him running through a forest, fallen trees, and disturbed soil exploding around him. It looks like he has been badly injured. There is blood trickling out of his right ear and multiple cuts and bruises all over his body.

Suddenly, he stops, frantically looking back towards something in the distance. You cannot see what he is looking at, but you can see the pure fear on his face. Before you can process what is happening, you see a blurry hand reach out and shove him in the back. Simultaneously, a blaster fire comes from the same direction and buries itself into his back, causing him to collapse.

“ NO!” a scream escapes from your throat. You reach out trying to catch him, but it’s like you can’t move. His body seems miles away from you, shrinking into the distance. Images burst in your eyes - blaster fire, blood, wood shards flying… then a flash of his lifeless body laying on the ground before nothing but darkness.

A blood-curdling scream bursts from deep within your throat, like a waterfall of tears, burst from your eyes. You have no idea what is happening, but you are witnessing one of your worst nightmares. Nothing you’ve lived through, not even watching your parents dying, had ever been this vivid or intense. A strong hand grips your shoulder and everything comes back to you at once. All you can hear is the ringing in your ears, muddling everything in the room.

“Hey!” A modulated voice shouts, cutting through the screeching in your head. Your vision fades in and out, slowly coming back into focus along with your surroundings. Reaching out at the sides of the cockpit, the cool metal-like ice on your fingertips. The Mandalorian is standing in front of you holding a knocked-out child in his left arm and shaking you violently with the other. You blink a few times trying to bring him into focus. You can feel the wetness on your cheeks as tears continue to fall out of your eyes.

“What the FUCK?” you scream as you grab his arm trying to center yourself. “What the actual fuck was that?” You repeat, trying desperately to make a rational string of thoughts.

“Are you okay? What happened?” The Mandalorian asks, clearly concerned.

You sit there for a moment, swallowing several times before you answer. Are you okay? What the fuck just happened? Clearly, it was something the kid did. He is clearly gifted, you already knew that much from watching him heal your leg. Did he just give you a vision too? Your mind suddenly clicks as the realization hits you. The future.

“My brother!” You scream out, another wave of panic coming over you, “I have to get to him. He’s in trouble!” You bolt upright, almost shoving him over as you start to hyperventilate. You have to get out of here, now.

“Hey, slow down there little bird,” The Mandalorian exclaims as he grabs your shoulder, “just tell me what’s going on! What just happened?” He asks as he whips you back around to face him. Clearly he was just as concerned as you were, although it was unclear if he was more concerned for you or for the child.

“He showed me! I- I think he showed me the future.” You shout. “I don’t know how, but I saw him! I saw my brother and I have to get to him before he gets hurt. I can’t lose him too.” You exclaim. You notice the sobs starting to work their way through your body as you drop to your knees. You sit there for a moment, letting out a horrid-sounding sob from deep in your chest.

“I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. I can’t stand this.” You cry out. You let out a final, pitiful, “I can’t lose him too,” you whisper through your sobs. It was so quiet, he almost didn’t hear you. You pound your fist into the cold, metal floor in frustration, “I can’t fucking lose him! I already lost everyone else I love,” you scream, pleading to the universe, “I can’t watch this happen and not-” you lose yourself in the gut-wrenching sobs. There is absolutely nothing you can do. You’re stuck on this damn ship with this damn Mandalorian who is taking you back to slavery. You are completely helpless.

Feeling your body practically invert itself, you curl into your knees, letting yourself pour your heart out. You let every memory, every feeling you’ve ever had go in that cockpit. You cry for your parents, for the way they were killed. You cry for your friends back home and the pain they will endure for your failed escape attempt. You cry for your brother and his inescapable fate. And you cry for yourself for this disastrous fate you got yourself into.

The Mandalorian shuffles around a bit before you see his massive frame coming into your blurry vision. His fingertips slowly reach under your chin and force your head up to look at him. He has kneeled down to your level, helmet merely inches from your face.

“Hey… I need you to open your eyes and look at me,” he says in a much softer tone.

Doing as he says, your eyelashes flutter open softly. Your vision is very blurry, nose runny, spit falling from your mouth, just a complete mess. Hating how vulnerable you look in front of him, you attempt to reach up and wipe the mess off your face.

“That’s it, just take deep breaths, little bird,” he whispers softly. His thumb starts moving slowly across the bottom of your chin. “Eyes right here,” he instructs.

“Listen to me ,” he says softly, “I don’t know who you are, but my kid and you have some kind of connection going on here that I just can’t seem to explain,” You had to give him credit, the guy was trying his best with you, “I don’t know why they wanted so much for you. I took this job because bounties are shit jobs lately and I’ll be honest, you were good money.”

You stare at him in shock, your mouth dropping open. This was the most he’d spoken to you since he picked you up and quite frankly, this was the most honest anyone had ever been with you in your entire life. A part of you felt like you wanted to slap the shit out of him - if it weren’t for the helmet. But the other part of you thought how refreshing it was for someone to just tell you the damn truth for once. You wipe your face with the back of your hand, praying you didn’t look too much like a disaster.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t know why they wanted me back so badly,” sniffling, you look up at him from where your hands were wrapping around that strand of hair. “I keep thinking it over… wouldn’t it just have been cheaper for Morga to write me off as a loss as he does with the other slaves? Why does he want me back so badly?”

“I can’t answer that for you,” he sighs deeply, clearly weighing out the options. It seemed to be weighing heavily on him, whatever he was considering because the silence was heavy enough to slice through with a knife.

“Alright well here’s the deal. I’m sticking my neck out for you with Karga. If I do this, I gotta be able to trust you…”

“What… uh what do you mean?” you question him, nervous for the answer.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this again,” he whispers softly, almost soft enough you could barely hear him, “ but I don’t think my kid will forgive me if I turn you in.” His nervous laughter echoes between the two of you. “So I was thinking -” he paused, deeply considering his words, “what if I didn’t bring you back?”

There’s a long pause of silence where you both just stare at each other before you speak.

“I’m sorry, what?” you simply stare at him, eyes practically bugging out of your head.

“What if,” he draws his words out, “what if I just didn’t bring you back? I did it with the kid before. Sure it’s a risk but, clearly, there’s something else going on here and he was smart enough to pick up on it and I don’t know…”

“Where would I go?�� you question him. This would surely solve one of your problems, but not the remaining part, “I have no credits, no home to go back to, no job. I have nothing. You threw away my other set of clothes.” You stand and start pacing the tiny confines of the cockpit.

“Well let’s make a deal. You stay with me. I can protect you, offer you a place to stay, and in exchange, you watch the kid while I’m out collecting quarries,” he replied.

Holy shit he was serious. It almost makes you want to maniacally laugh. Shit, maybe you were having a full-blown breakdown... You cover your mouth with one hand but a giggle escapes. “Oh shit, you are serious aren’t you?”

“Well not if you’re going to laugh at me about it…” he replied.

“Ok, so let’s say that I do stay. What would you tell, uh, Karga was it?”

“Uh... I haven’t gotten that far yet,” he puts his hand on the back of his neck and looks up, “however, I feel like we need to have a little more mutual trust going on here between us,” his finger points between the two of you. “Because this isn’t working. This silent treatment isn’t going to work going forward. Not for either of us especially if you’re going to be living here.”

“Wh - what do you want?” you ask.

“Well, when you’re ready, why don’t you tell me a little something about you? And in exchange, I’ll tell you something about me. Sound good?” he sat down in his chair and crossed his ankles together, motioning for you to sit down.

You gingerly take a seat on the edge of the chair, feeling like prey ready to run at the single sight of danger. Your reflexes are so tense and on edge, you’re practically about to burst.

“Alright, well, what do you want to know?” you ask, swallowing a lump in your throat.

“Anything you’d like to tell me,” he leans back, clearly relaxed in his own space.

You swallow the courage that was bubbling into your throat, realize you need to ask him. You have been presented with an incredibly rare opportunity here, one that not many people have been gifted. You were given a prophecy, a vision of the future. Your brother's future more importantly. And in this future, you’d seen him killed. A moment in time, stamped in the future. Something you could prevent from happening altogether. Not many people had this kind of power and only the ones that did have their fates entwined with the force.

You close your eyes, imagining yourself on that ledge with fate, grasping their hand and taking the leap off together into the unknown.

Your eyes pop open, staring directly at him as if willing to see his eyes behind the shiny beskar. “If I am to stay, I have a request,” you say softly, praying he will accept the new terms. He just sat there, waiting for you to finish and when you didn’t, he just simply said, “alright.”

You pause, confidence rapidly fading, but instead, you push on, “I don’t know how else to say this, but I can’t stay here and go out looking for my brother on my own, which we both know I will never find him in time… or -” you pause, hoping he picks up the rest of your intentions.

The Mandalorian stares at you in silence, not saying anything. You sigh loudly, waving your hands in the air, “fuc- will you help me?” you pause, looking at him. “Please?” you add for good measure.

“I can help out around here in return. I ca- I can watch the kid while you do your work. I can...fly? Well, I can’t fly, but you could teach me? I can-” He cuts you off before you can continue rambling.

“Stop.” He exclaims as he holds his hand up. “You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

He seems to consider it, leaning forward and nodding his head while he rests his arms on his knees.

“If we’re going to do this,” he starts, “I’m going to need a little trust from you. We need to learn to trust each other. You have to give me something. I don’t know anything about you, and you don’t know anything about me. If I am to help you, you need to give me a little background. I cannot help you if I am walking in blind.” He stares at you patiently, waiting for a reply.

You look around, literally anywhere but directly at him. The thoughts dancing through your brain go from one moment in time to the next. When someone asks you to talk about yourself, why is it that your brain suddenly can’t think of a single interesting thing? What would be the right thing to say that would make you seem like a trustworthy person?

“Okay…” you start out, clearing your throat, “I was born on Tatooine… been there my whole life I guess. I -” you pause, looking up at him to see if this is what he’s looking for, “I...I am, or I guess I was, a slave to the Hutts,” you pause, sucking in a reassuring breath of air, “I have been all my life. My whole family was. Slaves, I mean...” you admitted. You look up at him again to search for any sign of a reaction. You get absolutely nothing, just the blank stare he always has when you talk to him.

“Being a slave is all I have ever known. In fact, this is the first time I have even left that damned city on Tatooine,” you pause, thinking back to your little hut. The small room off the kitchen with a tiny cot for you to come home to and crash after a long day at the cantina. How many nights you’d spent on the roof, staring up at the stars wishing on every single one that someone would come and take you away… You’d pray every night for a life better than the one you had. You hadn’t imagined anything close to this…

Taking a sharp breath in, you continued with your story, “I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. The market on occasion when Morga needed something important, but that was rare. He had runners for those things. My parents…” you trail off, feeling tears starting to form in the rim of your eyes, “- I’m… I’m all that’s left… other than my brother. At least I hope he’s alive.” Your throat starts constricting as the emotions start to overtake your body. No… I will not show weakness in front of him. You clear your throat in an attempt to get rid of the sensation, swallowing the burning lump in your throat.

“I haven’t heard or seen him since he was just a boy. I don’t really remember what he looks like even. Sometimes I’m afraid I wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him because it’s been so long.” You smile, thinking back at the boy he used to be. Brown curly hair and the most brilliant blue eyes you’d ever laid your own eyes on. The Mandalorian just watches you silently as you talk, taking in what you’re saying. You give him little bits, not really divulging into anything too deep.

“It’s just… it hasn’t been easy. I want something more with my life. I want to find my brother and run away to another planet. I just don’t want to live that lifestyle anymore. I don’t want my brother to have to live that life anymore. He was able to get away but last I heard he was caught and resold to another planet. I don’t know where but I wanted to try to find him. They aren’t good to me, never have been. Morga wasn’t good to any of us.” You didn’t even realize you were crying until you reached up and felt the wetness dripping off your cheeks. Apologizing silently for the rambling, you wonder if this was even what he was asking for because he never responds. He isn’t even reacting - just staring. Just listening.

“You can call me Mando,” is his only reply.

------

“Ahh, Mando! This is a pleasant call! What do I owe the pleasure of seeing your face over a holographic instead of in person?” Karga said over the blue hologram.

“I’m delivering news that your last bounty is undeliverable,” Mando says plainly into the receiver. You stay back out of the receivers shot, anxiously waiting.

“I can’t say I’m not surprised, considering your track record, but I’m also a bit shocked. Had to wet your whistle, did you?” Karga laughed and the sound was enough to make your blood boil. What you wouldn’t give to meet this guy in person to sucker punch him in the fat fucking mouth.

As if Mando knew what you were thinking, he reached out to block you from stepping into the shot, “That’s enough Karga, just know she’s undeliverable and that’s the end of it,” he gave you a gentle shove back. “If you have something you’d like to say further, I have no issues with meeting you at the gate.”

“As tempting as it would be considering you still owe us from the last undelivered bounty , ” Karga’s voice is dripping with disdain, “I can’t waste the men at this very moment.” He smiled sweetly into the hologram. You laugh, knowing that means Mando would completely whoop his ass. Mentally, you pump a fist in the air at him.

“You may not understand why I have to do this Karga, but just know it has to be done. If you were me, you’d do the same thing,” Mando’s voice strained. Whatever happened between them with the child clearly still bothered him.

“That’s the difference boy , I don’t betray the guild or my creed . I thought Mandalore understood that above all else. Guess you were just defective or-” Mando cut the transmission, abruptly standing and chucked the receiver across the small room. He was frustrated with himself more than anything but what came across was just pure rage. Something you were familiar with being on the receiving end of.

He stands there, arms taught on the center console of the cockpit, his shoulders rising and falling with each breath. The anger physically radiated out through the Beskar. Afraid to make a sound, you stood there watching him, waiting for any sign that you hadn’t done anything wrong - that he wasn’t going to suddenly change his mind and send you off to be resold.

“Mando I’m so-”

“Get out,” he cut you off, hand raised towards you, his words dripping with a distaste for you. Or at least that’s what you interpreted it as. In reality, he was angry at Karga for everything he said about you.

It wasn’t a good look for him, he realized that you were sure of it. But the outburst had sent you away in tears nonetheless. Between the two of you, the emotions were all over the place in this ship. You guess that’s just part of the adjustment period. You’d climbed down the ladder only to find a cot all made up in the middle of the ship. He must’ve come down when you were napping.

Which of course only made you cry harder because this only meant he’d been already thinking about this before he decided to call Karga and tell him to basically go fuck himself. You laid down on the cot, curling up and clutching one of the pillows, letting yourself cry again until you couldn’t cry anymore. After today, you were all cried out. Maker, this was going to be complicated.

#din djarin #din djarin x reader #the mandalorian #the mandalorian fanfiction #this is going to get rough #this is the way #slow burn #mando x reader #reader insert #pascal-istheway #pedro pascal

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padme-amitabha · 4 years

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Is Anakin a Mary Sue?

youtube

Now it may shock you to learn this but it turns out that Disney Star Wars is kind of a contentious topic. The fandom's been more or less divided between those who like the sequel trilogy and those who like good movies but both groups spend a great deal of time slinging [ __ ] at each other over every form of social media known to man and truly no battleground is more fiercely contested than the protagonist of each trilogy. People who hate the Disney trilogy tend to criticize Rey for being an overpowered, flawless, perfect, invincible and unrelatable character for whom everything just kind of happens with no real struggle or difficulty a Mary Sue if you will.

Meanwhile supporters of the sequel trilogy are quick to leap to her defense usually with one of two potential counter arguments: 1. You just hate strong women 2. So what if she's op as [ __ ] Anakin Skywalker from the prequels was a Mary Sue too and you don't criticize him. You just hate strong women. This argument was brought into sharp focus for me the other day when I was perusing twitter in search of calm, logical, rational discussion about the merits of the sequel trilogy and I chanced upon this little gem of a comment. Ah yes that famously perfect protagonist who wins everything, always makes the right decisions, has a selfless and compassionate personality, and is universally loved and respected by everyone. Well random twitter [ __ ] as it turns out, I am ready to have that conversation right now. So saddle up y'all because the drinker's here to round up this [ __ ] and put an end to this argument once and for all. Let us journey deep into the world of the Star Wars prequels and see if we can figure out whether Anakin Skywalker really is a Mary Sue.

Now in order to do this, we have to nail down what exactly a Mary Sue is. Well according to the dictionary definition it's a term used to describe a fictional character, usually female, who is seen as too perfect and almost boring for lack of flaws originally written as an idealized version of an author in fanfiction. Now the finer points of what makes a Mary Sue can vary depending on who you talk to but after consulting multiple sources and drawing upon my own experiences as a writer, there's a few common traits that I think most people would generally agree on:

1. Mary Sues usually possess skills and abilities that are not consistent with their situation and personal history. They can do stuff they shouldn't realistically be able to and they can do it better than anyone else.

2. They usually possess flawless idealized personalities that no real person could measure up to they never give in to negative emotions like anger, greed, jealousy, selfishness or arrogance.

3. They're universally loved respected and embraced by every good character they encounter even when there's no logical reason for this to happen.

4. They never get seriously challenged, fail at anything or get beaten by anyone, success and victory come easily to them.

5. They always make good decisions and strive to do what's right in any situation so why is this actually a problem.

Well I think the answer should be obvious, Mary Sues are boring as [ __ ]. If a character has got no flaws or weaknesses and never really gets challenged or tested by anything then what is there to get invested in?

It's the flaws and failings of a character that make them interesting in the first place and their struggle to rise above and overcome these flaws that make them so compelling. If these things are missing from a character, then there's nothing for the audience to latch onto or care about. There's nothing to like or root for. That's the essence of a Mary Sue and that's what we're going to be looking at here. So, with that in mind let's see how Anakin stacks up against this list shall we?

Point number one: Being overpowered and having abilities that he shouldn't. Now this more than anything else is what people tend to latch onto when they criticize Anakin and who can blame them really? On the surface it seems pretty ridiculous to see a nine-year-old boy doing stuff like this autopilot but let's put it into a wider context, shall we? When we first meet Anakin in The Phantom Menace, he's a slave living with his mother on Tatooine. He's spent most of his life salvaging junk and using it to make new stuff that can marginally improve their quality of life. As a result, he's become pretty good with technology. Well that makes sense, I guess. He's even applied these technical skills to pod racing where he's been fairly successful despite suffering at least one major crash that we know about. Again, this kind of makes sense when you consider he's strong with the force which would likely give him heightened perception reactions and understanding of the world around him, you know qualities that are important to high performance racing drivers. Anyway, his racing abilities allow the main characters to win an engine part that they need to repair their ship as well as enough money to buy his freedom. Sensing his importance Qui-Gon Jinn takes him under his wing and begins to teach him about the force. Remember when older mentor characters were allowed to teach the protagonist things? I miss that. He also takes part in a space battle that destroys an enemy mothership at the climax of the movie. Now as goofy as this scene is in its execution, it's not actually inconsistent with Anakin’s abilities and experiences. If you've worked around technology vehicles and ships your entire life and you can pilot a racing pod to a high standard then it stands to reason that you could probably operate other types of spacecraft as well, particularly if you have a droid on board to manage most of the ship's systems for you. However, for the sake of argument let's concede the Anakin in The Phantom Menace is indeed more skilled competent and capable than your average person.

So, what kind of effect would this have on a young man from an impoverished background suddenly thrust into a much larger world of power, politics and opportunity? Well that brings me neatly along to point number two: Mary Sues are supposed to have flawless personalities never giving in to anger, jealousy, resentment, vengeance or ambition. All throughout the second and third movies in the prequel trilogy, Anakin displays an increasingly severe set of personality flaws that begin to undermine his position in the world and his relationship with other characters. He's impetuous and hot-headed, frequently rushing into dangerous situations without waiting for backup or considering the risk to himself particularly when someone he cares about is in danger. Keep that one in mind because it'll be important later. He's ambitious but also impatient, feeling like he's been unfairly held back by other characters, particularly Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this resentment causes a growing rift between the two men that eventually spills out into open conflicts. Rather than taking the longer and harder path to wisdom and understanding, Anakin wants everything right away. He also cares deeply about people close to him and this attachment often manifests in explosive bites of anger and jealousy when he feels that they're being threatened like when his mother gets kidnapped and killed by Tusken Raiders, causing Anakin to go on a violent rampage that escalates into wholesale slaughter. Afterwards even he's shocked by what he did or when he believes that Padme has turned against him by Obi-Wan Kenobi, causing him to lash out violently against both of them. By this point he's been totally consumed by uncontrolled jealousy anger resentment and betrayal. All of the emotions that lead to the dark side of the force. The point here is clear: if you [ __ ] with someone he cares about then mercy and compassion go right out the window.

All of his skills, abilities and potential which seemed so overpowered and unnecessary in the first movie in fact serve a very important purpose for his character development. They've generated a sense of superiority, arrogance and overconfidence, and a reluctance to listen to criticism or advice no matter how well intentioned they might be. These are dangerous flaws in his personality all by themselves but combined with his overwhelming emotional attachment to people he cares about it creates a potent cocktail of reckless ambition and deep-seated insecurity that makes him uniquely vulnerable to manipulation something which will later prove disastrous because while Mary Sues are universally loved respected and trusted by everyone, Anakin certainly isn't in the first movie. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda are all against training Anakin to become a Jedi despite his obvious potential because they know he's already too old to be inducted. This lack of early discipline in his life would leave a dangerous gap in his personality, making him unpredictable and less able to control his emotions, two factors which are extremely dangerous for Jedi. These misgivings would carry over to the next two movies where Anakin is elevated to the Jedi high council on Palpatine’s orders but the council itself refuses to grant him the rank of master because they feel he hasn't earned it yet. Now a different man would see this as an opportunity to prove himself by working hard and earning their trust eventually winning them over and gaining the recognition he deserves but Anakin takes this as a personal insult from the council which drives a deeper wedge between him and a Jedi order which he believes will never truly respect or accept him. Wow it's almost like Palpatine knew this was going to happen and engineered the whole thing to pull Anakin closer to him portraying himself as the only one who can help Anakin realize his full potential. It's a surprisingly smart piece of characterization that's completely consistent with everything we know about both men. The higher Anakin rises the more it stokes the fire of his ambition and superiority and the more he comes to see anyone who doubts or cautions him as a threat to his success. This arrogance and overconfidence also causes him to test himself against powerful opponents before he's actually ready for them and unlike Mary sues who easily win every battle they have to fight, Anakin’s recklessness causes an escalating series of losses like here where he tries to take on count Dooku all by himself and it ends with Anakin getting his [ __ ] arm sliced off. But his desire for revenge against the man who defeated him ultimately causes a more powerful and better prepared Anakin to execute him in the following movie, again proving his willingness to give into vengeance and anger even against helpless opponents or here in his climactic confrontation with Obi-Wan where his enemy has the advantage but Anakin presses the attack anyway and well I think we know how that turns out. Just as a side note I love how this carries over to Return of the Jedi. See Luke’s taking the high ground here just like Obi-Wan did.

What we have here is a clear pattern of behavior from a man whose ambitions consistently outstrip his abilities. Rather than demonstrating patience and restraint and taking the slower and harder path to lasting wisdom and fulfillment, Anakin’s inherent character flaws cause him to push himself beyond breaking point with increasingly disastrous consequences which brings me neatly along to the final points: whereas Mary Sues consistently make good righteous decisions and always strive to do the correct thing, Anakin on the other hand demonstrates a consistent pattern of mistakes and misjudgments that ultimately cost him everything. As I've already shown you the flaws in his personality are exacerbated by his powers and abilities making him easy prey for a ruthlessly ambitious man that knows exactly how to flatter his ambitions and prey on his weaknesses this eventually causes him to commit terrible crimes like murdering an entire tribe including unarmed civilians murdering children, executing a helpless opponent, helping to kill a jedi master, trying to murder his own wife, trying to kill his mentor and best friend, joining forces with an evil dictator to overthrow the republic, delivering this scene…

What I’m trying to say with all this is that Anakin Skywalker is the very furthest thing from a Mary Sue that you can get. Trying to label him as a Mary Sue for no other reason than because he's good at lots of stuff demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of what a Mary Sue is and also of who Anakin is. The reality is that he's a powerful but deeply flawed man whose unique combination of circumstances and abilities have created a dangerous personality that's vulnerable to manipulation and corruption his greatest strengths ultimately proved to be his most terrible weaknesses with consequences that echo across the entire galaxy. Now I have my own thoughts on the prequel trilogy as a whole and I’d be lying if I said they were great movies but fundamentally I think the story they tell is actually pretty [ __ ] good and I’m just gonna say it: Anakin’s rise to power and fall to the dark side is a damn good piece of character work that Disney would have done well to pay more attention to. Anyway, that's all I’ve got for today. Go away now.

I would argue the prequels are great movies but he makes some very good points. I have seen so many Disney fans claim Anakin is a Mary Sue, when he’s anything but a Mary Sue.

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fluffyblaire · 4 years

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heroes & villains hunger games

I tossed a bunch of pro heroes and villains in to a Hunger Games simulator and I cannot believe how wild (and frighteningly perfect) it turned out. Place your bets, people, you don’t want to miss this!!! ╰(✧∇✧)╯

No explicit manga spoilers but if you’ve read the manga, I think you’ll find this extra entertaining.

Let me walk you through the highlights!

Cornucopia Bloodbath:

Mister Compress takes the first kill!!!

I dunno about you but this picture of Dabi with this caption actually scared me a little bit. At least it’s not Toga ^_^

OOF—

━(◯Δ◯∥)━ン ...

But—but I purposely put Gentle and La Brava together in District 12 because they’re like star-crossed lovers in canon... and Gentle really did THAT smh.

Day 1:

BJ avenged Hawks’ nose so FAST THO

The mental image of this one was too much ^^^

Did these two in succession make you choke the way it made me choke? Betrayals all around and only on the first day!

This is a pretty cool squad, but watch out for Gentle. He’s about to go on a rampage.

Day 2:

Okay, Shiggy is pretty evil here but wait for it...

GENTLE OH MY GOD stay tuned lmao this man ain’t thru yet

There’s something so anticlimactic and depressing about this RIP Toga

PFFFFFTTT—

In all my experience with the Hunger Games simulator, I have never seen a character turn out as violent and wicked as Gentle is turning out. I MEAN—the dude is not only leading in kills, but all his kills are brutal... His district mate La Brava, Ryukyu after she spared him, and now Miss Joke with a goddamn hatchet;;;;;;

Aww that’s cute... until I remembered Shigaraki forced Fatgum to choose between killing Kamui Woods or Present Mic eariler *sigh* poor Fatgum, he is not having a good time 😔

Day 3:

For those of you here for Kai, I just wanna let you know that this is all your man does throughout the entire game

Fatgum is having a TERRIBLE TIME

Aww;; poor guy, it’s been 3 days I hope his nose is getting better

Day 3 was surprisingly quiet huh? :3

Day 4:

And now back to our regularly scheduled bloodshed!

Overhaul stans come collect your man

Shiggy isn’t doing so good

In true soulmate fashion, Eraser Head and Present Mic die literally right after one another.

Also, Gentle has 4 kills now, he got rid of almost 20% of his competition by himself, someone stop this madman!!! OAO

Day 5:

Our honorary participation award goes to Dabi who’s greatest highlight was acquiring throwing knives on the first day

Here is the status of every tribute currently by the way. Things to note:

Gentle and Fatgum somehow have the same number of kills, Fatgum really snapped these last couple of days huh? Midnight is also sneaking up on them with that kill count.

Overhaul, Hawks, Gang Orca, and Shigaraki have somehow managed to stay alive while also not killing anybody. Impressive!

Only Districts 10 and 2 still have both tributes left, will one of them be the winner????

Noooo;;;; why is he getting all the angst events?? That throw-down with Wash for the bread basket was literally the most action Hawks has seen this entire game so far.

You bet this man is really going for it. If this was a movie, Gentle would be the overpowered menace of a final boss at the end (think Cato from the actual hunger games)

Day 6:

Listen, I love Gang Orca but I have no idea where he’s been this entire game.

Wow, Fatgum and Shiggy’s storyline together was wild.

JESUS MIDNIGHT SHES THE DARK HORSE I NEVER SAW COMING

Finally Gentle’s rampage has come to an end just like that. A tragic death for a tragic evil man. I’d say he was the principal villain of this game, but Midnight might be stepping up to take his place.

At this point only Midnight, Hawks, Overhaul, and Mister Compress are alive. Hawks and Overhaul both haven’t killed anyone—

PLEASE the dumbass energy from Overhaul this entire game has been just *chef’s kiss*

!!! Hawks really bided his time until the end, and he’s finally moving! Hawks took out Midnight while she tried to run—hold up... that sounds familiar—

Day 7:

... O_O

HE—

You’re telling me the man who had his nose broken by a washing machine on the first day and then who basically hid the entire game crying himself to sleep with nightmares ended up winning...?

WELL HAWKS IS ONE OF MY FAVES SO WHO AM I TO COMPLAIN ¯\_(OuO)_/¯

Listen, I don’t know how smart this simulator is with writing an actual story, but damn we have some good narratives here especially with the top 5:

Winner Hawks: Injured on the first day making him an underdog, kept his hands clean almost the entire time while racking up angst points, emerged at the last minute when almost everyone else was dead and personally took out his last 2 opponents to win

2nd Place Mister Compress: Did one thing at the beginning and never did anything again just like in canon Got the first kill, got no more kills, and actually lasted until the very end. It’s poetic as shit: this game began with his kill and ended with his death.

3rd Place Midnight: A dangerous woman no one saw coming and who quietly climbed the way to victory while being overshadowed by Gentle.

4th Place Overhaul: Did wholesome things the entire time and not harming anyone with no one harming him either, but the one time he tries to harm someone, it backfires and he dies. Can we get an F in the chat for this man?

5th Place Gentle: Captivating tribute right from the start. His ambition and savagery held me the nation transfixed! And he was doing great for a while before his glory eventually fizzled out in a quiet slow death.

Tuturu~ You’ve reached the end, hope you enjoyed this mess and thank you for reading! 😊

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bnha hawks #hawks #takami keigo #bnha overhaul #chisaki kai #gentle criminal #bnha midnight #bnha mr. compress #bnha miruko #usagiyama rumi #shigaraki tomura #bnha fatgum #bnha eraserhead #bnha present mic #aizawa shouta #yamada hizashi #hunger games simulator

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the-odd-job · 3 years

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Ashes of Icarus chapter 7 - Dim Days

Rating: Explicit Warnings: Chose Not to Use Category: Other Fandom: Transformers Characters: Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Optimus, Ironhide, Prowl, Megatron, Starscream, Ratchet Relationships: Megatron/Sunstreaker, Sideswipe & Sunstreaker Additional Tags: Dubcon, Unplanned Pregnancy, Mechpreg, Sticky Words: 2411

Hah, got this done today despite the late-ish hour.

( Previous )

Surprisingly, Prowl did not put them on the worst patrols after they’d filled their punishment. The patrols he sent to the area where they’d ran into the Decepticons were larger for caution, and maybe for that reason he didn’t see it necessary to send either twin along.

They were grateful, mighty grateful, and Sideswipe didn’t forget to holler a thanks to the tactician when they saw him on the other end of a hallway. Prowl looked surprised, but as they were running from Ratchet at that moment… There wasn’t really the time to hang around and enjoy the reaction.

They escaped the Ark before Ratchet caught them, too, and on the roads there was nothing the ambulance could do against two Lamborghinis. But of course, they had to return to the Ark eventually, although not before ignoring several calls from Ratchet, Prowl, and even a couple from Optimus. Everyone just wanted them to face the music.

And they did, sad as that was. Doing inventory under the watchful eye of Ratchet, that was their fate.

They were good at it as always, but it was so mind numbingly boring that Sideswipe nearly keeled over during the process. Sunstreaker only fared a little bit better, yearning back in front of his canvases the whole time.

That feel when you really just wanted to paint, but couldn’t for whatever reason? Fucking worst.

At least inventory was no damage to their finishes. Ratchet on the other hand… There came to be a few dents on the both of them thanks to one of them burning the medic’s short patience with whatever they did. Fooling around, running their mouths, being distractions and general menaces.

They did that every time, but yet they kept getting assigned to this when they were naughty. Either Prowl pulled rank on Ratchet, or Ratchet didn’t hate their company as much as he said he did. Or a combination of both.

It did mean they were too busy for certain other duties, such as patrols. That, and when they did go on them, they were blessedly kept to paved routes.

Was it blessedly? Paved meant not in the ass end of nowhere.

And not in the ass end of nowhere meant Megatron couldn’t make an appearance without it being obvious to half of the world.

Primus, why was he disappointed over that? And why did he think Megatron would really care about their illicit little affair being discovered? Who could tell Megatron to stop, or that he wasn’t allowed to do it? Optimus, at most, and even that would be more of an attempt instead of a surefire success.

But… Megatron had told them to lie, satisfied when they made no mention of him. Did that suggest he wanted to keep the whole thing under wraps too? For whose benefit? Sunstreaker’s? Probably not.

For the sake of being allowed to continue? That seemed more likely. If the Autobots found out… At best they’d try to protect Sunstreaker, and at worst they’d court martial him and who knew how that would end. Both would hinder Megatron’s access to him.

He should want that! He shouldn’t want Megatron’s attention.

But he did, and there was no convincing himself otherwise—or really even the motivation to try to change his mind.

So Megatron didn’t really get chances for another meeting, at least not any he would’ve taken. He had to have his ways of finding out when a window like that opened; he’d done so spectacularly last time. Probably thanks to Soundwave.

He didn’t want the quiet to get to him, but it did.

Then, another day just as any other was interrupted as the alarms sounded once again. The Decepticons were on the move.

Eager for battle, he was, but… Maybe eager for some other things too. He didn’t know what he expected to happen, really, but chances were Megatron would be present as well. And beyond bashing some ‘Con helms in, that was what he cared about.

Yeah, the Autobots would have his goddamn spark if they knew.

The ride to the battle site saw him even more antsy than usual before fights, but if the others in Skyfire’s hold took notice of it, they didn’t say anything. Well, besides Sideswipe, who kept laughing at him nonstop—internally. Externally his twin was smiling, but it was the vague smile that was his resting face—directed at nothing in particular, expressing nothing in particular.

Just a smile.

Finally Skyfire touched down near the location the Decepticons were ransacking this time. Sunstreaker was the first out, followed right after by Sideswipe and Ironhide, who was berating them for their overeagerness.

Sunstreaker let it in through one audial, and out the other. He had more… Pressing concerns on his mind.

Namely, locating Megatron. And if he was even more foolhardy than usual, running straight into enemy fire, well… Then he was even more foolhardy than usual. Sideswipe had his back anyway. They’d be fine.

Prowl disagreed with that assessment something fierce. His orders fell on deaf audials until Sunstreaker could just imagine the tactician’s scream of frustration that he had far too much control to actually release.

But it happened sometimes, that the twins got so caught up in their bloodlust that there was no stopping them. No one needed to know some other kind of lust might be in play too, this time.

There was a battle happening too though, that was a thing. That involved a lot of mecha very intent on grievously injuring them, so Sunstreaker couldn’t let himself become so distracted that he’d let something embarrassing happen. He was better than that, anyway.

Sideswipe remained as a steady reality check though. Sunstreaker could let his own thoughts wander a bit more as long as he remained within Sideswipe’s sight and could trust his brother to direct him. He doubted it looked any different from the usual suicidal charges they performed when the mood struck them. The Decepticons were suffering, losing blood and body parts to their vicious rampage.

They might’ve as well closed their comms entirely for how much they were paying attention to those. It was just them and the enemy, just as it had been back on Cybertron during the far, far larger battles—when they’d still fought with the kind of abandon the Autobots had desperately tried to root out of them.

Considering they didn’t fight like that, this, all the time anymore… They’d been somewhat successful.

But this felt right. It felt like true survival, the kind that did anything for the sake of winning. Nothing got in its way, nothing held it back—let loose, do what you wanted in all of its bloody glory.

...But not all the way.

Should he?

Why not?

Why would he?

Did he want to?

Then, Megatron. Sunstreaker didn’t turn his optics away from the Seeker whose name he’d never learn, impaled on his sword, but he could see him at the edge of his field of view.

However, he couldn’t feel Megatron’s heavy gaze on him, and once he’d pushed the stuttering, bleeding, in pain flier off his weapon, he did glance that way to see Megatron was… Distracted. Speaking with Starscream, both of them gesturing angrily.

Sunstreaker scowled. The offense rose before he had the chance to rationalize it away, and then he didn’t want to get rid of it anymore. It was a righteous feeling, wasn’t it? Since when had anyone dared put Sunstreaker in second place, especially after one screechy Seeker?

That happened to be the SIC of the enemy army and probably had quite a bit to do with everything the Decepticons did, but pssh. Who cared about little details like that when the other option was Sunstreaker?

Sideswipe was rolling on the floor laughing in their spark, and grinning like a lunatic even on the outside—though it was very easy to think that was because he was tearing the wings off… Eh, whatever their name was. It would be just like Sideswipe to laugh his way through delivering the kind of damage that would have good little Autobots cringing.

They weren’t good little Autobots.

That in mind, what should he do? Go up there against every order ever given to him and demand Megatron’s attention?

Very tempting. Megatron owed him that much after what had transpired.

He’d almost made his mind on that when there was another thing in motion through the battlefield. Optimus, who else, was running straight for Megatron, likely very intent on putting an end to whatever was Megatron’s scheme this time—and to his conversation with Starscream on the same go.

And getting in the way of what Sunstreaker wanted to do.

His scowl morphed into a straight up snarl that twisted his features into a familiar set of anger. Slag Optimus! Slag him and his fragging obsession with Megatron. Couldn’t he for once focus on the troops and leave Megatron alone? There were other mecha who wanted a piece of him too, for frag’s sake.

::SUNSTREAKER! SIDESWIPE!:: Sideswipe glanced at him when Sunstreaker finally deigned to listen to Prowl’s demands for their attention. He could still have a go at Megatron, but what could he accomplish with Optimus present? He could continue slagging the ‘Cons around him according to his own whims too–

But he really had no reason not to at least hear out what Prowl had to say.

::Yeah?:: Sideswipe asked with a voice oh so innocent, as if Prowl hadn’t been yelling at them for the better part of a breem. Maybe. Or maybe longer. Sunstreaker really had no idea.

::What the Pit is it with you two–:: Ironhide chimed in, sounding absolutely furious, but Prowl cut him off.

::Get Starscream!:: Short and sweet with very loose ends. Which was really only Sunstreaker was willing to even entertain in his current mood, and Prowl likely knew as much even if he undoubtedly would’ve loved to have a bit more say in how they dealt with the Air Commander.

Sideswipe shrugged at him before they disengaged from the main fight and ran after Optimus. Megatron had abandoned his argument with Starscream in favor of sneering at the Prime, and Starscream…

Had noticed their approach and narrowed his optics at them.

Then he took to the air.

If he wanted to play it like that…

Sideswipe mounted his jetpack between two steps.

----------------------------------------------------------

“–Your rampant disobedience–” Yada yada yada. Prowl was mad, Ironhide was mad, Optimus was giving them that I’m very disappointed in you look, and everyone else riding in Skyfire just looked awkward while watching the tactician and weapons specialist take turns yelling at the twins.

Sunstreaker had heard maybe three percent of it, only occasionally tuning in to see if it was about to come to its end.

Hadn’t so far and they were almost back at the Ark already. Sunstreaker scowled and stared straight ahead, ignoring the two mechs standing in front of him. Did they know he wasn’t paying any attention? Who cared.

Sideswipe was doing no better, glancing between Prowl and Ironhide according to whoever was talking at the time, but his twin had no more of a clue about what was said than Sunstreaker did. Sideswipe was too damn busy cackling at him, thoroughly amused by Sunstreaker’s utter lack of amusement.

Megatron had barely looked his way! First there’d been Starscream, and then fragging Optimus. The two leaders had devolved into one of their one on one matches after the brothers had drawn Starscream from the immediate area. Otherwise it would’ve probably been a two on one fight, if Starscream bothered to fight and didn’t just step back in the hopes that Optimus would manage to kill Megatron.

Who was next in line to take command if that happened? That’s right, Starscream.

Would Optimus even kill Megatron, though? Sunstreaker wasn’t entirely sure with how fragging soft sparked their leader was. He still seemed to hold onto the idea of a peaceful solution to everything, nevermind that practically everyone else could see there would be no peaceful solution.

Someone, several someones most likely, would need to die for the war to come to its end. The key players from one side or the other would need to be neutralized to disband the opposing side and usher in peace.

Yeah, because Sunstreaker would know about things like that. He was so known for his concern with ending the war.

But what the pit would he do if there was no war? And no Pits, either? He was a fighter, born and bred. He wasn’t made for peace. The slag was he supposed to do if their species finally managed to sort themselves out?

Eh. Maybe he should first concern himself with the fact he was way fragging unhappy with not having gotten Megatron’s attention, even briefly. Not even some kind of an acknowledgment of what had happened.

Here he was, a fragging Autobot, slagging pining after the enemy.

“–Are we clear?”

Oh, was it ending now? “For sure, Prowl!” Sideswipe chirped.

Prowl narrowed his optics at them. Well, narrowed them even further. “What did I just say?”

Ah, quizzes. That’s what they needed. “No fucking idea!” Sideswipe announced proudly, earning several muted snickers and guffaws from around them. Ironhide glared at the lot of them and the already quiet noise died down, although there were several poorly hidden smiles around them.

Sunstreaker could hear Prowl’s denta grind together. “Brig. Two months. And you will not step a pede on the battlefield before you remember how to follow orders.”

Wait, what?

“You can’t keep us out of the fragging fight for that long!” Sunstreaker growled, standing up to tower over the Praxian. And Ironhide too, for that matter. The weapons specialist was bulkier than they were, but not taller.

Unfortunately neither mech was the type to be the least bit intimidated by him.

“I can and I will,” Prowl said with a frigid voice. “You will march yourselves to the brig the moment Skyfire lands. Ironhide will train you after you’ve done your time.”

Two months in the brig, and no battles for however long after that, until their commanders were satisfied with their ability to take orders?

Frag that!

Sideswipe intercepted his fist before it had a chance to connect with Prowl’s face. The tactician borderline glared at him, but didn’t so much as flinch. “Three months.”

Oh he was going to fucking give him reason to make that six.

( Next )

#transformers #maccadams #sunstreaker #sideswipe #megatron #ratchet #optimus prime #prowl #ironhide #starscream #fic #2020 #ashes of icarus #ashes

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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The Live Action Fullmetal Alchemist Movie Part 6: Let’s Kill Hughes

Hey guys, I’ve been having some issues with the blog not...updating my drafts. So in case you’re wondering, that’s where I disappeared to. Give a round of applause to the support team for finding a solution until it gets fixed but as of right now I’m on like a private window with my extensions turned off and writing this from both tumblr and a LibreOffice document. Hello ads, nice to see you back.

Last we left off, we were a hop and skip away to lab 5. In the anime, this was a sequence where there was a bunch of fighting with suits of armor, and they kept that in this movie, but...not the people you think would be fighting are going to be fighting.

Listen I’m not like super knowledgeable about the world of Matte painting, but I like that they’ve unintentionally made this world building where whoever is in charge of making these red bricks basically owns everyone’s nuts. Everything is made out of the same red bricks. Like I know this is a show about homunculi ruling the world but I feel like the red brick guy is hellllllla more egregious. Freakin Monsanto over here.

I assume they had a 3d model and was like “we can just keep using it” and damn, they sure did. And inside of this brick building is, unsurprisingly a lot more red brick (although I think this is partially, if not entirely, an actual real life set.)

This next part is...such a lesson in pacing. Not necessarily a lesson to follow, but definitely a lesson to learn from maybe their non-example.

(watch Hughes die under the cut)

And what’s interesting is that there were a lot of good lines in this upcoming segment. There were a lot of good moments—bu there’s just so many. Maybe too many. You gotta prune your script occasionally, it’s like a tomato plant.

Like I’ve been doing a stress garden to cope with quarantine and Covid and 3+ months of life endangering wildfires, and I learned that you gotta prune the sucker vines off your tomatoes, although sucker vines can also make tomatoes. It sucks to do because I love tomatoes, and I want as many tomatoes as possible, but when you prune the plant, you get bigger better tomatoes that are more worthwhile than the suckers that can infect your plant and make it really sick.

Sorry that made me sound like 5000 years old with that gardening analogy. If you need me to solve your small town murder mysteries, I’m ready.

So it’s like...kind of tragic that it came together as kind of nonsensical when you can tell that it’s so close to being something better.

Like we have some reason up to this point to believe that Ed would have a freak out here...but like...a sobbing on the floor screaming at the walls type of freak out? Was there enough time devoted to this blow up, or did he walk into this room and immediately start screaming? Because he sure did walk immediately into this room and start screeching like a broken bird.

Like last recap, which was about 2 minutes ago in screentime, was this fun and quirky montage with Hughes. Now we’re sobbing into this rusty factory.

And I know what’s going on because I’ve seen the anime, but if you haven’t seen it—would this emotional break down make any sense? We were told by Dr Marcoh, “check out lab 5,” but we were only going to this factory on kind of a wish and a prayer. I really wonder if people who don’t know this show could follow past this point.

And then while we’re still adjusting to “yo, Ed just took it from a 2 to a 10 like immediately” Al is like “Hey I noticed no one is paying attention to me, and I have to lay a wicked fart:”

and then both brother’s just have a freak out. Gotta all be freaking out in this random ass Unity asset that was probably also used for some college grad’s first battle royale.

Pacing is just everything. And what’s SO HARD about Full Metal Alchemist is that there really is a lot of content to cover, there’s a lot of emotions to go through, and when you only have about 7 minutes to cover what was about 3-4 episodes, if I remember correctly, it’s kind of a zany mess.

And if you were going into this movie hoping they wouldn’t illustrate Al as a large idiot baby, then you share the sentiments of most people who saw this movie. Al is like...kind of reduced to a whiny big baby and is...not cute. Like Al is low key kind of menacing throughout this movie, not just because he has this CGI armor thing going on, but also because Al is...so impressionable and unhinged.

Something that I didn’t appreciate enough when I watched the anime was just how important Barry the Chopper was for Al’s logical character development.

Yo...These bangs…

...I’ve realized that every show I recap here just has the worst hair styles. I honestly never thought much about hair at all until I watched like 200 hours of Yugioh and all of this movie and also 6 seasons of Once Upon a Time which featured some LOOKS (but only recapped like 3 episodes, sorry if I got some of y’all excited. That was when we had no reason to cap everything because the capping community for Once was very alive and very exciting.)

By hitting him with a wrench (Al does not feel pain, ps, so he doesn’t need to be hunched over like this) Winry reminds Al that Ed would not risk his life for a fake brother (which may be a line from the anime or the manga but I don’t remember) and crying just...a lot.

Like it felt as if she had to shoot all of this out of order. Same with Ed’s freak out here. Movie’s aren’t really shot in succession and it’s up to the director to make it feel coherent and logical...this felt scattered, like the actors really didn’t know what was happening in the scenes leading up to it so they just cranked it to 11.

And then I guess Ed was either so insulted that Al punched him or was so upset that Al made Winry cry (again, this movie really tries to sell the EdxWinry ship and from me that’s a really big compliment), that Ed just started laying punches to extend a fight scene that was kind over before it started.

But symbolically there is a lot nice things going on here, Ed only uses his fleshy hand so he bleeds all over Al, hurting himself as much he’s hurting his brother. Implying more than just this fight, but suggesting that their whole journey of trying to find this sorcerer’s stone is just going to hurt both of them in their quest to save the other.

And then Al says something along the line of “it hurts!” to infer that he’s got this broken heart which is when they both finally just freakin stop.

Such a shame the pacing, which was a mix of too quick, and too many tomatoes, kind of made it hella blindsiding.

Again this was so many episodes of FMA and they stuffed it into so few minutes, it’s wild.

Especially since Ed is like...he’s cast as an adult! He’s an adult! At no point in the movie so far have they called him a kid, and they’re not pretending that he is one. But like...he acts like such a child because in the original, he was one. And, while this movie steps so far away from the source material, if should have committed and either stepped completely away or committed completely. Of course “should” is one of those things where we’ll just never know. A wish into the ether of hindsight being 20/20.

But lets get to the thing that you all came here for. This is where this movie gets BONKERS:

So Hughes actually draws out a pentagram between the different places in Armestrias, including Ishvaal, leading us to think that he’s figured out the whole dealio of turning the country into an alchemy circle. But, for some reason only helps him find the real lab 5.

It didn’t...that’s a different thing.

And it has been a long time since I’ve seen the ending of this movie—and maybe it was so offhand that I forgot if they actually do bring up turning the country into an alchemy circle--watch me eat my words, it could happen—but yo, we are finally killing Hughes—but we’re over halfway through this movie. And you may wonder...so uh...what...then what could possibly happen? There’s too much anime left!

Now I’m glad they kept this scene really close to the anime, although I haven’t watched the anime in a hot minute. It’s kind of an iconic scene so you don’t forget.

Like I do genuinely enjoy the campy parts where they were bringing up some of my favorite nostalgia of the original.

and then when you are like “ah, this is exactly the same as the anime. I can relax and watch as all my expectations are fully realized.” This twist happens.

YAH.

It’s a change!

So in the anime we had a really fun arc where we were trying to save Lieutenant Ross for being framed for killing Hughes. It’s probably my favorite part of Full Metal Alchemist, actually, it was so clever and a really thrilling chase. It was also like...half of season one.

Anyway, they cut it. They reduced half a season into 7 minutes. I know that, because each of these recaps is about 15 minutes of the movie.

You may look at this recap and be like “wait...this all happened in 15 minutes??” because yeah, this all happened in 15 minutes.

The same squad of people we see in every single scene of soldiers comes up to arrest Ed, which is weird, because I thought this band of soldiers was the military under Cl. Mustang’s command so like…shouldn’t they be arresting themselves? Mustang was over the command of more than 2 people. If we are suspicious of Mustang’s buddies then everyone in this movie would be in trouble.

And that’s when I realized that these guys were just unnamed soldiers and not a part of Mustang’s band. They only had like this many extras and just hoped we wouldn’t keep track of who is who, but I KNOW I’ve seen these guys this whole time. There are only like 6 people in this army. I see you movie magic—I see what you’re trying to do.

Anyway, Ed gets thrown into an old timey opera house that occasionally gets to be used for Middle School graduations. Or maybe also a mortuary where they charge you for funerals.

Like I know it’s supposed to be the capital building but like...this looks so weird when it’s live action. I remember the anime had this kinda feel to it but in live action it’s like…

...this is a weird ass capital building…Why do they have curtains like a Granny Holiday Inn in Reno, Nevada?

Thankfully, Hawkeye is here to explain to Ed what just happened because we, the movie viewers, were kind of surprised by that plot twist.

Like there were many ways you can condense half a season into 15 minutes, and I dunno if I would have just changed the murderer. It is a solution you can do. You can just point blame on Mustang and skip that whole Ross segment but like….

…then why write the movie?

Obviously, they had to make the movie, it had already been funded, people were really excited about the idea, and I do not envy the people that had to hack and slash with the Full Metal Alchemist script, but it is interesting what they decided was important to the original content, and what was unimportant. All that stuff that showed how Mustang was brilliant and two steps ahead of everyone else? Unimportant. All that stuff we had that showed how Mustang cares a lot about protecting other people and also cares about Ed and Al? Unimportant.

It really changes the dynamic, and it’s kind of fascinating to go into this cold because it’s been like...a year for me since I’ve watched it...and just see how different everything is without all those supporting characters that when I watched the anime I just assumed were mostly useless (Though fun). Turns out they all had a pretty significant part of making me care about Ed, about Mustang, about Al, about all my main characters.

FMA is very character driven, and this movie is mostly just...plot driven. There’s kind of a great debate in literature about plot driven vs character driven. Movies and TV tend to be very plot driven, because they are very expensive to make, so they follow pre-formatted plot beats like “Save the Cat” or “The Heroes Journey” and other ones (there’s several to choose from).

They’ve made a fine science out of at what point a TV show should introduce the main, at what point they should suffer doubt, at what point they should shun their hero’s journey, etc etc. They know it down to the page number of the scripts they are writing. I know this, because it’s readily available on the internet and people fight about it all the time. This is why a show may suffer developing a character—because they just don’t have time and they just don’t have the resources to do something out of the box. Movies doubly so, because every minute of film can cost thousands of dollars.

What’s interesting about this is that FMA, the original FMA, does follow these beats. It was a manga sold by a huge publisher so it had to follow those beats. But, it has managed to do it while still being character driven. Yo, that’s so hard to do. This story was already written to be hyper condensed and structured when it was made into a Manga, and then it was condensed again for an anime, and then it was condensed yet again for this movie. It’s like a game of telephone, and at one end you have a very character driven story, and then at the other, it’s just totally plot.

Like it’s just a really huge risk to take. This was really, really risky.

PS did you miss Shou? Did you think we’d be done with Shou Tucker? No. Because this movie is gonna end at some point and rather than introduce other people...we’re just gonna stick with Shou and only have one miniboss.

(It has a freakin radiator in it?)

So then this next part happens and it’s low key hilarious.

The whole time.

Mustang and Hawkeye knew what lab 5 was this entire time but Ed just never asked for some reason despite working with those two for what is inferred to be YEARS since his childhood.

Hey PS, did you miss that brick building? Because it’s back.

Anyway, Mustang decides to take this underground where we can recycle the tech crew posing as extras that we used in the shot above us. Would not be surprised if a few of these are someone’s husband or wife on set.

Usually when I watch a movie I don’t get this feeling so much. But this movie...the latter half is like...EMPTY.

...this is going to be all movies made during Covid, I just realized…

Mustang is stopped by an angry Lieutenant Ross, and then we get this series of events.

And when you’re like “...Sorry?” Mustang’s like “I can make it weirder.”

And he just, without any warning or anything, lights Lieutenant Ross on fire. Multiple times, and it’s pretty intense and everyone who’s holding a gun just watches it happen is like…

...well I guess it’s too late to just shoot the guy...

…and like do you seriously not carry around a fire extinguisher when you are trying to manhunt Mustang? This is the one guy you want to wear fireproof clothes around. You have the technology. You at least have the technology for buckets of water. Like no one want to throw a blanket on her?

Just want to...watch? I guess?

Mustang just looks like a nut from this series of events instead of a genius--which is what I think they were originally going for. The pacing does that, youknow? Pacing.

And, out of the corpse pile stands Envy.

Envy has a pretty good look, I appreciated his whole look and that unlike the anime where you only find out Envy is a guy because someone told you on a forum somewhere and you were like “wait WHAT?” the movie is live action so you won’t make that mistake and embarrass yourself online.

Ed has only ever seen Lust once, and she walked in from off screen, stabbed a guy, and walked off. He’s just like...having a time because he’s done zero research into homunculi, and really, at no point in this movie are we going to give him time to figure it out.

Also, there’s this shot where Lust and Gluttony just walk in from behind them in the tunnel and it’s like…

….so no one noticed these two just hanging out back there?

It’s so freakin funny. This movie is gold. I love it.

Now If you just got here, this is a link to read all these recaps in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono

Have a good one, and stay safe! 2021 has been...weird nuts...and it’s still January somehow??? Weird times. Overall, please stay safe, it’s weird out there.

Also, if you’re like “I don’t remember this scene actually” here’s the original Hughes dies scene that inspired the movie (since the movie definitely was like “we’re only going inspired for this one nerds, get mad”)--some shots were inspired cut for cut.

youtube

And obvi this is on Youtube so it’ll probably get taken down eventually, but that’s why it’s flipped.

#FMA #FMA movie #FMA live action movie #recap #Fullmetal alchemist #hughes #roy mustang #ed elric #al elric #winry #I've had to write these tags twice now because tumblr won't SAVE MY DRAFTS #photo recap

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mst3kproject · 4 years

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Beast from Haunted Cave

I’ve actually received a couple of requests for movies to review, and I am looking into them. I just have a few others I want to get through first… like this one.

Beast from Haunted Cave begins with a familiar tune – over the credits we hear the same jumpy ‘suspense’ music that opened both Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches. It seems to have been a favourite of Gene Corman (Roger’s brother), who produced all three movies. The writer, furthermore, was Charles B. Griffith, who did the same job for half a dozen MST3K movies, including It Conquered the World, Gunslinger, and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II. Finally, Beast from Haunted Cave has the strange distinction of being the only movie I’ve ever seen that thanks ‘the people of South Dakota’.

A master criminal and his drunk, stupid henchmen (one of whom is a drunk, stupid henchwoman) have decided to rob a mining operation. In the process they annoy some kind of giant bug monster that was living in the mine, and it stalks them and their guide through the wintery mountains until they reach a cabin where they hole up to wait out a blizzard. Between the monster lurking outside and the fact that the gang are all getting fed up being stuck indoors and starting to hate each other (a familiar scenario in 2020), it’s a good bet that no more than two of them are getting out alive. Probably the henchwoman and the guide, since they were kissing earlier.

Beast from Haunted Cave is a typically cheap Corman production. The familiar music persists through the entire film, and gives the same impression it did in Blood Beast – the soundtrack people were given a set of pre-existing pieces and did what they could with them. A terrible winter storm is represented by howling wind noises, but it never actually snows. The monster is dreadful. The webs draped over everything demonstrate that it’s a spider, but all we actually see is a featureless head and a couple of flailing arms that resemble nothing so much as one of those inflatable tube men at a used car lot. When all we’re seeing is one leg reaching out to grab people it’s not awful, but as soon as we get a good look at the whole creature it’s clear that this is some kind of repurposed Hallowe’en decoration. The gold bricks the thieves came to steal are just… well, bricks painted gold. The paint isn’t even shiny.

Outside of that, however, the movie isn’t really that bad. Everybody on the crew seems to have known what they were doing, and did their best to work within their meagre budget. The photography is surprisingly competent. The lighting rarely qualifies as atmospheric but there’s always enough of it – even in scenes set at night or in a dark cave, I never found myself squinting and wondering what’s going on. The snowy landscapes are shot on location and look suitably hostile (although they could often only do one take, since after that the snow wouldn’t look pristine anymore). You can see the actors’ breath, which gives a visceral sense of the cold. The writing is mostly just serviceable but every so often there’s a little gem tucked within it.

The two places where this shows best are in the character of Marty and in the relationship between the mastermind, Alex, and the henchwoman, Gypsy. Marty is a drunken buffoon but there’s more to him than that. Early in the film he invites a cocktail waitress from the ski lodge, Natalie, to make out in a cave with him. They disturb the monster, and Marty escapes but leaves Natalie behind. For the rest of the film, even as he continues to be a drunken buffoon, it’s clearly eating him up that he abandoned this woman. There’s an ambiguous moment when he finds Natalie’s still-living body webbed to a tree in the middle of the woods – perhaps it really happened, or maybe he’s having a nightmare.

Gypsy has clearly been working for Alex for some time, as secretary, girlfriend, and as a way of distracting the targets of his robberies. She’s an alcoholic sad sack who looks ten years older than her stated age of twenty-six, and clearly regrets her self-destructive life. She cannot leave, however, because Alex is controlling and violent, and because she wouldn’t know what she wants or who she is without him. When he beats her up for kissing Gil the guide, she later says Alex had a perfect right to slap me. At the same time, the film hints of happier times between the two in a running gag, never explained, where Alex and Gypsy call each other ‘Charles’. This seems to have once been an endearment, but is now a passive-aggressive insult.

One character whom I wish had done more is Gil’s housekeeper, Small Dove. She rarely speaks, but she carries an axe and spends a lot of time judgmentally watching the stupid white people. She could have been this movie’s Eulabelle, but she ends up getting eaten by the monster without ever doing anything badass. Shame.

Let us now return to a familiar question: who is the main character in this movie?

I guess Gil is the ‘hero’. He’s the hunky male lead, who gets the girl at the end. He never does much to further the plot, though, except for urging Gypsy to leave Alex and figure out how to lead her own life. Although she seems romantically interested in him, Gil may not return the sentiment – it’s hard to say. He doesn’t kill the monster, Marty actually does that by setting it on fire with a flare gun. Gil is just sort of there, a cardboard cut-out in the ‘handsome guy’ box all movies must have.

Gypsy has a much better claim on the protagonist role. The script takes much more interest in her situation than in anybody else’s, and we are encouraged to sympathize with her feeling lost and trapped. She survives at the end to run off with Gil, though we’re not given any indication of what they’ll do now or whether the budding relationship between them will last. Like so many other movies of its era, Beast from Haunted Cave has no denouement. We simply fade to black from the monster on fire (another thing they could only do once, since they actually burned the prop).

Gil is the one who describes the cave as ‘haunted’, but this never has anything to do with the story. There is not even a hint of a ghost or even a ghost story connected with the cave. I assume the word is in the title mostly because Beast from Cave sounds like a dinosaurs-and-cavemen movie made by the cavemen, and having put it there, Griffith felt he had to justify it with a line of dialogue.

The character who had the most potential to go through an arc is actually the antagonist, Alex. He’s been pulling heists like this for years, and is proud of his success. He has no reason to think this job will be any different, and yet as the movie progresses, Alex has to watch his plans fall apart all around him. One of his henchmen is going mad from terror and guilt. The other, Byron (who you can tell apart from Marty because Byron is The One In The Stupid Hat), is developing a crush on Small Dove and thinking about getting out of crime and settling down. Gypsy is kissing Gil right in front of him, and Alex worries what she might have told him about the real purpose of the ski trip. Then there’s the storm, which means the plane that was supposed to take them to Canada can’t get to them, and the lurking monster. At the end of the film, Alex is still trying to regain control of the situation, even as the monster closes in on him.

Criminals on the run getting menaced by a monster seems to be a surprisingly common plot for a movie. Voodoo Woman and Killer Fish were both variants on the theme. I’m guessing this serves two purposes within the plot: the first is that it means we’re not too sad when the main characters die, since they were already bad people. The second is what I think Beast from Haunted Cave was going for – it means that the characters cannot ask for help with their situation. The group know, from hearing it on the radio, that they’re being hunted by the authorities. If they were to call for help, whoever came to the rescue would find the gold bars in their bags, and they’d go straight to prison.

This idea is mostly implied. Nobody ever actually suggests calling for help, or even trying to contact the people who were gonna be flying their getaway plane. It also seems that they had no contingency plan for bad weather, which makes the whole operation look very poorly-planned.

One thing I did find myself thinking about is that the radio news mentions the police looking into the theft, but we never actually see the cops investigating. This applies to the other movies I mentioned above, as well… in Voodoo Woman we’re in an area that doesn’t seem to have much by way of police, but in Killer Fish, too, law enforcement is entirely absent. This is a good choice on the part of the writers and directors, because it allows us to focus on the monster plot. If they were to include detectives, that would unnecessarily complicate things and require a resolution of its own.

Then again, if they had two resolutions, they might have had to include some ‘wind-down’ time. I don’t like it when movies end abruptly after the monster dies, because it tends to leave dangling subplots. Gil and Gypsy are still in the middle of nowhere, and must now shelter in the cave until the storm ends. Are they going to be okay? Last time we saw Small Dove she was weakened from blood loss but not yet quite dead. Can they save her? Will Gil and Gypsy stay together, or will he encourage her to go find herself? So there’s another lesson for aspiring film-makers: don’t end your movie until the story’s actually over.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #beast from haunted cave #50s

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