#i forgot what it’s like being quote different unquote

[majorbisexualpanic]

got called multiple slurs today along with insults about my hair and facial piercings. i just wanted a coffee to drink while playing stardew valley

on top of it, it was pouring rain and i was with my dog. when i pulled my car bat out for protection he approached my car screaming “what is a bat gonna do to help you”

and i that moment i felt real fear for the worst time in a while.

at least a bear would kill me instantly instead of calling me slurs and saying i will never fit in with society

[featherandferns]

daylight - five

jj maybank x fem!reader | part 5 of the daylight series | read part 4 here

content warnings: sexual content (f receiving); alcohol

word count: 3k.

blurb: after avoiding JJ for a week, the two of you end up trapped together in the Chateau during a storm.

Whilst Mimsy’s advice was golden, you promptly ignored it. Avoided JJ like the plague. Bailed on nearly every Pogue meeting: met with the group one-on-one instead. He’d texted you a few times, checking if you were okay, asking if you were sick, offering to come around, apologising for the other night. You rarely replied, and if you did they were simple answers that left no room for further questions. I’m fine. Not sick, don’t worry. Just been busy. It's all good, I forgot all about it! 

But you hadn’t. 

That one fleeting touch of JJ’s hand on your chest had replayed in your mind like you were some budding virgin who had never been touched by another human before in your life. It was truly pathetic. The porn that got your body burning was the thing that a nun would gloss over without pause. You loathe yourself. 

It’s stupid, really. You’d decided that maybe Mimsy was right. Maybe it was time to stop punishing yourself for Tyler, for the damage he inflicted. Maybe it was time to remember that all people are different people, and the acts of one careless man doesn’t equal the acts of another. But then you thought about it, really thought about it, and the thought of being so open like that with another person terrified you. Made you sick. Love was bad but heartbreak was worse, and you had a habit of falling hard and fast. If JJ wanted casual, you couldn’t do that. You felt too much for him already. Sleeping with him would only make it worse. But if JJ wanted serious, you couldn’t do that either. And so, you were at a stalemate. 

“Can’t I just give you it tomorrow?” you ask Kiara over the phone. 

“No! Cause you’ll quote-unquote ‘forget’ and go another week with it!” 

“It’s a good camera!”

“Yes, that’s why I want it back,” Kiara laughs. 

Sighing, you smile. “Fine. I’ll drop it at the Chateau, though. That hurricane’s getting close and I don’t wanna get caught out near Figure Eight.”

“Alright, that works for me,” Kie agrees. “You talk to JJ yet?”

“Sure,” you lie. 

She sighs. “What is going on with you two? I know he can be a dumbass; did he yell at you or something?”

After knowing JJ for close to two months, you had seen his temper. It was short and explosive, and at times, scary. But he came down regretful for the things he did and said, and you’d learnt just like the others to understand it. 

“No, he didn’t yell. It’s nothing. We’re fine, really,” you tell her. 

Kie hums and you know she isn’t convinced. Grabbing your shoes, you say, “look, I’ll head to the Chateau now before the storm hits and leave your camera for you.”

“Icon. Thank you!”

“Talk soon,” you say before hanging up.

With Kie’s camera in your trademark backpack, you head downstairs. Leaving a note on the kitchen for your parents and pulling a thin raincoat over your sweats and crop-tee, you penny board to the Chateau. The journey is familiar now, the same way heading to and from the local store in Vancouver was less than a year ago. As you walk up, you find the Twinkie missing. 

“John B? You home?” you call as you pass through the door. Nobody answers.

You head to the table and place Kiara’s camera down, then send a photo to her as proof. Before you make the journey back home, errand now complete, you use the bathroom and raid the cupboard for a snack. As you pull back the wrapper on a month-out-of-date clif bar, the sky grumbles menacingly. You stare up at the ceiling when it does as if it might be to blame. Suddenly, everything is dark. Grey clouds loom overhead and cast the world in gloom. More thunder follows, and the distant flash that you catch through the window hints of lightning. You hadn’t managed to skip the storm.

“Shit.”

Through the tantrum of nature, the high-pitched humming of a motor passes through. You venture to the front door of the Chateau, wondering whether John B has come back. When JJ rounds the corner, your stomach drops like a black bear has wandered into sight. The rain has started now, pelting hard and heavy pellets, and JJ cusses as he rushes up the steps. He nearly jumps out of his skin when he finally looks up, now in the Chateau.  

“Jesus Christ!”

“Sorry.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he repeats, perhaps a little dramatic. 

You roll your eyes and tug your raincoat off over your head. It’s not like you’re going anywhere anytime soon: mother nature had decided so. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“Where the fuck have you been?” JJ asks, frowning at you. 

You shrug. “At home.”

“Oh. Yeah, duh, how dumb of me,” JJ sarcastically mumbles. You head into the kitchen for a soda and JJ is hot on your trail. “I’ve been hitting you up for like a week and you’ve been ignoring me.”

“I replied to you.”

“Yeah with like two word responses. I’ve heard dogs talk more,” JJ fires back.

Once your hand is safely removed from the fridge, JJ slams it shut. It catches your attention; forces you to look up at his face. “It’s about what happened in the van, isn’t it?”

“JJ, grow up,” you say. 

“That’s not a no.”

“Because it’s a stupid question,” you reply. “I’m not twelve years old, JJ.”

“Don’t need to tell me that,” he mumbles. You pass him by, heading for the sofa whilst JJ stands in the kitchen and stares at you. “So that’s that?”

“I guess,” you say with a shrug, sipping your soda. 

He stares some more and then scoffs. You know he’s annoyed. His jaw clenches and he glances off to the hallway of the cabin. You take his distraction to remind yourself of his body. Of how fucking gorgeous he is. 

“What? What’s wrong?” you can’t help but ask. 

JJ shakes his head. He purses his lips, calms himself, and looks to you. “You hurt my feelings.”

On the surface, it sounds like an immature statement. The sort of thing a child would say to another on the playing field, after shunning them out of an imaginary game. But not now, not here. You knew more than most how much hurt feelings can wound. 

“I’m sorry,” you apologise, and you hope it sounds as genuine as it is. 

JJ contemplates before nodding. He heads over to you and sits beside you on the sofa. Kicks his feet up on a dining chair as he reclines into the sofa. 

“Do you forgive me?”

“I will if you give me a sip of your drink,” he mumbles. You hand him the can and watch him begin to drink. Your face contorts with horror as JJ backwashes into the can, a shit-eating grin on his face. 

“JJ! Ew!” 

He splutters a laugh as you snatch your drink back. It’s spoiled now. You glare at him and ditch it on the floor. Smack his shoulder jovially.

“Dumbass.”

The storm reigns on and for a while the two of you sit side by side listening to its petrifying symphony. Lightning flashes through the windows and illuminates the cabin for a fraction of a second, time and time again. It feels nice being in JJ’s company again. He calms you somehow, even in silence. Maybe it’s his smell, but if you admit that, you may sound a little insane or creepy. But the calm is only momentary. Soon you’re losing yourself to your thoughts, given too much freedom with the quiet. Thoughts of him. Thoughts which turn to glances, which turn to longing and yearning and…

“Wanna play a board game?” you blurt out. 

JJ quirks a brow at you, hitting his vape. “Sure. What game?”

You get up and head to the rickety wooden shelves, inspecting the games John B has. Most look thrifted. Jenga, Twister, Monopoly…

“Trivial Pursuit?”

JJ sniggers. “I don’t think either of us are smart enough for Trivial Pursuit.”

A hand slowly rises to your chest in mock offence. “Ouch.”

You slide the game out as JJ gets up and transforms the sofa into a pullout. The power is holding up good enough so far, in the summer storm turned hurricane. Taking a blanket, you cosy up on the couch and set up the game. JJ takes the time to retrieve a beer. You each take a game piece and fall into the game. It only takes about five rounds for JJ to be proven right: trivia was neither of your strong suits. 

You grab a card from the pile, reading out the trivia question. “What distance is the earth to the sun?”

JJ’s face contorts in bewilderment. “What kind of dumbass question is that?”

“A trivia one,” you say, watching him with a smile.

“I don’t fucking know. A hundred?”

“A hundred what?”

“Miles?”

You blink at him. “A hundred miles? From our planet to a huge ball of gas?”

“Who’s actually measured it, that’s what I want to know,” JJ says.

“Scientists.”

“But like how?”

“I don’t know,” you laugh, leaning back on the sofa. “With science, I guess. Answer the question.”

“‘With science’. ‘With science’?”

“Shut up.”

“Didn’t know I was in the presence of a genius,” JJ announces.

You roll your eyes and prod him with your toe through your blanket, careful not to knock over the pile of trivia cards. “Answer!”

“This game is dumb. Why couldn’t we just play strip poker?”

“Jesus Christ – answer the question!”

“I did! One-hundred miles!”

“That’s such a dumb guess!” you laugh, placing the card at the bottom of the pile.

“Was it right?”

“No!”

By now you’re in hysterics, shaking your head. JJ’s watching you, sniggering away. He takes another swig of his beer and offers the bottle to you. You have a sip. JJ’s still watching you. Swallowing, you quirk a brow. 

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, what is it? Is there something on my face?”

“No, no,” JJ says, stopping your wiping of your cheeks. “You’re just really fucking pretty.”

Your body chills like a winter breeze hit. Smiling bashfully, you glance down. “Oh. Thank you.”

“Course,” JJ replies. He takes the bottle back gently and has another sip. Clearing his throat, he grabs another trivia card. “Alright, uh, what we got here? Who wrote the novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’?”

“Jane Austen,” you reply. 

“Yep,” he says, returning the card to the pile.

And just like that, the moment has passed, and you’re only slightly surprised to realise how much you wished it hadn’t. 

You wordlessly take another ‘cheese piece’ for your counter. JJ takes the dice and rolls and as you wait for them to land, everything suddenly goes pitch black. You let out a screech as it does. 

“Oh shit,” you hear JJ say. 

“What happened?” you ask, though the answer is obvious. 

“Power went out,” JJ says. “Shit.”

You feel the pull out move and you flail a hand out, grabbing his t-shirt with your fist. “Don’t go.”

“I’m just gonna try and find some candles or a flashlight or something.”

“Wait, can you just…Can you stay until my eyes adjust, at least?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, course.”

JJ settles back into his spot. There’s the clink of his beer bottle carefully finding place on the floor. His hand gently pats around before landing on your leg. 

“You’re shaking.”

“I don’t like the dark,” you tell him. You’re waiting for him to laugh but he doesn’t. Instead, he coaxes you closer to him. 

“Come here.”

You comply. Shuffle until you can feel JJ’s body pressed against yours. You slowly, nervously lower your head onto his upper chest. The sensation of his chest rising and falling evenly calms your panic. You’d never grown out of your fear of the dark. It was stupid, something Tyler used to tease you for, but you couldn’t help it. Even still, you slept with some form of nightlight. JJ’s fingers begin to stroke the back of your hand. And just as his accidentally grope of your tit had, his barely-there touch turns you on. 

But this time you don’t flinch away. Don’t panic and startle and spiral. 

Maybe it’s the black out serving as some sort of safety net, or the storm making you feel disconnected from the world, or maybe just the effect of JJ in general, but you find yourself moving to face him. At least, what you assume is him. Eyes slowly adjusting, you can make out the vague silhouette of his face. Lord knows you’ve stared at him enough times to make good guess work of where his lips are. You lean forward so slow, you can convince yourself you’re not at all.

Your lips press against his lower lip tentatively. Testing the waters.

This close, you can hear when JJ’s breath catches in his throat.

You wait for JJ's next move.

JJ’s hand lands on the back of your head, returning your lips to his frantically. It’s messy and sloppy as the two of you kiss. Teeth and lips and hands, which caress down your body, grabbing greedily at your skin, landing on your ass to lift you into his lap. He’s getting harder and harder with each kiss, each brush of your tongues. You gasp a moan against his lips. Leaning back for air, swishing your hair from off your face and shoulders, you finally get to see how it feels to have your hands around his neck. Plant your fingers there, one by one,. JJ’s panting, his hands restlessly tracing your body. Reconnecting your lips with his, he mumbles against them. One word.

“Yes.”

His grip is tenderly mean in your hair as he pries you away to only plant kisses down your neck. Maybe he has a fascination with yours just as you do with his…JJ’s cold hands thrill your body as they slip under your shirt. Blunt finger nails rake soothingly against your back, juxtaposing the assault on your throat that has you whining and gasping. Fuck, you forgot how good this is. How good it feels to have another person pressed up against you. Touching you. You instinctively rock against his crotch. JJ groans, head dropping onto your shoulder. His fingernails press harder and it makes you grin. Leaning down to his earlobe, you kitten lick the skin just below. You feel him shudder under you. You tease your teeth against the lobe before gently catching it between your teeth. JJ lets out a moan. 

“You like that?” you whisper into his ear. 

“Yes,” he mumbles. You let out a gasp when he tugs at your hair once more, pulling you to face him. Now you can make out his eyes. They’re hooded. Crinkled like they do when he smiles. “You like being in control or something?”

“Or something…” you reply, finding your own smile. 

“Just like I said,” JJ says, eyes flitting down to your lips. “Exactly my type.”

His hands slide down from your ass to the back of your quads, and he practically tosses you onto your back. You land just shy of the game board. Can hear the cards and game pieces scatter. JJ unconcernedly brushes it away, making the two of you laugh, breathless. Then his lips are back on yours, figure looming over you, and you let your hands venture up along his body. His gaping t-shirt grants you expanse of his skin. It’s soft under your touch, ripples from it, rises and falls with his breathes. JJ pushes your shirt up and kisses down your sternum, down your chest, towards your crotch. And now, without him desperately close, despite his attention to your body, you feel lost. In the pitch black, you can confuse JJ with someone else. 

Tyler. 

No, no, it’s not. It’s JJ. You can smell his cologne. Feel the cool metal of his rings against your burning skin. Yes, JJ. 

“JayJ?” you mumble, fingers tethering into his hair. 

“Mmm,” he hums against your skin. Yes, it’s JJ. His fingers hook into the band of your sweats and he lowers them down your legs. Presses wet, open mouthed kisses to the newly revealed skin that you’d caught him staring at too many times to count. 

And you should be enjoying it. Should be turned on beyond belief, desperate for his touch or his mouth or something on your aching cunt. But instead you’re just trying to stay present. Drilling it into your head that it is him, that it is JJ, that this is different. It makes no sense. Tyler never abused you. Never too advantage of you. Or did he? Did he–

No, not Tyler. JJ. The same JJ who’s mumbling things against your thigh, dragging your panties down your legs. 

“Prettiest fuckin’ pussy…”

But when he teases a finger to your folds, you’re dry. JJ pauses. 

“You okay?”

“Mhm,” you hum. Now your brain is busy with panic. He’s been turning you on like crazy so why the fuck is your body not doing what it’s supposed to do? Embarrassment stings your eyes. This has never happened before. Never. JJ continues to ease his finger up and down but to no avail. He shifts up your body, kissing delicately at your neck.  

“Are you…not into this or?” JJ tentatively asks. 

“No, I am, I just–” You cut yourself off with an exasperated sigh. Gently pushing JJ off you, you shift to sit up, hiding your burning face in your hands despite the black out. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why.”

“It’s alright. Hey, no, it’s alright, don’t worry,” JJ reassures.

As you tug your shirt down, JJ climbs off the pull-out. You hear his footsteps depart. You busy yourself with pulling your sweatpants back up. A flashlight guides JJ’s return. You squint when he shines it directly in your face. 

“Sorry,” he mumbles, flicking it back down to the floor. He steps over the mess of the board game and joins you on the sofa. Passes you his half drunk bottle of beer and the alcohol helps wash away the initial sting of embarrassment. In the shadow of his flashlight, you still see his boner through his sweatpants and you instantly feel guilty for accidentally blue-balling him. 

“I’m sorry,” you repeat. 

“Don’t apologise,” JJ chuckles. He takes the beer back when you offer it to him. Has a swig. 

“S’just embarrassing,” you mumble. 

“Nah. Guess it’s just like ED for a guy,” JJ thinks aloud. 

“Oh, and ED isn’t embarrassing?” you half-heartedly joke. 

JJ chuckles. “Alright, fair point. But you don’t gotta be embarrassed with me. It’s cool.”

You nod. The two of you sit there in the pitch-black as the storm billows on outside. You look out the window. The wind throws twigs and sticks and leaves around; you can see it through the porch netting. 

“Did I ever tell you about when I lost my virginity?” JJ asks. 

You snort and look to him. “Yeah, funny enough, that never came up in any of our conversations.”

JJ smiles, amused. “Fair point.”

He relaxes against the back of the sofa and you decide to join him, settling your head against his chest. One of his hands loops around your body, fingers stroking your thigh over your sweatpants soothingly. 

“I was fourteen.”

“Fourteen?”

“I was an early bloomer, I guess,” JJ replies, making you chuckle quietly. “There was this smokin’ Toron visiting the island. I mean, not as hot as you, but a close second - I’m not gonna lie. Way better than what my thirteen-year-old wet dreams cooked up.”

“Gross,” you cringe, scrunching up your nose. 

“So, I started talking to her and she asked if I had...and I hadn’t, and neither had she and…Yeah. And then, when it came down to it, and we were macking and stuff, I couldn’t get it up.”

You shift to look up to him, lips apart. “Wait, really?”

“I’m dead serious,” JJ chuckles. “I was flippin’ out cause I’d never had a problem with it before.”

“What happened? Did you guys end up calling it off or…”

“Well,” JJ says, scratching the back of his neck, “the problem seemed to go away after she showed me her tits but–”

“Ah. That makes sense,” you snigger. 

“But the point is, it happens to all of us,” JJ tells you. “So, you don’t gotta be embarrassed.”

“Well, thanks,” you hum. Snuggling your head against his shirt, your eyes slip shut. The madness of the storm was strangely soothing. “I’m sorry for disappearing, JayJ.”

“It’s alright,” JJ says quietly. “I do it too, sometimes. When I need to think or it gets too much.”

The two of you understand one another. Guarded behind self-built walls of which only the other seemed to have the sledgehammer for. It's something you want to talk about more but with your eyes closed, in the comfort of JJ’s hold, you find yourself drifting away into sleep.  

read part six here!

taglist:

@princessuki21 | @psyches-reid | @heybank | @avengersgirllorianna | @rrosiitas | @yourmumstoy | @jjsfavgirl | @void21 | @fictionalcomforts | @gsp420 | @redhead1180 | @wearemadeofstardust0 | @mrs-jjmaybank | @ifilwtmfc | @heybank | @lilyw1235 | @belle101200

[withacapitalp]

“So….let me get this straight. It’s your little sister’s birthday, she gets home from tumbling in a half hour, and you both forgot that you promised you had the quote unquote perfect present for her,” 

Mike shot Robin a low level glare, crossing his arms and hunching his shoulders in tight. 

“We didn’t mean to forget! We’re busy, you know?” 

“Yes, so busy you forgot your sister even existed,” Robin shot back, having too much fun with their misery. 

Nancy had an excuse. She didn’t know what Mike was wasting his time on but she had been busy. Holly’s birthday was January 29th, which was right after Winter Break, and college letters would be coming soon. Nancy had to keep her GPA perfect, she had the newspaper to run, and she also was working on a potential internship for the summer in Indianapolis. It was logical she would forget about Holly’s birthday in all of that. Understandable. 

Wasn’t it? 

She was making up for it now at least. Holly would never know the difference. She was six, she would be happy with just about anything. 

Seven. She’s turning seven today. 

“We’re gonna watch her favorite movie with her and tell her that her present is a shopping day on Saturday. That’s a good gift, right?” Nancy said, a hint of desperation in her tone. Judging by the look Robin gave her, it wasn’t, but they were running out of options.

“Fine,” Robin sighed, rolling her eyes and pulling up to the computer, “What’s the movie?”

Silence. Awkward, terrible, uncomfortable, silence. 

“Seriously? Nothing?” Robin asked with an incredulous laugh. 

“It’s some stupid kid flick! She makes us watch it all the time. It has an -ie at the end right?” Mike asked, turning to Nancy who threw her hands up. She had absolutely zero clue and they had at most ten minutes to come home before their mother grounded them for the rest of their lives. 

Not to mention Holly was probably going to cry for at least two weeks straight. 

“ The Goonies . It has to be The Goonies. It has an -ie at the end, and she likes to rent that one, right?” Nancy said on an impulse, giving Robin a hopeful look. 

“Nancy, she’s not my sister. How could I possibly know what she likes?” 

“Gee thanks Robin, that’s so helpful,” Mike snarked, and Robin’s face twisted into a look that spelled all kinds of trouble. Things really couldn’t get worse. 

“What are you all doing?” 

It could get worse. Steve was coming out from the back, and now he was going to get to witness her complete and utter humiliation. 

“Oh you know, the usual,” Nancy groaned, covering her face with her hands. She was officially giving up, “We’re busy being the worst siblings in the world.”

“They forgot Holly’s birthday and now they don’t have a gift for her,” Robin said, sounding far too smug. Nancy wanted to curse her out, just a little bit. Stupid only children with their stupid self satisfaction. They never had to deal with bratty six year olds who cried at the drop of a hat and made everything about them. 

Seven. Seven years old. Holly was seven today.

“Oh,” Steve said, kneeling down and bringing up a rectangular box wrapped up in the Sunday morning funnies. He held it out to Nancy with a tiny smile,  “Here, you guys can just take this one. I was going to drop it off after work,” 

“You have a gift for Holly? You?” Mike asked dubiously, Nancy staring at the present like it was radioactive. 

“It’s her birthday,” Steve said simply, like that explained everything, “It’s nothing big, just a doll she had mentioned wanting a couple weeks back. She was in here with your mom renting Annie , and she said that the doll looked just like the little girl in her favorite movie.”

Robin smirked, slowly deleting The Goonies off of the computer and walking around to go look for Annie, leaving the Wheelers to try and put themselves together

“Steve- I-we-” Nancy sputtered, uncharacteristically lost for words. Her ex huffed out a laugh and began to punch something into the computer, taking the VHS holder from Robin when she skipped over, movie in hand. 

“Tell Holly I said Happy Birthday,” Steve said, putting the movie and the present in a paper bag and putting it on the counter, “Robs, I’m taking the last two minutes of my break to smoke,” 

He was walking out the back door before Nancy could wrap her mind around the words ‘Thank you’. 

[shopcat]

i was talking about this a bunch the other day and i forgot til now but like. so much of the problem w biphobia in this fanbase is rooted in that if steve (and at least partially in the context of steddie) will never have autonomy over his own sexuality bc people genuinely can't fathom him being ACTUALLY attracted to men so they have divorce this bisexual version of him entirely from his canon self, and if the idea of steve being bisexual will Always be considered as and therefore treated as "fanon" and ENTIRELY different from the source material because people for the life of them, subconsciously or not, do not think this is ACTUALLY possible in any way it is . literally just biphobia and homophobia 😭

like i would love it if people stopped considering gayness in general as something not grounded in reality especially when bizarrely it is... other lgbt+ people perpetuating this 😭? and like yeah i know a good chunk of it probably comes from "this obviously isn't ever going to happen in the show (bc of homophobia) he would never be actually anything but straight (bc of heteronormativity)" and it's like a kind of frustration with the state of representation and i get it but that's not what ur actually SAYING. ur just saying that he can't be gay. and repeating again and again and again in different ways that gayness is not natural or realistic or normal or even common which is a dogshit thing to say let alone repeat. like i am so fucking sick of seeing "realistic" "unpopular" opinions and it's always just "[character] is straight 💀" like what an unbelievably stupid and cruel thing to reflect onto your own community 😭 also it's just fucking loser behaviour like as if indulging in lgbt+ headcanons has ever killed anyone ..

and this entire thing is also why i think steve's quote unquote fanon self's interpretation IS so different from his canon one to some people bc people just go absolutely crazy with it. imo if you genuinely can't look at this character and actually... LIKE his characterisation and canonical self there is a problem there alone but if you Literally consider BEING GAY as the only part of him that is something that's like unrealistic or delusional in some way i think u need to do some like self reflection or something. let alone when people actually celebrate such a harsh line in the sand between "fanon" and canon in this way that ends up just being reductive and stupid and literally plain homophobic. like there should be 0 opportunity for someone to even say something like "oh it's so funny looking at canon steve and being like Wow he's so different" because he fucking shouldn't be 😭 why are you treating gayness however unintentionally like it's impossible to conceive as if that isn't what happens to us every day in real life. him being bisexual or gay isn't unrealistic literally at all because and this is crazy . people can be gay. it was not made up for shit fanfiction or tumblr posts -_-

[chorusfm]

Gulfer

A few months ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Gulfer’s Joe Therriault and David Mitchell about the band’s latest album for Topshelf Records, Third Wind. The Montreal quartet’s fourth album expands beyond their emo/math rock wizardry and dives into more textured and sometimes poppier styles (songs like “Clean,” “Cherry Seed,” and “Motive” stand out). But even still, Third Wind is a Gulfer album through and through, still exhibiting the band’s charm and songwriting prowess that’s been developed over the course of their career. Joe, David, and I talk about the origins of the record, making three music videos, the joys of making music with your friends, and more. Third Wind is the first Gulfer album that Joseph wrote the majority of songs for – what was that experience like for you? Joe Therriault: Yeah, majority it’s, it’s like 51% majority kind of thing, but even on the songs I took the lead on, everyone had a big input. I think it is nominally slightly more than the previous, but it still felt like everyone had their input and whatnot.  Absolutely. What was that experience like for you being the quote unquote primary songwriter for a Third Wind?  JT: Well, it never really felt like that because it was just one song at a time kind of thing. During the pandemic we’re demoing songs and on our own a lot and just sending each other songs back and forth. And there were a bunch of songs during that time that Vince had written, for example, Neighbors and Greetings and a bunch of those that ended up being coming out as EPs before or stuff that’s going to come out after. So just we ended up picking these 10 and ended up being six and four or whatever by chance. It never felt like, okay, this is an explicit “you’re doing the primary thing.” They kind of just came about organically.  David Mitchell :I mean I think the two of them write so many songs and they all come out sort of very sporadically. I don’t think there’s a lot of rhyme or reasons. Joey was saying there’s sort of a batch that came out as singles and that harmer split before the record and there’s a whole batch that we’re finishing recording now for more splits and singles after the record. So I think, yeah, it is kind of just a coincidence that of the 10 that made it onto this record, Joey happened to have six and Vince happened to have four. I think maybe we’re using it a little bit more as some kind of narrative arc. But at the same time, I think Joey, it ties into the Third Wind thing too, really has definitely brought a fresh energy, especially in the songwriting spectrum into the band.  And I think it makes Vince’s life easier after maybe writing songs for this band for 12 years to be like, okay, the pressure’s not exclusively on me. And also Joey’s songwriting will maybe lend a more diverse palette of influences and sounds to the band. But yeah, I don’t think it wasn’t quite as dramatic as Vince being like, ‘I am sick and tired of writing songs and this record won’t happen unless Joey steps up to the plate.’ It’s a happy mix of just mostly happenstance. But I do think all that said, there is certainly some significance to it just insofar as Joey in a bunch of different ways bringing fresh energy and inspiration to the band.  No, that’s rad. Yeah, I can definitely hear it throughout. I loved the Self-titled album that came out in 2020 and unfortunately like many albums that were released in 2020 it seem to get lost in the shuffle of everything, not being able to tour during the pandemic all the bullshit. So I feel like a lot of people forgot what Gulfer is and how great of a band you are. So it’s awesome to come back four years later with this record. I know you guys are always writing, I mean you have splits and singles planned, but how did that time between the two full length releases affect the band’s approach to writing and influence the direction of Third Wind?  JT: That’s a good question. So yeah, one element of it is even before our self-titled came out, a bunch of the songs… https://chorus.fm/features/interviews/gulfer/

[wallylinda]

I think a lot of things can be said about how ADHD/hyperactivity and the flash family’s connection to that are portrayed as comical in a lot of cartoons and make light of it rather than just allowing it to exist idk I’m not making any sense but you have me thinking thoughts

So there are multiple theories about the source of comedy--ask yourself: what makes things funny?--and one of the most modern ones is the incongruity theory. In layman's terms, the principle of this theory is that humor is humor because it is fundamentally unpredictable. We go into a joke with a pre-formed expectation, and what makes that joke so funny is that the punchline is something completely different from what we thought it would be.

It's a personal pet theory of mine that ADHD, specifically the traits associated with it, are considered to be comedic because of this. Some of the main characteristics of the disorder are the following: hyperactivity, impulsivity, lack of restraint, and absent-mindedness. In a comedy show, think of how many times the punchline relies on these factors. Becky forgot her homework for the fifth time this week, Samantha panics and decides to spy on her crush in a makeshift costume, Rick is constantly over-exaggerating his movements. Every character does this: that's what makes it funny!

But in a superhero show, the tone is naturally going to be much different. Humor is going to be used to offset the tension of the plot, meaning that there can only be select instances of comedy, and that in turn means that they can't have every character playing into over-the-top theatrics. That's ultimately where the issue lies for me, because for writers who don't understand how comedy is developed, they're going to fall back into the pre-established--and often unconscious--patterns and offload all of the quote-unquote “funniness” onto a singular character. The characters with the most levity, and thus comedic potential, are those in the Flashfam, and it’s doesn’t exactly take a lot of brainpower to clue into the very much implied ADHD symptoms of speedsters in question. 

Make no mistake, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it often falls flat in conjunction with this genre. Like put it this way: the JLA are discussing the potential ramifications of *insert serious topic here* and suddenly the Flash pipes in with an inane subject change about food or a pun about moving fast. A) that unnecessarily takes away from the plot, b) it removes the viewer from the mood that the scene is supposed to invoke, and c) it lessens the value of the Flash in the minds of the viewers. I mean, how are you supposed to take this superhero seriously if he’s being written not as a superhero, but as a two-bit comedy skit?

[belliesandburps]

I just read your Arkham City post. You have interesting thoughts on that game! How do you feel about the boss battles of Arkham overall?

Y'know something, Anon? I was actually eager to do one of those tier list dealios, and you just inspired me to whip one up. Soooo here ya go!

You can see more of a proper rundown below:

In a nutshell, I think City and Origins had, bar none, the best boss fights in the entire series. They're all mostly imaginative, have a wide variety of attack patterns and utilize different strategies for defeating them. Best yet, unlike Asylum, you aren't just fighting the same one monster that resembles Batman villains as much as tanks resembled bosses people wanted in a Batman game. Origins gets extra marks over City because it manages to create proper mano-y-mano showdowns in a way people said was impossible, thanks to the brawler mechanics. Deathstroke and the first showdown with Bane are easily the most badass one-v-one showdowns, while Mr. Freeze is one of the absolute best stealth action bosses in the entire genre.

The rest in Asylum and Knight can be summed up as either unremarkable at best, or dreadfully disappointing or lazy at worst.

For example, I know a LOT of folks loooooved Croc-o's "boss fight" in Arkham Asylum. Problem is, that entire sequence doesn't feel like the boss fight. It feels like the first phase of a larger fight that never happens. Which applies to most of the bosses outside of City and Origins.

And what's sad is, looking back, I'd take even THAT crap over literal one button takedowns for half the quote unquote bosses of Knight.

I have theories for why Knight's bosses were complete garbage compared to City and Origins, namely the age old dilemma of "oh shit, we are WAY behind schedule and implementing this fucking Batmobile ate up so much of our dev time that we went overboard with that we don't have time to give this game any actual bosses. Because Rocksteady knew what they were doing with City. It's not like they just suddenly forgot how to do bosses. After all, we've heard so many stories of this crap happening when games are in development hell.

It's the same reason Electrocutioner was a joke one hit takedown despite being billed as one of the eight main bosses of the game. When the money and dev time ain't there? You gotta cut corners where you can. Hell, Arkham Origins Mobile gave him an actual boss fight which would've been great in the console game. Origins, to me, deserved the full Arkham treatment instead of being the "Portable Ops" of the Arkham series (a spinoff designed just to give players something to chew on before the main event). And like MPO, a big part of why the game was so much copy & paste is because it didn't have an ounce of Rocksteady's budget.

Same with Deadshot, who was just an alteration of Two Face / Harley's predator fight. But the reason I rank Deadshot as great is because his fight is infinitely harder than theirs, and his ricochet attack is a lot trickier to evade, so you actually feel like you have to use stealth to avoid his line of sight. And when it's just you and him, you CAN take him head on, rolling around to avoid his shots, which can feel gratifying and action packed. :P

So yeah! I adored Arkham City's four main bosses, enjoyed its lesser bosses, absolutely loved most of Origins' main bosses, really liked some of its side bosses and at least had fun with its lesser bosses...aaaand minus Poison Ivy and Scarecrow, kind of hated everything Asylum and Knight tried and failed to do with its bosses. (I don't HATE Croc's fight in Asylum or Knight, but the former just doesn't feel like a full boss fight, and Knight doesn't even let you ACTUALLY fight Croc so much as you do jump around him, punching his goons so you can do QTE's to do damage on Croc instead of doing the damage yourself.)

Yeah, I'm a gaming nerd, folks. These are facts. XD

[spockandawe]

Separate from the ask meme proper, but a question I've been thinking about recently that I'd love to hear your thoughts on: who, of the people left living at the end of the novel/show, do you think is going to be left feeling the worst for the longest?

I think...... it’s gotta be Lan Xichen. Which is really, really tragic, because more than anyone else, he didn’t do anything wrong. He just tried so, so hard to be the best person he could be, and to do right by everyone he was responsible for or cared for, and in the end, it all comes back to kick him in the teeth in like ten different ways.

And a lot of it comes down to him loving and trusting Jin Guangyao, which just... fucks me up, it really does. He was kind when he had to reason to be, and where nobody in his society would have blamed him for being indifferent. He gave recognition and respect to someone who was being treated poorly, and I do think Jin Guangyao really truly never wanted to do wrong by Lan Xichen. Even at the very, very end, when he’s like ‘die with me?’, I can’t really vibe with the interpretations that he was doing it to twist the knife, or to be sure Lan Xichen never forgot him, or anything that cruel. I won’t get into my personal headcanons for his motivations in that scene, but cruelness... doesn’t vibe.

It’s just really unfortunate that Jin Guangyao was willing to be cruel to other people who Lan Xichen loved, or willing to let people Lan Xichen loved be emotional casualties. And he’s willing to either passively or actively use Lan Xichen to facilitate his less-moral goals, which... makes me very sad. Especially as piece by piece of the puzzle is revealed to him. Part of why I’m a lame no-fun-allowed person when it comes to himbo Lan Xichen is because of the delicate balancing act that Lan Xichen is left doing as the story present progresses, and the way that there’s no good outcome, and the way that he recognizes that, and recognizes the implications of the things he’s learning and the implications of the things that he’s seen and heard and what he’s quote-unquote allowed to happen, and the enormity of what he’s being asked to understand now. And he’s not just smart enough to recognize it, but he doesn’t place that burden on anyone else’s shoulders, he carries it himself.

He lets his little brother and Wei Wuxian make wild accusations against his sworn brother, with minimal proof, and it would be so easy to dismiss their concerns, or to just tell them to come back when they have actual evidence. And this isn’t the first time he’s heard people saying nasty things about Jin Guangyao, he admits that much outright. He dismissed those other people’s concerns (and I’m certain some of it was son-of-a-whore tier class-related bullshit) and has to recognize that by dismissing that, he’s complicit in the harm that Jin Guangyao has done. As the story goes on, he has to recognize the ways Jin Guangyao was involved in Wei Wuxian’s death, and the way that broke his little brother’s heart. He has to recognize that Jin Guangyao used him, and used his musical expertise, to drive their mutual sworn brother into an early grave. He still grieves for Nie Mingjue, even in the story present. In the show, when he was asked if he wanted to say goodbye to Nie Mingjue, the way he tears up and wordlessly nods, it absolutely breaks my heart.

And even then, even seeing everything terrible that Jin Guangyao has done, he knows more intimately than just about anybody else what good things Jin Guangyao has also done. Things like the watchtowers were public news, but as a fellow sect leader, I’m sure Lan Xichen was intimately aware of all the work Jin Guangyao had to do to bring them about, and the effects of the watchtowers being put into place. He’s been Jin Guangyao’s sworn brother and political ally for years. He’s seen how hard Jin Guangyao has worked and how much he’s accomplished despite people making a point of washing their hands after touching him. And he knows the smaller things too, the personal things, no matter whether you’re going by book or show canon. He heard about how Nie Mingjue had a new servant who had been especially useful, he saw some of how Meng Yao cared for Nie Huaisang, and probably heard more in letters. When his home was burned down and his father was dying, Meng Yao sheltered and cared for him at great personal risk and no guarantee of future gain.

And at the end, he’s left both intimately aware of how much harm Jin Guangyao has done, and the good that he’s done, and is left to reconcile those two sides of him without being able to talk to the man himself. Instead, he’s left to watch as everyone starts gossiping about how Jin Guangyao was a rotten egg from the start, and how nobody should ever have expected anything different from that son of a whore. I’m sure that there are people who would make an effort to help Lan Xichen, like his family, or even Wei Wuxian. But in the whole story... I’m not sure he ever burdens anyone else with his problems, unless he’s left with no other option. He offers other people his support, and does everything he can to avoid asking for support. He retreats into seclusion, and it’s unsurprising to me, and absolutely breaks my heart. I am very attached to any post-canon fic that finds a way to draw him out, because without some outside impetus, I could easily see him imitating his father, and withdrawing completely from the world for the rest of his life. I don’t know when he’ll manage to stop feeling bad to enough of an extent that he’s willing to interact with the outside world again, but I’m really not sure he’ll ever stop feeling awful, and I’m very invested in any story that puts time into helping him heal, even a little

[albatris]

ok ok alriiiight ok so the plot of ATDAO

this post is not, like........... well, it’s not gonna be a blurb or a summary or a nice neat synopsis, this is not Professional Writeblr Business, this is, this is, uhhhh

this is like drunk house party logan rambles

works best if you imagine ur just like “hey man how’s it going” super casual and I grasp you firmly by the shoulders and look you dead in the eye and just ramble all of this without taking a single breath

could I have explained in a nice neat concise "elevator pitch" sort of way? probably. mind ur business. that’s not how we do things here at albatris.org

anyway the purpose of this post is “hey people seem to know a lot about the characters and the worldbuilding and the premise but have no clue what happens in the actual story” so I’m not going to be talking about said characters and worldbuilding and premise in depth

in terms of rambles, that stuff’s been covered! this post assumes you know what Ports are, n what the nature of the ATDAO apocalypse is, vaguely what the MCs are like as people......... though I can fetch this info for you if you like

but yeah if you are coming into this post with zero prior ATDAO knowledge........... deeply deeply from the bottom of my heart: sorry

also if this is your first time experiencing One Of These Rambles

also @safe-in-the-steep-cliffs​ and @siarven​ I am tagging you because you said you would like to be tagged and also hi and also I hope y’all knew what you were in for

anyway without further ado

(visual representation of my approach to this rant, not of how complicated my plot actually is)

(my plot is not that complicated)

ALRIGHT

there are two viewpoint characters! and two plotlines which converge near the end of the story, but honestly there’s a very real possibility I will decide these are two separate books meant as companion stories to each other because I love making things difficult for myself yeehaw

ATDAO’s co-protags are Tris and Noa, best buds four years and counting. their friendship is one of the single most important aspects of the story, n the ongoing love and trust they have for each other despite the way unfolding events force their relationship to change is integral to the themes and making the heart of the story what it is. I will now proceed to not mention this friendship for the entire remainder of this post. they’re bros. that’s all u need to know. listen. listen. I have a lot to cover

so yeah, ur first key player is Tris Greer, whose parents are dicks but whose siblings are chill. most notably of said siblings there is Jacob, older brother by thirteen years, whom Tris believes is just about the coolest person on the entire planet. this plotline kicks off when Jacob gets caught in the midst of a freak car accident that kills a dude and wrecks a street corner and also somehow causes Jacob to just kind of................. blip out of existence entirely and without a trace?

n Tris is understandably horrified and distressed by Very Much All Of This, but hey, at least there are responsible adults who can look into this obviously Port-related weird disappearance and figure this mess out, right?

INCORRECT

the relevant interdimensional authorities are brought in to suss out the situation and these authorities are kind of like “hmmmm idk about this” but are all set to take Tris at least somewhat seriously until they learn the following:

that Jacob had already been reported missing to police in his home state three days earlier

that Jacob was in the midst of several ongoing personal crises and at least one nervous breakdown

that Jacob was allegedly tangled up in some real weird shit that would more than account for a disappearance under suspicious circumstances

that Tris is schizophrenic, prone to hallucinations, confusion, memory issues and quote unquote “letting his imagination and anxiety get the better of him”, and precisely zero people can actually corroborate his story that Jacob was even there are the time of the accident to begin with

and after some back-and-forth and Looking Into The Evidence pretty much everyone in any position of authority comes to the conclusion that this is just Ordinary Regular People Crimes and whatever happened to Jacob had nothing to do with weird apocalyptic energies, and that Tris is (at best) stressed out and delusional or (at worst) lying through his teeth because he knows more than he’s letting on

so Tris is forced to hop pretty quick from “I’m sure someone will handle this” to “no one believes me but I’m sure if I can find some concrete proof they’ll listen and someone will handle it” to Well Fuck I Guess That Someone Is Me

cue bizarre reality-hopping fantasy quest, which is ten times easier said than done when most of the time Tris is terrified enough just, like, going to the supermarket

he enlists the help of his new classmate Shara, amateur paranormal investigator and professional weird-bullshit enthusiast, who agrees to help him puzzle out what the fuck happened to Jacob in exchange for his assistance in mapping out Adelaide’s interdimensional “fault lines” as part of her ongoing quest to track down the source of the apocalypse

she’s got big fuckin dreams, ok, go hard or go home

slso worth noting at this point that there HAS been an uptick in Ports and their related reality-bending strangeness in Adelaide recently which is why this is of particular interest to her currently. gotta find out What Makes The Weirdness Tick, gotta find out Why The Sudden Extra Weirdness

..........and also Kai is there

Kai has no nice neat reason to get involved with the plot, Kai just likes drama and being all up in people’s personal business. Tris brings them on board for one single afternoon like “hey I will pay you some money to come to my house and fix my fucked up phone so I can listen to an interdimensional voicemail” but forgot the apparently key addendum “and then leave”

their first three chapters of knowing each other is basically Tris being like “stop inviting yourself into my house we are not friends” and Kai being like “that’s a rude thing to say to your friend. also your sister gave me the netflix password and I used your kitchen to bake pastries feel free to help yourself”

but yeah so Tris’s story mostly focuses on his quest to figure out where Jacob got yeeted to and how to get him safely home (y’all probably know a bit about The Unreality already maybe?), whilst also dealing with rising family tensions, whatever shifty stuff Jacob was involved with prior to his disappearance, and his own creeping doubts about his perceptions of reality

n I’m also saying flat out it’s not a plot that’s going the “oh the whole thing was just a delusion all along” route because ew

his psychosis is a fairly involved part of his character but the explorations around it are more to do with, like......... the difficulties he has in trusting himself and whether he has the luxury of letting himself get swept into some Big Weird Implausible Adventure when this has extremely different implications for him than it would someone else. n eventually to how his success and survival is not ~in spite of~ but specifically because of the different way he understands and interprets the world and the skills he’s developed

THAT TANGENT WAS A PERSONAL RANT IT WAS NOT RELEVANT I just have words to say on the subject of how psychosis is treated in fiction and didn’t want people jumping to the “none of it is real” conclusion anyway ok moving on

ur SECOND key player is Noa Yun, who has rather a lot on her plate right now. she’s broke as fuck and her mum is sick and her car is making Noises and she’s not getting enough hours at her job at Not-IKEA and everyone is on her back about her failing studies as if that’s a thing she has the energy to care about. feeling rather backed into a corner by life’s bullshit and her financial situation, she blatantly lies her way into a field job at the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities, because A) surely it can’t be THAT bad, and B) what does she have to lose?

so more or less what she’s doing is the equivalent of emergency services for Port-related weirdness, it’s going out and dealing with highly unstable otherworldly energies head on, navigating Weird Phenomena and bendy patches in reality......... it is, among other things, a job that’s relatively easy to get into because no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole unless they absolutely have to

n the DII is a whole other post, this shit has lots of different functions and levels and branches and corruption and secrets and a tendency to view workers who have to go out and deal with the brunt of the apocalypse head-on as vaguely expendable and I’ve talked about it a bit before and in more Serious Words

things kinda kick off for her when in true Noa fashion she hurls herself into a dangerous situation to help out a coworker, n enters a pretty standard issue “overlap” where the barriers between universes are a little fucky, but hey, she seems to come out of it with nary a scratch, so it’s reasonable to assume everything is fine, right?

INCORRECT AGAIN

she basically gets some whacked-out otherworldly energies latched onto her that are now following her through her everyday life, and it turns out she’s starting to bend the reality around her the way certain types of Ports do, which is! obviously not ideal! she’s not exactly a Port herself, because she’s pretty sure that’s impossible, but it’s clear capital s Something happened to her in that overlap, and she doubts it’s good news. and to make matters even more disconcerting, she’s now being dogged at every step by strange visions of a child who speaks in an unfamiliar language and who seems Real Fuckin Pissed at her

so her thing is basically “I acquired fucked up reality-bending powers against my will and they might be lowkey killing me ‘cause Ports are notoriously unstable like that and also I’m haunted for some godforsaken reason” which all somehow ended up being, like, the least interesting part of her plotline for me lmao

oh and Noa also enlists the help of Shara, Because Ghosts

anyway yeah so her search to find out what’s happening to her re: Weird Children, being a Port-adjacent something-or-other, and whether there’s a way to stop her own unravelling leads her to (rogue computer programmer? mad scientist? general shifty bastard?) Laurence Marrick Thiele, who claims to have suffered a similar affliction in the past and now does some real interesting research on the subject. n this guy. well. he’s got some fuckin stuff going on

he definitely knows more about the nature of Ports than he should. also is he actually researching what he says he’s researching? also what’s with all the weird tech? also did he just straight up murder that guy Avery? all will be revealed later, maybe, if I feel like it

but yeah at about the same time as Noa goes “actually fuck this you’re shady as hell I’m out” she stumbles into, like, The Actual Reality of what Marrick is up to re: manipulating Ports and interdimensional doorways for his own gain, and the various ways this spells bad news not only for her but potentially for the entire city and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire, and she shifts gear to “actually you know what I’m gonna kick your ass”

there are various reasons for this, but first and foremosterly you have to understand that Noa’s got a fuckload of pent-up rage and she will bring it in full force the moment you say some stupid shit like “some people are expendable” or “it’s inevitable for the greater good”

(there’s also a fun ongoing subplot with her work at the DII where she and her team are investigating a string of strange illnesses with bizarre symptoms that appear to be spreading via obscure radio stations so that’s. happening. I guess?)

but yeah the main story here mostly follows Noa’s attempts to undermine Marrick, bastard supreme, and find a way to fuck him up before he goes, like, Full Cartoon Supervillain, n also like........... her attempts to keep up her work at the DII despite her rising paranoia that the teammates she’s growing to care about will notice her increasingly unstable state and the fact that she’s all tangled up with the very forces they’re meant to be thwarting. n along the way discovering the reality of what happened to her in The Aforementioned Overlap Incident and about her visions and such

so that’s all that. did that make sense

n she’s got a whole arc going on about trust and learning to lean on others, like, she comes into this story as a very standoffish person with lots of paranoia, she’s spent much of her life feeling like she can only rely on herself, n she’s. well. yeah, like I said, she’s got a lot of anger at the world and at the various systems that have failed her and her loved ones, n the story puts her in a position to become even more isolated

and her plotline isn’t so much “you have no reason to be angry or afraid” or her learning to Not Be, It’s more, like........... yeah you have every fucking right to be furious and of course you’re afraid! but there are people around you who love you and who will jump at the chance to defend you and who will help you carry the weight of your anger and grief and none of this needs to be yours to bear alone which is extremely cheesy

which applies to both her Weird Supernatural Goings-On as well as her regular ordinary life goings-on

I feel like Alice and Jet deserve a mention for Noa’s plotline but also this went on and on too long already so. well. Alice and Jet exist! yep. they work with Noa at the DII. I have things to say about them. I will not be saying them today

and uhhhhhh

in general, for Tris, his plotline, you wanna think, like, fantasy/adventure vibes which veer pretty sharply into horror, and for Noa you wanna think...... kinda, sci-fi mystery conspiracy vibes with a dash of some superhero bullshit maybe except not really

and that

pretty much is it I think

also the fact that Kai just invites themself into the plot for funsies and then is dragged kicking and screaming into caring about themself and making positive changes in their life means there was no convenient place in this post to be like

"oh there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop"

but there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop

goodnight! thanks for coming to....................... whatever this was! have a nice saturday everyone

[fandomanxiety-fa]

"Fluffy February" - Day Three

The Outerworlds

Felix Millstone X Captain Dottie

Summary: Felix has never left the Groundbreaker, but now he's on a new ship with a new Captain. And she is ready to travel all over the system, and not only is she traveling the system in a cool ship with a dark past, she's traveling with him. After time on the ship, the first place he goes to is Roseway with the Captain along with her annoying Vicar friend, and Felix has seen nothing like it.

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

The Unreliable.

This was his new home, and by the way, this home has so much food. So much food. He still couldn't even process how they needed this much food for five people! He was standing infront of the fridge, door swung open, rummaging through the endless supply of food. The Captain gave him a bunch of Rizzos that she bought on Groundbreaker for him, and he had eaten all of it. Now, he wanted something salty, an actual meal.

The cabinets!

He might as well lunged to the cabinets and began digging. While doing so he didn't realize he was being examined by his Captain, and soon he came back with expensive whiskey. It had been hidden far in the back out of view and had Max scrawled out on the side. Felix smirked to himself.

"I can't tell if your hungry, or looking to get roaring drunk," she chuckled a bit, and Felix whipped around in embarrassment.

"Hey, Boss! Erm, what's up?" Felix said, while putting the whiskey back in shame.

"Hey, get that back out. I want some too," she smiled, walking to the fridge.

She was beautiful, and Felix was embarrassed for acting like an animal.

"Honey, don't let me stop you! I came to eat too, ya' know."

Felix turned red all over. He had never been called honey before, and it left him all flustered as he fumbled to retrieve the whiskey from the cabinet. He managed to grab it and close the cabinet door with his leg when he stood up. She smiled bringing glasses whilst setting down things to make food on the burner. Felix watched her long bare legs as she walked towards him. He heard the glasses clink on the table, and it brought him out of the trance he was in.

Stop being so obvious!

He wanted to shrink away, as he watched her strong arms move when she grabbed a pan off a rack. He had never had been cooked for, especially for free, and by a girl! Especially a girl!

Woman Felix, she's a woman, man!

He watched her begin to make something he had never had before.

"You like spicy stuff, Felix?" She asked him, and he perked up nervously.

"Yeah! I do. What erm about you, Boss?" Felix replied, and she laughed at him.

"Why are you so nervous, Millstone?"

"I am not!"

She shook her head, "Felix, did you see the game with Rizzos Rangers this evening?"

"Oh yeah! It was a great game, Boss! You like the Rangers, Boss?" Felix asked, his nervousness went away.

"Oh, I love them! They are a really good team! My favorite! I love the thirty-fifth back!" She smiled, and he poured himself some whiskey.

She was to perfect.. the perfect woman. She loves Rizzos Rangers, is super strong, and-.

"Pour me a glass, will you?" She asked, peeking back at him with her green eyes.

They are Auntie Cleo green...

"Sure, Boss."

"Come on, don't call me that. Call me, Dot."

"Okay."

Dot.

Felix awoke in his bunk with a headache along with a loud rap on his door.

"Open this door right now!"

The Vicar.

"Go get spaced, I'm sleeping!" Felix yelled back, and he rolled over to the window.

"Ada! I request you open this door! Now!"

"I cannot, Vicar. It violates the crewmate Felix's privacy. On another note, I will not tolerate disrespect from the likes of you, Vicar."

He cussed loudly, stomping down the hall. He made his way down the stairs to the Captain's Quarters, where he tried to compose himself enough to call for the Captain to sort out this mess.

"Captain!"

No response.

"Captain!"

Silence.

"Captain! I would like to speak with you!"

The door whooshed open where a very angry looking Captain stood. She wore nothing but a shorts and a odd top that ended far above her stomach.

"Captain! Make yourself presentable first!" Max scolded, all while red eared.

"This is what your getting for rudely tearing me from bed, Vicar. Now what is it?" She growled, and he tried to keep eye contact.

"What is that...that top?"

Please put a top on...

"It's called a sports bra. Spit out what you want. Now."

"Felix has taken one if my belongings, Captain," Max stated, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. We both drank it. I will get you more. What are you even doing trying to drink this early? Or are you filling up that vial of yours?" She spoke, and he glared at her.

"That vial holds no such thing. You are mistaken, Captain."

"Yeah? Well, tell me what I took a big swig of then?"

Silence.

"Exactly, Vicar," she spoke, and then the door shut in his face.

Well played, Captain. I'll have to hide my spirits somewhere else...

Felix was excited. The Captain was going to Roseway now, and he couldn't wait. He had never been anywhere but Groundbreaker. He finished pulling his red sleeves on and began zipping it up while looking in the mirror. He looked at his wet hair through the steam in the mirror.

The water pressure is good here! And the water is warm! Not like that cold crap on the Groundbreaker!

He picked up his bracelet and slid it on his wrist, and then looked at all the toothbrushes in the cup on the sink.

Which one is mine? Do I use...um...do I have one? I lost mine when I moved in so, uh.

A knock erupted from the door, and he opened it, to reveal the Captian.

"I got you a new toothbrush. It's red, like your clothing," she spoke quietly, and he noticed she looked flustered.

"Aw thanks! What happened to my other one?" Felix asked, and she laughed nervously.

"I saw that it was...really old...and uh...well, I threw it out. It looked like it was really old. Sorry," she mumbled, and he smiled.

"Nah! That's fine! I just couldn't get a new one. Didn't have much money. Thanks, B-Dottie!" He smiled, and it was that boy-ish, cute smile he had.

She smiled and he closed the door when she left. He began brushing his teeth with joy.

This toothbrush is stiff...

He forgot what a new brush felt like. He'd only ever had one. The harsh bristles of the brush glided across his teeth as he though of his new serial-worthy Captain.

She's pretty, and looks like she could break my arm. Which is attractive too. I wonder if she is been everywhere. She seems like it. She has pretty eyes. A nice green. They have a look to them. I bet she's a good fighter and not some board lackey. Yeah! A rebel like me! That makes her even more hot!

Felix realized he had brushed his teeth until they bled, and quickly spat it all out of his mouth.

Oh no! Is this bad? Maybe I should see Ellie? Man, what does this mean? Crap! She probably is asleep! I'll go see the Captain.

Quickly Felix rushed out the door to see the Captain, where he spotted her heading down the stairs. He tapped her shoulder while spewing her name in panic.

"I brushed my teeth and now I'm bleeding!" He cried, and then she burst out laughing.

"Felix that's when you brush your teeth to hard! Your fine!"

"Oh."

He felt embarrassed and looked at his feet. The laughing ceased, and she put her hand on his forearm making him look at her.

"Don't feel bad! It's okay, Felix. I am glad you trust me to diagnose you!" She smiled sweetly, and footsteps came from behind.

"I came for my armor Captain," a voice that sounded an awful lot like a blood-boiling, loathing Vicar.

"Wait. He's coming?" Felix asked, and she sighed.

"You two are going to have to get along. I mean it. So, you'll get to bond over the mysterious Roseway mission," Dottie sighed, and Felix huffed.

He noticed some lockers up against the wall. Six to be exact. Dottie opens a door and began slipping armor on over her clothes.

"Your armor is in a locker over there, Felix," she pointed at the locker on the end.

"Has Ms. Fenhill expressed her concerns to you, Captain?" Max asked, and the Captain looked at him.

"Yes. She thinks it quote, this Roseway business smells, unquote. Do you have anything to say, Vicar?" Dottie asked slipping on her boots.

"I believe we should proceed with caution. This could very well be a trap," Max spoke, and Felix noticed Max's eyes linger a bit on Dottie.

Back off Vicar. She doesn't like you, man. Ew. Who would?

Felix pulled on his final armor piece besides his helmet and glanced back at Dottie, who now had her helmet on.

"Ready to go?" She asked him, and he nodded with an ear-to-ear grin.

This made her smile. She liked he's boy-ish smiles and light filled eyes. He was a dreamy, silly boy that makes her laugh. He proved that last night as they exchanged jokes over whiskey and spicy casserole.

Soon enough, they walked outside the ship. Felix's eyes squinted as the bright light outside hit his eyes, and the fresh air invaded his nose. Glancing around Felix saw beautiful plant life around him that was foreign to him.

Pictures and serials didn't do the outside world justice!

"Felix? Honey? Are you alright?"

He hasn't noticed the tears going down his face, and he grew embarrassed trying swipe them away.

"You've never been off Groundbreaker?" The Vicar asked.

"No. He hasn't. Hey, we can go anywhere you want, Felix! And here, let me show you something," Dottie spoke soft and timid, reaching into her pack.

She pulled out a journal, and opened it while leaning to show him.

"It can be our project. I've been putting different flowers and ferns and such inside from each planet. To remember things and stuff. I've been writing what I can that I know about them. We both can do it!" She smiled at him, and he looked at her pretty handwriting and plants smashed into the pages within the journal.

"Yeah, Dot! Can I sign it? Read the other pages?" He asked excited, while wiping some tears away.

"Duh! Your family now! You can write your name in it!"

His heart grew warm. He smiled and almost started crying, but held it back (he couldn't afford for that insufferable Vicar to see him like that again).

"Now," she began, slipping the book in her bag, "let's go!"

Family.

His heart was pounding with joy at the thought. If a family was a Captain who could break his arm, a pirate sawbones, a sweet mechanic, and a grumpy "Vicar" (that didn't really count)...well, this was a interesting family for sure.

And he didn't want it any other way, because life wasnt dull anymore, and now he had a purpose. He could go anywhere he wanted, no longer being shacked to the Groundbreaker by poverty.

And most of all...

I've got a family!

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

[im-a-ramblr]

Day 16 Always

Link, the hero of the Minish and four sword, never had to worry about being alone. He had felt it, everyone does, but to a much lesser extent than his friends. Growing up he’d had Zelda, his father, and grandfather. As a youth, he had the Minish and then the quarters of himself. Even after he’d become one it had still taken a while for the four voices in his head to merge and fall silent. And then he’d meet the others of the hero’s spirit.

So alone wasn’t really a thing he often dealt with, or at least not in the way Hyrule had been. He’d always had someone, even if that person had been himself. 

The other Links were aware of this fact, to some extent. Legend occasionally tried to tease him about it, mostly combining it with his height to make jokes about him being the real baby of the team. Despite this, they knew he was just as capable as any of them. Four's life had been blessed enough to have his companions, but it didn’t make him dependent. 

Four took great pride in being a help to those around him. It was a staple in his life and likely part of the reason he had so many people in his life. But he could always be the one to help. That had been a difficult lesson to learn. Even now he felt the urge to help his fellow traveling companions. 

When Wild fell near-catatonic because of a memory return, he held himself back, knowing Twilight was the best option, but still feeling the need to do something. But it was okay because Twi had experience with working with memories coming back.

When Sky stared up at the clouds and played a soft melody on his harp, Four nearly buzzed with the desire to talk to him, but let Time do it instead. But Time knew about missing a lover better than four did.

Warriors waking up in a cold sweat and shying away from touch was something Legend slept with well, but it hurt to sit still and do nothing. But it was okay because pushing would just make Warriors shut down and it helped Legend work through his own feelings.

Hyrule and Wind were the best to talk to each other because they were both so young, but even not being able to keep up with the conversation kept Four from wanting to join. But he didn’t, because they deserve to be kids, and even if he was their age his adventure had aged him. 

When the feeling of failing came to him in these instances, he would take a deep breath and remind himself that letting other help wasn’t failing. There would always be a time for him to help, and there would always be a time for him to let others do what they did better than this. Just like there were always going to be times when he needed to step away from the group and just breathe. 

Learning to let go and accept his limits had been hard, especially after his quests, which had beaten into his head that alone and lonely were different things. 

Four sighed as he sat on his log, wondering what had brought up these thoughts. He knew he was more porn to quote-unquote deep thoughts. But they usually had a prompting.

Twilight number his shoulder, a general grin on his face. “What you thinking about?” 

“Oh, nothing much. Just the nature of helping others.”

Twilight tilted his head and nodded. “And what would you say that is?”

“A good thing, that takes energy and time. That you should always try to do, and always give you full to, but also something that you can’t do if you’re not taking care of you.”

“Shouldn’t do.” Twi corrected. “It’s possible to help others when it hurts you, it should just be done with extreme caution. I think that’s something we all forgot sometimes.” 

“True. But can we really change that?” asked the shorter boy.

“Probably not. It’s always been a part of the hero’s spirit. Maybe even the human spirit.”

“That’s a nice thought.”

[fandomanxiety-library]

"Fluffy February" - Day Three

The Outer Worlds

Felix Millstone X Captain Dottie

Summary: Felix has never left the Groundbreaker, but now he's on a new ship with a new Captain. And she is ready to travel all over the system, and not only is she traveling the system in a cool ship with a dark past, she's traveling with him. After time on the ship, the first place he goes to is Roseway with the Captain along with her annoying Vicar friend, and Felix has seen nothing like it.

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

The Unreliable.

This was his new home, and by the way, this home has so much food. So much food. He still couldn't even process how they needed this much food for five people! He was standing infront of the fridge, door swung open, rummaging through the endless supply of food. The Captain gave him a bunch of Rizzos that she bought on Groundbreaker for him, and he had eaten all of it. Now, he wanted something salty, an actual meal.

The cabinets!

He might as well lunged to the cabinets and began digging. While doing so he didn't realize he was being examined by his Captain, and soon he came back with expensive whiskey. It had been hidden far in the back out of view and had Max scrawled out on the side. Felix smirked to himself.

"I can't tell if your hungry, or looking to get roaring drunk," she chuckled a bit, and Felix whipped around in embarrassment.

"Hey, Boss! Erm, what's up?" Felix said, while putting the whiskey back in shame.

"Hey, get that back out. I want some too," she smiled, walking to the fridge.

She was beautiful, and Felix was embarrassed for acting like an animal.

"Honey, don't let me stop you! I came to eat too, ya' know."

Felix turned red all over. He had never been called honey before, and it left him all flustered as he fumbled to retrieve the whiskey from the cabinet. He managed to grab it and close the cabinet door with his leg when he stood up. She smiled bringing glasses whilst setting down things to make food on the burner. Felix watched her long bare legs as she walked towards him. He heard the glasses clink on the table, and it brought him out of the trance he was in.

Stop being so obvious!

He wanted to shrink away, as he watched her strong arms move when she grabbed a pan off a rack. He had never had been cooked for, especially for free, and by a girl! Especially a girl!

Woman Felix, she's a woman, man!

He watched her begin to make something he had never had before.

"You like spicy stuff, Felix?" She asked him, and he perked up nervously.

"Yeah! I do. What erm about you, Boss?" Felix replied, and she laughed at him.

"Why are you so nervous, Millstone?"

"I am not!"

She shook her head, "Felix, did you see the game with Rizzos Rangers this evening?"

"Oh yeah! It was a great game, Boss! You like the Rangers, Boss?" Felix asked, his nervousness went away.

"Oh, I love them! They are a really good team! My favorite! I love the thirty-fifth back!" She smiled, and he poured himself some whiskey.

She is to perfect.. the perfect woman. She loves Rizzos Rangers, is super strong, and-.

"Pour me a glass, will you?" She asked, peeking back at him with her green eyes.

They are Auntie Cleo green...

"Sure, Boss."

"Come on, don't call me that. Call me, Dot."

"Okay."

Dot.

Felix awoke in his bunk with a headache along with a loud rap on his door.

"Open this door right now!"

The Vicar.

"Go get spaced, I'm sleeping!" Felix yelled back, and he rolled over to the window.

"Ada! I request you open this door! Now!"

"I cannot, Vicar. It violates the crewmate Felix's privacy. On another note, I will not tolerate disrespect from the likes of you, Vicar."

He cussed loudly, stomping down the hall. He made his way down the stairs to the Captain's Quarters, where he tried to compose himself enough to call for the Captain to sort out this mess.

"Captain!"

No response.

"Captain!"

Silence.

"Captain! I would like to speak with you!"

The door whooshed open where a very angry looking Captain stood. She wore nothing but a shorts and a odd top that ended far above her stomach.

"Captain! Make yourself presentable first!" Max scolded, all while red eared.

"This is what your getting for rudely tearing me from bed, Vicar. Now what is it?" She growled, and he tried to keep eye contact.

"What is that...that top?"

Please put a top on...

"It's called a sports bra. Spit out what you want. Now."

"Felix has taken one if my belongings, Captain," Max stated, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. We both drank it. I will get you more. What are you even doing trying to drink this early? Or are you filling up that vial of yours?" She spoke, and he glared at her.

"That vial holds no such thing. You are mistaken, Captain."

"Yeah? Well, tell me what I took a big swig of then?"

Silence.

"Exactly, Vicar," she spoke, and then the door shut in his face.

Well played, Captain. I'll have to hide my spirits somewhere else...

Felix was excited. The Captain was going to Roseway now, and he couldn't wait. He had never been anywhere but Groundbreaker. He finished pulling his red sleeves on and began zipping it up while looking in the mirror. He looked at his wet hair through the steam in the mirror.

The water pressure is good here! And the water is warm! Not like that cold crap on the Groundbreaker!

He picked up his bracelet and slid it on his wrist, and then looked at all the toothbrushes in the cup on the sink.

Which one is mine? Do I use...um...do I have one? I lost mine when I moved in so, uh.

A knock erupted from the door, and he opened it, to reveal the Captian.

"I got you a new toothbrush. It's red, like your clothing," she spoke quietly, and he noticed she looked flustered.

"Aw thanks! What happened to my other one?" Felix asked, and she laughed nervously.

"I saw that it was...really old...and uh...well, I threw it out. It looked like it was really old. Sorry," she mumbled, and he smiled.

"Nah! That's fine! I just couldn't get a new one. Didn't have much money. Thanks, B-Dottie!" He smiled, and it was that boy-ish, cute smile he had.

She smiled and he closed the door when she left. He began brushing his teeth with joy.

This toothbrush is stiff...

He forgot what a new brush felt like. He'd only ever had one. The harsh bristles of the brush glided across his teeth as he though of his new serial-worthy Captain.

She's pretty, and looks like she could break my arm. Which is attractive too. I wonder if she is been everywhere. She seems like it. She has pretty eyes. A nice green. They have a look to them. I bet she's a good fighter and not some board lackey. Yeah! A rebel like me! That makes her even more hot!

Felix realized he had brushed his teeth until they bled, and quickly spat it all out of his mouth.

Oh no! Is this bad? Maybe I should see Ellie? Man, what does this mean? Crap! She probably is asleep! I'll go see the Captain.

Quickly Felix rushed out the door to see the Captain, where he spotted her heading down the stairs. He tapped her shoulder while spewing her name in panic.

"I brushed my teeth and now I'm bleeding!" He cried, and then she burst out laughing.

"Felix that's when you brush your teeth to hard! Your fine!"

"Oh."

He felt embarrassed and looked at his feet. The laughing ceased, and she put her hand on his forearm making him look at her.

"Don't feel bad! It's okay, Felix. I am glad you trust me to diagnose you!" She smiled sweetly, and footsteps came from behind.

"I came for my armor Captain," a voice that sounded an awful lot like a blood-boiling, loathing Vicar.

"Wait. He's coming?" Felix asked, and she sighed.

"You two are going to have to get along. I mean it. So, you'll get to bond over the mysterious Roseway mission," Dottie sighed, and Felix huffed.

He noticed some lockers up against the wall. Six to be exact. Dottie opens a door and began slipping armor on over her clothes.

"Your armor is in a locker over there, Felix," she pointed at the locker on the end.

"Has Ms. Fenhill expressed her concerns to you, Captain?" Max asked, and the Captain looked at him.

"Yes. She thinks it quote, this Roseway business smells, unquote. Do you have anything to say, Vicar?" Dottie asked slipping on her boots.

"I believe we should proceed with caution. This could very well be a trap," Max spoke, and Felix noticed Max's eyes linger a bit on Dottie.

Back off Vicar. She doesn't like you, man. Ew. Who would?

Felix pulled on his final armor piece besides his helmet and glanced back at Dottie, who now had her helmet on.

"Ready to go?" She asked him, and he nodded with an ear-to-ear grin.

This made her smile. She liked he's boy-ish smiles and light filled eyes. He was a dreamy, silly boy that makes her laugh. He proved that last night as they exchanged jokes over whiskey and spicy casserole.

Soon enough, they walked outside the ship. Felix's eyes squinted as the bright light outside hit his eyes, and the fresh air invaded his nose. Glancing around Felix saw beautiful plant life around him that was foreign to him.

Pictures and serials didn't do the outside world justice!

"Felix? Honey? Are you alright?"

He hasn't noticed the tears going down his face, and he grew embarrassed trying swipe them away.

"You've never been off Groundbreaker?" The Vicar asked.

"No. He hasn't. Hey, we can go anywhere you want, Felix! And here, let me show you something," Dottie spoke soft and timid, reaching into her pack.

She pulled out a journal, and opened it while leaning to show him.

"It can be our project. I've been putting different flowers and ferns and such inside from each planet. To remember things and stuff. I've been writing what I can that I know about them. We both can do it!" She smiled at him, and he looked at her pretty handwriting and plants smashed into the pages within the journal.

"Yeah, Dot! Can I sign it? Read the other pages?" He asked excited, while wiping some tears away.

"Duh! Your family now! You can write your name in it!"

His heart grew warm. He smiled and almost started crying, but held it back (he couldn't afford for that insufferable Vicar to see him like that again).

"Now," she began, slipping the book in her bag, "let's go!"

Family.

His heart was pounding with joy at the thought. If a family was a Captain who could break his arm, a pirate sawbones, a sweet mechanic, and a grumpy "Vicar" (that didn't really count)...well, this was a interesting family for sure.

And he didn't want it any other way, because life wasnt dull anymore, and now he had a purpose. He could go anywhere he wanted, no longer being shacked to the Groundbreaker by poverty.

And most of all...

I've got a family!

[just-absolutely-super]

Attempting Love Potions

@soulxmakaweek

Day 7: Magic. And what’s more magical than love potions lmao. Yes, I'm pulling the old, "Love Potion No. 9" cliché. BUT WITH A TWIST! Read and find out what that twist is!

Summary: Kim's up to no good, brandishing a love potion guaranteed to make your unrequited love requited. Shame it doesn't seem to work on her intended target...

FF.net // AO3

"C'mon, Maka. You know you waaaant to!" Kim tried to entice, wiggling the little pink vial of liquid in her hand.

The scythe meister scowled at the young witch. "No, Kim. I've told you a thousands times already: I do not want any part of a love potion!"

Maka ignored Kim's pout. Ever since Kim revealed a witch acquaintance of hers had brewed up a love potion guaranteed to make your—quote—"unrequited love requited"—unquote—she had been bugging Maka nonstop to use it on Soul.

The blonde didn't even understand why Kim was so insistent on it. It's not like she liked Soul or anything…

Okay, fine, she'll admit she may be developing feelings for him that may or may not be romantic. HOWEVER, she refused to play Kim's game and force her weapon to develop the same affections toward her.

It was practically inhumane! And probably illegal as Kid hadn't figured out all the details when it came to using forms of magic in this new DWMA/Witch alliance yet…

Kim groaned, "Maka! Everyone knows you and Soul are, like, endgame! Why don't you do every single one of us a favor and speed up the process a little?"

Maka pushed away the proffered drink, "No, Kim. Please stop pushing this. It's making me mad."

She was not above Maka Chopping a friend—ask Soul and Black Star.

Thankfully, the witch backed down, but Maka could tell she was displeased.

"Fine! See if I try helping you gain a love life in the future!"

Maka rolled her eyes, "I don't need anyone's help, thank you very much. If I want a boyfriend, I can get one."

Kim snorted, eyeing Maka up and down, "Not with that figure you ain't."

Maka felt a vein about to burst. Maybe she should go ahead and Maka Chop her. Sure, Kim might get revenge on her in some way, but it wouldn't be anything major considering she knew Kim somewhat feared the scythe meister. After all, Maka did kill Arachne and went toe-to-toe with Kishin Asura.

"Who cares what anyone thinks about my 'figure'?" Maka huffed, "If they were worth anything, they wouldn't care. Anyways, even if I did want to 'speed up' my relationship with Soul—which, by the way, is none of your business—I wouldn't use something as underhanded as a love potion. I want Soul to like me because he chooses to. It's really sleazy trying to force feelings onto somebody, and Soul would never forgive me if I did that to him."

Kim held up her hands in defense, "Okay, okay. I won't bother you about it anymore. Geez, no need to get all noble on me…"

Maka nodded, "Thank you for understanding. I gotta go meet up with Soul now, so I'll see you in Stein's class later today okay?"

Kim waved at her friend's retreating back, "Alright, see you then."

As she watched Maka round the corner, Kim turned her gaze back to the love potion in her hands. She puffed her cheeks out in annoyance. She spent a good amount of money for this bottle!

When her friend Winifred sent out that notice that she had brewed "the perfect love potion," Kim couldn't help but jump on the opportunity. All the students at the DWMA could tell that Maka and Soul were taken with each other, so this felt like the most logical thing to do.

Sure, it may be an…she'll say unorthodox way in getting the two together, but she figured that if Soul started acting desperately in love with his meister then it would kick start his actual real feelings for her.

All the romcoms with love potions ended in happily ever after, who's to say this wouldn't turn out favorably?

Putting the love potion in her pocket, Kim leaned against the wall, waiting for Jackie to meet up with her so they could go to their next class. Across from her she noticed a soda machine. As she stared at it, she felt an idea pop into her head.

Well…Maka did say she didn't want to use the love potion. She never said anything about Kim using it for her own goals.

Goals that happened to involve her two friends getting together, that was.

Letting out an almost sinister giggle, Kim reached into her pocket to locate some change.

----------

Maka and Soul made themselves comfortable in their seats as they waited for Stein to enter the room to begin class. In the row below them, Maka noticed Jacqueline but not her meister.

"Jackie? Where's Kim?" Maka inquired.

The demon lantern shrugged, "I'm not sure. We were on our way here when she told me she had to do something really quick. I asked her if she wanted me to go with her, but she declined and told me to save her seat."

Maka hummed, feeling unease in the pit of her stomach. She hoped this didn't have anything to do with what the two discussed roughly an hour ago…

"Here I am! Sorry for making you wait, Jackie!" Maka was pulled out of her thoughts at the sound of the witch's voice.

She looked normal enough, a bright smile painted on her porcelain face. In each hand were bottles of Coke. Maka felt herself smile. She supposed she was being paranoid over nothing.

"I got us some drinks. Here!" Kim said, placing one bottle in front of her on the desk before offering the second to her weapon.

Jackie frowned, "Kim, you know that I cut out soda from my diet after I got that kidney stone last month. I can't drink that."

Kim's mouth formed an "o" as she dramatically smacked herself in the head, "Oh darn! I completely forgot! Oh well…"

She then turned around, eyeing Soul and Maka…particularly Soul.

"I don't want this to go to waste, so…Soul! Would you like this Coke?"

Soul gave a nonchalant shrug, reaching for the drink, "Sure, whatever."

It was when she saw Kim's triumphant smirk that it hit Maka what game the witch was playing at. Widening her eyes, she reached out to her weapon as he opened the bottle to take a sip.

"Wait, Soul, stop!"

"Yes, Soul, drink it!" Kim exclaimed, grabbing Maka's hand, so she could prevent her from stopping her weapon. She then used her grip on Maka's hand to pull her forward so Maka was the first person Soul saw.

Seeing the strange reaction in front of him, Soul stopped drinking the Coke to give his meister an incredulous stare. "What's the problem?"

Maka blinked at him, biting her lip in anticipation of something happening. But after a minute passed and the only reaction she got out of her weapon was his usual bored expression, Maka felt herself relax before breaking away from Kim's hold.

Kim, on the other hand, gaped at the scythe in shock. "Wait, what?! You look and act the same!"

Soul blinked, his lips turning downwards, "Am…I not supposed to?"

Kim forcefully grabbed the bottle from his hand and sniffed it. Humming in thought she turned back to Soul.

"Did this taste any different to you?"

Soul narrowed his eyes, "I admit, it's a lot sweeter than I thought it'd be. Why? Did you do something to it?"

Kim ignored his questions, chucking the Coke across the room as she ranted and raved about "scams" and how she was going to skin alive some person named Winifred for "making a fool out of her." All the while everyone in the class stared at the pink haired girl as if she had gone crazy.

Soul turned to Maka, confusion clearly written in his red eyes, "What the hell just happened?"

Maka frowned. She knew exactly what happened. However, like Kim, the outcome was not something she expected. The young witch obviously put the love potion in the drink she gave to Soul. Her plan was to trick him into drinking it so it would have the desired effect on him. Only it didn't work.

The question though, was why didn't it work?

Why wasn't Soul in love with Maka?

"Hey, earth to Maka. I asked you a question."

Maka returned Soul's gaze, searching his eyes. They were the same. He really wasn't affected by the magic of the potion.

Before she could explain, she heard the faint rolling of Stein's chair and the subsequent crash of him falling over, indicating the beginning of his class.

"I'll tell you later." She said, hoping by the time the lecture was over and they made it home she'd have come up with an explanation as to why her weapon wasn't head over heels in fake love with her.

----------

An hour and a half later Maka still didn't know the answer.

She and Soul were walking back to their apartment after school was over (the weather was so nice, Maka had begged Soul to forgo using the bike for today). Maka was concentrating silently on her thoughts while Soul trudged afterwards, glancing at his meister every now and then.

"So you gonna tell me what was up with Kim or what?" he asked.

Maka furrowed her brow. In theory the love potion should have worked. Soul didn't love her, so therefore if he had drank the potion he should be acting out of character right now as his emotions were forced to recognize her as the object of his affections. Keyword should. The reality of the situation was that Soul was acting the same, indicating that there was a flaw somewhere in Kim’s plan.

Maybe the potion was faulty? She couldn't imagine a witch selling Kim a product that wouldn't work, but witches were very crafty, so it couldn't be too off the mark.

"Hey, Maka! Are you listening to me?"

Maybe the ingredients of the soft drink messed with the composition of the potion? That seemed like a reach, and she didn't feel the urge to perform experiments in relation to whether carbonation affected your hormone levels or not…

"Maaaaaka!"

Maybe the potion didn’t affect weapons? Or maybe Soul’s Black Blood had something to do with it? Like maybe it protects him from magic and spells. But, wait, then all the magic the witches they’ve faced in the past wouldn’t have affected him either… Ugh, she was getting a headache from all this analyzing.

"Maka Albarn is a scrawny, nerdy bookworm who definitely loves her Papa!"

"Excuse me?!" Maka cried out, halting in her stride. She glared at her partner, feeling the familiar urge to reach for a book.

Soul gave her an infuriating grin, holding his arms over his head in protection of a possible Maka Chop, "I had to get your attention somehow."

She pouted. "What do you want?"

"I want you to tell me what was up with Kim in class this afternoon. You told me you'd explain, so start explaining."

Oh, right. Of course. Even if Maka didn't know the full explanation as to why Kim's plan failed, the least she could do was tell Soul what said plan was.

"Alright, I'll tell you. But don't get mad at me about it because I specifically told her not to do it!"

Soul waved her off, "Yeah, sure. I got it. Now spill."

Maka took a deep breath. "Kim purchased a love potion from a witch friend of hers. She's been wanting to use it on you as a…prank."

She'd rather die than tell him the real reason for why Kim wanted to trick him into drinking the potion.

Soul blanched. "A…love potion?"

Maka nodded. "Yeah, she wanted to see if it would work and make you fall in love. I guess she thought it'd be even funnier if it were me you fell in love with…"

She averted her gaze away from his, unable to handle the look of disgust he must have on his face. She already knew he didn't have feelings for her, no need to rub salt into the wounds at his vehement protesting for why he would never fall for her, ever.

"I can't believe it…" he said, shock lacing his voice. Suddenly she heard him growl, "That meddling little bitch!"

While Maka didn't usually condone Soul's harsh language toward their comrades, she admitted he was justified in his name-calling. After all, she was thinking the same thing when she realized what Kim's plan had been with that Coke.

"I know. I told her it was a bad idea."

"A bad idea?! She was basically gonna drug me!"

"I know! It was definitely not cool!"

"Hell no, it wasn't! And she actually thought her stupid little plan was gonna work? As if!"

Maka felt herself wince. Okay, now she was hearing the part of his rant that she didn't feel inclined to listen to. Again, he was justified in his anger, but it didn't make it hurt any less that he didn't want to fall in love with her.

"I mean, of course I didn't fall in love with you after drinking it! I'm already—"

He immediately fell silent, his teeth audibly clicking together with how strongly he snapped his mouth shut. Maka blinked in shock.

"You're already…what?"

Sweat began to form on the Death Scythe's brow. "Nothing…"

Maka narrowed her eyes, "No, you were going to say something. What were you going to say?"

He began walking again, his pace picking up as he swiftly moved passed her, "I wasn't going to say anything, let's just drop it!"

"Hey, wait up Soul!" she called after him, practically running to catch up to him.

"I'm feeling pasta tonight, are you? What would you rather have, fettuccini or spaghetti?"

"Quit avoiding the subject, Soul!"

"What subject? The only subject I'm talking about is pasta!"

Maka screamed in frustration.

Why did she have to fall in love with this moron?

----------

"Uh-huh… Yeah, okay… I get it now. Sorry for bitching at you earlier, Winnie. I'll see you at the next Witch Mass… Okay, bye!"

Kim sighed as she closed her cell phone. She and Jackie were sitting at Death Bucks, having a quick snack before heading back to the girls' dorm.

Jackie sipped her chai tea, "So what did she say?"

Kim stirred her iced mocha, "Winifred's potion wasn't a scam like I thought it was. Apparently, if the person drinking it lays eyes on the person they're already in love with it then there's no effect. Something about their love cancelling out the fake love or whatever."

Jackie nodded, "So it does work, you just have to be sure your target really doesn't love you."

"Yep…" she trailed off.

The two were silent for a second, sipping their respective drinks before Jacqueline spoke up again.

"Isn't this a good thing though? I mean, that means the reason Soul wasn't affected was because he already loves Maka. We now have concrete proof."

Kim nodded, but she still looked peeved, "Well, duh, of course I'm happy that the number one pair at the DWMA is practically one step closer to being a legit couple—fucking ecstatic actually!"

"But…?"

"But I was robbed of wacky hijinks!" Kim bellowed, "That emotionally constipated scythe was supposed to act stupidly in love with Maka! Think of the blackmail, Jackie! All the glorious blackmail!"

Jackie sighed. Sometimes she wished her meister didn't have such a devious side. "Well, maybe Maka will figure out why the potion didn't work and she and Soul can finally be together."

Before Kim could retort, they were distracted by the sudden appearance of Soul who was sprinting at impressively high speeds passed their table.

The two girls blinked, flabbergasted. Before either of them could comment on the strange occurrence, another figure barreled by.

"SOUL EATER EVANS!" Maka Albarn bellowed, "GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE! YOU CAN'T USE PASTA AS AN EXCUSE FOREVER!"

Once the scythe meister had disappeared from view, Kim turned back to Jackie. Her face was passive, as if what had just happened didn't even faze her.

"Please! It's gonna take those two a miracle to get their shit together!"

[batarangtotheheart]

Different (Batmom x Jason Todd)

SURPRISE, BITCHES. Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me, but nope!

Pt. II to Blood

Summary: Batmom is Bruce’s new girlfriend. After a while, she got Dick and Damian to like her. Now she tackles Bruce’s mysterious and angry son, Jason.

Warnings: references to death, swearing

It had been a month since the auction and Damian had started to warm up to you. In fact, all of his kids had. Or at least, the kids you’d met. Apparently Bruce has many, many more kids and you grew exhausted at the thought of trying to get them all to like you. Of course, you'd spend countless hours trying to make them accept and maybe even like you, but perhaps one at a time.

One kid you were particularly excited to meet was Jason.

Of course, he was the most unruly and quote, unquote “ruder than Damian” but you just smiled through the fear and anxiety at the thought of someone being ruder than the kid who called you a harlot within five minutes of your meeting.

“Dick, honey, I don’t think you have to worry. I don’t know about Bruce’s plans but I plan on being here for you kids while we are still together. I mean, even Damian warmed up to me.”

Truth be told, every kid Bruce had was basically an orphan before Bruce took them in. Nobody had a purely positive figure in their life, especially not one of a mother. They all searched for that figure in their own way and the smallest part of you believed that maybe you could fill that void in them. Dick smiled at your words and nodded before coming closer to hug you.

Out of all the kids, Dick was the nicest and warmest. He was also the easiest to get to know and to accept you. You definitely wouldn’t say you filled any such void within the poor guy, and you might not ever. But he tries to be open and welcoming to you and you had to admit that you were starting to bond with him. He was definitely the most dependent. You came to enjoy his ‘emergency’ calls when he needs help learning how to properly do laundry at 2 AM because he spilled ketchup on his Nightwing onesie. You came to know him as the biggest Nightwing fan. He had to be. What kind of man in his 20s has a onesie for a superhero and isn’t totally obsessed with them? “I’ll see you later.” He smiled at you once more before leaving. You took a deep breath in, nervous for tonight.

Ah yes, tonight. The night where you’d finally meet the mysterious son of Bruce. Jason was his name and apparently he has had issues ever since he had to fake his death to avoid a stalker when he was a kid. You didn’t know much about him other than he really resented Bruce and that he liked to make jokes about his “death”.

You put on a knee length dark blue dress and black kitten heels and nervously made your way downstairs just as the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” You yelled, not wanting to have Alfred be interrupted while he cooks.

You opened the door to see a young man who looked to be around 20 or 21 dressed in a red dress shirt, black pants, black shoes and a black leather jacket. The man liked black, apparently. Just from that you already knew who it was. “You must be Jason. I’m Y/N, Bruce’s-“

He interrupted. “Fling. I know.”

You pursed your lips and nodded. You could tell he would be a challenge just like Damian. But you were someone who enjoyed a challenge.

“I was going to say girlfriend but I guess we all have our own words.” You tried to joke, but he just stood there, unamused.

You smiled and gestured for him to come in. He looked you up and down before walking inside with a blank face. You could tell he was a lot like Bruce, probably more than either men cared to admit.

“So Jason, how old are you?” You asked, following him into the dining room. He just slumped down in an empty chair and examined his nails. “Probably not that much younger than you, if I know Bruce.” He chuckled to himself. You felt your anger rise but held it in and nodded. Be patient, Y/N.

“I’m only three years younger than Bruce, actually.”

Damian came down after a short moment of complete awkward silence. “Y/N. Todd.”

There was a clear distaste when he said ‘Todd’ but Jason just grinned chaotically. “Hey, little tot.”

Damian glowered. “I may physically be a child, but at least I do not act like one.” He carefully sat in the chair next to you and crossed his arms. Jason rose an eyebrow. He definitely didn’t know Damian to be someone to warm up to anyone, especially not Bruce’s flings. “Who invited you, anyway?”

Jason tilted his chair back and crossed his long legs. “Bold of you to assume that I need an invitation. But if you must know, Bruce’s sugar baby here did. I was just as surprised as you.”

Damian looked at you, betrayed, but kept quiet. He figured you must have some plot to get Todd to like you, but if Damian knew Jason, he knew that he definitely was never going to warm up to you.

You were just about to snap at “sugar baby” when Alfred came in with the food. You could always trust his “Oh god, shit’s about to hit the fan” senses. “Dinner is served.”

Jason scoffed. “Where’s the old man? Too unbothered to come to dinner? Wow, he must reaaallyy like you.” He turned to you.

You were really going to smack this guy. He was different than what you assumed, he wasn’t anything like Damian. Damian was not bitter, he was just a kid who was always called a monster, a demon, and under those layers of toughness he just wanted to be accepted. But Jason was plain disrespectful and rude because nobody had the guts to stand up to him. Just as you were about to stand up to him, Bruce arrived. He gave you a quick kiss on the cheek as a greeting and sat down at the head of the table. “Jason. So nice of you to join us.”

“Nice of me? What about you? Last I checked, you were supposed to be here like, ten minutes ago.”

Bruce tucked a napkin into his shirt and calmly looked at Jason. “Business call.”

“You’d understand Todd,, if you had a proper job.” Damian quipped under his breath.

You quickly diffused the situation. “It smells delicious, Alfred. Thank you.”

You urged Damian to grab his helping before touching anything, wanting to make sure he had enough. The boy usually didn’t eat very large helpings and you were always fretting over his health. “Get as much as you want, Dami.”

Damian just nodded and put another spoonful of spaghetti on his plate. You smiled and Jason just about died of shock. You were definitely different than Bruce’s other flings. But he wouldn’t let himself start to like you. He knew you’d end up just being some crazy assassin or some gold digger. But you just turned to Jason. “Are you not going to eat? I invited you here for dinner because I know that apartment living isn’t exactly a 5 star restaurant. Trust me, I lived on ramen and Cheetos for years.”

Jason nodded. “So you’re with Bruce because you just couldn’t handle your poor lifestyle anymore, then. I figured you out.”

Bruce spoke up, “Jason, that’s enough.”

You patted Bruce’s hand and laughed.

“Trust me, if I was with Bruce for fancy meals and money I wouldn’t have asked Alfred to make spaghetti.”

Jason just stared blankly with an annoyed look in his eyes. He had to admit, he liked your patience and calm, quick wit.

“Nice bracelet. How many days were you dating Bruce before you begged him to buy it?”

Damian threw down his fork and stood up. “I won’t have you harassing her, you absolute fool. Would Father even be with her if she was the money grabbing trollop you insist she is?”

Jason was shocked at Damian’s defending you and shut up, angrily biting into his spaghetti.

You smiled and patted Damian on his shoulder. “It’s fine, Dami. Jason just met me, I’m sure there have been other women that your father has dated that he liked and they ditched him.” Damian sat down but continued to glare at Jason.

“Well, you’re right about the other women. He’s dated a lot of women. What number is she, like 127?” Jason laughed.

Bruce shot a warning look at Jason. “She’s different, Jason. And your whole act isn’t working. She isn’t like the other women I’ve dated.” Your heart was swelling at the two most stoic men you know defending you so wholeheartedly.

“And you are right, I admit I have dated lots of women. But Y/N is nothing like them. She makes me a better man, Jason. And I hope she can make you a better one too, because the man you are right now is disappointing.” He calmly but fiercely explained.

Jason seemed a bit hurt and just stood up. “Well, thanks for the dinner, Alfred. I need to get going. Nice to meet you, hope you last another week.” He quickly grabbed his jacket and left.

You sighed at that shook your head. “Bruce.” You gave him an annoyed look and got up, rushing to the kitchen before coming back out with containers in your hands and rushing out the door. It was the dead of winter and you were freezing but you pushed on, yelling Jason’s name. “Jason, wait!”

You slipped on a patch of ice just as he turned at you. His eyes widened and he rushed to you. “Are you okay?”

You winced but nodded and held out the containers of leftover spaghetti. “You forgot the leftovers. Like I said, you can’t just live off Cheetos.”

Jason felt his tough facade crack and he furrowed his eyebrows. “You literally nearly broke your ankle over leftover spaghetti.”

You looked up at him before bursting out laughing, forgetting the pain in your ankle.

Of all the reactions he expected you to have to his attitude that night, this definitely wasn’t one.

“Are you nuts?” He questioned, helping you off the cold ground and allowing you to balance yourself on his shoulder.

You grinned and winked. “Guess so, but who isn’t even a little crazy?”

Bruce was right, you were definitely different. Jason just picked the containers that somehow didn’t spill and nodded. “Right. Well, see you next week. What about Tuesday? What is Alfred making?”

You grinned up at the tall boy. You totally won him over and both of you knew it. “Whatever you want.”

Jason’s cheeks were dusted red from embarrassment at his own behavior. “Listen, uh, I’m kinda… sorry.”

You laughed it off and hit him on the shoulder. “No hard feelings,” your voice deepened and you gave a glare worse than the infamous Bat-Glare. “But if you ever call me a sugar baby again I will beat you with my shoe. Well, I’m freezing. Night, Jason! Be safe!” You turned and Jason watched you go, the warmth from the container warming his cold hands. “Night.” He quietly called after you.

Bruce and Damian were both completely confused when you came in and pumped a fist into the air, smiling. Alfred just smiled.

Yeah, you were definitely different.

[aboutcaseyaffleck]

Actor Casey Affleck Reflects On The Past And 'The World To Come'

The last time I saw Casey Affleck was after an 8:30 a.m. Sundance Film Festival screening of “Manchester by the Sea,” which left my colleagues and I so emotionally drained we were pretty much useless for the rest of the day. Affleck finds this very funny. “Oh man, that’s awesome,” he laughs. “That was a tough screening. At Sundance I’m usually just going to sleep at 8 a.m.” We’re talking on the phone a few days after the festival’s virtual premiere of his latest movie, “The World to Come,” which made its Sundance debut last month under very different circumstances. “It’s so strange doing these things sitting in front of your computer,” he sighs.

Directed by Mona Fastvold, “The World to Come” is a powerful period piece about a forbidden love affair between pioneer women played by Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby, set in upstate New York during the early months of 1856. Affleck produced the picture, in which he plays a supporting role as Waterston’s uncomprehending husband, and he did his best to soldier through a crowded Zoom Q&A after the Sundance screening, with results pleasant enough, but nonetheless missing that in-person festival magic. “I used to love going to film festivals and talking to journalists and seeing all the movies and talking to other filmmakers,” he laments. “Sitting here alone in a little office in my house is such a drag. But it was nice to know that the movie was getting seen, at least.”

While big brother Ben plays Batman in studio pictures, Casey has exhibited a restless independent streak ever since he was a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. (Our ninth-grade classes competed against each other in the Mass. High School Drama Guild Competition. His won, perhaps unsurprisingly.) A longtime friend of the Brattle Theatre and former creative advisor for the Independent Film Festival Boston, the younger Affleck has always seemed more at home in indies. Not a lot of actors would follow an Oscar-winning role in “Manchester by the Sea” with a microbudget art film like “A Ghost Story.” But then his internalized, minimalist acting style is often at odds with the concerns of contemporary blockbusters. There’s a weird dissonance watching something like Disney’s hokey Chatham sea adventure “The Finest Hours,” with Affleck going full Montgomery Clift while surrounded by CGI silliness.

“The World to Come” is the most ambitious project yet from Affleck’s Sea Change Media, which partnered with Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon’s legendary NYC indie institution Killer Films for the arduous production that began with a conversation between Affleck and novelist Ron Hansen nearly a decade ago. “When I did ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ I got to know Ron Hansen, just because I loved the book so much. Ron has a very unique talent for writing 19th century language. He’s just from another era. I asked him if he had something he wanted to work on together, and I thought he would send me one of his things. Instead, he sent me this story by Jim Shepard. It was beautiful. I said, why don’t you and Jim write the script? And they took about six years, but it came together beautifully. Good things come to those who wait, I guess.”

The film eventually shot in Romania with a break built into the schedule to accommodate the changing seasons that are so crucial to the movie’s rugged, outdoor textures. “We were way out in Transylvania, out in the mountains,” Affleck explains. “We were just in some valley and they built a couple of farmhouses. I like being far away in a new place. It makes you feel outside of your life. And I love working in weather. There are so many aspects of moviemaking that are artificial, but when there’s extreme weather, it’s real. I did this Disney movie about a boat rescue, and it was, like, December in friggin’ Quincy and they were just soaking us with water every single take. There’s not a lot that you have to quote-unquote act. You’re just standing there, teeth-chattering, shivering, just being.” This reminds me of the scene in “Manchester” when he and Lucas Hedges have an argument walking in the blistering cold and can’t remember where they parked. “I forgot about that one,” he laughs.

I’d never say so on the phone, but I consider Affleck’s performance as Lee Chandler in “Manchester by the Sea” among the finest I’ve seen in my 22 years of reviewing films, worthy of discussion alongside Brando’s Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront” in its aching, inchoate longing. Lee holds his grief somewhere very private and dear, as if to begin to forgive himself would be an act of betrayal. The movie nails a gruff, emotional constipation popular among men of a certain stripe, especially in New England. (My mother offered my favorite review of the film: “Why don’t they just talk to each other? Jesus, this is like watching you and your father.”) Words don’t come easily to most of Affleck’s movie characters, but he chafes at the description of them as inarticulate. “It’s funny, I find the characters in ‘Manchester’ to be sometimes very articulate,” he argues. “There’s misunderstandings, but they end up communicating what’s inside.”

“The World to Come” is rife with such mixed signals and miscommunications, about which co-star Katherine Waterston raved during the Zoom Q&A after the Sundance screening. “It was so much fun to play the scenes with Casey,” she said. “A lot of these scenes are written as dances, where somebody tries to reach out and engage and they’re misunderstood. Inarticulacy is a very interesting thing to see in film. The failed attempts. Failed communications. It’s actually fun to play those things. You don’t know what the other person’s going to throw at you. It keeps it really alive on set. Mona and I felt if we had the money we could have kept shooting this thing for months, because the scenes were so much fun to explore.”

Affleck agrees. “When Katherine’s character writes in her journal or she starts talking to Vanessa, they have this beautiful, expressive way of speaking to each other,” he enthuses, whereas his character “says what he’s gotta say in as few words as possible. He’s very brusque and curt, which I enjoyed. The way that he talks is the communication equivalent when he gives her a birthday gift of sardines and a tin of raisins.”

Indeed, her increasingly florid diary entries — originally intended as a ledger to keep track of the farm’s monthly expenses — become the heartbeat of the film, providing an emotional release otherwise suppressed by the rigid formality of the era and the ugly drudgery of day-to-day farm life. “The World to Come” is ultimately a movie about the need to share our stories, and how through telling them we make sense of ourselves. As producer Koffler explains in the press notes, “Part of the film’s vision is to dramatize a very basic human impulse: to create, to connect, to say ‘I was here, and I mattered.’”

This has become a recurring theme in Affleck’s recent work. In 2019, he wrote, directed and starred in “Light of My Life,” a little-seen but strikingly tense post-apocalyptic road movie about a father and daughter hiding out in the wilderness after a pandemic has wiped out most of the women in the world. The film begins with Affleck telling the little girl a bedtime story that runs almost 13 minutes and sneakily sets up the movie’s major themes. Then in last month’s well-acted but regrettably soggy “Our Friend,” he starred as real-life journalist Matthew Teague, whose soul-baring Esquire story about his wife’s struggle with cancer became a national phenomenon.

“Matt Teague wrote that article and then wanted it made into a movie as his way of processing everything that had happened,” the actor elaborates. “You transform pain into other things as you go through life. That was all him working through it. I like stories about storytellers and I like stories within stories. Obviously, I wrote and directed a movie that starts with a 12-minute bedtime story. I love that. I know that other people don’t love it as much as I do, so I have to be careful about it.”

That kind of love led to last summer’s “Stories From Tomorrow,” a project initiated during lockdown by Affleck and his schoolteacher mom Christine, encouraging children to send in poems and short stories to be read on social media by celebrities like Matt Damon and Jon Hamm, as well as his “The World to Come” co-stars Waterston and Kirby. “That was something I started out at the very beginning of the quarantine as a small project to encourage kids to write creatively, because I know it can be a great way of processing anxiety and working through feelings that you aren’t really talking about or aren’t aware that you’re having. It wasn’t something I thought would go on forever; once the kids are back in school that ought to be where they should be doing all that kind of work. But while they were sitting at home, I thought it would be a good way to get their attention off the awful news and into something more imaginative. And I also got a chance to read all these super-cool stories! Really creative stuff that kids sent from all around the world.”

Finally, as a Boston publication it would be dereliction of duty not to mention the hysterical Dunkin Donuts commercial parody from when Affleck hosted “Saturday Night Live�� in 2016, so dead-on in its depiction of a local 'regulah customah' that on one of my critics’ poll ballots that year I tried to nominate the sketch for Best Documentary. Alas, the performer shoots down a pet theory I’ve been hanging onto ever since, that the dirtbag Boston guy in the Bruins hat is secretly a grown-up version of Affleck’s scene stealing, bug-swallowing Morgan from “Good Will Hunting.”

“I hadn’t thought about that, dude. That’s really funny. It never crossed my mind." He pauses before confiding, "I wasn’t that great on SNL… I just wasn’t all that funny on the skits, because it’s live and you’re reading the cue cards and it was my first time. But when we went to make that little pre-recorded short film of the Dunkin’ Donuts ad, I really felt like that was my wheelhouse there. I could’ve played that character in a movie. I could have gone to work and played him every single day, and I would have had a blast. That was really fun to do. I would love to do another one of those. That would be funny to see that character again.”

I bet that guy’s got some stories.

“The World To Come” is now in theaters and will be available via video on demand Tuesday, March 2.

[source]

[the-desolated-quill]

It’s Summer And We’re Running Out Of Ice - Watchmen (TV Series) blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

I’m not going to lie. I was incredibly sceptical going into this. This isn’t the first TV adaptation of a classic novel to go beyond the source material and try to continue the story, and they nearly always suck (see The Handmaid’s Tale and The Man In The High Castle). There’s a reason why books end where they’re supposed to end. If the author intended to carry the story on, they would have done so. This is why I get angry when the TV industry arrogantly oversteps the mark and try to continue a plot that has already come to a satisfactory conclusion. Doing a sequel to Watchmen, a story that hinges on the ambiguity of its ending, is just utter madness to me, and allowing Damon Lindelof to write that sequel borders on moronic at first glance. This is the man behind the TV series Lost, a show that ran out of steam within the first couple of episodes due to the fact that the plot was complete and total bollocks and the fact that nobody could be bothered to come up with satisfying answers for these ludicrous mysteries and series arcs beforehand. They were just making that shit up as he went along. Now you’re handing Lindelof the keys to one of the most intricate and detailed comic book properties of all time?! Fuck, why don’t you just let JJ Abrams direct the next Star Wars mo- Oh yeah, I forgot, he already did that.

Thankfully, judging by this first episode anyway, HBO’s Watchmen is nowhere near as bad as Lost. It’s certainly far more engaging and coherent. Does that mean I’m looking forward to the rest of this season? Well... I don’t know if I’d go that far. I’m definitely intrigued though.

HBO’s Watchmen is a sequel to the graphic novel (Lindelof called it a remix, but come on. Grow a pair and call it what it is. A sequel). Superheroes are still illegal, Robert Redford is now the President, Rorschach’s death has inspired a white supremacist cult, and it’s raining squid.

Yeah, the raining squid thing feels like the only egregious bit of fanwank in here, to be fair. Maybe they’re going somewhere with this, but I have my doubts. Are we supposed to assume that Ozymandias has been making squid rain for the past thirty odd years in order to keep up the whole alien invasion ruse? Why squid rain? And why is everyone so nonchalant about it? Shouldn’t people be just a bit concerned by this, considering what happened in New York?

Speaking of Ozymandias, we see him riding a horse and writing plays for his butler and maid in some fancy mansion. Quite what the significance of The Watchmaker’s Son is, I don’t know. All I do know is I’m not going to be able to sleep at night without thinking about Jeremy Irons’ thighs from now on, so thanks for that.

Putting my cynicism aside for a moment, I do like what Lindelof is trying to do here. He’s not merely cashing in on the Watchmen brand. There is a genuine effort to do something fresh and different with this material, and I commend that. Watchmen’s central theme has always been about power, but whereas the source material focused mainly on its relation to sex (Comedian’s hedonism, Nite Owl’s impotence, Rorschach’s mummy issues and the sexual objectification of Silk Spectre), the TV series seems to be zeroing in on race as a topic. This I applaud. Expanding on certain areas that the graphic novel only ever really touched upon is a great idea. This doesn’t feel like a repeat of the graphic novel, but rather a clarification of it, exploring areas and themes that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons may have overlooked. This helps set this series apart from the outset. 

The opening scenes where we see the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 is a pretty harrowing way to start. I’m ashamed to say I had no idea about the Tulsa Massacre prior to this, and we could have a whole other discussion about why schools seem to have been avoiding teaching specific topics like this in favour of the broad strokes of the Jim Crow era, but now is not the time. The fact that it’s depicted here sets the stage for what’s to come. Some have criticised the show for the length of time the opening focuses on Tulsa, claiming that it sensationalises the pain of black people at that time. I personally don’t think it does. It’s not overly graphic or gratuitous, at least in my opinion, but it is a very shocking way to open a series. Some might say even upsetting, but I think it’s important that we saw this because it’s relevant in setting the tone for the episode and indeed the season as a whole, as well as letting the audience know that this show isn’t going to fuck around or shy away from more sensitive topics, and I can respect that. Unlike Zack Snyder’s overly stylised adaptation from 2009, Watchmen the HBO series is grounded very firmly in reality.

Let’s discuss characters. This episode mostly focuses on Angela Abar, also known as Sister Night. Regina King has given some terrific performances in the past and this is no exception. She’s simply phenomenal. The way she switches from light-hearted wife and baker to violent, no nonsense vigilante cop. The shift is noticeable and yet both personas feel like they’re aspects of the same character. It’s exceptionally good. It also helps that the character herself makes for a great protagonist. Having survived the ‘White Night’ four years prior, where the Seventh Kavalry attacked the families of forty Tulsa police officers in response to the government giving special reparations to the victims of racial injustice, Angela has become cynical and battle hardened. She has no sympathy for Kavlary members and is willing to skip due process by beating one of them to a pulp and bundling him in the back of her car. She’s angry and in pain, and yet retains the audience's sympathy. I’m interested to see what happens to her over the course of the season.

I also really liked her friendship with Don Johnson’s character Judd Crawford. Johnson is a charismatic performer and Crawford is a charismatic character. He really dives into the olde western sheriff persona and seems to be having a lot of fun with it. Crawford is the only other character, besides Angela, who stayed on as a police officer after the White Night, and the two characters seem to have a great relationship. They laugh and joke around and there’s clearly a mutual respect between the two. I genuinely like this character, which is what makes his murder at the end so much more heartbreaking. Not to mention all the little details that force us to realise he may not be what he seems. We see him sniff cocaine in private and there’s a photo on his desk featuring the kid from school who aggressively asked Angela why black people deserve reparations. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Crawford himself is racist, but there’s clearly more going on with him that we don’t know about.

The final character of interest at the moment is Tim Blake Nelson’s character Wade Tillman, aka Looking Glass. We don’t know anything about him yet other than he’s a human lie detector, which I find very intriguing and I hope will be explored further as the show goes on. There’s a lot to play around with there, and the moral implications are tantalising. A conviction based not on physical evidence, but rather on the observations of one man. Even Sherlock Holmes has to back his deductions up with evidence, and yet Looking Glass clearly doesn’t need to. That just raises so many ethical questions. What if he has a particular bias towards someone? What about burden of proof? What if forensic evidence contradicts him? If Looking Glass is supposedly that accurate, does that mean the police will side with him regardless? It’s a great premise for a character and I really like Nelson’s performance, giving him a cold and detached personality that contrasts beautifully with Angela’s.

The characters and ideas are solid, however where I feel the show is lacking is with the consistency of its world building. Let’s analyse. This is an alternate history where Nixon used superheroes to extend his term limits, but after the New York attack at the end of the graphic novel, he’s been kicked out in favour of Robert Redford (nice nod to the source material there by the way. lol). As a result, black people got reparations for the racial injustices their ancestors went through and police are now unable to openly carry firearms without special permission from Panda (literally a cop wearing a panda costume). However, after the events of White Night, the government agrees to allow cops to wear masks to protect their identities, hence why quote/unquote ‘superheroes’ like Sister Night and Looking Glass are around despite the existence of the Keene Act. These are, in effect, legal vigilantes. Except already there’s a problem with conflicting messages. I like the idea of masked cops. In the current age of Black Lives Matter and police accountability, it makes sense and could be interesting to explore. However this is hindered by the whole ‘no guns’ stuff. Again, not a bad idea. America’s current gun laws are, to put it mildly, woefully inadequate. What if we went the other way? What if not only was it near impossible to own a gun, cops couldn’t even use a taser without special permission. Both ideas could work... but not at the same time.

Cops being allowed to wear masks creates the effect of empowering them through anonymity, and runs the risk of officers overstepping the mark and normal citizens being unable to hold them to account. But on the other hand, we’ve also got cops whose lives are constantly at risk and who are hindered in their duties by an overprotective nanny state, which effectively depowers them. So... which is it? It can’t be both. I like the scene where Panda reads the law about how the use of firearms can only be permitted in extreme circumstances, and everyone just angrily shouts him down because it tells us how the police feel about this new system. The fact that they’ve made one cop the sole arbiter of these new restrictions and forced him to dress like some ridiculous furry demonstrates the sheer amount of disdain they have towards this policy. But having said that, with the masks on, they have the power and freedom to break into people’s caravans and basically kidnap and assault them without consequence anyway. So what the fuck are they complaining about? It just doesn’t gel together. Either have it that the rules and regulations of the police are the same as our world except that cops can wear masks now, which has led to an increasing problem of police brutality and corruption, or have it that the police are being too heavily restricted and so a few have chosen to turn toward more ‘unorthodox’ methods of crime fighting out of frustration. Pick one and go with it.

Then there’s the Seventh Kavalry. Again, not a bad idea. In fact I love it. A white supremacist cult that’s taken Rorschach’s journal as gospel and have banded together out of a fear of being sidelined in a more liberal world. Very relevant and very interesting. Except... well... there’s not an awful lot to it, is there? In the original graphic novel, there was no clear bad guy. Ozymandias believed he was doing the ultimate good by killing millions of people to save the world, and everyone reluctantly went along with it. It was morally complicated. This, not so much. They’re unambiguously evil. The end. So what? What is there to discuss? It just feels lacking compared to the graphic novel and it runs the risk of creating a conflict that’s too clear cut. Obviously we’re going to end up siding with the cops, regardless of what they do, because the alternative is objectively bad. Hopefully Lindelof is going somewhere with this, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I was slightly concerned.

So on the whole, would I say I enjoyed this first episode? Well... I’d say I did, but with reservations. There’s some good characters and ideas that could be interesting to explore and develop, but its execution feels a little shaky in places. Hopefully the episodes to come will offer further clarity.