#i want to watch the seven deaths film so bad

[pray1ngmantis]

(antigo nick, trans. anne carson)

[another-lost-mc]

Hii, first of all, i love your writing 💕 and I hope you're doing well.

How do you think the bros would react watching the movie Se7en?

I think it would be interesting to see their reactions since the theme surrounds the seven deadly sins.

a/n: I love this movie! I re-watched while I worked on this since it's been a while. I wrote the blurbs in order of the sins as they're portrayed in the film.

➤ watching the movie se7en | the demon brothers

1k words | x gn!reader | nsfw | violence and dark/disturbing themes, demons thinking about demon things, movie spoilers

BEELZEBUB | the gluttony scene

Any other time, he'd be joking that if he had to die, he wants to die eating. He understands that now's probably not the best time to tell you that.

He feels a bit sad for some reason. He's not sure if it's the poor bloke's death on screen or the movie's gritty atmosphere in general.

Ravenous hunger has its downsides, but most of the time he enjoys eating food. He can understand why being forced to eat would be emotional and literal torture for someone.

He knows he could eat that much pasta without breaking a sweat, but he doubts it would be comforting to you so he doesn't say it out loud.

He wonders how much he'd have to eat for his body to break down in protest of finally being too full, but he keeps that to himself too.

MAMMON | the greed scene

It's not a horror movie but the dark vibe still gives him the creeps.

He hasn't had to look away (yet) but he tucks you closer to his side so you can cuddle. You can hide your face in his chest for the gross parts if they bother you, he won’t tease you.

He sorta gets an inkling about the greed motif— something about a scummy lawyer and money trading hands is his first guess about why this guy was targeted.

Eh, close enough.

There are a lotta ways to kill someone with greed without actually killing them, y’know.

(He doesn’t wanna talk about ‘em though. He doesn’t want you to think badly of him.)

BELPHEGOR | the sloth scene

What the actual fuck.

He was feeling a bit sleepy watching the movie up to this point, but he's not anymore.

He understands the interpretation of his sin, but he's surprised to see such an ugly version of it in a human world movie like this.

If he senses that you're uncomfortable, he tries to distract you until the scene ends.

Now seems like a great time to pause the movie so you can both get up and get a drink, or stretch—or maybe go for a nap if you're tired and don't want to finish it right now.

(He's going to make sure you don't have bad dreams after this.)

ASMODEUS | the lust scene

He's had custom sex toys made before, but something like this? Yeesh.

Literally fucking someone to death seems so brutal, so unromantic. This isn't how he would do it, but he doesn't tell you that; he doesn't want to scare you.

(If he had to kill someone using his sin, he'd fuck them before ripping them open from stomach to sternum.)

(If he had to kill you with his sin, he’d make love to you until you eventually fall asleep. Your death will be instant and painless before he cuts out your heart and eats it.)

He notices that this part of the movie made you squirm in your seat more than the others so far.

Maybe a warm bath and cuddling in his bed will help you relax once the movie's over. He’s suddenly overcome with the urge to hold you.

LUCIFER | the pride scene

It feels anti-climactic compared to some of the other portrayals of sin so far, but he appreciates the simplicity. He was afraid it would be needlessly gruesome like the others.

Pride is insidious, the mother of all sins, the first deadly bloom that causes all others to fester and rot on the vine.

He can’t help the way his mind wanders after this. As an angel, he tried to resist sin. As a demon, he embraces it. Humans are weak and he knows for many, pride is their downfall.

You might not believe you could be pushed to make such a fatal choice, but Lucifer senses the way your own blend of pride lingers within you too.

He keeps silent about those thoughts and he wraps his arm around you for the rest of the film.

LEVIATHAN | the envy scene

He’s unusually quiet. He doesn’t complain or whine about how boring it is, and he doesn’t reach for his handheld either. Sometimes he looks puzzled by what’s on screen, and other times he seems contemplative.

He’s a little surprised by the ending. Speechless almost. He understands envy, but to do all this?

And the part with the wife, well...he thinks it's just a bit of an overreaction, don't you?

He can’t help but glance at you once the movie's over. He thinks about life before you and life with you now; he can't imagine life without you in it anymore.

Would he be capable of that type of jealousy if you didn't choose him? If he had to watch someone else live their own happily ever after with you while he suffered alone?

Huh.

When the movie ends, he distracts you with an impromptu game night in his room and he cuddles with you in his tub after.

His tail curls around your leg as you drift off to sleep, and he realizes he'd do so much worse just to keep you by his side.

SATAN | the wrath scene

For the most part, he's been less interested in the portrayal of sins. He's totally wrapped up in the mystery aspect of the movie instead.

Throughout the entire film, he's muttered under his breath about certain things he noticed or his guess about what might happen next.

(He’s read all the books mentioned in the library scene too.)

He figured that the cop with the short fuse was going to be involved somehow with wrath. He actually thought the character was a bit annoying.

He does sympathize with the cop's behaviour at the end—all he has to do is think of someone hurting you and it makes him seethe with rage.

The reveal about the wife caught him completely off-guard but thinking about it later, it seems so obvious.

[oncasette]

knock, when you’ve got the time

WHEN HE SEES ME I — neighbor!jamie tartt x fem!reader

summary: 4.7k.

you were less than excited to go on this blind date, far less, due to the fact that it'd been sprung on you out of the blue by your best friend. at least, that is, until you get on said date, and realize that the guy is everything you’ve been looking for. he’s sweet, he’s funny, he listens when you talk. but, he’s far more experienced than you, which is where your neighbor comes into the picture.

content: i’m american so the dialogue might be awkward at points, jamie lives in an apartment-style complex rather than the house he’s renting in the show, takes place in season 2 post reality show, pre-richmond

main masterlist | series masterlist | taglist

You feel like your chest is going to explode. 

“You did what now, Keels?” you manage to gasp out. 

“It’s just a date, babes,” she says. 

“A blind one!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she pauses to sip her tea. “I wouldn’t have set the whole thing up if I didn’t think he was a good match for you.”

It wasn’t that you didn’t trust her; god, you’re ninety-percent sure you trust her with your life, it’s just that

“I haven’t seen you date anyone since…”

“Martin.”

She rolls her eyes, “Martin.”

“He wasn’t so bad…” you trail off, voice picking up an octave as the sentence droned out of you. 

“He was a douchebag, babes. Grade-A. And, anyways, you need to get back out there. You’re super-fucking-smoking-hot. There’s no reason you should be cooped up all alone in this flat of yours. At least, if I have anything to say about it,” she says.

“What if I don’t want… to go on this date?” you ask. And in your head, you think it sounds like an entirely valid question to ask. Warranted, even. It’s a short lived thought when Keeley shoots you a look of fire and death. 

“So not an option, babes.” 

Your head drops, forehead thumping against the wood of your kitchen table. 

“He’s super hot… He’s funny…” she trails off. 

“Keeley, I haven’t just been single since Martin,” you say, muffled, face smushed into the countertop until she places a hand on the side of your head to tilt it just enough to allow you to breathe through your nose fully. “I haven’t gone on anything even resembling a date since Martin. I’m totally out of my wheelhouse, here.”

“Oh, lovey, it’s gonna be alright,” the hand previously on your face falls to rub circles on your back. “I’ll help you get ready, I’ll walk you to the bar. I will even sit with you until he shows up, if that’s something you like.”

“But-”

“No, buts! C’mon, you need this! It’ll be amazing and fabulous and fantastic, and if it’s shit you can tell me all about how you told me so after, while we eat a pint of ice cream and watch some shitty, unrealistic romance films at my place,” she says. She stands, abruptly, nearly tugging you up from your own chair in her midst. 

“What?”

“Let’s go. Bedroom,” she urges, only stalling to gauge the bewildered look on your face. “Did I forget to mention that your date is this evening?”

“Like, when this evening?”

“Seven?” she scrunches her nose as she checks the clock on her phone.

“It’s five!” you gape at her as she drags you to your closet of helpless, unsuspecting clothes. 

The rush of it all saves you from harping on too many of your nerves. Keeley’s sitting on the lid of your toilet telling you all about the guy she’s setting you up with as you shower, she’s tossing every semi-decent outfit you’ve got into a heap on your bed for the two of you to rifle through, and she’s sitting behind you with a curling iron as you do your makeup on the floor like you were in secondary school again. 

She nearly burns you while you’re putting on your mascara. It’s a miracle the wand didn’t go straight into your eye. 

By the time you were ready–actually ready, too, and not the “ready” you’d tried to pull past Keeley four times before that–your body felt like it’d been through the ringer. You were primped, polished, curled, exfoliated. You had on heels that, while, thankfully, you could walk in, you hadn’t worn in years and a dress that showed off more leg than you would’ve chosen for a first date. 

“Do I have to go?” you ask for what feels like the hundredth time. She rolls her eyes, shoving her thumb into your hip as she zips up the back of the dress. 

“Yes.”

“But-“

“You are going on this date and you are going to have fun and that’s all I’m gonna hear about it.” It felt like you were arguing with your mother about a toy at the shop. 

“Right, you look stunning,” she says as angels the two of you towards the body-length mirror in the corner of your bedroom. She stands behind you, arms linked around your waist. 

“Thank you,” you whisper. Her lips press into the dimple of your exposed shoulder. 

“You are going to be the kick-ass, sexy, bombshell bitch I know you are, and you are gonna charm the pants off this bloke.”

“Yeah?” You tuck your bottom lip between your teeth for a second, allowing it to pop back out with minimal damage to your lipstick when Keeley playfully taps you on the hip. 

“Yeah,” she hums, pulling her body away from her hold on you. “Come on, then. We should get going.”

It’s a short walk to the bar she’s picked out, one the two of you have frequented plenty over the last year or so of your friendship. It was one of the quieter joints, even on weekends. Kept just enough patrons to keep the doors open, but was slow enough that you could hear yourself think. 

Keeley sets the two of you up at the bar after scanning the joint, sure that you’ve arrived before your still-unnamed date, before signaling over the bartender to order a round. 

“For the jitters,” she says as she grabs the glasses off the counter and hands yours to you. You nod at her, downing nearly half of the gin and tonic in one go. 

“Fucking hell. Feel like I’m gonna shit myself, Keels,” you say, clearing the lump from your throat as Keeley chokes on the drink in her own hand. You can’t tell if it's a laugh or a cough or something in between, but once she’s gathered herself and wiped the martini off the counter, she’s facing you with a concerned look. 

“Right, look, I get you’re nervous, but what’s up? I’ve never seen you like this,” she says. You’re thankful the fabric of your dress is dark enough to mask sweat as you rub your palm across your thigh. 

“It’s just– I don’t know,” you exhale. You swirl your drink around with the tiny black straw you’d initially ignored in the glass. 

“Sounds like you do know. So, out with it,” she says. 

“What if he’s…” you trail off. Your throat conjures up another lump just for the hell of it. “What if he’s…”

“Out with it, babes,” Keeley urges. She places her martini glass on the counter before swiveling on the barstool to give you her full attention. 

“You know, like,” you swallow. “What if he chews with his mouth open or is constantly on his phone all night. Or, or what if he’s chatting with other girls just, like, right in front of me? Because Martin used to pull that shit all the time when we were in situations like this, and-”

You’re cut off by Keeley.

“You’re totally overthinking this.”

“I know.” An exhale. “I know, I know. I’m not even really that freaked about all of that if I’m being honest.” It all spills out of you like word vomit. Each sentence inching up your throat, hot and sour like the taste of bile as you spill your fears out. What if he’s the sweetest guy you’ve ever met, what if he’s a kiddy doctor, or some other profession that’ll just send your ovaries into overdrive, what if he’s-

“God, what if he’s fucking perfect?” you groan. 

Keeley doesn’t elect to respond, instead dropping her hands from where they’d been resting on your knees and standing. This draws your attention. You look at her first, shorter than she’d just been when she’d been on the elevated barstool, then turning your gaze towards where hers seemed to be. Past you. At the door. 

“Grayson!” she squeaks. She half-jogs over to the door, pulling the very tall man into a swift hug that he reciprocates with vigor. 

What if he’s got eyes so dreamy you’re sure to get lost in them at some point tonight. Holy hell. 

Keeley turns back to you, dragging Grayson over the few feet that separate you from the door, and, consequently, him, before she introduces the two of you. 

“Lovely to meet you,” he says just as you’re stumbling out of your seat to greet him properly. 

Your shoulders lean forward as you perch on the toes of your feet. You’re completely unsure of yourself. If he was going to go in for a hug, you’re sure he would’ve done so already, even a handshake. You’re half expecting him to swing into Keeley’s previously occupied stool when he clears your brain’s rambling with a kiss pressed to the apple of your cheek. 

“Good to meet you, too?” you squeak out, steadying yourself with what you later realize is a hand on his chest. A hand you pull back probably too quickly seconds later, smoothing out the bottom of your dress. It only takes a second for his fingers to graze your wrist, for him to pull your hand back up to shake it in a real greeting. He takes it in his, hesitantly, at first, and you swear you feel a shock transfer between your fingers. You even think your shoulders jump, but your brain is so fuzzy, just from the proximity, you couldn’t be certain.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been here before, but there’s this drink-”

You’re already moving to pull away when he uses your conjoined hands to gently tug you into him, effectively punctuating your statement with an oomph. 

“There’s a nice table near the back if you want to head somewhere more… private,” he says. His breath fans across the side of your face, lips inches away from the shell of your ear as a shiver trickles down your spine. He knows your favorite bar like the back of his hand.

You faintly hear Keeley say, “Guess I’ll leave you both to it, then.” And you have half a mind to wave or say goodbye or even check and see if she left the bar, but you can’t when all of your focus has been siphoned to the man in front of you. She could’ve lingered and gaped at you for the rest of the night and you likely wouldn’t have noticed.

He leads you the short distance to the back of the bar from behind you, hand lingering on the small of your back in a way that just barely brushes against you. Enough to know it's there, that he’s guiding you, but not enough to truly feel him. 

You’re nearly vibrating when you reach the secluded standing table. Your drink is still in your hand, quarter full and sloshing as your knuckles wrap around the glass. 

The conversation fizzles as you try to spark it. Your mouth opens and closes with the start of various sentences dying at the end of your tongue as your brain attempts to put pen to paper and get anything out. 

“Have you known Keeley long?” he asks after a couple more failed attempts, tossing a lifesaver out to sea. 

“A year, nearly,” you smile at him. 

“Yeah?” he nods, tipping back the beer you definitely don’t remember him ordering. God, you were really losing it. 

Humming out an affirmation, you ask him, “What about you? Childhood besties?”

“No, no,” he snickers. “Though I’m sure that would’ve been interesting, I met her at this bar actually? A couple weeks back.”

You’re not sure if you feel betrayed Keeley came to your spot without you or grateful that she’d been able to conjure the man in front of you in the time you’d spent apart. 

“She spilled her drink down my shirt and somehow, in the span of the few minutes we’d spoken, had convinced me to come on this date,” he leans forward as he speaks, weight resting on his elbows. “Telling me all about how pretty her friend was. And I have to say… she undersold you.”

Your face heats under his gaze. “Is that so?”

“Who would I be to lie to a beautiful girl like you?” he asks. You have to clear your throat to gather yourself. 

“Not too bad yourself,” you admit. 

“Thank you,” he nods. “Wouldn’t want you to be too out of my league, huh?”

You shake your head and you hate how dopey your smile comes out. It's like you’re caught in a lovesick daydream just watching yourself talk to this guy. You’re quick to change the subject.

“So, what is it that you do for a living, Mr. Lee,” you drag the straw of your drink into your mouth. If only just to have something to do with your tongue, something to focus on anything other than the veins running up the backs of his hands and the way his adam’s apple bobs when he talks. 

“You’re pot on with the whole Mr. Lee thing, actually,” he chuckles. 

You quirk your head to the side in question.

“Teacher,” he says. 

“Teacher.” You raise your brows at him. Not Professor. Works with kids. 

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing. You’re just a lot hotter than any of the teachers I had growing up,” you say, and your heart stops beating for a minute as it gauges his reaction. That last part definitely wasn’t meant to come out. It was supposed to be said at negative twelve volume in the deepest, darkest crevice of your brain so that you couldn’t even hear it. When he laughs, though, you feel the muscle regulate itself, skipping a beat or two until it's back in its usual sync. “And what is it that you teach?”

“History.”

“So you could tell me all about the Great War if I asked?” you ask. 

“No,” Grayson chuckles. “I actually teach local history. Mostly Richmond, some greater England.”

“Sounds fascinating,” you say, even though you’re more than sure if you’d been forced to sit through one of his classes you’d hang onto every last word. With claws. And a harpoon gun. 

“It can be,” he shrugs. “It wasn’t my first choice, anyway. I had wanted to teach something less British. But it was hard enough to find a gig close to home in the age range I was qualified to teach and in the end I just wound up cutting my losses.”

“And counting your blessings,” you say. 

“And counting my blessings,” he repeats. 

The conversation starts to flow easier after that. He asks all the right questions at all the right times, he pauses and laughs and migrates closer to you across the table until your–no longer white–knuckles are gently brushing against each other. He tells you about his sister, about his childhood dog, his obsession with trivia games. 

“You’re kidding,” you’d gasped, nearly knocking your second drink–one you’d been too busy giggling to guzzle–right over the side of the table. 

“Tuesdays are my favorite night of the week,” he says as he gestures to the chalkboard pinned to the back wall of the bar outlining the events posted for that week. Tuesday night trivia was a mainstay. 

He lets you go on and on about the movie you’d watched last night, about how many times you’d seen Dirty Dancing and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. He asks follow up questions about Patrick Swayze and Matthew McConaughey, about why everyone had called her baby in the first place and why Kate Hudson quit her job at the end of the movie. He even goes as far as to say, “You’ll have to show them to me sometime.”

It’s just when the nerves are finally wearing down that a girl appears at your table. And with your newest distraction, you move to check your phone. Your clock blinks back at you with a new message from Keeley you don’t check. It’d been two hours since you’d shown up at the bar. Your shoulders feel sore, suddenly allowed to bear the weight of the hour. 

“Jeanette,” you hear Grayson say. His tone is tight, a harsh contrast to the gentle timber you’d gotten used to over the course of the evening. His lips have drawn themselves into a thin line as he shoots you a sympathetic look. 

“You never called me back, you know. I left you a message,” she says as she curls her neatly manicured hands over his bicep. 

“Thirteen, if I remember correctly,” he says. 

“Same difference.” She shakes her head in a way that pushes her curls back to fall over her shoulder. 

He uses the hand not caught in her grip to gesture towards you, introducing you to the platinum blonde before continuing, “You’re sort of interrupting our date.”

Pulling back, she looks embarrassed. Shockingly. It’s like she’s just now seeing you despite the permanent place you’d held at the table for the entirety of her visit. 

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, Gray,” she says, and as she moves to pull away from your conversation, she puts a hand over the side of her face to not-discreetly whisper “He does wonders with his tongue” with an even less discreet wink. 

You hear yourself say “That was interesting” just as Grayson spills out “I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry?” you question. “It’s fine, really.”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with that,” he sighs. 

“What, does it happen to you a lot?” you ask, and you honestly mean it as a means to break the uncomfortable, meeting his former–or not-former, you truly didn’t know him that well, now that you were thinking about it–hook-up. 

“You’d be surprised,” he groans, and he has the gall to look less than cocky about it. Cocky you could handle. Confident, even. 

“Try me.” You absolutely, positively did not want to be tried. 

“Look,” he starts, saying your name softly. “I wasn’t going to veer anywhere near this topic tonight because I didn’t want you to feel like I was trying to steer the conversation towards sex. I’ve been around the block, sure, but when–and if–we ever hit that… subject, I want it to be for us. I would want it to be whenever you were ready for it all to happen.”

Nodding, you swallow. Oh yeah, he’d “been around the block” alright. Who would ever lie about this like that. 

“I’m good with that,” you smile at him. A smile he, thankfully, is quick to reciprocate, dropping his hand to cover yours where it rests on the table. 

“Good.”

Your eyes start to feel fuzzy before either of you have called the evening to a close. Static builds up in your tear ducts and a numbness creeps up, licking at the back of your skull. 

This was insane, you were insane. This was not the kind of information you cried over. You manage to pull yourself together to end the evening with a smile, putting your number in his phone with a smiley face at the butt of it, and allow him to kiss you on the cheek at the door of the pub before you split off in different directions. 

He’d offered to walk you home, nearly begged, but you’d assured him you’d be fine to walk the block and a half back to your flat. Besides, you ease yourself, you never invite a bloke back to your place on the first date. Wouldn’t want to give Richmond’s newest serial killer prime information on your whereabouts. 

How were you meant to work with this? It wasn’t that you were a virgin, or anything. You’d had sex. Once. When you were still a teenager with your so-called boyfriend at the time who’d dumped you the very next day. You hadn’t even finished, unsurprisingly. It had been embarrassing for you at the time, how you’d done your best to convince yourself that some girls just don’t cum from sex. 

You reach your flat before you realize it. The key in your hand shakes in time with your fingers and you manage to put your back to the door before your knees give out beneath you. Every part of you felt weak, unsupportive. Overwhelmed. 

Honestly, you weren’t even mad that he’d been around. With a face like that, it’d be a wonder–and a red flag–if he hadn’t. It’s just that you’re so… inexperienced. Women your age should know their body, should know how to use it. The only aspect of sexuality that you’re familiar with is the vibrator stuffed in your sock drawer. And even that was a gift from Keely. 

You bring your hand up to wipe your face, attempting to look somewhat presentable to the public as your neighbor sweeps past you to unlock his door. The back of it comes back sticky with snot. Your neighbor’s stride stutters, back foot planted to the floor for a hair too long just before he’s spinning on his heel to face you. 

“Are you alright?” His hands are stuffed into the joint pocket of his jumper. 

“Fine,” you hiccup as you bring your knees up to rest against your chest. 

He frees his hand from the pocket only to stick it out in your direction. “Jamie Tartt.”

“I know who you are,” you scoff, nearly choking on the giggle that bubbles up with it. “Think everyone with a telly knows who you are. Or, like… a phone.”

His hand lingers in the air for a second, twitching towards you until it resigns itself back into the pocket. 

“Did you wanna talk about it, maybe? I make a mean cuppa,” he gestures back at the foot behind him that leads to his front door. 

It’s the longest conversation you’d had with the footballer. Usually you’re given little more than a nod and a shut door as he lets another girl into his flat or brings his groceries in. Though, now that you’re really thinking about it, the former had dwindled significantly in recent months. 

Either way, you shake your head. “Wouldn’t want to intrude,” you sniffle. 

“No, no,” he assures you, going as far as to take that step closer to you. His hand extends out to you again. “I insist.”

You manage to stand on your feeble legs, following Jamie into his flat with your own keys still in hand. 

“How long you been sittin’ out there?”

“Not long,” you hum, clearing your throat in the process. He grumbles out something you don’t have the heart to ask him to repeat as he moves around his kitchen. His hair is longer than you remember it being during the last match you’d caught at your parents’ house and the dark locks fall over his eyes as he puts the kettle on the eye. Then again, that Man City game hadn’t been the last time you’d seen him. 

“You wanna tell me what’s wrong?” he asks. 

You don’t have the energy to be coy. 

“I don’t know how to fuck,” you say. Jamie’s hand twitches as he puts your cup down in front of you. 

“Sorry?” he coughs. 

“This guy I went on a date with earlier,” you say. “While we were out, he got stopped by this girl he’d been seeing and she made a comment about how incredible his tongue game is and then suddenly we’re talking about how many people he’s had sex with.”

By the time you finish that sentence you’re gasping for air and Jamie is looking at you expectantly. 

“No offense, but why would that matter?” he asks. 

“I haven’t had sex since I was eighteen? I have no idea what I’m doing, you know?”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t know. I’m very experienced, actually.” he raises his eyebrows at you as he says it, making the comment seem less like he was bragging and more that he was… easing your nerves about the whole ordeal. You’re not sure if it’s totally working for you or not, but you manage to maintain eye contact as you bring the cup up to your lips. 

“I’m sure being a premier league footballer heartily prepares you for this kind of thing,” you say, sipping.

“I mean, yeah, but I was kinda referencing something else,” he says and you decide it's best for your own sanity to play dumb in this case. You know, not let him know you’d seen him fuck his way through his short run on Lust Conquers All. 

“And that is…” “You didn’t see me show?”

“I don’t watch reality TV,” you lie. Of course you’d seen his run. Everyone had seen his run. Even if it has been through a mix of very flattering and very unflattering gifs on Twitter. 

“How d’ya know it was reality TV?” he asks with a cocked brow.

“Hunch,” you shrug. You sniffle as you hold your cup in your lap, both palms held tight to the warm porcelain. 

You watch him meander around his kitchen, feeling somewhat comforted by the fact that its a mirror of your own, as he mulls over the information you’ve given him. It wasn’t like you were expecting him to do anything with it. You hadn’t expected to tell anyone about it, if you were being frank, but Jamie had caught you at a fairly vulnerable moment outside your door.

“I think I’ve got an idea,” he declares. 

“Proceed.”

“I could help you with your little problem. Ya know. With my expertise,” he says. 

“Such a fancy word for a footballer,” you say with a bite.  

“Right hilarious,” he clears his throat. “Anyway, back to my idea.”

“Your idea… about teaching me how to have sex?” you ask, nearly incredulous at this point. 

“No, not how to have sex,” he starts. “Just…” “How to have sex,” you finish.

“Look, right, you said it yourself. You lack experience,” he shrugs. “I can help with that.”

“So, what are you wanting me to do? Drop my dress to the floor and beg you to fuck me? You don’t even know me,” you say, not even totally sure yourself where the hostility is coming from. 

He shakes his head, placing both hands flat against his kitchen island to face you fully. 

“We could get to know each other. I’m just throwing ideas out there. It doesn’t have to be today, or tomorrow, or fucking ever, really, but if you decide you want me to help you with your little… predicament, all you have to do is knock on me door, yeah?”

Swallowing, you bring your eyes up to make eye contact with him. What the fuck was going on? In the span of, what, six hours, you’d been thrown into a blind date with a guy ripped straight from your dreams, discovered said dream-guy was overwhelmingly into you, discovered same said dream-guy had slept with half of Richmond and some of Wales, and had your neighbor proposition himself to you after finding you sobbing outside your front door? Were you in an episode of The Twilight Zone? 

You look down at your cup before bringing it up to down the small amount of liquid left within it in one gulp. 

“Predicament is another fancy word. You’re on a roll,” you say after you’ve swallowed down the amber liquid. You make a move to stand, arranging your keys in your hand so that the key that opens your front door is pinched between your thumb and your index finger. 

“I’m smarter than you think.” He follows close behind you, opening the front door for you to step out into the hallway. 

“Should’ve told your showrunners that,” you say, facing him for a second before you’re pushing the key into the lock and opening your own flat. 

“So you have seen the show,” he says. 

“Goodnight, Jamie Tartt,” you reply. You hear a muffled goodnight through your door seconds after you’ve clicked it shut. 

As you drop your belongings in their designated spots and kick your shoes off by the door, you bring yourself to look at your notifications. 

Keeley MF Jones

Hope you’re having fun!!!! Text me when you’re home and safe xxx

A new message rolls in just as you bring your finger across the screen to unlock it.

Keeley MF Jones

I’ll take it that my lack of response means that the night ended well ;)

Love you, babes! Stay safe!!

I want all the details tomorrow!!

Pausing, your fingers dance an inch above the keyboard before finally typing out a phrase. She doesn’t need to know everything.

My lips are sealed. 

[dianethepisceswitch]

My feelings on the "Silver is gonna kill Malleus" topic

@oddberryshortcake recently made a post explaining her opinions on the topic. One of her key points was that death and killing goes against Silver's character and morals. I agree with that opinion wholeheartedly. Silver is Aurora, and would try to be compassionate and ease Malleus's pain with his words rather than drawing a sword. If anything, the person out of that group who would be quickest to pull out a sword and start fighting would be Sebek. This doesn't apply as much because of his intense Malleus worship, but Sebek is less likely to try and talk things out. I really do doubt that anyone is gonna try and kill him unless S.T.Y.X. as a company wants to disobey the Shrouds and take matters into their own hands.

Despite all of this, I'm really angsty. Seriously, I love a good bad ending. One of my biggest gripes with the chapters in Twisted Wonderland is that after they defeat an overblot everything just goes back to normal. I know that this is a Disney world and there's ALWAYS a happy ending in Disney films, but it's unrealistic. Not trying to say that a universe with cat men, magical frisbee tournaments, and ink monsters is realistic, but the effect that overblot has on the universe is almost non-existent. I think if Malleus were to die, it could give everyone the reality check they needed. Not everything has some happily ever after. People die. People become traumatized. It may have been fun the past six chapters to dance and have a rhythmic after we defeat a "villain", but chapter seven if different. For a lack of better words, chapter seven isn't like other chapters. Chapter seven having lasting, devastating, worldcrushing, eye-opening consequences that the characters have never experienced, besides the Diasomnia group.

Truely, if Malleus dies I could imagine everybody trying to be happy. Trying to start a rhythmic, but ultimately breaking down instead. Screaming, crying, numb, etc, as a result of not only Malleus's death, but because of everything they themselves have faced. Perhaps Leona can finally breakdown and cry about his lack of feeling valued as a kid, you get the picture. This would be bad especially for the Diasomnia group and the player. For Diasomnia, he was family, whether he was a brother, a master, or a son, he was family and now he's gone. I could see the characters going out into public and hearing and seeing people celebrating his death, someone like Rollo. Seeing this could evoke feelings of anger, or cause the profound sorrow to well up once again. After all, Malleus's death is basically him losing Melanor and Levan for a second time.

Luckily for us, Disney is a bunch of flakers, so I doubt they will take this road. Regardless of whether he lives or dies, I'll be satisfied. I'm excited to see what Aniplex has in store for the remainder of this chapter, and I will be anxiously watching alongside the rest of the fandom.

[especiallythewomenandthechildren]

As If Destiny (part seven) 🌹

Part Six🌹

Warnings: Terminal illness, parent death, death and brutality (it is the hunger games after all) characters may be ooc. I read the book a while ago but don't really remember much of Snows way of thinking (I mean I know its toxic and insane but yk the other things) so I will mostly be basing off the film and my own thoughts. Also I can't spell for the life of me so be prepared for bad spelling and grammar. Enjoy loves!

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The vast hallways of the academy seemed longer today, while time seemed to speed up. With each step taken, more students seemed to file out of the halls. A quick look at the gold watch on their wrist, and their legs seemed to carry them out from under. In full force, the pristine doors of the academy classroom burst open, revealing a panting Sejanus.

His classmates seemed surprised by the sudden entrance, but more surprised by the fact that he was on time—or he thought he was. The boy took a step inside right as the bell rang, and with nothing more than a sigh, Dean Highbottom notified that "on time" meant being in your seat. Sejanus, still attempting to gain even a breath of air in his lungs, accepted defeat.

As he trudged to his seat, his eyes locked with the blonde boy one desk away. Your absence was all-consuming and isolating. Coriolanus noticed that the dark circles underneath Sejanus's eyes had still not left. They had been there the two weeks you've been gone and they don't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Most would assume that his lack of sleep is connected to the lack of your presence, but Coriolanus knew better.

Tomorrow is Reaping Day.

Sejanus has rarely shown his face most years, and if he has, you have always been by his side. But this year, there is a great understanding if he skipped out. However, you were conflicted whether or not to go. You felt the obligation to Sejanus due to the dark day for him, and you knew he had to be there for the Plinth Prize announcement.

And the announcement was your other felt obligation. You wanted to be there for Coriolanus when he won.

How Snow knew all this was in part due to Sejanus. The two have grown unexpectedly close these past two weeks. They bonded over your absence initially, and it eventually grew into a natural friendship.

Sejanus had always considered Snow a friend; truthfully, the only other person in the Capital besides you. But Coriolanus had been wary of the Plinth boy. He knew his distaste for the Capital, which is obviously not good company to associate with. He couldn't risk his reputation, no matter how sweet he was and the rarity of his character.

But something changed. He cared less and began spending more time with Sejanus. He knew he could trust him, and that was probably the quality he appreciated the most.

No wonder you were connected at the hip with the sweet boy.

He told you so after you ranted about the obligations you felt regarding Reaping Day last night.

You both ranted on and on nearly every single night. While you might not be at school, that doesn't mean you don't go out.

If going out means running in the dark streets of the Capital, only to reach the Snow door breathless and red, painting your features that were broken with a blinding and giddy smile.

A smile, that no matter what was discussed or how many tears were shed just prior at the Plinth house, always appeared. Every day, you did school work dropped off by Rhayen until mid-evening. You then spent a few hours calming and listening to Sejanus ranting on the Hunger Games and inhumanity. You agreed with him that they were cruel and brutal. But you kept the parts you disagreed with to yourself.

The parts that told you that they deserved it. That they needed a punishment just as bad as the one you suffered. They may be innocent but weren't you and the rest of the Capital children in the Dark Days?

These haunting thoughts lingered in your mind until you showed up at the cracking yet comforting ancestral Snow home.

Coryo, even as he studied and completed his assignments, always listened to you. He was the one who reassured you that you were not a cruel monster as you began to believe yourself to be but rather an unfortunate victim of war horror.

He was the one you confessed to about your fears of becoming bitter and cold after your mother's death.

You were in his room as he was working on the paper you long finished. The room, even with the constant dust and mold coating the walls and ceilings, had a fresh aroma due to the open window. Coryo knew you liked the smell of the flowers outside that only seemed to be grown on his side of the city. The breeze lightly moved through his curls, golden-kissed from the sun. It continued on through the portion of hair hanging off his bed where you rested.

The confession wasn't meant to be dramatic or any warning sign. In fact, you didn't even realize what you said until the smooth sound of Coryo's pen ceased to be. Your head lifted from the sunken yet rose-scented pillow. The sight before you was a stiffened Coriolanus with an analyzing expression covering his face as he was turned towards you in his chair. His mind seemed as if it was racing hundreds of miles a minute while you stood still in confusion.

You knew he was far too lost in thought to come out by himself. His eyes snapped back to reality as you sat up from your laying position to face him. You tilted your head in question to his actions and his pondering.

"That's not going to happen. Don't even spend time on that thought because it's not happening." His eyes were hardened by determination. You softened at his concern but you couldn't stop the argument slipping from your mouth.

"You can't say that, Coryo. This world doesn't really have the factors for the kind-hearted to survive. It either hardens or stops beating."

That only seemed to agitate Coriolanus into convincing you further. His legs pushed his chair and himself forward in your direction. He was now situated right in front of you, leaning inward slightly into your space which made it hard to look away. What made it impossible was the evening sun pouring through the window and reflected perfectly onto his mesmerizing eyes.

"You are not going to become cold. I promise you, I will take every hit and scar before you have to harden yourself to the world."

His oath was met with nothing but with searching eyes. They search for lies or hesitation but there was not a single speck of doubt in his golden-filtered blue orbs.

Your body leaned forward in response, with gratitude and tears dancing in your eyes as they also began to be lit up by the sunlight flowing through the window.

Your eyes were locked while emotions and unspoken words flowed between the gaze. It became too intense and you turned your head the split second before Coryo began leaning in. You seemed oblivious of his action as you stared out of his window. A favorite past time of yours it seemed when in his room.

His cheeks were flushed with slight embarrassment and the sight before his very eyes. The sun began to lower and while it still lit up the room and your features. It's rays were intensified on the shimmering diamonds of the silver ring around your neck.

He noticed it the very first night you showed up to his door after the night of your father's wrath. You came to apologize for his actions and plead for forgiveness but there was nothing to forgive, something both Coryo and Tigris assured you.

But as you paced back and forth that night, the dim light of the kitchen caught the small, brilliant blue stones. He saw the other two rings after your mother's funeral but that ring was new.

As you came around more, he swore it looked like snowflakes and felt a little smug but was never sure and never pressed you about it.

However, something overtook the teenager as he took the ring that has puzzled him for weeks. The movement caused you to look back at him. The proximity causing you to nearly smash your head into his.

You angled your head to take in his expression as his fingers grazed over the snowflake-shaped diamonds. You were so glad you did as you got to witness the smile spread across his face. If you had to choose what was more valuable to you: the moment or the ring, you would be tearing yourself in half for a decision.

"Snowflakes."

He peaked up at you beneath his blonde curls with his pearly whites.

Oh never have you made a decision between two things so fast.

The blush that spread across your cheeks was impossible to hide as you avoided his gaze. But it's not like you had anything to hide. The reason you wore the necklace was that it was your mother's.

The reason you wore the necklace was that it was your mother's.

The reason you wore the necklace was that it was your mother's?

"Rhayen told me it was gifted to my mom when she was our age. So-uhm, here it is!"

You never wanted to smack yourself more. Your voice cracked an impossible amount of time for such a few amount of words. You stuttered and acted as if you stole the necklace yourself from Coriolanus's family.

But he didn't see it that way in the slightest. He found it quite endearing and it was an obvious ego boost.

Sure, the reason for you wearing it may have nothing to do with him, but doesn't erase the fact that you are wearing his house ring.

You found his silence nerve-wracking and couldn't help but shrink under the pressure.

"Do you want it back? It's clearly the Snows so it's totally in your right!"

You began to move to take it off and managed to unclasp it before Coryo could stop you. But when you started slipping out the other rings to give him the one in the middle, he put his hands out over yours in a motion to stop.

Once again, the space between you two was quite thin.

"It was a gift to your mother, right? If so, then that means it's yours. And besides, it looks better on you than it would anywhere else."

He attempted to reassure you but you weren't convinced.

"Even so, you know this is worth a lot of money, Coryo. A lot of money that can help you and your family."

He knew this but refused to let it sink in. He was not going to take the one thing he could give you.

"Not ours to sell. It's yours."

The "as it should be" ran through his mind but never past his lips.

Your hands were still being held by the tall boy when he offered to place the necklace back around your neck.

You agreed and turned, moving your hair out the way and stared at the setting sun and brilliant hues decorating the sky. You could feel the cold metal slide back in place and as you felt the metal secure, Coryo moved your hair back in place.

Everything was back in its proper place. Your necklace, hair, and location. You and Coriolanus alone together watching the Capital in all its beauty. As if it all moved to your will.

Reluctantly, you turned your head to once again be met with the intense stare of enamored Coriolanus Snow. And once again, your faces were just mere inches apart.

But the ever-continuing staring contest was broken by the quick knock of Tigris.

"Y/N, Coryo, time for dinner!"

Her voice was slightly muffled by the door but you could hear the exhaustion in her tone. You took a huff of air as you gave a look back to Coriolanus as you got up.

The door opened up to a clearly tired Tigris. But her face no longer sinks in on tireless nights such as these.

And no matter how little she sleeps, there is still a smile gracing her features.

Much of it is due to the constant food and drink you bring whenever you come (nearly every day), lighting the load on her shoulders.

Said food was neatly prepared and smelled delicious. Because of your constant supply of material, Tigris has been able to try out some new recipes and enjoy meals instead of simply eating whatever is necessary for survival. You were even able to smooth-talk your way into Ma Plinth's secret recipes for her.

But it was all food you could not take from. This meal is a crucial part of their survival and you were fortunate enough to be able to have one the same size at home.

That is why you began excusing yourself as they began to settle in. Your excuses of needing to go home and rest did not convince Coriolanus in the slightest.

"Y/N, it's okay to eat. It's the food you brought over anyways!"

He had moved from his position by the table in order to come and take your hand. He saw the slightest hesitation in your eyes and took his chance and began lightly dragging you to the table.

You would have fought back but the delicate figure of his grandmother stopped any sort of action. You didn't wish to be seen as rude and when she noticed you and your hands intertwined with her grandson, you couldn't argue with her sweet smile.

And that is how you ended up at the dinner table with the last remnants of the House of Snow.

Tigris was explaining the new method of clothing construction that is going to overtake Capital fashion when the sound of her ancient grandma'am perked up.

Grandma'am was often silent in meals with a faraway look glossing her aged eyes. She never even seemed to take notice of the conversation nor who went or came. And especially not what anyone wore. But today seemed a day of surprises.

"My, how is the way I find out!"

The three of you all turned to figure out what the cause of her shriek was. Tigris asked what the matter was and the older woman disregarded her question and moved to situate herself right next to you.

You felt small as you sat in the chipped chair while she loomed over you. You shared a look with Tigris, who motioned to wait on any actions. You both needed to let it play out to inform what to do next.

A wrong move and the sweet woman in front of you would be transformed into the vile monster of fables. You've experienced it firsthand.

"What have you found out Grandma'am?" The term came naturally to you as it would have felt too odd to call her "Mrs. Snow" as she is only spoken as Grandma'am now-a-days.

She quickly clicked her tongue and feverishly shook her head. Her wrinkled hands took the silver ring as she analyzed it.

"I thought you were going to go with the one with the big diamond. And dear, it is far more suitable to wear it on your hand. How else will anyone know you are set to marry?"

The silence was strangling. Everything felt so unnatural. Grandma'am's oddly intense smile, a confused and seemingly horrified Coriolanus, and of course, you.

Mistaken to marry.

Marry Coriolanus Snow.

The only one who seemed composed was Tigris. You quickly gave her a look and mouthed to her "news?'

She gave you a quick nod across the table. The small and minute interaction was not lost on Coriolanus, even though he himself was lost. You followed orders and brought up the new renovations of the Capital park.

"The pond is stunning! The ducks are coming back naturally. And the flower garden is such a magnificent sight! You must go, Grandma'am. I could take you there if you wish?"

You finished off with an awkward smile. The panic surging through your veins made you accidentally offer to take her out for a day. Something you knew Coriolanus wished not to happen.

He fears what damage it would cause to his reputation if his grandmother was seen out and about in clothes that dated before the war. Tirgis could likely make something more modern out of those old dresses, but she knew her grandma'am would refuse wholeheartedly.

However, grandma'am quickly took the bait, and the previous topic was long forgotten. She seemed eager to see the flower garden, and your little adventure out. You hoped this would be forgotten just as quickly. By both her and the analyzing Coriolanus.

But if there is one thing about Coriolanus, it is that he never forgets.

So as you both cleared the table later that evening, his stare kept on locking into your moving figure; assuredly, in question and suspicion. He wasn't going to engage first, however.

His mind was making a thousand reasons and explanations instead of simply asking. You didn't wish to leave it to Coriolanus Snow to make assumptions.

"I would recommend having your eyes on the knife when cleaning it, Coryo."

His attention once again had drifted to your side profile as you were drying the dishes he was cleaning. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, he turned off the water and turned his whole body to you. You put the plate in your hands away and mimicked his position.

He didn't say a word and just took you in. His silence and constant picking apart began irritating you.

"Just ask me your questions. I don't like being watched and judged. Who are you, Arachne?"

You had moved around him and began doing the dishes he had neglected. His stare never once left you as he finally shared what was on his mind.

"Would you be ashamed of marrying me?"

You were grateful that you were washing a fork and not a plate because you were sure it would have been dropped in shock. Instead, you let the water run absentmindedly and held the fork so harsh that your knuckles turned white.

Coriolanus didn't know what to make of your reaction. How absent you've become. He feared he just confirmed your answer.

He moved to shut the water off after a few seconds. After all, every drop of water counts.

Is that why you wouldn't want to be with him? Was it his lack of money? That he could (hopefully would soon) change. Or was it him? Was it his family? Was it your family? Would you listen to your father?

Coriolanus also seemed to shift into his universe of panic, eventually mimicking your hold on the fork, but his was the faucet handle. It must have been quite a sight for poor Tigris to walk into.

"Are you both alright?"

She questioned the two teenagers holding onto the objects for dear life and burning holes into the nearest walls with their eyes.

The sudden intrusive voice caused you both to jump, then the realization of the other caused another jump.

Tirgis laughed at your reactions and shook her head. You two were surely the oddest people she knew, and that's saying something.

Or maybe it's what one of you does to the other?

She moved to grab the dusty cabinet handle and clutched a chipped cup. Her every move being watched by you and Coriolanus.

She turned around to the sight of you both wide-eyed and watching her. She felt quite uneasy and now was sure she interrupted something, no matter how strange it seemed to be.

The young adult moves to the sink to fill up her cup, and you both quickly part to give her room. The sound of the water filling up the cup also filled up the stifling silence. Once filled, she took a sip and glanced to her left at you and right at Coryo.

Did both of you lose the ability to blink?

She knew whatever she walked into was most likely Coriolanus's fault, but if she told him as much, she knew you would hear.

And probably the entirety of Panem judging by the quietness of the moment.

She cleared her throat and bid you both good night as she quickly walked and turned the corner. But not with one last look at the two teens doing anything but look at each other.

After she had left, you had gone back to washing the dishes, and Coriolanus drying the dishes. Roles essentially switched as you were now the one staring at him. Trying to find some sort of answer. He didn't know what you would find so he tried to give one of his own.

"I only asked because when grandma'am started talking about the ring and marrying, you looked to Tirgis. You both looked like you were expecting it. I didn't know what to think of it."

You've seen a lot of Coryo these past weeks but seldom has there been a time when he has looked vulnerable. Coriolanus Snow usually knows all and can read people so easily. But being left out of the loop by the closest people he has horrified him. Enough to make himself look like a fool, he thought.

You knew he didn't like feeling these emotions, much less express them. So you paired your explanation with an understanding smile.

"Sometimes when you have to finish up projects or had to run out, grandma'am comes and joins me and Tirgis. I don't mind it really and she usually just sits for the company, not the discussion. But sometimes, she uhm- she thinks I'm someone else. Like today. And me and Tirgis have a little list of topics to bring up when she starts going down that path. Just distract, not refuse."

Coriolanus let it sink in for a moment. He knows his grandmother's dementia overtakes her most of the time. He also knows that while she is mostly non-aggressive, her fury can come to the forefront. Well, she can be happy when lost in her mind; her fury can make an appearance as well.

It saddens him, however, that not only didn't you come to him about it, but Tirgis didn't either.

You noticed his facial expression and tried to assure him that there was nothing more he could have done. He nodded reluctantly and unsure.

"You don't have to take her, you know. To the park, I mean. She forgets everything but whenever you mention flowers, her memory is as sharp as can be."

He mumbled his words; the way his grandma'ams memory worked never ceased to surprise him. With the events and people it forgets and remembers. Especially when it came to you.

You promised it was not an issue for you if it wasn't for him. It might even be nice spending time with her out. The thought of being so close to Coryo's family that you would be taking the most secluded member out made you blush.

By the time you both finished, it had become quite late, and you needed to get home for enough rest. Tomorrow would be the first day you would officially come back to society after the funeral.

If that wasn't exhausting enough, Reaping Day comes with its own load.

Coriolanus, as always, offered to walk you home, but you persuaded him to stay and get as much sleep as possible. Which wouldn't be much due to his nerves and thoughts racing through his system.

You finished putting on your last shoe as you looked up at him. "Meet you here then walk together, right?"

You both talked about the heightened anxiety tomorrow, and if each has the other, the load would feel a little lighter. He nodded in assurance, and you opened the door ready to leave.

But something made you stop, so you couldn't move in the door frame. You turned your head to his face, lit up by the warm and dim lights of the apartment.

"Hey, Coryo?"

His eyes slightly squinted in confusion but waited for you to elaborate.

"I wouldn't be ashamed. Not in the slightest."

You had to duck your head to hide your teeth-bearing smile. You were scared of his reaction, so you quickly shut the door behind you and made your way back home.

In the apartment you left behind, a shocked Coriolanus stood. The shock quickly morphed into a smirk and pride.

When he turned around, donning the brightest smile, a smirking Tigris awaited him. Leaning on the corner wall in dusty pink nightwear, she had observed your little goodbye.

"Seems like you already won the prize, Croyo."

And with that, she leaves the head-over-heels boy in her wake.

He wasn't sure if your confession would give him the best sleep of his life or keep him up all night in thought.

Whatever the outcome may be, the reality of your presence tomorrow would be greater than any dream.

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The girl staring back in the mirror felt foreign, a stranger really.

You haven't changed much these past few weeks physically. A little bit of lost weight and slightly paler, but nothing unless you look for it.

But something behind your eyes was a calling sign of a shift. The last wish of your mother's came rushing back.

Don't change.

The reflection showed your straight posture while you donned a black midi dress with elegant blouse sleeves and sleek angular trimming on the neckline. Your hair was styled neatly with dainty pearl earrings and, of course, the necklace of rings.

Have you changed?

The ever-present little voice says that's not even a question anymore. The relevant one is how much?

You checked the small clock on your desk and noticed you needed to leave, or you are gonna end up running to Coriolanus's home. You check your reflection one last time, debating whether or not to display the rings.

Well, that ring. You would have enough eyes already; you didn't need any other unnecessary gossip.

You picked out obsidian black shoes to match with your dress. You were finishing up the last strap when the front door opened hastily.

The sight of your disheveled father saddened you on this already difficult morning. You haven't seen him since his outburst on the day of your mother's funeral. He has spent the last two weeks in near confinement at his office in the defense bureau.

Wonder where you got the trait of throwing yourself into work from.

If he isn't there, he is most often at his sister's house, your aunt Aeris. He came back to the apartment that seems to haunt him with memories as pale as a ghost. He wanted to get out of there as quick as possible. The only reason he came was that he had forgotten a few important papers. His haste was so intense he nearly missed your presence.

It wasn't until the sound of your hard shoes hitting the marble floor that he was alerted. You both acknowledged each other, but the air was stuffed thick with uncomfort.

Of all the days to reconter each other.

You coughed awkwardly, trying to figure out something to say. Your father seemed to do the same. The silence simply became too much, and you broke.

"You look well."

He didn't. You both knew he didn't. But instead of calling you out, he did a slow nod of acknowledgment. You huffed out a breath and grabbed your small purse as you got ready to walk out.

"Tell Aunt Aeris I hope she is well! Take care, father."

The word felt foreign. Sure, you would always describe him as your father around others, but that was normal in the Capital. You always called him dad. You assumed that you two had a relationship better than most father and daughters in the city but once your mother got sick, he shrunk into himself. The memories and love seeming to dissolve with him.

You opened the door and already had one foot out when he called for you. "Happy Reaping Day."

You paused and turned around, an emotionless expression on your face. You hate that he said that. You hated it because your mother hated today and all the Games stood for. But a significant part of you hated it because of the reminder that the bitterness her death has caused you.

Caused you to start warming to the Games. That's what you hated the most.

"Really, take care of yourself."

You didn't mean it in a harsh way as your tone was soft, but you said it with meaning. He couldn't take care of you, and there would be no reason for him to try to at this point.

You closed the door and left the already broken man to crumble like his life.

The timing of your arrival at the Snow penthouse matched perfectly with Snow's descent outside.

He looked as if an angel had descended from the heights of the universe, in a beautifully designed and crisp dress shirt, no doubt masterfully crafted by Tigris. His golden curls were lightened by the warm morning light. His eyes shined with determination that somehow made him even more handsome.

It took a second for Coriolanus to turn your way and realize your being, and it took a couple more seconds for him to recompose himself while he took in your appearance. You couldn't help but giggle a little and walk over to him. You adjusted the red rose on his vest that had been moved due to the strap of his bag.

"You look even more handsome than I thought possible for one man to be." Coriolanus is used to girls trying to flirt with him and his good looks, but all those compliments can come across shallow, a means to an end.

But yours was completely authentic. The grin that spread across his face was unable to be stopped. He offered his arm, which you gladly took, and began on your way.

He bent over to whisper into your ear as you passed a group of older women who smiled at the pair of you, a sign to them that happiness is an opportunity for the youth now, that even Dark Days haven't stolen that.

"I've stopped being surprised by your beauty. I am just thankful that I'm graced with it."

Oh, the charm of this boy.

The closer you both got to where the festivities would be held in Heavensbee Hall within the academy, the stiffer Coriolanus's arm got. You stole a glance at his face, hardened in worry.

"You do know you are going to win, right?" He seemed to snap out of his thoughts at your words.

"We both know it isn't certain. Maybe if we had a dean who didn't despise me, then maybe I could rest easy. But Highbottom is going to do anything to make sure we don't see a cent of the prize."

He hung his head low, and his shoulders showed a feeling of defeat. This look wasn't normal for Coriolanus Snow and unimaginable to nearly all others. But lately, as you've shown him your vulnerability, he has reciprocated.

You squeeze his arm a little, causing his concern-filled eyes to flutter to your own.

"Nothing is going to stop you from getting the prize, okay? If I need to break into the house of whoever Highbottom wrongly awards it to and steal, I will do it with a smile on my face. You deserve it, Coryo. You've earned it."

He smiled softly at your words and wondered how far you really would go for him.

If only he knew.

"And how are you going to do that? Climb tens of stories and smash through the window?"

He teased you on your ability for malice. You were known for being an unusually sweet person. The image of you trying to rob someone made him chuckle.

As he was laughing in your face, you rolled your eyes.

"I can be very threatening, you know!"

He laughed even harder. Even bending over in laughter. You had enough and immediately stopped, causing the blonde to slightly jerk forward due to the sudden pause.

You grabbed his arms roughly and forced him to look at you. His laughter died in an instant when he saw the seriousness within your eyes.

"Coriolanus Snow, you are going to win the Plinth Prize, and I swear if I hear one more doubt about it, I will be feeding you rat poison myself."

There have been very few times Coriolanus Snow has been wrong, but with the look in your eyes, it was clear that you would be able to carry out your threats.

Once you were sure he got the message and your ability, you let go and started up your walk. He grabbed your arm, pulling it through his and regaining your prior position.

"You know if I don't win, I deserve an apology for the threat." You turned to him with a deep glare and scoff.

"Didn't I literally just say I don't want to hear doubt!"

You were met with a series of heartfelt chuckles. His voice got an octave deeper as he got close to your ear once more.

"I'm not very good at listening to instructions, darling."

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The academy was filled with lively chatter and elegance on every possible surface. Only a few steps in when a certain dark-haired girl stopped in front of both you and Coriolanus.

"Y/N! I didn't know you were going to be able to come!"

Clemensia excitedly said as she moved in for a hug, which you returned. You smiled at your dear friend.

"Ah, well, I couldn't miss the victory gloat of this one."

You slightly turned back to Coriolanus, who softly scoffed at your words. It helped inflate his ego but also your argument about the size of it.

"Well, when you he does, remember I was the humble class partner."

He gave her one of his notorious charming smiles, but internally he was rolling his eyes as dramatically as possible.

The only work Clemensia did was write her name and look pretty.

Coriolanus wondered how things would be if you were his class partner instead of her. If he just said no and rather asked you.

Then again, you had instantly chosen Sejanus as yours. You always stood by him ever since that first conversation. And today was no different when you spotted him on the other side of the hall with his ma.

You bid your goodbyes to Clemmie and Coryo, assuring the latter you would meet up later before the announcement. Even as he locked his arms with Clemmie, who led the way and conversation, he watched you.

He didn't like that you were walking away; the feeling of someone else's arm in his felt like a crime.

But you were completely oblivious to the enamored boy's feelings as you smiled to the Plinths. You were quickly barged with a hug and motherly affection by Mrs. Plinth. As she enveloped you in the squeezing hug, she complimented you endlessly in ways that made your heart warm due to her affection.

Once finally freed, you turned to her sharp-looking son. You gave him a quick hug and assured him of his appearance, which he thanked.

"However, I would rather be wearing rags and be covered in filth than be surrounded by these pig-" the rest of the insults were cut off by your sharp jab done with your elbow into his side.

A group of powerful politicians and businessmen were right in front of you and began engaging in conversation with his mother. You two were unfortunately forced to stand there and be the example of future prosperity they talked so estimably about.

Across the hall stood the ever-judging gaze of Arachne, Festus, and Felix. The group, who stood in the middle, were soon joined by Coriolanus.

"Finally, some viable competition," Arachne admitted as she took in the newest addition to her clique. "Hmm, snazzy shirt. Is that tessare?"

He smiled that irresistible smile. "Huh, so that's why it reminded me of the maid's bathroom."

The red-headed girl looked him up and down in analysis as the other two chimed in.

"Have you tried this lamb? It’s scandalous," a munching Felix added over his plate.

"Ugh. Only the vulgar eat with their fingers, Felix," Crane rolled her eyes at the disgusting display.

"What, Daddy not teach you table manners?" Festus added.

"Maybe he would have if he wasn’t so busy running the country."

Moments like these make Coriolanus question why he was even worried he wouldn't win when he is surrounded by blabbering idiots.

But They had the option to be idiots. He didn't.

His attention was snapped back by a venomous scoff by Arachne.

"She's been back for what? Five minutes? And we don't even get a greeting while she contaminates herself with the likes of them."

Her poisonous gaze was trained on you, who seemed to be charming a group of older patrons and leaders of the financial sector of Panem. Coriolanus didn't like her tone directed to you nor her implication.

"She already said hi to Clemmie. Besides, she came here with me."

That last line caused the group of complicated adolescents to pause. Each turned, with a wrinkle in their eyebrows, to stare at the smirking blonde. His eyes were on your smiling face but didn't waste the moment to turn that smirk on them as assurance.

And just as suddenly as the situation occurred, it was ended with your entrance into the group; which, of course, was right by Coryo's side.

"I hope I didn't enter at too bad of a moment."

You said smoothly and in your tone that no one could ever seem to refuse. There was no hint of inner conflict nor unease in your body language nor voice.

You sure were giving Coriolanus a run for his money in the art of acting.

Felix, Festus, and Arachne shared a collective look of conspiracy. But for some reason, whether it be a feeling of celebration of Reaping Day or to be pocketed for later, they let it drop for now.

"Hey, they called us here for the Plinth Prize, right? Because I heard Dr. Gaul’s in the building."

You looked around and noticed all the key figures who aid and conduct the Hunger Games. It confused you on why they would celebrate the Games here, in the middle of the Capital academy. But the subject changed just as fast as the Capital's attention span.

“Plinth.”

They all turned their heads to snort in his direction, and you refused to follow their gaze of displeasure.

"I mean, look at his spawn."

"Who would have thought that you could buy your way into the Capitol?"

"Well, you can’t buy class."

You've given them enough time to snub him when you perked up.

"Clearly, you all are experts in the lack of class, are you not?"

Instead of the usual nasty retorts and efforts to convince of his lack of worth, Arachne laughed as if you were a misunderstanding child.

"Oh, Y/N, you need to learn to let him understand his place in this world. Besides, you are clearly moving on to bigger and better things."

Her smirk was odd but so was her blatant glance at Coriolanus as she shared her thoughts no one asked for. You looked to the handsome teen who locked eyes with you.

The others continued their attack on the Plinths' entire existence, but you were too focused on the blue orbs that seemed to have stiffened. No words were spoken, but the message was clear.

Let them speak their minds.

It will only hurt to refuse. Hurt you and Coriolanus.

Sejanus has lived long enough with the whispers about him; he can deal with it.

But the wrong whisper about Coriolanus? It will ruin everything he was worked a decade for. And you wouldn't even risk the slightest crack.

"Did you see his mother’s outfit? Sorry, his 'Ma’s.'"

You had more than enough insults about the teasing boy's own appearance, but your tongue had to be bitten.

"Dress a turnip in a ball gown, and it’ll still beg to be mashed."

You had to gulp down your emotion and nausea as Coriolanus joined in the fray.

"Don’t do that. We all know that you like him."

Arachne countered him. You were grateful for it, even though you knew it did not come from a place of compassion.

"I don’t like him, Arachne. I tolerate him. He’s district."

But the sneering girl wasn't looking at him when he responded. Her interest lay on you and your mediocre attempt to hide your opposition.

Who would have thought the mighty Vaun heiress would have a weakness in the form of charming, young Snow?

It didn't surprise the teetering Casca Highbottom, who watched the two with a keen interest from the back of the room. He continued to watcg as the very boy Festus Creed discredited appeared by the snubbing boy's side.

"Sejanus, you made it to the Reaping for once."

Sejanus stood on your other side as he turned his wit towards the curly red-headed boy.

"And you made it to graduation, Festus. We’re both shocked."

You were glad Coriolanus joined in your laugh at his jab. If there was one thing to say about interactions where Sejanus has to interact with the snobbing clique, it was entertaining.

But Arachne was not in the mood for a show.

"Spill it. Who won the prize? Is Y/N the winner? Is that why of all the days to make her reappearance, it would be the day she gets her shiny prize?"

You do question why you are still friends with someone who is so quick to jump to conclusions sometimes.

But Sejanus was quick to step in and put his hand out in front of you as a sort of protective force.

"Oh, no, I’m not gonna ruin my father’s big day. No one here actually likes him, but they do love his money. You know what that’s like, don’t you, Arachne?"

Oh, yes, so so entertaining.

Well, to everyone but the brunt of the joke.

"Funny."

The sound of magnificent music filled the hall, signaling the attendees to take their seats. You moved to a near seat by Coriolanus as the one by Sejanus was already taken. Sejanus seemed to be explaining something to Coriolanus, but you couldn't hear what. But seeing the color drained from his face assured you that it was nothing good.

All questions were cut off by the booming and crawling voice of Dr. Volumnia Gaul. As she addressed the crowd in her odd manners, you began to wonder what role she is playing in the Academy today. Maybe even the Plinth Prize?

She introduced Casca Highbottom, the constantly intoxicated Dean of the prestigious academy. And the creator the very inventor of the event this "holiday" was created to commemorate along with the Capital victory.

He draws on about the Hunger Games and the students' eagerness for the Plinth Prize winner, but he would never inform of the victor.

No, to your horror and Coriolanus's frustration, there would be one final task to determine the winner.

"But by who is the best mentor in the Hunger Games."

Best said by the creator of the bloodbath. You were meant to create children of your same age or younger into spectacles to win the prize. They didn't have to survive for you to succeed.

The realization that this will only amplify the widespread thought among your peers that districts were subhuman, hit you at once. Second class citizens.

They are to parade around in their last moments, all in mercy of their puppeteers: kids their same age. It sickened you.

But if it sickened you so much why does that voice still keep telling you that at least they have a chance to win? More of a chance then they had given you all.

The continuation of your moral conflict was paused as you tuned back into the words of your stumbling Dean.

"Your entire future rests on this last project. Oh, and I must tell you that anyone caught cheating to give their tributes an unfair advantage… will just have no future at all."

His words seemed a bit targeted and enjoyed too much. Nevertheless, the ceremonial music initiating the Reaping Ceremony began.

As each name from the districts was announced, so was the accompanying mentor. Anxiety began surging through your veins as it finally hit you that you will be an integral part of this year's games.

Blood will be on your hands.

You didn't know what to think when the district one tributes you were announced and your name was absent.

Should you be upset that the likelihood of a successful tribute is going to dwindle the further down the list goes?

When it was district two's turn, you hoped that neither you nor Sejanus are named. You knew he was going to suffer most regardless, but having to mentor someone from his own district was its own special punishment. All hope was crushed, however, when Highbottom opened his mouth.

"How apt. Boy goes to Sejanus Plinth."

The crowd applauded, but the sound of blood in your ears drowned it out. You instantly peered around Coriolanus to look at Sejanus. But his gaze was glued to the floor in front of him. Due to your now-close proximity, you could hear the talk between the two boys.

"You got the pick of the litter."

"You forget. I’m part of that litter."

The grave tone in Sejanus's voice wasn't one of surprise. But rather one of understanding. Understanding why him and why the tribute he landed with.

The tributes and districts kept on coming and coming. But not a singular mention of either you or Coriolanus.

It had gotten to District Ten and yet nothing. You turned to look at him and found him already staring.

That mask was fixed perfectly for all else. But the mask could never mask his eyes.

His now dull blue eyes filled with fear. And Coriolanus Snow showing fear was enough to ensue new waves of emotion in you.

You had the same mask plastered on, but you couldn't stop yourself from fishing your necklace out. You grazed your fingers across the cold metals of all three to calm yourself as District Eleven was finished up.

Your hand dropped to your side and was quickly grabbed and given a squeeze of reassurance by Coryo. Maybe even a transfer of bravery.

You both knew what was to come now. Who was to come.

However, you were too quick to judge.

"Twelve! Boy, Y/N Vaun!"

Maybe you were imagining things or letting your mind play tricks on you, but Highbottom's voice sounded as if it was laced with a slight enjoyment.

However, your attention was turned to the boy appearing on the screen. Jessup Diggs. He was tall and broader than you would have imagined. His face was stone cold and lifeless. A mirror of yours. How odd.

The moment to analyze was over as soon as it started when Highbottom began again.

"Oh. You’ll be happy about this, Ms. Crane. The “runt girl” from District 12, she belongs to Coriolanus Snow. Lucy Gray Baird."

The whole room seemed to freeze as a girl in a beautifully designed colorful dress walked solemnly to the front. A boy seemed to try to talk to her, but her eyes stayed forward with her hand clasped behind her back.

"What is that dress? Is she some sort of clown?" Arachne mocks, but you found it fascinating.

"I think it's beautiful."

Your genuine and soft admission brought back Coriolanus Snow's senses. But they were reinvigorated when a red-haired girl began shrieking in the crowd. It made him stand up in fear and shock. The mayor's daughter, apparently.

Others in the hall seemed horrified and disgusted. Especially with Lucy Gray's musical performance and ending line.

According to Arachne, she was mentally ill. But to you, she was fascinating.

While everyone began getting up, you leaned over to a still-shocked Coriolanus. "Even when all the odds were against your favor, you still seemed to bag a winner."

You really believed she had a shot at winning. She already had attention and clear potential. You could tell Coriolanus was thinking the same thing, but his hope was not fully shared with your amount in the girl. Lucy Gray is clearly outgoing and has, at least, the ability to charm. She is going to need a lot more than that, but fortunately, she has a clever mentor.

You stated as much in an empty hallway that you shared with Coriolanus. He was racked with stress and purpose as he paced back and forth the space.

"You know he purposely gave me the weakest tribute. He is doing all he can to stop me from moving forward!"

He took a strong bite of the crackers that he sneakily grabbed from the table of food earlier. You leaned on a pillar as you let him rant.

"Let him do all he can! Fate seems to have different plans. And was it that you always say? 'Snow lands on top!' "

He stopped his pacing to land in front of you. He had a few crumbs on his shirt that you instinctively brushed off without thought.

His glance back and forth between your features and hand on his chest.

"And besides, the future president of Panem is gonna deal with a lot of petty men like him. You are just getting early practice."

Your optimism showed through your pretty smile. You peeked up at him, and the intensity of his eyes had you bite your lip in nervousness. Maybe you stepped over the line? Maybe you got too comfortable? Maybe—

All thoughts seemed to dissipate the instant Coryo leaned in.

You didn't know what to do and were doing your best not to freak out. It's not like you didn't want to because that would be the biggest lie of your life.

But you've never kissed anyone before. And what if he was just wrecked with nerves?! What if it meant nothing?

What if it meant nothing.

But as Coriolanus was a millimeter from your lips, the clearing throat paused any further action. You quickly turned your head as the blonde opened his eyes and followed your gaze.

Oh, had he wished he didn't.

There stood the cursed Dean. A look you couldn't decipher expressed on his face.

"President? Well, my oh my. Ambitious, just like your father."

You glanced to your right as Snow now stood next to you, with a guarded yet confused look.

"Oh yes. He and I were best friends. Once."

Highbottom's targeted gaze fixed on you. "And your dear mother. I was so saddened to hear of her untimely passing."

His tone, however, felt anything but. He turned his attention back to the heir of House Snow.

"Enlighten me, Mr. Snow. What are your plans after these Games?"

"And if you fail to win the Plinth Prize, what then?"

"I hope to go on to the University, sir. Naturally." Coryo answered as if it was the most preposterous question in the world.

"We’d pay the tuition, of course."

Casca Highbottom's sunken eyes seemed to shine as if he had caught fresh prey.

"Look at you. Your makeshift shirt and your too-tight shoes. Trying desperately to fit in when I know the Snows don’t have a pot to piss in."

Both you and Coriolanus had bewildered looks gracing your features on his knowledge. The boy's breathing deepened as he tried to calm himself, but you could see the small sheet of sweat building on his face and neck.

Highbottom was already satisfied with his effect on Crassus Snow's poor offspring. But what more could a little fun hurt?

He took calculated steps towards you, and Coriolanus took a noticeable step forward, as if a shield from the hollow man's words. The dark-haired man's eyes seared into the ever-attention-getting silver ring. His smile made your skin crawl.

"And here I thought you would be smarter than your mother. But of course, the Snows are known to be entitled."

And with that, he turned his back, making his grand exit. He didn't even turn to give a look as he addressed Coriolanus.

"Good luck with that poor little songbird."

Once assured he was truly gone, you and Coriolanus shared a look. A look of horror, anger, and determination. Determination to make Highbottom wish he ate his words.

He may have thought he put you both in the worst positions possible. But there is a thing about two people put in a corner.

They can create quite a stir.

And there sure was a storm brewing.

Your anchor and lifesaver being the retreating blonde with a straightened back and a purpose never more solidified.

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A/N: AND ITS FINALLY OUT! pls don't send me into the arena🙏 I know I said it would be out DAYS ago (maybe even a week ago im sorry!) But I didn't like my original draft as it seemed just too rushed. I don't wish to post bad writing just to be timely. I hope you guys enjoyed the newest chapter and please let me know what you guys think and if you enjoy the longer chapters! Pls lmk guys I have been awake nearly 24 hours. Much love❤️

@notyourwildestdream 🌹@darktrashsoulbear🌹@fantasylovestoryme 🌹@nekee-lilac02 🌹@a-avengerparker 🌹 @queenofshinigamis 🌹@darlingisntit 🌹@mindymeeksmartinsgf 🌹@dilucpegg3r 🌹

[icarus-suraki]

1, 7, and 9 for the movie ask!

It occurs to me that I could just answer Goncharov (1972) for all of these…

Movie Questions Ask Bait!

->what is your favorite film of all time? Very possibly Mad Max: Fury Road. That movie rewired my brain. That movie scraped the rust off my soul. That movie sneaked up behind me and stole my spine. And it was great.

I literally went to see it in the theater seven (7) times. Seven. If you dig back in my blog here to June 2015, you'll see that this place was full of Fury Road. Stills, gifs, music, meta, fic, shitposts, all of it. All of it.

Sidebar: I think my absolute love of Fury Road is what's keeping me from wanting to see the new Furiosa prequel: Fury Road didn't explain everything to death so we, the fandom, had a great time imagining explanations or making things up. We dissected that movie and we also left it alone. I don't want to know too much. I like that world being left a partial mystery. We, like Max, get thrown into it and we're both figuring out how it works as the story progresses. I love that.

I can't exactly explain why I love it so much. The colors, the action, the fight scenes, the music (holy shit the music), the characters, the weirdness, the story itself, the callbacks and parallels, the newness and the oldness of it (it really is a train robbery movie at its core), the sense (ultimately) of hope, the presences of women (old women even!) in action roles… Something about it, maybe everything about it, were just perfect for me at that time and in that place.

Yeah. Favorite movie ever.

->name a movie you’re emotionally attached to? There's so many ways I could take this. Positive attachment? Negative attachment? Very Strange Time in My Life attachment?

Like, I know I can never watch L'Illusionniste, Les Triplettes de Belleville, or Grave of the Fireflies again because I cried just too fucking hard at each of them, which I think is an emotional attachment.

Or I could say the Lord of the Rings movies (all of them). They came out when I was in college and a handful of us were counting down the days to the premiere, watching this miniscule clip of video taken by a fan from a train that showed a glimpse of the Minas Tirith set endlessly, gobbling up any news or leak or rumor about production on Livejournal, engaging in the fandom of that era (which was a whole thing in and of itself), even going to midnight local premiers. So while I'm not a huge fan of the movies, they certainly were a constant presence in my undergrad days.

Or it could be the other movies that rewired my brain: Mad Max: Fury Road (see above), Princess Mononoke (baby's first Studio Ghibli film in 1999 at the local art house theater), Star Wars (only episodes 4, 5, and 6 though; I kind of deny that any others exist), Kiki's Delivery Service (which I had on VHS in college and would watch when I was stressed and depressed because I love the city), Voices of a Distant Star (the concept really got me)…

Or it could be the kids' movies from my own childhood, you know? Robin Hood (1973) is very near and dear to my heart. And Panda and the Magic Serpent is what started me down the weaboo road way back when I was 6 years old.

There's so many possible answers here. But that's a few movies I have emotional attachments to. How's that?

->guilty pleasure movie? Do I have to? Okay, okay, okay: I like a good cheesy, gory giallo movie, red tempra paint blood and all. Spaghetti westerns are amazing with their half-understandings or misunderstandings of USAmerican history to the point that it becomes something different, something bigger and more epic (I love The Good, The Bad and the Ugly so much). Martial arts movies full of dramatic scenes and wire-fu are so much fun (and I get to practice my Mandarin or my Japanese). Gothic drama, especially from the 1990s, is great like the original IwtV, Crimson Peak, The Crow…

But I paid actual, real, hard-earned money for a (digital) copy of Bloodsport and it's so bad. It's so bad! But I love it--maybe as much for meta reasons as anything.

Like, the whole thing is based on this Canadian-American guy Frank Dux's memoirs about being trained in ninjutsu by a mysterious Senzo "Tiger" Tanaka (who probably didn't exist at all and has the same name as a character in You Only Live Twice) and then going on to compete in this international full-contact underground martial arts competition in Hong King (the "Kumite"). Oh and he was also in the military at the time, doing covert missions, so he had to go AWOL to fight in this competition of course. Which he does without being caught. And he keeps outsmarting the CID officers (one of whom is played by a young Forest Whitaker) when they chase him to Hong Kong, meanwhile picking up an April O'Neill-style beautiful American journalist ("reporter" because it's the 1980s).

The whole thing is so clearly ridiculous bullshit but it's marketed as being based on a true story because Frank Dux insisted his bullshit was true. And it was produced by Cannon Films, which is another can of worms entirely (I highly recommend the documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films for more backstory on the company; it is bonkers). And did I mention that Frank Dux is played by Jean-Claude van Damme? And yes he does do the most epic of splits.

And the whole thing is simultaneously so deep in meta layers (self-proclaimed martial arts masters, which ties into Count Dante and the dojo wars, Frank Dux's amazing bullshit and stolen valor, Cannon Films) and yet so incredibly shallow at the same time.

There's minimal plot, zero depth to the characters, massively long flashback sequences, even longer training montages, a totally ridiculous amalgamation of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures into just "Asian Culture," the dubbing in some scenes is practically criminal, there's minimal exploration of the location (Hong fucking Kong!!!) outside of a chase and a throwaway scene about bad restaurant food, and even the fight scenes during the tournament aren't really all that great.

But the Kowloon Walled City gets some screentime (except that it's just a set sometimes). And there are tons of locally-hired extras and bit players, along with a slew of international actors and/or actual martial artists, even if a lot of them have been cast as nationalities other than their own???--like Bernard Mariano, who is Filipino by descent but was born in Hong Kong, had no martial arts experience but got scouted while he was working out, was cast as a "Middle Eastern" fighter named Hossein, but used his pay from the movie for university classes to go on to be an English teacher in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Jean-Claude van Damme is busy taking his shirt off and wearing super tight spandex underwear (he snaps them in one scene; you're welcome). Leah Ayres is a "reporter," which is really "journalist" and one of the few adventurous jobs acceptable for women in 1980s movies to have, who maybe lives in Hong Kong or maybe doesn't but she's super cute and deserves better than she got in the script; she's The Girl (Leah Ayres is now into pseudoscience). And Donald Gibb is playing this American bar brawler who somehow got invited to this elite fighting tournament and he looks like Kurt Russell in The Thing if he were still infected by the Thing and living out on the ice alone.

Like, I could just keep going. I love this shit. There is so little that's "good" in terms of filmmaking, scriptwriting, cinematography, anything in this movie and yet it entertains the fuck out of me.

Hence: guilty pleasure film.

[linkspooky]

Hi! I love your meta btw, your recent posts reminded me that yu gi oh exist lol i used to watch it as a kid but I don't remember anything so I wanted to ask you what's the best watch order and (maybe) your general opinion about the various spinoff

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: I'd recommend watching this one first because every spin-off after this one either recycles archetypes, or subverts tropes from the original so it'll enhance your viewing experience.

Afterwards, the simplest is release order. GX -> 5DS are in the same continuity as Duel Monsters, and they have a crossover Film Bonds Beyond Time.

Zexal's basically a standalone it has no connection to the previous, but I'd reccomend watching it after Duel Monsters because there are a lot of references in plot and tropes to the original.

You need to have watched GX, 5DS, and Zexal to understand Arc-V because they reference settings and characters from the original series. It's basically every single Yu-Gi-Oh! Series fights in a Denny's Parkinglot.

You don't need to see any previous series to watch Vrains.

You need to watch Sevens before Go!Rush because the main character of Sevens shows up in Go!Rush, and Go!Rush is a prequel sort of kind of.

As for my general opinions and reccomendations, below the cut:

Duel Monsters is the original and sets the standard. I think the manga is better on this one because it acknowledges Death-T, which I think is crucial for Kaiba's development. He did more than just steal one of Yugi's Grandpas cards. The arc of the main characters Yugi and Yami with Yugi learning confidence and Yami unlearning arrogance is really good, especially in the manga where Yami starts out as a lowkey serial killer. Battle City and Duelist Kingdom are also two really good tournament arcs, Battle City in particular is probably the best Tournament Arc in the Series.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX! Is my personal favorite but it's a mess. I've once heard it described as "GX is two seasons of absurdist nonsense, and then a complete emotional breakdown." In my opinion there's a lot of good foreshadowing and buildup for what will happen in Season 3, and Season 3 is one of the best shonen deconstruction arcs especially of it's main protagonist in anything ever.

Honestly the worst part of Season 1 and 2 for me isn't even the pacing, it's that it recycles plot points from Yu-Gi-Oh! but less good. The Seven Shadow riders just do shadow duels because they did that in original Yu-Gi-Oh, there are three super powerful cards like the Egyptian God Cards. In season 2 there's a villain with a split personality like Marik, and the Genex tournament is really bad plotless meandering tournament arc compared to Battle City.

Season 3 is also masterful at utilizing things that were foreshadowed in the past 3 seasons, especially in regards to Judai's flaws which have been swept under the rug until now.

I think YGO GX is one of the best casts, and also one of the best at balancing screentime of its cast so characters show up when they're relevant and disappear when they're not relevant, and every major character has an arc. However, it's very much the Judai show, and if you're invested in a character that's not Judai you'll likely think your fave didn't get used to their fullest potential.

Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS has one of the best beginnings of any Yu-Gi-Oh series and it's excellent at building Fortune Cup -> Dark Signer and jacking up tension. Dark Signer, Barian Arc and Gx Season 3 are probably my top 3 arcs. I won't talk about it much because I don't want to spoil.

Season 2 is still good, and the ending is excellent as well as the villains, but the pacing becomes abysmal due to production issues. Carly and Aki are probably the two best female characters in all of Yu-Gi-Oh, and all their screentime and relevance gets erased. If you watch Yu-Gi-Oh for the duels, the relay duels suck and last 3 whole seasons and nobody gets to win a duel if they're not Yusei Fudo. As someone who really enjoyed Yusei in season 1, him becoming a perfect hero who always saves the day and never makes mistakes and never gets challenged signifcantly by the narrative because he's always right makes him super uninteresting. I want to clarify I think Yusei is still a character with depth and character flaws, but the narrative doesn't challenge him on this flaws. Aporia and Z-One do a lot to redeem Season 2 though and it ends on a real highpoint.

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal is probably the highest quality Yu-Gi-Oh series overall, especially since there's no drop in quality ever it ends on it's highest point. Shark is probably the single best written character in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Vector is the best written villain.

I actually don't have much to say on Zexal because I don't want to spoil what's good about it. My only complaint is that it's cast is padded with way too many characters who do nothing. You could cut Yuma's entire friend group and lose absolutely nothing. The female characters in Zexal are abysmal too, the worst in any series. The characters with arcs though are all good and iconic.

It's also the only show that manages the ambiguity where none of the villains are actually villains, almost every single character has a sympathetic reason for what they're doing even the ones that are wrapped up in revenge plots. It gives a really interesting challenge to Yuma the pacifist protagonist who doesn't want to pick sides. Yuma's up there with Judai too in top ten protagonists.

Arc-V.... I think you can still have fun with Arc-V, but the Z-arc plotline just was not a good idea and it makes the show fundamentally flawed because everything from episode 20 onwards is built around the Z-Arc plotline.

Vrains has some solid ideas and themes. I especially love the emergent ai ideas that are present with the ignis and bohmann it's one of my favorite topics in science fiction. I've got two main problems number. I enjoy playmaker as a character, but much like Yusei I feel like over time he's not as challenged as character by his narrative. THough, the final season does a lot to rectify that.

Vrains second and biggest problem is that it plays it really safe after the production disaster that was Arc-V. Which means the first two seasons while enjoyable enough feel kind of by the numbers at times. The third season is amazing though, but it suffers from the series being cut short so it's only about 20 episodes. Still ending on a high note is always a good thing.

Sevens is kind of the closest to a slice-of-life Yu-Gi-Oh which makes it hard to compare to the other series. I do enjoy the main cast of characters, but to be honest it's really hard to get invested for me personally, when every arc is just "I hate Rush Duels. I'm going to try to destroy Rush Duels. Nevermind, Rush duels are awesome actually." Every. Single. Arc.

I'm only 16 episodes into Go-Rush and it's not finished yet, but my main take so far is: Yudias! Yudias! Yudias!

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

Can we get the Star Seven's favorite TV shows or Movies if you haven't yet? <3

AYYYY that’s what’s up!!! I did OrangeJuiceVerse Stan and Kyle’s favorite media here (shoutout to the wife for askin) but here’s the rest of the seven!

KENNY!!! Ok I cannot stress enough how much of a Muppets enthusiast this man is. Kenny absolutely wanted to work for Jim Henson Creature Shop at some point (same) and he fucking LOVES anything remotely related!!! He’s also a big horror fan due to the fact that he’s seen a lot of gnarly shit in his (consistently interrupted by deaths) life, and OH. MY. GOD. he fucking loves Troma Entertainment. Lloyd Kaufman and his gross ass vulgar comedy is Kenny’s lifeblood. He introduced the m5 to Toxic Avenger and Shakespeare’s Shitstorm (idk if that one’s actually out yet my partner’s just friends with Lloyd so we got an early copy) and literally every single one of his movies are so gross but Kenny very much enjoys them, out here casually enjoying the Tromaville High trilogy without flinching once. And he LOVES watching buddy comedies with Stan!!! The two of them will be up to all hours just watching Superbad and Clerks and any movie where two guys are in silly situations smh. And this guy ADORES the marvel netflix shows, especially Daredevil omg and he went feral for The Punisher. Kenny has also seen every Barbie movie ever

Tweek! He is a CHRONIC rewatcher!!! He’s seen Sherlock more times than he can count. Any show that’s formulaic, he likes it bc it isn’t unpredictable, so think kids shows. BUT!!! He also very much enjoys the most obscure gory art pieces, loves early film like A Trip To The Moon and Stagecoach, and adores Buster Keaton. At some point Stan got him into Supernatural and Tweek was TERRIFIED at points, but he loves the lore and the attention to detail. And he laughs his ASS OFF at Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia but it stresses him out lmao

Craig watched The Orville and absolutely lost his mind getting obsessed with it, he may be an astronomy professor and generally into space, but he can take or leave Star Wars. And Star Trek. His biggest guilty pleasure with movies that only Tweek knows about? This stoic mf fucking LOVES musicals. Like if Stan knew, OH BOY he’d be over at apt 2 constantly hanging out just because Craig is watching The Greatest Showman. Craig doesn’t discriminate against objectively bad cgi either, so he genuinely enjoyed the 2019 Cats and rewatches it frequently. He loves Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and introduced it to the rest of the star sev (Cartman loved it, Kyle was repulsed by “Bless Your Beautiful Hide”). One of his favorite shows is How It’s Made lmfao and he ADORES Mythbusters.

Marj omg she’s such a romantic, movies based on Jane Austen novels? She’s there. Bridgerton? Yep. But ALSO!!! Any movie that’s very race against time or like a movie where someone is falsely accused of a crime, she’s watchin it, and DUDE she LOVES CARTOONS!!! Her parents only ever let her watch pbs kids and she was SUCH an Arthur Girlie!!! Omg Fetch was a fave too!!! Also shes showed the group some DARK movies, like it was her turn to pick on movie night in the Survivor House and she put on The Black Phone and everyone was like JESUS CHRIST MARJ WHAT bc they were expecting her to pick Fern Gully or something again but nope she was like “fellas it’s really cerebral and dynamic” and literally Stan got so freaked he had to leave the room

Cartman is a HUGE reality show guy!!! He and Marj are sittin there watching the bachelor with popcorn and a love of drama!!! LITERALLY he lives for the arguments in Dance Moms and the pettiness like “oh you guys Jill bought a bench for Abby this is about to be freakin sweet” lmfao messy king. He’s definitely more of a show guy than a movie guy, but as long as there’s significant arguments he’s clocked in! Also when he was watching Hannibal 24/7 Kyle was VERY concerned lmao. Cartman’s favorite movie is ‘Alive’ (I think that’s what it’s called?) JUST because it scared kenny so bad when the characters had to eat each other. His favorite show is Lost and he was out here chomping his popcorn and that scene in the episode where Kate has her shirt off bc they ran into a swarm of bees and Charlie goes “I think it was full of C’s” and Cartman is like “hell no those are A cups at best” (this is a very specific hc I’m sorry) but lmfaoooo Cartman absolutely sends me into orbit bc he absolutely doesn’t shut up when he’s watching ANYTHING!!! His favorite musical is Phantom of The Opera.

There ya go my dude! Thank you again for asking I LOVE getting asks especially abt OJV and I deadass had so much fun thinking on this!

[deadpuppetboi]

So you think manhunt gangs would come together for movie marathon, Which movies do you think would be each gang's favorite?

I've tried hard to have to make this as accurate as possible, knowing their erratic personalities and such.

The Hoodz - Heat (1995)

Various movies encapsulate not only a bank robbery but how intense a shootout is such as Heat.

The Hoodz have had their fair share of bank robberies (even the ones with a badge) and have had times where they didn't know if they were going to make it. They take notes but share a good beer while at it, reminiscing on the ‘good old times.’

The Innocentz - Scarface (1983)

This movie has it all.

Drugs, gang wars, corruption, death, murder, and the disillusionment of The American Dream. Coming from immigrant parents or being immigrants themselves, The Innocentz (or some of them) found themselves in Tony Montana’s shoes. They want to hit it big and become the next drug lord like that one guy in Liberty City. Then again, they all love to reference ‘Say hello to my little friend’ whenever they watch the movie and laugh about it like the coked-up druggies they are.

The Smileys - The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999)

The image of them SCREAMING at the screen in complete despair over Elmo losing his blanket is something I can see them doing.

It's what I did when I was younger so I can see every member doing the same and cursing any other character who bothered Elmo in the slightest. They take their valuables very seriously, especially Barry who holds his ‘daughters’ close to his heart, threatening anyone who dares to even touch them.

The Wardogs - All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)

There's a scene where the main character Paul is asked by his Professor to tell young men about his heroism and patriotism when he served in the war. At first Paul is hesitant as he has so words to say before he finally tells them the truth. The real truth. There is death. There is murder. There is no mercy. That is all.

“It’s dirty and painful to die for your country.”

And everyone calls him a traitor, a coward, an embarrassment of a soldier who should be proud to serve his country.

It's an anti-war movie, sure, but it stays with The Wardogs constantly even when they remember walking back to their hometowns after serving their time overseas.

Cerberus - Se7en (1995)

Let's be honest, these guys have faced the worst of the worst in their line of work.

They may work with Starkweather but they work with all sorts of stupid rich assholes who cause even the worst of crimes to each other. All because of the dumbest feuds, the mishandling of expensive products, and the greed of collecting the greens. Se7en displays a world they've seen countless times whether it be in their ‘normal’ job or the job they take shooting down who is against their boss. They’ve seen detectives look too far into their work, serial killers who tore into men/women/children for their sick desires, innocent people in the wrong place and time, and watch as the life in their lives fades away.

So a serial killer who bases his killings on the seven deadly sins is not far from what Cerberus has faced by far.

CCPD - Maniac Cop (1988)

Sometimes these guys watch even the most ridiculous films centered around cops just for the hell of it.

Whether it be for fun, to live through a power fantasy, or even just to watch countless people (innocent or not) die in horrific ways, it's still a classic for the whole precinct to watch this movie or watch the series in general. Watching a dead cop go on a killing spree across New York City while simultaneously setting fear into the hearts of men and women alike just brings absolute joy to the gang as a whole.

It's a classic, classics never die.

SWAT - Falling Down (1993)

All it takes is one bad day.

I’m sure that rigorous training, having to support a family with blood money, having to work with a very disgusting man who runs a snuff film industry, and having to kill people whether they were innocent or not will demonstrate some problems.

You get frustrated.

Upset.

Angry.

You want to be able to have things go your way but you can't and everyone looks at you like you’re selfish for it. You want to have a normal life and have a normal family outing but you’re plagued with images of corpses being rigorously shot at a far or close distance, their insides painting the walls. You feel like you’re going to lose it by your wife asking for more money, your kids wanting a new toy, or even the traffic blocking your way to your ‘regular’ job. You're going to lose your mind and you’re one bad thing away from grabbing that gun and letting lose on everyone who ever put their doubt into you.

But give the SWAT some credit, at least they have each other to vent out their frustrations when the pressure becomes too much.

The Skinz - None

No one asked them. No one likes them. They weren't even invited. If they rode up they’d be met with a rain of bullets.

Bonus!!!

The Camheadz - 8mm (1999)

This movie is about a snuff film.

I mean, I feel like this gang in particular plays a huge part in Mr. Nasty’s snuff films not because their heads are cameras but because I feel like each one of them has a distinct style in general.

Like, one wants to go after women, another goes after men, another the homeless, and so on. They all have their tapes, each inserted into their camera heads to record their best moments and to either save for themselves or to sell for a few more bucks. But let's be honest, they keep the tapes for themselves, just for personal reasons.

So to have a film perfectly demonstrates their lifestyle, even if it doesn't get everything right, it does play well into how deprived human beings can be just to get what they want.

The Clownz - It (1990)

I mean, duh, what else would they watch?

They saw the miniseries and studied the book like it was the Bible just to increase their obsession like the white-painted fiends that they are. Speaking out lines from the alien creature clown itself to either scare children or grown men alike.

We all float down here, Cash.

The Jury - Punishment Park (1971)

Imagine a world during the Vietnam War when President Nixon decreed that those who were ‘anti-war’ would be detained and forced to either spend time in jail or spend three days out in the desert being hunted down by police so that they may reclaim their so-called ‘freedom.’

That is Punishment Park.

A pseudo-documentary film that was highly controversial for its political views but is now highly regarded for taking a stance against the government. It seems like the kind of movie for The Jury knowing how they seem to take the law into their hands, display their political views, and see the movie like the manhunts they frequently did.

The Lost - Dark Days (2000)

Numerous movies depict the harsh and despairing reality of homelessness for those who are homeless.

It's a cold reality that millions of people face from the most remote or even the most popular of places. Always forgotten, always left behind, and always left in the dark. The Lost can heavily relate to this scenario not only because of the various reasons why and how they became the way they are and how. It's a normal day and night for Carcer City, just as bland and bleak as it has always been.

They can only dream of becoming as rich as Starkweather is but they’ll accept what they’re given, they don't have a choice.

[sapphyreopal5]

"I Am Sam" Interview with Jared Padalecki (June 2012)

The following are snippets from the I Am Sam Interview with Jared Padalecki in the Supernatural Magazine published in June 2012.[x][x]

"When asked exactly how badass Sam Winchester is in season seven of Supernatural, Padalecki replies, "Well, you’re familiar with the International Standardized Bad-Ass Test? No? You go from bad-ass-ness to bad-ass-dom.” He gets all that out with a straight face, then adds. "In all seriousness. I think Sam this year is trying to keep his wheels aligned with the road, so he’s not in charge of his own faculties enough to really be as badass focused as he was [when he was soulless] when I had a lot of fun. I like doing the badass bit.”

"At a party following the session, Padalecki is less silly and more sincerely excited when the topic shifts to his impending fatherhood - he and wife Genevieve Padalecki (who, of course, played Ruby on Supernatural) are expecting their first child, a little boy in March. Does Padalecki expect he’ll be a badass dad? "If badass means doing the right thing, I hope to be,” Padalecki says, "because my dad and my father figures and my brother growing up were good guys, so I hope I do the same.”

As for sending up his real, actor self in last season's The French Mistake, Padalecki at first feigns astonishment. That was as real as it could be!" Then he laughs. "I'm kidding. That was a lot of fun. As actors, we're glorified so much. We get to glorify ourselves so much and build ourselves up and put ourselves on pedestals that it was nice to go. ‘You know what? We’re actors. We wear make-up and talk to a camera and we’re telling stories.’"

"Speaking of Bobby, how does Padalecki feel about that character’s death? “I felt very sad. I watched [scenes from the episode Death s Door] as a fan because I wasn’t in it a whole lot. There was a lot of Jim Beaver and Steven Williams - it was all about Bobby and Rufus. Jim and I watched it in his trailer while filming. We were both in tears. I thought Jim Beaver did such an astounding job. And we have a famous saying around Supernatural, that the only way to make sure you’re coming back on the show is to die. So that having been said, I don’t think it’s the last we'll see of Jim Beaver."

"Has Padalecki been enjoying this phase of Sam's personality, or has he been looking forward to Sam freaking out again? "It’s been a lot of fun to be the calm, kind of collected guy," Padalecki says, “and Sam’s been calm because he’s had no choice. He’s been too busy trying to take care of his own mental issues to really go crazy. Sam’s grown up over seven years, so it’s nice that you can see that. We will see Sam start to break apart once again; he’s been trying to hold onto his marbles for the whole of the season, and now we start to see him stop being able to juggle all the balls he was trying to juggle at once."

"Now in his seventh year of playing Sam Winchester, does Padalecki feel the same about playing him today as he did when he started? "I have a family of my own coming now - I mean. Gen’s pregnant - but this show has become a family of sorts. And so part of me says, Well. I’m going to be a dad.’ Another part of me says. ‘Well. I’ve grown up with these guys, these directors, these writers, these cameramen, the grips, the cast, and so I feel so comfortable around them that I wouldn't mind doing the show for a long, long time.’"

"This is season seven of Supernatural. I did Gilmore Girls for five years before this, so I've been working for 12 years. I feel like I've learned a lot, I've grown a lot. I did my first episode of Gilmore Girls when I was 17. I’ll be 30 this summer, so I'm growing up. my career is on a good path. I'm ready for a new horizon. It’s not like I wanted to have a child for the challenge, but I welcome the challenge. I welcome the new road. I'm not expecting it to be easy, I know it won’t, but I’m excited to (experience parenthood) with my wife and best friend."

"Is there anything that Padalecki would like to do on Supernatural that hasn't happened yet? "No. I've got to say, the wonderful thing is, probably in season one. I did everything I wanted to do and then they created more things that I didn’t even know I wanted to do in seasons two, three, four, five, six and seven, and so they’re teaching me and training me that there are a lot more things out there than I maybe anticipated. It’s very exciting."

[iridescentnuances]

5 Movies I'd Show You

Thank you @psalacanthea for always tagging me in games even though I'm not very good at it lol

Okay so with this list, it's going to become pretty obvious that I am a huge weeb. I spent some time thinking about what non-Asian movies I could include. I almost came up with none because weeb foggy brain is foggy. But worst of all, it's really shameful that me, a Spaniard, couldn't come up with a single Spanish recommendation! I will duely reflect upon this tragedy.

So here we go, in no particular order:

One of my favourite musical films of all time, a gut-wrenching tragicomedy about a woman who desperately looks for true love in abusive men. Great acting, great comedic scenes, and when it's time to cry, oh boy does it make me cry. Used to hit too close to home. Can't wait to watch it again after some years.

Okay, when talking Wong Kar-wai, everyone always says how good In the Mood for Love is. I get it. But its sequel hit all the right buttons for me. A man obssessed with the past leaves a trail of emotional corpses. The past never was, as one would think, any better than the present. All that's left is picking up the pieces to try and make something out of the treacherous nostalgia of an unfulfilled romance.

From when I decided to watch each and every Cillian Murphy movie ever. If you liked Girl Interrupted or But I'm a Cheerleader, y'know, any movie about teenagers being committed somewhere, you'll probably like this one. Romance, memorable lines, great soundtrack and honestly, a worthwhile cute ending to dig oneself out of depression.

Hear me out. This movie, this fucking movie. It gets a bad rep for allegedly being too misogynistic and/or too feminist. I wrote my bachelor's thesis about this movie. Twenty-seven pages worth of paper just going on and on about it. I could talk for hours about the book, the adaptation, the authors, the script, eeeeeverything. If you haven't seen it yet in your life, you just have to. If you've already seen it, watch it again and open your mind to it. I won't say anything about it except GOD FORBID WOMEN DO ANYTHING. A very controversial academic opinion, I was told.

The nightmare version of a teenage flick. This one might be my favourite out of Gregg Araki's "Apocalypse Trilogy". If I'm not mistaken, it features all of Araki's tropes: reptilian aliens, problematic bisexuals, at least two pairs of twins, impending doom, and homoerotic longing. It's funny, it's queer, it's horny, it's violent, it's a total freak-out.

Anyone who sees this and wants to do it, consider yourselves tagged!

[edge-oftheworld]

Apple Music interview

“[There’s an] eerily similar melancholy,” Luke Hemmings tells Apple Music, comparing his sophomore album, boy, to his 2021 debut, When Facing the Things We Turn Away From. “And that really propelled the emotion of boy and these seven songs. A lot of the stuff I write is very existential and trying to understand who I am and why I am. At this time, I was very disorientated and maybe a bit emotionally lost, even though life was moving forward in a really great way.”

The two albums were conceived and recorded in vastly different circumstances. His debut came together in isolation under the cloak of COVID lockdowns, while boy was written as he toured the world with 5 Seconds of Summer, the Sydney band the singer/guitarist co-founded as a 15-year-old in 2011. Still, the pair have much in common: turns out you can feel just as alone spending months traversing the globe as you can sitting in your house waiting for the world to open up.

Part of the reason for that disorientation was the dawning realisation that he was entering his late twenties, leading Hemmings to reflect deeply on his youth while considering a potential future as a father. “You want to be the most fully realised version of yourself before stepping into that sort of role, which is a work in progress,” he explains.

Taking inspiration from artists such as Damon Albarn, Beach House, LCD Soundsystem and Richard Ashcroft, boy exhibits a dreamlike quality, one that bathes in melancholy without ever sinking into depression—witness the way in which opener “I’m Still Your Boy” builds from a whispered acoustic beginning into a grandiose and uplifting climax; or the sad-happy mélange of synths and dance beats that propel “Close My Eyes”. Here, Hemmings takes Apple Music through boy, track by track.

“I’m Still Your Boy” “This song really encompasses the ache I wanted to get across and the growing pains it took to become a fully realised adult version of myself. It’s only until I started thinking of having children of my own that I began reflecting on the struggles I had myself as a teenager who grew up in the public eye. This song is about understanding my youth that was marred with trauma amidst beauty, whilst trying to become a good man. ‘I’m Still Your Boy’ walks on the high wire between boyhood and adulthood, looking both ways.”

“Shakes” “‘Shakes’ was written on a dreary evening in between long periods of travel and touring, so it easily came from an incredibly melancholy place. A feeling of yearning to be back home, of feeling lonely and emotionally desperate and depleted. There is a longing for love and self-acceptance in the lyrics, and I hope it to be a song that anyone listening [to] can find themselves in and attach their own story.”

“Benny” “This song is named after my brother, Ben, but in its entirety, it represents all of my loved ones and the guilt I feel being away from my family and living on the periphery of their world. It represents the mornings I wake up in a panic, anxious and worried that today will be the day I get bad news. News that would make my dreams of making music seem infantile and pointless. I’d do anything for the people I love.”

“Close My Eyes” “I wrote ‘Close My Eyes’ as I headed into my late twenties and felt an unavoidable wave of fear and anxiety towards the inevitable death of my youth. I found myself unable to sleep because every time I tried, it was as if a film of my life was projected onto the back of my eyelids—the mistakes, successes, everything that could have been and everything that was. I was sonically trying to tap into 2000s indie rock bands like LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture.”

“Garden Life” “I had the idea for ‘Garden Life’ when I couldn’t sleep in a hotel room somewhere in the world, sometime around 3am. The next morning, I went for a walk and wrote the lyrics on a park bench, watching life pass me by. It’s really just an existential love song to my happiest and safest place. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realised that sometimes the most beautiful and visceral memories in life are not the most grand and obvious ones, they can be simple and powerful. It’s not always the fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Sometimes it’s a Friday night sitting on the couch listening to your favourite person laugh.”

“Close Enough to Feel You” “This song was inspired by sounds from Cocteau Twins and my bloody valentine, who I listened to heavily during the making of boy. The beauty in ‘Close Enough to Feel You’ is all in the details, both sonically and lyrically. Sometimes when you suffer a big emotional loss, something so mundane and otherwise unnoticed can become earth-shattering. A glimpse of a photo out of the corner of your eye, a stain on the carpet, an old sweater, sends you into the foetal position. This song is about the willingness and desire to live in that pain in order to feel close to who or what you lost, rather than moving on.”

“Promises” “‘Promises’ was the song written for the EP that finally made me feel like I was really onto something. It started with merely a drum beat, which I find ironic as I’m not a drummer. But I think maybe it’s that naïveté that led to this song being created. It’s about a time in my life when I saw the world through grey-coloured glasses. I was a pessimist, struggling with depression and my mental health, who fell in love and started to see colour for the first time.”

[all-souls-matinee]

A Ghost Story for Christmas

Throughout the 1970s the BBC ran a holiday special that adapted the works of M.R. James into made-for-TV-movies; celebrating the ‘tradition’ of telling scary ghost stories at Christmastime. They later included a few exceptions to the James rule, and then rebooted it for limited releases in 2005. James is a horror staple; even if you haven’t read his stuff you would recognize the setups and themes of his stories because he was widely publicized in 1910s Cambridge and came to have a ton of influence on the genre. I’ve always been pretty indifferent towards his writing, only familiar with ‘Casting the Runes’ and ‘Rats’ (neither adapted here), but was so charmed by this thing’s existence that I picked out seven episodes that sounded the most interesting and watched in a randomly generated order. All of them are available for free on YouTube/Tubi and run from 30-60 minutes if you’d like to check it out for yourself.

A View from a Hill (2005), story by M.R. James

An archeologist visits a bankrupt squire at a country estate to assess his family’s collection of local archeological finds. Against the protests of his servant, the squire lends our protag a pair of binoculars from the collection.

The editing on this one sucks so hard. There’s a ton of potential in using binoculars as a kind of adder stone that allows you see both shadowy figures and an entire building that isn’t there, and it’s too bad that it’s just flashing images and jump-cut edits. We do get a taste of James’ penchant for stories within stories, usually conveyed by a wise old man, which I love. A certain je ne sais quoi in inviting the unpaid manservant to sit down and talk about how the local weird guy was gallows-robbing and boiling skeletons in a big pot and then went crazy, made a pair of magic binoculars, and got killed by ghosts. Respective reactions to this were to take a long drag on a cigarette say “that didn’t happen” and take a sip of wine and say “it’s an interesting story.” Thank you British people for my life.

The Ice House (1978), original teleplay by John Bowen

A man vacationing to cope with the death of his wife begins to suspect brother-and-sister resort owners are up to something when they show him a mysterious vine growing on their property.

The concept of gothic horror set at one of the country health clubs that were popular in 70s England is honestly very clever. A forbidden room, a mysterious object, the image of a middle aged man wandering around at night with a candle instead of a young woman, it all mostly works, but doesn’t ever quite get anywhere. These are simple stories intended for sharing around a hearth or at a sleepover so shouldn’t want for things like character development or complex filming, but because this one was so ambitious you can feel how lacking it is. Gothic horror also isn’t my thing even at its best, and here its definitely... not (tw for incest.) The biggest point in its favor is the ending, which is at least a natural resolution to the story Bowen was trying to tell.

The Ash Tree (1975), story by M.R. James

Squire Richard inherits a beautiful estate from his distant uncle Matthew, only to be troubled by the sins of Matthew’s past as a ruthless employer of witch hunters. 

The framing of Richard-as-Matthew was confusing, the lighting and editing off, and I really dislike the witch genre so was predisposed against this one. I did like the wise old man character (the mild affect he has while explaining that anyone who touched Matthew’s body was physically wounded in bizarre ways??), and will give it credit for going from the most boring to the most insane one of the bunch. All of these are pretty tame so it was kind of a shock to have them cut to a topless witch torture scene and then to have an ending where he’s mauled by, um, spiders made from human baby heads. The titular cursed tree does burn down at the end, so that’s all good then.

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010), story by M.R. James

Pressured to take space from his wife’s care home, an old man goes to stay at a seaside hotel and finds a mysterious object™ while beach combing.

John Hurt is putting in such a powerhouse performance that it almost feels unfair to compare this to the cheaper 70s stuff. Cinematography and set dressing convey a subtype of loneliness that feels like scum on glass, and tension is built up wonderfully with nasty audio, a scary statue, the image of a pillow slowly dragged under a door. A figure on the beach is made frightening only through film techniques. It also strays much further from the source material than other adaptations, but that’s not without purpose. Hurt’s aside that losing someone to dementia is the opposite of our concept of a ‘ghost’ is more chilling than any of these goofy little vignettes have a right to be; no wonder they replaced the whistle with a wedding ring.

Stigma (1977), original teleplay by Clive Exton

Katherine and her teenage daughter take a trip out to their summer cottage, stopping to watch a team of workers attempt to remove a boulder from the property. Katherine is exasperated with her family, distracted by the workmen, and while cooking dinner finds her hand covered in blood. Only problem is she hasn’t cut herself.

This one was so fucked up and bizarre and I really liked it. As a kid one of my favorite ‘true’ stories was about a house in the Southern U.S. that inexplicably dripped blood from its walls, and this reminded me of that with an added human element. There’s a lot packed into the runtime and characterization considering how simple the plot is. Something both very charming and very chilling about amateur acting and grainy film stock that’s then transformed by moments of pure pathos and truly beautiful shots. The image of blood welling from skin with no visible wounds made me physically shudder; my only issue is that it over-explains itself at the end. So close.

Lost Hearts (1973), story by M.R. James

A preteen named Steven is sent off to live with a distant relation, an eccentric, kindhearted old man obsessed with the occult, and keeps seeing mysterious children around the grounds of his estate.

This one surprised me because I can’t stand the premise, but it really grew on me with time. Even though there’s no mystery (’those children you’re seeing definitely Aren’t little dead ghost children, why, the old man loves kids he adopted two orphans that mysteriously vanished’), it had the best pacing out of any episode I watched. There are some truly arresting and memorable shots like Steven’s benefactor clipping a flower with garden shears and grazing over a cherub statue, or his untimely demise filmed entirely in silhouette. The ghost children’s makeup has them in grey body paint with long vampire fingernails (and, later, open rib cages), which would have terrified me as a child. Even as an adult the image of them tapping on glass windows and humming a leitmotif is memorably creepy.

The Mezzotint (2021), story by M.R. James

Curator Edward Williams comes into possession of a print, a mezzotint, depicting a country estate. When a friend takes a look at it there’s something ever-so-slightly different about the image. Maybe Williams simply missed the moon peeking between the clouds and the figure stepping onto the lawn (spoiler alert: he didn’t.)

The prosthetics that traumatized so many kids who watched The Witches in the 90s never bothered me growing up, but that painting in the beginning gave me nightmares for months, ergo The Mezzotint is the most compelling of any James story. A deep-seated fear of something moving when you can’t see it is just so deliciously scary; I wish it hadn’t had such an unimpressive filming style (Mark Gatiss wrote/directed, and you may remember him from another show), but the pacing, the acting, and the mezzotint itself were great. The wise old man in this one is even played by an old woman- #feminism!

[transfem-octopus]

I finslly watched Rebel Moon and…

* sigh * I really wanted to like that movie… but it’s bad. I was expecting it to be bad in an entertaining way but no it’s just bad in the boring way.

I’m going to talk about this movie so this will be your one and only spoiler warning. If for some reason you want to watch this turd well consider yourself warned.

Before I even get into the movie there is something I want to say first. This movie includes two tasteless depictions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

At the beginning of the movie a group of soldiers attack a teenage girl and prepare to gang rape her before they are all killed by Kora. Later in the movie in Mos Eisley Cantina knock off Gunnar the male lead and love interest for Kora is sexually assaulted by an alien pig man who gropes his genitals.

These depictions of sexual violence are tasteless and gross and I could not in good conscience talk about the movie without talking about this shit. In the former scene sexual violence is used to motivate Kora to stay and fight for the villagers. The later scene exists only to instigate a fight scene and the fact that the only explicitly LGBT character in the movie is a rapist pigman who sexually assaults the male lead is incredibly homophobic.

With that said Rebel Moon

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is really the perfect name for this movie because it’s a bloated mess of a name that should have been edited down just like the movie itself. The plot of the movie is essentially the first 30 minutes of the Magnificent Seven stretched out over 2 hours. Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire is not a movie it is the bloated first act of a movie that should have been edited down but was instead just cut into a movie.

The movie is extreme derivative in both plot and esthetic. Imagine if one were to put Dune, Star Wars, and Warhammer 40k into a blender and set it to pure and then poured the ensuing sludge over the plot of the Seven Samurai. That is what Rebel Moon is. Now the fact that Rebel Moon is derivative is not in and of itself a bad thing. I will say there is a lot about the movie that is conceptually interesting. The problem is the movie largely squanders those conceptually interesting ideas; and just feels kind of bland all around.

The main antagonist of the film is Admiral Nobel who I described in my notes as a “WH40k-ass commissar looking Admiral.”

He is an admiral for The Imperium which is based on The Motherworld in service to The Slain King. And yes those are the only names we’re given. The formal name for the capital of the Imperium is never given in the movie. Nor is the Imperium ever called such in the movie. I learned it was called the Imperium from the Wiki and TV Tropes. But maybe I just missed a reference to it in the movie.

Nobel is the Admiral Hux of the movie in that he is a one dimensional fascist who serves as the underling for the more interesting villain which is Regent Balisarius (more on him later). For the record I don’t mind that he’s a one note fascist; because he doesn’t need to have any kind of depth and he is genuinely menacing.

Our Protagonists (since there are no Heroes “just rebels”). Is Kora aka Arthelais aka Scargiver.

She is yet another conceptually interesting character whose potential is wasted by bad writing, a poor performance, and the fact that there’s not enough female characters in the story for me to ship her with. (Nemesis barely interacts with her and Sam is a child).

She was a soldier of the Imperium but was also a victim of the Imperium. Her entire planet was destroyed by the Imperium in a genocide waged by her “adoptive” “Father” Regent Balisarius prior to his rise to power. After abducting her he groomed her to become a soldier of the Imperium and eventually rose to become the Bodyguard of the Royal Family who she definitely killed or at the very least was scapegoated for their deaths.

Now the movie itself doesn’t tell us that but it’s painfully obvious that Kora played some role in their deaths. She’s the most wanted person in the galaxy; her “Father” is now the Regent of the Empire; and there’s a flashback of her with the dead princess playing with a dog and the dog who had the exact same color pallet as her brings the Princess a dead bird.

It’s so obvious that the final movie is going to reveal Kora played some role witting or unwittingly in their deaths I literally screamed “SYMBOLISM” at my TV when the dog with the same color pallet as Arthalais brought the dead bird to Princess Issa.

And it’s going to be just as obvious a “twist” as when it’s revealed that Sam: the blond haired teenager who befriends the war robot Jimmy who directly compares her to the princess and later inspires him to take up arms to defend her after having lost the will to fight following the death of the princess is in fact the reincarnation of the Princess.

(I’m really going to look foolish if it turns out this prediction is wrong)

The actual plot of the movie is Kora and her Male Love interest Gunnar traveling from planet to planet gathering mercenaries to fight the Imperial Warship that is threatening their world and demanding grain from them.

For most of the movie it’s just Kora and Gunnar traveling from planet to planet to recruit warriors. The warriors get a scene where they show off their skills and their personalities that goes on too long. Then they join the heroes because the plot says so. Wash rinse repeat for an hour and a half.

Our heroes are assisted in their quest by Kai the Han Solo of the movie who is introduced selling out Rebels to the Imperium.

Kai is a lot like Micah Bell; in that the fact that his betryal the heroes to save his own skin shouldn’t be a surprise but it is. The difference is that you don’t expect Micah’s betrayal because he can be superficially charming and you kind of expect that he has more going on deep down.

Kai’s betrayal is surprising because after two hours of enduring Rebel Moon the character introduced selling out Rebels to the Empire betraying the heroes to the Empire is such competent and consistent writing you don’t expect it.

When the Kai tells the protagonists and the audience he sold out the rebels because he’s a rank opportunist while looting the corpses of some people they just killed you fully accept that he’s a hero now because that’s the kind of writing you expect from this profoundly stupid movie. People just do things in this movie for no explicable reasons so you’re surprised to learn a character wasn’t just poorly written it’s just our heroes were chumps who trusted an obviously untrustworthy character.

Nor do you expect his character to foil with Kora’s. As he reveals that like Kora he is the survivor of a genocide committed against his planet by the Imperium. But unlike Kora the lesson he learned is “don’t be on the wrong side of history.” Had the movie just kept Kora and Gunnar in the dark about his dealings with Imperial Bounty Hunters I would be able to say this was good writing.

But this movie was garbage and utterly pointless.

The only thing that actually happens by the end of the movie is the heroes assemble and kill Admiral Nobel but not really because he miraculously survives being stabbed in the gut and falling to his doom and is resuscitated by the weird Alien priests who follow the Imperium everywhere they go.

Seriously this movie is 70% filler that a competent editor would have cut down by condensing unnecessary characters and trimming down pointless scenes. The opening narration could have been cut from the movie entirely because the exact same information is relayed to the audience by characters in universe.

The movie feels like an unedited first draft right down to freaking continuity errors. Towards the beginning of the movie she confides with the village chief that she doesn’t feel worthy of love because “they” taught her that love makes you weak. Later in the movie she tells Gunnar that the Empire encouraged soldiers to take lovers Sacred Band of Thebes style as she is shown kissing a man.

And the choreography is just terrible; the violence is bloodless and weightless despite the fact the movie is not even remotely interested in being family friendly; and the slow motion is over used to the point there’s slow motion shots within the slow motion slots. Making every fight scene seem boringz

All and all this is movie is 4/10 and even that feels like a generous score.

This movie is an argument against the directors cut l; and I am dreading the inevitable Snyder’s cut of Rebel Moon and the bloated vanity project that will be.

[jacenbren]

2 tag memes

Got tagged in these by @dragonofeternal and I’m more than happy to play along!!

Current things tag meme

3 ships: Inumaki Toge/Okkotsu Yuuta; Legato Bluesummers/Millions Knives; Kai Smith/Zane Julien

Last song: Your Best American Girl by Mitski

Currently reading: the Jujutsu Kaisen manga. against my own better judgement.

Currently watching: working my way through rewatching Supernatural and Death Note. the former is a lot lamer than I remember and the latter is a lot goofier than I remember.

Last movie: Annihilation!! I love that movie and rewatch it from time to time, however I made the mistake of watching it while on a redeye to San Franciso and dozed off halfway through. had a nightmare of That Goddamn Bear chasing me. bad plan.

Currently consuming: fuck I forgot to eat breakfast today. I will make up for it by eating an entire box of cherry tomatoes.

Currently craving: I would kill for some donuts right about now lol

15 people 15 questions tag me

Are you named after anyone? Yes actually! My legal name is based on the name of a band my dad likes, and I stole my chosen name off of a character from the Star Wars EU.

When was the last time you cried? While I was traveling a week ago; I got really overstimulated and exhausted while off my ass on Nyquil and had a meltdown :(

Do you have kids? Nope I am nineteen and not at all mentally healthy enough to be emotionally there for a child. am currently hoping to remove the baby making bits asap.

What sports do you play/have you played? I ran cross-country for about seven years (all the way through both middle school and high school) and got my varsity letter my senior year! I also did track & field for a few years (my events were long jump and 100-meters) and to this day I still go on jogs during the summer.

Do you use sarcasm? I am very autistic so my ability to discern tone is. not great. apparently I use sarcasm a lot without meaning to lmao

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Probably their voice tbh

What’s your eye color? Blue. like apparently scarily blue. fucking satoru gojo dayglow freaky ass cerulean orbs.

Scary movies or happy endings? It wildly depends on the genre and my attachment to the characters. I'm much more of a psychological horror guy rather than an enjoyer of slasher films, so I definitely tend to prefer horror literature than movies. as for happy endings?? I definitely enjoy them when I'm looking for escapism, but unhappy/bittersweet endings definitely still have special a place in my heart.

Any talents? I'm really good at driving and I have perfect pitch!

Where were you born? Anchorage Alaska, born and raised :)

What are your hobbies? I'm a big writer, and I occasionally dabble in drawing. I'm really into Stardew Valley at the moment and I've racked up over 200 hours at this point in just one save file. I am falling hopelessly for Sebastian but I feel too guilty to divorce my current husband Elliot. help.

Do you have any pets? Yep, a cat named Ekko and a dog named George. No the dog isn't named after GeorgeNotFound. My dad named him after George Costanza from Seinfeld.

How tall are you? 5'6"

Favorite subject in school? I was always really into history and would meticulously take notes to the point where I could've probably taught the class myself. however autistic gifted kid burnout hit halfway through high school and I barely graduated after sleeping through most of my classes lmao.

Dream job? Any job where I can put some music on and just Do Tasks all day. I worked tourism over the summer (hated that job and I never want to go back) and spent half of it hiding in the back room putting stickers on merchandise. I Love Boring Menial Tasks.

anyway tagging @mellointheory @hecksee @apollos-boyfriend @setsuntamew @acewendino @wigglesforsquiggles @siryyeet @routeriver @versaphile @avitus-ostrander !! feel free to join in if you like; no pressure :D

[agentem]

Emily watches "Shazam! Fury of the Gods"

I think Zachary Levi is aging out of this role (because Asher Angel is aging into it). It's weird Billy doesn't keep his same body when Mary does and she was the same age as him in the first movie, I think. Or maybe they will just recast Billy instead?

There would be a real logistical challenge to making the third one hinted at in the second post credits scene.

Spoiler cut

Love Helen Mirren as a goddess. Maybe that goes without saying.

I kept thinking the random women saved in bystander scenes were Billy's biological mom. I don't know why. I guess I only remember she's a white lady with blondish hair and that is EVERYONE they cast as extras. SPOILER ALERT: None of them are. We don't go back to that well of pain for Billy.

I think it was wise to revive Djimon Honsou as the Wizard. I think he was underutilized in the first movie. And this time we got to see his biceps! So that's a plus. (Him removing the splinter from under his finger nail was tough for me though.)

I thought the scenes with him and talented-despite-being-a-nepo-baby Jack Dylan Grazer were some of the best.

Although, I did not really believe Rachel Zegler was into him. Like maybe she liked him as a friend and respected him as a person. But them like living together at the end? That's insane male writer fantasy shit. As a disabled person who loves superheroes, I would also totally do what Freddy does and turn into his "good" body all the time. But I think that needs to be examined and questioned, which Billy wants to bring up but it never gets addressed further. Not rewarded with hot immortal goddess love. Like the actors are very good and she does a lot in her performance to make it convincing, but I have concerns.

I was glad my fave Darla was able to see unicorns. But I thought the CGI was bad. I really wanted them to look like Lisa Frank cartoons after they ate the PRODUCT PLACEMENT. That would've been such a better choice.

Love Helen Mirren as a goddess. Maybe that goes without saying.

Very happy everyone is cool with Pedro being gay.

I thought seeing Billy's broken body was kind of dark. I mean, I guess the first one had that scenes where the Seven Deadly Sins attack a board room of people, but you don't see much. And even the bad guy lives at the end. Here there are deaths (and resurrections), I guess.

Diana is the real hero of the DC films. I think we all know that, right?

I wasn't a fan of the post-credits scene. Two characters from "Peacemaker" show up and ask Shazam to join the "Justice Society" that Amanda Waller is putting together. The two tones don't really match. And like is Black Adam's Justice Society the same one Waller is building here? Is this all going to get fucked around in Flash, probably.

I want to talk to some fellow nerds about Flash too. I don't know if I can go see it in good conscience. I know a lot of actors are problematic but... I feel kind of awful being like "lol it's got Michael Keaton so I don't care about Ezra's behavior anymore".

Is anyone else conflicted??