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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Midnight Mass Ending Explained

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This article contains spoilers for Midnight Mass.

Ending a horror story is hard.

Perhaps no one knows that better than Mike Flanagan, the writer-director behind horror hits like Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Haunting of Bly Manor. After observing the occasional less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the endings of some of his other projects, Flanagan decided to end his latest, Netflix series Midnight Mass, on his own terms.

“I didn’t want to come up with an ending that I thought would please people,” Flanagan told Den of Geek and other outlets prior to Midnight Mass’s premiere. “I wanted to come up with the ending that would have the most to say down the line.”

So what, exactly, does the ending of Midnight Mass have to say? Let’s explain just what goes down in the conclusion of Midnight Mass and assess what it all means.

What’s Up with Mildred Gunning and John Pruitt?

Monsignor John Pruitt a.k.a. Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) was, by all indications, a good Christian man.

“The thing we kept coming back to is that authentically, through-and-through evil people are very rare. We’re all way more complicated. The humanity of Father Paul was something that was baked in relatively early,” Flanagan says.

Though Pruitt is not a bad man, per se, he is a deeply flawed one. A long time ago, before the “war” (probably World War II or The Korean War), Pruitt hooked up with the married Mildred Gunning and fathered their daughter Sarah Gunning out of wedlock. That is obviously a big no-no for a priest and Pruitt lived with the guilt of denying his daughter for decades.

Pruitt finally got a chance to alleviate that guilt when he came across a curious creature in Damascus. In this fictional universe where the concept of a vampire is clearly not well known, John Pruitt made the understandable mistake of confusing a monstrous vampire for an equally monstrous angel. After all, the angels of the bible are so visually terrifying that they make a habit of telling those they visit “be not afraid.”

Pruitt thought this angel had granted him the gift of eternal life, just like the Bible promises. He then decides to share that gift with his congregation. The priest’s major sin here though is pride. He didn’t share the angel’s gift with his congregation out of pure benevolence. He did it because he wanted many more years of life in his prime with Mildred and Sarah at his side. Catholicism means everything to Pruitt. And yet, he would cast it all aside for another chance to have the family he wanted.

“If you showed up and asked me, I would have taken this collar off and gone with you. Gone with you anywhere in the world,” Pruitt tells Mildred after she’s been vampirified.

That’s a touching sentiment from the artist formerly known as Father Paul but it’s unfortunately a destructive one.

“When it became clear that Paul could do bad things with pure motives, the show came into clearer focus. There’s only one character in the whole show who I think is evil and it’s not Father Paul,” Flanagan says.

Only one character who is evil? Who could Flanagan be referr….ohhh.

What Were the Vampires’ Plans?

Flanagan actually never confirms which character he sees as evil, but Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan) seems to be the best fit…unless we count the angel, and he just seems to be a hungry, growing boy.

Bev is, let’s say, a real piece of work. As beautifully depicted by Sloyan, Bev Keane is the officious church lady who can’t keep her nose out of other people’s business. After Mildred talks some sense into John Pruitt, he understands that he and his congregation “are the wolves” and refuses to participate further. That leaves a power vacuum at the top, which Bev is more than happy to step into.

Why Midnight Mass is Mike Flanagan’s Most Personal Work

By Alec Bojalad

Midnight Mass Cast: Previous Credits From Hill House to Bly Manor, Legion & Sherlock

By Louisa Mellor

Now that Bev has a veritable army of superpowered vampires what does she intend to do with them? The same thing that all Bevs want to do: make more Bevs. Bev represents the worst of colonial Christianity and its historical penchant for converting all to its kingdom of heaven…through any means necessary.

When Erin Greene (Kate Siegel) finds out that Bev and friends have merely disabled the boats and not destroyed them, she realizes that their ultimate plan is to eventually take their vampire party to the mainland and create a whole planet of enlightened Christians who just happy to have an insatiable taste for blood and a severe UV-ray allergy.

What Happens to Crockett Island?

Thankfully, Bev’s ultimate goal never comes to pass thanks to the careful plotting of the handful of human beings left in Crockett Island. Erin Greene, Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish), Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), and Annie Flynn (Kirstin Lehman) get to work on finishing the destruction that Bev started.

Ironically, it’s part of Bev’s plan that eventually dooms her and her kind. When one of Bev’s lackeys proposes putting out a fire that the human crew started because the whole island could burn to nothing like in ‘84, Bev’s eyes light up.

“I mean…the church didn’t burn in ‘84,” she says.

Surely this is Revelation. And Revelation means a hale mixed with fire and blood. There will be a flood of fire that ends the world and St. Patrick’s church will be the arc. That’s a great plan and all…as long as something doesn’t happen to the arc.

Welp. Sarah Gunning burns down St. Patrick’s and Sheriff Hassan and Erin Greene (with an assist from Hassan’s son) burn down the rec center. As if burning a church designated as an arc wasn’t symbolically compelling enough, recall that the rec center next to it is equally as symbolic of Bev’s greed. It was Bev who convinced Crockett Island to take the oil company’s money for ruining their island rather than pursuing litigation. And all they got out of that settlement money was that stupid rec center.

With the church and the rec center gone, there are no man-made structures for the vampires to hide from the sun in the coming morning. And that’s how an entire island of 120-ish vampires perishes simultaneously when the sun rises.

Why Do Leeza and Warren Survive?

All of Crockett Island perishes save for two actually. Warren Flynn (Igby Rigney) and Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) are spared thanks to some quick thinking. Putting the only two remaining non-vampirized children in harm’s way is not an option for Erin, Sarah, Hassan, and Annie. Thankfully, Warren knows of one secret canoe to reach the “Uppards” that Bev’s crew wouldn’t know about.

The canoe doesn’t take Warren and Leeza to the mainland but it does get them away from the carnage to come. The last shot of the series is Warren and Leeza floating peacefully and Leeza announcing that she can no longer feel her legs. This means that the last bit of “angel” blood has likely left her system and with it Pruitt’s vampire legacy is over.

Saving Warren and Leeza has practical, emotional implications for Midnight Mass’s characters but it also has some symbolic ones as well. The concept of witnessing and witnesses themselves are very important in the Bible. As a second-hand text (though purportedly with every word inspired by God) there would be no gospel without witnesses. Good news is only half the battle. Someone to witness and report on the good news is the other half. Now Warren and Leeza can report on the ultimate good news that the world is saved.

The fact that the kids survive while the adults succumb to their own adult nonsense has some major implications for Midnight Mass’s creator

“That last moment of the next generation looking out at the ashes of what the grown ups made – that’s what my kids are gonna get no matter what,” Flanagan says. “That’s what all of our kids are gonna get. I wish it wasn’t as on fire as it it. But it really is. We’re never going to be able to explain adequately to our children what happened to the planet they inherited.”

What Happens to the Angel?

With all of Crockett Island burned to the ground, the world’s vampire nightmare is over, right? Well that depends on how well you think an angel can fly with torn wings. No, that’s not an aphorism or a poem, it’s the real question facing the end of Midnight Mass.

As if saving Warren and Leeza and upending Bev Keane’s plans weren’t enough, Erin leaves one last little gift for humanity before she dies. While the angel attacks her and drinks her sweet, sweet blood, Erin begins systematically, yet carefully cutting holes in its leathery wings. At first the angel is kind of annoyed but his hunger supersedes any level of discomfort or pain he’s feeling.

Later on, while Warren and Leeza watch their home burn they see the angel flying away but in a halted, loopy pattern. The kids aren’t sure if the beast will have time to find shelter before the sun rises. According to Flanagan, if Midnight Mass is a parable (and he assures us it is) then the ultimate lesson of all this isn’t too hard to glean.

“The angel doesn’t represent vampirism or horror but corruption in any belief system,” he says. “It represents fundamentalism and fanaticism. That’s never gonna go away. You might chase it away from your community for a minute. You might send it off to the sunrise and hope that that corrupting ideology will disappear. But it won’t. And the show could never show the angel die for that reason.”

With that in mind, the angel’s flawed flight pattern isn’t so much Inception’s spinning top but rather a promise that evil will find a way. And then we puny human beings will just have to find a way to stop it all over again. If that’s not Biblical then we don’t know what is.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

All seven episodes of Midnight Mass are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Midnight Mass Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

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c-optimistic · 4 years

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Hi C-Optimistic, Anon here to help you out of your angst woes. 😔 As for a prompt idea, how about this: Post 100th episode, Lena says f**k this s**t im out and f**ks off to Ireland. Just leave National City and all the drama, finds a quite cottage in the countryside, and get her head on straight (Lena POV).

hey anon, I appreciate you

“Villain,” she muttered to herself as she put the car in park and got out of the driver’s seat, slamming the door shut. “I’ll show you villain,” she continued mutinously, stalking over to the only building for miles.

“Uh, Lena, don’t you think maybe you should—”

“—I should what?” Lena demanded, not pausing for a moment. She pushed the door to the building open, using a little more force than strictly necessary, and stepped inside. Instantly, she coughed at the dust, looking around at the ramshackled cottage with a little bit of distaste. “I thought it would be...more homely,” she said, all her anger dissipating at the sight of her new residence for the foreseeable future.

“You bought an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere and you thought it would be homely?”

“It’s not the middle of nowhere,” Lena said immediately, defensive. “This is the countryside. It’s in the country.” She sounded weak to her own ears, and she knew her stalker had noticed, because she let out a soft sigh, coming up behind Lena and reaching out—almost as if she wanted to touch Lena’s shoulder.

“Lena, come on,” she said, in her annoying soft voice, “I know you’re upset, but come back home.”

“Home? Anywhere you are is not home,” Lena spat, turning to glare at her stalker. “Why don’t you just leave me alone? You’ve made yourself perfectly clear. I’m done with Lex, I’m done with you, I’m done with it all.” She gestured wildly at the dilapidated cottage. “I’m having an early retirement.”

“Lena, please—”

But Lena was unwilling to listen.

“Leave,” she hissed, eyes narrowed, shoving her stalker in the chest when she didn’t immediately move. It was like pushing at a boulder. “I said go, Kara!”

And finally, with slumped shoulders and a sad sigh, Kara listened.

She noticed Kara skulking about not a week later.

Lena had bicycled down to the nearest town, enjoying the excellent weather as she rode, her thoughts on her list of things she needed from the market. There were supplies she needed to order as she continued to work on her cottage, but there were also some in-season fruits she waited all week for, still excited at the prospect of freshly picked berries.

(Not for the first time, she wished her own garden was further along, and that growing things wasn’t so...slow.)

Kara was at the market.

She wasn’t being sneaky. Not really. She was ambling about, charming the locals with her bright smile and excited questions, blushing profusely when a little girl accused her of looking familiar, almost like Supergirl. (“Pffft,” Kara had said loudly, her voice unintentionally carrying over to Lena as she tried to hide her awkwardness and failed, “that’s a strange thing—what an interesting—what would she even be doing...nooo, I look like me. Just like me.”) She clearly wasn’t attempting to hide her presence from Lena, but Lena—who remembered quite clearly telling Kara to leave—was annoyed.

So she settled on ignoring Kara’s presence entirely.

It worked, for the most part. She did find her eyes straying at one point, when Kara was busy with a little boy, her eyes screwed up in concentration, her tongue sticking out, as she attempted to fix whatever toy she’d accidentally stepped on while failing miserably at following Lena covertly.

(It wasn’t until much later, when Lena was fixing herself dinner back at her more rugged than ramshackled cottage, that she wondered if Kara had done it all on purpose. The following loudly from a distance, never approaching, never making actual contact.

To suggest her friendship and presence would go nowhere, while also respecting Lena’s boundaries—making it quite clear she would not approach unless Lena initiated the contact.

It made Lena roll her eyes, a traitorous smile tugging at her lips.)

In her third week of solitude, Lena woke up one morning to letters.

A large stack, resting innocently behind her door, held together by a waxy piece of string she recognized from the town’s bookstore. Lena looked up and around her property, but she saw no sign of blue and red, so she bit her lip and picked up the letters.

It took her another whole day before she was mentally ready to open them.

They were from everyone—or, for the most part, that was. Letters from Nia, from Brainy, from Alex and Kelly (the way that letter was worded making Lena think it was written by Kelly), even a letter from J’onn. They were apologies, pleas for her to return, admissions of fault and guilt, and one (clearly written by Alex alone, without Kelly’s soft touch) that brought up all Lena had done and how that was painful too. Nia had given updates about National City, Brainy talked about some ideas he had for some of Lena’s R&D projects—abandoned, she supposed, now that she was here and Lex was still back in National City—and J’onn wrote about heroes and M’gann, and those who managed to buck what everyone expected them to be, just to be who they actually were.

The absence of Kara, in any of it, was glaring. No mentions of Kara (or Supergirl) in the letters, none of them written in Kara’s neat, loopy hand, not even a whiff of anything to do with the reporter, even though she was the only one who could’ve brought all these unmarked letters to her doorstep.

For whatever reason, it made Lena angry. She had been stalked and followed, Kara popping into town every time she happened to be there, but she couldn’t get a single, measly letter?

Well, she would show Kara, she thought to herself as she folded all the letters back up and shoved them in the envelopes. She would show her.

“You,” she told Kara unceremoniously in the middle of town—in the market, right in front of a stand full of cabbages—eyeing her former best friend with as much heat as she could muster (which, well, wasn’t much), “are such an idiot.”

And then she left.

Kara followed.

It took a few days, but the next time she saw Kara, it wasn’t as she hid behind locals and pretended to be endlessly interested in fresh vegetables. It was outside her door, moments after a soft knock.

“Hi,” Kara said, not quite meeting Lena’s eyes. “I brought you some things I thought you might miss from National City.” (An enormous bag was at her feet, full of what looked to be books, some tech Lena had been tinkering with in her spare time and had left in her apartment, photos and the like, and even takeout from Big Belly Burger.)

“Right,” Lena said slowly, letting out a breath. “Thanks.”

(If Kara expected to be invited in and was surprised when she wasn’t, she didn’t show it. If anything, she looked pleased at the two words Lena did speak.)

“Right, well. I’d best be off. Alex is making me spend time with her and Kelly. She says I’ve been distant lately and she doesn’t like what it’s been doing to our work relationship. By which I think she just misses me, but doesn’t want to admit it,” Kara rambled, taking several steps back as she spoke. (Lena missed that, she realized suddenly. She missed Kara’s stupid quirks, her soft voice. No matter how tainted their friendship now was, she still missed her best friend.)

Kara’s fingers had reached up to her glasses when Lena found her voice.

“How did you find me?” she asked, swallowing a little bit, wanting to hide just how much she wanted the answer to this question. “I took so many precautions, to make sure Lex couldn’t track me. New bank accounts, buying this cottage in another name….” She trailed off, suggesting all the work she’d put into finding this cottage without anyone knowing. “So what did I miss? And why hasn’t Lex been here yet?”

It was a mildly suggestive question—what did you do, she wanted to ask, but didn’t. What did you do that made Lex not find the same thing that led you here? What did you do to Lex?

“I didn’t find you because of a paper trail, Lena,” Kara said, her tone changing so much that Lena felt her heart pound harder and faster in response. “I don’t think you made any mistakes.”

“So how did you find me? You were at the cottage the same time I was. How?”

For a moment, it didn’t look like Kara would respond. But then:

“When I’m overwhelmed, especially by noise, I latch onto things that are familiar and comforting to me,” she explained slowly, shaking her head when Lena tried to interrupt. “I listen for Alex’s voice, Nia’s snores, and um,” she paused, her cheeks flaming, “your heartbeat.” She fiddled with her fingers, not meeting Lena’s eyes anymore. “Since we, well—I’d been listening to it more often. And then one day it was gone from National City, and I panicked, so I started searching for it...and found you while you were on your way here.”

“You found me by my heartbeat?” Lena asked, incredulous.

“It’s one of my favorite sounds,” Kara said, clearly without thinking, her hands nearly flying to her mouth and her eyes widening in panic. (And Lena’s traitorous heart pounded harder and harder in response, as if crying out for Kara to hear it.) “Lena,” Kara continued after a long moment, “are you planning on staying here?”

(Lena wondered what this was. A question for a question? Answer for an answer?

Or was it what it actually sounded like? Kara, her former best friend, longing to have Lena come back.)

“I don’t know,” Lena answered honestly. “There’s nothing for me to go back for.” She managed to leave off the yet, but just barely. Oddly, Kara didn’t seem to notice, if her crestfallen expression was anything to go by.

“Okay,” she said, nodding curtly. “I understand. I’ll leave you, uh, to it then.”

“I could use company. Sometimes. If you’re free,” Lena blurted as Kara bent at the knees and one hand went up to her glasses. “It would be...nice, I think.”

And Kara’s blinding smile was answer enough for Lena’s unasked question.

“How are you all managing without me there, anyway?” Lena asked some weeks later, somewhat used to their new give and take, somewhat used to Kara’s presence in her small cottage, feeling safe enough to ask and her curiosity finally getting the best of her.

Kara didn’t even look up from the recipe she was trying to work out, biting her lip as she leaned closer to the book, her forehead resting on the page, as if she hoped she’d learn how to cook through the power of osmosis.

“Not great,” she answered honestly, not looking up. “But that’s to be expected.”

“What does that mean?”

Kara pulled away from the book, eyeing Lena oddly, as if she was missing something obvious. “It’s crazy that you don’t see how important you are to m—us.”

Lena didn’t comment on Kara’s slip, nor did she allow herself to think about how it was her personally that mattered, and not her contributions, in Kara’s mind.

At least, she didn’t allow herself to think about it too much.

“Sometimes I get bored out here,” Lena admitted.

“I could bring you more things to do. More of your projects, more books?”

“That’s not it,” Lena sighed, pushing a cup of tea Kara’s way. Her cottage was homely now. Full of light and flowers and smelling of freshly baked cookies. She wondered why it didn’t feel like home unless she was sharing it with someone else. “I supposed I’m jealous. Of you and the others,” she clarified at Kara’s curious look. “Game nights and lunch and all that? I miss it.”

“Oh. Well, you’re not missing much.”

“What?”

“We haven’t done any of that since you left. It’s not the same without you.”

“Why do you keep coming back?” Lena asked one day, months down the line. Kara was helping in the garden, mud drying on her forehead where she wiped at it with the back of her hand. “Surely there’s something else you’d rather do. What about that guy, the one who asked you out?”

“Who?” Kara answered absentmindedly, tugging on a stubborn weed. “Ohh,” she continued, laughing a little as it finally clicked and she used a bit of her super strength, the weed flying out of the ground. “I always forget about him. Is that terrible?”

“Kara,” Lena admonished, waiting for an answer to her actual question.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Kara admitted, leaning back so that she was sitting on her heels, turning to face Lena with a frown. “This is where I want to be.”

“Are you just here to convince me to come back?” Lena asked, several hours later, when the two of them were at her small table, having dinner. “Is that it?” (Fear made her ask. Anxiety made her ask. Curiosity made her ask. But also...well, hope made her ask.)

Kara was silent for a long moment, then she let out a deep breath. “I think, in the beginning. Yes. I kept coming because I wanted you to come home with me.”

“But now?”

“Now, I just want you to be happy. Wherever that is.”

Lena nodded, looking away from Kara after a moment. “National City was never my home,” she said, unsure why she said it, why she didn’t explain when Kara’s face fell but nodded knowingly.

“I get it,” she said, tone sad, but eyes flaming with promise. “I’m glad you made a home here. And I’ll keep you company as long as you’ll have me.”

No, you missed the point, Lena wanted to say. This cottage wasn’t her home either.

She didn’t worry when Kara didn’t visit for a week. She didn’t even worry when it stretched out for two. There was always something going on in the world, and she knew she couldn’t monopolize Kara’s time. But when two weeks stretched into a third, Lena knew something was wrong.

It was confirmed the moment she entered town, and walked into the nearest pub, seeing nearly half the townsfolk in there, all of them watching the television screen intently. Lena followed their gaze, and immediately, her heart sank at the breaking news playing out on the screen:

Supergirl still missing, traces of kryptonite at last spot she was seen

Lena turned around and rushed to her cottage, biking furiously, grabbing everything she needed for a trip back to National City.

Back to Kara.

After days of furious work, helping Alex and Brainy, allowing Nia to bully her into a nap, sighing in resignation when Kelly mediated an awkward hug between herself and Alex, and avoiding J’onn’s knowing gazes, Kara finally woke up.

She was still groggy, but a smile immediately tugged on her lips the moment her eyes fell on Lena.

“Am I dreaming,” she asked, holding her hand out for Lena to take, seemingly shocked when Lena actually took it, “or are you actually here with me?”

“I had to come back home,” Lena whispered, heart thudding in her chest. Kara’s eyes shut, even as her smile grew wider, and Lena knew she understood.

National City was never her home. Neither was that cottage.

Kara was.

(And from the way Lena’s heart pounded when Kara’s fingers intertwined with Lena’s, well, she didn’t think that would change anytime soon.)

#supergirl #supercorp #fanfic #new #I read a fic on ao3 with this same prompt and it was really good #I don't remember the name but go read that one too #asks #anon

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Final Space Reviewcaps: The Hidden Light or Beelzbub’s Dad and Death Himself

Welcome back all you happy people! My regular coverage of final space continues as our Team Squad continues to be split up. Team Gary heads to the ruins of France and while HUE lives the dream, Gary finds the architect of his misery might also be the archtetcht of hope when he meets KVN’s creator. Meanwhile Team Avacato find some friends of some friends... and an old enemy horrifically reborn and just as pants crappingly terrifying as before. Find out whose back, whose just been introduced, and whose resting under the cut!

So once again i’ts time for roll call, as our Team Squad has been split into three groups so Team Gary: Gary, Quinn, KVN, HUE Team Avacato: Avacato, Little Cato, Ash, Fox, Sheryl. Team Bollo: Bollo, Mooncake

Same as last time and if your wondering why some names are missing from Avacato’s team, we will get to that. And since our three plots are entirely seperated from the start this time...

Team Gary: The Father of Beelzbub is A Moderaltey Tolerable Guy Picking up where we left off, Gary and Quinn gaze at earth though we do find out, naturally, the other half of the team is okay when Avacato buzzes in, confirming he’s alive at least. So with half the team stranded in the depths of final space, Gary’s next idea is naturally to plummet to earth and pick up a ship to pick them up. HUE has some flaws in the plan, i.e. the earth’s gravity field but KVN proves useful for once and helps carry them down to earth, our heroes ending up in Paris.

We get a fun subplot of HUE thoroughly enjoying his dream of visiting Paris in a body.. even though Paris itself is pretty fucking horrific, littered with floating corpses and with a smokey, unnerving atmosphere. But the contrast works.. what dosen’t is the ships our heroes fine, which are junked, likely due to months of having no mainteince coupled with the destruction brought on by the titans.

Gary does find something.. his worst nightmare.. a bunker FULL of KVN’s “I always thought i’d die like this”. They thankfully don’t want to kill him, and he finds a dwarf ventrixian whose a fan of his as are the KVN’s. As it turns out they somehow watched all his video logs to Quinn, and the little guy saying Quinn is even more beautful than he imagined lets him live when Quinn shows up. Gary is naturally puzzled why someone would create his worst nightmare, an army of kvns who know his personal details... until we find out who created the bunker: Kevin, the genius scientest who created the KVN’s.

Naturally Gary has as mature, sensible and calm reaction as you’d expect and he goes to see Kevin’s dad without innocent....

Had you there for zero seconds. No he has a fairly fluid and incredibly well voiced freakout ending in him wanting to burn the place to the ground in cleansing fire. It’s.. actually a very good thing Quinn’s the one who went with him as everyone on the other team except MAYBE Avacato would’ve gone with operation BURN THEM, BURN ALLL OF THEM.

So while Gary can’t burn them he does go to shoot Kevin’s creator in the head after finding out he’s alive and still in the bunker. And.. he actually is alive. It’s a nice change of pace as in most sci fi stories where we find the robot first the creator is long dead. But no Kevin.. is alive. It takes a bit for him to accept this is really happening due to a combination of Gary’s transmissions..and Nightfall having contacted him to make a ship. I’ts only when he tries throwing something at Quinn does he realize that nope these are real peoples and gladly welcome them for some rest so theyc an go find the ship he made for Nightfall. Relately the one major flaw I have with this episode.. is that it takes Gary and Quinn an embarassingly long time to put two and two together. Gary I get, he’s kind of distracted being caught in a waking nightmare and finding out he needs to rely on the man who ruined 5 years of his life. He’s also Gary. It’s okay. Quinn though, even with months of trauma stuck in a hell dimension.. is still the resonable one and still should’ve figured “Hey maybe the alternate future verison of me who was around back then did this”. The reveal is well done towards the end when it happens.. it’s just very weird it didn’t happen sooner.

So the couple are FINALLY alone.. for about 5 seconds because Kevin gets into bed with them. And while part of his loopiness is probably the horrifying isolation for the last few months, after all Gary wasn’t exactly the most coherent after his stint in prison, I do feel that at least part of it is just him. It just makes the most sense: the infinity guard massed produced the guys and Kevin was one of their top scientests. He likely didn’t half ass a project of this size or importance.. so it’d make sense that instead the KVN’s suck at their job because the person who made them really dosen’t get humans, or personal space and the KVN’s are simply degraded copies of him.

We do get a sweet moment with Quinn and Gary before Kevin decides they’ve rested enough time to go. They use the KVN’s to head to belgium, where the ship is, but have to fight Landfish, horrifying monsters that feast on the remains of dead worlds. So we get a fun and tense action sequence as our heroes sorta zipline through the monsters and KVN suprisingly turns out ot be useful twice in one episode. Our heroes make it to the ship, though HUE is down two arms and his self esteem, with Kevin asking why an AI would WANT to put themselves in a garbage bot. HUE admits he just wanted to experince life but it comes at a cost.. which granted the loss of arms seems rushed.. but it’s not like pre-AVA most of his life as a robot was that happy or fufilling so it dosen’t come out of nowhere and the person who MADE it better... is now dead and gone. He has no real reason to stay in the body anymore: He’s tasted life, he’s loved, and he’s lost.

So naturally he goes back to being the AI on their new ship, which Quinn Dubs the Galaxy 2 because naturally Gary’s name tries too hard and Kevin’s is nonsensical.. though really Galaxy 2 itself just.. isn’t a great name. Seriously call it the purple rain or something. Still it’s a cool looking ship and while i’ll BADLY miss the crimson light as Olan designed a really fucking cool ship there, the Galaxy 2 is none too shabby. So our heroes have there ship, HUE has his old Job back, and we get a sobering scene as Quinn and Gary finallyg et the nightfall thing, and Kevin leaves to go get the portal up and running and he’ll call them.. they don’t have his number but he’ll be in england where the project is so it’s not like they can’t find the crazy man when the time comes. So we end with Team Gary heading off to a huge energy signture to hopefully find someone. Who it is, if it’s even one of our groups, is unknown.. but given the stinger it’s probably Bollo and Mooncake.. but we’llg et to that. First

Team Avacato: FUCK

So on their astroid Sheryl wonders if the plan is to just stand around and wait for Gary. Tribore however.. wants to leave again. Despite being in an edltrich space nightmare, he decides to take some paternety leave and cuts off part of the asteroid to go bond with his son leaving us with five heroes who all quickly get abducted by teleportation.

Their abductors.. are Arachnitects, the last ones left in final space who intially confuse them as part of of Invictus unholy horde before Little Cato brings up Jeremy, and thus they free them and explain what’s up: as said their the last ones left in final space, the only ones who weren’t slaughtered or escape and try to offer our heroes hope and shelter.. before brutally being slaughtered by telekensisis... and it’s with that... HE has returned. While the trailers made no attempt to hide it and it was blatant from the start of last season he woudl return.. it dosent’ make his return any less chilling or impactful or David Tennant’s performance any less terrifying after being gone for a bit: Lord Commander HAS RETURNED

And make no mistake, hopefully, this is OUR Lord Commander, as he comments on the new additions.. and is GLEEFUL to have new toys to play with. Avacato is naturally horrifed he’s back and tries to just shoot him but that’s as effective as it’s always been, and he simply force lifts all of them, and naturally, being a sadsitic bastard, brings LIttle Cato forward as he wants to know where Mooncake is, though Little Cato makes a valid point: he dosen’t know where Mooncake is and even if he DID he wouldn’t tell him. And.. that’s where this part of the plot ends till next week. I”m fucking terrified. Nice to have David back though. Especially with Ducktales over. And as a side note... it’s notable Ash doesn’t try triggering her powers. Either she can’t and Lord Commander’s even stronger than her, or she just hasn’t yet. Or third horrifying option i’m going with thier powers come from the same source.

Team Bollo:The Forge

So with Gary hopefully coming to the rescue and the rest of our heroes trapped by a sadistic bastard who will likely gleefully kill at least one of them.. we find out where Bolo went after getting his ass kicked. He surivived.. but clearly needs a leg up.. so naturally for a charcter voiced by Keith David he goes about it in the most badass way imaginable: he has mooncake do the thing on a dwarf star so he can FORGE IT INTO A FUCKING BADASS SPACE SWORD TO SLAY THE TITANS WITH. My.. my body is ready for next week.

Final Thoughts:

This episode was excellent. The premire while not BAD had some issues with pacing and tone, where as this one found the perfect places to inject the series humor.. while keeping the stakes incredibly high and having the chilling return of it’s most terrifying antagonist. and yes tha’t swith the people posseing murder face out there. This episode returned Season 3 to the right track. It also continues to be seralized like season 1.. but I feel at least so far they’ve learned their lesson from Seasons 1 and 2 and combined the two better, having basically one big story, but having the pacing be more on par with Season 2 where things move along at a nice clip and we get more character stuff peppered in. It’s a nice combo. if it’ll hold out I do not know, especaillly with a longer runtime but we’ll see as we go won’t we. For now.. this episode was fucking awesome.

If you liked this review join my patreon, my current stretch goal is for a darkwing duck episode a month and i’ll be putting up a patreon exclusive review soon for 5 dollar or more patreons so check that out, follow me for more and if there’s any episodes of the show from seasons 1 or 2 you’d like me to cover we can discuss that in my ask box and dm,s only 5 bucks an episode. See you at the next rainbow.

#final space #the hidden light #gary goodspeed #quinn airgone #avacato #little cato #ash grayven #fox #KVN #sheryl goodspeed #the lord commander #bolo #mooncake #kevin van horn #Biskit #reviews #adult swim

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glenngaylord · 3 years

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Glenn Gaylord’s Capsules From The Bunker – Summer 2021 Lockdown Style

Like many of you, I’ve lost all concept of space and time during this lockdown era. I’d watch movie after movie, but somehow forget to write about them. I’d consume films for sustenance, but then I’d move on to the next task of cleaning a room, doing a crossword puzzle, or staring at my dog for hours on end. Thank goodness I have a few friends to have breakfast with every now and then, or else I’d have assumed I had been transported to a cabin in Montana. “Am I a film critic or a hermit?” I’d ask myself daily…that is, if I even understand what days are anymore. All of this is to say that I have a lot of catching up to do now that we’ve taken a baby step or two towards returning to some sense of normalcy. Wait a minute. What’s that? Highly transmissible variants? Back into the cave I go. While I still can, I’ve managed to blurt out a few capsule reviews of some films worth mentioning.

In Between Gays – Film Review: Summer Of 85 ★★★★

Prolific French filmmaker, François Ozon, has made a career out of finding dark crevices in the most unexpected of places. Here, with Summer Of 85, he tweaks this New Wave era gay romance just enough to upend our expectations. In pure Talented Mr. Ripley meets Call Me By Your Name meets Luca fashion, Ozon spins what could have been that sun-dappled, seaside summer that changed everything into a love that perhaps never was, zeroing in instead on a young man’s obsession for something unobtainable. Beautifully shot and acted, Ozon takes the story to more provocative places than you’d initially expect while still maintaining the boppy fizz of a great Cure song. Despite the mish mash of tones, the film has a pulse all of its own. It’ll make you swoon, pull the rug out from under you, and then make you wonder how he managed to quietly get a little twisted.

Summer Of 85 currently in select theaters, see official website for details. Released on DVD and BluRay August 17th.

Truffle In Mind – Film Review: Pig ★★★★

Writer-director Michael Sarnoski makes an auspicious feature debut with the story of a man searching for his stolen truffle-hunting pig. Caked in dirt, blood and looking not so much like a homeless man but as a person who died inside a thousand times over, Nicholas Cage gives one of his best performances ever as a man who seeks the truth at all costs. He asks his only connection to the outside world, Amir, played wonderfully by Alex Wolff, to drive him through Portland’s dark underbelly to retrieve his pet companion.

Although the film takes us to a rather unbelievable “Fight Club” moment, it generally holds its mood with credibility. It’s a great calling card, not only for Sarnoski, but also for his talented cinematographer Patrick Scola, who brings a painterly quality to every single image. The film finds beauty in a bite of food, a breath of air, or simply the compassion between two main characters who have seemingly little in common. It’s a shame the trailer elicits laughs when Cage utters lines like, “Who has my pig?” Clearly they want to sell the actor’s neo-gonzo persona, but Cage brings so much depth and seriousness to this project, only raising his voice once. He deserves the highest praise for committing to such an oddly touching, gorgeously quiet story. At risk of sounding Dad-jokey, the only thing that hogs the scenery is his porcine friend.

Pig is in theaters now.

All Is Lost – Film Review: Old ★★

In 1999, M. Night Shyamalan made a great film, The Sixth Sense, and has been chasing that dragon ever since, often to diminishing returns. His films, however, often do well because he has great concepts, a keen eye for visuals and timing, yet things always seem to turn clunky and inane real fast. With Old, he continues down that path by giving us something compelling—a group of people on a beach who age quickly—and ruining it with dialogue seemingly written by an algorithm and rendered unintelligible much of the time, while the terrific cast seem to have no idea how to make Shyamalan’s words sound any better than a high school play. A couple of sequences did make me sit up and take notice, and he uses compositions and offscreen space well, but overall, Old plays like a stretched-out episode of Lost, and like that cool but overstuffed series, you’re not gonna get very good explanations as to what transpires. Sure, the big twist works well enough on some level, but it doesn’t save you from the discomfort of watching good actors flatline in more ways than one.

Old is currently in theaters nationally.

Hi Fidel-ity – Film Review: Revolution Rent ★★★1/2

Shot in 2014, Andy Señor Jr., who played Angel on Broadway along with a host of other credits, staged the classic musical Rent in Havana during a thaw in our relations with the Communist regime. He did so against the wishes of his Cuban family, who suffered under Castro and insisted his production would merely serve as a propaganda tool for the government. He plows ahead instead, capturing the months long process in a rather artless home movie style. The aesthetics don’t carry any weight here when you have such a compelling subject matter. Witnessing his actors struggling with their performances while also living in harsh conditions adds new layers to the late Jonathan Larson’s story of squatters in the age of AIDS.

With a limited talent pool, one of whom doesn’t feel comfortable with the gay subject matter and another who lives with HIV himself, Señor finds new connections to Larson’s material as well as an affection for his heritage. What we may have taken for granted here in the US in terms of sexuality and gender expression feels like a whole new experience when seen through a Cuban lens. Señor speaks out against the Castros with quick sequences showing moments of oppression, thus preventing this film from perpetuating the lies of its government. Instead, he gifts the people of this poor, struggling country with a real sense of community and its first burst of musical theater in ages. Sure he’s a privileged westerner who dangles hope in front of people only to return to his cushy life, but he does so with heart and good intentions. You end up loving and rooting for his cast in this moving, sweet documentary.

Revolution Rent is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Do The Hustlers – Film Review: Zola ★★★★

Call me wary when I went to see a movie based on a viral twitter thread and directed by Janicza Brava, whose Sundance Award-winning short, Gregory Go Boom, proved to be not only tone deaf but downright offensive towards people with disabilities. Her new film, Zola, excels however, in ways her prior work has not. Taylour Paige, a standout in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, plays the title character, a stripper who meets Stefani (Riley Keough) one night and is convinced to travel with her down to Florida where they can make a lot of money dancing all weekend. Things, however, do not go as planned, with Zola’s story escalating from one insane twist after another. Paige and Keough are outstanding, as are Nicholas Braun and Colman Domingo as their traveling companions. Jason Mitchell, so great in Straight Outta Compton and Mudbound, brings a wild, dangerous energy, something he shares with the film itself. It comes across as The Florida Project meets Hustlers, but with its own surreal, unexpected tone. I laughed out loud often, especially with Paige’s loopy reactions to her surroundings and the giddy, zippy energy on display. Zola chews you up, twerks on your face, and spits you out, exhausted yet anxious to see whatever this talented group of people will do next.

Zola is currently playing in select theaters and available on demand.

Banned On The Run – Film Review: There Is No Evil ★★★★

It’s impossible to review There Is No Evil without giving away its central premise, so I will avoid as much description as possible. Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has crafted a four-part anthology of sorts around an agonizing moral issue important to people worldwide. At the end of the first part, a stunning cut to an unforgettable visual reveals everything and allows you to watch the rest with informed eyes. Rasoulof seamlessly excels at different genres, from family drama, to action escape, to romance, weaving a tale of such depth and sorrow for its talented cast of characters.

The making of it proves as interesting at the film itself. Banned by the regime from producing feature films for two years and prohibited from traveling outside of Iran, Rasoulof, like any crafty filmmaker, came up with an ingenious plan. He slipped under the radar by calling these four short films, mostly shot in small towns far outside the reach of Tehran, and then had the final product smuggled out of the country. A filmmaker with such talent not only at telling stories, but the with ability to will his vision into existence against all odds, deserves the world’s attention.

There Is No Evil is available on DVD, BluRay and VOD now.

In Space No One Can Hear You Think – Film Review: F9: The Fast Saga ★★★

Considered review-proof, the Fast and the Furious franchise has ruled the box office for the past 20 years, so my calling its latest entry, F9: The Fast Saga, monumentally dumb will have zero influence on anyone’s decision to see it. We all know it’s big and stupid, as do the filmmakers. These films, deliver said stupid with such gusto, that you simply surrender and have a great time nonetheless. Nothing, however, prepared me, for this series to go all Moonraker, sending a car to a place no car has ever gone before. You’ll know it when you see it and probably say, “That’s ludicrous!” and also say, “That’s Ludacris!”

F9: The Fast Saga is currently playing on every screen on Earth and in select theaters throughout the universe.

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themummersfolly · 5 years

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I will probably not enter this in the contest I wrote it for, but I’m proud of it anyway.

@aerialsquid, @ardenrosegarden, you will probably like this. It involves ghosts and extinct cephalopods.

The Ordovician Testament

I guess it all started the day we opened a new fracture at the Dakota site. I was a consulting geologist, monitoring pressure gradients in the wellbore while they pumped slurry in to widen the crack.

“We’re about ready to start extracting,” the site manager told me. I nodded.

“You know what the downside is to this process? No fossils.”

“What, like dinosaurs?”

“No, no, we’re in the wrong place for that. See right here,” I pointed to a chart, a map of the wellbore. “We’re right on the edge of the Ordovician shale. The fossils in this layer would be shellfish, trilobites, corals…”

“You collect ‘em?”

“Sort of. But that’s only part of it. Think of what we can learn from them, the picture they paint of the way the world was during that time…”

I could see the manager’s eyes glazing over. He didn’t care that much about geology, as long as it wasn’t working against him. As long as the well kept producing.

At last, the oil started to flow.

“Hell yeah!” The manager grinned. “This is a good one!”

I grinned back. The company had gone out on a limb with this site; my team had been pushing for it, and it had paid off.

I was still thinking about the nice fat end-of-year bonus we’d be getting when my vision started to change. Everything in the monitoring station took on an electric glow. I blinked. It didn’t go away; in fact, it was getting stronger. A faint tension appeared far behind my eyes.

“Hey, Greg, I’m gonna punch out early today. I think I’m getting a migraine.”

The manager glanced back at me. “Yeah, sure. We should be good for a while. Be careful.”

Halfway down the highway, the pain set in. I pulled into the first motel I saw, managed to hold it together long enough to book in, stagger to my room, and collapse.

-------

To this day I haven’t had as bad a headache as that one. I was in that motel room for three days: two of them trying to fight off the pain, the third too wrung-out to move. When my team members called to check on me, they told me to go to the hospital. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have.

As bad as it was, the pain wasn’t the worst part. Whenever I fell asleep, I saw colors. Bright, vivid, solid colors, blinding primaries, rapid-fire pastels, swirling psychedelic neons. It sounds nice, but at the time it was like being kicked repeatedly in the brain. My head was full of colors that gave me no peace and made no sense.

And the mood swings – one minute I was bawling my eyes out, the next, I was ready to rip the lamp out of the wall and throw it across the room. At one point I was up for about twenty-four hours straight, bouncing from rage to depression to manic glee, faintly aware than there was something wrong with me.

About 3 am on the third day of my stay, the pain broke enough to get a coherent thought through, and that thought was that I might have been poisoned. My next thought, which occurred maybe forty minutes later, was that the worst of it was over and I might as well try to get some sleep.

This time, I dreamt of an ocean.

-------

I didn’t have any more symptoms after that, although as soon as I was up I made an appointment to get checked out. Everything came back normal, and the doctor gave me a referral to a neurologist if I kept having migraines. I didn’t call, but I held on to the number. The pain and hallucinations were gone, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t over.

In the following days and weeks, I kept coming back to that thought. Every now and then, my head would fill up with colors again. And I kept dreaming about oceans. Not like I was at the beach or sailing or scuba diving; I was disembodied, submerged in a sea I didn’t recognize. When I was awake, I would get flashes of sights and smells, like when a memory jogs, but in response to the most random things. And I was remembering things I had never seen.

Come to think of it, I was having a lot of intrusive thoughts, and I had a growing sense that I wasn’t alone. In the middle of the night, I would wake up thinking something had brushed past me; a search of the house would show it was empty. At work, on the long drive to the site – I felt like if I looked over my shoulder fast enough, I would see… something.

“I feel like there’s another mind inside my head,” I said.

“Maybe you should see a doctor,” offered Greg.

I didn’t really want to see a shrink. But when invisible tentacles wrapped around me in the shower, I decided to bite the bullet.

“Stress,” the psychiatrist said after talking to me. She suggested I take some time off work. But she wanted to schedule a follow-up, soon. She was worried.

I had some vacation time, and the nearest airport was advertising cheap flights to Mexico. If I was having a nervous breakdown, might as well have it in Puerto Vallarta with a drink in my hand. On the flight the intrusive thoughts seemed to slack off; but during the final approach, when I looked out the window and saw the Pacific, my vision exploded with purple and teal. Ocean, ocean, ocean! I had to reach for the airsickness bag.

-------

Whatever this is, it’s connected to the sea. I spent the first day of my trip lying in my hotel room with the blinds drawn, going over and over the past weeks. I wasn’t in any pain, but the thing in my head – I was increasingly sure that it was something separate from me – whatever it was had gotten more agitated since I arrived in PV. This all started in a rented room like this… Had anything unusual happened around that time? Did I eat something, or interact with anyone who acted strange? No, the only thing that had happened was we’d opened a new fracture at the wellbore…

I sat up straight. That was the day this had started. Either that headache had done me permanent damage, or oil wasn’t the only thing that had come up the wellbore.

I squeezed my eyes shut, shouted mentally at the source of the colors and visions. Hey! What the hell are you?

-------

A neighboring hotel had a hypnotist doing nightly shows. Expert in multiple personality disorder, said his brochure. Underneath, it listed another of his specialties: contacting past lives.

This is insane, I thought as I knocked on his door.

I’d called ahead, asking if I could meet with him privately, since I didn’t want to work out my issues in front of a crowd. The fee was a little steep, but he sounded intrigued by my symptoms and offered to meet me before a show.

If he was a quack, at least he was professional about it. He explained up front what would and would not happen and what might happen, and then he put me into a trance.

You are completely safe, nothing can hurt you. You allow all thoughts to exist. You float through all levels of consciousness like a warm, peaceful…

OCEAN.

I was disembodied, submerged in sunlit waters. Beside me rose a coral reef; below it spread meadows and forests of seaweed. Sea-pens and sea-lilies sprouted everywhere. Below me, rustling through mud and algae –

Trilobites?!

They were trilobites. Little Asaphus kowalewskii with its eyestalks – I had a fossil of that one in my collection. And a Paraceraurus, all horns and spines, blindingly iridescent.

And off in the murky distance, the outline of a gigantic, drifting cone.

This sea hadn’t existed for over 400 million years.

-------

“When I snap my fingers, you will return to the waking world.”

On cue, I opened my eyes. The hypnotist stared at me, his face sweaty. His assistant had her phone out, poised to make a call.

“You should have told me you are an epileptic!” he started.

“What?”

“When you were in the trance – you slumped down, you were making faces. When I spoke to you, it was like you couldn’t understand me. You tried to speak and a noise like an animal came out! Do you remember anything?”

“Yeah, I… I was in an ocean. Like the one in my dreams, only I could see it clearly this time.”

The hypnotist stared at me, chewing his lip. “Can you describe this ocean?”

“Shallow, lots of light coming through the water. It was full of extinct creatures.” If I concentrated, I could picture it clearly.

“Extinct creatures – perhaps a manifestation of your oneness with all life, past and present –”

“No, no, a real ocean with an ecosystem that’s been extinct for millions of years. Like the fossil record came alive, like I travelled back in time or something.”

He and his assistant exchanged glances. “How are you feeling now?”

“Okay – a little loopy. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten.”

He motioned to his assistant. She put down her phone, dug in her purse, handed me a candy bar.

“I’ve never seen a case like yours,” he said. “If you’re willing, I’d like to see you after tonight’s show. There are a few things I can try that might make sense of this.”

-------

The hypnotist’s assistant walked me down to the hotel restaurant; I think she was afraid I would have another episode on the way. Once I had eaten, I stretched out on a couch in the lobby, but didn’t sleep. If I let my mind wander, I could see subdued colors at the edges of my vision, could feel tentacles drifting loosely around me.

The hypnosis show was over around 10 pm. When the last of the audience had filtered out, I went in for my second appointment.

-------

“You are completely safe and at peace. You are alone in a comfortable room. No one who enters this room can harm you.”

“Okay.” In my mind’s eye, the room looked a lot like the hypnotist’s hotel room.

“There is a knock on the door. It is the source of the visions you’ve been having.”

There was water outside the window, ocean water. A school of finless, heavy-headed fish swam by.

“Remember: nothing that enters this room can harm you. You are completely safe. You open the door and invite your guest inside.”

I did just that.

“What do you see?”

“It’s – it’s an ammonoid. No, it’s an older species. An Ordovician nautiloid.” Awake, I might have been scared. But in the trance it was no worse than coming face to face with a noisy neighbor. Big eyes, with square pupils like a goat’s, stared at me over a mass of gently swaying tentacles; behind them, a shell curved away in a loose spiral. It drifted in, swimming through the room as if still in the water.

“You are completely safe. You can ask it any question you want.”

So I did. “What are you?”

The creature’s eyes turned purple. On the mantle covering the end of its shell, a rippling hounds-tooth pattern appeared.

“It’s changing color. I think – I think it’s trying to communicate.”

“You are one with your guest. You feel its thoughts and feelings as your own.”

He was right. Desire to be understood. Identity. The colors, each with a concept attached to them.

“It’s the name of its species,” I realized. “Purple is happy, blessed. The other pattern – it’s more complex. I don’t quite get it. It’s one of the Blessed Somethings.” Another wash of thought. “It has a question for me.”

“What is the question?”

“It wants to know if I’m – if I’m a squid? A nautiloid? No, it’s asking if I’m a person, like a sentient being. Yes, yes I am. Are you?”

A pale blue swirl of annoyance. Of course I am.

“You can ask your guest any question.”

I mulled it over. “How did you get here? Inside my head, I mean.”

In response, a riot of colors and patterns.

“I don’t understand. Can you show me?”

One long, smooth feeler reached out to the window and touched the glass. I followed it and looked out.

The seaweed was gone, and most of the algal mat. All the coral had turned gray. Overhead, the surface of the water creaked and groaned: ice. The sea was cold and sour.

“Ordovician extinction,” I said.

Death. Empty shells. Only the mindless drift-feeders were left.

The new fracture had been near the top edge of the Ordovician shale. “You were trapped there. We let you out.”

Affirmation. Confused affirmation.

“What do you want?”

The colors turned muddy. It had no idea; it hadn’t asked for any of this.

“Can I talk to you again sometime?”

Affirmation, and relief.

-------

There were six days left in my vacation. I decided to spend them learning to meditate.

The hypnotist offered several theories about what was going on, mainly “past life regression” and “ancestral memories.” My theory, and the one I was going with, was that we had somehow turned loose an ancient ghost, and I was being haunted. Actually, it wasn’t all that frightening once I came to that conclusion. The whole thing had been accidental; far from being malicious, the thing in my head seemed apologetic when I told it all the trouble it had caused.

It wasn’t hard to reach a state of mind where I could talk to my guest, as I’d started to call it. Before the flight home, we’d even worked out a way to share space in my waking mind without causing problems, and my strange dreams had stopped. The biggest hurdle was communication. My guest used a visual language of colors and patterns; emotions and simple nouns and verbs were easy, but more complicated concepts tended to get lost in translation. Playing around with the paint program on my computer, I found out I could transcribe our conversations… sort of. And when I got home, I pulled out my fossil collection to show it.

Stone. I was showing my guest a fossil ammonite shell. When I closed my eyes, I held it with tentacles instead of fingers, turning it over and examining it. Old. Very old.

“Millions of years younger than you. From the Jurassic period.”

City-builders, too?

“What?”

Nautiloids, cities, construction. Descendants build, maybe?

I sat back, mulling over the images and color-words. “Wait – you build cities?”

Not self. Too small. Nautiloid-kind, city-builders. City-dwellers.

“City-builders, like a civilization? 400 million years ago, in the ocean?”

Annoyance and confusion. How was this a question? It was surprised enough that I was a land-dweller.

“We never found evidence of intelligent life before us – none that we recognized.”

Confusion. Denial. It wasn’t possible, there had been so many of them all over the world.

“Maybe we didn’t know what we were looking at. Or maybe… it’s been almost half a billion years. Not much survives that long.”

Denial. Denial. But then: Understanding. Yes, time eats all.

Red was the color of Nautiloid grief. Red like an ancient sunset filled my mind for the rest of the evening.

-------

“Will you show me?” I asked one day. “I want to know about them. About your kind, what they were like.”

I closed my eyes and saw them. My guest’s family, or something like a family. They were the group that had raised it, but none of them were genetically related. Many weren’t even the same species; as I saw more and asked questions, I learned that my guest was one of several intelligent nautiloid species. It showed me straight cones like wizards’ hats; loose curlicues; tight curlicues; talkative, half-naked little things like cuttlefish darting around. Not only had they existed at the same time, but they used the same color languages, lived and worked in mixed groups, raised their young together. Their civilization was founded around the idea that each species was necessary to the lives of the others.

My guest showed me things it had seen, things it had heard of. The civilization of the nautiloids had lasted nearly a million years, in all its various iterations and divisions. I saw shining cities of gel and silica stretching up the walls of continental shelves; I saw the ocean floor vents around which their technology centered. Household items of cast cement and water-fired clay, delicate metallurgy that had long since corroded away to nothing. They had domesticated the giant drifting orthocones, they hunted the arthropods that tried to prey on them. They had learned to live in all corners of the ocean and at all depths. They had even begun to explore the barren, alien land.

But then the cold had come. And not every species had been able to weather it.

Food animals disappeared first. Then disease began to spread as hunger and cold took their toll. Those that lived in the shallow reefs suffered most. Attempts to build shelters were too late; within a few years, whole segments of society were extinct.

Symbiosis. If the surface-people do not farm, the depths-people cannot make. If the egg-raisers do not nurture, the city-makers cannot build.

“Did anybody make it through?”

Unknown. Maybe. Not self, but maybe others.

-------

They had a written language, if you can call it that. My guest taught me. Strands of colored fiber, knotted, strung with shells and beads. We had to make a lot of substitutions; some of the modern materials weren’t exactly right. But a nautiloid would have found it readable. My nautiloid did.

I would sit up late into the night, stringing yarn together while my guest dictated. It was a book, but it felt like a rosary, like a prayer that could be handled. Do not forget us. We lived. We mattered.

I had gotten used to my guest. It had a name for me; I don’t know what it meant, but it looked like dark blue tie-dye with a spray of stars. I had a name for it: Shelby Squidsworth. We would talk about geology, the species that had come after the nautiloids, what might come after humanity. It was fascinated by life on land.

When the book was finished, we celebrated with a trip to the beach.

Descendants? It wanted to know. I sat on the sand, drying in the sun.

“Your descendants, you mean? Do you have any?”

Maybe. An image of my Jurassic-era ammonite. All stone, maybe. All empty.

“There are still creatures like you today.” I concentrated on an image of a nautilus, of squid and octopi. “They’re not as smart as you guys, not in a city-building, history-recording sort of way. Not that we know of. But they might get there.”

Maybe. Images of its family group; it missed them.

I dug my toes through the sand. “Did your people believe in an afterlife?”

Yes. A whirl of colors; I didn’t grasp the meaning, but it seemed to comfort my guest. I wondered why it was with me and not there; quietly, I hoped, but it noticed.

No burial. No rites.

“If you got a proper funeral, would you be able to rest?”

Maybe. Hope.

“Tell me what I need to do.”

-------

400 million years ago, when the nautiloids laid their dead to rest, they would separate the body from the shell. In deep-water countries, the shell would be painted and displayed by the family group; in shallow waters, where my guest was from, it was floated on the surface or pushed onto land, to dry and crumble in the sun. The body was ritually eaten by family and close friends, so that their loved one could remain with them in a way and strengthen them.

Old custom. Dawn-of-time custom.

“My people don’t really approve of cannibalism.”

Amusement. Different species. Have comfort.

I bought a big ceramic shell online, and about a pound of calamari from the store. It was as close as I could get; the spirit of the thing was what mattered. I ate the calamari alone, in silence. I had the sense that my guest ate, too, for all the other nautiloids who had died alone. Then, with the ceramic shell on a little raft I’d built, I drove to the beach and waded out past the surf.

“Do you think humans and nautiloids go to the same afterlife?”

Maybe. Hope.

“I’ll see you later, then. Godspeed, good friend.”

I laid a garland of knotted yarn over the shell: a nautiloid benediction, written out. I knew a few of the words humans use, and I said those as well. Then I pushed the raft off, away from the shore.

When I climbed out of the water, I was alone in my head.

-------

“You’re different,” Greg said. It was my first day back at the site. “You have a good vacation?”

“Yeah. I had to attend a funeral right at the end, though.”

“Man.” Greg winced. “Family?”

“A friend.”

“That’s rough.”

“It was time. And the service was just the way my friend wanted.”

“Timing still sucks.” Greg shuffled. “Oh hey, you’ll like this: the museum was running an exhibit on ancient sea life. I had my daughter last weekend, so I took her to see it.” He handed me a flier. “She wants to do her school project on these nautilus fossils. I told her you could help her with the research.”

“I don’t know how much I can help, but I’ll try.” I smiled at the picture on the flier.

My friend’s book was coiled neatly in my backpack; I had already started the translation. I doubted most people would want to read it, and even fewer would believe it. But it would be there, at least for a while: a faint, brief echo of a people long gone. A chance for them to be remembered.

I can only hope that when my time comes, someone will offer me the same kindness.

#writing #my writing #sci fi #science fiction #prehistory #paleontology #sapient cephalopods #who's to say there hasn't been intelligent life on this planet before?#there wouldn't be any evidence one way or the other #very little survives that length of time #ghost stories #funerals #cannabalism #sort of

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stevie-steven-stevington · 5 years

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you don’t have to say i love you (to say i love you)

happy day of birth to my dearest betrothed

@shiskabubble mentioned wanting to see a fic where tony is super clingy on pain meds so. i wrote it. because it’s @shiskabubble‘s birthday (go say happy birthday. do it. all of you go say happy birthday to the best person on this god forsaken website). happy birthday, love.

They have to put Tony under to perform surgery on his heart.

It’s not life-threatening, the doctors say. It’s a small, minimally invasive, routine procedure, they say.

Peter knows all of this, and yet his hands still shake for the whole hour that Tony is in the operating room.

Waiting is...hard, to say the least. He hates hospitals, has hated hospitals ever since he was fourteen and he and May had to drive Ned to the hospital during one of their sleepovers because he was crying from stomach pain at 2:00 AM. Turned out he had appendicitis, and Peter spent an hour shaking in the waiting room while May tried to talk him down from what remains one of the worst panic attacks of his life.

He knows that this isn’t the same thing. Tony’s not actually in danger - the chances of anything going wrong are less than five percent - but Peter’s body still vibrates with anxiety nonetheless.

Less than five percent, he thinks, means something entirely different to most people than it does to him. Even Pepper and Rhodey seem calm - relatively so, at least - while Peter is...antsy. Tense.

Parker Luck is alive and well, after all.

But for once, Parker Luck lets him be.

After sixty-three minutes and twenty-eight seconds (Peter counted. Sue him.), Helen Cho steps into the waiting room and says, “He’s out of surgery.”

Peter shoots out of his seat so fast that he almost trips and falls on his face.

Both Pepper and Rhodey, who are sitting on either side of Peter, swivel to look at him, and he automatically drops back into his chair. Rhodey’s gaze is knowing, while Pepper’s is just...soft. Find.

Well. There goes his dignity.

(Who is he kidding? His dignity deserted him ages ago.)

“Is he awake?” Rhodey asks, and Peter’s impossibly grateful when the focus of the room shifts from him to Dr. Cho.

“He’s coming out of the meds, yes. He might be a little loopy for a while, though.”

Peter’s itching to stand up again, but he forces himself to wait.

Pepper’s hand finds Peter’s knee and squeezes gently, reassuringly. He relaxes just a little. “Can we see him?”

Dr. Cho purses her lips, clasping her hands behind her back, and says, “Yes, but it’d be best if just one person came back for now, just until he’s a little more lucid. Pepper, would you -”

“Peter, you go.”

His head whips toward her. “What?”

Pepper just smiles at him, free hand moving to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Go see him. Rhodey and I are used to this type of thing, but it’s clearly making you anxious. You can go first, it’s okay.”

Oh.

She’s letting him go first because he probably still looks like he’s on the edge of a panic attack, despite how completely and entirely unnecessary his fear ended up being.

Normally, he’d protest. Normally, he’d insist that he’s fine, that Pepper’s his wife so of course she should go first, that if not her, Rhodey should go first as Tony’s best friend. Normally, he’d say that he’s not nearly as close to Tony as Pepper and Rhodey are, so obviously he can wait.

But Pepper’s right. Even though this - the whole waiting for Tony to get out of surgery thing, minor or not - is normal to her and Rhodey, it’s not normal for Peter.

So, hoarsely, he says, “Okay,” and follows Dr. Cho out of the waiting room.

Tony is half asleep when Peter walks in.

The blanket on the hospital bed is only pulled up to his waist, making the bandages around his torso visible, and there’s an IV line running from Tony’s right arm to the machine next to the bed. He’s a little pale and the white bandages are way too stark against his skin, but he’s alive.

There’s a little rolling chair beside the bed. It squeaks loudly and harshly when Peter sits in it.

Tony’s eyes flutter open. “Petey?” That’s...new. May calls him that every once in a while, mostly just when he has nightmares, but no one else has called him Petey in years. Especially not Tony.

He kind of likes it.

“Hi, Mr. Stark,” Peter says softly. He hooks his ankles around each other and wants nothing more than to take Tony’s hand. He doesn’t.

Tony does. With no hesitation, he grabs Peter’s fingers, tugging on his left hand - his grip is loose and the tug is weak, but Peter still lets himself tilt forward until Tony seems satisfied. Which, as it turns out, isn’t until his face is buried in Tony’s shoulder. His hospital gown makes it just a little difficult for Peter to breathe, but it’s fine. Because he’s here. Just like always. Just like he’s supposed to be.

Peter knew his anxiety was irrational. He did. But even so, it didn’t start to fade until now.

Tony lets go of Peter’s hand, but it’s only a second before his fingers slide, instead, into Peter’s hair. He has to hold back a laugh as a loopy Tony twirls strands of his hair around his pinky, letting his eyes close and the stiffness in his shoulders melt.

Apparently, Tony is touchy when he’s high.

Which is nice. A little bit suffocating, but nice. Tony never actually refuses to touch him when he’s sober, but Peter can always tell that he’s not nearly as comfortable with being touched as he tries to pretend he is. As comfortable as Peter is, pretty much all the time.

They’ve both got their issues. Evidently, though, the anesthesia is enough to make Tony forget.

Peter has to pull away to breathe eventually. When he does, Tony makes a noise somewhere between a groan and a whine, fingers grabbing aimlessly at the air by Peter’s shoulder. Peter can’t stop himself from laughing this time, because Tony looks so...childish and needy and petulant and all these things Peter has never seen in him before.

Carefree. Untroubled.

Peter’s grin falters.

As soon as it does, Tony’s brow furrows and his mouth pulls down into a frown. Words slurring, he says, “Wha’s wrong, Und’roos?” Peter shakes his head, reaches up to take Tony’s hand again and clutch it in both of his. He leans forward, elbows settling on the bed, and rests his chin gently on top of their joined hands. Gives Tony a tight smile and tells him, “Nothing’s wrong, Mr. Stark.”

Something is wrong, but...it’s more of an in general thing than an at the moment thing. The type of thing that he can worry about later.

“Then why do you look…” Tony’s free hand, the one with the IV, waves vaguely and he squints up at Peter. He’s struggling, trying to find the words, clearly fuzzy from the drugs. “...sad? You’re not supposed to be sad.”

“I’m not,” Peter says firmly, and he really isn’t. He’s still a little shaky, but he’s not sad. Not at the moment.

He wonders, sometimes, if Tony is. In general, that is. He thinks maybe Tony is both happy and sad all at once, and he wonders, sometimes, if Peter himself is too.

Right now, happy is winning. For Tony, it’s the drugs. For Peter, it’s the relief.

“Good,” Tony huffs. “I don’ like it when you’re sad.”

Oh.

Okay.

It’s not like Tony’s never said anything like this to him before. Contrary to popular belief, the genius does have a soft side, one that tends to appears in the form of gentle words and one-armed hugs when Peter is just upset enough to actually tell him what he’s upset about. But in every case before now, it’s taken a lot more struggling on Tony’s part to drag the soft side out.

“Well, I’m - I’m not,” Peter repeats, watching as Tony shifts around in the hospital bed as if he’s got an itch somewhere he can’t scratch with his left hand and doesn’t find urgent enough to be worth releasing Peter’s. “You’re okay, so...there’s no reason for me to be sad, anyway.”

Tony nods contentedly. “That I am. Can’t let something as stupid as my - m’heart thing kill me. Hafta go out with a bang, y’know? That way you all remember me as Tony Stark: World’s Best Superhero.”

Before he can think better of it, Peter tilts his head so that his cheek presses into the top of his own hand and muses, “What about Tony Stark: World’s Best Mentor, instead?”

He knows, even as he says it, that the words never would’ve come out of his mouth if Tony wasn’t drugged. If Tony hadn’t already started it.

Still, he half-expects Tony to stiffen, to pull away, to freeze up. Because Tony tries, he always tries, but sometimes he just can’t handle these moments, the sappy, sentimental ones. It’s harder for him than it is for Peter, and he’s learned to understand that.

“Mm,” Tony hums. The lines in his forehead are smoother than Peter’s ever known them to be. “You’re right, that’s even better. That way I’ll be known for my greatest accomplishment.”

“I - you - you think -” The words won’t come. The words won’t come because Peter can’t find them because he has no idea what he’s supposed to say to this. The thing is, he can’t be sure if this is the drugs talking or not. If Tony just doesn’t have a filter at the moment or if he actually doesn’t know what he’s talking about. If he asked later, when Tony was fully present, would he say he meant it?

Peter doesn’t think it matters.

Whether he would say he means it later or not, he clearly means it now.

When he finally finds words, what comes out of his mouth is, “Didn’t you save the world, like, twice?”

Tony scoffs, rolls his eyes. Says flippantly, “Eh. World’s a shitshow, anyway. You’re not.”

Oh.

Okay.

Tony’s eyes are bright. Glassy, but bright. Earnest.

There’s no doubt in Peter’s mind that Tony means this one. And he’s speechless - completely, totally speechless.

“Petey. C’mere.”

“...I’m already here, Mr. Stark.” He’s always here.

Tony, scooting to his left to make room on the bed, tugs on his hand again, insistently. “Come here, kiddie. You look tired.”

He is a little tired. Winding down from anxiety episodes always does make him tired.

Peter lets go of Tony’s hand to climb onto the hospital bed next to him, careful not to jostle him too much as he curls into his side, tucking his head into the juncture between Tony’s chin and his shoulder while his mentor’s arm wraps around his torso. Tony’s fingers run lightly up and down his arm while Peter’s twist into the fabric of Tony’s hospital gown.

For a while, it’s quiet. It’s quiet and peaceful and serene and Peter thinks he’d be content to stay here for hours.

Just as he thinks Tony is starting to drift off to sleep, Peter whispers, “I love you too, Mr. Stark,” because the phrase I love you might not have actually come out of Tony’s mouth, but Peter heard it. He heard it.

Tony’s breath catches, and Peter hears it. Tony’s arm tightens around him, and he hears it.

And he doesn’t have to say it (because Peter knows. He knows.), but he does anyway.

Tony murmurs, “Love you, kid,” and Peter hears it and he knows.

He falls asleep to the rhythm of Tony’s heartbeat, constant and invariable and unwavering.

Steady.

(Safe.)

a final birthday note to my dearest - i know we haven’t known each other that long, but you’re easily one of my best friends now. i love you so much. i hope this year treats you well and remember - the world’s a shitshow. you’re not.

#happy birthday love i adore you #shiskabubble #irondad #tony stark #peter parker #iron man #spiderman #marvel #mcu #mcu fanfiction #fluff #jude writes #fic #fanfic #irondad fic

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ellsey · 5 years

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Agents of Shield Rewatch 2x14 Love in the Time of Hydra

I only vaguely remember this episode...so let’s get to it

Ugh, everything about Kara and Ward bothers me x1000

She deserved better and he deserved death so

Whelp we’re back down on the Fitzsimmons roller coaster. They’re not being good friends right now.

Sigh

Mom and Dad are arguing too uggghhh

Seriously who pumped the bad vibes juice into this base??

Kara has some serious issues poor girl

I love Mack so much but I am very clearly on Hunter’s side in all of this

So the thing about Nick Fury ruling from the shadows and stuff is fair, but also this isn’t the way to go about it?

They should have talked to Coulson about everything. They probably could have worked something out.

And what’s more annoying is that I feel like Mack and Bobbi should know Coulson well enough at this point to know that Coulson would have at least listened to their concerns.

Also using Hartley’s death against Hunter here is super uncool

Oh and blaming Coulson’s new alien DNA for what they are doing is extra wrong

Bobbi and Mack are making it hard for me to love them at this point

Don’t worry, I’ll get over it

“Fitz really wants a dog”

GIVE THE BOY WHAT HE WANTS

Also give him some time off with the woman he loves and his loopy grandson in a nice calm place with nothing to bother them

THERE IS NOTHING GOOD ABOUT WHAT WARD AND KARA ARE DOING RIGHT NOW

Ward is manipulating Kara so much, but I’m not surprised since he does it so well

And Kara has no clue who she is and what she wants. She’s just clinging to the strongest personality she can find and going with it

Kara deserves my sympathy, Ward does not.

Haha I forgot about the Talbot shenanigans

Daisy needs Phil to be her DAD right now

I really feel for her, but chilling out in a decked out cabin without having to deal with people for a while sounds like paradise honestly

May is suspicious, yes?

See, there’s the dad hug Daisy really needs

DAD OF THE YEAR ONCE AGAIN

Bobbi and Hunter are actually...talking to each other??

Fitzsimmons take note

I mean it didn’t end up happy, but hey, they were 50% there

Lance Hunter is a slippery little bugger

Bobbi looks genuinely upset, but also she kind of deserves this so

I’m crying at Coulson’s face when talking to Talbot

Phil Coulson does not appear to think that Edible Arrangements are the key to a good marriage

Bobbi no

On the one hand I am happy Kara is learning to accept herself and who she really is, but on the other hand KARA NO

This whole “real Shield” storyline super bothers me because WHY ON EARTH would people who JUST SURVIVED HYDRA think that hiding in the shadows would be ok this time??? Like of all the bad ideas that ever were thought...this one is pretty high on the list.

So anyway this episode gets a 15/10 on the BAD IDEAS scale. Also a 10/10 on the Strained Relationships scale because everyone is in a bad place in this episode.

This song for this episode is “You’re Somebody Else” by flora cash because for real errbody’s relationships are so messed up right now with very few exceptions.

youtube

#aosrewatch #aosrewatchs2 #earth vs space #team earth aos #lance hunter #bobbi morse #alphonso mackenzie #daisy johnson #phil coulson #melinda may #leo fitz #jemma simmons #glenn talbot #sunil bakshi #too many shields

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wellntruly · 5 years

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The Exorcist (The Show) - Season Two, Eps 1 & 2

1) We’re going to two-episodes-per-notes because I’ve accepted where I am at this point, as a person, etc. 2) The tarot-esque seasonal Starbucks ad has been such a standby for me on every ad break throughout this Exorcist journey that I don’t even know what this show will feel like when it goes away presumably today? It is darkly colored and has a gentle spooky-cute little song and no words, it is an Ideal Ad Break Experience

Meanwhile, not ideal, the priests keep fighting and it’s making me sad. Don’t fight with each other! Fight demons.

I’m actually genuinely taking some Issue over it, and I think it’s partly because this new problem they’ve set up has increeEEeeEedible potential to do things I would DEEPLY ENJOY, but so far in this season they’ve mostly been angling it into what is, by my lights, a much more pedestrian Man Conflict direction---despite Ben Daniels’s constant effort to always build his anger on sadness and fear, that’s my guy.

But it is not too late at all to adjust course, so to that end, here are my questions and suggestions for The Exorcist Show, followed by more live watch-notes, notes ahoy!

Exorcist Questions & Suggestions Two Eps Into Season 2:

- Have we asked why S1’s eager but highly collaborative Father “I need you” [repeat throughout season] Tomas is now hot-temperedly certain that he’s got this and keeps rebuffing Marcus’s concerns by just boasting of his skills? Show us what’s underpinning this change, OR, and maybe I prefer this one: check him. Have him get into something really hairy and get scared, and either a) Marcus can’t come after you and haul you out of danger in here and now you do regret this don’t ya, or b) Marcus storms up like a blazing white knight alight with God’s fury and Tomas is like, *re-dazzled*

- Loooved the friend Young Marcus lost to the demons, let’s loop on that again why don’t we. Let’s have Tomas start looking like everyone Marcus has lost to the darkness.

- I’m feeling like Tomas’s new mindplane trick is supposed to be risky/bad because the white-filmed eyes look spooky, yeah? But maybe it is a gift from God, because it does seem to be working out? I think we need to pick a side, and I could be interested in this going more in either the Good or Bad direction. For God-touched he’s gonna have to start taking on a more saintly, distant pallor and getting kinda loopy in real life and that can freak Marcus out TOO, because fuck what if GOD takes him away. For the Dancing With the Devil option this is gonna have to start clearly registering as self-inflicted soul ravaging, and it’s going to have to start hurting, draining him, he’s going to have to start looking ragged. Maybe he is technically Okay and still keeping the darkness at bay, but at what cost?

- At some point, no matter what option we’re taking with any of this above, at some point we g o t t a bring Marcus inside Tomas’s soul. The demon in Cindy brought this up outright in the first episode. The gambit has been thrown, to coin a term. God...there are…... there are so many possibilities here. How much does this place operate on Inception rules? Ugh tell me lots, I am...suited for that.

So yeah we’re set up for some good shit and I hope we get there. We have done You’re Reckless! You’re Jealous!, now let’s transform.

Notes:

Season 2, Ep 1: Janus

oh man Tomas is beardier this season!

he still looks exhausted

this whole picnic is so eerie, I’m impressed. hazy old echoing song SUPER helps

HAHhahahahahaa, another transition into Tomas frantically driving a speeding vehicle while Marcus hollers behind him, show you know exactly what I liiiiiiike

WHY on EARTH are you two doing an on-the-road exorcism!!? god, hilarious, who knew signing up to be an exorcist would involve LITERAL CAR CHASES

ooooo revamped creds for the new season! lots of bleak water imagery, more nature in general—fitting with this more American West vibe I’m already getting, and also that I saw “Montana” in the description

they’ve been running around together for six months and Bennett is their M—I love it

Washington!!!! hi

wait John Cho lives here??! YOU ALL DIDN’T TELL ME JOHN CHO LIVES IN THE FICTIONAL SAN JUANS IN SEASON 2!

is he a single foster dad in a giant house? how did this happen!

little girl eagerly grabbing this brown paper sack: “The Elvis?!” John Cho: “You’re welcome.” Grace: “Thank you.” John Cho: “No, ~thank you very much~” I lolled

Marcus just broke into a barn with “Jesus Saves” spray-painted across the doors, so we still got it. it being the Punks For God vibe.

yeah Cinematography

“Lob us that strap”—this is the single most British thing you have ever said. a pack of McVitie’s biscuits manifested in my hand.

the wind is kicking up at my place again, with extra whistling this time---it’s a new Exorcist season!

!!!!!! oh nooo, the demons are after Tomas, and Marcus knows it! god what did he say when they first met---“They’re gonna love you.” fuuuuuuck (yess)

“I saw him from the inside. He opened his mind to me, he let me in. He’s a very beautiful mannn [gross cackling]” WoW. we’re...wow

this kid is gonna fall into this well

whew, avoided! this place creepy though

yeah you all HELLA filmed this locally, damn this looks like my home

social worker is a babe, good luck Cho

oh they’re exes, oh this energy is now making sense

“Yeah that’s what they do. They find the thing that your heart wants most, and they dangle it in front of your nose. But it’s a lie.” waaahahaait, Marcus, no, don’t tell me this, not when what the demon just told you was to taunt that it had been closer to Tomas than you have. show you need to fucking chill!

“You got someone, Father?” “[rumbly negative noise] I’m a priest, darling. Married to the man upstairs.” a) adorable b) double entendre c) Marcus’s sweethearts, darlings, loves etc are much more frequent this season and I have a guess why

I can’t believe the emotional weight this is setting up so far is that Marcus is scared that not just God, but Tomas doesn’t like him anymore. if this means eventually there’s gonna be a scene where Tomas is earnestly trying to convince him that he does, I’m gonna lose my mind

this gang of misfit kids

“I think you’re awesome.” “I mean, you’re okay.” this one’s my fave

wait are these guys in the shop being racist? jesus christ

racist teller after demanding “Pablo”s ID: “Chicago. That’s a long ways from home.”

oh my god. Alfonso Herrera!

creepy record distortion effects, kiddo

“PAL-SPACE”

I’m sorry I’m still just in a state over Pal-Space. I’m weeping over Pal-Space.

ohh, he lost his wife, that’s how he ended up with all these kids alone

ah hell, did she actually hear a noise?

ohh thank goodness, it’s just Truck. the kid named Truck.

Marcus is trying so hard to convince Tomas not to fight demons inside his head (where he can’t follow), and I’m like mmm

boys, once again: don’t fight, it’s what the demon wants

ugh this foster home is getting spooky

Marcusss, just like well I guess you don’t need me anymore (bitterness [despair]), you can fight this on your ooOwn (mockery [worry]), I’ll just go place myself as a physical shield between you and these rednecks (protection [protection])

this is funny, I’ve gotten used to the kinds of scares that await me with possessed people, so now those scenes don’t have me that on edge. but I don’t have a frame of reference yet for how this show is doing Haunted Island, and I am not having a calm time!

turns out Shelby, my fave kid, is genuinely religious, and that is gonna be fun for me & these priests

Husband: “We went to the Church, and they said no. So who the hell are you?” Marcus: “The ones who don’t say no.” NEW TAGLINE

man oh man though can I love conscious-skipping Father Tomas slipping into his own mind and telling the demons follow if thou wilt, this has Potential

oh Tomas, this battleground is so risky, now you’re operating in dream logic and that’s all intuition and symbolism and mindhorror and fuuuckk, and THE STAKES ARE SO HIGH, WHAT IF YOU GET LOST HERE

these sunglasses sure are helpful for the demon that is definitely possessing Caleb now

Tomaass, what do you think you’re doing, honey

I mean this does set up a chance for Marcus to come after you in here, though that’s so extreeeeeemely appealing surely we’d save it for later. the more immediate option is of course Marcus finding you catatonic with blank eyes and being like noooooo, which is also good, but I’m just, I’m nervous!

the exorcism dream imagery though!!!! the confession booth! you said you missed hearing confession. the song coming from inside her mouth! ~Signs & Symbols~! this is the best shit about Inception

well folks it was option two!

what the fuck, is this the original Suspiria soundtrack...I feel like I know these spooky bells..

gasp! oh the handprints! well hey looks like Tomas’s dream augury is gonna come through for us again!

Season 2, Ep 2: Safe as Houses

banging title, real good

I just literally scrambled up a little on my couch, are we getting Father Bennett in the Vatican??

Cardinal Whomever, walks in to Bennett’s exorcism office: “Bad news.” Father fucking Bennett: “What other kind is there?” we are and it already rocks my socks

it’s like The Young Pope meets The Exorcist and I’m in heaven

hahaha, this guy literally was just like “my apologies, but, are you possessed?” to quote my Father Marcus: “Crackerjack work, detective.”

what does it prove if you let him “bless” his own holy water! oh my god, is the Church more useless or more corrupt!!! criminy

is this gonna literally be “tie them together until they work out their issues”

Rose has a point, it’s freaky

oh you’re gonna make sure they get out of here alive are you! great thanks for creating the idea of the alternative!

Tomas to the guys: “Please, you have to trust me.” Marcus, supportively: “Mm-hm.”

Tomas: [starts singing Cindy’s song that plays on the radio to try to convince them] Marcus: [closes his eyes wearily]

yeah, see, husband: that’s a demon

ohhh, Tomas trusts his weirdo visions because they led him to Marcus! oh fuck

Tomas: “Was that also a mistake?” Marcus, bitterly: “It’s starting to feel like that, yeah.” but break my heart

Tomas trying to blink back that blow and Marcus exhaling painedly, aaah acting

Marcus: “When I was training there were others who also took unnecessary risks. ALL of them paid for it. I watched—[pause to look forlornly at the back of Tomas’s neck]—I watched this friend, walk into a room with a demon, and not come out for another six months. [pause for “six months”] Ruined. Because that’s what happens when you let the darkness inside.” well this is perfect, perfect backstory perfect motivation

Tomas: “You hate it. You hate the fact that He chose me, and not you.” ToMAS. I’m choosing to believe that you’re being a cocky intractable jerk right now because of your brush with a demon, spurring you into these hotheaded relationship-damaging behaviors!

whooooa, I think some things are coming out here regarding Andy’s past! did Nicole commit suicide? :(

it is sort of grimly satisfying to see the rednecks chastened

“Marcus Keane and his neophyte”—his neophyte

“What can I do?” “There are still those loyal to the cause.” this is how every good story starts

wow Cindy, eight foot vertical leap

this lamb comes out with two heads or something or gtfo

yeah it came out super nasty!

sowing discord—classic Devil move

he put this anxious glance at Marcus on the floor into his off-key singing, I love it

Shelby is walking through a dark wood with a flashlight muttering prayers aloud—boys get over here, your spiritual son is already just crushing it

are you being haunted…..by a ghost demon sheep

Andy is doubting that the girl named Verity is telling the truth and that’s pretty special

every time Andy opens a door after a strained conversation, Grace is standing there, and he has to go “oh honey, I’m so sorry…”

“Tomas, stay with me!” aah

heyhey he did it! Tomas yelled this demon into dust in his telepathic mindplane dreamspace!

also, “he’s scared of you” is so much more fun than “he’s jealous of you” are you kidding me, let’s do that

lol, lol Husband Jordy looking awkwardly at them arguing in the doorway like um, I don’t want to get in the middle of something here, but uh, you can go….

f uck, fuck I love the Bennett plot, we literally just came back to the Vatican with a dramatic music sting and then found Bennett ducking back in a grand stairwell to avoid a group of Swiss Guards passing by

putting on the radio just gave them ANOTHER super obscure old 60s love song, there is no escaping your ~vibe~ you two. this one is about telling your beloved you know it’s already too late for your tears, so if you’re keeping track, yes they are ALL ecstatically on-the-nose!

Shelby: “It says in the Bible that lamb’s blood can protect a home. I didn’t know what else to do. There’s something in the woods.” a) love it b) HATE it, you did not try to consecrate your home with the fucking demon lamb Shelby!! no!

To be continued

***

Previously Season One Part 1, Part 2

#The Exorcist #The Exorcist The Show #Tarra takes notes

12 notes · View notes

imnotcameraready · 5 years

Text

chivalry is dead (4)

A/N: also can be titled “roman #1 get so valid that BS almost started crying while writing this” — roman gets valid and things are about to speed the h e c k up!!!!

WARNINGS: Sympathetic Deceit, cursing, panic, yelling/arguing (things get Bad before they get Good), crying, self-hatred, self-deprecation, more mentions of being touch-starved (im returning to the story’s original idea YEET) — let me know if i missed anything!!! also i realize i stopped tagging sympathetic deceit? so im gonna go back and.,,.. fix that., ., . ., . .

Words: 3796

Pairings: in this one? Roman gets valid and loved, but nothing overt yet

Part 1 (chivalry is dead) — Part 2 (i’m wishing) — Part 3 (the bells of notre dame) — Part 4 (honor to us all)

AO3 link!

@starlightvirgil @forrestwyrm @daflangstlairde @marshmallow-the-panda @askthesnake @k9cat

enjoy!! <3 <3

“The….Playwright,” Deceit recoiled, nose scrunching up as the name rolled off his tongue. He didn’t like the confusion, of course, but he especially didn’t like how Roman was being honest about his name. “I think I speak for all of us when I say that we don’t want to deal with your dramatics right now, Roman.”

“What’s the purpose of your outfit change?” Logan took a step closer, and Roman took a step back from Logan’s accusatory tone, “And all of these outfits? And the pseudonym? Where did your room go? Why have you been hiding for a week? What—”

“That’s all backstory, I can’t help you there. It’s not very fun to focus on,” Roman — the Playwright? — walked around the group, towards the table, “Roman and the Imagination are in a very important discussion, and you all interrupted us at the first climax.”

He leaned on the table, ignoring everyone by looking through some papers, mumbling to himself. It was unnerving. The energy of how the Playwright carried himself, just from seeing him, was distinctly Roman-like. But not. He seemed more orderly, hands holding the papers delicately, covered in handwriting that wasn’t nearly as loopy or rushed as Romans’ typically was. It was as though they’d entered an Uncanny Valley.

The group shared looks in a circle, Patton’s eyebrows pinched in worry, Deceit with a tense frown, Logan with an impatiently cocked eyebrow, Virgil and tired snarl. The room’s tension was heavy; it was a miracle that the Playwright was ignoring it.

To Deceit, it seemed that the other three didn’t understand the atmosphere change. “I’m really done with how often you all hide things from each other,” he said, “Look at him. That’s clearly not Roman.”

Patton caught Virgil’s eye. He was staring at the ground, hands shaking at his sides, shoulders hunched to make himself seem smaller. Patton extending a hand towards him, but Virgil pulled away. He marched away from the group and towards the Playwright, ignoring Patton’s hushed warning “Virgil!” and grabbing the Playwright by his sleeve with both his hands.

He spun him around to face him, holding the Playwright tight but trembling horribly.

“I don’t know what you and the Imagination’re on about, but you’ve been locked in here for a week and you got us all worried. And now you’re saying you’re not Roman? You’d better start explaining what the hell you’re doing in here, or we’re dragging you out into the common room,” his voice was deeper, doubled over with his Tempest Tongue, “I’m not fucking with this.”

The Playwright just stared at him, wearing a disgruntled frown. He leaned forward, putting his other hand on Virgil’s chest and pushing him away slow. “If you all paid more attention to the foreshadowing, then you would have seen this coming,” he said.

“What foreshadowing?!” Logan all but shouted, startling them enough for Virgil to let go of the Playwright’s hand, “You cannot just speak in literary terms and expect everyone to understand you as though this’d been expected. This whole debacle has frankly been too obtrusive to our regular routine. You’ve been unnecessarily tense, causing the rest of US distractions in our work out of worry for you. And with Thomas’ new videos to think of, our production has been placed on a halt because of your gratuitous pity parties—”

“Logan!” Patton yanked him backwards and effectively shutting him up, “That’s enough!”

Logan looked back at Patton, who appeared angrier than ever, and then up at Deceit and Virgil. Both had similarly shocked and fearful expressions. “We know you’re worried, we’re all worried, but you can’t vent your anger out like that,” Patton hissed, out of the Playwright’s earshot.

Clearly the tension’d built up. Logan looked back up at the Playwright. His hands were gripping the table behind him, chest heaving as his breathing quietly picked up. Behind his glasses were tears growing in his eyes, face contorted into a hurt and disgusted unhinged-jaw scowl. What an outburst. Logan leaned back, withdrawing his hand from where he had been angrily pointing a finger just seconds before.

Immediately, he knew he had to apologize. “I...Roman, I—”

“No development,” the Playwright was venomously angry, “No-No awareness. From any of you. I already said I’m not Roman. Not….”

His voice cracked and he looked away. “Not all of him, anyway,” he turned back around, facing the table, shoulders hunched over.

Patton pulled Logan back, letting him quietly stand with Deceit and Virgil. He approached the Playwright slowly and put a hand on his shoulder. “Playwright, right?”

The Playwright swatted Patton’s hand away. “Don’t touch me,” he hissed.

Patton’s brows pinched again, and the Playwright continued in a softer voice, “It-it feels weird. Sorry.”

Alright. Alright, that was okay. Patton leaned on the table besides him. “That’s okay. I’m sorry we interrupted you. Really. But we’re all really worried about you, and we miss you a lot, all of us. We didn’t know what was best to do, since you don’t like being interrupted, but we couldn’t just leave you alone. And, if there’s something we can do to help, we’d like to. We just wanna understand what’s going on.”

The Playwright looked up at him with a single eyebrow raised and fresh tear-tracks down his cheeks. It didn’t look like he was bought what Patton was selling.

Patton took a deep breath and kept going. “I’m sorry we didn’t check on you sooner. But we, um. We wanna help you finish, uh. Writing the story. Or play. You’re a Playwright,” he was rambling now, wasn’t he? He should wrap it up. “We just care about you, a lot.”

He searched Patton’s face for fault and, finding none, turned back to the group. Logan’s fists were balled as he stared hard at the carpet, and Virgil and Deceit were standing besides each other, both watching the Playwright with set jaws. Virgil gave a tiny nod. Yeah, they did care, and they sure as hell weren’t leaving without answers.

The Playwright looked at Patton again. “It’s alright, right, Playwright?” Patton asked, voice soft with a puckish edge.

His response was to snort quietly and punch Patton’s shoulder gently. “I appreciate the wordplay.”

Patton giggled. The Playwright chuckled, too, and wiped his face with the butt of his palm. “I’m sorry, you all,” he said, “I’m, um. This whole situation has been a headache and a half, incredibly stressful, so I must report that my emotional state is rather volatile.”

He cleared his throat, fixing his tie and vest, without looking at the group yet. “We–I–All of us didn’t think you’d care enough to be involved, but now it’s a little late for big changes. Thank you for checking, though.”

Again, nothing hidden. Deceit cast a sidelong look at Virgil. Virgil was fiddling with his zipper while watching the Playwright, tugging it open and zipping it shut. He seemed to be calming down himself as the but the lingering questions of what the heck was happening definitely weighed in everyone’s minds enough to keep him on edge. Deceit glanced at Logan, who was watching Patton with a blank look, before deciding to ask himself.

“So. Playwright,” he stepped closer, one careful step at a time, ignoring how the Playwright was refusing to look at him, “What’s happening? Care to explain?”

The Playwright just gazed around at Logan, Patton, Virgil, then Logan again before answering. “I’m sure you’re all wondering that. Sit, I guess. I’ll provide some exposition, for a change.”

He waved a hand, conjuring couches behind them. Slowly, each Side sat, though everyone leaned forward to an extent. The Playwright sat on a stool in front of them, cradling some papers he’d pulled from the table.

“Roman — the Roman you know, the Prince — had an epiphany. I believe he mentioned it on camera, actually, during the Sander Sides episode ‘Crofters: the Musical,’” the Playwright squinted at one of the papers. “‘I can’t help but wonder if we as a society are past the days of celebrating dashing princes and acts of bravery that are edging on stupidity,’ at timestamp 4:36.

“Despite the acknowledgement that there would be no heavy character development in that episode, that line stuck with him. Princes simply aren’t appreciated anymore, by the audience nor by you all. Thus, to continue maintaining a desired presence, Roman tried to imagine a new form that would be….wanted. But we came up with multiple possible forms. After all,” the Playwright sighed, flipping a page, “Anything is better than the Prince.”

That sat uncomfortably with everyone, though it was difficult to pinpoint why. “I, uh, kiddo?” Patton raised a hand slowly, but the Playwright waved his papers at him.

“Don’t interrupt! Anyway,” he adjusted his glasses, “Back to the source material, Logan is my point of comparison. Hence,” he indicated to himself, “Exhibit A. But I wasn’t the only ‘form’ produced, for lack of a better word. Because there were so many forms — seven, to be precise — we have been hosting a small battle-royale in the Prince’s favored setting. The other six are integrated into Prince Roman’s kingdom village. My themeing is less tied to a narrative and therefore I am backstage.”

“The Mind Palace’s considered backstage?” Deceit jerked his thumb backwards, at the hall of costumes.

The Playwright only glared at him over his glasses. He cleared his throat, looking over Logan and Virgil as though daring them to interrupt, before continuing through his notes.

“All of us theoretically have the common goal of capturing the others and killing them, in the hopes of replacing the late Prince—”

“Hang on, hang on,” Virgil put his hands up, “‘Late’? Roman’s dead?!”

The Playwright rolled his eyes. “Clearly not,” he said, earning an exasperated glare from Virgil, “Roman has simply been dissolved into seven facets, each displaying different characteristics that he possessed. The same could be done to all of you but, well, enacting it in the actual Mindscape without the help of an imagined scenario would likely be painful. Example given, we could probably divide you into impulse, self-deprecation, overthinking, et cetera. Though I can’t declare myself an expert on the Mindscape’s lore, so don’t quote me on that.”

“Thanks for the fucking call out,” Virgil grumbled, pulling his hood up and yanking the strings down.

The Playwright’s brow pinched, not understanding what he’d done wrong. He turned to the other three Sides, lip pursed, and motioned for the conversation to continue.

“So, and correct me if I’m misunderstanding,” Logan said, “But you are one of the seven forms that the Imagination created?”

“Indeed. Like I said prior, I’m the Playwright. The things I represent are more in-line with the creative features of Creativity, though I must admit a little bit of egoism and dramatic flare are definitely written into my character,” he flipped to the last page of his notes, “Much of my inspiration was drawn from you, as I implied earlier. And, to be frank, my goal is simply to maintain order while the other aspects of Roman deal with whatever they believe is correct.”

“I understand. I do enjoy the necktie,” Deceit rolled his eyes at Logan’s self-flattery, sharing a tired look with Virgil. “Focusing on something else, does that mean the other six forms bear different resemblances to Roman as well?”

“Of course. One of the only commonalities I’ve noticed thus far is everyone’s affinity for Disney, but that can be attributed to Roman falling back on a strong creative inspiration base, thus dividing Roman’s representation across multiple character tropes to find one suitable.”

“I don’t—okay, I’m not following,” Patton raised a hand again, “You’re using Roman’s name kinda….without talking about him as a person.”

The Playwright smiled thinly, fingers drumming against his papers. “Yes. I’m discussing ‘Roman’ more as a concept than an individual. Consider it as though myself and the other six are presently different pieces of the whole ‘Roman.’”

“Yet the Roman we know, the Prince as you call him,” Logan felt Virgil squeeze his arm, “He is somewhere in the Imagination. In whatever projected battle you have all created or not, but he still exists.”

“Well, like I said, I cannot declare myself an expert over the Mindscape. We may be able to create and bend reality here, but there are even things that we don’t know,” the Playwright pulled the pen from his hair and scribbled something onto his notes, “That is an interesting point to research, though. I can think of one form that bears a striking resemblance to the Prince, but if they were the Prince before, they certainly aren’t now. Should the Prince be somewhere in the world, we might be able to erase him finally, because I don’t think—”

“Erase? No, no, we need him back,” Virgil stood up at the same time as Deceit, who said “We’re here to GET Roman back.”

The Playwright blinked up at them, pen still pressed hard against his notes. He looked at Patton and Logan, still sitting, and saw them just as shocked. Maybe a little distrusting. He hadn’t been gifted with a sense of emotional atmosphere, so he didn’t fully understand everyone’s reactions to the news he deposited.

“.....Why?” he turned back to Virgil, setting his notes back on the table behind him, “Any of our other forms are more prefered. The fans don’t enjoy the Prince, none of you like the Prince. It could be argued that you just don’t like Roman, but, well. I don’t—”

“We love him!” Patton stood up now. “Roman — the Prince, he’s one of our best friends! And the Imagination can’t just take him away!”

“Yeah, now — yeah. Yeah, no, we need Roman back. I don’t like this whole,” Virgil stood up, too, gesturing to the Playwright, “Roleplay stuff. Give us back our idiot Prince and we’ll get outta here.”

Logan cut in, though stayed sitting. “As much as I’ve enjoyed our discussion here, Playwright, I’m inclined to agree with Patton and Virgil. We would prefer to have the Prince back.”

Deceit just squinted at the Playwright. He was trying to dissect the battle royale situation that’d been described.

“Like I said. He is gone. I don’t know where, I don’t know where the Imagination brought his being or what form he’s taken, but he’s not here,” the Playwright put his hands up, sliding the pen back behind his ear as he did so. “Why are you all so attached to the Prince? Hasn’t he failed you all enough?”

What was the purpose of the battle royale? What were the possible implications?

“Well, we’ve all failed each other a bunch, haven’t we? We want Roman here, flaws and all,” Patton said.

“But the less flaws Roman has, the more desirable he becomes. He’s annoying, not smart, not practical, quick-tempered, loud, dramatic—”

The Playwright understood what they were saying, Deceit realized. He just didn’t understand the why.

“You don’t need to list his flaws, we know. But despite that, Roman is also intelligent, ingenuitive, pensive, reflective, and,” Logan drew in a breath, voice steadying. “And is loved.”

“Well, that’s a great sentiment, but you can’t mean it. That’s—”

“He is ridiculous at times, but he does his best,” Deceit finally stood as well. “You’re unable to weigh his virtues.”

“Oh, he’s got virtues now?” the Playwright’s voice grew shrill. “No one’s demonstrated that line of thinking!”

“Yes, of course he does. He is thoughtful, spontaneous,” Logan was counting on his hand, “Kind, endearing, chivalrous—”

“Haven’t you heard? Chivalry is dead!” the Playwright’s voice increased, suddenly screaming. “No one wants the stupid, annoying, needy Prince Roman! You don’t want ME!”

His back immediately straightened, hands shooting to his mouth as his words echoed around the darkened costume room.

Everyone froze as well, staring at him with incredulity. The Playwright leaned back onto the table and looked down, hands still gripping his mouth.

Silence fell as a blanket over the group, dampening the growing tension with an uneasy reality, as the four Sides looked between each other. Virgil opened his mouth, but Logan held up a hand, opened his, and then Patton held up a hand and made a shushing sound. Virgil put his hand over Patton’s, an eyebrow raised.

Deceit wished he understood what the hell they were all saying to each other, with their eyebrow raising and quiet gestures. Maybe it came with them being so intertwined within the Mind Palace. Wow, Deceit, focus on the task at hand before you think of your own solitude.

He cleared his throat, and the other three glanced up. “Of course we want you, Roman,” Deceit’s voice was quiet, gentle even.

“You….I guess that’s an interesting plot twist, if you all truly want him back,” the Playwright whispered into his hands, rubbing them together in front of his mouth, “But you’ll have to convince him. Roman, not….not just the Prince form.”

“Convince you?” Deceit whispered.

The Playwright shook his head. “Him. Roman. All seven of us. And–And not all of us are friendly or docile. And not all of us are forthright, or understood, or easily interpreted.”

Truly an endeavor, if they couldn’t even get into the imaginary kingdom. Deceit stepped back, pursing his lips. He looked back at the rest of the group and, for once, they were all on the same page. “Alright, then.”

Virgil approached the Playwright first. His hands were balled at his sides but he seemed more level-headed than before. “Hey,” he said, leaning on the table besides the Playwright, “If it’s for Roman? Sign me up.”

“Me, too,” Patton said, determination lacing through his voice. He leaned on the other side of the table, meeting the Playwright’s skeptical eyes with a small shrug. “We need him.”

“As much as I am confounded by the Imagination, I agree that we need Prince Roman back. His absence leaves much to be desired,” Logan stood in front of the Playwright, arms resting behind his back.

The Playwright watched Deceit, eyes wide behind his glasses. He slowly gazed over each of the Sides, once again stopping on Deceit, who simply nodded.

This was real.

He sniffed, and he laughed, lifting his glasses again to wipe his eyes. “That was so cliche,” he murmured, “And you’re all fucking saps. You’ve….well, I can’t say I’m difficult to handle, compared to everyone else. I’ll help you into the Imagination and see what I can do to help you find the other forms, but that’s all the deus ex machina I can perform.”

“You’re wonderful, Playwright,” Logan smiled at him, and the Playwright chuckled quietly.

“Rich, coming from you.”

“Um,” the Playwright turned to Patton, whose arms were open. “Can I? I know you said it felt weird, but, uh, I know Roman likes hugs when he’s feeling down, and I like hugs a lot, too.”

The Playwright blinked once, slowly, before leaning into the hold. Patton’s arms wrapped tight around his shoulders.

It felt.

Heavier than a cloud.

He shivered, snuggling his body more into the hold. His hands grasped at the back of Patton’s polo, tugging him closer, if possible. The staticy and burning feeling of Patton’s arms pressing against him was more bearable than he’d thought it’d be. It was nice. Grounding, even, for a desperate piece.

“Thank you, Patton,” the Playwright mumbled into his chest.

Patton laughed, squeezing him again. “Any time, kiddo.”

Left unattended, the Playwright probably could have stood there for hours. The lights in the room, ominously glowing from no direct source, seemed to glow brighter. With a sniff, though, the Playwright leaned back and rubbed his face, then clapped.

“Alright! First, you all need to look through some of those,” he gestured to the left wall of costumes, “Because I refuse letting you go out and ruining the setting. Period dress only.”

“And it’ll give me some time to write in a mechanism for you to find the other forms,” he moved back over to the table, shuffling through his papers with an increased fervor as the other four sides followed. “Perhaps even the Prince, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happened to him.”

“Period clothing? Doesn’t this count?” Deceit gestured to himself, “Don’t I look period enough?”

The Playwright stopped and shot him a deadpan look. “No. That hat, in a medieval fantasy setting? The cape, maybe, but you can definitely find something more….functional,” His lip cocked up just a little when Deceit let out a dramatically offended gasp, “Go look, I’m sure there are some hats that’ll fit your fancy.”

Deceit turned back around, grumbling to himself but following the other three Sides in flitting through the clothes. As they found outfits that they enjoyed, they brought them to the Playwright, who conjured them into new colors and perfect tailoring without much comment on the outfits. All the while, he was to be scribbling something in a book, black ink flowing from the golden pen, muttering quietly to himself when the others weren’t near. After what seemed like hours, trying on outfits, discussing presentation with the Playwright, the four sat on the couch.

Ready, supposedly, for what was to come. The concern and nervousness of earlier had mixed together, with a new spark of understanding and determination. They were going to get Roman back.

The lights grew brighter.

The Playwright approached them, holding the book in his crossed arms. It looked like a simple leather-bound book, but the front was adorned with a pressing of the same ribbon-esque decal that was on the back of the Playwright’s vest. “This should help,” he said, holding the book out to the trio, “It….As you win over the other forms, the cover will update, and the inside will update with more about them and the world.”

Logan took the book and flipped it open. Sure enough, most of the pages were blank, but the first had a “Table of Contents” with one entry available: “the Playwright.”

“Thank you, Playwright,” Patton said, reaching up and taking his hands, “I’m sure we’re gonna do great! After all, I can’t imagine what’d go wrong.”

Deceit groaned, and Virgil snickered. The Playwright just smiled a tiny bit more.

“I couldn’t dream of anything happening,” Deceit shot back, and Patton laughed.

The Playwright felt a twinge of something, in his chest. Something he couldn’t identify. Maybe another form would figure it out.

“I wish you all the best of luck,” he said.

“Wait,” Logan looked up from the book, “Are you coming with us?”

The Playwright’s smile widened.

“Uh, Playwright?”

He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers.

The couch and the ground beneath them all disappeared. They all let out shouts and screams as they fell through the floor, into the pit, watching the Playwright and the costume room fade upwards into the distance.

95 notes · View notes

ghoulboyboos · 6 years

Note

Sleep deprived Ryan explaining the next episode of unsolved to Shane and keeps slipping up saying stuff like "the location is about a hundred- a hundred- goddamn it stop looking so cute! A hundred and fifty years old" like he's just uttering every thought in his head out loud without realising and TJ and Devon are recording this on their phones for later blackmail.

Sorry that it took a bit but I came home from workand just crashed and yesterday I was busy. This prompt is the cutestfucking thing omg.

Shane has witnessed Ryan in several stages of sleepdeprivation.

There is the usual one, Ryan’s everyday workingstage when they wrap up filming or something similar. He gets a bitloopy and sometimes loses track of what he’s saying, but ingeneral, he manages.

Then there is Ryan after a night on location. Hedoesn’t sleep at all in these places and Shane doesn’t either –albeit for different reasons. Ryan after a night like that is grumpyand cranky and falls asleep as soon as he sits down and put somedistance between himself and whatever ghosties he is imagining.

Today’s stage is new. It’s a mix of sort. Theyare halfway into filming the new season, so Ryan is very busy andoverworked, which cuts into his rest time and also keeps him fromwinding down enough to fall asleep on time. Ryan also slept over atShane’s the night before, a combination of date-night andmovie-night which in general is just popcorn-night. A combination ofObi sneaking into Shane’s bedroom halfway through the night, theantihistamines and a couple of beers have left Ryan incredibly out ofit and Shane was vaguely worried in the morning. He drove them towork and tried to get Ryan to lay down during lunch break, but Ryanwas buried in research and refused.

Right now, Ryan is trying to explain the upcominglocation to Shane, slightly slurring his words and interruptinghimself to take sips from his fourth coffee of the day. He rubs hiseyes which are slightly red and Shane wants to gather his boyfriendup in his arms and drag him to the next horizontal surface so the guycan finally rest, but ofcourse Ryan won’t have it. Hebats at Shane’s hand when Shane reaches out to press his fingersagainst his forehead to feel for a temperature and when he doesn’tlet up, Ryan leans back and out of his reach.

“So it’s beenabandoned for- stop! I can’t concentrate like that – for ahundred and fifty years and – Shane I swear to God let me finish –I… what was I saying?”

Ryan frowns atShane, coffee mug half way to his mouth as his eyes slowly drift fromShane’s hands – now pulled back – up to his face and then Ryanmutters:

“God your eyes arepretty in this light. How are they so pretty? This light isdisgusting and here you are, eyes like honey, fucking hell-” Themuttered curse is spoken into his mug and there is a loud,unattractive slurp as Ryan drinks, clearly not noticing what he justsaid. Shane hears a muffled giggle behind him and feels the tips ofhis ears turn red and warm, but Ryan still hasn’t picked up on it.

“Right!” Ryansits up and actually startles Shane. “I remember. It’s beenabandoned for 150 years, but there have been several reports ofsquatters that saw the former lady of the house wander around, hoverclose to the spaces where furniture used to be… there is even apicture and if you don’t stop looking at me like that I’m goingto- Oh who am I kidding I only want to kiss you when your mouth doesthat weird quirk thing.” Ryan babbles on, launching straight backinto the stories about the ghost of the lady in the empty house as ifhe had not just talked about smooching Shane in front of theirgiggling coworkers. Shane glances over and sees that TJ has his phoneout, smirking down at the screen as he inches closer to them. Shaneshakes his head at him in disappointment but suddenly there is a handon his cheek and he looks back at Ryan who has leaned closer.

“I’m trying totell a story here, big guy, I know I’m a bit loopy but please humorme I really need your support in this. Everything is always so muchbetter when you’re excited for a location so please listen, okay?”He lets out a little whine and strokes his thumb over Shane’scheekbone. “God I want to hug you so bad you’re so pretty and-”Ryan interrupts himself to yawn, mouth opened so wide that his jawcracks and Shane winches in sympathy, touching Ryan’s elbow.

“Babe. Come on,you should go and lie down at least for a couple of minutes.” Hemanages to coax Ryan up from his chair, watching how his boyfriend’shead bobs down as if he’s actually falling asleep already.

“Okay. Don’tcall me babe, though. That’s a lie. Callme babe. I like it. Makes me feel all happy.” He trails off intomumbles as he drops his head against Shane’s shoulder and Shane istorn between melting with adoration and burning up with mortificationwhich sounds like the title of an essay that Ryan couldn’tpronounce in his state of loopyness if he tried.

“Delete that.”Shane hisses at TJ as he hauls Ryan past them and he hears a bunch ofgiggles as Ryan starts to mumble again. He is getting incoherent butShane is sure he hears something about him being warm and comfortableand as cute as it is, he is getting concerned about Ryan’s healthby now, so he is putting his foot down. Ryan lays down in the breakroom on the vaguely cramped couch, his head on Shane’s thigh andbefore Shane can even check if the other man is comfortable, Ryan ispassed out. Shane allows himself a slight laugh as he runs hisfingers through Ryan’s hair and looks down at his boyfriend. Ascute as the no-filter babbling is, he hopes Ryan wakes up a bit morelike himself. There is something sweet in reading between the linesof banter and remarks to find the adoration and compliments that Ryanhas for him.

For now, he’llmake sure that Ryan gets his rest.

#shyan #skeptic believer #shyan fic #minific #prompts #ask #gaylittlepieceofsh1t

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amandajoyce118 · 6 years

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Daredevil Season 3 Easter Eggs And References

I somehow managed to watch the full season in about a week. Probably because I actually had a day off of work in there. These season of Daredevil borrows heavily from two very famous comic book arcs, “Born Again,” and “Guardian Devil.” If you’re familiar with the comics, you probably saw a few things coming. That being said, there aren’t a huge amount of Easter eggs in the season.

As usual, the Easter eggs are broken down by episode so if you want to read as you go without being spoiled for future episodes, you can. This is spoiler-heavy though, so if you’re trying to steer clear and haven’t watched the season yet, look away. I’ll understand.

I didn’t spend a lot of time explaining who people are if they’ve appeared in the show before, maybe just a reminder here and there in case they didn’t make a huge impression on you.

So, onto the Easter eggs!

S3E01 “Resurrection”

Father Lantom

I’m sure we all remember him from earlier seasons, but this is just a reminder of his role in the comics. In the comics, he also provides a place of refuge for Cloak And Dagger as well as the Runaways. Taking in heroes with sad backstories is kind of his thing.

St. Agnes

Again, sure everyone recognizes it, but also just a reminder that on Agents of SHIELD, the orphanage where Daisy Johnson AKA Skye AKA Mary Sue Poots spent her youth was also called St. Agnes. I’d still love a connection.

The Timeline

Despite Matt waking up and seemingly thinking he just made it out of a collapsed building, it’s actually been “several weeks,” which probably puts this happening right around the same time as the events of the most recent season of Luke Cage or Iron Fist. More episodes will likely clear this up.

Sister Maggie

She is a comic book character, plucked from the pages of the “Born Again” story arc. There’s likely a big reveal coming with Sister Maggie, so I won’t spoil that for you. She also features prominently in the “Guardian Devil” story arc.

Ben Donovan

This lawyer certainly gets around. Taking care of Wilson Fisk still even though he was devoting so much time to Mariah Dillard over on Luke Cage.

Fisk And The Wall

After he gets bad news, he stares at the white wall of his prison cell. You’ll remember in season one, he liked “White Rabbit In A Snowstorm” because it helped him think. It’s also how he was forced to deal with his father abusing his mother.

Rymon Cable

The van that has bad guys Matt decides to test himself against? It’s full of clothes even though it has the Rymon Cable logo on it. There’s no comic book connection to Rymon, but Holly S. Rymon is a “production executive” on the series. She’s also worked on Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher over the last two years.

S3E02 “Please”

Fisk’s Deal

This deal isn’t unlike ones he’s made in the comics to further his own ends. During “Civil War” he actually passes information about Captain America to Iron Man, which briefly makes him a target for other criminals. He tries to get his stature back by putting a hit out on Spider-Man and his family, which backfires when Spider-Man shows up in prison and beats him to a pulp.

Karen’s Backstory

In the comics, she’s an only child, but she does have darker and darker side stories. She becomes a drug addict and a prostitute at one point, so I’m curious to see how much the writers reveal of her dark backstory here.

Blackout Cripples NY

This headline appears on a new newspaper clipping on the wall in Karen’s Bulletin office. Now, all of the other clippings were there before the office belonged to her, courtesy of Ben Urich. That means this new headline is likely one of her stories. That story is likely in response to the blackouts that happened all over the world in Agents of SHIELD season four when a hate group was making a statement about Inhumans.

Blake Tower

You all remember Blake Tower, right? He’s been showing up on multiple shows, just like Ben Donovan, Claire Temple, and Turk Barrett.

“Hell’s Kitchen is ground zero for vigilantes…”

Foggy’s not wrong. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage have all been around in the last few years. Iron Fist promised to protect Hell’s Kitchen, but the events of his last season changed things up a bit.

S3E03 “No Good Deed”

Kingpin’s White/Grey/Lavender Penthouse

The color scheme for Wilson Fisk’s room is very reminiscent of his clothing choices in the comics.

The Presidential Hotel

Was it just me who noticed the hotel, combined with the “Lock Fisk up,” the fake news comments, and the fact that the owner was convicted of fraud? I think those are a lot of real world shoutouts right there, and I appreciate every single one of them.

Fisk’s White Suit

Matt might be hallucinating Fisk, but this is Kingpin’s comic book look. It’s perfect.

Millar

I couldn’t make out the second name of the electrical/plumbing company Matt sneaks into the hotel with, but the first in the logo is definitely Millar. Frank Miller is typically the name associated with Daredevil, but I feel like Millar is a shoutout to comic book creator Mark Millar. He’s better known for the Kick-Ass franchise and his work for DC, but he’s also written on some X-Men books, some Fantastic Four, and some Spider-Man, as well as the “Civil War” arc.

Vanessa Hiding In Spain

Vanessa frequently has to hide out in the comics to escape the wrath of Wilson’s enemies. Spain isn’t usually a big spot for her, but Wilson lived there for about a year in the comics before Lady Bullseye caught up with him and sent a bunch of Hand ninjas after him.

Agent Poindexter

He seems to like the nickname Dex and he has a great skillset - never missing his mark. Benjamin Poindexter is the main alias of a villain named Bullseye in the comics, and I don’t think that’s spoiling anything for you since casting rumors and trailers should have done that already. He’s probably Daredevil’s biggest enemy, not Kingpin. So, that’s going to be fun to watch develop.

Matt’s Clothes

Not his vigilante ensemble, which is a callback to him first starting out in season one. His walking around clothes. It looks a lot like how Stick used to dress when he was in New York, huh? Guess Matt is taking cues from his former sensei.

Matt Picking Foggy’s Pocket

Okay, so I realize this is just a means to an end for Matt, but I like to think of it as another connection between Matt and Daisy. Both orphans at St. Agnes (possibly the same one), both steal the ID of someone who meets with them in order to get more info. (In Daisy AKA Skye’s case, it was Mike Peterson in the Agents of SHIELD pilot.)

S3E04 “Blindsided”

District Attorney Foggy Nelson

Foggy was District Attorney of New York City for a while in the comics. He also became Chief of Staff for the mayor for a while too.

The Prison Fight Sequence

Less an Easter egg and more a reminder that Daredevil is known for doing a spectacular single take fight sequence every season. This one, where the cameraman literally just followed Charlie Cox from room to room lasted nearly a crazy 15 minutes. No cuts. That’s impressive.

“We were just being friendly.”

And Karen pulls a gun on some guys up to no good. I feel like she and Jessica Jones need to hang out more. They could just intimidate skeevey guys in alleys for laughs.

Trucks Full Of Chemicals

The FBI agent’s story about her dad hauling chemicals, I think, made a nice nod to the fact that both Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones got their abilities from trucks full of chemicals hitting them in the comics.

Felix Manning

“Felix” has been the name of the person in charge of Vanessa’s location, so I’m going to wager they’re one in the same. He also appears in a whopping two comic books - Daredevil issues 230 and 231. He wanted Melvin Potter, who appeared early in the Netflix series, to make him a duplicate of the Daredevil costume. He was actually killed by a Daredevil imposter. Foreshadowing? We’ll see.

A Taxi To The Water

A version of this happened in “Born Again.” It didn’t get rid of Matt, but it did make him a little more loopy.

S3E05 “The Perfect Game”

Fisk Giving Matt’s Name

There is a story in the comics where Fisk implicates Matt as a vigilante and gets him arrested. The FBI, however, decides not to take the deal with him, and they put Fisk in prison for numerous crimes as well. This clearly isn’t playing out exactly the same way, but, when Matt and Fisk try to break out of prison during a riot, it’s Bullseye who has to save them. I can’t help but wonder if there was a little inspiration there.

Felix Threatens Karen

Again, a little hint of her backstory here. In the comics, she’s also from the New England area. Her father, Paxton Page, who gets namechecked in the threat, actually became a villain named Death’s Head in the comics.

Baseball And Bullseye

Cute that little Dex has a bullseye on his baseball cap in his childhood. Funnily enough, comic book villain Bullseye claims to have attempted to become a major league baseball player, but he got bored pitching a no hitter and threw the ball at the final hitter to kill him in a minor league game. Killing his coach when he pulls him from the game is a bit of a twist on that.

S3E06 “The Devil You Know”

Matt Doesn’t Take Karen’s Coffee

Luke Cage’s “coffee” has ruined he drink for everyone. Karen offering Matt a cup when he comes to her for help, and Matt refusing could be a sign that anything romantic between them is officially over. Or it means nothing. Who knows?

Karen Is Way Too Comfortable In A Drug Den

Karen is around drugs a lot this season. A lot. And it all seems to give a nod to her comic book story, but I feel like we’re inching toward more of her family backstory with just how comfortable she is buying drugs and making her way around other addicts.

“Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll lock me up next to Fisk.”

This did actually happen in the comics, as I’ve mentioned before. It’s a nice nod.

Felix Manning Getting Dex The Suit

Likewise, I also mentioned Felix being the one to get a copy of a Daredevil suit in the comics. Looks like his appearance was some foreshadowing after all.

Dex As Daredevil

Bullseye has actually dressed up as Daredevil in the comics as well. He’s not the only one. So has Foggy.

Karen Between Bullseye And A Victim

If Karen stepping between Dex and the witness gave you pause, it’s probably because you know how she loses her life in the comics. She gets between Bullseye and Matt in a fight, taking a lethal blow to save Matt’s life. This imagery is not going to be fun for Karen fans.

Side note: I’ve never really been a Karen Page fan because the comics put her firmly in the slot of victim. She never really outgrows that no matter who writes for her. But I love her this season. Maybe it’s because we got to see more of Karen being Karen than of trying to fill someone else’s shoes.

S3E07 “Aftermath”

The Hidden Room

Kingpin officially has a supervillain lair. Less of an Easter egg here and more of it being about time.

WJPBTV, WNEX, WHiH, etc

All of the news networks Fisk sees the Bulletin carnage on exist within the MCU already. WJPB is the news station most often seen in Luke Cage. WNEX is the station that aired Trish Talk. WHiH is the one most often seen in the movies. You get the idea.

Melvin Potter

AKA Gladiator in the comics is something of a gentle giant. He kind of fell into a life of crime, which is largely what Daredevil has done with him in the show as well. The shirt he’s wearing when Matt confronts him is a nod to his comic book costume. So are the saw blades. His girlfriend Betsy was, I believe, a social worker in the comics, not a parole officer. (BTW, the comic that features Matt, Fisk, and Bullseye breaking out of prison during a riot? Melvin’s in prison at the same time as well. Matt advises him to stay in his cell so he doesn’t get hurt.)

S3E08 “Upstairs/Downstairs”

Keys

As Karen nears the front door of her apartment, there’s a piece of paper from a legal pad that says “KEYS.” I love that she’s so focused on her work that she has likely forgotten to take her keys with her enough that it warrants a giant reminder.

Fisk’s Plan

His plan, of putting himself in charge of the criminal groups, is essentially what he wanted in season 2 as well when he gave Frank Castle a means to escape prison.

The Maggia

This is the first time the Italian-American version of the mafia has been mentioned in the present day in the MCU. I say present day because it did have its fingers in Agent Carter season two. In the comics, the Maggia gets the ire of quite a few heroes and antiheroes, but most often, the Punisher.

Sister Maggie

Unless you never read anything related to Daredevil at all, you were probably spoiled at some point that Sister Maggie was really Matt’s mom. People started speculating about the reveal being imminent as soon as there was a “get Maggie” at the end of The Defenders. In the comics, the reveal is a little different as Matt already suspected she was his mother before he found out for sure.

Apartment 131

Dex lives in apartment 131. What comic book did Bullseye make his debut in? Daredevil #131.

S3E09 “Revelations”

Kingpin

Wilson Fisk finally officially gets his codename. I like that we’re back to the season one idea of his lackeys not wanting to name him because someone is always watching/listening.

Karen’s Running

In the comics, Karen basically runs whenever things get hard. I’m kind of surprised she stuck things out this long on the show.

Rosalie Carbone

The woman we see Nadeem take in was last spotted in season two of Luke Cage making a play for Harlem. She’s the one with the Maggia connection. The other names we get are Hammond and Star. The only Hammond I know of in Marvel Comics was the original Human Torch. I’ve got nothing for Star, but the other names could have been picked at random. I don’t recognize the other two people at the table either.

S3E10 “Karen”

Karen Selling Drugs

At least this explains why she’s so comfortable in drug dens. I like that this gives us a nod to her comic book tragedy, but here she’s the seller instead of the addict.

Fagan Corners, Vermont

This is where Karen’s from in the comics as well. The name of the fictional town is an homage to Tom Rutland. Rutland organized an annual Halloween parade in Vermont themed around superheroes. He was actually written into Avengers comics in the 1970s.

Penny’s Place

Named for Karen’s mom in the comics, Penelope.

“... two lines away from doing blow jobs on the street for heroin…”

Maybe this isn’t true on the Netflix show, but yes, this happened in the comics.

Bullseye And Daredevil In The Church

Their in-church fight actually happened in the comics when Matt and Karen were hiding a baby in the church. The big difference here is that when Bullseye aimed a fatal blow at Daredevil with his own billy club, Karen got between them and died from her injury. Father Lantom takes the hit for Karen here.

S3E11 “Reunion”

Custos Diaboli

This is inscribed above the gate to get to the basement where Matt and Karen hide out. From the Latin, in translates to Guardian Devil, one of the comic book arcs the series draws from.

KTTA And ZCN

These are two of the networks I could make out on the mics in front of Fisk when he has a press conference outside of the hotel. KTTA is a television station from the comics that frequently reported on the Thunderbolts. ZCN already exists in the Netflix universe. They offered Trish Walker a job in the second season of Jessica Jones.

Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys At Law

Leave it to Foggy to formally name them as they were named in the comics (and the first season of the show).

Side note: I love the Holocaust survivor standing up to Fisk and refusing to give him her family’s painting. It very much reminds me of the scene in The Avengers when Loki demands everyone kneel, but one man reminds the crowd, “there are always men like you,” and refuses. It’s a great reminder that so many comic book creators, during an era when comics flourished, were Jewish, and their relatives were being persecuted and killed half a world away.

S3E12 “One Last Shot”

Vanessa Embracing The Kingpin

Not a lot of Easter eggs in this episode that I noticed, but I thought it was important to point out that in the normal timeline of the comics, Vanessa isn’t a part of Wilson’s criminal undertakings. In alternate timelines though, she’s the Kingpin herself. Her embracing his work and wanting to be a part of it feels like the writers are trying to find some middle ground there.

Side note: Some fans pointed out on twitter that the Morales vs Parker poster in Fogwell’s Gym is a nod to the Spider-Man characters of Marvel Comics. I find that unlikely only because there are plenty of boxers who have shared those names. It’s more likely a coincidence, especially since most of the names in previous seasons were nod to production team members and writers.

S3E13 “A New Napkin”

The Rose

Interesting that Vanessa specifies Fisk should pick the rose. Why? In the comics, Fisk’s son Richard became a vigilante who used the name the Rose. In fact, he wanted to overthrow his father at one point. His mother was the one who killed him. Will Vanessa become the Rose instead? It would be a nice touch.

The Crystals Bounce Off Fisk’s Suit Jacket

In the comics, Fisk actually wears kevlar under his suits to prevent any of his enemies from surprising him with bullets or knives. In the first season, his body armor that he was wearing were designed by Melvin Potter and he wore them under his suits. It seems he might have gotten an upgrade as everything just bounces off of it instead of tearing it, and he gives his jacket to Vanessa to prevent her being hit by anything.

Karen’s More Stable Than Jessica Jones

There are probably a lot of people more stable than Jessica Jones, Matt, jeez. That doesn’t mean she’s not a great detective.

Dex’s Injury And Cognium

In the comics, Bullseye did some time paralyzed. Of course, like all comic book characters, it didn’t last forever. Something else Dex had in the comics? A spine laced with adamantium. Yep, the same stuff on Wolverine’s bones. It’s what made him so indestructible. The MCU probably can’t use it since it’s reserved for the X-Men movies. At least not until everything about the Disney-FOX deal is official.

Dr. Oyama

This doc goes by another name in the comics. Kenji Oyama is Lord Dark Wind. This is the comic book doctor who found a way to make adamantium bond to bone. Wolverine and Bullseye have him to think for their bone structure.

Dex’s Eye

That final shot of Dex’s eye makes what we’ve all been waiting for clear. Dex is definitely officially Bullseye now.

Side note: The milk crates in the freezer with the bodies that have ice all over them? Must have been there for years. I’ve got milk crates used to store product in my freezer at work, and they never build up frost. And our freezer is kept far below zero. Also? I love how much Rosalie Carbone appreciates theatrics. And how Vanessa just wanders around in the background after Fisk repeatedly tells her to leave while there’s a huge fight going on. That’s all.

#daredevil #daredevil season 3 #daredevil spoilers #easter eggs #marvel comics

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orrtala · 7 years

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The relationships between the cast

Post S1 analysis

Yeah, it’s long again. Under the cut you go!

Wander & Sylvia

(a.k.a. these to make me emotional)

Man, these two…

Wander and Sylvia's friendship was, is, and will be a heart of the show. They compliment each other, they need each other, they make a great pair.

This season we've learned how did they meet – Sylvia used to be a bounty hunter and a furry orange weirdo was her latest mark. Who put a bounty on his head? Why? And how was he named on the wanted poster anyway? Yeah, the biggest S2 plot twist was revelation that Sylvia was the one who gave Wander his name. That's sweet, unexpected, and absolutely fits them.

Their friendship is so strong it didn't actually take any big hits? Wander messes up things and Sylvia's upset, sure, but reassures him that understanding that is a first step to make things right. Wander splits up into hundreds of personalities and Sylvia makes sure that every single one goes back to the original Spoon. Even in case of the erased duo from "The Waste of Time" after spending 50 years stuck in one place they just reaffirm their friendship by hugging each other and exchanging goobyes while disappearing. In "The Matchmaker" Wander pretty much says that their friendship is the biggest treasure they have and they both know it.

There is a case of Wander's immortality. Or longevity, who knows. Not only Sylvia will die beofre him, but it's also implied he had friends, travel partners like her before. And probably will continue to to have those in future. But there's also a fact that writers decided to show us this period in his life and, well, not to undermine the other travel buddies, but Sylvia must be really, really special for Wander compared to others.

Apart from maybe learning more about their past together I imagine they'd continue a trend of being the best friends this galaxy has ever seen. And that's all I could ask for, really.

Wander & Hater

(a.k.a. “Reforming a villain” w.i.p.)

The season starts with a reveal that Hater fell down from his position as 'the greatest in the galaxy', mainly thanks to Wander; our resident villain has problems with ignoring furry weirdo who constantly plays on his nerves and is distracted enough to forget his evil overlord duties. Even Dominator seems not be enough when you can marry destroy your happy-go-lucky nemesis or play a game of tag.

In "The Fremergency Fronfract" Hater gets zapped and doesn't really remember who he is and with Wander spends the whole day playing, having fun, and, later, at loopy!Hater's request, performing good deeds. And Wander doesn't want to let go of his new friend! He considers zapping him again and again, just so they could stay like that! That's… messed up and Spoon acknowledges that, letting Hater go. Though not without shedding some tears here and there. It was pretty important episode for both of them, though mostly to Wander; I bet Hater put an entire blame on the dentists regarding his behaviour. The ring left behind serves as a nice metaphor; Wander didn't get what he truly wanted (Hater's friendship) and was left with a cheap prize, which also serves as a symbol of hope that things will eventually get better.

Hater is actively afraid of Wander, because he thinks the furry weirdo may succeed. And, since he thinks of himself as an evil being, he sees is it as brainwashing. Which is not the case, although when you remind yourself of what Wander almost did in "The Fremergancy Fronfract" this line of thinking is not without its reasons.

Wander continues his quest on getting Hater reformed – this time he decided use power of luuuuuv. He does succeed, partially. Skeleton man does fall for Dom, reveals his softer side, is willing to admit somebody else is better than him and learns some empathy. Hater's on his way to be a good guy thanks to Wander.

In the middle of the crush mess they find a common ground. And, well, while they did work on wrong assumptions it was a common ground nonetheless. In "My Fair Hatey" Hater asked Wander specifically for help. …Mostly because he was the only one who cheered him on, but it was a big moment for them.

Of course I have to mention "The Hole…Lotta Nuthin'" too. Hater is mean, obnoxious and downright cruel to Wander (though he does stop himself before making him cry). Hater loves to be mean, to bully others and he finally got his chance to do it with Wander, of course he wasn't going to pass that opportunity. One of the reasons why he claims to hate our hero is that Wander easily presses on all his buttons, and there's not much that phases him.

Near the end Hater doesn't seem to hate Wander that much, but is still unwilling to be a good guy. He'll get there. Sometime in a future. And they will become friends.

He did save his life after all.

Hater & Sylvia

(a.k.a. I’m pretty sure this ^ ^ is the only scene they were alone on the screen in S2, give me more)

Sadly not much to talk about here. Hater and Sylvia barely interacted and the only one-on-one I can recall was in the finale, when our favorite zbornak started screaming: "Hate's Great, Best Villain" to help him fight Dom back and save the last planet in the galaxy. It was still pretty important moment; at this point Sylvia treated Hater as an ally, as a friend in who she recognized the need to be validated. And, well, he did save her life when stopping the drill before it could destroy the planet, so there's that.

Aside from that there was always Peepers and/or Wander nearby. Let's hope they'll get some more scenes together alone in the future.

Peepers & Hater

(a.k.a. we’re each others’ means to an end but also kind of friends)

Ah,these two. These two came a loooooong way since S1.

They took me by surprise. I honestly expected them to split up, to Peepers start working for Dominator, to them becoming enemies with each other. And, well, I wasn't that far from the truth, it seems. But what happened is that they repaired their relationship to the point of becoming friends. Sort of.

And all that thanks to Wander.

After falling down from the #1 spot on the leaderboard Peepers is exasperated with Hater and tries to get him back on the top. He's not afraid to speak up anymore, he's sassy, he's complaining. Which leads him to being fired.

Commander acknowledged that he wasn't able to conquer the galaxy on his own a long time ago, and settled down with helping Hater to acieve this goal. Hater in turn needed to learn he was not going to be an evil overlord for too long without watchdog's help. "The Axe" also showed us, through Peepers' flashbacks, that they did have fun together in the past, though it clearly meant much more to Commander than the Lord. In the end everything works out when Hater gets Peepers to come back to him and the little Commander even gets a statue of himself. Which was completely unprompted action on skeleton man's part; he already got his Commander back.

Also they seem to have a bone pool on the skullship what the flarp.

In "The It" Hater proves he's very much incompetent leader when Wander's involved and Peepers learns there will be more times he'll have to put his boss aside more when it comes to conquering, letting him only focus on intimidation part. And that's only sometimes.

Since presenting plans his way is boring to Hater, they… start to play with figurines. But they get to spend more time together! Having fun! It's all fine and dandy until Awesome shows up. What's interesting that through the entire "The Cool Guy" Hater tries to get Peepers to have fun with him and Emperor Awesome, only to constantly be dissuaded by shark man himself. But he doesn't stop and at the end wants them both watch the invasion together prepared by Commander. And he believes it's going to work, it's Peepers who planned after all, with figurines and all! Peepers gets more and more worried and angry during the episode, until the invasion time comes and he's willing to lead it by himself, out loud acknowledging and mocking Hater's true dreams. So it's interesting to watch that while Hater was the mean guy on surface, with escaping with Awesome and whatnot, it's Peepers who's ready to commit a treason. Still, we get to see Hater caring about his Commander and everyone's happy. Maybe besides Awesome, who still have to pick up all his fishbones after the beating Hater gave him.

While in "The Rager" Hater's shown to be listening to Peepers with only mild complaining, we get a really shocking image of skeleton man hitting his Commander in "The Good Bad Guy". It's weird, since it wasn't that surprising to see such scene in S1, but at this point? Hater, no, what are you doing, you're being… friend-ish with each other, don't.

The Hater's crush arc begins and Peepers is done. He worked hard to get Hater working with him despite constant distractions, and even got him on second place on the leaderboard, but this is too much. He becomes more and more exasperated, finally snapping and fighting his boss back for the Hat in "The Bad Hatter". Everything gets back to normal afterwards, but that was yet another moment that perhaps was foreshadowing for Peepers' future betrayal?

Still, as the season went, it really showed both of them went a long way and their relationship evolved for better despite the setbacks. And partly thanks to them.

…Although I am pretty sure there is supposed to be a treason/betrayal arc for Peepers in S3. But Hater could be the one to get him out of it, given their relationship.

Peepers & Sylvia

(a.k.a. welcome to frenemies paradise)

I mentioned already that while this relationship is important to both of them, it's more important to Peeeprs than Sylvia. For zbornak Commander is a bad guy with who, to her surprise, she found a common ground with. She's willing to work with him (not without complaining, of course,) especially when it comes to bringing down Dominator.

Peepers meanwhile doesn't really have anyone he could see on the same level (metaphorically, of course; I'm not sure Commander could find anyone who'd be able to look straight into his eye without bending, hehe). Hater, while on friendly-ish terms with him, is still his boss. He doesn't care about other villains personally, they're just obstacles on his way to becoming #1 once again. He doesn't want to associate himseld with other watcdogs aside from them being soldiers in his army. He wishes he and Hater could go on by ignoring Wander.

And then there's Sylvia, who's similiar to him, a person who can empathize with him.

Through "The Show Stopper" they work together, trying to dissuade Hater's crush on Dom, and even succeed. Not without bickering and showing a slight disgust with each other, but they are on their way on becoming frenemies.

In "My Fair Hatey" Peepers gets Sylvia's help and they both are working together on beating Dominator while 'their idiots' are busy wooing her. They show they can work great together, and have at that!

Also they sing together and it's great.

In "The End of the Galaxy" near the end Peepers and watchdogs save Sylvia's life and my skin is clear.

These two are very interesting cause back in S1 they barely interacted with each other. Then S2 happened and look at them, fighting together back to back, taking matters in their hands, singing duets. Being frenemies.

Also if there were any plans on making canon pairings in a future? These two have the biggest shot.

Peepers & Wander

(a.k.a. still main conflict of the show, but even fewer interactions)

I wish I had something more to say, but.

I talked in post S1 analysis why I think they don't interact much. Peepers would gladly ignore Wander while Wander kind of underestimates Peepers. And yet they still represent the main conflict of the show: getting Hater on a good/bad side.

But. They had few small interactions. Commander was willing to use wandering weirdo to stop Hater's long performance, sadly it backfired.

And there was this conversation in "The Robomechabotatron". And it was great! I loved how they adressed their conflict under the guise of titular robot. Though Hater's reaction made it less subtle than they meant it to be.

I'm hoping for more interactions in future though. They are bound to be interesting, especially if my theory about C-Peeps trying to be villain on his own would become true.

Main Four

(a.k.a. teamwork is important but one of them can’t do teamwork stuff)

These guys were shown more and more together, mostly in four main episodes and "The Robomechabotatron".

At the beginning they were only running into each other and then escaped Dom's ship together. Then they were fighting each other, but circumstances made Peepers and Sylvia team up to save Wander and Hater on multiple occasions ("The Battle Royale", "The Show Stopper", "My Fair Hatey") while 'their idiots' were busy fooling around to get Dom's attention. They escaped Dominator's ship yet again, everyone had their part in the plan. In the last episode the three of them worked together on the planet, while Wander was up in Dom's ship, also playing his part.

And then there's "The Robomechabotatron". Wander wants them to all work together. Everyone else refuses. Peepers and Hater are later willing to team up after learning they need four pilots. Sylvia refuses. The three of them fight, but Wander's here to save the day and makes them reconsider their actions.

They team up, get into the robot, ready to fight Dom and- Actually no, because Wander ruins everything. Ah, the irony. And he doesn't even acknowledge it.

On the surface "The Robomechabotatron" is a story about main four not being good enough to work together yet and they are set up for teamwork for future. And it is partially that. But the bigger problem here?

Wander is bad at teamwork.

Yeah, the guy who wants everyone to work together, who wants everyone to get along, who loves working with others… As long as he's in charge and no one tells him what to do. Remember, there is a mischevious/contrary Wander after all. He has his own ideas and ethics and it's fine, but maybe he should have let them know about his priorites before starting anything. Everyone else were ready to fight Dom, but Wander ruined everything.

And I'm really, really curious how they'd go with that in S3.

Dominator & Hater

(a.k.a. a crush that unsurprisingly went nowhere)

I remember how at the beginning of "The Search for Captain Tim" Hater entered his room wailing how much he hates that Dominator guy, because he's so cool. Then he cried how much he likes her because she's so cool. Then he was complaining about lack of taquitos, because wow, yeah, totally over Dom, not that he's distracting himself or anything. And I guess he actually likes taquitos.

And that's pretty much Hater's side of things. At the beginning he hated the guy, but also admired him in a way, about cool he was and was jelaous about that. Plus he did steal his image, so there was also a thing to be mad about.

But near the end of "The Battle Royale" Dominator lost her helmet and he – figuratively and literally – fell for her. Hard. And then tried to impress her and ask her out. Again, again, and again, failing each time.

It culminated in "My Fair Hatey", where Hater did the whole musical gig for her, which backfired completely and both he and Wander were almost destroyed by his lady love. Thanks to that experience he was afraid of her and felt humiliated enough to not actually fight back until the season finale, but he also gained some character development.

On Dom's side? She didn't care about the guy. Upon seeing he was sweet on her she used that against him twice, but otherwise didn't give him much thought. He was just another villain who yet had to bow down before her like everyone else. Though breaking his heart was a nice bonus, I suppose.

In the end she underestimated him, though she did fight back with words, taking jabs at his insecurities. Power of love and friendship saved the day, Dom lost and… Was ultimately saved wy Wander and Hater.

Dominator & Wander

(a.k.a. the same yet so different)

They're crazy. They're energetic. They love what they're doing. They wear sneakers. They… didn't really interact until finale.

Yeah, really. In "The Greater Hater" while Wander tried to engage newcomer into conversation, Dom didn't react, which made our furry hero mad. In "The Battle Royale" Wander got a glimpse at dancing Dominator without her armor and tried to set her up with Hater. Again, he was talking to her, while she ignored him. In "My Fair Hatey" he didn't say a word to her, leaving singing to Hater. It's Dom who spoke to him, to make fun of him and inform him about his inevitable demise.

Well, there was a small moment in "The Flower", where she tormented both him and Syl and he wished her gesundheit twice, but I'm not sure if it counts in grand scheme of things.

In "The End of the Galaxy" Wander finally confronts Dom. "Hey, you're not letting your bots destroy me!" "Yeah, because I want to destroy you." "Why are you like this?" "Yeah, I know I'm great."

Through the series Wander believes that love will save Dom just like it's going to save Hater. Problem is, Dominator loves what she's doing. She's not a pragmatic villain. She just destroys everything for fun. She makes everyone miserable for fun. How do you fight love with love?

After revealing the last planet's existence Dom torments Wander even more, almost destroying Sylvia and the whole planet, if it wasn't for Hater's intervention. Skeleton man fights her back and once and for all destroys her whole ship using her drill, which trapped her inside, causing her to have breakdown.

And then Wander finally gets the problem: Dom's lonely. She's stuck, tries to answer, then doesn't want to listen to him yet does it anyway, which only amplifies her breakdown. Wander (along with Hater) saves her life and she can not comprehend that. "Didn't I try to destroy you?" "You sure did! But we can begin anew!" Of course she refuses, it's way too early to talk about redemption of any kind for her.

It's curious how much alike they are, yet how much their worldviews seperate them. They are each others' foils, the light and dark reflections in a mirror. One wants to help everyone and be kind, while other thrives on pain and suffering. Dominator wanted to make him helpless, but in the end it was Dominator who was proved wrong. And she swore revenge if only for that. I guess that in the future she'll be set on making him suffer by proving him wrong, make him question his moralities and actions. Well, she and new villains that is.

Peepers & Dominator

(a.k.a. let them interact for flarp’s sake)

Boy, do I wish these two interacted more. Aren't they like the two most evil people on the show?

From Peepers' side he wishes Dom would never appear in his galaxy, she only caused trouble. First by being #1 on the leaderboard, destroying every planet in sight, and then he had to deal with Hater's crush on her. He treated it rather personally, and tried to defeat her by using frostonium on her ship, which, sadly, backfired.

Dominator in turn was definitely unnerved by his actions in the season premiere and musical, but ultimately? She probably didn't remember his name. Maybe just associated him with the rest of the idiots at best.

*bangs fists on the table* Give! Me! Peepers! And! Dominator! Interacting! In! Season! Three!

Dominator & Sylvia

(a.k.a. I hanged out with WHO?!)

These two definitely had fun in "The Night Out". Sylvia couldn't recognize Dom, she didn't really got to meet her, only saw without armor her from far, far away back in "The Battle Royale" and the villainess decided to use it. And… they had fun. They had actual fun together.

Dom didn't even had to pretend that much, she was only not destroying everything entirely, but still got to trash the whole bar. Meanwhile Sylvia was glad she got a moment free from good-doing. And tried to impress 'D' by being a bad girl for a night.

Of course everything came to a screeching halt when Dom's tendencies came out and Sylvia put her foot down. Dominator left still not understaning what friendship is all about and Syl had to deal with knowledge she spend the whole night with the omnicidal maniac.

What's interesting about it is that both of them had fun, Sylvia called 'D' her friend, and Dom did propose Syl an alliance where they would rule together. …Well, kind of, I imagine when it comes to Dominator's understanding of partnership she'd expect the other to listen to her all the time. But, hey, it was something.

Although Dom definitely tried to forget about the whole thing, if her words in "The Flower" are any indication. Still, I imagine that in the future the matter of them bonding would be adressed.

#wander over yonder #woy #savewoy #lord dominator #commander peepers #not liveblogging #orr blogging #non episode #wander #sylvia #lord hater #character analysis #sfw

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batterymonster2021 · 5 years

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Real Lawyer Reacts to Better Call Saul (Episode 1)

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/real-lawyer-reacts-to-better-call-saul-episode-1-2/

Real Lawyer Reacts to Better Call Saul (Episode 1)

Oh no what are they doing oh no oh my god oh no all right this is a ultimate illustration of typically the proof just speaks for itself that is this is awful and hilarious hi there legal eagles D James Stone right here teaching you how to think like a lawyer today we’re gonna evaluate higher call Saul episode 1 this is fairly interesting for me for the reason that I cherished Breaking bad and the persona of Saul Goodman was notably good seeing that he gave such excellent legal advice of direction it was once legal advice in the context of a drug-dealing psychopath however nonetheless good legal advice nonetheless be definite to love and subscribe to be certain that you just certainly not fail to see a future attorney reacts and of direction be certain to depart your feedback in the form of an objection i will either overrule or preserve your objections situated on their legal advantage and of direction stay except the top once I provide better call Saul episode 1 a grade for authorized realism so with out further ado let’s dig correct in – better call Saul episode 1 it is on decide would use this voice god that’s exactly what courtroom bathrooms look like they are just out of the final century they’ve obtained these bizarre push-up soap dispensers just horribly dirty k that is uh this seems beautiful accurate up to now and that’s so funny since attorneys quite do follow their opening and closing statements within the lavatory earlier than they go into court docket that is traditionally where you can in finding most trial attorneys when courtroom is set to start all proper he gave himself a pep speak oh to be 19 again k that you could never just storm in to the core of the well the area between guidance table and the decide it does look like there is a prior relationship here between the decide and Saul Goodman considering that the decide sent the bailiff into the lavatory to get him i’m guessing the choose has interacted with Saul frequently earlier than so he’s giving him some leeway however you cannot simply burst in there like that however it seems like he can have had prior permission to do that so we will keep observing k but if you are being sincere I imply fairly sincere you’ll be able to keep in mind that you additionally had an underdeveloped nineteen 12 months old brain me in my opinion I if I were held liable for one of the crucial stupid decisions I made when I used to be 19 oh wow and i bet if we have been in church correct now you get a gigantic Amen that is particularly just right what Saul Goodman is doing is he’s making himself seem personable your credibility is everything when you are in entrance of the jury so you want to make it seem like you’re a relatable man or woman you’re just an additional member of the jury so he’s doing a first-class job of seeming self-deprecating and forming an emotional connection with this jury on this what looks like a closing argument so up to now excellent which brings us to those three now these three knuckleheads and i’m sorry boys however that is what you’re they did a dumb factor that’s also particularly good if in case you have unhealthy facts you have got to get ahead of them to front run them and to exhibit that you are conscious of those bad tips however to downplay them and to exhibit that they don’t seem to be dispositive to your case so i love what he is achieved he’s simply making his own consumers appear personable they are younger they’re knuckleheads as he put it he’s making them appear relatable but in addition displaying that they have made mistake and looking to get forward of anything unhealthy tips are towards his case it’s thus far beautiful just right truth one no person obtained harm no longer a soul very most important to maintain that in intellect truth 2 now the prosecution keeps bandying this term crook trespass mr.Spenalzo the property proprietor admitted to us that he maintains most parts of his industry open to the public both day and night time so trespassing it can be little bit of a attain do you feel they’ve oh man I particularly like this as good maintain in mind that a trial can go on for days and generally weeks so there are thousands if now not 1000’s of tips dozens of people testifying a trial is an awfully difficult factor so what Saul Goodman has carried out right here is reminded the jury of two and simplest two information in view that a trial is quite relatively tricky and he just wishes them to focal point on two matters which might be primarily good for his case so he elements out that nobody got damage which is also foremost from a legal point of view in that probably the most elements of something crime they may be being charged with could also be triggered by using bodily harm but extra importantly it indicates on an emotional degree that there’s no need for the jury to punish these boys for the reason that nobody was harm so it dovetails on the emotional and then the 2d thing that he specializes in is the authorized requirement for crook trespass now not being made if the property owner offers consent to any individual getting into their property then these boys can not be guilty of the crime of criminal trespass so he is specializing in the one hand on the emotional set off that nobody was once damage and also on the legal trigger that the detail of crook trespass is not met so out of all of the matters that the jury learned in trial he specializes in these two salient features which might be both good for his case and i consider that that is a very smart way of going about your closing argument here’s what i do know these three young guys near honors pupils all clear honors feliz erodes one Saturday night time and they just a little bananas I don’t know call me loopy but i don’t consider they should have their brilliant Futures ruined by means of a momentary minut not ever to be repeated lapse of judgment an additional excellent emotion Lemoine you are bigger than that that is particularly just right there are two rhetorical contraptions that Saul Goodman is utilising here to first-class outcomes the first is that he’s referring to the dramaturgical so he’s putting the jury up on a stage showing them that men and women are observing and quantity two he’s ascribing the values that he wants to the jury he’s pronouncing that they are better than that hoping that they’ll rise to the attribute that he’s already ascribed to them so these are two killer persuasive approaches that Saul Goodman has used right here oh god what have they completed oh no he’s just gonna show a video so on account that that is closing argument all of the evidence has already are available so the prosecutor would not ought to lay any basis all of that has already been centered for the duration of the course of the trial and the decide has already accepted or denied the entire reveals together with god most effective is aware of what is going on to be on this videotape oh no oh my god oh no all right this can be a superb illustration of often the evidence simply speaks for itself in Latin that is the phrase race if loquitur the article speaks for itself and albeit commonly it doesn’t require any authorized argument you simply show the article itself and that is bad sufficient usually you do not must gild the lily or pound the rubble it can be just unhealthy adequate as it’s and if I used to be the prosecutor on this precise case I typically would have carried out the equal factor simply exhibit the tape let it speaks for itself and let the jury come to a decision this does not need any argument at all that is this is terrible aunt hilarious how type of math is that seven hundred per security no no defendant dint three defendants 2,a hundred which incidentally cut price what I did for them they going to detention center Langer sausage what does that subject so i assume in this case Saul is a public defender as you may know there are two varieties of government attorneys in this context there are the prosecutors who’re employed through the state to absolutely prosecute those alleged of crimes and then there are also public defenders who furnish a safety to those that cannot manage to pay for one it goes again to the Nineteen Sixties to a Supreme court case called Gideon versus Wainwright which held that below the sixth amendments defense to a trial defendants were required to have an legal professional on the grounds that in the event that they did not have an lawyer the correct to an impartial trial would certainly not be upheld due to the fact it could be inherently unfair so under Supreme courtroom precedent should you cannot have enough money an legal professional you are offered a public defender now that most effective applies in the crook context it does not apply within the civil context if you are sued civilly you are clearly in your possess and that’s the place attorneys like me a civil lawyer are available and we retailer your publisher 1st baron verulam that you can tell me what this twenty six thousand purported to be for that’s cash for Chuck is not that what you desired a measly 26 grand Jesus you are like Peter Minuit with the Indians throw in some beads and shells even as you are at it it’s only a start there’ll be extra until you are gonna just tear all of them up and why was it made out to me why now not Chuck so he in my opinion informed you that it can be his wish to withdraw from the organization see that will surprise me it’s been close to a yr considering he set foot in here k so one of the vital factors that Jimmy won’t need to money this assess or have his purchaser cash this examine is that there’s a doctrine in most jurisdictions that says that despite the fact that you wouldn’t have a written contract an express contract that is spelled out and has all of the phrases that you would be able to mostly enter into a contract by means of your conduct so I suppose he’s worried about the concept that if he cashes this examine he may tacitly comply with the terms of this settlement with this other regulation company and for this reason provide them the deal that they need which isn’t a deal that Jimmy or his purchaser wishes so I believe he’s involved about forming a agreement contract by using his own habits however i suppose we are going to see six hundred thirty bucks is that for one fall to two falls in in the future even at your age that is gotta hurt authentic that proper well I received a job for you that’s two grand sounding too grand for one hit one hit plus you get to be taught from the pleasant k I commonly do not must tell you how unethical it is for an attorney to move out and pay men and women to fake an damage and truly defraud some negative victim however let’s talk about one of the crucial nuances right here in the event that they had been to head forward with this plan they might be carrying out fraud and would be responsible for civil and probably criminal fraud now on top of that they would now not be in a position to get compensation for something accidents that they have of path fraud creates an affirmative security to the sort of allegations that they might wish to create however extra fundamentally they lack what’s known as standing in the usprocedure in order to go forward with a civil fit your needs have got to have standing you ought to exhibit that you have suffered an injury and while you deliberately have interaction on this type of habits you negate the style of staining that would provide upward push to an harm so not simplest will they no longer be able to get compensation for the reason that they have defrauded any one however in addition they lack the underlying factors of the the civil go well with that lacks standing and so they lack in actionable harm so if they ever get caught this is not a excellent thing for them all right ok that used to be the primary episode of higher name Saul and it did not disappoint I rather look forward to reviewing future episodes of this sequence it can be satisfactory but now it is time to give better name Saul a grade for legal realism so let’s believe about this good now we have sensible depictions of the monotony of courtroom life we have now some rather just right arguments being made looking to attraction to the jury’s emotional state we now have significant firm attorneys being jerks we have now the unglamorous lifetime of an legal professional who is simply trying to make ends meet and we now have literal ambulance chasers who’re throwing themselves in entrance of automobiles all in all we have now a practical depiction of numerous the parts that go into a lawyer’s lifestyles that rarely get any monitor time with simplest minimal dramatic license so i’m giving better call Saul episode 1 and a – for authorized realism good finished so hit that belt to be notified of my subsequent reaction and examine out this playlist I put together that entails all of my prior reactions together with my response to suits the good spouse and lots of others so click on on that playlist and i will see you in courtroom

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airoasis · 5 years

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Real Lawyer Reacts to Better Call Saul (Episode 1)

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/real-lawyer-reacts-to-better-call-saul-episode-1-2/

Real Lawyer Reacts to Better Call Saul (Episode 1)

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Every week, critic at large Todd VanDerWerff and culture writer Karen Han get together to discuss the latest episode of NBC’s loopy comedy The Good Place. This week, they’re discussing the fifth episode of the third season, “Jeremy Bearimy.” (Because the first two episodes aired as one installment, the number of episodes is one ahead of the number of weeks the show has aired.) Spoilers follow! Proceed with caution if you haven’t seen the episode!

Karen Han: I can see clearly now, the rain is gone! And by “rain,” I mean Chidi’s shirt. Okay, so “Jeremy Bearimy” still kind of feels like a transitional episode of The Good Place — out of the ethical frying pan and into the fire — but it also feels like more of a return to form for the show, and more importantly, everything that happened in the first few episodes of season three now makes sense. Getting to this point might have been a little circuitous, but I think it was worth it!

As it turns out, The Good Place cast’s recent adventures on Earth have been a way for the show to kick off a brand new experiment with a brand new set of stakes. After being caught scheming in front of an interdimensional portal, Michael and Janet are forced to come clean to Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason about what’s going on, and the result is somewhat devastating: Now that our core four know the truth about the Good Place, none of the good things they do from here on out count toward them getting into it. Indeed, the mere fact that they know, with certainty, that it exists means they can never get in. Nothing means anything anymore.

The resulting revelations and existential crises that define “Jeremy Bearimy” are perfectly tailored to each of The Good Place’s human characters; Chidi, for example, literally loses his shirt as his typical hand-wringing over the moral implications of any given situation is suddenly rendered irrelevant. (Remember in season one’s “Chidi’s Choice” when Eleanor said Chidi is “surprisingly jacked?” She was not joking; the dude is swole!) Meanwhile, Tahani literally starts throwing money around.

The Good Place’s explicit explanation of the gang’s different philosophical viewpoints is kind of beautiful, even if it is a little heavy-handed. It’s also necessary grounding for the way the show seems to be about to buck its central mechanic, now that Good Place/Bad Place points are kaput. While the show isn’t doing something radically new, it does seem to be evolving in accordance with its exploration of philosophy. The points were never the point, no pun intended, and we — and the characters — understand that now.

That said, I’m not sure how Larry Hemsworth figures into the equation (Larry, I’m sorry for the things I said about you last week), or how The Good Place is going to move forward with regard to its plot. Will there be more additions to the gang? How will their new mission to help others be good affect their own moral journeys? These questions have as much potential to flip the script as to stymie the show’s progress. I think I understand where it’s going morally and ethically, but I won’t pretend I can see much further. Not that I’m complaining — unpredictability is a big part of The Good Place’s charm.

All in all, I think “Jeremy Bearimy” is solid, and an overall improvement on the preceding episodes if also inextricably built upon them. Todd, did it do anything to boost your confidence as to the direction of season three?

Jason and Tahani try just giving some money away. NBC

Todd VanDerWerff: This episode didn’t just have to reboot the entire season. To some degree, it had to reboot the entire show. And you know what? I thought it did a darn good job.

After the third season’s first few installments spent a lot of time getting everybody into the same room at the same place and time, it was almost a relief to have the ensemble cast bouncing off of each other all at once, like it was vintage The Good Place season two again or something.

“Jeremy Bearimy” is named for, uh, the way that time passes in the afterlife, a weird squiggle of a timeline that resembles the name in the title (just go with it). But where the episode really succeeds is in finding a way to get back to The Good Place’s most basic question of all: How do you be a good person? And, really, why try to be good at all?

Shifting the action of the show to Earth was always meant to give these questions more concrete stakes, I suspect. While I never wanted to see Eleanor and Chidi and Tahani and Jason end up in “The Bad Place,” the threat didn’t quite have real teeth. In theory, however, there’s more to lose on this earthly plane, provided the show can find a way to finagle it. And what’s smart about “Jeremy” is the way it contorts itself to lean as far into those stakes as possible. Now, the characters can’t get into the Good Place. So what’s the point of ever trying to do good?

Well, goodness can be its own reward, the episode argues, and while I’m sure this latest development will somehow be undone in a few weeks, I don’t mind the idea of following these characters around while they try to do good things and eat some of Jason’s delicious bag of tacos.

The underlying theme of The Good Place, I think, is that any sort of rigid system designed to provide absolute morality barometers is inevitably going to fail, because humans aren’t great at rigidity. Season three has perhaps bitten off more than it can chew a few times in that regard, but it’s at least wrestling with the idea that these questions are no longer just theoretical. They have real-world applications beyond the question of where you go after you die.

Also, there is no way the Jeremy Bearimy timeline doesn’t come back into play before this season is up, perhaps as a loophole for whatever corner the characters are currently backed into. (Remember: The dot on the I is Tuesdays. Also July. Also never.)

Maybe Chidi hasn’t figured that out yet, actually. NBC

Karen: Jeremy Bearimy is definitely coming back — and I think the characters’ core traits are, as well. Eleanor and company have definitely changed since they first died, but as we see in this episode, they’re not so far along in their moral development — or rather, they’re still mostly the same people that they were when we first met them.

It’s a nice reminder that this kind of moral change is incremental; it doesn’t suddenly happen overnight. That said, everyone has evolved a little bit. Eleanor is quick to return to her previous self-identified status as a trash bag (she really takes that bartender to task), but she’s emotionally vulnerable to the significance of a child’s drawing to a father, even after having to go out of her way to get it to him. And Tahani, though still tethered to her enormous fortune, has a better handle on what to do with it (and true altruism in general) thanks to Jason.

This episode also serves as a welcome reminder of just how not-human Michael is. His line about humans being goo and juice is hysterical, as is his insistence that their best course of action might be for him to kill them all. Granted, he’s trying to use his demonic powers for good, now, but he still has a little ways to go when it comes to understanding how people work.

And, not to take this discussion in a Jeremy Bearimy direction, but the revelation of Jeremy Bearimy is also kind of a reminder of just how wonderfully nutty this show can be — the episode comes close to being the platonic ideal of a Good Place episode, in that it’s chock full of philosophy with a side of supernatural strangeness. Again, the fact that all the action is now taking place on Earth is a bit of a restriction, but Michael and Janet’s explanation of Jeremy Bearimy alone is enough of a reminder of the fact that we’ve literally been through Heaven and Hell to get to this point. (I think it comes back to what you were saying above about rigidity, in that the rigidity of any given setting on the show has eventually been broken in order for the story to progress.)

It’s encouraging that being on Earth hasn’t put much of a damper on the proceedings, because it feels a lot like what comes next will also be Earth-bound — and, speaking to one of our biggest concerns from last week’s episode — it seems as though all of the characters will be sticking together for the foreseeable future.

Todd: If there’s something I most appreciated about this episode, it was the ending, which outlined the major schools of moral philosophy, in brief, before Chidi concluded that only nihilism mattered, which he illustrated by making marshmallow and candy chili. (You do you, Chidi.) I’m always impressed with how The Good Place can boil down these major ideas into a few simple sentences, which we understand better because the show itself has found a way to dramatize them.

But the paradox of “Jeremy Bearimy” is the way that it depicts what true altruism might look like. Eleanor and the gang have no reason to do good. There’s no reward for them, beyond the nice feeling they might get when they help somebody out, or just give someone $5,000 (Australian).

They’re just doing what they know is right, because it might provide them with a short-term boost of good feeling and general warmth toward their fellow human beings. But, as anybody could tell you, that feeling wears off, and the world is full of ways to convince you to think more about yourself than those around you.

This is what still makes me ride or die for The Good Place, no matter what weird tangents it takes that I don’t always enjoy. The show has found a way to be didactic — to have old fashioned morals — without really feeling like it’s preaching. I didn’t quite realize how the show was outlining ideas about deontology and consequentialism and so on until it hammered the point home in Chidi’s lecture. I was being made to think about my larger place in the universe, while also laughing at some very silly jokes. And that’s enormously hard to pull off!

I’m still a little worried about all the time the characters are going to be spending on Earth, since Michael and Janet seem more or less trapped here, too, but I think there’s something quietly radical about the way The Good Place has twisted itself into pretzels to get to a place where the Good Place, the Bad Place, and even the Medium Place just don’t matter. Rules, regulations, larger ethical codes — they’re all useless if you don’t find a way to put other people first.

“Jeremy Bearimy” has its issues here and there — I don’t quite buy that all of the human characters would be so blasé about learning that they died and were resurrected — but it made me feel, for the first time, like season three is on a firm path toward something I’m going to find rewarding in the whole. It took some pretzel logic to get there, but I’m happy to have followed it around its swirling loops and twists in order to re-situate myself in this weird, wonderful world.

(Also: My friend Ben played the bartender Eleanor talks to, something I somehow did not know until I watched the screener. Shoutout to Ben. Good work, pal.)

Original Source -> The Good Place season 3 is finally back on track

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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