#she's literally a gangster boss wife

[helianthus21]

this is so sexy of her

[moralesluvr]

omggg pls do miles 42 with a daughter (preferably a baby) !!🥺

daddy's little princess ft. miles morales

♡ pairings & aus: husband!dad!earth42!miles morales x black!fem!reader ♡ summary: you come home from work to your two favorite people bonding with each other ♡ warnings: mentions of murder..pretty sure thats it ♡ a/n: anon don't play w me this is convincing me to have a baby ♡ got a request? | masterlist ♡

YOUR HUSBAND LOVED HIS TWO GIRLS more than anything. That being you, of course-- his wife, along with your beautiful daughter Aaliyah, who had just turned one a couple days ago. Ever since you had become pregnant and he asked you to marry him, he's only had a soft spot for you and your little one.

Today, unfortunately, your boss called you at six in the morning to inform you that you were needed in the courthouse immediately, for whatever reason. While your husband was out doing whatever 'gangster' stuff he pleased in your teenage years, you had went through college and bagged a couple degrees in forensics and law. Miles had stopped being the prowler when he found out that you were pregnant, the ultimate fear of putting his daughter in danger causing him to pick up a well-paying job that allowed him to work from home. So here he was, your little girl laying on his chest as he watched you get ready. He carefully sat up, slowly bouncing her on his shoulder so that she wouldn't wake. He whispered, "Do you have to go? Tell that lil boy that today was your day off."

You giggle, slipping on your work pants, "He isn't some 'lil boy', Miles, he's my boss. And I wish I could stay, but apparently it's a really important case and they need the best of the best."

"Oh, so you sayin' you that girl, hm?" He whispered, rubbing your daughter's back when he heard her coo. You giggled, slipping on a white button up and undoing the top three, a black blazer accenting the plain blouse. You grabbed your purse and keys and headed over to your husband and beautiful daughter, kissing her on her forehead, "I guess so. I should be back by three or four, depending on how many people this person decided to slaughter."

"If you ain't home by four, I'll be the one up in that courthouse." Miles warns, but his lips stretch into a smile as he gives you a quick kiss on the lips, "I love you. Be safe."

You nod, "You gonna be okay with Aaliyah? Lately she's been fussy."

"This is literally my daughter, remember?" Your husband remarks jokingly, "She'll be okay. I got her, hermosa."

"Mkay." You suck your teeth with uncertainty, "Love you both endlessly."

And with that, you were out the door.

For the first four hours that you were gone, everything was a breeze. Aaliyah would let out an occasional cry or whine when she was hungry or needed to be changed, but she didn't start really acting up until about one 'o clock, where she was screaming so loud, Miles was sure that she had damaged her vocal chords beyond repair. He tried everything he possibly could- playing with her, trying to put her to sleep, feeding her, and nothing was working.

Finally, he just sighed, picking her up and holding her up to his head. He bounced her, "What's the matter lil ma, huh? Why're you cryin'? Is it cause you miss mommy?"

That statement earns a cry.

"Yeah...I miss her too." He sighs, placing your daughter on his shoulders as he holds her hands with his own, making his way to the living room. He then sits down and places her next to him, "Okay, if you stop cryin', then we can have some ice cream and watch some of mommy's TV shows that she doesn't let us watch. I'll let you pick, but you can't tell, okay? How does that sound?"

He knows that realistically, your daughter can't make out half of what he's saying, but he finds it hilarious when Aaliyah gives him a nod, her cries slowly started to silence. He smiles and hurriedly runs to the kitchen to fix one bowl of small strawberry ice cream and one bowl of vanilla. He grabs a small spoon and runs over to your daughter, who's sucking on her tiny fists angrily. Miles eyes her, "No, baby, look- here's your ice cream."

He feeds her a spoonful and she immediately gives him a toothless grin, "Yummy!"

"It is, isn't it? It's bussin'. Can you say bussin'?"

He laughs when Aaliyah just gives him incoherent noises. He then turns on the TV and clicks 'Real Housewives'. Was it necessarily appropriate? No, but then again, the girl was one, so as long as it stopped her screeching, it was good to go.

Before the two of them knew it, you were home, walking through the front door and expecting your husband and baby girl to be up and rowdy. Instead, you saw Aaliyah resting on Miles' chest, his head hanging off of the couch's armrest. Two bowls of ice cream were completely empty with spoons inside of them, licked completely clean. The muffled sound of your favorite show played aloud. You smiled and kicked off your flats, grabbing a blanket from the linen closet as you slid next to your husband. You felt him wrap an arm around you sleepily, "Mami?"

"I'm here." You smiled, snuggling into your lover's side as your hand ghosted over your baby's thick hair. You heard Miles mumble against your ear, "I love you."

And you replied sweetly, eyelashes batting as you felt the opiate of sleep undertake you,

"I love you more."

𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 ☻ thank you for reading!

𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑-𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓🕷️: @queenesther996 //@sukunas-slutty-bitch // @c3f21 // @wydney // @rinnyisnothere // @brieryann // @moisttowllet // @Dee-m-cee // @liliummz // @starhrtz // @daisydark // @randomhoex // @solanawrld // @whore4hobie // @tanakaslastbraincell // @simp4miguell // @nyrovi3 // @my3tumbles // @aziulsworld // @enchantingfoxsparkles

𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 ✎: @Dee-m-cee // @euphorichappiness10 // @adoree-kaelynn // @mhadnirb // @mmst4rz // @iris-theflower // @fleurrieerecs // @kenlani // @kala2022

[wolfscarr]

Helluva Boss: Moxxie, the child of EXTREME Parents. The Balance between them.

So I didn’t really wanna start making posts again about Helluva Boss, ya know theorizing and such because. But here I am...again...and I guess it’s because of my love for Mafia related things, I find it very interesting....though moreso in the early 20th Century, but anyway I’m rambling.

So reader, what do I mean by that Moxxie has EXTREME parents and he’s the Balance between them?

Well let’s take a look at the characters hm? More specifically his parents, let’s start off by looking at his mother.

Mrs. Knolastname

Side note, I’m kind of annoyed that she doesn’t have a name. Like you can give background gangsters names, but not her? An important character to one of the main ones?

So we know obviously that Moxxie’s mother is very kind and caring imp, especially towards her son Moxxie, helping him with his dinner and trying to shoo him away from any kind of violence. She very clearly cares about her son and obviously wants to protect him. As she’s portrayed, she doesn’t seem at all very violent, especially for an imp from Wrath.

Now I realize many are on her side compared to her husband with regards to Moxxie, but here’s the thing about her treatment to her son.

It’s all well and good that she’s kind and caring to him certainly...but the audience needs to remember something.

They live in HELL. You know the place being nice, caring and so forth, can be seen as weakness? Where someone could very well end up taking advantage of another because they can’t defend themselves or stand up for themselves? Moxxie’s mother coddling him, doesn’t do him any favors for the life in Hell.

We can’t be looking at this from our view of how things are done on Earth, because Hell is much worse. You have literal monsters with legitimate power both figuratively and literally(AKA: Sinners, Demon Royalty etc) that can eat someone alive(both figuratively and literally) if they don’t have a backbone to them.

I’m not saying Moxxie’s mother couldn’t help him out, but at the same time, she had to know that doing TOO much of it, would be detrimental to Moxxie.

Which now brings us to the other EXTREME half.

Mr. Knolastname AKA: Crimson

Now before anyone says anything. Yes I’m AWARE he killed his wife, he’s clearly a bad guy, he’s clearly scum. Alright? So moving on from that...

Crimson obviously has been in the Mafia life for probably his entire life, so he’s grown up in it, he’s seen and done things ALL across Hell. So he’s obviously going to know how bad things are and that you need to be strong, you need to know how to take care of yourself, to take action and kick someone’s ass. So it’s clear by what we see later from Moxxie, that he’s a very effective killer more than likely taught by his Father.

The problem is though, is the opposite of his wife. He seems to not really have much compassion towards his son and actually give him a choice of what HE wants out of life. He seems to want a sort of mini him, a son that he could mold into the likeness of himself....to be as ruthless and cutthroat as he is. Which is obviously bad.

He’s pushing his son into a life, that he’s not sure that he would actually want. Crimson is FORCING his life to go in a certain direction, whereas his mother would probably want to have Moxxie choose of what he wants out of his life, rather than it being forced upon him.

Now this of course causes a rift between the two parents and yada yada, we all know what happens.

Conclusion

So both Mrs. Knolastname and Mr. Knolastname gave Moxxie what he needed in order to survive through Hell. While Crimson obviously is the worst parent of the two, he still gave his son the skills needed in order to not be pushed around. When push comes to shove, he can do work, he can kill like nobodies business.

His mother meanwhile, gave her son the compassion and caring needed in order for him to have a stable life with a loving wife by his side, to be there for him.

While obviously Moxxie seems to take more after his mother’s side, we do see at times his father’s side come out when shit hits the fan.

Why I did this? Boredom and probably I hope to perhaps put a different perspective, because I know many people would just ignore Crimson’s tribute to Moxxie as a character. You can hate Crimson folks, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sure it can’t be denied at what he did for Moxxie.

[runnning-outof-time]

->The Shelby Brothers Masterlist<-

Main Masterlist

Last Updated: 8/14

Want to be tagged? Let me know!

All works are my own - I do not give consent to the reposting of them in any form.

——— (listed oldest -> newest) ———

x Reader Imagines:

— Right Place, Right Time: (platonic!reader) The Peaky Blinders have honed in on a warehouse of one of their rival gangs with the intent of stealing the score that they know is inside. Things go sideways when they discover a girl who is being held at that same warehouse.

— Please Come Home: (sister!reader) The Great War was tough on everyone. (Y/N) thought it took her brothers, who were the only people she was really living for. So you could imagine that she's really excited when she stumbles into them years later, right? Yeah, not really.

— Gifts: (sister!reader) Although she's technically one of the siblings, (Y/N) Shelby acts more like the mother of her family. So it's understandable that she wanted everything to be perfect for the upcoming holiday.

— Treading Water: (sister!reader): In which the two, less serious, Shelby brothers teach their younger siblings how to swim.

x Reader Mini Series:

-> Got Your Back Series (platonic!reader)

— PART 1 - Got Your Back: (Y/N)'s been working for the Shelby Company Ltd. as a way to help her through her journey of pursuing a writing degree at a university. She knew that the Shelby brothers would have her back, but she never knew that they meant that statement literally.

— PART 2 - Good Intentions: (Y/N)'s met someone. Someone she really likes. And he's passed the initial test of her bosses. But they're still keen to keep an eye on him. That's just what happens when you're employed with the Shelby Company Ltd.

— PART 3 - It’s Urgent: (Y/N)'s graduated from university. While out celebrating with her boyfriend, she happens to run into her bosses and can't hold back the wonderful news. Then, she tries to pull some strings and get Jack a job with the best company in Small Heath.

——————————

-> A Tough Sell Series (platonic!reader):

— PART 1 - A Tough Sell: Who’d have thought that several hardened gangsters all had the same weakness: a little girl selling cookies.

— PART 2 - Something Good: Elsie (Y/L/N) has been the Shelby Company Ltd.'s faithful cookie supplier for a few months now. On this certain day, Tommy has plans for even more people to gain happiness by eating Elsie's cookies.

Preferences/Headcanons/Blurbs:

— Leaving Kisses on His Neck (preference blurbs): How each of the Shelby brothers would react to someone letting them know that you had left a lipstick stain on their neck.

— There Was Only One Bed (preference blurbs): How Arthur, John, and Tommy would react if there was only one bed in the room that he and (Y/N) are supposed to share.

— Busted (blurb): The Shelby Brothers get put in their place after their significant others find out about their trip to London.

— The Thing About Tattoos (preference blurbs): How Arthur, John and Tommy would react if their children decided that they were going to change up their tattoos.

— A Reaction to Blood (preference blurbs): How Arthur, John and Tommy would react to their partner fainting at the sight of blood.

— A Bad Habit (preference blurbs): How Arthur, John, and Tommy would react to their partner's habit of biting her lips when something's bothering her.

— I Saw Her First (headcanons): How the Shelby brothers would react to their brother having a crush on the same woman as they do.

— Breathe (headcanons): How Arthur, Tommy and John would react to their significant other holding their breath when they're scared.

— My Eyes! (blurb): Little Lillie Shelby doesn’t like watching her brother, John, and his new wife, Esme, kiss (Shelby!Sister OC)

———

Divider by @firefly-graphics

[fake-supervillian]

Through the grapevine that is Tumblr, I have learned that my beloved husband Alfie Solomons has decided to marry another woman. Please help me through this time of mourning as my imaginary relationship with a 1920’s gangster comes to a depressing end. (Lol).

All jokes aside, I feel like I need to point this out: Alfie said his wife’s name is “Edna”. That name ring any bells? Well it struck me immediately.

In the masterpiece that is “The Gospel of Alfie Solomons Part 1”, Alfie says this:

“In all my years, yeah, as a baker in Camden Town, I have overseen – I have organized, or otherwise been responsible for – the deaths, right, of thirty-five fucking men. All of whom, I’ll have you know, attend my dreams each night in various disguises, in regular order, with no pattern or logic to it but with the consequence that I wake up each morning in sheets that have been – they have to be wrung out, from sweat, right, by my maid Edna. Who, it should be noted, I have never had an evil thought about in fifteen years because when she washes my sweat from the sheets she reminds me of my poor mother, now residing in Hell and washing the robes of Satan himself.”

Y’all know what this means right??? Alfred Fucking Solomons married his maid, the same maid that was there to wring out his sheets after his nightmares. 😭😭🥹

I’m not excited about the idea of sharing my man BUT this is so pure ngl. Good for my girl Edna, a girl boss who literally married her boss.

[mytalemyworld]

GELSIN HAYAT BILDIGI GIBI 

( “LET LIFE COME AS IT KNOWS” -LITERAL TRANSLATION, OFFICIAL ENGLISH TITLE IS “ANOTHER CHANCE”)

I’ve been watching this since episode 1 but didn’t write anything because I wanted it to get more ratings so that I wouldn’t be worried if it got cancelled early. To be honest, it isn’t perfect but there are many tropes I enjoy watching, also the main couple has the best chemistry among all of the summer tv show couples so I’ll write a brief summary.

The male lead Emin (Ertan Saban), known as "Yedi Emin" (which means "Trustman" in Turkish btw), is a gangster. One day as his enemies are following him they shoot the wrong car thinking he is in it, so a family with a little girl die. 

He feels guilty and goes through a crisis. Days later, he decides to turn himself in to the police. Since nobody knows his face the cops don’t understand what he is doing but after he shows all his guns they draw their guns.

He offers to give lots of information and evidence about the crimes of the big mafia bosses. All he wants in return is to start a new life.

So thanks to the information he gives, the cops catch three bad guys and then he enters the witness protection program, the government provides him with a new ID and new job also announces publicly that Emin died after he had got in a gunfight with the police. So public thinks now that he is dead. 

His new name: Sadi Payaslı His new job: Geography teacher His new residence: Istanbul

All his assests are transferred to his new bank accounts. 

Everything seems to be okay except that he doesn't have a teaching diploma.  Also the prosecutor and the chief of police don't trust him completely and wants to be sure of his safety in case someone comes after him.

So that's the point the female lead Songül (Devrim Özkan) comes into the picture. They want her to observe his actions and take care of his safety while living in the same house with him. Unbeknownst to her, Sadi and her will act like husband and wife for her to live with him.

When they hear the news about the marriage they don't look pleased, especially her. She objects it first but also doesn't want to be seen as someone who runs away from the duty. She ends up accepting the order. So leaving their lives behind Sadi and Songül go to Istanbul.

The things we know about her as of now are that she wants to work in Istanbul (we don't know why), her parents are dead and her father was a cop too. She dislikes Emin/Sadi in the beginning because she thinks it's unfair that he got away with all his crimes just because he gave the information. She softens towards him later.

He embraces his new life easily. A domestic husband, a hardworking teacher (lol, he studies a lot to be able to teach) also a person who tries to help his students. Because there are many problematic children in the school where he starts working at.

Speaking of the students, the story also revolves around the five teenagers who are released from the youth detention center to start a new life in a new school. They shouldn’t get into any trouble otherwise they will go back to the detention center however unfortunately they are not welcomed by the other students.

Sadi’s way crosses with these young people and he sees himself in them so he tries his best to help them.

But he doesn't change completely. 

I mean... his ways of dealing with thugs or bullies are still the same. Lol. If only Songül knew...By the way she has been doing a terrible job of handling him so far. He doesn't have permission to carry weapons but somehow he still has guns. She also has had a hard time saying no to him. But the guy has some ways, I'll give her that.

To be honest, the part of the story revolving around the teenagers is not very good and lacking in many aspects. But he's such an interesting character that you can't help but wonder what he will say or what reaction he will show. The actor is one of the reasons for this, because he is killing it. Also the screenwriter is famous for his witty and funny scripts so this combination is the key of the success. But don’t expect logic, there are many loopholes.

Also they are really amazing and the funniest part of the show. They bicker endlessly and act like they are really married. 

Some good chemistry too. 

Fake marriage, opposites attract dynamic, a serious angst potential (his ex will be a problem), birth secrets (he has a son and only his ex knows it!), the mystery about the female lead’s past, the fact that his enemies are searching for him, so many actions in the future...  We’ll see how the potential will be used.

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S5 E12 (Jaime/Hiram) - 5 Things I loved/ 3 Things to consider

5 Things I loved

1. The music selections for the Jaime to Hiram transitions were delirious and filled me with joy.  I admit up front I’ve never heard any of these songs before, so if they turn out to be a horrible kind of misappropriation or desecration or something I will feel bad. In any case - Riverdale commits to giving you a dose of the surreal every episode.  The difficulty with doing that in this episode is that  the stories being told in it are unusually straightforward, even staid, for  Riverdale.  So they went to town with the sound track.   

There’s a song  (Demolicion by the band Narco) that sounds like it’s being sung by the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Toons on a bender - it’s just rawararwrarawrar. All these songs about Hiram ‘being bad’ and mentioning the ‘devil’ are so on the nose that the nose gets broken and pushed right into the skull (the title of the song is literally Devil Devil).

2.  I love that Hermione Gomez wears huge 80s glasses that completely overwhelm her little face and yet Jaime hits on her and thinks the world of her.  It helps to have that face, I grant you, but as someone who took the Dorothy Parker quote, Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses, very very personally back in the day, I LOVE that Jaime/Hiram has no such qualms.  Did everyone notice the bust of Nefertiti that’s positioned right behind Hermione the whole time Hiram is successfully asking her out? I did and it cracked me up.

3. I loved that nothing in this story about Jaime Luna makes Hiram Lodge even a little bit sympathetic to me.  Hiram is an out and out villain, and I love that.  I’ve been sick of villain backstory narratives that are like, Bad Things Happened To This Man So We Must Identify With His Homicidal Impulses that keep coming out, but this episode didn’t do that.

a) Hiram is in so many ways a textbook abusive husband, and the only thing that distinguishes him from the more stereotypical abuser is that he doesn’t actually punch his victim (he just shoots at her using other people’s guns).  Abusers blame their victims for ‘causing’ them to commit abuse.   The same is true here. The story that Hiram tells Reggie about his life pretends to be about his father, but is actually all about the fact that it’s Hermione’s fault that he’s a gangster.  She’s the one who likes the fancy clothes and the fancy car, the one who names him Hiram Lodge,  the one who is turned on by Hiram working for gangsters, the one that goes to the gangsters (rather than his father or her mother or any other adult) to get Hiram out of jail.   It’s all her fault and she owes him.  This is in addition to his usual, You’re my wife and I own you.

I am right back to being very worried about Hermione.

b) Hiram pretends to be giving ‘life advice’ about fathers and sons to Reggie.  Hiram has direct knowledge that Marty Mantle is a piece of shit, and that Reggie has a very trouble relationship with him, and that Marty absolutely does not respect Reggie at all whatsoever (“Reggie is a fool.”)   Hiram uses Reggie and then ditches him when he’s done.   Hiram makes Reggie an accessory to murder, which nets nobody anything at this point other than Hiram’s own blood lust - and possibly tying up loose ends because Vito is someone who can correct this yarn that Hiram is spinning about his origin - then breaks his heart.  Marty Mantle is not only a dad who beat his son - he’s a dad that does not ask his son “Where did you get the money” when the son pays off a huge debt to a known criminal, and is only relieved that he’s no longer on the hook.  He also tellingly asks Reggie, “That’s what you got from my story?” indicating that this is a story rather than a testimony. 

4. I loved the very anti-straight men commentary the show keeps sneaking in.  Like, straight marriage is the worst, especially the ones that produce biological offspring, according to Riverdale.  Marty Mantle absolutely despises sex. He’s a guy who sells sexy cars to other guys for a living, and yet he hates talking about getting laid in one. He hates his beautiful sensual son, too, for being sexually successful and comfortable in his body. Both Reggie (described by the gay-bi Fangs as “very straight” even after kissing him) and Hiram (who is basically a Hermione-sexual at this point) have comically fetishistic relationships with cars and shoes, lovingly wiping down these objects at the start of each day.  All the straight men say the word “shame” several times -I’m ashamed of you/ I feel shame/ so ashamed/ shame.

5. I continue to adore “I am not in high school any more” Reggie Mantle.  Growing up to be a slightly sleazy car salesman is the one of the few character developments for Grown Riverdale that both makes sense and isn’t depressing.  Core Four, Cheryl and Polly are all extremely depressing and supportable with logic.  Toni and Fangs make out OK but they were also underdeveloped in the first four seasons. (I am too upset to talk about Sweet Pea).  I was moved by his tearing up while very quietly confronting his father, and I was moved by his boyish attempt at trying to show his new boss that he’s not just the muscle.  Oh and he’s so beautiful, did I say that already?  There’s so much face in Reggie’s face - strong brows, deep set eyes, those cheekbones, that jawline, that MOUTH. 

Three Things to Think About

a. Why is Jughead narrating this?   Jughead is unusually wrong about a lot of things in his opening narration, and I assume this is intentional.  Jughead seems to use the words hero and protagonist interchangeably, and also I guess hasn’t seen Joker because most villains and antiheros also always get their origin stories too. (There’s a theory that what we’re watching is the Betty Cooper serial killer origin story, for example).   Has Jughead not watched “Citizen Kane” because he asks “What is his rosebud?” about Hiram,  BUT WE ARE NOT TOLD.   Jughead sounds jealous of Reggie, frankly, and he’s wrong when he says Hiram collects lost souls.  What OTHER lost souls does Hiram have near him?   And who the heck is S5 Jughead Jones calling LOST?

b. What Reggie really wants to do - and possibly also Hiram - is to wear a suit and carry a briefcase.   It’s just very White Collar Aspirant that isn’t fully explored. Like, how the 50 shades of grey movie was really about sitting in a board room negotiating a contract and having pretty women in suits bring you tea -  that was the erotic highlight of that movie.   We live in capitalism, so getting to use the accoutrement of the Wall St capitalist is the true fantasy.

c.  The point of this episode that the show is making to the viewer is this: A straightforward narrative, where gangsters act like gangsters, and fathers and sons have realistic misunderstandings and conflicts, is something we’re capable of doing.  We just don’t want to. 

[cesium-sheep]

boss wife takes kind of a weird approach to sex, when I’m used to reading a lot of bl. like there’s plenty of nips, but the single butt shot is censored with a word bubble, and they say things like “make love” or “sexy time” lol. it doesn’t look like it’s this writer’s first work, but it has some of the hallmarks of inexperienced writing. the way the setup is handled feels forced, foundational facts are introduced to us in a really weak tell-don’t-show fashion, and they include a specific flashback panel twice in the same chapter only a couple pages apart, which feels particularly clumsy.

the love interest definitely has some compelling elements to him, I’m generally fond of the “noble gangster” archetype especially when it’s one who clearly has a genuine softness so close to the surface. he’s set up so he’s supposed to have some complexity to him, but he still feels like a sketch character more often than I’d like. the easiest point of comparison I have is akitora from jealousy, but akitora’s a goofy exterior on a steel soul, whereas this guy feels more like a hard shell grown incompletely over a goofy center. and it’s kind of a rough spot to be in to be compared to one of my top 5 manga writers out of the dozens and dozens of series I’ve read, because how many people are going to be able to rival someone from the top 5? (4 implicitly lol, altho honestly I think I only actually have a top 4. scarlet beriko, natsume ono, suu morishita, and bisco hatori. manga in the us seems to be somewhat unusual in the way it cultivates loyalty to publishers, genres, and tropes far more than it does to individual creators (or repeated collaborative teams like suu morishita), but those four, I will get a manga just because it has one of their names on it. (although I suppose that’s not that unusual for american-made comics either. I was thinking more in comparison to novels in the us, where an individual creator is far more likely to have a following.))

the main character is a little hollow, she has a couple stated desires but no real shown desires. she says she really wants to earn a living as an artist, we’re told she used to stare covetously at a set of definitely-not-faber-castells all the time, but in the entire first volume we see her make one single drawing, immediately after being gifted a set of colored pencils by the love interest and at his explicit request as a job opportunity. it also feels like she has some fairly unrealistic expectations for the love interest, explicitly telling him not to act like a yakuza when they’re out together when he was literally born and raised into it.

anyway, I think it’s worth giving it another volume, although I feel like it’s showing a lot of cracks. no other way of knowing for sure whether those cracks will get better or worse. and there are also some really sweet moments. and inexplicably a lot of nips.

[semper-legens]

20. Hot Lead, Cold Iron, by Ari Marmell

Owned: Yes Page count: 305 My summary: Mick Oberon’s just another private eye in the Windy City. Sure, he’s got pointy ears, drinks only milk, and he’s packing a wand instead of a gun, but it’s basically the same. He turned away from his aes sidhe brethren years ago, but when he’s asked to find a gangster’s daughter disappeared and replaced with a changeling sixteen years ago, he literally cannot afford to say no. Looks like he’s going to be sucked back into the world of the Fae, whether he likes it or not. My rating: 4/5

Look. Look. I fucking love these books, okay? This is a hardboiled private eye detective story, that is also about the Fae. Featuring a lot of puns, wackiness, Fae antics, and a protagonist who starts being 100% done with absolutely everything, and only gets more exasperated. I love him, I love this book, and it pains me every day that I am probably never going to meet another human who has read these books, because I could gush about them all day. So for that, look under the cut!

Mick is a really interesting protagonist. The story is told in the first person, and Mick’s voice walks the line between being distinct and engaging well. There are a fair amount of noir private eye-isms, as well as some period slang that is explained in the front of the book, although most of it is understandable from context. Mick is sarcastic, Done With Everything, self-deprecating, and spends the whole narrative bitching about literally everything that annoys him. He is, as the kids say, a Big Mood. I love this, I love a POV character with a lot of personality, and it’s really cool how the narrative just kind of drops you in it at first. Mick carries a wand in his holster! Mick only drinks milk! Mick uses magic to drain luck from everything! Also he’s literally a faerie!

This book has an interesting look at faerie lore. The basic premise is that the fae are, fundamentally, mimics - sure, they’re more powerful than any human can ever be, but their society copies ours because they aren’t good at creativity. So the Otherworld near Chicago mimics real Chicago, with its law enforcement Seelie running the town, and mob boss Unseelie working from beneath. And the queen of the mob boss Unseelie is called Queen Mob. Because of course she is. Few Fae care about human affairs deeply; Mick’s only out with us because he exiled himself from the Faerie Court after some oft-alluded-to but never detailed bad things he did. There are a fair few mages in Chicago, as well as other exile Fae and Fae-blooded humans. And they are also amazing. I love Four-Leaf Frankie, an unlucky gambler and down-and-out descended from leprechauns who Mick shakes down for information occasionally. Really makes Mick look a lot more reasonable and well-adjusted by comparison - no mean feat for a man who once killed someone with a typewriter and carries a wand instead of a gun.

And, not to harp on how much I didn’t like Who Censored Roger Rabbit, but Mick is such a better protagonist than Eddie Valiant. Mick’s not a racist! He calls out human racism and bigotry when it happens, and he’s got no skin in the game, he’s not a human! And living in the 30s! His voice is so much more distinct and full of character, and engaged me a lot more in the world that was being built. Little distinctions, but they go a long way.

So the main plot is about changelings - a gangster’s wife hires Mick to track down her daughter, who was replaced with a changeling sixteen years ago. Which is a coincidence, because changelings happen to be my favourite thing ever. In this case, the changeling daughter is also a character, as well as the original human; they are separate, and distinct characters. It’s an interesting way to use a changeling narrative, particularly showing the distinction between the human-raised changeling and the Fae-raised human. It’s not the main focus of the novel, but it’s something I find really cool.

Next up, another comic, and the cutest darn bloodsuckers I’ve ever seen.

[justforbooks]

Michel Piccoli obituary

Stalwart of French cinema whose prolific career included films with Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol

By Ronald Bergan

For more than half a century, there seemed to be one constant in French cinema – the actor Michel Piccoli. With his death at the age of 94 something vital has disappeared from the screen.

Never young looking – he was prematurely bald – Piccoli grew in maturity and power over the years, with directors such as Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Marco Ferreri and Claude Sautet seeking his services more than once. He also worked for directors of the stature of Alfred Hitchcock, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Rivette, Costa-Gavras and Louis Malle.

Even when he was a big name, Piccoli was never too proud to play small supporting roles or even bit parts if he liked the screenplay. But whatever the size of the role, whether playing a goody or a baddie, Piccoli would bring to the character a gravitas (with a tinge of humour) and an ironic detachment, simultaneously revealing a real, recognisable human being beneath the surface.

Piccoli was born in Paris to a French mother and an Italian father, both of them musicians – his mother was a pianist; his father a violinist. At 19, he made his screen debut in a walk-on part in Sortilèges (1945), directed by Christian-Jaque.

After several roles in the cinema and theatre, he met Buñuel. “I wrote to this famous director asking him to come and see me in a play. Me, an obscure actor! It was the cheek of a young man. He came and we became friends.” Piccoli appeared in six of Buñuel’s films, usually cast as a silky, authoritarian figure.

His first performance for Buñuel was as a weak, compromised priest trekking through the Brazilian jungle in La Mort en Ce Jardin (Death in the Garden/Evil Eden, 1956). In Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), he was the idle and lecherous Monsieur Monteil, sexually obsessed with Jeanne Moreau as the maid Célestine.

Just as louche was his smooth bourgeois gentleman who persuades a respectable doctor’s wife (Catherine Deneuve) to spend her afternoons working in a high-class brothel with kinky clients in Belle de Jour (1967). Piccoli reprised the role charmingly almost 40 years later in Manoel de Oliveira’s Belle Toujours (2006).

He was discreetly charming as the Marquis de Sade in Buñuel’s La Voie Lactée (The Milky Way, 1969), subtly overbearing as the home secretary in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and sinister as a prefect of police in Buñuel’s penultimate film, Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty, 1974).

In the 1950s, apart from his one film with Buñuel and his appearance as María Félix’s jealous lover in Jean Renoir’s French Cancan, Piccoli was cast mainly in run-of-the mill “policiers”. During this period, Piccoli was part of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés set in Paris, which included the writers Boris Vian, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and the café singer Juliette Gréco, to whom he was married from 1966 to 1977. He was also an active member of the French Communist party.

The 60s was his most creatively exciting and varied decade. His first leading role (with Serge Reggiani and Jean-Paul Belmondo) was as an unscrupulous gangster in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos (The Finger Man, 1962).

This led to one of his best remembered parts, as Brigitte Bardot’s husband in Godard’s Le Mépris (Contempt, 1963), in which he plays a screenwriter, willing to sell his wife to a producer (Jack Palance) in order to get his script filmed by Fritz Lang. In a homage to Dean Martin’s character in Vincente Minnelli’s Some Came Running, Piccoli wears a cowboy hat in the bath.

As memorable as this image was the name of the character he played in Jacques Demy’s Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967). As Simon Dame, he is continually being greeted as Monsieur Dame (a joke that works only in French), and is rebuffed by Danielle Darrieux, who cannot bear the thought of being called Madame Dame.

It was in 1968 that Piccoli met Ferreri, who starred him in Dillinger È Morto (Dillinger Is Dead), a bleak study of alienation, in which a man’s life is laid bare. Piccoli is brilliant as an industrial designer who, while spending an evening at home, making himself a meal, watching TV and seducing the maid, decides to kill his wife and go to Tahiti.

It was the first of seven films the actor made for the Italian-born director, the most infamous being La Grande Bouffe (Blow Out, 1973), an excessive film about excess, where Piccoli as a TV personality, along with a pilot, a judge and a chef, all bored with life, literally eat themselves to death.

Piccoli’s few roles in English language films were less than challenging: they included his secret agent in Hitchcock’s Topaz (1969) and the suave card dealer in Malle’s Atlantic City (1981).

He was much happier in France, where his talents were not only respected but revered. His several films for Sautet showed him as a complex and flawed hero, starting with Les Choses de la Vie (The Things of Life, 1970), in which he played a man who, although having an affair, finds himself still attached to his estranged wife, his son and friends, and consequently unable to make the absolute commitment his lover requires.

In 1973, Piccoli formed a production company which kicked off with that year’s Themroc, directed by Claude Faraldo, in which he played a factory worker, living in a squalid flat with his mother and sister, pursuing an existence of repetitive routine and urban grind, before he rebels. What made this biting social satire particularly unusual was that language was abandoned completely, with the characters having to communicate in a series of formless noises, something Piccoli does particularly effectively.

Piccoli then returned to his speciality – the urbane bourgeois – in Chabrol’s blackly comic Les Noces Rouges (Blood Wedding, 1973), where he played a mayor’s deputy having an affair with his boss’s wife. In Godard’s Passion (1982), he was a factory owner whose wife is having an affair with a film director.

He gave three of his largest and most impressive performances in his late 60s and 70s. In Malle’s Milou en Mai (Milou in May, 1990), he is the ideal repository of all the director’s sympathies, the upholder of the best of traditional country values, unambitious, unacquisitive and a lover of nature, in contrast to his greedy middle-class family gathered for a funeral.

Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse (1991) cast him magisterially as a famous artist trying to capture a new nude young model on canvas. In Oliveira’s Je Rentre à la Maison (I’m Going Home, 2001), Piccoli struck a personal and poignant note as an actor trying to deal with old age, and refusing to compromise his principles.

He shone in what amounted to almost a cameo as the courtly but bumbling elderly relative of the Duchess of Langeais (Jeanne Balibar) in Rivette’s Ne Touchez Pas la Hache (Don’t Touch the Axe, 2007), a version of Balzac’s novel on erotic obsession.

For the English language The Dust of Time (2008), Theo Angelopoulos’s last film, Piccoli joined such stalwarts of European art cinema as Bruno Ganz and Irène Jacob in a love triangle that covers the latter part of the 20th century. Despite some of the stilted dialogue, Piccoli bares the soul of a character whose sufferings include his internment and escape from a gulag.

He dominated every moment as a reserved and modest cardinal who panics when elected pontiff in Nanni Moretti’s semi-satire Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope, 2011). The first close-ups of him, when he realises he has been appointed the new pope, suggest, with subtle expressions, emotions ranging from surprise, humility, ambivalence, excitement and then horror.

In Vous N’avez Encore Rien Vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, 2012), Alain Resnais’ intriguing, self-reflective examination of actors and acting, film and theatre, Piccoli, playing himself, is the doyen in a cast of leading French actors of the day.

He directed the features Alors Voilà (1997) and La Plage Noire (The Black Beach, 2001), the former winning the Critics’ prize at Venice, to add to the many prizes he had won as an actor. It was appropriate that when Agnès Varda filmed One Hundred and One Nights for the centenary of the cinema in 1995, she cast Piccoli as Monsieur Cinema.

He was married three times. His first two marriages, to Eléonore Hirt and to Gréco, ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife, the screenwriter Ludivine Clerc, whom he married in 1978, and by his daughter, Anne-Cordélia, from his first marriage.

• Michel Piccoli, actor, born 27 December 1925; died 12 May 2020

© 2020 Guardian News

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[ogmosis]

CRIME FICTION INTERVIEW: ROD REYNOLDS

Rod Reynolds is one of the best crime fiction authors to emerge in the last five years, his Charlie Yates trilogy set in the USA up there with other British writers such as Ray Celestin as well as Americans like Attica Locke and James Lee Burke. I had heard of Rod's work in the industry, but it wasn't until lockdown that I had the time to indulge in his writing. His ear for American dialogue from the 1940s is excellent, while his plotting and characters draw you in - the protagonists and antagonists constantly criss-crossing the line between good and evil. After moving on from Charlie and Faber for the time being, his latest book Blood Red City for Orenda Books is set in London - the city where he grew up as a council estate boy. Rod kindly took time out from working on his new book to talk about his career journey, inspirations and fitting writing in around bringing up young children.

How did a lad from Camden end up mining 1940s America for his first published novels?

I took a sabbatical from advertising in 2010 for a year to try and write a novel. I took a distance learning course with The London School of Journalism. I had never written anything, even though I have always been a big reader of crime. I grew up on a council estate in Camden and I didn't know anyone who had ever done anything like that. It was only as I got older, one of my old bosses was writing a book and he said, "You know what, why can't it be someone like us". I wrote a novel, sent it off to a million agents and got rejected, but got some really nice feedback saying, “This story doesn't work, but keep writing”. I went back to work with a new job, real life took over for a couple of years and it got to a point where I needed to decide whether I needed to do anything with this or put it away as a flight of fancy. I had the idea for the book that would become The Dark Inside after I stumbled across a real-life case that inspired it and I did some research into it. I had the voice at least that would become the character of Charlie Yates and it was quite vivid in my mind, so to give myself a shove I signed up to do the Masters course at City, University of London in novel writing. I was really lucky as it was the first year they ran a crime specific course with novelist Claire McGowan, amongst others. I had some amazing teaching that helped me develop the book and I ended up getting picked up by my first agent before I graduated then, not too long after, I landed with Faber. Lucky coming together of different circumstances.

How hard was it to change your mindset from advertising to novel writing?

I was a buyer in advertising, so that was a very social job. Great in some ways as you could get to take clients to drinks, dinner and parties, but I was working silly hours. I had reached my natural conclusion with advertising as I had done my 10-year stint. I wasn't passionate about it anymore. I was specifically dealing with newspapers, which was a declining sector of the industry. I was already looking at having to change my skill set if I wanted to carry on, so it wasn't too hard for me to walk away in that sense. I miss being around the office with the team I worked with. If I could have done the job from Thursday lunchtime to Friday evening, I would have happily done that forever. The rest of the week I could leave out. One of the reasons that I wanted to do the City of London course, because I was working full-time, I needed something to structure me and find that time in my week to write. I was also working on a deadline that we were due our first child halfway through the course, so I had to get that done. After I left my job, I swapped with my wife once she finished her maternity leave so I was looking after our little one at the time. It was helpful in a way because the only time I could write was at nap time or in the evenings. No time to worry about whether it was perfect, so I just got the words out and got the book done. Towards the end of the second novel, we were expecting our second child so the book had to be done again. My kids are school age now. I kind of look back and think, "How the hell did I work to those restrictions?" It is like anything - you get used to it and find a way.

I think Charlie Yates is one of the most flawed and interesting crime fiction protagonists we have seen in recent years, so how did he evolve?

James Ellroy was the big starting point for me, even after I got into Chandler, Hammett et al. Charlie started out as a voice that I could hear in my head, even if that sounds ephemeral or arty. I had this world weary, beaten down, over the hill journalist who kind of hated himself. I could hear how he would approach this situation whereby he is taken from being cynical in New York City and plunged into this seemingly nothing story in the Deep South which suddenly becomes very important to him, because he can see the effect on people in the town, the victims and their families. It is a matter of life and death. It is based on the real-life Texarkana Moonlight Murders in 1946. I wanted to fictionalise that scenario. The reason he comes from New York is that I read that a journalist from The Times in London was sent over to cover it, but it felt a little bit contrived so the next best alien place for me was New York as it was closer to understanding someone's life from London than somewhere else.

Did the clever FBI through line arrive at the start of your outlining?

Initially it was only going to be a standalone book, then I was going to write a second novel set in the same universe with different characters - something that Ellroy has done and I love. When Faber bought The Dark Inside, they asked for Charlie to come back and that wasn't too tricky. Colt Tanner came about essentially as someone I wanted to write to challenge myself and have fun with. He is unashamedly on both sides of the law. He is willing to do bad things, but he is on the side of the angels in his own mind. He is utterly convinced that the ends justify the means because of what he is trying to achieve. Charlie has got his own flaws and is riddled with self-doubt, while Colt is absolutely certain of his own moral rectitude.

How difficult was the Bugsy Siegel arc to write about?

I have been lucky enough to travel to Las Vegas a number of times over the years and I wanted to write something set there in the early days because it was such a sleazy, strange, literal desert outpost that became almost overnight this gambling mecca. I hadn't planned to involve it in the series and, when I travelled to Texarkana on a research trip and I was finishing up a draft of The Dark Inside, we were driving to Memphis to catch a flight to somewhere else and we passed this town called Hot Springs. I started reading up on the history of this town and how it had been run by this English gangster, who was sent down from New York and all this incredible history that it had. Bugsy Siegel was a regular visitor there and it looks like he took some of its influence as the blueprint for Vegas. Suddenly it just came together. That was book two sorted and I had a story I wanted to tell, and I can then link that straight to Bugsy finishing off the Flamingo in Vegas throughout book three. I was very lucky that Hot Springs, this town in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas that was really isolated in a valley fifty miles down the road from Texarkana, was Siegel's favourite location.

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

I love dialogue. I enjoy it the most and find it the most natural. I am a reluctant plotter. I started out as a pantser with a plan only really in my head but, with each book, the more I plan at the start the more it helps me at the back end. I was worried that it would stifle creativity and actually it is not really the case. I can now start with the synopsis and a route map I know I am going to try and follow. If I veer off from that and find better ways that is not a problem, but it is when you don't have that and don't know how to get from A to B or E to F in the middle of the story - that is when you can end up struggling.

Did you struggle getting back into a British groove for the new book?

All the stuff that I had written had been set in the States, even my first novel that was unpublished. You think it would be easy to write British as it is all around us and I am also writing in the present day without having to worry about anachronisms and regional dialects which was a tricky thing with the previous books, but it took a while to get those beats to make it sound authentic and the way I heard it in my head. I am not one for sharing my stuff until I am absolutely happy with it and satisfied it is as good as I can make it, then I am quite lucky in that I have a couple of trusted readers that I send it to. One will tell me if the story is good and then one will find any tiny mistake that I have made and picks up stuff even copy editors can miss. Karen Sullivan from Orenda Books is great. She does the first edit for Orenda, then we work with West Camel who is her editor and he goes through it a second time and incorporates his feedback. It is nice to have that two-stage process. Blood Red City is out in paperback and has done really well. Financial Times picked it as one of their summer reads. The reviews have been great and people have been getting in touch to say that they have enjoyed it. Orenda have a big network of bloggers and readers on board and that is helpful as it touches on themes that some people might find off-putting. It starts with financial crime and I didn't want to put it solely in that direction as it is about murder and London. Orenda have a small team, but they have built an incredible presence.

What are your hopes going forward?

The story I am working on at the moment has elements of a psychological thriller about it, even though it didn't start out that way. This new one was supposed to be a big departure. I was looking at something like a Sliding Doors thing with parallel lives, but at the start of lockdown I cut half the story, which was quite painful, but I am enjoying writing it. I also have a second book with Orenda, which is going through edits and is set in the present day in the States based on another real-life case. Hopefully that is out in 2021. As a community, you will do well to find a warmer or more welcoming bunch of people than we have in crime fiction. You think there would be some competitiveness, but I haven't seen any.

Find out more about Rod HERE.  Buy Rod’s Charlie Yates trilogy HERE. Check out his new book Blood Red City HERE.

[ablogthatishenceforthmine]

My Top 10 Favorite Boardwalk Empire Characters in Order

1. Jimmy Darmody

My baby boy... who I immediately fell in love with in the pilot. The emotional kid, who’s looking to prove himself. I always like young, emotional hotheads. And Jimmy has so many interesting things about him; his relationship to Gilian, to Nucky, to Angela, to Al, to Richard, to the war. He is such a tragic character, and has a fittingly tragic ending. He was just lost and had no idea what he was doing.  A perfect, smart, and strategic secondhand man, but didn’t have what it takes to be a boss. 

2. Arnold Rothstein

Every scene he is in is a delight. He is badass, smart, and (almost) always in control. He is both eccentric and terrifying. He is electric when he is on screen, commanding attention. He has amazing quotes, saying some of the smartest things in the whole series. Just what a joy to watch.

3. Charlie ‘Lucky’ Luciano

oh man.... what to say about Charlie. I love every iteration of him. The hot-headed, arrogant man we first meet. Who is never content, always trying to do more and be more, branching off from his bosses, constantly disobeying them. Until he gets fed up with being kicked around, and he learns to see the flaws of his father figures and the other bosses. And he learns from them; their strengths, their weaknesses, their achievements, and their mistakes. And then he becomes cold, and calculating, and highly intelligent in the 5th season. And improves on everyone who came before him, looking forward and coming up with a new way to do things. Everyone underestimated him, and as Nucky says that makes them “dumber than [they] knew” (absolutely in love with that line.) He brought people together, and tore down ideas about who were “his people.” He wasn’t about that tribalism. He was also one of the snarkiest motherfuckers ever. And I love his smart mouth and complete irreverence, especially in the earlier seasons. Also he is pretttttty easy on the eyes, and looks so god damn good in deep blue suits, and he has no right to.

4. Richard Harrow

My heart literally aches everytime he’s on screen. Somehow, even though he probably has the highest body count, he is the most sympathetic character in the show. He is so openly vulnerable, which is such a great contrast to the other characters. I just always wanted him to be happy. Also, he is one of the only (if not the only) character who does not get into the mob for money and status. He get involved because of love and friendship. He is empty and lonely and he is good at killing people so the mob is a natural fit. Even though he doesn’t really have a place there; he just had a place with Jimmy.

5. Eli Thompson

I know this is an unpopular/unusual choice, but I love Eli. He is a fascinating character. I love his inferiority complex. He resents, and is envious of Nucky, but he can’t do what Nucky does. There is a reason for his inferiority complex. Nucky is smarter and more talented than him. Eli hates being in Nucky’s shadow, but doesn’t have what it takes to leave it. Eli is not that smart or that brave. He is not really anything special. And this juxtaposition of an inferiority complex, and actually being inferior is fascinating to me. However, there are many ways, that Eli is superior to Nucky; namely, in his family. Eli is much better at personal relationships than Nucky. Until season 5, he had a good relationship with his wife and family, and never cheated on his wife, in juxtaposition to almost every other male character, until season 5 that is. And his trajectory is both tragic and inevitable. In the end, his punishment, unlike Nucky, is not death, but the loss of the one thing he ever had over Nucky: his family. 

6. Chalky White

Heartache and Sass. That is what Chalky brings. He is also a refutation to people who says “you can’t have black people in period films/ shows that aren’t service people or slaves and be realistic.” Despite it being the 20s, Chalky is in a position of power. At the same time, the show does not erase the racism of the time, and Chalky’s blackness and America’s racism are central to his character. In the pilot, after Jimmy tells Nucky that he wants to make something of himself, Nucky replies, “This is America, ain’t it... Who the fucks stopping you.” But as Chalky character shows, for many Americans, there are a lot stopping them. Chalky is not afforded the mobility that Nucky ascribes to America. He  is a gangster, but the show illustrates how his mobility and ability to rise to power is severely restricted because of his race. Thus showing, that all black people in period films/shows don’t have to either be absent or servants for the text to be realistic, and can in fact, even be in positions that popular culture don’t believe they could have ever been in. In fact, there were black gangsters during this time period. It is fascinating and enjoyable seeing Chalky try to operate in this world, taking power when he can. Whenever he has leverage (i.e. Nucky desperately needed help), he used it. And he was allowed to be morally complex like the other characters, killing people, and being driven by greed and status (and often putting himself and his own advancement over the advancement of his community).

7. Al Capone

I did not expect the Capone we got... in the best possible way. Similar to Charlie, it was amazing to see his evolution, and how he grew into the person he became. I don’t know if it’s accurate, but I love how he starts as one of the most loyal, and respectful of the right-hand men on the show. Surprisingly, his rise of power was non-violent, and he just took over when his boss retired. Then, he becomes the person that today’s public sees him as: powerful, erratic, violent, and unpredictable. Stephen Graham’s performance is just amazing: one of the best, if not, the best in the show. He perfectly plays all parts and iterations of Capone, and make them all seamlessly and coherently blend into each other. He nails the humor and fun aspects of the character, and absolutely kills the emotional moments, such as him talking to his son before going to jail in the series finale. He was always such a joy to watch, I especially enjoyed the scenes between him and Van Alden. Their dynamic was just gold.

8. Meyer Lanksy

It took me a while for my affection to grow for him. I overlooked him in the earlier seasons, but in the later seasons, and after I finished the show, and couldn’t stop thinking about it, I began to like his character more than I had. He is smart and carefully considers his moves. He is patient and great at reading a situation and discerning the role he should play in it. He, like Charlie, was underestimated by everyone around him. He can be unassuming and quiet, and that's one of the things that makes him dangerous. Meyer often feels like the one adult in a world full of kids, and that’s amazing. His friendship and partnership with Charlie is a highlight of the show. In a show filled with doublecrossing and people fucking each other over, it’s nice to have two people who can completely trust each other, and generally care for the other.

9. Billie Kent

Sweet summer child. She has the best smile and brightens up every scene she is in. Extremely charismatic and likeable. And the show never makes the mistake of making her too pure. She knows who Nucky is and doesn’t care. I wish we saw more of her. I wish she wasn’t fridged. 

10. Margaret Schroeder

She quite a while to grow on me. I especially grew fond of her in the later seasons, which unfortunately is when they started to use her wayyyy les. She is smart and witty. And even if I didn’t always like her overall storylines, she has some great moments.

[mexcine]

Massacre Gun [Minagoroshi no kenjū)] (1967) review:  Massacre Gun is a curious yakuza film, bereft of many of the familiar yakuza tropes one expects.  It's actually more of a generic gangster movie, with the only strong yakuza flavour coming from the idea that there is a "family honour" bond between gang members, as opposed to that of a simple crime gang where individuals are linked only by common self-interest and may defect as soon as they feel it benefits them to do so.  Otherwise, there's not a sword, a tattoo, or a missing pinky finger in Massacre Gun.  In a way, it's a mid-point between the "chivalry films" (Ninkyo eiga) of the 1960s and the 1970s Jitsuroku trend in which yakuza were portrayed as violent thugs (see the "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" series).

     The film also has a rather bizarre aspect: the three Kuroda brothers challenge the Akazawa gang, "poaching" several of the business "clients" who are receiving protection from the yakuza.  At one point, brother Eiji Kuroda says "we can take over the entire city!"  But this is patently ridiculous: the Kurodas have no henchmen!  It's literally just the three of them, against Akazawa's dozen or more.  It would have been more logical if the script simply had the Kurodas merely defending themselves against Akazawa--or even attempting to kill him--rather than trying to set up a rival gang with only 3 members.

     Ryūichi Kuroda is ordered by Boss Akazawa to execute Akazawa's former mistress, for whom Ryūichi has romantic feelings.  He kills her, but then resigns from the "family."  Shirasaka, Ryūichi's best friend and second-in-command of the Akazawa group, asks Ryūichi to reconsider but is turned down. 

     Saburo, Ryūichi's youngest brother, is a boxer whose contract is owned by Akazawa: Saburo complains to the gangster that Ryūichi was treated unfairly, and severs his relationship with Akazawa.  In revenge, yakuza thugs break Saburo's hands, destroying his promising ring career.  The gangsters also wreck the "Club Rainbow" nightclub operated by middle brother Eiji.  

     In retaliation, the Kuroda brothers "convince" some small businesses to switch their allegiance from the Akazawa gang: this gets one of the men murdered, his body sent to the Club Rainbow in a coffin also containing a bomb (defused by Ryūichi).  The owner of a bowling alley gives the Kurodas a false tip-off about an Akazawa gambling party on a docked ship; this turns out to be an ambush, but Ryūichi and Eiji escape.  Eiji begins an affair with Akazawa's current mistress.  

     Akazawa's men abduct Saburo (while he's strolling with his girlfriend through some sort of wasteland full of burning piles of trash?!): he'll be released if Ryūichi gives himself up (to certain death).  However, Eiji follows his older brother and bursts into the meeting, tossing a pistol to Ryūichi and gunning down Akazawa himself.  A short time later, Eiji is caught in his apartment with Akazawa's mistress by the gangsters.  Eiji (not much of a gentleman) pushes the young woman in front of him and she is shot to death.  But this only buys him a couple of minutes of life, as he's riddled with bullets trying to escape.

     Shirasaka takes over the gang and arranges a final showdown with Ryūichi on a stretch of deserted (under-construction) highway. Ryūichi shoots all of the yakuza from ambush with a rifle, then he and Shirasaka meet face-to-face and kill each other.  The end. 

     The action scenes in Massacre Gun are odd: everyone shoots multiple times (the ambush on the ship is outrageous, with seemingly hundreds of shots being fired but the only casualty is Ryūichi, who suffers a slight wound to one arm), but there are no bullet squibs and very little blood on the victims (this is especially notable in Eiji's death scene). 

     The character motivations of Massacre Gun range from obscure to somewhat nuanced.  Shirasaka and his wife Shino run a bar and are longtime friends of Ryūichi.  There's some hint that Ryūichi and Shino were romantically involved before she married Shirasaka, and Shirasaka--as he departs for the final showdown--tells Shino that she can trust Ryūichi if he (Shirasaka) doesn't survive.  Shirasaka, as noted above, tries to convince Ryūichi to reconsider his decision to quit the Akazawa's "family."  When Ryūichi says his decision is final, Shirasaka says their friendship has to end. 

     The three Kuroda brothers are given distinct personalities, but the characterisations are not very deep. Ryūichi's "duty" to his oyabun compels him to murder a woman he has romantic feelings for (he's even purchased an airplane ticket to help her escape); he then resigns his position in remorse.  At this point, he seems to have no plan--even when Akazawa's men brutally assault Saburo and wreck Eiji's nightclub, Ryūichi doesn't immediately retaliate.  I've seen some other films featuring Joe Shishido (he of the cheekbone implants) where he has some personality, but in Massacre Gun he spends most of the time glumly sitting around, staring into space. 

     Saburo is incensed at Akazawa's mistreatment of his older brother, but subsequently takes no active part in the fight against the gang (partly because his brothers shield him, partly because he's not inclined towards a criminal life); Eiji seems more opportunistic and hot-headed, urging Ryūichi to be assertive and attack Akazawa.  The film ends with surviving Kuroda brother Saburo running along the deserted highway towards the site of his brother's death. 

     The only other significant character in Massacre Gun is "Chico," the pianist/singer at the Club Rainbow.  Played by Ken Sanders--half Japanese, half-African American--Chico has a lot of screen time, although most of it is spent singing and playing the piano.  The Club Rainbow itself is one of the major locations of the film (the Kuroda brothers apparently live upstairs) and there are two extended dance numbers (the club's floor show): in one, a scantily-clad woman and man dance; in the second, a woman (the same woman?) does a strip-tease (possibly to full nudity, but she's definitely topless at the end).  Both of these are too long and have no bearing on the plot, unlike Chico's music, which is appropriately moody.

     In addition to the two extraneous dance sequences, Massacre Gun also includes several odd dialogue scenes between Saburo and his girlfriend.  In the first, they have a serious conversation as they zip around the bay in a speedboat!  Later, they go for a drive in Saburo's sports car, which they then park so they can walk around a landfill or something (it's possibly part of the same construction project as that shown in the finale, but in this sequence the audience sees barren sand dunes and piles of burning trees and other trash!).  I suppose these scenes are marginally more interesting than having the two characters sitting in a room or walking through a city park, but they still seem out of place (and it's never explained where Saburo got the money for a boat or a sports car). 

      Not boring or uninteresting, Massacre Gun is nonetheless unfocused and not especially stylish, well-written, or filled with fascinating characters.

[shijiujun]

History3 ep 13 summary - TUGS AT UR HEARTSTRINGS BUT it’s a good episode

I’m soooo tired but the energy has come again because of Trapped HAHAHAHA the thought of BIRTHDAY SCENE gives me strength to go on praying there is NO JAM on the live stream today we’ll see

OMG what the hell we don’t get a bed scene so the two bed scenes that the writers were talking about WE WILL GET THEM SOMETIME LATER it might be after birthday scene now that I think about it but also guys I think you’ll like this episode because the PLOT MOVES and there’s plot development thank god and we actually delve into serious stuff - the dilemma of Tang Yi as a mob boss and Shao Fei as a police officer finally comes into play here

Shao Fei runs off after Tang Yi kisses his wound (DAMN HE PRESSED HIS MOUTH TO THE WOUND FOR SO DAMN LONG?!) and asks if it still hurts and Tang Yi just laughs and says ‘he’s still too soft’ AND SHAO FEI IS LITERALLY HYPERVENTILATING IN THE TOILET THEN WE GET DOMESTIC SCENE - Tang Yi cooking in the kitchen for Shao Fei WITH AN APRON ON and Shao Fei is all: “it smells so good! is this the spicy dish we had with coke the other time?”

and wow BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD JUST SMILES AND GOES: “you can’t have spicy food or coke while you’re recovering”

shao fei: *pouts* “you’re so stingy, controlling this and that”

DOMESTIC HUSBANDS THEY ARE RIGHT HERE GUYS!!!!!

so they sit down and cute shao fei takes a bit of the dish and puts it on tang yi’s rice first before eating himself (i LURVE THIS) - and tang yi obviously is kind of amused and touched that shao fei did that, and as they’re about to eat that’s when tang yi broaches the topic of shao fei staying at the police station because it’s safer for him there, and obviously shao fei is all ‘WHY?!’ and demands to know a reason and i thought they were gonna start fighting but thank god they’re both soft smol bbs so they just look at each other waiting for the other person to say something, and tang yi goes: “i’ll tell you, but you must promise to stay out of it. if you can’t promise me that, i won’t tell you”

so shao fei obviously agrees and tang yi starts the flashback by saying: “do you know what it’s like to grow up in a place where no one cares about and loves you? that’s the kind of place i grew up in”

AND YES HERE WE GET TANG YI AND BOSS TANG AND HONG YE BACKSTORY (still waiting for Shao fei’s COME ON) - This entire like flashback tugged at my heartstrings guys TUGGED AT MY HEARTSTRINGS I almost cried?!!! - So young Tang Yi was adopted by adoptive parents because the mom wanted to adopt him but the mom died, so the dad was never supportive of his wife adopting tang Yi and when she died he became neglectful and abusive

We start off with young Tang Yi going home and it’s his birthday but obviously the terrible dad doesn’t notice, but Tang Yi goes to his room and eats food and is about to eat cake in front of the photo of him and his mom - the dad comes into the room and he yells at tang yi for going into his room to steal the photo of him and his mom - tang yi says that it’s not his, it’s a photo of him and his mom

and the dad goes: “she’s not your mom and i’m not your dad!”

tang yi doesn’t get why he can’t have the photo and snarks back and the dad slaps him, and says a bunch of other stupid shit, so tang yi leaves home with literally just the clothes on his back and the backpack (can’t rmb if he took the photo or not) - and this scene was truly realistic, i felt that slap and everything so kudos to the actors playing young tang yi and the dad?!

then next scene: we see a super skinny hong ye fighting with a bunch of older male teens over the bicycle they stole, and tang yi is somehow there as well, and they end up fighting with the older teens - long story short, boss tang (tang guo dong) passes by with a SUPER YOUNG LOOKING DAO YI OMG?! and they help tang yi and hong ye out - boss tang tells them to hurry and go home, and hong ye just simply says: “i don’t have a home”

boss tang stares at them for a while, and although tang yi doesn’t say a thing you can tell by his clothes and dirty face that obviously he has been on the streets for a while as well? so boss tang is all: “you guys hungry? want to eat some food?”

tang yi, the cautious, smart boy who knows that most strangers are up to no good, says no, while hong ye who really is hungry, says yes

anw in the next scene boss tang and tang yi are eating at the table alone - although tang yi isn’t eating (and boss tang mentions that hong ye has already eaten three bowls of rice), so boss tang leaves tang yi to eat by himself and give him some space while he goes check on hong ye to see whether she’s gone for a shower yet 

a year or less later, we see tang yi coming home to the house, and boss tang is cooking dinner - it looks fucking delicious btw and i haven’t eaten dinner so jfc i really wanted to reach into the screens for those golden fried mantous (buns) - anw, tang yi is holding onto a little box that is definitely a cake for his birthday and boss tang tells him that dinner is ready so he can come down after he’s put away his stuff - much later, the sky is dark and they’re eating already and BOSS TANG says there’s one more dish and then switches off all the lights, much to tang yi’s confusion

then boss tang comes out with a cake!!!! omg sweetest thing ever - after that they sit at the couch and make playdoh or clay figurines of ‘old tang’ and ‘little tang’ - it’s the cutest shit i’ve ever seen

so while tang yi is reminiscing all of this, he says: “boss tang gave me my first home, my first birthday etc. etc.” - basically boss tang gave him the home he never had, and then he says to shao fei: “but on that day four years ago, i watched him bleed to death in front of me - can you imagine in that moment i lost everything, and my life was ruined? do you think i can let the person who did this go?”

shao fei: “so that’s why you said you didn’t know anything, because you were waiting to take revenge yourself”

then: “tang yi, the best punishment for that person is to get justice under the law”

and of course tang yi insists that he will never ever give this person to the police, he WILL take revenge by his own hands - and shao fei dishes out what probably is the most realistic line in this entire damn show (and one that i think we’ve all been waiting for): “but tang yi, you know that if you take revenge on your own, as a police officer, i will have to catch you?”

and OMG THE HEARTBREAK BETWEEN THEM BOTH!!!! tang yi’s eyes are already watery and he just says: “you do what you need to do. i do what i need to do”

GOSH COULD THEY BE ANYMORE HEARTBREAKING LIKE WE BARELY JUST GOT THE HAPPY PARTS TWO EPISODES AGO?!! (and though i say that i think this episode was about time, because we really needed to move on the plot!!!!)

the next scene we get zhao zi asking online on a forum “what to do when a guy confesses to another guy” AND OMFG THIS IS HILARIOUS he gets the following responses:

“welcome to a whole new world”

“rmb to prepare some VASELINE”

#gaypanic!!!!!

LIKE WOW chinese netizens, you guys are real damn helpful?!!!! HAHAHAHHAA anw i totally died at the vaseline part and the funniest thing was zhao zi, at work, was READING THE RESPONSES OUT ALOUD like did you want the entire police station to know that jack, a well-known gangster and criminal, wants to bang you? and then yu qi who sits next to him (she’s recovered at least on the surface and moving on with her life ATTA GIRL YOU GO!!!) gives him the WHAT THE FUCK look at the things he’s saying - then zhao zi goes to shao fei and asks him the same thing, but shao fei was the one who confessed in this case, and zhao zi just shook his head and goes: “irrelevant, totally irrelevant”

then we move to tang yi’s house!!! omgggg TANG YI LOOKS DAMN FINE WITH THOSE EARRINGS AND THAT WHITE TURTLENECK i would like to thank the wardrobe in charge for picking out tang yi’s HELLA FINE CLOTHES

anw, hong ye and dao yi are there to discuss work, and she’s obviously still mad at dao yi, and tang yi then peruses some files on the project they’re on and picks a company - hong ye is like: “are you sure? they’ve only been around for 5 years”

and tang yi goes on and on about how he thinks the founder of the company is a good and capable person, and that hong ye should meet him because for work, and also secondly, because the founder actually told tang yi that he kind of liked hong ye at a party previously (so anw this founder is the guy we saw in the previews) - and then obviously dao yi is not happy about it and tells tang yi not to do that, but tang yi reminds him that: “if you keep on regretting, you’re going to miss her and you will miss this chance forever”

ah de turns up then and tells tang yi that chen wen hao has invited him for tea next week and tang yi says: “i’ll be there” - ah de tries to discourage him from gg but we all know that tang yi is doesn’t usually listen to ah de so he ignores him

the next scene: tang yi opens the box and we see the birthday hat from his first birthday with boss tang and the clay house he made when he was younger that represented the home that boss tang gave him, and he says to himself: “a year has passed again, happy birthday (to himself)”

AND YES LI ZHEN JIE AND BOSS TANG HAVE THE SAME EXACT BOX THAT THEY GAVE TO SHAO FEI AND TANG YI SO THEY ARE DEFINITELY CONNECTED AND EVERYTHING I really can’t wait to see how it all plays out!!! 

anw we’ll get all the crazy scenes like the drugging part and the knifing parts PLUS BIRTHDAY SCENE TOMORROW - everything exciting is only happening tmr so let’s all prepare for death tomorrow friends!!! i’m just glad they’re moving things along but i’ve really got no idea how they’re gonna squeeze:

1. dao yi and hong ye

2. jack and zhao zi

3. tang yi and shao fei being happy and all and omelette scene and DOMESTIC HUSBANDS 

4. slightly more backstory to reveal the incident four years ago

5. tang guo dong + li zhen storyline briefly at least

6. li zhen and shao fei relationship 

... all in the next 7 episodes, which is like about 3 hours worth of screen time, i really got no idea

i really liked this episode though! really liked that we saw young tang yi and younger boss tang!!! <3

[errantscriptor]

“Ane-san”

I know I wrote a thing about this before but I can’t find it so I’ll reiterate.

To say Kouyou is being referred to as ‘elder sister’ is grammatically incorrect. Ane and san are never put together when speaking directly to the person. Instead this archaic way of combining things has been adopted by Yakuza/mafia types. It refers to ‘distinguished elder sister’ if taken literally but is used to indicate highly respectable females within the organization (usually the boss’ wife since it’s not typical for females to actually hold roles but in BSD it’s obviously different) The title itself gives off a very ‘gangster’ vibe while still showing extreme respect. 

This is how my portrayal of Kou sees the word and those who refer to her as it. She does not want to be considered ‘sister’ to people like Dazai... XD

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic: An Internal Affair - Chapter 3 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: The Flash Pairing: Leonard Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————

"You'll never believe what happened today," Len says, settling into the chair next to Mick's bed. He's panting lightly, trying to regain his breath, and his skin is covered by a sheen of sweat; he was a little late, and he suspects his physical therapist took those two minutes out on him.

Shlomit has no mercy.

To be fair, mercy isn't what he's paying her for. Little by painful little, Len is getting better. No one can deny it, not even Shlomit, and she's even agreed to let him try out maybe using a more discreet leg brace instead of always using his good friends the crutches.

Fucking bullets. It's been four months already, but the bullet to his leg tore through muscle and nerves at a bad angle and the bullet to his gut nicked his spine in a dangerous fashion, and he maybe - maybe! - went back to work a little too fast and tore up a whole bunch of stuff again.

So even after all this time, he’s still here.

He can't wait to be up and about and able to move freely again. The new leg brace - accompanied by a back brace to help keep his spine straight - won't give him that, especially since he's only allowed to use it for an hour or two a day in the beginning, but still, it's progress.

Len is determined to make progress.

(And if that's in part because Len can't quite crush the superstitious hope that the second he no longer needs Shlomit's services, Mick will finally wake up and be the one in need of them? No one needs to know that.)

"No, really," he says to Mick, whose eyes are closed today. Sometimes they're open, and he gargles words without meaning, and hope will seize at Len's heart only to break it all over again when nothing comes of it. The doctors say it's a good sign, a promising sign, that it means there's hope that Mick will wake up out soon, but they've been saying that for a month or more. "Today was, quite literally, unbelievable."

He settles down more comfortably in his chair so that he has a good view of the window. He doesn't look at Mick; not looking makes it easier to pretend that Mick's not actually comatose in a hospital room. That instead he's just lying in bed, too lazy to bother getting up, listening to Len ramble on about whatever-and-nothing as always while rolling his eyes and humoring him with an occasional grunt and a "Sure, boss, whatever you say" or two that Len can imagine so well that sometimes he feels like he can almost hear it.

"Let me start at the very beginning - a very good place to start," he tacks on, unable to help it. Mick likes musicals; Len has no idea where that came from, but Mick took it upon himself to ensure that Len was appropriately educated as to them and now Len keeps dropping references into conversation no matter who he's around - fellow criminals, dangerous gangers, or the Police Commissioner, to name a few semi-recent examples.

It's embarrassing, is what it is.

"I had court in the morning,” Len continues, “the last bit of testifying against Cichowski - he's the one I told you about, the cop who was taking bribes from the Families to slow-walk certain investigations so they had a chance to cover up the evidence? Anyway, that was harrowing enough, given that the defense brought in his weeping wife and a whole wall of blue to sit out there in the audience, glaring death at me like that would make me think twice about what I was doing or stutter or something. Didn’t work, of course; I don’t regret testifying for a second. After all, no one made him take those bribes..."

Len's a cold-hearted sonovabitch, he’s the first to admit it (and he's pretty sure his mother would agree with him that Lewis is a total bitch), but the whole experience had still been fairly awful even by his unduly elevated standards.

The first person to go down for corruption in a given precinct is always the hardest, because the assholes always think their precious blue line will save them right up until the moment it doesn't.

Cichowski had been the first one in this precinct.

At least Singh’d had the dignity not to show up.

Len'd finished up his testimony in the morning, last one to go before closing arguments because the defense wanted one last try at breaking his story as their last desperate hope of victory. It hadn't worked, of course. And then during the midday break Cichowski's wife somehow got ‘accidentally’ let into the same hallway as Len – accidentally, his crippled ass – and she took advantage of the fact that he moved slowly to come right up to him and start screaming about how he was destroying her husband's life, and her life, and the lives of her little boys, five and three, and didn't he feel any shame about it?

"I didn't make him take bribes just because he couldn't afford to buy that fancy house of yours without 'em," Len pointed out to her. "That was all his own doing."

"Is that what a good man's life is worth to you?" she spit at him. "Sure, he took a few hundred dollars -" Wrong by an extremely large magnitude; Len's seen the figures. "- of course he did, they're the Families, this is Central; you don't cross the Families, not in this town, but he didn't do anything that wrong -"

"We have proof of him dragging his feet on investigations -" Len started to say, since he didn’t want to get into the issue of the Families.

Honestly, he doesn’t blame most people for giving in to Family pressure; Central City is what it is and all the clean-up in the world is still just starting to make a dent for the first time in forever. It’s just that he believes that people who are willing to give in to the Families have no business becoming or being or remaining cops. Cichoswki should've turned in his badge the second after he took the first bribe - he could've gone to work in security or something, and Len would've not thought twice about him.

"So he went slow a few times!" she shouted. "That's not that bad!"

Len isn't exactly proud of how he reacted to that.

He gave her his best smile filled with bared teeth and his iciest glare, the one he perfected on Family gangsters instead of suburban housewives, and while she was still quailing a bit from that, he asked, "Do you know, Mrs. Cichoswki, that most kidnapping cases are solved in the first twenty-four hours, or not at all?"

"I - what?"

"You've got about twenty-four, maybe forty-eight hours to get a good lead," he repeated. "I mention that only because your husband was assigned several kidnapping cases, during the period he was getting paid off."

"I -"

"You've got two kids, dontcha, Mrs. Cichowski? Five and three, you said. And if you go back to the house where you left 'em today and the babysitter meets you at the door in tears and tells you one of 'em just got snatched by some man in a van, but don't worry, she's called the police, and they say don't you worry, ma'am, they'll be getting right on it - well, Mrs. Cichowski, I guess you'll be just fine if they're just a bit slow getting on it, won't you? Maybe they take an extra couple of days here, couple of free weekends there, that’s no problem by your standards, ain't that right, Mrs. Cichowski? You wouldn't hold it against 'em if they traded a bit of speed and your darling baby's best chance of rescue in exchange for, what'd you call it, a few hundred bucks?"

She was quiet, pale-faced and tight-lipped.

"I mean, maybe it's just that you don't give a fuck as long as it's other people's kids your husband's selling out, but hey, what do I know? Maybe it’s more straightforward – just, y’know, fuck the kid, right? You can always have another, s’long as the money’s good enough," Len added, unable to keep himself from doing it because he's an asshole like that, because he hates corruption so much it overcomes his self-control sometimes, and - and, well, because he's seen all too well the sort of parent a corrupt cop can be.

Of course, that's when she went for his face, nails extended.

Luckily, the court officer was there nearby and yanked her away before she did any actual damage – or, more accurately, before Len was forced to bash her over the head with his crutch to ensure that she didn’t cause any actual damage.

He didn’t press charges, of course. No need; the inevitable guilty verdict came down less than twenty minutes later, and he figured that was punishment enough.

Still.

What a fucking day.

"So that's how it started," Len tells Mick, shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I probably shoulda been a bit more sympathetic about it, her losing the nice safe foundations of her life like that - losing the father of her kids, probably losing the main family income, not to mention Cichowski's pension - fuck it, Mick, you're such a goddamn softy, leave off! I only reacted that way 'cause I'm all but sure she knew what he was up to and couldn’t actually bring herself to care until the consequences started coming home to roost."

He shakes his head, his eyes closed as he imagines the smirk on Mick's face turning into a mock glare as Len impugns his impartiality and general pretended attitude of apathy towards the world, not that Len's ever really believed in that anyway.

If Mick was really apathetic about it all, he wouldn't be here.

He wouldn't -

No. Len's not thinking about what ifs now. He's not thinking about Mick.

He’s not thinking about Mick’s well-hidden kindness and sympathy, about the way he always pretended to be tough but always checked in to make sure people were doing okay, even people he didn’t know, just because that’s the way he is – or at least, was –

No.

He’s not thinking about Mick.

He's talking about his day.

"Anyway," Len says, clearing his throat. "That's not even the interesting part, you know? I went back to the office after that -"

And arrived to face a solid wall of angry, hateful eyes.

That was fine. He’d been expecting that.

" - and, well, I figured I could do with a bit of time outside the office, doing something else."

He remembers seeing Danvers' worried face through that crowd of implacable rage. He waved jauntily at her before he left, calling out cheerfully that he’d be in later because he had another appointment he needed to get to, and she looked relieved that he wasn't going to throw the precinct’s newfound vulnerability back in their faces.

Maybe on another day he would, but not today. He’s a spiteful asshole, but he’s not dumb enough to incite a full-on riot among armed police.

"Didn't really have all that much to do outside, though," Len says, making a face. "Office filled with pissed off pigs, all of our favorite bars are filled with Family informants ready to tell their masters that they have a good clear shot at me, all our old haunts -" Too empty to go to, without Mick. "- and even Allen was too busy to talk when I swung by Jitters."

Len pauses, imagining Mick's response to that and smiling. He's maybe mentioned Allen a time or twenty.

Or maybe more.

And Mick's always been the number one fan of Len's love-life - or, perhaps more accurately, the number one critic of Len's lack thereof.

"Okay, yeah," he says. "You've got me. I like the kid. Doesn't mean I ain't gonna nail him to the ground - not like that, you jackass, get your mind outta the gutter - when I find out what lies he's been cooking up."

He winces a little at that, his smile fading away. It'd been good to see Allen that morning - Allen has an infectious sort of joy about him that's positively catching - but Len is investigating him, not making friends.

And certainly not dating, no matter how attractive Allen is.

That's why he's already regretting their scheduled dinner, at least a little. Yes, it'd be good to get more info from the main source, especially since he'll have a few hours to work on Allen rather than the five-ten-fifteen minute intervals they’ve had so far, but doing the investigation personally like this will only heighten the betrayal when Allen eventually gets dragged away to prison on corruption charges.

Len can see his face now, upset and hurt and angry and shocked and horrified, just like that woman from this morning...

He doesn't want to see that.

But unluckily for Allen, Len's very good at betrayal - as Mick could testify.

If he ever wakes up, that is.

"Anyway," Len says, putting the Allen question from his mind for now and ignoring the pang at the thought of sweet, smiling Allen stuck in the harshness of Iron Heights. Honestly, Allen has the sort of personality that would probably let him make friends even in there - not that that would help make it any less of a miserable pit to be in - not that the fact that Allen would be sad to be in prison even matters, since if he was there, it’d be because Allen'd chosen to be corrupt in the first place, bringing all the consequences down on his own head. "As I was saying, I didn't have anything better to do, so I ended up ringing a few old buddies of ours - neutrals, all, the sort that'd sell to anyone, even cops, the dirty ratfuckers that they are, but they're all I've got left right now, being as I got outed as a pig myself – and long story short, they got me a heads up about an absolute beaut of a job about to go down on Grand."

He smiles a little at that. One of the biggest perks of being in Internal Affairs is that his mandate generally applies to cops, not criminals. Sure, strictly speaking he ought to be stopping any illegal conduct he sees happening, and of course he won't hesitate to call for back-up if he sees something that'll actually harm people, but a nice clean in-transit robbery conducted by a reputable thief known for covering all the angles and minimizing casualties?

Nah.

He’ll leave that for the ‘real’ cops to stop, if they can.

Besides, as an IA guy, it's good for Len to know which armored car drivers can be bought.

"You'd have loved to hate this one," Len assures Mick. "Guy got a decent crew together; had liquid nitrogen portable backpack form to pop the door; pulled out to chase the truck in motorbikes the second the truck passed Friedman, gave the driver a goose to scare him into going faster before coming in for the final hit, then caught him right in that sweet spot between Glenview and Highwood, with all the police over two minutes thirteen seconds away and shouting about it helplessly on their speakers - beautiful. Just beautiful."

Len feels his smile go a bit wicked. "Pity it didn't help them."

He shakes his head, his smile fading back into seriousness.

"The job was planned out perfectly," he tells Mick. "Perfectly, and you know how rare it is that I say that. Hell, this is the sort of thing I’d’ve put together, back in the day. It should've worked. But - you remember how I told you that Danvers was getting really into this one blog about weird events in Central? How she kept nattering on about some sort of weird 'streak' phenomena and I laughed her off?"

He makes a face. "Turns out I owe her an apology -"

He'll buy her a super-jumbo box of donuts the way he always does; she’s a sugar fiend.

"- because the Streak itself showed up to mess the job up."

Mess it up thoroughly, no less. Not only were the crew unable to get their target (a super-sized diamond of all dumb things – who were they even going to fence something like that to, anyhow?), they'd tried to fire at the blur of light and ended up scratching one of the bought-off guards, who promptly got whisked away by the Streak to a nearby hospital (Len'd called and checked – the guy was fine).

"That got my attention, though," Len says. "How'd a local phenomenon like that know how to stop a crime? Or to take someone to a hospital after they got shot? That's sentience, that's what it is. Thinking. So I got curious and pulled the surveillance tapes. And you'll never guess what I found."

He pulls the laptop out of his bag and flips it open, looking at the image that's still frozen on his screen.

"Looks like our Streak ain't an it. It's a him."

A figure barely visible, more a blur than anything else, but with a definitely visible hand, a raised arm, and the outlines of a head. A human being; one moving too fast to be spotted naturally, yes, but a human being regardless.

A human being who is choosing to fight crime on his own, without authorization, without working with the justice system, without being watched over to keep to the rules.

A vigilante.

In Len's own city.

How dare he.

Len bets this guy was inspired by that shadowy Hood vigilante over in Starling, that hypocritical murderous fuck. Maybe even there was some inspiration from that old time urban legend over in Gotham, the shadow Bat that supposedly stalks the streets at night meting out Gotham-style justice without any restraint, leaving broken bones and concussions and worse in its wake.

And sure, maybe this one's just starting by messing up crimes in progress, but Len knows far, far too well how quickly things go wrong when someone who views themselves as enforcing the law starts thinking of themselves as being above the law.

He wonders grimly how soon it'll be before the deaths start. Death, served quick as a blink and the perp gone in a flash. Best way to be sure a criminal won’t re-offend or betray you, after all...

(if you're in, you're in - and if you're out...)

Len stares at the image a moment longer, then shakes his head to dispel the memories. He leans over towards the bed to show the image to the still-quiet Mick. Even though he knows it's dumb, the thought of not showing Mick, of not pretending that Mick can actually hear him despite his deep sleep...it's too painful to contemplate.

He puts the laptop away.

"Anyway, I'm having Danvers dig into all the mysterious shit that's been going on in the city recently," Len continues. "She’s real good at that stuff – runs in the family, apparently; she’s got a cousin who’s an investigative journalist, I think? Either way, she’s looking at everything: murders, disappearances, the like. Gonna pull on my underground contacts, too; see if they've heard anything, seen anything. No one ever pays attention to the cardboard brigade."

Len's got no idea who first thought to organize the homeless people in Central City into an information network, setting up a central station where upstanding criminals like Len can go ask a question and have it be spread out all over the city, and, in return for the opportunity or the intel he gets, he pays regularly into a distribution fund that keeps all the homeless in the city (both informants and otherwise) fed and in coats and shoes.

Len's never been bad enough off to have to join their ranks, but it's been close a time or two, the times when he couldn't access any of his legit money without blowing his cover and he couldn't get enough illegal work in to cover expenses. Mick helped him then, too, just as Len helped him whenever he got kicked out of yet another place for lighting fires...

Don't think about the past. It brings nothing but pain.

He shakes his head and forces himself to continue.

"Now, I know what you're going to ask -"

If Mick ever wakes up, that is, which he might not. Looks like the future isn't safe to think about either.

Clearly Len's going to have to embrace living in the now.

"- and I'm at least 90% sure that he ain't a robot. No, I don't know how he's moving that fast, maybe some sort of super-suit tech or something, but the way he moves, that raised hand like a runner? That’s definitely organic."

Len pauses, frowns, thinks about Mick's response - it'd be snide, of course, and insisting that he hates all of Len's stupid sci-fi shows and movies even though they're no stupider than Mick's own dumb ninja thing, and yet also usually insightful.

"Could be technorganic, sure," he concedes, caught on an intriguing line of thought. "Like the ones in that film you like ragging on so much, yeah. And if he-she-them-it is like that film, then yeah, it's possible that they're - he's? - communicating with something, or someone, and getting instructions from a distance like a drone...huh. Y’know, if he's corresponding with some sort of main entity - there could be radio transmissions, or over-Internet transmissions using the local WiFi. If I could just figure out another place where the Streak's likely to be, maybe manage to stall him a bit before he runs onwards, I might be able to tap into that communication line. If he's talking with someone, that can't be at super-speed or else it'd be unintelligible on their end."

Len starts to smile. "And it won't be all that hard to set up a place where he'll be, either, assuming he's tapped into the local police radio to hear all about ongoing crimes for him to stop. No – don’t worry, Mick, I’m not gonna go up against a super-speed vigilante blind! I could get some untraceable weapons from that fence, you remember him, Bertolli; he’s always good for some stolen stuff. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m a pig now, I’ve got a licensed pea-shooter and everything, but if I use stolen hardware to start, that means that even with the best surveillance in the world, the Streak won’t realize I'm a cop until I’ve laid eyes on him. Of course, before I get to that, I need to get some place that’ll agree to me using it as an ambush point -"

And best of all, it would be fun. That old adrenaline rush of planning and executing a job...sure, hunting vigilantes isn’t quite in IA's bailiwick, but whatever, IA or no IA, he's still a cop.

Might as well use that fact.

Len grins at Mick. "Good ideas all," he says happily. "I wouldn't have thought of it without needing to defend myself from you on your usual bullshit. As always, you're a real lifesaver -"

Len's voice catches in his throat.

Lifesaver.

How true that is.

He breathes in, long and slow and shaky, and exhales it all out again, the way he always does whenever he remembers – as he always remembers – that terrible day when he thought he was going to die, and in the process lost one of the few reasons he had to live.

Len never even got a chance to tell Mick the truth about himself.

Never told him - anything.

Never told Mick how much Len appreciated him, never told him that he was Len's best friend, his brother, that he loved him and that he’d always love him no matter what was between them, never told him that Len never meant to hurt him by keeping all those secrets - all those lies -

"I asked Allen out," Len says abruptly, desperately casting out for another subject to talk about. He can’t think about that. He can’t. "Not on a date, of course; that’d be unethical. Just a dinner to learn more about him. Danvers' idea, she has this stupid idea that I should date him, but just because that's a terrible idea doesn't mean that going to dinner with him isn't a decent one. I've already figured out that he's Doc Allen's kid, you remember, that guy from Iron Heights, the wrongly accused one, but if anything that counts in his favor -"

No, he can't. He can’t do this. He can't stop the thoughts, the feeling of failure, of guilt, of sorrow.

He leans forward in his chair, exhaling hard, dropping his head into his hands and pressing at his temples like he can keep the thoughts away by physical force.

"I'm not going to dinner with Allen just because I like him. It's because I don't have anyone else to go with," he admits, his throat sore and tight. "I don't - I don't make friends easy, you know that. Lisa's off living her own life – we still talk, you know, but she’s not – she hasn’t been – it’s okay, really. It’s just I don’t think she’s entirely forgiven me for getting hurt, after all the times I promised her that no matter all the risks I was taking, that I’d be fine. I broke that promise. She’s still pissed, and you know how we Snarts hold a grudge. And, I mean, I like Danvers plenty, she’s a peach, but she’s still an employee, and you -"

Len swallows. It hurts. "Well, you know me. I get too caught up with work without you to kick my ass about it, you know how it is. And this Allen kid -"

He scrubs at his face. If he were anyone else, he'd say his eyes were getting wet, but he's him, so they're not.

"He's nice," he says. "He's - he's fun, for what little I know of him. Really fun, not the put-on-a-charming-face fun that I put on for marks. And I know you'd be telling me I ought to drop the work inquiry, just let it go, focus on the real bad guys and date the one that's just a maybe-criminal because lord knows it's hard to find someone who meets my ridiculous standards, I know that's what you'd be telling me, but - I can't. I can't. He disappeared for nine months, Mick. Nine months unaccounted for -"

Len's hands are trembling.

"Nine months in a coma, supposedly," he says bleakly, staring at his hands, watching them shake uncontrollably. The tools of his trade, when he was a criminal, his most prized possession, and now look at them. His dad would’ve called the whole thing a disgrace. "And that's the problem, ain't it? Nine months. You’re almost halfway there already. It’ll be nine months soon enough. Nine months in a coma...that's how I know he's got to be corrupt. That he’s got to be hiding something. ‘cause the docs have told me all about what I ought to expect when - if - you wake up, and exactly none of it is running around the city with a brand new set of abs in the best physical shape of your life."

Len closes his eyes.

"He's got to be corrupt," he repeats, even though every time he's met Allen in person his instincts scream at him that Allen's not, that Allen's sincere, that Allen's one of those rarest of rare creatures, the honest policeman. CSI, whatever. The good man. Just like old Doc Allen, back in prison, the way Len had taken one look at him and known that the guy hadn’t murdered his wife, he really hadn't, no matter what the accusation said, and the only reason he isn’t still appealing his unfair sentence is because he’s given up. Just like Len's always known that Mick’s a good man, too, underneath the violence and the pyromania; the way Len knows down to his bones that Mick’s the best man he’s ever met or will ever meet. "You don't understand, Mick, he's got to be. There's no choice in it for me. Because if he ain't corrupt - if he's telling the truth -"

He looks at Mick, forces himself to look at Mick as he is right now, not as Len likes to imagine him to be, but the way he really is: lying there like a lump, still and unresponsive, his muscle mass slowly starting to fade away and atrophy despite the best efforts of medical science, connected to a dozen wires and other machines that stand imposing and silent and are the only things keeping him alive now that his body has decided it doesn't want to do the work itself. Burns everywhere, even after the skin grafts; snarls of raised white scar tissue and shiny angry red marks instead of flesh, still healing so very slowly all these months later.

The damage done – to the muscle, to the nerves, to the bone, to the heart, the lungs, all of his insides – damage that would take years to fully recover from, even by the best possible estimate –

"If he's telling the truth," Len says, refusing to tear his eyes away. Forcing himself to look at what he’s done. "If he's telling the truth, then I might start hoping for a miracle again. And I can't, Mick. Not another disappointment. Not another heartbreak. Not another hope for me to make an ass out of myself over, just for the meagerest chance that you might wake up and be yourself again, just like before. I – I can't go through that again, Mick. I can’t. And that's a shitty reason to go after someone, I know it is, even if he probably is corrupt, but - I've got to do this. I have to know. You know how obsessive I get when I've got my teeth in something."

Mick doesn't respond, because he's not actually listening. He's in a coma. A coma Len's responsible for.

"I've been eating badly, without you," Len tells him. "The way I always do. You'd be pissed at me for letting myself go this way."

Nothing.

As always, nothing.

"Please," he says, and Leonard Snart never says please to anyone. He never begs anyone for anything, not even for his very life, but he's begging now. "Please, Mick. Even if it's to yell at me about my diet or to make fun of me for my crush on Allen, I don't care. I don't - I won't even care if you hate me for being a pig when you wake up, or if you think I betrayed you, or if you never want to see me again, just as long as I know that you're okay. Just - please."

Len buries his face in his hands.

He doesn’t cry – he can’t; his father beat it out of him years ago. But somehow his shoulders keep shaking.

"Please wake up."