#shout out to the screen writers here who put all these random facts and had to make him say all this nerdy shit

[hopecel]

in the top 10 list of guys who will end up falling for a crypto scam

[mandospace]

Personal Sun (Frankie Morales x F!Reader)

Summary: Beach day with your Frankie and the boys.

Word Count: 2,042

Warnings: A few swear words, slight allusion to some ~grownup activities~ but only if you squint.

A/N: Hi so I know I said that I was going to post my PrincessBride!DinDjarin AU first but then the lovely @autumnleaves1991-blog’s Writer Wednesday (and compiled by the amazing @clydesducktape !) for this week popped up and I was just struck by inspiration so I had to write it. This is my first time ever participating in Writer Wednesday and also my first time writing for Frankie Morales (whom I love dearly). I hope you all enjoy it and if you want more Frankie, please let me know and send in some requests!

MASTERLIST

It was too beautiful of a day to spend inside.

After weeks of storms and being cooped up all day, you were ready to feel the sun on your skin and breathe the salty air of the sea. You weren’t sure when the last time it was that you had gone to the beach, but your body ached to feel the cool breeze and warm waters. Your mind was made up as soon as the sun shone through your window— you were going to the beach no matter what today.

Sending out a quick text to your boyfriend and the boys telling them to meet you there, you practically skipped to your closet to pick out which swimsuit you would wear. Your phone pinged with their excited answers and them deciding who was bringing what to your impromptu beach party. Frankie, your boyfriend, texted you separately from the group chat to let you know that he would pick you up. Just as it always did when his name flashed across your screen, your stomach filled with butterflies and warmth.

Frankie was on his way and would be at your place within a few minutes so you quickly grabbed a random swimsuit from your closet. By the time you slipped it on and pulled your dress over your head, you heard the creaky doors of his old truck slam shut.

You had nearly tripped over your spare shoes that were scattered throughout your home in your haste to reach the door. When you pulled it open, you were met with his kind smile that set your soul aflame.

Frankie let out a low whistle whilst his eyes trailed over your figure. “How is it that you get more beautiful every time I see you?”

Your cheeks flushed with the heat of his compliment and you playfully slapped his shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not,” he grinned, wrapping an arm around your waist. “Now quick, get into my car before your boyfriend catches us.” Frankie pulled you behind him and you couldn’t help the giggles that slipped past your lips at his goofiness.

He swung open the passenger door, holding it open for you. “But seriously, you really do look beautiful today.” His hands gripped your hips and he hoisted you into his truck, but before he could walk away from you, your arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him close.

“Thank you, Frankie,” you said and placed a sweet kiss to his lips, smiling at the soft breath he let out. He placed a few more pecks to your lips before pulling away and hopping into the driver’s seat.

“Anything for my girl.”

~~~~

“Fish! Come on in, the water’s great!” Benny yelled from the ocean, splashing at Santi who had tried to jump on his back.

“I’m good from over here!” Frankie yelled back, content to just lay on his beach towel next to you as he read his book. You were doing the same, leaning against your boyfriend’s shoulder and soaking up as much sun you could possibly get. For it being such a nice day, the beach was practically empty, leaving you and your small party to spread out and enjoy the waves.

“If you wanna go in you can, Frankie,” you set your book down and touched his warm chest that was slowly getting darker as the day went on. “Don’t stay back just for me.”

Frankie grabbed the hand that rested on his chest and brought it to his mouth, brushing his lips over your knuckles. “For your information, I am not staying back just for you.”

“Oh really?” you quirked an eyebrow up at his teasing tone.

“Really,” he briefly took off his hat and ran his fingers through his soft curls. “I happen to be reading a very good book and the fact that I have a beautiful woman lying next to me has nothing to do with the fact that I’m not going in the water.”

“Mhm,” you tried to hold back your smile. “Well, I’m going to go take a quick dip and cool off.” You stood from your towel, brushing off whatever sand that clung to your skin. His eyes were on you when you pulled off your dress, revealing the black swimsuit that was underneath. You could practically see his eyes darken in the bright sunlight at the image before him. “Care to join?”

“Well, I’m sure I can finish this book some other time,” he put down his book hastily before scrambling up to join you. Frankie interlaced his fingers with yours and the two of you leisurely strolled to the water.

As soon as your feet touched the water, you let out a sharp yelp in surprise. “Benny, you fucking liar!” You could feel the goosebumps erupting over your skin. “It’s freezing!”

“Just gotta get used to it, babe!” he shouted back through his laughter.

“It’s okay, honey,” Frankie’s grip on you tightened and he began to pull you further into the water. “I’ll keep you warm.”

Begrudgingly, you let him pull you deeper into the ocean which only got colder the further you went. Your body eventually became used to the cold temperature and reached equilibrium, but you weren’t about to tell your boyfriend who held you close to his chest that yet.

Frankie was like your own personal sun, radiating warmth and happiness into your life. No matter the surrounding temperature, he burned hot and pulled you in with his sunny disposition. He was your walking heater that gladly wrapped his arms around you whenever you wanted him and his warmth. Whether that be on a chilly day when the layers weren’t enough or in the middle of the night when your hands were freezing and you placed your icy hands against his warm belly. He was your heater now as the two of you slowly drifted in the waves, arms wrapped right around your waist to pull you close against his wide chest.

“Better?” Frankie’s voice interrupted your thoughts of him.

You hummed in agreement, turning in his grasp so that you could loop your arms around his neck. You rested your forehead against his chest, pressing a light kiss over his heart. “Much better.”

The two of you stayed like that for a while, slowly swaying alongside the waves as you both enjoyed the sun. Frankie’s hands kept drifting lower and lower, until eventually he was kneading the soft flesh of your ass. Just as you were about to make some teasing remark, his hands moved so that they cupped the soft flesh of your thighs and tugged you up until your legs were wrapped around his waist.

“Frankie!” you said his name in shock whilst dissolving into laughter at the new position. His hands remained firmly on the underside of your ass, holding your weight and tugging you impossibly closed. The new position left you slightly taller than him and he had to tilt his head back to meet your eyes.

“Just wanted to hold my girl, s’all,” he shrugged before pouting his lips for a kiss. You rolled your eyes at your boyfriend and placed your hands on either side of his scruffy face, tilting your head down and his back so that you could press your lips against his.

No matter how many times you had kissed your Frankie, each felt like the first. You’ve had ones that felt sweet and tasted even sweeter. You’ve had some that were all teeth and broken moans of pleasure. But the kind that you were sharing with him right now was your favorite. It was the kind that took your breath away with a sharp gasp, leaving you to breathe in as much of him as possible. It was the kind where his tongue lazily grazed over your bottom lip, teasing you into wanting more. It was the kind where your fingers tangled into his chocolate curls and pulled those sweet noises that you oh so loved to hear from him. It was the kind where his touch left sparks in their wake; where you swore you could feel your heart threatening to leap out of your chest because of the insane amount of love and adoration you held for this man.

“Hey!” Benny yelled from the beach where his brother had begun stacking wood for the bonfire that was happening later. “This is a public beach so you two can’t be doing that!”

Rather than breaking your kiss, Frankie extended his arm out to the side and flipped Benny the bird in response. You managed to see Benny get all red in the face when you peaked your eyes open, causing you to giggle against his lips.

“Seriously, man!” Will joined in. “There are kids around!”

That one caught your attention and the two of you pulled away and saw a mother of two shaking her head at the both of you, dragging her small children behind her to the car.

“Oops,” you winced, trying to wave at the poor woman and her children in apology. Frankie’s cheeks were tinged with embarrassment and he dropped his forehead to your chest to try to hide his face.

“We just emotionally scarred some 4 year-olds,” he mumbled into your skin.

“I’m sure they won’t even remember a thing, Frankie baby,” you smiled and placed a small kiss to his hairline. Wiggling from his grasp, your feet met the soft sand of the ocean and you took his hand in yours. “C’mon, let’s get back on the beach and dry off before we emotionally scar some fish.”

“Oh God, do you think we did that?”

~~~~

The rest of the day at the beach passed in relaxation between periods of sunbathing and swimming. The sun was finally setting over the horizon and your little party of five made their way to the bonfire that Will had built. You all sat around the fire, soaking up its warmth while you ate the packed sandwiches you had thought to bring this morning. It was peaceful, just your little group around the fire telling stories everyone had heard hundreds of times already. The teasing eventually shifted from you and Frankie over to Benny who had forgotten to put sunscreen on one spot of his back and was now sunburned.

Frankie and you were leaned against the log you had found, his arm thrown over your shoulders and tucking you into his body. He had thought to grab the blanket he always kept in his truck and draped it over your laps bringing extra warmth that was much needed during the chilly night.

His thumb was lazily tracing shapes and patterns into the skin of your arm and the repetitive movement was putting you to sleep. The boys had moved on to talking about something else now, all four of them animatedly expressing their opinions. You could feel Frankie’s deep voice rumbling through his chest from where your ear pressed against it. The noise and vibrations were soothing and the overall scent of the salty ocean, fire, and something just Frankie had you falling asleep in his arms.

Just as you were about to nod off, Frankie’s hushed whisper tugged at the edge of your consciousness. “Go to sleep, honey.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to your hairline.

“M’not tired,” you mumbled, burying your face into his shirt.

“Sure you’re not,” he chuckled, lips kissing your hairline. His free hand tucked a stray lock of hair behind your ear and caressed your cheek. “S’okay, I’ll wake you up when we are leaving.”

“Promise?” It was getting harder and harder to stay conscious; you were just so comfortable and at home in your Frankie’s arms.

“I promise,” you could feel his smile against your scalp. “Now get some sleep.”

“Frankie?” your voice was sleepy and you could barely think.

“Hm?”

“I love you,” you couldn’t keep your mind awake any longer and began to succumb to sleep.

“I love you too, honey.” You didn’t see Frankie’s responding smile as he repeated your words, but it could have easily outshined any sun in any galaxy.

You may call him your personal sun, but you were the one that ignited the fire within him.

[palukoo]

So! @thxngam and @claudiasjeancregg enabled me to talk about that scene in Dead Irish Writers and oh boy did I run with it! 

So... the scene is super interesting for several reasons... let’s dive in...

It’s a scene that’s just women, and, by West Wing standards, several women, and you realize you’ve never really seen all the main women together without the men before that, I think. I mean, you also really haven’t seen how Donna and Abbey interact, which is why this scene is so good

The four of them actually have two scenes with this sort of thing off the top of my head-- this, and then during Zoey’s kidnapping arc with Amy and CJ trying to stop Abbey from going into the press room (though Donna doesn’t talk in that one)

I probably will bring this up again but on top of this not being a dynamic the audience has seen before, I don’t think it’s a dynamic that they’ve had before in this combination... like... 

Any group of two of them I will accept having spent some time together, though I doubt Donna and Abbey are close (partially due to the power dynamics I’ll get into later) and Donna and Amy don’t know each other well

Any group of the three of them? Not so much

Amy, CJ, and Abbey maybe, because they do say or imply that Amy knows both of them and is friends (?) with both of them before we ever see her, but... I don’t see her as being particularly close with the campaign or administration, so... (but I’m SO glad we get it here and during the kidnapping arc)

Amy, CJ, and Donna is a dynamic I adore and that I think this scene kinda opens the door for it in a lot of ways but again, since I don’t think Amy and Donna are close at all at this point and Amy’s not that close the the administration at this point, I don’t see it

CJ, Donna, and Abbey I will absolutely accept actually but not in any sort of like meaningful or non professional context. The way Donna reacts to being invited in in this scene? This is new for her

Amy, Donna, and Abbey? Nope. Love it as a concept, but nope

So the four of them? Yeah, no

Which is relevant in like. The way women get to interact on screen and like. The way women are isolated in male dominated fields

(Amy, working for the WLC, is certainly in a less male dominated subset of the male dominated field of politics, as is Donna since a bunch of the assistants are women, and I get that Abbey has a very specific and gendered position in the show, but she and CJ are both absolutely in male driven fields)

And it’s relevant because Abbey’s shifting her anger into this like, feminist framing where she doesn’t not have a point (I’ll get there) but it’s also not really the whole story at all, which is why I think it was very smart of them to have it be this group to call her on it, because from any of the guys it would’ve been... easily yikes?

The other absolutely crazy thing here is the power dynamics which I know people have talked about before and CJ even calls attention to but you’ve got like

Abbey is sort of CJ’s boss, and her friend, but the nature of their positions in the administration are weird and they’re both honestly undermined a fair amount but a lot of the admin doesn’t take First Lady/Abbey seriously, so! It’s interesting!

Not in a direct sort of way but CJ clearly has more power than Donna, and they’re also friends

Do the math on Abbey and Donna, plus again we don’t really see them interact before this

Amy sort of exists outside of this, because she’s the only one who doesn’t work in the White House, but that also like. Is a dynamic in it of itself. She also definitely has a more visible and overtly powerful position than Donna and is sort dating Donna’s boss, so?

Also Abbey used to babysit for Amy which just makes this. A lot!

So I’m gonna try to sort of break the scene up into parts and do it like that. If I wanted to make this even longer, I would start before this scene because there’s a lot of relevant context/lead up, but I’ll just mention it

Donna’s just found out she’s not a citizen which is a lot

Amy’s kind of pissed at Josh who’s kind of pissed at her

Abbey’s also kind of pissed at Josh probably, especially if she caught any of what he was saying to Amy

Abbey didn’t want a whole thing and is obviously stressed about her license

CJ’s the one who caught that the guy was recusing himself and had to tell Abbey

“Claudia Jean?” “Yes, ma’am?” “Let’s go get drunk.” “Okay” should be a master class in acting

Also relevant is Abbey choosing CJ and Amy to get drunk with for this. They’re career women in politics who are her friends and who should understand this sort of.

So they get to the residence... “Awasiwi Odinak, far from the things of man...”

Abbey instantly cuts to complaining about Jed bc she’s angry at him and in her defense only some of it is misplaced!

But like... she says “what a jackass” and CJ immediately says “I’m gonna open the wine” in a very “can we not do this” way, and Amy just... is there. Hanging out. Trying to open drawers

As a note on that there is no way Amy’s being like. Genuine there. I love how awkward she is but she’s not about to take notes while getting drunk with them. She’s being awkward and funny and avoidant and I love her (like as a random note Amy is... very rarely still)

When she comes to sit with them and sits on the arm of the couch, it’s a really interesting detail that I see as her sitting as far away from them as she can without it seeming so blatant

And Abbey keeps talking, and neither of them really respond 

CJ with the corkscrew is of course iconic and funny and I think it’s part of the reason the scene works and it makes sense because CJ’s uncomfortable in this scene. Her rambling about the corkscrew prevents her, momentarily, from being in this uncomfortable position that she’s put into so much more later where she’s thrown into the issues of Abbey and Jed’s marriage and she really doesn’t want to be because she has a ton of respect and care for both of them

What I mean by “the reason the scene works” is that it needs to keep being drawn back to funny before it can snap. It’s a very specific kind of bubbling tension, and I really like it

Abbey saying “I’m board certified in thoracic surgery” brings you back to the fact that maybe she won’t be for very long, but it’s said as a joke and moved on from quickly, so you can’t dwell on it

I describe Abbey in this scene as “erratically vulnerable” which I don’t know if that’s quite right, but I think there’s maybe a glimpse of her realizing what she’s saying here, and the specific implications in that moment, and then changing subjects immediately

And of course she asks Amy about Josh...

What I find really interesting about this is Amy’s response of “he’s... you know... he’s adjusting.”

Amy doesn’t pull punches with Josh usually, but she does here (she also seems to earlier when she tells him he’s right, but then she gets Abbey to bug him) and I think it’s because we’re seeing her talk about Josh, not to Josh

Abbey says “well let him adjust faster. Jackass.” which is again, funny, but so so indicative of how frustrated she is and how she’s taking it out because literally earlier in the episode she says to Amy and Josh something like “I still haven’t gotten credit for this (I love them and their responses of “we’ll see” and “jury’s still out” to that)

Enter Donna!

Side note on timing, Donna walking in as Abbey insults Josh vs Abbey walking up as Josh insults Abbey

Donna coming in shifts this scene a lot

For one thing, it sets up this interesting play (that feels like me being really contrived and probably is) on audience proxy, that if I get into will only complicate things so I guess... if you’re curious, ask

(Donna plays audience proxy a lot in The West Wing as they explain political concepts and whatnot, and it’s not a thing you see so much in these really character driven scenes because it becomes unnecessary and sort of clunky

But the thing is that in this scene at this point, Amy feels very audience proxy-y... I will concede that in any given scene it’s easy for me to default, in analysis, to Amy and her perspective, but she feels very much like an observer of CJ’s jokes and Abbey’s anger thus far in the scene-- it definitely shifts back to Donna after the fade out)

I also want to shout out Donna’s body language here! The way she steps in cautiously and plays with her hands as she talks is really good at showing her discomfort, and I think it’s neat to draw a parallel here between her and Amy a minute or two before. Like, seriously though, watch her hands in this scene. It’s so good

But Donna walking in this room shifts things!!

Pulls attention to the... D plot? I don’t know, it’s the B plot of the scene, but there’s a lot going on in this episode, which is funny in the context of watching it if not for Donna, and away from Abbey’s heavy plot here, like a pressure valve in that tension I was talking about. Donna looks nervous here, but everyone else seems to relax

It also makes this more of a... White House thing. Like, because Abbey and Donna specifically probably have not been friends much, it further complicates the lines between personal and professional relationships here

But let’s actually talk about the dialogue a little bit, because I think it’s really funny that she’s there looking for Amy for Josh, when Josh knows she left to get drunk with CJ and Abbey, and there’s not a second in that room where Amy is going to leave. It somehow feels shoehorned/plot device-y but also in character at the same time?

The line is “Josh was looking for Amy” to which Abbey says “She’s right here” and Amy just waves weirdly with half her hand since she’s holding her glass. Yes I know I keep fixating a little on Amy’s physicality, but it’s SO good

And then Abbey says “Where have you been all night?”

One of my FAVORITE exchanges this episode is “It’s a little tough to explain, ma’am.” “Tougher to explain than secretly prescribing Betaseron?”

The way Abbey jokes about it!! It’s very specific because it’s not an “I’m moving past it so I can joke about it” it’s that she’s specifically bitter and it comes out... not hostile, but something

That’s sort of what I mean by erratic vulnerability?

Donna explaining the citizenship issue with CJ’s convenient questions is a nice break, like I said, and Amy’s “you seem pretty calm about it” gives Donna the room to freak out about it a little

And Donna freaking out about it a little gives Abbey room to be the “rational” one? Not exactly?

It’s also just a nice contrast in how they show their anxieties and it works really well for them as characters

Donna goes to leave, and Abbey invites her to stay

Which is also interesting? Since like I said, I don’t think they’re friends

But it’s also super in character because there’s something very grandiose about Abbey and it’s there in this scene. Like she... wants an audience? Even as she’s sort of trying to get away from this room where she’s forced to perform? I don’t know

Donna’s genuine excitement here is so cute

She sits even further from them than Amy had, on a chair instead of the couches

Another great exchange? “I probably shouldn’t drink, though” “I wouldn’t worry about it!”

There’s also something a little awkward and desperate about Amy’s “Canadian, huh?” like she’s trying to fill the silence and keep it from driving straight back to Abbey’s anger and identity crisis, and I just like how they play off each other here

CJ "opens" the bottle, Abbey says they'll decant it, Amy says "Now it's a party" and does the most iconic slide from the arm of the couch onto the cushions with Abbey

And then it cuts back in, and they're all boozier, especially, evidently, CJ!

But there’s something to be said, if we’re tracing body language, for Donna now being on the couch and Amy leaning into Abbey so much

With the later context that they’ve known each other since Amy was a kid, I accept it, but it’s absolutely crazy in the context of Abbey as the First Lady and Amy joining them because “you think I don’t wanna write a book some day?”

I mean, I love it either way, but it makes more sense with the retroactive context

I love love love CJ laughing and rambling about the cork and the wine and then you get another really important shift. Because Abbey seems annoyed in general but more amused than anything by CJ’s tangents before the fade out, and she’s at this point way less endeared.

Which totally makes sense, of course, ‘cause if you’re stressed and frustrated, anything is going to annoy you, including and honestly especially your friend being rambly about something completely irrelevant

I also love Donna looking around at Abbey and Amy while CJ is talking trying to make like conspiratorially amused eye contact, it’s a really subtle, human detail

Anyways, Abbey interrupts CJ to make her stop (This is another body language thing where I love how leaned back she is, how she rubs at her forehead as CJ keeps going on)

And it’s here I’m gonna start being REALLY pedantic probably

“Mrs. Bartlet, I wanted to ask you a question but I’m not sure how” “What?” 

First of all, this feels so... soft? This is actually why I’ll accept the babysitter thing

Amy playing with Abbey’s dress is so! good! Look, Amy’s so fidgety and I adore it!!

Also, I love this because Amy clearly doesn’t really want to ask, but she’s also not good at keeping quiet when something is bothering her

“Well, if the most they can give you is a year's suspension, is it...?” “That big a deal?”

Amy stops herself! Because she doesn’t want to say it! Or doesn’t know how to 

Amy never actually criticizes her in this scene, which is neat, because Amy’s practically introduced to us through criticizing Abbey. One of her first lines in the show is “[Abbey] isn’t doing enough for women” and she has lines like “I’ll keep poking him with a stick. That’s how I show my love” but in Privateers, Josh also tells her “it’s okay to tell her you disagree with her” while Amy’s refusing to go against her. It’s not inconsistent-- I just think Amy has a think about criticizing Abbey to her face, kind of, and here, while Abbey’s this upset, of course she’s hesitant at best

“Yes.” “Yes. I'm a doctor. It's not like changing your major. You of all people should...”

Abbey really says this to Amy “who has had seven jobs in three years” Gardner, Amy “and I’d [stake my job and career on a political issue] again” Gardner... “you of all people should...” Amy’s a career driven feminist lobbyist, but she’s not someone who can tie her identity to a job which is the real issue Abbey’s having, she just wants to frame it like this

I love the way Amy looks down during this, too

(“You of all people should...” makes a lot more sense, actually, after Amy loses her job because of her and Josh’s political fights over marriage incentives in welfare reauthorization)

((Also, how many times did Donna change her major? It’s not relevant, really, it just makes this an even funnier room for Abbey to say this in))

“I mean, women talk about their husbands overshadowing their careers. Mine got eaten”

She’s valid for being angry about this, but also she’s conflating things. She’s not losing her license just because of Jed

Like, it’s fair for her to hate how much of herself and her career and her life she’s had to give up because her husband is the president. I think it’s important, even with Donna’s also valid criticism here in a minute, that Abbey’s not being irrationally upset. It’s a choice she played a part in making, but it was never going to be a good choice for her, and it isn’t really fair to her, and it isn’t really any one person’s fault

And yes, I DO love how Abbey talks with her hands here. It’s that kind of grandiose thing about her

“Your husband got eaten” “My career” “Yeah, well, I’m on dangling modifier patrol” “What is your problem?”

I’m going to lose it a little bit here, because it’s really funny at face value

Like, this is one of my favorite tww comedic moments. The timing is so good. But trying to analyze this scene? Watching this scene multiple times? This is them being snippy with each other. CJ is upset here, with Abbey

(One of the things I really like about Sorkin-style rapid fire dialogue is that there’s a rewatchability where you pick up on different things each time)

CJ’s really subtle about it, which is... CJ is very subtle about her emotions a lot and there’s something similar you can look at throughout the show as a whole and also this episode in particular with the different ways that she, Abbey, and Jed learn to put on facades and deal with being very, very public people. Abbey in particular in this episode has a lot of rapid demeanor shifts, but you get the same thing from CJ going to brief in some of the heavier episodes, or, like, Jed at Leo’s funeral

I mean, really, the “What is your problem” feels way more jarring than anything CJ has said because outwardly she’s just been joking, but there’s... a tension or something? A flatness to her voice? A lack of amusement? It’s a really stark contrast to how she’s been overly amused about the cork or whatever. It’s good, and I like that Abbey picks up on it and doesn’t let it keep going unspoken

I do wanna take a second here because CJ doesn’t fully answer, I don’t think, so I wanna answer for her

A part of it is just her loyalty to Jed, too, and specifically to the president I think, and the awkwardness of being thrown into Abbey being so disparaging about that 

I also think that, as a character who takes on a lot of personal responsibility and, to an extent, guilt (less than some of the others, or at least less overtly), and internalizes a lot, it sort of bothers her that Abbey’s refusing to take responsibility here, like, at all, and that Abbey is externalizing all of her anger

The other thing is that we do unpack all of the team feeling betrayed and upset and angry with Jed and even sort of Leo during the whole MS plot, but we don’t really deal with any of them being angry with Abbey

And none of them would be, particularly, because she’s not their boss, their career, their friend, but she is CJ’s friend

She tells CJ “I wanted to be there when you were told” but she didn’t say “I wanted to tell you” (which. I could write a lot more about this but this is already too long)

And I think CJ hasn’t had any opportunity to address or unpack that

Oh, and here we see CJ refilling her own AND Donna’s glasses, meaning Donna is drinking. I would love to see the full transition between the scenes tbh

“Are you First Lady right now?” I love CJ’s sigh leading up to that, the way she doesn’t want to get into it

“What are you talking about?” “Sometimes you like to talk, and I think that’s great, but sometimes you're Abbey and sometimes you’re my boss, and I respect both very much, but--”

HOW is CJ this eloquent moments after the corkscrew monologue? 

No, but this is really it, and speaking of taking things under the surface and calling them out (wow, I did it, the whole analysis, right there...), CJ is just shining a massive light on the weird power dynamics here, and that everyone in this room other than Abbey has a really, really valid reason to feel uneasy in this conversation because of those power dynamic

“I’m Abbey.” “Yes, I agree with her”

Cutting it off right here because I love how quick they are with this. Like, it’s Sorkin, so duh, but Abbey’s hand up cutting CJ off and as soon as she’s spoken, CJ jumping in to say what she wants to

This is interesting because Amy hasn’t exactly made a point for CJ to agree with, also. Like, it’s supposed to be “is it really a big deal?” but Amy did not say that. I just think it’s neat

Also, because I’m obsessed with CJ and Amy’s implied friendship, I love this moment

“Look, they take this job away from me, I got nothing. I don't have a cat. I could get one, but I don't have one. Frankly, I'm not wild about cats. I don't hate them. I'm just not... I could learn to like them, I guess, if I...”

CJ losing the thread here again gives the scene it’s rhythm... it’s ebb and flow of tension and humor... it’s funny, to watch this, but you also kind of want to get back to the point, too

“CJ?” (with the pointed arm motion, too) “You've got a husband, children, a home and a life. And we're talking about one year of your not having a medical license.”

I think CJ is mostly being like “It’s not all you are” and sort of “stop complaining” but it’s also a step away from a point that Amy also ends up approaching, which is... First Lady is a weird position, and they do something specific with it in the west wing

Essentially, neither Abbey nor Helen wants it and it sort of becomes about sacrifice and loyalty and public and political and private life balance, but the First Lady is a public figure, with responsibilities and powers and careers, and it’s fair to on a professional level be upset with Abbey for being so dismissive about those

It’s also fair for Abbey to resent being thrust into this role she doesn’t want

“Jed got censured, and that came with no tangible penalty, and it was a banner headline, and he's having a slow nervous breakdown.”

The way I interpret this is both that she’s bitter at having to bear the tangible penalty of the two of them, and she’s trying to justify being upset at it, at the perceived injustice

ALSO, Abbey’s voice here makes me want to cry, because she sounds like she’s about to cry, and I realize half of this analysis is me saying “Yeah they were right to call Abbey out” but like. You do feel for Abbey here. You understand why she made the choices she did and why she’s upset at having made them, at being put in a position to make them

CJ looking away and almost rolling her eyes here is also really good, she’s so frustrated at Abbey just willfully missing the point 

“That’s different” “Why?” “‘Cause it is, and you know it.”

The thing that makes it different is actually, I think, basically the point Donna’s about to make. Like CJ’s close to making that same point, because the thing that makes it different is that what Abbey did is directly related to her doing her job poorly, essentially, and what Jed did isn’t, so of course she’s gonna get a more tangible penalty

“Okay, I’m First Lady again” “Okay.”

Abbey saying that is obviously a shield but also feels so vulnerable, like an admission that she can’t take it

CJ’s tone here is so good, too. Like she is backing off but the way she says it like “Okay well if you don’t wanna hear it that’s fine I guess”

Again, god, watch their hands

“You are First Lady, Abbey.” “Yes.” “And it’s not like it’s been a detour from healthcare” “No” “What, you’ve expanded Medicare to...” etc etc

Cutting in after that and keeping talking about it is... pretty bold honestly

The thing here is that Amy’s both arguing CJ’s point, basically, of like, you still have things, a career, and reassuring Abbey and being like it’s not giving you or your priorities or your identity up

It’s very smart, and it reminds me that Amy is, in very specific circumstances, really good at this sort of communication

I also love that she can list all this off. Like, of course she can, but I love it

When CJ says “There’s plenty of stuff left” I really wonder if she’s supposed to mean to list or to do but I like the sort of ambiguity there

Here’s another bit where the tension subsides, and the thing is, this is a weird sort of fake out ‘cause it almost feels like that’s going to be it, but no one has said the thing, the tension hasn’t fully erupted yet

“That’s not the point” “What’s the point?”

The point is that Abbey never wanted this, it’s not her, and god, I want to hug her

“I’m a doctor” could be a really poignant beat because that’s also the thing Abbey hasn’t explicitly said yet, or at least not emphasized, that this is about feeling like her identity is being taken away

But do they let us sit with this line? No. If they gave us a beat here, Donna’s line would feel weird on several levels

“Oh, Mrs. Bartlet, for crying out loud, you were also a doctor when your husband said, ‘Give me the drugs, and don't tell anybody,’ and you said, ‘Okay.’”

Donna has not spoken, I should point out, since before the fade to black. It makes the line really slap you in the face. Everything about this line, from timing (immediately after line before, long pause after it) to who is saying it is designed for impact, surprise

She’s also saying it very nonchalantly, half laughing. There’s a lot about her delivery that is exasperated, genuinely frustrated criticism, but it’s also just... almost playful teasing for a second in there

More on why it’s Donna saying it, though

I think you just don’t expect Donna to be... it’s not quite rude. Antagonistic at all? Beyond like lightly teasing the others? Certainly not to Abbey especially with the lead in of her being surprised and honored by being invited to drink with them

Amy criticizing Abbey doesn’t have the same impact. She’s not a main character, you’re probably gonna take Abbey’s side, really, and Amy criticizing her, like I said, isn’t new

You can’t take the personal elements out of CJ saying it. You can’t. They don’t give us a ton of context on CJ and Abbey’s friendship, but it’s very clearly deep, and CJ has also already explicitly backed off as far as this conversation

Remember what I said about audience proxy? Donna’s kinda their go to every-man, and this also is a window into how the public would feel about it. For the like, hundredth time, Donna and Abbey are not close, and she’s as close as you can get in this show, maybe, to an objective messenger for this while it’s still from a trusted, likeable main character. You have to balance feeling for Abbey with Donna’s valid point here

Also, Donna’s really good at reading people and casually calling them out/breaking things down.

(Aka being a stand in for explaining things (if it’s political, explain it to Donna, if it’s someone’s emotional shit they’re too repressed to say but you want the audience to get anyway, explain it through Donna. This isn’t criticism, I exploit the second often in my fic)

See also: her and CJ in No Exit, her and Amy about Josh in Commencement

(Donna doesn’t actually look at Abbey like at all as she’s saying this. She’s mostly vaguely looking down or looking at Amy. I don’t know what to do with that, exactly)

Abbey’s stare here!! It’s... shellshocked. Because I don’t know that she really has processed like, no, this was your mistake too, you did have agency in this, etc, bc she’s been using the anger as a defense all episode

Amy’s face is comical here, which I think is mostly not expecting that from Donna (which is the point) or from anyone to Abbey. Based on their relationship, there’s probably some base defensiveness on Abbey’s behalf, but I also think, and this is more headcanon, that like this is a position Amy’s been in before

“I used to get you in some jams” “Yes you did” plus her whole vibe, I have to assume Amy’s stepped out of line with Abbey before

CJ doesn’t look surprised, because hey! She knows both Donna and Abbey well, so she can maybe see it coming more, and like I said, I think she was really about to make the same point before Abbey stopped her, kind of. She looks like she’s waiting for it to catch up with Donna

And catch up it does! She looks over, panicked, to CJ, like she’s just remembered the whole layout of power dynamics CJ articulated

“Oh my god. You switched back to First Lady” “That’s alright”

I love that the first thing Donna says isn’t an apology, isn’t saying she was wrong, she shouldn’t have said that, she’s out of line, it’s just panic

And the fact that Abbey quickly just reassures her after! It’s so good

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Bartlet” “It’s okay”

The camera staying on Abbey here is really smart, the way she shakes her head and you can watch her distracted reassurance, her processing 

Even without the “O Canada” etc stunt, I would insist, from Abbey’s reaction here, that she really isn’t upset with Donna, she’s just upset, but she does know, really, that she needed to hear that, that she’ll be grateful for it

CJ and Amy both make faces that are kind of like... quietly agreeing with Donna. Like a “Well, yeah, and now it’s been said, and that’s... a relief?” It’s good for the release of tension they finally give us

“He took the censure standing up, Abbey. I was very proud to have voted for him that day.” “Me, too.”

This is not the place for me to unpack my feelings on Amy and Jed

Her calling her Abbey here is interesting, personal, considering she’s been calling her “Mrs. Bartlet” all night and they’ve explicitly gone over the “you switched back to first lady” but I think it really works for the line

With this, it’s different, too, because it did come with no tangible penalty for Jed, but it’s still... something about integrity, maybe.

And Abbey saying “Me, too” is so gently hopeful, in a way, and it’s the first positive thing she’s said about Jed this whole time, really, and it gives you a nice feeling, like it’s going to be okay. Abbey and Jed, and Abbey just as a person

Donna looks so sort of regretful here you just want to reassure her that Abbey really, really isn’t upset with her, that she appreciates it, but it’s okay because you get the Canadian flags at the end

“Let’s get back to the party” is sort of one of the switches I’m talking about with Abbey, and you need it to move the episode along, and it wraps it all up

anyways this is an 11 page document and i’m sorry

[ducktracy]

184. the woods are full of cuckoos (1937)

release date: december 4th, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: frank tashlin

starring: mel blanc (owlcott, walter finchell, milton squirrel, wendell howl, fox, raven mcquandry), tedd pierce (ben birdie, tizzie fish, andy bovine), sara berner (polly gillette, canary livingstone)

this cartoon gets the honorable award of possibly being the most dated warner bros. shorts in its vast repertoire of cartoons. not to worry! this will be a fun cartoon to unpack—i love delving into the shorts that involve extensive research. learning something new is something that‘s very rewarding to me, and i hope it is to you, too!

a giant ode to the short lived radio program community sing (lasting from 1936-1937), the short chronicles a woodland radio show hosted by a variety of caricatured animals putting on various acts.

iris in to the ringing of a bell. a pudgy, bespectacled owl rings it as he stands illuminated by the moonlight, preaching to all of the woodland critters, ready to start the show. he introduces himself as “owlcott”, a take on commentator alexander woollcott. he “blandly announces” (his words, not mine) the introduction of the master of ceremonies, ben birdie--a bird caricature of radio personality ben bernie, “the old maestro”.

birdie’s caricature is not new to audience’s eyes. the caricature, along with a handful of others, is reused from friz freleng’s the coocoo nut grove from 1936, a short that is very similar in vein to this one. tedd pierce provides birdie’s suave, velvety vocals as he introduces the program, only to be interrupted by the nasally cries of mel blanc. out pops walter finchell, a caricature of bernie’s faux-enemy walter winchell, both of whom carrying a notorious (and fake) feud in the radio-verse. it was common for winchell to interrupt the smooth-talking bernie, either throwing pranks or remarks his way, to which bernie dismissed every time. indeed, a signature tashlin upshot angle reveals finchell dropping an egg on top of birdie, who blocks it nonchalantly with a handy umbrella.

art loomer’s backgrounds for the cartoon are absolutely gorgeous. they’re vibrant in color, very lush and painterly, but remain playful and sophisticated at the same time. they certainly serve as a highlight to the short. and, as always, carl stalling’s scores are a blast to hear--his sardonic, wah-wah rendition of “cause my baby says it’s so” is a jolly juxtaposition to the prior score of “love is on the air tonight”, the latter being the song’s cartoon debut. it would be reused in cartoons such as the daffy doc, whereas “cause my baby says its so” was heard previously in rover’s rival.

birdie introduces a clever squirrel caricature of milton berle, whose routine gets interrupted by a little parrot named polly. polly is a take on eileen barton’s character, little jolly gillette, who was portrayed as the daughter of the show’s sponsor. polly and milton go through their act together, polly bluntly (yet innocently) announcing “my daddy says ya gotta let me sing ‘cause he’s a sponsor!” you can listen to real recordings of their banter here!

volney white’s animation of milton and polly is lively and jovial, constantly moving. milton energetically introduces us to our next star, pointing in the wrong direction and fixing it last second as he gestures towards a bird caricature of country singer wendell hall.

even if viewers don’t recognize the bird’s counterpart, they will most certainly recognize his voice--mel uses his foghorn leghorn voice for wendell “howl”. of course, foghorn wouldn’t debut for another 9 years, but that’s another story. the animation of the raucous bird is fun to watch as he extends his neck and wraps it around in coils around the microphone stand. random? yes, but fun nevertheless.

perhaps even more commendable is the staggering crowd shot that succeeds wendell’s scenes. the crowd is mirrored horizontally, but that doesn’t lessen the blow from how claustrophobic it is. wendell asks the audience to get out their songbooks and turn to page “22... no, page 44. uh, no, uh, page 28. uh, 42, uh, 36, uh, 45...” 

wendell is transformed from an entertainer to an auctioneer, spitting out numbers at rapid pace as his crowd frantically tears through their songbooks. finally, he concedes. “oh, never mind. we won’t use the books.” off screen, the crowd roars in unison: “OH YES WE WILL!” with that, wendell is generously showered with a barrage of books, buried in the pile of rejected papers. the timing of the scene is comedically sharp and energetic, one of the more entertaining acts of the cartoon.

now, for the real song number, lead by goat and bear caricatures of billy jones and ernie hare (would a rabbit caricature be too on the nose?) respectively, animated by volney white. they march out onto the stage--er, tree trunk--and open the curtains to reveal a sing-along to the eponymous song. thus, the camera pans into the lyrics as everybody bursts into the all-too-earworm-causing song number. 

as the crowd, ben birdie and walter finchell all lend their voices to the song, a fox caricature of fred allen sings “swanee river”, clashing with the unity of everybody else. in a nod to friz freleng’s toy town hall where the same routine was executed, a little bunny excitedly coos “ohhhh, mr. allen! you’re singing the wrong sooooong!” the fox bursts into everybody’s favorite Mel Blanc Yell as he repeats a frequent ‘30s catchphrase: “WHY DON’T SOMEBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS!?”

featured in the song is a seemingly interminable cast of celebrity caricatures, all introduced as the camera pans across the screen, each lending their voice to part of the song. some puns require more effort than others (dick powell as “dick fowl” rolls off the tongue better than al jolson as “al goatson”). caricatures include: 

eddie cantor as eddie gander, sophie tucker as sophie turkey, w.c. fields as w.c. fieldmouse, dick powell as dick fowl, fats waller as fats swallow, deanna durbin as deanna terrapin, irvin s. cobb as irvin s. frog, fred macmurray as fred mcfurry, bing crosby as bing crowsby, al jolson as al goatson, ruby keeler as ruby squealer, lanny ross as lanny hoss, grace moore as grace moose, and finally lily pons as lily swans.

speaking of grace and lily, they’re both highlighted as they fight to out-perform each other, seeing who can sing the highest note. tashlin pulls of a rather intriguing camera move: as the pan settles on the two of them, the background changes. it’s a subtle maneuver, but smart thinking nonetheless--especially since the camera extends into a vertical pan. as both women fight to sing the highest note, their necks extend, both of them scaling high into the night sky, harmonizing on one final shrill note. they both crumple back into the stands, exhausted by their efforts. some fun exaggerated animation for sure--one wonders how much further this would have been pushed had this been tashlin’s second stint at WB rather than his first. his speed often rivaled, if not out-performed, tex avery’s.

birdie and finchell have a brief interstitial together before making way for a raven caricature of haven macquarrie (raven mcquandry). his sequence is almost jarringly short, but full of fun drawings and poses--the pose of him standing curtly with his arms crossed is awfully reminiscent of izzy ellis’ work under tashlin and later bob clampett in the mid ‘40s. mcquandry asks “do YOU wanna be an actor?”, parotting the name of his real life counterpart’s show so do you want to be an actor? the audience shouts “NO!” in unison, causing mcquandry to do a take and shrug dubiously. though the scene is only a few short seconds, the animation brings forth some much needed vitality.

next is a penguin caricature of joe penner, singing a hilariously out-of-tune rendition of “my green fedora”. the animation is reused from the cartoon of the same name (notice how he doesn’t have penguin feet!), which was also used in toy town hall. not a complaint, but more an observation--this is by far the most humorous performance of the song yet, sung by blanc rather than tommy bond.

another fun scene with some vivacious animation is a sequence featuring a mule caricature of martha raye (dubbed moutha bray), singing a cover of “how could you?”, which has been featured as an underscore in cartoons such as porky’s badtime story and its later remake, tick tock tuckered. raye’s large mouth served as prime material for caricatures, as we see here. the animation is snappy, fun, and vivid--she finishes her song by “swallowing” the camera, an old trick that beckons memories of the harman and ising cartoons of animation past. 

an interesting trend in the ‘30s WB cartoons is the trend of playing with the iris, whether it was the closing iris out or an iris in between transitions. tex avery would consistently play with the final iris out on his cartoons, whereas directors such as friz freleng and bob clampett would use one as a transition between scenes. here, tashlin uses the “swallow the camera” technique as a segue for an iris in, tedd pierce’s falsetto squeaking “hello folksies!” as we’re introduced to a fish caricature of tizzie lish, a character played by bill comstock on al pearce and his gang.

though tizzie has long faded into obscurity (as has the entire community sing radio show), it’s still quite easy to appreciate pierce’s vocals and mannerisms as he portrays the character. it’s always a joy to hear him doing voices for cartoons--he’s never been my favorite writer on the crew, but he was an excellent talent as a voice actor. his squeaky deliveries, matter of fact deliveries “mix them up... are you mixing? my friends say i’m a good mixer. are you? or aren’t you?” as tizzie haphazardly dumps food items and their respective utensils into a bowl and prepares the meal are nothing short of hilarious. the timing is very well executed and can be appreciated regardless of background knowledge.

after humming a pitchy rendition of “the lady in red” while waiting for her concoction to bake in the waffle iron, tizzie removes the homemade waffle and discards it, instructing the audience “now take the ‘wiffle’ out and eat the iron. you must have iron in your system. or should you?” thus concludes tizzie’s act, certainly heightened in hilarity by pierce’s vocals and timing.

for the final act, ben birdie introduces a possum caricature of louella parsons, the host of the radio program hollywood hotel, which served as a way to advertise upcoming movies by featuring guest stars enacting some of the scenes. here, we have caricatures of jack benny (as jack bunny, the first of his many reoccurrences), mary livingstone (canary livingstone), and andy devine (andy bovine).

tedd pierce voices andy bovine, whose voice burlusqued not only in this cartoon, but to a greater extent in friz freleng’s my little buckeroo not even a year later. devine, a western star, was notorious for his scratchy, shrill voice which was rife for comedic opportunity. indeed, this scene here with pierce’s vocals is nothing short of hilarious: 

the trio chronicle the prodigal’s return, in which bunny and canary coo over their baby son. out of the bassinet pops incongruously large bovine, who shrieks “HOWDY MAAAA! HI PAAAA!”, the sheer volume of his voice enough to blow both of his parents away and out of the scene. and, with that, the scene ends, red curtains colorized from porky’s romance marking the sequence’s end. short, sweet, to the point, and hilarious.

ending right where the cartoon began, the owl caricature of alexander woollcott bids us farewell, the iris closing in on the bell he rings as he exclaims that all is well.

like so many other cartoons i’ve reviewed, this is one that i slowly warmed up to upon rewatching it and typing out the review for myself. i didn’t entirely dislike the cartoon upon my first watch, but it’s undeniably dated and deserves its title as possibly the most dated cartoon. without further research, some of the jokes and caricatures (if not all of them) are difficult to appreciate. the animation has bursts of energy throughout the short, the highlights being the scenes featuring raven mcquarry and moutha bray, but otherwise remains relatively simple and conservative. tashlin does incorporate a few intriguing camera angles throughout the cartoon, but many other entries of his are far more cinematic.

however, despite all of that, this cartoon is not without its bonuses: art loomer’s backgrounds are stunningly gorgeous and rich, and as someone who loves the lush, painterly backgrounds of the 1930s, this is heaven to me. and, as i mentioned previously, tedd pierce’s scenes are great--the tizzie fish and andy bovine sequences are undeniable comedic highlights.

so, if you’re willing to dedicate time to put in the research for this cartoon, you’ll find it’s quite fascinating! i’m certain this was a much bigger gut-buster in 1937 than it is in 2020, but even then, this is a good cartoon for people such as myself who love to learn more information and seek out facts. as a result, i’d recommend it to people who fall into that category. if you’re just someone who wants a good laugh and a leisurely watch, there are more interesting cartoons that lie ahead. you won’t miss much by skipping it.

with that said, here’s the link!

[eriklivesinmybasement]

Rise of the Guardians: Is it as good as we remember?

(Oof! I’ve been working on this one for a long while! Buckle up buttercup, this is gonna be a long one!)

(Before I get into this, I want everyone to know that I’m not claiming anything to be fact. This is just my personal opinion).

Back in November of 2012, we were greeted with Rise of the Guardians. This movie, based on the books entitled The Guardians of Childhood, written by William Joyce, gave us a new and unique take on our favorite childhood characters. This included Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, and more.

While it didn’t do so well at the box office, it seemed to explode in popularity. It spawned a fandom fairly quickly, even spawning a couple fandoms that branched off of it. For a long while there it seemed that, wherever you looked, you saw cosplays, fanart, tribute videos, fanfiction, etc. Loads of people seemed to absolutely love this movie, and I, as a twelve-year-old at the time and thus a part of the target audience, was no exception.

Even now eight years later, I still claim to love this movie. Even though I haven’t seen it in a long while, it left a huge impact on me as a writer and artist, which is why I am sad to see the fanbase slowly dwindling away. So I went back and watched it again, and as I sat there ready to press the ‘play’ button, I began to wonder. 

Will this movie be as good as I remember it?

And the answer? Yes and no.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still really like this movie, and I still stand by it being one of my favorites. But just like everything else in life, nothing is perfect. And while still amazing, this movie does indeed have some flaws. 

And as I like to save the best for last, I’ll start off by diving into some of the movies flaws.

Flaw #1 - Pacing

The pacing in this movie can be a little awkward from time to time. Nothing super jarring, but enough to make me go, “I’m sorry, what?”. 

Some scenes seemed to just jump from one to the other without much warning. Either that, or the transition from one scene to the next seemed a little off. One example of this is when North, Bunny, Sandman, and Jack Frost set off to the Tooth Palace. There was nothing inherently wrong with these scenes, but the transition between the two seemed a little awkward. One minute we were having a nice, calm moment between North and Jack, and then all of a sudden we get a quick, action-like sequence with the sleigh.

Another moment that felt awkwardly paced was the introduction of the movies villain, Pitch Black. It seemed like there should’ve been more buildup to him. We got a bit, but moments of buildup seemed quite few and far between. When he was introduced it felt almost a little random, him just appearing for a few moments and disappearing just as quick didn’t seem to work or do him justice.

There are other scenes, but I won’t go over those now, as I guess I’m probably already bugging some hardcore RotG fans.

Flaw #2 - Unexplored Questions and Backstories

Alright, before I get people shouting me down about how, “If I want backstory and questions answered I should read the books”, hear me out.

When you make a story, whether it be in the form of a movie or book, you’re going to want it to make sense. You’re going to want everything to tie together. It’s true that the original books do this, but it’s not seen in the movie. So for those who watch the movie, they may walk out confused about some aspects of it. The two parts I’m going to focus on here are Pitch Black’s backstory, and how Sandman came back to life.

Every story needs a good villain, and Pitch Black is certainly a well-defined villain. But here’s the problem. We get no backstory or explanation as to how he came to be. We do get a quick flashback to Pitch during the ‘Dark Ages’, which gives us his motivation as to why he’s doing what he’s doing. But that’s it. We get no other real backstory to how he came to be. Actually, we don’t get that for any of the other Guardians besides Jack Frost. But again, the other Guardians lack of backstory could be forgiven, as none of them are the main characters. But it’s important to tell a villains backstory because it gives the audience something to connect with.

Onto the next question. How exactly did Sandman come back to life?

This is a question that’s actually been on my mind for a while now. How exactly did Sandy come back? In the movie we clearly see him die, so how did he come back from the dead? The only lead I got is that maybe the kids somehow brought him back. During the final confrontation with Pitch, Jamie touches some of the black nightmare sand and it turns gold. It’s later on after that that he looks to the other kids and says, “I know what we have to do,” and they run offscreen for a little while, only for Sandy to show up soon after. Did Sandy come back through the kids believing in him again? Did they preform some sort of ritual to call him back from the dead? Who knows. It’s a dumb nitpick, I know, but I still wonder.

Well, now that I got that out of the way, and the RotG fandom is probably coming after my head, I’ll go over the strengths of this movie. And trust me, these really help the movie stand out.

Strength #1 - The Characters

All the characters in this movie are phenomenal! But to be honest, Jack Frost was the reason I originally wanted to watch this film when it first came out. Growing up I never really heard any stories about Jack Frost, and the only Jack Frost I ever saw in the media was of a withered old man. So seeing him portrayed as a teenager seemed pretty interesting. And the character was handled and written very well. His backstory was intriguing, he had a fun and enjoyable personality, but that’s not all.

One thing that was really great about Jack Frost’s character was his struggle throughout the story, and it’s actually a pretty relatable struggle as well. In the story, Jack Frost starts out not knowing who he really is or why he’s even alive. Not only that, but it seems that no mortals can see him, effectively making him invisible to the entire world. The story follows him as he looks for answers to his identity. 

This can be a very relatable situation, especially for preteens and early teenagers who are still trying to figure themselves out. And most all of us get to this point. We reach a time in our lives, often in our youth, where we start to wonder exactly who/what kind of person we are. Along with the desire to discover ourselves, there is also the fear/feeling of being invisible and isolated, not understanding where we exactly fit in. Again, everyone reaches a place like that as well, where we feel invisible to the world. Just a passerby. Like we have something amazing to share, if only we could get someone to see it. 

The other characters don’t come off as deep or complex as Jack, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Sandman were all very creatively designed and portrayed. A lot of the fun from this movie actually came from all these strong, drastically different personalities clashing with and bouncing off of one another. It made for some fun dialogue and hilarious moments which had me laughing off and on throughout the beginning of the film. 

Strength #2 - The Villain

Pitch Black is, without a doubt, one of my favorite DreamWorks villains. I loved everything about this character. From the voice, the design, the aesthetic, it’s all wonderful! But the one thing that set this villain up above many others was that he straight up killed an important character onscreen.

Reminder, I was twelve when this movie came out, and up until then, I wasn’t often exposed to death scenes like this in animated films. I grew up majorly on Disney animated movies and shows, and when a character died, it was usually offscreen. And on the occasion it was onscreen? The villain only indirectly killed a character. For example, in the Lion King, Scar pushed Mufasa into a gorge where a stampede was taking place. Scar killed him indirectly, as he’s the one who put him there, but the stampede is what really did the work.

But in this case it was much different. It’s not like Pitch took Sandy off to the side and killed him there. No, we legit saw this whole scene happen and play out on screen. When I first saw it, it blew my mind! This was actually kind of new for me! We saw Pitch take that shot at Sandy, and we actually saw Sandy’s final moments as he died. When you have a villain physically kill off a beloved character on screen, it sends a message. It sends the message that this villain isn’t all talk. That this villain really does have great power of their own, and that they are serious about getting what they want. That they aren’t going to let anyone get in their way. They mean business. And that was perfectly executed in this scene. (No pun intended).

Strength #3 - The Creativity and Art

I think it goes without saying that this movie is unbelievably creative! Everything from the locations, animation, and the characters themselves in both personality and design are just bursting with creative energy! The animation is incredibly detailed, and for DreamWorks as an animation studio, I think this has to be some of their best work. The colors, textures, details, and everything in between are just so beautifully done. In terms of creativity, two of the locations I want to talk about are the Tooth Palace and Pitch Black’s lair. 

When it comes to the Tooth Palace, the artists and creators were given a lot of creative freedom. In media there is no set idea of a place where the Tooth Fairy lives or operates. We all know Santa lives in a workshop, and it makes sense to think that the Easter Bunny lives in a Warren, but no one really knows what to expect when it comes to the Tooth Fairy. When we saw the Tooth Palace, we were treated to some highly detailed and stunning imagery, all with a lovely color scheme of soft pinks, purples, and blues with accents of gold. Not to mention the design of the structural design was a spectacle itself to behold.

And then we have Pitch Black’s lair. As a lowkey goth at twelve years old in the early 2010s, the aesthetic here made it one of my favorite parts of the movie. This set here is similar to the Tooth Palace in that, the creators had a greater level of creative freedom, as we never really think about where exactly the Boogeyman lives. I mean, we know he kinda lives under beds, but that doesn’t sound as cool as living in a spooky, gothic underground secret lair. (But in all honesty, I do really enjoy the detail of the entrance of his lair being under an old, broken down bedframe. It’s a very good nod to the old stories).

It’s like a maze. A labyrinth full of shadows, and looks like the interior of an old, gothic castle that’s somewhat tilting into an abyss. It’s color scheme is predominantly full of grays and blacks, and the surprisingly elegant-looking cages hanging from an invisible ceiling really helps to establish a more gothic look. And since the lair is very dark and shadowed, it fits and aids Pitch black perfectly, in that he can morph in and out of shadows as he pleases. This gives him plenty of places to hide as he’s making an effort to mess with and get into Jack’s head.

The last piece of creativity I want to touch on is how the characters are presented. And holy crap after this movie this is the only way I can view Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc.!

They take these beloved characters that we are already familiar with, and, while still somewhat showing them as we know them, present them in an entirely different way. 

We all see Santa Claus as this huge, lovable man with a big belly who’s always jolly. And while that is what we get from this Santa, or North, as they call him, it’s very much flipped on its head. While still jolly, North is very eccentric, high-energy, and is strong-armed, duel broadsword wielding Russian warrior with tattoos. Seriously, who thinks of a Russian warrior when they think of Santa?! Well, now I do! Also the fact that he’s not always super happy like other incarnations of the character. We get to see that he’s very capable of getting both upset and frustrated. It’s a pretty interesting way to humanize such a beloved character.

We then have the Easter Bunny, who is played by Hugh Jackman. Say that out loud. The Easter Bunny is being played by Hugh Jackman. Growing up, me and many other kids saw the Easter Bunny as a small, cute little critter who hopped around the world leaving baskets and painting eggs. Not a tall, boomerang wielding fighter from the Australian outback. Not only that, but giving him a small rivalry with North was interesting, and snot something I ever really thought about. As well as the idea of a the Easter Bunny having somewhat of a temper.

In terms of character design, I feel like both the Tooth Fairy and Sandman had the most creative freedom. We don’t see these two characters often portrayed in media, so they were able to receive some really cool and unique-looking designs. Especially the Tooth Fairy. Did you ever think of the Tooth Fairy looking a like an elegant cross between a beautiful woman and a hummingbird? No, of course you didn’t. But Rise of the Guardians gave us just that, and it truly set its place for it’s own individual take on this childhood legend. 

Pitch Black is a fairy creative villain as well. When you hear about the Boogeyman, you don’t get very scared. The name actually sounds a little silly when you say it out loud. And even then, because of the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas, you usually think of their incarnation of the character when you hear that name. But this version of the character is actually much different. He’s not this weird, in-your-face kind of monster. He’s a very subtle, yet terrifying character. When I first saw the movie in theaters, there were kids in the room crying at moments when Pitch Black came on screen. It’s also interesting the way his powers work. We all grew up knowing the Boogeyman as someone who just hid under beds. We had no idea what magical powers he may or may not have had. So giving him the ability to morph into the darkness and into shadows was a pretty cool concept, but also solidified that he had a weakness. Light.

So, In Conclusion...

As I have gotten older, I admit that this movie does look a little different to me now, versus when I saw it as a preteen. I’ve noticed some interesting flaws here and there, but I’ve also been able to remember why I fell in love with it in the first place. It’s a very different kind of movie, but that’s part of what makes it so much fun and interesting.

The characters are delightful, the villain is intimidating, the story, while awkwardly paced, is still pretty solid, and is all tied together with a great lead character. And as you get invested in the story, you’ll find yourself getting really into the all artistry that went into creating this movie.

At the end of the day, it makes me sad to see the fanbase for this movie slowly dwindling away. But I feel there are always going to be people out there who enjoy this movie. And you know what? You never know what the future holds. Perhaps there will be a movie in the distant future. Or more likely a animated series on either TV or Netflix. And for the hardcore fans, go and read the original books. 

All I can say here is that, every now and again when it starts to get a little nippy outside, I’ll sit in my living room with hot chocolate and give this movie another watch.

[wakaoujisenhime]

OMG! Now you are the best writer in my heart! I'm crying because your writing is so wonderful! Headcanons about Kise and Aomine are so soft! I in love with them! May I ask scenario about Kise female best friend who helps Kaijo boys (if you read Replace novel, you know their problems) with group date preparation.

A/N: I remember that being one of my favorite chapters, so thank you for the cute request! I’ve also decided to change the scenario up a little and have Kise’s best friend help them out after seeing them fail the first time & I tried something ‘special’ featuring Kise, so I hope you like it! ( ᵘ ꒳ ᵘ )

Tags: Kaijo x reader ✅  SFW ✅  friendship ✅  fluff ✅

━━━━☆ ━━━━☆ ━━━━☆

Summer school festival - Kaijo x reader

You were just about to leave school, take the bus back home, and end this tiring schoolday as your phone suddenly began vibrating. One look at the screen was enough to cheer you up.

“Kise, what’s up? It’s quite rare of you to call me...something wrong?”

“(Y/N)-cchi, I know this may come as a surprise to you, but I’ll need your help with something.“

——

“Damn it Kise what are we waiting for now?!“

The five stars of the Kaijo basketball club had all gathered at the main entrance of their school, planning on going to pick up girls. The idea originated from Moriyama, who had proudly stated that summer supposedly was the best time for festivities and ideally those activities are meant for pairs. So today’s mission was to look for a crowded place and try to get to know as many girls as possible...and that’s where you come in.

Your friend already had some suspicions considering his teammates, since they didn’t have that many skills in such flirty situations. He knew that some of them - Kasamatsu and Hatakawa - had no experience whatsoever with girls while others - Moriyama and Kobori - were just having some light problems they needed help with.

The others were slowly getting impatient and intended on leaving for the station and just as they had set foot past the main gates, the basketball club ran into you.

“(Y/N)-cchi, there you are!”, shouted the yellow-haired man as a bright grin adorned his features. He ran up to you and wrapped his arms around your body, signalizing just how happy he was to see you.

Wordlessly you returned his hug and patted his back, your eyes though were fixated on the men behind him.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?”, asked Moriyama gently.

As gentle as you could, you escaped your best friend’s arms and bowed to the other four.

“My name is (Y/N) (L/N). It’s a pleasure to finally be able to meet the rumored Kaijo basketball club personally.”

Only the tall man who had asked for an introduction answered, while all the others just nodded or didn’t say anything at all.

Hm...were they always so cold? They appear so talkative on the court, but in person, they seem quite distant...

“So uhm...Miss (L/N)...what are you here for exactly, if I may ask.”

The young man who uttered that question was quite tall and slim, had spiky brown hair but nonetheless appeared to be a nice person deep down. You actually appreciated what he’d asked since you had been wondering the exact same thing all the way to this school, but before you could even answer the man next to you took the initiative.

“I invited her to come with us!”

“You did what?!”

——

On your way to the station, Kise had explained the entire situation to you and his teammates.

In summary, this man truly believed that you would prove to be the best teacher and helper for them to overcome their inexperience and fear of women, and in order for you to get a good picture of their current standpoint, you had to watch them try and pick up girls.

Honestly speaking, it wasn’t the best idea, but it was so ‘Kise-like’ that even if you wanted to, you couldn’t refuse. His nice personality that made sure to always help people out is one of the many qualities that made you so fond of him.

So here you were, looking at five determined young men, raring to go out there and find their potential counterpart.

That was the plan at least...

Half an hour had passed during which three of them had taken turns in trying to talk to some random girls, one of them even tried speaking to the same woman who had dumped his teammate some minutes ago. Now just the captain and Kise were the only ones missing, but if there was one thing you knew and expected then it was for your best friend to actually steal the entire show and win over five or more girls at the same time, so before that happened you wanted to at least see just what kind of problem the man, who proudly wore the number 4 on his back, was trying to resolve. So instead of standing there and wondering on your own, you decided to just straight out ask him, but the moment he saw you approaching, he froze up.

After such a crushing defeat, the blond took it upon himself to initiate a second try and managed to invite five girls to join him and his teammates for a cup of tea. During their time at the coffee shop, you had taken a seat on a table for two which was close enough to theirs, listening and as subtly as possible observing the team’s behavior...

“You guys are hopeless as of right now”, you stated after everyone had gathered close to the fountain once again, “...but if the four of you are willing to overcome your current issues, I might have some tips ready.”

“(Y/N)-cchi, it’s so unfair that you only want to help them! What about me?”, complained Kise with his typical pouting grimace. It took you quite some time to get used to it and become immune, but at times like this, it really did pay off. Convincing this man was another problem you had to fully master, so you chose your words as carefully as you could, explaining that he didn’t need that much advice as the others.

On your way back home, you recalled today’s events with a small smile on your face.

Alright, if I remember correctly there was one very handsome and tall guy, who failed because he instantly started talking about how meeting that young girl was his destiny.

Then we had the other one who straight out asked one of them if they wanted some tea...great pickup line, huh?

There was also a loud but cute one who aske-...screamed at the same girl that rejected the spiky-haired one...

The captain, Kasamatsu I believe was so embarrassed and impressed with the chest size of that one girl at the cafe that he straight out said ‘oppai’ instead of ‘kanpai’...

After giggling to yourself you began thinking of possible ways to actually help them out, but you were quick to notice that this might become a greater challenge than expected. There were countless possibilities for dates or places where they could meet girls, but you didn’t know what the perfect scenario might be.

Suddenly your phone vibrated in your pocket and as you looked at the message you had just received, an idea you urgently needed to share with your best friend struck you almost immediately.

——

The rest of the week passed by in a flash and before any of you knew it, the day of your school’s festival had finally arrived.

“Miss (Y/N) hello.“, greeted Moriyama as soon as the five of them had met up with you at the promised spot. As soon as you saw that all of them had dressed up, you immediately began smiling to yourself, hoping that they wouldn’t notice the faint blush that adorned your cheeks.

“Good evening everyone, I’m glad to see that you guys found the way without any problems!“

It didn’t take Kise too long to run up to you and start complaining about how you’ve left him in the dark and ignored all his messages and questions concerning today’s plans. All you could do was pat his head and apologize for it.

“I know I shouldn’t have kept it hidden from you, but I figured it would be best if I told you guys about my plan today, so I could spare you from overthinking it too much.“

“That’s so nice of you, thank you very much!! We’ll be in your care tonight!!“, yelled the young man whom you remembered as Hayakawa and bowed to you multiple times, the action earning him a lot of curious glances from your classmates who passed by. It did take you some time to actually get him to stop his formal apology and you even got help from someone quite unexpected, namely Kasamtasu.

So he can do it if he wants to...

“Alright then, let me tell you guys what I came up with“, you began and lowered your voice, “some of my classmates are actually quite interested in basketball and as they heard that I know Kise they immediately started asking me if I could introduce them to him, but that wish extended the moment he joined Kaijo...and soon they wanted me to introduce you to them as well.“

The more you elaborated the more they understood in which direction this talk was headed, as for their thoughts...they varied, but out of respect to you they remained silent and kept on listening.

“So the moment my classmate reminded of today, I figured: why not invite you guys and finally introduce you to them.”

Kobori nodded slowly and placed a finger on his chin: ”That might actually work out...”

You smiled confidently and put your hands on your hips, striking a slight victory pose. “Oh, it will, since your interest and knowledge in basketball will be of great aid and advantage, since a lot of girls these days are really fond of you basketball players. And besides...have you actually noticed something peculiar?”

“Something peculiar you say..?”, repeated Moriyama who looked around, wondering just what you could possibly mean with that.

“Well compared to the girls at the station, you can actually talk pretty normal to me, right?“

The moment realization hit them several loud and surprised ‘oh’s escaped their mouths.

“Fact is that the four of you have no real problem talking with girls...your approaches are the main reason for concern.”

You turned to Hayakawa and began listing the results of your observations as well as giving them individual advice for the planned ‘group date’ that was about to follow.

Hayakawa, an ambitious young man who didn’t know how to tame his loud personality as well as his obvious love for the ball sport. That eagerness and dedication is actually quite the positive character trait a lot of women look for in a man, so his only obstacle would be to slowly drift off from basketball as a topic and strive for one which was more centered on the romantic life. So the advice you gave him was that he should begin imagining the date as some sort of basketball game. He - the player - had to somehow maneuver his way to the hoop which was the successful date or conversation, the girl would be the ball, and the enemies that try to block his way his passion for basketball.

Kobori, a really respectful and innocent young man who has no experience whatsoever and knows almost nothing about girls or pickup lines. Someone like that is quite rare to find and even if he may see it as some kind of disadvantage, you first and foremost reassured him that his ‘pureness’ is quite beneficial for girls who were in the same situation as him. It’s better to be unexperienced together and advance as a pair than solo. Your advice? ‘Be yourself and don’t be embarrassed to state that you’ve got no experience at all since that alone is commendable enough considering your age, looks, and club affinity.’    

Moriyama, the ‘pitiful handsome guy’ who believed that every encounter with the female gender was fated and destined for greatness. His nickname already gave anyone who witnessed his way of flirting a sufficient idea of what the problem with this man might be. He had the looks and gentleness for it, but the moment he opened his mouth it all went downhill for him, his conversation partner, and the success of the dialog. It was hard to give him advice since the idea of fateful meetings was deeply rooted in his head, so all you told him was that he should bring that topic up more subtly and maybe combine fate with some pickup lines since you had no doubt that if someone could pull off such cheesy sayings then that would be him.

Last but not least Kasamatsu the captain who barely managed a single word when women were around. For some unknown reason, he seemed afraid of the female kind, but he at least knew what he wanted, and back at the cafe he also proved to be somewhat capable of expressing that. So your advice to him was to actually let his actions speak for himself. Like that he’d get somewhat accustomed to the girl’s presence and that would make it easier for him to start a conversation, additionally, the fact that your classmates were also interested in basketball would help the captain out the most.  

As for Kise, well...he was your best friend, and during all these shared years of friendship you’ve pretty much told him everything concerning ‘problems’ he might have during such group dates. He was a desired and flashy young man who had a very unique sense of humor that was well received amongst his peers - female as well as male. The only problem was that he rarely managed to concentrate on one person and that, of course, hurt his conversation partner. Your advice to him was simple: turn your back to the crowd and face her and her alone.

After you had finally finished sharing your thoughts they all looked at you with wide, impressed, and somewhat loving eyes.

Sadly the group of girls came earlier than expected so the boys couldn’t manage to thank you properly, but you didn’t mind that and just sent them off with a smile on your face, hoping they’d have a good time and finally succeed in picking up girls. You couldn’t deny the fact that you felt lonely after literally sending off five people on a date with some other female students, but that loneliness soon perished as some moments later you heard a familiar voice calling out your name...  

[dreamcatcherfication]

Ghosts Are Just as Real as You and Me - Part 3

Here is part three of my Henry fic that I simultaneously love and hate. I’d like to PSA that I wrote this whole chapter while listening only to Britney Spears. You should probably know that while reading this installment. This chapter’s pretty short and is mostly dialogue and filler, but I promise future chapters will have more action in them. (Sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors) Also: PARRLYN CONTENT! FINALLY!

Writing Masterpost

Again, y’all can send in asks and requests, I’m happy to write almost anything, and I love hearing from you all! Here are some prompts:

Prompts | More Prompts | The Trifecta of Prompts

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of Henry VIII

Part 1 | Part 2

“So why is he going after Kit?” Jane asked protectively once Anna joined the group. She had helped Kit get into a bath earlier to help herself relax, and now she was with the other four queens as they discussed Kit’s claims.

“Isn’t it obvious? Henry can’t beat us by brute force like he’s used to, so he’s going for the next best thing,” Cathy explained. At the confused looks of the other queens, she clarified, “Okay, imagine you’re trying to break a board in half.” The other queens nodded. “Are you going to try and break it where the wood is the thickest or where the wood has already started to bend?”

“Where it’s starting to bend, obviously,” Anne answered.

It was Aragon who processed Cathy’s words first. “He knows Kit’s the most vulnerable, so he’s targeting her first. Going after the weakest link.”

Anne stood up in frustration and accused, “Are you calling my cousin weak?”

“No Anne,” Aragon said, “but Henry is. And he’s going to poke at all her wounds until she inevitably breaks.”

Jane cut in, voicing her own concerns. “But Anna said Henry’s also planning to come after all of us. When do you think he’ll make a move?”

“Henry’s all talk,” Anne spit. “I wouldn’t believe any of his threats. We probably won’t hear from him until he thinks he has the upper hand.”

It was Cathy who shook her head. “I don’t know Anne, Henry might have been planning this for longer than we think. He could be ten steps ahead without us having any idea about it.”

“That’s not a comforting thought,” Aragon chimed in.

Anna had her head down, unable to contribute to the conversation. She knew that out of all of them, she mattered the least to Henry. In fact, they actually had a pretty good relationship after the annulment (even if it was all for appearances sake). She could only feel helpless thinking about everything Henry could do to hurt her Kit. “Hey Anna, you okay?” Cathy asked.

“What?” Anna asked, tuning back in. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just worried for Kit. She’s gotten so much stronger since we all came back, and I don’t want Henry ruining that.” Anna growled, “If he hurts her, I’m going to kill him.”

“Not without me,” Anne slammed her fist down against the kitchen table. The rest of the queens chimed in their support.

A voice came from the other side of the room. “What about you guys?” Kit asked, her hair damp and tied up in a loose ponytail. “Henry’s going to come after all of you. You should worry about yourselves, not me.” Her voice was small, the trembling reminiscent of when she was first reincarnated among the others. It frustrated the queens to see how easily Henry had forced her back into the fearful mindset she had lived so long in. 

Jane stood up from the table and moved over to stand with Kit. “Kitty, of course we’re going to worry about you, we want you to be safe.” Kit gave Jane a weak smile and walked to the table. She sat next to Anna, subtly reaching her hand out for the German to hold. Without hesitation, Anna grabbed the hand and squeezed it tightly.

“Kit, I hate to ask this but… are you sure you saw Henry?” Aragon asked.

“Aragon!” Anne shouted, protective of her cousin.

The queen recoiled. “I’m sorry Anne, I have to be sure. Kit,” she turned to the small queen, “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you saw Henry.”

There was a moment of limbo where everyone held their breaths, watching as Kit struggled to raise her eyes. When she did, her eyes bore directly into Aragon’s. “I woke up and he was standing in front of my bed. It was him, Catherine. Henry was in my room. I wasn’t seeing things, I promise you. Henry was here.”

Aragon nodded, satisfied. “I believe you Kit.” The girl sighed in relief, dropping her eyes. “But that does pose the question. How is Henry back?”

Cathy immediately had an answer. “It shouldn’t be hard to believe. He must be back the same way we are. For some reason, we’re in the present, maybe to have a second chance or work through our trauma. Maybe the only way that’s possible is to face Henry.”

“I don’t like how right you sound,” Anne mumbled. “Well he’s still a dick now, that’s for sure.”

“We can’t let him win,” Anna stated coldly. Kit looked up at the German queen and furrowed her eyebrows. “I won’t let him hurt you Kit. Not again. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Kit looked around the table at all the other queens, each voicing their support for her. “But this is my problem, you shouldn’t be forced to deal with anything I’ve caused.”

“We aren’t forced to deal with anything,” Cathy replied. “Kit, you’re a queen, and this life has taught us that us queens stick together. If Henry threatens you, he threatens all of us.” She gave Kit a reassuring smile from across the table.

Anne nodded her head in agreement. “Like hell we’ll let you deal with this alone. That bastard’s gonna have to take down five queens before he can get to you.” Her resolve was fiery and passionate and very much screamed Anne Boleyn.

“We’re all in this together,” Aragon offered.

“We have your back, Kit,” Jane added.

At the overwhelming support, Kit felt her heart start to warm. She had thought she was alone, that’s what Dereham and Mannox and Culpeper had kept whispering in her ears. But their voices were drowned out by those of the queens right in front of her, alive and willing to fight. “Mein Schatz, we’re all going to face this head on, together. We’re all here, by your side.”

Kit let a laugh escape her mouth. “Against all of us, does Henry stand a chance?”

“Not even a little bit,” Anne answered.

Later that night, Anne and Cathy were the only ones still awake. The two of them were down in the living room, sitting in comfortable silence on the couch and lounge chair respectively. Cathy was reading a book and Anne was mindlessly scrolling on her phone. “Hey Cathy, do you think we came on a little too strong?” Anne asked, staring across the room at the other queen.

Cathy looked up from her book and fiddled with her reading glasses. “Huh?”

“Just, we were all very forward with confronting Henry. Is that the right way to help Kitty?”

Exhaling, Cathy put down her book and took her reading glasses off, knowing this was going to be a long conversation. “I don’t think there’s any right way to deal with this. It’s not like you can wikihow how to deal with your reincarnated dead husband who’s come to exact his revenge on you.”

“Yo, what if that’s actually an article,” Anne gasped, frantically typing on her phone.

Rolling her eyes, Cathy hid a smirk. “That’s not the point Anne. Don’t spend your time worrying about how to handle this. Just make sure Kitty knows you’re in her corner, that’s the most important thing. She knows how much you love her.” The writer stood up from her chair and migrated over to Anne on the couch. She curled up against the cushions and smiled at Anne.

When Anne continued to stare at her phone screen, searching through wikihow, Cathy shook her head at the girl’s determination. Cathy grabbed the phone and turned it off, putting it face down on the coffee table. “Hey,” Anne frowned. It only took a moment before a tiny smile grew back on her face. “Okay, okay, you’re right. I just can’t help but worry that I’m not enough for her. She deserves people like Jane and Anna there for her, not the fuck up Anne Boleyn. I’m scared she’s gonna think I’m not there for her.”

Cathy reached her hand out and held Anne’s hand. “Anne Boleyn, you are not a fuck up. You’re a smart, talented, amazing woman, and Kit knows that. You’re her cousin, she would never think badly of you.”

Smirking, Anne leaned across the couch and pecked Cathy on the cheek. “Thanks Cathy, you’re the best.”

Blushing a bright red, Cathy waved Anne off. “I just believe in you Anne. So does Kit.”

Her confident persona restored, Anne bounced up off the couch. “You always know what to say Smarty Cathy.”

“I don’t think that rhymes as much as you think it does,” Cathy giggled in confusion.

“Damn,” Anne grumbled good naturedly, “Guess I’ll just have to workshop my pickup lines. See you in the morning Cathy!” she called before bounding off to her room in the attic.

Watching her go, the writer gave a small wave. “See you later Anne.”

Upstairs, Anne was silently congratulating her boldness. For so long she had been flirting with Cathy, and getting a reaction was her favorite reward. The giant grin plastered on her face could not be wiped off by anything. Even when she spotted the pristine white letter on her bed, Anne didn’t think much of it. She picked up the letter and opened it up, expecting a bill for one of her latest random purchases (had she paid for the furby yet?).

Instead, the letter was something far different. Anne Boleyn, it started.

I’m going to need your help if my plan’s going to work, and you’re the perfect woman for the job. Now here’s a list of things I’m going to need you to do. Oh, and if you don’t comply, I have plenty of eyes on your precious cousin. One step out of line and I’ll kill her.

Your love,

Henry

[legendary-destiel]

My little princess

Well, this is my contribution for @cocklesdestielfiction! :D

AO3

This was so much fun to write! :D Of course a little strange to write about “real” persons, but hey - the last season is comming up, we can mess around a bit, don’t we? ;)

I chose the Cockles Canonverse prompt: Rick called Jensen and Misha, “Guys… you need to practice that Destiel kiss, we need to film that in a week.” He ordered them, and disappeared behind the trailers. Jensen and Misha looked at each other and blushed. That was a thing they were avoiding, but now… they had to be professionals and just do it.

Word count: 2300

My little princess

Rick called Jensen and Misha, “Guys… you need to practice that Destiel kiss, we need to film that in a week.” He ordered them, and disappeared behind the trailers. Jensen and Misha looked at each other and blushed. That was a thing they were avoiding, but now… they had to be professionals and just do it.

***

Their gazes were still locked, as Jared rushed around the corner. “Ah, Jensen here you are! Have you seen Rick? We’ve got to talk with him about this fight-scene, remember?”

Jared stared at them and put his hands on his hips. “Guys…?”

Finally, Jensen seemed to hear what his co-worker and friend just asked. “Yah, Rick was just here a minute ago, can’t be far. You mean the fight scene with you, me and Lisa?”

Jared nodded. “Come on, let’s find him.” And so the two men disappeared as well, leaving behind a frowning Misha.

Mish still couldn’t understand why the topic “Destiel-kiss” was still like a red rag to a bull for Jensen. They knew since season four that this ship would eventually go canon. On screen. Officially. The fans really waited long enough for this. Of course, it still was all top secret.

When Misha thought about it, he had to admit that it was becoming increasingly difficult for both of them to play that brotherly relationship between Dean and Cas. The writers, the producers, even themselves as actors were running out of excuses, as to why the damn ship still wasn’t canon yet. So there was a lot of anger, betrayal and fight-scenes between their characters in the latest seasons. But now, the final season of the show was about to go live, and finally the producers wanted to give the fans what they longed for so long: A real Destiel kiss.

He sighed and stepped into his air-conditioned trailer. They wouldn’t need him to talk about the specific fight scene with Lisa Berry, because he wouldn’t be in this scene. His figure, Castiel, would appear, when Dean would lie like dead on the floor. And then, well, he kinda would go all Sleeping Beauty. It was a stupid scene, but Misha wasn’t in the position to complain. But one thing was clear: There was no way Jensen would ever practice this scene with him, not until the said day has come.

***

“Dude, what’s up with you? You’re almost running. This talk with Rick is not that important, okay?” Jared asked Jensen as they walked along the wet street between the huge halls. They headed to hall C.

“Honestly…,” Jensen began, “I need some air.”

Jared raised his eyebrows. “Aha. And because…”

Jensen rolled his eyes. “Because… You know what scene we’re gonna have to shoot next week, right?”

The other man just had to think for a second until it clicked. “Ha! That! Of course, man, how could I forget that! Gosh, the whole fandom will go crazy…”

“Dude!” Jensen barked, looking pretty angry.

“Yeah, yeah. I know this is a big day for you. So, what’s the matter?”

Jensen cleared his throat. “I… I don’t know if I can… want to do this.”

All of a sudden, Jared stopped. “Excuse me?” He hissed and faced his on-screen-brother. “Why?”

Jensen looked to the floor. “You know why.”

“What? Are you talking about that night years ago? Come on, man!” Jared laughed and shook his head. “You’re kidding, right? It was a drunk night – we were all drunk – it could have happened to anyone of us… Mish has this kind of… attraction… you know that.”

“Yes, I know, man, it’s just…” Jensen began, but Jared raised his hand to interrupt him.

“No. You listen now. You get your shit together next week and act like a fucking professional, okay?”

“But… people will talk, Jared.”

“And? You’re an actor, remember? People will always talk! They even interpret bullshit when we forget to wear socks on a photo shoot, okay!?”

Jensen looked at him with wide eyes, but he nodded slightly. Then they finally saw Rick coming out of the hall C door, waving them to come over. As they walked toward him, Jared said quietly, “This is our job, alright? And for God’s sake – forget Rome!”

Forget Rome. How the hell should he forget that? Dammit. But Pad was right. He had to pull himself together.

***

Of course, they didn’t practice the kiss. In fact, they didn’t even really talk to each other, since Rick gave them his orders. So the day came, and the shooting of the specific scene was just minutes away.

“Gosh, Jensen, why are you sweating so much today? Aren’t you feeling well?” Mikaela, the make-up artist, asked in concern.

“I’m fine.” Jensen said and tried to smile.

“Normally Jared’s the one with the sweaty forehead!” She laughed as she powdered Jensen’s face for perhaps the hundredths time today.

Jensen eyed over to Misha, who sat in his chair, phone in his hand, probably about to post some silly shit on twitter. He seemed relaxed… as usual.

Stay calm, stay cool, Ackles, you got his. He thought to himself like a mantra.

***

There it was, the feeling of his breath… that smell… peppermint and aftershave, make-up, and he could just…

“CUT!”

Rick’s shout was like a clap of thunder and echoed in Jensen’s ears.

“What the hell, Ackles! You play a dead guy, okay, dead guys don’t move their faces! Once again!”

But it wasn’t getting better after the 6th take, and slowly but surely, they were running out of time. After the 7th – failed – take, Jensen threw his hands up in the air. “Sorry, guys! I can’t do this today, okay?” He stood up. “I’m just not in the right mood!”

Rick mumbled angrily, “He’s not in the right… dammit!” He closed his eyes in realization, put his index finger and thumb on the bridge of his nose. “Alright then. Let’s shoot the Cas-stabs-demon-scene instead… it’s the same make-up.”

Rick checked his papers, addressing Jensen. “We can do the scene tomorrow, we’re still well on schedule.” In addition, he gave the actor an obvious view, saying ‘tomorrow you’ll have to do this, man!’ Then he focused on the scene where Castiel had to stab that random demon.

Jared saw everything and decided that he had to do something.

***

“Who’s there?” Jensen shouted, as it knocked on the door of his trailer. It was 9 p.m..

“It’s me, Jared, and…”

“… The new guy!” Misha added, unable to hold back a laughter.

Jensen rolled his eyes as he opened the door. “What…?” He began as he stared to the bottles of wine his friends brought with them. “Seriously? You want to get drunk even though we have to shoot tomorrow morning?”

Jared frowned and looked to Misha who beamed at him and said, “Are you 60 or what, old man?”

Jensen smiled and stepped aside. “Ha, you got me there, come on in then, you crazy people.”

***

It was a long time since they had so much fun. Just the three of them, like they used to, when they had more free-time (and younger livers), they sometimes threw these little parties in their trailers. Suddenly, they felt thrown back in time, felt ten years younger and found themselves digging out old stories and jokes they thought they had long forgotten.

Their tummies hurt from laughing so hard and Jensen had tears in his eyes, as Misha told them for the 25th time how weird he felt on his first days on set.

As they opened wine bottle number three, their conversation began to focus on the current season, their last season. The script was good, but with some things, they weren’t really happy with. Especially the part where Dean dies. Cas was supposed to give him one last kiss, dropping the Destiel-bombshell, and that’s it. End of Dean Winchester, once and for all.

“One could get a little melancholic about that don’t cha think?” Jared said, but couldn’t hold back a laugher.

“Yeah,” Misha said, “After all these years of coming back from the dead… not even a sleeping-beauty-kiss can wake Dean up. Haven’t the writers seen a single Disney movie? I mean,” he turned to Jared, “Why the hell were you allowed to wear your hair like that for years now, Padalecki? I’m sure they’ve seen a princess-movie!” He made a (played) thoughtful face.

They laughed and laughed and toasted on their friendship.

“Ha, but honestly, Jensen.” Jared began after he could breathe normal again, “If that isn’t the easiest kissing scene on earth, then I dunno, bro!”

Misha nodded in agreement. “Mhm, you really don’t have much to do, right? Just lying there, waiting for me to do all the hard work!” he smiled and nipped on his glass.

Jensen’s smile faded and he was suddenly lost in his thoughts. “Yah…” he said, “That’s just… silly in a way… don’t you think? Silly…” His eyes met Misha’s and it was one of those moments when Jared wasn’t sure if they both were aware of him being still in the room.

Jared checked his watch and startled. Hell, it was already 1 a.m.. He cleared his throat. “Okay guys, I’ll go to sleep now, see ya tomorrow.”

The other two could only wish him a good night’s sleep, before Jared disappeared without another comment.

Jensen nipped on his wine. “So, here we are now.”

“Here we are.” Misha confirmed, putting his now empty glass down on the table. “I think I go to my trailer too, at least I have one as well now, after 10 years.” He winked at Jensen and had his hand already on the doorknob.

Jensen sighed deeply and then, he heard himself saying one single word. “Wait.”

Misha turned around, surprised, expectantly.

“Maybe Rick was right… Maybe… we should…” Jensen swallowed, obviously looking for words.

“Maybe we should be professionals and practice that kiss, you mean?” Misha finally said.

Jensen looked up from his glass, right into Misha’s blue eyes. He nodded.

Misha put on a little, knowing smile and took some steps toward Jensen. “Well then… Lie down.” He commanded in his low Cas-voice.

Shit. It’s happening. Jensen was totally aware that in his slightly drunk state it wasn’t a very good idea to practice a kiss with this guy, but… he could handle this. He reminded himself what Jared said. You’re a fucking professional, okay?

So he laid himself down on the couch, just like he was supposed to do in the scene. He observed Misha, who came slowly closer and sat down right by his side.

“Close your eyes.” Misha said firmly and with one hand he grasped Jensen’s hands that were folded on his stomach. Endless seconds passed until Misha placed his other hand on Jensen’s cheek, never breaking their gazes.

“Close your eyes, Jensen.” He repeated more calm now, and finally Jensen did as he was told.

There it was, the feeling of his breath… that smell… wine and shampoo, leather jacket…

Jensen was petrified. Didn’t move a single nerve. He thought, that maybe even his heart just stopped beating.

“Perfect…” Misha whispered, unbearable close now. And then Misha closed the gap between their faces and pressed a gentle kiss on the other man’s lips.

After some seconds that felt like forever, he broke away. Jensen was still lying there, like dead. Then Misha stroked his cheek with his thumb and said in his gravely voice, “I’m so sorry, Dean. I should have told you this a long time ago. I love you, Dean Winchester. Now and Forever.”

Then he kissed him again, this time on his forehead, a careful touch of perfect lips on his sweaty skin, and Jensen couldn’t… he shouldn’t… Yes, he would.

All of a sudden, he opened his eyes, his pupils widened has he looked into Misha’s and said, “The hell? I love you too, Cas, but next time, we don’t take poisoned apples from strange witches to make pie, promise?”

Misha tilted his head to the side. His puzzled look was just like Cas’. “That isn’t in the script, my little princess, you stay dead, remember?”

“Yeah, I know… but… not tonight.” Jensen said and then he raised his arms to wrap them around Misha’s neck and ran his fingers through the dark hair. He pulled him closer. “Tonight, you can show me what an angel of the lord would do to a poor human soul like Dean Winchester, to make him feel better. If that Destiel trash should go canon, Dean needs to know what it feels like.”

Misha put on a dangerous smirk. “You really wanna try me, Jensen Ross Ackles? Don’t you remember what happened in Rome?”

Jensen smiled knowingly. “I will never forget that. And now come on, Collins, before I get my sanity back.”

***

The world would never get to know what Castiel, angel of the lord, could possibly to do Dean Winchester to make him feel better. But Jared definitely knew, as he left them alone in the trailer and met them on set next day. Well, let’s say, a lot of make-up was necessary to hide the dark rings under their eyes.

However, what we can say for sure, is that the script for the final episode was rewritten. Because after Misha and Jensen brought on their perfect Destiel kiss, they showed the directors one last time their dazzling chemistry and improvised their own little Destiel-happy-ending. (Basically Dean waking up like friggin’ sleeping beauty to a prince’s kiss, making jokes about poisoned apple pie).

And so the show’s very end flashed like a supernova, and in the eyes of the fans it was an ending that they ALL deserved.

THE END.

***

Well, I hope you like it, guys! <3

[macgyvermedical]

Let’s Jeff It: A “Kid + Plane + Cable + Truck” Medical Review

First, whoever thought of this episode naming convention did not expect this show to make it past season 3.

Previous MacGyver Medical Reviews:

Awl - X-Ray + Penny - Duct Tape + Jack - CD + Hoagie Foil - Guts + Fuel + Hope - Wilderness + Training + Survival - Father + Bride + Betrayal - Lidar + Rogues + Duty - Nightmares - Seeds + Permafrost + Feather - Friends + Enemies + Border - Mason + Cable + Choices - Bitter Harvest - 

The episode centers around a pilot (Ben) and his son (Asher) flying in a private Cessna aircraft. The pilot has a medical emergency and becomes unconscious, leaving the plane, with 10 year old Asher inside, on autopilot and running out of fuel. Mac and Desi manage to board the plane in mid-air using an improvised zip-line, and while Desi attempts to land the plane before fuel runs out, Mac attempts to save Ben’s life by improvising a defibrillator. It’s found that the pilot had been deliberately poisoned with an unknown substance, and while investigating, Bozer is also exposed. Once the plane is safely on the ground, the episode cuts to the hospital scene where they have apparently found an antidote to the poison, and all is well.

Honestly this review will almost entirely be about the heart stuff.

Heart Stuff:

So let’s start with Ben. Our first encounter with his medical situation is when Desi asks Asher if Ben is breathing. Beyond questions about Asher’s safety (which they essentially already know), this is a great first question to ask. Breathing is fairly easy to determine, even for a 10 year old, and gives a substantial amount of information. From that one “yes” they know:

Airway: Even though he is sitting up with his head lolling forward, Ben’s airway is open- thus eliminating the immediate need for Asher to pull his father out of the chair.

Breathing: Ben is moving air between the outside and his lungs. Eliminating the need for Asher to help him with that.

Circulation: We can assume if Ben is breathing, his heart is still beating, which eliminates the need to start CPR immediately.

We don’t know the quality or anything else about his breathing or pulse, but we know they are currently at least minimally sustaining Ben’s life, which gives them some time.

Mac then asks Asher to check Ben’s pulse, instructing him “put your pointer finger and middle finger on the inside of your dad’s wrist, just below his thumb. If you don’t feel anything right away, try moving your fingers around a little bit.” This is exactly how to feel the radial pulse, and especially if Asher had ever learned how to feel a pulse before I think it would be reasonable that he could be able to do it.

At the point when Asher responds “I feel it... kinda”, he has his fingers on the other side of Ben’s wrist. And he may have, indeed, felt a pulse there. The inside of the wrist on the side of the pinky finger also has a feel-able pulse called the ulnar pulse. The ulnar pulse is more difficult to find and a little fainter, but it does exist.

The fact that Asher was able to find a radial or ulnar pulse means that Ben’s circulation is working pretty well- if blood is getting all the way to his wrist, we can assume it’s also getting to his heart, lungs, and brain. I’m not sure I would go so far as to use a 10-year-old’s assessment of “kinda” as an indication of a weak pulse, but for the purposes of the story, we’ll take it.

We also have a small amount of history from Asher that Ben was dizzy before passing out. Probably the most well known reason for a “weak pulse and dizziness”, as Russ concludes, is heart attack, but for a medical professional of any kind, that doesn’t narrow things down- heart attack, stroke, hypoglycemia, dehydration, severe allergic reaction, a hidden injury causing severe internal bleeding, a drug or poison, and many others possibilities could also present that way.

They could have gone a little more in depth with the history, asking Asher for information like whether his father had allergies, was on any medications, whether he had any medical problems like diabetes, and when they had last eaten/used the restroom, as well as any other symptoms his father had mentioned prior to passing out. All of these would have helped narrow down a diagnosis. But for a lay group of rescuers who need to stop a plane from falling out of the sky, all they really need to know is that Ben is unconscious but with ABC’s intact.

Also, shout out to Bozer for doing an AWESOME job at distracting Asher while Mac and Co put together the zipline. He didn’t promise anything he couldn’t deliver, saying “we’re gonna do everything we can” instead of “everything will be okay” when Asher asked. And he just kept the conversation going about things Asher liked that didn’t have to do with the situation. There are very few people who would be that comfortable talking to a kid under stress, and Bozer was really exceptional at it.

Once Mac and Desi get to the plane, Mac brings Ben to the back and is presumably assessing him while Desi, Bozer, Matty, and Russ discuss how and where to land. I wish we could have seen the assessment to have more to talk about, but once the story pans back to him, Mac explains that Ben’s pulse is “low, too low.” I’m not sure if he means low as in his heart rate (number of beats per minute) is low, or low as in weak, but the former makes more sense. Even though we know Ben is moving blood forcefully enough with each beat to get it to his brain, not having enough new blood per minute could still result in his unconsciousness.

Slow heart rate is called bradycardia, and there are a few “ways” to be bradycardic. One is called sinus bradycardia, and is essentially a totally normal, but less frequent, heart beat. Bradycardia can also result from atrial fibrillation, where the top section of the heart has a sort of disorganized, random pattern of beats that don’t all transmit to the lower part of the heart, resulting in only some of the beats going through and a pulse that is both slow and irregular. It can also happen when the part of the heart that determines heart rate, called the sinoatrial node, or SA node, isn’t working correctly.

The only one of these that could possibly be treated by defibrillation is the atrial fibrillation. SA node dysfunction would require a pacemaker or external pacer, and sinus bradycardia would require either atropine (of nerve agent antidote fame) or some form of pacing. Sinus brady is probably the only one that would really come from a poisoning situation (unless anyone else has a poison I’m not thinking of).

Here’s a video of atrial fibrillation getting shocked:

Because of the whole poisoning storyline, I think we have to assume that Ben has sinus bradycardia, which, if you will remember from the paragraph above, is one of the ones we can’t shock.

The way Mac explains defibrillation is as follows: “Human muscles contract and expand based on electrical signals from the nervous system. When those don’t work, we can trick a muscle, like the heart, into getting back into rhythm. That’s exactly what happens with a defibrillator.” And I’m not saying anyone couldn’t build a defibrillator with enough time and experience. But if that’s your understanding of how they work, any defibrillator you make is not one I want to try out.

See, the first sentence of that is almost correct. It’s, like, a 6th grade level of correct, but it’s technically correct. I’m just not at all sure where they got the second sentence, because that is not how anything works at all.

In reality, in order for the heart to beat, each individual heart muscle cell needs to contract in a specific sequence. This is coordinated by an electrical impulse that travels through the heart muscle tissue. When you see an EKG, this is a graphical representation of the path that impulse is taking through the heart.

If the “path” gets messed up, it results in a heart rhythm that may not be able to generate beats that support life.

Defibrillation essentially is passing a massive electrical current through the heart tissue, which overwhelms all electrical activity and causes it to stop momentarily. The hope is that the interruption will break or “convert” the ineffective impulses/paths, and the heart will resume in a normal rhythm. Since sinus brady is technically a correct rhythm (just with too long between beats), the best case scenario for defibrillation is that Ben comes back in exactly the same rhythm... which doesn’t do much for him and wastes time.

I would have been much happier and more impressed with the writers if Mac had instead brought over a Phoenix first aid kit, which would almost certainly have an atropine auto-injector for nerve agent poisonings. It’s still a MacGyverism because the drug would be meant to be used for nerve agent exposure, and it would have stood a much better chance of saving (while also not killing) Ben. 

Since they never name the weird poison that has bradycardia, rash, and partial, temporary paralysis as effects, that works through transdermal exposure, and has a functioning antidote, I’m going to assume they made it up (they... didn’t have to. They could literally have done a beta blocker or calcium channel blocker overdose, they would have just had to change a few easy things omg...).

The Hospital Room:

I do kind of want to talk about that hospital room, because it’s certainly one of the best I’ve seen in MacGyver. The bed is a real hospital bed, the furniture looks like real hospital furniture, that’s a real IV pump and the tubing is set up correctly (though since the tubing is running through it and it’s on but not programmed (screen is blank) yet, it was probably beeping like heck the whole time they were trying to film), the lights are real and there are both red (generator backup) and white (grid power) electrical outlets in the room, there’s even a computer for charting immediately behind Mac and the sheets don’t fit the bed. Like, that’s a surprisingly real (though very uncluttered) hospital room. I’m actually pretty impressed by that.

A few notes on Season 4 so far:

I’ll say it- I personally disliked the fact that they put Mac and Desi together, then ended their relationship badly off screen. I love Desi as a character, and that move felt like it was designed to designate her as a source of trouble for the team instead of as an asset. I also disliked initially that they added Russ as a source of conflict, and deeply worried the writers were going to use him to push Matty out of the show (or at least, have her constantly fighting against him). I also worried that having the Phoenix taken over by a shady private entity who wants an amount of control over their operations would be shown in a positive, instead of conflicted light.

I’m honestly pretty glad this episode straightened some of those worries out. By the end, Mac and Desi were back on good terms, and Matty had asserted her control over the team in tactical decision making. I’m borderline confident that when public-private conflict is addressed from here on, it will be shown in a way the puts the correct weight on “should we worry about continuing to exist, or should we do what’s right?” and show genuine consequences to whatever choice they make. Like, I hope the writers know what they’re getting in to...

R E F E R E N C E S

[swimmingnewsie]

Of Coffee and Cookies (Chapter 12)

Hey guys, major trigger warnings for gun violence and domestic violence in this chapter. Take care of yourself first, I promise I won’t be upset. Your mental health takes priority to this angst fest.

Major props to @writetheniteaway for helping with the legal aspects and previous chapters. Give her work a look sometime. She’s one of my best friends and favorite writers. If you like the angst I write, she gives me a run for my money so please check her out!

On with the show

Link to AO3 

---

Anna felt as though she were going to crawl out of her skin. They had only been in the courtroom for fifteen minutes but she felt Hans’ glaring eyes on her the whole time. Even in her dress pants and long shirt, she felt exposed. She wanted to cry, but to cry would be to show weakness.

She closed her eyes tight for a second, wishing her sister had been allowed to sit with her instead of behind her in the gallery. Her attorney was giving their opening statement, including as many of the criminal related facts he could. It was hard to hear about that night, no matter how many times she had been forced to tell the tale or how many times the attorney said it out loud. Her therapist said it would get a little easier each time, and that in telling her story, she would gain a sense of agency.

Anna thought her therapist was full of shit.

Because no matter how many times she spoke of it, she still felt the pounding in her heart. She still felt the way he touched her. Felt the cold metal against her back and the fear that she wouldn’t see the next morning. 

“I saw the way you acted with him! You stupid fucking slut!”

“You will not ruin the Westerguard family name!”

“I know you’re hiding in here. Come out come out wherever you are!”

“I’m all you’ve got left, sweetheart. No one’s coming to save you tonight.”

“You are nothing.”

His words rang in her head no matter how much she tried. At any other time she would distract herself, put in earbuds to block the hurtful words. But the hearing required her full attention- or at least as much of it as she could bear to give. 

She really did try to listen. It was important, and she would be asked to speak at some point. She needed to pay attention, but her fear held her hostage.

And if listening to her side of the story again hurt, then listening to his side was absolute tourture. 

“Your honor, my client Officer Westerguard did not perform the acts proposed by the opposing side. The only evidence of gun violence is a single shot into a wall, a wall in their guest bedroom to be more specific. Additionally, there is no proof that the injuries caused in the photographs were in fact caused by Officer Westerguard. 

“Has this young man not suffered enough? Spending almost a year in which he had to feel as if he were a criminal in his own town? There is no purpose in continuing the protection order, for not only is Officer Westerguard innocent, but Ms. Arendelle has not been seen anywhere near the Denver metropolitan area in months. For what purpose does a protection order have if there is no opportunity of interaction on a regular basis?”

Anna could feel her blood boiling. No evidence? She had specifically taken pictures of the gun and her face with date and time stamps, just like she had read online. But when looking at the pictures on the screen, those stamps were suspiciously missing. Not to mention the fact that multiple 911 calls were made- the 911 calls that had helped her earn the temporary protection order. But now those calls were considered “unimportant”?

The statement about Hans suffering threatened to push her over the edge. Hans had been the one to suffer? She was the one who had to start a whole new life. The one who cried herself to sleep for months because she couldn’t feel anything besides fear.

But sure, Hans was the one who was suffering, being seen as a criminal to people he had no care or interest in. His law enforcement friends certainly didn’t see him as a criminal, sitting behind him in the courtroom with a little too happy of grins. 

“For these reasons, I argue that the protection order between Ms. Arendelle and Officer Westerguard need not be made permanent.”

"Thank you, Mr. Peterson. You may be seated. Ms. Arendelle, if you would come to the stand please?" 

Elsa gave her a reassuring look from where she was seated behind, giving Anna one last boost of courage. She could do this. Her heart felt about ready to explode, but she could do this.

"Ms. Anna Arendelle, do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?"

"I do."

This was it. Anna squared her shoulders, looking dead ahead at the judge. In ten minutes this would be over. She just had to survive those next ten minutes, one breath at a time.

"Can you tell me what happened on the evening of April 20th this past year?"

It took everything in her not to get stuck in the fog of her brain. She tried to listen to the tiny voice in her mind, telling her that it was okay. It was okay to talk about it. There was someone listening to her, someone who could help her.

Anna’s heart felt as though it were going to jump out of her chest when she heard the door open. Their earlier fight had been replaying in her head. It was stupid. Why was it such a big deal that she had gone out to the game night at the coffee shop? She wasn’t doing anything wrong.

But it had made Hans mad, and it was all her fault. She knew better than to think going out would actually help him cool down. She knew that his anger would only escalated in proportion to the number of shots he had at the bar. By the sound of the door slam, she could tell it had been more than usual. If she was lucky, she could get him to bed before anything could happen.

His mumblings grew louder and louder. Things about how the house wasn’t clean enough, why did he even keep her around if she wasn’t going to fucking clean? 

She greeted him, knowing that ignoring him would only make things worse. 

He had that wavering look in his eyes, mirroring his unsteady feet. He was shouting about the house. Shouting about how she was whoring herself around, how horrible of a human she was, how no one loved her but him. She braced herself for his hand, straight faced. She had stopped wincing a long time ago. 

She made an excuse some time later, getting herself back in their bedroom. A fire lit inside herself. She couldn’t live like this anymore. She snapped a quick photograph of her injured face and sent it with a message to her sister. It was her only hope of outside help, a slim hope at that. She hadn’t been allowed to talk to her sister in so long.

She heard him coming, deleting the text messages, pulling it up to a random contact.

That was her mistake. He saw it, a friend from the shop, a male friend.

He shouted again, saying how he was going to teach her a lesson. He was gone and then back again, stumbling with his gun. In an instant, the cold metal was pressed against her back Tears streamed from her eyes. This was it. This was how she was going to die. 

“We fought for a while, until he shot the gun aimed at me. But our wall was the one to take the hit. I dislodged the gun and ran outside as fast as I could. And that’s when Officer Baker from Arapahoe showed up.”

The judge nodded at her. “Thank you, Ms. Arendelle. Please be seated.”

She had done it. The wave of relief passed through her. Someone who could do something heard her. Now Anna just hoped it had been enough.

She couldn’t bear listening to Hans’ side of the story. It wasn’t so much his side as it was twisting her words and fabricating a tale in which he was the victim. He said that she had been cheating on him, and that he only went to drink to forget his troubles. He spoke of how she was particularly clumsy and had fallen earlier in the week, that those bruises were not his fault. 

He spoke of how because he was the man in this case, no judge would take him or his pain seriously. He had only shot to defend himself from her rage. He had been the victim in this. He didn’t care for a restraining order, finding that he could protect himself from her. She was the one who needed to be locked up and away.

It made Anna’s blood boil. This was all wrong, so so wrong. There was no way in hell that anyone would be able to believe that bullshit.

But she was wrong.

How could she be wrong?

Why was she wrong?

She couldn’t help the scream that echoed through the courtroom. Elsa ran to her, holding her tightly and rocking her back and forth. Her lawyers were speaking, saying they would make this right. But in reality, they all knew this decision was final. Hans was a free man, free to do what he chose to whom he chose.

And in that freedom he was bold enough to walk over to her.

Elsa blocked her vision, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. She was thankful, she couldn’t bear this on her own. But beyond the whispers, she heard Maren shout at him.

“Don’t you fucking touch her, I swear to God! Go talk to your stupid friends about how you rigged this trial in your favor! You are no victim here. Justice weeps at your presence.”

Hans could only laugh. 

“Perhaps, but the law stands by me. While the law could send you back to wherever you came from in a heartbeat.”

“Fuck you, you racist bastard,” she growled, fire in her eyes. “This land has been mine and my people’s far before yours. Now get out of here. Now.”

“You don’t scare me, sweetheart. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.” And as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone. 

Anna sobbed. Everything she had worked so hard for was gone. How could she ever feel safe again?

---

Elsa was miraculously stoic. Ever since the judge uttered his fateful words, she was a rock. Anna hadn’t stopped crying for more than a few minutes at a time, but Elsa was there to catch them. But regardless of how much she masked it, Maren could see right through it. Today had been hard on all of them, and Elsa was no exception.

Maren was just coming back in their hotel room from calling Ryder. The boys were just as outraged as they had been. But the judge’s word was final: he had believed Hans and to try him again would violate his constitutional rights. All there was now was damage control. 

Elsa was sitting on the bed further from the door, softly stroking her sleeping sister’s hair. As Maren watched, she noticed the small tears falling from Elsa’s eyes. How many times had they had nightmares over this very outcome, only for it to come true?

Maren breathed deeply, loud enough as not to startle Elsa. Slowly, she stood behind her, wrapping warm arms around Elsa. “Hi,” she whispered with a light kiss to the neck.

“Hi,” she breathed. Even with just one word, Maren could hear the exhaustion in her voice. “How were the boys?”

Maren sighed to herself. “Angry. I had to convince Kristoff not to get on a plane right this minute. I think they’re going out to the batting cages, let some of it out before we come home tomorrow.” The sooner they were all out of this blasted city, the better, Maren figured. 

Elsa nodded, leaning her head back into Maren’s chest. “Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.” 

Maren hummed in agreement, holding tight. “How long has she been asleep?”

“Not long.”

“Then how about we do the same?” Maren suggested, leading Elsa towards their bed. “You’re exhausted.”

Elsa sighed rubbing at her eyes. “I wanna be there when she wakes up.”

“You will be. You’re only a few feet away, love. I promise it’s okay to take a break. Come here.” Maren left no room for argument, pulling her towards the soft sanctuary of the hotel bed. Surprisingly, Elsa didn’t resist, instead curling up into a ball. She was silent for a long time, long enough that Maren thought she had fallen asleep herself. 

“How did it go so wrong, bumblebee?” Elsa asked quietly, her voice wet with tears. It crushed Maren’s heart. “He should be rotting in a cell a million miles away, not walking the streets, working his patrol like nothing’s wrong.”

Maren shook her head, willing away her own tears. “I don’t know, snowflake.” She pulled Elsa closer to her. “I don’t know why or how. But it isn’t right.” Her eyes betrayed her, wet tears dripping down her face. “And we aren’t allowed to do a damn thing about it.” 

“And the way he talked to you! Even off duty, what kind of officer talks to his citizens like that?” Elsa’s face scrunched in distress. “He’s a racist, bigoted asshole and how can he just run free saying things like that?”

Maren looked down sadly, playing absentmindedly with the sheets. “More do it than you think, love. He’s no isolated case.” 

Elsa clenched her eyes tight. “It’s not right. None of this is right. Why? Why did it have to end like this?” she cried. Maren could only hold her for there were no words. 

They laid there for a long time, tears falling freely. There was no reason to be brave now. Sleep pulled at their eyes as the setting sun outside mirrored the pain in their hearts. Their darkest night was here, and all they could do was wait for the sun to rise again. 

What else could they do?

[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

All Those Things They Couldn’t Say - A Runaway Baudelaires AU

{ao3} {tumblr} {masterlist}

Chapter Eighteen - The Hypnotism Incident happens Rather Quickly

Violet crawled into bed, running a brush through her hair. She’d showered rather quickly, not wanting to waste time in an unfamiliar location. When she returned to her room, Klaus had dried off from his own wash and was now walking around, testing a splint Georgina had made for him. Sunny was biting into a dictionary she’d found in the corner; every room of the office seemed stocked with books, so when Klaus finally sat down, he just grabbed a random one off the shelf and started flipping through. “Georgina wrote this one herself.” he said, smiling a little. “She’s a writer, too.” 

“Like Lemony.” 

“Like Lemony.” Klaus nodded. 

They fell silent, then, and Sunny looked up. “Woolf?” she asked. “He was a writer?” 

“Yeah.” Violet nodded. She rocked back-and-forth a little, hugging her knees. “Mother sometimes found some of his books in the library and would read them to us.” 

“Twenty-Nine Myths.” Klaus remembered. 

“The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming.” 

“The Composer is-” Klaus cut himself off, and then shook his head, returning to his book. “Well, they were cute.” 

“We’ll have to read you some.” Violet said, twirling a strand of her hair. 

Sunny giggled and nodded, before biting on the dictionary cover again. However, she flipped it open, and then stared very hard. “Loo!” she cried, waving for her siblings to notice her. 

“Sunny, we just changed you.” Klaus sighed. 

“Loo! Loo!” Sunny huffed in frustration. Then, finally, “Look!” 

Violet and Klaus slid out of bed and went to sit by their sister on the floor. They gasped, too, when they looked in the book. 

On the buffer page, written in a very fancy script, with a pen that looked like it was running out of ink, was a quote. 

In every library, there is a single book that can answer the question that burns like a fire in the mind. 

They recognized the handwriting at once. 

“Dada.” Sunny said. 

Klaus ran a hand over the page, and Violet said quietly, “I mean. We knew they knew each other. Of course she… she has something from him.” 

“Yeah.” Klaus said. 

“This makes sense.” 

“Yeah.” 

“We shouldn’t be surprised.” 

“Yeah.” 

“And we’re going to see Dad soon.” 

They looked at each other, and then started to cry. 

Violet fell asleep, with Sunny curled on the pillow beside her, within an hour or so. Klaus, though, remained awake. He flipped through Georgina’s book for a while, but eventually felt himself grow too distracted to keep going. He laid it somewhere on the bed, slipped out of the covers, and wandered back over to the dictionary Sunny had left. He picked it up, running a hand over the cover and avoiding his sister’s bitemarks. Then he slid it under his arm and walked out of the room, still hobbling slightly with the splint. 

Georgina wasn’t in her room- which was smaller than theirs, only contained a few books and a dartboard, and was honestly pretty boring from Klaus’s perspective- so he checked downstairs, wondering if she was doing extra work. He’d read about people who, when they couldn’t sleep, would try to get their normal work done so they had more time the next morning. 

He found he was right, and she was sitting at a desk in the waiting room, hanging up a phone. She turned to him, smiling, as he entered, and said, “Klaus, dear. Is something the matter?” 

Klaus shook his head. “I just wanted to ask about something.” 

“Of course. Oh, come into my office a moment, I have to check something.” 

Klaus nodded, following at her heels and flipping open the dictionary. “I wanted to ask about this.” 

Georgina barely glanced at it. “Oh, one of the lumbermill workers probably left it here.” 

“What’s the lumbermill like?” 

“Bullshit.” 

“Ah, gotcha.” Klaus nodded. “But, um. About this?” He held up the front page, the one with Bertrand’s handwriting. “That’s my Father’s.” 

Georgina hesitated a second, moving towards the small machine near the chair. “Yes, I suppose it is.” 

“What were they like? When they were here.” 

Georgina hmmed, and then said, “Can you do me a favor and sit on this chair for me?” 

“Why?” 

“I just need to test something with the phoropter, and you know how eye appointments work, I assume.” 

“A little. We only went to the optometrist when necessary.” Klaus said. He paused, then, a sudden memory coming to him; Bertrand, bouncing his leg nervously in a waiting room, hoping to God their forged papers were good enough not to draw suspicion- which, of course they were, Klaus could forge anything. Klaus was asking him why he was nervous, and Bertrand laughed and said he didn’t trust optometrists or optimists. 

“Klaus? Dear?” 

Klaus bit his lip. “Did you ever fight with our parents?” 

Georgina sighed and sat herself on the armrest of the chair, staring at the floor. “I’m afraid so, Klaus. In fact, I was very surprised to see you here, I never thought that Bertrand and Beatrice’s children would think I was safe.” 

“Why? What happened?” 

She sighed. “We had a bit of a disagreement. About VFD. And its… values.” 

“Oh?” 

“Yes. Back then, they believed fully in everything they were told. I… did not.” 

Klaus relaxed a little. Oh, thank God, that was what the argument was about. “Oh, well, they agree with you now. I mean- they’re really against VFD. They told us not to go near it.” 

“That’s quite good for them.” Georgina smiled. “Sit down, I’ll tell you more while I try this out.” 

Klaus nodded, and Georgina got off the chair. Klaus sat down, placing the dictionary on his lap, smiling at his father’s handwriting. 

“Put your arms here.” Georgina said, and then grabbed the phoropter, swinging it in front of his eyes. “Now, tell me what you see.” 

“What?” 

“One or two?” 

A screen flickered on. Klaus bit his lip, confused. “One?” 

“Good.” Klaus suddenly felt something tighten around his arms. He jumped, and Georgina said, “Don’t panic. This’ll all be over soon.” 

“Wh-” 

“Your parents’ll be here in a moment. Now, do you see an A or a B?” 

“Georgina-” Fuck, fuck, fuck… 

“A or B?” 

The dictionary fell from Klaus’s lap, crashing onto the floor. Georgina made sure that she stepped on it on the way out. 

Violet awoke, hearing a distant door close, and she instantly realized something had gone wrong. 

She sat up straight, tossing her hair out of her face, and looked across to Klaus’s bed. He wasn’t there. She looked down, and realized that Sunny was gone, too. 

“No.” she whispered. 

She leapt out of bed, immediately grabbing her bag on the floor. Her heart dropped as she looked to the edge of Klaus’s bed and saw that his own bag still remained. He never went anywhere without that, especially since that was the Sunny Bag, he wouldn’t just leave it. She threw her bag onto her back and grabbed Klaus’s, slinging it over her shoulder. She took off running, feeling it bounce against her side as she raced down the hall and then practically threw herself down the stairs. 

“Klaus? Sunny? Klaus?” 

She’d fucked up, she shouldn’t have assumed they were safe. Why had they come here? She should’ve found them an empty house to stay in, or gotten Klaus some earbuds and dragged them to the lumbermill, why did she trust someone in a VFD building she was so dumb… 

She saw a door swinging- Georgina’s office. Violet raced in, shouldering the door open and sliding to a stop to look around. She let out a scream of fury when she saw it was empty; the door was only swinging due to an open window, cold night air blowing it to and fro. She began to turn and head out, and then she heard something slam. 

Violet paused, listening. The slam again, it came from behind the desk. She spun on her heels and moved back there, kneeling down and watching as a drawer, only half-shut, fell open, only to be slammed shut again by the wind. 

“Very stupid of you, Orwell.” Violet muttered, and she pulled the drawer open, peering inside. 

Several files filled it, labelled with names she didn’t recognize. She flipped through, seeing flashes of words- obeys after “lucky.” obeys after “hey.” will snap out after “fire.” will snap out after “smoke.” 

“Hypnotism.” Violet groaned, and then she froze. 

Shoved half-hazardly into the back of the drawer was a simple label. Bertrand Baudelaire. 

With shaky hands, she pulled out the file, and read it over. 

Obeys after “lucky.” 

Will snap out after “inordinate.” 

Orders: Lucky boy, would you like to take this flamethrower? Lucky boy, would you like to aim it at the lumbermill? Lucky boy, would you like to set it alight? 

“Son of a…” 

Violet shoved the file back, slung the bags back over her shoulder, and ran. She ran through the house as fast as she could, throwing open doors, screaming for her siblings. 

When she couldn’t find them, she peered out the window, seeing a bright light coming from one of the buildings near the lumbermill. 

Fuck. 

She burst out the door, still letting the bags slam against her side, racing across cracked pavement. Not even bothering to find the gate to the mill, she hoisted herself up the fence, scrambling and throwing herself over, taking off towards the building as soon as her feet hit the ground, ignoring how her legs ached and her shoulder wound started to pound again. 

Once she reached the building, she kicked the door down, racing inside, and then she slid to a stop and screamed, “Get away from them!” 

Up ahead, Georgina was walking ahead of Klaus, and she turned, smiling over at Violet, swinging a cane at her side. Behind her was Klaus, his eyes blank and unfocused, and in his arms a terrified Sunny. Sunny was kicking and shouting, pulling at Klaus’s jacket to try and get his attention, demanding she be put down. 

“Oh, Violet, dear, I was about to come get you.” Georgina smiled, as Sunny screamed for assistance, that something was wrong with Klaus. “I’m sorry, did we scare you?” 

“Let them go.” Violet dropped her bags to the ground, stepping forwards threateningly. 

Georgina sighed. “Really, Violet, be reasonable.” She then pulled on her cane, and Violet watched as she lifted a sword from the top. “Or I may have to do this by force.” 

“You’re already using force. You just hypnotized my brother!” 

“Ah, you figured that out, I see.” Georgina cooed. She turned. “Lucky boy, sit down with your sister. Your parents will be here soon.” 

Violet’s heart dropped. “You’re in contact with Olaf.” 

“Old friends, you could say.” Georgina said. “But right now we have the same common goal, to make your parents suffer.” 

“Because they stopped you from hypnotizing people, I assume.” 

“Clever girl. We’re meeting them here. One of your bratty siblings will get tossed into the furnace,” Georgina seemed elated, “And one into the saw. Olaf said something about having a special plan for you, and honestly, I don’t care, so long as I get to watch the fun.” 

“You’re sick.” 

“And you’re losing. Now, go sit with your brother, or I’ll have to hurt you before your parents get here and can watch.” 

Violet gave her a dark glare, and then thought back to the files. Georgina seemed like the person who’d like irony. “Klaus?” she turned to him. “Quit being inordinate and drop Sunny.” 

Klaus suddenly blinked, and then almost fell back where he sat, confusion across his face. He let out a panicked shout, and then froze. “Wh-what’s happening?” 

Violet smirked, and then realized that her eyes were locked on Klaus, and she’d lost sight of Georgina. She didn’t lose sight for long, as she was grabbed by the back of the injured shoulder and thrown back. She shouted, and then Georgina grabbed her, and shoved her into the wall. 

Instantly, a million feelings of panic, terror and horror filled every atom of Violet’s being. Her mind flashed to terrible thoughts, horrid memories, and it took her a second to realize that the throw was paining her shoulder-wound and back. She whimpered and felt tears spring to her eyes, as her mind told her to freeze up, don’t move, freeze and nothing bad will happen… 

Georgina pointed her sword at Violet’s throat. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you, you little bitch?” 

“Let her go!” Klaus screamed, terrified, holding Sunny back as the baby tried to throw herself forwards. 

“Lik!” Sunny screamed. “I’ll bite her face off! Let me at her!” 

Georgina pointed the sword closer, and Violet shook. “Let me tell you something. Your parents are going to suffer, and you’re all going to suffer for being born. Especially you. Think I don’t know who your father is? Anything I do to you will bring me nothing but joy. You might be able to delay your suffering if you listen to me.” 

Violet’s mind was racing, barely processing. Stay still. Freeze. Don’t move… 

“Violet!” Klaus stepped forwards. 

Violet’s eyes snapped to her brother, coming closer. Georgina kept one hand pinning Violet to the wall, and used the other to swing the sword towards Klaus. He stepped back, crouching down in front of the bags, fear flashing in his eyes. 

“Don’t hurt them.” Violet pleaded, barely able to speak. 

“I’ll do what I wish.” Georgina said. “Starting with you.” 

Violet felt a deep anger flare inside her, as she watched her brother and sister staring at the point of the sword. Then, she noticed Klaus’s hand edge towards the bag, and she let her gaze harden, and her eyes turn back to Georgina. 

She was still terrified, a thousand fears racing through her head. But she was going to protect her siblings. 

She wasn’t going to freeze this time. 

“Ms Orwell,” she said, her voice finally level and calm, “Do you know what happened to the last person who tried to pin me against a wall?” 

Georgina cocked her head, clearly unconcerned and uncaring, but now her attention was on Violet, and not Klaus, whose hand slipped into the bag. 

“He only had three seconds to try, before my mother gutted him.” Violet said. “So I’m going to give you three seconds.” 

“Funny.” Georgina smirked. “I don’t see your dear mother here.” 

“No,” Violet said. “But I am her daughter. Three seconds. One.” Georgina scoffed, swinging her sword back to Violet’s neck. 

“Two.” 

Klaus pulled his hand from the bag, his eyes terrified, but he nodded at Violet. 

“Three.” 

Georgina drew her hand back, as if to stab Violet with the sword, only to gasp as a throwing knife lodged in her back. 

Violet kicked up, managing to hit Georgina’s leg. As she doubled over, Violet kicked again, knocking the sword out of her grip; as Georgina lost her hold on the teenager, Violet twisted so that she fell to the floor, out of the optometrist’s grasp. She took off, diving for the sword, and turned just as Georgina ripped the knife from her back, staring down at it. 

“Bad idea.” Klaus said, before covering Sunny’s eyes; the baby cried out in annoyance. “It’s safer to leave the knife in to stop the bloodflow.” 

“Thanks for that, Klaus, I’ll make sure to pull this out, then.” Violet said, before leaping forwards and running Georgina through with the sword. 

Klaus, startled by the sight, curled up to shield Sunny, sliding back against the bags and squeezing his own eyes shut. Georgina gasped as Violet retracted the sword and took a deep breath, staring over at the bleeding woman. 

“You bitch.” Georgina said. 

“Takes one to know one.” Violet said. “And you shouldn’t have threatened my family.” 

And with that, she swung the sword again.

[solange-lol]

not so typical love song - ch. 1/13

Chapter Title: Rollarcoaster

Words: 3,050

Note: my piece for the @pjo-hoo-bigbang !!! special thanks to @shelbychild and @wisdom-walks-alone for editing and helping me develop this story! it wouldnt exist w/o y’all!

Art by @lizzybizzyo! <3

[ one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight (coming soon)]

read on ao3

—

Nico is staring at his computer, wordless. This isn't writer's block or surprise; it’s just the unknown reality of what this situation could lead to.

Another gay kid in his school. Another gay kid that isn’t Mitchell—who’s been out since 8th grade, and the only one to be out since then. Another kid at their school who’s hiding a secret. 

Nico doesn’t even know if this kid is a boy or a girl or what, and frankly, he doesn’t care. There’s another kid like him. And he has no idea how to respond to the post.

The post is a submission from their school’s gossip blog on Tumblr, the notorious ‘hb-secrets.’ Piper had called him an hour ago, asking if he’d seen it yet.

“Seen what?” he had responded.

“The post on hb-secrets? About the closeted gay kid?” It hit Nico like a wall of bricks as he quickly went to pull up the website. Did somebody know? It was a relief when he saw the clipart Ferris wheel and a few short lines submitted by a blog called blue0919.

“I bet it’s that Brazilian sophomore. Paolo or whatever? Or maybe it’s Connor Stoll! I swear he’s been flirting with Mitchell, but Annabeth keeps telling me that he’s into Lacy or someone,” Piper continued as he read, but it was going in one ear and out the other as he processed the words on the screen

Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck on a Ferris wheel. One minute I’m on top of the world, and the next minute I’m at rock bottom. Over and over all day long, because a lot of my life is great. But nobody knows I’m gay.

“Gotta go. I’ll talk later,” Nico said quickly, switching off his phone. He knew it would raise suspicion, but it felt like time was turning in on itself. Nobody knew about Nico. In fact, nobody ever even suspected. He’s never been called names besides “Death Boy.” And yet, there were the exact words that described his life, written out in front of him like they were a second thought.

And now, he was staring at his computer with an empty Gmail draft open. The original poster had left their email at the end of the post, so Nico after glancing quickly at his Panic! at the Disco poster still proudly hanging on his wall, typed out a new address. He was stuck, though, unsure of what to say from here. 

So, he started from the beginning.

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 6:48 PM

Subject: Hey

Somehow you’ve managed to type exactly what I feel. Sorta scary, as if you’re inside my head or something. Maybe it’s just a gay thing to be speaking in metaphors about the pressure of everyday society.

That’s what I am. Gay. I don’t know if I’ve ever really said it out loud to myself.

It’s weird because I never really had a perfectly normal life. My mom died when I was young, so I never really got to meet her. My sister and I have always been super close until she went away to college. Now, not as much. I guess that’s just what happens when you live a million miles away. 

And I’ve known my stepmom longer than I knew my real mom, but it was only a few years ago when I met my half-sister when she came to live with us because her mom died as well. Meaning, she isn’t the daughter of my stepmom. It’s a long story, and not really one I want to get into.

She’s super nice though. It’s funny, but despite being polar opposites with my older sister, they’re both mushy inside. Same with my stepmom. And my dad… he tries his best. We’re like exactly what you expect from a slightly broken family. Plus my dog who my cousin gave to me during a rough time. Honestly, she’s probably my favorite sibling out of them all. (Both my sisters would kill me if they knew I wrote that.)

And then there are my friends. I have some that are closer than others; Two of them I’ve known for a while now, and one who I only met recently but treats me better than some of the people I’ve known my whole life. While I admit, I’m not the most social person in the world, they’re pretty amazing as far as friends go. 

So there it is. My perfectly normal life. Except for that huge ass secret.

He typed and retyped each line what felt like a thousand times, deleting word after word. He didn't know what was too much. It all felt like too much, really. He didn’t even know if he could trust this person.

Signing it was the worst part; he didn’t have any good pseudonyms. Eventually, he decided to leave it blank.

Without a second thought, Nico hit ‘send’ before leaning back in his chair and putting his hands over his head. Only a second later, a light knock came from the door, causing him to quickly sit up as Hazel popped her head in.

“Dinner’s ready if you wanna eat,” she smiled. She left just as quickly as she came, curls bouncing as she walked away. They had gotten over the awkwardness of having a new sibling only months after Hazel moved in, but there was still some strangeness. To this day, Nico was still a lot closer to her than Bianca was. Either way, Nico knew he would do anything for her. (Not that he would admit that. He didn't even need to, Hazel already knew.)

Nico glanced back at his computer, but there was nothing in his inbox besides the Gmail “Welcome” email. It was stupid to think this person would respond that quickly, seeing as Nico didn't even know if they would respond at all. Heaving a sigh, he got up to join his family for dinner. Maybe he could even convince them to watch Steven Universe instead of The Bachelor.

---

Dinner went as expected. It’d been a while, actually, since they were all together for a meal. Hazel talked about her psycho geometry teacher and a boy she talked in the class named Frank, who seemed sweet but apparently had a shared hatred for math just like her. Nico didn’t say much, although chimed in at the latter, saying he better be the flower boy at their wedding. That even got a short scoff out of his father, which tended to be the closest Nico ever got him laughing. So, that was a win. 

However, he was a little more distant than usual. The pending email response was in the back of his mind during the entire meal.

Even afterward, as they watched reruns of Glee (a compromise made between Hazel and Nico, much to their father’s dismay), Nico couldn’t focus. It felt like a weight was burning through his back pocket. After the second episode (and laughing his ass off at his father’s reaction to Kurt’s ‘Single Ladies’ dance) he finally excused himself. 

He tapped the Gmail app on his phone as soon as he had reached his room. It felt like his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the new notification, a response from the original poster. With slightly shaky hands, he tapped the response, and a message opened up.

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:12 PM

Subject: I’ve never done this before

Dear anonymous person on the internet,

I really don’t know where to begin. I’m also not sure if you're a real person. For all I know you could be some random pedophile like one of those cases they warned us about in health class for the past 5 years, even though it’s never happened within the last decade.

But in case you are real, hello! I’m the original poster from that hb-secrets thread about life being a Ferris wheel. I’m rereading what I wrote there and I can’t stop cringing, so I’ll start by apologizing for that. I’m not usually one for metaphors, even the bad ones.

Anyway, it sounds like you identify with what I wrote. I’m glad you emailed me; I didn’t think anyone would actually do anything with the email that I left. Except maybe be extremely homophobic. But it made me feel less like I was shouting into the void, so thanks for that. And I assume you’re okay with me writing back since you sent me the first email. Though, I can’t believe I’m actually writing to you. I really didn’t think I would.

I guess I’m thinking it could be nice to talk with someone who can relate to how I’m feeling. No pressure, of course, but feel free to write back if you want to. I don’t want to use my real name, but you can call me Blue. 

It was surreal. Someone who was like Nico. Someone who wanted to talk to Nico because they were like him. 

He started to type again, with more excitement than he’s ever felt. He’s never been able to express this part of him before. It was almost like first date jitters-type feeling. 

(Not that he really knew what that was like.)

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:23 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

Hi, Blue

Wow, I’m actually kind of flipping out right now, because I seriously didn’t think I’d hear from you, especially so quickly. Wow. Okay. First of all, thanks for your email and also for your Tumblr post. I really liked it, Blue, and it wasn’t cringy at all, I promise.

So do you go here (here meaning HBHS)? I do, I’m a junior. And I’m a guy (are you a guy?) Anyway, I could relate a lot to your post, Like, pretty much all of it, but especially the part about being gay. You probably figured that out already though. And I’m not out yet either, which you probably figured that part out too. 

I guess a part of me wants to be out, but a part of me’s like… no. It’s hard to explain. I don’t know. Maybe you get it.

So yeah, it’s really nice to meet you! This is kind of cool, right? Even writing this email makes me feel eleven times less alone.

-Angel (not my real name either, two can play at this game. It’s not like a pet-name type thing. If you ever find out who I am, you’ll understand why.) 

He was worried about the whole name-signing thing. ‘Angel’ was just the easiest thing; it was a direct translation of his last name. He was really hoping Blue still didn’t take it in a weird way, even with that last note.

Relief flooded through him when he read the first sentence of Blue’s next email. 

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:41 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

Angel, huh? Maybe like guardian angel perhaps. 

Also, eleven times less alone? That’s oddly specific. :) But I know exactly what you mean.

Anyway, wow. Hi. You wrote back, and quickly too. I’m really glad you liked my post. Now I’m actually happy I put it out there. I have to admit, it’s strange to be writing a somewhat personal email to you when we don’t know each other’s identities. Though, in a way, I guess that makes it easier. Sorta like a therapist, except we’re both blindfolded and have the same problem. So not really a therapist, I guess.

Do you think therapists have therapists? Like, if the problems get to be too much for them? Is there an Almighty Therapist who just absorbs everyone's issues and feels nothing?

Anyway, I am a guy, and I’m also a junior at HB. I think you’re actually the first other gay guy I’ve met here. It’s pretty surreal to be talking to you. (In a good way though.) I wonder if we know each other in real life. 

And I think I understand what you mean. I feel like I’m constantly going back and forth about wanting to come out. I have these moments where I’m almost bursting to tell people. Of course, that’s where I was when I posted the thing on Tumblr. But I always feel so weird about it a few hours later, and sometimes I’m intensely relieved no one knows yet. What about you?

-Blue

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:12 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

I mean, let’s be real, eleven is the best number, which is perfect because we’re both in eleventh grade. And I can't believe we’re both juniors. The class is pretty small compared to the others, so I bet we do know each other, which is weird to think about. What if we’re actually enemies in real life? Do you have enemies? I don’t think I do, not really. Various people tend to annoy me a lot. It’s not even their fault; some people just have really punchable faces.

 (I’m usually a really nonviolent person. I’m more like a violent person who at the same doesn’t really want to hurt anyone, so I have to resort to fantasizing about punching people, which just ends in eating my feelings in large quantities of McDonald’s.)

It’s funny for me, it’s actually not so much that go back and forth about wanting to come out. It’s like I simultaneously do and don’t want to be out. Which is pretty freaking exhausting, honestly. Like I’m in this constant state of JUST SAY IT and NO NEVER. Do you think that ever ends? I don’t know, maybe I’m just a really indecisive person. I think part of me is also just holding out until college when I’m away from anyone I know and can just reinvent myself.

So what kind of stuff do you like to do after school and everything?

-Angel

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:34 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

I don’t think I have any enemies, but now I’m definitely wondering if I’m the guy with the punchable face. How do you know if you have a punchable face? I’ve never been punched, so hopefully, that’s a good sign. 

I will say, I’m definitely with you on the issue of eating your feelings. I’m the person who has never smoked a cigarette or gotten drunk or anything like that, and I'm usually relatively healthy. However, I once ate five jars of Nutella in one sitting. I do not recommend, 

I’m indecisive, too, in some ways. Okay, full disclosure: I was really conflicted when you sent me that email. I kept going back and forth about whether I should email you. I was (and am) definitely intrigued, but I guess I was also a little bit paranoid. It’s just that you could have been anyone, and it’s hard to know sometimes if someone’s being a jerk or if they’re being sincere. Plus my cousin sort of actually outed me. Not to anyone else, he’s the only one who knows, but now I’m super paranoid about coming out. (Exactly what you said about holding out until college. I’m thinking I can move to LA or somewhere where nobody really cares. Although I wouldn’t want to reinvent myself. And I don’t want you to reinvent yourself either, you’re pretty cool as you are I think.) Anyway, I’m really glad I decided to email you, though.

So, you’re probably going to think I’m ridiculous, but I’d rather not answer your last question. It’s just… I think I like being anonymous for now. Is that okay?

-Blue

Okay, that last part was fair. Nico understood the wanting-to-be-anonymous thing. Sure, they go to the same school. But Blue had no reason to entirely trust him; Nico didn’t really trust Blue at all. This could entirely be some random asshole anywhere in the world trying to find him and beat him up, or worse. It sucked that homophobia was still a thing in their day and age. 

But Blue said he liked talking to Nico, and it was thrilling to talk to him. It was another secret of his, but not one he entirely minded keeping. So, he chose to believe that Blue was actually who he said he was. 

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:57 PM

Subject: Punchability

Blue, you have so much to learn about the rules of punchability, starting with the fact that it is completely impossible for you to have a punchable face. Rule number one: guys who make metaphors about Ferris wheels are automatically unpunchable. Rule number two: There isn’t one. Just rule number one, so memorize it. Everyone else can catch these fists. (Catch these fists? These hands? This would probably be more intimidating if I knew the correct phrasing)

Also, five jars of Nutella in one sitting is the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life. Challenge accepted.

I don���t think you’re ridiculous, Blue. I totally understand why you don't want to tell me about your extracurricular activities (I’m guessing interpretive dance, though, you seem like the type.) But seriously, I get it. It’s this weird contradiction, right? It’s so much easier to be open with someone who doesn't know you at all. We’ll be each other's Ultimate Therapists. 

(Except I don’t think I could ever be a therapist.)

Anyway, I’m really glad you decided to email me back, too :)

-Angel

That smiley face was really unlike him. 

Nico sent the email, but after nearly an hour, he didn’t get on back, which meant Blue was probably asleep. Which was different from what Nico was used to; he tended to stay awake until the early hours of the morning most nights. But it wasn’t anything he minded. He had a conversation with Blue, and even if that was the last one they would ever have (which, he was hoping it wouldn’t be), it was good to know that there was somewhere out there like him.

[halloweendailynews]

A new Halloween movie is finally upon us, and it was well worth the nine-year wait, as director David Gordon Green and his co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley have delivered one of the best horror sequels ever made, in a timely story of unresolved trauma and the return of The Bogeyman.

I’ve watched Halloween 2018 three times as of this writing, and I enjoyed it more with each viewing, and so after a few weeks of thinking about it, it’s time to dive in to my full review. In this case, the following does contain quite a few spoilers, because, honestly, you’ve had almost a month to see the film. (If you’re reading this for my recommendation as to whether you should see the film, just know that I highly recommend you go see it right now. …And then come back here and read the following review).

Let’s start with the score, the most visceral link between this new film and director/composer John Carpenter’s 1978 original Halloween. Carpenter’s new score for the 2018 film not only brings updated versions of the classic themes we all know and love, but also channels all of the best parts of other classic Carpenter soundtracks. By the time Daniel Davies’ electric guitar first screams in the film, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

The first thing we hear over the studio logos is a dark, intensely foreboding intro. The revisited themes are all familiar but now have a new, relentlessly driving urgency, hurtling viewers toward an epic, inevitable climax.

My favorite track from the 2018 soundtrack, “Prison Montage” creates an atmosphere of complete dread for what’s about to happen, while on screen shots of Michael boarding the bus transporting the patients of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium are intercut with Laurie Strode seeing The Shape for presumably the first time in 40 years from a distance. And there’s the haunting voice of Dr. Loomis (voiced by Colin Mahan), not the voice of Donald Pleasence that we remember, but a more weary and hollow, distorted recording of the Loomis we once knew, absolutely resigned to the fact that “It has to die.”

From the opening credits to Laurie Strode’s eventual reunion with Michael Myers, the film does an amazing job of subverting our horror-ingrained Halloween-obsessed expectations while at the same time paying significant homage to the very tropes that the original Halloween created 40 years ago.

And how can fans not love all of the Easter eggs, so many loving references to the entire Halloween franchise?

P.J. Soles, who starred in Halloween ’78 as Lynda, has a classy off screen cameo as the voice of young Allyson Strode’s unseen high school teacher, and the devil costume worn by Oscar, played by Drew Scheid, is a callback to the she-devil costume memorably worn by Samantha, played by Tamara Glynn, in Halloween 5.

And Laurie Strode’s bedroom, where much of the finale takes place, is itself an exact recreation of the Doyle house bedroom where the first film ends.

We knew from the trailers that the Silver Shamrock masks from Halloween III would make an appearance, and it was indeed amazingly surreal to see, this being the first time that Season of the Witch has been acknowledged in any way since “Mrs. Blankenship” was featured in 1995’s The Curse of Michael Myers (Curse writer Daniel Farrands told me that “Mrs Blakenship” is “Minnie Blankenship” in this interview).

And of course Allyson’s asshole boyfriend Cameron Elam, played by Dylan Arnold, is the son of longtime Haddonfield asshole Lonnie Elam, who bullied poor Tommy Doyle in the first film and was last seen getting scared away from the Myers House by Dr. Loomis.

Those are just a few of the many shout-outs to past Halloween movies that are featured all throughout Halloween 2018, which only enhance the film’s re-watchability.

And speaking of doctors, let’s talk about Dr. Sartain, played by Haluk Bilginer, who we told you would be a new Loomis-like character following Nick Castle’s Q&A in February. I’d still say that Laurie is really the “new Loomis”, but Sartain serves as sort of an abbreviated, extreme version of what these new filmmakers see as likely happening to Dr. Loomis, at least to some level. Loomis was admittedly obsessed with Michael after just 15 years with him, and Sartain is certainly obsessed with him after (presumably) close to 40 years with him.

And while Sartain’s twist is definitely the biggest WTF moment of the film, even that in itself is a bit of an Easter egg too, isn’t it? Halloween is easily the crown jewel of all modern horror franchises, but it has a long history of WTF moments throughout the last four decades, some that have been eventually embraced over the years (Halloween III), and others not so much (The Man in Black), but Sartain’s WTF moment is not really that huge when compared to all of the others. And you have to admit, you did not see that coming. (We were all expecting Ben Tramer Version 2.0, right?)

On repeat viewings, you’ll notice more of how Sartain allows, almost urges, journalists Aaron and Dana to provoke his most notorious patient, and on the eve of his transfer to a new facility where the doctor does not want to think about Michael being. And there’s the odd coincidence that the transfer takes place on the night before Halloween. And you will rightly wonder just how much of what transpires next was part of Sartain’s plans all along.

This is my favorite portrayal of the Laurie Strode character ever put on screen. In a career-defining performance that more than anything honors the legacy of one of the greatest survivors in movie history, Jamie Lee Curtis has never been better. This is a heartbreaking portrait of a woman who has never fully developed into a whole person because of the horrific events that happened to her on Halloween night in 1978. And when it starts happening again, 40 years later, her worst fears, and at the same time a chance at rewriting her own narrative’s ending, are realized.

As Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson, Andi Matichak is very much the modern version of what Laurie was in 1978, instantly likable in her everyday manner, understandably questionable of both sides of her mother and grandmother’s strained relationship, looking beyond the today that her friends live in to try to find her place in a larger picture, very much on the verge of adulthood.

And The Shape? James Jude Courtney’s portrayal does exactly what he told me he did (read our interview here), channeling the space created by Nick Castle in 1978, inhabited by Dick Warlock in 1981 and all the other actors since, to tap into the essence of the simple, focused, violent existence, rather than humanity, of Michael Myers. It’s all there, from the head tilt to the walk, and when fused with Nick Castle’s recorded breathing and cameos behind the mask, it makes for a damn perfect portrayal of The Shape.

Michael has never been deadlier, creatively brutal enough to evoke memories of Rob Zombie-directed kills, and yet silently cunning, the trickster that creatively displayed the dead bodies of Laurie’s friends for her to find in 1978, who enjoys terrorizing his victims as much if not more than actually murdering them. And he’s back to being a random source of tragedy, the kind of tragedy that we see hitting random people every day on the nightly news in real life in 2018.

The subtle yet ever-present social commentary threaded throughout the film is another tribute to Carpenter, but also a testament to the decades old truth that horror always reflects the current fears of the audience.

The new mask, an aged update on the original, created by a team led by Christopher Nelson (read our interview here), Vincent Van Dyke, and Justin Mabry, is haunting, soulful, and creepy as hell.

Over the years, I’m sure the biggest criticism about this film will be that it is essentially a remake of Halloween H20 , which it is, though I’d say it is much more a third version of Halloween II, and in a franchise that has already done this disregarding of previous chapters, it’s yet another choose-your-own-adventure option to take following the first film. No matter where you place it in official canon, it’s undeniable that Halloween 2018 is one of the best sequels in the franchise, and I’d say one of the best sequels, period.

A totally entertaining tribute that honors 40 years of Halloween, Michael Myers is back, and Haddonfield has never felt more like home.

Halloween 2018 is currently in theaters.

[Read our interview with Rhian Rees on the fear and female power of Halloween 2018 here.]

[Read our interview with James Jude Courtney on playing Michael Myers in Halloween 2018 here.]

[Read our interview with Nick Castle on reprising Michael Myers in Halloween 2018 here.]

[Read our interview with Christopher Nelson on making Michael Myers’ mask for Halloween 2018 here.]

I think the new film will ignore everything after Part 1. Laurie is the new Loomis, claiming for 40 years He’s coming back. Then He does.

— Halloween Daily News (@HalloweenDaily) September 17, 2017

For more Halloween news, follow @HalloweenDaily.

'Halloween' 2018 Brings Michael Myers Back Home [Review] A new Halloween movie is finally upon us, and it was well worth the nine-year wait, as director David Gordon Green and his co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley have delivered one of the best horror sequels ever made, in a timely story of unresolved trauma and the return of The Bogeyman.

[ooc-but-stylish]

EP Ignis ‘liveblog’

There’s an alternate ending for this, apparently. The video is going to go through both playthroughs, not sure about there being a “bad ending”. I’ll watch that later probably.

according to comments on the video, the king that usurped Ardyn was confirmed to be his brother? I’ll just keep watching and see where this comes up.

Regis: "as his friend, and as his brother" Ig/Noct shippers: *will pointedly ignore the brother comment*

Iggy's fighting style is nice and fluid. I like.

Being able to see and influence which faction controls a part of the town is more like what I was suggesting for the whole game in an alternate scenario I posited. I dunno, maybe I should repost that sometime, since it was a reply to someone else originally.

Did Iggy just pull a Aranea? *Ignea shipping intensifies* ( I don’t know what the official ship name for Ignis and Aranea is, sorry )

Everything does look more epic than the main game.

Archives: Photos and Documents? I feel like they shouldve had this in the main game to get notes and stuff and some backstory. Did they? IDK. 

The way Ignis uses magic on his daggers is exactly how Noctis should have fought, I mean, considering his bloodline has magic by birthright, the fact that he can cast spells should affect how he thinks of things, solves problems, and essentially lives his life-- instead of this unimaginative "ah lemme just make some grenades in a flask".

I love how Ignis is just selling/buying things to NO ONE. He’s such a good guy putting down gil that no one will come back to retrieve. I mean, that’s what I think is happening with this shop mechanic.

the more I watch this, the more I think that if they lasted a year+ longer with this game in development they couldve just given us Versus XIII, with how fluidly Ignis fights and the Altissia scenes.

"We can't go losing our heads," says Gladio, yelling out of nowhere like a jackass to Ignis who is actually doing shit.

did they ever confirm that Caligo killed Jared? I’m surprised they still keep mentioning that guy.

Ravus calling Iggy "Boy" when theyre less than a decade apart. What even is this dialogue, he’s just so patronizing.

The soundstrack is pretty good, real talk.

Yeah... it honestly looks like Luna never ever told Ravus about the fact that she chose to let Regis's hand go. She just weakly protested in KG that "Regis did not kill our mother" or something.

This is ugly. I don’t ship NoctLuna because of the violation of trust and general shittiness needed to know that someone is going to die as part of a role that was thrust on them. Regis and Luna are both fucked up and Square is like “Ah yes I know the solution, let’s add Ignis to the list” fuck off. This means Ignis knew damn well what was in store for Noctis and he a) didn’t tell him, b) let Gladio shittalk Noctis on the train and even further c) still let Noctis go and die for a world that didn’t give an iota of a fuck about him. 

Okay. Ravus got me feeling feels. He had more of a vision for Luna’s future than Luna did. I’m dying over here. Luna continues to be an object and not a person, with 0 speaking lines as a ghostly apparition that people pine for.

WHAT? ARDYN? WHAT A JACKASS! Although I wouldn’t have put it past canon Gladio to attack Ravus out of nowhere, that’s how badly they butchered him throughout this series. 

So Ravus can tell Gladio is Ardyn off of basically nothing, but then couldn’t tell it was him later in Chapter 13 Verse 2? Sounds legit!

Ignis’s “Noooooct!” doesn’t sound as heartwrenching as when he shouts it during Noctis suffering a mere KO out in the field. 

They made Ignis's eyes look larger just to show how pretty they are I swear.

"but if a Glaive can harness its power, then so can I!" HOW THE FUCK WOULD HE KNOW THAT? NO ONE TOLD HIM

Ultra Instinct Ignis *muffled Ultimate Battle theme in the distance*

Prompto helping Ignis and keeping a hand at his back <3

so, Noctis knows he has to keep moving forward, and he does keep moving forward even against Ignis’s wishes, proving he knows what’s at stake, and Gladio apparently still yells at him for what IS effectively "no reason". Good going, writers.

Awww, the smile!

--

[ ‘Alternate’ Scenario ]

Play along? What could go wrong?

Zegnautus Keep? Ignis got kidnapped to chapter 13? We’d have to get every other character’s reaction off of this. I mean is this Chapter 13, or would Ignis have been kidnapped to Gralea before Prompto got pushed off the train?

This Mysterious Voice doesnt sound like Bahamut. It’s like Luna run through random voice modifier three times straight. Or it could be “Eos” or whatever people want to headcanon. So if this is Luna... even post-mortem and crystallized does she never stop talking about Noctis and his role. Hers is not an existence I envy.

Ardyn: *Nightmare Face* Ardyn Fans: *probably wanna bang him even more than they previously did*

Okay so it was Ardyn’s brother that snatched the throne from him, just like people theorized.... a whole goddamn year ago. Watch the other language versions of this playthrough come up with different subtitles/dialogue or some shit. It’s like a puzzle but half the pieces are missing and the other half is scattered every which way and the corner parts ended up in someone’s breakfast cereal.

Dancing Mad will start playing aaaaany second now.

Okay so we get the same situation, different context.

Ardyn’s fight with Ignis is 1000x more impressive than the random scrolling green screen looking effect they had in the original game.

JESUS FUCK IGGY also can we get that as a new outfit?

This soundtrack is godly!

*ULTIMATE BATTLE THEME INTENSIFIES*

Ignis could beat Ardyn enough that he wouldnt come back for a long time but Nyx had to die from Glauca? Fuck Nyx, apparently.

Damn, ouch. Feels. Also: Yay, Gladio is allowed to have feelings other than “angry”.

Noctis can put on the Ring and not feel excruciating pain, meaning the only reason why it did in the first place was because Tabata loves tragedy and causing pain to the main character for some shitass reason. I mean they could easily have written it being a painful experience uniformly across all scenarios but they didn’t.

Is the Crystal’s light healing Ignis? ... he still looks hurt eyewise...

Oh, finally, Noct being proactive on some measure.

It looks like Iggy can still see.

ARANEA CAMEO WHAT WHAT

OLD RAVUS who looks vaguely like Iedolas. Glad to see they didn’t shaft him this time. I like.

Noctis lives~! and it sounds like Ignis said “Your Majesty”. 

So if this happened as the legitimate ending, I wouldn’t even have blinked or called foul, which says a lot about the original ending. I mean they even keep in with the theme of Brotherhood and have them all face Ardyn together instead of Noctis shouldering everything by himself because some scaly asshole said so.

[blyedeeks]

Calm down about Bellarke and Clarke, let’s talk.

Here goes the meta.....

It’s honestly hard for me to even know where to begin with this cause it seems like the writers are touching so many plots at the same time with 4x11 that I’m a bit overwhelmed.

But we can start with this: what Clarke did (betraying the grounders) is not shocking, and it’s not character retrogression OR stagnation.

And it’s not the end of Bellarke either,if the plot from the entire show is anything to go by.

(this is not the “me romanticizing the gun scene, meta.” So stick with me as I try to go through Clarke’s and Bellarke’s plots and explain what I’m thinking )

Clarke has been that character that ever since season 1 stopped at nothing to make sure her people survived – whatever wide or narrow her spectrum of “her people” were at the time. She tortured Lincoln to save Finn, she let a bomb drop in TonDc, she killed innocents in Mt Weather, she tried to freaking force-chip Luna on season 3....

Bellamy: “What are you doing”

Clarke: “What I have to, like always”

(4x11 let’s see what always means...)

Who we are and who we need to be to survive are very different things.

(1x07 – lol you never thought I’d use this quote against you)

Abby: You knew, and you let this happen? 

Clarke: We had no choice.

Abby: So many people. Our people.

(2x12)

Luna: You believe that to defeat an enemy who will stop at nothing, you must stop at nothing. How is that different than blood must have blood?

 (3x14) 

Octavia: “What do you expect us to do, Clarke, walk into random villages asking for their Nightbloods?”

Clarke “If that's what it takes.” (3x13)

 Monty: You're the one going too far and using the same old justification "it's all for my people.”

(4x04) 

 Those are few examples, forgive me for not remembering everything. But this is to say, this is a pattern happening along the seasons, something that is not getting better- something that is growing, and not something that came out of nowhere on season 4.

 Everyone knows Clarke has the “I bear it so they don’t have to” complex, which goes further than Clarke sacrificing herself for others…. It’s about Clarke doing “ugly“things to make sure others can live (2x16). And this was never solved, because she was never faced with a plot where this was officially “a problem”. 

 That is: until now. 

 (Funny how they echoed this line this season …)

 The only way to make characters face their flaws head on is when they become a problem, it’s simple like that. 

They won’t just “figure it out on their own” and suddenly show up better people on our screens, that throws away the need of a story in the first place. And this is no news either, we’ve seen this happen with nearly every character on this show: Abby, Kane, (even Jaha), Murphy and Bellamy. 

All of them did terrible things, caused by their terrible flaws, and they had to face them. All of them lost themselves. Well, Clarke has been losing herself because of her flaw ever since the beginning in case no one noticed: 

 1x07 quote again: 

Who we are and who we need to be to survive are very different things. [echoing: Abby 4x08 “First, we survive. Then we find our humanity again.” ] 

 Abby: Please, Clarke. Please tell me this wasn't you. 

(2x12) [echoing Clarke to Bellamy: “This is not who you are” 3x05] 

 Jaha: Heavy lies the crown. I know the burden of keeping a secret you think is going to destroy your people. 

 Clarke: (..)You floated my father.

 Jaha: And now you understand why. No leader starts out wanting to lie or imprison or execute their people. The decisions you face just whittle you down piece by piece. (4x02) 

Monty: Who are you? When did you become this person? 

Clarke: I haven't become anyone. 

Monty: The Clarke I know wouldn't be arresting her friends. (4x04) 

Clarke: I tried to be the good guy.

Abby :Maybe there are no good guys. (2x16)

[ echoing: Bellamy:” What do you do when you realize you might not be the good guy?”

Clarke:” Maybe there are no good guys”. 3x11]

 Again, just a few examples. But the point is, Clarke’s rationality – her “head”- gets a lot in the way of who she is, because ever since the beginning she’s been learning over and over that to survive, to get people alive, she can and should sacrifice everything. She put herself in the place of a leader, of the savior, at the cost of herself (and, many times, others too). 

 And, problem is, when Clarke’s mind is set in something, there’s little that can change it. Which turned this into the trainwreck we’re living now. Clarke is on mode “we do what we have to do, what ~I~ have to do to survive” upped up by a ton because this girl is facing the freaking apocalypse now – and others are just as crazy worried as her. And she’s under the influence – and support- of a character that has been sneakily (but clearly) paralleling her all season, Jaha.

 Jaha: Heavy lies the crown. I know the burden of keeping a secret you think is going to destroy your people. (…) 

(...)

Clarke: So what do I do 

Jaha: We make the best decisions that we can with the information that we have 

 However, there’s a difference between Clarke and Jaha. (and many other leaders on the show). 

 (You so knew this was coming)

 Something that may help her out of the true craziness that is deciding who lives and dies (1x04/4x03), that may give her a different opinion when she needs one, that may show her she’s not alone in those decisions, that may balance out her “I need to this ~thing~ at all costs for the greater good” thoughts. 

Jaha (to Bellamy on Clarke): She's lucky to have you. Leadership is a lonely pursuit, but you keep her centered. (4x03) 

 This was said this season, so please pay attention to it closer. And by the one character paralleling Clarke, by the guy that made so many leadership mistakes. By the guy that said THIS just on the previous episode 

(again:)  Jaha: “And now you understand why. No leader starts out wanting to lie or imprison or execute their people. The decisions you face just whittle you down piece by piece.” (4x02) 

 Bellamy is the crack in Jaha’s own theory (and Clarke is the same for Bellamy – You got it backwards and all that shiz but we’re not here for that).

 Throughout the entire show, Bellamy is Clarke’s cold hard thinking weakness. In more ways than one. 

Not just because he disagrees and balances her out in leadership decisions- as Jaha pointed out, but because very often her feelings for him force her to open exceptions that would make no sense for her rational (”greater good”) self:

 *ALIE needs Clarke to break and tell her where the chip is. But Clarke isn’t breaking because of “The greater good” and sacrificing herself over it-* 

ALIE!Abby: Her friends are her weakness.  Start with Bellamy Blake. 

 (3x15) 

 *Clarke, spending the whole day trying to figure out the perfect people to be on her rational list, just can help anymore and writes Bellamy’s name for no rational reason she could easily shout out during 4x04* 

(4x03)

And Bellamy Blake? Come on. (4x04)

 (yeah son, bellamy blake.) 

Clarke: We have more bullets than you have men. You'll lose. 

Roan: Maybe. We'll both take losses, Kane and Bellamy among them

Clarke: You think you can shake my resolve? I was willing to sacrifice my own mother to stop A.L.I.E. (…) Wait. What if we share it? 

(4x05) 

 L. exa: Once Bellamy shuts down the acid fog and the battle begins, everything will be clear. 

Clarke: What if he can't? What if it was too dangerous and I sent him in there anyway? 

(2x14 – doubting their own “greater good” plan but okay...) 

 Clarke: I care about all of them.

 L. exa: Yet you worry about him more.

(2x14.) [ Echoing 3x15, 4x03, 4x04 and 4x10 all at once, how pretty]

 *Let’s not get started on the fact she chose to let skypeople chancellor (aka KANE) out of the bunker but she went out of her way to make sure Bellamy was in it, rationality says bye* 

(4x10) 

 This is why it makes complete sense for the bellarke conflict to happen next week. That’s why it clicks they’d pick the gun scene to be on the promo.

Clarke’s sides are (finally) conflicting. 

Clarke is on the peak of her leadership-entitled-unilateral-decisions now, and she can’t go there without a conflict; She can’t go there without facing the one (main but not only) thing that has kept her away from these lonely and impersonal decisions for so long.

 It’s make it or break it. She can go full Jaha or she can go back. 

And they can’t do that without Bellamy, I’m sorry. They CAN have Abby, they can have Murphy or Monty or anyone else, but it’s BELLAMY the character that had stood out all show long as the person that makes Clarke second guess decisions which seems so sure and “right”. 

HE is the first weakness. It wasn’t Abby, Murphy, Monty, Jasper, Raven, Kane, Jaha, Roan, L/exa, Finn that ever made Clarke not choose the “greater good” at several times, it was Bellamy.

 ( more than once, more than twice...).

So that’s it, this is how we know THIS is Clarke’s rock bottom.

 Because it seems like (by a probably carefully misleading promo) that Clarke is willing to sacrifice the one person she’s ever sacrificed others for in the name of the “greater good”. 

She can either turn off completely and shoot the one person that keeps her centered or she can realize she’s off the rails.

 (is she capable of hurting Bellamy… is she really…) 

 Now, being this season COMPLETELY centered on how Clarke’ s leadership/ “greater good” decisions are turning her into a bad person (rewatch 4x08 and 4x09 if needed) AND on how people should let others MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS (rewatch Bellamy’s arc ever since 4x07); being Clarke and Bellamy the main characters of this show; And as episode 4x12 description pretty much shows their group of friends outside the bunker- you tell me what you think it’s gonna happen.

(PS: yes, of course I can be wrong. But,hopefully, everything i said made sense and we’re reading the writers right if the plot is anything to go on)

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993)

OVERSIZED ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Featuring the return of Superman! And Superman! And Superman, and also, Superman! But first: The Badass Adventures of Pa Kent in Hell. The last time we saw ol’ Pa, he’d just had a heart attack and seen a ghostly vision of his dead son (that’s Superman, for those joining us), who grabbed his hand and pulled Pa towards him. Now Ghost Superman is like, “Whelp, nice seeing you dad, gotta go.”

Superman is taken “into the light” by a couple of demons disguised as robed Kryptonian ladies. However, Pa refuses to give up on his son and follows them, only to find himself in a battlefield covered with corpses -- those of his Korean War buddies. Pa is (understandably) confused and thinks he’s back in the war, carrying out a mission to rescue some captured “airman”. Private Pa then comes across a farm littered with more dead people, including one that reminds him of his brother Harry... mainly because that’s exactly who it is.

In case you hadn’t noticed, something fishy is going on here. A demonic-looking enemy soldier tries to kick Pa out of wherever the hell this is (get it? hell?), but Pa just punches him into oblivion and soldiers on. Sometimes you just gotta punch some Nazis, folks.

Next up, Pa runs into Lady Blaze, the satanic mistress/recurring Superman baddie. Blaze generously offers to help Pa find his son in exchange for one million do-- I mean, his soul. Pa apparently thinks “eh, I don’t love him that much” and prefers to jump into the void beneath him.

At this point, Pa is saved from pinballing from sad memory to sad memory for all eternity by Kismet, the nice cosmic entity Superman met a while back (“our favourite naked outer space lady in a cape”, as Don Sparrow puts it). With Kismet’s guidance, Pa finally finds Superman, but he’s in the middle of some sort of weird funeral procession carried out by more demons disguised as Kryptonians (and Superman’s old furry friend, the Cleric).

Superman has completely fallen for the show these guys put on, and is prepared to let them take him to the “Kryptonian afterlife”, but Pa eventually breaks the spell with his hollering. More punching ensues!

Superman gets rid of the demons, but he still thinks that Pa should go back to the land of living without him. He’s been gone for too long, and it’s not his place to deny death. Superman’s Kryptonian father Jor-El suddenly shows up to reinforce this notion, telling Superman to join him and his biological mother, Lara, in the afterlife. It is the natural way of things.

Naturally, Pa Kent ain’t having any of that.

Pa practically carries Superman through the portal in front of them. Cut to: Pa waking up in a hospital bed in Smallville, whispering “Clark is back” to a freaked out Ma Kent and Lois Lane.

Suddenly, Superman sightings are reported all over Metropolis -- it’s like he’s in four places at once! Lois refuses to give herself any false hopes, but just to make double-sure her fiancee is still dead, she decides to take a peek inside his tomb. Inspector Henderson opens the casket for her, and it’s... empty?!

TO BE CONTINUED! But first...

Epilogue 1: Two rival gangs are fighting over turf when one pulls out some futuristic super-weapons that literally blow the other guys to pieces. As the cops roll in, out of the rubble emerges a hulking figure saying “DOOMSDAY! GOTTA STOP DOOMSDAY!” Holy shit, it’s Superman! He’s back! Also, black!

Epilogue 2: As an evildoer tries to carjack an innocent citizen, a caped figure flies to the rescue... and blasts the absolute crap out of the would-be thief with some energy blasts, throwing him off the roof of a building. The familiar figure explains that he’s “risen from the dead” and been changed by “the fire and darkness” -- OK, that has to be Superman. There’s no other explanation.

Epilogue 3: There’s an emergency at Project Cadmus, the genetic experimentation facility that recently held Superman’s corpse: some type of secret cloning experiment has broken out before it/he was ready. We see this brash young clone being led to the outside world by the Newsboy Legion, and upon hearing the way they refer to him, he exclaims: “DON’T EVER CALL ME SUPERBOY!” Because he’s actually Superman! Oh my God!

Epilogue 4: A tourist family stops in front of the Daily Planet and reflects solemnly on the plaque marking the spot where Superman died... until a man in blue tights lands from the sky, rips out the plaque, and burns it with his heat vision. We then see that he’s got robot parts all over his body; you know, as if he’d been brought back to life after being pummelled to death by a monster. Whelp, that’s it. That’s Superman, right there.

Character-Watch:

First appearance of these four mysterious Supermen: Black Superman, Blind Superman, Brat Superman, and Beep-Bop-I’m-a-Robot Superman. Or is it?!

Creator-Watch:

This is a suitably epic finale for Jerry Ordway’s original Superman run, which started way back in 1987. Ordway went from artist to co-plotter to writer/artist to just writer, along the way pioneering the house style that all Superman series will use throughout the ‘90s. This is often called the “Byrne” and/or “Jurgens” era, but I’d argue that Ordway was the single most influential creator involved in this period, and although what comes directly after his departure is cool as hell, we’ll definitely miss the heart, humor and realism he brought to even the most obscure background characters.

Speaking of which, this wouldn’t be an Ordway comic without a shit-ton of subplots, so here we go...

Plotline-Watch:

One detail I never caught as a kid: one of the “Superman sightings” at the end of the issue is clearly a drunken Bibbo in a Superman shirt.

The Final Misadventure of Jose Degaldo: He’s been beaten, burned, broken (literally), had buildings dropped on him, and dumped by both Lois Lane and Cat Grant, but Jose “Gangbuster” Delgado has finally had enough -- he’s ditching Metropolis. A regular crime-punching adventure goes wrong when Jose accidentally beats up an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer. Upon learning there’s a warrant for his ass and getting shot by another cop, Jose decides to call it quits and leave town (using the bus ticket Inspector Henderson recently gave him). He’s actually going to Fawcett City along with his creator -- he’ll show up again in Jerry Ordway’s Power of Shazam, but that’s it for Jose in these pages! Goodbye, Suicide Slum’s rose.

Incidentally, Cat Grant is feeling rather down since she split with Jose, and her boss Vinnie Edge uses the opportunity to invite her to dinner. She agrees, even though A) her relationship with Vinnie’s son did not end well, and B) he’s a disgusting perv who just grabbed her butt. Don Sparrow says: “The interplay between Cat Grant and Vinnie Edge hasn’t aged well -- though in some ways it seems timelier than ever.”

The “favor” Vinnie mentions above is not what you might think: he wants Cat to talk to Jimmy Olsen, who has neglected his duties as star of the hit Turtle Boy TV series ever since a certain pal of Jimmy’s was violently killed. Jimmy isn’t in the mood for light-hearted TMNT copyright infringement, though, so the series is currently on reruns.

Those Turtle Boy reruns are watched by the cellmate of Oswald Loomis -- aka Superman’s least intimidating rogue, The Prankster. Loomis, once a children’s entertainer himself, doesn’t appreciate ‘90s television and tries to electrocute said cellmate (who, in my memory, was Vinnie’s son Morgan Edge, making this scene slightly less random).

Pa Kent smashing the ghostly Jor-El with a shovel that materializes out of nowhere is, of course, a shout out to John Byrne’s classic Man of Steel #6, when he does the same thing. I want a full series about Pa dispatching Kryptonian ghosts the same way. His maligned brother Harry was also mentioned in a Byrne comic, World of Smallville #1.

As usual, I’m forgetting or lazily leaving out plenty of important details, so check out Don Sparrow’s section after the jump for way more!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

Even more than Superman #75, it’s this issue (and the storyline that follows) that most define this, my most beloved era of Superman comics for me.  Perhaps it’s because I was actually opposed to Superman’s death, rather than excited about it, whereas with this issue, I was only completely excited, and totally curious about how they’d bring Superman back.

Still more nerdy background:  as we’ve mentioned in previous blogposts, I live in the same city as Super-teamster Tom Grummett, so the fact that he drew this comic was big, big deal in my hometown.  Our local comic store (which sat below Tom Grummett’s art studio upstairs) had Tom in on the day it was released to sign copies, so it was a major event.  Though I was only a lad of 13 at the time, both that day, and in the years since, I bought enough copies of Adventures of Superman #500 to insulate my house with them (and so did the rest of the world, making the resale value not quite what Superman #75 was). How big of a deal was Superman’s return in my hometown?  Well, we made the evening news…

The direct market edition cover features a stunner of a painting by the great Jerry Ordway, of a ghostly Superman reaching out to Pa Kent from beyond the void.  It was billed as being a removable translucent screen, but I don’t know anyone who was successfully able to remove the vellum without ruining their cover, but the softening of the add-on is very effective.  The newsstand edition (remember when comics could be purchased on newsstands?) has a decidedly story-driven cover, which must have perplexed the many non-regular Superman readers who came out in droves for this big issue.  It features Superman and Pa Kent floating over a background of enemies (including the demonic Blaze, which, to the uninitiated, must have been pretty spooky) with Pa Kent inexplicably in a Challengers of the Unknown looking jumpsuit.   Confusion aside, it’s still a great cover, and a nice hint at all the zip-a-tone goodness we’ll find inside.

Throughout the issue, the real world and the afterlife are given very distinct visual styles, with the ‘real’ world being inked and coloured normally, and the spirit world with lots of zip-a-tone shadows and gleaming bright colours.  It’s such an effective way to delineate the storylines, and man, I love how the extra shading looks on the afterlife pages.  It’ll be hard to single out only a few pages, because, honestly, this is one of the best drawn comics of the era.    

In the first few pages, I was struck that, despite seeing Superman in full uniform at the end of Superman #77, the Superman Jonathan Kent sees on the ‘other’ side is Clark Kent, which is a telling note about how he sees his identity.  The image of Pa stripping away his Clark garb is a great one, with the mist and swirling clouds establishing we are indeed, not in Kansas anymore.

The direct market edition also has some differences within the book, in addition to the difference in cover—it has a number of full page splashes inserted into the storyline, which are missing from the newsstand edition, and each one is a stunner.  The first one is Gangbuster descending a fire escape on page 6, having ignored the warnings he got from Inspector Henderson in the Superman specials that preceded this issue. 

The most interesting thing about these splashes, aside from how just about every one of them would have made for some killer poster art, is how seamlessly Jerry Ordway matches the scripts.  Many of the splashes contain dialogue, but if those sentences are removed (as they are in the newsstand edition) the story still makes sense, which must have been a real challenge. [Max: Oddly enough, the one flaw I’ve found in my giant Death and Return of Superman omnibus so far is that some of the dialogue from these pages is duplicated, presumably from combining pages from both editions.]

Page 9 features another great Gangbuster image, and the fight choreography in the pages that follow has a real sense of place and pace.

As we return to Pa Kent’s near death experience, the visuals go a good job of selling the story’s dreamlike conceit—“reality” is pretty flexible where he is, so as Jonathan spends time there, his thoughts get muddled in with memory, and he can lose his purpose.  It really feels like a dream in that way. Also, having heard about Jonathan’s brother previously, I thought he’d look a lot worse. There’s a strange cutaway to the Prankster in these pages, and while it’s a funny little scene, it has no bearing on the story, and Prankster doesn’t pop up again in these pages for a very long time---if memory serves, until the ill-fitting reboot of his look some 80 issues later. [Max: We saw him during the Dominus storyline, but I’m not sure if that counts.]

I also love how Grummett seems to draw Prankster as looking like UK comedian Terry Thomas, which is a great fit.  It’s always tricky to translate such goofy-looking characters into real people, and here, perhaps for the first time, Prankster looks like a human being and not a doughier Alfred E Neuman.  (Do prisoners really get their own portable TVs? Surely this scene demonstrates the danger of such a luxury!)

The scenes of Pa Kent falling into a pit and being pulled out by Blaze are chilling, but, like the rest of the issue, doesn’t it just make you fall in love with tough, no nonsense Jonathan Kent?  It’s a mini-Godwatch when he pulls a Luke Skywalker and choose oblivion over joining forces with Blaze. (Extra points for Jonathan asking the question on the minds of a lot of Superman readers—is Blaze the devil or what?)

Next up is an appearance by what would seem to be Blaze’s opposite number, Kismet, our favourite naked outer space lady in a cape.  Both sides of the two-page splash are pretty stunning here. 

The ersatz Kryptonian funeral is pretty interesting too.  Here, Grummett walks a fine line, having the Kryptonian stuff accurate enough that we know what it’s supposed to be, but just off enough that we know something strange is going on.

Once Clark figures out that the wraiths mean him harm (has there ever been a nice wraith?) it’s so, so great to see him back in action after all these months without him.  Major kudos to the colourist, here especially, but throughout the book, for the unique colours which look great here on Superman’s uniform.  Plus, I always like the times when Superman loses his cape.

The visual effect of the portal back to reality is just amazing, and from their perspective, probably pretty accurate. Next to the blinding light of the afterlife, earthly life would probably seem pretty dark. That last image from the direct edition, of Superman flying through the void with Pa Kent is just such a stunner. And from a story standpoint, this is just so definitive of the Super-team.  That a story about bringing back Superman is told in the most personal, meaningful way, with a chubby, balding old farmer as more or less the lead character.  It’s a total rejection of the grit teeth and substance-less Image comics trend of the era in its’ wholesomeness.  And I love this is how they chose to bring him back.  My very favourite detail, that I came back to again and again was that the heartbeat that returns to Pa Kent’s monitor goes across his panel, into the panel of Superman’s tomb.  So subtle, and so, so awesome.

The four page previews kicking off the Reign storyline are almost an issue unto themselves, but I love how all the eye-witness accounts from page 45 are later seen within issues, and give clues to very different Supermen.

If you’ll allow me just a little more nerdiness, DC sent comic shops some previews of this issue to create excitement, and these pages included scans of the end section with the new Supermen.  The only catch was, on these previews the figures were totally whited out, so you couldn’t see what he looked like.  So having read those short previews, I thought they were all referring to ONE new Superman, who I assumed had been changed by his experience with Doomsday.  It wasn’t until I got the issue home that I realized they were launching four different storylines.

The art on these is pretty interesting.  This is really the point where Jon Bogdanove shifts into a really loose, less constrained style, which honestly works quite well for the larger than life character of John Henry Irons. And that first look at him—you can definitely see why they thought that Shaquille O’Neal would work for this character.

Next is a spooky look at the Last Son of Krypton, who I 100% believed was the real Superman, mainly because of his appearance.  The panel of Superman lowering to finish off the thug is a great, eerie look, and I dig the Gandalf the White style dialogue here, too.

I love everything about the “Metropolis Kid” section, because it’s all built-in, and even gives us hints of this character’s “tactile telekinesis” with the grating not being damaged from his blow.  Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but man, it’s a great costume too.

Lastly, the Man of Tomorrow segment, which is such great, great storytelling, as, until the very last second, you don’t realize anything is amiss, in spite of the facial expressions of the tourists. [Max: This guy freaked me out even before I saw his full face, and I just realized why: the panel of him turning to face the family reminds me the end of this traumatizing BTAS episode.]

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

It’s interesting to me that this issue establishes that Jonathan Kent fought in the Korean conflict, and not, as was established in the World of Smallville mini-series, World War II. It’s amazing that enough time had passed by this point, that they had to move the timeline up.  I suppose if Pa Kent were still in modern stories, he’d have been a Vietnam veteran by now.  I’ll admit being surprised watching Smallville that Jonathan Kent had never been in any war—I thought for sure they’d have made him a Gulf War veteran or something.

Even completely in shock and grief and confusion, Lois Lane really rocks those stretchpants. 

GODWATCH: This is the big one, where, as hinted to in past issues, the belief system that the Kents raised Clark within is made explicit.  First on page 22, in a moment of despair, Lois admits she wishes her faith were stronger, and Martha relates that their beliefs included Heaven, and that Clark himself, to her knowledge, subscribed to those beliefs. Finally, when Pa stabilizes, Ma Kent thanks the Lord, on page 42. [Max: I also find Pa’s theory that Clark only ended up in this limbo because he’d been raised as a mortal pretty interesting.]

“Sure—have some of my hootch, why don’tcha?” A very funny exchange. [Max: I forgot to mention High Pocket’s essential contribution to this issue, when he fishes Jose out of the river, gives him booze, and tries to recruit him for some larceny! Shame on me.]